New Year, Old Projects

Published
by
Deb
on January 2, 2009
in Fibre, Uncategorized and knitting
. 1 Comment

Christmas and gift-giving forced me to finish quite a few things and while logging it all in Ravelry I got a good look at what is still not finished. It’s quite a pile. Hey, maybe I will put it in a pile. No, then it would look like a mountain. I don’t think I want to see that.

Last year I started quite a few lace projects and learned one big lesson: mystery lace knitalongs are not for me.  I joined a bunch of them, almost every one that came along for several months. Out of all that, I finished one, and I gave that one away. Now I have a basket full of pieces of lace hogging all my favorite needles. For one reason or another I stalled on all these projects, and it obviously wasn’t because I don’t like lace knitting. Some weren’t challenging enough, some of the patterns simply weren’t my taste, and some weren’t a good size for me. Some simply got left behind when I got too busy to work on them, and when I got back to them I had seen pictures of the finished projects, some of which just didn’t sing to me. Chat pleasantly, yes, they were very nice, but no singing.

lace leftovers

Then there are the socks. Oy. I started the Sockamania new year’s socks last January, and I still have the single sock with its ungrafted toe buried somewhere in a basket. I did finish some beautiful socks with a long colour-changing yarn from Yarn TreeHouse.  Here, see how pretty they were:

pretty pretty

Notice the past tense there. They hid themselves in a load of laundry and went for a hot water swim.

shrunken

That’s the other unfinished green sockalongside the 1st one. The pink ones felted even more.

There are other half finished socks floating around that I tried new heels and toes on, and they certainly proved their worth as teaching tools. But I really don’t want to repeat them or put them on my feet.

There were a couple of successes, such as the big brother socks and some yoga socks (well, really, how can a sock with no heel or toe possibly fail?). And the shrunken pink socks fit my mother, so they weren’t a total write-off.

There are only a few other UFO’s in the old knitting basket, a vest and acouple of pairs of wristwarmers. The vest needs a complete do-over and the wristwarmers are heading for the frog pond.

One the plus side, there were a fair number of finished items.

All finished - Yay!

Not too shabby, eh?

Gifts Gifted and Merry Made

Published
by
Deb
on January 1, 2009
in Fibre and knitting
. 1 Comment


It’s been a pretty good holiday season here in the sometimes-snowy east, with lots of treats and goodies and fun.


Once our hook-in was over (more about that in another post) I had some time to relax so I grabbed my pointy sticks and sat down to enjoy some knitting time. As usual I made several items for Christmas gifts this year. Christmas eve usually finds me working furiously to finish things up (I’ve even been known to finish gifts on Christmas day). This year, though, the only thing I did on Christmas eve was wrap a few presents and watch some holiday TV :)

My big brother finally got handknit socks. I’ve been working on these for over two years. I can’t even remember how many times I reknit one part or another. Last year I had him try one on for foot length and he mumbled something like ” as long as they don’t fall down around the ankle”… (sigh). I had knit both leg portions, cuff down, plain stockinette, about 8″ in length and finished one heel and part of the foot. They definitely would have slouched. Out they came (big sigh).

This time, I started toe-up and went for a 2/2 rib. Luckily I had measured his foot, and his foot is similar to mine, but a little longer, so I could check for length and fit as I went along. I knit continuously for 5 days and they were done. Yay! Pretty plain, but they fit BB well and he seemed rather pleased.

yarn: Kroy sock yarn, Glencheck. It’s a heavy fingering weight 4-ply and wears like iron. The colour selection leaves a lot to be desired, but it does come in all those plain dark colours that men like, as well as off-white and natural which are perfect for dyeing. At 56 stitches around for my brother and 52 for me, that’s a quick-knit sock!
needles: 2.5mm circ’s

I also made him a hat, finished in early in the year. I knit this up with some of the softest alpaca I’ve ever laid my hands on, from a local farm, HighTales Alpaca. I probably could have made it a little longer, and I still have a wee bit of yarn left, so I might do that the next time I visit him.

pattern: Thorpe
yarn: High Tails Alpaca, Cocoa/Merlin 3-ply bulky
needles: 5mm
mods: I used the crown shaping from Thorpe, then knit 2/2 rib for a couple of inches.

I had been thinking about making a cowl for BB’s girlfriend, but Mom bought some alpaca gloves, and I had the matching yarn, so she knit up a lovely scarf to match. Rearranging my list, I decide to make a Calorimetry. After reading on Ravelry how the pattern often knit up large, I started with less stitches. After a couple of tries, I finally got a decent size, though it was still a bit large for such a tiny woman, at least at the first buttonhole.

pattern: Calorimetry
yarn: Paton’s SWS, Natural Blue
needles: 3.75 mm
mods: Cast on fewer stitches and did fewer repeats. I like the 2/2 rib and the buttonholes pretty much disappear when the rib takes up. I love this yarn, too. It’s the first time I’ve used it and even when I had to frog and reknit (more than once) the soy fibre kept it looking nice and shiny.

I also made her a bath set. It began with a washcloth, of which I was knitting several. I had one of those giant balls of cotton in a pretty blue variegate so I surfed ravelry looking for other items to make. In the end I made my own patterns for many of the items using several patterns as guidelines and checking the size as I went along.

yarn: Bernat Handicrafter Cotton
needles: 3.75mm
Fishcloth pattern: Bubbles the fish, with fins
Bubbles the fish just tickles my funnybone, especially his little fishy lips :) I’ve made 4 so far.
Headband pattern: Basketweave Headband
Carissa’s headband pattern was easy and fun. I did th eincreases and decreases a little different, using a (k1, yo, k1 all in the same stitch) double increase and a sl2k1p2o double decrease for tidiness.
Back scrubber, bath mitt and soap saver sack: Just made ‘em up.
I looked over a lot of projects on ravelry and tried a couple of different stitch patterns before I decided on seed stitch for it’s even bumpiness and total reversiblity. The scrubber and mitt were both made smallish, and the soap sack will hold a half bar of Elysian handmade soap (local, and the best soap I have ever used).

All the handmade gifts went over well, and I got lots of goodies, including some smooshable alpaca yarn. I spent lots of time with family, which, for me, is the best part of Christmas.

Here’s to a wonderful New Year –
Cheers!

Warm Ears = Happy Mumsy

Published
by
Deb
on December 20, 2008
in Uncategorized
. 1 Comment

My mother has been asking for an earflap to keep her ears warm while she takes her daily walk. I had worked the thorpe pattern before so when I spotted some beautiful wool blend yarn in turquoise and green I knew if would be perfect.
Frankly, I don’t expect much of our local Wal-Mart. They mostly carry the typical synthetics: Paton’s, Bernat and  Red Heart. If you look hard enough, though, there are a couple of wool yarns hidden among the stacks of acrylic and nylon. Sean Sheep Maldon is one of them. I didn’t see it before it made it to the end cap, and I haven’t seen it since.

Mom's earflap hat

I’ve used the Thorpe pattern before for the hat shaping only, but this time I got to work it as written. It is such an great pattern, nice shape, easy to work, and Mom says it does the job perfectly. It actually fits me as well, but for my monster noggin which is apparently mostly forehead I have to turn it backwards.

Mom's earflap hat

Pattern: Thorpe, Ravelink
Yarn: Sean Sheep Maldon, 75%wool, 25% acrylic
Needles: 5 mm

Oh, look… a post! With pictures, even!

Published
by
Deb
on December 15, 2008
in Fibre, It's All About the blog and knitting
. 0 Comments

This fall has been incredibly busy, even more than the summer was. I even had a little time to relax before I jumped back into holiday crafting, so here I am with some tales to tell.

I haven’t managed to get the penny rug patterns done, but I’m partway there. I had to pretty much start over once I got the pieces printed out and started working on them.  Some bits needed to be resized and otheres changed completely, but I’m quite happy with how they’re turning out. More on that in the new year.

I did make up some rug hooking kits in time for the hook-in. Small pieces easy for beginners so far, and after some discussion with Sande, a better idea of what people are looking for. It’s a much different process to work up a kit than making up patterns. With the patterns I dream up a design and put it on the backing — done and done. Making a kit requires much more. First is the pattern, then the hooking and finishing, then photographing, preparing the supplies, writing instructions and packaging. More like the applique patterns in terms of process, though the hooking seems to go much quicker than sewing.

So far I’ve got 3 different kits, with one more in the making.

Arf, LaddieHarvestGingerbread Tea Set

And here’s a project that could become a kit, if I can get some more boxes.

Duet

I’m still hooking away on my sheep and owl mats. The bird mat has slowed to a crawl and it doesn’t seem to matter how many stitches I add to the background. I’m thinking of weaving some strands in, but I”m not sure how that’ll work out.

On the knitting front I have lots to show, but I’ll keep that for next time. Right now I’m whipping up some Christmas gifts and I seem to be on a roll, so back to the sticks I go!

How I Spent My Summer, by Deb C.

Published
by
Deb
on September 29, 2008
in Uncategorized
. 1 Comment

Yep, I’m stilll here. It was a very busy summer, and the autumn looks to be just as busy.  So what kept me so busy? Here’s a list.

June:

  1. Lace sampler scarf -  I doodled up some lace patterns and wanted to see if the would sork out like I expectec them to. Some did, some didn’t. Lace designing is more than a tad difficult.
  2. Seasons of Lace - I spent a fair amount of time looking over patterns and designing my own. I have some nice patterns planned, I just have to find the time to knit them!
  3. Custom Patterns - I had some order for rug-hooking patterns come in, all at once it seemed. I got some great ideas for new stock patterns while working on them.
  4. Fibre Mill tour - I was in charge of this one.

July:

  1. Seasons of Lace: alpaca shawl - one of those patterns I drew up. It’s an experiment in shawl construction and so I picked fairly simple stitch patterns. Only the edging left.
  2. Re-organizing the fibre stash and tools - I’m still working on this one, but I got some of the clutter cleared away, worked on better storage and managed to clear off my worktable so I could actually use it!
  3. Surviving the heat - I tend to turn into a limp noodle when the heat and humidity are up. I don’t get a lot done then, but I did manage to knit while sitting infront of the fan.

August:

  1. Getting Ready for the Atlantic Balloon Fiesta - I’ve been selling my patterns at this show for several years. I had to draw up just about everything this year since most of the patterns I had done ahead of time went to the River Gallery. and I had a couple of new patterns, too. I demo rug-hooking pretty much the whole time I’m there. I always get a chance to look around and come home with a new trinket or two. though :)
  2. Cake, 3 tiers and enough for 200. - My cousins asked me to make a replica of their parent’s wedding cake for their 50th anniversary. I hadn’t made a fancy cake in a while, and I’d never made a tiered one with separator columns. It turned out well, and everybody loved it.
  3. Preparing for two mystery shawl knit-alongs - How much time can a person spend on choosing yarn and beads? A lot. I wrote up a couple of lengthy articles on beads for the knitalong groups, but mostly I ogled lace yarn and beads online, and considered lots of options.

September:

  1. Balloon Fiesta - It was interesting this year. Not so many vendors, but we had good crowds on Friday and Saturday. Sunday it poured rain something fierce, and I took a nap while my mother tended our shared booth :)
  2. A new year of Thursday night rughooking - This takes a happy little chunk from my week. I get a lot more done, both hooking and knitting, on this night.
  3. Moncton Hook-in - This was the first hook-in I went to when I started rughooking, and I make a point of going every year. There’re always people there from all over NB and some from Nova Scotia this year. I get to see what people have done with my patterns, which is always a lot of fun, check out what everybody is working on, do a little shopping and chat with friends I’ve made over the years.
  4. clog toe socks - I forgot that I had signed up for the summer of socks (whoops!). I did manage to get a few toe socks done, though. Very quick to knit, they’re just the toe and about half a foot with some ribbing, but they keep my toes nice and warm and dry in my clogs. One chilly day during the recent cold snap I also put them on under a pair of regular socks — warm and toasty, especially on our cool floors.
  5. Penny rug patterns - I’ve working on getting these done before Sande of the River Gallery heads up to Ontario to teach some classes in wool applique next week.

And that’s about it. I’ve also been working on a couple of pairs of socks, in those little bits of time when I’m waiting for something else. I’ve been magic-looping one pair, and I’m not hating it as much as I did the first time I tried it. I finally managed to get my website updated a little, but there’s a lot more to do there. And when I asked Sande if she could bring some kits to our hook-in, she suggested I do some up. Oy.

Now I’ve got to get those penny rugs finished, think about hooking kits, get cracking on our hook-in plans, work on those mystery shawls, and get going on a little Christmas knitting. Yes, this fall is going to be very busy.

The Mill on the… dirt road.

Published
by
Deb
on July 5, 2008
in Events, Fibre and Uncategorized
. 0 Comments

Once upon a time an intrepid band of hookers (rug-hookers, that is) ventured into the wilds of Markhamville to explore the workings of a fibre mill. OK, Markhamville isn’t exactly “the wilds”, but it is out in the countryside. And we only had to travel the gravel road for a few yards. Still, we were intrepid.

The Legacy Lane Fibre Mill is owned by two sisters, Alyson Scott and Amy Tonning. They process all kinds of fibre, including their own alpaca, raised on their farm nearby.

[singlepic=235,320,240,,left]Alyson took us through the process of preparing the fleece and spinning the yarn. We started with the picker awhere the fleece is opened up.

[singlepic=233,320,240,,right]
Here’s the fibre turned into loose fluff. After the fibre is taken from this room, they’re able to take the heavy, coarse fibres that fall to the floor right to the felting machine, since the floor and the table of the felter are the same size!

I didn’t get a picture of the de-hairer, where coarse fibres and vegetable matter are removed. Some fibres, like buffalo, need to go through the process several times to get to the good stuff.

[singlepic=229,320,240,,left]After the fibres are dehaired and blended, it’s off to the big carding machine. Fluff goes in, batts or roving come out. Colors or different fibres can be laid side by side or alternated to acheive different effects in the batt or roving.

[singlepic=237,320,240,,right]

To spin yarn, the roving has to be drafted some more. This machine also measures the roving so equal lengths can be produced for spinning multiple plies.
[singlepic=238,320,240,,center]

Here, Amy takes us through spinning
[singlepic=240,320,240,,left][singlepic=241,320,240,,center]
and plying.
[singlepic=236,320,240,,center]
They can produce a wide range of yarn weights as well as batts, roving and felt. They make rugs from the felt, and insoles. I have a mat of their felt on my bedroom floor, it’s soft and warm, and the cat and dog love to lay on it.
They had a selction of their products laid out for us and I brought home a bag of roving. It’s an alpaca/soy/merino mix. Should be interesting to spin. I’ve never tried to spin alpaca before and I’m looking forward to that adventure.[singlepic=234,320,240,,center]

Speaking of alpaca, we headed over to the farm for a bit. Unfortunately, it was raining and I din’t take my camera out, but here’s a couple of shots of the yearlings they had up at the mill.
[singlepic=243,320,240,,left][singlepic=242,320,240,,right]
(I have some more pics taken by Anita, but I can’t seem to uplaod them at the moment)

Fine and Fancy

Published
by
Deb
on June 1, 2008
in Lace and knitting
. 3 Comments

Fancy Fullness detail
I’m inordinately proud of this bit of lace — it was the only knit-along that I’ve actually kept up with! Birgit’s Ravelinkdesigns are always lovely, and the projects she designs for the Knitting-Delight yahoo group seem to generally be on the smallish side, scarves as opposed to very large stoles or shawls. I love this group and the way Birgit has set it up. It’s like making your way through a lace workbook. She starts each section with a basic technique complete with a very simple sample and a page to attach the sample or a photo to. Each new technique introduced in a project has it’s own instruction set. She began last fall with the very basics (I missed a couple before I signed up) and is working slowly up in difficulty. I’m not an absolute beginner in lace, but I’m close enough that I really appreciate her lessons, both in structure and presentation. If she decides to publish it as a workbook or lesson set, I will definitely recommend it.
Fancy Fullness Shawl
I’m not terribly fond of the yarn, though. It’s Knit Picks’ Shadow in the (now discontinued) Campfire Heather colourway. I like the yarn itself fine, I’ve used it before and will definitely use it again, but the colours in this particular heather make my stomach wobbly. It’s got lots of bright orange, some reddish bits, and a dark green in it. The contrast of the orange/red and the green is just too much for my tender sensibilities ;) Seriously, though, the first evening I worked on it I kept having to look away. I seem to have gotten accustomed to it, though and my mother loves it so I kept at it. I gave it to her as a belated Mother’s Day present (the final clue didn’t come out until the week after) and she’s already worn it twice. It actually came out quite a good size. I blocked the bejeebers out of it, and apparently I knit a lot looser than I thought.
Fancy Fullness Shawl

pattern: Fancy FullnessRavelink by Birgit Freyer
yarn: KnitPick’s Shadow, Campfire Heather
needles: 3.25mm circular, Knitpick’s Harnomy
mods: Even though I crochet, I really didn’t want it on the edge of this shawl. I added an extra eyelet row to match the inner border and bound off with my new favorite bind-off for lace: k, k, k2togTBL, then k, k2tog TBL to the end.

If I had finished it as Birgit wrote it, I probably would have used only one skein of yarn, but since I wanted to add a row I did get into the second skein. I spit-spliced the joins so they’re pretty much invisible and no lumpy bits.

So, Mum finally has a knit shawl, I have a finished project I’m very happy with, and though she doesn’t know it yet, Kelly’s got some yarn. All 400+ yards of orange and green, which I never want to knit with again!

Last Thurday Night Rughooking group

Published
by
Deb
on May 6, 2008
in Events and Uncategorized
. 0 Comments

Title: Last Thurday Night Rughooking group
Location: Seniors\’ Centre
Description: Last group meeting until fall
Start Date: 2008-05-06
Start Time: 07-00-00
End Date: 2008-05-08
End Time: 09-00-00

How doth the little busy Bee

Published
by
Deb
on May 6, 2008
in Fibre, Rug Hooking, Spinning and Uncategorized
. 3 Comments

What a busy month April was! A bunch of different fibre events, a birthday and some shopping, too.

My birthday was last month, and my parents gave me a wonderful present — a Golding Ringspindle! It’s fabulous and beautiful. I fluffed up some wool and spun up some amazingly fine yarn. A little more practice and I’ll give that polwarth I got at London-Wul a go. I’ll post a photo as soon as I can find the basket I put it in…

The third Saturday of April (and of every month if you want to join us) was the second Anything Fibre gathering at the Sussx Artist’s Co-Op. I took a couple of bits to work on. My “Birds of a Feather” mat has reached the background filling stage and I’ve decided to embroider it instead of hooking.
birds of a feather
I also took a lace knitting piece, but I won’t be doing that again — I had to reknit a row and then I found a stitch that had dropped several rows. It was a small group this week so we sat in the cafe and enjoyed the sunshine. I really enjoy this group since there are many different crafts going on and so many things to talk about. I would like to see it happen more often, even if it’s only a small group that gathers.

I go to rug hooking twice a week most weeks, and a good thing too because for a while that was the only time I spent hooking. This month, though, there were a couple of other opprtunites to get some work in on the mats.
sjh1.jpg
First was the annual demo at the Saint John City Market. The Sussex Tea Toom Hookers and the Carnegie Hookers from Saint John go and spend a few days talking and demonstrationg and having lots of fun. I went on Thursday with D and L and we took Olive, our mascot with us. Olive is a wonderful carving my uncle Peter made of a hooker hard at work over her frame.
sjh2.jpgThere were some Carnigie hookers with us and Sande Gunning brought in lots of lovely things from her shop in Glenwood. She got in another bolt of the lovely heathered green I missed last time around so I picked up some of that along with some other beautiful wool fabrics. Of course, I had to draw up a new piece to work on that required some actual hooking.
sj-dg2.jpg
I also managed to fit in some shopping at Cricket Cove ;) I picked up some Malabrigo laceweight, and now I really get what peoople are talking about when they say this stuff is soft. Knitting with kittens, indeed! I wish I’d picked up another skein though. The price was really good, and I’m a big girl, so what I have will only make a shoulder shawl for me. I also got a skein of Kreyon sock yarn. No plans for that yet, but I’m thinking some colourwork might be nice. And I got another bamboo circular, 3mm. I passed Coles bookstore on the way back and founda couple of items on the discount table, the
Little Box of Scarves, and Hip Knits. I know a couple of people who will love the patterns in these.

sugarcamp005.jpgOne Tuesday we went to the Trites family sugar camp for some hooking. My friend Joy arranges this each year with her husband’s family, and both times I’ve gone its been an absolutely gorgeous day. There were hookers from Moncton, Saint John, Sussex, Fredericton, and Dorchester.Quite a mix for there being only about 30 of us!

sugarcamp017.jpg sugarcamp016.jpg

After walking in to the camp (it’s a bit of a walk, but a lovely one), we spent the morning hooking and chatting and having an all around good time. The Trites boys served us up a delicious lunch of buckwheat pancakes, maple baked beans, sausages and, of course, maple syrup. I picked up some maple cream for my parents (which they seem to be enjoying despite the squashing it got on the way home!), too.
sugarcamp020.jpg

You can see all the photos from the Sugar Camp here

I’ve been working on some knitting as well, but that’ll have to wait for the next post :)

Sorry About the Mess

Published
by
Deb
on May 5, 2008
in It's All About the blog
. 1 Comment

If things look a little strange around here it’s because I’m upgrading — one thing gets fixed and another gets broken. It’ll all be over soon, I promise :)