Friday, October 27, 2017

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!

Monday, October 16, 2017

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!


Friday, October 13, 2017

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!