The EPS Seamless Saddle Shouldered Sweater.

So, here is the project I have been promising to share.

It's Elizabeth Zimmerman's Seamless Saddle Shouldered Sweater using the EPS (Elizabeth Percentage system). I'm knitting it with Brown Sheep Lamb's Pride Worsted, and using my own handspun for accents.

I was hoping two weeks would be enough time to finish it, but there have been a few days that I have been too busy to even knit a stitch!

Right now I am just about to start the shoulder decreases. The cuffs are done in linen stitch, but I may switch to ribbing for the neck, as linen stitch may be too stiff. I'll decide when I get there.

Right now I fear that the sweater body isn't going to be nearly long enough, but if I remember correctly from the similarly constructed Cobblestone pullover I had the same fear, and it worked out just fine.

Woolly dreams

I thought I would take a minute to tell everyone about my crochet class in Billerica, and my exciting new fiber related plans.

Yesterday was a yucky rainy day here in the North-East. Since Billerica, Ma is over an hour drive in the best weather I figured I'd better leave extra early. I had hoped to stop at the Hub Mills Store. I did manage to make it to MA with enough time to stop in Lowell, and was I glad I did!

For quite some time I've been dreaming of a simple roll necked sweater made out of Classic Elite's self striping, thick and thin wool -Desert. I believe it's discontinued, but they have had a large stock of unlabeled balls in the outlet for some time now. I finally decided I was going to have to go and buy the yarn before they ran out (after all the roll neck sweater will fit perfectly in line with my mindless homework knitting). Well, in honor of Lowell's city wide Open Studio weekend all yarn at the store was an additional 20% off! Good things really do come to those who wait!

So, here it is. Hopefully it will be a sweater in time for a cold New England winter.

The class ended up being only three people. Somehow a few were lost through the week. However, it did move along quite nicely with so few to keep track of. Usually for a beginner class I feel that everyone should leave with enough knowledge to make a square or rectangular project in single crochet (a basic scarf or dishcloth). Then if I can move on to other stitches it is a bonus. Well with these three woman we went through the foundation, the single crochet stitch, the half double, and double crochet stitches, and actually got into making a granny square. I was amazed! Unfortunately we only got half way through the 2nd round of the granny square before I had to leave, but the fact that we were even able to start it amazes me.

I was threatened with the possibility of frustrated crocheters showing up on my doorstep for further instruction, but luckily I live quite a distance away! I may return for another class with these ladies at some point this winter.

After the class I went back to Lowell, and the last 40 minutes of open studio for the day. Of course that really isn't time to see much, but I spent it at my friend Lynne's studio, where there are always lots of fun fiber junkies hanging out. It had been way too long since I had gotten to see Lynne, and we had plans for Mexican food and Margaritas after open studio closed for the day. Somehow it came up that Lynne was going to Rhinebeck. Months ago she told me she planned to skip it this year. Before I even got to ask what changed her mind she said "Do you want to come!?" I thought about it briefly and said "Well, I'm back in school, and I've been so busy. I really shouldn't, but of course I will!" I did come home and double check my school schedule, but it turns out to be the perfect weekend for me to take off. I'm very excited to go, and I'm hoping to meet lots of my online fiber friends. I've already told Maureen that we have to meet if she will be there.

No picture today of my current WIP- the weather is just too gross to get a picture that really captures the colour. Soon, I promise.

The Natural Dye Experiment

On Monday night I stopped at my sister's house to pick some pants to hem for my niece. When I got there I was told that the girls had gotten something for me. They slipped outside and came back in with this:

A bag of wild berries they had picked with the thought that I could use for dying yarn.

I had honestly never really considered dying yarn with wild berries. It seemed like a very tedious and messy idea to me. However, after being presented with such a gift from my nieces I figured I had better give it a shot.

I did a bit of online research, and the information available for using berries as dye was a bit sketchy, and described a fairly lengthy process, including days of soaking the berries to make a liquor before preparing a dye bath. I didn't want to spend that sort of time on it. So, I improvised:

First I mashed the berries, then I put them in my dye pot, added water, and boiled them for about 1/2 hour.

When I felt as if I had drawn out enough of the colour I strained away all of the berry pulp. You can see that I was correct in believing this would be a messy venture.

The strained liquid went back into the dye pot with some vinegar. There is probably a better mordant for dying with berries, but I don't know what it is, so I stuck with what I know.

My natural coloured wool went into the dye bath, and simmered for about 40 minutes. I have to say that for the first 10-20 minutes I didn't really believe that anything attractive would come out of this dye bath.

In the end, I really did get a very pretty yarn in a vivid pink colour. I do find myself wondering what sort of rich purple I may have gotten if I had pre-soaked the berries, and allowed the wool to soak longer (I did this all in about 2 hours). However, I think I am done with the berry dying for 2008.

In the knitting world I have discovered that a simple project worked in the round is a great way to keep myself from fidgiting while doing my homework, and helps me get more reading done in a single sitting. Becuase of this, I do have a new project that I will be sharing soon.

Tragedy Strikes!

One of my Denise needle tips snapped mid-row! I can't believe it, I have never broken a needle before (well, I have broken size 1 bamboo needles when I stepped on them, but that doesn't count). I guess trying to pinch stitches with this firm cotton yarn was a bit too much for the plastic. I have already picked up a metal needle and started to insert it in place. Luckily the project hasn't unraveled too far.




So, I really seem to be slacking with blog posts these days, and the truth is the amount of things I have to talk about really has declined. I am a college student once again, and that's cutting into the knitting time a bit. Also, A severe bout of knitting ADD has kept me from making too much progress on any one piece.

These socks are the socks that were completed on my road trip in August. They hadn't been photographed before because I had misplaced 1 as soon as I got home. It finally resurfaced this weekend.



These are the Woven Ridgeline socks from Cat Bordhi's New Pathways book. I altered the pattern by using her garter toe from the same book. It doesn't show up well in the photo, but the front of the sock has a panel of linen stitch.

The socks are made with Trekking ProNatura, and when I starting them I really didn't like the yarn, but by the 2nd sock I was growing accustomed to it, and I am so glad I persevered. I love the feel of these socks!

As for the sock I showed in the works in the last post, it's gone for a swim in the frog pond! The pattern made a sock much too long for my foot. Although I could have ripped back to the toe and adjusted it I just wasn't liking it enough.

Just to show you I am knitting something these days, this is my current mindless project, for times when I really want to focus on something else. It's a hemp market bag. I bought a kit for this bad forever ago, and it has sat in my stash. I recently gave away the crocheted market bag I had been using. So, I needed something new. When I pulled out the kit I decided I really didn't like the pattern it came with, so I am just winging this one.



Another thing I have been managing to find time for is spinning. It felt like I hadn't done it in forever. Honestly, it was partially a time issue, but I was also pretty bored with spinning that grey gotland lace weight (which I still need to spin more of).

Well, a couple of weeks ago I went up to Vermont to see Joansie, and attend the VT Sheep & Wool festival with her.

There is nothing like a S&W festival to get the desire to spin back! There were so many fun fibers there. One vendor (and I am sorry to say I forgot to take note of who) had blended rovings they had made from the left over bits they had after carding their first quality rovings. These scrap blends were merino, silk, alpaca, and mohair, and were $0.99 an ounce. They had 2 big bags, and although the colours weren't ones I would normally choose, I had to buy a little.

I got a red/yellow/purple striped roving which I used to spin up a very fun, very textural thick & thin bulky yarn. The 6 ounces made about 400 yards. It somehow made me think of my niece Ella as I was working with it, so the yarn will be worked into a gift for her.

The other yarn in the photo was made from roving that was a gift from my friend Deb. I think the colour was called "Prairie grass" It was another striped roving with 3 different greens and tan. Again I made a very textural yarn with this. This one is approximately aran weight, and I want to use it for a project for myself. I have about 300 yards here, and another 2 ounces of fiber to spin.

Oh, and because I love Halloween, I have a new free crochet pattern on the Pisgah website.



The Halloween Ghost cloth is a quick and easy project. I had fun making this one.

I also want to thank Norma for testing the pattern for me. If you are a cloth knitter or crocheter check out her website Dish and Wash Cloth Mania for a great free pattern directory.


For those of you who live in the Northeast, come and see me:

I will be teaching a free beginner crochet classes at the Billerica Public Library on Saturday September 27, from 1 to 4. There is a cap on the class. So, if you are in the area, and want to attend let me know!

I will also be a demonstrator in the Fiber House at the Fryeburg Fair in Maine, on Thursday October 2 from 2 to 5. This is the Men's day at the fiber house.

I've Returned

I've actually been home for over a week, but I don't know where the time has gone.

The trip was great fun. I only wish it could have lasted longer!

Gerry, and Ian (my nephew/Gerry's son) and I decided at the last minute to head out on Saturday night instead of getting up before the sun to head out on Sunday. It was a good thing we did, because after stopping from 3 to 9am to sleep/shower/eat we still did not arrive in Old Fort until 1 am Sunday night/ Monday morning. We had to be at the workshops by 8am. If we had left on Sunday we would have had to drive straight from Gerry's house to the workshops with out eating or sleeping!

I did get to finish the Double Worsted Throw in the car ride, so that part of it was good (not to mention a few good laughs along the way.) The throw ended up being almost 5' square, and fit perfectly, when folded in half, over the over sized recliner in Don and Glenda's (Gerry's inlaws) living room in the SC condo.

My visit to Old Fort, North Carolina was great. I finally got to see the Pisgah Yarn and Dyeing Factory, and meet Flo- who by the time we met face to face already felt like an old friend. I also got to meet several other friends from the Peaches & Creme group on Ravelry- Maile, Kim, Marie, and Zara were among them.

Teaching the workshops was a lot more fun than I expected, even though I was exhausted from the drive and the sleep deprivation. I think they were a success. Everyone in my beginner crochet class could do a sc stitch by the end of the class- although a couple were still struggling to keep a straight side edge on their swatches- and for a two hour session, I call that a great success! There was also a class each for my Kid's Reptile Bath Set, and the Floral Edged Bath set.

Here's the Reptile set:

We focused on the turtle soap sack for this, as again it was only a two hour block. Several people had the soap sacks done by the end of the class, and 1 person had completed the lizard washcloth, and Snake back scrubber before the end of the workshops on Tuesday.

For the Floral Edged Bath set we focused on the motif chain for the towels/bath mat. Two hours really wasn't enough for this project, but everyone seemed to get the idea of making the chain, and joining for the body of the pieces. So, although I would make sure to have a longer class next time, I was still pleased.

Marie, that I met at the workshop had actually done some pattern testing for me. Here is the sample she made for my Simple Summer Wrap:

Here's her work, being modeled by Flo, who was very surprised to receive this as a gift from Marie at the workshop.

I love this wrap, not only is it super easy, and quick to make, but every time I think of the inspiration for this piece, and see the finished product I chuckle. This was actually inspired by a shawl worn by a villainous alien in an old made for TV sci-fi film. I love the costumes in sci-fi films, but this is the first time I have successfully taken something so out there and translated it well into the real world.

After a day and a half in Old Fort, it was time for us to go and meet the rest of Gerry's family in South Carolina. Unfortunately my plans to meet Melanie, and Cat did not work out on this trip. Maybe next year? (Melanie, if you are reading this people at the workshop were talking about you and your blog- all good stuff, but I was so tired I don't remember what was said, or who said it)

Despite that disappointment, South Carolina was a lot of fun, too. We toured Charleston, which was a beautiful city, full of wonderful architecture- the likes of which you would never see in New England. Another thing in Charleston that you would never see in New England were the beautiful handmade Sweetgrass Baskets. Apparently the art was brought over from West Africa by slaves. The technique is passed down from mother to daughter, and is still only practiced in these two regions. The basket were rather pricey, but I did have to bring home a sample.

This is a small piece, about the size of a softball, but I loved the loopy sides on it, and I thought it was the prefect piece to bring home as a memento from the day. I bought this at the open market place in Charleston, where Gerry, Robin, and I walked around for a couple of hours, after Robin's parents took the kids home early.

I also had my first trip to a Hobby Lobby while in SC. Gerry's daughter Ella became very intrigued by a knitting book I bought for Gerry's birthday (it was the day before we left) and had to get some yarn to start a project. So, the three of us set out one evening to find some for her. We arrived at Hobby Lobby about 1/2 hour before they closed. The place was huge, and I would have liked more time to look around, but I did manage to get a few tools I needed, most of which were on clearance, and a ball of yarn. The yarn was Lion Brand Sockease. I had heard of it, but had never seen it. At $6.50 for a 100gm ball I couldn't pass it up. I was glad I got it because on the way home I finished the other socks I was working on, and needed something new. The shawl didn't end up being good car knitting.

Here's the sock ease, and the beginnings of one of Cat Bordhi's Dove socks, from the New Pathways book.

Well, this post has gone on way too long. I hope to have my next post soon!

Heading South

Today is the first day of a greatly needed vacation! It's been over 3 years since I have taken a vacation, and I've been really feeling it for months now.

My plan was to have today to spend getting everything in order for my trip, but then I realized it has been a shamefully long time since I have posted here. So, I thought I would give a quick update on what I have been doing.

First of all I have some new designs that will soon be up on the Peaches & Creme website. There are two kits that will be released at the workshops on Monday where I will be leading classes for each of the kits, as well as a beginner's crochet class. I'll share pictures of those projects, as well as some others when I return.

As for my other WIPs, I have two big ones at the moment:

This is a throw blanket I am making as a host/hostess gift for my Brother's in-law's. I'll be staying at their 2nd home in South Carolina for a few days after the P&C workshops. I wanted to bring them a handmade gift, and had trouble deciding on exactly what to make. I had a few things started, and wasn't crazy about any of them. Finally, late Thursday night, I decided on this throw. It made from Peaches & Creme Double Worsted Weight, as well as some worsted weight- double stranded. The black and grey DW has been in my stash forever, waiting for inspiration, and the rest of the colours are large quantity left overs. I spoke to Gerry about it, and apparently I chose the colours well. He said it will match his MIL's decor perfectly. That was good to hear since it was over 2' square by the time I told him about it.

In this picture it's about 3' square. I will work it to 4' square, and then possibly add some sort of decorative border, or just finish off with a few rounds of black and grey stripes (I have the most yarn in those colours).

This rumpled ball of knitting is my mother's shawl that has been in the mental works for months now. My plan was to have this be my major road trip knitting. Unfortunately I have had so little time to spin that I don't think I have enough yarn to go very far with it. I do think if I get all of pre-trip chores out of the way by 2pm today I could potentially spin away for a while, and finish off the bobbin I have going now, then ply some more before the trip. I wouldn't get to set the twist, but I think it would be okay. I could set it in the hotel, and have it for the ride home next weekend.

I tried to spread the fabric a bit to give a glimpse of the emerging lace pattern, but it couldn't do that too effectively with only one hand, and I needed the other to take the picture.

I showed this to my father, and he said it looks like an old hair net. Just the sort of thing you want to hear after many hours of spinning, graphing, and knitting!

I have one last thing I will share before I go. This is not one of my projects, but a belated birthday gift from my brother:

This was Gerry's first pair of socks! Can you believe it!?

I was so honored to receive such a gift I didn't even have the words to express it!

They are quite warm, as they are made with Cascade 220, but I have still been wearing them quite a bit. In fact, I am wearing them now!

Silk Notebooks

Yesterday I decided I would take some time to work on a project with the silk papers I made with Jodi. I decided to make some hand bound silk notebooks.

I had my first experience with hand binding books last fall when I made the vegetarian cookbook for Maureen, as part of her "Secret Pal" reveal package. The book I made for her was sort of scrap book style, with recipes printed on coloured papers, and mounted onto different decorative papers, and then it was all put together with a mulberry paper cover and bound using the Japanese Stab binding method.

After that experience I think it is safe to say that I will never be a scrap booker, but I did enjoy the process of binding the book, quite a bit. I made additional copies of the book for people that had shared recipes, and used pre-printed pages. I liked that a lot more!


When I saw the finished pieces of silk paper the first thing I thought of was these hand bound books, and I decided to have another go at it.

This time I took some 5x7 spiral notebooks, clipped away the spiral binding, and re-covered and bound them. I used the original cardboard covers as a base for my new silk covers.

This was great because not only were they already the same size as the paper, but they had

holes in the proper places for me to use as a guideline when sewing up my binding. I did have to punch the holes out several times through out the process of applying the silk, or they would have been lost. It was much more time consuming than I expected it to be, but when the books were finished this morning [I let the covers dry overnight before binding] I really felt like it was worth the time and effort.

I think the finished notebooks are absolutely beautiful, and will make wonderful gifts.



I had some other plans for the rest of the silk paper, but now I'm thinking they may all become notebooks. At the very least I will have to make more silk paper for future book binding projects.

Silk Fusion

So, this is the result of my day learning a new craft.



It's hand made silk paper. Very Fun!



Yesterday, I spent the day with my friend Jodi, and we learned to do this together.



Jodi is an art therapist, and loves the creative process more than anyone else I know. This makes her a great person to be creative with- you can just feel her enthusiasm. Things have been tough for Jodi recently, and it was great to see her so happy while doing this!

Here are some action shots Jodi took of me layering the silk, and applying textile medium to bond it together.

It was a sunny, but surprisingly not humid day yesterday and the papers dried quickly. That was great because as you finished a new piece of paper the previous one was dried. That meant that we two first timers were able to see very quickly what we liked or disliked about any given piece and had the opportunity to progress quite a bit through just one afternoon.

I have several ideas about what to do with the finished sheets of "paper" but you will all have to wait to see what they are!

I'm So Behind!!

It seems that the past few months I just haven't had the time to do half the things I want/need to do- much more so than normal. Blogging has been one of the things that has been neglected, but I am trying to check in (if you have noticed the abscence of my comments lately I am still reading!).

I mentioned in my last post that Melanie had given me a blogging award. The award came with instructions to pass it on, link to the original creator, etc. In my "breaking the chain" tradition I am not going to do that. What I am going to do is tell you about 5 blogs that I enjoy, that I don't think I have ever linked to before. So, here they are:


http://www.criminyjickets.blogspot.com/- Dave makes LOTS of wonderful socks, and has some free sock patterns as well as a few other fun things.

http://gildedbottle.blogspot.com/- Jeannie has recently started doing some of her own designs. Watch out for her. I think there is a wealth of untapped knitting and crocheted talent waiting to come out.

http://serialknitter.blogspot.com/ -Sunny is another new designer. Just like Jeannie, I think she will continue to to flourish in her creativity. I expect wonderful things!

http://yarnspider.livejournal.com/- I met Sarah over at yahoo 360. She spins and dyes and knits, and has some beautiful projects.

http://spinning-jenny.blogspot.com/ - Jenny always has something interesting OTN. I found her through ravelry, and have been following her blog religiously since the first time I saw her work. Her knitting is truly art.

Just to have a photo to put into this post:

These little turtles are actually crocheted soap sacks. The turtle is part of a reptile bath set that will be available on the Peaches & Creme website this August. It is also going to be the focus of one of the crochet work shops I will be teaching at the Peaches & Creme facotry this summer.



The rest of the set is complete, but no photos will be posted until the kit is available for sale.


Later this week I will be getting together with a friend to learn a new craft! So, hopefully there will be more blogging soon.

New Crochet Patterns

I feel awful that I have been neglecting my blog so much lately. I have been very busy putting together new patterns and kits for Peaches & Creme, and I keep saying I will blog when I have more time.

Well, I have finally decided it will be too long before I have more time, so I will just have to be quick!

First of all I would like to give a very over due Thank You to Melanie for honoring me with the Arte y Pico Award. Thanks Melanie, I am going to try and pass the award on in the next few days.

Now on to what I have been up to:

As I mentioned I have new patterns up on the Peaches & Creme Website.

There is a fre pattern for the Triple Waves Dishcloth, which is a great one for using up odds and ends of cotton yarn. I used 3 colours for mine, but you could use 2 or 5, or 6, or....

There is also a free under the kitchen sink type rug, made out of the Double worsted weight cotton, the Semi-circular Rug. That is a quick and fun project, and I enjoyed making it.



This is a preview of a market bag kit that will be available in the next day or two. The Kit includes instructions to make the large grocery bag, and the smaller produce bag. The produce bag is made with size 5 cotton, and weighs under an ounce, so you can weigh your fruits and veggies right in the bag! No more small plastic bags to worry about- just toss this one in the washer/dryer in between trips to the market.







There is also a kit for a crocheted Beach tote, the Honeycomb Mesh Tote. This was my design, but the sample was actually made for me by a fellow member of the P&C group on Ravelry, Chris (ravelry name Erskinelake). Again, this is a kit, and it comes in such fun summer-time colours!

The last photo I will share today is the Crocheted Ridges Bath Ensemble. This is a back scrubber/bath mitt set I made to match a cloth pattern that had been posted quite some time ago.
I actually designed these by request, and had never used one of these back scrubbers before, so I had to give it a try. It was nice, I'll be making more.


For the next few weeks I plan to be very busy working on the new pattern kits that will be used in my crochet workshops this summer at the Peaches and Creme Factory (have I mentioned this before? Details here), and believe it or not a pattern I have agreed to test for another designer! I know I must be crazy, but there is a very special reason why I have agreed to test this pattern, and when I can reveal more you will get to hear all about it.

Fiber Prep, Day 2

It's been quite some time since I started getting my mohair cleaned up and ready to spin (See Fiber Prep, Day 1) since then it has been tied up in two bags in my trunk.

Today the weather was perfect, warm, sunny, low humidity, and very little breeze. So, I pulled out all the mohair and went back to work. My workspace for sorting/picking the fiber is not very comfortable, and after a very draining week I didn't last long. I still have almost 2 pounds to be picked through.

When I bought the fleece, I was told it was approximately 2Lbs. I have since bought a scale for measuring my fibers, and found it to be close to 4Lbs. I knew it felt a lot heavier than 2Lbs!

This is the first 1 1/2 pounds of fiber being washed.

I filled the kitchen sink with [scalding] hot water, added a couple squirts of dish soap, and set the mohair on top. I let it soak until the water had cooled to room temperature. A sink full of wet mohair cools much more slowly than a sink full of plain water.

Word of caution here: Do not do this in your kitchen unless you don't plan on preparing food for quite some time. Besides the obvious bacterial issues, as soon as this stuff hit the hot water my kitchen smelled like there were several goats residing in it.

Here's what the water looked like when I took the mohair out!

The first rinse was almost as bad, but the second was nearly clear.

After rinsing I put all the fiber in a pillow case, bound it shut with a rubber band, and put it in the spin cycle of the washing machine.

Now it is out on my front porch drying.

I wish I had more time to spin recently, because I would really love to spin some of this up tomorrow. However, I still have quite a way to go spinning the Gotland for my mother's shawl. I think I have only used the spinning wheel once since I last posted about it.

In other news, My first pattern for sale is now available. This is a pattern for a crocheted kitchen set with placemats, napkin rings, potholders, and a couple other fun things. It is being sold as a kit, including the patterns and yarn to complete the projects. Check it out.

The biggest reason why I haven't posted much lately is because all of my available time has been spent working on new designs for Peaches & Creme. Most of which are crochet designs. There should be more free patterns posted later in the week, with more kits, and free patterns coming soon. All of the crochet designs in the works right now are pretty easy projects, most of them are beginner friendly.

Hopefully I will finish spinning the gotland and start my mother's shawl soon. I want to have it done by the end of the summer. Although, her birthday is in October, and it would be a nice birthday gift, but I do prefer to give hand knitted items as no-occasion gifts.

Not Again!

So, I was tagged by Lynne.

For those of you who have been followed my blog since I was on Yahoo! 360 you know that I now will always answers questions, but I will not tag anyone else.

Here goes:

What was I doing 10 years ago?

10 years ago this month I moved to Braintree, MA. It was my second of 3 apartments with Aly, my room mate of 10 years. I was working for UNO's, and enjoying being in my early 20's.


What are 5 things on my to-do list for today?

1. Call Flo at Peaches & Creme
2. Get several packages packed and shipped out
3. laundry
4. clean my car (this is on my list everyday, I don't know why I don't just do it)
5. work on Gerry's Birthday gift, so it will actually be ready in August.

Snacks I enjoy:

Rosemary and Olive Oil Triscuits

Ice cream

Oreos

Things I would do if I were a billionaire:

Make sure my parents got to do everything they want to in their retirement

Have a house custome made with a very large art studio

Take up all of those hobbies I wish I had time to explore

Travel a lot

Shop a lot

Places I have lived:

Lowell, Ma

Seminole, Fl

Amherst, MA

Northampton, MA

Braintree, MA

Quincy, MA

Belmont, NH

Jobs I have had

Nursing home "dietary Aide" and Cook

Telephone Interviewer for a Market research firm

Nutrition Care Coordinator

Waiter

Bartender

Restaraunt Manager

Getting Organized

So, for months I have been thinking that my needle/hook collection has greatly outgrown the storage system I had in place for it.

Two days ago I spent half an hour looking for my 6" size 4 DPN's before I finally decided to just pull the 8" size 4's out of another project. Three hours later I found the 6" needles while looking for something else.

So, I decided it was finally time for a new needle organizer. I spent several hours this afternoon working on a new one. It has about 80% of my needles in it in the photo.

The front has (from the bottom up) a row of 4" pockets for crochet hooks, a row of 5" pockets for short DPN's, a row of 8" pockets for long DPN's, a row of 9" pockets for straight needles (I rarely use straights, and no longer than 10"), and a row of 4" pockets for extra items, like my 4" Addi DPN's, and cable needles.

The back has a row of slots for circulars, several small pockets for notions, and a row of pockets for jumbo needles, and afghan hooks.

It is so nice to have everything fit finally! I have marked the pockets, so I know what size the needles are. Now all I need is the discipline to put things back where they belong when I am done with them!

If I could only make one of these to hold all that yarn....

Washed and (Almost) Dried

This morning the silk yarn was still very wet, so I took it out in the sun, where even by 9 am it was so humid I could tell it would take most of the day for it to finish drying.

The first picture is the yarn still fairly damp.

The second picture is one of the original hanks on top, slightly twisted, and another hank that I rewound in a different length to see how the colours would play together.

The red did not come out as strong as I had originally hoped, but I am very pleased with the over all results.


Since Sophia has some of the exact same yarn, and expressed interest in what I have done with mine I'm going to give more a more detailed account.

I started by soaking the silk in HOT water in the sink, a drop or two of dish soap should be used in this step (I forgot). When the yarn is thoroughly saturated-takes about 1/2 hour- it can be moved into the dye bath.

For the Dye bath I mixed Cushing's acid dyes, Egyptian Red-1/2 packet, and Terracotta- small amount left over, with 12oz boiling water, and 2 oz white vinegar. I then added enough hot water to bring the level of the liquid up high enough to cover the desired amount of yarn.

I then draped the yarn over the sides of the bucket that held the dye bath. One end of each hank was in the dye, the other end was low enough that it would continue to syphon liquid out of the bucket, drawing dye up through the fiber. I let this soak until almost all of the dye came out of the water- over an hour since my dye bath was not being heated. Then I steamed the yarn for 1/2 hour, and allowed it to cool before rinsing.

With La Luz being an unplied silk there was a small amount of surface fuzzing that occurred during this process, but it is still beautiful, and very shiny.

The Gotland only needed about an hour in the sun to be completely dry. I was very pleased when I saw it this morning. Not only did it not fluff up more in the wash, it really was finer than I thought it was while plying. It's about 21 WPI. You can see several strands crossing over the dime beneath it. This will make a wonderful delicate shawl for my mother!

Gotland Singles, and More Dying

I had some unexpected fiber time this afternoon, and the sun was shining. So, I finally got some photos of the gotland I have been spinning.



This wool is amazingly soft, and I love the fuzzy halo the singles have. I was a bit surprised that it actually seemed to fluff up as I plied it. I think it will end up being a rather plump fingering weight as a two ply. I will know tomorrow, when the yarn I plied and washed tonight is dry. Fingering weight is probably perfect for the shawl I have in mind. The very fine lace weight I made for my sister's shawl would be a bit too light for this one.

Yesterday I managed to catch my friend Kim off guard and convince her to go up to the Patternworks tent sale with me. Last year I got an amazing amount of wonderful yarns for very little money. It seemed to me that there was a much smaller selection this year. It also seemed that the markdowns were not as good as last year. They were great markdowns, but last year's sale was crazy.

The big deal I got this year was on 4 hanks of Fiesta yarns La Luz. This is a beautiful 100% silk yarn that I have always wanted to try, but have avoided because of the price-over $25 a hank. Well, I paid $4 a piece for it yesterday! The down side was that it was the brilliant colours that I loved about the yarn, and I really wasn't crazy about the 2 colours that were available. I did find a solution to that, though....


I bought 4 balls of "golden rod", a yellow-orange colour. Today I dipped them in a deep red dye, and allowed the dye to travel up the yarn, to get a fiery red to bright orange ombre. This is also drying now, and I will try to have pictures of the dry yarn tomorrow.

Last, but not least for today, I had mentioned in a recent post that I had been late sending out my bookmark exchange package, because at the last minute I had located some materials I had been hunting for. I promised to share the project after it had been received.

Terri, my exchange partner, collects wizards and dragons. I figured with the popularity of Harry Potter, and other youthful fantasy fiction these days a wizard fabric would be as easy to come by as water. Well, not at all. Dragon fabric wasn't readily available. I did finally have a wonderfully helpful sales rep at Keepsake Quilting locate 2 different dragon fabrics. I went in to see them, and finally, I had a collection appropriate needle case for Terri.


While there were no actual wizard fabrics, I did find a "Camelot" fabric with references to Merlin. You can actually see "Merlin's Maze" in the photo.

I was very pleased to be able to get this in Terri's package, and she seemed to really enjoy it.


So, tomorrow, plied Gotland, and Ombred silk!

Another Dye Day

On Sunday Lynne and I got together at her studio for another day of fiber dying.

The first picture is 1/2 pound of Tussah silk that I split into two batches. The top one was dyed with a variety of reds and burgundy, eith a touch of verde green. The Lower one was bases on the colour scheme I made up during our last dye day. Once again I used terracotta and taupe, but this time I left out the brown and added Egyptian red, which is really just one shade off from the terracotta. I really loved the way it turned out, and I can't wait to spin it up. I also dyed up the 10oz of local mohair roving I bought at the NH sheep and Wool festival. Once again I split it into two batches.

This one is a blend of Egyptian red, verde green, plum, and burgundy.

This one is green, purple, and burgundy. If you look closely you can see that green and purple blended into a wonderful shade of blue. That was an unexpected surprise.
All of this will sadly be packed away in the stash for a while, as my spinning time is currently being taken up by Mom's shawl. I purchased some beautiful grey Gotland roving from Coppermoose. I've ordered from them several times now, and I am always pleased with what I get.

I had read about the Gotland fleece, and when I saw it for sale I had to get some. This wool is so soft and smooth, and it spins like a dream! I am thrilled with the way my singles are turning out, but due to a lack of sun there will be no photos today.

SPECIAL NOTE TO JANEY

So, I have meant to add this in to one of my last two blog entries, and have forgotten both times. This is directed to the Janey that left a comment inquiring about the meaning of "No Wire Hangers" associated with Joan Crawford.

Janey, I have tried to email you, but the emails have bounced back.

It has nothing to do with back alley abortions.

In order to understand the joke you have to watch the movie "Mommie Dearest" so, put it to the top of your Nexflix or Bockbuster queue!

I would try to explain it further, but I think you really have to see for yourself.

Catching Up.

I hope everyone had a weekend. I usually don't get a long weekend for memorial day, but I did this year. I stayed at home the whole weekend, and used the time to get caught up on some projects I have gotten behind on.

In the spirit of getting caught up I have some over-due "Thank You"s to make:

About a week ago I got a mysterious package in the mail, it was rather large, and light and I didn't recognize the return address. I opened it up to find this:

This is two half pound balls of hand carded, hand dyes rovings from Jehovah Jireh Farm. It was a gift from Deb for helping out at her booth at the NH Sheep and Wool Festival.

In Addition to saying thanks to Deb, I would like to put in a prayer request here. I won't share any details, but Deb is going through a tough time, and could certainly use some extra prayers right now. Please pray for her well being.

Another Thank you goes out to Terri, my partner in the exchange for the MonthlyBookmarks group. I received this wonderful package from her a few days ago.

She included two hand made bookmarks. The flower bookmark is counted cross stitch, and the red and black bookmark is a beaded lace knit bookmark (it's red thread with black beads). I love them both, especially since I do not do cross stitch or bead work, so these are both items I would not make myself. She also included some Canada souvenirs- including chocolate loonies- and a pewter zipper tag that is a sweater still OTN. Thanks Terri!

Slightly embarrassing since I am the "group owner", but I am actually late sending my package to Terri. I do have a good reason, though. I had been hunting all over for materials for a special project for her. Last week I had given up on ever finding what I wanted, and was about to mail her package out with out it when I finally located what I was looking for. There will be pictures after she receives it.

Now onto the things I have gotten caught up with:

This crazy little animal is a toy I have had in the works-aka in a bag in the back of my closet- for about 2 months. He is based on a cartoon character, with whom I am unfamiliar. My friend's little girl had asked Santa for this toy for Christmas when she saw him at the mall last December. He told her he had lots of these dolls in stock. Well, Santa was confused, and no one makes a doll for this character.

I had a picture about 2x3 inches big to go on, and I've never made a stuffed animal before. Hopefully I will never have to again, but this little girl has spent the last five months wondering why Santa didn't fulfill his promise to her. Hopefully his will look close enough to the real thing to pass.

I have a friend starting Chemotherapy tomorrow, and have been saying for three weeks now that I had to knit up some hats for her. I finally got to that this weekend, too.

The brown hat was a free online pattern, the Lace Edged Women's Hat, made in Classic Elite Premiere. As I was knitting it I realized I had never knitted a hat before. What a wonderful instant gratification project!

The blue hat is made with Knit One, Crochet Too Wick. I'd never tried this yarn before, and I loved it. It makes a thick and spongy, but breathable fabric that wicks moisture away from the skin. I have to get more of this stuff.

There was no pattern for the blue hat. I knew that I didn't particularly care for the shaping at the top of the other hat, so I just did what I thought would work better, and luckily it did!

I actually got caught up on a bunch of other projects, but as this post is getting very long I will give you just one more for today.

I started to work on a shawl for my mother, and got about 8 hours worth of spinning in. Unfortunately I was spinning and being social at the same time, and my plied yarn turned out thicker than I had wanted, so I will have to start over with that. I am very excited about the yarn I am making for this project, and will post about it another time.

The shawl itself will be of my own design. I have been charting and swatching, and I came up with this:

Yes, it looks like something you would find in any stitch dictionary on earth! That part is slightly disappointing, but I do like it, and am going to use it. I will just have to design some fancy edging to make it more unique.

The good part of taking the time to chart, and test knit this is that now I am so acquainted with the pattern flow I will not need to look at the chart at all when knitting the shawl. I didn't even need it for the swatch. If I had taken the pattern from a stitch dictionary I still would have had to convert it to fit into the four wedges of the square as it grows out from the center.

The sample was knit in a 50/50 linen cotton blend from my stash. It's sport weight yarn on size 4 needles. The actual shawl will be much lighter yarn, on much larger needles. This was just to get an idea of how the pattern would look.