i was bad this weekend and i know it—i didn’t blog, i didn’t work on secret projects—but it was sooo good.

i knit all friday afternoon and evening on my little rose shawl while it snowed and snowed outside and a big pot of soup bubbled on the stove inside. they only predicted 1-2 inches, but by nightfall we could see we were in for it.
and on saturday i woke to this

and this

the back yard transformed into a seussian world, decorated everywhere with blobs of soft, white snow, piled high to form all manner of sculpture.

it’s hard to tell just how much came down overnight—certainly over two feet in the back yard, but more like 15 inches out front. i shoveled for several hours just to get the walks cleared (i like shoveling, actually), while david put in another couple to get the snow off the roofs and driveway.

today there is more evidence of life out there than on saturday; the squirrels are finding their way around after all.

it’s the strangest day for weather; the sun is brilliant in the very cold air, but it must be pretty humid, too—a coating of hoarfrost covers every little crooked tree branch and twig, long into the day.

add to the picture a sifting of very light, crystalline snow flurries—just barely there, but enough to catch the light so that it looks like shaved glass flying in all directions.

it’s really magical; i’m so lucky i’m not stuck in an office where i’d miss the show.

we did manage to pull together a spinning class yesterday morning—hey, when you need to hang with your girls, you need to hang with your girls, snow or not.

i worked on my blue border leicester fiber—i’ve got half of it spun and plied and in class, i got the other half nearly spun up. i can ply it in wednesday evening’s class and then wash it. it’s a rather surreal spinning experience after all that fine stuff i worked with during the summer and fall. luxury fibers may have ruined me for this . . .

i’ve got to skein up what i have to empty these bobbins, before i can continue. somehow, in the scurry to empty my old workspace during the week before christmas, my numerous spare bobbins got packed away somewhere and i cannot find them. all i have are what’s in my work basket—mostly hi-speed ones, since i’ve been spinning more laceweight in the last year. and when i spin laceweight, two or three bobbins is almost more than i need for any single project. however, this chunky yarn is eating up bobbins like crazy and it’s becoming inconvenient (especially when i know how many empty ones i own). david may actually be able to locate what i need, but for now i’m making do with spinning a bobbin and emptying a bobbin as i go.

so the weekend was lost for all the usual routines as we huddled indoors to stay warm, then unburied ourselves as needed. i threw caution to the wind where my deadlines are concerned and did mostly selfish knitting.

. . . it was totally worth it.

i finished my shawl before going to bed on saturday night

after everyone went home on sunday afternoon, i put it on to soak and threaded it up for a good blocking.

you can see a lot more of the detail now, especially in the shoulder and back area

i always love the way all the patterns come together at that outermost corners—the scarfy part that you flip here and there when you wear it

or at the center back hem

once i had it all threaded and pinned out, i got the money shot

it was completely dry in just a few hours, but i let it sit til this morning. i was anxious to unpin it, so i didn’t stop to steam the fabric beforehand, but now i wish i had—i think this cashmere/silk might possibly look even better with the cashmere fiber bloomed out and fuzzing a bit over the surface (and i’ll certainly take the time to do that on the one i’m knitting in my cash/silk handspun).

i took a little time this morning to play with it on the dress form so you can get an idea of what it looks like on the body.

just a little shoulder shawl with a victorian flavor (but not too, too victorian). it is constructed like a faroese shawl with some shoulder shaping, but the back panel is less pronounced, so it fits more like a triangle shawl with neck shaping—a sort of hybrid, maybe?

the pattern will have three sizes; one even smaller than this to wear as a scarf, and one larger, but not too large; i don’t think the hem motif will hold its impact if the body area gets too big (it could always be knit in a heavier yarn on bigger needles to make it larger, too).

i like this size a lot—it’s about 64 inches across the widest part and 21 inches down the center back. perfect for scarfing up around my neck or to cover my shoulders when i need it, without trapping my arms underneath. i love it.

this size uses approximately 525 yards, i think. the yarn, by the way, is discontinued, but you can purchase a nearly identical yarn at zen yarn garden; jade sapphire cash/silk is also the same. and of course it would be gorgeous in any number of lovely laceweights that we talk about here.

in fact, we will be using woolen rabbit tranquilo as the official sample yarn for this pattern. it knit up equally beautiful in my sample swatches

for me, the hem is spectacular—i just love the way this motif knits up in laceweight yarn, so dramatic, with its contrasting foreground and background; the solid areas appear to actually float when knit in such fine yarn.

the best news of all is that it looks like i can knit an identically-sized one from the supply of handspun cash/silk i have, yay. in fact, i did not stop at merely getting the rose shawl done and then going back to my deadline projects—yesterday i stayed in “bad girl” mode just a little longer to cast on for the next one.

after all, sundays are for rest and recreation, right? there’s always monday just around the corner, for getting back to the grindstone . . .

and with that, it’s time to locate my secret knitting and get ready for my class to arrive.

Filed under: designing, lace/shawls, projects, spinning and fiber
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while we were hoping that maybe there was a good explanation for the presence of these guys in linda’s spinning fiber (like maybe they were cochineal bugs or something), turns out—no. just a couple of grain beetles who thought that the presence of a little hayseed constituted a drive-in fast food joint. they stopped in for a meal and ended up getting their gooses cooked, heh.

i think there was one moment of squeamishness on linda’s part, but she got over it and passed the roving around so we could all get a closer look. that’s what passes for local interest when we get together to spin on sunday.

i changed things up today for myself, spinning with fiber of a completely different character than i have in recent months—i was ready for something fast and dirty after all that lace yarn i made in the second half of 2009.

i bought this blue border leicester fiber at rhinebeck in october in the same booth where i purchased my beautiful blue patterned rug from marilyn magnus. i’m spinning a chunky yarn that will become part of a project for the guest room where we are using the rug. i had 10 ounces of fiber and have spun almost all of it already—next week i’ll ply that up and start on the complementary brown/black shetland wool that also needs to be spun for the project (i have a big batch of chunky gray wool already spun, too).

the dye color of this fiber is gorgeous—rich, intense, but not bright; it’s really nice and matches some color or other in that rug, just perfectly. i can’t wait to get everything spun so i can get going on the project.

you never know, this could end up being my olympics project—it would be a good traveler. part of my reluctance to commit to a big olympics project is that i’ll be traveling almost the entire time the games are on, and i’m worried i won’t have enough consistent knitting time.

we all know barb is an overachiever, but can you believe she finished another sweater already?? this is her third ondule, knit this time in skacel noblesse, a merino/silk blend (colorway slate). just look how she’s matched those stripes.

she noticed though, that in the merino/silk blend, the sweater fabric is more relaxed and fits a little looser; if she had known ahead of time, she would have made the shoulders a bit narrower.

to be honest, she had started this before christmas, but put it aside to knit a few other sweaters, but still . . . not only that, she’s already got the sleeves knit for her third aztec mazes sweater, a sample she’s knitting for the briar rose upcoming show season.

i thinks she’s knitting like a demon now because she is about to get very busy with her plant business—dragonfly aquatics—in spring, her store is her main priority (her blog is awesome, too) and knitting is almost out of the question between march and july. she has to burn through whatever she really wants to finish now.

i’ve been knitting up a storm myself, but there is very little i can show you, wail. yesterday i went to visit with susie and debby and reknit most of the high peaks hat while i was there. the first one would have fit the recipient just fine, but maybe crushed her hair more than she would like.

i wanted to keep the earband the same tightness, but loosen up the top part a little, so here’s what i did: i cast on the next size up and knit the earband on a smaller needle than the pattern says, to keep it tight and dense against the wind (so, three sizes smaller than the body needle). then i knit the top part as usual. presto—a warmer hat for someone with fluffy hair.

the sundara merino worsted in colorway crushed cherries is delish—cozy and lightweight with color you could, indeed, eat with a spoon.

i finished that up last night (i had to cannibalize the first hat, sadly, to complete this one), then i finished off the coordinating neckwarmer. the neckwarmer is also dense, but not as heavy as the hat—it’s knit in briar rose fourth of july (leftovers from jackie, in colorway black cherries)—more of a light worsted or DK weight.

i love the way the two piece work together, even though they don’t match. i have some FOJ left over that i’m trying to squeeze a pair of mitts out of—not sure if i can do it, but we’ll see.

other than that, it’s all secret knitting for me—i did put a couple of inches onto the longjohn socks while going to appointments on friday, but i’m holding off on showing those until there is a little more body fabric to show.

i feel like i’m going to crack from all the hidden knitting i want to show you. frustrating to say the least, but, i guess it makes us stronger, right?

Filed under: designing, projects, spinning and fiber
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i may be old-fashioned, but it still confounds me that i can leave home on friday for a city that is a couple of thousand miles away, teach two days of classes, visit with family and friends, dip into the local culture a bit, then be home at at my desk by
9 am on monday as usual, not even feeling particularly tired—almost as if it never happened. we do live in amazing times.

i’m reminded of how much things have changed because i had a chance to visit with family while in denver—cousins i had not seen in years (you might recognize the famous hanson hair color on my cousin karen, heh).

we reminisced about how, as kids, they would travel east to new york by car every couple of summers; we felt then as if we lived in completely different worlds, so far apart and exotic. and now we are separated by a mere 2.5-hour plane ride (but we’ve seen each other less often lately).

we had a great visit, catching up over dinner (john’s delicious grilled salmon, the best i’ve ever eaten), hearing about their life in denver and my uncle’s renewed travels to far off places. i felt so warmed by the way they opened their home and life to me; it was an especially memorable addition to what would otherwise be mostly a working weekend.

it’s good that we now have the ability to be more connected and to see each other once in a while without planning a three-week trip.

chipotle, the dog, can’t even fathom the prospect of such a thing.

i left home very early friday morning and was one of the few passengers with a light on in the dark cabin (i made headway on more secret knitting) as we traveled all the way west in the dark. then, just when we were circling to descend over the denver airport, the plane banked around to reveal

the beginning of the dawn symphony.

the low-hanging clouds made a beautiful backdrop for it

and in just a few minutes the day arrived

the pilot tilted the plane just so i could get a nice shot for you of the city’s outlying plains

before diving toward the runway and ground fog so thick, you couldn’t see anything else.

i was met at the airport by judy, who organizes the fiber experiences programs, which include easy-going retreats, events, and weekend workshop events for fiber lovers throughout the year.

by then i had been up for about seven hours and was feeling hungry, so we headed for breakfast and got acquainted. judy is dear and lovable and has the best sense of humor, along with a sense of calm that makes everyone feel comfortable (all the best qualities and organizer an have, i think).

since it was too early to check in at the hotel, we went to judy’s place to hang out and knit for the day, which i loved. i was so comfortable there that i forgot to take photos of her “knitting spot”, which was so charmingly homey.

i made a high peaks hat—yes, a complete hat— while we talked and worked. with no email or other outside distractions, it’s amazing what you can do in a few hours (i even wove in the ends, heh)

i’m still trying to decide if it will fit its intended recipient—it fits me, but i do have the tiniest head. i may knit another, one size larger, just to be sure. i used a delicious skein of sundara worsted merino, colorway crushed cherries. the yarn was divine to knit with and i think i might have enough left to knit that second hat without cannibalizing the first (i hope so, because that means i can keep the first one).

in the afternoon i got checked into the hotel and went to the workshop space at TACtile arts, right next door.

we set up tables and chairs for the participants and i unpacked the trunk show and figured out a way to display everything i brought.

i was really lucky that this venue is devoted to promoting textile arts—pat, who works there, unearthed all sorts of mannequins and props to make the display more attractive (one of the best i’ve been able to put up).

marilyn, who owns black water abbey yarns, joined us to help out and to create a display of her unique, irish wool yarn and samples in it knit from my patterns—she had ondule, trevi, gnarled oakwoods, the zigzag set, gust, and several others sampled in naturals

and beautiful heather colorways, fiber dyed and spun for her at a small, family-owned mill in ireland.

it was awesome to see them in this interesting yarn, which knits up similarly to a shetland yarn—a bit scratchy in the skein, but with a beautiful sheen. it softens up when washed and over time, develops the patina and hand of the best kind of sweater—one that you will own for life, which will wear like iron.

sadly, i have no photos of her booth (bad blogger)—a recurring theme for part of the weekend. but i do have this nice picture of judy and marilyn, sitting at the back of the room during class, keeping an eye on everything and enjoying a visit.

(they are both so terrific)

once we finished up at the space we headed for an early dinner at the fresh fish company. this was definitely a good move—this hopping restaurant had the feel of the kind of “swank seafood joint” that couples used to head for at caesar’s bay on a weekend night—kinda 70s, kinda lounge-y with low lighting and lots live fish tanks, but very very good eating—much to recommend there.

by the end of dinner, i could hardly keep my head up—between the early alarm, too little sleep the night before, and the altitude change, i was barely coherent. you won’t believe this, but i was in bed by 7:30 or so and slept pretty much nonstop til 5 am the next day. i can’t even remember the last time i did that, but it felt fantastic.

throughout the beginning lace workshop on saturday, i took nary a picture; i was so busy talking and working around the room that i just forgot about the camera (sorry).

sunday, however, was a different story—i remembered to put the camera on the table where it would remind me of it’s uses.

this was a hardworking group—we tackled a triangle shawl sampler that was challenging for many of the participants, but they worked hard and had lots to show for it at the end (it’s not easy making lace, after all). some of the beginners from the previous day took the advanced class as well, which impressed me a lot—i think it’s really courageous to try new challenges in a group of other knitters, some of them very experienced.

mid afternoon, we changed things up with a little blocking demo

i showed everyone how i thread blocking wires and how to use a ruler to stretch and pin out a shawl. BTW, judy introduced us to a supplier of blocking wires who offers a very attractively-sized set (at a very reasonable price) in her etsy shop, which includes a PVC case.

i always include some quiet work time in between “lecture” periods in my classes so that students can practice the skills we talk about while i’m there. if i’m not answering a question during this time, i’ll work on a little project.

early saturday morning, i cast on a neckwarmer while having coffee in my room, using my little ball of handspun fibre isle blend. between class on saturday and the pane ride home last night i finished it up

however—i don’t care for it. it just isn’t as great as i thought it would be in my head (plus, it’s too big for me), and i want something really special from this yarn. so i’ll rip it out today and find something else to do with it.

on sunday morning, i cast on another neckwarmer to go with the red hat i knit on saturday. i worked on it through sunday’s classes (and again on the plane last night) and i would have bound it off, but i didn’t want to try it on during landing time, haha.

this one worked out much better—it’s exactly what i wanted it to be; fairly dense and warm, with textural interest that moves the colors in the yarn around nicely. i love it.
i still haven’t tried it on to see if it’s done, but i will after i finish this post.

so that makes two neckwarmers and a hat off the needles over the weekend, plus a heap of secret knitting—not bad for a working weekend. it’s incredible what i can accomplish when i’m not accessing email . . .

sunday’s group was as much fun as saturday’s and the day passed quickly. before i knew it we were packed up again and heading for the airport. i brought home a few lovely yarns from participants to show you, but i need to sort out that jumble of stuff in the top photo and take pictures—you’ll get to see it tomorrow or wednesday.

when i arrived back that house, i dropped my bags and settled in with david to talk and watch TV while i worked on some socks and tried to feel ready to sleep.

this morning when i got into the office to turn on the computer again, i saw this

where david’s dumpsite “desk area” used to be. and this

where his disaster “storage” area used to be—someone has been cleaning my house!

this sight made me unreasonably happy—not that i’m in any way a perfectionist about the house being clean or anything, but that area of the room was, ahem, getting a little cluttery; the kind that’s bad enough to make me nervous if i look at it for long.

i’m sure the new laptop had something to do with the urge to straighten up, but i don’t care—i’m glad it looks nice again.

ok, wow, it’s already time for my monday afternoon class to arrive. i’ll be back!

Filed under: designing, events, lace/shawls, projects, spinning and fiber
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well toto, we’re not in in the garden of eden any more—all we have of it is the fruit.
i was going to start out with a compare/contrast photo to describe what we came back to on friday, but i just couldn’t do it. a little slice of california orange seemed so much more generous (and YUMMY).

but just so you know—once i found my way across the bedroom on friday morning in the deep, dark chill of 8 am, i pulled aside the curtain to reveal something akin to this:

“oh”, i thought (as if i haven’t lived through seven ohio winters), “surely it will brighten up later”. but by late afternoon, the best the sky could produce was this:

not exactly the brilliant display i was hoping for—let’s just take a peek at what the sky looked like to us one week (and 3000 miles) earlier

the contrast is shocking, right? thank goodness for friends who live in warm places. i’ve had a hard time getting back to reality, heh.

so yes, the last few days have been tied up in adjusting back to real life and getting my email box squared away. almost done with that; just a couple of the more complicated emails left to answer.

i’ve also been sorting through the knitting i finished and the knitting i made progress on, as well as the knitting i didn’t touch while i was away.

i’m still working on secret projects, but i’m happy to say i got a lot done on those in between trips to the beach and visiting friends. they won’t be hanging around much longer.

by the time i got home on thursday evening, i had half of the front for my henley finished. i worked on the other half friday evening and by midnight, it was ready for blocking and seaming

i was a little worried about how narrow the finished pieces looked; i know it’s a rib knit, but still—it’s a little scary to think the whole thing might be too tight, especially after the struggles i had to start out with. but you gotta have faith . . .

last night i pinned each piece out for a steam blocking and sure enough, they all stretched easily to the size they are supposed to be. even after unpinning, they sprang back very little

here you can see the blocked front piece next to the unblocked back piece. now you can actually tell that there is a bit of openwork running through those cables, too.

the fabric now feels much lighter and drapier (which will feel more comfortable in warm weather than a tightly-cabled fabric)

and the darts are opened up so the shaping looks more shapely.
the process takes a lot of pinning and measuring to get each piece right, but taking the time to do it makes the seaming go much more smoothly.

i apply just a light shot of steam over all the piece at this point—just enough to relax the fabric and make the edges lay flat. i don’t want a hard finish on anything yet—in fact, with a texture like this, the best final blocking may very well involve washing the whole garment to get an accurate picture of the final fabric.

as with most sweaters, once i pin and steam one sleeve, i lay the second one right on top and pin it out to match, then steam again.

none of that took very long at all— surprisingly, i was all done in about 45 minutes. i then seamed the shoulders and added the neck trim and button bands. i stitched the sleeve caps to the armholes while we watched late night TV.

this afternoon i’ll press the shoulder areas and trims, then sew up the long underarm seams for a fine finish. i am on pins and needles to know how if the fit is what i’m expecting and what i visualized.

the night before i went away, i finished up this cité neckwarmer i knit up in laceweight cashmere. i cast on the small size using a 3.25 mm needle and worked as per the pattern adding another repeat of the body section to the length, so that it would fall into soft folds.

once i was back home on friday, i soaked it and laid it out to dry; now it’s ready to wear.

i love these lighter-weight neckwarmers—with less bulk, i can throw them on under a shawl or jacket to go out, or over a sweater to wear indoors for just a little extra layering warmth, mmm.

i don’t think i showed you this treasure that i received from sylvie at fibre isle while we were talking at TNNA last weekend

it’s spinning top that she creates at the end of a run at the mill, using whatever loose fiber is leftover from making yarn. she knows what fiber is in it, but can’t say what percentages of each one it contains (so every batch is different). this batch has cashmere and bison, along with some soy fiber and bamboo (i think; i didn’t write anything down!).

whatever it is, it’s delectable. it’s not listed on her site, but maybe with a little pressure from us, she’ll start selling it. she wound off a small amount for me to sample and i decided to spin it up in class this morning for a quick, one-session project.

oh my.
can i just go on a bit about how lovely an experience that was? the fiber was a smooth blend that practically spun itself—resulting the most consistent yarn i think i’ve ever produced.

i had approximately .8 ounces of fiber to start and no waste whatsoever from spinning it. i ended up with 90 yards of a heavier laceweight yarn—almost fingering, but not quite. it reminds me a little of her pearl bison in texture, with a nice springy ply twist, yet soft and drapey, too.

i got all the singles spun during class time and plied it after everyone left, then put it on to soak. i just took it out of the water and hung it up to dry—it falls in a straight silky skein that has nice body and beautiful sheen.

i can’t wait to knit with it—i’m feeling another neckwarmer coming on . . . that might make a nice travel project for my trip to denver next weekend.

several packages arrived while we were gone and i have a small heap of goodies to show you that i’ll save for tomorrow. we’ll also be releasing the fishbone gansey sock this week and hopefully, sprössling, once it comes back from its final review with our tech editor, tana.
stay tuned.

ps: dont’ get me wrong—t’s always nice to be home again . . .

Filed under: designing, lace/shawls, projects, spinning and fiber
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