A little bit of everything!

I had good intentions. I wanted to finish a few of my socks-in-progress but I got a bit sidetracked.

I really don't think it's humanly possible to buy all that luscious fibre and not spin any of it! This little bit here translate to this...


8 grams, 2 plyed, 64m. I didn't think there was that much on the bobbin. I plied it from a centre pull ball and the colours ended up darker than what was on the bobbin. I'm spinning another sample to see how it will look Navajo plied. It's a 4-day long weekend...I still have plenty of knitting time.


Not Jaywalker Socks

We all knew that I was going to start the Jaywalker socks, right? I got about 5" done when I realized it was way too wide for my feet. And the pattern was not as nice going toe up. It made funny little points (don't laugh, TBC!) I thought the Cheveron socks from Elann would look much better...


The one thing I changed was to add an extra stitch at the end of the top to make 34 stitches instead of 33 in the pattern. This way, I don't have to end with a YO and this kept my stitches nice and neat. There's 3 sets of chevron plus 1 stitch.

After the rain...

Toe Up Pomatomus - Part II

Heels for the Toe-Up Pomatomus

The toe-up Pomatomus has been waiting for the heels for a few days now. I have been carefully considering all options. I usually like the short row heel for toe up socks but part of the charm of the Pom socks is the rib-look heel. I'm going with the heel flap and gusset. It's a bit more work for toe up socks because you have to figure out what goes where.

Work the foot and pattern until 3" from the heel. (The reason I went with 3" instead of 2" is that the foot ended up being way too long for me. I had to frog back and started my heel earlier.) On the sole side, knit 1, increase 1 and knit to 1 stitch before the end, increase 1, knit 1. Next round, knit plain. Alternate the two rows until there's 36 stitches for the sole and there should already be 36 stitche on the top (pattern).

For the last plain round, place marker 1 stitch from the end at both ends. Next round, increase 1 on the outstide of the markers for both ends. At the same time, knit in pattern for the top of the foot. Increase until there's 15 stitches on each sides (outside marker).

For this part, it was easier doing one sock at a time. I took the heel section off my circular and used DPNs. Next round, knit to 1 stitch before marker, knit 2together taking 1 stitch before marker and 1 after marker, place marker back. Turn work and slip the last stitch. Purl to 1 before end of marker and purl 2 together - 1 before and 1 after marker. Do the same thing until all the stitches on the outside of marker is used up. There should be 36 stitches on the sole side.

Now I have the second heel to do.

Continue with leg, using chart A.

Rib and cast off loosely.

See here for Part I

Not Knitting

I'm not knitting them...just wanted to see what it would look like in balls. I have willpower.

I think I'm not going to knit a pair of JAYWALKER socks with this.

Need sunglasses!

Last night, we got together for the unveiling (or unraveling) of our handpainted sock yarn. Overall, I think the results were pretty spectacular. "Not Really Orange" came out a nice bright yellow.

The surprise of the day was the "mop up" skein. One skein got a bit messed up during soaking and instead of playing around, trying to sort it out, we used it to mop up extra (and spilt) dyes. The overall colour came out golden rust with bits of blue.

I'm so tempted to start knitting this right away but I wanted to finish the toe-up Poms first, then the second Elfine sock...

Fibre Fun Weekend

I'm so very tired and my feet are hurting. But I had such a good fibre weekend that I would do it all again, given the chance. I don't know where to start.

Friday

Fiber Festival at Tradex in Abbotsford. It was so much fun! With everything we had planned this weekend, I knew that I won't have time to go both days. Instead of a workshop, Amber and I shopped till we dropped...literally.

I came home with just few things. :)

It was a Merino kind of day. Two bags of merino/silk, one bag of 100% merino, one bag of merino/bison, two bags of jet black alpaca, 200gms cotwold/silk blend, one skein of handpainted tencel, one bag of fake cashmere, 1 set of Crystal Palace double pointed needles in a size & length I don't already have, and a couple of magazines.

The fake cashmere is nylon so I thought it would be something to blend with merino for socks. I still have so much of that merino from Black Sheep last year.

The black alpaca is from Cortes Island Suri Alpacas. There's a picture of Thunder, the Alpaca. My son has met Thunder and he is as gorgeous as his picture.

Still, considering what was there, I thought I showed remarkable restraint. We shopped until 4:30pm, met up with the rest of the gang (who were finishing up the Nuno felting workshop. There should be some pics on the Twisted By Choice blog in a few days.) for more shopping and a late dinner. I was exhausted by the time I got home. I think I spent just as much time chatting with everyone as I did shopping. :D

Saturday

This was our Sock Painting Day at the Clubhouse. Jade's husband had kindly made us two jigs. We got together about 10am-ish...and finished at 8:30pm! The first two skeins took us 6 hours to organize and paint. The rest was much faster once we figured out what we were doing. Heh! It was done with our usual trial and error method - accompanied by a lot of laughing and giggling.

We did managed to finish painting six skeins. I love how they turned out! There were some surprising results after steaming. Some colours bled and separated, making interesting effects. Other colours changed drastically - some were more vibrant and some were more muted than we origianlly thought. I think we were all happy with the results. More socks to knit!

Sunday

I really don't like losing that hour when we move the clocks forward. Especially this busy weekend. I think we should all petition to change that to Wednesday - I don't mind giving up an hour of work time for daylight savings. :) Weekends are short enough as it is.

The Glass Bead workshop was so much fun! Kerri Fuhr is a very attentive instructor and talented bead maker. She had all of us oohing and ahhing over her work. At the beginning of the class, Kerri passed around samples of her work. The work was fantastic! They were the kind of stuff that you want all of it - every single last bead!

During the class, as Kerri explained different techniques, she would pass the samples around again. After trying it out for ourselves, we can appreciate the hard work that goes into the making of a single bead. Our attempts were nothing like hers. I'm not going to point out which misshapen beads are mine. Making glass beads (or Lampworking) was something I've always wanted to try. Despite the wobbly first beads, I really enjoy working with the glass and came home with one of her beginner's kits. I'm trying not to think of this as a new hobby but as something that will accessorize my fibre work.

Toe Up Pomatomus and stuff...

Toe-Up Pomatomus so far...

I decided on the short row toe method. I really like the look of this toe after seeing how it looked on the Elfine sock (notice just sock - not socks). I started with 2mm needles and provisional cast on for 32 stitches. Knit the toe according to instructions at Knitty. Knit 1 round even after the last wrap pick up.

Switch to 2.5mm needles and knit 1 round even. Next round, knit according to the Foot chart, row 2 but don't k2togbl - knit as separate stitches. At the end of this round, increase 1 more. There should be 36 stitches for the top of the foot and 32 for the bottom. Continue in pattern until the foot is long enough. The scales are facing the opposite direction from the original. The pattern is working nicely.


Elfine Sock

The first sock is done. I was overly eager to start the toe-up Pomatomus that I casted on for that instead of the second Elfine sock. I hope I haven't doomed the Elfine socks to a lonely life of SSD.


I'm still not sure about the picot edging yet. This wasn't part of the pattern but it seemed like a good idea at 2am. It can easily be redone if I change my mind.

Further Adventures in Sock World

Now I regret not knitting both socks together. I wanted to see how the pattern would look with this yarn. If I knit both socks together, it would have taken me twice as long to get to this point. Just in case I didn't like it and have to frog it.

I do like the yarn and the pattern. Once I got the lace repeat charted, it was a breeze. I'm not good with teeny tiny print. Much MUCH prefer charts to written instructions.

The toe up Pomatomus will be next. I dyed some more yarn on the weekend and was pretty happy with the results...or at least, most of it. One skein is definitely destined to become the next Pomatomus. (One skein will be re-dyed, thanks to Felicia's suggestion.)

Here's my thought:

I was flipping through the latest issue of Interweave Knit and wondered why did the designer of Simply Lovely Lace Socks made them in two different colours. At first, I was annoyed by this blatant attempt to get us to buy more yarn. But after giving it some thought, I thought maybe she had something there.

So many of us suffer from SSD. We all have 1 or 2 (or more) single lonely sock waiting for a mate. Take Karen Baumer's idea of mismatched colours and go further with it - why stop at wearing two different colour socks and why not wear two totally different design socks? Not only would you be in the latest knitting fashion but really cutting edge of knitting fashion!

Socks that match are highly overrated.

P.S...Dear Anonymouses: Yes, I know the socks are two different patterns. It was just me being silly, with all the talk about Second Sock Disorder. But I am seriously thinking I should start wearing my single lonely socks and perhaps start a new fashion trend.

Adventures in Sock World

In anticipation of our upcoming Sock Yarn Painting Extravaganza, I thought I would play around a bit. Besides, I have a LOT of sock yarns just for that purpose.

The original plan was to dye the yarn yellow and handpaint green and red highlights. The yellow came out beautifully. Just the right shade of daffodils, I thought. I let the yarn cool down and laid it on plastic to paint. Here's where things went wrong.

I really don't think I should be trusted with dyes. I think I got a bit carried away and by the time I came to my senses, there was not a lot of yellow left on the yarn. It wasn't terrible. But not quite what I had in mind.

Note to self: Colours will bleed together during steaming. I watched the colours migrate for 20 minutes. The results were a lot more disgusting than I had imagine.

As I started to wind the yarn into a centre pull ball, I found I didn't mind the colours after all. There were interesting little flecks of bright yellows and greens here and there. Still, even the ugliest yarns can knit up into something beautiful, right?


Toe-Up

Knitty has an excellent article on different types of toes for toe-up socks. Short Row, Figure 8, Easy Toe. I never liked the Figure 8 cast on and I usually do the Easy Toe so I thought I would try the short row. It looks just like a little heel! The top of the toe is smooth - no corners! I think, depending on what method used for the short row, you won't even see the ridges on the sides.

One suggestion for the short row: use a different colour (non-fraying) yarn to mark where you wrap and turn. Otherwise, it may be hard to see where your last wrap & turn was and you have to redo your toe 3 or 4 times!

Now, the question is: Should I make the Efline's Socks or a Toe Up Pomatomus?

Madli Shawl

I have finally finished plying the yarn for the Madli Shawl! The finished yarn is a little bit thicker than the sample skein but I think it will work better. This is more like the recommended yarn. The shawl knits up quickly except for the nupps....not to be confused with neps. Nupps are several knit and yarn over stitches all in one stitch. This pattern requires nupps of 7! It was driving me crazy, trying to purl through all 7 loops so I changed it to 5. A bit better but still tedious. Changed to 3 nupps and hated it.


Life without nupps...

Round Two

I still didn't like how the nupps were looking and did a full repeat without nupps. It was much better so I took a deep breath and ripped it out. The yarn is a two-plyed attempt at evenly spun lace weight. There's a bit of over twisting and some thick & thin sections. Overall, it seems fairly balanced. I haven't set the twist yet. That will be done when I block the shawl.

I don't know if it's the fibre (Polworth) but the yarn is snagging on my hands...no matter what I do. I did the sugar scrub, hand lotion, lemon juice, a layer of lanolin. Nothing is working. Silk wasn't this bad. I don't recall the sample skein and swatch being this bad.

Pomatomus Socks

Pomatomus Socks in Fleece Artist superwash merino sock yarn, colourway - Marine. Knitted with 2.75mm Bryspun double pointed needles. Heels and toes knitted with 2mm CP bamboo double pointed needles.

I was very concern that I wouldn't have enough yarn for the pair. FA yarn measured 330m (wound on my niddy noddy) and the pattern called for 350m. I knew it was going to be very close. I'm the type of person that would buy more than the pattern called for. If the pattern suggested 10-12 balls, I think I need 15 but I would by 20 just in case. Doing it toes up would have been a good idea but I wasn't sure how the pattern would translate. I kept to the pattern mostly. It was pretty tense as I got to the heel of the second sock!

I would definetely make this pattern again. I think I would use either the hourglass heel or afterthought heel. Having made these once, I can see that the socks can be done toes up. The socks fit snug on my feet and baggy at the ankles...just the way I like socks.

The ridges were interesting. If you turn the fabric one way, you can see the ridges. The fabric looked flat if you turn it around. It's a fun stitch pattern that I can see many other uses...perhaps a shawl or a scarf?

A use for disposable chopsticks

Wow! Look what you can do with recycled disposable chopsticks! It does make sense now that I think about it. All those millions of people eating take out food with disposable chopsticks must generate a lot of chopstick waste.

Fleece Artist sock yarn

"It's not a sock yarn kind of shop!" was told to me by the clerk working at Urban Yarns today. Heh! I pointed out the Fleece Artist merino sock yarn. "Oh, that's a kit...." Huh!? I thought they had a pretty okay selection of sock yarns...Regia, etc. The basic stuff that you can find in any other LYS. Once I saw the FA yarns, that was it. Game over for all the other sock yarns.

To describe a skein of yarn and badly written instructions as a sock kit is pushing it. Don't get me wrong...I love the yarn! All my favourite colours! But there was no gauge given in the instructions, other than what size needles. The sizes of the socks did not tell you the measurements. No yardage. No weight. I didn't care. It felt like about 100gms...which was what I was looking for. It did give a needle size so that helped.

The clerk did try hard to convince me that I really should follow the pattern that came with the kit. I think that was sweet of her but I had my heart set on Pomatomus from Knitty.

Oh, and the rest of the day was spent wandering around Granville Island, lunch at the Watermark on Kits beach. The food was pretty good but the place was a bit drafty! The weather was gorgeous and we had a window table overlooking the beach.

I picked up some more silk fibre at the Weaving Studio. A couple of bags of Tussah silk, a bag of silk/camel, and a skein of silk chennille and some nubbly silk. I was hoping to find some of the new silk blends (silk/linen & silk/seacell) but they only had the dyed skeins. No worries, I picked up a couple of the mini skeins to experiment with.

When I got home, I discovered I already had 5 bags of Tussah silk, 2 bags of silk/camel, and 3 bags of cultivated silk in my stash. I probably knew that. But it didn't stop me from picking up a few more bags. My domestic enabler (aka hubby) thinks I'm worried that these people will go out of business if I didn't buy constantly.

Of course, I had to cast on and knit a bit as soon as I got home...just to see what the colours would look like.

(I'm relieved to know it's not me but the camera. I used the tripod for these and they're still fuzzy. This camera doesn't do close-ups.)

Paper Bag

Last summer, our Guild held a Bag challenge and I started to work on my Paper Bag. At least, that was the intention. I made a trip to Granville Island to visit Paper-Ya. Paper-Ya has almost every kind of handmade paper imaginable...except the washi that I needed. What makes this paper special is that the sheets are pulled with all the fibres aligned in two direction, rather than the regular four. Still, the Hadaura is strong enough to use for paper spinning.

Finally, with a lot of off-and-on spinning, I had enough to knit my bag. I tried several different stitch patterns but the stiffness of the paper yarn made it hard to show any definition. I decided on a simple stockingnette stitch, accented with beads. The beads are added with a crochet hook as I went along. I tried stringing all the beads on first but the uneven joins made it hard to push the beads along.

The bag was finished and I had planned on using an olive green/gold silk chiffon for the lining and the fringe but the whole bolt has disappeared. (Yes, a WHOLE BOLT OF FABRIC!) In order to finish the bag for the Mar 9th deadline, I used a pale gold organza, cut into strips, and the paper yarn for the fringe. The ends were beaded to match the body of the bag. The cords were made with a commercial silk, twisted. Overall, I'm happy with the results but it's not the way I envisioned the bag to look. If I find this bolt of silk, I may change the fringe...just to see what it would look like.

If I had thought of it, I would have taken a picture of the finished bag before dropping it off at the Guild metting but instead, here's a pic of it as a work-in-progress.

More hats

I'm still knitting hats. I thought I might finish up the wool I bought just for the Olympic hats. I'm doing hats because I'm at a loss what to knit next. I guess I could finish one of the zillions of UFO's lying around upstairs. I thought perhaps another shawl. But that means I have to finish plying the Polworth. (Plying together two bobbins of lace weight takes a very LONG time!)

What I really want to do is a sweater with lots of twists and cables. But I can't seem to decide on a pattern. But I want to knit this with my own handspun...which means more carding, spinning, plying. All which I love doing but I need instant gratification right now.

I think another pair of socks should be next. I'm thinking of Pomatomus. I think I need a trip to Urban Yarns this weekend.

Polworth

This is my first time trying to spin a yarn to match what is recommended in the pattern. The pattern is the Madli Shawl from Interweave Summer 2004. The yarn is a 2-plyed lace weight - 1000m/200g. I worked it out that 10g of fibre, spun and plyed, should be 50m of yarn. The swatch was right on gauge, after blocking.

Now, the challenge will be to spin enough yarn to knit the shawl. Bobbin Two is filling up nicely. Once this one is full, I'll start plying.

Post Olympics

I've accomplished my goals for the Knitting Olympics. By the end of the closing ceremonies, I had a total of 18 hats...2 over my goal of 16. It wasn't easy because I'm just not a one-project-at-a-time gal. It was really difficult to resist all temptations of new projects. I did give in once and finished a pair of socks...I only had the ribbing to knit!

I thought I might post pics of the individual hats but I'm a really bad photographer. You have no idea how long and how many pictures I had to take before I got anything decent enough to post here. For me to take 18 GOOD pictures is nearly impossible so I won't bother...

If you've been over at Twisted By Choice, you've already seen this pic...my apologies.

Random cuteness

I came across this site today...Pencils and Papers. I thought the cards were too cute. It turns out she's a local artist and I know her mom! Talk about a small world. I ordered a dozen cards. I would have ordered even if I didn't know her mom. How can you resist Stuffed Bear, passed out from eating too much chocolate cake?

I'm going to suggest that she make some sheep cards.

Basic Hat Pattern

So far, all the hats are made from top down.

Using the Emily Ocker method, cast on 8 stitches. I didn't bother with a crochet hook and knit them directly on my circulars.

Round 1: Knit
Round 2: *K1, M1* repeat to end of round.
Round 3: Knit
Repeat the two rows but instead of K1 on the next round, you K2, etc. until hat is the right circumferenc. Knit plain until hat is long enough. Rib 2X2 for about 2" (or however long you want your ribbing).

Bind off prep row: K2, YO, P2, YO, etc to end.
Bind off: K2, pass 1st stitch over, slip YO, pass 2nd stitch over, etc. I like this bind-off because it gives me a nice stretchy bind-off without changing to larger needles.

Edited to add: The bind-off is done like a regular bind-off except for the yarn overs. They are not knitted but slipped and the previous stitch is passed over. This is a great bind-off for toe up socks.

That's basically the HAT. You can change colours anytime, do different colour patterns, stitch patterns, etc.

I like to cast on 8 because the subsequent increases will give me just the right number for 2x2 ribbing. I don't have to count and keep track of my increases this way.

A bit of wool

This followed me home today. I went through my stash and decided I needed more wool for the hats. At the LYS, I found Patons 100% wool. I've never used Patons product before. I was really surprised by the softness of the wool! And it was really quite affordable! I know a lot of people say they're on a limited yarn budget and can't afford good yarn but there are good quality affordable yarns out there. This didn't cost any more than the craft acrylic stuff one finds at Michael's.


This one is going back to the LYS. I think some of the Phentax was mixed up with the Patons balls. They were the same size and I just picked colours. 100% acrylic! It's going back! It hurts my hands just thinking about it!

Day of Rest

Today is truly Day Ate. I've been eating all day. It's someone's 65th birthday so there was cake. A big monster size CHOCOLATE cake! And then the lunch. And then the afternoon meeting and someone brought delicious homemade CHOCOLATE muffins! And my boss is back and gave out big Purdy's CHOCOLATE hearts! I'm a chocoholic. I can eat styrofoam if it's covered with chocolate...especially DARK chocolate.

9 hats finished. Tonight I will treat myself to a break and work on some other fibre project. Just a little one...I promise! I'm going to finish the ribbing of my Forever socks (aka Chevron socks). Even ribbing was exciting to do after a week of hat knitting.

I'm eagerly waiting the arrival of my new rosewood needles. I've never tried these before but have heard good things about them. I'm intrigued by the black cord. The claim is that the cord doesn't coil up like other circulars. I'm game to try anything at least once.

Day Six

Day Six and 7 finished hats. There was a false start and some frogging was needed. Hat 8 is back on track and on the homestretch with just the ribbing to finish up. I'm hoping to gain back my lead this weekend with some power knitting.


Unfortunately, a box came today with the rest of my Kidsilk Haze yarn order. There is nothing on this earth like this stuff! I'm having a difficult time not casting on a new project.

I guess you can tell I found a Candy Heart maker. These things are lots of fun!

Olympic Knitting - Day Three

It's coming to the end of Day Three here in BC. It's been an exciting 3 days here, with watching the Canadian Women's Hockey games and speed skating.

I've outdid myself and accomplished 6 (count them!) hats!! I know once the work week starts, I may not have enough time to knit so this weekend was devoted to hat knitting.

While I'm off to a pretty decent start, I hope I haven't peeked too soon. That's still another 10 hats in 13 days to go. As in any long distance sport, I must remember to pace myself.


I've been using up some of my hand-dyed handspun yarns. It's been fun taking the small skeins and matching them up in different colour combinations. The non-handspun hats are brighter but the handspun hats are definitely much softer. I still have to weave all the loose ends in and block. Maybe I'll do that tonight to give my hands a break.

Mr. Olympic Knitter has been very supportive. He offered to drive me up to the yarn shop yesterday. He wanted to make sure I had enough yarn! LOL!

Olympic Knitting - Day One!

On Friday when all the other Olympic Knitters were casting on, I was dealing with a crisis at work. A capital "M"-Major crisis. I snuck out to the bathroom and quickly casted on my first hat. Thank goodness I decided to start with something simple. Cast on 6 stitches and knit top down. Round & round, change colours once, and rib to the end. I knitted on the way on on the train. We ordered out for food and I kept knitting. Hat One is done!



Hat Two is well on its way to completion. Dare I hope to do two hats today?

Jennifer Heil won a gold medal in the Women's Mogul! A proud moment for the Other Team Canada!

Team Canada

After looking over the list of projects other knitters are doing, I want to change my mind - over and over again. It's easy to be tempted by this shawl or that sweater pattern. So many things that I want to knit. But I feel obligated to stick with my original plan. I always come back to the hats. I think it's because I believe in the Duulan project.

I just started a bag for the vessel project for the guild today. I have one more day to finish this so I can concentrate on the hats. I'm not sure I can do this. It's not going to be easy sticking with just one thing.

Knitting Olympics

I love the idea of Yarn Harlot's Knitting Olypmics. There are more participants signed up for this than the actual Olympics! I don't think she had any idea that it would become so huge. Almost every knitting (and a few non-kniiting) blog that I've visited this past couple of weeks has a mention of this Knitting Olympics.

On Friday, Feb 10th, during the opening ceremonies, over 2500 (and counting) knitters from all over the world will be casting on and knitting their Olympic challenge. Wow! Mindboggling and exciting!

I'm going to knit 16 hats...one a day...for the Duulan project. Knitting hats is not a challenge for me but knitting 16 hats and nothing but for that timeframe will probably kill me. I have the attention span of a gnat. It's going to hard not be distracted, considering that I have several projects on the go right now. I have the polworth that I'm currently spinning into laceweight. There's the freshly cleaned Gotland fleece just waiting to be carded and spun. And the biggest temptation of all arrived in the mail today - a box of Kidsilk Haze ready to be knitted into scarves and shawls. But I'm excited. I went through my yarn stash and pulled out stuff that would be appropriate. This Wed, I'm going to the LYS and MAKE SURE I have enough yarn to last me.

Gotland 2006

Despite the blue skies and sunshine today, it was still a bit damp and chilly out. I decided to be lazy and wash the fleece indoors. Just didn't want to spend the time cleaning winter debris accumlated in the outside laundry tub. That's a job for REAL springtime.

The Gotland was dumped out on the kitchen floor and sorted into little piles. Surprisingly, there was very little VM. Nothing like my first Gotland (thorns and dead beetles). But there was a lot of second cuts. And badly sheared bits. This little lambie didn't want a haircut!

I can see how Gotland will felt if you just look at it wrong. The lock formation is not as good as some of the other fleece I've processed. You can carefully separate them but the cut side is very very soft and loose.

The tub I used is not as big as my outside tub so the fleece was washed in two batches. Mesh lingerie bags are wonderful and only cost a $1.00 at the Dollar store.

A good hot soak with Sunlight dish soap. I know a lot of people like Dawn or Orvus paste. I don't care for the scent of Dawn and I'm not sure how I feel about Orvus paste yet. As a natural soapmaker, it's a tough habit to not be wary of anything mostly sodium laurel sulfate. Strangely, I've been told that suds are not what you want for washing fleece but SLS is used as a sudsing agent in detergents. Sunlight works for me and I'm happy with the results.

After the initial soak in the tub, I transferred the fleece to the washing machine - no aggitation! I didn't want to chance clogging up our drains with lanolin. Don't think that would be appreciated by the Hubby-person. Two rinses - the first rinse with vinegar and the second with plain water.

The fleece dried quickly. I cheated by placing the rack near the fireplace. It was checked often to make sure it didn't dry too quickly. The silver and grey came through beautifully! Some of the tips were still dirty so I'll separate them and wash again.

I'm really looking forward to working with this fleece.

Happy Monday!

Oh my! What is this?! Is that blue I see peeking out? I've lost track of how much rain we've had. Blech! Lunch time was spent outside by the water, knitting the *Damn Socks* aka Chevron Lace socks.


This is 1.2 kgs of Gotland in all its sheepy goodness. Not quite the fullbodied sheepness of some of the other fleece I've brought home but enough to get strange stares on the bus home tonight. In my perfect world, I'm going wash this fleece and sort it by the colour variations. Then I'm going to spin and knit a shawl, using the Illusion Knitting technique. This will be done as soon as I win the lottery so I can devote 36 hours a day in the pursuit of fibre happiness. yup.

Gung Hay Fat Choy!

Happy Chinese New Year!

It seems appropriate that I decided to return to my Knit Blog on Chinese New Year.



So many things symbolizes prosperity and long life in the Chinese culture. Abundance of good things is obvious at this time of the year. Fibre was probably not what they had in mind but seems appropriate here. My newest fleece - 3 pounds of sheepy-smelling brown Shetland. It's gorgeous!

I was hoping to have it all washed and drying by the end of the weekend. Unfortunately, the weather was the typical Vancouver weather - rain and lots of it. Other than the very brief bit of blue skies on Saturday morning, it was rain and wind all weekend. The second best thing to do was just to sort through the fleece and pack it away for another day. I spent as much of the weekend as I could flick teasing the Polworth and carding it into batts on the drum carder. I want to line my floor with these batts and roll around on them nekkid. They are that soft!

Note to self: change drums and blend some silk with the Polworth.

KMVS Embroidery Workshop with Maiwa Fibre Symposium

The whole day was amazing. There were two actual embroiderers and two interpreters. The interpretors were all excellent embroiderers in their own rights. The day started out slow and unsure. They were hesitant and shy at first. They could see that we were all very interested in their work and relaxed. The lack of common language between us didn't seem to be a problem. Lots of pointing and smiling seemed to work. I apologize for not remembering the names of these ladies. This woman is holding her wedding shawl. It's hard to see in the picture but there faint lines in the black area. The fabric was block printed first, then mud painted, then dyed - all before the embroidery work was done. The picture really doesn't do it justice. That piece is stunning! She did it all herself as part of her dowry. She's 34 years old and a widow with a son and has no chance of ever remarrying. No one would marry her without another dowry. But even if she does save up, why would she want to remarry? She's better off now. She has high status in her village as an embroiderer. She has a son who will marry and give her a a daughter-in-law and bring in a dowry.

One of the interpretor trying on the wedding shawl to show us. In her village, the embroiderer is not allowed to wear her own embroidery or anything colourful because of her widow status. This custom is apparently different from village to village.

If anything, I came out of there with a better understanding and appreciation of their work. The KMVS group buys directly from the embroiderers and sells directly to the public so there are no middlemen. This means more money for the embroiderers. Right off the bat, the embroiderers are paid a good wage, a percentage is for the village for schools, water, etc. The middlemen would pay roughly 20 rupees a piece and the KMVS may pay 400 rupees for the same work. Big difference. The men are quite involved as well. Even though the work is all done by women, the men has a big say in things. They were concerned about women coming to Canada by themselves, being corrupted by Westerners. Meena (the woman in the yellow dress) has been here before but the others have never left India. Each woman interested had to submit their name and reasons. It was quite a long process in picking the names. The women chosen had to be expert embroiderers and married or widowed. The embroidery work is a strong part of their culture. I really got a sense of pride not just from the embroiderers themselves but from their whole village. There was a lot of planning to make sure we understand their work. Each student had a binder prepared for them with notes on the different stitches, a blurb about the villages, and a very nice special gift. Each binder had an original piece of embroidery done. Each piece handstitched and matted - ready for framing. It's a depiction of the Tree of Life.

Our sewing kit is a Buchki bag containing a practice cloth, a sampler to stitch, a bag of shisha mirrors, and assortment of coloured threads. The shisha mirrors are much thinner than the ones in craft stores. Each tiny mirror was hand cut and polished. Buchki bags are usually given to the girls when they are at an age to learn embroidery. The girls will take the bag with them as part of their dowry.

Each bag was handstitched and embroidered with a sample of all the stitches we learned in the class. The inside is lined with fabric that they block printed. Every single bag was different and unique. Let's just say that my sample looked nowhere near theirs. I think I will need years of practice.

Lanolin Extraction

A few weeks ago, there was a discussion on extracting lanolin from sheep fleece. Of course, I just had to try it. I had 2 pounds of beautiful Grand Champion white merino fleece to work with. It was just dripping with lanolin. Perfect.

The fleece was separated into 1/4 pound sections and put into lingerie bags. I decided to work 1 pound at a time. The fleece were pre-soaked in cold water for an hour. This was done twice to loosen and get rid of any sheep doodoo and dirt. I filled a very large pot with cold water and placed the 4 bags inside. The temperature was brought up slowly until it reached ~100 deg F. It simmered at this temperature for almost an hour. A second pot of water was prepared. I heated the second pot to the same temperature as the first pot. I added 1 tsp of baking soda and 1 cup of dishwashing soap. The fleece was carefully transfered into this pot for actual cleaning.

This was done for both pounds of merino. The water from the first pots were saved and let cool overnight. The next morning, I skimmed the lanolin off the top and discarded the water. Great for plants.

The lanolin was further rendered in another pot of clean filtered water. This was done 3 times. The final results was a teaspoon of pure clean lanolin. The resulting lanoline was made into a salve, using 1 part lanolin and 4 parts jojoba oil.

The salve is nice but a bit on the sticky side. Still, it was something I wanted to try and I did. Unless I have a good greasy merino fleece and a nice hot summer day, I don't think I would be rendering lanolin on a regular basis. Something to try & say yeah, I've done it.