Intrepid Fiber Wizard

what's on the needles?

The weather turned to summer last weekend - over 90 degrees - and I headed out to visit some friends who live on a lake nearby.

It was the perfect little retreat for a few hours before work. (thanks M & J) 

M & J are wonderful people to visit; great company, great food, great beer and the view??? well, just look for yourself.

 

I knit a bit, sipped on a cold one, and generally relaxed the hours away. Nice view eh?

So what's on the needles these days?

Go with the Flow Socks are a little more than half done. 

I am still loving this pattern, and the yarn from Fleece Artist is fabulous.

Fitted Knits Tube Top is about 85% done, only 3 more inches of ribbing (on those teensy size 3 needles)
My daughter's comment about this style of top is that is will 'accentuate your assets' (heh heh - truthfully, she was a little more direct about what she said, but after all, this is a "G" rated blog.. heh heh) We'll see if I ever post any shots of this one being modeled (huge grin - I think not)

and I cast on for Twinings - a lovely pattern by my friend Anne. I'm knitting it out of some hand dyed hand spun of mine that I dug out of the stash. It's a lace weight yarn - there's around 950 yards in that ball. (yup.. this project is going to take me awhile)

So what's on your needles?

M is for...

Mundane.

"..bound to earth; worldly. typical of or concerned with the ordinary." (American Heritage Dictionary)

A dear friend I knew over ten years ago taught me to love the mundane... the ordinary. And I send her a small thank you once again this morning.

Typically, one of my greatest spring and summer loves is weeding. Yes, truly.
In the back yard of the little cottage I rent is a small patio. The weeds pop up between the stones, seemingly overnight. During the cool morning hours, after I have given my garden a drink of water, you can usually find me sitting on these stones, gently easing the weeds out of the space between.

This small repetitive act is comforting to me, in a world where so very much is out of control, and I feel it connecting me to my Grandmother and Great Uncle who also loved their gardens.
I wonder when our colloquial speech patterns ever linked the word mundane to 'boring' (which is defined as: So lacking in interest as to cause mental weariness). This small act of beauty is so far from boring - it is peaceful, quiet, and soul soothing.

Big Wheel Keep on Turnin'

Guess what I've been doing? mmmmmmm - Spinning !

And it's grand to be at it once again.
I still am not able to spin for very long (and it's been ten months since I injured my hand.) I can hold the fiber for about an hour tops, which is a considerable amount less than I used to in my hay day of spinning 4-6 hours at a time. Yet truthfully, I am grateful to be spinning at all :-)
This wonderful fiber is from Great Balls of Fiber by Sarah Anderson. I picked it up at OFFF a couple of years ago, and hope to get some more this September. Her color penetration is fabulous.
It's a superwash merino named "My Funny Valentine". I have 6 ounces of it.
Sarah packages up her fiber in such a fun way - it looks like a bouquet of flowers.

Of course, no sooner do I sit down to spin, than my "helpers" arrive to sit in the middle of my lap, keeping me company. Sometimes I wonder what they think I am doing with this big wheel moving so fast (grin)

Not enough of a fiber fix? Check this one out: I just finished spinning this one, and it is from my friend Jessie Raymond at A Piece of Vermont.
It's another superwash merino colorway Nightfall I. Jessie is going on vacation this week - but check back with her soon, there will be lots more hand dyed fiber! Jessie is a one-woman wonder of creation - and she ships out her product so fast after your order that you'll be amazed :-) Over the years, I have be delighted with every single thing I have purchased from her.

I was so excited to be spinning again, that this blurry photo is the only one I remember to snap. (silly wizard)
Photos of finished yarn will be forthcoming in the near future (huge grins)
I decided to begin my re-entry into the spin world with a fiber that I know well (the superwash) because I was unsure of what my hands could/would do. Judith MacKenzie said that we all have a "default" yarn that we create, and our hands will automatically spin this when we just sit down and spin. how true. My default yarn is a fingering weight.. what's yours?

Jessie also custom hand dyed me a huge batch of yarn for a sweater I knit last year. (thank you Jessie! It was perfect). I ordered about twice as much as I needed (just in case, you know) and now you can have a chance at getting some yourself! Just drop by Claudia's blog, and make a donation to her fund Raiser for MS, which is appropriately titled Knitters Against Multiple Sclerosis, and you too might win! For every ten dollars you donate, you have a chance to win something from this huge prize basket.  The gorgeous collection of prizes is something to behold. Claudia is riding an incredible 75 miles this saturday - wow. I wish we could all be there on the sidelines cheering as she and Michelle ride by.

Swing Top Fini

Premiere Swing Top is off the needles - and today was a perfect day to wear it (many grins)
The temperature is finally up to where it should be for this area (about 80 degrees) and we are all reveling in it.

I grabbed my camera on the way out the door this morning, in the hopes that I could persuade someone who works in my building to snap a photo or two - success. (I love it when a plan comes together) One of my neighbors was walking out of the building as I was going in (and yes, she's a knitter too!) She was so excited about my newest completion that she could hardly stop checking out the design long enough to snap a photo (so sweet).

pattern: Classic Elite Premiere Swing Top

source: CEY Summer Book 1

yarn: SWTC Craft  color "martha"  organic cotton & milk fiber

5 1/2  skeins

needles: size 6 & 5 (US)

Despite my "issues" with this yarn, I am totally pleased with the finished product. The top fits exactly as shown in the pattern book - it was a charming knit; just enough pattern detail to be interesting, not so much to be impossible.

Wanna see closer up? of course you do. (another grin)
   

L is for...

Ludicrous.

" ...laughable or hilarious through obvious absurdity or incongruity."

At the beginning of every year, I set "intentions" for the New Year ahead - not "resolutions", but rather intention for what I choose. This year's intention was to laugh every single day.
It's the silly little things that make me laugh. The ridiculous, the absurd... and it would appear that the universe has conspired to assist me in this aim (grin)

** although I have no photo to prove it, the image it draws to mind is funny enough: a couple of weeks ago, on a sunday morning, I was driving down a nearby road in Lacey, WA, on my way to Lowe's to buy some poesies, and saw a man walking down the street wearing a full set of inflatable arms (as seen in the second Spiderman movie).. yes... he was dressed up as Dr. Octopus. Ah how I wish I'd had my camera for proof.

** leaving work last week, I walked by some homeless youth, sitting on the sidewalk in front of a coffee house.. and one of them said to me "Can you spare some change for a s*x change operation?" I mean really!

** Buzz lightyear now sits on my kitchen windowsill, reminding me of a time when my niece (then 18) and four of her football player friends were driving in my 1977 convertible VW bug. Buzzlightyear used to sit on the dash - they took a curve a bit fast (ahem) and Buzz went flying out of the car... my neice pulled over and all four of the football payers leaped out of the car screaming "Buzz... Buzz.. where did you go flying off to?" (a pretty hilarious image). And you could almost hear Buzz say "It's not flying, it's falling with style!"

** and last but not least, even Classic Elite free patterns newsletter sent off this photo of the back of a hand knit tie in their most recent email....
need I say more?

Have a good laugh this morning - it makes the day brighter.

Getting close

It's been another "crazy" week here in wizard-land. A long floor-set at the store, which involved four very long nights of working until 2 am, and then back to my office during the day - (snoooooze time now). I am so grateful that it is the weekend, and it is sunny! (and finally above 48 degrees!)

Yet somewhere in the midst of all those crazy hours, I stumbled across a few minutes to knit on the very gratifying "Premiere Swing Top" by Classic Elite.

   The pattern design is marvelous - and I enjoyed it immensely.  It specifies that it should be blocked before assembly, and this makes total sense to me (as it is easy to overstretch cotton yarn)

Speaking of cotton: I really liked the feel of the SWTC organic cotton-milk fiber yarn in my hands. It was soft, not harsh. It feels wonderful.
What I didn't enjoy was the zillion and one knots in every skein! (truthfully, there were "only" about 3 knots per skein) sigh. This is one of my biggest pet peeves... One knot in a skein is one too many (just sayin')

there is just no need for knots in any skein of yarn (well except that the producer  is 'cheap' and doesn't want to waste any lengths of yarn -  What it translates to is that the knitter ends up "wasting yards and yards - as I did. I had to tink back to one side of the project when I discovered a knot in the middle of a row. Cotton is very unforgiving when you try to weave in ends in the middle of a row - and invariably, you will end up with a telltale "bump" in your project where there should be none.
The sad thing about this discovery is that I 'know' the owners of SWTC, and they are fabulous people. It's a shame that these skeins do not represent who they are as people. Do I love and support their company? yes. very much so. Did I totally and completely complain loudly to myself about all the knots in these skeins - absolutely!

I will be weaving in all those loose ends and sewing together the pieces soon :-) and maybe it'll even get warm enough here to actually wear this little beauty -

Lacey Small Shell Cowl

I finished the small cowl in record time. Only two days!
This is such a fun gratifying little knit - and the perfect neck warmer, replacing the bulk of a huge scarf.

Yarn: Bunny Patch Merino- Angora Rabbit (80/20) approximately 200 yards, 2 ounces
Fine Fingering Weight yarn (18wpi approx)
Needle size 8, 16" circular

I am including the pattern I adapted for it - I used a stitch design from 365 Stitches, yet pretty much any lacey pattern would work.

Lacey Small Shell Cowl 

CO 98 stitches loosely place marker for beginning of row. Join in a round, being careful not to twist stitches (unless you want a mobious, of course!)

Knit two rows of K2, P5

Begin shell lace pattern as follows:
row 1: knit
row 2: knit
row 3: *K2, YO, P1, P3tog, P1, YO* repeat to end.
row 4: knit

Repeat shell lace pattern until you are almost out of yarn, then
Knit two rows K2, P5 and bind off loosely, and block.

The finished size of my cowl was 12" wide and 13" tall.

Cowls are a great use of that single skein of yarn that you fell in love with at a fiber show and just had to have (grins), or a unique hand spun yarn you have made.

The yarn I used for this cowl was made by my friend Cheryl, and she will soon have an Etsy shop up and running. In the meantime, she will be sharing a booth  with Duncan Drum Carders at Black Sheep Gathering (in two weeks). The yarn is hand dyed, and hand spun and sells for $28.00 per skein. If you cannot make it to BSG, then email me and I will let you know how to get in touch with her to buy some.

Thanks to Cheryl for giving me the chance to test knit her brand new line of yarns. It was delightfully soft, and feels luxurious to wear.

Here's a couple more photos (one, of course, being silly with it up over my nose, as all of us want to do with these things!)

Everybody's talkin' 'bout it

The word is popping up all over...
The patterns are emerging on Ravelry and blogland...
It's enticing in its all encompassing ability to be a one-size-fits-all-perfect-gift...

It's a stash buster... it's a new look.. it's easy...

it's a cowl !
And yes, I'm hooked!

I was recently asked by another friend if I would test knit a new yarn line for her - it's a combination of merino - anogra rabbit (think sooffffffffffttttt) Yes, it's super soft. It is hand dyed, hand spun. It's heavenly.
She sent me a skein of about 200 yards - and so I began testing out the cowl theory.
Here's a sneak peek at my progress today (yup.. just one day.. it is indeed fast.. that is 5 inches worth!)

I will eventually block it out so that it will be much more lacey looking than it appears right now, and I will be sharing the pattern in the future, so stay tuned.

In the meantime, you can see her (and buy some of this divine yarn) at Black Sheep Gathering. She'll be at the Duncan Drum Carder booth in the middle building. Her name is Cheryl, and you can tell her I said hi :-)

On the personal front, I have had a couple of lovely afternoons off over the last week (a delightful treat) and I have gone exploring around this great little town I live in (Olympia).

About ten minutes from my home, there is a pier called Boston Harbor. On that sweet little pier, I found out that I can rent a sailboat! (I am in heaven!) Take a look see as to the bay that I will have a chance to sail in (very soon I hope).  (click to make bigger) You can see the Olympic Mountains in the background.. sigh..

A 25 foot catalina. Sweet.

There is just nothing quite like the soft jingle of sailboat rigging in the air. I am so delighted about this.
I had spoken to a dear old friend last February about wanting to find a place to sail - and here it is, so very close. .... so come on out - don't let the "liquid sunshine" of Washington scare you off (it never stops any of us.. nothing ever has a "rain date" scheduled)

Typical Pac NW residents go out rain or shine... and I'm going to be sailing. photos will be coming
as soon as I can wrangle a full day off.

And finally, just because they make my heart sing, here are some more photos from my garden.. these are for Jane ('cause she loves them too!)... a few of my Columbine.
It's almost summer!  

K is for...

Kitsch.   

Kitsch (according to the web is)
"Art in pretentious bad taste."

This little doorstop always makes me giggle when I walk by it, and I want to break out in the Munchkin's song "Ding dong the witch is dead".

Premiere Swing Top

I have been avidly knitting along on the Premiere Swing Top from Classic Elite Yarns, and am almost finished with the back.  Only a couple more inches ! (see earlier post for info on the pattern and yarn)

I am so completely enjoying this pattern that it is difficult to put down.

Last night I found a teensy error in the pattern for size medium, and emailed the company about it right before going to sleep that night... much to my wonder and amazement, I had an answer awaiting me when I logged on this morning - talk about fabulous customer service! I am truly impressed.
The Technical Editor herself for Classic Elites yarns sent me a personal email, explaining in great detail an answer to my quandry, and then let me know that they would be posting an errata to clarify things better.
what grand people :-) With this kind of fabulous customer service, I will gladly knit more Classic Elite patterns.

For those of you who might be knitting along with me, the question I had was at the point of beginning the decreases in the lace panel section. As a result of fiddling around with it awhile, the conclusion I arrived at was that for size medium, there is only one row of decreases in the lace panel section AND you begin the stockinette stitch in the left and right lace panels on that same row. (once you read the pattern, you'll know what I mean. If this is clear as mud, please feel free to email me with questions) The technical editor clarified things fro me, and indeed I had done it correctly.

The top is sailing right along now !

P>S> many other typepad users have complained about dilemmas with links etc..... but mine seems to be working fine tonight. (go figure) Although I have not 'updated' to any new versions yet... (and perhaps will not, given all the comments out in blogland)