Down the rabbit hole

Otherwise known as the slippery slope. Or perhaps that road paved with good intentions.

Wait a minute - let me back up. Happy New Year everyone! I hope everyone had a fantastic winter holiday season. We took the family to Prague for a few days (gorgeous! new mitten inspiration!), and I celebrated New Year's by  being sick for the fourth time in about 6 weeks. Yee haw! But it's been a fun couple of weeks since the last you heard from. But back to my new obsession...

Every year, Himself asks me what I want for Christmas (or my birthday) - my answer is typically a shrug and "I don't need anything" (damn Puritan heritage tells through every time...). And this year was no different, except that after a couple of days, the same thing kept popping in to my head: a rigid heddle loom. Partly this is motivated by a burning desire to get rid of the massive amount of yarn that I have lying around, and the other motivation is the recent inheritance by Himself and my brother-in-law of a very large, heirloom floor loom that belonged to their great grandfather. So...I did some research, sent Himself an email with the appropriate webpage linked, and a suspicious package arrived and appeared under the tree.

Well, come Christmas morning, I opened it up, got all the bits and bobs sorted out, grabbed some yarn and off I went.

Details:
Loom - 25 inch Schacht Flip rigid heddle loom
Yarn - leftover Cascade 220 for the warp (light blue) and some of my first handspun Corriedale (~87 yds) for the warp.

I just warped with as much yarn as I had, aiming for about a 36 inch long warp. Then I wove for a while until I ran out of warp.

Things I have learned: whoa. Whole new vocabulary to learn. I remember this from when I started spinning as well, but it takes a while to get up to speed. I've watched a lot of You Tube videos this time around, which has been really helpful. The warping bit was pretty straightforward, but the weaving is not quite so easy. My selvedges suck big time, but I've been assured by a number of handspun weaving experts that they'll get better with time.

I ended up with this wee scarf-like thingie, that has been washed and is now lying abandoned in a corner. Because the new toy is now warped with 8 feet worth of purple sock yarn that I am busily weaving into a longer scarf-like thingie. There's nothing quite so satisfying as dispensing with 400+ yds of yarn in an afternoon's worth of play time!

Happy Boxing Day!

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year, from me to you.

And from Gimli too.

Did you get some lovely yarn for Christmas? Maybe about 400 yds worth? Here's a project for you, if you need one...

A free pattern for the Penobscot Bay Shawl, modeled by mi madre. I used some gorgeous angora-wool blend DK weight yarn from Scotland, but it will work with any yarn weight, in any number of colors (including just one color - I'm starting that one today!). More details are on the pattern Ravelry page.

download now

Happy Boxing Day to all!

Looking back...hahahahahahahahaha!

So I went back and checked my overly optimistic list of goals for the year a few days ago, and that maniacal laughter you heard is what came out of my mouth when I contemplated a) the number of days left in 2011, and 2) the state of the list.

Ehem. Here's what I mean:

1. Eleven pairs of socks - well, I've managed nine pairs. Which is pretty good. Two of those pairs are Christmas presents, three pairs were handspun (which feels a bit like cheating since they're thicker yarn). That will have to do for 2011's sock output. Sadly, I'm not sure my supply of sock yarn has diminished in the slightest.

2. Eleven sweaters, including:
3. Pas de Valse - hahahahahahaha!
4. Handspun Vine Yoke Cardigan - hee hee hee hee hee!
5. Rollneck sweater for Devil - done
6. a handspun River Run Pullover - yarn spun, dyed and sweater started I steeked and knit the neck band this past week, although it took me four tries to get the neckband going the right way. I have also steeked and started the first arm, but yarn supplies are getting low. New goal date for finishing: 10 March 2012.

I did end up with eight finished sweater/vest objects. Including four of my own design (to be fair, three of them are the same sweater with a few variations)(beyond different sizes that is!), one handspun, and one for me. I've also got a pile of handspun yarn begging to be turned in to a sweater and at least one vest in the near future.

7. Spin more during the 2011 Tour de Fleece then I did in 2010 (39.4 oz) - 51.3 oz, 2425 yds, check!

8. Get my first full fleece (figuring out what to do with it is 2012's project) - Weeeeeeeeelll...I have discovered that getting a raw fleece in the UK is not quite so simple as pulling up to the local Sheep and Wool Festival* and throwing down some cash. I'm afraid this one might have to be tabled until we return Stateside.

9. Design a shawl - it's done, and the pattern is written, but I need to weave in the ends/block/photograph the darn thing. Thankfully, it's a freebie pattern, and I'm not getting it test knitted (it is dead easy), so I'm hoping to get that out by the end of the year. I've got delusions of a handspun shawl design too...it has been a bit of a design-filled autumn, though: I've released three patterns in the last couple of months, and have a looming sock pattern that needs to go out the door. And there's one more being tested, and a raft of summery patterns waiting to get out the door. Oy! I'm having fun though...

10. Submit a design to Knitty - submitted to Knitty, got rejected. Submitted to Knitcircus, got rejected, submitted to a book editor, got accepted. Heh heh heh heh... More details on that when it becomes possible - knitting the sample for the book is January's project.

11. Design a spinning/knitting project for Ennea Collective. Eh. Didn't happen. I got busy starting a fiber-dyeing business. But I have grand plans for 2012 (see number 9)...

* My spinning group is going "Whaaaaat local Sheep and Wool Festival?????" I know, I know...

Candy Cane fiber and hat pattern

I'm a big fan of handspun yarn, and even more a fan of patterns for handspun yarn. A couple of years ago there was a handspun design challenge on Ravelry to increase the number of patterns available for 4 oz/115 gr of handspun yarn. I designed two hats, and had an absolute blast writing up the patterns, including directions for spinning the yarn.

So this idea has been percolating in the back of my mind for a while that I'd like to occasionally offer patterns designed for a specific colorway or fiber that I offer. I'm pleased to say that the first of these patterns, the Candy Cane Hat, will be available (along with the appropriate fiber) before the end of the year - the fiber is drying as we speak, and the pattern is almost complete. Stay tuned!

Gherkin Mittens

I'm very pleased to be able to say that the fourth (and final) pattern in my London-inspired collection is now available.

The Gherkin Mittens are inspired by the Gherkin, a rather phallic odd building in the Financial District. While it's not in the London Bridge area where I used to work, it is extremely visible from there (as well as many other parts of London). I've been enthralled by its lines since I first saw it, and I'm thrilled to bits with these mittens.

Worked in bulky weight wool, these are super quick to knit up, so if you need a last minute Christmas gift, these are for you! I knit the large size for the prototype, and used about 220 yds of bulky yarn over the course of a couple of evenings.

The pattern includes both charts and written stitch directions, plus a cute picture of the wee small dog serving as a prop. Something like this:

Gherkin Mittens, $5.00


God willing and the crick don't rise, I'm hoping to release all four patterns as a mini-e book before the end of the year. Stay tuned!