A blog about my life, knitting, and other stuff.

February 27, 2014

Thursday Is for What the Hell Is This?

Guys, I have discovered that we knitters are doing it all wrong. Have you ever spent weeks, maybe even months or years handcrafting a sweater from beautiful yarn? Then you are doing it wrong!

Isabel Marant is here to show you how it's done. Cast on some number of stitches in roughly the width of a human body in some cotton yarn with enormous needles. Knit for 20 minutes. Repeat, join at the shoulders and waist then add fringe.

Then charge people $470 for it.


Ka-pow.

Dunzo.

February 22, 2014

I Wove!

I have been making a slow, rocky approach to weaving for...oh, I don't know...five years? I took a class. I took an online class. Today I took another class. We had our rigid heddle weaving class at the Fiber Gallery and I decided to sit in. I brought in the two shades of Cascade 220 I used for my now abandoned Circular Stranded Surprise Jacket. I didn't have quite enough so I supplemented with some Kauni leftovers from the shop.


You know what they say. 73,000,000th times the charm. I warped the loom and wove a scarf in five hours. Boom.



I won't get cocky and pretend that I'll have the same level of success weaving by myself at home but I might give it a go again. Time to full this baby and deal with the fringe.

February 21, 2014

Plying and Dyeing

It's here. The Post-Madrona Glow. The period of the year when I want to make ALL THE THINGS!
I took a dyeing class with Judith MacKenzie on the first day. I took this class with her many years ago at Madrona and as it's always good to spend time with Judith. She had some rovings she had dyed that she called dogs. They were okay but the color didn't sing. She overdyed them in class with stunning results. I was reminded of something Heidi from The Artful Ewe told me the first time we met. She said she always dyes everything at least twice. Otherwise, she warned, you get "clown hair."

I also returned from Madrona with a bag of Knitpicks Palette in three shades of yellow. My least favorite color and so much of it! I thought I'd just hold several strands together for charity hats. Then inspiration struck. I would make a cabled yarn from them. And then I would overdye it. I pulled out my spinning stuff on Monday when I got home from knitting and realized that I don't have any free bobbins because I have had the same spinning project in the works for over four years. Four years. Four. It's insanity. One of the few resolutions I made for 2014 was that I would ply this yarn at long last. I finished spinning the singles a year ago and they have sat, hogging my bobbins and my spinning mojo. So the 2014 ply-a-thon began. Three days later it was over and I now have 2000+ yards of questionably-spun, hand-dyed Corriedale from the first fleece I ever bought.


While I was working on that I dragged out a crockpot I bought years ago at a garage sale that I use for dyeing and fired it up. First victim was some roving I won at the Knitters Guild holiday party.


This is definitely the clown hair Heidi warned me about all those years ago. So I splashed some black and cyan over it and let it heat overnight. It's so much better now. This is a terrible photo but it's a deep murky green and much less eye-searing.


Then I really got going. I found all sorts of odd bits of things to ply to free up bobbins (almost entirely from spinning classes). Then I over-dyed those to make them less of a patchwork.


But so long as the dyepot was going why not throw in some more random lengths of roving I'd been given in various classes over the years. I think these are wool/silk and Corriedale.


And hey, what's this bag of cotton candy pink fluff? Who knows! But into the pot with you!


Once it dried I realized I had accidentally created the color of the year, Radiant Orchid.

Then last night I pulled out my drum carder and carded this pile up into batts! I haven't used that thing in years. But Clemes & Clemes had the booth opposite The Fiber Gallery at Madrona and I couldn't resist their batt lifter and storage set.

So this is all to say, I may not finish my Ravellenic Games project.

February 20, 2014

Thursday Is for What the Hell Is This?

You may have heard of wearing your heart on your sleeve. How about wearing all your organs on the outside?



Or your skull on your chest?


Or whatever the heck this is?




February 13, 2014

Road Tripping Again

I'm at the Madrona Fiber Arts Retreat knitting and spinning and dyeing fiber. I'll update when I get home. Have a great weekend!

February 7, 2014

Silk Garden Mini Stripes Hat




Yarn: Silk Garden and Evento
Needles: US5 and 7
Notes: I found a bag with lots of Silk Garden oddballs in the "free" box at my fall knitting retreat. I think they were all from the same colorway but had been cut up and divided into little balls. I knit the brim with my last bit of Evento then did helix stripes with all the bits of Silk Garden. I like the effect a lot. It really blends all the colors together. This was supposed to go in my charity pile but I think I'm keeping it.
The pictures are terrible, I know. It was very, very sunny at the zoo but I wanted to try to get some of the animals in the photos with me.

February 6, 2014

Thursday Is for What the Hell Is This?

Designer thought process: What would make you look like your hips are as big as all outdoors and also go really well with mayo?

Answer:

Alternate thought process: Guess what? Cabbage butt!

I know. That was corny.


*rimshot*

February 5, 2014

BonBons



Pattern: BonBons by Susanna IC
Yarn: The Perwinkle Sheep Watercolors II in Sophisticated
Needles: US5 Clover DPN
Notes: These are really quick and easy. I knit the hands and, before knitting the thumbs, I put them in a bag and forgot about them. I found and finished them last night.