Holly Marie Knits

Happy 2012!

2012-01-12T12:25:00.000-05:00

Hello my friends! It has been long time since I was here with you. I hope you all had a blessed Christmas and New Year. We did not do much to celebrate the New year. Just after Christmas we picked up a flu bug from a relative. It was not your typical flu bug as it took some of us out of comission for up to five days. Needless to say our New Years eve was quiet, we all went to bed early.
Thankfully everyone is recovered and back to their normal schedules now.

Leading up to Christmas I was extreemly busy with preperations for the holidays, which included finishing up Christmas gifts. Regretably I am unable to share photos of the gifts I made or my current projects. Lord willing I'll be able to share some pictures in the near future.

Now that the rUsh and busyness of making Christmas projects is past, I feel like I can relax and breathe again. However that is not completely the case as I have some comissioned knitting to finish up this week.
I'm excited to be back at my winter knitting/spinning projects. I have 2 pounds of walnut dyed alpaca calling my name! I still need to card it all up and then spin it. I would like to do the carding and spinning yet this winter. my other large project is my bed quilt. Sizing is somewhere between full and a queen. I have been working on appliqueing a vine all the way around my first border. I finished that just yesterday and I was able to pin on all the previously prepared leaves. Turning under the edges of the leaves and basting them was quite the time-consuming pocess. I am thankful that I got them all prepped late summer/early fall. There are thirty four leaves total. As of this morning I only have 2 leaves appliqued. I need to get a move on or I will take a month to applique the leaves! I am planning on quilting by hand with perle cotton, #8.

In knitting I am currently working on the "Tibetan Clouds Beaded Stole" by Sivia Harding. The pattern is found in the Knitter's Book of Wool. For Christmas my sister kindly gave me 5 skeins of Knit Pick's "Gloss", fingering weight in the Masala colorway. Masala is a rich, pumpkin spice color. And as such I have decided to name my project the Pumpkin Spice Stole. I have made it as far as Chart B and am about ready to switch from dpns to circulars.

That about catches you all up on what I have been working on lately. I'm off to make a spot o' tea and have some lunch. It a grey, gloomy sort of day, with rain in the forcast. The perfect sort of day for hunkering down by the fire with tea and some knitting.
I pray you have a bessed day, my friends!

Dyeing Raw Alpaca With Black Walnut Dye

2011-12-14T15:14:00.000-05:00

This fall I embarked on a walnut dyeing adventure. Previously I explained how I collected the back walnuts and removed the husks to make a dye bath. Soaking the walnuts was a long process. I did two batches at two different times and each batch soaked for 2 weeks. I didn't dye up the alpaca right away as I was still in the process of washing the fiber. Speaking of which, I hope to explain in the near future how I wash raw alpaca fiber. I know there are all kinds of methods out there for prepping alpaca fiber, though this summer when I looked up "how to wash raw alpaca fiber" I didn't find many satisfactory options.

These pictures are from my first time dyeing with walnuts on Wednesday, November 18th. It was a chilly, windy day. And though the sun was shining I was very thankful for my little fire and a cup of cocoa. To prep my walnut dye for the dye pot I strained it through a cloth and fine mesh strainer. I filled the dye pot with the strained dye. I also put some of the husks that had been soaking into a pillowcase, knotted the top and tossed it in the dye. My outdoor fire was set up as follows: 1. I stacked bricks 4 high and 5 deep, per side. I placed a couple bricks on top of the grate on either side as a safety precaution to keep things from sliding about. 2. I spread a generous helping of pebbly sand underneath my grate and a little overflowing out to help keep the ash and coals contained. 3. Then it was time to collect kindling. We have silver maples down in the field that drop an abundance of twigs and branches whenever there is a stiff breeze. Which, by the by, happens quite often here. In addition to the branches I also rummaged up some hardwood scraps from out in the wood shop. These were a great help as they had a longer burn time then the branches.

I had a good fire crackling while the dye bubbled merrily for an hour. When the dye was close to being done went inside to prepare the alpaca fiber. This is where I made my first Mistake Of the Process. I had a pound of alpaca fiber washed and ready to go. I divided it in half and stuffed (yes, I said stuffed *blush) it into my two mesh bags. On later reflection I realized that wasn't my best plan. I did dye again this past Monday, which was Dec. 5th. For that batch of alpaca I put approximately half a pound in each bag only this time I stacked them in three neat rows with tips all pointing the same way. Before putting the locks in the bag I enlisted help to fluff out the tips and tails of the locks. When they get washed they get a little smooshed together, and I figured the locks would be less likely to felt if they were fluffed somewhat.

My second Mistake Of the Process was not letting the dye cool down somewhat. I soaked the bags of fiber in hot water prior to adding it to the dye. But I forgot that the dye was boiling hot. So consequently I felted the fiber just a little. When I dyed with walnuts on Monday I let the dye cool down until it was warm, and I soaked the fiber in the same temperature of water before quickly adding it to the dye pot.

The fiber bubbled over the heat for an hour. Then I let the fiber sit in the dye for six hours. After the fiber had soaked I brought in and rinsed out the excess dye. For the first batch "slightly felted" translated into some back breaking time over the sink as I pulled the locks apart and rinsed them, trying to make sense of the jumbled mess I had created. Two hours later...it was all tidy and laying out to dry.

This is my first batch of walnut-dyed alpaca locks. So far I have not had time to photograph my second batch. The colors turned out different, but as it will all be carded together then spun and knit, I don't think it matters much.

The white locks in the foreground is the natural color of the alpaca before it was dyed with walnuts. I'm hoping to spin up my two pounds of fiber and have enough yarn to make the Oatmeal cardigan from Spin Off. That will be a project for later this winter though as I have many Christmas projects in the works right now. The next week and a half will be very busy indeed!

Well I hope you have enjoyed this little look at dyeing with black walnuts. If you have any comments or questions don't hesitate to drop me a line. I always love to hear from my readers!

Thanksgiving Knitting and a little bit of Spinning

2011-11-25T13:39:00.000-05:00

My Thanksgiving knitting and spinning projects! More details to follow soon. The brown yarn is Knit Picks Wool of the Andes Sport, in the Fedora colorway. The multi-colored yarn a skein of kettle-dyed yarn from www.michiganspinning.etsy.com I have been very happy with both these yarns. The yarn on the spindle is a blend I carded this week. I took a random bump brown roving from the sample pack I purchased this summer and carded it up with angora. It spun up quickly and now I am navajo plying the single. The yarn itself is a brown heather with gold, green, and mauve running through it.

This yarn is my first go at lock spinning. I spun up two different colours of dyed Teeswater locks and then plied the single with a commercial lace-weight yarn. I'm not sure yet what I'll make with it. Perhaps crocheted/knitted flowers or other embelishments?

Thanksgiving Dinner Menu

2011-11-23T14:25:00.000-05:00

Greetings my friends! It has been awhile since I was last able to post and I must say I've missed it very much. Here on the home front we have been busy getting ready for Thanksgiving and Christmas. Tomorrow being Thanksgiving we are cleaning house and beginning our meal preparations. The menu for Thanksgiving dinner is as follows:

Turkey with stuffing & gravy
Mashed Potatoes
Sweet Potatoes
Beet, Carrot & Apple Salad
Cranberry sauce
Dinner Rolls
Grasshopper pie
Apple pie
Pumpkin pie

We are looking forward to spending time with family and reflecting with gratitude on the abundant bessings God has bestowed upon us.

Meet Our New Suri Alpacas, Windfall & Mounty!!!!

2011-11-04T10:40:00.001-04:00

Yes, this is the new adventure which I spoke of in my last post! About a month ago we got two male suri alpacas. It was a completely unplanned venture, and came about rather suddenly. But we all talked it over and prayed about it, and a couple weeks after the fact, they arrived in their new home!

This is Mounty. He is 6 years old and a shy little guy. He is quite stocky in build, and about a head shorter then our other Suri boy, Windfall. Mounty was pretty skittish when we first got him. Within a day or so he had calmed down quite a bit and we were able to feed him grass right out of our hands. He's adjusted beautifully to his new home.

And this is Windfall! He is 7 years old, and clearly the alpaca in charge! As I stated above, Windfall is a head taller then Mounty. He's built differently and is not stocky at all. The front of his legs are covered in tight curly locks so we are anticipating some beautiful curls on him when his coat is grown out. Windfall lets us pet him on a daily basis, which is lovely.

Mounty

Mounty in the background. Windfall's curly legs in the foreground.

Windfall.

Windfall, background. Mounty, foreground.

Windfall.

Mounty.

Looking at the two above pictures you can see the difference in the boys builds. Even though Mounty doesn't have the tight curls that Windfall dose, he still has a soft and beautiful coat. I think his fiber will be amazing to spin!

We are so excited to have alpacas, it is such a blessing! They have been quite the learning experience so far. Despite everything we previously knew concerning alpacas, nothing compares to owning them and encountering little situations that arise every now and then. There are more alpaca farmers in the area and we were able to get lots of advice and some help from a young couple who live not to far down the road. He has also offered to do our shearing come spring, and since they live close by the cost for shearing will not be as much as we had anticipated. What a blessing!

The boys LOVE to be hand fed fresh grass. Their enclosure is temporary until the spring when we can put them out in a bigger field. So consequently they keep their little patch of grass nibbled short. Fresh grass by the handfuls is always a treat and the crowd against each other and sometimes us in their haste to get to it first. Normally two of us go in the enclosure to give them their treat of grass. Windfall is quite the piggy and tends to steal Mounty's treats and grain if allowed.

I look forward to sharing more about our suri boys as we sally forth on this new venture!

Spinning Romney and Walnut Dye.

2011-10-30T17:13:00.001-04:00

Happy Autumn my friends! It is hard to believe that October is almost over! Only one day left. This month has flown by. I have not accomplished quite as much in the fiber arts as I was hoping to this last month as we have been busy preparing for winter. The garden is cleared of produce though we still need to pull out plants and burn them. We also started on a new venture that has taken up quite a bit of time, I'll be sharing that in my next post! We had a beautiful week and a half of Indian Summer weather this October. It was amazing to have such warm weather for so long in October, we spent as much time outside as possible! I was picked up my Romney again and started working on it during our Indian summer. I finished carding all the Romney locks and now have a bag stuffed full of rolags. I also started spinning up the rolags into this yarn. This is a project that I am taking my own sweet time on as it is for me and doesn't need to be done at any particular time.

I still am completely happy with my purchase of this Romney! It was a joy to card up the locks and such a pleasure to spin as well!
The other big project I have going right now is walnut dye. My brother and I saw a bunch of walnuts scattered along the side of the road and stopped to ask permission to pick them up. The gentlemen said to take all we wanted so we picked two grocery bags of ripe, green walnuts.

I let them sit over the weekend as I was busy and a few of them ended up going bad. I was following the instructions for walnut dyeing in the Spin Off Summer 2011 issue. I wore old clothes and gloves as I did NOT want brown hands for several weeks. I used an extra paving stone and hammer to pound off the husk.

All the good husks I tossed into one of our big metal tubs. The few bad pieces I had I tossed into the fire pit to be burnt.

And the nuts went into a basket to dry and later be cracked!

Despite the fact that I wore gloves, a little bit of walnut juice somehow managed to leak into the glove and my finger was slightly brown for days! I ended up putting some slim plastic gloves under the heavy gloves to protect my hands.

I put just enough water in the tub to cover them. The next step is to let them soak for a week to a week and a half. We ended up going on a short family Holiday so my walnut dye will have been soaking for two weeks come tomorrow. I have three more grocery bags of walnuts to prep tomorrow. My Dad found a place where we can get as many as we need, and can come back next year too! Such a blessing as we have had a hard time finding somewhere to get decent walnuts. The walnuts that my Dad brought me look amazing! They are huge, and almost flawless, they look like pears! I'll probably end up soaking them for two weeks as well because I want my dye to all be of the same strength. Though I suppose if I mix it all together in one big batch it won't make any difference. My end goal is to dye up enough of the alpaca fiber that I was given this summer to make myself a sweater. I'm hoping to make the sweater this winter, but that might not happen as I'll have to spin all the fiber up still! Right now I'm just trying to get the dye made up while the walnuts are fresh and available, and the fiber dyed. Maybe after all my Christmas presents are done and set aside I can focus on making some sweaters!

After The Rain

2011-10-15T08:56:00.001-04:00

A few weeks ago, when our grass was still green and the leaves had not yet started changing, we had a fierce thunderstorm with lots of rain. When it quit I was able to take some lovely after-the-storm photos.

At one point the double rainbow was arched all the way across the sky, it was stunning!

It was a gorgeous evening, with such interesting clouds and lighting! Everything was bathed in a mellow, golden light.

Just A Bit Of Birthday Sewing

2011-10-03T14:32:00.001-04:00

This past week my sister and I puled out the scraps and did a little bit of birthday sewing for a friend. At first we were contemplate a small quilted table scarf but then we hit upon the idea of these coasters. Everyone needs and uses coasters, right? Of course! It was the perfect idea. We brainstormed colours, then patterns. We decided upon Courthouse Steps, Log Cabin, Vertical Stripes, and Crazy Quilt block.
Once colours and patterns were decided we set to work cutting, tracing, and sewing.
The coasters went fast, and were fun little projects to make up.

Court House Steps Coaster

Now I RARELY machine quilt anything, (in fact I believe in all my years sewing I have only ever machine quilted one thing and that was my quilted knitting bag) but we decided to quilt the coaster as they will be seeing a lot of use and also tossed in the washer quite a bit. Machine quilting will give them more durability and they should hold together for years to come.

Log Cabin Coaster

Crazy Coaster

The Crazy Coaster was my personal favourite. I just love how the colours, shapes and quilting came together for such an interesting textured look.

Diagonal Stripes Coaster

We made them approximately 4 1/2 inches square. Not too big, but just perfect for holding a large mug of cocoa!

WIP: Pavo Sock & Church Mittens

2011-09-30T20:06:00.000-04:00

I've been working on finishing up an old project, and also starting a new, but long planned project. The old WIP is my Pavo socks. I just finished turning the heel this evening and only have a short cuff to do and then I can bind off. I'm so excited to have these socks done so that I can start wearing them! With the coming of autumns chilly days I'm really wishing I had more hand knit socks!

The new project is my Church Mittens. I'm using the pattern "Winter Sky Slip Stitch Mittens" from the Spin Off magazine, Summer 2009. Back around February or so I decided to spin up this lovely Polworth/angora roving into the Main colour for my mittens. The green-blue roving is Corriedale wool that I hand-painted last summer. This is the secondary colour in my mittens.

I had four ounces of my Polworth. I purchased this last fall and as winter is fast approaching I decided I had better get on the ball and finish the spinning so I could start the knitting. I spun up two ounces last week on my drop spindle, and I spun the other two ounces yesterday afternoon. It is a worsted weight so spun up and plied very quickly. It dried over night and this morning it was ready to go.

I did start the mittens last night. This is how far I am as of this evening. So far I have done the Set-up rounds, Cuff, Ribbing, and Hand. Now I am too the thumbhole. It is a quick knit, very easy I think and the slip-stitch colour work is quite interesting. I'm enjoying knitting the mittens, not only because I like the pattern, but also because I love knitting with my own handspun yarn!

These mittens will be perfect for those freezing Sunday mornings when my hands go numb walking from the house to the car. I was planning on them being only for church, but I can see that is not going to be the case. They are working up so warm that I am sure I will be wearing them practically everywhere I go this winter! The angora was causing the roving to felt slightly so I anticipate my mitts will meld together a little bit and make them all the warmer.
Ah, happy sigh!
I should go my friends. It is suppertime and there is a delightful smell of chicken soup coming from the kitchen. Have a lovely evening!

Finished Object : Chocolate Mint Helix!!!

2011-09-26T19:41:00.000-04:00

I completed my Chocolate Mint Helix scarf today! I love the way it looks, the drape,the fit, the warmth..... it is wonderful! Just perfect for those chilly autumn days when there is a cold drizzle and the wind wants to blow down my coat collar. It will be wonderful in the winter as well. Sunday mornings are frigid on our windswept hill. I did take my time knitting it. But I finally decided to just finish it up today, for a few reasons:
#1. It's taking me way to long to complete such a simple project.
#2. It's getting cold and I wanted to wear it.
#3. I needed the needles for another project.
All very good reasons to finish it up I though.The Helix scarf is a very easy knit, simply inserting short row wedges along the sides. This was the perfect on-the-go knit as the pattern is so easily memorized and it is a small project so is easy to carry along in one's purse.
The yarn is my own handspun, I spun it on one of my top whorl drop spindles. It was a merino roving that I purchased this summer already dyed up in this colorway. I'm pleased with the yarn and the finished results of the Helix. I'll definitely be starting another one in the near future. As soon as I have some more spare fingering yarn that is!

Autumn In The Country

2011-09-26T19:18:00.000-04:00

And So, Summer Comes To An End.

2011-09-23T14:31:00.001-04:00

A couple weeks ago I was helping my sister-in-law pick her garden produce. Things are starting to dwindle down as summer comes to an end. We were picking the last bits of broccoli when I came across this little fellow in one of the broccoli plants. I almost picked him, thinking he was a broccoli floret, until I saw the EYES. He startled me at first, but then I ran in to get my camera. He was very obliging and let me take his photo without getting scared and jumping at me. I had an encounter with a tree frog when I was a little girl, the neighbors found one and were showing me and my brother and the tree frog jumped right into my face. Of course they all thought it was hilarious and looking back it IS rather funny. But ever since I've been a little leery of them being too close to my face, after all who wants a frog clinging to their face?!

Fresh carrots at the farmer's market. You can tell autumn is around the corner when root vegetables and gourds start showing up at the market. I love going bright and early on a Saturday morning with my SIL and browsing through all the fresh produce. The market she frequents has a huge variety of produce, as well as meats, cheese, soap, specialty sea salts, breads and pastries, honey, flowers and coffee.

The flowers were simply amazing, I wanted to take more photos but even at that early hour the crowds are quite thick and sometimes wading through the the press of people to take a picture is not an option. We purchased some giant cockscomb flowers in a bright fuchsia color. They were only $3 for one huge stalk that was a bouquet all on it's own!

After the farmer's market we went down to the river in town to watch the early morning fishing. Along the way the view was so lovely with all the ivy twining through the pines in the early morning sunlight that I couldn't resist a photo. What a marvelous Saturday morning that was!

Let's Start With The Spinning

2011-09-22T18:29:00.000-04:00

I've been spinning up quite a bit of the fiber that I got at the fiber festival.This one is from the sample bag of fiber that I purchased. I sorted out a some of the roving into colours that looked well together and spun it up into this yarn. I have two skeins that come to an approximate total 160 yards. It was a fun yarn to spin as it was comprised of a variety of wools and I had to use different spinning techniques depending on what color I was doing. I spun it on one of my older top-whorl drop spindles. It is a little bit heavier in weight, but that works very well with a thicker yarn such as this. After spinning I wound off into a center-pull ball and plied the two ends together. It ended up a nicely variegated yarn that should gently stripe when knit up.

The romney I carded spins up into an absolutely lovely yarn! It has a very sturdy hand to it, I love the way it feels. The romney has an amazing sheen to it as well, almost like it has silk in it. I am so excited to see how this yarn knits up, but I plan on waiting until I get it all carded and spun before I start knitting. I'm enjoying the carding process though, not to mention I have quite a few Christmas projects in process right now, so it might be awhile before this yarn becomes a stole.

This summer I was given a pound and a half of cream and a pound of grey-black Huacaya alpaca fiber. It was unwashed and a couple years old so I wanted to get it cleaned up yet this summer. I was visiting a friend and she kindly helped me wash up about 3/4 pound of my cream alpaca. We used mesh bags like before only we had twice as many so we were able to wash up the rest of our wool and also the afore mentioned alpaca. The alpaca fiber was quite dirty and dusty, but there was very little veggie matter and since alpaca fiber lacks the lanolin of wool it was much easier to skirt and prep for washing. The above photo is of the alpaca fiber when it was wet and the photo below is after it dried and fluffed up. What a difference, eh?

I'm trying to get some w.i.p. done and off the needles. These are my Pavo socks, first blogged about here. I'm further than this photo shows. I just finished the gusset and now am at the heel turning. I don't like the bind off that this sock uses, it is to loose and floppy, so I'm going to just do a standard bind off. I would love to be able have a large stash of hand knit socks for this winter. I need to learn how to do two-at-a-time socks as I am rather bad about finishing the second sock.

And lastly, I'll leave you with some hand-painted yarn worked up in a new design. I'm excited to do a photo shoot and show you just what this is!

2011-09-02T20:18:00.001-04:00

Hello there my friends! It's lovely to be back with you again. This week I washed up some of the fiber I purchased recently. It was a grubby fleece from a ram, but it washed up SO beautifully! Above is the dirty locks going into the mesh bag.

And here are the washed locks. Aren't they lovely? I was washing fiber with a friend so we each took a mesh bag, picked the fiber, laid the locks in neatly and took them in to the spare kitchen sinks. We did three 20 minute, hot water washes and 2-3 hot water rinses.

I couldn't believe the dirt that was rolling out of these locks! I'm not sure how many ounces we washed, but I made a good sized dent in my pound and a half.

When I was @ the festival I was looking for a dark brown because I have a Christmas present planned that requires a dark color. So yesterday I took some of my cleaned locks and carded it up, adding angora as I carded. In the above photo you can see the Merino/Dorset/Corriedale washed locks on the left. The angora fiber is above right. And the combined, carded rolags are at the bottom. I've just started spinning it. I'm so pleased with how it is turning out!

Between fiber washing/rinsing my friend and I sat outside and worked on carding and spinning. There's nothing like good company while working on fiber. :)

I do have a few other things to show you. I just finished navajo plying my Corriedale in the Tuscany color way. It's 4 ounces total between the two skeins, but I don't have my total yardage yet. And no, I have no idea what I will do with this yarn yet!

My Romney is waiting to be plied. This is the fiber that I showed you in the previous post. I have quite a few rolags left, not to mention more fiber to card, but my spindle was full so I wound it off as a center-pull and am plying it up. It is such a silvery, oatmeal colour. I'm quite impressed with this fiber!

I'm working on appliqued leaves for my bed quilt. I have four left to baste and then I can applique the vine and leaves onto my quilt. After I do that I will be ready to quilt! I'm quilting by hand, so the sooner I start, the better. I can not wait to show you my quilt once I figure out what quilting patterns I am doing and once I finally get started on the quilting. I sewed it up three summers ago and

I am getting most anxious to finish it and put it on my bed. Lord willing I'll get it finished in time to use yet this winter.

In Which We Speak Of Fiber, And More Fiber

2011-08-24T16:18:00.002-04:00

I thought I would share some pictures of my recent fiber festival aquisitions with you today. I went with a friend and between the two of us we purchased 7 and a quarter pounds of fiber! However a good deal of it was not processed, and raw fiber tends to be available at much better prices then already processed and dyed fibers.

This will be a bit of show and tell so bear with me please, I'm pretty excited! So first up is washed Romney locks. I picked up a pound of Romney, 8 ounces of a light grey Romney, and 8 ounces of dark grey locks. There is a LOT of colour variation within the Romney fleeces that I looked at. It was really quite exciting and quite the process to narrow down which of the fleece we wanted!

I started carding my Romney yesterday. I made up about 14 rolags and then started spinning. It changes so drastically from locks to spindle because all the colour variations in the fiber are blended together in the carding process and then blended even more so when it is spun. Overall the colour would probably be described as a gray-ish cream color, with little strands of black running through it.

Romney has a beautiful crimp to the locks. Once I started carding and spinning this fiber up I was wishing I had purchased more. The sheperdess did a fine job of skirting and washing these locks, I was very pleased with the fiber. It is SO beautiful, soft and springy with a sturdy hand to it. I'm considering making a beaded stole with it, and keeping that idea in mind I am spinning it a fingering weight right now.

Our Siamese/Angora cat, Sasha, insisted on getting in my photo shoot.

Here is the darker Romney roving I picked up for my Mother.

Look at all the colour variation just within the rolags she has carded up so far! Beautiful.

I splurged a bit on 4 ounces of Blue Faced Leicester/Silk roving. Mainly I was trying to shop with making Christmas presents in mind. This first skein will, Lord willing, become a Christmas gift. Though I can not say who it is for, or what it will be, here on my blog!

This was the first time I have ever spun a singles yarn on my drop spindle. I am using my handspun in a pattern that calls for Manos Del Uraguay handspun, and I decided to pattern my yarn after the Manos. The single ended up quite lovely I think. As it was my first non-plied yarn I over-spun it slightly, but I'll know better for the other 2 ounces. If I spin them up the same way, that is! I have enough yardage in my first skein, 138.25yds, for the Christmas gift I have planned.

This is a sampler pack of various mixed wools, Merino, Corriedale, etc. I don't have any definite plans for this, just a few ideas. I'm sure you'll hear more about this roving in the future. :)

60%Llama/40%Polworth roving. So scrumptiously soft! I purchased an angora/polworth blend from this same farm last fall and was very pleased with it. This will make something warm and cozy for wearing this winter.

I also picked up a 1.5# of Merino/Corriedale/Dorset raw wool. It is not skirted, and unwashed. Quite pungent indeed! But I'll be washing it up sometime within the next couple of weeks. I'm waiting until I get together with my friend, as she bought a pound of the same fiber (in a different colour) and has never washed raw fiber before. We are going to wash our fiber up together and lay it out on a sheet in the sun to dry. A few ounces of this will be carded together with angora fiber.

I picked up a couple things for my sister, one of which was all these little wool/llama/alpaca/silk balls of roving. I also got Romney roving for her. I learned some interesting facts on Romneys. Apparently Romneys are originally from over in europe, and were much smaller in size. With inter-breeding Romneys have become much bigger, but at the price of the fleeces becoming less soft then the fleece that comes from the original Romneys. The locks I purchased are from a medium sized Romney. Whilst the roving I picked up for my sister is from a small UK Romney and is amazingly soft.

The total haul of the day between my friend and I. We made a lot of identical purchases as you can see!

Well that is it for now. I hope you enjoyed the show of fibers! Next time I'll try to update you on projects, and such. Take care my friends and I'll be back with you soon, Lord willing!

Summertime

2011-08-05T19:16:00.000-04:00

Greetings! I'm glad to be back with you. I thought we would start with a garden update before plunging into all the knitting and fiber. I've been gone the last few days so when I went outside to take pictures for my blog I also looked at the garden and snapped a few photos.

This year I planted lots of flowers from seed. Though they did not come up as I would have liked, we still have quite an abundance of flowers that are just beginning to bloom. The zinnias were one of the first flowers to bloom. Zinnias are such a sturdy, cut flower. I like to plant scads of them if at all possible, to use for bouquets and such all summer long.

The garden is doing well. We didn't plant as great a variety this year as we did last year. But what we do have is doing well indeed. We have 12 butternut squash plants and they are simply loaded with tiny squash! We love to make squash soup in the cold months, and having a good supply of squash on hand will be wonderful. When autumn rolls around I'll have to remember to post our squash soup recipe for you.

Our tomatoes are flourishing nicely, though they are all still green. We got the garden in later then expected and it is slightly behind. Last year we tried fried green tomatoes and they were surprisingly delicious.

The soybeans in the field next to us are growing so high, and they are now blooming.

I prefer to have soybeans next to us as opposed to the corn fields. We are not so boxed in with the soybeans.

That is it on the garden update. Now on to fiber!

I've been doing a bit of lace knitting this week. Right now I am in the midst of figuring out a new shawl design. It is past the "frog-it-and-scrap-the-whole-project" stage, which makes me happy. I'm fairly certain that I am on the proper track with this pattern right now. I'm still debating on what to do with the edging though.

Because of my shoulder injury, plying still gives me some grief, though spinning is not as difficult. So my plying projects are piling up right now. The yarn in the back of this picture is all ready to knit with. The two balls in the front still need to be plied. I'll just take my time and do a little here and a little there until they are done. My problem is once I start plying I want to keep at it until the skein is complete.

This single is ready to be wound off into a center-pull ball so I can ply it later. This yarn is part of 5 ounces of alpaca seconds that I purchased at a local alpaca farm earlier this summer. I washed the locks and am working on carding them up a little at a time. I'm considering making a cowl or perhaps another helix scarf out of this yarn.

Speaking of the Helix, here are some updated photos of the my Chocolate Mint Helix!

Currently I've used up all the yarn I had spun for this project. So now I am spinning up my last two ounces as fast as I can because I really want to finish this project. The Helix is such an easy project! It is a repeat of 3 rows the whole time, so it is easily memorized and perfect for take-along knitting. I've been putting it in my purse and taking it to church to work on between services.

I hope you all are having a lovely summer! What projects are you working on? What do you like to knit for easy take-along projects during all the busy summer goings-on? I'd love to hear what you are doing!

Have a blessed day!

A Glimpse Of Sadie's Life~In Photos.

2011-07-24T22:12:00.006-04:00

Hmm...this looks cozy.

Bushel baskets make a nice place for a nap.

Do you mind? I'm fighting with a mouse here!

Whew, this is tiring!

These kinds of photos are all too common with Sadie. She moves so much.

Such a fun loving cat! She's hilarious to watch, and such a dear. We all enjoy her tremendously.

*As a note, Sadie is a Siberian Forest Cat.

Projects Galore!

2011-07-24T21:48:00.012-04:00

I'm sharing a few projects, both old and new, with you today. By old I mean that it has been finished for awhile. It's been awhile since I had the chance to post so I am trying to catch up on a few things whilst I have the opportunity.

This is the "Reading In Bed Shrug" designed by Pam Allen.

I knit it out of some handspun I had around. This is one of my earlier skeins of handspun so it was quite lumpy and rather over plied in some spots, and under plied in others. But it is a nice cheerful green and I thought it would look great with this pattern.

I did change the pattern a little, in that I did a moss stitch cuff on both sides.
I haven't had a chance to wear it yet as the weather has been far too warm! This is another on of those knits that I can look forward to wearing when the cool days of fall arrive.

When I was taking these pictures and weaving in tails, Sadie had to come see what was going on. She didn't find it very interesting because I wouldn't let her lay on my shrug. So she cleaned her paws instead.

I haven't showed you much in the way of sewing these last few months. Over the summer I have had several different quilting projects going on, most are small wall hangings. The flying geese units pictured above are part of a quilt that I designed and am now piecing by hand. I find I prefer hand piecing, it is so precise and relaxing. I also am working on a flannel crazy quilt with all the little flannel pieces we have leftover from other projects.

I went to the quilt shoppe a month or so ago and got 3 sandwich baggies full of flannel scraps for only $1 a bag! My friend and I dug through the scrap tub and found all sorts of treasures. I'll have to go back in to the shoppe soon and see what they have available now. It helps to have a few other options to work from besides just my own stash of flannel scraps. I tend to only have certain particular colors and I want it to be an interesting throw quilt, so supplementing from the quilt shoppe scraps is quite handy.

Up-close on some of the quilting detail my green and red triangles wall hanging.

It is finished, I just don't have a photo of it yet.

I started this quilted center piece around the 4th of July. I made it up in two days but was undecided as to how I was going to quilt it, My Mother suggested stippling the middle which I thought was a wonderful idea. It looks nice and isn't overpowering to the overall design of the quilt in any way. I stippled most of it over a couple days, not I just need to finish a small section and move on to the outside wedges. Right now though I am helping take care of my Grandma who is recently out of a month stay in rehab. I did bring this quilt with me, but so far have not pulled it out to work on it.

This yarn I blogged about here. It is merino top that I purchased at the most recent fiber festival I was at. I was a little disappointed in how it spun up, the outside layer of fiber was slightly felted and I had to really work with it at times. But I am happy with the finished yarn.

I cast on for the Helix scarf the other day. Originally I thought I would try designing a cowl with this yarn. But my sister is knitting up the Helix right now, and I really like the way it looks. Plus with where the color repeats fall in this yarn I feel like the beauty of the fiber will be lost if I do a circular design. The back and forth rows of the Helix Scarf showcases the yarn perfectly. It is striping somewhat, but that is fine with me.

Ah! Knitting on the deck in the cool morning air with a cup of coffee.

I spun up less then 2 ounces of the 4 I had, so I have more to spin up soon. Usually I wait to start a project until I am done with all the yarn, but I was so enthused about trying this yarn with the Helix that I started right away.

I'll post finished pics of my Chocolate Mint Helix soon, Lordwilling!

For now, have a great week my friends!

My Juneberry Shawl is Finished!

2011-07-24T20:52:00.005-04:00

So this seemed to be a long project, but in reality it only involved about six days worth of knitting time. However between the fifth day of knitting, and the sixth, about 4 months went by! The reason being that I ran out of yarn and was waiting to purchase my last skein.

I used Classic Elite:Moorland for this project and was very please with how it turned out.

So with out further ado, here is my June in March Shawl!

Blocking

After blocking.

This is a nice substantial shawl. I love the size, it turned out a little bigger then I was expecting. It will be perfect for wearing on those cold winter days, curled up with my shawl and a cup of tea. What a happy thought.

The edging simply MADE this pattern!

The wingspan is 61". I can't remember the depth right now but if anyone needs to know I can check it.

Up-close of the bobble details.

This is a fast knit for an experienced knitter, but I also have a friend who is making it as her first lace shawl. She's doing great, and is almost done with it!

I would definitely love to make this pattern again. In fact as soon as I bound off I felt like casting on again only in a different color!

I'll keep you posted if I decide to make another Juneberry in the near future.

The Heavens Declare The Glory Of God.

2011-07-24T20:38:00.005-04:00

The heavens declare the glory of God: and the firmament sheweth His handywork. Day unto day uttereth speech, and night unto night sheweth knowledge.

~Psalm 19:1,2

New Free Pattern! Toe-up Cabled Bed Socks

2011-06-27T18:57:00.008-04:00

Toe-Up Cabled Bed Socks

Notes: This pattern is worked from the toe-up. It is called a bed sock because there is no heel. Thus they can twist around on the foot without becoming uncomfortable, making them perfect for wearing to bed! The size is pretty flexible as it does not have a heel. I made this pattern for a friend's birthday. Her feet are smaller then mine, but the socks look well on both our feet. ***If you want to make them shorter or longer just add or decrease the cable repeats.***

Yarn: 1 skein Paton Classic Wool OR 220 yards worsted weight yarn

Needles: US #6 set of four double points

Notions: Measuring tape, cable needle, stitch marker

Approximate length: 14 1/4 inches

Cable Pattern

Row 1-4 :*K4, P2, repeat from * around.

Row 5: *C4, p2, repeat from * around.

Row 6: *K4, p2, repeat from * around.

Abbreviations:

k=knit

p=purl

k1f&b=knit 1 front and back (this is an increase stitch)

C4= slip 2 stitches on cable needle, hold in front of work. knit the next 2 stitches. Knit the 2 stitches from cable needle. One cable twist made.

Pattern:

Using Judy's magic cast-on, or your favourite toe-up method, cast on 14 stitches. Knit one row

Divide the stitches onto 3 needles as follows: Needle 1: four stitches, Needle 2: three stitches, Needle 3: seven stitches.

Round 1: K1, K1f&b, knit across to last 2 stitches of needle 2, k1f&b,k1. On needle 3, k1, k1f&b, knit across to last 2 stitches of needles 3, k1f&b, k1. ~4 stitches increased. 18 stitches total

Round 2: Knit

Repeat rounds 1 and 2 seven times. You will have 46 stitches.

Next Round: k1, k1f&b, knit across to the last 2 stitches on needle 2, k1f&b, k1. Knit across needles 3. ~48 stitches.

Next Round: Knit

Redistribute stitches on needles as follows: Needle 1: twelve stitches, Needle 2: eighteen stitches, Needle 3: eighteen stitches.

Now you will be starting the cable portion of the leg.

Work rows 1-6 of Cable Pattern 14 times.

Rib Row: *K2, P2, repeat from * around.

Repeat Rib Row 7 more times. 8 rib rows total.

Bind of loosely in a K2,P2 rib. Fasten off and weave in tails.

And your cabled bed sock is complete! You can also wash and block if desired.

A Little Fiber Update

2011-06-27T17:17:00.004-04:00

Hello there my friends! I am back with pictures of my finished alpaca/silk yarn! I only spun up 2 ounces so far. I'm not one hundred percent sure on the yarn weight, I haven't measured the WPI, but it looks to be around a fingering weight, 198 yards.

I'm very pleased with how it turned out, it is just what I was hoping it would be. I still have no plans for the yarn. For now it is decoration on the piano.

I used my hand cards to finish prepping the last 2 ounces of alpaca fiber and silk. I haven't started spinning it though. Right now I am trying to clear up some of my other spindles. I have a bad habit of having to many spinning projects going on at one time.

Here I am spinning up merino that I purchased at a recent Fiber Fest. It is a lovely mix of aqua & brown. It is SO soft and lovely! I think it would make a great cowl.

And this bit of spinning is Corriedale. I found a new supplier for Corriedale and thought I should try spinning some up to see if I like what I am selling. So far it is wonderfully soft, and drafts smoothly. The colours are not really "me" but I am sure I will find a good use for the yarn, be it making a gift for someone or perhaps selling it.

And last but not least, my Lillia Hyrna Shawl! It is coming along beautifully, albeit rather slowly. But I don't mind that it is taking me awhile. As I probably said before, knitting with handspun lace is such a luxurious experience. I'm savouring every moment and thoroughly enjoying the process of knitting this shawl.

What about you? I'd love to hear what projects you are working on! Drop me a comment and let me know.

Have a beautiful day, and God bless you!

Silk & Alpaca

2011-06-16T20:50:00.004-04:00

Recently my cousin gave me this lovely bundle of silk sari ribbons. A couple of weeks ago I spun up an art batt that had some shredded silk in it, and I greatly enjoyed spinning the parts with thread in it. So I thought I would shred ribbon myself and card it with some of the alpaca we have.

Here is my pile of shredded ribbon. This afternoon my friend and I shredded up more and had the pile grow to twice the size pictured. It was very generous of my friend to employ herself shredding ribbon for me. We felt terribly destructive taking lovely lengths of ribbon, pulling them to bits and then ending up with a pile of multi-coloured threads. This silk ribbon is from saris, and were all frayed to begin with however, and by repurposing these they were going for a good cause.

This week I was away camping so I had to bring along all the materials for this project. I thought it would be fun to try something new whilst on vacation. Today was a rainy,dreary day so we were inside most of the time and that is when we shredded and carded for my silk & alpaca yarn.

Here is what I've spun so far. I am not yet finished carding up all 4 ounces of alpaca and silk, but I needed to take a break from the hand cards. Plus I was eager to see how it look spun up. I am very pleased with the results, it is just what I had in mind and I can not wait to see it plied and with the twist set. I am going to do a two ply because I figure that doing so will help anchor down any stray threads that might not be thoroughly spun in.
I'm still debating on whether or not to design a pattern with this yarn, or just find one and knit it up. I guess we'll see what the yarn wants to be when it is finished!

Cheerio my friends, and God bless! Have a lovely day!

A Few Flowers For You!!!!

2011-06-08T11:04:00.005-04:00

I thought I would share a few flowers to brighten your day! They are all either from our garden, families gardens, or taken while out and about.

Enjoy!

Oriental Poppy

Peony

Azalea

Columbine

Snowball Bush

Comfry

And lastly, several varieties of irises.

I hope you have enjoyed all these early summer beauties as much as I have.

Have a wonderful day, my friends!

Glimpses Of Summer

2011-06-08T10:37:00.007-04:00

Cooling hot toes in the pool.

Robin's nest in the apple tree.

3 eggs in same nest.

Grapes just coming on the vine.

Sadie, longing to go outside.

Blackberry blossoms.

Sunset over the field.

Mmmm, the smell of summer is in the air and it is wonderful! Hot weather has rolled in all across the US of A and it feels as if summer has finally arrived to stay.

Thank you Lord for the sunshine and warm weather!

2011-06-07T11:43:00.009-04:00

I don't know if you remember my post about Jimmy the alpaca last summer. Well here he is again, only this time he still has his winter coat on. We had the opportunity of watching him get sheared last Friday. Mr. N. kindly gave us the fleece again this year. He simply keeps Jimmy for a pet, and since he has to be sheared every summer, well.....we don't mind the extra raw alpaca fiber!

He was a little nervous about approaching the shearing table. I think he remembered what it was all about from last year and was anxious to be sheared and feel the wind on his back again. But he was also quite shy, and a little skittish.

Once on the shearing table though, he was quite docile. His fleece was lovely this year, the seconds on his neck were quite long. We are keeping some of the seconds to process ourselves. But the bulk of the fiber will be sent out for processing to a mill that was recently recommended to us.

Due to my shoulder injury, and also the fact that we had to pick vegetable matter out of the fiber, this is my first skein of yarn from Jimmy's 2010 fiber. Alpaca has to be used within the first year our two of shearing so it does not become brittle and dry out. So before we dig into this years cleaner fiber, we should work with last year's fiber. However Mother has been cleaning through it and removing some of the excess VM, which is a tremendous help when spinning. Mr. & Mrs. N are excitedly (and patiently) waiting for items made from their alpaca. They were so surprised to find that I would make them something, I'm looking forward to presenting them with the end results of their alpaca's fiber. :)

One of my sister's was given an art batt for her birthday. She is not an advanced spinner yet and asked me if I would spin it up into yarn for her and then she could knit it. I was more then happy too, as I have never spun any type of art yarn before. It was definitely and interesting experience. The batt contained merino, mohair, firestar, bamboo, wendslydale locks, angora, and shredded silk sari ribbon. The added interest of the sari ribbon was probably my favourite part of the batt, it was so interesting to spin it!

I ended up with 2 skeins of heavy worsted weight yarn, about 214yards or so. I'm looking forward to seeing what my sister will make with the yarn!

I finally have pictures of the shawl that I made my Mother for Mother's Day. It is the Prairie Rose Shawl by Evelyn Clark. This is the 2nd shawl that I have made with this pattern and I enjoyed knitting it as thoroughly the second time as I did the first.

And lastly, this is a project that I would love to make! It is a KAL @ my cousin's LYS. If I lived closer I'd love to join in on it, maybe I can at least aquire the patten and use up little leftover bits of sock yarn. I'll let you know if I am able to get the pattern.

Fiber Updates

2011-05-28T17:39:00.005-04:00

As of last night this project is finished. But these are the most recent photos I have, they were taken yesterday afternoon. This is a shawl that I made for my sister. The yarn is Knit Picks 'Palette', and the pattern is my own. It is actually my first triangular shawl and I m very excited to have completed it. I still need to work up all the logistics of it and re-write the chart and instructions.

Right now I have the shawl blocking on my bed, today is more of a damp and over cast day so it's drying slowly. I probably should have blocked it somewhere else, I don't want to have to sleep on the couch tonight!

I had the opportunity to visit an Alpaca Farm this week! It was very exciting and I learned SO much. We were doing a dyeing class, which was so informative, and loads of fun. And of course there was the added benefit of being able to go out and look at, & touch, the alpacas.

The little black alpaca, pictured above, is the youngest alpaca on the farm. He was born in October. He was so cute, and so very soft.

Our whole group chose to hand paint/dye yarn instead of roving. I hand painted mine in this blue/green color and brown. The blue in these pictures came out way too blue, it has more green in it. I have hand painted yarn in this fashion before so that was nothing new, but I learned so much about the Greener Shades Dyes, and I feel more confident concerning my dyeing in the future. In fact I'm itching to get started on some new projects. It was lovely to spend several hours soaking up fiber-related knowledge and getting inspiration for future ideas.

And I'll leave you with a photo of the alpacas heading to the barn for the night.

A little Lace, a little Roving.....Sheer Happiness.

2011-05-25T13:16:00.008-04:00

Hello Everyone! It's wonderful to be back with you! Last time I blogged we were in the midst of an ice storm. Now we are well into spring, with summer just around the corner!

I've been doing some light lace knitting, nothing too woolly and hot.

This is the largest skein of yarn I have EVER spun on my drop spindle. Or I could also say, the largest skein of yarn I WILL EVER spin on my spindle! I started out with a 4 ounce ball of merino/silk roving. I spun the singles as thin as possible, and had to use a good deal of extra twist to keep it a lace-like thread. I felt like a spider sometimes, spinning my own web.

It was a pain to ply, I had to let the singles rest for a month to get out the excess twist and make it somewhat manageable for plying.

In the end, my skein was 878yards of lace weight yarn! A skein that size will be enough for a good size lace shawl. But I didn't know what to make with it and I set it aside for a few months while waiting for the perfect project to come along.

I was on a self-imposed spinning ban for 2 and a half months due to a shoulder injury. For one who is used to spinning on a regular basis you can imagine this was quite difficult. But I had the lovely idea that if one can not spin, then why not knit with handspun yarn? I have several skeins laying around that need more spinning done before I have the yardage I need for various projects.

By this point, however, this lace yarn was just begging to be used.

My sister was skimming through my "Knitter"s Book of Wool" and suggested I make the Lyllia Hyrna Shawl again. I thought that was a wonderful idea. As some of you know, I made this shawl last year with birthday yarn. I'm looking forward to how it looks in a semi-solid color, as opposed to the two colour version. I love how it is looking so far. I think the Lillia Hyrna shawl is fairly easy, but if you are thinking about making it I suggest that you check the errata that is available for the eyelet row.

I also had an opportunity a couple weeks ago to dye up 3 pounds of fiber!

It was definitely fun, and exciting. I love to pull out my Greener Shades Dyes and just go at it mixing colors and seeing what happens. Happy accidents can be quite common when all that colour and water mixes. You just have to go with it and enjoy the process, end results and all. :) Actually the end results are my favourite part. I love to see all the hand painted roving drying on the line and fluffing out, that's when the true colours shine out and I get to see what they look like.

And braiding is the final step. Look at them all! I would love to spin up each and every one! However that is not to be as I have already sold some of them. I dyed up Corriedale and Merino wool, I'm thinking of keeping one of the merino roving for myself.

We'll see. :)

Guess What I've "Bean" Doing

2011-03-23T17:10:00.005-04:00

I was making bean soup this afternoon and was struck by the gorgeous colors and shapes of the lowly (organic) bean.

Starting from the top and going clock-wise: Kidney Beans, Garbanzo Beans, Great Northern Beans, Black Turtle Beans, Pinto Beans, French Lentils, and Green Split Peas.

The French Lentils look very interesting and are all sorts of lovely colors.

Pinto Beans

Garbanzo Beans

Green Split Peas

A delicious soup for a cold day!

Ice Storm

2011-03-23T16:20:00.006-04:00

What a difference from my Monday post! We had snow, rain, ice, and sleet since then and this morning I went out to take some photos.

It was bitterly cold, with a chilling wind that blew right through me. The thought crossed my mind of how silly I must look bundled in knits, camera in hand, slogging through frozen grass and taking pictures left and right.

I was glad to get back inside to the warmth of the stove. There is nothing like relaxing with a cup of tea and some knitting by a fire on a cold and chilly day. The June In March shawl edging is almost halfway done, I think I will need at least one more skein of yarn to complete my shawl. Maybe when the roads are safe once again, I can venture back to the yarn store and purchase my last skein. Until then I shall knit, sew, etc. and keep cozy by the fire!

June In March Shawl

2011-03-22T21:01:00.006-04:00

Remember the yarn and pattern that I showed you last Wednesday? Well this is how the project is going. I have so enjoyed making this knit. It is rather addicting, once I get going on it I don't want to stop. The pattern is the Juneberry Triangle, by Jared Flood. It has 5 charts so you are always looking forward to what the next chart will be like. The shawl looks very intricate but is really quite easy. It uses different types of decreases, bobbles and increases to form diamonds, swirls and the like.

At this point in the above photo I had just finished Chart C and was several rows into Chart D.

This is how far I am as of this evening. The edging is knit back and forth in rows, and joined to the shawl with a k2tog at the end of every right side row. It is a wide knitted edging, and so beautiful! I am loving the way it looks.

This is a quick knit when done in worsted weight. My cousin is making one in sport weight and hers is working up very quickly as well. There were a couple issues that gave me trouble and I would like to point them out in case anyone else is having difficulties with this. First being the abbreviation "ssp" or slip,slip,purl. I had never encountered it in any knitted projects before so just blazed on ahead thinking it was the same as a slip,slip.knit. That is until I looked at my knitting and saw the decrease was slanting the wrong way. So I checked online and found out how to properly do it.

Here's how: slip 2 stitches (one at a time) knit wise, put back on the left needle. Purl through the back loops. 1 stitch decreased.

The other issue I encountered was with the bobbles. They looked rather flat and wimpy. However while browsing the Juneberry projects on Ravelry I came across this hint that helped with that:

Bobbles/Nupps: When doing the final psso on the bobble, bring the loop of the stitch around the entire bobble. This makes the bobble stay on the RS, plus defines it better.

I hope this helps! If you have any questions feel free to drop me a line or comment and I will answer them to the best of my ability.

I look forward to showing you my June In March Shawl when it is completed and blocked!

Knitting In Literature

2011-03-21T15:14:00.005-04:00

"What she piqued herself upon, as arts in which she excelled, was making candle lighters, or "spills" (as she preferred calling them), of coloured paper, cut so as to resemble feathers and knitting garters in a variety stitches. I had once said, on receiving a present of an elaborate pair, that I should feel quite tempted to drop one of them in the street, in order to have it admired; but I found this little joke (and it was a little one) was such a distress to her sense of propriety, and was taken with such anxious, earnest alarm, lest the temptation might some day prove too strong for me, that I quite regretted having ventured upon it. A present of these delicately wrought garters, a bunch of gay "spills", or a set of cards on which sewing-silk was wound in a mystical manner,were the well-known tokens of Miss Matty's favour."

--Elizabeth C. Gaskell, Cranford

Spring Is In The Air !!!

2011-03-21T12:40:00.003-04:00

I went for a walk outside today to see if there were any signs of spring.

At first glance everything seems pretty much the same. Right now we are in that in between state where it does not look like spring or winter. Everything has a grayish, brown aspect, and there is mud everywhere.

But upon closer inspection there are little signs of spring popping up here and there. There aren't many things are growing in the flower beds yet. The sedum is coming up (pictured above) as well as the iris plants. And weeds.

I found a happy spot of moss out in the back lawn. Moss has such a way of looking so bright and cheerful on a gloomy day.

I tried to photograph the robins, but they were not too keen on having their pictures taken. They proved rather difficult and all I ended up with was blurry smudges that could be interpreted as almost any sort of bird to someone with a good imagination! I did get a nice shot of these bugs. I have no idea what they are, or what they were doing. They appeared to be chewing on the bark. Perhaps eating sap? I don't know.

It is nice to know that in just a month everything will be in bloom and there will be a riot of color where ever one looks. I am looking forward to the return of warm weather, and the chance to dig into the dirt again. We won't be planting the main part of our garden for 2 months yet, but there is lots to accomplish in preparation. We probably will be planting sugar snap peas soon as they like cool weather best.

Well, I'm off to eat lunch before getting back to my day. I have some knitting I'd like to accomplish before this evening. Our church is having a ladies get-together tonight where we will be knitting, quilting, scrap booking etc. I'm the one assigned to teach knitting so I need to gather my things together and make a bit of a plan this afternoon.

Cheerio & have a lovely day my dear friends!!!

This and That

2011-03-16T17:59:00.004-04:00

I have a bagful of knitting to show you!

I purchased this yarn at my LYS this afternoon. It is Classic Elite: Moorland. I would like to make a shawl for church, and I wear a lot of brown and green so this lovely heathered color will be perfect! Quite versatile I think.

My cousin mailed me the "Juneberry Shawl", I think that's the pattern I'll use with this lovely yarn.

My "Bleeding Hearts Stole" has progressed some since I last showed it to you. I realized once I got going on it that it was not realistic to try and get it done in such a short time. So I am taking my time on it, just doing a few rows here and there. This pattern has lace work on both the right side AND wrong side rows. Consequently it ends up being a little bit of a headache after awhile. I'm used to have the wrong side of the row to relax from patterning. I want to make the stole shorter than the pattern requires, but I'm not sure if I have enough yardage. I'll probably order another skein just to make sure. I can't wait until the stole is finished and I can block it! It's so much fun to see it transform from a scrunched up bit of knitting, into a lovely, lacy garment.

And lastly my reversible dolls! They are from the "Itty Bitty Toys" book. I've been wanting to make one of the reversible patterns for awhile now and finally did this past weekend. Aren't they SO cute!? I will probably keep this first reversible for my self. I used handspun yarn for the multi-colored doll shown above.

Don't you just love her hair? It's so wild. It stands out every which way when she is turned right side out.

And one last photo, to demonstrated how the reversible works. Very nifty I must say. This was a fun side project to work on over the weekend. Now I'll have to try out some of the animal reversibles.

I need to head to the kitchen now and make supper, stir fry chicken and veggies.

You all take care, and I'll be back with you soon, Lord willing!

2011-03-16T17:20:00.003-04:00

Hello everyone! It's SO good to be back in blogland with you all! I know it's been awhile.

I thought I would share a couple pictures of my last spinning project with you. Currently I am banned from spinning by my chiropractor. Gasp! I know, dreadful eh? It has been one week and two days since I last spun. I look longingly at my baskets of fiber, my lone spindles with projects just waiting to be finished, and can't help but wish I could be working on spinning. However in January I fell flat on my back on the ice. Nothing terribly serious at the time, just a bone jarring, bruise making thud. But apparently I threw at least 3 ribs out and locked up my neck. Then a couple weeks ago I spun for too long and irritated my shoulder.

I have an excellent chiropractor though, and last week and this week he straightened out all my wayward bones and now I am feeling much better.

This yarn is for my Church Mittens. It is the secondary color, I still have to spin up the main color. It seems like every Sunday in the winter we have freezing temps, and bitterly cold wind. Well, we always have wind at our house....but still, it makes for very cold Sunday mornings.

So I decided to make a warm and woolly pair of mittens to pop my cold fingers into for those chilly Sunday morning rides. The main yarn will be a lovely brown Polwarth/Angora. This secondary color is some Corriedale that I hand painted while it was still roving, and then spun up. The pattern I am planning on using is from one of the Spin Off magazines. I don't remember which, but I will share more details with you as the mittens progress. I have the whole summer to make them up. Regrettably I didn't think of this splendid plan until almost spring. However that gives me something to look forward to wearing for this coming winter.

Quilting Projects

2011-02-20T19:36:00.003-05:00

When we went on our mini-trip about a month ago, I saw a little quilt that I loved. I didn't have $54 dollars to spend on a tiny wall hanging ,so I studied it carefully and determined to make one myself. This is my rendition.

I cut out the triangles over a week or so, with scraps from our fabric stash. Yesterday I sat down to sew them up. It only took a few hours to sew, from start to finish.

I'm quilting circles in each of the squares composed of four triangles. In the corners of the quilt I'm probably going to do a feather stitch.

Here is the first quilted circle. I have a thing for quilting circles, I'm not sure why. :) I find them quite appealing. The batik quilt that I made two summers ago is also quilted in circles.

Oh! I don't know if I ever showed you a picture of this quilt! It is my almost-queen-size bed quilt. I sewed it up late summer 2008, but haven't quilted it yet. I was waiting on the batting and then it got put on the back burner as other projects were started. The batting I use is the all natural, cotton batting which tends to be expensive. It was half off at the fabric store a month ago so I finally was able to get my batting. I still have to applique a vine all around border #3. I thought I was supposed to do it after I quilted it, but when I glanced over the intsructions recently I realized I read it wrong and need to do the vine and leaves before I start quilting.

I didn't have any fabric that I liked for the applique so I stopped at my LYS yesterday and picked out a few options. There was a sale going on, which was lovely. I was able to pick up the fabric for my binding as well. Now I have everything I need to complete my quilt! I'm pretty excited about it. I was helping a friend work on her quilt a few weeks ago and it put me in the mood to pull out my quilt and finish it. Now everything is falling into place and, Lord willing, I can soon have it ready to quilt! I am planning on hand quilting it, which will take awhile, but I'm looking forward to it.

Well, I'm off to drink a cup of tea and quilt some more circles.

Have a lovely evening my friends!

Hand Painting Yarn

2011-02-20T18:52:00.002-05:00

I hand painted a skein of yarn about 2 weeks ago. This is the bare skein of wool that I purchased with my Knit Picks order. Now I wish I had bought more! It was so much fun to dye this up! I took a few photos to show you the process I follow when dyeing yarn.

First I soak the skein in lukewarm water for a half hour, or until it is thoroughly saturated. Meanwhile I mix up my dye colors. I use the Greener shades Dyes for all my fiber and yarn dyeing. I don't have a scale for measuring the powder out, so I can't reproduce exact colors of something I have dyed in the past right now, although I can come close. Greener Shades has a group on Ravelry that has lots of useful information if you are interested in trying out these dyes. There is also quite a bit of info on their webpage.

I seem to be missing my photo of the dyeing itself, so we'll skip on ahead to the steaming. Once I have hand-painted the yarn, I spray it down with either white vinegar or citric acid. This, along with the steaming, helps to set the color. Then I wrap it up in plastic wrap and pop it in a pot of hot water. I normally steam the yarn for about 8 to 10 minutes.

After taking it out of the pot I lay it on a towel and peel the plastic wrap open so the yarn can cool. Once it is cool to the touch, I rinse it out in lukewarm tap water then put it somewhere to dry.

This yarn turned out beautifully, and looks quite stunning knit up!

It's A Snowy Day!

2011-02-20T18:29:00.003-05:00

Making Valentines

2011-02-06T16:37:00.004-05:00

I'm spending the afternoon with Grandma today. She wanted to make up some Valentine's so we pulled out all her card making gear and got to work.

A little bit of ink, a few sheets of paper, 2 colored pencils , some glue....

.....and voila...Valentine Cards!

I still have a few more to make, but that can wait until later this week.

What projects are you working on for Valentine's? Anything knitting or sewing related? Whatever it is, I'd love to hear about it!

Sadie, In A Thoughtful Mood

2011-02-05T16:38:00.004-05:00

I've been meaning to blog about Sadie, my Siberian Forest Cat, more often. But it seems like I am always in a rush. Today I have a little more time on my hands so I thought I'd show you a picture I took of her Thursday.

I am not sure what got into her, all of the sudden she climbed up on to the piano and sat down in the sunshine. She looked quite solemn, and seemed to have a reason for being up there. I normally don't let her on the piano, but I was trying to figure out what she was up to! Maybe getting some vitamin D??

Happy Saturday Everyone!!!

2011-02-05T14:48:00.003-05:00

I just though I would pop in with a quick update on my knitting progress in the last week. I did something to my toe last week, fractured or broke it, I'm not sure which. But to be on the safe side and give it a chance to heal I've been trying to keep my foot up as often as possible. I'm not sure how much it's helping, but it sure has been giving me more time to knit!

This is how far I have got in my "Bleeding Hearts Stole" It's about 14 inches or so I believe, and growing slowly.

I try not to check it's length very often, otherwise I feel like I am not getting anywhere!

I am definitely not going to have it done by the time I was hoping too. When I finally came to my senses and realized that, then I slowed down abit. No need to knit myself to exhaustion!

I started a pair of socks this past Friday. They are the "Pavo Slipper Socks" by Chrissy Gardiner, from Interweave Knits: Winter 2010, page 94.

It's a toe-up pattern, which was a first for me. I am not sure how I feel about it yet.... I still need to make the 2nd one. It's not that I DON'T like it, I just don't know if it's something I'd want to do on a regular basis. I don't have any problem with picking up stitches and doing the kitchener stitch on cuff-down socks.

But if you are wanting to try a toe-up sock, this is an easy one to start out with. It is made with worsted weight on US#4 dpn, so it is a thick, cushy sock.

Perfect for our house where the wood floors always seem to be cold. :) I want to make up a lot of handknit socks and slippers for next winter. I'll keep you posted on how that project goes.

I have a few spinning projects in the works but I'm not sure if I have any recent pictures, so we'll save that for next time. :)

Have a lovely week end, my dear friends!

Casting On For A Stole

2011-01-29T21:27:00.003-05:00

The first project I started with my new stash of yarn is not one of my own design. Instead I am knitting up a lace stole called "Bleeding Heart Stole" by Anne Hanson of Knit Spot. I am hoping to whip it up in a couple weeks time. Our church is having a Valentine banquet and I need something to wear with my satin dress to keep my arms warm.

The pattern seemed to go slowly at first, but now that I have the hang of the charts it is going more smoothly. This is how far I was as of this afternoon. I've since done about 12 more rows. It's looking quite wonderful I think, all lacy and elegant.

I still have 14 rows to go on the hem charts, then I switch over to 9 rows of the transition chart before coming to the main body chart.

I look forward to showing you further progress.

That's it for now my friends. Cheerio and I'll see you next time!

Yarn Galore!!!

2011-01-29T19:17:00.003-05:00

Isn't all this yarn simply scrumptious? My parents generously gave me a gift card for Christmas and I used it to purchase yarn and a book from Knit Picks. I am planning on using most of this yarn for designing. I already have quite a few projects in mind, nothing solid yet, but some vague ideas. You know how those vague ideas go. They tend to blossom into whatever they want, and often something quite different from what I intended. I'm excited about the possibilities though. The last time I saw this much yarn together in one place was at the fabric store! Unlike many knitters, I don't have much of a stash right now. Well, I didn't. Now I do. :)

This lovely skein of Alpaca Cloud is SO soft. I have no idea yet what I will do with this one, I just like to hold it and imagine the possibilities. It should have a beautiful drape when knit up.

I had a hard time deciding what to order. And when I say hard, I mean HARD. Just ask my sister-in-law. She was siting there while I was hemming and hawing. And just when I thought I had my mind made up, all the certain I was unsure and rethinking my options. One of the yarns I wanted was not available until February, so I switched my order around a little. I certainly couldn't imagine waiting until February to use my gift card!

The Palette yarn has SO many options, 100 colors in all! I am pleased with everything I ordered, and Knit Picks was very prompt about getting my order to me. I ordered on a Thursday, it shipped the next Monday, and I received it on Thursday. So it was only a week wait, I was expecting it to be longer since I did they're free shipping option. It was a lovely surprise to come home and have it waiting for me.

I also order a workshop on lace knitting. That has me excited to no end! It is quite thorough, and I believe I will be able to learn much from it. It will be like taking a class, which I find quite wonderful. I'll let you all now how it goes.

Well, I'm off to look at my yarn. ;)

2011-01-22T12:17:00.003-05:00

I have a couple new projects in the works right now. Some might be offered as free patterns, so stay tuned! The project pictured above is kind of at a standstill because I am not sure if I have enough yarn to do what I want. It is my own handspun, so I'll have to pick up some more roving and spin it up before I get any further on this design.

Over our family vacation I was working on these wristlets. The design is out of the Spin Off Winter 2007 issue, page 46. They work up pretty quickly, but I would definitely lengthen the cuff.

In fact I have another pair in progress for myself and I am doing that very thing. I only added an extra inch to the cuff, just because I want to make sure I have enough yardage to finish them both.

The yarn is Ramboulette wool that I dyed as roving and then spun into a fingering weight on my top whorl spindle. It is lovely, and very soft. It should make excellent wristlets.

Aren't these mittens so cute? They are the tiniest things ever, and whip up in no time. The only problem is this is the only size they come in. However they are a perfect gift for a newborn. I worked mine up in a soft, Cascade cotton, on size US7 needles. You can find the pattern "Baby Mitts" on Ravelry.

Well, I am spending a couple days with my sister-in-law. We are doing all kinds of fiber related things. She also did some sewing this week for the first time! We worked on a neat floor cushion and also a heart, accent pillow. She did an amazing job, I was pleased with the results.

I would love to hear what you are working on. Please feel free leave me a comment and let me know what knitting/spinning projects you have in the works, it's always fun to see & hear what other people are working on in the crafting world!

Have a lovely week my friends!!!!

A Bit Of Christmas Knitting

2011-01-21T22:07:00.006-05:00

Recently we were able to go on a short, but lovely, family vacation. I'll have to share the photos with you some other time.

The place that we stayed was absolutely chock full of antiques and beautiful pieces of furniture, perfect for doing photo shoots. I was wishing I had brought a whole suitcase of knitted items to photograph! The area was a blogger's dream come true.

I also received a new camera for Christmas, which was wonderful! Now I can share a few projects with you and, Lord willing, keep things updated better.

I made this lovely little scarf as a Christmas gift for my Mother. It is made with handspun angora/merino yarn. In fact it is one of the earlier yarns that I ever spun. I was saving it for something special. Unfortunately I can't tell you where I got the pattern from, I don't even remember where it is from! It was a copy I had floating about in my pattern binders.

It's a VERY soft scarf, and I was quite pleased with the way it turned out.

I only have one picture of this shawl, and it's not a very good one at that. This pattern I found on ravelry. It is the "Age of Brass and Steam" Kerchief. I only used about 230yds worsted, handspun, merino yarn. It is a fairly simple shawl, it worked up in two days. Personally I wouldn't mind making this one for myself, but with twice as much yarn so it ended up a lot longer. This, however, was a perfect size for the little lady who received it. She had been dropping hints that this yarn would make a nice shawl for her.

I also made two more pairs of the "Sweet Fern Mitts" from the Knitter;s book of Wool. I didn't photograph the other. This pair here was for my Mother. I also made some lovely blue ones for my sister. I have several other gifts waiting for their photo shoot, originally I wasn't planning on doing a Christmas knitting post, it just kind of happened. And I wasn't completely prepared. Just hang in there, and one of these days I'll post the rest of my gift knitting.

I'm very excited, & pleased to introduce you to...... Jillian! She was by far the most fun gift to make, although I loved making them all. Jillian is the little rabbit out of the "Last Minute Knitted Gifts". I really wanted to make her, but was unsure what yarn to use for her body. So I had the slightly crazy idea of carding together alpaca & white angora rabbit fur, and then spinning it up on my top whorl drop spindle.

Yes.

Well, it was rather ambitious. But thankfully I had enough time to accomplish the spinning as well as the knitting before Christmas day. And she was well received by her new mommy. :)

Jillian is SO soft and fuzzy, and completely adorable. I want to make another rabbit just like her for myself. In fact, almost everyone who has seen her wants one! Her ears are made out of angora yarn. Her facial features are embroidered on with embroidery floss.

And I thought Jillian need accessories, so I made her several little shawls. Since then her wardrobe has been increased with both blankets and more shawls. She is quite the well dressed rabbit!

And I'll leave you with a close up of that sweet, little face!

Until next time, my friends!

New Free Pattern: Seaweed Stole/Scarf !!!

2010-12-16T22:31:00.006-05:00

I'll have more pictures of this coming in a later post. Since I do not have the software to do a pdf file I'm going to keep pictures to a minimum for ease of printing.

The idea for this stole originated with a kayak trip. This past August my brother and I went for a 4 1/2 hr kayak trip. I didn't have a waterproof container for my camera so wasn't able to take it along, although later wished I had been able to. The scenery was stunning along the way! It was a beautiful day for kayaking; sunny, not too hot, and with a gentle breeze. While we were gliding down the river I noticed the seaweed (not sure what the technical term is, we'll just call it seaweed) that was streaming along with the river's current. It had tall, long-ish leaves, and all sorts of beautiful colors. Right away I thought it would be wonderful to dye some yarn in those colors. The main colors were shades of green, yellow, chartreuse, and a mauve-ish pink.

Next day I had the opportunity to over-dye a skein of my handspun yarn in the exact colors. I was so pleased with the results that I decided to design a pattern that went with my seaweed theme. This pattern is perfect because the waves in the design reflect not only the movement of water, but also the graceful motion of the seaweed as it ripples in the water.

I hope you enjoy knitting this as much as I did!

Yarn: Approx 300 yards of light-worsted or DK weight yarn

Needles: Size US#7 straights

Measurements:

Before blocking, 39"x9 1/2'

After blocking, (pinned measurements) 59" x 11"

Abbreviations:

k=knit

p=purl

k2tog= knit two stitches together as one.

yo= yarn over needle

Notes: Pattern repeat is worked over a multiple of 18 stitches, plus 1 selvage stitch on each edge.

Stole can be made wider by adding more stitch repeats.

Seaweed Stole/Scarf:

Cast on 56 stitches.

Row 1: Knit

Row 2: Purl

Row 3: Knit 1*, k2tog, three times, (yo, knit 1) six times, k2tog, three times. Repeat from * to one stitch before end, knit 1.

Row 4: Knit

Repeat these 4 rows until stole measure approximately 39" long, or until you have just enough yarn to bind off.

Bind off.

Wet block stole according to finished measurements.

Enjoy!

I would love to hear your comments, and also see any photos of your finished Seaweed Stole!

If you have questions please leave a comment below.

Knitting Updates!

2010-12-16T20:06:00.000-05:00

All the projects I am working on currently are Christmas gifts, so I shall have to fall back on some old projects to show you. Actually the above roving is still in the same state as you see, although this picture was taken around the end of October. Because of my health issues throughout the month of November I am further behind in things than I had hoped to be by this time of the year.

I still have much to before Christmas. My, it is only a week away from this coming Saturday! However the last five days or so I have been able to complete many of the gifts I am working on. That has set my mind somewhat at ease. I love to give handcrafted gifts, but it always seems like when Christmas rolls around I am madly scrambling to finish things.

This scarf is the Art Schooled pattern, it can be found on Ravelry. I'm making it for my sister-in-law. She purchased some yarn a year ago and I offered to knit it up into something for her. We browsed through ravelry and she found this neat ruffly scarf pattern. Well, I copied it off and got started on it. But meanwhile, during the process of knitting it my sister-in-law learned how to knit! So now she is making the exact same scarf, only in teal and gray stripes. Such fun! I was so excited when she learned how to knit! She is definitely going to town on it, and doing a fine job.

I finished my Sweet Fern Mitts a while back. The pattern is from "The Knitter's Book of Wool". They are made with Knit Picks "City Tweed". It is a heavy-worsted weight, which made my mitts a little bigger than I would have liked. (The pattern calls for worsted weight yarn.)

I still love the way they turned out, despite the fact that they are a little big. These mitts are SO comfortable and warm!

Well, I should sign off for now. Hope you are having a blessed Christmas season!

Cheerio my friends!

Holiday Baking

2010-12-16T11:29:00.000-05:00

Yesterday a friend and I decorated all these sugar cookies. We had fun mixing colors and planning it all out. We had a mix of chocolate and plain sugar cookies, colored and chocolate frosting. There were some interesting cookie combinations going on!

I'm not sure how many cookies we decorated, but it was a lot! We enjoyed ourselves though. It's a nice time to chat and just enjoying being together as friends.

How about you? Have you been baking any special treats for the holidays? If so, I'd love to hear about it!

Baby Knits

2010-11-25T16:15:00.001-05:00

Seems like a lot of people I know are expecting babies, or just recently had a baby. Ive been trying to do a little bit of knitting for certain select people and their new little ones. This project here is a snuggle sack. I can't remember who designed it, but I found it on Ravelry.

It has these cute little owls at the top! I think I'll embroider them some eyes....

I knit it in a worsted weight wool, but for the middle I double stranded a thin strand of handspun angora. It's SO soft and luxutrious feeling, I wish I could keep it!

And meet my model! :) The bear has no name, sorry, I just snatched him off my Aunt's bed and used him in liue of a real baby.

Also knit up thisl ittle sweater awhile ago. It's from Susan B. Andersons "Itty Bitty Baby" book.

Its a real quick sweater to whip up, just garter stitch squares.

The booty pattern is from "The Knitter's Bible". I only have one done so far, they whip up real quick as well.

Bear kindly agreed to model for the sweater, even though it was too big in the arms. I suggested we roll them up and he thought that a fine plan.

I do have other things to show you, but am pressed for time at the moment so it will have to wait.

This month I have not done a whole lot of knitting because I have been struggling with appendicitis for the last 2 1/2 weeks. It's been a long, frustrating haul, I'm praying I'll be completely well soon. It's hard to do much when laying on one's back on the couch!

Well, it's Thanksgiving Day here in the USA. To all my fellow Americans, have a wonderful and blessed Thanksgiving Day!!!

Visiting A New Yarn Shop

2010-10-23T16:03:00.000-04:00

I was out doing errands with my sister-in-law and her Mom this morning. I am making my sister-in-law a scarf and am running out of yarn. So we thought we would swing y a yarn shop and see if we could grab a couple more skeins. She bought her yarn last year so we are trying to match the color. They didn't have any Cascade 220 Heather, so we didn't purchase anything. But we did have a quick browse around.

It is an adorable little shop, very quaint and antique. I really liked it, it was a first time visit there for me.

They had all these neat, built-in shelves throughout the whole store. A lot of them were floor to ceiling, and all over-flowing with yarn.

This tall cabinet that held the buttons was very neat. If one were to look at just the furnishings of the yarn shop, one would think they were in an antique store.

Every kind of knitting book imaginable in the built-in bookshelves.

Definitely a little shop that needs to be re-visited in the near future. :)

Yarn And Spinning

2010-10-23T15:32:00.001-04:00

The above yarn is a merino/silk blend that we picked up at a fiber fest. I am trying to spin it SUPER thin, or at least as thin as I can without a lace spindle. I am trying to see how many yards I can get out of mine.

And finally, the yarn I hand painted while still a roving. This was supposed to be very vibrant, but I am still learning how my Greener Shades Dyes work. I like the yarn, but not enough to make something for myself out of it. A couple people in my family like it so I'll probably use it to make them something. The yarn is 100% merino, I only bought 8 ounces of it, I wish I had bough more! I love to hand paint roving.

This is the other merino I hand painted. This one is my favorite by far! I will definitely use it to make myself something. The colors are lovely. :) It make me happy to look at the yarn. When hand spinning, each skein of yarn is a work of art itself, so much time is invested into it. It takes me awhile to feel like I can actually use it for a knitted project. I normally leave it in a bowl as decoration. Then eventually I am ready to use it, so go to ravelry or my knitting books/magazines to find a project.

So this is my spinning over the last month or so.....Very autumn-y, don't you think? :)

Seaweed Scarf/Stole

2010-10-23T15:23:00.000-04:00

Sneak peek of a project I have been working on. It's made with my Seaweed yarn. Stay tuned for more information concerning this project in the future.....

Glimpses Of Fall

2010-10-22T22:05:00.000-04:00

Leaves pressed in wax paper.

The table, set for dinner.

Fall Decor

And.....some spinning!!!! I'm so glad I can finally share some photos of my projects with you! This is the brown/orange merino I bought about a month ago at a fiber festival. It spun up beautifully, and I absolutely love the colors. Not sure yet what I am going to do with it, but I'll keep you posted. In fact, I was hoping to wind it into a center-pull ball tonight and figure out what I am going to do with it.

This yarn is a worsted-weight, I think it's around 250 yards. Spun on my top-whorl drop spindle. I am trying to keep better records of my spinning projects in case I want to duplicate a certain yarn, color etc. Also it is a big help if I don't use the yarn right away! I have a few skeins that I am not 100% sure how many yards they are because I forgot to write it done.

I have more spinning to share with you, maybe tomorrow. It promises to be a busy day, but I'll try and blog if I get a chance. I took more photos today, but the lighting wasn't quite right and I wasn't happy with the way the pictures looked.

So.....hoping to be back with you soon! Enjoy your day!

I'm Back!!!

2010-10-07T12:56:00.000-04:00

Hello Everyone! I know it's been a long time. I am starting to get very anxious to show you some pictures of all that I have been working on this last month or so! I didn't realize how much I used my camera until it broke. Just this morning I had two gorgeous scenes I would have loved to snap photos of. The first one I was standing at the kitchen sink. It was just getting light and down in the field there was a think blanket of mist shifting about. It hung in all the little dips and hollow and was very beautiful, in a mysterious sort of way. :)

The second photo opportunity was as I was driving to pick up my Grandma for an appointment. I drove over the river and there was a lovely view of a clump of trees down the river that were at the peak in color change. The sun was rising and it came through the trees and shone on a slice of the river and that clump of trees. Mist was gently rising off the river and it was breath-takingly beautiful!

But on to other things....

Yesterday I set the twist on some yarn I spun up this past week. It is a brown/orange colorway, merino wool. It spun up beautifully. I think I kept it a pretty consistent worsted weight, it's about 225.5 yards. I don't know what I am going to make with it yet, although I have a few ideas. :)

I thought I'd share some more old pictures with you. This is a bouquet that we picked this summer. They are so pretty! That is one thing I will miss this winter, fresh flowers from the garden.

Well, I have a lot of other project's going on. Many of them are for Christmas gifts though, so I will not talk about them right now. :)

I also have another knitting design on the drawing board. It will be a free pattern as well, so stay posted sometime in the next month or so. I won't post it until I can put up some pictures with it.

Time is limited today, I need to run for now. You all take care, and have a blessed week!

I'll be back with you soon, Lord willing.

Snuffly Head Cold= Slow Knitting Progress

2010-09-20T16:31:00.000-04:00

I am down with a cold this week. Knitting has been rather slow because of that. But I didn't want to bypass the opportunity to pop in and say "hello". So, Hello my friends!

Between drinking mint tea, blowing my nose, and resting on the couch, I did manage to pick up my knitting needles a few times. I am working on a new design. Not sure if this is one I will release for free, or save for selling at a later date. I wish I could share a sneak peak with you but not only is my camera dead(still), but it will also be a Christmas present. It does seem to be growing by leaps and bounds, which makes me very happy. I am still on the first skein and that makes me very happy as well!

The sweet fern mitts progressed by about 4 rows. Maybe I'll get some more done on them tonight, depending on how this cold of mine progresses.

I thought I'd share these beautiful pictures of some old-fashioned roses with you. I took these earlier this summer. It is a nice, final splash of summer sweetness. Autumn is right around the corner. Today was cool, & overcast, with that chilly fall nip in the morning air.

And I think I have said this before, but I am quite prepared to enjoy autumn. Normally I am all about warmer weather. But right now I am really looking forward to everything that cooler weather brings. Gorgeous fall colors, crisp crunchy apples, a steaming cup of tea, hayrides, and not to forget, warm & woolly handknits!

And then there is winter.... but I'll wait to expound on that until the season is a little closer. :)

Okay, it is time to snuggle down with a cup of tea and some knitting, and recover from this cold.

Until next time!

Sadie, My Siberian Forest Cat

2010-09-18T19:22:00.001-04:00

My camera is out of commission right now, it needs some serious fixing before I can take pictures with it again. I'm not sure what happened, it simply quite working one morning.

No, I didn't have any recent pictures of my current projects on my memory card. So here we are, halfway thru September and I am finally putting up a blog post!

I never told you about my "new" cat, Sadie! She was given to me this past February, and I always meant to get around to blogging about her. Unfortunately I only have a few pictures to show you right now, but I'm sure there will be lots more coming in the future, now that you have been introduced to Sadie.

Sadie is a purebred Siberian Forest Cat, 4 years old. Siberians are not full grown until they are 5 years old, and they can have kittens even up to 10 years old!

Siberian Forest Cats are thought to be hypo-allergenic. Many people who suffer from allergies to cats can have a Forest Cat and never be bothered by allergies. I don't have allergies to cats, but my sister-in-law does. I don't think Sadie has ever bothered her, but I am not sure how much time she has spent around her either, so I can't prove that theory. :)

The Siberian Forest cat is the national cat of Russia. They are a medium-long haired cat, with a triple fur, water resistant, coat. Siberians are very muscular cats, they like high places, and are powerful leapers. Having had a Siberian for 8 months we have found that they are very playful, and have amazing personalities.

Sadie loves to try and cram herself into little places, boxes, cubby holes. And anything new that comes into the house she has to sit, or climb on it, be it suitcases, bags, or toilet paper!

She is the most inquisitive cat I have ever seen!

And yes, like all cats, she is fond of taking naps. Favorite nap places being on the bunk bed, in a box under my bed, up on the wardrobe, under the dresser, on the chair, in baskets.... pretty much almost anywhere!

Oh yes, and in the window!

She also listens better than many dogs, for example I can tell her to stay on my bed and she will stay until I come back. She is a darling little cat, the only down side being that, like all long haired cats she sheds fur all over. At night she does her exercise, which consists of thundering around the house like an elephant at 2am, running top speed into the dining room and then seeing how far she can slide on the wood floor, and also wrestling with herself on the couch and leaving gobs of fur all over the cushions.

Well, I could go on about my cat for ever, but I will spare you all until another time. :)

In the world of handcrafting, I have been doing a lot of knitting. But mostly christmas presents which I can't talk about until, gasp, January! Good thing I don't have my camera, 'cause I might be tempted to take photos anyways. But it wouldn't be fair to ban certain people from my blog for he next 3 1/2 months! Sigh.

I am working on a couple pairs of Sweet Fern Mitts. One pair being for me, and I don't know what I am doing with the other yet. I found two mistakes in the pattern (it was out of the knitter's Book of Wool) which was disappointing, but I corrected them and love the pattern now.

I did do a session of hand-painting with my friend. We each did 8oz of merino wool. I have my first 4ounces spun up into singles. Now I just need to ply it, I might start on that tonight.

The colors for the first 4 ounces were variations of reds and greens. The 2nd 4 ounce ball which I am spinning up right now is orange, peach, red, green ,and yellow. It is my favorite by far, and sooo beautiful!

I can't wait to show you some pictures. Sometime soon. Just keep hanging in there.

Take care my friends, until next time.

More Fiesta Yarn

2010-08-27T15:55:00.000-04:00

One of my purchases, at the last fiber festival my friend and I went to, was this beautiful nostepinne. I hadn't really planned on buying a nostepinne, but we found this lovely booth with all kinds of nostepinnes for an excellent price. So we each bought one. The lady who was selling them was horrified to hear that I had been using the cardboard from a food saver roll to make center-pull balls!

I have been very happy with my nostepinne. It is a lot of fun to use, as well as very beautiful to look at. My nostepinne is made out of spaulted birch.

As I mentioned in my previous post, I was spinning up some more Fiesta Yarn. I think I like this skein even better than the last! I plied this up yesterday and then set the twist today.

To set the twist I have 2 containers set out, one with hot water, one with cold. First I plunge my skein into the hot water. Being careful not to agitate the yarn, I press it gently into the water, until all the bubbles come up. Then I lift it out and gently squeeze out the water. Do not wring the yarn. Then I plunge it in to the cold water and repeat the process.

After it has been squeezed of water, I thwack it on the counter, once on each end. Then it is hung outside in the sun to dry.

Here are pictures after my Fiesta yarn finished drying.

I saved the setting of the twist on my Fiesta yarn until today so I could show my friend how it was done. She was one of my earliest spinning students. She put her spinning aside for awhile and only recently picked it back up. This is her first skein of yarn, light purple merino. I was quite happy with how well she did on it. The skein is whole 243.85 yards!

I am going to be teaching my friend how to do hand-painting, maybe we'll get to that next week.

The Fibre adventure is filled with all sorts of new and exciting things to learn, and enjoy!

Until next time, my friends!

Misty Morning

2010-08-24T13:31:00.000-04:00

Yesterday, while getting some cookies mixed up, I looked out the window and saw this lovely scene:

It was too beautiful a sight to not capture. I ran grabbed my camera, turned the no-bake cookies down on low, and went outside to snap a picture.

But one thing led to the next and I completely forgot that I had cookies on the stove.

Dew on a spider web.

Pepper Leaf

Butterfly Bush.

To finish my story, the cookies did survive. They were just a tad over-cooked. I'm glad I went outside when I did, the perfect lighting only lasted for a few minutes.

The Day's Bounty

2010-08-24T13:04:00.000-04:00

Hello Everyone!

These are the tomatoes that we picked one day this week! We have been getting approximately 200 cherry tomatoes almost every day.

I'm not a big fan of the taste of the Yellow Pear tomatoes, I find them a little too meaty. But they are very pretty to look at.

This is the first year that we have grown Red Zebra tomatoes. I have yet to taste them, but they look marvelous.

Yesterday I started spinning up some more Fiesta yarn. Each skein of Fiesta yarn is uniquely different. I love the way this one is turning out.

This is how far my yarn got as of last night.

Isn't it beautiful? I am going to do a little bit more spinning on my fiesta yarn once I am done blogging. With Christmas drawing near I won't be able to blog about everything I am working on, but I'll do my best to keep my blog supplied with other interesting projects.

In the near future I am going to teach a friend how to do some hand-painting. We both purchased some un-dyed merino roving at a fiber festival we went to. I'm looking forward to hand-painting again.

That about covers my projects for now.

Until next time, cheerio my friends!

Seaweed~ My Hand-Painted Yarn

2010-08-20T10:07:00.000-04:00

Greetings my friends! It's good to be back with you! I had a wonderful holiday last week, the week didn't fly by (like Holidays normally do) which was nice. At some point I might put up some photos, but not right away. Getting back into my usual routine after being gone always takes me a little bit of time. I normally don't unpack for a few days. And the day or two after I am back I feel a little bit lost and not quite sure what to do with myself. But this last weekend my cousin and Grandma were over for a visit and having visitors kind of threw me back in to the swing of things.

Tuesday my brother and I went on a 4 1/2 hr. kayak trip. I have not been kayaking in quite some time, so a 4 1/2 hour trip was probably a little ambitious. But we had a wonderful time. I didn't take my camera because I didn't have a waterproof container for it. The scenery along the way was stunning. It was a beautiful day for kayaking, sunny, not too hot, and with a gentle breeze. While we were gliding down the river, I noticed the seaweed (not sure what the technical term is, but we'll call it seaweed) that was streaming along along with the river's current. It had tall, long-ish leaves and was all sorts of beautiful colors. We picked out the main colors which were shades of green, chartreuse, yellow, and a mauve-ish pink color. I really wanted to dye a roving in those colors. If passersby knew why we were studying the river bed they probably would have thought we were crazy! :)

Yesterday I had the opportunity to over-dye this skein of yarn. It is a skein I had spun previously but wasn't completely happy with the color. Well, I am happy with it now! I had never hand-painted a skein before, until yesterday. I did some research on hand-painting and found a few different techniques that I could use. I tried the one that I liked best and loved the results. I couldn't wait to take pictures of it!

I used my Greener Shades Dyes for this skein. I love using the Greener Shades dyes because they are a safe, non-toxic dyes that are colorfast and dye up in beautiful colors. It is a good thing I did this skein just 2 days after kayaking because the colors were still fresh in my memory. After rinsing the yarn and then drying it, I couldn't believe how close the colors were to the actual seaweed we saw in the bottom of the river. Or perhaps instead of "seaweed" it should be called "river weed".
I am so excited to use this hand-painted skein, although I have no idea what I will use it for yet!

This week I also kettle-dyed these mini skeins of yarn. They were previously dyed with Wilton Food Dyes, but I discovered that when they were exposed to the sunlight for a certain number of hours they faded considerably. I didn't want to make up the Composed Mitts (which are fair isle color work) and and then have my colors all fade out. So I over-dyed all the little skeins.

Now I have all these vibrant colors just itching to be knit up.I can't start on the mitts yet because I haven't finished spinning the main color, which is a chocolate brown.

Besides the chocolate brown wool, my other spinning project is some of my hand-painted corriedale roving. I finished knitting up the Prairie Rose Lace Shawl, designed by Evelyn Clark, from the "Knitter's Book of Wool" I don't have a completed picture for you yet, but I will soon. It needs to be blocked, but I have yet to get my blocking mats. I couldn't put the shawl down while on holiday, I loved knitting it!

But back to my spinning. I had so much fun knitting up that shawl with my handspun corriedale, that I decided to spin up some more and knit another one. that is probably what the Violet Dawn Yarn will turn into. Unless I change my mind somewhere along the way!

I know my blog has been only about knitting and spinning the last few post, mainly because I am always pressed for time. I would like to share more outdoor & plant life pictures in the future like I used to do.

But for now, here are some of the tomatoes that the family picked last night. We have SO many tomatoes. The other night we went out and picked almost 300 cherry tomatoes! So I foresee lots of canning in the future. As well as making some tomato jam. It's been years since I had tomato jam and I am looking forward to it.

Well, I need to run. I will be going to a fiber festival in the near future so should have lots of interesting things to show you all next time.

Until then, have a pleasant day!