Making progress!

January brings the snow;
Makes our feet and fingers glow.
Sara Coleridge

16.01.2020 Today is sunny, -4 degrees F, and feels like -15 

January has been a productive month thus far.  The fabric I was weaving at the shop is now off the loom, washed, and steamed.  Checking the pattern/recipe for the Sarah-Dippity skirt by Sarah Swett, I  am pleased to know the fabric will work well for the project.

The fabric is 12-inches wide and 2.72 yards long

My palette of colors is getting larger.  Each color is a rolag's worth and just enough for a sampling.

Carding and spinning a palette of colors for a small weaving project.  Dyed wool from Kerry Woollen Mill

Progress is being made in the room by organizing the WIPs, UFOs, stitching, weaving, and knitting goods so things are easier to find.  Storing unspun fiber in tubs is the best solution because I can see the fiber through the translucent tub.  The downside is the tubs take up quite a bit of space in the small room.  The closet is where I store my art supplies, it is well-organized and out of sight until I need something.  The fiber and everything that goes with it takes up a lot of room and is distracting when I sit at the drafting table or the computer.  I have confidence that things will be much better soon.  No photos yet!

Meanwhile, there are plenty of small projects to keep me busy when I want to do some social knitting.

Boot cuffs are quick-to-knit projects and they are nice and warm.

I finally pulled out the 21-colors of Blue Sky Woolstock mini-skeins for a project, which will most likely be a hat.

Sample knitting for an upcoming class

One of my favorite sweaters is Aranmor by Alice Starmore.  Knitted in 2011, it was a joyful knitting project not only for the lovely cables and texture stitching, but the yarn was (and still is) just beautiful.  Rowan Scottish Tweed Aran, has been discontinued since I was in the finishing stage of my project.  I calculated the yardage for my sweater (I thought correctly) but ran out of yarn at the collar.  Thankfully, an online shop had three skeins of shade 025, which I bought even though only one skein was needed.  Since finishing the sweater, it became my go-to travel sweater and the only thing about it that irked me was the collar.  The decorative twisted stitch section after the ribbing rides up.  Not a terrible thing to happen, but I am not above changing neckbands and collars on sweaters multiple times.  It was not difficult to find the yarn end and then frog back to the ribbing.  Adding a turning ridge would fix the issue.  One row, not enough...two rows, meh...three rows, it will work.  

Knitting the twisted stitch section on the wrong side of the collar, the purl rows above the ribbing create a fold.

Stay warm!

Thursday

I am knitting boot cuffs using my least favorite technique - Brioche stitch.  I am using Noro Kureyon (main color) and Ella Rae heather (contrast color)

Deb from Ewespun Fiber Mill at Old Man Wool Farm prepped the Lincoln Longwool into a cloud.  It is beautiful!  Right now, I am spindle spinning some for a small weaving project.  The rest will be wheel spun.  

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.

Goings on

There's always something going on at Anoka fiber Works.  I've been busy knitting swatches for classes and winding warp for my next weaving project.  Tomorrow is the Short Row Class.  I have five different short row techniques to teach.  It gives the students plenty of options from which to choose.  

A sample needle felted painting I made for Teresa's upcoming class.  I'd photoshopped the original photo to use as wallpaper for my phone or iPad.  

Bunny on the run!

Deb's bunny kept us company one recent Saturday.

spinknit

It is a busy time of year--yarn tasting at the shop, sample knitting, classes and spinning.  My project for yarn tasting the Snowy Woods Hat made with HiKoo Tiara.  It is a wool blend sprinkled with beads and sequins.  I typically do not use shiny objects in my knitting, but this was the perfect yarn for the project and it bloomed nicely when I blocked the project.  The pattern is part of a collection of six patterns and is available as an e-book or single pattern.

Snowy Woods Hat for Yarn Tasting

A beautiful autumn sky...

...and a cloud of BFL to spin

Colorful leaves...

...colorful yarn

TBT and Thursday things

Throwback Thursday.  I can remember this--oh my how young we are!  Living in Alabama, I was working in Ozark and teaching art lessons.  Jim was working at Ft. Rucker with the helicopter simulators.  Soon we would return to Germany on our next life adventure!

Jim and I in 1984

Lace knitting is not something I do often and that is why I chose Sinopia, a one-skein project, for my latest shop sample.  It is from the book, Curls.  Baah Aspen is gorgeous yarn and is holding up well to the knit a few rows frog a few rows type of knitting.  Thankfully I am nearing the last of the repeats.  It will be nice to see the piece blocked.  As with any project blocking improves the fabric and drape.

There are more repeats since this photo was taken.  

Bobbi's monkeys joined in for the class photo.

Monkey was happy to knit himself some pants.

Coming down the pipe...

This week I joined the Boston Scientific team for a charity boxing event.  It is quite a workout and as always so much fun with the usual suspects.  We went to the Vad afterwards for drinks.  We were starving and the burgers tasted so good after the workout.

Boxing buddies

Suretha and I give it our all--I have a good left hook.

Team BoSci!

Newsflash! WIPs turn into FOs! Making my way through the projects.

More finished objects.  Slowly but surely I am working through all the projects on the needles and not starting anything new, which is difficult.  I also finished spinning the Icelandic/Shetland blend and whatever I knit will be called Rollo after Andrea's sweet puppy.

The yarn is made from Black Cat Farmstead's Icelandic/Shetland blend.  

I finished the Beaded Beret.  It stayed on the needles far too long, but I enjoyed finishing it.  The project is perfect for trying out adding beads to knitting.  It is a shop sample so I may have to dig into the stash after I finish other projects to make one for spring.

Beaded Beret--The stippled colorway, Twyla Brae, of the Richard Devries yarn is named after a remote village in Scotland.  The beads can remind me of raindrops.

The Kaffecushion is sewn together and is at the shop.  The colors are so pretty and it is a good project to show off both the color and yarn.  Rowan Pure Wool Worsted is very nice to work with and the colors are just beautiful.

The cushion is 24" x 24" and propped against the little cupboard my father made for my sister the year I was born.  It is a piece of furniture I treasure.

Next is Greta, the fingering weight cardigan.  I joined the sleeves and the body last night.  It is a good thing the cable on the circular needle is long to
accommodate the 457 stitches!  I will scout out some buttons next time I am at the shop.  Photos will be posted when the yoke has progressed.

Last week I got an email from Blue Sky to do some sample work--not knitted--and I am excited to work on it.

Saturday was spin-in at Anoka Fiber Works.  We had a pretty big crowd and had to move the circle bigger.  I may not be buying yarn, but when I saw the gorgeous clouds from Linda, I could not resist.  I have the light art yarn spun from the batt I made while visiting Joanne in Texas and the colors would look good with the blue and white cloud.

Dark Side of the Moon, a blend of Cormo wool and ink blue silk noil.  It is not  finished yet, but I made good progress.

A soft, fluffy cloud of BFL.

FOs and Old Man Wool Farm

Did you hear the latest? Deb of Old Man Wool Farm and I are dishing the dirt in front of the Debbie Gossip wheel.

It is time to post some finished projects.  I have been burning up the needles, spinning wheel, spindles, and loom with projects for work.  Here they are (not necessarily in order of completion).

30.10.14  Lots of projects going at the same time around here.  I have three samples for Blue Sky going (sorry, I cannot show them), some of the class samples are finished and on display at Amazing Threads, the Kaffe Fassett KAL is coming along.  I need to finish two of the squares in time for  the release of Clue 4 tomorrow, and it is time to cast on for my Custom Fit cardigan.  I am making the Acorn Trail with Frabjous Fibers March Hare (worsted weight) in Tulgey Wood, a lovely deep dark brown.  This yarn is special as it is dyed and spun in the USA and the inspiration is from my favorite story book Alice in Wonderland.

The Gansey Headband is a quick project and great stash buster.

Customized P Chullo hat.  Initials on the earflaps, 'I love wool,' and sheep adorn the top.  

Timber Mitt before cutting the loops.

Wavelength is a striking scarf.

Kaffe Fasset Mystery KAL from Rowan.  Clue 1

Clue 2

Clue 3

Intarsia in the round cell phone cozy.  Good tutorial.

Gansey Legwarmers.  I will need these soon!

Earlier this month AFW had a field trip to Deb Peterson's Old Man Wool Farm/Ewespun Fiber Mill.  It was a gorgeous day to visit the farm.  Deb fired up the card and blended a Jacob fleece with blue silk noil she dyed.  I purchased some fiber from Hidden Valley Farm and we loved the colorway called Dark Side of the Moon, a Coopworth/silk noil blend.  With half of the fiber spun into a single, I can spin the pound of Deb's into another single and then ply the two together.

It is fun to visit the sheep.

The llama was happy to butt in and get an apple treat.

This beauty had one of the top fleeces at Shepherd's Harvest this year.

One of Deb's wheels, a delicate French beauty.

The card had leftover colors, which looked really nice.  

Blue silk noil blended with Jacob.  This will go with my Cormo/silk noil blend.  Watching the roving come out is mesmerizing

Autumn was particularly colorful and the weather was just perfect this year.  

Pretty colors in the small wildflower garden.

The birch trees are always watching.

Some neighborhood turkeys joined me on my morning walk.

One of the yard critters.  We call them mini-bears at Philmont.  

I do not know how it happened, but this was a most unusual split!