A Happy Memory

Often, I can be a great victim of nostalgia, thinking back to a certain point in time, to a place, and I become consumed with the great desire to be there once again.  But today, sparked by a post about someone’s recent return from Paris, I was momentarily taken back to my four days there in October 2006.  Call me a heathen, but Paris was by no means our favorite city on that two-month adventure; perhaps that is why I simply remember that time with fondness, rather than an overwhelming desire to be there once again.

Interestingly enough, it was a picture on that blog post of the Paris Metro that brought all this back, rather than the more cliched Paris photographs (which is mostly all I have).

P.S. The one thing I do miss intensely about Paris is the food: the cheese, the crepes, the café, the ice cream. Check out the salted caramel sauce recipe on the Smitten Kitchen link up above – it looks divine.

 

swappy

What is it about summer that compels me to join swaps? Last summer there was the Ravelry Caffeine Addicts Swap and the Knitter’s Virtual Vacation Swap. Those were fun, but I seemed to be sated…that is, until recently.

The Ravelry Fiber Swap is 3 months long, with three other partners, so it’s almost like 3 swaps in one. So far it’s been a ton of fun. I got my July package from Ravelry user ambergem.

There is 4 oz. of hand-dyed merino/linen roving. I’m slightly intimidated but very excited to see how this spins! It will probably marinate for awhile, but I am looking forward to trying it. She also sent a little superwash merino (burgundy) and some mohair locks (green). I love it!

I have pictures of what I sent for July but I keep forgetting to upload them to flickr.

I have a few other dyed fibers, but so far my attempts to photograph them haven’t gone very well. They’re red, and one of them is targhee wool which is so fluffy that the camera doesn’t want to focus.

Soon there will be more dyeing for the August installment of Fiber Swap. I know what I want to do, it’s just finding the time that is proving difficult.

The other swap I joined last week is put on by the Spunky Eclectic group on Ravelry. This is one of the chattiest groups EVER, and one of the mods decided it would be fun to do a swap. Luckily we don’t send until the end of the September, but we’re sending both fiber AND handspun, as well as goodies and extras, so I can’t procrastinate too much. In this swap the only secrets are what we are actually sending – we know who our partners are and hopefully we get to know them over the course of the swap. It should be fun! I don’t know if I will be dyeing for this. I am hoping to go to the California Wool and Fiber Festival in September and I want to try and get the unspun fiber there.

This is the 1oz. of dyed alpaca I showed you last time, spun into a worsted weight 2-ply. Spinning from the fold was pretty tricky, because the alpaca is very slippery, but for a first try, I’m happy with how it came out. More than anything, I love how soft it is. It’s only 50-something yards, but I think I might use it as an accent in a hat.

This spinning is a little more recent. I finally got brave and tacked some Wensleydale I purchased from Hello Yarn awhile ago. It definitely came out a bit fuzzy (they call Wensleydale “the sheep’s answer to mohair”) but relatively soft. I’m a little nervous about using it for a hat or a scarf, but we’ll see…maybe another idea will strike. It’s around a DK weight. I haven’t counted the yardage yet. I’m loving the colors though. The greens/teals you can see in the roving have kind of dissipated, but I think they’ll show a bit more when knitted up.

In knitting news, I’m trying to work through a few very late gifts, and I recently finished knitting Talia. I still need to weave in ends, block it, and find buttons. Buttons are the hardest. Maybe I’ll take my chances and order online. Life is just too busy these days for button shopping.

 

the spinning bug

I might as well have joined Tour de Fleece officially, because there has been a lot of spinning happening this month.

“Mud Season” from Spunky Club’s March fiber
100% merino wool, 4 oz.
fingering weight, approx. 470 yards

This was a long project, after I finished the first 2 oz I took a break from it for awhile. But as I got used to the fiber, and my spinning improved, I got a bit faster and the second half flew by. Spinning merino gives a very satisfying result – a soft, bouncy, squishy skein of yarn. The colors in this go so well together. Right now I’m thinking it will be the Palette scarf from Knitty.

“Franny” from A Verb for Keeping Warm
100% Bluefaced Leicester, 2 oz.
DK weight, unknown yardage

After hoarding AVFKW roving for months, I finally pulled some out to spin. I think this was my first time spinning BFL…I can’t believe I waited this long! It drafts wonderfully, it’s got a little crimp, and a little sheen, and it plies all bouncy and gorgeous. I love it. See?

Oh, and the red-orange-salmon colors of this naturally dyed fiber spun up so gorgeous too. It’s going to be even harder to resist buying more roving from her now.

Finally, in an effort to fill up my already-scarce free time even more, I’ve started dyeing fiber. Nuttnbunny tipped me off to a Fiber Swap Club on Ravelry. The swap lasts for three months; we were put into groups of four, and each month we send 4 oz. of fiber to one other person in the group. I joined and have used it as an excuse to start dyeing, which is something I’ve been wanting to try for awhile. I just mailed my first swap package yesterday, so I can show what’s inside of it yet (lest I ruin the element of surprise), but here are some dye experiments on alpaca.

2 oz. of combed alpaca top, kettle dyed
I call this one “Northern Lights”.

1 oz. of combed alpaca top, handpainted & steamed
“Mermaid”
The colors in this got a little more blended than I intended, but that’s why it’s an “experiment”. I think I should have steamed it in something a little flatter – I used a cheap colander that I bought at Salvation Army, but I think a lot of the dye pooled down and mixed. Luckily the colors blend well. I spun this up the other night to see what it looks like. The mini-skein is drying now. More details soon!

My alpaca top is some natural gray fiber I bought at Piedmont Yarn. It’s called “Handspinner’s Dream” from Alpaca With a Twist. It’s really lovely stuff, and it comes in a whole range of natural alpaca fleece colors. It takes the color wonderfully…and it is making me seriously consider doing something crazy like adopting an alpaca.

 

stuff i’ve finished lately

Look!

Mystery Stole 3.  Yeah, the one from LAST summer.  I finished the knitting in March but just blocked it recently so it could go on display at Piedmont Yarn.  Go see the entire Flickr set here.

Noro Lace Ribbon Scarf.  Just in time for summer.  At least it’s nice to look at.

One helical striped sock, a la Grumperina.  For my sister.  In place of mittens.

Aspen (merino tencel blend), Spunky Eclectic club fiber from last August (my first ever!)
2 oz, 290 yards, fingering weight single.  So gorgeous!  Spun from this.

Awesome green two-ply.  Spun from a hand-carded batt purchased from Funky Carolina
3+ oz, 189 yards, worsted weight two-ply.  I love this yarn so much, it’s ridiculous.

 

I never get bored…

A few things I’ve been working on…

These were so close to being done before I went to Japan. All I had left was a toe. I wasn’t about to bring a project that was almost done, with airplane-incompatible needles, so I finished them right after we got back. The yarn is Pigeonroof Studios sock yarn, that I bought at Piedmont Yarn. I would kill to get some roving from Pigeonroof, but the yarn is almost as good. The base yarn is strong but soft, and has a nice sheen, and the short, random bursts of color make for interesting knitting, and almost no pooling! (Oh, and the pattern is Garter Rib from Sensational Knitted Socks.)

Last summer I started making granny squares for the Color Bar Blanket from the Stitch n Bitch Happy Hooker. I completed the squares in a few colors, and then they sat in a bag for several months. Lately I’ve been in the mood to make some more, especially during the heat wave we had last week. I’m almost through half the colors…just need to finish up this blue. There was a sale on Plymouth Encore at WEBS, so I got most of the other colors I need. If I don’t completely lose momentum, I hope to finish the squares and sew it all together over the summer so I will have an awesome afghan for fall!

This pattern came out last month over at Purl Bee. I instantly wanted to knit it…even though I’ve been queuing patterns and accumulating yarn for several bigger sweater projects, I can’t bring myself to start any of them right now. This shrug, however, is small enough, and wearable in the summer, so I finally decided to go find yarn and cast on. Our bamboo selection is a bit lacking at Piedmont Yarn, so I went to Article Pract on Sunday. There were several bamboo and cotton blend selections, but I couldn’t find a yarn I liked in a color that was inspiring (and wearable), or if I did, there wasn’t enough in the store (like a certain cotton tencel blend that I fell in love with). I went into the sale room and ended up coming out with several skeins of Berroco Glace, a rayon ribbon yarn, in an amazing deep indigo color. I’ll admit, it’s the color that did me in, but I’m pretty happy with how it’s knitting up. I just finished the first sleeve, and now I’m on the back. I’m trying to knit it fast and keep momentum because if I finish it, it will definitely get worn this summer.

James requested a hat last fall, I may have mentioned it at some point on here. It is to have mushrooms, snails, and squirrels. There will be earflaps, and we found some awesome buttons that will be integrated into the earflaps somehow (either decoratively or functionally, it is not yet clear). I did a little swatching a few months ago and started to cast on, but the size 1 needles and 190+ stitches were sort of uninspiring. I also realized more planning was necessary…I needed to draft an entire chart of all of the Fair Isle components, rather than just trying to wing it. I have been putting it off for several months now, but the other night I got motivated and drew up this chart. It looks like there will be 6 pattern repeats (3 repeats of the chart), for a total of 180 stitches. My chart is a conglomeration of several Adrian Bizilia charts (the mushrooms, snails, and swirls), and the squirrels come from a mitten pattern (pdf). The snails are actually significantly altered to fit into a smaller number of stitches. I have yet to start the knitting, but now that I have this chart I should be able to get at least to the crown decreases pretty easily. I know I will be using a provisional cast on so I can deal with the earflaps later on. If James is lucky, he might have this hat to wear next autumn…or winter. Those needles are still mighty small…

 

Silk, Stripes, and Weekends

I knit most of this silk cowl while I was in Japan. I’d had the yarn for over a year, something I had purchased on eBay, but I never knew what to do with it. But when I saw the Butterfly Moebius pattern in Clara Parkes’ A Knitter’s Book of Yarn, the world of cowls opened up for me. The pattern only took 275 yards of yarn, and I had plenty for this cowl. I brought some of the yarn along on our trip, hoping it would be enough, but I ended up wanting it a little bit wider, so I finished it off after we returned home. I was so happy with it that I decided to make my Mom one as well, as a Mother’s Day gift. I made hers from exactly two skeins of Hempathy (about 300 yards). Unfortunately I forgot to get a picture of that when I finished it, but it turned out so different, and so lovely. The stitch pattern in the book is double seed stitch, but you could substitute other simple knit/purl stitch patterns just as easily. I love this pattern because it really shows off the yarn. Perfect for handspun…I’m sure you will see more of these.

Last night, after letting the idea brew in my head for a few weeks, I finally cast on for some striped socks for my sister. You may remember back at Christmas, when I finished only one mitten as her gift. Well, when I miss a deadline for gift knitting, I tend to lose momentum. I had started the second mitten, but as I got my comfortable with stranded knitting, my tension loosened up, and the second mitten was definitely coming out bigger than the first. I hid it away in the bottom of my knitting basket for awhile, and when I saw my sister at Easter, I asked her if she still even wanted the mittens. She said socks would be more useful to her, and since I was pretty much over those mittens, I happily dismissed them from my mind. After seeing the awesome spiraling stripe socks that Grumperina has been working on, I decided I would use some of the leftover yarn and do socks in this manner. Here are the beginnings:

I think they are coming along fabulously. I would like to finish them in a somewhat timely manner, even though I know she has no use for wool socks in the middle of summer in New York. Hopefully they will not languish for too long, and hopefully I will have enough of the fuschia yarn to knit both socks without having to frog the lone finished mitten. Because even if it’s not useful, it does look quite beautiful, and it would be a shame (and a pain in the ass) to rip it out.

Yesterday we went to check out the new Borders that just opened up in Alameda, and I bought Weekend Knitting with the gift card that was burning a hole in my wallet. There were a few other books I wanted that they didn’t have in stock, but Weekend Knitting has been on my list, and after looking through it again, I decided it was a must have. My most desired pattern in there is the Brioche Stitch Neckwarmer (and hat and scarf), but I realized there are also TWO Veronik Avery patterns, both of which I would like to make, and after I showed James the Backgammon Bag, it was a done deal.

For some reason Ravelry seems to be down right now, which totally sucks, because it’s the weekend and I need to be getting my fix before it’s Monday again and I have to go to work. I guess I’ll just have to keep myself busy with all this knitting I keep starting.

 

More about my Ashford Traditional

I was sad to be away from my spinning wheel when I was in Japan (I know, life can be so difficult…). After I finished Pie, I started spinning some mystery purple fiber that Larkin gave me with the wheel. I was spinning thinner, about a fingering weight single, so the going was quite a bit slower. When we got back from our trip, I finished up the purple singles, and then got out the remaining 2 oz. of my Spunky Club “Goblin Eyes” Romney. The first two ounces were used in spindle experimentation, spun pretty thin and Navajo plied…but I think the whole mess was overspun because it was more like twine than yarn. I didn’t really enjoy that spinning experience very much. So I spun up the rest of it on the wheel, trying to match it with the purple singles. Toward the end I got a little lazy and the singles became sliiiightly thicker, but I’m pretty happy with how it came out after I plied the two together:

“Purple Goblin”
277 yards, 3.95 oz.
sport-ish weight

I love all the purple! And because it wasn’t so overspun this time, it’s a bit softer, and even more so after washing. It’s not supersoft, but I’m considering trying to make slipper socks from it, if I have enough. Toe-up will definitely be the way to go.

Here’s a not-so-great picture of my wheel…I plan to take a better one later.

As you can see, it’s been “well-loved”. Everything seems to work perfectly fine, the wood is just a bit worn and nicked in places, especially on that horizontal piece across the front. The tension nob for the brake band looks like a dog chewed on it, and I plan to order a new one at some point. The scotch tension also is just a piece of string tied to a smaller piece of fishing line (rather than springs like it should be), but it seems to work OK. I’ll replace that when I get around to ordering my Ashford Maintenance Kit. The drive band WAS just a black cotton string, but I fancied it up with lanyard cord. I was looking for Pony Bead Lacing, but Beverly’s didn’t have it. I got some green sparkly lanyard cord (the flat kind) and managed to melt the ends together enough to stick. It works ok, but I’m going to get the lacing next time I’m at Michael’s. It has connectors so you don’t have to melt anything, and you can change it out really easily. I also need to screw in more cup hooks on the flyer because they are only on one side. At some point I’ll need to get another flyer too (probably the 3-speed, but maybe the jumbo), because this Traditional is old enough that it only has one ratio. So far it hasn’t been a problem, but as I get more experience, I think I will appreciate the added versatility.

I started spinning Merino for the first time a few nights ago. I’m working on Spunky Club’s March fiber, “Mud Season”:

It’s not as hard to spin as I thought it would be…though I think it’s going much better on the wheel that it would have on the spindle. The Merino is sooooooooooo soft and sort of like spinning clouds. I’m spinning a pretty fine single and I’m hoping to get a fingering weight yarn from it. The colors are coming out really nice as they get more spread out and soften up.

The more I do it, the more I realize how addicting this spinning thing is!

 

Maker Faire

Oh, poor, neglected blog. I didn’t meant to ignore you for so long. Life has been busy. My main excuse is that I was in Japan for most of April. I kept an online travel journal while we were there, if you happen to be interested in our day-to-day adventures, you can visit my Yahoo travel journal.

I certainly haven’t been neglecting the knitting and spinning, but that will be the subject of another post. This post is about the awesomeness of Maker Faire!

The Yarn Harlot was there on Saturday, but since I was working at the yarn shop that day I couldn’t go. I enjoy reading her blog, but I have never read any of her books and I have never felt a strong desire to go to one her events, so I wasn’t really disappointed. Instead, we went on Sunday, and look who we got to see instead:

That’s Adam Savage, from Mythbusters! He talked about his career history…starting out in theatre set design and special effects, working for ILM as a prop and set builder on all sorts of awesome movies, working for a toy company, and finally getting the gig on Mythbusters. He didn’t talk about Mythbusters much, he mostly explained how he is crazy obsessed with making extremely detailed replicas of movie props, like the ZF-1 gun in The Fifth Element (which he has been working on for 10 years, and he still hasn’t finished it), and making his own Maltese falcon (as seen in the film noir classic starring Humphrey Bogart ♥). It was really awesome, but now we know for sure that he is absolutely insane. In a really good way.

The Bazaar Bizarre (craft fair) was really good too, albeit EXTREMELY crowded. It was hard to stop and look at stuff, or cross the aisle to look at a different booth, because of the constant river of people. There was a great selection of stuff from a lot of cool designers and crafters. James bought me a few belated birthday presents, and I bought for myself an awesome skein of Dream In Color Smooshy at the Imagiknit booth. I was too tired to get pictures last night but hopefully I will do that today, and I can properly credit the crafters that I supported.

My sister scored at the Swap-o-Rama-Rama in the same building…she found a plain white tank and then had it screenprinted for free. There were also sewing machines for public use so you could alter your “new to you” clothes right there.

We ate corndogs…James got a foot-long “monster” corndog (my sister and I opted for the normal size), and there was a guy mixing the batter with a drill.

There was also drivable cupcakes (click any picture to make it bigger):

Huge wooden dinosaur skeletons (remember the smaller ones you built when you were a kid??):

Belly dancers:

And a giant metal lady on fire!

There was a TON of other cool stuff. The rest of my pictures are here, or go look at the Flickr group pool of photos, because no one person could capture all of the awesomeness that was there. We had such a good time, and I can’t wait to drag more people with me next year. I can’t think of anyone who wouldn’t have a great time…there really is something for everyone.  Be sure to check it out next year, or see it in Austin in October.

 

Mmm, pie.

I got a spinning wheel! The Lady was kind enough to GIVE me one of hers – for free! It’s an Ashford Traditional, and I’m sure it’s seen many owners…but it still works beautifully and is simple enough for me to figure out. I got a quick one-hour lesson, which was enormously helpful, and since then I’ve just been learning by doing. I spun some green Corriedale for practice, and then I dove into my build-up of Spunky Eclectic club fiber. “Pie for Everyone!” seemed like a good place to start.

(click for bigger)

Can I just say that spinning on a wheel is awesome? I knew I wanted a bouncy, springy, bulky weight yarn, and that’s pretty much what I got. I spun and plied all 4oz in just a few nights, and I had so much fun while doing it. It’s not perfect, I could have given it even more twist in places, and my drafting needs work (though it’s loads better than it was with the spindle), but I love it.

Spunky Eclectic Club Roving, November 2007
100% Falkland wool
4 oz, 116 yards
something like bulky weight

I’m envisioning turning this into a squishy Urchin or Zeebee hat. I’m a little hesitant to knit it up because I love looking at it so much, but I haven’t knit with my handspun yet and I think it will be awesome.

Right before Stiches West, I sort of went through and reorganized my yarn. I had seen the Inga Hat a few weeks prior, and found some random worsted weight wool to use for it. It’s amazing how much nicer stranded knitting looks with real wool, instead of superwash.

Inga Hat (ravelry)

Leftover Cascade 220 (lavender) and Galway Highland Heather (blue)

size 3 needles

I love the braid around the bottom. My excuse for casting this on (amongst my many other projects) was so I could try out the braid as a possible embellishment for the completely ridiculous hat James wants me to make for him. I think I’m going to give this to my sister, because I never finished her second mitten for xmas and I’ll be seeing her next week. These are definitely her colors.

Just for fun, my fabulous model:

 

Stitches West 2008

I did end up going to Stitches last weekend, even though I almost backed out. I was thinking, “There’s not much I need, I don’t have anyone to go with me, I’ll just spend money, I just ordered yarn from elann.com…” But then my boss at the yarn store asked if she could ride with me so I decided that was a good enough reason. Realllllly twist my arm, right?

The only thing I knew I wanted to get was a new drop spindle…something simple and basic, lighter than 2 oz, but with a decent spin time and the ability to hold more than .25 oz of spun fiber. I love my carnelian whorl spindle from Butterfly Girl Designs, but I’m already slow at spindling and that one makes me even slower. After almost giving up, because spindles were quite scarce in the market…

…I found this lovely little Schacht spindle!

I was able to spin up THREE predrafted sections of Goblin Eyes on here, as opposed to the one I could fit on the carnelian spindle. And it went so much faster! I’ve already got this Navajo plied and will be pulling a 2 oz skein off pretty soon.

At another booth that did have spindles (but none that I was crazy about), I had the opportunity to try spinning hemp fiber. It was way easier than I thought! It drafts very easily (almost too easily…but it’s way easy to join again) and just look at these hand-dyed colors:

Fiber Fiend hand-dyed hemp pencil roving
colorway Sunset

The booth where I found my spindle was a fantastic new discovery, located right under my nose. A Verb for Keeping Warm is located right in Oakland! How did I not know this? According to the blog, her stuff will presently be available at Article Pract too. And, of course, she’s on Etsy. Here’s what I picked up with the spindle:

A Verb for Keeping Warm hand-dyed merino/tussah silk roving
colorway Branch

Pretty pretty. I was feeling so good about the hemp experience that I was confident enough to believe I can spin merino silk and not mess it up! Now I’m not so sure…

The only other thing I got was a few super cheap skeins of Berroco Ultra Alpaca. I got out for under $60 and everything I bought was either 1) relatively unique, 2) something I was planning to get, or 3) too cheap not to buy. AND I had a ton of fun with my boss, Bente. We got a full tour of the SWTC sponsor booth and drooled over tons of wool silk yarn.

I have about a million things cast on right now. My Ravelry projects page looks ridiculous with all the wips, and there’s a few I’ve been too ashamed to list. On top of that, I will be getting a spinning wheel for free in the very near future. If only sleep weren’t so essential…