Moving day!

Hi all!

I've moved! I'm blogging now at mycolourwheelhouse.com, so go on over and follow me there :)

I'm going to be doing my usual posting, but there is going to be a heavier emphasis on dying and my Etsy shop, so I hope you'll join me on this journey.

Yarn Shop is Open!

Bonus night off! Knitting by the fire instead of working :)

Tonight is a very special night because although I'm scheduled to work a night shift, I am instead home drinking hot chocolate by the fire. It's still unbelievably quiet at work, so I'm using some vacation time and taking the night off, which feels like a great indulgence right now. Unfortunately I'm still on call, otherwise my cocoa would have a bit of a "kick". It's still divine :)

So, my big news is that I've opened an Etsy shop. mycolourwheelhouse.etsy.com (notice that colour has a "u" in it as that's the Canadian spelling - we put "u"s euverywhere). As some close friends may be aware, I've been dabbling with dyes over the past year or so. I started by playing with Indigo and dyed some roving that I then spun and gifted to Moira. I tried out some other botanical dyes too and had lots of fun playing with mordants and cutch and adding iron to see what would happen. I did some Kool-Aid dyeing for my friend Janelle's baby, then I bought an acid-dye starter kit at the Belfast Mini Mills and things spiraled from there. I had so much fun playing with the colours in the kit and LOVE all my colour-babies, but it was once I broke it down to the primaries that my heart really started to sing (hence my logo). There is no going back. I'm a dyer.

I have incredibly strong memories of creativity from my childhood. I took so much joy in crafting and making. My mom kept what she called my "paper box", which was a huge box (about the size of a suitcase you would need to put in checked baggage) filled with all of my crafts and papers and markers and scissors and all kinds of other things for making. The box lived under my bed and always came with us on family road trips. I would entertain myself for hours with no need for TV or even company. Every gift-giving occasion brought more craft supplies, ranging from glue sticks and paper when I was wee to real pastels and beautiful water colours when I was older. I'm not sure when it happened exactly, but at some point in my life I bought into a lie that I was not a creative person. Maybe it was because I can't draw a straight line to save my life, or because my lack of spacial awareness makes it impossible for me to create an accurate representation of the human form on canvas or in any other medium (or to go to the washroom at night without bumping into the wall). Colour, though... That's for me. I wish I had known it sooner, but better late than never. I want to tell everyone I meet! I am a creative person! I want to spend every second of every day playing with colour and I want to share my joy with everyone! So here goes :)

Weeks in Review

Obviously, I've been spending a lot of time dyeing. Since I'm working in the kitchen we also use to prepare food, there is a fair amount of prep, set-up, and de-contamination involved, so I really need to have a day when Jeff is not around wanting to do crazy things like prepare or eat food.  I have to make my plan the night before and get all my supplies ready, make sure I have all the primary I will need mixed up, have my yarns ready to soak, etc. Then in the morning, I set up after coffee and breakfast. I've found it's best not to start opening any dye solutions until Jeff has gone for the day, because I get really stressed about food or drink being consumed in the same area I'm using to dye (even though I'm primarily using Greener Shades dyes, which are supposedly much less toxic). Then I have the whole day to dye and heat set and soak to my hearts content. Then I let my yarns dry on the clothes rack by the fire and re-skein them a couple of days later! I figure I'm only going to have time to do this a couple of times a month, especially since getting the yarn labeled and sent out is quite time-consuming as well, so I'm trying to work out some ways to make my dyeing days more efficient. 

I also started my statistics course last week, which is really stressing me out, so I'm not going to talk about it right now :) More on that another time... Maybe.

I've also been picking away at my last little bit of Christmas shopping, and besides a bottle of wine for my parents and something to go with Jeff's sweater, I'm finished shopping! I still have a few little handmade things, like Jeff's sweater, my mom's bag, and mitts for Janelle's wee bairn, but those will be done in good time.

Swapetition is wrapping up too! I got a beautiful parcel from my partner and I LOVE it! The swapetition theme was "keeping it local", and my partner is from Texas, so I got a bunch of things that I would never find here. I ate pralines for the first time in my life and now I really need to find a source of them around here. Aside from incredibly delicious Texan treats, she also sent some really thoughtful gifts and a note that made me really glad there are such nice people in the world. I nominated her for a prize and I really hope she wins :).

I've been able to go to knitting group the last couple of weeks, which has been nice. Coffee Guy LOVES his mug cozy and the next week after I gave it to him, he came over to our table to show me photos of the cozy on his mug at home! He was so pleased that it really made me want to make him another one! But I won't do that. No time.

Acquisitions

I bought yarn. I got a skein of Squoosh Fiberarts in their Merino Cashmere Sock (Imperial colourway); a skein of Socks That Rock Heavyweight in the Tomatillo colourway; a Miss Babbs Cosmic in Ruby Spinel; a skein of Handmaiden Casbah in Topaz; and a skein of Sweet Georgia's Tough Love Sock in the Terra Firma colourway. Phew! OH MY GOD, I LOVE THEM! I bought them all on the net and they were worth every extra penny.

I also got some fabric from The Loopy Ewe that I'm going to use to make my mom's Christmas tote. I'm so excited... I think she's going to love it :)

F.O.s

The only thing I've finished is a pair of mittens I made for myself! After making mittens for most of my family this year, I finally took pity on my own cold hands and made myself a pair of beautiful mittens from the merino/possum yarn that Jeff's parents brought me from New Zealand a couple of years ago. It's so lovely and soft and it made some very warm mitts. 

W.I.P.s

The only thing I'm working on right now is a pair of thumbless mittens for my friend Janelle's 8 month old babe. No pattern necessary for this little ditty, and I'm using some leftover Tosh Chunky from the sweaters I made for my niece and nephew last year.

I did make a swatch for a pair of sport weight socks that I'm going to make for myself out of my own hand-dyed yarn. It's a 75/25 blend of superwash merino and nylon and it's my favourite colourway. I called this one Fruit Salad since it makes me think of a bowl full of cantaloupe with pineapple and purple grapes and arctic kiwis. Oh my God, my mouth is actually watering. I wish I could get my hands on some arctic kiwis, but alas, 9 months to go. Anyway, I really like this colour and I plan to make it a staple in my Etsy shop.

On my Screen/In my Ears

I finished Outlander last night, so I'm onto A Dragonfly in Amber again. I enjoyed it thoroughly (as usual!), but I had kind of forgotten how x-rated the early books are. They're all a bit graphic, but the first few books really make me blush! I could not listen in a crowded room!

I've been watching all my usual podcasts, and over the last few days there were new episodes of Knitting in Stitches (which is my fave and everyone ever should watch), Minerva Turkey Knits, The Fat Squirrel Speaks, and We are Yarn. Oh my goodness, they're all so good this week... Who am I kidding, they always are. I've also recently discovered a new audio podcast I really like! It's the Knitting Pretty Podcast and it's fantastic! It's relatively new and the host is Canadian. She's well-spoken and knowledgeable and she has a lot of content about how fashion trends relate to knitting. A really great listen, and I highly recommend checking it out.

Show and Tell

My logo!!!

Here is what I started with - the three primaries and black

And here is what I got! I love all my squishy babies :)

Here is my swapetition package in its entirety (minus several pieces of jerky)
Thank you Savvy Girls for hosting such a fun swap!

Pocket Jamie loves pralines!

Yup... I'm definitely a wool pig.

For my Mom's gift.The main fabric is the blue squares with the yellow for the base and straps,
and the bag will be lined with chevrons. I'm not 100% sure yet whether I'll put in a zipper or not.

My mittens! They're so cute!

My swatch with Fruit Salad. I'll cast these on as soon as I finish the mitts for
Janelle's little one :)

That's all for now!

Je Suis Prêt... Pour Noël!

It's been very quiet lately in the nursery, which although it's kind of bad when it gets too quiet (it's boring in the present and it probably means we're going to get slammed right at Christmas), there are some benefits. For one, we had time to start playing Christmas music at work! This festive time with my co-workers led me to discover the pleasures of vintage Christmas music videos. I would like to share them with you.

Wham's Last Christmas I Gave you my Heart is a great place to start. It's sort of a terrible song, but the story we're told by the video almost makes listening to the song bearable. This group of friends is as incestuous as the group I got around with in my early 20s (we are still all acquainted, but fortunately we each picked someone and stuck to them... eventually). Hopefully Wham and his friends made on okay too.

The group favourite, though was by far the entire Boney M Christmas album. Not only is it great music and classic Christmas fare from my childhood, but around the 20 minute mark of the video you get a great and lasting view of "Daddy Cool's" package (and his 70s dance moves too). I HIGHLY recommend having this video on loop until after Christmas. Also, you need to watch Daddy Cool (maybe not safe for work depending on how your employer feels about dry-humping microphones and faking orgasms).

Weeks in Review

I've had a lovely time these last few weeks! I've been spending lots of time knitting by the fire in preparation for Christmas, and as such I have a whole bunch of F.O.s. In fact - my Christmas knitting is done! I still have a tote bag to sew for my mom, which I will do next week if my fabric arrives (more on that later). I suppose I still have Jeff's sweater to finish, but I'm not going to kill myself trying to get that done by Christmas. I plan to pick away at it whenever the spirit moves me until it's done, and if that's not until after Christmas, then so-be-it. I'm thinking of making myself a pair of possum mittens for the Knitmore Girls Grinch-along instead :)

I've also been doing some non-crafty Christmas prep and my shopping is actually mostly done! Most of my gift recipients live in Seattle, so I like getting their stuff sent early so it's there in time to bask under the tree lights for a while. Also, my cousin Sophie, my nephew, and my niece all have birthdays ranging from Boxing Day to mid-February, so I sent their Birthday gifts too!

I got some really fun dyeing done today too, but I'll save that for another time :)

Acquisitions 

Last week I bought an OTT Lite at Michael's and I'm really excited about it! These lights emit a natural white light that is supposed to reduce eye fatigue as well as letting colours read more truly, which I think is wonderful. I expect it will also help me capture the true colours of my dye projects on camera, and I'm hoping that if I spend some time in front of it every day before work it might also help me stave off S.A.D. If nothing else, I think 30 minutes knitting or spindling every day before work will put me in a nice headspace. 

I also got a new pair of boots since I didn't have a pair for everyday winter wear. They are a leather exterior with rubber over the toes, flat grippy soles, and they're lined with wool!! They come up just high enough to let the top inch of sock show and I can fold the top down to show off the wool lining AND my hand-knit socks!

The mailman also brought me a couple of skeins of Knit Picks Stroll sock yarn. I have a goal this year to fill up my sock drawer (and Jeff's too) with squishy hand-knits, so I'm in the process of doing some stash enhancement. I've got a few things on order that I'll share as they trickle in :)

F.O.s

There is a lot to cover here! The first thing I finished recently were socks for my uncle. My grandmother (Mom's mom) always used to knit everyone in the family socks and mittens every year, and I'm not sure my uncle has had a pair made for him since she died 9 years ago. My mom mentioned to him that I knit and he told her he would dearly love a pair of wool socks, and so I knit him some. Now, to be fair, the yarn (Sirdar Crofter) is not wool. It's an acrylic blend with both cotton and wool in it, so it's not going to be as cozy as the big thick aran socks my grandmother used to make, but they are very cute, and the small amount of wool in them should make them at least warmer than white cotton socks. Actually, Jeff liked this self-patterning yarn so much, that I made him a pair too :) Today is Jeff's birthday and he was so tickled by his new socks that he wore them out with the guys tonight. I'm sure they will all be really impressed. If only all men were as easy to please as my Jeff...

I also finished Coffee Guy's coffee cozy, which I will give him tomorrow at knitting if he is working, and my aunt's mittens, AND my Dad's hat. It's made of merino and cashmere so it will be soft and luxurious on his sparsely-haired head and it's a beautiful shade of hunter green, which I think is very appropriate for my hunter Dad.

On my Screen/In my Ears

Last week Jeff and I watched The Grand Budapest Hotel, which was a fun and funny movie (as all of Wes Anderson's movies are, IMHO). I knit through the whole thing, which I think makes it even better. I recommend watching it, and I strongly recommend a good stockinette project to go with it.

The Minerva Turkey podcast made it's way onto my radar over the last couple of weeks too, and I'm so glad it did! She's a fun and colourful lady (both physically and figuratively), and a very talented knitter. I love hearing her take on knitting and spinning. She seems really upbeat and positive, but she's not afraid to be honest about things that are less-than-great, and I really like that too. I think everyone should hear her stories about sewing class. Take-home message: Don't let other people cut your pants.

I'm still very very much riding the audiobook dragon. I finished The Thinking Woman's Guide to Real Magic and it was pretty good - a nice long listen. It wasn't super adrenalinish, but it was fun. It's a bit more out-there than some of the other witchy books I've read, in that it takes place in an alternate, Narnia-like world, but I think sometimes it's fun to test the limits of suspended disbelief, and also of run-on sentences. If there is a sequel, I will listen.

I'm back on Outlander again, to my partner's great dismay (I listen to it out-loud and he now knows the series by-heart). It all started because Melanie of Savvy Girls fame was podcasting from Scotland, and all her talk of the beautiful moors and all her interviews with Scottish people made me dreadfully homesick for Claire and Jamie. So I started with the Outlander novellas because they were new to me, then when they were done, I started from scratch with the first audiobook. Yes. This all happened since I last posted. I listen to audiobooks while I do EVERYTHING (almost - there is a limit). I was pleased with the novellas, in particular The Space Between, which actually answered some niggling questions I had the last two times I listened to the entire series. I look forward to listening to the series again I the context of what was in the novellas. Then to top it off, in the new year I'll watch the series. I've been putting it off since I wanted to get as close as possible to the second season so that I wouldn't have to wait too long in between. I have a problem.

Anyway, since I haven't been working on any other WIPs, I'll move on to photos :)

Show and Tell

My new boots are warm and the wool makes them cushiony.
Hopefully they will also prove to be comfortable and waterproof.

My KP skeins. They are quite lovely and a great price-point for
such nice tonal variegation.

My uncle Kevin's socks. Jeff's look just like them.
I used Anne Budd's pattern for sizing, but used a
Fishlips Kiss Heel cause I like it. And I held a strand of thread with the yarn
for the heels and toes to make them a bit more durable.

Coffee Guy's fancy lacy coffee cozy.

Chuck lounging in my freshly tidied yarn room. He's hanging out
with the sport and DK yarns.
You can see the light from my OTT Lite just to the right of him.

Lucy being so adorable that I wanted to bite her.

A sneak peek.
This is Spring Grass on my sport weight sock base
with Garden Soil for stripes, heels and toes.

This is Fruit Salad.
Mostly cantaloupe, with pineapple, purple grapes and kiwi fruit.
And sunshine for stripes, heels and toes.
Also sport weight.

Jeff wanted to look his best on his special day, so here Chuck is giving him a wash and style.

That's all for now!

Welcoming the Winter

After weeks of futile resistance, winter seems to be descending on PEI. The leaves have fallen, the grass stopped growing, I've cleaned the garden, and the woodstack is shrinking. Sad as this is, I'm taking solace in some small comforts. My knitting mojo is strong once again and I'm reminded now of how comforting and cozy it is to knit by the fire. So here I am now, sitting by the fire with three quarters of a pair of mittens and a cup of sweet spicy chai, welcoming the winter.

Weeks in Review

Rhinebeck, also known as the New York State Sheep and Wool Festival, took place the third weekend of October and I WAS THERE!!! I flew in to NYC Friday evening, rented my car and drove out to Poughkeepsie. Then on Saturday morning the fun began. The wool festival was more or less what I expected. It was busy, and crowded, and FANTASTIC! It took me the first part of Saturday to get the lay of the land, then I met up with the SavvyGirls at the podcaster meet-up Saturday afternoon. The lovely SavvyGirls showed me around a bit more that day and I got a ton of shopping done. Sunday brought more shopping with Savvy Melanie and Deborah, a great cotton-spinning class, and a class on spindle long-draw with Abby Franquemont. It was a truly great weekend and I'm looking forward to doing it again next year... With Moira.

Acquisitions

My new acquisitions are all Rhinebeck-related. 

I bought three new spindles - one is a tiny Turkish (weighing about 15 grams); a wooden tahkli with a little wooden bowl; and a medium-weight zebra-wood Bosworth. I also bought a color grid to help me with my colour work and dyeing, the Spinner's book of Fleece, a couple of shawl pins, and some Bengala dye (it's a really neat mineral dye that works on both plant and animal fibres). I got a Loop batt, three braids from FiberOptic, two braids from Into the Whirled, one braid of Merino/silk from Lisa Souza, and one beautiful skein of sock yarn from Miss Babbs. Phew! 

I also got a few little gifts for Moira and my SavvyGirls swapetition Buddy (more on this next time).

F.O.s

Over the last few weeks, my main project has been diaper covers for my co-worker Kim. She's having a baby next month and is planning to cloth diaper, and she thought it would be nice to have some wool diaper covers for night-time. Enter me :)

I've made her 6 diaper covers - two each of newborn size, small, and medium. Half of them will have Velcro closures once they're dry enough to manipulate, and the other three are a one-piece cover with a ribbed waist band. I made them all with superwash wool so that Kim doesn't have to worry about felting, and today I washed, dried, then lanolized them, and now they are out blocking by the fire. 

To lanolize them, I mixed about half a teaspoon of Lansinoh ointment with a capful of Kookaburra wool wash, poured boiling water over it to melt the lanolin, then poured it into a sink full of very hot water, and tossed the diapers in! I let them sit for about 15 minutes in the sink, then took them out, rolled them in a towel, walked on the rolled towel, then laid them out to block. Easy peasy :) Once they're all dried and the Velcro is done, I'm going to wrap them all up with a small bottle of Kookaburra and a tube of Lansinoh. I'm really hoping it will be a hit since it's a fair bit more work than I typically put into a co-worker's shower gift. 

I also knit my brother a pair of mittens for Christmas and it was a great knit! It's the same fool-proof pattern I always use (Ann Budd's basic mitten pattern), but it's the yarn that made it! It's Paton's Classic Wool Merino that Moira gifted to me last year, and I can't believe how lovely it was to knit with! It was soft and bouncy and wooly and I think it might be the best mitten yarn ever. I need more.

W.I.P.s

Right now I'm working on mittens for my Uncle Steven. I'm using some really fun yarn that Jeff's parents gifted me a couple of years ago. It's 80% merino and 20 % possum. A single ply, kind of hairy, and really warm yarn. 

I picked away a bit at Jeff's sweater too. I'm not making a ton of progress on it, but it's fun to pick it up every now and then.

I've also been working a bit on my Buddy yarn that I'm spinning for the Yanrraising Podcasts "New to You Spinalong". The two spindles of cashmere are done and my first spindle of Buddy/alpaca is also done, so now I just have one spindle of Buddy left to go, then some plying.

On My Screen/In My Ears

I'm still quite smitten with Moira's podcast (Knitting in Stitches) and this week was especially fun since I WAS ON IT! It was so much fun and I giggled the whole time I watched!! 

I have the next episode of Fat Squirrel Speaks all queued up to watch too, but I'm saving it to really enjoy when I'm in dire need of it. It seems that all my favourite knitting videocasts have slowed down (with the exception of Moira), and since they aren't releasing episodes as regularly, they must be savoured with a glass of wine and a particularly soft merino. 

Recently, I added the Minerva Turkey knits podcast to my list and I'm really liking that one too! 

I finished re-listening to the Seaside Knitters Mysteries and now I'm on a bit of a witch bender. I just finished The Witche's Daughter by Paula Brackston, which I really liked. It had some mixed reviews on Audible, but I found it really engaging! Good vs. Evil and regular people having magic gets me every time. Now I'm listening to a similarly titled, but un-related book called The Minister's Daughter - also witchy themed - by Julie Hearn. They both take place (at least partly) in the 17th century around the time witch-hunting was big business, and you really get a feel for how terrifying it must have been to be a woman in those times. Along the same witchy lines, I have queued The Thinking Woman's Guide to Real Magic by Emily Barker and Born Wicked by Jessica Spotswood. I'm going to have so much good listening to accompany my Christmas knitting!!

Show and Tell

Some adorable curly goats!

Coated sheep.

Isn't this so lovely? I want to buy 20 times that much and roll around naked in it!

Greg's mittens! They're so soft and wooly :)

These are the diaper covers for Kim. Ready to be velcroed
and packaged up with pink ribbon.

This is my first spindle-full of Buddy/Alpaca. I spun it on my 15 gram
Golding, and once I finish the next spindle-full, I'll be ready to ply them with the cashmere I spun supported :)

That's all for now!

My New Favourite Podcast!

I'm very excited to write about my new favourite podcast this week! It's a videocast hosted by my very own best friend! Moira has 5 episodes up so far and they are SO DAMN GOOD! And I don't just think that because I already like her! Moira is funny and thoughtful and has interesting things to say about living in Prince Edward Island, working in early childhood education, and life as a knitting addict. Her episodes are about 45ish minutes long, and I giggle through them :)

She isn't on ITunes right now, but you can find her on YouTube, at her website and she also has a Ravelry Group (search for Knitting in Stitches Podcast). She's very much worth watching.

Weeks in Review

Unfortunately the main thing that's been happening lately is influenza. I had some friends over Friday night to knit and to teach a friend from work how to drop spindle, and by the end of the night a sore throat and stuffy nose had settled into my body. I was really hoping that huge doses of ColdFX and vitamin C would keep the inevitable from happening, but no such luck. I've been a mess since Saturday morning. This meant that I missed Thanksgiving dinner on Sunday and didn't get any of my Rhinebeck prep done. I also didn't clean my garden OR plant my fall bulbs, so I'm really quite irritated with the flu. I'm starting to come out of it now and plan to work tomorrow night, so hopefully I can get a few things done tomorrow day to make up for the weekend.

I did manage to get a couple of things done while I was out of commission - including signing up for two classes at Rhinebeck (the First 90 minutes of Spinning Cotton and Spindle Longdraw), and making myself an itinerary and checklist. I'm having ridiculous anxiety dreams and flashes of dread as my trip approached. This is so typical of me, but it seems to be on a slightly bigger scale this time around (probably because certain people in my life had me believe that this is the craziest most deadly risk a person could take). If I survive this trip I may take up base jumping. I'M A WILD WOMAN! But seriously, I've had a recurring dream that I forgot my passport so they wouldn't let me into the festival, and last night I had a dream that I was driving a Ford Focus over ski moguls down a 20 lane highway full of speeding traffic. It was terrifying. Add to that that today I was giving serious (and sad) thought to the fact that if I die at Rhinebeck, Jeff will never have the sweater that I'm knitting for him. I almost cried. Fortunately when I listen to podcasters talk about Rhinebeck, and when I look at the festival schedule online, all I feel is giddy excitement. I'm also giving lots of consideration to anti-anxiety medication.

F.O.s

I finished my Rhinebeck sweater! I settled on Eased by Alicia Plummer since it's bulky, so I knew it would knit up fast, plus I'm familiar with the pattern. I used KnitPicks Swish Bulky for this and hand-dyed the yarn myself. It came out lovely, but a tad bit too big for me. I plan to wear it at Rhinebeck anyway, and I'm kind of excited to have it for a really comfy cozy winter pull-over to keep me warm this winter.  

I also finished that bit of fuchsia superwash merino I was playing with and it turned out LOVELY as well. It's so soft that it feels like a cloud. I made a centre-pull ball and plied it on itself and it came out to a more-or-less DK weight 2-ply, and I have about 160 yards of it. Now I just have to figure out what to do with it. I'm thinking of making A Noble Cowl with it, but that wouldn't really take advantage of it's springiness. But I really want something that will be seen, felt by my skin, and worn lots and I think a hat would be a poor choice since I'm not really a small hat wearer. I think I'm going to do the cowl :)

W.I.P.s

I started a new spinning WIP! I just finished spinning two spindles-full of cashmere that are to be plied with my Buddy-fur/alpaca rolags. I'm doing this as part of a "New to You" spin-along that's being hosted by Malia of Yarnraising Podcast fame. I'm using a new tool (my pink Russian-style supported spindle), two new fibres for me (Buddy-fur and cashmere) AND a new technique (supported spindling). The cashmere was a breeze to spin since supported spindling lends itself well to influenza crafting - since you can do it in bed, so I'm already finished with that part of the project. I'm waiting to start my Buddy rolags until I get my new Golding spindle (EEeeeeeeeee!) in the mail. That'll be a second new tool! 

I've also been doing some more work on Jeff's sweater. There's no way I can have it done before I leave since I have approximately 2 more hours of knitting time before I go, but working on it almost makes me feel like I'm snuggling with Jeff (sorry! Way too sappy/TMI) and makes it seem unlikely that either of us will die as a result of me going to Rhinebeck. Anyway, I'm at the point now where I'm adding in the next two charts. I have one chart for the back and one for each of the front panels, so it's going to start getting more complicated and I think it's going to be limited to couch knitting and no longer make the trip up and down the stairs... We'll see. I certainly am learning an important lesson about the value of sometimes knitting flat. I figured I would knit it in the round, then steek it ('cause who doesn't want to cut months of knitting on a sweater that they've designed from the ground up?) This was stupid for so many reasons, but I'm almost half-way through the colourwork section, so I'm going to plough ahead. Doing it in the round (aside from having to cut it) means that I have to sew in billions of ends. If I were dealing with a non-superwash yarn I might be able to count on the colour stitches to stay put, but as it is, I can't. I cut the end of my contrast colour on one side of the centre-front then reattach it on the other side. If I was knitting it flat, I could just purl back and keep on trucking. I hope the adrenaline rush of steeking is worth it. At least I know Jeff is worth it. That being said, if he loses this sweater and I have to re-knit it, I'll either do it flat, or use a sticky yarn.

On My Screen/In My Ears

I'm adding this new segment so I have a place to talk about what podcasts and audiobooks have been powering my knitting for the last week. 

Obviously I've been watching Knitting in Stitches and I've been giving a lot of thought to something Moira was talking about. She borrowed the topic from another podcaster and was talking about what knitting has brought into her life. So I wanted to share my knitting story too :) 

I started knitting initially in Brownies when I was a mini-person and I don't know if I finished a project at that time, but over the years I would take a notion to do it again and my mom would teach me to cast on (again) and off I'd go! My grandmother was an epic knitter and kept knitting long after she went blind from Glaucoma, but unfortunately my knitting timeline didn't really cross hers. I picked knitting up again when I was 28 years old and homesick and heartbroken in Calgary. When I moved back home I kept knitting and was posting about it on facebook when a friend from Calgary sent me a message to tell me that there was a cool new website called Ravelry that's like facebook for knitting (this was in 2008), and the rest is history! I often wonder if I would have taken to knitting in the same way if it hadn't been for Ravelry, and I'm not sure that I would have. Ravelry gives me a way to make my knitting social, and it's where I first connected with the women in my knitting group! As an introvert, knitting is a way for me to escape a little bit into myself while being with other people, and it makes socializing a lot less intimidating! I also escape into knitting when the world around me is overwhelming. Stressful tasks to complete? Too much housework stressing me out? Thinking about driving in New York by myself too much to handle right now? Knitting provides an escape from all of that, and for that I'm so grateful. It also brings me in contact with really wonderful people! I don't know what it is about knitters, but we certainly are different. Even when I don't initially know that another person is a knitter, I find them kinder, and when I later find out, it totally makes sense. I don't know if it's that we tend to be more patient and open minded about other people or what, but there's something special about other knitters and I'm glad that I have a reason to be part of such a wonderful group of people. Now I'm really getting sappy. OH - and I like soft fibres! Superwash merino and cashmere fibres are something wonderful that knitting has given me. 

Aside from Moira's wonderful new podcast, I've also been listening to some audiobooks. I'm embarrassed to confess this, but I LOVE cozy mysteries that have a knitting theme! The cozier and cheesier, the better! I especially love it if it's part of a series, because I adopt the characters into my life as though they are real people I know and knit with. Oh, and if there are witches and/or ghosts it gets bonus points. Right now I'm re-listening to the Seaside Knitter's Mysteries by Sally Goldenbaum. I'm currently on the third in the series called Moon Spinners. Yup. One of my favourite things about these books is that within the first couple of hours somebody usually either threatens somebody else, or somebody makes a proclamation like "over my dead body", so it's easy to tell who the victim and suspects will be. I'm not going to lie - it is fantastic to knit by!

Show and Tell

Lucy in a basket. Yeah, she really is that cute 

My finished Rhinebeck sweater on the left. I don't yet have a photo of it on, which is a shame, because sweaters always look better on a model and this one is no exception.
 I washed, blocked, and de-pilled my Owls sweater as well, in case I need a back-up at Rhinebeck.

I forgot to mention this in F.O.s. This is my Rhinebeck tote!
I made it out of scraps of fabric I had laying around and I LOVE it!
Its roomy and sturdy and the patchwork colours make me HAPPY :)

This is my superwash merino. This photo doesn't do it justice.
I absolutely love it and wish it was big enough that I could use it as a pillow.

The beginnings of my New to You spin-along.

I'm counting myself as 40% finished since I've spun half my singles.
I'll spin the Buddy/alpaca on my 1/2 ounce Golding, then ply one each of Buddypaca and cashmere on one of my bigger spindles.
I should wind up with two two-ounce skeins coming in around a sport weight.

That's all for now!

Tales From the Dye Journal

I have a new hobby. It involves fibre. I'm so sorry.

Last year I got really interested in dyeing (Saying that out loud gives me an embarrassing case of the giggles. Homonyms.) As I was saying, I started playing with some natural dyes, starting with indigo, which is a surprisingly stinky dye. It was good fun and I made my bestie (Moira) some denimy handspun. I also experimented with cutch and kool-aid. These were all neat, but I've been wanting to sink my teeth into a bit of acid dyeing, so I went for it. I got some jacquard dye, but mostly I've been working with the Greener Shades line which is supposed to be a little bit less toxic.

Blue Braids

I have about a pound of Rambouillet top to play with right now, so I decided to use this to experiment with dye. 

I used two separate 4 oz braids that I purchased from Crystal Creek Fibers on Etsy. This fibre has a micron count of 21.5 and I paid 16.75 CAD including shipping, which was the best price I saw by a wide margin.

To make my dye stock I added 1 tsp each of River Blue and Coral Reef Aqua in 2 cups of water. I made a second jar with 1/2 tsp of Amethyst Purple in 1/2 cup of water. 

I soaked my fibre in a sink full of water with 2 cups of white vinegar.

I decided to pour all of my blue dye stock into a large stock pot 1/2 full of water with another cup of white vinegar. I let it get just below a simmer, laid a stick across the top of the pot and draped my wool braids (folded double) over the stick so that the bottoms of the braids were immersed in the dye. I let it sit for a couple of minutes and poured some of the amethyst dye over the white fibre on the stick. I also sprinkled a tiny bit of pink Jaquard I-dye over the very tops then I removed the stick and let the braids submerge. After 20 minutes at a near-simmer the fibre was very saturated... and so was the water. I used too much dye. 

I removed the braids to let them cool and threw in some washed Pembrooke fleece I had sitting around - just because I didn't want to waste the dye. I had to throw in a bit of citric acid, but eventually I did exhaust the dye bath. 

The end result was surprisingly lovely! It's certainly more saturated than I intended, but it has some interesting character and the purple and pink didn't end up being totally eaten up by the blue, which  is really nice. 

Not too shabby :)

Fuschia's Flowin'

This little project came about because I heard I'm supposed to knit a special sweater to wear at Rhinebeck. Since I'm running low on time I decided to make it a bulky number. I bought some undyed Swish Bulky and decide to go with something along the red/purple spectrum and VIBRANT.

To make my dye stock, I added 1 tsp of  Ruby Red and 1/2 tsp of Amethyst Purple to 2 cups of water. After the fiasco with too much blue dye I decided to be more conservative with my dye usage. While all turned out well, another important lesson is to make more dye stock than I think I'll need - it can always be saved for another day, and sometimes you need more than you think you do.

I used the same "wool over the stick" trick as with the Blue Braids, and even sprinkled with pink Jaquard, but this time I didn't have enough dye stock in my pot. I did four 100gm skeins at a time with half my dye stock, and while the pot is big enough to hold this, it required a lot more dye. I ended up with big white patches in my yarn. I thought using pink might be cute, so I added about 1 1/2 tsp of the pink powder overtop of the white area. It came out super cute, but still had more white showing than I was happy with.

I ended up mixing a half-batch of the original dye stock, adding a Tbsp of citric acid, and using a squeeze bottle to apply it handpaintystyle, then steam set all 800 grams at once in my big pot.

After it was all done, I gave it a nice vinegar soak and warm water wash, and now it's lovely and I can't wait to use it to knit my Rhinebeck sweater!!

A PSA about dyeing:

I've heard that when dyeing skeins of yarn you should have at least three figure-8 ties. Make 4. 

Going to Rhinebeck! STAG!!

Most fiber enthusiasts will know why this is exciting to announce. The fiber festival in Rhinebeck, NY is a very large, well known, and well talked-about event. Most of the fibery podcasts I listen to and watch make reference to it and sometimes attend, so I think it might actually be a place where I can do some "knitting celebrity" spotting. So this all came about rather quickly and without much planning (my going, that is - the festival itself probably had lots of planning).

I was recently browsing the Rhinebeck website after going on a podcast binge, and I happened to notice that the festival takes place on my weekend off. At first I brushed the idea aside. I can't go to New York. I have nobody to go with! It's New York and that's not where I am!! CRAZY! The idea fermented however, and eventually I convinced myself that I should go. At first, the idea of going alone really bothered me and gave me second thoughts, but some other Ravellers gave me courage and I am 33 years old, after all. I don't know why, but I feel as though 33 is the age at which a person really ought to be able to do anything she sets her mind to. In the past several years I've bought a house by myself, moved to Calgary by myself, then moved back, and I resuscitate small people for a living. That has very little to do with solo travel, but I feel that if I'm incapable of going to New York, then I'm hardly capable enough to take care of the critically ill. Maybe that's too much of a leap, but still... I can do this! Right???

Well, I'm going to. My plane ticket is booked (I fly out a few hours after a night shift - Yikes!), my rental car is booked, my hotel is booked, my festival ticket is bought, printed, and sitting on my coffee table, and my excitement level is HIGH!

I'll be getting in rather late on Friday, so I won't get to check out the grounds at all on Friday, but I'm staying a short drive away (in Poughkeepsie) so I can be there bright and early in the morning on Saturday. There are a few interesting demos on Saturday - including a talk about cashmere goats and later a cashmere spinning demonstration, so I'll need to see those. The vendor list is huge, so that's also going to take a long time to fully explore. Plus I need to eat at some point, so Saturday looks pretty full. Is it perverse that I'll be keeping my eyes peeled for interesting lamb dishes? It probably is, but oh-my-God... Sunday has a bit more structure to it, which I hope won't feel too confining. I would love to wander about and take it all in, but there are a couple of classes that really interest me. There's one about spinning cotton, which I've tried without success to do before, so instruction would be nice. And there's another (related) class about spindle long draw, which is really neat since it's something I've been trying to get the feel of recently.

From browsing the Ravelry boards, I get the impression that there are a lot of other women going stag, so I don't feel quite as awkward about that now. These people are, after all, members of my tribe :) Apparently, since most of the hotels are filled with Rhinebeck attendees, the common rooms tend to be full of us in the evenings, so it's a great place to go and relax and make super-cool knitting connections.

The biggest fear-inducer now is just the drive. I'm landing in Laguardia, so I'm going to need to pick up my rental there and then drive out of New York City on a Friday night, THEN brave the interstate in the dark. I live in Prince Edward Island. I have driven here, and in New Brunswick, and (with the exception of a few hours across the prairies) NOWHERE ELSE. But, as I mentioned before, I am a reasonable intelligent 33 year old woman. I have traveled. I have driven cars. Plus I'm pretty sure that in the U.S. they drive on the right-hand side of the road, most signage will be in English, and red means "stop". I can do this. Plus I paid extra for a GPS. As an extra bonus, I just (moments prior to publishing this post) SPOKE WITH THE SAVVY GIRLS regarding this very topic. I was a bit more nervous after speaking about it with the family, but Deborah and Melanie really put my mind at ease. Unfortunately I think I may have gone a bit "fan girl" on the phone, but they were pretty cool about it :) I'll write more about that another time because I feel like I need to stress how cool it was of them to call me in Canada from New York to help put my mind at ease with regards to driving in NY. 

Weeks in Review

It hasn't been that long since my last post, and the main thing that happened was my Rhinebeck planning, so there isn't a whole lot to share here.

My brother and his family were here visiting from Seattle and that was great fun. His kids are 3 years and 18 months, so they're at the super-cute learning machines stage. And MAN are they busy! I was off work almost the whole time they were here and it was the most exhausting vacation I've ever taken. Very much worth it, though. Plus they stayed with my parents so I had some downtime at night. I think they had a pretty good trip. My sister-in-law is from Seattle, so it's nice for her to get to do some touristy stuff when she's here. They went to the beach a couple of times; visited Victoria by The Sea; had lobster at New Glasgow Lobster Suppers; and I got to spend some fun time getting to know the babies :)

I haven't been doing much gardening, but we've had a few frost warnings at night, so it will soon be time to clean up the garden for the season and plant fall bulbs. It makes me feel a bit less sad about summer ending.

I've done a bit of dyeing this week, but I'm going to save that discussion for another time. There was more to share than I realized!

F.O.s

Nothing is finished! BUT I did get 2 of 7 skeins of merino done. Does that count as an F.O.? They're about 100 grams each and a true 3-ply. They turned out to be more of a DK than a sport weight at 14 W.P.I., which is a big relief since I'm seeing a lot more sweater patterns I like in DK. I haven't soaked them yet either, so I imagine when they're all done they'll fluff up to a pretty solid DK. I'm not going to measure yardage until all the skeins are finished and dyed.

W.I.P.s

Is it cheating to consider my merino both a W.I.P. and an F.O.? I consider it to be both. I'm still picking away at my fuchsia superwash merino too.

I haven't done much with Jeff's sweater, but I look forward to working a couple of rounds tonight :)
And - since I didn't have anything portable to take to knitting group on Sunday, I cast-on a hat for Jeff. He's still wearing the hat I knit him 4-5 years ago and it's looking a bit tired, so I think he needs an upgrade. I'm knitting him a Jacques-Cousteau out of my Hot Fuzz handspun. It's a pretty rustic single ply that's more thick-and-thin than is optimal, but it's one of my first usable handspun projects and it has a special place in my heart.

Show and Tell

It's been getting frosty early this year and I've already had a couple of fires in the wood stove.
This is some red that I got from my Mum for my birthday in one of the glasses Jeff's parents gave me.
It was a happy, warm, toast evening- spinning by the fire :)

This is my first of two finished skeins of yarn from the 2 pounds of roving I got from Belfast Mini Mills.
I've got a long way to go, but the merino is so soft I think I could spin it forever.
It's good that I feel that way, because that's how it's shaping up. 

This is the somewhat scratchy hat I started for Jeff.
It should be warm and rugged. He's going to know he's wearing wool!

That's all for now!