Influential Knitter

A few months ago I posted on Instagram a photo of a lace shawl that I had inprogress. It garnered quite a few likes and some questions. The next day the pattern for this shawl was number one on Ravelry's 'Hot Right Now' list.  It's called sweet dreams. 

I was shocked. I have more influence on the knitting community than I realized. I must admit to being a little proud too. The timing of the thing was too perfect for it to have been a coincidence. 

Then when I visited the Yarn Harlots website I realized how delusional I could be.  She was knitting this shawl too. Independent of what I was doing, she had cast on for the exact shawl.   The Yarn Harlot! What was I thinking. Of course the 60 likes I had gotten on Instagram (still impressive in my books) couldn't be enough to influence the top 10 Hot Right Now on Ravelry. But it was really nice for that brief moment.  

I was inspired to cast this on after seeing it knit up in 100% mink yarn at Dartmouth Yarns in Dartmouth, Nova Scotia.  It was gorgeous. I purchased the exact same yarn. It was a little darker colour but that didn't matter. I also purchased the same colour glass beads from a store here in town. (There are several stores here that sell beads. We are lucky that way). 

I have no recipient in mind for this little shawl. It is so unbelievably perfect though. The mink. The colour. The beading. And of course the lace. Just look those points. 

The bindoff - as the yarn harlot noted - took forever.  But it was so worth it. 

I had purchased this little shawl pin from an etsy seller out of Montreal called Every Day Peacock.  It is so beautiful!!

And it suits this little shawl so very perfectly. It is the cherry on top of you will. 

By the way if you are in the market for shawl pins or even some very special stitch markers - do check this guy out. His packaging alone made the purchase worth it. I also purchased a really unique music themed pin as a gift for my daughter. It is so beautiful. 

The funny thing was both the Yarn Harlot and I cast on for these shawls about 18 weeks ago (according to Instagram)

And we are both finishing up at the same time even though this shawl didn't take that long to knit. She made many mods to her version making it much larger. I knit mine exactly as the pattern suggested. I did worry about running out of yarn towards the end but it all worked out. 

I wonder what this knitter will be casting on next? Keep looking at Ravelry's top ten. You never know what might show up next. 

Hello Spinning, It's Been Awhile

It's been a very long time since I've blogged about any spinning I've been doing. I'm guessing it'll probably go back to last years tour de fleece. I put my wheel away for a long time. When we moved into our new house I brought all three wheels with me and set them up in my beautiful new craft room and there they sat for a very long time - over six months I'm sure. 

  

And then I got inspired to spin this lovely batt.

 Its from etsy seller Dawning Dreams. Its super wash merino and bamboo. And the colourway is called Lisa Frank. I had no plans for it. I didn't care if it was a single or plied yarn. I had no care as to the weight of the finished yarn either. I just spin. And I let the fiber become what it wanted to become - which ended up being a two ply dk weight yarn.

It was a little tricky to spin. Since it's a batt there were different fiber types in the mix. And different fiber types require different spinning techniques (at least if you want a somewhat uniform yarn). The hot pink that you see was most definitely bamboo and had to be drafted so differently than the other colours which were wools. 

Overall it was a delight to spin. And I'm itching to do something with it. I'm just not sure what to do - knit or perhaps even weave. Time will tell.

Its the Most Wonderful Time of the Year!

I'm not talking about Christmas - though that is a pretty great time, but not if you work in retail, like I do. I'm talking about Tour de Fleece. Those in the fiber world know what I'm talking about, but for my few friends and family that may read this blog Tour de Fleece is a spinning event that occurs simultaneously with the Tour de France. We spin, they ride. I love it! I've been participating for ...oh, I don't know how many years now, but I've got to go look it up.

Ok, that was an interesting little sidetrack....2008 was the first year I participated in the Tour - so this is my 6th year. I'm assuming I participated in every year. I can't remember taking a break from it, so it must be my sixth year. Wow! I guess I can't claim to be a beginning spinner any longer then.

This is my first finished yarn of the tour. Its from etsy seller Unwindyarn company. Its a BFL/silk blend called Terra Nova and I loved spinning it. The resulting yarn is so soft and bouncy.

Next up I spun a gradient. I love knitting with gradients and it turns out, I love spinning them as well. This fiber came from etsy seller Turtlepurl Yarns and Notions. This roving came as two seperate gradient braids so that you can spin up two separate skeins that will match for knitting a pair of socks or mitts. You could also spin each braid separately and ply the resulting singles together so that you would end up with a very very long gradient. I opted to do the former as I forsee knitting mittens with these. This was also a BFL/silk blend. I think this blend is fast becoming my favorite fiber combo.

My next spin was some punis!!! These are from etsy seller Gourmet Stash

I really enjoyed spinning these. The resulting yarn is so light and airy. And bright! I already have some plans for this yarn. I'm participating in Leethal's mystery KAL. I'll be blogging more about that at a later date, I'm sure.

And finally, a shot of what I've been spinning on the spindle. I do really enjoy spindle spinning. This was spun while watching the three little boys last weekend. Not too bad considering how busy those boys are.

Randomness

Well hello blog. Its been a while. I'm sticking to my story and blaming it on Instagram. I still knit, I still craft, I still take pictures of it all and I still want to share it with the online community. Like I've said before, it seems Instagram is filling that need. I don't even put my projects up on Ravelry with any regularity any more. Shhhhhhhh! I know, CRAZY!!

My whole desire to blog came about years ago as a way of documenting swap packages that I had made and received on Craftster. I can't tell you the last time I went on Craftster. I can't tell you the last time I was involved in a swap. Then the blogging more or less became a desire to document my crafting - a journal if you will. I keep telling the girls that when I'm gone (a long time from now hopefully) and the things that I've made for them are used up and worn out then at least they will always have this record to look back on. My digital footprint left for all my ancestors to see what an enterprising person their great great granny was. I still feel that way, and I still resolve to keep blogging even if I only have 9 followers.

So in that vein, here is what I've been up to the past month.

I knit a headband. The pattern is from Mel Clark's book Knitting Everyday Finery and I love it! This promises to be my most utilized knitwear to date. I wear it a lot because my hair is in a mess a lot. Its alpaca and silk and so far not too hot (mind you, we had snow yesterday, so everything is relative)



I blocked some finished projects. The stripey socks you'll recognize. The others are a cute little baby vest destined for some baby girl. The pattern is Milo and so versatile. Totally worth the few bucks that it cost. I love the little heart cable and I'll definitely be making this little pattern again. The orange beret is called "Meret". I did this as a KAL with some of the ladies on Instagram. Its made from my handspun. Its rather large on me but would likely fit my larger headed offspring no problem. I will likely gift this to her at some point.



I bought yarn! And OHMYGOD!!! Its all Socks that Rock. It is so beautiful!! All I want to do it look at it. Now thats wrong I know. I feel like buying a shadow box and framing them. I'm not sure what I'll make but right now I'm just enjoying the gorgeous colours. I think I may have fell down a rabbit hole when I joined that socks that rock club. I don't really want to knit with any other yarn. This could become dangerous.



I fixed a miss crossed cable on my Hope Springs Eternal socks from my Socks that Rock Club. I thought I could live with it, but 10 rows later it was still bugging me. I dropped those 6 or so stitches back and fixed it all - no problem. Pretty pleased with myself there.



And I finished spinning this beautiful yarn. This was spun from Rolags that I purchased from Blue Mountain Handcrafts on etsy. My first time spinning rolags and I really liked it.



Well thats my randomness for today. Hope all is well in your crafting world!

Apparently Its Spring

I'm having a hard time believing it myself. When I look outside and see that the yard is still covered in snow and I see snow in the forecast, I have a hard time believing that the calendar is correct.

I do realize that I live Labrador and that I shouldn't be surprised by the weather, but each year, I'm a little surprised by how long it lasts. People are still going out on skidoo!!

But there are reminders of spring or at least some signs of it. For example, my latest shipment from the Socks that Rock yarn club!



Isn't it pretty? Its called 'Hope Springs Eternal' and to be honest these spring colours are just what the doctor ordered. They will be socks of course, and most likely the socks that came with the club. They are very pretty and feature a picot cuff which charms me to no end.

I've also been doing some more baby knitting. Again, for a girl! This pattern is called "Milo" and is a clever little vest that allows you to use different cable details on the front. I've chosen hearts. Pretty sweet!



I have one finished object to share with you all. Its a 'For Good' hat by Megan Williams of the Stockinette Zombies podcast. I love the hat, and I love the buttons - a very good match I think.





The buttons are from etsy seller "Woodenheartbuttons" out of London, Ontario. She wrote me the sweetest note telling me her family is from Corner Brook, Newfoundland. Small world!

Knitting and Spinning

I've mentioned on more than one occasion that I struggle with finding the right pattern for my handspun. There is an exception however. Its Loop batts. No sooner does one come off the wheel than I have cast on a new pattern using it. Case in point - see this gorgeous handpsun?



Its Loop batts Raindrop colourway one plain and one sparkle plied together. It is gorgeous. And of course I cast on right away and knit Glacier Sweep by....wait for it.....Stephen West! Its a bummer that I don't have enough to finish all 5 sections, but I think I will buy some commercial yarn in a worsted/aran weight yarn in black to finish it off. I'm very happy with it, but want it done - like now. Why is that?



I just finished spinning this very pretty two ply and I love it. But I bet it'll be forever before I end up knitting with it. Its Fractal Roving from etsy seller Hilltop Fibers - and she's Canadian!




I'll leave you with a cute kiddie photo seeing as its Easter weekend. Happy Egg hunting to you all!

Sweet Things

It seems to me that certain types of babies are born in batches. I don't know if its something in the water or what it is, but there is a phenomenon afoot. For the past 5 years it seems we have had an abundance of boy babies being born. Any coworker who had a baby - turned out to be a boy! Young friends - all boys. Family members - all boys. We have 3 grandbaby boys to prove it!! But lately, I've been noticing a shift. It started with Lisa (a coworker) in January. She had a little girl. I was so happy to knit for her!! Its been forever that I knit anything for a baby girl.

Next up was a young friend of Kev's. They too had a girl. Kev requested something special for this young couple so I set to work knitting. Now, this baby is also the great granddaughter of my local LYS owner! I had to knit something special!!

So I set to work. I picked out a special yarn. Its a club yarn no less - supposedly destined for a different project, but this is superwash (which is important for new moms) and the colour was outstandingly gorgeous (which is important for impressing your local lys owner) The yarn is by called Andrea May by Studio June on etsy. It was a club colourway from Ann Hanson's Fall into Full Colour Club. Ann's pattern for this shipment was lovely, but I could envision this baby sweater so clearly. It just spoke to me.

The pattern I chose is Cascade from the emagazine Petite Purls The reason I chose this pattern is in no small part due to Jasmine of the Knitmore Girls podcast fame. She has been knitting her daughter this little sweater and talking about it on her podcast. She has also been posting pics on Instagram I've been smitten.

Now, to push this little sweater into even more awesomeness, I sewed a grosgrain ribbon into the button band. The Knitmores have been big advocates of this. It makes the garment more special and it has the benefit of preventing the button band from stretching out and pulling out of shape.











It is a special little sweater and I couldn't be more pleased. If you are interested in sewing a grosgrain ribbon into your cardigans, I highly recommend checking out the Knitmore girls video tutorial! I am certain that you will learn something!

Next up - booties. My coworker Jody is having a baby....and yes, its a girl. There is something in the water, I tell ya!

The Love Affair Continues

With Westknits designs that is. I mentioned in the last post about the new KAL that Stephen West has on the go. Its all I want to knit. There is even a pair of legwarmers!!! I can't believe that I want and likely will knit legwarmers.

I finished the first pattern in the knitalong installment. Its called Geysir Stretch.

I've been doing a little spinning this week too. Not as much as I would have liked. Since the house fire, I cannot find my niddy noddies and I've been wanting to get some yarn off the bobbins so that I can spin new stuff. I improvised a little and wound it right onto my umbrella swift. That was a little awkward, but it worked out okay. Here is a little skein of mixed BFL. The fiber was purchased from etsy seller Spun Right Round

A word of warning if you go over there. Her stuff is GORGEOUS!!! Be careful.

And I have to share a little drawing that my little man Max did for me. I think he is quite talented. This is me. I'm not sure why I have a bubble on my head. Maybe I'm a deep sea diver or something. Lol. Too cute isn't it?

And even though I've been going on and on about Stephen West, I just have to remind everyone who the real men in my life are. Here is a photo of Max and Morgan watching Kevin at last weekends hockey tournament.

Here is Kev with our little grand babies - Cooper and Morgan - after the hockey tournament. There is room in my heart for all of these men - including Stephen West.

Successful Tour!

Today marks the end of the Tour de Fleece. I finished a 2 ply fractal spin today. I'm very happy with it. Its called Bifrost - a polwarth wool by etsy seller Kelpie Fibers. I love how happy this yarn is. I'm not sure what I'll make out of it, but I'm leaning towards mittens.

And here is a group photo of all the yarns spun during the tour. I'm very happy with the lot of them. I didn't spin as much as I would have liked but things like work kept getting in the way. But work I must, if I want to buy fiber to spin that is.

I didn't really set any concrete goals for myself - other than play with the art yarns a bit. I did manage to spin 3 different art yarns. The first one is the beehives that I already blogged about. I also did a whole Loop! bullseye bump as a super coil.

My bobbin wasn't large enough to hold the whole skein so I thread plied the leftovers. I like that one too!

Overall, I'm happy with my yarns. Look for them in upcoming posts as all of them are screaming to be knit or woven right away!

Tour de Fleece!

This is the fourth year that I'll be participating in the Tour de Fleece. This annual event has really helped to improve my spinning by leaps and bounds. Its gotten so that I associate summer with spinning now. I just love it!


I started team Newfoundland and Labrador, and I am the captain! Go me! Lol. I'm happy that spinning is really picking up in this province. We have about a dozen or so participants on our team. I'm also spinning for team Loop (my new favorite etsy store!). One of my goals is to spin through some of my Loop stash. I have 5 of her bumps in my stash and they are all bigger than 5 oz. I also want to try a few art yarn techniques.


I tried spinning some coils/beehives. They actually turned out pretty good as I was spinning them, but when they were pulled through the orifice and onto the bobbin, they sort of came apart. I followed the technique as outlined in the book Spin Art.


So I think my problem is that my orifice is too small. Schact sells a bulky flyer for the sidekick wheel with a larger orifice for the purpose of spinning bulkier art yarns. This is something I may have to invest in.


Here is a close up of some of the neater coils. This was so much fun to spin and its definitely something I'll be trying again. I think next time I will try plying it with a handspun single instead of a commercial yarn. I'm not sure that I like the contrasting colours.

Prior to the tour I finished up spinning half of my cupcake fibers sock kit. Here is the resulting skein. My first official three ply! I say first official because I have spun chain plied yarns which is technically a three ply yarn but not really considered a true three ply yarn since all three plies of the chain ply come from the one single ply. Understand? I'm not sure I do, and I'm a spinner. Lol.

I cannot get through a Tour without being inspired by the many spindle spinners over on Ravelry. I'm always amazed at what people can accomplish on such a simple tour. I had to break out my spindles and give it a whirl. Literally. Lol. Here is a photo of Spencer...looking unbelievably worried. He is such a little neurotic guy. I'd love to know what he is thinking sometime.

And the final photo is of my Loop batt that I've spun so far. I'm not sure what I'll do with this one, but right now I'm leaning towards chain plying it to preserve the colours. This one is called 'Kaleidoscope Eyes' and is a repeatable colourway. This means that lots of other people have this exact same colour. The good thing about this is, that its very easy to get inspired by project photos of this stuff knit up on Ravelry. Diane of Knitabulls podcast fame is currently knitting a gorgeous shawlette called Ruby Slippers in this colourway. I'm tempted to do the exact same thing! But who knows when and where inspiration will strike. I do know this.....all of my Loop batts that I've spun up are currently knit up. I think that says something about this fiber. It doesn't languish in the stash at all. It demands to be seen!

Some Good Mail

I got both of these things in the mail recently and I couldn't help but share them. First up, some fiber. I love this so much. This fiber is prepared for spinning socks. I think the seller is brilliant. Its from etsy seller Cupcake Fiber Company. Notice that there are six batts of fiber. 3 plies for each sock for a total of 6 batts. All the weighing work is done for you. See! Brilliant!! And not only that....its superwash BFL so no felting of the socks aaaannnd....there is 12% nylon in the batts for added strength so the socks won't wear out. Genius! I love them so much. I've already started spinning this stuff up and it is great. Batts by nature is a woolen prep, but sock wear better if spun worsted, so I'm spinning worsted. The resulting yarn will not be a true worsted spun yarn because of the fiber prep, but I'm spinning it hard and tight. I'm hoping for some decent yardage since I don't want anklets. I'm aiming for a fingering weight yarn. We'll see. I've never spun yarn for socks before, and I realize a lot of special consideration has to be given to it, due to the hard wearing nature of socks - I think Cupcake Fibers takes care of a lot of it. Plus....its so darned cute!! Go check out her store. She usually has lots of great stuff....sometimes gradients even!

And speaking of gradients....look at this! Its from etsy seller Colorshift Yarns. She does such beautiful work. The change in colour from one skein to the next is very slight and the result is so gradual. I'm crazy about gradations lately. I immediately bought a pattern called Aranami Shawl to showcase this beautiful yarn. But now, I'm worried about yardage. Most FOs on Ravelry have used 500-600 yards and my colorshift set is 480 yards only. So, I'll have to either alter the pattern or come up with more yarn. Not sure what I'll do yet. I'm not casting on until I get something off the needles.

Spinning Shetland

I finished spinning the shetland that I got from the Sheeps Company on Etsy I decided to spin the whole works of it woolen - that is long draw. And, it worked! I'm a worsted spinner by default, so it was a real challenge for me. But this particular breed (or perhaps it was the way the fiber was prepped) begged to be spun in long draw fashion.

The skeins look as though I'm a total noob to spinning - which I'm not, but I guess I'm a total noob to longdraw spinning, so there you go.

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I'm very pleased with this as I am happy with the resulting yarn and I learned something new about a new to me fiber. Next month, we are spinning Masham - a cross between a teeswater and a swaledale sheep. I've spun teeswater before and did not like it. It was rather rope like in the end - but I blame the spinning, not the fiber. I've already gotten my Masham in the mail and its a nice grey. I may spin this long draw too and try to have it match up with the skeins of shetland that I have. I really want to make a pair of sheepy mitts and I think the spin along yarns will work well for this.

And then there were mittens!

I finished my second pair of Cloisinee mittens from the yarn harlot. I'm much happier with this pair. I did the clusters much better. That is, I followed the directions properly instead of trying to do my own thing. I don't know why I thought I knew better than the yarn harlot. She's called the yarn harlot for a reason - she knows these things.

I also had another good mail day this week. I stalked this etsy shop - and I mean stalked. I was hitting the F5 (refresh) button every 30 seconds or so. And literally within 2 minutes of posting her update, her shop was empty. Thats how in demand these balls of yarn are. Well, who can blame people for wanting these gorgeous colours? I can't believe I managed to get two of them!!

The green one is called Green a Go Go and the other one is called Kaboom! I love them so much. I love the colours, I love the way they are hand wound, I love the way the stripes are exactly even. I've already cast on for a pair of socks in the Kaboom colourway. They'll be my purse knitting. But I want to knit on them all of the time, the colours are that fun.

And another finished object this week. This time in my handspun! Yay me for keeping my New Year's resolution

The pattern for the cowl can be found here. I did make a few changes to the patterns (mostly due to lack of yarn) but I also left out 3 edging stitches. And to be honest, I'm not sure why there were edging stitches there since this pattern was written and knit in the round. I'm happy with the result too. It might even be a gift for someone. Yes, I'm getting better at sharing the handspun love!