Color Eye Candy

I had a wonderful time at Black Sheep Gathering in Eugene last weekend. I had alot of fun playing with color in the Lanaset color wheel class with Nancy Finn. And here is what I came up with.

This is Merino/silk roving dyed with toned primaries.

Next is Corriedale singles yarn. When I dyed this I was started with my favorite shades of blue and green and wanted to add some orange to make it pop. then added a fourth color to tone down that pop a little!
This is Tussah silk roving. At the top of the picture you can see my inspiration fabric....

My husband doesn't really care for the "wild" color combinations, so I made a blue with different values (blue is his favorite color). I plan on making a scarf for him out of this...
The inspiration for the next fiber was an abstract picture titled something like White Dove in the Desert Morning. The pinks and tans in the picture were alot lighter in value, but I really like how this color came out.
The sample I made was with Merino/Silk roving. I was trying to make a roving that would at least coordinate with some silk hankies that I want to spin that were dyed by Chasing Rainbows in the Tuscan colorway. I hope to spin singles from the hankies and from this roving and ply them together to make something delicate and pretty.

It was fun to see the different colors that people in the class came up with . I think we were all pleasantly surprised with our results. I think the best part of the class was that Nancy was so laid back and allowed us to be creative. I am already looking forward to Black Sheep Gathering next year and hope to take more classes.

Off to BSG

I have been off on vacation for a week now, and what a busy week that has been. Last week, my "baby" graduated from high school. In 2 short months he will be off to college on the east coast - far, far away from mom. I'm not quite sure how I will handle that. He has been such a pleasure to be around lately. Last weekend all the kids were home to see their brother graduate. I'm glad they were all so supportive.
I leave tomorrow for Black Sheep Gathering in Eugene, OR. I have been looking forward to this for a long time. It is the only real wool festival that I have been to and I am hoping to find a fleece to buy this year. I have never bought a whole fleece before, just a pound here and there. So Wish me luck!
Stay tuned next week for pics of classes and fiber !

I have been bad this past week. First of all I have ordered several books (Alice Starmore's Book of Fair Isle Knitting , The Celtic Collection - used version!!, Debbie Bliss Baby and Toddler Knits, and Baby Knits by Lois Daykin). And no, I am not pregnant or going to be a grandmother soon, but do seem to know alot of people having babies.

Today I ordered some yarn for the Sweet Hex Child's Hood. I love the old fashioned look of it, and the stranded work is always a draw for me. I am hoping if I get enough practice at it on the small projects, I will be good enough someday to make one of Alice Starmore's sweaters!

The other thing I ordered this week was new cell phones. Our 2-year contract with Verizon was up for renewal, and the 2 kids were needing new phones, so everyone got new and upgraded phones. I am little excited as my new phone will have the Qwerty keyboard, now maybe I will be faster at texting the kids.

Now for updates on projects:

On the wheel-

Merino - 3-ply. I am hoping this will work for a Baby Surprise Jacket.

....and some wool/cashmere blend by Chasing Rainbows Dyeworks

Almost off the needles -

Miss Dashwood - for gift-giving. I need to make some baby booties to go with it.

I received my confirmation for two classes on fiber dyeing with Nancy Finn from Chasing Rainbows at Blacksheep Gathering this month. I am soooo excited. I have been wanting to take another , more in-depth dyeing class for quite awhile. I hope to learn lots!

I am also excited about the new book by Chrissy Gardiner - Toe Up. She is self-publishing this book, and it hasn't yet been released. If you have seen any of her patterns in Interweave Knits magazine, this book is a must have. Her patterns are challenging and fun. I also was able to test knit one of the patterns for the book. ........

Just to give you a little teaser!!

Knit On!!

I have been spinning allot lately.

Off the Wheel:

This is the crazy fiber that I carded, spun and plied with variegated thread.

I consciously spun it thick and thin, because something with that many different kinds of fiber and bits and pieces of novelty yarn wouldn't look right any other way.

I have probably 7 oz. more of this fiber to spin, enough to make a substantial project, I'm thinking!

Also off the wheel is this 100% Baby Alpaca by Handspinner's Dream...

Waiting to go on the needles....

I bought this pattern for Flirty Tank by Y2Knit about a year ago. I fell in love with this yarn
(Olmue) by Ester Bitran. It is a cotton and Viscose blend and has a shine to it. (5-18 -I couldn't wait and had to cast). I'm hoping that it will be a nice, cool little summer top. I don't know if it will get done for this summer though! It is knit in the round which should help.

I finally finished the sleeves on the Printed Silk Cardigan. Now I just need to block it and do all the finishing. It seems like it takes me forever to finish some projects, maybe if I could focus on only one project I would do better, but I want to make so many things !!!!!!

The On-going Project, and Fiber Fun

Lately I have been working mostly on sleeves for the Printed silk cardigan. I have the same problem I usually have and am short 1 skein of yarn. The sleeve needs to be between 11-12 inches before I start shaping the cap of the sleeve, and I just have a tiny bit of yarn left I just ordered 2 more skeins which I hopt to have by the end of the week. I'd sure like to wrap up this project. (yes, I am knitting both sleeves at once).I did start a scarf with the Mooi yarn from Louet that I just purchased. The pattern is the Cocoon Lace Scarf by Fiber Trends, #AC-73X. I wasn't sure how to do the provisional cast-on, so had to make a trip to the LYS yesterday for help. I also did a swatch to practice the pattern, and when I actually started the scarf, it seemed to go smoothly. Here is a shot of the first reapeat plus 2 rows. (The bright pink is, of course, the provisional cast-on). Tere is an article for Provisional Cast-on here, and a tutorial here.

I have been playing with differnt colors and types of fiber. I recently purchased some "crazy" fiber from Websters......

close up of fiber...

Ready to spin "crazy batts".....

I hope to have some "crazy" yarn to show you next week.

Ready to Ply, twon bobbins of baby alpaca...

Also ready to spin is some 100% Icelandic lamb roving that I purchased from a spinning friend that raises Icelandic sheep. She has more roving for sale here.

Ok, I must go now. I feel the need to spin after talkig about all that wool!!

New Treasures

My wonderful husband gave me a gift certificate to the LYS for Christmas that I have been saving for something very special. I have been tempted to spend it on yarn for a big project, but didn't think I needed anymore big/sweater projects at this time. I was visiting the LYS last Saturday and they had just received some new "special" yarn, and suddenly I knew what I had been waiting for.... Mooi by louet. It is lace weight yarn - 50gm/350 yds. Fiber content 15% Bison/15% Cashmere/70% Bamboo. It is very soft yarn and feels like quite a treat for me, since I don't think I would ever spend that much for one skein of yarn if I didn't have a gift certificate. Now, to find the perfect lace scarf pattern :)

They also had another new fiber that I had never heard of before - Banana hemp. It is made from Banana leaves. It feels stiff to the touch, but should get softer with handling and washing, much like linen does.

ON THE BOOKSHELF -

The LYS (A Perfect Yarn) also had some new books. I couldn't resist buying Mother-Daughter Knits.

There are several projects that I would love to make.

The Classic Shirt...

Mother-Of-The-Bride Cardigan

A Gray Cardigan (but probably not in gray!)...love those cables and the long ribbing at the hem.

And the Reversible Tank Top...

ON THE WHEEL -

Alpaca with a Twist - 100% Baby Alpaca, 7 oz. in the Fawn colorway. It requires more concentration and skill to spin than the wool that I have been spinning with lately. It is very slippery. I think it will be beautiful when it is done.

ON THE CARDER -

I have been hand teasing the 8 oz. of dyed wool that I bought in March. It is very time consuming and a dirty job (should I give it to Mike Rowe?), there is a fair amount of vegetable matter including some burrs, and a bit of dirt still. One of the colors that I got was very sticky, which I hadn't noticed in the store, and some of the locks are matted together requiring a bit more care to tease apart.

I tried blending the 2 colors together on the carder. I think this will add more visual (and spinning) interest.

The batt on the top is solid pink, the batt on the bottom is the pink merino mixed with dark purplish brown merino.

IN THE WORKS-

I am sending off my registration today for 2 different dyeing classes by Nancy Finn from Chasing Rainbows Dyeworks, that will be held at Black Sheep Gathering in June. I have to send the form by snail mail, but should receive confirmation by e-mail. Here's hoping I get in. I am excited to possible have this opportunity since I have been wanting to learn more about dyeing fiber, and haven't had any luck so far finding anyone local who could teach me. This week I told some people that I was going to "take a class in dyeing", the room got "dead" silent and I got some odd stares! I had to explain myself so that they would quit worrying about my sanity :)

Out Of The Dye Pot And Off The Wheel

I feel like I have been pretty productive the past 2 weeks. I finished plying the last of the 8 oz. of Autumn Corriedale pencil roving. I ended up with 2 large skeins, and one small one. I had a tiny bit of leftover singles that I tried Navajo plying, but the singles weren't cooperating and kept breaking. The yarn came out a lot different than I expected, to my pleasant surprise.

The yarn came out allot different than I expected, to my pleasant surprise. There was a lot of orange in the roving (see picture from previous post), but when I plied it, the orange just ended up mostly being a highlight.

WPI – average of 10, Worsted Weight, 3 ply
Yardage – Approximately 331 yds,

I had to play with color on Thursday, so I broke out the crock pot and the dyes and some Pastaza by Cascade yarns. The colors didn’t come out as deep as I would have liked, but I am still pleased with the results. The yarn was sitting in my bag at the yarn shop yesterday, and the lady next to me said she loved the colors. I must be doing something right!! I am anxious to try the dyeing again with some different colors. I think I will add more dye to see if I can get the deeper shade that I want.

I have also been working on the Printed silk Cardigan here and there. I had made a fair amount of progress, then realized that I had been off on my measurements and had to rip back about 7 inches of work. That was last weekend, I have since re-knit those 7 inches and now I am ready to start the diamond pattern on the second front piece. My next obstacle is doing the buttonholes, the directions in the magazine are different than the buttonholes I have knit in the past. I can’t wait to get this sweater done and have something new to wear -and move on to the next project that is waiting in the wings.