Today, Saturday, May 11th, my LYS Westport Yarns is having a Cephalopod Trunk Show. Woohoo! I couldn't make it so I went yesterday and bought two lovely skeins of fingering weight yarn for socks.
I bought Skinny Bugga - which is a mix of merino wool, cashmere and nylon. It looks scrumptious! This fits the category of yarn too pretty to knit, but I promise to knit it up into something very special.
Westport Yarns Saturday, May 11th 11:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. Meet Sarah Eyre, Owner/Dyer Cephalopod Yarns
I hope you can make it. If you do, say hello for me!
Primogeniture snapped this picture of Wilma lying down at the top of the stairs facing downstairs.
She often tries to protect the whole house this way when the boys are upstairs and BF and I are downstairs. Sometimes she's perched at the top of the stairs like this - and sometimes she sits on a step halfway down the stairs. I always think it's hilarious how she's torn between the two. Awwww, Girly Girl - you're the best.
Thanks for all your suggestions for what to do with my pretty pink yarn. In the end, I came up with my second favorite go-to sock pattern so I would have a little bit of intrigue while knitting and yet still show off the beauty of this great yarn.
I think this pattern fits both my requirements. It lives up to its name as it is a J.O.Y. to knit with.
There should be a name for this condition. I have so many wonderful yarns yet for some reason I find it difficult to knit my very pretty yarn. This is generally a condition that manifests itself when I receive a gift of yarn from a friend, or hand-dye my own yarn, or buy an especially expensive skein of yarn.
Here's the perfect example. I've had this gorgeous skein of pink yarn from James's store J.O.Y. (Joy of Yarn) in New Zealand for quite some time. It's been sitting on my shelf making me happy every time I look at it. But I wanted to be sure to knit something very special out of it - not just a plain stockinette sock. So it sits. I give my pretty yarn too much power over me. I look at sock patterns and find them unworthy of the yarn. So insted of knitting my pretty yarn, I grab something that is less inspiring (e.g. that meets the qualifications for a simple stockinette sock).
But today I am conquering that inertia. I wound the Vintage Purls yarn in the JOY colorway and cast on for a pair of socks. I don't know if I'll make stockinette or decide on a pattern, but at least I've started. This yarn is simply too pretty to sit on my shelf.
How about you? Do you have souvenir yarn or yarn that is simply too precious to knit?
With all my travels this past week, I managed to finish another pair of socks.
I thought it would be a good pair to make for one of my nephews. But while I was home - it snowed - on May 1st of all things. When I got cold and asked my sister to borrow a sweatshirt and socks, she brought out a pair of handknit socks identical to this pair. Apparently I had already knit socks with this yarn for one of my nephews. Ha!
So instead, I decided to make a men's size 13 sock for Secundogeniture. I just kept knitting, and knitting, and knitting, and...
This week was my first trip home since you all donated so many wonderful blankets and hats for the Jackson Recovery Center's Women and Children's Center (JRC WCC) Auxiliary. I took a huge duffel bag filled with your donations home to Iowa with me. It was perfect timing, because we had the JRC WCC's annual auxiliary luncheon
I delivered the blankets and everyone was in awe of the kindness of knitters, sewers and crafters. I told them that most of the blankets were donated by readers of my blog. They were truly touched and in awe of your generosity. My SIL Priscilla saw the huge duffel bag and thought it was a hockey bag (it was that big!) While I didn't get a good picture of the blankets being delivered, I did snap a lovely photos of this year's Executive Board for the Auxiliary.
These lovely ladies do so much for the women and children in Siouxland. In fact, our guest speaker Michelle gave a very moving testimony of her story from addiction to sobriety to success. She is now learning to be a mother to her children, she's been sober for two years, and is going to school and getting straight As. Guess what she's studying? She is studying to be an addiction counselor so she can give back and help others like she was helped. I really can't relay in my words the touching heartfelt story she shared with us. But trust me, we need to make one of these success stories every single day.
I can't thank you enough for all your generosity with your blanket and hat donations for the infants, babies, toddlers, children and even teens who come to treatment with their mothers. The whole family gets healthy together.
What a joy it is to have such an eager group of students who are excited to learn a new subject. Day Two of the Textile Merit Badge involved dyeing two pieces or swatches of fabric with homemade natural dyes.
We soaked the onion skins and the chopped spinach overnight (OK - technically two nights). I do not recommend this as the spinach was very stinky! Then we boiled the natural dye with two tablespoons of salt in pots specifically designated for dyeing. You don't want to cook with a pot once you've used it for dyeing. After our natural dye had cooked properly, we strained the foodstuff and returned our liquid dye to its pot.
Here's the video we watched and followed for dyeing our fabric.
Then each Scout or sister put their two pieces of fabric (one neckerchief and one small swatch) into the two different pots. Then we boiled our fabric for 45 minutes. During this time, we continued on with the class lecture, videos and homework.
We cooled the fabrics in the sink (oops! The sink got dyed, too). The yellow onion skins made a beautiful deep rust colored fabric. The spinach made a very pale green and was messy to work with. I'm not sure I'd repeat this experience with spinach.
My nephew Pierce showed off his four creations - a sample fabric board, two dyed fabrics and his weaving project.
My nephew Conor posed for a similar photo.
Grace got in on the action with her samples, too.
We had four very happy Scouts and three even happier sisters who now were experts in the basics of the Textile industry. I can hardly wait to see what the future holds for them.
I went home to Iowa this week and got to see my whole family. My reason for going was for my oldest brother's ordination as a minister. I was so proud of him. I got all choked up when I saw him on the altar with the other candidates for ordination. My mother always thought my brother would make a wonderful minister. She died more than 18 years ago - but I could feel her watching over the ceremony and beaming with pride! I know I was. By the way, Mom was right. :D
My brother, the Reverend Bradley Jackson and family
So if you're ever in Oelwein, Iowa - please go visit his church and say hello. Brad and his family have the most wonderful faith in God. I've never seen miracles happen for people the way I see them happen for them. They are truly blessed.
So I packed my brand new Cricket Loom and went home to Iowa. The day I arrived I started by teaching some Scouts (and a few siblings, too) from my nephews' Troop the Textile Merit Badge. It was great fun.
The kids made some great weaving projects. My scarf and my class sample are in the upper left hand corner. The small orange sample was going to be an entire scarf, but my niece's cat decided to try her hand claws at weaving and sliced several of the warp strings. Oops! That's what I get for leaving my toys lying around!
Oops! Oh well. I needed a sample for the class anyway.
I purchased nine different types of fabric at my local fabric store - The Textile Store in Westport, CT and made a simple fabric sample board. I also cut out miniature 1.5x1.5 inch swatches out of the same material and passed them along to each student. In turn they stapled their swatches to a piece of paper and then had to do some investigative work to discover the fabric content for each fabric swatch. Hint: If they lifted the fabric on my big fabric sample board, they found the fabric content underneath the swatch.
We discussed the fabric content of each swatch and tried to master the touch and feel of each fabric and remember which fabric was which: silk, cotton, rayon, wool, polyester and more. We also watched some videos about spinning, knitting, and weaving. These kids were fascinated! We ended the first day of our class with the motto: Be Prepared to Dye! This slight variation on Baden-Powell's Boy Scout motto was in line for our second half of the class where we dyed fabric in natural dyes. We used yellow onion skins and spinach. But for the first class, all we did was prepare the dye and let it soak overnight. Stay tuned for part two of the Textile Merit Badge.
What a beautiful weekend for a campout. One of the Dads in our Troop is an avid fisherman. He coordinated a fabulous event where the Scouts had the opportunity to learn all about fly fishing.
David (in the tan shirt) led the Fly Fishing merit badge class with the help of Tony - a fly fishing instructor. It was a great day.
The boys each tied their very own fly. Tony was such a patient instructor!
After the class for making flies, they had a second class on the technique of casting. Finally, they had some time in the afternoon to put into practice what they learned. While no one caught any fish this first time around, they definitely caught the bug. Hopefully they'll take this newfound skill with them into adulthood. What a peaceful hobby it is!
This is the sight of Deer Lake when we woke up Sunday morning. Peace and tranquility. What could be better?
Thanks Dave and Tony for a fabulous campout and course of instruction.
I haven't even finished the last new project and I'm already onto another new project. I'll be teaching the Textile Merit Badge next week and I want to get all my materials together. So I went to my LYS - Westport Yarns and Laura Eckels helped me set up my new loom and get started. (Yeah - and I'm TEACHING this class???). Anyway, I'm very excited. I'm going to be weaving a bit in preparation for the class. I can hardly wait.
I'm using two skeins of yarn that I bought at Westport Yarns sometime in the past 2-3 years.
Spud & Chloe - Fine Sock - Color 7802 Noro Silk Garden Sock Yarn - Color S84
My friends and I took our Urban Abacus quilt class at The Quilt Shop yesterday and had so much fun. We learned how to use the Quick Curve Ruler. In no time at all, everyone had completed several squares for each quilt. We even took the time to display them on the felt board.
I loved seeing all the different colors people chose. They're so beautiful!
I thought the picture of everyone taking a picture was hilarious. :D
Did you guess which one is mine?
I can hardly wait to keep sewing away. Now if I only had more hours in the day.
Today my friends and I are taking a quilting class at The Quilt Shop. In the meantime I snapped a picture of this Dr. Seuss quilt in the classroom and already bought an array of the fabric. Guess who will be making a few quilts in the very near future.
Charlene Schurch's Garter Rib sock pattern from Sensational Knitted Socks
See tip below for turning the heel and maintaining the broad stripe pattern
I noticed when I looked on Ravelry that other people who had knit top-down socks using Felici ended up with an awkward looking 1-2 round stripe just as they started the gusset. This occured because most of the color from that stripe is used turning the heel. So I decided to turn the heel and cut out the rest of that stripe's color. Then I began picking up the stitches for the gusset just before the next stripe's color began. This created a nice broad strip right at the gusset. It's not as wide as the leg or the foot, but it works and doesn't have that awkwardness to it.
And when it's done an all woven in, it looks great.
And on a positive note, I was pleasantly surprised with the quality of the Knit Picks Felici yarn. I haven't purchased any sock yarn from Knit Picks since they first opened for business. Back then, I wasn't too impressed with their sock yarn. It was a bit "crunchy" and turned me off. Felici has more than made up for that first bad impression. This felt a lot like one of my favorite sock yarns - Regia - so I will definitely be knitting more socks with this yarn. Plus, I just love the thick stripes and the yarn comes in so many wonderful colors. I also bought some Felici in Rainbow when I purchased this yarn, so that will be knit up for my next pair of socks.
I highly recommend you go buy some Felici yarn for your next pair of socks. You'll be tickled pink, or rainbow, or blue, or...
It's all coming back to me. I have slowed down on my constant sock knitting this past year. I thought I had just lost that lovin' feeling. But now it's all coming back to me. I knit on US Size 1 needles. I knit a lot. I knit quickly. I knit until I'm done. Put that all together and whenever I knit socks, I end up with a huge knot in the back of my shoulders. I have such a knot this week. It's mostly likely due to the fact that I knit not one, but two pairs of socks. So I did what any sane knitter would do. I went for a manicure/pedicure.
How does that make sense? Well, I get a free massage with my mani/pedi. And I needed some TLC on my toes... so it made sense to do both for the price of one. Don't you love how my mind works?
P.S. Instead of giving it a rest, my logic continues that the faster I can finish these socks, the faster I can give my aching muscles a break.
We have a winner ladies and gentlemen. The Random Number Generator selected my 23rd comment as the winner... so blogless Theresa is our winner. I think she deserves this as a perfect gift to the end of tax season for her.
Theresa - give me a shout and we'll settle up (e.g. mailing address, etc.)
Congratulations. Thanks to everyone who reads my blog and comments regularly. I really appreciate it.
We're at Six Flags New England for opening weekend. Secundogeniture and his friend are having fun despite the cold. I found a booth and a cup of hot coffee to sit, knit, and listen to my book while they're having fun.
I might finish these socks today. Not a bad use of my time. Not bad at all.
I haven't been knitting socks like I used to in the good ol' days, but I have a pair on the needles that are making some progress of late.
The yarn is unlabeled yarn from my stash. One of my readers identified it as possibly being Opal sock yarn. These are plain vanilla top down stockinette socks with a traditional heel flap. They're my go to socks. I know the needles, # of stitches, yarn I prefer and I can basically make them with my eyes closed. They practically knit themselves.
As many of you, I am very frustrated that Google Reader abruptly announced last month that it would be discontinuing its RSS reader service this summer. That's it. No suggestions about how to switch, or anything. Just good bye. Screw you. We don't really care that you use our service. We're going to take our ball and go home.
Grrrr.
I haven't decided what to do yet. BF is switching to Twitter since almost all the blogs he read are also on twitter. Only a fraction of my blogs have Twitter. BTW, I'm majorknitter on Twitter if you want to follow me there.
What are your suggestions for the switch? Which RSS reader do you like best and why?
I suspect readership will go down even more without Google Reader. Sigh.
Please comment with your ideas and suggestions. Inquiring minds want to know.
Winner! Winner! Chicken Dinner!
We have a winner ladies and gentlemen. The Random Number Generator selected my 23rd comment as the winner... so blogless Theresa is our winner. I think she deserves this as a perfect gift to the end of tax season for her.
Theresa - give me a shout and we'll settle up (e.g. mailing address, etc.)
Congratulations. Thanks to everyone who reads my blog and comments regularly. I really appreciate it.
I know you'll love your new camouflage yarn.
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