brandyann

Yarn Yarn Yarn and more YARN

2011-12-17T17:44:00.000-08:00

I've continued to be on a spinning streak, I sold quite a few yarns in October, which provided the funds for more fiber and the need to restock my cubbies at Stash and the shop as well. The first one up, is a batt from Inglenook Fibers. The lady whose shop this is, is a Greek Orthodox nun who lives in a convent. I thought that was interesting.
Next up is an extreme thick and thin yarn from a continuing favorite of mine, Woolgatherings, and she is from Washington..maybe a good choice for Stash?

And this one is also from Woolgatherings, Polwarth Silk..my latest favorite roving blend.

This one is Sugar and Spice, from Unwind Yarn Company, another favorite shop of mine.

And this one is from a batt I made from some of that Shetland I bought and washed and dyed and carded with some merino and silk noil. I called it Grape Juice and Cheddar (wine and cheese for tots).

And this one isn't a great photo, but the yarn is fabulous, corespun from a Bohoknitterchic batt. I love it, it has pretty yellow mohair locks fluttering off of the main strand.

There've also been some knitted objects finished in the last couple of months, but I'll save those for the next post. This one's getting a bit long with all of the pictures. But I'm sending a big THANK YOU out to all of you who've supported my little business. You help make it possible for me to keep spinning, and spinning helps me retain sanity in this stressful time in my life!

HAPPY HOLIDAYS to you.

Spinning day at Stash

2011-11-03T15:04:00.000-07:00

Sonia and I hatched a plan for a spinning and carding day at Stash last Sunday. Amy of Anchovy Knits, and Kate (yarn soon appearing at Stash), and Tracy (yarn at Stash to the right of mine) brought drum carders and I dyed up a bunch of my fiber in anticipation of having some carder time. Here's the table covered with our stuff!
And I finally took a picture of my yarn on the shelf at Stash, though not a great picture. Lighting's beautiful, but difficult for cameras.

Here a big skein of Polwarth and Silk from Corgi Hill Farms that I finished last week, and is now in the shop. It's really squishy and soft.

Here's another shot of the Jaguar yarn, also in the shop, from Hobbledehoy. This yarn is so amazing, if you can afford Hobbledehoy, you should, but if you can't, you shouldn't get hooked :) It's just lovely, lovely, stuff.

Here's my coils, which I made Brittany (Bohoknitterchic) teach me how to do before she takes off for Montana. I can't believe she's leaving us!

And here is my prize accomplishment. A corespun merino, milk silk, mohair locks, angelina etc yarn from a batt I made Sunday with fiber I dyed myself. I called it Rumplestiltskin, though I know that's a little self-promoting, it's terribly soft and I love it so much!

And this one I made yesterday while I was home sick. Kate graciously loaned me her drum carder, and I carded up the baby teeswater and kid mohair and some other pink stuff that I got from Brittany on Sunday into a really textured batt and corespun it. It's very textured and incredibly soft. I'm calling it Baby Elephant Walk. I'll get a more detailed photo soon, but this one might end up at Stash.

2011-10-24T17:12:00.000-07:00

I have been spinning more than knitting lately, inspired by many things. I've been hanging out in a chatty, productive group of spinners on Ravelry, and seeing the really neat things produced there gives me all sorts of new ideas. The blue yarn above is just a simple single spun from an Unwind Yarn Company Batt. It's up in the shop, whereas this next one is not. This was an 8 oz braid from Frabjous Fibers, which my mother-in-law Penny, bought for my birthday on our trip to Ashland, OR.

I got almost 600 yards of light worsted out of it, and was all set to take it to Stash, our new local yarn shop, when I was influenced by others in the aforementioned spinning group to hoard it for myself.

This next yarn was created from a bunch of yearling (first shearing) BFL locks that were dyed by Uniquely Yours Design on etsy. They were adorable tiny little curly locks, but a bit matted together from dyeing, so I spent a few hours while watching tv shows pulling them apart for spinning, so this is what they looked like just before spinning.

And after I corespun them onto sock yarn, one at a time, leaving little tails hanging off, and leaving as many little curls intact as possible, it looked like this. It's really cute, and I am very proud of it, since I know how much time it took, and because it looks pretty much how I wanted it to.

This is another of my "most proud of" yarns, from a batt I bought from BohoKnitterChic Spins, at Oregon Flock and Fiber Festival. It's really textured, and a few of the fibers aren't really next to skin soft, but it's really beautiful I think. Some fluffy, some shiny, some curly, lots of my favorite colors, I love it.

And my most recent yarn, a two ply from a Hobbledehoy batt called Jaguar. This one was very soft, and it has a lot of sparkle and a bit of silk noil for texture, but I spun it fairly fine, about 12 wpi in the two ply. I'm not sure I can give this one up, but I need to pay off my new spinner, so you may see it in the shop soon.

Summer Knitting.

2011-09-17T13:03:00.001-07:00

Every summer I knit a big lace shawl or scarf. I have become a person who needs a knitting project going at all times. When there is nothing on the needles I am fidgety and worried about what I should start next. So this summer I pulled out some Misti Alpaca Lace that I received during the last Outlander group swap and looked through my queue for a suitable pattern. I found the North Roe Shawl. It was free, and it would use up at least two skeins of the yarn, so I cast on and a month later I had a largish triangle shawl. I used almost all of the two skeins, so almost 880 yds. I have seven leaves when counting from the top triangle, then two lacy leaves, then the edging. As you can see, it came out to be about as large as I think a triangle shawl needs to be. I like the pattern, simple, clear and pretty.

I have been working on knitting some art yarns, and this cowl is from my thick and thin spun from a beautiful Fleece Artist sliver that I got from a local business, Colorsong Yarn. They were kind enough to write a little blog post about it, which you can read here if you're interested.

I got a request for permission to use one of my photos on the North Roe pattern page, and I laughed when I saw that it was this one. Methinks the child is the main attraction of the photo, rather than the shawl, but she's my child, so that's fine with me. I think she's pretty adorable too.

Promotion and Sale

2011-08-22T15:42:00.000-07:00

I mentioned in my last blog post that my yarn is being featured by an etsy shop owner After the Bump. That's her facebook page link, her etsy shop is chronically sold out because her photo props and baby hats are so popular. I am very excited to have my yarn featured in one of her OOAK nights.

In anticipation of this, I've been doing some shop updating, and spinning and knitting like mad. I spun my first deliberate thick and thin yarn from a Fleece Artist roving in the Beach House colorway. It is an exquisitely soft 65%merino/35% silk blend, and the thick and thin spinning style preserved this softness. It begged to be worn next to the skin, so I made a cowl and a baby hat from it. Both of these are in the shop.
I also wanted to explain briefly how ATB's OOAK nights work. At the appointed time, 8:00 pm MST, she will upload an album of photos to her FB page of products that are ready to ship, with prices listed in each photo. The first to comment on each item with their paypal email is invoiced and then she ships out that night.

In conjunction with this event and in hopes of hitting 25 facebook fans, so I can have a "real" FB page address, I am having my first ever sale. You can get the sale coupon code at ATB's FB page tonight, or by liking my FB page, it will be posted there. It will be active for one week from tonight. Also, I am changing my shop policies to offer free shipping on all purchases over 30$. I may not get all the individual listings changed by tonight, but if you make a qualifying purchase I will refund your shipping charges.

Much Excitement!

2011-08-18T10:56:00.000-07:00

My very talented friend Kate took some more pictures for me and I love how beautiful she makes my yarn look. Her shop is The Wandering Wolf, and she's a very talented spinner and dyer as well as photographer!
We had a volunteer model last week too, anything looks beautiful on this dear friend!

She got some very pretty pictures of one of my TDF yarns, which I should be listing in the shop today.

And I finished spinning the Polwarth that I dyed with cochineal. I think it's just the neatest thing ever to dye something with wee bugs, and I love this yarn. It's springy and bouncy and terribly soft. I'm somewhat disinclined to sell it, but if I want to continue playing with fiber, I must have funding!

My most exciting news is that my yarn will be debuting in a OOAK night next Monday by a fiber artist who uses handspun yarn to make photo props for babies. Adorable stuff! If you'd like to see, it will be hosted on her facebook page. After the Bump next Monday the 22nd at 8 pm MST. She will be using my green and purple handspun, and there is still a skein of it available in the shop.

My first "event" as a vendor, and some more TDF yarns

2011-07-26T19:57:00.000-07:00

Thanks to the generosity of my friend http://www.etsy.com/shop/thewanderingwolf?ref=ss_profile Kate from Wandering Wolf (blogger and it's link issues are driving me mad,) I was able to participate in an event called Albany Crazy Daze, or Days..not sure the actual title. My participation forced me to do some things I'd not done until then, such as make some ball bands and labels for my handknits, and make some business cards. I won't say they ended up being terribly beautiful, but they were accurate and informative.

The event fortunately was fairly inexpensive to enter, because it turned out to be less than ideal for vendors of handmade yarn and knits. Most of the people who came through were not the kind of people who are willing to pay extra for getting unique items made by local artisans, and there was a Scentsy booth down the way, which, in my opinion, doesn't belong in an artisans market. I did sell one item, which paid for my part of the booth, and I learned some things about where I want to be in the future. I also had a fun day hanging out with my friends.

And here are some of the yarns I spun from the wooly cupcakes I got from the Wool Peddlerhttp://www.etsy.com/shop/stefknits?ref=ss_profile. I love the results I get, even from the groups I think I will dislike.

All these have been listed in the shop along with a couple handknits from my handspun yarn.http://www.etsy.com/shop/brandyann

Tour de Fleece 2011: Day 1 and 2

2011-07-04T10:57:00.000-07:00

I'm desperately trying to keep up with posting pictures of what I'm spinning, spinning itself, and posting new things in my etsy shop. I'm pretty sure if I let it pile up, it will be too overwhelming to tackle! I started off Saturday morning of TdF with a treat, a llama and angora luxury batt from Plum Crazy Ranch (http://www.etsy.com/shop/PlumCrazyRanchFiber?ref=ss_profile) that I bought at Black Sheep Gathering last weekend. ( I'm not sure what the deal is with blogger lately, but between being unable to load photos about 75% of the time lately, and now not allowing me to highlight and hyperlink properly, I'm tempted to switch blog hosts.)

Anyway, back to the point, I really enjoyed this stuff, there was only one ounce of it, and very textured, which is why I started with it. I tend to get stuck in the rut that many spinners seem to, spinning thinner and thinner yarns just because we can. I firmly believe that we as handspinners should be doing what we do best, which is create something a machine cannot. I understand that there is a sense of accomplishment in having the skill to spin a very fine yarn, I do it sometimes myself, and I understand that sometimes it is appropriate to what we are spinning for, perhaps a lace shawl, or socks, which require finer gauge yarns. I just spun a laceweight single ply for a shawl, and got great color sequences, so I'm not knocking the spinning of fine yarns in general, just saying that in my own spinning life, I'm at the point where I'm trying to develop range. I want to be able to spin a variety of styles and weights of yarn, and since I tend to be a little obsessive when I get focused on something, this batt was intended to break me out of my thinner and thinner yarn rut, and it did, with a bang. This yarn is bumpy and colorful and probably the softest stuff I have even spun. And fluffy, poufy, just all around WOW! My pictures don't do it justice, but then, when do pictures ever adequately capture yarn, it must be touched as well as seen to be fully experience, but since I can't hand it to you through the computer monitor, you'll just have to trust me.

Next I spun some angora and silk, and I haven't got the picture for that right here, but I bring it up because although it was equally soft, though much smoother while I spun it, when I soaked it and hung to dry to set the twist it got hard and stiff. Does anyone know what happened? I'm going to look into it.

On day 2 I opened up my 1 lb bag of wooly cupcakes and sorted them into colors that sort of went together, and then I started with this batch. I am the kind of person who always saves the best for last, so this is what looked like my least favorite colors.

Oddly enough, they turned out a beautiful yarn. This is why I am on my second one lb bag of these things. They have produced some of my loveliest handspun ever, though I can't take the credit. If you want some for yourself, go on over to Wool Peddler on etsy, she'll set you up.

I tried a new thing with this yarn that was suggested by the Plum Crazy Ranch lady (owner?) at Black Sheep Gathering, I was bemoaning the high cost of extra bobbins for the Hansen mini Spinners (49$! do you believe it?), and looking at a pretty electric spinner she had there in the booth, and she said she never plies from the bobbins anyway, she likes to ply with the fiber in the same direction as it was spun in, so she winds each ply off the bobbin into a ball and plys from the outside of the ball. She said it creates a more balanced and softer/smoother yarn. I did that with this yarn, and it is very lovely, though since I didn't do any of it my usual way, I don't have something to compare to. This yarn is extremely sproingy and soft, as are all the cupcakes I have spun up so far. They are always a mix of BFL, fine merino, and sometimes tencel. I have one more skein from Day 2, but the pictures aren't great yet, so I'll save it for the next post.

Happy Spinning everyone, I'm having a blast participating in my first Tour de Fleece. I keep looking at all the pretty fiber, clicking through to the fiber shop, and then talking myself out of more fiber, I'm pretty sure I have 3-4 lbs of fiber to go before I actually need more!

Grace Lace Beret

2011-07-01T16:40:00.000-07:00

I have been a negligent blogger for a long time now, and I wish I had a great explanation or a more graceful way of jumping back in. Wait, I have the Grace Lace Beret. I would link to the Ravelry page, but Blogger won't allow me to hyperlink, I can get the pop up box, but I can't highlight the text. If anyone knows how to fix that, I'd love to know~

Having an etsy shop has made me more interested in what a knitter can make for the summer months, and I thought a lacy hat out of a non-wool yarn would be just the thing. This hat is made out of Berocco Remix, which I love despite the somewhat high non-natural fiber content. 30%Nylon/27%Cotton/24%Acrylic/10%Silk/9%Linen and all recycled fiber, if you haven't tried it yet, you should.

I had to adjust the number of repeats to fit the gauge of the yarn and my head. I started with 48 stitches, which doubles to 96 on row 2. I really enjoyed this cast-on method, but I don't know what it is called. You start with a crochet chain provisional cast on, then K1 yo for the next row, then there are two rounds of double knitting I think, where you are slipping all the knits, then all the purls on the next row, then you start with regular K1P1 ribbing. Anyway, if someone knows what it is called I'd love to have the name for it.

I do love this hat, and I made two, so I may put one in the shop, so someone else with a big head (literally not figuratively) can have a properly slouchy hat.

A bit of catch-up

2011-01-22T18:14:00.000-08:00

I have been knitting more than blogging lately, but I decided to try and catch up a bit. I started knitting socks again. I didn't for a long time because I have such weirdly shaped feet after all my surgeries that most women's sock patterns seemed unlikely to fit. Up to this point I had only knitted top-down socks. I have a Lucy Neatby book, Cool Socks Warm Feet, which helped me with directions for the short-row garter heel and I finally sat down with the youtube video, and learned Judy's Magic Cast-on, so now I think I am a convert to toe-up socks just so I have an excuse to keep using it. I had to increase right before the heel and also do the heel on more than half the stitches to accomodate my high instep on the right foot, but not the left. I did a leg pattern that is sort of a fisherman's rib adaptation. I am quite happy with these socks and went on to knit another pair soon thereafter. I took a class at our LYS about stranded knitting and made this Opus Spicatum by Kate Gagnon Osborne using Mirasol Miski, an incredibly soft yarn that is 100% llama. It is not very slouchy on my large head, but it went to my sister-in-law Carolyn for Christmas, and it looks great on her.

I learned to knit with both hands finally, and though it was awkward in the beginning, it was loads of fun once I got going and I made a second Opus that I'll talk about later.

I also made a Lotus Hat that Alexa loves out of Eco Alpaca, and she wears it often, so it has been one of my most rewarding knits this fall. I finally made something out of some Plymouth Baby Alpaca Grande that used to be a hat that was too large for my head. I knit it from the top down in a broken rib pattern and liked the way it looked on the wrong side best. This one went to my nephew Christopher for Christmas.

And finally, one of the prettiest pictures of my yarn ever, taken by my friend Kate.

This is some nice stuff I got at Black Sheep from a lady whose business is New Hue Handspuns. It is an 80-20 mix of merino and angora. I got 344 yards of laceweight out of it, and I love it so much I priced it a little high in my etsy shop.

FO: Idlewood

2010-10-26T19:42:00.001-07:00

I finished this pullover about a week and a half ago, but couldn't get someone to take photos until today. (Thank you Susan) The pattern is called Idlewood by Cecily Glowik MacDonald. It is knit from the top down raglan style. There are some waist decreases and hip increases to make it fit nicely. I had only to adjust the length to the hip increases (decreased by one inch) to make it fit perfectly. I think this is the first sweater I have made that I am entirely pleased with.

The yarn is Noro Vintage, which I think is being discontinued. If so, it's a pity, since it softened and bloomed upon washing into a gorgeous, soft, very wearable yarn. The angora sheds a bit, but gives it a lovely halo.

You can even wear the cowl as a hood when Oregon weather opens up with buckets of water on your head and you dressed for the weather an hour ago when it was sunny.

Great project, I have worn it three times already in about 1.5 weeks! Make one for yourself!

I have been knitting and spinning both

2010-10-18T17:24:00.000-07:00

Although the number of blog entries would seem to contradict that premise. I bought some smaller amounts of more costly fiber at BSG this year. This is one of those, a roving from Dicentra Designs. Made of a beautifully dyed blend of 60%Merino 20%Cashmere and 20% Angora, it is very soft to the touch, and was a bit challenging to spin. I had the same issue with this one that I had with the merino and yak blend I tried to spin a while back. They tended to have long easy to spin bits, the merino, and then bits of short fuzzy fibers, the angora I assume. I am not sure which section the cashemere was..I'll have to look up staple length. This blend seemed to be a bit less problematic, possibly due to better blending of fibers, or maybe this is just an easier composition. I was able to spin it into a reasonable yarn, a bit more thick and thin than I intended, but still fairly nice. I got about 188 yds of 12-24 wpi yarn from 2 oz. I think it's effectively laceweight.

This blue one is from a lovely multi-hued roving I bought at OFFF in 2009. I don't know what it is for sure, but am pretty sure it is a good quality wool, since it is soft and smells wooly. I bought it from a lady who was selling her mother's stash after her death, and this wasn't labeled. I tried to make a very lightly spun single ply yarn, and am quite pleased with this result. It's about 6-10 wpi, and divided into two skeins. 175 yds:4 5/8oz and 128 yds:2 7/8oz or a total of 303 yards and 7.5 oz. According to the yarn approximation chart in my Spin to Knit book, that is in the bulky category and we can expect it to knit at 3-4 st/in on a size 10-11 needle.

Sorry for all the gory details for those of you who don't much care, but I am preparing to put some things in my etsy shop, and want to have accurate details recorded somewhere I can find later!

These are a pair of simple fingerless gloves made from a single skein of Elizabeth Lavold Silky Flamme. Michelle started carrying it in the shop a while ago, and it was so pretty and shiny I kept stopping to look, and when I picked up a skein of my current favorite color, and it was called Brandywine (or something like,) it had to come home with me. It is kind of thick and thin and there are only 82yds in a skein. I wanted to use all of it, so these were a good choice.

I also knitted a Kookhaas hat, but I have lost it somewhere, so until I locate it, there won't be photos.

Mini Mochi Hat

2010-09-25T13:26:00.000-07:00

Apparently this pattern is actually called the Mini Mochi Rainbow Rings Hat, and it is a free pattern which uses one ball of Mini Mochi. There was a sample in Fiber Nooks and Crannys, and it fit my large head perfectly, so the pattern author is correct and helpful in the pattern notes where she mentions that you may need to alter it a bit if your head is not large. I really loved knitting this, the changing colors, the very soft single ply yarn and the variety of stitch patterns combined to hold my interest the whole way through, and I may knit a few more before Christmas!

I don't know how this yarn holds up for socks, which it seems to be intended for, as it has 20% nylon in it, but it is perfect for a hat, and the ball band says it is washable. Anyone have experience with it?

The slouch hat

2010-09-20T19:22:00.000-07:00

I found an awesome hat pattern and just couldn't seem to stop. Due to the backwards way blogger uploads photos, I am showing you first the second hat I knit. This is from some hand spun yarn of mine from a batt I bought from WearMoa's Fiber shop I am very pleased with the blend of colors and the lovely, soft texture of the resulting yarn.

The first hat I made from this pattern turned out so well that I had to make another, and I had just the right amount of this yarn, and it knit up to exactly the right gauge, so it was meant to be.

The pattern is called Slouch Hat, and I like the way it is exactly what is says it is, a slouchy hat. the decreases are more rapid than in a beret and this creates a gathered top rather than a flat one, and helps it be more evenly puffed around the head.

The Eco Duo yarn by Cascade is wonderful, it is one of the softest things I have ever felt, and believe me, I spend a lot of time feeling yarn! This brown one is made exactly to pattern, with a little i-cord on top, and a little band with two buttons on the side. I omitted these two details in my other two.

This third on is made with Lion Brand Amazing, a lovely looking yarn, but almost half acrylic, and I can tell while knitting with it. It is lovely to wear, and looks quite nice, but it has none of wool's elasticity.

I have a lot of pictures of this hat in an effort to accurately portray the color, but I am not sure I was successful in the end.

Alexa has recently started a love affair with hats, and she wanted to wear one on Saturday, though it was far too warm in the house to be wearing an alpaca hat, she wore it for over two hours before pulling it off.

She likes to be a part of any photo session, and I should definitely let her, she is far more photogenic than I am!

Drums of Autumn Sporran

2010-08-10T09:01:00.000-07:00

I have participated again in a swap with the Outlander group on Ravelry, and received my swap package last week. It is so awesome that someone I only know via Ravelry and shared interest in a series of books can put together such an awesome package for me! She wrapped it all up in individual packages. The pattern is called Lilas and is a very nice short-sleeved sweater. I got an awesome bag. Nice and big with long handles for wearing over the shoulder for my farmer's market forays.

A beautiful little shawlette that she made with a shawl stick/pin to hold it on. It is beautiful and soft and I love that someone else knit something for me!

The rest of the goodies include some lovely pink alpaca lace yarn, which I love. It is so soft and the heathered color is gorgeous. A book called "A Midwife's Tale" based on the diary of an 18th-early 19th century midwife! A lovely little wooden needle gauge with a cat on it. Some chocolate, which is mostly gone at this point, and some "simples from Jenny" (teas).

A huge thank you to my spoiler stickpixie aka Aislin Mac! I love everything, you have been so kind to put it together for me!

A wonderful package from the MacKenzies

2010-07-20T14:46:00.000-07:00

I am participating in a Ravelry swap in the Outlander group for fans of Diana Gabaldon's excellent series of books. As part of the swap we do 'Highland Games" and I won the MacKenzie clans challenge by completing the game for the full points and then getting my name drawn from a hatful of other successful competitors. The MacKenzies sent me a package for this! I was really excited. This is what they sent: Beautiful purple Malabrigo yarn, and the pattern for Ishbel, some cute stitch markers,

Chocolate galore, a tin of Nivea creme (like body butter, lovely!), a scented candle,

a beautiful handmade pincushion,

And a Namaste needle case that is just gorgeous, and will go so well with my Namaste bag!

So a big huge THANK YOU to Clan MacKenzie, and particularly Stacie/Seonag, who sent me this awesome day brightening gift! You are awesome!

FO: Aran Coat for Alexa

2010-04-27T09:52:00.000-07:00

I have spent long months on this project, although part of the time it was put aside while I knit other things. This is my first Elizabeth Zimmerman project, and although I have all her books and love to read them, I knew I would have to think carefully about what I was doing if I wanted to do it well, so I kept putting that off. I wanted to knit this aran coat because I loved the ribbon cable design on it, but the original coat is knitted from bulky wool and would totally dwarf my daughter. And we live in a fairly temperate part of Oregon, so we don't need quite that much warmth. I got 5 skeins of this lovely color of Cascade 22o Superwash on sale at our local craft store, and I did a gauge swatch in the round of the ribbon cable, which after washing was 6.5 st/in so I thought I would do a sleeve first to further check gauge and to get in the swing of things. I cast on 50 stitches at the wrist and set up the cable pattern using a sc (small 2 stitch cable) at the underarm where the seam would be and a small cable at the top of the sleeve also (which would eventually go all the way to the neck on the saddle shoulder,) and a ribbon cable and a what I call a herringbone cable and EZ calls a fishbone on each side. So starting at the underarm, sc, P2, SF (what I call a ribbon and EZ calls a sheepfold), P2, HB, P2, sc, P2, HB, P2, SF, P2.

I wanted a steady increase up the arm so I increase 2 stitches every 14 rows into the purl section on either side of the underarm sc to 60 stitches total and the arm a total of 12 inches long to underarm. I did want a sweater to go down past her hips a bit and to give her space to move, so I cast on enough stitches to give her 6 inches of ease relative to her "bust" and then decreased down to 3 inches of ease at underarm.

The body has a few extra 2 stitch cables to fill up the extra space between the ribbons and herringbones. I had an extra 2 stitch cable on either side of the side cables and I always twisted those toward the side they were close to. These were decreased eventually to a single twisted stitch, and then out of existence toward the underarm. I merged the sleeves and body at the yoke and managed to place half a herringbone up the sleeve decreases as EZ does in hers, but after I got up to the place where she recommends reversing the direction of the decreases to make the shoulder more round, I got impatient and just started the saddle. I do wish I had followed her advice because the shoulder is too sharp and creates a bump at the junction of sleeve and shoulder top.

I decided to omit the hood because I didn't think Alexa would actually use it, so I did a little mandarin collar instead. (Should mandarin be capitalized here?) Then it was time to actually cut the front open. These were my first steeks, so I was a little nervous, and the yarn is pretty smooth so I definitely wanted to stabilize it. I found a YouTube video of crocheted steeks, and it seemed sensible and more stable than doing it on a sewing machine, so I did that method. Then I picked up along the front at 2 stitches for every three rows, did garter stitch for about an inch and did a regular bind off. I whip stitched the little steeked flap down on the inside.

I like the look of the button loops and toggle buttons, but making them the way EZ recommends seemed a little flimsy, at least with my much thinner yarn, so I crocheted some chain loops for the buttons, which worked well until Alexa started putting her finger in the loop and pulling on it.

Sometimes things that work perfectly well in my imagination prove impractical in the face of Alexa's destructive ingenuity.

I may end up undoing the facing and replacing it with actual buttonholes and regular flat buttons of some sort. I am also kind of puzzled by the gaping open of the front. She should have about 3" positive ease, so why the gaping? Recommendations?

And this last one is just a shot of my adorable daughter who may be a difficult model for the sweater, but is so adorable I can't get mad at her for it!

I used a little under 4 skeins of yarn and size 6 needles. The pattern is called Aran Coat WG39 on ravelry. (Which I just now figured out stands fro Wool Gathering #39, which I believe is where it was first published.)

FO: Alexa's Unmentionable's Reprise

2010-04-23T08:23:00.000-07:00

I started these last month when I needed a simple project to take to knit night. The Aran Coat was too complicated to work on while chatting in a low light situation. I have had the yarn for several years, since I bought it at a sale at FNC. Since then I have discovered that I don't really love elasticized yarn, or very textured yarn either, but I did love the color and I had about 5 skeins of it, which was perfect for this. Alexa's previous pair of Unmentionables have received so many compliments, and she wore them for two summers, so it seemed like a great thing to make a second time. The yarn is Classic Elite Star. I made them a little narrower than the original because Alexa is so skinny, I cast on 72 stitches for each leg.

I omitted the lace, since I thought it wouldn't look very impressive in this yarn, and it is a lot of work. I did an inch of seed stitch at the bottom of the ruffle. I love this pattern because it is seamless. You start with a provisional cast on and move up from the bottom of the legs, I grafted the stitches between the legs with Kitchener stitch. Then you pick up from the provisional cast on and do the ruffle.

I also added a drawstring to hold them up better, last time I used elastic, but it showed through the waistband, so this time I did an I-cord. I hope it works, it's very hard to keep pants on when you are this thin and have no behind!

FO: Peak's Island Hood

2010-03-18T16:30:00.000-07:00

Today the weather was beautiful and my husband home, so we managed to get some nicer photos of my Peak's Island Hood. Another pattern by Ysolda, that I chose to make in Dale of Norway Harlequin. The yarn is a lovely soft tweedy green that is perfect in every way except gauge, but it wasn't totally critical for this project, so I went with it. It seems truly hard for me to find a good yarn at 16st/4"! I love the look of seed stitch, even if I don't totally love knitting it, but since this wasn't a huge project, totally manageable. Some lovely wood buttons were found at my LYS to finish it off. I sewed them back to back with other buttons to stabilize them. I still need to tighten down the buttonholes a bit, they tend to come undone very easily.

I know it's a bit odd to model a woolly scarf in a t-shirt on a nice day!

The hood tends to fall down easily too..not sure how to fix that.

I have a bit leftover from the fourth skein of yarn, so the yardage estimation seems right. As another person mentioned I would recommend knitting a few more rows on the short end of the scarf, just before the buttonholes. I think this would make it drape and fit better. Altogether I would say I am 4 out of 5 stars pleased with the FO.

FO: Damson

2010-03-05T10:12:00.000-08:00

I finally figured out how I wanted to edge Damson. I didn't like the plain bound off edge that I ended up with after I ran out of yarn. I did have a 450 yard skein, but I didn't have a size 6 needle, so I used a size 7. Yep, seems like I didn't think it out ahead of time as usual, but it is logical that a larger needle size is going to use more yarn. Dumb! Anyway, I tried a bunch of knitted lace edgings from my Nicky Epstein book yesterday, but none of them looked right, they were too lacy, and this shawl is more simple. I finally decided to pull out a book and work on a crocheted edge. One thing I appreciate about crochet edging is that you can easily try a little bit and see how it looks immediately. With a knitted border it seems like you have to knit the whole thing before you know whether you like it or not. So I wanted a border that was a little bitty scallop, sort of like the edging Ysolda put on it in the first place. I wanted at least one row of sc before the scallop, but I don't like the way sc looks at the pick-up row, so I ended up doing one row of reverse sc, which I liked better. Then I did the scallop by sc 1, ch 3, then sc 1 into the second stitch out (skipping one). Or (ch 3, sc1)into every other stitch of the row of reverse sc. I hope one of those descriptions makes sense! :) I'm not experienced at describing crochet.

I like the result. My daughter modeled for me, and she is getting to be a bit of a ham for the camera.

So, to sum up. This is Damson from Ysolda. I used Pagewood Farms Yukon Hand Dyed Sock Yarn in the Camo colorway, which I think is a horrible name for a beautiful yarn, one skein. Size 7 needles, edging in Opal sock yarn, brown.Isn't it pretty? I love it.

Next up is another Ysolda pattern project!

And guess who I ran into in the post office this week? JC Briar! Yes, I totally walked up and introduced myself, she was mailing a pair of mittens, and I was mailing yarn I sold in my Etsy shop! Another reason I am really happy this week. (This is only my 3rd Etsy sale so I still get pretty thrilled.) So it appears that JC Briar lives in my town, and I didn't even know this! I wonder if anyone else in my town did? (In my local knitting community.) I was able to mention that I saw her name on the list of teachers for KnitNation in London in July. I feel like a bit of a stalker..eek!

Finished Damson

2010-02-26T12:21:00.000-08:00

This is not my official FO post, just a quick pic to show I finished for Ravelympics!

FO: Laminaria

2010-01-14T15:33:00.000-08:00

I never did obtain really awesome photos of this shawlette. It has been mostly grey and rainy here lately. I had my sister-in-law Carolyn take some on New Year's Eve, so that's what we'll go with. This is Laminaria, and it is really incredible. The yarn is Malabrigo Merino Lace, and so incredibly light and soft. It is a lightly spun single and feels so wonderful on your skin. The shawl pattern uses some Estonian lace stitches that I have never seen before. The design is clever in a way you may not notice unless you knit it or get to see one in person. The first section at the top uses a star stitch where you decrease and increase three stitches simultaneously, which creates a section that is relatively dense and thick, especially considering the lightness of the yarn it is knit with. The next section, the blossom chart uses some 2-into-9 stars which convert two stitches into nine stitches, and this section does pucker the fabric a bit, but is not as dense as the star chart. Both kinds of stars are a bit tiresome to knit, and this is why I am glad I knit the smaller one.

The final section is the edging, and it is very light and airy and uses the kinds of stitches I am more familiar with. I love the way the dense base sort of flows and thins outward into a fluttery edge.

Because of all these crazy stitches, the shawl comes out a bit small than others that use a similar amount of yarn. I blocked it out as firmly as possible, but it seems to have shrunk a bit since these photos were taken. If you want a medium sized shawl, you'd better do the bigger one, this one is more of a neck kerchief.

FO: Five Christmas presents

2009-12-31T12:17:00.000-08:00

I was knitting like made in December to finish gifts, and haven't posted any of them, so here's a quick update. Most of the pictures aren't great, so bear with me.
Here are Knucks made for my niece Sophia, with Eco Alpaca that we skeined out and dyed to get stripes. A quick hat for myself, the Side Slip Cloche from Boutique Knits made with the free sample of Berocco Vintage we got at the Sock Summit Ravelry party!

The Sock Monkeys from the Blue Moon Fiber Arts Funky Sock Monkey kit that I got at the booth at OFFF.

Knucks made for my nephew Jamie, also Eco Alpaca dyed to his color choice.

And a lace scarf from the Debbie Bliss Pure Silk book made from Royal Bamboo for my sister.

And I just finished the Laminaria today, but it is still blocking, so I will show you the last project of 2009 when it is dry and photographed!

My Sporran

2009-11-29T10:19:00.000-08:00

I received my package yesterday from my spoiler in the Voyager Swap I am participating in. Neila put together an awesome sporran for me, beginning with some stitch markers with thistles on the beads. Here we have a group shot, some Whiskey Fudge (which doesn't have any chocolate in it to my surprise, but it does have a good strong whiskey flavor!), a cute patterned tin of tea which smells wonderful, a teapot cozy in a gorgeous yarn, a tea measuring scoop, and a pattern and yarn from Patternworks for a cowl/hood project.

And this gorgeous Chinese porcelain teacup with a lid and a built in strainer. I love all of my gifts, but this one the most!

And last but certainly not least, some authentic Scottish treats, ginger border biscuits and caramel chocolate wafer bars, both actually made in Scotland. How fun is that.

And here is my teapot wearing its cozy. I explained to my husband that a teapot is one thing which actually needs a cozy to keep the tea hot longer.

I love my package Neila, THANK YOU!

Purple and Green Handspun

2009-11-23T15:42:00.000-08:00

I finished spinning the purple and green stuff that I dyed at Amy's party. It looks better than I expected it to. I think these colors will make something cute for my daughter. I have about 300 yds of it, about worsted weight. It is softer in the yarn than it seemed in the roving. I still don't know what kind of wool it is, but it doesn't matter too much.

FO: Dane Shawl

2009-11-11T10:12:00.000-08:00

I finished another alpaca shawlette last week, so I thought I'd better get it on the blog! I really love these little shawls for so many reasons; they are quick, fun because of the lace, a little bit fancier than a scarf (in my opinion), surprisingly warm, I can wear it instead of a hoodie on a cool day. If you haven't got at least 5 or ten of these, get busy, there's no excuse, there are so many free ones available. This one took just over two skeins of Frog Tree alpaca sportweight. The pattern is a free one from Jane Tanner called the Dane Shawl. I did have a bit of a hard time with this one because of all the purling involved, she has altered the original oriel lace pattern from the Barbara Walker book to improve the appearance of the wrong side. (All pictures here are of the right side.) I don't think the wrong side looks that great either way, but my yarn is kind of fuzzy, so maybe in a smoother yarn it would matter more.

I do love the way she increased the row before the bind off so there isn't a problem with tightness in the bind off, she also did a neat method of binding off, but I don't know the name of it, so you'll have to look for yourself.

I used a size six needle, and did not alter the pattern in any way.

Starship Scarf

2009-11-03T09:04:00.000-08:00

A few months back I developed a fascination for some of the art yarn that my friend Bohoknitterchic (ety shop here) was making, and at the same time, began noticing that my spinning was becoming a little too uniform, and somewhat boring. So I looked around etsy and found a neat little shop called Moa HandKnits Fiber Shop. I purchased this textured batt from her called Starship. It says it only contains kid mohair, but there is also a little bit of what looks like silk noils (according to Britney). Little puffs of orange stuff. I had a little trouble spinning it at first, I was still being a bit OCD about my spinning, and was trying to spin it very fine. I asked Britney about it, and she suggested letting it be a big larger diameter, and sort of letting the fiber control the spinning a little bit. So I relaxed a bit, and stopped trying to turn my textured batt into a perfect, smooth yarn, and came out with this.

I still wasn't too sure about it, but my Ravelry knit night friend assured me that it was really neat, and so I took some pictures and got ready to put it in my etsy shop. Then I couldn't figure out how to describe it, the wpi was quite variable throughout the skein, and I just didn't know if it was good enough to sell. I finally decided a couple of weeks ago to knit it into a scarf.

I knit a simple squishy ribbed scarf from it with a flare at each end, and it is very pretty after all, and amazingly soft. I love the contrast between its rough appearance and soft feel. I can easily wear it around my neck without itchiness.

So I put it in my etsy shop after all!

It was somewhat difficult to photograph, so I look very pale in the photo, but the scarf is accurately depicted.

Amy's Hand-Painting Party

2009-10-26T12:36:00.001-07:00

We had a wonderful dyeing party at Amy's house in Monmouth Saturday. The weather was gorgeous, which was surprising after a day of rain on Friday, so we were able to take over the back yard as well as the house. Here is Donna, who I have to call Queen of the Dye pot. She taught herself most of what she knows, and we all benefited from her help. She also brought the camp stove, a bazillion acid dye colors, and a bunch of other things we were grateful to use. Stephanie brought something like 6000 (yes, really) yards of very fine cotton yard which she dyed with a tie-dye kit. She got some great colors out of it, nothing neon, which was what I would have expected from a tie-dye kit!

Anne and Amanda watching Amanda inject dye into her merino, it came out a really lovely amber color.

Jocelyn, well I can't recall exactly what she was doing here. Possibly squeezing excess liquid out of her sausage. So many off-color jokes available here, but I will refrain.

Laia, who has resolved not to mix beer and dye and yarn in the future. (I don't know why, it was kind of fun to watch.)

My roving, which came out more Jello colored than I intended, but I do have a 5 year old who can wear stuff like this.

Amanda and Donna trying to get the merino out of the dye pot.

I think I can safely say that we all had a great time!

FO:Cupcake hat

2009-10-18T12:48:00.000-07:00

Here is the yarn I spun from some BFL locks I purchased at Oregon Flock and Fiber Festival a couple of weeks ago. I opened them up a bit with a hair pick and tried to leave some curls sticking out a bit. There was quite a lot of dirt in them which got all over me whenever I was working on it. I also washed it in 3 sinks of water after that, and there were still some small bits of stuff in it, but it was so pretty I wanted to knit something with it.I spent the better part of this week trying to figure out what I could make with it, and after a bit of trial and error I decided to make the top of a hat with it.

I wrote all the details on the Ravelry page, and don't feel like rewriting them here, so I'll just show you the result. A hat which to me resembles a cupcake. Unfortunately I am a bit too old to look cute in a cupcake hat, but I still like it because I love the yarn.

I knit the bottom in Ultra Alpaca that I had leftover, and finished it off with an I-cord bind-off.

FO's: One Day Beret and Bunny Ears Hat

2009-10-05T11:11:00.000-07:00

I have been slow on the knitting of my sweaters lately because I was distracted by a couple of side projects. I found this funny yarn at my LYS in the free bin, Esslinger Wolle Geisha, and fell in love with it despite its rather low natural fiber content (85% acrylic, 15% mohair.) For some reason I love this color too. The photos aren't showing it very accurately I am afraid. I decided to knit Kirsten Kapur's One Day Beret. Even with my enlargments, it still isn't quite as floppy as I thought it would be, and the edge isn't as defined. Part of the problem is the yarn, I think you need to be knitting a pretty tight gauge so the fabric is more stiff, and I wasn't. I also didn't block this because I thought it pointless to block a mostly acrylic yarn, but if that isn't true, please let me know!

I knit a bunny ears hat for my friend Dana who wants to photograph newborns in it. I made this one out of Peter Pan Double Knit yarn (by Wendy.) Again a nylon/acrylic blend so as to be sure it won't itch the baby. Since it is to be used first with a boy I used i-cord ties instead of ribbon. They do need the ties for the ears to look right.

Next on the schedule is a bear ears hat.

FO: Tuxedo Tank

2009-09-10T15:43:00.000-07:00

I wanted to make at least one truly summery project this summer, so I chose this one, the Sleeveless Tuxedo Shirt, by Theresa Schabes, Interweave Knits, Summer 2008. I decided to make it with Elizabeth Lavold Hempathy, which is a lovely yarn, and this is a beautiful green color, but difficult to photograph accurately. Even with a bit of color adjustment it isn't quite as irresistible a color as it is in person. Having run into trouble knitting with plant fiber yarn before (see Molly Ringwald vest for some of the gory details if you wish,) I was very careful to knit and wash a gauge swatch for this, and then to account for the way the yarn changes. As expected the swatch expanded horizontally, and shrunk vertically, and this yarn was just not going to give me the gauge the pattern demanded, so I ended up knitting the smallest size with regard to stitch counts, and my size (39) with regard to vertical directions, plus an adjustment for the way it was going to change when I washed it.

And in the end, it was worth it, the shirt is exactly the right size, the only problems remaining are the tendency of the buttons to come undone with hardly any provocation, a problem I intend to remedy by sewing them closed, and the way the beautiful drapey linen-like fabric hugs my extra um, well, curves...I am undecided about whether to give it to someone whose figure can stand up to the fabric, or to keep it and hope that faithful daily swimming changes my figure enough to wear it well.

It is really bloody cute, I love the crochet ruffles and the lace panels in front. I learned a lot of cool tricks with this sweater too. For example, to weave ends in on a reverse stockinette stitch garment, the trick is to go horizontally, so that if they peek through, they just look like another of the little horizontal edges of the stitches. I learned how to p2tog tbl..not something to do for fun, but fascinating the way it looks like a k2tog on the other side of the fabric. If you don't like seaming and finishing, this is not the project for you. I imagine you could knit in the round for the body, but there are two rows of sc around the bottom, and rows around the armholes and neck. It took several hours of finishing to actually finish.

All in all I call it a success, a Ravelry happy face. The project bears no responsibility for my figure flaws after all.

Save the Knittn' Kitten

2009-09-04T08:29:00.000-07:00

Just to let you know, there is a cool craft thrift shop in Portland called Knittn' Kitten that Leethal is on a campaign to save..read all about it on her blog. I haven't even been there, but it sounds pretty awesome.

FO: Just Enough Ruffles

2009-08-31T09:53:00.000-07:00

I have finished another wintry project in August, and I still can't explain exactly why, except that it was more fun than the miles of stockinette the tank top requires. I bought this lovely LSS (Luscious Single Silk) yarn by Blue Moon Fiber Arts at the booth at Black Sheep Gathering. It cost about 30$, but there is 500 yards in the skein, and it was so soft, I finally went for it.It is a 50:50 Merino Silk single ply yarn, and I picked the colorway Beached.
I had a hard time deciding what to make with it, since I wanted to use it all, and 500 yards of a worsted weight yarn is somehow an awkward amount. While browsing through Ravelry's pattern suggestion list, I saw this scarf, and since it was already in my queue, I decided upon Laura Chau's Just Enough Ruffles scarf pattern.

Having just finished the Milkweed Shawl, I am presently quite enamored of Laura Chau, so I decided I would make something else with the rest of the yarn and cast on for this. I cast on 240 stitches to make up for the gauge difference, and after a few weeks I had this lovely scarf.

The yarn feels so lovely against my neck that I am tempted to wear it even now in the summer.

I unfortunately was wearing a badly clashing shirt when I seized the opportunity of getting photos taken this morning. I thought it wouldn't matter much, but the eyes really cannot focus well on the variegated scarf against the red checked shirt. It is really unfortunate, since for once we managed to get some photos with a fairly normal expression on my face. And only once did David say "Your face looks funny." To which I replied, "It would be more polite and accurate to say, "You have a funny expression on your face" I swear he sometimes takes the stereotype of the socially inept physicist to new heights!

Pattern: Just Enough Ruffles by Laura Chau

Modifications: Cast on 240 stitches rather than 200

Yarn: Blue Moon Fiber Arts Luscious Single Silk in Beached

FO: Shetland Triangle

2009-08-25T12:48:00.000-07:00

I finally made the ever popular Shetland Triangle Shawl by Evelyn Clark from the Wrap Style book. I used the laceweight alpaca that I mentioned in the previous post. This will be a Christmas present for my MIL, Penny, who was with me when I bought the fiber, and who hurt her elbow trying to use the hand carders to process it. We managed about half of what we bought with the hand carders, and that is the slightly lumpy green stuff that I also showed you previously.

The rest of it I sent off to Fantasy Fibers to be carded into a thin roving, which spun up into this fuzzy 2-ply yarn. I used a size four needle instead of the 8's called for in the pattern because I used laceweight instead of fingering weight, and I managed an extra five repeats of the body pattern before beginning the edging. I did have to omit two rows of the edging because I ran low on yarn, so possibly should have only done 4 extra repeats, but I wanted to use up as much of the yarn as I could and I wanted the shawl to be as large as possible.

I had some trouble getting good photographs, for some reason the color is difficult and my camera is over exposing things, so they all have to be edited to increase the contrast. I am not sure if there is something on my camera I could change to alleviate this or not.

I had fun with Alexa, she looks adorable in it. Of course I think she is adorable anyway, so it doesn't have a lot to do with the shawl!

Sock Summit: The people

2009-08-10T12:34:00.000-07:00

If you were there, you know how amazing, huge, and overwhelming it was. I know everyone will blog their experiences there, so if you couldn't go, you can at least see what it was like a little bit. I have so much I wanted to say, and I know I will forget most of it, but I thought I would start with a post about the people. Here I am with Beth (littledog on Ravelry) at the Ravelry party. The party was fantastic, if you got there early you got a cool goody bag, and I was there right at 7:00. (I was just a little bit excited to meet Jess and Casey and Mary Heather. And now there is a fourth Ravelry employee, whose name I have unforgivably forgotten.) Anyway, Beth was kind enough to put me up for the night in her guest room..which is awesome because it is also her yarn and fiber storage area, so I got to sleep next to the wool all night. Mmmm.. We only took one small detour trying to get to the convention center the next morning! This is a person whose name I again forgot, but who had the coolest knitted hood, in one of my current favorite colors no less. She lives in Portland I think, so if you know her name, please tell me!

And I got to meet Christi! Christi was one of my first Ravelry "friends." I found her through that friend finder thing that recommends friends for you based on how many patterns you have in common. I have been reading her blog ever since, and she made me a cool pattern row counter, which some of you may have seen, and which got me though the ginormous aran sweater project safely. I was so thrilled to finally meet her, since she came all the way from Charlotte NC for Sock Summit!

And of course I was thrilled to see Stephenie Pearl-McPhee in person for the first time. Who doesn't read her blog! Unfortunately I was exhausted, and celebrity sticken, and all I said was, "I'm Brandy" and "do you mind a photo?" and she didn't hear my shy little voice, and inscribed my book "To Randy", but hey, maybe I'll have another chance sometime, and can get up the guts to say something like "Thanks for your blog, which I read every entry of, and for your books, which I love, and which make me feel understood and normal, despite being a person obsessed with yarn and fiber." But probably I will just say "Hi, my name is Brandy, but you can call me Randy if you want."

And these are the folks I sat with during the World Record attempt! The lady right next to me came all the way from St. Paul Minnesota, and was very kind and friendly, so we had a good time knitting together. BTW, I knit a swatch with the handspun that April gave me, so her yarn participated in the big event!

Here is a picture of the room full of people knitting on straight needles. The lady who is walking, and therefore blurry, was wearing a beautiful shawl, which I am pretty sure is knit from Kauni. Gorgeous.

I also got to meet Carrie, just briefly in the hallway. I love to read her blog, and knew she would be there, and she was wearing her beautiful February Lady Sweater. Seeing some of the knits that I have seen in photographs was almost as fun as meeting the people!

FO: Knitted Aran Sweater

2009-07-31T10:20:00.000-07:00

I am FINALLY finished with this project, which has been over a year in the WIPs category on my Ravelry page. It is a Lion Brand Yarn pattern called, get this, the Knitted Aran Sweater. I just love originality in pattern naming.I promised a dear friend I would make her a sweater, and this is the pattern she chose, and although I wouldn't have chosen it myself, and grumbled a lot in the knitting of it, it turned out to be quite lovely.

It is knitted with Knit Picks Bare Superwash, which is a lovely stretchy, soft yarn, and made the cables easy to execute.

The pattern itself is difficult to read, so if for some crazy reasonn you decide to knit this sweater, I can forward you abbreviated cable directions as I translated them. (Assuming we can somehow prove you already bought the pattern, so we don't violate copyrights.)

The yarn pilled a bit and got fuzzy when I washed and machine dried it, so I would recommend laying flat to dry. I think the plies are pretty lightly spun to keep it soft, but this sacrifices durability.

I am feeling pretty confident about cables now, so I think this helped my knitting skill quite a bit, and I am pretty sure my friend will love it. And I can finally change its status to Finished!!

FO: Milkweed Shawl

2009-07-26T13:30:00.000-07:00

This is the Milkweed Shawl by Laura Chau of Cosmicpluto knits. I got a bit excited by lace knitting once I blocked out that Icarus Shawl, and I began to appreciate the utility of shawls, even little shawlettes that can be worn around the neck like this. I have quite a bit of sock yarn for a person who doesn't actually knit socks all that often. Although I must admit to feeling both a little left out, and a greater desire to knit them now that the Sock Summit is coming to Portland. In fact, I may have gotten a chance to take a class that someone else can't attend!

This yarn is the color Hyacinth in Liberty's Yarn. (Her blog is linked in the column to the right.)

It is a lovely smooshy soft superwash wool in a dk weight called D.Quixote yarn. You may have seen her work in the Dye for Glory competition.

The pattern is astoundingly well charted and I loved knitting a whole shawl in garter stitch, it is so lofty and textured and just all around wonderful. I think I will be knitting the Just Enough Ruffles scarf by Laura Chau with that lovely silk/wool BMFA yarn I got at Black Sheep Gathering. Don't ask me why I am knitting winter accessories in the middle of July, in a heat wave, because I don't know. (In fact I just finished that huge aran sweater, so that will be up next!)

Handspun Laceweight Alpaca

2009-07-23T20:29:00.000-07:00

Here is the other half of the alpaca that we bought last year at BSG. This is the stuff that was carded by Fantasy Fibers, much better than the result of handcarding. This is 475 yards of laceweight, 3.8 oz

I dyed it with Wilton's food dye in a single color, cornflower blue I think, and when I poured in into the kettle it split into this lovely mix of color.

I am quite pleased with the result, and I will be knitting it into a shawl for my MIL.

FO: Morning Surf Scarf

2009-07-21T09:30:00.000-07:00

I finally made something from my handspun, which I have been itching to do ever since I finished spinning this. This fiber was a roving produced by Abstract Fiber Company, and purchased at Abundant Yarn and dyeworks sometime last year in my one and only visit there. There is a Ravelry group called Aaabsolutely Abstract if you are, like me, a big fan. I spun it as finely as it wanted to be, which was pretty fine..it came out at 14 wpi, and I got about 350 yards of 2-ply out of it.

I didn't deliberately try and control the way the colors matched up in the plying, they just came out that way. Sometimes as a barber pole pink and yellow, and sometimes various semi-solid areas.

The Morning Surf Scarf is a perfect pattern for handspun, I cast on 46 stitches, and it is still just a bit wider than I would like, I am more of a longer narrower scarf girl.

We had the usual amusement that results from me modelling and my husband taking the photos.
I am very pleased with this whole experience, the spinning, the knitting, the finished object. A complete success.

FO: Wisp

2009-07-16T14:35:00.000-07:00

I finished this one back in June, and took a couple of pictures, but didn't manage to get the husband to photograph me in it until yesterday, so here it is, the Wisp by Cheryl Niamath from Knitty Summer 2007. I had a single ball of Rowan Kidsilk Haze in my stash that I had started and frogged several projects with.

I don't recommend frogging this yarn if you can help it, as the mohair makes this quite difficult, and I lost some of the yarn at one point because it was too tangled up to pull apart, so this scarf thing is a few repeats short of the number specified in the pattern. It still works for me, though it would be nice if I had those extra couple of inches.

The buttons I used weren't perfect, I really need the abalone shell ones that are almost paper thin. These are close, but just a bit to thick and tend to weigh the shawl down, so I only used four.

This was a really fun and satisfying project. A beautiful, lacy thing out of a single ball of yarn. Light and airy, but just a little bit warm if you need something on your shoulders on a summer evening.

The yarn is lovely, very soft, not scratchy at all.

Some green some blue.

2009-07-14T08:59:00.000-07:00

I got some spinning and dying done recently, perhaps motivated by my fiber from Black Sheep Gathering. This is some alpaca that I bought from one of the alpaca farms that were showing last year at BSG (2008). We bought about 8 oz of fiber and tryed some hand carding. Penny, my MIL and I found carding to be difficult and we never could get all the little matted bits out. Penny eventually injured her elbow, so we sent the rest off to Fantasy Fibers to be carded for us. This is the stuff we carded, so it has a lot of little bumps in it from the little matted places. I dyed it with Wilton's moss green, and it came out very well. It kind of looks like vines with leaves here and there. It is a single and there is 241 yards of it, and it is about fingering/lace weight. 2 1/8 oz.

And here is two oz of 50:50 silk/merino that I nearly felted in the dying, and I am not sure how, I was careful, and the temp was never above 160 F, but the silk isn't as shiny as it was before, so that is disappointing. It is a really awesome color though, and still really soft. I dyed it with Wiltons, a mix of Royal Blue and Sky Blue. It is two oz. 260 yards, 14-16 wpi.

My new etsy shop!

2009-07-04T18:20:00.000-07:00

Hi all two of you! I have finally started an etsy shop, and now appreciate how much time it takes to take pictures, describe, price, write bio, and everything else involved in this process. So I appreciate those of you who have taken the time to do this! Anyway, I only have two items listed so far, but check it out when you get a chance.
www.brandyann.etsy.com
I have linked it in the sidebar also.

FO: Icarus Shawl

2009-06-23T12:44:00.000-07:00

I was so excited to finally finish my first lace shawl project. It took me years. I didn't work on it very steadily, it went into hibernation for long periods, but finally my knitting skill increased to the point where it wasn't painfully difficult to knit this. In fact it got to be kind of fun. The pattern is the Icarus Shawl, published originally in Interweave Knits by Miriam Felton. She sells it now on her website Mimknits.com

I wore it to the Black Sheep Gathering on Saturday, which is a wonderful place to receive compliments on your handknits!

It was much easier to wear than I expected. It stayed on my shoulders with no trouble at all.I am afraid I may now have caught the lace knitting bug, I have started more already, althlough not with laceweight yarn this time.

P.S. The yarn is Misti Alpaca Baby Alpaca Laceweight.

FO: Ingenuity

2009-05-22T09:23:00.000-07:00

I finally got some photos so I can post the details! DH and I have such a hard time with this..perfect strangers take better pictures of me than my own husband! Anyway..here it is, my Ingenuity, knit with Plymouth Tweed, which turns out to be a lovely yarn. Regarding the sleeve bagginess..a problem common to top down raglans, I found a helpful article by Ysolda Teague here. You have to do something called a compound raglan.

The major things I had trouble with are the edgings..the gauge of the ridge stitch is much tighter than the stockinette stitch, and I had to increase right before the edging about 1 stitch to every 15 stitches and also go up 2 needle sizes to prevent the edgings from pulling in.

I also made the neck significantly wider than called for, it was too narrow originally, partly because I used the smaller needles, but other people on Ravelry have experienced the same problem, it comes out looking like a turtleneck, which is not the idea.

For specific details, see my ravelry entry. Despite my little quibbles with it, this is a very wearable sweater, and I have learned much from knitting it!

Marissa's Poncho

2009-04-05T09:43:00.000-07:00

I am embarrassed to have left off blogging for so long. My knitting has been a little slow lately too. I did finally use this yarn that I bought off ebay a few years ago. I really ended up disliking the color, but is is Plymouth Baby Alpaca Grande and is very soft, so I didn't want to get rid of it either. Finally I found a little girl who liked the color, so I made her a poncho from it. I really enjoyed knitting garter stitch again. I have been mostly knitting stockinette or more complicated cables or lace, and this was a relaxing change. The poncho is modelled by my daughter Alexa, who is smaller than Marissa, so the poncho slips off her shoulders a bit, but I think it will be fine on Marissa.

A Review of Fifi

2009-02-08T07:12:00.000-08:00

I finished the Fifi sweater from French Girl Knits last April. It is made from Rowan Calmer. I have been very pleased with this sweater. I wash it in the machine on cold and dry it flat. The yarn color is fading a little, but it still looks nice. I really love the soft feel of the yarn and the way it holds up. It is still smooth and nice looking and elastic. I would love to knit with it again. The sweater itself is still very nice. If I were to make it again I would probably do a couple rows of K1P1 rib at the neck to avert the rolling. I don't know enough yet about top down raglans to know if there is a solution to the slight bunching at the underarm. The sleeves seem to need to be a little smaller overall. I also probably should have knit it a little longer. I wear it with a shirt underneath because otherwise my tummy shows. Most of my skirts sit a low on my hips. This sweater is one of my greatest knitting successes. I wear it quite often and it is holding up well.

A review of the Apres Surf Hoodie

2009-01-05T08:47:00.000-08:00

I have been thinking about something which I see very few(if any) knitting blogs do, which I would find extremely helpful, and that is review a sweater after it has been worn (or not worn) for a few months. I have knit many things which looked cute in the pictures I took right after I finished it, but don't get worn for a variety of reasons. So I am going to try and review a few of the FO's I completed this year. The Apres Surf Hoodie was my first choice, possibly because it took me a long time to knit it and I tried to be careful to knit it correctly. I bought the yarn for this from a lady at the Black Sheep Gathering in Eugene in June. Her Ravelry name is sweetodie, and her business is Sweet Grass Wools, in Helena, MT. She was also at the Flock and Fiber Festival in September, and I wore this sweater to show her how beautifully it came out. (Due to good design by Connie Chang Chinchio, and good yarn more than knitting skill!) The yarn was called Panda, and I have found a couple different yarns registered on Ravelry here and here, and here too. It is one of those yarn bases that is dyed by many indie dyers, but I can't find what I think is the right one from Sweet Grass Wools on Ravelry. Anyway, the point is, I swatched, and I knitted the sweater with a bit of positive ease as was recommended by the Interweave Knits staff (or the pattern writer). The sweater was beatiful, and it fit pretty well, but then it started to grow, the sleeves inched out over my hands, and the body grew at least three inches, possibly more. The other problem was the hood, it pulled the sweater down at the back, so I had folds of sweater fabric hanging at my waist. It also slid off my shoulders all the time, which was really irritating. I would put it on in the morning, and then a couple of hours later I would take it off and put on something else because it was driving me nuts. Finally I decided to try and shrink it. I washed it in the machine, (cold, delicate, with wool wash) and put it in the dryer and dryed it all the way to dryness..and it worked, it didn't felt (the wool part of the yarn is superwash) and it shrunk quite a bit, which is perfect because the lace pattern is really stretchy and now it fits again as shown in the photo. There are a few less than perfect things, the i-cord bind-offs on the sleeves and hem pull them in a little bit. This creates a little bunchiness there. The i-cord bind-off on the hood and neck rolls, so it looks like a rolled stockinette edge, but excessive blocking only temporarily combats this, so I have decided to live with it rather than fight it.

The yarn is starting to be a little fuzzy and pill, which is surprising, because I think it was intended to be sock yarn, I would have expected it to be tougher than that!

Anyway, please leave a comment if you find this sweater review helpful, or if you do a sweater review yourself. I am trying to choose a new sweater project, but I really wanted it to be something that I can wear and wear so your sweater reviews would be helpful for me.

The hat show

2008-12-29T09:58:00.000-08:00

Just for those of you who are following the very slow progress of the Aran Sweater, I now present the back. Yes, after months of very sporadic work, I finished the first piece while in Florence for Christmas. (Oregon coast, hotel with one wall of windows, unimpeded view of the ocean.)

I have also been addicted to the Foliage pattern from Knitty. I made two from my handspun yarn. (A beautiful BFL roving dyed by Dicentra Designs). Here is Alexa's. (The white peeking through is the lining I put on hers so it wouldn't itch her forehead) And mine, arm out photograpy.

And my sister's Christmas present..(also arm out photography.)

A newly discovered cowl, and another present finished.

2008-12-17T09:54:00.000-08:00

This is something I made about a year ago from some my first yarn spun on a drop spindle. It was a BFL roving from Dicentra Designs, and I love the color, I meant it to be a headband type thing, or a sort of hat with a ponytail hole. This year, it turns out that it is a cowl..excuse the self-photography. And I finished another Montego Bay type scarf, although I altered it quite a bit due to different yarn.

I actually cast on 21 stitches and used 5 stitches for the edges instead of the 7 stitches in the pattern. I used a number 6 needle, and I can't remember what the yarn is called.

I took it to Ravelry knit night at Border's and no one else was sure what it was either. I think it is some cotton rayon blend, with one of the plies being a shiny one and the others more dull. I keep thinking maybe it was called Twist.

Alexa's doll is a wonderful model, she holds still and smiles nicely for as long as I need. The scarf is my mom's Christmas present, but I think I am safe because she never looks at this blog.

Alexa's Yoke Sweater

2008-12-02T17:17:00.000-08:00

I finished Alexa's Yoke Sweater from Reynolds Yarn. I saw the sample sweater at Fiber Nooks and Crannies and fell in love with the yoke. The cables are so awesome, they decrease from being 6 stitch cables down to two, and thereby carry out the yoke shaping. The Hopscotch yarn is really neat too, a sort of underspun single thick and thin stuff. Very soft, superwash 100% wool. The sleeve striping here is different than the pattern calls for, they used two different colors and only one stripe of each, but honestly I didn't want to buy that other ball of yarn, so I just used one other color and did Fibonacci stripes, 21 rows, 13, 8, 5, 3, 2, 1..

Alexa isn't really into holding still for photos. I also made the sweater a lot skinnier. Alexa is a very thin girl, so I knit the 12-18 month stitch counts and approximately four year old length. I didn't separate the yoke and make a little flap for snaps either. I just skipped the final decrease round, and bound off loosely (I used the K2tog, transfer back to left needle, K2tog etc.-although I am not completely sure this bind off is significantly more stretchy than the basic bind off.) It goes over her head quite easily.

This was my first bottom up seamles sweater, and I really enjoyed it. I am hoping to make more in the future. I grafted the underarms instead of binding off and then sewing up, and they look good.

I am really please with how the sweater came out, but the pattern is awful. There are a lot of errors, I have detailed them in my Ravelry description, so I won't include them here.

2008-11-21T12:57:00.000-08:00

So I finished the body of the Montego Bay Scarf, and I tried and tried to get a really nice photo showing the way the stitch pattern shows off the yarn, but I can't do it justice. Trust me, it's beautiful. I didn't have enough yarn to do fringe, so I am working on a buttoning arrangement. I'll show you how it looks when I get it worked out.

The aran sweater is coming along slowly. It feels lovely, and the cabling is beautiful, but those two side panels that move one stitch cables are time-consuming and tedious.

And here we have my current addiction. The Yoke Sweater I am making for Alexa. I have never knit a sweater bottom up, seamless before, but it is really fun. The pattern is irritating. Apparently no one proof read it, so there are errors, which I will detail on Ravelry. However, this mindless stockinette in the round is exactly what I need right now.

There are so many other things going on in my personal life right now that I don't want to think about my knitting too much. They are good things..I started swimming for exercise, and I can swim about 80-85% of a mile now. I am just beginning to lose a little weight which is really exciting. We are working on paperwork to adopt a second child, from Ethiopia! I am trying to figure out ways to help Alexa achieve some of her physical therapy goals. Anyway, busy in a good way, but busy nonetheless. Thanks to the two of you who read my blog now and again!

I am doing my homework

2008-11-11T12:55:00.000-08:00

Today I finally had enough of sweaters that don't fit. I have been storing several sweaters in my under bed boxes that just plain don't fit for one reason or another. There is the cardigan that I knit from Pima Tencel that expanded drastically, so now it looks like something for the saggy, baggy elephant. There is the Molly Ringwald sweater, that I knit in a smaller size to accomodate the tendency to sag, which worked in the horizontal direction, but now the armholes are too tight and the straps still slip off my shoulders. As I put these into the resale/donation bag today I vowed to not make that mistake again. So-I decided to use the sleeve of the sweater I am making for Alexa as the gauge swatch. I am making her the Yoke Sweater from the Reynolds Kids book (#82467). I tried to add this pattern to Ravelry, but I don't know if it worked, since I can't find it. I am hoping it is just pending some sort of editorial approval. Also I can't find a picture of this sweater online, so I can't link that. The LYS had a sample sweater that I loved, and the yarn, Reynolds Hopscotch was so soft, I just had to take it home with me. I made the sleeve striping different than the pattern, (Fibonacci stripes!! fun!) My gauge at this point was 5.5 st/in and the sleeve is 11.5 inches long with the end rolled. I just washed it, and now it is drying on top of the dryer. This is my new resolution, not just to knit the gauge swatch, but to wash it and dry it, and maybe even hang it for a day or two to assess its proclivity for growing. (My Apres Surf Hoodie is a couple of inches longer than it was when it was a newborn!)

No more wasting yarn and frogging whole finished sweaters. I am currently pondering frogging the Pimlico Shrug because I just don't wear it. It is really big and baggy, and I don't look slender and waifish and stylish in it because I am not slender and waifish..

Resolution #2: Follow Wendy Bernard's recommendations for choosing your projects wisely. In other words, evaluate whether this sweater fits your lifestyle and your wardrobe. Choose things similar to those store bought sweaters that you wear frequently. I am a mom, I was dishes, I do laundry, I cook...I need to be a little more realistic here about what I will actually wear. In fact I am thinking about scrapping the Backstage Tweed Jacket project for those very reasons. It is really beautiful though..opinions anyone?

Various catching up stuff.

2008-11-09T18:33:00.000-08:00

A long time ago, way back in September, we had one of the semi-local annual fiber festivals in Canby called the Oregon Flock and Fiber Festival. This was my first year to attend, and I was so excited to go. Unfortunately I got sick on the day of the festival. I went anyway, but I had that major head fog and feverish feeling all day. This is not a good way to go to a place that is overwhelming in the first place. There are so many wonderful fibers and people and wheels and I wanted to see it all, and I wanted to take home that perfect thing, but I could hardly make a decision because I couldn't think clearly. Even at my best I am a slow decision maker...I finally bought these two things from the same lady.

Two 8 oz rovings of merino and alpaca (70/30 I think). Unfortunately the tag and receipt don't mention her name or business name..I think she was from Roy, WA. She was selling these for about 20$ each, which was a really good deal IMHOP. I also got some yarn called Inca Organic Cotton in a pretty cream color.

And here we have the Montego Bay Scarf..the picture doesn't do it justice. This open lattice-like stitch pattern really looks great in this yarn. I don't have enough to do the fringe, so I am going to try some sort of button arrangement..I will post a picture when I am done so you can see how it worked out.

2008-10-17T10:08:00.000-07:00

I am so frustrated with this sewing project..why is it that the sizing is so wierd on sewing patterns. I measured my waist to determine what size I should make this skirt. My waist measured 34", and the largest size, which was 16 said it was for a 30" waist, so I made size 16. I thought it was a little strange because I wear about a size 10 in skirts that I purchase at a store. It came out way too big, like it actually falls off.

Additionally, the fabric is really heavy, so it was hard to sew the waist yoke and the zipper smoothly. I bought this eons ago, and don't remember how to care for this fabric. So, if anyone out there recognizes it and has recommendations, they would be appreciated. I would just give it away, but I don't know anyone the right size who would actually wear something like this. I like it, but it does look a bit like curtains or a tablecloth...

Currently I am frogging the whole thing, and trying to cut it all down to a size that might fit, although who know what size that is, a 14, 12?

The Aran Sweater wakes up for Fall.

2008-10-06T10:49:00.000-07:00

The aran sweater that I promised to knit for my friend has been pulled out of hibernation. I started this in June after finally finding just the right pattern. My dear friend Barbara who lives in Australia asked me to knit her a sweater quite a while ago, like maybe a year ago (eek) and I finally got around to it. (some friend I am!) Anyway, she said she has wanted one of these classic aran sweaters her whole life, and we sent pictures of patterns back and forth for a while before settling on this one from Lion Brand Online Patterns. It only cost a couple of dollars, but the pattern is a disaster to follow in its original format. The whole pattern is squeezed into a single page, very small font, no chart, and furthermore, the cable pattern is written out without abbreviations. (slip two stitches to a cable needle and hold to the back, knit two stitches and then purl two from the cable needle...) I had to translate it into something I could work with, and with the help of my pattern row counter (thanks again turtlegirl76!) I have gotten this far.. I probably would never have knit a sweater like this on my own initiative..but it is really starting to grow on me. The yarn is lovely (Knit Picks Superwash Bare), and the texture is awesome..you run your hand over the top of it and it feels so neat..smooth and bumpy at the same time.

And here is that stuff from Maine Woods Wool that I spun a while ago, but have not been able to photograph to my satisfaction. It looks really neat actually and is quite sproingy. I think this will be socks. Eventually. After I finish a billion other things..
And here we have a big, major, learning opportunity. My mother-in-law Penny and I bought some raw but washed alpaca fleece at the Black Sheep Gathering. We set to work trying to learn how to hand card, but it is hard..Penny is doing pretty well, but the stuff I did has these big lumps in it, like tangles. They make big bumps in the yarn. Maybe I just didn't card it enough? any suggestions anyone?
I may be getting too much fiber on the cards, but it is really hard to pull it apart into smaller chunks to load. Does fleece always stick together like this?

The Apres Surf Hoodie

2008-09-29T09:24:00.000-07:00

I feel that no blog post, photo, or description will do justice to the amount of time that I spent on this sweater. I am very happy to report that I love it. I love the yarn, the color, the lace pattern, the fit, and the fact that I learned really cool new things while knitting it. I didn't alter the pattern in any way, and still everything fits me just perfectly. The waist shaping is in the right place, the sleeves are the right length. The amount of ease in the body and arms is similar. (Most garments that fit me in the body are too tight in the arms and shoulders.)
The hood seemed to take forever, but there was some interesting short row shaping on the top which I was a little worried about in combination with the lace pattern, but it worked out just fine.
I did knit the hood and neck edging narrower than the pattern required because where they are sewn in here was only about an inch. Instead of knitting 1.5 inches and then doing the i-cord bind off, I did 1 inch, and to me this looks right.
And though I blocked the edge down flat, I wore it all day to Oregon Flock and Fiber Festival and it started to roll again. I hope this will settle down a bit after it gets washed and blocked a few more times. I am really happy with this sweater, but after almost three months of steady lace knitting on size 3 needles, my hands are complaining, so I am going on some larger gauge projects for a while.
Pattern: Apres Surf Hoodie from Interweave Knits Summer 2008 issue by Connie Chang Chinchio. (A very well written pattern, I will definitely try more of hers in the future!)
Size: 39.5 " (.5-1 inch of positive ease)
Yarn: Wolf Creek Wools Toe Jammies Panda (color CARO 688) 4 skeins, small amount left
Needles: Addi Turbos, size 3 and 2
Alterations: Only the width of hood-neck edge mentioned above

The last appearance of...

2008-09-24T07:44:00.000-07:00

The Apres Surf Hoodie in a WIPs Wednesday post because it is almost done! Cool details on this sweater..see the i-cord bind-off on the sleeve. Isn't it neat how different this yarn looks in different lighting?
Meida's Socks are making some progress.
And a new project for my mother-in-law. A Christmas present. She chose yarn and asked for a scarf with a very open stitch pattern. So the Montego Bay Scarf seemed to fit the bill. The yarn is Mountain Colors Bearfoot.

Back to School U-Neck Vest

2008-09-09T09:09:00.000-07:00

I finally give you the U-neck vest in finished form. I also have to thank David for pictures. We seem to be getting better at him taking pictures of me. I always feel stupid, so I make weird faces. However, playing the piano gave me something else to think about, which helped a lot! I had this Classic Elite Skye Tweed in my stash for a year or more from a closeout sale at Fiber Nooks and Crannies. (Whenever Michelle destashes, my stash grows!) Anyway, I loved this tweed and really wanted to make a vest, but there were only 5 balls of it. So I embarked on this vest from Stephanie Japel's Fitted Knits book.
I made some changes to conserve yarn. I cast on 144 st which was halfway between the 35 and 37" finished bust sizes, which for me should have produced about 2 inches of negative ease. I only knit 8" in the lower section instead of 9. I didn't do the last set of bust increases and I narrowed the straps a bit.
I also narrowed the neck and sleeve edgings quite a bit. I think I like them better this way anyway to be honest. I really like this vest. I think maybe the pattern is written a bit large, because FO fits perfectly, and I expected it to be a bit tight. My gauge is still right on, even after washing. The yarn softened up a bit after washing too. It was really stiff and harsh feeling to my hands while knitting it.
The one thing I don't love is the way the fabric bunches at the front of my arm. Partly this is because I should have made the sleeve opening longer, but I think it should also be written to bind off and/or decrease a little more there in the pattern.
Pattern: Back to School U-neck Vest by Stephanie Japel
Yarn: Classic Elite Skye Tweed, 5 balls
Needles: Size 8 Addi Turbo
Size:35-37", (3" negative ease)

Will I make it?

2008-09-03T07:55:00.000-07:00

I am going to chime in this Wednesday with the WIPs. The Back to School U-neck Vest is almost done, and I am still not sure if I will have enough yarn for the edgings to be done as described in the pattern. I may have to go begging on Ravelry for someone's leftovers. (Classic Elite Skye Tweed anyone?) It is discontinued of course. Meida's socks have made it through the heel flap and turn, but I have been pretty wrapped up in other projects, so these are a bit neglected.
Still spinning the Maine Woods roving.
And the Apres Surf Hoodie, still on the sleeves. All that lace and the fine gauge makes it a bit slow. I seem to have a fingerprint on my camera lens..

Almost (but not quite) FO

2008-08-25T09:49:00.000-07:00

So I am in the category of people who didn't finish their Ravelympics project. I set myself a goal that would have require the whole 17 days of intensive knitting, and due to many other life events, this simply did not happen. So this is how it went. I wanted to finish my Apres Surf Hoodie which I started July 2nd and was 42% done at the start of Ravelympics (This is according to the weight of yarn I have total and the weight left, and I am making the assumption that I will use all the yarn. I realize this is a faulty assumption, but it was the best I could do.) I had finished the back and the decreases up to the waist. I finished the front and the I-cord bind off at the hem and blocked it.
And I started the sleeves.
I have 174 g of yarn out of the original 440, so that makes me about 60% done. Sooo..this was fun, but I need to learn to plan for the fact that I cannot sit and knit for 2 weeks when I have a non-knitting life to attend to. I still love this hoodie and the yarn is a joy to knit with. The pattern is challenging me but not frustrating me, what more can I ask for in a knitting project?

Abundantly Delicious

2008-08-19T07:12:00.000-07:00

Last weekend we were in Portland after dropping my parents off at the airport and I persuaded My DH and DD that we should go to a yarn shop I have been dying to see. Abundant Yarn and Dyeworks is in a really cute little neighborhood/small town in a big city type of place and has a cafe as well. Soooo, in addition to the incredible selection of yarn and books, there is a play area to keep my daughter busy and YUMMY food. If I lived closer than almost 2 hours away I would be there every day. It is probably good for my pocketbook that I don't. Here is what I came away with this trip.Alpaca Merino Silk 50/30/20 in a colorway called Improv by Abstract Fiber. This was so noticeably beautiful that as I carried it around the shop people were asking their friends, "What is that?" and reaching out to pet it.
Now if I can spin it without destroying its beauty...

FO Cap Sleeved Sweater

2008-08-18T09:17:00.000-07:00

I finally got my mother, the sweater and me with my camera in the same location, which turned out to be beside a hotel pool. I don't know what to say about this sweater because the main thing that I see when I look at it is that it is too big. Mom says she doesn't mind, that she likes it. My husband thinks it is fine too. What I see is that the neckline is too big and she always has to pull it up to keep her bra straps from showing. The cap sleeves are not really cap sleeves, the waist shaping is too low.
The pattern on the front is pretty, but doesn't pop out very much. The underarms hang low so you can see the bra there when she raises her arms. The yarn is really soft and the sweater itself is pretty, it just doesn't fit her right. Part of the problem is the pattern itself. Other Ravelers have experienced this same problem. The sweater sizes as listed are not right. I knitted the size that said it would fit a 40" bust for someone with a 44" bust, and had the knitted fabric not relaxed so much I think it would have been fine. So my lesson for the day is..do my homework with the gauge swatch..knit it big, wash it, hang it. Such a pity to knit something this time consuming that doesn't come out right. I like the feel of this yarn, and the look and the price, but it is a pain to knit with, it splits like crazy. I doubt I will knit with it again.
Pattern: Cap Sleeved Sweater by Debbie Bliss from the Pure Silk book.
Size: Largest listed
Yarn: Plymouth Royal Bamboo, 12 balls
Needles: Size 3 Addi Turbos

Cherry prOn

2008-08-08T10:44:00.000-07:00

Here is what we have today..cherry Kool-Aid dyed alpaca handspun. This roving came from Alpaca with a Twist and was white originally. This stuff is cashmere soft..I think it will be a scarf. And here we have once again that handspun BFL that I dyed once with Wilton's copper color. It came out a funny salmon color that I didn't personally like. In the previous blog post it looks better than it did IRL. So I dyed it again with Wilton's brown and got it to a more respectable rusty coppery color which I like.
This yarn is a bit rustic and I have about 300-350 yards of it, so I am thinking maybe a capelet type thingy..not sure of the gauge yet.
And this came in the mail while I was gone to San Diego. A 4 oz Wool Blend Roving from Main Woods Yarn and Fiber dyed in a Pumpkin Patch colorway.
So fair on the bobbin it looks like this.
I am not sure if I like it or not. I don't hate it..and it is really easy to spin pretty thin. I am hoping for something approaching a reasonable sock yarn.

The Birthday Loot!

2008-08-07T12:44:00.001-07:00

Now that I am a big girl I get to pick my own birthday presents, so when David asked what I wanted for my birthday this year I immediately remembered these bags that I saw at Soft Horizons a few weeks earlier. This is the one I picked out from kpixie. It is fake leather and so soft you just want to pet it. It is made by Namaste and has oodles of pockets and lots of space. I can fit ALL my WIPs in there at the same time, with the required books or magazines for the patterns. I really liked the lime green one, but decided this would be more practical year round. Somehow lime green just doesn't go with gray rainy weather. And with my birthday money from mom I got books...two Harmony Guides from the Interweave hurt books sale, and two EZ books from Knit Picks 40% off sale. I am about to become addicted to Elizabeth Zimmerman, I can tell because I tried to quickly peruse The Opinionated Knitter and got sucked in for much longer than I intended. EZ was an excellent writer and a clever person and just plain interesting.

Pretty pictures in the sun

2008-07-31T07:48:00.000-07:00

As I was knitting away on my Meida's Socks this morning. the sun started shining on the knitting, and it was so pretty I had to share. This is my handspun merino that I dyed with Kool-Aid and Wilton's, and the color is really lovely. (More by accident than skill with the dyepot) This stitch pattern is so fun I can hardly bear to put it down. It is a little hard to see because my yarn is a variable in thickness, but that neat little cable is a four stitch thing that takes the stitch from the far right to the far left. In the non-cabled rows the two middle stitches are purled, so it is like two little train tracks going along and then TWIST...so cool.

And after knit night at Enoteca the other night I realized I needed at least one project OTN that was simple so I could knit and chat at the same time..so I pulled out the Skye Tweed that has been sitting in my stash for a long time and cast on a vest with it..more about that soon, but isn't this yarn fantastic? I love the tweed flecks and the olive-ish color. The yarn is very stiff and scratchy, which is why this is a vest to be worn over a shirt. I don't think I could wear this if it were touching my skin. In fact it is a little bit hard to knit with.

Flame Wave Socks

2008-07-29T09:02:00.000-07:00

The long saga of the Cascade Fixation socks has finally come to a satisfactory conclusion. I bought this yarn a while back at the LYS thinking it was really neat. Cotton yarn with stretch, machine washable, I could make some socks that would be real workhorse socks like those I buy at K-Mart. The first sock I made came out like this. I am sure you can see the problems, but let me enumerate them for you.
1. The short row heel is very poorly done. I am not sure if this was lack of skill or related to problem number
2. The gauge is whacky.
I thought that since the yarn was stretchy, I should knit it tightly enough so that it would stretch when worn. Obviously it should not stretch this much when worn however, becase in addition to the fact that it looks wierd, the individul columns of stitches hurt the bottoms of my feet.
Brief note of explanation. I have an inherited condition called Charcot-Marie-Tooth Syndrome which is a demyelinating problem with the peripheral nerves..it leads in my case to orthopedic problems and six corrective orthopedic surgeries over my lifetime. At this point both of my ankles are fused into that 90 degree position and that is why my feet look so funny. I definitely need sock blockers! (For size 5.5 feet)
Anyway..back to the socks. I bought the Favorite Socks book from Interweave and it had a pattern for these socks using Cascade Fixation, so I decided to try using a pattern written specifically for the yarn. Much better.

The strange thing about the whole project is that the pattern is so subtle and the yarn so textured that you can't always tell easily when you've made a mistake. I made several and didn't correct them all, to be honest I didn't think I would be able to tell later anyway. Lazy knitter I am! So does anyone else have experience with this yarn? Do you machine wash it?
Pattern: Flame Wave Socks by Ann Budd

Size: woman's

Yarn: Cascade Fixation, cream, two balls

Needles: Size 3 Addi-Turbos

Beauty or the Beast

2008-07-25T08:41:00.000-07:00

I can't decide about this color. It is from Wilton's copper color food dye, and I was hoping for a more coppery amberish color. This one is a bit too salmon colored. I took it to spinning night last night at Fiber Nooks and Crannies and Michelle loved it. I think I need to dye it again with a bit of brown...please weigh in with opinions or suggestions. I finished spinning this alpaca last night too. It is really soft, and overall is not as badly spun as I thought it would be. I tried to put a lot of spin into the plying after reading the Yarn Harlot's post about her tendency to underspin. I am pretty much a self taught spinner, so I gather up information where I can find it.
I also get many helpful suggestions at spinning night. It seems like there is no official right or wrong way to do many things, so I ask a question and get a variety of answers. Then I try what seems like it might work for me. Last night I asked how best to deal with this flyaway alpaca..and got the following
1. try misting it with a little water, or even a little baby oil
2. try spinning directly from roving without predrafting
3. try pulling it apart down the middle to get thin strips of roving
I tried options two and three and option three worked really well. I didn't have to predraft which eliminated the problem of the fiber fanning out and separating into tufts.
This would be much more clear with photographs..but I was too busy learning to document.

The hoodie progress

2008-07-23T16:40:00.000-07:00

This should be an update of all WIP's, but since this is what I am obsessing about today this is what you get. I am almost finished with the first piece..I decided to pin it out to have a look at the time I finished the first skein of yarn. It is kind of amazing to me to have this much fabric from one hank of yarn. I am having brief periods of worry about whether I have enough yarn. I have four skeins. I just finished the first one. I still have a front, two sleeves and a hood to go. I tell myself that the back is the biggest piece, that I can always have a collar instead of a hood. I really want the hood. I am sure I have enough. Don't you agree?
I love this arrowhead lace. If you look carefully, which you do when you knit this for hours, there are multiple arrowhead shapes formed by the yarn-overs and the ssk/k2togs going both up and down. Neat stuff!

It's Green!

2008-07-22T11:24:00.001-07:00

This is the merino I spun a few weeks ago. I turned it green with lemon-lime Kool-Aid and a little bit of Wilton's icing dye.
There's quite a bit of variation in the color throughout the hank..but I think I like it!

BFL handspun

2008-07-18T08:40:00.000-07:00

In my frenzy of spinning I have finally finished up the remainder of a pound of BFL that I bought off ebay about a year ago. This was really different to spin..the fiber was more crimped than the merino and had bits of hay and grass in it here and there. There were some places where the fiber had little tangles that could not be untangled. It seems more rough than other BFL that I have spun. I have quite a bit of it, maybe 400 yards..and I am guessing about DK or sport weight. I am planning to dye it, but I haven't been successful in finding good Kool-Aid colors in my local grocery store, so I may have to use my acid dyes. This isn't a huge problem, but it does make a mess, and I do have a curious 4 year old daughter.
Actually, the longer I look at this, the more I am liking it..maybe I can make a vest.

Projects in Progress

2008-07-15T09:13:00.000-07:00

The Apres Surf Hoodie is coming right along. This is so fun and beautiful that I am working on it a lot. It is a good thing I am working on it a lot, because a fine gauge sweater with a lace pattern could otherwise be another never ending project (Icarus Shawl anyone?). The Aran Sweater is not coming along very much..it might be sent to the zzz'x classification on Ravelry soon. I just can't get excited about a big wool sweater in summer which is unfortunate since this is for a friend in Australia where it is now winter..
And I have cast on the second sock out of Cascade Fixation. This project has been sleeping for a while also, but I really need to get some of these things done and off my list so I can do some new stuff.
And here is..don't laugh.. my potholder. A crocheted potholder no less. So how did this come about? I had a spool of yarn that I spun when I was just beginning and it was very uneven and underspun and there wasn't very much. I needed to get it off the spool so I could use it and I couldn't figure out what else to make out of a small amount of irregular yarn-so I crocheted a potholder. I did have some issues figuring out how to make a flat round disc..does anyone know a rule for this?
The most fun I had with this was dyeing it with Kool-Aid. There is a very helpful article on Knitty.com on this subject. This flavor is lemon of course!

Handspun Merino

2008-07-11T08:17:00.000-07:00

I am so excited to have finally figured out what yarn pr0n is (thank you Urban Dictionary) and apparently Friday is the day when we post our yarn pr0n for the week. So for my inaugural entry I present my merino handspun. This is my best spinning so far. The fact that the fiber was incredibly smooth and easy to spin has something to do with that, but I am pretty pleased by the fact that I made a yarn that is pretty small when plied (haven't checked my wpi yet).
And while it isn't great yet..it is by far the most consistent and least bumpy yarn I have yet produced. I took it to spinning night last night, and Michelle wound it onto a niddy noddy for me (I need to get me one of those!), and I seem to have about 200 yards. Now to dye it...hmm, what color?

I finish and begin.

2008-07-07T17:18:00.000-07:00

I FINISHED THE CAP SLEEVED SWEATER.I was starting to wonder if the day would ever come when I could block this and send it away out of my house. This has definitely been a love/hate knitting project. My mom picked out the yarn and the pattern, and it is very beautiful. I have received many compliments on the yarn and the pattern during the knitting process. However, the Royal Bamboo splits a lot. The cap sleeves look cute from the front, but the seam is a big indentation, which is ok for a shoulder, but not for a sleeve. The worst problem with this sweater is that the lower edge rolls up really badly. I ended up picking up along the lower edge and knitting four more rows of garter stitch to try to fix this and the tendency is still there. I am hoping for a blocking miracle! Photos of the FO on Mom will have to wait until it dries and gets into an envelope and travels to Arizona.

In other happy news, I started the Apres Surf Hoodie with my new yarn from BSG and it is so gorgeous I can't begin to describe it properly. There will be more on this later.....

The Minisweater

2008-07-03T09:12:00.000-07:00

I finished the knitting on this a while ago, but it needed the button which I finally found. Today I once again forced my husband to the duty of fashion photographer. I like this sweater in most ways and it was really quick to knit. The bottom of the back tends to stick out from my body a little, maybe a few descreases before the garter stitch edging would have helped this.
I did some of the increases for the puffed sleeves, but not all called for in the pattern.
This is me trying for a non-smiling picture, which came out looking almost as strange as some of my smiling photos. The sweater also poufs out beside the garter stitch band down the front. This may improve with some washing and blocking.
I haven't figure out what adjustments I would make so that this would be perfect, but I do mostly like it.
Pattern: The Minisweater, aka the Boobholder - free pattern from Stephanie Japel, Glampyre Knits.
Yarn: Mission Falls 1824 Wool 100% Merino Superwash, sort of a rose color, from stash
Needles: Size 8 Addi Turbo
Size: One size adjust to fit.
Alterations: Detailed on Ravelry-was not able to get gauge, she said something like 13 stitches/4" for a worsted weight yarn, and I could only get 16, so I recalculated for casting on and dividing. I also didn't do all of the decreases called for in the puffed sleeves. IMHOP-this isn't a pattern for a beginner, its strength is in the top down construction which allows one to knit it to fit well, it can be tried on as you go.

I'm spinning again

2008-06-27T09:37:00.000-07:00

Michelle at Fiber Nooks and Crannies, my local knit shop has been having a spinning night every other Thursday, and I finally packed up my spinner and went. I have a Fricke electric spinner because of fused ankles which cannot treadle on a real wheel. I took some fiber that I have had in my stash for a while. It was purchased from Dicentra Designs and is so beautifully dyed. I am hooked on spinning again! I tried again to photograph this fiber, it looks so pretty in the sun.
But the colors look a little different out of the direct sunlight.
Anyway, it is lovely and I can't wait to see how it looks when I am done.

Little Pink Silk Shrug

2008-06-25T08:34:00.000-07:00

I bought this dress the other day and am not so comfortable showing so much skin, so I thought to knit a shrug to go over it. Fortunately I have a really great book called Lace Style and it had this pattern in it, AND I happened to have a few balls of this yarn left over from my Molly Ringwald. It came out really cute. Unfortunately my photographer (my DH David) thinks that one picture of any FO is enough...so this is it. Pattern: Little Silk Shrug by Pam Allen from Lace Style
Yarn: Classic Silk by Classic Elite Yarns 50% cotton/30% silk/ 20% nylon, 2 balls
Needles: US 8
Alterations: I added one lace repeat to the pattern width to accomodate my arms which are not 10.5 inches around unfortunately (the sleeve width the pattern is written for), maybe when I lose a little more weight!

Black Sheep Gathering

2008-06-24T10:03:00.000-07:00

I finally got to attend the Black Sheep Gathering this last Saturday in Eugene. This is an amazing fiber festival that happens once a year and I never knew about it until two years ago. My kind mother-in-law attended with me and pushed Alexa around in the stroller so I could go into the booths and pet the yarn. Alexa was amazingly good. She sat in the stroller the whole time without whining or pulling yarn off the displays. The only picture I took the whole time was this one of Alexa and this very cute sheep. So what did I get? You have to understand that I have been on self-imposed yarn restriction for about six months, telling myself the whole time that I would allow myself to buy something at the BSG as a reward. I had set a limit on the amount of money I would spend and wanted to buy enough yarn to make a sweater. I don't knit a lot of socks, so I thought I would make the Apres Surf Hoodie from Interweave Knits Summer Issue. After looking at a lot of unspun fiber and beatiful yarn I decided on this.
An incredibly lovely yarn. The label says Wolf Creek Wools Toe Jammies. The website is listed as www.sweetgrasswool.com and the lady who made this beautiful stuff is on Ravelry as sweetodie.
In addition to the beautiful colors, this yarn shines a bit..it is 60% Merino/30%Bamboo/10% Nylon. I am very pleased with my purchase.
Next year I am going to have to attend alone however so I can take my time. I just can't spend hours in a place with a 4 year old.
There was also a barn with alpacas and their fleece. Penny (mom-in-law) and I bought some uncarded alpaca so we could put my thus far unused hand carders to use. We will see how that goes!

Alexa's Unmentionables

2008-06-09T16:34:00.000-07:00

I finished the Unmentionables in time for Alexa's 4th birthday, and she looked adorable in them. I recognize that I am a bit biased here, but look-

So I am not very good at the formal details post, but here goes
Pattern: Emma's Unmentionables by Lee Wood Juvan published in Knitty, Spring 2008
Yarn: Longmeadow by Valley yarns in lettuce, less than 4 skeins.
Size: 2 year old waist, four-year old lengths for the rest.

Cap Sleeved Sweater

2008-05-24T08:04:00.000-07:00

I have been working on the Cap Sleeved Sweater by Debbie Bliss from the Pure Silk Collection for Mom in Plymouth's Royal Bamboo. It is taking a while because the gauge is 25 st/4" and is therefore being knit with #3 needles.

Bone Rattler

2008-05-24T07:51:00.000-07:00

I have finished yet another book. I picked this one up at the library because it was about Scots involved in the French and Indian war. This was sort of an historical mystery. It was excellent. The author writes well, with good dialogue, complex plot and fascinating characters. I loved it. I will be looking for more books by this author.

Middlesex

2008-05-22T11:02:00.000-07:00

I just finished this book. I read it because it was next month's Ravelry Book Club choice. It also got lots of great reviews and awards and so I read it...I say all this in explanation of why I read a book that is about hemaphroditism (if that is the right term) Anyway, I thought the book was well worth reading because it is well written. However, one person who reviewed it said "I just couldn't get past the incest," so if you feel the same way, this book may not be for you. Parts of it are quite graphic. On the other hand, this condition exists IRL-and I felt that the way the protagonist dealt with it was very real.

Lady Macbeth

2008-05-20T15:48:00.000-07:00

I just finished reading this book, and I really liked it. I am partial to books about Scotland and history, and this one is interesting because I think most people only know the Lady Macbeth of Shakespeare's play. This book is about Gruadh daughter of Bodhe who became wife to Macbeth, and eventually Queen of Scotland. If you enjoy historical fiction, I recommend it.

Progress on the Unmentionables

2008-05-19T14:19:00.000-07:00

I have been working on a project called Emma's Unmentionables for Alexa's birthday clothes. I was cruising right along until I got to the lace border. However, I figured out that it is easier to knit the lace on the same circular needle that is holding the leg stitches rather than on two separate double points as the pattern suggests. This sped things up considerably and today I finished the lace on leg number one, wove in a bunch of ends, grafted the crotch, and started the ruffle on leg number two. So here we are, And here is an older picture that shows the yarn color so beautifully.

Fifi is finished AGAIN

2008-05-14T10:07:00.000-07:00

I have added about1.5 inches to the sleeves of this sweater because they were too short before. I didn't like the way it made my arms look fat. (my arms are somewhat fat, but we don't need to emphasize this!) Now I really like it and think I will wear it often. It does require handwashing and drying flat, but I spun it in the dryer to get the excess water out and it dried in less than a day. I love the yarn this is knit with. Rowan Calmer is a cotton/microfiber blend that is very soft and stretchy. The stretchiness makes knitting with it so easy. I also learned how to do cables without a cable needle for this project, a really good knitting technique.

Rhubarb Jam

2008-05-13T07:58:00.000-07:00

As part of my effort to make more of our food from local sources I have been trying to figure out how to preserve some of the rhubarb that has been appearing in our farmer's market and local coop. Yesterday I decided on rhubarb jam. I bought some produced by King's Valley School at the Corvallis Farmer's Market a couple of weeks ago and it was really yummy. Yesterday I bought rhubarb from Gathering Together Farms sold in our coop, and Pomona's Universal Pectin and sort of improvised a recipe based on recipes for other fruits that were in the Pectin Box and a recipe online that used way more sugar than I wanted. The really great thing about this pectin is that you don't have to use sugar if you don't want to and it will still jell.I cut up the rhubarb and cooked it with a little water until it was soft. This gave me about 6 cups of fruit. So
6 cups rhubarb
2 cups sugar
3 teaspoons calcium water (comes with the pectin)
3 teaspoons pectin
1/2 teaspoon butter (not sure why, but it was in the recipe off the internet)

This worked well. It jelled the perfect amount and is slightly sweet which is what I was aiming for.

I also verified that I can reuse the one part lids that some jams and jellies from the store come in. They will reseal.

Animal, Vegetable, Miracle

2008-05-12T11:48:00.000-07:00

I am still reading this book, and I can't say enough good things about it. It is a life changing book for me. In general this book advocates the many benefits of eating local food. There are many reasons for this a few of which are
1. We shouldn't be spending our limited oil supply on transportating our food thousand of miles when local food is available.
2. We should support small local agriculture.
3. Food that is transported long distances is bred for appearance and transportability rather than nutrition and flavor.
There are many more reasons and I couldn't possibly remember them all or state them as clearly as Kingsolver does. I really recommend that everyone read this book. Our food choices change our world.
I will probably be using the term locavore in future posts. This is a word used to describe people who are eating locally produced food, and that is what I am trying to do.

A Great and Terrible Beauty

2008-05-12T11:10:00.000-07:00

I just read this book last weekend while traveling to Colorado. I really enjoyed it. It is a young adult fiction category of book which is very popular right now. It features a 16 year old girl named Gemma Doyle who at the death of her mother is sent to England to Spence, a school for girls to be made into a lady. At the same time she begins experiencing visions of things that are happening or maybe will happen. This is a really good book with some good stuff in it about how society treated women at the time (late 19th century). I found it very enjoyable reading and it is very likely I will read the next two books in the Gemma Doyle trilogy. I also should point out that I love the title of this book. It may be the reason I picked it up at the bookstore in the first place.

Here is a really cute dress from Boden that I am thinking of getting for Alexa.

My new blog

2008-05-08T10:30:00.000-07:00

Here it is-my new blog for my personal hobbies and interests which are primarily knitting and reading.
First-the Fifi sweater which I finally finished. I really like this design from French Girl Knits, but the pattern is a little difficult. I love the yarn which is Rowan Calmer. Unfortunately I don't like where the sleeves end, so I am going to tink a bit and make the sleeves longer.