today

I'll give you a riddle today:

What does this blogger have in common with Franklin D. Roosevelt, Vanessa Redgrave, and Phil Collins? (hint). Not much, I'll tell you that, except for one thing...

See you on Monday! I'm off to the Catskill Mountains to teach at a knitting retreat.

just so you know,

I was linked by the blogessa par excellence today, Ms Stephanie Pearl-McPhee, aka The Yarn Harlot.

All I did was inquire about a recent knitting project, and her welfare.

Now you may carry on with whatever you were doing. I'm not so sure I can. My heart is beating too fast.

In other news, I found 4 more skeins of the wonderful merino sport as I took it to wool n word today. Call that Stephanie (Olivo is her last name), pester her to sell you that yarn. There are 11 colors.

The superwash lives over there now too. I know you want to go and take a look.

The yarn goes by the title of "Periwinkle Sheep", merino sport, and merino superwash worsted, respectively.

Me, I'm just going to try and calm down now.

hiatus shmiatus

I can't hide anymore, it's too boring, besides Leah blogged about what she made with my yarn.

:-)

We have storm #6 going on right now, I'm home from work all week, and today turned out to be a putzing around kind of day. Sorting yarn, unraveling old projects, gathering leftovers for the retreat this weekend.

Leah's projects are so wonderful they make me cry, and then I have folks wondering how they can get at the yarn. She used my 100% merino sport weight yarn, it has a whopping 400 yards per skein. They retail for $18/skein.

Here's full disclosure of what I have left. Since these skeins are no good to anyone just sitting here, waiting for the next craft fair, I am bringing them to my friend Stephanie's yarn shop in West Sand Lake (outside of Troy and Albany) TOMORROW, JAN. 29th, and you can go look at them in person and pet them and take some home if you want to.
Two of these would make a beautiful lace shawl...

Color names below each picture.

caramel

grasshopper

lavender

poiple




sky blue

sun yellow

reds

orange

cotton candy pink

Not THE biggest selection ever, but you get the idea. If even 3 people buy a couple of skeins, I'll feel like I can order more of the yarn and get dyeing again.

I will also bring a bin of the superwash merino worsted, ( 270 yards, $18/skein) and we will see how much room Stephanie has in her shop to display it.

Later! Stay warm.

self-imposed blog hiatus

I need to go on a self-imposed blogging hiatus for about 10 days. There is a lot of knitting I need to do on commission, well actually I am knitting a small sample sweater for Beth Brown-Reinsel for a new book she is writing.

Also, I need to prepare for the workshop I am teaching at a retreat next weekend.

Thank you for all your kind comments, I will keep reading and posting them, of course.

Meanwhile, please if you would, keep sending good thoughts towards my friend Alison, who is not out of the woods yet.

And to balance things out, here's a fun link my Dear Husband found.

I hope you all have a great weekend, week, and weekend again, before I'm back to blog. There should be lots to report when I come back!

Keep those needles clicking!

nervous

Turns out I stink at skein portrait photography. And of course I can't dye yarn worth the water in the dyepot. I get nervous because "real" dyers read this blog.

The colors look a lot better in real life.

Please stop by Trumpet Hill , if you're in the neighborhood.

That's where these are for sale.

Periwinkle Sheep "watercolors" hand dyed sock yarn.

80% superwash merino 20% nylon, 420 yards, $22.

I thank you for your support with my whole heart.

O Happy Day

It's Inauguration Day.

I am prepared to get very emotional during the ceremony, alone at home, glued to the television.
While a dark cloud lifted the day that Barack Obama won the US presidential elections, today is the day that reality sets in. It is really happening.

I am once again proud to be living here.

my sister's socks

My dear sister loves it when I make her socks. She has always been a grateful recipient of my socks, so I am happily on the look-out for yarn that she might like.

At last year's NYS sheep and wool fest in Rhinebeck, I found this:

Supersoft merino sock yarn. The colors were unlike any I've seen. My sister loves sunflowers, and this colorway looked to me like a field of sunflowers under a blue and white Bavarian sky.

As I was knitting with it, and looking at the label again, I realized that the yarn was NOT superwash. I debated with myself, and debated some more.... and then decided that while I do not mind handwashing knitted items, and neither does my sister, socks are not one of them. That's where I draw the line.

So I finally, reluctantly, pulled the needles from this sock, and begun a pair with my own handdyed. One of the first sock yarn skeins I ever did.

Vastly different in color.

They came out OK, and she loves them.

That's all that counts.

My sock yarn, which is 80% superwash merino and 20% nylon, is now available at Trumpet Hill. It is called Periwinkle Sheep watercolors sock yarn. I dye it so that stitch patterns won't get lost in it...also, it is suitable for lace projects.

It has been selling steadily, so I am off to dye more!!

Have a great weekend, everyone.

more socks

My sister-in-law and my niece both requested socks for Christmas 2008.
I was happy to indulge them!

SIL wanted heavy socks for relaxing around the house. One skein of Encore worsted, size 7 needles, plain vanilla pattern, shoe size 10. I had a tiny ball of Encore left, so used just under 200 yards.


These were for my niece, finished while in the car and at their house.
She wanted a bright color: I had some Opal 4 ply in my stash; size 1.5 needles, size 7 shoe.


They were well received!

more mitts

I am unable to settle on the right term for these: fingerless gloves, fingerless mitts, or just mitts.
Any other ones I am unaware of?

These are the Maine Morning Mitts from Clara Parkes' book The Knitter's Book of Yarn.
Made on January 1st, with 1/3 of a skein of malabrigo worsted, and size 7 needles.
Crafty Girl loves them so much she says "I'm never going to take these off". I drew the line at mealtimes.



These next ones were done before Christmas 2008, I gave them to Elissa Halloran (mentioned in the previous post). She makes astonishing jewelry, and these allow her to work with her hands while keeping off a chill.
My own handdyed, to test it out. Worsted weight merino superwash, size 7 needles, pattern in my head.

This picture taken by Crafty Girl.

I am piling up the posts a little so you have something to read. I'll be very busy next week, including being glued to the TV on Tuesday, Inauguration Day. On my day off. What could be better??

every project has its moment

I made this pair of fingerless gloves today, a commission. The woman who ordered them from me wanted long ones that extend halfway up the arm. She had bought this scarf from me at Elissa Halloran's shop, where I have warm winter accessories for sale on consignment:



She asked Elissa if I could make her fingerless gloves to match.
Alas, I didn't have enough yarn left to do it. It was just as well, since I had my doubts whether she would still be able to use her hands with gloves that thick...

So I went to plan B: try and match the color. I would see what I could do with the bit of yarn left over from the scarf.

I made these up as I went along. Bulky thick and thin wool, size 10.5/6.5mm needles.
They came out OK. They fit well. The whole time I was making them, I was hoping the customer would like them.

But they didn't grab me. No excitement going on here at all. (In case you are wondering about a slight difference in size, the one on the right had been tried on a few times.)

How could I embellish them...I tried whipstitching, and didn't even take a picture it was so boring. I ran the yarn through at the wrist, and ditto. Nothing.

Then I went and got a huge crochet hook, and single crocheted around the bottom, one round.

Eureka! The super thick and thin yarn worked its magic. It almost looks like a scalloped edge now, and I am much happier.

I hope the customer is, too. I dropped them off this afternoon.

guess what?

I finished something!
Lately it has driven me slightly nuts to have unfinished projects lying around. (Don't tell my mother. She decided when I was a teenager, and hopping from one project to the next, that I am unable to finish anything.)

Some of you may remember the color...



...or the name of the yarn...



...or the name of the project...

....or which book it's in...

"Rhinebeck Cardigan" from a fine fleece by Lisa Lloyd.

Valley Yarns "Northampton", 5 skeins

colorway Merlot Heather

needles: 7 and 4 (which is a change from the pattern; she used all 7 all the time) /4.5 and 3.5 mm 3 buttons instead of 6.

Even Crafty Girl, who's almost 12, says this cardi looks "very cute" on me. With the top button open.

patterns

I love patterns. Not just knitting patterns. I look for them everywhere, and they find me.

Sunday, 1/11/09, after the snowplough came through.



Same tracks, with my shoes for scale. Those were some giant treads.



Tracks from our neighbor's snowblower. He's always so nice to us, clearing the path.

More patterns to come throughout the year, as I happen upon them.

storm #5; socks; Alison

The fifth storm this winter hit overnight, but it finished just in time for Dear Husband and Tall Son to drive across the state. It was time to say good-bye as the spring term starts on Wednesday.

Tall Son had asked for socks. Mind you this is the first time he asked me to knit anything since the 7th grade, when he wanted me to make him a hat. I took too long getting the hat started. He finally made it himself.

But I got right on it with the socks, and finished them last night. Yes there was some procrastination in there. I'm really good at creating deadlines for myself....

Size 13 feet. He said, just pick a yarn that you have a lot of. I had some Opal 6 ply in my stash, in a burnt orange color, and used size 3 (3.25mm) needles. 54 stitches. I used a 2x2 rib for the ribbing, then went to 3x1. They fit him well.

It felt good to be able to send him off with these on his feet.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Meanwhile, Alison is gravely ill. I know so because for her to be writing such an incredibly short post, which took a lot of effort, means she is very ill.

I felt moved to send an email to Caremark last night. I mean, what they're doing, that's just not right.

Please send prayers, good thoughts, strength, love, hugs, whatever you got, her way. Thank you.

gift knitting revealed

Lest you were wondering if I would ever blog about knitting again, here's some gift knitting I've done. I'll start today with some baby sweaters.

This red one is made with my own handdyed superwash merino worsted, a wonderfully sproingy, soft yarn. I am test driving it to see how it behaves before I start marketing it further. So far, I've only sold it in small quantities at the NYS sheep and wool fest, and at the recent holiday craft fairs.



The bright red color is difficult to photograph. I think the picture below does it justice the most. Notice the natural habitat for sweaters, my wood floor.


The parents of the baby who will be gifted this sweater specifically asked for red. I hope it's red enough. :)

I used Knitting Pure and Simple Pattern # 982, with the no hood option. I worked ribbing on all the edges, rather than ribbing and garter. I like all my edges to be the same.
I was hoping to make this sweater out of one single skein of yarn, 270 yards for the 6 month size, and would have been able to, had I not lengthened the sweater body by 1.5 inches. Instead, I ran out of yarn on the last row before the last bind-off. Thank goodness I knew where to get more yarn...:)



This next one was started last September, and the sweater was too small for the intended recipient from the beginning. I finally finished it the other day, and it's going to a different baby girl who was born on the wee small side. Now that we're in the midst of winter, it should keep her nice and cozy.

The pattern came from a Morehouse Merino kit, but I used a superwash merino wool Filatura di Crosa yarn I had in my stash instead.

I love the sprinkles buttons:

Both sweaters used size 8 (5mm) needles, and were done seamlessly, the red one from the top down, the lilac one from the bottom up with sleeves picked up and knitted in the round from the top down.

More gift knitting to be revealed within the next few days!

a flower for Alison

The other day, I felt compelled to bring home an amaryllis plant. I have never done this, but I kept thinking of my friend Alison, who loves amaryllises.



Alison is sick, sicker than we like her to be*, and I am hoping that these will cheer her up a bit.
It started blooming on Friday, during her "procedure".

There are at least 3 more flowers to come! To cheer her on the road to recovery, is what I'm thinking...

If you can find one of these, I can highly recommend bringing one home. They're an amazing sight, as they bring beauty and grace into your house.

* ETA: of course that might sound strange. I do not ever ever "like" anybody being sick, ever. But the fact is that autoimmune disorders stay with you your entire life, and some days are better than others. Some days the beast can be tamed, other days, not so much....