I created the Loopy Wicker Cowl for the Juniper Moon Farm Design Contest. The basic guidelines were to use up to 2 balls of either Willa or Chadwick. This is a very quick knit, plus 2 stitches).

And special thanks to photographer Joel Eagle, model Caroline Fryar, and Susan Gibbs of Juniper Moon Farm for allowing me to republish this photo from the blog post about the contest finalists:

Loopy Wicker Cowl
Size – one size fits most adults

Materials:
1 ball Chadwick
(if making the 2-color version, 2 balls Chadwick)
This pattern uses 70-80 yards of yarn in total.

Size 8 (US) needles
1 button

Gauge: 18 sts and 27 rows over 4 inches / 10 cm in stockinette

Pattern notes: On the odd numbered rows, the yarn is wrapped twice around the needle when purling. These extra wraps are dropped in the even numbered rows and are what makes the long loops that form the wicker-like pattern.

Cast on 26 stitches.

Row 1 (WS): Purl entire row, wrapping the yarn twice around the needle when making the purl stitch.

Row 2 (RS): Dropping each extra wrap, K1, *sl 3 to cable needle and hold in back, k3, k3 from cable needle, repeat from * until 1 st remains. K1.

Row 3: same as row 1

Row 4: Dropping each extra wrap, K4, *sl 3 to cable needle and hold in front, k3, k3 from cable needle, repeat from * until 4 sts remain. K4.

Repeat rows 1-4 until the cowl is 20 inches long (50 cm). Bind off by purling. Finishing by sewing a button on one end.

To make the 2-color version, cast on 10 stitches in main color, then 6 stitches in contrast color, then 10 stitches in main color. Follow the pattern as written but always use the same color to knit as the stitch below is.
I created the Loopy Wicker Cowl for the Juniper Moon Farm Design Contest. The basic guidelines were to use up to 2 balls of either Willa or Chadwick. This is a very quick knit, plus 2 stitches).

And special thanks to photographer Joel Eagle, model Caroline Fryar, and Susan Gibbs of Juniper Moon Farm for allowing me to republish this photo from the blog post about the contest finalists:

Loopy Wicker Cowl
Size – one size fits most adults

Materials:
1 ball Chadwick
(if making the 2-color version, 2 balls Chadwick)
This pattern uses 70-80 yards of yarn in total.

Size 8 (US) needles
1 button

Gauge: 18 sts and 27 rows over 4 inches / 10 cm in stockinette

Pattern notes: On the odd numbered rows, the yarn is wrapped twice around the needle when purling. These extra wraps are dropped in the even numbered rows and are what makes the long loops that form the wicker-like pattern.

Cast on 26 stitches.

Row 1 (WS): Purl entire row, wrapping the yarn twice around the needle when making the purl stitch.

Row 2 (RS): Dropping each extra wrap, K1, *sl 3 to cable needle and hold in back, k3, k3 from cable needle, repeat from * until 1 st remains. K1.

Row 3: same as row 1

Row 4: Dropping each extra wrap, K4, *sl 3 to cable needle and hold in front, k3, k3 from cable needle, repeat from * until 4 sts remain. K4.

Repeat rows 1-4 until the cowl is 20 inches long (50 cm). Bind off by purling. Finishing by sewing a button on one end.

To make the 2-color version, cast on 10 stitches in main color, then 6 stitches in contrast color, then 10 stitches in main color. Follow the pattern as written but always use the same color to knit as the stitch below is.
I created the Loopy Wicker Cowl for the Juniper Moon Farm Design Contest. The basic guidelines were to use up to 2 balls of either Willa or Chadwick. This is a very quick knit, thumb plus 2 stitches).

And special thanks to photographer Susan Gibbs and model Caroline Fryar of Juniper Moon Farm for allowing me to republish this photo from the blog post about the contest finalists:

Loopy Wicker Cowl
Size – one size fits most adults

Materials:
1 ball Chadwick
(if making the 2-color version, 2 balls Chadwick)
This pattern uses 70-80 yards of yarn in total.

Size 8 (US) needles
1 button

Gauge: 18 sts and 27 rows over 4 inches / 10 cm in stockinette

Pattern notes: On the odd numbered rows, clinic the yarn is wrapped twice around the needle when purling. These extra wraps are dropped in the even numbered rows and are what makes the long loops that form the wicker-like pattern.

Cast on 26 stitches.

Row 1 (WS): Purl entire row, wrapping the yarn twice around the needle when making the purl stitch.

Row 2 (RS): Dropping each extra wrap, K1, *sl 3 to cable needle and hold in back, k3, k3 from cable needle, repeat from * until 1 st remains. K1.

Row 3: same as row 1

Row 4: Dropping each extra wrap, K4, *sl 3 to cable needle and hold in front, k3, k3 from cable needle, repeat from * until 4 sts remain. K4.

Repeat rows 1-4 until the cowl is 20 inches long (50 cm). Bind off by purling. Finishing by sewing a button on one end.

To make the 2-color version, cast on 10 stitches in main color, then 6 stitches in contrast color, then 10 stitches in main color. Follow the pattern as written but always use the same color to knit as the stitch below is.
I created the Loopy Wicker Cowl for the Juniper Moon Farm Design Contest. The basic guidelines were to use up to 2 balls of either Willa or Chadwick. This is a very quick knit, plus 2 stitches).

And special thanks to photographer Joel Eagle, model Caroline Fryar, and Susan Gibbs of Juniper Moon Farm for allowing me to republish this photo from the blog post about the contest finalists:

Loopy Wicker Cowl
Size – one size fits most adults

Materials:
1 ball Chadwick
(if making the 2-color version, 2 balls Chadwick)
This pattern uses 70-80 yards of yarn in total.

Size 8 (US) needles
1 button

Gauge: 18 sts and 27 rows over 4 inches / 10 cm in stockinette

Pattern notes: On the odd numbered rows, the yarn is wrapped twice around the needle when purling. These extra wraps are dropped in the even numbered rows and are what makes the long loops that form the wicker-like pattern.

Cast on 26 stitches.

Row 1 (WS): Purl entire row, wrapping the yarn twice around the needle when making the purl stitch.

Row 2 (RS): Dropping each extra wrap, K1, *sl 3 to cable needle and hold in back, k3, k3 from cable needle, repeat from * until 1 st remains. K1.

Row 3: same as row 1

Row 4: Dropping each extra wrap, K4, *sl 3 to cable needle and hold in front, k3, k3 from cable needle, repeat from * until 4 sts remain. K4.

Repeat rows 1-4 until the cowl is 20 inches long (50 cm). Bind off by purling. Finishing by sewing a button on one end.

To make the 2-color version, cast on 10 stitches in main color, then 6 stitches in contrast color, then 10 stitches in main color. Follow the pattern as written but always use the same color to knit as the stitch below is.
I created the Loopy Wicker Cowl for the Juniper Moon Farm Design Contest. The basic guidelines were to use up to 2 balls of either Willa or Chadwick. This is a very quick knit, thumb plus 2 stitches).

And special thanks to photographer Susan Gibbs and model Caroline Fryar of Juniper Moon Farm for allowing me to republish this photo from the blog post about the contest finalists:

Loopy Wicker Cowl
Size – one size fits most adults

Materials:
1 ball Chadwick
(if making the 2-color version, 2 balls Chadwick)
This pattern uses 70-80 yards of yarn in total.

Size 8 (US) needles
1 button

Gauge: 18 sts and 27 rows over 4 inches / 10 cm in stockinette

Pattern notes: On the odd numbered rows, clinic the yarn is wrapped twice around the needle when purling. These extra wraps are dropped in the even numbered rows and are what makes the long loops that form the wicker-like pattern.

Cast on 26 stitches.

Row 1 (WS): Purl entire row, wrapping the yarn twice around the needle when making the purl stitch.

Row 2 (RS): Dropping each extra wrap, K1, *sl 3 to cable needle and hold in back, k3, k3 from cable needle, repeat from * until 1 st remains. K1.

Row 3: same as row 1

Row 4: Dropping each extra wrap, K4, *sl 3 to cable needle and hold in front, k3, k3 from cable needle, repeat from * until 4 sts remain. K4.

Repeat rows 1-4 until the cowl is 20 inches long (50 cm). Bind off by purling. Finishing by sewing a button on one end.

To make the 2-color version, cast on 10 stitches in main color, then 6 stitches in contrast color, then 10 stitches in main color. Follow the pattern as written but always use the same color to knit as the stitch below is.
It’s been 2 weeks since I’ve updated y’all on how my crafty world is going….

I’ve been focusing on spinning a bit, see since I’ll be traveling in April for a conference and I know I won’t have a lot of spinning time so there’s no point bringing the wheel or spindles – I can knit during a workshop pretty unobtrusively, but spinning draws attention. And I knit on planes…so I know I’ll have knitting time, which is why I’m focusing on spinning.

Also the Ravelry group for Spunky Eclectic is doing a stashdown. I took a ton of pictures of the stash I want to spin down – mostly I want to spin down the stuff that is not appealing to spin, which is the white stuff I bought for dyeing, and some random stuff I bought to see how it spins (and sometimes it’s a combination of the two).

But I’m getting ahead of myself. Remember the BFL/silk that my friend Jenn gifted to me? If you don’t, here’s a reminder:

The colorway is called “Floating Down”. Well, I got a 460 yards of a 15 WPI yarn from 4 oz, which is pretty good yardage:

As for the Color Me Pretty Sweater for my niece, it’s coming along. But it’s knitting, so I’m not really focusing on it. I did get some knitting on it done Friday night, during Tony’s gig. The sweater is full into the body now, and it’s stockinette in the round all the way for a few more inches. It will be good plane knitting. As for Tony’s gig – it was not his usual stuff, but if you want to hear all 45 minutes of awesomeness (Tony’s the one playing the piano), just download the link on this page. It’s 432 Mb so it might take a while. I hope you enjoy it!

I also worked a little more on a baby sweater for my co-worker. The baby has been here for a few weeks already! I’ll probably prioritize finishing this first, and then finishing the Color Me Pretty sweater. All this spinning is really driving home the fact that I need to knit up what I already have! It doesn’t help that I’m part of 2 spinning clubs, and get 12 oz of fiber each month. I’ll likely drop the batt club that I’m in, I’ve found that I prefer spinning top to batts….but I don’t hate spinning batts, either! I really love the yarn I get from the batts, though…mostly because I get a lot of sparkle in them. April’s shipment will be 6 months in the club…I may wait it out and do a year, who knows?

Weaving? None. But I signed up for a bi-monthly weaving club, that ships in the even months, so in 2 weeks I’ll have something to weave. Yeah, I should probably cancel my batt club, since I’m doing the weaving club.

I also spun up some mystery wool. It was white, and somewhat of a longwool, but not as coarse as Wensleydale. I want to say it’s Romney, because that’s what it feels like, but I can’t imagine when I had some white Romney around or bought some. I did have some shetland, but I recall it being more downy than what this is….anyway, there was only a little bit of it, 11g = 3/8 ounce, and I did a 2-ply and got 38 yards out of it. Then I dyed it apricot (who knew green + pink = apricot? Not me!) and it’s hanging to dry now.
I created the Loopy Wicker Cowl for the Juniper Moon Farm Design Contest. The basic guidelines were to use up to 2 balls of either Willa or Chadwick. This is a very quick knit, plus 2 stitches).

And special thanks to photographer Joel Eagle, model Caroline Fryar, and Susan Gibbs of Juniper Moon Farm for allowing me to republish this photo from the blog post about the contest finalists:

Loopy Wicker Cowl
Size – one size fits most adults

Materials:
1 ball Chadwick
(if making the 2-color version, 2 balls Chadwick)
This pattern uses 70-80 yards of yarn in total.

Size 8 (US) needles
1 button

Gauge: 18 sts and 27 rows over 4 inches / 10 cm in stockinette

Pattern notes: On the odd numbered rows, the yarn is wrapped twice around the needle when purling. These extra wraps are dropped in the even numbered rows and are what makes the long loops that form the wicker-like pattern.

Cast on 26 stitches.

Row 1 (WS): Purl entire row, wrapping the yarn twice around the needle when making the purl stitch.

Row 2 (RS): Dropping each extra wrap, K1, *sl 3 to cable needle and hold in back, k3, k3 from cable needle, repeat from * until 1 st remains. K1.

Row 3: same as row 1

Row 4: Dropping each extra wrap, K4, *sl 3 to cable needle and hold in front, k3, k3 from cable needle, repeat from * until 4 sts remain. K4.

Repeat rows 1-4 until the cowl is 20 inches long (50 cm). Bind off by purling. Finishing by sewing a button on one end.

To make the 2-color version, cast on 10 stitches in main color, then 6 stitches in contrast color, then 10 stitches in main color. Follow the pattern as written but always use the same color to knit as the stitch below is.
I created the Loopy Wicker Cowl for the Juniper Moon Farm Design Contest. The basic guidelines were to use up to 2 balls of either Willa or Chadwick. This is a very quick knit, thumb plus 2 stitches).

And special thanks to photographer Susan Gibbs and model Caroline Fryar of Juniper Moon Farm for allowing me to republish this photo from the blog post about the contest finalists:

Loopy Wicker Cowl
Size – one size fits most adults

Materials:
1 ball Chadwick
(if making the 2-color version, 2 balls Chadwick)
This pattern uses 70-80 yards of yarn in total.

Size 8 (US) needles
1 button

Gauge: 18 sts and 27 rows over 4 inches / 10 cm in stockinette

Pattern notes: On the odd numbered rows, clinic the yarn is wrapped twice around the needle when purling. These extra wraps are dropped in the even numbered rows and are what makes the long loops that form the wicker-like pattern.

Cast on 26 stitches.

Row 1 (WS): Purl entire row, wrapping the yarn twice around the needle when making the purl stitch.

Row 2 (RS): Dropping each extra wrap, K1, *sl 3 to cable needle and hold in back, k3, k3 from cable needle, repeat from * until 1 st remains. K1.

Row 3: same as row 1

Row 4: Dropping each extra wrap, K4, *sl 3 to cable needle and hold in front, k3, k3 from cable needle, repeat from * until 4 sts remain. K4.

Repeat rows 1-4 until the cowl is 20 inches long (50 cm). Bind off by purling. Finishing by sewing a button on one end.

To make the 2-color version, cast on 10 stitches in main color, then 6 stitches in contrast color, then 10 stitches in main color. Follow the pattern as written but always use the same color to knit as the stitch below is.
It’s been 2 weeks since I’ve updated y’all on how my crafty world is going….

I’ve been focusing on spinning a bit, see since I’ll be traveling in April for a conference and I know I won’t have a lot of spinning time so there’s no point bringing the wheel or spindles – I can knit during a workshop pretty unobtrusively, but spinning draws attention. And I knit on planes…so I know I’ll have knitting time, which is why I’m focusing on spinning.

Also the Ravelry group for Spunky Eclectic is doing a stashdown. I took a ton of pictures of the stash I want to spin down – mostly I want to spin down the stuff that is not appealing to spin, which is the white stuff I bought for dyeing, and some random stuff I bought to see how it spins (and sometimes it’s a combination of the two).

But I’m getting ahead of myself. Remember the BFL/silk that my friend Jenn gifted to me? If you don’t, here’s a reminder:

The colorway is called “Floating Down”. Well, I got a 460 yards of a 15 WPI yarn from 4 oz, which is pretty good yardage:

As for the Color Me Pretty Sweater for my niece, it’s coming along. But it’s knitting, so I’m not really focusing on it. I did get some knitting on it done Friday night, during Tony’s gig. The sweater is full into the body now, and it’s stockinette in the round all the way for a few more inches. It will be good plane knitting. As for Tony’s gig – it was not his usual stuff, but if you want to hear all 45 minutes of awesomeness (Tony’s the one playing the piano), just download the link on this page. It’s 432 Mb so it might take a while. I hope you enjoy it!

I also worked a little more on a baby sweater for my co-worker. The baby has been here for a few weeks already! I’ll probably prioritize finishing this first, and then finishing the Color Me Pretty sweater. All this spinning is really driving home the fact that I need to knit up what I already have! It doesn’t help that I’m part of 2 spinning clubs, and get 12 oz of fiber each month. I’ll likely drop the batt club that I’m in, I’ve found that I prefer spinning top to batts….but I don’t hate spinning batts, either! I really love the yarn I get from the batts, though…mostly because I get a lot of sparkle in them. April’s shipment will be 6 months in the club…I may wait it out and do a year, who knows?

Weaving? None. But I signed up for a bi-monthly weaving club, that ships in the even months, so in 2 weeks I’ll have something to weave. Yeah, I should probably cancel my batt club, since I’m doing the weaving club.

I also spun up some mystery wool. It was white, and somewhat of a longwool, but not as coarse as Wensleydale. I want to say it’s Romney, because that’s what it feels like, but I can’t imagine when I had some white Romney around or bought some. I did have some shetland, but I recall it being more downy than what this is….anyway, there was only a little bit of it, 11g = 3/8 ounce, and I did a 2-ply and got 38 yards out of it. Then I dyed it apricot (who knew green + pink = apricot? Not me!) and it’s hanging to dry now.
Last weekend, Fiber Camp is about getting the community together to learn from each other. Getting high-quality instruction from top-notch industry experts costs a lot – these industry experts often need to travel, as well as feed their families and pay rent/mortgage. The Common Cod Fiber Guild does a great job of having industry experts at bimonthly meetings, but once a year they mix things up.

Registration is very inexpensive – $40 for 2 days is the most expensive it gets, and that’s if you are not a member of the guild. You can also buy day passes for $25 if you can only make one day. The way it works is that there is a call for workshops among the community – you just edit a wiki page and add your suggestions for topics. You can suggest a topic you would like to see and suggest a topic you can teach. For example, here is the list of session topics from the 2012 Fiber Camp.

The schedule starts to get filled in by the people who are teaching (“enabling”) the sessions. Fiber Camp allows people to schedule workshops during Fiber Camp itself, and because of this, the schedule cannot be completely full before the weekend starts. This allows people to schedule workshops they had not thought of before.

Workshops are either 30 minutes or 1 hour. This is a perfect amount of time to “taste” a skill. For example, last year I learned how to spin on a drop spindle. This year I’m a spinning fiend. But I probably would not have paid $40 for a short beginner workshop to learn, because why spend the money if you don’t know if you’re going to like it? And I certainly would not have paid hundreds of dollars for a half-day or all-day intensive workshop from an industry expert.

That’s the great thing about Fiber Camp – because you have not invested a lot, if you find yourself not liking a skill, you can actually leave the room and go somewhere else, or just be content to sit and listen without practicing the skill. Then again, if you find yourself loving a skill, you learn just enough to get you started, and just enough to let you know that yes, you do want to take a longer/more intensive class.

Now, I’ve been separating “community” and “industry expert” so far in this post. But in reality, they are one and the same. Folks who want to learn double knitting can do so from Alasdair Post-Quinn because, guess what, he’s local to Boston. There are no travel costs involved for him. Did I learn spinning from Abby Franquemont? No, because she lives in the midwest, and it would be unfair to ask her to travel, stay in a hotel room, and give a short workshop when she is not getting reimbursed for her travel/hotel expenses. But I learned from Guido Stein, and I learned enough to know now that I want to take a class from Abby.

There are also vendors, so you can stock up on supplies if you want. The vendor area is also the “hangout” area, and plenty of people hang around there, too. There is a swap table too, where you can drop off or pick up fiber, magazines/books and other supplies (crochet hooks, needles, etc). I dropped off a lot of yarn that was being unloved, including some of my own handspun, and picked up a few magazines/books.

So, on to the fun. What did I learn/get from Fiber Camp this year?

Well, first off, I taught the Sweet Tomato Heel by Cat Bordhi. I already posted the PDF handout. I prepared the handout in advance, and there were a few people who told me they could not make my workshop because there were others going on. “No problem,” I said, “here’s the handout.” Folks really appreciated being able to have something they can look at, because they can try the skill themselves at home.

I not only learned how to make a duct tape mannequin, I made one. Or rather, other folks made one of me – mine is the one in the middle:

I learned how to use conductive thread to make gloves that I can manipulate a smartphone with.

And from the swap table, I picked up some cotton and cotton/linen yarn, a pattern booklet (Reynolds, volume 66 “International Cables by Mary of Holland”), 2 Vogue Knitting magazines with patterns I like (Fall/Winter 1982 and Holiday 1986), and the big score, a Kaffe Fassett book – Kaffe’s California Patches, Kaffe Fassett for Rowan.

Now, I have been looking for a “Cosby sweater” pattern for a few years now. See, my husband actually likes them. While it was Koos Van Den Akker who designed the real Cosby sweaters, Kaffe Fassett is a designer who makes patterns that look like Cosby sweaters. (Actually, while at Fiber Camp, I was told that Kaffe designed Cosby sweaters, and I thought he was the designer, but as I went to check my sources, I realized I was wrong. Always check your sources!)

So anyway, I now have a book of some pretty awesome geometric sweater patterns (think Q-bert). And a pattern to knit for my husband….eventually.
I created the Loopy Wicker Cowl for the Juniper Moon Farm Design Contest. The basic guidelines were to use up to 2 balls of either Willa or Chadwick. This is a very quick knit, plus 2 stitches).

And special thanks to photographer Joel Eagle, model Caroline Fryar, and Susan Gibbs of Juniper Moon Farm for allowing me to republish this photo from the blog post about the contest finalists:

Loopy Wicker Cowl
Size – one size fits most adults

Materials:
1 ball Chadwick
(if making the 2-color version, 2 balls Chadwick)
This pattern uses 70-80 yards of yarn in total.

Size 8 (US) needles
1 button

Gauge: 18 sts and 27 rows over 4 inches / 10 cm in stockinette

Pattern notes: On the odd numbered rows, the yarn is wrapped twice around the needle when purling. These extra wraps are dropped in the even numbered rows and are what makes the long loops that form the wicker-like pattern.

Cast on 26 stitches.

Row 1 (WS): Purl entire row, wrapping the yarn twice around the needle when making the purl stitch.

Row 2 (RS): Dropping each extra wrap, K1, *sl 3 to cable needle and hold in back, k3, k3 from cable needle, repeat from * until 1 st remains. K1.

Row 3: same as row 1

Row 4: Dropping each extra wrap, K4, *sl 3 to cable needle and hold in front, k3, k3 from cable needle, repeat from * until 4 sts remain. K4.

Repeat rows 1-4 until the cowl is 20 inches long (50 cm). Bind off by purling. Finishing by sewing a button on one end.

To make the 2-color version, cast on 10 stitches in main color, then 6 stitches in contrast color, then 10 stitches in main color. Follow the pattern as written but always use the same color to knit as the stitch below is.
I created the Loopy Wicker Cowl for the Juniper Moon Farm Design Contest. The basic guidelines were to use up to 2 balls of either Willa or Chadwick. This is a very quick knit, thumb plus 2 stitches).

And special thanks to photographer Susan Gibbs and model Caroline Fryar of Juniper Moon Farm for allowing me to republish this photo from the blog post about the contest finalists:

Loopy Wicker Cowl
Size – one size fits most adults

Materials:
1 ball Chadwick
(if making the 2-color version, 2 balls Chadwick)
This pattern uses 70-80 yards of yarn in total.

Size 8 (US) needles
1 button

Gauge: 18 sts and 27 rows over 4 inches / 10 cm in stockinette

Pattern notes: On the odd numbered rows, clinic the yarn is wrapped twice around the needle when purling. These extra wraps are dropped in the even numbered rows and are what makes the long loops that form the wicker-like pattern.

Cast on 26 stitches.

Row 1 (WS): Purl entire row, wrapping the yarn twice around the needle when making the purl stitch.

Row 2 (RS): Dropping each extra wrap, K1, *sl 3 to cable needle and hold in back, k3, k3 from cable needle, repeat from * until 1 st remains. K1.

Row 3: same as row 1

Row 4: Dropping each extra wrap, K4, *sl 3 to cable needle and hold in front, k3, k3 from cable needle, repeat from * until 4 sts remain. K4.

Repeat rows 1-4 until the cowl is 20 inches long (50 cm). Bind off by purling. Finishing by sewing a button on one end.

To make the 2-color version, cast on 10 stitches in main color, then 6 stitches in contrast color, then 10 stitches in main color. Follow the pattern as written but always use the same color to knit as the stitch below is.
It’s been 2 weeks since I’ve updated y’all on how my crafty world is going….

I’ve been focusing on spinning a bit, see since I’ll be traveling in April for a conference and I know I won’t have a lot of spinning time so there’s no point bringing the wheel or spindles – I can knit during a workshop pretty unobtrusively, but spinning draws attention. And I knit on planes…so I know I’ll have knitting time, which is why I’m focusing on spinning.

Also the Ravelry group for Spunky Eclectic is doing a stashdown. I took a ton of pictures of the stash I want to spin down – mostly I want to spin down the stuff that is not appealing to spin, which is the white stuff I bought for dyeing, and some random stuff I bought to see how it spins (and sometimes it’s a combination of the two).

But I’m getting ahead of myself. Remember the BFL/silk that my friend Jenn gifted to me? If you don’t, here’s a reminder:

The colorway is called “Floating Down”. Well, I got a 460 yards of a 15 WPI yarn from 4 oz, which is pretty good yardage:

As for the Color Me Pretty Sweater for my niece, it’s coming along. But it’s knitting, so I’m not really focusing on it. I did get some knitting on it done Friday night, during Tony’s gig. The sweater is full into the body now, and it’s stockinette in the round all the way for a few more inches. It will be good plane knitting. As for Tony’s gig – it was not his usual stuff, but if you want to hear all 45 minutes of awesomeness (Tony’s the one playing the piano), just download the link on this page. It’s 432 Mb so it might take a while. I hope you enjoy it!

I also worked a little more on a baby sweater for my co-worker. The baby has been here for a few weeks already! I’ll probably prioritize finishing this first, and then finishing the Color Me Pretty sweater. All this spinning is really driving home the fact that I need to knit up what I already have! It doesn’t help that I’m part of 2 spinning clubs, and get 12 oz of fiber each month. I’ll likely drop the batt club that I’m in, I’ve found that I prefer spinning top to batts….but I don’t hate spinning batts, either! I really love the yarn I get from the batts, though…mostly because I get a lot of sparkle in them. April’s shipment will be 6 months in the club…I may wait it out and do a year, who knows?

Weaving? None. But I signed up for a bi-monthly weaving club, that ships in the even months, so in 2 weeks I’ll have something to weave. Yeah, I should probably cancel my batt club, since I’m doing the weaving club.

I also spun up some mystery wool. It was white, and somewhat of a longwool, but not as coarse as Wensleydale. I want to say it’s Romney, because that’s what it feels like, but I can’t imagine when I had some white Romney around or bought some. I did have some shetland, but I recall it being more downy than what this is….anyway, there was only a little bit of it, 11g = 3/8 ounce, and I did a 2-ply and got 38 yards out of it. Then I dyed it apricot (who knew green + pink = apricot? Not me!) and it’s hanging to dry now.
Last weekend, Fiber Camp is about getting the community together to learn from each other. Getting high-quality instruction from top-notch industry experts costs a lot – these industry experts often need to travel, as well as feed their families and pay rent/mortgage. The Common Cod Fiber Guild does a great job of having industry experts at bimonthly meetings, but once a year they mix things up.

Registration is very inexpensive – $40 for 2 days is the most expensive it gets, and that’s if you are not a member of the guild. You can also buy day passes for $25 if you can only make one day. The way it works is that there is a call for workshops among the community – you just edit a wiki page and add your suggestions for topics. You can suggest a topic you would like to see and suggest a topic you can teach. For example, here is the list of session topics from the 2012 Fiber Camp.

The schedule starts to get filled in by the people who are teaching (“enabling”) the sessions. Fiber Camp allows people to schedule workshops during Fiber Camp itself, and because of this, the schedule cannot be completely full before the weekend starts. This allows people to schedule workshops they had not thought of before.

Workshops are either 30 minutes or 1 hour. This is a perfect amount of time to “taste” a skill. For example, last year I learned how to spin on a drop spindle. This year I’m a spinning fiend. But I probably would not have paid $40 for a short beginner workshop to learn, because why spend the money if you don’t know if you’re going to like it? And I certainly would not have paid hundreds of dollars for a half-day or all-day intensive workshop from an industry expert.

That’s the great thing about Fiber Camp – because you have not invested a lot, if you find yourself not liking a skill, you can actually leave the room and go somewhere else, or just be content to sit and listen without practicing the skill. Then again, if you find yourself loving a skill, you learn just enough to get you started, and just enough to let you know that yes, you do want to take a longer/more intensive class.

Now, I’ve been separating “community” and “industry expert” so far in this post. But in reality, they are one and the same. Folks who want to learn double knitting can do so from Alasdair Post-Quinn because, guess what, he’s local to Boston. There are no travel costs involved for him. Did I learn spinning from Abby Franquemont? No, because she lives in the midwest, and it would be unfair to ask her to travel, stay in a hotel room, and give a short workshop when she is not getting reimbursed for her travel/hotel expenses. But I learned from Guido Stein, and I learned enough to know now that I want to take a class from Abby.

There are also vendors, so you can stock up on supplies if you want. The vendor area is also the “hangout” area, and plenty of people hang around there, too. There is a swap table too, where you can drop off or pick up fiber, magazines/books and other supplies (crochet hooks, needles, etc). I dropped off a lot of yarn that was being unloved, including some of my own handspun, and picked up a few magazines/books.

So, on to the fun. What did I learn/get from Fiber Camp this year?

Well, first off, I taught the Sweet Tomato Heel by Cat Bordhi. I already posted the PDF handout. I prepared the handout in advance, and there were a few people who told me they could not make my workshop because there were others going on. “No problem,” I said, “here’s the handout.” Folks really appreciated being able to have something they can look at, because they can try the skill themselves at home.

I not only learned how to make a duct tape mannequin, I made one. Or rather, other folks made one of me – mine is the one in the middle:

I learned how to use conductive thread to make gloves that I can manipulate a smartphone with.

And from the swap table, I picked up some cotton and cotton/linen yarn, a pattern booklet (Reynolds, volume 66 “International Cables by Mary of Holland”), 2 Vogue Knitting magazines with patterns I like (Fall/Winter 1982 and Holiday 1986), and the big score, a Kaffe Fassett book – Kaffe’s California Patches, Kaffe Fassett for Rowan.

Now, I have been looking for a “Cosby sweater” pattern for a few years now. See, my husband actually likes them. While it was Koos Van Den Akker who designed the real Cosby sweaters, Kaffe Fassett is a designer who makes patterns that look like Cosby sweaters. (Actually, while at Fiber Camp, I was told that Kaffe designed Cosby sweaters, and I thought he was the designer, but as I went to check my sources, I realized I was wrong. Always check your sources!)

So anyway, I now have a book of some pretty awesome geometric sweater patterns (think Q-bert). And a pattern to knit for my husband….eventually.
I taught this at FiberCamp this past weekend, and since I made a handout I figured why not share it with you?

I made the handout based on what I learned from Cat Bordhi’s own video at http://bit.ly/sweettomheel. I bought
Cat Bordhi’s Sweet Tomato Heel Socks: an ebook after making the instructions – I bought the book because I love the Sweet Tomato Heel and even though I already know how to do it, internist the book currently has 63 pages (62 plus a title page) and right now has 9 patterns – there will be 11 total, and folks who purchase the book get the updates, so whenever those last 2 patterns come out you will get them. The book also has great troubleshooting information and a few versions of the Sweet Tomato Heel, like the padded sweet tomato heel.

Buying the book was my way of saying “Thanks, Cat!” I understand that not everyone can do this, and that’s OK. I feel it’s OK to share this information because Cat herself shares it in a free YouTube video. I waited until after I wrote up the instructions so I wasn’t tempted to use the same language Cat did in the book, and thus plagiarize. If there is a problem, please definitely contact me, and I will change or take down whatever material is objectionable.

You can download the PDF of the instructions I wrote up for how to do Cat Bordhi‘s Sweet Tomato Heel.
I created the Loopy Wicker Cowl for the Juniper Moon Farm Design Contest. The basic guidelines were to use up to 2 balls of either Willa or Chadwick. This is a very quick knit, plus 2 stitches).

And special thanks to photographer Joel Eagle, model Caroline Fryar, and Susan Gibbs of Juniper Moon Farm for allowing me to republish this photo from the blog post about the contest finalists:

Loopy Wicker Cowl
Size – one size fits most adults

Materials:
1 ball Chadwick
(if making the 2-color version, 2 balls Chadwick)
This pattern uses 70-80 yards of yarn in total.

Size 8 (US) needles
1 button

Gauge: 18 sts and 27 rows over 4 inches / 10 cm in stockinette

Pattern notes: On the odd numbered rows, the yarn is wrapped twice around the needle when purling. These extra wraps are dropped in the even numbered rows and are what makes the long loops that form the wicker-like pattern.

Cast on 26 stitches.

Row 1 (WS): Purl entire row, wrapping the yarn twice around the needle when making the purl stitch.

Row 2 (RS): Dropping each extra wrap, K1, *sl 3 to cable needle and hold in back, k3, k3 from cable needle, repeat from * until 1 st remains. K1.

Row 3: same as row 1

Row 4: Dropping each extra wrap, K4, *sl 3 to cable needle and hold in front, k3, k3 from cable needle, repeat from * until 4 sts remain. K4.

Repeat rows 1-4 until the cowl is 20 inches long (50 cm). Bind off by purling. Finishing by sewing a button on one end.

To make the 2-color version, cast on 10 stitches in main color, then 6 stitches in contrast color, then 10 stitches in main color. Follow the pattern as written but always use the same color to knit as the stitch below is.
I created the Loopy Wicker Cowl for the Juniper Moon Farm Design Contest. The basic guidelines were to use up to 2 balls of either Willa or Chadwick. This is a very quick knit, thumb plus 2 stitches).

And special thanks to photographer Susan Gibbs and model Caroline Fryar of Juniper Moon Farm for allowing me to republish this photo from the blog post about the contest finalists:

Loopy Wicker Cowl
Size – one size fits most adults

Materials:
1 ball Chadwick
(if making the 2-color version, 2 balls Chadwick)
This pattern uses 70-80 yards of yarn in total.

Size 8 (US) needles
1 button

Gauge: 18 sts and 27 rows over 4 inches / 10 cm in stockinette

Pattern notes: On the odd numbered rows, clinic the yarn is wrapped twice around the needle when purling. These extra wraps are dropped in the even numbered rows and are what makes the long loops that form the wicker-like pattern.

Cast on 26 stitches.

Row 1 (WS): Purl entire row, wrapping the yarn twice around the needle when making the purl stitch.

Row 2 (RS): Dropping each extra wrap, K1, *sl 3 to cable needle and hold in back, k3, k3 from cable needle, repeat from * until 1 st remains. K1.

Row 3: same as row 1

Row 4: Dropping each extra wrap, K4, *sl 3 to cable needle and hold in front, k3, k3 from cable needle, repeat from * until 4 sts remain. K4.

Repeat rows 1-4 until the cowl is 20 inches long (50 cm). Bind off by purling. Finishing by sewing a button on one end.

To make the 2-color version, cast on 10 stitches in main color, then 6 stitches in contrast color, then 10 stitches in main color. Follow the pattern as written but always use the same color to knit as the stitch below is.
It’s been 2 weeks since I’ve updated y’all on how my crafty world is going….

I’ve been focusing on spinning a bit, see since I’ll be traveling in April for a conference and I know I won’t have a lot of spinning time so there’s no point bringing the wheel or spindles – I can knit during a workshop pretty unobtrusively, but spinning draws attention. And I knit on planes…so I know I’ll have knitting time, which is why I’m focusing on spinning.

Also the Ravelry group for Spunky Eclectic is doing a stashdown. I took a ton of pictures of the stash I want to spin down – mostly I want to spin down the stuff that is not appealing to spin, which is the white stuff I bought for dyeing, and some random stuff I bought to see how it spins (and sometimes it’s a combination of the two).

But I’m getting ahead of myself. Remember the BFL/silk that my friend Jenn gifted to me? If you don’t, here’s a reminder:

The colorway is called “Floating Down”. Well, I got a 460 yards of a 15 WPI yarn from 4 oz, which is pretty good yardage:

As for the Color Me Pretty Sweater for my niece, it’s coming along. But it’s knitting, so I’m not really focusing on it. I did get some knitting on it done Friday night, during Tony’s gig. The sweater is full into the body now, and it’s stockinette in the round all the way for a few more inches. It will be good plane knitting. As for Tony’s gig – it was not his usual stuff, but if you want to hear all 45 minutes of awesomeness (Tony’s the one playing the piano), just download the link on this page. It’s 432 Mb so it might take a while. I hope you enjoy it!

I also worked a little more on a baby sweater for my co-worker. The baby has been here for a few weeks already! I’ll probably prioritize finishing this first, and then finishing the Color Me Pretty sweater. All this spinning is really driving home the fact that I need to knit up what I already have! It doesn’t help that I’m part of 2 spinning clubs, and get 12 oz of fiber each month. I’ll likely drop the batt club that I’m in, I’ve found that I prefer spinning top to batts….but I don’t hate spinning batts, either! I really love the yarn I get from the batts, though…mostly because I get a lot of sparkle in them. April’s shipment will be 6 months in the club…I may wait it out and do a year, who knows?

Weaving? None. But I signed up for a bi-monthly weaving club, that ships in the even months, so in 2 weeks I’ll have something to weave. Yeah, I should probably cancel my batt club, since I’m doing the weaving club.

I also spun up some mystery wool. It was white, and somewhat of a longwool, but not as coarse as Wensleydale. I want to say it’s Romney, because that’s what it feels like, but I can’t imagine when I had some white Romney around or bought some. I did have some shetland, but I recall it being more downy than what this is….anyway, there was only a little bit of it, 11g = 3/8 ounce, and I did a 2-ply and got 38 yards out of it. Then I dyed it apricot (who knew green + pink = apricot? Not me!) and it’s hanging to dry now.
Last weekend, Fiber Camp is about getting the community together to learn from each other. Getting high-quality instruction from top-notch industry experts costs a lot – these industry experts often need to travel, as well as feed their families and pay rent/mortgage. The Common Cod Fiber Guild does a great job of having industry experts at bimonthly meetings, but once a year they mix things up.

Registration is very inexpensive – $40 for 2 days is the most expensive it gets, and that’s if you are not a member of the guild. You can also buy day passes for $25 if you can only make one day. The way it works is that there is a call for workshops among the community – you just edit a wiki page and add your suggestions for topics. You can suggest a topic you would like to see and suggest a topic you can teach. For example, here is the list of session topics from the 2012 Fiber Camp.

The schedule starts to get filled in by the people who are teaching (“enabling”) the sessions. Fiber Camp allows people to schedule workshops during Fiber Camp itself, and because of this, the schedule cannot be completely full before the weekend starts. This allows people to schedule workshops they had not thought of before.

Workshops are either 30 minutes or 1 hour. This is a perfect amount of time to “taste” a skill. For example, last year I learned how to spin on a drop spindle. This year I’m a spinning fiend. But I probably would not have paid $40 for a short beginner workshop to learn, because why spend the money if you don’t know if you’re going to like it? And I certainly would not have paid hundreds of dollars for a half-day or all-day intensive workshop from an industry expert.

That’s the great thing about Fiber Camp – because you have not invested a lot, if you find yourself not liking a skill, you can actually leave the room and go somewhere else, or just be content to sit and listen without practicing the skill. Then again, if you find yourself loving a skill, you learn just enough to get you started, and just enough to let you know that yes, you do want to take a longer/more intensive class.

Now, I’ve been separating “community” and “industry expert” so far in this post. But in reality, they are one and the same. Folks who want to learn double knitting can do so from Alasdair Post-Quinn because, guess what, he’s local to Boston. There are no travel costs involved for him. Did I learn spinning from Abby Franquemont? No, because she lives in the midwest, and it would be unfair to ask her to travel, stay in a hotel room, and give a short workshop when she is not getting reimbursed for her travel/hotel expenses. But I learned from Guido Stein, and I learned enough to know now that I want to take a class from Abby.

There are also vendors, so you can stock up on supplies if you want. The vendor area is also the “hangout” area, and plenty of people hang around there, too. There is a swap table too, where you can drop off or pick up fiber, magazines/books and other supplies (crochet hooks, needles, etc). I dropped off a lot of yarn that was being unloved, including some of my own handspun, and picked up a few magazines/books.

So, on to the fun. What did I learn/get from Fiber Camp this year?

Well, first off, I taught the Sweet Tomato Heel by Cat Bordhi. I already posted the PDF handout. I prepared the handout in advance, and there were a few people who told me they could not make my workshop because there were others going on. “No problem,” I said, “here’s the handout.” Folks really appreciated being able to have something they can look at, because they can try the skill themselves at home.

I not only learned how to make a duct tape mannequin, I made one. Or rather, other folks made one of me – mine is the one in the middle:

I learned how to use conductive thread to make gloves that I can manipulate a smartphone with.

And from the swap table, I picked up some cotton and cotton/linen yarn, a pattern booklet (Reynolds, volume 66 “International Cables by Mary of Holland”), 2 Vogue Knitting magazines with patterns I like (Fall/Winter 1982 and Holiday 1986), and the big score, a Kaffe Fassett book – Kaffe’s California Patches, Kaffe Fassett for Rowan.

Now, I have been looking for a “Cosby sweater” pattern for a few years now. See, my husband actually likes them. While it was Koos Van Den Akker who designed the real Cosby sweaters, Kaffe Fassett is a designer who makes patterns that look like Cosby sweaters. (Actually, while at Fiber Camp, I was told that Kaffe designed Cosby sweaters, and I thought he was the designer, but as I went to check my sources, I realized I was wrong. Always check your sources!)

So anyway, I now have a book of some pretty awesome geometric sweater patterns (think Q-bert). And a pattern to knit for my husband….eventually.
I taught this at FiberCamp this past weekend, and since I made a handout I figured why not share it with you?

I made the handout based on what I learned from Cat Bordhi’s own video at http://bit.ly/sweettomheel. I bought
Cat Bordhi’s Sweet Tomato Heel Socks: an ebook after making the instructions – I bought the book because I love the Sweet Tomato Heel and even though I already know how to do it, internist the book currently has 63 pages (62 plus a title page) and right now has 9 patterns – there will be 11 total, and folks who purchase the book get the updates, so whenever those last 2 patterns come out you will get them. The book also has great troubleshooting information and a few versions of the Sweet Tomato Heel, like the padded sweet tomato heel.

Buying the book was my way of saying “Thanks, Cat!” I understand that not everyone can do this, and that’s OK. I feel it’s OK to share this information because Cat herself shares it in a free YouTube video. I waited until after I wrote up the instructions so I wasn’t tempted to use the same language Cat did in the book, and thus plagiarize. If there is a problem, please definitely contact me, and I will change or take down whatever material is objectionable.

You can download the PDF of the instructions I wrote up for how to do Cat Bordhi‘s Sweet Tomato Heel.
Last weekend, as well as feed their families and pay rent/mortgage. The Common Cod Fiber Guild does a great job of having industry experts at bimonthly meetings, but once a year they mix things up.

Registration is very inexpensive – $40 for 2 days is the most expensive it gets, and that’s if you are not a member of the guild. You can also buy day passes for $25 if you can only make one day. The way it works is that there is a call for workshops among the community – you just edit a wiki page and add your suggestions for topics. You can suggest a topic you would like to see and suggest a topic you can teach. For example, here is the list of session topics from the 2012 Fiber Camp.

The schedule starts to get filled in by the people who are teaching (“enabling”) the sessions. Fiber Camp allows people to schedule workshops during Fiber Camp itself, and because of this, the schedule cannot be completely full before the weekend starts. This allows people to schedule workshops they had not thought of before.

Workshops are either 30 minutes or 1 hour. This is a perfect amount of time to “taste” a skill. For example, last year I learned how to spin on a drop spindle. This year I’m a spinning fiend. But I probably would not have paid $40 for a short beginner workshop to learn, because why spend the money if you don’t know if you’re going to like it? And I certainly would not have paid hundreds of dollars for a half-day or all-day intensive workshop from an industry expert.

That’s the great thing about Fiber Camp – because you have not invested a lot, if you find yourself not liking a skill, you can actually leave the room and go somewhere else, or just be content to sit and listen without practicing the skill. Then again, if you find yourself loving a skill, you learn just enough to get you started, and just enough to let you know that yes, you do want to take a longer/more intensive class.

Now, I’ve been separating “community” and “industry expert” so far in this post. But in reality, they are one and the same. Folks who want to learn double knitting can do so from Alasdair Post-Quinn because, guess what, he’s local to Boston. There are no travel costs involved for him. Did I learn spinning from Abby Franquemont? No, because she lives in the midwest, and it would be unfair to ask her to travel, stay in a hotel room, and give a short workshop when she is not getting reimbursed for her travel/hotel expenses. But I learned from Guido Stein, and I learned enough to know now that I want to take a class from Abby.

There are also vendors, so you can stock up on supplies if you want. The vendor area is also the “hangout” area, and plenty of people hang around there, too. There is a swap table too, where you can drop off or pick up fiber, magazines/books and other supplies (crochet hooks, needles, etc). I dropped off a lot of yarn that was being unloved, including some of my own handspun, and picked up a few magazines/books.

So, on to the fun. What did I learn/get from Fiber Camp this year?

Well, first off, I taught the Sweet Tomato Heel by Cat Bordhi. I already posted the PDF handout. I prepared the handout in advance, and there were a few people who told me they could not make my workshop because there were others going on. “No problem,” I said, “here’s the handout.” Folks really appreciated being able to have something they can look at, because they can try the skill themselves at home.

I not only learned how to make a duct tape mannequin, I made one. Or rather, other folks made one of me – mine is the one in the middle:

I learned how to use conductive thread to make gloves that I can manipulate a smartphone with.

And from the swap table, I picked up some cotton and cotton/linen yarn, a pattern booklet (Reynolds, volume 66 “International Cables by Mary of Holland”), 2 Vogue Knitting magazines with patterns I like (Fall/Winter 1982 and Holiday 1986), and the big score, a Kaffe Fassett book – Kaffe’s California Patches, Kaffe Fassett for Rowan.

Now, I have been looking for a “Cosby sweater” pattern for a few years now. See, my husband actually likes them. While it was Koos Van Den Akker who designed the real Cosby sweaters, Kaffe Fassett is a designer who makes patterns that look like Cosby sweaters. (Actually, while at Fiber Camp, I was told that Kaffe designed Cosby sweaters, and I thought he was the designer, but as I went to check my sources, I realized I was wrong. Always check your sources!)

So anyway, I now have a book of some pretty awesome geometric sweater patterns (think Q-bert). And a pattern to knit for my husband….eventually.
I created the Loopy Wicker Cowl for the Juniper Moon Farm Design Contest. The basic guidelines were to use up to 2 balls of either Willa or Chadwick. This is a very quick knit, plus 2 stitches).

And special thanks to photographer Joel Eagle, model Caroline Fryar, and Susan Gibbs of Juniper Moon Farm for allowing me to republish this photo from the blog post about the contest finalists:

Loopy Wicker Cowl
Size – one size fits most adults

Materials:
1 ball Chadwick
(if making the 2-color version, 2 balls Chadwick)
This pattern uses 70-80 yards of yarn in total.

Size 8 (US) needles
1 button

Gauge: 18 sts and 27 rows over 4 inches / 10 cm in stockinette

Pattern notes: On the odd numbered rows, the yarn is wrapped twice around the needle when purling. These extra wraps are dropped in the even numbered rows and are what makes the long loops that form the wicker-like pattern.

Cast on 26 stitches.

Row 1 (WS): Purl entire row, wrapping the yarn twice around the needle when making the purl stitch.

Row 2 (RS): Dropping each extra wrap, K1, *sl 3 to cable needle and hold in back, k3, k3 from cable needle, repeat from * until 1 st remains. K1.

Row 3: same as row 1

Row 4: Dropping each extra wrap, K4, *sl 3 to cable needle and hold in front, k3, k3 from cable needle, repeat from * until 4 sts remain. K4.

Repeat rows 1-4 until the cowl is 20 inches long (50 cm). Bind off by purling. Finishing by sewing a button on one end.

To make the 2-color version, cast on 10 stitches in main color, then 6 stitches in contrast color, then 10 stitches in main color. Follow the pattern as written but always use the same color to knit as the stitch below is.
I created the Loopy Wicker Cowl for the Juniper Moon Farm Design Contest. The basic guidelines were to use up to 2 balls of either Willa or Chadwick. This is a very quick knit, thumb plus 2 stitches).

And special thanks to photographer Susan Gibbs and model Caroline Fryar of Juniper Moon Farm for allowing me to republish this photo from the blog post about the contest finalists:

Loopy Wicker Cowl
Size – one size fits most adults

Materials:
1 ball Chadwick
(if making the 2-color version, 2 balls Chadwick)
This pattern uses 70-80 yards of yarn in total.

Size 8 (US) needles
1 button

Gauge: 18 sts and 27 rows over 4 inches / 10 cm in stockinette

Pattern notes: On the odd numbered rows, clinic the yarn is wrapped twice around the needle when purling. These extra wraps are dropped in the even numbered rows and are what makes the long loops that form the wicker-like pattern.

Cast on 26 stitches.

Row 1 (WS): Purl entire row, wrapping the yarn twice around the needle when making the purl stitch.

Row 2 (RS): Dropping each extra wrap, K1, *sl 3 to cable needle and hold in back, k3, k3 from cable needle, repeat from * until 1 st remains. K1.

Row 3: same as row 1

Row 4: Dropping each extra wrap, K4, *sl 3 to cable needle and hold in front, k3, k3 from cable needle, repeat from * until 4 sts remain. K4.

Repeat rows 1-4 until the cowl is 20 inches long (50 cm). Bind off by purling. Finishing by sewing a button on one end.

To make the 2-color version, cast on 10 stitches in main color, then 6 stitches in contrast color, then 10 stitches in main color. Follow the pattern as written but always use the same color to knit as the stitch below is.
It’s been 2 weeks since I’ve updated y’all on how my crafty world is going….

I’ve been focusing on spinning a bit, see since I’ll be traveling in April for a conference and I know I won’t have a lot of spinning time so there’s no point bringing the wheel or spindles – I can knit during a workshop pretty unobtrusively, but spinning draws attention. And I knit on planes…so I know I’ll have knitting time, which is why I’m focusing on spinning.

Also the Ravelry group for Spunky Eclectic is doing a stashdown. I took a ton of pictures of the stash I want to spin down – mostly I want to spin down the stuff that is not appealing to spin, which is the white stuff I bought for dyeing, and some random stuff I bought to see how it spins (and sometimes it’s a combination of the two).

But I’m getting ahead of myself. Remember the BFL/silk that my friend Jenn gifted to me? If you don’t, here’s a reminder:

The colorway is called “Floating Down”. Well, I got a 460 yards of a 15 WPI yarn from 4 oz, which is pretty good yardage:

As for the Color Me Pretty Sweater for my niece, it’s coming along. But it’s knitting, so I’m not really focusing on it. I did get some knitting on it done Friday night, during Tony’s gig. The sweater is full into the body now, and it’s stockinette in the round all the way for a few more inches. It will be good plane knitting. As for Tony’s gig – it was not his usual stuff, but if you want to hear all 45 minutes of awesomeness (Tony’s the one playing the piano), just download the link on this page. It’s 432 Mb so it might take a while. I hope you enjoy it!

I also worked a little more on a baby sweater for my co-worker. The baby has been here for a few weeks already! I’ll probably prioritize finishing this first, and then finishing the Color Me Pretty sweater. All this spinning is really driving home the fact that I need to knit up what I already have! It doesn’t help that I’m part of 2 spinning clubs, and get 12 oz of fiber each month. I’ll likely drop the batt club that I’m in, I’ve found that I prefer spinning top to batts….but I don’t hate spinning batts, either! I really love the yarn I get from the batts, though…mostly because I get a lot of sparkle in them. April’s shipment will be 6 months in the club…I may wait it out and do a year, who knows?

Weaving? None. But I signed up for a bi-monthly weaving club, that ships in the even months, so in 2 weeks I’ll have something to weave. Yeah, I should probably cancel my batt club, since I’m doing the weaving club.

I also spun up some mystery wool. It was white, and somewhat of a longwool, but not as coarse as Wensleydale. I want to say it’s Romney, because that’s what it feels like, but I can’t imagine when I had some white Romney around or bought some. I did have some shetland, but I recall it being more downy than what this is….anyway, there was only a little bit of it, 11g = 3/8 ounce, and I did a 2-ply and got 38 yards out of it. Then I dyed it apricot (who knew green + pink = apricot? Not me!) and it’s hanging to dry now.
Last weekend, Fiber Camp is about getting the community together to learn from each other. Getting high-quality instruction from top-notch industry experts costs a lot – these industry experts often need to travel, as well as feed their families and pay rent/mortgage. The Common Cod Fiber Guild does a great job of having industry experts at bimonthly meetings, but once a year they mix things up.

Registration is very inexpensive – $40 for 2 days is the most expensive it gets, and that’s if you are not a member of the guild. You can also buy day passes for $25 if you can only make one day. The way it works is that there is a call for workshops among the community – you just edit a wiki page and add your suggestions for topics. You can suggest a topic you would like to see and suggest a topic you can teach. For example, here is the list of session topics from the 2012 Fiber Camp.

The schedule starts to get filled in by the people who are teaching (“enabling”) the sessions. Fiber Camp allows people to schedule workshops during Fiber Camp itself, and because of this, the schedule cannot be completely full before the weekend starts. This allows people to schedule workshops they had not thought of before.

Workshops are either 30 minutes or 1 hour. This is a perfect amount of time to “taste” a skill. For example, last year I learned how to spin on a drop spindle. This year I’m a spinning fiend. But I probably would not have paid $40 for a short beginner workshop to learn, because why spend the money if you don’t know if you’re going to like it? And I certainly would not have paid hundreds of dollars for a half-day or all-day intensive workshop from an industry expert.

That’s the great thing about Fiber Camp – because you have not invested a lot, if you find yourself not liking a skill, you can actually leave the room and go somewhere else, or just be content to sit and listen without practicing the skill. Then again, if you find yourself loving a skill, you learn just enough to get you started, and just enough to let you know that yes, you do want to take a longer/more intensive class.

Now, I’ve been separating “community” and “industry expert” so far in this post. But in reality, they are one and the same. Folks who want to learn double knitting can do so from Alasdair Post-Quinn because, guess what, he’s local to Boston. There are no travel costs involved for him. Did I learn spinning from Abby Franquemont? No, because she lives in the midwest, and it would be unfair to ask her to travel, stay in a hotel room, and give a short workshop when she is not getting reimbursed for her travel/hotel expenses. But I learned from Guido Stein, and I learned enough to know now that I want to take a class from Abby.

There are also vendors, so you can stock up on supplies if you want. The vendor area is also the “hangout” area, and plenty of people hang around there, too. There is a swap table too, where you can drop off or pick up fiber, magazines/books and other supplies (crochet hooks, needles, etc). I dropped off a lot of yarn that was being unloved, including some of my own handspun, and picked up a few magazines/books.

So, on to the fun. What did I learn/get from Fiber Camp this year?

Well, first off, I taught the Sweet Tomato Heel by Cat Bordhi. I already posted the PDF handout. I prepared the handout in advance, and there were a few people who told me they could not make my workshop because there were others going on. “No problem,” I said, “here’s the handout.” Folks really appreciated being able to have something they can look at, because they can try the skill themselves at home.

I not only learned how to make a duct tape mannequin, I made one. Or rather, other folks made one of me – mine is the one in the middle:

I learned how to use conductive thread to make gloves that I can manipulate a smartphone with.

And from the swap table, I picked up some cotton and cotton/linen yarn, a pattern booklet (Reynolds, volume 66 “International Cables by Mary of Holland”), 2 Vogue Knitting magazines with patterns I like (Fall/Winter 1982 and Holiday 1986), and the big score, a Kaffe Fassett book – Kaffe’s California Patches, Kaffe Fassett for Rowan.

Now, I have been looking for a “Cosby sweater” pattern for a few years now. See, my husband actually likes them. While it was Koos Van Den Akker who designed the real Cosby sweaters, Kaffe Fassett is a designer who makes patterns that look like Cosby sweaters. (Actually, while at Fiber Camp, I was told that Kaffe designed Cosby sweaters, and I thought he was the designer, but as I went to check my sources, I realized I was wrong. Always check your sources!)

So anyway, I now have a book of some pretty awesome geometric sweater patterns (think Q-bert). And a pattern to knit for my husband….eventually.
I taught this at FiberCamp this past weekend, and since I made a handout I figured why not share it with you?

I made the handout based on what I learned from Cat Bordhi’s own video at http://bit.ly/sweettomheel. I bought
Cat Bordhi’s Sweet Tomato Heel Socks: an ebook after making the instructions – I bought the book because I love the Sweet Tomato Heel and even though I already know how to do it, internist the book currently has 63 pages (62 plus a title page) and right now has 9 patterns – there will be 11 total, and folks who purchase the book get the updates, so whenever those last 2 patterns come out you will get them. The book also has great troubleshooting information and a few versions of the Sweet Tomato Heel, like the padded sweet tomato heel.

Buying the book was my way of saying “Thanks, Cat!” I understand that not everyone can do this, and that’s OK. I feel it’s OK to share this information because Cat herself shares it in a free YouTube video. I waited until after I wrote up the instructions so I wasn’t tempted to use the same language Cat did in the book, and thus plagiarize. If there is a problem, please definitely contact me, and I will change or take down whatever material is objectionable.

You can download the PDF of the instructions I wrote up for how to do Cat Bordhi‘s Sweet Tomato Heel.
Last weekend, as well as feed their families and pay rent/mortgage. The Common Cod Fiber Guild does a great job of having industry experts at bimonthly meetings, but once a year they mix things up.

Registration is very inexpensive – $40 for 2 days is the most expensive it gets, and that’s if you are not a member of the guild. You can also buy day passes for $25 if you can only make one day. The way it works is that there is a call for workshops among the community – you just edit a wiki page and add your suggestions for topics. You can suggest a topic you would like to see and suggest a topic you can teach. For example, here is the list of session topics from the 2012 Fiber Camp.

The schedule starts to get filled in by the people who are teaching (“enabling”) the sessions. Fiber Camp allows people to schedule workshops during Fiber Camp itself, and because of this, the schedule cannot be completely full before the weekend starts. This allows people to schedule workshops they had not thought of before.

Workshops are either 30 minutes or 1 hour. This is a perfect amount of time to “taste” a skill. For example, last year I learned how to spin on a drop spindle. This year I’m a spinning fiend. But I probably would not have paid $40 for a short beginner workshop to learn, because why spend the money if you don’t know if you’re going to like it? And I certainly would not have paid hundreds of dollars for a half-day or all-day intensive workshop from an industry expert.

That’s the great thing about Fiber Camp – because you have not invested a lot, if you find yourself not liking a skill, you can actually leave the room and go somewhere else, or just be content to sit and listen without practicing the skill. Then again, if you find yourself loving a skill, you learn just enough to get you started, and just enough to let you know that yes, you do want to take a longer/more intensive class.

Now, I’ve been separating “community” and “industry expert” so far in this post. But in reality, they are one and the same. Folks who want to learn double knitting can do so from Alasdair Post-Quinn because, guess what, he’s local to Boston. There are no travel costs involved for him. Did I learn spinning from Abby Franquemont? No, because she lives in the midwest, and it would be unfair to ask her to travel, stay in a hotel room, and give a short workshop when she is not getting reimbursed for her travel/hotel expenses. But I learned from Guido Stein, and I learned enough to know now that I want to take a class from Abby.

There are also vendors, so you can stock up on supplies if you want. The vendor area is also the “hangout” area, and plenty of people hang around there, too. There is a swap table too, where you can drop off or pick up fiber, magazines/books and other supplies (crochet hooks, needles, etc). I dropped off a lot of yarn that was being unloved, including some of my own handspun, and picked up a few magazines/books.

So, on to the fun. What did I learn/get from Fiber Camp this year?

Well, first off, I taught the Sweet Tomato Heel by Cat Bordhi. I already posted the PDF handout. I prepared the handout in advance, and there were a few people who told me they could not make my workshop because there were others going on. “No problem,” I said, “here’s the handout.” Folks really appreciated being able to have something they can look at, because they can try the skill themselves at home.

I not only learned how to make a duct tape mannequin, I made one. Or rather, other folks made one of me – mine is the one in the middle:

I learned how to use conductive thread to make gloves that I can manipulate a smartphone with.

And from the swap table, I picked up some cotton and cotton/linen yarn, a pattern booklet (Reynolds, volume 66 “International Cables by Mary of Holland”), 2 Vogue Knitting magazines with patterns I like (Fall/Winter 1982 and Holiday 1986), and the big score, a Kaffe Fassett book – Kaffe’s California Patches, Kaffe Fassett for Rowan.

Now, I have been looking for a “Cosby sweater” pattern for a few years now. See, my husband actually likes them. While it was Koos Van Den Akker who designed the real Cosby sweaters, Kaffe Fassett is a designer who makes patterns that look like Cosby sweaters. (Actually, while at Fiber Camp, I was told that Kaffe designed Cosby sweaters, and I thought he was the designer, but as I went to check my sources, I realized I was wrong. Always check your sources!)

So anyway, I now have a book of some pretty awesome geometric sweater patterns (think Q-bert). And a pattern to knit for my husband….eventually.
Last weekend, sick I went to Fiber Camp. Fiber Camp is not your usual fiber festival – now in its third year, Fiber Camp is about getting the community together to learn from each other. Getting high-quality instruction from top-notch industry experts costs a lot – these industry experts often need to travel, as well as feed their families and pay rent/mortgage. The Common Cod Fiber Guild does a great job of having industry experts at bimonthly meetings, but once a year they mix things up.

Registration is very inexpensive – $40 for 2 days is the most expensive it gets, and that’s if you are not a member of the guild. You can also buy day passes for $25 if you can only make one day. The way it works is that there is a call for workshops among the community – you just edit a wiki page and add your suggestions for topics. You can suggest a topic you would like to see and suggest a topic you can teach. For example, here is the list of session topics from the 2012 Fiber Camp.

The schedule starts to get filled in by the people who are teaching (“enabling”) the sessions. Fiber Camp allows people to schedule workshops during Fiber Camp itself, and because of this, the schedule cannot be completely full before the weekend starts. This allows people to schedule workshops they had not thought of before.

Workshops are either 30 minutes or 1 hour. This is a perfect amount of time to “taste” a skill. For example, last year I learned how to spin on a drop spindle. This year I’m a spinning fiend. But I probably would not have paid $40 for a short beginner workshop to learn, because why spend the money if you don’t know if you’re going to like it? And I certainly would not have paid hundreds of dollars for a half-day or all-day intensive workshop from an industry expert.

That’s the great thing about Fiber Camp – because you have not invested a lot, if you find yourself not liking a skill, you can actually leave the room and go somewhere else, or just be content to sit and listen without practicing the skill. Then again, if you find yourself loving a skill, you learn just enough to get you started, and just enough to let you know that yes, you do want to take a longer/more intensive class.

Now, I’ve been separating “community” and “industry expert” so far in this post. But in reality, they are one and the same. Folks who want to learn double knitting can do so from Alasdair Post-Quinn because, guess what, he’s local to Boston. There are no travel costs involved for him. Did I learn spinning from Abby Franquemont? No, because she lives in the midwest, and it would be unfair to ask her to travel, stay in a hotel room, and give a short workshop when she is not getting reimbursed for her travel/hotel expenses. But I learned from Guido Stein, and I learned enough to know now that I want to take a class from Abby.

There are also vendors, so you can stock up on supplies if you want. The vendor area is also the “hangout” area, and plenty of people hang around there, too. There is a swap table too, where you can drop off or pick up fiber, magazines/books and other supplies (crochet hooks, needles, etc). I dropped off a lot of yarn that was being unloved, including some of my own handspun, and picked up a few magazines/books.

So, on to the fun. What did I learn/get from Fiber Camp this year?

Well, first off, I taught the Sweet Tomato Heel by Cat Bordhi. I already posted the PDF handout. I prepared the handout in advance, and there were a few people who told me they could not make my workshop because there were others going on. “No problem,” I said, “here’s the handout.” Folks really appreciated being able to have something they can look at, because they can try the skill themselves at home.

I not only learned how to make a duct tape mannequin, I made one. Or rather, other folks made one of me – mine is the one in the middle:

I learned how to use conductive thread to make gloves that I can manipulate a smartphone with.

And from the swap table, I picked up some cotton and cotton/linen yarn, a pattern booklet (Reynolds, volume 66 “International Cables by Mary of Holland”), 2 Vogue Knitting magazines with patterns I like (Fall/Winter 1982 and Holiday 1986), and the big score, a Kaffe Fassett book – Kaffe’s California Patches, Kaffe Fassett for Rowan.

Now, I have been looking for a “Cosby sweater” pattern for a few years now. See, my husband actually likes them. While it was Koos Van Den Akker who designed the real Cosby sweaters, Kaffe Fassett is a designer who makes patterns that look like Cosby sweaters. (Actually, while at Fiber Camp, I was told that Kaffe designed Cosby sweaters, and I thought he was the designer, but as I went to check my sources, I realized I was wrong. Always check your sources!)

So anyway, I now have a book of some pretty awesome geometric sweater patterns (think Q-b

I posted about 2 weeks ago about what I was doing. My status is still the same, on the works in project – I have to re-block the Monkey Sock, and I’m still working on the Crooked Little Scarf.
I created the Loopy Wicker Cowl for the Juniper Moon Farm Design Contest. The basic guidelines were to use up to 2 balls of either Willa or Chadwick. This is a very quick knit, plus 2 stitches).

And special thanks to photographer Joel Eagle, model Caroline Fryar, and Susan Gibbs of Juniper Moon Farm for allowing me to republish this photo from the blog post about the contest finalists:

Loopy Wicker Cowl
Size – one size fits most adults

Materials:
1 ball Chadwick
(if making the 2-color version, 2 balls Chadwick)
This pattern uses 70-80 yards of yarn in total.

Size 8 (US) needles
1 button

Gauge: 18 sts and 27 rows over 4 inches / 10 cm in stockinette

Pattern notes: On the odd numbered rows, the yarn is wrapped twice around the needle when purling. These extra wraps are dropped in the even numbered rows and are what makes the long loops that form the wicker-like pattern.

Cast on 26 stitches.

Row 1 (WS): Purl entire row, wrapping the yarn twice around the needle when making the purl stitch.

Row 2 (RS): Dropping each extra wrap, K1, *sl 3 to cable needle and hold in back, k3, k3 from cable needle, repeat from * until 1 st remains. K1.

Row 3: same as row 1

Row 4: Dropping each extra wrap, K4, *sl 3 to cable needle and hold in front, k3, k3 from cable needle, repeat from * until 4 sts remain. K4.

Repeat rows 1-4 until the cowl is 20 inches long (50 cm). Bind off by purling. Finishing by sewing a button on one end.

To make the 2-color version, cast on 10 stitches in main color, then 6 stitches in contrast color, then 10 stitches in main color. Follow the pattern as written but always use the same color to knit as the stitch below is.
I created the Loopy Wicker Cowl for the Juniper Moon Farm Design Contest. The basic guidelines were to use up to 2 balls of either Willa or Chadwick. This is a very quick knit, thumb plus 2 stitches).

And special thanks to photographer Susan Gibbs and model Caroline Fryar of Juniper Moon Farm for allowing me to republish this photo from the blog post about the contest finalists:

Loopy Wicker Cowl
Size – one size fits most adults

Materials:
1 ball Chadwick
(if making the 2-color version, 2 balls Chadwick)
This pattern uses 70-80 yards of yarn in total.

Size 8 (US) needles
1 button

Gauge: 18 sts and 27 rows over 4 inches / 10 cm in stockinette

Pattern notes: On the odd numbered rows, clinic the yarn is wrapped twice around the needle when purling. These extra wraps are dropped in the even numbered rows and are what makes the long loops that form the wicker-like pattern.

Cast on 26 stitches.

Row 1 (WS): Purl entire row, wrapping the yarn twice around the needle when making the purl stitch.

Row 2 (RS): Dropping each extra wrap, K1, *sl 3 to cable needle and hold in back, k3, k3 from cable needle, repeat from * until 1 st remains. K1.

Row 3: same as row 1

Row 4: Dropping each extra wrap, K4, *sl 3 to cable needle and hold in front, k3, k3 from cable needle, repeat from * until 4 sts remain. K4.

Repeat rows 1-4 until the cowl is 20 inches long (50 cm). Bind off by purling. Finishing by sewing a button on one end.

To make the 2-color version, cast on 10 stitches in main color, then 6 stitches in contrast color, then 10 stitches in main color. Follow the pattern as written but always use the same color to knit as the stitch below is.
It’s been 2 weeks since I’ve updated y’all on how my crafty world is going….

I’ve been focusing on spinning a bit, see since I’ll be traveling in April for a conference and I know I won’t have a lot of spinning time so there’s no point bringing the wheel or spindles – I can knit during a workshop pretty unobtrusively, but spinning draws attention. And I knit on planes…so I know I’ll have knitting time, which is why I’m focusing on spinning.

Also the Ravelry group for Spunky Eclectic is doing a stashdown. I took a ton of pictures of the stash I want to spin down – mostly I want to spin down the stuff that is not appealing to spin, which is the white stuff I bought for dyeing, and some random stuff I bought to see how it spins (and sometimes it’s a combination of the two).

But I’m getting ahead of myself. Remember the BFL/silk that my friend Jenn gifted to me? If you don’t, here’s a reminder:

The colorway is called “Floating Down”. Well, I got a 460 yards of a 15 WPI yarn from 4 oz, which is pretty good yardage:

As for the Color Me Pretty Sweater for my niece, it’s coming along. But it’s knitting, so I’m not really focusing on it. I did get some knitting on it done Friday night, during Tony’s gig. The sweater is full into the body now, and it’s stockinette in the round all the way for a few more inches. It will be good plane knitting. As for Tony’s gig – it was not his usual stuff, but if you want to hear all 45 minutes of awesomeness (Tony’s the one playing the piano), just download the link on this page. It’s 432 Mb so it might take a while. I hope you enjoy it!

I also worked a little more on a baby sweater for my co-worker. The baby has been here for a few weeks already! I’ll probably prioritize finishing this first, and then finishing the Color Me Pretty sweater. All this spinning is really driving home the fact that I need to knit up what I already have! It doesn’t help that I’m part of 2 spinning clubs, and get 12 oz of fiber each month. I’ll likely drop the batt club that I’m in, I’ve found that I prefer spinning top to batts….but I don’t hate spinning batts, either! I really love the yarn I get from the batts, though…mostly because I get a lot of sparkle in them. April’s shipment will be 6 months in the club…I may wait it out and do a year, who knows?

Weaving? None. But I signed up for a bi-monthly weaving club, that ships in the even months, so in 2 weeks I’ll have something to weave. Yeah, I should probably cancel my batt club, since I’m doing the weaving club.

I also spun up some mystery wool. It was white, and somewhat of a longwool, but not as coarse as Wensleydale. I want to say it’s Romney, because that’s what it feels like, but I can’t imagine when I had some white Romney around or bought some. I did have some shetland, but I recall it being more downy than what this is….anyway, there was only a little bit of it, 11g = 3/8 ounce, and I did a 2-ply and got 38 yards out of it. Then I dyed it apricot (who knew green + pink = apricot? Not me!) and it’s hanging to dry now.
Last weekend, Fiber Camp is about getting the community together to learn from each other. Getting high-quality instruction from top-notch industry experts costs a lot – these industry experts often need to travel, as well as feed their families and pay rent/mortgage. The Common Cod Fiber Guild does a great job of having industry experts at bimonthly meetings, but once a year they mix things up.

Registration is very inexpensive – $40 for 2 days is the most expensive it gets, and that’s if you are not a member of the guild. You can also buy day passes for $25 if you can only make one day. The way it works is that there is a call for workshops among the community – you just edit a wiki page and add your suggestions for topics. You can suggest a topic you would like to see and suggest a topic you can teach. For example, here is the list of session topics from the 2012 Fiber Camp.

The schedule starts to get filled in by the people who are teaching (“enabling”) the sessions. Fiber Camp allows people to schedule workshops during Fiber Camp itself, and because of this, the schedule cannot be completely full before the weekend starts. This allows people to schedule workshops they had not thought of before.

Workshops are either 30 minutes or 1 hour. This is a perfect amount of time to “taste” a skill. For example, last year I learned how to spin on a drop spindle. This year I’m a spinning fiend. But I probably would not have paid $40 for a short beginner workshop to learn, because why spend the money if you don’t know if you’re going to like it? And I certainly would not have paid hundreds of dollars for a half-day or all-day intensive workshop from an industry expert.

That’s the great thing about Fiber Camp – because you have not invested a lot, if you find yourself not liking a skill, you can actually leave the room and go somewhere else, or just be content to sit and listen without practicing the skill. Then again, if you find yourself loving a skill, you learn just enough to get you started, and just enough to let you know that yes, you do want to take a longer/more intensive class.

Now, I’ve been separating “community” and “industry expert” so far in this post. But in reality, they are one and the same. Folks who want to learn double knitting can do so from Alasdair Post-Quinn because, guess what, he’s local to Boston. There are no travel costs involved for him. Did I learn spinning from Abby Franquemont? No, because she lives in the midwest, and it would be unfair to ask her to travel, stay in a hotel room, and give a short workshop when she is not getting reimbursed for her travel/hotel expenses. But I learned from Guido Stein, and I learned enough to know now that I want to take a class from Abby.

There are also vendors, so you can stock up on supplies if you want. The vendor area is also the “hangout” area, and plenty of people hang around there, too. There is a swap table too, where you can drop off or pick up fiber, magazines/books and other supplies (crochet hooks, needles, etc). I dropped off a lot of yarn that was being unloved, including some of my own handspun, and picked up a few magazines/books.

So, on to the fun. What did I learn/get from Fiber Camp this year?

Well, first off, I taught the Sweet Tomato Heel by Cat Bordhi. I already posted the PDF handout. I prepared the handout in advance, and there were a few people who told me they could not make my workshop because there were others going on. “No problem,” I said, “here’s the handout.” Folks really appreciated being able to have something they can look at, because they can try the skill themselves at home.

I not only learned how to make a duct tape mannequin, I made one. Or rather, other folks made one of me – mine is the one in the middle:

I learned how to use conductive thread to make gloves that I can manipulate a smartphone with.

And from the swap table, I picked up some cotton and cotton/linen yarn, a pattern booklet (Reynolds, volume 66 “International Cables by Mary of Holland”), 2 Vogue Knitting magazines with patterns I like (Fall/Winter 1982 and Holiday 1986), and the big score, a Kaffe Fassett book – Kaffe’s California Patches, Kaffe Fassett for Rowan.

Now, I have been looking for a “Cosby sweater” pattern for a few years now. See, my husband actually likes them. While it was Koos Van Den Akker who designed the real Cosby sweaters, Kaffe Fassett is a designer who makes patterns that look like Cosby sweaters. (Actually, while at Fiber Camp, I was told that Kaffe designed Cosby sweaters, and I thought he was the designer, but as I went to check my sources, I realized I was wrong. Always check your sources!)

So anyway, I now have a book of some pretty awesome geometric sweater patterns (think Q-bert). And a pattern to knit for my husband….eventually.
I taught this at FiberCamp this past weekend, and since I made a handout I figured why not share it with you?

I made the handout based on what I learned from Cat Bordhi’s own video at http://bit.ly/sweettomheel. I bought
Cat Bordhi’s Sweet Tomato Heel Socks: an ebook after making the instructions – I bought the book because I love the Sweet Tomato Heel and even though I already know how to do it, internist the book currently has 63 pages (62 plus a title page) and right now has 9 patterns – there will be 11 total, and folks who purchase the book get the updates, so whenever those last 2 patterns come out you will get them. The book also has great troubleshooting information and a few versions of the Sweet Tomato Heel, like the padded sweet tomato heel.

Buying the book was my way of saying “Thanks, Cat!” I understand that not everyone can do this, and that’s OK. I feel it’s OK to share this information because Cat herself shares it in a free YouTube video. I waited until after I wrote up the instructions so I wasn’t tempted to use the same language Cat did in the book, and thus plagiarize. If there is a problem, please definitely contact me, and I will change or take down whatever material is objectionable.

You can download the PDF of the instructions I wrote up for how to do Cat Bordhi‘s Sweet Tomato Heel.
Last weekend, as well as feed their families and pay rent/mortgage. The Common Cod Fiber Guild does a great job of having industry experts at bimonthly meetings, but once a year they mix things up.

Registration is very inexpensive – $40 for 2 days is the most expensive it gets, and that’s if you are not a member of the guild. You can also buy day passes for $25 if you can only make one day. The way it works is that there is a call for workshops among the community – you just edit a wiki page and add your suggestions for topics. You can suggest a topic you would like to see and suggest a topic you can teach. For example, here is the list of session topics from the 2012 Fiber Camp.

The schedule starts to get filled in by the people who are teaching (“enabling”) the sessions. Fiber Camp allows people to schedule workshops during Fiber Camp itself, and because of this, the schedule cannot be completely full before the weekend starts. This allows people to schedule workshops they had not thought of before.

Workshops are either 30 minutes or 1 hour. This is a perfect amount of time to “taste” a skill. For example, last year I learned how to spin on a drop spindle. This year I’m a spinning fiend. But I probably would not have paid $40 for a short beginner workshop to learn, because why spend the money if you don’t know if you’re going to like it? And I certainly would not have paid hundreds of dollars for a half-day or all-day intensive workshop from an industry expert.

That’s the great thing about Fiber Camp – because you have not invested a lot, if you find yourself not liking a skill, you can actually leave the room and go somewhere else, or just be content to sit and listen without practicing the skill. Then again, if you find yourself loving a skill, you learn just enough to get you started, and just enough to let you know that yes, you do want to take a longer/more intensive class.

Now, I’ve been separating “community” and “industry expert” so far in this post. But in reality, they are one and the same. Folks who want to learn double knitting can do so from Alasdair Post-Quinn because, guess what, he’s local to Boston. There are no travel costs involved for him. Did I learn spinning from Abby Franquemont? No, because she lives in the midwest, and it would be unfair to ask her to travel, stay in a hotel room, and give a short workshop when she is not getting reimbursed for her travel/hotel expenses. But I learned from Guido Stein, and I learned enough to know now that I want to take a class from Abby.

There are also vendors, so you can stock up on supplies if you want. The vendor area is also the “hangout” area, and plenty of people hang around there, too. There is a swap table too, where you can drop off or pick up fiber, magazines/books and other supplies (crochet hooks, needles, etc). I dropped off a lot of yarn that was being unloved, including some of my own handspun, and picked up a few magazines/books.

So, on to the fun. What did I learn/get from Fiber Camp this year?

Well, first off, I taught the Sweet Tomato Heel by Cat Bordhi. I already posted the PDF handout. I prepared the handout in advance, and there were a few people who told me they could not make my workshop because there were others going on. “No problem,” I said, “here’s the handout.” Folks really appreciated being able to have something they can look at, because they can try the skill themselves at home.

I not only learned how to make a duct tape mannequin, I made one. Or rather, other folks made one of me – mine is the one in the middle:

I learned how to use conductive thread to make gloves that I can manipulate a smartphone with.

And from the swap table, I picked up some cotton and cotton/linen yarn, a pattern booklet (Reynolds, volume 66 “International Cables by Mary of Holland”), 2 Vogue Knitting magazines with patterns I like (Fall/Winter 1982 and Holiday 1986), and the big score, a Kaffe Fassett book – Kaffe’s California Patches, Kaffe Fassett for Rowan.

Now, I have been looking for a “Cosby sweater” pattern for a few years now. See, my husband actually likes them. While it was Koos Van Den Akker who designed the real Cosby sweaters, Kaffe Fassett is a designer who makes patterns that look like Cosby sweaters. (Actually, while at Fiber Camp, I was told that Kaffe designed Cosby sweaters, and I thought he was the designer, but as I went to check my sources, I realized I was wrong. Always check your sources!)

So anyway, I now have a book of some pretty awesome geometric sweater patterns (think Q-bert). And a pattern to knit for my husband….eventually.
Last weekend, sick I went to Fiber Camp. Fiber Camp is not your usual fiber festival – now in its third year, Fiber Camp is about getting the community together to learn from each other. Getting high-quality instruction from top-notch industry experts costs a lot – these industry experts often need to travel, as well as feed their families and pay rent/mortgage. The Common Cod Fiber Guild does a great job of having industry experts at bimonthly meetings, but once a year they mix things up.

Registration is very inexpensive – $40 for 2 days is the most expensive it gets, and that’s if you are not a member of the guild. You can also buy day passes for $25 if you can only make one day. The way it works is that there is a call for workshops among the community – you just edit a wiki page and add your suggestions for topics. You can suggest a topic you would like to see and suggest a topic you can teach. For example, here is the list of session topics from the 2012 Fiber Camp.

The schedule starts to get filled in by the people who are teaching (“enabling”) the sessions. Fiber Camp allows people to schedule workshops during Fiber Camp itself, and because of this, the schedule cannot be completely full before the weekend starts. This allows people to schedule workshops they had not thought of before.

Workshops are either 30 minutes or 1 hour. This is a perfect amount of time to “taste” a skill. For example, last year I learned how to spin on a drop spindle. This year I’m a spinning fiend. But I probably would not have paid $40 for a short beginner workshop to learn, because why spend the money if you don’t know if you’re going to like it? And I certainly would not have paid hundreds of dollars for a half-day or all-day intensive workshop from an industry expert.

That’s the great thing about Fiber Camp – because you have not invested a lot, if you find yourself not liking a skill, you can actually leave the room and go somewhere else, or just be content to sit and listen without practicing the skill. Then again, if you find yourself loving a skill, you learn just enough to get you started, and just enough to let you know that yes, you do want to take a longer/more intensive class.

Now, I’ve been separating “community” and “industry expert” so far in this post. But in reality, they are one and the same. Folks who want to learn double knitting can do so from Alasdair Post-Quinn because, guess what, he’s local to Boston. There are no travel costs involved for him. Did I learn spinning from Abby Franquemont? No, because she lives in the midwest, and it would be unfair to ask her to travel, stay in a hotel room, and give a short workshop when she is not getting reimbursed for her travel/hotel expenses. But I learned from Guido Stein, and I learned enough to know now that I want to take a class from Abby.

There are also vendors, so you can stock up on supplies if you want. The vendor area is also the “hangout” area, and plenty of people hang around there, too. There is a swap table too, where you can drop off or pick up fiber, magazines/books and other supplies (crochet hooks, needles, etc). I dropped off a lot of yarn that was being unloved, including some of my own handspun, and picked up a few magazines/books.

So, on to the fun. What did I learn/get from Fiber Camp this year?

Well, first off, I taught the Sweet Tomato Heel by Cat Bordhi. I already posted the PDF handout. I prepared the handout in advance, and there were a few people who told me they could not make my workshop because there were others going on. “No problem,” I said, “here’s the handout.” Folks really appreciated being able to have something they can look at, because they can try the skill themselves at home.

I not only learned how to make a duct tape mannequin, I made one. Or rather, other folks made one of me – mine is the one in the middle:

I learned how to use conductive thread to make gloves that I can manipulate a smartphone with.

And from the swap table, I picked up some cotton and cotton/linen yarn, a pattern booklet (Reynolds, volume 66 “International Cables by Mary of Holland”), 2 Vogue Knitting magazines with patterns I like (Fall/Winter 1982 and Holiday 1986), and the big score, a Kaffe Fassett book – Kaffe’s California Patches, Kaffe Fassett for Rowan.

Now, I have been looking for a “Cosby sweater” pattern for a few years now. See, my husband actually likes them. While it was Koos Van Den Akker who designed the real Cosby sweaters, Kaffe Fassett is a designer who makes patterns that look like Cosby sweaters. (Actually, while at Fiber Camp, I was told that Kaffe designed Cosby sweaters, and I thought he was the designer, but as I went to check my sources, I realized I was wrong. Always check your sources!)

So anyway, I now have a book of some pretty awesome geometric sweater patterns (think Q-b

I posted about 2 weeks ago about what I was doing. My status is still the same, on the works in project – I have to re-block the Monkey Sock, and I’m still working on the Crooked Little Scarf.
I posted about 2 weeks ago about what I was doing. My status is still the same, I have to cast on for the 2nd Monkey Sock, and I’m still working on the Crooked Little Scarf.

Cascade finally shipped the yarn I needed to make the Color Me Pretty sweater I want to make for my niece — because a few months ago, I showed her a sweater I was wearing that I knit and she said, “Aunt Sheeri, will you knit me something?” How could I say no? And then a few minutes later she said, “I have a secret to tell you. My favorite color is pink.” Which is not really a secret, but was really cute anyway. This is a top-down raglan sweater, and I have done the yoke so far and am just a few rows away from splitting off the sleeves:

I can’t wait to finish it!

I have also started spinning some fiber gifted to me when I was down in the dumps by my friend Jenn, who is not only a superb human being, but also has an entry in the JMF design contest. You should vote for her!
I created the Loopy Wicker Cowl for the Juniper Moon Farm Design Contest. The basic guidelines were to use up to 2 balls of either Willa or Chadwick. This is a very quick knit, plus 2 stitches).

And special thanks to photographer Joel Eagle, model Caroline Fryar, and Susan Gibbs of Juniper Moon Farm for allowing me to republish this photo from the blog post about the contest finalists:

Loopy Wicker Cowl
Size – one size fits most adults

Materials:
1 ball Chadwick
(if making the 2-color version, 2 balls Chadwick)
This pattern uses 70-80 yards of yarn in total.

Size 8 (US) needles
1 button

Gauge: 18 sts and 27 rows over 4 inches / 10 cm in stockinette

Pattern notes: On the odd numbered rows, the yarn is wrapped twice around the needle when purling. These extra wraps are dropped in the even numbered rows and are what makes the long loops that form the wicker-like pattern.

Cast on 26 stitches.

Row 1 (WS): Purl entire row, wrapping the yarn twice around the needle when making the purl stitch.

Row 2 (RS): Dropping each extra wrap, K1, *sl 3 to cable needle and hold in back, k3, k3 from cable needle, repeat from * until 1 st remains. K1.

Row 3: same as row 1

Row 4: Dropping each extra wrap, K4, *sl 3 to cable needle and hold in front, k3, k3 from cable needle, repeat from * until 4 sts remain. K4.

Repeat rows 1-4 until the cowl is 20 inches long (50 cm). Bind off by purling. Finishing by sewing a button on one end.

To make the 2-color version, cast on 10 stitches in main color, then 6 stitches in contrast color, then 10 stitches in main color. Follow the pattern as written but always use the same color to knit as the stitch below is.
I created the Loopy Wicker Cowl for the Juniper Moon Farm Design Contest. The basic guidelines were to use up to 2 balls of either Willa or Chadwick. This is a very quick knit, thumb plus 2 stitches).

And special thanks to photographer Susan Gibbs and model Caroline Fryar of Juniper Moon Farm for allowing me to republish this photo from the blog post about the contest finalists:

Loopy Wicker Cowl
Size – one size fits most adults

Materials:
1 ball Chadwick
(if making the 2-color version, 2 balls Chadwick)
This pattern uses 70-80 yards of yarn in total.

Size 8 (US) needles
1 button

Gauge: 18 sts and 27 rows over 4 inches / 10 cm in stockinette

Pattern notes: On the odd numbered rows, clinic the yarn is wrapped twice around the needle when purling. These extra wraps are dropped in the even numbered rows and are what makes the long loops that form the wicker-like pattern.

Cast on 26 stitches.

Row 1 (WS): Purl entire row, wrapping the yarn twice around the needle when making the purl stitch.

Row 2 (RS): Dropping each extra wrap, K1, *sl 3 to cable needle and hold in back, k3, k3 from cable needle, repeat from * until 1 st remains. K1.

Row 3: same as row 1

Row 4: Dropping each extra wrap, K4, *sl 3 to cable needle and hold in front, k3, k3 from cable needle, repeat from * until 4 sts remain. K4.

Repeat rows 1-4 until the cowl is 20 inches long (50 cm). Bind off by purling. Finishing by sewing a button on one end.

To make the 2-color version, cast on 10 stitches in main color, then 6 stitches in contrast color, then 10 stitches in main color. Follow the pattern as written but always use the same color to knit as the stitch below is.
It’s been 2 weeks since I’ve updated y’all on how my crafty world is going….

I’ve been focusing on spinning a bit, see since I’ll be traveling in April for a conference and I know I won’t have a lot of spinning time so there’s no point bringing the wheel or spindles – I can knit during a workshop pretty unobtrusively, but spinning draws attention. And I knit on planes…so I know I’ll have knitting time, which is why I’m focusing on spinning.

Also the Ravelry group for Spunky Eclectic is doing a stashdown. I took a ton of pictures of the stash I want to spin down – mostly I want to spin down the stuff that is not appealing to spin, which is the white stuff I bought for dyeing, and some random stuff I bought to see how it spins (and sometimes it’s a combination of the two).

But I’m getting ahead of myself. Remember the BFL/silk that my friend Jenn gifted to me? If you don’t, here’s a reminder:

The colorway is called “Floating Down”. Well, I got a 460 yards of a 15 WPI yarn from 4 oz, which is pretty good yardage:

As for the Color Me Pretty Sweater for my niece, it’s coming along. But it’s knitting, so I’m not really focusing on it. I did get some knitting on it done Friday night, during Tony’s gig. The sweater is full into the body now, and it’s stockinette in the round all the way for a few more inches. It will be good plane knitting. As for Tony’s gig – it was not his usual stuff, but if you want to hear all 45 minutes of awesomeness (Tony’s the one playing the piano), just download the link on this page. It’s 432 Mb so it might take a while. I hope you enjoy it!

I also worked a little more on a baby sweater for my co-worker. The baby has been here for a few weeks already! I’ll probably prioritize finishing this first, and then finishing the Color Me Pretty sweater. All this spinning is really driving home the fact that I need to knit up what I already have! It doesn’t help that I’m part of 2 spinning clubs, and get 12 oz of fiber each month. I’ll likely drop the batt club that I’m in, I’ve found that I prefer spinning top to batts….but I don’t hate spinning batts, either! I really love the yarn I get from the batts, though…mostly because I get a lot of sparkle in them. April’s shipment will be 6 months in the club…I may wait it out and do a year, who knows?

Weaving? None. But I signed up for a bi-monthly weaving club, that ships in the even months, so in 2 weeks I’ll have something to weave. Yeah, I should probably cancel my batt club, since I’m doing the weaving club.

I also spun up some mystery wool. It was white, and somewhat of a longwool, but not as coarse as Wensleydale. I want to say it’s Romney, because that’s what it feels like, but I can’t imagine when I had some white Romney around or bought some. I did have some shetland, but I recall it being more downy than what this is….anyway, there was only a little bit of it, 11g = 3/8 ounce, and I did a 2-ply and got 38 yards out of it. Then I dyed it apricot (who knew green + pink = apricot? Not me!) and it’s hanging to dry now.
Last weekend, Fiber Camp is about getting the community together to learn from each other. Getting high-quality instruction from top-notch industry experts costs a lot – these industry experts often need to travel, as well as feed their families and pay rent/mortgage. The Common Cod Fiber Guild does a great job of having industry experts at bimonthly meetings, but once a year they mix things up.

Registration is very inexpensive – $40 for 2 days is the most expensive it gets, and that’s if you are not a member of the guild. You can also buy day passes for $25 if you can only make one day. The way it works is that there is a call for workshops among the community – you just edit a wiki page and add your suggestions for topics. You can suggest a topic you would like to see and suggest a topic you can teach. For example, here is the list of session topics from the 2012 Fiber Camp.

The schedule starts to get filled in by the people who are teaching (“enabling”) the sessions. Fiber Camp allows people to schedule workshops during Fiber Camp itself, and because of this, the schedule cannot be completely full before the weekend starts. This allows people to schedule workshops they had not thought of before.

Workshops are either 30 minutes or 1 hour. This is a perfect amount of time to “taste” a skill. For example, last year I learned how to spin on a drop spindle. This year I’m a spinning fiend. But I probably would not have paid $40 for a short beginner workshop to learn, because why spend the money if you don’t know if you’re going to like it? And I certainly would not have paid hundreds of dollars for a half-day or all-day intensive workshop from an industry expert.

That’s the great thing about Fiber Camp – because you have not invested a lot, if you find yourself not liking a skill, you can actually leave the room and go somewhere else, or just be content to sit and listen without practicing the skill. Then again, if you find yourself loving a skill, you learn just enough to get you started, and just enough to let you know that yes, you do want to take a longer/more intensive class.

Now, I’ve been separating “community” and “industry expert” so far in this post. But in reality, they are one and the same. Folks who want to learn double knitting can do so from Alasdair Post-Quinn because, guess what, he’s local to Boston. There are no travel costs involved for him. Did I learn spinning from Abby Franquemont? No, because she lives in the midwest, and it would be unfair to ask her to travel, stay in a hotel room, and give a short workshop when she is not getting reimbursed for her travel/hotel expenses. But I learned from Guido Stein, and I learned enough to know now that I want to take a class from Abby.

There are also vendors, so you can stock up on supplies if you want. The vendor area is also the “hangout” area, and plenty of people hang around there, too. There is a swap table too, where you can drop off or pick up fiber, magazines/books and other supplies (crochet hooks, needles, etc). I dropped off a lot of yarn that was being unloved, including some of my own handspun, and picked up a few magazines/books.

So, on to the fun. What did I learn/get from Fiber Camp this year?

Well, first off, I taught the Sweet Tomato Heel by Cat Bordhi. I already posted the PDF handout. I prepared the handout in advance, and there were a few people who told me they could not make my workshop because there were others going on. “No problem,” I said, “here’s the handout.” Folks really appreciated being able to have something they can look at, because they can try the skill themselves at home.

I not only learned how to make a duct tape mannequin, I made one. Or rather, other folks made one of me – mine is the one in the middle:

I learned how to use conductive thread to make gloves that I can manipulate a smartphone with.

And from the swap table, I picked up some cotton and cotton/linen yarn, a pattern booklet (Reynolds, volume 66 “International Cables by Mary of Holland”), 2 Vogue Knitting magazines with patterns I like (Fall/Winter 1982 and Holiday 1986), and the big score, a Kaffe Fassett book – Kaffe’s California Patches, Kaffe Fassett for Rowan.

Now, I have been looking for a “Cosby sweater” pattern for a few years now. See, my husband actually likes them. While it was Koos Van Den Akker who designed the real Cosby sweaters, Kaffe Fassett is a designer who makes patterns that look like Cosby sweaters. (Actually, while at Fiber Camp, I was told that Kaffe designed Cosby sweaters, and I thought he was the designer, but as I went to check my sources, I realized I was wrong. Always check your sources!)

So anyway, I now have a book of some pretty awesome geometric sweater patterns (think Q-bert). And a pattern to knit for my husband….eventually.
I taught this at FiberCamp this past weekend, and since I made a handout I figured why not share it with you?

I made the handout based on what I learned from Cat Bordhi’s own video at http://bit.ly/sweettomheel. I bought
Cat Bordhi’s Sweet Tomato Heel Socks: an ebook after making the instructions – I bought the book because I love the Sweet Tomato Heel and even though I already know how to do it, internist the book currently has 63 pages (62 plus a title page) and right now has 9 patterns – there will be 11 total, and folks who purchase the book get the updates, so whenever those last 2 patterns come out you will get them. The book also has great troubleshooting information and a few versions of the Sweet Tomato Heel, like the padded sweet tomato heel.

Buying the book was my way of saying “Thanks, Cat!” I understand that not everyone can do this, and that’s OK. I feel it’s OK to share this information because Cat herself shares it in a free YouTube video. I waited until after I wrote up the instructions so I wasn’t tempted to use the same language Cat did in the book, and thus plagiarize. If there is a problem, please definitely contact me, and I will change or take down whatever material is objectionable.

You can download the PDF of the instructions I wrote up for how to do Cat Bordhi‘s Sweet Tomato Heel.
Last weekend, as well as feed their families and pay rent/mortgage. The Common Cod Fiber Guild does a great job of having industry experts at bimonthly meetings, but once a year they mix things up.

Registration is very inexpensive – $40 for 2 days is the most expensive it gets, and that’s if you are not a member of the guild. You can also buy day passes for $25 if you can only make one day. The way it works is that there is a call for workshops among the community – you just edit a wiki page and add your suggestions for topics. You can suggest a topic you would like to see and suggest a topic you can teach. For example, here is the list of session topics from the 2012 Fiber Camp.

The schedule starts to get filled in by the people who are teaching (“enabling”) the sessions. Fiber Camp allows people to schedule workshops during Fiber Camp itself, and because of this, the schedule cannot be completely full before the weekend starts. This allows people to schedule workshops they had not thought of before.

Workshops are either 30 minutes or 1 hour. This is a perfect amount of time to “taste” a skill. For example, last year I learned how to spin on a drop spindle. This year I’m a spinning fiend. But I probably would not have paid $40 for a short beginner workshop to learn, because why spend the money if you don’t know if you’re going to like it? And I certainly would not have paid hundreds of dollars for a half-day or all-day intensive workshop from an industry expert.

That’s the great thing about Fiber Camp – because you have not invested a lot, if you find yourself not liking a skill, you can actually leave the room and go somewhere else, or just be content to sit and listen without practicing the skill. Then again, if you find yourself loving a skill, you learn just enough to get you started, and just enough to let you know that yes, you do want to take a longer/more intensive class.

Now, I’ve been separating “community” and “industry expert” so far in this post. But in reality, they are one and the same. Folks who want to learn double knitting can do so from Alasdair Post-Quinn because, guess what, he’s local to Boston. There are no travel costs involved for him. Did I learn spinning from Abby Franquemont? No, because she lives in the midwest, and it would be unfair to ask her to travel, stay in a hotel room, and give a short workshop when she is not getting reimbursed for her travel/hotel expenses. But I learned from Guido Stein, and I learned enough to know now that I want to take a class from Abby.

There are also vendors, so you can stock up on supplies if you want. The vendor area is also the “hangout” area, and plenty of people hang around there, too. There is a swap table too, where you can drop off or pick up fiber, magazines/books and other supplies (crochet hooks, needles, etc). I dropped off a lot of yarn that was being unloved, including some of my own handspun, and picked up a few magazines/books.

So, on to the fun. What did I learn/get from Fiber Camp this year?

Well, first off, I taught the Sweet Tomato Heel by Cat Bordhi. I already posted the PDF handout. I prepared the handout in advance, and there were a few people who told me they could not make my workshop because there were others going on. “No problem,” I said, “here’s the handout.” Folks really appreciated being able to have something they can look at, because they can try the skill themselves at home.

I not only learned how to make a duct tape mannequin, I made one. Or rather, other folks made one of me – mine is the one in the middle:

I learned how to use conductive thread to make gloves that I can manipulate a smartphone with.

And from the swap table, I picked up some cotton and cotton/linen yarn, a pattern booklet (Reynolds, volume 66 “International Cables by Mary of Holland”), 2 Vogue Knitting magazines with patterns I like (Fall/Winter 1982 and Holiday 1986), and the big score, a Kaffe Fassett book – Kaffe’s California Patches, Kaffe Fassett for Rowan.

Now, I have been looking for a “Cosby sweater” pattern for a few years now. See, my husband actually likes them. While it was Koos Van Den Akker who designed the real Cosby sweaters, Kaffe Fassett is a designer who makes patterns that look like Cosby sweaters. (Actually, while at Fiber Camp, I was told that Kaffe designed Cosby sweaters, and I thought he was the designer, but as I went to check my sources, I realized I was wrong. Always check your sources!)

So anyway, I now have a book of some pretty awesome geometric sweater patterns (think Q-bert). And a pattern to knit for my husband….eventually.
Last weekend, sick I went to Fiber Camp. Fiber Camp is not your usual fiber festival – now in its third year, Fiber Camp is about getting the community together to learn from each other. Getting high-quality instruction from top-notch industry experts costs a lot – these industry experts often need to travel, as well as feed their families and pay rent/mortgage. The Common Cod Fiber Guild does a great job of having industry experts at bimonthly meetings, but once a year they mix things up.

Registration is very inexpensive – $40 for 2 days is the most expensive it gets, and that’s if you are not a member of the guild. You can also buy day passes for $25 if you can only make one day. The way it works is that there is a call for workshops among the community – you just edit a wiki page and add your suggestions for topics. You can suggest a topic you would like to see and suggest a topic you can teach. For example, here is the list of session topics from the 2012 Fiber Camp.

The schedule starts to get filled in by the people who are teaching (“enabling”) the sessions. Fiber Camp allows people to schedule workshops during Fiber Camp itself, and because of this, the schedule cannot be completely full before the weekend starts. This allows people to schedule workshops they had not thought of before.

Workshops are either 30 minutes or 1 hour. This is a perfect amount of time to “taste” a skill. For example, last year I learned how to spin on a drop spindle. This year I’m a spinning fiend. But I probably would not have paid $40 for a short beginner workshop to learn, because why spend the money if you don’t know if you’re going to like it? And I certainly would not have paid hundreds of dollars for a half-day or all-day intensive workshop from an industry expert.

That’s the great thing about Fiber Camp – because you have not invested a lot, if you find yourself not liking a skill, you can actually leave the room and go somewhere else, or just be content to sit and listen without practicing the skill. Then again, if you find yourself loving a skill, you learn just enough to get you started, and just enough to let you know that yes, you do want to take a longer/more intensive class.

Now, I’ve been separating “community” and “industry expert” so far in this post. But in reality, they are one and the same. Folks who want to learn double knitting can do so from Alasdair Post-Quinn because, guess what, he’s local to Boston. There are no travel costs involved for him. Did I learn spinning from Abby Franquemont? No, because she lives in the midwest, and it would be unfair to ask her to travel, stay in a hotel room, and give a short workshop when she is not getting reimbursed for her travel/hotel expenses. But I learned from Guido Stein, and I learned enough to know now that I want to take a class from Abby.

There are also vendors, so you can stock up on supplies if you want. The vendor area is also the “hangout” area, and plenty of people hang around there, too. There is a swap table too, where you can drop off or pick up fiber, magazines/books and other supplies (crochet hooks, needles, etc). I dropped off a lot of yarn that was being unloved, including some of my own handspun, and picked up a few magazines/books.

So, on to the fun. What did I learn/get from Fiber Camp this year?

Well, first off, I taught the Sweet Tomato Heel by Cat Bordhi. I already posted the PDF handout. I prepared the handout in advance, and there were a few people who told me they could not make my workshop because there were others going on. “No problem,” I said, “here’s the handout.” Folks really appreciated being able to have something they can look at, because they can try the skill themselves at home.

I not only learned how to make a duct tape mannequin, I made one. Or rather, other folks made one of me – mine is the one in the middle:

I learned how to use conductive thread to make gloves that I can manipulate a smartphone with.

And from the swap table, I picked up some cotton and cotton/linen yarn, a pattern booklet (Reynolds, volume 66 “International Cables by Mary of Holland”), 2 Vogue Knitting magazines with patterns I like (Fall/Winter 1982 and Holiday 1986), and the big score, a Kaffe Fassett book – Kaffe’s California Patches, Kaffe Fassett for Rowan.

Now, I have been looking for a “Cosby sweater” pattern for a few years now. See, my husband actually likes them. While it was Koos Van Den Akker who designed the real Cosby sweaters, Kaffe Fassett is a designer who makes patterns that look like Cosby sweaters. (Actually, while at Fiber Camp, I was told that Kaffe designed Cosby sweaters, and I thought he was the designer, but as I went to check my sources, I realized I was wrong. Always check your sources!)

So anyway, I now have a book of some pretty awesome geometric sweater patterns (think Q-b

I posted about 2 weeks ago about what I was doing. My status is still the same, on the works in project – I have to re-block the Monkey Sock, and I’m still working on the Crooked Little Scarf.
I posted about 2 weeks ago about what I was doing. My status is still the same, I have to cast on for the 2nd Monkey Sock, and I’m still working on the Crooked Little Scarf.

Cascade finally shipped the yarn I needed to make the Color Me Pretty sweater I want to make for my niece — because a few months ago, I showed her a sweater I was wearing that I knit and she said, “Aunt Sheeri, will you knit me something?” How could I say no? And then a few minutes later she said, “I have a secret to tell you. My favorite color is pink.” Which is not really a secret, but was really cute anyway. This is a top-down raglan sweater, and I have done the yoke so far and am just a few rows away from splitting off the sleeves:

I can’t wait to finish it!

I have also started spinning some fiber gifted to me when I was down in the dumps by my friend Jenn, who is not only a superb human being, but also has an entry in the JMF design contest. You should vote for her!
I posted about 2 weeks ago about what I was doing. My status is still the same, and I’m still working on the Crooked Little Scarf.

Cascade finally shipped the yarn I needed to make the Color Me Pretty sweater I want to make for my niece — because a few months ago, I showed her a sweater I was wearing that I knit and she said, “Aunt Sheeri, will you knit me something?” How could I say no? And then a few minutes later she said, “I have a secret to tell you. My favorite color is pink.” Which is not really a secret, but was really cute anyway. This is a top-down sweater

I created the Loopy Wicker Cowl for the Juniper Moon Farm Design Contest. The basic guidelines were to use up to 2 balls of either Willa or Chadwick. This is a very quick knit, plus 2 stitches).

And special thanks to photographer Joel Eagle, model Caroline Fryar, and Susan Gibbs of Juniper Moon Farm for allowing me to republish this photo from the blog post about the contest finalists:

Loopy Wicker Cowl
Size – one size fits most adults

Materials:
1 ball Chadwick
(if making the 2-color version, 2 balls Chadwick)
This pattern uses 70-80 yards of yarn in total.

Size 8 (US) needles
1 button

Gauge: 18 sts and 27 rows over 4 inches / 10 cm in stockinette

Pattern notes: On the odd numbered rows, the yarn is wrapped twice around the needle when purling. These extra wraps are dropped in the even numbered rows and are what makes the long loops that form the wicker-like pattern.

Cast on 26 stitches.

Row 1 (WS): Purl entire row, wrapping the yarn twice around the needle when making the purl stitch.

Row 2 (RS): Dropping each extra wrap, K1, *sl 3 to cable needle and hold in back, k3, k3 from cable needle, repeat from * until 1 st remains. K1.

Row 3: same as row 1

Row 4: Dropping each extra wrap, K4, *sl 3 to cable needle and hold in front, k3, k3 from cable needle, repeat from * until 4 sts remain. K4.

Repeat rows 1-4 until the cowl is 20 inches long (50 cm). Bind off by purling. Finishing by sewing a button on one end.

To make the 2-color version, cast on 10 stitches in main color, then 6 stitches in contrast color, then 10 stitches in main color. Follow the pattern as written but always use the same color to knit as the stitch below is.
I created the Loopy Wicker Cowl for the Juniper Moon Farm Design Contest. The basic guidelines were to use up to 2 balls of either Willa or Chadwick. This is a very quick knit, thumb plus 2 stitches).

And special thanks to photographer Susan Gibbs and model Caroline Fryar of Juniper Moon Farm for allowing me to republish this photo from the blog post about the contest finalists:

Loopy Wicker Cowl
Size – one size fits most adults

Materials:
1 ball Chadwick
(if making the 2-color version, 2 balls Chadwick)
This pattern uses 70-80 yards of yarn in total.

Size 8 (US) needles
1 button

Gauge: 18 sts and 27 rows over 4 inches / 10 cm in stockinette

Pattern notes: On the odd numbered rows, clinic the yarn is wrapped twice around the needle when purling. These extra wraps are dropped in the even numbered rows and are what makes the long loops that form the wicker-like pattern.

Cast on 26 stitches.

Row 1 (WS): Purl entire row, wrapping the yarn twice around the needle when making the purl stitch.

Row 2 (RS): Dropping each extra wrap, K1, *sl 3 to cable needle and hold in back, k3, k3 from cable needle, repeat from * until 1 st remains. K1.

Row 3: same as row 1

Row 4: Dropping each extra wrap, K4, *sl 3 to cable needle and hold in front, k3, k3 from cable needle, repeat from * until 4 sts remain. K4.

Repeat rows 1-4 until the cowl is 20 inches long (50 cm). Bind off by purling. Finishing by sewing a button on one end.

To make the 2-color version, cast on 10 stitches in main color, then 6 stitches in contrast color, then 10 stitches in main color. Follow the pattern as written but always use the same color to knit as the stitch below is.
It’s been 2 weeks since I’ve updated y’all on how my crafty world is going….

I’ve been focusing on spinning a bit, see since I’ll be traveling in April for a conference and I know I won’t have a lot of spinning time so there’s no point bringing the wheel or spindles – I can knit during a workshop pretty unobtrusively, but spinning draws attention. And I knit on planes…so I know I’ll have knitting time, which is why I’m focusing on spinning.

Also the Ravelry group for Spunky Eclectic is doing a stashdown. I took a ton of pictures of the stash I want to spin down – mostly I want to spin down the stuff that is not appealing to spin, which is the white stuff I bought for dyeing, and some random stuff I bought to see how it spins (and sometimes it’s a combination of the two).

But I’m getting ahead of myself. Remember the BFL/silk that my friend Jenn gifted to me? If you don’t, here’s a reminder:

The colorway is called “Floating Down”. Well, I got a 460 yards of a 15 WPI yarn from 4 oz, which is pretty good yardage:

As for the Color Me Pretty Sweater for my niece, it’s coming along. But it’s knitting, so I’m not really focusing on it. I did get some knitting on it done Friday night, during Tony’s gig. The sweater is full into the body now, and it’s stockinette in the round all the way for a few more inches. It will be good plane knitting. As for Tony’s gig – it was not his usual stuff, but if you want to hear all 45 minutes of awesomeness (Tony’s the one playing the piano), just download the link on this page. It’s 432 Mb so it might take a while. I hope you enjoy it!

I also worked a little more on a baby sweater for my co-worker. The baby has been here for a few weeks already! I’ll probably prioritize finishing this first, and then finishing the Color Me Pretty sweater. All this spinning is really driving home the fact that I need to knit up what I already have! It doesn’t help that I’m part of 2 spinning clubs, and get 12 oz of fiber each month. I’ll likely drop the batt club that I’m in, I’ve found that I prefer spinning top to batts….but I don’t hate spinning batts, either! I really love the yarn I get from the batts, though…mostly because I get a lot of sparkle in them. April’s shipment will be 6 months in the club…I may wait it out and do a year, who knows?

Weaving? None. But I signed up for a bi-monthly weaving club, that ships in the even months, so in 2 weeks I’ll have something to weave. Yeah, I should probably cancel my batt club, since I’m doing the weaving club.

I also spun up some mystery wool. It was white, and somewhat of a longwool, but not as coarse as Wensleydale. I want to say it’s Romney, because that’s what it feels like, but I can’t imagine when I had some white Romney around or bought some. I did have some shetland, but I recall it being more downy than what this is….anyway, there was only a little bit of it, 11g = 3/8 ounce, and I did a 2-ply and got 38 yards out of it. Then I dyed it apricot (who knew green + pink = apricot? Not me!) and it’s hanging to dry now.
Last weekend, Fiber Camp is about getting the community together to learn from each other. Getting high-quality instruction from top-notch industry experts costs a lot – these industry experts often need to travel, as well as feed their families and pay rent/mortgage. The Common Cod Fiber Guild does a great job of having industry experts at bimonthly meetings, but once a year they mix things up.

Registration is very inexpensive – $40 for 2 days is the most expensive it gets, and that’s if you are not a member of the guild. You can also buy day passes for $25 if you can only make one day. The way it works is that there is a call for workshops among the community – you just edit a wiki page and add your suggestions for topics. You can suggest a topic you would like to see and suggest a topic you can teach. For example, here is the list of session topics from the 2012 Fiber Camp.

The schedule starts to get filled in by the people who are teaching (“enabling”) the sessions. Fiber Camp allows people to schedule workshops during Fiber Camp itself, and because of this, the schedule cannot be completely full before the weekend starts. This allows people to schedule workshops they had not thought of before.

Workshops are either 30 minutes or 1 hour. This is a perfect amount of time to “taste” a skill. For example, last year I learned how to spin on a drop spindle. This year I’m a spinning fiend. But I probably would not have paid $40 for a short beginner workshop to learn, because why spend the money if you don’t know if you’re going to like it? And I certainly would not have paid hundreds of dollars for a half-day or all-day intensive workshop from an industry expert.

That’s the great thing about Fiber Camp – because you have not invested a lot, if you find yourself not liking a skill, you can actually leave the room and go somewhere else, or just be content to sit and listen without practicing the skill. Then again, if you find yourself loving a skill, you learn just enough to get you started, and just enough to let you know that yes, you do want to take a longer/more intensive class.

Now, I’ve been separating “community” and “industry expert” so far in this post. But in reality, they are one and the same. Folks who want to learn double knitting can do so from Alasdair Post-Quinn because, guess what, he’s local to Boston. There are no travel costs involved for him. Did I learn spinning from Abby Franquemont? No, because she lives in the midwest, and it would be unfair to ask her to travel, stay in a hotel room, and give a short workshop when she is not getting reimbursed for her travel/hotel expenses. But I learned from Guido Stein, and I learned enough to know now that I want to take a class from Abby.

There are also vendors, so you can stock up on supplies if you want. The vendor area is also the “hangout” area, and plenty of people hang around there, too. There is a swap table too, where you can drop off or pick up fiber, magazines/books and other supplies (crochet hooks, needles, etc). I dropped off a lot of yarn that was being unloved, including some of my own handspun, and picked up a few magazines/books.

So, on to the fun. What did I learn/get from Fiber Camp this year?

Well, first off, I taught the Sweet Tomato Heel by Cat Bordhi. I already posted the PDF handout. I prepared the handout in advance, and there were a few people who told me they could not make my workshop because there were others going on. “No problem,” I said, “here’s the handout.” Folks really appreciated being able to have something they can look at, because they can try the skill themselves at home.

I not only learned how to make a duct tape mannequin, I made one. Or rather, other folks made one of me – mine is the one in the middle:

I learned how to use conductive thread to make gloves that I can manipulate a smartphone with.

And from the swap table, I picked up some cotton and cotton/linen yarn, a pattern booklet (Reynolds, volume 66 “International Cables by Mary of Holland”), 2 Vogue Knitting magazines with patterns I like (Fall/Winter 1982 and Holiday 1986), and the big score, a Kaffe Fassett book – Kaffe’s California Patches, Kaffe Fassett for Rowan.

Now, I have been looking for a “Cosby sweater” pattern for a few years now. See, my husband actually likes them. While it was Koos Van Den Akker who designed the real Cosby sweaters, Kaffe Fassett is a designer who makes patterns that look like Cosby sweaters. (Actually, while at Fiber Camp, I was told that Kaffe designed Cosby sweaters, and I thought he was the designer, but as I went to check my sources, I realized I was wrong. Always check your sources!)

So anyway, I now have a book of some pretty awesome geometric sweater patterns (think Q-bert). And a pattern to knit for my husband….eventually.
I taught this at FiberCamp this past weekend, and since I made a handout I figured why not share it with you?

I made the handout based on what I learned from Cat Bordhi’s own video at http://bit.ly/sweettomheel. I bought
Cat Bordhi’s Sweet Tomato Heel Socks: an ebook after making the instructions – I bought the book because I love the Sweet Tomato Heel and even though I already know how to do it, internist the book currently has 63 pages (62 plus a title page) and right now has 9 patterns – there will be 11 total, and folks who purchase the book get the updates, so whenever those last 2 patterns come out you will get them. The book also has great troubleshooting information and a few versions of the Sweet Tomato Heel, like the padded sweet tomato heel.

Buying the book was my way of saying “Thanks, Cat!” I understand that not everyone can do this, and that’s OK. I feel it’s OK to share this information because Cat herself shares it in a free YouTube video. I waited until after I wrote up the instructions so I wasn’t tempted to use the same language Cat did in the book, and thus plagiarize. If there is a problem, please definitely contact me, and I will change or take down whatever material is objectionable.

You can download the PDF of the instructions I wrote up for how to do Cat Bordhi‘s Sweet Tomato Heel.
Last weekend, as well as feed their families and pay rent/mortgage. The Common Cod Fiber Guild does a great job of having industry experts at bimonthly meetings, but once a year they mix things up.

Registration is very inexpensive – $40 for 2 days is the most expensive it gets, and that’s if you are not a member of the guild. You can also buy day passes for $25 if you can only make one day. The way it works is that there is a call for workshops among the community – you just edit a wiki page and add your suggestions for topics. You can suggest a topic you would like to see and suggest a topic you can teach. For example, here is the list of session topics from the 2012 Fiber Camp.

The schedule starts to get filled in by the people who are teaching (“enabling”) the sessions. Fiber Camp allows people to schedule workshops during Fiber Camp itself, and because of this, the schedule cannot be completely full before the weekend starts. This allows people to schedule workshops they had not thought of before.

Workshops are either 30 minutes or 1 hour. This is a perfect amount of time to “taste” a skill. For example, last year I learned how to spin on a drop spindle. This year I’m a spinning fiend. But I probably would not have paid $40 for a short beginner workshop to learn, because why spend the money if you don’t know if you’re going to like it? And I certainly would not have paid hundreds of dollars for a half-day or all-day intensive workshop from an industry expert.

That’s the great thing about Fiber Camp – because you have not invested a lot, if you find yourself not liking a skill, you can actually leave the room and go somewhere else, or just be content to sit and listen without practicing the skill. Then again, if you find yourself loving a skill, you learn just enough to get you started, and just enough to let you know that yes, you do want to take a longer/more intensive class.

Now, I’ve been separating “community” and “industry expert” so far in this post. But in reality, they are one and the same. Folks who want to learn double knitting can do so from Alasdair Post-Quinn because, guess what, he’s local to Boston. There are no travel costs involved for him. Did I learn spinning from Abby Franquemont? No, because she lives in the midwest, and it would be unfair to ask her to travel, stay in a hotel room, and give a short workshop when she is not getting reimbursed for her travel/hotel expenses. But I learned from Guido Stein, and I learned enough to know now that I want to take a class from Abby.

There are also vendors, so you can stock up on supplies if you want. The vendor area is also the “hangout” area, and plenty of people hang around there, too. There is a swap table too, where you can drop off or pick up fiber, magazines/books and other supplies (crochet hooks, needles, etc). I dropped off a lot of yarn that was being unloved, including some of my own handspun, and picked up a few magazines/books.

So, on to the fun. What did I learn/get from Fiber Camp this year?

Well, first off, I taught the Sweet Tomato Heel by Cat Bordhi. I already posted the PDF handout. I prepared the handout in advance, and there were a few people who told me they could not make my workshop because there were others going on. “No problem,” I said, “here’s the handout.” Folks really appreciated being able to have something they can look at, because they can try the skill themselves at home.

I not only learned how to make a duct tape mannequin, I made one. Or rather, other folks made one of me – mine is the one in the middle:

I learned how to use conductive thread to make gloves that I can manipulate a smartphone with.

And from the swap table, I picked up some cotton and cotton/linen yarn, a pattern booklet (Reynolds, volume 66 “International Cables by Mary of Holland”), 2 Vogue Knitting magazines with patterns I like (Fall/Winter 1982 and Holiday 1986), and the big score, a Kaffe Fassett book – Kaffe’s California Patches, Kaffe Fassett for Rowan.

Now, I have been looking for a “Cosby sweater” pattern for a few years now. See, my husband actually likes them. While it was Koos Van Den Akker who designed the real Cosby sweaters, Kaffe Fassett is a designer who makes patterns that look like Cosby sweaters. (Actually, while at Fiber Camp, I was told that Kaffe designed Cosby sweaters, and I thought he was the designer, but as I went to check my sources, I realized I was wrong. Always check your sources!)

So anyway, I now have a book of some pretty awesome geometric sweater patterns (think Q-bert). And a pattern to knit for my husband….eventually.
Last weekend, sick I went to Fiber Camp. Fiber Camp is not your usual fiber festival – now in its third year, Fiber Camp is about getting the community together to learn from each other. Getting high-quality instruction from top-notch industry experts costs a lot – these industry experts often need to travel, as well as feed their families and pay rent/mortgage. The Common Cod Fiber Guild does a great job of having industry experts at bimonthly meetings, but once a year they mix things up.

Registration is very inexpensive – $40 for 2 days is the most expensive it gets, and that’s if you are not a member of the guild. You can also buy day passes for $25 if you can only make one day. The way it works is that there is a call for workshops among the community – you just edit a wiki page and add your suggestions for topics. You can suggest a topic you would like to see and suggest a topic you can teach. For example, here is the list of session topics from the 2012 Fiber Camp.

The schedule starts to get filled in by the people who are teaching (“enabling”) the sessions. Fiber Camp allows people to schedule workshops during Fiber Camp itself, and because of this, the schedule cannot be completely full before the weekend starts. This allows people to schedule workshops they had not thought of before.

Workshops are either 30 minutes or 1 hour. This is a perfect amount of time to “taste” a skill. For example, last year I learned how to spin on a drop spindle. This year I’m a spinning fiend. But I probably would not have paid $40 for a short beginner workshop to learn, because why spend the money if you don’t know if you’re going to like it? And I certainly would not have paid hundreds of dollars for a half-day or all-day intensive workshop from an industry expert.

That’s the great thing about Fiber Camp – because you have not invested a lot, if you find yourself not liking a skill, you can actually leave the room and go somewhere else, or just be content to sit and listen without practicing the skill. Then again, if you find yourself loving a skill, you learn just enough to get you started, and just enough to let you know that yes, you do want to take a longer/more intensive class.

Now, I’ve been separating “community” and “industry expert” so far in this post. But in reality, they are one and the same. Folks who want to learn double knitting can do so from Alasdair Post-Quinn because, guess what, he’s local to Boston. There are no travel costs involved for him. Did I learn spinning from Abby Franquemont? No, because she lives in the midwest, and it would be unfair to ask her to travel, stay in a hotel room, and give a short workshop when she is not getting reimbursed for her travel/hotel expenses. But I learned from Guido Stein, and I learned enough to know now that I want to take a class from Abby.

There are also vendors, so you can stock up on supplies if you want. The vendor area is also the “hangout” area, and plenty of people hang around there, too. There is a swap table too, where you can drop off or pick up fiber, magazines/books and other supplies (crochet hooks, needles, etc). I dropped off a lot of yarn that was being unloved, including some of my own handspun, and picked up a few magazines/books.

So, on to the fun. What did I learn/get from Fiber Camp this year?

Well, first off, I taught the Sweet Tomato Heel by Cat Bordhi. I already posted the PDF handout. I prepared the handout in advance, and there were a few people who told me they could not make my workshop because there were others going on. “No problem,” I said, “here’s the handout.” Folks really appreciated being able to have something they can look at, because they can try the skill themselves at home.

I not only learned how to make a duct tape mannequin, I made one. Or rather, other folks made one of me – mine is the one in the middle:

I learned how to use conductive thread to make gloves that I can manipulate a smartphone with.

And from the swap table, I picked up some cotton and cotton/linen yarn, a pattern booklet (Reynolds, volume 66 “International Cables by Mary of Holland”), 2 Vogue Knitting magazines with patterns I like (Fall/Winter 1982 and Holiday 1986), and the big score, a Kaffe Fassett book – Kaffe’s California Patches, Kaffe Fassett for Rowan.

Now, I have been looking for a “Cosby sweater” pattern for a few years now. See, my husband actually likes them. While it was Koos Van Den Akker who designed the real Cosby sweaters, Kaffe Fassett is a designer who makes patterns that look like Cosby sweaters. (Actually, while at Fiber Camp, I was told that Kaffe designed Cosby sweaters, and I thought he was the designer, but as I went to check my sources, I realized I was wrong. Always check your sources!)

So anyway, I now have a book of some pretty awesome geometric sweater patterns (think Q-b

I posted about 2 weeks ago about what I was doing. My status is still the same, on the works in project – I have to re-block the Monkey Sock, and I’m still working on the Crooked Little Scarf.
I posted about 2 weeks ago about what I was doing. My status is still the same, I have to cast on for the 2nd Monkey Sock, and I’m still working on the Crooked Little Scarf.

Cascade finally shipped the yarn I needed to make the Color Me Pretty sweater I want to make for my niece — because a few months ago, I showed her a sweater I was wearing that I knit and she said, “Aunt Sheeri, will you knit me something?” How could I say no? And then a few minutes later she said, “I have a secret to tell you. My favorite color is pink.” Which is not really a secret, but was really cute anyway. This is a top-down raglan sweater, and I have done the yoke so far and am just a few rows away from splitting off the sleeves:

I can’t wait to finish it!

I have also started spinning some fiber gifted to me when I was down in the dumps by my friend Jenn, who is not only a superb human being, but also has an entry in the JMF design contest. You should vote for her!
I posted about 2 weeks ago about what I was doing. My status is still the same, and I’m still working on the Crooked Little Scarf.

Cascade finally shipped the yarn I needed to make the Color Me Pretty sweater I want to make for my niece — because a few months ago, I showed her a sweater I was wearing that I knit and she said, “Aunt Sheeri, will you knit me something?” How could I say no? And then a few minutes later she said, “I have a secret to tell you. My favorite color is pink.” Which is not really a secret, but was really cute anyway. This is a top-down sweater

I posted about 2 weeks ago about what I was doing. My status is still the same, I have to cast on for the 2nd Monkey Sock, and I’m still working on the Crooked Little Scarf.

Cascade finally shipped the yarn I needed to make the Color Me Pretty sweater I want to make for my niece — because a few months ago, I showed her a sweater I was wearing that I knit and she said, “Aunt Sheeri, will you knit me something?” How could I say no? And then a few minutes later she said, “I have a secret to tell you. My favorite color is pink.” Which is not really a secret, but was really cute anyway. This is a top-down raglan sweater, and I have done the yoke so far and am just a few rows away from splitting off the sleeves:

I can’t wait to finish it!

I have also started spinning some fiber gifted to me by my friend Jenn, who is not only a superb human being
I created the Loopy Wicker Cowl for the Juniper Moon Farm Design Contest. The basic guidelines were to use up to 2 balls of either Willa or Chadwick. This is a very quick knit, plus 2 stitches).

And special thanks to photographer Joel Eagle, model Caroline Fryar, and Susan Gibbs of Juniper Moon Farm for allowing me to republish this photo from the blog post about the contest finalists:

Loopy Wicker Cowl
Size – one size fits most adults

Materials:
1 ball Chadwick
(if making the 2-color version, 2 balls Chadwick)
This pattern uses 70-80 yards of yarn in total.

Size 8 (US) needles
1 button

Gauge: 18 sts and 27 rows over 4 inches / 10 cm in stockinette

Pattern notes: On the odd numbered rows, the yarn is wrapped twice around the needle when purling. These extra wraps are dropped in the even numbered rows and are what makes the long loops that form the wicker-like pattern.

Cast on 26 stitches.

Row 1 (WS): Purl entire row, wrapping the yarn twice around the needle when making the purl stitch.

Row 2 (RS): Dropping each extra wrap, K1, *sl 3 to cable needle and hold in back, k3, k3 from cable needle, repeat from * until 1 st remains. K1.

Row 3: same as row 1

Row 4: Dropping each extra wrap, K4, *sl 3 to cable needle and hold in front, k3, k3 from cable needle, repeat from * until 4 sts remain. K4.

Repeat rows 1-4 until the cowl is 20 inches long (50 cm). Bind off by purling. Finishing by sewing a button on one end.

To make the 2-color version, cast on 10 stitches in main color, then 6 stitches in contrast color, then 10 stitches in main color. Follow the pattern as written but always use the same color to knit as the stitch below is.
I created the Loopy Wicker Cowl for the Juniper Moon Farm Design Contest. The basic guidelines were to use up to 2 balls of either Willa or Chadwick. This is a very quick knit, thumb plus 2 stitches).

And special thanks to photographer Susan Gibbs and model Caroline Fryar of Juniper Moon Farm for allowing me to republish this photo from the blog post about the contest finalists:

Loopy Wicker Cowl
Size – one size fits most adults

Materials:
1 ball Chadwick
(if making the 2-color version, 2 balls Chadwick)
This pattern uses 70-80 yards of yarn in total.

Size 8 (US) needles
1 button

Gauge: 18 sts and 27 rows over 4 inches / 10 cm in stockinette

Pattern notes: On the odd numbered rows, clinic the yarn is wrapped twice around the needle when purling. These extra wraps are dropped in the even numbered rows and are what makes the long loops that form the wicker-like pattern.

Cast on 26 stitches.

Row 1 (WS): Purl entire row, wrapping the yarn twice around the needle when making the purl stitch.

Row 2 (RS): Dropping each extra wrap, K1, *sl 3 to cable needle and hold in back, k3, k3 from cable needle, repeat from * until 1 st remains. K1.

Row 3: same as row 1

Row 4: Dropping each extra wrap, K4, *sl 3 to cable needle and hold in front, k3, k3 from cable needle, repeat from * until 4 sts remain. K4.

Repeat rows 1-4 until the cowl is 20 inches long (50 cm). Bind off by purling. Finishing by sewing a button on one end.

To make the 2-color version, cast on 10 stitches in main color, then 6 stitches in contrast color, then 10 stitches in main color. Follow the pattern as written but always use the same color to knit as the stitch below is.
It’s been 2 weeks since I’ve updated y’all on how my crafty world is going….

I’ve been focusing on spinning a bit, see since I’ll be traveling in April for a conference and I know I won’t have a lot of spinning time so there’s no point bringing the wheel or spindles – I can knit during a workshop pretty unobtrusively, but spinning draws attention. And I knit on planes…so I know I’ll have knitting time, which is why I’m focusing on spinning.

Also the Ravelry group for Spunky Eclectic is doing a stashdown. I took a ton of pictures of the stash I want to spin down – mostly I want to spin down the stuff that is not appealing to spin, which is the white stuff I bought for dyeing, and some random stuff I bought to see how it spins (and sometimes it’s a combination of the two).

But I’m getting ahead of myself. Remember the BFL/silk that my friend Jenn gifted to me? If you don’t, here’s a reminder:

The colorway is called “Floating Down”. Well, I got a 460 yards of a 15 WPI yarn from 4 oz, which is pretty good yardage:

As for the Color Me Pretty Sweater for my niece, it’s coming along. But it’s knitting, so I’m not really focusing on it. I did get some knitting on it done Friday night, during Tony’s gig. The sweater is full into the body now, and it’s stockinette in the round all the way for a few more inches. It will be good plane knitting. As for Tony’s gig – it was not his usual stuff, but if you want to hear all 45 minutes of awesomeness (Tony’s the one playing the piano), just download the link on this page. It’s 432 Mb so it might take a while. I hope you enjoy it!

I also worked a little more on a baby sweater for my co-worker. The baby has been here for a few weeks already! I’ll probably prioritize finishing this first, and then finishing the Color Me Pretty sweater. All this spinning is really driving home the fact that I need to knit up what I already have! It doesn’t help that I’m part of 2 spinning clubs, and get 12 oz of fiber each month. I’ll likely drop the batt club that I’m in, I’ve found that I prefer spinning top to batts….but I don’t hate spinning batts, either! I really love the yarn I get from the batts, though…mostly because I get a lot of sparkle in them. April’s shipment will be 6 months in the club…I may wait it out and do a year, who knows?

Weaving? None. But I signed up for a bi-monthly weaving club, that ships in the even months, so in 2 weeks I’ll have something to weave. Yeah, I should probably cancel my batt club, since I’m doing the weaving club.

I also spun up some mystery wool. It was white, and somewhat of a longwool, but not as coarse as Wensleydale. I want to say it’s Romney, because that’s what it feels like, but I can’t imagine when I had some white Romney around or bought some. I did have some shetland, but I recall it being more downy than what this is….anyway, there was only a little bit of it, 11g = 3/8 ounce, and I did a 2-ply and got 38 yards out of it. Then I dyed it apricot (who knew green + pink = apricot? Not me!) and it’s hanging to dry now.
Last weekend, Fiber Camp is about getting the community together to learn from each other. Getting high-quality instruction from top-notch industry experts costs a lot – these industry experts often need to travel, as well as feed their families and pay rent/mortgage. The Common Cod Fiber Guild does a great job of having industry experts at bimonthly meetings, but once a year they mix things up.

Registration is very inexpensive – $40 for 2 days is the most expensive it gets, and that’s if you are not a member of the guild. You can also buy day passes for $25 if you can only make one day. The way it works is that there is a call for workshops among the community – you just edit a wiki page and add your suggestions for topics. You can suggest a topic you would like to see and suggest a topic you can teach. For example, here is the list of session topics from the 2012 Fiber Camp.

The schedule starts to get filled in by the people who are teaching (“enabling”) the sessions. Fiber Camp allows people to schedule workshops during Fiber Camp itself, and because of this, the schedule cannot be completely full before the weekend starts. This allows people to schedule workshops they had not thought of before.

Workshops are either 30 minutes or 1 hour. This is a perfect amount of time to “taste” a skill. For example, last year I learned how to spin on a drop spindle. This year I’m a spinning fiend. But I probably would not have paid $40 for a short beginner workshop to learn, because why spend the money if you don’t know if you’re going to like it? And I certainly would not have paid hundreds of dollars for a half-day or all-day intensive workshop from an industry expert.

That’s the great thing about Fiber Camp – because you have not invested a lot, if you find yourself not liking a skill, you can actually leave the room and go somewhere else, or just be content to sit and listen without practicing the skill. Then again, if you find yourself loving a skill, you learn just enough to get you started, and just enough to let you know that yes, you do want to take a longer/more intensive class.

Now, I’ve been separating “community” and “industry expert” so far in this post. But in reality, they are one and the same. Folks who want to learn double knitting can do so from Alasdair Post-Quinn because, guess what, he’s local to Boston. There are no travel costs involved for him. Did I learn spinning from Abby Franquemont? No, because she lives in the midwest, and it would be unfair to ask her to travel, stay in a hotel room, and give a short workshop when she is not getting reimbursed for her travel/hotel expenses. But I learned from Guido Stein, and I learned enough to know now that I want to take a class from Abby.

There are also vendors, so you can stock up on supplies if you want. The vendor area is also the “hangout” area, and plenty of people hang around there, too. There is a swap table too, where you can drop off or pick up fiber, magazines/books and other supplies (crochet hooks, needles, etc). I dropped off a lot of yarn that was being unloved, including some of my own handspun, and picked up a few magazines/books.

So, on to the fun. What did I learn/get from Fiber Camp this year?

Well, first off, I taught the Sweet Tomato Heel by Cat Bordhi. I already posted the PDF handout. I prepared the handout in advance, and there were a few people who told me they could not make my workshop because there were others going on. “No problem,” I said, “here’s the handout.” Folks really appreciated being able to have something they can look at, because they can try the skill themselves at home.

I not only learned how to make a duct tape mannequin, I made one. Or rather, other folks made one of me – mine is the one in the middle:

I learned how to use conductive thread to make gloves that I can manipulate a smartphone with.

And from the swap table, I picked up some cotton and cotton/linen yarn, a pattern booklet (Reynolds, volume 66 “International Cables by Mary of Holland”), 2 Vogue Knitting magazines with patterns I like (Fall/Winter 1982 and Holiday 1986), and the big score, a Kaffe Fassett book – Kaffe’s California Patches, Kaffe Fassett for Rowan.

Now, I have been looking for a “Cosby sweater” pattern for a few years now. See, my husband actually likes them. While it was Koos Van Den Akker who designed the real Cosby sweaters, Kaffe Fassett is a designer who makes patterns that look like Cosby sweaters. (Actually, while at Fiber Camp, I was told that Kaffe designed Cosby sweaters, and I thought he was the designer, but as I went to check my sources, I realized I was wrong. Always check your sources!)

So anyway, I now have a book of some pretty awesome geometric sweater patterns (think Q-bert). And a pattern to knit for my husband….eventually.
I taught this at FiberCamp this past weekend, and since I made a handout I figured why not share it with you?

I made the handout based on what I learned from Cat Bordhi’s own video at http://bit.ly/sweettomheel. I bought
Cat Bordhi’s Sweet Tomato Heel Socks: an ebook after making the instructions – I bought the book because I love the Sweet Tomato Heel and even though I already know how to do it, internist the book currently has 63 pages (62 plus a title page) and right now has 9 patterns – there will be 11 total, and folks who purchase the book get the updates, so whenever those last 2 patterns come out you will get them. The book also has great troubleshooting information and a few versions of the Sweet Tomato Heel, like the padded sweet tomato heel.

Buying the book was my way of saying “Thanks, Cat!” I understand that not everyone can do this, and that’s OK. I feel it’s OK to share this information because Cat herself shares it in a free YouTube video. I waited until after I wrote up the instructions so I wasn’t tempted to use the same language Cat did in the book, and thus plagiarize. If there is a problem, please definitely contact me, and I will change or take down whatever material is objectionable.

You can download the PDF of the instructions I wrote up for how to do Cat Bordhi‘s Sweet Tomato Heel.
Last weekend, as well as feed their families and pay rent/mortgage. The Common Cod Fiber Guild does a great job of having industry experts at bimonthly meetings, but once a year they mix things up.

Registration is very inexpensive – $40 for 2 days is the most expensive it gets, and that’s if you are not a member of the guild. You can also buy day passes for $25 if you can only make one day. The way it works is that there is a call for workshops among the community – you just edit a wiki page and add your suggestions for topics. You can suggest a topic you would like to see and suggest a topic you can teach. For example, here is the list of session topics from the 2012 Fiber Camp.

The schedule starts to get filled in by the people who are teaching (“enabling”) the sessions. Fiber Camp allows people to schedule workshops during Fiber Camp itself, and because of this, the schedule cannot be completely full before the weekend starts. This allows people to schedule workshops they had not thought of before.

Workshops are either 30 minutes or 1 hour. This is a perfect amount of time to “taste” a skill. For example, last year I learned how to spin on a drop spindle. This year I’m a spinning fiend. But I probably would not have paid $40 for a short beginner workshop to learn, because why spend the money if you don’t know if you’re going to like it? And I certainly would not have paid hundreds of dollars for a half-day or all-day intensive workshop from an industry expert.

That’s the great thing about Fiber Camp – because you have not invested a lot, if you find yourself not liking a skill, you can actually leave the room and go somewhere else, or just be content to sit and listen without practicing the skill. Then again, if you find yourself loving a skill, you learn just enough to get you started, and just enough to let you know that yes, you do want to take a longer/more intensive class.

Now, I’ve been separating “community” and “industry expert” so far in this post. But in reality, they are one and the same. Folks who want to learn double knitting can do so from Alasdair Post-Quinn because, guess what, he’s local to Boston. There are no travel costs involved for him. Did I learn spinning from Abby Franquemont? No, because she lives in the midwest, and it would be unfair to ask her to travel, stay in a hotel room, and give a short workshop when she is not getting reimbursed for her travel/hotel expenses. But I learned from Guido Stein, and I learned enough to know now that I want to take a class from Abby.

There are also vendors, so you can stock up on supplies if you want. The vendor area is also the “hangout” area, and plenty of people hang around there, too. There is a swap table too, where you can drop off or pick up fiber, magazines/books and other supplies (crochet hooks, needles, etc). I dropped off a lot of yarn that was being unloved, including some of my own handspun, and picked up a few magazines/books.

So, on to the fun. What did I learn/get from Fiber Camp this year?

Well, first off, I taught the Sweet Tomato Heel by Cat Bordhi. I already posted the PDF handout. I prepared the handout in advance, and there were a few people who told me they could not make my workshop because there were others going on. “No problem,” I said, “here’s the handout.” Folks really appreciated being able to have something they can look at, because they can try the skill themselves at home.

I not only learned how to make a duct tape mannequin, I made one. Or rather, other folks made one of me – mine is the one in the middle:

I learned how to use conductive thread to make gloves that I can manipulate a smartphone with.

And from the swap table, I picked up some cotton and cotton/linen yarn, a pattern booklet (Reynolds, volume 66 “International Cables by Mary of Holland”), 2 Vogue Knitting magazines with patterns I like (Fall/Winter 1982 and Holiday 1986), and the big score, a Kaffe Fassett book – Kaffe’s California Patches, Kaffe Fassett for Rowan.

Now, I have been looking for a “Cosby sweater” pattern for a few years now. See, my husband actually likes them. While it was Koos Van Den Akker who designed the real Cosby sweaters, Kaffe Fassett is a designer who makes patterns that look like Cosby sweaters. (Actually, while at Fiber Camp, I was told that Kaffe designed Cosby sweaters, and I thought he was the designer, but as I went to check my sources, I realized I was wrong. Always check your sources!)

So anyway, I now have a book of some pretty awesome geometric sweater patterns (think Q-bert). And a pattern to knit for my husband….eventually.
Last weekend, sick I went to Fiber Camp. Fiber Camp is not your usual fiber festival – now in its third year, Fiber Camp is about getting the community together to learn from each other. Getting high-quality instruction from top-notch industry experts costs a lot – these industry experts often need to travel, as well as feed their families and pay rent/mortgage. The Common Cod Fiber Guild does a great job of having industry experts at bimonthly meetings, but once a year they mix things up.

Registration is very inexpensive – $40 for 2 days is the most expensive it gets, and that’s if you are not a member of the guild. You can also buy day passes for $25 if you can only make one day. The way it works is that there is a call for workshops among the community – you just edit a wiki page and add your suggestions for topics. You can suggest a topic you would like to see and suggest a topic you can teach. For example, here is the list of session topics from the 2012 Fiber Camp.

The schedule starts to get filled in by the people who are teaching (“enabling”) the sessions. Fiber Camp allows people to schedule workshops during Fiber Camp itself, and because of this, the schedule cannot be completely full before the weekend starts. This allows people to schedule workshops they had not thought of before.

Workshops are either 30 minutes or 1 hour. This is a perfect amount of time to “taste” a skill. For example, last year I learned how to spin on a drop spindle. This year I’m a spinning fiend. But I probably would not have paid $40 for a short beginner workshop to learn, because why spend the money if you don’t know if you’re going to like it? And I certainly would not have paid hundreds of dollars for a half-day or all-day intensive workshop from an industry expert.

That’s the great thing about Fiber Camp – because you have not invested a lot, if you find yourself not liking a skill, you can actually leave the room and go somewhere else, or just be content to sit and listen without practicing the skill. Then again, if you find yourself loving a skill, you learn just enough to get you started, and just enough to let you know that yes, you do want to take a longer/more intensive class.

Now, I’ve been separating “community” and “industry expert” so far in this post. But in reality, they are one and the same. Folks who want to learn double knitting can do so from Alasdair Post-Quinn because, guess what, he’s local to Boston. There are no travel costs involved for him. Did I learn spinning from Abby Franquemont? No, because she lives in the midwest, and it would be unfair to ask her to travel, stay in a hotel room, and give a short workshop when she is not getting reimbursed for her travel/hotel expenses. But I learned from Guido Stein, and I learned enough to know now that I want to take a class from Abby.

There are also vendors, so you can stock up on supplies if you want. The vendor area is also the “hangout” area, and plenty of people hang around there, too. There is a swap table too, where you can drop off or pick up fiber, magazines/books and other supplies (crochet hooks, needles, etc). I dropped off a lot of yarn that was being unloved, including some of my own handspun, and picked up a few magazines/books.

So, on to the fun. What did I learn/get from Fiber Camp this year?

Well, first off, I taught the Sweet Tomato Heel by Cat Bordhi. I already posted the PDF handout. I prepared the handout in advance, and there were a few people who told me they could not make my workshop because there were others going on. “No problem,” I said, “here’s the handout.” Folks really appreciated being able to have something they can look at, because they can try the skill themselves at home.

I not only learned how to make a duct tape mannequin, I made one. Or rather, other folks made one of me – mine is the one in the middle:

I learned how to use conductive thread to make gloves that I can manipulate a smartphone with.

And from the swap table, I picked up some cotton and cotton/linen yarn, a pattern booklet (Reynolds, volume 66 “International Cables by Mary of Holland”), 2 Vogue Knitting magazines with patterns I like (Fall/Winter 1982 and Holiday 1986), and the big score, a Kaffe Fassett book – Kaffe’s California Patches, Kaffe Fassett for Rowan.

Now, I have been looking for a “Cosby sweater” pattern for a few years now. See, my husband actually likes them. While it was Koos Van Den Akker who designed the real Cosby sweaters, Kaffe Fassett is a designer who makes patterns that look like Cosby sweaters. (Actually, while at Fiber Camp, I was told that Kaffe designed Cosby sweaters, and I thought he was the designer, but as I went to check my sources, I realized I was wrong. Always check your sources!)

So anyway, I now have a book of some pretty awesome geometric sweater patterns (think Q-b

I posted about 2 weeks ago about what I was doing. My status is still the same, on the works in project – I have to re-block the Monkey Sock, and I’m still working on the Crooked Little Scarf.
I posted about 2 weeks ago about what I was doing. My status is still the same, I have to cast on for the 2nd Monkey Sock, and I’m still working on the Crooked Little Scarf.

Cascade finally shipped the yarn I needed to make the Color Me Pretty sweater I want to make for my niece — because a few months ago, I showed her a sweater I was wearing that I knit and she said, “Aunt Sheeri, will you knit me something?” How could I say no? And then a few minutes later she said, “I have a secret to tell you. My favorite color is pink.” Which is not really a secret, but was really cute anyway. This is a top-down raglan sweater, and I have done the yoke so far and am just a few rows away from splitting off the sleeves:

I can’t wait to finish it!

I have also started spinning some fiber gifted to me when I was down in the dumps by my friend Jenn, who is not only a superb human being, but also has an entry in the JMF design contest. You should vote for her!
I posted about 2 weeks ago about what I was doing. My status is still the same, and I’m still working on the Crooked Little Scarf.

Cascade finally shipped the yarn I needed to make the Color Me Pretty sweater I want to make for my niece — because a few months ago, I showed her a sweater I was wearing that I knit and she said, “Aunt Sheeri, will you knit me something?” How could I say no? And then a few minutes later she said, “I have a secret to tell you. My favorite color is pink.” Which is not really a secret, but was really cute anyway. This is a top-down sweater

I posted about 2 weeks ago about what I was doing. My status is still the same, I have to cast on for the 2nd Monkey Sock, and I’m still working on the Crooked Little Scarf.

Cascade finally shipped the yarn I needed to make the Color Me Pretty sweater I want to make for my niece — because a few months ago, I showed her a sweater I was wearing that I knit and she said, “Aunt Sheeri, will you knit me something?” How could I say no? And then a few minutes later she said, “I have a secret to tell you. My favorite color is pink.” Which is not really a secret, but was really cute anyway. This is a top-down raglan sweater, and I have done the yoke so far and am just a few rows away from splitting off the sleeves:

I can’t wait to finish it!

I have also started spinning some fiber gifted to me by my friend Jenn, who is not only a superb human being
I posted about 2 weeks ago about what I was doing. My status is still the same, I have to cast on for the 2nd Monkey Sock, and I’m still working on the Crooked Little Scarf.

Cascade finally shipped the yarn I needed to make the Color Me Pretty sweater I want to make for my niece — because a few months ago, I showed her a sweater I was wearing that I knit and she said, “Aunt Sheeri, will you knit me something?” How could I say no? And then a few minutes later she said, “I have a secret to tell you. My favorite color is pink.” Which is not really a secret, but was really cute anyway. This is a top-down raglan sweater, and I have done the yoke so far and am just a few rows away from splitting off the sleeves:

I can’t wait to finish it!
I created the Loopy Wicker Cowl for the Juniper Moon Farm Design Contest. The basic guidelines were to use up to 2 balls of either Willa or Chadwick. This is a very quick knit, plus 2 stitches).

And special thanks to photographer Joel Eagle, model Caroline Fryar, and Susan Gibbs of Juniper Moon Farm for allowing me to republish this photo from the blog post about the contest finalists:

Loopy Wicker Cowl
Size – one size fits most adults

Materials:
1 ball Chadwick
(if making the 2-color version, 2 balls Chadwick)
This pattern uses 70-80 yards of yarn in total.

Size 8 (US) needles
1 button

Gauge: 18 sts and 27 rows over 4 inches / 10 cm in stockinette

Pattern notes: On the odd numbered rows, the yarn is wrapped twice around the needle when purling. These extra wraps are dropped in the even numbered rows and are what makes the long loops that form the wicker-like pattern.

Cast on 26 stitches.

Row 1 (WS): Purl entire row, wrapping the yarn twice around the needle when making the purl stitch.

Row 2 (RS): Dropping each extra wrap, K1, *sl 3 to cable needle and hold in back, k3, k3 from cable needle, repeat from * until 1 st remains. K1.

Row 3: same as row 1

Row 4: Dropping each extra wrap, K4, *sl 3 to cable needle and hold in front, k3, k3 from cable needle, repeat from * until 4 sts remain. K4.

Repeat rows 1-4 until the cowl is 20 inches long (50 cm). Bind off by purling. Finishing by sewing a button on one end.

To make the 2-color version, cast on 10 stitches in main color, then 6 stitches in contrast color, then 10 stitches in main color. Follow the pattern as written but always use the same color to knit as the stitch below is.
I created the Loopy Wicker Cowl for the Juniper Moon Farm Design Contest. The basic guidelines were to use up to 2 balls of either Willa or Chadwick. This is a very quick knit, thumb plus 2 stitches).

And special thanks to photographer Susan Gibbs and model Caroline Fryar of Juniper Moon Farm for allowing me to republish this photo from the blog post about the contest finalists:

Loopy Wicker Cowl
Size – one size fits most adults

Materials:
1 ball Chadwick
(if making the 2-color version, 2 balls Chadwick)
This pattern uses 70-80 yards of yarn in total.

Size 8 (US) needles
1 button

Gauge: 18 sts and 27 rows over 4 inches / 10 cm in stockinette

Pattern notes: On the odd numbered rows, clinic the yarn is wrapped twice around the needle when purling. These extra wraps are dropped in the even numbered rows and are what makes the long loops that form the wicker-like pattern.

Cast on 26 stitches.

Row 1 (WS): Purl entire row, wrapping the yarn twice around the needle when making the purl stitch.

Row 2 (RS): Dropping each extra wrap, K1, *sl 3 to cable needle and hold in back, k3, k3 from cable needle, repeat from * until 1 st remains. K1.

Row 3: same as row 1

Row 4: Dropping each extra wrap, K4, *sl 3 to cable needle and hold in front, k3, k3 from cable needle, repeat from * until 4 sts remain. K4.

Repeat rows 1-4 until the cowl is 20 inches long (50 cm). Bind off by purling. Finishing by sewing a button on one end.

To make the 2-color version, cast on 10 stitches in main color, then 6 stitches in contrast color, then 10 stitches in main color. Follow the pattern as written but always use the same color to knit as the stitch below is.
It’s been 2 weeks since I’ve updated y’all on how my crafty world is going….

I’ve been focusing on spinning a bit, see since I’ll be traveling in April for a conference and I know I won’t have a lot of spinning time so there’s no point bringing the wheel or spindles – I can knit during a workshop pretty unobtrusively, but spinning draws attention. And I knit on planes…so I know I’ll have knitting time, which is why I’m focusing on spinning.

Also the Ravelry group for Spunky Eclectic is doing a stashdown. I took a ton of pictures of the stash I want to spin down – mostly I want to spin down the stuff that is not appealing to spin, which is the white stuff I bought for dyeing, and some random stuff I bought to see how it spins (and sometimes it’s a combination of the two).

But I’m getting ahead of myself. Remember the BFL/silk that my friend Jenn gifted to me? If you don’t, here’s a reminder:

The colorway is called “Floating Down”. Well, I got a 460 yards of a 15 WPI yarn from 4 oz, which is pretty good yardage:

As for the Color Me Pretty Sweater for my niece, it’s coming along. But it’s knitting, so I’m not really focusing on it. I did get some knitting on it done Friday night, during Tony’s gig. The sweater is full into the body now, and it’s stockinette in the round all the way for a few more inches. It will be good plane knitting. As for Tony’s gig – it was not his usual stuff, but if you want to hear all 45 minutes of awesomeness (Tony’s the one playing the piano), just download the link on this page. It’s 432 Mb so it might take a while. I hope you enjoy it!

I also worked a little more on a baby sweater for my co-worker. The baby has been here for a few weeks already! I’ll probably prioritize finishing this first, and then finishing the Color Me Pretty sweater. All this spinning is really driving home the fact that I need to knit up what I already have! It doesn’t help that I’m part of 2 spinning clubs, and get 12 oz of fiber each month. I’ll likely drop the batt club that I’m in, I’ve found that I prefer spinning top to batts….but I don’t hate spinning batts, either! I really love the yarn I get from the batts, though…mostly because I get a lot of sparkle in them. April’s shipment will be 6 months in the club…I may wait it out and do a year, who knows?

Weaving? None. But I signed up for a bi-monthly weaving club, that ships in the even months, so in 2 weeks I’ll have something to weave. Yeah, I should probably cancel my batt club, since I’m doing the weaving club.

I also spun up some mystery wool. It was white, and somewhat of a longwool, but not as coarse as Wensleydale. I want to say it’s Romney, because that’s what it feels like, but I can’t imagine when I had some white Romney around or bought some. I did have some shetland, but I recall it being more downy than what this is….anyway, there was only a little bit of it, 11g = 3/8 ounce, and I did a 2-ply and got 38 yards out of it. Then I dyed it apricot (who knew green + pink = apricot? Not me!) and it’s hanging to dry now.
Last weekend, Fiber Camp is about getting the community together to learn from each other. Getting high-quality instruction from top-notch industry experts costs a lot – these industry experts often need to travel, as well as feed their families and pay rent/mortgage. The Common Cod Fiber Guild does a great job of having industry experts at bimonthly meetings, but once a year they mix things up.

Registration is very inexpensive – $40 for 2 days is the most expensive it gets, and that’s if you are not a member of the guild. You can also buy day passes for $25 if you can only make one day. The way it works is that there is a call for workshops among the community – you just edit a wiki page and add your suggestions for topics. You can suggest a topic you would like to see and suggest a topic you can teach. For example, here is the list of session topics from the 2012 Fiber Camp.

The schedule starts to get filled in by the people who are teaching (“enabling”) the sessions. Fiber Camp allows people to schedule workshops during Fiber Camp itself, and because of this, the schedule cannot be completely full before the weekend starts. This allows people to schedule workshops they had not thought of before.

Workshops are either 30 minutes or 1 hour. This is a perfect amount of time to “taste” a skill. For example, last year I learned how to spin on a drop spindle. This year I’m a spinning fiend. But I probably would not have paid $40 for a short beginner workshop to learn, because why spend the money if you don’t know if you’re going to like it? And I certainly would not have paid hundreds of dollars for a half-day or all-day intensive workshop from an industry expert.

That’s the great thing about Fiber Camp – because you have not invested a lot, if you find yourself not liking a skill, you can actually leave the room and go somewhere else, or just be content to sit and listen without practicing the skill. Then again, if you find yourself loving a skill, you learn just enough to get you started, and just enough to let you know that yes, you do want to take a longer/more intensive class.

Now, I’ve been separating “community” and “industry expert” so far in this post. But in reality, they are one and the same. Folks who want to learn double knitting can do so from Alasdair Post-Quinn because, guess what, he’s local to Boston. There are no travel costs involved for him. Did I learn spinning from Abby Franquemont? No, because she lives in the midwest, and it would be unfair to ask her to travel, stay in a hotel room, and give a short workshop when she is not getting reimbursed for her travel/hotel expenses. But I learned from Guido Stein, and I learned enough to know now that I want to take a class from Abby.

There are also vendors, so you can stock up on supplies if you want. The vendor area is also the “hangout” area, and plenty of people hang around there, too. There is a swap table too, where you can drop off or pick up fiber, magazines/books and other supplies (crochet hooks, needles, etc). I dropped off a lot of yarn that was being unloved, including some of my own handspun, and picked up a few magazines/books.

So, on to the fun. What did I learn/get from Fiber Camp this year?

Well, first off, I taught the Sweet Tomato Heel by Cat Bordhi. I already posted the PDF handout. I prepared the handout in advance, and there were a few people who told me they could not make my workshop because there were others going on. “No problem,” I said, “here’s the handout.” Folks really appreciated being able to have something they can look at, because they can try the skill themselves at home.

I not only learned how to make a duct tape mannequin, I made one. Or rather, other folks made one of me – mine is the one in the middle:

I learned how to use conductive thread to make gloves that I can manipulate a smartphone with.

And from the swap table, I picked up some cotton and cotton/linen yarn, a pattern booklet (Reynolds, volume 66 “International Cables by Mary of Holland”), 2 Vogue Knitting magazines with patterns I like (Fall/Winter 1982 and Holiday 1986), and the big score, a Kaffe Fassett book – Kaffe’s California Patches, Kaffe Fassett for Rowan.

Now, I have been looking for a “Cosby sweater” pattern for a few years now. See, my husband actually likes them. While it was Koos Van Den Akker who designed the real Cosby sweaters, Kaffe Fassett is a designer who makes patterns that look like Cosby sweaters. (Actually, while at Fiber Camp, I was told that Kaffe designed Cosby sweaters, and I thought he was the designer, but as I went to check my sources, I realized I was wrong. Always check your sources!)

So anyway, I now have a book of some pretty awesome geometric sweater patterns (think Q-bert). And a pattern to knit for my husband….eventually.
I taught this at FiberCamp this past weekend, and since I made a handout I figured why not share it with you?

I made the handout based on what I learned from Cat Bordhi’s own video at http://bit.ly/sweettomheel. I bought
Cat Bordhi’s Sweet Tomato Heel Socks: an ebook after making the instructions – I bought the book because I love the Sweet Tomato Heel and even though I already know how to do it, internist the book currently has 63 pages (62 plus a title page) and right now has 9 patterns – there will be 11 total, and folks who purchase the book get the updates, so whenever those last 2 patterns come out you will get them. The book also has great troubleshooting information and a few versions of the Sweet Tomato Heel, like the padded sweet tomato heel.

Buying the book was my way of saying “Thanks, Cat!” I understand that not everyone can do this, and that’s OK. I feel it’s OK to share this information because Cat herself shares it in a free YouTube video. I waited until after I wrote up the instructions so I wasn’t tempted to use the same language Cat did in the book, and thus plagiarize. If there is a problem, please definitely contact me, and I will change or take down whatever material is objectionable.

You can download the PDF of the instructions I wrote up for how to do Cat Bordhi‘s Sweet Tomato Heel.
Last weekend, as well as feed their families and pay rent/mortgage. The Common Cod Fiber Guild does a great job of having industry experts at bimonthly meetings, but once a year they mix things up.

Registration is very inexpensive – $40 for 2 days is the most expensive it gets, and that’s if you are not a member of the guild. You can also buy day passes for $25 if you can only make one day. The way it works is that there is a call for workshops among the community – you just edit a wiki page and add your suggestions for topics. You can suggest a topic you would like to see and suggest a topic you can teach. For example, here is the list of session topics from the 2012 Fiber Camp.

The schedule starts to get filled in by the people who are teaching (“enabling”) the sessions. Fiber Camp allows people to schedule workshops during Fiber Camp itself, and because of this, the schedule cannot be completely full before the weekend starts. This allows people to schedule workshops they had not thought of before.

Workshops are either 30 minutes or 1 hour. This is a perfect amount of time to “taste” a skill. For example, last year I learned how to spin on a drop spindle. This year I’m a spinning fiend. But I probably would not have paid $40 for a short beginner workshop to learn, because why spend the money if you don’t know if you’re going to like it? And I certainly would not have paid hundreds of dollars for a half-day or all-day intensive workshop from an industry expert.

That’s the great thing about Fiber Camp – because you have not invested a lot, if you find yourself not liking a skill, you can actually leave the room and go somewhere else, or just be content to sit and listen without practicing the skill. Then again, if you find yourself loving a skill, you learn just enough to get you started, and just enough to let you know that yes, you do want to take a longer/more intensive class.

Now, I’ve been separating “community” and “industry expert” so far in this post. But in reality, they are one and the same. Folks who want to learn double knitting can do so from Alasdair Post-Quinn because, guess what, he’s local to Boston. There are no travel costs involved for him. Did I learn spinning from Abby Franquemont? No, because she lives in the midwest, and it would be unfair to ask her to travel, stay in a hotel room, and give a short workshop when she is not getting reimbursed for her travel/hotel expenses. But I learned from Guido Stein, and I learned enough to know now that I want to take a class from Abby.

There are also vendors, so you can stock up on supplies if you want. The vendor area is also the “hangout” area, and plenty of people hang around there, too. There is a swap table too, where you can drop off or pick up fiber, magazines/books and other supplies (crochet hooks, needles, etc). I dropped off a lot of yarn that was being unloved, including some of my own handspun, and picked up a few magazines/books.

So, on to the fun. What did I learn/get from Fiber Camp this year?

Well, first off, I taught the Sweet Tomato Heel by Cat Bordhi. I already posted the PDF handout. I prepared the handout in advance, and there were a few people who told me they could not make my workshop because there were others going on. “No problem,” I said, “here’s the handout.” Folks really appreciated being able to have something they can look at, because they can try the skill themselves at home.

I not only learned how to make a duct tape mannequin, I made one. Or rather, other folks made one of me – mine is the one in the middle:

I learned how to use conductive thread to make gloves that I can manipulate a smartphone with.

And from the swap table, I picked up some cotton and cotton/linen yarn, a pattern booklet (Reynolds, volume 66 “International Cables by Mary of Holland”), 2 Vogue Knitting magazines with patterns I like (Fall/Winter 1982 and Holiday 1986), and the big score, a Kaffe Fassett book – Kaffe’s California Patches, Kaffe Fassett for Rowan.

Now, I have been looking for a “Cosby sweater” pattern for a few years now. See, my husband actually likes them. While it was Koos Van Den Akker who designed the real Cosby sweaters, Kaffe Fassett is a designer who makes patterns that look like Cosby sweaters. (Actually, while at Fiber Camp, I was told that Kaffe designed Cosby sweaters, and I thought he was the designer, but as I went to check my sources, I realized I was wrong. Always check your sources!)

So anyway, I now have a book of some pretty awesome geometric sweater patterns (think Q-bert). And a pattern to knit for my husband….eventually.
Last weekend, sick I went to Fiber Camp. Fiber Camp is not your usual fiber festival – now in its third year, Fiber Camp is about getting the community together to learn from each other. Getting high-quality instruction from top-notch industry experts costs a lot – these industry experts often need to travel, as well as feed their families and pay rent/mortgage. The Common Cod Fiber Guild does a great job of having industry experts at bimonthly meetings, but once a year they mix things up.

Registration is very inexpensive – $40 for 2 days is the most expensive it gets, and that’s if you are not a member of the guild. You can also buy day passes for $25 if you can only make one day. The way it works is that there is a call for workshops among the community – you just edit a wiki page and add your suggestions for topics. You can suggest a topic you would like to see and suggest a topic you can teach. For example, here is the list of session topics from the 2012 Fiber Camp.

The schedule starts to get filled in by the people who are teaching (“enabling”) the sessions. Fiber Camp allows people to schedule workshops during Fiber Camp itself, and because of this, the schedule cannot be completely full before the weekend starts. This allows people to schedule workshops they had not thought of before.

Workshops are either 30 minutes or 1 hour. This is a perfect amount of time to “taste” a skill. For example, last year I learned how to spin on a drop spindle. This year I’m a spinning fiend. But I probably would not have paid $40 for a short beginner workshop to learn, because why spend the money if you don’t know if you’re going to like it? And I certainly would not have paid hundreds of dollars for a half-day or all-day intensive workshop from an industry expert.

That’s the great thing about Fiber Camp – because you have not invested a lot, if you find yourself not liking a skill, you can actually leave the room and go somewhere else, or just be content to sit and listen without practicing the skill. Then again, if you find yourself loving a skill, you learn just enough to get you started, and just enough to let you know that yes, you do want to take a longer/more intensive class.

Now, I’ve been separating “community” and “industry expert” so far in this post. But in reality, they are one and the same. Folks who want to learn double knitting can do so from Alasdair Post-Quinn because, guess what, he’s local to Boston. There are no travel costs involved for him. Did I learn spinning from Abby Franquemont? No, because she lives in the midwest, and it would be unfair to ask her to travel, stay in a hotel room, and give a short workshop when she is not getting reimbursed for her travel/hotel expenses. But I learned from Guido Stein, and I learned enough to know now that I want to take a class from Abby.

There are also vendors, so you can stock up on supplies if you want. The vendor area is also the “hangout” area, and plenty of people hang around there, too. There is a swap table too, where you can drop off or pick up fiber, magazines/books and other supplies (crochet hooks, needles, etc). I dropped off a lot of yarn that was being unloved, including some of my own handspun, and picked up a few magazines/books.

So, on to the fun. What did I learn/get from Fiber Camp this year?

Well, first off, I taught the Sweet Tomato Heel by Cat Bordhi. I already posted the PDF handout. I prepared the handout in advance, and there were a few people who told me they could not make my workshop because there were others going on. “No problem,” I said, “here’s the handout.” Folks really appreciated being able to have something they can look at, because they can try the skill themselves at home.

I not only learned how to make a duct tape mannequin, I made one. Or rather, other folks made one of me – mine is the one in the middle:

I learned how to use conductive thread to make gloves that I can manipulate a smartphone with.

And from the swap table, I picked up some cotton and cotton/linen yarn, a pattern booklet (Reynolds, volume 66 “International Cables by Mary of Holland”), 2 Vogue Knitting magazines with patterns I like (Fall/Winter 1982 and Holiday 1986), and the big score, a Kaffe Fassett book – Kaffe’s California Patches, Kaffe Fassett for Rowan.

Now, I have been looking for a “Cosby sweater” pattern for a few years now. See, my husband actually likes them. While it was Koos Van Den Akker who designed the real Cosby sweaters, Kaffe Fassett is a designer who makes patterns that look like Cosby sweaters. (Actually, while at Fiber Camp, I was told that Kaffe designed Cosby sweaters, and I thought he was the designer, but as I went to check my sources, I realized I was wrong. Always check your sources!)

So anyway, I now have a book of some pretty awesome geometric sweater patterns (think Q-b

I posted about 2 weeks ago about what I was doing. My status is still the same, on the works in project – I have to re-block the Monkey Sock, and I’m still working on the Crooked Little Scarf.
I posted about 2 weeks ago about what I was doing. My status is still the same, I have to cast on for the 2nd Monkey Sock, and I’m still working on the Crooked Little Scarf.

Cascade finally shipped the yarn I needed to make the Color Me Pretty sweater I want to make for my niece — because a few months ago, I showed her a sweater I was wearing that I knit and she said, “Aunt Sheeri, will you knit me something?” How could I say no? And then a few minutes later she said, “I have a secret to tell you. My favorite color is pink.” Which is not really a secret, but was really cute anyway. This is a top-down raglan sweater, and I have done the yoke so far and am just a few rows away from splitting off the sleeves:

I can’t wait to finish it!

I have also started spinning some fiber gifted to me when I was down in the dumps by my friend Jenn, who is not only a superb human being, but also has an entry in the JMF design contest. You should vote for her!
I posted about 2 weeks ago about what I was doing. My status is still the same, and I’m still working on the Crooked Little Scarf.

Cascade finally shipped the yarn I needed to make the Color Me Pretty sweater I want to make for my niece — because a few months ago, I showed her a sweater I was wearing that I knit and she said, “Aunt Sheeri, will you knit me something?” How could I say no? And then a few minutes later she said, “I have a secret to tell you. My favorite color is pink.” Which is not really a secret, but was really cute anyway. This is a top-down sweater

I posted about 2 weeks ago about what I was doing. My status is still the same, I have to cast on for the 2nd Monkey Sock, and I’m still working on the Crooked Little Scarf.

Cascade finally shipped the yarn I needed to make the Color Me Pretty sweater I want to make for my niece — because a few months ago, I showed her a sweater I was wearing that I knit and she said, “Aunt Sheeri, will you knit me something?” How could I say no? And then a few minutes later she said, “I have a secret to tell you. My favorite color is pink.” Which is not really a secret, but was really cute anyway. This is a top-down raglan sweater, and I have done the yoke so far and am just a few rows away from splitting off the sleeves:

I can’t wait to finish it!

I have also started spinning some fiber gifted to me by my friend Jenn, who is not only a superb human being
I posted about 2 weeks ago about what I was doing. My status is still the same, I have to cast on for the 2nd Monkey Sock, and I’m still working on the Crooked Little Scarf.

Cascade finally shipped the yarn I needed to make the Color Me Pretty sweater I want to make for my niece — because a few months ago, I showed her a sweater I was wearing that I knit and she said, “Aunt Sheeri, will you knit me something?” How could I say no? And then a few minutes later she said, “I have a secret to tell you. My favorite color is pink.” Which is not really a secret, but was really cute anyway. This is a top-down raglan sweater, and I have done the yoke so far and am just a few rows away from splitting off the sleeves:

I can’t wait to finish it!
I posted about 2 weeks ago about what I was doing. My status is still the same, on the works in project – I have to re-block the Monkey Sock, and I’m still working on the Crooked Little Scarf.

Cascade finally shipped the yarn I needed to make the Color Me Pretty sweater I want to make for my niece — because a few months ago, I showed her a sweater I was wearing that I knit and she said, “Aunt Sheeri, will you knit me something?” How could I say no? And then a few minutes later she said, “I have a secret to tell you. My favorite color is pink.” Which is not really a secret, but was really cute anyway. This is a top-down raglan sweater, and I have done the yoke so far and am just a few rows away from splitting off the sleeves:

I can’t wait to finish it!

I have also started spinning some fiber gifted to me when I was down in the dumps by my friend Jenn, who is not only a superb human being, but also has an entry in the JMF design contest. You should vote for her!
I created the Loopy Wicker Cowl for the Juniper Moon Farm Design Contest. The basic guidelines were to use up to 2 balls of either Willa or Chadwick. This is a very quick knit, plus 2 stitches).

And special thanks to photographer Joel Eagle, model Caroline Fryar, and Susan Gibbs of Juniper Moon Farm for allowing me to republish this photo from the blog post about the contest finalists:

Loopy Wicker Cowl
Size – one size fits most adults

Materials:
1 ball Chadwick
(if making the 2-color version, 2 balls Chadwick)
This pattern uses 70-80 yards of yarn in total.

Size 8 (US) needles
1 button

Gauge: 18 sts and 27 rows over 4 inches / 10 cm in stockinette

Pattern notes: On the odd numbered rows, the yarn is wrapped twice around the needle when purling. These extra wraps are dropped in the even numbered rows and are what makes the long loops that form the wicker-like pattern.

Cast on 26 stitches.

Row 1 (WS): Purl entire row, wrapping the yarn twice around the needle when making the purl stitch.

Row 2 (RS): Dropping each extra wrap, K1, *sl 3 to cable needle and hold in back, k3, k3 from cable needle, repeat from * until 1 st remains. K1.

Row 3: same as row 1

Row 4: Dropping each extra wrap, K4, *sl 3 to cable needle and hold in front, k3, k3 from cable needle, repeat from * until 4 sts remain. K4.

Repeat rows 1-4 until the cowl is 20 inches long (50 cm). Bind off by purling. Finishing by sewing a button on one end.

To make the 2-color version, cast on 10 stitches in main color, then 6 stitches in contrast color, then 10 stitches in main color. Follow the pattern as written but always use the same color to knit as the stitch below is.
I created the Loopy Wicker Cowl for the Juniper Moon Farm Design Contest. The basic guidelines were to use up to 2 balls of either Willa or Chadwick. This is a very quick knit, thumb plus 2 stitches).

And special thanks to photographer Susan Gibbs and model Caroline Fryar of Juniper Moon Farm for allowing me to republish this photo from the blog post about the contest finalists:

Loopy Wicker Cowl
Size – one size fits most adults

Materials:
1 ball Chadwick
(if making the 2-color version, 2 balls Chadwick)
This pattern uses 70-80 yards of yarn in total.

Size 8 (US) needles
1 button

Gauge: 18 sts and 27 rows over 4 inches / 10 cm in stockinette

Pattern notes: On the odd numbered rows, clinic the yarn is wrapped twice around the needle when purling. These extra wraps are dropped in the even numbered rows and are what makes the long loops that form the wicker-like pattern.

Cast on 26 stitches.

Row 1 (WS): Purl entire row, wrapping the yarn twice around the needle when making the purl stitch.

Row 2 (RS): Dropping each extra wrap, K1, *sl 3 to cable needle and hold in back, k3, k3 from cable needle, repeat from * until 1 st remains. K1.

Row 3: same as row 1

Row 4: Dropping each extra wrap, K4, *sl 3 to cable needle and hold in front, k3, k3 from cable needle, repeat from * until 4 sts remain. K4.

Repeat rows 1-4 until the cowl is 20 inches long (50 cm). Bind off by purling. Finishing by sewing a button on one end.

To make the 2-color version, cast on 10 stitches in main color, then 6 stitches in contrast color, then 10 stitches in main color. Follow the pattern as written but always use the same color to knit as the stitch below is.
It’s been 2 weeks since I’ve updated y’all on how my crafty world is going….

I’ve been focusing on spinning a bit, see since I’ll be traveling in April for a conference and I know I won’t have a lot of spinning time so there’s no point bringing the wheel or spindles – I can knit during a workshop pretty unobtrusively, but spinning draws attention. And I knit on planes…so I know I’ll have knitting time, which is why I’m focusing on spinning.

Also the Ravelry group for Spunky Eclectic is doing a stashdown. I took a ton of pictures of the stash I want to spin down – mostly I want to spin down the stuff that is not appealing to spin, which is the white stuff I bought for dyeing, and some random stuff I bought to see how it spins (and sometimes it’s a combination of the two).

But I’m getting ahead of myself. Remember the BFL/silk that my friend Jenn gifted to me? If you don’t, here’s a reminder:

The colorway is called “Floating Down”. Well, I got a 460 yards of a 15 WPI yarn from 4 oz, which is pretty good yardage:

As for the Color Me Pretty Sweater for my niece, it’s coming along. But it’s knitting, so I’m not really focusing on it. I did get some knitting on it done Friday night, during Tony’s gig. The sweater is full into the body now, and it’s stockinette in the round all the way for a few more inches. It will be good plane knitting. As for Tony’s gig – it was not his usual stuff, but if you want to hear all 45 minutes of awesomeness (Tony’s the one playing the piano), just download the link on this page. It’s 432 Mb so it might take a while. I hope you enjoy it!

I also worked a little more on a baby sweater for my co-worker. The baby has been here for a few weeks already! I’ll probably prioritize finishing this first, and then finishing the Color Me Pretty sweater. All this spinning is really driving home the fact that I need to knit up what I already have! It doesn’t help that I’m part of 2 spinning clubs, and get 12 oz of fiber each month. I’ll likely drop the batt club that I’m in, I’ve found that I prefer spinning top to batts….but I don’t hate spinning batts, either! I really love the yarn I get from the batts, though…mostly because I get a lot of sparkle in them. April’s shipment will be 6 months in the club…I may wait it out and do a year, who knows?

Weaving? None. But I signed up for a bi-monthly weaving club, that ships in the even months, so in 2 weeks I’ll have something to weave. Yeah, I should probably cancel my batt club, since I’m doing the weaving club.

I also spun up some mystery wool. It was white, and somewhat of a longwool, but not as coarse as Wensleydale. I want to say it’s Romney, because that’s what it feels like, but I can’t imagine when I had some white Romney around or bought some. I did have some shetland, but I recall it being more downy than what this is….anyway, there was only a little bit of it, 11g = 3/8 ounce, and I did a 2-ply and got 38 yards out of it. Then I dyed it apricot (who knew green + pink = apricot? Not me!) and it’s hanging to dry now.
Last weekend, Fiber Camp is about getting the community together to learn from each other. Getting high-quality instruction from top-notch industry experts costs a lot – these industry experts often need to travel, as well as feed their families and pay rent/mortgage. The Common Cod Fiber Guild does a great job of having industry experts at bimonthly meetings, but once a year they mix things up.

Registration is very inexpensive – $40 for 2 days is the most expensive it gets, and that’s if you are not a member of the guild. You can also buy day passes for $25 if you can only make one day. The way it works is that there is a call for workshops among the community – you just edit a wiki page and add your suggestions for topics. You can suggest a topic you would like to see and suggest a topic you can teach. For example, here is the list of session topics from the 2012 Fiber Camp.

The schedule starts to get filled in by the people who are teaching (“enabling”) the sessions. Fiber Camp allows people to schedule workshops during Fiber Camp itself, and because of this, the schedule cannot be completely full before the weekend starts. This allows people to schedule workshops they had not thought of before.

Workshops are either 30 minutes or 1 hour. This is a perfect amount of time to “taste” a skill. For example, last year I learned how to spin on a drop spindle. This year I’m a spinning fiend. But I probably would not have paid $40 for a short beginner workshop to learn, because why spend the money if you don’t know if you’re going to like it? And I certainly would not have paid hundreds of dollars for a half-day or all-day intensive workshop from an industry expert.

That’s the great thing about Fiber Camp – because you have not invested a lot, if you find yourself not liking a skill, you can actually leave the room and go somewhere else, or just be content to sit and listen without practicing the skill. Then again, if you find yourself loving a skill, you learn just enough to get you started, and just enough to let you know that yes, you do want to take a longer/more intensive class.

Now, I’ve been separating “community” and “industry expert” so far in this post. But in reality, they are one and the same. Folks who want to learn double knitting can do so from Alasdair Post-Quinn because, guess what, he’s local to Boston. There are no travel costs involved for him. Did I learn spinning from Abby Franquemont? No, because she lives in the midwest, and it would be unfair to ask her to travel, stay in a hotel room, and give a short workshop when she is not getting reimbursed for her travel/hotel expenses. But I learned from Guido Stein, and I learned enough to know now that I want to take a class from Abby.

There are also vendors, so you can stock up on supplies if you want. The vendor area is also the “hangout” area, and plenty of people hang around there, too. There is a swap table too, where you can drop off or pick up fiber, magazines/books and other supplies (crochet hooks, needles, etc). I dropped off a lot of yarn that was being unloved, including some of my own handspun, and picked up a few magazines/books.

So, on to the fun. What did I learn/get from Fiber Camp this year?

Well, first off, I taught the Sweet Tomato Heel by Cat Bordhi. I already posted the PDF handout. I prepared the handout in advance, and there were a few people who told me they could not make my workshop because there were others going on. “No problem,” I said, “here’s the handout.” Folks really appreciated being able to have something they can look at, because they can try the skill themselves at home.

I not only learned how to make a duct tape mannequin, I made one. Or rather, other folks made one of me – mine is the one in the middle:

I learned how to use conductive thread to make gloves that I can manipulate a smartphone with.

And from the swap table, I picked up some cotton and cotton/linen yarn, a pattern booklet (Reynolds, volume 66 “International Cables by Mary of Holland”), 2 Vogue Knitting magazines with patterns I like (Fall/Winter 1982 and Holiday 1986), and the big score, a Kaffe Fassett book – Kaffe’s California Patches, Kaffe Fassett for Rowan.

Now, I have been looking for a “Cosby sweater” pattern for a few years now. See, my husband actually likes them. While it was Koos Van Den Akker who designed the real Cosby sweaters, Kaffe Fassett is a designer who makes patterns that look like Cosby sweaters. (Actually, while at Fiber Camp, I was told that Kaffe designed Cosby sweaters, and I thought he was the designer, but as I went to check my sources, I realized I was wrong. Always check your sources!)

So anyway, I now have a book of some pretty awesome geometric sweater patterns (think Q-bert). And a pattern to knit for my husband….eventually.
I taught this at FiberCamp this past weekend, and since I made a handout I figured why not share it with you?

I made the handout based on what I learned from Cat Bordhi’s own video at http://bit.ly/sweettomheel. I bought
Cat Bordhi’s Sweet Tomato Heel Socks: an ebook after making the instructions – I bought the book because I love the Sweet Tomato Heel and even though I already know how to do it, internist the book currently has 63 pages (62 plus a title page) and right now has 9 patterns – there will be 11 total, and folks who purchase the book get the updates, so whenever those last 2 patterns come out you will get them. The book also has great troubleshooting information and a few versions of the Sweet Tomato Heel, like the padded sweet tomato heel.

Buying the book was my way of saying “Thanks, Cat!” I understand that not everyone can do this, and that’s OK. I feel it’s OK to share this information because Cat herself shares it in a free YouTube video. I waited until after I wrote up the instructions so I wasn’t tempted to use the same language Cat did in the book, and thus plagiarize. If there is a problem, please definitely contact me, and I will change or take down whatever material is objectionable.

You can download the PDF of the instructions I wrote up for how to do Cat Bordhi‘s Sweet Tomato Heel.
Last weekend, as well as feed their families and pay rent/mortgage. The Common Cod Fiber Guild does a great job of having industry experts at bimonthly meetings, but once a year they mix things up.

Registration is very inexpensive – $40 for 2 days is the most expensive it gets, and that’s if you are not a member of the guild. You can also buy day passes for $25 if you can only make one day. The way it works is that there is a call for workshops among the community – you just edit a wiki page and add your suggestions for topics. You can suggest a topic you would like to see and suggest a topic you can teach. For example, here is the list of session topics from the 2012 Fiber Camp.

The schedule starts to get filled in by the people who are teaching (“enabling”) the sessions. Fiber Camp allows people to schedule workshops during Fiber Camp itself, and because of this, the schedule cannot be completely full before the weekend starts. This allows people to schedule workshops they had not thought of before.

Workshops are either 30 minutes or 1 hour. This is a perfect amount of time to “taste” a skill. For example, last year I learned how to spin on a drop spindle. This year I’m a spinning fiend. But I probably would not have paid $40 for a short beginner workshop to learn, because why spend the money if you don’t know if you’re going to like it? And I certainly would not have paid hundreds of dollars for a half-day or all-day intensive workshop from an industry expert.

That’s the great thing about Fiber Camp – because you have not invested a lot, if you find yourself not liking a skill, you can actually leave the room and go somewhere else, or just be content to sit and listen without practicing the skill. Then again, if you find yourself loving a skill, you learn just enough to get you started, and just enough to let you know that yes, you do want to take a longer/more intensive class.

Now, I’ve been separating “community” and “industry expert” so far in this post. But in reality, they are one and the same. Folks who want to learn double knitting can do so from Alasdair Post-Quinn because, guess what, he’s local to Boston. There are no travel costs involved for him. Did I learn spinning from Abby Franquemont? No, because she lives in the midwest, and it would be unfair to ask her to travel, stay in a hotel room, and give a short workshop when she is not getting reimbursed for her travel/hotel expenses. But I learned from Guido Stein, and I learned enough to know now that I want to take a class from Abby.

There are also vendors, so you can stock up on supplies if you want. The vendor area is also the “hangout” area, and plenty of people hang around there, too. There is a swap table too, where you can drop off or pick up fiber, magazines/books and other supplies (crochet hooks, needles, etc). I dropped off a lot of yarn that was being unloved, including some of my own handspun, and picked up a few magazines/books.

So, on to the fun. What did I learn/get from Fiber Camp this year?

Well, first off, I taught the Sweet Tomato Heel by Cat Bordhi. I already posted the PDF handout. I prepared the handout in advance, and there were a few people who told me they could not make my workshop because there were others going on. “No problem,” I said, “here’s the handout.” Folks really appreciated being able to have something they can look at, because they can try the skill themselves at home.

I not only learned how to make a duct tape mannequin, I made one. Or rather, other folks made one of me – mine is the one in the middle:

I learned how to use conductive thread to make gloves that I can manipulate a smartphone with.

And from the swap table, I picked up some cotton and cotton/linen yarn, a pattern booklet (Reynolds, volume 66 “International Cables by Mary of Holland”), 2 Vogue Knitting magazines with patterns I like (Fall/Winter 1982 and Holiday 1986), and the big score, a Kaffe Fassett book – Kaffe’s California Patches, Kaffe Fassett for Rowan.

Now, I have been looking for a “Cosby sweater” pattern for a few years now. See, my husband actually likes them. While it was Koos Van Den Akker who designed the real Cosby sweaters, Kaffe Fassett is a designer who makes patterns that look like Cosby sweaters. (Actually, while at Fiber Camp, I was told that Kaffe designed Cosby sweaters, and I thought he was the designer, but as I went to check my sources, I realized I was wrong. Always check your sources!)

So anyway, I now have a book of some pretty awesome geometric sweater patterns (think Q-bert). And a pattern to knit for my husband….eventually.
Last weekend, sick I went to Fiber Camp. Fiber Camp is not your usual fiber festival – now in its third year, Fiber Camp is about getting the community together to learn from each other. Getting high-quality instruction from top-notch industry experts costs a lot – these industry experts often need to travel, as well as feed their families and pay rent/mortgage. The Common Cod Fiber Guild does a great job of having industry experts at bimonthly meetings, but once a year they mix things up.

Registration is very inexpensive – $40 for 2 days is the most expensive it gets, and that’s if you are not a member of the guild. You can also buy day passes for $25 if you can only make one day. The way it works is that there is a call for workshops among the community – you just edit a wiki page and add your suggestions for topics. You can suggest a topic you would like to see and suggest a topic you can teach. For example, here is the list of session topics from the 2012 Fiber Camp.

The schedule starts to get filled in by the people who are teaching (“enabling”) the sessions. Fiber Camp allows people to schedule workshops during Fiber Camp itself, and because of this, the schedule cannot be completely full before the weekend starts. This allows people to schedule workshops they had not thought of before.

Workshops are either 30 minutes or 1 hour. This is a perfect amount of time to “taste” a skill. For example, last year I learned how to spin on a drop spindle. This year I’m a spinning fiend. But I probably would not have paid $40 for a short beginner workshop to learn, because why spend the money if you don’t know if you’re going to like it? And I certainly would not have paid hundreds of dollars for a half-day or all-day intensive workshop from an industry expert.

That’s the great thing about Fiber Camp – because you have not invested a lot, if you find yourself not liking a skill, you can actually leave the room and go somewhere else, or just be content to sit and listen without practicing the skill. Then again, if you find yourself loving a skill, you learn just enough to get you started, and just enough to let you know that yes, you do want to take a longer/more intensive class.

Now, I’ve been separating “community” and “industry expert” so far in this post. But in reality, they are one and the same. Folks who want to learn double knitting can do so from Alasdair Post-Quinn because, guess what, he’s local to Boston. There are no travel costs involved for him. Did I learn spinning from Abby Franquemont? No, because she lives in the midwest, and it would be unfair to ask her to travel, stay in a hotel room, and give a short workshop when she is not getting reimbursed for her travel/hotel expenses. But I learned from Guido Stein, and I learned enough to know now that I want to take a class from Abby.

There are also vendors, so you can stock up on supplies if you want. The vendor area is also the “hangout” area, and plenty of people hang around there, too. There is a swap table too, where you can drop off or pick up fiber, magazines/books and other supplies (crochet hooks, needles, etc). I dropped off a lot of yarn that was being unloved, including some of my own handspun, and picked up a few magazines/books.

So, on to the fun. What did I learn/get from Fiber Camp this year?

Well, first off, I taught the Sweet Tomato Heel by Cat Bordhi. I already posted the PDF handout. I prepared the handout in advance, and there were a few people who told me they could not make my workshop because there were others going on. “No problem,” I said, “here’s the handout.” Folks really appreciated being able to have something they can look at, because they can try the skill themselves at home.

I not only learned how to make a duct tape mannequin, I made one. Or rather, other folks made one of me – mine is the one in the middle:

I learned how to use conductive thread to make gloves that I can manipulate a smartphone with.

And from the swap table, I picked up some cotton and cotton/linen yarn, a pattern booklet (Reynolds, volume 66 “International Cables by Mary of Holland”), 2 Vogue Knitting magazines with patterns I like (Fall/Winter 1982 and Holiday 1986), and the big score, a Kaffe Fassett book – Kaffe’s California Patches, Kaffe Fassett for Rowan.

Now, I have been looking for a “Cosby sweater” pattern for a few years now. See, my husband actually likes them. While it was Koos Van Den Akker who designed the real Cosby sweaters, Kaffe Fassett is a designer who makes patterns that look like Cosby sweaters. (Actually, while at Fiber Camp, I was told that Kaffe designed Cosby sweaters, and I thought he was the designer, but as I went to check my sources, I realized I was wrong. Always check your sources!)

So anyway, I now have a book of some pretty awesome geometric sweater patterns (think Q-b

I posted about 2 weeks ago about what I was doing. My status is still the same, on the works in project – I have to re-block the Monkey Sock, and I’m still working on the Crooked Little Scarf.
I posted about 2 weeks ago about what I was doing. My status is still the same, I have to cast on for the 2nd Monkey Sock, and I’m still working on the Crooked Little Scarf.

Cascade finally shipped the yarn I needed to make the Color Me Pretty sweater I want to make for my niece — because a few months ago, I showed her a sweater I was wearing that I knit and she said, “Aunt Sheeri, will you knit me something?” How could I say no? And then a few minutes later she said, “I have a secret to tell you. My favorite color is pink.” Which is not really a secret, but was really cute anyway. This is a top-down raglan sweater, and I have done the yoke so far and am just a few rows away from splitting off the sleeves:

I can’t wait to finish it!

I have also started spinning some fiber gifted to me when I was down in the dumps by my friend Jenn, who is not only a superb human being, but also has an entry in the JMF design contest. You should vote for her!
I posted about 2 weeks ago about what I was doing. My status is still the same, and I’m still working on the Crooked Little Scarf.

Cascade finally shipped the yarn I needed to make the Color Me Pretty sweater I want to make for my niece — because a few months ago, I showed her a sweater I was wearing that I knit and she said, “Aunt Sheeri, will you knit me something?” How could I say no? And then a few minutes later she said, “I have a secret to tell you. My favorite color is pink.” Which is not really a secret, but was really cute anyway. This is a top-down sweater

I posted about 2 weeks ago about what I was doing. My status is still the same, I have to cast on for the 2nd Monkey Sock, and I’m still working on the Crooked Little Scarf.

Cascade finally shipped the yarn I needed to make the Color Me Pretty sweater I want to make for my niece — because a few months ago, I showed her a sweater I was wearing that I knit and she said, “Aunt Sheeri, will you knit me something?” How could I say no? And then a few minutes later she said, “I have a secret to tell you. My favorite color is pink.” Which is not really a secret, but was really cute anyway. This is a top-down raglan sweater, and I have done the yoke so far and am just a few rows away from splitting off the sleeves:

I can’t wait to finish it!

I have also started spinning some fiber gifted to me by my friend Jenn, who is not only a superb human being
I posted about 2 weeks ago about what I was doing. My status is still the same, I have to cast on for the 2nd Monkey Sock, and I’m still working on the Crooked Little Scarf.

Cascade finally shipped the yarn I needed to make the Color Me Pretty sweater I want to make for my niece — because a few months ago, I showed her a sweater I was wearing that I knit and she said, “Aunt Sheeri, will you knit me something?” How could I say no? And then a few minutes later she said, “I have a secret to tell you. My favorite color is pink.” Which is not really a secret, but was really cute anyway. This is a top-down raglan sweater, and I have done the yoke so far and am just a few rows away from splitting off the sleeves:

I can’t wait to finish it!
I posted about 2 weeks ago about what I was doing. My status is still the same, on the works in project – I have to re-block the Monkey Sock, and I’m still working on the Crooked Little Scarf.

Cascade finally shipped the yarn I needed to make the Color Me Pretty sweater I want to make for my niece — because a few months ago, I showed her a sweater I was wearing that I knit and she said, “Aunt Sheeri, will you knit me something?” How could I say no? And then a few minutes later she said, “I have a secret to tell you. My favorite color is pink.” Which is not really a secret, but was really cute anyway. This is a top-down raglan sweater, and I have done the yoke so far and am just a few rows away from splitting off the sleeves:

I can’t wait to finish it!

I have also started spinning some fiber gifted to me when I was down in the dumps by my friend Jenn, who is not only a superb human being, but also has an entry in the JMF design contest. You should vote for her!
I grabbed all the pictures I’ve taken in the past few weeks, infection so here’s a version of what’s going on with me, clinic based on the pictures I have. I know I just updated y’all yesterday, but today’s post has lots of pictures!

In the “knitting while traveling” series, first off is how to knit on a plane when you have a pattern:

Then there’s my answer to “how do I block a scarf in a hotel room”?

Unfortunately it’s a bit too pointy for my tastes, and I do want to re-block it:

Exactly a month ago, on Saturday, February 18th, I finished a Flower Scarf. What’s special about this scarf is that this started out as one ounce of white cashmere roving. I spun it, dyed it (with food coloring) and knit the scarf.

Here is a close-up that shows the color a little better (although it’s a bit washed out):

I acquired a loom while I was in California 2 weeks ago, and I have finished my first piece – the warp is a simple black cotton for weaving, and the weft is Noro Silk Garden sock yarn. This has not yet been blocked:

And I jumped right in and started another project – the warp is mercerized cotton and the weft is Jil Eaton CottonTail:

Here’s a more detailed shot:

I have continued to work on my niece’s Color Me Pretty sweater. I have just gotten to the point where I slip the sleeve stitches off and start working on only the body. This is the magical part of a raglan for me, as it’s when the piece actually starts looking like a sweater:

The yarn is a dark purple solid color, I’m not sure why the photo shows a gradient-type color.

Yesterday was a day full of shopping, and I picked up a seam ripper to finish getting all the cashmere I could out of the thrift store sweater I started on last week. I got the rest of the sweater pulled out and Navajo-plied it. It’s resting on the bobbin now, but I did have a full bobbin from Wednesday, which I took off, measured, bathed, and put up to dry. It dried this morning, and it’s close to 600 yards of what looks like a sock-weight yarn (I haven’t measured WPI yet, but it’s 3.75 ounces, or 109 grams):

I have been spinning more of the Hello Yarn BFL/silk that I talked about yesterday. I also took pictures of the fiber – here’s the fiber as a bump:

I think the colors show better as a braid, though:

I’ve spun up almost half (2 ounces). I’m thinking I might do a 2×2 cable with this yarn, but I’m not 100% sure. I will have to sample. I worry that the colors will muddy, but I think as a cable it will be more heathered. I’ve just split the yarn lengthwise into 4 parts, so there’s no fancy fractal spinning going on or anything, but I’m sure I didn’t divide it exactly equally.
I created the Loopy Wicker Cowl for the Juniper Moon Farm Design Contest. The basic guidelines were to use up to 2 balls of either Willa or Chadwick. This is a very quick knit, plus 2 stitches).

And special thanks to photographer Joel Eagle, model Caroline Fryar, and Susan Gibbs of Juniper Moon Farm for allowing me to republish this photo from the blog post about the contest finalists:

Loopy Wicker Cowl
Size – one size fits most adults

Materials:
1 ball Chadwick
(if making the 2-color version, 2 balls Chadwick)
This pattern uses 70-80 yards of yarn in total.

Size 8 (US) needles
1 button

Gauge: 18 sts and 27 rows over 4 inches / 10 cm in stockinette

Pattern notes: On the odd numbered rows, the yarn is wrapped twice around the needle when purling. These extra wraps are dropped in the even numbered rows and are what makes the long loops that form the wicker-like pattern.

Cast on 26 stitches.

Row 1 (WS): Purl entire row, wrapping the yarn twice around the needle when making the purl stitch.

Row 2 (RS): Dropping each extra wrap, K1, *sl 3 to cable needle and hold in back, k3, k3 from cable needle, repeat from * until 1 st remains. K1.

Row 3: same as row 1

Row 4: Dropping each extra wrap, K4, *sl 3 to cable needle and hold in front, k3, k3 from cable needle, repeat from * until 4 sts remain. K4.

Repeat rows 1-4 until the cowl is 20 inches long (50 cm). Bind off by purling. Finishing by sewing a button on one end.

To make the 2-color version, cast on 10 stitches in main color, then 6 stitches in contrast color, then 10 stitches in main color. Follow the pattern as written but always use the same color to knit as the stitch below is.
I created the Loopy Wicker Cowl for the Juniper Moon Farm Design Contest. The basic guidelines were to use up to 2 balls of either Willa or Chadwick. This is a very quick knit, thumb plus 2 stitches).

And special thanks to photographer Susan Gibbs and model Caroline Fryar of Juniper Moon Farm for allowing me to republish this photo from the blog post about the contest finalists:

Loopy Wicker Cowl
Size – one size fits most adults

Materials:
1 ball Chadwick
(if making the 2-color version, 2 balls Chadwick)
This pattern uses 70-80 yards of yarn in total.

Size 8 (US) needles
1 button

Gauge: 18 sts and 27 rows over 4 inches / 10 cm in stockinette

Pattern notes: On the odd numbered rows, clinic the yarn is wrapped twice around the needle when purling. These extra wraps are dropped in the even numbered rows and are what makes the long loops that form the wicker-like pattern.

Cast on 26 stitches.

Row 1 (WS): Purl entire row, wrapping the yarn twice around the needle when making the purl stitch.

Row 2 (RS): Dropping each extra wrap, K1, *sl 3 to cable needle and hold in back, k3, k3 from cable needle, repeat from * until 1 st remains. K1.

Row 3: same as row 1

Row 4: Dropping each extra wrap, K4, *sl 3 to cable needle and hold in front, k3, k3 from cable needle, repeat from * until 4 sts remain. K4.

Repeat rows 1-4 until the cowl is 20 inches long (50 cm). Bind off by purling. Finishing by sewing a button on one end.

To make the 2-color version, cast on 10 stitches in main color, then 6 stitches in contrast color, then 10 stitches in main color. Follow the pattern as written but always use the same color to knit as the stitch below is.
It’s been 2 weeks since I’ve updated y’all on how my crafty world is going….

I’ve been focusing on spinning a bit, see since I’ll be traveling in April for a conference and I know I won’t have a lot of spinning time so there’s no point bringing the wheel or spindles – I can knit during a workshop pretty unobtrusively, but spinning draws attention. And I knit on planes…so I know I’ll have knitting time, which is why I’m focusing on spinning.

Also the Ravelry group for Spunky Eclectic is doing a stashdown. I took a ton of pictures of the stash I want to spin down – mostly I want to spin down the stuff that is not appealing to spin, which is the white stuff I bought for dyeing, and some random stuff I bought to see how it spins (and sometimes it’s a combination of the two).

But I’m getting ahead of myself. Remember the BFL/silk that my friend Jenn gifted to me? If you don’t, here’s a reminder:

The colorway is called “Floating Down”. Well, I got a 460 yards of a 15 WPI yarn from 4 oz, which is pretty good yardage:

As for the Color Me Pretty Sweater for my niece, it’s coming along. But it’s knitting, so I’m not really focusing on it. I did get some knitting on it done Friday night, during Tony’s gig. The sweater is full into the body now, and it’s stockinette in the round all the way for a few more inches. It will be good plane knitting. As for Tony’s gig – it was not his usual stuff, but if you want to hear all 45 minutes of awesomeness (Tony’s the one playing the piano), just download the link on this page. It’s 432 Mb so it might take a while. I hope you enjoy it!

I also worked a little more on a baby sweater for my co-worker. The baby has been here for a few weeks already! I’ll probably prioritize finishing this first, and then finishing the Color Me Pretty sweater. All this spinning is really driving home the fact that I need to knit up what I already have! It doesn’t help that I’m part of 2 spinning clubs, and get 12 oz of fiber each month. I’ll likely drop the batt club that I’m in, I’ve found that I prefer spinning top to batts….but I don’t hate spinning batts, either! I really love the yarn I get from the batts, though…mostly because I get a lot of sparkle in them. April’s shipment will be 6 months in the club…I may wait it out and do a year, who knows?

Weaving? None. But I signed up for a bi-monthly weaving club, that ships in the even months, so in 2 weeks I’ll have something to weave. Yeah, I should probably cancel my batt club, since I’m doing the weaving club.

I also spun up some mystery wool. It was white, and somewhat of a longwool, but not as coarse as Wensleydale. I want to say it’s Romney, because that’s what it feels like, but I can’t imagine when I had some white Romney around or bought some. I did have some shetland, but I recall it being more downy than what this is….anyway, there was only a little bit of it, 11g = 3/8 ounce, and I did a 2-ply and got 38 yards out of it. Then I dyed it apricot (who knew green + pink = apricot? Not me!) and it’s hanging to dry now.
Last weekend, Fiber Camp is about getting the community together to learn from each other. Getting high-quality instruction from top-notch industry experts costs a lot – these industry experts often need to travel, as well as feed their families and pay rent/mortgage. The Common Cod Fiber Guild does a great job of having industry experts at bimonthly meetings, but once a year they mix things up.

Registration is very inexpensive – $40 for 2 days is the most expensive it gets, and that’s if you are not a member of the guild. You can also buy day passes for $25 if you can only make one day. The way it works is that there is a call for workshops among the community – you just edit a wiki page and add your suggestions for topics. You can suggest a topic you would like to see and suggest a topic you can teach. For example, here is the list of session topics from the 2012 Fiber Camp.

The schedule starts to get filled in by the people who are teaching (“enabling”) the sessions. Fiber Camp allows people to schedule workshops during Fiber Camp itself, and because of this, the schedule cannot be completely full before the weekend starts. This allows people to schedule workshops they had not thought of before.

Workshops are either 30 minutes or 1 hour. This is a perfect amount of time to “taste” a skill. For example, last year I learned how to spin on a drop spindle. This year I’m a spinning fiend. But I probably would not have paid $40 for a short beginner workshop to learn, because why spend the money if you don’t know if you’re going to like it? And I certainly would not have paid hundreds of dollars for a half-day or all-day intensive workshop from an industry expert.

That’s the great thing about Fiber Camp – because you have not invested a lot, if you find yourself not liking a skill, you can actually leave the room and go somewhere else, or just be content to sit and listen without practicing the skill. Then again, if you find yourself loving a skill, you learn just enough to get you started, and just enough to let you know that yes, you do want to take a longer/more intensive class.

Now, I’ve been separating “community” and “industry expert” so far in this post. But in reality, they are one and the same. Folks who want to learn double knitting can do so from Alasdair Post-Quinn because, guess what, he’s local to Boston. There are no travel costs involved for him. Did I learn spinning from Abby Franquemont? No, because she lives in the midwest, and it would be unfair to ask her to travel, stay in a hotel room, and give a short workshop when she is not getting reimbursed for her travel/hotel expenses. But I learned from Guido Stein, and I learned enough to know now that I want to take a class from Abby.

There are also vendors, so you can stock up on supplies if you want. The vendor area is also the “hangout” area, and plenty of people hang around there, too. There is a swap table too, where you can drop off or pick up fiber, magazines/books and other supplies (crochet hooks, needles, etc). I dropped off a lot of yarn that was being unloved, including some of my own handspun, and picked up a few magazines/books.

So, on to the fun. What did I learn/get from Fiber Camp this year?

Well, first off, I taught the Sweet Tomato Heel by Cat Bordhi. I already posted the PDF handout. I prepared the handout in advance, and there were a few people who told me they could not make my workshop because there were others going on. “No problem,” I said, “here’s the handout.” Folks really appreciated being able to have something they can look at, because they can try the skill themselves at home.

I not only learned how to make a duct tape mannequin, I made one. Or rather, other folks made one of me – mine is the one in the middle:

I learned how to use conductive thread to make gloves that I can manipulate a smartphone with.

And from the swap table, I picked up some cotton and cotton/linen yarn, a pattern booklet (Reynolds, volume 66 “International Cables by Mary of Holland”), 2 Vogue Knitting magazines with patterns I like (Fall/Winter 1982 and Holiday 1986), and the big score, a Kaffe Fassett book – Kaffe’s California Patches, Kaffe Fassett for Rowan.

Now, I have been looking for a “Cosby sweater” pattern for a few years now. See, my husband actually likes them. While it was Koos Van Den Akker who designed the real Cosby sweaters, Kaffe Fassett is a designer who makes patterns that look like Cosby sweaters. (Actually, while at Fiber Camp, I was told that Kaffe designed Cosby sweaters, and I thought he was the designer, but as I went to check my sources, I realized I was wrong. Always check your sources!)

So anyway, I now have a book of some pretty awesome geometric sweater patterns (think Q-bert). And a pattern to knit for my husband….eventually.
I taught this at FiberCamp this past weekend, and since I made a handout I figured why not share it with you?

I made the handout based on what I learned from Cat Bordhi’s own video at http://bit.ly/sweettomheel. I bought
Cat Bordhi’s Sweet Tomato Heel Socks: an ebook after making the instructions – I bought the book because I love the Sweet Tomato Heel and even though I already know how to do it, internist the book currently has 63 pages (62 plus a title page) and right now has 9 patterns – there will be 11 total, and folks who purchase the book get the updates, so whenever those last 2 patterns come out you will get them. The book also has great troubleshooting information and a few versions of the Sweet Tomato Heel, like the padded sweet tomato heel.

Buying the book was my way of saying “Thanks, Cat!” I understand that not everyone can do this, and that’s OK. I feel it’s OK to share this information because Cat herself shares it in a free YouTube video. I waited until after I wrote up the instructions so I wasn’t tempted to use the same language Cat did in the book, and thus plagiarize. If there is a problem, please definitely contact me, and I will change or take down whatever material is objectionable.

You can download the PDF of the instructions I wrote up for how to do Cat Bordhi‘s Sweet Tomato Heel.
Last weekend, as well as feed their families and pay rent/mortgage. The Common Cod Fiber Guild does a great job of having industry experts at bimonthly meetings, but once a year they mix things up.

Registration is very inexpensive – $40 for 2 days is the most expensive it gets, and that’s if you are not a member of the guild. You can also buy day passes for $25 if you can only make one day. The way it works is that there is a call for workshops among the community – you just edit a wiki page and add your suggestions for topics. You can suggest a topic you would like to see and suggest a topic you can teach. For example, here is the list of session topics from the 2012 Fiber Camp.

The schedule starts to get filled in by the people who are teaching (“enabling”) the sessions. Fiber Camp allows people to schedule workshops during Fiber Camp itself, and because of this, the schedule cannot be completely full before the weekend starts. This allows people to schedule workshops they had not thought of before.

Workshops are either 30 minutes or 1 hour. This is a perfect amount of time to “taste” a skill. For example, last year I learned how to spin on a drop spindle. This year I’m a spinning fiend. But I probably would not have paid $40 for a short beginner workshop to learn, because why spend the money if you don’t know if you’re going to like it? And I certainly would not have paid hundreds of dollars for a half-day or all-day intensive workshop from an industry expert.

That’s the great thing about Fiber Camp – because you have not invested a lot, if you find yourself not liking a skill, you can actually leave the room and go somewhere else, or just be content to sit and listen without practicing the skill. Then again, if you find yourself loving a skill, you learn just enough to get you started, and just enough to let you know that yes, you do want to take a longer/more intensive class.

Now, I’ve been separating “community” and “industry expert” so far in this post. But in reality, they are one and the same. Folks who want to learn double knitting can do so from Alasdair Post-Quinn because, guess what, he’s local to Boston. There are no travel costs involved for him. Did I learn spinning from Abby Franquemont? No, because she lives in the midwest, and it would be unfair to ask her to travel, stay in a hotel room, and give a short workshop when she is not getting reimbursed for her travel/hotel expenses. But I learned from Guido Stein, and I learned enough to know now that I want to take a class from Abby.

There are also vendors, so you can stock up on supplies if you want. The vendor area is also the “hangout” area, and plenty of people hang around there, too. There is a swap table too, where you can drop off or pick up fiber, magazines/books and other supplies (crochet hooks, needles, etc). I dropped off a lot of yarn that was being unloved, including some of my own handspun, and picked up a few magazines/books.

So, on to the fun. What did I learn/get from Fiber Camp this year?

Well, first off, I taught the Sweet Tomato Heel by Cat Bordhi. I already posted the PDF handout. I prepared the handout in advance, and there were a few people who told me they could not make my workshop because there were others going on. “No problem,” I said, “here’s the handout.” Folks really appreciated being able to have something they can look at, because they can try the skill themselves at home.

I not only learned how to make a duct tape mannequin, I made one. Or rather, other folks made one of me – mine is the one in the middle:

I learned how to use conductive thread to make gloves that I can manipulate a smartphone with.

And from the swap table, I picked up some cotton and cotton/linen yarn, a pattern booklet (Reynolds, volume 66 “International Cables by Mary of Holland”), 2 Vogue Knitting magazines with patterns I like (Fall/Winter 1982 and Holiday 1986), and the big score, a Kaffe Fassett book – Kaffe’s California Patches, Kaffe Fassett for Rowan.

Now, I have been looking for a “Cosby sweater” pattern for a few years now. See, my husband actually likes them. While it was Koos Van Den Akker who designed the real Cosby sweaters, Kaffe Fassett is a designer who makes patterns that look like Cosby sweaters. (Actually, while at Fiber Camp, I was told that Kaffe designed Cosby sweaters, and I thought he was the designer, but as I went to check my sources, I realized I was wrong. Always check your sources!)

So anyway, I now have a book of some pretty awesome geometric sweater patterns (think Q-bert). And a pattern to knit for my husband….eventually.
Last weekend, sick I went to Fiber Camp. Fiber Camp is not your usual fiber festival – now in its third year, Fiber Camp is about getting the community together to learn from each other. Getting high-quality instruction from top-notch industry experts costs a lot – these industry experts often need to travel, as well as feed their families and pay rent/mortgage. The Common Cod Fiber Guild does a great job of having industry experts at bimonthly meetings, but once a year they mix things up.

Registration is very inexpensive – $40 for 2 days is the most expensive it gets, and that’s if you are not a member of the guild. You can also buy day passes for $25 if you can only make one day. The way it works is that there is a call for workshops among the community – you just edit a wiki page and add your suggestions for topics. You can suggest a topic you would like to see and suggest a topic you can teach. For example, here is the list of session topics from the 2012 Fiber Camp.

The schedule starts to get filled in by the people who are teaching (“enabling”) the sessions. Fiber Camp allows people to schedule workshops during Fiber Camp itself, and because of this, the schedule cannot be completely full before the weekend starts. This allows people to schedule workshops they had not thought of before.

Workshops are either 30 minutes or 1 hour. This is a perfect amount of time to “taste” a skill. For example, last year I learned how to spin on a drop spindle. This year I’m a spinning fiend. But I probably would not have paid $40 for a short beginner workshop to learn, because why spend the money if you don’t know if you’re going to like it? And I certainly would not have paid hundreds of dollars for a half-day or all-day intensive workshop from an industry expert.

That’s the great thing about Fiber Camp – because you have not invested a lot, if you find yourself not liking a skill, you can actually leave the room and go somewhere else, or just be content to sit and listen without practicing the skill. Then again, if you find yourself loving a skill, you learn just enough to get you started, and just enough to let you know that yes, you do want to take a longer/more intensive class.

Now, I’ve been separating “community” and “industry expert” so far in this post. But in reality, they are one and the same. Folks who want to learn double knitting can do so from Alasdair Post-Quinn because, guess what, he’s local to Boston. There are no travel costs involved for him. Did I learn spinning from Abby Franquemont? No, because she lives in the midwest, and it would be unfair to ask her to travel, stay in a hotel room, and give a short workshop when she is not getting reimbursed for her travel/hotel expenses. But I learned from Guido Stein, and I learned enough to know now that I want to take a class from Abby.

There are also vendors, so you can stock up on supplies if you want. The vendor area is also the “hangout” area, and plenty of people hang around there, too. There is a swap table too, where you can drop off or pick up fiber, magazines/books and other supplies (crochet hooks, needles, etc). I dropped off a lot of yarn that was being unloved, including some of my own handspun, and picked up a few magazines/books.

So, on to the fun. What did I learn/get from Fiber Camp this year?

Well, first off, I taught the Sweet Tomato Heel by Cat Bordhi. I already posted the PDF handout. I prepared the handout in advance, and there were a few people who told me they could not make my workshop because there were others going on. “No problem,” I said, “here’s the handout.” Folks really appreciated being able to have something they can look at, because they can try the skill themselves at home.

I not only learned how to make a duct tape mannequin, I made one. Or rather, other folks made one of me – mine is the one in the middle:

I learned how to use conductive thread to make gloves that I can manipulate a smartphone with.

And from the swap table, I picked up some cotton and cotton/linen yarn, a pattern booklet (Reynolds, volume 66 “International Cables by Mary of Holland”), 2 Vogue Knitting magazines with patterns I like (Fall/Winter 1982 and Holiday 1986), and the big score, a Kaffe Fassett book – Kaffe’s California Patches, Kaffe Fassett for Rowan.

Now, I have been looking for a “Cosby sweater” pattern for a few years now. See, my husband actually likes them. While it was Koos Van Den Akker who designed the real Cosby sweaters, Kaffe Fassett is a designer who makes patterns that look like Cosby sweaters. (Actually, while at Fiber Camp, I was told that Kaffe designed Cosby sweaters, and I thought he was the designer, but as I went to check my sources, I realized I was wrong. Always check your sources!)

So anyway, I now have a book of some pretty awesome geometric sweater patterns (think Q-b

I posted about 2 weeks ago about what I was doing. My status is still the same, on the works in project – I have to re-block the Monkey Sock, and I’m still working on the Crooked Little Scarf.
I posted about 2 weeks ago about what I was doing. My status is still the same, I have to cast on for the 2nd Monkey Sock, and I’m still working on the Crooked Little Scarf.

Cascade finally shipped the yarn I needed to make the Color Me Pretty sweater I want to make for my niece — because a few months ago, I showed her a sweater I was wearing that I knit and she said, “Aunt Sheeri, will you knit me something?” How could I say no? And then a few minutes later she said, “I have a secret to tell you. My favorite color is pink.” Which is not really a secret, but was really cute anyway. This is a top-down raglan sweater, and I have done the yoke so far and am just a few rows away from splitting off the sleeves:

I can’t wait to finish it!

I have also started spinning some fiber gifted to me when I was down in the dumps by my friend Jenn, who is not only a superb human being, but also has an entry in the JMF design contest. You should vote for her!
I posted about 2 weeks ago about what I was doing. My status is still the same, and I’m still working on the Crooked Little Scarf.

Cascade finally shipped the yarn I needed to make the Color Me Pretty sweater I want to make for my niece — because a few months ago, I showed her a sweater I was wearing that I knit and she said, “Aunt Sheeri, will you knit me something?” How could I say no? And then a few minutes later she said, “I have a secret to tell you. My favorite color is pink.” Which is not really a secret, but was really cute anyway. This is a top-down sweater

I posted about 2 weeks ago about what I was doing. My status is still the same, I have to cast on for the 2nd Monkey Sock, and I’m still working on the Crooked Little Scarf.

Cascade finally shipped the yarn I needed to make the Color Me Pretty sweater I want to make for my niece — because a few months ago, I showed her a sweater I was wearing that I knit and she said, “Aunt Sheeri, will you knit me something?” How could I say no? And then a few minutes later she said, “I have a secret to tell you. My favorite color is pink.” Which is not really a secret, but was really cute anyway. This is a top-down raglan sweater, and I have done the yoke so far and am just a few rows away from splitting off the sleeves:

I can’t wait to finish it!

I have also started spinning some fiber gifted to me by my friend Jenn, who is not only a superb human being
I posted about 2 weeks ago about what I was doing. My status is still the same, I have to cast on for the 2nd Monkey Sock, and I’m still working on the Crooked Little Scarf.

Cascade finally shipped the yarn I needed to make the Color Me Pretty sweater I want to make for my niece — because a few months ago, I showed her a sweater I was wearing that I knit and she said, “Aunt Sheeri, will you knit me something?” How could I say no? And then a few minutes later she said, “I have a secret to tell you. My favorite color is pink.” Which is not really a secret, but was really cute anyway. This is a top-down raglan sweater, and I have done the yoke so far and am just a few rows away from splitting off the sleeves:

I can’t wait to finish it!
I posted about 2 weeks ago about what I was doing. My status is still the same, on the works in project – I have to re-block the Monkey Sock, and I’m still working on the Crooked Little Scarf.

Cascade finally shipped the yarn I needed to make the Color Me Pretty sweater I want to make for my niece — because a few months ago, I showed her a sweater I was wearing that I knit and she said, “Aunt Sheeri, will you knit me something?” How could I say no? And then a few minutes later she said, “I have a secret to tell you. My favorite color is pink.” Which is not really a secret, but was really cute anyway. This is a top-down raglan sweater, and I have done the yoke so far and am just a few rows away from splitting off the sleeves:

I can’t wait to finish it!

I have also started spinning some fiber gifted to me when I was down in the dumps by my friend Jenn, who is not only a superb human being, but also has an entry in the JMF design contest. You should vote for her!
I grabbed all the pictures I’ve taken in the past few weeks, infection so here’s a version of what’s going on with me, clinic based on the pictures I have. I know I just updated y’all yesterday, but today’s post has lots of pictures!

In the “knitting while traveling” series, first off is how to knit on a plane when you have a pattern:

Then there’s my answer to “how do I block a scarf in a hotel room”?

Unfortunately it’s a bit too pointy for my tastes, and I do want to re-block it:

Exactly a month ago, on Saturday, February 18th, I finished a Flower Scarf. What’s special about this scarf is that this started out as one ounce of white cashmere roving. I spun it, dyed it (with food coloring) and knit the scarf.

Here is a close-up that shows the color a little better (although it’s a bit washed out):

I acquired a loom while I was in California 2 weeks ago, and I have finished my first piece – the warp is a simple black cotton for weaving, and the weft is Noro Silk Garden sock yarn. This has not yet been blocked:

And I jumped right in and started another project – the warp is mercerized cotton and the weft is Jil Eaton CottonTail:

Here’s a more detailed shot:

I have continued to work on my niece’s Color Me Pretty sweater. I have just gotten to the point where I slip the sleeve stitches off and start working on only the body. This is the magical part of a raglan for me, as it’s when the piece actually starts looking like a sweater:

The yarn is a dark purple solid color, I’m not sure why the photo shows a gradient-type color.

Yesterday was a day full of shopping, and I picked up a seam ripper to finish getting all the cashmere I could out of the thrift store sweater I started on last week. I got the rest of the sweater pulled out and Navajo-plied it. It’s resting on the bobbin now, but I did have a full bobbin from Wednesday, which I took off, measured, bathed, and put up to dry. It dried this morning, and it’s close to 600 yards of what looks like a sock-weight yarn (I haven’t measured WPI yet, but it’s 3.75 ounces, or 109 grams):

I have been spinning more of the Hello Yarn BFL/silk that I talked about yesterday. I also took pictures of the fiber – here’s the fiber as a bump:

I think the colors show better as a braid, though:

I’ve spun up almost half (2 ounces). I’m thinking I might do a 2×2 cable with this yarn, but I’m not 100% sure. I will have to sample. I worry that the colors will muddy, but I think as a cable it will be more heathered. I’ve just split the yarn lengthwise into 4 parts, so there’s no fancy fractal spinning going on or anything, but I’m sure I didn’t divide it exactly equally.
A boucle I made – it’s not as loopy as it “should” be, but I think it’s a pretty good first attempt:

A closeup view:

In the “knitting while traveling” series, grip first off is how to knit on a plane when you have a pattern:

Then there’s my answer to “how do I block a scarf in a hotel room”?

Unfortunately it’s a bit too pointy for my tastes, medications and I do want to re-block it:

Exactly a month ago, on Saturday, February 18th, I finished a Flower Scarf. What’s special about this scarf is that this started out as one ounce of white cashmere roving. I spun it, dyed it (with food coloring) and knit the scarf.

Here is a close-up that shows the color a little better (although it’s a bit washed out):

I acquired a loom while I was in California 2 weeks ago, and I have finished my first piece – the warp is a simple black cotton for weaving, and the weft is Noro Silk Garden sock yarn. This has not yet been blocked:

And I jumped right in and started another project – the warp is mercerized cotton and the weft is Jil Eaton CottonTail:

I have continued to work on my niece’s Color Me Pretty sweater. I have just gotten to the point where I slip the sleeve stitches off and start working on only the body. This is the magical part of a raglan for me, as it’s when the piece actually starts looking like a sweater:

The yarn is a dark purple solid color, I’m not sure why the photo shows a gradient-type color.

Yesterday was a day full of shopping, and I picked up a seam ripper to finish getting all the cashmere I could out of the thrift store sweater I started on last week. I got the rest of the sweater pulled out and Navajo-plied it. It’s resting on the bobbin now, but I did have a full bobbin from Wednesday, which I took off, measured, bathed, and put up to dry. It dried this morning, and it’s close to 600 yards of what looks like a sock-weight yarn (I haven’t measured WPI yet, but it’s 3.75 ounces, or 109 grams):

I have been spinning more of the Hello Yarn BFL/silk that I talked about yesterday. I also took pictures of the fiber – here’s the fiber as a bump:

I think the colors show better as a braid, though:

I created the Loopy Wicker Cowl for the Juniper Moon Farm Design Contest. The basic guidelines were to use up to 2 balls of either Willa or Chadwick. This is a very quick knit, plus 2 stitches).

And special thanks to photographer Joel Eagle, model Caroline Fryar, and Susan Gibbs of Juniper Moon Farm for allowing me to republish this photo from the blog post about the contest finalists:

Loopy Wicker Cowl
Size – one size fits most adults

Materials:
1 ball Chadwick
(if making the 2-color version, 2 balls Chadwick)
This pattern uses 70-80 yards of yarn in total.

Size 8 (US) needles
1 button

Gauge: 18 sts and 27 rows over 4 inches / 10 cm in stockinette

Pattern notes: On the odd numbered rows, the yarn is wrapped twice around the needle when purling. These extra wraps are dropped in the even numbered rows and are what makes the long loops that form the wicker-like pattern.

Cast on 26 stitches.

Row 1 (WS): Purl entire row, wrapping the yarn twice around the needle when making the purl stitch.

Row 2 (RS): Dropping each extra wrap, K1, *sl 3 to cable needle and hold in back, k3, k3 from cable needle, repeat from * until 1 st remains. K1.

Row 3: same as row 1

Row 4: Dropping each extra wrap, K4, *sl 3 to cable needle and hold in front, k3, k3 from cable needle, repeat from * until 4 sts remain. K4.

Repeat rows 1-4 until the cowl is 20 inches long (50 cm). Bind off by purling. Finishing by sewing a button on one end.

To make the 2-color version, cast on 10 stitches in main color, then 6 stitches in contrast color, then 10 stitches in main color. Follow the pattern as written but always use the same color to knit as the stitch below is.
I created the Loopy Wicker Cowl for the Juniper Moon Farm Design Contest. The basic guidelines were to use up to 2 balls of either Willa or Chadwick. This is a very quick knit, thumb plus 2 stitches).

And special thanks to photographer Susan Gibbs and model Caroline Fryar of Juniper Moon Farm for allowing me to republish this photo from the blog post about the contest finalists:

Loopy Wicker Cowl
Size – one size fits most adults

Materials:
1 ball Chadwick
(if making the 2-color version, 2 balls Chadwick)
This pattern uses 70-80 yards of yarn in total.

Size 8 (US) needles
1 button

Gauge: 18 sts and 27 rows over 4 inches / 10 cm in stockinette

Pattern notes: On the odd numbered rows, clinic the yarn is wrapped twice around the needle when purling. These extra wraps are dropped in the even numbered rows and are what makes the long loops that form the wicker-like pattern.

Cast on 26 stitches.

Row 1 (WS): Purl entire row, wrapping the yarn twice around the needle when making the purl stitch.

Row 2 (RS): Dropping each extra wrap, K1, *sl 3 to cable needle and hold in back, k3, k3 from cable needle, repeat from * until 1 st remains. K1.

Row 3: same as row 1

Row 4: Dropping each extra wrap, K4, *sl 3 to cable needle and hold in front, k3, k3 from cable needle, repeat from * until 4 sts remain. K4.

Repeat rows 1-4 until the cowl is 20 inches long (50 cm). Bind off by purling. Finishing by sewing a button on one end.

To make the 2-color version, cast on 10 stitches in main color, then 6 stitches in contrast color, then 10 stitches in main color. Follow the pattern as written but always use the same color to knit as the stitch below is.
It’s been 2 weeks since I’ve updated y’all on how my crafty world is going….

I’ve been focusing on spinning a bit, see since I’ll be traveling in April for a conference and I know I won’t have a lot of spinning time so there’s no point bringing the wheel or spindles – I can knit during a workshop pretty unobtrusively, but spinning draws attention. And I knit on planes…so I know I’ll have knitting time, which is why I’m focusing on spinning.

Also the Ravelry group for Spunky Eclectic is doing a stashdown. I took a ton of pictures of the stash I want to spin down – mostly I want to spin down the stuff that is not appealing to spin, which is the white stuff I bought for dyeing, and some random stuff I bought to see how it spins (and sometimes it’s a combination of the two).

But I’m getting ahead of myself. Remember the BFL/silk that my friend Jenn gifted to me? If you don’t, here’s a reminder:

The colorway is called “Floating Down”. Well, I got a 460 yards of a 15 WPI yarn from 4 oz, which is pretty good yardage:

As for the Color Me Pretty Sweater for my niece, it’s coming along. But it’s knitting, so I’m not really focusing on it. I did get some knitting on it done Friday night, during Tony’s gig. The sweater is full into the body now, and it’s stockinette in the round all the way for a few more inches. It will be good plane knitting. As for Tony’s gig – it was not his usual stuff, but if you want to hear all 45 minutes of awesomeness (Tony’s the one playing the piano), just download the link on this page. It’s 432 Mb so it might take a while. I hope you enjoy it!

I also worked a little more on a baby sweater for my co-worker. The baby has been here for a few weeks already! I’ll probably prioritize finishing this first, and then finishing the Color Me Pretty sweater. All this spinning is really driving home the fact that I need to knit up what I already have! It doesn’t help that I’m part of 2 spinning clubs, and get 12 oz of fiber each month. I’ll likely drop the batt club that I’m in, I’ve found that I prefer spinning top to batts….but I don’t hate spinning batts, either! I really love the yarn I get from the batts, though…mostly because I get a lot of sparkle in them. April’s shipment will be 6 months in the club…I may wait it out and do a year, who knows?

Weaving? None. But I signed up for a bi-monthly weaving club, that ships in the even months, so in 2 weeks I’ll have something to weave. Yeah, I should probably cancel my batt club, since I’m doing the weaving club.

I also spun up some mystery wool. It was white, and somewhat of a longwool, but not as coarse as Wensleydale. I want to say it’s Romney, because that’s what it feels like, but I can’t imagine when I had some white Romney around or bought some. I did have some shetland, but I recall it being more downy than what this is….anyway, there was only a little bit of it, 11g = 3/8 ounce, and I did a 2-ply and got 38 yards out of it. Then I dyed it apricot (who knew green + pink = apricot? Not me!) and it’s hanging to dry now.
Last weekend, Fiber Camp is about getting the community together to learn from each other. Getting high-quality instruction from top-notch industry experts costs a lot – these industry experts often need to travel, as well as feed their families and pay rent/mortgage. The Common Cod Fiber Guild does a great job of having industry experts at bimonthly meetings, but once a year they mix things up.

Registration is very inexpensive – $40 for 2 days is the most expensive it gets, and that’s if you are not a member of the guild. You can also buy day passes for $25 if you can only make one day. The way it works is that there is a call for workshops among the community – you just edit a wiki page and add your suggestions for topics. You can suggest a topic you would like to see and suggest a topic you can teach. For example, here is the list of session topics from the 2012 Fiber Camp.

The schedule starts to get filled in by the people who are teaching (“enabling”) the sessions. Fiber Camp allows people to schedule workshops during Fiber Camp itself, and because of this, the schedule cannot be completely full before the weekend starts. This allows people to schedule workshops they had not thought of before.

Workshops are either 30 minutes or 1 hour. This is a perfect amount of time to “taste” a skill. For example, last year I learned how to spin on a drop spindle. This year I’m a spinning fiend. But I probably would not have paid $40 for a short beginner workshop to learn, because why spend the money if you don’t know if you’re going to like it? And I certainly would not have paid hundreds of dollars for a half-day or all-day intensive workshop from an industry expert.

That’s the great thing about Fiber Camp – because you have not invested a lot, if you find yourself not liking a skill, you can actually leave the room and go somewhere else, or just be content to sit and listen without practicing the skill. Then again, if you find yourself loving a skill, you learn just enough to get you started, and just enough to let you know that yes, you do want to take a longer/more intensive class.

Now, I’ve been separating “community” and “industry expert” so far in this post. But in reality, they are one and the same. Folks who want to learn double knitting can do so from Alasdair Post-Quinn because, guess what, he’s local to Boston. There are no travel costs involved for him. Did I learn spinning from Abby Franquemont? No, because she lives in the midwest, and it would be unfair to ask her to travel, stay in a hotel room, and give a short workshop when she is not getting reimbursed for her travel/hotel expenses. But I learned from Guido Stein, and I learned enough to know now that I want to take a class from Abby.

There are also vendors, so you can stock up on supplies if you want. The vendor area is also the “hangout” area, and plenty of people hang around there, too. There is a swap table too, where you can drop off or pick up fiber, magazines/books and other supplies (crochet hooks, needles, etc). I dropped off a lot of yarn that was being unloved, including some of my own handspun, and picked up a few magazines/books.

So, on to the fun. What did I learn/get from Fiber Camp this year?

Well, first off, I taught the Sweet Tomato Heel by Cat Bordhi. I already posted the PDF handout. I prepared the handout in advance, and there were a few people who told me they could not make my workshop because there were others going on. “No problem,” I said, “here’s the handout.” Folks really appreciated being able to have something they can look at, because they can try the skill themselves at home.

I not only learned how to make a duct tape mannequin, I made one. Or rather, other folks made one of me – mine is the one in the middle:

I learned how to use conductive thread to make gloves that I can manipulate a smartphone with.

And from the swap table, I picked up some cotton and cotton/linen yarn, a pattern booklet (Reynolds, volume 66 “International Cables by Mary of Holland”), 2 Vogue Knitting magazines with patterns I like (Fall/Winter 1982 and Holiday 1986), and the big score, a Kaffe Fassett book – Kaffe’s California Patches, Kaffe Fassett for Rowan.

Now, I have been looking for a “Cosby sweater” pattern for a few years now. See, my husband actually likes them. While it was Koos Van Den Akker who designed the real Cosby sweaters, Kaffe Fassett is a designer who makes patterns that look like Cosby sweaters. (Actually, while at Fiber Camp, I was told that Kaffe designed Cosby sweaters, and I thought he was the designer, but as I went to check my sources, I realized I was wrong. Always check your sources!)

So anyway, I now have a book of some pretty awesome geometric sweater patterns (think Q-bert). And a pattern to knit for my husband….eventually.
I taught this at FiberCamp this past weekend, and since I made a handout I figured why not share it with you?

I made the handout based on what I learned from Cat Bordhi’s own video at http://bit.ly/sweettomheel. I bought
Cat Bordhi’s Sweet Tomato Heel Socks: an ebook after making the instructions – I bought the book because I love the Sweet Tomato Heel and even though I already know how to do it, internist the book currently has 63 pages (62 plus a title page) and right now has 9 patterns – there will be 11 total, and folks who purchase the book get the updates, so whenever those last 2 patterns come out you will get them. The book also has great troubleshooting information and a few versions of the Sweet Tomato Heel, like the padded sweet tomato heel.

Buying the book was my way of saying “Thanks, Cat!” I understand that not everyone can do this, and that’s OK. I feel it’s OK to share this information because Cat herself shares it in a free YouTube video. I waited until after I wrote up the instructions so I wasn’t tempted to use the same language Cat did in the book, and thus plagiarize. If there is a problem, please definitely contact me, and I will change or take down whatever material is objectionable.

You can download the PDF of the instructions I wrote up for how to do Cat Bordhi‘s Sweet Tomato Heel.
Last weekend, as well as feed their families and pay rent/mortgage. The Common Cod Fiber Guild does a great job of having industry experts at bimonthly meetings, but once a year they mix things up.

Registration is very inexpensive – $40 for 2 days is the most expensive it gets, and that’s if you are not a member of the guild. You can also buy day passes for $25 if you can only make one day. The way it works is that there is a call for workshops among the community – you just edit a wiki page and add your suggestions for topics. You can suggest a topic you would like to see and suggest a topic you can teach. For example, here is the list of session topics from the 2012 Fiber Camp.

The schedule starts to get filled in by the people who are teaching (“enabling”) the sessions. Fiber Camp allows people to schedule workshops during Fiber Camp itself, and because of this, the schedule cannot be completely full before the weekend starts. This allows people to schedule workshops they had not thought of before.

Workshops are either 30 minutes or 1 hour. This is a perfect amount of time to “taste” a skill. For example, last year I learned how to spin on a drop spindle. This year I’m a spinning fiend. But I probably would not have paid $40 for a short beginner workshop to learn, because why spend the money if you don’t know if you’re going to like it? And I certainly would not have paid hundreds of dollars for a half-day or all-day intensive workshop from an industry expert.

That’s the great thing about Fiber Camp – because you have not invested a lot, if you find yourself not liking a skill, you can actually leave the room and go somewhere else, or just be content to sit and listen without practicing the skill. Then again, if you find yourself loving a skill, you learn just enough to get you started, and just enough to let you know that yes, you do want to take a longer/more intensive class.

Now, I’ve been separating “community” and “industry expert” so far in this post. But in reality, they are one and the same. Folks who want to learn double knitting can do so from Alasdair Post-Quinn because, guess what, he’s local to Boston. There are no travel costs involved for him. Did I learn spinning from Abby Franquemont? No, because she lives in the midwest, and it would be unfair to ask her to travel, stay in a hotel room, and give a short workshop when she is not getting reimbursed for her travel/hotel expenses. But I learned from Guido Stein, and I learned enough to know now that I want to take a class from Abby.

There are also vendors, so you can stock up on supplies if you want. The vendor area is also the “hangout” area, and plenty of people hang around there, too. There is a swap table too, where you can drop off or pick up fiber, magazines/books and other supplies (crochet hooks, needles, etc). I dropped off a lot of yarn that was being unloved, including some of my own handspun, and picked up a few magazines/books.

So, on to the fun. What did I learn/get from Fiber Camp this year?

Well, first off, I taught the Sweet Tomato Heel by Cat Bordhi. I already posted the PDF handout. I prepared the handout in advance, and there were a few people who told me they could not make my workshop because there were others going on. “No problem,” I said, “here’s the handout.” Folks really appreciated being able to have something they can look at, because they can try the skill themselves at home.

I not only learned how to make a duct tape mannequin, I made one. Or rather, other folks made one of me – mine is the one in the middle:

I learned how to use conductive thread to make gloves that I can manipulate a smartphone with.

And from the swap table, I picked up some cotton and cotton/linen yarn, a pattern booklet (Reynolds, volume 66 “International Cables by Mary of Holland”), 2 Vogue Knitting magazines with patterns I like (Fall/Winter 1982 and Holiday 1986), and the big score, a Kaffe Fassett book – Kaffe’s California Patches, Kaffe Fassett for Rowan.

Now, I have been looking for a “Cosby sweater” pattern for a few years now. See, my husband actually likes them. While it was Koos Van Den Akker who designed the real Cosby sweaters, Kaffe Fassett is a designer who makes patterns that look like Cosby sweaters. (Actually, while at Fiber Camp, I was told that Kaffe designed Cosby sweaters, and I thought he was the designer, but as I went to check my sources, I realized I was wrong. Always check your sources!)

So anyway, I now have a book of some pretty awesome geometric sweater patterns (think Q-bert). And a pattern to knit for my husband….eventually.
Last weekend, sick I went to Fiber Camp. Fiber Camp is not your usual fiber festival – now in its third year, Fiber Camp is about getting the community together to learn from each other. Getting high-quality instruction from top-notch industry experts costs a lot – these industry experts often need to travel, as well as feed their families and pay rent/mortgage. The Common Cod Fiber Guild does a great job of having industry experts at bimonthly meetings, but once a year they mix things up.

Registration is very inexpensive – $40 for 2 days is the most expensive it gets, and that’s if you are not a member of the guild. You can also buy day passes for $25 if you can only make one day. The way it works is that there is a call for workshops among the community – you just edit a wiki page and add your suggestions for topics. You can suggest a topic you would like to see and suggest a topic you can teach. For example, here is the list of session topics from the 2012 Fiber Camp.

The schedule starts to get filled in by the people who are teaching (“enabling”) the sessions. Fiber Camp allows people to schedule workshops during Fiber Camp itself, and because of this, the schedule cannot be completely full before the weekend starts. This allows people to schedule workshops they had not thought of before.

Workshops are either 30 minutes or 1 hour. This is a perfect amount of time to “taste” a skill. For example, last year I learned how to spin on a drop spindle. This year I’m a spinning fiend. But I probably would not have paid $40 for a short beginner workshop to learn, because why spend the money if you don’t know if you’re going to like it? And I certainly would not have paid hundreds of dollars for a half-day or all-day intensive workshop from an industry expert.

That’s the great thing about Fiber Camp – because you have not invested a lot, if you find yourself not liking a skill, you can actually leave the room and go somewhere else, or just be content to sit and listen without practicing the skill. Then again, if you find yourself loving a skill, you learn just enough to get you started, and just enough to let you know that yes, you do want to take a longer/more intensive class.

Now, I’ve been separating “community” and “industry expert” so far in this post. But in reality, they are one and the same. Folks who want to learn double knitting can do so from Alasdair Post-Quinn because, guess what, he’s local to Boston. There are no travel costs involved for him. Did I learn spinning from Abby Franquemont? No, because she lives in the midwest, and it would be unfair to ask her to travel, stay in a hotel room, and give a short workshop when she is not getting reimbursed for her travel/hotel expenses. But I learned from Guido Stein, and I learned enough to know now that I want to take a class from Abby.

There are also vendors, so you can stock up on supplies if you want. The vendor area is also the “hangout” area, and plenty of people hang around there, too. There is a swap table too, where you can drop off or pick up fiber, magazines/books and other supplies (crochet hooks, needles, etc). I dropped off a lot of yarn that was being unloved, including some of my own handspun, and picked up a few magazines/books.

So, on to the fun. What did I learn/get from Fiber Camp this year?

Well, first off, I taught the Sweet Tomato Heel by Cat Bordhi. I already posted the PDF handout. I prepared the handout in advance, and there were a few people who told me they could not make my workshop because there were others going on. “No problem,” I said, “here’s the handout.” Folks really appreciated being able to have something they can look at, because they can try the skill themselves at home.

I not only learned how to make a duct tape mannequin, I made one. Or rather, other folks made one of me – mine is the one in the middle:

I learned how to use conductive thread to make gloves that I can manipulate a smartphone with.

And from the swap table, I picked up some cotton and cotton/linen yarn, a pattern booklet (Reynolds, volume 66 “International Cables by Mary of Holland”), 2 Vogue Knitting magazines with patterns I like (Fall/Winter 1982 and Holiday 1986), and the big score, a Kaffe Fassett book – Kaffe’s California Patches, Kaffe Fassett for Rowan.

Now, I have been looking for a “Cosby sweater” pattern for a few years now. See, my husband actually likes them. While it was Koos Van Den Akker who designed the real Cosby sweaters, Kaffe Fassett is a designer who makes patterns that look like Cosby sweaters. (Actually, while at Fiber Camp, I was told that Kaffe designed Cosby sweaters, and I thought he was the designer, but as I went to check my sources, I realized I was wrong. Always check your sources!)

So anyway, I now have a book of some pretty awesome geometric sweater patterns (think Q-b

I posted about 2 weeks ago about what I was doing. My status is still the same, on the works in project – I have to re-block the Monkey Sock, and I’m still working on the Crooked Little Scarf.
I posted about 2 weeks ago about what I was doing. My status is still the same, I have to cast on for the 2nd Monkey Sock, and I’m still working on the Crooked Little Scarf.

Cascade finally shipped the yarn I needed to make the Color Me Pretty sweater I want to make for my niece — because a few months ago, I showed her a sweater I was wearing that I knit and she said, “Aunt Sheeri, will you knit me something?” How could I say no? And then a few minutes later she said, “I have a secret to tell you. My favorite color is pink.” Which is not really a secret, but was really cute anyway. This is a top-down raglan sweater, and I have done the yoke so far and am just a few rows away from splitting off the sleeves:

I can’t wait to finish it!

I have also started spinning some fiber gifted to me when I was down in the dumps by my friend Jenn, who is not only a superb human being, but also has an entry in the JMF design contest. You should vote for her!
I posted about 2 weeks ago about what I was doing. My status is still the same, and I’m still working on the Crooked Little Scarf.

Cascade finally shipped the yarn I needed to make the Color Me Pretty sweater I want to make for my niece — because a few months ago, I showed her a sweater I was wearing that I knit and she said, “Aunt Sheeri, will you knit me something?” How could I say no? And then a few minutes later she said, “I have a secret to tell you. My favorite color is pink.” Which is not really a secret, but was really cute anyway. This is a top-down sweater

I posted about 2 weeks ago about what I was doing. My status is still the same, I have to cast on for the 2nd Monkey Sock, and I’m still working on the Crooked Little Scarf.

Cascade finally shipped the yarn I needed to make the Color Me Pretty sweater I want to make for my niece — because a few months ago, I showed her a sweater I was wearing that I knit and she said, “Aunt Sheeri, will you knit me something?” How could I say no? And then a few minutes later she said, “I have a secret to tell you. My favorite color is pink.” Which is not really a secret, but was really cute anyway. This is a top-down raglan sweater, and I have done the yoke so far and am just a few rows away from splitting off the sleeves:

I can’t wait to finish it!

I have also started spinning some fiber gifted to me by my friend Jenn, who is not only a superb human being
I posted about 2 weeks ago about what I was doing. My status is still the same, I have to cast on for the 2nd Monkey Sock, and I’m still working on the Crooked Little Scarf.

Cascade finally shipped the yarn I needed to make the Color Me Pretty sweater I want to make for my niece — because a few months ago, I showed her a sweater I was wearing that I knit and she said, “Aunt Sheeri, will you knit me something?” How could I say no? And then a few minutes later she said, “I have a secret to tell you. My favorite color is pink.” Which is not really a secret, but was really cute anyway. This is a top-down raglan sweater, and I have done the yoke so far and am just a few rows away from splitting off the sleeves:

I can’t wait to finish it!
I posted about 2 weeks ago about what I was doing. My status is still the same, on the works in project – I have to re-block the Monkey Sock, and I’m still working on the Crooked Little Scarf.

Cascade finally shipped the yarn I needed to make the Color Me Pretty sweater I want to make for my niece — because a few months ago, I showed her a sweater I was wearing that I knit and she said, “Aunt Sheeri, will you knit me something?” How could I say no? And then a few minutes later she said, “I have a secret to tell you. My favorite color is pink.” Which is not really a secret, but was really cute anyway. This is a top-down raglan sweater, and I have done the yoke so far and am just a few rows away from splitting off the sleeves:

I can’t wait to finish it!

I have also started spinning some fiber gifted to me when I was down in the dumps by my friend Jenn, who is not only a superb human being, but also has an entry in the JMF design contest. You should vote for her!
I grabbed all the pictures I’ve taken in the past few weeks, infection so here’s a version of what’s going on with me, clinic based on the pictures I have. I know I just updated y’all yesterday, but today’s post has lots of pictures!

In the “knitting while traveling” series, first off is how to knit on a plane when you have a pattern:

Then there’s my answer to “how do I block a scarf in a hotel room”?

Unfortunately it’s a bit too pointy for my tastes, and I do want to re-block it:

Exactly a month ago, on Saturday, February 18th, I finished a Flower Scarf. What’s special about this scarf is that this started out as one ounce of white cashmere roving. I spun it, dyed it (with food coloring) and knit the scarf.

Here is a close-up that shows the color a little better (although it’s a bit washed out):

I acquired a loom while I was in California 2 weeks ago, and I have finished my first piece – the warp is a simple black cotton for weaving, and the weft is Noro Silk Garden sock yarn. This has not yet been blocked:

And I jumped right in and started another project – the warp is mercerized cotton and the weft is Jil Eaton CottonTail:

Here’s a more detailed shot:

I have continued to work on my niece’s Color Me Pretty sweater. I have just gotten to the point where I slip the sleeve stitches off and start working on only the body. This is the magical part of a raglan for me, as it’s when the piece actually starts looking like a sweater:

The yarn is a dark purple solid color, I’m not sure why the photo shows a gradient-type color.

Yesterday was a day full of shopping, and I picked up a seam ripper to finish getting all the cashmere I could out of the thrift store sweater I started on last week. I got the rest of the sweater pulled out and Navajo-plied it. It’s resting on the bobbin now, but I did have a full bobbin from Wednesday, which I took off, measured, bathed, and put up to dry. It dried this morning, and it’s close to 600 yards of what looks like a sock-weight yarn (I haven’t measured WPI yet, but it’s 3.75 ounces, or 109 grams):

I have been spinning more of the Hello Yarn BFL/silk that I talked about yesterday. I also took pictures of the fiber – here’s the fiber as a bump:

I think the colors show better as a braid, though:

I’ve spun up almost half (2 ounces). I’m thinking I might do a 2×2 cable with this yarn, but I’m not 100% sure. I will have to sample. I worry that the colors will muddy, but I think as a cable it will be more heathered. I’ve just split the yarn lengthwise into 4 parts, so there’s no fancy fractal spinning going on or anything, but I’m sure I didn’t divide it exactly equally.
A boucle I made – it’s not as loopy as it “should” be, but I think it’s a pretty good first attempt:

A closeup view:

In the “knitting while traveling” series, grip first off is how to knit on a plane when you have a pattern:

Then there’s my answer to “how do I block a scarf in a hotel room”?

Unfortunately it’s a bit too pointy for my tastes, medications and I do want to re-block it:

Exactly a month ago, on Saturday, February 18th, I finished a Flower Scarf. What’s special about this scarf is that this started out as one ounce of white cashmere roving. I spun it, dyed it (with food coloring) and knit the scarf.

Here is a close-up that shows the color a little better (although it’s a bit washed out):

I acquired a loom while I was in California 2 weeks ago, and I have finished my first piece – the warp is a simple black cotton for weaving, and the weft is Noro Silk Garden sock yarn. This has not yet been blocked:

And I jumped right in and started another project – the warp is mercerized cotton and the weft is Jil Eaton CottonTail:

I have continued to work on my niece’s Color Me Pretty sweater. I have just gotten to the point where I slip the sleeve stitches off and start working on only the body. This is the magical part of a raglan for me, as it’s when the piece actually starts looking like a sweater:

The yarn is a dark purple solid color, I’m not sure why the photo shows a gradient-type color.

Yesterday was a day full of shopping, and I picked up a seam ripper to finish getting all the cashmere I could out of the thrift store sweater I started on last week. I got the rest of the sweater pulled out and Navajo-plied it. It’s resting on the bobbin now, but I did have a full bobbin from Wednesday, which I took off, measured, bathed, and put up to dry. It dried this morning, and it’s close to 600 yards of what looks like a sock-weight yarn (I haven’t measured WPI yet, but it’s 3.75 ounces, or 109 grams):

I have been spinning more of the Hello Yarn BFL/silk that I talked about yesterday. I also took pictures of the fiber – here’s the fiber as a bump:

I think the colors show better as a braid, though:

A boucle I made – it’s not as loopy as it “should” be, but I think it’s a pretty good first attempt:

A closeup view:

In the “knitting while traveling” series, first off is how to knit on a plane when you have a pattern:

Then there’s my answer to “how do I block a scarf in a hotel room”?

Unfortunately it’s a bit too pointy for my tastes, sovaldi sale and I do want to re-block it:

Exactly a month ago, on Saturday, February 18th, I finished a Flower Scarf. What’s special about this scarf is that this started out as one ounce of white cashmere roving. I spun it, dyed it (with food coloring) and knit the scarf.

Here is a close-up that shows the color a little better (although it’s a bit washed out):

I acquired a loom while I was in California 2 weeks ago, and I have finished my first piece – the warp is a simple black cotton for weaving, and the weft is Noro Silk Garden sock yarn. This has not yet been blocked:

And I jumped right in and started another project – the warp is mercerized cotton and the weft is Jil Eaton CottonTail:

Here’s a more detailed shot:

I have continued to work on my niece’s Color Me Pretty sweater. I have just gotten to the point where I slip the sleeve stitches off and start working on only the body. This is the magical part of a raglan for me, as it’s when the piece actually starts looking like a sweater:

The yarn is a dark purple solid color, I’m not sure why the photo shows a gradient-type color.

Yesterday was a day full of shopping, and I picked up a seam ripper to finish getting all the cashmere I could out of the thrift store sweater I started on last week. I got the rest of the sweater pulled out and Navajo-plied it. It’s resting on the bobbin now, but I did have a full bobbin from Wednesday, which I took off, measured, bathed, and put up to dry. It dried this morning, and it’s close to 600 yards of what looks like a sock-weight yarn (I haven’t measured WPI yet, but it’s 3.75 ounces, or 109 grams):

I have been spinning more of the Hello Yarn BFL/silk that I talked about yesterday. I also took pictures of the fiber – here’s the fiber as a bump:

I think the colors show better as a braid, though:

A boucle I made – it’s not as loopy as it “should” be, but I think it’s a pretty good first attempt:

A closeup view:

In the “knitting while traveling” series, first off is how to knit on a plane when you have a pattern:

Then there’s my answer to “how do I block a scarf in a hotel room”?

Unfortunately it’s a bit too pointy for my tastes, and I do want to re-block it:

Exactly a month ago, on Saturday, February 18th, I finished a Flower Scarf. What’s special about this scarf is that this started out as one ounce of white cashmere roving. I spun it, dyed it (with food coloring) and knit the scarf.

Here is a close-up that shows the color a little better (although it’s a bit washed out):

I acquired a loom while I was in California 2 weeks ago, and I have finished my first piece – the warp is a simple black cotton for weaving, and the weft is Noro Silk Garden sock yarn. This has not yet been blocked:

And I jumped right in and started another project – the warp is mercerized cotton and the weft is Jil Eaton CottonTail:

Here’s a more detailed shot:

I have continued to work on my niece’s Color Me Pretty sweater. I have just gotten to the point where I slip the sleeve stitches off and start working on only the body. This is the magical part of a raglan for me, as it’s when the piece actually starts looking like a sweater:

The yarn is a dark purple solid color, I’m not sure why the photo shows a gradient-type color.

Yesterday was a day full of shopping, and I picked up a seam ripper to finish getting all the cashmere I could out of the thrift store sweater I started on last week. I got the rest of the sweater pulled out and Navajo-plied it. It’s resting on the bobbin now, but I did have a full bobbin from Wednesday, which I took off, measured, bathed, and put up to dry. It dried this morning, and it’s close to 600 yards of what looks like a sock-weight yarn (I haven’t measured WPI yet, but it’s 3.75 ounces, or 109 grams):

I have been spinning more of the Hello Yarn BFL/silk that I talked about yesterday. I also took pictures of the fiber – here’s the fiber as a bump:

I think the colors show better as a braid, though:

A boucle I made – it’s not as loopy as it “should” be, but I think it’s a pretty good first attempt:

A closeup view:

In the “knitting while traveling” series, first off is how to knit on a plane when you have a pattern:

Then there’s my answer to “how do I block a scarf in a hotel room”?

Unfortunately it’s a bit too pointy for my tastes, and I do want to re-block it:

Exactly a month ago, on Saturday, February 18th, I finished a Flower Scarf. What’s special about this scarf is that this started out as one ounce of white cashmere roving. I spun it, dyed it (with food coloring) and knit the scarf.

Here is a close-up that shows the color a little better (although it’s a bit washed out):

I acquired a loom while I was in California 2 weeks ago, and I have finished my first piece – the warp is a simple black cotton for weaving, and the weft is Noro Silk Garden sock yarn. This has not yet been blocked:

And I jumped right in and started another project – the warp is mercerized cotton and the weft is Jil Eaton CottonTail:

Here’s a more detailed shot:

I have continued to work on my niece’s Color Me Pretty sweater. I have just gotten to the point where I slip the sleeve stitches off and start working on only the body. This is the magical part of a raglan for me, as it’s when the piece actually starts looking like a sweater:

The yarn is a dark purple solid color, I’m not sure why the photo shows a gradient-type color.

Yesterday was a day full of shopping, and I picked up a seam ripper to finish getting all the cashmere I could out of the thrift store sweater I started on last week. I got the rest of the sweater pulled out and Navajo-plied it. It’s resting on the bobbin now, but I did have a full bobbin from Wednesday, which I took off, measured, bathed, and put up to dry. It dried this morning, and it’s close to 600 yards of what looks like a sock-weight yarn (I haven’t measured WPI yet, but it’s 3.75 ounces, or 109 grams):

I have been spinning more of the Hello Yarn BFL/silk that I talked about yesterday. I also took pictures of the fiber – here’s the fiber as a bump:

I think the colors show better as a braid, though:

I grabbed all the pictures I’ve taken in the past few weeks, but today’s post has lots of pictures!

In the “knitting while traveling” series, first off is how to knit on a plane when you have a pattern:

Then there’s my answer to “how do I block a scarf in a hotel room”?

Unfortunately it’s a bit too pointy for my tastes, and I do want to re-block it:

Exactly a month ago, on Saturday, February 18th, I finished a Flower Scarf. What’s special about this scarf is that this started out as one ounce of white cashmere roving. I spun it, dyed it (with food coloring) and knit the scarf.

Here is a close-up that shows the color a little better (although it’s a bit washed out):

I acquired a loom while I was in California 2 weeks ago, and I have finished my first piece – the warp is a simple black cotton for weaving, and the weft is Noro Silk Garden sock yarn. This has not yet been blocked:

And I jumped right in and started another project – the warp is mercerized cotton and the weft is Jil Eaton CottonTail:

Here’s a more detailed shot:

I have continued to work on my niece’s Color Me Pretty sweater. I have just gotten to the point where I slip the sleeve stitches off and start working on only the body. This is the magical part of a raglan for me, as it’s when the piece actually starts looking like a sweater:

The yarn is a dark purple solid color, I’m not sure why the photo shows a gradient-type color.

Yesterday was a day full of shopping, and I picked up a seam ripper to finish getting all the cashmere I could out of the thrift store sweater I started on last week. I got the rest of the sweater pulled out and Navajo-plied it. It’s resting on the bobbin now, but I did have a full bobbin from Wednesday, which I took off, measured, bathed, and put up to dry. It dried this morning, and it’s close to 600 yards of what looks like a sock-weight yarn (I haven’t measured WPI yet, but it’s 3.75 ounces, or 109 grams):

I have been spinning more of the Hello Yarn BFL/silk that I talked about yesterday. I also took pictures of the fiber – here’s the fiber as a bump:

I think the colors show better as a braid, though:

I’ve spun up almost half (2 ounces). I’m thinking I might do a 2×2 cable with this yarn, but I’m not 100% sure. I will have to sample. I worry that the colors will muddy, but I think as a cable it will be more heathered. I’ve just split the yarn lengthwise into 4 parts,
A boucle I made – it’s not as loopy as it “should” be, but I think it’s a pretty good first attempt:

A closeup view:

In the “knitting while traveling” series, first off is how to knit on a plane when you have a pattern:

Then there’s my answer to “how do I block a scarf in a hotel room”?

Unfortunately it’s a bit too pointy for my tastes, and I do want to re-block it:

Exactly a month ago, on Saturday, February 18th, I finished a Flower Scarf. What’s special about this scarf is that this started out as one ounce of white cashmere roving. I spun it, dyed it (with food coloring) and knit the scarf.

Here is a close-up that shows the color a little better (although it’s a bit washed out):

I acquired a loom while I was in California 2 weeks ago, and I have finished my first piece – the warp is a simple black cotton for weaving, and the weft is Noro Silk Garden sock yarn. This has not yet been blocked:

And I jumped right in and started another project – the warp is mercerized cotton and the weft is Jil Eaton CottonTail:

Here’s a more detailed shot:

I have continued to work on my niece’s Color Me Pretty sweater. I have just gotten to the point where I slip the sleeve stitches off and start working on only the body. This is the magical part of a raglan for me, as it’s when the piece actually starts looking like a sweater:

The yarn is a dark purple solid color, I’m not sure why the photo shows a gradient-type color.

Yesterday was a day full of shopping, and I picked up a seam ripper to finish getting all the cashmere I could out of the thrift store sweater I started on last week. I got the rest of the sweater pulled out and Navajo-plied it. It’s resting on the bobbin now, but I did have a full bobbin from Wednesday, which I took off, measured, bathed, and put up to dry. It dried this morning, and it’s close to 600 yards of what looks like a sock-weight yarn (I haven’t measured WPI yet, but it’s 3.75 ounces, or 109 grams):

I have been spinning more of the Hello Yarn BFL/silk that I talked about yesterday. I also took pictures of the fiber – here’s the fiber as a bump:

I think the colors show better as a braid, though:

I grabbed all the pictures I’ve taken in the past few weeks, but today’s post has lots of pictures!

In the “knitting while traveling” series, first off is how to knit on a plane when you have a pattern:

Then there’s my answer to “how do I block a scarf in a hotel room”?

Unfortunately it’s a bit too pointy for my tastes, and I do want to re-block it:

Exactly a month ago, on Saturday, February 18th, I finished a Flower Scarf. What’s special about this scarf is that this started out as one ounce of white cashmere roving. I spun it, dyed it (with food coloring) and knit the scarf.

Here is a close-up that shows the color a little better (although it’s a bit washed out):

I acquired a loom while I was in California 2 weeks ago, and I have finished my first piece – the warp is a simple black cotton for weaving, and the weft is Noro Silk Garden sock yarn. This has not yet been blocked:

And I jumped right in and started another project – the warp is mercerized cotton and the weft is Jil Eaton CottonTail:

Here’s a more detailed shot:

I have continued to work on my niece’s Color Me Pretty sweater. I have just gotten to the point where I slip the sleeve stitches off and start working on only the body. This is the magical part of a raglan for me, as it’s when the piece actually starts looking like a sweater:

The yarn is a dark purple solid color, I’m not sure why the photo shows a gradient-type color.

Yesterday was a day full of shopping, and I picked up a seam ripper to finish getting all the cashmere I could out of the thrift store sweater I started on last week. I got the rest of the sweater pulled out and Navajo-plied it. It’s resting on the bobbin now, but I did have a full bobbin from Wednesday, which I took off, measured, bathed, and put up to dry. It dried this morning, and it’s close to 600 yards of what looks like a sock-weight yarn (I haven’t measured WPI yet, but it’s 3.75 ounces, or 109 grams):

I have been spinning more of the Hello Yarn BFL/silk that I talked about yesterday. I also took pictures of the fiber – here’s the fiber as a bump:

I think the colors show better as a braid, though:

I’ve spun up almost half (2 ounces). I’m thinking I might do a 2×2 cable with this yarn, but I’m not 100% sure. I will have to sample. I worry that the colors will muddy, but I think as a cable it will be more heathered. I’ve just split the yarn lengthwise into 4 parts,
It’s been 2 weeks since I’ve updated y’all on how my crafty world is going….

I’ve been focusing on spinning a bit, but spinning draws attention. And I knit on planes…so I know I’ll have knitting time, which is why I’m focusing on spinning.

Also the Ravelry group for Spunky Eclectic is doing a stashdown. I took a ton of pictures of the stash I want to spin down – mostly I want to spin down the stuff that is not appealing to spin, which is the white stuff I bought for dyeing, and some random stuff I bought to see how it spins (and sometimes it’s a combination of the two).

But I’m getting ahead of myself. Remember the BFL/silk that my friend Jenn gifted to me? If you don’t, here’s a reminder:

The colorway is called “Floating Down”. Well, I got a 460 yards of a 15 WPI yarn from 4 oz, which is pretty good yardage:

As for the Color Me Pretty Sweater for my niece, it’s coming along. But it’s knitting, so I’m not really focusing on it. I did get some knitting on it done Friday night, during Tony’s gig. The sweater is full into the body now, and it’s stockinette in the round all the way for a few more inches. It will be good plane knitting. As for Tony’s gig – it was not his usual stuff, but if you want to hear all 45 minutes of awesomeness (Tony’s the one playing the piano), just download the link on this page. It’s 432 Mb so it might take a while. I hope you enjoy it!

I also worked a little more on a baby sweater for my co-worker. The baby has been here for a few weeks already! I’ll probably prioritize finishing this first, and then finishing the Color Me Pretty sweater. All this spinning is really driving home the fact that I need to knit up what I already have! It doesn’t help that I’m part of 2 spinning clubs, and get 12 oz of fiber each month. I’ll likely drop the batt club that I’m in, I’ve found that I prefer spinning top to batts….but I don’t hate spinning batts, either! I really love the yarn I get from the batts, though…mostly because I get a lot of sparkle in them. But April’s shipment will be 6 months in the club

Weaving? None. But I signed up for a bi-monthly weaving club, that ships in the even months, so in 2 weeks I’ll have something to weave.

I also spun up some mystery wool. It was white, and somewhat of a longwool, but not as coarse as Wensleydale. I want to say it’s Romney, because that’s what it feels like, but I can’t imagine when I had some white Romney around or bought some. I did have some shetland, but I recall it being more downy than what this is….anyway, there was only a little bit of it, 11g = 3/8 ounce, and I did a 2-ply and got 38 yards out of it. Then I dyed it apricot (who knew green + pink = apricot? Not me!) and it’s hanging to dry now.
A boucle I made – it’s not as loopy as it “should” be, but I think it’s a pretty good first attempt:

A closeup view:

In the “knitting while traveling” series, first off is how to knit on a plane when you have a pattern:

Then there’s my answer to “how do I block a scarf in a hotel room”?

Unfortunately it’s a bit too pointy for my tastes, and I do want to re-block it:

Exactly a month ago, on Saturday, February 18th, I finished a Flower Scarf. What’s special about this scarf is that this started out as one ounce of white cashmere roving. I spun it, dyed it (with food coloring) and knit the scarf.

Here is a close-up that shows the color a little better (although it’s a bit washed out):

I acquired a loom while I was in California 2 weeks ago, and I have finished my first piece – the warp is a simple black cotton for weaving, and the weft is Noro Silk Garden sock yarn. This has not yet been blocked:

And I jumped right in and started another project – the warp is mercerized cotton and the weft is Jil Eaton CottonTail:

Here’s a more detailed shot:

I have continued to work on my niece’s Color Me Pretty sweater. I have just gotten to the point where I slip the sleeve stitches off and start working on only the body. This is the magical part of a raglan for me, as it’s when the piece actually starts looking like a sweater:

The yarn is a dark purple solid color, I’m not sure why the photo shows a gradient-type color.

Yesterday was a day full of shopping, and I picked up a seam ripper to finish getting all the cashmere I could out of the thrift store sweater I started on last week. I got the rest of the sweater pulled out and Navajo-plied it. It’s resting on the bobbin now, but I did have a full bobbin from Wednesday, which I took off, measured, bathed, and put up to dry. It dried this morning, and it’s close to 600 yards of what looks like a sock-weight yarn (I haven’t measured WPI yet, but it’s 3.75 ounces, or 109 grams):

I have been spinning more of the Hello Yarn BFL/silk that I talked about yesterday. I also took pictures of the fiber – here’s the fiber as a bump:

I think the colors show better as a braid, though:

I grabbed all the pictures I’ve taken in the past few weeks, but today’s post has lots of pictures!

In the “knitting while traveling” series, first off is how to knit on a plane when you have a pattern:

Then there’s my answer to “how do I block a scarf in a hotel room”?

Unfortunately it’s a bit too pointy for my tastes, and I do want to re-block it:

Exactly a month ago, on Saturday, February 18th, I finished a Flower Scarf. What’s special about this scarf is that this started out as one ounce of white cashmere roving. I spun it, dyed it (with food coloring) and knit the scarf.

Here is a close-up that shows the color a little better (although it’s a bit washed out):

I acquired a loom while I was in California 2 weeks ago, and I have finished my first piece – the warp is a simple black cotton for weaving, and the weft is Noro Silk Garden sock yarn. This has not yet been blocked:

And I jumped right in and started another project – the warp is mercerized cotton and the weft is Jil Eaton CottonTail:

Here’s a more detailed shot:

I have continued to work on my niece’s Color Me Pretty sweater. I have just gotten to the point where I slip the sleeve stitches off and start working on only the body. This is the magical part of a raglan for me, as it’s when the piece actually starts looking like a sweater:

The yarn is a dark purple solid color, I’m not sure why the photo shows a gradient-type color.

Yesterday was a day full of shopping, and I picked up a seam ripper to finish getting all the cashmere I could out of the thrift store sweater I started on last week. I got the rest of the sweater pulled out and Navajo-plied it. It’s resting on the bobbin now, but I did have a full bobbin from Wednesday, which I took off, measured, bathed, and put up to dry. It dried this morning, and it’s close to 600 yards of what looks like a sock-weight yarn (I haven’t measured WPI yet, but it’s 3.75 ounces, or 109 grams):

I have been spinning more of the Hello Yarn BFL/silk that I talked about yesterday. I also took pictures of the fiber – here’s the fiber as a bump:

I think the colors show better as a braid, though:

I’ve spun up almost half (2 ounces). I’m thinking I might do a 2×2 cable with this yarn, but I’m not 100% sure. I will have to sample. I worry that the colors will muddy, but I think as a cable it will be more heathered. I’ve just split the yarn lengthwise into 4 parts,
It’s been 2 weeks since I’ve updated y’all on how my crafty world is going….

I’ve been focusing on spinning a bit, but spinning draws attention. And I knit on planes…so I know I’ll have knitting time, which is why I’m focusing on spinning.

Also the Ravelry group for Spunky Eclectic is doing a stashdown. I took a ton of pictures of the stash I want to spin down – mostly I want to spin down the stuff that is not appealing to spin, which is the white stuff I bought for dyeing, and some random stuff I bought to see how it spins (and sometimes it’s a combination of the two).

But I’m getting ahead of myself. Remember the BFL/silk that my friend Jenn gifted to me? If you don’t, here’s a reminder:

The colorway is called “Floating Down”. Well, I got a 460 yards of a 15 WPI yarn from 4 oz, which is pretty good yardage:

As for the Color Me Pretty Sweater for my niece, it’s coming along. But it’s knitting, so I’m not really focusing on it. I did get some knitting on it done Friday night, during Tony’s gig. The sweater is full into the body now, and it’s stockinette in the round all the way for a few more inches. It will be good plane knitting. As for Tony’s gig – it was not his usual stuff, but if you want to hear all 45 minutes of awesomeness (Tony’s the one playing the piano), just download the link on this page. It’s 432 Mb so it might take a while. I hope you enjoy it!

I also worked a little more on a baby sweater for my co-worker. The baby has been here for a few weeks already! I’ll probably prioritize finishing this first, and then finishing the Color Me Pretty sweater. All this spinning is really driving home the fact that I need to knit up what I already have! It doesn’t help that I’m part of 2 spinning clubs, and get 12 oz of fiber each month. I’ll likely drop the batt club that I’m in, I’ve found that I prefer spinning top to batts….but I don’t hate spinning batts, either! I really love the yarn I get from the batts, though…mostly because I get a lot of sparkle in them. But April’s shipment will be 6 months in the club

Weaving? None. But I signed up for a bi-monthly weaving club, that ships in the even months, so in 2 weeks I’ll have something to weave.

I also spun up some mystery wool. It was white, and somewhat of a longwool, but not as coarse as Wensleydale. I want to say it’s Romney, because that’s what it feels like, but I can’t imagine when I had some white Romney around or bought some. I did have some shetland, but I recall it being more downy than what this is….anyway, there was only a little bit of it, 11g = 3/8 ounce, and I did a 2-ply and got 38 yards out of it. Then I dyed it apricot (who knew green + pink = apricot? Not me!) and it’s hanging to dry now.
It has been three weeks since my last update. I have been busy, glands but not hugely busy in a crafty sense. April is a busy month for me, pilule and as in years past I went to my industry’s annual big conference in California. It’s a week of running around, speaking at workshops, learning, and meeting people. Suffice it to say, I knew I wasn’t going to be doing much crafting, but took a few projects with me anyway.

On the plane, I was able to finish a “baseball jersey-style” baby sweater for my coworker, who had a baby girl March 12th. It was mailed off last week.

So then I set to work on finishing the Color Me Pretty sweater for my niece. I got the body done, but had to switch to smaller needles for the sleeves…I did not have the smaller needles on me….I have since cast on a sleeve with a smaller needle. The picture is accurate, and yes, it looks like a giant sweater/dress with teeny arms. After I finish one sleeve I may have to size it up, because I have a feeling I may need to rip out the sleeve….or maybe it will look better once the sleeve is off the needle?

After I’d finished both of those, I still had some time on the plane, so I worked more on Tony’s Crooked Little Scarf, which is now almost 16 inches long:

I did not bring *any* spinning paraphernalia with me to the conference and have not had a ton of time to spin since coming back. However, I did spin a bit before I left, and have made a *bit* more progress with my fiber stashdown.

I spun up a small amount – 38 yards – of unknown fiber, probably shetland. I then dyed it apricot – who knew pink + green = apricot? Not me, but I sure was happily surprised that it worked!

And I spun up half of the 3.5 ounces of “Clown Parts”, the April 2012 batt from the Happy Hooves Batt Club from Enhcanted Knoll Farm. The batt is mostly Portuguese wool, with silk, silk noil and bamboo. I love this colorway more and more every day! This is 1.75 ounce, and I got 66 yards, spun woolen/long draw and then chain plied.

I think I will maybe make a Go Diagonal scarf on big needles, or something similar, to let the yarn speak for itself.

I do not remember posting about this – I had 1 oz of super-soft angora rabbit from The Yarn Marm, which I spun and gradient-dyed a vibrant purple:

I gradient-dyed it by making a very loose ball and dyeing the ball. I think it worked well, though 1 oz was not enough to get me used to spinning angora! It’s a very fuzzy spin, I spun it long draw/woolen, and then 2-plied it. 75 yards, 1 oz, 7 wpi.

I also ordered some llama yearling from The Yarn Marm when I ordered the rabbit. However, I did not read the listing properly, which stated there was dust and VM (vegetable matter) and I should have deduced that it meant it was raw. So after a while of attempting to spin it raw (there is no “grease” so that was not an issue), I finally bought hand-carders, and started carding the rest of the llama. I probably have spun half in the raw, then I started carding the rest. About halfway through the carding, with dust and VM getting everywhere (but I still had to stop and pick out VM) I started to wonder if washing first would help.

So last night I washed the rest of the llama yearling, that wasn’t already spun or carded. It’s currently drying, and after that I will card the rest of it. I’ll see if it’s easier to get more of the VM out now – very little came out during washing, but a LOT of dirt did come out, so that’s good.

This week I received my first shipment of the Spunky Eclectic Weaving Club, and I have started to make the scarf that comes with the kit. This is my third weaving project on my rigid heddle loom, and I like how it’s coming out:

I would love to take a weaving class and learn more about how to do patterns with sticks, so I can make a houndstooth scarf for Tony. But maybe I should finish his other scarf, first….
It has been three weeks since my last update. I have been busy, and as in years past I went to my industry’s annual big conference in California. It’s a week of running around, speaking at workshops, learning, and meeting people. Suffice it to say, I knew I wasn’t going to be doing much crafting, but took a few projects with me anyway.

On the plane, I was able to finish a “baseball jersey-style” baby sweater for my coworker, who had a baby girl March 12th. It was mailed off last week.

So then I set to work on finishing the Color Me Pretty sweater for my niece. I got the body done, but had to switch to smaller needles for the sleeves…I did not have the smaller needles on me….I have since cast on a sleeve with a smaller needle. The picture is accurate, and yes, it looks like a giant sweater/dress with teeny arms. After I finish one sleeve I may have to size it up, because I have a feeling I may need to rip out the sleeve….or maybe it will look better once the sleeve is off the needle?

I did not bring *any* spinning paraphernalia with me to the conference and have not had a ton of time to spin since coming back. However, I did spin a bit before I left, and have made a *bit* more progress with my fiber stashdown.

I spun up a small amount – 38 yards – of unknown fiber, probably shetland. I then dyed it apricot – who knew pink + green = apricot? Not me, but I sure was happily surprised that it worked!

And I spun up half of the 3.5 ounces of “Clown Parts”, the April 2012 batt from the Happy Hooves Batt Club from Enhcanted Knoll Farm. The batt is mostly Portuguese wool, with silk, silk noil and bamboo. I love this colorway more and more every day! This is 1.75 ounce, and I got 66 yards, spun woolen/long draw and then chain plied.

Go Diagonal scarf on big needles, or something similar, to let the yarn speak for itself.

I do not remember posting about this – I had 1 oz of super-soft angora rabbit, which I spun and gradient-dyed a vibrant purple:

I gradient-dyed it by making a very loose ball and dyeing the ball. I think it worked well, though 1 oz was not enough to get me used to spinning angora! It’s a very fuzzy

Bought hand-carders, started carding the rest of the llama. I was getting a lot of dirt and still had to pick out the hay, so I decided to wash what was left of the llama yearling to see if the dirt and hay would come out. The dirt did, the hay, not so much.
It has been three weeks since my last update. I have been busy, and as in years past I went to my industry’s annual big conference in California. It’s a week of running around, speaking at workshops, learning, and meeting people. Suffice it to say, I knew I wasn’t going to be doing much crafting, but took a few projects with me anyway.

On the plane, I was able to finish a “baseball jersey-style” baby sweater for my coworker, who had a baby girl March 12th. It was mailed off last week.

So then I set to work on finishing the Color Me Pretty sweater for my niece. I got the body done, but had to switch to smaller needles for the sleeves…I did not have the smaller needles on me….I have since cast on a sleeve with a smaller needle. The picture is accurate, and yes, it looks like a giant sweater/dress with teeny arms. After I finish one sleeve I may have to size it up, because I have a feeling I may need to rip out the sleeve….or maybe it will look better once the sleeve is off the needle?

I did not bring *any* spinning paraphernalia with me to the conference and have not had a ton of time to spin since coming back. However, I did spin a bit before I left, and have made a *bit* more progress with my fiber stashdown.

I spun up a small amount – 38 yards – of unknown fiber, probably shetland. I then dyed it apricot – who knew pink + green = apricot? Not me, but I sure was happily surprised that it worked!

And I spun up half of the 3.5 ounces of “Clown Parts”, the April 2012 batt from the Happy Hooves Batt Club from Enhcanted Knoll Farm. The batt is mostly Portuguese wool, with silk, silk noil and bamboo. I love this colorway more and more every day! This is 1.75 ounce, and I got 66 yards, spun woolen/long draw and then chain plied.

Go Diagonal scarf on big needles, or something similar, to let the yarn speak for itself.

I do not remember posting about this – I had 1 oz of super-soft angora rabbit, which I spun and gradient-dyed a vibrant purple:

I gradient-dyed it by making a very loose ball and dyeing the ball. I think it worked well, though 1 oz was not enough to get me used to spinning angora! It’s a very fuzzy

Bought hand-carders, started carding the rest of the llama. I was getting a lot of dirt and still had to pick out the hay, so I decided to wash what was left of the llama yearling to see if the dirt and hay would come out. The dirt did, the hay, not so much.
It has been three weeks since my last update. I have been busy, speaking at workshops, learning, and meeting people. Suffice it to say, I knew I wasn’t going to be doing much crafting, but took a few projects with me anyway.

On the plane, I was able to finish a “baseball jersey-style” baby sweater for my coworker, who had a baby girl March 12th. It was mailed off last week.

So then I set to work on finishing the Color Me Pretty sweater for my niece. I got the body done, but had to switch to smaller needles for the sleeves…I did not have the smaller needles on me….I have since cast on a sleeve with a smaller needle. The picture is accurate, and yes, it looks like a giant sweater/dress with teeny arms. After I finish one sleeve I may have to size it up, because I have a feeling I may need to rip out the sleeve….or maybe it will look better once the sleeve is off the needle?

I did not bring *any* spinning paraphernalia with me to the conference and have not had a ton of time to spin since coming back. However, I did spin a bit before I left, and have made a *bit* more progress with my fiber stashdown.

I spun up a small amount – 38 yards – of unknown fiber, probably shetland. I then dyed it apricot – who knew pink + green = apricot? Not me, but I sure was happily surprised that it worked!

And I spun up half of the 3.5 ounces of “Clown Parts”, the April 2012 batt from the Happy Hooves Batt Club from Enhcanted Knoll Farm. The batt is mostly Portuguese wool, with silk, silk noil and bamboo. I love this colorway more and more every day! This is 1.75 ounce, and I got 66 yards, spun woolen/long draw and then chain plied.

Go Diagonal scarf on big needles, or something similar, to let the yarn speak for itself.

I do not remember posting about this – I had 1 oz of super-soft angora rabbit, which I spun and gradient-dyed a vibrant purple:

I gradient-dyed it by making a very loose ball and dyeing the ball. I think it worked well, though 1 oz was not enough to get me used to spinning angora! It’s a very fuzzy spin, I spun it long draw/woolen, and then 2-plied it.

Bought hand-carders, started carding the rest of the llama. I was getting a lot of dirt and still had to pick out the hay, so I decided to wash what was left of the llama yearling to see if the dirt and hay would come out. The dirt did, the hay, not so much.
It has been three weeks since my last update. I have been busy, and as in years past I went to my industry’s annual big conference in California. It’s a week of running around, speaking at workshops, learning, and meeting people. Suffice it to say, I knew I wasn’t going to be doing much crafting, but took a few projects with me anyway.

On the plane, I was able to finish a “baseball jersey-style” baby sweater for my coworker, who had a baby girl March 12th. It was mailed off last week.

So then I set to work on finishing the Color Me Pretty sweater for my niece. I got the body done, but had to switch to smaller needles for the sleeves…I did not have the smaller needles on me….I have since cast on a sleeve with a smaller needle. The picture is accurate, and yes, it looks like a giant sweater/dress with teeny arms. After I finish one sleeve I may have to size it up, because I have a feeling I may need to rip out the sleeve….or maybe it will look better once the sleeve is off the needle?

I did not bring *any* spinning paraphernalia with me to the conference and have not had a ton of time to spin since coming back. However, I did spin a bit before I left, and have made a *bit* more progress with my fiber stashdown.

I spun up a small amount – 38 yards – of unknown fiber, probably shetland. I then dyed it apricot – who knew pink + green = apricot? Not me, but I sure was happily surprised that it worked!

And I spun up half of the 3.5 ounces of “Clown Parts”, the April 2012 batt from the Happy Hooves Batt Club from Enhcanted Knoll Farm. The batt is mostly Portuguese wool, with silk, silk noil and bamboo. I love this colorway more and more every day! This is 1.75 ounce, and I got 66 yards, spun woolen/long draw and then chain plied.

Go Diagonal scarf on big needles, or something similar, to let the yarn speak for itself.

I do not remember posting about this – I had 1 oz of super-soft angora rabbit, which I spun and gradient-dyed a vibrant purple:

I gradient-dyed it by making a very loose ball and dyeing the ball. I think it worked well, though 1 oz was not enough to get me used to spinning angora! It’s a very fuzzy

Bought hand-carders, started carding the rest of the llama. I was getting a lot of dirt and still had to pick out the hay, so I decided to wash what was left of the llama yearling to see if the dirt and hay would come out. The dirt did, the hay, not so much.
It has been three weeks since my last update. I have been busy, speaking at workshops, learning, and meeting people. Suffice it to say, I knew I wasn’t going to be doing much crafting, but took a few projects with me anyway.

On the plane, I was able to finish a “baseball jersey-style” baby sweater for my coworker, who had a baby girl March 12th. It was mailed off last week.

So then I set to work on finishing the Color Me Pretty sweater for my niece. I got the body done, but had to switch to smaller needles for the sleeves…I did not have the smaller needles on me….I have since cast on a sleeve with a smaller needle. The picture is accurate, and yes, it looks like a giant sweater/dress with teeny arms. After I finish one sleeve I may have to size it up, because I have a feeling I may need to rip out the sleeve….or maybe it will look better once the sleeve is off the needle?

I did not bring *any* spinning paraphernalia with me to the conference and have not had a ton of time to spin since coming back. However, I did spin a bit before I left, and have made a *bit* more progress with my fiber stashdown.

I spun up a small amount – 38 yards – of unknown fiber, probably shetland. I then dyed it apricot – who knew pink + green = apricot? Not me, but I sure was happily surprised that it worked!

And I spun up half of the 3.5 ounces of “Clown Parts”, the April 2012 batt from the Happy Hooves Batt Club from Enhcanted Knoll Farm. The batt is mostly Portuguese wool, with silk, silk noil and bamboo. I love this colorway more and more every day! This is 1.75 ounce, and I got 66 yards, spun woolen/long draw and then chain plied.

Go Diagonal scarf on big needles, or something similar, to let the yarn speak for itself.

I do not remember posting about this – I had 1 oz of super-soft angora rabbit, which I spun and gradient-dyed a vibrant purple:

I gradient-dyed it by making a very loose ball and dyeing the ball. I think it worked well, though 1 oz was not enough to get me used to spinning angora! It’s a very fuzzy spin, I spun it long draw/woolen, and then 2-plied it.

Bought hand-carders, started carding the rest of the llama. I was getting a lot of dirt and still had to pick out the hay, so I decided to wash what was left of the llama yearling to see if the dirt and hay would come out. The dirt did, the hay, not so much.
It has been three weeks since my last update. I have been busy, nurse but not hugely busy in a crafty sense. April is a busy month for me, hepatitis and as in years past I went to my industry’s annual big conference in California. It’s a week of running around, decease speaking at workshops, learning, and meeting people. Suffice it to say, I knew I wasn’t going to be doing much crafting, but took a few projects with me anyway.

On the plane, I was able to finish a “baseball jersey-style” baby sweater for my coworker, who had a baby girl March 12th. It was mailed off last week.

So then I set to work on finishing the Color Me Pretty sweater for my niece. I got the body done, but had to switch to smaller needles for the sleeves…I did not have the smaller needles on me….I have since cast on a sleeve with a smaller needle. The picture is accurate, and yes, it looks like a giant sweater/dress with teeny arms. After I finish one sleeve I may have to size it up, because I have a feeling I may need to rip out the sleeve….or maybe it will look better once the sleeve is off the needle?

I did not bring *any* spinning paraphernalia with me to the conference and have not had a ton of time to spin since coming back. However, I did spin a bit before I left, and have made a *bit* more progress with my fiber stashdown.

I spun up a small amount – 38 yards – of unknown fiber, probably shetland. I then dyed it apricot – who knew pink + green = apricot? Not me, but I sure was happily surprised that it worked!

And I spun up half of the 3.5 ounces of “Clown Parts”, the April 2012 batt from the Happy Hooves Batt Club from Enhcanted Knoll Farm. The batt is mostly Portuguese wool, with silk, silk noil and bamboo. I love this colorway more and more every day! This is 1.75 ounce, and I got 66 yards, spun woolen/long draw and then chain plied.

Go Diagonal scarf on big needles, or something similar, to let the yarn speak for itself.

I do not remember posting about this – I had 1 oz of super-soft angora rabbit from The Yarn Marm, which I spun and gradient-dyed a vibrant purple:

I gradient-dyed it by making a very loose ball and dyeing the ball. I think it worked well, though 1 oz was not enough to get me used to spinning angora! It’s a very fuzzy spin, I spun it long draw/woolen, and then 2-plied it. 75 yards, 1 oz, 7 wpi.

I also ordered some llama yearling from The Yarn Marm when I ordered the rabbit. However, I did not read the listing properly, which stated there was dust and VM (vegetable matter) and I should have deduced that it meant it was raw. So after a while of attempting to spin it raw (there is no “grease” so that was not an issue), I finally bought hand-carders, and started carding the rest of the llama. I probably have spun half in the raw, then I started carding the rest. About halfway through the carding, with dust and VM getting everywhere (but I still had to stop and pick out VM) I started to wonder if washing first would help.

So last night I washed the rest of the llama yearling, that wasn’t already spun or carded. It’s currently drying, and after that I will card the rest of it. I’ll see if it’s easier to get more of the VM out now – very little came out during washing, but a LOT of dirt did come out, so that’s good.

It has been three weeks since my last update. I have been busy, and as in years past I went to my industry’s annual big conference in California. It’s a week of running around, speaking at workshops, learning, and meeting people. Suffice it to say, I knew I wasn’t going to be doing much crafting, but took a few projects with me anyway.

On the plane, I was able to finish a “baseball jersey-style” baby sweater for my coworker, who had a baby girl March 12th. It was mailed off last week.

So then I set to work on finishing the Color Me Pretty sweater for my niece. I got the body done, but had to switch to smaller needles for the sleeves…I did not have the smaller needles on me….I have since cast on a sleeve with a smaller needle. The picture is accurate, and yes, it looks like a giant sweater/dress with teeny arms. After I finish one sleeve I may have to size it up, because I have a feeling I may need to rip out the sleeve….or maybe it will look better once the sleeve is off the needle?

I did not bring *any* spinning paraphernalia with me to the conference and have not had a ton of time to spin since coming back. However, I did spin a bit before I left, and have made a *bit* more progress with my fiber stashdown.

I spun up a small amount – 38 yards – of unknown fiber, probably shetland. I then dyed it apricot – who knew pink + green = apricot? Not me, but I sure was happily surprised that it worked!

And I spun up half of the 3.5 ounces of “Clown Parts”, the April 2012 batt from the Happy Hooves Batt Club from Enhcanted Knoll Farm. The batt is mostly Portuguese wool, with silk, silk noil and bamboo. I love this colorway more and more every day! This is 1.75 ounce, and I got 66 yards, spun woolen/long draw and then chain plied.

Go Diagonal scarf on big needles, or something similar, to let the yarn speak for itself.

I do not remember posting about this – I had 1 oz of super-soft angora rabbit, which I spun and gradient-dyed a vibrant purple:

I gradient-dyed it by making a very loose ball and dyeing the ball. I think it worked well, though 1 oz was not enough to get me used to spinning angora! It’s a very fuzzy

Bought hand-carders, started carding the rest of the llama. I was getting a lot of dirt and still had to pick out the hay, so I decided to wash what was left of the llama yearling to see if the dirt and hay would come out. The dirt did, the hay, not so much.
It has been three weeks since my last update. I have been busy, speaking at workshops, learning, and meeting people. Suffice it to say, I knew I wasn’t going to be doing much crafting, but took a few projects with me anyway.

On the plane, I was able to finish a “baseball jersey-style” baby sweater for my coworker, who had a baby girl March 12th. It was mailed off last week.

So then I set to work on finishing the Color Me Pretty sweater for my niece. I got the body done, but had to switch to smaller needles for the sleeves…I did not have the smaller needles on me….I have since cast on a sleeve with a smaller needle. The picture is accurate, and yes, it looks like a giant sweater/dress with teeny arms. After I finish one sleeve I may have to size it up, because I have a feeling I may need to rip out the sleeve….or maybe it will look better once the sleeve is off the needle?

I did not bring *any* spinning paraphernalia with me to the conference and have not had a ton of time to spin since coming back. However, I did spin a bit before I left, and have made a *bit* more progress with my fiber stashdown.

I spun up a small amount – 38 yards – of unknown fiber, probably shetland. I then dyed it apricot – who knew pink + green = apricot? Not me, but I sure was happily surprised that it worked!

And I spun up half of the 3.5 ounces of “Clown Parts”, the April 2012 batt from the Happy Hooves Batt Club from Enhcanted Knoll Farm. The batt is mostly Portuguese wool, with silk, silk noil and bamboo. I love this colorway more and more every day! This is 1.75 ounce, and I got 66 yards, spun woolen/long draw and then chain plied.

Go Diagonal scarf on big needles, or something similar, to let the yarn speak for itself.

I do not remember posting about this – I had 1 oz of super-soft angora rabbit, which I spun and gradient-dyed a vibrant purple:

I gradient-dyed it by making a very loose ball and dyeing the ball. I think it worked well, though 1 oz was not enough to get me used to spinning angora! It’s a very fuzzy spin, I spun it long draw/woolen, and then 2-plied it.

Bought hand-carders, started carding the rest of the llama. I was getting a lot of dirt and still had to pick out the hay, so I decided to wash what was left of the llama yearling to see if the dirt and hay would come out. The dirt did, the hay, not so much.
It has been three weeks since my last update. I have been busy, nurse but not hugely busy in a crafty sense. April is a busy month for me, hepatitis and as in years past I went to my industry’s annual big conference in California. It’s a week of running around, decease speaking at workshops, learning, and meeting people. Suffice it to say, I knew I wasn’t going to be doing much crafting, but took a few projects with me anyway.

On the plane, I was able to finish a “baseball jersey-style” baby sweater for my coworker, who had a baby girl March 12th. It was mailed off last week.

So then I set to work on finishing the Color Me Pretty sweater for my niece. I got the body done, but had to switch to smaller needles for the sleeves…I did not have the smaller needles on me….I have since cast on a sleeve with a smaller needle. The picture is accurate, and yes, it looks like a giant sweater/dress with teeny arms. After I finish one sleeve I may have to size it up, because I have a feeling I may need to rip out the sleeve….or maybe it will look better once the sleeve is off the needle?

I did not bring *any* spinning paraphernalia with me to the conference and have not had a ton of time to spin since coming back. However, I did spin a bit before I left, and have made a *bit* more progress with my fiber stashdown.

I spun up a small amount – 38 yards – of unknown fiber, probably shetland. I then dyed it apricot – who knew pink + green = apricot? Not me, but I sure was happily surprised that it worked!

And I spun up half of the 3.5 ounces of “Clown Parts”, the April 2012 batt from the Happy Hooves Batt Club from Enhcanted Knoll Farm. The batt is mostly Portuguese wool, with silk, silk noil and bamboo. I love this colorway more and more every day! This is 1.75 ounce, and I got 66 yards, spun woolen/long draw and then chain plied.

Go Diagonal scarf on big needles, or something similar, to let the yarn speak for itself.

I do not remember posting about this – I had 1 oz of super-soft angora rabbit from The Yarn Marm, which I spun and gradient-dyed a vibrant purple:

I gradient-dyed it by making a very loose ball and dyeing the ball. I think it worked well, though 1 oz was not enough to get me used to spinning angora! It’s a very fuzzy spin, I spun it long draw/woolen, and then 2-plied it. 75 yards, 1 oz, 7 wpi.

I also ordered some llama yearling from The Yarn Marm when I ordered the rabbit. However, I did not read the listing properly, which stated there was dust and VM (vegetable matter) and I should have deduced that it meant it was raw. So after a while of attempting to spin it raw (there is no “grease” so that was not an issue), I finally bought hand-carders, and started carding the rest of the llama. I probably have spun half in the raw, then I started carding the rest. About halfway through the carding, with dust and VM getting everywhere (but I still had to stop and pick out VM) I started to wonder if washing first would help.

So last night I washed the rest of the llama yearling, that wasn’t already spun or carded. It’s currently drying, and after that I will card the rest of it. I’ll see if it’s easier to get more of the VM out now – very little came out during washing, but a LOT of dirt did come out, so that’s good.

It has been three weeks since my last update. I have been busy, diagnosis but not hugely busy in a crafty sense. April is a busy month for me, read and as in years past I went to my industry’s annual big conference in California. It’s a week of running around, disinfection speaking at workshops, learning, and meeting people. Suffice it to say, I knew I wasn’t going to be doing much crafting, but took a few projects with me anyway.

On the plane, I was able to finish a “baseball jersey-style” baby sweater for my coworker, who had a baby girl March 12th. It was mailed off last week.

So then I set to work on finishing the Color Me Pretty sweater for my niece. I got the body done, but had to switch to smaller needles for the sleeves…I did not have the smaller needles on me….I have since cast on a sleeve with a smaller needle. The picture is accurate, and yes, it looks like a giant sweater/dress with teeny arms. After I finish one sleeve I may have to size it up, because I have a feeling I may need to rip out the sleeve….or maybe it will look better once the sleeve is off the needle?

I did not bring *any* spinning paraphernalia with me to the conference and have not had a ton of time to spin since coming back. However, I did spin a bit before I left, and have made a *bit* more progress with my fiber stashdown.

I spun up a small amount – 38 yards – of unknown fiber, probably shetland. I then dyed it apricot – who knew pink + green = apricot? Not me, but I sure was happily surprised that it worked!

And I spun up half of the 3.5 ounces of “Clown Parts”, the April 2012 batt from the Happy Hooves Batt Club from Enhcanted Knoll Farm. The batt is mostly Portuguese wool, with silk, silk noil and bamboo. I love this colorway more and more every day! This is 1.75 ounce, and I got 66 yards, spun woolen/long draw and then chain plied.

I think I will maybe make a Go Diagonal scarf on big needles, or something similar, to let the yarn speak for itself.

I do not remember posting about this – I had 1 oz of super-soft angora rabbit from The Yarn Marm, which I spun and gradient-dyed a vibrant purple:

I gradient-dyed it by making a very loose ball and dyeing the ball. I think it worked well, though 1 oz was not enough to get me used to spinning angora! It’s a very fuzzy spin, I spun it long draw/woolen, and then 2-plied it. 75 yards, 1 oz, 7 wpi.

I also ordered some llama yearling from The Yarn Marm when I ordered the rabbit. However, I did not read the listing properly, which stated there was dust and VM (vegetable matter) and I should have deduced that it meant it was raw. So after a while of attempting to spin it raw (there is no “grease” so that was not an issue), I finally bought hand-carders, and started carding the rest of the llama. I probably have spun half in the raw, then I started carding the rest. About halfway through the carding, with dust and VM getting everywhere (but I still had to stop and pick out VM) I started to wonder if washing first would help.

So last night I washed the rest of the llama yearling, that wasn’t already spun or carded. It’s currently drying, and after that I will card the rest of it. I’ll see if it’s easier to get more of the VM out now – very little came out during washing, but a LOT of dirt did come out, so that’s good.

It has been three weeks since my last update. I have been busy, and as in years past I went to my industry’s annual big conference in California. It’s a week of running around, speaking at workshops, learning, and meeting people. Suffice it to say, I knew I wasn’t going to be doing much crafting, but took a few projects with me anyway.

On the plane, I was able to finish a “baseball jersey-style” baby sweater for my coworker, who had a baby girl March 12th. It was mailed off last week.

So then I set to work on finishing the Color Me Pretty sweater for my niece. I got the body done, but had to switch to smaller needles for the sleeves…I did not have the smaller needles on me….I have since cast on a sleeve with a smaller needle. The picture is accurate, and yes, it looks like a giant sweater/dress with teeny arms. After I finish one sleeve I may have to size it up, because I have a feeling I may need to rip out the sleeve….or maybe it will look better once the sleeve is off the needle?

I did not bring *any* spinning paraphernalia with me to the conference and have not had a ton of time to spin since coming back. However, I did spin a bit before I left, and have made a *bit* more progress with my fiber stashdown.

I spun up a small amount – 38 yards – of unknown fiber, probably shetland. I then dyed it apricot – who knew pink + green = apricot? Not me, but I sure was happily surprised that it worked!

And I spun up half of the 3.5 ounces of “Clown Parts”, the April 2012 batt from the Happy Hooves Batt Club from Enhcanted Knoll Farm. The batt is mostly Portuguese wool, with silk, silk noil and bamboo. I love this colorway more and more every day! This is 1.75 ounce, and I got 66 yards, spun woolen/long draw and then chain plied.

Go Diagonal scarf on big needles, or something similar, to let the yarn speak for itself.

I do not remember posting about this – I had 1 oz of super-soft angora rabbit, which I spun and gradient-dyed a vibrant purple:

I gradient-dyed it by making a very loose ball and dyeing the ball. I think it worked well, though 1 oz was not enough to get me used to spinning angora! It’s a very fuzzy

Bought hand-carders, started carding the rest of the llama. I was getting a lot of dirt and still had to pick out the hay, so I decided to wash what was left of the llama yearling to see if the dirt and hay would come out. The dirt did, the hay, not so much.
It has been three weeks since my last update. I have been busy, speaking at workshops, learning, and meeting people. Suffice it to say, I knew I wasn’t going to be doing much crafting, but took a few projects with me anyway.

On the plane, I was able to finish a “baseball jersey-style” baby sweater for my coworker, who had a baby girl March 12th. It was mailed off last week.

So then I set to work on finishing the Color Me Pretty sweater for my niece. I got the body done, but had to switch to smaller needles for the sleeves…I did not have the smaller needles on me….I have since cast on a sleeve with a smaller needle. The picture is accurate, and yes, it looks like a giant sweater/dress with teeny arms. After I finish one sleeve I may have to size it up, because I have a feeling I may need to rip out the sleeve….or maybe it will look better once the sleeve is off the needle?

I did not bring *any* spinning paraphernalia with me to the conference and have not had a ton of time to spin since coming back. However, I did spin a bit before I left, and have made a *bit* more progress with my fiber stashdown.

I spun up a small amount – 38 yards – of unknown fiber, probably shetland. I then dyed it apricot – who knew pink + green = apricot? Not me, but I sure was happily surprised that it worked!

And I spun up half of the 3.5 ounces of “Clown Parts”, the April 2012 batt from the Happy Hooves Batt Club from Enhcanted Knoll Farm. The batt is mostly Portuguese wool, with silk, silk noil and bamboo. I love this colorway more and more every day! This is 1.75 ounce, and I got 66 yards, spun woolen/long draw and then chain plied.

Go Diagonal scarf on big needles, or something similar, to let the yarn speak for itself.

I do not remember posting about this – I had 1 oz of super-soft angora rabbit, which I spun and gradient-dyed a vibrant purple:

I gradient-dyed it by making a very loose ball and dyeing the ball. I think it worked well, though 1 oz was not enough to get me used to spinning angora! It’s a very fuzzy spin, I spun it long draw/woolen, and then 2-plied it.

Bought hand-carders, started carding the rest of the llama. I was getting a lot of dirt and still had to pick out the hay, so I decided to wash what was left of the llama yearling to see if the dirt and hay would come out. The dirt did, the hay, not so much.
It has been three weeks since my last update. I have been busy, nurse but not hugely busy in a crafty sense. April is a busy month for me, hepatitis and as in years past I went to my industry’s annual big conference in California. It’s a week of running around, decease speaking at workshops, learning, and meeting people. Suffice it to say, I knew I wasn’t going to be doing much crafting, but took a few projects with me anyway.

On the plane, I was able to finish a “baseball jersey-style” baby sweater for my coworker, who had a baby girl March 12th. It was mailed off last week.

So then I set to work on finishing the Color Me Pretty sweater for my niece. I got the body done, but had to switch to smaller needles for the sleeves…I did not have the smaller needles on me….I have since cast on a sleeve with a smaller needle. The picture is accurate, and yes, it looks like a giant sweater/dress with teeny arms. After I finish one sleeve I may have to size it up, because I have a feeling I may need to rip out the sleeve….or maybe it will look better once the sleeve is off the needle?

I did not bring *any* spinning paraphernalia with me to the conference and have not had a ton of time to spin since coming back. However, I did spin a bit before I left, and have made a *bit* more progress with my fiber stashdown.

I spun up a small amount – 38 yards – of unknown fiber, probably shetland. I then dyed it apricot – who knew pink + green = apricot? Not me, but I sure was happily surprised that it worked!

And I spun up half of the 3.5 ounces of “Clown Parts”, the April 2012 batt from the Happy Hooves Batt Club from Enhcanted Knoll Farm. The batt is mostly Portuguese wool, with silk, silk noil and bamboo. I love this colorway more and more every day! This is 1.75 ounce, and I got 66 yards, spun woolen/long draw and then chain plied.

Go Diagonal scarf on big needles, or something similar, to let the yarn speak for itself.

I do not remember posting about this – I had 1 oz of super-soft angora rabbit from The Yarn Marm, which I spun and gradient-dyed a vibrant purple:

I gradient-dyed it by making a very loose ball and dyeing the ball. I think it worked well, though 1 oz was not enough to get me used to spinning angora! It’s a very fuzzy spin, I spun it long draw/woolen, and then 2-plied it. 75 yards, 1 oz, 7 wpi.

I also ordered some llama yearling from The Yarn Marm when I ordered the rabbit. However, I did not read the listing properly, which stated there was dust and VM (vegetable matter) and I should have deduced that it meant it was raw. So after a while of attempting to spin it raw (there is no “grease” so that was not an issue), I finally bought hand-carders, and started carding the rest of the llama. I probably have spun half in the raw, then I started carding the rest. About halfway through the carding, with dust and VM getting everywhere (but I still had to stop and pick out VM) I started to wonder if washing first would help.

So last night I washed the rest of the llama yearling, that wasn’t already spun or carded. It’s currently drying, and after that I will card the rest of it. I’ll see if it’s easier to get more of the VM out now – very little came out during washing, but a LOT of dirt did come out, so that’s good.

It has been three weeks since my last update. I have been busy, diagnosis but not hugely busy in a crafty sense. April is a busy month for me, read and as in years past I went to my industry’s annual big conference in California. It’s a week of running around, disinfection speaking at workshops, learning, and meeting people. Suffice it to say, I knew I wasn’t going to be doing much crafting, but took a few projects with me anyway.

On the plane, I was able to finish a “baseball jersey-style” baby sweater for my coworker, who had a baby girl March 12th. It was mailed off last week.

So then I set to work on finishing the Color Me Pretty sweater for my niece. I got the body done, but had to switch to smaller needles for the sleeves…I did not have the smaller needles on me….I have since cast on a sleeve with a smaller needle. The picture is accurate, and yes, it looks like a giant sweater/dress with teeny arms. After I finish one sleeve I may have to size it up, because I have a feeling I may need to rip out the sleeve….or maybe it will look better once the sleeve is off the needle?

I did not bring *any* spinning paraphernalia with me to the conference and have not had a ton of time to spin since coming back. However, I did spin a bit before I left, and have made a *bit* more progress with my fiber stashdown.

I spun up a small amount – 38 yards – of unknown fiber, probably shetland. I then dyed it apricot – who knew pink + green = apricot? Not me, but I sure was happily surprised that it worked!

And I spun up half of the 3.5 ounces of “Clown Parts”, the April 2012 batt from the Happy Hooves Batt Club from Enhcanted Knoll Farm. The batt is mostly Portuguese wool, with silk, silk noil and bamboo. I love this colorway more and more every day! This is 1.75 ounce, and I got 66 yards, spun woolen/long draw and then chain plied.

I think I will maybe make a Go Diagonal scarf on big needles, or something similar, to let the yarn speak for itself.

I do not remember posting about this – I had 1 oz of super-soft angora rabbit from The Yarn Marm, which I spun and gradient-dyed a vibrant purple:

I gradient-dyed it by making a very loose ball and dyeing the ball. I think it worked well, though 1 oz was not enough to get me used to spinning angora! It’s a very fuzzy spin, I spun it long draw/woolen, and then 2-plied it. 75 yards, 1 oz, 7 wpi.

I also ordered some llama yearling from The Yarn Marm when I ordered the rabbit. However, I did not read the listing properly, which stated there was dust and VM (vegetable matter) and I should have deduced that it meant it was raw. So after a while of attempting to spin it raw (there is no “grease” so that was not an issue), I finally bought hand-carders, and started carding the rest of the llama. I probably have spun half in the raw, then I started carding the rest. About halfway through the carding, with dust and VM getting everywhere (but I still had to stop and pick out VM) I started to wonder if washing first would help.

So last night I washed the rest of the llama yearling, that wasn’t already spun or carded. It’s currently drying, and after that I will card the rest of it. I’ll see if it’s easier to get more of the VM out now – very little came out during washing, but a LOT of dirt did come out, so that’s good.

It’s been a few weeks since I’ve blogged about my crafty world. Last weekend I went to a conference and afterwards surprised my mother by showing up at her Mother’s Day brunch, and the weekend before was a quiet weekend at home.

I finally finished the Color Me Pretty sweater for my niece, otolaryngologist and it’s a great sweater-dress on her right now. I think she could get 2 years’ worth of use from this, this year as a dress, next year as a sweater:

And then I realized I had a friend with an impending baby to be born and I hadn’t made anything, so I quickly whipped up the Hoot Cardigan, which I saw Lucy Lee knitting at her weekly knitting group at Mind’s Eye Yarns now with an online store too! (note, I bought the grasshopper sky sock yarn a few weeks ago and still am in love with it) and I knew it would be perfect for the newest arrival in my tribe:

I have been working a bit on photography skills, and part of what I have learned is to not have anything directly on a background, because that will produce shadows that may skew the object a bit. The best thing to do is have the object hanging vertically somehow, and shaped (see how the Hoot Cardigan is done above?). So, in order to actually accomplish this for socks and gloves, I bought a plastic hand and clear plastic foot online. The foot looks very nice with the one completed Monkey Sock I’ve done:

Compare and contrast that with the pictures on my project page and you’ll see hands-down the plastic foot is the way to go.

Of course, this prompted my partner to tell me I had to stop buying body parts online.

I am currently working on the second Monkey Sock, so soon I will actually have a pair to wear!

I finished weaving the Spunky Eclectic Weaving Club April offering – the “This Way and That” scarf:

I need to work on not beating so hard – I learned that I should only beat once, but as my friend and amazing weaver Anna Branner says, “beating is more like placing the yarn.” So, I know that for next time!

With all this traveling I’m doing, I’m trying to knit while traveling and spin while at home (I’m bringing my spindles on the longer trips). So last night I spun up the Gnomespun Mythic Fiber Club Heqet I received earlier this month. The Manx Loaghton spun like a dream, although there is a very obvious “right” end and “wrong” end. I deliberately spun this thick, instead of my usual fine stuff, and then plied 2 strands together. The 4 oz bump yielded 3 3/4 oz of yarn, 172 yards at 7 wpi. It is soft and squishy and downy.

I also practiced playing around with my camera’s ISO settings. This first pic is on the highest ISO setting, 1600, which is good for very dark indoor scenes:

And here it is at the lowest ISO setting, 80:

It’s still way too sunny out to take the perfect picture, but I was not going to wait until the sun was at a different angle to take the picture. Note how the yellows are very washed out in the top picture.

That’s what’s been going on in my crafty world!