How long has it been?

I know it has been a small eternity since I have posted here. I had a very busy few months, and the short periods of time I had to be working on projects was sent working on gifts that could not go public anyway.

In the last few weeks I have had the opportunity to somethings purely for fun, and now I finally have some projects to show.

Here is an in progress shots of a gift that I had been working on for several weeks that is now gifted.

This is a comfort afghan for my friend Chris. I met Chris through the Peaches & Creme group on Ravelry. She is a wonderful person, and has become a good friend. She also does a great deal of my pattern testing for me.

Recently Chris has had a lot to deal with between being laid off, and trying to help her sick mother. When I decided to make a comfort afghan for her I contacted several people in the P&C group, and lots of squares were on the way. Group members sent me 22 of the 30 squares in this afghan. I edged each square then sewed them all together. Luckily my brother Gerry was visiting the night I was seaming this up, so I gave him a yarn needle, and he dove right in, too.

If you want a closer look at any of the squares I have a photo album here. Each square has the ravelry name of it's creator listed.

When the blanket was all done I decided to drive out to New Jersey and present it to Chris personally. She knew I was coming but didn't know why.

This is Chris in the office of the pet store she and her husband own, as she is seeing the afghan for the first time.

We had a wonderful day together, and although we had never met face to face before, it was just like we had been friends for years.

During that same time I was host to two delightful stuffed pigs. Another P&C ravelry group project. These pigs are traveling the country visiting many of the group members.

There is an online scrapbook of their travels here.

The Little piggies spent the day with us, as did Wonder Woman (the stuffed toy I had made for Chris this past Christmas). Here they are at the sign marking the community where Chris lives, and gets her ravelry name from.

I have also managed to find the time to do quite a bit of spinning in the last two weeks. My favorite yarn of late is this thick/thin spiral yarn I created to mimic the look of fluffy white clouds.

I wish I had photographed it before I wound it into a ball, but you can still get a sense of the texture.

This yarn is being made into a scarf for a co-worker that is getting ready to move to Alaska. I figured if ever there was an occasion for a fuzzy warm hand spun scarf, this is it!

Here is the fabric of the scarf. Can you see the clouds?

It's actually been an amazingly quick project- which it had to be because I didn't realize she is leaving at the end of the week.

I spun and plies the yarn on Saturday, and Sunday. I washed it and set the twist late Sunday night, and started the knitting last night. With size 11 needles it has grown to 4' in length in just a few hours.

The last bit of news I am going to share today is kind of exciting to me. I am going to be a vendor at the Squam Lake Art Workshops. This is a five day artists retreat about an hours drive north of me. On Saturday night they are having a vendor fair and ravelry party. So, it will be a very fun event. I plan to sell several different items, including hand spun yarn, and hand painted rovings. Here's a bit of a preview. These two merino braids are my favorites from a dying adventure I had last week.

My friend Lynne will be sharing the booth with me, and we plan to get together for more dyeing next week. Lynne creates Beautiful colourways, and spins beautifully. Check out her etsy store.

Some New Patterns

It appears that I may be on a blogging roll all of a sudden. Or, perhaps I am just making up for a long absence. What ever the case, I have a few new projects to share today.

The first is this pair of scarves. My friends Chris and Lisa were gracious enough to model them for me last night (it was a bizarre coincidence that I had the scarves and my camera when I ran into them).

These scarves will be available as a kit through the Pisgah website soon. They are both made with new colours from the Peaches & Creme Premium line.

These were designed to be easy projects for newbie crocheters. I have a few online friends like Melanie, and Aly that have been trying to learn crochet. I figured it would be great to have a pattern that would be easy for them, and others that are learning, that actually produces a nice wearable project.

It's a bit late in the year for new scarves. However, it snowed here yesterday. So, a new scarf didn't seem totally outrageous. The colours may show up a bit better in this photo, since it was still day time when I took it. The scarf on the left is made in OD Spice, and is a single crochet pattern worked from end to end. The scarf on the right is made in Dark Purple Ombre, uses a similar pattern in half double crochet, but is worked from side to side.

I also have this new dishcloth design almost ready to go.

I call it the Quick & Lacey Round. This is made with the Cotton Cabled, and will be a free pattern. I actually made this months ago, but I sent it along to a pattern tester along with a pile of other stuff, and it got lost in the shuffle. I'm glad it has surfaced, because I really like it. I can make at least two or three of these in an hour. It is on the small side ( about 7" across) but, I figure it will come in handy for last minute gift additions.

The last thing I have today is this little amagarumi style crochet hook holder. I had been looking for small cylindrical containers to keep a few tools handy, but didn't find anything I liked. So, over the weekend a simple gauge swatch turned into this.

This little cylinder uses only half an ounce of yarn, but will easily hold a dozen or more hooks. I plan on making a few more to keep in various places, so I will always have a hook handy.

I will also write up a pattern for this (although it's so easy I almost feel silly doing it), and offer it for free if anyone is interested.

Hello Again.

It's been so long since I have blogged that I almost forgot I have a blog. There were a few reasons for this. February was really busy; so busy I can't believe it has already come and gone. I did almost no knitting or crocheting for the entire month. I was also with out a camera, and if I had done anything I would not have been able to document it here.

Well, now it's March, and I seem to be finding a little time to spend with my fibers, and I have a brand new camera.

Even so, I don't have a lot to show you today.

Last week I bought Jan Eaton's 100 Crochet Blocks for Afghans, Blankets, and Throws. It's a great book, and I have been having a lot of fun playing with the squares patterns in different colour combinations. I have yet to get an actual project underway with the squares, but I will show you a couple of my favorites.

The first one is called Willow. I made it in Peaches & Creme in burgundy, sage, and camel.

The next one is called Fudge. Jan's pattern calls for 5 colours, but I cut it down to 4. This one had many more ends to weave in than I would usually care to deal with, but I really like the look of it. Not sure if I could handle an entire afghan's worth of these, though.

I've also managed to get a little spinning in this week. It had been months since I had used my wheel. I missed it terribly, but I finally spent an entire evening spinning.

I did a few mini-skeins blending odds and ends of singles left over for other projects, with a few fun results. None with yardage enough for even a small project, though.

Then, when I had a few empty bobbins I spun up two bobbins of a sky blue merino/silk blend that has been sitting in my stash since April, and a partial bobbin of hand painted silk hankies. I made two hanks of yarn, one two-ply blue merino silk, and the other a three ply, adding in the hand painted silk.

There is a total of about 300 yards of sport weight yarn. My plan is to use it for socks, with the 3-ply being used for the toes and heels. I promised Deb I would work on a simple pattern with an after-thought heel, so maybe I will use it for that.

I hope to get to work on some new projects vey soon. So, I hope to have more exciting blog entries in the not so distant future.

Some Socks

I've been on another sock knitting kick for the past 8 or 9 days. It started because I had a skein of Mountain Colors Bear Foot that I had been dying to use, and I finally decided it was time.

Unfortunately I am just not too thrilled with the resulting socks. The yarn label called for a gauge of 5-6 sts/inch on size 3 or 4 needles. So I knit the yarn up at 6 sts/inch on size 3 needles, and I really feel that the resulting fabric is just too loose for socks.

I was also not so thrilled with the pattern I used. It was Cat Bordhi's Jeweled Steps from New Pathways. This is a sock made with her sidestream architecture. The shaping is actually rather cool, with the arch expansion worked across the inside of the foot. It's the Jewel part that I didn't care for. The pattern is supposed to highlight the colour changes in hand painted yarns, and it uses groups of 3 stitches wrapped 2x with the yarn before being knit. It seemed to me that while doing this if I wrapped the stitches too tight they were pushed together leaving little holes around them, and if I wrapped them too loosely the surrounding stitches pulled up the slack, and caused little holes. There did seems to be a happy medium in there, but it was so difficult to attain that I would never bother to try again.

These socks also represent the 2nd time Cat's master numbers did not work out, and created socks that were way too long for my foot. I checked and rechecked my numbers, and I do not understand why it didn't work out, when it has so many other times. The last time this happened I frogged and forgot about socks for a bit- this time I restarted the sock several times, until I got it right.

There were two good things that came out of making these socks:

• I taught myself the magic loop while making them, and I really liked it (I thought I would hate it)
• I've discovered that this is the warmest sock yarn ever, and I must go get more to knit up on smaller needles.
• When I finished up that pair of socks I decided I wanted to try a pair with an after thought heel. This pair is made with Lion Brand Fisherman's wool that I dyed with Kool Aid a long time ago.

Again worked at 6 sts/inch on size 3 needles with the magic loop. I'm not following a pattern of any kind for these, I'm just winging it. The after thought heel really does seem to make the sock move more quickly, and I think if I had to supply an active family with all of their socks I would definitely use this method all the time. However, they look totally bizarre when they are not being worn.

Since they were only intended to be an exercise I didn't really pay attention to gauge or size until the first sock was done, and I decided I like it a lot. Now I wish I had made them a bit larger, but as you can see they will stretch just enough to fit my feet.

Hello 2009!

Many people seem to think that the way you bring in the new year will be reflected in your entire year. I hope that is not true, because 2009 started as I was in the middle of a state if disorganization, and procrastination. I worked late, rushed to get home at 11:45, changed my clothes, realized I never did pick up that bottle of champagne to bring to my neighbor's party.... and then it was midnight. Actually, I've never thought of New Year's Eve as a big party holiday, anyway.
I haven't been blogging because my camera was forgotten at my sister's house on Christmas day. Also, in the days leading up to Christmas I was so busy that I completely forgot to photograph all of my FOs before gifting them. I was completely irritated with myself for that.
The last photo of the granny square afghan was a pretty good representation of the finished product. It weighs almost 5 pounds, and my mother loves it.
The thrummed mittens, however looked so much better complete and with the ends all woven in. I am most disappointed that I didn't get a shot of them. I will try next time I am at my sister's house.
Speaking of Christmas, I hope you all had a wonderful one. I had a very nice one, which included a very long nap in the middle of the day. I usually torture myself and go the whole day on about 2 hours sleep. It was nice to skip that tradition.
I received a very nice gift from my brother of this yard-sale yarn.

It's 20 balls, 1000grams total, of an aran yarn from Ireland.

I tried to get a photo that would enable you to read the label, but it seemed like no matter what angle I used there was some sort of glare. What that says under Aran is: made in Ireland specially for P. Quill, Ballingeary, Co. Cork, Ireland.

The only other information on the label is the fiber content (wool) and colour, and lot number, along with some product care/cleaning symbols.

I have no idea of the yardage, but that's easy enough to find out. I'll just wrap a ball around my niddy noddy. I have also started a swatch, but at 4 stitches to the inch the fabric seems really dense and stiff. I have decided I will have to make a few swatches at different stitch counts, then wash them all to see what I like best.

Since Christmas I have managed to whip out a few more quick projects. Some were gifted before I got the camera back. Once was actually for me, so I can share:

I made these felted slippers because I wore a whole in the ones I made last year. I decided I'd better use something a little more sturdy and thick this time. So, these are lite lopi double stranded. I just used a basic cuff down/heel flap sock construction. They were worked on size 11 needles, and would have been finished in one evening, but the lopi started to irritate my skin. In order to save my hands I knit them over two evenings.

I love the way Lopi softens up after felting (or even a tiny bit of fulling). These do need to be shrunk down a bit more, but I've been wearing them anyway. They are so warm!

I have also started 3 new baby blankets this week. Two are more than half done. I'm not sure if I am excited or relieved about that. I have decided to design all three of these, so I will wait until they are more complete to share pictures.

I do have one Christmas project picture to share today. Remember that doll? Well, here it is:

This doll was a gift for my friend Chris, who is known lovingly on the ravelry Peaches & Creme group as Wonderwoman. Chris (sorry non-ravelrars she has no blog) is such a wonderful and supportive friend, and does many of my crochet pattern testing. This summer when another one of my pattern testers was unable to complete a project when I needed it I emailed Chris at the last minute asking her to test the pattern that very day! She did, and enabled us to confidently print up the patterns for the Peaches & Creme workshops on time.

That was when the idea for this doll was born. I had to do something to thank her for that. If you notice her current ravitar I think it is fair to say she likes it.

The doll and her outfit are completely free styled. I first made two little tubes for legs, then joined the tops to form the crotch, then I added on the red shoe-tips. I knit up from the joined legs pretty much in the style of a seamless raglan sweater, made a long-ish neck, then doubled the stitches to work the head.

The hair is some eyelash yarn that was dug from the bottom of my stash. The hair just cracks me up! The outfit, which was originally intended to be much different, was made out of rayon chenille, and rayon crochet filament. The rayon filament- while it is wonderfully shiny and golden had to be multi-stranded to knit up at a sport weight gauge to match the chenille, and it became a bit too stiff to work with the fair-isle vision in my head. So, I crocheted a little birdlike shape over the knitting instead! It wasn't exactly what I envisioned, but I was pretty happy with the outcome.

I'm Stitching as Fast as I Can....

As I have mentioned before, I have broken my personal rule: No handmade gifts for the holidays. Now with less than a week to go I feel much less stressed than I expected about the whole thing.

If you had asked me about it last Monday I may have had something very different to say. That was the day I decided to frog the afghan I had started for my mother. Well, here's the new one. A simple granny square made in Peaches & Creme double worsted. That's a ruler in the center. It's about 52" across right now. I plan to work another 3 or 4 rounds (5"-6"), and call it done.

The yarn and colours are the same as the ripple afghan I had started and didn't like. I had decided on them after giving her the Shell Edged Kitchen Set, and deciding that the colours were okay in her kitchen, but PERFECT in her living room.

I got to hooking on this as soon as I ripped out the previous blanket Monday afternoon, by Monday night I realized I was not going to have enough yarn. THANK GOODNESS I am well liked by the Flo over at the Pisgah factory, who put me on hold while she ran around to find yarn in the same dyelots! The new batch of yarn came in yesterday, so I was able to resume my frantic hooking. Now the only problem is whether or not the blanket will weigh more than my mom. It's currently about 4 pounds, but feels much heavier!


Another gift that I need to finish this weekend (so I can priority mail it Monday) is this doll. This had been in the back of my mind forever, then a few rounds hanging off the needles for almost as long, but I have finally gotten in gear with it. I have completely winged this one with no real advanced planning except the image in my mind. I'm pretty pleased with the body, but am frogging the first attempt at an outfit, as I need to make the clothes much smaller than I thought.

No more details on this one until it's gifted....

The thrummed mittens are nearly complete. I'll post pictures in the next post.

I've even started something for myself this week. Last weekend we had a full house here, as we were the only people out of the NH family to have electricity (in case you hadn't heard a major ice storm left 100's of thousand's of people with out power in NH- aka most of the state) and all of the WIPs I had on hand were being gifted to a person that was present. So, I pulled out my camel-merino-silk hand spun and started this neck warmer. The perspective in the photo is a bit off -the neckwarmer is larger than the ball of yarn. It's just a ring of 2x1 ribbing, but it's super soft and luxurious feeling, and I can't wait to wear it. I wish it had been ready for the 8" of snow I woke up to today!

Long post- knitting at the end

Although this blog is usually about knitting or other crafts I'm going to talk a bit about food today. This post is coming at the request of a friend who, when calling and asking "what are you up to?" was a little surprised to get the answer, "I'm making cheese."



First a little background, since it is the stuff I find interesting:



This past summer while taking the road trip down to Pisgah Yarn & Dying, Gerry introduced me to Barbara Kingsolver's book Animal, Vegetable, Miracle. The book is the 1 year chronicle of an American family trying to eat only local foods. The book also talks about reducing your carbon footprint by using less fossil fuels to obtain your food.

Before this book I never thought about how much oil was being burned up by industrial farming, and shipping foods around the world so that fresh vegetables are always on hand, no matter what the season. I'll tell you, I can not stop thinking about it now. It's not that I never plan to eat a pineapple again, because it has to be shipped from Hawaii, but I do plan to make my food purchases more thoughtfully, and support local, and organic agriculture much more purposefully than ever before.

So, I found a local farm to put me on their weekly customer list, and I now have a gallon of milk to pick up from them each Monday. I made the arrangements for this last Tuesday, and after I had arranged to buy a gallon of milk each week I realized that I consume just under a quart.

In the book, Barbara had talked about "The Cheese Queen" Rikki Carroll, who started New England Cheese Making Supply Company, which is located in Western, MA. I had thought about trying to sign up for her one day cheese making class, then realized she sold it on DVD. I decided to go that route, but with so much milk coming my way so quickly I went out to buy her book immediately. AS it turns out, I can not obtain vegetable rennet locally, so I will have to order it. In the mean time I am making this simple soft cheese with this weeks excess milk.



The milk is slowly brought to a boil. Cultured buttermilk is added to the hot fresh milk, and curds develop.



The whey is strained off from the curds, at this point you have cottage cheese. You can keep it this way, or hang it to continue to strain for a more firm, solid cheese. That's what I did, I actually weighted/pressed it for a couple of hours.




My finished cheese is somewhere between the consistency of a very firm ricotta, and a soft creme cheese. Now it's chilling to be made into an entree tomorrow.

While I was making the cheese I also made some seitan. For the carnivores- That's isolated wheat protein (gluten), and makes a great vegetarian entree. The wheat was not local, but buying dry powder certainly does save on fuel over shipping a high-water-content food that needs refridgeration.

The seitan starts with a box of "vital wheat gluten" marketed as a product used in bread making (although you could isolate the gluten from plain old flour). A little water added makes this into a big rubbery ball of dough. The dough is kneaded then allowed to rest for a bit, and finally simmered for an hour.

When the dough first goes into the pot it doesn't really look like much, just a couple puny blobs, but it puffs up quick. Halfway through cooking I thought my seitan was going to blow the lid off the pot.

Again, this is now being chilled for meals later in the week. Mondays are the only day that I can really get into complex cooking in the evening, so it's nice to get ready for the week ahead.





Okay, and just so the people who read this blog regularly have something they will be interested in:

I have a mitten from the 2nd set of thrummed mittens nearly completed. I had started this before I got Maureen's advice to keep the thrumms really puffy, and did make them much smaller. As it turns out I can already tell the set with the enourmously pouffy thrumms will be superior. Live and learn.

The second mitten from the first pair is almost done, but I have run out of blue roving, and will have to dye some more. I had hoped to do that today, but the days are just too short this time of year. Maybe tomorrow....

Evolution

So, the Desert Raglan became the Desert Seamless Set-in Sleeve Sweater at the last possible minute. The Pattern is from Elizabeth Zimmerman's Knitting workshop, and is the same as all of her other seamless sweaters, until the body and sleeve joining.

It is finished, and drying right now. Since I haven't seen the Sun all week I gave up on trying to get a better photo than this, but perhaps soon.

Speaking of projects that change directions at the last possible minute (or at least long after they have started) I found new inspiration for an old project. I made many squares out of Classic Elite Sand- an aran weight cotton boucle- a long time ago, and had planned to someday make more, and eventually join them to make a blanket.

All of the squares had been knit from the center out, and I left all the edge stitches live, as I thought that I may want to use a 3 needle bind off, or even the kitchener stitch to join them. I have decided instead to join them with decreasing squares.

I have just started the first one, but I do like the way it is turning out. I shouldn't spend much time on this, as I have holiday knitting to get to, and even after the holidays it will not be main focus, but I do at least feel as if this blanket has finally found it's direction, and will some day be finished.

I also have the first of the thrummed mittens nearly complete. I think I have made my thrums too thick. Can you see how puffed up this mitten looks? I know that the fleece will felt and matt itself down as the mittens are worn, but I think there still may be too much of it here. I think I will make the next one with thinner thrums, and then decide what to do about this one.

Little Bits of Progress

It seems that my knitting time has been nearly non-existent for the past few weeks, and to top it off I [have gone completely insane and] decided to break my personal rule of NO Hand knitted Holiday Gifts this year. So, I have a whole bunch of knitted and crocheted items in various states of progress. A whole bunch of items that, 6 weeks from now, I will be ripping my hair out over! Here's one of them:

I have started the thrummed mittens for my nieces. I have to say that they are slow moving, but really fun to work on. I am very excited at the thought of how wonderful the finished item will be.

I am using the basic mitten pattern from Ann Budd's Knitter's Handy Book of Patterns, and Adrian Bizila's "How I do thrums" tutorial from Hello Yarn.

I know I am going to need a pair of these for myself....someday!

There are several other gifts that I can't share right now. I did however make some quickie dishcloth gifts that I can share. The honeycomb looking cloth is Hakucho's Circle Cloth made in Peaches & Creme burgundy, and light sage. I wasn't sure about the colour combination when I first started, but I really liked the way it turned out.

The other cloth is my own Crocheted Ridges Cloth. Instead of using the Peaches & Creme yarn I designed the cloth for I used the Country Cabled Cotton. It's a lighter weight yarn, but I worked it at the same gauge, and I just love the results. The picture does not show it as clearly as I would like, but the cloth has almost a lacy look to it. Very different than my previous version, and I have a renewed interest in the stitch pattern.

I have made some progress on the Desert raglan. It is not in a great state to be photographed right now, so it will have to wait. However, I will be starting the shoulder shaping today and I'm thinking I may not make it a raglan after all. More on that soon, I hope!

In the design world I have much going on, but very little to report. A new free knitted bookmark pattern has been posted at the Pisgah website. The Garden Trellis bookmark has two simple variations. It a quick, fun knit. This pattern has actually been around forever, and was almost forgotten about until recently. So, it is here just in time for quick holiday gift additions. If you are giving any books for holiday gifts think of one of these bookmarks made in Dazzling Diamonds as a way to add a little glitz to the presentation!

So, it seems like I am over-due for a blog post, but really I haven't had much to talk about. There has not been much time for knitting the past few weeks.

I have slowly been working on the roll-edged raglan. I was concerned about the different types of stripes on the sleeves and body. Here's a picture of the two side by side, and I like it. The worries are gone.

I did have a couple evenings last week when I stayed over a friends house, and I knew I would have a little time to actually concentrate on my knitting there. [She had just had surgery, and I was staying there in case she needed anything in the middle of the night.] So, I pulled out my mother's shawl that I haven't touched in months.

If you have forgotten about it entirely you can find some earlier information here.

I have it stretched over my red fiber scale here, and you can begin to see the pattern emerging. So, it's not looking so much like a hair net anymore. I had originally planned to knit this to 4' square, and then add a wide border to make it 5' square. I'm now thinking that will make it too large for my mother, who is not quite 5' tall. I may have to get out the calculator and re-think this one!




I also have a new plan in the works. I'm thinking I will make my nieces some thrummed mittens with the yarn I dyed with the berries they picked for me. I almost started a pair last night, but realized I wanted some roving in bright colours to use for the thrums.

So, the roving is steaming up now! Perhaps this weekend I will get to a pair.

Camel/silk/merino Handspun

Several people have asked to see the yarn that came out of the batts I made with Lynne. Of course, I couldn't wait to spin it, even though it meant no time to knit this week.

The yarn is super soft, and the silk adds a subtle sheen. It truly is luxurious.

There is about 250 yards of sport weight yarn. I do still have about 50 grams of fiber in waiting, but probably won't get to spin it for another week.

I do have a project in mind, but I am still deciding whether or not I want to find a pattern, or wing it. I'll keep everyone posted.

Rhinebeck

It was a beautiful weekend for a sheep & wool festival. The air was chilly, and perfect for woolen sweaters, and there was just enough colour left in the trees to make it truly beautiful.

Lynne and I got to the festival shortly after noon, and it was packed! It was so packed I felt like I couldn't even see what some of the booths had to offer. However, I managed to do just fine with the shopping.


Lynne, who just purchased a drum carder ended up with a beautiful 7.5Lb Romney fleece. Check out her blog for photos of how wonderful this stuff is after washing. I can't wait to see what she does with it! With the amount she has I'm sure there will be many great projects.

The ravelry party that evening was cold, but great fun! I even won a door-prize, a Classic Elite sock kit.


The highlight of the ravelry party for me, however, was talking to Author Doris Chan. I actually approached her, having no idea who she was, to ask if I could watch her work on the broomstick lace she was hooking away at. She was so sweet, and immediately turned to give me a better view while explaining everything she did. It was not until the end of our chat/lesson that we even exchanged names. I was so amazed that I had just gotten a lesson from a famous designer! If you are not familiar with her work you should really check it out. Her Blue Curacao Shawl is one of my favorite crochet designs ever.

The next day I couldn't resist going to see her at the Festival, and getting a copy of Amazing Crochet Lace autographed.

Sunday was especially nice at the festival. Things had calmed down, and were less crowded. You actually noticed when you were near someone you know, and could look about the booths with out fear of being swept away in a wave of desperate fiber hunters. We had done most of our shopping on Saturday, but did wander about, and double back to vendors where we had spent less time than we wanted. We made it a short day, though, and managed to drive into Massachusetts just as the setting sun was beginning to cast a golden glow over the Berkshires. It was a beautiful drive.

Here is my fiber haul from the festival. Not as ridiculous as I feared it would be.
In the back there is 1/2Lb of black and red merino/mohair roving, moving clockwise- 1.5 Lbs of superfine merino top (If I had even realized how wonderful this top is, and what a STEAL I was getting it would have been much more) 4oz of baby camel, 2oz of white yak, and 1/2Lb of dark grey Icelandic roving.

When we arrived at Lynne's house she helped me use her new drum carder to create my own luxury batts. A few ounces of merino, an ounce of camel, and a bit of tussah silk (that just happened to be in my car), and I got these wonderful creamy vanilla coloured batts. They are so exquisite!

Finished (Again)

The Saddle shoulder sweater is truly finished now. I'm quite glad that I took the time to re-work the bottom of the body. It fits better than I had hoped it would.

The irony of the whole situation was that my original plan was to make this sweater from Barbara Walker's top down pattern. I changed my mind at the last minute. I think the knitting gods were having a bit of fun with me.

For all of you who gasped and got dizzy when you saw that I cut the sweater I want you to know how not horrifying it was. I only snipped 1 stitch and then carefully unraveled it around. Knitting doesn't naturally unravel this way. So, it actually took a bit of work, and as long as each unraveled stitch is secured on a needle as it is freed, there was no danger of the whole sweater coming apart. I never dropped a single stitch in this process, and now I have a sweater that fits, as opposed to one that needed to find a fitee.

The weather in New York is supposed to be quite cool tomorrow. I think this sweater will make it's public debut at Rhinebeck. In case it is very cool (and I'm thinking the night time, out door ravelry party may be) I have packed some complimentary accessories, including a grey scarf knit for me by Joansie (since I received that in April this will also be the scarf's public debut).

This week has been an extremely busy one, and for several days now I have barely had time to knit a stitch. However, during class, and my class reading I have been swatching for my next sweater with the Classic Elite Desert that I picked up at the Hub Mills Store recently.

This sweater will be a simple rolled edge raglan. Once again, I will be using the EPS. The swatch turned out to be the perfect size for a sleeve, so I went with that (ignoring recent advice to wash my swatches. I know I should!) The thick & thin yarn makes for a very bumpy swatch. If you look at it closely, it looks like the fabric has hives. I'm sure this will be tamed a bit with washing and blocking. I would know this for sure if I followed the advice of more experienced knitters.

I have to say that this is the first time I have used a Classic Elite yarn that I have not immediately fallen in love. Since it is a loosely spun, un-plied yarn it is easy to split a stitch -especially when you are reading instead of watching what you are doing. I do, however, love the way the yarn is striping, and the colour combination is one I would have chosen if I had dyed the yarn myself. So, over all, I am still quite pleased.













I hope everyone has a great weekend! I know I plan to. I'll see about getting some shots of the sweater in action at Rhinebeck to post on Monday.

I thought it was finished

So, I finished the saddle shouldered sweater, and blocked it, but decided it really is too short. It fits, just not the way I want it to.

I thought about giving it away to someone that would like it as is, but I decided I really like it too much. I made it for myself, and I want to wear it.
So, I took my scissors to it.

One stitch snipped, and an hour of careful unraveling, and I had the bottom border removed.

Now the sweater is back on the needles, and I'm knitting down instead of up. I'll add a couple of inches, then rework the border.

Spinning at the Fryeburg fair was a lot of fun. I got to meet several other spinners, some of whom had decades of experience. I got some tips on spinning bulky yarns. which I have had trouble making with a consistent width. So, I have been spinning like crazy, practicing my bulky yarns.

One of the resulting yarns I loved so much I had to work it up immediately. I used it to make this over-sized cap that covers most of my head and half of the back of my neck. It will be perfect for shoveling snow (I hope to do much less of that this year), as I always ended up with a spot on the back of my neck too high to be covered by my scarf, but too low for my hat.
There are actually several new projects in the works. Those that are not Christmas presents may make an appearance soon.