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.

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...

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!

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!

Been awhile

With the holidays I haven't had time to post for a couple of weeks! We've seen the kids in Christmas concerts and visited family. We've also made it through a bout of stomach flu...

I have been working on the knitted pillow some more. It is definitely ill-fated. The Harmony needle cables BROKE the first time I used them. They come in pairs. I knitted about 1 1/2 inches before the first cable broke, then about 1 1/2 rounds before the second one did. The metal connector pulled right off of the plastic cable. The join between the connector and the needle is threaded. I had no trouble with that. Now that Christmas is done for the year, I need to call KnitPicks and see what they will do for me. I am very disappointed, and quite surprized. I have always been happy with things I have purchased from them. Maybe they had a manufacturing problem. I'll post what I find out!

Brenda

Mitten begun again

I finally frogged the mitten and I have been working around on a new version that I hope I have enough yarn for! I am almost done with the thumb gusset. I think that when I get to the top, I will wait to graft my stitches together until the second mitten is done just in case I run out of one of my colors, or something.

I ordered a new size 5 circular knitting needle from KnitPicks. Meanwhile, my wonderful husband got the broken off piece of plastic out of the size 5 needle point from my Denise needle. Yeah! It is saved!

I have not been enjoying winter very much so far. It hasn't been too bad, but we've been getting at least a dusting of snow everyday for a couple of weeks. That means overcast skies and no sun. I love the sun. I am a sun person, and the greyness really gets me down, whether it is because of snow or rain. I did see a bit of sun today, but not much. However, there was one day earlier this week when the flakes that were drifting down were very crystaline and reflective. I watched them swirling past the house out the back window and they sparkled in the sunlight like glitter. It was truly spectacular. I really enjoyed it while it lasted!

Bad knitting moment

I have been dutifully going round and round on my scratchy wool, stockinette stitch pillow cover, since my other projects are stopped at points which require some thought. Yesterday, I brought it with me as I took Thing 2 to the chiropractor. I sat in the lovely waiting room chair, picked up my knitting, slid the stitches into position, adjusted my fingers and SNAP! My size 5 Denise interchangeable knitting needle snapped cleanly off from the cable to which it was attached. So not only did I lose the pair of size 5 tips (one now is plugged up with the plastic from the cable and I can't get it out) and the cable, but I had to sit and wait for 30 minutes WITH NO KNITTING! I did manage to survive.

I have been eyeing the Hamony interchangeable needles from Knitpicks. I think I will invest in some size 5 tips and a set of cables now! At least some good has come of this! I still have the rest of the Denise set which I have been using and enjoying for years, so I supose that I don't need the whole set of Harmony needles just yet...

I am thankful!

It is lovely sitting in my nice warm house watching the snow drift past the window. I was going to do a little shopping, but I really hate to drive in snow if I don't have to! I missed the whole thanksgiving with the family thing because I wasn't feeling well (I hate throwing up on road trips!) so I have had a couple of days of quiet. I am very thankful for my family, and for all the things that we have been blessed with. I have also been thinking a lot lately about how grateful I am to be able to make things with my hands.

That brings me to the above picture! This is the shrug from Interweave Knits 2005 summer issue and it would really like me to finish it someday. I started it not long after I fell in love with it, but then got side tracked with the wedding gift mittens I pictured in another post. This shrug is knitted from the center back to the cuff, then the provisional cast-off is removed and the second half is knitted. This shrug is exactly half done. Maybe I will take a few minutes to pick up the stitches later today. I actually really enjoy knitting lace, but it does take all of my concentration, which I cannot spare most of the time. My current mindless knitting project is a pillow that I am knitting in the round in stockinette. I don't even have to look at it as I knit.

Anyway, I dyed the yarn for the above shrug, so I thought that I would share a pic of the yarn in a ball and in the skein. I have been very pleased with how it looks knitted up. I use KnitPicks yarn for almost everything. They carry good quality yarns and the wools are soft!

Swatch mitten cuff (soon to be frogged...)

I wanted to post a quick picture of my poor mitten! You can see the beautiful yarn (Thanks Holly!), that I would most certainly run out of if I continued as originally planned. Once I have taken a quick count for gauge, I will frog the thing and start again.

Knitting time has been at a minimum. The kids have been keeping me quite busy. Yesterday there was no school, so I took the three girls shopping for new coats and jeans. Gives new meaning to the phrase "shop 'til you drop"!

I posted some hand dyed sock yarn at my etsy store today, along with some very soft bamboo fleece throws that I hand dyed. www.dye4fun.etsy.com I am absolutely in love with bamboo fleece! It is fabulous to touch, and dyes wonderfully. I have been keeping my eye open for some naturally colored bamboo yarn to try (since I'd rather dye it myself...). I've also read about cutting polar fleece into thin strips and knitting with that and I have been wondering how that would work with this bamboo fleece, since it really is quite a bit different than polar fleece. I really must try it one of these days...

My two projects

Today has been kind of low key. I've been going through kid's clothes and getting rid of things that are too small, moving on hand me downs that have been grown into.

I did find a few minutes to knit. I only have two projects on the needles right now. The first is mindless knitting- what I was working on earlier. It is a cushion cover in stockinette stitch worked in the round. It is a lovely shade of blue, but the yarn is kind of scratchy and I don't really enjoy working on it. I bought the yarn at a local harvest festival a few years ago, intending to make a felted basket out of it. Turns out the darn stuff will not felt. It is too scratchy for anything that I would want to actually want to wear, and I don't have very much of it. Hence, the cushion cover that it is finally on its way to becoming. Someday. Once I get another project going, I'm sure it will fade into the background. Unfinished.

The second project is actually half done, and has been for awhile. It is from the Summer 2005 issue of Interweave Knits. It is a shrug with a leaf lace pattern that I fell in love with. I dyed several skeins of yarn for it and took right off knitting (yes, back in summer of 2005). Then 2 of my brothers got engaged and I decided to make hand spun, hand knit mitten sets with a joined mitten for hand holding for each happy couple. That project took me a long time- though it turned out well. I have worked on the shrug a bit since then. I actually enjoy the lace, but I need full concentration, which is in short supply here most of the time. Now that all the kids are in school, I should be able to get back to it. It is worked from the center back out, and is currently waiting for me to undo the provisional cast on and pick up the live stitches to continue on to the second half...

Life in general...

Halloween was a great event at our house this year. The evening was not too cold- the girls didn't have to cover up their costumes with bulky coats, or put on multiple layers underneath! By the time we were done, the wind was picking up, so it did get chilly, but what a beautiful night. When we woke up Thursday morning, I was surprised at the puddles. It had rained hard sometime during the night. That made the beautiful evening the night before even more amazing!

I have spent much of this week dyeing various things. Today I wanted to just relax and do some sewing, but being a bit fuzzy headed messed up my sewing machine. So I spent much of the day driving to the sewing machine dealer and letting her figure out what I did, and then fixing it, and then coming back home. The dealer is 45 minutes away (yes, that is the closest one...).

So now I am going to go fold laundry, and then maybe I'll dust (it really has to be done when it reaches around 1/4" deep). I probably can't mess up those two things, at least not irreparably.

It is definitely not a good day to start a new knitting project!

PINK HANDSPUN DONE!

I just posted my latest handspun yarn on Etsy. It has been a lot of fun to make. It is so soft. My daughter wants me to give it to her so she can feel it whenever she wants. I have been knitting some socks with commercial sock yarn, and I was amazed at the contrast in texture when I knitted the handspun swatch. It really is nice yarn.

Hopefully I will get better at organizing my pictures as time goes on! To the right (and below) is the hand dyed roving drying last week. There is also a skein of dk weight yarn on the bottom, and felted mittens on the top. It is always hard to wait for the roving to dry after I dye it. I can't wait to spin it and see how it's really going to turn out!

Below is a lovely picture of the roving in the sink getting rinsed. I have to be very careful at this stage to not felt the wool.

I was going to post a picture of my actual spinning wheel in action, but I forgot to have someone snap a picture. I will do it with the next yarn, for sure!

New Handspinning project

Looks like my yarn picture from the last post did show up!







Two days ago I handpainted some roving that I had on hand. I divided it in half and did two colorways. The first is a blue-white-violet-navy repeat, the other is a blue-pink-navy repeat.





This picture shows one of the rovings painted, and ready to wrap and steam.

Yesterday morning I divided the rovings up. The pink one I pulled apart along the blue and navy divisions. I have been spinning these little fiber bundles from the fold. It makes a yarn with a lot of depth. So here is a photo of my little fiber piles from both rovings.

I also started spinning yesterday. I should have yarn pictures to post in the next few days!

Yarn experiment

This yarn is something that I have wanted to try for a few years. Now that my kids are all in school, I am getting to a lot of projects that have been waiting in the wings. I haven't been spinning much this year, and it is great to have some time to do it.

One ply of this handspun yarn is Bluefaced Leicester wool from Louet, the other ply is silk, from predrafted silk hankies. Both plies are softly spun, and a bit fuzzy, with the wool being much to loose in some places. The yarn is very soft. I have wanted to see the sheen of the silk next to the wool texture. It is a nice contrast in this yarn, but the silk has quite a bit of texture on its own, because of the preparation. I will have to try it again with a silk brick and more twist to maximize the difference.

I waited to dye the yarn until after it was plied. I wanted to see how the different fibers reacted in the same dye bath. I know that silk has a strong affinity for dye, but it was very interesting what happened. I was using a roasting pan (that I use only for dying) and I heated the water, vinegar, and yarn up to just below boiling. Then I poured the fuschia dye in- but only in certain spots. At that temp the dye usually strikes fairly quickly and you can get some great effects. After the fuschia, I added some blue in other spots. Instead of getting pink spots and blue spots, I got pink silk and blue wool. Very few areas look truely purple, which is surprising...

Here may or may not be a lovely picture of the dyed yarn. I have been having some trouble uploading the picture, and currently can only see the dreaded "x". I will try again tomorrow.

Etsy store

I've opened an etsy account to sell handmade stuff. This is an exciting move for me! Later this week I will post some of the yarns and clothing that I have hand dyed. If you haven't checked out etsy.com you should. They sell hand made items. There are lots of neat things there!

My etsy store is http://www.dye4fun.etsy.com/