Repeating

I am not a pattern repeater. I can't think of a single pattern I have knit multiple times. Except Retro Prep. I love this stripey little sweater. It's light-weight making it ideal for all but two or three months of the year here in Seattle. It's simple. It fits well. I knew when I first knit it that it was in the style of Elizabeth Zimmermann. I only realized when I knit it a second time (only the bottom half this time) that it was an Elizabeth Zimmermann percentage sweater down to every last digit. The pattern doesn't reference Zimmermann at all which I think is really inappropriate. Now I'm knitting it again in yarn I bought three years ago with a sweater like this in mind. At that time I didn't know about seamless bottom-up construction or steeks.



After all the trauma of getting this sweater started it has been smooth sailing. The body is complete to the armpits. One sleeve knit up in just a few days. The second sleeve was started last night. I'm teaching a class on EZ's percentage system at the shop. I need to have the body and sleeves ready to demonstrate how to join it all up. I was worried about being ready in time but now I see I'll have the sleeves done in a day or two and I'll have to then put it all aside and wait. I could knit a closet full of these sweaters. I'm sure I will eventually. There's still yarn in the stash earmarked for it.

Thursdays are for What the Hell is This?

Ladies and gentlemen, may I present the world's least appetizing tea cozy.



Possibly related to the carnivorous poncho. Or the origins of penicillin. And it appears to be multiplying!

More Harry Potter Excitement

Not only can you pre-order the seventh and final book in the series but you can also pre-order Charmed Knits by Alison! Even Wes was curious to know what will be in her book. Congratulations Alison.

Weldon's Practical Needlework

Ever since Knitting Vintage Socks came out I've been curious to look at Weldon's. The many volumes were published over several decades in London at the turn of the century. They feature crochet, knitting and other types of needlework. On a whim I ordered Volume 12. It features "knitting, drawn thread work, crochet waistcoats, smocking, crochet, mountmellick work, knitted waistcoats, knitted stockings for cycling, golf, shooting, etc." This volume happens to have more crochet than knitting but it's still completely fascinating. The Pirate Cap in Point Neige bears the explanation, "A pirate cap worked in point neige, or five stitch, is pretty headgear for a young child, and is just now extremely fashionable." At first I chuckled given how pirates are all the rage yet again. Weldon's, however, goes on to explain, "in shape it much resembles a jellybag." Hmm.

The book contains many knitted patterns for items like corset covers, men's wool "bathing drawers," chest protector ("for those who have constitutionally delicate lungs, or who are recovering from an attack of pleurisy or pneumonia") and lady's knickers. The description that had me just gasping for breath last night was for a "mail cart strap." I still don't know what it does but the description begins, "This strap would make an acceptable little gift for the mother of sundry small children who are young enough to run some risk of falling out of the mail cart when taken our for their daily airing."

Super What?

Why does plying take so much longer than you think it will? I finished spinning this green wool/mohair roving, that I bought from Dawn's Custom Carding at Black Sheep, on Saturday. Then spent hours and hours plying. It's only 275 yards of very tightly spun 2-ply yarn. It's a heavy fingering weight destined to become socks.

When I finished this up I pulled out my new wool combs and tried them out on a bit of Cotswold lamb and some of my Targhee from Oregon Flock and Fiber. I ended up with a lot of waste on the Cotswold. I did better with the Targhee. I even spun up a tiny sample of super-fine lace-weight. The fleece is still a bit greasy. I washed it twice and thought I had it pretty nicely clean. Guess I was mistaken.

So no football or parties for me yesterday. Just wool and spinning.

What Watching The Lord of the Rings with an 8 Year Old Sounds Like

"Who's that?"
"Who are they?"
"What happened?"
"Where is that?"
"What did he say?"
"Who's that?"
"Is that bad guy?"
"What happened?"
"What did he say?"
"That can't happen in real life, can it?"
"What happened?"

We are only 20 minutes into the extended version of Fellowship of the Ring.

Get Your Winter Squeeeeee!

The January Pincushion Challenge Gallery is up on Flickr. Again with the incredibly, darling, stinking cuteness. Great job everyone!

More IK Preview

There are now "bonus photos" online. I can now see that I don't want these nupps on my, er, nupps and that this fair isle looks pretty good. Kate Gilbert's sweater looks beautifully constructed but I won't be going anywhere near it unless I have some sort of major surgical renovation. Have a look for yourself.

More on Madrona

This sheet of paper shows what we did in the morning session of Jill Laski's fiber blending class. We focused on color. As you may or may not be able to see in the photo there is a sample of a four-color monochromatic, analogous, complimentary and split complimentary blend as well as a multi blend (one color from all twelve spokes of the color wheel). Each sample was run through the carder once then twice, keeping a sample of each. I also spun up a tiny sample of each one. This was a great explanation of basic color theory for me. I pushed myself to pick colors I don't like to see if I could find ways to use them in blends that were appealing. So far no luck with that.



These are the samples from Color Progression in Plying. We were instructed to pick a three colors of combed merino top. Judith encouraged us to use at least one color we were a little scared of. I started with the taupe-sage, then added chocolate brown and finally picked the scary bright green. We spun it all as singles. Then we did a color progression in a 3-ply yarn. Three plies of the first color, then two of the first color with one of the second, etc. In this case the color I liked the most as a single, the taupe-sage, was horrid in the blends. The other colors just made it look dead. Judith suggested I go back and pick new colors to go with it until I find the ones that make it "sing." I selected colors but didn't have enough time in class to spin and ply it all. This class also reaffirmed my belief that 3-ply yarn rule. They look so round and relatively perfect compared to a 2-ply. Mental note: Make more 3-ply yarns.



My last class was Three Wild Downs. We learned lots about buffalo, yak and cashmere. We got many samples. The card shows (counterclockwise from the top right) 30/70 cashmere/merino blend, buffalo, black yak, grey yak, depigmented yak, a second depigmented yak, cashmere, baby Mongolian camel, a second cashmere and a third cashmere from China which was the highest quality of them all. Now can someone explain to me why I've been too scared to spin this, this or this but when Judith just hands me $30 of fiber I spun it up and didn't worry about the results?

All of my friends have been warned at this point that all of my sentences will start with the phrase, "Judith says..." for at least a few more weeks.

Out of the Dye Pot

(I finally was able to upgrade to the new Blogger. Hope it doesn't suck.)

As I stepped out on to the porch to get some photos in natural light it started to rain so the lighting changed quite a bit from my first photo to my last.

First up are the dyeing disaster skeins. They've gone from pukey peach to screaming orangey-pink. Not really all that great of an improvement. They are also seriously underplied. I need to run them back through the wheel for a little more twist.


My friend Jill gave me a partial skein of Rowan Polar on Thursday night. It was a yellowy lentil green.


Now it's a vivid jungle green.


This is one of my class skeins. The colors were kind of weak. I juiced them up a bit and also added some black for low-lights. It doesn't look as much like the Polar skein in real life. The Polar is very vivid while this skein is more mellow.


This skein was also done in class. I had finished dyeing all my skeins and was just chatting with a friend while she was finishing up. We had a big bucket where we dumped all our brush rinse water and odds and ends of dye. The bucket usually was filled with brown, sludgy water. When I peered into the bucket on her table it was the most gorgeous rich mauve. My favorite color. I got a skein of yarn and put it in a baggie. Then I dumped in all the garbage water. I squished it around and dumped out the excess. Since the dye was very watered down I added a little more magenta and cyan. The resulting skein was very pretty but pale. I put it in the dye pot yesterday and poured mauve and maroon dyes over it. After it came out of the dyepot I laid it out on plastic wrap and drizzled some magenta highlights over it. I'm very happy with the results.


The best lessons I've learned so far are use a lot more dye than I think I need and that I can't get complex colors in one pass. I need to dye, hand paint, overdye and keep working a skein until I get a color I like. There are a few other skeins left that still need to be tweaked until they are acceptable.

Dye Pot and Tea Pot

Realizing this morning that I had a whole day with nothing planned I decided I would work on over-dyeing some of my skeins from Madrona and the dyeing disappointment from a few months ago.


Skeins before dyeing

I got one pot of dye simmering on the stove, a lot of yarn soaking, a big plastic bowl to use in the microwave. So far the results, as always, are "eh." Wes took my camera today so I can't show you anything yet. I did realize that I've been pretty tentative about how much dye I use. I've been afraid of getting too dark of a color which is silly because my usual complaint with my finished skeins is that they're too pale. Pour, Jess, pour.

Now that everything is steeping in dye I unpacked my new IngenuiTea pot. I've been looking at this little guy at Adagio Tea for probably two years. I kept hoping I'd find it locally but never did. Then I went to the Adagio site a few days ago and found a sale for the pot, 4 tea samples and a book for $19 with free shipping (don't know if that is still available). Sold! I ordered it Wednesday and checked the delivery tracking this morning only to find that the tea pot had already been delivered. It was sitting on my porch. Cool. I boiled some water and made myself a little pot of Yunnan. The only drawback I've seen with the system is that if you make more tea than can fit in your cup it's hard to see when the cup is full. I managed not to overflow but I came very close. They also let me send friends $5 gift certificates for free. If you want one, just leave a comment (with your first and last name) and I'll send one to you. Or you can email me (address at top right in sidebar).

Edited to add: Yikes! There seem to be some security issues on the Adagio site. I'll stop sending out gift certificates until I hear back from them. Thanks.

Edited again to add: Adagio just contacted me and said they have resolved the problem. Happy tea drinking.

Fridays are for Cruelty to Animals

These must be some very bad puppies. Why else would someone do this to them?







Previous animal cruelty here and here.