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Rain Forest (and other) Scarves

Posted in knitting, weaving on March 8, 2014| 3 Comments »

I finished up 10 woven scarves from the Rain Forest warp last week, and had them washed, pressed and photographed by yesterday. Here was the warp:

Rain Forest warp on the loom

I wove them with a variety of yarns: alpaca, baby llama, organic wool and rayon chenille. They all came out nice and soft and drapy after washing; the alpaca and baby llama shrank the least in width, not too surprisingly. They all shrank about the same in length off the loom and washed: 70″ as woven under tension, about 64-65″ after finishing (exclusive of fringe).

L to R: black alpaca, dark olive baby llama, very dark brown organic DK wool

L to R: dark slate blue organic wool, brown wool boucle, orange rayon chenille

3 colors of rayon chenille

There was another one in the dark slate blue wool which I may keep for myself.

On the knitting front, I finished the corkscrew tassles on the other scarf (body of scarf was knit quite a while back):

fluted fabric scarf with corkscrew tassles

I’ve been doing some studio re-organizing and ran across a pattern I had purchased online, and some Noro Kureyon Sock yarn I had set aside for the project. I am not sure why I had that sock yarn, as I am SO NOT a sock knitter! Maybe it was intended for a woven and fulled (slightly felted) project. Who knows. Anyway it has now become this: Noro Knots by Kieran Foley.

I started it with the size 8 needle he used, but felt it was a little too loosely knit, so started over with a size 7 (4.5 mm). I wound up doing 6 repeats of the charts instead of the 5 repeats he did, and I think it came out about the same length. I used all of 1 skein and about 1/3 of the second one, so I could have made it one set of chart reps longer. Kureyon is a somewhat rough yarn (in my opinion) and the sock version is 70% wool and 30% nylon. Still, when washed, it did soften up nicely. I didn’t block it with wires or pins, just spread it out on the guest bed once soaked, rinsed and spun out to remove excess water. Very fun to do and I did change around the colors as he suggested, to avoid getting regular repeats of the color sequence. I think it is more interesting that way.

I am also not much of a baby-item knitter, but a couple of weeks ago I knit this up for someone special who is having her first child (a boy). I used some leftover Queensland Merino Spray in 2 colors; the pattern is from a Debbie Bliss baby knits book.

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Fiberarts frenzy

Posted in fiberarts, knitting, spinning, weaving on February 22, 2014| 2 Comments »

I have been working on some scarf ideas that may make it as far as the pattern stage. If not, at least it has been fun to “unvent” some things, and to bring along at least one project that has been languishing for quite a while!

First up is a 3-texture shaped scarf using a lightweight wool, a light mohair with glitter, and a lightweight kid mohair boucle. I also shaped the tails, as I dislike fringe and wanted something more graceful than just a blunt end. Working title: Sedimentary Scarf (because this one reminded me of sedimentary rock layers).

3 differently textured yarns, and the swatch

Trial 1 of Sedimentary Scarf

The long tails came out WAY too long, so I have artfully pinned them up behind the drapey cowl part for the picture. Next one will hopefully be “just right”. I do love the colors in this one, though.

Next is a project I started a couple years? back. It is a slip stitch pattern scarf (but not linen stitch) with attached corkscrew edging. The first time I tried the edging, which came from Nicki Epstein’s excellent “Knitting on the Edge” book, they were knit individually and then sewn on. Not fun mainly because of there being way too many ends to darn in when done. I came up with a modification that lets me knit them as I go across each end of the scarf (this is after the body of the scarf is finished). I had two scarves knitted in quite different colorways, but had never finished the edgings. Well, the first one is done now, and I am working on the second. Working title: Corkscrewy.

If I put these up on Ravelry, there will be a Big Announcement here on the blog!

I also finished a version of Hitchhiker by Martina Behm. This is written for sock weight yarn, but I had been given a “challenge” skein of Mountain Colors Weaver’s Wool Quarters last fall (350 yds in 100 gm, DK weight). Actually a small group of us were each given 1 skein of this yarn with the challenge being to bring back something made out of it next October. So I just knit away on a size 7 needle until I ran out! It is definitely big enough to wear as a neck scarf, so I am pleased.

I have also been spinning up some of the rovings I bought at Taylored Fibers in Quilcene WA, on the Olympic Peninsula, last fall.

1/3 each merino, alpaca and BFL (Blue-faced Leicester)

13 oz. – equal parts merino, alpaca and BFL (Blue-faced Leicester)

16 oz. – 50% merino, 30% bamboo and 20% silk

first skein of 18 oz merino/alpaca/BFL with some silk noil

I am building up a stash of roughly worsted weight handspun yarn to use as pattern weft in some shawls I want to do for my show at the Winthrop Gallery that opens at the end of May.

Which brings us to weaving! After two months away from the looms, I am happy to say I put a new mixed warp for scarves onto Kingston this week, and am starting to weave again. This colorway reminds me of the colors and textures you see in the rainforests on the Olympic Peninsula of Washington State.

Rain Forest warp on the loom

first Rain Forest scarf underway

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FO: Color Affection… and some visitors

Posted in family & friends, knitting on January 26, 2014| 1 Comment »

As promised in my last post, I finished the Color Affection scarf by Veera Valimaki last week. I am really happy with it! I used a fingering weight yarn (10% cashmere) from Marianated Yarns on a US size 6 needle.

We had visitors from “the Coast” over the weekend – an old friend and her young daughter, who will be 3 years old in March. They left “Daddo” and the family dog at home in Seattle, and came for 3 nights. Unfortunately we have almost no snow this year, and it was pretty gray all weekend, but we still had a fine visit and some outdoor time. The little one was easy to be with, talking a lot with a pretty good vocabulary, and a sunny disposition.

We got out the Norwegian kick sled that I bought at a friend’s moving sale last summer. Mom and daughter went out on our loop road (which is pretty much a skating rink at this point) and before we knew it, the wee one was doing it on her own!

Here are some pictures from this morning, before they left to drive home. We all went up to Sun Mountain Lodge to “see the animals” (the taxidermy collection) and the wee one was wearing pants that match my new scarf, so I got Rick to take a picture of us up there.

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FO: Brickless…and a WIP

Posted in knitting on January 17, 2014| 3 Comments »

FO: Finished Object. What a pleasing phrase for a knitter!

“Brickless” by Martina Behm, available on Ravelry here. It calls for 580 yards of Yowza – Whatta Skein! by Miss Babs, an indie dyer. Actually she was at the first Sock Summit in Portland, OR where I bought the yarn I used for this project – but mine was “Twisted” from Blue Moon Fiber Arts in colorway “Thraven”.

Brickless – patterns and wingspan

still trying to figure out how to wear it!

WIP: Work In Progress: another pleasing phrase, because it implies it is actually underway and headed for the finish line, unlike the UFO (Unfinished Object) which was started and then sadly abandoned. I just started my first Color Affection shawl 6 days ago, and am into the third and final section with 3 colors and short rows. This has been on my to-do list for a couple of years, and last October I purchased some yarn from another indie dyer, Marian of Marianated Yarns, that is perfect. It is her fingering weight yarn called Scrumptious — a blend of 80% superwash Merino / 10% Cashmere and 10% nylon with 435 yards in 100 gram skeins.

Color Affection #1 underway

OK, the colors are a bit of a departure for me, but I think I am going to like it. I say Color Affection #1 because I can already tell there will be more in my future – that’s why some folks call it “Color Affliction” or “Color Addiction”. There are more than 10,000 projects on Ravelry for this pattern and I am not making that up.

I am on hiatus from more active daily pursuits, due to having an outpatient micro-surgery last Tuesday to deal with a herniated disk between my 2 lower lumber vertebrae (actually the bigger problem is that those 2 vertebrae have slipped out of alignment…). Doing OK except for muscle spasms in my, um, posterior, which are making life a tad difficult for now.

So I have turned my attention to several UFO’s which may become WIP’s once again – and as you can see, started some new ones too!

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A Gallery of Hats

Posted in knitting on January 9, 2014| Leave a Comment »

Starting in early October I have been steadily knitting away, mornings and evenings and in the car, on my Mosaic Mojo Hats (see sidebar on Where to Find My Work). I can average about 2 per week, and sold them locally at the two galleries and at the holiday gift show in Twisp. I also sell hard copies of the patterns locally, and as PDF downloads on Ravelry.

It looks like the last time I posted any pictures of my personal hat production was in mid-November, and I swore to lay off of them after the first of the year. Actually I don’t get really tired of knitting them since they are all different and I use high quality, colorful yarns that I pick up on sale or at stash reduction sales (meaning, really inexpensive!) But in the New Year, it is time to move on to something else.

So here is a photo gallery of hat production since mid-November:

handspun brown alpaca & Briar Rose BFL roving

handspun multicolor cabled yarn & gray Cormo #2

2 hats in 2 sizes using Cascade Handpaint & light blue Kid Classic

Ondine pink/gray multi & Cascade 220 Iris

Lang “Mille Colori” & Kid Classic pink

Lang “Mille Colori” & Cascade 220 teal

Ondine pink/gray multi & Cascade 220 dark purple

2 hats alike – Ondine pink/gray multi & Cascade 220 pale lavender

3 hats using the SAME COLOR and dyelot of Noro Silk Garden, but starting at different points in the color progression

the other side of those 3 hats

silk wool handpaint / dark red Cascade 220

Ondine pink/gray multi & Cascade 220 light grey

Noro Silk Garden (the same color and dyelot as above) / blue mix Cascade 220

other side of the same hat – and FINAL one for 2013!

I am pleased to announce that I have cast on and am knitting a very cool shawlette: Brickless by Martina Behm. I am using a yarn from Blue Moon Fiberarts called “Twisted” which I had in stash – colorway Thraven. Should be done by next week and I will post pictures!

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Got My Mojo On

Posted in knitting, weaving on November 13, 2013| Leave a Comment »

I have a backlog of weaving and knitting projects to report, but it seems time for blogging is scarce these days. Anyway…. while on the road trip, I finished up the twisted fringes for 5 plaited twill scarves, which I took to the Seattle Weavers’ Guild sale on Oct 24-26, and then out to Port Townsend for an annual event. The upshot is that I only have this one lousy picture, and only one of the scarves left (which is good!)

5 scarves completed in October 2013

Also on the road trip, I got started on knitting more of my Mosaic Mojo Hats – see sidebar, pattern available on Ravelry. Good thing, because I had 8 of them left from last winter, and sold 6 of them at the Seattle Weavers’ Guild sale! So here are the new ones to date:

Cascade 220 “Soft Sage” & Creative Fibers hand-dyed from New Zealand “Schist”

Cascade 220 & Cascade Cloud (wool & alpaca)

a discontinued Noro silk/wool yarn bought at stash reduction sale, and Rowan Kid Classic in rust and sky blue

a discontinued Noro silk/wool yarn bought at stash reduction sale, and Rowan Kid Classic in rust and powder blue

Dream in Color Classy handpaint bought at stash reduction sale, and Rowan Kid Classic in sky blue

For the upcoming annual Methow Valley Spinners & Weavers Guild sale next week, we can only have knitted items for sale if we used hand-spun yarn. So I rooted around in the hand-spun yarn box in my studio and came up with some good stuff. At least 5-6 years ago at a spinning workshop with Judith MacKenzie, I made a multi-colored cabled yarn from these materials:

5 colors of merino top, a commercial rayon yarn, and samples of finished cabled yarn

The dyed merino top was spun in a repeating color sequence, then made into a 2-ply yarn. The colors randomized together in the 2-ply, usually one color with another different one, but sometimes the same color with itself. The 2-ply was made to have the same direction of twist as a commercial rayon yarn (dark raisin color). The final yarn was a cabled yarn of my handspun 2-ply with the rayon yarn. I have had this around for years and never did anything with it, so now it is finally going into some hats:

Two hats from handspun yarn

The one on the right was knit with my cabled yarn plus a Rambouillet yarn which was made from fiber I got from Judith MacKenzie. The one on the left was knit with my cabled yarn plus some natural gray Cormo which I spun up the past summer.

I am also on a roll with weaving projects. I have another warp set up at home for more plaited twill scarves, and for more placemats on the other home loom. This week I spent mostly at the guild meeting room getting another towel warp set up – 18 yards!! I started weaving yesterday and have 7 of them done already.

new towel warp at the guild room

“Treebark Towel” underway

It’s that time of year…holiday gift shows at both Winthrop Gallery and Confluence Gallery, plus I have signed up for a holiday gift show the last 10 days before Christmas at Local 98856 in Twisp. I will be too busy to spit for the next month – oh, except for a certain wedding in Austin, TX and then Thanksgiving with family.

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Happiness is a New Warp

Posted in knitting, weaving on May 6, 2013| 1 Comment »

Two new warps, actually! Blogging has lagged behind all the activity around here lately, but I will try to catch up this week.

First, here are pictures of the placemat sets I finished a week or two ago. These were woven using the Bronson lace threading with alternating shots of thick (1/2″ fabric strips, light cotton fabrics) and thin (8/4 cotton carpet warp). All were woven on the same warp, again showing how much the color of the weft determines the final look.

burgundy fabric

rosy brown fabric

lilac, cream, beige floral print

I also knit up another Shawl-Collared Cowl by Alano Dakos in Cascade “Cloud”, a heavenly blend of merino and baby alpaca – but unfortunately one skein was not quite enough to make the cowl, so I had to buy another one. Therefore I also made a pair of fingerless mitts using a pattern found on Ravelry: Integral Mitts by Danielle Chalson.

The set was donated for the upcoming dinner and auction to raise funds for Little Star Montessori in Winthrop.

So on to the new warps! At home, on Kingston the 2nd, I put 12 yds of 8/4 carpet warp in blue tones, for another round of placemats:

And at the weaving guild room, on my 40″ Macomber, I put on a towel warp to try out a new idea I found in Handwoven magazine. It is an 8-harness pattern, using 8/2 matte cotton and cotton flake yarns, with a straight twill at each side and an undulating twill of irregular shape, across the middle section.

an undulating twill towel – underway!

I just finished and took off the 4 towels from this warp yesterday, got them washed and dried, but still need to hem them. Pictures coming! The warp set-up was a bit of work, but they are relatively quick to weave. I plan to get some mileage out of this setup by tying on one or more additional warps in other colors, as I really like how they are turning out.

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Irons in the Fire

Posted in family & friends, knitting, Methow Valley, weaving on March 9, 2013| Leave a Comment »

I have had many things going at once lately, but it feels good to be moving projects forward and also spending time with friends. I love the idiomatic phrase, as defined on Wiktionary:

Etymology

Describing a blacksmith working on several pieces at the same time.

Noun

irons in the fire

tasks in progress.

Usage notes

May be used with a positive connotation, e.g. “have other irons in the fire” (other projects are available if this one fails), or with a negative connotation, e.g. “too many irons in the fire” (overwhelmed by having too many tasks).

Weaving

Several weeks ago I put a warp on my “Baby Mac” portable workshop loom to try out an idea for placemats.

The draft is based on Bronson lace, believe it or not, and came out of an older issue of Handwoven magazine. I used 8/4 cotton carpet warp for the warp, and also for the hems and the tabby weft between shots of fabric strips. The fun came with trying out a variety of fabrics to see what worked and what was less successful. Also, I finished my placemat for our guild’s challenge project, which is due in April – we exchanged mugs or tea cups, and the challenge was to weave a placemat or set of coasters inspired by the mug you drew (which will then be given to the owner of the mug).

Here are some of the finished mats – they shrank up to 20% in length after washing and drying!

cotton quilting fabric in 1″ strips

heavy cotton drapery fabric in 1″ strips – hard to fold!

heavy fabric, may have been tencel not cotton – a pain to work with

an old cotton sheet in 3/4″ strips, good thickness and pattern

I will be doing more of these but may move the project onto my full size loom at the guild meeting room.

Knitting

I needed a simple carry-around or car knitting project, and settled on the Shawl Collared Cowl by Alana Dakos of Never Not Knitting. Actually I have knit two of these now. The first is softer and more comfortable and my favorite – I can wear it over a long sleeve T like a scarf – but the Icelandic one would be great on a cold winter day tucked inside the neck of a coat.

using Ella Rae “Kamelsoft” 75% merino/25% camel

using Tongue River Farm Icelandic from very old stash!

Also finished a sweater I have had underway for a couple of months: Bedford by Michelle Wang (also found in Brooklyn Tweed Fall 2011 collection). I used Cornelia Tuttle Hamilton “Heaven’s Hand Wool Classic” in the dark cherry colorway. I love, love, love this sweater, it is so comfortable and “just right”.

Socializing

We had out of town guests for 4 nights last weekend, and as they are very self-sufficient (having lived in the valley previously) it was an enjoyable and relaxing time. The weather was mixed – cold and foggy some days, gloriously sunny others – and we got out for some nice walks. Spring is definitely around the corner, although there is still plenty of snow on the ground here.

Last week there was the monthly Methow Conservancy First Tuesday program at the Twisp River Pub. The place was packed, maybe 200 people! And they were serving a buffet dinner beforehand- it was kind of a mad house. Anyway we lucked out and found a place to sit with friends, and had a great time. The speaker was David Moskowitz, who has just come out with a new book called Wolves in the Land of Salmon (the land of salmon being the greater Pacific Northwest). Fabulous photography.

Other People’s Knitting Dept

One of the women who took my beaded cuff class has really taken off with it. Mostly, she is coming up with her own pattern charts now. Thought I would share some pictures of her cuffs, as seen at our weekly Thursday evening knitting get-together:

with a thumbhole!

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January Chinook

Posted in home life, knitting on February 2, 2013| Leave a Comment »

A few days ago we had one day of unseasonably warm weather – meaning temperatures in the 50’s that day, with a wind. This set up the perfect conditions for our roofs to shed their snow loads. All day long there would be sudden loud shuddering swooshing sounds and another huge load would slide off the roof. It scared the heck out of the cats! They would just settle into a nice nap and then all of a sudden it sounded like a freight train was running through the house.

along the south side facing the road

off the carport and studio roofs

a pretty formation facing up-valley.

At Knit Night on Thursday, some of the women in my Beaded Cuff class had finished their cuffs (or rather, the first of a pair). They turned out great!

Should have used the flash for that one – I usually get better color without it.

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Finally Finished

Posted in knitting on January 29, 2013| Leave a Comment »

I have been on a mission to finish up some of my knitting UFO’s (Un-Finished Objects), partly because I was tired of them languishing for so long, and partly because I may need them for examples for an upcoming sweater design class at the end of February.

Berry Cluster Cardigan

This one was started in September 2010! It was based on Karen Alfke’s Unpattern for Raglan Cardigans from the Top Down, which I have used in several classes with her permission. For this one, I used a different raglan increase with a lace effect: YO, K1, slip marker, K1, YO on each side of the markers that divide the fronts, sleeves, and back. I was planning to do some kind of lace edging, so I wanted the raglan increases to be lacy.

The yarn is Queensland Collection “Merino Spray”, 100% extra fine merino wool, in color #5. I used 8 balls at 135 yds (123 m) per ball. Needle size 4 mm (US 6) for the main sweater with a gauge of 22 sts to 4 inches/10 cm. Needle size 3.75 mm (US 5) for the lace edgings. The dye lots were all the same according to the ball bands, but there is some striping, so I think it wasn’t as consistent as one would wish!

I searched my knitting library for lace edgings, and most are intended to be knit from the bottom up. The sweater is knit from the top down, so it would be “more convenient” to just continue with the edging from the top down. But I really liked this pattern and it was just too much trouble (indeed perhaps not possible) to convert it to a top-down approach. It is “Berry Cluster II” from Nicky Epstein’s book Knitting on the Edge.

So, after swatching, I knit the edgings separately and then attached them to the live stitches at the bottom of the sweater and ends of the sleeves, using a “Japanese Three Needle Bind Off”. With the Japanese 3 Needle Bind Off, you pull the stitches off one needle through the stitches of the other needle, all the way across, and then you bind off as a second step. It seemed to make a less bulky and more invisible join than the regular 3-needle Bind Off. There are tutorials out there on the web.

The sweater was finished with a simple garter stitch band, which I thought went well with the garter stitch portions of the lace edging. There are buttonholes for the 5 buttons, but I think I will leave it buttoned and just pull it on and off over my head. Also, the Berry Cluster II lace pattern calls for sewing on clusters of 3 beads at the base of each lace motif. I had actually purchased some small graphite colored round beads, and started sewing them on, but it was just too fiddly and made the sweater look dressier than I really wanted, so I abandoned that idea.

Pinecone Pullover

This one was started in September 2011. It was based on Karen Alfke’s Unpattern for Set-In Sleeve Cardigans from the Top Down. I used this Unpattern as the basis for another class last year, and I have to be honest and say I do not like her solution for the knit-in sleeve cap. It has way too many stitches in it and does not fit nicely into the armhole in the manner of a sewn-in sleeve cap. However, I am a big fan of one-piece construction and therefore spent many hours working out another method of planning and knitting the sleeve cap for my class. One of the sleeve caps on this sweater was probably ripped out and re-knit at least 3 times! I think my method works well, but it proved to be hard to teach – just a little too much math for some folks.

The yarn is Naturally Yarns “Me”, merino & cashmere 8-ply from New Zealand (80% merino, 20% cashmere), shade 812. I used 12 balls at 111 yds (102 m) per ball. Needle size 4 mm (US 6) for a gauge of 21 sts to 4 inches/10 cm. Bad news: this yarn is discontinued due to the cost of cashmere. Good news: I have more of it in other colors!

The sweater features some of the “extras” included in the Unpattern, namely side shaping, and “purl darts” at the bottom of the sweater and sleeves for a nice non-rolling finish to stockinette stitch.

To make the sweater more interesting, I used a lace and cable pattern, from the book Classic Knitted Cotton Edgings by Furze Hewitt and Billie Daley, for the front bands. They were knit and attached to the sweater edge as I went, starting from the bottom of each front, then grafted where the two bands met in the back of the neck. This method is shown best (IMHO) in The Principles of Knitting by June Hemmons Hiatt, although I have worked out some refinements, which I needed to do for this project and then to teach the method to others.

The two ceramic pine cone buttons were purchased long ago at an antique mall and I have been saving them for just the right project. Aren’t they wonderful? I do have a “thing” about pine cones. I sewed the 2 fronts together between the button locations, as I intend to pull it on over my head. Then simply sewed the buttons on top of the band for decoration.

Beaded Cuffs

These are probably the oldest UFO’s – started them more than 10 years ago. I was making them for my younger niece, who was thinking of being a veterinarian at the time. Now she is almost 29 and about to get her Ph.D. in biochemistry from Texas A&M. We are flying down for the dissertation defense and her birthday in April.

I wanted to finish them so I could remember how to do it before teaching a class on beaded cuffs last weekend. I had 8 intrepid souls and they all seemed to be getting it, maybe even enjoying it! The method and some basic patterns are from my friend Susanna Hansson: Off the Cuff: Basic beaded wrist warmers.