Ah, April!

What a month!

This picture shows the flooding in our yard from the quick spring melt and the accompanying rain. This is actually not a lake, but our side yard (notice the kids' play structure). The canoe was actually next to the barn, but high winds blew it into the driveway, so I dragged it into the yard and tied it to the swingset for safe keeping. It looks suspiciously like a lake here, but thankfully it has dried up now! We have even got the garden tilled and ready for planting (seen here, underwater!).

I have been having a yarn sale in my etsy shop for Hand Dyed sock yarns. I have sold a fair amount, which means that I have been having a good time dyeing more! I really do enjoy playing with color! I have also been crocheting a purse out of handspun. I am very pleased with it and hope to finish it soon! I don't crochet very much, because for most things I prefer the look of knitting, but I learned to crochet as a small child and so whenever I do, it is very soothing and relaxing for me, a very natural motion.

Alpaca

March came in like a lion and left like a lion! Today is kind of yucky- all grey and rainy, with lots of high winds, but it is warmer! There is hope! There is also a huge "lake" in my side yard since the ground is frozen but the snow is melting...

I have been playing with fiber these past few weeks! Just Friday I called a local alpaca farm that I knew about and asked if I could trade handspinning services for fiber. I was able to bring home a first year alpaca blanket (the best bits of the fleece) to spin. It is a brown and white mix and I am carding the colors together. There are about 12 ounces, now that it is washed. I will keep half, then take the other half back to the farm. Hopefully, they will like it! This is from last year's clip, I think they like to send two years worth together when they have it processed into yarn. The fleece is so soft, but it has a lot of second cuts that I have had to pick out!

I just received yesterday some mill end rovings that I ordered. They are fabulous! I guess I will be dyeing some up tomorrow! Being able to sell some of this stuff gives me more freedom to play with color and to dye a bunch at once! It is so much fun. I hope that my buyers enjoy it as much as I enjoy doing it. I enjoy dyeing the yarn just as much, it just costs more, so I am a little more cautious.

Brenda

Spring?

I dyed this pretty green yarn on the first day of spring since looking outside I see mostly snow! There are more birds around, etc. so there is hope!

I have been dyeing quite a bit this week, but not so much knitting. I have put in a little time with the pillow. I really am going to finish it soon! With school vacation going on, I don't have much time to sit down (I guess I could knit standing ...).

My etsy shop has new yarns and rovings, if you want to check them out there.

Busy dyeing!

I got a shipment of wool at the end of last week, so I have been busy dyeing lately! It is so fun to play. I have been doing some batches of wool where I dye it, then blend it with other colors and fibers on my drumcarder. I enjoy the results.

As for the pictures, I call the purple roving "Amethyst" and the orange one "Autumn". The "Autumn" colorway was a lot of fun because I started out with a beautiful white roving streaked with brown, so the brown continues throughout while the other colors are fading in and out!

As for knitting, I have nearly finished the pillow project that has taken forever. Yesterday, my chiropractor said "Are you still knitting that?" I mostly work on it while I am waiting in offices, etc. so it really has taken awhile...

Felted Mobius Basket

Things have been crazy! The kids had a week off of school, and 3 out of 4 of them spent time sick over the last week and a half. Thing 3 was home from school yesterday because she was feeling unwell. Thankfully they are all on the mend!

I knitted this mobius basket over a couple of days mid February. It was quick and fun. It really makes a cute little basket. The yarn is some of my own hand dyed yarn in the "Flame" colorway. This worsted weight yarn really felts well.

I finally have been making some progress on my neglected, unfinished shrug that I posted a picture of not too long ago. I am hoping to finish it soon!

Brenda

On the mend

I am off the crutches, but my foot is still sore. I think I am ready to let my chiropractor touch it:). I have fallen arches, so foot pain isn't an entirely new thing to me...that is probably much more than you really want to know about me, isn't it?

The "Ocean toes" sock is progressing nicely. It is pleasant enough to knit, as long as no one is vying for my attention! I just have maybe half of the foot, then the toe left. I'll have a picture soon.

Actually, the exciting thing for me today, is some of my handspun yarn was selected to be in an Etsy Treasury here:

http://www.etsy.com/treasury_list.php?room_id=28169

You have to look fast, this one expires on Wednsday. It features EtsyFast artists. I have enjoyed my time in EtsyFast (fiber arts street team). I do love all things fiber, so it is fun to check out what everyone else has been making!

Have a great day!

Brenda

p.s. Here is a photo of the selected yarn. I wish I could include everyone else's stuff too!

I tried to like cross-country skiing...

Saturday was the perfect day to spend some time playing outside. After lunch, my husband asked me if I wanted to go out cross-country skiing with him. I was glad to go, the weather outside was reasonable, we had a fresh coating of snow on top of a layer of ice, and it is nice to do something now and then that doesn't involve the kids! However, the fun ended when my ski went under a branch frozen to the ground and as I was turning, I fell over to the side. Although my knee and ankle followed me to the side, my foot was forced to stay somewhat upright. Which is to say that I hurt my left foot and I couldn't put weight on it. My husband (kindly) went back to the house, got a sled, and pulled me home. Nothing broken, just a small sprain, not a lot of swelling. I have graduated from two crutches to one already, and I can limp across the room with no crutch at all for a limited amount of time (I'm not actually sure if that is good for my foot...).

This of course means that I got a fair amount of knitting done on Saturday! This yarn is a fingering weight sock yarn that I hand painted when I was refining microwave dyeing for a class that I taught. I am knitting "Ocean Toes" socks from Cat Bordhi's newest sock book. I am not sure what I think of them yet. I do think that the color contrasts in my yarn are covering up the texture in the knitting more than I would like. This pattern also requires me to pay careful attention at least every other row. So it will take me a while to finish. I have started the increases after the cuff.

One thing that I found out while waiting to be rescued when I couldn't walk out of the woods, is that my mittens that I finished not long ago are very warm. Even just standing in the cold, my fingers stayed toasty. That was very nice, believe me!

Project Planning

In the corner of my living room next to the cozy reading chair with the best light, there is a pile of knitting books with post it notes on the covers. I am nearly finished with the mittens for Thing 3, and though I have two other projects on the needles and a pair of socks that I really want to start, I can't resist looking for something else to try. I want something small that I can finish quickly, knitted in worsted weight wool, maybe felted. I have found a couple of little bags I might try. I'm still deciding. I find that I like to have the supplies on hand when I go to start a project, whether it is knitting, sewing, other crafting, or even cooking. I hate looking through cookbooks and finding the perfect recipe, only to realize that I am missing one essential ingredient. I guess it comes from living so far from good shopping! So though I glance at sweater patterns, I don't have enough of the right yarn in the right color and I don't feel like shopping for it right now. Or spinning it. I have a skein of wool that I simply want to match with a project.
I am also working on a doll hat for an Edwardian Ladies Hat challenge in Doll Crafter and Costuming magazine. The buckram frame is wired and sewn together, now I need to choose colors for the fabric and trims. I have some off white silk doupioni that I want to use. I just need to decide if it wants to stay off white, or if I should dye it. Blue, I think. My favorite color lately seems to be red, but I also seem to be dyeing everything blue. Go figure.
Brenda

Fun Yarn

I have been having so much fun playing with this wool! It started out as undyed Fine African Top from Louet. I hand painted it with fuchsia, yellow, turquoise, and blue, repeating the sequence around the loosely skeined top. I let the colors blend where they met. After the top was rinsed and dried, I divided it into five color groups:fuchsia, blue, turquoise, green, and yellow/orange.

Next, I took each fluffy pile and spun it seperately. Each color has bits of its neighbors, so the yarn has a lot of complexity. It is so much fun to watch the blending as I spin, and to examine the finished yarn once I am done. Anyway, I wound each color off the bobbin into a center pull ball as I finished it. The picture of the five yarn balls is the singles yarn.

When I had all five balls of singles ready, I went back to my wheel (which is a double drive Asford Traveller that I assembled from a kit) and plied each ball back on itself using the end from the outside and the one from the middle.

I just love this yarn. It has been so much fun to make. It makes me think of tropical colors (because of the fuchsia and turquoise?). I found myself thinking of the green as "lemon-lime" and the fuchsia as "sunset". The orange/yellow one I wasn't sure I was going to like. The bits of green mixed in with the orange and yellow had me worried, but as I plied it, I fell in love with it. It really reminds me of autumn leaves. Often we will find maple leaves colored with incredibly rich fall hues and flecks of green like this.

I posted these yarns on Etsy. I wasn't sure I wanted to, but I find that I don't want to knit it anyway! I just want to look at it (and feel it, it is rather soft). I love to knit, and I love to knit handspun, but I can't keep up with it all. I am really enjoying the freedom to experiment with color that having my own little etsy business has allowed me.

Finished Mittens

Here are my finished mittens! They are nice and toasty. I had just a little blue yarn left, so I am glad I finished the tops and thumbs with just the grey! This handspun yarn was from Holly, from the spin-to-knit that I signed up for last year. I am glad to have finally completed a project with it. The yarn was very lovely to work with.

I got replacement cables from KnitPicks today. I was glad to see them. I haven't had a chance to hook them up to the Harmony needles and try them out yet, but I am hoping that things go better than last time! They were very appologetic about the trouble that I had with the first set...

I have been working on mittens for Thing 3. The first one is finished, except for the thumb. It fits perfectly. Unfortunately, I was hoping to make it bigger, so that she could wear them next year also. Oh well! She was at school most of the time I was working on them so I missed my chance to change the sizing. At least they aren't too small.

Brenda

A quick post

I finished my mittens and didn't run out of yarn! Yeah! I will post a picture soon. I have started on mittens for Thing 3 as she has been begging for new ones!

We had a strange week for weather. The snow has all melted, it has been warm and rainy, we had a windstorm that knocked out our power for 26 hours, now it is getting cold again and to top it all off, I saw a dandilion flower in the grass today while we were out!!!

I also posted some fun new sock yarn on Etsy. It is a Merino/silk blend dyed in my Midnight Forest colorway. The thing that I have to say about dyeing yarn is "So many fabulous colors, so little time to actually knit them all!" I really like the silk blend yarns. They are so soft, with an amazing luster. www.dye4fun.etsy.com

I called KnitPicks earlier this week. The woman I spoke with said they are so sorry that my cables broke. She said they would some new ones out right away. I can't wait to get them!

Brenda

I went out to the mail box this morning and it was -5 degrees F. Hello, January!

On Monday, my dh went out and broke some cross country ski trails around our property. We got some second hand skis a couple of years ago to try, but this is the first year the weather has been good for it. Yesterday was the first time I went out. It was fun, but hard going, since we got what looked like 6 inches of powder on top of the trail since it was last used. By the weekend, the weather is suposed to warm up, so I think I will enjoy being outside more then.

I recently got Cat Bordhi's book New Pathways for Sock Knitters and I knitted a sample Coriolis sock out of some worsted weight wool that I dyed in my "Cool Pool" colorway. It is baby sized. I am excited to start a grown-up sock with the pink/red yarn in the photo. I have until I finish knitting some mittens to decide for sure which socks I want to try. The book explores ways of knitting socks that place the increases at places around the foot other than those traditionally used. It makes for some interesting socks. I hate knitting socks with traditional gusssets because I strongly dislike picking up stitches. I can do it, but it is certainly not my favorite thing to do!

To the right is my new version of the mittens I started back awhile ago. This version is much closer fitting, with a very boring "lice" pattern. Winter is here, my old gloves have a hole in them, and I refuse to buy new ones from the store. I need something I can finish quickly, so I didn't want to take the time to work out something that had to be centered, etc. I wanted to knit with two colors because winters here are very cold. I think I will have enough yarn for these. The yarn is some beautiful handspun that I got from Holly during the Spin-to-Knit exchange last year.

I hope everyone is having a great new year. Now that the Holidays are over, I am hoping to finish some projects that I have been putting off, and get some serious knitting time in!