School is in session

School is in session and it's time to finish a project, add a class, and experiment.  The latest FO is my handspun vest made with the Mocha Dream roving from Ewespun Fiber Mill.  The fiber, ⅓ each Romeldale wool, alpaca, and camel down, was a dream to spin.  I ended up with 478 yards of two-ply yarn, which was more than enough for the vest.  The pattern called for a size US 9/5.5 mm knitting needle and after knitting a swatch I got the gauge I needed with a US 7/4.5 mm needle.  The pattern is from Folk Style, a book I've had in my library for some time.  The Grand Tour Waistcoat, designed by Di Gilpin was the perfect choice. There are a few Ravelry projects using the pattern without the intarsia motif.  The finished vest looks good with or without the swirls.  I didn't mind battling the bobbins, as intarsia is one of my favorite knitting techniques.

There's nothing better than a finished project.  The latest FO is a vest, knitted using spindle-spun yarn, using the intarsia knitting technique.  (I have an upcoming class for teaching the intarsia technique at Anoka Fiber Works.)   Intarsia, aka picture knitting, was popular when I picked up the needles in the early 1980s and I dove in relatively quickly as a fearless young knitter.  Thankfully the bobbins of varying sizes and shapes are still in the toolbox.

There wasn't a plan for the yarn in the beginning, as I just wanted to spin the beautiful roving from Deb Peterson, proprietor and shepherdess of Ewespun Fiber Mill at Old Man Wool Farm.  Deb premiered the roving at Shepherd's Harvest Festival over Mother's Day weekend.  The fiber blend is ⅓ Romeldale sheep's wool (from Deb's flock), ⅓ alpaca (also locally sourced), and ⅓ camel down.  The process of spinning was a joy and the natural colors blended into a beautiful variegated two-ply yarn with z-twist singles and s-twist ply.  I am thankful to have purchased that third ball because the 478 yards were enough for a larger project.

Fortunately, after many years of knitting and spinning, I have an ample library of knitting and fiber-related books.  Folk Style had the perfect pattern, Grand Tour Waistcoat designed by Di Gilpin.  Figuring that

Mocha Dream spy with the IST oak burl spindle.  The perfect tool for the project.

Mary snapped a photo for me.  There are three cables in the middle of the top motif.  

The upper fronts sport some seed stitch texture and cables.

A new class on the schedule at Anoka Fiber Works is for a Dorset "Cartwheel" Button.  Janie Crow taught our knitting group how to make them while in Shetland.  It was fun and we used the wool from our projects.  I thought it was time to practice and found the buttons easy and fun to make.  

The first three buttons turned into eleven buttons and counting.

The fall colors have been delayed by the abundance of rain this year.  I love the pops of color against the sidewalk concrete and grass.

I found a skein of fractal-spun Malabrigo Nube from a spindle spinning class I taught a few years ago.  The colors look like the leaves on the sidewalk (minus the grass).  I don't know what it will be, but I'm knitting a gauge swatch to try it out and see how it knits up.

Weaving Wednesday is a good time to experiment a "painted" warp.  I had some fabric markers, so I went small scale on a small loom to try it out.  No drips!  If I like doing this, I'll invest in some good quality fabric paint.  The blue and white fabric in the top left corner of the photo is Fey's kitchen towel.  She was very happy to finish them!

I finally used the skein of Vice yarn (Blurred Lines) that has been waiting patiently in the stash.  I think it would make a nice hat.  At the time I took the photo (yes, I fixed the position of the dowel to go up and over the front beam) there really wasn't a weft yarn I thought looked good with the colors, so I went with a neutral color.  As of this writing, it's coming along nicely.

The Wonderful World of Bobbins, Intarsia Knitting

The current (new) project on the needles is the Grand Tour Waistcoat (pattern designed by Di Gilpin) from the book Folk Style, by Mags Kandis, Interweave Press, 2007.  After counting the finished yardage and looking through my library, the vest stood out and having knitted a gauge swatch I knew it was the perfect pattern for the yarn.  Digging through the handspan stash I found the dark brown yarn, although I know it's wool, the type is a mystery.  

The yarns are two-ply, z-spun and s-plied, approximately 9 WPI (wraps per inch).  The gauge worked well with a 4.5 mm/US 7 knitting needle for the heavy worsted to Aran weight yarns.  (I used The Standard Yarn Weight System Handy Chart from Spinderella's Fiber Mill.)

Mocha Dream roving to yarn

Mocha Dream is made up of  ⅓ camel down, ⅓ Romeldale, and ⅓ alpaca

The dark brown mystery wool will be a nice contrast color

Each section of color has a separate bobbin of yarn, making the back look like organized chaos

So far, so good with the knitting.  I love the rustic appearance of the knitted fabric and the dark brown stands out nicely from the background.  

Autumn

I cannot believe it is now mid-October!  We had a brief color change with the trees this year.  Looking at my photos, I would never think that all those lovely trees would be bare or dried up.  I managed to gather some leaves for pressing, which I later dipped in wax and gave to my Mom.  She loved it.  I put them on her table so she can look at them while she has her coffee.  She used to do that when she was a little girl, and I still cannot resist picking up pretty leaves.
Being secretary of the troop has really kept me hopping.   I made templates for the weekly announcements, the monthly parent meeting minutes, and sign-in sheet.  The weekly announcements went out on meeting night after the meeting!  Huzzah!
Knitting is progressing.  The blue vest is resting after surgery (steek-cutting) and the red vest is ready to work the fronts, as the back is almost finished.  I am making a hat as a shop sample--not sure I am crazy about the pattern, but I chose a bright greenish-yellow for the main color.  The variegated yarn is in pink, purple, orange...originally I found some purple that was perfect, but it was difficult to see the rib pattern.  The new color combination will be better.  It is a child's hat, so more color is better!
I've been going through the yarn stash and reorganizing.  Painting on the Advent banner at church has made me miss creating art other than the fiber sort.  We are so close to finishing the banner.  I must remember to take my camera when we work next time.

The felted hat is a recent shop sample I made.  I quickly
designed a hat band for it.  The pattern will follow, soon! 

Kathy gave me a bit of one of the Alpaca fleeces to
spin.  I carded and drop-spindled it. It is so soft and
spinning was smooth and easy.

Here are some photos from our brief Autumn color

I love the contrast of the bright leaves and dark trees.

It was warm, so the sprinklers were going.

Eevee takes a break under the treeless tree house.

I have apples from Kathy (from the shop) to use and also Ben has requested some Hudson Bay Bread.  Today and tomorrow will be baking days.

Photos

I finally had the opportunity to photograph some sweaters. I want my photos to be more consistent, so I set up my little studio on the three seasons porch complete with a white background and natural light. Here are some of the
results--I posted three yesterday. The capelet is Brown Sheep worsted and the pattern is from Wrap Style. The vest is my handspun and original design. I think they look rather good. (And yes, I know the cable in front on the right is incorrect--nobody's perfect--by the time I was done there was NO way I was frogging back over 300 stitches per row to fix it.)