I love this time of year, when it’s already fall and chilly, but not bitter cold (in Oregon anyway, not my native New England). My knitting is already well under way and I occasionally look guiltily around at my friends who are working on their Christmas knitting, while I selfishly work away at a pair of socks for myself and now something for the baby (admittedly that’s for me too). This year is a little different as I’ve got something quick planned for my Mom and am starting on a Seamless Hybrid for my husband.
But mainly I love the cooling weather the anticipation of the holidays and the new knitting magazines. Ah, more projects.
My stuff came from the 11/1 update!!! I’m not normally such a huge wollmeise stalker, but nursing the new baby keeps me up pretty late. Or it has in the past. I’ve got one more little WD coming and then I’m done, cause my pocketbook really can’t handle this. And some is hopefully going to various friends. Hint hint.
First up, we’re different: Kunterbunt. From right to left: Der letzte Versuch (totally a keeper), Red Hot Chili (Sold), Sonne, Vergißmeinnicht and Pfferminz Prinz. I set aside Pfferminz Prinz for some lucky friend of mine. I asked a specific friend if she wanted Vergißmeinnicht and we’ll see what the answer is and I put Sonne in my will trade/sell pile in Ravelry.
Gorgeous all of them, though I’m not really an orange or yellow person. I really loved seeing a whole rainbow though. And I got more variegated than I would have expected.
Then, we’re different: Rot. From right to left. I think I got the order right.
Grantapafel, Baba Jaga, Aurora 2, Dornoschen that’s a keeper for sure, Ruby Thursday. I really like Baba Jaga. I could be persuaded to part with Grantapafel, Ruby Thursday and Aurora 2 pretty easily.
Then, we’re different: Gemischt. Unfortunately for me I scored Grantapfel again and Maus Alt (gone already) and my husband won’t wear wool socks. So someone else’s gain I hope!
I was reading the Yarn Harlot’s blog about the new Pretty Thing kits available at Lettuce Knit and I decided to jump on the band wagon and knit one for my Mom out of the new MCN I’ve gotten. I’m dying this in deep deep colors and I hope to have some ready next week sometime. I’m going to dye one and knit one for Mom and then I should have enough left over for at least one more Pretty Thing. Anyone wanting to buy half a skein in a deep red from me feel free to ask.
The yarn for Baby S’s Helena arrived today and I wound it carefully wondering why on earth I paid so much to knit a homemade baby sweater. Still, she will be sweet it in and I will find a great use for the extras, like a pair of mittens for me or something. I’m at a loss though. Helena is missing. I recall gently tucking it away in an effort to straighten up the knitting room/office/nursery because logically, the yarn wouldn’t arrive for a week or more and it didn’t need to be out getting sat on by cats or worse. And now I can’t find it. I’ve triple checked every project bag and every box in this room, which can only mean one thing.
Since the Whirligig for the Baby S gave me the quick knit fix I needed, I’ve been trying like mad to get back to knitting socks. I keep getting distracted by other unfinished baby projects. She’s growing so fast now I feel like I’m on a deadline.
I’ve got to finish Little Liza Jane, for which I purchased enough yarn for a three month size and also enough for a six month size for Sasha. I’m thinking I’ll turn the six month size into a hoodie. The first dress was meant for a french cousin a little older than Sasha. For some reason, it took me a really long time to get her address and so the half-finished garment never made it to her. I feel in no rush to work on the bodice so I’m thinking I’ll turn the yarn I got for Sasha’s Liza Jane into a hoodie out of the Debbie Bliss catalog. On the other hand, I think it looks a little big, so if I knit it really really fast…
There’s a bootie that needs doing. I had some counting problems towards the end of the pregnancy, which goes a long way towards explaining why I only knit one.
I’ve also got to work on Jasper (aka Otto from And So to Bed by Lucinda Guy.)
There’s the Vintage Baby Cardigan. If I’m quick, it might fit for the next couple of months.
Rabbit needs bunny feet and to be sewn together, which I think is just pathetic. I also need more Shibui. I was not paying attention and thought I needed a huge amount of yarn for Rabbit and so bought an entire skein. So I “have” to get more Shibui so I can find a use for that beautiful color. Speaking of which, I’m knitting a lot of things for Sasha in this color and should watch that. For example, the yarn for the hoodie (formerly Little Liza Jane) is this shade of red. And so is Helena.
I started Helena two Wednesdays ago. I ran out of yarn after the last repeat and have it on order. Why I’m knitting a baby project with two skeins of Madelinetosh is that I meant to knit a baby project using one skein of Madelinetosh and will use the remainder for some fun things, like a hat.
None of this goes any way towards explaining why I’m working on a pair of socks.
I dyed some yarn and I’m really pleased with it. It’s a two-ply cable base and 100% superwash merino. It’s all in different greens and it is now available from me in a lovely olive. I’m having a lousy time though with the camera and with lighting in Oregon’s rainy fall. I’m scarcely up early enough to get outside to take pictures and when I am up, I’m taking care of baby S. So I apologize for the s— pictures. I took these at noon one day. I’m still trying to get the reskeining done. I’ve sold two of the olive. The blue is a silver yarn, the rest are merino. I’m knitting with the one on the bottom left and I love it.
I keep thinking make it simple. I started on Kiila using some Yarn Pirate and it wasn’t simple enough. Maybe I should have gone for Brainless (only the name is kind of a joke.) So then I picked up Lohengrin. Yeah, that makes a lot of sense. It looks pretty good though. I’m on row 23. There’s a mistake on row 3. I don’t care. There’s some problems with row 23 that are going to make me frog it down to row 20 or so though. Ugh. I’m trying to just repair those cables though and it’s going pretty well.
I’ve been looking at the Ravelry pictures from Rhinebeck and now I really want to make Vivian. I was supposed to be working on Seneca. We’ll see. I’ve got some lovely silver grey alpaca silk that was supposed to be an Eastlake, though I tried to make for a pregnancy size. Bad idea. I’m hoping I have enough. The folks who’ve been using worsted weight (as opposed to bulky weight yarn) for Vivian have been simply making the next size up and it sounds like that’s working. I really ought to be working on Seneca though. The whole point was to get past that first cable and have miles of stockinette to work on for a while. The problem? That first set of cables. There’s a lot of counting I need to do for that and it just wasn’t working. Also I was knitting a size too large. And it’s hard to gauge whether not I was getting gauge. So I’ll have to swatch. Because I can’t believe the cables suck up that much width (compared to the size of the cast-on).
A couple of weeks ago I picked up some wollmeise at the tale end of a shop update. Mostly there were solids left and Frosch. Frosch is not really cup of tea, but I could almost guarantee that SOMEONE I know would want it. I can even think of who.
Same deal as last time, almost. Friend lottery for right to purchase a skein of wollmeise. This is the Twin, 80% Merino Superwash and 20% Nylon. There are 510 yards in 150 grams. First number selected through the random number generator gets first pick, second second pick. These are not seconds, so the price is $35. If you change your mind, I’ll just move on to person number three.
1) I know you. Not that one time we met at such and such a thing either.
2) You live in Oregon, Colorado, Minnesota, Wisconsin or did while I was there. I’ll add California, Washington and Pennsylvania to the list.
3) You are willing to pay $35.00 plus shipping in November sometime for the yarn if your number comes up.
4) You leave me a comment on THIS blog post before November 2nd.
5) You are choosing between Frosch and either Mistelzweig or Aquarius. (I get to keep one of Mistelzweig or Aquarius, but I can’t decide which one.)
I’ve got a few things lying around the house that are finished, but I never reported on.
So without further ado, the flower hat [r] by Ruth Sørensen. Go to the Ravelry link for details, although I will say that the yarn came from Knit Purl in downtown Portland. Next time I will make a slightly shorter one. This is part of a nine hat pattern and I really want to get around to some of the others. It would certainly make my purchase of 2 skeins of Kauni and a $10.00 hat pattern make a lot more sense! I only used part of one for this hat though. I first saw this hat on a blog somewhere before the pattern was published and was crazy about it. The one I saw was blue with red and pink flowers. These are colors that are a little more me, but it was really hard for me to score a one of the variegated blue skein early on.
The fact that Knit Purl offers Kauni is just one of the many reasons it ranks high on my list of yarn shops in Portland. Even my Mom, who really thought we were going to “just another yarn shop” was fascinated. I think it was the Habu, the Sea Silk and the Kauni that got her attention. She managed to visit in between Sock Summit and Oregon Flock and Fiber, which is probably just as well for her budget and for her dedication to her LYS, Black Sheep Knitting. (I love Black Sheep Knitting though.) My mom is a non-internet knitter, so while she’s extremely accomplished, she’s not following all the fads out there. She’s not even on Ravelry. She says she has no time in between volunteering for different charities and teaching. I believe it too.
There’s a large box to the right of my computer right now. Sealed. The return address is my yarn supplier. I know what’s in it, but I can’t go open it because I’ve got my own private wonder on my lap right now and I’d really rather not wake her up. Still, it’s hard to contain myself. A box. Containing mostly undyed cashmere. and some worsted weight I’d like to dye to make this, even though I’m working on this. That reminds me. Almost out of yarn for the second project there. Seriously, Madeline Tosh? How did I ever believe I could get away with using only one skein! Read the rest of this entry »
It’s raining; it’s pouring.
The old man is snoring.
He went to bed with a bump on his head
And he won’t get up ’til morning.
That’s they way I remember it anyway.
Josh and I have been singing a lot to Baby S and every day there’s a new nursery rhyme I half-remember. What nursery rhymes do you still remember?
On Saturday we went to the Oregon Flock and Fiber Festival.
This made me think of a few lists.
Things I got to see/do
Several sheep and rabbits – We tried to show Sasha the sheep.
The barn raising quilt by Larrisa Brown
The parents of a member of the knitting group; and her little brother. Her Mom was buying her Blue Moon Socks That Rock, which was great.
Show off Sasha to Tina and Donna (Tina definitely thought the baby was better than Sock Summit, which is great!)
My first inflatable mannequin (which led me to a hilarious internet search while I tried to remember the correct search terms, starting with inflatable doll, moving to blow-up dummy and gradually getting to mannequins). I was wondering if they market inflatable legs, which would be a handy thing for sock yarn sales. Or I could make some out of plaster of paris if I happen to know anyone with mannequin shaped legs. I’ve got this plan to be a vendor at Black Sheep or Oregon Flock and Fiber next year.
Buy some Blue Moon Fiber Arts; this is a ritual. This is when I learned that there won’t be a Barn Sale this year. I’m hoping for a party though. I should have realized that they are a bit burnt from this August.
I asked around and found one of my friends, Devin (who blogs at Figgy Thistle) to spin up some of my roving for me. This is the fox tail. I was planning on a pair of mittens, but am not sure if this is the right yarn for the task. We’ll see. Am also considering a hoodie for Sasha, but I think the hood will take too much yarn. Perhaps just plain mittens to showcase the hand spun? I’m going to have to dye more of this. Yummy!
I wrote this on August 28th if this gives you an idea of what my life with a baby is like.
I’ve been knitting socks for about two years now and sometimes I see trends in published patterns for socks that are strikingly similar in their underlying stitch patterns. Four pairs come to mind at the moment: Sock Bug’s Rapid River Socks, Evelyn Clark’s Waving Lace Socks from Interweave Knits, Cookie A’s Pomatomus Socks from Knitty and Cookie A’s Sunshine Socks from Sock Innovation. But a little work would dig up Ann Budd’s Flame Wave Socks and Theresa Walnua’s Here There Be Dragon Socks also. It’s a good exercise to deconstruct them to see how just a few simple modifications to a basic stitch pattern results in radically different socks. By the time the different heels and ankles are put onto the sock, you’d barely recognize them. If I hadn’t knit a couple pairs of these types of socks, I wouldn’t have noticed at all.
The underlying lace for all of these patterns involves a group of traveling yarn overs and stitch decreases (k2tog or ssk depending on the direction of the line being created). Varying which column of stitches travels and adding cables creates three very different pairs of socks. I like how CookieA added a cable for interest.
I was really excited. I finally got to pick up some knitting again; having semi-mastered the art of feeding the baby and knitting. And given the marathon feeding sessions I’ve been participating in, it seemed important to my sanity to be multi-tasking. I’ve been using the Creatively Dyed Sock yarn I picked up at Black Sheep for a pair of Sunshine Socks for the Main’ Cookies KAL on Ravelry. Unfortunately, these socks were cast on during the final week of pregnancy and I appear to have failed to do the increase stitches for the leg. This explains the failure of going up a needle size to totally get the socks wide enough at the top. Up until now, I’ve been convincing myself that these socks will fit once the swelling in my cankles drops to a suitable level. I like a shorter sock and so I usually get around any potential cankle issues by shortening my socks. But for this KAL, I wasn’t sure whether these types of modifications are allowed. It’s a fairly complex KAL too and I’m short on time to read the directions.
However, I’m now faced with the knowledge that I’ve been using far too few stitches in the leg. So I’ll rip it out. So much for getting these done within the month of August. I was sort of hoping to actually complete one KAL task this year. Being pregnant really messed with my ankle size and I kept starting and stopping pairs of socks all year. Maybe October will be the month. Go Socktoberfest!
The Sunshine Socks are an interesting case study in how a stitch pattern can be modified to add some interest to it. The underlying waving lace has turned up in many popular sock designs over the last few years. You can look at Sock Bug’s Rapid River Socks or Evelyn Clark’s Waving Lace Socks if you’d like to see what I mean. Sock Bug’s socks have a faux cable look, while the Waving Lace Socks are lacier, probably due to the relatively distant placements of the yarn overs and the decreases.
I’m not allowed to keep all the Wollmeise I got. I’m going to have to do a friend lottery to figure out who to sell it to though. So here are the rules.
You may enter if you meet the following conditions:
1) I know you. Not that one time we met at such and such a thing either.
2) You live in Oregon, Colorado, Minnesota, Wisconsin or did while I was there.
3) You are willing to pay $30.00 plus shipping in October sometime for the yarn if your number comes up. They are seconds after all.
4) You leave me a comment on THIS blog post before October 2nd.
5) Are interested in one of the two yarns on the far right and understand that these are the “We’re Different” yarns from Wollmeise.
Ed’s note: This is 100% Merino Superwash. 574 yards and 150 grams. First number drawn gets first pick of the two and the second gets the second pick.
Last post for a bit. I updated the shop yesterday with a lot of Lachesis sock from Sock Summit. Sometime this fall there will also be some of a new sock yarn that is a cabled two-ply and also the 80-10-10 merino, cashmere, nylon sock yarn that has everyone talking. I also got some of the silver yarn base so if there’s something you want dyed in it please let me know. I ordered a very limited amount and am already going to do some reds, pinks or navy blues. I’ve gotten half my crockpot replaced so far, so I’ll be able to kettle dye maybe as soon as two weekends from now. (This coming weekend is Oregon Flock and Fiber after all.) This is a lot harder though with a baby and her dad will need to have the time to watch her. He’s really busy teaching, even with a smaller load this term.
I’m offering 20% off all yarns from now until October 31st in honor of Socktoberfest. Just be sure to type in “Socktoberfest” in the notes. I’ll refund the price difference through Paypal as always.
So one of the things that has kept me pretty busy is the near constant stream of parents. I have two sets, Josh has one. They were here for a total of 5 1/2 weeks all told and were both a blessing and a curse, each set in its own peculiar way. I’m glad they were here though and we had a terrific time with all of our visitors.
When my Mom was here, we did some freezer paper stencils on onesies. All of our parental sets have at least one very artistic member. Josh’s mom is a professional artist; my dad was a graphic artist who still designs a lot of sets for the opera and blogs about the arts; my mom wrote and illustrated 11 children’s books in her younger days. Originally, I’d planned to do some iron-ons for onesies, but then I saw the freezer paper stenciled onesies Kristi and her friends did on Knitter’s Anonymous.
A quick hint for those of you who wish to try this. When googling for images, you want words like “silhouette.” I got the best ones though from the baby center.com and martha stewart living. There are some good tips in the Freezer Paper Stencils Flickr group also.
I’ve got lots more downstairs waiting to be painted. Some will be gifted away. And I’ve got another one somewhere I haven’t photographed yet.
I should really get those side-snap t-shirts on her. We bought them when she was newborn, so they aren’t going to fit much longer. The onesies are in a much larger size.
There has been a lot going on, mainly not knitting. I’ve mainly been taking care of baby. This is a stash post, not a knitting post so it will go quicker. There was some knitting though.
Shortly after Sasha was born, I moved my computer in front of a fold-down couch that we use for guests in our second bedroom. It’s a good place to nurse the baby. And since she’s mostly a snacker, there’s a lot of sitting around waiting for to wake up and eat again.
I decided to read my way through the “How to get Wollmeise” thread on the Wollmeiseholics Anonymous forum on Ravelry. This is where I learned about Update Scanner. This is a little utility for firefox that lets you know when a particular webpage has been updated. It’s darn easy to use. Only, while I was installing it, there was a shop update. So I’m not sure whether it was update scanner working for me exactly.
Hooray for late night nursing, because I totally scored a grab bag of Kunterbunt, a package of 5 skeins of Wollmeise that are all different. Fortunately for me the dollar has gone up against the Euro since the last time I bought Wollmeise over a year and a half ago. So the price per skein was pretty comparable to most US Indie Dyed yarns. Cheaper really, though that’s because these are supposedly seconds. They aren’t all seconds though; some of the We’re Different can just be left over from other updates. There’s no indication though that there’s anything less than pure gorgeousness here. It’s Wollmeise, so I bought it with 0 thought of how I was doing on stash busting. Since I do my annual yarn budgeting based on yardage, ~2850 yards is really going to blow my budget. And I just had bought yarn for Seneca and some from the Sock Summit.
Here is the Frog Creek Fiber yarn from Sock Summit’s Dye for Glory Contest.
In need of a baby photograph? Well, this is a knitting blog.
The winner of my 500th post contest is Kate A. (my condolences to all the other Kate and Katie’s I know who probably read the first four letters and got excited). There weren’t really any correct guesses; there was one, but I’d told that person, so that didn’t count. Good thing it was a random number generator contest. Kate A will receive a skein of hand-dyed yarn either from my Etsy shop or custom dyed for her in my newbase, Sheila’s Sock, a 100% merino superwash cabled-two ply fingering weight. Thanks everyone for playing. Now back to motherhood for a bit. Here is Sasha after a recent bath.
Sasha Julia Fregosi Laison
Born 8/4/2009 at 7PM
6 lbs, 6 oz. 19″ long.
It was an induction that turned into a c-section. So recovery will be quite a bit longer than anticipated. In the meantime, here’s a contest for you all. I’ll dye a skein of yarn to order for the winner in the fall when I’m all recovered and life has settled down somewhat. To enter, leave me a comment guessing what #post this is for this blog. You have until September 1st at midnight to comment. That’s about how long I’m guessing it is until I really get active again. Editor’s Note: I’ll conduct a random drawing to determine the winner. Sorry sleep deprivation was setting in.
I’m trying to see if I can get a pair of the other popular baby bootie on Ravelry: Saartje’s Booties. I’m using the ones done the Bockstar Way though, which involve quite a bit less sewing. I’m using a bit of my new colorway Poodle Skirts and Saddle Shoes. On the booties, it pools, but in the most delicious way with patches of pink or patches of black and white. For whatever reason the second one is driving me crazy. I can’t seem to knit them when at group. I’ve never been very good at doing increase rounds and this is always compounded by distractions whether it be other people or television. Read the rest of this entry »
I just want to thank Casey. I love Ravelry. I’ve been on it since fairly early on thanks to a late night pile of e-mails and a google chat with a charter member. The conversation went something like this (it’s been edited a bit). It’s from May 2, 2007. Most people I knit with heard this story. Personally, I still think it’s hilarious. Also I’m the kind of person who likes to be in the know about new computer stuff, so I get really excited when I find something cool before someone else does. And I’ve been lucky enough to be involved in a couple of beta tests. I was really pretty late to the party when it came to Gmail and Facebook, but I heard about LibraryThing and Ravelry fairly early. (Actually my first thought with Library Thing was “This is amazing, when are they going to do it for knitting?”)
C is not Casey.
C: Oh hey, have you heard of this thing called Ravelry? It’s hard to explain, but it’s an online knitting thingy that’s pretty cool. Let me know if you want an invite. It’s a way to organize projects and stuff and see what other people are doing. They’re doing beta testing and stuff right now, but it’s worth checking out. Read the rest of this entry »
I’m always on the look out for new publications that feature knitting patterns. My favorite magazines are the oft-read Interweave Knits and Knitty and more recently Twist Collective; however, I’ve been known to occasionally pick up Knit Scene and Spin Off also. If it wasn’t so expensive, I’d get Rowan’s publication, even though I don’t really consider it to be a magazine in the same way as the others. Read the rest of this entry »
It’s been on my blog, facebook and on my twitter, I’ve probably mailed you about it…the time is upon us! Voting officially opens this afternoon for the Sock Summit-Ravelry Dye for Glory contest. I’m not sure when Ravelry will make the official announcement. Some folks in the thread found the link quite by accident. It all seems to be working, although I wouldn’t vote until tomorrow. I think there are some duplicates in a couple categories or something, so you want to go back and make sure all your votes are correctly there if you vote today before they make the official announcement.
For those of you who haven’t logged in to Ravelry in quite a while, they’ve teamed up with the Sock Summit to hold a contest for the dyers participating in the summit marketplace, which I’m doing. My yarn will be available through Booth #808, Knit-A-Bit. Knit-A-Bit is a little shop in Oregon City that decided to have a booth to sell yarn from local studios that would be unable to participate in the summit for whatever reason.
I dyed several new colorways in honor of the summit and chose two of them, Aqua Vitae (“Waters of Life”) and Poodle Skirts and Saddle Shoes (for the sock hop) to enter into the Dye for Glory contest. Aqua Vitae is in the “out of the box” category and Poodle Skirts and Saddle Shoes is in the “hand-painted” category. Please consider voting for me. And have fun!
Today was hot. 90 Farenheit and we had a lot to do. I spent a good part of the morning labeling my shop stock and hiding in my air conditioned second bedroom. This was so I could stop worrying about the post-its that were affixed to about 50 skeins of yarn there. And then I moved some things out of the shop to the sock summit pile. And then I inventoried, resorted and recounted. I returned some baby things. I went to Staples. I drank green ice tea and felt the baby move. I had a couple of knitters over. I ate cup cakes and felt the baby move some more. I labeled sample socks and then turned my attention to a lingering part-time job application for a position I’d really like, even though I’d also really like to stay with the baby all the time for a little while. Still, I believe a part-time job will allow me to spend more time with the baby in the long run than no job for post-maternity leave (er the equivalent six weeks of unemployment) followed by full-time job, if that makes any sense.
I’ve received a few sample socks over the last day or two. The Outside-In Socks Katie did for me are awesome (and so is the fit) as is the stunning Nebula Sock that Ariel did for me. I also received a very pretty Falling Up sock, a pattern done with my Cauldron Sock yarn that Ariel Altaras just released that will be going to Sock Summit in the Knit A Bit Booth. How’d it turn out that way? I wanna know? (Ariel, I stole your photo. Hope you don’t mind.) There is, unfortunately, no more Cauldron Sock left in the shop, because I’ve sent it all to Sock Summit with the patterns. If you want more, leave me a note or message me.
There’s something about the dyeing process that separates me from the colorway. I think it’s the amount of time I spend with the yarn itself. A pair of socks might take me 15 hours and linger in my bag for weeks, even months. Dyeing yarn, hours unless it’s an official colorway that I’ve made more of and I’m only just starting to have some of those. After I’m done dyeing the yarn, I sort of lose connection to it. Then I re-skein it, get to know it better, label it and lose connection to it again. It’s a good thing to not be too attached to your yarns. After all, they aren’t meant to be your own personal stash. When it’s all knit up, I sometimes don’t even recognize them. I wish I could claim that I’d planned them that way all along. I do plan in sort of a general way for how solid the color will be or for pooling or for contrast, but I don’t know exactly how they’ll turn out. At least not yet.
So forgive me for being a bit pleased with myself when presented with the sample socks. I’m certainly damn thrilled with the jobs Ariel and Katie did making them. Better than my loose gauge (mostly due to pregnancy) knitting would have been.
Today I did something a little differently than I have as of late. I read a book – Julie and Julia in fact. I heartily enjoy reading the occasional food related memoir. I haven’t been reading very much for the past 38 weeks or so, unless you can count the six or seven baby books we’ve been browsing our way through. As a blogger, I emphasized with a lot of the emotions that Julie must have been going through as she worked through her project. And it was lovely to sit down and read again. I was completely taken out of my head with her experiences; something that is lovely when you are 38 weeks pregnant and feeling larger than a house.If you want to read about what inspires bloggers to blog or to take on the projects they do, read Julie and Julia. If you want to read more about her adventures in cooking, than I refer you to her blog archives. I’ll be reading more of them and I expect that a short blog entry will be what my attention span while breastfeeding Sasha after she makes her debut.
Knitting, while it will always be one of my favorite passions, will never replace books for me as my first love. I learned how to read at a very early age (somewhere between 2 and 3) so I could be in the church choir and was instantly taken by the written word. I’ve read fewer books than I might have over the past few years that I’ve been blogging about knitting. Even fewer this last year with the pregnancy and the dyeing, especially if you discount the books on pregnancy and labor.
What’s worse, is I’ve been spending less time writing. I started the blog, believe it or not, to maintain and strengthen my writing skills during one of my hiatuses from paid work. The hope was and still is that someday I’ll kill my writers block sufficiently to write something else. Knitting is a great vehicle for me to focus on the craft of the writing without having to worry so much about the content. Unfortunately for the past couple of years or so, there less of a focus on the writing and and more on knitting and related crafts. Don’t get me wrong, I love the dyeing and the knitting, but it was always about the writing FIRST. I’ll still be dyeing and knitting for the time being, but hopefully this fall I’ll be able to bring a little more to you in terms of writing about the dyeing process.
In the meantime, please feast on Christine’s Stay On Baby Booties [r] by Christine Bourquin. They were knit with Three Fates Yarns Bluefaced Leciester Platinum Sock on Size US 1 needles. Thanks to my husband for the fabulous photographs. It’s 75% Superwash BFL and 25% Nylon and comes in 437 yard hanks that way approximately 100 grams. These were knit in my new Sock Summit inspired colorway, Aqua Vitae in the light version. The remainder of this skein (about 395 yards) can by found at my Etsy Shop, Three Fates Yarns at a discounted price for the yardage. I can only say that this was a fateful project I only did it since the skein broke on my new winder. Can you guess how much yarn was left over when I finished the booties from the lump I left off the finished product? About three inches.
Well, I can’t say it’s an idea that’s taking off, but I did go ahead and start a Flickr group for people to make a virtual red carpet of Sock Summit 2009. At the moment, I asked people to only post if they are attending (that may change if we stay dead). If you aren’t coming though, you can still come and join the group. What we want to know:
What is the name of the sock? Who is the sock designer? How can we get the pattern? What yarn is it it knit in? Who is the yarn dyer, especially if an indie sock yarn? Anything else you want to tell us about those socks.
There’s nothing posted because I’m pretty sure I’m not going to sock summit . I still want to know what people are wearing there though.
Here are some things going to Sock Summit. Poodle Skirts and Saddle Shoes is my second entry into the Dye for Glory contest. I have to say the patterning is probably not identical to the original two skeins and they are a little brighter. Probably I’ve rearranged the name too. But they are lovely. I was thinking of the Pink Ladies in Grease when I named them. There is ONE that has a knot in it available at the shop. Elvira is what happens when you vamp up Poodle Skirts and Bobby Socks with a little violet. Depth of Pink is an experiment with depth of shade. I’ll be doing more with depth of shade and chroma with the remainder of my bamboo blend.
Well, the good thing about the crazy all over the place, non-focused, ADHD knitting I do is that sometimes multiple things get finished in the same week.
These are Christine’s Stay On Baby Booties [r] I’ve got to go buy ribbons, but they are ready for being at the Sock Summit Booth (Knit A Bit, #808).
And this is Baby Mine by Stephanie Pearl-McPhee, aka the Yarn Harlot. I think it would fit a 6 month old, not a 3 month old, but we’ll see. I’m hoping I can get it on her without it being too large around late October, early November. Pattern available from Blue Moon Fiber Arts. Size 4 US needles. Used 1 skein of Blue Moon Fiber Arts Socks That Rock medium weight in Moirae. Quick knit really. I finished the 80% of the yoke during a marathon 8 hr baby class – it was a make up session.
When I went to Black Sheep, I checked out the prize winning table. There was a really really cute baby surprise there. I was looking at it and my name just popped off the tag. It turns out, three of my friends from Eugene got together and spun, dyed and knit it for the baby and then entered it into Black Sheep. It won first prize! I mean of course I examined it; it was a baby surprise! They gave it to me later, along with the ribbon, but it was a great surprise. It’s newborn sized, so I’ll be happy if she gets to wear it a few times in October. They suggested I try blocking the heck out of it. We do still have some colder days in Oregon though; Monday was one of them thank goodness. I’ve been melting down into various puddles caused by heat stroke, hunger (I don’t eat enough when it’s hot I think) and hormones. One more H and well, a whole a of 4-H breastfeeding jokes would seem to be in order. Thank goodness the last factor is thirst and not heiferdom.
Also, I picked up this prettyness from Creatively Dyed. I was tempted by her luxury yarn base and by the one that’s like Wollmeise’s yarn base (I think it’s Steele), but in the end, I had to have this skein of Calypso in Annato. I’d oggled her yarn some while at Stitches West and it was either go after that or Miss Babs. Next time it will probably be Miss Babs unless I can make it to Sock Summit in person. I’m mildly concerened that fewer vendors will be at Oregon Flock and Fiber this year due to Sock Summit. I certainly hope it will be as vendorful as always.
I finally labeled and named some more yarn that you haven’t seen unless you’ve gone off to my flickr account. Now it’s in the shop or in the box marked “sock summit”.
I’ve had some thoughts on Sock Summit ala the red carpet. I mean I would love it if some photo blogger out there would do a red carpet and go around to the vendors or designers and say their names and ask who they are wearing (what pattern designer and what yarnie)! It would be awesome. It can’t be me.
And I’m picking my way through the the second of Christine’s Stay On Baby Booties [r] for the Sock Summit booth. I still have to go buy some ribbons for them I think. I’ve undone the bind off on the first baby bootie and I’m switching to a sewn bind off. It’s way too tight now.
I’m doing them in Aqua Vitae Light, one of my two Sock Summit Dye for Glory contest colorway entries. Look for it at Booth #808 (Knit a Bit) near the Yarnery’s booth. I think it’s really great that a local LYS is consigning my yarn and pretty cool that they are parked near a shop that used to be localish to me. It’s a mixture of Superwash Bluefaced Leicester and Nylon and so it will make a nice durable pair of socks. I’m in love with it and only sad that it’s so hard for Sheila of Wool2Dye4 to obtain. I really think BFL is this year’s sock yarn craze.
Haven’t heard of this contest yet? It’s for dyers participating in Sock Summit and being run on Ravelry. Check out the Yarn Harlot’s post about it on June 25th. Please vote for me in July. For now, it wouldn’t hurt if you just loved my stash photo a little bit. This way all your friends will see it too. Go to page four of my stash on Ravelry and it’s listed under Three Fates Knitting, BFL or hunt around under the tag “DyeforGlory” or the tag “SockSummit.”
Here’s some unskeined Aqua Vitae (BEFORE). Mostly medium shade I think.
Here’s another shot from this new batch (AFTER). The darker ones have a little streak of purple blue going through them; the lighter ones tend to be light turquoise or nearly green. This one’s a medium.
I’m at work on developing/recreating (one of mine) another colorway called Petals. Here’s the sample skein I did. I’m pretty sure I know how to make two more. We’ll see. I’ve got to ask my husband to mix up a little more stock solution for me first. I’ve stayed away from mixing powder while pregnant. It’s not going to be in the shop for a while most likely. This is Lachesis Sock, 100% Superwash Merino from Wool2Dye4. It’s nice and soft.
I’ve also got to dye a few more skeins of Saddle Shoes and Poodle Skirts, my Sock Hop inspired colorway. Someone else did a Bobby Socks one that I think is pretty cute as it was inspired with Ravelry colors in honor of Bob. First though, I’ve got to go wind more yarn blanks. (YAWN!) It’s easier than it used to be, or at least it will once I get done with all the yarn I sort of prewound before I had a skein winder. The skein winder makes very loose hanks out of yarn cakes and it all needs to be done a second time to get it right. Unfortunately, I made some two-yard skeins before I figured out my swift is smaller than that and so now those have to be done again by hand. Sorry about my belly aching. Truthfully, this is the last of what’s on my mind in the few weeks I have left before the baby is born.
I started this project in the spring, but left it behind in San Francisco. It has recently come back to me. I panicked, thought I was knitting the newborn size, and began my attack. It turns out I’m knitting a 3 month size and it’s sized either generously or my loose knitting is showing. Probably the former rather than the latter. It’s Baby Mine by the Yarn Harlot and I’m knitting it in Socks That Rock medium weight in Moirae. What other spirit would I pick for the baby? I put the sleeves on some temporary needles and unfortunately they’ve come off a few times and will need some repair when I get to the yolk. For now though, I’ll leave them be.
BFL Platinum Sock; a 75% Superwash BFL and 25% Nylon Blend. Most of it is a hybrid kettle-dyed, poured watercolor technique. Some is hand-painted. A few are nearly solids.
Lachesis Sock; a 100% Superwash Merino that is a little squishier than the HA I was using on Fatalist Sock
100% Superwash Australian Merino Top spinning fiber. It’s smooshy and wonderful.
A couple skeins of Knit Picks Bare in Periwinkle.
A skein of culture sock in orange crush
I recently entered a new colorway, aqua vitae in[r] bfl platinum sock, in the Sock Summit contest, Dye for Glory. It’s also available in the shop in lachesis sock and comes in mostly medium and dark shades, occasionally light. My items will be sold at Sock Summit through Knit a Bit, LLC. I also entered a colorway called poodle skirts and saddle shoes [r] in the lachesis sock. So please support me on Ravelry! Since you can’t vote right now, consider eyeing it and pushing the love button for now if you like it.
I’ve been knitting a pair of baby booties in the light aqua vitae for a display at sock summit. I used just a bit of one skein; the remainder is being sold as a discounted skein. It’s 395 yards. It’s a bit lighter than in this photo as you can see by photo #2.
On a more personal note, here I am full of baby at 35 weeks.
I’m feeling a bit more energetic today. I got the recent kettle dyed BFL Platinum Sock (75% BFL Superwash and 25% Nylon) out into the open air where it spent a good part of the afternoon getting nice and dry. These two photographs don’t do the individual skeins justice. I kettle dyed them in batches mixing in layers of the same color in various depths of shade and combining with them with similar hues.
In knitting news, we had a very nice World Wide Knit in Public Day in Salem this week. I missed most of it, because I picked up pink eye. Mainly because I have sinusitis of some variety, which I still have because we’re working on getting rid of some more thrush first. Thrush probably came back because of last dose of antibiotics, though honestly it never left. It’s all going away very slowly now.
My skein winder came and I have no photos of it, but I worked it very hard only to discover that I really didn’t need a two yard winder. The largest size makes skeins bigger than my own swift. I guess this is sort of okay for sale, but personally, I’d rather purchase a skein that would fit on my own swift. The worst thing is that I didn’t even discover it until I started making skeins straight from the balls I used to make using the old method (cone to ball winder to swift again). They came out a bit loose, so I was planning to put them back onto the swift and re-skein them. Course now they are too big. So I’ve got these messy huge skeins for dyeing. And I did three, because I’ve got a triple winder now. Whee!
Seriously though, the re-skeined yarns look really nice. There are about 30 or 40 of them and I need to photograph them, run them through some kind of photo editing program and then get them up into Etsy and or label them for sale at Sock Summit. I’m thinking July 1, when the new advertisement goes up on Ravelry.
I also finished 3 lbs of roving. I’ve still got about 40 undyed skeins lying around.
But, most of what I’m doing seems to be contemplating my navel these days. Literally. I’m waiting for the darn thing to pop out and be done with it already. It may not make an appearance; personally, I think there’s a little too much fat there or it to come out. Or the baby is so deep into my hip that she’s not pushing it out or whatever would normally be required. A friend of mine once told me that when hers came out she gave it the cleaning of a lifetime. Apparently this made a big impression on me, because instead of knitting, I’ve been thinking about giving my belly button it’s own cleaning. The upshot? The best place to see what I’m to dyeing or knitting wise for the next oh, three months or so, is probably my flickr page, here. Keep in mind, the photo editing isn’t done yet, but if you see something you think you want, give me a holler and I’ll see if I can get that one through the queue sooner.
It turns out that Crazy Monkey Creations is in the middle of moving their shop and not currently taking custom orders, such as their hand-crank skein winders. Instead, I was able to purchase a triple skein electric skein winder without a counter. Should be fun. I will at least get my order wound up.
I have had a wonderful couple of weekends at a baby shower that was thrown for me by the Salem Area Ravelers and one thrown by my sister. My life seemed a bit mad for a while; we were trying to clean whilst my husband was trying to finish two papers and do his best to do all the extra things he has to do for me these days.
In knitting news, Twist Collective’s Summer 2009 issue is up. Just after I made a large order at Webs of course. There’s a great article about dyeing in it. Now I’m off to go take a look!
Well, I did it. I sucked it up and paid a small fortune to Crazy Monkey for a hand-cranked 2 yard skein winder with an electronic counter. I was sitting there and I timed how long it takes me to make a skein from a cone with my current set-up. I’m guessing 21 minutes. Granted, my time isn’t that valuable at the moment, but with the baby coming in 9 weeks give or take a few weeks, I’m starting to feel like I could be getting more done.
I’ve got 20+ skeins dyed up for sock summit. At the moment, I’m still planning on consigning with a local group, although I have my fingers slightly crossed and am hoping something else will turn up.
I’ve got 15 skeins more of ultra-merino and 3 kilos of BFL-nylon coming to the house next week and 3 lbs more of bamboo to dye. Lots of roving to dye left too. Some of this and most of the roving will probably go into the shop. My husband has been graciously mixing all solutions from powders so we can keep baby safe.
Still, I had a dyeing related accident of a sort on Monday night. It was related since I the reason I had wet hands and was in my basement was the roving. Anyway, I touched a lamp to turn it on and got an electric shock. I spent four hours at the local hospital being monitored for contractions and the baby’s heartbeat was also being monitored. I found her heartbeat very soothing. The long and the short of it is, baby is fine. My finger tips felt normalish after about 30 hours and all is well in the world.
In preparation for Sock Summit, where hopefully I’ll be participating on a consignment basis I’ve been dyeing up some yarns. I’m hoping eventually to create repeatable colorways and am getting a little closer. In the mean time, there’s been some older dye solution that needed using up. This resulted in the kettle dyed yarns below. These are “Moirae’s Limited Edition,” which is the name I’m giving to the new 100% merino superwash yarn base I obtained. It’s a every so slightly heavier than the Kona Fingering Weight I was using before for Fatalist Sock and has a tigher twist. I used it to dye my Twilight inspired yarn. I may continue to dye the Fatalist Sock, but am still not sure about it. I’ll be winding this yarn up soon and then it will go into the shop. Some of it might go for samples at Sock Summit.
Below are some more. The first grouping is some kettle dyed yarn where I’ve experimented with Hot Fuschia and Burgundy and have layered in black and brown (in different skeins). I’ve got three more paler one’s in the basement in which I’m layering browns and pumpkin on top. In the middle chair, there’s green, cream and pink and a black white, fuschia and pink yarn. The latter is for Mia. I’m not sure I matched her wild pink crocs. In keeping with the shoe theme, the first two skeins of the third chair match my own Teva’s. The one’s on the far right represent a darker version, without the teal.
So here’s a question. I’ve got to have some knit samples at Sock Summit. What socks should I make? I’m making Viper Pilots out of my bamboo. I will need to do socks in a semi-solid and in a multi-color yarn. I will probably let the person decide, but any ideas? How about Nebula by Cookie A for the wine colored yarn?
In other news, on Saturday, I put the heels on Kai-Mei after several false starts. I’ve been misplacing the needles for these regularly, so I’m stopped again. I tried to work on them at the doctor’s office, but no go.
Monday stunk. I had to take a test. In so far as one can (one can’t) prepare for the test, I spent the weekend not cramming sweets. Since it was a 3-hr glucose test, I opted to use the wake-up call as a way of spending most of eating better, although granted Friday night involved a large amount of birthday deserts at a party and an ice cream cookie sandwich I’d eaten to get me to the party in the first place. So this test involves going and having your blood taken three times at one-hour intervals and a baseline test. First problem was that the nurse on the phone failed to mention that I needed an appointment. Second was that they only conduct one of these tests per day. First obstacle hurdled was that they decided they could see me anyway. Third problem appeared when I realized there was going to be a baseline test, so even though it’s called a three-hour glucose test, it really takes three and a half to four hours. I’d only scheduled three and a half hours or so of my husband’s time not including the driving time. Eeek. It all worked out in the end and I don’t have gestational diabetes. I was having nightmares of an uber large baby and a diabetic child which would be blamed on my poor nutrition, rather than a possible genetic disposition. Unfortunately, my husband’s cousin does have Type II. Read the rest of this entry »
I finished something! I think this is only my 4th FO of 2009, even though one was a sweater.
Pattern: Fiddlehead Mittens by Adrian Bizilia (Hello Yarn), Needles: US Size 3 (Crystal Palace Bamboo, DPN), Yarn: Cascade 220 in Heather Grey and overdyed natural in Lilac, Mussel Shell Blue, Tuquoise, Emerald Green and Spring Green (I think). Started April 11, 2009, Finished May 9, 2009. Here they are on Ravelry. Read the rest of this entry »
I had some issue with the whole lottery thing and how it would work and legality and crap. So….stuff is just been added to my for trade/sale pile on Ravelry. Go check it out. Good deals and listed way cheaper than my estimated costs. It still includes Sundara, Socks That Rock, Colinette, Scout’s Swag, Crystal Palace, Handmaiden, Lime and Violet and the like. I’ve added some laceweight too.
Last week I started Round 6 Joseph’s Blankie of Many Colors from Mason-Dixon Knitting. Currently this blanket is 26.5″ x 26″ or 689 square inches. According to the pattern for, the finished size is 47″ x 47″, or 2209 square inches, so I’m at 34%. More than half the yarn is left, but I wouldn’t say 66%. So I’ll see if I’ll be making a purchase at some point, or just make a smaller version.
So, it’s probably worth the $ for me to get Adobe Light Room eventually.
Check out the comparison between what my camera shot and what the shot looks like after development in lightroom. It’s much closer to the actual color now. (We’re looking at the fifth roving here. The ‘blue’ one.)
Uh huh. Something just isn’t right with the color sensor on the camera. It’s what we get for getting a cheaper model I guess. It’s an Olympus Stylus FE-340, quite light weight and it has a great zoom. But it’s ideas on colors are less than stellar, even if you manipulate the white balance. So I’ll add it to the equipment list. Adobe Lightroom and a skein winder. My scale apparently is still quite good, as long as it’s fully charged. Read the rest of this entry »
This is the progress I’ve made on Little Liza Jane, which I’m making for my cousin. Her baby is due a couple of weeks before mine. I’m making the 6 mos. size for her. It will have to be worn over other clothes, since it will be cold out when her baby is the right size to wear it. I made kind of an ironic discovery, which is that the Cotlin feels a lot (to me) like Debbie Bliss’ Cathay yarn, although obviously without the slipperiness of the silk and rayon that’s in the Cathay. What’s ironic is that I have six skeins of the Cathay in an extremely similar color and another six skeins in orange. I guess that just means I could make more dresses .
Currently this blanket is 18″ x 20″ or 360 square inches. According to the pattern for Joseph’s Blankie of Many Colors, the finished size is 47″ x 47″, or 2209 square inches. This means I’m about 16% done. I’m doing about 40 inches square per stripe at the moment, less than 2% of the total finished product. I guess it’s gonna be a while if I do only one more stripe a day. Good thing the stripes start getting bigger, although not significantly enough to make much of a difference in terms of the percentage of the total. So assuming I’ve got to do 42 more stripes, that’s 10 more rows of stripes, or 4 total repeats of each color. Wonder if there’s enough yarn for that. Well, I’ll knit until I’m done and then decide if I need more yarn from knit picks.
In the mean time, enjoy the parade of partially finished blankie shots. If only those were something you could do like Tequila. Not so quick.
Hope you like the front page. I may take it down though, because it looks like it’s not really directing traffic, so much as slowing everyone down.
I finished crocheting the blocks for the Large Than Life Bag and crocheted the border around each of the two panels. It really will be a large bag, but it’s still somewhat smaller than the original design. Also the yarn is a wool cotton blend so I may throw the whole thing in the washer-dryer and see what happens.
I guess crocheting Babett made me want to finish crochet project number 1. I found some beautiful fabric for the lining.
These Fiddlehead Mittens [r] from Hello Yarn (Adrian Bizilia) are a quick knit. At least the outside is. But there is a liner that needs to be done afterwards… I hand dyed this yarn. I’m hoping to get inspired to design a pair of mittens with my own hand dyed yarns, but in a DK weight yarn. Should be fun. I think kits would be a great way to sell heavier weight yarns. Read the rest of this entry »
This is the Vintage Baby Cardigan from Shibui Knits. It happens also to be the Staff of the Month pick over at Knit Purl. I’m using the Lorna’s Laces that I got with a birthday gift certificate to the Loopy Ewe. The colorway is pilsen. It’s mindblowingly perfect for someone with pregnancy brain. No thinking. Just pure accomplishment. So there’s 5″ of garter stitch there and I’ve got another 1 3/4″ before I start working on sleeves. It’s the six month size. I’ve got a gorgeous glass button I picked up in California in 2008 and that will finish the whole thing off beautifully. There’s the added bonus of getting me on the board in the Lime and Violet Sock Marathon. I’ve had a lot of trouble finishing a pair of socks since becoming pregnant.
This is some Cascade 220 that I was supposed to be using for the TKGA master’s program, but I reallocated it for my Fiddlehead Mittens. I’m not sure what happened during the measuring processs, but it came out 3 skeins minus the swatch or two I’ve done already. It shouldn’t have. They should have been 50 yards each and one at 60 making 360 yards, not 660. So I don’t know what the heck I did. I’ll weigh it and figure that out later. Because I didn’t have any left over of the original cream, I’m going to use a heather grey for the main color. You’ll notice there’s one extra color there. I wasn’t sure how they’d turn out and wanted to be able to pick and choose. I’m leaving off the last color. Read the rest of this entry »
I’m in love with the Fiddlehead Mittens [r] from Hello Yarn (Adrian Bizilia) and have been for a long time. Tonight for some reason I decided I would cast-on for a pair using my Classic Elite Skye Tweed and some Cascade 220. Unfortunately, they are just a little bit too big (even though the gauge isn’t off by much) and I’m thinking I need to pick something else. I could still use the Cascade 220; the question is what to use for contrasting colors.
I’ve been weighing my options. For example, Noro Kureyon in non-matching skeins. I think I’ll need two amd I don’t think I have two of any given skein. Or perhaps this Schaefer Lola which will change colors all by itself… The effect will be subtle although very pink and red, because I probably bought this yarn for the baby.
It is though, remarkably similar to the Oregon Worsted II (from Interlacements) that I bought at the same sale. Read the rest of this entry »
I paid a friend a small sum to put together an ad for Ravelry for me. So as soon as I can actually snag a space, it will be running for a month.
Feel free to grab an icon for your own blog. It should link to: http://ThreeFatesKnitting.Etsy.com. The code should look something like this, preferably with your own host for the image.
That will give you one half as tall like the one in my widgets.
It was put together by Bonnie, aka thebon. She’s one of three graphic artists I know. The first one is my Dad, but he’s semi-retired which only means he’s busier than ever. The third one is my friend Katie and if she comments here I can put up a link.
A blog entitled “Moirae Knitting” might also include crochet once in a rare while.
And that this blanket is still quite small. Only 2′ across really. My friends pointed out that the photo I showed you was a lot smaller than they’d thought.
Something cool in latin probably belongs here but it’s 8:30 a.m, which is not a sane hour for the the unemployed and childless (with apologies to my friends with jobs and or children).
Here is some more progress on Babette. I guess I’m obsessed. I’m hoping the seams will disappear magically somehow in the wash. Getting those to disappear seems to be really hard, probably because it’s cotton. My ends of course have a way of coming back out. There are several square knots in here. I was taught not to do that. Then again, I was taught to work with wool.
I was reading about a special offer from Webs on Tahki Cotton Classic, which I’ve been hoarding for a couple of years for different Mason-Dixon projects and this reminded me about Babette. And I thought yeah, I could make that for the baby. Or for my distant cousin’s baby (she’s also having a little girl). My cousin is due a couple of weeks before I am. And I could start now and just dig into what I’ve got.
I opted for a relatively limited color palette. I’m using maybe 12-15 colors (I keep adding a couple one at a time) in pinks, browns and neutrals. I am probably going to add a springy green also to keep the whole thing lively or this very purply blue I’ve got. Maybe both. I keep realizing that this thing is actually a very small blanket, so I’m going to have to make another panel more than I’ve planned and that will require more yarn…
April 1 is flash your stash day in the knitting world. And while I don’t have the energy to gather up my stash, I did put together a slide show of all my dyeing work. (Click the heading to see the slideshow.)
This is my first sock yarn with any nylon content. Unfortunately there won’t be any more of it until summer. It was an experiment by the person who ships me my yarn. Fortunately she’s decided to carry it permanently. Needless to say, the shop update is complete. I’m going to be out of town until the 28th. Next shipping date will be March 31st.
I need a new swift. The repair only lasted 10 days. It got me through 15 or so more balls of yarn that needed to be wound. The only question now is what to get for less than $100.
On the positive front, I thought I was missing a little yarn that had been dyed recently and I uncovered 3 skeins of Cauldron Sock and 3 of the soon to be named Bamboo-Merino blend. So I found everything. Hooray!
I bought this incredible yarn, Berroco Palace in Shanghai Blue, from Webs while at Stitches West and started on my Loppem [r] sweater as soon as I got home. I think I must fall in love with patterns based on the colors the designer uses, because this is the second time in recent years I’ve knit a sweater in the exact yarn and color the pattern was in the picture.
…a work-in-progress shot of the Twists and Turns Socks [r] by Stariel (Ariel Altaras) from How to Knit in the Woods. I’m a bit stalled because I have trouble coordinating the gusset count and the cable count. The yarn is Sea Wool from Fleece Artist. I love these socks and will go back to them soon.The yarn is not quite as orange as it is appearing in this shot.
So this is what my Noro striped scarf looks like. Or at least it looked like before my skein turned into yarn barf thus temporarily halting the project. It’s a good thing I started one over Christmas as during that time I lost my multi-directional scarf in Silk Garden. Sigh. I had to start a couple times to get something that wasn’t tan on beige or green on acid green. And switch yarns. So I’m not sure what color numbers they are. Hmm. I made mine a bit narrower cause that’s what I like.
In Janurary, I had a birthday. I finally managed to teach some of my parents that gift certificates for yarn shops for my birthday are a must have item. So I got Knit Picks Alpaca Silk from my Mom. My step-father is less thrifty minded about birthday gifts and I got Loopy Ewe yumminess. Basically, I pigged out on Dream in Color and Lorna’s Laces.
Pilsen and Edgewater in Lorna’s Laces. Yes I have two skeins of each.
I’m a bit behind on doing stuff for the blog. I did a fair amount of dyeing in January and I’m not done yet. Here’s a shot of the first batch. I gave one skein away, but nothing has been posted yet for sale. If you see something you want, just tell me what it is. It may be a while before I get it together since I’m still dyeing the last half of the order.
Some of them are bamboo and wool blend and some are a merino nylon. Most of the semi-solids are Cauldron sock. The green is gone as is one of the Cauldron sock pinks. So because I’ve got new yarn, I need new yarn line names and so that’s really what the hold up is. I’ll still be using Henry’s Attic too. I just wanted to expand.
I’m back. Stitches West was awesome and I had a great time, thanks to my friend Anabel and her husband Eric. I’ll be posting some stuff later, but it’s going to take a day or two to get everything all sorted out. In the mean time, the new Twist Collective is out and I’m also ogling new patterns. Too bad I didn’t see it before I left. The other thing I was hoping to do before I left was to find out the gender of the baby; that wasn’t going to work out though and my appointment is at 1PM. So it’s your last chance to weigh in. Or at least I hope it is. Let’s hope he or she cooperates!
I was sorry to learn that the toddler aged child of a friend of mine passed away suddenly the other night. He leaves behind his twin sister and his loving parents. Somehow this is all made more real by being pregnant or the pregnancy hormones. Or maybe just that its happened to a close friend. It really doesn’t matter how real this is to me. It just sucks and more to my friend and her husband than anyone else.
I vow to cherish every day I get with my own child. I try to use that as a calming thought. Stress is not great for baby.
On a more positive note, I’m going to Stitches West today and will spend the weekend hopefully soaking up happy vibes from knitters and the CA weather. Our rainy season finally seems to have made it here.
Unfortunately it only works for individuals or groups. I guess I’ve got a work around for sets. I can set a private group up. I was thinking about doing one for my hand dyed yarns.
As well you know, I dream of finding all my knitting needles and actually inventorying. I do this from to time and post about it here. Where the needles are, what’s missing and so on. Then I lose some, go out and buy more and look a bit puzzled as to why I’m finding myself inventorying yet again. So instead of a nice post about the Twists and Turns Socks [r] by Stariel (Ariel Altaras) from How to Knit in the Woods and how simple I found the cable patterns to memorize, or about how my slightly compulsive nature led me to pick a yarn that was not skeined up, or about the new base yarn that’s coming to my house this week for dyeing, or the baby (which is why I didn’t blog for months and months) I haven’t told you we’re going to have right before or during Sock Summit and that my copy of Knitter’s Workshop with the Baby Surprise pattern in it is missing (did I lend it to you?), the new sewing machine that I got at a super sale (bought for my birthday in January), or the yarn I bought with birthday gift certificates, or showing you the yarn we all gorged on during the Purl District’s 50% off EVERYTHING Superbowl sale, or the Salem Area Raveler’s Winter Yarn Crawl, or our trip to PDX, or the new sewing machine, I’m going to bore you senseless with another knitting needle inventory.
I should mention that I’m a very very lucky girl and I love January.
But first, a new pretty.
Dream in Color Smooshy – Don’t Be Blue – Thimbles and Threads
Welcome back. I’m going to start accepting sign-ups for the Earth Day Yarn Swap 2009 pretty soon. I’ve gotten a bit more organized this year and it’s all happening through Ravelry through the Earth Day Yarn Swap group! Sign-ups are open beginning February 1st and close on March 21st. I’ve got a great online form for people to fill out which should really help me out.
Most of you who signed up last year are welcome back. About 95% really. Unfortunately there were a couple of borderline cases where I just put out too much personal energy to solve and don’t feel like coping again this year or your situation required a swap angel and/or my own personal intervention. My perogative I’m afraid. If you think you might be one of the borderline cases you can e-mail me to see if you are going to be okay. If you plain old ditched, you can forget it. This swap got a lot bigger last year and I think it will again this year. Forgive me for knowing my own limits.
The great news is that there are so many more exciting yarns on the market claiming to be eco-friendly. We’ll be debating the environmental merits of the newer fibers, talking about buying locally and offering each other encouragement for reducing our impacts on the planet.
When I first saw this hat on a blog somewhere’s, I had to have it. It was a blue one and I loved it. There are a surprising number of these hats from the Knit a Hat – opskrifter pattern put out by by Ruth Sørensen visible on the web but not on Ravelry. This is probably because she was using them as a teaching tool for her many beautiful Kauni yarn based sweaters and the pattern wasn’t widely available until this past fall. It seems like a pricy purchase at $10.00 US (assuming the conversion rate is the same) but it’s a five hats in one book.
I started mine as soon as I picked up the pattern, but it took me a while to get the right needle size and I spent a really long time on the brim. Then I put it down for a month or two. I picked it up again early last week and here I am.
I spent most of the holidays in Philadelphia. We went to the Philadelphia Museum of Fine Art and wandered. Here’s something I think we’d all like to have. A knitting needle case in Sterling Silver.
There were other interesting knitting things at the museum, but they did not photograph very well. Perhaps someday they will have an exhibit of their own.
And here I am with Josh and Liz at boathouse row on the 4th.
I bought some beautiful Malabrigo Sock at Loop. Did you know that Malabrigo Sock has one knot in the middle of it exactly half way? (So you can knit two pairs at a time of course.) I swear towards the end of 2008 my whole resolve to stop buying yarn just vanished. It must have been the cold in Philly and the Blue Moon sale and all these other little projects I am working on.
My mom knit these. I sent her this yarn in the fall and faithfully she whipped up a pair of plain socks. She’s now working on a second pair from more yarn I dyed and provided as her birthday present.
or possibly slightly truer to color. It’s somewhere in between really.
Original Yarn – Peacenik, Base Yarn: Cascade Heritage – This one is true to color.
These are Fatalist Sock – Assateague
Original Yarn: Assateague – Three Fates Knitting Fatalist Sock
I’ve got a finished pair of socks up on my ravelry page. I guess not to be lazy you can look at them here. They are the Retro Rib Socks from Interweave Socks. Yarn: Kawkaw, Blue Moon Fiber. Needles: 3 different sizes. Paw not included.
Around that time, I went off to the Blue Moon Fiber Arts sale, which was terrific. Lots of yarn. Hidden deals. Loads of fun.
I’ve just realized now that the silk thread that I purportedly bought at the sale for my mother’s birthday, but now I realize I’ve accidentally kept it having given her yarn I dyed instead. I’ll show it to you, but then I will continue to be behind in posting. Explanations to be forthcoming eventually, but life is essentially good.
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. I still want to know what people are wearing there though.
