Hats, Socks , etc.

I haven't been blogging because I have been knitting and crocheting like a fiend. I am a little more than halfway through the knitting of a pair of socks in the embossed leaf pattern in a bamboo and super wash merino wool blend yarn that I bought from

stick chick. Love the way it shows off the pattern. Love the leaf pattern. They are a gift for you know what so I have to finish them soon!

Project two - just listed for sale in my etsy shop is a crocheted cloche from yarn I made from soy silk that I hand painted and spun and plyed with wool that I also hand spun and dyed. The wool provides a soft contrast to the soy silks lustrous shine.

Why Spin?

This week I was interviewed as a possible consignee for a trendy crafts store. The interviewer asked a lot of questions which made me think about the possible answers to the question: Why do you spin yarn?
1. As a knitter, spinning and dyeing your own yarn gives one total control over the nature, color and texture of the finished product. If you design your own knits or want to create your own spin (no pun intended) on a commercial product, spinning is very attractive.
2. History. I don't know about other spinners, but I seem to have a built in drive to learn and try to preserve and/or promote ancient arts.
3. There is a kind of zen involved in spinning which is very addictive.

Drawbacks:
1. Expense - a good wheel is upwards of $300, dye is around $5 a package, raw fleece is over $5 per pound which will get you about enough for a shrug, roving is more, exotic fibers are more than that. Not to mention carders (hand or drum or both), lazy kates, knitty noddies, etc.
2. Time- It takes about 2-3 hours to card, spin and ply the yarn for a 2 ply 150 - 200 yard skein. 1000 yards are required for a fitted mid hip length small to med. size woman's sweater. Additional time is required for sorting and washing fleece and /or pre-prepping and driving or shipping it to the processors. And then there is dyeing and time for setting the twist and re-skeining.

Taking all of the above into consideration, I know I will never make money spinning yarn. I derive joy from the process of creating each skein and knowing that I am taking part in preserving and sharing an art form from the past.

Weaving Soy silk

When I plyed this soy silk with silk noil it was so drapey that I thought it would make a great scarf. Since I only had 150 yards it wasn't enought to ask Sue to weave so, yesterday I warped a number 2 "toy" loom that I have had forever and gave it a try.
This is the soy silk/silk on a silk noil warp with rayon chenille and silk stripes.

The loom leaves something to be desired. The shuttle that came with is too think, too wide AND too rough. I am now using shuttles made of mat board. Not a 100% improvement but better. I do like the way the rustic appearance of the weave and to my surprise have about 2/3rds of the scarf woven.
Got the new Spin Off magazine and saw wonderful looking small folding looms advertised in it. Maybe I'll upgrade.

Another used for Mohair

This week I decided to try making a mohair wig. My model, Emma, is a 16 inch RanD Angel, BJD, with a size 5 head.

I used the directions at Antonette Cely's site for wefting the mohair. I then stitched it to a net wig cap, set it with pipe cleaner curlers (great tip - I got in a FDQ mag) and wrapped the crown on the model with plastic wrap to "tame" it . Left the damp wig to dry over night in between processes. The pink color is courtesy of Kool Aid. This was a fun project and I have already dyed wool locks for two more.

Plying

I added three new yarns to my etsy store today. Photographed them as a group and they compliment each other well and would make a nice striped project aombined with some of the yarns already listed.

I did a spinning test of the natural black grey, white and white/grey fleece and plyed the two resulting yarns together. Came out very tweedy looking. Haven't decided whether to knit with it or list it. What do you think?

Wool

I've been gifted four bags of wool, but only kept two. One black and one grey/white mix. Currently in the process of washing enough to spin.

Sewing, Victorian Style

I've been sewing lately. In miniature. This is an 1870's bustle dress on an 11.5 inch mannequin. The dress is lavender/antique gold changeable silk and trimmed with pleated matching silk and antique gold silk ribbon. I machine stitched the bodice, skirt and apron foundations. They are fully lined. The sleeves were set into the armhole by hand and all of the hems and facings are hand stitched. The pleated trim was made using the pleater attachment for my 1950's sewing machine. It was a fun project.
Time to get back to spinning.

Finished Project, etc.

This is my latest finished project, a Confederate Civil War uniform for the son-in-law to be of a friend. The suit was a surprise gift from the bride, so it has not received a final press in this photo as we expected that there may be alterations.

Made from a commercial pattern from a well known company.

The colored part of this Valley Vogue hat is my handpsun soy silk spun super thin and single ply:

http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=12313328

I am currently spinning the last of the luscious alpaca roving that I received from Northstar Alpacas and planning an original scarf design for it.

Today I received the cutest card from nadineandkathleen :
http://www.etsy.com/view_transaction.php?transaction_id=8895818

I was the lucky 110th person to heart their shop. Mine is two shy of 150 hearts and I am now trying to think of something to keep the appreciation going.

Find of the week: Spinning wheels at ford4him on etsy : http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=12168224

And looms for weaving and knitting and many other wonderful items at woolhandcrafts:
http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=11790

Spring, Spinning, Sewing

Spring has sprung in Western MA. The birds are building nests, forsithya is blooming, the trees are budding, the grass is growing, AND it's been sunny and warm.

Which is good for yard clean-up, but not for spinning.
This is last weekends haul from rose bushes run amuck along a 20 foot alley way, next to my husband's piano shop.



I finished spinning the custom order of cormo. Here it is, ready for dyeing. 653 yards of springy 2 ply. 1306 spun yards total, at 2 hours per 200 yards, approx. 7 hours of spinning and another nearly 3 of plying and skeining. I ordered the dye from Halcyon and plan to do the dyeing this weekend. They have great instructions to go with. The yarn will be hand painted in sea greens and blues with a touch of raspberry.

My first thrill of the week was the gift of this book, Janet Arnold's Patterns of Fashion 1 (I think there are 3 in the series) which is a must have for a costumer. I've made at least five of the dresses in it over my career and am so happy to have a copy of my own. The second was being hired by a local dress company as an Office Assistant/Patternmaker/Shop Assistant. Sunday I'll be going to see the Yarn Harlot at the Calvin.

What's in Your Dye Pot?

Today is a beautiful day here in the northeast. Great day for dyeing.




Into the dye pot went this skein of Rambouilet 2 ply handspun,
some magenta and warm brown dye and some vinegar.






This is what came out. No brown in view. Looks more magenta and wine. Much more interesting than peach. It's still wet so will probably be lighter when it dries.







This is 15 ounces of luscious cormo for a custom spinning job. I decided to spin it first and dye it later.





This is the first two ounces spun.

Easter in Europe

I am just back from a whirlwind tour of Swansea, Wales; Amsterdam, Netherlands; and Strasbourg, France via train. In addition we spent two non-consecutive days in London and one in Paris. It was fantastic! We saw so many wonderful and amazing places -the Gower Peninsula in Wales, Cathedrale Notre Dame, Strasbourg with it's Astronomical Clock, The Palais Rohan also in Strasbourg, the Eiffel Tour and the Place De La Concorde in Paris, the canals of Amsterdam and the museum square. I could go on and on. I'd go back to any of them in a heartbeat. The taxi drive from the train to the hotel in Paris was mind blowing. Somewhere I read afterward "...that nothing can prepare you for the scale..." and that pretty much sums it up.

I lost my gloves somewhere on the Champs Elysee's. I took them off to snap this photo and the next one and discovered that they were gone about 2 miles later. I hope that they like their new country.












I wish I had some fantastic fiber related find to share but for most of our vacation shops were closed. There were sheep everywhere in England and France, but yarn shops and/or places to buy fleece are not as visible. From the train I saw a house just on the outskirt of town with a tiny yard -could not have been more than 20 feet square with four sheep and a green house populating the lawn. To me that epitomized the importance of sheep in that part of the world.
Swansea, Wales would have been the place to go to an LYS. For some reason perhaps jet lag, perhaps shopping with husband, I didn't think of it when we went into the town center.
I brought my crocheted tablecloth project to work on and lost the hook somehow between Amsterdam and Strasbourg. We arrived in Strasbourg the Thursday before Good Friday at 11 pm and stayed until Easter Monday (which is also a holiday in Europe) so I had only Saturday to try to locate another hook. Finally found a LYS, Chatte Botte, in Petite France, but I don't speak French and the owner who was knitting some lovely socks didn't speak English. My pantomiming skills completely failed. I probably should have drawn a picture. Looked around the shop but didn't see any needles of any kind except the owners, just lovely yarn, rug hooking supplies, and cross stitch kits.
Found this shop while wandering after Easter dinner in Strasbourg. Looks so inviting that I wish I had had time to go back.






Finally got a photo of my daughter in her Cable wise Cashmere sweater in Paris. It was a good thing she had packed it with the intention of shipping it back home, as it snowed, sleeted and rained, and was in general a record setting cold for March in Europe.
We drank lots of European coffee and hot chocolate to stay warm. Indulged in the local cuisine, bread, wine, beer, and had a very memorable experience.

Blogs and Taxes

I found an awesome listing tonight of wool lovers blogs:
http://yarntomato.com/wool/members.php

I enjoyed reading several of them and will have to go back and look at the rest. It's nice to know that there are lots of you out there knitting and spinning away and that I am not the only "one of those" in existence. There are so many blogs and each of them inspiring. I read those linked to Yetsy and several others when I can.
I haven't had much time for knitting or spinning lately as its tax time. I am hoping that I am almost done organizing the paper trail. I can hear my wheel calling...

Spinning Alpaca

Last night I took a break from muddling through paperwork and
spun some of the alpaca that I got from Northstar. Initially I spun too thin and ended up with laceweight 16 wpi after plying! (pic with ruler) I never spin this thinly on the Baynes. I must have been pretty uptight. It's amazingly consistant-hope I can do it again sometime.
So then I made an effort to loosen up a bit and let the yarn be thicker-12 wpi, plyed. I think it came out great.
I should be able to re-knit the glove thumb tonight or tomorrow-whenever it's dry.









This lilac top is half of my current sewing project. It's a 1870's 2 piece dress for a 12 inch French Fashion doll in changeable silk (it has a gold cast to it). It's almost ready for the trim. Looks funny on my skeinwinder, which was standing in for a dress form.

Fibery Stash Suprise

There is nothing like getting a package in the mail. I knew I was getting some alpaca roving to spin into yarn so that I could re-knit the thumb on my daughter's favorite glove/mitts but I did not expect this lovely array of squishy heaven that Maple from Northstar Alpacas sent. There are three slightly different colors-more easily seen in the picture w/o glove/mitt. The ball at bottom left is a near perfect match. Cannot wait to spin it!

Waiting

Yesterday was a waiting day. I was waiting for:

1. The Sears fridge repair guy (you know the famous we will be there between 8am and 5 pm) - found out at 1:30 pm that he was out sick and not coming-Thanks!

2. For the power to come back on. Due to icing we had no electricity for 2.5 hours. Not as bad as some folks but it does restrict what you can do.

3. Spring! I like to see the white flakes on occasion. I can do without ice.

So while I was waiting I decided to occupy myself with....Spinning





Soy silk plyed with silk noil. Love this combo and plan to make more.





Soy silk plyed with handspun green wool. Very Springy.
The soy silk is pink, peach, purple, blue aqua, green and yellow.

Dyeing Soy Silk

Rainy and gray today, perfect for dyeing soy silk.
Photo 1. -Soy silk roving as purchased
Photo 2.-Dye in"squirt" bottles with pre-soaked roving
Instructions from Halcyon Yarn, which carries the dye.

















The painted roving







Wrapped in plastic wrap, on a folding vegetable steamer on top of the canning rack in my canner






The finished product, still wet







Finished product dry and fluffed a bit. I made the mistake of agressively squeezing this batch - A simple towel blotting will do prior to drying.






Another view. I paint probably too many colors, but I like the cross over variations that I get. I can also choose to spin various segments instead of the whole. Several variations of spun soy silk can be seen in my stash on ravelry or in my etsy store.





Spun single of the soy silk above









Same single plyed with pale green handspun.

Lotus Scarf Correction

I finished the alpaca Lotus Scarf last night. In order for the needles to be facing the same direction for grafting you have to end on alternate rows or slide one half to a double pointed needle. To keep it simple, I ended the first half at Row 2 and the 2nd on Row 3 and then completed the grafting. Made a wider join than I anticipated. I have changed the pattern to End first needle at row 1 and 2nd at row 2. The join will be a straight line of a few rows of garter stitch.

Scarf Pattern

After various attempts to post a .pdf file, .html version, etc. I gave up and just copied the pattern to the page. If I can figure out a better way or is anyone has suggestions I will fix it.

Lotus Scarf Pattern

Lotus Scarf
Designed by Deborah Evans
*This is a free pattern-please pass it around but do not sell it*

-based on lace pattern in “A Second Treasury of Knitting Patterns by Barbara Walker

Works best with a smooth yarn that gives good stitch definition, wool with a nice sheen, handspun soy silk, or silk.

Explanation of stitches
Yo - yarn over

K2 tog – knit two together


ssk- slip the next two stitches, knit-wise, one at a time, and then knit them by inserting the tip of the left-hand needle into the fronts of both stitches at once and knit them together.


Sl2-k1- p2sso: insert needle into the fronts of the second and first stitches on the left-hand needle, as if to knit 2 together; do not knit, but slip them, both at once, from this position. Knit the next stitch on the left-hand needle an, then insert left-hand needle point into both slipped stitches and draw them together over the knit stitch and off the right-hand needle, just as in psso.

Sl2-p1-p2sso: Keeping yarn in front, insert the needle from the left into the back loops of the second and first stitches (in that order) as if to p2tog and slip them, both at once to the right hand needle. Purl the next stitch on the left hand needle and then insert the point of the left hand needle into both slipped stitches and draw them over the purled stitch.

In knitting the scarf you have two options:
You can knit the scarf in one long strip as shown in the photo. The flowers will be upside down on one side and one edge will be scalloped while the other is nearly straight.
You can knit the scarf in two pieces from the bottom to the mid-point, either both at once or separately. End first half at row 1, end 2nd half at row 2. Graft the two sides together –directions below.

Materials
You will need approximately 200 yards of yarn. I used handspun to knit both of my scarves. I recommend that you knit a test swatch to determine gauge.

Needles size 4 or the correct needle for your yarn.

For the alpaca scarf I used 180 yards of two ply measuring 14 wpi. And needles size 4 US. 35 stitches = 7inches, 5 stitches per inch, on the needle in garter stitch. Blocked scarf will measure about 6 inches wide x desired length. The scarf pictured is 55 inches long.

Pattern is based on a multiple of 10 plus 1 – 33 stitches for the pattern, I added two stitches, one at each edge for a nicer finish.

Cast on 35 Sts on #4 needles or the size best suited to your yarn.
Row 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 – Knit
Row 6- (Wrong side) k1, p2, *yo, p3, sl2-p1-p2sso, p3, yo, p1; rep from *; last repeat p2 k1
Row 7 - k4, *yo, k2, sl2-k1-p2sso, k2, yo, k3; rep from * last repeat k4
Row8- k1, p4, *yo, p1, sl2-p1-p2sso, p1, yo, p5; rep form *; end last repeat p4, k1
Row 9- k6, *yo, sl2-k1-p2sso, yo, k7; rep from *, end last repeat k6
Row 10- k1, p3, * k2, p3; repeat from P*, end last repeat p3, k1
Row 11- k3, *yo, ssk, p1, yo, sl2-k1, p2sso, yo, p1, k2tog, yo, k1; repeat from * end last repeat k3
Row 12-k1, p4, *k1, p3, k1, p5; rep from *, end last repeat p4, k1
Row 13- k4, *yo, ssk, yo, sl2-k1-p2sso, yo, k2tog, yo, k3; rep from *, end last repeat k4
Row 14- k1, p3, *k1, p5, k1, p3; rep from *, end last repeat p3, k1
Row 15- k4, *p1, k1, yo, sl2-k1-p2sso, yo, k1, p1, k3; rep from *, end last repeat k4
Row 16- Repeat row 14.

Repeat these 16 rows to the desired mid length ending with Row 5 for the straight scarf at row 3 for the grafted mid-point version.
Grafting For Garter St:
End on a right side row. Hold the knitting needles with needle points to the right and wrong sides facing in, put the sewing needle in the first stitch of the front knitting needle knit-wise and pull the yarn all the way through. Do not drop the stitch off the knitting needle.
Next put the sewing needle into the first stitch of the back knitting needle purl-wise and pull all the way through. Again, do not drop the stitch off the knitting needle.
** Now put the sewing needle into the first stitch of the front knitting needle purl-wise and draw the yarn all the way through. Drop the stitch off the knitting needle.
Put the sewing needle knit-wise into the next stitch on the front knitting needle and draw the yarn through. Do not drop the stitch off the knitting needle.
Put the sewing needle knit-wise into the first stitch on the back knitting needle and draw through. Drop the stitch off the knitting needle.
Put the sewing needle into the next stitch on the back knitting needle purl-wise and draw through. Do not drop the stitch off the knitting needle.
Rep from ** to the end of the row.

Current Spinning

Pink/Purple soy silk plus Smoky Mountain Fibers Carnivale = Romance Novel

Spinning

Decided I needed a spinning break and found this so soft teal fleece in a bag of blues and greens. Unfortunately there wasn't much. Decided to ply it with itself. It's resting now, but my guess is around 70 yards.

Lotus Scarf Pattern-Almost

This week I have been working on writing up the pattern for the Lotus Scarf that I knitted in soy silk. I am knitting the test project in hand spun alpaca, but have found that I like the stitch definition of the soy silk better. Any smooth drapey yarn would work. Textured handspun with a bit of shine would be even better
The original scarf was knitted in one long piece which means that the flowers are upside down on one side and the ends do not have the same scallop. I am writing this version so that the lace reverses direction at the mid point.
These are photos of the original scarf.
I hope to have the pattern done by Monday.