Whew, marathon socks

Well, marathon sock knitting that is.

This is a commission knit for someone on Ravely, she needed two quick pairs of socks for her mom by the end of the month, and we worked out a deal.



Plain old toe up short row heel two at once, plain 2x2 ribbed socks.
Knit with size 2 (2.75mm) needles and Bernat Sox yarn (pink camouflage and hippi hot)

The first pair only took about a week to do, but only because I neglected almost all the housework and laundry, and pretty much knit on them obsessively.

The second pair took a little over two week, with breaks to spin up some of the yummy wool I got at the Southern Adirondack fiber festival, and to actually do some housework. (my husband is thankfull)

In exchange of all this knitting she sent me some fiber:



8 oz, hand dyed merino wool from CJ Kopec called "love spell" and it lives up to its name, I love it! I'm planning on spinning it up fine lace weight, and knitting a shawl from it.

It's fiber festival time!

On Saturday Bill and I piled into the car and took a scenic drive to the Washington County Fairgrounds to attend the first annual Southern Adirondack Fiber Festival

It was a beautiful day, the temperatures were cool, perfect shawl weather, and it was bright and sunny all day. There were over 80 venders there. On top of spinning, weaving, and rug hooking demonstrations, and a really interesting sheep sheering demo.



we saw cashmere goats, llamas, alpacas,



and Bill got to commune with some sheep:


(I love this picture)


Bill bought lots of yummy smelling hand made soap from Natural Specialties (no web site, but they'll be at Rhinebeck!) and Saratoga Suds 'n' Stuff

We drooled over the shirts from five sheep and a donkey especially the baby's onesies, soo cute!

And finally I gave in and bought 9oz of hand dyed wool from Spinners Hill


I plan on making a baby surprise jacket out of it for TW and hopefully a hat and maybe mittens if I have enough left over.

I wanted to preserve the colors so I split it into three sections for easier handling (my bobbins will only hold about 4 oz each) and when I go to spin I'll split each section in half lengthwise and then ply each half together to (hopefully) get a self striping two ply.



I just love the colours in this roving, it reminds me both of autumn, but also of summer fields, I can't wait to get started on this!



Afterwards Bill and I were talking, and we really enjoyed how small the festival was, unlike Rhinebeck with its huge grounds and huger crowds. It was so calm yet cheerful, we could actually stroll up and down the aisles, and were able to take our time as we perused the vendors, and I never got jostled once! The SAFF will undoubtedly get bigger and more popular as the years go on and it gets more advertising and more activities and such. But for now we are going to enjoy the calm and stress free time wile we can. (Don't get me wrong, we LOVE Rhinebeck, and definitely plan on going, but anybody who has been there will tell you, the crowds are wild, and it can be a bit stressful trying to check out all the vendors and their wares while a massive crowd presses in around you trying to do the same)

Pineapple FO, okie dokie progress, and socks!

So I mentioned earlier that I had finished some crochet doilies to adorn the arms of my new chair.
Well, I STILL haven’t found my blocking pins, so I figured I would at least show you the unblocked pictures:





Starry Pineapple Doily from Favorite Pineapple Doilies of Rita Weiss from the American School of Needlework.

J&P coats size 10 crochet cotton in Ecru, and #7 steel crochet hook.


(Doesn't Pillow Guy look so happy in his new home?)

I've also picked up Okie Dokie (aka Frosted Ferns by Herbert Niebling) again, and have made some pretty good progress.



It's about 37% finished now, and as you can see I've finished the first acorn, YAY!

And of course, I've got my ubiquitous pair of socks:



Knit picks Felici in "Aurora"
The usual toe up two at a time, short row heel pattern in 1 1/2 Knit Picks circulars.


Unfortunately (ok, not really) these projects are going to be put on hold for a while, since I've just picked up a Commission knitting job through a swap group on Ravelry.

I'm knitting some socks in exchange for spinning fiber. It's win-win-win!
I get to knit socks, I get awesome spinning fiber, and she gets new socks!

Wow, who knew moving would be so hard?

Yeah, shortly after my last post Bill and I took a trip down to the Capital District of NY to go Apartment hunting. You see, he got accepted into the DSES (decision sciences and engineering systems, it's essentially applied mathematics) PHD program at RPI (yay!)

Once we got back it was a flurry of purging of unneeded stuff, and packing of needed stuff, then there was that whole moving thing, and then a bunch of unpacking (which still isn't finished).

Things are finally beginning to settle down, and I can start knitting and blogging again!

but for now, how about a few FO's and a WIP?

The wip:



The Baby Poonam I'm working it semi seamless. The main body is in the round with steeks for the armholes. I'm just about ready to cast off the front shoulders. Then there will be a bit more knitting on the back, a button tab for the shoulder and then the sleeves!

FO's:



Baby booties! :D:D
Just the Oscar pattern (link is to Ravelry, where the pattern is a free pdf download) in some leftover sock yarn, I think this is my favorite booty pattern ever.


And my first finished knit in the new apartment:



A little knit basket. Before we moved we didn't have a couch, or a coffee table, now we have both, and I have discovered that the coffee table accumulates bunches of little bits and bobs that I use all the time, so it's really annoying to constantly be putting them away and taking them out. so I knit this cute little basket to put them in so the table stays neat.

Yarn is some of my own handspun merino from when I was first learning to spin on a wheel, so it was a bit thick and thin, but I really likes the colours, and I think it worked well here.

No real pattern, just cast on 8 stitches, and knit a center out square until I thought it was big enough, then a couple of purl rows and knit straight up the sides. I then felted it a bit to make it a bit stiffer to keep the sides from flopping over.



I've also just finished a couple of crochet doilies to put on the arms of my new chair, but they aren't blocked yet, so the look kinda funky, so pictures will have to wait until I find the time to block them.

Holy crap, two more months between posts?

It's ok, I have a good excuse, and some FOs!

First the FOs:

Remember the evergreen yarn I won from Lucia?

Well that became these:


Socks for Bill, I used Cat Bordhi's upstream construction modified by a lot of math to make it work better, and then threw in a simple knit purl pattern for interest.


the next fo isn't quite as exciting, but I had read about the spiral, 9 stitch blanket and wanted to try it out, but I didn't really think I would have the gumption to knit an actual blanket, so I made a bathmat:


it came out pretty nice, but I didn't really like the pattern, I couldn't really get into the groove, there was too much stopping and turning. Maybe next time if I want to do it again I would make it more like 15 – 20 stitches.

as for why I haven't posted in about two months, you see... I've been too tired and sick to knit much let alone put together a post.
I hear that happens to a lot of pregnant women though, so don't worry, I am knitting, I have the baby poonam sweater on the needles right now, and am planning on making up a bunch of Oscar booties once we find out what the sex is. (Those who follow me on Ravelry may have noticed an explosion of baby pattern on my queue, there are so many cute little things to knit, and most of them easy and quick too!)

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 US $3.00

The Shamrock Tam: $3.00

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!