Kokoleka

This post for Kokoleka will be covering the edging and how I got to the design choices I did.

The top needle is a US 00 needle. The nupps are too far apart and the stitches are too open. When I swatched using larger needles and yarn to make the work go faster I really like the way it turned out.

As you can see by the picture with the brown and white, working with the smaller needles and thread I was not getting the same results. Also I'm not really sure what I was thinking because working nupps in darker colors you lose the nupps. When I was working the nupps they were  also time consuming because of the smaller thread and needles. I do like the way they look as singles and will probably put them into the design somewhere else but knew that clustering them as I did in the pink swatch, was not going to work. So back to the drawing board we went.

The new edghing design is completely open and lacy. It goes quick and I really like it. Believe it or not, it takes more thread and than the nupps did. I was able to rip out the work that I had done and didn't like, because it is 100% silk it's slick and it is easy to rip, and when I reknit it, I didn't get as far as I had when I was working the original design.

As I am working on Christmas presents and getting ready for the holidays with children being home, baking, cooking and decorating I have not had any time to work on Kokoleka. Because of that this will be the last update on Kokoleka until February, when I hope to have more work done on it and something to show.

Merry Christmas and Happy New year!

It's Killin' Time

For each square a minimum of two ends have to be put in and then each one must be "killed" individually.  I can't stack them wet the way Franklin did for his because mine are made out of acrylic they have to be killed.
The process of killing requires a blocking surface, pins and steam, either from a hot steam iron or from a garment steamer.  I prefer the latter as it is easier on the hands to hold for an extended period of time.
First of all pin out the object to be killed.  Dry.  Do NOT soak it or mist it, this process is for synthetic fibers and synthetic blends.  Lightly stretch the piece to the desired size, unless it is lace then go for it.  The squares for Epiphany will be gently blocked to 6" x 6".
I pinned each corner and then the middle of each side. Now steam the piece by holding the steamer just above the surface.  Don't touch the piece as you are melting the fibers and touching the piece will squish it into a mess.  Because the steam melts the fibers don't hover too much in one area, the fibers can completely melt and break apart; ask me how I know.  Let the piece cool completely, about 30 minutes and then unpin.  You are now ready to start whipping.  Franklin showed it the best I've ever seen.
This link also shows his inventive blocking method.
Whip it good!

Kokoleka

Welcome to Kokoleka second edition. I will talk about gauge, yarn and needle choice and share about how many stitches there will be in the finished piece.

The yarn is 100% silk, a 2/120. 600 yards to 10 grams. I bought 150 grams of the brown which is 9000 yards and 10 grams of white.

For the gauge swatch I used a Chiaogoo mini interchangeable in US size 00. Blocked and relaxed it averaged 19 stitches and 20 rows per inch.

I had to know how many stitches were in the swatch so after some quick math I learned that there were about 2000. I weight the swatch to then see how many stitches I had enough yarn to make. It didn't weight enough to register so I got creative.

The tea weighed 1 gram. I divided the tea into two fairly equally parts, added the swatch and ta da 1 gram. So I don't knoe the exact weight of the swatch but it is about 0.5 grams. Therefore 1 gram maked about 4000 stitches, so total I have enough yarn to knit about 6,000,000 stitches, plenty of yarn I'm sure.

I now have enough info to start planning my design. I know I want it to be Orenburg construction and all in garter stitch. More on that next time!

Keep stitching and Happy Hallloween!

WELCOME FALL!!!

The title is in all caps because Fall is my favorite season. Crunchy leaves, beautiful colors, scarecrows and pumpkin everything. If it could always be Fall...
Since moving to 6500 feet altitude and having only evergreen trees I really miss Fall. I have painted the inside of my house in Fall colors and decorate with Fall things year 'round.
Summer was busy. I'll give you an idea in this post and should be posting regularly again now that we are getting back into routine.
I'll go in chronological order.

Shearing was the end of June. Carl and Uriah loaded the sheep into the back of my Trail Blazer and drove them twenty five miles to Strasburg to be shorn. They were they only sheep there, it was mostly alpacas. It all went well.  Carl brought home their fleeces of course and a white llama blanket. I taught Nijah how to wash fleece both the sheep wool and the llama. Lana's fleece still has one more batch then washing will be finished.

Aurora was not finished in tine for fair, more on that later. Nijah did finished her crocheted cloak though and took first place.

I was the fastest knitter in the adult division and Nijah took third in children's crochet. 

The biggest surprise from fair is iur new ram. He is a Leicester long wool, a rare breed and one of only a handful in Colorado. He wasn't breeding quality due to scurs, but the sheperdess knows I'm a fiber artist and asked if I wanted him. Of couse! Here is Whitney.

The last surprise from fair is my new to me weanign loom. A couple saw me doing my spinning demo and asked if I weave as well. I told them that I have been for almost a year now. They asked if I would like another weaving loom. Yes please. They said all iHad to do was come get it and it's mine. So I did the next weekend. I'll share pictures after I know how to set it up at least. Right now it is just a folded pile of wood.

The Saturday after fair my bff Robbie came to hang out with us for a while. He went hiking that nught and fell in the 20 foot deep ravine and fractured his ankle. Since at home his roomis in the basement, the bathroom is on the main floor and the shower on the second floor he has been with us. He did have to have surgery. Recovery is going well and PT starts soon. He and I have been enjoying our time cooking, playing games and doing Bible study.

I finished Robbie's second pair of socks. These are my first two color socks. The matching pair will be opposite and be mine. 

Sadly Aurora wasn't ready for fair as mentioned above. I made a mathematical mistake and ended up having to work another hundred rows. It is finished now and blocking as I type. I had enough yarn and am pleased with the design. Three miles of yarn! I still need to choose a closure and work it but so close. She is entered in the Colorado make it with wool contest in November. 

Poor alpaca shawl. I love the color and fiber of the yarn but the design just isnt coming so it has all been put away until i can make some decisions. I am working a lot of smaller projects instead. I pulled out the first sweater and dye job I did and am wearing that with everything. When Robbie saw it he said "whatever you make for me next has to be that color." Princess

I sent in 4 class proposals and four demo proposals for the Este Park Wool Market for 2018.

I will know by the end of the which of my classes will be offered and not until April which demos. 

I was invited to a sheep to shawl team and with showing Whitney's fleece, the fashion and shopping it's going to be a full week! A while away yet but still next to look forward to. 

I have been working on my Knitting Masters Level one here and there and have almost finished iy. I'm still working in the report and have the mitten to make but plan on sending it in by the end of October. The report has gone better than I thought so far, can't wait to see what they say on the committee. After the committee is finished with my report I will share it here with you guys. It is about blocking and the care of hand knits. 

I have joined Spinzilla again this year. I am on team Spun Off for the third year in a row and brought a friend this year. She lives across the road and we are planning fun and crazy pictures. I haven't yet chosen fiber but here is a picture of my options. The two boxes are a gray longwool from Aniroonz that I'm going to try combing. We'll see. My goal was to spin Chloe's lamb fleece to make me a Surprise Jacket but that didn't happen... 

Robbie wants gloves and fingerless mitts in that purple yarn. They will both be color work. The mitts will have black skulls and the gloves will have black crosses. I'm looking forward to these projects.

Currently i am working on a baby bassinet for Kira, Robbie's neice, for her birthday. I'm also working on the Front Range shawl that is from the Longmont Yarn shop designed by Donnie and a cowl from June Cashmere in gray. 

I have been able to return to acrylic just a little at a time amd hoping to finish the big quolt like afghan by Christmas for Robbie's parents. 

I of course will be starting another large project. I am documenting this in more detail than I have ever documented a design before. One of the demos I suggested for Estes was the journey of a design from start to finish. This shawl won't be finished by then but I can still show the stages. This project is a shawl that is made of 100% silk. There are 600 yards to 10g. I have 15 balls of it in chocolate brown and one ball in white. The finished piece will be 72" x 72". I am using Orenburg construction as it is my favorite and will be gentle on the fine yarn. Each tooth will be only about an inch tall. I'm really excited to get knitting, this project has been in the design phase for a year and a half already. I worked on it very little because Aurora was my main focus. I want to cast on for my birthday which is October 18th. I have some design elements to finish before I van do so but the needle has been chosen, US size 00, and the first ball of yarn has been wound. 

Here is a picture of the swatch and me using a tea bag trying to figure out how much the swatch weighs. I counted the number of stitches in the swatch and weighed it to make sure I would have enough yarn for the size piece I want to make. I have done this in the past with great success and am hoping this round is too. The piece will have nearly a million stitches in it. I will post updates on this project each Friday. 

My friend that is on the Spinzilla Spin Off team with me has an Etsy shop. She has had it for just over a year. She makes stitch markers, closed and open, Portuguese knitting pins, progress keepers and has started sewing project amd notions bags. I love the stitch markers most. She has made them with lace knitters in mind even. Her newest ones are closed stitch markers made using what looks like a very tiny winch cable. They take up very little space between my stitches and are my absolute favorite. My next favorite are the bulb pins. They can open and haveany uses for knitters and crocheters alike. I used around 40 or 50 of them at one time in Aurora. I had never used a progress keeper before but she had one that matched some of the markers so I gave it a shot, not sure how I knitted without one before. Now I have multiple of those and like fancy stitch markers, at least hers. Many of them don't catch on my fine yarn and that's hard to come by. 

Until later blessings and keep stitching!

Introducing Kokoleka

This is post number one for a shawl that has been in design since May 2016! It all started with this.

I then asked RedFish dye works to dye some of their 2/120 100% silk thread in a close color. They did a great job considering it was all through email. The sheen of the silk really shows next to the matte of the cotton. 

Next came the name, Kokoleka, chocolate in Hawaiian.

This shawl is all about chocolate, the color, the name and the motifs used in it. In doing some research on how the beans grow and what the plant looks like I learned that white chocolate beans do exist. Cocoa beans grow in pods on trees. The color of the bean cannot yet be determined before theb pod is opened.

I will post the progress of this design the 2nd and 4th Fridays of each month. I will detail the sucesses and failures during the project. I will warn you now it's looking to be a long project. You'll have to wait for the next post to find out why, but here is a sneak peak photo...

Is that tea and a scale?

Happy stitching!

Welcome to Summer!

It was hot this past Saturday, almost 100 degrees, as my husband and I commemorated our vows at the farm.  Today driving into town I drove through the thickest fog I've ever seen, only in Colorado.

We have had some crazy rain making mud and with my four wheel drive not working I was stuck at home more than once. My husband didn't make it home for 2 nights in a row in his all wheel drive. Below is a picture of Chloe, she is a Shetland Rambouillet cross. She is sopping wet standing in the mud in the sheep pen.

I have been knitting during this. I did do another swatch for my knitting masters in the acrylic with no reaction, and am carrying an acrylic project bag without reaction, just not ready to go back yet...

These are for a class I have submitted to a fiber festival. I will reveal more the end of July.

I haven't done much on Paca Shawl 2, but here is a picture of my progress and the current working chart. I'm focused on fair, more on that in a minute.

I am knitting Robbie a new pair of socks, as he loves the last pair. He did ask for a change though and I'm not sure exactly what that is going to mean. He wants them tighter in the leg but everything else the same. Here is my progress so far. These are also my first set of two tone socks.

So fair. I am hoping to enter Aurora into the Arapahoe County fair the end of July. This is my progress since last time.

The gray roae marks where the increasing stopped and I started working even. I have since done one row of major increase and am approaching another. I still love the design very much.

In the next post I will have details on fair and shearing pictures.

Until then...
Fiber on.

Bits and Bobs

Happy May Everyone!
Today here in my part of Colorado the weather is great. The sun is shinning and the birds are singing, it's a great day to be outside and so right now I am. Gotta love technology.
In this post I am sharing the progress of the Paca Shawl, a new project and a sock knitting tip.

I received the yarn for the Paca Shawl last Monday. I am very pleased with the color. It is not as dark as the burnt oranges I've worked with in the past and I welcome this change.

Just this morning I decided not to put the owls in this shawl. Even though it has a fall idea in the background I think it is time to move on from the owls. I've used them twice already in soon to be released design patterns. Below is a picture of what I'm thinking for the border. That's as far as I have gotten.

This pattern is from a book of Estonian lace patterns. The needle is a US size 4. I'm hoping to cast on this afternoon. The center will not have nupps in it, I know that much already.

Now for the reason of placong the Knit Picks order to begin with. I wanted the book "Knitting without Tears" by Elizabeth Zimmerman so that I could follow the instructions on gauge to make an adult surprise jacket. The book was on sale and so I thought I'd glace at alpaca lace yarn colors and the orange was on sale. Anyway the surprise jacket will be for me. I first have to spin the yarn. I will be spinning the lamb fleece from my sheep Chloe.

Here is the fleece washed but needing sorted.

Here is a close up of some of thr darker parts. I love the crimp. 

Chloe is a Shetland Rambouillet X.

Here I have sorted the fleece into three different shades.

I will spin the yarn on one of my traditional spinning wheels. I looking for a 3 ply dk. Havent decided how I'm going to use the different colors yet. Begote I can do that I have to finish processing the wool. It needs to be picked and carded. There is still vm and I want asuch of that gone as possible.

While working on my Blueberry Waffle sock yesterday I tried something and it worked. Someone else may have done this before me but I've never seen it. When starting the decreases for the instep I placed a stitch marker 2 stitches less than my number of needed stitches. For example on my needle one,  which is half the bottom of the sock and the left instep, because I'm a lefty knitter, I knit 16 sts, pm, k to the last 3, ssk, k 1. After I have completed all my decrease rnds there will be just 2 sts remaining to the right of the sm. I now have the 18 sts I need. On needle 4 I worked k 1, k2tog, k until 16 sts remain, pm, k 16. I was very glad it worked. No more counting! below is a picture of my sock with the markers in place. 

The Storm Trooper is on needle 4 and Darth is on needle 1.

That is all I havr for right now. Hope it was enjoyable and helpful. 

Keep stitching no matter the weather!

My Fibery Weekend

This weekend I seamed up the hood on my cloak, tried it on, took measurements and made notes on how much farther I have to go. I am very happy. As you can see I'm about half way or so. Remember this is not blocked yet.

I also put out the dye samples for a design that's been rolling around in my head for about a year. Unfortunately the sun didn't shine enough yesterday so nothing to show there. I do have a video of me using my huge skein winder for the first time though and it's for this same project.

Note the Yarn It on the floor holding the ball. There will be much more to come in the future of this project. Below is the yarn in a ball before and the long hank after.

Then I also repaired a gtay shawl that I knit 5 years ago. It is from Knit Picks lace alpaca yarn called Alpaca Cloud. It is the inspiration for a project I will detail here from start to finisb. I will design and knit it but not spin or dye it. We will call it Alpaca 2.

ALPACA 2 PART I
I have a gray alpaca lace shawl that I knit 5 years ago. I use it almost daily except in the dead of summer. I wear it when I leave and use it as a blanket at home. After having to repair it twice this week I decided it was time to start planning a new one. I knew it woukd be alpaca yarn again, it had held up so well and was a dream to knit. This morning I was looking for the book "Knitting without Tears" by EZ and Knit Picks has it on sale. Well, do they have alpaca in a color I want? They had alpaca on clearance! Rose and orange. Well I have a rose shawl, but not an orange one. Yes orange. I love fall orange, which the description said it was and can even wear it well. I ordered enough to make a 6 foot by 6 foot shawl again. Immediately the ideas started rolling. This shawl will be tradional Estonian construction and have nupps somewhere. The border will be owls in branches, so I'll need to choose beads and the center will probably be something with leaves. Edging, no clue, yet. When the yarn arrives I'll post a pic and any chart or sketch ideas that have hatched.

Here is a link to the gray shawl. Gray alpaca

Until then...
Happy fibering!

Hello Out There...

Hello Fibreland!

I have been working to get the squares ready for killing so that i could post that, however i hit a substantial snag this week. I've been working so much with the acrylic yarn that i had an allergic reaction!
Yesterday I packed up all the acrylic and put it away. I will very slowly return to it over the next month or so. In the meantime I will be working a lot on Aurora. I have decided to enter it it into the Adams county fair, which is the end of July. Below is a progress picture. I just worked my last increase row, noted by the gray rose, yesterday.

I am about to start my 3rd ball of yarn. Tonight I will stitch the hood closed and do some measuring and see how far I have to go. The finished pattern will be seamless. When I started this was going to be a large shawl, not a full length hooded cloak. Because of that I cast on for a shawl and only had three balls of yarn. Last week I dyed three more balls of yarn and am quite pleased with the results. The dye jobs are 18 months apart.

I may have a lot of extra yarn now, we'll see.

Happy stitching everyone!

Shaping up

As I continue on making squares, so far still holding my attention, I think it's because I'm sharing it here. I have made just over half the squares now.
Working on squares while waiting on my buddy at PT.

I had to get a yarn bowl as I was dealing with balls of worsted weight yarn that wouldn't fit in theyarnit.

My circled area on the original chart came out just fine in the blocks.

Here is a picture of each different square and you can also see all the different colors I'm using.

I will not be posting about this project again until all the squares are completed and it's time to kill.

Keep the river moving until then

So MANY squares!

I went from 81 squares in the original design to now 169 in the chart below.

I have decided not to give this as the wedding gift it started as. First of all it'll never be done in time. Second, I'm not sure it'll get the appreciation from this young couple and finially I think I know a recipient who will appreciate it, the person who's coaster was the inspiration, my buddy's mom.
All of Franklin's squares were two color, the same two colors.  I have solid squares, two color half squares and two color three quarter squares and am using 8 colors.  I have a total of 12 different kind of squares.  Why must I make things harder?


I am working on this every chance I get. In the car as a passenger...

as a driver waiting on others...

At home watching TV...

At church before class starts...

Here this little ball of yarn, mathematically should be enough to make another square, and guess what it was!  With only a 6" tail remaining, isn't God good?

More later, got to make more squares. : )
Happy stitching!

Star Wars and Epiphany update

My friend Robbie loves Star Wars, that would be putting it mildly. He isn't obsessed though. My husband found the kit Star Wars crochet and bought that for me the end of October. Below is a picture of all the characters I completed in 2016.

I am very much looking forward to when the new book comes out in March.

Epiphany is going well. Here are the final colors. The shaded brown on the left is going to be the border.

This chart is my squares. The circled one I have to play with and see if it's going to line up correctly.

Here is a picture of two completed squares, thankfully they are the same size!

I have decided to make the 81 squares and that will give me 54" square. I can't decided how to make up the 18" or so I'm missing to get to 72". Maybe adding another color and making garter strips. We'll see.
More soon.
Keep using that super power of turning fiber into art!