This post brought to you by the letters F and O

Yow, sorry about the two week wit between posts. I guess I'm just a bit too easily distracted.

Well, anyways, today is all FOs!

Lest start off with the oldest, shall we?:

Handspun legwarmers: these guys were made with handspun yarn from some beautiful and gloriously soft alpaca/mohair/Marino roving I got from All Strings Considered (weavespinknit.etsy.com) at Rhinebeck last fall. I decided I needed legwarmers with the exceptionally cold winter we had, so I whipped up a pattern and finished them around the middle of January and wore them almost constantly until last month or so. They are so nice and warm, and did I mention soft! I did need to thread some elastic through the top ribbing so they would stay up, but otherwise these are PERFECT!


(excuse the weird cropping and background, Bill took the pictured and managed to get some rather unflattering pictured of my butt in there too)



And what is that under the legwarmers? Why yes! It's another pair of socks!
Just a plain old Jane toe up pattern, but what makes these guys special is that once again, they are handspun! Made from some wool I dyed myself! The yarn for these socks was entirely spindle spun, and is wearing wonderfully. I didn't have quite enough wool for a full pair, so I saved some aside and spun it with some undyed singles, along with a strand of wooly nylon, and I used that for the heels and toes and cuffs. There a bit pilly in the picture, but that’s only because I've been wearing them A LOT since I finished them, but besides a few pills, they show no sign of wearing out any time soon, awesome!



next up, some tatted Easter bunnies that I put in cards for my family this year:



the two on the left are from here, the middle one is my own design, and the one on the right is from here everybody loved them! Yay!


at the beginning of march during knit night a woman came up to me and asked if I took commissions, a friend of her had begun a baby blanket, but had just gotten out of surgery and the pain meds were making her too loopy to knit, but she really wanted the blanket to be done soon, since the baby had already arrived and the weather was getting warmer.

I looked at the pattern, and it looked relatively easy, so I said sure, what the heck!
Slightly under a month later after some pretty seriously monogamous knitting I had this:




The pattern was an old Bernat pattern (at least all the materials, from yarn to needles called for were Bernat brand), but all I had was a photocopy, without any other information besides “style no. 3020-132”

I'm not really sure this blanket is really all that baby appropriate (there are a lot of long strands to make the swags, and the repeated stitch slipping left rather large holes on either side of the purl sections. And lets not even mention the loopy edging) but when I mailed it out, the woman loved it. so I guess that's all that matters.

And finally, a couple of years ago, I crochet and knit up a bunch of pot scrubbies using some old acrylic and cotton yarns, and while they worked well, they also were falling apart! So I went out and got some nylon yarn and made some new ones!



The 100% nylon (Needloft brand, I got it in the plastic canvas section of Michaels.) should make them both tougher, but also, rougher, so they can do a better job at scrubbing. So far so good!

From the top, clockwise, they are: a crochet pattern of my own design, Abigail, from 1870 Pearl's knit tribble and a crochet spiral tawashi from here (the site is in Japanese, a direct pdf link here)

Pattern Palooza

Part of the isolation over the last two months has been because was working on two new patterns.

The first one you have seen before:
The vacation headband



It is now available as a free download from Ravelry:
here, as a PDF
(Do not worry if you don't have a Ravelry account, you can still access the pattern!)


The other pattern has also made a short guest appearance here:
The shamrock tam, the pattern was originally put together for a stranded colourwork class I am teaching, but I had so many requests for the pattern I finally decided to put it up for sale :


Pattern will be available for the first month for US $3.00
On the first of May I will raise the price to US $5.00 where it will stay, so get it now, while it's cheap!

The Shamrock Tam: $3.00 $5.00

Return

Holy crap, has it really been two months since I last posted?

I totally did not mean to flake out like that, but first I didn't have anything to post about, then I had stuff, but wasn't feeling very motivated, then I was sick, then I felt like posting, but had so much I wanted to post about I didn't know where to start, so I didn’t.

Sorry about that everybody :(
(That is, if there's anybody left?)

I have a bunch of stuff I want to post about, including some FOs and a couple of new patterns.

But fist, a little teaser to hold you over while I try to get my thoughts organized.

Saturday Sky

taken overlooking the frozen St. Lawrence river from the veterans' memorial on riverside dr. Clayton, NY

taken Saturday, January 31, 2009, at 11:20am

FO dump

Ok, so um, like I said in my last post I've been busy lately, but I finally have something to show for it all!

First up, the parade of headbands:



Like the last headband, these and just test knits by me while I prefect the pattern. I plan on posting it up on Ravelry sometime this weekend. (a link will be provided here for everybody who wants it)



Then there were fish...



I got a commission order for some catnip fish, and then I was on a roll, so I made a bunch more
Most of these are for sale up in my etsy shop if you are interested.

I also finished up another design I've been working on, the shamrock tam:


This is for a class on stranded colourwork I'll be teaching at the hand weaving museum. Once the class is over I'll be putting this pattern up too.


Speaking of the hand weaving museum, I finished another scarf, this time for myself:


Yarn: knit picks palette, pattern from Hand woven magazines web site.
It was woven relatively loosely (10 epi) and then felted once it was finished.
It's wonderfully warm and squishy, I love it.

And if all that wasn't enough I've also been embroidering:


These are from some sketches of my cat, Esme. I really enjoyed them, and have several more planned. I think once I get everything worked out, I may offer the patterns up as a block a month type thing, but I haven't decided yet.


Now that all the FOs are out of the way, I've also started a pair of socks using some handspun yarn. But I don't have any photos of those yet,.
What I do have is a photo of some lovely Mountain colors barefoot (in evergreen) that Lucia sent me for winning one of her contests.


The picture doesn't do it justice, this yarn is so deep and lovely with dark greens and blues and just a touch of violet. I love it, but Bill has already claimed a pair of socks for himself out of it. (once I finish the socks I have going right now.)

Thanks Lucia!

Satuday Sky

saturday sky, taken Saturday Jan 24 2009 4:00 pm
outside the Platypus nest

Oof, a lot going on but not much to show.

I am alive, I promise, its just I get all ready to sit down and do a post, and then I get distracted and by the time I get back to it I just don't feel like posting anymore.

A couple of weeks ago a lady that frequents the coffee house where the local knit night meets approached me with a very old and raggedy knit headband. She had bought it many years ago while on vacation and it quickly became her favorite. Unfortunately it was time to get a new one, but the place where she bought it no longer sells them. She was wondering if I could make her one.

Of course I said I would, and immediately set out to figure out a good pattern, and this is what came of it:



She loved it and immediately ordered one in read, which I am just finishing up. I'm working on getting the pattern written up and as soon as I've gotten all the kinks worked out I'll post it for you.

I also finished some spinning:


This is a test batch from the two fleeces that I received a while ago; these four skeins are about 4 oz each. I carded and blended half of each fleece, and then spun them up soft and woolen. I got a bit of a fright when I washed them. I really wanted to make them bloom and hold together so I washed it in alternate hot and cold and abused them quite a bit. When I pulled them out they had felted almost solid!! I was crushed; I hung them up to dry and then tried to figure out what to do.

Once they were dry I took one skein and kind a roughly picked it apart. Thankfully it wasn't quite as solid as it had appeared when they were wet, and the strands pulled apart with some work. I reskeined one, and then just rolled the rest into balls. This yarn is quite soft and has the most amazing halo. (most likely because of all the abuse and then having to pull them apart after they felted together) I'm thinking about knitting this up loosely into a sort of shawl/lap blanket.

I've also been doing a little bit of sewing!

Bill and I love our local library and often take several books out at a time, but carrying them all can be a bit awkward sometimes, so I sewed up a denim tote bad to carry our books in:



On top of all that I've been weaving.
I just finished my second scarf, and hopefully will have pictures for you all in my next post!
See you all then!

Saturday Sky

taken saturday January 10, 2009, at 4:30pm.

out the front door of the Platypus nest

Saturday Sky

taken saturday Jan 3, 2009, 3:30pm
platypus nest

Twas the night before Christmas...

We are actually having Christmas at my parent's tonight so that Bill's parent's can watch Cayenne, and then we can spend Christmas with them tomorrow.

So I guess I should give the final rundown of all this season's craftiness.

First, my mother's handspun mittens:



I hope she likes them; she's been pestering me for a pair for a while.

On the embroidery front we (finally) have my grandmother's pillowcase.
I finished it a while ago, but didn't get around to washing and ironing it until yesterday:



Also on the embroidery front, I've been on a bit of a cross stitch ornament kick:


(tree with cardinals and the deer are from page 8 and 28
Cross-Stitch Quick & Easy Dec/Jan 1991, cardinal is from Crossed Wing Collection and the scrollwork tree is from gazette 94

I actually have a ton more patters that I want to do, but I had to put them aside for next Christmas, because was running out of time!

Then there is Bill's scarf:



No, do not adjust your screens, you se right, that is a woven scarf. I have indeed succumbed to yet another fiber hobby.
This was my first ever weaving, so it is very far from perfect (please, don't even LOOK at the selvages!) But I am incredibly pleased with it. I've already got several ore projects in mind, I can only weave once a week though, because I'm using one of the looms in the weaving room at the hand weaving museum but then do have Inkle looms that you can take out, so I took on home and have been playing around on it a bit:





Some of the belts and bookmarks have gone up for sale in my shop I'm having so much fun playing around with color patterns and pick up designs, I'm making way more than I could ever use!

I'm alive!

I've just been super busy with Christmas stuff.

I finished off the merino/tencel:



(click through for a super huge version that I am currently using as my desktop wallpaper)

30/70 merino/tencel from stony mountain fibers
It came out to about light fingering-ish, 520 yards, 4 oz.

Im planning a pretty lacy scarf, but it will be for me, so it will have to wait until after the Christmas crafting is done.

Example: my mother's mittens.
You may remember I posted a picture of the bats last time
The bats became this:

(this was my desktop for a while as well)

Which became this:

(also makes a nice desktop)

166 yards, worsted-ish, 4 oz.

I've cast on for the mittens. Just a plain old boring mitten pattern, no pictures yet.

I've also been cross stitching up a storm, I have a bunch of ornaments ready for finishing, I just need to get to jo-anns tomorrow to pick up some fabric and ribbon. I'll be posting pictures once they're done.

I've also finished my grandmother's pillowcase, but it needs to be washed and pressed before I can take any good pictures.

Holidays are coming!

And with that in mind I have a few presents already done.

First is a pillowcase I embroidered for my paternal grandmother:


I actually finished this a wile ago, but kept forgetting to post a picture.
I've started another pillowcase for my maternal grandmother and it's almost done.

I also need to make dishcloths for her, but have been dragging my feet, because they are so simple and boring.

Also in embroidery, (cross stitch to be exact) a bookmark for my mother:


(Modeled on one of Bill's textbooks)

I also want to embroider up a few cute little ornaments for other family members, our local library had a book sale a while ago and I picked up a ton of holiday crafting books.

Since I was in an embroidery kick, I made this.
I decided my new wheel needed a tote bag, so I took some denim and made it on, then I embroidered the thumb an planet logo from Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy on one side, and "Don't panic" in nice friendly letters on the other:





On the selfish knitting front, I took the alpaca/merino/mohair I spun up and knit myself a pair of mittens:



Pattern: Plait Cable Mittens
I love them, so soft and warm. The pattern was pretty good; but I have a little gripe. I hate patterns that are written for 4 (or any number) or DPNs and give instructions as needle 1, needle 2 needle 3, etc.

I knit magic loop and it is a huge PITA to convert everything where there are no actual stitch counts. (ie, knit 5 stitches, purl 2, cable, purl 2, knit 5 stitches, etc.)

I’m not sure if I got the thumb placement just right, and there were a few other bits I had to fudge due to the lack of actual numbers.
but otherwise this is an awesome pattern, and the mittens turned out beautifully.


after my mother saw my handspun hat, and then the mittens she started pestering my for a par of mittens for herself. So I've carded up some wool, 1/2 romney/perendale sliver, and 1/2 louet northern lights in violets, and I'm going to spin it up and knit her a pair of matching mittens.


But first I have to finish my current spinning project:


4 oz merino/tencel from stony mountain fibers.

It's coming along beautifully; I actually have a full bobbin done, and am working on the second half now. I'm hoping for a light fingering. I want to make myself, a nice little lacy scarf or something.

Saturday Sky

on Wednesday Bill and I went for a hike on the nature trails at the Minna Anthony Common Nature Center on Wellesley Island.

while there we decided to stop and rest at the bench overlooking Eel Bay.





Saturday Sky, taken Wednesday November 5, 2008, 2:30(ish)pm

The great fleece to sweater adventure!

One of the ladies at my Wednesday weavers and spinners group has sheep, and recently gave me two fleeces.




She said they were washed, and the do look it for the most part. But they are also old.

One of the fleeces has a long staple, good crimp, but is a tad coarse, and in fact, a bit crunchy and dry feeling.





The other fleece is rather short and fine, but also still quite greasy and tacky. The sheep was a male, and the fleece is a bit… um, strong, if you know what I mean.



All her sheep are a mish-mash of different breeds, and there was no note as to the lineage of either of these fleeces.


The crunchy fleece, I hoped, just needed a little hydration, I carded up a couple of ounces and spun them up, and after a nice bath with some kookaburra it seems much better, but still a little rougher than would want for a sweater.



The other I took a handful and gave it a nice hot bath with some Dawn before carding it up and spinning. And not only did it smell better but it came out amazingly soft. When I was picking it to get ready for carding, I had this intense urge to cuddle up into the soft cloud of fibers and take a nap! The spun sample was nice and soft, but not very strong feeling. And if I want this sweater to stand up to a lot of wear, I need a strong yarn.



Also, I noticed a bit of felting at the cut edges of the fleece, and ended up with a ton of nepps because of it. Thankfully, when I went back and looked at the original fleece, I didn't see any of that felting, so I'm assuming I was a little too rough when washing my sample, and I just have to remember to be extra gentile.


After my original samples, I blended up a 50/50 batt of the two fibers, and spun that up.



It came out way softer than the skeins of just the long fleece, but also much stronger feeling than the skeins of the soft fleece. So I think I have found my winning combination.

The next step of this adventure is to dye the fleeces up and get them prepped and ready to spin.

Wish me luck!

Rhinebeck part three: FOs and WIPs

I've been a bit remiss in my blogging duties; objects have been begun and finished with nary a peep from me, let alone a picture. But I intend to fix that today.

Let's start with the spinning first shall we?

You may recognize this as the swamp gas I was spinning for socks a while ago.
I finally got it all spun up and plied. It's just been waiting for me to finish my current sock WIP.



while I was waiting I started anther spindle project: this is the tie dyed flowers roving I dyed up. I only had 3 ounces though, so I spun up one ounce, and plied it with some wooly nylon along with one ounce of undyed singled from the same base roving. I intend to use that for the toes and heels. The other I spun up and plied as normal.

I'm really happy with the way this yarn turned out, and I can't wait to see how it looks knit up!


As for wheel spun, I have this:


4.5 ounces of merino/mohair/alpaca from all strings considered that I talked about yesterday. This stuff was a DREAM to work with. I hope to make a pair of mittens from it. I got over 230 yards of worsted weight, so I should have plenty.



but that's not all, I've also been knitting!

The most recent FO is this hat:

Knit with my own handspun even.
I carded up three bats, one with mostly white, one with about 1/2 & 1/2 and one with mostly blue, and then split them into quarters and spun each little section one after the other to make the yarn. which I totally forgot to take any pictures of, because I was just that excited.



stats:
handspun yarn, worsted weight, less than 100 yards.
Pattern: Asminah's Hat

Mods: I knit ribbing instead of the crochet edging, the original pattern used a flat version of the stitch pattern, and that left a weird unpatterned ridge at the back, so I altered it to work better in the round. This also let me cast on a few more stitches to make a better fit. I ended up knitting three repeats of the lace pattern. And then completely changed the top decreases to look nicer.



Last week a friend of mine from work went into the hospital for surgery. Before she left she jokingly asked me to buy some yarn at Rhinebeck and knit her a sock. (just one) when I saw the little mini sock blocker I knew it had to be, and I got it right away. This is the result.


I mailed it off on Tuesday, and I hope she gets it soon, and that it makes her smile. She's and awesome woman.


Speaking of socks, for the October sock for the SAM kal I was hoping to finish a pair of Coriolis. But so many things have been popping up that I just haven't worked on them enough:



In order to still get my monthly socks in I dug out the single practice socks I made while learning Cat Bordhi's new architectures and knit them mates.
The green are little sky, and the blue are little coriolis.