Tag Archives: Knitting

Flight of Fancy

Posted on March 6, 2012 by | Comments Off on Flight of Fancy

I am on a work trip to California this week, so yesterday I had some nice long stretches of time in which to knit.

I FINALLY finished the Sagrantino Shawl, I finished it before I went on any flights and weaved in all the ends from my Boston->New York City flight (45 minutes). It is currently being blocked in my hotel room – I had to jury rig a setup, because at home I just use regular straight pins on a foam blocking board. The setup is blocking the top half now, I’ll have to block the bottom half separately after this is dry:

I also finished the Monkey sock, with a Sweet Tomato Heel. This was also finished before my flights.

I managed to write and print up my instructions for the Sweet Tomato Heel sock that I’m going to teach at FiberCamp this weekend, so I am all ready, and I’ll post those instructions here later in the week, as a blog post and an accompanying PDF.

In my first checkin post I neglected to mention a scarf I’m making for my husband, Tony. It is being made from a handspun I made, a 2-ply of Louet Black Diamond (carbonized bamboo) and what was labeled 100% wool (seems like merino) from the Lancaster Yarn Shop. Tony went on a trip and brought me back 3 bumps of 1.2 oz each – 2 bumps were blue and one was purple, and it combined really well with the Black Diamond:

Tony asked me to make him a scarf, and I thought the black/purple combination would work well, so given the yarn stats I looked for a pattern on Ravelry, and told Tony to choose a pattern. Well, he chose Crooked Little Scarf, and lately he’s been asking me when it’s going to be finished. Before yesterday’s flight it had only a few inches. I am happy to say it is over 12 inches long now, after a good 6-hour flight yesterday:

Last week I did do some spinning, because I knew I wasn’t going to be doing much spinning this week while I’m away – I have brought my spindles and my wheel in the past, but there are evening fun activities for the team so I decided I wasn’t going to bring all that stuff, I could just bring my knitting so I’d always have something to do. That being said, I put up 2 new skeins.

The first skein is the Enchanted Knoll Farm Happy Hooves Batt for February 2012, the colorway is called “Conversation Hearts”. It’s a Shetland/silk blend, and Shetland is one of my favorite fibers to spin. This spin did not disappoint me:

The second skein is also an Enchanted Knoll Farm Happy Hooves Batt, from November 2011, called “Crunchy Leaves”. It was sent as a boucle kit, and I put it aside for when I was ready to actually spin a boucle yarn. Well, a different rav group put out a boucle challenge, so I decided to give it a go. I’m not a fan of boucle yarns, and I also am very methodical and don’t generally like chaotic yarns, so I made a somewhat tame boucle – I think I did a good job for my first time out, but I know how I would spin things differently now to make it more boucle-y.

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Lizzy House Quilting Weekend! (extra-long post)

Posted on March 5, 2012 by | Comments Off on Lizzy House Quilting Weekend! (extra-long post)

Let me start by saying that if you work with fabrics you should know Lizzy House.  Because if you don’t, you are missing out BIG TIME.  Lizzy has beautiful prints in beautiful colors – so much so that Susan collects hoardes bundles of it to display in her house.  It’s that beautiful. 

Lizzy came to the farm this weekend to give a quilting workshop (farm plus BFF’s plus quilting?  I was SO in) and I was thrilled to be a part of it.  I’ve not done a lot of quilting myself, and what I have done has been mostly frustrating because I never really bothered to figure out how to quilt, so when things went wrong I wasn’t really sure how to fix them.  This class was perfect because I am not necessarily a beginner, but I needed to see people properly working a quilt to fill in the knowledge gap.  And now that I know what I was doing wrong I realize how kind of simple the fixes were.  Quilting is so very much easier than I was assuming it is, and so very much more fun!

Don’t you just love this Hello Kitty machine Virginia is sewing on?? Virginia owns “Gather Here” a beautiful yarn & fabric shop in Cambridge, MA.  If you’re in the neighborhood, drop in and check it out.  And tell her I said hi!!

The bonus?  Aside from spending the weekend sewing at the farm, my dear friend Amanda came down from Boston.

I do not get to see Amanda nearly enough.  That has to change.

I collaborated with Caroline and I am pretty sure a new quilting fiend has been born in her – she took right to it and loved it.  Don’t be surprised if she’s designing quilts by this time next year!

Lizzy herself is just as beautiful and friendly and fun as her designs.

We were all working on making our own version of the quilt you see behind her – but not just “making” it.   She shared a story of personal loss that spurred her to begin quilting, and how it saved her.  How all of the emotion and love and sorrow and all of it went into the quilt until it became more than just “a quilt”.  This is very familiar to me as a knitter, and to other knitters as well.  Our craft is a kind of therapy and I have spent many hours knitting while mulling over whatever is happening in my life at that moment.  From then on, that project always reminds me of that moment, like a snapshot.  There are knitters I know who will call something their “angry scarf” or their “lucky socks” because that is what they remember most about knitting them.  I oddly have a project that makes me think of Niagara Falls because I was listening to a “This American Life” segment about the Falls while I was knitting it.

Lizzy’s fabrics being bundled into a gorgeous stack.

This quilt project was about that, but in a more “intentional” way.  Lizzy tasked us with deciding what we wanted our quilts to be about and to focus on that while working on it.  I can tell you my intentions for it were all about my friendships at the farm (both old and new) and my hopes and feelings about finally getting my own farm underway.  This will be an intentionally happy and lucky and grateful quilt.  And Caroline and I worked on it together!  I will remember that every time I see it and it will make me happy.

This is Lisa.  Lisa lives locally (YAY!!!) and for all of you who are local, she and her husband own Revolutionary Soup.  Right??!!!  You can also check out their blog at Red Row Farm.

Caroline and I used a collection by Moda called “Papillon”.

I can’t wait to show off the project when it is all finished.  We knocked out 12 of the 18 squares for the top.  I’ll be machine quilting it once I’ve gotten the backing fabric and sandwiching material.  Nothing fancy – I think the fabric does a knockout job on its own.

If you’re thinking about learning to quilt but are unsure – find a class.  I can’t promise it will be as fun as this was, but it will take away much of the fear factor and get you going on the right track (if you live in the greater Boston area, Virginia’s shop is a great place to take classes, and you can use her machines there by the hour).

If Lizzy is going to be in your area giving a class or workshop – DO IT. I can’t speak highly enough of her.  And for heaven’s sake if you find some of her fabric GET IT!!!


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Wool Over Your Eyes

Posted on March 3, 2012 by | Comments Off on Wool Over Your Eyes
This afternoon a friend and I scoped out the newest yarn store in town. Wool Over Your Eyes, located in downtown Greenville, opened its doors for the first time today and is hosting an Open House this evening.
sign
The shop carries a variety of yarns, including a great selection of Ella Rae, my favorite of which had to be the Lace Merino Worsted. So soft and in such gorgeous, bright colorways.
I was thrilled to see that Sabine, Findley Dappled, and Yearling, the Spring/Summer collection from Juniper Moon Farm, were on their shelves, as were the accompanying pattern books. (There may have been some discreet squishing and sniffing, but there is no photographic evidence.)
yearling
In addition to the yarns they also carry assorted needles and notions. My friend purchased some double pointed needle holders, and I came away with a 60 inch cable that is compatible with my Knit Picks Interchangeables.
The space itself is bright, full of natural light, and welcoming. There are two large tables with chairs for classes and a cute sitting area for lounging and stitching.
tables
I have for awhile been contemplating buying a loom and learning to weave. I am super excited to take one of their beginner level weaving classes in April to see whether weaving is something that I might enjoy before making a huge investment in a loom. There were at least 5 looms in the store, and students will be able to use one of the shop looms for the class.
The staff were welcoming, friendly, and helpful. The owner even served us tea and chocolate doughnuts while we knit. (Seriously!)
tea
In addition to their web site, you can find find Wool Over Your Eyes on Facebook. Stop by the store and check the place out for yourself. I cannot recommend it highly enough.

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Let’s Start a Magazine Together!

Posted on March 2, 2012 by | Comments Off on Let’s Start a Magazine Together!

This is the post where I steal an entire bit from Susan’s blog and pass it on here.  She and the crew at JMF are starting  magazine.  A beautiful, lovely, useful magazine centered around all things done by hand.  Cooking, sewing, knitting, building…..you name it.  I’m super excited about it (and having a hard time not boasting that I’ve known about it for quite awhile and have seen some of what’s going to go into it…..it’s too exciting to keep to myself!).  Here it is in Susan’s words. There’s some lovely prizes to be had for those who can help get it off the ground.

Very Big News!

by Susan on March 2, 2012

So for months now I have been alluding to a big secret I’ve been keeping. I am thrilled that today I can finally share the news with all of you.

Juniper Moon Farm is starting a magazine called By Hand. By Hand will be a lifestyle magazine for people who make, with departments for cooking, crafting, DIY, gardening, and do-gooding, with a bit of travel and profiles of makers every month.

The idea is to celebrate creating things with our hands, and to explore the motivation to make things in a world where there are cheaper and immediate alternatives. It will be both practical (patterns, DIY projects, etc) and thoughtful, with a lovely and gentle aesthetic.

We have lots of amazing contributors and editors on board already, and the first issue is well underway. But before we go any further, we need your help!

We are holding a Kickstarter campaign to raise the rest of the money we need to make the magazine everything we want it to be. And as an added inducement, we have commissioned so amazing rewards! Our art director Michelle Lukezic has designed posters and t-shirts that are going to be incredibly popular with people who make things with their hands. Here’s a sample:

There are posters and t-shirts for each of the sections in the magazine!

If you like what you see and want to support us, great! If you can help us get the word out about the Kickstarter and the magazine we will be forever in your debt!


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Quickies

Posted on March 2, 2012 by | Comments Off on Quickies

What’s going on right now:

  • There’s 14 1/2 dozen eggs in my fridge right now.  It’s getting dire, people.  I am going to start doing egg drops on peoples’ doorsteps.
  • I’ve been reading 1493: Uncovering the New World Columbus Created by Charles C Mann and I am loving it.  There’s all kinds of great little – known facts about the impact that contact with the “New World” made globally. Did you know that at Columbus’ time (he was called Cristobal Colon then, btw) people had known for years the earth was round; Columbus (or Colon) insisted it was pear – shaped, with the very top resembling a woman’s nipple?  Did you know earthworms were unknown in the Americas before the Europeans arrived?  Or that Pocahontas’ name was actually “Mataoka”.  The name “Pocahontas” was a nickname which meant “Little Hellion”?
  • I’m working furiously on Wicked using the luscious Superfine Alpaca yarn Caroline and I bought from the Montpelier Fiber Festival in the fall.  It’s very slow going, and normally I would be ultra bored with it by now, but the yarn is just so wonderful I can’t put it down.
  • To assist with all that knitting – we got a new dvd player.  Okay, we got it because our old one broke.  Paul picked up a new one with all these crazy bells and whistles that I can barely figure out BUT.  I can access my Amazon Prime account through the dvd player so that I can watch any of the streaming shows and movies from my online account ON MY TV!!!  I know I am so late to the party on this but I am very much enjoying it!  Now I don’t have to rely on my laptop to watch Downton Abbey!!!  (And goodness, if you haven’t been watching Downton Abbey, please do.  It is so very good!)
  • I started working out every day back in January.  I’ve been alternating between a strength – training Pilates program with resistance bands and an “Ease into 5K” program on the elliptical.  I also gave up soda completely and have replaced it with green tea.  My favorite is The Republic of Tea’s Blueberry Green Tea.  I’m feeling pretty good.  My goal is to run on the beach this August during my book club beach weekend.  My super – fit friend Beth runs every morning while we are there, and this year I plan to join her.
  • Today I got my spinach and broccoli planted.  As last year, I am using all heritage non – GMO seeds from Baker Creek.  We’ve expanded the vegetable garden site and I am excited for all the fresh veg we’ll have this year!
  • Last but not least, I bought supplies to take to Juniper Moon Farm this weekend where I will get to meet Lizzy House! She’s giving a quilting workshop and I get to go sew with some of my favorite people (and meet Lizzy House!!!!!!)

What are you up to this week????


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Happy Leap Day

Posted on February 29, 2012 by | Comments Off on Happy Leap Day

Shawl fever continues around these parts. I spent most of the day yesterday knitting as I puzzled out the next few turns in my novel-in-progress. Instead of knitting on things I am going to sell at the Farmer’s Market or things I am going to sell in the etsy shop, (like the rest of that self-striping sock yarn that still needs to be reskeined….) I cast on another new project. I mean, it’s not a surprise really, I said on Monday I was planning to do so.

Blog, meet Ebbtide.

It’s a charming little pattern that I am knitting out of a cheerful canary yellow. I am justifying knitting this by telling myself it will be a display piece at the farmer’s market. A “Look what my yarn can do!” thing of beauty–and something to wear on days when it is just a bit too chilly.

I am in love with this color. I called it “canary” when I dyed it, but the more I knit with it, the more it reminds me of Big Bird–in a good way. Yesterday was mostly grey and rainy, so the bright pop of yellow on was exactly what I needed to keep my inspired.

I did a tiny bit of work on Snow Drops.

I don’t think I am completely a lace weight convert yet. I am enjoying it but it still feels so dainty. (Perhaps I need smaller fingers?) Then again, sock yarn felt the same way to me the first couple of times I used it, so I imagine by the time I am finished with The Lace Shawl, I will be able to knit with lace yarn in my sleep.

For now though, I am going to plow away on Ebbtide.

Because it is yellow, and it is leap day, and because I am in a yellow, self-indulgent, leap day kind of mood.

If you wish to behold the awesome yellow-ness of Ebbtide in person, it is what I will be bringing with me to the PFF night tonight. Here is your official invitation.

Open Stitch Night
7-9pm
Potwin Presbyterian Church
Topeka, KS
All fibers and crafts welcome.
No business. All fun.
http://potwinfiber.org

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Holy Sweet Tomato!

Posted on February 28, 2012 by | Comments Off on Holy Sweet Tomato!

So, I did in fact rip back the heel I’d started on the Monkey sock, and did it with a Sweet Tomato Heel. It looks great, and feels even better. It’s the perfect heel shape, and for once a knitted sock I made actually looks like it goes on a foot, even when laid flat:

I am excited to teach this method (and show off the sock) at FiberCamp in less than 2 weeks!

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In my crafty world, Feb 26th edition

Posted on February 26, 2012 by | Comments Off on In my crafty world, Feb 26th edition

As a first post, I figured I should put here what I have been working on. All images are link to full-size images, if you’d like to see things on a larger scale.

I will start with completed projects, since that’s always the most satisfying, right?

I finished spinning Spunky Eclectic’s “Peace On Earth” – the Dec 2011 fiber club offering – a South African Fine yarn in blue, greenish and white. The singles were done last week, and I n-plied it yesterday and washed it. Normally I thwack, but since this yarn was described as “felts well” I just soaked it in hot water twice and followed up with a cold water soak. I am pretty pleased with the results, and I have to say this yarn bloomed very wonderfully – it was about 16 wpi before washing, 9 wpi afterwards:

I was going to make a Citron shawl from this, but it’s much too large for that, now…or, perhaps not.

I also designed a small cowl for the Juniper Moon Farm contest – basically, come up with an original design using 1 or 2 skeins of Chadwick or Willa. My design, called the Loopy Wicker Cowl, is shown below, in both a one-color/one-skein and two-color/two-skein version:

If the design does not get selected for the contest, I will share it with you here.

On my needles, I am almost done with my Sagrantino Shawl:

I like the pattern, it’s one of those where you have one thing to remember and the pattern just works out magically, so it’s great that I don’t have to lug around a pattern with me. However, each hexagon takes me about 2 hours, so it takes a long time to complete!

I have also been working on Monkey Socks – special thanks to my knitsky friend Amanda who pointed out that this wasn’t a crazy Cookie A. pattern, but something that’s memorizable (and she’s right!). Right now I am working on the heel but I will rip it out and work it as a Sweet Tomato Heel from the ingenious Cat Bordhi. I may also go up a needle size because the sock is a tight fit right now:

The yarn is handspun superwash corriedale, the Tartan colorway from the September 2011 Spunky Eclectic fiber club offering. I spindle-spun this, and made 1,000 yards of 3-ply yarn (yes, that means I made 3,000 yards of this. I am extremely proud of this accomplishment). So there is plenty for socks!

I have also started on a kid-sized hat in double-knitting from Alasdair Post-Quinn. The hat is Bratach from his excellent book Extreme Double Knitting: New Adventures in Reversible Colorwork. Alas, I can only take one of either the extreme double knitting or the adventures in reversible colorwork, and I chose the double knitting – the hat started out with the crazy pattern that Alasdair wrote, but I have changed it to be stripes and checkerboards and stuff. I messed up the first few rows due to it all being new to me, but I’ve got the hang of it now. I probably *should* rip out the hat and start over, but I am not sure if I will. Here is what my Not a Bratach looks like right now:

From the files of “not really actively knitting this one” but still a WIP, I am knitting Channel out of 2 different handspun yarns (handspun by me). One is the Oct 2011 Spunky Eclectic fiber club, Romney in the colorway “Beans”, which was spun as a single. The other yarn is a 2-ply yarn, consisting of Juniper Moon Farm Cormo and the Enchanted Knoll Farm’s Happy Hooves Batt Club’s Dec 2011 offering, “Winter’s Night Sky” in 65% superwash merino and 35% tussah silk. I have not worked on it in a while, but I do want to finish it eventually:

On my wheel right now – I am working on finishing up a bunch of Louet Black Diamond Top, which is carbonized bamboo. There is absolutely no memory in this, and spinning it is not a whole lot of fun, but I spun a bunch of it and plied it with a merino wool for a scarf, so I kinda want to spin the rest of it just to have it done, and ready to be plied with something else at some point.

I also have plenty of fiber waiting to be spun, I have to get to January’s Spunky Eclectic club, which is Targhee in blues, reds and white. The February club will come soon! I also have the February batt from Enchanted Knoll Farm waiting for me, it’s in the colorway of valentine conversation hearts, but I have not even opened up the package yet!

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Sleepyhead

Posted on February 25, 2012 by | Comments Off on Sleepyhead

Back in the fall, I did some test knitting for Juniper Moon Farm -- they have three new yarn lines coming out for spring/summer, and solicited test knitters on their Ravelry group.  I was excited to be chosen to knit one of the new patterns!  

I'd never done any test knitting before, and it was a fun process -- I got to try out a not-yet-on-the-market yarn, knit a brand-new pattern, and make comments on the pattern.  It was like copyediting in knitting form: how could I NOT enjoy that?!  It's also not very often that I get to participate in something so top-secret...I felt like a knitting 007 for a while there.  (Well, maybe not quite.)

The yarn and the accompanying booklets have hit the shelves (I went to Webs last weekend and saw them with my very own eyes!) so I am finally free to share my test project!

All photos in this post copyright Joel Eagle, and used with permission of the photographer and Juniper Moon Farm.

sleepyhead1

Pattern: Sleepyhead, designed by Pam Wynne, from the Juniper Moon Farm Yearling booklet
Yarn: Juniper Moon Farm Yearling, about 3 skeins 
Needles: US10.5/6.5mm
Time: November 16-21, 2011
Ravelry project page

This is such a cute little pattern; it's a good thing Ian has long outgrown baby bags, otherwise I might have had a hard time sending this back to the farm for its photoshoot and its future life as a trunk show model!  It's knitted in the round from the bottom up; you separate front and back once you get to the bodice and the top is knitted like a pair of overalls.  The bodice is knitted in a stretchy ribbing and there are three sets of buttonholes on the straps, so it will grow with baby.

sleepyhead2

I have to be honest: I didn't expect to like working with this yarn.  I don't use bulky yarns often (and when I do, it's only for small projects), and I also don't particularly like cottons or cotton blends as a general rule (Yearling is 60% merino/40% cotton).  Cotton tends to hurt my wrists, and the combination of cotton + bulky seemed like it would be particularly unpleasant.  BUT.  I LOVED it!  It "read" much more like a wool than a cotton to me, and it has gorgeous drape -- it's not at all stiff like I was expecting.  

The next time I have cause to use a bulky yarn, I will definitely turn to Yearling...I wish I could have kept the leftovers from this project!  

sleepyhead3

One caveat: if you wet-block with Yearling, make sure you leave PLENTY of time for it to dry.  A LOT of time.  This took nearly three days to dry completely -- now, granted, it was November and we keep our house quite cool, but still.  I knitted it in plenty of time, but the drying took so long I was afraid I wouldn't make the deadline for mailing the garment back to the farm!  In the end, Jim and I wound up rigging a contraption with a drying rack and a fan.  Who knows how long it would have taken to dry without that...!

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Motivation in Cotton

Posted on February 24, 2012 by | Comments Off on Motivation in Cotton

More playing with cotton yarn

This is a little scrubbie pattern I have been messing around with for a couple of years. I am currently playing with size, these are pretty small at about 2 1/2 inches in diameter. I would rather they be 3 or 3 1/2. It also might be fun to make a super scrubbie that’s 6 inches across.

I use these around the house for cleaning, mostly for dishes, but they work great for wiping down counters, stove tops and cabinets. I like to have one for each day. Then I can just toss it in the hamper and wash it with the next load of laundry. It’s a great reusable little sponge.

They do tend to wear out after about a year. (A YEAR!) So I am making more for home, and possibly some for the shop. And possibly working on a pattern.

It might be that I am making all of these cleaning supplies lately, or that spring is on it’s way, or that I live in a tiny apartment which I also run a business out of the clutter starts to become a problem very quickly, but I am making Friday this week cleaning day. I want to sit down and knit scrubbies in a space so clean it pings.

What’s motivating you today?

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