It's Here!

This morning I woke up to see this......

 

And wearing these...

 





made the drive to work through this...

somewhat brighter.  New mittens (especially colourful ones) seem to help make winter's dreariness a bit better.  I finished these a couple weeks ago, and (luckily!) hadn't had an opportunity to wear them yet.  They are loosely based on the Ephemera pattern and are knit out of handspun yarn.  The yarn was spun from a gorgeous, amazing batt that I picked up this summer from the awesome Electrictree Yarns in Kamloops, B.C.

Punky Rainbow Cowl

I recently finished a delicious, squooshy cowl out of my Smooshy DK yarn in the Punky Rainbow colourway.  The pattern I used is the Cowardly Cowl by Erica Lueder.  What an addictive pattern!  The four row slip-stitch pattern is interesting, without being difficult and does an amazing job of taming and enhancing a hand-dyed variegated yarn. 

This is the yarn I used.

This is the finished cowl.

I LOVE this stitch pattern!

I knit the pattern with only one modification.  Because it called for worsted and I used DK,    I cast on either 16 or 20 more stitches than the pattern called for.  It used nearly all of one skein of Smooshy DK, an MCN yarn.  After blocking, the cowl was long enough to wear either long in one loop, or to twist into two loops, for a tighter, cozier fit.  Mmmmmmmm.  I'm thinking this is not the last of these I've knit!

Finished Objects!

I have actually managed to finish a couple things over the last few weeks.  The first thing is a baby Hoot Cardigan by Brenna Kotar.  This is an adorable top-down raglan cardigan, with cables on either side of the button band that look like little owls.  I knit this in my Smooshy DK, a merino/cashmere/nylon blend DK weight yarn, in Robot Ninja.  I still need to dig through my button stash to find just the right buttons.  (That could take a while, time seems to stand still while I search through the collection.)

Blocking

Little, Bitty Owls!

After many thoroughly enjoyable (until the last few  seemingly endless rows) hours spent knitting garter stitch stripes, I finished my Color Affection Shawl by Veera Valimacki.  Through the spring and summer this shawl has gone viral on Ravelry.  I oogled and coveted many peoples finished shawls, while trying to decide which colours to make mine out of.  Eventually I saw three yarns hanging together on my drying rack, and I fell in love.

 

These are the BFL Sock in (left to right) Chillin' Like a Villain, Robot Ninja, and Watermelon.  The pattern was excellently written.  The only change I made was to switch out the M1R and M1L for a knit-front-and-back to try to add a bit more stretch to the straight edge of the shawl.  I have also seen/read about others using a yarn over for the same reason.  I used a larger needle than called for in the pattern (it calls for a 4.0 mm and I used a 5.0 mm) and I have a hunch I used more yarn, and ended up with a larger shawl, than if I had used the 4.0 mm needles.  I just liked the slightly looser knitted fabric better.  I absolutely ADORE the finished shawl.  And quite handily, the last few days have been cool enough that I can wear it!

Autowrap Spinning

This spring I picked up a copy of Jacey Boggs book Spin Art.  She is the guru of textured spinning, constantly coming up with amazing and inspirational yarns and techniques.  The book is quite comprehensive, starting with more basic sounding techniques and building on those as the book progresses.  It also included a DVD.  I've been picking it up and flipping and reading through it every so often, but I've been too chicken to try any of the techniques in it.  Until Yesterday....

I was finally feeling a bit braver, so I plugged in the DVD and watched the first few sections on autowrapping and racing stripes (both of which involve letting a pre-spun strand wrap around the yarn that is currently being spun), tracked down some lace weight alpaca and midnight blue corriedale, and sat down at my Ashford Kiwi.  I wasn't super-keen on the look of the racing stripe, so I decided to try the autowrap technique.  The premise of the autowrap is simple. After joining the two fibres, you drop the pre-spun strand, and let it dangle on its own while it twirls itself around the yarn that you are spinning (there are some tweaks to the technique, depending on your wheel - give Spin Art a look if you have a hankering to try this at home!)  After a bit of fumbling, a few tangles, rearranging yarn and fibre, and retrying this is what I got...



The raw materials.

The first little bits.

Extreme closeup!

The finished (wonky) product.

I've gotta say, it was a little bit nerve-wracking at first, to let go and try a new technique. After working so hard to produce even, consistent yarns it felt really strange to purposely make something kinda wonky. But after the initial nervousness passed I had so much fun! I can't wait to try this technique again, with different fibres. I have some shiny sparkly metallic thread that I think needs to wrap around something purple......

Elvish Singing Shawlette

“Tired as he was, Bilbo would have liked to stay a while.

 Elvish singing is not a thing to miss,

 in June under the stars”

“The Hobbit”, J. R. R. Tolkien

Fellow Canadian Josie Mercier, of Mercier Knitting Patterns, has recently published a gorgeous shawlette pattern using my Starry Night colour-way in Sparkle Sock.  The Elvish Singing Shawlette is a deliciously lacy neck-edge-down shawl that uses a single skein of sock yarn. 


The Elvish Singing Shawlette

I've been waiting eagerly for Josie to publish the pattern, because I can't wait to make one for myself.  The main lace stitch on the body looks to be interesting, without making one want to pull out ones hair, and I am smitten with the way it transitions into the delicately-pointed edging.  (The pattern thoughtfully has both written instructions and charts.)   I am quite in love with the entire project, but my very, very favourite part is the amazing leafy motif on the top edge.  See how gorgeous it is...

The gorgeous leafy edge!

 The most difficult part of this project could be deciding which yarn to use; though I'm leaning toward this one.  It's Sparkle Sock in the Robot Ninja colourway.

 

I'm also seriously tempted to use this one.  It's a 50/50 merino silk blend sock yarn that I call Silky Sock. This is a one of a kind, how did that happen colour that I fell in love with and had to keep. Hmmmm, which one do you guys think???

 

 

Cast On Baby!

I just saw this on YouTube, and I gotta say, it completely made my day! Theses folks look like they'd be a BLAST to hang out and knit with. Enjoy!

Dye Fever!

I've had a month off from my dye-pots (on holidays with the family) and I really missed them. Don't worry, I still had scads of fibrey fun. I got lots of knitting and spinning done, and even a little bit of yarn and fibre shopping. So (relatively) early Monday morning I got all my cauldrons dye-pots bubbling. Monday and Tuesday were both long, full dye days; resulting in over 65 skeins dyed. When you consider that they are mostly done in batches of 2 or 3, that is a lot of crock pot loads! I dyed up some Smooshy Sock, Twisted Smooshy Sock, Luxe DK, and Silky Sock. Tomorrow is for Smooshy DK and BFL Sock. Here are a few pics...





Monday's Batch

Tuesday's Batch