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!

An Epiphany

My epiphany moment...
I follow Franklin Habit's blog, Fridays with Franklin on the Makers Merchantile. Recently he did a series called stealth blanket. https://www.makersmercantile.com/blog/fridays-with-franklin-2016-6-16.html
I knew I wanted to do it to do filed the idea in the back of my mind.
A couple of weeks ago I was at a friend's house and took this picture, my friend's mom is a quilter.

I filed that in the "ideas" file on the computer.
Then last week while working on a knitting masters swatch at the kitchen table it hit and I squealed, which I rarely do.
Use Franklin's square pattern to make the quilt on the coaster!
I made a note in my phone and added details of other choices still to be made, size, colors and for whom.
Most of that came in one shot while cooking yak stew with my son on Friday night. Our neighbor is getting married oh February and we need a gift. Tah dah! They are decorating the house in earth tones and a bit of blue.
The size I haven't settled on yet but thinking 72" x 72". That way they both can cover up on the couch together.
I went down to the stash to see what I had and came back up with this.

I know it's not enough to make a blanket of that size but I can at least get started and have a plan on place when I go to town.

The knitting masters I mentioned wille be another post.
Happy stitching everyone!

Hmmm. Where have I been?

Wow, okay so I know time goes quickly and I slacked on entries here, but WOW, almost a year.  I didn't realize it had been that long.  The family members decided not to move.  My wheel is completed and I spun on it all Summer.
I have been doing some blog reading, something I hadn't done before and I learned that I was making blogging too complicated and that is part of the reason it became neglected.  I'm not going to commit to a time frame, a particular topic or photos in every blog.  I do want to share the knowledge I am gaining about fiber arts with others.  I commit to that.  That way I can post from my phone in the middle of nowhere, at the bus stop.  Not having to carve out time to go to the library and make a post, complete with pictures and in depth subject matter.
Here is a picture of my finished wheel though.

I also learned to weave in October.  Carl bought me a ridged heddle loom.  A 15" Cricket.  I did the scarf project that came in the box and I enjoyed the process.  I finished the scarf when I returned from KS and started a new one the next week.  It will be a hound's tooth pattern for my Mom for Christmas.  I should have it finished in time.

I made many Christmas presents this year.  A tiny blanket with a dog's head and a hat for the foster child of my BIL.  A blanket each for my neice and nephew.  Socks and crocheted storm troopers for my buddy Robbie and a blanket for his birthday.  I crocheted a trivet and dish rag for a white elephant too.

The blanket projects and my weaving projects can both be seen on Ravlery, I have kept up with that.  The Star Wars guys aren't there because they only take a couple of hours each.

Happy stitching until next time!