Thursday throwback

April 24, 2024 

After returning from the knitting tour in Ireland last October, I finished the headbands from the Inis Mór workshop with Una McDonagh. In the morning before our workshop, we bussed to the visitor center and then hiked to Dún Aonghasa, an ancient stone fort, which is over 3,000 years old. On the way to the fort we stopped at Teampall Mac Duach (the Church of St. Mac Duach), an early 9th century (?) church dedicated to St Colmán Mac Duach.

 It was appropriately foggy and misty on the hike to Dún Aonghasa.

Teampall Mac Duach

After our hike, we took time to do some shopping in the village shops.

Knitting workshop after lunch.

Aran Headband with Chain Link Cable Stitch by Mairéad Sharry and Una McDonagh

Inis Oírr Stone Walled Garden Ear Warmer  (snail's trail cable) by Úna McDonagh

Tempus fugit 🕰

Wow, 2023 speeds ahead.  Using the wayback machine, I need to catch things up since last September. We went to Ireland the last week of October. We visited friends along the way and made it up to County Donegal.  It was a treat to see Studio Donegal, where the tweed continues to be woven by hand.  

The mill shop at Kerry Wollen Mill, Co Kerry, Ireland.

It is where I bought the Kerry Gold color way of KWM

Aran Wool 3ply.

A lovely green tweed warp. The sound of the 
shuttles going back and forth was nice to hear.

Looking down at the at the warping room and all

the cones of yarn. A look just to the left, and on to the...

Cutting and sewing room. Pattern pieces hanging

at the ready.

  A closeup of some lovely wool tweed pieces

for garments.

Piece by beautiful piece. 

I produced quite a bit of knitting the past year, and expanded the sweater choices for the Pick A Sweater class at beWoolen.

Blomst

Forêts Paisibles, Ris, Anthology,
and Dreaming of Provence 

Cassis, Goldwyn Folly (with a dash of Anthology), 
and Inovec

Of course there are WIPs. One is fingering weight, which I love (but what was I thinking?!) and the other two are Aran weight.  

Simple Sweater TCK

Classic Cardigan, TCK

Lara by Di Gilpin is a fun and quick knitting project.
Donegal tweed for the body and some leftover KWM
in Kerry Gold from the Cassis for the neckband.

Knit knit knit...size 6 = size 1

 05.09.22 Now that summer is waning, I am back to teaching classes.  The Ranunculus 2 was finished around the end of July. The process was much faster the second time thanks to my Ravelry notes.  This is a new addition to my Pick A Sweater Class at beWoolen.  The color is unusual, reminding me of the stormy sea color of Léttlopi I used for my April sweater and it has the color bits like the Ranunculus shop sample at BW.  Truthfully, I did not see the attraction of knitting this sweater until I finished the sample.  Noro Silk Garden Sock yarn is lovely and my knitting a size 6 to get the measurements of the size 1 worked beautifully.  It is a good lesson about using knitting gauge, sizing and some craft math to make it all work.  

After the yoke, it's smooth sailing

A go-with-everything sweater ❤️

Tweedy bits love

13.01.2021 

 I love rustic tweedy yarn.  This past year I have been enjoying using handspun and commercial  tweed yarns for my projects.  The bits of color add texture and interest when viewed up close,  and blend optically at a  distance.  

Small tapestry weaving in progress

 

It was a happy day when beWoolen yarn shop stocked Tahki Donegal Tweed.  The perfect project to highlight the lovely yarn was Doocot, by Kate Davies.  The pattern calls for DK weight yarn (11 WPI).  This yarn is Aran weight (8 WPI).  WPI means wraps per inch, a way to determine the thickness of yarn,  something I did not know about until I learned to spin.  It is also helpful to measure the WPI when a commercial yarn label is missing.  The Craft Yarn Council (a very helpful resource, by the way) has a chart showing the yarn weight system.  

Back to the sweater...to knit the appropriate size for myself, I went up with my needle size and yarn weight and down a pattern size and the numbers and measurements from the pattern were perfect with the correct amount of positive ease.  The only other adjustments I made were to the sleeve decreases, which I did every five rows to the cuff ribbing and to widen the neckband ribbing.  It worked out beautifully.

Tahki Donegal Tweed yarn for a sweater and a mini skein of handspun

Donegal Tweed, Fossil colorway

It helps to have a knitting buddy in the camper.  We were staying at Itasca State Park when the yurt was unveiled in Bemidji

There was enough leftover yarn for a pair of mittens

My second sweater with Donegal Tweed is Dacite.  I knit one for a yarn shop sample in 2014 and then taught a class.  I received an update to the pattern through Ravelry.  Carol Feller, the designer, updated the pattern with extended sizing.  It was a good opportunity to knit this sweater again and teach a class. The pattern is well-written and fun to knit, as there are lots of fun knitting techniques throughout.  In my excitement to take the sample to beWoolen, I did not snap a photo of the sweater when it was done blocking and the buttons added at the neck.   

Hot off the needles

The back has a natural dip (no short rows) because it and the sleeves are worked in stockinette stitch.

Camping

15.06.2020 It was lovely and breezy today, although a change is in the air.  The next two days will be very hot.  The good thing is that it will not last as long as it would in Alabama or Arizona.  We squeezed in our first (short) outing with the Escape Pod II last weekend. We went to Jay Cooke State Park, a place I camped with Ben when he was new to the Scout troop.  The swinging bridge that replaced the one washed out by a flood in 2012 is good place to stop and observe the rushing water and snap some photos.  We hiked the two mornings nice and early while the weather was cool.  The ferns and early summer flowers were blooming.

Jim and Gus on the swinging bridge

The view from the bridge was beautiful.

The weather was perfect and the hammock comfortable.

Hiking early in the day when the weather was nice and cool.

It was a treat to see gold lady slippers on the trail.

26.06.2020 Last week at this time we were camping at the Winnie Dam Campground in northern Minnesota's lake country.  It is on Winnibigoshish Lake in the Chippewa National Forest.  Speaking of forest, we hiked one of the trails, the Lost Forty, where the old growth pines are 300 to 400 years old and were spared from being axed due to a mapping error in 1882.  It was so beautiful but the mosquitoes were ruthless and stopping to take photos was difficult.  It was cool enough to be wearing hats, long pants and jackets, and some of the beasties managed to bite around our faces.  I snapped as many photos as I could.  On the way back to camp, we stopped along the Lady Slipper Scenic Byway to see the Pink and White Lady Slippers, Cypripedium Reginae (Showy Lady Slipper Orchid), Minnesota's state flower in bloom.  There was an elevated walkway at an interpretive site so one could view the natural surroundings and the wildflowers in bloom without disturbing the ground.  

How can one resist a big fish building?

 Part of the interpretive center on the Lady Slipper Scenic Byway.  

Jim and Gus relaxing on Father's Day.

Knitting a sock by the campfire...

...and watching the clouds roll by at sunset.

First the big fish and then the big black duck in Blackduck.

The Bemidji Woolen Mill was open and a small Paul Bunyan (sans Babe) came back with us.

Navigating a new normal

25. 03.2020
Originally this post was going to be a very different subject.  The North Artists Studio Crawl, classes scheduled at AFW, a new class to teach at BeWoolen, time spent with artist friends at the Rumriver Art Center, and finishing personal projects and projects to add to my studio space.  The projects are still in the works, however, life as we know it has changed.  Earlier today, Governor Walz announced the shelter in place order for Minnesota for two weeks.  I figured that we would not be far behind Wisconsin.  During the Jim and I have been keeping a low profile during the past couple of weeks.  The last public event for me was a brief demo at the Art-a-Thon on March 14, and then the Gansey class at Anoka Fiber Works.  By St. Patrick's Day, both the Art Center and AFW were declared temporarily closed.  Ben's girlfriend, Andi, had been in Iceland with a friend and the friend was able to catch her flight back to Seattle, but Andi's flight to MSP was cancelled.  She made it to Chicago, but was just one of many people in the massive crowds trying to navigate through customs for hours. We were all very grateful to know she was back in the USA, and eventually Ben was able to pick her up and bring her home.  Yesterday Jim, Gus and I visited the kids bearing gifts of coffee and toilet paper.  We were able to see them at a safe distance.  Because of any unknown exposure during her trip back to the States, Andi and Ben have (now) five more days of quarantine.

Gus and Tater Tot meet for the first time.  We all were happy to have a short visit.

In the meantime, I have been working on new projects.   

The class at BeWoolen will be the Anniversary sweater, but for myself, I am knitting the After sweater.  I made one for a sample at All About Yarn years ago and always wanted one for myself.  

01.04.2020
Life as we knew it changed quickly since I started this post.  Non essential businesses are closed, students are schooling online (where available) and for the most part folks are being good about social/physical distancing.  We can still get out to get some fresh air.  We picked up the camper and then did a little yard work.

Thankfully, there is plenty to do and to make.  Working on cleaning and clearing out drawers, organizing the art and fiber materials and tools.  Hopefully, the art closet will soon have some shelving, which will help contain the containers and free up some space in my small workroom.

We truly are in this together.  Stay well and take care.

Class one of three went and I will reschedule when everything opens up again.

A bit of cleaning--I knew I had a few old hankies, LOL

Gus was my yoga buddy.

Tea break!

The barn sweater and some spinning

13.02.2020

The barn sweater is named for the lovely red color of the yarn, which came to my stash in a round about way.  The original color of the wool cone yarn was tan and part of a stash, which ended up at Anoka Fiber Works after a yarn swap event years ago.  Mary, the shop owner, gave it to Linda, who dyed the yarn red and proceeded to knit a swatch for a sweater project.  The yarn was (and still is) not next-to-the-skin soft, the project was abandoned, and the remaining yarn was left at the shop with Mary.  Mary and I were having a chat about yarn, particularly sheep's wool and that not all knitting yarn needs to be soft to be useful in garments.  The bag of yarn ended up with me and the well-worn copy of Knitting Pure & Simple V-Neck Neckdown Cardigan For Women #994, was the logical choice for the project.

I added length to the bottom back with short rows and then knitted two by two ribbing at the cuffs, bottom, and the neck.  Seven light-color wood buttons from the button jar looked very nice with the red.  The fit is oversized, comfortable, and given the freeze and thaw of winter weather up here, the sweater works as a warm layer under a jacket or as an outer layer on the warmer days.  Either way, I wear a long sleeve shirt or turtleneck underneath and have no issues with scratchiness.  It is meant to be a working sweater, just like the well-worn garments I used to see hanging by a door on family farms many moons ago.

15 days pass...I love the sweater and have worn it often.  Yesterday, it was a great jacket!

Now, an update on another project!  I've been hand-carding and mixing colors for a small tapestry project using Lincoln Longwool from Snake River Acres and dyed wool from Ireland.  Carding the  the Longwool with the dyed wool makes drafting and spinning a smooth process.   The colors look so pretty lined up in the natural light near my easel.  I have a general idea of what to weave, but when a new idea pops into my head, I thank goodness for the notes feature and the iPencil with the iPad.

The weather is warming and the days are getting longer.  Spring is fast approaching and I have upcoming classes on the schedule at Anoka Fiber Works and BeWoolen.  The newsletter for AFW is released on the first of every month.  I'm excited about teaching a yoked sweater class at BeWoolen because the shop just got the first delivery of Lett Lopi yarn this week!  My classes at AFW include Stranded Colorwork, Yorkshire Buttons, and First Socks, a new class.

It's hot...again

The past week has been really nice, but the heat and humidity are on again!  I met with a student last week and she is working on a brioche knitting project.  Brioche is my knitting kryptonite by sucking all the fun out of my knitting.  The end result of the technique is visually striking, but I find it fiddly to get through the process.  It was time to pick up needles and contrasting yarn to give it another go, so I am now knitting the boot cuffs.  Early yesterday morning I finally found a video that showed the technique beautifully and I could watch it without sound!   Since the photos were taken, the knitting has been frogged no less than five times and this morning, I chose a blue heather wool instead of a contrasting ball of Kureyon.  Getting the hang of the technique just takes patience.  Now that I understand the construction of the stitches, I can work on my muscle memory.

It is tempting to call this an ugh project, but I do love the contrasting Noro colors together.  

Yesterday was a busy day in a good way.  the weather was beautiful for painting outdoors, I had lunch with a friend, sent in my class fee for a fun class on Monday with another friend, and then went to the shop.  The painting session was not as long because of lunch, but I managed to get a good start on a small painting of my favorite willow tree.  In the short time I was able to paint the light changed considerably.  Snapping photos with the phone was helpful and the sun was peeking through on the willow's bark in the last photo.

After I set up the easel, I snapped a photo.

The light changed considerably within a half hour.

I was happy to see the bright spots of light on the bark toward the end of the painting session.

 Last week I had the urge to use a couple of the foraged sticks from camping trips for weaving.  The small stick was one from a few years ago when I saw stick weaving at Shepherd's Harvest.  Andrea had it as a children's activity and I thought it looked like fun.  I used handspun scraps.  In that same vein of creativity, I borrowed the lap loom from Mary and warped it with some cotton.  This will be a small tapestry landscape.  It looks amazing in my head right now.