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Just a few resolutions ...

2012-02-01T19:38:00.002-05:00

Normally one makes resolutions for the new year when the new year is actually beginning. This new year has been so overwhelmingly stressful and generally miserable from nearly every direction other than my Honey and knitting that it's the first of February and I am just now getting around to beginning to think about my new year's knitting resolutions. What I have determined thus far, mostly as a consequence of having rearranged my knitting room, is that I have six projects staring at me from the shelves, one for which I haven't even dyed the yarn yet, and three sitting on the table. So, my new year's resolutions are going to have to begin with wrapping up or frogging the crazy collection of partially begun projects that are staring me down and I type.

First on the list: those darned 2-at-a-time socks that I started sometime (probably last spring about this same time) last year, the ones with the twisted basket-weave pattern done on size 2 needles with a marled German wool that likes to separate with every stitch. Yeah, those. Who knew I could come to hate twisted basket weave so much?! Anyway, after months of pretending that I hadn't even started them, and then a month of waffling back and forth between frogging or finishing, I figured out how to turn the heel and am on my way to having one of two socks with a heel; so I guess I'm committed to finishing this one up.

Second on the list: Honey's shawl collar sweater, which I am designing as I go. Who knew that there would be so few pattern resources for a frickin men's sweater! I need to learn to do my research before I commit, even where Honey is concerned. I say that not because the knitting is difficult--it's really just knitting in the round right now--but because I'm pretty sure that the measurements of this sweater (it needs to be large enough to fit over a long-sleeved shirt) equate to 2XL. It's a lot of mindless knitting. I thought it would be good car knitting, but then I haven't really done much riding in a car lately so that's been an unproductive plan. Last night, I took this project with me to work on during Scout #2's trumpet lesson. I got 35 minutes of uninterrupted automatic knitting time. I think that I will also be taking this project to Rocket's violin lesson. With 70 minutes of knitting time per week on this project, I might actually get it done before next winter!

Third on the list: the Elegy gloves order. I firmly intend, provided the yarn arrives this weekend, to dye the yarn and get this order knit up by the end of next week. I am totally putting myself on project restriction after the yarn dries until these are finished.

Fourth on the list: finish at least one of the other three pair of Elegy gloves started but abandoned on the table. One pair is for Rocket. I am unsure if it's even worth my time to finish them for her because I have only seen her wear the hat I made her for Christmas once and the mittens not at all. Of course the weather has been so balmy that my jonquils and hyacinths were coming up by the third week of January, and Rocket will go outside to play happily without shoes, socks, jacket, sweater, sweatshirt--she'll go out in a tank top and shorts if you let her!--in 30 degree weather. One of the pair of gloves, however, is an olive green pair for myself, and these I think will get done because there purpose was for me to have them to wear during soccer season--you know, we soccer moms have to sport some semblance of school colors while we sit and freeze in the stands.

Fifth on the list: I have a new shawl design to which I have devoted the 5 skeins of recycled tweed wool from the thrift store spree. It's turning out nicely, but it turns out that the smaller the needle, the less my hands and wrists hurt and the larger the needle, the more strain I seem to suffer. The shawl is being knit on US15--which probably seems like it would equate to a quick knit, except that I chose a somewhat tedious stitch pattern for the center panel. My wrists just don't like this one and it may be months before I can reveal its complete awesomeness.

Sixth on the list: Remember that Entrelac thingy that I started in December? Remember how I was going to have that done BEFORE Christmas break ended? Well, as it turns out, I can knit on that darned thing and knit on it and never seem to make any headway. I think I have about three more feet to go before I run out of yarn. I believe that I now fully understand how Penelope felt about that shroud she kept working on for 10 years while she waited for Odysseus to quit playing around in the Mediterranean and come home. This Entrelac project has become my shroud.

Seventh on the list: I would like to finish the two test knits for Rocket's cropped cardigan that I made early last fall. I have knit nearly all the way through the body for the small size, and it's possible that I could get that test knit done by the end of March. Apparently I was a little overzealous when I mocked up the other pattern sizes because my original plan, I just noticed, was to size the pattern in four different sizes. I think I might have to nix the extra-small size and just deal. Theoretically, I could have this pattern ready for sale by the end of July. I think that will be my goal.

Okay, let's just face it. That last project, the mostly finished teddy bear improvisation over there in the bowl ... it's just headed for certain destruction. I think I can honestly say that the knitting of toys doesn't do anything for me. I know that because that "bear" was supposed to be a baby shower gift, and the kid is almost two years old now. I'm pretty sure this project has no future.

Eighth on the list: Scout #2's Reconstruction Sweater ... the body for that thing was finished last year. Maybe I will actually knit some sleeves for it this year. Good thing I made the body extra-large on the second go-around because he might actually still fit into it by the time I get it done and next winter's cold weather rolls around. I'm pretty sure he has given up on my ever finishing it because he's started making concessions, like "Mom, you don't have to knit stripes on the sleeves to match the rest of the sweater. You can just knit all one color and that will be okay. Whatever it takes, mom."

And lastly, ninth on the list: That purple baby blanket that I started because someone wanted me to do it as a special order and then backed out of the deal ... it just needs to be finished and donated to the Linus project or something. It's a third of the way done and I am sure that there is going to be a point (probably during spring break when I have a lengthy round-trip plane ride) when some automatic knitting will come in handy. I have the same blanket begun in a bright blue, too, so I should probably bite the bullet and finish it as well. Not to digress, but I understand that bamboo needles are okay on an airplane but not metal or acrylic ... a man made that rule, right? I don't know about your wooden needles, but I for one have never bent a wooden needle while doing something as innocuous as knitting with it, while I have several sets of straight metal needles that sort of curve in the middle. Well, I won't tell airport security how they got this "dangerous knitting needle" policy backwards if you won't.

I really only have four other items on my resolution list, and these have yet to be cast on: The cable cowl from Lion Brand that I bought a gazillion skeins of blackberry wool to make about two years ago, the Buttercup Beret that I bought that expensive silk to make at about the same time as the blackberry wool, a long and flow-y cardigan that I bought the cream-colored Italian silk in December to make, and the top-down mock turtleneck sweater in merino, mohair, and alpaca that I have knit the mock neck for and then abandoned on the duct tape dummy. Wait, I take that back! I would like to knit something with my Possum yarn before Stitches South rolls around again in April--probably a chunky cowl that my friends will drool over. Easy! I could do that in my spare knitting time!

Okay, so maybe it will be a while before I am able to post another Monday Masterpiece; however, just wait until you see how the Brambles Beret turned out! I am pretty pleased with that one!

KAL update

2012-01-30T12:24:00.001-05:00

The project begins and makes its way to the half-way point.

I was so enamored of the cute petal-like cable pattern of the beret pattern that it somehow escaped my attention that the first twelve rows were going to be obnoxiously tedious 1x1 rib. I don't like tedious patterns, even if they turn out nicely in the end. But, as luck would have it, the second row after the ribbing begins the end of tediousness and the beginning of counting EVERY stitch. Be careful what you wish for, right?

So I've knit to the end of the first of two charts: the "body" of the hat, and Leslie reports that she has the ribbing accomplished and that I have successfully taught her to cable as she makes her way through the first chart. We both got permission from our honeys to go to knitting club on Saturday--haven't been in a month, it seems. Leslie, our good friend Meredith, and I hung out at Leslie's house on Saturday morning to get serious about this KAL project. Although knitting got done, as is usually the case, I discovered later that I had missed one line of instructions before beginning the body and that I had to rip out everything that I had done for the first 1/3 of the body chart. I made up for it on Sunday since Sunday was the big 4-0 for me and the birthday girl deserved some knitting time, and am now on my way to the home stretch. This little number could be finished by the weekend at this rate.

I did discover, just in case anyone else wants to knit this pretty pattern, that the yardage, gauge, yarn type info. for the size large is incorrect. It seems that the small size was copied and pasted as the info. for the large size. If you are going to knit the large size, I would recommend that you allow for at least 268 yards. I also discovered that one of the lines in the pattern suggests that the chart for the body of the hat will be knit through 8 times--not so! You would have a nightcap instead of a beret if you did that! I'm going to guess that I am only supposed to knit through that part of the pattern once from the pictures of the finished product and see how that goes.

Knit-Along: Brambles Beret

2012-01-24T05:30:00.000-05:00

Although Mother Nature has lost her mind this winter, and my Jonquils began blooming last weekend and the hyacinths are budding, and the forsythia is about to burst with tiny spring flowers, I've been thinking that I am in need of a new hat. The Autumn Vines beret that I made last fall is nice, but I'm ready to add to my collection of knitted accessories. With that said, my pal Leslie and I have decided to do our own knit-along of the Brambles Beret by Amanda Muscha, which was featured in the Knitty.com "Deep Fall 2010" pattern line-up. It's cute, comes in multiple sizes, doesn't require a ton of yarn, AND has cute cables. Not to mention that it's the perfect opportunity for me to show off my newest yarn line: Shades O' Sheep. I'm going to be using a skein of my Hemlock for this endeavor. Looks like this:

Hemlock is 100% all-natural Spanish Merino from the verdant Castillian valleys kettle-dyed in rusty and woodsy browns and pale olive. (Want a skein? Visit my shop!) This squishy skein of yarn goodness is going to be put to the test and, hopefully, I will end up with something that looks like the intended pattern. Updates with pictures are forthcoming. If you would like to knit along with Leslie and I, feel free! Leave a note to let me know that you are in. If you email me a picture of your progress, I'll put in up with the pictures of our progress. Until then, happy knitting to you!

Monday Masterpiece: Sportsman Revisited

2012-01-23T12:58:00.000-05:00

Guess what happens to 100% wool Sportsman gloves when the 12 year-old does laundry. Yep. They shrink right up to toddler size!

Although I couldn't get them done for the January Boy Scout camping/hiking trip in the mountains, I did manage to get them done before the end of January and that is, considering how INSANE the last two weeks have been for me, pretty darn awesome! Here's pair #2 for Scout #2:

And now that I have shown them off as my Monday Masterpiece, I would like to take this opportunity to have a little conversation about this glove pattern. I have been very fortunate to sell a few hundred copies of this pattern in the last few months, and the one complaint that I seem to be getting periodically is that some of the women who are buying the pattern are upset that the finished product doesn't fit their hands. Ladies ... this is a men's glove pattern. Even the smallest size is going to be a little baggy and disproportionate due to the fact that men's hands are wider across the palm than most women's hands. These gloves were not designed for women, I'm afraid. But, that's not to say that women can't wear them with a few modifications; I suggest you try on as you go and alter as necessary if you want to wear these gloves for yourselves, ladies. There's a reason why the title of the pattern is "Sportsman".

Here I am, wearing one of the gloves for my son, which I just did in size small. My son is 12. My hands are thinner and the palm of the glove is about an inch too wide for my hand, but the fingers fit me pretty well. I just thought I should share this information with the general public here so that there's less confusion about the outcome of the pattern.

A little time at the wheel

2012-01-03T23:43:00.003-05:00

It's official. Back to a new semester tomorrow. That sucks. I didn't get time to do the gazillion things on my to-do list during the Christmas break, and I'm a little grouchy about it. So I thought that, like a true English teacher, I would stay up one more time until after midnight and do something else on the list: spin!

Look at these adorable sheep!

Weeks and weeks ago, I purchased some chocolate brown baby doll sheep roving from someone on Etsy (My Little Sheep) because the sheep were just so adorable and I had never heard of baby doll sheep before. When I got it, I was a little turned off because it was a little tacky from the lanolin and that lanolin smell is just plain unpleasant. It has been sitting on top of a cabinet in the knitting room, begging to be spun. It finally got a chance on the wheel last night. I didn't get much accomplished between my cold and the time of night, but here's how it looks:

I figured that, since the individual fibers were totally kinky and the lanolin was so tacky that the end result would be stiff, sticky, and course. Not so! It feels soft and squishy even while still on the spindle. I bought a bunch (over 4 ozs. I think), so I am hoping that there will be enough for me to make something really swell, like mittens or socks.

Last weekend I was able to get this gorgeous fiber spun that I had bought at SAFF in October. It's original name was "Blueberry Pie" and it came from Rivers Edge Fiber Arts. I always have trouble photographing navy blue and purple with my camera--not sure why--so this has some dark purple in it, but you just can't tell from the picture.

Milk, banana, superwash merino, and tencel combine to make this possible the softest non-camel fiber I have ever spun. I love, love, love it! The fact that it is mostly a dark navy is also really pleasing because that's a color that I love but almost never buy or dye. Not sure what this skein is going to be because it came out less than 200 yards of two-ply, but it's definitely not going in the shop.

I've also gotten the yarn dyed and the swatches knit and photographed for my Twist Collective submission. Another week and I should be ready to go with all of the required documents and drawings. And that entrelac scarf thingy that I started a week ago is at 24 inches and growing. I don't know why I thought it would be a good plan to use a skein of nearly 400 yards to knit the darned thing. It has become quite apparent that this project is not going to be a cowl. So, I will continue to knit on, if for no other reason than to see how far this skein will get me.

And I guess that's all that's going to get done before it's back to that 5 am wake-up call. How many days until summer vacation?

A future masterpiece

2012-01-02T05:30:00.000-05:00

It's a new year, and I spent my New Year's Eve and part of my first evening of the new year recycling a sweater. Or maybe "reclaiming" a sweater is a better term? I went by the thrift store and picked up a few choice sweaters for the purpose of accomplishing the first thing on the list of "never done"s for the new year: yarn recycling. A few friends have said that they do this all of the time; but not having ever torn down an entire sweater and then knit it into something new, I thought I might try this for myself.

I spent $4.95 on a woman's medium v-neck sweater in a basic stockinette stitch that was a little felted, but not too badly. I tore it down and ended up with 585 yards of bulky weight 80% wool/20% nylon tweed yarn. That's plenty to remake into something a little trendier than what it was when I found it, don't you think? I'm thinking about a 3/4 sleeve pull-over or a lengthy vest with a little cabling. All it needs now is a bath.

Along the way of deconstruction, I learned something nifty from the commercial sweater industry about raglan seaming. I learned that the makers of this sweater reinforced the raglan stitches at the seams by sewing double-strength thread, just like you would see in any machine-stitched garment, through each of the loops and securing it tightly. It was totally invisible from the outside of the sweater, and I didn't even see it until I had begun to unravel the stitches. Pretty sneaky. However, what a great idea! The one thing I hate about raglan seaming is that it always seems to over-stretch along those M1s. Next time I will have to try out this trick.

Happy New Year to you!

WIP Wednesday: Entrelac Experiment

2011-12-28T10:34:00.000-05:00

It's been a very long time I think since I posted for WIP Wednesday, but since I have a few projects on the needles I thought I'd go ahead and share the new Entrelac project and update Honey's sweater project.So here's where I am with the Entrelac. Looks pretty good, huh? There was that New Year's resolution knitting list for 2011 ... And I accomplished much, but not all. :( So in these last few days of 2011, I am attempting to do one last item on the list by learning Entrelac and making this scarf--which will probably end up getting sewn together at the ends to make a cowl of some kind. As I may have mentioned before, I think this is a tedious process of knitting. I get bored after about one right side and wrong side round and have to set it down in favor of other things--sometimes I don't make it through an entire side--, like the iPad I got for Christmas that is taking me forever to set up to fit my needs. Be that as it may, I think that I am about 50% finished with this project. Optimistically speaking, it could be done by New Year's Eve. I would like to say that this silk/merino is of my own label, but it's really some Cherry Tree Hill that hasn't seen the light of day since I bought it--something from the Vampire collection, which should tell you that it's been waiting in the drawer for eons. I like it but don't like it--the strands separate too easily when I'm picking up stitches, but it's soft and snuggly with a nice pattern repeat and a little sheen.Now about Honey's shawl collar sweater ... I'm still working on that project and it seems like I am getting nowhere even though it's sucking up the yarn like crazy. (Being an English teacher, you'd think I'd have a less colloquial analogy, right?) I've been working my yardage expectations according to that Drops pattern at I had originally begun this project with. Now I'm thinking that the numerical errors in the stitch count weren't the only problem with the pattern. I think that the yardage required for the pattern was sans sleeves and collar! I ordered another blank skein to dye up upon the expectation that I wouldn't have enough yarn todo sleeves, but now I'm thinking, as this sweater continues to burn through the yarn, that I am going to need at least two more skeins. I'm doing this bottom up, and I have the ribbing and about 4.5 inches of the body done. This is total automatic knitting, and it's becoming a car knitting staple. I think it's also going to be a faculty meeting staple. (I know the picture is upside down, but I'm still getting the hang of this Incredibly convoluted iPad thing.)And the other new project on the needles is a new pair of Sportsman gloves for Scout #2 who washed and dried the first 100% wool pair that I made him. He needs these for the big January Pine Mountain camping trip. Maybe I should spend more time on the gloves and less time on the Entrelac scarf now that I think about how close the date of this trip is.Well, off to knit something. In case I don't get back to posting before the first of the new year, Happy New Year everyone!

Monday Masterpiece Trio

2011-12-26T15:33:00.000-05:00

Between the wrist brace and a December that was truly out to get me, I didn't think that I would be able to get all of may Christmas knitting done in time, but I managed to pull it off with two days to spare. Not only did Rocket get her hat and mittens set (and has thankfully decided on a flower decoration on the side instead of that a crazy i-cord decoration on top of the hat which would totally cover the perfect circles on top of color) ...

but Scout #1's chullo was finished on Friday ...

and I manages to whip up a second fair isle hat for Scout #2 last Thursday--yes, that last hat was done in an afternoon! And I finished with two days to spare.

Then, on Friday, I also taught myself to do the one thing that I have said I was going to learn and haven't for the last two years: Entrelac. I think after 11 completed rounds and 10 inches of knitting I finally have the knack of it without having to revert back to the basic instructions. I have to say that entrelac may be even more tedious than knit-one-below, which I also learned how to do and then never did again. Entrelac isn't fun to knit, but it's not any worse than knitting bobbles or cables, I guess. I will not, however, have that entrelac item that was on this year's knitting to-do list done before New Year's Day. C'est la vie.

There's a new shrug pattern brewing in my brain now that I've learned entrelac, and I think it might be my submission to The Twist Collective for next fall's collection, so that means no details for my readers' inquiring minds, I'm afraid. We'll just see how it goes.

Monday Masterpiece & Giveaway Winner!

2011-12-12T05:30:00.000-05:00

First, the winner of my $20 electronic gift certificate giveaway is: Lorraine! Yeah! Congrats Lorraine! I'll be in touch, so check your email later today.

For a change, the weekend was productive on the knitting front. I managed to finish the hat for Rocket's hat & mitten set for Christmas. I'm debating about whether or not to knit up a flower to embellish it after she said something to me this morning about how she would like "a hat with a flower on top". I don't think I would necessarily put a knitted flower on the very top of the hat, but maybe I could do an I-cord and make the shape of one. That one will take a little thought.

The big masterpiece for today is this little number: my very own, no-pattern used to make this scarf, braided scarf in emerald hand spun bulky wool.

I think that for a woman working without a net, it turned out pretty swell (even if my camera doesn't want to cooperate with color indoors today). All that I did was to figure out how wide I wanted my scarf to be and then improvised the braided parts. I think I will wear it to work today, since the weather is threatening to be cold, windy, and raining. Brrrrr!

Giveaway Ending! (And a free ribbed cowl pattern to boot!)

2011-12-08T05:30:00.000-05:00

So the gift certificate giveaway is still going on. There are only a few comments, so chances to win are pretty good. Click on this link to go to the $20 gift certificate giveaway for my Etsy shop: Gift Certificate Giveaway! Giveaway ends at midnight this Saturday, 12/10/11.

And while I was NOT resting my injured hand/wrist like I was supposed to do, I whipped up this little number.

I was right, and the cowl did get finished before any of the Christmas presents that I have been working on lately. The end result was a very thick and warm cowl. This yarn is a little scratchy, so if you are not scratchy wool tolerant, you might want to go with something in a bulky cotton. I like this cowl very much and am sure that my friends at work will covet it. Mother Nature has thrown us a curve ball (70 degrees yesterday afternoon, 44 degrees this afternoon!) and given me the perfect reason to wear it to work today. I like this simple pattern so much so that I am giving you the pattern for it right here:

I used all of 2 skeins of Valley Yarns "North Hampton", which is 218 yards of a bulky weight yarn. Be sure to leave enough at the end of the project to sew on the button!

Using US 11 straight needles, CO 33 stitches.
Row 1: Knit 6, Purl 3, Knit 6, Purl 3, Knit 6, Purl 3, Knit 6.
Row 2: Purl 6, Knit 3, Purl 6, Knit 3, Purl 6, Knit 3, Purl 6.

2 inches from the end of your scarf (this was at 41 inches for my scarf), Knit 6, Purl 3, Knit 6, Bind off 3, Knit 6, purl 3, Knit 6.
On the wrong side, Purl 6, Knit 3, Purl 6, do a backward CO for three stitches, Purl 6, Knit 3, Purl 6.

Continue repeating rows 1 & 2 for two more inches.

Repeat rows 1 & 2 to desired length. I knit my scarf to 43 inches.

To finish, sew on button and weave in any loose ends from joining skeins.

I wrapped the scarf around my neck twice and secured it with the button.

Christmas is coming ...There should be a giveaway !

2011-12-04T08:21:00.001-05:00

It's December and the craziness of the season has begun. It began with my knitting injury. Yes, I said knitting injury. I'm pretty sure that the brace from my elbow to my fingers on my left hand is a consequence of trying to knit too much with too many small needles in too short of a time. Although there was some kitchen and dining room remodeling, and it could have been a consequence of having to scrub linoleum glue off of the concrete floor with a wire brush for several hours for several days running in order to put down the Travertine tile in the kitchen and laundry room, I prefer to think that my left hand is toast because of the hat and mittens for Rocket, the cowl custom order (knitting and spinning involved in that one) for a friend--who incidentally after a week is still trying to decide if she likes it, the sweater for Honey, the chulla for Scout #1 (Scout #2 has decided he also needs one by Christmas, please), and the new cowl for myself. I'm thinking that the new cowl for me may be about the only thing that is actually finished by Christmas at this point. The more I knit, the worse my hand becomes, even in this high-dollar brace and without actually doing anything but holding the needle and the working yarn in my left hand. I think I should probably go to the doctor about this tomorrow, since it is starting to seriously affect the important things in life (my knitting projects). Too bad that this injury isn't to my right hand, and it was grading papers that I couldn't do anymore. I think I have multiple stress fractures in my forearm and wrist. But, hey, since my cowl is, by comparison to the other projects that use US3, US5, and US6 needles, being knit on tree branches (US11), that's coming along fairly well, even if it's at a very slow pace.

But you know what I CAN do with this injured appendage ... Elf hats. I can make elf hats for my Brownies. No one else noticed the correlation between the Brownie Elf that is the foundation of the Brownies in Girl Scouts and the fact that my Brownies were all dressed like Elves in the Loganville parade last night, not even the other Brownie leaders, which is sadly kind of par for the course. I spent all day yesterday making sparkly red and green elf hats for the Christmas parade last night. Who knew that glitter spray paint could look so good on felt?

My girls were cute. The parade was a whole lot of drama I didn't need. I think we walked about 1.5 miles from the line-up place to the actual parade route in the dark, and then, the actual parade route was about 1/2 mile and it moved so quickly that start to finish we had to practically run and it took about 10 whole minutes. It was the dumbest thing! And there was so much leader drama created by the leader of one troop who showed up with her own FLOAT to set her troop apart from the other troops that were walking together to represent all of the Girl Scounts in the county that I was ready to go home before we even lined up. We even lost a girl from our troop at the end of the parade. Yep, you heard me. LOST a 3rd grader! Talk about a moment of panic. Turned out that, when we said "get in the van" to our girls so as to ride back to our cars at the line-up site instead of walk, she saw people she knew on a float and, in the mass confusion at the ending point, got on the float. FORTUNATELY, the float turned out to have her mother on it and after we searched high and low for about 40 minutes, we found mother and child. You know what I wish? I wish the holidays were like this:

Don't you?

I guess it can't be an Irving Berlin Christmas in reality, but wouldn't it be nice if the drama was over whether or not it would snow in time for the Christmas production instead of the craziness of our personal calendars?

With that said, I think that it is about time that I did a giveaway. I haven't done one in quite some time.

So here's the deal: I'll give one lucky winner a $20 gift certificate to my shop, and y'all follow these rules:

1. One entry for responding to this post with a comment about what you would like to buy with a $20 gift certificate from my shop by 12/10/11. Here's the link: Zibeline Knits @ Etsy

2. Another opportunity to win by liking Zibeline Knits on Facebook--even though I will know you've done this, you have to comment here to let me know that you have done this so that you can get your extra entry.
3. Another opportunity to win by subscribing to my newsletter--even though I will know you've done this, you have to comment here to let me know that you have done this so that you can get your extra entry.

All entries will be submitted to an automatic, computerized selection tool and I will announce the winner on 12/11/11. Please be sure that in your comments you make it possible to contact you via your web page or your email address, at least through your avatar.

Holiday Yarn Sale!

2011-11-23T08:34:00.001-05:00

So I've decided to have a sale just in time for the holidays. If you visit my Etsy shop, today through midnight Saturday, enter the coupon code KNITMAS during checkout and save 20% off of your entire order--including off of already on sale Rocket Sock! With Christmas just around the corner, it's time to get knitting!

Here are just a few of the fantastic skeins in the shop:

There are gorgeous handspun skeins, too! Here are just a few:

Masterpiece Monday: Mittens Accomplished!

2011-11-21T05:30:00.000-05:00

Ta-dah! Rocket's Christmas mittens are complete! They were less difficult than I expected and I think that they turned out pretty well; the thumb on one seems a little shorter than the other one, the stitch count is the same.

I think there is enough left for a hat, so I cast on yesterday in secret and will just see how things play out.

I don't think there will be enough left for a scarf, but if Rocket actually wears them more than once, at least I'll have some backup in case mending needs to be done. That's probably wishful thinking, that they'll be worn until they are worn through--likely one will be lost in the under-the-bed abyss and the other one will accidentally go through the dryer and be fit for Barbie. That's about how we roll around here.

I also cast on for a chullo for Scout #1 who, after I had already purchased a pattern that turned out to be a bit loopy in the realistic directions department and spent $25 bucks on yarn that he picked out himself and had re-knit the darned ear flaps into a loop for the hat portion about 4 times, tells me that he really liked that one at REI and we should just go there. Ahhhhh, memories!

Well, I spent pretty much 4 hours on Sunday night trying to put the fair isle pattern that he wants into the hat. For normal people who can multiply and divide, this is not a 4-hour endeavor; for me, it's a 4-hour endeavor. But, I finally got it and am about to start the 4th row of the snowflake (looks like a poinsettia to me, which means he's going to have red flowers on his manly hat, but let's just keep that joke between us girls).

Honey's sweater hit a little snag. I got all the way to the row (22 inches of fabric knitted expertly and evenly after having to frog it completely three times) where you begin binding off for the shawl collar and the arm pits and realized that I have been knitting the darned thing one size smaller than I originally thought. NOT to worry, though! This I can fix with a little side-panel magic and it will look just like it was supposed to be that way. That's really not the snag I'm talking about, though I about collapsed when I realized that I had knit the darned front three inches smaller in width than I thought. The snag is that, apparently, the Scandinavians who do the technical math for Drops and who came up with the published pattern for this sweater can't actually do math any better than I can. In reality, I can apparently add and subtract better than they can--and this makes me feel a little less stupid about some pattern corrections that I've had to make lately for my own published patterns. Apparently, someone miscounted and not by a few stitches at the Drops offices. Using the Drops math, I had about 26 extra stitches just laying around at the end of my row when I went to cast off for the collar. That's a lot of stitches. I believe that I have corrected the math, and the pattern is pretty simple otherwise; I'm hoping that I don't get the whole thing done and then I can't make the shawl collar fit but we'll cross that bridge later. Meanwhile, this manly sweater is currently beginning to take on a tank-top appearance, which I think is kind of amusing.

WIP: New Sweater on the Needles

2011-11-13T09:12:00.001-05:00

There's never a free moment when I am not A) working for the Zibeline Knits Etsy Shop, B) doing household chores, C) being the activities director/Girl Scout leader, or D) KNITTING! Of course, I prefer the latter, and most evenings and all car trips you will find me knitting. That means that I usually have about 27 projects going at the same time. In the midst of Christmas knitting and my needing to fill custom orders for cowls, gloves, and mittens right now, Honey asked me to knit a shawl-collared sweater for him. Hmmm. I was a little daunted by the task and had to frog the front piece three times; but after I realized that European men are significantly smaller than my 6'2" Honey, and that I was just going to have to adapt the Drops pattern that I wanted to use to fit an American man, the knitting has progressed very nicely. Right now, I'm just two inches from the underarms and the bottom of the collar. I'm not too keen on having to knit 5 separate pieces and sew them together, as I hate seaming (really HATE seaming!) and go to great lengths to avoid patterns that call for it; however, there are not too many shawl collar patterns out there to choose from folks. Here's how it's looking:

The yarn is a worsted weight merino that I hand painted in olive, spruce, and rust. It's knitting up in a nice jewel tone. Very manly colors. The purpose of this sweater is not to hide my Honey in the woods while he shoots unsuspecting animals; rather, it's for cold-weather camping and hiking across mountain tops with Boy Scouts. Those annual December and January camp-outs in below-freezing temps are fast approaching; so I hope to have this done by Honey's birthday in mid-December. Here's what the finished product should look like:

Introducing My Newsletter!

2011-11-11T09:10:00.001-05:00

I've finally stumbled upon a way to create a newsletter for my Etsy shop that visitors and customers can subscribe to. It's pretty nifty, and I'm pretty pleased with how swell it looks and works. So, beginning this month, I will be able to send out a bi-monthly newsletter to update subscribers about new yarns in the shop and to offer special discounts and coupons. Interested in subscribing? Just click on the link below and sign up on the super short and non-intrusive subscription form. You will also be able to subscribe from my Facebook page and from my Etsy shop. And, thanks again for stopping by to visit me via my blog!

Subscribe to the Zibeline Knits Newsletter Now!

A Wonderful Week of Knitting!

2011-11-04T05:24:00.000-04:00

Although I have been bitten by the flu bug this week, and have felt down-right pitiful and unmotivated to do anything but knit and lay around, all that time to be an invalid gave me the opportunity to make some really good progress on the project list. I also want to remind everyone that, if you are in the market for a little sock yarn, I'm having a 20% off sale on all of my Rocket Sock collection at my Etsy shop. So here's the run-down.

Honey has a new motorcycle cowl:

I have a new candle flame cowl for me done in my handspun Corriedale in Butternut (yarn is also available for purchase in the Etsy shop):

Judy got shoes:

And the first of two mittens for Rocket for Christmas has been completed in a two-ply hand painted & hand spun squishy superwash merino that I spun up this past summer for her. It's been long enough that she has forgotten about the yarn, so I am hoping that the mittens and their accompanying hat--maybe there's enough for a scarf, too--will be a nice Christmas surprise. I couldn't be more pleased about how this two-ply is knitting up!

So here's how the list for 2011 is looking:

~~sweater for me~~ (elsebeth lavold Christmas present skeins)
~~medium Sportsman test gloves~~
~~large Sportsman test gloves~~
~~extra-large Sportsman test gloves~~
2 sweaters for Rocket (1 done)
~~1 pair of gloves for Scout 2~~
that gorgeous blackberry cabled cowl sweater for me
Swing for my mom
~~Autumn Leaves beret~~
Buttercup beret
socks, socks, socks! (~~Groovy~~; waterfall; monkey socks)
Reconstruction Sweater (sleeves not yet done)
~~cowl for a friend~~
another pair of Elegy gloves for me (in progress)
80s Shrug (hibernating)
cabled cardigan (hibernating)
~~yellow Swing~~
Macrame Vest (hibernating)
~~cowl for Honey~~ (times 2!)
~~black cherry wool/silk cowl~~
~~Miscellaneous cowls for me~~ (2 done so far, but there's still that Possum yarn to knit!)
Mittens & Hat for Rocket
~~Rocket's Birthday Doll~~ (Judy)
Fair Isle Hat for Scout #1
~~Christmas Slouch for gift~~

~~Christmas Candle Flame Scarf for gift~~

~~Candle Flame Scarf for my mom~~

There's how many weeks until the new year?!

Sock-tastic Yarn Sale!

2011-11-01T17:03:00.000-04:00

'Tis the season to be knitting socks! To celebrate the onset of sock season and to help clear way for winter colorways, all Rocket Sock skeins are 20% off through November 7th! If you have previously purchased from me and have a 15% off coupon, go ahead and use that too! The prices have already been reduced for the sale, so all you have to do is hit the "add to cart" button. Here are a few of the skeins that are waiting for you to snatch them up and make them into some cozy winter socks:

Thanks for stopping by!

A few crafty things of the season

2011-10-30T14:27:00.001-04:00

Autumn is my favorite time of year. Certainly, when the leaves are bright and crisply colorful, everyone loves autumn. I love autumn for the once-a-year things that autumn brings: apples, apple sauce, apple butter, pumpkin butter, cozy evening fires in the fire place, crisply cold evenings (cold mornings are NOT among my favorite autumn things, however), piles of leaves, and cowls. There are other things, of course, but you do those things to and the point is that I have a new cowl and a bunch of new cinnamon applesauce to show off.

First, last weekend's trip to Fletcher, NC for the annual SAFF (Southern Animal & Fiber Fair) convention brought some great new fibers to spin (I've been so busy they haven't even made their way out of the shopping bag yet!) and a bushel of Jonagold apples. I don't care what anyone says, Jonagold makes THE BEST apple butter! And, though I was flying solo and without an actual recipe at the time, as it turns out, it also makes the best cinnamon apple sauce in the history of the world! 1/2 bushel yielded 7 quarts, one pint, and the bowl that Rocket ate of apple sauce.

Then, although I finished the knitting part last week, I put the finishing touches on my new cowl for the season. This is my own hand painted and handspun superwash merino. Although accidental, when knit with my bamboo stitch scarf pattern, I ended up with very cool coppery angled stripes in an even pattern all the way through the piece. I used about 200 yards for this cowl. The buttons are a copper color and they go with the stripes.

Oh, and I finished spinning up a sinfully soft skein of 50% camel & 50% caramel-colored alpaca yesterday, too. 177 yards. It's so soft that all I can think of is that this skein would make some heavenly soft gloves. It's about to be listed in the Etsy shop; but I might have to spin one up for myself later. :)

And that's some good work for the weekend, I think. Apple butter will be next on the list for today, right after I knit up a sweater for Pickles. Apparently, the chihuahua has gained a few pounds and the puppy with the fat belly needs a new sweater.

Web Page Face Lift

2011-10-28T21:13:00.003-04:00

I don't know about others, but I sure do have a difficult time building and maintaining a web page for my Etsy shop. It never seems like there are enough directions, which is ironic because I rarely follow directions--teachers make the worst students! When it comes to building a web page, I sort of learn as I go. I'm married to a computer guru but, when it comes to anything involving both the Internet and my business, Honey is decidedly hands off. I think he knows better than to try to help. Anyway, the point is that I have tried out three different web page hosts in the past 12 months, and now I am on to #4. I just can't seem to get the amount of traffic I need to compensate me for the cost of the site. So, here's the NEW WEB PAGE, and soon it will be linked with the Zibelineknits.com domain. I even have a mobile page. And the best part? It's all about FREE! You can click on the pic to go to the page.

And, I just want to say "best laid plans ..." and all that about the birthday doll. I ended up having to finish a project for my mother's birthday today (happy birthday mom!) and couldn't get to finishing the sweater or the other slipper. Absolutely they are on the weekend agenda. So maybe this next Monday you will get to see the finished masterpiece. And if you are thinking that I waited until the last minute to make a gift for my mother ... you are so wrong! I actually began it two months ago, got 2/3 of the way finished, attached the last of three skeins of silk/merino, and discovered that even though the dye lot number was the same, the new skein was a totally different color when it knit up. A froggin' I did go. Then I couldn't get any more skeins in that dye lot. More yarn had to be ordered, and I had to start from scratch. I made her a candle flame scarf, and I sure hope she loves it. I'd show you a picture, but in my haste to get it packed up and sent off (yes, yesterday) so Honey could work some FedEx magic and get it to its destination by today, I forgot to take a picture. :(

Doll Adventure: Nearing the Finish Line

2011-10-21T10:27:00.002-04:00

Rocket's birthday is only a few days away, and I am nearly finished with her doll. Originally, the doll was a project that followed a pattern. Of course, once the body was made, well it all went off the grid. The only thing that is true to the pattern at this point is the pleated skirt and the shorts. Rocket's sense of creative individuality struck, and I have been fussing for two weeks to make this birthday doll fit 8 year-old expectations.

So, the first pattern change was the eyes. They had to be blue, not black, and just the right kind of get-your-attention blue. Then the mouth had to be changed. Can't be a little straight line, has to be a smile. It's not so easy to stitch a smile onto a doll's face and make it look like a continuous line, let me tell you! It took me five attempts.

Then, the hair. Okay, it was going to be a light turquoise blue from the beginning, but it was going to be constructed like a wig with braids that just gets sewn onto the head down the middle and around the back. NOT so much how it worked out! Curly hair became the order of the day and each and every loop of hair has to be hand-sewn to the head. I spent over five hours sewing curls to this little head. Over FIVE hours! I will not be taking orders for dolls with curly hair again. The end.

The shirt is a tank top that came out a little roomy on the sides; so I opened up the body and added more stuffing to shorten and widen the torso. There's still shoes with a "fur" cuff--I'm working on dark brown with fuzzy alpaca/acrylic fold-over flaps--and a cardigan sweater. Actually, the one thing in this special order that I am okay with is the cardigan sweater because that's knitting with my eyes closed compared to the embelllished intarsia multi-piece pullover that was part of the original pattern. I had enough intarsia with those little hearts on the tank top.

Rocket seems to absolutely love the doll, which is the important thing. She was ready to adopt it when it was naked and faceless into her repetoir of dolls. Oh, and I almost forgot. No longer will we be calling this doll by its pattern name Posy; it's new name is Judy.

I'll show off the final product on Monday as one of my Monday Masterpiece posts. Have a great weekend and happy knitting!

It's National Yarn Day!

2011-10-14T05:30:00.000-04:00

Just wanted to mention that it's National Yarn Day today people! Pretty much, knitting and crocheting is a required activity today. I don't think you really have a choice. I think you are going to have to just drop everything and pick up those needles. Seriously.

If you are looking for a nifty site to visit for the celebration of this particularly special holiday, try this one: Craft Yarn Council.

New Adventure: Posy!

2011-10-11T05:30:00.000-04:00

My daughter, who is about to turn 8 years old, loves dolls. I don't think that she so much loves playing with them as she loves possessing them. In that vein, I showed her some dolls on Etsy from Dolly Time, a great little shop full of adorable knitted doll patterns. So guess what she wanted for her birthday? Originally she wanted Alice in Wonderland and the Rabbit OR the twin babies, but I managed to convince her that I really only needed to make one doll that was appropriate for an 8 year-old. Thus, I obtained the Posy pattern, and away I go!

Well, not just like that. Actually, it took me a few weeks to even locate yarn that I could use to make Posy's body. The original pattern calls for a brand of yarn that appears to be only available in Europe, as every Canadian supplier was out of the requisite flesh color. I did find a flesh color at Knit Picks (Comfy Fingering in "flamingo"); however, it's in cotton and my experience with it tells me that cotton fingering weight just doesn't fill in the gaps when stuffed like a wool would do (per original pattern). Anyway, it's still looking good. She's about 16 inches tall. She even has thumbs!

These pictures represent about a week's worth of work. We had a long car trip last weekend to Chattanooga that allowed me to get the legs accomplished--so far, that's been the most time-consuming part of the pattern. Rocket's birthday is in two weeks, and I still have shoes, underpants, a pleated skirt, a sweater, and a hat--oh yeah, and Rocket also wants me to create a purse instead of the flowers.

Stay tuned! Soon she'll have a face and turquoise hair (Rocket's personal touch). She probably won't be named Posy when it's all said and done, either.

This is, actually, turning out to be fun!

Masterpiece Monday: Harris Slouch FO

2011-09-26T05:41:00.000-04:00

A new pattern has been in the works for some weeks now, and here it is!

This is the Harris Slouch, a pattern that I have designed to accommodate long hair in winter, especially long hair tied back. The slouch and the snood are pretty popular these days, and this hat is sort of a combination of both. On me, it definitely qualifies as a snood--all of my hair and my ears disappear inside because of my chin-length locks.

This was a super-quick pattern to knit! I dare say that I knit the last 1/3 of the pattern in one evening in front of the TV. The pattern is currently available through my Etsy shop and through my Ravelry pattern store as a pdf download. (You can get to the Ravelry listing from the sidebar.) It took me about 214 yards of worsted weigh superwash wool (Stitch Nation Washable Ewe in "Zinnia" was used for the model) to complete the pattern. It requires the use of a US 6 (4 mm) and a US 7 (4.5 mm) circular needle and is knit from the band, upward.

Totally a masterpiece!

Padma Wrap Photo Shoot

2011-09-20T04:52:00.000-04:00

Yesterday I was so excited to be able to announce that I had finally finished the Padma Wrap, but the best I could do was to show pictures of it while it was being blocked. Today, though, I have some better pictures. I think that my lacy version is much prettier than the worsted weight version in the original pattern, don't you?

Masterpiece Monday: Padima Wrap FO

2011-09-19T05:29:00.000-04:00

Do you hear that? Are those trumpeters proclaiming the wonder of my latest FO? I think so!

It only took me 4 1/2 months of knitting every time I was in the car (including 24 hours of car time for trips to Florida!), spare moments after work, entire afternoons in the final hours of my summer vacation, Saturday morning knitting club hours, and a few late nights in front of the TV which resulted in ... you guessed it ... a whole lot of tearing it out and having to re-knit those precious rows I had just accomplished. But IT'S FINALLY DONE!

I give you the Padma Wrap, knit in a Christmas red hand-dyed (by Zibeline Knits) jewel tone superwash fingering weight merino on a US 7 needle. The original pattern came off of the Vogue Knitting website and was designed by John Brinegar. It called for a US 5, and if I had followed those directions, well, I'd probably still be knitting. This shawl required approximately 880 yards.

Here's a link to the pattern if you are feeling adventurous: Padma Wrap. It took me about 7 inches worth of knitting to get into the groove and get the pattern memorized; then it was an automatic kind of knitting for me. The pattern is actually pretty easy once you get it down. For me, though, it became one of those Penelope and her shroud projects that felt like it would never get done. Finished and blocked, it is 62 inches long and 26 inches wide. Sorry that the pictures aren't better. Not sure what's up with my camera lately.

I hope that my friend will cherish this wrap for forever, and then leave it to me in her will. It's truly gorgeous and I am very pleased with myself over this FO.

Masterpiece Monday

2011-09-05T11:42:00.000-04:00

I know it's a holiday, so everyone is pretty busy being on vacation today; but I have a few little masterpiece gems to share today from my weekend labors.

First, I made homemade spaghetti sauce for pennies and ended up canning 11 quarts of sauce and a quart of stewed tomatoes. The tomatoes were from the garden and the sauce ingredients were from Sam's. Honestly, it cost me about $9 to make 11 quarts of sauce. If I had bought that much from Sam's in the form of a name brand sauce, it would have easily cost $30. And it's pretty tasty!

Second, I have this little sweater to show off. Have you ever had a friend who was, toward the end of her pregnancy, WAY closer to her due date than what you thought? And that "plan" you had for knitting the ideal baby blanket turned out to be WAY further behind the actual schedule than you thought? Well, that happened to me last Thursday, when I got the email about the baby shower being a week away! So, I had to scrap the blanket (I was only about 6 inches into it) and go with something cute but fast. And, Lion Brand patterns to the rescue ... I managed to knit this little number up between Thursday night and Sunday night for WAY less than you think because I had, the week before, chanced upon a RIDICULOUSLY good deal on baby sport weight yarn. The pattern is called Feather and Fan Baby Sweater. It's top down (my favorite!) and I actually learned a new top-down construction trick in the process. I'm very pleased with how it turned out. This is a 0-6 months size.

And, what's this? I had my own labels made by Mountain Street Arts, so this is their debut in my knitwear, too.

And now off to dye some new yarn for the shop! Happy knitty holiday!

Interweave Knits Download Sale!

2011-08-23T06:05:00.001-04:00

Hey, check this out! Interweave is offering their digital copy of the 2009 Knit Accessories magazine for 10 CENTS! Click on the top Interweave picture on the left (I've added an automatic link to take you directly to the sale) or on the picture of the magazine cover in this post. This is a very limited time offer and you needed something to knit for Christmas anyway. This is super fantastic because it downloads to your computer (choose PC or Mac) and you don't have to wait for the mail man to deliver it!

Masterpiece Monday

2011-08-21T20:34:00.000-04:00

Today I have a little skein of superwash merino/bamboo that I spun up on Sunday to show off for Masterpiece Monday. I'm calling this one "Frog Prince" for right now. The title may change, as I can't seem to find a title that really speaks to me. I'm also still on the fence about whether or not this skein will go into the shop. Even though I dye my own, this roving came from Sheepish Creations at Etsy. Overall, it's pretty nice stuff and, as you can see, it spins up nicely. I still have about half of my order to spin; but this skein is 174 yards of silky, soft worsted weight singles.

If you have a masterpiece that you would like to show off, feel free to leave a note and your link in my comments box. Happy knitting!

A Friday FO! About time, right?

2011-08-19T05:38:00.003-04:00

It's been what, a month, since my last post? My absolute apologies. The start of the school year is not only particularly taxing physically, but also mentally. And when you can't even get through pre-planning without a furlough day, well you know it's off to a very interesting start. And I have all tenth graders this year. That's 15 & 16 year-olds in layman's terms. Not to mention that my summer was a zero-alarm kind of event, and now I'm getting up at ... wait for it ... wait for it ... 5:15 AM! The sun doesn't come up until AFTER I walk into the building to sign in for the day at school--WAY after I walk in. Uggggghhhhh.

But, I did manage to knit up this little number despite my evening exhaustion, which is the result of the mutation of a cowl pattern that I found somewhere online. I only printed copied and pasted the actual pattern part into Word, so I'm afraid I can't give credit to the original source of the cowl pattern; but I am very appreciative anyway. I've knit it in Ella Rae Bamboo Silk in "Coral", which I received via a swap with my Knittin' Good Yarn Swap pals at Ravelry. Turns out, this particular fiber, which I am now totally enamored of, is next to impossible to find in but one or two close-out colors here in the U.S. If anyone knows a reliable supplier, please let me know. Twice I tried to order it in pretty fall colors, paid for it, and then had my money refunded by those sites on the premise that it was out of stock and they forgot to take the posting down. This is my candle flame scarf.

The Summer List: Update

2011-07-21T09:12:00.000-04:00

Where has my summer vacation gone? I can't believe I only have one week left!!! Grrrr. I'm even more distraught over the absolute lack of progress that I seem to have made this summer on THE LIST. I can only console myself with the fact that my Etsy store is now full of gorgeous things (don't you want to go shopping?) and my garden looks great, and I did repaint/redecorate three bedrooms in my house, including the one that is now my knitting studio. And there was jam making, flour making, and canning. And there was a whole lot of spinning that got done (wait until you see the corriedale/soy silk 3-ply that I'm working on!). But still, so much to do and so little time left. Well, here's where we are, two months after the posting of the last summer list:

3 custom ordered scarves/cowls
~~finish yellow Swing~~
Swing for my mom
~~additional sizing for Swing pattern~~
2 test sweaters for Rocket's sweater toward publishing the pattern (one underway, at least!)
publish Rocket's sweater pattern
socks for mom
finish twitsted basket weave toe-up socks for me
~~finish Autumn Leaves beret~~
finish the Reconstruction Sweater
finish the green Elegy gloves for me
finish the baby blanket
finish the teddy bear
finish the macrame vest
finish the 80s shrug
woolen rectangular shawl
cardigan for me
~~cowl for Honey~~
write a new pattern for Knit Picks
knit 2 new cowls for me
~~dishcloths for the kitchen~~

Padima Shawl

I am going to be focusing my remaining summer energy on the Padima Shawl and on the smallest size of Rocket's cardi, which has a name now: Rakieta Cardi. "Rakieta" (Rah-key-etta) is Polish for "rocket". She chose the name, which is fitting since she designed the sweater.

A Nifty Trick for Spinners

2011-07-19T06:00:00.000-04:00

Last Saturday, the other spinner in my knitting group, Chris, shared with me this nifty little trick to use when I run out of spindles and need to transfer yarn to a "holder".

Toilet paper tubes! Take an empty toilet paper tube (remove all the remaining bits of paper), then tape it onto the spindle of a ball winder. My toilet paper tube seemed a little flimsy, so I wrapped it in some pretty purple floral (with glitter) card stock.

Then, I taped the tube to the base of the ball winder's spindle. I cut a little notch in the top to hold the initial end of the soy silk that I had spun while I wound the silk onto the intermediate spindle.

The coolest thing about this is that I can put that intermediate spindle onto the lazy kate and ply with the silk from there. So glad Chris shared this tip, or I would have been really stuck and wouldn't have been able to ply Rocket's 'Taffy" that I showed off yesterday. Thanks Chris!

My Monday Masterpiece

2011-07-18T13:26:00.000-04:00

Usually, on Mondays and Fridays, I have an FO of some kind to show off. Mondays, it's usually something that was spun up over the weekend. I'm thinking of starting a blog hop for people like me who don't scrapbook or make crafty wreaths or cutesy kids' party decorations or work-of-art cupcakes. Not that there is anything wrong with that; but there doesn't seem to be much in the way of a blog hop thingy that is focused on the knitters, crocheters, spinners, quilters, and weavers out there. So, how about telling me what you think? Would you link up your weekend masterpiece?

And now, on to the show!

My Monday Masterpiece is this gorgioso skein of 2-ply superwash merino that I spun up--some last week, but mostly all yesterday. It was such a perfect day, weather-wise, yesterday that I made getting this done the goal for the day. Rocket has claimed this yarn, so that's one more something-to-make to add to the list. Not sure what I'm going to make with it, though. Rocket said "you could make me a hat or a scarf or something"; which is funny because in the winter it's like getting blood from a stone to get her to wear either a hat or a scarf. So, I don't know.

We'll call this one "Taffy". It's from the second braided roving that I bought from Blue Dog Fibers (the first became the Serendipity Scarf). Turned out to be 304 yards aran weight. Pretty nice, huh?

This Week's Projects

2011-07-15T10:42:00.000-04:00

I did some nifty things this week in terms of learning how to do some random things. First, I had been in Pier 1, buying a wedding gift, and I came across a magazine basket that had been woven out of newspaper. I took a picture of it because, well, I was sure that I could do that for free and not have to pay $30 for it. I was deceived by my own sense of awesomeness. Weaving a basket out of little rolls of newspaper is no easy task--it's stiff, it bends in awkward angular directions, and when you get to the end and need to weave in the ends of the newspaper, it's so tight that you need some sort of hook to weave the ends in (I used a crochet hook after I had abused all of my fingernails on the first basket). And, worst of all, newspaper, no matter how thinly you roll it, doesn't like to be woven--it pops up and out and unweaves itself at every opportunity. I made two baskets, both are just big enough to hold odds and ends on my desk or to serve as a little yarn bowl. Honey said I should lacquer them, but I'm on the fence about it.

I also learned how to mill my own oat flour and to make oatmeal pancakes. I had oatmeal pancakes at the Flying Biscuit near Piedmont Park with Rocket while we waited for the guys to finish the Peachtree Road Race on July 4th. They were pretty tasty. When I looked up a recipe, it called for oat flour and oatmeal. I live in the sticks; so oat flour isn't exactly readily available. We don't have organic supermarkets or specialty markets. We have Walmart and Piggly Wiggly. Anyway, I looked up oat flour and discovered that it is finely ground oatmeal. Soooooo, I threw some oatmeal into the Magic Bullet

Then I ground it in the Magic Bullet (and overheated the Bullet and broke one of the attachments!)
But, I made oat flour!

I had to do it in small batches, but I ended up with about 14 cups of oat flour.

And, the pancakes were awesome!

Finally, I finished the Serendipity Scarf and am washing and blocking it today for its big photo shoot. Fingers crossed that one of the Interweave editors is going to LOVE it and want to publish my pattern. This picture is, of course, a bathroom mirror shot (grey, misty, and a whole lot like October weather today--odd since it's been 70% + humidity with a heat index of 102 or higher every day this week) and the scarf is totally unblocked. Still, I'm rather pleased that it looks so nice with no blocking.

Now, which of my projects will I focus on next? So many to choose from!

Friday FO: Swing in Yellow

2011-07-08T14:31:00.000-04:00

Really. I was beginning to think that this day would never come. My Swing cardi pattern, done in butter yellow, c'est finis!

For a week after the knitting was done, I contemplated the button dilemma: order buttons?, search high and low around town? ... and I even did a little searching around town. In the end, I decided wooden buttons would be best. And then I shopped around online, mostly on Etsy, when the idea to make my own buttons hit me. Why not? Other people make buttons, right?

So, Scout #2 found an incredibly straight piece of deadfall birch--river birch, I think--and I brazenly walked out to the man cave (Honey's workshop), fired up the saw thingy, and sliced off some buttons. Then, Scout #2 sanded them, and I coated them, sanded again, and re-coated them with polyurethane. Took 2 days to do. I even ended up with an extra button because I can't count. Although now that I have the buttons on the sweater, I'm thinking that it could use an extra button above the boobs.

I think we did a pretty swell job for a couple of amateurs!

Zibeline Knits & Interweave

2011-07-07T11:18:00.001-04:00

You may have noticed the two right sidebar buttons from Interweave. Beginning today, Zibeline Knits is an official affiliate of Interweave. I think that's pretty awesome, don't you?

But what does that mean? It means that from this blog you can go directly to Interweave for patterns, books, DVDs, fiber, emags, etc. How cool is that? I know that not everyone who reads my posts is a knitter, so there's a separate link for the crochet superstars out there, too. Did you know that Interweave offers online spinning classes? They have a gazillion resources for quilters and beaders, as well. You can access those via this blog, too.

So, try it out! Just click on a sidebar button or on this link to go to Interweave:

Something New Afoot

2011-07-06T08:30:00.001-04:00

Socks! I love socks, don't you? What I love even more than socks is sock yarn! Not all sock yarn is equal, though, as I have discovered over the years. Cotton yarn makes saggy, baggy socks. Wool from some companies, especially the German ones, is scratchy and a little like having an on-going argument with a crabby neighbor to work with. But merino ... ahh, merino! I love merino. As a matter of a fact, two of my sock lines are all about merino. But there's a new line, just introduced in the shop, that I love equally well: superwash BFL (Blue Faced Lester wool), which is easy to work with and great fun to dye.

There have been some significant changes in my shop over the last few weeks in terms of sock yarn, so I wanted to introduce the new and re-introduce the old.

First, there's Rocket Sock: A new name, but the same wonderfully squishy superwash merino in dazzling, wild multis and self-striping patterns for both the beginner sockenista and the expert who want to knit happy with simple stitches and excellent stitch definition. Totally machine washable.

Second, there's the newly-named Gypsy Sock: Named for the bright, simple colors, solid and nearly-solid dye patterns. This sock line is superwash Australian Merino--so squishy and soft you won't believe it! I used this same sock line in the Mermaid colorway to make my Traveling Woman Shawl earlier this year; so the possibility of this sock line aren't just limited to socks. This sock line is great for cabling and lacey stitches. And it's totally machine-washable!

And, introducing the newest sock line and soon to be one of your favorites: Mission Sock! This is a superwash BFL that is soft and stunning. I love the way this fiber soaks up and retains the dye! This sock line is dyed in deep, heady, graduated colors that work their way from dark to light in long sections of color. The more you work with this fiber, the softer it gets; and like the other two sock lines, it's totally machine-washable.

See, isn't it gorgeous?! I hope you'll stop by the Etsy shop to check out the full range of colors. After all, everyone should knit happy!

Get it together already!

2011-07-05T11:12:00.000-04:00

This is turning out to be a summer that is totally out of character for me. First, I received the parting gift from the school year of a raucous respiratory infection that took me literally the entire month of June to get over. Then, because I was so sick, I didn't get much accomplished on the knitting front. I finished the yellow Swing on the last day of June--and then the buttons I had picked out before I knit it don't match now that it's done. Frick Frack! Then, I didn't run the Peachtree Road Race (but Rocket and I had a great breakfast curbside and watched while my two sons and Honey ran--Scout #1--the 14 year-old--ran the 10K in 60 minutes and Scout #2--the 11 year-old--with my Honey by his side to make sure he finishe--go Honey!--ran it in 90 minutes). They are awesome! And the trophy T-shirt was kinda blah. And I haven't really been into keeping up the garden, either. And forget about yard work. Starting to wonder who I am these days.

Well, I'm hoping to get my butt (literally) and everything else in gear this month. Honey, Scout #1, and I re-worked the garden on Sunday (7 hours in the blistering heat and humidity; so some new things had better grow!) I put my butt back on the treadmill after a little check-up at the doctor revealed that my butt had gained 8 lbs during the month of June while I was sitting on it. I would like to fit into my work clothes when school is back in session in August; so it's back to the frick frack treadmill. I haven't been on it since, uhhh, LAST July. I figure 2 miles in under 30 minutes every other day should do the trick. I did 2.05 miles in 30 minutes on Friday, took Saturday off, worked my self into exhaustion on Sunday, took Monday off (good thing, too, because I strained the muscles in my lower back during garden duty), and did 2.25 miles today. I hit the 2-mile mark 1.5 minutes sooner today than on Friday, so that's progress. I run in the garage with the garage door up, so the local area temperature was 84 degreed F. with a relative humidity of 69%. You can't run in Georgia if you don't like to sweat, that's for sure. The scale, however, this morning said--pre workout--that I had gained another 5 lbs since frickin Saturday, though. Apparently, I need a more user-friendly scale.

Fireworks last night were awesome! Talk about leading a charmed life ... we sat in the back of the truck and they exploded right above our heads. Directly above us. It was totally amazing--like having our own private fireworks show. And Mother Nature held off the really big storms until after the show was over, which was much appreciated. I tried to load a video of the fireworks onto Facebook; but it didn't work and I don't understand enough about Facebook to be able to figure out why. Facebook and I are like this:

! ........................................................................... !

With that thought in mind, there are errands to run as usual; so off I go.

Serendipity Pays Another Visit

2011-06-24T11:36:00.000-04:00

Ah, Serendipity. You know how sometimes things just seem to fall right into place, even when they seem to be coming out all wrong? That's what has happened with my new project/pattern, which will be heretofore known as the "Serendipity Scarf".

About two weeks ago, while trying not to cough up a lung (respiratory infection as a little end-of-the school-year parting gift) and cruising my Etsy activity page, I noticed that someone else had "favorited" one of Bluedog Fibers' rovings--merino lambswool in the "Miranda" colorway. It was a little circus-y, and rather curious; so I clicked. And then I "favorited". And then, even though I dye my own fiber and who needs to pay someone else to do for you what you can do for yourself, I bought it.

And it arrived super-fast. Then I was sicker than sick, and then out of town, and then sick some more, and it took me until this past Tuesday to pull it out of the bag (but it had been calling my name for a week from the drawer in my new knitting studio). And then I couldn't stop spinning it. It was like I HAD to spin the whole thing, RIGHT NOW! At first, socks were on the brain--I could spin enough for socks. But then that fingering weight filled up one spindle, and I was on to spindle #2. When I had spun for about 4 hours and I was done--at about midnight--I had 450+ yards of fingering weight merino lambswool in, not circus-y colors as expected--a beautiful pastel pallet of watercolors.

Wednesday came and I wound it onto the niddy-noddy. It was just gorgeous. See?

Then I fulled it and dried it in the hot Southern sunshine (I know, there are better ways to care for your fiber when drying; but something kept saying, "Hurry up!" in my brain). Then, with the ball winder broken, I wound it into a soft and snuggly ball. I can't believe there was a moment of panic when I couldn't wind it into a center-pull ball because the handle had broken. (spoiled much?)

And then no stitch pattern, no cable pattern, no pattern from any of my millions of patterns seemed right. I couldn't make socks because I would end up with 100 yards left over and that would just be a waste. Not enough for a sweater; probably not enough for a shawl. So, then I thought, how about a scarf? Can't be too complicated, because I want to show off the colors; but can't be too simple because this isn't a heavy-weight wool and there would be drape to consider. I finally settled on a diagonal lace pattern (really, just YOs in a diagonal line with some stockinett). I cast on. I knit through the pattern twice. Then I looked at it and said, "what the frick?!" What was coming off the needles was so TOTALLY not the pattern in the picture that I was in a dilemma. How could I have this intricate little lace pattern instead of the simply diagonal YOs? There wasn't a stockinett panel to be found anywhere. What to do, what to do. Apparently, I had misread the directions in every line, compounded by my crazy Russo-German knitting style, and had totally screwed up the pattern!

Or had I? Serendipity anyone? That same "hurry up!" voice told me to knit a few more repeats and see what happens. And darn it if I didn't end up with the most gorgeous lace-pattern-without-a-name that you ever saw! So, the first thing that I have ever knit from my own singles handspun is, well, GORGEOUS!

I'm seriously considering sending photos to Spin Off and Knit & Spin, suggesting that they make this the cover of their next issues. Seriously. This could be big! And this is why you don't get a good look at the pattern. :)

Thanks, Serendipity!

WIP Wednesday: The list is long!

2011-06-22T11:24:00.000-04:00

Haven't posted to WIP Wednesday in quite some time. Don't know why ... there are so many WIPs these days that I could make it a WIP month if I had the time. So, here are a few projects STILL not finished:

There's the yellow Swing cardi. Down to about 8 inches of sleeve until that's an FO. You'd think that I'd be motivated to just finish that up; but, alas, no. I have that "new project please" syndrome right now.

Next, there's the two-at-a-time toe-up sock project, which has turned out to be the definition of tedium. This twisted basket weave pattern that I chose is just so BORING that this project mostly stays in the car in case I get stuck in a waiting room in the doctor's office or I have to wait around for the Boy Scout meeting to be over. I can't even remember in which month this year I started these babies; but this is the longest that I have ever gone without finishing a pair of socks. Frick, I can't even get enough knit to be able to pre-read the instructions for the heel.

And there's the newest project on the needles, the Pashima shawl that I am knitting as a special order. The yarn a hand-dyed superwash merino that is dyed in a Christmas red jewel tone (slight color variations periodically to give the pattern a little depth). I don't sell this colorway in my shop--it's a custom order for this project. So far, I've knit and frogged a WHOLE LOT! I thought that a 6.5 hour one-way trip to visit family in Florida would yield a massive amount of completed shawl for this project; but heck-to-the-no on that one! I've gotten all of 7 inches knit (53 more to go!). Totally frustrating. This is another one of those count-every-stitch kind of patterns. It's a darn good thing that this order's projected completion date is September.

There are, of course, a few other projects waiting their turn in line that haven't been included in this post. You can see the total list in the right sidebar. Let it suffice to say that all the projects that haven't been mentioned are hibernating in the closet.

And finally, a new project adventure is about to begin. Let's just say that I've been wanting to try out my own fingering weight handspun. Details on Friday.

Knit on!

Friday FO: Autumn Vines Beret

2011-06-17T05:23:00.001-04:00

Ever start a project that was the wrong project for the time in your life? And then you just dreaded working on it until it became an "I have to finish this or else!" kind of torment? Meet my Autumn Vines Beret. Although I did hit on a new colorway in the preparation for the knitting of it, it wasn't what I wanted to knit and I shouldn't have started it when I did (April, was it?) It turned out to be one of those cabling projects that you just can't take with you, that you have to work on sitting at the kitchen table, that you need absolute silence to focus on the pattern repeats ... one of those kinds of projects. There isn't a single difficult stitch in this whole pattern. I didn't have any trouble knitting it, actually. I think that the rule should be that if you are exasperated with the project before you hit 3 inches of fabric completion, it's time to frog. But it's done.

I've stretched and stretched this one-size-fits-all number, but it's still a bit small for my head--looks more like a bathing cap (remember THOSE when you were a kid with long hair!) than a beret on my head. I don't even have a big head. It fits Rocket's 7 year-old head perfectly, which makes me think, although politically incorrectly, that the woman in the photo for the pattern is a dwarf. So, here's the results of its one and only photo shoot:

P.S. I made a light box for myself and boy do those pictures look snazzy, huh?

P.P.S. As you can see in the last photo, this beret doubles as a bowl ... a bowl I could put yarn in ... hmmm.

Knitted Flower Tutorial & Pattern

2011-06-16T11:10:00.000-04:00

As I mentioned earlier this week (Monday's post), I came up with my own flower pattern on the fly because I just couldn't find one on the Internet that spoke to me for the yarn bombing. In knitting this pattern again and again, I did discover that the size of the needle changes the shape of the petals for this pattern--the smaller the needle size, the more pointy the petal. The following tutorial is done on worsted weight Plymouth wool with a bamboo size US 10 circular needle (24" cable used, but yours can be shorter). This is a great way to use up remnants in your stash, and a much more attractive flower, I think, than those that you can make with a flower tool, which involves no knitting or skill whatsoever.

Okay, so let's get started because the world could use more knitted flowers. ;)

Step 1: Using a long-tail cast-on, CO 2 stitches. Knit back across these stitches (row 2).

Step 2: In both of the 2 stitches on the needle, knit back-to-front (kbtf)--now you have 4 stitches. Knit back across these 4 stitches (row 4).

Step 3: For rows 5-7, k1, kbtf, knit middle stitches (rows 6 & 7 have middle stitches), kbtf, k1.

Step 4: For rows 8 & 9, knit across all 10 stitches.

Step 5: (Decrease rows 10-14) K1, k2tog, knit middle stitches, k2tog, k1. End with 3 stitches on the needle. Cut the working yarn, leaving about a 4-inch tail. Slide the petal onto the cable and leave it there.

Step 6: Repeat the pattern until you have five completed petals; but DON'T CUT THE WORKING YARN ON THE 5TH PETAL!!!! You will need that yarn to join the petals.

Step 7: Slide all of the petals together onto the needle so that their tails hang down and the working yarn is on the right. With the working yarn, knit across all of the petal stitches. Pearl back across the stitches. They are now joined by two rows of knitting. Cut the working yarn, leaving a tail of about 6 inches.

Step 8: Finishing up requires a darning needle. Thread the tail of the working yarn you just cut through the needle, then thread the needle through the stitches that are still sitting on your knitting needle. Pull tight and thread the yarn back through a few of those center stitches for extra security and tie off. I use the remaining strand to stitch together two petals--on set of petals won't have a loose tail to use to stitch them together.

Step 9: Weave in the tails that are at the tips of the petals and cut excess yarn. Using whatever stitch you like (I use a mutated matress stitch), stitch the sides of the petals together from the back side. The back side doesn't have this lovely center (see picture below); that's how you can tell the front from the back. Weave in and cut ends.

WWKIP Day & Yarn Bombing in Atlanta

2011-06-13T08:59:00.001-04:00

June 11th was our local WWKIP Day to celebrate. As we have done for the last few years, the Covington Knitters met on Covington Square in Georgia under the giant magnolias and knitted and crocheted. We had fantastic door prizes, some of which were my hand painted yarns and one of my new handmade sock bags from the shop. The purpose of donating to the door prize collection to destash was, of course, undermined by the giving out of the door prizes. We donated so much to out party that some people went home with several skeins of new yarn. I taught some Russian knitting to a few of our members, including one lady who does remarkable lace work--can't wait to find out how this new technique affects her lace knitting. The local newspaper was there to take our picture and do a little write up, too. Always nice to make the papers. Here are a couple quick pics from our event.

Members of the SEFAA (South East Fiber Arts Alliance) and anyone else who wanted to participate bombed a section of Freedom Park, across from the Carter Presidential Library, last Saturday afternoon with knitting, weaving, and crochet. Although other cities around the world had diligent crafters doing the same, this event was part of an art exhibit to debut in Atlanta later this summer. Honey, Rocket, and I all went down there, despite the ever-threatening thunderstorms, so that I could get my hand in the mix. Because our "art" would be on display, rain or shine, and through all the high humidity of the summer, I figured I should work with an old stand-by acrylic--not my first choice in yarn EVER, but as I read on a coffee cup somewhere, Red Heart will be the only thing to survive the apocalypse. I think that if I had the opportunity to participate in an indoor knit bombing, I would have gone with something a little more attractive than acrylic. HOWEVER, the point was to create an ostentatious display; so day-glow rainbow and turquoise were my pallet choices. I did, however, in the whole process of preparing something to contribute, come up with my own flower design (tutorial later this week). Not to digress, but there aren't very many knitted flower patterns that actually come out resembling a flower available on the internet, it seems.

So here are a few pics from the bombing. I think the group got a late start, so my pictures are early in the bombing process. It didn't seem like there was much of a plan, unlike other yarn bombings that I've seen pictures of; so I was a little disappointed in that regard. It was also not concentrated on a small area--spread out over about the length of a football field and kind of random. So don't be looking for a theme in the pictures because I don't think there was one.

Recycled T-Shirt Cowl Tutorial

2011-06-06T07:25:00.000-04:00

Last summer, I watched a Knitting Daily TV episode with I don't even remember who on it about recycling old t-shirts into yarn. I made big plans! I gathered old sheets to make rugs, I had the kids cut up their blue jeans that were too small, but too bedraggled to go to Good Will (there's a bag with a bunch of crookedly cut denim around here somewhere!), and then my life got in the way and I didn't make a darned thing.

Well, finally, I did it. I recycled a t-shirt (actually, I recycled one and 1/2). My husband was in need of a cowl, and making him a cowl to wear on the motorcycle on frosty mornings in the fall was on my summer projects list (we can scratch that baby off now, finally!). So, here's how to make a cowl--for anyone who wants you to make one--from recycled t-shirts.

Step 1: Snag an old t-shirt and lay it flat on the table. The fancy experts use a cutting board and one of those nifty roller-knife thingys, but a pair of sharpened fabric scissors works just as well. This is jersey, and your strips will roll into a tube once you start to connect them; so perfectly straight edges aren't necessary. In fact, imperfect edges and skinny-fat strips will give you that "artsy" thick-thin effect that you might pay big bucks for on Etsy. ;) Cut up everything but the bottom band (cut that off first), the collar, and the sleeves. You can remove the collar and the sleeves pretty much all at the same time. The result will be a piece of fabric that you then need to cut into about 1/2 inch strips. You can make the strips wider, which will give you a bulkier "yarn", but you will end up with less yardage, of course.

Step 2: Connect your strips by folding the end of the strip over itself about 1/2 inch and cutting a small notch in the fold.

You will thread one notched strip through the notch of the other strip, then through its own notch and pull tightly.

The end result should be a curled, knotted section with two little flaps of fabric that you can just fold down.

My experiment with the grey t-shirt (originally an XL) yielded 78 yards of "yarn". I also added about 8 yards from a black t-shirt to each end of the strand. Word to the wise, if you wait to attach the ending color until you have knit to the point that you are ready for it, it will save you much frustration.

Step 3: Take two strips and twist them together, then lay them on the table. Find a needle that matches the width of these two twisted strips. Mine called for about a US 11. I first tried a US 9, but that was too difficult to work with--my stitches came out way too tight.

Step 4: Cast on. I first measured my husband's neck with the cable of my circular needle so that I would know how wide the thing had to be if it lay flat. My CO was X stitches, and then I joined them to knit in the round. If you are a fan of stitching ends together, by all means, knit your cowl flat and mattress stitch it together later. I am NOT a fan of seaming. For my cowl, I knit three rows, since I could tell after the first row that it would curl. I wanted that little roll to keep the cowl in place beneath the collar of Honey's leather jacket. Then, I purled for another X rows in-the-round. I guess this little number is totally reversible, but the pearled rows gave it a more masculine look, I thought, and seemed to create a denser fabric to face the wind--which is so important on a motorcycle in chilly weather!

Step 5: Attach the ending color for the last three rows. You have to do this one strip at a time, just like you did to beging making your yarn; but it will significantly improve the likelihood that you will have a color change at the beginning of your round on the row that you want it to be if you manipulate its location. Knit 3 rounds. I ended up with about 1/2 of my 78 yards of grey "yarn" left over; so don't expect to follow my directions and have just barely enough left over. There will be enough left over for a second cowl.

Step 6: Bind Off. My bind off was the standard knit two, pass one over, knit one, pass one over chain. I connected the knotted end of the last stitch to the beginning of the BO row, secured it, wove in my ends, and voila!

Now, it seemed a little small when I was finished with it; but this is jersey, remember, and jersey is stretchy. I just had to stretch it out a little and it fit over Honey's head just fine. I tossed it in the wash and dried it in the dryer, and it shrunk a little; but then it stretched right back out. Not enough to be saggy and misshapen, though. So, keep in mind that there will be a little stretch-ability, but it's not elastic enough to make up for knitting it a size too small.

First FO of the Summer: Rocket's Cardigan

2011-05-27T11:47:00.000-04:00

I started knitting this sweater weeks and weeks ago after having made a doll-sized sweater from a free patten from a French lady. Rocket loved the mini-sweater so much that she had to have one of her own "with stripes!" Well, I started in on the sweater, for which there was no pattern. As I knit it, I received countless instructions from Rocket, the 7 year-old, about how I was supposed to knit this sweater. Needless to say, it's been knit, frogged, and knit again to fit Rocket's specs. Gathered at the top--she doesn't like raglan seaming--not too tight in the chest, only one button because she "doesn't even like buttons", a little ruffly in the back for the bottom, short sleeves "because I hate sleeves, mom!", and, of course, the button band had to have a pattern and be blue. Rocket picked out the yarn, decided on how wide the stripes should be, and decided what order the colors should be. This is totally a custom-made sweater.

And I almost died this morning when I thought I had lost the majority of the pattern notes!

So, thoughts? I was thinking that I would publish this pattern in a size range of girls' 6-10. I guess that this will be a summer project. Depending on how this wool washes up, I may change the yarn type, too. Although she loves the sweater, Rocket is already complaining that it itches. We'll see what it feels like after a bath. Some little girls, however, are going to get free test sweaters; so if you know of a reliable children's charity that takes sweater donations, let me know.

Playing Around with the New Wheel

2011-05-26T08:58:00.000-04:00

For Mother's Day, my wonderful husband bought me a Kromski Fantasia spinning wheel and a lazy kate to match. I've been so busy with the whole end-of-the-school-year craziness that I haven't had much time to spin on it. But, let me just say that if you want to know what inner peace feels like, stop and spin a while on the back porch in the morning with the birds singing in the trees. Wow!

Here are pictures of the wheel. The first is when it was being put together by Honey. It came in a box in about 70 pieces with a diagram (this is why I married an engineer!), wrapped in most of the pages of a Polish version of People Magazine. Very nifty!

It's currently unfinished. I am not exactly sure what it's true color is meant to be, but after much discussion with Honey, I think that I am simply going to go with a clear, wipe-on polyeurethane (did I spell that correctly?) and let it be what it is. So many people seem to like to stain the white wood to a cherry or a walnut, and that's pretty; but I don't know. I tried to order an additional whorl; but these Polish people are so popular that it sat on backorder for a month before I discovered that it was on backorder and gave up. I watched a video about spinning on this type of wheel, and the guy said that you should use the different whorls; but many people say that they can spin all of their fibers on just one whorl. Based on my ordering experiences, and the limited supply that is apparently out there, I can understand why one-whorl spinning literally becomes a necessity.

Not having had much time to spin, I've a few half-completed projects. Come to find out that my spinning is very much like my knitting, and I get bored half-way through the exercise. I'm a grass-is-greener-in-the-storage-bin kind of gal. So, I have half of my 50/50 Tussah Silk/Merino spun up and plied into a two-ply yarn. I have half of my so totally gorgeous Wensleydale, which came from Corgi Hill Farm on Etsy, spun up. This may be the most favorite wool I've ever spun because of it's odd tactile properties: scratchy on the uptake, soft in the skein--even before it's finished. The fibers are monstrously long and easy to spin. And, I made a go with some Romney that I had left over from an old spinning project, hot pink and lavender, and whipped up a little crazy low-twist two-ply skein of it.

The only thing that I don't like about it is that it doesn't fold up. So, it sits in the livingroom and, even though it is under cover, is fair game for Nutzy, the house cat. She has figured out that if she shifts from one pedal to the next, the wheel will spin. She also likes to just paw at the side of the wheel to make it spin. Woe to the fiber that gets left on the wheel partly spun! Here you see her scouting the possibilities as the wheel is being constructed.

It's the first day of summer vacation, and I can't wait to get some no-Nutzy time on the wheel!

The Summer List

2011-05-23T06:50:00.000-04:00

I had a New Year's Project Resolution list, and I've actually gotten a few FOs out of it. Here's where it stands:
~~sweater for me~~ (elsebeth lavold Christmas present skeins)
~~medium Sportsman test gloves~~
~~large Sportsman test gloves~~
~~extra-large Sportsman test gloves~~
2 sweaters for Rocket (1 nearing completion for the second time)
~~1 pair of gloves for Scout 2~~
that gorgeous blackberry cabled cowl sweater for me
Swing for my mom
buttercup beret
~~socks~~, socks, socks! (~~Groovy in progress~~; waterfall; monkey socks)
Reconstruction Sweater (sleeves not yet done)
~~cowl for a friend~~
another pair of Elegy gloves for me (in progress)
80s Shrug (in progress)
cabled cardigan (hibernating)
yellow Swing (in progress)
Macrame Vest (in progress)
cowl for Honey
~~black cherry wool/silk cowl~~

But summer is upon us, and that means a whole new list to work on, plus the old one. So here's the summer list as it is stacking up:

3 custom ordered scarves/cowls
finish yellow Swing
Swing for my mom
additional sizing for Swing pattern
2 test sweaters for Rocket's sweater toward publishing the pattern
publish Rocket's sweater pattern
socks for mom
finish twitsted basket weave toe-up socks for me
finish Autumn Leaves beret
finish the Reconstruction Sweater
finish the green Elegy gloves for me
finish the baby blanket
finish the teddy bear
finish the macrame vest
finish the 80s shrug
woolen rectangular shawl
cardigan for me
cowl for Honey
write a new pattern for Knit Picks
knit 2 new cowls for me
dishcloths for the kitchen

I'm sure you have noticed all of those "finish" statements in the list. I think I am a compulsive beginner of projects. If I could only compulsively finish them, too.

Garden's been in and is growing well, except for the berry plants/bushes. Chickens got into the blue berries and polished them off before they even had a chance to ripen. Strawberries started with a bang and petered out, WAY before the growers' plants did around here. I'm hoping for a second round of straweberries from them. We ate our first salad with garden lettuce last night, and all those strawberries we picked on Saturday (5 gallons) mostly made it into 4 quarts of frozen berries and 15 pints of strawberry jam. Wouldn't you know it if two of the jars (from the same batch no less) haven't set up. Frick frack.

Well, off to post planning and grading the last of the papers for the semester before grades are due this afternoon: the dreaded research papers! Happy knitting to all! (I know that's what I'll be wishing I was doing instead of sitting down with those papers.)

A New Website for Zibeline Knits!

2011-05-15T01:07:00.000-04:00

Did you hear the news?!

Zibeline Knits has a new website!!!

I almost gave up. I mean really. I've been trying to get a website up and going without having to shell out the big bucks to pay someone to do something that I knew I could figure out on my own since December, 2010. I've been through three different web hosts, countless wasted hours of my precious knitting time, a few dollars unnecessarily spent to learn lessons about mistakes that I won't make again, and a significant amount of expletives since I first got this plan in my head.

And then at 12:23 a.m. on Sunday, May 15th, it went live.

So, Ta-dah! Here she is: http://www.zibelineknits.com.

You should check it out right now and tell me what you think. I am pretty darned pleased at the moment, but I am sure that improvements can be made. But in the meantime, HURRAY FOR MY NEW WEBSITE!!!!

Serendipity in the Yarn Universe

2011-05-03T18:15:00.000-04:00

It's only Tuesday and already it has been a week and then some! So much stress that it makes me not even feel like knitting. Seriously. And that is just plain tragic. But, despite non-existent sales in the shop and a domain that won't transfer to a web host with a clue and the end of the semester crashing about my ears, the Yarn Universe has been sending me little signals to let me know it has my back.

For instance ... I almost never watch videos on Knitting Daily via my Iphone, but on Friday I thought "what the heck" and the one I picked at random was all about a new book that has everything one needs to know to design a sweater in terms of measurements and gauges and yarn weights DONE FOR YOU! Serendipitously, I need that book to finish the various sizes in about 3 patterns that I have going right now for publication. Not only that, but Amazon delivered it, at no extra charge, on Monday! That constitutes, basically, two-day shipping for the price of 7-10 day shipping. When does THAT ever happen?

Also for instance ... I didn't participate in the April swap among my group of swap pals at Ravelry. I guess I wasn't feeling all that creative. But, impulsively, I signed up for May's swap, and it turned out that I am paired up with one of my California customers, which is just nifty and fun at the same time. We are working with a "favorite flowers" theme this month, and after a few convos with my new partner, I feel a new colorway coming on!

And then yesterday, I was invited to participate as a dyer-of-record in a new e-zine about fiber, dying, crafting with yarn, etc. The magazine is called "The White Line" and they sent me the first fledgling issue yesterday. I think it has great promise, so participate I will! If you are interested, here's the contact:

Teri Sabah <orders@picoaccuardi.com>

Teri and her pals are West Coast dyers who own Pico Accuardi Dye Works in Oregon. This comes just as I've decided to cancel various monthly advertising subscriptions to various websites that haven't turned out to be quite as much of a new-customer draw as they promised. Actually, I don't think they've drawn in any new customers. Another e-zine that I advertised in, which also, incidentally invited me to submit a yet unpublished pattern and then snubbed me because the original picture wasn't of the design done in handspun, didn't turn out to be all that prosperous of an investment in advertising; but I think that the intentions of the editors of "The White Line" are a little less self-serving and yarningly superior and are much more down-to-earth, which is where I try to reside most of the time.

What kind of a blogger would I be if I didn't give you a little WIP update on at least one project? Here's the Autumn Leaves Beret so far. Gotten through the initial "ribbing" and working into the pattern--about halfway through the first diamond, I think. I'm in love with this new colorway! I think I've mentioned that before. I thought the purples would be eclipsed by all of the grey; but they definitely stand out with an identity of their own. The picture doesn't do the color justice; but it's hot and threatening to rain, and I can't seem to get the light just right. P.S. The hat is upside down in the picture because I put it over the yarn bell for the picture.

And now, off to grade papers ... okay, let's be real. I mean to veg on the back porch.

Yak Yarn

2011-04-28T19:22:00.000-04:00

Don't know if y'all know much about Yak as a yarn fiber; but I lucked into a bunch of it at Stitches South, and now it's gradually making its way into my Etsy shop. I am in LOVE with this fiber! The weight is a light fingering weight, about the weight of the Australian merino that I used for the Traveling Woman Shawl. It's as beautiful undyed, with its buttery tones, as it is dyed. This particular yak is 50/50 yak/New Zealand merino, which may make it the warmest combination of fiber in the world!

You already know how merino is so fabulous for helping to maintain body temperature even when wet, which makes it ideal for sweaters and outerwear and cozy socks. Well yak, is one of the rarest fibers in the world because only the high quality fiber can only be "harvested" from herds that are grazed in the Himalayas, due to their very climate-specific habitat requirements. Yak is, as I understand it, the warmest fiber in the world. After all, it keeps people in the Himalayas warm in nightmarishly cold sub-zero temperatures, right? So, these two combined, even though it is a light fingering weight, are going to knit up to be some some awesomely warm outerwear garments! I'm thinking of a pair of gloves to match the Autumn Leaves Beret that I've just started in my Zibeline Knits "Spinster" colorway. I'm also thinking that this light-weight fiber is going to be, despite its wooly content, a fantastic fiber to knit with in the summer months--not heavy enough to make me uncomfortable while knitting on a shady summer porch. It's a little scratchy to work with raw--kind of like sari silk can be; but once dyed, it begins to soften. I dyed a skein in the "Spinster" colorway, and it's already significantly softer and more pliable, and it just got a cold water bath with not detergent. I think it will be super soft and snuggly once it's been knit up and hand washed.

There are only a handful of sellers on Etsy who have yak--rather pricey they are, too! I think I am the only one with the soft and snuggly mix of yak and merino. Right now, there are some undyed skeins available, and hopefully next week (AP exams start next week, papers need to be graded, and we're doin' the Girl Scout thing all day Saturday, so not going to be too much time for dying this weekend) there will be a few color options to choose from. You should stop by and check it out.

In the meantime ... Rocket's second skein of Ella Rae arrived today--shipping only took 2 days?!--so that's going to get finished up next week. And I made it past the initial ribbing on the beret last night and into the hat pattern. I guess I make it sound like more progress than it is--really I peered at that chart for two hours and knit maybe 10 rows--52 more to go before the next pattern change for the decreases. This little number is NOT being knit in the Russian method; though I find myself reverting back to it now that I have been practicing it. I'm pretty sure that I don't like that new habit much at all--I like my old habits of knitting and don't want to lose them. I'll post pics as soon as it gets a little bigger and actually looks like something more than a sock for the Jolly Green Giant. I did, however, get the most gorgeous set of Harmony DPNs in the mail today from Knit Picks, too, for this project. So, I'm going to knit quickly because I can't wait to try them out! (The beret begins on one circular and transfers to DPNs when the pattern decreases begin to get hairy.) Well, off to knit.

Happy knitting to you!

A New Sweater and A New CO Technique

2011-04-26T18:47:00.001-04:00

Cast On #1: Finishing the Traveling Woman Shawl was quite the accomplishment; but it took so long that I started to itch for something new. So, on Saturday, I cast on for not one, but TWO new patterns. The first is Rocket's short-sleeved sweater. This pattern is coming together so nicely that I am sure it will be available by the beginning of summer (well, summer that is if you have a spring--here in Georgia we have about two weeks of spring and then it's summer until about Halloween!) Although it's coming along very nicely, Rocket insists that she absolutely has to have three colors of striping. I'm knitting the button band intarsia style rather than separately; so now I've reached the point where I am going to have to work from two separate skeins of blue, and that means I had to order another one. With gas prices so high lately, it turns out that it is about 1/2 of a tank of gas cheaper to just order the one skein online and pay shipping than to drive to the only LYS that I actually like and buy one skein. So, waiting on the postman to go any further. You're probably wondering which yarn I am using. Rocket picked out a rather scratchy, but hopefully very soft after a few washings Ella Rae "Marls" combo.

I'll even give you the site where I got a fantastic deal by comparison to places like Yarnmarket.com: Webs.com has Ella Rae "Marls" on sale for $3.99 a skein. With shipping, it cost me about $1 more to order it than if I had bought it at the LYS--40 miles of gas excluded. Let me tell you, the colors are three variations of the same basic color (light, dark, darkest), and the "strawberry" and "tangerine" are just gorgeous!

Besides, I can use the break because I have vowed to use what I learned at Stitches South and knit the entire sweater using the Russian knitting techniques (great for purling, not so comfortable for knitting) from the class that I took. I have discovered that my fingers are suffering because my woolen stitches are so much tighter and more difficult to move along the needles. Flip side: the back of the sweater is not a series of groups of pearled rows, but one solid pearled fabric. It's rather lovely.

Cast On #2: I started the Autumn Vines Beret for the YOTH KAL. I'd show you my progress except that three rows of ribbing isn't very impressive. I discovered that the silk/wool/nylon Knoro that I had in my stash for this project was not the right weight once I purchased the pattern. I ended up dying my own yarn for this pattern with some sport weight superwash merino. I am calling it "Spinster", and it is a rather lovely--even if the pictures don't show it--variation of gradations of greys and lavenders. See?

Now the pattern for this endeavor is where the "learn-a-new-CO-technique" comes in. The directions begin with instructions to use a long-tail CO, purl-wise. Purl-wise? I didn't even know there was a purl-wise option! This is kind of a pain to master, but quick to pick up if you are already pretty adept with the regular long-tail CO method. Turns out, I no longer have to have a row of knitted stitches before I can begin a top-down sock or the neck ribbing of a sweater. HMMM! I can just cast on in the ribbing pattern and go! So, thank goodness for Youtube.com, right? Here's a little video that I used and have pilfered (lawyers should think of this as "free Youtube contributor promotion") that taught me how to do this nifty little CO technique. Watch it, try it, learn something new!

And as always, happy knitting!

FO: Traveling Woman Shawl

2011-04-22T16:48:00.002-04:00

Drum roll please ... Ta Dah! The Traveling Woman Shawl in my Zibeline Knits Mermaid colorway is finally finished.
F-I-N-A-L-L-Y.

You know, I guess I lucked out--or maybe not--because when I started this pattern, it was free. When I finished this pattern, it was not free. I say that maybe I didn't luck out because I spent so much time trying to get the first row of the first chart right that I could have knit two of these babies. The math didn't make sense--no matter how carefully I followed the directions, I ended up with two many stitches. Finally, after the 6th or 7th time of tearing it down and starting over, I altered the directions of the pattern for the first row of chart A and then was able to move on through. Maybe the pattern that has to be paid for his this problem worked out.

At first, the chart was a quick knit--once I got to the 5th chart A repeat, it started to become very time consuming with so many stitches to count through. I could have done 6 chart A repeats before doing chart B, it turns out. The pattern, as written, called for more yardage than I actually used with my Australian merino in my Mermaid colorway--it called for 389 yards with four repeats of chart A. I really like the weight of the shawl in the merino--anything heavier and I think I would have been a bit disappointed at the invisibility of the pattern. This merino blocked very nicely, I think. Although, I have determined that I am going to have to get some new blocking wires if I am going to any more lace--either longer wires or more of them. Certainly, I need more blocking pins.

So, on to the two next projects, an improvised top-down short-sleeved cardi for Rocket and the Autumn Vines Beret for the YOTH KAL that I joined. I need to get that in gear--so many people just jumped right in that I am afraid I will be the last one finished! Off to cast on!

Stitches South!

2011-04-18T17:41:00.000-04:00

I went to Stitches South over the weekend. Wowee! So glad I was able to take the day off on Friday to go to the Market--so many people on Saturday that I literally stood in line for 20 minutes to buy one item!

I had such a great time, me and my mom! On Friday, we had a leisurely market day and spent a truly insane amount of money on not a lot of yarn; but it was totally worth it! We had a great lunch at the convention center, spent the afternoon in the market, and went to the Knitter's Magazine fashion show in the evening. That was a total riot--especially when the lights went out because there was a tornado that touched down near the convention center and a wild thunderstorm raging outside! It was like driving in a gale-force hurricane down the interstate to get home!

Most of the items that I was absolutely in love with at the fashion show and will probably never have the time to knit will be featured in the Spring/Summer edition of Knitter's Magazine. You would think that, spring being nearly over, the magazine would have come out by now; but we were told that they are behind schedule because of the last anniversary issue--don't expect to see the spring issue until maybe July! But, from one obsessive knitter to another, hurry up and finish your current projects because you are going to love, love, love the sweaters in this issue!

Not wanting to continue sounding like a commercial ... here's a gander at what I picked up in the Market. I got 10 skeins of Classic Elite's Mooreland (mohair, baby alpaca, merino) in a rusty heather, about 1500 yards of a cotton/rayon hand dyed boucle from Newton's Yarn Country, 660 yards of gradiated Scandinavian (Denmark) wool from Kanni in a series of rusts, browns, and golds, "Socks that Rock" yarn from Blue Moon Fiber Arts (also mostly in a rusty color), 2 skeins of Classic Shades from Universal Yarn (so, so, so soft!!) in a variegated burgandy, rust, green, and turquoise colorway, and the score of the Market: Possum Yarn!! I got one skein (420 meters) of Touch Possum Yarn in a natural, undyed fawny-grey color. The ultimate definition of soft is possum yarn. The end.

NOTE: If you live in the U.S. and are reading this, possum yarn is NOT made from those nasty, sharp-fanged, pointy-noised creatures that hang upside down from trees, get into the garbage, and eat all of your cat's food at night. I don't think anything good can come from the U.S. breed of possum. They are just ugly. This is New Zealand possum--also a pest; but a totally different animal.

On Saturday, there was more Market time and a few more purchases and a class in Russian Knitting from Galina Khmeleva (literally, the queen of lace! OMG!! her lace is gorgeous!!!) She owns Skaska designs, and her two-tone lace shawl is featured on the front cover of Patterns Magazine right now. You should check it out! I was a little disappointed by the method of knitting. Turns out, this left-handed method is nearly identical to the way that I already knit. We did learn some very nifty tricks of the trade, which I am absolutely going to be sharing at knitting club, and all three of the techniques for purling--did you know that the the method of purling determines the overall look of the fabric in stockinett stitch? I did not realize this; so it was great to learn how to manipulate the fabric appearance. In the end, it was a good experience; but I still think my method is just as fast as Galena's!

Oh, and I also learned how to do Tunisian crochet! Now there's a nifty thing to learn. Going to do a whole post about that on another day. It creates such an interesting fabric that it deserves a post of its own. If you get the chance to go to one of the Stitches conventions, I highly recommend that you clear your calendar and go! Now I have the Knitter's Retreat in June and SAFF in October to look forward to. In the meantime, I have to totally re-work my project plan for the year and get a few more things on the FO list. That New Year's Resolution list just keeps growing and growing!

I didn't get the Traveling Woman shawl done in time for the convention; but I am down to 5, count them, 5 rows on that mathematically frustrating project. Pictures of the finished product will appear soon.

Happy knitting everyone!

Lovely Lace for Spring

2011-04-09T08:27:00.000-04:00

Spring Break has really just flown by, as it always does. Although I've gotten a good deal of yard work done, there is still much left to do in the garden and a chicken coop to finish. Those chickens are getting too big for their cardboard castle in the garage. If only Mother Nature could be more cooperative this weekend, I think we could get it wrapped up. I still have research paper rough drafts to grade--going to have to pop into school on a Sunday morning to make copies of the rubric I think--that didn't make it home with the papers. Today there's a forecast of thunderstorms all day, and that means that my mind is going to be on knitting. I know that I swore off knitting lace when I did the blue Leaf Lace scarf; but with all the lace weight merino that I dyed this week, I can't help being inspired to create a new design. I'm thinking about doing a stole with my own hand painted yarns, thinking about it hard enough that I actually did some research on antique lace patterns. I found the one last night, as well as this great website resource for lace patterns--mind you, they just give you the pattern for the lace and you have to figure out what you are going to do with it: Knitting Patterns from "Home Work" 1891 is the site.

So, speaking of dying lace this week, here are a few new lace additions to the Etsy shop:

Blue Hawaii Tonal

Dragon Scales

Lilacs Tonal

Tiger Lily Tonal

Also, I hope to finish up the Traveling Woman shawl today. Rocket has big plans for me to knit up a short-sleeved cardi along the same lines as the Little Kina sweater I knit for the 12 inch doll (who still has no name). She's picked out three colors; so I guess it will be something striped. Still mulling it over in my brain. But, I've promised that this will be the next project to go on the needles. Almost finished with the butter yellow Swing cardi that I have been working on since last summer. That baby's down to one and 1/3 sleeves left to knit. Oh, and I started a new pair of socks this week--toe up--and that's knit almost to the beginning of the gusset. This heel thing is stressing me out and I haven't even knit up to that part yet. Now that we are into the 80s every few days, I am wanting to get these wool socks off the needles (they've only been on there for a week) and get down to knitting up some of my silky Spud & Cloe in the stash. Ah, so many projects, so little time. Oh, and did I mention that I joined a KAL to knit my first beret? The Yarn on the House Rav group is doing one--since we are waiting to see who wins the free patterns and who has to buy it, that one can go on the back burner for at least another week. ;)

Happy knitting to all!

The Doll Rescuer

2011-04-05T08:43:00.000-04:00

Rocket, who is 7 years old, can't go to a yard sale, garage sale, antique mall, or thrift store without having to rescue a doll. She doesn't even really intend to play with them, and she isn't trying to collect them. She just can't stand to leave a doll behind--kind of like how soldiers never leave a man behind in battle. So, we went to Good Will last Friday night, just because we donate the kids' clothes there, and we had discovered this one was much closer to the place where we usually donate. We went in, at about 20 minutes to closing time, just to get the hours, etc. and for me to browse the sweaters--you never know what yarn is waiting to be recycled. It didn't take her 10 minutes to find doll that required rescuing, RIGHT NOW! For $2.25, and despite the bad haircut at the back of the head--maybe it came that way or maybe a child got into grandma's doll collection with a pair of scissors and off to Good Will it went--I don't know. It doesn't even have a name that I am aware of. However, it now has a pretty dang cute cardigan sweater!!

If you are into making doll sweaters for little baby dolls (12-12.5 inches), you ought to try out this free and super easy pattern that I found via Ravelry. The pattern, Little Kina, is originally in French, but Ravelry has a translated version that works like a charm! I wonder how this would translate to sweaters for preemies ...

FO: Multnomah Shawl

2011-03-30T05:22:00.001-04:00

The frustration of working a pattern without pattern support and an incomplete set of directions has finally come to an end. What I thought would be a quick little knit with my stellar hand painted bulky merino turned out to be an exercise in patience. I don't know if you know this about me, but I am not particularly partial to anything associated with numbers. In fact, I am seriously mathematically deficient. Translation: don't ask me to to figure out the math associated with someone else's pattern if you expect the outcome to be positive.

I give you Multnomah.

On the surface, it's a simple garter stitch pattern with several feather-and-fan repeats. When you get to those feather-and-fan repeats, though, it's math, math, math with every dang row because after the first pattern repeat, the directions fail to take into account the ever-increasing number of garter stitch stitches on either side of the center panel. I only had to tear this baby out about 5 times before I realized that I had to do math to get through every row! I think I must have torn out the repeats after the first two at least 8 times before I finally nailed the stitch count to keep the fans in lineI emailed the designer with questions, but received no response. I suppose that it is bad form to complain about the quality of a free pattern, but I am obviously going to do it anyway. We had a discussion about this situation at knitting club last Saturday, and the unanimous opinion was that if you are going to post a pattern, then you should either post directions for every line OR actually provide the pattern support that is offered at the close of the pattern.

Well, I made it through. (You are seeing it in its original, unblocked condition in these pictures.) In the end, I didn't like the way the front didn't come together--sort or fell away from the girls, you know, and there didn't seem to be enough "front" to warrant a shawl pin; so I sewed the two corner edges, one on top of the other, and added the three faux buttons. I guess it isn't really my style; but I'll wear it to work and around the house anyway. It does seem to be warm and sunny, if not exactly what I had in mind when I started this project. I hope that you have better luck with it if you take on this project.

Happy knitting!

Too Nifty Not to Share

2011-03-29T05:50:00.000-04:00

My blog posts seem to be fewer and fewer these days, don't they? Between the insanity of trying to herd 10 graders toward having an educated mind (the closer to spring break we get, the more insane things become--and I mean on the level of "are you serious? You should just quit! I'd never put up with that" insane), the insanity of being the Girl Scout troup leader AND cookie mom (a hallelujah went up nationwide when the cookie sales deadline arrived last week!), the re-landscaping of our backyard to make it more "green and garden-y", the baby chickens living in our garage because of this sudden and seemingly eternal cold snap, the craziness of the kiddos, and a string of knitting patterns and projects that have just made me down right mad, there hasn't been a lot of posting time. It's been so crazy around here that I finally, after not having had time to drive the 15 miles and sit for 2 hours with friends and knitting since before Thanksgiving, was able to go to my Saturday morning knitting club. Fortunately, they hadn't relocated and left me behind after such a long absence.

B-U-T … every morning the lovely Etsy team leader for my Etsyknitters team sends out these glorious email with links to rather awesome knitting and crochet blogs, patterns, and videos. In 30 years of knitting, I had never come across the anemone bobbly stitch; but this week has brought via Mette and her morning email the most nifty stitch and how-to video that I've seen in a long time. So, I thought I would share it with the world. You know, as soon as I saw it, the wheels began turning. There's a new pattern developing in my brain around this stitch. I'm not sure what it is; but spring break is next week, and I am very sure that it is going to begin to surface. Watch, learn, and have a glorious knitting kind of day!

Spinning success!

2011-03-23T20:28:00.000-04:00

You know how, when you have multiple projects going--an unconscious TV-watching project, a little cable something, some lace, and maybe a moderately difficult something or other--and you get to that point where all of a sudden ALL of your projects turn on you? I found that point last Thursday. ALL of my projects apparently decided to rebel on the same day. Didn't matter what I turned to, row after row had to be ripped out--in some cases, the entire chart! Although knitting is supposed to be a stress-reliever, there are those times when it is more stressful to knit than to quietly shut the door to the knitting room and walk away. So, what does one do when one hits that frogging rut? Why, spin of course!

I had been impatiently awaiting the arrival of 25 oz of South American wool--so dang soft that you wouldn't believe it with super duper long staple length and a no fuss attitude. Finally, it arrived on Friday, just in time to quell my knitting crisis blues. So, I spun up three awesome skeins of various yardage. And then I thought, "now what?" Well, it took some convincing of my self, but I took the plunge and, for the first time ever, dyed my own handspun. I am pleased as punch about how they turned out! See for yourself:

Tulip Garden

Blue Skies

Hydrangea

These turned out so well (Hydrangea is my favorite!) that it makes me think that I might actually be able to convince myself NOT to spend all of my spare pennies in the market at Stitches South in April. Well, maybe just not spend SOME of my spare pennies … I am sure I am going to need some kind of "souvenir". I was thinking some of that milk-based or corn-based yarn. Anyone knit with that before?

Please vote for me!!!!

2011-03-13T11:17:00.002-04:00

Please go to Knitting Daily's Colorplay Readers' Challenge and vote for my Harmony Scarf! It was designed specifically for this contest using four colors (orchid, spring green, canteloupe, and blueberry) of Tahki Stacey Charles' Cotton Classic. A quick knit, knit length-wise on circular needles, this pattern will be available some time after the contest ends on April 1st if I win this contest.

The winning creation receives 40 skeins of Cotton Classic or Cotton Classic Lite, and I would REALLY LOVE to be that winner. So, please, vote from every computer you can find! Every person who enters automatically employs Tahki Stacey Charles in donating to the Susan G. Komen foundation on behalf of that entry, which is absolutely fantastic, as well.

P.S. Although I hadn't intended it to be that way, the pattern is apparently available for download when you vote for my scarf; so if you want it, please vote for me!

Happy Bunny!

2011-03-07T21:26:00.001-05:00

Ta-dah! Here he is, the first toy I have ever knitted to completion! Meet my happy bunny. He's a gift for one of my administrators who is going to have a baby any day now. He knit up more quickly than I expected, but trying to find the right sized safety eyes was a bit difficult.

I used Fuzzy Mitten's Easter Bunny pattern, which was very easy to follow (she has the most adorable patterns ever!). Somehow, though, my happy bunny's arms were too short for the jacket--thus, the rolled sleeves. I think he came out very nicely, don't you?

Dying for a shawl!

2011-02-28T05:10:00.000-05:00

February has come and gone, and many of my knitting projects on the resolution to-do list have been wrapped up. My mom and I got a late start on our KAL, but it's crawling along. We are doing Liz Abinante's Traveling Woman shawl, with the goal of having it done for our adventures at the Stitches South convention in April. For this venture, I dyed two skeins of Australian merino, one for me and one for her. Mom will have to send me a picture of the skein/shawl in progress to post; but for now, here's how mine is looking with my Mermaid merino:

And once I got started on the Traveling Woman, well, that made me think that I should have a no-brainer shawl to work on at soccer games and in the car; so I dyed up some bulky superwash merino in a new colorway,--soon to be appearing in my Etsy shop--printed out Kate Flagg's Multnomah pattern, ramped up the needle size from US 3 circular to US 9 circular to fit the yarn change (she uses a fingering 4-ply, like the type of yarn one would use for a sock, and I am using a bulky 2-ply, like the kind one would use for an autumn sweater), and away I went. I wanted this to be something a little warmer than a thin lace shawl because spring is lovely and warm in North Georgia; but it's also an excuse for stores, restaurants, and the school system to turn off the heat and pump in the air conditioning. Ask anyone, especially Honey, and each person will tell you that I am very cold-natured. I do not like to feel cold and covered in goose bumps! But I wanted something sunny and fun for these early spring months, so I went WAY out of my normal wardrobe color scheme and used colors that you almost never ever see me wearing. I am, surprisingly, in love with this colorway, though, and expect to wear it often.

I had to tear out about half of what I started at last Thursday's soccer game since I was so engrossed in watching the Scout 1 on the soccer field that I worked about 20 rows, one stitch off. It's been an easy recovery though, and here's where I stand on this one:

Knitting around in Mobius

2011-02-24T05:59:00.001-05:00

I watched Cat Bordhi's video about how to cast on for mobius knitting and was both amused and intrigued. I thought, "that looks particularly easy!" And it was--to knit. You know me, I seldom follow a pattern … Well, I probably should have for this project. It began with a fingering weight wool in a gorgeous blackberry color with little tan and cream specks of color, and I stayed up WAY past my bedtime to finish it, and it turned out to be this piddly little cowl that barely looked like anything and barely fit over my head. Okay, scrap that one! So then I picked a different, thicker wool with larger circular needles and cast on twice as many stitches, thinking I would just wind this cowl around my neck twice if it was too big. Well, it's finished, and it's pretty big. So big, in fact, that it actually turned out to be a shawl, or as is commonly known among Etsy knitters, a "capelet".

I must say that I am pleasantly surprised and pleased. I can actually wind this twice about my neck for a very chunky, warm cowl; but I think that I am going to wear it to work today as the shawl. Lesson #1: gauge, gauge, gauge! Lesson #2: that first row of knitting stitches needs to be tight, tight, tight! You can see where the pearling meets the knitting … some of the stitches appear a little loose and will have to be adjusted by hand to make them more even.

I can't say that I am as addicted to mobius knitting as Cat said that I would be, but it was pretty fun and I recommend that you try it out and check out her video to learn how.

As a side note, I used a commercial light worsted weight 70% acrylic/30% alpaca for this project with a total CO of 130 stitches. The needles were US 11 circular--47 inch cable. I can't remember the name of the yarn at present--it was something from the stash. The only downside seems to be that, as a consequence of its being commercially spun, alpaca fibers abound on my clothes as I wear it today.

The Sportsman--finished at last!

2011-02-19T09:10:00.000-05:00

Well, here's another Hooray! for FOs. The Sportsman is finished, photographed, submitted, and mailed for Knit Picks IDP publication. Can't wait, can't wait to see it up on the site! Honey was kind enough to be my model for the photos. It took us three days to get photos, between his work schedule and this screwy morning fog that we've been having; but I think the pictures came out very nicely and I hope that Knit Picks uses at least one picture of him.

I'm also posting this pattern on my Etsy page and on the Ravelry site if you are interested. The total yarn cost, if you use Knit Picks Palette, which is what I used for all four pair of gloves that I knit, is $2.19. Even the XL only takes one skein. The pattern is written for small through XL--small fits my 11 year old boy. The pattern cost is $3.

Friday FO Report: Groovin' in my Groovy Socks!

2011-02-18T15:46:00.000-05:00

Hooray! Hooray! I have finally finished the Groovy Socks! (And I finished them while sitting in the sun this afternoon, so now I have a bit of a tan for my pale, wintry white legs, too!)

Wouldn't you know it … I finally finish these wool socks, and the weather turns warm? It's 73 degrees F on my front porch. A month ago, we were snowed in for literally 6 days. Now I have jonquils, hiacinths, and tulips coming up. Go figure. Well, anyway, I'm gonna wear these socks--which are all my doing from the dye on the blank yarn to the last kitchener stitch--even if we're havin' a heat wave! So glad to be finished!

Penelope Syndrome

2011-02-16T08:14:00.000-05:00

Okay. I've been working on this darned last glove for my Sportman glove pattern submission to knit picks for what seems like an eternity! I'm three weeks past my deadline, and I think I must have Penelope Syndrome. What is Penelope Syndrome? Remember Penelope, the wife of that pompous "adventurer" Odysseus? (Think back to your 9th grade literature class.) Well, for 10 years or something crazy like that, she wove that darned shroud. Every night she unwove it, and every day she started over. It took 10 years for her suitors to figure out that it doesn't take 10 years to weave a piece of cloth. (This story doesn't say much about the intelligence of men, does it? Maybe that's why it's such a classic, ladies?)

Long story, short … I feel like someone is unwinding my glove every night while I sleep and I am re-knitting what I had knit the day before. (See irritated Penelope above.) My goodness! It has never taken me this long to get through one glove!

Of course, life does get in the way, I guess. This is the week that the Girl Scout Cookies come into the warehouse; so I am a little busy with that. Girl Scout leader AND cookie chairperson, that's me. Want to buy some cookies? Turns out, I hit the motherload on orders. Firemen, ladies, LOVE Girl Scout Cookies! If you are married to one, he's probably bought 27 boxes and is hiding them from you at the fire station. Hee, hee! Guess where we are going tomorrow to sell cookies? I think there's a fire station about every 2 miles around here.

So that darned glove must be done today or else!

Happy knitting!

What's Doin

2011-02-14T18:45:00.000-05:00

After a fairly productive weekend of fibery things, I have my Atlanta Thrashers Cowl (hockey) to show off. I knit this up on the premise that I would test the hypothesis that a scarf keeps you warmer … and what do you know? For the first time ever in my adult life, I was not cold! I only wore one shirt and one sweatshirt and this cowl, and I was not cold! I am ALWAYS cold.

And then I knit up my first ever drop stitch scarf. I highly recommend that you try this and use Patons silk/bamboo (65 g/102 yds). That's what I used, and it turned out very nicely. I also used US 13 straight needles, which made it extra lacey. The finished product is a little stretchy with this yarn, so it could actually get a little longer, all on its own.

I dyed up some pretty stunning Romney roving, too. These beauties will be making their appearance in the Etsy shop this week.

I died some Australian merino is a series of dark coral colors for my mother for the Traveling Woman Shawl KAL that we are doing together. After much trial and error, and several sacrificed practice skeins to get the color to match her swatches, I think I've come up with a winner. If she hates it, she should do the motherly thing, I think, and just lie to me and tell me she loves it. Wouldn't you know, I forgot to take a picture of it before I sent it. I also dyed a skein for myself, much like the Mermaid skein in the Etsy shop, only more yardage and no white. Can't wait to see how it knits up! (See below.)

And I'm down to a few rows and then the fingers on the last Sportsman glove for pattern submission. Dang, I have to get that done already!

Cowl Envy

2011-02-09T18:04:00.001-05:00

On Monday I posted about the cowl that I made to fill an order. Secretly I had hoped that Heather wouldn't like it and I could keep it all for myself; but that absolutely didn't happen. I had cowl envy pretty badly when I said good-bye to Heather's cowl and delivered it. So, needles in hand, I knit one for myself last night and wore it to work today. You read that correctly, knit it last night. If you are a cowl lover, I absolutely recommend the Lion Brand Cobbs Mill Cowl pattern (free). Look how lovely my pastel rainbow scarf turned out! (Who knew that I could actually love something heavy on the coral color on my body?)

As one final note, this morning, at 6:50 am, when the air conditioning kicked on full blast in my classroom to complement the 27 degree F. weather we were having, the only warm part of my body was underneath this cowl. Actually, the only part of my body that was warm ALL day was under the cowl. I'm so glad my envy got the best of me!

See it, Scheme it, Do it!

2011-02-08T05:00:00.007-05:00

It's all about the color scheme. Colors you would think would just not go together at all, work like a charm! Case in point: This "Art of the Cowl" cowl from Lion Brand (free pattern, by the way, if you have an account). My friend Heather brought me a Martha Stewart "Living" magazine on Friday morning and said "I want this and this." She was referring to two pictures of large and weighty cowls created by Lion Brand upper echelon designers. The first one I said "probably". The second one I said "materials for that one would run at least $40"--she changed her mind about that one. Here's what she settled on:

Of course the cool one had no instructions, or even a list of materials; but I think that I winged it pretty well, myself. I counted the number of stitches in the picture, got a general idea, found an almost identical pattern on the Lion Brand website (which doesn't give instructions for this color combination, unfortunately), and knit 'er up during the Super Bowl.

I used Lion Brand Homespun in "Deepest Gray", and then lavender, dark purple, and dutch blue Vanna's Choice (also Lion Brand). It took most of a skein of the Homespun--about 100 yards--, but not much of each of the other colors; so, ultimately, I will have yarn left over to use for other cowls. It cost me about $20 for materials from Joanne's. And I love this pattern! It ends up very thick and cozy, for acrylic. I was surprised. And the look changes, depending on which end is up:

So I started one for myself today, in pastels. Hee Hee! Now if only I could find a reason (and the time) to sit and knit for three hours straight again this week. Not bloody likely, but one can dream.

North Wind (free cowl pattern)

2011-02-06T08:36:00.001-05:00

It's been a few weeks since my last post. Sad but true. I was absolutely unprepared for the level of chaos to follow that extra week of Christmas vacation we had--not that I am complaining about the vacation. January and May are my most hectic months because I am the coordinator for all things AP (Advanced Placement) at my school. Thanks to the extra vacation, registration for next year's AP classes and registration for this year's AP exams in May fell right on top of one another. And what a whirlwind of teenage indecision it has been! Throw in a new semester and me being the lone creator of a new set of Unit Plans and lesson plans for the "method of instruction" project, and there's no time for the fun stuff. (Basically, I teach it the way that earns me the highest test scores in the county--my way--and everyone else teaching 10th grade lit. does it the way that the principal wants them to do it, and then I prove that I'm right, per usual, when the state test scores come back. It's a silly game we play in high school education.)

So, amid the dying, knitting (Sportsman is one glove away from being published in Knit Picks! Exciting, if I weren't two weeks behind schedule!), freezing my tail off in a classroom that only has had heat until 9 am (then the air conditioning comes on!!!), the chaos of teaching 10th graders to think for themselves, and my "twin" (as the students refer to her) teacher placing orders for a string of cowls yet-to-be-knitted from my hand-dyed yarns, I have accidentally come up with the following pattern (for personal use only, please! No commercial sales of this pattern without my express consent, please!). This is a little stash buster project--no new yarns were purchased for this project; which is, incidentally, an odd turn of events if you know me, since pretty much everything in my stash is loosely assigned to one unbegun project or another. The Kertzer came from a lovely yarn swap that I participate in at Ravelry (Knittin' Good Yarn Swap). You should stop by, join, and sign up for the March swap … we could be swap buddies!

North Wind

Needles: US 11 (I used bamboo)

Gauge: (in stockinette) 4 stitches x 3 rows = 1 inch

Yarns: 1 skein Kertzer Tiara in Sapphire (90 yds = 50g); 90 yards of Naturally Caron Spa Bamboo in Misty Taupe

Note: This pattern is knit with double strands --knit both the sapphire and the taupe together at the same time for the entire pattern. You should also note that this yarn combo is S-T-R-E-T-C-H-Y! What seems to be a really narrow tube in the end is going to stretch out plenty; so don't fret!

CO 27 stitches.

1. Slip 1, Knit in garter stitch across. Repeat for 6 rows (3 pearl rows must appear on right side!). End with a WS row completed.

2. (RS) Slip 1, Knit across. (WS) Slip 1, Pearl across. Repeat these two rows for 9 rows (row 9 should be a right-side row).

Repeat 1 & 2 to desired length or until you run out of yarn. You should end with the 9 rows of stockinette. BO

On the wrong side of the fabric, using the mattress stitch, sew the two sides of the cowl together. Be careful to turn the BO seam to the wrong side of the fabric before sewing. Done carefully, you will not be able to visually determine the beginning/end of the cowl.

Knit to be warm! Happy Monday!

Save the Children

2011-01-20T05:00:00.002-05:00

I'm foregoing the WIP report to bring you this very important announcement.

You know that I have talked about making preemie hats for Gulf Coast Medical Center in Panama City, right? And there are free patterns of my own design on this blog for you to use, especially for charity and non-profit purposes. And one of my Ravelry groups is Beenies for Preemies, which you are welcomed to join. Well, discovery of discoveries, Save the Children and Warm Up America have teemed up--apparently in November so I'm a little behind in making this plea/announcement--to collect handknit and hand crocheted preemie hats for the Save the Children's Newborn and Child Survival campaigns and charities. I think this is a really good thing and you should go straight to your stash and start knitting some preemie hats immediately. (I already have one done.) Here is the link to additional free preemie hat patterns and the submission information: Caps for Good. Here is the link to Warm Up America. So click, knit or crochet, and submit. And the free hat patterns are so cute!!!!! The deadline is February 28th, 2011. If you participate, I'd love for you to email me pictures or send me a note.

If you would just like to make a $10 donation instead of sending in caps, please go to this link for Save the Children.

It's not too late to save a child! Knit on!

New Year Progress Report

2011-01-17T13:13:00.000-05:00

It was a pretty productive vacation that just FLEW by, even with an extra week of vacation due to the snow storm! Where did four weeks of vacation go?!

As a last-ditch effort to get something done before the back-to-school craziness, I whipped up this little top-down number over the weekend. That's right, I said over the weekend. This was a Saturday & Sunday project. I swear! There's no new pattern, really. I just took my Autumn Shrug pattern, changed the ribbing, deleted the ties, and added a button with an I-cord. The button is coconut shell, which I found at Joanne Fabrics, of all places, on the fly on Saturday afternoon. I used my Christmas present yarn from Honey--the gorgeously soft elsebeth lavold. I used 6 skeins of 82 yds each and had enough left over for finishing. I think it turned out rather lovely for a sweater done on a whim. And if it looks to you like the stitches are uneven … well this is a two-ply, thick-and-thin yarn. It gives the sweater a very unique look to the fabric.

These are my New Year's Knitting Resolutions, and I've crossed off what has been done before I go back to the salt mines.

~~sweater for me~~ (elsebeth lavold Christmas present skeins)
medium Sportsman test gloves
large Sportsman test gloves
extra-large Sportsman test gloves
2 sweaters for Rocket
~~1 pair of gloves for Scout 2~~
that gorgeous blackberry cabled cowl sweater for me
Swing for my mom
buttercup beret
socks, socks, socks! (Groovy in progress; waterfall; monkey socks)
Reconstruction Sweater (sleeves not yet done)
~~cowl for a friend~~
another pair of Elegy gloves for me (in progress)
80s Shrug (in progress)
cabled cardigan (hibernating)
yellow Swing (in progress)
Macrame Vest (in progress)
cowl for Honey
~~black cherry wool/silk cowl~~

And the semester begins tomorrow with today's catastrophe, and I'm trying to stay busy to avoid the imminent panic attack and stroke that is sure to follow, the meltdown of the one jump drive that has all of the files of my entire 14-year teaching career on it, including all of the Advanced Placement data for my school which is, shall we say, NOT SAVED ANYWHERE ELSE!!!!! I keep trying to breathe. My Honey is trying to recover my files using his big computer genius brain; but it's a wait-and-see kind of thing with his rescue software. This could be the greatest disaster in my personal history. At this rate, due to panic, the last 4 inches of the Groovy socks could be finished by this evening.

My Cute Soap Sock Pattern

2011-01-14T07:54:00.003-05:00

In a pinch, people come up with the darndest things, don't they? Well, needing something for my January swap (and if my swap partner is reading this, guess what you're getting!), the theme of which is "A Visit to the Spa", and given that I have to knit something, I thought I'd make up a soap sock. So, I cruised the patterns available online and wasn't intrigued by lacey soap socks (Who would used a soap sock of knitted lace in the tub? I'd be afraid of ruining all that hard work!) or multi-piece, sew-up-the-seams patterns (raise your hand if you hate sewing seams like me); so I thought "There must be a better way than this!" Guess what! There is! Seamless, anyone?

Front View

Back View

You know I've never actually gotten past the toe of a toe-up sock on circular needles (one of the many resolutions for 2011), but I did learn how to make a seamless toe-up toe. What does this have to do with the soap sock, you ask? Well, that's my sidebar inspiration to the following pattern (which took me less than an hour, multiple interruptions to see Rocket's impromptu ballet performances in her bedroom included):

My Cute Soap Sock Pattern:

I used a US 9 pair of circular needles on a 16" cable--you can use a 24" cable too. Any size smaller than a US9 needle will require a lighter-weight yarn.

Yarn: Sugar 'n Cream 100% cotton 4-ply. This pattern is for the thicker cotton yarn, not the Sugar 'n Cream Twists.) I think I used much less than 50 yards--I probably have enough for one more and an entire washcloth left in the 70.9 gram skein.

Gauge: 5 stitches x 6 rows = 1 inch

Final measurements: 3 inches wide x 5 inches long

Directions:

Using Judy Becker's "Magic Cast-On For Toe-Up Socks"--thank you Persistent Illusion for the directions--, (you will have to click if you don't already know how to do this (there's a cast-on video below, too, but it's just for the confusing cast-on part, not for the knitting/increasing part), CO 10 pairs of stitches.

Round 1: Drop the tail and turn the needles so that needle 1 is on top and needle 2 is on the bottom. Pull the cable through the needle 2 stitches. Knit the stitches on needle one (just leave the tail dangle--you can tighten the end stitches after you've knit the entire circle of stitches), then turn the work and knit the stitches on needle 2. This takes a little practice if you haven't done it before, and my best recommendation is that you pull the yarn tight every time you turn the needles to go around the "end" of the circle--really tight. The stitches will even out later--you'll see. You want to avoid that ladder look on the edges of the circle.

Round 2: * K1, Kftb, K to last two stitches of the row, Kftb, K1. Turn the work. Repeat from * down second needle.

Round 3: K all stitches.

Round 4: Repeat Round 2.

Round 5: Repeat Round 3.

Rounds 6 to 35: Knit all stitches.

Round 36: BO if knitted stitch.

Finishing: I tied off the top so that there was no opening between the beginning BO and the ending BO. Then, I wove the remaining tail into the KNITTED SIDE OF THE FABRIC. I did the same for the original tail. THE KNITTED SIDE IS THE WRONG SIDE FOR THIS PATTERN.

* Flip the sock inside-out so that the purled rows show. I wanted a rougher surface for this item so that it was a little scrubby, a little exfoliating.

* Braid three strands of the same yarn used for the sock and weave them into the fabric of the sock about 1 to 1 1/4 inches from the BO row. Pull tight and tie in a bow. This way, you can remove the soap to wash your sock in the washing machine AND, when the soap gets down to a chip, you can replace it. So many sock patterns want you to sew the soap into the sock. I like things to be re-usable, you know?

And, with that, happy knitting Friday everyone!

WIP and a few FOs

2011-01-12T14:45:00.000-05:00

I would like to begin with a great big THANK YOU! to Mother Nature, without whom I would not STILL be enjoying Christmas vacation!!!!!! We are officially 2 days shy of being out of school for an entire month!! Oh yeah, love that ice and snow in Georgia!!!

With that said, the big WIP is my Groovy socks. These are knit up so far as the beginning of the heel, which I am going to start as soon as I finish posting for today. I've also been fiddling with my Elegy gloves thumb design--I have knit up and torn out enough to decide to just leave well enough alone.

Have I mentioned that Knit Picks has approved another pattern of mine? Yep. This one is The Sportsman--a men's glove for a decidedly limited world of men's glove patterns. I have knit through the large and the small. I'm waiting on that awesome thing known as Knit Picks "Yarn Support" to show up in the mail to knit the medium and an extra-large. The absence of the mailman over the past few days has been the only draw-back to extra Christmas vacation. So, here's a picture of the small--modeled by Scout 2:

And a picture of the large, modeled by Scout 1:

Rocket now wants me to make her a pair in turquoise--a very odd color choice for the princess of pink and purple--but, alas, I have no turquoise. Darn, I'm going to have to order more yarn. (wink, wink)

And if this isn't enough great news, I have also been approved as a designer for The Knitting Vault, and a few of my patterns are now available there.

Okay, well in case this is the last day of vacation, there is knitting to be done! So, I'm off. Here's to hoping that this WIP post will not be visited by the 7 Indian escort services that left me unwanted comments last week and that the spam blocker is working today.

Speed Knitting--And I thought I was fast!

2011-01-06T05:55:00.000-05:00

There are probably just about as many knitting techniques as there are countries in which there are knitters. I find that most of the people who have told me that they tried knitting but didn't like it say they didn't like it because it is a slower process than crocheting. Well, I have to argue, since I knit pretty fast compared to most knitters whom I know. And, I do it like the lady in the video you really need to watch (borrowed from Knit Picks on Youtube), especially if, like me, you think you are pretty good at this knitting thing. Although we knit alike, there's no connection between this chick and my own knitting experience. But, dang!

And what's even better than that video? Watching this same chick try to teach men to speed knit! If you are a man who knits and is following my blog, please don't be offended.

Now, everyone get to practicing!

WIP: A few things coming along

2011-01-05T11:51:00.000-05:00

It's Wednesday already? My Christmas vacation is almost over and I am scrambling to get these last few projects on the list finished. Of course, I had to throw in a new one that was absolutely not on the list, a little handspun cowl for myself.

So Scout 2's gloves are coming along nicely--hope to be done with this first one tonight.

And then the cowl needs about 20 more yards, I think, so it's back to the spinning wheel. I was surprised to find that, over the summer, I had spun over 200 yards of tussah silk on my little drop spindle, and it turns out that it gives just the right amount of pizazz to the black cherry (hand dyed by me, of course) Romney wool that I spun super thick and thin.

Yesterday, I had a dying day. I thought that I would get a leg up on my dying for the Etsy shop for January and just do it mostly all in one day. It took me all day, but I have a bunch of very unique and lovely skeins to add to the shop through the next few weeks. Two went in today: Autumn Spice (2 skeins of 150 yds of Australian superwash merino) and Sea Turtle (220 yards of silk/merino). You should check them out. I'm also, tomorrow, going to be adding some small skeins of Australian superwash merino in red raspberry, cobalt, kelly, pumpkin, licorice, and strawberry. Australian superwash merino is actually a heavy 2-ply lace weight, suitable for intarsia, fair isle, or little color projects. You'll have to visit often to see what is new at Zibeline Knits.

New Yarns for a New Year

2011-01-02T11:15:00.001-05:00

I've tried my hand at hand painting some sport weight superwash merino. These two are now in my shop, and I am so pleased with how lovely they are that there is sure to be more to come. The first is Fuschia Flamingo. The photo doesn't do this yarn justice--the darkest color is REALLY fuschia! Rocket loves this skein, so it must be something special. Usually she just tells me "aaah, whatever" when I tell her to take a look at the yarn. This one she wants for herself. I probably should have named it something like "Barbie" because there's probably an entire Barbie wardrobe that would match up well with this skein.

The second new addition to my hand painted collection is a sportweight superwash merino with a dominant sunny yellow. I painted this skein using the confetti technique. I think that it will knit up beautifully for an infant sweater or mittens or a lightweight scarf. A child's hat would be really cute in this yarn, too. The colors are very primary--right out of the crayon box. This one is called Sunfetti.

Here are the specs for these two skeins. Each skein is:

Skein information:
• Approximately 6 stitches per inch on US #3-5 needles
• 274 yards to this skein (100 grams)
• Machine washable or hand washable (tumble dry low or dry flat for best results)
• Hand painted with color-fast dyes (no fading or bleeding)

Well, off to finish the fuschia cowl (I'm in the home stretch!). Knit well, my friends.

FOs of 2010

2010-12-31T10:19:00.001-05:00

I thought it fitting, on the last day of the year, to take a look back at what I've knitted this year. Although this is not the complete compendium of FOs (another pair of gloves, a mini Christmas stocking, and about 8 more preemie hats didn't make it into pictures, and I don't have an FO picture for the Geometry Scarf yet, but it's done), I am pretty pleased with myself.

All in all, I think it was a very productive year!

And now I begin to think of all that still needs to be done that didn't get started or finished this year … So much knitting yet to do! My 2 big resolutions for this coming year, knit-wise, are to not buy any more yarn until I have run out of projects to knit--special orders excluded--and to finish what I've already started or have queued up. Let's see, that means the new year's FOs should be:

2 sweaters for Rocket
1 pair of gloves for Scout 2
that gorgeous cabled cowl sweater for me
Swing for my mom
buttercup beret
socks, socks, socks! (one pair in progress)
Reconstruction Sweater (sleeves not yet done)
cowl for a friend (in progress)
another pair of Elegy gloves for me (in progress)
80s Shrug (in progress)
cabled cardigan (hibernating)
yellow Swing (in progress)
Macrame Vest (in progress)
cowl for Honey

So much still to do before there can be anything new!

WIP: Groovy Socks

2010-12-29T11:11:00.000-05:00

The Monday before Christmas, I showed you this yarn that I made, but couldn't, in good conscious, sell because of the large number of breaks in the skein.

This is Groovy, and trust me when I say that these colors are electric! So, because I've been dying to make some socks for me, I kept this skein (as if I need another skein of sock yarn in my stash, right?) and here's how it is knitting up:

You are seeing one front side and one back side here. The pattern has come out pretty even, except for that one row on the right sock where there's the double line of purple--I guess I spliced the ends together in the wrong color order.

Today, it's more grading for me. And while note cards and final exam essays go under the pen, new skeins in very bold colors will be resting in the dye pots, including the fuschia for the scarf order. I hope to get that on the needles tonight.

Monday Vacation Update

2010-12-27T09:21:00.001-05:00

Well, we got snow for Christmas! It was the first time that it snowed for Christmas, according to the Atlanta weather man, since 1882! Giant, wet feathery snowflakes fell on Christmas day. It was the best present of all! Today it is sunny, extremely windy, and just below freezing. We're not expected to get above freezing, so the snow will hang around for at least one more day, I hope.

There hasn't been much knitting around the hacienda due to the holiday festivities, but Sunday did give me the chance to finish (still needs to be blocked) the Geometry Scarf and Scout 1's Sportsman gloves. I wound up the Groovy hand painted yarn that I showed off last week and have started a pair of socks for me. I just couldn't stand it any longer! All this knitting for Christmas, etc. gifts, and none for me! I can't wait to show off the very cool striping pattern of these socks for this week's WIP.

On tap for this week … Groovy socks, sleeves on the Reconstruction Sweater, and a bit of dying for the new year and for the cowl that a co-worker has ordered from me. And I still have to finish up research papers and grades before the end of this week. Frick, frack.

I hope everyone had a fantastic Christmas!

Merry Christmas!

2010-12-23T08:40:00.000-05:00

Just wanted to wish all of my followers a Merry Christmas!

Ho, Ho, Ho!

And keep your fingers crossed that we get some snow!

WIP for December 21, 2010

2010-12-22T09:14:00.000-05:00

It's WIP Wednesday, and what I have to report is this:

* The Sportsman, which is in its infant stages, has been submitted to Knit Picks for consideration, and maybe a little yarn support. Fingers crossed again! I only have one more pair to go for Scout 2--hopefully by Christmas, so fingers crossed on this one, too. Finished, it looks like this:

* I started a new pair of Elegy gloves for myself in Knit Picks Merino Style Endame--the cashmerino have pilled up so badly that they need some time off and a spa day.

* It occurred to me that, darn, I forgot all about how I was going to put sleeves on the Reconstruction Sweater over the Christmas break! I can't wait to do the very last odds-and-ends gift shopping today when we go to the mall (hate the mall!) to see Santa Claus today.

* Dying of the wool to make the cowl that a friend has ordered from me will begin today, maybe. That'll be the feature of next week's WIP, I'm thinking. She wants it in fuschia.

* The search for chocolate brown 100% silk yarn at a reasonable price for about 400 yards has begun. So far, I've been disappointed. I'm in the market to make some lovely vintage gloves to go with the vintage mink stroller (circa 1940s) that I found in a local antique mall this week, and which Honey purchased for me for Christmas. It's so lovely--golden brown with vertical chocolate striping--and so soft that I have to go with silk for the accessories. So, if you know of a good silk yarn or a silk yarn supplier--I could dye it myself--please let me know.

All for now. Shopping to do and Santa Claus to wait in a three-hour line to see. Merry Christmas and happy knitting!

Christmas Vaca Report

2010-12-20T09:39:00.000-05:00

So much to share today! As I have briefly mentioned before, I LOVE VACATION!! I love it even more when the weekend before vacation begins brings monumental knitting accomplishments. So here are the goodies from this past weekend.

First, my work in progress is a pair of 3/4 finger gloves for each of the Scouts. I'm using Knit Picks Palette fingering weight Peruvian wool, and I am loving it absolutely. I had a pattern that I was using, and since my comments are that it's totally screwy and had fingers so frick frack large that it defeated the whole purpose of keeping in the body heat, I tore it all out and said: "I got this." So I am down to knitting the thumb, and then I will have a pattern of my own making, which I will share freely if Knit Picks doesn't want it. Until I began knitting these, which I am calling size large, I did not realize how huge my 13 year-old's hands are! They are as big as Honey's, and he's not a man of small stature. When this kid grows into his hands, I will be looking at a skyscraper-sized teenager. Holy man!

These gloves are going to be called "Sportsman" because they are so dang warm, even unfinished, and they are perfect for being in the wintry outdoors. I am making them for the boys to use as liners to their winter gloves for camping, and then to wear while they sleep in the often below freezing temps in their tents. These Boy Scouts hike 11 miles up a mountain and then camp in January on the top of that mountain for the weekend. Last year it rained for the whole hike, then snowed while they slept. These gloves will be good for Scout 1's outdoor archery/hunting obsession, too. I'm thinking they'd even be perfect for hiking or jogging if worn by themselves. And, you can use your smartphone, too, because there are no finger tips. Anyway, enough of the sales pitch.

And then there are two little yarn goodies that I have from the past few days. First, Spinning Sunday brought the first fingering weight yarn of my electric spinning wheel dabbling, and we'll go with "Hyacinth" for this one. It's 50% Romney and 50% bamboo silk, hand carded together, hand spun, and seriously soft. I just finished it--in other words, wet it to set the twist and let it dry--so I haven't measured it yet; but I am thinking of using it for something lacy, like a garter stitch scarf using very large needles. Or, maybe, for some fair isle patterning in a hat or something. I don't know, but this one's not going into the shop.

And since I seem to be on a purple kick lately, here's the hand-painted sock yarn that I whipped up.

It's dyed with Japanese silk dye, and the colors may be a little pale by comparison to their true appearance. I decided to use this one for the next pair of socks, which is coming immediately after I am finished with Scout gloves and right before the Buttercup Beret (click on the image at left for the free pattern). By then, it should be the new year, and I will finish my Macrame Vest pattern design that uses an alpaca mix and a Turkish stitch in time for the new year. I'd like to start the year with a focus on the sweaters that I have queued up, and to finish the 80s shrug, too. So, introducing "Groovy". I decided not to put this one in the shop because I discovered after I dyed it that there were several places in the skein where the yarn had been pieced together. That's no problem for me to knit with; but I would hate for someone to buy the yarn and be dissatisfied because they don't know how to work around the knots.

I probably won't be back until Wednesday because I'm going to spend this vacation knitting, come Hell or high water; so, happy knitting to all!

P.S. If anyone wants to send me some snow for Christmas, that would be swell! There's just the tiniest chance of snow on Christmas morning, and my fingers are crossed!

Ta-Dah! Leaf Lace Scarf FO

2010-12-17T05:00:00.002-05:00

I know all of my posts lately have been about this project, but I've been under the gun to get it done! It's a darned good thing that we had a 2-hour delay of school and I could sleep in on Thursday. I was up until 12:30 am finishing and blocking the Leaf Lace Scarf, which I am happy to report is finished and gorgeous and I can't wait to give it to my friend Meredith today! Whew! I've never knit anything lace before this project, so I am very pleased with the way it has all turned out. It's not as long as the pattern called for because I thought 6 feet would be a little too long for a lace scarf; so it's 64 inches by 10 inches, blocked. I'm not sure I ever want to knit lace again, just because it was such a counting nightmare, but it was a valuable experience.

And so, of course I am going to want to show this lil' number off, so I am linked up here today:

WIP Wednedsday (Dec. 15th)

2010-12-15T06:11:00.000-05:00

Hurray! One pattern repeat and I'm done! Such a good feeling to know that I am going to make this deadline, after all! Here it is in its unfinished glory. When it's done, 24 rows from now, it will block, I expect to about 60 x 10. The original Leaf Lace Scarf pattern suggested 72 inches; but I think that's a little lengthy for an accessory.

I surely hope that all of you are making much headway, too, on your Christmas knitting projects. Happy knitting to all!

Let it Snow … more, please!

2010-12-13T06:07:00.000-05:00

I still have my miserable cold, which has been compounded by the "arctic blast" that has hit Georgia this weekend. Sheesh! If it's going to be this cold, then it's just a travesty not to have snow. We had flurries yesterday, which was perfect Christmas weather for putting up the lights outside and going to buy the tree … when the wind wasn't blowing at 30 mph, that is. Here's all the snow that didn't melt in our yard yesterday:

Yep. That's it. A few flakes caught in a spider' web. Sad, isn't it? All of the little children will be angry today (ooh, can't wait for extra teen angst on a Monday!) that school isn't cancelled. Maybe tomorrow. It's supposed to be 12 degrees F tomorrow morning with a zero wind chill. But I doubt it--the part about school being cancelled, that is. State end-of-course testing this week, not to mention final exams. No one is going to be in a rush to close the schools, even though on a normal day we are lucky to have heat in our rooms before noon due to budget cuts, and all (anyone want to guess why I have a cold?).

But on the knitting side, I did manage to make some progress on the Leaf Lace Scarf--down to 5 repeats with 5 having been knit since last Wednesday. That equates to about 15 more inches to knit. I also was able to get a start on a wool glove pattern that I've planned to use for gloves for Scouts 1 & 2; but I've reached the thumb gusset and the directions suddenly become VERY vague as to whether I'm supposed to M1 or KFTB to increase, and just exactly which side of the 28th stitch I'm supposed to do that on is totally unclear, too. This is exactly why I don't like to follow the directions of others and usually end up making my own. Well, c'est la vie. Off to freeze at school.

WIP Wednedsday (Dec. 8th)

2010-12-08T06:05:00.000-05:00

It's going to be a race to the finish on this project! I finally found my rhythm again with knitting the Leaf Lace scarf; but it's so time consuming that I am having serious reservations that I'll finish this project in the next week and 1/2. I've knitted through three and 1/2 pattern repeats in the last week or so; but that only amounts to about 12 inches; so I'm only half-way done. It's a gorgeous pattern, and I'm pretty impressed with myself so far, but dang! I like to knit projects with a light at the end of the tunnel, you know? Good thing it's too cold (going to be in the 20s now through the next two weeks they say, with a chance of snow on Sunday--snow in November in Georgia? Really?) Anyway, here's an older picture of the Leaf Lace project--no point in taking a new one because it's strip that looks pretty much the same no matter how long it is.

Yarn Love

2010-12-05T09:00:00.000-05:00

There is something totally inseparable between the knitter and the love of yarn. I say that because I have been knitting almost my entire life, and I can't recall a time when I have been able to pass by a rack of yarn, even in say Walmart or, when I was a kid, ShopKo and Woolworths, and not stop just to check out what they had. I have so much acrylic Red Heart yarn, and I don't even really like to knit with acrylic, that I could make chihuahua sweaters for the next 20 years. I have so much sock yarn that I am going to have to put myself on a 12-step program. And now, I spin. And if you spin, you know what comes next in the stash … all that gorgeous fiber. And it isn't even a matter of being attracted to color. I like natural, undyed wool, too. Fisherman's wool is one of my favorites. I think knitting is a bi-product of being totally in love with yarn. I think it's inescapable, and I think that I knit because I love the yarn and want to see what I can make with it. Oh boy, and I knit compulsively! Which falls right in line with my tendency to buy yarn compulsively. I was out alone yesterday, running an errand to a town a bit of a drive away from my house, and between here and there is the best LYS we have, and they were open, and I had to literally give myself a pep talk the whole time I was out to keep me from just stopping by to look, even though I had been there the week before and I can't wait for Christmas to show off the oh-my-God-it's-so-gorgeous yarn that Honey bought me as a Christmas present!

Ok, so I thought that I shouldn't go on and on about the love of yarn without showing you the yarn that I spun up on Saturday from 100% Romney wool. I hand-painted the wool at school in the art room while my super-awesome art teacher friend and a few students watched and learned. Here's what we have as a result:

I call this one "Sunset Strip", and it's a single-ply, self-striping yarn--about 136 yards total. I LOVE this yarn, and I put it in the Etsy shop with great hesitancy because I want to keep it for myself; but I already have such a huge stash that maybe someone else will love it just as much as I do. Isn't it just gorgeous?! I don't normally like anything that is bright yellow, but the lemon yellow color of this yarn is so striking that I love everything about it. It took me about an hour to spin this up on the electric spinning wheel that Honey made for me.

And in the spirit of Yarn Love, I put together a Yarn Love treasury of handmade, hand-dyed, hand-spun, and hand-painted yarns available on Etsy. None of these are mine, and they are all addictively beautiful. Check it out.

In Knitting News ...

2010-12-03T06:10:00.002-05:00

I am beyond excited to announce that my Elegy Fingerless Mitts pattern is now officially a part of the online catalogue at Knit Picks!!!! Here is the wonderful link to my wonderful listing with the wonderful pictures that were taken of my gloves.

http://www.knitpicks.com/patterns/Elegy_Fingerless_Mitts__D10717220.htm

I absolutely recommend knitting these up in the guava color. It's really the perfect pink, even if you are not usually a wearer of pink. However, so far I have knit these in 5 different colors, and I love each and every one. Besides my gloves, there are several other new patterns that are amazing, so I feel totally honored to be included among the designers of this catalogue. Totally.

Last night was the local Christmas parade. This year, unlike years past, it was actually cold enough for the Christmas part of the parade, and I froze my tookus off. My daughter and I and our Girl Scout troop were in the parade with the other troops from our county. It was great fun, and I forgot the camera, so I am afraid that I don't have any pictures for you. It was the girls' first parade, and we walked and waved and wished all a Merry Christmas. Santa made his appearance down Broad Street in the bucket of the hook & ladder truck with the high school cheerleaders lined up on the ladder behind him (ladder was down, don't worry). Events like these are what make me love living in a rural county and a tiny town. so I guess that means that Christmas is officially around the corner!

If you are an Etsy Treasury peruser, check out this one: "There's More than Red and Green for the Holidays" . My turquoise sock yarn, "Tranquility" is featured in this gorgeous treasury of handmade items.

And, last but not least, here's where I'm linked up for this glorious Friday!

A few things accomplished

2010-11-29T04:47:00.002-05:00

Well, well, well. I had missed that feeling, which I haven't had since the beginning of August, of having ALL of the laundry done, folded, hung up, and put away. It took me a full week of vacation to accomplish this. I once read in one of those self-help books that one should not stress out over the little things--decide what absolutely has to be done and then cope with what isn't an overwhelming priority. That's great, but after a while, those non-priorities pile up, and then it seems more stressful as it would have been if time had just been made to deal with those little things when they were little things. Laundry is one of those things for me, and not just because I hate doing laundry. My children hold the Guiness record, I think, for most clothes in the hamper in a single week. But, I'm all caught up!

The living room and all of its trim was painted. It looks fabulous! Thanks Honey!

The master bedroom closet was re-done--super sale on shelving at Sam's on Friday!--and I can't believe it's our same closet! Even Honey's side is organized!!! Thanks Honey!

Closets and drawers were thinned out and bags for charity are awaiting departure in the garage.

Most of the Christmas shopping for the children is finished.

Final details for the online publication of my Elegy gloves for Knit Picks have been taken care of and fingers are crossed that you will be able to see them in all of their awesomeness in the Knit Picks online catalogue on Thursday.

All baby items are knit and on their way to their recipients.

My November and December swap partners have packages in the mail to them--shopping an knitting done for both last week!

Papers were graded. Not a lot considering how much there is piled up; but if you multiply Advanced American literature 52 students by 6 assignments, that's 312 pieces of paper (roughly 2 full packages of notebook paper!). Still, plenty of time will be dedicated to grading to come in the next three weeks. Only three weeks to Christmas vacation--hurray!!

I created a new invoice system was created on my Macbook for Etsy sales. (It's amazing what you can do at 5 am on a Sunday morning when you can't sleep because you are stressed about going back to work the next day!)

All purchased yarns from this weekend are packaged, labeled, and ready to ship today. If you aren't getting one from me, stop by the Etsy shop--sock yarn sale is ongoing. I also created a new holiday banner for the shop.

I've gotten a good start on Christmas present knitting, and I actually made progress on the Leaf Lace Scarf. I have, however, decided that I strongly dislike knitting lace. My hat is definitely off to those who can knit with this thread-like yarn and not lose their sanity in the process.

It was a banner week. I hope that if you were on vacation, your week was as productive as mine was. I'm linked up here today:

Happy knitting!

The Saturday after ...

2010-11-27T08:40:00.000-05:00

Well, Black Friday sales weren't as impressive as I had hoped for the 'ol Etsy shop, but I'm still having a sale! All hand-dyed sock yarns are on sale from now until Christmas (click the banner on the right to take a look). That's a pretty good deal, as superwash sock yarn prices go.

Sock yarn, by the way, is basically just a 4-ply fingering weight yarn. I've learned that superwash merino is the best plan if you are making socks for a gift or intend to wear yours as a daily accessory. This yarn doesn't pill up like plain merino, it doesn't have to be hand washed or line dried, it doesn't shrink, and it's nice and stretchy. And it's super soft!

Here are a few of the yarns on sale:

Yarn love to you!