A Few Finished Things

My handspun scarf has been finished for awhile but I finally got around to blocking it. Pattern is the Yarn Harlots One Row Handspun Scarf.
Ravelry Link


This picture has the truest colors.


and a full length shot


The second finished object is a Flame Stitch Shawl made from a new 75% Bamboo fingering weight yarn from SRK called "On Your Toes." This is a very soft yarn; fabulous to knit. The stitch pattern was given to me by SDAHT on Ravelry. I designed this scarf not realizing that it was the same stitch pattern I'd used for my Evelyn Clark's Shetland Triangle until I'd knit a full pattern repeat.



the scalloped edge (this photo shows the best stitch definition)


and the backlit shot


Lastly, Charity Knitting: I've been knitting caps for a friend's church that has a few people going to Tibet. I don't know why they're going but they wanted to take something for the children but they are only allowed to take one carry-on bag. It was decided that knit hats could be tucked into any empty spots in their luggage. I've knit two hats for them to take.


And the Red Scarf Project. This is my second year knitting these red scarves. Last year, who knows why, my scarves were crocheted. This year I'm back to knitting scarves using Marble Yarn


I'm making Li's Reversible Herringbone Rib Scarf. (Leave a comment on her blog asking for this free pattern)


This is a great pattern that is interesting to knit but not so difficult that you can't watch TV.

And I stumbled over a display of Hatch Peppers while in our local Bristol Farms. I've always wanted to go the the Hatch Chili Festival this is as close as I've ever gotten.

Sorry, I'm Boring lately!

I'm too boring for Blogging. Lately, nothing I'm knitting is worth it. Two out of three projects look the same as the last time they were photographed. Ink Spot, started the second side which looks the same as the first. Milkweed project is about three quarters done but looks like unblocked lace does. The un-named Knitty project, I'm on "that island" knitters dread.

I did knit up a sample for the shop in an Organic Cotton.


This is the eloomanator Diagonal Knit Dishcloth.
and a close-up.

It was a quick knit and fun to watch the pattern emerge.

And I knit up some of my homespun,

This if from All Spun Up, sorry I can't find the colorway name. Lovely fiber!

And used it to start Yarn Harlot's One Row Handspun Scarf Pattern

This scarf is done now but needs to be blocked to open it up. Again a quick and enjoyable project. And a great pattern to display long color runs.

I dyed some BFL superwash fingering weight yarn a light Turquoise.

It was kettle dyed and came out a very faint semi-solid. It's destined to be Evelyn Clark's Shetland Triangle.

That's it for my knitting. The garden has had some spectacular spring blooms.

The Graham Thomas Climbing Rose was severely cut back this year - guess it like it because it's out done itself with roses!

The Asiatic Lillies have kept blooming through rain or shine.



And the Jacarandas in the neighborhood have bloomed in all their glory.

(Yes, they're beautiful trees but you want to view them at someone elses house. Messy and sticky debris!)

The Photographer and I went to the Ocean Beach Farmer's Market a couple weeks ago. O.B. never got the message that the Summer of Love is over.

Annie say, "Hey."

My Fully Baked Weekend

Ok - let me just get this out - It was DAMN HOT this weekend!! And then Sunday was even HOTTER! Tying the all time record for the Month of April HOT! Where I was Sunday it got to 100 degrees F at 10:55 am and then stuck at that temperature the rest of the day. (I left at 4pm and it was still 100 degrees.)

This was the weekend we had Celia Quinn here to give her two-day Silk Workshop. Once again we were at Karalyn's home over looking Lake Murray.

Celia lives in Alaska and the heat was really getting to her. Saturday was very warm - put you to sleep after lunch warm but Sunday it was so hot it hurt, and we were in the shade.

We learned more about the history and biology of silk than I ever imagined. We dyed silk caps

and silk hankies


We spun silk in more than a dozen forms while Celia explained all the ways to spin each type, what each is used for and where it came from.


We played with cocoons and did reeled silk and make silk mawata or hankies from cocoons. Celia gave us so much information in a very fun but hectic weekend. Luckily with all that heat it was very dry so our hands weren't too sweaty to spin the silk. Sunday with trying to pay attention and ignore the heat I forgot to take any pictures but it looked at lot like Saturday's picture except with different and lighter clothes, oh yeah, we looked even hotter too.

These three days of heat have cooked all the Spring flowers but The Photographer has pictures to help remember them. My potted wisteria gave the best blooms so far. I severely wacked it back - the plant must have liked the pruning.


And just to prove how special my dog Annie is, here's a picture of her reading.

continued warm, sunny and VERY dry

I haven't been doing much to blog about. It's been warm for weeks (very little winter here, which means a third year of drought) although nice outdoor spinning weather.

Do you see that huge bag of fleece? That's 6.5 pounds of Corriedale that I've been working on for the last few weeks. Bought it at Black Sheep Gathering 2007. Seems to have marinated nicely in the fiber stash. I'm spinning modified long draw; this method fills a bobbin faster than me doing short draw.

I've nearly filled all my bobbins, time to start plying. Since I have no idea what I'm going to make with the yarn I've made a few samples to see what it wants to be. I'm lazy; it's too hard to spin to specification. I spin the yarn then find a pattern that calls for that weight of yarn.

Here's a two ply knit on size 7 needles on the left and 3 ply knit on size 9 needles on the right.

Singles


2-ply


3-ply


So now I'm ready for a worsted or chunky weight pattern. Time to go and check out my Ravelry Queue and see what might work with this yarn. I'm open to suggestions.

I've also been working on my Barn Raising Squares. I'm still enjoying watching each square's design emerge as I knit. It's a slow version of that Spin Art they use to have at the Fair. Remember you squirted paint on a spinning paper.


Last Saturday I started taking a 4-Harness Weaving class at UCSD's Craft Center. Mostly we're still getting all the looms warped.

So many people in the class it's slow going waiting for help but I'm liking it so far. Who knew that weaving would be so popular right now?

Here's a picture of my friends at Two Sisters and Ewe where I work.

left to right, Karen, Jessica (who also works there), Marie and Carol; they all make Open Knitting on Wednesday afternoons so much fun. All week I look forward to our time together. There are others that drop in but these Ladies are our hard-core knitters! It took the whole group to help me figure out where I was on my Curlicue Afghan. Turns out there was no mistake I'd just gotten lost. Thanks Ladies! In the future I'm going to have to write down exactly where I am each time I put that project down. It's either that or I'll have to keep pulling into the Yarn Shop to ask for directions.

Weaving & Fiber Festival

Sunday last The Photographer and I drove up to Torrance (just North of LAX) to attend The Southern California Handweavers' Guild "Weaving & Fiber Festival"
It's been two years since I attended and they've grown. I much prefer this show to the FiberFest held in Santa Monica in August. The Weaving and Fiber Festival in Torrance is aimed directly at the Weaver, Spinner and Knitter while FiberFest in Santa Monica has a very loose definition of "fiber."

Newton's was there

I didn't buy anything but was really tempted by their cashmere blends at really good prices.
The green cashmere I bought from them several years ago at Stitches West, that's still in my stash, held me in check but it was a close call. They had a gorgeous Navy I really wanted.

I did buy this (top of the picture Teal and Orange) incredibly soft Silk and Merino Roving.

from Red Fish Dyeworks.

More of the fiber at the Red Fish Dyeworks Booth


A weaving demo on a nice folding Japanese loom.


I wish there had been more weaving demos but the show has expanded to fill all the rooms now, I'm not complaining about that - more Vendors is a Good Thing! Just as a beginner weaver I can't get enough of watching people weave.

There was lots of handdyed yarn. Here's Chameleon Dye Works Booth


and a local dyer, Capistrano Fiber Arts Studio.

I bought two skeins of sock yarn for a pair of socks.

We had a great time. I enjoyed the show while The Photographer did his usual thing. And we stopped at one of our favorites restaurants on the way home. Fritto Misto in Santa Monica.

Here's a look at my current scarf project


I bought the yarn and pattern at the Taos Wool Festival.
The yarn is from Plain & Fancy Sheep & Wool Company. It's a hand dyed sport weight single. Actually more blue than it looks in the photo. And the pattern is "Grayce's Scarf" from The Pearly Queen. (No link for either but I do have email addresses if anyone wants them.)

That's all I have, too much work this week not enough knitting time. So, what else is new!

OH YEAH! I am so glad the election is over! Can you believe it went on for 22 months? There has to be a better way!

Repurposing Kureyon

I mentioned I bought 8 skeins of Noro Kureyon 213 to make the Sandy Cardigan, well...
There's this pattern that's been calling to me for awhile now, the Side-to-Side Vest from Creative Knitting, Nov 2007.

The amount of Kureyon I'd bought for the Cardigan is exactly the right amount for this Vest. And in a moment of weakness I grabbed the bag of Kureyon from the Stash and cast-on and haven't looked back.

The colors look very washed out in this picture. Below is a badly framed shot that has truer colors.

The only difficult part is trying to make the colors go in the opposite direction from the center back. Noro doesn't wind their yarn the same direction skein to skein even with them all from the same dye lot. I'd like the fronts to at least suggest they match but I think that's going to be harder than I originally thought.

I finished the Midwest Moonlight Scarf from Scarf Style.

This was an enjoyable project; the stitch pattern was easy to memorize and from then on it was mindless knitting. This is for a Christmas Gift - that's one done.
Ravelry listing here. Used 5 skeins of Noro Silk Garden 284 with all the orange removed for 27 pattern repeats; probably could have squeeked by with 4 skeins.

Here's a look at my own pattern for a cabled sock. I've pulled it out twice so far. Cherry Tree Hill, no idea what the name of the color is - I've had it several years.


This weekend I finished spinning the Roving from Creatively Dyed

I tried to split the roving lengthwise into four equal pieces. Funny how one skein is so much bluer than the other. Here's what the original fiber looked like.

This is 8 ounces of 70% superwash Merino 30% Seacell fiber.

On several foodie blogs there has been talk about Mark Bittman's Tomato Jam recipe. I had everything in the house

so I made a batch yesterday.

The whole house smelled like an Indian Restaurant while it was cooking. After all the chopping, measuring and stirring I barely had 2 cups but it was worth it. This stuff is fabulous. We were eating it warm on crackers with goat cheese. I'll have more tomatoes than I know what to do with so I'll be making more. I wonder what it would be like made from yellow tomatoes?