Monday Morning

One of the things I do on my personal blog is write on Monday about what is going on what I am thinking and intending for the week. I thought that might be fun here. Over there I use a framework and I think I will use something like it here, but not the same one.

Right now I am...
In my kitchen drinking coffee, from the mug my Mother-in-law gave me. I have a fresh lemon and rosemary infusion scenting the air.

In Video Production...
I have one more section - the results - to work on for the green skein video I mentioned in the chatty podcast and then some minor edits. I am hoping to have it live on Wednesday. Shooting will begin on the New Mystery Spin video this week! I am really curious to see what is in the box!

On the Wheel...
Actually, right at this moment nothing but I am working on some test skeins of Corriedale Wool for a friend who will be knitting an Aran sweater. We are working together on this as a gift for (not telling) and I have spun an oiled 2-ply Spun Z-S, next is an oiled three ply Spun Z-S, then both again but Spun S-Z, then one (whichever she is leaning towards liking best) un-oiled. I am making her one oz samples to swatch and compare. This project will be fit in around other things.

On the Loom...
Will be a blanket, I have decided to weave and waulk a wool blanket, partially as a get to know the ins and outs of this loom, partially as a demo piece for The Rare Breeds Show at Garfield Farm Museum.

In the Dyepot...
More self striping yarn!

Papers and Bolts...
This week I need to send in the application for another show and get in contact with the guy who runs my farmer's market.  I also really need to update the Etsy and Square Stores!

Who I am watching... 
Mina at Knitting Expat. Grace at Spin Weekly. Rachel at Wool N' Spinning. And Kate at Milk Thistle.

Podcast Episode four

Is ready! The link is here.

Show notes:

Podcast Four

Knitting:

                In Progress:

                                Milk sweater-    Knit picks size 9 us or 5.5 mm

                                                                Gyre Cardigan in interweave knits spring 2014

                                                                Vicki Howell Craft in Carol colorway        

65-35 Organic cotton-Milk Fiber

I love how this is looking but dislike the way it is written, if you are working this pattern, just keep swimming. It works but it doesn’t seem like it will.

Next socks-        I cast on Mina Philpp’s Pattern Grand Central from her NY collection.  The Collection is available on Ravelry for purchase and she is running it as a knit along.

                                I will be using Addi Sock rockets in US size 1 (2.25mm) with a 40inch cable, which is my go to for socks!

                                The yarn is Red Heart, Heart & Sole with Aloe. I finally remember how this got into my stash – this is a stash busting year for me – I bought a grab bag a few years ago and this was one of the yarns inside. This is not to my tastes but several of the other yarns in the bag, luckily, were. This is 70-30 Superwash wool-Nylon, The colorway is called Watercolor Stripe.

Cabin Afghan:    I have two new squares for the cabin blanket, and starting a third. While working on it during one of the camping trips we took this month I ran into a problem and have come up with a change in the project to deal with it. Each of the centers of the Log cabin blocks are six stitches wide, one for each member of the family. I want to use only my own yarn and many breeds and dye tests. I have a lot of bits that are big enough to do the center but not enough to do even the next course. Wanting to move forward with the project I decided staggering the blocks with a different block.

                Finished Objects:

Stash busting socks. Patons Kroy Cascade Knit Picks interchangeable size 2.5 us or 3mm. Reflections, I adjusted the Vanilla Sock Recipe to match the needles I had. I had received a pair of pretty socks that were tight and I was working against it. So these socks are bigger than they should be. I am otherwise happy with them.

Lime stripes. I dyed this yarn as a sock blank and spinning guild program. I love the stripes. I used Addi Sock rockets that I bought specifically for the new sock obsession I am working under.  I did not modify the pattern.

Pikachu Sweater. This turned out very well and loved. Mouse – I have long used these nicknames for my children, both in public media and in our day to day lives. Beaver he is 18, Mouse he is 12, Bunny she is 10, and Badger she is 8 – loves it. I have had to wrestle it back to wash it.

Spinning:

In Progress:                        I am working on a green yarn that will be covered in detail in the next video.

                                                I also decided to join the Completely Twisted and Arbitrary Spinning Group on Ravelry and their Spin the Bin Challenge. You collect –often from long ignored stash though that is not a requirement – fiber to spin, 12 lots of at least 2oz each but can be more, and photograph them together in a bin. You have the year to spin them, if you remove a fiber from the bin you have to replace it with two new fibers.  They have a few other rules and a chat group, it is a lot of fun and beautiful yarns are being made, check it out. So this is my bin, I am going to show off the bags now, but talk about them later. You can check out more info now at my Ravelry yarn page.

                                                Also ready and waiting is the next mystery spin!  

Finished Objects:             I sold the red wolle skein this Friday at Spinning Guild, but if you want to see it you can check out that video! I am hoping to get a picture of the finished object the guild member makes with it to show off to you.

The first mystery spin is done! I love the feel and am looking forward to knitting or weaving it up. I am debating yet, but leaning towards knitting it the Super Eyelet Shawl by Fiona Wright. I would love to hear your thoughts. http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/super-eyelet-shawl

Crochet:

In Progress:                        I have two long in progress crochet projects. A weather blanket, the idea is to crochet a row each days – I am about a month behind – with the color representing the day’s high temperature. 

                                                The other is a stash busting project in which I made a hundred flowers and am linking them for a cheerful summer garden throw.

                Finished Objects:             I have nothing finished to show you.

Weaving:

In progress:                        The new loom! This month I sold my Sievert’s loom, and bought a Kessenich Loom. The Sievert’s loom was purchased several years ago, the owner before me had converted it from a table top loom to a floor loom. I bought it kind of spontaneously, it did not fit in my car, and then it starts to rain. A random nice lady attending the rendezvous stopped and helped me. We loaded into her van and drove to a nearby friend’s house. She wasn’t home! Luckily she has a lovely big covered porched. I called another friend, who soon arrives with her husband and some tools. It was a good loom, but its usable weaving area was small – about 14 inches.  A lady in the weaving guild I belong to was selling her loom! So after thinking about it for a while and finding that a dear friend was interested in buying my loom, the decision was made. I am now the proud owner of a Kessenich Loom with a weaving area of about 36 inches.  The only difficultly was that I had just warped the loom for three scarves before making this decision. I ended up weaving like a mad fiend and getting them done in time to deliver the loom mostly on time.

As to first projects I am debating between making matching throws for an upcoming wedding or making a project for my house to get to know the loom with.

Finished Objects:             These three scarves are a project for the weaving guild. They supplied the yarn and we are all making scarves for the area homeless shelter. A chance to practice weaving and to do good at the same time.

Sewing:

In Progress:                        In sewing I have mostly doing mending, but I am toying with some design ideas for yarn project holders, after the tangle fest that was the intarsia of the Pikachu sweater. More on these later.

I am also starting a 1840’s era dress, for Garfield Farm Museum’s Rare Breed Show.

                Finished Objects:

Since Last We Chatted:                  I have been sick! All of March was illness! And April has been recovery and returning to normal – or at least as normal as it gets here – life. I have mostly being trying to keep up and to organize things, in the hopes of making the necessary life chores taking less time. I have had a chance to visit with a couple of old friends and plan to not let so much time go in between now and the next time we get together. Beaver has selected his college, here in the state, so there is a future of him shopping in our cupboards and bring home laundry to look forward too.

Show:                                                   I did a nice Crafts show in February and met some interesting people. The weather was very good, which is bad for an indoor show in winter. We did okay, and the people running the event were great. Here is a short video of our booth. My father and his woodwork are featured along with my Mother-in-law’s Lovely pottery and all my fiber-y awesomeness. The booth on one side was Harmony Specialty Foods, selling yummy and some unusual cheeses. One the other side was Opal Stone of Wild and Precious Prints, selling really pretty lettered signs. www.wildpreciousorint.etsy.com

Camping:                                             The husband and kids camped in the snow at our land up north while I was at that show. They had fun and were full of adventure tales when I got home. Since then we have gone up twice, once for a few days with the kids and once just the two of us. I love being there! Enjoy these pictures from our trips.

Videos and tools

 I made up a bunch of the yarn holder bracelets. They are a soft aluminum wire with glass beads and a swiveling clasp.

To get started you insert the bottom piece in a center pull ball or yarn cake, then clip the bracelet part on. 

You can then knit from either end of the ball - I prefer the center - and you yarn is neatly right there at your wrist ready to knit or crochet. I have used them walking and sitting and hanging from either wrist. If you are near a table, you can un-clip the bracelet and it will stand in place. I love them.


I also spent some time working on another video today! Coming soon! Right after I remember to charge the camera battery and finish the spin.

 ~Julia

Mystery Spin the First

The First Mystery Spin video is up. Link here. I hope you like the video.

Show notes:

Main skein – Wpi 13, 214 yards, 3.65 oz, DK

Small skein – Wpi 13, 30 yards, .50 oz, DK

I only lost about .05 oz in the processing and prep. One of the fibers had quite a bit of small vegetable matter within, which you saw me picking out. The mini skein is entirely the second strand plied onto itself and I think it would make a nice finishing edge. I am not entirely happy with this spin up, the second strand is less showy but spun up nicely  and I like it better. The combination of having both cotton and silk – I said they weren’t in the bin, but I was wrong, the soft creamy stuff in the unveiling section is cotton – made for a difficult spin. I have a balanced yarn here, but I am not as happy with it as I would be if the entire yarn was the second strand’s colorway. In deciding how I would spin this up I chose to put most of the angora, lighter colored alpaca, mohair, all of the silk and all of the cotton into the first strand. The darker colors (Merino, Lincoln Longwool, Wensleydale, alpaca and glitter) went to the second strand so set myself up for this issue, but I had a good reason, I wanted the stable length of the silk to help stabilize the shortness of the cotton. I do feel that this was helpful, but maybe not as much as I hoped.  I did go through the bin again to make certain (touch wood) that all the cotton and silk are out of the bin I have set up for my mystery spin selectors to pick from. I added some more stuff while I was there so I am looking forward to the next one.

I am working on my framing and hoping that some changes I am making to my set-up will improve the visibility of my hands in the shots. If you have suggestions, I welcome them, both in video and in what you would be interested in me working on. I have the next mystery spin box made, this time by a dear friend, and am working on a spin of brown sheep wool that I dyed and a silk blending. The next podcast will be a catch up chat so you can see more of what I have been working on!

The apron I am wearing in so many of the shots is recycled men’s silk ties. The silk helps the wool not to stick to me so I don’t arrive to pick my kids up from school looking like a sheep. My dad suggested making another in different colors might help the video, so I am gathering a few more for that project.

http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/super-eyelet-shawl

I am thinking about either making the Super Eyelet Shawl by Fiona Wright or weaving with it. I would love to hear your thoughts.

Video and a walk

My new video is up! Link here. In this video I take you through the dyeing, processing, spinning, and plying of Eiderwolle into yarn.I hope you enjoy it.

I am making tablecloths, cleaning up the studio, working on changes for the shop, and took a lovely walk through a local crafts market to see if it would be a good location for me. I am looking around yet but the market was very nice and I found several things to go back and buy as presents for family members.