July Already?

I can't believe it's been nearly two months since I last posted. June was a very busy month here at Casa del Chaos! I'm not going to try to catch up in one post because it will be too much.

Tour de Fleece
I'm doing Tour de Fleece this year. Here's my progress as of yesterday morning (day 3):

Tour de Fleece - Day 3

That's more of the angora blend (actually a Dorset/kid Mohair/Satin Angora mix) that I've been spinning to match the Dicentra Designs roving I was working on here . This is actually some of the oldest stash I have in the Basement of Wool since the Dorset component is from when I was a brand new spinner nearly 20 years ago (and with an interesting story around its acquisition but that's a story for another blog post).

Non-Tour de Fleece
I finished spinning the Dicentra Design BRIGHT rainbow:

two tiny balls of handspun

Unfortunately, there's only about 80 yards or so, maybe around 100 yards when combined with the yarn used for the initial test swatch. So I'm not sure if my initial plan to make myself a pair of mittens will work out here.

The natural angora skein next to it is from the batts I'm currently spinning for TdF, but this batch had a higher percentage of angora than the other batts, giving it a more definite grey color (the satin angora I used was silver). The grey angora skein only has around 120 yards in it.

I quickly swatched a bit with the initial run of matching Dorset/mohair/angora blend to see how the grey worked with the colored yarn (nicely I think). I have to say that my purling in two colors technique is something I need to work on.

I've nearly finished my handspun Spring Forward socks:

Yes, Vanessa, I still have my bad habit of waiting to graft the toes!

And I've started another pair of socks:

Pattern: Cedar Creek Socks
Yarn: Blue Moon Fiber Arts
Colorway: Rainforest Jasper

I know, I know, I said I wasn't starting any new knitting projects until the sweater was done, but I have been rethinking that approach (not really working for me - more on that later). Besides I used the well-known "Traveling to son's college commencement" exception. What, you haven't heard of that one? It's right there in chapter 12 of Denise's Book of Knitting Rationalizations.

Quilting!
I also started a quilting project. It's a gift but I think it's safe to assume the intended recipient doesn't read this blog (and if they do, they wouldn't necessarily know it's for them) so I think I can blog my progress on it here.

I think it should be noted that I am a very beginning quilter. Very. Beginning. A lot.

My previous quilting projects have consisted of some seriously simple nine patch blocks in table runners and precisely two baby quilts (one nine patch and one printed panel type quilt). I do have some sampler blocks from a beginning quilting class I took more than 8 years ago, but I got the flu and didn't manage to finish the class so the sampler wall hanging was never finished. And, unless buying fabric and patterns counts, I haven't really done any quilting in years.

I mention all of that so that it's clear just how ambitious this project is for me. And also to show that I may not be completely clear on the difference between optimism and insanity.

So far I've pieced the 'leaf' units and now I'm working on the base units. The base units involve using templates, which I've never used before. I can't really say I'm wild about them at this point. I think I prefer shapes that are rotary cut. The second batch got a bit easier after I starched the fabric and switched to a narrow (.5 mm) mechanical pencil for outlining the template shapes on the fabric. Here they are in progress:

And here's the initial test block (to make sure the templates were cut correctly):

Untrimmed block I guess I should have tidied it up before its photoshoot
(leaf units are to the side)

And here's part of the reason I don't think I'll be doing too many template-based patterns in the future:

Maybe if your post-cut out pattern piece 'adjustments' consist of one or two
thread-widths it was probably close enough to begin with...

Yeah, like I really need something that works to enhance my abilities in the 'obsess about the tiny details' department...

Having a Great Time!!

Having a really great time! Had a completely lovely dinner with Jo last night - I can't remember when I've had a nicer time!

Mr. CPA is anxious to get going - the computer here at the internet cafe is very slow and at €5 per hour I can't take too long.

More later...

Spinning and Swatching

No, you haven’t stumbled upon the wrong blog by mistake, there is actually some spinning and knitting content here on Yin and Yarn for a change.

First up, spinning.

Fiber: Dicentra Designs Blue Faced Leicester Top (5.2 oz total)
Colorway: Longbottom Leaf
Project Plan: TBD but likely socks

Spinning Details
Singles: Slightly less than 25 wpi - Approximately 27 degree twist angle

This bobbin represents about half the total fiber. Nothing fancy attempted in trying to manage the color runs. I just split the top in half and then split each half again, keeping each section in order so that I start them all at the same spot in spinning.

This top practically spins itself, making it perfect for a bit of pre-trip anxiety stress spinning.


Now, on to the knitting content portion of this post…


What I had originally planned to have completed for our trip:

Actual current project progress

Basketweave Vest
Handspun Yarn Details
Fiber: Colonial Wool Top (2 pounds total)
Colorway: Unknown ancient colorway (purchased over 9 years ago)
Project Plan: Basketweave Vest from Jamieson’s Book 2
Progress: Swatch completed

This is a DK weight 3-ply that I spun up in Spring and Fall of 2005 to keep from going insane while taking Trigonometry and Calculus.

(ETA: the spinning was much healthier than fantasizing about the various ways I would like my Calculus teacher to meet with an untimely end. Oh, I still did it, just not as much as I would have without the spinning. It wasn't just the difficult coursework - he was *not* a nice person and especially didn't like women over 40. A fact he made very clear throughout the quarter to me and the rest of the 'non-traditional' women students in the class. As you can tell, I'm still a bit worked up about it.)

would it be too pathetic to start considering yarn a finished project?

so not a vest...

Leaf Lace Shawl

Yarn: Lisa Souza Baby Alpaca lace
Colorway: Olive Tones

Project Plan: Leaf Lace Shawl by Fiber Trends
Progress: started (soft of - see below)

the real yarn is so much prettier than my photo would indicate

A better color representation
Look at how huge that skein is - it took forever to wind!
Note to self: must get a real swift at some point

I love this yarn!! First of all the color is glorious (my photo, sadly, does not nearly do it justice), but the yardage is incredible – 1500 yards. At a mere $34 this is such a bargain!

I cast on for the Leaf Lace shawl Saturday night. I thought things were going along well but Sunday morning I saw what had been obscured by the dim lighting* of the living room the previous evening. For some reason my yarnovers at the right-hand edge of the right-side rows are considerably smaller than the rest of the yarnovers. It’s especially apparent when compared to the left-hand edge.

unevenly stretched out to show lack of similarity between yarnovers

So more negative progress has been made - I’ll be ripping this out and starting over.

I was contemplating taking the shawl as trip knitting but I’ll probably be taking my old standby, socks, instead.

I’m thinking of finally trying some of my Koigu that I purchased at Madrona 2 years ago for one of the patterns from Nancy Bush’s Knitting on the Road. But which colorway? And which pattern?

Yes, Vanessa (aka, The Koigu Queen!), I'm still a Koigu virgin

Things are amping up here at Casa del Chaos now that there is less than a week to go for vacation. So much to do before we leave! And then there’s the actual flying part, but let’s not think about that right now.

My friend Jo has been posting wonderful pictures of the Irish countryside and sending me wonderful travel ideas that have us even more excited to see things in person. I can’t wait to visit with her at the lovely new yarn store in Kenmare (no website yet unfortunately)!

*Our 1960s ranch home has remained remarkably unchanged since it was first built (who knew that the original gold fleck formica was so durable?). This includes some pretty inadequate original 1960s lighting throughout the house, making evening knitting and spinning challenging.

A Full Recovery

No, not me unfortunately, I’m still fighting the crummy virus*. The tank top, however, is finally finished and feeling fine.

After discovering that the tank's armholes were too long, I removed the crochet trim and ripped back the tank straps to a more suitable point and then did a three-needle bind-off for the shoulders:

step 1: k2tog from the front and back needles

step 2: lift first stitch on needle over new stitch
as per regular bind-off



finished seam

I re-applied the crochet trim at approximately one crochet stitch to every-other knit stitch around (except in a couple of random places where I had to change the ratio to get a better look).

The finished tank top:

A seasonally appropriate FO?
The start of new, improved knitting habits
or one of the sevens signs of the apocalypse?
You decide.

The tank looks a little crooked but it's really not, I just didn’t notice that it wasn't quite laid out properly until I looked at the finished picture while posting.

Project Details
Pattern: Artful Yarns #92148
Yarn: Candy in Bubblegum (#9365) - I used one more ball than called for in the pattern
Difficulty: Super Easy


This brings me to a total of three finished projects since January which, according to the self-imposed rules of my ‘No Knitting Left Behind’ Project, entitles me to start a new project as a reward (now you know why I was so anxious to finish this project!).



*I cannot believe how much I’ve been sick this year – I really hope this is it for awhile. Fortunately this virus is not quite as bad as the really impressive January sickness so I am able to actually sit upright and (slowly) work on some knitting this time.

An Unhappy Union

Is there a secret to combining crochet and knitting? Because this seems like a bad combination.

Also this yarn is a bit splitty so the crochet action is kind of slow going. After reworking the front edging several times, I've settled on an every other stitch spacing for the most part. Except for the areas where I have to randomly crochet into every stitch to make it look right.

the now 'un-mobiused' tank is subjected to it's crochet finish

Because of the way the neck decreases are done in the pattern, some sort of edging is definitely needed. I just am not sure the crochet really works here.

I suppose I'd better try it on before I finish the whole thing in order to make sure this non-flexible crochet edging is at the correct ridgidity gauge for the flexible ribbing of the tank.

Completely gratuitous terrier photo:

Toby enjoying the brief bit of sunshine we got this morning

Negative progress

I have had Casa del Chaos all to myself today since Mr. CPA and the youngest manchild are up north attending an event at the boy’s college of choice (which I’ve been referring to as Empty Nest University).

I successfully darned a hole in a sweater (not hand knit) that has been awaiting my attention for, oh, about a year.

Next I started in on finishing a simple tank top that I started last spring.*

Look, one seam done!

Do you see the problem? How about here:

Yes, I’ve cleverly managed to make one half of a tank top moebius. ::sigh::

Normally I sew things up on the dining room table, which has plenty of room to spread out. Since no one was home to complain about me watching marathon home improvement programs, I decided to use the much less accommodating coffee table in the front room so I could watch HGTV while I worked. Evidently in squinching things together on the table I didn’t notice that I’d twisted the tank top and was sewing the left front to the right back.



**I really think I would have finished this last year but I ran out of yarn. I was waiting for my LYS to order more but it never arrived. Then summer ended. I finally ordered some yarn from another source but the incentive to finish a tank top in the dead of winter was somewhat lacking on my part.

Selbu Mittens: The Untold Story

What with my full-time employment at ACME Giant Government Bureaucracy Inc and running my little entrepreneurial venture evenings and weekends, there’s not much time to knit and I don’t finish too many knitting projects these days.

But when my friend Terri Shea announced that she needed test knitters for a book project she was working it sounded so interesting that I volunteered right away.

I’m so glad that I did because this was a really enjoyable project. The only hard part was not being able to show anyone my finished mittens!

Now that Terri’s book, Selbuvotter: Biography of a Knitting Tradition, has gone to press I am free to share the mittens that I knit for her:

Even harder to send away than the Spin to Knit skein!

I was really happy with how the mittens turned out and I can’t wait to make another pair for myself. After seeing the beautiful samples Angela and Vanessa knit for Terri, I have a feeling these won’t be the only pair that I’ll want to make from this book!

Thank you, Terri, for letting me be a part of your Selbu mitten project, it was great fun. You are a mitten maven! I hope you sell a million copies!

What? You’re still here?
You should go already and buy a book from Teri!
Such a nice girl! Such a nice book!

SuperWool Sunday

Preparations got underway early at Casa del Chaos for SuperWool Sunday celebrations.

A quick trip to Starbucks provided the caffeine-fueled ambition needed for the early morning trip to Costco for appropriate snackage supplies for the event. Some basic amount of housework was performed in order maintain the illusion that we are not complete slobs somewhat tidy (family members were coached in appropriate intervention techniques should a guest appear to be inadvertently opening a closet door on the way to the bathroom).

Toby (aka Spazzy McTerrierpants) did his part by barking wildly for several minutes after Holly and Miss O’s arrival just in case we hadn’t noticed that there were actually guests standing in our living room. (what did we ever do without him?)

We quickly got down to business with SuperWool Sunday activities.

First we all went through the Magic Stash Box** that came home with me from Madrona courtesy of Sam. Selections were made and re-stock contributions were added to the box.

After some snacks to keep up our energy, it was time for the knitting and spinning portion of the day.

Miss O swatched for her first sweater and received some tips from Mom in how to alter the pattern to fit her swatch in lieu of knitting a second swatch to meet the pattern’s gauge.

Sorry for the sucky picture - I really need to get a scanner for this kind of stuff

After the details were worked out, Miss O cast on for her first sweater.

Holly worked on Miss O’s birthday sweater for awhile (Bed & Breakfast Pullover, Interweave Knits Winter 2003, in Beaverslide Yarn) and then got to work spinning sock yarn from her Blue Moon Fiber Arts Socks to Shoe spinning kit.

This is where the internet needs ‘Touch-O-Vision’. This Beaverslide Yarn really needs to be touched to be experienced! It’s absolutely glorious. And the colors have great depth too.

Oops! I forgot to take a picture of Holly's spinning until was starting to pack up her wheel!

And I worked on finishing my Brocade Wrap (Jamieson’s Shetland Knitting Book 2, page 94, in Elann Peruvian Highland Wool yarn)

not in Beaverslide yarn unfortunately

I am still undecided as to whether to keep knitting one or two more repeats to use up all the yarn or follow Miss O’s sage advice to just bind off and finish it at the end of this particular pattern repeat (each repeat is 24 rows). I’m thinking at this point it may be the latter. This project has been in progress for too long.

Only too soon the day was over. If only every Sunday could be SuperWool Sunday!


Hey, did you know there was some big football event today with a similar name? Eerie.

**The Magic Stash Box is a box of traveling yarn (or several boxes in this case) that moves among group members. When it arrives at your house you go through it and remove the treasures that you want and then add your unwanted treasure contributions back to the box before shipping it off to the next person on the list. It's great fun.

Madrona Report

(I am finally on the mend and have been cleared for limited computer access and blogging by the rest enforcer my loving husband. This is a conditional release however and privileges will be revoked if I relapse due to failure to exercise moderation…)

My absolute favorite part of Madrona is visiting with friends from both near and far that I don’t get to see nearly often enough.

Beyond that it’s hard to pick favorites at Madrona because the event itself is just wonderful from start to finish and the classes, in my experience, are always excellent. The only bad part of Madrona is waiting a whole year for the next one!

That being said, if I had to pick one class from the entire weekend as my favorite then Susanna Hansson’s Lapland Hand Garments: The mittens from Rovaniemi would be that class.

When the Madrona class listing first came out I had googled ‘rovaniemi mittens’ and found Lene’s lovely mittens . I was quite intrigued to learn this interesting intarsia in the round technique though the reference in the class description of using “11 small balls of yarn” sounded a bit daunting. I was thrilled when Vanessa and I both managed to get in to the class before it filled up.

Day One – The Mittens of Rovaniemi
After some interesting historical and geographical background we were able to admire, fondle and even try on the sample mittens. I read Lene Alve’s blog regularly and so I have admired her knitting online many times, but it doesn’t compare to seeing her absolutely perfect and beautiful knitting in person. Lene is an artist and an absolutely inspiring knitter.

The mittens were very difficult to part with once on the hand!

The first part of the class involved learning the technique with Cascade 220 and larger needles (I’m new at this blogging thing and was so intent on my knitting I forgot to take a photo of this part). Once we felt comfortable the process in the larger gauge we were able to pick out the colors for our finer gauge cuff.

The technique was a bit more challenging in the finer gauge and smaller needles (I believe I overheard Stephanie tell Susanna that the larger gauge sample made one a little over-confident and the finer gauge knitting was a more humbling experience)

Sample mitten in progress

This had to have been the quietest knitting class I’ve ever been in. There was no chatting or cross-talk in the room - everyone was heads-down and focused on their knitting!

Of course, Vanessa, being the lightning fast knitter that she is, was miles ahead of me towards the end of class. Here she is knitting away:

(note the difference in magnet placement on our charts!)

The mitten round-up at the end of class. My mitten is the blue and green one on the left.

Usually by the end of class I’m ready for a bit of a break before continuing on with my sample (for example, the break for my Estonian lace sample has been going on for over a year now…), but I think this technique is quite addictive. After class Vanessa and I went straight to our hotel room and kept knitting, only stopping because we had to leave for dinner with friends.

Susanna Hansson is simply an excellent teacher and an absolutely lovely person to spend the day with. I’m anxious to take another class from her and am looking forward to attending the the Nordic Knitting Conference in October if I can.

I may have been a bit over-enthusiastic in relaying my excitement about the class to Susanna repeatedly as I saw her throughout the weekend. I’m nothing if not enthusiastic... (Sorry, Susanna, I wasn’t really stalking you. Thanks for being really nice as I gushed about the mitten class and expressed my disappointment in not signing up for the Bohus class again and again. I’m sure by Saturday you were thinking that the hotel was maybe a wee bit too small and, my goodness, can’t they screen these people somehow?)

You can see more reports on this class here, here, and here.

Day 2 – Morphing Cables and Mentoring
My morning class on Friday was the Morphing Cables class with Fiona Ellis. I enjoyed listening to Fiona talk about her inspiration for cables and techniques to use in order to achieve different cable forms. I think I would have done better with a slightly more structured class on this particular day. I was starting to feel decidedly unwell at this point and not overly creative. The unstructured approach left me a bit at loose ends (no pun intended) until the Sudafed finally kicked in close to the end of class. I enjoyed chatting with my neighbors though and seeing their lovely cable creations, Lara’s was particularly lovely. My own was quite hideous and there will be no photographic evidence presented here.

My afternoon class was a mentoring session with Stephanie. Holly and I had signed up just to hang out and listen to Stephanie. Class introductions revealed that the majority of attendees had been of the same mind (I was relieved not to have to be the first one to admit it during the ‘around the table’ introductions). Among other things, Stephanie shared a lot of good information about decreasing for set in sleeves and planning decrease ratios based on body frame (complete with drawn flip chart diagrams!). As usual, Stephanie was highly entertaining and educational at the same time.

For some strange reason, I decided to bring my Rovaniemi sampler to work on during the class. In retrospect, I have no idea what I was thinking other than I really wanted to finish it up. I already knew that I didn’t feel well, that the process takes a lot of concentration and there was limited table space all of which made this knitting a horrible candidate for the afternoon’s work.

So of course you know what happened. I looked up at something Stephanie had written on the flip chart and when I looked down one of my 00 needles had slipped a few stitches off. I tried to fix it in class and succeeded in only making it worse. I set it aside and picked up my sock but too late the damage was done! Dropped stitches with this technique have some real negative progress involved in fixing it. To be continued...

Day 3 – Introduction to Fair Isle Design and Colorwork
Saturday’s class was an introduction to Fair Isle design with Janine Bajus. Another excellent class! As a regular reader of Janine’s blog, it was quite exciting to see her lovely designs in person and hear about her approach to designing Fair Isle projects.

This was a 3-day workshop crammed into a single day. Lots of color theory and hands-on color exercises, including interpreting an inspiration photo in yarn. Janine gave instruction on two-color knitting for attendees not familiar with the technique while more advanced members worked on selecting yarn to make their sample cap. The class included two hat patterns and two ounces of yarn from Janine’s really amazing stash of Shetland yarn.

I would love to take the 3-day version of this workshop!

I did not take as many photos as I should have during this class because by Saturday I was feeling decidedly lousy. I wish I’d gotten a photo of Janine’s huge bag of Shetland bobbins. She has a sample of every single Jamieson’s and Jamieson and Smith yarn available. Invaluable if you are planning to design your own Fair Isle garments according to Janine.

You can read Janine's report report here (with all the pictures I neglected to take!).

Yarn and Fiber Marketplace
I was really quite restrained at the Madrona marketplace, especially if we decide to completely ignore the fact that my actual goal was to buy nothing…

My sole marketplace acquisitions:

Birdseye Maple Spindle by SpindleWood Co

BFL and Merino-Tencel rovings in “Autumn” by Chameleon Colorworks
Mulberry Silk-Superfine Merino roving in “Farmhouse” by Blue Moon Fiber Arts

The Chameleon Colorworks rovings will be spun up as my February contribution to my Spin To Knit swap pal.

The Blue Moon Fiber Arts roving is just because I couldn’t resist (I tried, really, but resistance is futile). That’s a dangerous booth to be in!

I also bought some felted flowers from Una at Wooly Walkers (these are gifts for some friends at work).

I have to admit that the lack of purchases probably had more to do with me feeling sick most of the weekend and not from any real self-control on my part.

Toby inspects and approves the Madrona purchases

Friends!
One of these times I’ll remember to take more photos of the evening get-togethers. The trouble is I’m so busy having a good time that I forget to snap photos. Here are a few that I did remember to take:

clockwise from front left

Mel, Holly, Marti, Vanessa, Jessica

Lara, Kerry, Barb, and Sam from the FT group

Angela! (looking much better in my hat than I do)

Jessica and Marti

clockwise from bottom front

TMK (back of head), Ryan, Jessica, Marti, Rebecca, Vanessa, Peggy

I can’t wait for next year!

We mourn the loss of Rebecca

Today we gather to recognize the short yet meaningful existence of Rebecca, whose lovely olive-toned Silk Road Aran countenance will be sorely missed.

Despite a promising cast-on, Rebecca struggled to overcome multiple knitting challenges in her short life.

Rebecca’s designer and friend, Jo Sharp, remembered her as

“A women’s fitted sweater with a cable panel at the centre front. Suitable for a knitter with some cable experience.”

Her voice caught a bit at the memory.

Rebecca returns to the skein before her time, an innocent victim of sizing errors, inadequate swatching and knitter dissatisfaction. She was a model of sweater forbearance, never growing discouraged by the multiple froggings she received, though her plies grew thin in several places from the experience. She resisted drowning her troubles in Eucalan, instead choosing to spend her last months hiding in disgrace in a paper sack in the basement corner.

Rebecca strongly believed that the fibers of our beings continue on beyond one’s own limited existence and she expressed a desire to be reincarknitted as a well-loved pullover or perhaps a cardigan (though preferably not as socks).

Rebecca leaves behind a grieving knitter, Denise, who despite vehemently expressing an inability to even think about knitting another sweater anytime soon, was later observed reaching out in her grief to her long ignored stash yarn.

Skein to skein, hank to hank

As yarn we are born and to yarn we return.

RIP…RIP…RIP, dear Rebecca