ADD Travel Knitting

I took a little dutiful non-vacation last week.  You know the kind - hanging out with the older generation - talking, cooking, movin' kind of slow.  Add excessive time riding in the car.  Sounds like lots of knitting time to me.

And although it's the heat of the summer, those hats don't knit themselves.  So I spent some time in the stash, selecting yarns for my in-car and around-the-house knitting, figuring that I would knit at least a dozen hats.  I wound lots of balls of handspun and pulled yarns that I don't always grab because they are fairly small gauge.  But when you are stuck in the car and have limited choices, you will use the small yarns and needles.

Then I did something kind of naughty.  I grabbed some sock yarn.  Pretty blue & green self striping sock yarn.  Sock yarn is so very small and light and I might could reach my hat goal .  Besides, I like to knit socks - even when I am so finished with the sock of the month plan.  Six is enough.  Really!

Then some other yarn snuck into my tub.  Did I tell you about the killer fiber yard sale a few weeks back where I ended up with a newish Lendrum spinning wheel and a shopping bag full of yarn?  One of the yarns was 6 skeins of Peace Fleece worsted in an earthy greenish tweed called Grass Roots.  A sweater was already started and I was pretty sure that the pattern was Melissa Bare's Garter Yoke Cardi [rav link], but because my gauge didn't match the original gauge, I abandoned that idea.  Only 2 days into the trip I cast on for the Knitting Pure and Simple top down cardi #9725.  I've had this pattern for years, even have the yarn to knit it, but somehow it never knitted itself.  I knit most of the yoke, then put it aside because, I'M SUPPOSED TO BE KNITTING HATS, DARN IT!  Besides I seem to be a bit off gauge so need to make the yoke section longer and needed to refer to EZ or Barbara Walker (which I had in a suitcase pocket but didn't find until I got home).

There is so big reveal here - kind of a lame results show.  I ended up with...

• Seven hats
• About 40% of one sock -- most of the cuff.
• About 80% of the raglan section of a top down cardi - probably about 22.7% of the sweater.  Sounds much more scientific that not quite 25%, eh?

Not bad for a 6 day stretch!  And now I have several yarns nicely staged for some quick hat knitting. Unless I sneak back to the sweater...or the sock!

Spinning Yarns

I've been on a spinning binge lately.  It seems to happen after a carding binge - and this time I have some nice batts to spin.  It's sort of like putting food in the freezer.  eventually you have to take it out and eat it.  The difference is that carded batts don't get freezer burn (though the white that you see here bit have sort of a basement-y smell before I washed it.  With plied skeins still on the bobbins and recent knitting aside, here it a bit of yarn that I made recently.

On the left is a big honkin' skein of a wool-mohair blend  from Bitsy Knits.  It's one of her custom carded rovings in a lovely blue-green color.  I don't have the label with me so I can't tell you the official name.  I got it in a gift exchange and finally got around to spinning it.  I didn't measure it, but it's big!  Just past that is a merino-alpaca blend that I carded myself a long while back and kind of forgot about.  When I was tidying up I found the box and though it was a bit musty smelling, it spun up fine and after a wee bath, it smells good too.

On the far right is one of 3 skeins of a Corriedale-like fiber from   Cherry Tree hill via Discontinued Brand Name Yarns.  The colorway is 'Irish Mist' but I am a bit tired of it, so I overdyed the last 6 ounces of the pound in blue, so the resulting roving is a lovely peacock blue-green.  Easy to spin, btw in case you have wondered about that roving.  I spin rather thick and it came out nicely squishy.

The deep blue is another overdye.  I spun it a while back - a natural grey carded with a medium blue wool and some angelina, but I didn't love it.  It was too grey with not enough blue to really pop, so into the dyepot it went.  I love it now - deep and heathery.  I rolled it into a ball this morning and brought it with me to knit at the SAFF board meeting tonight.  It is destined to become a Trailside hat.  I'll post pictures when I'm done.

I heard about a big destash yard sale over the weekend.  The flyer said there were 2 spinning wheels, 6 sowing [sic] machines and lots of yarn and fabric.  There was, indeed!  I was the first person there when she opened at 8 and bought a Lendrum double treadle (and a bunch of yarn!).  It's quite beautiful and it spins nicely, but by the size of the skeins above, you can see that I like fat yarn and BIG skeins.  So my trusty Louet S10 isn't going anywhere.  So far I've only spun 2 bobbins on the Lendrum & plied them on the Louet.  A nice combination, I think, particularly for smaller quantities.

Asheville Yarn Crawl! and more...

I am lucky enough to live in a community that values art and craft.  So it's no great surprise that this weekend is all about - and this time it's not just me!  There are 2 big fiber events going on this weekend.

First is the yarn crawl? The what?  Well, the independent yarn shops throughout Western North Carolina and even into upstate South Carolina want to make sure that the fiber enthusiasts and artists are well acquainted with all the shops as well as the companies that supply and distribute the yarns and accessories we carry.

So much like a studio tour, there is a self guided itinerary for the exploration of  eleven participating stores, fiber farms, and galleries. Starting in downtown Asheville, there are 3 shops in walking distance of my home!  How cool is that?  The organizers contacted the yarn companies and they are contributing full sized samples of yarns, needles, and other great products that are included in raffle baskets that will be available at every store along the crawl. There is one raffle basket in each store, I should make it to at least 4 shops, possibly more!


Saturday is also the Southern Highland Craft Guild's annual celebration of textile arts at the Folk Art Center on the Blue Ridge Parkway.  They'll have spinning, dyeing, weaving and quilting demonstrations, vendors and hands-on children's activities. There will even be wearable art fashion show. 

I've set myself a budget for the yarn crawl & intend to stick to it, but I do need a few things.  Note to self:  bring yarn to match for Windy City hats!

Fresh New Yarns

I've been carding some blends for spinning lately - partly becuase I enjoy it, and partly because I have a good bit of fiber that needs some prep before it's ready to spin.  Here's a very pretty blue - I added some black fibers and some angelina - that's fine shiny nylon that adds a subtle bit of sparkles to the yarn.  I'm worried about overdoing it, so sometimes it's very subtle.

It came out nice - just as I thought it would.  3.5 ounces (100 grams) and 109 yards - so about a bulky weight.  It's a lovely shade of blue - perfect for someone with blue eyes.

The next yarn was a pleasant surprise.  Now it was a less-than-fabulous dark brown roving to start with, but it had a number of grey fibers that I didn't like.  So I overdyed some in burgundy and some in olive and they looked good.  The brown dye on brown roving came out ...well...brown.  I thought it needed some jazzing up, so I blended it with some samples from various PhatFiber Sampler boxes.  

There were a couple of very pretty red-orange samples and some peachy-gold that looked like they would work.  It turned out that the peach blended nicely, but the gold looked a bit jarring.  I took the batts to spinning night last week and was not happy - maybe even a bit embarrassed by my rather sorry looking yarn as it grew on the bobbin, but my fellow spinners we quite encouraging.  I thought that maybe their Southern politeness was clouding their judgment, but I was there to spin, so I soldiered on.  I plied it a day or two later, happy to get it off by bobbins so I could move on to something that I liked better.  It turned out to be just fine - the lighted bits add a depth that sursprised me.  4.1 ounces (116 grams) and 85 yards - so a bit a bulkier.

Both yarns are destined to become hats.  Still ahead of schedule.

The President's Spring Break

I live in Asheville, NC.  A city of about 70,000, Asheville has long been known as a haven for both art and craft. There are more than 100 Etsy shops, at least 7 local yarn shops - 3 in walking distance to my house.  It is (mostly) gay-friendly, (mostly) progressive and undoubtedly beautiful.  I moved her about 10 years ago, very much by choice.  It's no wonder that President and Michelle Obama chose Asheville for their spring get-away.

Obama chose Asheville to prep for the Nashville debate back in the summer of  '08.  He liked the food (particularly the ribs at '12 Bones'), the warm reception and the ambiance.  I guess he liked the hotel too, because he returned to the Grove Park Inn with its great food, excellent service and wonderful spa. A heck of a view too!  So he brought Michelle with him this time.  and we all got a little bit Obama crazy.


First stop was lunch at 12 Bones.  Can't really blame him.

Then they went hiking.  Just a short leg- stretcher on the Mountains to the Sea Trail.  They didn't go all the way.

By the way, all these pictures are from the local newspaper, the Asheville Citzen-Times.  These plenty more, so check them out.

 
The Tall One played golf while Michelle took advantage of the Spa at the Grove Park Inn.  I hear he shot some hoops too. 


I spent Saturday and Sunday working at the Farmer's Market where a friend has a  handmade gallery, 'Locally Grown.'  Since the Farmer's Market was on the list of  possible stops, I was fully prepared to spin for the Prez.  Sadly we ended up on the cutting room floor.  My guess:  too hard to secure.  All those open doors! 

Now Asheville is no stranger to cool visitors.  I think FDR spent some time here.  So did Zelda Fitzgerald.  Thomas 'You can't go home again' Wolfe grew up here and got away as soon as he could.  But the Obamas did not have to stand in line to see the Biltmore House.  They got a tour of their own.  It was raining, but we needed it.  And since Michelle is a gardener, she probably didn't mind. 

Later they went out to dinner at the Corner Kitchen, a sweet little restaurant in the Biltmore Village area. 

Now when the President comes to your town, there is a tiny bit of inconvenience.  They secure (read 'shut down') the airport.  They shut down the interstates, including bridges oven the intended route.  Cops everywhere.  And they did pick up a guy with a small arsenal handing around the airport.  But since I wasn't stuck in stuck traffic - another reason to have knitting with you at all times - it seems a small price to pay to have the leader of the free world drinking the local brew, eating in some of my favorite restaurants and saying very nice things about my town.

Another good thing was that spending the weekend at the gallery shop was that I got a lot of spinning done.  This is just a sample.  Add many, many yards of plain vanilla, an experimental black yarn and some natural brown.  In this picture you'll see a glittery dark brown, a glittery olive green and a glittery bright pink.  Hmmmm... do we see a trend here?  I have been having some fun with my drum carder and because I bought a mixed pack of angelina a few months back, it seems to want to jump in with everything.

So we are sort of glowing around here, what with out cool guests.  I'll be in his town next.  Maybe I'll get a glimpse of him then!

Finishing: A Good Feeling

Finishing - It's the new beginning!  Well, not really.  But it is a good feeling to take unfinished works-in-progress and get them done, pull them out and repurpose the yarn and otherwise get them out of the guiolt-filled 'gotta do this' column regardless of where they end up.  The blue socks that you see here are toe up socks that were nearly complete.  Now they are done, toes grafted, ends woven in, and ready to wear.  But since it's spring thy will go into the cedar chest until fall.

The brown socks were newly knitted.  I came across the sport-weight Socka Colori yarn while going through UFOs and they looked like a 'knock them out fast' project that was perfect for after the sweaters.  Again - they were fast.  I did them in just under a week in bits and pieces of lunch hours, TV watching, waiting for other people.

The other interesting knitting has been taking the un-sweater Rowan Chunky Tweed and knitting it into interesting hats.  Spring is kind of 'design time' for me.  Play around with yarns and ideas so that when it's time to go into production mode, I know where I am going.  Having fun with those!  Pics to come after I see what is worth sharing.

Some Yarns are Worth Keeping!

As I have been destashing and selling and giving away yarns, 'un-knitting' poor design choices, some yarns are worth keeping.  This Irish wool was given to me.  It is a bit elderly, but is 100% wool and has a kind of Irish heritage - just like me.  It had been knitted up and pulled out.  So I re-skeined it and washed the yarn. 

Guess what?  It's kind of nice!  Creamy, much softer.  Still a bit rustic.  Still with a knot or two.  But all in all, a yarn that deserves another chance.  Not sure what it will become, so the possibilities are open.  I've been thinking about working on my Fair Isle skills, so this could become part of that collection.  

How to Turn a Sweater into Yarn

In the 'Whatever Was I Thinking' department, here is a sweater that takes beautiful yarn, an interesting top-down pattern, very nice knitting and somehow comes out Just Wrong.  This is Rowan Tweed in a bulky worsted weight in my favorite autumn shades - rusty red and loden green with bits of gold and purple.  We don't need to go on and on with what's wrong with the sweater.  The bulky weight combined with the bold stripe at waist level pretty much sums it up.I'm so very happy that I did not cut the steek that would have turned it into the cardigan of no return.

So I did what any self respecting knitter would do. I unraveled it. 

 tink, tink, tink.

Then I washed and dried the yarn.

Now it is no longer an inappropriate sweater.

It has possibilities!

Sings of Spring (Cleaning)

Crocuses!  Just a couple of little gold ones so far, but more crocuses, daffodils, day lilies and other signs of spring are on the way!  Including the squirrel who has been nesting on my porch. Because of the brutal weather, I have been less vigilant about ruining the rebuilt nest just about every day.  Today we noticed swollen squirrel-boobs.  Isn't that sweet?  Shirley is a nursing mother!  Now I will feel really guilty if I destroy the nest.

My BF and I are planning the garden, both vegies and flowers.  In fact we bought onion sets and lots of seeds,including sugar snap peas, various greens, radishes and cukes. Yum!!  We've also layed out a  planting plan - on graph paper, so you know it's a good one.

The spring cleaning is the continuation of de-stashing of yarns that I have not used in a good while.  Time to set them free!  Visit my Etsy shop to liberate these yarns. 

Cobblestone knitting continues!  I joined the sleeves to the body last evening.  Yeah!

DeStash Season

Last week's SnowMageddon missed us here in Western NC - Blogging about freezing rain just doesn't cut it.  But spending a day or 2 housebound can make for some desperate closet cleaning.  That includes yarn.  I have yarn that I purchased on 'spec' with great intentions.  I'll weave rungs and placemats!   I'll make a felted hat - or 20!  I love this yarn - Why not buy 3 in every colorway?!  Love the yarn; hate the ghastly color.  No problem - I'll dye it!

Some things happen; some just don't.  So I am sending yarn out to more deserving homes at bargain prices.  So far, I have only photographed 1/2 of one box and am getting skeins of yarn posted almost daily in my Etsy Shop.  I have plenty more, believe me.

So stay tuned.  We have lovely wool and mohair - some is even handspun!  We have cottons!  We have spinning fibers!  Are books next?  What about fabric?

And even more importantly, will we get more of the snow that the meteorologists are predicting?

To Infinty and Beyond!

The December Phat Fiber sampler box was actually themed Aurora Borealis and Beyond, but why stop there?  Yes, I know it's already January, but with holiday travel and the back-to-school season, I'm just getting around to blogging about it.  What can I say, I'm a busy woman!

I always get excited when the box comes, but I don't open it until I have a few minutes to actually enjoy it, take pictures as I open it.  Later I go back to see what is really there.  Although every month is good, some of them totally blow me away.  December made me very happy - you'll see why...

  Sparkly black tissue paper greeted me with a striped coupon pack right on top.  Part of the fun of opening the box is seeing Jessie's packaging - It's always fun!  Just below the tissue, the goodies kicked it.  I'll do the fiber first, then the yarn.  Starting with the gold fiber you see in the 12:00 position, I'll promenade the circle. 

Kalpaca Farm sent a generous baggie of carded alpaca that was Kool Aid dyed in similar colors of salmon and yellow with a bit of lavender showing through.  From Ewe to Ewe’s sample was Merino roving in a colorway called ‘Fir’ – a saturated dark green.  Spincerely Yours gives us a sunny roving of blue, turquoise and yellow in superwash merino.

It was hand dyed locks from Farm Girl Chic – the blues and greens of 'Neptune' interpreted in color on Border Leicester locks – curly and shiny.  Moose in Socks interpreted the theme as ‘Northern Lights with a superwash merino/bamboo blend.  The lavender, green, grey, bronze, pink roving has that bamboo sheen and merino softness that makes me want to spin it NOW.  Both of these seller have more of their sampled colorways available in their shops.

WC Mercantile sent a lovely ‘snowball’ of superfine merino artisan dyed in shades of lavender and grey.  Very pretty fiber and clever packaging.  Misty at Desired Haven Farm used a photo of a nebula as her inspiration and included the photo with the roving.  In colors of blue, purple, salmon and black with a good bit of white showing through, this roving is bright and colorful.

Look right in the center of the picture.  The Sassy Sheep sent her merino/cashmere/nylon roving in a pretty little gift box.  But the real gift was the supersoft (as you can imagine!) roving dyed in a colorway called Galaxy – black, purple and teal.

And now the yarns...a particularly nice selection of yarns for December.  This time I'll go from left to right in an orderly manner.  Melissa’s Kre8tions sent a lovely sample yarn in deeply saturated blues that she calls, A December Evening. Blue Mountain Handcrafts sent a similar singles of handspun merino in a colorway aptly named ‘Alien Sun’ – red, orange, gold and burgundy.  Very rich!  Similar in weight, these yarns will stay together in my mind and in a future creation of my own.

The Cool Climates sample is an intriguing art yarn of wool, mohair, bamboo, tencel and what  looks like firestar plied with beaded thread.  She calls it Aurora Borealis1 and it rocks!  What an amazing spinner - watch for this in a stripe of a hat near you!

Two lovely sock yarns.  #1 is ‘Dark Side of the Moon’ from Twiggi Knits is a merino/silk blend in dark grey nd purple highlighted with yellow and orange.  #2 is a  superwash merino/ nylon blend from WabiSabi Yarns in a deep purple medley.  With the number of sock yarn samples that I have been accumulating, I think a pair of ‘fraternal twin’ striped socks is in the future.  I’ll just have to decide on a base color that will show off these and other sock yarns that the talented Phat dyers are sampling.

SteeleSpun Yarns sent 5 yards of a bulky single in Superwash merino and alpaca dyed a color called Meteorite – a deep rich grey.  Jag’s Funky Fibers continues recycling yarns for creative re-use, this time a polyester ‘terry cloth’ yarn in beachy colors of sand and sea.

The non-fiber samples in this month’s box includes 2 very lovely, snagless stitch markers from MyFairBagLady and Lampyridae   Skein Snake sent a repurposed cord lock to be used to hold your knitting on your needles.  Since I am currently knitting a sweater on a circular needle, it was immediately pressed into service.

There were two patterns in my box this month:  DaniDo Crafty’s lovely Verge cabled neck warmer design and a ‘Mood Lifter’ Slouch hat pattern from Kelsey and Northern Lights Fiber Company.  Both are knits that will be satisfying to knit without being overly complicated.  The slouch is in a slip stitch pattern that should be excellent for hand dyed yarns.



There were also a number of coupons and business cards, but this post has about done me in!  Thanks again to Jessie and Marcus for making this Phat Fiber thing happen!