Did my Christmas Thing

For Christmas this year, I made the bookmarks for my reading group,





a pearl necklace for my sister,


a pearl and crystal necklace for Cathy,


a bracelet for my niece,





and a beaded shawlette for my sister-in-law. The pictures do not do it justice.

And of course goodies for co-workers, neighbors, and friends.





Cathy and I worked for 12 hours and made 40 gifts of cookies and candies.

Cathy and I were saved when Ricky came and made all the candy and scotchroos and Bret showed up and made 5 batches of cookies.

They are our heros!!!!

Still Spinning

I finished spinning the corridale fiber this weekend. This time I tried to spin a bit thinner so the 2-ply would be more like worsted instead of bulky. Jocelyn lent me her knitty noddy so I was able to measure how much yarn I have.

This is the skein of the first yarn I spun. It is 71 meters and weighs 123 grams. That is 1.73 grams per meter.

(I used my cool food scale to find this out. The funny thing is I have never used the scale for food, only yarn. But I bought it because I was going to use for a recipe that weighed the ingredients.)

Notice this skein hangs straight. Nancy told me that means the skein is balanced, which is a good time, although I don't know why. I think that means that as you knit the yarn will not twist. But I know the yarn is over twisted. Hmmmm..... So why is the skein balanced?



This is the skein I did this last weekend. It is 63 meters and weighs 75 grams. That is 1.19 meters per gram. That's better. It is more like worsted weight.

As I was spinning I realized that if Dr. Seuss created yarn, this is exactly what it would look like. It goes from fat to thread thin sporadically. There are sections that are so tightly spun they curl and knot and other places that are complete without a twist. There are knots where when skeining the yarn it broke so I tied it together. AND each time I joined a new section of fiber there is a little tuft of fiber that sticks out in all directions. Looks just like the top of trees in a Dr. Seuss book. I love Dr. Seuss so rather enjoy the bazaar look of my yarn.

But even with all this some how this skein is balanced also!!! I'm guessing that is only because I over ply to the same degree that I over twist! So two wrongs do make a right! LOL

Here are the two balls of yarn. The one on the right is my very first yarn and the one on left is the yarn I spun last weekend. You can see the one on the left is a bit thinner, but not much.

Over the long Thanksgiving weekend, I'm going start spinning the merino/silk 80/20. I'm a bit nervous because I know what I want to knit with this fiber and I don't want it to be bulky. I bought the corridale for practicing, but the merino/silk I have plans for so need the yarn to be reasonable.

Hey I Can Spin!

I just completed a 5 week spinning class, taught by my friend Nancy. Nancy is a wonderful and generous teacher. Each week we went home with wonderful fiber to spin.



At the end of class, she let me borrow her Ashford Joy wheel (I just love this wheel) and took me to Purlscence so I could buy fiber.


I bought theses; Louet 80/20 merino & silk in pink and blue, Chasing Rainbows silk. I also bought a bag of Louet Corridale top. Saturday, the dog was at the groomer and DH was out flying his plane so I sat down for several hours of spinning.


Here is the Corridale all prepared to spin.

This is the first time I've sat and spun for several hours using the same fiber. I had several ah haas! The most important thing I learned was I can't draft and spin at the same time. Just too much going on. But if I prepared the yarn before spinning, then when I spin all I need to control is the amount of twist. Using this method, I was able to produce fairly consistent yarn most of the time, which goes between DK and worsted weight (not bad for a beginning). When I try to draft and spin, I create bulky and lace weight yarn. I'm sure if I continue to practice, I'll be able to draft and spin at the same time - just not right now.



Here is my first full bobbin of spun yarn.

And here is my first ball of bulk 2-ply yarn.

I haven't figured out what to make with it. I tried several things and frogged all of them. I really don't like bulky yarn, so I'm having trouble coming up with anything I can make that I would wear. I don't want to felt it because I what to be able to see my first yarn in detail. Maybe hand warmers.

Progress Report

Here is the status of my Lace Cable Kimono. In this picture only one sleeve is done, but right now both sleeves are finished.

So all the is left is to sew the side seams, and pick up and knit the band. The pattern has you pick up on the right side up to the bust shaping then knit the band and tie. Do the same for the left side, then pick up and knit the band for the front and back.

Last week we had to fly to IN. for a funeral. I needed a project that was easy to do and could be picked up and put down quickly. I picked Stripe up the Band, by Candace Eisner Strick. My friend Vivian made this and commented on how it's just rows and rows of garter. It bored her sometimes because there was nothing going on. PERFECT!

Here is the sweater. On the upper part of the sweater, there is a definite right and wrong side but I can't decided which side I like better. The first picture is of the wrong side the other is the right side. I don't have to decided until I sew the shoulder seams. I'm thinking of have the sweater with the right side out and the sleeves with the wrong side out.

Oh and I get extra points on this sweater, because I shopped by stash AND swatched several yarns until I found a combination I liked!

Take a look at Vivian's sweater.

The Kimono is Working Up Fast

This weekend we took our youngest to college, which meant lots of knitting time in the car. So I was able to finish the Left front. This pattern is fun and fast to do.

Finished the Back of the Kimono KAL

I'm using Rowan Cashsoft. It's 57% extra fine merino wool, 33% microfibre and 10% cashmere. It feels sooooo wonderful.

Finished Seaming Before the Long Weekend!!!

Well this has never happened before but I finished the seaming of this sweater before the long weekend. And I have no other finished projects so that means I get to KNIT all weekend! Hoo Woo.

Good thing too, because the Cables and Lace Kimono KAL casts on this weekend.

Who Said That

I don't know who got into my blog and wrote that I wouldn't cast on until I seamed the project I just finished. But it couldn't have been me. Now I do think that's a good idea, but ....

I've started this. I'm making mine in a wonderfully rich eggplant color.






And I've signed up for the Sweaterbabe knit-alone to make this. We cast on Sep. 1. I choose a charcoal grey yarn. This just looks cosy.

My Latest

This is the project I took with me to Europe. It was perfect. Once you did the set up row, it was just lots of easy knitting. The pattern is the Mobius Capelet by Candace Eisner Strick made in Ellen's 1/2 Pint Farm hand dyed yarn. This is very fun to do. Oh and flying with metal needles, was no problem.















I finished all the knitting on the Nashua sweater. The sleeves are finished, just not in the picture.

This was really fun to knit. I've joined the shoulders and now just need to sew the side seams and sleeves. I am not going to cast on another project until this is seamed!!

















Here is a close up of the pattern.

New Slippers!

I finished knitting and felting the slippers I started in May. The blue pair on the left are for me. These replace the ones I made 5 years ago. They have holes in the soles. The purple ones are for a friend and her mother. The picture to the left is before felting. The picture below is after felting.

All my projects, except for a few scarfs, are finished so I casted on and started this!

Yes - I'm still knitting

I haven't kept up with my blog mostly because I find it hard to fnd the time to take the pictures. No matter what I do, the color doesn't come out correctly. The first two pitures of the baby sweaters, are good. The color is correct. In the other, (taken on a different day) the colores are not right. Because of the problem, I put off taking pictures, because I'm not happy with the result. All these pictures were taken in the moring, in a area that was not in direct sunlight. But colorwise, they came out very differently. I find this very discouraging.

--- Well enough of that. I guess I just need to not worry about the color and keep up with my blog. ---

So, yes I'm still knitting (and teaching)

I finished two baby sweaters for charity; a faux fairisle (the yarn did all the work) and a top down. There were actually 3 sweaters, but I gave one away before getting a picture.

My anti-lace project, which is a Mountain Colors jacket. I bought this kit at Stitches in Feb. and started it in late March. I needed an anti-lace project because I had just finished the lace shawl for Stitches and a lace shawl for a class I was teaching. This is anti-lace not only because there isn't a lace pattern, but it was knit on size 10.5 needles, in worsted weight, and there wasn't much shaping. A simple and quick knit. It would have been quicker if I hadn't run out of yarn. I had to find the shop info, call them and get more yarn. I put that off for weeks. But when I finally called, they did have the yarn and I finished the project. I'm not sure why, but this picture is much too pink. The actual color is more of an orange-red.

I finished a Lace Vest (Cherish) from the Rowan Classic Style Book #16. I made it with the Rowan Classic Silk Wool DK (50% merino and 50% silk). The yarn is a dream to work with. Again the color is off (at least on my monitor). This is a ocean green; not blue. This is the front and back (it still needs buttons). Aren't buttons the hardest thing to find!

Here is a close-up of the lace pattern.

The last thing I have finished is a tank top from the Knitting Nature book. It is made of Valley Yarn Southwick (from Webs), which is 52% pima cotton and 48% bamboo. This is actually a pale aqua.

Finished the Lace Shawl & Caftan

Well I must be ready for Stitches West because I finished the two knitted projects I wanted to wear. The Caftan.

And the Lace Shawl!!!