all about anne (not me, the other anne)

Posted on Posted in designing, food and garden, lace/shawls, projects, spinning and fiber

i did a little spinning the other day . . not as much as i would have liked, but it was fun (oh, i haven’t been doing enough of it and oh, how i feel the void . . .).
anne sent me fiber samples for yarns she is designing that will be used in a few upcoming projects we have planned.

the yarns will be mill spun from anne’s fiber blends; i will not be spinning the yardage for the project. we just wanted to get a rough idea of what the fiber will look like in a yarn.

we like.
the brown sample in the middle will be the yarn for the stole i am designing for “lace in the woods”, a knitters retreat at big sur that is coming up in june. hosted by jackie of the knitting hutch (ravelry group here), this promises to be an exciting opportunity to spend a week revolving through lace-focused workshops taught by cookie A., mim, susan, and me.
participants will have the chance to purchase special-edition kits for this piece that include the artisan yarn, a blend of soft alpaca, some jacob wool, and silk . . . a real luxury fiber.

the stole i am designing will be an exploration of woodland flora, and will be introduced in my workshops during the retreat, along with instruction for the stitches involved and a discussion of design process. it was inspired in part by the tree scum socks of last spring, along with all the lovely browns and greens of our deeply shaded back yard.
in addition to the kits described above, there will also be a kit available to anyone which will include a hand-dyed yarn with a similar look, though not the artisan fiber blend.
we’ll talk more about specifics later in the spring when the project is actually underway.

the gray tweed yarn will be for a manLace selection for the fall installment of anne’s change of seasons lace club. it is a wonderfully soft alpaca (feels like bunny, i swear!) blended with slate-blue silk and silk noils in greens and black. love, right?
subscriptions for the club are open til the end of this month and i know there are some gorgeous projects happening for it, so if you are interested, better scurry.

and the black . . . hehehe . . . let’s just say anne and i should never tempt ourselves but tossing around ideas. the fiber sample was originally posed for the lace in the woods projects but i thought it was darker and more turquoise than i wanted for the forest floor.

however, after spinning it up the other day, it really struck a chord with us, and i threw the notion of meteor showers into the mix and, well, before we knew it we were planning another project. more on that when the time draws near.

i know. that’s a lot of chatter about such a little bit of spinning.

i spent most of yesterday concentrating on charting stitch patterns for the new shawl project. i love that part—it gives me pains in my head but then it feels so good when it stops, that i keep going anyway.
i have just a little more swatching to do and then i will be ready to reveal my plan.
but trust me, i am working on it—pretty hard, too.

the other night there was a swatching party at the new yarn shop in town and i went. the object was to grab something form a bag of unlabeled (and hopefully unfamiliar) yarn and knit a swatch for the store.

i got a beautiful soft, squishy merino sock yarn, that i instantly recognized—by the colorway alone—as . . . guess whose?? that anne.

you have to understand; not only do anne and i share a name, which is enough to confuse almost everyone when we’re working together, but we are ever-so-weirdly in sync much of the time. therefore, it felt kinda right that in a blind grab-bag of maybe 20 yarn balls, i would pick hers. of course i chose by how nice the fiber felt, too, which probably stacked the deck in her favor.

the funny thing is, i have NOT knit with anne’s sock yarn yet (you may have noticed that my sock knitting is way behind it’s usual production level; more on that in a near-future post), so i leapt at the chance to try it.
here’s my swatch

OMG—why hasn’t anyone pounded me over the head and told me to knit baby socks before?? hahaha! this was way too fun.

and so useful. you might have noticed that i don’t do much baby knitting. i like knitting baby stuff. and i DO have friends that make babies. i am always embarrassed when i don’t offer them knitted gifts, but for some reason, it’s hard for me to get into the deadline thing of it.
(actually, i’ll tell you a secret: i don’t knit baby stuff because i’m frightened to death that i won’t be able to stop, and i’ll never get another thing done. you know what i mean . . .)

so, here i think i have found the perfect solution. i can make funny baby socks from leftovers and send them to friends who make babies. little david sock replicas . . it’ll be a hit. for instance, i am awaiting news of an impending birth this very minute and this will be the perfect thing; it’s a friend from work who will be totally chuffed to get miniature handknit socks.

and, as opposed to a lace blanket that might be saved for “good” (til it rots from disuse, even), these will be used.

so anyhow, yeah—this yarn is perfect for that . . it is supersoft, warm, and i would totally use this colorway (red rock) on a boy or a girl.

ok, now chop-chop—i gotta get back to that swatching i was talking about.

UPDATE

and in the not knitting but geometrically adds to your knitting time department:

oh wow, i totally forgot to tell you about this fabulous meal we had last night that took—i swear—about 5 mins to put together.

take an unbaked pie shell (any kind, homemade or not)

in a bowl combine 2-3 packages of drained and squeezed cut spinach, 1/4 cup olive oil, half a pound of crumbled feta cheese, 2 sliced fresh tomatoes, and (optional) sautéed chopped onion and garlic.

add salt and pepper to taste and dump it in the pie shell; drizzle olive oil on top.

bake in a 350 oven til the crust and top are browned and a little bubbly, about 45 mins.
knit with smug satisfaction while waiting.

dumbest recipe ever, but sooo yummy. i’ve had it with and without the onion and it was delicious either way. you can totally have this stuff on hand to make it any time.

51 thoughts on “all about anne (not me, the other anne)

  1. Made your spinach pie last night. Added a pound of Italian sausage, browned and drained and reduced the spinach to only one package. It was absolutely delicious and my husband (not a spinach or feta fan) loved it! Thanks for sharing this!

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