Yarn Crawl Finished Objects

On May 28, 2014 By happygingerhomeIn knittingLeave a comment

Back in March, I did the North Shore Yarn Crawl and came home with some yarn to make some small-scale projects. Unlike most years, I didn’t overdo it on the spending and I actually knit most of what I bought instead of letting it sit around the house. I bought two different yarns for two different cowls, and yarn for one pair of socks. Out of the yarn I purchased, I only have one hank of yarn/1 unknitted project remaining. But I kind of cheated. I liked the yarn I used for the first cowl so much I purchased another ball in a different color and made the same cowl all over again. I think the hank I didn’t use yet became angry with me, because when I went to untie it in order to unwind it, it became knotted up before I could put it on the swift. Now I have a tangled purple mess on my hands whose existence I currently refuse to acknowledge. Two can play at that game.

The first cowl I completed was the Tangier cowl, knit with Cascade’s Tangier yarn. I bought one ball of Tangier in Forest Glade in Gloucester, MA during the crawl.

I still call this yarn “green” even though, once knitted up, the gold totally dominates all the other colors.

This is a simple yet satisfying one-ball project using a mock cable, no cable needle required.

I meant to work on another cowl after this one, but after the yarn tangled, and because I enjoyed this quick knit so much, I bought another ball of Tangier in Denim Blues in Salem, MA a few days after the crawl.

I love the pale blues/almost greys and how the bright turquoise pops for a nice burst of color.

I knit both of these the week after the crawl. Once I was done, I moved on to the Mad Color Fiber Arts sock yarn I bought in Gloucester. The color is called Poison Apple.

I do love a good sock project.

About five weeks after the Yarn Crawl I received a phone call from Seed Stitch Fine Yarn in Salem. I won a door prize! It’s a pattern from Toil and Trouble for a lovely pair of fingerless mitts. This is the second year (in a row, no less) that I won a small door prize; last year I won a skein of orange Malabrigo. Hopefully my lucky streak will continue next year, so, you know, fingers crossed.

Now onto spinning for a while, even though my dog is waiting for his sweater and I’m still knitting one for me… *eyeroll*

Because I Don’t Have Enough Spindles

On May 26, 2014 By happygingerhomeIn Spinning1 Comment

…I had to buy a couple more. So I have a spindle collection that’s shaping up nicely. Off the top of my head I’m not sure how many I have at the moment. I’ll have to go through them and see what’s what. I think the number is somewhere around 15-20. I’m a natural collector, I need to accumulate stuff. Cataloging my spindle collection would be a nice future blog post, I’m sure. Most of my spindles are from Golding Fiber Tools in Vermont. After that, I have a couple of Greensleeves, a couple of basic Ashfords, two Turkish spindles (one Spanish Peacock, one Jenkins) I have yet to spin on (damn you, half-hitch knot, what am I, a sailor?!), a Spanish Peacock Victorian Ladies silk spindle that I can’t for the life of me get the hang of, and a few other assorted models. Yes, I think taking serious inventory of my collection is in order.

But on to my two newest beauties from Golding. Last week I noticed a beautiful spindle made with pink ivory and holly for sale. This is part of their “Gemwood” series.

See the back of the attached card for the stats:

At 1.8 ounces this spindle has a nice weight to it. I love how the pink and white woods pop against the darker walnut.

The second spindle is one I’ve been thinking about for a very long time. I love purpleheart wood’s deep purple color. But whenever I log onto Golding Fiber Tools with a purchase in mind, I end up being distracted by the gorgeous vintage spindles with their antique jewels and enamel and metal findings. On Friday, I finally bought a purpleheart spindle, and it’s beautiful!

This one’s a bigger model. With a 3″ diameter whorl, It’s pretty hefty at 2.1 ounces, and feels nice and sturdy in my hand.

The spindles came with a sample of fiber from Ingelnook Fibers in a color called Brick Wall. I love that name!

I ordered my spindles three days ago, on Friday morning. They were on my doorstep the next morning! That is usually the case when I order from the Goldings. I wonder if it’s because Massachusetts is right next to Vermont, so Priority comes overnight instead of two days. I love the almost instant spinning gratification I get when I shop on Golding Fiber Tools; I received a shipping confirmation email an hour after I placed the order. Do the Goldings run each and every order to the Post Office when they receive them?!

I’ve started spinning some Ashland Bay merino in Cyan on the pink ivory spindle. I’m working my way through a three ounce bag in order to do something fancy: ply two different colors together. I’ve been spinning for about 5 years now, and I’ve always been content to just spin. Except for a little experimentation, I haven’t really moved on to the plying stage yet. I find the act of spinning alone to be pretty satisfying. But that’s all going to change. Yes, I’m finally pushing on to the next step! It’s about bloody time, right? I have various balls of handspun stored in my home that are crying out to be plied and knitted. So I give in!

When it comes to my crafts, I’m not very organized. I work at a leisurely pace. I go with the flow. I spin but don’t ply. I knit something, put it down, pick up something else and put that down, too. I lose needles and tools and end up digging around in my stuff when I want a specific item in hand. I always thought of myself as a product knitter rather than a process knitter because my original reasons for learning to knit was to have sweaters and other garments for myself. But I’ve come to realize that I enjoy the process more than anything else; a sweater at the end is just icing on the cake.

I suppose my crafting philosophy can be summed up as follows: Enjoy the journey, don’t worry about the destination. It will always be there.

A Much Needed Spinning Post

On May 16, 2014 By happygingerhomeIn SpinningLeave a comment

It’s been way too long since I pulled out a drop spindle and worked on making my own yarn. I’ve been doing a lot of knitting these last few months, but no spinning, despite a cabinet full of spinning fiber. Did I pull out some of the stash I already have lying around the house? No! I joined a fiber club so I could get monthly shipments of ~~even more~~ brand new spinning fiber! Cool, huh?!

I found myself browsing the Paradise Fibers website a couple of months ago and saw their fiber club options. I have always wanted to join a fiber club, but the only ones I knew of were run by independent dyers and, while the fibers were gorgeous hand-dyed works of art, the clubs seemed pricey and hard to join. For a good price point, members get to test-drive a generous variety of fibers, from different wool breeds, silk and silk blends, to exotic fibers such as yak, with the occasional neat-o gift thrown in. I joined the 12-month club; for $40.00 a month I receive very generous samples of beautiful fibers, both natural and dyed. I’ve received two shipments so far and I am blown away by the quality and beauty of the fibers, which are a generous 3-4 ounces per sample. The April shipment had a bonus item thrown into the mix: an adorable Lantern Moon tape measure with a carrot-eating rabbit on top.

The bag I grabbed for my current spinning is from the April shipment. It contains an Ashland Bay merino/tussah silk blend in a color called Mallard. It’s a bluey-green hue that is truly reminiscent of the colors found on Mallard ducks: sometimes it’s blue, sometimes it’s green, depending on the light. I took a lot of photos of this fiber today–most of them were taken in the same lighting conditions–and the color never looks the same twice. It may be hard to pin down, but it’s gorgeous in any light.

Today I took my spindle and some Mallard to the park for some spinning. It turned out to be a little too windy by the water to get any spinning done, but I got some great photos.

The spindle is one of my Golding spindles. It’s called Inuit Snow Dance. The whorl is made out of linden. (yarn=bright blue)

I have a lot of spindles, but Golding spindles are my favorite. I love the vintage ringspindles and the different and unique findings used on the whorl. (yarn=medium bluey-green?)

Some blue handspun in front of a blue sky. (yarn=medium blue)

Look at my spindle as it encounters NATURE!! (yarn=light/medium blue?!)

The merino/tussah silk blend is easy to spin, for the most part. I started out on a smaller spindle but I was having trouble getting started with the drafting each time after winding what I’d already spun onto the cop. I’m not an expert at the technical spinning stuff but I want to say merino is a longer staple than, say, bluefaced leicester. I switched to the heavier Inuit spindle and the spinning became a lot easier.

(yarn=bright blue, again.)

I have a lot of plans for spinning the rest of this fiber, but none yet for knitting it. I am going to spin the Mallard first. Then I’m going to spin the sample of merino wool in Cyan separately. Then I’m going to ply the two colors together. Since I don’t know how many yards I’ll get, or what the drape and nature of the fabric will be, I’m not sure what I’m going to knit with it. Full disclosure: I loved these two colors and fibers so much I ordered a pound more of each from Paradise Fibers. I have a feeling a pound of each is a lot more than I bargained for. Should I make a warm throw to drape over my lap in the winter? A hat and mittens? Dare I say it–will I spin enough to make a sweater? I don’t know what this yarn is going to be yet, but I’m having a lot of fun making it in the meantime.

(yarn = dark greeny-blue.)

Seaside Happiness

On March 31, 2014 By happygingerhomeIn Life, The Universe, And EverythingLeave a comment

Today I’m taking a break from photos of knitting to bring you a little travelogue about one of my favorite places to spend the day: Rockport, Massachusetts. Rockport is a pretty New England seaside village that’s right on the Atlantic Ocean. It’s about an hour north of Boston by car or train. It’s a popular day trip destination for tourists since it’s so close to Boston. It’s been a popular destination with artists for over a century thanks to the natural beauty of the ocean and the old New England houses and fishing huts.

I snapped a few photos a couple of weeks ago after my last stop on the yarn crawl. Most of Rockport’s shops and restaurants are seasonal so a lot of them were closed, but there were plenty of places that were open. Such as Tuck’s Candies, because I need my fudge and salt water taffy fix when I’m in town! There were a lot of people out as well, even though it was a little chilly.

I tend to take photos of the same things over and over when I visit, and I’ve probably posted some of them on this blog in the past. Forgive me for being so repetitive.

This is Bearskin Neck from a distance, It’s a peninsula, so there are great ocean views from either side. It’s thin but crammed with shops, restaurants and houses that are so close to each other, if one neighbor wanted to borrow a cup of sugar from their next-door neighbor all they’d have to do is lean out their windows. I love that giant tree that towers over everything.

Here’s a shot of some of the buildings along the ocean, with the beach in front. These are all shops, eateries, residences, a motel, and a new performing arts center. Fun fact: Rockport was a dry town until a few years ago. No alcohol was available for sale so if diners wanted some with their meal they had to bring it in to the restaurant with them. (Presumably it was purchased in Gloucester, the next town over.)

I love this little gazebo, it looks like a mini fortress tower overlooking the sea. It was accessible to the public until about four years ago, when someone bought the open field in front of it and built a giant mansion. It’s too bad because people used to take their wedding party photos in there. The movie The Love Letter was filmed here in 1999. For anyone who’s seen it, the Fourth of July fireworks scene was filmed on this land when it was just a big grass field, pre McMansion days.

Yep, Rockport rocks.

Before you know it summer will be here and I’ll be able to go back and spend a day here and there while the weather’s good. Where do you like to go to relax and be happy? Discuss!

North of Boston Red Sox–I Mean Socks.

On March 27, 2014 By happygingerhomeIn knitting2 Comments

I was reading through this blog earlier today, going way back to the first post here on WordPress, and I’ve come to a sobering realization: I buy an awful lot of yarn and spinning fiber. I also ~~lose~~ securely store an awful lot of yarn and spinning fiber. It’s so secure even i can’t find it, to the point where much of what I’ve bought over the past couple of years has still not been used. I reviewed my posts about past yarn crawls and fiber festivals and saw photos of yarn I totally forgot I own. I mentioned a lot of projects I planned to make but never did. Clearly a serious spring cleaning–and a call to A&E’s Hoarders–may be in order.

So the fact that I’m making good on my yarn crawl purchases of two weeks ago makes me happy, since I’ve completed two projects and I’m working on a third. Maybe I’m not such a lazy, lazy knitter after all. I’d like to take credit for being industrious, but the fact is, I’ve done so much knitting because I was home sick this week. There seems to be a new springtime tradition in my house: the Annual Spring Upper Respiratory Infection. This year’s was particularly hideous. Thankfully, I’ve improved greatly over the past couple of days, I won’t hit you with the details other than to say I’ll never take breathing for granted again. Much of my knitting was done late at night because I couldn’t sleep, and that became stressful. Forget about “I knit so I don’t kill people,” My slogan this week was, “I knit so I won’t go bat crap crazy!”

I finished the Tangier Cowl I was working on from my previous post. Color #10, by the way, is called Forest Glade. I bought one ball of Cascade 220 Tangier during the crawl, but stopped in Seed Stitch Fine Yarn a couple of days later waiting for Indian takeout to be ready and saw the yarn in a color called Denim Blues that I didn’t see at Coveted Yarn. I bought it to make yet another Tangier Cowl, so now I have two. The cowl was such an easy and fun pattern to knit, I cast on for the second one as soon as I cast off the first one. Knitting an easy pattern took my mind off of how miserable I felt, so I plugged away at it while watching episodes of The Worst Cooks In America that I DVR’d (Go Jamie!). I need to press and block the cowls. They’ll be the stars of my next post.

Once the blue cowl was off the needles, I pulled out the sock yarn I bought from Heather, the owner/dyer of Mad Color Fiber Arts. She’s always at Coveted Yarn during the Crawl, and she always brings a ton of wonderful goodies with her.

This is her Doolally fingering weight yarn in the Poison Apple colorway. It was originally a club exclusive but she brought it back as a general color. It’s bright and dark red, with some black and grays running through it, you know, just to add a touch of Evil Queen. I think Poison Apple is the perfect name for this color! The tiny tote bag is from a company called Rock Flower Paper.I love their bags and I have several of their totes and zip pouches. They’re handy and they use heavy cotton fabric that comes in many beautiful prints. I bought this bag on the day of the crawl but not at a yarn shop; I found it at a stationary/toy shop in Rockport called The Paper Mermaid. It’s the perfect size for a sock project. If you’re a Bag Ho like me in the North Shore/Boston area you should make your way over to this shop. She carries a wonderful selection of purses, totes and bags of all sizes that make great project bags.

Here’s a closer look at the colors in there. The green in the yarn looks greener in the photo than in person. It looked browny-grey to me, kind of like when an apple is bruised or goes bad. Way to commit to the whole bad apple theme! I’m knitting plain stockinette socks with my all-time favorite basic sock pattern from The Yankee Knitter. A bold color such as this might cry out for a more daring sock pattern, but I enjoy the comfort and warmth of a simply knit sock, and I didn’t want to think too much this week, so I’ll let the color do all the talking. I’m sure these socks will stand out against whatever I’m wearing them with.

I’m well on my way with sock #1. Since I have a doctor’s note excusing me from work until Monday, tomorrow will be another exciting day of knitting and breathing.

Yay for breathing.

The Knittin’ O’ The Green

On March 17, 2014 By happygingerhomeIn Life, The Universe, And Everything3 Comments

Happy St. Patrick’s Day everyone! It’s 20 degrees out today, more like 8 with the wind chill factor. Hopefully spring will arrive soon. I’m sick of the snow and the low temperatures, even though winter means more time to knit warm articles of clothing. Everyone’s wearing green today; they’ve been wearing it and ~~imbibing~~ celebrating St. Paddy’s Day all weekend, as a matter of fact. Believe it or not, it’s a mere coincidence that everything I’m knitting currently happens to be green. My green sweater has nothing to do with St. Patrick’s day, since I started knitting it around Christmas. But to tell you the truth, I was hoping I’d have it finished to wear on St. Patrick’s Day. Once again, the best laid plans…

I have two projects on the needles. I am still knitting Armande. I always linger on the larger projects. I start with a burst of activity, knit hell for leather for a few weeks, and then put it down. I worked on it during the run-up to Christmas; I worked on it while hosting relatives during Christmas. Knitting is a great distraction when graciously allowing houseguests full control over your TV set when their taste in programming isn’t your cup of tea. I was able to avoid a lot of bad movies for a week thanks to this sweater (Steven Segall’s The Glimmer Man, I’m talking to you in particular).

I plowed past the ingenious method of sewing down the pockets as you knit the sweater and I’m now on the body of the garment, with all its buttonholes, making my way up to the sleeves and neckline.

It’s a lot of stockinette, but that’s what i like about this project. It’s mostly basic knitting with some shaping here and there, with a great collar at the finish. This will be an amazing piece to wear when I’m done. In the meantime, I’ve started a quick cowl project, which, coincidentally, also happens to feature green.

Even the new Knitters Pride circulars I picked up are green. Enough already! This is the Tangier Cowl. I got the pattern for free during the weekend North Shore Yarn Crawl. It takes one skein of Cascade 220’s Tangier yarn. The yarn is made out of silk, cotton, acrylic and viscose. Tangier seems to be Cascade’s take on Noro. It’s similar to Noro in two ways: 1. it has the same mesmerizing color changes, and 2. it’s kind of rough and knotty. Some people may use words like “tweedy” and “slubby” but I stand by “rough” and “knotty.” Casting on was a little difficult and I didn’t like the way the yarn felt as I cast on. Fortunately, the yarn became much softer once there was some fabric between my hands, and it feels rather nice now that I’m halfway through.

This is color 10, which contains green, brown and mustard shades. The green looked dominant in the skein when I bought it but as I’m knitting with it, the browns are taking over. In these photos, though, the mustard color is taking over. I think its serendipitous that i’m using this color on St. Patrick’s Day; the colors remind me of the patchwork fields of Ireland, with green grass, brown earth and plowed fields, and golden flowers.

It was very sunny when I took my photos so the colors on both projects look a little washed out.

I’ve been buying the Knitters Pride needles for a while now and I’m really impressed with them. Each size comes in a different color, which makes collecting their needles fun. They’re reasonably priced. The US9 24″ circulars I’m using on the cowl cost $9.50. The bright green needles and the black cable are stylin’. The needles are very smooth, which allows me to knit fast. It’s like using Addi Turbos. Most of my local shops carry them now, and some of the stores that used to carry brands like Brittany now carry Knitters Pride instead.

All of the yarn shops along the local North Shore (of Boston) crawl are fabulous, but one of my favorite stops is Yarns In The Farms, in Beverly Farms, MA. YITF has a devoted local following thanks to its quirky joie de vivre atmosphere, eclectic selection of local and art yarns, as well as its official mascot, guest greeter, and sometime in-house model:

This is Chucho (the one on the right!) and he stole the show on Saturday (and probably all the other days of the Crawl as well). He jumped up onto the couch and perched there the whole time I was in the shop. He let people fuss over him and pet him. He sat patiently for photographs. Isn’t he adorable?

I brought home a nice selection of items from the crawl without going too nuts this year. I bought three projects home: two one-skein cowls and enough sock yarn for one pair of socks (pattern to be determined). I’ll take pictures of the fun and interesting items in my next post. For now, I’d better hit the Publish button because I only have 34 minutes left to publish my St. Patrick’s Day post before St. Patrick’s Day is over. Till next time!

Does your area host a yarn crawl? Where is it? Do you attend regularly? Let me know!

Happy New Year!

On January 1, 2014 By happygingerhomeIn knitting, Life, The Universe, And EverythingLeave a comment

May 2014 be full of finished projects, and may all your yarn be bought on sale. 🙂

These Are A Few Of My Favorite Things

On December 12, 2013 By happygingerhomeIn Life, The Universe, And EverythingLeave a comment

Today I’ll be sharing some of my favorite knitting things. Some are old favorites, some are new favorites. These are things that help me in my knitting, enlighten me, turn me on to new techniques, and just plain make me smile. Share some of your favorites with me in the comments!

Go-To Reference Books:

Knitspeak by Andrea Berman Price. My sister gave this to me for Christmas several years ago and it’s rarely out of my sight. This little pink book is packed with information on knitting techniques. Unlike many other instructional books, this one is small and compact and fits easily into a bag with your project, while the hard cover insures your book won’t get mangled, bent or torn while carrying it around. It may be small in size but it doesn’t skimp on information in the alphabetically listed techniques. I refer to this book all the time because I can never remember the difference between a Make 1 left increase and a Make 1 Right Increase. I have a 3 Needle Bind Off coming up soon and I’m counting on Knitspeak to walk me through it. Indispensable!

The Handy Book Of Patterns by Ann Budd. Beginners learn from Ann Budd as she teaches the basics of garment construction. Experienced knitters can also benefit from the basic patterns as a jumping-off point for improvising and designing to the next level. This book covers gloves, mittens, hats and sweaters. Each pattern gives you information, gauge and measurements for several yarn weights and needle sizes, allowing the knitter to choose the type of yarn they prefer or to work with what they already have on hand. This book taught me how to knit mittens and gloves and I haven’t looked back since. Educational!

Tools:

Knit Picks’ Caspian Needles I knit socks. A lot of socks. if you’re not a sock knitter, you should try it. Just once. Trust me, once you put on a pair of handknit socks you’ll never go back to store bought. I’ve been known to use Addi’s size Us#1 DPNs for sock knitting but overall I prefer wood needles. I’ve long been a very vocal fan of Knit Picks’s yarn and tools, and lately, it’s like they’ve been reading my mind. Last month they released Caspian, a new line of needles in beautiful deep blue and green mixed colors. They had me at blue. I purchased the set of 6″ DPNs that come in the usual sock-knitting sizes, from 0 to 3. There are 2 sets of US #1s–one is 2.25 mm and one is 2.50 mm–and two sets of US #2 (2.75mm and 3.0 mm). Now I know to check my sock patterns for the Metric measurement behind the American measurement! I’ve knit a few rows of leftover yarn with these just to feel them in my hand. Serious sock knitting will resume after I complete some of the things I’m working on now. it will. I’ve already bought more sock yarn. Useful!

I got a little bizzay once the Christmas tree went up:

The Internet:

New-to-me blogs and podcasts:

1. Yarning Over The Days Constance does a lot of knitting…a lot of knitting I’m extremely jealous of. Plus, she has a killer fashion sense. She’s currently knitting bunnies to donate to children. If you want to be dazzled, look no further than her work on Andi Satterlund’s Hortencia sweater. Inspirational!

2. Prairie Girls Knit And Spin Dani and Susie, the self-styled prairie girls, live in Nebraska and co-host a podcast on knitting, spinning, In between they talk about life, husbands, fiber festivals and all sorts of yarny topics. Listening to this podcast is a joy because of the rapport the two ladies share. Feeling guilty about buying more yarn? They’ve been there, done that. Knitting project bumming you out? They can relate. We all can, and that’s part of the fun. They also have a group on Ravelry. Hysterical!

Old Favorites:

1. Prick Your Finger I’ve been following Rachael Matthews’s zany and unique blog for a few years now, and she never disappoints. Prick Your Finger is the name of her London yarn shop and textile collaborative that specializes in British wool, teaching and empowering people, and community efforts. Start reading and you’ll soon realize what a free spirit she is, and her blog is full of joie de vivre! I wish I could visit her shop. If I’m ever able to take another trip to London, Prick Your Finger is going to be my first stop. Whimsical!

…when I’m feeling sad, I simply remember my favorite things

and then I don’t feel so bad.

A Picture-less Post (because it’s been a while.)

On December 10, 2013 By happygingerhomeIn Life, The Universe, And Everything2 Comments

HI! How are all of you? I hope you’re warm and dry and happily stitching away at something fabulous. It started snowing in these parts about an hour ago.

I know. Long time, no write. it’s also been long time, no knit around here. I never did post part 2 of my Fiber Revival report. I have some nice photos I didn’t post yet so I do want to share them with everyone at some point. But that some point won’t be before Christmas! I really admire the bloggers who post regularly!

There have been a lot of knitting starts and stops since August. The cloche hat project I picked up at Fiber Revival is still sitting in the kawaii sushi bag that I also picked up at Fiber Revival. The brim is proving unexpectedly irritating so I banished the hat for a while. It’s not a permanent ban, but I figured it’s silly to wait to knit something else until I finish it. So I decided I wanted a pair of mittens for winter. While shopping with Knit Picks I came across a free pattern for mittens with a braided cuff. The pair takes one ball of Wool of The Andes and one ball of Shamrock. Shamrock has been discontinued for a while, but guess what?? I had two balls of it in my stash!! I also had several balls of WOTA in there as well! More than enough to make a pair. This is the first time I’ve successfully shopped from my stash and had exactly what I needed to start a project. So I have one mitten that’s almost done, I just need to do the thumb. I couldn’t get exact gauge so I went a little large. My handknit mittens usually felt a little as they are exposed to rain, snow and ice. A couple of times cleaning snow off of my car and they’ll be nice and snug!

I’m currently hard at work on this little number. The Armande cardigan. I love the unashamedly retro styling and I share designer Andi Satterlund’s love of period movies and clothing. This was calling out to me to knit it, so who am I to ignore the call of the knit?! I know, I’m always whining about never finishing a sweater. Although this pattern has earned a Tangy rating on Knitty, I’m confident that I can do it this time. The construction is seamless, so, you know, Yay. I don’t even have to stitch down the pockets! The pockets are knit with separate needles and a new ball of yarn, then placed on holders. The end stitches are slipped, then picked up and knitted along with the next stitch on the needle as you come to it, attaching the pocket to the main body fabric. How cool is that?

Another plus for this pattern: it uses Cascade 220, my favorite reasonably priced yarn. I needed 6 hanks but I bought one extra just in case. If I don’t use it, it will look good as a warm winter hat. My only problem so far with this project was choosing a color. The Heather colorways are all so pretty. I was impatient to start it so I didn’t want to order the yarn online if I could find 7 balls in a LYS. I chose a dark green heather, which is lovely and vintage-looking. I am very picky about wearing green because I have red hair, but this is a dark, classic color and it’s perfect.

I have a question for all you knitters and crocheters out there. Does your dog stare intently at you while you knit? Mine does. Spike, my Chiweenie, sits next to me on the couch, with his face really close to my knitting, and just stares at it. Sometimes he whines a little, like my knitting is making him anxious. It’s been suggested that he’s miffed because I haven’t knit him a sweater yet. Several years ago my mom had a dog who would also stare at me while I knit whenever I came home for Christmas. She would sit in front of me on the floor and just watch me knit. Shannon was a very gentle soul and my mother volunteered at a local nursing home by attending a sort of “obedience school” class that all the residents could watch. The dogs would then visit with all the residents, going from person to person. The lady who ran the classes would sometimes crochet while her husband did the training, and my mom always told me how Shannon would sit by her and watch her crochet! Can anyone relate? Let me know!

Happy stitching to you all!

Fiber Revival 2013

On August 13, 2013 By happygingerhomeIn knitting, Random Geekery, SpinningLeave a comment

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA — Stitched By Jessalu bags on one side, Mad Color spinning fiber on the other.

Part One: The Purchases.

What more do you need to hear? There was a fiber festival, there was shopping. We all love reading about others’ expeditions and what they came back with, so here’s my annual Fiber Revival post. This yearly event takes place on the serene Spencer-Pierce-Little farm in Newbury, MA, in the beautiful Merrimack Valley. It’s a comparatively small event sponsored by the Newburyport Spinners. Every year vendors and fiber enthusiasts spread out over the farm’s grounds with their wares and their chairs; it’s a BYOC (Bring your Own Chair) event! People fan out in groups under the trees with their projects, enjoying the scenery and the company while waiting for the Ipswich Ale truck to roll in. I love being exposed to so many knitting and spinning products, wandering around the farm, peeking in on the people who brought their spinning wheels and seeing what’s on the bobbins. Oh yeah, and the farm animals–I love visiting the farm animals. I started going in 2009, and so far the weather cooperated with us–each year the day of the festival has been sunny and beautiful.

I got an early start because I desperately wanted to ~~stalk~~ shop at two tents in particular: Stitched By Jessalu and The Woolen Rabbit. I love Jessalu’s fun and funky project bags, and I was on the hunt for one in particular. As for the Woolen Rabbit, I’ve purchased spinning fiber from her, but I’ve never bought any of her hand-dyed yarn. I wanted to buy some of her yarn and one of the cute hat patterns featured on her blog, to cast on later that night.

My project-bag problem has been well documented on this blog, and I’m afraid it’s not disappearing any time soon. I discovered Jessalu’s bags a couple of years ago at Spunky Eclectic’s tent, and I’ve noticed them popping up around me ever since. In particular I noticed a couple of people at the North Shore Yarn Crawl last March carrying around small box bags with the Tardis from Doctor Who on it, and man, did I ever want one. They never seemed to be in stock whenever I went on to her website, so on Saturday I planned on arriving at the festival when it opened at 9:00 AM. in hopes of scoring a Tardis bag. My early start paid off.

Traffic was light (well, it’s pretty light anyway once you hit the country) and I got there a little earlier than expected. People were already inside the gate when I arrived at 8:55 AM. The vendors had set up so I walked over to Jessalu’s stall. Success! There was one bag with the Tardis fabric that I wanted. The little Dalek notions bag was a delightful find and the perfect compliment. There were a lot of bags with cartoon renditions of popular sci-fi characters such as Doctor Who and Star Trek, (OS and NextGen). There may have been some superheroes or Avengers fabric, and believe it or not, BBC’s Sherlock has its own fabric pattern. You gotta love a woman who has a healthy respect for all the fandoms. I was happy that I found what I wanted, but were two bags enough for me? No. Because then I saw this:

I’m a sucker for kawaii sushi. I don’t know why. I hate seafood, cooked or raw. But there’s something about cute food with little happy faces on it that melts my heart every time. I should take a photo of the interior fabric because it’s even more adorable–smiling shrimps! This bag is quite a bit bigger than the small box bag and can fit a mid-sized project like a hat or scarf or small shawlette, perhaps.

I was Jessalu’s first customer of the day. You won’t hear me admit this again, but I may have come off as a bit of a stalk-y weirdo.

On to The Woolen Rabbit. This is her Kashmir yarn in the colorway Clara Bow. Clara Bow was a 1920s movie star, for you youngsters out there. 🙂 I bought one hank of this and the pattern for Amy Herzog’s Fellowes Cloche, an adorable ’20s style hat. This is the color shown in the patterns photos, and I think the deep red is deliciously perfect for a hat that’s both ladylike and a little jaunty at the same time. The other colors of Kashmir were beautiful, but I couldn’t picture the hat in grey or dark green, so red it shall be. Who doesn’t want to be a lady in red sometimes? I also bought two braids of merino and tussah silk spinning fiber. I adore a wool and silk blend. I’m the type of spinner who buys fiber because it’s pretty without knowing what to make with it or how much yardage I’ll end up with once it’s spun. I love the delicate variegated shades of pink, mauve and chocolate. I’m not even going to think about what this will be once it’s plied, I’ll let the yarn tell me when it’s ready.

I took a workshop on Russian spindle spinning from Linda Scharf of Stone Leaf Moon. It was a wonderful and eye-opening introduction to the world of supported spindles. More of that in Part Two. For now, please enjoy some more photos.