A Taste of Normal

I have had a small taste of normal this week.  My youngest went back to school yesterday, his first day of middle school and the others go back the middle of next week.  I am very excited to get back to some routine and schedule.

This week I did a quick photo shoot for the Hippie Go Lucky Shawl that I finished test knitted.

Here is a picture of blocking.  Without fringe the finished size is 36" x 36".

Here are all the fringe that I cut using that hair pin lace frame I shared last week.

Here is the finished shawl spread out on some rock steps at an out door mall in Aurora, Colorado.

I also took one with it draped over a fire hydrant to show the size better.

I wore it in this style this morning and like it very much.

This week I started another test knit for DanaRaeKnits.  It is the knit scrappy pillow.  It will be finished with the mattress stitch, which I still have to learn.  Here is the very beginning of that pillow.  It is a square worked from the center out.  I used a multi-color yarn that you see in the picture from Oink Pigments.  Sorry I have no idea on the color name or the base.  All I can tell you is the it is a fingering weight yarn.  What you don't see in the picture is the second color I am using.  It is Forest Heater from Knit Picks on their Stroll base.

I made it to a new yarn shop this past weekend!  It is called Knot Just Yarn and is in Denver, Colorado.  This shop is so new that their website isn't even up yet, but the doors are open! They have yarn in many weights, no lace, yet and spinning fiber.  They have these available from indie dyers as well as commercial companies.  I'm really excited to get involved there and meet some people who are a bit more local than Longmont.  I love you Longmont Yarn Shoppe!

At the new shop I bought a kit from Koigu to make the Colourscape cowl.  I have decided that it will be my beginning of school celebration knit.  I will start it next Wednesday at the Stanley Market Place in Aurora, Colorado.

Here are my tiny hanks of yarn.

I have been making progress on the sample that I am knitting for the Longmont Yarn Shoppe, but still no photo, sorry.  I do have a picture of the yarn its details.  It is Lunar Lace from Shibui in the Fjord colorway.

Here is a photo of the progress I am making on my Sparkling Leaves Sweater test knit for Jill Karina.  I am hoping to finish the color work this week and get into the body of the sweater.

Today I added a team to Spin Together for the competition that is in October.  It is the Woolly Weirdos.  I am hoping to meet some more spinners on the Eastern Plains of Colorado by doing this.  I am really excited for this year's competition to be on a team that will hopefully have more local team members.  Registration opens September 1st!  This link goes to our Ravelry thread in the Spin together group.  This is to the Woolly Weirdos blog, which I have slacked on but will try to up with monthly now.

Here is a picture of a fellow Weirdo and I spinning in the studio where Woolly Weirdo meetings are held.

Also this past weekend, I did some 1930s reenacting at the DeLaney farm in Aurora, Colorado.  Here I am on the front porch of the Gully house there.  It is the oldest still standing house in Aurora, Colorado.  It was built in 1866.

Until next time keep on making!

Finished!

A very busy week with many days in town and even spending the night at my sister's house just to save a bit of time.  That was a good choice though as the cousins got to spend some time together.

I blocked the Hippy Go Lucky Shawl yesterday and will start putting on the 792 bits of fringe tonight.  It turned out to be 36" x 36" before the fringe.  The link goes to the pattern page on Ravelry if you want to purchase the pattern as it is now available and is on sale until the end of the week!

To cut all those fringe I used a hair pin lace frame.  I started out with the cross bars further apart but the yarn was pulled too tightly on the up rights and was going to make the fringe be different lengths.  I moved the cross bars closer together and it worked perfectly.  This went quickly.  After winding on for a while I cut up the middle of only one layer.

I also picked up a test crochet from DanaRaeknits. It is called Scrappy Granny Pillow.  I'll let you know when she releases the pattern.  I used leftover sock yarns to make this pillow.  It is made using one large granny square turned on the diagonal to cover the pillow.  It was quick and fun too.  There is also a knitted version coming soon.

I haven't made very much progress on the sample knit for the Longmont Yarn Shoppe, as I was knitting only on the Hippy Go Lucky Shawl.  I finished one repeat finally yesterday.  I didn't do any more spinning but will be at the DeLaney Farm in Aurora, Colorado this Saturday and will be doing more sock spinning.

I will have pictures of the finished shawl, the progress on the sample knit, sweater knitting and sock spinning.

Happy making!

Purpose

I have been questioning who I am as an artist and why am I doing this, for much of this year. In the last couple of months I have had the opportunity to teach and demo at different places, read a couple of books and listen to some podcasts that have helped me to see the importance of being a fiber artist and why to continue. I have also learned who I am and who I am not.

I am not an indie dyer. I am not an indie designer. I took a class a couple of years ago at Interweave Yarn Fest in Loveland, Colorado. It was about how to be a designer and submitting designs to magazines and how to get published. It was only a three hour class but I learned that was NOT the life style for me, and that's exactly what it is, a life style. Swatch after swatch and multiple submissions to multiple magazines a month. This all makes sense but it's not what I want to do. As far as indie designing goes it will also not be something that I make a living on any time soon. I hate tech editing so much I have it scheduled into my daily routine so that it gets done. I will complete patterns as I tech edit and will publish them on Ravelry and Love Knitting when I do. It may be one a month, or more or less, and I'm okay with that.

I love dying. Kool-Aid dying is my favorite and I am making a lot of progress in my methods. I can't however come up with a new colorway each month, let alone enough colors to then retire some. I also don't have the capital to have the stock on hand to fill even an Etsy shop or something like that.

So here is what I have decided I am. I am a fiber artist who enjoys teaching more than the other things individually. What does this mean? It means that when a color combination for dying or a design idea comes that I will work on it until the end. Either finished items or until the Mojo is gone and the project is dead. That happens on occasion. I will not publish everything that I knit or crochet. Some will be one offs, either in the dye job or the design or both. I will dye yarn for people when they request it. This means I am not a slave to any one thing. I am very excited about this. It is going to change the way I document my projects, more pictures, more IG posts and the way this blog is written. It will have more teaching content on whatever it is I am currently working on. They say those who can't do teach. Well I teach because I can "do".

My commitment in all of this is to you guys. I commit to post more regularly. I will detail something new I learned or something that might be new to you, in each post with pictures and the reasoning behind my method. I plan on treating fiber arts like a job as far as having a routine and time commitment to it. I have had a routine in it for almost a year and that was a good decision. I have learned more and completed more in the last year than I have in the last 2 or 3 years put together. That's even with being sick for a few months and having surgery. The commitment changes in how easily I give up my time for fiber arts for another activity. Driving is usually the time suck because we live so far from town. If I'm a passenger then I can knit, crochet or spin while someone else drives and that's fine. If however I'm meeting someone in town for lunch... The entire day is spent and now I haven't worked on my blog or that new spinning technique I was trying to learn or something... This sounds very strict and forced, I know. However if I am to fulfill what I have decided is my purpose as a fiber artist this is what I need to do at this moment.

My purpose in doing fiber arts is to connect with people. People here, or in other places in the world. I can connect with them using fiber arts as an open door to talk, either because they are a fiber artist or any kind of artist for that matter or because they need a finished product from me, be it yarn, pattern or a hat. I also am a fiber artist so that the skills of so many past generations here in the States and current generations in countries abroad continue on and don't die. I do fiber arts so I can teach others to do fiber arts and keep these skills alive.

This week I am working on a test knit for Annie Lupton of Bohochic fiber arts. It is the Hippy Dippy Shawl. I am working it in Knit Pick Shadow lace yarn in the Snorkel colorway using US size 1 needles. Right now I am pushing through to get it finished. I am in the area of the design that is long long rounds of knit. What is nice about this though is that I can do this while doing almost anything else. I have done it as a passenger, sitting in church, at Bible study, after dinner conversation and while watching a movie with the family.

This week I am recovering from the Arapahoe County Fair. I entered 2 knitted items for judging. I stayed for judging as well. You can always learn something by staying for this part. What you learn will probably not apply to every fair and may not even work next year, because each judge is different. There are criteria in place so that much of the judging is as objective as possible but judges are still people with preferences and opinions. This year the judge was really focused on finishing. Taking the time to put the ends in properly, to block that piece and make it look at nice as possible. If it was a piece that had been worn a couple of times make sure to remove the pills. Don't place items on a hanger but include it for display purposes. If it is a mounted piece take the time to do it right. She stated that she understood the feeling of getting to the end of a project and just wanting to be done, however many of her decisions between first and second place came down to the finishing. So finish well.

I entered my All Things Spring Shawl, designed by Annie Lupton. It received a 2nd place ribbon. The judge decided that the other piece was better for first place because my petals were not all the same size. I also entered my Creu Sweater by Gina. It received a first place ribbon but was also the only one in the class.

This isn't the first time I have watched judging. I stayed for the entire fiber arts class, which took three hours even though my pieces were judged in the first 15 minutes. I was the only one there. This judge was an older lady, as many in my experience are. To me it felt that while she may still do some fiber arts she is not connected to the current fiber arts world. She thought that the cable on the back of my sweater was sewn in after the fact because the piece was too big. She thought the neck was too loose as well. If she were a bit more plugged in, she would have know that a single cable is a thing right now, as well as having a larger neck on a sweater. Judges really need to be connected to the current trends if they are to judge correctly.

She also missed two things that to me were big. She gave third place to a hat that had a flower sewn onto it. Okay except that the flower was sewn to what was really the inside of the hat, the wrong side of the work. I could see that from 10 feet away and she didn't even notice.

The other thing is there was a cute and very well done doll and her clothes entered into the felting class which has 2 choice, needle or wet. This doll was neither. She belonged in the sewing category. Her maker had cut pieces out and sewn them together beautifully. She really was well done but was in the wrong class and the judge didn't know or say anything if she did. The doll was the only item in the class and received a first place, as it should have. It was done by a junior. It may have received some better comment and advice from a sewing judge however.

The judge did suggest for next year that there needs to be a place to write what the items function is. I also think that Arapahoe County Fair needs to have a place for skill level as well, Adams county does. This means that a junior of 17 who has been working on the skill for 5 years isn't going against a junior or 8 who is just beginning.

Here is a picture of my pieces on display with their ribbons. If you look, you can see that my shawl was displayed wrong side up. So I will have another suggestion for Arapahoe County fair, have someone, maybe even the judge, with some know how walk through the display before it's open to the public.

After seeing this and truly realizing my love of education about fiber arts and to the artists I have decided I want to judge open class fiber arts, so I will be emailing them in a month or so after they have had a chance to recover.

Nijah and I were at fair on Friday evening, most of Saturday and all day Sunday. I spun on my wheel that Carl made for me for Christmas a few years back and Nijah helped people dye wool with Kool-Aid. Nijah helped about 100 people dye little bits of wool with Kool-Aid and found a neat way for the children to try suspended spindle spinning while she helps. I spun about 3oz of singles that will turn into a 3 ply fingering weight yarn and talked to a few people about Woolly Weirdos.

The fiber I spun at fair was not a new fiber for me to spin but I am spinning for socks. I have spun for socks in the past only to end up with yarn that is way too thick, which in my world is a bit strange because my default is thin. So I have been doing some reading on spinning sock yarn, mostly the Sock edition of Ply magazine and decided to try are few of the things I had read.

I know that I love BFL for socks. The memory of it compared to that of merino has made it my go to sock yarn. No it isn't as soft and you can feel the difference when you knit, but not so much on the feet. The wear and durability of the BFL has been great so far. Here is a picture of the first socks I finished out of BFL. They were worn once a week, every week and washed in the washer, it's super wash BFL, and dried in the dryer each week too until they were put away about 5 weeks ago. Here is what they currently look like.  They are the bottom of the picture, the yarn in the middle is from Hummingbird Moon and so is the fiber.  All items are BFL.  The yarn is in the Wool of Bat colorway and the fiber is Toil and Trouble.

I also know that I don't like a 2 ply sock yarn and don't see an advantage of a 4 ply, so 3 ply it is. I now have my fiber choice and made a decision about how many plies. I read about putting more twist into the singles, which is a skill I need to work on anyway and to put some extra twist into the ply as well. I made a sample from my 4oz braid.  Let me back up a bit though.

I know that 100g will make a pair of socks, a 4oz braid is about 112g so I have enough to make a sample.  I took a small chunk off of my braid after undoing it.  I then divided my braid into thirds.  I fluffed up each third for easier drafting and then rolled it into a ball.

I then divided my sample chunk in half.  I spun this half into three different bumps on one bobbin with a slip knot between each bump.

Why? So that I could make a 3 ply from one bobbin.  I didn't know if it would actually work, but it did!  I undid each slip knot and broke the yarn between the bumps to make 3 ends.  I then slowly wound a plying ball from those three ends.  You have to make sure that each bump is about the same or you can get a tangle.  If there is one much smaller or larger than the others it won't take the same number of rotations to get yarn off and will create a mess.

I plied the three together with a bit of over plying twist.  I have not measured the angle of twist but will soon as I have more understanding of twist angle now.  After resting, washing, drying and the yarn hanging out in my bag for the last week it has relaxed nicely.  Below is a picture of my sample yarn next to a strand of Wool of Bat.

I have now completed 2 bobbins of this and will start the third this weekend.  Here are Shatzie and I spinning yesterday afternoon in the meeting place of Woolly Weirdos.

Happy making everyone!

This is my last post before leaving for Montana.  I will not be able to post from there as we will be very secluded on the reservation and there isn't cell signal from what I understand either.

Since last Saturday I have finished 2 crocheted coasters and these baby socks.

I am doing thread crochet currently as I have thread and want to keep up on my crochet muscles. I have started a curtain panel and will be taking it on the mission trip with me when I leave on Sunday.

I am also taking the yarn to make some Owlie socks, another pair of baby socks and the second test knit that I am doing for Annie Lupton.

The Owlie socks are going to be made from Hummingbird Moon's BFL sock base in the Toil and Trouble colorway.

I will be using one of these two beads for the eyes.

My test knit for Annie Lupton is a square shawl with lace work in it. The design calls for DK weight yarn. I am using lace weight yarn and a US size 1 needle. The yarn is from Knit Picks, their Shadow lace line in the Snorkel colorway. It was one of the first lace weights yarns I bought. I bought it to make an Estonian shawl. I bought 3 skeins because that's what the pattern I said I needed. I didn't bother to look at brand or yardage... When I received the yarn I learned it wasn't enough and I learned to look at yardage. That feels like it was so long ago... 

The other test knit that I am currently working on is a color work sweater by Jill Karina.  The yarn I am using for this sweater is from stash. It was given to me through a friend of a friend situation after someone died. It is 100% wool from the Brown Sheep Company. The Nature Spun line in their Grape Harvest and Mill Blue color ways. The color work on the yoke is suggested to be worked on a larger needle than the body of the sweater as it is easier to maintain gauge. I have to agree. My work is laying much nicer without blocking.

I won't quite have the yoke completed before I leave Sunday but it'll be close. So far this design has been great to work and the grading has been done very well.

I said that I would share Mom's sock trick this installment, so here it is.  She just stumbled upon it and it is so simple.  The problem is a small hole when working the gusset where the instep starts.  This is the area in a cuff down sock with a heel flap where you pick up the stitches in the sides of the heel flap to then start the gusset decreases.  I had a lesson with mom about picking up and that went well, the "seam" looked nicer but that hole was still there.  So finally I came to her when we both had more time, better light and could really focus.  She looked at my heel flap and asked "where did this stitch come from?"  "That is my first slip stitch on my first heel row."  "Oh, I don't do it that way."  "what do you do?"  "I knit that stitch.  Always have."  So the following is how I work my heel flaps and where I pick up my stitches, with a picture of the finished result.

Heel Flap

Row 1: K 2, (sl 1, K 1) across the number of desired stitches.

Row 2: Sl 1 pwyf, P across.

Row 3: (Sl 1 pwyb, K 1) across.

Row 4: Rep row 2.

Rep rows 3 and 4 until you have the desired number of rows worked.

Then pick up the stitches.

This picture shows how I pick up both legs of the slipped stitch and then knit into them.

Here you can see the stitches that I am going to pick up and knit into.

This is the last stitch I will be picking up and knitting into.  This is where Mom's trick comes into play.  Here I would usually pick up and knit an extra stitch, just to knit them together on the next round to close the hole.

Here you see the finished sock with no hole and no extra stitch to remember, just one little change to a stitch that you are already working.

I do want to say that I agree with the stand that Ravelry has taken.  I don't know what Trump has said or done or what group or pattern showed up on Ravelry that prompted all of this.  There needs to be room for everyone, except those who want to exclude others for something that is totally beyond their control.  I am a follow of Jesus and as such I do read the Bible, believe what it says and live by the words there.  I however will not exclude you if you don't live by those same standards.  What I ask is that you not judge me for not living the lifestyle you do.  This acceptance has to go both ways.

Until next time, which will be a while because I leave very early tomorrow morning...
Power to the wool!

Estes Park Recap

Sorry guys the time got away from me as it so often does when I return from a trip.  Thankfully I haven't had many trips to town so that's another reason this hasn't been posted until now.

Here is the full scoop on my experience at the Estes Park Wool Market for 2019.

Nijah and I left our house outside of Deer Trail, Colorado at about 9am on Wednesday morning for the town of Estes Park, Colorado; it is a 123 mile journey.  We take our time on the back roads, as I don't like to drive on major highways.  We stop for gas and a few minutes of walking in Thornton, Colorado.

Continuing on up Colorado Boulevard we come to 2 de tours and get to see parts of Frederick and Mead.  Next we stop for lunch at the Cracker Barrel in Loveland, Colorado.  This puts us just an hour down Highway 34 from Estes Park.  After lunch we sit out front on the bench and knit a while.  A stop at Target to get the one thing we now know we forgot, cups for milk and cookies.

Highway 34 is a beautiful, easy, non stressful way to go up to Estes Park.  It is a windy road, but not very many of the steep mountain drop offs like on other mountain roads.  We arrive at our hotel 45 minutes before check in.  I catch up on the days email and Instagram while Nijah reads her book.

At check in we learn that the Inn we are staying in has a fire pit lit every night from 6-9pm for smores, which are provided.  This was a great place to stay and we will stay there again next year.  I sat at the fire each night, either knitting or spinning.

Thursday morning we discover that we both forgot deodorant!  No!  There is a lot of construction going on in Estes and I don't want to go to the Safeway if I don't have too.  I drop Nijah off to help David and the Estes Park staff for the morning classes at the high school.  I drive to the Sinclair, which is also a mini mart and bought the last deodorant!  Yea!  Now feeling much better about not smelling, I head back to the high school and work on the education board for my Sheep to Shawl team.

By lunch time my board materials are all ready to be put on the board that night.  I have also checked in as an instructor and set up my classroom.  I will be teaching "math, yes math" for the first time that afternoon.

For lunch I sat with some local ladies who were all in different classes but were all friends or related.  They were in weaving, knitting and crochet classes.  There is always a large variety of classes offered at the Estes Park Wool Market.

Math class went well.  This being the first time I taught it I was nervous as to whether or not it would make sense to anyone else.  They all caught on quickly and one student even applied it to a project in her bag that she was having to swatch for over and over.  I did realize before class that I left out one thing I wanted to cover from the handout.  We covered it and  then I took email addresses, made a new handout when I returned home and sent it to them.  I think it was a successful class.

Thursday night was more sitting at the fire pit and finishing the education board for Sheep to Shawl.  Our team chose to educate people on spinning from the cut end of a fleece.  I learned a lot in spinning the samples to put on the board.  For starters you don't want a really fine fleece that will felt easily because then drafting become difficult.  Washing the fleece in lock formation, while takes a bit more time, saves time on the other end, because then you aren't constantly trying to find the cut end.  One way to find the cut end of a lock is to rub it between your first finger and thumb.  No matter what, the tip end goes to the tips of your fingers, therefore the other end is the cut end.  The idea is that spinning from the cut end, then plying from the cut end and weaving, knitting or crocheting from the cut end makes a smoother finished piece.  The reason being is that you are always smoothing the scales on each strand down and not working against them.

Friday I dropped Nijah off at the high school and went and ate at a diner in the shopping center that has the Safeway in it.  The food was good and the atmosphere was small town like with the regulars coming in and everyone knowing everyone.  Reminded me home and the 2 restaurants we have in different towns that feel similarly.  I ordered a simple breakfast of eggs, toast, sausage, hash browns and OJ.  It was nice.  I sat there and worked on my baby socks and took my time eating.  I had some time to kill before the bank opened and I could cash my check.  I took that opportunity to prep my spindles for my demo on Saturday.  After cashing my check I went back to the Inn.  I dressed Dolores, grabbed my sweater project and Bible and sat outside working on those projects until lunch time.  The weather was so nice and it was almost as peaceful as being at home, sound wise.  It other ways it was more peaceful due to knowing that there wasn't going to be anyone needing my attention child, animal or otherwise.  The phone wasn't going to pull me away.  Even now as I write this my youngest is going on and on about the YouTube videos he watched at a sleep over last night.  I highly recommend trying to find some time away from home like this, even if it is just an afternoon.  I plan to have time like  this each month.

The sweater project I was working on was the Creu Sweater.  This was the first time I was putting pieces together to make a raglan sweater from the bottom up.  I was a bit nervous about being a lefty and being able to follow the directions correctly.  I also knew I was in Estes for an event where I could later find help if needed,  The putting together was successful I'm glad to say.  I have since finished the sweater and though it is a bit short for my usual taste, my family and the designer say it looks nice.  I'll just have to get used to it.

On Friday afternoon, from 4-6 the vendors are open for students and instructors to go shopping early!  We spent the entire 2 hours there.  Something I learned from being at the Yarn Fest for days I applied here and will when ever possible in the future.  How to shop...
    1.    Have a list started before you go of vendors at least, yarn or fiber wanted and info for the project if decided, other items wanted
    2.    A list of musts on the first walk through
    3.    Try very hard to do a lap through all or most of the vendors before buying anything
    4.    If you are unsure, wait until the next day
    5.    Use this opportunity to ask questions of vendors and learn what you really need.

I had screen shots saved of yarn I wanted for sure, kits I wanted to look at and choose one and notes on fiber and other materials I wanted to find.
I did finish my lap before buying anything.  I bought the yarn I had screen shots of immediately, I had saved these shots for months and saw them often, so I knew it was still yarn I wanted.  The screen shots of the kits had just happened in the last 24 hours so I wasn't as sure.  I was leaning more towards one than the other because it was a project I had been thinking about for a while and the other was an Advent project...  The Night Shift shawl kit from Greenwood Fiber works won out over the Advent kit.

Saturday of the Wool Market was also World Wide Knit in Public Day!  It was wonderful!  Longmont Yarn Shoppe hosted a booth for us to sit and knit and chat.  They had coffee, tea, water and snacks all day.  There was a fun photo booth with crazy hats and other props.  I met a wonderful knitter in her 80s who is making afghans for her grandchildren as they graduate high school.

Later that afternoon I did a demo on suspended spindles.  There isn't a lot to talk about with those.  I did have a handout, if you are interested email and I'll send you the PDF.  I covered a few different kinds of spindles and then anyone who wanted could come and try them out.

Of course there was more shopping on Saturday as well.  Saturday is when I bought my hemp book and fiber, from 2 different booths.  The book is this one, by Alden Amos' wife. It has been very helpful.  As I have started reading the hemp section and learning what to do I am amazed the quick advances we are making in hemp.  When this book was published in 2014 There were only 2 preparations of hemp fiber available, roving and sliver.  Mine is neither, it is the very shorts bits, sort of like cloud.  I did card some on my Ashford 108 tpi cards and then spun it on one of my tiny turkeys.  So far so good.

Nijah also made a friend on Saturday...

Sunday was the big day for the team.  Sheep to shawl.  We are team Treadle to the Medal.  We used a polypay warp and a CVM for the weft.  We carded the fiber and then spun it and made a 2 ply yarn at about 16 wpi.  Dick, our weaver then wove it plain weave using 12 epi.  We ended up with shorter fringe than we planned due to time constraints.  Out of 3 teams, we came in 3rd this year.  The competition was stiff and everyone did a wonderful job.  We are already planning for next year's contest and the wool we might use is growing just 10 miles from me.

I will cover my finished objects and that will be it for this installment.

I finished my third test knit for the year.  It is the Creu Sweater.  It is a bit short for my usual style, but everyone that sees me wearing it loves, so I will just get used to it.  It was a fun knit.  She did a very nice job on the instructions.  As a left hand knitter who had never worked a raglan from the bottom up, it went very nicely.  I did make sure I had time to think and rip if needed and that I was alone just in case, but it was no problem.  Just follow the instructions how they are written for assembly and you get a good sweater.

I also finished these baby socks.

I will be taking all the baby socks I currently have finished on the mission trip with me to Montana.

I finished these socks for me.  These are the ones I started so that I would have something to work on while watching Avenger's End Game.  They have also seen the Secret Life of Pets 2 now as well.  They will be labeled and put in the box.  The yarn is Rockshelter from Yarn Rehab in their Blacksmithing Colorway.

I have also finished a couple of more hats for the mission trip as well.  I had some worsted weight wool left over from my sweater, so I made 2 hats.  The yarn is Knit Picks Andean Wool in the worsted weight in their Onyx colorway.

I have been hard at work on a new design that I hope to release by October.  I've been processing cashmere the Orenburg way and doing a couple of more test knits.  All that and mom's sock trick next time.  Until then...

Power to the wool!

Hello From Estes!

I am writing from this from our room in the Appenzell Inn in Estes Park, Colorado.  Glory and I are here for the 29th annual Estes Park Wool Market.  I taught a math class for knitters and crocheters yesterday.  Glory is helping direct people to their classrooms and to lunch.  We get to do some shopping at the preview tonight and tomorrow is the llama, alpaca and sheep events.  I love this festival and this year we are staying at a wonderful place.  I recommend the Appenzell Inn to anyone who is coming to stay in Estes.  They have breakfast in the morning and a smores bar around a real campfire each night.  It is clean and conveniently located, even with all the constructions this year.

I have finished many projects since I last shared with you.  I will share quickly each on here with a picture or two and a link to the Ravelry page so you can get more info on a pattern or yarn.

I have finished my market bags and brought them for hopping this weekend.  I think I will keep making more and maybe get to the point that I can use them to replace all the plastic bags when I go grocery shopping.

I finally finished Mom's Shawl.  Now the surprise can be revealed.  It is a hard color to photograph and get the details but they are there.  She loves Prince the artist.  I grew up listening to him.  One of her favorite songs is "Diamonds and Pearls".  I looked at the lyrics and put this shawl together.  The edging says "diamonds and pearls" in Braille letters.  The very center is the Prince symbol.  The 4 corners are the male symbol, diamonds, pearls and then the female symbol.  I chose the color because it is how I remember the color of the CD case though it is not, and because it is a color she loves.  I layered different color of Kool-Aid to achieve it.

I also finished these socks.

I finished my first two test knits for this year.  Pretty much ever, the last test knit I did was in 2006, this little piece, which my 16 year old son still has.

This is the All Things Spring Shawl from Annie Lupton.

This is the Mauve and Dangerous Wrap from Wendelika Cline.

I am working on the sweater still and have picked up another one from Annie Lupton.  Another shawl, that I will detail more because of the work I did to change the yarn weight for my rendition.

I have washed and labeled all my woollies to put them away for the summer.  I wash mine now  because then when it starts to get cold I can just pull out what I want to wear and it's all ready to go.  The labeling is new this year.  I have decided that I want to be able to share some basic info when I wear something if someone asks about it.  On these tags I put the pattern name and the yarn I used.  I also include the fiber content so I know how to care for the piece after I have worn it.

By placing the tag on the safety pin first and then the garment, the tag will never have to leave the pin again to remove the garment.  I also wanted to be consistent in where I placed the tag so for directional shawls and any thing with sleeves I place the tag on the left side or sleeve.  I didn't use the pins to hold pairs together.  My box gets jumbled on occasion and I didn't want to chance grabbing only one sock and possibly tearing a hole in the other because it had been eaten by the piece below it.

All the pieces are then put into totes that are almost air tight.  My socks are rolled and put into clear totes with a moth ball packet.  The other items are put in this tote from Lowe's with 2 moth ball packets.  So far so good.

Join me next week to see pictures from the Wool Market, results of Sheep to Shawl and a great sock tip my mom taught me recently.

Have a blessed weekend!