Yarn Love in Finland? Hooray!

2007-09-08T08:50:00.000-05:00

I must make a confession to all my blog-fiber-friends. I have Google set up to comb the internet and send me an alert for all of our yarn names, and our shop name. That's right. That usually means that I get alerted when some blogs about our yarn. (Have I confessed this before?) It's not vanity, my friends. No, it really isn't. I just feel so much satisfaction when I see someone knitting with a palette I've created for them. I feel that even though they crafted the final piece with their ingenuity and skill, that in a way, I am also a part of their creative process. That the end result is a sort of collaboration.....

This morning (via Google alert, and hence the opening paragraph) I found that Niina in Finland has some of our yarn! Perhaps this is only cool to me, because I dyed the yarn, and in some small measure each skein is like my "yarn baby". But still, something I dyed will be knit in Finland! Go check it out.

Order Away!

Two bigs orders went out this month. The largest going to The Loopy Ewe. And another, quite sizeable order to WoolGirl. The WoolGirl order is about 80% all new colorways, per Jennifer's request. And of course, this is where you can get our brand new, exclusive sock base: Elizabeth Bennet. Elizabeth is 65% superfine merino, 15% silk and 25% bamboo. Don't miss out, it's to die for! (Going up tomorrow, Sept. 9th, according to the store blog!)

For all those Loopy Groupies, the current order going to Sheri is our Scarlett O'Hara base. This is very similiar to our new base, but it's machine washable. 60% Superwash merino, 30% Bamboo, 10% nylon. I love working with this base. It's very squishy, with just a hint of sheen....

Pink Whirlwind - Finished!

Here are my Pink Whirlwind socks, finished. These are knit from Valentine, one of our new semi-solid colorways. (If you would like to see more semi-solid colorways, please request them at your favorite Yarn Love retailer.) This is the Zephyr sock pattern which I thought was going to be much harder to knit, but was a total breeze!

Where have you been?

2007-08-23T09:30:00.000-05:00

I have been intending to write this post everyday for the past two weeks. Every day, I get up with the best of intentions, even mulling over what I will write about (There's been tons of stuff going on here in the studio!) Then everyday, it's well past dinner time, I'm contemplating going to bed, and remembering that I didn't get the blog updated! Oi! So it's 9:30-ish AM and I am here chatting all of you up after trying to track down some lost yarn. (The word has gotten out, and UPS has confiscated my box of yarn. Little do they know it's not yet dyed....heh, heh, heh! I wonder when it will show up?)

What's new?
Yarn. There's lots of new yarn. WoolGirl.com is our latest shipment. It's a big one - nearly 100 skeins! (That's aboout 25 lbs of yarny goodness...yum!) WoolGirl.com is also the first store to order in our brand spankin' new, totally fabulous, custom spun sock yarn: Elizabet Bennet! Yep - Elizabeth Bennet is a luxury sock yarn: 65% Superfine Merino/20% Bamboo/15% silk. It's heaven in a sock yarn. It really is. Just note, that it is Superfine but not superwash, so give these babies the handwash loving.

Nearly all of these colorways are brand new - 18 new ones in fact! Enjoy them! The picture above is one of the new colorways. It's called Valentine and it's wonderful to work with. I accidentally dyed 2 skeins more than I needed and I quickly grabbed one and started some Zephyr Socks with it!

City Knitting in Michigan now has our sock yarn instock. They received the second half of their order last week, so go on in! They have two exclusive colorways, based on the beautiful bricks and paint colors decorating the inside of the store.

For Fun
Lime N Violet now have a daily knitting blog. They post lots of links to great articles, blogs, yarn and fiber daily. You need to check it out. It's great!

Have fun, and happy knitting!
~katie - who is now going to go dye some more yarn for The Loopy Ewe. Did you hear they're putting together a yarn retreat? woo hoo!

Empty Nest

2007-07-15T16:28:00.000-05:00

The studio shelves are feeling a bit empty since the departure of 240 skeins of Yarn Lovely goodness. I'm still recovering from the loss...er...something like that. It's so nice to feel that all the beautifully painted skeins are yours to do with what you will. I subconsciously plan projects for certain colorways and am a bit baffled when I actually have time to knit and the skeins are no longer there. Yes, I know that I could walk upstairs and dye some up for myself, but it feels like someone has played a cheap trick on me, nonetheless. I know it was there, and I just want it to be there now!

You see the torture that us indie dyers live with everyday? ;)

I have been knitting again. It's nice, and I miss it when I'm crazy busy pushing the yarn monster forward....i.e. dyeing a big order. Right now I have on the needles:
* Bellatrix socks: I am a member of Socktopia, but I've been remiss lately. Not in knitting socks, but in posting them. I can't get into the new forums, and it's really put a damper on my enjoying the group. Their patterns are amazing! I was supposed to be wearing these socks to Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix on opening night, but I didn't make it. I was too busy finishing my mom's birthday socks instead.

I'm using sport weight yarn for these, and changing the pattern substantially. It's really fun though, and I have two yarns picked out for another pair of these. I'm planning on holding them doubled, for a more spooky effect. The bottom of my current pair is ribbed - the large stitches created by the pattern were making me nervous (I ripped out 3/4 of a finished sock earlier today, because I was convinced having the large stitches across the bottom of my instep were just asking for them to wear out.) The heavier yarn makes the holes a lot bigger, so I'm also compensating by doing 3 additional knitted rows between the "holey" rows. I'll keep you updates as they grow.

* Simple Knitted Bodice: I'm knitting this up in kettle dyed Guinevere. She's an amazing 50% tussah silk/ 50% merino wool blend that's heavenly. I'm still at the swatch stage now. Nearly done with the swatch...or at least this one. I haven't measured it yet. The size 7s that I'm working on feel like small tree trunks compared to the 1s and 0s that I've been working with exclusively for the past two moths. I'll post some in progress pics as I move forward. This is my first sweater (Adult sized, that is.) and I'm terribly excited.

Yarn Love Hits Detroit
Get yourself over to City Knitting for Sockfest! You'll find us there! Say "hi!" to Lorilee for me too. More will be coming. Our Scarlett base has just come in after a long back order, and Lorilee will have the first shipment! Yay! Happy sock knitting!

Craft Education Online
For your crafting entertainment:
* Crochet and Knit 911
* Yarn Standards
* Embroidery Stitch Dictionary
* The Walker Treasury Project

Next post - crochet, crochet, and more crochet! Woo hoo!

The Yarn Has Left the Building.

2007-07-05T11:11:00.000-05:00

All 240 skeins of it. I ended up sending it all out on the same day. Cassie, the Yarn Helper Extraordinaire came by after work to help me get things out. If it weren't for her, I totally would not have made it. I managed NOT to cuss out my yarn winder, even though I really wanted to. (I should have bought the Fricke....and believe me, I am saving up!) It was a mad dash to the UPS store, and we arrived 4 minutes before they were supposed to close only to find that the metal gate had been pulled across the store front. Luckily, the gal who works there had just come to the front door to lock up. I hopped out, mustered a friendly, but pitiful face and asked if I could mail a box. Just one box, but a huge box. And when I say huge, I mean huge. To the tune of 70lbs of yarn, huge. With the flaps up, it's taller than my waist, with them taped down, mid thigh. Yeah, a really big box. So she graciously let me mail off the huge order to The Loopy Ewe. It was such a nice feeling. Next time, I will dye two days on, one day of winding so that I have a happy mix. It's just that the dyeing is so much fun and I'm addicted to putting colors together and seeing how they turn out. Frantic photos were snapped of the new colorways, while Cassie was busy plunking yarn into the box. We were carefully plunking, lovingly plunking, but with a decent amount of swiftness too....

It feels good to have such a large order off to it's home. I hope you all enjoy it when it makes it's way up at The Loopy Ewe. I especially hope that you enjoy the new colors. I had so much fun making them! I did however take a "knitting day" on Tuesday. I just sat and knit while listening to knitting podcasts all day....it felt good. I'm sure you know just what I mean.

"Knitting Day" Links
I've been gathering fun links for you. I am attempting to organize them via theme, so that they're more enjoyable and make more sense. So if you've been working hard, take time out to visit these sites, and put together your own "Knitting Day".

What is a "Knitting Day"? Well, a Knitting Day is a day where you spend the day doing things that are thoroughly enjoyable and allow you stop worrying about your usual cares. Knitting Days can be as long and short as you like, and I usually have more fun if I have one or two fun act ivies planned.

On my last knitting day I started some new socks, and continued working on a rather new project - my Jaywalker Scarf. I'm using the idea behind the Chevron Scarf and applying it to a slightly different ripple pattern. I tried doing the regular Chevron Scarf 3 times and couldn't get it to work out. Of course, I don't own the book, and it's out at the library. So I improvised. I'm using Cider Moon Flurry yarn in Positano and Pistachio. Hopefully it will be a great toned down accessory for my brand new, hot pink, knee length winter parka. mhm.

I cued up some backlogged knitting podcasts, put together a chocolate caramel mocha and went to town. It was lovely. I also cooked some yummy food for dinner, because I am all about yummy food. Oh, and I ordered Knitting Without Tears from Amazon too.

For your knitting day, here are some fun sites for perusing. They'll help you put together activities and fun for your very own Knitting Day.

Project Planning: cool weather is coming. It's time to play...er, plan!
http://www.knitty.com/ - awesome patterns. I really love the search function in the archives when I'm looking for something specific.
http://www.magknits.com/ - another lovely knitting mag
http://www.knittingpatterncentral.com/ - the mecca of free patterns. I love that it's broken down into very specific garments/project types.

Eating: Very important if you're a foodie like me
Pioneer Woman Cooks - the most hysterical food blog I've ever read. Definitely visit - even if you have no intention of cooking. Great looking recipes, too.
Cookie Chemistry 1 - a site about making great cookies
Cookie Chemistry 2 - another site dedicated to cookies
http://www.recipezaar.com/ - a huge site of free recipes
http://www.cookinglight.com/ - my favorite food magazine's online resource. Free recipes, yum!

Listening: Podcasts I love
Cast-On: with Brenda Dayne. My first love!
Knit Pick's Podcast: episode 10 has book recs for putting together a Knitting Night
CraftLit: amazing literature combined with wit and knitting. I love Heather, too.

Wasting Time: fun things to do when you just need to waste time
3D Paper Art: amazing and beautiful. You have to see it to believe it!
Hook Line and Sinker Game: don't ask how many hours I've spent doing this....
Post Secret: People make postcards with their secrets and mail them to this blog. It's a really intriguing place. Be aware that some secrets contain strong images and language. I always spend a good deal of time thinking after I visit.

There you go - a bit of a start to planning your own knitting day!

Winding a tangled web

2007-06-25T12:06:00.000-05:00

I'm in the middle of winding countless skeins of yarn. Ok. I have counted. I have 240 skeins of yarn to wind before Saturday. 180 of them need to be done by Wednesday - they're going to The Loopy Ewe. I had better get busy! Very, very busy.

While I've been winding (There are so many things to think about while watching your power winder spin around and around and around...) I've been thinking of ways to improve the content of the blog. A way to offer you some morsels of interesting, entertaining and useful information about yarn, knitting and life in general. So I'm going to be making more of a concentrated effort to bring you tips and news from the knitting and yarn world. I always like it when I stumble upon fun things on blogs and podcasts, and I want to "pay it forward" so to speak. (I've never seen the movie, btw.)

But before I get to the interesting tid bits, I have a question. Please help me! When I insert a picture, Blogger feels it's necessary to add carriage returns into the post. The more pictures, the more carriage returns. When I delete them manually, it dorks with the spacing of the text. Any tips or clues on how to stop that from happening? It usually feels free to not make the entire spacing of the post uniform and it's starting to drive me batty. I'm thinking of moving the blog to WordPress, but we'll see as that will be a significant amount of work.

Fun for you
www.Ravelry.com - a great new knitting community site that is coming online. It's more than a forum, and more than a blog. It's a wonderful conglomeration of flicker, forum and blog. They're adding people slowly, so if you haven't heard about this amazing site, jump on their wait list!

www.StumbleUpon.com - I heard about this site on a non-knitting podcast. (Oh the horror! Don't tell my knitting friends....oh wait, you are my knitting friends.) This is a rating system for websites. You tell it your interests, and use the toolbar to rate the sites you've been to. StumbleUpon keeps track of your interests and tailors it's suggestions based on your ratings. It's like the rating features of Amazon or Netflix for the internet. You know you want to. Think of all the knitting sites you could Stumble Upon!

Nicholas Nickleby - this movie was released in 2002 and is based on Dicken's book of the same title. I loved it. Of course, I love both the new and the old Pride and Prejudice. I highly recommend it if you're into that sort of movie. Even my lovely DH enjoyed the film. Dickens' characters are so great and interesting.... I found it via a Netflix rec.

Knitter's Connection Fun!

2007-06-19T21:07:00.000-05:00

I thought you'd all like to see what fun Knitter's Connection was. Ok, in truth some of these photos are a little on the bland side, because you can't hear all the fun conversations and bustle going on around you. And it was serious Knitting Rockstar Land. I kid you not. How often do you sit there laughing while Shannon Okey and Miss Violet chat it up in your booth? Or go out to dinner with a huge group of knitters including Miss Lime, Miss Violet and Side Show Husband? Or for that matter see Cat Bordhi winding her way through the displays of yarn on several occasions while smiling and nodding to all the people around? That is not an ordinary vacation, let me tell you. Oh, and I didn't even mention the indie dyer contingent that was perpetually in motion from booth to booth chatting with customers and sharing tips....before I get carried away, don't let me forget the sweet, wonderful, lovely customers. I talked so much during this weekend that I was hoarse for 3 days. My mother would call every day afterward because she was afraid that I was going to get a terrible cold any minute....but no, not so much that as Katie talked more in 5 days than she usually does in a year. About knitting. It was nirvana. The only thing missing was my family. I didn't sleep much at night because every time I rolled over in bed and my darling husband wasn't there I would wake up. So next time, he's coming with! Oh, yeah!

I promise that I haven't forgotten you. The past three weeks have been a whirlwind of activity. Dh and I spent 10 days in Tuscany....drool.....I am in love with Italy. We spent our time in a villa in the countryside and touring around Florence. Lucca was my all time favorite town. I'm going to retire in a knitting commune there as soon as I have the money to fix up a villa. Then 10 days at home to prepare for the show. 5 days gone - including two 11 1/2 hour road trips with the time jam packed with non-stop knitting and yarn action....And now I'm on a strict dyeing regime to get my orders for this month done and out to you! The Loopy Ewe is getting our first big order which will go out before month's end, but you'll need to check out Sheri's blog for an idea of when it will actually post. It's 2/3 brand new, never been seen colorways. You won't want to miss out.

The next order is for Purls the Yarn Studio, here in Des Moines. They've been a little lacking on the Love lately, so we'll be sending lots more their way!

I think my favorite part of the show was sitting in the Cider Moon booth before the floor opened, in a huge pile of yarn....just feeling it and trying to decide what to take home. I ended up with two skeins of sock yarn and 24 mini skeins for some amazing Endy-Bits-Swatch Socks. One pair is done and I'll post pics as soon as I've got some. The gals over at Cider Moon are amazing, and it was wonderful to meet them. We had the privilege of going out to dinner with them the last night of the show, and it was just perfect. Karida of Neighborhood Co. was also with us, and a more talented dyer you won't find. If you're looking for a new fiber friend, be sure to check them out!

More yarn on the website as soon as it's back from the photographer. Of course, I still have to take it to her, but that should be soon!

Photo Key - for those of you who want to know!
Photo 1: the Yarn Love Booth
Photo 2: Indie Dyer Line Up L to R: Cassie (Yarn Love Helper), Me, Jackie of Cider Moon, Gail of Cider Moon, Karida from Neighborhood Co.
Photo 3: Knitters at Dinner including: Gerry, David, Lizzie, Violet and Miss Lime
Photo 4: Looking down the row toward Cider Moon

Playing Hookie!

2007-05-31T12:12:00.001-05:00

Seven days in Tuscany! Sigh! That's my husband and I enjoying gelato in Lucca - our favorite town of those we visited. I'm back in the studion now and dyeing up a storm.

Imminently on the horizon is Knitter's Connection! Melissa has emailed to say she's planning on making the trip up, (Can't wait to meet you!) and I hope you'll come too! I love meeting people who've lovingly adopted my yarn. It makes me happy. I'll also get to meet Fran, who is the wonderful lady behind the entire show. She is a customer of mine, and went out of her way to extend a personal invitation to exhibit at the show. She's the reason you'll find us there. Thanks, Fran! I'm trying not to daydream to much about meeting Lime N Violet while I'm there. I want too, but I know they're so busy....and I'll probably just stutter, sputter and drool on myself if they actually stop by. How professional is that!

Next up, The Loopy Ewe!

If you love shopping at The Loopy Ewe - our next order is slated to be delivered the end of June. It's been a long wait this time around due to Knitter's Connection and my Tuscan Vacation. But don't worry. We've got an agreement with Sheri to keep her supplied every 4-6 weeks from here on out, so you won't be waiting forever. Oh, and Sharon is sending along 3 new colorways in this shipment, so keep your eyes open for her work.

Thanks, Becca!

I have a confession to make. I have Google Alerts set up to notify me if people are talking about my yarn on the internet. I don't even have the decency to have it sent to me as a digest - it delivers a new email for every new link it finds. Luckily, it found this lovely post by Becca. It has a picture of my Shipwreck yarn knit into socks. I love that! Thanks, Becca , for making my day! Go see her blog and work here. (Scroll about 1/2 way through the May 29th post.)

Back to work for Katie. Yarns are waiting to be dyed, you know!

Old News!

2007-04-18T19:21:00.000-05:00

Yarn Love was available at The Loopy Ewe!
Ahem, notice the past tense. I was so excited to see that our first shipment to Sheri of The Loopy Ewe went up today. I noticed around 2:15pm, and placed an order. The site was running pretty slowly, so I figured there were a good number of shoppers. Today, at 7:15pm there was at least one skein of one colorway left. So thanks to you all who ordered nearly 96 skeins of Yarn Love today at The Loopy Ewe. You all made my day!

I was going to send this out as a notice via the newsletter, but since they're nearly all gone that seems cruel. So all you, my lovely bloggers will get to read about it here. Sheri ordered "new" colorways that aren't on our website. So 11 out of her 12 were "new"! Check back in the next month + as I'm sure more will become available!

Happy knitting to the lucky purchasers!

More in store

2007-04-17T15:53:00.000-05:00

vc ss
I've spent the past two days brewing up some new colors for the summer collection. At first, I envisioned the colors to be vibrant and saturated and bold, but what's actually come out of the dye pot has been a little different. Sometimes inspiration comes and you just have to go with it. So three new colorways were born in the past two days at the studio and I think they're lovely. The interesting thing about dyeing yarn is that you can play with colors that you may never choose to knit with. Everyone perceives color differently and has a different emotional response. It's refreshing to be able to work with color that wouldn't be my first choice. I find it to be very rewarding, and have really surprised myself at how much I like those colors that at first glance weren't very "katie". I don't know why but it's so deeply satisfying.

Loopily Stalking
I've been stalking the Loopy Ewe just waiting to see my yarn up during this week's sneak up. I only get to check in between dye pots so if you see it up, let me know!

Gotta run, the new yarn is calling for me!

If you go a little Loopy....

2007-04-16T14:57:00.001-05:00

Yarn Love has gone Loopy! If you shop at The Loopy Ewe, you might have already heard this, but Yarn Love sock yarns will be available there this week! We are very thrilled to be working with Sheri and her staff. She's so sweet and has some of the best customer service around, not to mention tremendous customer benefits. Stop by her site and enjoy her beautiful yarns!

Here is a greyscale picture of the 96 skeins I sent her way. This is by far the largest, single order I have ever filled and it was quite a challenge. I did have a great feeling of accomplishment when it was all dyed up and ready to go. See it in color at The Loopy Ewe.

Nice to meet you! (at Purls)

It was lovely to meet all of you who came to Purls this Saturday while I was there. I took a pile of yarns with me, and got to chat about yarn for four hours! What could be better? A huge thanks to Martha for hosting me. Purls has been restocked so go check it out. There are matching skeins of our luminous and shiny Joan of Arc along with a fuzzy mohair for working a scribble lace stole or shawl. I was so inspired by the pattern Marth showed me on Saturday, that I started knitting my own version over the weekend. This pattern is the free lace shawl published by Knitter's Review and it works up super quickly!

Ham's Jam Knitting Bag

I just have to post about these truly remarkable bags. Dena, the owner and artisan behind Ham's Jam bags is a friend of mine. This is the knitting bag that she created for me. I have a few other things from her - a small trick or treat bag (ok they're really my kids) and a to-die-for needle roll. I think this baby is going to top them all.

So this is the biggest of her knitting bags. And yes, I said bags. She's got a couple smaller designs for people who don't need huge. I tend to keep all WIPs in my bag, which is much smaller than this. It has two elasticized pockets inside which come with interchangeable satin drawstring pockets. That way you can easily pop your current project ball into and out of the pockets. The ball stays put, and you can work out of the bag tangle free. This is an adaptation of grommeted pockets. Grommets are great, unless you want to switch projects and you'll end up cutting the yarn to remove the balls from the pockets. On the other side of the inside of the bag you can choose what kind of pocket's you'd like: straight needles, circular needles or crochet hooks. Mhm, so hookers rejoice - she's thought of you too. The number of pockets varies by what size you choose. Then there's the big, external pocket for your patterns or keys or what-have-you.

If that weren't enough, it comes with a small pouch to put your little things in: DPNs, stitch markers, tape measure, scissors, etc. That pouch is envelope style with a magnetic clasp. I love it!

If you want more needle space, order a matching needle roll! Dena does those for DPNs, Circs, straights and hooks, too. All in all, this bag is to die for! A while back, I did a collaboration with Dena where we sold this bag full of hand dyed yarn..... and I knew I needed one. So now I've saved my pocket money and I get one of my own. I'm thrilled. Oh, and I should mention that Dena has some of the most rigid quality standards I've ever come across. Her sewing is perfection. Seriously, perfection. Thanks, Dena!

For all of you lucky enough to make it to Knitter's Connection this June, I'll have some of these available for purchase in the booth. Since these are entirely hand crafted, I'll only have a limited number. So come see us first if you're interested!

Busy Spring!

2007-04-06T20:00:00.000-05:00

It has been so busy at the studio lately. I've been dyeing non-stop in order to get a large order out to our newest wholesaler: The Loopy Ewe! I am terribly excited to be among the very talented dyers featured there. A giant thank-you to Sheri! Look for our yarn to be there in the next few weeks.

The Loopy Ewe will have many colorways that aren't available anywhere else, including our site, so be sure to stop by. Sheri has superb service and I know you'll be tickled you got your yarn there.

Manly Yarn Contest Winners!
Now it's time to announce the two winners of the Manly Yarn Contest: Lorrie (LUherek) and ~*emily*~! Congratulations you two! Thanks to everyone for their great suggestions. I've already started dyeing up new colorways for gifting to the special men in your life. They will be unveiled early June at Knitter's Connection in Columbus, OH. Oh, and I've renamed the Manly Yarn Collection the Mr. Darcy Collection after one of my favorite book characters.

Happy Knitting!

All is right with the world!

2007-03-27T10:26:00.000-05:00

Rejoice! Spring is here! That and the studio computer is back up and running after 11 days of being out of commission. The loaner was great in the mean time, but it's wonderful to have "my" computer back.

The lilacs have a halo of green around them behind the studio, and our grass is greening up nicely. It's been in the mid 70's here, and I spent many hours this weekend playing outside with the kiddos. We have three small kiddos - the twins, Miss E and Miss G - are one month away from their third birthday and Mr.X is 16 months old. They love being able to go outside after the long winter. We made a new discovery - sidewalk chalk! It was supposed to be for their Easter baskets, but the weather was too nice to wait.

This yarn is a new colorway that will be available in our Summer Collection. It's dyed on a natural, superfine merino, sportweight yarn. It will be making it's debut at Knitter's Connection and then be available via the site!

Manly Yarn - tell me now!

Just a gentle reminder that the deadline for the contest is coming up quickly - March 31st (at midnight). Send in your ideas for a chance to win! I've already started dyeing up some of my favorite suggested colors, so those will be along shortly. Remember, even if I don't use your suggestion for the first release of Many Colors, you can still win. You'll get to pick your choice of colorway, too. Who wouldn't like to go shopping for free! Oh, and the Manly Yarn Collection will actually be called the Mr. Darcy Collection. It's more in keeping with our site theme.

Free Wool Wash

Our shipment of wool wash came in yesterday afternoon! We're offering a new incentive at Yarn Love. Order two skeins of yarn, and receive a free sample size of wool wash (Good for 3-4 washings.) Order three skeins or more and receive a free full sized bottle of wool wash. It's 4 oz, and it will last you a good long time!

This is the wool wash that I use for the final rinse of all Yarn Love yarns. It contains natural lanolin to condition the wool fiber. Plus, it's very low sudsing, so you don't have to worry about surface felting if you've used a natural wool yarn. It's also great for any other wool garments that you've knit.

Just put WoolWash4Me in the coupon line when you order. And if you sign up for our newsletter, there's another way to get free wool wash!

~katie

And we're back!

2007-03-16T14:27:00.000-05:00

We are back in business after a few days delay due to a blown motherboard on our studio computer. We now have full access to the site and to email via a loaner computer while ours is getting put back together. For the short term, however, there won't be any pretty pictures on the blog. My camera driver disagrees with the loaner computer (which is pretty darn old and slow!) so I can't pull pictures off to post for you. And since this isn't my regular hard drive, I can't pull pretty pictures that I've taken previously, either.

Order Update
If you placed an order recently, it's on it's way to you. We are currently caught up on shipping. There was an extra delay for some customers who ordered over the weekend - you'll find a little surprise in your package as a "thank-you" for your patience. I hate to make you wait!

Limeade And Violet
There will be more instock Limeade and Violet up in the store early next week. We sold out after Miss Violet mentioned us in this week's podcast. Don't fear, more is on the way. Scarlett and Joan will be dyed up over the weekend, and Juliet will follow later. I'm out of Juliet stock at the moment, but the shipment should be here by midweek.

Now, I must get off to dye and reskein some more Limeade and Violet!

Yep, still here

2007-03-12T09:06:00.000-05:00

I know that I have been "away" from the blog for longer than usual this week. I wanted to leave the Manly Yarn Contest in the top spot for a good long time. It was featured on the Knitting Cook this week and I didn't want all the listeners to have to scroll to find the contest.

Exciting things have been happening around these parts. I got a large yarn order in on Friday and also my power skeiner! It's new and it works wonderfully. I'm very excited about it. I've been ramping up production recently to accommodate more dyeing for the Knitter's Connection show, and my wrist was getting very sore. (I used to hand wind every hank off the cone and then rewind it into skeins you see in the store. Ouch!) I figured that at my ideal production rate I would be winding 15 miles worth of yarn a week. It was just too much. So here's Bessie - the new workhorse of the studio. You won't notice any difference in the Yarn Love yarn, but I sure will! Yay! We've been getting to know each other over the weekend and I think we're going to have a great working relationship.

Her photo is at the bottom of the post, because she's big and makes for a pretty dull picture. The pic up above is a fraction of what I skeined on her over the weekend.

Loopy Yarns
In case you don't get our newsletter (To sign up go to our homepage, and input your email address in the form at the bottom right of the page. It's easy.) you might not have heard that Yarn Love will now be available at Loopy Yarns in Chicago. We're dyeing up two exclusive colorways for their upcoming Sock Club, so drop by and sign up, the yarn is gorgeous. A big thanks to Kristen at Loopy Yarns, too.

Purls the Yarn Studio
Purls in Des Moines, Iowa just got a big order of Yarn Love in, too. It's nearly all sock yarn, so if you're in the area and love socks (or have that great knitting book about what else you can knit with sock yarn) drop by. Shopping locally means you don't have to wait for the post office to deliver your yarn.

Yarn Love Fiber
If you're a hand spinner then you'll be glad to know that we have Yarn Love spinning fiber in the works. It will be debuted at Knitter's Connection. The fiber content will match our already spun yarns and it will be dyed up in our colorways. We'll have selections from our three collections: Spring, Summer and Manly, too.

I'll leave you contemplating the utilitarian beauty of Bessie, the latest addition to the studio!

The Official Manly Yarn Contest

2007-03-01T07:58:00.000-06:00

A couple days ago, I posted about the Manly Yarn Contest. I thought that I would give it it's own post and make things easier for all contestants wanting to play!

Here's the deal:

You - provide your idea(s) for the perfect skein of manly yarn - the one that you want but can never find. The "perfect" skein for knitting and gifting to the favorite man in your life, or at least one he won't look down upon as girly.

Me - I put your name into a drawing for at least one skein of free sock yarn from Yarn Love. (You'll get to choose!) If we get a lot of entries, I'll increase the boodle accordingly. I'll draw the winner April 1st and let them know.

Stats -
* You can enter multiple times, as long as you provide a unique color idea each time

* Enter by posting a comment or emailing me at katie AT shopyarnlove DOT com (remove at & dot and insert appropriate symbols)

* Anyone can win and you don't have to buy anything! So even if your particular suggestion or suggestions doesn't make it into the inital Manly Yarn Collection at Yarn Love, that's no reason for not being able to win.

* Be as specific as you can about color. Include links, graphics or pics of the colors you have in mind if you can.

* Tell your friends. Seriously, this is free sock yarn! Grab a button and tell your friends about it.

The first Manly Yarn Collection will be available with the Summer Collection, early May 2007. This is your chance to be a part of it!

Don't Do It.

2007-02-28T08:54:00.000-06:00

Don't go over to Sheri's blog. You know, Sheri from The Loopy Ewe. And come to think of it stay far, far away from her site. It's better (or worse, depending upon how you look at it) than crack. Fortunately for me, she's mostly sold out of many fantastic hand dyed yarns. So I only bought some Panda Cotton. Lol! Only. I'm supposed to be saving money for the upcoming business events. It never fails, if I'm not "saving" money I'm good about not spending it. But when I'm "saving" money you can just watch it fly out of my wallet. Perhaps I should just stop saving. *giggle* Anyway, Sheri posted these super cute sheep stitch markers in Project Spectrum colors. That's right. Irresistible. Don't click the link in the side bar unless you're prepared for the consequences. *wink* Remember, I warned you.

Completion Issue Socks
They're finished now. They actually have been for two weeks - but I've been too busy wearing them to take pictures. So here are a few for you to enjoy. This is the last day of the month and it seems appropriate that I should be posting them now. These are for Socktopia, of course. They are the second go at this month's theme. The first pair - the Tiger Eye lace socks are just past the heel turn. They were a bit more involved than I anticipated.

These are knit from Emu Superwash - it's a DK weight yarn. They are my first pair of machine washable socks! Also my first knit from commercially spun yarn instead of my hand spun. I cast on way too many stitches at the toe. 16, I think. That would have been a good number for fingering weight yarn, but it makes these toes a bit wide. Plus, the socks are a tad bigger than I prefer all the way around, due to the fact that I didn't swatch. I just cast on at the toe and tried on as I went. Next time, I'll swatch so I get a better fitting sock.

The pattern is my own. A very simple combination of Sand Stitch and ribbing. They're nice and stretchy. Easy to knit but not terribly boring. They're also a bit shorter than I like, but I ran out of yarn, so there's not much to do there. They are totally wearable with slippers and great for around the house. I think they'll also be good for Christmas time next year as they show mostly red and green.

Tiger Eye Lace Socks

The pair that aren't finished today. They won't be either. I'm just past the heel turn. They are really pretty, though. And I am getting faster at this whole lace thing, too. This is pretty much my first outing with any sort of more complicated lace pattern. I've done some simple stitch patterns but nothing this involved. It's also my first time designing with lace. I noticed a couple nights ago that the difficulty rating on this pattern is "Experienced". Oh, well. I'm enjoying it!

I'm through the heel now and about 1" into the cuff. I added a little 9 st lace detail to the center back, and ribbing in between to keep them nice and snug. Should be pretty. I found a great website dedicated to sock toes and heels both for cuff down and toe up. It's fanastic - you can find it here. I did the No Pickup Gusset Heel, version 2. It worked out just fine! I do like it alot. The pics below show you the progress. These are knit from Tofutsies color 724.

Knitter's Connection - here we come!

2007-02-27T09:58:00.000-06:00

If you're in or around Columbus, OH, make plans for the first weekend in June. We want to meet you at Knitter's Connection! The exhibitor contract went in yesterday, and now all the hard work begins. This is a huge step for me and the business. Usually, everything is done out of our home and on my schedule. Now I'm stepping out of my comfort zone, travelling and working with a deadline. I'm feeling giddy and a bit like I want to hyperventilate all at once. I'm going to opt for celebrating so the responsible side of me doesn't take over. Hurray for Knitter's Connection.

Come see us. We want to meet you! We'll bring the yarn.

Limeade And Violet Benefit
Just a reminder that $2.50 from every skein of Limeade and Violet yarn sold will be donated to help defray Miss Violet's medical expenses. It's going to be announce on their podcast this week, and I anticipate that the skeins we have will sell quickly. If you'd like some without having to wait for a custom dyed order, get it now. It's very pretty and lovely to see how the exact same dyes look different on various base yarns. You can find all our Limeade and Violet yarn by selecting the Limeade and Violet category on our yarn page. Every skein of Limeade and Violet has a pretty pink ribbon on the picture so you can easily locate them while browsing our other categories, too! See how we like to make shopping easy for you?

They're free - take one
If you'd like to link to us, please feel free to take a button of your choice from the sidebar on the right. We love meeting new yarn friends!

Manly Colorways - Free Yarn!
I am putting together ideas for a Manly Yarn Collection - colors that you can knit up for that beloved man in your life. You know the one who you'd love to gift with a handknit, but he claims all yarn is girly. (Doesn't have to be a significant other - brothers, dads and friends all can fall into this category.) I want your ideas! Please tell me, quite specifically, what colors you think would be a great part of a Manly Yarn Collection. I'm looking for both solids and multi color colorways. Send pictures or swatches of colors or a specific description, please! Let's get the men in our lives something to wear proudly. You can leave ideas in the comments section or email me at: katie AT shopyarnlove DOT com - remember to replace the AT and DOT with appropriate symbols!

If you leave a comment or email me, I'll put your name into a drawing for a free skein of sock yarn of your choice. Last day for entry is March 31st, so I have time to dye & photograph these for the release of our Summer Collection, early May.

Frank? Martha? Excitement!!!!

2007-02-21T15:52:00.000-06:00

I discovered several things today.

First Discovered Thing:

I can put linked pictures in my side bar again. I've been hating New Blogger because I couldn't figure out how to put freaking linked pictures into my side bar. I've been beating my head in frustration. Then a sweet, sweet knitter over at KnittyBoard.com (thank-you adriennec!) told me how to do it. (Go to the Layout portion of the dashboard. Select add new page element, choose HTML/Javascript Element and go to town.) New Blogger has been spared my wrath for the moment.

I have serious patience issues when I have to relearn things I already "know" how to do. I mean, seriously, don't these blogger people realize i have three children under the age of three to care for and mountains of yarn to dye? Huh? Huh? I think I'll write and suggest that they improve their help section....you know to be more helpful.

Second Discovered Thing:

Sheri of the TheLoopyEwe has a super fun blog! Go visit TheLoopyEwe for incredible sock yarn. You know, the super drool-worth stuff. Anyway, Sheri has this fun quiz about whether or not you're a Martha or a Frank when it comes to socks. Go take it. You'll like it - unless you hate that sort of thing. And this quiz has a fun contest and challenge to go along with it. The challenge is that you knit a pair of socks out of the ordinary for you. You know, to help you branch out and get past the rut of your usual modus operandi. I've been trying to re-evaluate and change things in my life that seem like a rut lately and this is a fun one. Especially since I'm also doing Socktopia and I can do two things at once.

By the way, I'm a Frank. Apparently, according to the quiz, I'm split 50/50 between Martha and Frank, but after reading what Martha and Frank mean, I am definitely a Frank. In fact, I kind of like it when my socks don't match each other. It's the artist in me, what can I say? Why limit yourself to one color and one kind of sock when you clearly have two feet? Maybe the Frank tendency is why I'm not so stylish. My fashion is probably also severely inhibited because I spend most days in "dye clothes" which are the oldest, frumpiest clothes that I have. That way if they get "blessed" with dye, I'm not upset. Believe me, I have blessed myself, my counters, my kitchen, my floor and more with dye unintentionally over the years. I've even spilled a substantial amount of purple in my hair. I was hoping that it would actually stick (despite the fact that it was randomly sprinkled and splotchy) but it washed out after two showers. Should have heat set it with the dryer before washing, I guess!

And the reason that I'm pretty excited is that I have some big business plans in the works! I'm still plotting like mad to make it to the Knitter's Connection this summer, but one or two other plans have to fall into place before I can do that. Sigh. More details later. I don't want to leak my chickens before their hatched and then tell you how it didn't happen later. (Don't you just love my mixed cliches and metaphors?)

(The photo is some blatant yarn swag. It's what I've been itching to pull off my Yarn Love stock shelf and knit up. I only have one left and even though I can easily dye more, I'm trying to be very good and wait until I've got my Tiger Eye lace socks off the needles. We're not even 1/2 way there, so it's going to be a while. Itch. Itch. Must.not.give.in.....yet.)

All grown up in three short weeks

2007-02-19T12:17:00.000-06:00

You may remember forever ago, when I posted a picture of twin potties, sitting there new in the filter summer morning sun. Another picture of two girls sitting on their new potties in the summer morning sun. Well, the summer morning sun has faded into the the thin, clear light of cold air, and the potties are no longer gleaming and new. Three weeks ago today the girlies announced to me that they wanted to wear their big girl panties. I assented on the condition that from that day forward they would not wear diapers again.

The first day was hell. They went every 10 - 15 mintues. There was no "holding it"; they went as soon as their bladdder had anything in it. Forget the timer at an hour, or 30 minutes or even 20....between the two of them, 10 minutes was usually too long. The second day was better. At least we could go 30 minutes between accidents. The third day Miss E started to go. She was good about peeing but forget poop. Halfway through the fourth day Miss G went once! We still don't spend a lot of time out of the house, and nights are spent in Pull Ups, but they now go without prompting. Only occasionally is there an accident and that's usually due to not getting pants pulled all the way down before proceeding.

Today they called me upstairs to the bathroom, and proudly pointed to the two potties. Both has "presents" of the solid type in them. They'd been sitting up there, side by side pooping. They were so proud. They are so big. Birthday number three is still nearly two months away and they can now go poop on the potty by themselves. I see them gaining independence every day. I miss the little girls they used to be. I love the toddlers they are. I wonder what happened to the time and why I didn't notice the changes. The tiny changes every day, so small they sneak past consciousness until the change is so defined it can't be missed. I remember with perfect clarity the day we brought them home from the hospital. Both 18" long, one weighing slightly less and the other slightly more than 5 pounds. It's bittersweet. Change is here. Change is coming. I wonder what's next?

Today I took a 1/3 knit wash cloth off my shelf, cut it off the two balls of yarn it was being knit from and then hacked it into small rectangles, about 1" in width. Am I dangerously insane? I think not. I just thought that I could pull out some of the ends and spin it into yarn. I do wonder what people would say if (the fiber uninitiated) were able to peer through my office window to see me happily cutting a hand knitted object into shreds. It was freeing, though. No more UFO staring me down from it's jumbled and unhappy corner of the open yarn shelves.

Yarn Swag: just another pound and a half of Joan of Arc gracing my workspace today. I've been rewinding and banding it this morning. The electric winder isn't finished, and every skein of yarn that I dye is skeined and reskeined by hand. In fact, the entire process from cone to finished hank is compeletely done by hand. Hand crafted has a distinct meaning to me. I like that with every skein I mail to its new home, I am fighting mass production. I like that every knitter who uses Yarn Love yarn sees my impression in the strands that flow through their hands. I am a small part of their creative process.

The Caffeine Dumps, Flying Yarn and Hot Fridges

2007-02-17T10:48:00.000-06:00

And here are the fruits of my labor in various stages of skeining. Sometimes the yarn is so pretty, it just breaks my heart to send it away. A rocking chair full of yarn is one of those simple pleasures of life......

*******************************************

This week has been a flurry of activity. Last week was too, but it wasn't good activity. It's the kind of activity where you feel like you're running 90 miles an hour just to spin your wheels while someone beats you over the head with a two by four. Let's just say that I never want to repeat last week ever again. It wasn't wholesale tragedy or anything like that. Just entirely unpleasant and inconvenient and lots of stressors coming one right after another. The last hurrah of the previous week was the refrigerator deciding it didn't want to work. It had been a little warm on the door, but then cooled back down one day last week so I just assumed one of the girlies held the door open too long. Sunday morning we woke up to find any open dairy item soured. So we loaded all our food into our big camping cooler and stuck it on our deck in the snow and frigid air. Despite the inconvenience of having to make multiple trips out to the deck for any refrigerated item we were doing pretty well. Called a couple of repair places and discovered no one could get here until Wednesday. Grrr, but at least the food is OK in the cooler. Forecast is for cold temps, so we should be OK. The very good repair man comes Wednesday and identifies what we need but has to order it. So more deck food until midday on Friday (yesterday! No fridge for 5 days with 3 kids under the age of 3....starting to get on my nerves.) So the part is in, the freezer is good and frozen and the repair guy says "Load her up! You're in business!" The fridge seemed much cooler so we did. We had company for dinner and proceeded to put all our beautiful bourbon marinated flank steak with garlic mash and decadent chocolate cake into the fridge before spending the evening talking and having fun. This morning we wake up to a fridge that is 60 degrees. Ugh! Ugh! Ugh! Crap! Stupid fridge!

Ahem, apparently Mr. N is one of the handiest men around because he looked it up on the internet, pulled apart some apparatus in the fridge and found the problem. The space that conducts the cold air down from the fridge and the "warm air returns" were completely blocked with ice. That meant no cold air could get into the fridge and the warm air stayed in the fridge instead of moving up into the freezer to be returned as cold air. So he dried those out with a hair blower and sucked all the air intakes out with our vacuum...it made a huge mess in the kitchen which the girlies thought was the funnest thing ever. And wah lah! We're back in business....at least I supposed until the thing blows up tomorrow morning.

At least the upshot of all of this is I have an extremely clean fridge. If you want to lick your food right off the fridge shelf, just stop on by!

Besides the frenetic emptying and reloading of the fridge, I've also been on a dyeing tear. Some more yarn came in for an order and I've been busy getting it all ready to go out the door. It's always nice to dye and have the fun of reskeining it all. It's so pretty just slipping through my fingers on it's way to the swift. Each skein has it's own nuances and it's neat to see the differences develop. Yarn Love has been selling like hotcakes, and I've been putting together many packages for shipping. Mr. N drives right by the mailbox every day on his way to work, so I handed him a stack of four and asked if he would drop them off. It's been 0 degrees actual temp with a foot of snow on the ground for the past few weeks, and I just didn't feel like walking down the drive to the mail box only to return as a snowman. A few minutes later, I see these four, beautifully wrapped packages of $200 worth of yarn sitting on his trunk as he backs down the driveway!!! So, I did what any self respecting yarn dyer would do. I threw open the door, ran out into the snow in my slippers while waving my arms frantically and all the time picturing the packages, my beautiful babies, hitting the dirty, sandy, salty snow of the street. He nonchalantly rolls the window down, assures me he knows they're there and proceeds to go merrily on his way.

They all made it safely into the mailbox. I was still cold. And mostly baffled at why he would do that.

And my favorite part of having a distracted week: the Caffeine Dumps. Let me start off by saying that when I am pregnant I don't have caffeine. When I am nursing I don't have caffeine. Caffeine in pregnancy causes the baby's brain to work differently and there's preliminary evidence showing that it causes a host of problems such as ADD, etc. When I'm nursing my body is hyper sensitive to it, and a cup of 1/2 caff, 1/2 decaf coffee will have me laying in bed awake 15 hours after I drank it. So I prefer to stay away. However, now that my nursing relationship with X is minimal (he nurses once or twice in the night) and can have some. But I'm still working my way up and rarely ever get above 1/4 caff, 3/4 decaf blend. Unless I'm so distracted by my funky fridge and copious quantities of dyeing that i don't count the scoops of coffee right.

Oh, the thrill of the caffeine high! I am getting so much done! I feel so great! My kids have never been such angels. Never mind that you can't see the floor in the family room due to the layer of toys. I'll have them picked up in a jiffy. Right after I finish these last 10 pounds of yarn.

Two hours later I can't understand why every little thing is jangling my nerves and I'm the hugest grump you've ever seen. It's so bad, I'm wondering what I can do to get away from myself. Oh, and I hate that 10 pounds of soaking wet yarn waiting for me to dye it. Die yarn, die!

So that in a nutshell is the last few days of my life. My best tip of the Valentine's Day week? If you stand outside in subzero temps for 10- 15 minutes while filling your car with gas on your way home from a bikini wax, you'll notice almost no redness and swelling! It's like instant gratification! So remember that beauty tip from me, your friendly yarn dyer, next time it's off the the aesthetician.

Here is my knitting project of the week. I think I actually started it in the midst of last week, the Week From Hell, because I realized that the gorgeous Tiger Eye lace socks would never get done in time to qualify for this month's Socktopia challenge. I have over achiever tendencies. Sometimes I'm pretty good at suppressing them, but this is not one of those times. Rather than get most of the way through the lacey ones, I just put them down and grabbed some Emu Superwash that had been sitting in my destash box forever. Got to love that. The pattern is one that I made up. It's just like the Beverly Socks, only a heavier gauge and not quite as symmetrical. I didn't actually use a calculator at any point during the knitting of these socks, I just cast on at the toes (which are really much wider than normal) and started knitting. But they're turning out OK after all, and I know I'll wear them. They will be pair number THREE of Katie's hand knit socks when they're done. I'm nearly out of yarn, so it will be soon. I've promised myself that I'll get back to the Tiger Eye lace as soon as these are off the needles. I've already committed to sending that along to Socktopia members as a free pattern. I've never really done lace before...what was I thinking? Eeek!

Some of you have been asking about the Spring Collection on Yarn Love. It's up and you can take home anything you want. I promise to send it right out. I won't keep it even though I love it. Every skein of yarn you buy helps get me to my exhibitor's booth at the upcoming Knitter's Connection in Columbus, OH. So if you want to see me there, buy a skein!

Guess what? Yarn!

2007-02-12T08:41:00.000-06:00

Ahem, I know you just are never going to believe this, but this post will be devoted to yarn. No, I'm quite serious. Yarn, yarn and more yarn. Possibly some comments about my fridge if I get side tracked. (I am really easily side tracked, and more importantly, I'm usually pretty happy flying down whatever tangent presents itself. I never used to me. Just since I've become a mom....See, what did I tell you? Easily side tracked.)

I have NEW YARN PICTURES!!! Sarah, my official yarn photographer took pictures of the spring line this Saturday and they'll be up on the site today. I can't wait. I love her work and I'm super excited about yarn. (Edited to add: they're now available at www.shopyarnlove.com!)

The Spring Collection has something unique about it - several of the colors are used in multiple colorways. That means they'll match each other easily. Plus, I'm offering 5 matching solids this season. There are also going to be "Sock Duos" - mini skeins, one varigated one solid so you can do colorwork. Plus, it's easy colorwork because you know the solid color is the same shade that's in the varigated skein. woohoo!

So here's a sneak peak of what's coming. All six varigated colorways are here and several of the 5 matching solid shades. They're pictured on a variety of base yarns including our superwash sock, merino/tencel sock, the new bamboo/nylon sock yarn, merino/silk, etc:

Bad, Bad Blogger

2007-02-09T08:10:00.000-06:00

I have 3 partially completed drafts that I have never posted. I think it's symbolic of my life recently. You won't mind that I've been neglecting you, will you? I thought not. I knew you would understand.

Well, this week has been less than stellar...printer broke, hood flew into windshield while I was driving, my children painted their room with poop during a nap (requiring 5 hours of cleaning....oh, so gross!), last night the kids and I came down with a bad cold, and the freezer is broken this morning. I can't wait for this freaking week to be over.

On the bright side, the Spring Collection for Yarn Love is going in for photography tomorrow. Yay! I've been dyeing like a maniac. I have pounds upon pounds of yarn sitting around here just waiting for new adoptive homes. It's gorgeous, if I do say so myself. And we were able to make a yarn replacement. The new Scarlett O'Hara is a soft, cushy sock yarn that is 60% merino wool/ 30% bamboo and 10% nylon. I think bamboo feels like microfiber. It has that same ultra softness combined with the open loft. If you're a sock yarn junkie, like me, you're going to love this. One of the first skeins of this was sent to the effervescent Lime N Violet, and got a mention on their latest show (#35). I freaked out, it made a rotten day much better. Oh, and there is a colorway this season called Limeade and Violet in honor of the knitty, talking queens.

So, have you all heard about Socktopia? I am participating...nevermind that I lost all my fraking buttons when I accidentally changed the template. (Yeah, the new blogger makes that really easy, let me tell you.) Soon I will be sporting a beautiful Socktopia button, but I've got to get my life back together before I even think about going there. The general concept of Socktopia is one pair of sock per month for the year. If you start and complete a pair of socks within a month then you get entered into a drawing for prizes. Yay! Prizes! There are themes for you to work from, a Flickr group for drooling over everyone's socks and a place to chat. I'm loving it. I knit three pairs of socks last month, but this month I'm hoping I'll make it through one. I'm designing this month's pair. They have a fairly intricate 25 st lace pattern that will go from cuff, to toe. I really haven't knit much lace at all, so it's been interesting. I did rip the first entire repeat of the pattern out (16 rows). Then I placed some stitch markers and things seem to be going better. Next time, I'll remember not to start involved projects during the shortest month of the year! eeek! They are really pretty though. Being knit from Tofutsies, color #724.

I do have some mohair on the wheel. (Actually, it's off the wheel as of last night, but shhh!, it's not plied yet.) It will be plied with some hand dyed merino wool that I hand dyed. It's going to be for socks - what else? I'm a little bit addicted to the handspun, hand knit socks. Yeah. It's gotten bad. I have only 2 pairs of hand knit socks, and I alternate days that I wear them. That way I can wash and block the "off" pair and be in hand knit socks all week long. I seriously need some more pairs. (My wheel really isn't that washed out or dull looking. It's just not a good photo of it. If you look closely, you'll see one of my hand knit socks in action. Seriously. I wear them all the time. It's like an addiction. But without all the rehab and brow beating that comes with traditional substance abuse. I may even make it through my fiber stash this year, if I keep the spinning up!)

This is Miss G - one day I was taking pictures of yarn and she wanted me to take her photo, too. Isn't she sweet? mhm, I thought so, too. Their third birthday is coming up in a couple months. I remember how tiny they were when they first arrived. 18" long, and only 5lbs, 12oz and 6 lbs, 7 oz respectively. Full heads of deep black hair. Sigh. I don't miss the 14 months of extreme sleep deprivation, but who are these beautiful and independent toddlers? I don't remember my babies growing up.

Sock Jumble: the Beverly Socks

2007-01-23T08:50:00.000-06:00

Now, Miss Beverly, the question you must ask yourself is, "What is this a picture of?" And possibly, "How will this fit together in the whole?" Finally, "Why are they not done and on my feet?"

The first answer: These pictures are of your socks, but they're a bit jumbled.
The second answer: Wait and see.
The third answer: Because I have kids. *giggle*

Have fun! I hope they're good and teasing!

I am in a sock swap! Wheee!

2007-01-11T15:57:00.000-06:00

I just got my swap pal assignment from the Knitty Board.com Sock Swap. I'm very excited. I got paired with a great sock knitter named Beverly. (That link will take you to her blog.) She just completed a beautiful sweater for her husband for Christmas, you should go check it out.

This is just the second swap I've been involved in. The rules are that you create a pair of socks specifically for your pal based on their preferences and your skill level. I think swaps are a lovely kind of set up. You get a lovely gift or item tailored for you, plus the fun of tailoring something for a new friend.

I'm really looking forward to knitting Beverly's socks. She likes Keen which she found on www.shopyarnlove.com so I'll be knitting that up for her in some pattern that I have yet to determine. I think I might design the pattern just for the yarn. Then I can spiffy up the pattern, PDF it and post it here for free. They are hand spun on the Tina II (she really needs a new name...I'll have

Yarn Swag

I know most bloggers refer to it as pr0n, but I just don't like that term. So I'm inventing a new one: Yarn Swag. Footnotes to Scout of Scout's Swag and the term swag as defined by the Urban Dictionary. Although my term Yarn Swag does not carry the connotation of cheap, mass made crap, nor does it have anything to do with wild ass guessing. It's just beautiful photos of yarn or ready knitted objects meant to advertise the cause of knitting and yarn in general. So there you have it. I've invented a new term.

Now onto today's swag - my hand spun, hand knit, me designed Katie socks. My first pair of hand knit socks that I KEPT FOR MYSELF. I've knit several pairs of socks. More than enough to put me in the proficient sock knitter's category over on the Knitty Board Sock Swap but this is the very first pair that I've ever kept for myself. Go figure.

They are hand spun on my Jensen Tina II spinning wheel from 100% merino wool roving hand painted by me in my Aurora Borealis colorway. They are fraternal twin socks. The singles were spun along the full length of the roving and then plied back on itself. Then I knit the socks at the same time on two circulars from both ends of a center pull ball. One is considerably more yellowy than the other one, but I still like them. They went together really fast. Knit in about 2 1/2 days in between living and taking care of the kiddos. Then they sat on my needles for another 4 1/2 waiting to be bound off. The yarn is sports weight, so these babies aren't going to last that long. Merino is not know for it's durability and the heavier weight isn't the best treatment for something like socks that are going to see tons of wear, but I'm OK with that. It's OK if they wear out. They're super comfy and I'm really enjoying them.

The stitch pattern is a fun and easy ribbed cable that I found in Barbara Walker's Stitch Treasury. Boy I love those books. It's a mock cable, because you don't need a cable needle to create the stitch pattern. I do have the pattern worked up for both sport weight and fingering weight yarn. It's available at Payloadz.com for 1 cent. It won't let me offer it for free which stinks. It's by far the easiest and fastest way for me to get my patterns out there. So, if you'd like you too can have Funky Zebra socks.

I have a pair of socks on the needles for a friend. I'm doing Knitty's RPM for her out of my Juliet yarn dyed in the colorway Handsome. They're coming along. I'm just past the heel turn and they're very pretty. The only thing I don't like about the short row toe is that I think it creates slight gapping along the heel that I just don't like and the fact that I can't do the k1, s1 pattern for greater durability. So I think I'll try doing an afterthought heel to see if I can take care of that.

I'll keep you updated on the Beverly socks. Stay tuned..................

UnWrapped Short Row Technique - Flat Knitting

2007-01-08T11:45:00.000-06:00

I had a request for a detailed tutorial on how to do short rows while flat knitting. You can follow the original UnWrapped Short Row tutorial for the right side rows, then use these instructions for the purl (wrong) side fo the fabric. It's very easy to do - don't be put off by the large number of pictures. They're here to help you visualize each stage of the process. I've also included photos of incorrectly knitted wraps, so you can easily tell whether or not you've got it down.

Click the photos to enlarge. I did not resize them, so you can get a really detailed view if you like, but they're still a managable size for those of you who have a dial-up connection.

These instructions assume that you have happily knit through the inital wrap on the right side, and have purled to the wrap on the wrong side. (If you don't know how to knit in the first wrap on the right side, see my first UnWrapped Short Row Tutorial. Just knit through the first wrap, and then come back here.)

Here's what a wrapped stitch looks like on the purl side. See the double bumps around the stitch? The extra is from wrapping the stitch:

Unwrap second stitch (purl stitch) by inserting your right needle from top to bottom through the wrap only, slip the original stitch off the needle, and pull the wrap off.

Right needle inserted top to bottom through the wrap:

If you do this correctly, the wrap should be on your right needle, with the original stitch free. Here the wrapped stitch is on the right needle and the original stitch is hanging loose to the front of the fabric:

Now slip the wrap stitch (Purlwise - don't twist it) onto the left needle, and put the original stitch back on the left needle just behind the wrap stitch. Here is the wrap stitch on the left needle, and I've parked the original stitch on my right needle, so I don't accidentally unravel it.

When you slip the original stitch back onto the left needle, make sure it passes behind the wrap stitch, as the work faces you. In other words, by slipping the original stitch on the side of the right side of the work, you create a stitch that meshes seamlessly with the current fabric rather than allowing the wrap stitch to show on the right side. You'll know if you've done this incorrectly because you'll have funky looking stitches on the right side of your fabric.

Then purl the wrap stitch and the original stitch together (p2 together). Here are both stiches freshly purled together and on the right needle:

Right and Wrong Stitches
For clarification purposes here are some photos of what the wraps should and should not look like once you've knit them into the fabric.

Right: Here is a close up of the purl side wrap from the wrong side of the work. It looks like a C with a long tail:

Now both the first and second wrap. First, right side wrap on the left and the second, purl side wrap on the left. See how they are mirror images of each other? That's what you want to see. The right side wrap is mirrored or backwards.

Wrong: Both of these wraps are wrong, because the stitches have been twisted or placed on out of order. The right side wrap is really easy to spot, because it doesn't have the long tail C look. But look closely at the right side wrap. It's twisted on the front side, but it still looks like a mirrored C. There is a slight difference, you can see two "layers" on the incorrectly wrapped stitch. It's a good idea to check both sides of the fabric before continuing on. The good news is that since you formed that right side wrap on the right side of the fabric, you will be able to see if you've got the stitches out of order or twisted!

The correct stitches are circled in blue, the wrong stitches are circled in pink. Again from the wrong side of the work:

See how the top of this swatch is starting to round gently? That's because of the two short rows that I put in. Isn't that cool? This last photo is the same, but I've traced the out line of both the right and wrong stitches so you can see the stitch path more clearly:

There you have it. A simple, easy, no gap method for short row wrapping. You've got tutorials for both circular and flat knitting. Go shape something. It's easy!

In quest of the perfect Christmas

2007-01-01T20:37:00.000-06:00

I hope you had a wonderful Christmas (if you celebrate that particular holiday). There are some things that people just don't talk about amid the holiday cheer, general feeling of fellowship with mankind, etc., etc., etc., and that is the Christmas Dud. Oh, it'll come up once all the warm fuzzies of Christmas have worn off and everyone is jaded from holiday burn out, but while the plum pudding is still warm and the Christmas lights are glowing the Christmas Dud just doesn't exist. Why? Because it's un-American. It's not idyllic. It's not something you see presented in a serious Hollywood film about this particular holiday. It does still exist. In fact, 99.9% of all normal people experience more Christmas Duds than that idyllic holiday they've been dreaming of. So here's my tribute to the Christmas Dud; dedicated to all of you who've forgotten that your children won't actually sit still for your Christmas picture and that the usual rules governing cooking, time management, money spent shipping, and extended family relationships aren't suspended on that day of days - Christmas.

Subscribe for free!

2006-12-21T14:11:00.000-06:00

I added a RSS feed for the blog, so now you can subscribe to it. Lots of fun knitting content delivered to you as soon as there's a new post. The link allows you to subscribe using lots of different subscription methods (Bloglines, etc.) so you can easily add me to your other subs.

I really know nothing about RSS feeds, and I did not code this one by hand. I did it using Feed Burner, and it's up and I was able to subscribe, so I hope that equals sucess. As it is, I am busy not doing all the things I really ought to be doing, because I'm fighting holiday burnout. Or it might be the fact that I'm still not at 100% from the Ick, and the impromptu company, and I have upcoming trip paralyses....but let's not even go there.

I remembered last night as I was trying to sleep that I still have a couple of Christmas gifts that need completing. My dad's scarf, while it is finished being knit, still needs the fleece sewn on to the back of it. He's pretty sensitive to wool, and I figure backing the merino and binding the edges in fleece will make it very warm and non irritating to the neck. Number Two, Sarah still needs her yarn dyed. She's getting a learn to knit kit which at this point includes a pair of Addi Natura in size 7 (I wanted 8, but the LYS was pretty picked over in the Natura and that's as close as I could get.), some hand made stitch markers and two skeins of the Anne Shirley merino yarn dyed in a special colorway just for her. Plus, a bunch of links to great learn to knit sites and knitting lessons as needed from me. But as yet, she's got ecru yarn and no links. Number Three, I still need to finish Mr. N's hat. I suppose creating your own hat pattern which involves intertwining cable design (which I have never done before) is not a good choice for last minute knitting. That and the fact that I think I have decreased a bit too sharply, and I'm not sure if it's going to fit like I want it to. He has a very broad, flat head at the top and so it's a bit tricky to get the shaping right. I'd try it on him, but it's a surprise and so that's right out. I'm thinking of not finishing off that top so if I need to, I can rip and reknit the top if needed. Oy.

I'll let you know how the floor mopping, diaper washing, vacuuming, Yarn of the Month ball winding, packing and wrapping of presents goes. I should get started on that now, but that would mean stopping on the hat knitting.

Felties: slippers for the whole family

2006-12-20T18:45:00.000-06:00

Felties - slippers for the whole family!

Introducing Felties – cozy, buttery soft slippers designed to keep your toes toasty warm during the cool weather! This cushy, felted, boot-style slipper is great for cold weather. Pattern includes sizes for the whole family and includes instructions for both worsted and bulky weight yarn. This is a great pattern for using up odd balls in your stash. It knits up very quickly!

Gauge:

* Bulky: 2.25 stitches and 4 rows per inch on US size 10.5 double pointed needles.
* Worsted: 2.75 stitches and 5 rows per inch on US size 10.5 double pointed needles.

Materials:
* Worsted: MC – 1 (4 oz., 230 yd.) skein, all sizes. CC – 1 skein, all sizes.
* Bulky: MC – 1 (100gram, 110yds) skein (NB-Large Child), 2 skiens (Small Woman – Man). CC – 1 skein, all sizes.
* 1 Set US Size 10.5 double pointed needles
* Tapestry needle

Sizes:
(Newborn, 3-6months, 6-9months, 9-12months, Small Child, Medium Child, Large Child, Small Woman, Medium Woman, Large Woman/Small Man)

I use KnitPick's Sierra for the bulky slippers and Yarn Love's Anne Shirley for the worsted weight. Since this item is felt-to-fit the gauge us not critical. I do highly recommend diving into your stash for your yarn. Odd balls and leftovers will make some wildly striped slippers to keep your feet cozy through the year.

Felties are knit from the top down just like a giant sock, with some special shaping to get the cuff to turn down just right. For a funky detail, knit the cuff flat instead of in the round as given in the instructions and add a button and loop closure.

For a custom fit: choose the size that best describes your recipient. Measure their foot from heel to toe. Knit the pattern as written for their size, and when you get the the foot, knit the foot to equal your recipient's total foot length and then start your decreases. I find that this turns out just right. Be sure to keep a ruler handy as you felt - measure that heel to toe length so that it comes out the right size. I do one round in the washing machine with like colored clothes, and then pop it into the dryer, measuring through out the cycle. Personally, I like the option of machine drying these super thick slippers so they can speedily be sent to their new home.

Not the ick

2006-12-20T08:43:00.000-06:00

The Ick has come to live at my house. More specifically in me. That last minute Christmas shopping that Nick and I did at the mall on Monday I'm pretty sure is the culprit. We never are able to go shopping together, unless we get someone to watch the kids, and my mom was kind enough to take them. So we got the Christmas tights, and the Christmas shoes for the girlies, and bras for me. I was down to one after the untimely death of my black and white Felina lace bra. A girl can't only have one bra. And we got Mr. X a leapfrog fridge toy, and cousin RayRay a magna doodle and the next morning I was sick. Chills, body ache but luckily no puking. I didn't eat anything, but I wasn't throwing anything up, for which I am extremely grateful.

December is my Yarn of the Month turn and I'm scrambling to get things done. More than 50% of the participants placed their orders late, which prevents me from dyeing in advance of our trip. Anyway, between the holiday gatherings, baking and shopping I've been dyeing like a mad woman. Tonight Nick's very good friend is coming into town - unexpectedly. We found out last night. Then we're gone for nearly a week over Christmas, and when we get home a good friend of mine is coming into town. Thank goodness the 1st is a holiday and I can use it to get some packaging and shipping done!

I still am working on a hat for Mr. N. It's a top secret project, which I can only work on when he's not around. The Ick put a serious dent in the progress, and I hope that I can still get it done in time. It's a cabled, close fitting cap of my own design - pretty easy to do. I'd like to offer it as a free pattern, but after the Christmas season! I'm working it up in a hand dyed navy on Anne Shirley - my super fabulous, last forever, terribly soft yarn I get from a small spinnery.

Hope you all are enjoying this time of the year in a relaxing and stress free manner. If you're waiting for a Yarn of the Month package.....it will be in the mail!

My UnWrapped Short Row Technique - Circular Knitting

2006-12-19T11:55:00.000-06:00

I wrote up this techinque well over a year ago, and posted it at a knitting board. For some reason it occured to me today that I should post it on my blog too. So here it is, the never fail, no gaps, not fussy, easy as pie, short row wrap technique. It combines all the best of the wrapped technique and the Japanese short row technique without the typical gaps of the first and the fiddly pin business of the second. It's fast, it's easy and it just plain works!

This tutorial is written for those who are knitting circularly and will knit in both wrapped stitches from the right side. If you're knitting flat, see the Flat Knitting UnWrapped Short Row tutorial.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I've been playing around with how I handle the wrapped stitches of short rows. (Can you believe someone else is bringing it up again????) Anyway, I've found a great way to hide that second wrap - so much so that the wraps are pretty much invisible even on the back side. I discovered it by accident and have been using it ever since.It's never failed me, and I want to know if it will work for others, too. So try it and tell me what kind of results you get! I think it's pretty easy to do, too!

UnWrapped Short Row Tutorial

As you work your short rows, wrap the stitch as normal. When you get to your first wrap:

You have now knit back to your FIRST wrap:

1.) Slip the wrapped stitch off the Left needle & gently pull the wrap off the stitch. (I use my right needle to do this.)

2.) Place the original stitch back on the Left needle. Place the wrap on the Left needle as well.

3.)Knit the wrap and the original stitch as one stitch. (Like K2Tog)

I've found that it really doesn't make a difference how you slip the wrap onto the needle - it becomes invisible by the next round. In this picture of the backside of the wrap, the wrap is really loose, so you can see it. Normally, it's virtually invisible.

Knit as usual until you reach your second wrap. For the SECOND wrap:

This is worked the same way, except you reverse the position of the wrap and the original stitch.

1.) Slip the wrapped stitch off the Left needle & gently pull the wrap off the stitch. (I use my right needle to do this.)

2.) Place the original stitch on the Left needle. Then place the wrap on the Left needle After the original stitch. (This reverses the original order of the stitch and wrap.) Simply pull the wrap untwisted across the back of the work.

The original stitch and the wrap back on the Left needle.

3.)Knit the wrap and the original stitch as one stitch. (Like K2Tog)

The backside of the second wrap. Original stitch in blue, wrap in orange.

Baking Day - the itinerary

2006-12-13T15:48:00.000-06:00

I'm making this a separate post so that all of you afflicted with Holiday Stress Disorder like myself can skip my stressful musings and get straight to the chocolate and "holiday cheer".

Baking Day 2006

This Saturday is Baking Day. It's the Christmas version of Pie Night. Pie Night takes place the day before Thanksgiving, when all my brothers and their families come to my parents house for a pie feast. Every gets their own pie. A whole one. All to themselves. Flavor of their choice. So we have a soup dinner and pies galore. It's fabulous fun, even if it does require baking 17 or more pies in a single day. So imagine that only Christmas. Oh, and different family members.

Baking Day, in the grand tradition, involves any female family members that we can think of, bringing the stuff for three or four different Christmas goody recipes of their choice, baking them for 5 or 6 hours and then piling every available flat surface in my parent's house full of the goodies for diving and packaging. Oh, yes. It's really that grand. Several aunts, cousins, sisters in laws, etc. are there. Usually there's enough chocolate to feed an army for a Russian winter, not counting the other cookies, candies, treats and cakes. It's dessert heaven and so much fun. Last year, I just stopped packing buckets of treats into my car when I hit 8. Really, I wouldn't want to be excessive, now.

This year's menu for me includes: Peppermint Chocolate Cupcakes, Katie's World Famous Booze Balls (They used to just be rum truffles, but have now expanded into rum, coconut rum, amaretto, Irish Cream, Kahlua and any other liquor that I might take a fancy to that year. The flavors vary according to available booze, prep time and my taste at the moment.), Mr. N's Favorite Snickerdoodle Cookies, and if time allows Orange Cranberry Scones.

Other items of interest from family members:
* Sarah's Baclava
* Chocolate Dipped Pretzel Rods
* Haystacks (chocolate dipped low mein noodles)
* Big Round Sugar Cookies
* Scotcheroos
* Spritz cookies

Now if you are counting, that's at minimum 9 full batches of goodies, plus scones if I get there. And those are only the ones that people listed on the Evite invitation. I know for a fact that all the women genetically linked to me will add at least 1 more recipe to their line up when they go to make out their grocery list. They'll hear that overpowering voice warning them that someone might not be able to come and then we'll be short and wouldn't one more thing help alleviate that situation? Plus, if they are able to come one more thing won't be overwhelming.

Oh, yes. I know this well. So who's going to send me their address so I can spread some Christmas Baking Cheer their way?

Oh, and I nearly forgot that I also have a Christmas Party the evening of baking day. We're going because it involves nice wine, hors d'ourves and no children. That's a rarity around here. Adult conversation...imagine! For that we're taking champagne and a homemade, decedent, chocolate smothered Kahlua laced cheesecake with shortbread crust. mmm.........

It's official. I'm nuts.

2006-12-13T15:26:00.000-06:00

This meditation probably does not come as a surprise to those of you who know me. I might looks normal, but underneath is some not-so-deeply-disguised craziness. Not of the actual mental illness kind, more the self inflicted oddities that make you go "hmmm!" in a reflective and puzzled tone. Besides having three children within an 18 month span of time (twins and the X, the second and third of whom were a LARGE surprise to me) I have set up a crazy schedule of business dyeing and present knitting during the very, very, extraordinarily busy months of Novemeber and December. I should have known. Really I should have, but things seem so innocent when you're blithely scheduling them in a vacuum. The vacuum where your kids are sleeping peacefully and you honestly think that they will not interupt your work during the day because they aren't right now. Mhm. All you mothers and fathers laugh with me now. Oh, and the thought that my twin two and a half year olds would hit the dreaded "Terrible Twos" stage during the scheduled craziness us just icing on the cake.

So it's Yarn of the Month for me this month - 50 extra skeins of dyeing, or 12.5 pounds of mohair yarn if that sounds more impressive. And NOT surprisingly all the sweet YOTMers are busy too, which is delaying their color choice....which of course means that I cannot dye their selections as they're being placed because they're not being placed.

The Yarn Love Ebay store has been doing well, and people have been placing orders without provocation. Really. They're just finding me and placing orders. For the past 5 out of 6 weeks, I've had to have auction style listings in order for people to find the store listings. They're not as easily found during regular searches and so they sit if I don't have other auctions to get people to them. Now, people are buying stuff from the store without any auctions being active. The marketer in me is rejoicing, "They're coming! They're here! All the keyword research and auction style planning has paid off! Yipeee!". The shipper and inventory manager is going, "Oh, dear. That wasn't supposed to sell! I didn't plan on that and now I must dye more. eeek!"

General holiday frivolity is reigning. It's one party after the other around here. Which is great, and fun and fattening due to all the baking taking place. However, it's eating into my weekends which is further reducing my dyeing time. Oh, well. At least I'm receiving a steady stream of dessert calories to eat my way through my stress.

Travel - we have a 10-11 hour car ride at the end of next week with all three children to get to my in laws. They are so overdue for a Christmas visit, it's not even funny. We were there our first Christmas as a married couple, and for the next three years I have either been too pregnant or the kids have been way-too-small for the car ride and the visiting. I am not taking my dyeing with us, so take that week out of the schedule.

My long lost friend, Lisa is coming!!! Lisa and I were roommates in college and we don't see each other very often at all. I am so excited that she is flying in to see us. It's so sweet of her to come and I've been missing her. All phone conversations generally end abruptly by one of my children screaming, so catching up will be great. She arrives the day before we get back and will be here for several days after.

Sigh. It will get done. Right after I stop panicking.

Oh Christmas Tree

2006-12-12T09:33:00.000-06:00

It's Christmas time in the bungalow! Well, at least it's Advent, the season of preparation for the feast of Christmas. I am very proud to report that my Christmas knitting is done. And when I say done, I really mean done. The kind of done that means if for some heinous reason Christmas actually came tomorrow, I could hand over the knitted items to their recipients without a regret. The kind of done that means the finishing work and the end weaving wasn't left for 6 or more weeks because I moved onto another project. It's a good feeling to be done.

I must admit that the reason I was done with my Christmas knitting by December 10th this year is because I set my sights very low. In fact, I think I've done less knitting this year than I did last year. Last year the girlies were 19 months old, and I had a two month old. Little X was (and still is) very mellow, so I was able to camp out on the couch and knit. Now he's starting to walk, and well, the house is more chaotic. But, I have accomplished all my goals and have been setting some new ones. I'll get those done if only my yarn arrives on time.

So far this year I have knit two Totoro hats from the free Hello Yarn pattern.

I knit one as written, and the second I reversed and knit from the top up. I had a bit of trouble with the row gauge - it was way, way off, even though I was using a heavier yarn than called for & it should have turned out longer than needed. The first hat was knit and ripped out three times before I got it to be long enough. I do completely detest (and suck at) the figure 8 cast one, so I knit it from the bottom up and kitchenered the top. It took me much less time. I also added ear flaps and ties to the hat so that it will stay on my wiggly girls heads. Oh, and I knit it big and fulled it for warmth and ease of embroidery. The pattern is great - I just rearranged things per my personal preference in knitting. Misses E & G are enamored with the Totoro movie and I know they'll love the hats. What a clever idea.

I knit them "matching" pairs of mittens. The grey base yarn is the same as was used for the hats, and then I used a skein of Noro Silk Garden for the colored stripes. I loved working with the Noro. It was my first time using it and the color gradations are incredible. Lots of fun to watch it develop in my hands as I knit along. I had less than a yard left over after I finished the last mitten. It was a close call. Not too bad, if I say so myself. The merino that I used for the hats (incidentally the same stuff I used for my dad's scarf) just lasts and lasts and lasts. So I got both hats and all the mittens out of 6 ounces. I used one 50 gram ball of the Noro, color #87.

My dad's scarf is the Open Cable Scarf which I highly enjoyed knitting. I do have a few cables that crossed the wrong way, but shhh! No one will notice if I don't point them out. It was a great pattern for a scarf. Complex enough to be interesting, but easily memorized and knit while watching Lost. The scarf is fairly long - my dad is 6'2" and I got his scarf out of about 5 1/2 ounces of the same merino that I used on the girlies' hats. If you're looking for some, you can find it in my ebay store as Anne Shirley. It's great stuff. A pleasure to knit with and it lasts forever. mhm. I kettle dyed the yarn, and it's very pretty blues, greens and olives. The picture is making the olive look much more mustard than it does in person. It has a nice blending quality in person that is just lost on my digital camera.

Now if all goes well, I still plan on knitting some cotton face cloths for my mother in law, a hat for little X and a hat for Mr. N. We'll see if I get it done. I dreamt both hats up last night as I was laying in bed awake, and the face cloths late last week when Mr. N casually mentioned his mother would like something hand knit for Christmas. I'd whip her up something really quick, like a hat, but she's allergic to wool, so I have to send out for the yarn. Hopefully some pretty, pampering face cloths will be just the thing. Fast enough to get done and conveying lots of love. I'll post on my progress with the hats. I'm planning on combining the cable from the Open Cable Scarf pattern with a simple 6 X 6 cable and decreasing in the purl stitches in between. We'll see how it goes, I guess!

Who stole November?

2006-12-04T12:47:00.000-06:00

Seriously, I woke up and it's December already. Ugh. It always happens this time of the year. November is a very important month for me (and my family). My birthday is in November - the 12th. X's birthday is in November - the 7th (even though his due date was Halloween. I was so bummed, as I wanted a Halloween baby. Our friend's daughter's birthday is on Halloween and she has so much fun! Plus, I started getting a bit cranky when the third child was a week late. Just a little cranky. I'm a pretty nice pregnant lady.)

My parents left for Rome the day after X's birthday and were gone for 10 days. We see them at least two times a week, and all the kids are very, very attached to them and of course they were missed exceedingly. Luckily, my mom is so attached to our kiddos that she called everyday just to hear their happy little voices.....ok, and actually a lot of crying and carrying on over who was going to talk on the phone RIGHT NOW to Mama (grandma).

And Mr. N's sister, her husband and daughter moved into our area from the great state of Colorado. It's been really nice to have them around and get to spend time with them. Their little girl is right in between our girlies and X, so they all play together and have great fun. The girlies are so funny. If their cousin has been here the night before, they get up asking for RayRay because they're convinced that she must still be here and is just waiting for them to come play. It's too precious. I love the outlook that kids have on life. It's simple and fresh and unexpected.

I have got to get spinning again. I've been so busy knitting and dyeing this fall that the spinning is really neglected. My poor wheels - I'm sure they're lonely! Am I crazy that I spun like mad over the summer and now that it's winter I've given it up for knitting? It wouldn't be mad if I was actually using the yarn I spun over the summer for the fall knitting, but alas I've been using purchased yarn. It's very nice stuff, but not my handspun. I'm still a little bit scared to use handspun for a large project because I'm convinced the gauge will be all off. I am currently enrolled in the Spin Me a Treasure Swap, so I am looking forward to spinning for that. Yay! The swap partners were supposed to go out the 1st, but technical difficulties have prevented it, so I'm waiting on the edge of my seat for it. I don't know if they'll be another swap - this one is already closed - but you can check it out here. The forum is both in French and English, so don't close the window if you see something you don't recognise.

My New Obsession

2006-10-17T16:45:00.000-05:00

The knitting podcast. Oh yes, this is what I've been waiting for. Now if I can just wrestle the Zen away from Mr. N (Nevermind that I spent months saving up to gift this to him for his birthday in August....) I could take it with me where ever I go. For the mean time, I am almost-sorta-mostly content to sit at the computer and listen to these wonderful tidbits of yarn and fiber and knitting related sound bites. My current favorite is Cast-On. Check it out. Brenda Dayne does a phenomenal job of creating an interesting and well produced podcast. You can take my word for it. I am a tv/radio communications major and used to spend hours upon hours in the university basement, surrounded by black, foam lined walls editing radio shows. Now you know just how deep the geekiness runs.

It has been an extremely busy fall around these parts. I'm not sure I'm coping and things are about to get much more intense. Mr. N's sister and her husband are going to be moving into our area in 3 weeks. On very, very short notice. It's a good thing - Sarah and I used to spend a lot of time together before Nick and I were married. She attended the same college Mr.N and I did during our senior year. It will be nice to have her 10 miles away instead of 10 hours away. Lest you think I am a big meanie, the reason that this is very intense is because Jake, Sarah's husband, interviewed for his new job at 4pm last Friday, and got the job offer yesterday evening. We are their only family for several states, so we're on for moving duty, moral support and general acclimation to a new place. It's funny how some big changes in life happen so fast. I'm not sure how well I would handle a cross country move on short notice....but I'm one of those people who likes to think and plan things to death.

I have been dyeing and knitting and knitting and dyeing. The yarn shelves are very well lined and I need to start moving some stock. Look for new yarns soon at both websites. www.kandfshops.com is the place to go for the very latest in my creations. It's the easiest place for me to stock, and our customers don't seem to mind when I dye new colorways in small batches. It's kind of like my testing ground for colors and yarns.

I have just introduced a fabulous new yarn. It's produced on a small, farm mill here in the United States and is available on a very limited basis in some LYS. Ok, they're local to someone, just not me. A customer clued me into the source and I was able to snag an account with them even though they are offering their yarn at wholesale to a very limited number of people. Currently, I am the only one handpainting this yarn. It is a fine merino, and one of the softest, loftiest yarns I have ever had the pleasure of working with. Shepherd's Wool is available at K&F Shops.

Sale! Sale! Sale!

If you're looking for a good deal on yarn, stop by K&F Shops this Friday at noon EST. It's our quarterly sale. I will be stocking plenty of yarns at clearance prices. They've just been hanging around, and it's time that they found a new home. Who doesn't like fabulous yarn deals, anyway? And I will be listing some of the fabulous, new Shepherd's Wool at a 10% discount.

I was going to end the post with a cute picture of Miss G and I in matching hats. It was actually some recent knitting I did for a customer, and I needed to try them on to make sure they came out to a normal size...however, my image host is not loading. Stay tuned. I will put them up. The kids are going through an adorable, I must be shown off stage...if I could just find the time to load up the pics.

Life & Such

2006-10-02T12:03:00.000-05:00

Someone please tell me where September went! I'm actually wondering what happened to August and it's now October. It's been a crazy busy month around these parts. Good busy - nothing in particular, just life. The new site is up and running. We're still tweaking and adding and improving, but we'd love for you to drop in. I'll be working on the first newsletter later this week. For now, I'll leave you with this to ponder:

What kind of knitting needles are you?

You'>http://images.quizilla.com/L/larissmix/1077233136_turbo.jpg">
You are "turbo" charged.Fast moving and classy, you get things done with power and grace. Your expensive tastes can be deceiving, since what you really value is quality and efficiency. As you're careening around those corners in life, finishing a dozen knitted objects each month, stop and smell the roses. Don't miss the beauty of process!
Take this quiz!http://quizilla.com/redirect.php?statsid=17&url=http://www.quizilla.com/users/larissmix/quizzes/What+kind+of+knitting+needles+are+you%3F">quiz!
>

Quizilla Join
Make'>http://www.quizilla.com/redirect.php?statsid=20&url=http://www.quizilla.com/makeaquiz.php">Make A Quiz More'>http://www.quizilla.com/redirect.php?statsid=42&url=http://www.quizilla.com/users/larissmix/quizzes/">More Quizzes Grab'>http://www.quizilla.com/redirect.php?statsid=19&url=http://www.quizilla.com/codepastes/?quizid=422158">Grab Code

The Top Secret Project

2006-09-01T19:45:00.000-05:00

www.shopyarnlove.com
10 yarns, 4 dyers, hundreds of possibilites.

9 Days and Counting

2006-08-22T16:47:00.000-05:00

Top Secret Project goes live in 9 days. It will be a very good thing. The past four months have involved lots of planning and doing getting ready for the major event. This is of course the last stretch - then I'll see if all the hard work was worth it! I hope so! My shelves are burgoening with new yarns and new colorways looking for an adoptive family. I've also sought out new suppliers for the endeavor and the research was worth it. The new yarns are top notch and definitely luxe!

So basically, until the new site is up and running the way I want it to, I will be a computer hermit. You know - where I sit online day after day, hour after hour hammering out the details and mixing it up with lovely yarn photos.

What could be better than lovely yarn in the fall?

Missing in Action

2006-08-07T11:54:00.000-05:00

There has been action folks....just not on the blog. But around the bungalow yarn has been streaming into and out of my dyepot faster than normal. In preparation for the Top Secret Project which launches in 24 days, I have dyed up over six pounds of yarn and more is being added to the total everyday.

In addition to that, I have to send a very warm thank-you to Sarah of TeleKnitter for her suggestion of using these shelves. I've been on the search for perfect yarn shelves for months, but until Sarah came along, I only knew what I didn't want and what wasn't working - which, truth be told, is not very helpful at actually finding what you need. Unfortunately, the search was further extended for three weeks as I travelled to various local stores searching for these shelves, which they didn't carry. I finally Froogled them, found a great source with free shipping and life was happy. I haven't completely finished the stash move, but soon it will be done. I hope. for your eye feasting pleasure - yarn on shelves!
Blank Yarn:

Small Personal Stash:

6 + Pounds of Yarn for the Top Secret Project:

How's that?

2006-07-25T21:51:00.000-05:00

Your Brain's Pattern

Your mind is a creative hotbed of artistic talent.
You're always making pictures in your mind, especially when you're bored.
You are easily inspired to think colorful, interesting thoughts.
And although it may be hard to express these thoughts, it won't always be.

What Pattern Is Your Brain?

Now we know!

Not Original

2006-07-22T15:57:00.000-05:00

I wish I could type my blog posts in sparkly, metallic gel pen ink that I normally use when writing. I have a slight addiction to gel pens and faciful inks.....This is not my orignal post. Blogger ate my original post. I had even copied it to a notepad because this frequently happens, and I had just closed my notepad since it gave me the ok after publishing, but in reality the internet gremlins ate my post and it wasn't published at all.

Thanks to you all for your wonderful encouragement on the articles. The first one is pretty much done with the pictures taken and inserted into the appropriate places. The second one still needs photos. I am still in the midst of the Top Secret Project, with many deadlines looming on the horizon. Major deadlines. $500 worth of deadlines, in fact. Wow. Is it the big time, if I had to pay my way in. 40 days remaining until the Top Secret Project is live for the world to love. I hope we make it in time....I'm sure we will.

I did change some post settings on the blog, because I have a spammer who keeps coming in and posting stupid messages (that repeat no less) to every single post on the blog. Why? I don't know. I'm not that very important, and this blog isn't the most travelled on the net. So instead of making you type in those fiddly little security codes (the ones that are image based so the creepy, crawly spammers can't do it automatically), the posts are moderated. I'll approve most anything all you wonderful readers have to say. Provided it's not a stupid spam message ;)

That's Miss E above. I was trying to take the girlies' pictures the other day because they had on coordinating outfits, but it was not meant to be. Right there, she's slipping off the couch to go run around and not stay still enough for the photo....but I really like the picture. It looks whimsical and innocent. When you're two, the world just seems so much nicer.

Jaywalkers are the current project. This is them about a week ago. Right now. I'm through the heel turn and about two inches away from starting the toe decreases. I'm just too lazy to retake another picture at the moment. They're knit on size 0 KnitPicks circs, with their elastic sock yarn that I got on mega good sale (and that looks nothing like the colors shown on my monitor.) Oh, well. At least they'll be nice and thick for fall. Please tell me what on earth possessed me to buy size 0s? Two of them to boot. I've acknowledged my insanity and have dual pairs of size two on their way to me now.

And this picture is of the next sock yarn on my list of things to do. It's sparkly Fortissima Colori Disco. It's got a very small metallic thread plied into it. I can't wait to see how it knits up....on my new size 2s.

Off to pursue dyeing up 72 of 80 skeins for the Top Secret Project.....

I did it

2006-07-12T14:05:00.000-05:00

I wrote to Amy (editor of Knitty.com) to ask how I should submit my articles. I didn't even submit them. Why do I have that funny fluttery feeling in my stomach?

Purple Fire: a lesson in funky plying

2006-07-11T14:17:00.000-05:00

Purple Fire is fresh off the wheel. It's spun from hand painted, domestic wool roving (I painted it in the colors of Lilacs) that I then handcarded mixing some of it with sparkle fiber. The single itself was spun worsted weight with slight thick n thin variation. There are some sections of flame, but they're not extreme. Then I plied it with a thick, rayon thread. The kind that Cascade sells as a carry along, but it's a different brand that I can't recall at the moment. I got it on closeout a couple of months ago.

The skein is a lesson in plying. In fact, I'm in the process of writing two articles on plying, and the art skein photos will detail the funky plying instructions. The plan now is to submit them both to Knitty as a kind of mini series on the subject. This venture was originally conceived as one article featuring both regular and funky plying, but I soon exceeded capacity. The regular plying article alone sits at 6 single spaced, 8.5" by 11" pages. Yeah....I might have to trim it down a bit. I'm contemplating emailing Amy for a bit more guidance concerning article submission, but I don't want to be pest. Insecurity, indecision....I'm not sure what the best course of action is. The article is good - it's what I wanted to know when I first started plying compiled: how to photos and step by step instructions, the finer points of plying, determining the amount of twist, setting the twist and troubleshooting when things don't go as planned. Of course I compiled the info and wrote it, so my opinion of it's worth is definitely biased.

Back to the yarn. It's got: 3 different plying techniques, knots, beehives, super coils, and faux boucle going on for it. Firmly in the worsted category at 124 yards and 3.5 ounces. I wouldn't want to be bored spinning it, now would I? The funky ply article covers everything except the beehives and the super coils. But there's a current article at Knitty about that.

I don't know what it will be yet. Right now, the satisfaction and the art are in it's creation. It's actually extremely beautiful to look at and hold - art yarn is a tactile medium and is better when held. I've jokingly told my husband that I need large glass bowls and containers to display my yarn in; cheap and seasonal decoration. I haven't done it yet, because of the twin two year olds, but don't think I wouldn't but for the practical considerations.

Nickel Plated Satisfaction

2006-07-04T20:55:00.000-05:00

I admit it. I am one of those people. One of those people who heard about the the new KnitPicks needles, hurried off as fast as they could and bought some. Twin 24" circs, size 0: for socks. I've had this thing about sock needles for a long time. I love working with bamboo DPNs on socks - they develop a nice patina. Perfect for knitting along without drags or snags. However, I hate, hate, hate the fact that they are so easily broken. I've broken several bamboo DPNs mid project by accident. Not even a mostly dramatic or semi-horrific accident induced by twin two year olds or a curious cat. No, more like an inch of my bamboo DPN was sticking out of my bag as I walked out the door. Apparently, I was a bit too close and broke that baby clean in two without even noticing the bump. That of course led to 1/3 of my sock stitches unraveling themselves in the course of the car ride to whatever ill-fated place I was going.

Everyone told me I would love magic loop. But I hate magic loop. It changes my gauge and takes me forever for some reason. That and I have this thing for Addi Turbos - who doesn't? They're the hot celebrity with the sleek body and all the moves of my knitting universe. I can't handle any kind of other circular needle. Bamboo is too slow in a circ, for me. The other metal ones have crappy cables and the metal is too heavy. I like Inox Express, but they just don't compare to the Addis. The thing is, I've been hesitant to try out doing socks on Addis because it means a $40 investment for each size that I'd like. Yikes. I do knit. I do a lot of knitting, but dropping $40 at a sitting for socks is enough to ward me off. I have a yarn budget, and I'd like to spend more of it on yarn and not needles. Since most of my projects are knit firmly in the worsted category, the smaller needles would be mainly used for sock knitting.

Enter, KnitPicks Needles. I am 3 1/2" into my Jaywalkers on size 0 needles. These babies are a dream to work with. The tips are perfectly pointy. I am sliding my way through the KFB and double decreases like they were nothing special. Like I didn't realize that on any other needle that wasn't so perfectly pointy I would be pulling my hair out and struggling. I do admit to a few surprise pokes when I start paying attention to what Mr. N is doing on the computer, instead of the knitting, but I can hardly call that the fault of the needle. I am not a needle pusher for the most part. If you are in the habit of pushing your needle after every stitch - grab a bandaid - these points will get you.

The cables on these needles are a dream. They're thinner and more flexible than my Addis. In fact, it's taking a bit of getting used to, and I'm having to pull the cable through the stitches instead of being able to push the stitches along the cable to the end of the needle. But it's worth it. The cord has no memory - even in the 90+ Iowa heat and extremely high humidity. Nor does it have any drag. The stitches just keep slipping on by fast as I can form them.

But that's not the extent of my new KnitPicks needle mania. Even before my twin circs arrived, I hurried off and ordered the Options package. I had a set of Denise needles at the time, but they were very underutilized simply because they were slow. The needles were slow and the cords were big compared to the Addis. I mainly used the larger needles for felting projects, because I could form the stitches loosely enough that the extra drag wasn't as much of an issue. But other than that they sat on my shelf waiting for me to find a use for them. They now have a new home with a happy college student who was just in the market for such a set. The Options package arrived three days before I anticipated it and well under the projected two week shipping time posted at the site. The binder that it comes in is classy and expandable. You can configure it however you want. You even get a few extra spots for accessories yet to be purchased. There have been some complaints that the needles aren't marked. This really wasn't an issue for me. Most of my Addis are unmarked and I have a system to compensate for it. I simply used a gel pen to mark the sizes on the outside of the plastic sleeve in the binder. If perchance I happen to forget what size I selected for a project, I do have a needle sizer that I can use to easily find out. The Options needles are equally as nice as the circs.

I was a little surprised that the Options pack comes with fewer tools than the Denise pack. There are fewer cables, and not as many needle sizes. Of course, had I slowed down long enough to read this before I hit the purchase button, I would have anticipated this before they came. No worries, though. With the low prices on the optional accessories, I'm sure I'll be able to get my Options package to where I want it to be. At the moment, I'm not even using them, so it shouldn't be an issue. I do love the fact that it's easy to buy multiple needle tips of the same size. Now I can have as many size 7 & 8s as I want and not feel guilty.

If you've been waiting to try out these needles, stop waiting. Go out and get yourself some. You won't be disappointed. Really.

Good Morning!

2006-06-29T09:42:00.000-05:00

Do you ever wake up in the morning & realize that it is a lovely morning. That you are really blessed & it's going to be a great day? That's the view out my french doors onto our deck. 12 feet of rail, 22 skeins drying in the warm sun and scented breezes. (It's not even 1/2 of what I've dyed...) It is a beautiful day.

Sometimes I wish I could keep it all - to pile it up & just gaze at all that yarnliness. The pressure of knitting 50+ skeins would ruin the liberal enjoyment of the yarn, but still...

I just placed two ads for the Top Secret Project, one in Knitty and the other in Interweave Knits. Wow. Two of the biggest knitting magazines out there. I'm feeling a little queasy and excited. Must get the new yarn line ready for the fall debut!

Got a Tiny Tether? Show it off!

2006-06-27T16:12:00.000-05:00

If you have a Tiny Tether pic, let me know - I'd love to post it to the blog and show it off. Tell all your friends, too.

Tiny Tethers aren't just for pacifiers you know. They'll tether all sorts of other important things, like your keys, etc.

In other yarn related items, I have slightly recovered from the shock of tangling 10 skeins of yarn. I also have a large order in for more. The good news is that if you're a Yarn Of The Month Club Member I have enough yarn for you. In fact, most of it is dyed. Between yesterday and today, I've dyed 32 skeins. I have 9 more to do tomorrow, and that's cake. Have I mentioned that once I figured out how to do it (and despite my mishap of yesterday), hand painting cotton is really nice because you can skip the heat intesive steaming step. Definitiely a plus. Yay, yarn. Good thing too, because I am totally in charge of all the handpainted cotton in the upcoming yarn line for the Top Secret Project. Yep. At least 2 cotton weights and a luxurious rayon too. Just wait to you get your hands on this stuff - it's like heaven in a fiber.

For the love of God and all that is holy....

2006-06-26T17:30:00.000-05:00

do NOT forget and put the lid on your washer down when you have 10 skeins of beautifully dyed cotton yarn in there. Furthermore, letting it run the entire cycle before you notice is not at all the right thing to do. You may end up swearing vociferiously and wanting to kick your washer....also a bad idea - you may have noticed that your washer is made of metal and you are not. A wise observation.

So how was your day?

Memories of the Seaside

2006-06-05T14:02:00.000-05:00

I’ve been busy. Developing new colorways and not sleeping. The two really are not related. The latter is due to my 2nd born two year old, and my 6 month old. The new colorways are partly for Yarn of the Month and partly for the new, Top Secret Project and partly for Yarn of the Month. I’m having fun exploring fiber reactive dyes on cotton. They’re very different than dyeing on wool – the colors are hard to pin down in comparison. When I dye, I normally have a very definite idea of the colors that I want to produce. Through trial and error I can now produce (with relative accuracy) the color I want. Not so with the fiber reactive dye, not so. Sure the dye looks like I want it to, but the end result doesn’t resemble the original color much at all. I think it’s got to due with the way the dye fixes on the fiber. It’s not heated and it takes a long time to fix when compared to acid dyes. This causes a lot more color mixing than your usual acid dye. The end result is that my two yarns which started out looking very different but after they were rinsed a million times (another difference between wool and cotton) looked so much the same that my very detail minded husband mistook one for the other. Ack! So out of desperation, I dyed something VERY different. Ok, not so much desperation as exasperation. The fiber reactives and I need to spend some more time communing I think….we’re still a bit wary of each other. So here are the two colorways that I have going for this month. Memories and Seaside.

See Sharon over at Irish Baby Knits for Yarn of the Month Club. We’re currently full up, but are keeping a waiting list for when people don’t renew their subscription. Very beautiful yarns, I might add!

So the T.S.P. (top secret project) is moving along. We picked out colors over the weekend – for the new drool-worthy logo. Identity design is so tricky. You’re forming a new something-or-other and you don’t quite know what it will end up like, but you have a creative vision. Then you have the task of converting and translating that vision into an appropriate medium to be understood by others. It’s a good thing there are professionals to help with this sort of thing, because pretty things give me a distinct inability to choose. I just want them all. Soon, soon I will have more details. We’re hoping for the full roll out in about 4 weeks. Yes, I said we. I am not alone. So ponder this lovely stationary that we chose as part of our identity. What do you think we are?

Decisively Indecisive

2006-05-26T14:40:00.000-05:00

That’s me when it comes to having to choose yarn. It’s not because I am uneducated about my options….I know quite a bit about yarn, how it’s made, what makes it tick, what I like, etc. It’s just that I can’t say no to yarn. How the heck do you say no to beautiful, wonderfully made yarn? It’s the most impossible thing in the world. So I’ve needed to narrow down a huge list of yarns into a cohesive yarn line that will cover the most desired types of hand knitting yarns. It’s a good thing that I have help…I never would have made it through without my partners in crime. This yarn line stuff has to do with the previously mentioned TOP SECRET business from before. Soon I will have details – we’ve just got to get out of the design phase.

I’ve been up to lots of yarning lately. Currently, as in right this minute I have a lovely hand painted cotton chenille yarn soaking in my sink upstairs. It's for June's YOM. Then there is Shipwreck - a new colorway which I sold out of at the K&F Pirates and Mermaids event today. Plus about 4 listed handspuns and two more which are still on my bobbin. Not to mention the 8 ounces of handpainted roving that I have sitting in my basement waiting for me to get a move on. Then to top off all this excessive yarn and fiber madness, I was bit by the designer bug last night and just have to get moving on the new idea. I need to dye up more yarn for that though. Sigh. If only my kids would sleep 24 hours a day I might get some more stuff done!

2006-05-21T12:03:00.000-05:00

I have not fallen off the face of the earth. It may seem like it to you, and for that I sincerely apologize. I have been busy. Lots of changes going on this spring - both around the house and with my business. So instead of knit blogging, I've been enjoying 2+ hour conference calls with two other talented dyers. We're working on a top secret project. Perhaps top secret only for the time being, but right now the details are being ironed out. If you love yarn, you will want to stay tuned. The top secret project may just take your breath away.

Although I can't give you most of the TOP SECRET project details yet, I can tell you that I am changing my brand name to better reflect the growth of my business. Bungalow Buns will be replaced by Franceschi Studio. I am just not knitting soakers for the cloth diapering community like I used to, so keeping the old name doesn't make sense. Currently pondering the new yarn line....yes, you heard right: the new yarn line.

In more recent and tangible fiber artsy goodness, here is one of the art yarns I've been working on. Treasure of Tortuga. 2 oz, of this skein is a prize for the treasure hunt over at Knitteds and Fitteds. The rest will be up for sale. It's so lovely and soft and vibrant. Technically, it's the same dye that I did Floral Inclination with. Same dyelot to boot, but what a difference the color distribution and spinning make. Little knots and behives plus three different plying techniques make it very interesting. The thicker single is spun from handpainted roving and the thin plying single is spun from repeating lengths of solid dyed rovings of the same colors.

I've got anothe red wool and linen single art yarn still on the bobbin to show ya. Pictures to come when the twist is set!

Still no progress on the gorgeous sparkly purple single. It's awaiting inspiration for plying. Black maybe? Slate? Blue? I don't know...................

Spinning Flowers in the Springtime

2006-05-06T20:26:00.000-05:00

I am not sure what’s up with Blogger these days. I’ve been having a devil of a time getting it to load at a reasonable rate…and I have pretty fast broadband. It’s hindering my blogging momentum, I tell you. Plus, the return of fine weather is here. My two year olds have discovered that outside is the most fun and grand place to play ever. Last year, I had a hard time getting them to go outside. They were fairly freaked out by the grass in our yard for most of the time. They did like our baby wading pool, but it was a two parent process that took most of an hour and a half to go “swimming”, so it didn’t happen very often. Now they are older and love to run through our yard…and pick the leaves off my lilac bushes. I try to prevent this as much as possible so the bushes don’t suffer, but when they bring their “flowers” to me I just can’t bear to scold them.

Our deck is currently a work in progress among other things. It spans nearly the entire backside of our house at a whopping 25’ X 12’. The previous owners added it on last summer, but didn’t put a railing on it at all. There are two sections, at different heights. One is about 28” off the ground, and the other is about a foot lower. It’s the only access to our house from the garage, and two sides open onto a concrete slab. Not a smart choice when you have two toddlers. So Mr. N is putting a railing up all around. I’ve been planting really large pots full of flowers to decorate the deck when it’s all ready to go. Since I opted to do the large scale potting on the deck this afternoon (So the girlies could help and X could look on from his excersaucer.) and ended up sweeping off the dirt like a little old Italian lady. They sweep their sidewalks in the mornings you know.

I have been fiber arting as of late, even though the process is slow to work it’s way here. Lots of spinning has been going on, and a bit of dyeing as well. I've had a bump of Hydrangea hand dyed roving sitting on my shelf for weeks, waiting for someone to love it and give it a home. It's siren call was too alluring and I spun it up into a lovely worsted weight yarn this week. Not terribly arty, but it will be lovely to knit with. The color combinations are endless and fanciful.

Then there is Ice Princess. She's my latest art yarn. Spun up out of some domestic wool, hand carded with sparkle and sewing threads. Plus a few behives and nubs of hot pink and lilac wool. I topped the whole thing off by plying it with a silk/alpaca/wool blend, hand-painted, lace weight yarn strung with a variety of irridescent beads. mmmmmm yummy. She's much prettier than the pictures. It's just impossible to get across the gold and iris sparkles that dance in the light through a picture. Plus, it's got a nice soft hand. I've enjoyed working with this roving a lot. I really didn't anticipate liking it this much. It's a domestic blend of wools with a count in the mid 50s. Not even the decency to be a common place merino roving with a finer count in the mid 60s. But, it's fluffy and soft and drapey with the right amount of body for both spinning and knitting. I love it when that happens. When you find something unexpectedly lovely and better than what you'd anticipated. That will teach me to try dyeing on something I think is "cheap" just because it's less expensive.

I have dyed up the entire pound of this domestic blend roving that I have. A bit as Hydrangea, a bit as Lilacs, then a bit more as the individual colors that make up the colorway Lilacs, so I wouldn't have to pour it out. The final bit is handpainted in Floral Inclination with more bumps in the individual colors. I went on a dyeing tear. I've figured out a better way to dye the roving to avoid those pesky white spots and bothersome pooling on the bottom....low immersion dyeing the extra bit of water helps keep it wet and the colors distributed evenly. Just don't expect as much control as when you're handpainting and you'll do fine. The extra color blending is part of the charm, I think. Dyeing is such a good thing for relinquishing your limitations about color.

I have a gorgeous 4 oz. skein of Lilacs singles that I spun up and have wound into a ball awaiting plying. It's very pretty - with handcarded sections of gold sparkle in it. Thick n thin sections and nubs. I was originally going to ply it with variegated purple eyelash yarn, but it didn't work. The eyelash yarn took over too much and you missed all the subtle sexiness of the handspun. So now it's sitting on my coffee table under my Peace lily waiting for me to come up with another idea for it. It needs to be plied for strength. It's not spun up the right way for a single. Hopefully inspiration will come soon. It's a lovely single. (That picture at right is of the handpainted sport weight yarn I dyed before the roving. It gives you a good idea of the colors in it....It's what I came up with when I had to have purple. Same with the Floral Inclination below. The Floral is up for sale at the moment at Knitteds and Fitteds.)

Right now, on Rumple's bobbin is a loud handspun from Floral Inclination. It's got bits and nubs of the component colors in it. I'm seriously thinking about spinning up a variegated thin thread of the colors and plying it with the thicker single from the handpainted. We'll see. I'm really enjoying spinning the art yarns. This one doesn't have any sparkle or fancy carding techniques. The wool is pretty vivacious on it's own due to the dyeing process and I'm enjoying the colorplay. I'll have to get you all pictures of the Lilacs and the Floral Inclination later. For now, enjoy Ice Princess and the latest dyeing endeavors.

I need Purple!

2006-04-27T10:36:00.000-05:00

Do you ever feel like if you don't have something NOW, that you'll shrivel up and the world will stop turning? Sometimes I feel that way about chocolate, but today I feel like that about PURPLE. Yes, a color. I really should be experimenting with something Project Spectrum-ish, since I am a member. But I just need some purple today. I have no idea why. Right now, I have a deep, dark, mysterious purple, a medium pink purple, a medium blue purple and a light lilac purple waiting for the dyepot. They just have to wait until my two skeins of Peace Fleece Pumpkin are done simmering. I love it when I suddenly feel inspired by color. I love seeing the results when I'm done. I think the lilac bushes that are blooming in my yard today are responsible for the deep-seated need to create something purple. I'll let you know how the purple adventure turns out.

In the mean time, I think I'm off to spin up some Hydrangea roving. It's for sale in my store, but has been tempting me to spin it for the past 3 days. I might just give in. I love the feel of wool through my fingers...the process of forming and crafting it into something new, something soft, something beautiful. Handspun is such a joy to knit with too. It's always doing something a little unexpected. Not overt, but lovely, subtle shifts that make the knitting interesting in spite of the miles of stockinette. Sigh. I just love textiles and fibers. Early in our marriage (and just before) Mr. N used to call me the Textile Princess because of my strong affinity for all things fibery. I really don't discriminate. Embroidery, sewing, quilting, crochet, knit, yarn, wool, sheep....you name it and I love it.

Crafting brings me joy. There are times when inspiration runs dry, but also glorious spring days where I feel I'll never be able to create all the ideas I have simply because there is not enough time.

Toddlers and Turtles

2006-04-24T09:50:00.001-05:00

I've been purposely not posting to leave Tether Part II up there for Knitty readers. "Hi, Knitty readers!!" But I miss blogging. I've been crazy busy lately. The Twinkle Twins birthday was yesterday. We had their party on Friday & it was huge: 50+ people. More than half of those people are close relatives - immediate family of either Mr. N or I. Mr. N's family arrived on Thursday and left Sunday. In between we threw a huge party and put a railing up on our deck....I'm exhausted.

My little girls have gotten so big & I don't recall them growing up. Even little X is nearly 6 months. It seems like he's still brand new. Being a mom is so bittersweet sometimes. I want my babies to grow and learn and become, but a small part of me pines to keep them little forever.

Before the insane lasagne making and cake baking (Did I mention we had a dinner party and that I made all the food?) I did manage to get a bit of spinning done. Phunky Turtle is a conglomeration of things. It's a three ply yarn: one hand spun single of Ile De France (from High Prairie Fibers. Yes, I've sent you there before, and I will keep sending you there because it's a lovely store and she lives in my state....), one ply handpainted and overdyed haloed mohair yarn (commerically spun), with another ply of bright turquoise cotten crochet thread. It turned out nicely. Decent yardage and it's very squishy. The Ile De France is carded and it's nearly frothy with tons of squish. The mohair is um, interesting. It was supposed to be Pumpkin, but somehow brillant blue dye adhered itself to my dyepot and transferred onto the yarn. So, I added some splashes of bright colors that I had leftover from and Indian Corn dye and then overdyed it yellow. It was a fairly dirty gold, with bright patches of color, but it worked. The aqua thread is plied unevenly throughout with crossover wraps at intervals up and down the skein. It's not sold yet, so I may get to keep it. I have no idea what I'll do with it though. It's bulky. Two worsted weight yarns plus the crochet thread gives it lovely substance. It's not terrible heavy though, because the handspun single and the mohair are really light and airy worsted weight yarns.

On a completely different note, I have 50 coffee clips on their way to me from Hawaii. They'll be up on my main site, in case you'd like an inexpensive (but very functional!) clip for your own Tiny Tether. Post from Hawaii takes a while, so it may be as long as two weeks before they're here. You should have seen me blushing when I wrote to them asking to purchase 50 coffee clips, no coffee. They were so sweet and accomodating. I love their coffee too. I first had it on my honeymoon....it brings back memories of our fancy free days before kids. It really wasn't that long ago. Next month is our 4th anniversary. It's amazing how fast having children ages you.

Tiny Tether Part Two!

2006-04-10T15:48:00.000-05:00

Wondering about that red Tiny Tether on Knitty that doesn't appear in the pattern? Wonder no more! Here is the second half of the pattern. While it's gender neutral, it will satisfy those manly customers who find the flower a bit to feminine. (X has been wearing the blue flower tether since January....I love flowers!)

Please use caution when using the tether for small children. The clip and hair elastic could pose a choking hazard if detached from the tether.

Bobble Tether:
Work i-cord as described for the Flower Tether.

As you knit the cord, insert a bobble when the mood strikes you. If you want a wider cord, cast on more stitches. Placing bobbles on the first and last stitches requires a good deal of fiddling to look right. If you want to avoid the fiddling, create an appliqué bobble and sew it into place.

Small Bobble:
Using the CC of your choice:

In same stitch, knit into the front, back, and front of the stitch. Turn. 3 sts.
Purl across. Turn.
Slip all three bobble stitches onto the right needle and pass the 2nd and 3rd stitches over the first stitch. Drop the new color, cut a 6 inch tail, and continue knitting with the MC.

Large Bobble:
Using the CC of your choice:

In same stitch, knit into the front, back, and front. Turn. 3 sts.
Purl across. Turn.
Knit across. Turn.
Purl across. Turn.
Slip all three bobble stitches onto the right needle and pass the 2nd and 3rd stitches over the first stitch. Drop the new color, cut a 6 inch tail, and continue knitting with the MC.

Applique Bobble:
Using crochet hook, pick up one stitch.
K front, back, front, back, front. 5 stitches.
Row 1: Knit across.
Row 2: Purl across.
Row 3: K2tog, k1, k2tog.
Slip all stitches to right needle, pass 2nd and 3rd stitches over first.

Cut a tail long enough to use to whipstitch bobble to cord. Thread tapestry needle with yarn tail; make a running stitch around outside edge of bobble. Cinch down and sew in place on cord. Weave in ends.

When your cord is the desired length, bind off leaving an 18 inch tail. Cut two 20 inch lengths of contrasting colors. Tie these at the base of the i-cord, near the MC tail. Braid for about 3 inches. Using these three colors, wrap the elastic band as for Flower Tether and tie off. Trim the ends close to the knot.

To finish, make three Appliqued Bobbles near the base of the braid. Weave in ends. Attach clip as for Flower Tether.

To use your tether, pass the elastic loop through the handle of the pacifier. Pass the clip and the entire tether through the loop and cinch down. Wah lah! You’re done.

Knitty.com - coming soon to a screen near you.

2006-04-07T20:54:00.000-05:00

* I typed this entire post one handed, while holding X.

I had an email today from Amy (as in Knitty's editor Amy & co author of Big Girl Knits). I am in this upcoming issue despite my fears of being overlooked & it should be out very shortly. The excitement is pulsing in my veins. Someone else likes my work! Woo hoo! Mr. N tolerates the crafts.....and that's all I'll say about that. On a less exciting note, I have not been spinning or knitting much. Today I went in for an urgent eye appointment, due to ongoing eye irritation. Since Sunday I've had severely red eyes that soon became light sensitive, and when I couldn't read the computer screen overnight, I decided it was time to seek help. Turns out I have an eye virus. I didn't know you could get eye viruses. Apparently, my eyes are much abused by said virus and so I have drops to put in every two hours and I had to throw away my contacts. That meant digging out my 5+ year old glasses that I never wear, tightening one of the lenses back in and lots of style for me. Frumpy librarian is in, right? Who am I kidding, really....I am a spinster! Follow up appointment on Monday to see if I can go back to contacts & my regular eye exam the week after. I have my eye on a fetching pair of stylish black frames studded with tiny black rhinestones. It's all about the subtle bling, ya know? The latest Rumple creation has subtle bling - or mostly overt bling. It's only subtle if you find yourself mostly blind in one eye overnight. It's my first true bulky creation & I loved it. It's a candy stripe - thick single, not plied. I added big nubs of both grey & colored roving with Angelina carded in. Then there are the nests of both grey & colored wool with lots of Angelina carded in. Plus the nests of sequins, too. I loved spinning with minimal predrafting and almost no actual drafting. Zip, zip, spin, done! More pics below of the Rumple creation. I did type out all these details twice, but the Blogger Monster ate both posts.

In fact, it has eaten this post twice & I am not tempting fate anymore by attempting to post pictures of it again. Off to fun & adventure for me. We'll chat again soon.

I hate blogger today! Arg!

2006-04-04T14:19:00.000-05:00

It has eaten my post twice today. Very frustrating. For now, a photo odyssey with no words.

I might die this week....

2006-04-01T21:14:00.000-06:00

The new Knitty comes out this week. "As close to the first of the month as possible" of this month. It's killing me. I am an avid Knitty reader....and soon to be pattern writer. Here's the email I got from Amy (the editor) a couple months back:

You're in!Congrats and thanks for a great pattern.

Watch for an e-mail from Mandy Moore when it's time to proofread your pattern.

Thanks for being part of Knitty!

Best, Amy
[editor, Knitty]
http://knitty.com

Now in all fairness, I heard back right away after the submission deadline. I was thrilled to bits! But Miss Mandy Moore has never emailed me. Now that the release date is so close I am beginning to doubt myself.....the "What if they don't publish it after all?" thoughts are tumbling around fast and furious. I'm trying to console myself with the acknowledgment that my pattern is simple & therefore needed no real technical overhauling.

But what if.....

Smooshing my way to beautiful

2006-03-31T11:26:00.000-06:00

I have been smooshing lately. It all started last Sunday, when I wanted an easy, fast, non messy way to dye small lots of roving different colors. Now I can dye yarn. I can dye it fast and in large quantities, but roving is a different story. I haven't quite figured out all the tricks to make that fast and fabulous, yet. I'm still battling those pesky places where it doesn't absorb as much dye as I'd like it to. And the fact that it puffs up while I paint it, despite a long time spent wetting it out. Then there's the perpetual problem of heating without overdoing it. Stovetop/pot dyeing is pretty much out of the picture because I'm too afraid of accidental simmering that felts my lovely wool.

Smooshing is the answer for small batches of dyed roving. Below I detail my smooshing technique. It's very technical & requires precision at every step.

Supplies:
roving
glass/micro safe dish for dyeing (not food use!)
acid dyes or food coloring or icing dyes
vinegar or citric acid

1.) Wrap your roving into a ball approximately the size of your container. Wrap the tail around your ball a couple of times to secure it - you don't want it to open up in the water. I used my 2C. glass measure like this:

2.) Plop your ball of roving into some warm water & wet it out for an hour or so. I popped mine in the kitchen sink & ran after my kids to fill time.

3.)Fill your container 1/2 full of water. Add the amount of dye you like plus some acid. 2 T. vinegar did the trick for my 2 C. measure.

4.) Gently smoosh your fiber into the dye.

5.) Add more water to cover as needed.

6.) Smoosh your fiber a couple of times if you'd like a more uniform color, otherwise leave it alone. The wool will be darker on the bottom than at the top.

7.) Pop your container in the micro for 2 minutes on high. Let it rest at least 2 minutes before giving it another round. Don't let it boil or simmer! Continue until you get a good exhaust. 2-3 times should be sufficient.

8.)Dry and use. My balls were small enough that they dried rolled up. It is faster to unroll and drape the roving while drying.

9.) Spin your Smoosh dyed fibers!

You can see my Smoosh Dyed fibers in action on Rumple's bobbin below. I'll get better pictures once it's off the bobbin. It's progressing slowly because I'm knitting a gnome hat out of some commercial alpaca & a wool/mohair handspun at the moment. Here's a couple pictures of the original creation. It's my own pattern. Miss G & Myself modeling:

In other news, 95% of the Yarn Of The Month is in the mail! (Yesterday, in fact.) Go, me! The rest will go out today. It needed to dry a bit more.

Panic

2006-03-29T12:27:00.000-06:00

I am having one of those days. I have so much to do and it's paralyzing me. That is typically NOT me. Usually I see a million things to do and just go at it. Mr. N is reminding me that I don't have to be doing X,Y and Z every waking minute of the day. But not so today, not so. Which for me is very unfortunate. It it practically the 11th hour for me to get my Yarn of the Month stuff done. I have been organized, and hardworking. All the blank yarn in the house was dyed, and dried and ready to go last week. (Ok, there are still 3 skeins that have not been wound into center pull balls, but otherwise they're ready to go.) The problem is, I was 3 skeins short. And I placed an order 3 weeks ago. The yarn just came in yesterday afternoon. It has got to go out tomorrow and the next day. All 36 skeins of it.

There are two of the 3 skeins 1/2 painted upstairs on my kitchen counter. Waiting the obligatory "mellow and spread" time before I flip, paint and set. I'm still biting my nails. Can I get it done on time? Well I sure hope so. The mailers are even addressed, and I still can't figure out why I have the jitters. Goodness, I think I need help.

Pictures will follow. For now, I must paint like the wind.

Rumple Stiltskin in progesss

2006-03-28T10:23:00.000-06:00

Got some fibery photos for you today. The mamas I work with at Knitteds & Fitteds have been hollering for them, Julie-Ann from the Material Whirled list is curious, too. So here they are. The colors are not quite as accurate as I generally like, but it's been raining & dreary here for days and my little point and shoot digital doesn't deal with that so well.

First off, the above picture is of my lovely brood of spinning wheels. The pretty one is an original Jensen, Tina II. I handfinished her with cherry stain (on cherry wood) with a light tung oil protective layer. I've had her since I was a Sophmore in highschool. (Now you all should be busily trying to figure out how old I am. I'll give you hint, I'm probably not nearly as old as I ought to be for having 3 children....or at least I think so. Oh, andI got married the week after I graduated college with my bachelor's degree, and had all 3 kids after.)

The Tina II as of yet is un-named. She really isn't a "Tina" but I am at a loss for what her real name should be. Something classy but sassy like Lola.....I can never decide. Maybe Lola is too 40's-pin-up-girl-esque? Then of course the bulky monstrosity is Rumple Stiltskin. He had a name instantly. I just knew he was a Rumple. This is slightly disturbing, becuase when it comes to children, Mr. N and I can agree on a bazillion girls' names and can't come up for anything decent when it comes to male children. If the Twinkle Twins had been two boys, one of them would not have had a name. Good thing they both popped out girls. Ah, but I digress.

Here is my newest creation: Melted Crayon Box. This was spun on the Rumple this weekend, from hand-dyed Blue Faced Leicester roving. I purchased it from Winderwood Farm on ebay for a very nice price. It's lovely. I love BFL to pieces. Now the interesting thing about this roving, is that despite the look of the finished yarn, the roving was dyed with only primary red, yellow and blue. I random dyed it, by wetting out the fiber, and plunking it (carefully and evenly) in my large dyeing pot. Then I heated it and poured the dye on in 3 wide stripes, minimizing the amount of dye overlap. So basically I had a radnom dyed skien of the primary colors. Then I spun it in a kind of modified long draw, to get lots of color mixing. The result is a rainbow. It was fun to watch it spin up. It is a plain-jane, worsted weight two ply. I wound it into a center pull ball and plied it together from the same single. The skein is just over 3 oz. The colors are a bit muted in places because my roving stack in the pot was a bit thick, so some parts were undyed. Next time, I'll dye it in 2oz sections instead to avoid white space.

Then this last pic is of another yarn I have going on the Tina. It's current name is Working Girl Confusion. It is of course worsted weight, because she has such a small orifice. Spun up out of black, white, grey, camel and medium blue Brown Sheep mill ends. They're all working wear colors. Hence the name. Coils, and nubs here. Lots of color changes because the mill ends I have are rather small. Should knit up into a stripey pattern.

Lastly, this is my first true bulky yarn. Still in progress on the wheel. I really haven't gotten very far with it. It's a candy stripe with black sequin nubs and also some grey wool/gold angelina hand blended nubs. The roving is from an Iowa farm. It's pretty much pencil drafted roving, which I hand dyed in very small batches yesterday and Sunday night. (As in small wads in my 2 cup glass dyeing measures.) I'm having fun with it and learning a lot. It's nice to be able to actually do these techniques. I've had the Plucky Fluff book for about 2 months, but most of the things I couldn't do because Tina is just too petite.

You all should go visit Abi at High Praire Fibers. She has lovely wool and does cool dyeing! She;s so sweet & nice to work with, too. This is her natural Ile De France/ Dorset cross. It's carded and has a foamy kind of texture to it. A nice change from the commercial combed rovings. It does compact as you spin it, but still retains the carded wool characteristics. Very easy to spin up. Her prices are excellant, too.

Too many kids?

2006-03-27T15:30:00.000-06:00

My poor children.....I hope they turn out ok with a mother like me. Does anyone else ever have these thoughts? Today I got the Twinkle Twins up. They sleep in the same room, but in different cribs. They were wearing the same pajamas, in different colors. I got them up myself, and somewhere between their room and our changing/dressing room I managed to get them mixed up. It's not very far. The hall comes to a kind of T there, and the door trim actually touches. You can take a small hop from room to room. It's a well known fact that for the most part, the girls wear similar outfits, with some distinguishing characeristic - usually same outfit, in different colors. It helps me know which one I'm adressing as they're running away from me at full speed. So despite the fact that the Twinkle Twins are actually fraternal, and wearing different colors, I proceed to get them entirely ready for the day having them mixed up. Calling them by the wrong name, putting them in the wrong outfit, etc. This goes on for about 15 minutes until Mr. N came in with X to get him ready.

Mr. N - looking skeptically at me:
"Why is Miss E wearing Miss G's outfit?"

"What?"

"She's in the wrong outfit. That's Miss G's outfit."

"No, it's not. She's in the right outfit."

Then it dawned on me. Miss E sucks her thumb and Miss G doesn't. Miss E is happily sucking her thumb, in Miss G's outfit and laughing at me. No wonder Miss G didn't even look up as I was telling her (repeatedly) to stop fishing around in my bathroom necessities drawer.

Can you imagine where I'd be if they were wearing the same pajamas like they are in the above picture?

Rumple Stiltskin has been getting a workout. Over the weekend I dyed some BFL roving with red, yellow and blue. I prewet the roving, plopped it in my canning pot with very little water *on what was left in the roving itself from soaking) and proceeded to dump the dyes in three stripes across it. I added a bunch, so that it would soak through pretty well. I still had a few white spots, so the next time I do this, I'll be sure to saturate it a bit more. It turned out super duper colorful. It's really neat to watch the primaries mix into the full spectrum. I plied it with itself, for a two-ply worsted weight yarn. Nothing really special, but it was fun to watch it unfold.

That Babe is mine!

2006-03-25T21:13:00.000-06:00

I am so happy to announce the new addition to our family.....a Babe Bulky Production spinning wheel arrived yesterday afternoon! This thing is hulking compared to my petite Tina II (an original Jensen), and rather homely to boot. But it's damn functional & I can spin bulky, Bulky, BULKY yarns on this monster. It came with 3 bobbins, each capable of holding 2+ lbs of fiber. That's a lot of fiber! The orifice seems like a huge tunnel, too. I might be in pluckyfluff heaven.

We're still getting aquainted, and so far I've been spinning worsted weight singles (of glorious handpainted Blue Faced Leicester top) only. I'll get around to the fancy stuff soon. My Tina is sporting a novelty yarn right now, so I opted to take baby steps with the new wheel first.

Nels is right - the functionality is great, but it's ugly as sin.

A New Dye Record.....

2006-03-23T16:58:00.000-06:00

has officially been set this month. So far I am at 9 1/2 pounds for the month. It's been super busy! currently, I have 16 4 oz. center-pull balls of hydrangea stacked on my kitchen table. It's so pretty. I just love to be surrounded by colors. It won't be staying, though. They will be off to their new homes next week-ish. I still have another pound and a half to finish up before I'll be done with the March Yarn of the Month club dyeing. However, I have run out of the right type of yarn (notice I did not say "run out of yarn", I'm not that foolish). So please think "Hurry up, yarn!" thoughts for me. The pic is of 8, 8 oz skeins piled on my kitchen table, before I wound them all into 4 oz balls....

I love yarn and everything about it.

Here's my latest handspun adventure. The roving is Brown Sheep Mill ends in natural grey, which I overdyed in rainbow fashion. Turned out jewel-toned. Nothing special about it, just another 2.2 ounces of soft, fluffly, fibery goodness in the world. It's firmly worsted weight with a bit of thick and thin texture. It's going up for sale this week at Knitteds and Fitteds....

Nuclear Fizz and other related matters

2006-03-13T17:57:00.000-06:00

* This post took me two days to upload - don't mind me.

There it is. My latest handspun. It came off the wheel yesterday and it's on my blog this evening. Pretty good, since little man X is cutting his first teeth & won't sleep for love or money. It's so hard to capture the essential fuzzy, frizzy, tactile nature of this yarn in a photo. Go figure. It's got this soft halo of a million tiny threads poking out of it in every direction. Very cool. Especially since the colored single really lacked conviction that it was indeed a novelty yarn. The skein is 95 grams. 1 handspun single of hot bright felting roving plied with a furry eyelash yarn in black. They are both improved for being together.

I learned never buy roving under the heading of felting if you want to spin it. In all fairness, I actually bought it for felting, but I guess I just really don't like needle felting. Probably mostly due to the fact that I didn't spend a lot of time learning how to needle felt. That and the fact that having sharp, barbed needles out with twin toddlers is not a good idea. So I decided to spin it. I thought I had lost all ability for spinning a decently even yarn. It was not pretty. Double cuts everywhere. The roving was not uniform. Bumpity, slubity, thin here, too thick there, pull apart as you spin...... But I persevered. I spun the entire pound into yarn. (A goal that I set for myself.) It looks so much better now, too! ah, the sweet joy of a project turning out wonderfully better than you first aniticipated!

Here are a few more shots of the different skeins I spun out of the pound of wool - composed of several bumps of different colors.

This is a navajo 3 ply from the lumpity, bumpity felting roving. It's strong, cushy stuff!

The Nuclear Fizz in a skein. Purty!

I love, love, love the way these colors look together. I have no idea why. It's really not my usual style. It's orange and hot pink felting wool plied with a pink rainbow, rayon quilting thread. The rayon thread is shiny. They work very well together.

2 1/2 pounds later

2006-03-09T17:17:00.000-06:00

I only wish I were losing the baby weight. My stomach is starting to pull back in 4 months post X. I'm hoping that's due to the Pilates I've taken up. Talk about a stomach workout. I can only barely make it past the warmup before the stop-now-or-you-won't-make-it-off-the-floor burn sets in. Yeah, you fellow Pilates fanatics know what I mean. But that's not what I meant to talk about. Instead, my I present 1 3/4 pounds of the 2 1/2 that I dyed in the last two days. Not bad for watching 3 kids, and cleaning the house at the same time.

Come to think of it, I may have actually lost 2 1/2 pounds....but I avoid scales like the plague.

The three skeins on top (the ones that look wildly different) were dyed with the same dye batch & the same dye technique. I'm having tons of fun with the random dye. I get all sorts of surprizing results.

Geranium: up for sale tomorrow at www.knittedsandfitteds.com

Surf: also up for sale tomorrow at www.knittedsandfitteds.com

They're really pretty. I want to keep them. I pretty much feel that way about everything I dye. Except a few that I think are hideous. But without fail someone else loves them. Color is such and interesting and subjective thing. I love playing with it and seeing the results.

But these two skeins are by far my favorite. I'm also offering them for sale. I'm half hoping they won't go so that I can keep them. But I really haven't been knitting lately, so a new, loving home is the best place for them.
Fawn and Flora:

You will now be subjected to......

2006-03-05T15:25:00.000-06:00

a deluge of pictures of my kiddos & family. I think they're cute! Many of these are from last week's visit. You will see many instances of naturally occuring "rockstar" hair. Rockstar hair refuses to be mastered by such trivial things like hair clips or bands......

X and Daddy 15 minutes ago:

Grandma L wearing X:

The Twinkle Twins with Grandpa:

Uncle J and the Table:
(Uncle J is about 6 feet tall, the Twinkle Twins aren't)

Big Girl Beds:
(they didn't last. We opted to lower the crib mattressses & sleep instead)

Mad Scientist Miss G:

Miss E Winks:

That's all it will let me post.

I am popular. Want to know why?

2006-03-02T13:38:00.000-06:00

I am popular. Yes, I really am. It is just after 1:30pm and so far I have been visited by:

1.) FedEx: with new double celluar shades (the cordless window kind) for my living room, in Popcorn.

2.) UPS with a year's worth of Yarn of the Month yarn. And some other yarn I had to have. You'll be seeing that up for sale and custom slots in the stores soon.

3.) The Mail Guy: nothing of yarn or spinning interest, though.

4.) TruGreen Chem Lawn: just applying our pre-emergent crabgrass preventer, etc.

5.) FedEx Again: Because apparently they forgot to leave my $80 worth of dye and assists earlier.

Have you ever seen such wonderful yarn? There's a lot more in the box than you can see in the picture. The box is stuffed as full as full can be. Mmmmm, feeling the yarn love. Rayon chenille, thick n thin wool, mohair/wool blend, pure merino of two types. Can you say swoon?

And finally, here are the boxes as they came to me (minus the junk mail and the window shades box.) Plus, I am expecting another box with blocks to make my girlies Pink Tower (I got the blocks for $10, shipped. I like a mere $80 savings...) tomorrow. I do what I can to keep FedEx, Ups and the USPS in business.......

Have you been wondering???

2006-02-28T15:38:00.000-06:00

What was in your wool before it was yarn? Take a good look over there on the left. Ponder deeply what it could be....

Why yes, that is what my kitchen sink looks like after two 4oz. skeins of wool have been soaking for 30 minutes. Now, to be fair, this is minimally processed wool. It has no veggie matter, but a bit of lanolin left. Not too much, just enough. I must point out that it still has been commercially processed to get the organic gunk out....but it's still there.

Remember, no eating unwashed wool!

When you drain the water, you'll also see the grainy bits of silt and dirt sticking to the bottom of your once-pristine sink. Just say "Yes!" to Comet with bleach and a hint of lemon.

I guess my yarn was once the winter coat for a sweet, pasture roaming sheepy after all!

I confess!!!

2006-02-27T16:44:00.000-06:00

I've ignored you this week. It was busy. N's family was in town. My terrific Mother-In-Law(MIL) arrived last Monday & the rest of the crew joined us Thursday. We steamed the ugly wallpaper off the walls of our 2nd bath & our large family room. We also patched, textured, primed & painted said bathroom. N put in a working vent fan with a light, so it's no longer a dark cave of a room. Lots of work, though.....especially with 3 children under the age of 2 rumming around.

Then there was the sad, sad day when MIL, myself & X all caught the same, nasty cold. We're still nursing it, too. So, have a box of Kleenex. This one's on me!

I did teach my 4 year old sister-in-law & 9 year old brother-in-law to spin. They treadled while I drafted, and it was uproariously fun.

See above for what the men did for fun. They even let me play. For 5 whole minutes!

Godd-ess, it's French for goddess

2006-02-15T17:27:00.000-06:00

I took this clever little quiz (actually, it's the second time I've taken it with the same result. I just now posted it to the blog.)

You appear to be a Knitting Goddess.
You are constantly giving and are unconcerned with

reward, you simply want others to love

knitting as much as you do. If someone wants

to knit miles of novelty yarns, you are there

for them. If someone wants to learn short row

shaping, you can help. There are no taboos in

knitting, only opportunities to grow.

Everyone should have friend like you around

if they want to learn to knit, and there's a

good chance that your passion has rubbed off

on a few others.
http://marniemaclean.com

What Kind of Knitter Are You?
brought to you by Quizilla

And now you all know about me and my knitting. Cool graphic, huh? I love Marnie Maclean and her patterns. Their addictive...Although I've never knit those tiny boobie top patterns, because I've not got the right physique.... You can check it out here.

I took some lovely photos for you today while I was dyeing. I'll try to get them posted in the morning. For now, please ponder the ever-present question "What was in my wool before it was yarn??????"

From the land of the living...

2006-02-15T10:59:00.000-06:00

I slept well last night!!! So greetings from the land of the living!

A good friend of mine posted a link to her jahari window & inspired me to make one of my own. So you can see it here. & if you don't know me so well, you can make one for yourself.

Well, the first part of the secret debbie bliss cathay is off the needles as of this morning. Now if I can get the second one done and the pattern written, I'll be good to go. It's nice to have it finished. With the interuptions of crabby chitlins it took me longer than I anticipated. That's frustrating.

I was also spinning along on my ugly batt sock yarn this morning. I've been dreaming about how to handpaint it so it self stripes in rainbow alternating with grey. I think I've got it figured out - it involves winding a huge skein around my kitchen chairs. I'm also planning on plying at least two quilting threads together on the wheel (maybe more) and then plying that thread with the handspun thread so the socks wear better. I don't want to spin for a project and then have it fall all apart.

This is the first project that I've planned the yarn for in advance. I.E. I thought of the socks first and now am spinning what I want. Before I've always spun what I wanted and knit it into something that fit the yarn. I'm a nerd, I know.

Sleep, sleep....please sleep!

2006-02-14T10:33:00.000-06:00

The kids are refusing. They have been for the past week and a half. The knitting is neglected, not to mention the spinning, my house is a wreck and I'm crabby. Just not a nice person when I don't get adequate sleep. I know it's temporary, but geez, can we just get back to the part of my life where I get decent sleep?

Miss G's new habit? Wake up anywhere between 3:30 and 4:40 am and start laughing, hollering and kicking your crib. Very loudly. Until you wake up Miss E who is trying to sleep in her crib 3 feet away. Continue until you're worn out and start crying. Not the quiet, whimpering kind, but the loud, screaming wake-the-neighbors or I'm-being-tortured crying.

Then there's the X Factor. Usually my champion of sleep. He's slept through the night with only minor interuption since the day we came home from the hospital. Heaven on earth....but the honeymoon is over. No napping for any longer than 12 minutes at a time unlesss being held. No sleeping throught the night, either. Wake up crying 2-3 times an hour for the four hours prior to our "normal" getting up time.

Mom: super-cranky. X Man: super-exhausted. Dad: trying to remain upbeat and sane.

I can only pray it's the teeth. Both girlies had two teeth between 3 & 4 months. I can see where he's working on them along his bottom gum.

Now you know the sad, sad tale of the unsleeping children.

*********************************************************
A while back I started knitting up the Plucky Fluff ala Katie yarn into a scarf. It's about 1/2 way done. I hope to have it finished up before next Tues. It's going to be a "prayer shawl" for the mom of 3 of my kiddos in my Montessori catechesis class. She has had a recurrence of cancer & it makes me so sad. It was supposed to be for this week's session, but the kids aren't sleeping. (See above.)

The only other thing that I have on the needles is a surprize project involving the fuschia Cathay seen below. I'd tell you what it is, but then I'd have to.....ahem, nevermind. I want to submit it to Knitty, so it's hush-hush right now. If it get's rejected, I'll post copious pictures. If it gets accepted, then you'll have to see the issue after next.

I do have to say that the Cathay is bugging me a bit. It's a cabled yarn, but the plies are so loose. They're forever coming apart with no provocation and I usually split one while knitting along. Arg. There are a few I've missed several rows down that I've just abandoned because they're in a heavily shaped area that I can't drop down to and redo with a crochet hook. Why do yarn makers make yarn that's hard to knit with? Hard as in aggrevating. Not just something that needs a bit more planning like space dyed yarns, but yarn that does not want to be knit.

May I never spin a yarn that does not want to be knit.

Finally, the spinning update. I'm spinning an ugly batt from High Prairie Fibers. Mine are the 112 & 110. (I have them here, even though they're not marked sold.) So the red one is on the wheel. I've actually pulled apart the layers, so I have one 2oz. single in red and dark grey, worsted weight. On the wheel right now is another layer which is light grey with green, purple and orange flecks in it. Sock weight. I need to ply it with something to make it more suitable for sock wear. One bobbin is almost full. When I get enough for a pair of socks, I plan to handpaint it in rainbow colors, partly dyed, partly natural, self striping. Pics when the X Man is not sleeping on my lap.

Happy sleep to all of you who've made it this far!

Yes, please!

2006-02-10T06:43:00.000-06:00

I love the new LYS. It is a really cool place. Stuffed to the roof with wonderful yarn, in many colors....all of it calling my name of course. Just gorgeous. Lots of antiques trunks, cabinets, tables and stands holding everything. Plus, it's right next door to one of my all time favorite local coffee shops. And they invite you to sit and knit for free, whether you bought it there or not.

For your viewing pleasure: some Lorna's Laces in coral that matches Flames really well. (Imagine me prowling through the yarn at the store with my freshly dyed, still minorly damp skein. Yeah, I did that.) And some Debbie Bliss Cathay for some socks. It's very soft. Silk, microfiber and cotton. Yummy! Size 3 DPNs from the Lakewood Needle Company - they're birch.

I see you

2006-02-09T15:54:00.000-06:00

I know you're out there reading this. You know how I know? I installed a little counter gizmo in the sidebar. Ha! I'm glad you're here. It's nice to know that someone actually reads what I write. Now please, leave me some comments. Nice ones, dull ones, clever ones....anything, really. Just not mean ones. I don't like mean comments.

I'm going on an outing tonight. To my LYS. I've never been there before. There's just never been an LYS before for me to go to. It's actually been around since the summer, but I just now heard about it. Technically, there was one other store that did carry some yarn - just not much of any selection and nothing that I liked. Plus they were mean and wouldn't help me. Just gave me evil stares. Not my kind of place. So tonight is the first night since I found out about it (thank-you google!) that I actually get to go in person. So I'll put the girlies down to bed, hand off the X factor to Nick and out the door I go for fun and frolic in the yarn. Oh, yes. I am excited! My mother - the non-knitter, and incidentally has been to the LYS before me to buy some yarn for me for a Valentines day gift, 15 days early - has been there already. She also gave me the scoop that there is another LYS going in even closer than the one I'm headed to tonight. I guess knitting is becoming super popular. It's going in directly across the street from the new mega $$$ mall.

Maybe one of the two stores will be in the mood to carry some pretty handpaints by a local artist. I think I could help them out with that. Speaking of yarn....

I've been working my booty off this week. I have a deadline. Today I met my deadline for preview dyeing. The yarns are either drying or getting ready to be exhausted. That means the pictures are not the best. Especially of Midnight. It's setting for color bleed and the colors haven't even been set. Lots more vibrant in person (thanks to the window obscuring the colors directly above.) Sneak peek for all you devoted followers of the blog.

March Choices:

Flame

Midnight

And this is up for sale at Knitteds and Fitteds it's called Sunlit Tropics or something like that.

The colors are actually better at the K&F site. This one looks washed out. I dyed some of this curly mohair in Flames too. That will be up shortly. It's still steaming.

Knitty.com

2006-02-04T13:46:00.000-06:00

I have just received some super exciting news....my pattern has been accepted for publication in the upcoming issue of Knitty. Not to be a tease, but I can't tell you what my pattern is until after the new issue is out. So stay tuned.

I can't believe they let me in the effervescent Knitty. And to think that I only submitted it on a whim. (Ok. It took me forever to get the pattern together. Not to mention the photos. The photos were taken in like 6 photo sessions. I kept about 10% of all the photos I took. Some of the photos involved children. 3 children under the age of 2 - you can only imagine the chaos. I really liked the one featuring the Chinese takeout menu. There were no children involved in that photo. I think it's peaceful.)

It's not a garment. It's a small but useful accessory for people of all ages. You'll see it's wonderfullness when it comes out. It's saved me all sorts of undue aggrevation. ;)

www.knitty.com - go see! Even if you're a knitter who doesn't know it yet.

My Plucky Fluff

2006-01-30T15:51:00.000-06:00

I am loving the pluckyfluff.com book. Here's my latest creation based on her techniques. Merino handpainted by my friend Hillary of dashingdachs.com It has beehives, dreadlocks & beads, plus it's super soft. I love it. Even had the two chicas rubbing the skein against their faces. It's 3oz dead on.
it's all my bobbin will hold. I probably have 1-1.5 oz single on another bobbin.

I've been busy knitting it into an "art scarf" for the past couple of days as the kids will allow. I had about 1/2 a bobbin of leftover singles that I wound into a center pull ball and plied into a very heavy worsted or a lightweight bulky yarn. Double the thickness of the yarn in the pictures. I didn't do anything facy with it - just plied it so that the scarf will have some anchors. Knitting the thicker stuff into both ends and the middle of the scarf. That should give it some stability as the scarf itself is very open and cobwebby. It's knit on size 10 and 15 needles.

Yep, I'm finally posting!

2006-01-30T15:06:00.000-06:00

I've been busy though. Dyeing & handspinning.

Check out what I've been up to. Lots and lots and lots of dyeing and colorway creation.

This is River Fall. One of my favorite colorways. The picture doesn't do it justice. I made a One Skein Wonder from this skein. I'll have to take pics and post too. Painted on Peace Fleece.(www.peacefleece.com)

Pretty in Pink. A gradient dye in bright pink for my friend Tif.

This is 3/4 of a pound of Fairy Lights. It's been selling like wildfire. Over 4 pounds in the past three weeks. Small potatoes if you're a full time or commercial dyer, but for me it's a lot of a single colorway. Very pretty for babies. Pale shades that aren't boring.

This is Gnomes in the Forest. Currently up for sale at KnittedsandFitteds.com. If it doesn't sell soon, I'm going to ebay it, fairly cheaply. 2 skeins of Peace Fleece and one merino Licorice Twist from Henry's Attic. Very yummy.

Twin Pants with pretty embroidery!

2005-09-28T16:08:00.000-05:00

I've been busy knitting.... Here are my latest creations. Soon they will be on their way to England to grace the home of two lovely twin girls. (It's a good thing that they are a bit taller than my twin girls or there's no chance these ever would have left my house!)

They are both knit from hand-dyed Targhee wool. The variegated is Rose Garden from Hillary at www.dashingdachs.com. The Blush and Burgundy pants were hand-dyed by me.

Rose Garden Pants
Full Front:

Full Back:

Waist Details:

Cuffs:

Leg Motif:

Blush and Burgundy Pants
Full View:

Waist Detail:

Leg Detail:

Cuffs:

Kat's Dark Earthy Rainbow Soaker

2005-05-27T13:44:00.000-05:00

Here it is! It's going out to you this afternoon!

Bungalow Buns Soaker Pattern Pictures

2005-05-27T12:27:00.000-05:00

For those of you who have been wondering what the fit is like on a babe. Here are some pictures. They're a little hazy because my digital camera doesn't have a flash. I prefer the artsy explaination that they are "soft focus" & I meant it that way! lol!

All are made from different versions of my soaker pattern from www.bungalowbuns.com.

Here is a side opening soaker on Emma:
It's made from frosting dyed fisherman's.

Here is a front opening, ribbed soaker on Grace:

Here is the soaker itself. It's stretched out a bit because it hasn't been washed in a few wearings. Made from Hillary dyed Peace Fleece.

Perfection Pants on Emma:
Made from heavy 3 ply merino wool, dyed by Hillary. These are a size large and still a bit big on the girls. They still fit into mediums, but the rise is a bit short, so we've moved up a size.

Kirsten's Dragonfly Finished!

2005-05-25T12:46:00.000-05:00

With the "magic trail":

2005-05-25T12:39:00.000-05:00

Michele's winning Perfection Pants! Michele won these during the Fiber Arts Avengers Auctions last round. They are knit from heavy 3 ply merino dyed in a special Knit for the Cure Colorway by Hillary of www.dashingdachs.com. They have cables extending from waistline to hem on each hip, a contrasting merino waistband and a small pink ribbon embroidered on the back.

I hope you like them Michele!
Front:

Back:

Side:

Kirsten's Dragonfly

2005-05-24T10:59:00.000-05:00

Ok, here is our second go at the embroidery.

The pictures show the dragonfly being more yellow/green than he actually is. He is pretty overdyed merino to match the greens in the soaker. The match IRL is very pretty.

Now I'm contemplating adding a little "magic trail" of stitches after him, so you can see where he's been flying. Let me know if you prefer him as is, or would like a little trail.

Kirsten's Vibrant Earthy Rainbow Soaker

2005-05-19T10:01:00.000-05:00

The colors look faded compared to what they truly are because I took the pictures inside. However, you can still see how it came together, and the embroidery! Let me know how you'd like me to do the leg cuffs and I'll finish it up.

Front:

Back:

Embroidery:

Lisa's Embroidery

2005-05-18T09:17:00.000-05:00

Well, I spent two days embroidering stars and then ripping them out. I didn't account for the softness of the merino fabric. I thought I was going nuts - so I tried it on a soaker made from a different wool with much better results. So instead of my orginal design, I changed gears a bit and came up with a small embroidery that matched the merino fabric much better. Here are the pictures, I hope you like how it turned out!

Close Up:

The whole front:
(sorry it looks lumpy here - I took this while holding a crabby 1 year old)

Lisa's Parisian Purple Soaker

2005-05-10T14:08:00.000-05:00

It's very cute and super itty bitty for a new little one.

ok, here are the pictures I promised. The cables don't show up as well in person as they do in real life, but they're still pretty. I put a little, crocheted edging around the leg openings - it's not as bulky as a rolled leg edge, but will help contain messes.

For all of you non-Lisa's out there, this a newborn sized soaker out of worsted weight merino from HandPaintedYarn.com. Cables run down each hip, and soon it will have a little embroidery!

Front:

Back:

Cable Close Up:

Yep, I knit even though I don't blog

2005-05-02T09:23:00.000-05:00

I think I may have an excuse for not blogging as I ought to. Please see the following items of information and count them as one big excuse:

These two are according to my estimated date of conception:

And these two are figured by the first day of last period (not helpful when you conceive on day 21 of a cycle:

We're out of our first trimester already and I'm feeling much more perky. I was voluntarily awake until after 10pm last night!

Of course the current projects are all diaper related. Yes, be that as it may I still need to fund the yarn buying habit. So currently on the needles is a soaker out of 3 ply merino in the TRENDY colorway (Knit for the Cure Yarn)It's very yummy. Going to make a thicker soaker, but very soft and stretchy. I've got to contact Hillary and have her dye up the remaining blank skeins that I have.

Also on the needles is a beautiful newborn soaker for Biscuit (my new niece set to arrive in June). She needs a whole wardrobe of wool, so I really need to get moving on that front. Her current soaker is Earthy Rainbow handpainted by Hillary of Dashing Dachs, on Peace Fleece worsted weight wool. Gotta love Peace Fleece - it's like it was made for soakers.

Very soon, I will be Perfection Pants Licensed . Even though I have my own pants pattern, I love this gusset so much that I had to switch over. I will probably continue with both for the time being and after Surprise arrives, switch full time to the Perfection Pants. I hope my customers love the diamond gusset as much as I do. My sample and signed contract are on their way back to me. After they arrive, I'll be official!

Production City...

2005-03-14T12:44:00.000-06:00

Here are a few things that I've been working on and finished. A cute line up of a pair of fancy capris, some bright shorts and lovely merino soaker with ruffled cuffs. (These are for Katya!) I promise the ruffles are acutally done, but this picture is a few days old....

Here are the fancy capris, knit up in Valya:

I also have a soaker in Pond and a pair of embroidered capris from Handpainted Yarns merino done. They're waiting to be sent on their way to their new home!

Ruffled Cuff Perfection Soaker from KnitPicks Merino:
Happy Birthday, Katya!

Deco Cuff Pants Tutorial

2005-02-06T12:06:00.000-06:00

It's not really a tutorial, just a list of tips that I discovered when doing the cuffs for Rowan's Pants (see the enticing pictures below).

Look for edging patterns that are "strong". Decorative cuffs are going to take a bit of abuse. Lots of eyelets or open stitches are a recipe for snagging. A pattern that starts and ends with a couple of stockinette or garter stitch are best. If your pattern doesn't call for it, add it and do a test swatch. Some patterns look just fine with the addition.
Your pattern should have a small repeat. Ideally you want to repeat that pattern at least 5-6 times around. The increase for a pattern with a large stitch repeat might also cause your cuff to flare more than you intend.
I originally intended to make Rowan's cuffs flare more at the bottom than what they did. My increase was 6 stitches - about 1.5" and it really didn't flare, but it still looks nice. To get a true flare, I would need to increase to at least two pattern repeats (approx.)
Use M1 increases that don't leave holes. Count the number of stitches you have on your needles. Divide the number of stitches on your needles by the pattern repeate (# of stitches). If this isn't an even number, round up and multiple your stitch repeat by the rounded number. Subtract the current number of stitches from your needed number of stitches and increase evenly around.

Abandoned Projects....

2005-01-31T15:16:00.000-06:00

Ok, the socks are not entirely abandoned. They're just aging at the moment. Apparently, they get better with ade, just like wine... So, I have one done wool sock - no mate. One partially finished purple Magic Stripes cotton one.

Now what am I doing? Business, ladies. Work for pay or trade. I've got some gorgeous, handpainted merino wool pants about 2/3 of the way done. Just one more leg to finish. They're for Rowan. Her mom, Elizabeth is embellishing us a Craftsmen style soaker for trade. More wool for the girls.

Here are the pics:

Full Leg:

Cuff only:

I have a huge box of yarn in to Hillary. I know that one 8oz hank of Blue Faced Leicester will be done in Lava and Waves. Two hanks of Peace Fleece will be done in Rose Garden and one grey hand will be done in Pond. Still pondering about the other ones. Lookie at all my pretty colorways here: http://bungalowbuns.com/store/piclink.asp?pageID=Colorways

I also have a poll going at Wooly Wonder Forums, where you can vote for your favorite colors. The ones with the most votes will be stocked in the store. Vote here:http://woolywonder.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=4066
There's also a second poll here:http://woolywonder.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=4067&postdays=0&postorder=asc&vote=viewresult because it wouldn't allow as many choices as I had colorways.

That's what I've been up to. Isn't it fun?

Socks, socks, socks

2005-01-23T15:35:00.000-06:00

I'm knitting socks. I've gotten one finished, but then I got another kind of sock yarn by mail, and instead of making a matching sock to the first one I knit, I started on the second. They don't match. The first is a great small farm, Corriedale wool - dk weight and the second is the purple Magic Stripes colorway, cotton. What's wrong with me???? Why couldn't I commit to finishing the first pair?

Anyway, the wool will be super cool once I have the second sock done and both dyed. They are going to be dip dyed, in graduated hues. I haven't decided what color or whether it should go dark to light (starting at the toes) or vice versa.

Here are pics of the first sock in progress:

Here's a picture of the funky holes along one side of the heel, caused by the double wrapping....I'm going to try the much maligned "turn" to try to get around this.....

2005-01-10T12:15:00.000-06:00

Colleen - Your Pergola Pants are almost finished - finally! I'm sorry they took so long. All the color changes really slowed my progress beyond what I anticipated.

If they look huge, that's ok. There's about 2.5" extra in the waistband and the cuffs will be about 3.5" extra inches. Both will be folded and tacked, then next year you cut the tacking stitches and have pants that fit!

Welcome to me!

2005-01-07T09:40:00.000-06:00

This is my new knitting blog. I didn't want to clutter my other blog (reserved for the grandparent's baby viewing pleasure), so here is a new one, dedicated to all things knitty. A great place to come check out what I may be knitting for you!

Current Projects:

Pergola Pants for Colleen:
Nearly done. Gotta finish up the cuffs and weaving in the ends. Since they're done all in stripes there are a lot of ends. I've woven in about 1/2 of them so far. This is also a brand new pattern that I will be publishing designed for mamas who want two seasons of wear from the pants.

Wool Socks:
A project just for me. I didn't even dye the yarn. I will dip dye in graduated colors when I'm through with both. I hope the blog will keep me on task.

Heart Jester Hat:
For www.knittedsandfitteds.com upcoming ebay basket. It is Valentine's day themed. An all red hat featuring two rows of embossed hearts (designs are stitched into the fabric), culminating in three icord knot ends. Very cute, I must say. My own pattern.

Pictures later...maybe