Slow and steady

Knit and re-knit and re-knit. The wedding shawl/afghan (I've been told it's not a shawl but an afghan) is going very slowly. I've changed my mind five times on the pattern. Last night, I almost gave up and decided to keep the thing for myself. This morning I decided it was nice but not what I had in mind - too lacy. So this morning's commute was spent ripping out the shawl.

Tonight's reincarnation of the shawl is an Orenburg lace pattern. A simple border with a repeating snowflake pattern in the middle. I've just finished the first border and turned the first corner. Yah!

I must be insane!

I'm putting all knitting and fibre projects on hold for the next two weeks. Now that I think about it, it might not have been such a good idea. My cousin's wedding is in two weeks - July 2nd, to be exact. I have no idea what to get them for a wedding present. They're not registered anywhere and when asked, they say they don't need anything. I hate people like that. Ugh! What do you get them?!

Tonight I decided to knit them a big ol'shawl. Something they can snuggle up together under during the cold Vancouver winter nights. I have just under two weeks...13 days, to be exact...to knit AND BLOCK this shawl! Thank goodness for the stash! I have 4 balls of Zephyr in Emerald green. This stuff will look gorgeous even if I knit the thing plain garter stitch. I've decided on the Madli shawl pattern, expanded to make it wider and without nepps, of course. Having made this once, the pattern is easy enough to knit quickly.

Anyhow, I probably won't be blogging much until this shawl is done (Or July 2nd comes around). I do have a back-up plan if I don't make the deadline. The cheater's way out is a gift certificate from the Bay, with a note that the shawl will follow.

Knit In Public

Yes, I did Knit In Public but not at the Official Knit In Public. I opted out to knit at a coffee bar while watching World Cup Soccer with friends. Not sure if that was a good idea, as several rows needed to be "fixed". This is the Sweater Surprise.

In my usual lazy fashion, I'm knitting the two fronts and back together as one piece. The odd uneveness you see is where I put in the faux seam. The yarn is Mandarin Petit 100% Egyptian cotton, knitted on 3.25mm needles. The surprise is I'm not sure how this will turn out since I'm making it up as I go.

I passed on the Langley Fleece sale this year. I have too many fleece that I need to go through. On the other hand, I have decided to get the Pat Green Triple Picker so that means I can process more fleece quickly. I told the hubby that if he wanted his sweater by winter, I'll have to get a Triple Picker. :D Plus, there's no doubt that the Gang will bring fleece back to share from Black Sheep. I don't feel like I'm missing anything from passing on the Langley sale. I have enough Romney.

I know I've always said that I don't like to return yarn. But in a moment of sanity, I decided that the 6 skeins of purple was not really enough for what I wanted. I brought them back to the LYS and exchanged it for 10 skeins of Elspeth Lavold's Hempathy in Citrine. That stuff is really scrumptous to knit with! This weekend, I went back and brought the bag of black. For a cotton/hemp blend, I expected it to be much stiffer but it is really drapey and soft. It knits like silk. Originally, I had thought top-down cardie but now I wanted something to show off the drape of the fabric better. Have to give this one more thought.

Today...

Today I accomplished nothing at work. All day long, I worked very hard doing what I needed to do, only to find at the end of the day, everything was cancelled. I'm back to exactly where I started at 7am this morning.

Much like today's knitting. I casted on for a sweater last night and did the ribbing. Then I knitted during my morning commute (I gave up my nap) and at lunchtime, and on the commute on the way home. A good eight inches into this sweater, I decided I really didn't like the looks of the fabric. Everything was ripped out and I started over again. This time, I went with my gut feelings and used the smaller needle size.

It's only a month late...

but I finally finished the post on our Sock Dyeing day.

Nothing fancy.

It's interesting that Franklin's latest comic offering is about a woman who refuses to knit for her children, grand children, etc.

My son and husband are knit-worthy but I rarely knit for them. They find it too warm to wear wool anything. But Saturday night my husband said that if I wanted to knit him a sweater, he would probably wear it. I was so excited! In our nearly twenty years together, I've knitted him two sweaters (both cardigans), 2 pairs of socks, and a pair of ugly ugly UGLY slippers! He's worn everything once each, with the exception of the very ugly slippers. They fell apart from wear and tear...and chewing from the dog.

He wanted something plain and simple. No fancy patterns or colours. Grey. Or brown. Something I would call mind-numbingly boring to knit. Ack!

My stipulation is that it will have to be something I like as well. In case he wears it only once, I can "borrow" it back for myself.

Purple Daze

I can't walk out of a yarn store without buying anything. It would kill me to do so. I went to the LYS to buy another set of needles. For some reason, I can't find my Addis 2mm circular. They might be in a project somewhere. She didn't have any in stock and will order them for me.

Then I started browsing and fondling the yarn. And then I came across this...Garnstudio's Silke-Tweed in a brilliant purple! Silk and lambswool. Just perfect for a light summer cardigan or tank top. But the downside is that she only had 6 balls of the purple. Lots of off-white and cream but only 6 purple!! I tried looking at other stuff like the Elizabeth Lavold's Hempathy. They only have 3 balls in the colour I liked.

It took about an hour for me to decide to just buy both. There's enough of the Silke-Tweed to make a light top. Not sure what I will do with the Hempathy. It will just go in the stash for now. I'm a sucker for anything purple. :D

Cookies and Knitting

I often think of myself as baking-challenged but once in a while I surprise myself (and my family) with a batch of decent cookies. There were three dozen cookies in there this morning. I got tired of forming perfectly round cookie balls (and they just melt into one big cookie anyway) that I mashed the remaining cookie dough into the bottom of the pan and made a cookie sheet. Rectanglar cookies tastes just the same as round cookies.

How you spin does matter...

I gave myself a small project to do this past weekend. I wanted to see how the twist holds up when knitted. Two batts of Romney were spun long draw. The sample on the left is spun S singles and plyed Z. The sample on the right is spun Z and plyed S. Both samples were knitted with 4mm needles over 16 stitches. The S/Z sample yarn did untwist and split during knitting. The Z/S sample's twist held up nicely.

There were a few other things I noticed...The Z/S sample is softer. I'm not sure if you can tell in the picture but the S/Z is slightly darker in appearance. It was just the way it caught the light. The S/Z sample was much stiffer feeling and the stitches are not as clean and even looking. I guess it does make a difference how you spin the yarn.

Worldwide KIP

June 10th, everyone.

Paper Bag

Paper Bag

I never did find that bolt of silk. I think I'll just have to buy something different for the lining.



I just finished cutting another sheet for more paper spinning. No project in mind yet but I'm sure something will come to mind.

*SIGH*

I think I'm in some kind of fibre slump. I'm surrounded by fibre and yarn and I have nothing to knit. I have 2 pairs of socks partially done and may be destined to be lonely single socks...if I ever get around to finishing the first sock! And to make matters worse, someone (you know who you are) at the Guild meeting was waving her knitted cotton/wool ankle socks around. And in my usual manner, I've been distracted and now thinking how nice it would be to knit ankle socks for the summer.

The Madli shawl is coming along ever so slowly. I would knit a few rows here and there. By my estimate, I have about 3/4 more to knit. I love the pattern. The wool is so nice and light and soft. The problem is that it catches on my hands - a lot. I've tried lemon juice, sugar/oil scrub, slathering buckets of hand lotions - nothing works for very long. My goal is to finish knitting it by this weekend so I can block it. Hahahah!

Happy Mother's Day!

This little azealea bush is from a cutting from the first Mother's Day present my son ever bought me when he was 4 years old. The original is probably either long gone or growing strong at our old house.

We don't usually go for the Hallmark-sappy-must-do occasions like Mother's Day and Father's Day but it was nice to have nothing to do today but whatever I wanted.

Happy Mother's Day to all the Mothers out there.

Weekends are for fibre fun!

Despite having guests and the rain, I did manage to get a lot done this weekend. The guys had a golf game planned for Saturday (in the rain) so I headed out to Granville Island. I guess the rain kept a lot of people at home because the Island was not that crowded. It's nice to go over there by myself. I wandered through all my favourite stores and not have anyone nagging at me to hurry up.

I picked up some more dyes at Maiwa but forgot the sodium alginate. Oh well...there's always next weekend. Opus Framing is another store I could spend hours wandering through. It's not just a picture framing store anymore. It's filled with all sorts of wonderful art supplies! I picked up another bottle of acrylic matte medium and another roll of linen tape. And some stuff called Molding Gel. You can mix in some paints and sculpt textures to your surface! Fun stuff! I tried on one of the boxes and I really like the effect.

Sunday was for dyeing. I now have a whole rainbow of dyed silk, ready for spinning.

And I finished plying the green silk. 165yds, navajo plyed, 24 wip. An ounce of silk really goes a long way. Is there a trick to photographing silk? Even in natural light, it's difficult to capture the colours of the silk.

GUEST!!

We have a GUEST coming over this weekend! I forgot all about him! I had to clean and tidied my stuff room so there would be room for him to sleep. I've been running around, trying to decide what fibre stuff I'll need to last the weekend. It's really hard to know what I will want from that room for 3 whole days!!

I wanted to spin the blue silk this weekend. I have 24 bobbins and not one of them are empty! I think I should do some plying and free up a couple of bobbins.

Knitting Rules!

The Yarn Harlot's new book arrived today and I've read it straight through. It is just as hilarious and insightful as her other books. She has a no-nonsense way of putting knitting in perspective. - Psst! Amber, it's all knit and purl! :)

Green Silk Noil

This is the happy mistake silk oblong I got last summer. I think I finally found a good way to spin it. The yarn is spun with all the tuffs of silk noil for lots of texture. It was hard trying to take a decent picture because of the way the silk was reflecting the light. I really like the pink and mauve noils in it. The silk dyed really nicely.

Just under an ounce (24.7gm) at 93m, 2-plyed. Not enough for a whole scarf on its own, though. Combined with another yarn, this would make a nice accent for a scarf.

Or, there should be more than enough to knit a little silk bag. Add some beads and shells to embellish and it would be perfect! It would have to be something loosely knitted...something with 3.5mm or 4mm needles, in the round.

What's Next?

Not a lot of knitting was accomplished this weekend. In fact, just the opposite.

The Pink Pomatomus is not going well. The foot was too long so I wanted to rip out the heel again to re-knit. (Knitting rule #1 - Never rip out knitting at 1am!) I lost track of what row I was on and went too far. Instead of taking the time to count up the rows, I had decided it would be best to rip it right down and start over again. It seemed like a good idea at the time. (Knitting rule #2 - Nothing is a good idea if you thought of it at 1am!) I had ripped back the heel previously and started it at 3" instead of 2" from the heel. I may have to start the heel right after the toe, the way this is going!! I think I may just change back to a short row heel.

The Elfine socks was another frog casualty this weekend. There's a good reason why I like to knit both socks at the same time...especailly if I leave the second sock for a few weeks. The second sock was just not matching to the first sock. I don't care if the colours are not lined up but I really hate having the technicals not match up. (Knitting rule #3 - Write things down...especially if you deviate from the pattern!!)

What I did accomplished this weekend...

I finished spinning my hand-dyed silk noil. It was really difficult to spin. My fingers are covered with little cuts from pulling the silk. It needed a LOT of predrafting! The resulting yarn is a thick/thin yarn with lots of texture. Spinning this stuff is very interesting - you have to pretend the dried brown bits are really leaves and twigs. (Don't worry - I sat out on the deck and picked out all the non-silk bits.)

Colourful Chevrons

Presenting the Chevron Socks! This is the merino wool that I handpainted during our Sock Yarn painting day. My son suggested I call these Clown Socks. Haha!

The wool was wound into two joining centre pull balls so each sock was knitted from the opposite ends of the skein. It was a happy chance that the stripes lined up. It was not the exact effect I wanted but it was close. The pattern was supposed be a fairisle look but the repeats were too big. We didn't use any thickeners so the dyes ran as we were taking the wool off the jigs.

The sock blocker is a wire coat hanger, bent into a sock shape. Cost: Free

This pair of socks will go in the "special" sock drawer. While we painted our own skeins, the whole project was a collaboration of the Group. We had a great time doing this. It was a long day but it was fun. We started knitting our socks as soon as the yarn was dried. I can't wait to see all the finished socks when they're done!

Sunny Fridays are EVIL

Some days it's really hard to concentrate at work when the weather is gorgeous and sunny.

(Weathercam from the Jericho Yacht Club as of 9:30 am today)

Bah!

Celebration of Earth Day

This is a Calendula officinalis, Erfurter Orangefarbigen variety. Commonly known as Marigold but I like to refer to it by the latin name, Calendula, so not to be confused with the French Marigold of the Target family. Very different.

This plant is special because it's two years old. In this zone, calendulas are usually considered annuals. They should die each fall and have to be replanted each spring. This guy have managed to live through his second winter. A common plant that's easily grown.

The flowers usually range from pale yellow to brilliant orange. I've also seen varieties with reddish orange as well. This particular variety is usually grown commercially because of it's high medicial value.

The young leaves can be eaten in salads, the petals are plucked and dried and used in all sorts of skin washes. Infused in oil, it will make a great face lotion. Very soothing for chapped skin. Another great reason to keep it in the garden is the flower can be rubbed on bee and wasp stings to relieve the pain and swelling. And lastly, the flowers can be boiled to extract a yellow dye. I haven't tried this yet as it would take too much of my precious flowers that I use for other purposes.



Calendula Oil
1/4 cup dried calendula petals
~1/4 cup jojoba oil

Place the calendula petals in a clean dry container (I like canning jars) and fill with jojoba oil until the oil covers the petals with just a bit over. Let sit for 1/2 hour and check to see if you need to add more oil. As the petals absorb the oil, the level may go down. Put the lid on tight and let it sit in a sunny window for 2 weeks. Gently swirl the jar twice a day but make sure all the petals are still covered.

After 2 weeks, strain out the petals and save the oil. The oil can be used directly on your skin as a soothing skin oil or used to make a salve or lip balm.

Merino/Silk Orenburg-like swatch

Orenburg shawls are traditionally knitted with fine gossamer yarn, handspun with the down from the Orenburg goats and plyed with a fine silk thread. This yarn was spun with a merino and silk blend and would be considered much too thick. Needle sizes range from 1.5mm (000 to 2.0mm (0) and my swatch was done with 2.75mm needles.

I started at the lower left border, cast on 7 stitches loosely, knit a simple border pattern. Originally, I had planned on doing 4 sets of teeth but was not sure if I would have enough to get a decent size swatch. I did 3 repeats of the border, turned the corner, knit back, did the other corner and worked up. The centre pattern is a simple fish eye pattern. It's worked on both sides.

One thing I learned is that you need to keep careful count of your rows if you're going to doing several patterns. I need to rework the charts so that the number of rows line up with each other better.

Traditionlly, the yarn is spun cleaned but greasy to make it easier to spin fine. The yarn is not washed until after the shawl is knitted up. This will help to see the stitch definition and make the pattern easier to follow.


Hmm....looks like I got a yarnover in the wrong spot in the border. Not much to look at - knitted lace is so ugly until it's properly blocked. I think I'll re-knit this with a different needle size.

A good day

Compared to rest of the weekend, today was a beautiful day. The sun came out and warmed everything up so nicely. I dyed some silk last night and was able to put them out to dry. Drying silk is very ugly. But once everything is dried and you snap them into shape, the silk is the most luxurious thing ever! So soft and shiny!

From left to right: Tussah silk roving, silk noil, and silk oblong. I wanted the uneven dyeing so I scrunched everything into mesh bags. I love the way it spins up with the colour variations.

I did get a bit of knitting done (in between spinning and eating and lounging) but not as much as I hoped. I got sidetracked by the merino/silk. It's 70% merino and 30% silk. Although the percentage of merino is higher, it spun up more like silk than wool. Silk is so light that for 30% silk, that's a LOT of silk fibres! It's spun fine with lots of twist. I'm knitting the sample skein into a swatch for my Orenburg lace shawl. Once again, I have to say how ugly lace looks before blocking.

Cherry Tomatoes

The little tomato seedlings are getting big. This variety are cherry tomatoes that you can grown in hanging baskets. We planted 8 pots and every one of them have sprouted. The first year, we planted the whole package of seeds (not sure how many would survive) and got over 30 pots of plants. We gave away so many plants that people ran screaming from us! We're getting much better at this now.