About me

I'm originally from Boston, Himself is from Vermont, we've generated two small, blonde Texans, and we're living in the UK for three going to be more like six years. It's always fun.

I've been knitting off and on (but really, really on starting about 1998) since I was seven years old - my grandmother taught me using some perfectly heinous pink, white and blue Red Heart Supersaver acrylic. I started this blog in 2007, when my youngest daughter was 4 months old. A month later, I got a spinning wheel, and it's been all fiber and yarn since then.

A few months ago, I took advantage of an opportunity to start selling my own handdyed fiber at Porpoise Fur. So now there's dye and piles of undyed fiber in addition to the yarn and spinning stuff that was already here. It's a good thing my husband is very understanding!

I do hope you leave a comment if anything I say strikes your fancy. Or pisses you off. Or anything else, just comment! If you'd rather email me, I can be reached at porpoiseknits AT gmail DOT com. Enjoy your visit, and happy wooly pursuits.

Happy Porpoise Spin-Along

This is an example of how Twitter is either the greatest community builder of all time or a path to a lovely tropical hot spot paved with good intentions...spinner be warned!

A couple of weeks ago, my friend Jacqui Tweeted about her new book, and about how excited she was to spin in all sorts of new and exciting ways. Her Tweet reminded me about my excitement when I got the same book, and how I'd meant to spin my way through the entire thing. One Tweet led to another, which led to emails back and forth, which has now led to:

Button courtesy of J's brilliant children

The Happy Porpoise SAL, in which we work our way through the brilliant Sarah Anderson's "The Spinner's Book of Yarn Design", thereby expanding our spinning skills, and broadening our handspun horizons.

Everyone is welcome to join us in this quest: we're running it out of my Ravelry group, the Porpoise Pod for ease of having everyone in one place, so grab whatever is in your stash and come play with us! 

We'll be going chapter by chapter, and starting the frenzy tomorrow (April Fool's Day seems like a reasonable beginning date, no?) with Chapter 2: Singles for plying. One of us will start a thread tomorrow morning in the group, and we'll be off and running! I, for one, will be running to catch up, because I'm pretty sure Jacqui hasn't been able to restrain herself...

Hope to have you all join us in our spinning adventure!

March pattern release: Echinoid hat

A few years ago we took a family trip to Paris, and spent one very rainy and wet afternoon in the Muséum National d'Histoire Naturelle. In one exhibit, there was a mezzanine walkway lined with glass cabinets, and I was quite taken with the display of sea urchin shells of every size. My designer brain immediately decided that I needed a sea urchin hat, and thus, Echinoid was born.

This hat is worked in worsted weight yarn (Knit Picks Wool of the Andes for the sample), starting with my new Most Favoritest Cast On Ever™, the tubular cast on. The body of the hat is worked mostly in seed stitch, with five equally spaced columns of knit stitches that mimic the five-fold symmetry of the sea urchin shells.

SKILLS NEEDED
Knitting, purling, increasing and decreasing, tubular cast on (pattern includes links to a video tutorial, but not extensive directions for the cast on)

SIZES
Small (medium, large, extra large), to fit head circumference of up to 18 (20, 22, 24) in/45.5 (51, 56, 61) cm. Actual hat circumference is 16 (18, 20, 22) in/40.5 (45.5, 51, 56) cm.

YARN
Pattern requires approximately 95 (115, 135, 165) yds/87 (105, 123, 151) m worsted weight yarn.


NEEDLES
US 5/3.75 mm and US 6/4.0 mm double pointed needles or 16 in/40 cm circular needle.

GAUGE
20 sts/24 rows per 4 in/10 cm in seed stitch on larger needles.

Pattern includes both written stitch pattern directions and charts.

Echinoid $5.00

Patterns for Sale

**I'M IN THE PROCESS OF REVAMPING THIS SECTION. IN THE MEANTIME, YOU CAN FIND ALL MY PATTERNS ON MY RAVELRY DESIGNER PAGE. THANKS!**

Two Colour shawl V1.0

I haven't been doing a huge amount of spinning recently, and I've been missing it hugely. Last weekend, I took some Pollinator Falkland and my IST Turkish spindle along to a workshop I was teaching, and managed to spindle a few yards over the course of the day. That was enough to break up the log jam, and earlier this week I started spinning the first fiber for my Two Color Shawl V1.0, some Clotted Cream on Shetland.

Clotted Cream Shetland underway!

It's a really lovely spin - not too much going on colorwise, so I don't have to worry about color management, but enough to keep me stopping to look at the subtle tones that are coming out in the yarn. I'm using my Hansen miniSpinner to try and reduce any wear and tear on my legs - in case you've missed my Tweets about it, I'm running the London Marathon on 13 April, and am very wary of using my legs any more then is absolutely necessary! To be fair, I'm pretty sure that treadling a spinning wheel is about as low-impact as you can get, but I'm using the running as an excuse to curl up on the couch with my feet tucked under me and spin away mindlessly. Once this bundle is done, I've got some toned-down YFP Shetland to spin up next, and then I'll have to finally commit to a color combination for the second shawl I plan to do.

There's a few pictures over on the SAL Ravelry thread, but if you're coming across this a bit late and want to join in the fun, we'd love to have you! There are more details on the SAL-KAL page, so don't hesitate. 

Happy spinning!

Rachel