Saturday spinning update: getting there

Posted on April 20, 2013 by natalie

Hmph. I’m still working away on my very skinny singles of Jewelled Seas on Falkland wool. It’s easy to spin, but apparently you actually have to put some time in to make progress. I did manage to get through about 60% of the second batch, leaving me with a full-ish bobbin:

Perhaps I’ll just devote a couple of hours tomorrow to finishing up the singles. I have plying plans for this yarn and I’m sure that won’t be a quick process either. I’ve got high hopes for good yardage and pretty pretty yarn.

In weather news, we had a few days of warmer weather this week, which is lovely. My son made the observation that, “This is the right size of warm.” That was Monday. Today was definitely not the right size of warm – more snowflakes!

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Almonte

Posted on April 19, 2013 by natalie

While I wasn’t knitting this week, I had a little outing to Almonte with my parents. I got a little click-happy with my iPhone because there are so many interesting buildings there, but it started with the water. We parked in a public lot just steps away from this view:

I felt a little freaked out standing on the metal grating to get this shot because the roaring water was making it shudder a bit:

See that building at the back there? I was so overwhelmed by the noise of the water that I barely noticed it until we were coming back to the car and my brain said, “Ooh, pretty Deco building.”

I took a few photos of the former Post Office building, which has a historical designation. I knew about it because I’d come across it when looking for suitable local backdrops. It was designed by noted architect William Fuller.

And then there was this lovely crest on the local BMO:

BMO with old & new:

On the way out of town I drove my folks by the Mississippi Valley Textile Museum and then when we were coming back out I stopped the car to get a better picture of this:

It’s hard to explain, but while the other buildings were interesting to me, this one resonated with me. It’s got a kind of beauty and order that I understand and relate to. This isn’t my favourite Art Deco building ever, but I do like it. When I’m designing, I’m trying to create something that gives me the same feeling I get when I look at a fantastic example of Art Deco architecture.

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Saturday spinning update: one bobbin done

Posted on April 13, 2013 by natalie

It seems like I’m still not quite back into doing as much spinning as I might have hoped. I did manage to finally finish up the first 4 ounces of Jewelled Seas (Southern Cross Fibre on Falkland) this week:

I even got the second batch started on the wheel to remind me to keep going on it. I love these colours and I can’t wait to see how the yarn turns out. As you can see from my earlier posts this week I’ve been hard at work knitting (and darning in ends, and controlling my little butterflies), so it’s not like I’m not getting knitting-related things done. I’m hoping to have the Jewelled Seas singles completed this week, but don’t hold your breath.

My son’s funniest observation this week had to do with the weather. We were having a normal enough spring week, but then we had freezing rain & snow forecast for Friday. I warned the kids about it and my son’s take on it was that the forecast was silly. He got quite upset and told me, “They’re wrong! Don’t listen to the weather persons because they’re just wrong!”

I only wish they had been wrong. The cold white evidence is disappearing and we should be back to reasonable temperatures in a couple of days.

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Spring?

Posted on April 12, 2013 by natalie

This week I’ve been knitting up the simpler two-colour version of my latest pattern-to-be. It has a little intarsia – well, more like faux-tarsia, because there’s only one main colour that goes all the way across each row, but 6 little yarn butterflies are hanging from the back of the work.

I was spending a lot of time keeping the butterflies under control & untangled. Here’s the solution I came up with for storage when I need to put my work down:

I actually went out to my recycling bin and brought this back inside to work with my knitting. It’s perfect! I close it up and my project is now portable and I don’t have to spend any time detangling before I start it up again.

The forecast for today is snow & freezing rain. I decided that I needed to do something to feel like it was spring & this is what I came up with:

No flowers here yet, but I have some nice purples to look at.

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I knit myself into this mess

Posted on April 10, 2013 by natalie

I’m not ready to show you the full design yet, but I thought I’d show you what I’m facing today:

The only way out is to neatly darn in each end. I know this yarn will stay put nicely because it’s Jamieson & Smith Shetland Supreme 2 Ply Lace Weight. I chose White, Black & Moorit when I went to see this stuff at Sheeps Ahoy a few months ago. I wanted to do something that showed off the lovely natural sheep colours.

A few weeks ago I finally had an idea. I sketched out my design and swatched quickly: the whole design process was very smooth. A little bit of math later I cast on. I plugged away for the last few weeks alternating with other urgent projects. This week I finished knitting, leaving me with the bird’s nest I’ve showed you.

I like darning in ends. I find it meditative. Apparently there’s only so much I can do in one sitting though, because here I am telling you about it instead of finishing it off. If my calculations are correct I should be done soon and it can soak and block. I want to have it ready & written up for the Toronto Knitter’s Frolic on Apr. 27th!

In the mean time, I’m working on a two-colour version that has less than 10% of the finishing that I’m doing now. I thought more people might be interested in that ;)

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Sunday spinning update: not much progress

Posted on April 7, 2013 by natalie

I was going to post yesterday, then I thought that perhaps I’d actually get some spinning done. I didn’t quite meet my goal of a full bobbin.

The strange thing for me is that this was my first week in months where I wasn’t at work during the day. It was only a four day school week, and mine was quickly swallowed up with all of the things I’d put off. I visited the dentist. The ducts in the house were cleaned and a plumber checked out the wonky toilet. A myriad of things were accomplished and I even got some knitting done, but the spinning just didn’t get top priority. I went from 60% on one bobbin to 80% on one bobbin. At this rate it’ll be months before I have 8 ounces of yarn. This is still Jewelled Seas on Falkland from Southern Cross Fibre.

I will try to spin more regularly this week. I love these colours and I’m very eager to see the finished product.

In family news, our son announced to me as I was making dinner that the small cold planet wasn’t a planet any more. I agreed with him about Pluto. He then killed any authority he might have built up by insisting that the moon was a planet. His reasoning for that was that aliens live on the moon, so it must be a planet. It sounds like the cartoons are winning at the moment.

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It’s time for Defarge! Marilla’s Shawl reveal

Posted on April 5, 2013 by natalie

Today’s the day! What (else) Would Madame Defarge Knit is out, including my Marilla’s Shawl pattern. This means that I finally get to show you the pictures I took of Francine last year in the Mississippi Valley Textile Museum.

Francine put a lot of thought into her outfit, including borrowing a bustle. She did her hair & brought colour-coordinating props:

One of the reasons I chose this building was that it’s the right vintage for Anne of Green Gables. It was absolutely freezing when we were there, but apparently now they’ve improved the heating. Francine was a trooper. I had to warm up my hands after taking lots of photos.

I’m so very happy with this design: it’s exactly what I imagined. It’s fairly simple. The shawl starts from the bottom up, so it can be worked in any weight of yarn and you just knit until you’re happy with the size or you run out of yarn. This sample was knit with about 3.5 skeins of Lang Merino 400 lace weight yarn (about 775 yds). I’ve also knit a shawl with a skein of fingering weight yarn (Serenity Silk III from Zen Yarn Garden – more pictures of that shawl later).

If you’re lucky enough to be reading this on or before Sat. April 6, 2013 at 3pm EDT, you’ve still got a chance to get in on the early bird deals on the book (or books). See Heather’s blog for the details. The e-book will be out this afternoon & the print book will follow soon!

 

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Instant cowl!

Posted on April 1, 2013 by natalie

When I saw the InspirationKnits Instant Cowl post on Facebook, I knew I had just the yarn in the stash to work up one of my own:

I’ve heard people say that working with linen can be hard on the hands, but this didn’t bother me one bit. That’s Louet Euroflax Sport: 2 skeins of French Blue, 1 skein of Champagne.

Just the project for a cold blustery April Fool’s day where Mother Nature seems to be playing tricks and giving us more snow when what we wanted was less.

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Saturday spinning update: gorgeous greens

Posted on March 30, 2013 by natalie

My original colour love is green. I’ve tried to branch out and work in lots of other colours. My golden phase is still not over and I love deep bright blues. When I am looking for something for me, though, green still makes me very very happy.

When “Jewelled Seas” on Falkland was the club colour for Southern Cross Fibre, I knew I had to have a second bag, if possible. I snagged one, and just looking at the bags for the past few months has made me smile:

So now it’s time for a bit of a longer-term spinning project than I normally go for. I’m spinning super skinny singles out of this wool and I’ve got two 3.9 oz bags. I’m estimating I’ll need another couple of weeks to finish it all up.

When I took the wool out of the bags, I noticed right away that there was a different balance of colour in each lot. I tried to split them in half so that I could mix them together, but that failed: I had a 60/40 split with both of them.

I decided to make my mistake part of the yarn design, so I’m using ~60g of bag A and 40g of bag B to make the first skein. I’ve further split the wool into about 20g strips. The first skein will be a pattern of ABABA. And the other skein will be BABAB. This way I figure I don’t have to worry if I’m making a project that uses one more skein. No matter which skein comes first, the other skein will naturally follow in the progression. That’s the theory, anyway.

My first week’s worth of spinning is about 60g. I wasn’t even slacking off, it’s just that these singles are very fine. So far so good:

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Craftsy

Posted on March 27, 2013 by natalie

As promised on Sunday, I’m back to tell you a bit about what I’ve been learning on Craftsy.

First of all, I should tell you that about a year ago, Craftsy opened things up for selling knitting patterns. I tried it out and figured that another venue for selling my patterns (besides Ravelry & Patternfish) couldn’t hurt. So yes, I have a Craftsy pattern store.

Craftsy’s main focus is online classes. They don’t just do knitting classes, they have classes on Cake Decorating, Crochet, Weaving, Sewing, Quilting, Jewelry and more. As a double knitting afficionado, I have to let you know that Lucy Neatby’s class Foundations of Double Knitting, has just gone live this week. There also seems to be a sale going on over there. It’s worth checking out!

As well as the full length paid classes, Craftsy also has some smaller free mini classes, and I’ve tried a few. I highly recommend Carol Feller’s Short Rows class. Although I knew the different methods, her class helped to unify them and explain the whys of when to use them.

Deborah Robson has a Know Your Wool mini class, which I had to get because after reading The Fleece and Fiber Source Book it was neat to see and hear her talk about this topic. Plus now I’m mentally pronouncing her name correctly!

Also, Fiona Ellis has a Creative Cabled Necklines mini class. Having been lucky enough to take a class from Fiona in person, how could I pass up the opportunity to take this gem?

So what have I been learning on Craftsy? Well the first paid class I bought was Caro Sheridan’s Shoot It: A Product Photography Primer. I probably need to review that class again (something you can do at any time once you’ve purchased a class). It has changed how I see things around me. I’ve spotted several new potential locations for photo shoots that I didn’t even notice before the class. I see things differently, thanks to this class.

What I’m working on now is Explorations in Brioche Knitting, from Nancy Marchant. I’ve been wanting to try this for a while. My bookshelf is evidence that owning a book doesn’t mean I’m necessarily going to use it, and learning from a master seemed like a good way to try this technique. Here’s my first swatch:

I think my slightly unconventional knitting style makes this relatively easy for me, but I’ll have to do a whole lot more knitting before it feels natural. Now I’ve just got to make the time to keep “going to class” and learning more. Feel free to pester me to make sure I’m keeping up with my studies!

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