Lacto-Fermented Sauerkraut

It was very important that I write my previous post when I did – Wed 25 July – because the very next day, of the fun I had, but I’d also like to highlight the knitting I did.

I started knitting a Color Affection shawl, in some Novita Polku that I bought in Finland in May. I started the shawl the first day, which was mostly lounging around while we were in the port of Boston (where we all embarked) and then while the cruise ship was traveling. I continued the shawl on Friday 27 July, and then on Saturday 28 July we landed in the port of St. John’s, New Brunswick. I chose to take a bus to Fredericton, to see the city hall, learn some history, and visit Yarns on York to meet local knitters and take a class on Newfoundland Mittens, aka “Newfie Mitts”. I got a bit done, but I believe I will rip out what I’ve done, make it smaller, and do the “windows” in the multicolored black and the background/wrists in the green. Still, here’s the progress shot, even though this will be frogged later:

On Sunday, I chose to do one of the two classes offered at The Loop in Halifax. The class I chose was one on how to do thrummed mittens, and the instructor Mimi was amazing. I did not take the class for the Bermuda Scarf/shawl, but I heard that the 2nd class was not as great, probably due to the first class running very late and Mimi running out of steam (teaching 2 classes in one day is tough, and who knows if she even had time to eat!). Given that, I’m glad I did not stay for the 2nd class (I did buy the pattern and yarn for it, so I can make the shawl), and instead did a 10-mile bicycle tour of Halifax. At any rate, I did enjoy working on the thrummed mittens, and here is my progress (I haven’t done anything with it since that weekend):

And the inside looks like this:

I learned lots of great tips from Mimi, like using a wool with a lot of lanolin in it, so it’s “sticky” and holds the thrums in better.

There was a lot of knitting that weekend, and in the few weeks that followed. This past week I finished knitting Tony’s scarf, after having to spin more yarn and buy more on Cape Cod while helping a friend do the Pan-Mass Challenge at the beginning of August. I still have to finish the scarf by weaving in the ends and blocking it, but it’s finally the right length, and Tony will be able to use it this coming fall/winter.

I also finished the scarf I was weaving (the June Spunky Eclectic weaving club), but I still need to block it before taking a picture of it. A new weaving club for August is on its way, so I’ll have something new to warp soon.

I am not going on a plane until the end of September, and my next travel is scheduled for mid-September, around Rosh Hashanah – I will be going to the New York City area for 2 weekends (coming back to Boston for a wedding in between). I hope to finish the Color Affection Shawl soon, and get pictures of both it and the woven scarf before long.
It was very important that I write my previous post when I did – Wed 25 July – because the very next day, of the fun I had, but I’d also like to highlight the knitting I did.

I started knitting a Color Affection shawl, in some Novita Polku that I bought in Finland in May. I started the shawl the first day, which was mostly lounging around while we were in the port of Boston (where we all embarked) and then while the cruise ship was traveling. I continued the shawl on Friday 27 July, and then on Saturday 28 July we landed in the port of St. John’s, New Brunswick. I chose to take a bus to Fredericton, to see the city hall, learn some history, and visit Yarns on York to meet local knitters and take a class on Newfoundland Mittens, aka “Newfie Mitts”. I got a bit done, but I believe I will rip out what I’ve done, make it smaller, and do the “windows” in the multicolored black and the background/wrists in the green. Still, here’s the progress shot, even though this will be frogged later:

On Sunday, I chose to do one of the two classes offered at The Loop in Halifax. The class I chose was one on how to do thrummed mittens, and the instructor Mimi was amazing. I did not take the class for the Bermuda Scarf/shawl, but I heard that the 2nd class was not as great, probably due to the first class running very late and Mimi running out of steam (teaching 2 classes in one day is tough, and who knows if she even had time to eat!). Given that, I’m glad I did not stay for the 2nd class (I did buy the pattern and yarn for it, so I can make the shawl), and instead did a 10-mile bicycle tour of Halifax. At any rate, I did enjoy working on the thrummed mittens, and here is my progress (I haven’t done anything with it since that weekend):

And the inside looks like this:

I learned lots of great tips from Mimi, like using a wool with a lot of lanolin in it, so it’s “sticky” and holds the thrums in better.

There was a lot of knitting that weekend, and in the few weeks that followed. This past week I finished knitting Tony’s scarf, after having to spin more yarn and buy more on Cape Cod while helping a friend do the Pan-Mass Challenge at the beginning of August. I still have to finish the scarf by weaving in the ends and blocking it, but it’s finally the right length, and Tony will be able to use it this coming fall/winter.

I also finished the scarf I was weaving (the June Spunky Eclectic weaving club), but I still need to block it before taking a picture of it. A new weaving club for August is on its way, so I’ll have something new to warp soon.

I am not going on a plane until the end of September, and my next travel is scheduled for mid-September, around Rosh Hashanah – I will be going to the New York City area for 2 weekends (coming back to Boston for a wedding in between). I hope to finish the Color Affection Shawl soon, and get pictures of both it and the woven scarf before long.
It was very important that I write my previous post when I did – Wed 25 July – because the very next day, of the fun I had, but I’d also like to highlight the knitting I did.

I started knitting a Color Affection shawl, in some Novita Polku that I bought in Finland in May. I started the shawl the first day, which was mostly lounging around while we were in the port of Boston (where we all embarked) and then while the cruise ship was traveling. I continued the shawl on Friday 27 July, and then on Saturday 28 July we landed in the port of St. John’s, New Brunswick. I chose to take a bus to Fredericton, to see the city hall, learn some history, and visit Yarns on York to meet local knitters and take a class on Newfoundland Mittens, aka “Newfie Mitts”. I got a bit done, but I believe I will rip out what I’ve done, make it smaller, and do the “windows” in the multicolored black and the background/wrists in the green. Still, here’s the progress shot, even though this will be frogged later:

On Sunday, I chose to do one of the two classes offered at The Loop in Halifax. The class I chose was one on how to do thrummed mittens, and the instructor Mimi was amazing. I did not take the class for the Bermuda Scarf/shawl, but I heard that the 2nd class was not as great, probably due to the first class running very late and Mimi running out of steam (teaching 2 classes in one day is tough, and who knows if she even had time to eat!). Given that, I’m glad I did not stay for the 2nd class (I did buy the pattern and yarn for it, so I can make the shawl), and instead did a 10-mile bicycle tour of Halifax. At any rate, I did enjoy working on the thrummed mittens, and here is my progress (I haven’t done anything with it since that weekend):

And the inside looks like this:

I learned lots of great tips from Mimi, like using a wool with a lot of lanolin in it, so it’s “sticky” and holds the thrums in better.

There was a lot of knitting that weekend, and in the few weeks that followed. This past week I finished knitting Tony’s scarf, after having to spin more yarn and buy more on Cape Cod while helping a friend do the Pan-Mass Challenge at the beginning of August. I still have to finish the scarf by weaving in the ends and blocking it, but it’s finally the right length, and Tony will be able to use it this coming fall/winter.

I also finished the scarf I was weaving (the June Spunky Eclectic weaving club), but I still need to block it before taking a picture of it. A new weaving club for August is on its way, so I’ll have something new to warp soon.

I am not going on a plane until the end of September, and my next travel is scheduled for mid-September, around Rosh Hashanah – I will be going to the New York City area for 2 weekends (coming back to Boston for a wedding in between). I hope to finish the Color Affection Shawl soon, and get pictures of
It was very important that I write my previous post when I did – Wed 25 July – because the very next day, of the fun I had, but I’d also like to highlight the knitting I did.

I started knitting a Color Affection shawl, in some Novita Polku that I bought in Finland in May. I started the shawl the first day, which was mostly lounging around while we were in the port of Boston (where we all embarked) and then while the cruise ship was traveling. I continued the shawl on Friday 27 July, and then on Saturday 28 July we landed in the port of St. John’s, New Brunswick. I chose to take a bus to Fredericton, to see the city hall, learn some history, and visit Yarns on York to meet local knitters and take a class on Newfoundland Mittens, aka “Newfie Mitts”. I got a bit done, but I believe I will rip out what I’ve done, make it smaller, and do the “windows” in the multicolored black and the background/wrists in the green. Still, here’s the progress shot, even though this will be frogged later:

On Sunday, I chose to do one of the two classes offered at The Loop in Halifax. The class I chose was one on how to do thrummed mittens, and the instructor Mimi was amazing. I did not take the class for the Bermuda Scarf/shawl, but I heard that the 2nd class was not as great, probably due to the first class running very late and Mimi running out of steam (teaching 2 classes in one day is tough, and who knows if she even had time to eat!). Given that, I’m glad I did not stay for the 2nd class (I did buy the pattern and yarn for it, so I can make the shawl), and instead did a 10-mile bicycle tour of Halifax. At any rate, I did enjoy working on the thrummed mittens, and here is my progress (I haven’t done anything with it since that weekend):

And the inside looks like this:

I learned lots of great tips from Mimi, like using a wool with a lot of lanolin in it, so it’s “sticky” and holds the thrums in better.

There was a lot of knitting that weekend, and in the few weeks that followed. This past week I finished knitting Tony’s scarf, after having to spin more yarn and buy more on Cape Cod while helping a friend do the Pan-Mass Challenge at the beginning of August. I still have to finish the scarf by weaving in the ends and blocking it, but it’s finally the right length, and Tony will be able to use it this coming fall/winter.

I also finished the scarf I was weaving (the June Spunky Eclectic weaving club), but I still need to block it before taking a picture of it. A new weaving club for August is on its way, so I’ll have something new to warp soon.

I am not going on a plane until the end of September, and my next travel is scheduled for mid-September, around Rosh Hashanah – I will be going to the New York City area for 2 weekends (coming back to Boston for a wedding in between). I hope to finish the Color Affection Shawl soon, and get pictures of both it and the woven scarf before long.
It was very important that I write my previous post when I did – Wed 25 July – because the very next day, of the fun I had, but I’d also like to highlight the knitting I did.

I started knitting a Color Affection shawl, in some Novita Polku that I bought in Finland in May. I started the shawl the first day, which was mostly lounging around while we were in the port of Boston (where we all embarked) and then while the cruise ship was traveling. I continued the shawl on Friday 27 July, and then on Saturday 28 July we landed in the port of St. John’s, New Brunswick. I chose to take a bus to Fredericton, to see the city hall, learn some history, and visit Yarns on York to meet local knitters and take a class on Newfoundland Mittens, aka “Newfie Mitts”. I got a bit done, but I believe I will rip out what I’ve done, make it smaller, and do the “windows” in the multicolored black and the background/wrists in the green. Still, here’s the progress shot, even though this will be frogged later:

On Sunday, I chose to do one of the two classes offered at The Loop in Halifax. The class I chose was one on how to do thrummed mittens, and the instructor Mimi was amazing. I did not take the class for the Bermuda Scarf/shawl, but I heard that the 2nd class was not as great, probably due to the first class running very late and Mimi running out of steam (teaching 2 classes in one day is tough, and who knows if she even had time to eat!). Given that, I’m glad I did not stay for the 2nd class (I did buy the pattern and yarn for it, so I can make the shawl), and instead did a 10-mile bicycle tour of Halifax. At any rate, I did enjoy working on the thrummed mittens, and here is my progress (I haven’t done anything with it since that weekend):

And the inside looks like this:

I learned lots of great tips from Mimi, like using a wool with a lot of lanolin in it, so it’s “sticky” and holds the thrums in better.

There was a lot of knitting that weekend, and in the few weeks that followed. This past week I finished knitting Tony’s scarf, after having to spin more yarn and buy more on Cape Cod while helping a friend do the Pan-Mass Challenge at the beginning of August. I still have to finish the scarf by weaving in the ends and blocking it, but it’s finally the right length, and Tony will be able to use it this coming fall/winter.

I also finished the scarf I was weaving (the June Spunky Eclectic weaving club), but I still need to block it before taking a picture of it. A new weaving club for August is on its way, so I’ll have something new to warp soon.

I am not going on a plane until the end of September, and my next travel is scheduled for mid-September, around Rosh Hashanah – I will be going to the New York City area for 2 weekends (coming back to Boston for a wedding in between). I hope to finish the Color Affection Shawl soon, and get pictures of
So, online I mentioned in the last post that I had finished 2 objects – side effects and the June Spunky Eclectic Weaving Club, which I opted to do a table runner. It was my first experience with using a pick-up stick. I’m happy with how both came out (especially after ironing the scarf…I don’t even iron clothes!).

Crooked Little Tony scarf

Pick-up-sticks table runner

I’m thrilled with how drapey the table runner is. My only problem is that I have no idea what to do with it – it’s 33 inches by 22 inches. It’s too short for a scarf, but I don’t have an appropriate table to use it on. It’s a superwash merino/bamboo/viscose blend. Folded over a towel bar it’d make a very long kitchen or guest towel, I guess?

Any ideas?
It was very important that I write my previous post when I did – Wed 25 July – because the very next day, of the fun I had, but I’d also like to highlight the knitting I did.

I started knitting a Color Affection shawl, in some Novita Polku that I bought in Finland in May. I started the shawl the first day, which was mostly lounging around while we were in the port of Boston (where we all embarked) and then while the cruise ship was traveling. I continued the shawl on Friday 27 July, and then on Saturday 28 July we landed in the port of St. John’s, New Brunswick. I chose to take a bus to Fredericton, to see the city hall, learn some history, and visit Yarns on York to meet local knitters and take a class on Newfoundland Mittens, aka “Newfie Mitts”. I got a bit done, but I believe I will rip out what I’ve done, make it smaller, and do the “windows” in the multicolored black and the background/wrists in the green. Still, here’s the progress shot, even though this will be frogged later:

On Sunday, I chose to do one of the two classes offered at The Loop in Halifax. The class I chose was one on how to do thrummed mittens, and the instructor Mimi was amazing. I did not take the class for the Bermuda Scarf/shawl, but I heard that the 2nd class was not as great, probably due to the first class running very late and Mimi running out of steam (teaching 2 classes in one day is tough, and who knows if she even had time to eat!). Given that, I’m glad I did not stay for the 2nd class (I did buy the pattern and yarn for it, so I can make the shawl), and instead did a 10-mile bicycle tour of Halifax. At any rate, I did enjoy working on the thrummed mittens, and here is my progress (I haven’t done anything with it since that weekend):

And the inside looks like this:

I learned lots of great tips from Mimi, like using a wool with a lot of lanolin in it, so it’s “sticky” and holds the thrums in better.

There was a lot of knitting that weekend, and in the few weeks that followed. This past week I finished knitting Tony’s scarf, after having to spin more yarn and buy more on Cape Cod while helping a friend do the Pan-Mass Challenge at the beginning of August. I still have to finish the scarf by weaving in the ends and blocking it, but it’s finally the right length, and Tony will be able to use it this coming fall/winter.

I also finished the scarf I was weaving (the June Spunky Eclectic weaving club), but I still need to block it before taking a picture of it. A new weaving club for August is on its way, so I’ll have something new to warp soon.

I am not going on a plane until the end of September, and my next travel is scheduled for mid-September, around Rosh Hashanah – I will be going to the New York City area for 2 weekends (coming back to Boston for a wedding in between). I hope to finish the Color Affection Shawl soon, and get pictures of both it and the woven scarf before long.
It was very important that I write my previous post when I did – Wed 25 July – because the very next day, of the fun I had, but I’d also like to highlight the knitting I did.

I started knitting a Color Affection shawl, in some Novita Polku that I bought in Finland in May. I started the shawl the first day, which was mostly lounging around while we were in the port of Boston (where we all embarked) and then while the cruise ship was traveling. I continued the shawl on Friday 27 July, and then on Saturday 28 July we landed in the port of St. John’s, New Brunswick. I chose to take a bus to Fredericton, to see the city hall, learn some history, and visit Yarns on York to meet local knitters and take a class on Newfoundland Mittens, aka “Newfie Mitts”. I got a bit done, but I believe I will rip out what I’ve done, make it smaller, and do the “windows” in the multicolored black and the background/wrists in the green. Still, here’s the progress shot, even though this will be frogged later:

On Sunday, I chose to do one of the two classes offered at The Loop in Halifax. The class I chose was one on how to do thrummed mittens, and the instructor Mimi was amazing. I did not take the class for the Bermuda Scarf/shawl, but I heard that the 2nd class was not as great, probably due to the first class running very late and Mimi running out of steam (teaching 2 classes in one day is tough, and who knows if she even had time to eat!). Given that, I’m glad I did not stay for the 2nd class (I did buy the pattern and yarn for it, so I can make the shawl), and instead did a 10-mile bicycle tour of Halifax. At any rate, I did enjoy working on the thrummed mittens, and here is my progress (I haven’t done anything with it since that weekend):

And the inside looks like this:

I learned lots of great tips from Mimi, like using a wool with a lot of lanolin in it, so it’s “sticky” and holds the thrums in better.

There was a lot of knitting that weekend, and in the few weeks that followed. This past week I finished knitting Tony’s scarf, after having to spin more yarn and buy more on Cape Cod while helping a friend do the Pan-Mass Challenge at the beginning of August. I still have to finish the scarf by weaving in the ends and blocking it, but it’s finally the right length, and Tony will be able to use it this coming fall/winter.

I also finished the scarf I was weaving (the June Spunky Eclectic weaving club), but I still need to block it before taking a picture of it. A new weaving club for August is on its way, so I’ll have something new to warp soon.

I am not going on a plane until the end of September, and my next travel is scheduled for mid-September, around Rosh Hashanah – I will be going to the New York City area for 2 weekends (coming back to Boston for a wedding in between). I hope to finish the Color Affection Shawl soon, and get pictures of
So, online I mentioned in the last post that I had finished 2 objects – side effects and the June Spunky Eclectic Weaving Club, which I opted to do a table runner. It was my first experience with using a pick-up stick. I’m happy with how both came out (especially after ironing the scarf…I don’t even iron clothes!).

Crooked Little Tony scarf

Pick-up-sticks table runner

I’m thrilled with how drapey the table runner is. My only problem is that I have no idea what to do with it – it’s 33 inches by 22 inches. It’s too short for a scarf, but I don’t have an appropriate table to use it on. It’s a superwash merino/bamboo/viscose blend. Folded over a towel bar it’d make a very long kitchen or guest towel, I guess?

Any ideas?
So, , which I opted to do a table runner. It was my first experience with using a pick-up stick. I’m happy with how both came out (especially after ironing the scarf…I don’t even iron clothes!).

Crooked Little Tony scarf

Pick-up-sticks table runner

I’m thrilled with how drapey the table runner is. My only problem is that I have no idea what to do with it – it’s 33 inches by 22 inches. It’s too short for a scarf, but I don’t have an appropriate table to use it on. It’s a superwash merino/bamboo/viscose blend.
It was very important that I write my previous post when I did – Wed 25 July – because the very next day, of the fun I had, but I’d also like to highlight the knitting I did.

I started knitting a Color Affection shawl, in some Novita Polku that I bought in Finland in May. I started the shawl the first day, which was mostly lounging around while we were in the port of Boston (where we all embarked) and then while the cruise ship was traveling. I continued the shawl on Friday 27 July, and then on Saturday 28 July we landed in the port of St. John’s, New Brunswick. I chose to take a bus to Fredericton, to see the city hall, learn some history, and visit Yarns on York to meet local knitters and take a class on Newfoundland Mittens, aka “Newfie Mitts”. I got a bit done, but I believe I will rip out what I’ve done, make it smaller, and do the “windows” in the multicolored black and the background/wrists in the green. Still, here’s the progress shot, even though this will be frogged later:

On Sunday, I chose to do one of the two classes offered at The Loop in Halifax. The class I chose was one on how to do thrummed mittens, and the instructor Mimi was amazing. I did not take the class for the Bermuda Scarf/shawl, but I heard that the 2nd class was not as great, probably due to the first class running very late and Mimi running out of steam (teaching 2 classes in one day is tough, and who knows if she even had time to eat!). Given that, I’m glad I did not stay for the 2nd class (I did buy the pattern and yarn for it, so I can make the shawl), and instead did a 10-mile bicycle tour of Halifax. At any rate, I did enjoy working on the thrummed mittens, and here is my progress (I haven’t done anything with it since that weekend):

And the inside looks like this:

I learned lots of great tips from Mimi, like using a wool with a lot of lanolin in it, so it’s “sticky” and holds the thrums in better.

There was a lot of knitting that weekend, and in the few weeks that followed. This past week I finished knitting Tony’s scarf, after having to spin more yarn and buy more on Cape Cod while helping a friend do the Pan-Mass Challenge at the beginning of August. I still have to finish the scarf by weaving in the ends and blocking it, but it’s finally the right length, and Tony will be able to use it this coming fall/winter.

I also finished the scarf I was weaving (the June Spunky Eclectic weaving club), but I still need to block it before taking a picture of it. A new weaving club for August is on its way, so I’ll have something new to warp soon.

I am not going on a plane until the end of September, and my next travel is scheduled for mid-September, around Rosh Hashanah – I will be going to the New York City area for 2 weekends (coming back to Boston for a wedding in between). I hope to finish the Color Affection Shawl soon, and get pictures of both it and the woven scarf before long.
It was very important that I write my previous post when I did – Wed 25 July – because the very next day, of the fun I had, but I’d also like to highlight the knitting I did.

I started knitting a Color Affection shawl, in some Novita Polku that I bought in Finland in May. I started the shawl the first day, which was mostly lounging around while we were in the port of Boston (where we all embarked) and then while the cruise ship was traveling. I continued the shawl on Friday 27 July, and then on Saturday 28 July we landed in the port of St. John’s, New Brunswick. I chose to take a bus to Fredericton, to see the city hall, learn some history, and visit Yarns on York to meet local knitters and take a class on Newfoundland Mittens, aka “Newfie Mitts”. I got a bit done, but I believe I will rip out what I’ve done, make it smaller, and do the “windows” in the multicolored black and the background/wrists in the green. Still, here’s the progress shot, even though this will be frogged later:

On Sunday, I chose to do one of the two classes offered at The Loop in Halifax. The class I chose was one on how to do thrummed mittens, and the instructor Mimi was amazing. I did not take the class for the Bermuda Scarf/shawl, but I heard that the 2nd class was not as great, probably due to the first class running very late and Mimi running out of steam (teaching 2 classes in one day is tough, and who knows if she even had time to eat!). Given that, I’m glad I did not stay for the 2nd class (I did buy the pattern and yarn for it, so I can make the shawl), and instead did a 10-mile bicycle tour of Halifax. At any rate, I did enjoy working on the thrummed mittens, and here is my progress (I haven’t done anything with it since that weekend):

And the inside looks like this:

I learned lots of great tips from Mimi, like using a wool with a lot of lanolin in it, so it’s “sticky” and holds the thrums in better.

There was a lot of knitting that weekend, and in the few weeks that followed. This past week I finished knitting Tony’s scarf, after having to spin more yarn and buy more on Cape Cod while helping a friend do the Pan-Mass Challenge at the beginning of August. I still have to finish the scarf by weaving in the ends and blocking it, but it’s finally the right length, and Tony will be able to use it this coming fall/winter.

I also finished the scarf I was weaving (the June Spunky Eclectic weaving club), but I still need to block it before taking a picture of it. A new weaving club for August is on its way, so I’ll have something new to warp soon.

I am not going on a plane until the end of September, and my next travel is scheduled for mid-September, around Rosh Hashanah – I will be going to the New York City area for 2 weekends (coming back to Boston for a wedding in between). I hope to finish the Color Affection Shawl soon, and get pictures of
So, online I mentioned in the last post that I had finished 2 objects – side effects and the June Spunky Eclectic Weaving Club, which I opted to do a table runner. It was my first experience with using a pick-up stick. I’m happy with how both came out (especially after ironing the scarf…I don’t even iron clothes!).

Crooked Little Tony scarf

Pick-up-sticks table runner

I’m thrilled with how drapey the table runner is. My only problem is that I have no idea what to do with it – it’s 33 inches by 22 inches. It’s too short for a scarf, but I don’t have an appropriate table to use it on. It’s a superwash merino/bamboo/viscose blend. Folded over a towel bar it’d make a very long kitchen or guest towel, I guess?

Any ideas?
So, , which I opted to do a table runner. It was my first experience with using a pick-up stick. I’m happy with how both came out (especially after ironing the scarf…I don’t even iron clothes!).

Crooked Little Tony scarf

Pick-up-sticks table runner

I’m thrilled with how drapey the table runner is. My only problem is that I have no idea what to do with it – it’s 33 inches by 22 inches. It’s too short for a scarf, but I don’t have an appropriate table to use it on. It’s a superwash merino/bamboo/viscose blend.
I am so excited about tonight’s Common Cod Fiber Guild Meeting featuring Pam Parmal of the Boston Museum of Fine Arts talking about the collection strategy for textiles and fashion. And since I last wrote, gonorrhea I have finished a few objects…..

The first is another Hoot Cardigan, this time made out of Universal Yarns Supreme Cotton Batik, that I picked up in Charlotte, North Carolina earlier this year. I love the Supreme Cotton line from Universal yarns, because it is super soft. Unfortunately, I have only been able to find it in LYS in North Carolina….I hear that is changing soon, though! Here’s the cardigan, made for a friend of mine who just had his first son:

And then there’s the August Weaving Club from Spunky Eclectic – cotton dishcloths! I did not follow the pattern; instead I tried out a herringbone/pinwheel pattern. It came out wonderfully!

I ended up making 2 towels, one a bit shorter because I ran out of warp, but here’s the shorter one hanging from a peg next to our sink (please excuse the dirty dishes and Guinness cans to be rinsed).

The bigger one is in constant use as Tony’s “potato cozy”. That’s not a euphemism, Tony eats a baked potato like one would eat an apple, whole and uncut. Because it’s hot, he uses a towel wrapped around it to hold it.

And finally, the pièce de résistance. This is a Color Affection Shawl that I made from 3 different skeins of Novita’s Polku yarn, which I acquired in Finland earlier this year.

Here’s a close-up shot of the ‘center’ of this assymmetrical shawl:

And a little zoomed out:

Here’s the full-size shot:

I also spun up a “fractal 3-ply” which I will write about next time.
It was very important that I write my previous post when I did – Wed 25 July – because the very next day, of the fun I had, but I’d also like to highlight the knitting I did.

I started knitting a Color Affection shawl, in some Novita Polku that I bought in Finland in May. I started the shawl the first day, which was mostly lounging around while we were in the port of Boston (where we all embarked) and then while the cruise ship was traveling. I continued the shawl on Friday 27 July, and then on Saturday 28 July we landed in the port of St. John’s, New Brunswick. I chose to take a bus to Fredericton, to see the city hall, learn some history, and visit Yarns on York to meet local knitters and take a class on Newfoundland Mittens, aka “Newfie Mitts”. I got a bit done, but I believe I will rip out what I’ve done, make it smaller, and do the “windows” in the multicolored black and the background/wrists in the green. Still, here’s the progress shot, even though this will be frogged later:

On Sunday, I chose to do one of the two classes offered at The Loop in Halifax. The class I chose was one on how to do thrummed mittens, and the instructor Mimi was amazing. I did not take the class for the Bermuda Scarf/shawl, but I heard that the 2nd class was not as great, probably due to the first class running very late and Mimi running out of steam (teaching 2 classes in one day is tough, and who knows if she even had time to eat!). Given that, I’m glad I did not stay for the 2nd class (I did buy the pattern and yarn for it, so I can make the shawl), and instead did a 10-mile bicycle tour of Halifax. At any rate, I did enjoy working on the thrummed mittens, and here is my progress (I haven’t done anything with it since that weekend):

And the inside looks like this:

I learned lots of great tips from Mimi, like using a wool with a lot of lanolin in it, so it’s “sticky” and holds the thrums in better.

There was a lot of knitting that weekend, and in the few weeks that followed. This past week I finished knitting Tony’s scarf, after having to spin more yarn and buy more on Cape Cod while helping a friend do the Pan-Mass Challenge at the beginning of August. I still have to finish the scarf by weaving in the ends and blocking it, but it’s finally the right length, and Tony will be able to use it this coming fall/winter.

I also finished the scarf I was weaving (the June Spunky Eclectic weaving club), but I still need to block it before taking a picture of it. A new weaving club for August is on its way, so I’ll have something new to warp soon.

I am not going on a plane until the end of September, and my next travel is scheduled for mid-September, around Rosh Hashanah – I will be going to the New York City area for 2 weekends (coming back to Boston for a wedding in between). I hope to finish the Color Affection Shawl soon, and get pictures of both it and the woven scarf before long.
It was very important that I write my previous post when I did – Wed 25 July – because the very next day, of the fun I had, but I’d also like to highlight the knitting I did.

I started knitting a Color Affection shawl, in some Novita Polku that I bought in Finland in May. I started the shawl the first day, which was mostly lounging around while we were in the port of Boston (where we all embarked) and then while the cruise ship was traveling. I continued the shawl on Friday 27 July, and then on Saturday 28 July we landed in the port of St. John’s, New Brunswick. I chose to take a bus to Fredericton, to see the city hall, learn some history, and visit Yarns on York to meet local knitters and take a class on Newfoundland Mittens, aka “Newfie Mitts”. I got a bit done, but I believe I will rip out what I’ve done, make it smaller, and do the “windows” in the multicolored black and the background/wrists in the green. Still, here’s the progress shot, even though this will be frogged later:

On Sunday, I chose to do one of the two classes offered at The Loop in Halifax. The class I chose was one on how to do thrummed mittens, and the instructor Mimi was amazing. I did not take the class for the Bermuda Scarf/shawl, but I heard that the 2nd class was not as great, probably due to the first class running very late and Mimi running out of steam (teaching 2 classes in one day is tough, and who knows if she even had time to eat!). Given that, I’m glad I did not stay for the 2nd class (I did buy the pattern and yarn for it, so I can make the shawl), and instead did a 10-mile bicycle tour of Halifax. At any rate, I did enjoy working on the thrummed mittens, and here is my progress (I haven’t done anything with it since that weekend):

And the inside looks like this:

I learned lots of great tips from Mimi, like using a wool with a lot of lanolin in it, so it’s “sticky” and holds the thrums in better.

There was a lot of knitting that weekend, and in the few weeks that followed. This past week I finished knitting Tony’s scarf, after having to spin more yarn and buy more on Cape Cod while helping a friend do the Pan-Mass Challenge at the beginning of August. I still have to finish the scarf by weaving in the ends and blocking it, but it’s finally the right length, and Tony will be able to use it this coming fall/winter.

I also finished the scarf I was weaving (the June Spunky Eclectic weaving club), but I still need to block it before taking a picture of it. A new weaving club for August is on its way, so I’ll have something new to warp soon.

I am not going on a plane until the end of September, and my next travel is scheduled for mid-September, around Rosh Hashanah – I will be going to the New York City area for 2 weekends (coming back to Boston for a wedding in between). I hope to finish the Color Affection Shawl soon, and get pictures of
So, online I mentioned in the last post that I had finished 2 objects – side effects and the June Spunky Eclectic Weaving Club, which I opted to do a table runner. It was my first experience with using a pick-up stick. I’m happy with how both came out (especially after ironing the scarf…I don’t even iron clothes!).

Crooked Little Tony scarf

Pick-up-sticks table runner

I’m thrilled with how drapey the table runner is. My only problem is that I have no idea what to do with it – it’s 33 inches by 22 inches. It’s too short for a scarf, but I don’t have an appropriate table to use it on. It’s a superwash merino/bamboo/viscose blend. Folded over a towel bar it’d make a very long kitchen or guest towel, I guess?

Any ideas?
So, , which I opted to do a table runner. It was my first experience with using a pick-up stick. I’m happy with how both came out (especially after ironing the scarf…I don’t even iron clothes!).

Crooked Little Tony scarf

Pick-up-sticks table runner

I’m thrilled with how drapey the table runner is. My only problem is that I have no idea what to do with it – it’s 33 inches by 22 inches. It’s too short for a scarf, but I don’t have an appropriate table to use it on. It’s a superwash merino/bamboo/viscose blend.
I am so excited about tonight’s Common Cod Fiber Guild Meeting featuring Pam Parmal of the Boston Museum of Fine Arts talking about the collection strategy for textiles and fashion. And since I last wrote, gonorrhea I have finished a few objects…..

The first is another Hoot Cardigan, this time made out of Universal Yarns Supreme Cotton Batik, that I picked up in Charlotte, North Carolina earlier this year. I love the Supreme Cotton line from Universal yarns, because it is super soft. Unfortunately, I have only been able to find it in LYS in North Carolina….I hear that is changing soon, though! Here’s the cardigan, made for a friend of mine who just had his first son:

And then there’s the August Weaving Club from Spunky Eclectic – cotton dishcloths! I did not follow the pattern; instead I tried out a herringbone/pinwheel pattern. It came out wonderfully!

I ended up making 2 towels, one a bit shorter because I ran out of warp, but here’s the shorter one hanging from a peg next to our sink (please excuse the dirty dishes and Guinness cans to be rinsed).

The bigger one is in constant use as Tony’s “potato cozy”. That’s not a euphemism, Tony eats a baked potato like one would eat an apple, whole and uncut. Because it’s hot, he uses a towel wrapped around it to hold it.

And finally, the pièce de résistance. This is a Color Affection Shawl that I made from 3 different skeins of Novita’s Polku yarn, which I acquired in Finland earlier this year.

Here’s a close-up shot of the ‘center’ of this assymmetrical shawl:

And a little zoomed out:

Here’s the full-size shot:

I also spun up a “fractal 3-ply” which I will write about next time.
I am so excited about tonight’s Common Cod Fiber Guild Meeting featuring Pam Parmal of the Boston Museum of Fine Arts talking about the collection strategy for textiles and fashion. And since I last wrote, condom I have finished a few objects…..

The first is another Hoot Cardigan, information pills this time made out of

And then there’s the August

The bigger one is in constant use as Tony’s “potato cozy”. That’s not a euphemism, Tony eats a baked potato like one would eat an apple, whole and uncut. Because it’s hot, he uses a towel wrapped around it to hold it.

And finally, the pièce de résistance. This is a Color Affection Shawl that I made from 3 different skeins of

And a little zoomed out:

Here’s the full-size shot:

After
It was very important that I write my
previous post when I did – Wed 25 July – because the very next day, of the fun I had, but I’d also like to highlight the knitting I did.

I started knitting a Color Affection shawl, in some Novita Polku that I bought in Finland in May. I started the shawl the first day, which was mostly lounging around while we were in the port of Boston (where we all embarked) and then while the cruise ship was traveling. I continued the shawl on Friday 27 July, and then on Saturday 28 July we landed in the port of St. John’s, New Brunswick. I chose to take a bus to Fredericton, to see the city hall, learn some history, and visit Yarns on York to meet local knitters and take a class on Newfoundland Mittens, aka “Newfie Mitts”. I got a bit done, but I believe I will rip out what I’ve done, make it smaller, and do the “windows” in the multicolored black and the background/wrists in the green. Still, here’s the progress shot, even though this will be frogged later:

On Sunday, I chose to do one of the two classes offered at The Loop in Halifax. The class I chose was one on how to do thrummed mittens, and the instructor Mimi was amazing. I did not take the class for the Bermuda Scarf/shawl, but I heard that the 2nd class was not as great, probably due to the first class running very late and Mimi running out of steam (teaching 2 classes in one day is tough, and who knows if she even had time to eat!). Given that, I’m glad I did not stay for the 2nd class (I did buy the pattern and yarn for it, so I can make the shawl), and instead did a 10-mile bicycle tour of Halifax. At any rate, I did enjoy working on the thrummed mittens, and here is my progress (I haven’t done anything with it since that weekend):

And the inside looks like this:

I learned lots of great tips from Mimi, like using a wool with a lot of lanolin in it, so it’s “sticky” and holds the thrums in better.

There was a lot of knitting that weekend, and in the few weeks that followed. This past week I finished knitting Tony’s scarf, after having to spin more yarn and buy more on Cape Cod while helping a friend do the Pan-Mass Challenge at the beginning of August. I still have to finish the scarf by weaving in the ends and blocking it, but it’s finally the right length, and Tony will be able to use it this coming fall/winter.

I also finished the scarf I was weaving (the June Spunky Eclectic weaving club), but I still need to block it before taking a picture of it. A new weaving club for August is on its way, so I’ll have something new to warp soon.

I am not going on a plane until the end of September, and my next travel is scheduled for mid-September, around Rosh Hashanah – I will be going to the New York City area for 2 weekends (coming back to Boston for a wedding in between). I hope to finish the Color Affection Shawl soon, and get pictures of both it and the woven scarf before long.
It was very important that I write my previous post when I did – Wed 25 July – because the very next day, of the fun I had, but I’d also like to highlight the knitting I did.

I started knitting a Color Affection shawl, in some Novita Polku that I bought in Finland in May. I started the shawl the first day, which was mostly lounging around while we were in the port of Boston (where we all embarked) and then while the cruise ship was traveling. I continued the shawl on Friday 27 July, and then on Saturday 28 July we landed in the port of St. John’s, New Brunswick. I chose to take a bus to Fredericton, to see the city hall, learn some history, and visit Yarns on York to meet local knitters and take a class on Newfoundland Mittens, aka “Newfie Mitts”. I got a bit done, but I believe I will rip out what I’ve done, make it smaller, and do the “windows” in the multicolored black and the background/wrists in the green. Still, here’s the progress shot, even though this will be frogged later:

On Sunday, I chose to do one of the two classes offered at The Loop in Halifax. The class I chose was one on how to do thrummed mittens, and the instructor Mimi was amazing. I did not take the class for the Bermuda Scarf/shawl, but I heard that the 2nd class was not as great, probably due to the first class running very late and Mimi running out of steam (teaching 2 classes in one day is tough, and who knows if she even had time to eat!). Given that, I’m glad I did not stay for the 2nd class (I did buy the pattern and yarn for it, so I can make the shawl), and instead did a 10-mile bicycle tour of Halifax. At any rate, I did enjoy working on the thrummed mittens, and here is my progress (I haven’t done anything with it since that weekend):

And the inside looks like this:

I learned lots of great tips from Mimi, like using a wool with a lot of lanolin in it, so it’s “sticky” and holds the thrums in better.

There was a lot of knitting that weekend, and in the few weeks that followed. This past week I finished knitting Tony’s scarf, after having to spin more yarn and buy more on Cape Cod while helping a friend do the Pan-Mass Challenge at the beginning of August. I still have to finish the scarf by weaving in the ends and blocking it, but it’s finally the right length, and Tony will be able to use it this coming fall/winter.

I also finished the scarf I was weaving (the June Spunky Eclectic weaving club), but I still need to block it before taking a picture of it. A new weaving club for August is on its way, so I’ll have something new to warp soon.

I am not going on a plane until the end of September, and my next travel is scheduled for mid-September, around Rosh Hashanah – I will be going to the New York City area for 2 weekends (coming back to Boston for a wedding in between). I hope to finish the Color Affection Shawl soon, and get pictures of
So, online I mentioned in the last post that I had finished 2 objects – side effects and the June Spunky Eclectic Weaving Club, which I opted to do a table runner. It was my first experience with using a pick-up stick. I’m happy with how both came out (especially after ironing the scarf…I don’t even iron clothes!).

Crooked Little Tony scarf

Pick-up-sticks table runner

I’m thrilled with how drapey the table runner is. My only problem is that I have no idea what to do with it – it’s 33 inches by 22 inches. It’s too short for a scarf, but I don’t have an appropriate table to use it on. It’s a superwash merino/bamboo/viscose blend. Folded over a towel bar it’d make a very long kitchen or guest towel, I guess?

Any ideas?
So, , which I opted to do a table runner. It was my first experience with using a pick-up stick. I’m happy with how both came out (especially after ironing the scarf…I don’t even iron clothes!).

Crooked Little Tony scarf

Pick-up-sticks table runner

I’m thrilled with how drapey the table runner is. My only problem is that I have no idea what to do with it – it’s 33 inches by 22 inches. It’s too short for a scarf, but I don’t have an appropriate table to use it on. It’s a superwash merino/bamboo/viscose blend.
I am so excited about tonight’s Common Cod Fiber Guild Meeting featuring Pam Parmal of the Boston Museum of Fine Arts talking about the collection strategy for textiles and fashion. And since I last wrote, gonorrhea I have finished a few objects…..

The first is another Hoot Cardigan, this time made out of Universal Yarns Supreme Cotton Batik, that I picked up in Charlotte, North Carolina earlier this year. I love the Supreme Cotton line from Universal yarns, because it is super soft. Unfortunately, I have only been able to find it in LYS in North Carolina….I hear that is changing soon, though! Here’s the cardigan, made for a friend of mine who just had his first son:

And then there’s the August Weaving Club from Spunky Eclectic – cotton dishcloths! I did not follow the pattern; instead I tried out a herringbone/pinwheel pattern. It came out wonderfully!

I ended up making 2 towels, one a bit shorter because I ran out of warp, but here’s the shorter one hanging from a peg next to our sink (please excuse the dirty dishes and Guinness cans to be rinsed).

The bigger one is in constant use as Tony’s “potato cozy”. That’s not a euphemism, Tony eats a baked potato like one would eat an apple, whole and uncut. Because it’s hot, he uses a towel wrapped around it to hold it.

And finally, the pièce de résistance. This is a Color Affection Shawl that I made from 3 different skeins of Novita’s Polku yarn, which I acquired in Finland earlier this year.

Here’s a close-up shot of the ‘center’ of this assymmetrical shawl:

And a little zoomed out:

Here’s the full-size shot:

I also spun up a “fractal 3-ply” which I will write about next time.
I am so excited about tonight’s Common Cod Fiber Guild Meeting featuring Pam Parmal of the Boston Museum of Fine Arts talking about the collection strategy for textiles and fashion. And since I last wrote, condom I have finished a few objects…..

The first is another Hoot Cardigan, information pills this time made out of

And then there’s the August

The bigger one is in constant use as Tony’s “potato cozy”. That’s not a euphemism, Tony eats a baked potato like one would eat an apple, whole and uncut. Because it’s hot, he uses a towel wrapped around it to hold it.

And finally, the pièce de résistance. This is a Color Affection Shawl that I made from 3 different skeins of

And a little zoomed out:

Here’s the full-size shot:

After
I am so excited about tonight’s
Common Cod Fiber Guild Meeting featuring Pam Parmal of the Boston Museum of Fine Arts talking about the collection strategy for textiles and fashion. And since I last wrote, order I have finished a few objects…..

The first is another Hoot Cardigan, find this time made out of

And then there’s the August

The bigger one is in constant use as Tony’s “potato cozy”. That’s not a euphemism, Tony eats a baked potato like one would eat an apple, whole and uncut. Because it’s hot, he uses a towel wrapped around it to hold it.

And finally, the pièce de résistance. This is a Color Affection Shawl that I made from 3 different skeins of

And a little zoomed out:

Here’s the full-size shot:

I also spun up a “fractal 3-ply” which I will write about next time.
It was very important that I write my
previous post when I did – Wed 25 July – because the very next day, of the fun I had, but I’d also like to highlight the knitting I did.

I started knitting a Color Affection shawl, in some Novita Polku that I bought in Finland in May. I started the shawl the first day, which was mostly lounging around while we were in the port of Boston (where we all embarked) and then while the cruise ship was traveling. I continued the shawl on Friday 27 July, and then on Saturday 28 July we landed in the port of St. John’s, New Brunswick. I chose to take a bus to Fredericton, to see the city hall, learn some history, and visit Yarns on York to meet local knitters and take a class on Newfoundland Mittens, aka “Newfie Mitts”. I got a bit done, but I believe I will rip out what I’ve done, make it smaller, and do the “windows” in the multicolored black and the background/wrists in the green. Still, here’s the progress shot, even though this will be frogged later:

On Sunday, I chose to do one of the two classes offered at The Loop in Halifax. The class I chose was one on how to do thrummed mittens, and the instructor Mimi was amazing. I did not take the class for the Bermuda Scarf/shawl, but I heard that the 2nd class was not as great, probably due to the first class running very late and Mimi running out of steam (teaching 2 classes in one day is tough, and who knows if she even had time to eat!). Given that, I’m glad I did not stay for the 2nd class (I did buy the pattern and yarn for it, so I can make the shawl), and instead did a 10-mile bicycle tour of Halifax. At any rate, I did enjoy working on the thrummed mittens, and here is my progress (I haven’t done anything with it since that weekend):

And the inside looks like this:

I learned lots of great tips from Mimi, like using a wool with a lot of lanolin in it, so it’s “sticky” and holds the thrums in better.

There was a lot of knitting that weekend, and in the few weeks that followed. This past week I finished knitting Tony’s scarf, after having to spin more yarn and buy more on Cape Cod while helping a friend do the Pan-Mass Challenge at the beginning of August. I still have to finish the scarf by weaving in the ends and blocking it, but it’s finally the right length, and Tony will be able to use it this coming fall/winter.

I also finished the scarf I was weaving (the June Spunky Eclectic weaving club), but I still need to block it before taking a picture of it. A new weaving club for August is on its way, so I’ll have something new to warp soon.

I am not going on a plane until the end of September, and my next travel is scheduled for mid-September, around Rosh Hashanah – I will be going to the New York City area for 2 weekends (coming back to Boston for a wedding in between). I hope to finish the Color Affection Shawl soon, and get pictures of both it and the woven scarf before long.
It was very important that I write my previous post when I did – Wed 25 July – because the very next day, of the fun I had, but I’d also like to highlight the knitting I did.

I started knitting a Color Affection shawl, in some Novita Polku that I bought in Finland in May. I started the shawl the first day, which was mostly lounging around while we were in the port of Boston (where we all embarked) and then while the cruise ship was traveling. I continued the shawl on Friday 27 July, and then on Saturday 28 July we landed in the port of St. John’s, New Brunswick. I chose to take a bus to Fredericton, to see the city hall, learn some history, and visit Yarns on York to meet local knitters and take a class on Newfoundland Mittens, aka “Newfie Mitts”. I got a bit done, but I believe I will rip out what I’ve done, make it smaller, and do the “windows” in the multicolored black and the background/wrists in the green. Still, here’s the progress shot, even though this will be frogged later:

On Sunday, I chose to do one of the two classes offered at The Loop in Halifax. The class I chose was one on how to do thrummed mittens, and the instructor Mimi was amazing. I did not take the class for the Bermuda Scarf/shawl, but I heard that the 2nd class was not as great, probably due to the first class running very late and Mimi running out of steam (teaching 2 classes in one day is tough, and who knows if she even had time to eat!). Given that, I’m glad I did not stay for the 2nd class (I did buy the pattern and yarn for it, so I can make the shawl), and instead did a 10-mile bicycle tour of Halifax. At any rate, I did enjoy working on the thrummed mittens, and here is my progress (I haven’t done anything with it since that weekend):

And the inside looks like this:

I learned lots of great tips from Mimi, like using a wool with a lot of lanolin in it, so it’s “sticky” and holds the thrums in better.

There was a lot of knitting that weekend, and in the few weeks that followed. This past week I finished knitting Tony’s scarf, after having to spin more yarn and buy more on Cape Cod while helping a friend do the Pan-Mass Challenge at the beginning of August. I still have to finish the scarf by weaving in the ends and blocking it, but it’s finally the right length, and Tony will be able to use it this coming fall/winter.

I also finished the scarf I was weaving (the June Spunky Eclectic weaving club), but I still need to block it before taking a picture of it. A new weaving club for August is on its way, so I’ll have something new to warp soon.

I am not going on a plane until the end of September, and my next travel is scheduled for mid-September, around Rosh Hashanah – I will be going to the New York City area for 2 weekends (coming back to Boston for a wedding in between). I hope to finish the Color Affection Shawl soon, and get pictures of
So, online I mentioned in the last post that I had finished 2 objects – side effects and the June Spunky Eclectic Weaving Club, which I opted to do a table runner. It was my first experience with using a pick-up stick. I’m happy with how both came out (especially after ironing the scarf…I don’t even iron clothes!).

Crooked Little Tony scarf

Pick-up-sticks table runner

I’m thrilled with how drapey the table runner is. My only problem is that I have no idea what to do with it – it’s 33 inches by 22 inches. It’s too short for a scarf, but I don’t have an appropriate table to use it on. It’s a superwash merino/bamboo/viscose blend. Folded over a towel bar it’d make a very long kitchen or guest towel, I guess?

Any ideas?
So, , which I opted to do a table runner. It was my first experience with using a pick-up stick. I’m happy with how both came out (especially after ironing the scarf…I don’t even iron clothes!).

Crooked Little Tony scarf

Pick-up-sticks table runner

I’m thrilled with how drapey the table runner is. My only problem is that I have no idea what to do with it – it’s 33 inches by 22 inches. It’s too short for a scarf, but I don’t have an appropriate table to use it on. It’s a superwash merino/bamboo/viscose blend.
I am so excited about tonight’s Common Cod Fiber Guild Meeting featuring Pam Parmal of the Boston Museum of Fine Arts talking about the collection strategy for textiles and fashion. And since I last wrote, gonorrhea I have finished a few objects…..

The first is another Hoot Cardigan, this time made out of Universal Yarns Supreme Cotton Batik, that I picked up in Charlotte, North Carolina earlier this year. I love the Supreme Cotton line from Universal yarns, because it is super soft. Unfortunately, I have only been able to find it in LYS in North Carolina….I hear that is changing soon, though! Here’s the cardigan, made for a friend of mine who just had his first son:

And then there’s the August Weaving Club from Spunky Eclectic – cotton dishcloths! I did not follow the pattern; instead I tried out a herringbone/pinwheel pattern. It came out wonderfully!

I ended up making 2 towels, one a bit shorter because I ran out of warp, but here’s the shorter one hanging from a peg next to our sink (please excuse the dirty dishes and Guinness cans to be rinsed).

The bigger one is in constant use as Tony’s “potato cozy”. That’s not a euphemism, Tony eats a baked potato like one would eat an apple, whole and uncut. Because it’s hot, he uses a towel wrapped around it to hold it.

And finally, the pièce de résistance. This is a Color Affection Shawl that I made from 3 different skeins of Novita’s Polku yarn, which I acquired in Finland earlier this year.

Here’s a close-up shot of the ‘center’ of this assymmetrical shawl:

And a little zoomed out:

Here’s the full-size shot:

I also spun up a “fractal 3-ply” which I will write about next time.
I am so excited about tonight’s Common Cod Fiber Guild Meeting featuring Pam Parmal of the Boston Museum of Fine Arts talking about the collection strategy for textiles and fashion. And since I last wrote, condom I have finished a few objects…..

The first is another Hoot Cardigan, information pills this time made out of

And then there’s the August

The bigger one is in constant use as Tony’s “potato cozy”. That’s not a euphemism, Tony eats a baked potato like one would eat an apple, whole and uncut. Because it’s hot, he uses a towel wrapped around it to hold it.

And finally, the pièce de résistance. This is a Color Affection Shawl that I made from 3 different skeins of

And a little zoomed out:

Here’s the full-size shot:

After
I am so excited about tonight’s
Common Cod Fiber Guild Meeting featuring Pam Parmal of the Boston Museum of Fine Arts talking about the collection strategy for textiles and fashion. And since I last wrote, order I have finished a few objects…..

The first is another Hoot Cardigan, find this time made out of

And then there’s the August

The bigger one is in constant use as Tony’s “potato cozy”. That’s not a euphemism, Tony eats a baked potato like one would eat an apple, whole and uncut. Because it’s hot, he uses a towel wrapped around it to hold it.

And finally, the pièce de résistance. This is a Color Affection Shawl that I made from 3 different skeins of

And a little zoomed out:

Here’s the full-size shot:

I also spun up a “fractal 3-ply” which I will write about next time.
I am so excited about tonight’s
Common Cod Fiber Guild Meeting featuring Pam Parmal of the Boston Museum of Fine Arts talking about the collection strategy for textiles and fashion. And since I last wrote, more about I have finished a few objects…..

The first is another Hoot Cardigan, this time made out of Universal Yarns Supreme Cotton Batik, that I picked up in Charlotte, North Carolina earlier this year. I love the Supreme Cotton line from Universal yarns, because it is super soft. Unfortunately, I have only been able to find it in LYS in North Carolina….I hear that is changing soon, though! Here’s the cardigan, made for a friend of mine who just had his first son:

And then there’s the August Weaving Club from Spunky Eclectic – cotton dishcloths! I did not follow the pattern; instead I tried out a herringbone/pinwheel pattern. It came out wonderfully!

I ended up making 2 towels, one a bit shorter because I ran out of warp, but here’s the shorter one hanging from a peg next to our sink (please excuse the dirty dishes and Guinness cans to be rinsed).

The bigger one is in constant use as Tony’s “potato cozy”. That’s not a euphemism, Tony eats a baked potato like one would eat an apple, whole and uncut. Because it’s hot, he uses a towel wrapped around it to hold it.

And finally, the pièce de résistance. This is a Color Affection Shawl that I made from 3 different skeins of

And a little zoomed out:

Here’s the full-size shot:

I also spun up a “fractal 3-ply” which I will write about next time.
It was very important that I write my
previous post when I did – Wed 25 July – because the very next day, of the fun I had, but I’d also like to highlight the knitting I did.

I started knitting a Color Affection shawl, in some Novita Polku that I bought in Finland in May. I started the shawl the first day, which was mostly lounging around while we were in the port of Boston (where we all embarked) and then while the cruise ship was traveling. I continued the shawl on Friday 27 July, and then on Saturday 28 July we landed in the port of St. John’s, New Brunswick. I chose to take a bus to Fredericton, to see the city hall, learn some history, and visit Yarns on York to meet local knitters and take a class on Newfoundland Mittens, aka “Newfie Mitts”. I got a bit done, but I believe I will rip out what I’ve done, make it smaller, and do the “windows” in the multicolored black and the background/wrists in the green. Still, here’s the progress shot, even though this will be frogged later:

On Sunday, I chose to do one of the two classes offered at The Loop in Halifax. The class I chose was one on how to do thrummed mittens, and the instructor Mimi was amazing. I did not take the class for the Bermuda Scarf/shawl, but I heard that the 2nd class was not as great, probably due to the first class running very late and Mimi running out of steam (teaching 2 classes in one day is tough, and who knows if she even had time to eat!). Given that, I’m glad I did not stay for the 2nd class (I did buy the pattern and yarn for it, so I can make the shawl), and instead did a 10-mile bicycle tour of Halifax. At any rate, I did enjoy working on the thrummed mittens, and here is my progress (I haven’t done anything with it since that weekend):

And the inside looks like this:

I learned lots of great tips from Mimi, like using a wool with a lot of lanolin in it, so it’s “sticky” and holds the thrums in better.

There was a lot of knitting that weekend, and in the few weeks that followed. This past week I finished knitting Tony’s scarf, after having to spin more yarn and buy more on Cape Cod while helping a friend do the Pan-Mass Challenge at the beginning of August. I still have to finish the scarf by weaving in the ends and blocking it, but it’s finally the right length, and Tony will be able to use it this coming fall/winter.

I also finished the scarf I was weaving (the June Spunky Eclectic weaving club), but I still need to block it before taking a picture of it. A new weaving club for August is on its way, so I’ll have something new to warp soon.

I am not going on a plane until the end of September, and my next travel is scheduled for mid-September, around Rosh Hashanah – I will be going to the New York City area for 2 weekends (coming back to Boston for a wedding in between). I hope to finish the Color Affection Shawl soon, and get pictures of both it and the woven scarf before long.
It was very important that I write my previous post when I did – Wed 25 July – because the very next day, of the fun I had, but I’d also like to highlight the knitting I did.

I started knitting a Color Affection shawl, in some Novita Polku that I bought in Finland in May. I started the shawl the first day, which was mostly lounging around while we were in the port of Boston (where we all embarked) and then while the cruise ship was traveling. I continued the shawl on Friday 27 July, and then on Saturday 28 July we landed in the port of St. John’s, New Brunswick. I chose to take a bus to Fredericton, to see the city hall, learn some history, and visit Yarns on York to meet local knitters and take a class on Newfoundland Mittens, aka “Newfie Mitts”. I got a bit done, but I believe I will rip out what I’ve done, make it smaller, and do the “windows” in the multicolored black and the background/wrists in the green. Still, here’s the progress shot, even though this will be frogged later:

On Sunday, I chose to do one of the two classes offered at The Loop in Halifax. The class I chose was one on how to do thrummed mittens, and the instructor Mimi was amazing. I did not take the class for the Bermuda Scarf/shawl, but I heard that the 2nd class was not as great, probably due to the first class running very late and Mimi running out of steam (teaching 2 classes in one day is tough, and who knows if she even had time to eat!). Given that, I’m glad I did not stay for the 2nd class (I did buy the pattern and yarn for it, so I can make the shawl), and instead did a 10-mile bicycle tour of Halifax. At any rate, I did enjoy working on the thrummed mittens, and here is my progress (I haven’t done anything with it since that weekend):

And the inside looks like this:

I learned lots of great tips from Mimi, like using a wool with a lot of lanolin in it, so it’s “sticky” and holds the thrums in better.

There was a lot of knitting that weekend, and in the few weeks that followed. This past week I finished knitting Tony’s scarf, after having to spin more yarn and buy more on Cape Cod while helping a friend do the Pan-Mass Challenge at the beginning of August. I still have to finish the scarf by weaving in the ends and blocking it, but it’s finally the right length, and Tony will be able to use it this coming fall/winter.

I also finished the scarf I was weaving (the June Spunky Eclectic weaving club), but I still need to block it before taking a picture of it. A new weaving club for August is on its way, so I’ll have something new to warp soon.

I am not going on a plane until the end of September, and my next travel is scheduled for mid-September, around Rosh Hashanah – I will be going to the New York City area for 2 weekends (coming back to Boston for a wedding in between). I hope to finish the Color Affection Shawl soon, and get pictures of
So, online I mentioned in the last post that I had finished 2 objects – side effects and the June Spunky Eclectic Weaving Club, which I opted to do a table runner. It was my first experience with using a pick-up stick. I’m happy with how both came out (especially after ironing the scarf…I don’t even iron clothes!).

Crooked Little Tony scarf

Pick-up-sticks table runner

I’m thrilled with how drapey the table runner is. My only problem is that I have no idea what to do with it – it’s 33 inches by 22 inches. It’s too short for a scarf, but I don’t have an appropriate table to use it on. It’s a superwash merino/bamboo/viscose blend. Folded over a towel bar it’d make a very long kitchen or guest towel, I guess?

Any ideas?
So, , which I opted to do a table runner. It was my first experience with using a pick-up stick. I’m happy with how both came out (especially after ironing the scarf…I don’t even iron clothes!).

Crooked Little Tony scarf

Pick-up-sticks table runner

I’m thrilled with how drapey the table runner is. My only problem is that I have no idea what to do with it – it’s 33 inches by 22 inches. It’s too short for a scarf, but I don’t have an appropriate table to use it on. It’s a superwash merino/bamboo/viscose blend.
I am so excited about tonight’s Common Cod Fiber Guild Meeting featuring Pam Parmal of the Boston Museum of Fine Arts talking about the collection strategy for textiles and fashion. And since I last wrote, gonorrhea I have finished a few objects…..

The first is another Hoot Cardigan, this time made out of Universal Yarns Supreme Cotton Batik, that I picked up in Charlotte, North Carolina earlier this year. I love the Supreme Cotton line from Universal yarns, because it is super soft. Unfortunately, I have only been able to find it in LYS in North Carolina….I hear that is changing soon, though! Here’s the cardigan, made for a friend of mine who just had his first son:

And then there’s the August Weaving Club from Spunky Eclectic – cotton dishcloths! I did not follow the pattern; instead I tried out a herringbone/pinwheel pattern. It came out wonderfully!

I ended up making 2 towels, one a bit shorter because I ran out of warp, but here’s the shorter one hanging from a peg next to our sink (please excuse the dirty dishes and Guinness cans to be rinsed).

The bigger one is in constant use as Tony’s “potato cozy”. That’s not a euphemism, Tony eats a baked potato like one would eat an apple, whole and uncut. Because it’s hot, he uses a towel wrapped around it to hold it.

And finally, the pièce de résistance. This is a Color Affection Shawl that I made from 3 different skeins of Novita’s Polku yarn, which I acquired in Finland earlier this year.

Here’s a close-up shot of the ‘center’ of this assymmetrical shawl:

And a little zoomed out:

Here’s the full-size shot:

I also spun up a “fractal 3-ply” which I will write about next time.
I am so excited about tonight’s Common Cod Fiber Guild Meeting featuring Pam Parmal of the Boston Museum of Fine Arts talking about the collection strategy for textiles and fashion. And since I last wrote, condom I have finished a few objects…..

The first is another Hoot Cardigan, information pills this time made out of

And then there’s the August

The bigger one is in constant use as Tony’s “potato cozy”. That’s not a euphemism, Tony eats a baked potato like one would eat an apple, whole and uncut. Because it’s hot, he uses a towel wrapped around it to hold it.

And finally, the pièce de résistance. This is a Color Affection Shawl that I made from 3 different skeins of

And a little zoomed out:

Here’s the full-size shot:

After
I am so excited about tonight’s
Common Cod Fiber Guild Meeting featuring Pam Parmal of the Boston Museum of Fine Arts talking about the collection strategy for textiles and fashion. And since I last wrote, order I have finished a few objects…..

The first is another Hoot Cardigan, find this time made out of

And then there’s the August

The bigger one is in constant use as Tony’s “potato cozy”. That’s not a euphemism, Tony eats a baked potato like one would eat an apple, whole and uncut. Because it’s hot, he uses a towel wrapped around it to hold it.

And finally, the pièce de résistance. This is a Color Affection Shawl that I made from 3 different skeins of

And a little zoomed out:

Here’s the full-size shot:

I also spun up a “fractal 3-ply” which I will write about next time.
I am so excited about tonight’s
Common Cod Fiber Guild Meeting featuring Pam Parmal of the Boston Museum of Fine Arts talking about the collection strategy for textiles and fashion. And since I last wrote, more about I have finished a few objects…..

The first is another Hoot Cardigan, this time made out of Universal Yarns Supreme Cotton Batik, that I picked up in Charlotte, North Carolina earlier this year. I love the Supreme Cotton line from Universal yarns, because it is super soft. Unfortunately, I have only been able to find it in LYS in North Carolina….I hear that is changing soon, though! Here’s the cardigan, made for a friend of mine who just had his first son:

And then there’s the August Weaving Club from Spunky Eclectic – cotton dishcloths! I did not follow the pattern; instead I tried out a herringbone/pinwheel pattern. It came out wonderfully!

I ended up making 2 towels, one a bit shorter because I ran out of warp, but here’s the shorter one hanging from a peg next to our sink (please excuse the dirty dishes and Guinness cans to be rinsed).

The bigger one is in constant use as Tony’s “potato cozy”. That’s not a euphemism, Tony eats a baked potato like one would eat an apple, whole and uncut. Because it’s hot, he uses a towel wrapped around it to hold it.

And finally, the pièce de résistance. This is a Color Affection Shawl that I made from 3 different skeins of

And a little zoomed out:

Here’s the full-size shot:

I also spun up a “fractal 3-ply” which I will write about next time.
Buenos Aires has a span of a few blocks,
hospital not too far from the Malabia metro station* where there are many yarn shops, phthisiatrician I counted 15, and went into 11 of them before I had to stop. The shops are on Ave. Scalabrini Ortiz just southwest of Ave. Cordoba, towards Ave. Correintes. The Malabia metro station is on the corner of Correintes and Scalabrini Ortiz, which is 1 km away from the corner of Cordoba and Corrientes, and about half that until you see your first yarn shop. There was a small bit of yarn bombing between two of the stores:

Yarn shopping in Buenos Aires is quite different from what I’m used to in the States. The stores all look like this:

The yarn is beautiful, and well-organized, but there’s no signs as to what the yarn is made up of, how much it costs nor the gauge of the yarn. In addition, you’re not supposed to take the yarn out of the bins. If you look at the bottom right of that picture, you’ll see some white yarn and blue yarn that is actually sitting on top of a counter. That counter separates you from the wall, and there are people behind the counter who can help you get what you want.

So it’s very different from the experience I’m used to. I got the feeling that a lot of people knew exactly what they wanted to buy, or walked in and would say “do you have anything made of wool?” I was feeling a bit shy due to the language barrier, so I picked up a Spanish phrase: “solamente mirando” – it means “Just looking”. The people are friendly and willing to help, but I like the yarn buying process to be a solo activity.

There were 2 exceptions to the fact that most stores don’t give any information about their items.: Milana hilados and Yanabey. Milana hilados had tags like this near most of their yarn:

Note that that’s in Argentinian pesos, and at the time, this was less than USD $10 per 100g. Another thing to note is the price is per 100g, not per hank of yarn. You’d ask a sales associate to take the yarn down for you and they’d weigh it and ask you if that was OK (kind of like at the deli counter). Then they give you a slip of paper and you take it to a cash register, where you’re usually helped by someone else. Another interesting thing is that the stores seemed to be staffed by about half men, half women, which is very different from yarn stores in the States, which are probably about 90% staffed by women.

I bought 3 hanks of yarn there, for about $25:

Yanabey had signs like this:

These prices are still in Argentinian pesos, but they’re in kilos. So these prices are $171 for 1 kilo, which is $17.10 for 100g. This is a wall of “seda vegetal”, or “vegetable silk“. By the way, that’s about USD $35 per kilo. So I bought 6 skeins, which was just over a kilo, because the tree which this comes from (ceiba speciosa, or “silk floss tree”) is native to South America, and I haven’t seen “vegetable silk” in the US.

A lot of the stores have the recycled t-shirt yarn, and I bought some at Arte Natural:

BUTTONS!!!

I was thinking I might make a purse from the yarn, like this:

That purse is crocheted, but I’m sure I can come up with a knitted version.

Here’s what I bought from that store:

Here’s a Spanish primer for some important words:
cachemira – cashmere
acrílico – acrylic
lana – wool
seda – silk
alpaca – alpaca
hilo – yarn (plural: hilados)
Also, I found out that cashmerillo is just an acrylic yarn that’s very soft. Don’t be fooled by price, some of the acrylic yarns are *very* expensive, even more expensive than the wool.

I was very excited by the prospect of all these yarn stores, and after these three purchases I was done, and passed by 4 other yarn stores that I didn’t even walk into. In addition, there were at least 2 weaving stores, and another 2 fabric stores. Only one of the yarn stores had fiber to spin, and it looked like combed top, and was somewhat expensive (by US standards).

All in all, I was extremely satisfied by taking a few hours to shop for yarn, but I found the experience quite different from what I’m used to.

* I was instructed by a friend who had visited Buenos Aires to take a taxi to the corner of X and Y. However, I enjoy walking around and public transit, so I noticed the subway stop was not far, and decided to walk a few blocks. To those who are considering what to do, a taxi would have cost about 20 pesos (about USD $5) each way. The subway costs $5 for two rides, but of course is not door to door. Another thing to note about the subway is that it is not the most modern system:

And you will get plenty of people trying to make money – some play music, which you may be used to from other subway systems. Others will go around a subway car, handing out products, and then go around and either collect the product back or collect money. I was handed tissues and Disney books – or at least, they attempted to hand stuff to me, and I refused. It helped that I had knitting in my hands, but I saw them just place stuff on people’s laps if their hands were busy, so don’t just look away, make sure you actually refuse by shaking your head.

Note: I hope this article is helpful! Due to spam reasons, all articles on this site have comments disabled after a short time. If you want to leave feedback, you can tweet @sheeri or e-mail me at awfief at gmail dot com. (replace “at” with @ and
It was very important that I write my previous post when I did – Wed 25 July – because the very next day, of the fun I had, but I’d also like to highlight the knitting I did.

I started knitting a Color Affection shawl, in some Novita Polku that I bought in Finland in May. I started the shawl the first day, which was mostly lounging around while we were in the port of Boston (where we all embarked) and then while the cruise ship was traveling. I continued the shawl on Friday 27 July, and then on Saturday 28 July we landed in the port of St. John’s, New Brunswick. I chose to take a bus to Fredericton, to see the city hall, learn some history, and visit Yarns on York to meet local knitters and take a class on Newfoundland Mittens, aka “Newfie Mitts”. I got a bit done, but I believe I will rip out what I’ve done, make it smaller, and do the “windows” in the multicolored black and the background/wrists in the green. Still, here’s the progress shot, even though this will be frogged later:

On Sunday, I chose to do one of the two classes offered at The Loop in Halifax. The class I chose was one on how to do thrummed mittens, and the instructor Mimi was amazing. I did not take the class for the Bermuda Scarf/shawl, but I heard that the 2nd class was not as great, probably due to the first class running very late and Mimi running out of steam (teaching 2 classes in one day is tough, and who knows if she even had time to eat!). Given that, I’m glad I did not stay for the 2nd class (I did buy the pattern and yarn for it, so I can make the shawl), and instead did a 10-mile bicycle tour of Halifax. At any rate, I did enjoy working on the thrummed mittens, and here is my progress (I haven’t done anything with it since that weekend):

And the inside looks like this:

I learned lots of great tips from Mimi, like using a wool with a lot of lanolin in it, so it’s “sticky” and holds the thrums in better.

There was a lot of knitting that weekend, and in the few weeks that followed. This past week I finished knitting Tony’s scarf, after having to spin more yarn and buy more on Cape Cod while helping a friend do the Pan-Mass Challenge at the beginning of August. I still have to finish the scarf by weaving in the ends and blocking it, but it’s finally the right length, and Tony will be able to use it this coming fall/winter.

I also finished the scarf I was weaving (the June Spunky Eclectic weaving club), but I still need to block it before taking a picture of it. A new weaving club for August is on its way, so I’ll have something new to warp soon.

I am not going on a plane until the end of September, and my next travel is scheduled for mid-September, around Rosh Hashanah – I will be going to the New York City area for 2 weekends (coming back to Boston for a wedding in between). I hope to finish the Color Affection Shawl soon, and get pictures of both it and the woven scarf before long.
It was very important that I write my previous post when I did – Wed 25 July – because the very next day, of the fun I had, but I’d also like to highlight the knitting I did.

I started knitting a Color Affection shawl, in some Novita Polku that I bought in Finland in May. I started the shawl the first day, which was mostly lounging around while we were in the port of Boston (where we all embarked) and then while the cruise ship was traveling. I continued the shawl on Friday 27 July, and then on Saturday 28 July we landed in the port of St. John’s, New Brunswick. I chose to take a bus to Fredericton, to see the city hall, learn some history, and visit Yarns on York to meet local knitters and take a class on Newfoundland Mittens, aka “Newfie Mitts”. I got a bit done, but I believe I will rip out what I’ve done, make it smaller, and do the “windows” in the multicolored black and the background/wrists in the green. Still, here’s the progress shot, even though this will be frogged later:

On Sunday, I chose to do one of the two classes offered at The Loop in Halifax. The class I chose was one on how to do thrummed mittens, and the instructor Mimi was amazing. I did not take the class for the Bermuda Scarf/shawl, but I heard that the 2nd class was not as great, probably due to the first class running very late and Mimi running out of steam (teaching 2 classes in one day is tough, and who knows if she even had time to eat!). Given that, I’m glad I did not stay for the 2nd class (I did buy the pattern and yarn for it, so I can make the shawl), and instead did a 10-mile bicycle tour of Halifax. At any rate, I did enjoy working on the thrummed mittens, and here is my progress (I haven’t done anything with it since that weekend):

And the inside looks like this:

I learned lots of great tips from Mimi, like using a wool with a lot of lanolin in it, so it’s “sticky” and holds the thrums in better.

There was a lot of knitting that weekend, and in the few weeks that followed. This past week I finished knitting Tony’s scarf, after having to spin more yarn and buy more on Cape Cod while helping a friend do the Pan-Mass Challenge at the beginning of August. I still have to finish the scarf by weaving in the ends and blocking it, but it’s finally the right length, and Tony will be able to use it this coming fall/winter.

I also finished the scarf I was weaving (the June Spunky Eclectic weaving club), but I still need to block it before taking a picture of it. A new weaving club for August is on its way, so I’ll have something new to warp soon.

I am not going on a plane until the end of September, and my next travel is scheduled for mid-September, around Rosh Hashanah – I will be going to the New York City area for 2 weekends (coming back to Boston for a wedding in between). I hope to finish the Color Affection Shawl soon, and get pictures of
So, online I mentioned in the last post that I had finished 2 objects – side effects and the June Spunky Eclectic Weaving Club, which I opted to do a table runner. It was my first experience with using a pick-up stick. I’m happy with how both came out (especially after ironing the scarf…I don’t even iron clothes!).

Crooked Little Tony scarf

Pick-up-sticks table runner

I’m thrilled with how drapey the table runner is. My only problem is that I have no idea what to do with it – it’s 33 inches by 22 inches. It’s too short for a scarf, but I don’t have an appropriate table to use it on. It’s a superwash merino/bamboo/viscose blend. Folded over a towel bar it’d make a very long kitchen or guest towel, I guess?

Any ideas?
So, , which I opted to do a table runner. It was my first experience with using a pick-up stick. I’m happy with how both came out (especially after ironing the scarf…I don’t even iron clothes!).

Crooked Little Tony scarf

Pick-up-sticks table runner

I’m thrilled with how drapey the table runner is. My only problem is that I have no idea what to do with it – it’s 33 inches by 22 inches. It’s too short for a scarf, but I don’t have an appropriate table to use it on. It’s a superwash merino/bamboo/viscose blend.
I am so excited about tonight’s Common Cod Fiber Guild Meeting featuring Pam Parmal of the Boston Museum of Fine Arts talking about the collection strategy for textiles and fashion. And since I last wrote, gonorrhea I have finished a few objects…..

The first is another Hoot Cardigan, this time made out of Universal Yarns Supreme Cotton Batik, that I picked up in Charlotte, North Carolina earlier this year. I love the Supreme Cotton line from Universal yarns, because it is super soft. Unfortunately, I have only been able to find it in LYS in North Carolina….I hear that is changing soon, though! Here’s the cardigan, made for a friend of mine who just had his first son:

And then there’s the August Weaving Club from Spunky Eclectic – cotton dishcloths! I did not follow the pattern; instead I tried out a herringbone/pinwheel pattern. It came out wonderfully!

I ended up making 2 towels, one a bit shorter because I ran out of warp, but here’s the shorter one hanging from a peg next to our sink (please excuse the dirty dishes and Guinness cans to be rinsed).

The bigger one is in constant use as Tony’s “potato cozy”. That’s not a euphemism, Tony eats a baked potato like one would eat an apple, whole and uncut. Because it’s hot, he uses a towel wrapped around it to hold it.

And finally, the pièce de résistance. This is a Color Affection Shawl that I made from 3 different skeins of Novita’s Polku yarn, which I acquired in Finland earlier this year.

Here’s a close-up shot of the ‘center’ of this assymmetrical shawl:

And a little zoomed out:

Here’s the full-size shot:

I also spun up a “fractal 3-ply” which I will write about next time.
I am so excited about tonight’s Common Cod Fiber Guild Meeting featuring Pam Parmal of the Boston Museum of Fine Arts talking about the collection strategy for textiles and fashion. And since I last wrote, condom I have finished a few objects…..

The first is another Hoot Cardigan, information pills this time made out of

And then there’s the August

The bigger one is in constant use as Tony’s “potato cozy”. That’s not a euphemism, Tony eats a baked potato like one would eat an apple, whole and uncut. Because it’s hot, he uses a towel wrapped around it to hold it.

And finally, the pièce de résistance. This is a Color Affection Shawl that I made from 3 different skeins of

And a little zoomed out:

Here’s the full-size shot:

After
I am so excited about tonight’s
Common Cod Fiber Guild Meeting featuring Pam Parmal of the Boston Museum of Fine Arts talking about the collection strategy for textiles and fashion. And since I last wrote, order I have finished a few objects…..

The first is another Hoot Cardigan, find this time made out of

And then there’s the August

The bigger one is in constant use as Tony’s “potato cozy”. That’s not a euphemism, Tony eats a baked potato like one would eat an apple, whole and uncut. Because it’s hot, he uses a towel wrapped around it to hold it.

And finally, the pièce de résistance. This is a Color Affection Shawl that I made from 3 different skeins of

And a little zoomed out:

Here’s the full-size shot:

I also spun up a “fractal 3-ply” which I will write about next time.
I am so excited about tonight’s
Common Cod Fiber Guild Meeting featuring Pam Parmal of the Boston Museum of Fine Arts talking about the collection strategy for textiles and fashion. And since I last wrote, more about I have finished a few objects…..

The first is another Hoot Cardigan, this time made out of Universal Yarns Supreme Cotton Batik, that I picked up in Charlotte, North Carolina earlier this year. I love the Supreme Cotton line from Universal yarns, because it is super soft. Unfortunately, I have only been able to find it in LYS in North Carolina….I hear that is changing soon, though! Here’s the cardigan, made for a friend of mine who just had his first son:

And then there’s the August Weaving Club from Spunky Eclectic – cotton dishcloths! I did not follow the pattern; instead I tried out a herringbone/pinwheel pattern. It came out wonderfully!

I ended up making 2 towels, one a bit shorter because I ran out of warp, but here’s the shorter one hanging from a peg next to our sink (please excuse the dirty dishes and Guinness cans to be rinsed).

The bigger one is in constant use as Tony’s “potato cozy”. That’s not a euphemism, Tony eats a baked potato like one would eat an apple, whole and uncut. Because it’s hot, he uses a towel wrapped around it to hold it.

And finally, the pièce de résistance. This is a Color Affection Shawl that I made from 3 different skeins of

And a little zoomed out:

Here’s the full-size shot:

I also spun up a “fractal 3-ply” which I will write about next time.
Buenos Aires has a span of a few blocks,
hospital not too far from the Malabia metro station* where there are many yarn shops, phthisiatrician I counted 15, and went into 11 of them before I had to stop. The shops are on Ave. Scalabrini Ortiz just southwest of Ave. Cordoba, towards Ave. Correintes. The Malabia metro station is on the corner of Correintes and Scalabrini Ortiz, which is 1 km away from the corner of Cordoba and Corrientes, and about half that until you see your first yarn shop. There was a small bit of yarn bombing between two of the stores:

Yarn shopping in Buenos Aires is quite different from what I’m used to in the States. The stores all look like this:

The yarn is beautiful, and well-organized, but there’s no signs as to what the yarn is made up of, how much it costs nor the gauge of the yarn. In addition, you’re not supposed to take the yarn out of the bins. If you look at the bottom right of that picture, you’ll see some white yarn and blue yarn that is actually sitting on top of a counter. That counter separates you from the wall, and there are people behind the counter who can help you get what you want.

So it’s very different from the experience I’m used to. I got the feeling that a lot of people knew exactly what they wanted to buy, or walked in and would say “do you have anything made of wool?” I was feeling a bit shy due to the language barrier, so I picked up a Spanish phrase: “solamente mirando” – it means “Just looking”. The people are friendly and willing to help, but I like the yarn buying process to be a solo activity.

There were 2 exceptions to the fact that most stores don’t give any information about their items.: Milana hilados and Yanabey. Milana hilados had tags like this near most of their yarn:

Note that that’s in Argentinian pesos, and at the time, this was less than USD $10 per 100g. Another thing to note is the price is per 100g, not per hank of yarn. You’d ask a sales associate to take the yarn down for you and they’d weigh it and ask you if that was OK (kind of like at the deli counter). Then they give you a slip of paper and you take it to a cash register, where you’re usually helped by someone else. Another interesting thing is that the stores seemed to be staffed by about half men, half women, which is very different from yarn stores in the States, which are probably about 90% staffed by women.

I bought 3 hanks of yarn there, for about $25:

Yanabey had signs like this:

These prices are still in Argentinian pesos, but they’re in kilos. So these prices are $171 for 1 kilo, which is $17.10 for 100g. This is a wall of “seda vegetal”, or “vegetable silk“. By the way, that’s about USD $35 per kilo. So I bought 6 skeins, which was just over a kilo, because the tree which this comes from (ceiba speciosa, or “silk floss tree”) is native to South America, and I haven’t seen “vegetable silk” in the US.

A lot of the stores have the recycled t-shirt yarn, and I bought some at Arte Natural:

BUTTONS!!!

I was thinking I might make a purse from the yarn, like this:

That purse is crocheted, but I’m sure I can come up with a knitted version.

Here’s what I bought from that store:

Here’s a Spanish primer for some important words:
cachemira – cashmere
acrílico – acrylic
lana – wool
seda – silk
alpaca – alpaca
hilo – yarn (plural: hilados)
Also, I found out that cashmerillo is just an acrylic yarn that’s very soft. Don’t be fooled by price, some of the acrylic yarns are *very* expensive, even more expensive than the wool.

I was very excited by the prospect of all these yarn stores, and after these three purchases I was done, and passed by 4 other yarn stores that I didn’t even walk into. In addition, there were at least 2 weaving stores, and another 2 fabric stores. Only one of the yarn stores had fiber to spin, and it looked like combed top, and was somewhat expensive (by US standards).

All in all, I was extremely satisfied by taking a few hours to shop for yarn, but I found the experience quite different from what I’m used to.

* I was instructed by a friend who had visited Buenos Aires to take a taxi to the corner of X and Y. However, I enjoy walking around and public transit, so I noticed the subway stop was not far, and decided to walk a few blocks. To those who are considering what to do, a taxi would have cost about 20 pesos (about USD $5) each way. The subway costs $5 for two rides, but of course is not door to door. Another thing to note about the subway is that it is not the most modern system:

And you will get plenty of people trying to make money – some play music, which you may be used to from other subway systems. Others will go around a subway car, handing out products, and then go around and either collect the product back or collect money. I was handed tissues and Disney books – or at least, they attempted to hand stuff to me, and I refused. It helped that I had knitting in my hands, but I saw them just place stuff on people’s laps if their hands were busy, so don’t just look away, make sure you actually refuse by shaking your head.

Note: I hope this article is helpful! Due to spam reasons, all articles on this site have comments disabled after a short time. If you want to leave feedback, you can tweet @sheeri or e-mail me at awfief at gmail dot com. (replace “at” with @ and
When I think of gradient spinning, visit I think of starting with “gradient-dyed fiber” such as Fiber Optics’ gradient collection. Sadly, I have not yet gotten my hands on on of them yet. However, a fractal 3-ply attempt last year gave me the push to try a kind of gradient spinning.

I got a great batt from Fiber Stash back in April at the Wild and Woolly Weekend in Vermont. The 3.7 oz batt is 98% Corriedale, 2% twinkle, in a blue-purple, light blue, and black – here it is, unrolled:

The first step was to divide it into three sections, for a 3-ply, so that each section had each of the three colors. I then split 2 of the sections into even thirds, based on the colors, and the last section was split into sixths based on colors. I split the sections based on weight.

The idea is a fractal ply, but because I am doing a 3-ply, I will do it so that 2 of the sections are the same color, and a third is changing. The middle is the part divided into six:

I finally finished spinning, plying, skeining and washing, and here’s what the finished result looks like:

I think a shawl is in order to show off the lovely and subtle color changes. This produced 284 yards of yarn at 12 wpi. I have an identical batt which I will spin the same way, and will knit with all of it to make a good-sized shawl.

It was very important that I write my previous post when I did – Wed 25 July – because the very next day, of the fun I had, but I’d also like to highlight the knitting I did.

I started knitting a Color Affection shawl, in some Novita Polku that I bought in Finland in May. I started the shawl the first day, which was mostly lounging around while we were in the port of Boston (where we all embarked) and then while the cruise ship was traveling. I continued the shawl on Friday 27 July, and then on Saturday 28 July we landed in the port of St. John’s, New Brunswick. I chose to take a bus to Fredericton, to see the city hall, learn some history, and visit Yarns on York to meet local knitters and take a class on Newfoundland Mittens, aka “Newfie Mitts”. I got a bit done, but I believe I will rip out what I’ve done, make it smaller, and do the “windows” in the multicolored black and the background/wrists in the green. Still, here’s the progress shot, even though this will be frogged later:

On Sunday, I chose to do one of the two classes offered at The Loop in Halifax. The class I chose was one on how to do thrummed mittens, and the instructor Mimi was amazing. I did not take the class for the Bermuda Scarf/shawl, but I heard that the 2nd class was not as great, probably due to the first class running very late and Mimi running out of steam (teaching 2 classes in one day is tough, and who knows if she even had time to eat!). Given that, I’m glad I did not stay for the 2nd class (I did buy the pattern and yarn for it, so I can make the shawl), and instead did a 10-mile bicycle tour of Halifax. At any rate, I did enjoy working on the thrummed mittens, and here is my progress (I haven’t done anything with it since that weekend):

And the inside looks like this:

I learned lots of great tips from Mimi, like using a wool with a lot of lanolin in it, so it’s “sticky” and holds the thrums in better.

There was a lot of knitting that weekend, and in the few weeks that followed. This past week I finished knitting Tony’s scarf, after having to spin more yarn and buy more on Cape Cod while helping a friend do the Pan-Mass Challenge at the beginning of August. I still have to finish the scarf by weaving in the ends and blocking it, but it’s finally the right length, and Tony will be able to use it this coming fall/winter.

I also finished the scarf I was weaving (the June Spunky Eclectic weaving club), but I still need to block it before taking a picture of it. A new weaving club for August is on its way, so I’ll have something new to warp soon.

I am not going on a plane until the end of September, and my next travel is scheduled for mid-September, around Rosh Hashanah – I will be going to the New York City area for 2 weekends (coming back to Boston for a wedding in between). I hope to finish the Color Affection Shawl soon, and get pictures of both it and the woven scarf before long.
It was very important that I write my previous post when I did – Wed 25 July – because the very next day, of the fun I had, but I’d also like to highlight the knitting I did.

I started knitting a Color Affection shawl, in some Novita Polku that I bought in Finland in May. I started the shawl the first day, which was mostly lounging around while we were in the port of Boston (where we all embarked) and then while the cruise ship was traveling. I continued the shawl on Friday 27 July, and then on Saturday 28 July we landed in the port of St. John’s, New Brunswick. I chose to take a bus to Fredericton, to see the city hall, learn some history, and visit Yarns on York to meet local knitters and take a class on Newfoundland Mittens, aka “Newfie Mitts”. I got a bit done, but I believe I will rip out what I’ve done, make it smaller, and do the “windows” in the multicolored black and the background/wrists in the green. Still, here’s the progress shot, even though this will be frogged later:

On Sunday, I chose to do one of the two classes offered at The Loop in Halifax. The class I chose was one on how to do thrummed mittens, and the instructor Mimi was amazing. I did not take the class for the Bermuda Scarf/shawl, but I heard that the 2nd class was not as great, probably due to the first class running very late and Mimi running out of steam (teaching 2 classes in one day is tough, and who knows if she even had time to eat!). Given that, I’m glad I did not stay for the 2nd class (I did buy the pattern and yarn for it, so I can make the shawl), and instead did a 10-mile bicycle tour of Halifax. At any rate, I did enjoy working on the thrummed mittens, and here is my progress (I haven’t done anything with it since that weekend):

And the inside looks like this:

I learned lots of great tips from Mimi, like using a wool with a lot of lanolin in it, so it’s “sticky” and holds the thrums in better.

There was a lot of knitting that weekend, and in the few weeks that followed. This past week I finished knitting Tony’s scarf, after having to spin more yarn and buy more on Cape Cod while helping a friend do the Pan-Mass Challenge at the beginning of August. I still have to finish the scarf by weaving in the ends and blocking it, but it’s finally the right length, and Tony will be able to use it this coming fall/winter.

I also finished the scarf I was weaving (the June Spunky Eclectic weaving club), but I still need to block it before taking a picture of it. A new weaving club for August is on its way, so I’ll have something new to warp soon.

I am not going on a plane until the end of September, and my next travel is scheduled for mid-September, around Rosh Hashanah – I will be going to the New York City area for 2 weekends (coming back to Boston for a wedding in between). I hope to finish the Color Affection Shawl soon, and get pictures of
So, online I mentioned in the last post that I had finished 2 objects – side effects and the June Spunky Eclectic Weaving Club, which I opted to do a table runner. It was my first experience with using a pick-up stick. I’m happy with how both came out (especially after ironing the scarf…I don’t even iron clothes!).

Crooked Little Tony scarf

Pick-up-sticks table runner

I’m thrilled with how drapey the table runner is. My only problem is that I have no idea what to do with it – it’s 33 inches by 22 inches. It’s too short for a scarf, but I don’t have an appropriate table to use it on. It’s a superwash merino/bamboo/viscose blend. Folded over a towel bar it’d make a very long kitchen or guest towel, I guess?

Any ideas?
So, , which I opted to do a table runner. It was my first experience with using a pick-up stick. I’m happy with how both came out (especially after ironing the scarf…I don’t even iron clothes!).

Crooked Little Tony scarf

Pick-up-sticks table runner

I’m thrilled with how drapey the table runner is. My only problem is that I have no idea what to do with it – it’s 33 inches by 22 inches. It’s too short for a scarf, but I don’t have an appropriate table to use it on. It’s a superwash merino/bamboo/viscose blend.
I am so excited about tonight’s Common Cod Fiber Guild Meeting featuring Pam Parmal of the Boston Museum of Fine Arts talking about the collection strategy for textiles and fashion. And since I last wrote, gonorrhea I have finished a few objects…..

The first is another Hoot Cardigan, this time made out of Universal Yarns Supreme Cotton Batik, that I picked up in Charlotte, North Carolina earlier this year. I love the Supreme Cotton line from Universal yarns, because it is super soft. Unfortunately, I have only been able to find it in LYS in North Carolina….I hear that is changing soon, though! Here’s the cardigan, made for a friend of mine who just had his first son:

And then there’s the August Weaving Club from Spunky Eclectic – cotton dishcloths! I did not follow the pattern; instead I tried out a herringbone/pinwheel pattern. It came out wonderfully!

I ended up making 2 towels, one a bit shorter because I ran out of warp, but here’s the shorter one hanging from a peg next to our sink (please excuse the dirty dishes and Guinness cans to be rinsed).

The bigger one is in constant use as Tony’s “potato cozy”. That’s not a euphemism, Tony eats a baked potato like one would eat an apple, whole and uncut. Because it’s hot, he uses a towel wrapped around it to hold it.

And finally, the pièce de résistance. This is a Color Affection Shawl that I made from 3 different skeins of Novita’s Polku yarn, which I acquired in Finland earlier this year.

Here’s a close-up shot of the ‘center’ of this assymmetrical shawl:

And a little zoomed out:

Here’s the full-size shot:

I also spun up a “fractal 3-ply” which I will write about next time.
I am so excited about tonight’s Common Cod Fiber Guild Meeting featuring Pam Parmal of the Boston Museum of Fine Arts talking about the collection strategy for textiles and fashion. And since I last wrote, condom I have finished a few objects…..

The first is another Hoot Cardigan, information pills this time made out of

And then there’s the August

The bigger one is in constant use as Tony’s “potato cozy”. That’s not a euphemism, Tony eats a baked potato like one would eat an apple, whole and uncut. Because it’s hot, he uses a towel wrapped around it to hold it.

And finally, the pièce de résistance. This is a Color Affection Shawl that I made from 3 different skeins of

And a little zoomed out:

Here’s the full-size shot:

After
I am so excited about tonight’s
Common Cod Fiber Guild Meeting featuring Pam Parmal of the Boston Museum of Fine Arts talking about the collection strategy for textiles and fashion. And since I last wrote, order I have finished a few objects…..

The first is another Hoot Cardigan, find this time made out of

And then there’s the August

The bigger one is in constant use as Tony’s “potato cozy”. That’s not a euphemism, Tony eats a baked potato like one would eat an apple, whole and uncut. Because it’s hot, he uses a towel wrapped around it to hold it.

And finally, the pièce de résistance. This is a Color Affection Shawl that I made from 3 different skeins of

And a little zoomed out:

Here’s the full-size shot:

I also spun up a “fractal 3-ply” which I will write about next time.
I am so excited about tonight’s
Common Cod Fiber Guild Meeting featuring Pam Parmal of the Boston Museum of Fine Arts talking about the collection strategy for textiles and fashion. And since I last wrote, more about I have finished a few objects…..

The first is another Hoot Cardigan, this time made out of Universal Yarns Supreme Cotton Batik, that I picked up in Charlotte, North Carolina earlier this year. I love the Supreme Cotton line from Universal yarns, because it is super soft. Unfortunately, I have only been able to find it in LYS in North Carolina….I hear that is changing soon, though! Here’s the cardigan, made for a friend of mine who just had his first son:

And then there’s the August Weaving Club from Spunky Eclectic – cotton dishcloths! I did not follow the pattern; instead I tried out a herringbone/pinwheel pattern. It came out wonderfully!

I ended up making 2 towels, one a bit shorter because I ran out of warp, but here’s the shorter one hanging from a peg next to our sink (please excuse the dirty dishes and Guinness cans to be rinsed).

The bigger one is in constant use as Tony’s “potato cozy”. That’s not a euphemism, Tony eats a baked potato like one would eat an apple, whole and uncut. Because it’s hot, he uses a towel wrapped around it to hold it.

And finally, the pièce de résistance. This is a Color Affection Shawl that I made from 3 different skeins of

And a little zoomed out:

Here’s the full-size shot:

I also spun up a “fractal 3-ply” which I will write about next time.
Buenos Aires has a span of a few blocks,
hospital not too far from the Malabia metro station* where there are many yarn shops, phthisiatrician I counted 15, and went into 11 of them before I had to stop. The shops are on Ave. Scalabrini Ortiz just southwest of Ave. Cordoba, towards Ave. Correintes. The Malabia metro station is on the corner of Correintes and Scalabrini Ortiz, which is 1 km away from the corner of Cordoba and Corrientes, and about half that until you see your first yarn shop. There was a small bit of yarn bombing between two of the stores:

Yarn shopping in Buenos Aires is quite different from what I’m used to in the States. The stores all look like this:

The yarn is beautiful, and well-organized, but there’s no signs as to what the yarn is made up of, how much it costs nor the gauge of the yarn. In addition, you’re not supposed to take the yarn out of the bins. If you look at the bottom right of that picture, you’ll see some white yarn and blue yarn that is actually sitting on top of a counter. That counter separates you from the wall, and there are people behind the counter who can help you get what you want.

So it’s very different from the experience I’m used to. I got the feeling that a lot of people knew exactly what they wanted to buy, or walked in and would say “do you have anything made of wool?” I was feeling a bit shy due to the language barrier, so I picked up a Spanish phrase: “solamente mirando” – it means “Just looking”. The people are friendly and willing to help, but I like the yarn buying process to be a solo activity.

There were 2 exceptions to the fact that most stores don’t give any information about their items.: Milana hilados and Yanabey. Milana hilados had tags like this near most of their yarn:

Note that that’s in Argentinian pesos, and at the time, this was less than USD $10 per 100g. Another thing to note is the price is per 100g, not per hank of yarn. You’d ask a sales associate to take the yarn down for you and they’d weigh it and ask you if that was OK (kind of like at the deli counter). Then they give you a slip of paper and you take it to a cash register, where you’re usually helped by someone else. Another interesting thing is that the stores seemed to be staffed by about half men, half women, which is very different from yarn stores in the States, which are probably about 90% staffed by women.

I bought 3 hanks of yarn there, for about $25:

Yanabey had signs like this:

These prices are still in Argentinian pesos, but they’re in kilos. So these prices are $171 for 1 kilo, which is $17.10 for 100g. This is a wall of “seda vegetal”, or “vegetable silk“. By the way, that’s about USD $35 per kilo. So I bought 6 skeins, which was just over a kilo, because the tree which this comes from (ceiba speciosa, or “silk floss tree”) is native to South America, and I haven’t seen “vegetable silk” in the US.

A lot of the stores have the recycled t-shirt yarn, and I bought some at Arte Natural:

BUTTONS!!!

I was thinking I might make a purse from the yarn, like this:

That purse is crocheted, but I’m sure I can come up with a knitted version.

Here’s what I bought from that store:

Here’s a Spanish primer for some important words:
cachemira – cashmere
acrílico – acrylic
lana – wool
seda – silk
alpaca – alpaca
hilo – yarn (plural: hilados)
Also, I found out that cashmerillo is just an acrylic yarn that’s very soft. Don’t be fooled by price, some of the acrylic yarns are *very* expensive, even more expensive than the wool.

I was very excited by the prospect of all these yarn stores, and after these three purchases I was done, and passed by 4 other yarn stores that I didn’t even walk into. In addition, there were at least 2 weaving stores, and another 2 fabric stores. Only one of the yarn stores had fiber to spin, and it looked like combed top, and was somewhat expensive (by US standards).

All in all, I was extremely satisfied by taking a few hours to shop for yarn, but I found the experience quite different from what I’m used to.

* I was instructed by a friend who had visited Buenos Aires to take a taxi to the corner of X and Y. However, I enjoy walking around and public transit, so I noticed the subway stop was not far, and decided to walk a few blocks. To those who are considering what to do, a taxi would have cost about 20 pesos (about USD $5) each way. The subway costs $5 for two rides, but of course is not door to door. Another thing to note about the subway is that it is not the most modern system:

And you will get plenty of people trying to make money – some play music, which you may be used to from other subway systems. Others will go around a subway car, handing out products, and then go around and either collect the product back or collect money. I was handed tissues and Disney books – or at least, they attempted to hand stuff to me, and I refused. It helped that I had knitting in my hands, but I saw them just place stuff on people’s laps if their hands were busy, so don’t just look away, make sure you actually refuse by shaking your head.

Note: I hope this article is helpful! Due to spam reasons, all articles on this site have comments disabled after a short time. If you want to leave feedback, you can tweet @sheeri or e-mail me at awfief at gmail dot com. (replace “at” with @ and
When I think of gradient spinning, visit I think of starting with “gradient-dyed fiber” such as Fiber Optics’ gradient collection. Sadly, I have not yet gotten my hands on on of them yet. However, a fractal 3-ply attempt last year gave me the push to try a kind of gradient spinning.

I got a great batt from Fiber Stash back in April at the Wild and Woolly Weekend in Vermont. The 3.7 oz batt is 98% Corriedale, 2% twinkle, in a blue-purple, light blue, and black – here it is, unrolled:

The first step was to divide it into three sections, for a 3-ply, so that each section had each of the three colors. I then split 2 of the sections into even thirds, based on the colors, and the last section was split into sixths based on colors. I split the sections based on weight.

The idea is a fractal ply, but because I am doing a 3-ply, I will do it so that 2 of the sections are the same color, and a third is changing. The middle is the part divided into six:

I finally finished spinning, plying, skeining and washing, and here’s what the finished result looks like:

I think a shawl is in order to show off the lovely and subtle color changes. This produced 284 yards of yarn at 12 wpi. I have an identical batt which I will spin the same way, and will knit with all of it to make a good-sized shawl.

When I think of gradient spinning, buy more about I think of starting with “gradient-dyed fiber” such as Fiber Optics’ gradient collection. Sadly, I have not yet gotten my hands on on of them yet. However, a fractal 3-ply attempt last year gave me the push to try a kind of gradient spinning.

I got a great batt from Fiber Stash back in April at the Wild and Woolly Weekend in Vermont. The 3.7 oz batt is 98% Corriedale, 2% twinkle, in a blue-purple, light blue, and black – here it is, unrolled:

The first step was to divide it into three sections, for a 3-ply, so that each section had each of the three colors. I then split 2 of the sections into even thirds, based on the colors, and the last section was split into sixths based on colors. The idea is a fractal ply, but because I am doing a 3-ply, I will do it so that 2 of the sections are the same color, and a third is changing. The middle is the part divided into six:

I finally finished spinning, plying, skeining and washing, and here’s what the finished result looks like:

I think a shawl is in order to show off the lovely color changes. This produced 284 yards of yarn at 12 wpi. I have an identical batt which I will spin the same way

It was very important that I write my previous post when I did – Wed 25 July – because the very next day, of the fun I had, but I’d also like to highlight the knitting I did.

I started knitting a Color Affection shawl, in some Novita Polku that I bought in Finland in May. I started the shawl the first day, which was mostly lounging around while we were in the port of Boston (where we all embarked) and then while the cruise ship was traveling. I continued the shawl on Friday 27 July, and then on Saturday 28 July we landed in the port of St. John’s, New Brunswick. I chose to take a bus to Fredericton, to see the city hall, learn some history, and visit Yarns on York to meet local knitters and take a class on Newfoundland Mittens, aka “Newfie Mitts”. I got a bit done, but I believe I will rip out what I’ve done, make it smaller, and do the “windows” in the multicolored black and the background/wrists in the green. Still, here’s the progress shot, even though this will be frogged later:

On Sunday, I chose to do one of the two classes offered at The Loop in Halifax. The class I chose was one on how to do thrummed mittens, and the instructor Mimi was amazing. I did not take the class for the Bermuda Scarf/shawl, but I heard that the 2nd class was not as great, probably due to the first class running very late and Mimi running out of steam (teaching 2 classes in one day is tough, and who knows if she even had time to eat!). Given that, I’m glad I did not stay for the 2nd class (I did buy the pattern and yarn for it, so I can make the shawl), and instead did a 10-mile bicycle tour of Halifax. At any rate, I did enjoy working on the thrummed mittens, and here is my progress (I haven’t done anything with it since that weekend):

And the inside looks like this:

I learned lots of great tips from Mimi, like using a wool with a lot of lanolin in it, so it’s “sticky” and holds the thrums in better.

There was a lot of knitting that weekend, and in the few weeks that followed. This past week I finished knitting Tony’s scarf, after having to spin more yarn and buy more on Cape Cod while helping a friend do the Pan-Mass Challenge at the beginning of August. I still have to finish the scarf by weaving in the ends and blocking it, but it’s finally the right length, and Tony will be able to use it this coming fall/winter.

I also finished the scarf I was weaving (the June Spunky Eclectic weaving club), but I still need to block it before taking a picture of it. A new weaving club for August is on its way, so I’ll have something new to warp soon.

I am not going on a plane until the end of September, and my next travel is scheduled for mid-September, around Rosh Hashanah – I will be going to the New York City area for 2 weekends (coming back to Boston for a wedding in between). I hope to finish the Color Affection Shawl soon, and get pictures of both it and the woven scarf before long.
It was very important that I write my previous post when I did – Wed 25 July – because the very next day, of the fun I had, but I’d also like to highlight the knitting I did.

I started knitting a Color Affection shawl, in some Novita Polku that I bought in Finland in May. I started the shawl the first day, which was mostly lounging around while we were in the port of Boston (where we all embarked) and then while the cruise ship was traveling. I continued the shawl on Friday 27 July, and then on Saturday 28 July we landed in the port of St. John’s, New Brunswick. I chose to take a bus to Fredericton, to see the city hall, learn some history, and visit Yarns on York to meet local knitters and take a class on Newfoundland Mittens, aka “Newfie Mitts”. I got a bit done, but I believe I will rip out what I’ve done, make it smaller, and do the “windows” in the multicolored black and the background/wrists in the green. Still, here’s the progress shot, even though this will be frogged later:

On Sunday, I chose to do one of the two classes offered at The Loop in Halifax. The class I chose was one on how to do thrummed mittens, and the instructor Mimi was amazing. I did not take the class for the Bermuda Scarf/shawl, but I heard that the 2nd class was not as great, probably due to the first class running very late and Mimi running out of steam (teaching 2 classes in one day is tough, and who knows if she even had time to eat!). Given that, I’m glad I did not stay for the 2nd class (I did buy the pattern and yarn for it, so I can make the shawl), and instead did a 10-mile bicycle tour of Halifax. At any rate, I did enjoy working on the thrummed mittens, and here is my progress (I haven’t done anything with it since that weekend):

And the inside looks like this:

I learned lots of great tips from Mimi, like using a wool with a lot of lanolin in it, so it’s “sticky” and holds the thrums in better.

There was a lot of knitting that weekend, and in the few weeks that followed. This past week I finished knitting Tony’s scarf, after having to spin more yarn and buy more on Cape Cod while helping a friend do the Pan-Mass Challenge at the beginning of August. I still have to finish the scarf by weaving in the ends and blocking it, but it’s finally the right length, and Tony will be able to use it this coming fall/winter.

I also finished the scarf I was weaving (the June Spunky Eclectic weaving club), but I still need to block it before taking a picture of it. A new weaving club for August is on its way, so I’ll have something new to warp soon.

I am not going on a plane until the end of September, and my next travel is scheduled for mid-September, around Rosh Hashanah – I will be going to the New York City area for 2 weekends (coming back to Boston for a wedding in between). I hope to finish the Color Affection Shawl soon, and get pictures of
So, online I mentioned in the last post that I had finished 2 objects – side effects and the June Spunky Eclectic Weaving Club, which I opted to do a table runner. It was my first experience with using a pick-up stick. I’m happy with how both came out (especially after ironing the scarf…I don’t even iron clothes!).

Crooked Little Tony scarf

Pick-up-sticks table runner

I’m thrilled with how drapey the table runner is. My only problem is that I have no idea what to do with it – it’s 33 inches by 22 inches. It’s too short for a scarf, but I don’t have an appropriate table to use it on. It’s a superwash merino/bamboo/viscose blend. Folded over a towel bar it’d make a very long kitchen or guest towel, I guess?

Any ideas?
So, , which I opted to do a table runner. It was my first experience with using a pick-up stick. I’m happy with how both came out (especially after ironing the scarf…I don’t even iron clothes!).

Crooked Little Tony scarf

Pick-up-sticks table runner

I’m thrilled with how drapey the table runner is. My only problem is that I have no idea what to do with it – it’s 33 inches by 22 inches. It’s too short for a scarf, but I don’t have an appropriate table to use it on. It’s a superwash merino/bamboo/viscose blend.
I am so excited about tonight’s Common Cod Fiber Guild Meeting featuring Pam Parmal of the Boston Museum of Fine Arts talking about the collection strategy for textiles and fashion. And since I last wrote, gonorrhea I have finished a few objects…..

The first is another Hoot Cardigan, this time made out of Universal Yarns Supreme Cotton Batik, that I picked up in Charlotte, North Carolina earlier this year. I love the Supreme Cotton line from Universal yarns, because it is super soft. Unfortunately, I have only been able to find it in LYS in North Carolina….I hear that is changing soon, though! Here’s the cardigan, made for a friend of mine who just had his first son:

And then there’s the August Weaving Club from Spunky Eclectic – cotton dishcloths! I did not follow the pattern; instead I tried out a herringbone/pinwheel pattern. It came out wonderfully!

I ended up making 2 towels, one a bit shorter because I ran out of warp, but here’s the shorter one hanging from a peg next to our sink (please excuse the dirty dishes and Guinness cans to be rinsed).

The bigger one is in constant use as Tony’s “potato cozy”. That’s not a euphemism, Tony eats a baked potato like one would eat an apple, whole and uncut. Because it’s hot, he uses a towel wrapped around it to hold it.

And finally, the pièce de résistance. This is a Color Affection Shawl that I made from 3 different skeins of Novita’s Polku yarn, which I acquired in Finland earlier this year.

Here’s a close-up shot of the ‘center’ of this assymmetrical shawl:

And a little zoomed out:

Here’s the full-size shot:

I also spun up a “fractal 3-ply” which I will write about next time.
I am so excited about tonight’s Common Cod Fiber Guild Meeting featuring Pam Parmal of the Boston Museum of Fine Arts talking about the collection strategy for textiles and fashion. And since I last wrote, condom I have finished a few objects…..

The first is another Hoot Cardigan, information pills this time made out of

And then there’s the August

The bigger one is in constant use as Tony’s “potato cozy”. That’s not a euphemism, Tony eats a baked potato like one would eat an apple, whole and uncut. Because it’s hot, he uses a towel wrapped around it to hold it.

And finally, the pièce de résistance. This is a Color Affection Shawl that I made from 3 different skeins of

And a little zoomed out:

Here’s the full-size shot:

After
I am so excited about tonight’s
Common Cod Fiber Guild Meeting featuring Pam Parmal of the Boston Museum of Fine Arts talking about the collection strategy for textiles and fashion. And since I last wrote, order I have finished a few objects…..

The first is another Hoot Cardigan, find this time made out of

And then there’s the August

The bigger one is in constant use as Tony’s “potato cozy”. That’s not a euphemism, Tony eats a baked potato like one would eat an apple, whole and uncut. Because it’s hot, he uses a towel wrapped around it to hold it.

And finally, the pièce de résistance. This is a Color Affection Shawl that I made from 3 different skeins of

And a little zoomed out:

Here’s the full-size shot:

I also spun up a “fractal 3-ply” which I will write about next time.
I am so excited about tonight’s
Common Cod Fiber Guild Meeting featuring Pam Parmal of the Boston Museum of Fine Arts talking about the collection strategy for textiles and fashion. And since I last wrote, more about I have finished a few objects…..

The first is another Hoot Cardigan, this time made out of Universal Yarns Supreme Cotton Batik, that I picked up in Charlotte, North Carolina earlier this year. I love the Supreme Cotton line from Universal yarns, because it is super soft. Unfortunately, I have only been able to find it in LYS in North Carolina….I hear that is changing soon, though! Here’s the cardigan, made for a friend of mine who just had his first son:

And then there’s the August Weaving Club from Spunky Eclectic – cotton dishcloths! I did not follow the pattern; instead I tried out a herringbone/pinwheel pattern. It came out wonderfully!

I ended up making 2 towels, one a bit shorter because I ran out of warp, but here’s the shorter one hanging from a peg next to our sink (please excuse the dirty dishes and Guinness cans to be rinsed).

The bigger one is in constant use as Tony’s “potato cozy”. That’s not a euphemism, Tony eats a baked potato like one would eat an apple, whole and uncut. Because it’s hot, he uses a towel wrapped around it to hold it.

And finally, the pièce de résistance. This is a Color Affection Shawl that I made from 3 different skeins of

And a little zoomed out:

Here’s the full-size shot:

I also spun up a “fractal 3-ply” which I will write about next time.
Buenos Aires has a span of a few blocks,
hospital not too far from the Malabia metro station* where there are many yarn shops, phthisiatrician I counted 15, and went into 11 of them before I had to stop. The shops are on Ave. Scalabrini Ortiz just southwest of Ave. Cordoba, towards Ave. Correintes. The Malabia metro station is on the corner of Correintes and Scalabrini Ortiz, which is 1 km away from the corner of Cordoba and Corrientes, and about half that until you see your first yarn shop. There was a small bit of yarn bombing between two of the stores:

Yarn shopping in Buenos Aires is quite different from what I’m used to in the States. The stores all look like this:

The yarn is beautiful, and well-organized, but there’s no signs as to what the yarn is made up of, how much it costs nor the gauge of the yarn. In addition, you’re not supposed to take the yarn out of the bins. If you look at the bottom right of that picture, you’ll see some white yarn and blue yarn that is actually sitting on top of a counter. That counter separates you from the wall, and there are people behind the counter who can help you get what you want.

So it’s very different from the experience I’m used to. I got the feeling that a lot of people knew exactly what they wanted to buy, or walked in and would say “do you have anything made of wool?” I was feeling a bit shy due to the language barrier, so I picked up a Spanish phrase: “solamente mirando” – it means “Just looking”. The people are friendly and willing to help, but I like the yarn buying process to be a solo activity.

There were 2 exceptions to the fact that most stores don’t give any information about their items.: Milana hilados and Yanabey. Milana hilados had tags like this near most of their yarn:

Note that that’s in Argentinian pesos, and at the time, this was less than USD $10 per 100g. Another thing to note is the price is per 100g, not per hank of yarn. You’d ask a sales associate to take the yarn down for you and they’d weigh it and ask you if that was OK (kind of like at the deli counter). Then they give you a slip of paper and you take it to a cash register, where you’re usually helped by someone else. Another interesting thing is that the stores seemed to be staffed by about half men, half women, which is very different from yarn stores in the States, which are probably about 90% staffed by women.

I bought 3 hanks of yarn there, for about $25:

Yanabey had signs like this:

These prices are still in Argentinian pesos, but they’re in kilos. So these prices are $171 for 1 kilo, which is $17.10 for 100g. This is a wall of “seda vegetal”, or “vegetable silk“. By the way, that’s about USD $35 per kilo. So I bought 6 skeins, which was just over a kilo, because the tree which this comes from (ceiba speciosa, or “silk floss tree”) is native to South America, and I haven’t seen “vegetable silk” in the US.

A lot of the stores have the recycled t-shirt yarn, and I bought some at Arte Natural:

BUTTONS!!!

I was thinking I might make a purse from the yarn, like this:

That purse is crocheted, but I’m sure I can come up with a knitted version.

Here’s what I bought from that store:

Here’s a Spanish primer for some important words:
cachemira – cashmere
acrílico – acrylic
lana – wool
seda – silk
alpaca – alpaca
hilo – yarn (plural: hilados)
Also, I found out that cashmerillo is just an acrylic yarn that’s very soft. Don’t be fooled by price, some of the acrylic yarns are *very* expensive, even more expensive than the wool.

I was very excited by the prospect of all these yarn stores, and after these three purchases I was done, and passed by 4 other yarn stores that I didn’t even walk into. In addition, there were at least 2 weaving stores, and another 2 fabric stores. Only one of the yarn stores had fiber to spin, and it looked like combed top, and was somewhat expensive (by US standards).

All in all, I was extremely satisfied by taking a few hours to shop for yarn, but I found the experience quite different from what I’m used to.

* I was instructed by a friend who had visited Buenos Aires to take a taxi to the corner of X and Y. However, I enjoy walking around and public transit, so I noticed the subway stop was not far, and decided to walk a few blocks. To those who are considering what to do, a taxi would have cost about 20 pesos (about USD $5) each way. The subway costs $5 for two rides, but of course is not door to door. Another thing to note about the subway is that it is not the most modern system:

And you will get plenty of people trying to make money – some play music, which you may be used to from other subway systems. Others will go around a subway car, handing out products, and then go around and either collect the product back or collect money. I was handed tissues and Disney books – or at least, they attempted to hand stuff to me, and I refused. It helped that I had knitting in my hands, but I saw them just place stuff on people’s laps if their hands were busy, so don’t just look away, make sure you actually refuse by shaking your head.

Note: I hope this article is helpful! Due to spam reasons, all articles on this site have comments disabled after a short time. If you want to leave feedback, you can tweet @sheeri or e-mail me at awfief at gmail dot com. (replace “at” with @ and
When I think of gradient spinning, visit I think of starting with “gradient-dyed fiber” such as Fiber Optics’ gradient collection. Sadly, I have not yet gotten my hands on on of them yet. However, a fractal 3-ply attempt last year gave me the push to try a kind of gradient spinning.

I got a great batt from Fiber Stash back in April at the Wild and Woolly Weekend in Vermont. The 3.7 oz batt is 98% Corriedale, 2% twinkle, in a blue-purple, light blue, and black – here it is, unrolled:

The first step was to divide it into three sections, for a 3-ply, so that each section had each of the three colors. I then split 2 of the sections into even thirds, based on the colors, and the last section was split into sixths based on colors. I split the sections based on weight.

The idea is a fractal ply, but because I am doing a 3-ply, I will do it so that 2 of the sections are the same color, and a third is changing. The middle is the part divided into six:

I finally finished spinning, plying, skeining and washing, and here’s what the finished result looks like:

I think a shawl is in order to show off the lovely and subtle color changes. This produced 284 yards of yarn at 12 wpi. I have an identical batt which I will spin the same way, and will knit with all of it to make a good-sized shawl.

When I think of gradient spinning, buy more about I think of starting with “gradient-dyed fiber” such as Fiber Optics’ gradient collection. Sadly, I have not yet gotten my hands on on of them yet. However, a fractal 3-ply attempt last year gave me the push to try a kind of gradient spinning.

I got a great batt from Fiber Stash back in April at the Wild and Woolly Weekend in Vermont. The 3.7 oz batt is 98% Corriedale, 2% twinkle, in a blue-purple, light blue, and black – here it is, unrolled:

The first step was to divide it into three sections, for a 3-ply, so that each section had each of the three colors. I then split 2 of the sections into even thirds, based on the colors, and the last section was split into sixths based on colors. The idea is a fractal ply, but because I am doing a 3-ply, I will do it so that 2 of the sections are the same color, and a third is changing. The middle is the part divided into six:

I finally finished spinning, plying, skeining and washing, and here’s what the finished result looks like:

I think a shawl is in order to show off the lovely color changes. This produced 284 yards of yarn at 12 wpi. I have an identical batt which I will spin the same way

Edited October 29, medicine 2012 – Unfortunately, ampoule Cat Bordhi has asked me to take the PDF instructions down. However, troche the same exact information is at the video I link to below, so you can still find the information you need.

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, 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.

It was very important that I write my previous post when I did – Wed 25 July – because the very next day, of the fun I had, but I’d also like to highlight the knitting I did.

I started knitting a Color Affection shawl, in some Novita Polku that I bought in Finland in May. I started the shawl the first day, which was mostly lounging around while we were in the port of Boston (where we all embarked) and then while the cruise ship was traveling. I continued the shawl on Friday 27 July, and then on Saturday 28 July we landed in the port of St. John’s, New Brunswick. I chose to take a bus to Fredericton, to see the city hall, learn some history, and visit Yarns on York to meet local knitters and take a class on Newfoundland Mittens, aka “Newfie Mitts”. I got a bit done, but I believe I will rip out what I’ve done, make it smaller, and do the “windows” in the multicolored black and the background/wrists in the green. Still, here’s the progress shot, even though this will be frogged later:

On Sunday, I chose to do one of the two classes offered at The Loop in Halifax. The class I chose was one on how to do thrummed mittens, and the instructor Mimi was amazing. I did not take the class for the Bermuda Scarf/shawl, but I heard that the 2nd class was not as great, probably due to the first class running very late and Mimi running out of steam (teaching 2 classes in one day is tough, and who knows if she even had time to eat!). Given that, I’m glad I did not stay for the 2nd class (I did buy the pattern and yarn for it, so I can make the shawl), and instead did a 10-mile bicycle tour of Halifax. At any rate, I did enjoy working on the thrummed mittens, and here is my progress (I haven’t done anything with it since that weekend):

And the inside looks like this:

I learned lots of great tips from Mimi, like using a wool with a lot of lanolin in it, so it’s “sticky” and holds the thrums in better.

There was a lot of knitting that weekend, and in the few weeks that followed. This past week I finished knitting Tony’s scarf, after having to spin more yarn and buy more on Cape Cod while helping a friend do the Pan-Mass Challenge at the beginning of August. I still have to finish the scarf by weaving in the ends and blocking it, but it’s finally the right length, and Tony will be able to use it this coming fall/winter.

I also finished the scarf I was weaving (the June Spunky Eclectic weaving club), but I still need to block it before taking a picture of it. A new weaving club for August is on its way, so I’ll have something new to warp soon.

I am not going on a plane until the end of September, and my next travel is scheduled for mid-September, around Rosh Hashanah – I will be going to the New York City area for 2 weekends (coming back to Boston for a wedding in between). I hope to finish the Color Affection Shawl soon, and get pictures of both it and the woven scarf before long.
It was very important that I write my previous post when I did – Wed 25 July – because the very next day, of the fun I had, but I’d also like to highlight the knitting I did.

I started knitting a Color Affection shawl, in some Novita Polku that I bought in Finland in May. I started the shawl the first day, which was mostly lounging around while we were in the port of Boston (where we all embarked) and then while the cruise ship was traveling. I continued the shawl on Friday 27 July, and then on Saturday 28 July we landed in the port of St. John’s, New Brunswick. I chose to take a bus to Fredericton, to see the city hall, learn some history, and visit Yarns on York to meet local knitters and take a class on Newfoundland Mittens, aka “Newfie Mitts”. I got a bit done, but I believe I will rip out what I’ve done, make it smaller, and do the “windows” in the multicolored black and the background/wrists in the green. Still, here’s the progress shot, even though this will be frogged later:

On Sunday, I chose to do one of the two classes offered at The Loop in Halifax. The class I chose was one on how to do thrummed mittens, and the instructor Mimi was amazing. I did not take the class for the Bermuda Scarf/shawl, but I heard that the 2nd class was not as great, probably due to the first class running very late and Mimi running out of steam (teaching 2 classes in one day is tough, and who knows if she even had time to eat!). Given that, I’m glad I did not stay for the 2nd class (I did buy the pattern and yarn for it, so I can make the shawl), and instead did a 10-mile bicycle tour of Halifax. At any rate, I did enjoy working on the thrummed mittens, and here is my progress (I haven’t done anything with it since that weekend):

And the inside looks like this:

I learned lots of great tips from Mimi, like using a wool with a lot of lanolin in it, so it’s “sticky” and holds the thrums in better.

There was a lot of knitting that weekend, and in the few weeks that followed. This past week I finished knitting Tony’s scarf, after having to spin more yarn and buy more on Cape Cod while helping a friend do the Pan-Mass Challenge at the beginning of August. I still have to finish the scarf by weaving in the ends and blocking it, but it’s finally the right length, and Tony will be able to use it this coming fall/winter.

I also finished the scarf I was weaving (the June Spunky Eclectic weaving club), but I still need to block it before taking a picture of it. A new weaving club for August is on its way, so I’ll have something new to warp soon.

I am not going on a plane until the end of September, and my next travel is scheduled for mid-September, around Rosh Hashanah – I will be going to the New York City area for 2 weekends (coming back to Boston for a wedding in between). I hope to finish the Color Affection Shawl soon, and get pictures of
So, online I mentioned in the last post that I had finished 2 objects – side effects and the June Spunky Eclectic Weaving Club, which I opted to do a table runner. It was my first experience with using a pick-up stick. I’m happy with how both came out (especially after ironing the scarf…I don’t even iron clothes!).

Crooked Little Tony scarf

Pick-up-sticks table runner

I’m thrilled with how drapey the table runner is. My only problem is that I have no idea what to do with it – it’s 33 inches by 22 inches. It’s too short for a scarf, but I don’t have an appropriate table to use it on. It’s a superwash merino/bamboo/viscose blend. Folded over a towel bar it’d make a very long kitchen or guest towel, I guess?

Any ideas?
So, , which I opted to do a table runner. It was my first experience with using a pick-up stick. I’m happy with how both came out (especially after ironing the scarf…I don’t even iron clothes!).

Crooked Little Tony scarf

Pick-up-sticks table runner

I’m thrilled with how drapey the table runner is. My only problem is that I have no idea what to do with it – it’s 33 inches by 22 inches. It’s too short for a scarf, but I don’t have an appropriate table to use it on. It’s a superwash merino/bamboo/viscose blend.
I am so excited about tonight’s Common Cod Fiber Guild Meeting featuring Pam Parmal of the Boston Museum of Fine Arts talking about the collection strategy for textiles and fashion. And since I last wrote, gonorrhea I have finished a few objects…..

The first is another Hoot Cardigan, this time made out of Universal Yarns Supreme Cotton Batik, that I picked up in Charlotte, North Carolina earlier this year. I love the Supreme Cotton line from Universal yarns, because it is super soft. Unfortunately, I have only been able to find it in LYS in North Carolina….I hear that is changing soon, though! Here’s the cardigan, made for a friend of mine who just had his first son:

And then there’s the August Weaving Club from Spunky Eclectic – cotton dishcloths! I did not follow the pattern; instead I tried out a herringbone/pinwheel pattern. It came out wonderfully!

I ended up making 2 towels, one a bit shorter because I ran out of warp, but here’s the shorter one hanging from a peg next to our sink (please excuse the dirty dishes and Guinness cans to be rinsed).

The bigger one is in constant use as Tony’s “potato cozy”. That’s not a euphemism, Tony eats a baked potato like one would eat an apple, whole and uncut. Because it’s hot, he uses a towel wrapped around it to hold it.

And finally, the pièce de résistance. This is a Color Affection Shawl that I made from 3 different skeins of Novita’s Polku yarn, which I acquired in Finland earlier this year.

Here’s a close-up shot of the ‘center’ of this assymmetrical shawl:

And a little zoomed out:

Here’s the full-size shot:

I also spun up a “fractal 3-ply” which I will write about next time.
I am so excited about tonight’s Common Cod Fiber Guild Meeting featuring Pam Parmal of the Boston Museum of Fine Arts talking about the collection strategy for textiles and fashion. And since I last wrote, condom I have finished a few objects…..

The first is another Hoot Cardigan, information pills this time made out of

And then there’s the August

The bigger one is in constant use as Tony’s “potato cozy”. That’s not a euphemism, Tony eats a baked potato like one would eat an apple, whole and uncut. Because it’s hot, he uses a towel wrapped around it to hold it.

And finally, the pièce de résistance. This is a Color Affection Shawl that I made from 3 different skeins of

And a little zoomed out:

Here’s the full-size shot:

After
I am so excited about tonight’s
Common Cod Fiber Guild Meeting featuring Pam Parmal of the Boston Museum of Fine Arts talking about the collection strategy for textiles and fashion. And since I last wrote, order I have finished a few objects…..

The first is another Hoot Cardigan, find this time made out of

And then there’s the August

The bigger one is in constant use as Tony’s “potato cozy”. That’s not a euphemism, Tony eats a baked potato like one would eat an apple, whole and uncut. Because it’s hot, he uses a towel wrapped around it to hold it.

And finally, the pièce de résistance. This is a Color Affection Shawl that I made from 3 different skeins of

And a little zoomed out:

Here’s the full-size shot:

I also spun up a “fractal 3-ply” which I will write about next time.
I am so excited about tonight’s
Common Cod Fiber Guild Meeting featuring Pam Parmal of the Boston Museum of Fine Arts talking about the collection strategy for textiles and fashion. And since I last wrote, more about I have finished a few objects…..

The first is another Hoot Cardigan, this time made out of Universal Yarns Supreme Cotton Batik, that I picked up in Charlotte, North Carolina earlier this year. I love the Supreme Cotton line from Universal yarns, because it is super soft. Unfortunately, I have only been able to find it in LYS in North Carolina….I hear that is changing soon, though! Here’s the cardigan, made for a friend of mine who just had his first son:

And then there’s the August Weaving Club from Spunky Eclectic – cotton dishcloths! I did not follow the pattern; instead I tried out a herringbone/pinwheel pattern. It came out wonderfully!

I ended up making 2 towels, one a bit shorter because I ran out of warp, but here’s the shorter one hanging from a peg next to our sink (please excuse the dirty dishes and Guinness cans to be rinsed).

The bigger one is in constant use as Tony’s “potato cozy”. That’s not a euphemism, Tony eats a baked potato like one would eat an apple, whole and uncut. Because it’s hot, he uses a towel wrapped around it to hold it.

And finally, the pièce de résistance. This is a Color Affection Shawl that I made from 3 different skeins of

And a little zoomed out:

Here’s the full-size shot:

I also spun up a “fractal 3-ply” which I will write about next time.
Buenos Aires has a span of a few blocks,
hospital not too far from the Malabia metro station* where there are many yarn shops, phthisiatrician I counted 15, and went into 11 of them before I had to stop. The shops are on Ave. Scalabrini Ortiz just southwest of Ave. Cordoba, towards Ave. Correintes. The Malabia metro station is on the corner of Correintes and Scalabrini Ortiz, which is 1 km away from the corner of Cordoba and Corrientes, and about half that until you see your first yarn shop. There was a small bit of yarn bombing between two of the stores:

Yarn shopping in Buenos Aires is quite different from what I’m used to in the States. The stores all look like this:

The yarn is beautiful, and well-organized, but there’s no signs as to what the yarn is made up of, how much it costs nor the gauge of the yarn. In addition, you’re not supposed to take the yarn out of the bins. If you look at the bottom right of that picture, you’ll see some white yarn and blue yarn that is actually sitting on top of a counter. That counter separates you from the wall, and there are people behind the counter who can help you get what you want.

So it’s very different from the experience I’m used to. I got the feeling that a lot of people knew exactly what they wanted to buy, or walked in and would say “do you have anything made of wool?” I was feeling a bit shy due to the language barrier, so I picked up a Spanish phrase: “solamente mirando” – it means “Just looking”. The people are friendly and willing to help, but I like the yarn buying process to be a solo activity.

There were 2 exceptions to the fact that most stores don’t give any information about their items.: Milana hilados and Yanabey. Milana hilados had tags like this near most of their yarn:

Note that that’s in Argentinian pesos, and at the time, this was less than USD $10 per 100g. Another thing to note is the price is per 100g, not per hank of yarn. You’d ask a sales associate to take the yarn down for you and they’d weigh it and ask you if that was OK (kind of like at the deli counter). Then they give you a slip of paper and you take it to a cash register, where you’re usually helped by someone else. Another interesting thing is that the stores seemed to be staffed by about half men, half women, which is very different from yarn stores in the States, which are probably about 90% staffed by women.

I bought 3 hanks of yarn there, for about $25:

Yanabey had signs like this:

These prices are still in Argentinian pesos, but they’re in kilos. So these prices are $171 for 1 kilo, which is $17.10 for 100g. This is a wall of “seda vegetal”, or “vegetable silk“. By the way, that’s about USD $35 per kilo. So I bought 6 skeins, which was just over a kilo, because the tree which this comes from (ceiba speciosa, or “silk floss tree”) is native to South America, and I haven’t seen “vegetable silk” in the US.

A lot of the stores have the recycled t-shirt yarn, and I bought some at Arte Natural:

BUTTONS!!!

I was thinking I might make a purse from the yarn, like this:

That purse is crocheted, but I’m sure I can come up with a knitted version.

Here’s what I bought from that store:

Here’s a Spanish primer for some important words:
cachemira – cashmere
acrílico – acrylic
lana – wool
seda – silk
alpaca – alpaca
hilo – yarn (plural: hilados)
Also, I found out that cashmerillo is just an acrylic yarn that’s very soft. Don’t be fooled by price, some of the acrylic yarns are *very* expensive, even more expensive than the wool.

I was very excited by the prospect of all these yarn stores, and after these three purchases I was done, and passed by 4 other yarn stores that I didn’t even walk into. In addition, there were at least 2 weaving stores, and another 2 fabric stores. Only one of the yarn stores had fiber to spin, and it looked like combed top, and was somewhat expensive (by US standards).

All in all, I was extremely satisfied by taking a few hours to shop for yarn, but I found the experience quite different from what I’m used to.

* I was instructed by a friend who had visited Buenos Aires to take a taxi to the corner of X and Y. However, I enjoy walking around and public transit, so I noticed the subway stop was not far, and decided to walk a few blocks. To those who are considering what to do, a taxi would have cost about 20 pesos (about USD $5) each way. The subway costs $5 for two rides, but of course is not door to door. Another thing to note about the subway is that it is not the most modern system:

And you will get plenty of people trying to make money – some play music, which you may be used to from other subway systems. Others will go around a subway car, handing out products, and then go around and either collect the product back or collect money. I was handed tissues and Disney books – or at least, they attempted to hand stuff to me, and I refused. It helped that I had knitting in my hands, but I saw them just place stuff on people’s laps if their hands were busy, so don’t just look away, make sure you actually refuse by shaking your head.

Note: I hope this article is helpful! Due to spam reasons, all articles on this site have comments disabled after a short time. If you want to leave feedback, you can tweet @sheeri or e-mail me at awfief at gmail dot com. (replace “at” with @ and
When I think of gradient spinning, visit I think of starting with “gradient-dyed fiber” such as Fiber Optics’ gradient collection. Sadly, I have not yet gotten my hands on on of them yet. However, a fractal 3-ply attempt last year gave me the push to try a kind of gradient spinning.

I got a great batt from Fiber Stash back in April at the Wild and Woolly Weekend in Vermont. The 3.7 oz batt is 98% Corriedale, 2% twinkle, in a blue-purple, light blue, and black – here it is, unrolled:

The first step was to divide it into three sections, for a 3-ply, so that each section had each of the three colors. I then split 2 of the sections into even thirds, based on the colors, and the last section was split into sixths based on colors. I split the sections based on weight.

The idea is a fractal ply, but because I am doing a 3-ply, I will do it so that 2 of the sections are the same color, and a third is changing. The middle is the part divided into six:

I finally finished spinning, plying, skeining and washing, and here’s what the finished result looks like:

I think a shawl is in order to show off the lovely and subtle color changes. This produced 284 yards of yarn at 12 wpi. I have an identical batt which I will spin the same way, and will knit with all of it to make a good-sized shawl.

When I think of gradient spinning, buy more about I think of starting with “gradient-dyed fiber” such as Fiber Optics’ gradient collection. Sadly, I have not yet gotten my hands on on of them yet. However, a fractal 3-ply attempt last year gave me the push to try a kind of gradient spinning.

I got a great batt from Fiber Stash back in April at the Wild and Woolly Weekend in Vermont. The 3.7 oz batt is 98% Corriedale, 2% twinkle, in a blue-purple, light blue, and black – here it is, unrolled:

The first step was to divide it into three sections, for a 3-ply, so that each section had each of the three colors. I then split 2 of the sections into even thirds, based on the colors, and the last section was split into sixths based on colors. The idea is a fractal ply, but because I am doing a 3-ply, I will do it so that 2 of the sections are the same color, and a third is changing. The middle is the part divided into six:

I finally finished spinning, plying, skeining and washing, and here’s what the finished result looks like:

I think a shawl is in order to show off the lovely color changes. This produced 284 yards of yarn at 12 wpi. I have an identical batt which I will spin the same way

Edited October 29, medicine 2012 – Unfortunately, ampoule Cat Bordhi has asked me to take the PDF instructions down. However, troche the same exact information is at the video I link to below, so you can still find the information you need.

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, 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.

I taught this at FiberCamp this past weekend, view 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, 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.
It was very important that I write my previous post when I did – Wed 25 July – because the very next day, of the fun I had, but I’d also like to highlight the knitting I did.

I started knitting a Color Affection shawl, in some Novita Polku that I bought in Finland in May. I started the shawl the first day, which was mostly lounging around while we were in the port of Boston (where we all embarked) and then while the cruise ship was traveling. I continued the shawl on Friday 27 July, and then on Saturday 28 July we landed in the port of St. John’s, New Brunswick. I chose to take a bus to Fredericton, to see the city hall, learn some history, and visit Yarns on York to meet local knitters and take a class on Newfoundland Mittens, aka “Newfie Mitts”. I got a bit done, but I believe I will rip out what I’ve done, make it smaller, and do the “windows” in the multicolored black and the background/wrists in the green. Still, here’s the progress shot, even though this will be frogged later:

On Sunday, I chose to do one of the two classes offered at The Loop in Halifax. The class I chose was one on how to do thrummed mittens, and the instructor Mimi was amazing. I did not take the class for the Bermuda Scarf/shawl, but I heard that the 2nd class was not as great, probably due to the first class running very late and Mimi running out of steam (teaching 2 classes in one day is tough, and who knows if she even had time to eat!). Given that, I’m glad I did not stay for the 2nd class (I did buy the pattern and yarn for it, so I can make the shawl), and instead did a 10-mile bicycle tour of Halifax. At any rate, I did enjoy working on the thrummed mittens, and here is my progress (I haven’t done anything with it since that weekend):

And the inside looks like this:

I learned lots of great tips from Mimi, like using a wool with a lot of lanolin in it, so it’s “sticky” and holds the thrums in better.

There was a lot of knitting that weekend, and in the few weeks that followed. This past week I finished knitting Tony’s scarf, after having to spin more yarn and buy more on Cape Cod while helping a friend do the Pan-Mass Challenge at the beginning of August. I still have to finish the scarf by weaving in the ends and blocking it, but it’s finally the right length, and Tony will be able to use it this coming fall/winter.

I also finished the scarf I was weaving (the June Spunky Eclectic weaving club), but I still need to block it before taking a picture of it. A new weaving club for August is on its way, so I’ll have something new to warp soon.

I am not going on a plane until the end of September, and my next travel is scheduled for mid-September, around Rosh Hashanah – I will be going to the New York City area for 2 weekends (coming back to Boston for a wedding in between). I hope to finish the Color Affection Shawl soon, and get pictures of both it and the woven scarf before long.
It was very important that I write my previous post when I did – Wed 25 July – because the very next day, of the fun I had, but I’d also like to highlight the knitting I did.

I started knitting a Color Affection shawl, in some Novita Polku that I bought in Finland in May. I started the shawl the first day, which was mostly lounging around while we were in the port of Boston (where we all embarked) and then while the cruise ship was traveling. I continued the shawl on Friday 27 July, and then on Saturday 28 July we landed in the port of St. John’s, New Brunswick. I chose to take a bus to Fredericton, to see the city hall, learn some history, and visit Yarns on York to meet local knitters and take a class on Newfoundland Mittens, aka “Newfie Mitts”. I got a bit done, but I believe I will rip out what I’ve done, make it smaller, and do the “windows” in the multicolored black and the background/wrists in the green. Still, here’s the progress shot, even though this will be frogged later:

On Sunday, I chose to do one of the two classes offered at The Loop in Halifax. The class I chose was one on how to do thrummed mittens, and the instructor Mimi was amazing. I did not take the class for the Bermuda Scarf/shawl, but I heard that the 2nd class was not as great, probably due to the first class running very late and Mimi running out of steam (teaching 2 classes in one day is tough, and who knows if she even had time to eat!). Given that, I’m glad I did not stay for the 2nd class (I did buy the pattern and yarn for it, so I can make the shawl), and instead did a 10-mile bicycle tour of Halifax. At any rate, I did enjoy working on the thrummed mittens, and here is my progress (I haven’t done anything with it since that weekend):

And the inside looks like this:

I learned lots of great tips from Mimi, like using a wool with a lot of lanolin in it, so it’s “sticky” and holds the thrums in better.

There was a lot of knitting that weekend, and in the few weeks that followed. This past week I finished knitting Tony’s scarf, after having to spin more yarn and buy more on Cape Cod while helping a friend do the Pan-Mass Challenge at the beginning of August. I still have to finish the scarf by weaving in the ends and blocking it, but it’s finally the right length, and Tony will be able to use it this coming fall/winter.

I also finished the scarf I was weaving (the June Spunky Eclectic weaving club), but I still need to block it before taking a picture of it. A new weaving club for August is on its way, so I’ll have something new to warp soon.

I am not going on a plane until the end of September, and my next travel is scheduled for mid-September, around Rosh Hashanah – I will be going to the New York City area for 2 weekends (coming back to Boston for a wedding in between). I hope to finish the Color Affection Shawl soon, and get pictures of
So, online I mentioned in the last post that I had finished 2 objects – side effects and the June Spunky Eclectic Weaving Club, which I opted to do a table runner. It was my first experience with using a pick-up stick. I’m happy with how both came out (especially after ironing the scarf…I don’t even iron clothes!).

Crooked Little Tony scarf

Pick-up-sticks table runner

I’m thrilled with how drapey the table runner is. My only problem is that I have no idea what to do with it – it’s 33 inches by 22 inches. It’s too short for a scarf, but I don’t have an appropriate table to use it on. It’s a superwash merino/bamboo/viscose blend. Folded over a towel bar it’d make a very long kitchen or guest towel, I guess?

Any ideas?
So, , which I opted to do a table runner. It was my first experience with using a pick-up stick. I’m happy with how both came out (especially after ironing the scarf…I don’t even iron clothes!).

Crooked Little Tony scarf

Pick-up-sticks table runner

I’m thrilled with how drapey the table runner is. My only problem is that I have no idea what to do with it – it’s 33 inches by 22 inches. It’s too short for a scarf, but I don’t have an appropriate table to use it on. It’s a superwash merino/bamboo/viscose blend.
I am so excited about tonight’s Common Cod Fiber Guild Meeting featuring Pam Parmal of the Boston Museum of Fine Arts talking about the collection strategy for textiles and fashion. And since I last wrote, gonorrhea I have finished a few objects…..

The first is another Hoot Cardigan, this time made out of Universal Yarns Supreme Cotton Batik, that I picked up in Charlotte, North Carolina earlier this year. I love the Supreme Cotton line from Universal yarns, because it is super soft. Unfortunately, I have only been able to find it in LYS in North Carolina….I hear that is changing soon, though! Here’s the cardigan, made for a friend of mine who just had his first son:

And then there’s the August Weaving Club from Spunky Eclectic – cotton dishcloths! I did not follow the pattern; instead I tried out a herringbone/pinwheel pattern. It came out wonderfully!

I ended up making 2 towels, one a bit shorter because I ran out of warp, but here’s the shorter one hanging from a peg next to our sink (please excuse the dirty dishes and Guinness cans to be rinsed).

The bigger one is in constant use as Tony’s “potato cozy”. That’s not a euphemism, Tony eats a baked potato like one would eat an apple, whole and uncut. Because it’s hot, he uses a towel wrapped around it to hold it.

And finally, the pièce de résistance. This is a Color Affection Shawl that I made from 3 different skeins of Novita’s Polku yarn, which I acquired in Finland earlier this year.

Here’s a close-up shot of the ‘center’ of this assymmetrical shawl:

And a little zoomed out:

Here’s the full-size shot:

I also spun up a “fractal 3-ply” which I will write about next time.
I am so excited about tonight’s Common Cod Fiber Guild Meeting featuring Pam Parmal of the Boston Museum of Fine Arts talking about the collection strategy for textiles and fashion. And since I last wrote, condom I have finished a few objects…..

The first is another Hoot Cardigan, information pills this time made out of

And then there’s the August

The bigger one is in constant use as Tony’s “potato cozy”. That’s not a euphemism, Tony eats a baked potato like one would eat an apple, whole and uncut. Because it’s hot, he uses a towel wrapped around it to hold it.

And finally, the pièce de résistance. This is a Color Affection Shawl that I made from 3 different skeins of

And a little zoomed out:

Here’s the full-size shot:

After
I am so excited about tonight’s
Common Cod Fiber Guild Meeting featuring Pam Parmal of the Boston Museum of Fine Arts talking about the collection strategy for textiles and fashion. And since I last wrote, order I have finished a few objects…..

The first is another Hoot Cardigan, find this time made out of

And then there’s the August

The bigger one is in constant use as Tony’s “potato cozy”. That’s not a euphemism, Tony eats a baked potato like one would eat an apple, whole and uncut. Because it’s hot, he uses a towel wrapped around it to hold it.

And finally, the pièce de résistance. This is a Color Affection Shawl that I made from 3 different skeins of

And a little zoomed out:

Here’s the full-size shot:

I also spun up a “fractal 3-ply” which I will write about next time.
I am so excited about tonight’s
Common Cod Fiber Guild Meeting featuring Pam Parmal of the Boston Museum of Fine Arts talking about the collection strategy for textiles and fashion. And since I last wrote, more about I have finished a few objects…..

The first is another Hoot Cardigan, this time made out of Universal Yarns Supreme Cotton Batik, that I picked up in Charlotte, North Carolina earlier this year. I love the Supreme Cotton line from Universal yarns, because it is super soft. Unfortunately, I have only been able to find it in LYS in North Carolina….I hear that is changing soon, though! Here’s the cardigan, made for a friend of mine who just had his first son:

And then there’s the August Weaving Club from Spunky Eclectic – cotton dishcloths! I did not follow the pattern; instead I tried out a herringbone/pinwheel pattern. It came out wonderfully!

I ended up making 2 towels, one a bit shorter because I ran out of warp, but here’s the shorter one hanging from a peg next to our sink (please excuse the dirty dishes and Guinness cans to be rinsed).

The bigger one is in constant use as Tony’s “potato cozy”. That’s not a euphemism, Tony eats a baked potato like one would eat an apple, whole and uncut. Because it’s hot, he uses a towel wrapped around it to hold it.

And finally, the pièce de résistance. This is a Color Affection Shawl that I made from 3 different skeins of

And a little zoomed out:

Here’s the full-size shot:

I also spun up a “fractal 3-ply” which I will write about next time.
Buenos Aires has a span of a few blocks,
hospital not too far from the Malabia metro station* where there are many yarn shops, phthisiatrician I counted 15, and went into 11 of them before I had to stop. The shops are on Ave. Scalabrini Ortiz just southwest of Ave. Cordoba, towards Ave. Correintes. The Malabia metro station is on the corner of Correintes and Scalabrini Ortiz, which is 1 km away from the corner of Cordoba and Corrientes, and about half that until you see your first yarn shop. There was a small bit of yarn bombing between two of the stores:

Yarn shopping in Buenos Aires is quite different from what I’m used to in the States. The stores all look like this:

The yarn is beautiful, and well-organized, but there’s no signs as to what the yarn is made up of, how much it costs nor the gauge of the yarn. In addition, you’re not supposed to take the yarn out of the bins. If you look at the bottom right of that picture, you’ll see some white yarn and blue yarn that is actually sitting on top of a counter. That counter separates you from the wall, and there are people behind the counter who can help you get what you want.

So it’s very different from the experience I’m used to. I got the feeling that a lot of people knew exactly what they wanted to buy, or walked in and would say “do you have anything made of wool?” I was feeling a bit shy due to the language barrier, so I picked up a Spanish phrase: “solamente mirando” – it means “Just looking”. The people are friendly and willing to help, but I like the yarn buying process to be a solo activity.

There were 2 exceptions to the fact that most stores don’t give any information about their items.: Milana hilados and Yanabey. Milana hilados had tags like this near most of their yarn:

Note that that’s in Argentinian pesos, and at the time, this was less than USD $10 per 100g. Another thing to note is the price is per 100g, not per hank of yarn. You’d ask a sales associate to take the yarn down for you and they’d weigh it and ask you if that was OK (kind of like at the deli counter). Then they give you a slip of paper and you take it to a cash register, where you’re usually helped by someone else. Another interesting thing is that the stores seemed to be staffed by about half men, half women, which is very different from yarn stores in the States, which are probably about 90% staffed by women.

I bought 3 hanks of yarn there, for about $25:

Yanabey had signs like this:

These prices are still in Argentinian pesos, but they’re in kilos. So these prices are $171 for 1 kilo, which is $17.10 for 100g. This is a wall of “seda vegetal”, or “vegetable silk“. By the way, that’s about USD $35 per kilo. So I bought 6 skeins, which was just over a kilo, because the tree which this comes from (ceiba speciosa, or “silk floss tree”) is native to South America, and I haven’t seen “vegetable silk” in the US.

A lot of the stores have the recycled t-shirt yarn, and I bought some at Arte Natural:

BUTTONS!!!

I was thinking I might make a purse from the yarn, like this:

That purse is crocheted, but I’m sure I can come up with a knitted version.

Here’s what I bought from that store:

Here’s a Spanish primer for some important words:
cachemira – cashmere
acrílico – acrylic
lana – wool
seda – silk
alpaca – alpaca
hilo – yarn (plural: hilados)
Also, I found out that cashmerillo is just an acrylic yarn that’s very soft. Don’t be fooled by price, some of the acrylic yarns are *very* expensive, even more expensive than the wool.

I was very excited by the prospect of all these yarn stores, and after these three purchases I was done, and passed by 4 other yarn stores that I didn’t even walk into. In addition, there were at least 2 weaving stores, and another 2 fabric stores. Only one of the yarn stores had fiber to spin, and it looked like combed top, and was somewhat expensive (by US standards).

All in all, I was extremely satisfied by taking a few hours to shop for yarn, but I found the experience quite different from what I’m used to.

* I was instructed by a friend who had visited Buenos Aires to take a taxi to the corner of X and Y. However, I enjoy walking around and public transit, so I noticed the subway stop was not far, and decided to walk a few blocks. To those who are considering what to do, a taxi would have cost about 20 pesos (about USD $5) each way. The subway costs $5 for two rides, but of course is not door to door. Another thing to note about the subway is that it is not the most modern system:

And you will get plenty of people trying to make money – some play music, which you may be used to from other subway systems. Others will go around a subway car, handing out products, and then go around and either collect the product back or collect money. I was handed tissues and Disney books – or at least, they attempted to hand stuff to me, and I refused. It helped that I had knitting in my hands, but I saw them just place stuff on people’s laps if their hands were busy, so don’t just look away, make sure you actually refuse by shaking your head.

Note: I hope this article is helpful! Due to spam reasons, all articles on this site have comments disabled after a short time. If you want to leave feedback, you can tweet @sheeri or e-mail me at awfief at gmail dot com. (replace “at” with @ and
When I think of gradient spinning, visit I think of starting with “gradient-dyed fiber” such as Fiber Optics’ gradient collection. Sadly, I have not yet gotten my hands on on of them yet. However, a fractal 3-ply attempt last year gave me the push to try a kind of gradient spinning.

I got a great batt from Fiber Stash back in April at the Wild and Woolly Weekend in Vermont. The 3.7 oz batt is 98% Corriedale, 2% twinkle, in a blue-purple, light blue, and black – here it is, unrolled:

The first step was to divide it into three sections, for a 3-ply, so that each section had each of the three colors. I then split 2 of the sections into even thirds, based on the colors, and the last section was split into sixths based on colors. I split the sections based on weight.

The idea is a fractal ply, but because I am doing a 3-ply, I will do it so that 2 of the sections are the same color, and a third is changing. The middle is the part divided into six:

I finally finished spinning, plying, skeining and washing, and here’s what the finished result looks like:

I think a shawl is in order to show off the lovely and subtle color changes. This produced 284 yards of yarn at 12 wpi. I have an identical batt which I will spin the same way, and will knit with all of it to make a good-sized shawl.

When I think of gradient spinning, buy more about I think of starting with “gradient-dyed fiber” such as Fiber Optics’ gradient collection. Sadly, I have not yet gotten my hands on on of them yet. However, a fractal 3-ply attempt last year gave me the push to try a kind of gradient spinning.

I got a great batt from Fiber Stash back in April at the Wild and Woolly Weekend in Vermont. The 3.7 oz batt is 98% Corriedale, 2% twinkle, in a blue-purple, light blue, and black – here it is, unrolled:

The first step was to divide it into three sections, for a 3-ply, so that each section had each of the three colors. I then split 2 of the sections into even thirds, based on the colors, and the last section was split into sixths based on colors. The idea is a fractal ply, but because I am doing a 3-ply, I will do it so that 2 of the sections are the same color, and a third is changing. The middle is the part divided into six:

I finally finished spinning, plying, skeining and washing, and here’s what the finished result looks like:

I think a shawl is in order to show off the lovely color changes. This produced 284 yards of yarn at 12 wpi. I have an identical batt which I will spin the same way

Edited October 29, medicine 2012 – Unfortunately, ampoule Cat Bordhi has asked me to take the PDF instructions down. However, troche the same exact information is at the video I link to below, so you can still find the information you need.

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, 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.

I taught this at FiberCamp this past weekend, view 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, 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.
It’s been a while since I last wrote. 2 months and 2 weeks, not at all! There has been a lot of travel, and not a ton of knitting…..but there has been some.

The first adventure I had after the last post was completely unexpected. I was at a conference in St. Paul, Minnesota, and I was reading a blog post by Stephanie Pearl McPhee where she mentioned flying from California to Minnesota. At first I thought “how cool, soon I’ll be flying from St. Paul to California!” and then I wondered, “will we overlap in the Twin Cities?” (If you don’t know, those cities border each other.)

The answer, my friends, is yes, and this happened at Steven Be:
Stephanie blesses my sock

Steven was absolutely fabulous and was in full force that day. The yarn shop has yarn and knitted things everywhere. I loved it from a chaotic good perspective. I bought some sock yarn and some sock needles, and immediately started in on a sock. And I had Stephanie sign some books, of course.

The next adventure I had was when I found the Mass Ave Knit Shop in Indianapolis. It was about half a mile from the hotel I was staying at, and I spent several hours there on a Saturday before leaving for the airport. I picked up some plain white yarn (purpose to be revealed later) and knit for several hours….though at this point I cannot remember what I was knitting! For arguments’ sake, let’s say I was knitting a pattern from Jeri, a fellow Common Cod Fiber Guild member, which she showed at Show and Tell during our September meeting. The pattern is called “Vestboro”, and this is how far I got as of mid-October, so it’s a pretty good bet to say that’s what I was working on:

Vestboro center

The knit shop was large, and had tons of yarn! Due to all my travel this year, I have not been knitting and spinning as much as I used to. Last November I stopped being able to keep up with my monthly fiber club, and I stayed behind all year. Suffice it to say, I am overflowing with yarn and fiber….and so is my fiber room. So I am limiting my souvenir yarn…for now.

The knit shop was full of women knitting, and wonderful local donuts, and instead of souvenir yarn I bought myself an accordion-type box to store my dpns in by size. It was a great place to spend several hours knitting.

I attended Rhinebeck aka NY Sheep & Wool, where I acquired a Bernina 1230 sewing machine, circa 1989–1998. I haven’t yet started playing with it, as I have been WAY too busy with other things – Halloween crafts, holiday gift knitting, and test knitting! At Rhinebeck I took 2 classes – a spinning class with Abby Franquemont (I can cross that off the bucket list now!) and a dyeing class with Gail Callahan, the Kangaroo Dyer, in which I learned a ton about dyeing and made this beautiful rainbow:

my rainbow of dyeing

I did not knit for much of September and October because I was doing other crafty things – specifically, I was hand-sewing my Halloween costume – Sally from the Nightmare Before Christmas. It came out better than I expected, which was great, because it was for an awesome wedding:

Julia as a nurse and me as Sally, from the Nightmare Before Christmas

And yes, I also knit the wig.

In November I was test knitting. And test knitting. And test knitting. I will show you pictures once they are public, but for now, things remain secret.

I took a mitten class at Mind’s Eye Yarns and still have not finished knitting the first mitten, much less the second mitten. But I learned a few good tips along the way and am excited to use them.

Remember that white yarn I bought in Indianapolis? It was for some classes with Lucy Neatby, who is chock-full of amazing tips and tricks for knitting. I filled out a wishlist with stuff I want, from patterns to DVDs. Lucy is fun, smart and easy to learn from. I took three classes with her – buttonholes, finishing, and socks. Her handouts are invaluable. I took time off work and spent a pretty penny to learn from Lucy, and I would do it again in a heartbeat. She’s THAT good.

And then it was December…..the test knitting was finally finished, and then it was time to knit gifts! I knit hats for my brother-in-law and his wife (in grey and red Ushya yarn), and I did not, sadly, take any pictures of those hats. I also knit a hat for my mother-in-law in green, and again, no pictures. I do have pictures of the tiny slightly felted purse I made for my aunt-in-law (using handspun Portuguese Merino in the “A Bug’s Life” colorway) and the DNA scarf I made for my father-in-law out of Kauni (that I bought while in Halifax on my knitting cruise in July):

Felted wallet

DNA Scarf

And then during and after Christmas I knit 2 chemo caps for a cousin-in-law – one was brown and one was black with sequins (so she’d have “evening hair”) – here’s a pic of me modeling the brown one:

fun fur hat in brown

So with all that done, I have started spinning again….although I find I cannot spin for hours like I used to. I’ll have to work up to that again. In the meantime, I’ve been spinning an hour or two at a time in the evenings, and yesterday I took a break to knit myself the Mind’s Eye Yarns free Waffle Stitch Hat pattern, so I could finally have a hat for myself:

my hat!

It was super-quick to knit, and I love it!
It was very important that I write my previous post when I did – Wed 25 July – because the very next day, of the fun I had, but I’d also like to highlight the knitting I did.

I started knitting a Color Affection shawl, in some Novita Polku that I bought in Finland in May. I started the shawl the first day, which was mostly lounging around while we were in the port of Boston (where we all embarked) and then while the cruise ship was traveling. I continued the shawl on Friday 27 July, and then on Saturday 28 July we landed in the port of St. John’s, New Brunswick. I chose to take a bus to Fredericton, to see the city hall, learn some history, and visit Yarns on York to meet local knitters and take a class on Newfoundland Mittens, aka “Newfie Mitts”. I got a bit done, but I believe I will rip out what I’ve done, make it smaller, and do the “windows” in the multicolored black and the background/wrists in the green. Still, here’s the progress shot, even though this will be frogged later:

On Sunday, I chose to do one of the two classes offered at The Loop in Halifax. The class I chose was one on how to do thrummed mittens, and the instructor Mimi was amazing. I did not take the class for the Bermuda Scarf/shawl, but I heard that the 2nd class was not as great, probably due to the first class running very late and Mimi running out of steam (teaching 2 classes in one day is tough, and who knows if she even had time to eat!). Given that, I’m glad I did not stay for the 2nd class (I did buy the pattern and yarn for it, so I can make the shawl), and instead did a 10-mile bicycle tour of Halifax. At any rate, I did enjoy working on the thrummed mittens, and here is my progress (I haven’t done anything with it since that weekend):

And the inside looks like this:

I learned lots of great tips from Mimi, like using a wool with a lot of lanolin in it, so it’s “sticky” and holds the thrums in better.

There was a lot of knitting that weekend, and in the few weeks that followed. This past week I finished knitting Tony’s scarf, after having to spin more yarn and buy more on Cape Cod while helping a friend do the Pan-Mass Challenge at the beginning of August. I still have to finish the scarf by weaving in the ends and blocking it, but it’s finally the right length, and Tony will be able to use it this coming fall/winter.

I also finished the scarf I was weaving (the June Spunky Eclectic weaving club), but I still need to block it before taking a picture of it. A new weaving club for August is on its way, so I’ll have something new to warp soon.

I am not going on a plane until the end of September, and my next travel is scheduled for mid-September, around Rosh Hashanah – I will be going to the New York City area for 2 weekends (coming back to Boston for a wedding in between). I hope to finish the Color Affection Shawl soon, and get pictures of both it and the woven scarf before long.
It was very important that I write my previous post when I did – Wed 25 July – because the very next day, of the fun I had, but I’d also like to highlight the knitting I did.

I started knitting a Color Affection shawl, in some Novita Polku that I bought in Finland in May. I started the shawl the first day, which was mostly lounging around while we were in the port of Boston (where we all embarked) and then while the cruise ship was traveling. I continued the shawl on Friday 27 July, and then on Saturday 28 July we landed in the port of St. John’s, New Brunswick. I chose to take a bus to Fredericton, to see the city hall, learn some history, and visit Yarns on York to meet local knitters and take a class on Newfoundland Mittens, aka “Newfie Mitts”. I got a bit done, but I believe I will rip out what I’ve done, make it smaller, and do the “windows” in the multicolored black and the background/wrists in the green. Still, here’s the progress shot, even though this will be frogged later:

On Sunday, I chose to do one of the two classes offered at The Loop in Halifax. The class I chose was one on how to do thrummed mittens, and the instructor Mimi was amazing. I did not take the class for the Bermuda Scarf/shawl, but I heard that the 2nd class was not as great, probably due to the first class running very late and Mimi running out of steam (teaching 2 classes in one day is tough, and who knows if she even had time to eat!). Given that, I’m glad I did not stay for the 2nd class (I did buy the pattern and yarn for it, so I can make the shawl), and instead did a 10-mile bicycle tour of Halifax. At any rate, I did enjoy working on the thrummed mittens, and here is my progress (I haven’t done anything with it since that weekend):

And the inside looks like this:

I learned lots of great tips from Mimi, like using a wool with a lot of lanolin in it, so it’s “sticky” and holds the thrums in better.

There was a lot of knitting that weekend, and in the few weeks that followed. This past week I finished knitting Tony’s scarf, after having to spin more yarn and buy more on Cape Cod while helping a friend do the Pan-Mass Challenge at the beginning of August. I still have to finish the scarf by weaving in the ends and blocking it, but it’s finally the right length, and Tony will be able to use it this coming fall/winter.

I also finished the scarf I was weaving (the June Spunky Eclectic weaving club), but I still need to block it before taking a picture of it. A new weaving club for August is on its way, so I’ll have something new to warp soon.

I am not going on a plane until the end of September, and my next travel is scheduled for mid-September, around Rosh Hashanah – I will be going to the New York City area for 2 weekends (coming back to Boston for a wedding in between). I hope to finish the Color Affection Shawl soon, and get pictures of
So, online I mentioned in the last post that I had finished 2 objects – side effects and the June Spunky Eclectic Weaving Club, which I opted to do a table runner. It was my first experience with using a pick-up stick. I’m happy with how both came out (especially after ironing the scarf…I don’t even iron clothes!).

Crooked Little Tony scarf

Pick-up-sticks table runner

I’m thrilled with how drapey the table runner is. My only problem is that I have no idea what to do with it – it’s 33 inches by 22 inches. It’s too short for a scarf, but I don’t have an appropriate table to use it on. It’s a superwash merino/bamboo/viscose blend. Folded over a towel bar it’d make a very long kitchen or guest towel, I guess?

Any ideas?
So, , which I opted to do a table runner. It was my first experience with using a pick-up stick. I’m happy with how both came out (especially after ironing the scarf…I don’t even iron clothes!).

Crooked Little Tony scarf

Pick-up-sticks table runner

I’m thrilled with how drapey the table runner is. My only problem is that I have no idea what to do with it – it’s 33 inches by 22 inches. It’s too short for a scarf, but I don’t have an appropriate table to use it on. It’s a superwash merino/bamboo/viscose blend.
I am so excited about tonight’s Common Cod Fiber Guild Meeting featuring Pam Parmal of the Boston Museum of Fine Arts talking about the collection strategy for textiles and fashion. And since I last wrote, gonorrhea I have finished a few objects…..

The first is another Hoot Cardigan, this time made out of Universal Yarns Supreme Cotton Batik, that I picked up in Charlotte, North Carolina earlier this year. I love the Supreme Cotton line from Universal yarns, because it is super soft. Unfortunately, I have only been able to find it in LYS in North Carolina….I hear that is changing soon, though! Here’s the cardigan, made for a friend of mine who just had his first son:

And then there’s the August Weaving Club from Spunky Eclectic – cotton dishcloths! I did not follow the pattern; instead I tried out a herringbone/pinwheel pattern. It came out wonderfully!

I ended up making 2 towels, one a bit shorter because I ran out of warp, but here’s the shorter one hanging from a peg next to our sink (please excuse the dirty dishes and Guinness cans to be rinsed).

The bigger one is in constant use as Tony’s “potato cozy”. That’s not a euphemism, Tony eats a baked potato like one would eat an apple, whole and uncut. Because it’s hot, he uses a towel wrapped around it to hold it.

And finally, the pièce de résistance. This is a Color Affection Shawl that I made from 3 different skeins of Novita’s Polku yarn, which I acquired in Finland earlier this year.

Here’s a close-up shot of the ‘center’ of this assymmetrical shawl:

And a little zoomed out:

Here’s the full-size shot:

I also spun up a “fractal 3-ply” which I will write about next time.
I am so excited about tonight’s Common Cod Fiber Guild Meeting featuring Pam Parmal of the Boston Museum of Fine Arts talking about the collection strategy for textiles and fashion. And since I last wrote, condom I have finished a few objects…..

The first is another Hoot Cardigan, information pills this time made out of

And then there’s the August

The bigger one is in constant use as Tony’s “potato cozy”. That’s not a euphemism, Tony eats a baked potato like one would eat an apple, whole and uncut. Because it’s hot, he uses a towel wrapped around it to hold it.

And finally, the pièce de résistance. This is a Color Affection Shawl that I made from 3 different skeins of

And a little zoomed out:

Here’s the full-size shot:

After
I am so excited about tonight’s
Common Cod Fiber Guild Meeting featuring Pam Parmal of the Boston Museum of Fine Arts talking about the collection strategy for textiles and fashion. And since I last wrote, order I have finished a few objects…..

The first is another Hoot Cardigan, find this time made out of

And then there’s the August

The bigger one is in constant use as Tony’s “potato cozy”. That’s not a euphemism, Tony eats a baked potato like one would eat an apple, whole and uncut. Because it’s hot, he uses a towel wrapped around it to hold it.

And finally, the pièce de résistance. This is a Color Affection Shawl that I made from 3 different skeins of

And a little zoomed out:

Here’s the full-size shot:

I also spun up a “fractal 3-ply” which I will write about next time.
I am so excited about tonight’s
Common Cod Fiber Guild Meeting featuring Pam Parmal of the Boston Museum of Fine Arts talking about the collection strategy for textiles and fashion. And since I last wrote, more about I have finished a few objects…..

The first is another Hoot Cardigan, this time made out of Universal Yarns Supreme Cotton Batik, that I picked up in Charlotte, North Carolina earlier this year. I love the Supreme Cotton line from Universal yarns, because it is super soft. Unfortunately, I have only been able to find it in LYS in North Carolina….I hear that is changing soon, though! Here’s the cardigan, made for a friend of mine who just had his first son:

And then there’s the August Weaving Club from Spunky Eclectic – cotton dishcloths! I did not follow the pattern; instead I tried out a herringbone/pinwheel pattern. It came out wonderfully!

I ended up making 2 towels, one a bit shorter because I ran out of warp, but here’s the shorter one hanging from a peg next to our sink (please excuse the dirty dishes and Guinness cans to be rinsed).

The bigger one is in constant use as Tony’s “potato cozy”. That’s not a euphemism, Tony eats a baked potato like one would eat an apple, whole and uncut. Because it’s hot, he uses a towel wrapped around it to hold it.

And finally, the pièce de résistance. This is a Color Affection Shawl that I made from 3 different skeins of

And a little zoomed out:

Here’s the full-size shot:

I also spun up a “fractal 3-ply” which I will write about next time.
Buenos Aires has a span of a few blocks,
hospital not too far from the Malabia metro station* where there are many yarn shops, phthisiatrician I counted 15, and went into 11 of them before I had to stop. The shops are on Ave. Scalabrini Ortiz just southwest of Ave. Cordoba, towards Ave. Correintes. The Malabia metro station is on the corner of Correintes and Scalabrini Ortiz, which is 1 km away from the corner of Cordoba and Corrientes, and about half that until you see your first yarn shop. There was a small bit of yarn bombing between two of the stores:

Yarn shopping in Buenos Aires is quite different from what I’m used to in the States. The stores all look like this:

The yarn is beautiful, and well-organized, but there’s no signs as to what the yarn is made up of, how much it costs nor the gauge of the yarn. In addition, you’re not supposed to take the yarn out of the bins. If you look at the bottom right of that picture, you’ll see some white yarn and blue yarn that is actually sitting on top of a counter. That counter separates you from the wall, and there are people behind the counter who can help you get what you want.

So it’s very different from the experience I’m used to. I got the feeling that a lot of people knew exactly what they wanted to buy, or walked in and would say “do you have anything made of wool?” I was feeling a bit shy due to the language barrier, so I picked up a Spanish phrase: “solamente mirando” – it means “Just looking”. The people are friendly and willing to help, but I like the yarn buying process to be a solo activity.

There were 2 exceptions to the fact that most stores don’t give any information about their items.: Milana hilados and Yanabey. Milana hilados had tags like this near most of their yarn:

Note that that’s in Argentinian pesos, and at the time, this was less than USD $10 per 100g. Another thing to note is the price is per 100g, not per hank of yarn. You’d ask a sales associate to take the yarn down for you and they’d weigh it and ask you if that was OK (kind of like at the deli counter). Then they give you a slip of paper and you take it to a cash register, where you’re usually helped by someone else. Another interesting thing is that the stores seemed to be staffed by about half men, half women, which is very different from yarn stores in the States, which are probably about 90% staffed by women.

I bought 3 hanks of yarn there, for about $25:

Yanabey had signs like this:

These prices are still in Argentinian pesos, but they’re in kilos. So these prices are $171 for 1 kilo, which is $17.10 for 100g. This is a wall of “seda vegetal”, or “vegetable silk“. By the way, that’s about USD $35 per kilo. So I bought 6 skeins, which was just over a kilo, because the tree which this comes from (ceiba speciosa, or “silk floss tree”) is native to South America, and I haven’t seen “vegetable silk” in the US.

A lot of the stores have the recycled t-shirt yarn, and I bought some at Arte Natural:

BUTTONS!!!

I was thinking I might make a purse from the yarn, like this:

That purse is crocheted, but I’m sure I can come up with a knitted version.

Here’s what I bought from that store:

Here’s a Spanish primer for some important words:
cachemira – cashmere
acrílico – acrylic
lana – wool
seda – silk
alpaca – alpaca
hilo – yarn (plural: hilados)
Also, I found out that cashmerillo is just an acrylic yarn that’s very soft. Don’t be fooled by price, some of the acrylic yarns are *very* expensive, even more expensive than the wool.

I was very excited by the prospect of all these yarn stores, and after these three purchases I was done, and passed by 4 other yarn stores that I didn’t even walk into. In addition, there were at least 2 weaving stores, and another 2 fabric stores. Only one of the yarn stores had fiber to spin, and it looked like combed top, and was somewhat expensive (by US standards).

All in all, I was extremely satisfied by taking a few hours to shop for yarn, but I found the experience quite different from what I’m used to.

* I was instructed by a friend who had visited Buenos Aires to take a taxi to the corner of X and Y. However, I enjoy walking around and public transit, so I noticed the subway stop was not far, and decided to walk a few blocks. To those who are considering what to do, a taxi would have cost about 20 pesos (about USD $5) each way. The subway costs $5 for two rides, but of course is not door to door. Another thing to note about the subway is that it is not the most modern system:

And you will get plenty of people trying to make money – some play music, which you may be used to from other subway systems. Others will go around a subway car, handing out products, and then go around and either collect the product back or collect money. I was handed tissues and Disney books – or at least, they attempted to hand stuff to me, and I refused. It helped that I had knitting in my hands, but I saw them just place stuff on people’s laps if their hands were busy, so don’t just look away, make sure you actually refuse by shaking your head.

Note: I hope this article is helpful! Due to spam reasons, all articles on this site have comments disabled after a short time. If you want to leave feedback, you can tweet @sheeri or e-mail me at awfief at gmail dot com. (replace “at” with @ and
When I think of gradient spinning, visit I think of starting with “gradient-dyed fiber” such as Fiber Optics’ gradient collection. Sadly, I have not yet gotten my hands on on of them yet. However, a fractal 3-ply attempt last year gave me the push to try a kind of gradient spinning.

I got a great batt from Fiber Stash back in April at the Wild and Woolly Weekend in Vermont. The 3.7 oz batt is 98% Corriedale, 2% twinkle, in a blue-purple, light blue, and black – here it is, unrolled:

The first step was to divide it into three sections, for a 3-ply, so that each section had each of the three colors. I then split 2 of the sections into even thirds, based on the colors, and the last section was split into sixths based on colors. I split the sections based on weight.

The idea is a fractal ply, but because I am doing a 3-ply, I will do it so that 2 of the sections are the same color, and a third is changing. The middle is the part divided into six:

I finally finished spinning, plying, skeining and washing, and here’s what the finished result looks like:

I think a shawl is in order to show off the lovely and subtle color changes. This produced 284 yards of yarn at 12 wpi. I have an identical batt which I will spin the same way, and will knit with all of it to make a good-sized shawl.

When I think of gradient spinning, buy more about I think of starting with “gradient-dyed fiber” such as Fiber Optics’ gradient collection. Sadly, I have not yet gotten my hands on on of them yet. However, a fractal 3-ply attempt last year gave me the push to try a kind of gradient spinning.

I got a great batt from Fiber Stash back in April at the Wild and Woolly Weekend in Vermont. The 3.7 oz batt is 98% Corriedale, 2% twinkle, in a blue-purple, light blue, and black – here it is, unrolled:

The first step was to divide it into three sections, for a 3-ply, so that each section had each of the three colors. I then split 2 of the sections into even thirds, based on the colors, and the last section was split into sixths based on colors. The idea is a fractal ply, but because I am doing a 3-ply, I will do it so that 2 of the sections are the same color, and a third is changing. The middle is the part divided into six:

I finally finished spinning, plying, skeining and washing, and here’s what the finished result looks like:

I think a shawl is in order to show off the lovely color changes. This produced 284 yards of yarn at 12 wpi. I have an identical batt which I will spin the same way

Edited October 29, medicine 2012 – Unfortunately, ampoule Cat Bordhi has asked me to take the PDF instructions down. However, troche the same exact information is at the video I link to below, so you can still find the information you need.

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, 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.

I taught this at FiberCamp this past weekend, view 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, 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.
It’s been a while since I last wrote. 2 months and 2 weeks, not at all! There has been a lot of travel, and not a ton of knitting…..but there has been some.

The first adventure I had after the last post was completely unexpected. I was at a conference in St. Paul, Minnesota, and I was reading a blog post by Stephanie Pearl McPhee where she mentioned flying from California to Minnesota. At first I thought “how cool, soon I’ll be flying from St. Paul to California!” and then I wondered, “will we overlap in the Twin Cities?” (If you don’t know, those cities border each other.)

The answer, my friends, is yes, and this happened at Steven Be:
Stephanie blesses my sock

Steven was absolutely fabulous and was in full force that day. The yarn shop has yarn and knitted things everywhere. I loved it from a chaotic good perspective. I bought some sock yarn and some sock needles, and immediately started in on a sock. And I had Stephanie sign some books, of course.

The next adventure I had was when I found the Mass Ave Knit Shop in Indianapolis. It was about half a mile from the hotel I was staying at, and I spent several hours there on a Saturday before leaving for the airport. I picked up some plain white yarn (purpose to be revealed later) and knit for several hours….though at this point I cannot remember what I was knitting! For arguments’ sake, let’s say I was knitting a pattern from Jeri, a fellow Common Cod Fiber Guild member, which she showed at Show and Tell during our September meeting. The pattern is called “Vestboro”, and this is how far I got as of mid-October, so it’s a pretty good bet to say that’s what I was working on:

Vestboro center

The knit shop was large, and had tons of yarn! Due to all my travel this year, I have not been knitting and spinning as much as I used to. Last November I stopped being able to keep up with my monthly fiber club, and I stayed behind all year. Suffice it to say, I am overflowing with yarn and fiber….and so is my fiber room. So I am limiting my souvenir yarn…for now.

The knit shop was full of women knitting, and wonderful local donuts, and instead of souvenir yarn I bought myself an accordion-type box to store my dpns in by size. It was a great place to spend several hours knitting.

I attended Rhinebeck aka NY Sheep & Wool, where I acquired a Bernina 1230 sewing machine, circa 1989–1998. I haven’t yet started playing with it, as I have been WAY too busy with other things – Halloween crafts, holiday gift knitting, and test knitting! At Rhinebeck I took 2 classes – a spinning class with Abby Franquemont (I can cross that off the bucket list now!) and a dyeing class with Gail Callahan, the Kangaroo Dyer, in which I learned a ton about dyeing and made this beautiful rainbow:

my rainbow of dyeing

I did not knit for much of September and October because I was doing other crafty things – specifically, I was hand-sewing my Halloween costume – Sally from the Nightmare Before Christmas. It came out better than I expected, which was great, because it was for an awesome wedding:

Julia as a nurse and me as Sally, from the Nightmare Before Christmas

And yes, I also knit the wig.

In November I was test knitting. And test knitting. And test knitting. I will show you pictures once they are public, but for now, things remain secret.

I took a mitten class at Mind’s Eye Yarns and still have not finished knitting the first mitten, much less the second mitten. But I learned a few good tips along the way and am excited to use them.

Remember that white yarn I bought in Indianapolis? It was for some classes with Lucy Neatby, who is chock-full of amazing tips and tricks for knitting. I filled out a wishlist with stuff I want, from patterns to DVDs. Lucy is fun, smart and easy to learn from. I took three classes with her – buttonholes, finishing, and socks. Her handouts are invaluable. I took time off work and spent a pretty penny to learn from Lucy, and I would do it again in a heartbeat. She’s THAT good.

And then it was December…..the test knitting was finally finished, and then it was time to knit gifts! I knit hats for my brother-in-law and his wife (in grey and red Ushya yarn), and I did not, sadly, take any pictures of those hats. I also knit a hat for my mother-in-law in green, and again, no pictures. I do have pictures of the tiny slightly felted purse I made for my aunt-in-law (using handspun Portuguese Merino in the “A Bug’s Life” colorway) and the DNA scarf I made for my father-in-law out of Kauni (that I bought while in Halifax on my knitting cruise in July):

Felted wallet

DNA Scarf

And then during and after Christmas I knit 2 chemo caps for a cousin-in-law – one was brown and one was black with sequins (so she’d have “evening hair”) – here’s a pic of me modeling the brown one:

fun fur hat in brown

So with all that done, I have started spinning again….although I find I cannot spin for hours like I used to. I’ll have to work up to that again. In the meantime, I’ve been spinning an hour or two at a time in the evenings, and yesterday I took a break to knit myself the Mind’s Eye Yarns free Waffle Stitch Hat pattern, so I could finally have a hat for myself:

my hat!

It was super-quick to knit, and I love it!
It’s been a while since I last wrote. 2 months and 2 weeks, not at all! There has been a lot of travel, and not a ton of knitting…..but there has been some.

The first adventure I had was when I found the Common Cod Fiber Guild member, which she showed at Show and Tell during our September meeting. The pattern is called “Vestboro”, and this is how far I got as of mid-October, so it’s a pretty good bet to say that’s what I was working on:

Vestboro center

The knit shop was large, and had tons of yarn! Due to all my travel this year, I have not been knitting and spinning as much as I used to. Last November I stopped being able to keep up with my monthly fiber club, and I stayed behind all year. Suffice it to say, I am overflowing with yarn and fiber….and so is my fiber room. So I am limiting my souvenir yarn…for now.

The knit shop was full of women knitting, and wonderful local donuts, and instead of souvenir yarn I bought myself an accordion-type box to store my dpns in by size. It was a great place to spend several hours knitting.

I did
It was very important that I write my previous post when I did – Wed 25 July – because the very next day, of the fun I had, but I’d also like to highlight the knitting I did.

I started knitting a Color Affection shawl, in some Novita Polku that I bought in Finland in May. I started the shawl the first day, which was mostly lounging around while we were in the port of Boston (where we all embarked) and then while the cruise ship was traveling. I continued the shawl on Friday 27 July, and then on Saturday 28 July we landed in the port of St. John’s, New Brunswick. I chose to take a bus to Fredericton, to see the city hall, learn some history, and visit Yarns on York to meet local knitters and take a class on Newfoundland Mittens, aka “Newfie Mitts”. I got a bit done, but I believe I will rip out what I’ve done, make it smaller, and do the “windows” in the multicolored black and the background/wrists in the green. Still, here’s the progress shot, even though this will be frogged later:

On Sunday, I chose to do one of the two classes offered at The Loop in Halifax. The class I chose was one on how to do thrummed mittens, and the instructor Mimi was amazing. I did not take the class for the Bermuda Scarf/shawl, but I heard that the 2nd class was not as great, probably due to the first class running very late and Mimi running out of steam (teaching 2 classes in one day is tough, and who knows if she even had time to eat!). Given that, I’m glad I did not stay for the 2nd class (I did buy the pattern and yarn for it, so I can make the shawl), and instead did a 10-mile bicycle tour of Halifax. At any rate, I did enjoy working on the thrummed mittens, and here is my progress (I haven’t done anything with it since that weekend):

And the inside looks like this:

I learned lots of great tips from Mimi, like using a wool with a lot of lanolin in it, so it’s “sticky” and holds the thrums in better.

There was a lot of knitting that weekend, and in the few weeks that followed. This past week I finished knitting Tony’s scarf, after having to spin more yarn and buy more on Cape Cod while helping a friend do the Pan-Mass Challenge at the beginning of August. I still have to finish the scarf by weaving in the ends and blocking it, but it’s finally the right length, and Tony will be able to use it this coming fall/winter.

I also finished the scarf I was weaving (the June Spunky Eclectic weaving club), but I still need to block it before taking a picture of it. A new weaving club for August is on its way, so I’ll have something new to warp soon.

I am not going on a plane until the end of September, and my next travel is scheduled for mid-September, around Rosh Hashanah – I will be going to the New York City area for 2 weekends (coming back to Boston for a wedding in between). I hope to finish the Color Affection Shawl soon, and get pictures of both it and the woven scarf before long.
It was very important that I write my previous post when I did – Wed 25 July – because the very next day, of the fun I had, but I’d also like to highlight the knitting I did.

I started knitting a Color Affection shawl, in some Novita Polku that I bought in Finland in May. I started the shawl the first day, which was mostly lounging around while we were in the port of Boston (where we all embarked) and then while the cruise ship was traveling. I continued the shawl on Friday 27 July, and then on Saturday 28 July we landed in the port of St. John’s, New Brunswick. I chose to take a bus to Fredericton, to see the city hall, learn some history, and visit Yarns on York to meet local knitters and take a class on Newfoundland Mittens, aka “Newfie Mitts”. I got a bit done, but I believe I will rip out what I’ve done, make it smaller, and do the “windows” in the multicolored black and the background/wrists in the green. Still, here’s the progress shot, even though this will be frogged later:

On Sunday, I chose to do one of the two classes offered at The Loop in Halifax. The class I chose was one on how to do thrummed mittens, and the instructor Mimi was amazing. I did not take the class for the Bermuda Scarf/shawl, but I heard that the 2nd class was not as great, probably due to the first class running very late and Mimi running out of steam (teaching 2 classes in one day is tough, and who knows if she even had time to eat!). Given that, I’m glad I did not stay for the 2nd class (I did buy the pattern and yarn for it, so I can make the shawl), and instead did a 10-mile bicycle tour of Halifax. At any rate, I did enjoy working on the thrummed mittens, and here is my progress (I haven’t done anything with it since that weekend):

And the inside looks like this:

I learned lots of great tips from Mimi, like using a wool with a lot of lanolin in it, so it’s “sticky” and holds the thrums in better.

There was a lot of knitting that weekend, and in the few weeks that followed. This past week I finished knitting Tony’s scarf, after having to spin more yarn and buy more on Cape Cod while helping a friend do the Pan-Mass Challenge at the beginning of August. I still have to finish the scarf by weaving in the ends and blocking it, but it’s finally the right length, and Tony will be able to use it this coming fall/winter.

I also finished the scarf I was weaving (the June Spunky Eclectic weaving club), but I still need to block it before taking a picture of it. A new weaving club for August is on its way, so I’ll have something new to warp soon.

I am not going on a plane until the end of September, and my next travel is scheduled for mid-September, around Rosh Hashanah – I will be going to the New York City area for 2 weekends (coming back to Boston for a wedding in between). I hope to finish the Color Affection Shawl soon, and get pictures of
So, online I mentioned in the last post that I had finished 2 objects – side effects and the June Spunky Eclectic Weaving Club, which I opted to do a table runner. It was my first experience with using a pick-up stick. I’m happy with how both came out (especially after ironing the scarf…I don’t even iron clothes!).

Crooked Little Tony scarf

Pick-up-sticks table runner

I’m thrilled with how drapey the table runner is. My only problem is that I have no idea what to do with it – it’s 33 inches by 22 inches. It’s too short for a scarf, but I don’t have an appropriate table to use it on. It’s a superwash merino/bamboo/viscose blend. Folded over a towel bar it’d make a very long kitchen or guest towel, I guess?

Any ideas?
So, , which I opted to do a table runner. It was my first experience with using a pick-up stick. I’m happy with how both came out (especially after ironing the scarf…I don’t even iron clothes!).

Crooked Little Tony scarf

Pick-up-sticks table runner

I’m thrilled with how drapey the table runner is. My only problem is that I have no idea what to do with it – it’s 33 inches by 22 inches. It’s too short for a scarf, but I don’t have an appropriate table to use it on. It’s a superwash merino/bamboo/viscose blend.
I am so excited about tonight’s Common Cod Fiber Guild Meeting featuring Pam Parmal of the Boston Museum of Fine Arts talking about the collection strategy for textiles and fashion. And since I last wrote, gonorrhea I have finished a few objects…..

The first is another Hoot Cardigan, this time made out of Universal Yarns Supreme Cotton Batik, that I picked up in Charlotte, North Carolina earlier this year. I love the Supreme Cotton line from Universal yarns, because it is super soft. Unfortunately, I have only been able to find it in LYS in North Carolina….I hear that is changing soon, though! Here’s the cardigan, made for a friend of mine who just had his first son:

And then there’s the August Weaving Club from Spunky Eclectic – cotton dishcloths! I did not follow the pattern; instead I tried out a herringbone/pinwheel pattern. It came out wonderfully!

I ended up making 2 towels, one a bit shorter because I ran out of warp, but here’s the shorter one hanging from a peg next to our sink (please excuse the dirty dishes and Guinness cans to be rinsed).

The bigger one is in constant use as Tony’s “potato cozy”. That’s not a euphemism, Tony eats a baked potato like one would eat an apple, whole and uncut. Because it’s hot, he uses a towel wrapped around it to hold it.

And finally, the pièce de résistance. This is a Color Affection Shawl that I made from 3 different skeins of Novita’s Polku yarn, which I acquired in Finland earlier this year.

Here’s a close-up shot of the ‘center’ of this assymmetrical shawl:

And a little zoomed out:

Here’s the full-size shot:

I also spun up a “fractal 3-ply” which I will write about next time.
I am so excited about tonight’s Common Cod Fiber Guild Meeting featuring Pam Parmal of the Boston Museum of Fine Arts talking about the collection strategy for textiles and fashion. And since I last wrote, condom I have finished a few objects…..

The first is another Hoot Cardigan, information pills this time made out of

And then there’s the August

The bigger one is in constant use as Tony’s “potato cozy”. That’s not a euphemism, Tony eats a baked potato like one would eat an apple, whole and uncut. Because it’s hot, he uses a towel wrapped around it to hold it.

And finally, the pièce de résistance. This is a Color Affection Shawl that I made from 3 different skeins of

And a little zoomed out:

Here’s the full-size shot:

After
I am so excited about tonight’s
Common Cod Fiber Guild Meeting featuring Pam Parmal of the Boston Museum of Fine Arts talking about the collection strategy for textiles and fashion. And since I last wrote, order I have finished a few objects…..

The first is another Hoot Cardigan, find this time made out of

And then there’s the August

The bigger one is in constant use as Tony’s “potato cozy”. That’s not a euphemism, Tony eats a baked potato like one would eat an apple, whole and uncut. Because it’s hot, he uses a towel wrapped around it to hold it.

And finally, the pièce de résistance. This is a Color Affection Shawl that I made from 3 different skeins of

And a little zoomed out:

Here’s the full-size shot:

I also spun up a “fractal 3-ply” which I will write about next time.
I am so excited about tonight’s
Common Cod Fiber Guild Meeting featuring Pam Parmal of the Boston Museum of Fine Arts talking about the collection strategy for textiles and fashion. And since I last wrote, more about I have finished a few objects…..

The first is another Hoot Cardigan, this time made out of Universal Yarns Supreme Cotton Batik, that I picked up in Charlotte, North Carolina earlier this year. I love the Supreme Cotton line from Universal yarns, because it is super soft. Unfortunately, I have only been able to find it in LYS in North Carolina….I hear that is changing soon, though! Here’s the cardigan, made for a friend of mine who just had his first son:

And then there’s the August Weaving Club from Spunky Eclectic – cotton dishcloths! I did not follow the pattern; instead I tried out a herringbone/pinwheel pattern. It came out wonderfully!

I ended up making 2 towels, one a bit shorter because I ran out of warp, but here’s the shorter one hanging from a peg next to our sink (please excuse the dirty dishes and Guinness cans to be rinsed).

The bigger one is in constant use as Tony’s “potato cozy”. That’s not a euphemism, Tony eats a baked potato like one would eat an apple, whole and uncut. Because it’s hot, he uses a towel wrapped around it to hold it.

And finally, the pièce de résistance. This is a Color Affection Shawl that I made from 3 different skeins of

And a little zoomed out:

Here’s the full-size shot:

I also spun up a “fractal 3-ply” which I will write about next time.
Buenos Aires has a span of a few blocks,
hospital not too far from the Malabia metro station* where there are many yarn shops, phthisiatrician I counted 15, and went into 11 of them before I had to stop. The shops are on Ave. Scalabrini Ortiz just southwest of Ave. Cordoba, towards Ave. Correintes. The Malabia metro station is on the corner of Correintes and Scalabrini Ortiz, which is 1 km away from the corner of Cordoba and Corrientes, and about half that until you see your first yarn shop. There was a small bit of yarn bombing between two of the stores:

Yarn shopping in Buenos Aires is quite different from what I’m used to in the States. The stores all look like this:

The yarn is beautiful, and well-organized, but there’s no signs as to what the yarn is made up of, how much it costs nor the gauge of the yarn. In addition, you’re not supposed to take the yarn out of the bins. If you look at the bottom right of that picture, you’ll see some white yarn and blue yarn that is actually sitting on top of a counter. That counter separates you from the wall, and there are people behind the counter who can help you get what you want.

So it’s very different from the experience I’m used to. I got the feeling that a lot of people knew exactly what they wanted to buy, or walked in and would say “do you have anything made of wool?” I was feeling a bit shy due to the language barrier, so I picked up a Spanish phrase: “solamente mirando” – it means “Just looking”. The people are friendly and willing to help, but I like the yarn buying process to be a solo activity.

There were 2 exceptions to the fact that most stores don’t give any information about their items.: Milana hilados and Yanabey. Milana hilados had tags like this near most of their yarn:

Note that that’s in Argentinian pesos, and at the time, this was less than USD $10 per 100g. Another thing to note is the price is per 100g, not per hank of yarn. You’d ask a sales associate to take the yarn down for you and they’d weigh it and ask you if that was OK (kind of like at the deli counter). Then they give you a slip of paper and you take it to a cash register, where you’re usually helped by someone else. Another interesting thing is that the stores seemed to be staffed by about half men, half women, which is very different from yarn stores in the States, which are probably about 90% staffed by women.

I bought 3 hanks of yarn there, for about $25:

Yanabey had signs like this:

These prices are still in Argentinian pesos, but they’re in kilos. So these prices are $171 for 1 kilo, which is $17.10 for 100g. This is a wall of “seda vegetal”, or “vegetable silk“. By the way, that’s about USD $35 per kilo. So I bought 6 skeins, which was just over a kilo, because the tree which this comes from (ceiba speciosa, or “silk floss tree”) is native to South America, and I haven’t seen “vegetable silk” in the US.

A lot of the stores have the recycled t-shirt yarn, and I bought some at Arte Natural:

BUTTONS!!!

I was thinking I might make a purse from the yarn, like this:

That purse is crocheted, but I’m sure I can come up with a knitted version.

Here’s what I bought from that store:

Here’s a Spanish primer for some important words:
cachemira – cashmere
acrílico – acrylic
lana – wool
seda – silk
alpaca – alpaca
hilo – yarn (plural: hilados)
Also, I found out that cashmerillo is just an acrylic yarn that’s very soft. Don’t be fooled by price, some of the acrylic yarns are *very* expensive, even more expensive than the wool.

I was very excited by the prospect of all these yarn stores, and after these three purchases I was done, and passed by 4 other yarn stores that I didn’t even walk into. In addition, there were at least 2 weaving stores, and another 2 fabric stores. Only one of the yarn stores had fiber to spin, and it looked like combed top, and was somewhat expensive (by US standards).

All in all, I was extremely satisfied by taking a few hours to shop for yarn, but I found the experience quite different from what I’m used to.

* I was instructed by a friend who had visited Buenos Aires to take a taxi to the corner of X and Y. However, I enjoy walking around and public transit, so I noticed the subway stop was not far, and decided to walk a few blocks. To those who are considering what to do, a taxi would have cost about 20 pesos (about USD $5) each way. The subway costs $5 for two rides, but of course is not door to door. Another thing to note about the subway is that it is not the most modern system:

And you will get plenty of people trying to make money – some play music, which you may be used to from other subway systems. Others will go around a subway car, handing out products, and then go around and either collect the product back or collect money. I was handed tissues and Disney books – or at least, they attempted to hand stuff to me, and I refused. It helped that I had knitting in my hands, but I saw them just place stuff on people’s laps if their hands were busy, so don’t just look away, make sure you actually refuse by shaking your head.

Note: I hope this article is helpful! Due to spam reasons, all articles on this site have comments disabled after a short time. If you want to leave feedback, you can tweet @sheeri or e-mail me at awfief at gmail dot com. (replace “at” with @ and
When I think of gradient spinning, visit I think of starting with “gradient-dyed fiber” such as Fiber Optics’ gradient collection. Sadly, I have not yet gotten my hands on on of them yet. However, a fractal 3-ply attempt last year gave me the push to try a kind of gradient spinning.

I got a great batt from Fiber Stash back in April at the Wild and Woolly Weekend in Vermont. The 3.7 oz batt is 98% Corriedale, 2% twinkle, in a blue-purple, light blue, and black – here it is, unrolled:

The first step was to divide it into three sections, for a 3-ply, so that each section had each of the three colors. I then split 2 of the sections into even thirds, based on the colors, and the last section was split into sixths based on colors. I split the sections based on weight.

The idea is a fractal ply, but because I am doing a 3-ply, I will do it so that 2 of the sections are the same color, and a third is changing. The middle is the part divided into six:

I finally finished spinning, plying, skeining and washing, and here’s what the finished result looks like:

I think a shawl is in order to show off the lovely and subtle color changes. This produced 284 yards of yarn at 12 wpi. I have an identical batt which I will spin the same way, and will knit with all of it to make a good-sized shawl.

When I think of gradient spinning, buy more about I think of starting with “gradient-dyed fiber” such as Fiber Optics’ gradient collection. Sadly, I have not yet gotten my hands on on of them yet. However, a fractal 3-ply attempt last year gave me the push to try a kind of gradient spinning.

I got a great batt from Fiber Stash back in April at the Wild and Woolly Weekend in Vermont. The 3.7 oz batt is 98% Corriedale, 2% twinkle, in a blue-purple, light blue, and black – here it is, unrolled:

The first step was to divide it into three sections, for a 3-ply, so that each section had each of the three colors. I then split 2 of the sections into even thirds, based on the colors, and the last section was split into sixths based on colors. The idea is a fractal ply, but because I am doing a 3-ply, I will do it so that 2 of the sections are the same color, and a third is changing. The middle is the part divided into six:

I finally finished spinning, plying, skeining and washing, and here’s what the finished result looks like:

I think a shawl is in order to show off the lovely color changes. This produced 284 yards of yarn at 12 wpi. I have an identical batt which I will spin the same way

Edited October 29, medicine 2012 – Unfortunately, ampoule Cat Bordhi has asked me to take the PDF instructions down. However, troche the same exact information is at the video I link to below, so you can still find the information you need.

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, 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.

I taught this at FiberCamp this past weekend, view 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, 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.
It’s been a while since I last wrote. 2 months and 2 weeks, not at all! There has been a lot of travel, and not a ton of knitting…..but there has been some.

The first adventure I had after the last post was completely unexpected. I was at a conference in St. Paul, Minnesota, and I was reading a blog post by Stephanie Pearl McPhee where she mentioned flying from California to Minnesota. At first I thought “how cool, soon I’ll be flying from St. Paul to California!” and then I wondered, “will we overlap in the Twin Cities?” (If you don’t know, those cities border each other.)

The answer, my friends, is yes, and this happened at Steven Be:
Stephanie blesses my sock

Steven was absolutely fabulous and was in full force that day. The yarn shop has yarn and knitted things everywhere. I loved it from a chaotic good perspective. I bought some sock yarn and some sock needles, and immediately started in on a sock. And I had Stephanie sign some books, of course.

The next adventure I had was when I found the Mass Ave Knit Shop in Indianapolis. It was about half a mile from the hotel I was staying at, and I spent several hours there on a Saturday before leaving for the airport. I picked up some plain white yarn (purpose to be revealed later) and knit for several hours….though at this point I cannot remember what I was knitting! For arguments’ sake, let’s say I was knitting a pattern from Jeri, a fellow Common Cod Fiber Guild member, which she showed at Show and Tell during our September meeting. The pattern is called “Vestboro”, and this is how far I got as of mid-October, so it’s a pretty good bet to say that’s what I was working on:

Vestboro center

The knit shop was large, and had tons of yarn! Due to all my travel this year, I have not been knitting and spinning as much as I used to. Last November I stopped being able to keep up with my monthly fiber club, and I stayed behind all year. Suffice it to say, I am overflowing with yarn and fiber….and so is my fiber room. So I am limiting my souvenir yarn…for now.

The knit shop was full of women knitting, and wonderful local donuts, and instead of souvenir yarn I bought myself an accordion-type box to store my dpns in by size. It was a great place to spend several hours knitting.

I attended Rhinebeck aka NY Sheep & Wool, where I acquired a Bernina 1230 sewing machine, circa 1989–1998. I haven’t yet started playing with it, as I have been WAY too busy with other things – Halloween crafts, holiday gift knitting, and test knitting! At Rhinebeck I took 2 classes – a spinning class with Abby Franquemont (I can cross that off the bucket list now!) and a dyeing class with Gail Callahan, the Kangaroo Dyer, in which I learned a ton about dyeing and made this beautiful rainbow:

my rainbow of dyeing

I did not knit for much of September and October because I was doing other crafty things – specifically, I was hand-sewing my Halloween costume – Sally from the Nightmare Before Christmas. It came out better than I expected, which was great, because it was for an awesome wedding:

Julia as a nurse and me as Sally, from the Nightmare Before Christmas

And yes, I also knit the wig.

In November I was test knitting. And test knitting. And test knitting. I will show you pictures once they are public, but for now, things remain secret.

I took a mitten class at Mind’s Eye Yarns and still have not finished knitting the first mitten, much less the second mitten. But I learned a few good tips along the way and am excited to use them.

Remember that white yarn I bought in Indianapolis? It was for some classes with Lucy Neatby, who is chock-full of amazing tips and tricks for knitting. I filled out a wishlist with stuff I want, from patterns to DVDs. Lucy is fun, smart and easy to learn from. I took three classes with her – buttonholes, finishing, and socks. Her handouts are invaluable. I took time off work and spent a pretty penny to learn from Lucy, and I would do it again in a heartbeat. She’s THAT good.

And then it was December…..the test knitting was finally finished, and then it was time to knit gifts! I knit hats for my brother-in-law and his wife (in grey and red Ushya yarn), and I did not, sadly, take any pictures of those hats. I also knit a hat for my mother-in-law in green, and again, no pictures. I do have pictures of the tiny slightly felted purse I made for my aunt-in-law (using handspun Portuguese Merino in the “A Bug’s Life” colorway) and the DNA scarf I made for my father-in-law out of Kauni (that I bought while in Halifax on my knitting cruise in July):

Felted wallet

DNA Scarf

And then during and after Christmas I knit 2 chemo caps for a cousin-in-law – one was brown and one was black with sequins (so she’d have “evening hair”) – here’s a pic of me modeling the brown one:

fun fur hat in brown

So with all that done, I have started spinning again….although I find I cannot spin for hours like I used to. I’ll have to work up to that again. In the meantime, I’ve been spinning an hour or two at a time in the evenings, and yesterday I took a break to knit myself the Mind’s Eye Yarns free Waffle Stitch Hat pattern, so I could finally have a hat for myself:

my hat!

It was super-quick to knit, and I love it!
It’s been a while since I last wrote. 2 months and 2 weeks, not at all! There has been a lot of travel, and not a ton of knitting…..but there has been some.

The first adventure I had was when I found the Common Cod Fiber Guild member, which she showed at Show and Tell during our September meeting. The pattern is called “Vestboro”, and this is how far I got as of mid-October, so it’s a pretty good bet to say that’s what I was working on:

Vestboro center

The knit shop was large, and had tons of yarn! Due to all my travel this year, I have not been knitting and spinning as much as I used to. Last November I stopped being able to keep up with my monthly fiber club, and I stayed behind all year. Suffice it to say, I am overflowing with yarn and fiber….and so is my fiber room. So I am limiting my souvenir yarn…for now.

The knit shop was full of women knitting, and wonderful local donuts, and instead of souvenir yarn I bought myself an accordion-type box to store my dpns in by size. It was a great place to spend several hours knitting.

I did
It’s been a while since I last wrote. 2 months and 2 weeks, psychotherapist to be exact. And my life has not been devoid of knitting nor crafty stuff….no, not at all! There has been a lot of travel, and not a ton of knitting…..but there has been some.

The first adventure I had after the last post was completely unexpected. I was at a conference in St. Paul, Minnesota, and I was reading a blog post by Stephanie Pearl McPhee where she mentioned flying from California to Minnesota. At first I thought “how cool, soon I’ll be flying from St. Paul to California!” and then I wondered, “will we overlap in the Twin Cities?” (If you don’t know, those cities border each other.)

The answer, my friends, is yes, and this happened at Steven Be:
Stephanie blesses my sock

Steven was absolutely fabulous and was in full force that day. The yarn shop has yarn and knitted things everywhere. I loved it from a chaotic good perspective. I bought some sock yarn and some sock needles, and immediately started in on a sock. And I had Stephanie sign some books, of course.

The next adventure I had was when I found the Common Cod Fiber Guild member, which she showed at Show and Tell during our September meeting. The pattern is called “Vestboro”, and this is how far I got as of mid-October, so it’s a pretty good bet to say that’s what I was working on:

Vestboro center

The knit shop was large, and had tons of yarn! Due to all my travel this year, I have not been knitting and spinning as much as I used to. Last November I stopped being able to keep up with my monthly fiber club, and I stayed behind all year. Suffice it to say, I am overflowing with yarn and fiber….and so is my fiber room. So I am limiting my souvenir yarn…for now.

The knit shop was full of women knitting, and wonderful local donuts, and instead of souvenir yarn I bought myself an accordion-type box to store my dpns in by size. It was a great place to spend several hours knitting.

I attended Rhinebeck aka NY Sheep & Wool, where I acquired a Bernina 1230 sewing machine, circa 1989–1998. I haven’t yet started playing with it, as I have been WAY too busy with other things – Halloween crafts, holiday gift knitting, and test knitting! At Rhinebeck I took 2 classes – a spinning class with Abby Franquemont (I can cross that off the bucket list now!) and a dyeing class with Gail Callahan, the Kangaroo Dyer, in which I learned a ton about dyeing and made this beautiful rainbow:

my rainbow of dyeing

I did not knit for much of September and October because I was doing other crafty things – specifically, I was hand-sewing my Halloween costume – Sally from the Nightmare Before Christmas. It came out better than I expected, which was great, because it was for an awesome wedding:

Julia as a nurse and me as Sally, from the Nightmare Before Christmas

And yes, I also knit the wig.

In November I was test knitting. And test knitting. And test knitting. I will show you pictures once they are public, but for now, things remain secret.

I took a mitten class at Mind’s Eye Yarns and still have not finished knitting the first mitten, much less the second mitten. But I learned a few good tips along the way and am excited to use them.

Remember that white yarn I bought in Indianapolis? It was for some classes with Lucy Neatby, who is chock-full of amazing tips and tricks for knitting. I filled out a wishlist with stuff I want, from patterns to DVDs. Lucy is fun, smart and easy to learn from. I took three classes with her – buttonholes, finishing, and socks. Her handouts are invaluable. I took time off work and spent a pretty penny to learn from Lucy, and I would do it again in a heartbeat. She’s THAT good.

And then it was December…..the test knitting was finally finished, and then it was time to knit gifts! I knit hats for my brother-in-law and his wife (in grey and red Ushya yarn), and I did not, sadly, take any pictures of those hats. I also knit a hat for my mother-in-law in green, and again, no pictures. I do have pictures of the tiny slightly felted purse I made for my aunt-in-law (using handspun Portuguese Merino in the “A Bug’s Life” colorway) and the DNA scarf I made for my father-in-law out of Kauni (that I bought while in Halifax on my knitting cruise in July):

Felted wallet

DNA Scarf

So with all that done, I have started spinning again….although I find I cannot spin for hours like I used to. I’ll have to work up to that again. In the meantime, I’ve been spinning an hour or two at a time in the evenings, and yesterday I took a break to knit myself the Mind’s Eye Yarns free Waffle Stitch Hat pattern, so I could finally have a hat for myself:

my hat!

It was super-quick to knit, and I love it!
It was very important that I write my previous post when I did – Wed 25 July – because the very next day, of the fun I had, but I’d also like to highlight the knitting I did.

I started knitting a Color Affection shawl, in some Novita Polku that I bought in Finland in May. I started the shawl the first day, which was mostly lounging around while we were in the port of Boston (where we all embarked) and then while the cruise ship was traveling. I continued the shawl on Friday 27 July, and then on Saturday 28 July we landed in the port of St. John’s, New Brunswick. I chose to take a bus to Fredericton, to see the city hall, learn some history, and visit Yarns on York to meet local knitters and take a class on Newfoundland Mittens, aka “Newfie Mitts”. I got a bit done, but I believe I will rip out what I’ve done, make it smaller, and do the “windows” in the multicolored black and the background/wrists in the green. Still, here’s the progress shot, even though this will be frogged later:

On Sunday, I chose to do one of the two classes offered at The Loop in Halifax. The class I chose was one on how to do thrummed mittens, and the instructor Mimi was amazing. I did not take the class for the Bermuda Scarf/shawl, but I heard that the 2nd class was not as great, probably due to the first class running very late and Mimi running out of steam (teaching 2 classes in one day is tough, and who knows if she even had time to eat!). Given that, I’m glad I did not stay for the 2nd class (I did buy the pattern and yarn for it, so I can make the shawl), and instead did a 10-mile bicycle tour of Halifax. At any rate, I did enjoy working on the thrummed mittens, and here is my progress (I haven’t done anything with it since that weekend):

And the inside looks like this:

I learned lots of great tips from Mimi, like using a wool with a lot of lanolin in it, so it’s “sticky” and holds the thrums in better.

There was a lot of knitting that weekend, and in the few weeks that followed. This past week I finished knitting Tony’s scarf, after having to spin more yarn and buy more on Cape Cod while helping a friend do the Pan-Mass Challenge at the beginning of August. I still have to finish the scarf by weaving in the ends and blocking it, but it’s finally the right length, and Tony will be able to use it this coming fall/winter.

I also finished the scarf I was weaving (the June Spunky Eclectic weaving club), but I still need to block it before taking a picture of it. A new weaving club for August is on its way, so I’ll have something new to warp soon.

I am not going on a plane until the end of September, and my next travel is scheduled for mid-September, around Rosh Hashanah – I will be going to the New York City area for 2 weekends (coming back to Boston for a wedding in between). I hope to finish the Color Affection Shawl soon, and get pictures of both it and the woven scarf before long.
It was very important that I write my previous post when I did – Wed 25 July – because the very next day, of the fun I had, but I’d also like to highlight the knitting I did.

I started knitting a Color Affection shawl, in some Novita Polku that I bought in Finland in May. I started the shawl the first day, which was mostly lounging around while we were in the port of Boston (where we all embarked) and then while the cruise ship was traveling. I continued the shawl on Friday 27 July, and then on Saturday 28 July we landed in the port of St. John’s, New Brunswick. I chose to take a bus to Fredericton, to see the city hall, learn some history, and visit Yarns on York to meet local knitters and take a class on Newfoundland Mittens, aka “Newfie Mitts”. I got a bit done, but I believe I will rip out what I’ve done, make it smaller, and do the “windows” in the multicolored black and the background/wrists in the green. Still, here’s the progress shot, even though this will be frogged later:

On Sunday, I chose to do one of the two classes offered at The Loop in Halifax. The class I chose was one on how to do thrummed mittens, and the instructor Mimi was amazing. I did not take the class for the Bermuda Scarf/shawl, but I heard that the 2nd class was not as great, probably due to the first class running very late and Mimi running out of steam (teaching 2 classes in one day is tough, and who knows if she even had time to eat!). Given that, I’m glad I did not stay for the 2nd class (I did buy the pattern and yarn for it, so I can make the shawl), and instead did a 10-mile bicycle tour of Halifax. At any rate, I did enjoy working on the thrummed mittens, and here is my progress (I haven’t done anything with it since that weekend):

And the inside looks like this:

I learned lots of great tips from Mimi, like using a wool with a lot of lanolin in it, so it’s “sticky” and holds the thrums in better.

There was a lot of knitting that weekend, and in the few weeks that followed. This past week I finished knitting Tony’s scarf, after having to spin more yarn and buy more on Cape Cod while helping a friend do the Pan-Mass Challenge at the beginning of August. I still have to finish the scarf by weaving in the ends and blocking it, but it’s finally the right length, and Tony will be able to use it this coming fall/winter.

I also finished the scarf I was weaving (the June Spunky Eclectic weaving club), but I still need to block it before taking a picture of it. A new weaving club for August is on its way, so I’ll have something new to warp soon.

I am not going on a plane until the end of September, and my next travel is scheduled for mid-September, around Rosh Hashanah – I will be going to the New York City area for 2 weekends (coming back to Boston for a wedding in between). I hope to finish the Color Affection Shawl soon, and get pictures of
So, online I mentioned in the last post that I had finished 2 objects – side effects and the June Spunky Eclectic Weaving Club, which I opted to do a table runner. It was my first experience with using a pick-up stick. I’m happy with how both came out (especially after ironing the scarf…I don’t even iron clothes!).

Crooked Little Tony scarf

Pick-up-sticks table runner

I’m thrilled with how drapey the table runner is. My only problem is that I have no idea what to do with it – it’s 33 inches by 22 inches. It’s too short for a scarf, but I don’t have an appropriate table to use it on. It’s a superwash merino/bamboo/viscose blend. Folded over a towel bar it’d make a very long kitchen or guest towel, I guess?

Any ideas?
So, , which I opted to do a table runner. It was my first experience with using a pick-up stick. I’m happy with how both came out (especially after ironing the scarf…I don’t even iron clothes!).

Crooked Little Tony scarf

Pick-up-sticks table runner

I’m thrilled with how drapey the table runner is. My only problem is that I have no idea what to do with it – it’s 33 inches by 22 inches. It’s too short for a scarf, but I don’t have an appropriate table to use it on. It’s a superwash merino/bamboo/viscose blend.
I am so excited about tonight’s Common Cod Fiber Guild Meeting featuring Pam Parmal of the Boston Museum of Fine Arts talking about the collection strategy for textiles and fashion. And since I last wrote, gonorrhea I have finished a few objects…..

The first is another Hoot Cardigan, this time made out of Universal Yarns Supreme Cotton Batik, that I picked up in Charlotte, North Carolina earlier this year. I love the Supreme Cotton line from Universal yarns, because it is super soft. Unfortunately, I have only been able to find it in LYS in North Carolina….I hear that is changing soon, though! Here’s the cardigan, made for a friend of mine who just had his first son:

And then there’s the August Weaving Club from Spunky Eclectic – cotton dishcloths! I did not follow the pattern; instead I tried out a herringbone/pinwheel pattern. It came out wonderfully!

I ended up making 2 towels, one a bit shorter because I ran out of warp, but here’s the shorter one hanging from a peg next to our sink (please excuse the dirty dishes and Guinness cans to be rinsed).

The bigger one is in constant use as Tony’s “potato cozy”. That’s not a euphemism, Tony eats a baked potato like one would eat an apple, whole and uncut. Because it’s hot, he uses a towel wrapped around it to hold it.

And finally, the pièce de résistance. This is a Color Affection Shawl that I made from 3 different skeins of Novita’s Polku yarn, which I acquired in Finland earlier this year.

Here’s a close-up shot of the ‘center’ of this assymmetrical shawl:

And a little zoomed out:

Here’s the full-size shot:

I also spun up a “fractal 3-ply” which I will write about next time.
I am so excited about tonight’s Common Cod Fiber Guild Meeting featuring Pam Parmal of the Boston Museum of Fine Arts talking about the collection strategy for textiles and fashion. And since I last wrote, condom I have finished a few objects…..

The first is another Hoot Cardigan, information pills this time made out of

And then there’s the August

The bigger one is in constant use as Tony’s “potato cozy”. That’s not a euphemism, Tony eats a baked potato like one would eat an apple, whole and uncut. Because it’s hot, he uses a towel wrapped around it to hold it.

And finally, the pièce de résistance. This is a Color Affection Shawl that I made from 3 different skeins of

And a little zoomed out:

Here’s the full-size shot:

After
I am so excited about tonight’s
Common Cod Fiber Guild Meeting featuring Pam Parmal of the Boston Museum of Fine Arts talking about the collection strategy for textiles and fashion. And since I last wrote, order I have finished a few objects…..

The first is another Hoot Cardigan, find this time made out of

And then there’s the August

The bigger one is in constant use as Tony’s “potato cozy”. That’s not a euphemism, Tony eats a baked potato like one would eat an apple, whole and uncut. Because it’s hot, he uses a towel wrapped around it to hold it.

And finally, the pièce de résistance. This is a Color Affection Shawl that I made from 3 different skeins of

And a little zoomed out:

Here’s the full-size shot:

I also spun up a “fractal 3-ply” which I will write about next time.
I am so excited about tonight’s
Common Cod Fiber Guild Meeting featuring Pam Parmal of the Boston Museum of Fine Arts talking about the collection strategy for textiles and fashion. And since I last wrote, more about I have finished a few objects…..

The first is another Hoot Cardigan, this time made out of Universal Yarns Supreme Cotton Batik, that I picked up in Charlotte, North Carolina earlier this year. I love the Supreme Cotton line from Universal yarns, because it is super soft. Unfortunately, I have only been able to find it in LYS in North Carolina….I hear that is changing soon, though! Here’s the cardigan, made for a friend of mine who just had his first son:

And then there’s the August Weaving Club from Spunky Eclectic – cotton dishcloths! I did not follow the pattern; instead I tried out a herringbone/pinwheel pattern. It came out wonderfully!

I ended up making 2 towels, one a bit shorter because I ran out of warp, but here’s the shorter one hanging from a peg next to our sink (please excuse the dirty dishes and Guinness cans to be rinsed).

The bigger one is in constant use as Tony’s “potato cozy”. That’s not a euphemism, Tony eats a baked potato like one would eat an apple, whole and uncut. Because it’s hot, he uses a towel wrapped around it to hold it.

And finally, the pièce de résistance. This is a Color Affection Shawl that I made from 3 different skeins of

And a little zoomed out:

Here’s the full-size shot:

I also spun up a “fractal 3-ply” which I will write about next time.
Buenos Aires has a span of a few blocks,
hospital not too far from the Malabia metro station* where there are many yarn shops, phthisiatrician I counted 15, and went into 11 of them before I had to stop. The shops are on Ave. Scalabrini Ortiz just southwest of Ave. Cordoba, towards Ave. Correintes. The Malabia metro station is on the corner of Correintes and Scalabrini Ortiz, which is 1 km away from the corner of Cordoba and Corrientes, and about half that until you see your first yarn shop. There was a small bit of yarn bombing between two of the stores:

Yarn shopping in Buenos Aires is quite different from what I’m used to in the States. The stores all look like this:

The yarn is beautiful, and well-organized, but there’s no signs as to what the yarn is made up of, how much it costs nor the gauge of the yarn. In addition, you’re not supposed to take the yarn out of the bins. If you look at the bottom right of that picture, you’ll see some white yarn and blue yarn that is actually sitting on top of a counter. That counter separates you from the wall, and there are people behind the counter who can help you get what you want.

So it’s very different from the experience I’m used to. I got the feeling that a lot of people knew exactly what they wanted to buy, or walked in and would say “do you have anything made of wool?” I was feeling a bit shy due to the language barrier, so I picked up a Spanish phrase: “solamente mirando” – it means “Just looking”. The people are friendly and willing to help, but I like the yarn buying process to be a solo activity.

There were 2 exceptions to the fact that most stores don’t give any information about their items.: Milana hilados and Yanabey. Milana hilados had tags like this near most of their yarn:

Note that that’s in Argentinian pesos, and at the time, this was less than USD $10 per 100g. Another thing to note is the price is per 100g, not per hank of yarn. You’d ask a sales associate to take the yarn down for you and they’d weigh it and ask you if that was OK (kind of like at the deli counter). Then they give you a slip of paper and you take it to a cash register, where you’re usually helped by someone else. Another interesting thing is that the stores seemed to be staffed by about half men, half women, which is very different from yarn stores in the States, which are probably about 90% staffed by women.

I bought 3 hanks of yarn there, for about $25:

Yanabey had signs like this:

These prices are still in Argentinian pesos, but they’re in kilos. So these prices are $171 for 1 kilo, which is $17.10 for 100g. This is a wall of “seda vegetal”, or “vegetable silk“. By the way, that’s about USD $35 per kilo. So I bought 6 skeins, which was just over a kilo, because the tree which this comes from (ceiba speciosa, or “silk floss tree”) is native to South America, and I haven’t seen “vegetable silk” in the US.

A lot of the stores have the recycled t-shirt yarn, and I bought some at Arte Natural:

BUTTONS!!!

I was thinking I might make a purse from the yarn, like this:

That purse is crocheted, but I’m sure I can come up with a knitted version.

Here’s what I bought from that store:

Here’s a Spanish primer for some important words:
cachemira – cashmere
acrílico – acrylic
lana – wool
seda – silk
alpaca – alpaca
hilo – yarn (plural: hilados)
Also, I found out that cashmerillo is just an acrylic yarn that’s very soft. Don’t be fooled by price, some of the acrylic yarns are *very* expensive, even more expensive than the wool.

I was very excited by the prospect of all these yarn stores, and after these three purchases I was done, and passed by 4 other yarn stores that I didn’t even walk into. In addition, there were at least 2 weaving stores, and another 2 fabric stores. Only one of the yarn stores had fiber to spin, and it looked like combed top, and was somewhat expensive (by US standards).

All in all, I was extremely satisfied by taking a few hours to shop for yarn, but I found the experience quite different from what I’m used to.

* I was instructed by a friend who had visited Buenos Aires to take a taxi to the corner of X and Y. However, I enjoy walking around and public transit, so I noticed the subway stop was not far, and decided to walk a few blocks. To those who are considering what to do, a taxi would have cost about 20 pesos (about USD $5) each way. The subway costs $5 for two rides, but of course is not door to door. Another thing to note about the subway is that it is not the most modern system:

And you will get plenty of people trying to make money – some play music, which you may be used to from other subway systems. Others will go around a subway car, handing out products, and then go around and either collect the product back or collect money. I was handed tissues and Disney books – or at least, they attempted to hand stuff to me, and I refused. It helped that I had knitting in my hands, but I saw them just place stuff on people’s laps if their hands were busy, so don’t just look away, make sure you actually refuse by shaking your head.

Note: I hope this article is helpful! Due to spam reasons, all articles on this site have comments disabled after a short time. If you want to leave feedback, you can tweet @sheeri or e-mail me at awfief at gmail dot com. (replace “at” with @ and
When I think of gradient spinning, visit I think of starting with “gradient-dyed fiber” such as Fiber Optics’ gradient collection. Sadly, I have not yet gotten my hands on on of them yet. However, a fractal 3-ply attempt last year gave me the push to try a kind of gradient spinning.

I got a great batt from Fiber Stash back in April at the Wild and Woolly Weekend in Vermont. The 3.7 oz batt is 98% Corriedale, 2% twinkle, in a blue-purple, light blue, and black – here it is, unrolled:

The first step was to divide it into three sections, for a 3-ply, so that each section had each of the three colors. I then split 2 of the sections into even thirds, based on the colors, and the last section was split into sixths based on colors. I split the sections based on weight.

The idea is a fractal ply, but because I am doing a 3-ply, I will do it so that 2 of the sections are the same color, and a third is changing. The middle is the part divided into six:

I finally finished spinning, plying, skeining and washing, and here’s what the finished result looks like:

I think a shawl is in order to show off the lovely and subtle color changes. This produced 284 yards of yarn at 12 wpi. I have an identical batt which I will spin the same way, and will knit with all of it to make a good-sized shawl.

When I think of gradient spinning, buy more about I think of starting with “gradient-dyed fiber” such as Fiber Optics’ gradient collection. Sadly, I have not yet gotten my hands on on of them yet. However, a fractal 3-ply attempt last year gave me the push to try a kind of gradient spinning.

I got a great batt from Fiber Stash back in April at the Wild and Woolly Weekend in Vermont. The 3.7 oz batt is 98% Corriedale, 2% twinkle, in a blue-purple, light blue, and black – here it is, unrolled:

The first step was to divide it into three sections, for a 3-ply, so that each section had each of the three colors. I then split 2 of the sections into even thirds, based on the colors, and the last section was split into sixths based on colors. The idea is a fractal ply, but because I am doing a 3-ply, I will do it so that 2 of the sections are the same color, and a third is changing. The middle is the part divided into six:

I finally finished spinning, plying, skeining and washing, and here’s what the finished result looks like:

I think a shawl is in order to show off the lovely color changes. This produced 284 yards of yarn at 12 wpi. I have an identical batt which I will spin the same way

Edited October 29, medicine 2012 – Unfortunately, ampoule Cat Bordhi has asked me to take the PDF instructions down. However, troche the same exact information is at the video I link to below, so you can still find the information you need.

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, 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.

I taught this at FiberCamp this past weekend, view 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, 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.
It’s been a while since I last wrote. 2 months and 2 weeks, not at all! There has been a lot of travel, and not a ton of knitting…..but there has been some.

The first adventure I had after the last post was completely unexpected. I was at a conference in St. Paul, Minnesota, and I was reading a blog post by Stephanie Pearl McPhee where she mentioned flying from California to Minnesota. At first I thought “how cool, soon I’ll be flying from St. Paul to California!” and then I wondered, “will we overlap in the Twin Cities?” (If you don’t know, those cities border each other.)

The answer, my friends, is yes, and this happened at Steven Be:
Stephanie blesses my sock

Steven was absolutely fabulous and was in full force that day. The yarn shop has yarn and knitted things everywhere. I loved it from a chaotic good perspective. I bought some sock yarn and some sock needles, and immediately started in on a sock. And I had Stephanie sign some books, of course.

The next adventure I had was when I found the Mass Ave Knit Shop in Indianapolis. It was about half a mile from the hotel I was staying at, and I spent several hours there on a Saturday before leaving for the airport. I picked up some plain white yarn (purpose to be revealed later) and knit for several hours….though at this point I cannot remember what I was knitting! For arguments’ sake, let’s say I was knitting a pattern from Jeri, a fellow Common Cod Fiber Guild member, which she showed at Show and Tell during our September meeting. The pattern is called “Vestboro”, and this is how far I got as of mid-October, so it’s a pretty good bet to say that’s what I was working on:

Vestboro center

The knit shop was large, and had tons of yarn! Due to all my travel this year, I have not been knitting and spinning as much as I used to. Last November I stopped being able to keep up with my monthly fiber club, and I stayed behind all year. Suffice it to say, I am overflowing with yarn and fiber….and so is my fiber room. So I am limiting my souvenir yarn…for now.

The knit shop was full of women knitting, and wonderful local donuts, and instead of souvenir yarn I bought myself an accordion-type box to store my dpns in by size. It was a great place to spend several hours knitting.

I attended Rhinebeck aka NY Sheep & Wool, where I acquired a Bernina 1230 sewing machine, circa 1989–1998. I haven’t yet started playing with it, as I have been WAY too busy with other things – Halloween crafts, holiday gift knitting, and test knitting! At Rhinebeck I took 2 classes – a spinning class with Abby Franquemont (I can cross that off the bucket list now!) and a dyeing class with Gail Callahan, the Kangaroo Dyer, in which I learned a ton about dyeing and made this beautiful rainbow:

my rainbow of dyeing

I did not knit for much of September and October because I was doing other crafty things – specifically, I was hand-sewing my Halloween costume – Sally from the Nightmare Before Christmas. It came out better than I expected, which was great, because it was for an awesome wedding:

Julia as a nurse and me as Sally, from the Nightmare Before Christmas

And yes, I also knit the wig.

In November I was test knitting. And test knitting. And test knitting. I will show you pictures once they are public, but for now, things remain secret.

I took a mitten class at Mind’s Eye Yarns and still have not finished knitting the first mitten, much less the second mitten. But I learned a few good tips along the way and am excited to use them.

Remember that white yarn I bought in Indianapolis? It was for some classes with Lucy Neatby, who is chock-full of amazing tips and tricks for knitting. I filled out a wishlist with stuff I want, from patterns to DVDs. Lucy is fun, smart and easy to learn from. I took three classes with her – buttonholes, finishing, and socks. Her handouts are invaluable. I took time off work and spent a pretty penny to learn from Lucy, and I would do it again in a heartbeat. She’s THAT good.

And then it was December…..the test knitting was finally finished, and then it was time to knit gifts! I knit hats for my brother-in-law and his wife (in grey and red Ushya yarn), and I did not, sadly, take any pictures of those hats. I also knit a hat for my mother-in-law in green, and again, no pictures. I do have pictures of the tiny slightly felted purse I made for my aunt-in-law (using handspun Portuguese Merino in the “A Bug’s Life” colorway) and the DNA scarf I made for my father-in-law out of Kauni (that I bought while in Halifax on my knitting cruise in July):

Felted wallet

DNA Scarf

And then during and after Christmas I knit 2 chemo caps for a cousin-in-law – one was brown and one was black with sequins (so she’d have “evening hair”) – here’s a pic of me modeling the brown one:

fun fur hat in brown

So with all that done, I have started spinning again….although I find I cannot spin for hours like I used to. I’ll have to work up to that again. In the meantime, I’ve been spinning an hour or two at a time in the evenings, and yesterday I took a break to knit myself the Mind’s Eye Yarns free Waffle Stitch Hat pattern, so I could finally have a hat for myself:

my hat!

It was super-quick to knit, and I love it!
It’s been a while since I last wrote. 2 months and 2 weeks, not at all! There has been a lot of travel, and not a ton of knitting…..but there has been some.

The first adventure I had was when I found the Common Cod Fiber Guild member, which she showed at Show and Tell during our September meeting. The pattern is called “Vestboro”, and this is how far I got as of mid-October, so it’s a pretty good bet to say that’s what I was working on:

Vestboro center

The knit shop was large, and had tons of yarn! Due to all my travel this year, I have not been knitting and spinning as much as I used to. Last November I stopped being able to keep up with my monthly fiber club, and I stayed behind all year. Suffice it to say, I am overflowing with yarn and fiber….and so is my fiber room. So I am limiting my souvenir yarn…for now.

The knit shop was full of women knitting, and wonderful local donuts, and instead of souvenir yarn I bought myself an accordion-type box to store my dpns in by size. It was a great place to spend several hours knitting.

I did
It’s been a while since I last wrote. 2 months and 2 weeks, psychotherapist to be exact. And my life has not been devoid of knitting nor crafty stuff….no, not at all! There has been a lot of travel, and not a ton of knitting…..but there has been some.

The first adventure I had after the last post was completely unexpected. I was at a conference in St. Paul, Minnesota, and I was reading a blog post by Stephanie Pearl McPhee where she mentioned flying from California to Minnesota. At first I thought “how cool, soon I’ll be flying from St. Paul to California!” and then I wondered, “will we overlap in the Twin Cities?” (If you don’t know, those cities border each other.)

The answer, my friends, is yes, and this happened at Steven Be:
Stephanie blesses my sock

Steven was absolutely fabulous and was in full force that day. The yarn shop has yarn and knitted things everywhere. I loved it from a chaotic good perspective. I bought some sock yarn and some sock needles, and immediately started in on a sock. And I had Stephanie sign some books, of course.

The next adventure I had was when I found the Common Cod Fiber Guild member, which she showed at Show and Tell during our September meeting. The pattern is called “Vestboro”, and this is how far I got as of mid-October, so it’s a pretty good bet to say that’s what I was working on:

Vestboro center

The knit shop was large, and had tons of yarn! Due to all my travel this year, I have not been knitting and spinning as much as I used to. Last November I stopped being able to keep up with my monthly fiber club, and I stayed behind all year. Suffice it to say, I am overflowing with yarn and fiber….and so is my fiber room. So I am limiting my souvenir yarn…for now.

The knit shop was full of women knitting, and wonderful local donuts, and instead of souvenir yarn I bought myself an accordion-type box to store my dpns in by size. It was a great place to spend several hours knitting.

I attended Rhinebeck aka NY Sheep & Wool, where I acquired a Bernina 1230 sewing machine, circa 1989–1998. I haven’t yet started playing with it, as I have been WAY too busy with other things – Halloween crafts, holiday gift knitting, and test knitting! At Rhinebeck I took 2 classes – a spinning class with Abby Franquemont (I can cross that off the bucket list now!) and a dyeing class with Gail Callahan, the Kangaroo Dyer, in which I learned a ton about dyeing and made this beautiful rainbow:

my rainbow of dyeing

I did not knit for much of September and October because I was doing other crafty things – specifically, I was hand-sewing my Halloween costume – Sally from the Nightmare Before Christmas. It came out better than I expected, which was great, because it was for an awesome wedding:

Julia as a nurse and me as Sally, from the Nightmare Before Christmas

And yes, I also knit the wig.

In November I was test knitting. And test knitting. And test knitting. I will show you pictures once they are public, but for now, things remain secret.

I took a mitten class at Mind’s Eye Yarns and still have not finished knitting the first mitten, much less the second mitten. But I learned a few good tips along the way and am excited to use them.

Remember that white yarn I bought in Indianapolis? It was for some classes with Lucy Neatby, who is chock-full of amazing tips and tricks for knitting. I filled out a wishlist with stuff I want, from patterns to DVDs. Lucy is fun, smart and easy to learn from. I took three classes with her – buttonholes, finishing, and socks. Her handouts are invaluable. I took time off work and spent a pretty penny to learn from Lucy, and I would do it again in a heartbeat. She’s THAT good.

And then it was December…..the test knitting was finally finished, and then it was time to knit gifts! I knit hats for my brother-in-law and his wife (in grey and red Ushya yarn), and I did not, sadly, take any pictures of those hats. I also knit a hat for my mother-in-law in green, and again, no pictures. I do have pictures of the tiny slightly felted purse I made for my aunt-in-law (using handspun Portuguese Merino in the “A Bug’s Life” colorway) and the DNA scarf I made for my father-in-law out of Kauni (that I bought while in Halifax on my knitting cruise in July):

Felted wallet

DNA Scarf

So with all that done, I have started spinning again….although I find I cannot spin for hours like I used to. I’ll have to work up to that again. In the meantime, I’ve been spinning an hour or two at a time in the evenings, and yesterday I took a break to knit myself the Mind’s Eye Yarns free Waffle Stitch Hat pattern, so I could finally have a hat for myself:

my hat!

It was super-quick to knit, and I love it!
It’s been a while since I last wrote. 2 months and 2 weeks, website like this to be exact. And my life has not been devoid of knitting nor crafty stuff….no, not at all! There has been a lot of travel, and not a ton of knitting…..but there has been some.

The first adventure I had after the last post was completely unexpected. I was at a conference in St. Paul, Minnesota, and I was reading a blog post by Stephanie Pearl McPhee where she mentioned flying from California to Minnesota. At first I thought “how cool, soon I’ll be flying from St. Paul to California!” and then I wondered, “will we overlap in the Twin Cities?” (If you don’t know, those cities border each other.)

The answer, my friends, is yes, and this happened at Steven Be:
Stephanie blesses my sock

Steven was absolutely fabulous and was in full force that day. The yarn shop has yarn and knitted things everywhere. I loved it from a chaotic good perspective. I bought some sock yarn and some sock needles, and immediately started in on a sock. And I had Stephanie sign some books, of course.

The next adventure I had was when I found the Common Cod Fiber Guild member, which she showed at Show and Tell during our September meeting. The pattern is called “Vestboro”, and this is how far I got as of mid-October, so it’s a pretty good bet to say that’s what I was working on:

Vestboro center

The knit shop was large, and had tons of yarn! Due to all my travel this year, I have not been knitting and spinning as much as I used to. Last November I stopped being able to keep up with my monthly fiber club, and I stayed behind all year. Suffice it to say, I am overflowing with yarn and fiber….and so is my fiber room. So I am limiting my souvenir yarn…for now.

The knit shop was full of women knitting, and wonderful local donuts, and instead of souvenir yarn I bought myself an accordion-type box to store my dpns in by size. It was a great place to spend several hours knitting.

I attended Rhinebeck aka NY Sheep & Wool, where I acquired a Bernina 1230 sewing machine, circa 1989–1998. I haven’t yet started playing with it, as I have been WAY too busy with other things – Halloween crafts, holiday gift knitting, and test knitting! At Rhinebeck I took 2 classes – a spinning class with Abby Franquemont (I can cross that off the bucket list now!) and a dyeing class with Gail Callahan, the Kangaroo Dyer, in which I learned a ton about dyeing and made this beautiful rainbow:

my rainbow of dyeing

I did not knit for much of September and October because I was doing other crafty things – specifically, I was hand-sewing my Halloween costume – Sally from the Nightmare Before Christmas. It came out better than I expected, which was great, because it was for an awesome wedding:

Julia as a nurse and me as Sally, from the Nightmare Before Christmas

And yes, I also knit the wig.

In November I was test knitting. And test knitting. And test knitting. I will show you pictures once they are public, but for now, things remain secret.

I took a mitten class at Mind’s Eye Yarns and still have not finished knitting the first mitten, much less the second mitten. But I learned a few good tips along the way and am excited to use them.

Remember that white yarn I bought in Indianapolis? It was for some classes with Lucy Neatby, who is chock-full of amazing tips and tricks for knitting. I filled out a wishlist with stuff I want, from patterns to DVDs. Lucy is fun, smart and easy to learn from. I took three classes with her – buttonholes, finishing, and socks. Her handouts are invaluable. I took time off work and spent a pretty penny to learn from Lucy, and I would do it again in a heartbeat. She’s THAT good.

And then it was December…..the test knitting was finally finished, and then it was time to knit gifts! I knit hats for my brother-in-law and his wife (in grey and red Ushya yarn), and I did not, sadly, take any pictures of those hats. I also knit a hat for my mother-in-law in green, and again, no pictures. I do have pictures of the tiny slightly felted purse I made for my aunt-in-law (using handspun Portuguese Merino in the “A Bug’s Life” colorway) and the DNA scarf I made for my father-in-law out of Kauni (that I bought while in Halifax on my knitting cruise in July):

Felted wallet

DNA Scarf

So with all that done, I have started spinning again….although I find I cannot spin for hours like I used to. I’ll have to work up to that again. In the meantime, I’ve been spinning an hour or two at a time in the evenings, and yesterday I took a break to knit myself the Mind’s Eye Yarns free Waffle Stitch Hat pattern, so I could finally have a hat for myself:

my hat!

It was super-quick to knit, and I love it!
It was very important that I write my previous post when I did – Wed 25 July – because the very next day, of the fun I had, but I’d also like to highlight the knitting I did.

I started knitting a Color Affection shawl, in some Novita Polku that I bought in Finland in May. I started the shawl the first day, which was mostly lounging around while we were in the port of Boston (where we all embarked) and then while the cruise ship was traveling. I continued the shawl on Friday 27 July, and then on Saturday 28 July we landed in the port of St. John’s, New Brunswick. I chose to take a bus to Fredericton, to see the city hall, learn some history, and visit Yarns on York to meet local knitters and take a class on Newfoundland Mittens, aka “Newfie Mitts”. I got a bit done, but I believe I will rip out what I’ve done, make it smaller, and do the “windows” in the multicolored black and the background/wrists in the green. Still, here’s the progress shot, even though this will be frogged later:

On Sunday, I chose to do one of the two classes offered at The Loop in Halifax. The class I chose was one on how to do thrummed mittens, and the instructor Mimi was amazing. I did not take the class for the Bermuda Scarf/shawl, but I heard that the 2nd class was not as great, probably due to the first class running very late and Mimi running out of steam (teaching 2 classes in one day is tough, and who knows if she even had time to eat!). Given that, I’m glad I did not stay for the 2nd class (I did buy the pattern and yarn for it, so I can make the shawl), and instead did a 10-mile bicycle tour of Halifax. At any rate, I did enjoy working on the thrummed mittens, and here is my progress (I haven’t done anything with it since that weekend):

And the inside looks like this:

I learned lots of great tips from Mimi, like using a wool with a lot of lanolin in it, so it’s “sticky” and holds the thrums in better.

There was a lot of knitting that weekend, and in the few weeks that followed. This past week I finished knitting Tony’s scarf, after having to spin more yarn and buy more on Cape Cod while helping a friend do the Pan-Mass Challenge at the beginning of August. I still have to finish the scarf by weaving in the ends and blocking it, but it’s finally the right length, and Tony will be able to use it this coming fall/winter.

I also finished the scarf I was weaving (the June Spunky Eclectic weaving club), but I still need to block it before taking a picture of it. A new weaving club for August is on its way, so I’ll have something new to warp soon.

I am not going on a plane until the end of September, and my next travel is scheduled for mid-September, around Rosh Hashanah – I will be going to the New York City area for 2 weekends (coming back to Boston for a wedding in between). I hope to finish the Color Affection Shawl soon, and get pictures of both it and the woven scarf before long.
It was very important that I write my previous post when I did – Wed 25 July – because the very next day, of the fun I had, but I’d also like to highlight the knitting I did.

I started knitting a Color Affection shawl, in some Novita Polku that I bought in Finland in May. I started the shawl the first day, which was mostly lounging around while we were in the port of Boston (where we all embarked) and then while the cruise ship was traveling. I continued the shawl on Friday 27 July, and then on Saturday 28 July we landed in the port of St. John’s, New Brunswick. I chose to take a bus to Fredericton, to see the city hall, learn some history, and visit Yarns on York to meet local knitters and take a class on Newfoundland Mittens, aka “Newfie Mitts”. I got a bit done, but I believe I will rip out what I’ve done, make it smaller, and do the “windows” in the multicolored black and the background/wrists in the green. Still, here’s the progress shot, even though this will be frogged later:

On Sunday, I chose to do one of the two classes offered at The Loop in Halifax. The class I chose was one on how to do thrummed mittens, and the instructor Mimi was amazing. I did not take the class for the Bermuda Scarf/shawl, but I heard that the 2nd class was not as great, probably due to the first class running very late and Mimi running out of steam (teaching 2 classes in one day is tough, and who knows if she even had time to eat!). Given that, I’m glad I did not stay for the 2nd class (I did buy the pattern and yarn for it, so I can make the shawl), and instead did a 10-mile bicycle tour of Halifax. At any rate, I did enjoy working on the thrummed mittens, and here is my progress (I haven’t done anything with it since that weekend):

And the inside looks like this:

I learned lots of great tips from Mimi, like using a wool with a lot of lanolin in it, so it’s “sticky” and holds the thrums in better.

There was a lot of knitting that weekend, and in the few weeks that followed. This past week I finished knitting Tony’s scarf, after having to spin more yarn and buy more on Cape Cod while helping a friend do the Pan-Mass Challenge at the beginning of August. I still have to finish the scarf by weaving in the ends and blocking it, but it’s finally the right length, and Tony will be able to use it this coming fall/winter.

I also finished the scarf I was weaving (the June Spunky Eclectic weaving club), but I still need to block it before taking a picture of it. A new weaving club for August is on its way, so I’ll have something new to warp soon.

I am not going on a plane until the end of September, and my next travel is scheduled for mid-September, around Rosh Hashanah – I will be going to the New York City area for 2 weekends (coming back to Boston for a wedding in between). I hope to finish the Color Affection Shawl soon, and get pictures of
So, online I mentioned in the last post that I had finished 2 objects – side effects and the June Spunky Eclectic Weaving Club, which I opted to do a table runner. It was my first experience with using a pick-up stick. I’m happy with how both came out (especially after ironing the scarf…I don’t even iron clothes!).

Crooked Little Tony scarf

Pick-up-sticks table runner

I’m thrilled with how drapey the table runner is. My only problem is that I have no idea what to do with it – it’s 33 inches by 22 inches. It’s too short for a scarf, but I don’t have an appropriate table to use it on. It’s a superwash merino/bamboo/viscose blend. Folded over a towel bar it’d make a very long kitchen or guest towel, I guess?

Any ideas?
So, , which I opted to do a table runner. It was my first experience with using a pick-up stick. I’m happy with how both came out (especially after ironing the scarf…I don’t even iron clothes!).

Crooked Little Tony scarf

Pick-up-sticks table runner

I’m thrilled with how drapey the table runner is. My only problem is that I have no idea what to do with it – it’s 33 inches by 22 inches. It’s too short for a scarf, but I don’t have an appropriate table to use it on. It’s a superwash merino/bamboo/viscose blend.
I am so excited about tonight’s Common Cod Fiber Guild Meeting featuring Pam Parmal of the Boston Museum of Fine Arts talking about the collection strategy for textiles and fashion. And since I last wrote, gonorrhea I have finished a few objects…..

The first is another Hoot Cardigan, this time made out of Universal Yarns Supreme Cotton Batik, that I picked up in Charlotte, North Carolina earlier this year. I love the Supreme Cotton line from Universal yarns, because it is super soft. Unfortunately, I have only been able to find it in LYS in North Carolina….I hear that is changing soon, though! Here’s the cardigan, made for a friend of mine who just had his first son:

And then there’s the August Weaving Club from Spunky Eclectic – cotton dishcloths! I did not follow the pattern; instead I tried out a herringbone/pinwheel pattern. It came out wonderfully!

I ended up making 2 towels, one a bit shorter because I ran out of warp, but here’s the shorter one hanging from a peg next to our sink (please excuse the dirty dishes and Guinness cans to be rinsed).

The bigger one is in constant use as Tony’s “potato cozy”. That’s not a euphemism, Tony eats a baked potato like one would eat an apple, whole and uncut. Because it’s hot, he uses a towel wrapped around it to hold it.

And finally, the pièce de résistance. This is a Color Affection Shawl that I made from 3 different skeins of Novita’s Polku yarn, which I acquired in Finland earlier this year.

Here’s a close-up shot of the ‘center’ of this assymmetrical shawl:

And a little zoomed out:

Here’s the full-size shot:

I also spun up a “fractal 3-ply” which I will write about next time.
I am so excited about tonight’s Common Cod Fiber Guild Meeting featuring Pam Parmal of the Boston Museum of Fine Arts talking about the collection strategy for textiles and fashion. And since I last wrote, condom I have finished a few objects…..

The first is another Hoot Cardigan, information pills this time made out of

And then there’s the August

The bigger one is in constant use as Tony’s “potato cozy”. That’s not a euphemism, Tony eats a baked potato like one would eat an apple, whole and uncut. Because it’s hot, he uses a towel wrapped around it to hold it.

And finally, the pièce de résistance. This is a Color Affection Shawl that I made from 3 different skeins of

And a little zoomed out:

Here’s the full-size shot:

After
I am so excited about tonight’s
Common Cod Fiber Guild Meeting featuring Pam Parmal of the Boston Museum of Fine Arts talking about the collection strategy for textiles and fashion. And since I last wrote, order I have finished a few objects…..

The first is another Hoot Cardigan, find this time made out of

And then there’s the August

The bigger one is in constant use as Tony’s “potato cozy”. That’s not a euphemism, Tony eats a baked potato like one would eat an apple, whole and uncut. Because it’s hot, he uses a towel wrapped around it to hold it.

And finally, the pièce de résistance. This is a Color Affection Shawl that I made from 3 different skeins of

And a little zoomed out:

Here’s the full-size shot:

I also spun up a “fractal 3-ply” which I will write about next time.
I am so excited about tonight’s
Common Cod Fiber Guild Meeting featuring Pam Parmal of the Boston Museum of Fine Arts talking about the collection strategy for textiles and fashion. And since I last wrote, more about I have finished a few objects…..

The first is another Hoot Cardigan, this time made out of Universal Yarns Supreme Cotton Batik, that I picked up in Charlotte, North Carolina earlier this year. I love the Supreme Cotton line from Universal yarns, because it is super soft. Unfortunately, I have only been able to find it in LYS in North Carolina….I hear that is changing soon, though! Here’s the cardigan, made for a friend of mine who just had his first son:

And then there’s the August Weaving Club from Spunky Eclectic – cotton dishcloths! I did not follow the pattern; instead I tried out a herringbone/pinwheel pattern. It came out wonderfully!

I ended up making 2 towels, one a bit shorter because I ran out of warp, but here’s the shorter one hanging from a peg next to our sink (please excuse the dirty dishes and Guinness cans to be rinsed).

The bigger one is in constant use as Tony’s “potato cozy”. That’s not a euphemism, Tony eats a baked potato like one would eat an apple, whole and uncut. Because it’s hot, he uses a towel wrapped around it to hold it.

And finally, the pièce de résistance. This is a Color Affection Shawl that I made from 3 different skeins of

And a little zoomed out:

Here’s the full-size shot:

I also spun up a “fractal 3-ply” which I will write about next time.
Buenos Aires has a span of a few blocks,
hospital not too far from the Malabia metro station* where there are many yarn shops, phthisiatrician I counted 15, and went into 11 of them before I had to stop. The shops are on Ave. Scalabrini Ortiz just southwest of Ave. Cordoba, towards Ave. Correintes. The Malabia metro station is on the corner of Correintes and Scalabrini Ortiz, which is 1 km away from the corner of Cordoba and Corrientes, and about half that until you see your first yarn shop. There was a small bit of yarn bombing between two of the stores:

Yarn shopping in Buenos Aires is quite different from what I’m used to in the States. The stores all look like this:

The yarn is beautiful, and well-organized, but there’s no signs as to what the yarn is made up of, how much it costs nor the gauge of the yarn. In addition, you’re not supposed to take the yarn out of the bins. If you look at the bottom right of that picture, you’ll see some white yarn and blue yarn that is actually sitting on top of a counter. That counter separates you from the wall, and there are people behind the counter who can help you get what you want.

So it’s very different from the experience I’m used to. I got the feeling that a lot of people knew exactly what they wanted to buy, or walked in and would say “do you have anything made of wool?” I was feeling a bit shy due to the language barrier, so I picked up a Spanish phrase: “solamente mirando” – it means “Just looking”. The people are friendly and willing to help, but I like the yarn buying process to be a solo activity.

There were 2 exceptions to the fact that most stores don’t give any information about their items.: Milana hilados and Yanabey. Milana hilados had tags like this near most of their yarn:

Note that that’s in Argentinian pesos, and at the time, this was less than USD $10 per 100g. Another thing to note is the price is per 100g, not per hank of yarn. You’d ask a sales associate to take the yarn down for you and they’d weigh it and ask you if that was OK (kind of like at the deli counter). Then they give you a slip of paper and you take it to a cash register, where you’re usually helped by someone else. Another interesting thing is that the stores seemed to be staffed by about half men, half women, which is very different from yarn stores in the States, which are probably about 90% staffed by women.

I bought 3 hanks of yarn there, for about $25:

Yanabey had signs like this:

These prices are still in Argentinian pesos, but they’re in kilos. So these prices are $171 for 1 kilo, which is $17.10 for 100g. This is a wall of “seda vegetal”, or “vegetable silk“. By the way, that’s about USD $35 per kilo. So I bought 6 skeins, which was just over a kilo, because the tree which this comes from (ceiba speciosa, or “silk floss tree”) is native to South America, and I haven’t seen “vegetable silk” in the US.

A lot of the stores have the recycled t-shirt yarn, and I bought some at Arte Natural:

BUTTONS!!!

I was thinking I might make a purse from the yarn, like this:

That purse is crocheted, but I’m sure I can come up with a knitted version.

Here’s what I bought from that store:

Here’s a Spanish primer for some important words:
cachemira – cashmere
acrílico – acrylic
lana – wool
seda – silk
alpaca – alpaca
hilo – yarn (plural: hilados)
Also, I found out that cashmerillo is just an acrylic yarn that’s very soft. Don’t be fooled by price, some of the acrylic yarns are *very* expensive, even more expensive than the wool.

I was very excited by the prospect of all these yarn stores, and after these three purchases I was done, and passed by 4 other yarn stores that I didn’t even walk into. In addition, there were at least 2 weaving stores, and another 2 fabric stores. Only one of the yarn stores had fiber to spin, and it looked like combed top, and was somewhat expensive (by US standards).

All in all, I was extremely satisfied by taking a few hours to shop for yarn, but I found the experience quite different from what I’m used to.

* I was instructed by a friend who had visited Buenos Aires to take a taxi to the corner of X and Y. However, I enjoy walking around and public transit, so I noticed the subway stop was not far, and decided to walk a few blocks. To those who are considering what to do, a taxi would have cost about 20 pesos (about USD $5) each way. The subway costs $5 for two rides, but of course is not door to door. Another thing to note about the subway is that it is not the most modern system:

And you will get plenty of people trying to make money – some play music, which you may be used to from other subway systems. Others will go around a subway car, handing out products, and then go around and either collect the product back or collect money. I was handed tissues and Disney books – or at least, they attempted to hand stuff to me, and I refused. It helped that I had knitting in my hands, but I saw them just place stuff on people’s laps if their hands were busy, so don’t just look away, make sure you actually refuse by shaking your head.

Note: I hope this article is helpful! Due to spam reasons, all articles on this site have comments disabled after a short time. If you want to leave feedback, you can tweet @sheeri or e-mail me at awfief at gmail dot com. (replace “at” with @ and
When I think of gradient spinning, visit I think of starting with “gradient-dyed fiber” such as Fiber Optics’ gradient collection. Sadly, I have not yet gotten my hands on on of them yet. However, a fractal 3-ply attempt last year gave me the push to try a kind of gradient spinning.

I got a great batt from Fiber Stash back in April at the Wild and Woolly Weekend in Vermont. The 3.7 oz batt is 98% Corriedale, 2% twinkle, in a blue-purple, light blue, and black – here it is, unrolled:

The first step was to divide it into three sections, for a 3-ply, so that each section had each of the three colors. I then split 2 of the sections into even thirds, based on the colors, and the last section was split into sixths based on colors. I split the sections based on weight.

The idea is a fractal ply, but because I am doing a 3-ply, I will do it so that 2 of the sections are the same color, and a third is changing. The middle is the part divided into six:

I finally finished spinning, plying, skeining and washing, and here’s what the finished result looks like:

I think a shawl is in order to show off the lovely and subtle color changes. This produced 284 yards of yarn at 12 wpi. I have an identical batt which I will spin the same way, and will knit with all of it to make a good-sized shawl.

When I think of gradient spinning, buy more about I think of starting with “gradient-dyed fiber” such as Fiber Optics’ gradient collection. Sadly, I have not yet gotten my hands on on of them yet. However, a fractal 3-ply attempt last year gave me the push to try a kind of gradient spinning.

I got a great batt from Fiber Stash back in April at the Wild and Woolly Weekend in Vermont. The 3.7 oz batt is 98% Corriedale, 2% twinkle, in a blue-purple, light blue, and black – here it is, unrolled:

The first step was to divide it into three sections, for a 3-ply, so that each section had each of the three colors. I then split 2 of the sections into even thirds, based on the colors, and the last section was split into sixths based on colors. The idea is a fractal ply, but because I am doing a 3-ply, I will do it so that 2 of the sections are the same color, and a third is changing. The middle is the part divided into six:

I finally finished spinning, plying, skeining and washing, and here’s what the finished result looks like:

I think a shawl is in order to show off the lovely color changes. This produced 284 yards of yarn at 12 wpi. I have an identical batt which I will spin the same way

Edited October 29, medicine 2012 – Unfortunately, ampoule Cat Bordhi has asked me to take the PDF instructions down. However, troche the same exact information is at the video I link to below, so you can still find the information you need.

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, 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.

I taught this at FiberCamp this past weekend, view 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, 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.
It’s been a while since I last wrote. 2 months and 2 weeks, not at all! There has been a lot of travel, and not a ton of knitting…..but there has been some.

The first adventure I had after the last post was completely unexpected. I was at a conference in St. Paul, Minnesota, and I was reading a blog post by Stephanie Pearl McPhee where she mentioned flying from California to Minnesota. At first I thought “how cool, soon I’ll be flying from St. Paul to California!” and then I wondered, “will we overlap in the Twin Cities?” (If you don’t know, those cities border each other.)

The answer, my friends, is yes, and this happened at Steven Be:
Stephanie blesses my sock

Steven was absolutely fabulous and was in full force that day. The yarn shop has yarn and knitted things everywhere. I loved it from a chaotic good perspective. I bought some sock yarn and some sock needles, and immediately started in on a sock. And I had Stephanie sign some books, of course.

The next adventure I had was when I found the Mass Ave Knit Shop in Indianapolis. It was about half a mile from the hotel I was staying at, and I spent several hours there on a Saturday before leaving for the airport. I picked up some plain white yarn (purpose to be revealed later) and knit for several hours….though at this point I cannot remember what I was knitting! For arguments’ sake, let’s say I was knitting a pattern from Jeri, a fellow Common Cod Fiber Guild member, which she showed at Show and Tell during our September meeting. The pattern is called “Vestboro”, and this is how far I got as of mid-October, so it’s a pretty good bet to say that’s what I was working on:

Vestboro center

The knit shop was large, and had tons of yarn! Due to all my travel this year, I have not been knitting and spinning as much as I used to. Last November I stopped being able to keep up with my monthly fiber club, and I stayed behind all year. Suffice it to say, I am overflowing with yarn and fiber….and so is my fiber room. So I am limiting my souvenir yarn…for now.

The knit shop was full of women knitting, and wonderful local donuts, and instead of souvenir yarn I bought myself an accordion-type box to store my dpns in by size. It was a great place to spend several hours knitting.

I attended Rhinebeck aka NY Sheep & Wool, where I acquired a Bernina 1230 sewing machine, circa 1989–1998. I haven’t yet started playing with it, as I have been WAY too busy with other things – Halloween crafts, holiday gift knitting, and test knitting! At Rhinebeck I took 2 classes – a spinning class with Abby Franquemont (I can cross that off the bucket list now!) and a dyeing class with Gail Callahan, the Kangaroo Dyer, in which I learned a ton about dyeing and made this beautiful rainbow:

my rainbow of dyeing

I did not knit for much of September and October because I was doing other crafty things – specifically, I was hand-sewing my Halloween costume – Sally from the Nightmare Before Christmas. It came out better than I expected, which was great, because it was for an awesome wedding:

Julia as a nurse and me as Sally, from the Nightmare Before Christmas

And yes, I also knit the wig.

In November I was test knitting. And test knitting. And test knitting. I will show you pictures once they are public, but for now, things remain secret.

I took a mitten class at Mind’s Eye Yarns and still have not finished knitting the first mitten, much less the second mitten. But I learned a few good tips along the way and am excited to use them.

Remember that white yarn I bought in Indianapolis? It was for some classes with Lucy Neatby, who is chock-full of amazing tips and tricks for knitting. I filled out a wishlist with stuff I want, from patterns to DVDs. Lucy is fun, smart and easy to learn from. I took three classes with her – buttonholes, finishing, and socks. Her handouts are invaluable. I took time off work and spent a pretty penny to learn from Lucy, and I would do it again in a heartbeat. She’s THAT good.

And then it was December…..the test knitting was finally finished, and then it was time to knit gifts! I knit hats for my brother-in-law and his wife (in grey and red Ushya yarn), and I did not, sadly, take any pictures of those hats. I also knit a hat for my mother-in-law in green, and again, no pictures. I do have pictures of the tiny slightly felted purse I made for my aunt-in-law (using handspun Portuguese Merino in the “A Bug’s Life” colorway) and the DNA scarf I made for my father-in-law out of Kauni (that I bought while in Halifax on my knitting cruise in July):

Felted wallet

DNA Scarf

And then during and after Christmas I knit 2 chemo caps for a cousin-in-law – one was brown and one was black with sequins (so she’d have “evening hair”) – here’s a pic of me modeling the brown one:

fun fur hat in brown

So with all that done, I have started spinning again….although I find I cannot spin for hours like I used to. I’ll have to work up to that again. In the meantime, I’ve been spinning an hour or two at a time in the evenings, and yesterday I took a break to knit myself the Mind’s Eye Yarns free Waffle Stitch Hat pattern, so I could finally have a hat for myself:

my hat!

It was super-quick to knit, and I love it!
It’s been a while since I last wrote. 2 months and 2 weeks, not at all! There has been a lot of travel, and not a ton of knitting…..but there has been some.

The first adventure I had was when I found the Common Cod Fiber Guild member, which she showed at Show and Tell during our September meeting. The pattern is called “Vestboro”, and this is how far I got as of mid-October, so it’s a pretty good bet to say that’s what I was working on:

Vestboro center

The knit shop was large, and had tons of yarn! Due to all my travel this year, I have not been knitting and spinning as much as I used to. Last November I stopped being able to keep up with my monthly fiber club, and I stayed behind all year. Suffice it to say, I am overflowing with yarn and fiber….and so is my fiber room. So I am limiting my souvenir yarn…for now.

The knit shop was full of women knitting, and wonderful local donuts, and instead of souvenir yarn I bought myself an accordion-type box to store my dpns in by size. It was a great place to spend several hours knitting.

I did
It’s been a while since I last wrote. 2 months and 2 weeks, psychotherapist to be exact. And my life has not been devoid of knitting nor crafty stuff….no, not at all! There has been a lot of travel, and not a ton of knitting…..but there has been some.

The first adventure I had after the last post was completely unexpected. I was at a conference in St. Paul, Minnesota, and I was reading a blog post by Stephanie Pearl McPhee where she mentioned flying from California to Minnesota. At first I thought “how cool, soon I’ll be flying from St. Paul to California!” and then I wondered, “will we overlap in the Twin Cities?” (If you don’t know, those cities border each other.)

The answer, my friends, is yes, and this happened at Steven Be:
Stephanie blesses my sock

Steven was absolutely fabulous and was in full force that day. The yarn shop has yarn and knitted things everywhere. I loved it from a chaotic good perspective. I bought some sock yarn and some sock needles, and immediately started in on a sock. And I had Stephanie sign some books, of course.

The next adventure I had was when I found the Common Cod Fiber Guild member, which she showed at Show and Tell during our September meeting. The pattern is called “Vestboro”, and this is how far I got as of mid-October, so it’s a pretty good bet to say that’s what I was working on:

Vestboro center

The knit shop was large, and had tons of yarn! Due to all my travel this year, I have not been knitting and spinning as much as I used to. Last November I stopped being able to keep up with my monthly fiber club, and I stayed behind all year. Suffice it to say, I am overflowing with yarn and fiber….and so is my fiber room. So I am limiting my souvenir yarn…for now.

The knit shop was full of women knitting, and wonderful local donuts, and instead of souvenir yarn I bought myself an accordion-type box to store my dpns in by size. It was a great place to spend several hours knitting.

I attended Rhinebeck aka NY Sheep & Wool, where I acquired a Bernina 1230 sewing machine, circa 1989–1998. I haven’t yet started playing with it, as I have been WAY too busy with other things – Halloween crafts, holiday gift knitting, and test knitting! At Rhinebeck I took 2 classes – a spinning class with Abby Franquemont (I can cross that off the bucket list now!) and a dyeing class with Gail Callahan, the Kangaroo Dyer, in which I learned a ton about dyeing and made this beautiful rainbow:

my rainbow of dyeing

I did not knit for much of September and October because I was doing other crafty things – specifically, I was hand-sewing my Halloween costume – Sally from the Nightmare Before Christmas. It came out better than I expected, which was great, because it was for an awesome wedding:

Julia as a nurse and me as Sally, from the Nightmare Before Christmas

And yes, I also knit the wig.

In November I was test knitting. And test knitting. And test knitting. I will show you pictures once they are public, but for now, things remain secret.

I took a mitten class at Mind’s Eye Yarns and still have not finished knitting the first mitten, much less the second mitten. But I learned a few good tips along the way and am excited to use them.

Remember that white yarn I bought in Indianapolis? It was for some classes with Lucy Neatby, who is chock-full of amazing tips and tricks for knitting. I filled out a wishlist with stuff I want, from patterns to DVDs. Lucy is fun, smart and easy to learn from. I took three classes with her – buttonholes, finishing, and socks. Her handouts are invaluable. I took time off work and spent a pretty penny to learn from Lucy, and I would do it again in a heartbeat. She’s THAT good.

And then it was December…..the test knitting was finally finished, and then it was time to knit gifts! I knit hats for my brother-in-law and his wife (in grey and red Ushya yarn), and I did not, sadly, take any pictures of those hats. I also knit a hat for my mother-in-law in green, and again, no pictures. I do have pictures of the tiny slightly felted purse I made for my aunt-in-law (using handspun Portuguese Merino in the “A Bug’s Life” colorway) and the DNA scarf I made for my father-in-law out of Kauni (that I bought while in Halifax on my knitting cruise in July):

Felted wallet

DNA Scarf

So with all that done, I have started spinning again….although I find I cannot spin for hours like I used to. I’ll have to work up to that again. In the meantime, I’ve been spinning an hour or two at a time in the evenings, and yesterday I took a break to knit myself the Mind’s Eye Yarns free Waffle Stitch Hat pattern, so I could finally have a hat for myself:

my hat!

It was super-quick to knit, and I love it!
It’s been a while since I last wrote. 2 months and 2 weeks, website like this to be exact. And my life has not been devoid of knitting nor crafty stuff….no, not at all! There has been a lot of travel, and not a ton of knitting…..but there has been some.

The first adventure I had after the last post was completely unexpected. I was at a conference in St. Paul, Minnesota, and I was reading a blog post by Stephanie Pearl McPhee where she mentioned flying from California to Minnesota. At first I thought “how cool, soon I’ll be flying from St. Paul to California!” and then I wondered, “will we overlap in the Twin Cities?” (If you don’t know, those cities border each other.)

The answer, my friends, is yes, and this happened at Steven Be:
Stephanie blesses my sock

Steven was absolutely fabulous and was in full force that day. The yarn shop has yarn and knitted things everywhere. I loved it from a chaotic good perspective. I bought some sock yarn and some sock needles, and immediately started in on a sock. And I had Stephanie sign some books, of course.

The next adventure I had was when I found the Common Cod Fiber Guild member, which she showed at Show and Tell during our September meeting. The pattern is called “Vestboro”, and this is how far I got as of mid-October, so it’s a pretty good bet to say that’s what I was working on:

Vestboro center

The knit shop was large, and had tons of yarn! Due to all my travel this year, I have not been knitting and spinning as much as I used to. Last November I stopped being able to keep up with my monthly fiber club, and I stayed behind all year. Suffice it to say, I am overflowing with yarn and fiber….and so is my fiber room. So I am limiting my souvenir yarn…for now.

The knit shop was full of women knitting, and wonderful local donuts, and instead of souvenir yarn I bought myself an accordion-type box to store my dpns in by size. It was a great place to spend several hours knitting.

I attended Rhinebeck aka NY Sheep & Wool, where I acquired a Bernina 1230 sewing machine, circa 1989–1998. I haven’t yet started playing with it, as I have been WAY too busy with other things – Halloween crafts, holiday gift knitting, and test knitting! At Rhinebeck I took 2 classes – a spinning class with Abby Franquemont (I can cross that off the bucket list now!) and a dyeing class with Gail Callahan, the Kangaroo Dyer, in which I learned a ton about dyeing and made this beautiful rainbow:

my rainbow of dyeing

I did not knit for much of September and October because I was doing other crafty things – specifically, I was hand-sewing my Halloween costume – Sally from the Nightmare Before Christmas. It came out better than I expected, which was great, because it was for an awesome wedding:

Julia as a nurse and me as Sally, from the Nightmare Before Christmas

And yes, I also knit the wig.

In November I was test knitting. And test knitting. And test knitting. I will show you pictures once they are public, but for now, things remain secret.

I took a mitten class at Mind’s Eye Yarns and still have not finished knitting the first mitten, much less the second mitten. But I learned a few good tips along the way and am excited to use them.

Remember that white yarn I bought in Indianapolis? It was for some classes with Lucy Neatby, who is chock-full of amazing tips and tricks for knitting. I filled out a wishlist with stuff I want, from patterns to DVDs. Lucy is fun, smart and easy to learn from. I took three classes with her – buttonholes, finishing, and socks. Her handouts are invaluable. I took time off work and spent a pretty penny to learn from Lucy, and I would do it again in a heartbeat. She’s THAT good.

And then it was December…..the test knitting was finally finished, and then it was time to knit gifts! I knit hats for my brother-in-law and his wife (in grey and red Ushya yarn), and I did not, sadly, take any pictures of those hats. I also knit a hat for my mother-in-law in green, and again, no pictures. I do have pictures of the tiny slightly felted purse I made for my aunt-in-law (using handspun Portuguese Merino in the “A Bug’s Life” colorway) and the DNA scarf I made for my father-in-law out of Kauni (that I bought while in Halifax on my knitting cruise in July):

Felted wallet

DNA Scarf

So with all that done, I have started spinning again….although I find I cannot spin for hours like I used to. I’ll have to work up to that again. In the meantime, I’ve been spinning an hour or two at a time in the evenings, and yesterday I took a break to knit myself the Mind’s Eye Yarns free Waffle Stitch Hat pattern, so I could finally have a hat for myself:

my hat!

It was super-quick to knit, and I love it!
It’s been a while since I last wrote. 2 months and 2 weeks, viagra 40mg to be exact. And my life has not been devoid of knitting nor crafty stuff….no, generic not at all! There has been a lot of travel, erectile and not a ton of knitting…..but there has been some.

The first adventure I had after the last post was completely unexpected. I was at a conference in St. Paul, Minnesota, and I was reading a blog post by Stephanie Pearl McPhee where she mentioned flying from California to Minnesota. At first I thought “how cool, soon I’ll be flying from St. Paul to California!” and then I wondered, “will we overlap in the Twin Cities?” (If you don’t know, those cities border each other.)

The answer, my friends, is yes, and this happened at Steven Be:
Stephanie blesses my sock

Steven was absolutely fabulous and was in full force that day. The yarn shop has yarn and knitted things everywhere. I loved it from a chaotic good perspective. I bought some sock yarn and some sock needles, and immediately started in on a sock. And I had Stephanie sign some books, of course.

The next adventure I had was when I found the Mass Ave Knit Shop in Indianapolis. It was about half a mile from the hotel I was staying at, and I spent several hours there on a Saturday before leaving for the airport. I picked up some plain white yarn (purpose to be revealed later) and knit for several hours….though at this point I cannot remember what I was knitting! For arguments’ sake, let’s say I was knitting a pattern from Jeri, a fellow Common Cod Fiber Guild member, which she showed at Show and Tell during our September meeting. The pattern is called “Vestboro”, and this is how far I got as of mid-October, so it’s a pretty good bet to say that’s what I was working on:

Vestboro center

The knit shop was large, and had tons of yarn! Due to all my travel this year, I have not been knitting and spinning as much as I used to. Last November I stopped being able to keep up with my monthly fiber club, and I stayed behind all year. Suffice it to say, I am overflowing with yarn and fiber….and so is my fiber room. So I am limiting my souvenir yarn…for now.

The knit shop was full of women knitting, and wonderful local donuts, and instead of souvenir yarn I bought myself an accordion-type box to store my dpns in by size. It was a great place to spend several hours knitting.

I attended Rhinebeck aka NY Sheep & Wool, where I acquired a Bernina 1230 sewing machine, circa 1989–1998. I haven’t yet started playing with it, as I have been WAY too busy with other things – Halloween crafts, holiday gift knitting, and test knitting! At Rhinebeck I took 2 classes – a spinning class with Abby Franquemont (I can cross that off the bucket list now!) and a dyeing class with Gail Callahan, the Kangaroo Dyer, in which I learned a ton about dyeing and made this beautiful rainbow:

my rainbow of dyeing

I did not knit for much of September and October because I was doing other crafty things – specifically, I was hand-sewing my Halloween costume – Sally from the Nightmare Before Christmas. It came out better than I expected, which was great, because it was for an awesome wedding:

Julia as a nurse and me as Sally, from the Nightmare Before Christmas

And yes, I also knit the wig.

In November I was test knitting. And test knitting. And test knitting. I will show you pictures once they are public, but for now, things remain secret.

I took a mitten class at Mind’s Eye Yarns and still have not finished knitting the first mitten, much less the second mitten. But I learned a few good tips along the way and am excited to use them.

Remember that white yarn I bought in Indianapolis? It was for some classes with Lucy Neatby, who is chock-full of amazing tips and tricks for knitting. I filled out a wishlist with stuff I want, from patterns to DVDs. Lucy is fun, smart and easy to learn from. I took three classes with her – buttonholes, finishing, and socks. Her handouts are invaluable. I took time off work and spent a pretty penny to learn from Lucy, and I would do it again in a heartbeat. She’s THAT good.

And then it was December…..the test knitting was finally finished, and then it was time to knit gifts! I knit hats for my brother-in-law and his wife (in grey and red Ushya yarn), and I did not, sadly, take any pictures of those hats. I also knit a hat for my mother-in-law in green, and again, no pictures. I do have pictures of the tiny slightly felted purse I made for my aunt-in-law (using handspun Portuguese Merino in the “A Bug’s Life” colorway) and the DNA scarf I made for my father-in-law out of Kauni (that I bought while in Halifax on my knitting cruise in July):

Felted wallet

DNA Scarf

And then during and after Christmas I knit 2 chemo caps for a cousin-in-law – one was brown and one was black with sequins (so she’d have “evening hair”) – here’s a pic of me modeling the brown one:

So with all that done, I have started spinning again….although I find I cannot spin for hours like I used to. I’ll have to work up to that again. In the meantime, I’ve been spinning an hour or two at a time in the evenings, and yesterday I took a break to knit myself the Mind’s Eye Yarns free Waffle Stitch Hat pattern, so I could finally have a hat for myself:

my hat!

It was super-quick to knit, and I love it!
It was very important that I write my previous post when I did – Wed 25 July – because the very next day, of the fun I had, but I’d also like to highlight the knitting I did.

I started knitting a Color Affection shawl, in some Novita Polku that I bought in Finland in May. I started the shawl the first day, which was mostly lounging around while we were in the port of Boston (where we all embarked) and then while the cruise ship was traveling. I continued the shawl on Friday 27 July, and then on Saturday 28 July we landed in the port of St. John’s, New Brunswick. I chose to take a bus to Fredericton, to see the city hall, learn some history, and visit Yarns on York to meet local knitters and take a class on Newfoundland Mittens, aka “Newfie Mitts”. I got a bit done, but I believe I will rip out what I’ve done, make it smaller, and do the “windows” in the multicolored black and the background/wrists in the green. Still, here’s the progress shot, even though this will be frogged later:

On Sunday, I chose to do one of the two classes offered at The Loop in Halifax. The class I chose was one on how to do thrummed mittens, and the instructor Mimi was amazing. I did not take the class for the Bermuda Scarf/shawl, but I heard that the 2nd class was not as great, probably due to the first class running very late and Mimi running out of steam (teaching 2 classes in one day is tough, and who knows if she even had time to eat!). Given that, I’m glad I did not stay for the 2nd class (I did buy the pattern and yarn for it, so I can make the shawl), and instead did a 10-mile bicycle tour of Halifax. At any rate, I did enjoy working on the thrummed mittens, and here is my progress (I haven’t done anything with it since that weekend):

And the inside looks like this:

I learned lots of great tips from Mimi, like using a wool with a lot of lanolin in it, so it’s “sticky” and holds the thrums in better.

There was a lot of knitting that weekend, and in the few weeks that followed. This past week I finished knitting Tony’s scarf, after having to spin more yarn and buy more on Cape Cod while helping a friend do the Pan-Mass Challenge at the beginning of August. I still have to finish the scarf by weaving in the ends and blocking it, but it’s finally the right length, and Tony will be able to use it this coming fall/winter.

I also finished the scarf I was weaving (the June Spunky Eclectic weaving club), but I still need to block it before taking a picture of it. A new weaving club for August is on its way, so I’ll have something new to warp soon.

I am not going on a plane until the end of September, and my next travel is scheduled for mid-September, around Rosh Hashanah – I will be going to the New York City area for 2 weekends (coming back to Boston for a wedding in between). I hope to finish the Color Affection Shawl soon, and get pictures of both it and the woven scarf before long.
It was very important that I write my previous post when I did – Wed 25 July – because the very next day, of the fun I had, but I’d also like to highlight the knitting I did.

I started knitting a Color Affection shawl, in some Novita Polku that I bought in Finland in May. I started the shawl the first day, which was mostly lounging around while we were in the port of Boston (where we all embarked) and then while the cruise ship was traveling. I continued the shawl on Friday 27 July, and then on Saturday 28 July we landed in the port of St. John’s, New Brunswick. I chose to take a bus to Fredericton, to see the city hall, learn some history, and visit Yarns on York to meet local knitters and take a class on Newfoundland Mittens, aka “Newfie Mitts”. I got a bit done, but I believe I will rip out what I’ve done, make it smaller, and do the “windows” in the multicolored black and the background/wrists in the green. Still, here’s the progress shot, even though this will be frogged later:

On Sunday, I chose to do one of the two classes offered at The Loop in Halifax. The class I chose was one on how to do thrummed mittens, and the instructor Mimi was amazing. I did not take the class for the Bermuda Scarf/shawl, but I heard that the 2nd class was not as great, probably due to the first class running very late and Mimi running out of steam (teaching 2 classes in one day is tough, and who knows if she even had time to eat!). Given that, I’m glad I did not stay for the 2nd class (I did buy the pattern and yarn for it, so I can make the shawl), and instead did a 10-mile bicycle tour of Halifax. At any rate, I did enjoy working on the thrummed mittens, and here is my progress (I haven’t done anything with it since that weekend):

And the inside looks like this:

I learned lots of great tips from Mimi, like using a wool with a lot of lanolin in it, so it’s “sticky” and holds the thrums in better.

There was a lot of knitting that weekend, and in the few weeks that followed. This past week I finished knitting Tony’s scarf, after having to spin more yarn and buy more on Cape Cod while helping a friend do the Pan-Mass Challenge at the beginning of August. I still have to finish the scarf by weaving in the ends and blocking it, but it’s finally the right length, and Tony will be able to use it this coming fall/winter.

I also finished the scarf I was weaving (the June Spunky Eclectic weaving club), but I still need to block it before taking a picture of it. A new weaving club for August is on its way, so I’ll have something new to warp soon.

I am not going on a plane until the end of September, and my next travel is scheduled for mid-September, around Rosh Hashanah – I will be going to the New York City area for 2 weekends (coming back to Boston for a wedding in between). I hope to finish the Color Affection Shawl soon, and get pictures of
So, online I mentioned in the last post that I had finished 2 objects – side effects and the June Spunky Eclectic Weaving Club, which I opted to do a table runner. It was my first experience with using a pick-up stick. I’m happy with how both came out (especially after ironing the scarf…I don’t even iron clothes!).

Crooked Little Tony scarf

Pick-up-sticks table runner

I’m thrilled with how drapey the table runner is. My only problem is that I have no idea what to do with it – it’s 33 inches by 22 inches. It’s too short for a scarf, but I don’t have an appropriate table to use it on. It’s a superwash merino/bamboo/viscose blend. Folded over a towel bar it’d make a very long kitchen or guest towel, I guess?

Any ideas?
So, , which I opted to do a table runner. It was my first experience with using a pick-up stick. I’m happy with how both came out (especially after ironing the scarf…I don’t even iron clothes!).

Crooked Little Tony scarf

Pick-up-sticks table runner

I’m thrilled with how drapey the table runner is. My only problem is that I have no idea what to do with it – it’s 33 inches by 22 inches. It’s too short for a scarf, but I don’t have an appropriate table to use it on. It’s a superwash merino/bamboo/viscose blend.
I am so excited about tonight’s Common Cod Fiber Guild Meeting featuring Pam Parmal of the Boston Museum of Fine Arts talking about the collection strategy for textiles and fashion. And since I last wrote, gonorrhea I have finished a few objects…..

The first is another Hoot Cardigan, this time made out of Universal Yarns Supreme Cotton Batik, that I picked up in Charlotte, North Carolina earlier this year. I love the Supreme Cotton line from Universal yarns, because it is super soft. Unfortunately, I have only been able to find it in LYS in North Carolina….I hear that is changing soon, though! Here’s the cardigan, made for a friend of mine who just had his first son:

And then there’s the August Weaving Club from Spunky Eclectic – cotton dishcloths! I did not follow the pattern; instead I tried out a herringbone/pinwheel pattern. It came out wonderfully!

I ended up making 2 towels, one a bit shorter because I ran out of warp, but here’s the shorter one hanging from a peg next to our sink (please excuse the dirty dishes and Guinness cans to be rinsed).

The bigger one is in constant use as Tony’s “potato cozy”. That’s not a euphemism, Tony eats a baked potato like one would eat an apple, whole and uncut. Because it’s hot, he uses a towel wrapped around it to hold it.

And finally, the pièce de résistance. This is a Color Affection Shawl that I made from 3 different skeins of Novita’s Polku yarn, which I acquired in Finland earlier this year.

Here’s a close-up shot of the ‘center’ of this assymmetrical shawl:

And a little zoomed out:

Here’s the full-size shot:

I also spun up a “fractal 3-ply” which I will write about next time.
I am so excited about tonight’s Common Cod Fiber Guild Meeting featuring Pam Parmal of the Boston Museum of Fine Arts talking about the collection strategy for textiles and fashion. And since I last wrote, condom I have finished a few objects…..

The first is another Hoot Cardigan, information pills this time made out of

And then there’s the August

The bigger one is in constant use as Tony’s “potato cozy”. That’s not a euphemism, Tony eats a baked potato like one would eat an apple, whole and uncut. Because it’s hot, he uses a towel wrapped around it to hold it.

And finally, the pièce de résistance. This is a Color Affection Shawl that I made from 3 different skeins of

And a little zoomed out:

Here’s the full-size shot:

After
I am so excited about tonight’s
Common Cod Fiber Guild Meeting featuring Pam Parmal of the Boston Museum of Fine Arts talking about the collection strategy for textiles and fashion. And since I last wrote, order I have finished a few objects…..

The first is another Hoot Cardigan, find this time made out of

And then there’s the August

The bigger one is in constant use as Tony’s “potato cozy”. That’s not a euphemism, Tony eats a baked potato like one would eat an apple, whole and uncut. Because it’s hot, he uses a towel wrapped around it to hold it.

And finally, the pièce de résistance. This is a Color Affection Shawl that I made from 3 different skeins of

And a little zoomed out:

Here’s the full-size shot:

I also spun up a “fractal 3-ply” which I will write about next time.
I am so excited about tonight’s
Common Cod Fiber Guild Meeting featuring Pam Parmal of the Boston Museum of Fine Arts talking about the collection strategy for textiles and fashion. And since I last wrote, more about I have finished a few objects…..

The first is another Hoot Cardigan, this time made out of Universal Yarns Supreme Cotton Batik, that I picked up in Charlotte, North Carolina earlier this year. I love the Supreme Cotton line from Universal yarns, because it is super soft. Unfortunately, I have only been able to find it in LYS in North Carolina….I hear that is changing soon, though! Here’s the cardigan, made for a friend of mine who just had his first son:

And then there’s the August Weaving Club from Spunky Eclectic – cotton dishcloths! I did not follow the pattern; instead I tried out a herringbone/pinwheel pattern. It came out wonderfully!

I ended up making 2 towels, one a bit shorter because I ran out of warp, but here’s the shorter one hanging from a peg next to our sink (please excuse the dirty dishes and Guinness cans to be rinsed).

The bigger one is in constant use as Tony’s “potato cozy”. That’s not a euphemism, Tony eats a baked potato like one would eat an apple, whole and uncut. Because it’s hot, he uses a towel wrapped around it to hold it.

And finally, the pièce de résistance. This is a Color Affection Shawl that I made from 3 different skeins of

And a little zoomed out:

Here’s the full-size shot:

I also spun up a “fractal 3-ply” which I will write about next time.
Buenos Aires has a span of a few blocks,
hospital not too far from the Malabia metro station* where there are many yarn shops, phthisiatrician I counted 15, and went into 11 of them before I had to stop. The shops are on Ave. Scalabrini Ortiz just southwest of Ave. Cordoba, towards Ave. Correintes. The Malabia metro station is on the corner of Correintes and Scalabrini Ortiz, which is 1 km away from the corner of Cordoba and Corrientes, and about half that until you see your first yarn shop. There was a small bit of yarn bombing between two of the stores:

Yarn shopping in Buenos Aires is quite different from what I’m used to in the States. The stores all look like this:

The yarn is beautiful, and well-organized, but there’s no signs as to what the yarn is made up of, how much it costs nor the gauge of the yarn. In addition, you’re not supposed to take the yarn out of the bins. If you look at the bottom right of that picture, you’ll see some white yarn and blue yarn that is actually sitting on top of a counter. That counter separates you from the wall, and there are people behind the counter who can help you get what you want.

So it’s very different from the experience I’m used to. I got the feeling that a lot of people knew exactly what they wanted to buy, or walked in and would say “do you have anything made of wool?” I was feeling a bit shy due to the language barrier, so I picked up a Spanish phrase: “solamente mirando” – it means “Just looking”. The people are friendly and willing to help, but I like the yarn buying process to be a solo activity.

There were 2 exceptions to the fact that most stores don’t give any information about their items.: Milana hilados and Yanabey. Milana hilados had tags like this near most of their yarn:

Note that that’s in Argentinian pesos, and at the time, this was less than USD $10 per 100g. Another thing to note is the price is per 100g, not per hank of yarn. You’d ask a sales associate to take the yarn down for you and they’d weigh it and ask you if that was OK (kind of like at the deli counter). Then they give you a slip of paper and you take it to a cash register, where you’re usually helped by someone else. Another interesting thing is that the stores seemed to be staffed by about half men, half women, which is very different from yarn stores in the States, which are probably about 90% staffed by women.

I bought 3 hanks of yarn there, for about $25:

Yanabey had signs like this:

These prices are still in Argentinian pesos, but they’re in kilos. So these prices are $171 for 1 kilo, which is $17.10 for 100g. This is a wall of “seda vegetal”, or “vegetable silk“. By the way, that’s about USD $35 per kilo. So I bought 6 skeins, which was just over a kilo, because the tree which this comes from (ceiba speciosa, or “silk floss tree”) is native to South America, and I haven’t seen “vegetable silk” in the US.

A lot of the stores have the recycled t-shirt yarn, and I bought some at Arte Natural:

BUTTONS!!!

I was thinking I might make a purse from the yarn, like this:

That purse is crocheted, but I’m sure I can come up with a knitted version.

Here’s what I bought from that store:

Here’s a Spanish primer for some important words:
cachemira – cashmere
acrílico – acrylic
lana – wool
seda – silk
alpaca – alpaca
hilo – yarn (plural: hilados)
Also, I found out that cashmerillo is just an acrylic yarn that’s very soft. Don’t be fooled by price, some of the acrylic yarns are *very* expensive, even more expensive than the wool.

I was very excited by the prospect of all these yarn stores, and after these three purchases I was done, and passed by 4 other yarn stores that I didn’t even walk into. In addition, there were at least 2 weaving stores, and another 2 fabric stores. Only one of the yarn stores had fiber to spin, and it looked like combed top, and was somewhat expensive (by US standards).

All in all, I was extremely satisfied by taking a few hours to shop for yarn, but I found the experience quite different from what I’m used to.

* I was instructed by a friend who had visited Buenos Aires to take a taxi to the corner of X and Y. However, I enjoy walking around and public transit, so I noticed the subway stop was not far, and decided to walk a few blocks. To those who are considering what to do, a taxi would have cost about 20 pesos (about USD $5) each way. The subway costs $5 for two rides, but of course is not door to door. Another thing to note about the subway is that it is not the most modern system:

And you will get plenty of people trying to make money – some play music, which you may be used to from other subway systems. Others will go around a subway car, handing out products, and then go around and either collect the product back or collect money. I was handed tissues and Disney books – or at least, they attempted to hand stuff to me, and I refused. It helped that I had knitting in my hands, but I saw them just place stuff on people’s laps if their hands were busy, so don’t just look away, make sure you actually refuse by shaking your head.

Note: I hope this article is helpful! Due to spam reasons, all articles on this site have comments disabled after a short time. If you want to leave feedback, you can tweet @sheeri or e-mail me at awfief at gmail dot com. (replace “at” with @ and
When I think of gradient spinning, visit I think of starting with “gradient-dyed fiber” such as Fiber Optics’ gradient collection. Sadly, I have not yet gotten my hands on on of them yet. However, a fractal 3-ply attempt last year gave me the push to try a kind of gradient spinning.

I got a great batt from Fiber Stash back in April at the Wild and Woolly Weekend in Vermont. The 3.7 oz batt is 98% Corriedale, 2% twinkle, in a blue-purple, light blue, and black – here it is, unrolled:

The first step was to divide it into three sections, for a 3-ply, so that each section had each of the three colors. I then split 2 of the sections into even thirds, based on the colors, and the last section was split into sixths based on colors. I split the sections based on weight.

The idea is a fractal ply, but because I am doing a 3-ply, I will do it so that 2 of the sections are the same color, and a third is changing. The middle is the part divided into six:

I finally finished spinning, plying, skeining and washing, and here’s what the finished result looks like:

I think a shawl is in order to show off the lovely and subtle color changes. This produced 284 yards of yarn at 12 wpi. I have an identical batt which I will spin the same way, and will knit with all of it to make a good-sized shawl.

When I think of gradient spinning, buy more about I think of starting with “gradient-dyed fiber” such as Fiber Optics’ gradient collection. Sadly, I have not yet gotten my hands on on of them yet. However, a fractal 3-ply attempt last year gave me the push to try a kind of gradient spinning.

I got a great batt from Fiber Stash back in April at the Wild and Woolly Weekend in Vermont. The 3.7 oz batt is 98% Corriedale, 2% twinkle, in a blue-purple, light blue, and black – here it is, unrolled:

The first step was to divide it into three sections, for a 3-ply, so that each section had each of the three colors. I then split 2 of the sections into even thirds, based on the colors, and the last section was split into sixths based on colors. The idea is a fractal ply, but because I am doing a 3-ply, I will do it so that 2 of the sections are the same color, and a third is changing. The middle is the part divided into six:

I finally finished spinning, plying, skeining and washing, and here’s what the finished result looks like:

I think a shawl is in order to show off the lovely color changes. This produced 284 yards of yarn at 12 wpi. I have an identical batt which I will spin the same way

Edited October 29, medicine 2012 – Unfortunately, ampoule Cat Bordhi has asked me to take the PDF instructions down. However, troche the same exact information is at the video I link to below, so you can still find the information you need.

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, 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.

I taught this at FiberCamp this past weekend, view 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, 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.
It’s been a while since I last wrote. 2 months and 2 weeks, not at all! There has been a lot of travel, and not a ton of knitting…..but there has been some.

The first adventure I had after the last post was completely unexpected. I was at a conference in St. Paul, Minnesota, and I was reading a blog post by Stephanie Pearl McPhee where she mentioned flying from California to Minnesota. At first I thought “how cool, soon I’ll be flying from St. Paul to California!” and then I wondered, “will we overlap in the Twin Cities?” (If you don’t know, those cities border each other.)

The answer, my friends, is yes, and this happened at Steven Be:
Stephanie blesses my sock

Steven was absolutely fabulous and was in full force that day. The yarn shop has yarn and knitted things everywhere. I loved it from a chaotic good perspective. I bought some sock yarn and some sock needles, and immediately started in on a sock. And I had Stephanie sign some books, of course.

The next adventure I had was when I found the Mass Ave Knit Shop in Indianapolis. It was about half a mile from the hotel I was staying at, and I spent several hours there on a Saturday before leaving for the airport. I picked up some plain white yarn (purpose to be revealed later) and knit for several hours….though at this point I cannot remember what I was knitting! For arguments’ sake, let’s say I was knitting a pattern from Jeri, a fellow Common Cod Fiber Guild member, which she showed at Show and Tell during our September meeting. The pattern is called “Vestboro”, and this is how far I got as of mid-October, so it’s a pretty good bet to say that’s what I was working on:

Vestboro center

The knit shop was large, and had tons of yarn! Due to all my travel this year, I have not been knitting and spinning as much as I used to. Last November I stopped being able to keep up with my monthly fiber club, and I stayed behind all year. Suffice it to say, I am overflowing with yarn and fiber….and so is my fiber room. So I am limiting my souvenir yarn…for now.

The knit shop was full of women knitting, and wonderful local donuts, and instead of souvenir yarn I bought myself an accordion-type box to store my dpns in by size. It was a great place to spend several hours knitting.

I attended Rhinebeck aka NY Sheep & Wool, where I acquired a Bernina 1230 sewing machine, circa 1989–1998. I haven’t yet started playing with it, as I have been WAY too busy with other things – Halloween crafts, holiday gift knitting, and test knitting! At Rhinebeck I took 2 classes – a spinning class with Abby Franquemont (I can cross that off the bucket list now!) and a dyeing class with Gail Callahan, the Kangaroo Dyer, in which I learned a ton about dyeing and made this beautiful rainbow:

my rainbow of dyeing

I did not knit for much of September and October because I was doing other crafty things – specifically, I was hand-sewing my Halloween costume – Sally from the Nightmare Before Christmas. It came out better than I expected, which was great, because it was for an awesome wedding:

Julia as a nurse and me as Sally, from the Nightmare Before Christmas

And yes, I also knit the wig.

In November I was test knitting. And test knitting. And test knitting. I will show you pictures once they are public, but for now, things remain secret.

I took a mitten class at Mind’s Eye Yarns and still have not finished knitting the first mitten, much less the second mitten. But I learned a few good tips along the way and am excited to use them.

Remember that white yarn I bought in Indianapolis? It was for some classes with Lucy Neatby, who is chock-full of amazing tips and tricks for knitting. I filled out a wishlist with stuff I want, from patterns to DVDs. Lucy is fun, smart and easy to learn from. I took three classes with her – buttonholes, finishing, and socks. Her handouts are invaluable. I took time off work and spent a pretty penny to learn from Lucy, and I would do it again in a heartbeat. She’s THAT good.

And then it was December…..the test knitting was finally finished, and then it was time to knit gifts! I knit hats for my brother-in-law and his wife (in grey and red Ushya yarn), and I did not, sadly, take any pictures of those hats. I also knit a hat for my mother-in-law in green, and again, no pictures. I do have pictures of the tiny slightly felted purse I made for my aunt-in-law (using handspun Portuguese Merino in the “A Bug’s Life” colorway) and the DNA scarf I made for my father-in-law out of Kauni (that I bought while in Halifax on my knitting cruise in July):

Felted wallet

DNA Scarf

And then during and after Christmas I knit 2 chemo caps for a cousin-in-law – one was brown and one was black with sequins (so she’d have “evening hair”) – here’s a pic of me modeling the brown one:

fun fur hat in brown

So with all that done, I have started spinning again….although I find I cannot spin for hours like I used to. I’ll have to work up to that again. In the meantime, I’ve been spinning an hour or two at a time in the evenings, and yesterday I took a break to knit myself the Mind’s Eye Yarns free Waffle Stitch Hat pattern, so I could finally have a hat for myself:

my hat!

It was super-quick to knit, and I love it!
It’s been a while since I last wrote. 2 months and 2 weeks, not at all! There has been a lot of travel, and not a ton of knitting…..but there has been some.

The first adventure I had was when I found the Common Cod Fiber Guild member, which she showed at Show and Tell during our September meeting. The pattern is called “Vestboro”, and this is how far I got as of mid-October, so it’s a pretty good bet to say that’s what I was working on:

Vestboro center

The knit shop was large, and had tons of yarn! Due to all my travel this year, I have not been knitting and spinning as much as I used to. Last November I stopped being able to keep up with my monthly fiber club, and I stayed behind all year. Suffice it to say, I am overflowing with yarn and fiber….and so is my fiber room. So I am limiting my souvenir yarn…for now.

The knit shop was full of women knitting, and wonderful local donuts, and instead of souvenir yarn I bought myself an accordion-type box to store my dpns in by size. It was a great place to spend several hours knitting.

I did
It’s been a while since I last wrote. 2 months and 2 weeks, psychotherapist to be exact. And my life has not been devoid of knitting nor crafty stuff….no, not at all! There has been a lot of travel, and not a ton of knitting…..but there has been some.

The first adventure I had after the last post was completely unexpected. I was at a conference in St. Paul, Minnesota, and I was reading a blog post by Stephanie Pearl McPhee where she mentioned flying from California to Minnesota. At first I thought “how cool, soon I’ll be flying from St. Paul to California!” and then I wondered, “will we overlap in the Twin Cities?” (If you don’t know, those cities border each other.)

The answer, my friends, is yes, and this happened at Steven Be:
Stephanie blesses my sock

Steven was absolutely fabulous and was in full force that day. The yarn shop has yarn and knitted things everywhere. I loved it from a chaotic good perspective. I bought some sock yarn and some sock needles, and immediately started in on a sock. And I had Stephanie sign some books, of course.

The next adventure I had was when I found the Common Cod Fiber Guild member, which she showed at Show and Tell during our September meeting. The pattern is called “Vestboro”, and this is how far I got as of mid-October, so it’s a pretty good bet to say that’s what I was working on:

Vestboro center

The knit shop was large, and had tons of yarn! Due to all my travel this year, I have not been knitting and spinning as much as I used to. Last November I stopped being able to keep up with my monthly fiber club, and I stayed behind all year. Suffice it to say, I am overflowing with yarn and fiber….and so is my fiber room. So I am limiting my souvenir yarn…for now.

The knit shop was full of women knitting, and wonderful local donuts, and instead of souvenir yarn I bought myself an accordion-type box to store my dpns in by size. It was a great place to spend several hours knitting.

I attended Rhinebeck aka NY Sheep & Wool, where I acquired a Bernina 1230 sewing machine, circa 1989–1998. I haven’t yet started playing with it, as I have been WAY too busy with other things – Halloween crafts, holiday gift knitting, and test knitting! At Rhinebeck I took 2 classes – a spinning class with Abby Franquemont (I can cross that off the bucket list now!) and a dyeing class with Gail Callahan, the Kangaroo Dyer, in which I learned a ton about dyeing and made this beautiful rainbow:

my rainbow of dyeing

I did not knit for much of September and October because I was doing other crafty things – specifically, I was hand-sewing my Halloween costume – Sally from the Nightmare Before Christmas. It came out better than I expected, which was great, because it was for an awesome wedding:

Julia as a nurse and me as Sally, from the Nightmare Before Christmas

And yes, I also knit the wig.

In November I was test knitting. And test knitting. And test knitting. I will show you pictures once they are public, but for now, things remain secret.

I took a mitten class at Mind’s Eye Yarns and still have not finished knitting the first mitten, much less the second mitten. But I learned a few good tips along the way and am excited to use them.

Remember that white yarn I bought in Indianapolis? It was for some classes with Lucy Neatby, who is chock-full of amazing tips and tricks for knitting. I filled out a wishlist with stuff I want, from patterns to DVDs. Lucy is fun, smart and easy to learn from. I took three classes with her – buttonholes, finishing, and socks. Her handouts are invaluable. I took time off work and spent a pretty penny to learn from Lucy, and I would do it again in a heartbeat. She’s THAT good.

And then it was December…..the test knitting was finally finished, and then it was time to knit gifts! I knit hats for my brother-in-law and his wife (in grey and red Ushya yarn), and I did not, sadly, take any pictures of those hats. I also knit a hat for my mother-in-law in green, and again, no pictures. I do have pictures of the tiny slightly felted purse I made for my aunt-in-law (using handspun Portuguese Merino in the “A Bug’s Life” colorway) and the DNA scarf I made for my father-in-law out of Kauni (that I bought while in Halifax on my knitting cruise in July):

Felted wallet

DNA Scarf

So with all that done, I have started spinning again….although I find I cannot spin for hours like I used to. I’ll have to work up to that again. In the meantime, I’ve been spinning an hour or two at a time in the evenings, and yesterday I took a break to knit myself the Mind’s Eye Yarns free Waffle Stitch Hat pattern, so I could finally have a hat for myself:

my hat!

It was super-quick to knit, and I love it!
It’s been a while since I last wrote. 2 months and 2 weeks, website like this to be exact. And my life has not been devoid of knitting nor crafty stuff….no, not at all! There has been a lot of travel, and not a ton of knitting…..but there has been some.

The first adventure I had after the last post was completely unexpected. I was at a conference in St. Paul, Minnesota, and I was reading a blog post by Stephanie Pearl McPhee where she mentioned flying from California to Minnesota. At first I thought “how cool, soon I’ll be flying from St. Paul to California!” and then I wondered, “will we overlap in the Twin Cities?” (If you don’t know, those cities border each other.)

The answer, my friends, is yes, and this happened at Steven Be:
Stephanie blesses my sock

Steven was absolutely fabulous and was in full force that day. The yarn shop has yarn and knitted things everywhere. I loved it from a chaotic good perspective. I bought some sock yarn and some sock needles, and immediately started in on a sock. And I had Stephanie sign some books, of course.

The next adventure I had was when I found the Common Cod Fiber Guild member, which she showed at Show and Tell during our September meeting. The pattern is called “Vestboro”, and this is how far I got as of mid-October, so it’s a pretty good bet to say that’s what I was working on:

Vestboro center

The knit shop was large, and had tons of yarn! Due to all my travel this year, I have not been knitting and spinning as much as I used to. Last November I stopped being able to keep up with my monthly fiber club, and I stayed behind all year. Suffice it to say, I am overflowing with yarn and fiber….and so is my fiber room. So I am limiting my souvenir yarn…for now.

The knit shop was full of women knitting, and wonderful local donuts, and instead of souvenir yarn I bought myself an accordion-type box to store my dpns in by size. It was a great place to spend several hours knitting.

I attended Rhinebeck aka NY Sheep & Wool, where I acquired a Bernina 1230 sewing machine, circa 1989–1998. I haven’t yet started playing with it, as I have been WAY too busy with other things – Halloween crafts, holiday gift knitting, and test knitting! At Rhinebeck I took 2 classes – a spinning class with Abby Franquemont (I can cross that off the bucket list now!) and a dyeing class with Gail Callahan, the Kangaroo Dyer, in which I learned a ton about dyeing and made this beautiful rainbow:

my rainbow of dyeing

I did not knit for much of September and October because I was doing other crafty things – specifically, I was hand-sewing my Halloween costume – Sally from the Nightmare Before Christmas. It came out better than I expected, which was great, because it was for an awesome wedding:

Julia as a nurse and me as Sally, from the Nightmare Before Christmas

And yes, I also knit the wig.

In November I was test knitting. And test knitting. And test knitting. I will show you pictures once they are public, but for now, things remain secret.

I took a mitten class at Mind’s Eye Yarns and still have not finished knitting the first mitten, much less the second mitten. But I learned a few good tips along the way and am excited to use them.

Remember that white yarn I bought in Indianapolis? It was for some classes with Lucy Neatby, who is chock-full of amazing tips and tricks for knitting. I filled out a wishlist with stuff I want, from patterns to DVDs. Lucy is fun, smart and easy to learn from. I took three classes with her – buttonholes, finishing, and socks. Her handouts are invaluable. I took time off work and spent a pretty penny to learn from Lucy, and I would do it again in a heartbeat. She’s THAT good.

And then it was December…..the test knitting was finally finished, and then it was time to knit gifts! I knit hats for my brother-in-law and his wife (in grey and red Ushya yarn), and I did not, sadly, take any pictures of those hats. I also knit a hat for my mother-in-law in green, and again, no pictures. I do have pictures of the tiny slightly felted purse I made for my aunt-in-law (using handspun Portuguese Merino in the “A Bug’s Life” colorway) and the DNA scarf I made for my father-in-law out of Kauni (that I bought while in Halifax on my knitting cruise in July):

Felted wallet

DNA Scarf

So with all that done, I have started spinning again….although I find I cannot spin for hours like I used to. I’ll have to work up to that again. In the meantime, I’ve been spinning an hour or two at a time in the evenings, and yesterday I took a break to knit myself the Mind’s Eye Yarns free Waffle Stitch Hat pattern, so I could finally have a hat for myself:

my hat!

It was super-quick to knit, and I love it!
It’s been a while since I last wrote. 2 months and 2 weeks, viagra 40mg to be exact. And my life has not been devoid of knitting nor crafty stuff….no, generic not at all! There has been a lot of travel, erectile and not a ton of knitting…..but there has been some.

The first adventure I had after the last post was completely unexpected. I was at a conference in St. Paul, Minnesota, and I was reading a blog post by Stephanie Pearl McPhee where she mentioned flying from California to Minnesota. At first I thought “how cool, soon I’ll be flying from St. Paul to California!” and then I wondered, “will we overlap in the Twin Cities?” (If you don’t know, those cities border each other.)

The answer, my friends, is yes, and this happened at Steven Be:
Stephanie blesses my sock

Steven was absolutely fabulous and was in full force that day. The yarn shop has yarn and knitted things everywhere. I loved it from a chaotic good perspective. I bought some sock yarn and some sock needles, and immediately started in on a sock. And I had Stephanie sign some books, of course.

The next adventure I had was when I found the Mass Ave Knit Shop in Indianapolis. It was about half a mile from the hotel I was staying at, and I spent several hours there on a Saturday before leaving for the airport. I picked up some plain white yarn (purpose to be revealed later) and knit for several hours….though at this point I cannot remember what I was knitting! For arguments’ sake, let’s say I was knitting a pattern from Jeri, a fellow Common Cod Fiber Guild member, which she showed at Show and Tell during our September meeting. The pattern is called “Vestboro”, and this is how far I got as of mid-October, so it’s a pretty good bet to say that’s what I was working on:

Vestboro center

The knit shop was large, and had tons of yarn! Due to all my travel this year, I have not been knitting and spinning as much as I used to. Last November I stopped being able to keep up with my monthly fiber club, and I stayed behind all year. Suffice it to say, I am overflowing with yarn and fiber….and so is my fiber room. So I am limiting my souvenir yarn…for now.

The knit shop was full of women knitting, and wonderful local donuts, and instead of souvenir yarn I bought myself an accordion-type box to store my dpns in by size. It was a great place to spend several hours knitting.

I attended Rhinebeck aka NY Sheep & Wool, where I acquired a Bernina 1230 sewing machine, circa 1989–1998. I haven’t yet started playing with it, as I have been WAY too busy with other things – Halloween crafts, holiday gift knitting, and test knitting! At Rhinebeck I took 2 classes – a spinning class with Abby Franquemont (I can cross that off the bucket list now!) and a dyeing class with Gail Callahan, the Kangaroo Dyer, in which I learned a ton about dyeing and made this beautiful rainbow:

my rainbow of dyeing

I did not knit for much of September and October because I was doing other crafty things – specifically, I was hand-sewing my Halloween costume – Sally from the Nightmare Before Christmas. It came out better than I expected, which was great, because it was for an awesome wedding:

Julia as a nurse and me as Sally, from the Nightmare Before Christmas

And yes, I also knit the wig.

In November I was test knitting. And test knitting. And test knitting. I will show you pictures once they are public, but for now, things remain secret.

I took a mitten class at Mind’s Eye Yarns and still have not finished knitting the first mitten, much less the second mitten. But I learned a few good tips along the way and am excited to use them.

Remember that white yarn I bought in Indianapolis? It was for some classes with Lucy Neatby, who is chock-full of amazing tips and tricks for knitting. I filled out a wishlist with stuff I want, from patterns to DVDs. Lucy is fun, smart and easy to learn from. I took three classes with her – buttonholes, finishing, and socks. Her handouts are invaluable. I took time off work and spent a pretty penny to learn from Lucy, and I would do it again in a heartbeat. She’s THAT good.

And then it was December…..the test knitting was finally finished, and then it was time to knit gifts! I knit hats for my brother-in-law and his wife (in grey and red Ushya yarn), and I did not, sadly, take any pictures of those hats. I also knit a hat for my mother-in-law in green, and again, no pictures. I do have pictures of the tiny slightly felted purse I made for my aunt-in-law (using handspun Portuguese Merino in the “A Bug’s Life” colorway) and the DNA scarf I made for my father-in-law out of Kauni (that I bought while in Halifax on my knitting cruise in July):

Felted wallet

DNA Scarf

And then during and after Christmas I knit 2 chemo caps for a cousin-in-law – one was brown and one was black with sequins (so she’d have “evening hair”) – here’s a pic of me modeling the brown one:

So with all that done, I have started spinning again….although I find I cannot spin for hours like I used to. I’ll have to work up to that again. In the meantime, I’ve been spinning an hour or two at a time in the evenings, and yesterday I took a break to knit myself the Mind’s Eye Yarns free Waffle Stitch Hat pattern, so I could finally have a hat for myself:

my hat!

It was super-quick to knit, and I love it!
It’s been a while since I last wrote. 2 months and 2 weeks, visit this to be exact. And my life has not been devoid of knitting nor crafty stuff….no, doctor not at all! There has been a lot of travel, nurse and not a ton of knitting…..but there has been some.

The first adventure I had after the last post was completely unexpected. I was at a conference in St. Paul, Minnesota, and I was reading a blog post by Stephanie Pearl McPhee where she mentioned flying from California to Minnesota. At first I thought “how cool, soon I’ll be flying from St. Paul to California!” and then I wondered, “will we overlap in the Twin Cities?” (If you don’t know, those cities border each other.)

The answer, my friends, is yes, and this happened at Steven Be:
Stephanie blesses my sock

Steven was absolutely fabulous and was in full force that day. The yarn shop has yarn and knitted things everywhere. I loved it from a chaotic good perspective. I bought some sock yarn and some sock needles, and immediately started in on a sock. And I had Stephanie sign some books, of course.

The next adventure I had was when I found the Mass Ave Knit Shop in Indianapolis. It was about half a mile from the hotel I was staying at, and I spent several hours there on a Saturday before leaving for the airport. I picked up some plain white yarn (purpose to be revealed later) and knit for several hours….though at this point I cannot remember what I was knitting! For arguments’ sake, let’s say I was knitting a pattern from Jeri, a fellow Common Cod Fiber Guild member, which she showed at Show and Tell during our September meeting. The pattern is called “Vestboro”, and this is how far I got as of mid-October, so it’s a pretty good bet to say that’s what I was working on:

Vestboro center

The knit shop was large, and had tons of yarn! Due to all my travel this year, I have not been knitting and spinning as much as I used to. Last November I stopped being able to keep up with my monthly fiber club, and I stayed behind all year. Suffice it to say, I am overflowing with yarn and fiber….and so is my fiber room. So I am limiting my souvenir yarn…for now.

The knit shop was full of women knitting, and wonderful local donuts, and instead of souvenir yarn I bought myself an accordion-type box to store my dpns in by size. It was a great place to spend several hours knitting.

I attended Rhinebeck aka NY Sheep & Wool, where I acquired a Bernina 1230 sewing machine, circa 1989–1998. I haven’t yet started playing with it, as I have been WAY too busy with other things – Halloween crafts, holiday gift knitting, and test knitting! At Rhinebeck I took 2 classes – a spinning class with Abby Franquemont (I can cross that off the bucket list now!) and a dyeing class with Gail Callahan, the Kangaroo Dyer, in which I learned a ton about dyeing and made this beautiful rainbow:

my rainbow of dyeing

I did not knit for much of September and October because I was doing other crafty things – specifically, I was hand-sewing my Halloween costume – Sally from the Nightmare Before Christmas. It came out better than I expected, which was great, because it was for an awesome wedding:

Julia as a nurse and me as Sally, from the Nightmare Before Christmas

And yes, I also knit the wig.

In November I was test knitting. And test knitting. And test knitting. I will show you pictures once they are public, but for now, things remain secret.

I took a mitten class at Mind’s Eye Yarns and still have not finished knitting the first mitten, much less the second mitten. But I learned a few good tips along the way and am excited to use them.

Remember that white yarn I bought in Indianapolis? It was for some classes with Lucy Neatby, who is chock-full of amazing tips and tricks for knitting. I filled out a wishlist with stuff I want, from patterns to DVDs. Lucy is fun, smart and easy to learn from. I took three classes with her – buttonholes, finishing, and socks. Her handouts are invaluable. I took time off work and spent a pretty penny to learn from Lucy, and I would do it again in a heartbeat. She’s THAT good.

And then it was December…..the test knitting was finally finished, and then it was time to knit gifts! I knit hats for my brother-in-law and his wife (in grey and red Ushya yarn), and I did not, sadly, take any pictures of those hats. I also knit a hat for my mother-in-law in green, and again, no pictures. I do have pictures of the tiny slightly felted purse I made for my aunt-in-law (using handspun Portuguese Merino in the “A Bug’s Life” colorway) and the DNA scarf I made for my father-in-law out of Kauni (that I bought while in Halifax on my knitting cruise in July):

Felted wallet

DNA Scarf

So with all that done, I have started spinning again….although I find I cannot spin for hours like I used to. I’ll have to work up to that again. In the meantime, I’ve been spinning an hour or two at a time in the evenings, and yesterday I took a break to knit myself the Mind’s Eye Yarns free Waffle Stitch Hat pattern, so I could finally have a hat for myself:

my hat!

It was super-quick to knit, and I love it!
It was very important that I write my previous post when I did – Wed 25 July – because the very next day, of the fun I had, but I’d also like to highlight the knitting I did.

I started knitting a Color Affection shawl, in some Novita Polku that I bought in Finland in May. I started the shawl the first day, which was mostly lounging around while we were in the port of Boston (where we all embarked) and then while the cruise ship was traveling. I continued the shawl on Friday 27 July, and then on Saturday 28 July we landed in the port of St. John’s, New Brunswick. I chose to take a bus to Fredericton, to see the city hall, learn some history, and visit Yarns on York to meet local knitters and take a class on Newfoundland Mittens, aka “Newfie Mitts”. I got a bit done, but I believe I will rip out what I’ve done, make it smaller, and do the “windows” in the multicolored black and the background/wrists in the green. Still, here’s the progress shot, even though this will be frogged later:

On Sunday, I chose to do one of the two classes offered at The Loop in Halifax. The class I chose was one on how to do thrummed mittens, and the instructor Mimi was amazing. I did not take the class for the Bermuda Scarf/shawl, but I heard that the 2nd class was not as great, probably due to the first class running very late and Mimi running out of steam (teaching 2 classes in one day is tough, and who knows if she even had time to eat!). Given that, I’m glad I did not stay for the 2nd class (I did buy the pattern and yarn for it, so I can make the shawl), and instead did a 10-mile bicycle tour of Halifax. At any rate, I did enjoy working on the thrummed mittens, and here is my progress (I haven’t done anything with it since that weekend):

And the inside looks like this:

I learned lots of great tips from Mimi, like using a wool with a lot of lanolin in it, so it’s “sticky” and holds the thrums in better.

There was a lot of knitting that weekend, and in the few weeks that followed. This past week I finished knitting Tony’s scarf, after having to spin more yarn and buy more on Cape Cod while helping a friend do the Pan-Mass Challenge at the beginning of August. I still have to finish the scarf by weaving in the ends and blocking it, but it’s finally the right length, and Tony will be able to use it this coming fall/winter.

I also finished the scarf I was weaving (the June Spunky Eclectic weaving club), but I still need to block it before taking a picture of it. A new weaving club for August is on its way, so I’ll have something new to warp soon.

I am not going on a plane until the end of September, and my next travel is scheduled for mid-September, around Rosh Hashanah – I will be going to the New York City area for 2 weekends (coming back to Boston for a wedding in between). I hope to finish the Color Affection Shawl soon, and get pictures of both it and the woven scarf before long.
It was very important that I write my previous post when I did – Wed 25 July – because the very next day, of the fun I had, but I’d also like to highlight the knitting I did.

I started knitting a Color Affection shawl, in some Novita Polku that I bought in Finland in May. I started the shawl the first day, which was mostly lounging around while we were in the port of Boston (where we all embarked) and then while the cruise ship was traveling. I continued the shawl on Friday 27 July, and then on Saturday 28 July we landed in the port of St. John’s, New Brunswick. I chose to take a bus to Fredericton, to see the city hall, learn some history, and visit Yarns on York to meet local knitters and take a class on Newfoundland Mittens, aka “Newfie Mitts”. I got a bit done, but I believe I will rip out what I’ve done, make it smaller, and do the “windows” in the multicolored black and the background/wrists in the green. Still, here’s the progress shot, even though this will be frogged later:

On Sunday, I chose to do one of the two classes offered at The Loop in Halifax. The class I chose was one on how to do thrummed mittens, and the instructor Mimi was amazing. I did not take the class for the Bermuda Scarf/shawl, but I heard that the 2nd class was not as great, probably due to the first class running very late and Mimi running out of steam (teaching 2 classes in one day is tough, and who knows if she even had time to eat!). Given that, I’m glad I did not stay for the 2nd class (I did buy the pattern and yarn for it, so I can make the shawl), and instead did a 10-mile bicycle tour of Halifax. At any rate, I did enjoy working on the thrummed mittens, and here is my progress (I haven’t done anything with it since that weekend):

And the inside looks like this:

I learned lots of great tips from Mimi, like using a wool with a lot of lanolin in it, so it’s “sticky” and holds the thrums in better.

There was a lot of knitting that weekend, and in the few weeks that followed. This past week I finished knitting Tony’s scarf, after having to spin more yarn and buy more on Cape Cod while helping a friend do the Pan-Mass Challenge at the beginning of August. I still have to finish the scarf by weaving in the ends and blocking it, but it’s finally the right length, and Tony will be able to use it this coming fall/winter.

I also finished the scarf I was weaving (the June Spunky Eclectic weaving club), but I still need to block it before taking a picture of it. A new weaving club for August is on its way, so I’ll have something new to warp soon.

I am not going on a plane until the end of September, and my next travel is scheduled for mid-September, around Rosh Hashanah – I will be going to the New York City area for 2 weekends (coming back to Boston for a wedding in between). I hope to finish the Color Affection Shawl soon, and get pictures of
So, online I mentioned in the last post that I had finished 2 objects – side effects and the June Spunky Eclectic Weaving Club, which I opted to do a table runner. It was my first experience with using a pick-up stick. I’m happy with how both came out (especially after ironing the scarf…I don’t even iron clothes!).

Crooked Little Tony scarf

Pick-up-sticks table runner

I’m thrilled with how drapey the table runner is. My only problem is that I have no idea what to do with it – it’s 33 inches by 22 inches. It’s too short for a scarf, but I don’t have an appropriate table to use it on. It’s a superwash merino/bamboo/viscose blend. Folded over a towel bar it’d make a very long kitchen or guest towel, I guess?

Any ideas?
So, , which I opted to do a table runner. It was my first experience with using a pick-up stick. I’m happy with how both came out (especially after ironing the scarf…I don’t even iron clothes!).

Crooked Little Tony scarf

Pick-up-sticks table runner

I’m thrilled with how drapey the table runner is. My only problem is that I have no idea what to do with it – it’s 33 inches by 22 inches. It’s too short for a scarf, but I don’t have an appropriate table to use it on. It’s a superwash merino/bamboo/viscose blend.
I am so excited about tonight’s Common Cod Fiber Guild Meeting featuring Pam Parmal of the Boston Museum of Fine Arts talking about the collection strategy for textiles and fashion. And since I last wrote, gonorrhea I have finished a few objects…..

The first is another Hoot Cardigan, this time made out of Universal Yarns Supreme Cotton Batik, that I picked up in Charlotte, North Carolina earlier this year. I love the Supreme Cotton line from Universal yarns, because it is super soft. Unfortunately, I have only been able to find it in LYS in North Carolina….I hear that is changing soon, though! Here’s the cardigan, made for a friend of mine who just had his first son:

And then there’s the August Weaving Club from Spunky Eclectic – cotton dishcloths! I did not follow the pattern; instead I tried out a herringbone/pinwheel pattern. It came out wonderfully!

I ended up making 2 towels, one a bit shorter because I ran out of warp, but here’s the shorter one hanging from a peg next to our sink (please excuse the dirty dishes and Guinness cans to be rinsed).

The bigger one is in constant use as Tony’s “potato cozy”. That’s not a euphemism, Tony eats a baked potato like one would eat an apple, whole and uncut. Because it’s hot, he uses a towel wrapped around it to hold it.

And finally, the pièce de résistance. This is a Color Affection Shawl that I made from 3 different skeins of Novita’s Polku yarn, which I acquired in Finland earlier this year.

Here’s a close-up shot of the ‘center’ of this assymmetrical shawl:

And a little zoomed out:

Here’s the full-size shot:

I also spun up a “fractal 3-ply” which I will write about next time.
I am so excited about tonight’s Common Cod Fiber Guild Meeting featuring Pam Parmal of the Boston Museum of Fine Arts talking about the collection strategy for textiles and fashion. And since I last wrote, condom I have finished a few objects…..

The first is another Hoot Cardigan, information pills this time made out of

And then there’s the August

The bigger one is in constant use as Tony’s “potato cozy”. That’s not a euphemism, Tony eats a baked potato like one would eat an apple, whole and uncut. Because it’s hot, he uses a towel wrapped around it to hold it.

And finally, the pièce de résistance. This is a Color Affection Shawl that I made from 3 different skeins of

And a little zoomed out:

Here’s the full-size shot:

After
I am so excited about tonight’s
Common Cod Fiber Guild Meeting featuring Pam Parmal of the Boston Museum of Fine Arts talking about the collection strategy for textiles and fashion. And since I last wrote, order I have finished a few objects…..

The first is another Hoot Cardigan, find this time made out of

And then there’s the August

The bigger one is in constant use as Tony’s “potato cozy”. That’s not a euphemism, Tony eats a baked potato like one would eat an apple, whole and uncut. Because it’s hot, he uses a towel wrapped around it to hold it.

And finally, the pièce de résistance. This is a Color Affection Shawl that I made from 3 different skeins of

And a little zoomed out:

Here’s the full-size shot:

I also spun up a “fractal 3-ply” which I will write about next time.
I am so excited about tonight’s
Common Cod Fiber Guild Meeting featuring Pam Parmal of the Boston Museum of Fine Arts talking about the collection strategy for textiles and fashion. And since I last wrote, more about I have finished a few objects…..

The first is another Hoot Cardigan, this time made out of Universal Yarns Supreme Cotton Batik, that I picked up in Charlotte, North Carolina earlier this year. I love the Supreme Cotton line from Universal yarns, because it is super soft. Unfortunately, I have only been able to find it in LYS in North Carolina….I hear that is changing soon, though! Here’s the cardigan, made for a friend of mine who just had his first son:

And then there’s the August Weaving Club from Spunky Eclectic – cotton dishcloths! I did not follow the pattern; instead I tried out a herringbone/pinwheel pattern. It came out wonderfully!

I ended up making 2 towels, one a bit shorter because I ran out of warp, but here’s the shorter one hanging from a peg next to our sink (please excuse the dirty dishes and Guinness cans to be rinsed).

The bigger one is in constant use as Tony’s “potato cozy”. That’s not a euphemism, Tony eats a baked potato like one would eat an apple, whole and uncut. Because it’s hot, he uses a towel wrapped around it to hold it.

And finally, the pièce de résistance. This is a Color Affection Shawl that I made from 3 different skeins of

And a little zoomed out:

Here’s the full-size shot:

I also spun up a “fractal 3-ply” which I will write about next time.
Buenos Aires has a span of a few blocks,
hospital not too far from the Malabia metro station* where there are many yarn shops, phthisiatrician I counted 15, and went into 11 of them before I had to stop. The shops are on Ave. Scalabrini Ortiz just southwest of Ave. Cordoba, towards Ave. Correintes. The Malabia metro station is on the corner of Correintes and Scalabrini Ortiz, which is 1 km away from the corner of Cordoba and Corrientes, and about half that until you see your first yarn shop. There was a small bit of yarn bombing between two of the stores:

Yarn shopping in Buenos Aires is quite different from what I’m used to in the States. The stores all look like this:

The yarn is beautiful, and well-organized, but there’s no signs as to what the yarn is made up of, how much it costs nor the gauge of the yarn. In addition, you’re not supposed to take the yarn out of the bins. If you look at the bottom right of that picture, you’ll see some white yarn and blue yarn that is actually sitting on top of a counter. That counter separates you from the wall, and there are people behind the counter who can help you get what you want.

So it’s very different from the experience I’m used to. I got the feeling that a lot of people knew exactly what they wanted to buy, or walked in and would say “do you have anything made of wool?” I was feeling a bit shy due to the language barrier, so I picked up a Spanish phrase: “solamente mirando” – it means “Just looking”. The people are friendly and willing to help, but I like the yarn buying process to be a solo activity.

There were 2 exceptions to the fact that most stores don’t give any information about their items.: Milana hilados and Yanabey. Milana hilados had tags like this near most of their yarn:

Note that that’s in Argentinian pesos, and at the time, this was less than USD $10 per 100g. Another thing to note is the price is per 100g, not per hank of yarn. You’d ask a sales associate to take the yarn down for you and they’d weigh it and ask you if that was OK (kind of like at the deli counter). Then they give you a slip of paper and you take it to a cash register, where you’re usually helped by someone else. Another interesting thing is that the stores seemed to be staffed by about half men, half women, which is very different from yarn stores in the States, which are probably about 90% staffed by women.

I bought 3 hanks of yarn there, for about $25:

Yanabey had signs like this:

These prices are still in Argentinian pesos, but they’re in kilos. So these prices are $171 for 1 kilo, which is $17.10 for 100g. This is a wall of “seda vegetal”, or “vegetable silk“. By the way, that’s about USD $35 per kilo. So I bought 6 skeins, which was just over a kilo, because the tree which this comes from (ceiba speciosa, or “silk floss tree”) is native to South America, and I haven’t seen “vegetable silk” in the US.

A lot of the stores have the recycled t-shirt yarn, and I bought some at Arte Natural:

BUTTONS!!!

I was thinking I might make a purse from the yarn, like this:

That purse is crocheted, but I’m sure I can come up with a knitted version.

Here’s what I bought from that store:

Here’s a Spanish primer for some important words:
cachemira – cashmere
acrílico – acrylic
lana – wool
seda – silk
alpaca – alpaca
hilo – yarn (plural: hilados)
Also, I found out that cashmerillo is just an acrylic yarn that’s very soft. Don’t be fooled by price, some of the acrylic yarns are *very* expensive, even more expensive than the wool.

I was very excited by the prospect of all these yarn stores, and after these three purchases I was done, and passed by 4 other yarn stores that I didn’t even walk into. In addition, there were at least 2 weaving stores, and another 2 fabric stores. Only one of the yarn stores had fiber to spin, and it looked like combed top, and was somewhat expensive (by US standards).

All in all, I was extremely satisfied by taking a few hours to shop for yarn, but I found the experience quite different from what I’m used to.

* I was instructed by a friend who had visited Buenos Aires to take a taxi to the corner of X and Y. However, I enjoy walking around and public transit, so I noticed the subway stop was not far, and decided to walk a few blocks. To those who are considering what to do, a taxi would have cost about 20 pesos (about USD $5) each way. The subway costs $5 for two rides, but of course is not door to door. Another thing to note about the subway is that it is not the most modern system:

And you will get plenty of people trying to make money – some play music, which you may be used to from other subway systems. Others will go around a subway car, handing out products, and then go around and either collect the product back or collect money. I was handed tissues and Disney books – or at least, they attempted to hand stuff to me, and I refused. It helped that I had knitting in my hands, but I saw them just place stuff on people’s laps if their hands were busy, so don’t just look away, make sure you actually refuse by shaking your head.

Note: I hope this article is helpful! Due to spam reasons, all articles on this site have comments disabled after a short time. If you want to leave feedback, you can tweet @sheeri or e-mail me at awfief at gmail dot com. (replace “at” with @ and
When I think of gradient spinning, visit I think of starting with “gradient-dyed fiber” such as Fiber Optics’ gradient collection. Sadly, I have not yet gotten my hands on on of them yet. However, a fractal 3-ply attempt last year gave me the push to try a kind of gradient spinning.

I got a great batt from Fiber Stash back in April at the Wild and Woolly Weekend in Vermont. The 3.7 oz batt is 98% Corriedale, 2% twinkle, in a blue-purple, light blue, and black – here it is, unrolled:

The first step was to divide it into three sections, for a 3-ply, so that each section had each of the three colors. I then split 2 of the sections into even thirds, based on the colors, and the last section was split into sixths based on colors. I split the sections based on weight.

The idea is a fractal ply, but because I am doing a 3-ply, I will do it so that 2 of the sections are the same color, and a third is changing. The middle is the part divided into six:

I finally finished spinning, plying, skeining and washing, and here’s what the finished result looks like:

I think a shawl is in order to show off the lovely and subtle color changes. This produced 284 yards of yarn at 12 wpi. I have an identical batt which I will spin the same way, and will knit with all of it to make a good-sized shawl.

When I think of gradient spinning, buy more about I think of starting with “gradient-dyed fiber” such as Fiber Optics’ gradient collection. Sadly, I have not yet gotten my hands on on of them yet. However, a fractal 3-ply attempt last year gave me the push to try a kind of gradient spinning.

I got a great batt from Fiber Stash back in April at the Wild and Woolly Weekend in Vermont. The 3.7 oz batt is 98% Corriedale, 2% twinkle, in a blue-purple, light blue, and black – here it is, unrolled:

The first step was to divide it into three sections, for a 3-ply, so that each section had each of the three colors. I then split 2 of the sections into even thirds, based on the colors, and the last section was split into sixths based on colors. The idea is a fractal ply, but because I am doing a 3-ply, I will do it so that 2 of the sections are the same color, and a third is changing. The middle is the part divided into six:

I finally finished spinning, plying, skeining and washing, and here’s what the finished result looks like:

I think a shawl is in order to show off the lovely color changes. This produced 284 yards of yarn at 12 wpi. I have an identical batt which I will spin the same way

Edited October 29, medicine 2012 – Unfortunately, ampoule Cat Bordhi has asked me to take the PDF instructions down. However, troche the same exact information is at the video I link to below, so you can still find the information you need.

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, 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.

I taught this at FiberCamp this past weekend, view 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, 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.
It’s been a while since I last wrote. 2 months and 2 weeks, not at all! There has been a lot of travel, and not a ton of knitting…..but there has been some.

The first adventure I had after the last post was completely unexpected. I was at a conference in St. Paul, Minnesota, and I was reading a blog post by Stephanie Pearl McPhee where she mentioned flying from California to Minnesota. At first I thought “how cool, soon I’ll be flying from St. Paul to California!” and then I wondered, “will we overlap in the Twin Cities?” (If you don’t know, those cities border each other.)

The answer, my friends, is yes, and this happened at Steven Be:
Stephanie blesses my sock

Steven was absolutely fabulous and was in full force that day. The yarn shop has yarn and knitted things everywhere. I loved it from a chaotic good perspective. I bought some sock yarn and some sock needles, and immediately started in on a sock. And I had Stephanie sign some books, of course.

The next adventure I had was when I found the Mass Ave Knit Shop in Indianapolis. It was about half a mile from the hotel I was staying at, and I spent several hours there on a Saturday before leaving for the airport. I picked up some plain white yarn (purpose to be revealed later) and knit for several hours….though at this point I cannot remember what I was knitting! For arguments’ sake, let’s say I was knitting a pattern from Jeri, a fellow Common Cod Fiber Guild member, which she showed at Show and Tell during our September meeting. The pattern is called “Vestboro”, and this is how far I got as of mid-October, so it’s a pretty good bet to say that’s what I was working on:

Vestboro center

The knit shop was large, and had tons of yarn! Due to all my travel this year, I have not been knitting and spinning as much as I used to. Last November I stopped being able to keep up with my monthly fiber club, and I stayed behind all year. Suffice it to say, I am overflowing with yarn and fiber….and so is my fiber room. So I am limiting my souvenir yarn…for now.

The knit shop was full of women knitting, and wonderful local donuts, and instead of souvenir yarn I bought myself an accordion-type box to store my dpns in by size. It was a great place to spend several hours knitting.

I attended Rhinebeck aka NY Sheep & Wool, where I acquired a Bernina 1230 sewing machine, circa 1989–1998. I haven’t yet started playing with it, as I have been WAY too busy with other things – Halloween crafts, holiday gift knitting, and test knitting! At Rhinebeck I took 2 classes – a spinning class with Abby Franquemont (I can cross that off the bucket list now!) and a dyeing class with Gail Callahan, the Kangaroo Dyer, in which I learned a ton about dyeing and made this beautiful rainbow:

my rainbow of dyeing

I did not knit for much of September and October because I was doing other crafty things – specifically, I was hand-sewing my Halloween costume – Sally from the Nightmare Before Christmas. It came out better than I expected, which was great, because it was for an awesome wedding:

Julia as a nurse and me as Sally, from the Nightmare Before Christmas

And yes, I also knit the wig.

In November I was test knitting. And test knitting. And test knitting. I will show you pictures once they are public, but for now, things remain secret.

I took a mitten class at Mind’s Eye Yarns and still have not finished knitting the first mitten, much less the second mitten. But I learned a few good tips along the way and am excited to use them.

Remember that white yarn I bought in Indianapolis? It was for some classes with Lucy Neatby, who is chock-full of amazing tips and tricks for knitting. I filled out a wishlist with stuff I want, from patterns to DVDs. Lucy is fun, smart and easy to learn from. I took three classes with her – buttonholes, finishing, and socks. Her handouts are invaluable. I took time off work and spent a pretty penny to learn from Lucy, and I would do it again in a heartbeat. She’s THAT good.

And then it was December…..the test knitting was finally finished, and then it was time to knit gifts! I knit hats for my brother-in-law and his wife (in grey and red Ushya yarn), and I did not, sadly, take any pictures of those hats. I also knit a hat for my mother-in-law in green, and again, no pictures. I do have pictures of the tiny slightly felted purse I made for my aunt-in-law (using handspun Portuguese Merino in the “A Bug’s Life” colorway) and the DNA scarf I made for my father-in-law out of Kauni (that I bought while in Halifax on my knitting cruise in July):

Felted wallet

DNA Scarf

And then during and after Christmas I knit 2 chemo caps for a cousin-in-law – one was brown and one was black with sequins (so she’d have “evening hair”) – here’s a pic of me modeling the brown one:

fun fur hat in brown

So with all that done, I have started spinning again….although I find I cannot spin for hours like I used to. I’ll have to work up to that again. In the meantime, I’ve been spinning an hour or two at a time in the evenings, and yesterday I took a break to knit myself the Mind’s Eye Yarns free Waffle Stitch Hat pattern, so I could finally have a hat for myself:

my hat!

It was super-quick to knit, and I love it!
It’s been a while since I last wrote. 2 months and 2 weeks, not at all! There has been a lot of travel, and not a ton of knitting…..but there has been some.

The first adventure I had was when I found the Common Cod Fiber Guild member, which she showed at Show and Tell during our September meeting. The pattern is called “Vestboro”, and this is how far I got as of mid-October, so it’s a pretty good bet to say that’s what I was working on:

Vestboro center

The knit shop was large, and had tons of yarn! Due to all my travel this year, I have not been knitting and spinning as much as I used to. Last November I stopped being able to keep up with my monthly fiber club, and I stayed behind all year. Suffice it to say, I am overflowing with yarn and fiber….and so is my fiber room. So I am limiting my souvenir yarn…for now.

The knit shop was full of women knitting, and wonderful local donuts, and instead of souvenir yarn I bought myself an accordion-type box to store my dpns in by size. It was a great place to spend several hours knitting.

I did
It’s been a while since I last wrote. 2 months and 2 weeks, psychotherapist to be exact. And my life has not been devoid of knitting nor crafty stuff….no, not at all! There has been a lot of travel, and not a ton of knitting…..but there has been some.

The first adventure I had after the last post was completely unexpected. I was at a conference in St. Paul, Minnesota, and I was reading a blog post by Stephanie Pearl McPhee where she mentioned flying from California to Minnesota. At first I thought “how cool, soon I’ll be flying from St. Paul to California!” and then I wondered, “will we overlap in the Twin Cities?” (If you don’t know, those cities border each other.)

The answer, my friends, is yes, and this happened at Steven Be:
Stephanie blesses my sock

Steven was absolutely fabulous and was in full force that day. The yarn shop has yarn and knitted things everywhere. I loved it from a chaotic good perspective. I bought some sock yarn and some sock needles, and immediately started in on a sock. And I had Stephanie sign some books, of course.

The next adventure I had was when I found the Common Cod Fiber Guild member, which she showed at Show and Tell during our September meeting. The pattern is called “Vestboro”, and this is how far I got as of mid-October, so it’s a pretty good bet to say that’s what I was working on:

Vestboro center

The knit shop was large, and had tons of yarn! Due to all my travel this year, I have not been knitting and spinning as much as I used to. Last November I stopped being able to keep up with my monthly fiber club, and I stayed behind all year. Suffice it to say, I am overflowing with yarn and fiber….and so is my fiber room. So I am limiting my souvenir yarn…for now.

The knit shop was full of women knitting, and wonderful local donuts, and instead of souvenir yarn I bought myself an accordion-type box to store my dpns in by size. It was a great place to spend several hours knitting.

I attended Rhinebeck aka NY Sheep & Wool, where I acquired a Bernina 1230 sewing machine, circa 1989–1998. I haven’t yet started playing with it, as I have been WAY too busy with other things – Halloween crafts, holiday gift knitting, and test knitting! At Rhinebeck I took 2 classes – a spinning class with Abby Franquemont (I can cross that off the bucket list now!) and a dyeing class with Gail Callahan, the Kangaroo Dyer, in which I learned a ton about dyeing and made this beautiful rainbow:

my rainbow of dyeing

I did not knit for much of September and October because I was doing other crafty things – specifically, I was hand-sewing my Halloween costume – Sally from the Nightmare Before Christmas. It came out better than I expected, which was great, because it was for an awesome wedding:

Julia as a nurse and me as Sally, from the Nightmare Before Christmas

And yes, I also knit the wig.

In November I was test knitting. And test knitting. And test knitting. I will show you pictures once they are public, but for now, things remain secret.

I took a mitten class at Mind’s Eye Yarns and still have not finished knitting the first mitten, much less the second mitten. But I learned a few good tips along the way and am excited to use them.

Remember that white yarn I bought in Indianapolis? It was for some classes with Lucy Neatby, who is chock-full of amazing tips and tricks for knitting. I filled out a wishlist with stuff I want, from patterns to DVDs. Lucy is fun, smart and easy to learn from. I took three classes with her – buttonholes, finishing, and socks. Her handouts are invaluable. I took time off work and spent a pretty penny to learn from Lucy, and I would do it again in a heartbeat. She’s THAT good.

And then it was December…..the test knitting was finally finished, and then it was time to knit gifts! I knit hats for my brother-in-law and his wife (in grey and red Ushya yarn), and I did not, sadly, take any pictures of those hats. I also knit a hat for my mother-in-law in green, and again, no pictures. I do have pictures of the tiny slightly felted purse I made for my aunt-in-law (using handspun Portuguese Merino in the “A Bug’s Life” colorway) and the DNA scarf I made for my father-in-law out of Kauni (that I bought while in Halifax on my knitting cruise in July):

Felted wallet

DNA Scarf

So with all that done, I have started spinning again….although I find I cannot spin for hours like I used to. I’ll have to work up to that again. In the meantime, I’ve been spinning an hour or two at a time in the evenings, and yesterday I took a break to knit myself the Mind’s Eye Yarns free Waffle Stitch Hat pattern, so I could finally have a hat for myself:

my hat!

It was super-quick to knit, and I love it!
It’s been a while since I last wrote. 2 months and 2 weeks, website like this to be exact. And my life has not been devoid of knitting nor crafty stuff….no, not at all! There has been a lot of travel, and not a ton of knitting…..but there has been some.

The first adventure I had after the last post was completely unexpected. I was at a conference in St. Paul, Minnesota, and I was reading a blog post by Stephanie Pearl McPhee where she mentioned flying from California to Minnesota. At first I thought “how cool, soon I’ll be flying from St. Paul to California!” and then I wondered, “will we overlap in the Twin Cities?” (If you don’t know, those cities border each other.)

The answer, my friends, is yes, and this happened at Steven Be:
Stephanie blesses my sock

Steven was absolutely fabulous and was in full force that day. The yarn shop has yarn and knitted things everywhere. I loved it from a chaotic good perspective. I bought some sock yarn and some sock needles, and immediately started in on a sock. And I had Stephanie sign some books, of course.

The next adventure I had was when I found the Common Cod Fiber Guild member, which she showed at Show and Tell during our September meeting. The pattern is called “Vestboro”, and this is how far I got as of mid-October, so it’s a pretty good bet to say that’s what I was working on:

Vestboro center

The knit shop was large, and had tons of yarn! Due to all my travel this year, I have not been knitting and spinning as much as I used to. Last November I stopped being able to keep up with my monthly fiber club, and I stayed behind all year. Suffice it to say, I am overflowing with yarn and fiber….and so is my fiber room. So I am limiting my souvenir yarn…for now.

The knit shop was full of women knitting, and wonderful local donuts, and instead of souvenir yarn I bought myself an accordion-type box to store my dpns in by size. It was a great place to spend several hours knitting.

I attended Rhinebeck aka NY Sheep & Wool, where I acquired a Bernina 1230 sewing machine, circa 1989–1998. I haven’t yet started playing with it, as I have been WAY too busy with other things – Halloween crafts, holiday gift knitting, and test knitting! At Rhinebeck I took 2 classes – a spinning class with Abby Franquemont (I can cross that off the bucket list now!) and a dyeing class with Gail Callahan, the Kangaroo Dyer, in which I learned a ton about dyeing and made this beautiful rainbow:

my rainbow of dyeing

I did not knit for much of September and October because I was doing other crafty things – specifically, I was hand-sewing my Halloween costume – Sally from the Nightmare Before Christmas. It came out better than I expected, which was great, because it was for an awesome wedding:

Julia as a nurse and me as Sally, from the Nightmare Before Christmas

And yes, I also knit the wig.

In November I was test knitting. And test knitting. And test knitting. I will show you pictures once they are public, but for now, things remain secret.

I took a mitten class at Mind’s Eye Yarns and still have not finished knitting the first mitten, much less the second mitten. But I learned a few good tips along the way and am excited to use them.

Remember that white yarn I bought in Indianapolis? It was for some classes with Lucy Neatby, who is chock-full of amazing tips and tricks for knitting. I filled out a wishlist with stuff I want, from patterns to DVDs. Lucy is fun, smart and easy to learn from. I took three classes with her – buttonholes, finishing, and socks. Her handouts are invaluable. I took time off work and spent a pretty penny to learn from Lucy, and I would do it again in a heartbeat. She’s THAT good.

And then it was December…..the test knitting was finally finished, and then it was time to knit gifts! I knit hats for my brother-in-law and his wife (in grey and red Ushya yarn), and I did not, sadly, take any pictures of those hats. I also knit a hat for my mother-in-law in green, and again, no pictures. I do have pictures of the tiny slightly felted purse I made for my aunt-in-law (using handspun Portuguese Merino in the “A Bug’s Life” colorway) and the DNA scarf I made for my father-in-law out of Kauni (that I bought while in Halifax on my knitting cruise in July):

Felted wallet

DNA Scarf

So with all that done, I have started spinning again….although I find I cannot spin for hours like I used to. I’ll have to work up to that again. In the meantime, I’ve been spinning an hour or two at a time in the evenings, and yesterday I took a break to knit myself the Mind’s Eye Yarns free Waffle Stitch Hat pattern, so I could finally have a hat for myself:

my hat!

It was super-quick to knit, and I love it!
It’s been a while since I last wrote. 2 months and 2 weeks, viagra 40mg to be exact. And my life has not been devoid of knitting nor crafty stuff….no, generic not at all! There has been a lot of travel, erectile and not a ton of knitting…..but there has been some.

The first adventure I had after the last post was completely unexpected. I was at a conference in St. Paul, Minnesota, and I was reading a blog post by Stephanie Pearl McPhee where she mentioned flying from California to Minnesota. At first I thought “how cool, soon I’ll be flying from St. Paul to California!” and then I wondered, “will we overlap in the Twin Cities?” (If you don’t know, those cities border each other.)

The answer, my friends, is yes, and this happened at Steven Be:
Stephanie blesses my sock

Steven was absolutely fabulous and was in full force that day. The yarn shop has yarn and knitted things everywhere. I loved it from a chaotic good perspective. I bought some sock yarn and some sock needles, and immediately started in on a sock. And I had Stephanie sign some books, of course.

The next adventure I had was when I found the Mass Ave Knit Shop in Indianapolis. It was about half a mile from the hotel I was staying at, and I spent several hours there on a Saturday before leaving for the airport. I picked up some plain white yarn (purpose to be revealed later) and knit for several hours….though at this point I cannot remember what I was knitting! For arguments’ sake, let’s say I was knitting a pattern from Jeri, a fellow Common Cod Fiber Guild member, which she showed at Show and Tell during our September meeting. The pattern is called “Vestboro”, and this is how far I got as of mid-October, so it’s a pretty good bet to say that’s what I was working on:

Vestboro center

The knit shop was large, and had tons of yarn! Due to all my travel this year, I have not been knitting and spinning as much as I used to. Last November I stopped being able to keep up with my monthly fiber club, and I stayed behind all year. Suffice it to say, I am overflowing with yarn and fiber….and so is my fiber room. So I am limiting my souvenir yarn…for now.

The knit shop was full of women knitting, and wonderful local donuts, and instead of souvenir yarn I bought myself an accordion-type box to store my dpns in by size. It was a great place to spend several hours knitting.

I attended Rhinebeck aka NY Sheep & Wool, where I acquired a Bernina 1230 sewing machine, circa 1989–1998. I haven’t yet started playing with it, as I have been WAY too busy with other things – Halloween crafts, holiday gift knitting, and test knitting! At Rhinebeck I took 2 classes – a spinning class with Abby Franquemont (I can cross that off the bucket list now!) and a dyeing class with Gail Callahan, the Kangaroo Dyer, in which I learned a ton about dyeing and made this beautiful rainbow:

my rainbow of dyeing

I did not knit for much of September and October because I was doing other crafty things – specifically, I was hand-sewing my Halloween costume – Sally from the Nightmare Before Christmas. It came out better than I expected, which was great, because it was for an awesome wedding:

Julia as a nurse and me as Sally, from the Nightmare Before Christmas

And yes, I also knit the wig.

In November I was test knitting. And test knitting. And test knitting. I will show you pictures once they are public, but for now, things remain secret.

I took a mitten class at Mind’s Eye Yarns and still have not finished knitting the first mitten, much less the second mitten. But I learned a few good tips along the way and am excited to use them.

Remember that white yarn I bought in Indianapolis? It was for some classes with Lucy Neatby, who is chock-full of amazing tips and tricks for knitting. I filled out a wishlist with stuff I want, from patterns to DVDs. Lucy is fun, smart and easy to learn from. I took three classes with her – buttonholes, finishing, and socks. Her handouts are invaluable. I took time off work and spent a pretty penny to learn from Lucy, and I would do it again in a heartbeat. She’s THAT good.

And then it was December…..the test knitting was finally finished, and then it was time to knit gifts! I knit hats for my brother-in-law and his wife (in grey and red Ushya yarn), and I did not, sadly, take any pictures of those hats. I also knit a hat for my mother-in-law in green, and again, no pictures. I do have pictures of the tiny slightly felted purse I made for my aunt-in-law (using handspun Portuguese Merino in the “A Bug’s Life” colorway) and the DNA scarf I made for my father-in-law out of Kauni (that I bought while in Halifax on my knitting cruise in July):

Felted wallet

DNA Scarf

And then during and after Christmas I knit 2 chemo caps for a cousin-in-law – one was brown and one was black with sequins (so she’d have “evening hair”) – here’s a pic of me modeling the brown one:

So with all that done, I have started spinning again….although I find I cannot spin for hours like I used to. I’ll have to work up to that again. In the meantime, I’ve been spinning an hour or two at a time in the evenings, and yesterday I took a break to knit myself the Mind’s Eye Yarns free Waffle Stitch Hat pattern, so I could finally have a hat for myself:

my hat!

It was super-quick to knit, and I love it!
It’s been a while since I last wrote. 2 months and 2 weeks, visit this to be exact. And my life has not been devoid of knitting nor crafty stuff….no, doctor not at all! There has been a lot of travel, nurse and not a ton of knitting…..but there has been some.

The first adventure I had after the last post was completely unexpected. I was at a conference in St. Paul, Minnesota, and I was reading a blog post by Stephanie Pearl McPhee where she mentioned flying from California to Minnesota. At first I thought “how cool, soon I’ll be flying from St. Paul to California!” and then I wondered, “will we overlap in the Twin Cities?” (If you don’t know, those cities border each other.)

The answer, my friends, is yes, and this happened at Steven Be:
Stephanie blesses my sock

Steven was absolutely fabulous and was in full force that day. The yarn shop has yarn and knitted things everywhere. I loved it from a chaotic good perspective. I bought some sock yarn and some sock needles, and immediately started in on a sock. And I had Stephanie sign some books, of course.

The next adventure I had was when I found the Mass Ave Knit Shop in Indianapolis. It was about half a mile from the hotel I was staying at, and I spent several hours there on a Saturday before leaving for the airport. I picked up some plain white yarn (purpose to be revealed later) and knit for several hours….though at this point I cannot remember what I was knitting! For arguments’ sake, let’s say I was knitting a pattern from Jeri, a fellow Common Cod Fiber Guild member, which she showed at Show and Tell during our September meeting. The pattern is called “Vestboro”, and this is how far I got as of mid-October, so it’s a pretty good bet to say that’s what I was working on:

Vestboro center

The knit shop was large, and had tons of yarn! Due to all my travel this year, I have not been knitting and spinning as much as I used to. Last November I stopped being able to keep up with my monthly fiber club, and I stayed behind all year. Suffice it to say, I am overflowing with yarn and fiber….and so is my fiber room. So I am limiting my souvenir yarn…for now.

The knit shop was full of women knitting, and wonderful local donuts, and instead of souvenir yarn I bought myself an accordion-type box to store my dpns in by size. It was a great place to spend several hours knitting.

I attended Rhinebeck aka NY Sheep & Wool, where I acquired a Bernina 1230 sewing machine, circa 1989–1998. I haven’t yet started playing with it, as I have been WAY too busy with other things – Halloween crafts, holiday gift knitting, and test knitting! At Rhinebeck I took 2 classes – a spinning class with Abby Franquemont (I can cross that off the bucket list now!) and a dyeing class with Gail Callahan, the Kangaroo Dyer, in which I learned a ton about dyeing and made this beautiful rainbow:

my rainbow of dyeing

I did not knit for much of September and October because I was doing other crafty things – specifically, I was hand-sewing my Halloween costume – Sally from the Nightmare Before Christmas. It came out better than I expected, which was great, because it was for an awesome wedding:

Julia as a nurse and me as Sally, from the Nightmare Before Christmas

And yes, I also knit the wig.

In November I was test knitting. And test knitting. And test knitting. I will show you pictures once they are public, but for now, things remain secret.

I took a mitten class at Mind’s Eye Yarns and still have not finished knitting the first mitten, much less the second mitten. But I learned a few good tips along the way and am excited to use them.

Remember that white yarn I bought in Indianapolis? It was for some classes with Lucy Neatby, who is chock-full of amazing tips and tricks for knitting. I filled out a wishlist with stuff I want, from patterns to DVDs. Lucy is fun, smart and easy to learn from. I took three classes with her – buttonholes, finishing, and socks. Her handouts are invaluable. I took time off work and spent a pretty penny to learn from Lucy, and I would do it again in a heartbeat. She’s THAT good.

And then it was December…..the test knitting was finally finished, and then it was time to knit gifts! I knit hats for my brother-in-law and his wife (in grey and red Ushya yarn), and I did not, sadly, take any pictures of those hats. I also knit a hat for my mother-in-law in green, and again, no pictures. I do have pictures of the tiny slightly felted purse I made for my aunt-in-law (using handspun Portuguese Merino in the “A Bug’s Life” colorway) and the DNA scarf I made for my father-in-law out of Kauni (that I bought while in Halifax on my knitting cruise in July):

Felted wallet

DNA Scarf

So with all that done, I have started spinning again….although I find I cannot spin for hours like I used to. I’ll have to work up to that again. In the meantime, I’ve been spinning an hour or two at a time in the evenings, and yesterday I took a break to knit myself the Mind’s Eye Yarns free Waffle Stitch Hat pattern, so I could finally have a hat for myself:

my hat!

It was super-quick to knit, and I love it!
It’s been a while since I last wrote. 2 months and 2 weeks, for sale to be exact. And my life has not been devoid of knitting nor crafty stuff….no, not at all! There has been a lot of travel, and not a ton of knitting…..but there has been some.

The first adventure I had after the last post was completely unexpected. I was at a conference in St. Paul, Minnesota, and I was reading a blog post by Stephanie Pearl McPhee where she mentioned flying from California to Minnesota. At first I thought “how cool, soon I’ll be flying from St. Paul to California!” and then I wondered, “will we overlap in the Twin Cities?” (If you don’t know, those cities border each other.)

The answer, my friends, is yes, and this happened at Steven Be:
Stephanie blesses my sock

Steven was absolutely fabulous and was in full force that day. The yarn shop has yarn and knitted things everywhere. I loved it from a chaotic good perspective. I bought some sock yarn and some sock needles, and immediately started in on a sock. And I had Stephanie sign some books, of course.

The next adventure I had was when I found the Mass Ave Knit Shop in Indianapolis. It was about half a mile from the hotel I was staying at, and I spent several hours there on a Saturday before leaving for the airport. I picked up some plain white yarn (purpose to be revealed later) and knit for several hours….though at this point I cannot remember what I was knitting! For arguments’ sake, let’s say I was knitting a pattern from Jeri, a fellow Common Cod Fiber Guild member, which she showed at Show and Tell during our September meeting. The pattern is called “Vestboro”, and this is how far I got as of mid-October, so it’s a pretty good bet to say that’s what I was working on:

Vestboro center

The knit shop was large, and had tons of yarn! Due to all my travel this year, I have not been knitting and spinning as much as I used to. Last November I stopped being able to keep up with my monthly fiber club, and I stayed behind all year. Suffice it to say, I am overflowing with yarn and fiber….and so is my fiber room. So I am limiting my souvenir yarn…for now.

The knit shop was full of women knitting, and wonderful local donuts, and instead of souvenir yarn I bought myself an accordion-type box to store my dpns in by size. It was a great place to spend several hours knitting.

I attended Rhinebeck aka NY Sheep & Wool, where I acquired a Bernina 1230 sewing machine, circa 1989–1998. I haven’t yet started playing with it, as I have been WAY too busy with other things – Halloween crafts, holiday gift knitting, and test knitting! At Rhinebeck I took 2 classes – a spinning class with Abby Franquemont (I can cross that off the bucket list now!) and a dyeing class with Gail Callahan, the Kangaroo Dyer, in which I learned a ton about dyeing and made this beautiful rainbow:

my rainbow of dyeing

I did not knit for much of September and October because I was doing other crafty things – specifically, I was hand-sewing my Halloween costume – Sally from the Nightmare Before Christmas. It came out better than I expected, which was great, because it was for an awesome wedding:

Julia as a nurse and me as Sally, from the Nightmare Before Christmas

And yes, I also knit the wig.

In November I was test knitting. And test knitting. And test knitting. I will show you pictures once they are public, but for now, things remain secret.

I took a mitten class at Mind’s Eye Yarns and still have not finished knitting the first mitten, much less the second mitten. But I learned a few good tips along the way and am excited to use them.

Remember that white yarn I bought in Indianapolis? It was for some classes with Lucy Neatby, who is chock-full of amazing tips and tricks for knitting. I filled out a wishlist with stuff I want, from patterns to DVDs. Lucy is fun, smart and easy to learn from. I took three classes with her – buttonholes, finishing, and socks. Her handouts are invaluable. I took time off work and spent a pretty penny to learn from Lucy, and I would do it again in a heartbeat. She’s THAT good.

And then it was December…..the test knitting was finally finished, and then it was time to knit gifts! I knit hats for my brother-in-law and his wife (in grey and red Ushya yarn), and I did not, sadly, take any pictures of those hats. I also knit a hat for my mother-in-law in green, and again, no pictures. I do have pictures of the tiny slightly felted purse I made for my aunt-in-law (using handspun Portuguese Merino in the “A Bug’s Life” colorway) and the DNA scarf I made for my father-in-law out of Kauni (that I bought while in Halifax on my knitting cruise in July):

Felted wallet

DNA Scarf

And then during and after Christmas I knit 2 chemo caps for a cousin-in-law – one was brown and one was black with sequins (so she’d have “evening hair”) – here’s a pic of me modeling the brown one:

fun fur hat in brown

So with all that done, I have started spinning again….although I find I cannot spin for hours like I used to. I’ll have to work up to that again. In the meantime, I’ve been spinning an hour or two at a time in the evenings, and yesterday I took a break to knit myself the Mind’s Eye Yarns free Waffle Stitch Hat pattern, so I could finally have a hat for myself:

my hat!

It was super-quick to knit, and I love it!
It was very important that I write my previous post when I did – Wed 25 July – because the very next day, of the fun I had, but I’d also like to highlight the knitting I did.

I started knitting a Color Affection shawl, in some Novita Polku that I bought in Finland in May. I started the shawl the first day, which was mostly lounging around while we were in the port of Boston (where we all embarked) and then while the cruise ship was traveling. I continued the shawl on Friday 27 July, and then on Saturday 28 July we landed in the port of St. John’s, New Brunswick. I chose to take a bus to Fredericton, to see the city hall, learn some history, and visit Yarns on York to meet local knitters and take a class on Newfoundland Mittens, aka “Newfie Mitts”. I got a bit done, but I believe I will rip out what I’ve done, make it smaller, and do the “windows” in the multicolored black and the background/wrists in the green. Still, here’s the progress shot, even though this will be frogged later:

On Sunday, I chose to do one of the two classes offered at The Loop in Halifax. The class I chose was one on how to do thrummed mittens, and the instructor Mimi was amazing. I did not take the class for the Bermuda Scarf/shawl, but I heard that the 2nd class was not as great, probably due to the first class running very late and Mimi running out of steam (teaching 2 classes in one day is tough, and who knows if she even had time to eat!). Given that, I’m glad I did not stay for the 2nd class (I did buy the pattern and yarn for it, so I can make the shawl), and instead did a 10-mile bicycle tour of Halifax. At any rate, I did enjoy working on the thrummed mittens, and here is my progress (I haven’t done anything with it since that weekend):

And the inside looks like this:

I learned lots of great tips from Mimi, like using a wool with a lot of lanolin in it, so it’s “sticky” and holds the thrums in better.

There was a lot of knitting that weekend, and in the few weeks that followed. This past week I finished knitting Tony’s scarf, after having to spin more yarn and buy more on Cape Cod while helping a friend do the Pan-Mass Challenge at the beginning of August. I still have to finish the scarf by weaving in the ends and blocking it, but it’s finally the right length, and Tony will be able to use it this coming fall/winter.

I also finished the scarf I was weaving (the June Spunky Eclectic weaving club), but I still need to block it before taking a picture of it. A new weaving club for August is on its way, so I’ll have something new to warp soon.

I am not going on a plane until the end of September, and my next travel is scheduled for mid-September, around Rosh Hashanah – I will be going to the New York City area for 2 weekends (coming back to Boston for a wedding in between). I hope to finish the Color Affection Shawl soon, and get pictures of both it and the woven scarf before long.
It was very important that I write my previous post when I did – Wed 25 July – because the very next day, of the fun I had, but I’d also like to highlight the knitting I did.

I started knitting a Color Affection shawl, in some Novita Polku that I bought in Finland in May. I started the shawl the first day, which was mostly lounging around while we were in the port of Boston (where we all embarked) and then while the cruise ship was traveling. I continued the shawl on Friday 27 July, and then on Saturday 28 July we landed in the port of St. John’s, New Brunswick. I chose to take a bus to Fredericton, to see the city hall, learn some history, and visit Yarns on York to meet local knitters and take a class on Newfoundland Mittens, aka “Newfie Mitts”. I got a bit done, but I believe I will rip out what I’ve done, make it smaller, and do the “windows” in the multicolored black and the background/wrists in the green. Still, here’s the progress shot, even though this will be frogged later:

On Sunday, I chose to do one of the two classes offered at The Loop in Halifax. The class I chose was one on how to do thrummed mittens, and the instructor Mimi was amazing. I did not take the class for the Bermuda Scarf/shawl, but I heard that the 2nd class was not as great, probably due to the first class running very late and Mimi running out of steam (teaching 2 classes in one day is tough, and who knows if she even had time to eat!). Given that, I’m glad I did not stay for the 2nd class (I did buy the pattern and yarn for it, so I can make the shawl), and instead did a 10-mile bicycle tour of Halifax. At any rate, I did enjoy working on the thrummed mittens, and here is my progress (I haven’t done anything with it since that weekend):

And the inside looks like this:

I learned lots of great tips from Mimi, like using a wool with a lot of lanolin in it, so it’s “sticky” and holds the thrums in better.

There was a lot of knitting that weekend, and in the few weeks that followed. This past week I finished knitting Tony’s scarf, after having to spin more yarn and buy more on Cape Cod while helping a friend do the Pan-Mass Challenge at the beginning of August. I still have to finish the scarf by weaving in the ends and blocking it, but it’s finally the right length, and Tony will be able to use it this coming fall/winter.

I also finished the scarf I was weaving (the June Spunky Eclectic weaving club), but I still need to block it before taking a picture of it. A new weaving club for August is on its way, so I’ll have something new to warp soon.

I am not going on a plane until the end of September, and my next travel is scheduled for mid-September, around Rosh Hashanah – I will be going to the New York City area for 2 weekends (coming back to Boston for a wedding in between). I hope to finish the Color Affection Shawl soon, and get pictures of
So, online I mentioned in the last post that I had finished 2 objects – side effects and the June Spunky Eclectic Weaving Club, which I opted to do a table runner. It was my first experience with using a pick-up stick. I’m happy with how both came out (especially after ironing the scarf…I don’t even iron clothes!).

Crooked Little Tony scarf

Pick-up-sticks table runner

I’m thrilled with how drapey the table runner is. My only problem is that I have no idea what to do with it – it’s 33 inches by 22 inches. It’s too short for a scarf, but I don’t have an appropriate table to use it on. It’s a superwash merino/bamboo/viscose blend. Folded over a towel bar it’d make a very long kitchen or guest towel, I guess?

Any ideas?
So, , which I opted to do a table runner. It was my first experience with using a pick-up stick. I’m happy with how both came out (especially after ironing the scarf…I don’t even iron clothes!).

Crooked Little Tony scarf

Pick-up-sticks table runner

I’m thrilled with how drapey the table runner is. My only problem is that I have no idea what to do with it – it’s 33 inches by 22 inches. It’s too short for a scarf, but I don’t have an appropriate table to use it on. It’s a superwash merino/bamboo/viscose blend.
I am so excited about tonight’s Common Cod Fiber Guild Meeting featuring Pam Parmal of the Boston Museum of Fine Arts talking about the collection strategy for textiles and fashion. And since I last wrote, gonorrhea I have finished a few objects…..

The first is another Hoot Cardigan, this time made out of Universal Yarns Supreme Cotton Batik, that I picked up in Charlotte, North Carolina earlier this year. I love the Supreme Cotton line from Universal yarns, because it is super soft. Unfortunately, I have only been able to find it in LYS in North Carolina….I hear that is changing soon, though! Here’s the cardigan, made for a friend of mine who just had his first son:

And then there’s the August Weaving Club from Spunky Eclectic – cotton dishcloths! I did not follow the pattern; instead I tried out a herringbone/pinwheel pattern. It came out wonderfully!

I ended up making 2 towels, one a bit shorter because I ran out of warp, but here’s the shorter one hanging from a peg next to our sink (please excuse the dirty dishes and Guinness cans to be rinsed).

The bigger one is in constant use as Tony’s “potato cozy”. That’s not a euphemism, Tony eats a baked potato like one would eat an apple, whole and uncut. Because it’s hot, he uses a towel wrapped around it to hold it.

And finally, the pièce de résistance. This is a Color Affection Shawl that I made from 3 different skeins of Novita’s Polku yarn, which I acquired in Finland earlier this year.

Here’s a close-up shot of the ‘center’ of this assymmetrical shawl:

And a little zoomed out:

Here’s the full-size shot:

I also spun up a “fractal 3-ply” which I will write about next time.
I am so excited about tonight’s Common Cod Fiber Guild Meeting featuring Pam Parmal of the Boston Museum of Fine Arts talking about the collection strategy for textiles and fashion. And since I last wrote, condom I have finished a few objects…..

The first is another Hoot Cardigan, information pills this time made out of

And then there’s the August

The bigger one is in constant use as Tony’s “potato cozy”. That’s not a euphemism, Tony eats a baked potato like one would eat an apple, whole and uncut. Because it’s hot, he uses a towel wrapped around it to hold it.

And finally, the pièce de résistance. This is a Color Affection Shawl that I made from 3 different skeins of

And a little zoomed out:

Here’s the full-size shot:

After
I am so excited about tonight’s
Common Cod Fiber Guild Meeting featuring Pam Parmal of the Boston Museum of Fine Arts talking about the collection strategy for textiles and fashion. And since I last wrote, order I have finished a few objects…..

The first is another Hoot Cardigan, find this time made out of

And then there’s the August

The bigger one is in constant use as Tony’s “potato cozy”. That’s not a euphemism, Tony eats a baked potato like one would eat an apple, whole and uncut. Because it’s hot, he uses a towel wrapped around it to hold it.

And finally, the pièce de résistance. This is a Color Affection Shawl that I made from 3 different skeins of

And a little zoomed out:

Here’s the full-size shot:

I also spun up a “fractal 3-ply” which I will write about next time.
I am so excited about tonight’s
Common Cod Fiber Guild Meeting featuring Pam Parmal of the Boston Museum of Fine Arts talking about the collection strategy for textiles and fashion. And since I last wrote, more about I have finished a few objects…..

The first is another Hoot Cardigan, this time made out of Universal Yarns Supreme Cotton Batik, that I picked up in Charlotte, North Carolina earlier this year. I love the Supreme Cotton line from Universal yarns, because it is super soft. Unfortunately, I have only been able to find it in LYS in North Carolina….I hear that is changing soon, though! Here’s the cardigan, made for a friend of mine who just had his first son:

And then there’s the August Weaving Club from Spunky Eclectic – cotton dishcloths! I did not follow the pattern; instead I tried out a herringbone/pinwheel pattern. It came out wonderfully!

I ended up making 2 towels, one a bit shorter because I ran out of warp, but here’s the shorter one hanging from a peg next to our sink (please excuse the dirty dishes and Guinness cans to be rinsed).

The bigger one is in constant use as Tony’s “potato cozy”. That’s not a euphemism, Tony eats a baked potato like one would eat an apple, whole and uncut. Because it’s hot, he uses a towel wrapped around it to hold it.

And finally, the pièce de résistance. This is a Color Affection Shawl that I made from 3 different skeins of

And a little zoomed out:

Here’s the full-size shot:

I also spun up a “fractal 3-ply” which I will write about next time.
Buenos Aires has a span of a few blocks,
hospital not too far from the Malabia metro station* where there are many yarn shops, phthisiatrician I counted 15, and went into 11 of them before I had to stop. The shops are on Ave. Scalabrini Ortiz just southwest of Ave. Cordoba, towards Ave. Correintes. The Malabia metro station is on the corner of Correintes and Scalabrini Ortiz, which is 1 km away from the corner of Cordoba and Corrientes, and about half that until you see your first yarn shop. There was a small bit of yarn bombing between two of the stores:

Yarn shopping in Buenos Aires is quite different from what I’m used to in the States. The stores all look like this:

The yarn is beautiful, and well-organized, but there’s no signs as to what the yarn is made up of, how much it costs nor the gauge of the yarn. In addition, you’re not supposed to take the yarn out of the bins. If you look at the bottom right of that picture, you’ll see some white yarn and blue yarn that is actually sitting on top of a counter. That counter separates you from the wall, and there are people behind the counter who can help you get what you want.

So it’s very different from the experience I’m used to. I got the feeling that a lot of people knew exactly what they wanted to buy, or walked in and would say “do you have anything made of wool?” I was feeling a bit shy due to the language barrier, so I picked up a Spanish phrase: “solamente mirando” – it means “Just looking”. The people are friendly and willing to help, but I like the yarn buying process to be a solo activity.

There were 2 exceptions to the fact that most stores don’t give any information about their items.: Milana hilados and Yanabey. Milana hilados had tags like this near most of their yarn:

Note that that’s in Argentinian pesos, and at the time, this was less than USD $10 per 100g. Another thing to note is the price is per 100g, not per hank of yarn. You’d ask a sales associate to take the yarn down for you and they’d weigh it and ask you if that was OK (kind of like at the deli counter). Then they give you a slip of paper and you take it to a cash register, where you’re usually helped by someone else. Another interesting thing is that the stores seemed to be staffed by about half men, half women, which is very different from yarn stores in the States, which are probably about 90% staffed by women.

I bought 3 hanks of yarn there, for about $25:

Yanabey had signs like this:

These prices are still in Argentinian pesos, but they’re in kilos. So these prices are $171 for 1 kilo, which is $17.10 for 100g. This is a wall of “seda vegetal”, or “vegetable silk“. By the way, that’s about USD $35 per kilo. So I bought 6 skeins, which was just over a kilo, because the tree which this comes from (ceiba speciosa, or “silk floss tree”) is native to South America, and I haven’t seen “vegetable silk” in the US.

A lot of the stores have the recycled t-shirt yarn, and I bought some at Arte Natural:

BUTTONS!!!

I was thinking I might make a purse from the yarn, like this:

That purse is crocheted, but I’m sure I can come up with a knitted version.

Here’s what I bought from that store:

Here’s a Spanish primer for some important words:
cachemira – cashmere
acrílico – acrylic
lana – wool
seda – silk
alpaca – alpaca
hilo – yarn (plural: hilados)
Also, I found out that cashmerillo is just an acrylic yarn that’s very soft. Don’t be fooled by price, some of the acrylic yarns are *very* expensive, even more expensive than the wool.

I was very excited by the prospect of all these yarn stores, and after these three purchases I was done, and passed by 4 other yarn stores that I didn’t even walk into. In addition, there were at least 2 weaving stores, and another 2 fabric stores. Only one of the yarn stores had fiber to spin, and it looked like combed top, and was somewhat expensive (by US standards).

All in all, I was extremely satisfied by taking a few hours to shop for yarn, but I found the experience quite different from what I’m used to.

* I was instructed by a friend who had visited Buenos Aires to take a taxi to the corner of X and Y. However, I enjoy walking around and public transit, so I noticed the subway stop was not far, and decided to walk a few blocks. To those who are considering what to do, a taxi would have cost about 20 pesos (about USD $5) each way. The subway costs $5 for two rides, but of course is not door to door. Another thing to note about the subway is that it is not the most modern system:

And you will get plenty of people trying to make money – some play music, which you may be used to from other subway systems. Others will go around a subway car, handing out products, and then go around and either collect the product back or collect money. I was handed tissues and Disney books – or at least, they attempted to hand stuff to me, and I refused. It helped that I had knitting in my hands, but I saw them just place stuff on people’s laps if their hands were busy, so don’t just look away, make sure you actually refuse by shaking your head.

Note: I hope this article is helpful! Due to spam reasons, all articles on this site have comments disabled after a short time. If you want to leave feedback, you can tweet @sheeri or e-mail me at awfief at gmail dot com. (replace “at” with @ and
When I think of gradient spinning, visit I think of starting with “gradient-dyed fiber” such as Fiber Optics’ gradient collection. Sadly, I have not yet gotten my hands on on of them yet. However, a fractal 3-ply attempt last year gave me the push to try a kind of gradient spinning.

I got a great batt from Fiber Stash back in April at the Wild and Woolly Weekend in Vermont. The 3.7 oz batt is 98% Corriedale, 2% twinkle, in a blue-purple, light blue, and black – here it is, unrolled:

The first step was to divide it into three sections, for a 3-ply, so that each section had each of the three colors. I then split 2 of the sections into even thirds, based on the colors, and the last section was split into sixths based on colors. I split the sections based on weight.

The idea is a fractal ply, but because I am doing a 3-ply, I will do it so that 2 of the sections are the same color, and a third is changing. The middle is the part divided into six:

I finally finished spinning, plying, skeining and washing, and here’s what the finished result looks like:

I think a shawl is in order to show off the lovely and subtle color changes. This produced 284 yards of yarn at 12 wpi. I have an identical batt which I will spin the same way, and will knit with all of it to make a good-sized shawl.

When I think of gradient spinning, buy more about I think of starting with “gradient-dyed fiber” such as Fiber Optics’ gradient collection. Sadly, I have not yet gotten my hands on on of them yet. However, a fractal 3-ply attempt last year gave me the push to try a kind of gradient spinning.

I got a great batt from Fiber Stash back in April at the Wild and Woolly Weekend in Vermont. The 3.7 oz batt is 98% Corriedale, 2% twinkle, in a blue-purple, light blue, and black – here it is, unrolled:

The first step was to divide it into three sections, for a 3-ply, so that each section had each of the three colors. I then split 2 of the sections into even thirds, based on the colors, and the last section was split into sixths based on colors. The idea is a fractal ply, but because I am doing a 3-ply, I will do it so that 2 of the sections are the same color, and a third is changing. The middle is the part divided into six:

I finally finished spinning, plying, skeining and washing, and here’s what the finished result looks like:

I think a shawl is in order to show off the lovely color changes. This produced 284 yards of yarn at 12 wpi. I have an identical batt which I will spin the same way

Edited October 29, medicine 2012 – Unfortunately, ampoule Cat Bordhi has asked me to take the PDF instructions down. However, troche the same exact information is at the video I link to below, so you can still find the information you need.

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, 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.

I taught this at FiberCamp this past weekend, view 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, 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.
It’s been a while since I last wrote. 2 months and 2 weeks, not at all! There has been a lot of travel, and not a ton of knitting…..but there has been some.

The first adventure I had after the last post was completely unexpected. I was at a conference in St. Paul, Minnesota, and I was reading a blog post by Stephanie Pearl McPhee where she mentioned flying from California to Minnesota. At first I thought “how cool, soon I’ll be flying from St. Paul to California!” and then I wondered, “will we overlap in the Twin Cities?” (If you don’t know, those cities border each other.)

The answer, my friends, is yes, and this happened at Steven Be:
Stephanie blesses my sock

Steven was absolutely fabulous and was in full force that day. The yarn shop has yarn and knitted things everywhere. I loved it from a chaotic good perspective. I bought some sock yarn and some sock needles, and immediately started in on a sock. And I had Stephanie sign some books, of course.

The next adventure I had was when I found the Mass Ave Knit Shop in Indianapolis. It was about half a mile from the hotel I was staying at, and I spent several hours there on a Saturday before leaving for the airport. I picked up some plain white yarn (purpose to be revealed later) and knit for several hours….though at this point I cannot remember what I was knitting! For arguments’ sake, let’s say I was knitting a pattern from Jeri, a fellow Common Cod Fiber Guild member, which she showed at Show and Tell during our September meeting. The pattern is called “Vestboro”, and this is how far I got as of mid-October, so it’s a pretty good bet to say that’s what I was working on:

Vestboro center

The knit shop was large, and had tons of yarn! Due to all my travel this year, I have not been knitting and spinning as much as I used to. Last November I stopped being able to keep up with my monthly fiber club, and I stayed behind all year. Suffice it to say, I am overflowing with yarn and fiber….and so is my fiber room. So I am limiting my souvenir yarn…for now.

The knit shop was full of women knitting, and wonderful local donuts, and instead of souvenir yarn I bought myself an accordion-type box to store my dpns in by size. It was a great place to spend several hours knitting.

I attended Rhinebeck aka NY Sheep & Wool, where I acquired a Bernina 1230 sewing machine, circa 1989–1998. I haven’t yet started playing with it, as I have been WAY too busy with other things – Halloween crafts, holiday gift knitting, and test knitting! At Rhinebeck I took 2 classes – a spinning class with Abby Franquemont (I can cross that off the bucket list now!) and a dyeing class with Gail Callahan, the Kangaroo Dyer, in which I learned a ton about dyeing and made this beautiful rainbow:

my rainbow of dyeing

I did not knit for much of September and October because I was doing other crafty things – specifically, I was hand-sewing my Halloween costume – Sally from the Nightmare Before Christmas. It came out better than I expected, which was great, because it was for an awesome wedding:

Julia as a nurse and me as Sally, from the Nightmare Before Christmas

And yes, I also knit the wig.

In November I was test knitting. And test knitting. And test knitting. I will show you pictures once they are public, but for now, things remain secret.

I took a mitten class at Mind’s Eye Yarns and still have not finished knitting the first mitten, much less the second mitten. But I learned a few good tips along the way and am excited to use them.

Remember that white yarn I bought in Indianapolis? It was for some classes with Lucy Neatby, who is chock-full of amazing tips and tricks for knitting. I filled out a wishlist with stuff I want, from patterns to DVDs. Lucy is fun, smart and easy to learn from. I took three classes with her – buttonholes, finishing, and socks. Her handouts are invaluable. I took time off work and spent a pretty penny to learn from Lucy, and I would do it again in a heartbeat. She’s THAT good.

And then it was December…..the test knitting was finally finished, and then it was time to knit gifts! I knit hats for my brother-in-law and his wife (in grey and red Ushya yarn), and I did not, sadly, take any pictures of those hats. I also knit a hat for my mother-in-law in green, and again, no pictures. I do have pictures of the tiny slightly felted purse I made for my aunt-in-law (using handspun Portuguese Merino in the “A Bug’s Life” colorway) and the DNA scarf I made for my father-in-law out of Kauni (that I bought while in Halifax on my knitting cruise in July):

Felted wallet

DNA Scarf

And then during and after Christmas I knit 2 chemo caps for a cousin-in-law – one was brown and one was black with sequins (so she’d have “evening hair”) – here’s a pic of me modeling the brown one:

fun fur hat in brown

So with all that done, I have started spinning again….although I find I cannot spin for hours like I used to. I’ll have to work up to that again. In the meantime, I’ve been spinning an hour or two at a time in the evenings, and yesterday I took a break to knit myself the Mind’s Eye Yarns free Waffle Stitch Hat pattern, so I could finally have a hat for myself:

my hat!

It was super-quick to knit, and I love it!
It’s been a while since I last wrote. 2 months and 2 weeks, not at all! There has been a lot of travel, and not a ton of knitting…..but there has been some.

The first adventure I had was when I found the Common Cod Fiber Guild member, which she showed at Show and Tell during our September meeting. The pattern is called “Vestboro”, and this is how far I got as of mid-October, so it’s a pretty good bet to say that’s what I was working on:

Vestboro center

The knit shop was large, and had tons of yarn! Due to all my travel this year, I have not been knitting and spinning as much as I used to. Last November I stopped being able to keep up with my monthly fiber club, and I stayed behind all year. Suffice it to say, I am overflowing with yarn and fiber….and so is my fiber room. So I am limiting my souvenir yarn…for now.

The knit shop was full of women knitting, and wonderful local donuts, and instead of souvenir yarn I bought myself an accordion-type box to store my dpns in by size. It was a great place to spend several hours knitting.

I did
It’s been a while since I last wrote. 2 months and 2 weeks, psychotherapist to be exact. And my life has not been devoid of knitting nor crafty stuff….no, not at all! There has been a lot of travel, and not a ton of knitting…..but there has been some.

The first adventure I had after the last post was completely unexpected. I was at a conference in St. Paul, Minnesota, and I was reading a blog post by Stephanie Pearl McPhee where she mentioned flying from California to Minnesota. At first I thought “how cool, soon I’ll be flying from St. Paul to California!” and then I wondered, “will we overlap in the Twin Cities?” (If you don’t know, those cities border each other.)

The answer, my friends, is yes, and this happened at Steven Be:
Stephanie blesses my sock

Steven was absolutely fabulous and was in full force that day. The yarn shop has yarn and knitted things everywhere. I loved it from a chaotic good perspective. I bought some sock yarn and some sock needles, and immediately started in on a sock. And I had Stephanie sign some books, of course.

The next adventure I had was when I found the Common Cod Fiber Guild member, which she showed at Show and Tell during our September meeting. The pattern is called “Vestboro”, and this is how far I got as of mid-October, so it’s a pretty good bet to say that’s what I was working on:

Vestboro center

The knit shop was large, and had tons of yarn! Due to all my travel this year, I have not been knitting and spinning as much as I used to. Last November I stopped being able to keep up with my monthly fiber club, and I stayed behind all year. Suffice it to say, I am overflowing with yarn and fiber….and so is my fiber room. So I am limiting my souvenir yarn…for now.

The knit shop was full of women knitting, and wonderful local donuts, and instead of souvenir yarn I bought myself an accordion-type box to store my dpns in by size. It was a great place to spend several hours knitting.

I attended Rhinebeck aka NY Sheep & Wool, where I acquired a Bernina 1230 sewing machine, circa 1989–1998. I haven’t yet started playing with it, as I have been WAY too busy with other things – Halloween crafts, holiday gift knitting, and test knitting! At Rhinebeck I took 2 classes – a spinning class with Abby Franquemont (I can cross that off the bucket list now!) and a dyeing class with Gail Callahan, the Kangaroo Dyer, in which I learned a ton about dyeing and made this beautiful rainbow:

my rainbow of dyeing

I did not knit for much of September and October because I was doing other crafty things – specifically, I was hand-sewing my Halloween costume – Sally from the Nightmare Before Christmas. It came out better than I expected, which was great, because it was for an awesome wedding:

Julia as a nurse and me as Sally, from the Nightmare Before Christmas

And yes, I also knit the wig.

In November I was test knitting. And test knitting. And test knitting. I will show you pictures once they are public, but for now, things remain secret.

I took a mitten class at Mind’s Eye Yarns and still have not finished knitting the first mitten, much less the second mitten. But I learned a few good tips along the way and am excited to use them.

Remember that white yarn I bought in Indianapolis? It was for some classes with Lucy Neatby, who is chock-full of amazing tips and tricks for knitting. I filled out a wishlist with stuff I want, from patterns to DVDs. Lucy is fun, smart and easy to learn from. I took three classes with her – buttonholes, finishing, and socks. Her handouts are invaluable. I took time off work and spent a pretty penny to learn from Lucy, and I would do it again in a heartbeat. She’s THAT good.

And then it was December…..the test knitting was finally finished, and then it was time to knit gifts! I knit hats for my brother-in-law and his wife (in grey and red Ushya yarn), and I did not, sadly, take any pictures of those hats. I also knit a hat for my mother-in-law in green, and again, no pictures. I do have pictures of the tiny slightly felted purse I made for my aunt-in-law (using handspun Portuguese Merino in the “A Bug’s Life” colorway) and the DNA scarf I made for my father-in-law out of Kauni (that I bought while in Halifax on my knitting cruise in July):

Felted wallet

DNA Scarf

So with all that done, I have started spinning again….although I find I cannot spin for hours like I used to. I’ll have to work up to that again. In the meantime, I’ve been spinning an hour or two at a time in the evenings, and yesterday I took a break to knit myself the Mind’s Eye Yarns free Waffle Stitch Hat pattern, so I could finally have a hat for myself:

my hat!

It was super-quick to knit, and I love it!
It’s been a while since I last wrote. 2 months and 2 weeks, website like this to be exact. And my life has not been devoid of knitting nor crafty stuff….no, not at all! There has been a lot of travel, and not a ton of knitting…..but there has been some.

The first adventure I had after the last post was completely unexpected. I was at a conference in St. Paul, Minnesota, and I was reading a blog post by Stephanie Pearl McPhee where she mentioned flying from California to Minnesota. At first I thought “how cool, soon I’ll be flying from St. Paul to California!” and then I wondered, “will we overlap in the Twin Cities?” (If you don’t know, those cities border each other.)

The answer, my friends, is yes, and this happened at Steven Be:
Stephanie blesses my sock

Steven was absolutely fabulous and was in full force that day. The yarn shop has yarn and knitted things everywhere. I loved it from a chaotic good perspective. I bought some sock yarn and some sock needles, and immediately started in on a sock. And I had Stephanie sign some books, of course.

The next adventure I had was when I found the Common Cod Fiber Guild member, which she showed at Show and Tell during our September meeting. The pattern is called “Vestboro”, and this is how far I got as of mid-October, so it’s a pretty good bet to say that’s what I was working on:

Vestboro center

The knit shop was large, and had tons of yarn! Due to all my travel this year, I have not been knitting and spinning as much as I used to. Last November I stopped being able to keep up with my monthly fiber club, and I stayed behind all year. Suffice it to say, I am overflowing with yarn and fiber….and so is my fiber room. So I am limiting my souvenir yarn…for now.

The knit shop was full of women knitting, and wonderful local donuts, and instead of souvenir yarn I bought myself an accordion-type box to store my dpns in by size. It was a great place to spend several hours knitting.

I attended Rhinebeck aka NY Sheep & Wool, where I acquired a Bernina 1230 sewing machine, circa 1989–1998. I haven’t yet started playing with it, as I have been WAY too busy with other things – Halloween crafts, holiday gift knitting, and test knitting! At Rhinebeck I took 2 classes – a spinning class with Abby Franquemont (I can cross that off the bucket list now!) and a dyeing class with Gail Callahan, the Kangaroo Dyer, in which I learned a ton about dyeing and made this beautiful rainbow:

my rainbow of dyeing

I did not knit for much of September and October because I was doing other crafty things – specifically, I was hand-sewing my Halloween costume – Sally from the Nightmare Before Christmas. It came out better than I expected, which was great, because it was for an awesome wedding:

Julia as a nurse and me as Sally, from the Nightmare Before Christmas

And yes, I also knit the wig.

In November I was test knitting. And test knitting. And test knitting. I will show you pictures once they are public, but for now, things remain secret.

I took a mitten class at Mind’s Eye Yarns and still have not finished knitting the first mitten, much less the second mitten. But I learned a few good tips along the way and am excited to use them.

Remember that white yarn I bought in Indianapolis? It was for some classes with Lucy Neatby, who is chock-full of amazing tips and tricks for knitting. I filled out a wishlist with stuff I want, from patterns to DVDs. Lucy is fun, smart and easy to learn from. I took three classes with her – buttonholes, finishing, and socks. Her handouts are invaluable. I took time off work and spent a pretty penny to learn from Lucy, and I would do it again in a heartbeat. She’s THAT good.

And then it was December…..the test knitting was finally finished, and then it was time to knit gifts! I knit hats for my brother-in-law and his wife (in grey and red Ushya yarn), and I did not, sadly, take any pictures of those hats. I also knit a hat for my mother-in-law in green, and again, no pictures. I do have pictures of the tiny slightly felted purse I made for my aunt-in-law (using handspun Portuguese Merino in the “A Bug’s Life” colorway) and the DNA scarf I made for my father-in-law out of Kauni (that I bought while in Halifax on my knitting cruise in July):

Felted wallet

DNA Scarf

So with all that done, I have started spinning again….although I find I cannot spin for hours like I used to. I’ll have to work up to that again. In the meantime, I’ve been spinning an hour or two at a time in the evenings, and yesterday I took a break to knit myself the Mind’s Eye Yarns free Waffle Stitch Hat pattern, so I could finally have a hat for myself:

my hat!

It was super-quick to knit, and I love it!
It’s been a while since I last wrote. 2 months and 2 weeks, viagra 40mg to be exact. And my life has not been devoid of knitting nor crafty stuff….no, generic not at all! There has been a lot of travel, erectile and not a ton of knitting…..but there has been some.

The first adventure I had after the last post was completely unexpected. I was at a conference in St. Paul, Minnesota, and I was reading a blog post by Stephanie Pearl McPhee where she mentioned flying from California to Minnesota. At first I thought “how cool, soon I’ll be flying from St. Paul to California!” and then I wondered, “will we overlap in the Twin Cities?” (If you don’t know, those cities border each other.)

The answer, my friends, is yes, and this happened at Steven Be:
Stephanie blesses my sock

Steven was absolutely fabulous and was in full force that day. The yarn shop has yarn and knitted things everywhere. I loved it from a chaotic good perspective. I bought some sock yarn and some sock needles, and immediately started in on a sock. And I had Stephanie sign some books, of course.

The next adventure I had was when I found the Mass Ave Knit Shop in Indianapolis. It was about half a mile from the hotel I was staying at, and I spent several hours there on a Saturday before leaving for the airport. I picked up some plain white yarn (purpose to be revealed later) and knit for several hours….though at this point I cannot remember what I was knitting! For arguments’ sake, let’s say I was knitting a pattern from Jeri, a fellow Common Cod Fiber Guild member, which she showed at Show and Tell during our September meeting. The pattern is called “Vestboro”, and this is how far I got as of mid-October, so it’s a pretty good bet to say that’s what I was working on:

Vestboro center

The knit shop was large, and had tons of yarn! Due to all my travel this year, I have not been knitting and spinning as much as I used to. Last November I stopped being able to keep up with my monthly fiber club, and I stayed behind all year. Suffice it to say, I am overflowing with yarn and fiber….and so is my fiber room. So I am limiting my souvenir yarn…for now.

The knit shop was full of women knitting, and wonderful local donuts, and instead of souvenir yarn I bought myself an accordion-type box to store my dpns in by size. It was a great place to spend several hours knitting.

I attended Rhinebeck aka NY Sheep & Wool, where I acquired a Bernina 1230 sewing machine, circa 1989–1998. I haven’t yet started playing with it, as I have been WAY too busy with other things – Halloween crafts, holiday gift knitting, and test knitting! At Rhinebeck I took 2 classes – a spinning class with Abby Franquemont (I can cross that off the bucket list now!) and a dyeing class with Gail Callahan, the Kangaroo Dyer, in which I learned a ton about dyeing and made this beautiful rainbow:

my rainbow of dyeing

I did not knit for much of September and October because I was doing other crafty things – specifically, I was hand-sewing my Halloween costume – Sally from the Nightmare Before Christmas. It came out better than I expected, which was great, because it was for an awesome wedding:

Julia as a nurse and me as Sally, from the Nightmare Before Christmas

And yes, I also knit the wig.

In November I was test knitting. And test knitting. And test knitting. I will show you pictures once they are public, but for now, things remain secret.

I took a mitten class at Mind’s Eye Yarns and still have not finished knitting the first mitten, much less the second mitten. But I learned a few good tips along the way and am excited to use them.

Remember that white yarn I bought in Indianapolis? It was for some classes with Lucy Neatby, who is chock-full of amazing tips and tricks for knitting. I filled out a wishlist with stuff I want, from patterns to DVDs. Lucy is fun, smart and easy to learn from. I took three classes with her – buttonholes, finishing, and socks. Her handouts are invaluable. I took time off work and spent a pretty penny to learn from Lucy, and I would do it again in a heartbeat. She’s THAT good.

And then it was December…..the test knitting was finally finished, and then it was time to knit gifts! I knit hats for my brother-in-law and his wife (in grey and red Ushya yarn), and I did not, sadly, take any pictures of those hats. I also knit a hat for my mother-in-law in green, and again, no pictures. I do have pictures of the tiny slightly felted purse I made for my aunt-in-law (using handspun Portuguese Merino in the “A Bug’s Life” colorway) and the DNA scarf I made for my father-in-law out of Kauni (that I bought while in Halifax on my knitting cruise in July):

Felted wallet

DNA Scarf

And then during and after Christmas I knit 2 chemo caps for a cousin-in-law – one was brown and one was black with sequins (so she’d have “evening hair”) – here’s a pic of me modeling the brown one:

So with all that done, I have started spinning again….although I find I cannot spin for hours like I used to. I’ll have to work up to that again. In the meantime, I’ve been spinning an hour or two at a time in the evenings, and yesterday I took a break to knit myself the Mind’s Eye Yarns free Waffle Stitch Hat pattern, so I could finally have a hat for myself:

my hat!

It was super-quick to knit, and I love it!
It’s been a while since I last wrote. 2 months and 2 weeks, visit this to be exact. And my life has not been devoid of knitting nor crafty stuff….no, doctor not at all! There has been a lot of travel, nurse and not a ton of knitting…..but there has been some.

The first adventure I had after the last post was completely unexpected. I was at a conference in St. Paul, Minnesota, and I was reading a blog post by Stephanie Pearl McPhee where she mentioned flying from California to Minnesota. At first I thought “how cool, soon I’ll be flying from St. Paul to California!” and then I wondered, “will we overlap in the Twin Cities?” (If you don’t know, those cities border each other.)

The answer, my friends, is yes, and this happened at Steven Be:
Stephanie blesses my sock

Steven was absolutely fabulous and was in full force that day. The yarn shop has yarn and knitted things everywhere. I loved it from a chaotic good perspective. I bought some sock yarn and some sock needles, and immediately started in on a sock. And I had Stephanie sign some books, of course.

The next adventure I had was when I found the Mass Ave Knit Shop in Indianapolis. It was about half a mile from the hotel I was staying at, and I spent several hours there on a Saturday before leaving for the airport. I picked up some plain white yarn (purpose to be revealed later) and knit for several hours….though at this point I cannot remember what I was knitting! For arguments’ sake, let’s say I was knitting a pattern from Jeri, a fellow Common Cod Fiber Guild member, which she showed at Show and Tell during our September meeting. The pattern is called “Vestboro”, and this is how far I got as of mid-October, so it’s a pretty good bet to say that’s what I was working on:

Vestboro center

The knit shop was large, and had tons of yarn! Due to all my travel this year, I have not been knitting and spinning as much as I used to. Last November I stopped being able to keep up with my monthly fiber club, and I stayed behind all year. Suffice it to say, I am overflowing with yarn and fiber….and so is my fiber room. So I am limiting my souvenir yarn…for now.

The knit shop was full of women knitting, and wonderful local donuts, and instead of souvenir yarn I bought myself an accordion-type box to store my dpns in by size. It was a great place to spend several hours knitting.

I attended Rhinebeck aka NY Sheep & Wool, where I acquired a Bernina 1230 sewing machine, circa 1989–1998. I haven’t yet started playing with it, as I have been WAY too busy with other things – Halloween crafts, holiday gift knitting, and test knitting! At Rhinebeck I took 2 classes – a spinning class with Abby Franquemont (I can cross that off the bucket list now!) and a dyeing class with Gail Callahan, the Kangaroo Dyer, in which I learned a ton about dyeing and made this beautiful rainbow:

my rainbow of dyeing

I did not knit for much of September and October because I was doing other crafty things – specifically, I was hand-sewing my Halloween costume – Sally from the Nightmare Before Christmas. It came out better than I expected, which was great, because it was for an awesome wedding:

Julia as a nurse and me as Sally, from the Nightmare Before Christmas

And yes, I also knit the wig.

In November I was test knitting. And test knitting. And test knitting. I will show you pictures once they are public, but for now, things remain secret.

I took a mitten class at Mind’s Eye Yarns and still have not finished knitting the first mitten, much less the second mitten. But I learned a few good tips along the way and am excited to use them.

Remember that white yarn I bought in Indianapolis? It was for some classes with Lucy Neatby, who is chock-full of amazing tips and tricks for knitting. I filled out a wishlist with stuff I want, from patterns to DVDs. Lucy is fun, smart and easy to learn from. I took three classes with her – buttonholes, finishing, and socks. Her handouts are invaluable. I took time off work and spent a pretty penny to learn from Lucy, and I would do it again in a heartbeat. She’s THAT good.

And then it was December…..the test knitting was finally finished, and then it was time to knit gifts! I knit hats for my brother-in-law and his wife (in grey and red Ushya yarn), and I did not, sadly, take any pictures of those hats. I also knit a hat for my mother-in-law in green, and again, no pictures. I do have pictures of the tiny slightly felted purse I made for my aunt-in-law (using handspun Portuguese Merino in the “A Bug’s Life” colorway) and the DNA scarf I made for my father-in-law out of Kauni (that I bought while in Halifax on my knitting cruise in July):

Felted wallet

DNA Scarf

So with all that done, I have started spinning again….although I find I cannot spin for hours like I used to. I’ll have to work up to that again. In the meantime, I’ve been spinning an hour or two at a time in the evenings, and yesterday I took a break to knit myself the Mind’s Eye Yarns free Waffle Stitch Hat pattern, so I could finally have a hat for myself:

my hat!

It was super-quick to knit, and I love it!
It’s been a while since I last wrote. 2 months and 2 weeks, for sale to be exact. And my life has not been devoid of knitting nor crafty stuff….no, not at all! There has been a lot of travel, and not a ton of knitting…..but there has been some.

The first adventure I had after the last post was completely unexpected. I was at a conference in St. Paul, Minnesota, and I was reading a blog post by Stephanie Pearl McPhee where she mentioned flying from California to Minnesota. At first I thought “how cool, soon I’ll be flying from St. Paul to California!” and then I wondered, “will we overlap in the Twin Cities?” (If you don’t know, those cities border each other.)

The answer, my friends, is yes, and this happened at Steven Be:
Stephanie blesses my sock

Steven was absolutely fabulous and was in full force that day. The yarn shop has yarn and knitted things everywhere. I loved it from a chaotic good perspective. I bought some sock yarn and some sock needles, and immediately started in on a sock. And I had Stephanie sign some books, of course.

The next adventure I had was when I found the Mass Ave Knit Shop in Indianapolis. It was about half a mile from the hotel I was staying at, and I spent several hours there on a Saturday before leaving for the airport. I picked up some plain white yarn (purpose to be revealed later) and knit for several hours….though at this point I cannot remember what I was knitting! For arguments’ sake, let’s say I was knitting a pattern from Jeri, a fellow Common Cod Fiber Guild member, which she showed at Show and Tell during our September meeting. The pattern is called “Vestboro”, and this is how far I got as of mid-October, so it’s a pretty good bet to say that’s what I was working on:

Vestboro center

The knit shop was large, and had tons of yarn! Due to all my travel this year, I have not been knitting and spinning as much as I used to. Last November I stopped being able to keep up with my monthly fiber club, and I stayed behind all year. Suffice it to say, I am overflowing with yarn and fiber….and so is my fiber room. So I am limiting my souvenir yarn…for now.

The knit shop was full of women knitting, and wonderful local donuts, and instead of souvenir yarn I bought myself an accordion-type box to store my dpns in by size. It was a great place to spend several hours knitting.

I attended Rhinebeck aka NY Sheep & Wool, where I acquired a Bernina 1230 sewing machine, circa 1989–1998. I haven’t yet started playing with it, as I have been WAY too busy with other things – Halloween crafts, holiday gift knitting, and test knitting! At Rhinebeck I took 2 classes – a spinning class with Abby Franquemont (I can cross that off the bucket list now!) and a dyeing class with Gail Callahan, the Kangaroo Dyer, in which I learned a ton about dyeing and made this beautiful rainbow:

my rainbow of dyeing

I did not knit for much of September and October because I was doing other crafty things – specifically, I was hand-sewing my Halloween costume – Sally from the Nightmare Before Christmas. It came out better than I expected, which was great, because it was for an awesome wedding:

Julia as a nurse and me as Sally, from the Nightmare Before Christmas

And yes, I also knit the wig.

In November I was test knitting. And test knitting. And test knitting. I will show you pictures once they are public, but for now, things remain secret.

I took a mitten class at Mind’s Eye Yarns and still have not finished knitting the first mitten, much less the second mitten. But I learned a few good tips along the way and am excited to use them.

Remember that white yarn I bought in Indianapolis? It was for some classes with Lucy Neatby, who is chock-full of amazing tips and tricks for knitting. I filled out a wishlist with stuff I want, from patterns to DVDs. Lucy is fun, smart and easy to learn from. I took three classes with her – buttonholes, finishing, and socks. Her handouts are invaluable. I took time off work and spent a pretty penny to learn from Lucy, and I would do it again in a heartbeat. She’s THAT good.

And then it was December…..the test knitting was finally finished, and then it was time to knit gifts! I knit hats for my brother-in-law and his wife (in grey and red Ushya yarn), and I did not, sadly, take any pictures of those hats. I also knit a hat for my mother-in-law in green, and again, no pictures. I do have pictures of the tiny slightly felted purse I made for my aunt-in-law (using handspun Portuguese Merino in the “A Bug’s Life” colorway) and the DNA scarf I made for my father-in-law out of Kauni (that I bought while in Halifax on my knitting cruise in July):

Felted wallet

DNA Scarf

And then during and after Christmas I knit 2 chemo caps for a cousin-in-law – one was brown and one was black with sequins (so she’d have “evening hair”) – here’s a pic of me modeling the brown one:

fun fur hat in brown

So with all that done, I have started spinning again….although I find I cannot spin for hours like I used to. I’ll have to work up to that again. In the meantime, I’ve been spinning an hour or two at a time in the evenings, and yesterday I took a break to knit myself the Mind’s Eye Yarns free Waffle Stitch Hat pattern, so I could finally have a hat for myself:

my hat!

It was super-quick to knit, and I love it!
Buenos Aires has a span of a few blocks, health not too far from the Malabia metro station* where there are many yarn shops, I counted 15, and went into 11 of them before I had to stop. The shops are on Ave. Scalabrini Ortiz just southwest of Ave. Cordoba, towards Ave. Correintes. The Malabia metro station is on the corner of Correintes and Scalabrini Ortiz, which is 1 km away from the corner of Cordoba and Corrientes, and about half that until you see your first yarn shop. There was a small bit of yarn bombing between two of the stores:

Yarn shopping in Buenos Aires is quite different from what I’m used to in the States. The stores all look like this:

The yarn is beautiful, and well-organized, but there’s no signs as to what the yarn is made up of, how much it costs nor the gauge of the yarn. In addition, you’re not supposed to take the yarn out of the bins. If you look at the bottom right of that picture, you’ll see some white yarn and blue yarn that is actually sitting on top of a counter. That counter separates you from the wall, and there are people behind the counter who can help you get what you want.

So it’s very different from the experience I’m used to. I got the feeling that a lot of people knew exactly what they wanted to buy, or walked in and would say “do you have anything made of wool?” I was feeling a bit shy due to the language barrier, so I picked up a Spanish phrase: “solamente mirando” – it means “Just looking”. The people are friendly and willing to help, but I like the yarn buying process to be a solo activity.

There were 2 exceptions to the fact that most stores don’t give any information about their items.: Milana hilados and Yanabey. Milana hilados had tags like this near most of their yarn:

Note that that’s in Argentinian pesos, and at the time, this was less than USD $10 per 100g. Another thing to note is the price is per 100g, not per hank of yarn. You’d ask a sales associate to take the yarn down for you and they’d weigh it and ask you if that was OK (kind of like at the deli counter). Then they give you a slip of paper and you take it to a cash register, where you’re usually helped by someone else. Another interesting thing is that the stores seemed to be staffed by about half men, half women, which is very different from yarn stores in the States, which are probably about 90% staffed by women.

I bought 3 hanks of yarn there, for about $25:

Yanabey had signs like this:

These prices are still in Argentinian pesos, but they’re in kilos. So these prices are $171 for 1 kilo, which is $17.10 for 100g. This is a wall of “seda vegetal”, or “vegetable silk“. By the way, that’s about USD $35 per kilo. So I bought 6 skeins, which was just over a kilo, because the tree which this comes from (ceiba speciosa, or “silk floss tree”) is native to South America, and I haven’t seen “vegetable silk” in the US.

A lot of the stores have the recycled t-shirt yarn, and I bought some at Arte Natural:

BUTTONS!!!

I was thinking I might make a purse from the yarn, like this:

That purse is crocheted, but I’m sure I can come up with a knitted version.

Here’s what I bought from that store:

Here’s a Spanish primer for some important words:
cachemira – cashmere
acrílico – acrylic
lana – wool
seda – silk
alpaca – alpaca
hilo – yarn (plural: hilados)
Also, I found out that cashmerillo is just an acrylic yarn that’s very soft. Don’t be fooled by price, some of the acrylic yarns are *very* expensive, even more expensive than the wool.

I was very excited by the prospect of all these yarn stores, and after these three purchases I was done, and passed by 4 other yarn stores that I didn’t even walk into. In addition, there were at least 2 weaving stores, and another 2 fabric stores. Only one of the yarn stores had fiber to spin, and it looked like combed top, and was somewhat expensive (by US standards).

All in all, I was extremely satisfied by taking a few hours to shop for yarn, but I found the experience quite different from what I’m used to.

* I was instructed by a friend who had visited Buenos Aires to take a taxi to the corner of X and Y. However, I enjoy walking around and public transit, so I noticed the subway stop was not far, and decided to walk a few blocks. To those who are considering what to do, a taxi would have cost about 20 pesos (about USD $5) each way. The subway costs $5 for two rides, but of course is not door to door. Another thing to note about the subway is that it is not the most modern system:

And you will get plenty of people trying to make money – some play music, which you may be used to from other subway systems. Others will go around a subway car, handing out products, and then go around and either collect the product back or collect money. I was handed tissues and Disney books – or at least, they attempted to hand stuff to me, and I refused. It helped that I had knitting in my hands, but I saw them just place stuff on people’s laps if their hands were busy, so don’t just look away, make sure you actually refuse by shaking your head.

Note: I hope this article is helpful! Due to spam reasons, all articles on this site have comments disabled after a short time. If you want to leave feedback, you can tweet @sheeri or e-mail me at awfief at gmail dot com. (replace “at” with @ and “dot com” with .com to get the real e-mail address).
It was very important that I write my previous post when I did – Wed 25 July – because the very next day, of the fun I had, but I’d also like to highlight the knitting I did.

I started knitting a Color Affection shawl, in some Novita Polku that I bought in Finland in May. I started the shawl the first day, which was mostly lounging around while we were in the port of Boston (where we all embarked) and then while the cruise ship was traveling. I continued the shawl on Friday 27 July, and then on Saturday 28 July we landed in the port of St. John’s, New Brunswick. I chose to take a bus to Fredericton, to see the city hall, learn some history, and visit Yarns on York to meet local knitters and take a class on Newfoundland Mittens, aka “Newfie Mitts”. I got a bit done, but I believe I will rip out what I’ve done, make it smaller, and do the “windows” in the multicolored black and the background/wrists in the green. Still, here’s the progress shot, even though this will be frogged later:

On Sunday, I chose to do one of the two classes offered at The Loop in Halifax. The class I chose was one on how to do thrummed mittens, and the instructor Mimi was amazing. I did not take the class for the Bermuda Scarf/shawl, but I heard that the 2nd class was not as great, probably due to the first class running very late and Mimi running out of steam (teaching 2 classes in one day is tough, and who knows if she even had time to eat!). Given that, I’m glad I did not stay for the 2nd class (I did buy the pattern and yarn for it, so I can make the shawl), and instead did a 10-mile bicycle tour of Halifax. At any rate, I did enjoy working on the thrummed mittens, and here is my progress (I haven’t done anything with it since that weekend):

And the inside looks like this:

I learned lots of great tips from Mimi, like using a wool with a lot of lanolin in it, so it’s “sticky” and holds the thrums in better.

There was a lot of knitting that weekend, and in the few weeks that followed. This past week I finished knitting Tony’s scarf, after having to spin more yarn and buy more on Cape Cod while helping a friend do the Pan-Mass Challenge at the beginning of August. I still have to finish the scarf by weaving in the ends and blocking it, but it’s finally the right length, and Tony will be able to use it this coming fall/winter.

I also finished the scarf I was weaving (the June Spunky Eclectic weaving club), but I still need to block it before taking a picture of it. A new weaving club for August is on its way, so I’ll have something new to warp soon.

I am not going on a plane until the end of September, and my next travel is scheduled for mid-September, around Rosh Hashanah – I will be going to the New York City area for 2 weekends (coming back to Boston for a wedding in between). I hope to finish the Color Affection Shawl soon, and get pictures of both it and the woven scarf before long.
It was very important that I write my previous post when I did – Wed 25 July – because the very next day, of the fun I had, but I’d also like to highlight the knitting I did.

I started knitting a Color Affection shawl, in some Novita Polku that I bought in Finland in May. I started the shawl the first day, which was mostly lounging around while we were in the port of Boston (where we all embarked) and then while the cruise ship was traveling. I continued the shawl on Friday 27 July, and then on Saturday 28 July we landed in the port of St. John’s, New Brunswick. I chose to take a bus to Fredericton, to see the city hall, learn some history, and visit Yarns on York to meet local knitters and take a class on Newfoundland Mittens, aka “Newfie Mitts”. I got a bit done, but I believe I will rip out what I’ve done, make it smaller, and do the “windows” in the multicolored black and the background/wrists in the green. Still, here’s the progress shot, even though this will be frogged later:

On Sunday, I chose to do one of the two classes offered at The Loop in Halifax. The class I chose was one on how to do thrummed mittens, and the instructor Mimi was amazing. I did not take the class for the Bermuda Scarf/shawl, but I heard that the 2nd class was not as great, probably due to the first class running very late and Mimi running out of steam (teaching 2 classes in one day is tough, and who knows if she even had time to eat!). Given that, I’m glad I did not stay for the 2nd class (I did buy the pattern and yarn for it, so I can make the shawl), and instead did a 10-mile bicycle tour of Halifax. At any rate, I did enjoy working on the thrummed mittens, and here is my progress (I haven’t done anything with it since that weekend):

And the inside looks like this:

I learned lots of great tips from Mimi, like using a wool with a lot of lanolin in it, so it’s “sticky” and holds the thrums in better.

There was a lot of knitting that weekend, and in the few weeks that followed. This past week I finished knitting Tony’s scarf, after having to spin more yarn and buy more on Cape Cod while helping a friend do the Pan-Mass Challenge at the beginning of August. I still have to finish the scarf by weaving in the ends and blocking it, but it’s finally the right length, and Tony will be able to use it this coming fall/winter.

I also finished the scarf I was weaving (the June Spunky Eclectic weaving club), but I still need to block it before taking a picture of it. A new weaving club for August is on its way, so I’ll have something new to warp soon.

I am not going on a plane until the end of September, and my next travel is scheduled for mid-September, around Rosh Hashanah – I will be going to the New York City area for 2 weekends (coming back to Boston for a wedding in between). I hope to finish the Color Affection Shawl soon, and get pictures of
So, online I mentioned in the last post that I had finished 2 objects – side effects and the June Spunky Eclectic Weaving Club, which I opted to do a table runner. It was my first experience with using a pick-up stick. I’m happy with how both came out (especially after ironing the scarf…I don’t even iron clothes!).

Crooked Little Tony scarf

Pick-up-sticks table runner

I’m thrilled with how drapey the table runner is. My only problem is that I have no idea what to do with it – it’s 33 inches by 22 inches. It’s too short for a scarf, but I don’t have an appropriate table to use it on. It’s a superwash merino/bamboo/viscose blend. Folded over a towel bar it’d make a very long kitchen or guest towel, I guess?

Any ideas?
So, , which I opted to do a table runner. It was my first experience with using a pick-up stick. I’m happy with how both came out (especially after ironing the scarf…I don’t even iron clothes!).

Crooked Little Tony scarf

Pick-up-sticks table runner

I’m thrilled with how drapey the table runner is. My only problem is that I have no idea what to do with it – it’s 33 inches by 22 inches. It’s too short for a scarf, but I don’t have an appropriate table to use it on. It’s a superwash merino/bamboo/viscose blend.
I am so excited about tonight’s Common Cod Fiber Guild Meeting featuring Pam Parmal of the Boston Museum of Fine Arts talking about the collection strategy for textiles and fashion. And since I last wrote, gonorrhea I have finished a few objects…..

The first is another Hoot Cardigan, this time made out of Universal Yarns Supreme Cotton Batik, that I picked up in Charlotte, North Carolina earlier this year. I love the Supreme Cotton line from Universal yarns, because it is super soft. Unfortunately, I have only been able to find it in LYS in North Carolina….I hear that is changing soon, though! Here’s the cardigan, made for a friend of mine who just had his first son:

And then there’s the August Weaving Club from Spunky Eclectic – cotton dishcloths! I did not follow the pattern; instead I tried out a herringbone/pinwheel pattern. It came out wonderfully!

I ended up making 2 towels, one a bit shorter because I ran out of warp, but here’s the shorter one hanging from a peg next to our sink (please excuse the dirty dishes and Guinness cans to be rinsed).

The bigger one is in constant use as Tony’s “potato cozy”. That’s not a euphemism, Tony eats a baked potato like one would eat an apple, whole and uncut. Because it’s hot, he uses a towel wrapped around it to hold it.

And finally, the pièce de résistance. This is a Color Affection Shawl that I made from 3 different skeins of Novita’s Polku yarn, which I acquired in Finland earlier this year.

Here’s a close-up shot of the ‘center’ of this assymmetrical shawl:

And a little zoomed out:

Here’s the full-size shot:

I also spun up a “fractal 3-ply” which I will write about next time.
I am so excited about tonight’s Common Cod Fiber Guild Meeting featuring Pam Parmal of the Boston Museum of Fine Arts talking about the collection strategy for textiles and fashion. And since I last wrote, condom I have finished a few objects…..

The first is another Hoot Cardigan, information pills this time made out of

And then there’s the August

The bigger one is in constant use as Tony’s “potato cozy”. That’s not a euphemism, Tony eats a baked potato like one would eat an apple, whole and uncut. Because it’s hot, he uses a towel wrapped around it to hold it.

And finally, the pièce de résistance. This is a Color Affection Shawl that I made from 3 different skeins of

And a little zoomed out:

Here’s the full-size shot:

After
I am so excited about tonight’s
Common Cod Fiber Guild Meeting featuring Pam Parmal of the Boston Museum of Fine Arts talking about the collection strategy for textiles and fashion. And since I last wrote, order I have finished a few objects…..

The first is another Hoot Cardigan, find this time made out of

And then there’s the August

The bigger one is in constant use as Tony’s “potato cozy”. That’s not a euphemism, Tony eats a baked potato like one would eat an apple, whole and uncut. Because it’s hot, he uses a towel wrapped around it to hold it.

And finally, the pièce de résistance. This is a Color Affection Shawl that I made from 3 different skeins of

And a little zoomed out:

Here’s the full-size shot:

I also spun up a “fractal 3-ply” which I will write about next time.
I am so excited about tonight’s
Common Cod Fiber Guild Meeting featuring Pam Parmal of the Boston Museum of Fine Arts talking about the collection strategy for textiles and fashion. And since I last wrote, more about I have finished a few objects…..

The first is another Hoot Cardigan, this time made out of Universal Yarns Supreme Cotton Batik, that I picked up in Charlotte, North Carolina earlier this year. I love the Supreme Cotton line from Universal yarns, because it is super soft. Unfortunately, I have only been able to find it in LYS in North Carolina….I hear that is changing soon, though! Here’s the cardigan, made for a friend of mine who just had his first son:

And then there’s the August Weaving Club from Spunky Eclectic – cotton dishcloths! I did not follow the pattern; instead I tried out a herringbone/pinwheel pattern. It came out wonderfully!

I ended up making 2 towels, one a bit shorter because I ran out of warp, but here’s the shorter one hanging from a peg next to our sink (please excuse the dirty dishes and Guinness cans to be rinsed).

The bigger one is in constant use as Tony’s “potato cozy”. That’s not a euphemism, Tony eats a baked potato like one would eat an apple, whole and uncut. Because it’s hot, he uses a towel wrapped around it to hold it.

And finally, the pièce de résistance. This is a Color Affection Shawl that I made from 3 different skeins of

And a little zoomed out:

Here’s the full-size shot:

I also spun up a “fractal 3-ply” which I will write about next time.
Buenos Aires has a span of a few blocks,
hospital not too far from the Malabia metro station* where there are many yarn shops, phthisiatrician I counted 15, and went into 11 of them before I had to stop. The shops are on Ave. Scalabrini Ortiz just southwest of Ave. Cordoba, towards Ave. Correintes. The Malabia metro station is on the corner of Correintes and Scalabrini Ortiz, which is 1 km away from the corner of Cordoba and Corrientes, and about half that until you see your first yarn shop. There was a small bit of yarn bombing between two of the stores:

Yarn shopping in Buenos Aires is quite different from what I’m used to in the States. The stores all look like this:

The yarn is beautiful, and well-organized, but there’s no signs as to what the yarn is made up of, how much it costs nor the gauge of the yarn. In addition, you’re not supposed to take the yarn out of the bins. If you look at the bottom right of that picture, you’ll see some white yarn and blue yarn that is actually sitting on top of a counter. That counter separates you from the wall, and there are people behind the counter who can help you get what you want.

So it’s very different from the experience I’m used to. I got the feeling that a lot of people knew exactly what they wanted to buy, or walked in and would say “do you have anything made of wool?” I was feeling a bit shy due to the language barrier, so I picked up a Spanish phrase: “solamente mirando” – it means “Just looking”. The people are friendly and willing to help, but I like the yarn buying process to be a solo activity.

There were 2 exceptions to the fact that most stores don’t give any information about their items.: Milana hilados and Yanabey. Milana hilados had tags like this near most of their yarn:

Note that that’s in Argentinian pesos, and at the time, this was less than USD $10 per 100g. Another thing to note is the price is per 100g, not per hank of yarn. You’d ask a sales associate to take the yarn down for you and they’d weigh it and ask you if that was OK (kind of like at the deli counter). Then they give you a slip of paper and you take it to a cash register, where you’re usually helped by someone else. Another interesting thing is that the stores seemed to be staffed by about half men, half women, which is very different from yarn stores in the States, which are probably about 90% staffed by women.

I bought 3 hanks of yarn there, for about $25:

Yanabey had signs like this:

These prices are still in Argentinian pesos, but they’re in kilos. So these prices are $171 for 1 kilo, which is $17.10 for 100g. This is a wall of “seda vegetal”, or “vegetable silk“. By the way, that’s about USD $35 per kilo. So I bought 6 skeins, which was just over a kilo, because the tree which this comes from (ceiba speciosa, or “silk floss tree”) is native to South America, and I haven’t seen “vegetable silk” in the US.

A lot of the stores have the recycled t-shirt yarn, and I bought some at Arte Natural:

BUTTONS!!!

I was thinking I might make a purse from the yarn, like this:

That purse is crocheted, but I’m sure I can come up with a knitted version.

Here’s what I bought from that store:

Here’s a Spanish primer for some important words:
cachemira – cashmere
acrílico – acrylic
lana – wool
seda – silk
alpaca – alpaca
hilo – yarn (plural: hilados)
Also, I found out that cashmerillo is just an acrylic yarn that’s very soft. Don’t be fooled by price, some of the acrylic yarns are *very* expensive, even more expensive than the wool.

I was very excited by the prospect of all these yarn stores, and after these three purchases I was done, and passed by 4 other yarn stores that I didn’t even walk into. In addition, there were at least 2 weaving stores, and another 2 fabric stores. Only one of the yarn stores had fiber to spin, and it looked like combed top, and was somewhat expensive (by US standards).

All in all, I was extremely satisfied by taking a few hours to shop for yarn, but I found the experience quite different from what I’m used to.

* I was instructed by a friend who had visited Buenos Aires to take a taxi to the corner of X and Y. However, I enjoy walking around and public transit, so I noticed the subway stop was not far, and decided to walk a few blocks. To those who are considering what to do, a taxi would have cost about 20 pesos (about USD $5) each way. The subway costs $5 for two rides, but of course is not door to door. Another thing to note about the subway is that it is not the most modern system:

And you will get plenty of people trying to make money – some play music, which you may be used to from other subway systems. Others will go around a subway car, handing out products, and then go around and either collect the product back or collect money. I was handed tissues and Disney books – or at least, they attempted to hand stuff to me, and I refused. It helped that I had knitting in my hands, but I saw them just place stuff on people’s laps if their hands were busy, so don’t just look away, make sure you actually refuse by shaking your head.

Note: I hope this article is helpful! Due to spam reasons, all articles on this site have comments disabled after a short time. If you want to leave feedback, you can tweet @sheeri or e-mail me at awfief at gmail dot com. (replace “at” with @ and
When I think of gradient spinning, visit I think of starting with “gradient-dyed fiber” such as Fiber Optics’ gradient collection. Sadly, I have not yet gotten my hands on on of them yet. However, a fractal 3-ply attempt last year gave me the push to try a kind of gradient spinning.

I got a great batt from Fiber Stash back in April at the Wild and Woolly Weekend in Vermont. The 3.7 oz batt is 98% Corriedale, 2% twinkle, in a blue-purple, light blue, and black – here it is, unrolled:

The first step was to divide it into three sections, for a 3-ply, so that each section had each of the three colors. I then split 2 of the sections into even thirds, based on the colors, and the last section was split into sixths based on colors. I split the sections based on weight.

The idea is a fractal ply, but because I am doing a 3-ply, I will do it so that 2 of the sections are the same color, and a third is changing. The middle is the part divided into six:

I finally finished spinning, plying, skeining and washing, and here’s what the finished result looks like:

I think a shawl is in order to show off the lovely and subtle color changes. This produced 284 yards of yarn at 12 wpi. I have an identical batt which I will spin the same way, and will knit with all of it to make a good-sized shawl.

When I think of gradient spinning, buy more about I think of starting with “gradient-dyed fiber” such as Fiber Optics’ gradient collection. Sadly, I have not yet gotten my hands on on of them yet. However, a fractal 3-ply attempt last year gave me the push to try a kind of gradient spinning.

I got a great batt from Fiber Stash back in April at the Wild and Woolly Weekend in Vermont. The 3.7 oz batt is 98% Corriedale, 2% twinkle, in a blue-purple, light blue, and black – here it is, unrolled:

The first step was to divide it into three sections, for a 3-ply, so that each section had each of the three colors. I then split 2 of the sections into even thirds, based on the colors, and the last section was split into sixths based on colors. The idea is a fractal ply, but because I am doing a 3-ply, I will do it so that 2 of the sections are the same color, and a third is changing. The middle is the part divided into six:

I finally finished spinning, plying, skeining and washing, and here’s what the finished result looks like:

I think a shawl is in order to show off the lovely color changes. This produced 284 yards of yarn at 12 wpi. I have an identical batt which I will spin the same way

Edited October 29, medicine 2012 – Unfortunately, ampoule Cat Bordhi has asked me to take the PDF instructions down. However, troche the same exact information is at the video I link to below, so you can still find the information you need.

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, 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.

I taught this at FiberCamp this past weekend, view 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, 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.
It’s been a while since I last wrote. 2 months and 2 weeks, not at all! There has been a lot of travel, and not a ton of knitting…..but there has been some.

The first adventure I had after the last post was completely unexpected. I was at a conference in St. Paul, Minnesota, and I was reading a blog post by Stephanie Pearl McPhee where she mentioned flying from California to Minnesota. At first I thought “how cool, soon I’ll be flying from St. Paul to California!” and then I wondered, “will we overlap in the Twin Cities?” (If you don’t know, those cities border each other.)

The answer, my friends, is yes, and this happened at Steven Be:
Stephanie blesses my sock

Steven was absolutely fabulous and was in full force that day. The yarn shop has yarn and knitted things everywhere. I loved it from a chaotic good perspective. I bought some sock yarn and some sock needles, and immediately started in on a sock. And I had Stephanie sign some books, of course.

The next adventure I had was when I found the Mass Ave Knit Shop in Indianapolis. It was about half a mile from the hotel I was staying at, and I spent several hours there on a Saturday before leaving for the airport. I picked up some plain white yarn (purpose to be revealed later) and knit for several hours….though at this point I cannot remember what I was knitting! For arguments’ sake, let’s say I was knitting a pattern from Jeri, a fellow Common Cod Fiber Guild member, which she showed at Show and Tell during our September meeting. The pattern is called “Vestboro”, and this is how far I got as of mid-October, so it’s a pretty good bet to say that’s what I was working on:

Vestboro center

The knit shop was large, and had tons of yarn! Due to all my travel this year, I have not been knitting and spinning as much as I used to. Last November I stopped being able to keep up with my monthly fiber club, and I stayed behind all year. Suffice it to say, I am overflowing with yarn and fiber….and so is my fiber room. So I am limiting my souvenir yarn…for now.

The knit shop was full of women knitting, and wonderful local donuts, and instead of souvenir yarn I bought myself an accordion-type box to store my dpns in by size. It was a great place to spend several hours knitting.

I attended Rhinebeck aka NY Sheep & Wool, where I acquired a Bernina 1230 sewing machine, circa 1989–1998. I haven’t yet started playing with it, as I have been WAY too busy with other things – Halloween crafts, holiday gift knitting, and test knitting! At Rhinebeck I took 2 classes – a spinning class with Abby Franquemont (I can cross that off the bucket list now!) and a dyeing class with Gail Callahan, the Kangaroo Dyer, in which I learned a ton about dyeing and made this beautiful rainbow:

my rainbow of dyeing

I did not knit for much of September and October because I was doing other crafty things – specifically, I was hand-sewing my Halloween costume – Sally from the Nightmare Before Christmas. It came out better than I expected, which was great, because it was for an awesome wedding:

Julia as a nurse and me as Sally, from the Nightmare Before Christmas

And yes, I also knit the wig.

In November I was test knitting. And test knitting. And test knitting. I will show you pictures once they are public, but for now, things remain secret.

I took a mitten class at Mind’s Eye Yarns and still have not finished knitting the first mitten, much less the second mitten. But I learned a few good tips along the way and am excited to use them.

Remember that white yarn I bought in Indianapolis? It was for some classes with Lucy Neatby, who is chock-full of amazing tips and tricks for knitting. I filled out a wishlist with stuff I want, from patterns to DVDs. Lucy is fun, smart and easy to learn from. I took three classes with her – buttonholes, finishing, and socks. Her handouts are invaluable. I took time off work and spent a pretty penny to learn from Lucy, and I would do it again in a heartbeat. She’s THAT good.

And then it was December…..the test knitting was finally finished, and then it was time to knit gifts! I knit hats for my brother-in-law and his wife (in grey and red Ushya yarn), and I did not, sadly, take any pictures of those hats. I also knit a hat for my mother-in-law in green, and again, no pictures. I do have pictures of the tiny slightly felted purse I made for my aunt-in-law (using handspun Portuguese Merino in the “A Bug’s Life” colorway) and the DNA scarf I made for my father-in-law out of Kauni (that I bought while in Halifax on my knitting cruise in July):

Felted wallet

DNA Scarf

And then during and after Christmas I knit 2 chemo caps for a cousin-in-law – one was brown and one was black with sequins (so she’d have “evening hair”) – here’s a pic of me modeling the brown one:

fun fur hat in brown

So with all that done, I have started spinning again….although I find I cannot spin for hours like I used to. I’ll have to work up to that again. In the meantime, I’ve been spinning an hour or two at a time in the evenings, and yesterday I took a break to knit myself the Mind’s Eye Yarns free Waffle Stitch Hat pattern, so I could finally have a hat for myself:

my hat!

It was super-quick to knit, and I love it!
It’s been a while since I last wrote. 2 months and 2 weeks, not at all! There has been a lot of travel, and not a ton of knitting…..but there has been some.

The first adventure I had was when I found the Common Cod Fiber Guild member, which she showed at Show and Tell during our September meeting. The pattern is called “Vestboro”, and this is how far I got as of mid-October, so it’s a pretty good bet to say that’s what I was working on:

Vestboro center

The knit shop was large, and had tons of yarn! Due to all my travel this year, I have not been knitting and spinning as much as I used to. Last November I stopped being able to keep up with my monthly fiber club, and I stayed behind all year. Suffice it to say, I am overflowing with yarn and fiber….and so is my fiber room. So I am limiting my souvenir yarn…for now.

The knit shop was full of women knitting, and wonderful local donuts, and instead of souvenir yarn I bought myself an accordion-type box to store my dpns in by size. It was a great place to spend several hours knitting.

I did
It’s been a while since I last wrote. 2 months and 2 weeks, psychotherapist to be exact. And my life has not been devoid of knitting nor crafty stuff….no, not at all! There has been a lot of travel, and not a ton of knitting…..but there has been some.

The first adventure I had after the last post was completely unexpected. I was at a conference in St. Paul, Minnesota, and I was reading a blog post by Stephanie Pearl McPhee where she mentioned flying from California to Minnesota. At first I thought “how cool, soon I’ll be flying from St. Paul to California!” and then I wondered, “will we overlap in the Twin Cities?” (If you don’t know, those cities border each other.)

The answer, my friends, is yes, and this happened at Steven Be:
Stephanie blesses my sock

Steven was absolutely fabulous and was in full force that day. The yarn shop has yarn and knitted things everywhere. I loved it from a chaotic good perspective. I bought some sock yarn and some sock needles, and immediately started in on a sock. And I had Stephanie sign some books, of course.

The next adventure I had was when I found the Common Cod Fiber Guild member, which she showed at Show and Tell during our September meeting. The pattern is called “Vestboro”, and this is how far I got as of mid-October, so it’s a pretty good bet to say that’s what I was working on:

Vestboro center

The knit shop was large, and had tons of yarn! Due to all my travel this year, I have not been knitting and spinning as much as I used to. Last November I stopped being able to keep up with my monthly fiber club, and I stayed behind all year. Suffice it to say, I am overflowing with yarn and fiber….and so is my fiber room. So I am limiting my souvenir yarn…for now.

The knit shop was full of women knitting, and wonderful local donuts, and instead of souvenir yarn I bought myself an accordion-type box to store my dpns in by size. It was a great place to spend several hours knitting.

I attended Rhinebeck aka NY Sheep & Wool, where I acquired a Bernina 1230 sewing machine, circa 1989–1998. I haven’t yet started playing with it, as I have been WAY too busy with other things – Halloween crafts, holiday gift knitting, and test knitting! At Rhinebeck I took 2 classes – a spinning class with Abby Franquemont (I can cross that off the bucket list now!) and a dyeing class with Gail Callahan, the Kangaroo Dyer, in which I learned a ton about dyeing and made this beautiful rainbow:

my rainbow of dyeing

I did not knit for much of September and October because I was doing other crafty things – specifically, I was hand-sewing my Halloween costume – Sally from the Nightmare Before Christmas. It came out better than I expected, which was great, because it was for an awesome wedding:

Julia as a nurse and me as Sally, from the Nightmare Before Christmas

And yes, I also knit the wig.

In November I was test knitting. And test knitting. And test knitting. I will show you pictures once they are public, but for now, things remain secret.

I took a mitten class at Mind’s Eye Yarns and still have not finished knitting the first mitten, much less the second mitten. But I learned a few good tips along the way and am excited to use them.

Remember that white yarn I bought in Indianapolis? It was for some classes with Lucy Neatby, who is chock-full of amazing tips and tricks for knitting. I filled out a wishlist with stuff I want, from patterns to DVDs. Lucy is fun, smart and easy to learn from. I took three classes with her – buttonholes, finishing, and socks. Her handouts are invaluable. I took time off work and spent a pretty penny to learn from Lucy, and I would do it again in a heartbeat. She’s THAT good.

And then it was December…..the test knitting was finally finished, and then it was time to knit gifts! I knit hats for my brother-in-law and his wife (in grey and red Ushya yarn), and I did not, sadly, take any pictures of those hats. I also knit a hat for my mother-in-law in green, and again, no pictures. I do have pictures of the tiny slightly felted purse I made for my aunt-in-law (using handspun Portuguese Merino in the “A Bug’s Life” colorway) and the DNA scarf I made for my father-in-law out of Kauni (that I bought while in Halifax on my knitting cruise in July):

Felted wallet

DNA Scarf

So with all that done, I have started spinning again….although I find I cannot spin for hours like I used to. I’ll have to work up to that again. In the meantime, I’ve been spinning an hour or two at a time in the evenings, and yesterday I took a break to knit myself the Mind’s Eye Yarns free Waffle Stitch Hat pattern, so I could finally have a hat for myself:

my hat!

It was super-quick to knit, and I love it!
It’s been a while since I last wrote. 2 months and 2 weeks, website like this to be exact. And my life has not been devoid of knitting nor crafty stuff….no, not at all! There has been a lot of travel, and not a ton of knitting…..but there has been some.

The first adventure I had after the last post was completely unexpected. I was at a conference in St. Paul, Minnesota, and I was reading a blog post by Stephanie Pearl McPhee where she mentioned flying from California to Minnesota. At first I thought “how cool, soon I’ll be flying from St. Paul to California!” and then I wondered, “will we overlap in the Twin Cities?” (If you don’t know, those cities border each other.)

The answer, my friends, is yes, and this happened at Steven Be:
Stephanie blesses my sock

Steven was absolutely fabulous and was in full force that day. The yarn shop has yarn and knitted things everywhere. I loved it from a chaotic good perspective. I bought some sock yarn and some sock needles, and immediately started in on a sock. And I had Stephanie sign some books, of course.

The next adventure I had was when I found the Common Cod Fiber Guild member, which she showed at Show and Tell during our September meeting. The pattern is called “Vestboro”, and this is how far I got as of mid-October, so it’s a pretty good bet to say that’s what I was working on:

Vestboro center

The knit shop was large, and had tons of yarn! Due to all my travel this year, I have not been knitting and spinning as much as I used to. Last November I stopped being able to keep up with my monthly fiber club, and I stayed behind all year. Suffice it to say, I am overflowing with yarn and fiber….and so is my fiber room. So I am limiting my souvenir yarn…for now.

The knit shop was full of women knitting, and wonderful local donuts, and instead of souvenir yarn I bought myself an accordion-type box to store my dpns in by size. It was a great place to spend several hours knitting.

I attended Rhinebeck aka NY Sheep & Wool, where I acquired a Bernina 1230 sewing machine, circa 1989–1998. I haven’t yet started playing with it, as I have been WAY too busy with other things – Halloween crafts, holiday gift knitting, and test knitting! At Rhinebeck I took 2 classes – a spinning class with Abby Franquemont (I can cross that off the bucket list now!) and a dyeing class with Gail Callahan, the Kangaroo Dyer, in which I learned a ton about dyeing and made this beautiful rainbow:

my rainbow of dyeing

I did not knit for much of September and October because I was doing other crafty things – specifically, I was hand-sewing my Halloween costume – Sally from the Nightmare Before Christmas. It came out better than I expected, which was great, because it was for an awesome wedding:

Julia as a nurse and me as Sally, from the Nightmare Before Christmas

And yes, I also knit the wig.

In November I was test knitting. And test knitting. And test knitting. I will show you pictures once they are public, but for now, things remain secret.

I took a mitten class at Mind’s Eye Yarns and still have not finished knitting the first mitten, much less the second mitten. But I learned a few good tips along the way and am excited to use them.

Remember that white yarn I bought in Indianapolis? It was for some classes with Lucy Neatby, who is chock-full of amazing tips and tricks for knitting. I filled out a wishlist with stuff I want, from patterns to DVDs. Lucy is fun, smart and easy to learn from. I took three classes with her – buttonholes, finishing, and socks. Her handouts are invaluable. I took time off work and spent a pretty penny to learn from Lucy, and I would do it again in a heartbeat. She’s THAT good.

And then it was December…..the test knitting was finally finished, and then it was time to knit gifts! I knit hats for my brother-in-law and his wife (in grey and red Ushya yarn), and I did not, sadly, take any pictures of those hats. I also knit a hat for my mother-in-law in green, and again, no pictures. I do have pictures of the tiny slightly felted purse I made for my aunt-in-law (using handspun Portuguese Merino in the “A Bug’s Life” colorway) and the DNA scarf I made for my father-in-law out of Kauni (that I bought while in Halifax on my knitting cruise in July):

Felted wallet

DNA Scarf

So with all that done, I have started spinning again….although I find I cannot spin for hours like I used to. I’ll have to work up to that again. In the meantime, I’ve been spinning an hour or two at a time in the evenings, and yesterday I took a break to knit myself the Mind’s Eye Yarns free Waffle Stitch Hat pattern, so I could finally have a hat for myself:

my hat!

It was super-quick to knit, and I love it!
It’s been a while since I last wrote. 2 months and 2 weeks, viagra 40mg to be exact. And my life has not been devoid of knitting nor crafty stuff….no, generic not at all! There has been a lot of travel, erectile and not a ton of knitting…..but there has been some.

The first adventure I had after the last post was completely unexpected. I was at a conference in St. Paul, Minnesota, and I was reading a blog post by Stephanie Pearl McPhee where she mentioned flying from California to Minnesota. At first I thought “how cool, soon I’ll be flying from St. Paul to California!” and then I wondered, “will we overlap in the Twin Cities?” (If you don’t know, those cities border each other.)

The answer, my friends, is yes, and this happened at Steven Be:
Stephanie blesses my sock

Steven was absolutely fabulous and was in full force that day. The yarn shop has yarn and knitted things everywhere. I loved it from a chaotic good perspective. I bought some sock yarn and some sock needles, and immediately started in on a sock. And I had Stephanie sign some books, of course.

The next adventure I had was when I found the Mass Ave Knit Shop in Indianapolis. It was about half a mile from the hotel I was staying at, and I spent several hours there on a Saturday before leaving for the airport. I picked up some plain white yarn (purpose to be revealed later) and knit for several hours….though at this point I cannot remember what I was knitting! For arguments’ sake, let’s say I was knitting a pattern from Jeri, a fellow Common Cod Fiber Guild member, which she showed at Show and Tell during our September meeting. The pattern is called “Vestboro”, and this is how far I got as of mid-October, so it’s a pretty good bet to say that’s what I was working on:

Vestboro center

The knit shop was large, and had tons of yarn! Due to all my travel this year, I have not been knitting and spinning as much as I used to. Last November I stopped being able to keep up with my monthly fiber club, and I stayed behind all year. Suffice it to say, I am overflowing with yarn and fiber….and so is my fiber room. So I am limiting my souvenir yarn…for now.

The knit shop was full of women knitting, and wonderful local donuts, and instead of souvenir yarn I bought myself an accordion-type box to store my dpns in by size. It was a great place to spend several hours knitting.

I attended Rhinebeck aka NY Sheep & Wool, where I acquired a Bernina 1230 sewing machine, circa 1989–1998. I haven’t yet started playing with it, as I have been WAY too busy with other things – Halloween crafts, holiday gift knitting, and test knitting! At Rhinebeck I took 2 classes – a spinning class with Abby Franquemont (I can cross that off the bucket list now!) and a dyeing class with Gail Callahan, the Kangaroo Dyer, in which I learned a ton about dyeing and made this beautiful rainbow:

my rainbow of dyeing

I did not knit for much of September and October because I was doing other crafty things – specifically, I was hand-sewing my Halloween costume – Sally from the Nightmare Before Christmas. It came out better than I expected, which was great, because it was for an awesome wedding:

Julia as a nurse and me as Sally, from the Nightmare Before Christmas

And yes, I also knit the wig.

In November I was test knitting. And test knitting. And test knitting. I will show you pictures once they are public, but for now, things remain secret.

I took a mitten class at Mind’s Eye Yarns and still have not finished knitting the first mitten, much less the second mitten. But I learned a few good tips along the way and am excited to use them.

Remember that white yarn I bought in Indianapolis? It was for some classes with Lucy Neatby, who is chock-full of amazing tips and tricks for knitting. I filled out a wishlist with stuff I want, from patterns to DVDs. Lucy is fun, smart and easy to learn from. I took three classes with her – buttonholes, finishing, and socks. Her handouts are invaluable. I took time off work and spent a pretty penny to learn from Lucy, and I would do it again in a heartbeat. She’s THAT good.

And then it was December…..the test knitting was finally finished, and then it was time to knit gifts! I knit hats for my brother-in-law and his wife (in grey and red Ushya yarn), and I did not, sadly, take any pictures of those hats. I also knit a hat for my mother-in-law in green, and again, no pictures. I do have pictures of the tiny slightly felted purse I made for my aunt-in-law (using handspun Portuguese Merino in the “A Bug’s Life” colorway) and the DNA scarf I made for my father-in-law out of Kauni (that I bought while in Halifax on my knitting cruise in July):

Felted wallet

DNA Scarf

And then during and after Christmas I knit 2 chemo caps for a cousin-in-law – one was brown and one was black with sequins (so she’d have “evening hair”) – here’s a pic of me modeling the brown one:

So with all that done, I have started spinning again….although I find I cannot spin for hours like I used to. I’ll have to work up to that again. In the meantime, I’ve been spinning an hour or two at a time in the evenings, and yesterday I took a break to knit myself the Mind’s Eye Yarns free Waffle Stitch Hat pattern, so I could finally have a hat for myself:

my hat!

It was super-quick to knit, and I love it!
It’s been a while since I last wrote. 2 months and 2 weeks, visit this to be exact. And my life has not been devoid of knitting nor crafty stuff….no, doctor not at all! There has been a lot of travel, nurse and not a ton of knitting…..but there has been some.

The first adventure I had after the last post was completely unexpected. I was at a conference in St. Paul, Minnesota, and I was reading a blog post by Stephanie Pearl McPhee where she mentioned flying from California to Minnesota. At first I thought “how cool, soon I’ll be flying from St. Paul to California!” and then I wondered, “will we overlap in the Twin Cities?” (If you don’t know, those cities border each other.)

The answer, my friends, is yes, and this happened at Steven Be:
Stephanie blesses my sock

Steven was absolutely fabulous and was in full force that day. The yarn shop has yarn and knitted things everywhere. I loved it from a chaotic good perspective. I bought some sock yarn and some sock needles, and immediately started in on a sock. And I had Stephanie sign some books, of course.

The next adventure I had was when I found the Mass Ave Knit Shop in Indianapolis. It was about half a mile from the hotel I was staying at, and I spent several hours there on a Saturday before leaving for the airport. I picked up some plain white yarn (purpose to be revealed later) and knit for several hours….though at this point I cannot remember what I was knitting! For arguments’ sake, let’s say I was knitting a pattern from Jeri, a fellow Common Cod Fiber Guild member, which she showed at Show and Tell during our September meeting. The pattern is called “Vestboro”, and this is how far I got as of mid-October, so it’s a pretty good bet to say that’s what I was working on:

Vestboro center

The knit shop was large, and had tons of yarn! Due to all my travel this year, I have not been knitting and spinning as much as I used to. Last November I stopped being able to keep up with my monthly fiber club, and I stayed behind all year. Suffice it to say, I am overflowing with yarn and fiber….and so is my fiber room. So I am limiting my souvenir yarn…for now.

The knit shop was full of women knitting, and wonderful local donuts, and instead of souvenir yarn I bought myself an accordion-type box to store my dpns in by size. It was a great place to spend several hours knitting.

I attended Rhinebeck aka NY Sheep & Wool, where I acquired a Bernina 1230 sewing machine, circa 1989–1998. I haven’t yet started playing with it, as I have been WAY too busy with other things – Halloween crafts, holiday gift knitting, and test knitting! At Rhinebeck I took 2 classes – a spinning class with Abby Franquemont (I can cross that off the bucket list now!) and a dyeing class with Gail Callahan, the Kangaroo Dyer, in which I learned a ton about dyeing and made this beautiful rainbow:

my rainbow of dyeing

I did not knit for much of September and October because I was doing other crafty things – specifically, I was hand-sewing my Halloween costume – Sally from the Nightmare Before Christmas. It came out better than I expected, which was great, because it was for an awesome wedding:

Julia as a nurse and me as Sally, from the Nightmare Before Christmas

And yes, I also knit the wig.

In November I was test knitting. And test knitting. And test knitting. I will show you pictures once they are public, but for now, things remain secret.

I took a mitten class at Mind’s Eye Yarns and still have not finished knitting the first mitten, much less the second mitten. But I learned a few good tips along the way and am excited to use them.

Remember that white yarn I bought in Indianapolis? It was for some classes with Lucy Neatby, who is chock-full of amazing tips and tricks for knitting. I filled out a wishlist with stuff I want, from patterns to DVDs. Lucy is fun, smart and easy to learn from. I took three classes with her – buttonholes, finishing, and socks. Her handouts are invaluable. I took time off work and spent a pretty penny to learn from Lucy, and I would do it again in a heartbeat. She’s THAT good.

And then it was December…..the test knitting was finally finished, and then it was time to knit gifts! I knit hats for my brother-in-law and his wife (in grey and red Ushya yarn), and I did not, sadly, take any pictures of those hats. I also knit a hat for my mother-in-law in green, and again, no pictures. I do have pictures of the tiny slightly felted purse I made for my aunt-in-law (using handspun Portuguese Merino in the “A Bug’s Life” colorway) and the DNA scarf I made for my father-in-law out of Kauni (that I bought while in Halifax on my knitting cruise in July):

Felted wallet

DNA Scarf

So with all that done, I have started spinning again….although I find I cannot spin for hours like I used to. I’ll have to work up to that again. In the meantime, I’ve been spinning an hour or two at a time in the evenings, and yesterday I took a break to knit myself the Mind’s Eye Yarns free Waffle Stitch Hat pattern, so I could finally have a hat for myself:

my hat!

It was super-quick to knit, and I love it!
It’s been a while since I last wrote. 2 months and 2 weeks, for sale to be exact. And my life has not been devoid of knitting nor crafty stuff….no, not at all! There has been a lot of travel, and not a ton of knitting…..but there has been some.

The first adventure I had after the last post was completely unexpected. I was at a conference in St. Paul, Minnesota, and I was reading a blog post by Stephanie Pearl McPhee where she mentioned flying from California to Minnesota. At first I thought “how cool, soon I’ll be flying from St. Paul to California!” and then I wondered, “will we overlap in the Twin Cities?” (If you don’t know, those cities border each other.)

The answer, my friends, is yes, and this happened at Steven Be:
Stephanie blesses my sock

Steven was absolutely fabulous and was in full force that day. The yarn shop has yarn and knitted things everywhere. I loved it from a chaotic good perspective. I bought some sock yarn and some sock needles, and immediately started in on a sock. And I had Stephanie sign some books, of course.

The next adventure I had was when I found the Mass Ave Knit Shop in Indianapolis. It was about half a mile from the hotel I was staying at, and I spent several hours there on a Saturday before leaving for the airport. I picked up some plain white yarn (purpose to be revealed later) and knit for several hours….though at this point I cannot remember what I was knitting! For arguments’ sake, let’s say I was knitting a pattern from Jeri, a fellow Common Cod Fiber Guild member, which she showed at Show and Tell during our September meeting. The pattern is called “Vestboro”, and this is how far I got as of mid-October, so it’s a pretty good bet to say that’s what I was working on:

Vestboro center

The knit shop was large, and had tons of yarn! Due to all my travel this year, I have not been knitting and spinning as much as I used to. Last November I stopped being able to keep up with my monthly fiber club, and I stayed behind all year. Suffice it to say, I am overflowing with yarn and fiber….and so is my fiber room. So I am limiting my souvenir yarn…for now.

The knit shop was full of women knitting, and wonderful local donuts, and instead of souvenir yarn I bought myself an accordion-type box to store my dpns in by size. It was a great place to spend several hours knitting.

I attended Rhinebeck aka NY Sheep & Wool, where I acquired a Bernina 1230 sewing machine, circa 1989–1998. I haven’t yet started playing with it, as I have been WAY too busy with other things – Halloween crafts, holiday gift knitting, and test knitting! At Rhinebeck I took 2 classes – a spinning class with Abby Franquemont (I can cross that off the bucket list now!) and a dyeing class with Gail Callahan, the Kangaroo Dyer, in which I learned a ton about dyeing and made this beautiful rainbow:

my rainbow of dyeing

I did not knit for much of September and October because I was doing other crafty things – specifically, I was hand-sewing my Halloween costume – Sally from the Nightmare Before Christmas. It came out better than I expected, which was great, because it was for an awesome wedding:

Julia as a nurse and me as Sally, from the Nightmare Before Christmas

And yes, I also knit the wig.

In November I was test knitting. And test knitting. And test knitting. I will show you pictures once they are public, but for now, things remain secret.

I took a mitten class at Mind’s Eye Yarns and still have not finished knitting the first mitten, much less the second mitten. But I learned a few good tips along the way and am excited to use them.

Remember that white yarn I bought in Indianapolis? It was for some classes with Lucy Neatby, who is chock-full of amazing tips and tricks for knitting. I filled out a wishlist with stuff I want, from patterns to DVDs. Lucy is fun, smart and easy to learn from. I took three classes with her – buttonholes, finishing, and socks. Her handouts are invaluable. I took time off work and spent a pretty penny to learn from Lucy, and I would do it again in a heartbeat. She’s THAT good.

And then it was December…..the test knitting was finally finished, and then it was time to knit gifts! I knit hats for my brother-in-law and his wife (in grey and red Ushya yarn), and I did not, sadly, take any pictures of those hats. I also knit a hat for my mother-in-law in green, and again, no pictures. I do have pictures of the tiny slightly felted purse I made for my aunt-in-law (using handspun Portuguese Merino in the “A Bug’s Life” colorway) and the DNA scarf I made for my father-in-law out of Kauni (that I bought while in Halifax on my knitting cruise in July):

Felted wallet

DNA Scarf

And then during and after Christmas I knit 2 chemo caps for a cousin-in-law – one was brown and one was black with sequins (so she’d have “evening hair”) – here’s a pic of me modeling the brown one:

fun fur hat in brown

So with all that done, I have started spinning again….although I find I cannot spin for hours like I used to. I’ll have to work up to that again. In the meantime, I’ve been spinning an hour or two at a time in the evenings, and yesterday I took a break to knit myself the Mind’s Eye Yarns free Waffle Stitch Hat pattern, so I could finally have a hat for myself:

my hat!

It was super-quick to knit, and I love it!
Buenos Aires has a span of a few blocks, health not too far from the Malabia metro station* where there are many yarn shops, I counted 15, and went into 11 of them before I had to stop. The shops are on Ave. Scalabrini Ortiz just southwest of Ave. Cordoba, towards Ave. Correintes. The Malabia metro station is on the corner of Correintes and Scalabrini Ortiz, which is 1 km away from the corner of Cordoba and Corrientes, and about half that until you see your first yarn shop. There was a small bit of yarn bombing between two of the stores:

Yarn shopping in Buenos Aires is quite different from what I’m used to in the States. The stores all look like this:

The yarn is beautiful, and well-organized, but there’s no signs as to what the yarn is made up of, how much it costs nor the gauge of the yarn. In addition, you’re not supposed to take the yarn out of the bins. If you look at the bottom right of that picture, you’ll see some white yarn and blue yarn that is actually sitting on top of a counter. That counter separates you from the wall, and there are people behind the counter who can help you get what you want.

So it’s very different from the experience I’m used to. I got the feeling that a lot of people knew exactly what they wanted to buy, or walked in and would say “do you have anything made of wool?” I was feeling a bit shy due to the language barrier, so I picked up a Spanish phrase: “solamente mirando” – it means “Just looking”. The people are friendly and willing to help, but I like the yarn buying process to be a solo activity.

There were 2 exceptions to the fact that most stores don’t give any information about their items.: Milana hilados and Yanabey. Milana hilados had tags like this near most of their yarn:

Note that that’s in Argentinian pesos, and at the time, this was less than USD $10 per 100g. Another thing to note is the price is per 100g, not per hank of yarn. You’d ask a sales associate to take the yarn down for you and they’d weigh it and ask you if that was OK (kind of like at the deli counter). Then they give you a slip of paper and you take it to a cash register, where you’re usually helped by someone else. Another interesting thing is that the stores seemed to be staffed by about half men, half women, which is very different from yarn stores in the States, which are probably about 90% staffed by women.

I bought 3 hanks of yarn there, for about $25:

Yanabey had signs like this:

These prices are still in Argentinian pesos, but they’re in kilos. So these prices are $171 for 1 kilo, which is $17.10 for 100g. This is a wall of “seda vegetal”, or “vegetable silk“. By the way, that’s about USD $35 per kilo. So I bought 6 skeins, which was just over a kilo, because the tree which this comes from (ceiba speciosa, or “silk floss tree”) is native to South America, and I haven’t seen “vegetable silk” in the US.

A lot of the stores have the recycled t-shirt yarn, and I bought some at Arte Natural:

BUTTONS!!!

I was thinking I might make a purse from the yarn, like this:

That purse is crocheted, but I’m sure I can come up with a knitted version.

Here’s what I bought from that store:

Here’s a Spanish primer for some important words:
cachemira – cashmere
acrílico – acrylic
lana – wool
seda – silk
alpaca – alpaca
hilo – yarn (plural: hilados)
Also, I found out that cashmerillo is just an acrylic yarn that’s very soft. Don’t be fooled by price, some of the acrylic yarns are *very* expensive, even more expensive than the wool.

I was very excited by the prospect of all these yarn stores, and after these three purchases I was done, and passed by 4 other yarn stores that I didn’t even walk into. In addition, there were at least 2 weaving stores, and another 2 fabric stores. Only one of the yarn stores had fiber to spin, and it looked like combed top, and was somewhat expensive (by US standards).

All in all, I was extremely satisfied by taking a few hours to shop for yarn, but I found the experience quite different from what I’m used to.

* I was instructed by a friend who had visited Buenos Aires to take a taxi to the corner of X and Y. However, I enjoy walking around and public transit, so I noticed the subway stop was not far, and decided to walk a few blocks. To those who are considering what to do, a taxi would have cost about 20 pesos (about USD $5) each way. The subway costs $5 for two rides, but of course is not door to door. Another thing to note about the subway is that it is not the most modern system:

And you will get plenty of people trying to make money – some play music, which you may be used to from other subway systems. Others will go around a subway car, handing out products, and then go around and either collect the product back or collect money. I was handed tissues and Disney books – or at least, they attempted to hand stuff to me, and I refused. It helped that I had knitting in my hands, but I saw them just place stuff on people’s laps if their hands were busy, so don’t just look away, make sure you actually refuse by shaking your head.

Note: I hope this article is helpful! Due to spam reasons, all articles on this site have comments disabled after a short time. If you want to leave feedback, you can tweet @sheeri or e-mail me at awfief at gmail dot com. (replace “at” with @ and “dot com” with .com to get the real e-mail address).
As part of .

This recipe is adapted from ) last year.

Materials:
large knife to cut cabbage
large mixing bowl

For each pound (1 lb, you will need:
2 tsp (10g) sea salt
16 oz. jar capacity (1 pint)

If you have 2 pounds of cabbage, pathopsychology you will use use 4 tsp (20g) sea salt and a 1-quart (32 oz) mason jar.

Wash hands before beginning.

Peel off the outer leaves of the cabbage, and cut out any “bad” parts. Cut in half from the bottom (where the core is) to the top. Cut in half again in the same direction, so you have 4 pieces that originally went from the top to the bottom.

Remove the core from the 4 parts. Slice as thick or thin as you want, or use your food processor’s slicing blade – do NOT use the shred blade, unless you want really tiny pieces of sauerkraut. The bigger the piece, the crunchier it will be.

Put the cabbage in the large mixing bowl. sprinkle the salt over it, and firmly massage the cabbage with your hands for a few minutes (it may take up to 10 minutes), until liquid starts being released from the cabbage.

Once liquid is released, you can pack it into the jar(s). You can put optional spices in this stage, such as garlic, rosemary, etc. Pack the cabbage down tightly.

Make sure the cabbage is submerged in liquid, otherwise mold can develop. You should not need a lot of additional water as the liquid released from the cabbage is enough.

Also be sure to leave some space, about an inch, between the top of the liquid and the top of the jar, as the cabbage will expand during fermentation.

Close the lid and place the jar in a cool, dark place, if possible (between 50-70 F, 10-25 C).

Been a While….

It was very important that I write my previous post when I did – Wed 25 July – because the very next day, of the fun I had, but I’d also like to highlight the knitting I did.

I started knitting a Color Affection shawl, in some Novita Polku that I bought in Finland in May. I started the shawl the first day, which was mostly lounging around while we were in the port of Boston (where we all embarked) and then while the cruise ship was traveling. I continued the shawl on Friday 27 July, and then on Saturday 28 July we landed in the port of St. John’s, New Brunswick. I chose to take a bus to Fredericton, to see the city hall, learn some history, and visit Yarns on York to meet local knitters and take a class on Newfoundland Mittens, aka “Newfie Mitts”. I got a bit done, but I believe I will rip out what I’ve done, make it smaller, and do the “windows” in the multicolored black and the background/wrists in the green. Still, here’s the progress shot, even though this will be frogged later:

On Sunday, I chose to do one of the two classes offered at The Loop in Halifax. The class I chose was one on how to do thrummed mittens, and the instructor Mimi was amazing. I did not take the class for the Bermuda Scarf/shawl, but I heard that the 2nd class was not as great, probably due to the first class running very late and Mimi running out of steam (teaching 2 classes in one day is tough, and who knows if she even had time to eat!). Given that, I’m glad I did not stay for the 2nd class (I did buy the pattern and yarn for it, so I can make the shawl), and instead did a 10-mile bicycle tour of Halifax. At any rate, I did enjoy working on the thrummed mittens, and here is my progress (I haven’t done anything with it since that weekend):

And the inside looks like this:

I learned lots of great tips from Mimi, like using a wool with a lot of lanolin in it, so it’s “sticky” and holds the thrums in better.

There was a lot of knitting that weekend, and in the few weeks that followed. This past week I finished knitting Tony’s scarf, after having to spin more yarn and buy more on Cape Cod while helping a friend do the Pan-Mass Challenge at the beginning of August. I still have to finish the scarf by weaving in the ends and blocking it, but it’s finally the right length, and Tony will be able to use it this coming fall/winter.

I also finished the scarf I was weaving (the June Spunky Eclectic weaving club), but I still need to block it before taking a picture of it. A new weaving club for August is on its way, so I’ll have something new to warp soon.

I am not going on a plane until the end of September, and my next travel is scheduled for mid-September, around Rosh Hashanah – I will be going to the New York City area for 2 weekends (coming back to Boston for a wedding in between). I hope to finish the Color Affection Shawl soon, and get pictures of both it and the woven scarf before long.
It was very important that I write my previous post when I did – Wed 25 July – because the very next day, of the fun I had, but I’d also like to highlight the knitting I did.

I started knitting a Color Affection shawl, in some Novita Polku that I bought in Finland in May. I started the shawl the first day, which was mostly lounging around while we were in the port of Boston (where we all embarked) and then while the cruise ship was traveling. I continued the shawl on Friday 27 July, and then on Saturday 28 July we landed in the port of St. John’s, New Brunswick. I chose to take a bus to Fredericton, to see the city hall, learn some history, and visit Yarns on York to meet local knitters and take a class on Newfoundland Mittens, aka “Newfie Mitts”. I got a bit done, but I believe I will rip out what I’ve done, make it smaller, and do the “windows” in the multicolored black and the background/wrists in the green. Still, here’s the progress shot, even though this will be frogged later:

On Sunday, I chose to do one of the two classes offered at The Loop in Halifax. The class I chose was one on how to do thrummed mittens, and the instructor Mimi was amazing. I did not take the class for the Bermuda Scarf/shawl, but I heard that the 2nd class was not as great, probably due to the first class running very late and Mimi running out of steam (teaching 2 classes in one day is tough, and who knows if she even had time to eat!). Given that, I’m glad I did not stay for the 2nd class (I did buy the pattern and yarn for it, so I can make the shawl), and instead did a 10-mile bicycle tour of Halifax. At any rate, I did enjoy working on the thrummed mittens, and here is my progress (I haven’t done anything with it since that weekend):

And the inside looks like this:

I learned lots of great tips from Mimi, like using a wool with a lot of lanolin in it, so it’s “sticky” and holds the thrums in better.

There was a lot of knitting that weekend, and in the few weeks that followed. This past week I finished knitting Tony’s scarf, after having to spin more yarn and buy more on Cape Cod while helping a friend do the Pan-Mass Challenge at the beginning of August. I still have to finish the scarf by weaving in the ends and blocking it, but it’s finally the right length, and Tony will be able to use it this coming fall/winter.

I also finished the scarf I was weaving (the June Spunky Eclectic weaving club), but I still need to block it before taking a picture of it. A new weaving club for August is on its way, so I’ll have something new to warp soon.

I am not going on a plane until the end of September, and my next travel is scheduled for mid-September, around Rosh Hashanah – I will be going to the New York City area for 2 weekends (coming back to Boston for a wedding in between). I hope to finish the Color Affection Shawl soon, and get pictures of both it and the woven scarf before long.
It was very important that I write my previous post when I did – Wed 25 July – because the very next day, of the fun I had, but I’d also like to highlight the knitting I did.

I started knitting a Color Affection shawl, in some Novita Polku that I bought in Finland in May. I started the shawl the first day, which was mostly lounging around while we were in the port of Boston (where we all embarked) and then while the cruise ship was traveling. I continued the shawl on Friday 27 July, and then on Saturday 28 July we landed in the port of St. John’s, New Brunswick. I chose to take a bus to Fredericton, to see the city hall, learn some history, and visit Yarns on York to meet local knitters and take a class on Newfoundland Mittens, aka “Newfie Mitts”. I got a bit done, but I believe I will rip out what I’ve done, make it smaller, and do the “windows” in the multicolored black and the background/wrists in the green. Still, here’s the progress shot, even though this will be frogged later:

On Sunday, I chose to do one of the two classes offered at The Loop in Halifax. The class I chose was one on how to do thrummed mittens, and the instructor Mimi was amazing. I did not take the class for the Bermuda Scarf/shawl, but I heard that the 2nd class was not as great, probably due to the first class running very late and Mimi running out of steam (teaching 2 classes in one day is tough, and who knows if she even had time to eat!). Given that, I’m glad I did not stay for the 2nd class (I did buy the pattern and yarn for it, so I can make the shawl), and instead did a 10-mile bicycle tour of Halifax. At any rate, I did enjoy working on the thrummed mittens, and here is my progress (I haven’t done anything with it since that weekend):

And the inside looks like this:

I learned lots of great tips from Mimi, like using a wool with a lot of lanolin in it, so it’s “sticky” and holds the thrums in better.

There was a lot of knitting that weekend, and in the few weeks that followed. This past week I finished knitting Tony’s scarf, after having to spin more yarn and buy more on Cape Cod while helping a friend do the Pan-Mass Challenge at the beginning of August. I still have to finish the scarf by weaving in the ends and blocking it, but it’s finally the right length, and Tony will be able to use it this coming fall/winter.

I also finished the scarf I was weaving (the June Spunky Eclectic weaving club), but I still need to block it before taking a picture of it. A new weaving club for August is on its way, so I’ll have something new to warp soon.

I am not going on a plane until the end of September, and my next travel is scheduled for mid-September, around Rosh Hashanah – I will be going to the New York City area for 2 weekends (coming back to Boston for a wedding in between). I hope to finish the Color Affection Shawl soon, and get pictures of
It was very important that I write my previous post when I did – Wed 25 July – because the very next day, of the fun I had, but I’d also like to highlight the knitting I did.

I started knitting a Color Affection shawl, in some Novita Polku that I bought in Finland in May. I started the shawl the first day, which was mostly lounging around while we were in the port of Boston (where we all embarked) and then while the cruise ship was traveling. I continued the shawl on Friday 27 July, and then on Saturday 28 July we landed in the port of St. John’s, New Brunswick. I chose to take a bus to Fredericton, to see the city hall, learn some history, and visit Yarns on York to meet local knitters and take a class on Newfoundland Mittens, aka “Newfie Mitts”. I got a bit done, but I believe I will rip out what I’ve done, make it smaller, and do the “windows” in the multicolored black and the background/wrists in the green. Still, here’s the progress shot, even though this will be frogged later:

On Sunday, I chose to do one of the two classes offered at The Loop in Halifax. The class I chose was one on how to do thrummed mittens, and the instructor Mimi was amazing. I did not take the class for the Bermuda Scarf/shawl, but I heard that the 2nd class was not as great, probably due to the first class running very late and Mimi running out of steam (teaching 2 classes in one day is tough, and who knows if she even had time to eat!). Given that, I’m glad I did not stay for the 2nd class (I did buy the pattern and yarn for it, so I can make the shawl), and instead did a 10-mile bicycle tour of Halifax. At any rate, I did enjoy working on the thrummed mittens, and here is my progress (I haven’t done anything with it since that weekend):

And the inside looks like this:

I learned lots of great tips from Mimi, like using a wool with a lot of lanolin in it, so it’s “sticky” and holds the thrums in better.

There was a lot of knitting that weekend, and in the few weeks that followed. This past week I finished knitting Tony’s scarf, after having to spin more yarn and buy more on Cape Cod while helping a friend do the Pan-Mass Challenge at the beginning of August. I still have to finish the scarf by weaving in the ends and blocking it, but it’s finally the right length, and Tony will be able to use it this coming fall/winter.

I also finished the scarf I was weaving (the June Spunky Eclectic weaving club), but I still need to block it before taking a picture of it. A new weaving club for August is on its way, so I’ll have something new to warp soon.

I am not going on a plane until the end of September, and my next travel is scheduled for mid-September, around Rosh Hashanah – I will be going to the New York City area for 2 weekends (coming back to Boston for a wedding in between). I hope to finish the Color Affection Shawl soon, and get pictures of both it and the woven scarf before long.
It was very important that I write my previous post when I did – Wed 25 July – because the very next day, of the fun I had, but I’d also like to highlight the knitting I did.

I started knitting a Color Affection shawl, in some Novita Polku that I bought in Finland in May. I started the shawl the first day, which was mostly lounging around while we were in the port of Boston (where we all embarked) and then while the cruise ship was traveling. I continued the shawl on Friday 27 July, and then on Saturday 28 July we landed in the port of St. John’s, New Brunswick. I chose to take a bus to Fredericton, to see the city hall, learn some history, and visit Yarns on York to meet local knitters and take a class on Newfoundland Mittens, aka “Newfie Mitts”. I got a bit done, but I believe I will rip out what I’ve done, make it smaller, and do the “windows” in the multicolored black and the background/wrists in the green. Still, here’s the progress shot, even though this will be frogged later:

On Sunday, I chose to do one of the two classes offered at The Loop in Halifax. The class I chose was one on how to do thrummed mittens, and the instructor Mimi was amazing. I did not take the class for the Bermuda Scarf/shawl, but I heard that the 2nd class was not as great, probably due to the first class running very late and Mimi running out of steam (teaching 2 classes in one day is tough, and who knows if she even had time to eat!). Given that, I’m glad I did not stay for the 2nd class (I did buy the pattern and yarn for it, so I can make the shawl), and instead did a 10-mile bicycle tour of Halifax. At any rate, I did enjoy working on the thrummed mittens, and here is my progress (I haven’t done anything with it since that weekend):

And the inside looks like this:

I learned lots of great tips from Mimi, like using a wool with a lot of lanolin in it, so it’s “sticky” and holds the thrums in better.

There was a lot of knitting that weekend, and in the few weeks that followed. This past week I finished knitting Tony’s scarf, after having to spin more yarn and buy more on Cape Cod while helping a friend do the Pan-Mass Challenge at the beginning of August. I still have to finish the scarf by weaving in the ends and blocking it, but it’s finally the right length, and Tony will be able to use it this coming fall/winter.

I also finished the scarf I was weaving (the June Spunky Eclectic weaving club), but I still need to block it before taking a picture of it. A new weaving club for August is on its way, so I’ll have something new to warp soon.

I am not going on a plane until the end of September, and my next travel is scheduled for mid-September, around Rosh Hashanah – I will be going to the New York City area for 2 weekends (coming back to Boston for a wedding in between). I hope to finish the Color Affection Shawl soon, and get pictures of
So, online I mentioned in the last post that I had finished 2 objects – side effects and the June Spunky Eclectic Weaving Club, which I opted to do a table runner. It was my first experience with using a pick-up stick. I’m happy with how both came out (especially after ironing the scarf…I don’t even iron clothes!).

Crooked Little Tony scarf

Pick-up-sticks table runner

I’m thrilled with how drapey the table runner is. My only problem is that I have no idea what to do with it – it’s 33 inches by 22 inches. It’s too short for a scarf, but I don’t have an appropriate table to use it on. It’s a superwash merino/bamboo/viscose blend. Folded over a towel bar it’d make a very long kitchen or guest towel, I guess?

Any ideas?
It was very important that I write my previous post when I did – Wed 25 July – because the very next day, of the fun I had, but I’d also like to highlight the knitting I did.

I started knitting a Color Affection shawl, in some Novita Polku that I bought in Finland in May. I started the shawl the first day, which was mostly lounging around while we were in the port of Boston (where we all embarked) and then while the cruise ship was traveling. I continued the shawl on Friday 27 July, and then on Saturday 28 July we landed in the port of St. John’s, New Brunswick. I chose to take a bus to Fredericton, to see the city hall, learn some history, and visit Yarns on York to meet local knitters and take a class on Newfoundland Mittens, aka “Newfie Mitts”. I got a bit done, but I believe I will rip out what I’ve done, make it smaller, and do the “windows” in the multicolored black and the background/wrists in the green. Still, here’s the progress shot, even though this will be frogged later:

On Sunday, I chose to do one of the two classes offered at The Loop in Halifax. The class I chose was one on how to do thrummed mittens, and the instructor Mimi was amazing. I did not take the class for the Bermuda Scarf/shawl, but I heard that the 2nd class was not as great, probably due to the first class running very late and Mimi running out of steam (teaching 2 classes in one day is tough, and who knows if she even had time to eat!). Given that, I’m glad I did not stay for the 2nd class (I did buy the pattern and yarn for it, so I can make the shawl), and instead did a 10-mile bicycle tour of Halifax. At any rate, I did enjoy working on the thrummed mittens, and here is my progress (I haven’t done anything with it since that weekend):

And the inside looks like this:

I learned lots of great tips from Mimi, like using a wool with a lot of lanolin in it, so it’s “sticky” and holds the thrums in better.

There was a lot of knitting that weekend, and in the few weeks that followed. This past week I finished knitting Tony’s scarf, after having to spin more yarn and buy more on Cape Cod while helping a friend do the Pan-Mass Challenge at the beginning of August. I still have to finish the scarf by weaving in the ends and blocking it, but it’s finally the right length, and Tony will be able to use it this coming fall/winter.

I also finished the scarf I was weaving (the June Spunky Eclectic weaving club), but I still need to block it before taking a picture of it. A new weaving club for August is on its way, so I’ll have something new to warp soon.

I am not going on a plane until the end of September, and my next travel is scheduled for mid-September, around Rosh Hashanah – I will be going to the New York City area for 2 weekends (coming back to Boston for a wedding in between). I hope to finish the Color Affection Shawl soon, and get pictures of both it and the woven scarf before long.
It was very important that I write my previous post when I did – Wed 25 July – because the very next day, of the fun I had, but I’d also like to highlight the knitting I did.

I started knitting a Color Affection shawl, in some Novita Polku that I bought in Finland in May. I started the shawl the first day, which was mostly lounging around while we were in the port of Boston (where we all embarked) and then while the cruise ship was traveling. I continued the shawl on Friday 27 July, and then on Saturday 28 July we landed in the port of St. John’s, New Brunswick. I chose to take a bus to Fredericton, to see the city hall, learn some history, and visit Yarns on York to meet local knitters and take a class on Newfoundland Mittens, aka “Newfie Mitts”. I got a bit done, but I believe I will rip out what I’ve done, make it smaller, and do the “windows” in the multicolored black and the background/wrists in the green. Still, here’s the progress shot, even though this will be frogged later:

On Sunday, I chose to do one of the two classes offered at The Loop in Halifax. The class I chose was one on how to do thrummed mittens, and the instructor Mimi was amazing. I did not take the class for the Bermuda Scarf/shawl, but I heard that the 2nd class was not as great, probably due to the first class running very late and Mimi running out of steam (teaching 2 classes in one day is tough, and who knows if she even had time to eat!). Given that, I’m glad I did not stay for the 2nd class (I did buy the pattern and yarn for it, so I can make the shawl), and instead did a 10-mile bicycle tour of Halifax. At any rate, I did enjoy working on the thrummed mittens, and here is my progress (I haven’t done anything with it since that weekend):

And the inside looks like this:

I learned lots of great tips from Mimi, like using a wool with a lot of lanolin in it, so it’s “sticky” and holds the thrums in better.

There was a lot of knitting that weekend, and in the few weeks that followed. This past week I finished knitting Tony’s scarf, after having to spin more yarn and buy more on Cape Cod while helping a friend do the Pan-Mass Challenge at the beginning of August. I still have to finish the scarf by weaving in the ends and blocking it, but it’s finally the right length, and Tony will be able to use it this coming fall/winter.

I also finished the scarf I was weaving (the June Spunky Eclectic weaving club), but I still need to block it before taking a picture of it. A new weaving club for August is on its way, so I’ll have something new to warp soon.

I am not going on a plane until the end of September, and my next travel is scheduled for mid-September, around Rosh Hashanah – I will be going to the New York City area for 2 weekends (coming back to Boston for a wedding in between). I hope to finish the Color Affection Shawl soon, and get pictures of
So, online I mentioned in the last post that I had finished 2 objects – side effects and the June Spunky Eclectic Weaving Club, which I opted to do a table runner. It was my first experience with using a pick-up stick. I’m happy with how both came out (especially after ironing the scarf…I don’t even iron clothes!).

Crooked Little Tony scarf

Pick-up-sticks table runner

I’m thrilled with how drapey the table runner is. My only problem is that I have no idea what to do with it – it’s 33 inches by 22 inches. It’s too short for a scarf, but I don’t have an appropriate table to use it on. It’s a superwash merino/bamboo/viscose blend. Folded over a towel bar it’d make a very long kitchen or guest towel, I guess?

Any ideas?
So, , which I opted to do a table runner. It was my first experience with using a pick-up stick. I’m happy with how both came out (especially after ironing the scarf…I don’t even iron clothes!).

Crooked Little Tony scarf

Pick-up-sticks table runner

I’m thrilled with how drapey the table runner is. My only problem is that I have no idea what to do with it – it’s 33 inches by 22 inches. It’s too short for a scarf, but I don’t have an appropriate table to use it on. It’s a superwash merino/bamboo/viscose blend.
It was very important that I write my previous post when I did – Wed 25 July – because the very next day, of the fun I had, but I’d also like to highlight the knitting I did.

I started knitting a Color Affection shawl, in some Novita Polku that I bought in Finland in May. I started the shawl the first day, which was mostly lounging around while we were in the port of Boston (where we all embarked) and then while the cruise ship was traveling. I continued the shawl on Friday 27 July, and then on Saturday 28 July we landed in the port of St. John’s, New Brunswick. I chose to take a bus to Fredericton, to see the city hall, learn some history, and visit Yarns on York to meet local knitters and take a class on Newfoundland Mittens, aka “Newfie Mitts”. I got a bit done, but I believe I will rip out what I’ve done, make it smaller, and do the “windows” in the multicolored black and the background/wrists in the green. Still, here’s the progress shot, even though this will be frogged later:

On Sunday, I chose to do one of the two classes offered at The Loop in Halifax. The class I chose was one on how to do thrummed mittens, and the instructor Mimi was amazing. I did not take the class for the Bermuda Scarf/shawl, but I heard that the 2nd class was not as great, probably due to the first class running very late and Mimi running out of steam (teaching 2 classes in one day is tough, and who knows if she even had time to eat!). Given that, I’m glad I did not stay for the 2nd class (I did buy the pattern and yarn for it, so I can make the shawl), and instead did a 10-mile bicycle tour of Halifax. At any rate, I did enjoy working on the thrummed mittens, and here is my progress (I haven’t done anything with it since that weekend):

And the inside looks like this:

I learned lots of great tips from Mimi, like using a wool with a lot of lanolin in it, so it’s “sticky” and holds the thrums in better.

There was a lot of knitting that weekend, and in the few weeks that followed. This past week I finished knitting Tony’s scarf, after having to spin more yarn and buy more on Cape Cod while helping a friend do the Pan-Mass Challenge at the beginning of August. I still have to finish the scarf by weaving in the ends and blocking it, but it’s finally the right length, and Tony will be able to use it this coming fall/winter.

I also finished the scarf I was weaving (the June Spunky Eclectic weaving club), but I still need to block it before taking a picture of it. A new weaving club for August is on its way, so I’ll have something new to warp soon.

I am not going on a plane until the end of September, and my next travel is scheduled for mid-September, around Rosh Hashanah – I will be going to the New York City area for 2 weekends (coming back to Boston for a wedding in between). I hope to finish the Color Affection Shawl soon, and get pictures of both it and the woven scarf before long.
It was very important that I write my previous post when I did – Wed 25 July – because the very next day, of the fun I had, but I’d also like to highlight the knitting I did.

I started knitting a Color Affection shawl, in some Novita Polku that I bought in Finland in May. I started the shawl the first day, which was mostly lounging around while we were in the port of Boston (where we all embarked) and then while the cruise ship was traveling. I continued the shawl on Friday 27 July, and then on Saturday 28 July we landed in the port of St. John’s, New Brunswick. I chose to take a bus to Fredericton, to see the city hall, learn some history, and visit Yarns on York to meet local knitters and take a class on Newfoundland Mittens, aka “Newfie Mitts”. I got a bit done, but I believe I will rip out what I’ve done, make it smaller, and do the “windows” in the multicolored black and the background/wrists in the green. Still, here’s the progress shot, even though this will be frogged later:

On Sunday, I chose to do one of the two classes offered at The Loop in Halifax. The class I chose was one on how to do thrummed mittens, and the instructor Mimi was amazing. I did not take the class for the Bermuda Scarf/shawl, but I heard that the 2nd class was not as great, probably due to the first class running very late and Mimi running out of steam (teaching 2 classes in one day is tough, and who knows if she even had time to eat!). Given that, I’m glad I did not stay for the 2nd class (I did buy the pattern and yarn for it, so I can make the shawl), and instead did a 10-mile bicycle tour of Halifax. At any rate, I did enjoy working on the thrummed mittens, and here is my progress (I haven’t done anything with it since that weekend):

And the inside looks like this:

I learned lots of great tips from Mimi, like using a wool with a lot of lanolin in it, so it’s “sticky” and holds the thrums in better.

There was a lot of knitting that weekend, and in the few weeks that followed. This past week I finished knitting Tony’s scarf, after having to spin more yarn and buy more on Cape Cod while helping a friend do the Pan-Mass Challenge at the beginning of August. I still have to finish the scarf by weaving in the ends and blocking it, but it’s finally the right length, and Tony will be able to use it this coming fall/winter.

I also finished the scarf I was weaving (the June Spunky Eclectic weaving club), but I still need to block it before taking a picture of it. A new weaving club for August is on its way, so I’ll have something new to warp soon.

I am not going on a plane until the end of September, and my next travel is scheduled for mid-September, around Rosh Hashanah – I will be going to the New York City area for 2 weekends (coming back to Boston for a wedding in between). I hope to finish the Color Affection Shawl soon, and get pictures of
So, online I mentioned in the last post that I had finished 2 objects – side effects and the June Spunky Eclectic Weaving Club, which I opted to do a table runner. It was my first experience with using a pick-up stick. I’m happy with how both came out (especially after ironing the scarf…I don’t even iron clothes!).

Crooked Little Tony scarf

Pick-up-sticks table runner

I’m thrilled with how drapey the table runner is. My only problem is that I have no idea what to do with it – it’s 33 inches by 22 inches. It’s too short for a scarf, but I don’t have an appropriate table to use it on. It’s a superwash merino/bamboo/viscose blend. Folded over a towel bar it’d make a very long kitchen or guest towel, I guess?

Any ideas?
So, , which I opted to do a table runner. It was my first experience with using a pick-up stick. I’m happy with how both came out (especially after ironing the scarf…I don’t even iron clothes!).

Crooked Little Tony scarf

Pick-up-sticks table runner

I’m thrilled with how drapey the table runner is. My only problem is that I have no idea what to do with it – it’s 33 inches by 22 inches. It’s too short for a scarf, but I don’t have an appropriate table to use it on. It’s a superwash merino/bamboo/viscose blend.
I am so excited about tonight’s Common Cod Fiber Guild Meeting featuring Pam Parmal of the Boston Museum of Fine Arts talking about the collection strategy for textiles and fashion. And since I last wrote, gonorrhea I have finished a few objects…..

The first is another Hoot Cardigan, this time made out of Universal Yarns Supreme Cotton Batik, that I picked up in Charlotte, North Carolina earlier this year. I love the Supreme Cotton line from Universal yarns, because it is super soft. Unfortunately, I have only been able to find it in LYS in North Carolina….I hear that is changing soon, though! Here’s the cardigan, made for a friend of mine who just had his first son:

And then there’s the August Weaving Club from Spunky Eclectic – cotton dishcloths! I did not follow the pattern; instead I tried out a herringbone/pinwheel pattern. It came out wonderfully!

I ended up making 2 towels, one a bit shorter because I ran out of warp, but here’s the shorter one hanging from a peg next to our sink (please excuse the dirty dishes and Guinness cans to be rinsed).

The bigger one is in constant use as Tony’s “potato cozy”. That’s not a euphemism, Tony eats a baked potato like one would eat an apple, whole and uncut. Because it’s hot, he uses a towel wrapped around it to hold it.

And finally, the pièce de résistance. This is a Color Affection Shawl that I made from 3 different skeins of Novita’s Polku yarn, which I acquired in Finland earlier this year.

Here’s a close-up shot of the ‘center’ of this assymmetrical shawl:

And a little zoomed out:

Here’s the full-size shot:

I also spun up a “fractal 3-ply” which I will write about next time.
It was very important that I write my previous post when I did – Wed 25 July – because the very next day, of the fun I had, but I’d also like to highlight the knitting I did.

I started knitting a Color Affection shawl, in some Novita Polku that I bought in Finland in May. I started the shawl the first day, which was mostly lounging around while we were in the port of Boston (where we all embarked) and then while the cruise ship was traveling. I continued the shawl on Friday 27 July, and then on Saturday 28 July we landed in the port of St. John’s, New Brunswick. I chose to take a bus to Fredericton, to see the city hall, learn some history, and visit Yarns on York to meet local knitters and take a class on Newfoundland Mittens, aka “Newfie Mitts”. I got a bit done, but I believe I will rip out what I’ve done, make it smaller, and do the “windows” in the multicolored black and the background/wrists in the green. Still, here’s the progress shot, even though this will be frogged later:

On Sunday, I chose to do one of the two classes offered at The Loop in Halifax. The class I chose was one on how to do thrummed mittens, and the instructor Mimi was amazing. I did not take the class for the Bermuda Scarf/shawl, but I heard that the 2nd class was not as great, probably due to the first class running very late and Mimi running out of steam (teaching 2 classes in one day is tough, and who knows if she even had time to eat!). Given that, I’m glad I did not stay for the 2nd class (I did buy the pattern and yarn for it, so I can make the shawl), and instead did a 10-mile bicycle tour of Halifax. At any rate, I did enjoy working on the thrummed mittens, and here is my progress (I haven’t done anything with it since that weekend):

And the inside looks like this:

I learned lots of great tips from Mimi, like using a wool with a lot of lanolin in it, so it’s “sticky” and holds the thrums in better.

There was a lot of knitting that weekend, and in the few weeks that followed. This past week I finished knitting Tony’s scarf, after having to spin more yarn and buy more on Cape Cod while helping a friend do the Pan-Mass Challenge at the beginning of August. I still have to finish the scarf by weaving in the ends and blocking it, but it’s finally the right length, and Tony will be able to use it this coming fall/winter.

I also finished the scarf I was weaving (the June Spunky Eclectic weaving club), but I still need to block it before taking a picture of it. A new weaving club for August is on its way, so I’ll have something new to warp soon.

I am not going on a plane until the end of September, and my next travel is scheduled for mid-September, around Rosh Hashanah – I will be going to the New York City area for 2 weekends (coming back to Boston for a wedding in between). I hope to finish the Color Affection Shawl soon, and get pictures of both it and the woven scarf before long.
It was very important that I write my previous post when I did – Wed 25 July – because the very next day, of the fun I had, but I’d also like to highlight the knitting I did.

I started knitting a Color Affection shawl, in some Novita Polku that I bought in Finland in May. I started the shawl the first day, which was mostly lounging around while we were in the port of Boston (where we all embarked) and then while the cruise ship was traveling. I continued the shawl on Friday 27 July, and then on Saturday 28 July we landed in the port of St. John’s, New Brunswick. I chose to take a bus to Fredericton, to see the city hall, learn some history, and visit Yarns on York to meet local knitters and take a class on Newfoundland Mittens, aka “Newfie Mitts”. I got a bit done, but I believe I will rip out what I’ve done, make it smaller, and do the “windows” in the multicolored black and the background/wrists in the green. Still, here’s the progress shot, even though this will be frogged later:

On Sunday, I chose to do one of the two classes offered at The Loop in Halifax. The class I chose was one on how to do thrummed mittens, and the instructor Mimi was amazing. I did not take the class for the Bermuda Scarf/shawl, but I heard that the 2nd class was not as great, probably due to the first class running very late and Mimi running out of steam (teaching 2 classes in one day is tough, and who knows if she even had time to eat!). Given that, I’m glad I did not stay for the 2nd class (I did buy the pattern and yarn for it, so I can make the shawl), and instead did a 10-mile bicycle tour of Halifax. At any rate, I did enjoy working on the thrummed mittens, and here is my progress (I haven’t done anything with it since that weekend):

And the inside looks like this:

I learned lots of great tips from Mimi, like using a wool with a lot of lanolin in it, so it’s “sticky” and holds the thrums in better.

There was a lot of knitting that weekend, and in the few weeks that followed. This past week I finished knitting Tony’s scarf, after having to spin more yarn and buy more on Cape Cod while helping a friend do the Pan-Mass Challenge at the beginning of August. I still have to finish the scarf by weaving in the ends and blocking it, but it’s finally the right length, and Tony will be able to use it this coming fall/winter.

I also finished the scarf I was weaving (the June Spunky Eclectic weaving club), but I still need to block it before taking a picture of it. A new weaving club for August is on its way, so I’ll have something new to warp soon.

I am not going on a plane until the end of September, and my next travel is scheduled for mid-September, around Rosh Hashanah – I will be going to the New York City area for 2 weekends (coming back to Boston for a wedding in between). I hope to finish the Color Affection Shawl soon, and get pictures of
So, online I mentioned in the last post that I had finished 2 objects – side effects and the June Spunky Eclectic Weaving Club, which I opted to do a table runner. It was my first experience with using a pick-up stick. I’m happy with how both came out (especially after ironing the scarf…I don’t even iron clothes!).

Crooked Little Tony scarf

Pick-up-sticks table runner

I’m thrilled with how drapey the table runner is. My only problem is that I have no idea what to do with it – it’s 33 inches by 22 inches. It’s too short for a scarf, but I don’t have an appropriate table to use it on. It’s a superwash merino/bamboo/viscose blend. Folded over a towel bar it’d make a very long kitchen or guest towel, I guess?

Any ideas?
So, , which I opted to do a table runner. It was my first experience with using a pick-up stick. I’m happy with how both came out (especially after ironing the scarf…I don’t even iron clothes!).

Crooked Little Tony scarf

Pick-up-sticks table runner

I’m thrilled with how drapey the table runner is. My only problem is that I have no idea what to do with it – it’s 33 inches by 22 inches. It’s too short for a scarf, but I don’t have an appropriate table to use it on. It’s a superwash merino/bamboo/viscose blend.
I am so excited about tonight’s Common Cod Fiber Guild Meeting featuring Pam Parmal of the Boston Museum of Fine Arts talking about the collection strategy for textiles and fashion. And since I last wrote, gonorrhea I have finished a few objects…..

The first is another Hoot Cardigan, this time made out of Universal Yarns Supreme Cotton Batik, that I picked up in Charlotte, North Carolina earlier this year. I love the Supreme Cotton line from Universal yarns, because it is super soft. Unfortunately, I have only been able to find it in LYS in North Carolina….I hear that is changing soon, though! Here’s the cardigan, made for a friend of mine who just had his first son:

And then there’s the August Weaving Club from Spunky Eclectic – cotton dishcloths! I did not follow the pattern; instead I tried out a herringbone/pinwheel pattern. It came out wonderfully!

I ended up making 2 towels, one a bit shorter because I ran out of warp, but here’s the shorter one hanging from a peg next to our sink (please excuse the dirty dishes and Guinness cans to be rinsed).

The bigger one is in constant use as Tony’s “potato cozy”. That’s not a euphemism, Tony eats a baked potato like one would eat an apple, whole and uncut. Because it’s hot, he uses a towel wrapped around it to hold it.

And finally, the pièce de résistance. This is a Color Affection Shawl that I made from 3 different skeins of Novita’s Polku yarn, which I acquired in Finland earlier this year.

Here’s a close-up shot of the ‘center’ of this assymmetrical shawl:

And a little zoomed out:

Here’s the full-size shot:

I also spun up a “fractal 3-ply” which I will write about next time.
I am so excited about tonight’s Common Cod Fiber Guild Meeting featuring Pam Parmal of the Boston Museum of Fine Arts talking about the collection strategy for textiles and fashion. And since I last wrote, condom I have finished a few objects…..

The first is another Hoot Cardigan, information pills this time made out of

And then there’s the August

The bigger one is in constant use as Tony’s “potato cozy”. That’s not a euphemism, Tony eats a baked potato like one would eat an apple, whole and uncut. Because it’s hot, he uses a towel wrapped around it to hold it.

And finally, the pièce de résistance. This is a Color Affection Shawl that I made from 3 different skeins of

And a little zoomed out:

Here’s the full-size shot:

After
It was very important that I write my
previous post when I did – Wed 25 July – because the very next day, of the fun I had, but I’d also like to highlight the knitting I did.

I started knitting a Color Affection shawl, in some Novita Polku that I bought in Finland in May. I started the shawl the first day, which was mostly lounging around while we were in the port of Boston (where we all embarked) and then while the cruise ship was traveling. I continued the shawl on Friday 27 July, and then on Saturday 28 July we landed in the port of St. John’s, New Brunswick. I chose to take a bus to Fredericton, to see the city hall, learn some history, and visit Yarns on York to meet local knitters and take a class on Newfoundland Mittens, aka “Newfie Mitts”. I got a bit done, but I believe I will rip out what I’ve done, make it smaller, and do the “windows” in the multicolored black and the background/wrists in the green. Still, here’s the progress shot, even though this will be frogged later:

On Sunday, I chose to do one of the two classes offered at The Loop in Halifax. The class I chose was one on how to do thrummed mittens, and the instructor Mimi was amazing. I did not take the class for the Bermuda Scarf/shawl, but I heard that the 2nd class was not as great, probably due to the first class running very late and Mimi running out of steam (teaching 2 classes in one day is tough, and who knows if she even had time to eat!). Given that, I’m glad I did not stay for the 2nd class (I did buy the pattern and yarn for it, so I can make the shawl), and instead did a 10-mile bicycle tour of Halifax. At any rate, I did enjoy working on the thrummed mittens, and here is my progress (I haven’t done anything with it since that weekend):

And the inside looks like this:

I learned lots of great tips from Mimi, like using a wool with a lot of lanolin in it, so it’s “sticky” and holds the thrums in better.

There was a lot of knitting that weekend, and in the few weeks that followed. This past week I finished knitting Tony’s scarf, after having to spin more yarn and buy more on Cape Cod while helping a friend do the Pan-Mass Challenge at the beginning of August. I still have to finish the scarf by weaving in the ends and blocking it, but it’s finally the right length, and Tony will be able to use it this coming fall/winter.

I also finished the scarf I was weaving (the June Spunky Eclectic weaving club), but I still need to block it before taking a picture of it. A new weaving club for August is on its way, so I’ll have something new to warp soon.

I am not going on a plane until the end of September, and my next travel is scheduled for mid-September, around Rosh Hashanah – I will be going to the New York City area for 2 weekends (coming back to Boston for a wedding in between). I hope to finish the Color Affection Shawl soon, and get pictures of both it and the woven scarf before long.
It was very important that I write my previous post when I did – Wed 25 July – because the very next day, of the fun I had, but I’d also like to highlight the knitting I did.

I started knitting a Color Affection shawl, in some Novita Polku that I bought in Finland in May. I started the shawl the first day, which was mostly lounging around while we were in the port of Boston (where we all embarked) and then while the cruise ship was traveling. I continued the shawl on Friday 27 July, and then on Saturday 28 July we landed in the port of St. John’s, New Brunswick. I chose to take a bus to Fredericton, to see the city hall, learn some history, and visit Yarns on York to meet local knitters and take a class on Newfoundland Mittens, aka “Newfie Mitts”. I got a bit done, but I believe I will rip out what I’ve done, make it smaller, and do the “windows” in the multicolored black and the background/wrists in the green. Still, here’s the progress shot, even though this will be frogged later:

On Sunday, I chose to do one of the two classes offered at The Loop in Halifax. The class I chose was one on how to do thrummed mittens, and the instructor Mimi was amazing. I did not take the class for the Bermuda Scarf/shawl, but I heard that the 2nd class was not as great, probably due to the first class running very late and Mimi running out of steam (teaching 2 classes in one day is tough, and who knows if she even had time to eat!). Given that, I’m glad I did not stay for the 2nd class (I did buy the pattern and yarn for it, so I can make the shawl), and instead did a 10-mile bicycle tour of Halifax. At any rate, I did enjoy working on the thrummed mittens, and here is my progress (I haven’t done anything with it since that weekend):

And the inside looks like this:

I learned lots of great tips from Mimi, like using a wool with a lot of lanolin in it, so it’s “sticky” and holds the thrums in better.

There was a lot of knitting that weekend, and in the few weeks that followed. This past week I finished knitting Tony’s scarf, after having to spin more yarn and buy more on Cape Cod while helping a friend do the Pan-Mass Challenge at the beginning of August. I still have to finish the scarf by weaving in the ends and blocking it, but it’s finally the right length, and Tony will be able to use it this coming fall/winter.

I also finished the scarf I was weaving (the June Spunky Eclectic weaving club), but I still need to block it before taking a picture of it. A new weaving club for August is on its way, so I’ll have something new to warp soon.

I am not going on a plane until the end of September, and my next travel is scheduled for mid-September, around Rosh Hashanah – I will be going to the New York City area for 2 weekends (coming back to Boston for a wedding in between). I hope to finish the Color Affection Shawl soon, and get pictures of
So, online I mentioned in the last post that I had finished 2 objects – side effects and the June Spunky Eclectic Weaving Club, which I opted to do a table runner. It was my first experience with using a pick-up stick. I’m happy with how both came out (especially after ironing the scarf…I don’t even iron clothes!).

Crooked Little Tony scarf

Pick-up-sticks table runner

I’m thrilled with how drapey the table runner is. My only problem is that I have no idea what to do with it – it’s 33 inches by 22 inches. It’s too short for a scarf, but I don’t have an appropriate table to use it on. It’s a superwash merino/bamboo/viscose blend. Folded over a towel bar it’d make a very long kitchen or guest towel, I guess?

Any ideas?
So, , which I opted to do a table runner. It was my first experience with using a pick-up stick. I’m happy with how both came out (especially after ironing the scarf…I don’t even iron clothes!).

Crooked Little Tony scarf

Pick-up-sticks table runner

I’m thrilled with how drapey the table runner is. My only problem is that I have no idea what to do with it – it’s 33 inches by 22 inches. It’s too short for a scarf, but I don’t have an appropriate table to use it on. It’s a superwash merino/bamboo/viscose blend.
I am so excited about tonight’s Common Cod Fiber Guild Meeting featuring Pam Parmal of the Boston Museum of Fine Arts talking about the collection strategy for textiles and fashion. And since I last wrote, gonorrhea I have finished a few objects…..

The first is another Hoot Cardigan, this time made out of Universal Yarns Supreme Cotton Batik, that I picked up in Charlotte, North Carolina earlier this year. I love the Supreme Cotton line from Universal yarns, because it is super soft. Unfortunately, I have only been able to find it in LYS in North Carolina….I hear that is changing soon, though! Here’s the cardigan, made for a friend of mine who just had his first son:

And then there’s the August Weaving Club from Spunky Eclectic – cotton dishcloths! I did not follow the pattern; instead I tried out a herringbone/pinwheel pattern. It came out wonderfully!

I ended up making 2 towels, one a bit shorter because I ran out of warp, but here’s the shorter one hanging from a peg next to our sink (please excuse the dirty dishes and Guinness cans to be rinsed).

The bigger one is in constant use as Tony’s “potato cozy”. That’s not a euphemism, Tony eats a baked potato like one would eat an apple, whole and uncut. Because it’s hot, he uses a towel wrapped around it to hold it.

And finally, the pièce de résistance. This is a Color Affection Shawl that I made from 3 different skeins of Novita’s Polku yarn, which I acquired in Finland earlier this year.

Here’s a close-up shot of the ‘center’ of this assymmetrical shawl:

And a little zoomed out:

Here’s the full-size shot:

I also spun up a “fractal 3-ply” which I will write about next time.
I am so excited about tonight’s Common Cod Fiber Guild Meeting featuring Pam Parmal of the Boston Museum of Fine Arts talking about the collection strategy for textiles and fashion. And since I last wrote, condom I have finished a few objects…..

The first is another Hoot Cardigan, information pills this time made out of

And then there’s the August

The bigger one is in constant use as Tony’s “potato cozy”. That’s not a euphemism, Tony eats a baked potato like one would eat an apple, whole and uncut. Because it’s hot, he uses a towel wrapped around it to hold it.

And finally, the pièce de résistance. This is a Color Affection Shawl that I made from 3 different skeins of

And a little zoomed out:

Here’s the full-size shot:

After
I am so excited about tonight’s
Common Cod Fiber Guild Meeting featuring Pam Parmal of the Boston Museum of Fine Arts talking about the collection strategy for textiles and fashion. And since I last wrote, order I have finished a few objects…..

The first is another Hoot Cardigan, find this time made out of

And then there’s the August

The bigger one is in constant use as Tony’s “potato cozy”. That’s not a euphemism, Tony eats a baked potato like one would eat an apple, whole and uncut. Because it’s hot, he uses a towel wrapped around it to hold it.

And finally, the pièce de résistance. This is a Color Affection Shawl that I made from 3 different skeins of

And a little zoomed out:

Here’s the full-size shot:

I also spun up a “fractal 3-ply” which I will write about next time.
It was very important that I write my
previous post when I did – Wed 25 July – because the very next day, of the fun I had, but I’d also like to highlight the knitting I did.

I started knitting a Color Affection shawl, in some Novita Polku that I bought in Finland in May. I started the shawl the first day, which was mostly lounging around while we were in the port of Boston (where we all embarked) and then while the cruise ship was traveling. I continued the shawl on Friday 27 July, and then on Saturday 28 July we landed in the port of St. John’s, New Brunswick. I chose to take a bus to Fredericton, to see the city hall, learn some history, and visit Yarns on York to meet local knitters and take a class on Newfoundland Mittens, aka “Newfie Mitts”. I got a bit done, but I believe I will rip out what I’ve done, make it smaller, and do the “windows” in the multicolored black and the background/wrists in the green. Still, here’s the progress shot, even though this will be frogged later:

On Sunday, I chose to do one of the two classes offered at The Loop in Halifax. The class I chose was one on how to do thrummed mittens, and the instructor Mimi was amazing. I did not take the class for the Bermuda Scarf/shawl, but I heard that the 2nd class was not as great, probably due to the first class running very late and Mimi running out of steam (teaching 2 classes in one day is tough, and who knows if she even had time to eat!). Given that, I’m glad I did not stay for the 2nd class (I did buy the pattern and yarn for it, so I can make the shawl), and instead did a 10-mile bicycle tour of Halifax. At any rate, I did enjoy working on the thrummed mittens, and here is my progress (I haven’t done anything with it since that weekend):

And the inside looks like this:

I learned lots of great tips from Mimi, like using a wool with a lot of lanolin in it, so it’s “sticky” and holds the thrums in better.

There was a lot of knitting that weekend, and in the few weeks that followed. This past week I finished knitting Tony’s scarf, after having to spin more yarn and buy more on Cape Cod while helping a friend do the Pan-Mass Challenge at the beginning of August. I still have to finish the scarf by weaving in the ends and blocking it, but it’s finally the right length, and Tony will be able to use it this coming fall/winter.

I also finished the scarf I was weaving (the June Spunky Eclectic weaving club), but I still need to block it before taking a picture of it. A new weaving club for August is on its way, so I’ll have something new to warp soon.

I am not going on a plane until the end of September, and my next travel is scheduled for mid-September, around Rosh Hashanah – I will be going to the New York City area for 2 weekends (coming back to Boston for a wedding in between). I hope to finish the Color Affection Shawl soon, and get pictures of both it and the woven scarf before long.
It was very important that I write my previous post when I did – Wed 25 July – because the very next day, of the fun I had, but I’d also like to highlight the knitting I did.

I started knitting a Color Affection shawl, in some Novita Polku that I bought in Finland in May. I started the shawl the first day, which was mostly lounging around while we were in the port of Boston (where we all embarked) and then while the cruise ship was traveling. I continued the shawl on Friday 27 July, and then on Saturday 28 July we landed in the port of St. John’s, New Brunswick. I chose to take a bus to Fredericton, to see the city hall, learn some history, and visit Yarns on York to meet local knitters and take a class on Newfoundland Mittens, aka “Newfie Mitts”. I got a bit done, but I believe I will rip out what I’ve done, make it smaller, and do the “windows” in the multicolored black and the background/wrists in the green. Still, here’s the progress shot, even though this will be frogged later:

On Sunday, I chose to do one of the two classes offered at The Loop in Halifax. The class I chose was one on how to do thrummed mittens, and the instructor Mimi was amazing. I did not take the class for the Bermuda Scarf/shawl, but I heard that the 2nd class was not as great, probably due to the first class running very late and Mimi running out of steam (teaching 2 classes in one day is tough, and who knows if she even had time to eat!). Given that, I’m glad I did not stay for the 2nd class (I did buy the pattern and yarn for it, so I can make the shawl), and instead did a 10-mile bicycle tour of Halifax. At any rate, I did enjoy working on the thrummed mittens, and here is my progress (I haven’t done anything with it since that weekend):

And the inside looks like this:

I learned lots of great tips from Mimi, like using a wool with a lot of lanolin in it, so it’s “sticky” and holds the thrums in better.

There was a lot of knitting that weekend, and in the few weeks that followed. This past week I finished knitting Tony’s scarf, after having to spin more yarn and buy more on Cape Cod while helping a friend do the Pan-Mass Challenge at the beginning of August. I still have to finish the scarf by weaving in the ends and blocking it, but it’s finally the right length, and Tony will be able to use it this coming fall/winter.

I also finished the scarf I was weaving (the June Spunky Eclectic weaving club), but I still need to block it before taking a picture of it. A new weaving club for August is on its way, so I’ll have something new to warp soon.

I am not going on a plane until the end of September, and my next travel is scheduled for mid-September, around Rosh Hashanah – I will be going to the New York City area for 2 weekends (coming back to Boston for a wedding in between). I hope to finish the Color Affection Shawl soon, and get pictures of
So, online I mentioned in the last post that I had finished 2 objects – side effects and the June Spunky Eclectic Weaving Club, which I opted to do a table runner. It was my first experience with using a pick-up stick. I’m happy with how both came out (especially after ironing the scarf…I don’t even iron clothes!).

Crooked Little Tony scarf

Pick-up-sticks table runner

I’m thrilled with how drapey the table runner is. My only problem is that I have no idea what to do with it – it’s 33 inches by 22 inches. It’s too short for a scarf, but I don’t have an appropriate table to use it on. It’s a superwash merino/bamboo/viscose blend. Folded over a towel bar it’d make a very long kitchen or guest towel, I guess?

Any ideas?
So, , which I opted to do a table runner. It was my first experience with using a pick-up stick. I’m happy with how both came out (especially after ironing the scarf…I don’t even iron clothes!).

Crooked Little Tony scarf

Pick-up-sticks table runner

I’m thrilled with how drapey the table runner is. My only problem is that I have no idea what to do with it – it’s 33 inches by 22 inches. It’s too short for a scarf, but I don’t have an appropriate table to use it on. It’s a superwash merino/bamboo/viscose blend.
I am so excited about tonight’s Common Cod Fiber Guild Meeting featuring Pam Parmal of the Boston Museum of Fine Arts talking about the collection strategy for textiles and fashion. And since I last wrote, gonorrhea I have finished a few objects…..

The first is another Hoot Cardigan, this time made out of Universal Yarns Supreme Cotton Batik, that I picked up in Charlotte, North Carolina earlier this year. I love the Supreme Cotton line from Universal yarns, because it is super soft. Unfortunately, I have only been able to find it in LYS in North Carolina….I hear that is changing soon, though! Here’s the cardigan, made for a friend of mine who just had his first son:

And then there’s the August Weaving Club from Spunky Eclectic – cotton dishcloths! I did not follow the pattern; instead I tried out a herringbone/pinwheel pattern. It came out wonderfully!

I ended up making 2 towels, one a bit shorter because I ran out of warp, but here’s the shorter one hanging from a peg next to our sink (please excuse the dirty dishes and Guinness cans to be rinsed).

The bigger one is in constant use as Tony’s “potato cozy”. That’s not a euphemism, Tony eats a baked potato like one would eat an apple, whole and uncut. Because it’s hot, he uses a towel wrapped around it to hold it.

And finally, the pièce de résistance. This is a Color Affection Shawl that I made from 3 different skeins of Novita’s Polku yarn, which I acquired in Finland earlier this year.

Here’s a close-up shot of the ‘center’ of this assymmetrical shawl:

And a little zoomed out:

Here’s the full-size shot:

I also spun up a “fractal 3-ply” which I will write about next time.
I am so excited about tonight’s Common Cod Fiber Guild Meeting featuring Pam Parmal of the Boston Museum of Fine Arts talking about the collection strategy for textiles and fashion. And since I last wrote, condom I have finished a few objects…..

The first is another Hoot Cardigan, information pills this time made out of

And then there’s the August

The bigger one is in constant use as Tony’s “potato cozy”. That’s not a euphemism, Tony eats a baked potato like one would eat an apple, whole and uncut. Because it’s hot, he uses a towel wrapped around it to hold it.

And finally, the pièce de résistance. This is a Color Affection Shawl that I made from 3 different skeins of

And a little zoomed out:

Here’s the full-size shot:

After
I am so excited about tonight’s
Common Cod Fiber Guild Meeting featuring Pam Parmal of the Boston Museum of Fine Arts talking about the collection strategy for textiles and fashion. And since I last wrote, order I have finished a few objects…..

The first is another Hoot Cardigan, find this time made out of

And then there’s the August

The bigger one is in constant use as Tony’s “potato cozy”. That’s not a euphemism, Tony eats a baked potato like one would eat an apple, whole and uncut. Because it’s hot, he uses a towel wrapped around it to hold it.

And finally, the pièce de résistance. This is a Color Affection Shawl that I made from 3 different skeins of

And a little zoomed out:

Here’s the full-size shot:

I also spun up a “fractal 3-ply” which I will write about next time.
I am so excited about tonight’s
Common Cod Fiber Guild Meeting featuring Pam Parmal of the Boston Museum of Fine Arts talking about the collection strategy for textiles and fashion. And since I last wrote, more about I have finished a few objects…..

The first is another Hoot Cardigan, this time made out of Universal Yarns Supreme Cotton Batik, that I picked up in Charlotte, North Carolina earlier this year. I love the Supreme Cotton line from Universal yarns, because it is super soft. Unfortunately, I have only been able to find it in LYS in North Carolina….I hear that is changing soon, though! Here’s the cardigan, made for a friend of mine who just had his first son:

And then there’s the August Weaving Club from Spunky Eclectic – cotton dishcloths! I did not follow the pattern; instead I tried out a herringbone/pinwheel pattern. It came out wonderfully!

I ended up making 2 towels, one a bit shorter because I ran out of warp, but here’s the shorter one hanging from a peg next to our sink (please excuse the dirty dishes and Guinness cans to be rinsed).

The bigger one is in constant use as Tony’s “potato cozy”. That’s not a euphemism, Tony eats a baked potato like one would eat an apple, whole and uncut. Because it’s hot, he uses a towel wrapped around it to hold it.

And finally, the pièce de résistance. This is a Color Affection Shawl that I made from 3 different skeins of

And a little zoomed out:

Here’s the full-size shot:

I also spun up a “fractal 3-ply” which I will write about next time.
It was very important that I write my
previous post when I did – Wed 25 July – because the very next day, of the fun I had, but I’d also like to highlight the knitting I did.

I started knitting a Color Affection shawl, in some Novita Polku that I bought in Finland in May. I started the shawl the first day, which was mostly lounging around while we were in the port of Boston (where we all embarked) and then while the cruise ship was traveling. I continued the shawl on Friday 27 July, and then on Saturday 28 July we landed in the port of St. John’s, New Brunswick. I chose to take a bus to Fredericton, to see the city hall, learn some history, and visit Yarns on York to meet local knitters and take a class on Newfoundland Mittens, aka “Newfie Mitts”. I got a bit done, but I believe I will rip out what I’ve done, make it smaller, and do the “windows” in the multicolored black and the background/wrists in the green. Still, here’s the progress shot, even though this will be frogged later:

On Sunday, I chose to do one of the two classes offered at The Loop in Halifax. The class I chose was one on how to do thrummed mittens, and the instructor Mimi was amazing. I did not take the class for the Bermuda Scarf/shawl, but I heard that the 2nd class was not as great, probably due to the first class running very late and Mimi running out of steam (teaching 2 classes in one day is tough, and who knows if she even had time to eat!). Given that, I’m glad I did not stay for the 2nd class (I did buy the pattern and yarn for it, so I can make the shawl), and instead did a 10-mile bicycle tour of Halifax. At any rate, I did enjoy working on the thrummed mittens, and here is my progress (I haven’t done anything with it since that weekend):

And the inside looks like this:

I learned lots of great tips from Mimi, like using a wool with a lot of lanolin in it, so it’s “sticky” and holds the thrums in better.

There was a lot of knitting that weekend, and in the few weeks that followed. This past week I finished knitting Tony’s scarf, after having to spin more yarn and buy more on Cape Cod while helping a friend do the Pan-Mass Challenge at the beginning of August. I still have to finish the scarf by weaving in the ends and blocking it, but it’s finally the right length, and Tony will be able to use it this coming fall/winter.

I also finished the scarf I was weaving (the June Spunky Eclectic weaving club), but I still need to block it before taking a picture of it. A new weaving club for August is on its way, so I’ll have something new to warp soon.

I am not going on a plane until the end of September, and my next travel is scheduled for mid-September, around Rosh Hashanah – I will be going to the New York City area for 2 weekends (coming back to Boston for a wedding in between). I hope to finish the Color Affection Shawl soon, and get pictures of both it and the woven scarf before long.
It was very important that I write my previous post when I did – Wed 25 July – because the very next day, of the fun I had, but I’d also like to highlight the knitting I did.

I started knitting a Color Affection shawl, in some Novita Polku that I bought in Finland in May. I started the shawl the first day, which was mostly lounging around while we were in the port of Boston (where we all embarked) and then while the cruise ship was traveling. I continued the shawl on Friday 27 July, and then on Saturday 28 July we landed in the port of St. John’s, New Brunswick. I chose to take a bus to Fredericton, to see the city hall, learn some history, and visit Yarns on York to meet local knitters and take a class on Newfoundland Mittens, aka “Newfie Mitts”. I got a bit done, but I believe I will rip out what I’ve done, make it smaller, and do the “windows” in the multicolored black and the background/wrists in the green. Still, here’s the progress shot, even though this will be frogged later:

On Sunday, I chose to do one of the two classes offered at The Loop in Halifax. The class I chose was one on how to do thrummed mittens, and the instructor Mimi was amazing. I did not take the class for the Bermuda Scarf/shawl, but I heard that the 2nd class was not as great, probably due to the first class running very late and Mimi running out of steam (teaching 2 classes in one day is tough, and who knows if she even had time to eat!). Given that, I’m glad I did not stay for the 2nd class (I did buy the pattern and yarn for it, so I can make the shawl), and instead did a 10-mile bicycle tour of Halifax. At any rate, I did enjoy working on the thrummed mittens, and here is my progress (I haven’t done anything with it since that weekend):

And the inside looks like this:

I learned lots of great tips from Mimi, like using a wool with a lot of lanolin in it, so it’s “sticky” and holds the thrums in better.

There was a lot of knitting that weekend, and in the few weeks that followed. This past week I finished knitting Tony’s scarf, after having to spin more yarn and buy more on Cape Cod while helping a friend do the Pan-Mass Challenge at the beginning of August. I still have to finish the scarf by weaving in the ends and blocking it, but it’s finally the right length, and Tony will be able to use it this coming fall/winter.

I also finished the scarf I was weaving (the June Spunky Eclectic weaving club), but I still need to block it before taking a picture of it. A new weaving club for August is on its way, so I’ll have something new to warp soon.

I am not going on a plane until the end of September, and my next travel is scheduled for mid-September, around Rosh Hashanah – I will be going to the New York City area for 2 weekends (coming back to Boston for a wedding in between). I hope to finish the Color Affection Shawl soon, and get pictures of
So, online I mentioned in the last post that I had finished 2 objects – side effects and the June Spunky Eclectic Weaving Club, which I opted to do a table runner. It was my first experience with using a pick-up stick. I’m happy with how both came out (especially after ironing the scarf…I don’t even iron clothes!).

Crooked Little Tony scarf

Pick-up-sticks table runner

I’m thrilled with how drapey the table runner is. My only problem is that I have no idea what to do with it – it’s 33 inches by 22 inches. It’s too short for a scarf, but I don’t have an appropriate table to use it on. It’s a superwash merino/bamboo/viscose blend. Folded over a towel bar it’d make a very long kitchen or guest towel, I guess?

Any ideas?
So, , which I opted to do a table runner. It was my first experience with using a pick-up stick. I’m happy with how both came out (especially after ironing the scarf…I don’t even iron clothes!).

Crooked Little Tony scarf

Pick-up-sticks table runner

I’m thrilled with how drapey the table runner is. My only problem is that I have no idea what to do with it – it’s 33 inches by 22 inches. It’s too short for a scarf, but I don’t have an appropriate table to use it on. It’s a superwash merino/bamboo/viscose blend.
I am so excited about tonight’s Common Cod Fiber Guild Meeting featuring Pam Parmal of the Boston Museum of Fine Arts talking about the collection strategy for textiles and fashion. And since I last wrote, gonorrhea I have finished a few objects…..

The first is another Hoot Cardigan, this time made out of Universal Yarns Supreme Cotton Batik, that I picked up in Charlotte, North Carolina earlier this year. I love the Supreme Cotton line from Universal yarns, because it is super soft. Unfortunately, I have only been able to find it in LYS in North Carolina….I hear that is changing soon, though! Here’s the cardigan, made for a friend of mine who just had his first son:

And then there’s the August Weaving Club from Spunky Eclectic – cotton dishcloths! I did not follow the pattern; instead I tried out a herringbone/pinwheel pattern. It came out wonderfully!

I ended up making 2 towels, one a bit shorter because I ran out of warp, but here’s the shorter one hanging from a peg next to our sink (please excuse the dirty dishes and Guinness cans to be rinsed).

The bigger one is in constant use as Tony’s “potato cozy”. That’s not a euphemism, Tony eats a baked potato like one would eat an apple, whole and uncut. Because it’s hot, he uses a towel wrapped around it to hold it.

And finally, the pièce de résistance. This is a Color Affection Shawl that I made from 3 different skeins of Novita’s Polku yarn, which I acquired in Finland earlier this year.

Here’s a close-up shot of the ‘center’ of this assymmetrical shawl:

And a little zoomed out:

Here’s the full-size shot:

I also spun up a “fractal 3-ply” which I will write about next time.
I am so excited about tonight’s Common Cod Fiber Guild Meeting featuring Pam Parmal of the Boston Museum of Fine Arts talking about the collection strategy for textiles and fashion. And since I last wrote, condom I have finished a few objects…..

The first is another Hoot Cardigan, information pills this time made out of

And then there’s the August

The bigger one is in constant use as Tony’s “potato cozy”. That’s not a euphemism, Tony eats a baked potato like one would eat an apple, whole and uncut. Because it’s hot, he uses a towel wrapped around it to hold it.

And finally, the pièce de résistance. This is a Color Affection Shawl that I made from 3 different skeins of

And a little zoomed out:

Here’s the full-size shot:

After
I am so excited about tonight’s
Common Cod Fiber Guild Meeting featuring Pam Parmal of the Boston Museum of Fine Arts talking about the collection strategy for textiles and fashion. And since I last wrote, order I have finished a few objects…..

The first is another Hoot Cardigan, find this time made out of

And then there’s the August

The bigger one is in constant use as Tony’s “potato cozy”. That’s not a euphemism, Tony eats a baked potato like one would eat an apple, whole and uncut. Because it’s hot, he uses a towel wrapped around it to hold it.

And finally, the pièce de résistance. This is a Color Affection Shawl that I made from 3 different skeins of

And a little zoomed out:

Here’s the full-size shot:

I also spun up a “fractal 3-ply” which I will write about next time.
I am so excited about tonight’s
Common Cod Fiber Guild Meeting featuring Pam Parmal of the Boston Museum of Fine Arts talking about the collection strategy for textiles and fashion. And since I last wrote, more about I have finished a few objects…..

The first is another Hoot Cardigan, this time made out of Universal Yarns Supreme Cotton Batik, that I picked up in Charlotte, North Carolina earlier this year. I love the Supreme Cotton line from Universal yarns, because it is super soft. Unfortunately, I have only been able to find it in LYS in North Carolina….I hear that is changing soon, though! Here’s the cardigan, made for a friend of mine who just had his first son:

And then there’s the August Weaving Club from Spunky Eclectic – cotton dishcloths! I did not follow the pattern; instead I tried out a herringbone/pinwheel pattern. It came out wonderfully!

I ended up making 2 towels, one a bit shorter because I ran out of warp, but here’s the shorter one hanging from a peg next to our sink (please excuse the dirty dishes and Guinness cans to be rinsed).

The bigger one is in constant use as Tony’s “potato cozy”. That’s not a euphemism, Tony eats a baked potato like one would eat an apple, whole and uncut. Because it’s hot, he uses a towel wrapped around it to hold it.

And finally, the pièce de résistance. This is a Color Affection Shawl that I made from 3 different skeins of

And a little zoomed out:

Here’s the full-size shot:

I also spun up a “fractal 3-ply” which I will write about next time.
Buenos Aires has a span of a few blocks,
hospital not too far from the Malabia metro station* where there are many yarn shops, phthisiatrician I counted 15, and went into 11 of them before I had to stop. The shops are on Ave. Scalabrini Ortiz just southwest of Ave. Cordoba, towards Ave. Correintes. The Malabia metro station is on the corner of Correintes and Scalabrini Ortiz, which is 1 km away from the corner of Cordoba and Corrientes, and about half that until you see your first yarn shop. There was a small bit of yarn bombing between two of the stores:

Yarn shopping in Buenos Aires is quite different from what I’m used to in the States. The stores all look like this:

The yarn is beautiful, and well-organized, but there’s no signs as to what the yarn is made up of, how much it costs nor the gauge of the yarn. In addition, you’re not supposed to take the yarn out of the bins. If you look at the bottom right of that picture, you’ll see some white yarn and blue yarn that is actually sitting on top of a counter. That counter separates you from the wall, and there are people behind the counter who can help you get what you want.

So it’s very different from the experience I’m used to. I got the feeling that a lot of people knew exactly what they wanted to buy, or walked in and would say “do you have anything made of wool?” I was feeling a bit shy due to the language barrier, so I picked up a Spanish phrase: “solamente mirando” – it means “Just looking”. The people are friendly and willing to help, but I like the yarn buying process to be a solo activity.

There were 2 exceptions to the fact that most stores don’t give any information about their items.: Milana hilados and Yanabey. Milana hilados had tags like this near most of their yarn:

Note that that’s in Argentinian pesos, and at the time, this was less than USD $10 per 100g. Another thing to note is the price is per 100g, not per hank of yarn. You’d ask a sales associate to take the yarn down for you and they’d weigh it and ask you if that was OK (kind of like at the deli counter). Then they give you a slip of paper and you take it to a cash register, where you’re usually helped by someone else. Another interesting thing is that the stores seemed to be staffed by about half men, half women, which is very different from yarn stores in the States, which are probably about 90% staffed by women.

I bought 3 hanks of yarn there, for about $25:

Yanabey had signs like this:

These prices are still in Argentinian pesos, but they’re in kilos. So these prices are $171 for 1 kilo, which is $17.10 for 100g. This is a wall of “seda vegetal”, or “vegetable silk“. By the way, that’s about USD $35 per kilo. So I bought 6 skeins, which was just over a kilo, because the tree which this comes from (ceiba speciosa, or “silk floss tree”) is native to South America, and I haven’t seen “vegetable silk” in the US.

A lot of the stores have the recycled t-shirt yarn, and I bought some at Arte Natural:

BUTTONS!!!

I was thinking I might make a purse from the yarn, like this:

That purse is crocheted, but I’m sure I can come up with a knitted version.

Here’s what I bought from that store:

Here’s a Spanish primer for some important words:
cachemira – cashmere
acrílico – acrylic
lana – wool
seda – silk
alpaca – alpaca
hilo – yarn (plural: hilados)
Also, I found out that cashmerillo is just an acrylic yarn that’s very soft. Don’t be fooled by price, some of the acrylic yarns are *very* expensive, even more expensive than the wool.

I was very excited by the prospect of all these yarn stores, and after these three purchases I was done, and passed by 4 other yarn stores that I didn’t even walk into. In addition, there were at least 2 weaving stores, and another 2 fabric stores. Only one of the yarn stores had fiber to spin, and it looked like combed top, and was somewhat expensive (by US standards).

All in all, I was extremely satisfied by taking a few hours to shop for yarn, but I found the experience quite different from what I’m used to.

* I was instructed by a friend who had visited Buenos Aires to take a taxi to the corner of X and Y. However, I enjoy walking around and public transit, so I noticed the subway stop was not far, and decided to walk a few blocks. To those who are considering what to do, a taxi would have cost about 20 pesos (about USD $5) each way. The subway costs $5 for two rides, but of course is not door to door. Another thing to note about the subway is that it is not the most modern system:

And you will get plenty of people trying to make money – some play music, which you may be used to from other subway systems. Others will go around a subway car, handing out products, and then go around and either collect the product back or collect money. I was handed tissues and Disney books – or at least, they attempted to hand stuff to me, and I refused. It helped that I had knitting in my hands, but I saw them just place stuff on people’s laps if their hands were busy, so don’t just look away, make sure you actually refuse by shaking your head.

Note: I hope this article is helpful! Due to spam reasons, all articles on this site have comments disabled after a short time. If you want to leave feedback, you can tweet @sheeri or e-mail me at awfief at gmail dot com. (replace “at” with @ and
It was very important that I write my previous post when I did – Wed 25 July – because the very next day, of the fun I had, but I’d also like to highlight the knitting I did.

I started knitting a Color Affection shawl, in some Novita Polku that I bought in Finland in May. I started the shawl the first day, which was mostly lounging around while we were in the port of Boston (where we all embarked) and then while the cruise ship was traveling. I continued the shawl on Friday 27 July, and then on Saturday 28 July we landed in the port of St. John’s, New Brunswick. I chose to take a bus to Fredericton, to see the city hall, learn some history, and visit Yarns on York to meet local knitters and take a class on Newfoundland Mittens, aka “Newfie Mitts”. I got a bit done, but I believe I will rip out what I’ve done, make it smaller, and do the “windows” in the multicolored black and the background/wrists in the green. Still, here’s the progress shot, even though this will be frogged later:

On Sunday, I chose to do one of the two classes offered at The Loop in Halifax. The class I chose was one on how to do thrummed mittens, and the instructor Mimi was amazing. I did not take the class for the Bermuda Scarf/shawl, but I heard that the 2nd class was not as great, probably due to the first class running very late and Mimi running out of steam (teaching 2 classes in one day is tough, and who knows if she even had time to eat!). Given that, I’m glad I did not stay for the 2nd class (I did buy the pattern and yarn for it, so I can make the shawl), and instead did a 10-mile bicycle tour of Halifax. At any rate, I did enjoy working on the thrummed mittens, and here is my progress (I haven’t done anything with it since that weekend):

And the inside looks like this:

I learned lots of great tips from Mimi, like using a wool with a lot of lanolin in it, so it’s “sticky” and holds the thrums in better.

There was a lot of knitting that weekend, and in the few weeks that followed. This past week I finished knitting Tony’s scarf, after having to spin more yarn and buy more on Cape Cod while helping a friend do the Pan-Mass Challenge at the beginning of August. I still have to finish the scarf by weaving in the ends and blocking it, but it’s finally the right length, and Tony will be able to use it this coming fall/winter.

I also finished the scarf I was weaving (the June Spunky Eclectic weaving club), but I still need to block it before taking a picture of it. A new weaving club for August is on its way, so I’ll have something new to warp soon.

I am not going on a plane until the end of September, and my next travel is scheduled for mid-September, around Rosh Hashanah – I will be going to the New York City area for 2 weekends (coming back to Boston for a wedding in between). I hope to finish the Color Affection Shawl soon, and get pictures of both it and the woven scarf before long.
It was very important that I write my previous post when I did – Wed 25 July – because the very next day, of the fun I had, but I’d also like to highlight the knitting I did.

I started knitting a Color Affection shawl, in some Novita Polku that I bought in Finland in May. I started the shawl the first day, which was mostly lounging around while we were in the port of Boston (where we all embarked) and then while the cruise ship was traveling. I continued the shawl on Friday 27 July, and then on Saturday 28 July we landed in the port of St. John’s, New Brunswick. I chose to take a bus to Fredericton, to see the city hall, learn some history, and visit Yarns on York to meet local knitters and take a class on Newfoundland Mittens, aka “Newfie Mitts”. I got a bit done, but I believe I will rip out what I’ve done, make it smaller, and do the “windows” in the multicolored black and the background/wrists in the green. Still, here’s the progress shot, even though this will be frogged later:

On Sunday, I chose to do one of the two classes offered at The Loop in Halifax. The class I chose was one on how to do thrummed mittens, and the instructor Mimi was amazing. I did not take the class for the Bermuda Scarf/shawl, but I heard that the 2nd class was not as great, probably due to the first class running very late and Mimi running out of steam (teaching 2 classes in one day is tough, and who knows if she even had time to eat!). Given that, I’m glad I did not stay for the 2nd class (I did buy the pattern and yarn for it, so I can make the shawl), and instead did a 10-mile bicycle tour of Halifax. At any rate, I did enjoy working on the thrummed mittens, and here is my progress (I haven’t done anything with it since that weekend):

And the inside looks like this:

I learned lots of great tips from Mimi, like using a wool with a lot of lanolin in it, so it’s “sticky” and holds the thrums in better.

There was a lot of knitting that weekend, and in the few weeks that followed. This past week I finished knitting Tony’s scarf, after having to spin more yarn and buy more on Cape Cod while helping a friend do the Pan-Mass Challenge at the beginning of August. I still have to finish the scarf by weaving in the ends and blocking it, but it’s finally the right length, and Tony will be able to use it this coming fall/winter.

I also finished the scarf I was weaving (the June Spunky Eclectic weaving club), but I still need to block it before taking a picture of it. A new weaving club for August is on its way, so I’ll have something new to warp soon.

I am not going on a plane until the end of September, and my next travel is scheduled for mid-September, around Rosh Hashanah – I will be going to the New York City area for 2 weekends (coming back to Boston for a wedding in between). I hope to finish the Color Affection Shawl soon, and get pictures of
So, online I mentioned in the last post that I had finished 2 objects – side effects and the June Spunky Eclectic Weaving Club, which I opted to do a table runner. It was my first experience with using a pick-up stick. I’m happy with how both came out (especially after ironing the scarf…I don’t even iron clothes!).

Crooked Little Tony scarf

Pick-up-sticks table runner

I’m thrilled with how drapey the table runner is. My only problem is that I have no idea what to do with it – it’s 33 inches by 22 inches. It’s too short for a scarf, but I don’t have an appropriate table to use it on. It’s a superwash merino/bamboo/viscose blend. Folded over a towel bar it’d make a very long kitchen or guest towel, I guess?

Any ideas?
So, , which I opted to do a table runner. It was my first experience with using a pick-up stick. I’m happy with how both came out (especially after ironing the scarf…I don’t even iron clothes!).

Crooked Little Tony scarf

Pick-up-sticks table runner

I’m thrilled with how drapey the table runner is. My only problem is that I have no idea what to do with it – it’s 33 inches by 22 inches. It’s too short for a scarf, but I don’t have an appropriate table to use it on. It’s a superwash merino/bamboo/viscose blend.
I am so excited about tonight’s Common Cod Fiber Guild Meeting featuring Pam Parmal of the Boston Museum of Fine Arts talking about the collection strategy for textiles and fashion. And since I last wrote, gonorrhea I have finished a few objects…..

The first is another Hoot Cardigan, this time made out of Universal Yarns Supreme Cotton Batik, that I picked up in Charlotte, North Carolina earlier this year. I love the Supreme Cotton line from Universal yarns, because it is super soft. Unfortunately, I have only been able to find it in LYS in North Carolina….I hear that is changing soon, though! Here’s the cardigan, made for a friend of mine who just had his first son:

And then there’s the August Weaving Club from Spunky Eclectic – cotton dishcloths! I did not follow the pattern; instead I tried out a herringbone/pinwheel pattern. It came out wonderfully!

I ended up making 2 towels, one a bit shorter because I ran out of warp, but here’s the shorter one hanging from a peg next to our sink (please excuse the dirty dishes and Guinness cans to be rinsed).

The bigger one is in constant use as Tony’s “potato cozy”. That’s not a euphemism, Tony eats a baked potato like one would eat an apple, whole and uncut. Because it’s hot, he uses a towel wrapped around it to hold it.

And finally, the pièce de résistance. This is a Color Affection Shawl that I made from 3 different skeins of Novita’s Polku yarn, which I acquired in Finland earlier this year.

Here’s a close-up shot of the ‘center’ of this assymmetrical shawl:

And a little zoomed out:

Here’s the full-size shot:

I also spun up a “fractal 3-ply” which I will write about next time.
I am so excited about tonight’s Common Cod Fiber Guild Meeting featuring Pam Parmal of the Boston Museum of Fine Arts talking about the collection strategy for textiles and fashion. And since I last wrote, condom I have finished a few objects…..

The first is another Hoot Cardigan, information pills this time made out of

And then there’s the August

The bigger one is in constant use as Tony’s “potato cozy”. That’s not a euphemism, Tony eats a baked potato like one would eat an apple, whole and uncut. Because it’s hot, he uses a towel wrapped around it to hold it.

And finally, the pièce de résistance. This is a Color Affection Shawl that I made from 3 different skeins of

And a little zoomed out:

Here’s the full-size shot:

After
I am so excited about tonight’s
Common Cod Fiber Guild Meeting featuring Pam Parmal of the Boston Museum of Fine Arts talking about the collection strategy for textiles and fashion. And since I last wrote, order I have finished a few objects…..

The first is another Hoot Cardigan, find this time made out of

And then there’s the August

The bigger one is in constant use as Tony’s “potato cozy”. That’s not a euphemism, Tony eats a baked potato like one would eat an apple, whole and uncut. Because it’s hot, he uses a towel wrapped around it to hold it.

And finally, the pièce de résistance. This is a Color Affection Shawl that I made from 3 different skeins of

And a little zoomed out:

Here’s the full-size shot:

I also spun up a “fractal 3-ply” which I will write about next time.
I am so excited about tonight’s
Common Cod Fiber Guild Meeting featuring Pam Parmal of the Boston Museum of Fine Arts talking about the collection strategy for textiles and fashion. And since I last wrote, more about I have finished a few objects…..

The first is another Hoot Cardigan, this time made out of Universal Yarns Supreme Cotton Batik, that I picked up in Charlotte, North Carolina earlier this year. I love the Supreme Cotton line from Universal yarns, because it is super soft. Unfortunately, I have only been able to find it in LYS in North Carolina….I hear that is changing soon, though! Here’s the cardigan, made for a friend of mine who just had his first son:

And then there’s the August Weaving Club from Spunky Eclectic – cotton dishcloths! I did not follow the pattern; instead I tried out a herringbone/pinwheel pattern. It came out wonderfully!

I ended up making 2 towels, one a bit shorter because I ran out of warp, but here’s the shorter one hanging from a peg next to our sink (please excuse the dirty dishes and Guinness cans to be rinsed).

The bigger one is in constant use as Tony’s “potato cozy”. That’s not a euphemism, Tony eats a baked potato like one would eat an apple, whole and uncut. Because it’s hot, he uses a towel wrapped around it to hold it.

And finally, the pièce de résistance. This is a Color Affection Shawl that I made from 3 different skeins of

And a little zoomed out:

Here’s the full-size shot:

I also spun up a “fractal 3-ply” which I will write about next time.
Buenos Aires has a span of a few blocks,
hospital not too far from the Malabia metro station* where there are many yarn shops, phthisiatrician I counted 15, and went into 11 of them before I had to stop. The shops are on Ave. Scalabrini Ortiz just southwest of Ave. Cordoba, towards Ave. Correintes. The Malabia metro station is on the corner of Correintes and Scalabrini Ortiz, which is 1 km away from the corner of Cordoba and Corrientes, and about half that until you see your first yarn shop. There was a small bit of yarn bombing between two of the stores:

Yarn shopping in Buenos Aires is quite different from what I’m used to in the States. The stores all look like this:

The yarn is beautiful, and well-organized, but there’s no signs as to what the yarn is made up of, how much it costs nor the gauge of the yarn. In addition, you’re not supposed to take the yarn out of the bins. If you look at the bottom right of that picture, you’ll see some white yarn and blue yarn that is actually sitting on top of a counter. That counter separates you from the wall, and there are people behind the counter who can help you get what you want.

So it’s very different from the experience I’m used to. I got the feeling that a lot of people knew exactly what they wanted to buy, or walked in and would say “do you have anything made of wool?” I was feeling a bit shy due to the language barrier, so I picked up a Spanish phrase: “solamente mirando” – it means “Just looking”. The people are friendly and willing to help, but I like the yarn buying process to be a solo activity.

There were 2 exceptions to the fact that most stores don’t give any information about their items.: Milana hilados and Yanabey. Milana hilados had tags like this near most of their yarn:

Note that that’s in Argentinian pesos, and at the time, this was less than USD $10 per 100g. Another thing to note is the price is per 100g, not per hank of yarn. You’d ask a sales associate to take the yarn down for you and they’d weigh it and ask you if that was OK (kind of like at the deli counter). Then they give you a slip of paper and you take it to a cash register, where you’re usually helped by someone else. Another interesting thing is that the stores seemed to be staffed by about half men, half women, which is very different from yarn stores in the States, which are probably about 90% staffed by women.

I bought 3 hanks of yarn there, for about $25:

Yanabey had signs like this:

These prices are still in Argentinian pesos, but they’re in kilos. So these prices are $171 for 1 kilo, which is $17.10 for 100g. This is a wall of “seda vegetal”, or “vegetable silk“. By the way, that’s about USD $35 per kilo. So I bought 6 skeins, which was just over a kilo, because the tree which this comes from (ceiba speciosa, or “silk floss tree”) is native to South America, and I haven’t seen “vegetable silk” in the US.

A lot of the stores have the recycled t-shirt yarn, and I bought some at Arte Natural:

BUTTONS!!!

I was thinking I might make a purse from the yarn, like this:

That purse is crocheted, but I’m sure I can come up with a knitted version.

Here’s what I bought from that store:

Here’s a Spanish primer for some important words:
cachemira – cashmere
acrílico – acrylic
lana – wool
seda – silk
alpaca – alpaca
hilo – yarn (plural: hilados)
Also, I found out that cashmerillo is just an acrylic yarn that’s very soft. Don’t be fooled by price, some of the acrylic yarns are *very* expensive, even more expensive than the wool.

I was very excited by the prospect of all these yarn stores, and after these three purchases I was done, and passed by 4 other yarn stores that I didn’t even walk into. In addition, there were at least 2 weaving stores, and another 2 fabric stores. Only one of the yarn stores had fiber to spin, and it looked like combed top, and was somewhat expensive (by US standards).

All in all, I was extremely satisfied by taking a few hours to shop for yarn, but I found the experience quite different from what I’m used to.

* I was instructed by a friend who had visited Buenos Aires to take a taxi to the corner of X and Y. However, I enjoy walking around and public transit, so I noticed the subway stop was not far, and decided to walk a few blocks. To those who are considering what to do, a taxi would have cost about 20 pesos (about USD $5) each way. The subway costs $5 for two rides, but of course is not door to door. Another thing to note about the subway is that it is not the most modern system:

And you will get plenty of people trying to make money – some play music, which you may be used to from other subway systems. Others will go around a subway car, handing out products, and then go around and either collect the product back or collect money. I was handed tissues and Disney books – or at least, they attempted to hand stuff to me, and I refused. It helped that I had knitting in my hands, but I saw them just place stuff on people’s laps if their hands were busy, so don’t just look away, make sure you actually refuse by shaking your head.

Note: I hope this article is helpful! Due to spam reasons, all articles on this site have comments disabled after a short time. If you want to leave feedback, you can tweet @sheeri or e-mail me at awfief at gmail dot com. (replace “at” with @ and
When I think of gradient spinning, visit I think of starting with “gradient-dyed fiber” such as Fiber Optics’ gradient collection. Sadly, I have not yet gotten my hands on on of them yet. However, a fractal 3-ply attempt last year gave me the push to try a kind of gradient spinning.

I got a great batt from Fiber Stash back in April at the Wild and Woolly Weekend in Vermont. The 3.7 oz batt is 98% Corriedale, 2% twinkle, in a blue-purple, light blue, and black – here it is, unrolled:

The first step was to divide it into three sections, for a 3-ply, so that each section had each of the three colors. I then split 2 of the sections into even thirds, based on the colors, and the last section was split into sixths based on colors. I split the sections based on weight.

The idea is a fractal ply, but because I am doing a 3-ply, I will do it so that 2 of the sections are the same color, and a third is changing. The middle is the part divided into six:

I finally finished spinning, plying, skeining and washing, and here’s what the finished result looks like:

I think a shawl is in order to show off the lovely and subtle color changes. This produced 284 yards of yarn at 12 wpi. I have an identical batt which I will spin the same way, and will knit with all of it to make a good-sized shawl.

It was very important that I write my previous post when I did – Wed 25 July – because the very next day, of the fun I had, but I’d also like to highlight the knitting I did.

I started knitting a Color Affection shawl, in some Novita Polku that I bought in Finland in May. I started the shawl the first day, which was mostly lounging around while we were in the port of Boston (where we all embarked) and then while the cruise ship was traveling. I continued the shawl on Friday 27 July, and then on Saturday 28 July we landed in the port of St. John’s, New Brunswick. I chose to take a bus to Fredericton, to see the city hall, learn some history, and visit Yarns on York to meet local knitters and take a class on Newfoundland Mittens, aka “Newfie Mitts”. I got a bit done, but I believe I will rip out what I’ve done, make it smaller, and do the “windows” in the multicolored black and the background/wrists in the green. Still, here’s the progress shot, even though this will be frogged later:

On Sunday, I chose to do one of the two classes offered at The Loop in Halifax. The class I chose was one on how to do thrummed mittens, and the instructor Mimi was amazing. I did not take the class for the Bermuda Scarf/shawl, but I heard that the 2nd class was not as great, probably due to the first class running very late and Mimi running out of steam (teaching 2 classes in one day is tough, and who knows if she even had time to eat!). Given that, I’m glad I did not stay for the 2nd class (I did buy the pattern and yarn for it, so I can make the shawl), and instead did a 10-mile bicycle tour of Halifax. At any rate, I did enjoy working on the thrummed mittens, and here is my progress (I haven’t done anything with it since that weekend):

And the inside looks like this:

I learned lots of great tips from Mimi, like using a wool with a lot of lanolin in it, so it’s “sticky” and holds the thrums in better.

There was a lot of knitting that weekend, and in the few weeks that followed. This past week I finished knitting Tony’s scarf, after having to spin more yarn and buy more on Cape Cod while helping a friend do the Pan-Mass Challenge at the beginning of August. I still have to finish the scarf by weaving in the ends and blocking it, but it’s finally the right length, and Tony will be able to use it this coming fall/winter.

I also finished the scarf I was weaving (the June Spunky Eclectic weaving club), but I still need to block it before taking a picture of it. A new weaving club for August is on its way, so I’ll have something new to warp soon.

I am not going on a plane until the end of September, and my next travel is scheduled for mid-September, around Rosh Hashanah – I will be going to the New York City area for 2 weekends (coming back to Boston for a wedding in between). I hope to finish the Color Affection Shawl soon, and get pictures of both it and the woven scarf before long.
It was very important that I write my previous post when I did – Wed 25 July – because the very next day, of the fun I had, but I’d also like to highlight the knitting I did.

I started knitting a Color Affection shawl, in some Novita Polku that I bought in Finland in May. I started the shawl the first day, which was mostly lounging around while we were in the port of Boston (where we all embarked) and then while the cruise ship was traveling. I continued the shawl on Friday 27 July, and then on Saturday 28 July we landed in the port of St. John’s, New Brunswick. I chose to take a bus to Fredericton, to see the city hall, learn some history, and visit Yarns on York to meet local knitters and take a class on Newfoundland Mittens, aka “Newfie Mitts”. I got a bit done, but I believe I will rip out what I’ve done, make it smaller, and do the “windows” in the multicolored black and the background/wrists in the green. Still, here’s the progress shot, even though this will be frogged later:

On Sunday, I chose to do one of the two classes offered at The Loop in Halifax. The class I chose was one on how to do thrummed mittens, and the instructor Mimi was amazing. I did not take the class for the Bermuda Scarf/shawl, but I heard that the 2nd class was not as great, probably due to the first class running very late and Mimi running out of steam (teaching 2 classes in one day is tough, and who knows if she even had time to eat!). Given that, I’m glad I did not stay for the 2nd class (I did buy the pattern and yarn for it, so I can make the shawl), and instead did a 10-mile bicycle tour of Halifax. At any rate, I did enjoy working on the thrummed mittens, and here is my progress (I haven’t done anything with it since that weekend):

And the inside looks like this:

I learned lots of great tips from Mimi, like using a wool with a lot of lanolin in it, so it’s “sticky” and holds the thrums in better.

There was a lot of knitting that weekend, and in the few weeks that followed. This past week I finished knitting Tony’s scarf, after having to spin more yarn and buy more on Cape Cod while helping a friend do the Pan-Mass Challenge at the beginning of August. I still have to finish the scarf by weaving in the ends and blocking it, but it’s finally the right length, and Tony will be able to use it this coming fall/winter.

I also finished the scarf I was weaving (the June Spunky Eclectic weaving club), but I still need to block it before taking a picture of it. A new weaving club for August is on its way, so I’ll have something new to warp soon.

I am not going on a plane until the end of September, and my next travel is scheduled for mid-September, around Rosh Hashanah – I will be going to the New York City area for 2 weekends (coming back to Boston for a wedding in between). I hope to finish the Color Affection Shawl soon, and get pictures of
So, online I mentioned in the last post that I had finished 2 objects – side effects and the June Spunky Eclectic Weaving Club, which I opted to do a table runner. It was my first experience with using a pick-up stick. I’m happy with how both came out (especially after ironing the scarf…I don’t even iron clothes!).

Crooked Little Tony scarf

Pick-up-sticks table runner

I’m thrilled with how drapey the table runner is. My only problem is that I have no idea what to do with it – it’s 33 inches by 22 inches. It’s too short for a scarf, but I don’t have an appropriate table to use it on. It’s a superwash merino/bamboo/viscose blend. Folded over a towel bar it’d make a very long kitchen or guest towel, I guess?

Any ideas?
So, , which I opted to do a table runner. It was my first experience with using a pick-up stick. I’m happy with how both came out (especially after ironing the scarf…I don’t even iron clothes!).

Crooked Little Tony scarf

Pick-up-sticks table runner

I’m thrilled with how drapey the table runner is. My only problem is that I have no idea what to do with it – it’s 33 inches by 22 inches. It’s too short for a scarf, but I don’t have an appropriate table to use it on. It’s a superwash merino/bamboo/viscose blend.
I am so excited about tonight’s Common Cod Fiber Guild Meeting featuring Pam Parmal of the Boston Museum of Fine Arts talking about the collection strategy for textiles and fashion. And since I last wrote, gonorrhea I have finished a few objects…..

The first is another Hoot Cardigan, this time made out of Universal Yarns Supreme Cotton Batik, that I picked up in Charlotte, North Carolina earlier this year. I love the Supreme Cotton line from Universal yarns, because it is super soft. Unfortunately, I have only been able to find it in LYS in North Carolina….I hear that is changing soon, though! Here’s the cardigan, made for a friend of mine who just had his first son:

And then there’s the August Weaving Club from Spunky Eclectic – cotton dishcloths! I did not follow the pattern; instead I tried out a herringbone/pinwheel pattern. It came out wonderfully!

I ended up making 2 towels, one a bit shorter because I ran out of warp, but here’s the shorter one hanging from a peg next to our sink (please excuse the dirty dishes and Guinness cans to be rinsed).

The bigger one is in constant use as Tony’s “potato cozy”. That’s not a euphemism, Tony eats a baked potato like one would eat an apple, whole and uncut. Because it’s hot, he uses a towel wrapped around it to hold it.

And finally, the pièce de résistance. This is a Color Affection Shawl that I made from 3 different skeins of Novita’s Polku yarn, which I acquired in Finland earlier this year.

Here’s a close-up shot of the ‘center’ of this assymmetrical shawl:

And a little zoomed out:

Here’s the full-size shot:

I also spun up a “fractal 3-ply” which I will write about next time.
I am so excited about tonight’s Common Cod Fiber Guild Meeting featuring Pam Parmal of the Boston Museum of Fine Arts talking about the collection strategy for textiles and fashion. And since I last wrote, condom I have finished a few objects…..

The first is another Hoot Cardigan, information pills this time made out of

And then there’s the August

The bigger one is in constant use as Tony’s “potato cozy”. That’s not a euphemism, Tony eats a baked potato like one would eat an apple, whole and uncut. Because it’s hot, he uses a towel wrapped around it to hold it.

And finally, the pièce de résistance. This is a Color Affection Shawl that I made from 3 different skeins of

And a little zoomed out:

Here’s the full-size shot:

After
I am so excited about tonight’s
Common Cod Fiber Guild Meeting featuring Pam Parmal of the Boston Museum of Fine Arts talking about the collection strategy for textiles and fashion. And since I last wrote, order I have finished a few objects…..

The first is another Hoot Cardigan, find this time made out of

And then there’s the August

The bigger one is in constant use as Tony’s “potato cozy”. That’s not a euphemism, Tony eats a baked potato like one would eat an apple, whole and uncut. Because it’s hot, he uses a towel wrapped around it to hold it.

And finally, the pièce de résistance. This is a Color Affection Shawl that I made from 3 different skeins of

And a little zoomed out:

Here’s the full-size shot:

I also spun up a “fractal 3-ply” which I will write about next time.
I am so excited about tonight’s
Common Cod Fiber Guild Meeting featuring Pam Parmal of the Boston Museum of Fine Arts talking about the collection strategy for textiles and fashion. And since I last wrote, more about I have finished a few objects…..

The first is another Hoot Cardigan, this time made out of Universal Yarns Supreme Cotton Batik, that I picked up in Charlotte, North Carolina earlier this year. I love the Supreme Cotton line from Universal yarns, because it is super soft. Unfortunately, I have only been able to find it in LYS in North Carolina….I hear that is changing soon, though! Here’s the cardigan, made for a friend of mine who just had his first son:

And then there’s the August Weaving Club from Spunky Eclectic – cotton dishcloths! I did not follow the pattern; instead I tried out a herringbone/pinwheel pattern. It came out wonderfully!

I ended up making 2 towels, one a bit shorter because I ran out of warp, but here’s the shorter one hanging from a peg next to our sink (please excuse the dirty dishes and Guinness cans to be rinsed).

The bigger one is in constant use as Tony’s “potato cozy”. That’s not a euphemism, Tony eats a baked potato like one would eat an apple, whole and uncut. Because it’s hot, he uses a towel wrapped around it to hold it.

And finally, the pièce de résistance. This is a Color Affection Shawl that I made from 3 different skeins of

And a little zoomed out:

Here’s the full-size shot:

I also spun up a “fractal 3-ply” which I will write about next time.
Buenos Aires has a span of a few blocks,
hospital not too far from the Malabia metro station* where there are many yarn shops, phthisiatrician I counted 15, and went into 11 of them before I had to stop. The shops are on Ave. Scalabrini Ortiz just southwest of Ave. Cordoba, towards Ave. Correintes. The Malabia metro station is on the corner of Correintes and Scalabrini Ortiz, which is 1 km away from the corner of Cordoba and Corrientes, and about half that until you see your first yarn shop. There was a small bit of yarn bombing between two of the stores:

Yarn shopping in Buenos Aires is quite different from what I’m used to in the States. The stores all look like this:

The yarn is beautiful, and well-organized, but there’s no signs as to what the yarn is made up of, how much it costs nor the gauge of the yarn. In addition, you’re not supposed to take the yarn out of the bins. If you look at the bottom right of that picture, you’ll see some white yarn and blue yarn that is actually sitting on top of a counter. That counter separates you from the wall, and there are people behind the counter who can help you get what you want.

So it’s very different from the experience I’m used to. I got the feeling that a lot of people knew exactly what they wanted to buy, or walked in and would say “do you have anything made of wool?” I was feeling a bit shy due to the language barrier, so I picked up a Spanish phrase: “solamente mirando” – it means “Just looking”. The people are friendly and willing to help, but I like the yarn buying process to be a solo activity.

There were 2 exceptions to the fact that most stores don’t give any information about their items.: Milana hilados and Yanabey. Milana hilados had tags like this near most of their yarn:

Note that that’s in Argentinian pesos, and at the time, this was less than USD $10 per 100g. Another thing to note is the price is per 100g, not per hank of yarn. You’d ask a sales associate to take the yarn down for you and they’d weigh it and ask you if that was OK (kind of like at the deli counter). Then they give you a slip of paper and you take it to a cash register, where you’re usually helped by someone else. Another interesting thing is that the stores seemed to be staffed by about half men, half women, which is very different from yarn stores in the States, which are probably about 90% staffed by women.

I bought 3 hanks of yarn there, for about $25:

Yanabey had signs like this:

These prices are still in Argentinian pesos, but they’re in kilos. So these prices are $171 for 1 kilo, which is $17.10 for 100g. This is a wall of “seda vegetal”, or “vegetable silk“. By the way, that’s about USD $35 per kilo. So I bought 6 skeins, which was just over a kilo, because the tree which this comes from (ceiba speciosa, or “silk floss tree”) is native to South America, and I haven’t seen “vegetable silk” in the US.

A lot of the stores have the recycled t-shirt yarn, and I bought some at Arte Natural:

BUTTONS!!!

I was thinking I might make a purse from the yarn, like this:

That purse is crocheted, but I’m sure I can come up with a knitted version.

Here’s what I bought from that store:

Here’s a Spanish primer for some important words:
cachemira – cashmere
acrílico – acrylic
lana – wool
seda – silk
alpaca – alpaca
hilo – yarn (plural: hilados)
Also, I found out that cashmerillo is just an acrylic yarn that’s very soft. Don’t be fooled by price, some of the acrylic yarns are *very* expensive, even more expensive than the wool.

I was very excited by the prospect of all these yarn stores, and after these three purchases I was done, and passed by 4 other yarn stores that I didn’t even walk into. In addition, there were at least 2 weaving stores, and another 2 fabric stores. Only one of the yarn stores had fiber to spin, and it looked like combed top, and was somewhat expensive (by US standards).

All in all, I was extremely satisfied by taking a few hours to shop for yarn, but I found the experience quite different from what I’m used to.

* I was instructed by a friend who had visited Buenos Aires to take a taxi to the corner of X and Y. However, I enjoy walking around and public transit, so I noticed the subway stop was not far, and decided to walk a few blocks. To those who are considering what to do, a taxi would have cost about 20 pesos (about USD $5) each way. The subway costs $5 for two rides, but of course is not door to door. Another thing to note about the subway is that it is not the most modern system:

And you will get plenty of people trying to make money – some play music, which you may be used to from other subway systems. Others will go around a subway car, handing out products, and then go around and either collect the product back or collect money. I was handed tissues and Disney books – or at least, they attempted to hand stuff to me, and I refused. It helped that I had knitting in my hands, but I saw them just place stuff on people’s laps if their hands were busy, so don’t just look away, make sure you actually refuse by shaking your head.

Note: I hope this article is helpful! Due to spam reasons, all articles on this site have comments disabled after a short time. If you want to leave feedback, you can tweet @sheeri or e-mail me at awfief at gmail dot com. (replace “at” with @ and
When I think of gradient spinning, visit I think of starting with “gradient-dyed fiber” such as Fiber Optics’ gradient collection. Sadly, I have not yet gotten my hands on on of them yet. However, a fractal 3-ply attempt last year gave me the push to try a kind of gradient spinning.

I got a great batt from Fiber Stash back in April at the Wild and Woolly Weekend in Vermont. The 3.7 oz batt is 98% Corriedale, 2% twinkle, in a blue-purple, light blue, and black – here it is, unrolled:

The first step was to divide it into three sections, for a 3-ply, so that each section had each of the three colors. I then split 2 of the sections into even thirds, based on the colors, and the last section was split into sixths based on colors. I split the sections based on weight.

The idea is a fractal ply, but because I am doing a 3-ply, I will do it so that 2 of the sections are the same color, and a third is changing. The middle is the part divided into six:

I finally finished spinning, plying, skeining and washing, and here’s what the finished result looks like:

I think a shawl is in order to show off the lovely and subtle color changes. This produced 284 yards of yarn at 12 wpi. I have an identical batt which I will spin the same way, and will knit with all of it to make a good-sized shawl.

When I think of gradient spinning, buy more about I think of starting with “gradient-dyed fiber” such as Fiber Optics’ gradient collection. Sadly, I have not yet gotten my hands on on of them yet. However, a fractal 3-ply attempt last year gave me the push to try a kind of gradient spinning.

I got a great batt from Fiber Stash back in April at the Wild and Woolly Weekend in Vermont. The 3.7 oz batt is 98% Corriedale, 2% twinkle, in a blue-purple, light blue, and black – here it is, unrolled:

The first step was to divide it into three sections, for a 3-ply, so that each section had each of the three colors. I then split 2 of the sections into even thirds, based on the colors, and the last section was split into sixths based on colors. The idea is a fractal ply, but because I am doing a 3-ply, I will do it so that 2 of the sections are the same color, and a third is changing. The middle is the part divided into six:

I finally finished spinning, plying, skeining and washing, and here’s what the finished result looks like:

I think a shawl is in order to show off the lovely color changes. This produced 284 yards of yarn at 12 wpi. I have an identical batt which I will spin the same way

It was very important that I write my previous post when I did – Wed 25 July – because the very next day, of the fun I had, but I’d also like to highlight the knitting I did.

I started knitting a Color Affection shawl, in some Novita Polku that I bought in Finland in May. I started the shawl the first day, which was mostly lounging around while we were in the port of Boston (where we all embarked) and then while the cruise ship was traveling. I continued the shawl on Friday 27 July, and then on Saturday 28 July we landed in the port of St. John’s, New Brunswick. I chose to take a bus to Fredericton, to see the city hall, learn some history, and visit Yarns on York to meet local knitters and take a class on Newfoundland Mittens, aka “Newfie Mitts”. I got a bit done, but I believe I will rip out what I’ve done, make it smaller, and do the “windows” in the multicolored black and the background/wrists in the green. Still, here’s the progress shot, even though this will be frogged later:

On Sunday, I chose to do one of the two classes offered at The Loop in Halifax. The class I chose was one on how to do thrummed mittens, and the instructor Mimi was amazing. I did not take the class for the Bermuda Scarf/shawl, but I heard that the 2nd class was not as great, probably due to the first class running very late and Mimi running out of steam (teaching 2 classes in one day is tough, and who knows if she even had time to eat!). Given that, I’m glad I did not stay for the 2nd class (I did buy the pattern and yarn for it, so I can make the shawl), and instead did a 10-mile bicycle tour of Halifax. At any rate, I did enjoy working on the thrummed mittens, and here is my progress (I haven’t done anything with it since that weekend):

And the inside looks like this:

I learned lots of great tips from Mimi, like using a wool with a lot of lanolin in it, so it’s “sticky” and holds the thrums in better.

There was a lot of knitting that weekend, and in the few weeks that followed. This past week I finished knitting Tony’s scarf, after having to spin more yarn and buy more on Cape Cod while helping a friend do the Pan-Mass Challenge at the beginning of August. I still have to finish the scarf by weaving in the ends and blocking it, but it’s finally the right length, and Tony will be able to use it this coming fall/winter.

I also finished the scarf I was weaving (the June Spunky Eclectic weaving club), but I still need to block it before taking a picture of it. A new weaving club for August is on its way, so I’ll have something new to warp soon.

I am not going on a plane until the end of September, and my next travel is scheduled for mid-September, around Rosh Hashanah – I will be going to the New York City area for 2 weekends (coming back to Boston for a wedding in between). I hope to finish the Color Affection Shawl soon, and get pictures of both it and the woven scarf before long.
It was very important that I write my previous post when I did – Wed 25 July – because the very next day, of the fun I had, but I’d also like to highlight the knitting I did.

I started knitting a Color Affection shawl, in some Novita Polku that I bought in Finland in May. I started the shawl the first day, which was mostly lounging around while we were in the port of Boston (where we all embarked) and then while the cruise ship was traveling. I continued the shawl on Friday 27 July, and then on Saturday 28 July we landed in the port of St. John’s, New Brunswick. I chose to take a bus to Fredericton, to see the city hall, learn some history, and visit Yarns on York to meet local knitters and take a class on Newfoundland Mittens, aka “Newfie Mitts”. I got a bit done, but I believe I will rip out what I’ve done, make it smaller, and do the “windows” in the multicolored black and the background/wrists in the green. Still, here’s the progress shot, even though this will be frogged later:

On Sunday, I chose to do one of the two classes offered at The Loop in Halifax. The class I chose was one on how to do thrummed mittens, and the instructor Mimi was amazing. I did not take the class for the Bermuda Scarf/shawl, but I heard that the 2nd class was not as great, probably due to the first class running very late and Mimi running out of steam (teaching 2 classes in one day is tough, and who knows if she even had time to eat!). Given that, I’m glad I did not stay for the 2nd class (I did buy the pattern and yarn for it, so I can make the shawl), and instead did a 10-mile bicycle tour of Halifax. At any rate, I did enjoy working on the thrummed mittens, and here is my progress (I haven’t done anything with it since that weekend):

And the inside looks like this:

I learned lots of great tips from Mimi, like using a wool with a lot of lanolin in it, so it’s “sticky” and holds the thrums in better.

There was a lot of knitting that weekend, and in the few weeks that followed. This past week I finished knitting Tony’s scarf, after having to spin more yarn and buy more on Cape Cod while helping a friend do the Pan-Mass Challenge at the beginning of August. I still have to finish the scarf by weaving in the ends and blocking it, but it’s finally the right length, and Tony will be able to use it this coming fall/winter.

I also finished the scarf I was weaving (the June Spunky Eclectic weaving club), but I still need to block it before taking a picture of it. A new weaving club for August is on its way, so I’ll have something new to warp soon.

I am not going on a plane until the end of September, and my next travel is scheduled for mid-September, around Rosh Hashanah – I will be going to the New York City area for 2 weekends (coming back to Boston for a wedding in between). I hope to finish the Color Affection Shawl soon, and get pictures of
So, online I mentioned in the last post that I had finished 2 objects – side effects and the June Spunky Eclectic Weaving Club, which I opted to do a table runner. It was my first experience with using a pick-up stick. I’m happy with how both came out (especially after ironing the scarf…I don’t even iron clothes!).

Crooked Little Tony scarf

Pick-up-sticks table runner

I’m thrilled with how drapey the table runner is. My only problem is that I have no idea what to do with it – it’s 33 inches by 22 inches. It’s too short for a scarf, but I don’t have an appropriate table to use it on. It’s a superwash merino/bamboo/viscose blend. Folded over a towel bar it’d make a very long kitchen or guest towel, I guess?

Any ideas?
So, , which I opted to do a table runner. It was my first experience with using a pick-up stick. I’m happy with how both came out (especially after ironing the scarf…I don’t even iron clothes!).

Crooked Little Tony scarf

Pick-up-sticks table runner

I’m thrilled with how drapey the table runner is. My only problem is that I have no idea what to do with it – it’s 33 inches by 22 inches. It’s too short for a scarf, but I don’t have an appropriate table to use it on. It’s a superwash merino/bamboo/viscose blend.
I am so excited about tonight’s Common Cod Fiber Guild Meeting featuring Pam Parmal of the Boston Museum of Fine Arts talking about the collection strategy for textiles and fashion. And since I last wrote, gonorrhea I have finished a few objects…..

The first is another Hoot Cardigan, this time made out of Universal Yarns Supreme Cotton Batik, that I picked up in Charlotte, North Carolina earlier this year. I love the Supreme Cotton line from Universal yarns, because it is super soft. Unfortunately, I have only been able to find it in LYS in North Carolina….I hear that is changing soon, though! Here’s the cardigan, made for a friend of mine who just had his first son:

And then there’s the August Weaving Club from Spunky Eclectic – cotton dishcloths! I did not follow the pattern; instead I tried out a herringbone/pinwheel pattern. It came out wonderfully!

I ended up making 2 towels, one a bit shorter because I ran out of warp, but here’s the shorter one hanging from a peg next to our sink (please excuse the dirty dishes and Guinness cans to be rinsed).

The bigger one is in constant use as Tony’s “potato cozy”. That’s not a euphemism, Tony eats a baked potato like one would eat an apple, whole and uncut. Because it’s hot, he uses a towel wrapped around it to hold it.

And finally, the pièce de résistance. This is a Color Affection Shawl that I made from 3 different skeins of Novita’s Polku yarn, which I acquired in Finland earlier this year.

Here’s a close-up shot of the ‘center’ of this assymmetrical shawl:

And a little zoomed out:

Here’s the full-size shot:

I also spun up a “fractal 3-ply” which I will write about next time.
I am so excited about tonight’s Common Cod Fiber Guild Meeting featuring Pam Parmal of the Boston Museum of Fine Arts talking about the collection strategy for textiles and fashion. And since I last wrote, condom I have finished a few objects…..

The first is another Hoot Cardigan, information pills this time made out of

And then there’s the August

The bigger one is in constant use as Tony’s “potato cozy”. That’s not a euphemism, Tony eats a baked potato like one would eat an apple, whole and uncut. Because it’s hot, he uses a towel wrapped around it to hold it.

And finally, the pièce de résistance. This is a Color Affection Shawl that I made from 3 different skeins of

And a little zoomed out:

Here’s the full-size shot:

After
I am so excited about tonight’s
Common Cod Fiber Guild Meeting featuring Pam Parmal of the Boston Museum of Fine Arts talking about the collection strategy for textiles and fashion. And since I last wrote, order I have finished a few objects…..

The first is another Hoot Cardigan, find this time made out of

And then there’s the August

The bigger one is in constant use as Tony’s “potato cozy”. That’s not a euphemism, Tony eats a baked potato like one would eat an apple, whole and uncut. Because it’s hot, he uses a towel wrapped around it to hold it.

And finally, the pièce de résistance. This is a Color Affection Shawl that I made from 3 different skeins of

And a little zoomed out:

Here’s the full-size shot:

I also spun up a “fractal 3-ply” which I will write about next time.
I am so excited about tonight’s
Common Cod Fiber Guild Meeting featuring Pam Parmal of the Boston Museum of Fine Arts talking about the collection strategy for textiles and fashion. And since I last wrote, more about I have finished a few objects…..

The first is another Hoot Cardigan, this time made out of Universal Yarns Supreme Cotton Batik, that I picked up in Charlotte, North Carolina earlier this year. I love the Supreme Cotton line from Universal yarns, because it is super soft. Unfortunately, I have only been able to find it in LYS in North Carolina….I hear that is changing soon, though! Here’s the cardigan, made for a friend of mine who just had his first son:

And then there’s the August Weaving Club from Spunky Eclectic – cotton dishcloths! I did not follow the pattern; instead I tried out a herringbone/pinwheel pattern. It came out wonderfully!

I ended up making 2 towels, one a bit shorter because I ran out of warp, but here’s the shorter one hanging from a peg next to our sink (please excuse the dirty dishes and Guinness cans to be rinsed).

The bigger one is in constant use as Tony’s “potato cozy”. That’s not a euphemism, Tony eats a baked potato like one would eat an apple, whole and uncut. Because it’s hot, he uses a towel wrapped around it to hold it.

And finally, the pièce de résistance. This is a Color Affection Shawl that I made from 3 different skeins of

And a little zoomed out:

Here’s the full-size shot:

I also spun up a “fractal 3-ply” which I will write about next time.
Buenos Aires has a span of a few blocks,
hospital not too far from the Malabia metro station* where there are many yarn shops, phthisiatrician I counted 15, and went into 11 of them before I had to stop. The shops are on Ave. Scalabrini Ortiz just southwest of Ave. Cordoba, towards Ave. Correintes. The Malabia metro station is on the corner of Correintes and Scalabrini Ortiz, which is 1 km away from the corner of Cordoba and Corrientes, and about half that until you see your first yarn shop. There was a small bit of yarn bombing between two of the stores:

Yarn shopping in Buenos Aires is quite different from what I’m used to in the States. The stores all look like this:

The yarn is beautiful, and well-organized, but there’s no signs as to what the yarn is made up of, how much it costs nor the gauge of the yarn. In addition, you’re not supposed to take the yarn out of the bins. If you look at the bottom right of that picture, you’ll see some white yarn and blue yarn that is actually sitting on top of a counter. That counter separates you from the wall, and there are people behind the counter who can help you get what you want.

So it’s very different from the experience I’m used to. I got the feeling that a lot of people knew exactly what they wanted to buy, or walked in and would say “do you have anything made of wool?” I was feeling a bit shy due to the language barrier, so I picked up a Spanish phrase: “solamente mirando” – it means “Just looking”. The people are friendly and willing to help, but I like the yarn buying process to be a solo activity.

There were 2 exceptions to the fact that most stores don’t give any information about their items.: Milana hilados and Yanabey. Milana hilados had tags like this near most of their yarn:

Note that that’s in Argentinian pesos, and at the time, this was less than USD $10 per 100g. Another thing to note is the price is per 100g, not per hank of yarn. You’d ask a sales associate to take the yarn down for you and they’d weigh it and ask you if that was OK (kind of like at the deli counter). Then they give you a slip of paper and you take it to a cash register, where you’re usually helped by someone else. Another interesting thing is that the stores seemed to be staffed by about half men, half women, which is very different from yarn stores in the States, which are probably about 90% staffed by women.

I bought 3 hanks of yarn there, for about $25:

Yanabey had signs like this:

These prices are still in Argentinian pesos, but they’re in kilos. So these prices are $171 for 1 kilo, which is $17.10 for 100g. This is a wall of “seda vegetal”, or “vegetable silk“. By the way, that’s about USD $35 per kilo. So I bought 6 skeins, which was just over a kilo, because the tree which this comes from (ceiba speciosa, or “silk floss tree”) is native to South America, and I haven’t seen “vegetable silk” in the US.

A lot of the stores have the recycled t-shirt yarn, and I bought some at Arte Natural:

BUTTONS!!!

I was thinking I might make a purse from the yarn, like this:

That purse is crocheted, but I’m sure I can come up with a knitted version.

Here’s what I bought from that store:

Here’s a Spanish primer for some important words:
cachemira – cashmere
acrílico – acrylic
lana – wool
seda – silk
alpaca – alpaca
hilo – yarn (plural: hilados)
Also, I found out that cashmerillo is just an acrylic yarn that’s very soft. Don’t be fooled by price, some of the acrylic yarns are *very* expensive, even more expensive than the wool.

I was very excited by the prospect of all these yarn stores, and after these three purchases I was done, and passed by 4 other yarn stores that I didn’t even walk into. In addition, there were at least 2 weaving stores, and another 2 fabric stores. Only one of the yarn stores had fiber to spin, and it looked like combed top, and was somewhat expensive (by US standards).

All in all, I was extremely satisfied by taking a few hours to shop for yarn, but I found the experience quite different from what I’m used to.

* I was instructed by a friend who had visited Buenos Aires to take a taxi to the corner of X and Y. However, I enjoy walking around and public transit, so I noticed the subway stop was not far, and decided to walk a few blocks. To those who are considering what to do, a taxi would have cost about 20 pesos (about USD $5) each way. The subway costs $5 for two rides, but of course is not door to door. Another thing to note about the subway is that it is not the most modern system:

And you will get plenty of people trying to make money – some play music, which you may be used to from other subway systems. Others will go around a subway car, handing out products, and then go around and either collect the product back or collect money. I was handed tissues and Disney books – or at least, they attempted to hand stuff to me, and I refused. It helped that I had knitting in my hands, but I saw them just place stuff on people’s laps if their hands were busy, so don’t just look away, make sure you actually refuse by shaking your head.

Note: I hope this article is helpful! Due to spam reasons, all articles on this site have comments disabled after a short time. If you want to leave feedback, you can tweet @sheeri or e-mail me at awfief at gmail dot com. (replace “at” with @ and
When I think of gradient spinning, visit I think of starting with “gradient-dyed fiber” such as Fiber Optics’ gradient collection. Sadly, I have not yet gotten my hands on on of them yet. However, a fractal 3-ply attempt last year gave me the push to try a kind of gradient spinning.

I got a great batt from Fiber Stash back in April at the Wild and Woolly Weekend in Vermont. The 3.7 oz batt is 98% Corriedale, 2% twinkle, in a blue-purple, light blue, and black – here it is, unrolled:

The first step was to divide it into three sections, for a 3-ply, so that each section had each of the three colors. I then split 2 of the sections into even thirds, based on the colors, and the last section was split into sixths based on colors. I split the sections based on weight.

The idea is a fractal ply, but because I am doing a 3-ply, I will do it so that 2 of the sections are the same color, and a third is changing. The middle is the part divided into six:

I finally finished spinning, plying, skeining and washing, and here’s what the finished result looks like:

I think a shawl is in order to show off the lovely and subtle color changes. This produced 284 yards of yarn at 12 wpi. I have an identical batt which I will spin the same way, and will knit with all of it to make a good-sized shawl.

When I think of gradient spinning, buy more about I think of starting with “gradient-dyed fiber” such as Fiber Optics’ gradient collection. Sadly, I have not yet gotten my hands on on of them yet. However, a fractal 3-ply attempt last year gave me the push to try a kind of gradient spinning.

I got a great batt from Fiber Stash back in April at the Wild and Woolly Weekend in Vermont. The 3.7 oz batt is 98% Corriedale, 2% twinkle, in a blue-purple, light blue, and black – here it is, unrolled:

The first step was to divide it into three sections, for a 3-ply, so that each section had each of the three colors. I then split 2 of the sections into even thirds, based on the colors, and the last section was split into sixths based on colors. The idea is a fractal ply, but because I am doing a 3-ply, I will do it so that 2 of the sections are the same color, and a third is changing. The middle is the part divided into six:

I finally finished spinning, plying, skeining and washing, and here’s what the finished result looks like:

I think a shawl is in order to show off the lovely color changes. This produced 284 yards of yarn at 12 wpi. I have an identical batt which I will spin the same way

Edited October 29, medicine 2012 – Unfortunately, ampoule Cat Bordhi has asked me to take the PDF instructions down. However, troche the same exact information is at the video I link to below, so you can still find the information you need.

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, 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.

It was very important that I write my previous post when I did – Wed 25 July – because the very next day, of the fun I had, but I’d also like to highlight the knitting I did.

I started knitting a Color Affection shawl, in some Novita Polku that I bought in Finland in May. I started the shawl the first day, which was mostly lounging around while we were in the port of Boston (where we all embarked) and then while the cruise ship was traveling. I continued the shawl on Friday 27 July, and then on Saturday 28 July we landed in the port of St. John’s, New Brunswick. I chose to take a bus to Fredericton, to see the city hall, learn some history, and visit Yarns on York to meet local knitters and take a class on Newfoundland Mittens, aka “Newfie Mitts”. I got a bit done, but I believe I will rip out what I’ve done, make it smaller, and do the “windows” in the multicolored black and the background/wrists in the green. Still, here’s the progress shot, even though this will be frogged later:

On Sunday, I chose to do one of the two classes offered at The Loop in Halifax. The class I chose was one on how to do thrummed mittens, and the instructor Mimi was amazing. I did not take the class for the Bermuda Scarf/shawl, but I heard that the 2nd class was not as great, probably due to the first class running very late and Mimi running out of steam (teaching 2 classes in one day is tough, and who knows if she even had time to eat!). Given that, I’m glad I did not stay for the 2nd class (I did buy the pattern and yarn for it, so I can make the shawl), and instead did a 10-mile bicycle tour of Halifax. At any rate, I did enjoy working on the thrummed mittens, and here is my progress (I haven’t done anything with it since that weekend):

And the inside looks like this:

I learned lots of great tips from Mimi, like using a wool with a lot of lanolin in it, so it’s “sticky” and holds the thrums in better.

There was a lot of knitting that weekend, and in the few weeks that followed. This past week I finished knitting Tony’s scarf, after having to spin more yarn and buy more on Cape Cod while helping a friend do the Pan-Mass Challenge at the beginning of August. I still have to finish the scarf by weaving in the ends and blocking it, but it’s finally the right length, and Tony will be able to use it this coming fall/winter.

I also finished the scarf I was weaving (the June Spunky Eclectic weaving club), but I still need to block it before taking a picture of it. A new weaving club for August is on its way, so I’ll have something new to warp soon.

I am not going on a plane until the end of September, and my next travel is scheduled for mid-September, around Rosh Hashanah – I will be going to the New York City area for 2 weekends (coming back to Boston for a wedding in between). I hope to finish the Color Affection Shawl soon, and get pictures of both it and the woven scarf before long.
It was very important that I write my previous post when I did – Wed 25 July – because the very next day, of the fun I had, but I’d also like to highlight the knitting I did.

I started knitting a Color Affection shawl, in some Novita Polku that I bought in Finland in May. I started the shawl the first day, which was mostly lounging around while we were in the port of Boston (where we all embarked) and then while the cruise ship was traveling. I continued the shawl on Friday 27 July, and then on Saturday 28 July we landed in the port of St. John’s, New Brunswick. I chose to take a bus to Fredericton, to see the city hall, learn some history, and visit Yarns on York to meet local knitters and take a class on Newfoundland Mittens, aka “Newfie Mitts”. I got a bit done, but I believe I will rip out what I’ve done, make it smaller, and do the “windows” in the multicolored black and the background/wrists in the green. Still, here’s the progress shot, even though this will be frogged later:

On Sunday, I chose to do one of the two classes offered at The Loop in Halifax. The class I chose was one on how to do thrummed mittens, and the instructor Mimi was amazing. I did not take the class for the Bermuda Scarf/shawl, but I heard that the 2nd class was not as great, probably due to the first class running very late and Mimi running out of steam (teaching 2 classes in one day is tough, and who knows if she even had time to eat!). Given that, I’m glad I did not stay for the 2nd class (I did buy the pattern and yarn for it, so I can make the shawl), and instead did a 10-mile bicycle tour of Halifax. At any rate, I did enjoy working on the thrummed mittens, and here is my progress (I haven’t done anything with it since that weekend):

And the inside looks like this:

I learned lots of great tips from Mimi, like using a wool with a lot of lanolin in it, so it’s “sticky” and holds the thrums in better.

There was a lot of knitting that weekend, and in the few weeks that followed. This past week I finished knitting Tony’s scarf, after having to spin more yarn and buy more on Cape Cod while helping a friend do the Pan-Mass Challenge at the beginning of August. I still have to finish the scarf by weaving in the ends and blocking it, but it’s finally the right length, and Tony will be able to use it this coming fall/winter.

I also finished the scarf I was weaving (the June Spunky Eclectic weaving club), but I still need to block it before taking a picture of it. A new weaving club for August is on its way, so I’ll have something new to warp soon.

I am not going on a plane until the end of September, and my next travel is scheduled for mid-September, around Rosh Hashanah – I will be going to the New York City area for 2 weekends (coming back to Boston for a wedding in between). I hope to finish the Color Affection Shawl soon, and get pictures of
So, online I mentioned in the last post that I had finished 2 objects – side effects and the June Spunky Eclectic Weaving Club, which I opted to do a table runner. It was my first experience with using a pick-up stick. I’m happy with how both came out (especially after ironing the scarf…I don’t even iron clothes!).

Crooked Little Tony scarf

Pick-up-sticks table runner

I’m thrilled with how drapey the table runner is. My only problem is that I have no idea what to do with it – it’s 33 inches by 22 inches. It’s too short for a scarf, but I don’t have an appropriate table to use it on. It’s a superwash merino/bamboo/viscose blend. Folded over a towel bar it’d make a very long kitchen or guest towel, I guess?

Any ideas?
So, , which I opted to do a table runner. It was my first experience with using a pick-up stick. I’m happy with how both came out (especially after ironing the scarf…I don’t even iron clothes!).

Crooked Little Tony scarf

Pick-up-sticks table runner

I’m thrilled with how drapey the table runner is. My only problem is that I have no idea what to do with it – it’s 33 inches by 22 inches. It’s too short for a scarf, but I don’t have an appropriate table to use it on. It’s a superwash merino/bamboo/viscose blend.
I am so excited about tonight’s Common Cod Fiber Guild Meeting featuring Pam Parmal of the Boston Museum of Fine Arts talking about the collection strategy for textiles and fashion. And since I last wrote, gonorrhea I have finished a few objects…..

The first is another Hoot Cardigan, this time made out of Universal Yarns Supreme Cotton Batik, that I picked up in Charlotte, North Carolina earlier this year. I love the Supreme Cotton line from Universal yarns, because it is super soft. Unfortunately, I have only been able to find it in LYS in North Carolina….I hear that is changing soon, though! Here’s the cardigan, made for a friend of mine who just had his first son:

And then there’s the August Weaving Club from Spunky Eclectic – cotton dishcloths! I did not follow the pattern; instead I tried out a herringbone/pinwheel pattern. It came out wonderfully!

I ended up making 2 towels, one a bit shorter because I ran out of warp, but here’s the shorter one hanging from a peg next to our sink (please excuse the dirty dishes and Guinness cans to be rinsed).

The bigger one is in constant use as Tony’s “potato cozy”. That’s not a euphemism, Tony eats a baked potato like one would eat an apple, whole and uncut. Because it’s hot, he uses a towel wrapped around it to hold it.

And finally, the pièce de résistance. This is a Color Affection Shawl that I made from 3 different skeins of Novita’s Polku yarn, which I acquired in Finland earlier this year.

Here’s a close-up shot of the ‘center’ of this assymmetrical shawl:

And a little zoomed out:

Here’s the full-size shot:

I also spun up a “fractal 3-ply” which I will write about next time.
I am so excited about tonight’s Common Cod Fiber Guild Meeting featuring Pam Parmal of the Boston Museum of Fine Arts talking about the collection strategy for textiles and fashion. And since I last wrote, condom I have finished a few objects…..

The first is another Hoot Cardigan, information pills this time made out of

And then there’s the August

The bigger one is in constant use as Tony’s “potato cozy”. That’s not a euphemism, Tony eats a baked potato like one would eat an apple, whole and uncut. Because it’s hot, he uses a towel wrapped around it to hold it.

And finally, the pièce de résistance. This is a Color Affection Shawl that I made from 3 different skeins of

And a little zoomed out:

Here’s the full-size shot:

After
I am so excited about tonight’s
Common Cod Fiber Guild Meeting featuring Pam Parmal of the Boston Museum of Fine Arts talking about the collection strategy for textiles and fashion. And since I last wrote, order I have finished a few objects…..

The first is another Hoot Cardigan, find this time made out of

And then there’s the August

The bigger one is in constant use as Tony’s “potato cozy”. That’s not a euphemism, Tony eats a baked potato like one would eat an apple, whole and uncut. Because it’s hot, he uses a towel wrapped around it to hold it.

And finally, the pièce de résistance. This is a Color Affection Shawl that I made from 3 different skeins of

And a little zoomed out:

Here’s the full-size shot:

I also spun up a “fractal 3-ply” which I will write about next time.
I am so excited about tonight’s
Common Cod Fiber Guild Meeting featuring Pam Parmal of the Boston Museum of Fine Arts talking about the collection strategy for textiles and fashion. And since I last wrote, more about I have finished a few objects…..

The first is another Hoot Cardigan, this time made out of Universal Yarns Supreme Cotton Batik, that I picked up in Charlotte, North Carolina earlier this year. I love the Supreme Cotton line from Universal yarns, because it is super soft. Unfortunately, I have only been able to find it in LYS in North Carolina….I hear that is changing soon, though! Here’s the cardigan, made for a friend of mine who just had his first son:

And then there’s the August Weaving Club from Spunky Eclectic – cotton dishcloths! I did not follow the pattern; instead I tried out a herringbone/pinwheel pattern. It came out wonderfully!

I ended up making 2 towels, one a bit shorter because I ran out of warp, but here’s the shorter one hanging from a peg next to our sink (please excuse the dirty dishes and Guinness cans to be rinsed).

The bigger one is in constant use as Tony’s “potato cozy”. That’s not a euphemism, Tony eats a baked potato like one would eat an apple, whole and uncut. Because it’s hot, he uses a towel wrapped around it to hold it.

And finally, the pièce de résistance. This is a Color Affection Shawl that I made from 3 different skeins of

And a little zoomed out:

Here’s the full-size shot:

I also spun up a “fractal 3-ply” which I will write about next time.
Buenos Aires has a span of a few blocks,
hospital not too far from the Malabia metro station* where there are many yarn shops, phthisiatrician I counted 15, and went into 11 of them before I had to stop. The shops are on Ave. Scalabrini Ortiz just southwest of Ave. Cordoba, towards Ave. Correintes. The Malabia metro station is on the corner of Correintes and Scalabrini Ortiz, which is 1 km away from the corner of Cordoba and Corrientes, and about half that until you see your first yarn shop. There was a small bit of yarn bombing between two of the stores:

Yarn shopping in Buenos Aires is quite different from what I’m used to in the States. The stores all look like this:

The yarn is beautiful, and well-organized, but there’s no signs as to what the yarn is made up of, how much it costs nor the gauge of the yarn. In addition, you’re not supposed to take the yarn out of the bins. If you look at the bottom right of that picture, you’ll see some white yarn and blue yarn that is actually sitting on top of a counter. That counter separates you from the wall, and there are people behind the counter who can help you get what you want.

So it’s very different from the experience I’m used to. I got the feeling that a lot of people knew exactly what they wanted to buy, or walked in and would say “do you have anything made of wool?” I was feeling a bit shy due to the language barrier, so I picked up a Spanish phrase: “solamente mirando” – it means “Just looking”. The people are friendly and willing to help, but I like the yarn buying process to be a solo activity.

There were 2 exceptions to the fact that most stores don’t give any information about their items.: Milana hilados and Yanabey. Milana hilados had tags like this near most of their yarn:

Note that that’s in Argentinian pesos, and at the time, this was less than USD $10 per 100g. Another thing to note is the price is per 100g, not per hank of yarn. You’d ask a sales associate to take the yarn down for you and they’d weigh it and ask you if that was OK (kind of like at the deli counter). Then they give you a slip of paper and you take it to a cash register, where you’re usually helped by someone else. Another interesting thing is that the stores seemed to be staffed by about half men, half women, which is very different from yarn stores in the States, which are probably about 90% staffed by women.

I bought 3 hanks of yarn there, for about $25:

Yanabey had signs like this:

These prices are still in Argentinian pesos, but they’re in kilos. So these prices are $171 for 1 kilo, which is $17.10 for 100g. This is a wall of “seda vegetal”, or “vegetable silk“. By the way, that’s about USD $35 per kilo. So I bought 6 skeins, which was just over a kilo, because the tree which this comes from (ceiba speciosa, or “silk floss tree”) is native to South America, and I haven’t seen “vegetable silk” in the US.

A lot of the stores have the recycled t-shirt yarn, and I bought some at Arte Natural:

BUTTONS!!!

I was thinking I might make a purse from the yarn, like this:

That purse is crocheted, but I’m sure I can come up with a knitted version.

Here’s what I bought from that store:

Here’s a Spanish primer for some important words:
cachemira – cashmere
acrílico – acrylic
lana – wool
seda – silk
alpaca – alpaca
hilo – yarn (plural: hilados)
Also, I found out that cashmerillo is just an acrylic yarn that’s very soft. Don’t be fooled by price, some of the acrylic yarns are *very* expensive, even more expensive than the wool.

I was very excited by the prospect of all these yarn stores, and after these three purchases I was done, and passed by 4 other yarn stores that I didn’t even walk into. In addition, there were at least 2 weaving stores, and another 2 fabric stores. Only one of the yarn stores had fiber to spin, and it looked like combed top, and was somewhat expensive (by US standards).

All in all, I was extremely satisfied by taking a few hours to shop for yarn, but I found the experience quite different from what I’m used to.

* I was instructed by a friend who had visited Buenos Aires to take a taxi to the corner of X and Y. However, I enjoy walking around and public transit, so I noticed the subway stop was not far, and decided to walk a few blocks. To those who are considering what to do, a taxi would have cost about 20 pesos (about USD $5) each way. The subway costs $5 for two rides, but of course is not door to door. Another thing to note about the subway is that it is not the most modern system:

And you will get plenty of people trying to make money – some play music, which you may be used to from other subway systems. Others will go around a subway car, handing out products, and then go around and either collect the product back or collect money. I was handed tissues and Disney books – or at least, they attempted to hand stuff to me, and I refused. It helped that I had knitting in my hands, but I saw them just place stuff on people’s laps if their hands were busy, so don’t just look away, make sure you actually refuse by shaking your head.

Note: I hope this article is helpful! Due to spam reasons, all articles on this site have comments disabled after a short time. If you want to leave feedback, you can tweet @sheeri or e-mail me at awfief at gmail dot com. (replace “at” with @ and
When I think of gradient spinning, visit I think of starting with “gradient-dyed fiber” such as Fiber Optics’ gradient collection. Sadly, I have not yet gotten my hands on on of them yet. However, a fractal 3-ply attempt last year gave me the push to try a kind of gradient spinning.

I got a great batt from Fiber Stash back in April at the Wild and Woolly Weekend in Vermont. The 3.7 oz batt is 98% Corriedale, 2% twinkle, in a blue-purple, light blue, and black – here it is, unrolled:

The first step was to divide it into three sections, for a 3-ply, so that each section had each of the three colors. I then split 2 of the sections into even thirds, based on the colors, and the last section was split into sixths based on colors. I split the sections based on weight.

The idea is a fractal ply, but because I am doing a 3-ply, I will do it so that 2 of the sections are the same color, and a third is changing. The middle is the part divided into six:

I finally finished spinning, plying, skeining and washing, and here’s what the finished result looks like:

I think a shawl is in order to show off the lovely and subtle color changes. This produced 284 yards of yarn at 12 wpi. I have an identical batt which I will spin the same way, and will knit with all of it to make a good-sized shawl.

When I think of gradient spinning, buy more about I think of starting with “gradient-dyed fiber” such as Fiber Optics’ gradient collection. Sadly, I have not yet gotten my hands on on of them yet. However, a fractal 3-ply attempt last year gave me the push to try a kind of gradient spinning.

I got a great batt from Fiber Stash back in April at the Wild and Woolly Weekend in Vermont. The 3.7 oz batt is 98% Corriedale, 2% twinkle, in a blue-purple, light blue, and black – here it is, unrolled:

The first step was to divide it into three sections, for a 3-ply, so that each section had each of the three colors. I then split 2 of the sections into even thirds, based on the colors, and the last section was split into sixths based on colors. The idea is a fractal ply, but because I am doing a 3-ply, I will do it so that 2 of the sections are the same color, and a third is changing. The middle is the part divided into six:

I finally finished spinning, plying, skeining and washing, and here’s what the finished result looks like:

I think a shawl is in order to show off the lovely color changes. This produced 284 yards of yarn at 12 wpi. I have an identical batt which I will spin the same way

Edited October 29, medicine 2012 – Unfortunately, ampoule Cat Bordhi has asked me to take the PDF instructions down. However, troche the same exact information is at the video I link to below, so you can still find the information you need.

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, 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.

I taught this at FiberCamp this past weekend, view 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, 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.
It was very important that I write my previous post when I did – Wed 25 July – because the very next day, of the fun I had, but I’d also like to highlight the knitting I did.

I started knitting a Color Affection shawl, in some Novita Polku that I bought in Finland in May. I started the shawl the first day, which was mostly lounging around while we were in the port of Boston (where we all embarked) and then while the cruise ship was traveling. I continued the shawl on Friday 27 July, and then on Saturday 28 July we landed in the port of St. John’s, New Brunswick. I chose to take a bus to Fredericton, to see the city hall, learn some history, and visit Yarns on York to meet local knitters and take a class on Newfoundland Mittens, aka “Newfie Mitts”. I got a bit done, but I believe I will rip out what I’ve done, make it smaller, and do the “windows” in the multicolored black and the background/wrists in the green. Still, here’s the progress shot, even though this will be frogged later:

On Sunday, I chose to do one of the two classes offered at The Loop in Halifax. The class I chose was one on how to do thrummed mittens, and the instructor Mimi was amazing. I did not take the class for the Bermuda Scarf/shawl, but I heard that the 2nd class was not as great, probably due to the first class running very late and Mimi running out of steam (teaching 2 classes in one day is tough, and who knows if she even had time to eat!). Given that, I’m glad I did not stay for the 2nd class (I did buy the pattern and yarn for it, so I can make the shawl), and instead did a 10-mile bicycle tour of Halifax. At any rate, I did enjoy working on the thrummed mittens, and here is my progress (I haven’t done anything with it since that weekend):

And the inside looks like this:

I learned lots of great tips from Mimi, like using a wool with a lot of lanolin in it, so it’s “sticky” and holds the thrums in better.

There was a lot of knitting that weekend, and in the few weeks that followed. This past week I finished knitting Tony’s scarf, after having to spin more yarn and buy more on Cape Cod while helping a friend do the Pan-Mass Challenge at the beginning of August. I still have to finish the scarf by weaving in the ends and blocking it, but it’s finally the right length, and Tony will be able to use it this coming fall/winter.

I also finished the scarf I was weaving (the June Spunky Eclectic weaving club), but I still need to block it before taking a picture of it. A new weaving club for August is on its way, so I’ll have something new to warp soon.

I am not going on a plane until the end of September, and my next travel is scheduled for mid-September, around Rosh Hashanah – I will be going to the New York City area for 2 weekends (coming back to Boston for a wedding in between). I hope to finish the Color Affection Shawl soon, and get pictures of both it and the woven scarf before long.
It was very important that I write my previous post when I did – Wed 25 July – because the very next day, of the fun I had, but I’d also like to highlight the knitting I did.

I started knitting a Color Affection shawl, in some Novita Polku that I bought in Finland in May. I started the shawl the first day, which was mostly lounging around while we were in the port of Boston (where we all embarked) and then while the cruise ship was traveling. I continued the shawl on Friday 27 July, and then on Saturday 28 July we landed in the port of St. John’s, New Brunswick. I chose to take a bus to Fredericton, to see the city hall, learn some history, and visit Yarns on York to meet local knitters and take a class on Newfoundland Mittens, aka “Newfie Mitts”. I got a bit done, but I believe I will rip out what I’ve done, make it smaller, and do the “windows” in the multicolored black and the background/wrists in the green. Still, here’s the progress shot, even though this will be frogged later:

On Sunday, I chose to do one of the two classes offered at The Loop in Halifax. The class I chose was one on how to do thrummed mittens, and the instructor Mimi was amazing. I did not take the class for the Bermuda Scarf/shawl, but I heard that the 2nd class was not as great, probably due to the first class running very late and Mimi running out of steam (teaching 2 classes in one day is tough, and who knows if she even had time to eat!). Given that, I’m glad I did not stay for the 2nd class (I did buy the pattern and yarn for it, so I can make the shawl), and instead did a 10-mile bicycle tour of Halifax. At any rate, I did enjoy working on the thrummed mittens, and here is my progress (I haven’t done anything with it since that weekend):

And the inside looks like this:

I learned lots of great tips from Mimi, like using a wool with a lot of lanolin in it, so it’s “sticky” and holds the thrums in better.

There was a lot of knitting that weekend, and in the few weeks that followed. This past week I finished knitting Tony’s scarf, after having to spin more yarn and buy more on Cape Cod while helping a friend do the Pan-Mass Challenge at the beginning of August. I still have to finish the scarf by weaving in the ends and blocking it, but it’s finally the right length, and Tony will be able to use it this coming fall/winter.

I also finished the scarf I was weaving (the June Spunky Eclectic weaving club), but I still need to block it before taking a picture of it. A new weaving club for August is on its way, so I’ll have something new to warp soon.

I am not going on a plane until the end of September, and my next travel is scheduled for mid-September, around Rosh Hashanah – I will be going to the New York City area for 2 weekends (coming back to Boston for a wedding in between). I hope to finish the Color Affection Shawl soon, and get pictures of
So, online I mentioned in the last post that I had finished 2 objects – side effects and the June Spunky Eclectic Weaving Club, which I opted to do a table runner. It was my first experience with using a pick-up stick. I’m happy with how both came out (especially after ironing the scarf…I don’t even iron clothes!).

Crooked Little Tony scarf

Pick-up-sticks table runner

I’m thrilled with how drapey the table runner is. My only problem is that I have no idea what to do with it – it’s 33 inches by 22 inches. It’s too short for a scarf, but I don’t have an appropriate table to use it on. It’s a superwash merino/bamboo/viscose blend. Folded over a towel bar it’d make a very long kitchen or guest towel, I guess?

Any ideas?
So, , which I opted to do a table runner. It was my first experience with using a pick-up stick. I’m happy with how both came out (especially after ironing the scarf…I don’t even iron clothes!).

Crooked Little Tony scarf

Pick-up-sticks table runner

I’m thrilled with how drapey the table runner is. My only problem is that I have no idea what to do with it – it’s 33 inches by 22 inches. It’s too short for a scarf, but I don’t have an appropriate table to use it on. It’s a superwash merino/bamboo/viscose blend.
I am so excited about tonight’s Common Cod Fiber Guild Meeting featuring Pam Parmal of the Boston Museum of Fine Arts talking about the collection strategy for textiles and fashion. And since I last wrote, gonorrhea I have finished a few objects…..

The first is another Hoot Cardigan, this time made out of Universal Yarns Supreme Cotton Batik, that I picked up in Charlotte, North Carolina earlier this year. I love the Supreme Cotton line from Universal yarns, because it is super soft. Unfortunately, I have only been able to find it in LYS in North Carolina….I hear that is changing soon, though! Here’s the cardigan, made for a friend of mine who just had his first son:

And then there’s the August Weaving Club from Spunky Eclectic – cotton dishcloths! I did not follow the pattern; instead I tried out a herringbone/pinwheel pattern. It came out wonderfully!

I ended up making 2 towels, one a bit shorter because I ran out of warp, but here’s the shorter one hanging from a peg next to our sink (please excuse the dirty dishes and Guinness cans to be rinsed).

The bigger one is in constant use as Tony’s “potato cozy”. That’s not a euphemism, Tony eats a baked potato like one would eat an apple, whole and uncut. Because it’s hot, he uses a towel wrapped around it to hold it.

And finally, the pièce de résistance. This is a Color Affection Shawl that I made from 3 different skeins of Novita’s Polku yarn, which I acquired in Finland earlier this year.

Here’s a close-up shot of the ‘center’ of this assymmetrical shawl:

And a little zoomed out:

Here’s the full-size shot:

I also spun up a “fractal 3-ply” which I will write about next time.
I am so excited about tonight’s Common Cod Fiber Guild Meeting featuring Pam Parmal of the Boston Museum of Fine Arts talking about the collection strategy for textiles and fashion. And since I last wrote, condom I have finished a few objects…..

The first is another Hoot Cardigan, information pills this time made out of

And then there’s the August

The bigger one is in constant use as Tony’s “potato cozy”. That’s not a euphemism, Tony eats a baked potato like one would eat an apple, whole and uncut. Because it’s hot, he uses a towel wrapped around it to hold it.

And finally, the pièce de résistance. This is a Color Affection Shawl that I made from 3 different skeins of

And a little zoomed out:

Here’s the full-size shot:

After
I am so excited about tonight’s
Common Cod Fiber Guild Meeting featuring Pam Parmal of the Boston Museum of Fine Arts talking about the collection strategy for textiles and fashion. And since I last wrote, order I have finished a few objects…..

The first is another Hoot Cardigan, find this time made out of

And then there’s the August

The bigger one is in constant use as Tony’s “potato cozy”. That’s not a euphemism, Tony eats a baked potato like one would eat an apple, whole and uncut. Because it’s hot, he uses a towel wrapped around it to hold it.

And finally, the pièce de résistance. This is a Color Affection Shawl that I made from 3 different skeins of

And a little zoomed out:

Here’s the full-size shot:

I also spun up a “fractal 3-ply” which I will write about next time.
I am so excited about tonight’s
Common Cod Fiber Guild Meeting featuring Pam Parmal of the Boston Museum of Fine Arts talking about the collection strategy for textiles and fashion. And since I last wrote, more about I have finished a few objects…..

The first is another Hoot Cardigan, this time made out of Universal Yarns Supreme Cotton Batik, that I picked up in Charlotte, North Carolina earlier this year. I love the Supreme Cotton line from Universal yarns, because it is super soft. Unfortunately, I have only been able to find it in LYS in North Carolina….I hear that is changing soon, though! Here’s the cardigan, made for a friend of mine who just had his first son:

And then there’s the August Weaving Club from Spunky Eclectic – cotton dishcloths! I did not follow the pattern; instead I tried out a herringbone/pinwheel pattern. It came out wonderfully!

I ended up making 2 towels, one a bit shorter because I ran out of warp, but here’s the shorter one hanging from a peg next to our sink (please excuse the dirty dishes and Guinness cans to be rinsed).

The bigger one is in constant use as Tony’s “potato cozy”. That’s not a euphemism, Tony eats a baked potato like one would eat an apple, whole and uncut. Because it’s hot, he uses a towel wrapped around it to hold it.

And finally, the pièce de résistance. This is a Color Affection Shawl that I made from 3 different skeins of

And a little zoomed out:

Here’s the full-size shot:

I also spun up a “fractal 3-ply” which I will write about next time.
Buenos Aires has a span of a few blocks,
hospital not too far from the Malabia metro station* where there are many yarn shops, phthisiatrician I counted 15, and went into 11 of them before I had to stop. The shops are on Ave. Scalabrini Ortiz just southwest of Ave. Cordoba, towards Ave. Correintes. The Malabia metro station is on the corner of Correintes and Scalabrini Ortiz, which is 1 km away from the corner of Cordoba and Corrientes, and about half that until you see your first yarn shop. There was a small bit of yarn bombing between two of the stores:

Yarn shopping in Buenos Aires is quite different from what I’m used to in the States. The stores all look like this:

The yarn is beautiful, and well-organized, but there’s no signs as to what the yarn is made up of, how much it costs nor the gauge of the yarn. In addition, you’re not supposed to take the yarn out of the bins. If you look at the bottom right of that picture, you’ll see some white yarn and blue yarn that is actually sitting on top of a counter. That counter separates you from the wall, and there are people behind the counter who can help you get what you want.

So it’s very different from the experience I’m used to. I got the feeling that a lot of people knew exactly what they wanted to buy, or walked in and would say “do you have anything made of wool?” I was feeling a bit shy due to the language barrier, so I picked up a Spanish phrase: “solamente mirando” – it means “Just looking”. The people are friendly and willing to help, but I like the yarn buying process to be a solo activity.

There were 2 exceptions to the fact that most stores don’t give any information about their items.: Milana hilados and Yanabey. Milana hilados had tags like this near most of their yarn:

Note that that’s in Argentinian pesos, and at the time, this was less than USD $10 per 100g. Another thing to note is the price is per 100g, not per hank of yarn. You’d ask a sales associate to take the yarn down for you and they’d weigh it and ask you if that was OK (kind of like at the deli counter). Then they give you a slip of paper and you take it to a cash register, where you’re usually helped by someone else. Another interesting thing is that the stores seemed to be staffed by about half men, half women, which is very different from yarn stores in the States, which are probably about 90% staffed by women.

I bought 3 hanks of yarn there, for about $25:

Yanabey had signs like this:

These prices are still in Argentinian pesos, but they’re in kilos. So these prices are $171 for 1 kilo, which is $17.10 for 100g. This is a wall of “seda vegetal”, or “vegetable silk“. By the way, that’s about USD $35 per kilo. So I bought 6 skeins, which was just over a kilo, because the tree which this comes from (ceiba speciosa, or “silk floss tree”) is native to South America, and I haven’t seen “vegetable silk” in the US.

A lot of the stores have the recycled t-shirt yarn, and I bought some at Arte Natural:

BUTTONS!!!

I was thinking I might make a purse from the yarn, like this:

That purse is crocheted, but I’m sure I can come up with a knitted version.

Here’s what I bought from that store:

Here’s a Spanish primer for some important words:
cachemira – cashmere
acrílico – acrylic
lana – wool
seda – silk
alpaca – alpaca
hilo – yarn (plural: hilados)
Also, I found out that cashmerillo is just an acrylic yarn that’s very soft. Don’t be fooled by price, some of the acrylic yarns are *very* expensive, even more expensive than the wool.

I was very excited by the prospect of all these yarn stores, and after these three purchases I was done, and passed by 4 other yarn stores that I didn’t even walk into. In addition, there were at least 2 weaving stores, and another 2 fabric stores. Only one of the yarn stores had fiber to spin, and it looked like combed top, and was somewhat expensive (by US standards).

All in all, I was extremely satisfied by taking a few hours to shop for yarn, but I found the experience quite different from what I’m used to.

* I was instructed by a friend who had visited Buenos Aires to take a taxi to the corner of X and Y. However, I enjoy walking around and public transit, so I noticed the subway stop was not far, and decided to walk a few blocks. To those who are considering what to do, a taxi would have cost about 20 pesos (about USD $5) each way. The subway costs $5 for two rides, but of course is not door to door. Another thing to note about the subway is that it is not the most modern system:

And you will get plenty of people trying to make money – some play music, which you may be used to from other subway systems. Others will go around a subway car, handing out products, and then go around and either collect the product back or collect money. I was handed tissues and Disney books – or at least, they attempted to hand stuff to me, and I refused. It helped that I had knitting in my hands, but I saw them just place stuff on people’s laps if their hands were busy, so don’t just look away, make sure you actually refuse by shaking your head.

Note: I hope this article is helpful! Due to spam reasons, all articles on this site have comments disabled after a short time. If you want to leave feedback, you can tweet @sheeri or e-mail me at awfief at gmail dot com. (replace “at” with @ and
When I think of gradient spinning, visit I think of starting with “gradient-dyed fiber” such as Fiber Optics’ gradient collection. Sadly, I have not yet gotten my hands on on of them yet. However, a fractal 3-ply attempt last year gave me the push to try a kind of gradient spinning.

I got a great batt from Fiber Stash back in April at the Wild and Woolly Weekend in Vermont. The 3.7 oz batt is 98% Corriedale, 2% twinkle, in a blue-purple, light blue, and black – here it is, unrolled:

The first step was to divide it into three sections, for a 3-ply, so that each section had each of the three colors. I then split 2 of the sections into even thirds, based on the colors, and the last section was split into sixths based on colors. I split the sections based on weight.

The idea is a fractal ply, but because I am doing a 3-ply, I will do it so that 2 of the sections are the same color, and a third is changing. The middle is the part divided into six:

I finally finished spinning, plying, skeining and washing, and here’s what the finished result looks like:

I think a shawl is in order to show off the lovely and subtle color changes. This produced 284 yards of yarn at 12 wpi. I have an identical batt which I will spin the same way, and will knit with all of it to make a good-sized shawl.

When I think of gradient spinning, buy more about I think of starting with “gradient-dyed fiber” such as Fiber Optics’ gradient collection. Sadly, I have not yet gotten my hands on on of them yet. However, a fractal 3-ply attempt last year gave me the push to try a kind of gradient spinning.

I got a great batt from Fiber Stash back in April at the Wild and Woolly Weekend in Vermont. The 3.7 oz batt is 98% Corriedale, 2% twinkle, in a blue-purple, light blue, and black – here it is, unrolled:

The first step was to divide it into three sections, for a 3-ply, so that each section had each of the three colors. I then split 2 of the sections into even thirds, based on the colors, and the last section was split into sixths based on colors. The idea is a fractal ply, but because I am doing a 3-ply, I will do it so that 2 of the sections are the same color, and a third is changing. The middle is the part divided into six:

I finally finished spinning, plying, skeining and washing, and here’s what the finished result looks like:

I think a shawl is in order to show off the lovely color changes. This produced 284 yards of yarn at 12 wpi. I have an identical batt which I will spin the same way

Edited October 29, medicine 2012 – Unfortunately, ampoule Cat Bordhi has asked me to take the PDF instructions down. However, troche the same exact information is at the video I link to below, so you can still find the information you need.

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, 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.

I taught this at FiberCamp this past weekend, view 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, 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.
It’s been a while since I last wrote. 2 months and 2 weeks, not at all! There has been a lot of travel, and not a ton of knitting…..but there has been some.

The first adventure I had after the last post was completely unexpected. I was at a conference in St. Paul, Minnesota, and I was reading a blog post by Stephanie Pearl McPhee where she mentioned flying from California to Minnesota. At first I thought “how cool, soon I’ll be flying from St. Paul to California!” and then I wondered, “will we overlap in the Twin Cities?” (If you don’t know, those cities border each other.)

The answer, my friends, is yes, and this happened at Steven Be:
Stephanie blesses my sock

Steven was absolutely fabulous and was in full force that day. The yarn shop has yarn and knitted things everywhere. I loved it from a chaotic good perspective. I bought some sock yarn and some sock needles, and immediately started in on a sock. And I had Stephanie sign some books, of course.

The next adventure I had was when I found the Mass Ave Knit Shop in Indianapolis. It was about half a mile from the hotel I was staying at, and I spent several hours there on a Saturday before leaving for the airport. I picked up some plain white yarn (purpose to be revealed later) and knit for several hours….though at this point I cannot remember what I was knitting! For arguments’ sake, let’s say I was knitting a pattern from Jeri, a fellow Common Cod Fiber Guild member, which she showed at Show and Tell during our September meeting. The pattern is called “Vestboro”, and this is how far I got as of mid-October, so it’s a pretty good bet to say that’s what I was working on:

Vestboro center

The knit shop was large, and had tons of yarn! Due to all my travel this year, I have not been knitting and spinning as much as I used to. Last November I stopped being able to keep up with my monthly fiber club, and I stayed behind all year. Suffice it to say, I am overflowing with yarn and fiber….and so is my fiber room. So I am limiting my souvenir yarn…for now.

The knit shop was full of women knitting, and wonderful local donuts, and instead of souvenir yarn I bought myself an accordion-type box to store my dpns in by size. It was a great place to spend several hours knitting.

I attended Rhinebeck aka NY Sheep & Wool, where I acquired a Bernina 1230 sewing machine, circa 1989–1998. I haven’t yet started playing with it, as I have been WAY too busy with other things – Halloween crafts, holiday gift knitting, and test knitting! At Rhinebeck I took 2 classes – a spinning class with Abby Franquemont (I can cross that off the bucket list now!) and a dyeing class with Gail Callahan, the Kangaroo Dyer, in which I learned a ton about dyeing and made this beautiful rainbow:

my rainbow of dyeing

I did not knit for much of September and October because I was doing other crafty things – specifically, I was hand-sewing my Halloween costume – Sally from the Nightmare Before Christmas. It came out better than I expected, which was great, because it was for an awesome wedding:

Julia as a nurse and me as Sally, from the Nightmare Before Christmas

And yes, I also knit the wig.

In November I was test knitting. And test knitting. And test knitting. I will show you pictures once they are public, but for now, things remain secret.

I took a mitten class at Mind’s Eye Yarns and still have not finished knitting the first mitten, much less the second mitten. But I learned a few good tips along the way and am excited to use them.

Remember that white yarn I bought in Indianapolis? It was for some classes with Lucy Neatby, who is chock-full of amazing tips and tricks for knitting. I filled out a wishlist with stuff I want, from patterns to DVDs. Lucy is fun, smart and easy to learn from. I took three classes with her – buttonholes, finishing, and socks. Her handouts are invaluable. I took time off work and spent a pretty penny to learn from Lucy, and I would do it again in a heartbeat. She’s THAT good.

And then it was December…..the test knitting was finally finished, and then it was time to knit gifts! I knit hats for my brother-in-law and his wife (in grey and red Ushya yarn), and I did not, sadly, take any pictures of those hats. I also knit a hat for my mother-in-law in green, and again, no pictures. I do have pictures of the tiny slightly felted purse I made for my aunt-in-law (using handspun Portuguese Merino in the “A Bug’s Life” colorway) and the DNA scarf I made for my father-in-law out of Kauni (that I bought while in Halifax on my knitting cruise in July):

Felted wallet

DNA Scarf

And then during and after Christmas I knit 2 chemo caps for a cousin-in-law – one was brown and one was black with sequins (so she’d have “evening hair”) – here’s a pic of me modeling the brown one:

fun fur hat in brown

So with all that done, I have started spinning again….although I find I cannot spin for hours like I used to. I’ll have to work up to that again. In the meantime, I’ve been spinning an hour or two at a time in the evenings, and yesterday I took a break to knit myself the Mind’s Eye Yarns free Waffle Stitch Hat pattern, so I could finally have a hat for myself:

my hat!

It was super-quick to knit, and I love it!

Fractal 3-ply: A “gradient spin”

It was very important that I write my previous post when I did – Wed 25 July – because the very next day, of the fun I had, but I’d also like to highlight the knitting I did.

I started knitting a Color Affection shawl, in some Novita Polku that I bought in Finland in May. I started the shawl the first day, which was mostly lounging around while we were in the port of Boston (where we all embarked) and then while the cruise ship was traveling. I continued the shawl on Friday 27 July, and then on Saturday 28 July we landed in the port of St. John’s, New Brunswick. I chose to take a bus to Fredericton, to see the city hall, learn some history, and visit Yarns on York to meet local knitters and take a class on Newfoundland Mittens, aka “Newfie Mitts”. I got a bit done, but I believe I will rip out what I’ve done, make it smaller, and do the “windows” in the multicolored black and the background/wrists in the green. Still, here’s the progress shot, even though this will be frogged later:

On Sunday, I chose to do one of the two classes offered at The Loop in Halifax. The class I chose was one on how to do thrummed mittens, and the instructor Mimi was amazing. I did not take the class for the Bermuda Scarf/shawl, but I heard that the 2nd class was not as great, probably due to the first class running very late and Mimi running out of steam (teaching 2 classes in one day is tough, and who knows if she even had time to eat!). Given that, I’m glad I did not stay for the 2nd class (I did buy the pattern and yarn for it, so I can make the shawl), and instead did a 10-mile bicycle tour of Halifax. At any rate, I did enjoy working on the thrummed mittens, and here is my progress (I haven’t done anything with it since that weekend):

And the inside looks like this:

I learned lots of great tips from Mimi, like using a wool with a lot of lanolin in it, so it’s “sticky” and holds the thrums in better.

There was a lot of knitting that weekend, and in the few weeks that followed. This past week I finished knitting Tony’s scarf, after having to spin more yarn and buy more on Cape Cod while helping a friend do the Pan-Mass Challenge at the beginning of August. I still have to finish the scarf by weaving in the ends and blocking it, but it’s finally the right length, and Tony will be able to use it this coming fall/winter.

I also finished the scarf I was weaving (the June Spunky Eclectic weaving club), but I still need to block it before taking a picture of it. A new weaving club for August is on its way, so I’ll have something new to warp soon.

I am not going on a plane until the end of September, and my next travel is scheduled for mid-September, around Rosh Hashanah – I will be going to the New York City area for 2 weekends (coming back to Boston for a wedding in between). I hope to finish the Color Affection Shawl soon, and get pictures of both it and the woven scarf before long.
It was very important that I write my previous post when I did – Wed 25 July – because the very next day, of the fun I had, but I’d also like to highlight the knitting I did.

I started knitting a Color Affection shawl, in some Novita Polku that I bought in Finland in May. I started the shawl the first day, which was mostly lounging around while we were in the port of Boston (where we all embarked) and then while the cruise ship was traveling. I continued the shawl on Friday 27 July, and then on Saturday 28 July we landed in the port of St. John’s, New Brunswick. I chose to take a bus to Fredericton, to see the city hall, learn some history, and visit Yarns on York to meet local knitters and take a class on Newfoundland Mittens, aka “Newfie Mitts”. I got a bit done, but I believe I will rip out what I’ve done, make it smaller, and do the “windows” in the multicolored black and the background/wrists in the green. Still, here’s the progress shot, even though this will be frogged later:

On Sunday, I chose to do one of the two classes offered at The Loop in Halifax. The class I chose was one on how to do thrummed mittens, and the instructor Mimi was amazing. I did not take the class for the Bermuda Scarf/shawl, but I heard that the 2nd class was not as great, probably due to the first class running very late and Mimi running out of steam (teaching 2 classes in one day is tough, and who knows if she even had time to eat!). Given that, I’m glad I did not stay for the 2nd class (I did buy the pattern and yarn for it, so I can make the shawl), and instead did a 10-mile bicycle tour of Halifax. At any rate, I did enjoy working on the thrummed mittens, and here is my progress (I haven’t done anything with it since that weekend):

And the inside looks like this:

I learned lots of great tips from Mimi, like using a wool with a lot of lanolin in it, so it’s “sticky” and holds the thrums in better.

There was a lot of knitting that weekend, and in the few weeks that followed. This past week I finished knitting Tony’s scarf, after having to spin more yarn and buy more on Cape Cod while helping a friend do the Pan-Mass Challenge at the beginning of August. I still have to finish the scarf by weaving in the ends and blocking it, but it’s finally the right length, and Tony will be able to use it this coming fall/winter.

I also finished the scarf I was weaving (the June Spunky Eclectic weaving club), but I still need to block it before taking a picture of it. A new weaving club for August is on its way, so I’ll have something new to warp soon.

I am not going on a plane until the end of September, and my next travel is scheduled for mid-September, around Rosh Hashanah – I will be going to the New York City area for 2 weekends (coming back to Boston for a wedding in between). I hope to finish the Color Affection Shawl soon, and get pictures of both it and the woven scarf before long.
It was very important that I write my previous post when I did – Wed 25 July – because the very next day, of the fun I had, but I’d also like to highlight the knitting I did.

I started knitting a Color Affection shawl, in some Novita Polku that I bought in Finland in May. I started the shawl the first day, which was mostly lounging around while we were in the port of Boston (where we all embarked) and then while the cruise ship was traveling. I continued the shawl on Friday 27 July, and then on Saturday 28 July we landed in the port of St. John’s, New Brunswick. I chose to take a bus to Fredericton, to see the city hall, learn some history, and visit Yarns on York to meet local knitters and take a class on Newfoundland Mittens, aka “Newfie Mitts”. I got a bit done, but I believe I will rip out what I’ve done, make it smaller, and do the “windows” in the multicolored black and the background/wrists in the green. Still, here’s the progress shot, even though this will be frogged later:

On Sunday, I chose to do one of the two classes offered at The Loop in Halifax. The class I chose was one on how to do thrummed mittens, and the instructor Mimi was amazing. I did not take the class for the Bermuda Scarf/shawl, but I heard that the 2nd class was not as great, probably due to the first class running very late and Mimi running out of steam (teaching 2 classes in one day is tough, and who knows if she even had time to eat!). Given that, I’m glad I did not stay for the 2nd class (I did buy the pattern and yarn for it, so I can make the shawl), and instead did a 10-mile bicycle tour of Halifax. At any rate, I did enjoy working on the thrummed mittens, and here is my progress (I haven’t done anything with it since that weekend):

And the inside looks like this:

I learned lots of great tips from Mimi, like using a wool with a lot of lanolin in it, so it’s “sticky” and holds the thrums in better.

There was a lot of knitting that weekend, and in the few weeks that followed. This past week I finished knitting Tony’s scarf, after having to spin more yarn and buy more on Cape Cod while helping a friend do the Pan-Mass Challenge at the beginning of August. I still have to finish the scarf by weaving in the ends and blocking it, but it’s finally the right length, and Tony will be able to use it this coming fall/winter.

I also finished the scarf I was weaving (the June Spunky Eclectic weaving club), but I still need to block it before taking a picture of it. A new weaving club for August is on its way, so I’ll have something new to warp soon.

I am not going on a plane until the end of September, and my next travel is scheduled for mid-September, around Rosh Hashanah – I will be going to the New York City area for 2 weekends (coming back to Boston for a wedding in between). I hope to finish the Color Affection Shawl soon, and get pictures of
It was very important that I write my previous post when I did – Wed 25 July – because the very next day, of the fun I had, but I’d also like to highlight the knitting I did.

I started knitting a Color Affection shawl, in some Novita Polku that I bought in Finland in May. I started the shawl the first day, which was mostly lounging around while we were in the port of Boston (where we all embarked) and then while the cruise ship was traveling. I continued the shawl on Friday 27 July, and then on Saturday 28 July we landed in the port of St. John’s, New Brunswick. I chose to take a bus to Fredericton, to see the city hall, learn some history, and visit Yarns on York to meet local knitters and take a class on Newfoundland Mittens, aka “Newfie Mitts”. I got a bit done, but I believe I will rip out what I’ve done, make it smaller, and do the “windows” in the multicolored black and the background/wrists in the green. Still, here’s the progress shot, even though this will be frogged later:

On Sunday, I chose to do one of the two classes offered at The Loop in Halifax. The class I chose was one on how to do thrummed mittens, and the instructor Mimi was amazing. I did not take the class for the Bermuda Scarf/shawl, but I heard that the 2nd class was not as great, probably due to the first class running very late and Mimi running out of steam (teaching 2 classes in one day is tough, and who knows if she even had time to eat!). Given that, I’m glad I did not stay for the 2nd class (I did buy the pattern and yarn for it, so I can make the shawl), and instead did a 10-mile bicycle tour of Halifax. At any rate, I did enjoy working on the thrummed mittens, and here is my progress (I haven’t done anything with it since that weekend):

And the inside looks like this:

I learned lots of great tips from Mimi, like using a wool with a lot of lanolin in it, so it’s “sticky” and holds the thrums in better.

There was a lot of knitting that weekend, and in the few weeks that followed. This past week I finished knitting Tony’s scarf, after having to spin more yarn and buy more on Cape Cod while helping a friend do the Pan-Mass Challenge at the beginning of August. I still have to finish the scarf by weaving in the ends and blocking it, but it’s finally the right length, and Tony will be able to use it this coming fall/winter.

I also finished the scarf I was weaving (the June Spunky Eclectic weaving club), but I still need to block it before taking a picture of it. A new weaving club for August is on its way, so I’ll have something new to warp soon.

I am not going on a plane until the end of September, and my next travel is scheduled for mid-September, around Rosh Hashanah – I will be going to the New York City area for 2 weekends (coming back to Boston for a wedding in between). I hope to finish the Color Affection Shawl soon, and get pictures of both it and the woven scarf before long.
It was very important that I write my previous post when I did – Wed 25 July – because the very next day, of the fun I had, but I’d also like to highlight the knitting I did.

I started knitting a Color Affection shawl, in some Novita Polku that I bought in Finland in May. I started the shawl the first day, which was mostly lounging around while we were in the port of Boston (where we all embarked) and then while the cruise ship was traveling. I continued the shawl on Friday 27 July, and then on Saturday 28 July we landed in the port of St. John’s, New Brunswick. I chose to take a bus to Fredericton, to see the city hall, learn some history, and visit Yarns on York to meet local knitters and take a class on Newfoundland Mittens, aka “Newfie Mitts”. I got a bit done, but I believe I will rip out what I’ve done, make it smaller, and do the “windows” in the multicolored black and the background/wrists in the green. Still, here’s the progress shot, even though this will be frogged later:

On Sunday, I chose to do one of the two classes offered at The Loop in Halifax. The class I chose was one on how to do thrummed mittens, and the instructor Mimi was amazing. I did not take the class for the Bermuda Scarf/shawl, but I heard that the 2nd class was not as great, probably due to the first class running very late and Mimi running out of steam (teaching 2 classes in one day is tough, and who knows if she even had time to eat!). Given that, I’m glad I did not stay for the 2nd class (I did buy the pattern and yarn for it, so I can make the shawl), and instead did a 10-mile bicycle tour of Halifax. At any rate, I did enjoy working on the thrummed mittens, and here is my progress (I haven’t done anything with it since that weekend):

And the inside looks like this:

I learned lots of great tips from Mimi, like using a wool with a lot of lanolin in it, so it’s “sticky” and holds the thrums in better.

There was a lot of knitting that weekend, and in the few weeks that followed. This past week I finished knitting Tony’s scarf, after having to spin more yarn and buy more on Cape Cod while helping a friend do the Pan-Mass Challenge at the beginning of August. I still have to finish the scarf by weaving in the ends and blocking it, but it’s finally the right length, and Tony will be able to use it this coming fall/winter.

I also finished the scarf I was weaving (the June Spunky Eclectic weaving club), but I still need to block it before taking a picture of it. A new weaving club for August is on its way, so I’ll have something new to warp soon.

I am not going on a plane until the end of September, and my next travel is scheduled for mid-September, around Rosh Hashanah – I will be going to the New York City area for 2 weekends (coming back to Boston for a wedding in between). I hope to finish the Color Affection Shawl soon, and get pictures of
So, online I mentioned in the last post that I had finished 2 objects – side effects and the June Spunky Eclectic Weaving Club, which I opted to do a table runner. It was my first experience with using a pick-up stick. I’m happy with how both came out (especially after ironing the scarf…I don’t even iron clothes!).

Crooked Little Tony scarf

Pick-up-sticks table runner

I’m thrilled with how drapey the table runner is. My only problem is that I have no idea what to do with it – it’s 33 inches by 22 inches. It’s too short for a scarf, but I don’t have an appropriate table to use it on. It’s a superwash merino/bamboo/viscose blend. Folded over a towel bar it’d make a very long kitchen or guest towel, I guess?

Any ideas?
It was very important that I write my previous post when I did – Wed 25 July – because the very next day, of the fun I had, but I’d also like to highlight the knitting I did.

I started knitting a Color Affection shawl, in some Novita Polku that I bought in Finland in May. I started the shawl the first day, which was mostly lounging around while we were in the port of Boston (where we all embarked) and then while the cruise ship was traveling. I continued the shawl on Friday 27 July, and then on Saturday 28 July we landed in the port of St. John’s, New Brunswick. I chose to take a bus to Fredericton, to see the city hall, learn some history, and visit Yarns on York to meet local knitters and take a class on Newfoundland Mittens, aka “Newfie Mitts”. I got a bit done, but I believe I will rip out what I’ve done, make it smaller, and do the “windows” in the multicolored black and the background/wrists in the green. Still, here’s the progress shot, even though this will be frogged later:

On Sunday, I chose to do one of the two classes offered at The Loop in Halifax. The class I chose was one on how to do thrummed mittens, and the instructor Mimi was amazing. I did not take the class for the Bermuda Scarf/shawl, but I heard that the 2nd class was not as great, probably due to the first class running very late and Mimi running out of steam (teaching 2 classes in one day is tough, and who knows if she even had time to eat!). Given that, I’m glad I did not stay for the 2nd class (I did buy the pattern and yarn for it, so I can make the shawl), and instead did a 10-mile bicycle tour of Halifax. At any rate, I did enjoy working on the thrummed mittens, and here is my progress (I haven’t done anything with it since that weekend):

And the inside looks like this:

I learned lots of great tips from Mimi, like using a wool with a lot of lanolin in it, so it’s “sticky” and holds the thrums in better.

There was a lot of knitting that weekend, and in the few weeks that followed. This past week I finished knitting Tony’s scarf, after having to spin more yarn and buy more on Cape Cod while helping a friend do the Pan-Mass Challenge at the beginning of August. I still have to finish the scarf by weaving in the ends and blocking it, but it’s finally the right length, and Tony will be able to use it this coming fall/winter.

I also finished the scarf I was weaving (the June Spunky Eclectic weaving club), but I still need to block it before taking a picture of it. A new weaving club for August is on its way, so I’ll have something new to warp soon.

I am not going on a plane until the end of September, and my next travel is scheduled for mid-September, around Rosh Hashanah – I will be going to the New York City area for 2 weekends (coming back to Boston for a wedding in between). I hope to finish the Color Affection Shawl soon, and get pictures of both it and the woven scarf before long.
It was very important that I write my previous post when I did – Wed 25 July – because the very next day, of the fun I had, but I’d also like to highlight the knitting I did.

I started knitting a Color Affection shawl, in some Novita Polku that I bought in Finland in May. I started the shawl the first day, which was mostly lounging around while we were in the port of Boston (where we all embarked) and then while the cruise ship was traveling. I continued the shawl on Friday 27 July, and then on Saturday 28 July we landed in the port of St. John’s, New Brunswick. I chose to take a bus to Fredericton, to see the city hall, learn some history, and visit Yarns on York to meet local knitters and take a class on Newfoundland Mittens, aka “Newfie Mitts”. I got a bit done, but I believe I will rip out what I’ve done, make it smaller, and do the “windows” in the multicolored black and the background/wrists in the green. Still, here’s the progress shot, even though this will be frogged later:

On Sunday, I chose to do one of the two classes offered at The Loop in Halifax. The class I chose was one on how to do thrummed mittens, and the instructor Mimi was amazing. I did not take the class for the Bermuda Scarf/shawl, but I heard that the 2nd class was not as great, probably due to the first class running very late and Mimi running out of steam (teaching 2 classes in one day is tough, and who knows if she even had time to eat!). Given that, I’m glad I did not stay for the 2nd class (I did buy the pattern and yarn for it, so I can make the shawl), and instead did a 10-mile bicycle tour of Halifax. At any rate, I did enjoy working on the thrummed mittens, and here is my progress (I haven’t done anything with it since that weekend):

And the inside looks like this:

I learned lots of great tips from Mimi, like using a wool with a lot of lanolin in it, so it’s “sticky” and holds the thrums in better.

There was a lot of knitting that weekend, and in the few weeks that followed. This past week I finished knitting Tony’s scarf, after having to spin more yarn and buy more on Cape Cod while helping a friend do the Pan-Mass Challenge at the beginning of August. I still have to finish the scarf by weaving in the ends and blocking it, but it’s finally the right length, and Tony will be able to use it this coming fall/winter.

I also finished the scarf I was weaving (the June Spunky Eclectic weaving club), but I still need to block it before taking a picture of it. A new weaving club for August is on its way, so I’ll have something new to warp soon.

I am not going on a plane until the end of September, and my next travel is scheduled for mid-September, around Rosh Hashanah – I will be going to the New York City area for 2 weekends (coming back to Boston for a wedding in between). I hope to finish the Color Affection Shawl soon, and get pictures of
So, online I mentioned in the last post that I had finished 2 objects – side effects and the June Spunky Eclectic Weaving Club, which I opted to do a table runner. It was my first experience with using a pick-up stick. I’m happy with how both came out (especially after ironing the scarf…I don’t even iron clothes!).

Crooked Little Tony scarf

Pick-up-sticks table runner

I’m thrilled with how drapey the table runner is. My only problem is that I have no idea what to do with it – it’s 33 inches by 22 inches. It’s too short for a scarf, but I don’t have an appropriate table to use it on. It’s a superwash merino/bamboo/viscose blend. Folded over a towel bar it’d make a very long kitchen or guest towel, I guess?

Any ideas?
So, , which I opted to do a table runner. It was my first experience with using a pick-up stick. I’m happy with how both came out (especially after ironing the scarf…I don’t even iron clothes!).

Crooked Little Tony scarf

Pick-up-sticks table runner

I’m thrilled with how drapey the table runner is. My only problem is that I have no idea what to do with it – it’s 33 inches by 22 inches. It’s too short for a scarf, but I don’t have an appropriate table to use it on. It’s a superwash merino/bamboo/viscose blend.
It was very important that I write my previous post when I did – Wed 25 July – because the very next day, of the fun I had, but I’d also like to highlight the knitting I did.

I started knitting a Color Affection shawl, in some Novita Polku that I bought in Finland in May. I started the shawl the first day, which was mostly lounging around while we were in the port of Boston (where we all embarked) and then while the cruise ship was traveling. I continued the shawl on Friday 27 July, and then on Saturday 28 July we landed in the port of St. John’s, New Brunswick. I chose to take a bus to Fredericton, to see the city hall, learn some history, and visit Yarns on York to meet local knitters and take a class on Newfoundland Mittens, aka “Newfie Mitts”. I got a bit done, but I believe I will rip out what I’ve done, make it smaller, and do the “windows” in the multicolored black and the background/wrists in the green. Still, here’s the progress shot, even though this will be frogged later:

On Sunday, I chose to do one of the two classes offered at The Loop in Halifax. The class I chose was one on how to do thrummed mittens, and the instructor Mimi was amazing. I did not take the class for the Bermuda Scarf/shawl, but I heard that the 2nd class was not as great, probably due to the first class running very late and Mimi running out of steam (teaching 2 classes in one day is tough, and who knows if she even had time to eat!). Given that, I’m glad I did not stay for the 2nd class (I did buy the pattern and yarn for it, so I can make the shawl), and instead did a 10-mile bicycle tour of Halifax. At any rate, I did enjoy working on the thrummed mittens, and here is my progress (I haven’t done anything with it since that weekend):

And the inside looks like this:

I learned lots of great tips from Mimi, like using a wool with a lot of lanolin in it, so it’s “sticky” and holds the thrums in better.

There was a lot of knitting that weekend, and in the few weeks that followed. This past week I finished knitting Tony’s scarf, after having to spin more yarn and buy more on Cape Cod while helping a friend do the Pan-Mass Challenge at the beginning of August. I still have to finish the scarf by weaving in the ends and blocking it, but it’s finally the right length, and Tony will be able to use it this coming fall/winter.

I also finished the scarf I was weaving (the June Spunky Eclectic weaving club), but I still need to block it before taking a picture of it. A new weaving club for August is on its way, so I’ll have something new to warp soon.

I am not going on a plane until the end of September, and my next travel is scheduled for mid-September, around Rosh Hashanah – I will be going to the New York City area for 2 weekends (coming back to Boston for a wedding in between). I hope to finish the Color Affection Shawl soon, and get pictures of both it and the woven scarf before long.
It was very important that I write my previous post when I did – Wed 25 July – because the very next day, of the fun I had, but I’d also like to highlight the knitting I did.

I started knitting a Color Affection shawl, in some Novita Polku that I bought in Finland in May. I started the shawl the first day, which was mostly lounging around while we were in the port of Boston (where we all embarked) and then while the cruise ship was traveling. I continued the shawl on Friday 27 July, and then on Saturday 28 July we landed in the port of St. John’s, New Brunswick. I chose to take a bus to Fredericton, to see the city hall, learn some history, and visit Yarns on York to meet local knitters and take a class on Newfoundland Mittens, aka “Newfie Mitts”. I got a bit done, but I believe I will rip out what I’ve done, make it smaller, and do the “windows” in the multicolored black and the background/wrists in the green. Still, here’s the progress shot, even though this will be frogged later:

On Sunday, I chose to do one of the two classes offered at The Loop in Halifax. The class I chose was one on how to do thrummed mittens, and the instructor Mimi was amazing. I did not take the class for the Bermuda Scarf/shawl, but I heard that the 2nd class was not as great, probably due to the first class running very late and Mimi running out of steam (teaching 2 classes in one day is tough, and who knows if she even had time to eat!). Given that, I’m glad I did not stay for the 2nd class (I did buy the pattern and yarn for it, so I can make the shawl), and instead did a 10-mile bicycle tour of Halifax. At any rate, I did enjoy working on the thrummed mittens, and here is my progress (I haven’t done anything with it since that weekend):

And the inside looks like this:

I learned lots of great tips from Mimi, like using a wool with a lot of lanolin in it, so it’s “sticky” and holds the thrums in better.

There was a lot of knitting that weekend, and in the few weeks that followed. This past week I finished knitting Tony’s scarf, after having to spin more yarn and buy more on Cape Cod while helping a friend do the Pan-Mass Challenge at the beginning of August. I still have to finish the scarf by weaving in the ends and blocking it, but it’s finally the right length, and Tony will be able to use it this coming fall/winter.

I also finished the scarf I was weaving (the June Spunky Eclectic weaving club), but I still need to block it before taking a picture of it. A new weaving club for August is on its way, so I’ll have something new to warp soon.

I am not going on a plane until the end of September, and my next travel is scheduled for mid-September, around Rosh Hashanah – I will be going to the New York City area for 2 weekends (coming back to Boston for a wedding in between). I hope to finish the Color Affection Shawl soon, and get pictures of
So, online I mentioned in the last post that I had finished 2 objects – side effects and the June Spunky Eclectic Weaving Club, which I opted to do a table runner. It was my first experience with using a pick-up stick. I’m happy with how both came out (especially after ironing the scarf…I don’t even iron clothes!).

Crooked Little Tony scarf

Pick-up-sticks table runner

I’m thrilled with how drapey the table runner is. My only problem is that I have no idea what to do with it – it’s 33 inches by 22 inches. It’s too short for a scarf, but I don’t have an appropriate table to use it on. It’s a superwash merino/bamboo/viscose blend. Folded over a towel bar it’d make a very long kitchen or guest towel, I guess?

Any ideas?
So, , which I opted to do a table runner. It was my first experience with using a pick-up stick. I’m happy with how both came out (especially after ironing the scarf…I don’t even iron clothes!).

Crooked Little Tony scarf

Pick-up-sticks table runner

I’m thrilled with how drapey the table runner is. My only problem is that I have no idea what to do with it – it’s 33 inches by 22 inches. It’s too short for a scarf, but I don’t have an appropriate table to use it on. It’s a superwash merino/bamboo/viscose blend.
I am so excited about tonight’s Common Cod Fiber Guild Meeting featuring Pam Parmal of the Boston Museum of Fine Arts talking about the collection strategy for textiles and fashion. And since I last wrote, gonorrhea I have finished a few objects…..

The first is another Hoot Cardigan, this time made out of Universal Yarns Supreme Cotton Batik, that I picked up in Charlotte, North Carolina earlier this year. I love the Supreme Cotton line from Universal yarns, because it is super soft. Unfortunately, I have only been able to find it in LYS in North Carolina….I hear that is changing soon, though! Here’s the cardigan, made for a friend of mine who just had his first son:

And then there’s the August Weaving Club from Spunky Eclectic – cotton dishcloths! I did not follow the pattern; instead I tried out a herringbone/pinwheel pattern. It came out wonderfully!

I ended up making 2 towels, one a bit shorter because I ran out of warp, but here’s the shorter one hanging from a peg next to our sink (please excuse the dirty dishes and Guinness cans to be rinsed).

The bigger one is in constant use as Tony’s “potato cozy”. That’s not a euphemism, Tony eats a baked potato like one would eat an apple, whole and uncut. Because it’s hot, he uses a towel wrapped around it to hold it.

And finally, the pièce de résistance. This is a Color Affection Shawl that I made from 3 different skeins of Novita’s Polku yarn, which I acquired in Finland earlier this year.

Here’s a close-up shot of the ‘center’ of this assymmetrical shawl:

And a little zoomed out:

Here’s the full-size shot:

I also spun up a “fractal 3-ply” which I will write about next time.
It was very important that I write my previous post when I did – Wed 25 July – because the very next day, of the fun I had, but I’d also like to highlight the knitting I did.

I started knitting a Color Affection shawl, in some Novita Polku that I bought in Finland in May. I started the shawl the first day, which was mostly lounging around while we were in the port of Boston (where we all embarked) and then while the cruise ship was traveling. I continued the shawl on Friday 27 July, and then on Saturday 28 July we landed in the port of St. John’s, New Brunswick. I chose to take a bus to Fredericton, to see the city hall, learn some history, and visit Yarns on York to meet local knitters and take a class on Newfoundland Mittens, aka “Newfie Mitts”. I got a bit done, but I believe I will rip out what I’ve done, make it smaller, and do the “windows” in the multicolored black and the background/wrists in the green. Still, here’s the progress shot, even though this will be frogged later:

On Sunday, I chose to do one of the two classes offered at The Loop in Halifax. The class I chose was one on how to do thrummed mittens, and the instructor Mimi was amazing. I did not take the class for the Bermuda Scarf/shawl, but I heard that the 2nd class was not as great, probably due to the first class running very late and Mimi running out of steam (teaching 2 classes in one day is tough, and who knows if she even had time to eat!). Given that, I’m glad I did not stay for the 2nd class (I did buy the pattern and yarn for it, so I can make the shawl), and instead did a 10-mile bicycle tour of Halifax. At any rate, I did enjoy working on the thrummed mittens, and here is my progress (I haven’t done anything with it since that weekend):

And the inside looks like this:

I learned lots of great tips from Mimi, like using a wool with a lot of lanolin in it, so it’s “sticky” and holds the thrums in better.

There was a lot of knitting that weekend, and in the few weeks that followed. This past week I finished knitting Tony’s scarf, after having to spin more yarn and buy more on Cape Cod while helping a friend do the Pan-Mass Challenge at the beginning of August. I still have to finish the scarf by weaving in the ends and blocking it, but it’s finally the right length, and Tony will be able to use it this coming fall/winter.

I also finished the scarf I was weaving (the June Spunky Eclectic weaving club), but I still need to block it before taking a picture of it. A new weaving club for August is on its way, so I’ll have something new to warp soon.

I am not going on a plane until the end of September, and my next travel is scheduled for mid-September, around Rosh Hashanah – I will be going to the New York City area for 2 weekends (coming back to Boston for a wedding in between). I hope to finish the Color Affection Shawl soon, and get pictures of both it and the woven scarf before long.
It was very important that I write my previous post when I did – Wed 25 July – because the very next day, of the fun I had, but I’d also like to highlight the knitting I did.

I started knitting a Color Affection shawl, in some Novita Polku that I bought in Finland in May. I started the shawl the first day, which was mostly lounging around while we were in the port of Boston (where we all embarked) and then while the cruise ship was traveling. I continued the shawl on Friday 27 July, and then on Saturday 28 July we landed in the port of St. John’s, New Brunswick. I chose to take a bus to Fredericton, to see the city hall, learn some history, and visit Yarns on York to meet local knitters and take a class on Newfoundland Mittens, aka “Newfie Mitts”. I got a bit done, but I believe I will rip out what I’ve done, make it smaller, and do the “windows” in the multicolored black and the background/wrists in the green. Still, here’s the progress shot, even though this will be frogged later:

On Sunday, I chose to do one of the two classes offered at The Loop in Halifax. The class I chose was one on how to do thrummed mittens, and the instructor Mimi was amazing. I did not take the class for the Bermuda Scarf/shawl, but I heard that the 2nd class was not as great, probably due to the first class running very late and Mimi running out of steam (teaching 2 classes in one day is tough, and who knows if she even had time to eat!). Given that, I’m glad I did not stay for the 2nd class (I did buy the pattern and yarn for it, so I can make the shawl), and instead did a 10-mile bicycle tour of Halifax. At any rate, I did enjoy working on the thrummed mittens, and here is my progress (I haven’t done anything with it since that weekend):

And the inside looks like this:

I learned lots of great tips from Mimi, like using a wool with a lot of lanolin in it, so it’s “sticky” and holds the thrums in better.

There was a lot of knitting that weekend, and in the few weeks that followed. This past week I finished knitting Tony’s scarf, after having to spin more yarn and buy more on Cape Cod while helping a friend do the Pan-Mass Challenge at the beginning of August. I still have to finish the scarf by weaving in the ends and blocking it, but it’s finally the right length, and Tony will be able to use it this coming fall/winter.

I also finished the scarf I was weaving (the June Spunky Eclectic weaving club), but I still need to block it before taking a picture of it. A new weaving club for August is on its way, so I’ll have something new to warp soon.

I am not going on a plane until the end of September, and my next travel is scheduled for mid-September, around Rosh Hashanah – I will be going to the New York City area for 2 weekends (coming back to Boston for a wedding in between). I hope to finish the Color Affection Shawl soon, and get pictures of
So, online I mentioned in the last post that I had finished 2 objects – side effects and the June Spunky Eclectic Weaving Club, which I opted to do a table runner. It was my first experience with using a pick-up stick. I’m happy with how both came out (especially after ironing the scarf…I don’t even iron clothes!).

Crooked Little Tony scarf

Pick-up-sticks table runner

I’m thrilled with how drapey the table runner is. My only problem is that I have no idea what to do with it – it’s 33 inches by 22 inches. It’s too short for a scarf, but I don’t have an appropriate table to use it on. It’s a superwash merino/bamboo/viscose blend. Folded over a towel bar it’d make a very long kitchen or guest towel, I guess?

Any ideas?
So, , which I opted to do a table runner. It was my first experience with using a pick-up stick. I’m happy with how both came out (especially after ironing the scarf…I don’t even iron clothes!).

Crooked Little Tony scarf

Pick-up-sticks table runner

I’m thrilled with how drapey the table runner is. My only problem is that I have no idea what to do with it – it’s 33 inches by 22 inches. It’s too short for a scarf, but I don’t have an appropriate table to use it on. It’s a superwash merino/bamboo/viscose blend.
I am so excited about tonight’s Common Cod Fiber Guild Meeting featuring Pam Parmal of the Boston Museum of Fine Arts talking about the collection strategy for textiles and fashion. And since I last wrote, gonorrhea I have finished a few objects…..

The first is another Hoot Cardigan, this time made out of Universal Yarns Supreme Cotton Batik, that I picked up in Charlotte, North Carolina earlier this year. I love the Supreme Cotton line from Universal yarns, because it is super soft. Unfortunately, I have only been able to find it in LYS in North Carolina….I hear that is changing soon, though! Here’s the cardigan, made for a friend of mine who just had his first son:

And then there’s the August Weaving Club from Spunky Eclectic – cotton dishcloths! I did not follow the pattern; instead I tried out a herringbone/pinwheel pattern. It came out wonderfully!

I ended up making 2 towels, one a bit shorter because I ran out of warp, but here’s the shorter one hanging from a peg next to our sink (please excuse the dirty dishes and Guinness cans to be rinsed).

The bigger one is in constant use as Tony’s “potato cozy”. That’s not a euphemism, Tony eats a baked potato like one would eat an apple, whole and uncut. Because it’s hot, he uses a towel wrapped around it to hold it.

And finally, the pièce de résistance. This is a Color Affection Shawl that I made from 3 different skeins of Novita’s Polku yarn, which I acquired in Finland earlier this year.

Here’s a close-up shot of the ‘center’ of this assymmetrical shawl:

And a little zoomed out:

Here’s the full-size shot:

I also spun up a “fractal 3-ply” which I will write about next time.
I am so excited about tonight’s Common Cod Fiber Guild Meeting featuring Pam Parmal of the Boston Museum of Fine Arts talking about the collection strategy for textiles and fashion. And since I last wrote, condom I have finished a few objects…..

The first is another Hoot Cardigan, information pills this time made out of

And then there’s the August

The bigger one is in constant use as Tony’s “potato cozy”. That’s not a euphemism, Tony eats a baked potato like one would eat an apple, whole and uncut. Because it’s hot, he uses a towel wrapped around it to hold it.

And finally, the pièce de résistance. This is a Color Affection Shawl that I made from 3 different skeins of

And a little zoomed out:

Here’s the full-size shot:

After
It was very important that I write my
previous post when I did – Wed 25 July – because the very next day, of the fun I had, but I’d also like to highlight the knitting I did.

I started knitting a Color Affection shawl, in some Novita Polku that I bought in Finland in May. I started the shawl the first day, which was mostly lounging around while we were in the port of Boston (where we all embarked) and then while the cruise ship was traveling. I continued the shawl on Friday 27 July, and then on Saturday 28 July we landed in the port of St. John’s, New Brunswick. I chose to take a bus to Fredericton, to see the city hall, learn some history, and visit Yarns on York to meet local knitters and take a class on Newfoundland Mittens, aka “Newfie Mitts”. I got a bit done, but I believe I will rip out what I’ve done, make it smaller, and do the “windows” in the multicolored black and the background/wrists in the green. Still, here’s the progress shot, even though this will be frogged later:

On Sunday, I chose to do one of the two classes offered at The Loop in Halifax. The class I chose was one on how to do thrummed mittens, and the instructor Mimi was amazing. I did not take the class for the Bermuda Scarf/shawl, but I heard that the 2nd class was not as great, probably due to the first class running very late and Mimi running out of steam (teaching 2 classes in one day is tough, and who knows if she even had time to eat!). Given that, I’m glad I did not stay for the 2nd class (I did buy the pattern and yarn for it, so I can make the shawl), and instead did a 10-mile bicycle tour of Halifax. At any rate, I did enjoy working on the thrummed mittens, and here is my progress (I haven’t done anything with it since that weekend):

And the inside looks like this:

I learned lots of great tips from Mimi, like using a wool with a lot of lanolin in it, so it’s “sticky” and holds the thrums in better.

There was a lot of knitting that weekend, and in the few weeks that followed. This past week I finished knitting Tony’s scarf, after having to spin more yarn and buy more on Cape Cod while helping a friend do the Pan-Mass Challenge at the beginning of August. I still have to finish the scarf by weaving in the ends and blocking it, but it’s finally the right length, and Tony will be able to use it this coming fall/winter.

I also finished the scarf I was weaving (the June Spunky Eclectic weaving club), but I still need to block it before taking a picture of it. A new weaving club for August is on its way, so I’ll have something new to warp soon.

I am not going on a plane until the end of September, and my next travel is scheduled for mid-September, around Rosh Hashanah – I will be going to the New York City area for 2 weekends (coming back to Boston for a wedding in between). I hope to finish the Color Affection Shawl soon, and get pictures of both it and the woven scarf before long.
It was very important that I write my previous post when I did – Wed 25 July – because the very next day, of the fun I had, but I’d also like to highlight the knitting I did.

I started knitting a Color Affection shawl, in some Novita Polku that I bought in Finland in May. I started the shawl the first day, which was mostly lounging around while we were in the port of Boston (where we all embarked) and then while the cruise ship was traveling. I continued the shawl on Friday 27 July, and then on Saturday 28 July we landed in the port of St. John’s, New Brunswick. I chose to take a bus to Fredericton, to see the city hall, learn some history, and visit Yarns on York to meet local knitters and take a class on Newfoundland Mittens, aka “Newfie Mitts”. I got a bit done, but I believe I will rip out what I’ve done, make it smaller, and do the “windows” in the multicolored black and the background/wrists in the green. Still, here’s the progress shot, even though this will be frogged later:

On Sunday, I chose to do one of the two classes offered at The Loop in Halifax. The class I chose was one on how to do thrummed mittens, and the instructor Mimi was amazing. I did not take the class for the Bermuda Scarf/shawl, but I heard that the 2nd class was not as great, probably due to the first class running very late and Mimi running out of steam (teaching 2 classes in one day is tough, and who knows if she even had time to eat!). Given that, I’m glad I did not stay for the 2nd class (I did buy the pattern and yarn for it, so I can make the shawl), and instead did a 10-mile bicycle tour of Halifax. At any rate, I did enjoy working on the thrummed mittens, and here is my progress (I haven’t done anything with it since that weekend):

And the inside looks like this:

I learned lots of great tips from Mimi, like using a wool with a lot of lanolin in it, so it’s “sticky” and holds the thrums in better.

There was a lot of knitting that weekend, and in the few weeks that followed. This past week I finished knitting Tony’s scarf, after having to spin more yarn and buy more on Cape Cod while helping a friend do the Pan-Mass Challenge at the beginning of August. I still have to finish the scarf by weaving in the ends and blocking it, but it’s finally the right length, and Tony will be able to use it this coming fall/winter.

I also finished the scarf I was weaving (the June Spunky Eclectic weaving club), but I still need to block it before taking a picture of it. A new weaving club for August is on its way, so I’ll have something new to warp soon.

I am not going on a plane until the end of September, and my next travel is scheduled for mid-September, around Rosh Hashanah – I will be going to the New York City area for 2 weekends (coming back to Boston for a wedding in between). I hope to finish the Color Affection Shawl soon, and get pictures of
So, online I mentioned in the last post that I had finished 2 objects – side effects and the June Spunky Eclectic Weaving Club, which I opted to do a table runner. It was my first experience with using a pick-up stick. I’m happy with how both came out (especially after ironing the scarf…I don’t even iron clothes!).

Crooked Little Tony scarf

Pick-up-sticks table runner

I’m thrilled with how drapey the table runner is. My only problem is that I have no idea what to do with it – it’s 33 inches by 22 inches. It’s too short for a scarf, but I don’t have an appropriate table to use it on. It’s a superwash merino/bamboo/viscose blend. Folded over a towel bar it’d make a very long kitchen or guest towel, I guess?

Any ideas?
So, , which I opted to do a table runner. It was my first experience with using a pick-up stick. I’m happy with how both came out (especially after ironing the scarf…I don’t even iron clothes!).

Crooked Little Tony scarf

Pick-up-sticks table runner

I’m thrilled with how drapey the table runner is. My only problem is that I have no idea what to do with it – it’s 33 inches by 22 inches. It’s too short for a scarf, but I don’t have an appropriate table to use it on. It’s a superwash merino/bamboo/viscose blend.
I am so excited about tonight’s Common Cod Fiber Guild Meeting featuring Pam Parmal of the Boston Museum of Fine Arts talking about the collection strategy for textiles and fashion. And since I last wrote, gonorrhea I have finished a few objects…..

The first is another Hoot Cardigan, this time made out of Universal Yarns Supreme Cotton Batik, that I picked up in Charlotte, North Carolina earlier this year. I love the Supreme Cotton line from Universal yarns, because it is super soft. Unfortunately, I have only been able to find it in LYS in North Carolina….I hear that is changing soon, though! Here’s the cardigan, made for a friend of mine who just had his first son:

And then there’s the August Weaving Club from Spunky Eclectic – cotton dishcloths! I did not follow the pattern; instead I tried out a herringbone/pinwheel pattern. It came out wonderfully!

I ended up making 2 towels, one a bit shorter because I ran out of warp, but here’s the shorter one hanging from a peg next to our sink (please excuse the dirty dishes and Guinness cans to be rinsed).

The bigger one is in constant use as Tony’s “potato cozy”. That’s not a euphemism, Tony eats a baked potato like one would eat an apple, whole and uncut. Because it’s hot, he uses a towel wrapped around it to hold it.

And finally, the pièce de résistance. This is a Color Affection Shawl that I made from 3 different skeins of Novita’s Polku yarn, which I acquired in Finland earlier this year.

Here’s a close-up shot of the ‘center’ of this assymmetrical shawl:

And a little zoomed out:

Here’s the full-size shot:

I also spun up a “fractal 3-ply” which I will write about next time.
I am so excited about tonight’s Common Cod Fiber Guild Meeting featuring Pam Parmal of the Boston Museum of Fine Arts talking about the collection strategy for textiles and fashion. And since I last wrote, condom I have finished a few objects…..

The first is another Hoot Cardigan, information pills this time made out of

And then there’s the August

The bigger one is in constant use as Tony’s “potato cozy”. That’s not a euphemism, Tony eats a baked potato like one would eat an apple, whole and uncut. Because it’s hot, he uses a towel wrapped around it to hold it.

And finally, the pièce de résistance. This is a Color Affection Shawl that I made from 3 different skeins of

And a little zoomed out:

Here’s the full-size shot:

After
I am so excited about tonight’s
Common Cod Fiber Guild Meeting featuring Pam Parmal of the Boston Museum of Fine Arts talking about the collection strategy for textiles and fashion. And since I last wrote, order I have finished a few objects…..

The first is another Hoot Cardigan, find this time made out of

And then there’s the August

The bigger one is in constant use as Tony’s “potato cozy”. That’s not a euphemism, Tony eats a baked potato like one would eat an apple, whole and uncut. Because it’s hot, he uses a towel wrapped around it to hold it.

And finally, the pièce de résistance. This is a Color Affection Shawl that I made from 3 different skeins of

And a little zoomed out:

Here’s the full-size shot:

I also spun up a “fractal 3-ply” which I will write about next time.
It was very important that I write my
previous post when I did – Wed 25 July – because the very next day, of the fun I had, but I’d also like to highlight the knitting I did.

I started knitting a Color Affection shawl, in some Novita Polku that I bought in Finland in May. I started the shawl the first day, which was mostly lounging around while we were in the port of Boston (where we all embarked) and then while the cruise ship was traveling. I continued the shawl on Friday 27 July, and then on Saturday 28 July we landed in the port of St. John’s, New Brunswick. I chose to take a bus to Fredericton, to see the city hall, learn some history, and visit Yarns on York to meet local knitters and take a class on Newfoundland Mittens, aka “Newfie Mitts”. I got a bit done, but I believe I will rip out what I’ve done, make it smaller, and do the “windows” in the multicolored black and the background/wrists in the green. Still, here’s the progress shot, even though this will be frogged later:

On Sunday, I chose to do one of the two classes offered at The Loop in Halifax. The class I chose was one on how to do thrummed mittens, and the instructor Mimi was amazing. I did not take the class for the Bermuda Scarf/shawl, but I heard that the 2nd class was not as great, probably due to the first class running very late and Mimi running out of steam (teaching 2 classes in one day is tough, and who knows if she even had time to eat!). Given that, I’m glad I did not stay for the 2nd class (I did buy the pattern and yarn for it, so I can make the shawl), and instead did a 10-mile bicycle tour of Halifax. At any rate, I did enjoy working on the thrummed mittens, and here is my progress (I haven’t done anything with it since that weekend):

And the inside looks like this:

I learned lots of great tips from Mimi, like using a wool with a lot of lanolin in it, so it’s “sticky” and holds the thrums in better.

There was a lot of knitting that weekend, and in the few weeks that followed. This past week I finished knitting Tony’s scarf, after having to spin more yarn and buy more on Cape Cod while helping a friend do the Pan-Mass Challenge at the beginning of August. I still have to finish the scarf by weaving in the ends and blocking it, but it’s finally the right length, and Tony will be able to use it this coming fall/winter.

I also finished the scarf I was weaving (the June Spunky Eclectic weaving club), but I still need to block it before taking a picture of it. A new weaving club for August is on its way, so I’ll have something new to warp soon.

I am not going on a plane until the end of September, and my next travel is scheduled for mid-September, around Rosh Hashanah – I will be going to the New York City area for 2 weekends (coming back to Boston for a wedding in between). I hope to finish the Color Affection Shawl soon, and get pictures of both it and the woven scarf before long.
It was very important that I write my previous post when I did – Wed 25 July – because the very next day, of the fun I had, but I’d also like to highlight the knitting I did.

I started knitting a Color Affection shawl, in some Novita Polku that I bought in Finland in May. I started the shawl the first day, which was mostly lounging around while we were in the port of Boston (where we all embarked) and then while the cruise ship was traveling. I continued the shawl on Friday 27 July, and then on Saturday 28 July we landed in the port of St. John’s, New Brunswick. I chose to take a bus to Fredericton, to see the city hall, learn some history, and visit Yarns on York to meet local knitters and take a class on Newfoundland Mittens, aka “Newfie Mitts”. I got a bit done, but I believe I will rip out what I’ve done, make it smaller, and do the “windows” in the multicolored black and the background/wrists in the green. Still, here’s the progress shot, even though this will be frogged later:

On Sunday, I chose to do one of the two classes offered at The Loop in Halifax. The class I chose was one on how to do thrummed mittens, and the instructor Mimi was amazing. I did not take the class for the Bermuda Scarf/shawl, but I heard that the 2nd class was not as great, probably due to the first class running very late and Mimi running out of steam (teaching 2 classes in one day is tough, and who knows if she even had time to eat!). Given that, I’m glad I did not stay for the 2nd class (I did buy the pattern and yarn for it, so I can make the shawl), and instead did a 10-mile bicycle tour of Halifax. At any rate, I did enjoy working on the thrummed mittens, and here is my progress (I haven’t done anything with it since that weekend):

And the inside looks like this:

I learned lots of great tips from Mimi, like using a wool with a lot of lanolin in it, so it’s “sticky” and holds the thrums in better.

There was a lot of knitting that weekend, and in the few weeks that followed. This past week I finished knitting Tony’s scarf, after having to spin more yarn and buy more on Cape Cod while helping a friend do the Pan-Mass Challenge at the beginning of August. I still have to finish the scarf by weaving in the ends and blocking it, but it’s finally the right length, and Tony will be able to use it this coming fall/winter.

I also finished the scarf I was weaving (the June Spunky Eclectic weaving club), but I still need to block it before taking a picture of it. A new weaving club for August is on its way, so I’ll have something new to warp soon.

I am not going on a plane until the end of September, and my next travel is scheduled for mid-September, around Rosh Hashanah – I will be going to the New York City area for 2 weekends (coming back to Boston for a wedding in between). I hope to finish the Color Affection Shawl soon, and get pictures of
So, online I mentioned in the last post that I had finished 2 objects – side effects and the June Spunky Eclectic Weaving Club, which I opted to do a table runner. It was my first experience with using a pick-up stick. I’m happy with how both came out (especially after ironing the scarf…I don’t even iron clothes!).

Crooked Little Tony scarf

Pick-up-sticks table runner

I’m thrilled with how drapey the table runner is. My only problem is that I have no idea what to do with it – it’s 33 inches by 22 inches. It’s too short for a scarf, but I don’t have an appropriate table to use it on. It’s a superwash merino/bamboo/viscose blend. Folded over a towel bar it’d make a very long kitchen or guest towel, I guess?

Any ideas?
So, , which I opted to do a table runner. It was my first experience with using a pick-up stick. I’m happy with how both came out (especially after ironing the scarf…I don’t even iron clothes!).

Crooked Little Tony scarf

Pick-up-sticks table runner

I’m thrilled with how drapey the table runner is. My only problem is that I have no idea what to do with it – it’s 33 inches by 22 inches. It’s too short for a scarf, but I don’t have an appropriate table to use it on. It’s a superwash merino/bamboo/viscose blend.
I am so excited about tonight’s Common Cod Fiber Guild Meeting featuring Pam Parmal of the Boston Museum of Fine Arts talking about the collection strategy for textiles and fashion. And since I last wrote, gonorrhea I have finished a few objects…..

The first is another Hoot Cardigan, this time made out of Universal Yarns Supreme Cotton Batik, that I picked up in Charlotte, North Carolina earlier this year. I love the Supreme Cotton line from Universal yarns, because it is super soft. Unfortunately, I have only been able to find it in LYS in North Carolina….I hear that is changing soon, though! Here’s the cardigan, made for a friend of mine who just had his first son:

And then there’s the August Weaving Club from Spunky Eclectic – cotton dishcloths! I did not follow the pattern; instead I tried out a herringbone/pinwheel pattern. It came out wonderfully!

I ended up making 2 towels, one a bit shorter because I ran out of warp, but here’s the shorter one hanging from a peg next to our sink (please excuse the dirty dishes and Guinness cans to be rinsed).

The bigger one is in constant use as Tony’s “potato cozy”. That’s not a euphemism, Tony eats a baked potato like one would eat an apple, whole and uncut. Because it’s hot, he uses a towel wrapped around it to hold it.

And finally, the pièce de résistance. This is a Color Affection Shawl that I made from 3 different skeins of Novita’s Polku yarn, which I acquired in Finland earlier this year.

Here’s a close-up shot of the ‘center’ of this assymmetrical shawl:

And a little zoomed out:

Here’s the full-size shot:

I also spun up a “fractal 3-ply” which I will write about next time.
I am so excited about tonight’s Common Cod Fiber Guild Meeting featuring Pam Parmal of the Boston Museum of Fine Arts talking about the collection strategy for textiles and fashion. And since I last wrote, condom I have finished a few objects…..

The first is another Hoot Cardigan, information pills this time made out of

And then there’s the August

The bigger one is in constant use as Tony’s “potato cozy”. That’s not a euphemism, Tony eats a baked potato like one would eat an apple, whole and uncut. Because it’s hot, he uses a towel wrapped around it to hold it.

And finally, the pièce de résistance. This is a Color Affection Shawl that I made from 3 different skeins of

And a little zoomed out:

Here’s the full-size shot:

After
I am so excited about tonight’s
Common Cod Fiber Guild Meeting featuring Pam Parmal of the Boston Museum of Fine Arts talking about the collection strategy for textiles and fashion. And since I last wrote, order I have finished a few objects…..

The first is another Hoot Cardigan, find this time made out of

And then there’s the August

The bigger one is in constant use as Tony’s “potato cozy”. That’s not a euphemism, Tony eats a baked potato like one would eat an apple, whole and uncut. Because it’s hot, he uses a towel wrapped around it to hold it.

And finally, the pièce de résistance. This is a Color Affection Shawl that I made from 3 different skeins of

And a little zoomed out:

Here’s the full-size shot:

I also spun up a “fractal 3-ply” which I will write about next time.
I am so excited about tonight’s
Common Cod Fiber Guild Meeting featuring Pam Parmal of the Boston Museum of Fine Arts talking about the collection strategy for textiles and fashion. And since I last wrote, more about I have finished a few objects…..

The first is another Hoot Cardigan, this time made out of Universal Yarns Supreme Cotton Batik, that I picked up in Charlotte, North Carolina earlier this year. I love the Supreme Cotton line from Universal yarns, because it is super soft. Unfortunately, I have only been able to find it in LYS in North Carolina….I hear that is changing soon, though! Here’s the cardigan, made for a friend of mine who just had his first son:

And then there’s the August Weaving Club from Spunky Eclectic – cotton dishcloths! I did not follow the pattern; instead I tried out a herringbone/pinwheel pattern. It came out wonderfully!

I ended up making 2 towels, one a bit shorter because I ran out of warp, but here’s the shorter one hanging from a peg next to our sink (please excuse the dirty dishes and Guinness cans to be rinsed).

The bigger one is in constant use as Tony’s “potato cozy”. That’s not a euphemism, Tony eats a baked potato like one would eat an apple, whole and uncut. Because it’s hot, he uses a towel wrapped around it to hold it.

And finally, the pièce de résistance. This is a Color Affection Shawl that I made from 3 different skeins of

And a little zoomed out:

Here’s the full-size shot:

I also spun up a “fractal 3-ply” which I will write about next time.
It was very important that I write my
previous post when I did – Wed 25 July – because the very next day, of the fun I had, but I’d also like to highlight the knitting I did.

I started knitting a Color Affection shawl, in some Novita Polku that I bought in Finland in May. I started the shawl the first day, which was mostly lounging around while we were in the port of Boston (where we all embarked) and then while the cruise ship was traveling. I continued the shawl on Friday 27 July, and then on Saturday 28 July we landed in the port of St. John’s, New Brunswick. I chose to take a bus to Fredericton, to see the city hall, learn some history, and visit Yarns on York to meet local knitters and take a class on Newfoundland Mittens, aka “Newfie Mitts”. I got a bit done, but I believe I will rip out what I’ve done, make it smaller, and do the “windows” in the multicolored black and the background/wrists in the green. Still, here’s the progress shot, even though this will be frogged later:

On Sunday, I chose to do one of the two classes offered at The Loop in Halifax. The class I chose was one on how to do thrummed mittens, and the instructor Mimi was amazing. I did not take the class for the Bermuda Scarf/shawl, but I heard that the 2nd class was not as great, probably due to the first class running very late and Mimi running out of steam (teaching 2 classes in one day is tough, and who knows if she even had time to eat!). Given that, I’m glad I did not stay for the 2nd class (I did buy the pattern and yarn for it, so I can make the shawl), and instead did a 10-mile bicycle tour of Halifax. At any rate, I did enjoy working on the thrummed mittens, and here is my progress (I haven’t done anything with it since that weekend):

And the inside looks like this:

I learned lots of great tips from Mimi, like using a wool with a lot of lanolin in it, so it’s “sticky” and holds the thrums in better.

There was a lot of knitting that weekend, and in the few weeks that followed. This past week I finished knitting Tony’s scarf, after having to spin more yarn and buy more on Cape Cod while helping a friend do the Pan-Mass Challenge at the beginning of August. I still have to finish the scarf by weaving in the ends and blocking it, but it’s finally the right length, and Tony will be able to use it this coming fall/winter.

I also finished the scarf I was weaving (the June Spunky Eclectic weaving club), but I still need to block it before taking a picture of it. A new weaving club for August is on its way, so I’ll have something new to warp soon.

I am not going on a plane until the end of September, and my next travel is scheduled for mid-September, around Rosh Hashanah – I will be going to the New York City area for 2 weekends (coming back to Boston for a wedding in between). I hope to finish the Color Affection Shawl soon, and get pictures of both it and the woven scarf before long.
It was very important that I write my previous post when I did – Wed 25 July – because the very next day, of the fun I had, but I’d also like to highlight the knitting I did.

I started knitting a Color Affection shawl, in some Novita Polku that I bought in Finland in May. I started the shawl the first day, which was mostly lounging around while we were in the port of Boston (where we all embarked) and then while the cruise ship was traveling. I continued the shawl on Friday 27 July, and then on Saturday 28 July we landed in the port of St. John’s, New Brunswick. I chose to take a bus to Fredericton, to see the city hall, learn some history, and visit Yarns on York to meet local knitters and take a class on Newfoundland Mittens, aka “Newfie Mitts”. I got a bit done, but I believe I will rip out what I’ve done, make it smaller, and do the “windows” in the multicolored black and the background/wrists in the green. Still, here’s the progress shot, even though this will be frogged later:

On Sunday, I chose to do one of the two classes offered at The Loop in Halifax. The class I chose was one on how to do thrummed mittens, and the instructor Mimi was amazing. I did not take the class for the Bermuda Scarf/shawl, but I heard that the 2nd class was not as great, probably due to the first class running very late and Mimi running out of steam (teaching 2 classes in one day is tough, and who knows if she even had time to eat!). Given that, I’m glad I did not stay for the 2nd class (I did buy the pattern and yarn for it, so I can make the shawl), and instead did a 10-mile bicycle tour of Halifax. At any rate, I did enjoy working on the thrummed mittens, and here is my progress (I haven’t done anything with it since that weekend):

And the inside looks like this:

I learned lots of great tips from Mimi, like using a wool with a lot of lanolin in it, so it’s “sticky” and holds the thrums in better.

There was a lot of knitting that weekend, and in the few weeks that followed. This past week I finished knitting Tony’s scarf, after having to spin more yarn and buy more on Cape Cod while helping a friend do the Pan-Mass Challenge at the beginning of August. I still have to finish the scarf by weaving in the ends and blocking it, but it’s finally the right length, and Tony will be able to use it this coming fall/winter.

I also finished the scarf I was weaving (the June Spunky Eclectic weaving club), but I still need to block it before taking a picture of it. A new weaving club for August is on its way, so I’ll have something new to warp soon.

I am not going on a plane until the end of September, and my next travel is scheduled for mid-September, around Rosh Hashanah – I will be going to the New York City area for 2 weekends (coming back to Boston for a wedding in between). I hope to finish the Color Affection Shawl soon, and get pictures of
So, online I mentioned in the last post that I had finished 2 objects – side effects and the June Spunky Eclectic Weaving Club, which I opted to do a table runner. It was my first experience with using a pick-up stick. I’m happy with how both came out (especially after ironing the scarf…I don’t even iron clothes!).

Crooked Little Tony scarf

Pick-up-sticks table runner

I’m thrilled with how drapey the table runner is. My only problem is that I have no idea what to do with it – it’s 33 inches by 22 inches. It’s too short for a scarf, but I don’t have an appropriate table to use it on. It’s a superwash merino/bamboo/viscose blend. Folded over a towel bar it’d make a very long kitchen or guest towel, I guess?

Any ideas?
So, , which I opted to do a table runner. It was my first experience with using a pick-up stick. I’m happy with how both came out (especially after ironing the scarf…I don’t even iron clothes!).

Crooked Little Tony scarf

Pick-up-sticks table runner

I’m thrilled with how drapey the table runner is. My only problem is that I have no idea what to do with it – it’s 33 inches by 22 inches. It’s too short for a scarf, but I don’t have an appropriate table to use it on. It’s a superwash merino/bamboo/viscose blend.
I am so excited about tonight’s Common Cod Fiber Guild Meeting featuring Pam Parmal of the Boston Museum of Fine Arts talking about the collection strategy for textiles and fashion. And since I last wrote, gonorrhea I have finished a few objects…..

The first is another Hoot Cardigan, this time made out of Universal Yarns Supreme Cotton Batik, that I picked up in Charlotte, North Carolina earlier this year. I love the Supreme Cotton line from Universal yarns, because it is super soft. Unfortunately, I have only been able to find it in LYS in North Carolina….I hear that is changing soon, though! Here’s the cardigan, made for a friend of mine who just had his first son:

And then there’s the August Weaving Club from Spunky Eclectic – cotton dishcloths! I did not follow the pattern; instead I tried out a herringbone/pinwheel pattern. It came out wonderfully!

I ended up making 2 towels, one a bit shorter because I ran out of warp, but here’s the shorter one hanging from a peg next to our sink (please excuse the dirty dishes and Guinness cans to be rinsed).

The bigger one is in constant use as Tony’s “potato cozy”. That’s not a euphemism, Tony eats a baked potato like one would eat an apple, whole and uncut. Because it’s hot, he uses a towel wrapped around it to hold it.

And finally, the pièce de résistance. This is a Color Affection Shawl that I made from 3 different skeins of Novita’s Polku yarn, which I acquired in Finland earlier this year.

Here’s a close-up shot of the ‘center’ of this assymmetrical shawl:

And a little zoomed out:

Here’s the full-size shot:

I also spun up a “fractal 3-ply” which I will write about next time.
I am so excited about tonight’s Common Cod Fiber Guild Meeting featuring Pam Parmal of the Boston Museum of Fine Arts talking about the collection strategy for textiles and fashion. And since I last wrote, condom I have finished a few objects…..

The first is another Hoot Cardigan, information pills this time made out of

And then there’s the August

The bigger one is in constant use as Tony’s “potato cozy”. That’s not a euphemism, Tony eats a baked potato like one would eat an apple, whole and uncut. Because it’s hot, he uses a towel wrapped around it to hold it.

And finally, the pièce de résistance. This is a Color Affection Shawl that I made from 3 different skeins of

And a little zoomed out:

Here’s the full-size shot:

After
I am so excited about tonight’s
Common Cod Fiber Guild Meeting featuring Pam Parmal of the Boston Museum of Fine Arts talking about the collection strategy for textiles and fashion. And since I last wrote, order I have finished a few objects…..

The first is another Hoot Cardigan, find this time made out of

And then there’s the August

The bigger one is in constant use as Tony’s “potato cozy”. That’s not a euphemism, Tony eats a baked potato like one would eat an apple, whole and uncut. Because it’s hot, he uses a towel wrapped around it to hold it.

And finally, the pièce de résistance. This is a Color Affection Shawl that I made from 3 different skeins of

And a little zoomed out:

Here’s the full-size shot:

I also spun up a “fractal 3-ply” which I will write about next time.
I am so excited about tonight’s
Common Cod Fiber Guild Meeting featuring Pam Parmal of the Boston Museum of Fine Arts talking about the collection strategy for textiles and fashion. And since I last wrote, more about I have finished a few objects…..

The first is another Hoot Cardigan, this time made out of Universal Yarns Supreme Cotton Batik, that I picked up in Charlotte, North Carolina earlier this year. I love the Supreme Cotton line from Universal yarns, because it is super soft. Unfortunately, I have only been able to find it in LYS in North Carolina….I hear that is changing soon, though! Here’s the cardigan, made for a friend of mine who just had his first son:

And then there’s the August Weaving Club from Spunky Eclectic – cotton dishcloths! I did not follow the pattern; instead I tried out a herringbone/pinwheel pattern. It came out wonderfully!

I ended up making 2 towels, one a bit shorter because I ran out of warp, but here’s the shorter one hanging from a peg next to our sink (please excuse the dirty dishes and Guinness cans to be rinsed).

The bigger one is in constant use as Tony’s “potato cozy”. That’s not a euphemism, Tony eats a baked potato like one would eat an apple, whole and uncut. Because it’s hot, he uses a towel wrapped around it to hold it.

And finally, the pièce de résistance. This is a Color Affection Shawl that I made from 3 different skeins of

And a little zoomed out:

Here’s the full-size shot:

I also spun up a “fractal 3-ply” which I will write about next time.
Buenos Aires has a span of a few blocks,
hospital not too far from the Malabia metro station* where there are many yarn shops, phthisiatrician I counted 15, and went into 11 of them before I had to stop. The shops are on Ave. Scalabrini Ortiz just southwest of Ave. Cordoba, towards Ave. Correintes. The Malabia metro station is on the corner of Correintes and Scalabrini Ortiz, which is 1 km away from the corner of Cordoba and Corrientes, and about half that until you see your first yarn shop. There was a small bit of yarn bombing between two of the stores:

Yarn shopping in Buenos Aires is quite different from what I’m used to in the States. The stores all look like this:

The yarn is beautiful, and well-organized, but there’s no signs as to what the yarn is made up of, how much it costs nor the gauge of the yarn. In addition, you’re not supposed to take the yarn out of the bins. If you look at the bottom right of that picture, you’ll see some white yarn and blue yarn that is actually sitting on top of a counter. That counter separates you from the wall, and there are people behind the counter who can help you get what you want.

So it’s very different from the experience I’m used to. I got the feeling that a lot of people knew exactly what they wanted to buy, or walked in and would say “do you have anything made of wool?” I was feeling a bit shy due to the language barrier, so I picked up a Spanish phrase: “solamente mirando” – it means “Just looking”. The people are friendly and willing to help, but I like the yarn buying process to be a solo activity.

There were 2 exceptions to the fact that most stores don’t give any information about their items.: Milana hilados and Yanabey. Milana hilados had tags like this near most of their yarn:

Note that that’s in Argentinian pesos, and at the time, this was less than USD $10 per 100g. Another thing to note is the price is per 100g, not per hank of yarn. You’d ask a sales associate to take the yarn down for you and they’d weigh it and ask you if that was OK (kind of like at the deli counter). Then they give you a slip of paper and you take it to a cash register, where you’re usually helped by someone else. Another interesting thing is that the stores seemed to be staffed by about half men, half women, which is very different from yarn stores in the States, which are probably about 90% staffed by women.

I bought 3 hanks of yarn there, for about $25:

Yanabey had signs like this:

These prices are still in Argentinian pesos, but they’re in kilos. So these prices are $171 for 1 kilo, which is $17.10 for 100g. This is a wall of “seda vegetal”, or “vegetable silk“. By the way, that’s about USD $35 per kilo. So I bought 6 skeins, which was just over a kilo, because the tree which this comes from (ceiba speciosa, or “silk floss tree”) is native to South America, and I haven’t seen “vegetable silk” in the US.

A lot of the stores have the recycled t-shirt yarn, and I bought some at Arte Natural:

BUTTONS!!!

I was thinking I might make a purse from the yarn, like this:

That purse is crocheted, but I’m sure I can come up with a knitted version.

Here’s what I bought from that store:

Here’s a Spanish primer for some important words:
cachemira – cashmere
acrílico – acrylic
lana – wool
seda – silk
alpaca – alpaca
hilo – yarn (plural: hilados)
Also, I found out that cashmerillo is just an acrylic yarn that’s very soft. Don’t be fooled by price, some of the acrylic yarns are *very* expensive, even more expensive than the wool.

I was very excited by the prospect of all these yarn stores, and after these three purchases I was done, and passed by 4 other yarn stores that I didn’t even walk into. In addition, there were at least 2 weaving stores, and another 2 fabric stores. Only one of the yarn stores had fiber to spin, and it looked like combed top, and was somewhat expensive (by US standards).

All in all, I was extremely satisfied by taking a few hours to shop for yarn, but I found the experience quite different from what I’m used to.

* I was instructed by a friend who had visited Buenos Aires to take a taxi to the corner of X and Y. However, I enjoy walking around and public transit, so I noticed the subway stop was not far, and decided to walk a few blocks. To those who are considering what to do, a taxi would have cost about 20 pesos (about USD $5) each way. The subway costs $5 for two rides, but of course is not door to door. Another thing to note about the subway is that it is not the most modern system:

And you will get plenty of people trying to make money – some play music, which you may be used to from other subway systems. Others will go around a subway car, handing out products, and then go around and either collect the product back or collect money. I was handed tissues and Disney books – or at least, they attempted to hand stuff to me, and I refused. It helped that I had knitting in my hands, but I saw them just place stuff on people’s laps if their hands were busy, so don’t just look away, make sure you actually refuse by shaking your head.

Note: I hope this article is helpful! Due to spam reasons, all articles on this site have comments disabled after a short time. If you want to leave feedback, you can tweet @sheeri or e-mail me at awfief at gmail dot com. (replace “at” with @ and
It was very important that I write my previous post when I did – Wed 25 July – because the very next day, of the fun I had, but I’d also like to highlight the knitting I did.

I started knitting a Color Affection shawl, in some Novita Polku that I bought in Finland in May. I started the shawl the first day, which was mostly lounging around while we were in the port of Boston (where we all embarked) and then while the cruise ship was traveling. I continued the shawl on Friday 27 July, and then on Saturday 28 July we landed in the port of St. John’s, New Brunswick. I chose to take a bus to Fredericton, to see the city hall, learn some history, and visit Yarns on York to meet local knitters and take a class on Newfoundland Mittens, aka “Newfie Mitts”. I got a bit done, but I believe I will rip out what I’ve done, make it smaller, and do the “windows” in the multicolored black and the background/wrists in the green. Still, here’s the progress shot, even though this will be frogged later:

On Sunday, I chose to do one of the two classes offered at The Loop in Halifax. The class I chose was one on how to do thrummed mittens, and the instructor Mimi was amazing. I did not take the class for the Bermuda Scarf/shawl, but I heard that the 2nd class was not as great, probably due to the first class running very late and Mimi running out of steam (teaching 2 classes in one day is tough, and who knows if she even had time to eat!). Given that, I’m glad I did not stay for the 2nd class (I did buy the pattern and yarn for it, so I can make the shawl), and instead did a 10-mile bicycle tour of Halifax. At any rate, I did enjoy working on the thrummed mittens, and here is my progress (I haven’t done anything with it since that weekend):

And the inside looks like this:

I learned lots of great tips from Mimi, like using a wool with a lot of lanolin in it, so it’s “sticky” and holds the thrums in better.

There was a lot of knitting that weekend, and in the few weeks that followed. This past week I finished knitting Tony’s scarf, after having to spin more yarn and buy more on Cape Cod while helping a friend do the Pan-Mass Challenge at the beginning of August. I still have to finish the scarf by weaving in the ends and blocking it, but it’s finally the right length, and Tony will be able to use it this coming fall/winter.

I also finished the scarf I was weaving (the June Spunky Eclectic weaving club), but I still need to block it before taking a picture of it. A new weaving club for August is on its way, so I’ll have something new to warp soon.

I am not going on a plane until the end of September, and my next travel is scheduled for mid-September, around Rosh Hashanah – I will be going to the New York City area for 2 weekends (coming back to Boston for a wedding in between). I hope to finish the Color Affection Shawl soon, and get pictures of both it and the woven scarf before long.
It was very important that I write my previous post when I did – Wed 25 July – because the very next day, of the fun I had, but I’d also like to highlight the knitting I did.

I started knitting a Color Affection shawl, in some Novita Polku that I bought in Finland in May. I started the shawl the first day, which was mostly lounging around while we were in the port of Boston (where we all embarked) and then while the cruise ship was traveling. I continued the shawl on Friday 27 July, and then on Saturday 28 July we landed in the port of St. John’s, New Brunswick. I chose to take a bus to Fredericton, to see the city hall, learn some history, and visit Yarns on York to meet local knitters and take a class on Newfoundland Mittens, aka “Newfie Mitts”. I got a bit done, but I believe I will rip out what I’ve done, make it smaller, and do the “windows” in the multicolored black and the background/wrists in the green. Still, here’s the progress shot, even though this will be frogged later:

On Sunday, I chose to do one of the two classes offered at The Loop in Halifax. The class I chose was one on how to do thrummed mittens, and the instructor Mimi was amazing. I did not take the class for the Bermuda Scarf/shawl, but I heard that the 2nd class was not as great, probably due to the first class running very late and Mimi running out of steam (teaching 2 classes in one day is tough, and who knows if she even had time to eat!). Given that, I’m glad I did not stay for the 2nd class (I did buy the pattern and yarn for it, so I can make the shawl), and instead did a 10-mile bicycle tour of Halifax. At any rate, I did enjoy working on the thrummed mittens, and here is my progress (I haven’t done anything with it since that weekend):

And the inside looks like this:

I learned lots of great tips from Mimi, like using a wool with a lot of lanolin in it, so it’s “sticky” and holds the thrums in better.

There was a lot of knitting that weekend, and in the few weeks that followed. This past week I finished knitting Tony’s scarf, after having to spin more yarn and buy more on Cape Cod while helping a friend do the Pan-Mass Challenge at the beginning of August. I still have to finish the scarf by weaving in the ends and blocking it, but it’s finally the right length, and Tony will be able to use it this coming fall/winter.

I also finished the scarf I was weaving (the June Spunky Eclectic weaving club), but I still need to block it before taking a picture of it. A new weaving club for August is on its way, so I’ll have something new to warp soon.

I am not going on a plane until the end of September, and my next travel is scheduled for mid-September, around Rosh Hashanah – I will be going to the New York City area for 2 weekends (coming back to Boston for a wedding in between). I hope to finish the Color Affection Shawl soon, and get pictures of
So, online I mentioned in the last post that I had finished 2 objects – side effects and the June Spunky Eclectic Weaving Club, which I opted to do a table runner. It was my first experience with using a pick-up stick. I’m happy with how both came out (especially after ironing the scarf…I don’t even iron clothes!).

Crooked Little Tony scarf

Pick-up-sticks table runner

I’m thrilled with how drapey the table runner is. My only problem is that I have no idea what to do with it – it’s 33 inches by 22 inches. It’s too short for a scarf, but I don’t have an appropriate table to use it on. It’s a superwash merino/bamboo/viscose blend. Folded over a towel bar it’d make a very long kitchen or guest towel, I guess?

Any ideas?
So, , which I opted to do a table runner. It was my first experience with using a pick-up stick. I’m happy with how both came out (especially after ironing the scarf…I don’t even iron clothes!).

Crooked Little Tony scarf

Pick-up-sticks table runner

I’m thrilled with how drapey the table runner is. My only problem is that I have no idea what to do with it – it’s 33 inches by 22 inches. It’s too short for a scarf, but I don’t have an appropriate table to use it on. It’s a superwash merino/bamboo/viscose blend.
I am so excited about tonight’s Common Cod Fiber Guild Meeting featuring Pam Parmal of the Boston Museum of Fine Arts talking about the collection strategy for textiles and fashion. And since I last wrote, gonorrhea I have finished a few objects…..

The first is another Hoot Cardigan, this time made out of Universal Yarns Supreme Cotton Batik, that I picked up in Charlotte, North Carolina earlier this year. I love the Supreme Cotton line from Universal yarns, because it is super soft. Unfortunately, I have only been able to find it in LYS in North Carolina….I hear that is changing soon, though! Here’s the cardigan, made for a friend of mine who just had his first son:

And then there’s the August Weaving Club from Spunky Eclectic – cotton dishcloths! I did not follow the pattern; instead I tried out a herringbone/pinwheel pattern. It came out wonderfully!

I ended up making 2 towels, one a bit shorter because I ran out of warp, but here’s the shorter one hanging from a peg next to our sink (please excuse the dirty dishes and Guinness cans to be rinsed).

The bigger one is in constant use as Tony’s “potato cozy”. That’s not a euphemism, Tony eats a baked potato like one would eat an apple, whole and uncut. Because it’s hot, he uses a towel wrapped around it to hold it.

And finally, the pièce de résistance. This is a Color Affection Shawl that I made from 3 different skeins of Novita’s Polku yarn, which I acquired in Finland earlier this year.

Here’s a close-up shot of the ‘center’ of this assymmetrical shawl:

And a little zoomed out:

Here’s the full-size shot:

I also spun up a “fractal 3-ply” which I will write about next time.
I am so excited about tonight’s Common Cod Fiber Guild Meeting featuring Pam Parmal of the Boston Museum of Fine Arts talking about the collection strategy for textiles and fashion. And since I last wrote, condom I have finished a few objects…..

The first is another Hoot Cardigan, information pills this time made out of

And then there’s the August

The bigger one is in constant use as Tony’s “potato cozy”. That’s not a euphemism, Tony eats a baked potato like one would eat an apple, whole and uncut. Because it’s hot, he uses a towel wrapped around it to hold it.

And finally, the pièce de résistance. This is a Color Affection Shawl that I made from 3 different skeins of

And a little zoomed out:

Here’s the full-size shot:

After
I am so excited about tonight’s
Common Cod Fiber Guild Meeting featuring Pam Parmal of the Boston Museum of Fine Arts talking about the collection strategy for textiles and fashion. And since I last wrote, order I have finished a few objects…..

The first is another Hoot Cardigan, find this time made out of

And then there’s the August

The bigger one is in constant use as Tony’s “potato cozy”. That’s not a euphemism, Tony eats a baked potato like one would eat an apple, whole and uncut. Because it’s hot, he uses a towel wrapped around it to hold it.

And finally, the pièce de résistance. This is a Color Affection Shawl that I made from 3 different skeins of

And a little zoomed out:

Here’s the full-size shot:

I also spun up a “fractal 3-ply” which I will write about next time.
I am so excited about tonight’s
Common Cod Fiber Guild Meeting featuring Pam Parmal of the Boston Museum of Fine Arts talking about the collection strategy for textiles and fashion. And since I last wrote, more about I have finished a few objects…..

The first is another Hoot Cardigan, this time made out of Universal Yarns Supreme Cotton Batik, that I picked up in Charlotte, North Carolina earlier this year. I love the Supreme Cotton line from Universal yarns, because it is super soft. Unfortunately, I have only been able to find it in LYS in North Carolina….I hear that is changing soon, though! Here’s the cardigan, made for a friend of mine who just had his first son:

And then there’s the August Weaving Club from Spunky Eclectic – cotton dishcloths! I did not follow the pattern; instead I tried out a herringbone/pinwheel pattern. It came out wonderfully!

I ended up making 2 towels, one a bit shorter because I ran out of warp, but here’s the shorter one hanging from a peg next to our sink (please excuse the dirty dishes and Guinness cans to be rinsed).

The bigger one is in constant use as Tony’s “potato cozy”. That’s not a euphemism, Tony eats a baked potato like one would eat an apple, whole and uncut. Because it’s hot, he uses a towel wrapped around it to hold it.

And finally, the pièce de résistance. This is a Color Affection Shawl that I made from 3 different skeins of

And a little zoomed out:

Here’s the full-size shot:

I also spun up a “fractal 3-ply” which I will write about next time.
Buenos Aires has a span of a few blocks,
hospital not too far from the Malabia metro station* where there are many yarn shops, phthisiatrician I counted 15, and went into 11 of them before I had to stop. The shops are on Ave. Scalabrini Ortiz just southwest of Ave. Cordoba, towards Ave. Correintes. The Malabia metro station is on the corner of Correintes and Scalabrini Ortiz, which is 1 km away from the corner of Cordoba and Corrientes, and about half that until you see your first yarn shop. There was a small bit of yarn bombing between two of the stores:

Yarn shopping in Buenos Aires is quite different from what I’m used to in the States. The stores all look like this:

The yarn is beautiful, and well-organized, but there’s no signs as to what the yarn is made up of, how much it costs nor the gauge of the yarn. In addition, you’re not supposed to take the yarn out of the bins. If you look at the bottom right of that picture, you’ll see some white yarn and blue yarn that is actually sitting on top of a counter. That counter separates you from the wall, and there are people behind the counter who can help you get what you want.

So it’s very different from the experience I’m used to. I got the feeling that a lot of people knew exactly what they wanted to buy, or walked in and would say “do you have anything made of wool?” I was feeling a bit shy due to the language barrier, so I picked up a Spanish phrase: “solamente mirando” – it means “Just looking”. The people are friendly and willing to help, but I like the yarn buying process to be a solo activity.

There were 2 exceptions to the fact that most stores don’t give any information about their items.: Milana hilados and Yanabey. Milana hilados had tags like this near most of their yarn:

Note that that’s in Argentinian pesos, and at the time, this was less than USD $10 per 100g. Another thing to note is the price is per 100g, not per hank of yarn. You’d ask a sales associate to take the yarn down for you and they’d weigh it and ask you if that was OK (kind of like at the deli counter). Then they give you a slip of paper and you take it to a cash register, where you’re usually helped by someone else. Another interesting thing is that the stores seemed to be staffed by about half men, half women, which is very different from yarn stores in the States, which are probably about 90% staffed by women.

I bought 3 hanks of yarn there, for about $25:

Yanabey had signs like this:

These prices are still in Argentinian pesos, but they’re in kilos. So these prices are $171 for 1 kilo, which is $17.10 for 100g. This is a wall of “seda vegetal”, or “vegetable silk“. By the way, that’s about USD $35 per kilo. So I bought 6 skeins, which was just over a kilo, because the tree which this comes from (ceiba speciosa, or “silk floss tree”) is native to South America, and I haven’t seen “vegetable silk” in the US.

A lot of the stores have the recycled t-shirt yarn, and I bought some at Arte Natural:

BUTTONS!!!

I was thinking I might make a purse from the yarn, like this:

That purse is crocheted, but I’m sure I can come up with a knitted version.

Here’s what I bought from that store:

Here’s a Spanish primer for some important words:
cachemira – cashmere
acrílico – acrylic
lana – wool
seda – silk
alpaca – alpaca
hilo – yarn (plural: hilados)
Also, I found out that cashmerillo is just an acrylic yarn that’s very soft. Don’t be fooled by price, some of the acrylic yarns are *very* expensive, even more expensive than the wool.

I was very excited by the prospect of all these yarn stores, and after these three purchases I was done, and passed by 4 other yarn stores that I didn’t even walk into. In addition, there were at least 2 weaving stores, and another 2 fabric stores. Only one of the yarn stores had fiber to spin, and it looked like combed top, and was somewhat expensive (by US standards).

All in all, I was extremely satisfied by taking a few hours to shop for yarn, but I found the experience quite different from what I’m used to.

* I was instructed by a friend who had visited Buenos Aires to take a taxi to the corner of X and Y. However, I enjoy walking around and public transit, so I noticed the subway stop was not far, and decided to walk a few blocks. To those who are considering what to do, a taxi would have cost about 20 pesos (about USD $5) each way. The subway costs $5 for two rides, but of course is not door to door. Another thing to note about the subway is that it is not the most modern system:

And you will get plenty of people trying to make money – some play music, which you may be used to from other subway systems. Others will go around a subway car, handing out products, and then go around and either collect the product back or collect money. I was handed tissues and Disney books – or at least, they attempted to hand stuff to me, and I refused. It helped that I had knitting in my hands, but I saw them just place stuff on people’s laps if their hands were busy, so don’t just look away, make sure you actually refuse by shaking your head.

Note: I hope this article is helpful! Due to spam reasons, all articles on this site have comments disabled after a short time. If you want to leave feedback, you can tweet @sheeri or e-mail me at awfief at gmail dot com. (replace “at” with @ and
When I think of gradient spinning, visit I think of starting with “gradient-dyed fiber” such as Fiber Optics’ gradient collection. Sadly, I have not yet gotten my hands on on of them yet. However, a fractal 3-ply attempt last year gave me the push to try a kind of gradient spinning.

I got a great batt from Fiber Stash back in April at the Wild and Woolly Weekend in Vermont. The 3.7 oz batt is 98% Corriedale, 2% twinkle, in a blue-purple, light blue, and black – here it is, unrolled:

The first step was to divide it into three sections, for a 3-ply, so that each section had each of the three colors. I then split 2 of the sections into even thirds, based on the colors, and the last section was split into sixths based on colors. I split the sections based on weight.

The idea is a fractal ply, but because I am doing a 3-ply, I will do it so that 2 of the sections are the same color, and a third is changing. The middle is the part divided into six:

I finally finished spinning, plying, skeining and washing, and here’s what the finished result looks like:

I think a shawl is in order to show off the lovely and subtle color changes. This produced 284 yards of yarn at 12 wpi. I have an identical batt which I will spin the same way, and will knit with all of it to make a good-sized shawl.

Owls, Towels and Shawls, Oh My!

It was very important that I write my previous post when I did – Wed 25 July – because the very next day, of the fun I had, but I’d also like to highlight the knitting I did.

I started knitting a Color Affection shawl, in some Novita Polku that I bought in Finland in May. I started the shawl the first day, which was mostly lounging around while we were in the port of Boston (where we all embarked) and then while the cruise ship was traveling. I continued the shawl on Friday 27 July, and then on Saturday 28 July we landed in the port of St. John’s, New Brunswick. I chose to take a bus to Fredericton, to see the city hall, learn some history, and visit Yarns on York to meet local knitters and take a class on Newfoundland Mittens, aka “Newfie Mitts”. I got a bit done, but I believe I will rip out what I’ve done, make it smaller, and do the “windows” in the multicolored black and the background/wrists in the green. Still, here’s the progress shot, even though this will be frogged later:

On Sunday, I chose to do one of the two classes offered at The Loop in Halifax. The class I chose was one on how to do thrummed mittens, and the instructor Mimi was amazing. I did not take the class for the Bermuda Scarf/shawl, but I heard that the 2nd class was not as great, probably due to the first class running very late and Mimi running out of steam (teaching 2 classes in one day is tough, and who knows if she even had time to eat!). Given that, I’m glad I did not stay for the 2nd class (I did buy the pattern and yarn for it, so I can make the shawl), and instead did a 10-mile bicycle tour of Halifax. At any rate, I did enjoy working on the thrummed mittens, and here is my progress (I haven’t done anything with it since that weekend):

And the inside looks like this:

I learned lots of great tips from Mimi, like using a wool with a lot of lanolin in it, so it’s “sticky” and holds the thrums in better.

There was a lot of knitting that weekend, and in the few weeks that followed. This past week I finished knitting Tony’s scarf, after having to spin more yarn and buy more on Cape Cod while helping a friend do the Pan-Mass Challenge at the beginning of August. I still have to finish the scarf by weaving in the ends and blocking it, but it’s finally the right length, and Tony will be able to use it this coming fall/winter.

I also finished the scarf I was weaving (the June Spunky Eclectic weaving club), but I still need to block it before taking a picture of it. A new weaving club for August is on its way, so I’ll have something new to warp soon.

I am not going on a plane until the end of September, and my next travel is scheduled for mid-September, around Rosh Hashanah – I will be going to the New York City area for 2 weekends (coming back to Boston for a wedding in between). I hope to finish the Color Affection Shawl soon, and get pictures of both it and the woven scarf before long.
It was very important that I write my previous post when I did – Wed 25 July – because the very next day, of the fun I had, but I’d also like to highlight the knitting I did.

I started knitting a Color Affection shawl, in some Novita Polku that I bought in Finland in May. I started the shawl the first day, which was mostly lounging around while we were in the port of Boston (where we all embarked) and then while the cruise ship was traveling. I continued the shawl on Friday 27 July, and then on Saturday 28 July we landed in the port of St. John’s, New Brunswick. I chose to take a bus to Fredericton, to see the city hall, learn some history, and visit Yarns on York to meet local knitters and take a class on Newfoundland Mittens, aka “Newfie Mitts”. I got a bit done, but I believe I will rip out what I’ve done, make it smaller, and do the “windows” in the multicolored black and the background/wrists in the green. Still, here’s the progress shot, even though this will be frogged later:

On Sunday, I chose to do one of the two classes offered at The Loop in Halifax. The class I chose was one on how to do thrummed mittens, and the instructor Mimi was amazing. I did not take the class for the Bermuda Scarf/shawl, but I heard that the 2nd class was not as great, probably due to the first class running very late and Mimi running out of steam (teaching 2 classes in one day is tough, and who knows if she even had time to eat!). Given that, I’m glad I did not stay for the 2nd class (I did buy the pattern and yarn for it, so I can make the shawl), and instead did a 10-mile bicycle tour of Halifax. At any rate, I did enjoy working on the thrummed mittens, and here is my progress (I haven’t done anything with it since that weekend):

And the inside looks like this:

I learned lots of great tips from Mimi, like using a wool with a lot of lanolin in it, so it’s “sticky” and holds the thrums in better.

There was a lot of knitting that weekend, and in the few weeks that followed. This past week I finished knitting Tony’s scarf, after having to spin more yarn and buy more on Cape Cod while helping a friend do the Pan-Mass Challenge at the beginning of August. I still have to finish the scarf by weaving in the ends and blocking it, but it’s finally the right length, and Tony will be able to use it this coming fall/winter.

I also finished the scarf I was weaving (the June Spunky Eclectic weaving club), but I still need to block it before taking a picture of it. A new weaving club for August is on its way, so I’ll have something new to warp soon.

I am not going on a plane until the end of September, and my next travel is scheduled for mid-September, around Rosh Hashanah – I will be going to the New York City area for 2 weekends (coming back to Boston for a wedding in between). I hope to finish the Color Affection Shawl soon, and get pictures of both it and the woven scarf before long.
It was very important that I write my previous post when I did – Wed 25 July – because the very next day, of the fun I had, but I’d also like to highlight the knitting I did.

I started knitting a Color Affection shawl, in some Novita Polku that I bought in Finland in May. I started the shawl the first day, which was mostly lounging around while we were in the port of Boston (where we all embarked) and then while the cruise ship was traveling. I continued the shawl on Friday 27 July, and then on Saturday 28 July we landed in the port of St. John’s, New Brunswick. I chose to take a bus to Fredericton, to see the city hall, learn some history, and visit Yarns on York to meet local knitters and take a class on Newfoundland Mittens, aka “Newfie Mitts”. I got a bit done, but I believe I will rip out what I’ve done, make it smaller, and do the “windows” in the multicolored black and the background/wrists in the green. Still, here’s the progress shot, even though this will be frogged later:

On Sunday, I chose to do one of the two classes offered at The Loop in Halifax. The class I chose was one on how to do thrummed mittens, and the instructor Mimi was amazing. I did not take the class for the Bermuda Scarf/shawl, but I heard that the 2nd class was not as great, probably due to the first class running very late and Mimi running out of steam (teaching 2 classes in one day is tough, and who knows if she even had time to eat!). Given that, I’m glad I did not stay for the 2nd class (I did buy the pattern and yarn for it, so I can make the shawl), and instead did a 10-mile bicycle tour of Halifax. At any rate, I did enjoy working on the thrummed mittens, and here is my progress (I haven’t done anything with it since that weekend):

And the inside looks like this:

I learned lots of great tips from Mimi, like using a wool with a lot of lanolin in it, so it’s “sticky” and holds the thrums in better.

There was a lot of knitting that weekend, and in the few weeks that followed. This past week I finished knitting Tony’s scarf, after having to spin more yarn and buy more on Cape Cod while helping a friend do the Pan-Mass Challenge at the beginning of August. I still have to finish the scarf by weaving in the ends and blocking it, but it’s finally the right length, and Tony will be able to use it this coming fall/winter.

I also finished the scarf I was weaving (the June Spunky Eclectic weaving club), but I still need to block it before taking a picture of it. A new weaving club for August is on its way, so I’ll have something new to warp soon.

I am not going on a plane until the end of September, and my next travel is scheduled for mid-September, around Rosh Hashanah – I will be going to the New York City area for 2 weekends (coming back to Boston for a wedding in between). I hope to finish the Color Affection Shawl soon, and get pictures of
It was very important that I write my previous post when I did – Wed 25 July – because the very next day, of the fun I had, but I’d also like to highlight the knitting I did.

I started knitting a Color Affection shawl, in some Novita Polku that I bought in Finland in May. I started the shawl the first day, which was mostly lounging around while we were in the port of Boston (where we all embarked) and then while the cruise ship was traveling. I continued the shawl on Friday 27 July, and then on Saturday 28 July we landed in the port of St. John’s, New Brunswick. I chose to take a bus to Fredericton, to see the city hall, learn some history, and visit Yarns on York to meet local knitters and take a class on Newfoundland Mittens, aka “Newfie Mitts”. I got a bit done, but I believe I will rip out what I’ve done, make it smaller, and do the “windows” in the multicolored black and the background/wrists in the green. Still, here’s the progress shot, even though this will be frogged later:

On Sunday, I chose to do one of the two classes offered at The Loop in Halifax. The class I chose was one on how to do thrummed mittens, and the instructor Mimi was amazing. I did not take the class for the Bermuda Scarf/shawl, but I heard that the 2nd class was not as great, probably due to the first class running very late and Mimi running out of steam (teaching 2 classes in one day is tough, and who knows if she even had time to eat!). Given that, I’m glad I did not stay for the 2nd class (I did buy the pattern and yarn for it, so I can make the shawl), and instead did a 10-mile bicycle tour of Halifax. At any rate, I did enjoy working on the thrummed mittens, and here is my progress (I haven’t done anything with it since that weekend):

And the inside looks like this:

I learned lots of great tips from Mimi, like using a wool with a lot of lanolin in it, so it’s “sticky” and holds the thrums in better.

There was a lot of knitting that weekend, and in the few weeks that followed. This past week I finished knitting Tony’s scarf, after having to spin more yarn and buy more on Cape Cod while helping a friend do the Pan-Mass Challenge at the beginning of August. I still have to finish the scarf by weaving in the ends and blocking it, but it’s finally the right length, and Tony will be able to use it this coming fall/winter.

I also finished the scarf I was weaving (the June Spunky Eclectic weaving club), but I still need to block it before taking a picture of it. A new weaving club for August is on its way, so I’ll have something new to warp soon.

I am not going on a plane until the end of September, and my next travel is scheduled for mid-September, around Rosh Hashanah – I will be going to the New York City area for 2 weekends (coming back to Boston for a wedding in between). I hope to finish the Color Affection Shawl soon, and get pictures of both it and the woven scarf before long.
It was very important that I write my previous post when I did – Wed 25 July – because the very next day, of the fun I had, but I’d also like to highlight the knitting I did.

I started knitting a Color Affection shawl, in some Novita Polku that I bought in Finland in May. I started the shawl the first day, which was mostly lounging around while we were in the port of Boston (where we all embarked) and then while the cruise ship was traveling. I continued the shawl on Friday 27 July, and then on Saturday 28 July we landed in the port of St. John’s, New Brunswick. I chose to take a bus to Fredericton, to see the city hall, learn some history, and visit Yarns on York to meet local knitters and take a class on Newfoundland Mittens, aka “Newfie Mitts”. I got a bit done, but I believe I will rip out what I’ve done, make it smaller, and do the “windows” in the multicolored black and the background/wrists in the green. Still, here’s the progress shot, even though this will be frogged later:

On Sunday, I chose to do one of the two classes offered at The Loop in Halifax. The class I chose was one on how to do thrummed mittens, and the instructor Mimi was amazing. I did not take the class for the Bermuda Scarf/shawl, but I heard that the 2nd class was not as great, probably due to the first class running very late and Mimi running out of steam (teaching 2 classes in one day is tough, and who knows if she even had time to eat!). Given that, I’m glad I did not stay for the 2nd class (I did buy the pattern and yarn for it, so I can make the shawl), and instead did a 10-mile bicycle tour of Halifax. At any rate, I did enjoy working on the thrummed mittens, and here is my progress (I haven’t done anything with it since that weekend):

And the inside looks like this:

I learned lots of great tips from Mimi, like using a wool with a lot of lanolin in it, so it’s “sticky” and holds the thrums in better.

There was a lot of knitting that weekend, and in the few weeks that followed. This past week I finished knitting Tony’s scarf, after having to spin more yarn and buy more on Cape Cod while helping a friend do the Pan-Mass Challenge at the beginning of August. I still have to finish the scarf by weaving in the ends and blocking it, but it’s finally the right length, and Tony will be able to use it this coming fall/winter.

I also finished the scarf I was weaving (the June Spunky Eclectic weaving club), but I still need to block it before taking a picture of it. A new weaving club for August is on its way, so I’ll have something new to warp soon.

I am not going on a plane until the end of September, and my next travel is scheduled for mid-September, around Rosh Hashanah – I will be going to the New York City area for 2 weekends (coming back to Boston for a wedding in between). I hope to finish the Color Affection Shawl soon, and get pictures of
So, online I mentioned in the last post that I had finished 2 objects – side effects and the June Spunky Eclectic Weaving Club, which I opted to do a table runner. It was my first experience with using a pick-up stick. I’m happy with how both came out (especially after ironing the scarf…I don’t even iron clothes!).

Crooked Little Tony scarf

Pick-up-sticks table runner

I’m thrilled with how drapey the table runner is. My only problem is that I have no idea what to do with it – it’s 33 inches by 22 inches. It’s too short for a scarf, but I don’t have an appropriate table to use it on. It’s a superwash merino/bamboo/viscose blend. Folded over a towel bar it’d make a very long kitchen or guest towel, I guess?

Any ideas?
It was very important that I write my previous post when I did – Wed 25 July – because the very next day, of the fun I had, but I’d also like to highlight the knitting I did.

I started knitting a Color Affection shawl, in some Novita Polku that I bought in Finland in May. I started the shawl the first day, which was mostly lounging around while we were in the port of Boston (where we all embarked) and then while the cruise ship was traveling. I continued the shawl on Friday 27 July, and then on Saturday 28 July we landed in the port of St. John’s, New Brunswick. I chose to take a bus to Fredericton, to see the city hall, learn some history, and visit Yarns on York to meet local knitters and take a class on Newfoundland Mittens, aka “Newfie Mitts”. I got a bit done, but I believe I will rip out what I’ve done, make it smaller, and do the “windows” in the multicolored black and the background/wrists in the green. Still, here’s the progress shot, even though this will be frogged later:

On Sunday, I chose to do one of the two classes offered at The Loop in Halifax. The class I chose was one on how to do thrummed mittens, and the instructor Mimi was amazing. I did not take the class for the Bermuda Scarf/shawl, but I heard that the 2nd class was not as great, probably due to the first class running very late and Mimi running out of steam (teaching 2 classes in one day is tough, and who knows if she even had time to eat!). Given that, I’m glad I did not stay for the 2nd class (I did buy the pattern and yarn for it, so I can make the shawl), and instead did a 10-mile bicycle tour of Halifax. At any rate, I did enjoy working on the thrummed mittens, and here is my progress (I haven’t done anything with it since that weekend):

And the inside looks like this:

I learned lots of great tips from Mimi, like using a wool with a lot of lanolin in it, so it’s “sticky” and holds the thrums in better.

There was a lot of knitting that weekend, and in the few weeks that followed. This past week I finished knitting Tony’s scarf, after having to spin more yarn and buy more on Cape Cod while helping a friend do the Pan-Mass Challenge at the beginning of August. I still have to finish the scarf by weaving in the ends and blocking it, but it’s finally the right length, and Tony will be able to use it this coming fall/winter.

I also finished the scarf I was weaving (the June Spunky Eclectic weaving club), but I still need to block it before taking a picture of it. A new weaving club for August is on its way, so I’ll have something new to warp soon.

I am not going on a plane until the end of September, and my next travel is scheduled for mid-September, around Rosh Hashanah – I will be going to the New York City area for 2 weekends (coming back to Boston for a wedding in between). I hope to finish the Color Affection Shawl soon, and get pictures of both it and the woven scarf before long.
It was very important that I write my previous post when I did – Wed 25 July – because the very next day, of the fun I had, but I’d also like to highlight the knitting I did.

I started knitting a Color Affection shawl, in some Novita Polku that I bought in Finland in May. I started the shawl the first day, which was mostly lounging around while we were in the port of Boston (where we all embarked) and then while the cruise ship was traveling. I continued the shawl on Friday 27 July, and then on Saturday 28 July we landed in the port of St. John’s, New Brunswick. I chose to take a bus to Fredericton, to see the city hall, learn some history, and visit Yarns on York to meet local knitters and take a class on Newfoundland Mittens, aka “Newfie Mitts”. I got a bit done, but I believe I will rip out what I’ve done, make it smaller, and do the “windows” in the multicolored black and the background/wrists in the green. Still, here’s the progress shot, even though this will be frogged later:

On Sunday, I chose to do one of the two classes offered at The Loop in Halifax. The class I chose was one on how to do thrummed mittens, and the instructor Mimi was amazing. I did not take the class for the Bermuda Scarf/shawl, but I heard that the 2nd class was not as great, probably due to the first class running very late and Mimi running out of steam (teaching 2 classes in one day is tough, and who knows if she even had time to eat!). Given that, I’m glad I did not stay for the 2nd class (I did buy the pattern and yarn for it, so I can make the shawl), and instead did a 10-mile bicycle tour of Halifax. At any rate, I did enjoy working on the thrummed mittens, and here is my progress (I haven’t done anything with it since that weekend):

And the inside looks like this:

I learned lots of great tips from Mimi, like using a wool with a lot of lanolin in it, so it’s “sticky” and holds the thrums in better.

There was a lot of knitting that weekend, and in the few weeks that followed. This past week I finished knitting Tony’s scarf, after having to spin more yarn and buy more on Cape Cod while helping a friend do the Pan-Mass Challenge at the beginning of August. I still have to finish the scarf by weaving in the ends and blocking it, but it’s finally the right length, and Tony will be able to use it this coming fall/winter.

I also finished the scarf I was weaving (the June Spunky Eclectic weaving club), but I still need to block it before taking a picture of it. A new weaving club for August is on its way, so I’ll have something new to warp soon.

I am not going on a plane until the end of September, and my next travel is scheduled for mid-September, around Rosh Hashanah – I will be going to the New York City area for 2 weekends (coming back to Boston for a wedding in between). I hope to finish the Color Affection Shawl soon, and get pictures of
So, online I mentioned in the last post that I had finished 2 objects – side effects and the June Spunky Eclectic Weaving Club, which I opted to do a table runner. It was my first experience with using a pick-up stick. I’m happy with how both came out (especially after ironing the scarf…I don’t even iron clothes!).

Crooked Little Tony scarf

Pick-up-sticks table runner

I’m thrilled with how drapey the table runner is. My only problem is that I have no idea what to do with it – it’s 33 inches by 22 inches. It’s too short for a scarf, but I don’t have an appropriate table to use it on. It’s a superwash merino/bamboo/viscose blend. Folded over a towel bar it’d make a very long kitchen or guest towel, I guess?

Any ideas?
So, , which I opted to do a table runner. It was my first experience with using a pick-up stick. I’m happy with how both came out (especially after ironing the scarf…I don’t even iron clothes!).

Crooked Little Tony scarf

Pick-up-sticks table runner

I’m thrilled with how drapey the table runner is. My only problem is that I have no idea what to do with it – it’s 33 inches by 22 inches. It’s too short for a scarf, but I don’t have an appropriate table to use it on. It’s a superwash merino/bamboo/viscose blend.
It was very important that I write my previous post when I did – Wed 25 July – because the very next day, of the fun I had, but I’d also like to highlight the knitting I did.

I started knitting a Color Affection shawl, in some Novita Polku that I bought in Finland in May. I started the shawl the first day, which was mostly lounging around while we were in the port of Boston (where we all embarked) and then while the cruise ship was traveling. I continued the shawl on Friday 27 July, and then on Saturday 28 July we landed in the port of St. John’s, New Brunswick. I chose to take a bus to Fredericton, to see the city hall, learn some history, and visit Yarns on York to meet local knitters and take a class on Newfoundland Mittens, aka “Newfie Mitts”. I got a bit done, but I believe I will rip out what I’ve done, make it smaller, and do the “windows” in the multicolored black and the background/wrists in the green. Still, here’s the progress shot, even though this will be frogged later:

On Sunday, I chose to do one of the two classes offered at The Loop in Halifax. The class I chose was one on how to do thrummed mittens, and the instructor Mimi was amazing. I did not take the class for the Bermuda Scarf/shawl, but I heard that the 2nd class was not as great, probably due to the first class running very late and Mimi running out of steam (teaching 2 classes in one day is tough, and who knows if she even had time to eat!). Given that, I’m glad I did not stay for the 2nd class (I did buy the pattern and yarn for it, so I can make the shawl), and instead did a 10-mile bicycle tour of Halifax. At any rate, I did enjoy working on the thrummed mittens, and here is my progress (I haven’t done anything with it since that weekend):

And the inside looks like this:

I learned lots of great tips from Mimi, like using a wool with a lot of lanolin in it, so it’s “sticky” and holds the thrums in better.

There was a lot of knitting that weekend, and in the few weeks that followed. This past week I finished knitting Tony’s scarf, after having to spin more yarn and buy more on Cape Cod while helping a friend do the Pan-Mass Challenge at the beginning of August. I still have to finish the scarf by weaving in the ends and blocking it, but it’s finally the right length, and Tony will be able to use it this coming fall/winter.

I also finished the scarf I was weaving (the June Spunky Eclectic weaving club), but I still need to block it before taking a picture of it. A new weaving club for August is on its way, so I’ll have something new to warp soon.

I am not going on a plane until the end of September, and my next travel is scheduled for mid-September, around Rosh Hashanah – I will be going to the New York City area for 2 weekends (coming back to Boston for a wedding in between). I hope to finish the Color Affection Shawl soon, and get pictures of both it and the woven scarf before long.
It was very important that I write my previous post when I did – Wed 25 July – because the very next day, of the fun I had, but I’d also like to highlight the knitting I did.

I started knitting a Color Affection shawl, in some Novita Polku that I bought in Finland in May. I started the shawl the first day, which was mostly lounging around while we were in the port of Boston (where we all embarked) and then while the cruise ship was traveling. I continued the shawl on Friday 27 July, and then on Saturday 28 July we landed in the port of St. John’s, New Brunswick. I chose to take a bus to Fredericton, to see the city hall, learn some history, and visit Yarns on York to meet local knitters and take a class on Newfoundland Mittens, aka “Newfie Mitts”. I got a bit done, but I believe I will rip out what I’ve done, make it smaller, and do the “windows” in the multicolored black and the background/wrists in the green. Still, here’s the progress shot, even though this will be frogged later:

On Sunday, I chose to do one of the two classes offered at The Loop in Halifax. The class I chose was one on how to do thrummed mittens, and the instructor Mimi was amazing. I did not take the class for the Bermuda Scarf/shawl, but I heard that the 2nd class was not as great, probably due to the first class running very late and Mimi running out of steam (teaching 2 classes in one day is tough, and who knows if she even had time to eat!). Given that, I’m glad I did not stay for the 2nd class (I did buy the pattern and yarn for it, so I can make the shawl), and instead did a 10-mile bicycle tour of Halifax. At any rate, I did enjoy working on the thrummed mittens, and here is my progress (I haven’t done anything with it since that weekend):

And the inside looks like this:

I learned lots of great tips from Mimi, like using a wool with a lot of lanolin in it, so it’s “sticky” and holds the thrums in better.

There was a lot of knitting that weekend, and in the few weeks that followed. This past week I finished knitting Tony’s scarf, after having to spin more yarn and buy more on Cape Cod while helping a friend do the Pan-Mass Challenge at the beginning of August. I still have to finish the scarf by weaving in the ends and blocking it, but it’s finally the right length, and Tony will be able to use it this coming fall/winter.

I also finished the scarf I was weaving (the June Spunky Eclectic weaving club), but I still need to block it before taking a picture of it. A new weaving club for August is on its way, so I’ll have something new to warp soon.

I am not going on a plane until the end of September, and my next travel is scheduled for mid-September, around Rosh Hashanah – I will be going to the New York City area for 2 weekends (coming back to Boston for a wedding in between). I hope to finish the Color Affection Shawl soon, and get pictures of
So, online I mentioned in the last post that I had finished 2 objects – side effects and the June Spunky Eclectic Weaving Club, which I opted to do a table runner. It was my first experience with using a pick-up stick. I’m happy with how both came out (especially after ironing the scarf…I don’t even iron clothes!).

Crooked Little Tony scarf

Pick-up-sticks table runner

I’m thrilled with how drapey the table runner is. My only problem is that I have no idea what to do with it – it’s 33 inches by 22 inches. It’s too short for a scarf, but I don’t have an appropriate table to use it on. It’s a superwash merino/bamboo/viscose blend. Folded over a towel bar it’d make a very long kitchen or guest towel, I guess?

Any ideas?
So, , which I opted to do a table runner. It was my first experience with using a pick-up stick. I’m happy with how both came out (especially after ironing the scarf…I don’t even iron clothes!).

Crooked Little Tony scarf

Pick-up-sticks table runner

I’m thrilled with how drapey the table runner is. My only problem is that I have no idea what to do with it – it’s 33 inches by 22 inches. It’s too short for a scarf, but I don’t have an appropriate table to use it on. It’s a superwash merino/bamboo/viscose blend.
I am so excited about tonight’s Common Cod Fiber Guild Meeting featuring Pam Parmal of the Boston Museum of Fine Arts talking about the collection strategy for textiles and fashion. And since I last wrote, gonorrhea I have finished a few objects…..

The first is another Hoot Cardigan, this time made out of Universal Yarns Supreme Cotton Batik, that I picked up in Charlotte, North Carolina earlier this year. I love the Supreme Cotton line from Universal yarns, because it is super soft. Unfortunately, I have only been able to find it in LYS in North Carolina….I hear that is changing soon, though! Here’s the cardigan, made for a friend of mine who just had his first son:

And then there’s the August Weaving Club from Spunky Eclectic – cotton dishcloths! I did not follow the pattern; instead I tried out a herringbone/pinwheel pattern. It came out wonderfully!

I ended up making 2 towels, one a bit shorter because I ran out of warp, but here’s the shorter one hanging from a peg next to our sink (please excuse the dirty dishes and Guinness cans to be rinsed).

The bigger one is in constant use as Tony’s “potato cozy”. That’s not a euphemism, Tony eats a baked potato like one would eat an apple, whole and uncut. Because it’s hot, he uses a towel wrapped around it to hold it.

And finally, the pièce de résistance. This is a Color Affection Shawl that I made from 3 different skeins of Novita’s Polku yarn, which I acquired in Finland earlier this year.

Here’s a close-up shot of the ‘center’ of this assymmetrical shawl:

And a little zoomed out:

Here’s the full-size shot:

I also spun up a “fractal 3-ply” which I will write about next time.

Finished Objects!

It was very important that I write my previous post when I did – Wed 25 July – because the very next day, of the fun I had, but I’d also like to highlight the knitting I did.

I started knitting a Color Affection shawl, in some Novita Polku that I bought in Finland in May. I started the shawl the first day, which was mostly lounging around while we were in the port of Boston (where we all embarked) and then while the cruise ship was traveling. I continued the shawl on Friday 27 July, and then on Saturday 28 July we landed in the port of St. John’s, New Brunswick. I chose to take a bus to Fredericton, to see the city hall, learn some history, and visit Yarns on York to meet local knitters and take a class on Newfoundland Mittens, aka “Newfie Mitts”. I got a bit done, but I believe I will rip out what I’ve done, make it smaller, and do the “windows” in the multicolored black and the background/wrists in the green. Still, here’s the progress shot, even though this will be frogged later:

On Sunday, I chose to do one of the two classes offered at The Loop in Halifax. The class I chose was one on how to do thrummed mittens, and the instructor Mimi was amazing. I did not take the class for the Bermuda Scarf/shawl, but I heard that the 2nd class was not as great, probably due to the first class running very late and Mimi running out of steam (teaching 2 classes in one day is tough, and who knows if she even had time to eat!). Given that, I’m glad I did not stay for the 2nd class (I did buy the pattern and yarn for it, so I can make the shawl), and instead did a 10-mile bicycle tour of Halifax. At any rate, I did enjoy working on the thrummed mittens, and here is my progress (I haven’t done anything with it since that weekend):

And the inside looks like this:

I learned lots of great tips from Mimi, like using a wool with a lot of lanolin in it, so it’s “sticky” and holds the thrums in better.

There was a lot of knitting that weekend, and in the few weeks that followed. This past week I finished knitting Tony’s scarf, after having to spin more yarn and buy more on Cape Cod while helping a friend do the Pan-Mass Challenge at the beginning of August. I still have to finish the scarf by weaving in the ends and blocking it, but it’s finally the right length, and Tony will be able to use it this coming fall/winter.

I also finished the scarf I was weaving (the June Spunky Eclectic weaving club), but I still need to block it before taking a picture of it. A new weaving club for August is on its way, so I’ll have something new to warp soon.

I am not going on a plane until the end of September, and my next travel is scheduled for mid-September, around Rosh Hashanah – I will be going to the New York City area for 2 weekends (coming back to Boston for a wedding in between). I hope to finish the Color Affection Shawl soon, and get pictures of both it and the woven scarf before long.
It was very important that I write my previous post when I did – Wed 25 July – because the very next day, of the fun I had, but I’d also like to highlight the knitting I did.

I started knitting a Color Affection shawl, in some Novita Polku that I bought in Finland in May. I started the shawl the first day, which was mostly lounging around while we were in the port of Boston (where we all embarked) and then while the cruise ship was traveling. I continued the shawl on Friday 27 July, and then on Saturday 28 July we landed in the port of St. John’s, New Brunswick. I chose to take a bus to Fredericton, to see the city hall, learn some history, and visit Yarns on York to meet local knitters and take a class on Newfoundland Mittens, aka “Newfie Mitts”. I got a bit done, but I believe I will rip out what I’ve done, make it smaller, and do the “windows” in the multicolored black and the background/wrists in the green. Still, here’s the progress shot, even though this will be frogged later:

On Sunday, I chose to do one of the two classes offered at The Loop in Halifax. The class I chose was one on how to do thrummed mittens, and the instructor Mimi was amazing. I did not take the class for the Bermuda Scarf/shawl, but I heard that the 2nd class was not as great, probably due to the first class running very late and Mimi running out of steam (teaching 2 classes in one day is tough, and who knows if she even had time to eat!). Given that, I’m glad I did not stay for the 2nd class (I did buy the pattern and yarn for it, so I can make the shawl), and instead did a 10-mile bicycle tour of Halifax. At any rate, I did enjoy working on the thrummed mittens, and here is my progress (I haven’t done anything with it since that weekend):

And the inside looks like this:

I learned lots of great tips from Mimi, like using a wool with a lot of lanolin in it, so it’s “sticky” and holds the thrums in better.

There was a lot of knitting that weekend, and in the few weeks that followed. This past week I finished knitting Tony’s scarf, after having to spin more yarn and buy more on Cape Cod while helping a friend do the Pan-Mass Challenge at the beginning of August. I still have to finish the scarf by weaving in the ends and blocking it, but it’s finally the right length, and Tony will be able to use it this coming fall/winter.

I also finished the scarf I was weaving (the June Spunky Eclectic weaving club), but I still need to block it before taking a picture of it. A new weaving club for August is on its way, so I’ll have something new to warp soon.

I am not going on a plane until the end of September, and my next travel is scheduled for mid-September, around Rosh Hashanah – I will be going to the New York City area for 2 weekends (coming back to Boston for a wedding in between). I hope to finish the Color Affection Shawl soon, and get pictures of both it and the woven scarf before long.
It was very important that I write my previous post when I did – Wed 25 July – because the very next day, of the fun I had, but I’d also like to highlight the knitting I did.

I started knitting a Color Affection shawl, in some Novita Polku that I bought in Finland in May. I started the shawl the first day, which was mostly lounging around while we were in the port of Boston (where we all embarked) and then while the cruise ship was traveling. I continued the shawl on Friday 27 July, and then on Saturday 28 July we landed in the port of St. John’s, New Brunswick. I chose to take a bus to Fredericton, to see the city hall, learn some history, and visit Yarns on York to meet local knitters and take a class on Newfoundland Mittens, aka “Newfie Mitts”. I got a bit done, but I believe I will rip out what I’ve done, make it smaller, and do the “windows” in the multicolored black and the background/wrists in the green. Still, here’s the progress shot, even though this will be frogged later:

On Sunday, I chose to do one of the two classes offered at The Loop in Halifax. The class I chose was one on how to do thrummed mittens, and the instructor Mimi was amazing. I did not take the class for the Bermuda Scarf/shawl, but I heard that the 2nd class was not as great, probably due to the first class running very late and Mimi running out of steam (teaching 2 classes in one day is tough, and who knows if she even had time to eat!). Given that, I’m glad I did not stay for the 2nd class (I did buy the pattern and yarn for it, so I can make the shawl), and instead did a 10-mile bicycle tour of Halifax. At any rate, I did enjoy working on the thrummed mittens, and here is my progress (I haven’t done anything with it since that weekend):

And the inside looks like this:

I learned lots of great tips from Mimi, like using a wool with a lot of lanolin in it, so it’s “sticky” and holds the thrums in better.

There was a lot of knitting that weekend, and in the few weeks that followed. This past week I finished knitting Tony’s scarf, after having to spin more yarn and buy more on Cape Cod while helping a friend do the Pan-Mass Challenge at the beginning of August. I still have to finish the scarf by weaving in the ends and blocking it, but it’s finally the right length, and Tony will be able to use it this coming fall/winter.

I also finished the scarf I was weaving (the June Spunky Eclectic weaving club), but I still need to block it before taking a picture of it. A new weaving club for August is on its way, so I’ll have something new to warp soon.

I am not going on a plane until the end of September, and my next travel is scheduled for mid-September, around Rosh Hashanah – I will be going to the New York City area for 2 weekends (coming back to Boston for a wedding in between). I hope to finish the Color Affection Shawl soon, and get pictures of
It was very important that I write my previous post when I did – Wed 25 July – because the very next day, of the fun I had, but I’d also like to highlight the knitting I did.

I started knitting a Color Affection shawl, in some Novita Polku that I bought in Finland in May. I started the shawl the first day, which was mostly lounging around while we were in the port of Boston (where we all embarked) and then while the cruise ship was traveling. I continued the shawl on Friday 27 July, and then on Saturday 28 July we landed in the port of St. John’s, New Brunswick. I chose to take a bus to Fredericton, to see the city hall, learn some history, and visit Yarns on York to meet local knitters and take a class on Newfoundland Mittens, aka “Newfie Mitts”. I got a bit done, but I believe I will rip out what I’ve done, make it smaller, and do the “windows” in the multicolored black and the background/wrists in the green. Still, here’s the progress shot, even though this will be frogged later:

On Sunday, I chose to do one of the two classes offered at The Loop in Halifax. The class I chose was one on how to do thrummed mittens, and the instructor Mimi was amazing. I did not take the class for the Bermuda Scarf/shawl, but I heard that the 2nd class was not as great, probably due to the first class running very late and Mimi running out of steam (teaching 2 classes in one day is tough, and who knows if she even had time to eat!). Given that, I’m glad I did not stay for the 2nd class (I did buy the pattern and yarn for it, so I can make the shawl), and instead did a 10-mile bicycle tour of Halifax. At any rate, I did enjoy working on the thrummed mittens, and here is my progress (I haven’t done anything with it since that weekend):

And the inside looks like this:

I learned lots of great tips from Mimi, like using a wool with a lot of lanolin in it, so it’s “sticky” and holds the thrums in better.

There was a lot of knitting that weekend, and in the few weeks that followed. This past week I finished knitting Tony’s scarf, after having to spin more yarn and buy more on Cape Cod while helping a friend do the Pan-Mass Challenge at the beginning of August. I still have to finish the scarf by weaving in the ends and blocking it, but it’s finally the right length, and Tony will be able to use it this coming fall/winter.

I also finished the scarf I was weaving (the June Spunky Eclectic weaving club), but I still need to block it before taking a picture of it. A new weaving club for August is on its way, so I’ll have something new to warp soon.

I am not going on a plane until the end of September, and my next travel is scheduled for mid-September, around Rosh Hashanah – I will be going to the New York City area for 2 weekends (coming back to Boston for a wedding in between). I hope to finish the Color Affection Shawl soon, and get pictures of both it and the woven scarf before long.
It was very important that I write my previous post when I did – Wed 25 July – because the very next day, of the fun I had, but I’d also like to highlight the knitting I did.

I started knitting a Color Affection shawl, in some Novita Polku that I bought in Finland in May. I started the shawl the first day, which was mostly lounging around while we were in the port of Boston (where we all embarked) and then while the cruise ship was traveling. I continued the shawl on Friday 27 July, and then on Saturday 28 July we landed in the port of St. John’s, New Brunswick. I chose to take a bus to Fredericton, to see the city hall, learn some history, and visit Yarns on York to meet local knitters and take a class on Newfoundland Mittens, aka “Newfie Mitts”. I got a bit done, but I believe I will rip out what I’ve done, make it smaller, and do the “windows” in the multicolored black and the background/wrists in the green. Still, here’s the progress shot, even though this will be frogged later:

On Sunday, I chose to do one of the two classes offered at The Loop in Halifax. The class I chose was one on how to do thrummed mittens, and the instructor Mimi was amazing. I did not take the class for the Bermuda Scarf/shawl, but I heard that the 2nd class was not as great, probably due to the first class running very late and Mimi running out of steam (teaching 2 classes in one day is tough, and who knows if she even had time to eat!). Given that, I’m glad I did not stay for the 2nd class (I did buy the pattern and yarn for it, so I can make the shawl), and instead did a 10-mile bicycle tour of Halifax. At any rate, I did enjoy working on the thrummed mittens, and here is my progress (I haven’t done anything with it since that weekend):

And the inside looks like this:

I learned lots of great tips from Mimi, like using a wool with a lot of lanolin in it, so it’s “sticky” and holds the thrums in better.

There was a lot of knitting that weekend, and in the few weeks that followed. This past week I finished knitting Tony’s scarf, after having to spin more yarn and buy more on Cape Cod while helping a friend do the Pan-Mass Challenge at the beginning of August. I still have to finish the scarf by weaving in the ends and blocking it, but it’s finally the right length, and Tony will be able to use it this coming fall/winter.

I also finished the scarf I was weaving (the June Spunky Eclectic weaving club), but I still need to block it before taking a picture of it. A new weaving club for August is on its way, so I’ll have something new to warp soon.

I am not going on a plane until the end of September, and my next travel is scheduled for mid-September, around Rosh Hashanah – I will be going to the New York City area for 2 weekends (coming back to Boston for a wedding in between). I hope to finish the Color Affection Shawl soon, and get pictures of
So, online I mentioned in the last post that I had finished 2 objects – side effects and the June Spunky Eclectic Weaving Club, which I opted to do a table runner. It was my first experience with using a pick-up stick. I’m happy with how both came out (especially after ironing the scarf…I don’t even iron clothes!).

Crooked Little Tony scarf

Pick-up-sticks table runner

I’m thrilled with how drapey the table runner is. My only problem is that I have no idea what to do with it – it’s 33 inches by 22 inches. It’s too short for a scarf, but I don’t have an appropriate table to use it on. It’s a superwash merino/bamboo/viscose blend. Folded over a towel bar it’d make a very long kitchen or guest towel, I guess?

Any ideas?

More Travel Knitting, Finishing Tony’s Scarf Again

It was very important that I write my previous post when I did – Wed 25 July – because the very next day, of the fun I had, but I’d also like to highlight the knitting I did.

I started knitting a Color Affection shawl, in some Novita Polku that I bought in Finland in May. I started the shawl the first day, which was mostly lounging around while we were in the port of Boston (where we all embarked) and then while the cruise ship was traveling. I continued the shawl on Friday 27 July, and then on Saturday 28 July we landed in the port of St. John’s, New Brunswick. I chose to take a bus to Fredericton, to see the city hall, learn some history, and visit Yarns on York to meet local knitters and take a class on Newfoundland Mittens, aka “Newfie Mitts”. I got a bit done, but I believe I will rip out what I’ve done, make it smaller, and do the “windows” in the multicolored black and the background/wrists in the green. Still, here’s the progress shot, even though this will be frogged later:

On Sunday, I chose to do one of the two classes offered at The Loop in Halifax. The class I chose was one on how to do thrummed mittens, and the instructor Mimi was amazing. I did not take the class for the Bermuda Scarf/shawl, but I heard that the 2nd class was not as great, probably due to the first class running very late and Mimi running out of steam (teaching 2 classes in one day is tough, and who knows if she even had time to eat!). Given that, I’m glad I did not stay for the 2nd class (I did buy the pattern and yarn for it, so I can make the shawl), and instead did a 10-mile bicycle tour of Halifax. At any rate, I did enjoy working on the thrummed mittens, and here is my progress (I haven’t done anything with it since that weekend):

And the inside looks like this:

I learned lots of great tips from Mimi, like using a wool with a lot of lanolin in it, so it’s “sticky” and holds the thrums in better.

There was a lot of knitting that weekend, and in the few weeks that followed. This past week I finished knitting Tony’s scarf, after having to spin more yarn and buy more on Cape Cod while helping a friend do the Pan-Mass Challenge at the beginning of August. I still have to finish the scarf by weaving in the ends and blocking it, but it’s finally the right length, and Tony will be able to use it this coming fall/winter.

I also finished the scarf I was weaving (the June Spunky Eclectic weaving club), but I still need to block it before taking a picture of it. A new weaving club for August is on its way, so I’ll have something new to warp soon.

I am not going on a plane until the end of September, and my next travel is scheduled for mid-September, around Rosh Hashanah – I will be going to the New York City area for 2 weekends (coming back to Boston for a wedding in between). I hope to finish the Color Affection Shawl soon, and get pictures of both it and the woven scarf before long.

Travel Knitting

It has been almost a month since my last post on my crafty goings-on. Since then I have gone to Finland (click for pictures) and Charlotte, to speak at conferences. I bought yarn in both places, and have done a lot of knitting and spinning while on planes, in airports, and generally in the cities themselves.

Tony’s Crooked Little Scarf has gotten bigger, and while it’s not quite finished yet, it is over 32 inches long and you can see that the ball of yarn is getting smaller and smaller:



The scarf is done when I run out of yarn. Next week I fly to Buenos Aires, so I think I will be able to finish the scarf on the plane.

While in North Carolina, I went to some yarn stores, and picked up some Universal Yarn’s Cotton Supreme Batik yarn. I was very excited to find this yarn again, I had found it a few years ago when I was in the Raleigh-Durham area and visited Shuttles Needles and Hooks. It’s very very soft, feels more like a microfiber acrylic than 100% cotton, and was perfect to make a baby sweater out of. So I bought some more for some more baby sweaters….

I bought the cotton batik at YarnHouse, where I bought a skein of ribbon yarn, that made this scarf:

The yarn was difficult to work with, and I’m not in love with the final product, but I am sure there is someone I know who will love it, that I can gift this scarf to.

At Charlotte Yarn I helped my (new) friend Carrie Stokes pick out some yarn for a Mobius shrug, and helped her with the pattern for it – specifically I helped start it. I also got out of my comfort zone and bought some ribbon yarns.

I bought some leopard-print ribbon yarn, to make a scarf for my friend Victoria:

If you look in the middle of the scarf you can see the ribbon itself (there was some left over at the end) and you can see the holes cut into it. I feel like I could re-create this yarn, with 30 meters of wide yarn and a hole punch. This yarn cost $20, and for 30 meters I find that somewhat expensive (although for a whole scarf, it’s totally reasonable). The yarn itself is called “tecido trico”.

Also for $20 I picked up some purple ribbon yarn, which I am making a scarf out of (but it is not done yet):

While in Finland, I bought some amazingly colored sock yarn, from Novita, a Finnish yarn company. I have already made a pair of socks from half of one skein, and I have several more skeins which I think I want to make a Color Affection with. Here are the socks I have made (well, I am *almost* done making):

In this picture I really played with the settings of my camera, and I love how it came out:

Here is the other, completed sock:

I went back and played with the settings, lowering the F-stop as I did for the in-progress sock. I love how this came out:

Compare and contrast the two photos….I think I’m learning how to take some great photos! If you are curious about the pattern, it’s just a regular stockinette sock, with a Sweet Tomato heel, and 2×2 ribbing with an i-cord cast-off for the leg of the sock.

I also finished the Monkey Socks. Here is the 2nd sock:

You probably don’t remember what the first sock looks like, which is OK, here’s the picture I took a while ago of it:

As you can tell, they do not match….but they are from the same yarn! (Superwash Correidale….)

I have been on a bit of a sock kick – I started and completed a pair of socks from Mind’s Eye Yarns, hand-dyed by Lucy. It’s 75% merino, 25% tencel, and they are extremely comfortable socks…again, the pattern is just simple stockinette, with ribbing at the leg, and the Sweet Tomato heel. At $20 for 100g, I can get 2 pairs of socks out of one skein, so it makes me happy:

I have been spinning a fair bit, too. I got some BFL from Spunky Eclectic in the “More Coffee” colorway a while back, and decided a few nights ago to spin on my wheel while I was home. I have spun up about a bobbin and a half, and probably am about halfway done with it:

Also from Spunky is the May 2012 fiber club – also BFL, in the “Big Bang” colorway. As soon as I saw it I knew I had to spin it, so even though I still have not spun the clubs from December through April, I went to work on the May colorway right away. I’m still in love:

While in Finland I started to get back in touch with my spindles, spinning some of the Falkland mini-braids I bought at the Wild and Wooly Festival in April in Vermont, from The Spun Monkey Fiber Shoppe. I have spun just about half of one package – which is 2.5 mini-braids:

I also spun some of the fluff I received in a Phat Fiber sampler box I bought in February (a mixed box):

There was a spindle in the box that I spun on, but I have to say that the Bosworth spindles and my Golding mini ringspindles I have are so perfectly balanced, that everything else feels like spinning with a boat anchor (including the bigger Golding ringspindles, sadly).

The Monkey socks were knit using handspun, and I still have a lot of it. Rather than make tons more socks from the same yarn, which would probably result in 8 more unmatched socks, I decided to make a Cecilia. I have not gotten very far yet, I’m about 33 rows in:

It has been almost a month since my last post on my crafty goings-on. Since then I have gone to Finland (click for pictures) and Charlotte, North Carolina, to speak at conferences. I bought yarn in both places, and have done a lot of knitting and spinning while on planes, in airports, and generally in the cities themselves.

Tony’s Crooked Little Scarf has gotten bigger, and while it’s not quite finished yet, it is over 32 inches long and you can see that the ball of yarn is getting smaller and smaller:



The scarf is done when I run out of yarn. Next week I fly to Buenos Aires, so I think I will be able to finish the scarf on the plane.

While in North Carolina, I went to some yarn stores, and picked up some Universal Yarn’s Cotton Supreme Batik yarn. I was very excited to find this yarn again, I had found it a few years ago when I was in the Raleigh-Durham area and visited Shuttles Needles and Hooks. It’s very very soft, feels more like a microfiber acrylic than 100% cotton, and was perfect to make a baby sweater out of. So I bought some more for some more baby sweaters….

I bought the cotton batik at YarnHouse, where I bought a skein of ribbon yarn, that made this scarf:

The yarn was difficult to work with, and I’m not in love with the final product, but I am sure there is someone I know who will love it, that I can gift this scarf to.

At Charlotte Yarn I helped my (new) friend Carrie Stokes pick out some yarn for a Mobius shrug, and helped her with the pattern for it – specifically I helped start it. I also got out of my comfort zone and bought some ribbon yarns.

I bought some leopard-print ribbon yarn, to make a scarf for my friend Victoria:

If you look in the middle of the scarf you can see the ribbon itself (there was some left over at the end) and you can see the holes cut into it. I feel like I could re-create this yarn, with 30 meters of wide yarn and a hole punch. This yarn cost $20, and for 30 meters I find that somewhat expensive (although for a whole scarf, it’s totally reasonable). The yarn itself is called “tecido trico”.

Also for $20 I picked up some purple ribbon yarn, which I am making a scarf out of (but it is not done yet):

While in Finland, I bought some amazingly colored sock yarn, from Novita, a Finnish yarn company. I have already made a pair of socks from half of one skein, and I have several more skeins which I think I want to make a Color Affection with. Here are the socks I have made (well, I am *almost* done making):

In this picture I really played with the settings of my camera, and I love how it came out:

Here is the other, completed sock:

I went back and played with the settings, lowering the F-stop as I did for the in-progress sock. I love how this came out:

Compare and contrast the two photos….I think I’m learning how to take some great photos! If you are curious about the pattern, it’s just a regular stockinette sock, with a Sweet Tomato heel, and 2×2 ribbing with an i-cord cast-off for the leg of the sock.

I also finished the Monkey Socks. Here is the 2nd sock:

You probably don’t remember what the first sock looks like, which is OK, here’s the picture I took a while ago of it:

As you can tell, they do not match….but they are from the same yarn! (Superwash Correidale….)

I have been on a bit of a sock kick – I started and completed a pair of socks from Mind’s Eye Yarns, hand-dyed by Lucy. It’s 75% merino, 25% tencel, and they are extremely comfortable socks…again, the pattern is just simple stockinette, with ribbing at the leg, and the Sweet Tomato heel. At $20 for 100g, I can get 2 pairs of socks out of one skein, so it makes me happy:

I have been spinning a fair bit, too. I got some BFL from Spunky Eclectic in the “More Coffee” colorway a while back, and decided a few nights ago to spin on my wheel while I was home. I have spun up about a bobbin and a half, and probably am about halfway done with it:

Also from Spunky is the May 2012 fiber club – also BFL, in the “Big Bang” colorway. As soon as I saw it I knew I had to spin it, so even though I still have not spun the clubs from December through April, I went to work on the May colorway right away. I’m still in love:

While in Finland I started to get back in touch with my spindles, spinning some of the Falkland mini-braids I bought at the Wild and Wooly Festival in April in Vermont, from The Spun Monkey Fiber Shoppe. I have spun just about half of one package – which is 2.5 mini-braids:

I also spun some of the fluff I received in a Phat Fiber sampler box I bought in February (a mixed box):

There was a spindle in the box that I spun on, but I have to say that the Bosworth spindles and my Golding mini ringspindles I have are so perfectly balanced, that everything else feels like spinning with a boat anchor (including the bigger Golding ringspindles, sadly).

The Monkey socks were knit using handspun, and I still have a lot of it. Rather than make tons more socks from the same yarn, which would probably result in 8 more unmatched socks, I decided to make a Cecilia. I have not gotten very far yet, I’m about 33 rows in:

It has been almost a month since my last post on my crafty goings-on. Since then I have gone to Finland (click for pictures) and Charlotte, and have done a lot of knitting and spinning while on planes, in airports, and generally in the cities themselves.

Tony’s Crooked Little Scarf has gotten bigger, and while it’s not quite finished yet, it is over 32 inches long and you can see that the ball of yarn is getting smaller and smaller:

The scarf is done when I run out of yarn. Next week I fly to Buenos Aires, so I think I will be able to finish the scarf on the plane.

While in North Carolina, I went to some yarn stores, and picked up some Universal Yarn’s Cotton Supreme Batik yarn. I was very excited to find this yarn again, I had found it a few years ago when I was in the Raleigh-Durham area and visited Shuttles Needles and Hooks. It’s very very soft, feels more like a microfiber acrylic than 100% cotton, and was perfect to make a baby sweater out of. So I bought some more for some more baby sweaters….

I bought the cotton batik at YarnHouse, where I bought a skein of ribbon yarn, that made this scarf:

The yarn was difficult to work with, and I’m not in love with the final product, but I am sure there is someone I know who will love it, that I can gift this scarf to.

At Charlotte Yarn I helped my (new) friend Carrie Stokes pick out some yarn for a Mobius shrug, and helped her with the pattern for it – specifically I helped start it. I also got out of my comfort zone and bought some ribbon yarns.

I bought some leopard-print ribbon yarn, to make a scarf for my friend Victoria:

If you look in the middle of the scarf you can see the ribbon itself (there was some left over at the end) and you can see the holes cut into it. I feel like I could re-create this yarn, with 30 meters of wide yarn and a hole punch. This yarn cost $20, and for 30 meters I find that somewhat expensive (although for a whole scarf, it’s totally reasonable). The yarn itself is called “tecido trico”.

Also for $20 I picked up some purple ribbon yarn, which I am making a scarf out of (but it is not done yet):

While in Finland, I bought some amazingly colored sock yarn, from Novita, a Finnish yarn company. I have already made a pair of socks from half of one skein, and I have several more skeins which I think I want to make a Color Affection with. Here are the socks I have made (well, I am *almost* done making):

In this picture I really played with the settings of my camera, and I love how it came out:

Here is the other, completed sock:

I went back and played with the settings, lowering the F-stop as I did for the in-progress sock. I love how this came out:

Compare and contrast the two photos….I think I’m learning how to take some great photos! If you are curious about the pattern, it’s just a regular stockinette sock, with a Sweet Tomato heel, and 2×2 ribbing with an i-cord cast-off for the leg of the sock.

I also finished the Monkey Socks. Here is the 2nd sock:

You probably don’t remember what the first sock looks like, which is OK, here’s the picture I took a while ago of it:

As you can tell, they do not match….but they are from the same yarn! (Superwash Correidale….)

I have been on a bit of a sock kick – I started and completed a pair of socks from Mind’s Eye Yarns, hand-dyed by Lucy. It’s 75% merino, 25% tencel, and they are extremely comfortable socks…again, the pattern is just simple stockinette, with ribbing at the leg, and the Sweet Tomato heel. At $20 for 100g, I can get 2 pairs of socks out of one skein, so it makes me happy:

I have been spinning a fair bit, too. I got some BFL from Spunky Eclectic in the “More Coffee” colorway a while back, and decided a few nights ago to spin on my wheel while I was home. I have spun up about a bobbin and a half, and probably am about halfway done with it:

Also from Spunky is the May 2012 fiber club – also BFL, in the “Big Bang” colorway. As soon as I saw it I knew I had to spin it, so even though I still have not spun the clubs from December through April, I went to work on the May colorway right away. I’m still in love:

While in Finland I started to get back in touch with my spindles, spinning some of the Falkland mini-braids I bought at the Wild and Wooly Festival in April in Vermont, from The Spun Monkey Fiber Shoppe. I have spun just about half of one package – which is 2.5 mini-braids:

I also spun some of the fluff I received in a Phat Fiber sampler box I bought in February (a mixed box):

There was a spindle in the box that I spun on, but I have to say that the Bosworth spindles and my Golding mini ringspindles I have are so perfectly balanced, that everything else feels like spinning with a boat anchor (including the bigger Golding ringspindles, sadly).

The Monkey socks were knit using handspun, and I still have a lot of it. Rather than make tons more socks from the same yarn, which would probably result in 8 more unmatched socks, I decided to make a Cecilia. I have not gotten very far yet, I’m about 33 rows in:

And that’s it! For now. I look forward to making more socks, finishing Tony’s scarf, working more on the Cecilia, and
It has been almost a month since my last post on my crafty goings-on. Since then I have gone to Finland (click for pictures) and Charlotte, North Carolina, to speak at conferences. I bought yarn in both places, and have done a lot of knitting and spinning while on planes, in airports, and generally in the cities themselves.

Tony’s Crooked Little Scarf has gotten bigger, and while it’s not quite finished yet, it is over 32 inches long and you can see that the ball of yarn is getting smaller and smaller:



The scarf is done when I run out of yarn. Next week I fly to Buenos Aires, so I think I will be able to finish the scarf on the plane.

While in North Carolina, I went to some yarn stores, and picked up some Universal Yarn’s Cotton Supreme Batik yarn. I was very excited to find this yarn again, I had found it a few years ago when I was in the Raleigh-Durham area and visited Shuttles Needles and Hooks. It’s very very soft, feels more like a microfiber acrylic than 100% cotton, and was perfect to make a baby sweater out of. So I bought some more for some more baby sweaters….

I bought the cotton batik at YarnHouse, where I bought a skein of ribbon yarn, that made this scarf:

The yarn was difficult to work with, and I’m not in love with the final product, but I am sure there is someone I know who will love it, that I can gift this scarf to.

At Charlotte Yarn I helped my (new) friend Carrie Stokes pick out some yarn for a Mobius shrug, and helped her with the pattern for it – specifically I helped start it. I also got out of my comfort zone and bought some ribbon yarns.

I bought some leopard-print ribbon yarn, to make a scarf for my friend Victoria:

If you look in the middle of the scarf you can see the ribbon itself (there was some left over at the end) and you can see the holes cut into it. I feel like I could re-create this yarn, with 30 meters of wide yarn and a hole punch. This yarn cost $20, and for 30 meters I find that somewhat expensive (although for a whole scarf, it’s totally reasonable). The yarn itself is called “tecido trico”.

Also for $20 I picked up some purple ribbon yarn, which I am making a scarf out of (but it is not done yet):

While in Finland, I bought some amazingly colored sock yarn, from Novita, a Finnish yarn company. I have already made a pair of socks from half of one skein, and I have several more skeins which I think I want to make a Color Affection with. Here are the socks I have made (well, I am *almost* done making):

In this picture I really played with the settings of my camera, and I love how it came out:

Here is the other, completed sock:

I went back and played with the settings, lowering the F-stop as I did for the in-progress sock. I love how this came out:

Compare and contrast the two photos….I think I’m learning how to take some great photos! If you are curious about the pattern, it’s just a regular stockinette sock, with a Sweet Tomato heel, and 2×2 ribbing with an i-cord cast-off for the leg of the sock.

I also finished the Monkey Socks. Here is the 2nd sock:

You probably don’t remember what the first sock looks like, which is OK, here’s the picture I took a while ago of it:

As you can tell, they do not match….but they are from the same yarn! (Superwash Correidale….)

I have been on a bit of a sock kick – I started and completed a pair of socks from Mind’s Eye Yarns, hand-dyed by Lucy. It’s 75% merino, 25% tencel, and they are extremely comfortable socks…again, the pattern is just simple stockinette, with ribbing at the leg, and the Sweet Tomato heel. At $20 for 100g, I can get 2 pairs of socks out of one skein, so it makes me happy:

I have been spinning a fair bit, too. I got some BFL from Spunky Eclectic in the “More Coffee” colorway a while back, and decided a few nights ago to spin on my wheel while I was home. I have spun up about a bobbin and a half, and probably am about halfway done with it:

Also from Spunky is the May 2012 fiber club – also BFL, in the “Big Bang” colorway. As soon as I saw it I knew I had to spin it, so even though I still have not spun the clubs from December through April, I went to work on the May colorway right away. I’m still in love:

While in Finland I started to get back in touch with my spindles, spinning some of the Falkland mini-braids I bought at the Wild and Wooly Festival in April in Vermont, from The Spun Monkey Fiber Shoppe. I have spun just about half of one package – which is 2.5 mini-braids:

I also spun some of the fluff I received in a Phat Fiber sampler box I bought in February (a mixed box):

There was a spindle in the box that I spun on, but I have to say that the Bosworth spindles and my Golding mini ringspindles I have are so perfectly balanced, that everything else feels like spinning with a boat anchor (including the bigger Golding ringspindles, sadly).

The Monkey socks were knit using handspun, and I still have a lot of it. Rather than make tons more socks from the same yarn, which would probably result in 8 more unmatched socks, I decided to make a Cecilia. I have not gotten very far yet, I’m about 33 rows in:

It has been almost a month since my last post on my crafty goings-on. Since then I have gone to Finland (click for pictures) and Charlotte, and have done a lot of knitting and spinning while on planes, in airports, and generally in the cities themselves.

Tony’s Crooked Little Scarf has gotten bigger, and while it’s not quite finished yet, it is over 32 inches long and you can see that the ball of yarn is getting smaller and smaller:

The scarf is done when I run out of yarn. Next week I fly to Buenos Aires, so I think I will be able to finish the scarf on the plane.

While in North Carolina, I went to some yarn stores, and picked up some Universal Yarn’s Cotton Supreme Batik yarn. I was very excited to find this yarn again, I had found it a few years ago when I was in the Raleigh-Durham area and visited Shuttles Needles and Hooks. It’s very very soft, feels more like a microfiber acrylic than 100% cotton, and was perfect to make a baby sweater out of. So I bought some more for some more baby sweaters….

I bought the cotton batik at YarnHouse, where I bought a skein of ribbon yarn, that made this scarf:

The yarn was difficult to work with, and I’m not in love with the final product, but I am sure there is someone I know who will love it, that I can gift this scarf to.

At Charlotte Yarn I helped my (new) friend Carrie Stokes pick out some yarn for a Mobius shrug, and helped her with the pattern for it – specifically I helped start it. I also got out of my comfort zone and bought some ribbon yarns.

I bought some leopard-print ribbon yarn, to make a scarf for my friend Victoria:

If you look in the middle of the scarf you can see the ribbon itself (there was some left over at the end) and you can see the holes cut into it. I feel like I could re-create this yarn, with 30 meters of wide yarn and a hole punch. This yarn cost $20, and for 30 meters I find that somewhat expensive (although for a whole scarf, it’s totally reasonable). The yarn itself is called “tecido trico”.

Also for $20 I picked up some purple ribbon yarn, which I am making a scarf out of (but it is not done yet):

While in Finland, I bought some amazingly colored sock yarn, from Novita, a Finnish yarn company. I have already made a pair of socks from half of one skein, and I have several more skeins which I think I want to make a Color Affection with. Here are the socks I have made (well, I am *almost* done making):

In this picture I really played with the settings of my camera, and I love how it came out:

Here is the other, completed sock:

I went back and played with the settings, lowering the F-stop as I did for the in-progress sock. I love how this came out:

Compare and contrast the two photos….I think I’m learning how to take some great photos! If you are curious about the pattern, it’s just a regular stockinette sock, with a Sweet Tomato heel, and 2×2 ribbing with an i-cord cast-off for the leg of the sock.

I also finished the Monkey Socks. Here is the 2nd sock:

You probably don’t remember what the first sock looks like, which is OK, here’s the picture I took a while ago of it:

As you can tell, they do not match….but they are from the same yarn! (Superwash Correidale….)

I have been on a bit of a sock kick – I started and completed a pair of socks from Mind’s Eye Yarns, hand-dyed by Lucy. It’s 75% merino, 25% tencel, and they are extremely comfortable socks…again, the pattern is just simple stockinette, with ribbing at the leg, and the Sweet Tomato heel. At $20 for 100g, I can get 2 pairs of socks out of one skein, so it makes me happy:

I have been spinning a fair bit, too. I got some BFL from Spunky Eclectic in the “More Coffee” colorway a while back, and decided a few nights ago to spin on my wheel while I was home. I have spun up about a bobbin and a half, and probably am about halfway done with it:

Also from Spunky is the May 2012 fiber club – also BFL, in the “Big Bang” colorway. As soon as I saw it I knew I had to spin it, so even though I still have not spun the clubs from December through April, I went to work on the May colorway right away. I’m still in love:

While in Finland I started to get back in touch with my spindles, spinning some of the Falkland mini-braids I bought at the Wild and Wooly Festival in April in Vermont, from The Spun Monkey Fiber Shoppe. I have spun just about half of one package – which is 2.5 mini-braids:

I also spun some of the fluff I received in a Phat Fiber sampler box I bought in February (a mixed box):

There was a spindle in the box that I spun on, but I have to say that the Bosworth spindles and my Golding mini ringspindles I have are so perfectly balanced, that everything else feels like spinning with a boat anchor (including the bigger Golding ringspindles, sadly).

The Monkey socks were knit using handspun, and I still have a lot of it. Rather than make tons more socks from the same yarn, which would probably result in 8 more unmatched socks, I decided to make a Cecilia. I have not gotten very far yet, I’m about 33 rows in:

And that’s it! For now. I look forward to making more socks, finishing Tony’s scarf, working more on the Cecilia, and
It has been almost a month since my last post on my crafty goings-on. Since then I have gone to Finland (click for pictures) and Charlotte, North Carolina, to speak at conferences. I bought yarn in both places, and have done a lot of knitting and spinning while on planes, in airports, and generally in the cities themselves.

Tony’s Crooked Little Scarf has gotten bigger, and while it’s not quite finished yet, it is over 32 inches long and you can see that the ball of yarn is getting smaller and smaller:



The scarf is done when I run out of yarn. Next week I fly to Buenos Aires, so I think I will be able to finish the scarf on the plane.

While in North Carolina, I went to some yarn stores, and picked up some Universal Yarn’s Cotton Supreme Batik yarn. I was very excited to find this yarn again, I had found it a few years ago when I was in the Raleigh-Durham area and visited Shuttles Needles and Hooks. It’s very very soft, feels more like a microfiber acrylic than 100% cotton, and was perfect to make a baby sweater out of. So I bought some more for some more baby sweaters….

I bought the cotton batik at YarnHouse, where I bought a skein of ribbon yarn, that made this scarf:

The yarn was difficult to work with, and I’m not in love with the final product, but I am sure there is someone I know who will love it, that I can gift this scarf to.

At Charlotte Yarn I helped my (new) friend Carrie Stokes pick out some yarn for a Mobius shrug, and helped her with the pattern for it – specifically I helped start it. I also got out of my comfort zone and bought some ribbon yarns.

I bought some leopard-print ribbon yarn, to make a scarf for my friend Victoria:

If you look in the middle of the scarf you can see the ribbon itself (there was some left over at the end) and you can see the holes cut into it. I feel like I could re-create this yarn, with 30 meters of wide yarn and a hole punch. This yarn cost $20, and for 30 meters I find that somewhat expensive (although for a whole scarf, it’s totally reasonable). The yarn itself is called “tecido trico”.

Also for $20 I picked up some purple ribbon yarn, which I am making a scarf out of (but it is not done yet):

While in Finland, I bought some amazingly colored sock yarn, from Novita, a Finnish yarn company. I have already made a pair of socks from half of one skein, and I have several more skeins which I think I want to make a Color Affection with. Here are the socks I have made (well, I am *almost* done making):

In this picture I really played with the settings of my camera, and I love how it came out:

Here is the other, completed sock:

I went back and played with the settings, lowering the F-stop as I did for the in-progress sock. I love how this came out:

Compare and contrast the two photos….I think I’m learning how to take some great photos! If you are curious about the pattern, it’s just a regular stockinette sock, with a Sweet Tomato heel, and 2×2 ribbing with an i-cord cast-off for the leg of the sock.

I also finished the Monkey Socks. Here is the 2nd sock:

You probably don’t remember what the first sock looks like, which is OK, here’s the picture I took a while ago of it:

As you can tell, they do not match….but they are from the same yarn! (Superwash Correidale….)

I have been on a bit of a sock kick – I started and completed a pair of socks from Mind’s Eye Yarns, hand-dyed by Lucy. It’s 75% merino, 25% tencel, and they are extremely comfortable socks…again, the pattern is just simple stockinette, with ribbing at the leg, and the Sweet Tomato heel. At $20 for 100g, I can get 2 pairs of socks out of one skein, so it makes me happy:

I have been spinning a fair bit, too. I got some BFL from Spunky Eclectic in the “More Coffee” colorway a while back, and decided a few nights ago to spin on my wheel while I was home. I have spun up about a bobbin and a half, and probably am about halfway done with it:

Also from Spunky is the May 2012 fiber club – also BFL, in the “Big Bang” colorway. As soon as I saw it I knew I had to spin it, so even though I still have not spun the clubs from December through April, I went to work on the May colorway right away. I’m still in love:

While in Finland I started to get back in touch with my spindles, spinning some of the Falkland mini-braids I bought at the Wild and Wooly Festival in April in Vermont, from The Spun Monkey Fiber Shoppe. I have spun just about half of one package – which is 2.5 mini-braids:

I also spun some of the fluff I received in a Phat Fiber sampler box I bought in February (a mixed box):

There was a spindle in the box that I spun on, but I have to say that the Bosworth spindles and my Golding mini ringspindles I have are so perfectly balanced, that everything else feels like spinning with a boat anchor (including the bigger Golding ringspindles, sadly).

The Monkey socks were knit using handspun, and I still have a lot of it. Rather than make tons more socks from the same yarn, which would probably result in 8 more unmatched socks, I decided to make a Cecilia. I have not gotten very far yet, I’m about 33 rows in:

It has been almost a month since my last post on my crafty goings-on. Since then I have gone to Finland (click for pictures) and Charlotte, North Carolina, to speak at conferences. I bought yarn in both places, and have done a lot of knitting and spinning while on planes, in airports, and generally in the cities themselves.

Tony’s Crooked Little Scarf has gotten bigger, and while it’s not quite finished yet, it is over 32 inches long and you can see that the ball of yarn is getting smaller and smaller:



The scarf is done when I run out of yarn. Next week I fly to Buenos Aires, so I think I will be able to finish the scarf on the plane.

While in North Carolina, I went to some yarn stores, and picked up some Universal Yarn’s Cotton Supreme Batik yarn. I was very excited to find this yarn again, I had found it a few years ago when I was in the Raleigh-Durham area and visited Shuttles Needles and Hooks. It’s very very soft, feels more like a microfiber acrylic than 100% cotton, and was perfect to make a baby sweater out of. So I bought some more for some more baby sweaters….

I bought the cotton batik at YarnHouse, where I bought a skein of ribbon yarn, that made this scarf:

The yarn was difficult to work with, and I’m not in love with the final product, but I am sure there is someone I know who will love it, that I can gift this scarf to.

At Charlotte Yarn I helped my (new) friend Carrie Stokes pick out some yarn for a Mobius shrug, and helped her with the pattern for it – specifically I helped start it. I also got out of my comfort zone and bought some ribbon yarns.

I bought some leopard-print ribbon yarn, to make a scarf for my friend Victoria:

If you look in the middle of the scarf you can see the ribbon itself (there was some left over at the end) and you can see the holes cut into it. I feel like I could re-create this yarn, with 30 meters of wide yarn and a hole punch. This yarn cost $20, and for 30 meters I find that somewhat expensive (although for a whole scarf, it’s totally reasonable). The yarn itself is called “tecido trico”.

Also for $20 I picked up some purple ribbon yarn, which I am making a scarf out of (but it is not done yet):

While in Finland, I bought some amazingly colored sock yarn, from Novita, a Finnish yarn company. I have already made a pair of socks from half of one skein, and I have several more skeins which I think I want to make a Color Affection with. Here are the socks I have made (well, I am *almost* done making):

In this picture I really played with the settings of my camera, and I love how it came out:

Here is the other, completed sock:

I went back and played with the settings, lowering the F-stop as I did for the in-progress sock. I love how this came out:

Compare and contrast the two photos….I think I’m learning how to take some great photos! If you are curious about the pattern, it’s just a regular stockinette sock, with a Sweet Tomato heel, and 2×2 ribbing with an i-cord cast-off for the leg of the sock.

I also finished the Monkey Socks. Here is the 2nd sock:

You probably don’t remember what the first sock looks like, which is OK, here’s the picture I took a while ago of it:

As you can tell, they do not match….but they are from the same yarn! (Superwash Correidale….)

I have been on a bit of a sock kick – I started and completed a pair of socks from Mind’s Eye Yarns, hand-dyed by Lucy. It’s 75% merino, 25% tencel, and they are extremely comfortable socks…again, the pattern is just simple stockinette, with ribbing at the leg, and the Sweet Tomato heel. At $20 for 100g, I can get 2 pairs of socks out of one skein, so it makes me happy:

I have been spinning a fair bit, too. I got some BFL from Spunky Eclectic in the “More Coffee” colorway a while back, and decided a few nights ago to spin on my wheel while I was home. I have spun up about a bobbin and a half, and probably am about halfway done with it:

Also from Spunky is the May 2012 fiber club – also BFL, in the “Big Bang” colorway. As soon as I saw it I knew I had to spin it, so even though I still have not spun the clubs from December through April, I went to work on the May colorway right away. I’m still in love:

While in Finland I started to get back in touch with my spindles, spinning some of the Falkland mini-braids I bought at the Wild and Wooly Festival in April in Vermont, from The Spun Monkey Fiber Shoppe. I have spun just about half of one package – which is 2.5 mini-braids:

I also spun some of the fluff I received in a Phat Fiber sampler box I bought in February (a mixed box):

There was a spindle in the box that I spun on, but I have to say that the Bosworth spindles and my Golding mini ringspindles I have are so perfectly balanced, that everything else feels like spinning with a boat anchor (including the bigger Golding ringspindles, sadly).

The Monkey socks were knit using handspun, and I still have a lot of it. Rather than make tons more socks from the same yarn, which would probably result in 8 more unmatched socks, I decided to make a Cecilia. I have not gotten very far yet, I’m about 33 rows in:

It has been almost a month since my last post on my crafty goings-on. Since then I have gone to Finland (click for pictures) and Charlotte, and have done a lot of knitting and spinning while on planes, in airports, and generally in the cities themselves.

Tony’s Crooked Little Scarf has gotten bigger, and while it’s not quite finished yet, it is over 32 inches long and you can see that the ball of yarn is getting smaller and smaller:

The scarf is done when I run out of yarn. Next week I fly to Buenos Aires, so I think I will be able to finish the scarf on the plane.

While in North Carolina, I went to some yarn stores, and picked up some Universal Yarn’s Cotton Supreme Batik yarn. I was very excited to find this yarn again, I had found it a few years ago when I was in the Raleigh-Durham area and visited Shuttles Needles and Hooks. It’s very very soft, feels more like a microfiber acrylic than 100% cotton, and was perfect to make a baby sweater out of. So I bought some more for some more baby sweaters….

I bought the cotton batik at YarnHouse, where I bought a skein of ribbon yarn, that made this scarf:

The yarn was difficult to work with, and I’m not in love with the final product, but I am sure there is someone I know who will love it, that I can gift this scarf to.

At Charlotte Yarn I helped my (new) friend Carrie Stokes pick out some yarn for a Mobius shrug, and helped her with the pattern for it – specifically I helped start it. I also got out of my comfort zone and bought some ribbon yarns.

I bought some leopard-print ribbon yarn, to make a scarf for my friend Victoria:

If you look in the middle of the scarf you can see the ribbon itself (there was some left over at the end) and you can see the holes cut into it. I feel like I could re-create this yarn, with 30 meters of wide yarn and a hole punch. This yarn cost $20, and for 30 meters I find that somewhat expensive (although for a whole scarf, it’s totally reasonable). The yarn itself is called “tecido trico”.

Also for $20 I picked up some purple ribbon yarn, which I am making a scarf out of (but it is not done yet):

While in Finland, I bought some amazingly colored sock yarn, from Novita, a Finnish yarn company. I have already made a pair of socks from half of one skein, and I have several more skeins which I think I want to make a Color Affection with. Here are the socks I have made (well, I am *almost* done making):

In this picture I really played with the settings of my camera, and I love how it came out:

Here is the other, completed sock:

I went back and played with the settings, lowering the F-stop as I did for the in-progress sock. I love how this came out:

Compare and contrast the two photos….I think I’m learning how to take some great photos! If you are curious about the pattern, it’s just a regular stockinette sock, with a Sweet Tomato heel, and 2×2 ribbing with an i-cord cast-off for the leg of the sock.

I also finished the Monkey Socks. Here is the 2nd sock:

You probably don’t remember what the first sock looks like, which is OK, here’s the picture I took a while ago of it:

As you can tell, they do not match….but they are from the same yarn! (Superwash Correidale….)

I have been on a bit of a sock kick – I started and completed a pair of socks from Mind’s Eye Yarns, hand-dyed by Lucy. It’s 75% merino, 25% tencel, and they are extremely comfortable socks…again, the pattern is just simple stockinette, with ribbing at the leg, and the Sweet Tomato heel. At $20 for 100g, I can get 2 pairs of socks out of one skein, so it makes me happy:

I have been spinning a fair bit, too. I got some BFL from Spunky Eclectic in the “More Coffee” colorway a while back, and decided a few nights ago to spin on my wheel while I was home. I have spun up about a bobbin and a half, and probably am about halfway done with it:

Also from Spunky is the May 2012 fiber club – also BFL, in the “Big Bang” colorway. As soon as I saw it I knew I had to spin it, so even though I still have not spun the clubs from December through April, I went to work on the May colorway right away. I’m still in love:

While in Finland I started to get back in touch with my spindles, spinning some of the Falkland mini-braids I bought at the Wild and Wooly Festival in April in Vermont, from The Spun Monkey Fiber Shoppe. I have spun just about half of one package – which is 2.5 mini-braids:

I also spun some of the fluff I received in a Phat Fiber sampler box I bought in February (a mixed box):

There was a spindle in the box that I spun on, but I have to say that the Bosworth spindles and my Golding mini ringspindles I have are so perfectly balanced, that everything else feels like spinning with a boat anchor (including the bigger Golding ringspindles, sadly).

The Monkey socks were knit using handspun, and I still have a lot of it. Rather than make tons more socks from the same yarn, which would probably result in 8 more unmatched socks, I decided to make a Cecilia. I have not gotten very far yet, I’m about 33 rows in:

And that’s it! For now. I look forward to making more socks, finishing Tony’s scarf, working more on the Cecilia, and
It has been almost a month since my last post on my crafty goings-on. Since then I have gone to Finland (click for pictures) and Charlotte, North Carolina, to speak at conferences. I bought yarn in both places, and have done a lot of knitting and spinning while on planes, in airports, and generally in the cities themselves.

Tony’s Crooked Little Scarf has gotten bigger, and while it’s not quite finished yet, it is over 32 inches long and you can see that the ball of yarn is getting smaller and smaller:



The scarf is done when I run out of yarn. Next week I fly to Buenos Aires, so I think I will be able to finish the scarf on the plane.

While in North Carolina, I went to some yarn stores, and picked up some Universal Yarn’s Cotton Supreme Batik yarn. I was very excited to find this yarn again, I had found it a few years ago when I was in the Raleigh-Durham area and visited Shuttles Needles and Hooks. It’s very very soft, feels more like a microfiber acrylic than 100% cotton, and was perfect to make a baby sweater out of. So I bought some more for some more baby sweaters….

I bought the cotton batik at YarnHouse, where I bought a skein of ribbon yarn, that made this scarf:

The yarn was difficult to work with, and I’m not in love with the final product, but I am sure there is someone I know who will love it, that I can gift this scarf to.

At Charlotte Yarn I helped my (new) friend Carrie Stokes pick out some yarn for a Mobius shrug, and helped her with the pattern for it – specifically I helped start it. I also got out of my comfort zone and bought some ribbon yarns.

I bought some leopard-print ribbon yarn, to make a scarf for my friend Victoria:

If you look in the middle of the scarf you can see the ribbon itself (there was some left over at the end) and you can see the holes cut into it. I feel like I could re-create this yarn, with 30 meters of wide yarn and a hole punch. This yarn cost $20, and for 30 meters I find that somewhat expensive (although for a whole scarf, it’s totally reasonable). The yarn itself is called “tecido trico”.

Also for $20 I picked up some purple ribbon yarn, which I am making a scarf out of (but it is not done yet):

While in Finland, I bought some amazingly colored sock yarn, from Novita, a Finnish yarn company. I have already made a pair of socks from half of one skein, and I have several more skeins which I think I want to make a Color Affection with. Here are the socks I have made (well, I am *almost* done making):

In this picture I really played with the settings of my camera, and I love how it came out:

Here is the other, completed sock:

I went back and played with the settings, lowering the F-stop as I did for the in-progress sock. I love how this came out:

Compare and contrast the two photos….I think I’m learning how to take some great photos! If you are curious about the pattern, it’s just a regular stockinette sock, with a Sweet Tomato heel, and 2×2 ribbing with an i-cord cast-off for the leg of the sock.

I also finished the Monkey Socks. Here is the 2nd sock:

You probably don’t remember what the first sock looks like, which is OK, here’s the picture I took a while ago of it:

As you can tell, they do not match….but they are from the same yarn! (Superwash Correidale….)

I have been on a bit of a sock kick – I started and completed a pair of socks from Mind’s Eye Yarns, hand-dyed by Lucy. It’s 75% merino, 25% tencel, and they are extremely comfortable socks…again, the pattern is just simple stockinette, with ribbing at the leg, and the Sweet Tomato heel. At $20 for 100g, I can get 2 pairs of socks out of one skein, so it makes me happy:

I have been spinning a fair bit, too. I got some BFL from Spunky Eclectic in the “More Coffee” colorway a while back, and decided a few nights ago to spin on my wheel while I was home. I have spun up about a bobbin and a half, and probably am about halfway done with it:

Also from Spunky is the May 2012 fiber club – also BFL, in the “Big Bang” colorway. As soon as I saw it I knew I had to spin it, so even though I still have not spun the clubs from December through April, I went to work on the May colorway right away. I’m still in love:

While in Finland I started to get back in touch with my spindles, spinning some of the Falkland mini-braids I bought at the Wild and Wooly Festival in April in Vermont, from The Spun Monkey Fiber Shoppe. I have spun just about half of one package – which is 2.5 mini-braids:

I also spun some of the fluff I received in a Phat Fiber sampler box I bought in February (a mixed box):

There was a spindle in the box that I spun on, but I have to say that the Bosworth spindles and my Golding mini ringspindles I have are so perfectly balanced, that everything else feels like spinning with a boat anchor (including the bigger Golding ringspindles, sadly).

The Monkey socks were knit using handspun, and I still have a lot of it. Rather than make tons more socks from the same yarn, which would probably result in 8 more unmatched socks, I decided to make a Cecilia. I have not gotten very far yet, I’m about 33 rows in:

Buenos Aires has a span of a few blocks, more about not too far from the Malabia metro station* where there are many yarn shops, I counted 15, and went into 11 of them before I had to stop. The shops are on Ave. Scalabrini Ortiz just southwest of Ave. Cordoba, towards Ave. Correintes. The Malabia metro station is on the corner of Correintes and Scalabrini Ortiz, which is 1 km away from the corner of Cordoba and Corrientes, and about half that until you see your first yarn shop. There was a small bit of yarn bombing between two of the stores:

Yarn shopping in Buenos Aires is quite different from what I’m used to in the States. The stores all look like this:

The yarn is beautiful, and well-organized, but there’s no signs as to what the yarn is made up of, how much it costs nor the gauge of the yarn. In addition, you’re not supposed to take the yarn out of the bins. If you look at the bottom right of that picture, you’ll see some white yarn and blue yarn that is actually sitting on top of a counter. That counter separates you from the wall, and there are people behind the counter who can help you get what you want.

So it’s very different from the experience I’m used to. I got the feeling that a lot of people knew exactly what they wanted to buy, or walked in and would say “do you have anything made of wool?” I was feeling a bit shy due to the language barrier, so I picked up a Spanish phrase: “solamente mirando” – it means “Just looking”. The people are friendly and willing to help, but I like the yarn buying process to be a solo activity.

There were 2 exceptions to the fact that most stores don’t give any information about their items.: Milana hilados and Yanabey. Milana hilados had tags like this near most of their yarn:

Note that that’s in Argentinian pesos, and at the time, this was less than USD $10 per 100g. Another thing to note is the price is per 100g, not per hank of yarn. You’d ask a sales associate to take the yarn down for you and they’d weigh it and ask you if that was OK (kind of like at the deli counter). Then they give you a slip of paper and you take it to a cash register, where you’re usually helped by someone else. Another interesting thing is that the stores seemed to be staffed by about half men, half women, which is very different from yarn stores in the States, which are probably about 90% staffed by women.

I bought 3 hanks of yarn there, for about $25:

Yanabey had signs like this:

These prices are still in Argentinian pesos, but they’re in kilos. So these prices are $171 for 1 kilo, which is $17.10 for 100g. This is a wall of “seda vegetal”, or “vegetable silk“. By the way, that’s about USD $35 per kilo. So I bought 6 skeins, which was just over a kilo, because the tree which this comes from (ceiba speciosa, or “silk floss tree”) is native to South America, and I haven’t seen “vegetable silk” in the US.

A lot of the stores have the recycled t-shirt yarn, and I bought some at Arte Natural:

BUTTONS!!!

I was thinking I might make a purse from the yarn, like this:

That purse is crocheted, but I’m sure I can come up with a knitted version.

Here’s what I bought from that store:

Here’s a Spanish primer for some important words:
cachemira – cashmere
acrílico – acrylic
lana – wool
seda – silk
alpaca – alpaca
hilo – yarn (plural: hilados)
Also, I found out that cashmerillo is just an acrylic yarn that’s very soft. Don’t be fooled by price, some of the acrylic yarns are *very* expensive, even more expensive than the wool.

I was very excited by the prospect of all these yarn stores, and after these three purchases I was done, and passed by 4 other yarn stores that I didn’t even walk into. In addition, there were at least 2 weaving stores, and another 2 fabric stores. Only one of the yarn stores had fiber to spin, and it looked like combed top, and was somewhat expensive (by US standards).

All in all, I was extremely satisfied by taking a few hours to shop for yarn, but I found the experience quite different from what I’m used to.

* I was instructed by a friend who had visited Buenos Aires to take a taxi to the corner of X and Y. However, I enjoy walking around and public transit, so I noticed the subway stop was not far, and decided to walk a few blocks. To those who are considering what to do, a taxi would have cost about 20 pesos (about USD $5) each way. The subway costs $5 for two rides, but of course is not door to door. Another thing to note about the subway is that it is not the most modern system:

And you will get plenty of people trying to make money – some play music, which you may be used to from other subway systems. Others will go around a subway car, handing out products, and then go around and either collect the product back or collect money. I was handed tissues and Disney books – or at least, they attempted to hand stuff to me, and I refused. It helped that I had knitting in my hands, but I saw them just place stuff on people’s laps if their hands were busy, so don’t just look away, make sure you actually refuse by shaking your head.

Note: I hope this article is helpful! Due to spam reasons, all articles on this site have comments disabled after a short time. If you want to leave feedback, you can tweet @sheeri or e-mail me at awfief at gmail dot com. (replace “at” with @ and “dot com” with .com to get the real e-mail address).
It has been almost a month since my last post on my crafty goings-on. Since then I have gone to Finland (click for pictures) and Charlotte, North Carolina, to speak at conferences. I bought yarn in both places, and have done a lot of knitting and spinning while on planes, in airports, and generally in the cities themselves.

Tony’s Crooked Little Scarf has gotten bigger, and while it’s not quite finished yet, it is over 32 inches long and you can see that the ball of yarn is getting smaller and smaller:



The scarf is done when I run out of yarn. Next week I fly to Buenos Aires, so I think I will be able to finish the scarf on the plane.

While in North Carolina, I went to some yarn stores, and picked up some Universal Yarn’s Cotton Supreme Batik yarn. I was very excited to find this yarn again, I had found it a few years ago when I was in the Raleigh-Durham area and visited Shuttles Needles and Hooks. It’s very very soft, feels more like a microfiber acrylic than 100% cotton, and was perfect to make a baby sweater out of. So I bought some more for some more baby sweaters….

I bought the cotton batik at YarnHouse, where I bought a skein of ribbon yarn, that made this scarf:

The yarn was difficult to work with, and I’m not in love with the final product, but I am sure there is someone I know who will love it, that I can gift this scarf to.

At Charlotte Yarn I helped my (new) friend Carrie Stokes pick out some yarn for a Mobius shrug, and helped her with the pattern for it – specifically I helped start it. I also got out of my comfort zone and bought some ribbon yarns.

I bought some leopard-print ribbon yarn, to make a scarf for my friend Victoria:

If you look in the middle of the scarf you can see the ribbon itself (there was some left over at the end) and you can see the holes cut into it. I feel like I could re-create this yarn, with 30 meters of wide yarn and a hole punch. This yarn cost $20, and for 30 meters I find that somewhat expensive (although for a whole scarf, it’s totally reasonable). The yarn itself is called “tecido trico”.

Also for $20 I picked up some purple ribbon yarn, which I am making a scarf out of (but it is not done yet):

While in Finland, I bought some amazingly colored sock yarn, from Novita, a Finnish yarn company. I have already made a pair of socks from half of one skein, and I have several more skeins which I think I want to make a Color Affection with. Here are the socks I have made (well, I am *almost* done making):

In this picture I really played with the settings of my camera, and I love how it came out:

Here is the other, completed sock:

I went back and played with the settings, lowering the F-stop as I did for the in-progress sock. I love how this came out:

Compare and contrast the two photos….I think I’m learning how to take some great photos! If you are curious about the pattern, it’s just a regular stockinette sock, with a Sweet Tomato heel, and 2×2 ribbing with an i-cord cast-off for the leg of the sock.

I also finished the Monkey Socks. Here is the 2nd sock:

You probably don’t remember what the first sock looks like, which is OK, here’s the picture I took a while ago of it:

As you can tell, they do not match….but they are from the same yarn! (Superwash Correidale….)

I have been on a bit of a sock kick – I started and completed a pair of socks from Mind’s Eye Yarns, hand-dyed by Lucy. It’s 75% merino, 25% tencel, and they are extremely comfortable socks…again, the pattern is just simple stockinette, with ribbing at the leg, and the Sweet Tomato heel. At $20 for 100g, I can get 2 pairs of socks out of one skein, so it makes me happy:

I have been spinning a fair bit, too. I got some BFL from Spunky Eclectic in the “More Coffee” colorway a while back, and decided a few nights ago to spin on my wheel while I was home. I have spun up about a bobbin and a half, and probably am about halfway done with it:

Also from Spunky is the May 2012 fiber club – also BFL, in the “Big Bang” colorway. As soon as I saw it I knew I had to spin it, so even though I still have not spun the clubs from December through April, I went to work on the May colorway right away. I’m still in love:

While in Finland I started to get back in touch with my spindles, spinning some of the Falkland mini-braids I bought at the Wild and Wooly Festival in April in Vermont, from The Spun Monkey Fiber Shoppe. I have spun just about half of one package – which is 2.5 mini-braids:

I also spun some of the fluff I received in a Phat Fiber sampler box I bought in February (a mixed box):

There was a spindle in the box that I spun on, but I have to say that the Bosworth spindles and my Golding mini ringspindles I have are so perfectly balanced, that everything else feels like spinning with a boat anchor (including the bigger Golding ringspindles, sadly).

The Monkey socks were knit using handspun, and I still have a lot of it. Rather than make tons more socks from the same yarn, which would probably result in 8 more unmatched socks, I decided to make a Cecilia. I have not gotten very far yet, I’m about 33 rows in:

It has been almost a month since my last post on my crafty goings-on. Since then I have gone to Finland (click for pictures) and Charlotte, and have done a lot of knitting and spinning while on planes, in airports, and generally in the cities themselves.

Tony’s Crooked Little Scarf has gotten bigger, and while it’s not quite finished yet, it is over 32 inches long and you can see that the ball of yarn is getting smaller and smaller:

The scarf is done when I run out of yarn. Next week I fly to Buenos Aires, so I think I will be able to finish the scarf on the plane.

While in North Carolina, I went to some yarn stores, and picked up some Universal Yarn’s Cotton Supreme Batik yarn. I was very excited to find this yarn again, I had found it a few years ago when I was in the Raleigh-Durham area and visited Shuttles Needles and Hooks. It’s very very soft, feels more like a microfiber acrylic than 100% cotton, and was perfect to make a baby sweater out of. So I bought some more for some more baby sweaters….

I bought the cotton batik at YarnHouse, where I bought a skein of ribbon yarn, that made this scarf:

The yarn was difficult to work with, and I’m not in love with the final product, but I am sure there is someone I know who will love it, that I can gift this scarf to.

At Charlotte Yarn I helped my (new) friend Carrie Stokes pick out some yarn for a Mobius shrug, and helped her with the pattern for it – specifically I helped start it. I also got out of my comfort zone and bought some ribbon yarns.

I bought some leopard-print ribbon yarn, to make a scarf for my friend Victoria:

If you look in the middle of the scarf you can see the ribbon itself (there was some left over at the end) and you can see the holes cut into it. I feel like I could re-create this yarn, with 30 meters of wide yarn and a hole punch. This yarn cost $20, and for 30 meters I find that somewhat expensive (although for a whole scarf, it’s totally reasonable). The yarn itself is called “tecido trico”.

Also for $20 I picked up some purple ribbon yarn, which I am making a scarf out of (but it is not done yet):

While in Finland, I bought some amazingly colored sock yarn, from Novita, a Finnish yarn company. I have already made a pair of socks from half of one skein, and I have several more skeins which I think I want to make a Color Affection with. Here are the socks I have made (well, I am *almost* done making):

In this picture I really played with the settings of my camera, and I love how it came out:

Here is the other, completed sock:

I went back and played with the settings, lowering the F-stop as I did for the in-progress sock. I love how this came out:

Compare and contrast the two photos….I think I’m learning how to take some great photos! If you are curious about the pattern, it’s just a regular stockinette sock, with a Sweet Tomato heel, and 2×2 ribbing with an i-cord cast-off for the leg of the sock.

I also finished the Monkey Socks. Here is the 2nd sock:

You probably don’t remember what the first sock looks like, which is OK, here’s the picture I took a while ago of it:

As you can tell, they do not match….but they are from the same yarn! (Superwash Correidale….)

I have been on a bit of a sock kick – I started and completed a pair of socks from Mind’s Eye Yarns, hand-dyed by Lucy. It’s 75% merino, 25% tencel, and they are extremely comfortable socks…again, the pattern is just simple stockinette, with ribbing at the leg, and the Sweet Tomato heel. At $20 for 100g, I can get 2 pairs of socks out of one skein, so it makes me happy:

I have been spinning a fair bit, too. I got some BFL from Spunky Eclectic in the “More Coffee” colorway a while back, and decided a few nights ago to spin on my wheel while I was home. I have spun up about a bobbin and a half, and probably am about halfway done with it:

Also from Spunky is the May 2012 fiber club – also BFL, in the “Big Bang” colorway. As soon as I saw it I knew I had to spin it, so even though I still have not spun the clubs from December through April, I went to work on the May colorway right away. I’m still in love:

While in Finland I started to get back in touch with my spindles, spinning some of the Falkland mini-braids I bought at the Wild and Wooly Festival in April in Vermont, from The Spun Monkey Fiber Shoppe. I have spun just about half of one package – which is 2.5 mini-braids:

I also spun some of the fluff I received in a Phat Fiber sampler box I bought in February (a mixed box):

There was a spindle in the box that I spun on, but I have to say that the Bosworth spindles and my Golding mini ringspindles I have are so perfectly balanced, that everything else feels like spinning with a boat anchor (including the bigger Golding ringspindles, sadly).

The Monkey socks were knit using handspun, and I still have a lot of it. Rather than make tons more socks from the same yarn, which would probably result in 8 more unmatched socks, I decided to make a Cecilia. I have not gotten very far yet, I’m about 33 rows in:

And that’s it! For now. I look forward to making more socks, finishing Tony’s scarf, working more on the Cecilia, and
It has been almost a month since my last post on my crafty goings-on. Since then I have gone to Finland (click for pictures) and Charlotte, North Carolina, to speak at conferences. I bought yarn in both places, and have done a lot of knitting and spinning while on planes, in airports, and generally in the cities themselves.

Tony’s Crooked Little Scarf has gotten bigger, and while it’s not quite finished yet, it is over 32 inches long and you can see that the ball of yarn is getting smaller and smaller:



The scarf is done when I run out of yarn. Next week I fly to Buenos Aires, so I think I will be able to finish the scarf on the plane.

While in North Carolina, I went to some yarn stores, and picked up some Universal Yarn’s Cotton Supreme Batik yarn. I was very excited to find this yarn again, I had found it a few years ago when I was in the Raleigh-Durham area and visited Shuttles Needles and Hooks. It’s very very soft, feels more like a microfiber acrylic than 100% cotton, and was perfect to make a baby sweater out of. So I bought some more for some more baby sweaters….

I bought the cotton batik at YarnHouse, where I bought a skein of ribbon yarn, that made this scarf:

The yarn was difficult to work with, and I’m not in love with the final product, but I am sure there is someone I know who will love it, that I can gift this scarf to.

At Charlotte Yarn I helped my (new) friend Carrie Stokes pick out some yarn for a Mobius shrug, and helped her with the pattern for it – specifically I helped start it. I also got out of my comfort zone and bought some ribbon yarns.

I bought some leopard-print ribbon yarn, to make a scarf for my friend Victoria:

If you look in the middle of the scarf you can see the ribbon itself (there was some left over at the end) and you can see the holes cut into it. I feel like I could re-create this yarn, with 30 meters of wide yarn and a hole punch. This yarn cost $20, and for 30 meters I find that somewhat expensive (although for a whole scarf, it’s totally reasonable). The yarn itself is called “tecido trico”.

Also for $20 I picked up some purple ribbon yarn, which I am making a scarf out of (but it is not done yet):

While in Finland, I bought some amazingly colored sock yarn, from Novita, a Finnish yarn company. I have already made a pair of socks from half of one skein, and I have several more skeins which I think I want to make a Color Affection with. Here are the socks I have made (well, I am *almost* done making):

In this picture I really played with the settings of my camera, and I love how it came out:

Here is the other, completed sock:

I went back and played with the settings, lowering the F-stop as I did for the in-progress sock. I love how this came out:

Compare and contrast the two photos….I think I’m learning how to take some great photos! If you are curious about the pattern, it’s just a regular stockinette sock, with a Sweet Tomato heel, and 2×2 ribbing with an i-cord cast-off for the leg of the sock.

I also finished the Monkey Socks. Here is the 2nd sock:

You probably don’t remember what the first sock looks like, which is OK, here’s the picture I took a while ago of it:

As you can tell, they do not match….but they are from the same yarn! (Superwash Correidale….)

I have been on a bit of a sock kick – I started and completed a pair of socks from Mind’s Eye Yarns, hand-dyed by Lucy. It’s 75% merino, 25% tencel, and they are extremely comfortable socks…again, the pattern is just simple stockinette, with ribbing at the leg, and the Sweet Tomato heel. At $20 for 100g, I can get 2 pairs of socks out of one skein, so it makes me happy:

I have been spinning a fair bit, too. I got some BFL from Spunky Eclectic in the “More Coffee” colorway a while back, and decided a few nights ago to spin on my wheel while I was home. I have spun up about a bobbin and a half, and probably am about halfway done with it:

Also from Spunky is the May 2012 fiber club – also BFL, in the “Big Bang” colorway. As soon as I saw it I knew I had to spin it, so even though I still have not spun the clubs from December through April, I went to work on the May colorway right away. I’m still in love:

While in Finland I started to get back in touch with my spindles, spinning some of the Falkland mini-braids I bought at the Wild and Wooly Festival in April in Vermont, from The Spun Monkey Fiber Shoppe. I have spun just about half of one package – which is 2.5 mini-braids:

I also spun some of the fluff I received in a Phat Fiber sampler box I bought in February (a mixed box):

There was a spindle in the box that I spun on, but I have to say that the Bosworth spindles and my Golding mini ringspindles I have are so perfectly balanced, that everything else feels like spinning with a boat anchor (including the bigger Golding ringspindles, sadly).

The Monkey socks were knit using handspun, and I still have a lot of it. Rather than make tons more socks from the same yarn, which would probably result in 8 more unmatched socks, I decided to make a Cecilia. I have not gotten very far yet, I’m about 33 rows in:

Buenos Aires has a span of a few blocks, more about not too far from the Malabia metro station* where there are many yarn shops, I counted 15, and went into 11 of them before I had to stop. The shops are on Ave. Scalabrini Ortiz just southwest of Ave. Cordoba, towards Ave. Correintes. The Malabia metro station is on the corner of Correintes and Scalabrini Ortiz, which is 1 km away from the corner of Cordoba and Corrientes, and about half that until you see your first yarn shop. There was a small bit of yarn bombing between two of the stores:

Yarn shopping in Buenos Aires is quite different from what I’m used to in the States. The stores all look like this:

The yarn is beautiful, and well-organized, but there’s no signs as to what the yarn is made up of, how much it costs nor the gauge of the yarn. In addition, you’re not supposed to take the yarn out of the bins. If you look at the bottom right of that picture, you’ll see some white yarn and blue yarn that is actually sitting on top of a counter. That counter separates you from the wall, and there are people behind the counter who can help you get what you want.

So it’s very different from the experience I’m used to. I got the feeling that a lot of people knew exactly what they wanted to buy, or walked in and would say “do you have anything made of wool?” I was feeling a bit shy due to the language barrier, so I picked up a Spanish phrase: “solamente mirando” – it means “Just looking”. The people are friendly and willing to help, but I like the yarn buying process to be a solo activity.

There were 2 exceptions to the fact that most stores don’t give any information about their items.: Milana hilados and Yanabey. Milana hilados had tags like this near most of their yarn:

Note that that’s in Argentinian pesos, and at the time, this was less than USD $10 per 100g. Another thing to note is the price is per 100g, not per hank of yarn. You’d ask a sales associate to take the yarn down for you and they’d weigh it and ask you if that was OK (kind of like at the deli counter). Then they give you a slip of paper and you take it to a cash register, where you’re usually helped by someone else. Another interesting thing is that the stores seemed to be staffed by about half men, half women, which is very different from yarn stores in the States, which are probably about 90% staffed by women.

I bought 3 hanks of yarn there, for about $25:

Yanabey had signs like this:

These prices are still in Argentinian pesos, but they’re in kilos. So these prices are $171 for 1 kilo, which is $17.10 for 100g. This is a wall of “seda vegetal”, or “vegetable silk“. By the way, that’s about USD $35 per kilo. So I bought 6 skeins, which was just over a kilo, because the tree which this comes from (ceiba speciosa, or “silk floss tree”) is native to South America, and I haven’t seen “vegetable silk” in the US.

A lot of the stores have the recycled t-shirt yarn, and I bought some at Arte Natural:

BUTTONS!!!

I was thinking I might make a purse from the yarn, like this:

That purse is crocheted, but I’m sure I can come up with a knitted version.

Here’s what I bought from that store:

Here’s a Spanish primer for some important words:
cachemira – cashmere
acrílico – acrylic
lana – wool
seda – silk
alpaca – alpaca
hilo – yarn (plural: hilados)
Also, I found out that cashmerillo is just an acrylic yarn that’s very soft. Don’t be fooled by price, some of the acrylic yarns are *very* expensive, even more expensive than the wool.

I was very excited by the prospect of all these yarn stores, and after these three purchases I was done, and passed by 4 other yarn stores that I didn’t even walk into. In addition, there were at least 2 weaving stores, and another 2 fabric stores. Only one of the yarn stores had fiber to spin, and it looked like combed top, and was somewhat expensive (by US standards).

All in all, I was extremely satisfied by taking a few hours to shop for yarn, but I found the experience quite different from what I’m used to.

* I was instructed by a friend who had visited Buenos Aires to take a taxi to the corner of X and Y. However, I enjoy walking around and public transit, so I noticed the subway stop was not far, and decided to walk a few blocks. To those who are considering what to do, a taxi would have cost about 20 pesos (about USD $5) each way. The subway costs $5 for two rides, but of course is not door to door. Another thing to note about the subway is that it is not the most modern system:

And you will get plenty of people trying to make money – some play music, which you may be used to from other subway systems. Others will go around a subway car, handing out products, and then go around and either collect the product back or collect money. I was handed tissues and Disney books – or at least, they attempted to hand stuff to me, and I refused. It helped that I had knitting in my hands, but I saw them just place stuff on people’s laps if their hands were busy, so don’t just look away, make sure you actually refuse by shaking your head.

Note: I hope this article is helpful! Due to spam reasons, all articles on this site have comments disabled after a short time. If you want to leave feedback, you can tweet @sheeri or e-mail me at awfief at gmail dot com. (replace “at” with @ and “dot com” with .com to get the real e-mail address).
Buenos Aires has a span of a few blocks, side effects not too far from the Malabia metro station* where there are many yarn shops, viagra buy I counted 15, and went into 11 of them before I had to stop. There was a small bit of yarn bombing between two of the stores:

Yarn shopping in Buenos Aires is quite different from what I’m used to in the States. The stores all look like this:

The yarn is beautiful, and well-organized, but there’s no signs as to what the yarn is made up of, how much it costs nor the gauge of the yarn. In addition, you’re not supposed to take the yarn out of the bins. If you look at the bottom right of that picture, you’ll see some white yarn and blue yarn that is actually sitting on top of a counter. That counter separates you from the wall, and there are people behind the counter who can help you get what you want.

So it’s very different from the experience I’m used to. I got the feeling that a lot of people knew exactly what they wanted to buy, or walked in and would say “do you have anything made of wool?” I was feeling a bit shy due to the language barrier, so I picked up a Spanish phrase: “solamente mirando” – it means “Just looking”. The people are friendly and willing to help, but I like the yarn buying process to be a solo activity.

There were 2 exceptions to the fact that most stores don’t give any information about their items.: Milana hilados and Yanabey. Milana hilados had tags like this near most of their yarn:

Note that that’s in Argentinian pesos, and at the time, this was less than USD $10 per 100g. Another thing to note is the price is per 100g, not per hank of yarn. You’d ask a sales associate to take the yarn down for you and they’d weigh it and ask you if that was OK (kind of like at the deli counter). Then they give you a slip of paper and you take it to a cash register, where you’re usually helped by someone else. Another interesting thing is that the stores seemed to be staffed by about half men, half women, which is very different from yarn stores in the States, which are probably about 90% staffed by women.

I bought 3 hanks of yarn there, for about $25:

Yanabey had signs like this:

These prices are still in Argentinian pesos, but they’re in kilos. So these prices are $171 for 1 kilo, which is $17.10 for 100g. This is a wall of “seda vegetal”, or “vegetable silk“. By the way, that’s about USD $35 per kilo. So I bought 6 skeins, which was just over a kilo.

A lot of the stores have the recycled t-shirt yarn, and I bought some at Arte Natural:

BUTTONS!!!

I was thinking I might make a purse from the yarn, like this:

That purse is crocheted, but I’m sure I can come up with a knitted version.

Here’s what I bought from that store:

Here’s a Spanish primer for some important words:
cashmira – cashmere
acrilico – acrylic
lana – wool
seda – silk
alpaca – alpaca
hilo – yarn (plural: hilados)
Also, I found out that cashmerillo is just an acrylic yarn that’s very soft. Don’t be fooled by price, some of the acrylic yarns are *very* expensive, even more expensive than the wool.

I was very excited by the prospect of all these yarn stores, and after these three purchases I was done, and passed by 4 other yarn stores that I didn’t even walk into. In addition, there were at least 2 weaving stores, and another 2 fabric stores. Only one of the yarn stores had fiber to spin, and it looked like combed top, and was somewhat expensive (by US standards).

All in all, I was extremely satisfied by taking a few hours to shop for yarn, but I found the experience quite different from what I’m used to.

* I was instructed by a friend who had visited Buenos Aires to take a taxi to the corner of X and Y. However, I enjoy walking around and public transit, so I noticed the subway stop was not far, and decided to walk a few blocks. To those who are considering what to do, a taxi would have cost about 20 pesos (about USD $5) each way. The subway costs $5 for two rides, but of course is not door to door. Another thing to note about the subway is that it is not the most modern system:
subway car – IMG_0247.JPG

And you will get plenty of people trying to make money – some play music, which you may be used to from other subway systems. Others will go around a subway car, handing out products, and then go around and either collect the product back or collect money. I was handed tissues and Disney books – or at least, they attempted to hand stuff to me, and I refused. It helped that I had knitting in my hands, but I saw them just place stuff on people’s laps if their hands were busy, so don’t just look away, make sure you actually refuse by shaking your head.
It has been almost a month since my last post on my crafty goings-on. Since then I have gone to Finland (click for pictures) and Charlotte, North Carolina, to speak at conferences. I bought yarn in both places, and have done a lot of knitting and spinning while on planes, in airports, and generally in the cities themselves.

Tony’s Crooked Little Scarf has gotten bigger, and while it’s not quite finished yet, it is over 32 inches long and you can see that the ball of yarn is getting smaller and smaller:



The scarf is done when I run out of yarn. Next week I fly to Buenos Aires, so I think I will be able to finish the scarf on the plane.

While in North Carolina, I went to some yarn stores, and picked up some Universal Yarn’s Cotton Supreme Batik yarn. I was very excited to find this yarn again, I had found it a few years ago when I was in the Raleigh-Durham area and visited Shuttles Needles and Hooks. It’s very very soft, feels more like a microfiber acrylic than 100% cotton, and was perfect to make a baby sweater out of. So I bought some more for some more baby sweaters….

I bought the cotton batik at YarnHouse, where I bought a skein of ribbon yarn, that made this scarf:

The yarn was difficult to work with, and I’m not in love with the final product, but I am sure there is someone I know who will love it, that I can gift this scarf to.

At Charlotte Yarn I helped my (new) friend Carrie Stokes pick out some yarn for a Mobius shrug, and helped her with the pattern for it – specifically I helped start it. I also got out of my comfort zone and bought some ribbon yarns.

I bought some leopard-print ribbon yarn, to make a scarf for my friend Victoria:

If you look in the middle of the scarf you can see the ribbon itself (there was some left over at the end) and you can see the holes cut into it. I feel like I could re-create this yarn, with 30 meters of wide yarn and a hole punch. This yarn cost $20, and for 30 meters I find that somewhat expensive (although for a whole scarf, it’s totally reasonable). The yarn itself is called “tecido trico”.

Also for $20 I picked up some purple ribbon yarn, which I am making a scarf out of (but it is not done yet):

While in Finland, I bought some amazingly colored sock yarn, from Novita, a Finnish yarn company. I have already made a pair of socks from half of one skein, and I have several more skeins which I think I want to make a Color Affection with. Here are the socks I have made (well, I am *almost* done making):

In this picture I really played with the settings of my camera, and I love how it came out:

Here is the other, completed sock:

I went back and played with the settings, lowering the F-stop as I did for the in-progress sock. I love how this came out:

Compare and contrast the two photos….I think I’m learning how to take some great photos! If you are curious about the pattern, it’s just a regular stockinette sock, with a Sweet Tomato heel, and 2×2 ribbing with an i-cord cast-off for the leg of the sock.

I also finished the Monkey Socks. Here is the 2nd sock:

You probably don’t remember what the first sock looks like, which is OK, here’s the picture I took a while ago of it:

As you can tell, they do not match….but they are from the same yarn! (Superwash Correidale….)

I have been on a bit of a sock kick – I started and completed a pair of socks from Mind’s Eye Yarns, hand-dyed by Lucy. It’s 75% merino, 25% tencel, and they are extremely comfortable socks…again, the pattern is just simple stockinette, with ribbing at the leg, and the Sweet Tomato heel. At $20 for 100g, I can get 2 pairs of socks out of one skein, so it makes me happy:

I have been spinning a fair bit, too. I got some BFL from Spunky Eclectic in the “More Coffee” colorway a while back, and decided a few nights ago to spin on my wheel while I was home. I have spun up about a bobbin and a half, and probably am about halfway done with it:

Also from Spunky is the May 2012 fiber club – also BFL, in the “Big Bang” colorway. As soon as I saw it I knew I had to spin it, so even though I still have not spun the clubs from December through April, I went to work on the May colorway right away. I’m still in love:

While in Finland I started to get back in touch with my spindles, spinning some of the Falkland mini-braids I bought at the Wild and Wooly Festival in April in Vermont, from The Spun Monkey Fiber Shoppe. I have spun just about half of one package – which is 2.5 mini-braids:

I also spun some of the fluff I received in a Phat Fiber sampler box I bought in February (a mixed box):

There was a spindle in the box that I spun on, but I have to say that the Bosworth spindles and my Golding mini ringspindles I have are so perfectly balanced, that everything else feels like spinning with a boat anchor (including the bigger Golding ringspindles, sadly).

The Monkey socks were knit using handspun, and I still have a lot of it. Rather than make tons more socks from the same yarn, which would probably result in 8 more unmatched socks, I decided to make a Cecilia. I have not gotten very far yet, I’m about 33 rows in:

It has been almost a month since my last post on my crafty goings-on. Since then I have gone to Finland (click for pictures) and Charlotte, and have done a lot of knitting and spinning while on planes, in airports, and generally in the cities themselves.

Tony’s Crooked Little Scarf has gotten bigger, and while it’s not quite finished yet, it is over 32 inches long and you can see that the ball of yarn is getting smaller and smaller:

The scarf is done when I run out of yarn. Next week I fly to Buenos Aires, so I think I will be able to finish the scarf on the plane.

While in North Carolina, I went to some yarn stores, and picked up some Universal Yarn’s Cotton Supreme Batik yarn. I was very excited to find this yarn again, I had found it a few years ago when I was in the Raleigh-Durham area and visited Shuttles Needles and Hooks. It’s very very soft, feels more like a microfiber acrylic than 100% cotton, and was perfect to make a baby sweater out of. So I bought some more for some more baby sweaters….

I bought the cotton batik at YarnHouse, where I bought a skein of ribbon yarn, that made this scarf:

The yarn was difficult to work with, and I’m not in love with the final product, but I am sure there is someone I know who will love it, that I can gift this scarf to.

At Charlotte Yarn I helped my (new) friend Carrie Stokes pick out some yarn for a Mobius shrug, and helped her with the pattern for it – specifically I helped start it. I also got out of my comfort zone and bought some ribbon yarns.

I bought some leopard-print ribbon yarn, to make a scarf for my friend Victoria:

If you look in the middle of the scarf you can see the ribbon itself (there was some left over at the end) and you can see the holes cut into it. I feel like I could re-create this yarn, with 30 meters of wide yarn and a hole punch. This yarn cost $20, and for 30 meters I find that somewhat expensive (although for a whole scarf, it’s totally reasonable). The yarn itself is called “tecido trico”.

Also for $20 I picked up some purple ribbon yarn, which I am making a scarf out of (but it is not done yet):

While in Finland, I bought some amazingly colored sock yarn, from Novita, a Finnish yarn company. I have already made a pair of socks from half of one skein, and I have several more skeins which I think I want to make a Color Affection with. Here are the socks I have made (well, I am *almost* done making):

In this picture I really played with the settings of my camera, and I love how it came out:

Here is the other, completed sock:

I went back and played with the settings, lowering the F-stop as I did for the in-progress sock. I love how this came out:

Compare and contrast the two photos….I think I’m learning how to take some great photos! If you are curious about the pattern, it’s just a regular stockinette sock, with a Sweet Tomato heel, and 2×2 ribbing with an i-cord cast-off for the leg of the sock.

I also finished the Monkey Socks. Here is the 2nd sock:

You probably don’t remember what the first sock looks like, which is OK, here’s the picture I took a while ago of it:

As you can tell, they do not match….but they are from the same yarn! (Superwash Correidale….)

I have been on a bit of a sock kick – I started and completed a pair of socks from Mind’s Eye Yarns, hand-dyed by Lucy. It’s 75% merino, 25% tencel, and they are extremely comfortable socks…again, the pattern is just simple stockinette, with ribbing at the leg, and the Sweet Tomato heel. At $20 for 100g, I can get 2 pairs of socks out of one skein, so it makes me happy:

I have been spinning a fair bit, too. I got some BFL from Spunky Eclectic in the “More Coffee” colorway a while back, and decided a few nights ago to spin on my wheel while I was home. I have spun up about a bobbin and a half, and probably am about halfway done with it:

Also from Spunky is the May 2012 fiber club – also BFL, in the “Big Bang” colorway. As soon as I saw it I knew I had to spin it, so even though I still have not spun the clubs from December through April, I went to work on the May colorway right away. I’m still in love:

While in Finland I started to get back in touch with my spindles, spinning some of the Falkland mini-braids I bought at the Wild and Wooly Festival in April in Vermont, from The Spun Monkey Fiber Shoppe. I have spun just about half of one package – which is 2.5 mini-braids:

I also spun some of the fluff I received in a Phat Fiber sampler box I bought in February (a mixed box):

There was a spindle in the box that I spun on, but I have to say that the Bosworth spindles and my Golding mini ringspindles I have are so perfectly balanced, that everything else feels like spinning with a boat anchor (including the bigger Golding ringspindles, sadly).

The Monkey socks were knit using handspun, and I still have a lot of it. Rather than make tons more socks from the same yarn, which would probably result in 8 more unmatched socks, I decided to make a Cecilia. I have not gotten very far yet, I’m about 33 rows in:

And that’s it! For now. I look forward to making more socks, finishing Tony’s scarf, working more on the Cecilia, and
It has been almost a month since my last post on my crafty goings-on. Since then I have gone to Finland (click for pictures) and Charlotte, North Carolina, to speak at conferences. I bought yarn in both places, and have done a lot of knitting and spinning while on planes, in airports, and generally in the cities themselves.

Tony’s Crooked Little Scarf has gotten bigger, and while it’s not quite finished yet, it is over 32 inches long and you can see that the ball of yarn is getting smaller and smaller:



The scarf is done when I run out of yarn. Next week I fly to Buenos Aires, so I think I will be able to finish the scarf on the plane.

While in North Carolina, I went to some yarn stores, and picked up some Universal Yarn’s Cotton Supreme Batik yarn. I was very excited to find this yarn again, I had found it a few years ago when I was in the Raleigh-Durham area and visited Shuttles Needles and Hooks. It’s very very soft, feels more like a microfiber acrylic than 100% cotton, and was perfect to make a baby sweater out of. So I bought some more for some more baby sweaters….

I bought the cotton batik at YarnHouse, where I bought a skein of ribbon yarn, that made this scarf:

The yarn was difficult to work with, and I’m not in love with the final product, but I am sure there is someone I know who will love it, that I can gift this scarf to.

At Charlotte Yarn I helped my (new) friend Carrie Stokes pick out some yarn for a Mobius shrug, and helped her with the pattern for it – specifically I helped start it. I also got out of my comfort zone and bought some ribbon yarns.

I bought some leopard-print ribbon yarn, to make a scarf for my friend Victoria:

If you look in the middle of the scarf you can see the ribbon itself (there was some left over at the end) and you can see the holes cut into it. I feel like I could re-create this yarn, with 30 meters of wide yarn and a hole punch. This yarn cost $20, and for 30 meters I find that somewhat expensive (although for a whole scarf, it’s totally reasonable). The yarn itself is called “tecido trico”.

Also for $20 I picked up some purple ribbon yarn, which I am making a scarf out of (but it is not done yet):

While in Finland, I bought some amazingly colored sock yarn, from Novita, a Finnish yarn company. I have already made a pair of socks from half of one skein, and I have several more skeins which I think I want to make a Color Affection with. Here are the socks I have made (well, I am *almost* done making):

In this picture I really played with the settings of my camera, and I love how it came out:

Here is the other, completed sock:

I went back and played with the settings, lowering the F-stop as I did for the in-progress sock. I love how this came out:

Compare and contrast the two photos….I think I’m learning how to take some great photos! If you are curious about the pattern, it’s just a regular stockinette sock, with a Sweet Tomato heel, and 2×2 ribbing with an i-cord cast-off for the leg of the sock.

I also finished the Monkey Socks. Here is the 2nd sock:

You probably don’t remember what the first sock looks like, which is OK, here’s the picture I took a while ago of it:

As you can tell, they do not match….but they are from the same yarn! (Superwash Correidale….)

I have been on a bit of a sock kick – I started and completed a pair of socks from Mind’s Eye Yarns, hand-dyed by Lucy. It’s 75% merino, 25% tencel, and they are extremely comfortable socks…again, the pattern is just simple stockinette, with ribbing at the leg, and the Sweet Tomato heel. At $20 for 100g, I can get 2 pairs of socks out of one skein, so it makes me happy:

I have been spinning a fair bit, too. I got some BFL from Spunky Eclectic in the “More Coffee” colorway a while back, and decided a few nights ago to spin on my wheel while I was home. I have spun up about a bobbin and a half, and probably am about halfway done with it:

Also from Spunky is the May 2012 fiber club – also BFL, in the “Big Bang” colorway. As soon as I saw it I knew I had to spin it, so even though I still have not spun the clubs from December through April, I went to work on the May colorway right away. I’m still in love:

While in Finland I started to get back in touch with my spindles, spinning some of the Falkland mini-braids I bought at the Wild and Wooly Festival in April in Vermont, from The Spun Monkey Fiber Shoppe. I have spun just about half of one package – which is 2.5 mini-braids:

I also spun some of the fluff I received in a Phat Fiber sampler box I bought in February (a mixed box):

There was a spindle in the box that I spun on, but I have to say that the Bosworth spindles and my Golding mini ringspindles I have are so perfectly balanced, that everything else feels like spinning with a boat anchor (including the bigger Golding ringspindles, sadly).

The Monkey socks were knit using handspun, and I still have a lot of it. Rather than make tons more socks from the same yarn, which would probably result in 8 more unmatched socks, I decided to make a Cecilia. I have not gotten very far yet, I’m about 33 rows in:

Buenos Aires has a span of a few blocks, more about not too far from the Malabia metro station* where there are many yarn shops, I counted 15, and went into 11 of them before I had to stop. The shops are on Ave. Scalabrini Ortiz just southwest of Ave. Cordoba, towards Ave. Correintes. The Malabia metro station is on the corner of Correintes and Scalabrini Ortiz, which is 1 km away from the corner of Cordoba and Corrientes, and about half that until you see your first yarn shop. There was a small bit of yarn bombing between two of the stores:

Yarn shopping in Buenos Aires is quite different from what I’m used to in the States. The stores all look like this:

The yarn is beautiful, and well-organized, but there’s no signs as to what the yarn is made up of, how much it costs nor the gauge of the yarn. In addition, you’re not supposed to take the yarn out of the bins. If you look at the bottom right of that picture, you’ll see some white yarn and blue yarn that is actually sitting on top of a counter. That counter separates you from the wall, and there are people behind the counter who can help you get what you want.

So it’s very different from the experience I’m used to. I got the feeling that a lot of people knew exactly what they wanted to buy, or walked in and would say “do you have anything made of wool?” I was feeling a bit shy due to the language barrier, so I picked up a Spanish phrase: “solamente mirando” – it means “Just looking”. The people are friendly and willing to help, but I like the yarn buying process to be a solo activity.

There were 2 exceptions to the fact that most stores don’t give any information about their items.: Milana hilados and Yanabey. Milana hilados had tags like this near most of their yarn:

Note that that’s in Argentinian pesos, and at the time, this was less than USD $10 per 100g. Another thing to note is the price is per 100g, not per hank of yarn. You’d ask a sales associate to take the yarn down for you and they’d weigh it and ask you if that was OK (kind of like at the deli counter). Then they give you a slip of paper and you take it to a cash register, where you’re usually helped by someone else. Another interesting thing is that the stores seemed to be staffed by about half men, half women, which is very different from yarn stores in the States, which are probably about 90% staffed by women.

I bought 3 hanks of yarn there, for about $25:

Yanabey had signs like this:

These prices are still in Argentinian pesos, but they’re in kilos. So these prices are $171 for 1 kilo, which is $17.10 for 100g. This is a wall of “seda vegetal”, or “vegetable silk“. By the way, that’s about USD $35 per kilo. So I bought 6 skeins, which was just over a kilo, because the tree which this comes from (ceiba speciosa, or “silk floss tree”) is native to South America, and I haven’t seen “vegetable silk” in the US.

A lot of the stores have the recycled t-shirt yarn, and I bought some at Arte Natural:

BUTTONS!!!

I was thinking I might make a purse from the yarn, like this:

That purse is crocheted, but I’m sure I can come up with a knitted version.

Here’s what I bought from that store:

Here’s a Spanish primer for some important words:
cachemira – cashmere
acrílico – acrylic
lana – wool
seda – silk
alpaca – alpaca
hilo – yarn (plural: hilados)
Also, I found out that cashmerillo is just an acrylic yarn that’s very soft. Don’t be fooled by price, some of the acrylic yarns are *very* expensive, even more expensive than the wool.

I was very excited by the prospect of all these yarn stores, and after these three purchases I was done, and passed by 4 other yarn stores that I didn’t even walk into. In addition, there were at least 2 weaving stores, and another 2 fabric stores. Only one of the yarn stores had fiber to spin, and it looked like combed top, and was somewhat expensive (by US standards).

All in all, I was extremely satisfied by taking a few hours to shop for yarn, but I found the experience quite different from what I’m used to.

* I was instructed by a friend who had visited Buenos Aires to take a taxi to the corner of X and Y. However, I enjoy walking around and public transit, so I noticed the subway stop was not far, and decided to walk a few blocks. To those who are considering what to do, a taxi would have cost about 20 pesos (about USD $5) each way. The subway costs $5 for two rides, but of course is not door to door. Another thing to note about the subway is that it is not the most modern system:

And you will get plenty of people trying to make money – some play music, which you may be used to from other subway systems. Others will go around a subway car, handing out products, and then go around and either collect the product back or collect money. I was handed tissues and Disney books – or at least, they attempted to hand stuff to me, and I refused. It helped that I had knitting in my hands, but I saw them just place stuff on people’s laps if their hands were busy, so don’t just look away, make sure you actually refuse by shaking your head.

Note: I hope this article is helpful! Due to spam reasons, all articles on this site have comments disabled after a short time. If you want to leave feedback, you can tweet @sheeri or e-mail me at awfief at gmail dot com. (replace “at” with @ and “dot com” with .com to get the real e-mail address).
Buenos Aires has a span of a few blocks, side effects not too far from the Malabia metro station* where there are many yarn shops, viagra buy I counted 15, and went into 11 of them before I had to stop. There was a small bit of yarn bombing between two of the stores:

Yarn shopping in Buenos Aires is quite different from what I’m used to in the States. The stores all look like this:

The yarn is beautiful, and well-organized, but there’s no signs as to what the yarn is made up of, how much it costs nor the gauge of the yarn. In addition, you’re not supposed to take the yarn out of the bins. If you look at the bottom right of that picture, you’ll see some white yarn and blue yarn that is actually sitting on top of a counter. That counter separates you from the wall, and there are people behind the counter who can help you get what you want.

So it’s very different from the experience I’m used to. I got the feeling that a lot of people knew exactly what they wanted to buy, or walked in and would say “do you have anything made of wool?” I was feeling a bit shy due to the language barrier, so I picked up a Spanish phrase: “solamente mirando” – it means “Just looking”. The people are friendly and willing to help, but I like the yarn buying process to be a solo activity.

There were 2 exceptions to the fact that most stores don’t give any information about their items.: Milana hilados and Yanabey. Milana hilados had tags like this near most of their yarn:

Note that that’s in Argentinian pesos, and at the time, this was less than USD $10 per 100g. Another thing to note is the price is per 100g, not per hank of yarn. You’d ask a sales associate to take the yarn down for you and they’d weigh it and ask you if that was OK (kind of like at the deli counter). Then they give you a slip of paper and you take it to a cash register, where you’re usually helped by someone else. Another interesting thing is that the stores seemed to be staffed by about half men, half women, which is very different from yarn stores in the States, which are probably about 90% staffed by women.

I bought 3 hanks of yarn there, for about $25:

Yanabey had signs like this:

These prices are still in Argentinian pesos, but they’re in kilos. So these prices are $171 for 1 kilo, which is $17.10 for 100g. This is a wall of “seda vegetal”, or “vegetable silk“. By the way, that’s about USD $35 per kilo. So I bought 6 skeins, which was just over a kilo.

A lot of the stores have the recycled t-shirt yarn, and I bought some at Arte Natural:

BUTTONS!!!

I was thinking I might make a purse from the yarn, like this:

That purse is crocheted, but I’m sure I can come up with a knitted version.

Here’s what I bought from that store:

Here’s a Spanish primer for some important words:
cashmira – cashmere
acrilico – acrylic
lana – wool
seda – silk
alpaca – alpaca
hilo – yarn (plural: hilados)
Also, I found out that cashmerillo is just an acrylic yarn that’s very soft. Don’t be fooled by price, some of the acrylic yarns are *very* expensive, even more expensive than the wool.

I was very excited by the prospect of all these yarn stores, and after these three purchases I was done, and passed by 4 other yarn stores that I didn’t even walk into. In addition, there were at least 2 weaving stores, and another 2 fabric stores. Only one of the yarn stores had fiber to spin, and it looked like combed top, and was somewhat expensive (by US standards).

All in all, I was extremely satisfied by taking a few hours to shop for yarn, but I found the experience quite different from what I’m used to.

* I was instructed by a friend who had visited Buenos Aires to take a taxi to the corner of X and Y. However, I enjoy walking around and public transit, so I noticed the subway stop was not far, and decided to walk a few blocks. To those who are considering what to do, a taxi would have cost about 20 pesos (about USD $5) each way. The subway costs $5 for two rides, but of course is not door to door. Another thing to note about the subway is that it is not the most modern system:
subway car – IMG_0247.JPG

And you will get plenty of people trying to make money – some play music, which you may be used to from other subway systems. Others will go around a subway car, handing out products, and then go around and either collect the product back or collect money. I was handed tissues and Disney books – or at least, they attempted to hand stuff to me, and I refused. It helped that I had knitting in my hands, but I saw them just place stuff on people’s laps if their hands were busy, so don’t just look away, make sure you actually refuse by shaking your head.
Buenos Aires has a span of a few blocks, recipe not too far from the Malabia metro station* where there are many yarn shops, viagra sale I counted 15, web and went into 11 of them before I had to stop. There was a small bit of yarn bombing between two of the stores:

Yarn shopping in Buenos Aires is quite different from what I’m used to in the States. The stores all look like this:

The yarn is beautiful, and well-organized, but there’s no signs as to what the yarn is made up of, how much it costs nor the gauge of the yarn. In addition, you’re not supposed to take the yarn out of the bins. If you look at the bottom right of that picture, you’ll see some white yarn and blue yarn that is actually sitting on top of a counter. That counter separates you from the wall, and there are people behind the counter who can help you get what you want.

So it’s very different from the experience I’m used to. I got the feeling that a lot of people knew exactly what they wanted to buy, or walked in and would say “do you have anything made of wool?” I was feeling a bit shy due to the language barrier, so I picked up a Spanish phrase: “solamente mirando” – it means “Just looking”. The people are friendly and willing to help, but I like the yarn buying process to be a solo activity.

There were 2 exceptions to the fact that most stores don’t give any information about their items.: Milana hilados and Yanabey. Milana hilados had tags like this near most of their yarn:

Note that that’s in Argentinian pesos, and at the time, this was less than USD $10 per 100g. Another thing to note is the price is per 100g, not per hank of yarn. You’d ask a sales associate to take the yarn down for you and they’d weigh it and ask you if that was OK (kind of like at the deli counter). Then they give you a slip of paper and you take it to a cash register, where you’re usually helped by someone else. Another interesting thing is that the stores seemed to be staffed by about half men, half women, which is very different from yarn stores in the States, which are probably about 90% staffed by women.

I bought 3 hanks of yarn there, for about $25:

Yanabey had signs like this:

These prices are still in Argentinian pesos, but they’re in kilos. So these prices are $171 for 1 kilo, which is $17.10 for 100g. This is a wall of “seda vegetal”, or “vegetable silk“. By the way, that’s about USD $35 per kilo. So I bought 6 skeins, which was just over a kilo.

A lot of the stores have the recycled t-shirt yarn, and I bought some at Arte Natural:

BUTTONS!!!

I was thinking I might make a purse from the yarn, like this:

That purse is crocheted, but I’m sure I can come up with a knitted version.

Here’s what I bought from that store:

Here’s a Spanish primer for some important words:
cashmira – cashmere
acrilico – acrylic
lana – wool
seda – silk
alpaca – alpaca
hilo – yarn (plural: hilados)
Also, I found out that cashmerillo is just an acrylic yarn that’s very soft. Don’t be fooled by price, some of the acrylic yarns are *very* expensive, even more expensive than the wool.

I was very excited by the prospect of all these yarn stores, and after these three purchases I was done, and passed by 4 other yarn stores that I didn’t even walk into. In addition, there were at least 2 weaving stores, and another 2 fabric stores. Only one of the yarn stores had fiber to spin, and it looked like combed top, and was somewhat expensive (by US standards).

All in all, I was extremely satisfied by taking a few hours to shop for yarn, but I found the experience quite different from what I’m used to.

* I was instructed by a friend who had visited Buenos Aires to take a taxi to the corner of X and Y. However, I enjoy walking around and public transit, so I noticed the subway stop was not far, and decided to walk a few blocks. To those who are considering what to do, a taxi would have cost about 20 pesos (about USD $5) each way. The subway costs $5 for two rides, but of course is not door to door. Another thing to note about the subway is that it is not the most modern system:

And you will get plenty of people trying to make money – some play music, which you may be used to from other subway systems. Others will go around a subway car, handing out products, and then go around and either collect the product back or collect money. I was handed tissues and Disney books – or at least, they attempted to hand stuff to me, and I refused. It helped that I had knitting in my hands, but I saw them just place stuff on people’s laps if their hands were busy, so don’t just look away, make sure you actually refuse by shaking your head.
It has been almost a month since my last post on my crafty goings-on. Since then I have gone to Finland (click for pictures) and Charlotte, North Carolina, to speak at conferences. I bought yarn in both places, and have done a lot of knitting and spinning while on planes, in airports, and generally in the cities themselves.

Tony’s Crooked Little Scarf has gotten bigger, and while it’s not quite finished yet, it is over 32 inches long and you can see that the ball of yarn is getting smaller and smaller:



The scarf is done when I run out of yarn. Next week I fly to Buenos Aires, so I think I will be able to finish the scarf on the plane.

While in North Carolina, I went to some yarn stores, and picked up some Universal Yarn’s Cotton Supreme Batik yarn. I was very excited to find this yarn again, I had found it a few years ago when I was in the Raleigh-Durham area and visited Shuttles Needles and Hooks. It’s very very soft, feels more like a microfiber acrylic than 100% cotton, and was perfect to make a baby sweater out of. So I bought some more for some more baby sweaters….

I bought the cotton batik at YarnHouse, where I bought a skein of ribbon yarn, that made this scarf:

The yarn was difficult to work with, and I’m not in love with the final product, but I am sure there is someone I know who will love it, that I can gift this scarf to.

At Charlotte Yarn I helped my (new) friend Carrie Stokes pick out some yarn for a Mobius shrug, and helped her with the pattern for it – specifically I helped start it. I also got out of my comfort zone and bought some ribbon yarns.

I bought some leopard-print ribbon yarn, to make a scarf for my friend Victoria:

If you look in the middle of the scarf you can see the ribbon itself (there was some left over at the end) and you can see the holes cut into it. I feel like I could re-create this yarn, with 30 meters of wide yarn and a hole punch. This yarn cost $20, and for 30 meters I find that somewhat expensive (although for a whole scarf, it’s totally reasonable). The yarn itself is called “tecido trico”.

Also for $20 I picked up some purple ribbon yarn, which I am making a scarf out of (but it is not done yet):

While in Finland, I bought some amazingly colored sock yarn, from Novita, a Finnish yarn company. I have already made a pair of socks from half of one skein, and I have several more skeins which I think I want to make a Color Affection with. Here are the socks I have made (well, I am *almost* done making):

In this picture I really played with the settings of my camera, and I love how it came out:

Here is the other, completed sock:

I went back and played with the settings, lowering the F-stop as I did for the in-progress sock. I love how this came out:

Compare and contrast the two photos….I think I’m learning how to take some great photos! If you are curious about the pattern, it’s just a regular stockinette sock, with a Sweet Tomato heel, and 2×2 ribbing with an i-cord cast-off for the leg of the sock.

I also finished the Monkey Socks. Here is the 2nd sock:

You probably don’t remember what the first sock looks like, which is OK, here’s the picture I took a while ago of it:

As you can tell, they do not match….but they are from the same yarn! (Superwash Correidale….)

I have been on a bit of a sock kick – I started and completed a pair of socks from Mind’s Eye Yarns, hand-dyed by Lucy. It’s 75% merino, 25% tencel, and they are extremely comfortable socks…again, the pattern is just simple stockinette, with ribbing at the leg, and the Sweet Tomato heel. At $20 for 100g, I can get 2 pairs of socks out of one skein, so it makes me happy:

I have been spinning a fair bit, too. I got some BFL from Spunky Eclectic in the “More Coffee” colorway a while back, and decided a few nights ago to spin on my wheel while I was home. I have spun up about a bobbin and a half, and probably am about halfway done with it:

Also from Spunky is the May 2012 fiber club – also BFL, in the “Big Bang” colorway. As soon as I saw it I knew I had to spin it, so even though I still have not spun the clubs from December through April, I went to work on the May colorway right away. I’m still in love:

While in Finland I started to get back in touch with my spindles, spinning some of the Falkland mini-braids I bought at the Wild and Wooly Festival in April in Vermont, from The Spun Monkey Fiber Shoppe. I have spun just about half of one package – which is 2.5 mini-braids:

I also spun some of the fluff I received in a Phat Fiber sampler box I bought in February (a mixed box):

There was a spindle in the box that I spun on, but I have to say that the Bosworth spindles and my Golding mini ringspindles I have are so perfectly balanced, that everything else feels like spinning with a boat anchor (including the bigger Golding ringspindles, sadly).

The Monkey socks were knit using handspun, and I still have a lot of it. Rather than make tons more socks from the same yarn, which would probably result in 8 more unmatched socks, I decided to make a Cecilia. I have not gotten very far yet, I’m about 33 rows in:

It has been almost a month since my last post on my crafty goings-on. Since then I have gone to Finland (click for pictures) and Charlotte, and have done a lot of knitting and spinning while on planes, in airports, and generally in the cities themselves.

Tony’s Crooked Little Scarf has gotten bigger, and while it’s not quite finished yet, it is over 32 inches long and you can see that the ball of yarn is getting smaller and smaller:

The scarf is done when I run out of yarn. Next week I fly to Buenos Aires, so I think I will be able to finish the scarf on the plane.

While in North Carolina, I went to some yarn stores, and picked up some Universal Yarn’s Cotton Supreme Batik yarn. I was very excited to find this yarn again, I had found it a few years ago when I was in the Raleigh-Durham area and visited Shuttles Needles and Hooks. It’s very very soft, feels more like a microfiber acrylic than 100% cotton, and was perfect to make a baby sweater out of. So I bought some more for some more baby sweaters….

I bought the cotton batik at YarnHouse, where I bought a skein of ribbon yarn, that made this scarf:

The yarn was difficult to work with, and I’m not in love with the final product, but I am sure there is someone I know who will love it, that I can gift this scarf to.

At Charlotte Yarn I helped my (new) friend Carrie Stokes pick out some yarn for a Mobius shrug, and helped her with the pattern for it – specifically I helped start it. I also got out of my comfort zone and bought some ribbon yarns.

I bought some leopard-print ribbon yarn, to make a scarf for my friend Victoria:

If you look in the middle of the scarf you can see the ribbon itself (there was some left over at the end) and you can see the holes cut into it. I feel like I could re-create this yarn, with 30 meters of wide yarn and a hole punch. This yarn cost $20, and for 30 meters I find that somewhat expensive (although for a whole scarf, it’s totally reasonable). The yarn itself is called “tecido trico”.

Also for $20 I picked up some purple ribbon yarn, which I am making a scarf out of (but it is not done yet):

While in Finland, I bought some amazingly colored sock yarn, from Novita, a Finnish yarn company. I have already made a pair of socks from half of one skein, and I have several more skeins which I think I want to make a Color Affection with. Here are the socks I have made (well, I am *almost* done making):

In this picture I really played with the settings of my camera, and I love how it came out:

Here is the other, completed sock:

I went back and played with the settings, lowering the F-stop as I did for the in-progress sock. I love how this came out:

Compare and contrast the two photos….I think I’m learning how to take some great photos! If you are curious about the pattern, it’s just a regular stockinette sock, with a Sweet Tomato heel, and 2×2 ribbing with an i-cord cast-off for the leg of the sock.

I also finished the Monkey Socks. Here is the 2nd sock:

You probably don’t remember what the first sock looks like, which is OK, here’s the picture I took a while ago of it:

As you can tell, they do not match….but they are from the same yarn! (Superwash Correidale….)

I have been on a bit of a sock kick – I started and completed a pair of socks from Mind’s Eye Yarns, hand-dyed by Lucy. It’s 75% merino, 25% tencel, and they are extremely comfortable socks…again, the pattern is just simple stockinette, with ribbing at the leg, and the Sweet Tomato heel. At $20 for 100g, I can get 2 pairs of socks out of one skein, so it makes me happy:

I have been spinning a fair bit, too. I got some BFL from Spunky Eclectic in the “More Coffee” colorway a while back, and decided a few nights ago to spin on my wheel while I was home. I have spun up about a bobbin and a half, and probably am about halfway done with it:

Also from Spunky is the May 2012 fiber club – also BFL, in the “Big Bang” colorway. As soon as I saw it I knew I had to spin it, so even though I still have not spun the clubs from December through April, I went to work on the May colorway right away. I’m still in love:

While in Finland I started to get back in touch with my spindles, spinning some of the Falkland mini-braids I bought at the Wild and Wooly Festival in April in Vermont, from The Spun Monkey Fiber Shoppe. I have spun just about half of one package – which is 2.5 mini-braids:

I also spun some of the fluff I received in a Phat Fiber sampler box I bought in February (a mixed box):

There was a spindle in the box that I spun on, but I have to say that the Bosworth spindles and my Golding mini ringspindles I have are so perfectly balanced, that everything else feels like spinning with a boat anchor (including the bigger Golding ringspindles, sadly).

The Monkey socks were knit using handspun, and I still have a lot of it. Rather than make tons more socks from the same yarn, which would probably result in 8 more unmatched socks, I decided to make a Cecilia. I have not gotten very far yet, I’m about 33 rows in:

And that’s it! For now. I look forward to making more socks, finishing Tony’s scarf, working more on the Cecilia, and
It has been almost a month since my last post on my crafty goings-on. Since then I have gone to Finland (click for pictures) and Charlotte, North Carolina, to speak at conferences. I bought yarn in both places, and have done a lot of knitting and spinning while on planes, in airports, and generally in the cities themselves.

Tony’s Crooked Little Scarf has gotten bigger, and while it’s not quite finished yet, it is over 32 inches long and you can see that the ball of yarn is getting smaller and smaller:



The scarf is done when I run out of yarn. Next week I fly to Buenos Aires, so I think I will be able to finish the scarf on the plane.

While in North Carolina, I went to some yarn stores, and picked up some Universal Yarn’s Cotton Supreme Batik yarn. I was very excited to find this yarn again, I had found it a few years ago when I was in the Raleigh-Durham area and visited Shuttles Needles and Hooks. It’s very very soft, feels more like a microfiber acrylic than 100% cotton, and was perfect to make a baby sweater out of. So I bought some more for some more baby sweaters….

I bought the cotton batik at YarnHouse, where I bought a skein of ribbon yarn, that made this scarf:

The yarn was difficult to work with, and I’m not in love with the final product, but I am sure there is someone I know who will love it, that I can gift this scarf to.

At Charlotte Yarn I helped my (new) friend Carrie Stokes pick out some yarn for a Mobius shrug, and helped her with the pattern for it – specifically I helped start it. I also got out of my comfort zone and bought some ribbon yarns.

I bought some leopard-print ribbon yarn, to make a scarf for my friend Victoria:

If you look in the middle of the scarf you can see the ribbon itself (there was some left over at the end) and you can see the holes cut into it. I feel like I could re-create this yarn, with 30 meters of wide yarn and a hole punch. This yarn cost $20, and for 30 meters I find that somewhat expensive (although for a whole scarf, it’s totally reasonable). The yarn itself is called “tecido trico”.

Also for $20 I picked up some purple ribbon yarn, which I am making a scarf out of (but it is not done yet):

While in Finland, I bought some amazingly colored sock yarn, from Novita, a Finnish yarn company. I have already made a pair of socks from half of one skein, and I have several more skeins which I think I want to make a Color Affection with. Here are the socks I have made (well, I am *almost* done making):

In this picture I really played with the settings of my camera, and I love how it came out:

Here is the other, completed sock:

I went back and played with the settings, lowering the F-stop as I did for the in-progress sock. I love how this came out:

Compare and contrast the two photos….I think I’m learning how to take some great photos! If you are curious about the pattern, it’s just a regular stockinette sock, with a Sweet Tomato heel, and 2×2 ribbing with an i-cord cast-off for the leg of the sock.

I also finished the Monkey Socks. Here is the 2nd sock:

You probably don’t remember what the first sock looks like, which is OK, here’s the picture I took a while ago of it:

As you can tell, they do not match….but they are from the same yarn! (Superwash Correidale….)

I have been on a bit of a sock kick – I started and completed a pair of socks from Mind’s Eye Yarns, hand-dyed by Lucy. It’s 75% merino, 25% tencel, and they are extremely comfortable socks…again, the pattern is just simple stockinette, with ribbing at the leg, and the Sweet Tomato heel. At $20 for 100g, I can get 2 pairs of socks out of one skein, so it makes me happy:

I have been spinning a fair bit, too. I got some BFL from Spunky Eclectic in the “More Coffee” colorway a while back, and decided a few nights ago to spin on my wheel while I was home. I have spun up about a bobbin and a half, and probably am about halfway done with it:

Also from Spunky is the May 2012 fiber club – also BFL, in the “Big Bang” colorway. As soon as I saw it I knew I had to spin it, so even though I still have not spun the clubs from December through April, I went to work on the May colorway right away. I’m still in love:

While in Finland I started to get back in touch with my spindles, spinning some of the Falkland mini-braids I bought at the Wild and Wooly Festival in April in Vermont, from The Spun Monkey Fiber Shoppe. I have spun just about half of one package – which is 2.5 mini-braids:

I also spun some of the fluff I received in a Phat Fiber sampler box I bought in February (a mixed box):

There was a spindle in the box that I spun on, but I have to say that the Bosworth spindles and my Golding mini ringspindles I have are so perfectly balanced, that everything else feels like spinning with a boat anchor (including the bigger Golding ringspindles, sadly).

The Monkey socks were knit using handspun, and I still have a lot of it. Rather than make tons more socks from the same yarn, which would probably result in 8 more unmatched socks, I decided to make a Cecilia. I have not gotten very far yet, I’m about 33 rows in:

Buenos Aires has a span of a few blocks, more about not too far from the Malabia metro station* where there are many yarn shops, I counted 15, and went into 11 of them before I had to stop. The shops are on Ave. Scalabrini Ortiz just southwest of Ave. Cordoba, towards Ave. Correintes. The Malabia metro station is on the corner of Correintes and Scalabrini Ortiz, which is 1 km away from the corner of Cordoba and Corrientes, and about half that until you see your first yarn shop. There was a small bit of yarn bombing between two of the stores:

Yarn shopping in Buenos Aires is quite different from what I’m used to in the States. The stores all look like this:

The yarn is beautiful, and well-organized, but there’s no signs as to what the yarn is made up of, how much it costs nor the gauge of the yarn. In addition, you’re not supposed to take the yarn out of the bins. If you look at the bottom right of that picture, you’ll see some white yarn and blue yarn that is actually sitting on top of a counter. That counter separates you from the wall, and there are people behind the counter who can help you get what you want.

So it’s very different from the experience I’m used to. I got the feeling that a lot of people knew exactly what they wanted to buy, or walked in and would say “do you have anything made of wool?” I was feeling a bit shy due to the language barrier, so I picked up a Spanish phrase: “solamente mirando” – it means “Just looking”. The people are friendly and willing to help, but I like the yarn buying process to be a solo activity.

There were 2 exceptions to the fact that most stores don’t give any information about their items.: Milana hilados and Yanabey. Milana hilados had tags like this near most of their yarn:

Note that that’s in Argentinian pesos, and at the time, this was less than USD $10 per 100g. Another thing to note is the price is per 100g, not per hank of yarn. You’d ask a sales associate to take the yarn down for you and they’d weigh it and ask you if that was OK (kind of like at the deli counter). Then they give you a slip of paper and you take it to a cash register, where you’re usually helped by someone else. Another interesting thing is that the stores seemed to be staffed by about half men, half women, which is very different from yarn stores in the States, which are probably about 90% staffed by women.

I bought 3 hanks of yarn there, for about $25:

Yanabey had signs like this:

These prices are still in Argentinian pesos, but they’re in kilos. So these prices are $171 for 1 kilo, which is $17.10 for 100g. This is a wall of “seda vegetal”, or “vegetable silk“. By the way, that’s about USD $35 per kilo. So I bought 6 skeins, which was just over a kilo, because the tree which this comes from (ceiba speciosa, or “silk floss tree”) is native to South America, and I haven’t seen “vegetable silk” in the US.

A lot of the stores have the recycled t-shirt yarn, and I bought some at Arte Natural:

BUTTONS!!!

I was thinking I might make a purse from the yarn, like this:

That purse is crocheted, but I’m sure I can come up with a knitted version.

Here’s what I bought from that store:

Here’s a Spanish primer for some important words:
cachemira – cashmere
acrílico – acrylic
lana – wool
seda – silk
alpaca – alpaca
hilo – yarn (plural: hilados)
Also, I found out that cashmerillo is just an acrylic yarn that’s very soft. Don’t be fooled by price, some of the acrylic yarns are *very* expensive, even more expensive than the wool.

I was very excited by the prospect of all these yarn stores, and after these three purchases I was done, and passed by 4 other yarn stores that I didn’t even walk into. In addition, there were at least 2 weaving stores, and another 2 fabric stores. Only one of the yarn stores had fiber to spin, and it looked like combed top, and was somewhat expensive (by US standards).

All in all, I was extremely satisfied by taking a few hours to shop for yarn, but I found the experience quite different from what I’m used to.

* I was instructed by a friend who had visited Buenos Aires to take a taxi to the corner of X and Y. However, I enjoy walking around and public transit, so I noticed the subway stop was not far, and decided to walk a few blocks. To those who are considering what to do, a taxi would have cost about 20 pesos (about USD $5) each way. The subway costs $5 for two rides, but of course is not door to door. Another thing to note about the subway is that it is not the most modern system:

And you will get plenty of people trying to make money – some play music, which you may be used to from other subway systems. Others will go around a subway car, handing out products, and then go around and either collect the product back or collect money. I was handed tissues and Disney books – or at least, they attempted to hand stuff to me, and I refused. It helped that I had knitting in my hands, but I saw them just place stuff on people’s laps if their hands were busy, so don’t just look away, make sure you actually refuse by shaking your head.

Note: I hope this article is helpful! Due to spam reasons, all articles on this site have comments disabled after a short time. If you want to leave feedback, you can tweet @sheeri or e-mail me at awfief at gmail dot com. (replace “at” with @ and “dot com” with .com to get the real e-mail address).
Buenos Aires has a span of a few blocks, side effects not too far from the Malabia metro station* where there are many yarn shops, viagra buy I counted 15, and went into 11 of them before I had to stop. There was a small bit of yarn bombing between two of the stores:

Yarn shopping in Buenos Aires is quite different from what I’m used to in the States. The stores all look like this:

The yarn is beautiful, and well-organized, but there’s no signs as to what the yarn is made up of, how much it costs nor the gauge of the yarn. In addition, you’re not supposed to take the yarn out of the bins. If you look at the bottom right of that picture, you’ll see some white yarn and blue yarn that is actually sitting on top of a counter. That counter separates you from the wall, and there are people behind the counter who can help you get what you want.

So it’s very different from the experience I’m used to. I got the feeling that a lot of people knew exactly what they wanted to buy, or walked in and would say “do you have anything made of wool?” I was feeling a bit shy due to the language barrier, so I picked up a Spanish phrase: “solamente mirando” – it means “Just looking”. The people are friendly and willing to help, but I like the yarn buying process to be a solo activity.

There were 2 exceptions to the fact that most stores don’t give any information about their items.: Milana hilados and Yanabey. Milana hilados had tags like this near most of their yarn:

Note that that’s in Argentinian pesos, and at the time, this was less than USD $10 per 100g. Another thing to note is the price is per 100g, not per hank of yarn. You’d ask a sales associate to take the yarn down for you and they’d weigh it and ask you if that was OK (kind of like at the deli counter). Then they give you a slip of paper and you take it to a cash register, where you’re usually helped by someone else. Another interesting thing is that the stores seemed to be staffed by about half men, half women, which is very different from yarn stores in the States, which are probably about 90% staffed by women.

I bought 3 hanks of yarn there, for about $25:

Yanabey had signs like this:

These prices are still in Argentinian pesos, but they’re in kilos. So these prices are $171 for 1 kilo, which is $17.10 for 100g. This is a wall of “seda vegetal”, or “vegetable silk“. By the way, that’s about USD $35 per kilo. So I bought 6 skeins, which was just over a kilo.

A lot of the stores have the recycled t-shirt yarn, and I bought some at Arte Natural:

BUTTONS!!!

I was thinking I might make a purse from the yarn, like this:

That purse is crocheted, but I’m sure I can come up with a knitted version.

Here’s what I bought from that store:

Here’s a Spanish primer for some important words:
cashmira – cashmere
acrilico – acrylic
lana – wool
seda – silk
alpaca – alpaca
hilo – yarn (plural: hilados)
Also, I found out that cashmerillo is just an acrylic yarn that’s very soft. Don’t be fooled by price, some of the acrylic yarns are *very* expensive, even more expensive than the wool.

I was very excited by the prospect of all these yarn stores, and after these three purchases I was done, and passed by 4 other yarn stores that I didn’t even walk into. In addition, there were at least 2 weaving stores, and another 2 fabric stores. Only one of the yarn stores had fiber to spin, and it looked like combed top, and was somewhat expensive (by US standards).

All in all, I was extremely satisfied by taking a few hours to shop for yarn, but I found the experience quite different from what I’m used to.

* I was instructed by a friend who had visited Buenos Aires to take a taxi to the corner of X and Y. However, I enjoy walking around and public transit, so I noticed the subway stop was not far, and decided to walk a few blocks. To those who are considering what to do, a taxi would have cost about 20 pesos (about USD $5) each way. The subway costs $5 for two rides, but of course is not door to door. Another thing to note about the subway is that it is not the most modern system:
subway car – IMG_0247.JPG

And you will get plenty of people trying to make money – some play music, which you may be used to from other subway systems. Others will go around a subway car, handing out products, and then go around and either collect the product back or collect money. I was handed tissues and Disney books – or at least, they attempted to hand stuff to me, and I refused. It helped that I had knitting in my hands, but I saw them just place stuff on people’s laps if their hands were busy, so don’t just look away, make sure you actually refuse by shaking your head.
Buenos Aires has a span of a few blocks, recipe not too far from the Malabia metro station* where there are many yarn shops, viagra sale I counted 15, web and went into 11 of them before I had to stop. There was a small bit of yarn bombing between two of the stores:

Yarn shopping in Buenos Aires is quite different from what I’m used to in the States. The stores all look like this:

The yarn is beautiful, and well-organized, but there’s no signs as to what the yarn is made up of, how much it costs nor the gauge of the yarn. In addition, you’re not supposed to take the yarn out of the bins. If you look at the bottom right of that picture, you’ll see some white yarn and blue yarn that is actually sitting on top of a counter. That counter separates you from the wall, and there are people behind the counter who can help you get what you want.

So it’s very different from the experience I’m used to. I got the feeling that a lot of people knew exactly what they wanted to buy, or walked in and would say “do you have anything made of wool?” I was feeling a bit shy due to the language barrier, so I picked up a Spanish phrase: “solamente mirando” – it means “Just looking”. The people are friendly and willing to help, but I like the yarn buying process to be a solo activity.

There were 2 exceptions to the fact that most stores don’t give any information about their items.: Milana hilados and Yanabey. Milana hilados had tags like this near most of their yarn:

Note that that’s in Argentinian pesos, and at the time, this was less than USD $10 per 100g. Another thing to note is the price is per 100g, not per hank of yarn. You’d ask a sales associate to take the yarn down for you and they’d weigh it and ask you if that was OK (kind of like at the deli counter). Then they give you a slip of paper and you take it to a cash register, where you’re usually helped by someone else. Another interesting thing is that the stores seemed to be staffed by about half men, half women, which is very different from yarn stores in the States, which are probably about 90% staffed by women.

I bought 3 hanks of yarn there, for about $25:

Yanabey had signs like this:

These prices are still in Argentinian pesos, but they’re in kilos. So these prices are $171 for 1 kilo, which is $17.10 for 100g. This is a wall of “seda vegetal”, or “vegetable silk“. By the way, that’s about USD $35 per kilo. So I bought 6 skeins, which was just over a kilo.

A lot of the stores have the recycled t-shirt yarn, and I bought some at Arte Natural:

BUTTONS!!!

I was thinking I might make a purse from the yarn, like this:

That purse is crocheted, but I’m sure I can come up with a knitted version.

Here’s what I bought from that store:

Here’s a Spanish primer for some important words:
cashmira – cashmere
acrilico – acrylic
lana – wool
seda – silk
alpaca – alpaca
hilo – yarn (plural: hilados)
Also, I found out that cashmerillo is just an acrylic yarn that’s very soft. Don’t be fooled by price, some of the acrylic yarns are *very* expensive, even more expensive than the wool.

I was very excited by the prospect of all these yarn stores, and after these three purchases I was done, and passed by 4 other yarn stores that I didn’t even walk into. In addition, there were at least 2 weaving stores, and another 2 fabric stores. Only one of the yarn stores had fiber to spin, and it looked like combed top, and was somewhat expensive (by US standards).

All in all, I was extremely satisfied by taking a few hours to shop for yarn, but I found the experience quite different from what I’m used to.

* I was instructed by a friend who had visited Buenos Aires to take a taxi to the corner of X and Y. However, I enjoy walking around and public transit, so I noticed the subway stop was not far, and decided to walk a few blocks. To those who are considering what to do, a taxi would have cost about 20 pesos (about USD $5) each way. The subway costs $5 for two rides, but of course is not door to door. Another thing to note about the subway is that it is not the most modern system:

And you will get plenty of people trying to make money – some play music, which you may be used to from other subway systems. Others will go around a subway car, handing out products, and then go around and either collect the product back or collect money. I was handed tissues and Disney books – or at least, they attempted to hand stuff to me, and I refused. It helped that I had knitting in my hands, but I saw them just place stuff on people’s laps if their hands were busy, so don’t just look away, make sure you actually refuse by shaking your head.
Buenos Aires has a span of a few blocks, not too far from the Malabia metro station* where there are many yarn shops, I counted 15, and went into 11 of them before I had to stop. There was a small bit of yarn bombing between two of the stores:

Yarn shopping in Buenos Aires is quite different from what I’m used to in the States. The stores all look like this:

The yarn is beautiful, and well-organized, but there’s no signs as to what the yarn is made up of, how much it costs nor the gauge of the yarn. In addition, you’re not supposed to take the yarn out of the bins. If you look at the bottom right of that picture, you’ll see some white yarn and blue yarn that is actually sitting on top of a counter. That counter separates you from the wall, and there are people behind the counter who can help you get what you want.

So it’s very different from the experience I’m used to. I got the feeling that a lot of people knew exactly what they wanted to buy, or walked in and would say “do you have anything made of wool?” I was feeling a bit shy due to the language barrier, so I picked up a Spanish phrase: “solamente mirando” – it means “Just looking”. The people are friendly and willing to help, but I like the yarn buying process to be a solo activity.

There were 2 exceptions to the fact that most stores don’t give any information about their items.: Milana hilados and Yanabey. Milana hilados had tags like this near most of their yarn:

Note that that’s in Argentinian pesos, and at the time, this was less than USD $10 per 100g. Another thing to note is the price is per 100g, not per hank of yarn. You’d ask a sales associate to take the yarn down for you and they’d weigh it and ask you if that was OK (kind of like at the deli counter). Then they give you a slip of paper and you take it to a cash register, where you’re usually helped by someone else. Another interesting thing is that the stores seemed to be staffed by about half men, half women, which is very different from yarn stores in the States, which are probably about 90% staffed by women.

I bought 3 hanks of yarn there, for about $25:

Yanabey had signs like this:

These prices are still in Argentinian pesos, but they’re in kilos. So these prices are $171 for 1 kilo, which is $17.10 for 100g. This is a wall of “seda vegetal”, or “vegetable silk“. By the way, that’s about USD $35 per kilo. So I bought 6 skeins, which was just over a kilo.

A lot of the stores have the recycled t-shirt yarn, and I bought some at Arte Natural:

BUTTONS!!!

I was thinking I might make a purse from the yarn, like this:

That purse is crocheted, but I’m sure I can come up with a knitted version.

Here’s what I bought from that store:

Here’s a Spanish primer for some important words:
cashmira – cashmere
acrilico – acrylic
lana – wool
seda – silk
alpaca – alpaca
hilo – yarn (plural: hilados)
Also, I found out that cashmerillo is just an acrylic yarn that’s very soft. Don’t be fooled by price, some of the acrylic yarns are *very* expensive, even more expensive than the wool.

I was very excited by the prospect of all these yarn stores, and after these three purchases I was done, and passed by 4 other yarn stores that I didn’t even walk into. In addition, there were at least 2 weaving stores, and another 2 fabric stores. Only one of the yarn stores had fiber to spin, and it looked like combed top, and was somewhat expensive (by US standards).

All in all, I was extremely satisfied by taking a few hours to shop for yarn, but I found the experience quite different from what I’m used to.

* I was instructed by a friend who had visited Buenos Aires to take a taxi to the corner of X and Y. However, I enjoy walking around and public transit, so I noticed the subway stop was not far, and decided to walk a few blocks. To those who are considering what to do, a taxi would have cost about 20 pesos (about USD $5) each way. The subway costs $5 for two rides, but of course is not door to door. Another thing to note about the subway is that it is not the most modern system:

And you will get plenty of people trying to make money – some play music, which you may be used to from other subway systems. Others will go around a subway car, handing out products, and then go around and either collect the product back or collect money. I was handed tissues and Disney books – or at least, they attempted to hand stuff to me, and I refused. It helped that I had knitting in my hands, but I saw them just place stuff on people’s laps if their hands were busy, so don’t just look away, make sure you actually refuse by shaking your head.
It has been almost a month since my last post on my crafty goings-on. Since then I have gone to Finland (click for pictures) and Charlotte, North Carolina, to speak at conferences. I bought yarn in both places, and have done a lot of knitting and spinning while on planes, in airports, and generally in the cities themselves.

Tony’s Crooked Little Scarf has gotten bigger, and while it’s not quite finished yet, it is over 32 inches long and you can see that the ball of yarn is getting smaller and smaller:



The scarf is done when I run out of yarn. Next week I fly to Buenos Aires, so I think I will be able to finish the scarf on the plane.

While in North Carolina, I went to some yarn stores, and picked up some Universal Yarn’s Cotton Supreme Batik yarn. I was very excited to find this yarn again, I had found it a few years ago when I was in the Raleigh-Durham area and visited Shuttles Needles and Hooks. It’s very very soft, feels more like a microfiber acrylic than 100% cotton, and was perfect to make a baby sweater out of. So I bought some more for some more baby sweaters….

I bought the cotton batik at YarnHouse, where I bought a skein of ribbon yarn, that made this scarf:

The yarn was difficult to work with, and I’m not in love with the final product, but I am sure there is someone I know who will love it, that I can gift this scarf to.

At Charlotte Yarn I helped my (new) friend Carrie Stokes pick out some yarn for a Mobius shrug, and helped her with the pattern for it – specifically I helped start it. I also got out of my comfort zone and bought some ribbon yarns.

I bought some leopard-print ribbon yarn, to make a scarf for my friend Victoria:

If you look in the middle of the scarf you can see the ribbon itself (there was some left over at the end) and you can see the holes cut into it. I feel like I could re-create this yarn, with 30 meters of wide yarn and a hole punch. This yarn cost $20, and for 30 meters I find that somewhat expensive (although for a whole scarf, it’s totally reasonable). The yarn itself is called “tecido trico”.

Also for $20 I picked up some purple ribbon yarn, which I am making a scarf out of (but it is not done yet):

While in Finland, I bought some amazingly colored sock yarn, from Novita, a Finnish yarn company. I have already made a pair of socks from half of one skein, and I have several more skeins which I think I want to make a Color Affection with. Here are the socks I have made (well, I am *almost* done making):

In this picture I really played with the settings of my camera, and I love how it came out:

Here is the other, completed sock:

I went back and played with the settings, lowering the F-stop as I did for the in-progress sock. I love how this came out:

Compare and contrast the two photos….I think I’m learning how to take some great photos! If you are curious about the pattern, it’s just a regular stockinette sock, with a Sweet Tomato heel, and 2×2 ribbing with an i-cord cast-off for the leg of the sock.

I also finished the Monkey Socks. Here is the 2nd sock:

You probably don’t remember what the first sock looks like, which is OK, here’s the picture I took a while ago of it:

As you can tell, they do not match….but they are from the same yarn! (Superwash Correidale….)

I have been on a bit of a sock kick – I started and completed a pair of socks from Mind’s Eye Yarns, hand-dyed by Lucy. It’s 75% merino, 25% tencel, and they are extremely comfortable socks…again, the pattern is just simple stockinette, with ribbing at the leg, and the Sweet Tomato heel. At $20 for 100g, I can get 2 pairs of socks out of one skein, so it makes me happy:

I have been spinning a fair bit, too. I got some BFL from Spunky Eclectic in the “More Coffee” colorway a while back, and decided a few nights ago to spin on my wheel while I was home. I have spun up about a bobbin and a half, and probably am about halfway done with it:

Also from Spunky is the May 2012 fiber club – also BFL, in the “Big Bang” colorway. As soon as I saw it I knew I had to spin it, so even though I still have not spun the clubs from December through April, I went to work on the May colorway right away. I’m still in love:

While in Finland I started to get back in touch with my spindles, spinning some of the Falkland mini-braids I bought at the Wild and Wooly Festival in April in Vermont, from The Spun Monkey Fiber Shoppe. I have spun just about half of one package – which is 2.5 mini-braids:

I also spun some of the fluff I received in a Phat Fiber sampler box I bought in February (a mixed box):

There was a spindle in the box that I spun on, but I have to say that the Bosworth spindles and my Golding mini ringspindles I have are so perfectly balanced, that everything else feels like spinning with a boat anchor (including the bigger Golding ringspindles, sadly).

The Monkey socks were knit using handspun, and I still have a lot of it. Rather than make tons more socks from the same yarn, which would probably result in 8 more unmatched socks, I decided to make a Cecilia. I have not gotten very far yet, I’m about 33 rows in:

It has been almost a month since my last post on my crafty goings-on. Since then I have gone to Finland (click for pictures) and Charlotte, and have done a lot of knitting and spinning while on planes, in airports, and generally in the cities themselves.

Tony’s Crooked Little Scarf has gotten bigger, and while it’s not quite finished yet, it is over 32 inches long and you can see that the ball of yarn is getting smaller and smaller:

The scarf is done when I run out of yarn. Next week I fly to Buenos Aires, so I think I will be able to finish the scarf on the plane.

While in North Carolina, I went to some yarn stores, and picked up some Universal Yarn’s Cotton Supreme Batik yarn. I was very excited to find this yarn again, I had found it a few years ago when I was in the Raleigh-Durham area and visited Shuttles Needles and Hooks. It’s very very soft, feels more like a microfiber acrylic than 100% cotton, and was perfect to make a baby sweater out of. So I bought some more for some more baby sweaters….

I bought the cotton batik at YarnHouse, where I bought a skein of ribbon yarn, that made this scarf:

The yarn was difficult to work with, and I’m not in love with the final product, but I am sure there is someone I know who will love it, that I can gift this scarf to.

At Charlotte Yarn I helped my (new) friend Carrie Stokes pick out some yarn for a Mobius shrug, and helped her with the pattern for it – specifically I helped start it. I also got out of my comfort zone and bought some ribbon yarns.

I bought some leopard-print ribbon yarn, to make a scarf for my friend Victoria:

If you look in the middle of the scarf you can see the ribbon itself (there was some left over at the end) and you can see the holes cut into it. I feel like I could re-create this yarn, with 30 meters of wide yarn and a hole punch. This yarn cost $20, and for 30 meters I find that somewhat expensive (although for a whole scarf, it’s totally reasonable). The yarn itself is called “tecido trico”.

Also for $20 I picked up some purple ribbon yarn, which I am making a scarf out of (but it is not done yet):

While in Finland, I bought some amazingly colored sock yarn, from Novita, a Finnish yarn company. I have already made a pair of socks from half of one skein, and I have several more skeins which I think I want to make a Color Affection with. Here are the socks I have made (well, I am *almost* done making):

In this picture I really played with the settings of my camera, and I love how it came out:

Here is the other, completed sock:

I went back and played with the settings, lowering the F-stop as I did for the in-progress sock. I love how this came out:

Compare and contrast the two photos….I think I’m learning how to take some great photos! If you are curious about the pattern, it’s just a regular stockinette sock, with a Sweet Tomato heel, and 2×2 ribbing with an i-cord cast-off for the leg of the sock.

I also finished the Monkey Socks. Here is the 2nd sock:

You probably don’t remember what the first sock looks like, which is OK, here’s the picture I took a while ago of it:

As you can tell, they do not match….but they are from the same yarn! (Superwash Correidale….)

I have been on a bit of a sock kick – I started and completed a pair of socks from Mind’s Eye Yarns, hand-dyed by Lucy. It’s 75% merino, 25% tencel, and they are extremely comfortable socks…again, the pattern is just simple stockinette, with ribbing at the leg, and the Sweet Tomato heel. At $20 for 100g, I can get 2 pairs of socks out of one skein, so it makes me happy:

I have been spinning a fair bit, too. I got some BFL from Spunky Eclectic in the “More Coffee” colorway a while back, and decided a few nights ago to spin on my wheel while I was home. I have spun up about a bobbin and a half, and probably am about halfway done with it:

Also from Spunky is the May 2012 fiber club – also BFL, in the “Big Bang” colorway. As soon as I saw it I knew I had to spin it, so even though I still have not spun the clubs from December through April, I went to work on the May colorway right away. I’m still in love:

While in Finland I started to get back in touch with my spindles, spinning some of the Falkland mini-braids I bought at the Wild and Wooly Festival in April in Vermont, from The Spun Monkey Fiber Shoppe. I have spun just about half of one package – which is 2.5 mini-braids:

I also spun some of the fluff I received in a Phat Fiber sampler box I bought in February (a mixed box):

There was a spindle in the box that I spun on, but I have to say that the Bosworth spindles and my Golding mini ringspindles I have are so perfectly balanced, that everything else feels like spinning with a boat anchor (including the bigger Golding ringspindles, sadly).

The Monkey socks were knit using handspun, and I still have a lot of it. Rather than make tons more socks from the same yarn, which would probably result in 8 more unmatched socks, I decided to make a Cecilia. I have not gotten very far yet, I’m about 33 rows in:

And that’s it! For now. I look forward to making more socks, finishing Tony’s scarf, working more on the Cecilia, and
It has been almost a month since my last post on my crafty goings-on. Since then I have gone to Finland (click for pictures) and Charlotte, North Carolina, to speak at conferences. I bought yarn in both places, and have done a lot of knitting and spinning while on planes, in airports, and generally in the cities themselves.

Tony’s Crooked Little Scarf has gotten bigger, and while it’s not quite finished yet, it is over 32 inches long and you can see that the ball of yarn is getting smaller and smaller:



The scarf is done when I run out of yarn. Next week I fly to Buenos Aires, so I think I will be able to finish the scarf on the plane.

While in North Carolina, I went to some yarn stores, and picked up some Universal Yarn’s Cotton Supreme Batik yarn. I was very excited to find this yarn again, I had found it a few years ago when I was in the Raleigh-Durham area and visited Shuttles Needles and Hooks. It’s very very soft, feels more like a microfiber acrylic than 100% cotton, and was perfect to make a baby sweater out of. So I bought some more for some more baby sweaters….

I bought the cotton batik at YarnHouse, where I bought a skein of ribbon yarn, that made this scarf:

The yarn was difficult to work with, and I’m not in love with the final product, but I am sure there is someone I know who will love it, that I can gift this scarf to.

At Charlotte Yarn I helped my (new) friend Carrie Stokes pick out some yarn for a Mobius shrug, and helped her with the pattern for it – specifically I helped start it. I also got out of my comfort zone and bought some ribbon yarns.

I bought some leopard-print ribbon yarn, to make a scarf for my friend Victoria:

If you look in the middle of the scarf you can see the ribbon itself (there was some left over at the end) and you can see the holes cut into it. I feel like I could re-create this yarn, with 30 meters of wide yarn and a hole punch. This yarn cost $20, and for 30 meters I find that somewhat expensive (although for a whole scarf, it’s totally reasonable). The yarn itself is called “tecido trico”.

Also for $20 I picked up some purple ribbon yarn, which I am making a scarf out of (but it is not done yet):

While in Finland, I bought some amazingly colored sock yarn, from Novita, a Finnish yarn company. I have already made a pair of socks from half of one skein, and I have several more skeins which I think I want to make a Color Affection with. Here are the socks I have made (well, I am *almost* done making):

In this picture I really played with the settings of my camera, and I love how it came out:

Here is the other, completed sock:

I went back and played with the settings, lowering the F-stop as I did for the in-progress sock. I love how this came out:

Compare and contrast the two photos….I think I’m learning how to take some great photos! If you are curious about the pattern, it’s just a regular stockinette sock, with a Sweet Tomato heel, and 2×2 ribbing with an i-cord cast-off for the leg of the sock.

I also finished the Monkey Socks. Here is the 2nd sock:

You probably don’t remember what the first sock looks like, which is OK, here’s the picture I took a while ago of it:

As you can tell, they do not match….but they are from the same yarn! (Superwash Correidale….)

I have been on a bit of a sock kick – I started and completed a pair of socks from Mind’s Eye Yarns, hand-dyed by Lucy. It’s 75% merino, 25% tencel, and they are extremely comfortable socks…again, the pattern is just simple stockinette, with ribbing at the leg, and the Sweet Tomato heel. At $20 for 100g, I can get 2 pairs of socks out of one skein, so it makes me happy:

I have been spinning a fair bit, too. I got some BFL from Spunky Eclectic in the “More Coffee” colorway a while back, and decided a few nights ago to spin on my wheel while I was home. I have spun up about a bobbin and a half, and probably am about halfway done with it:

Also from Spunky is the May 2012 fiber club – also BFL, in the “Big Bang” colorway. As soon as I saw it I knew I had to spin it, so even though I still have not spun the clubs from December through April, I went to work on the May colorway right away. I’m still in love:

While in Finland I started to get back in touch with my spindles, spinning some of the Falkland mini-braids I bought at the Wild and Wooly Festival in April in Vermont, from The Spun Monkey Fiber Shoppe. I have spun just about half of one package – which is 2.5 mini-braids:

I also spun some of the fluff I received in a Phat Fiber sampler box I bought in February (a mixed box):

There was a spindle in the box that I spun on, but I have to say that the Bosworth spindles and my Golding mini ringspindles I have are so perfectly balanced, that everything else feels like spinning with a boat anchor (including the bigger Golding ringspindles, sadly).

The Monkey socks were knit using handspun, and I still have a lot of it. Rather than make tons more socks from the same yarn, which would probably result in 8 more unmatched socks, I decided to make a Cecilia. I have not gotten very far yet, I’m about 33 rows in:

Buenos Aires has a span of a few blocks, more about not too far from the Malabia metro station* where there are many yarn shops, I counted 15, and went into 11 of them before I had to stop. The shops are on Ave. Scalabrini Ortiz just southwest of Ave. Cordoba, towards Ave. Correintes. The Malabia metro station is on the corner of Correintes and Scalabrini Ortiz, which is 1 km away from the corner of Cordoba and Corrientes, and about half that until you see your first yarn shop. There was a small bit of yarn bombing between two of the stores:

Yarn shopping in Buenos Aires is quite different from what I’m used to in the States. The stores all look like this:

The yarn is beautiful, and well-organized, but there’s no signs as to what the yarn is made up of, how much it costs nor the gauge of the yarn. In addition, you’re not supposed to take the yarn out of the bins. If you look at the bottom right of that picture, you’ll see some white yarn and blue yarn that is actually sitting on top of a counter. That counter separates you from the wall, and there are people behind the counter who can help you get what you want.

So it’s very different from the experience I’m used to. I got the feeling that a lot of people knew exactly what they wanted to buy, or walked in and would say “do you have anything made of wool?” I was feeling a bit shy due to the language barrier, so I picked up a Spanish phrase: “solamente mirando” – it means “Just looking”. The people are friendly and willing to help, but I like the yarn buying process to be a solo activity.

There were 2 exceptions to the fact that most stores don’t give any information about their items.: Milana hilados and Yanabey. Milana hilados had tags like this near most of their yarn:

Note that that’s in Argentinian pesos, and at the time, this was less than USD $10 per 100g. Another thing to note is the price is per 100g, not per hank of yarn. You’d ask a sales associate to take the yarn down for you and they’d weigh it and ask you if that was OK (kind of like at the deli counter). Then they give you a slip of paper and you take it to a cash register, where you’re usually helped by someone else. Another interesting thing is that the stores seemed to be staffed by about half men, half women, which is very different from yarn stores in the States, which are probably about 90% staffed by women.

I bought 3 hanks of yarn there, for about $25:

Yanabey had signs like this:

These prices are still in Argentinian pesos, but they’re in kilos. So these prices are $171 for 1 kilo, which is $17.10 for 100g. This is a wall of “seda vegetal”, or “vegetable silk“. By the way, that’s about USD $35 per kilo. So I bought 6 skeins, which was just over a kilo, because the tree which this comes from (ceiba speciosa, or “silk floss tree”) is native to South America, and I haven’t seen “vegetable silk” in the US.

A lot of the stores have the recycled t-shirt yarn, and I bought some at Arte Natural:

BUTTONS!!!

I was thinking I might make a purse from the yarn, like this:

That purse is crocheted, but I’m sure I can come up with a knitted version.

Here’s what I bought from that store:

Here’s a Spanish primer for some important words:
cachemira – cashmere
acrílico – acrylic
lana – wool
seda – silk
alpaca – alpaca
hilo – yarn (plural: hilados)
Also, I found out that cashmerillo is just an acrylic yarn that’s very soft. Don’t be fooled by price, some of the acrylic yarns are *very* expensive, even more expensive than the wool.

I was very excited by the prospect of all these yarn stores, and after these three purchases I was done, and passed by 4 other yarn stores that I didn’t even walk into. In addition, there were at least 2 weaving stores, and another 2 fabric stores. Only one of the yarn stores had fiber to spin, and it looked like combed top, and was somewhat expensive (by US standards).

All in all, I was extremely satisfied by taking a few hours to shop for yarn, but I found the experience quite different from what I’m used to.

* I was instructed by a friend who had visited Buenos Aires to take a taxi to the corner of X and Y. However, I enjoy walking around and public transit, so I noticed the subway stop was not far, and decided to walk a few blocks. To those who are considering what to do, a taxi would have cost about 20 pesos (about USD $5) each way. The subway costs $5 for two rides, but of course is not door to door. Another thing to note about the subway is that it is not the most modern system:

And you will get plenty of people trying to make money – some play music, which you may be used to from other subway systems. Others will go around a subway car, handing out products, and then go around and either collect the product back or collect money. I was handed tissues and Disney books – or at least, they attempted to hand stuff to me, and I refused. It helped that I had knitting in my hands, but I saw them just place stuff on people’s laps if their hands were busy, so don’t just look away, make sure you actually refuse by shaking your head.

Note: I hope this article is helpful! Due to spam reasons, all articles on this site have comments disabled after a short time. If you want to leave feedback, you can tweet @sheeri or e-mail me at awfief at gmail dot com. (replace “at” with @ and “dot com” with .com to get the real e-mail address).
Buenos Aires has a span of a few blocks, side effects not too far from the Malabia metro station* where there are many yarn shops, viagra buy I counted 15, and went into 11 of them before I had to stop. There was a small bit of yarn bombing between two of the stores:

Yarn shopping in Buenos Aires is quite different from what I’m used to in the States. The stores all look like this:

The yarn is beautiful, and well-organized, but there’s no signs as to what the yarn is made up of, how much it costs nor the gauge of the yarn. In addition, you’re not supposed to take the yarn out of the bins. If you look at the bottom right of that picture, you’ll see some white yarn and blue yarn that is actually sitting on top of a counter. That counter separates you from the wall, and there are people behind the counter who can help you get what you want.

So it’s very different from the experience I’m used to. I got the feeling that a lot of people knew exactly what they wanted to buy, or walked in and would say “do you have anything made of wool?” I was feeling a bit shy due to the language barrier, so I picked up a Spanish phrase: “solamente mirando” – it means “Just looking”. The people are friendly and willing to help, but I like the yarn buying process to be a solo activity.

There were 2 exceptions to the fact that most stores don’t give any information about their items.: Milana hilados and Yanabey. Milana hilados had tags like this near most of their yarn:

Note that that’s in Argentinian pesos, and at the time, this was less than USD $10 per 100g. Another thing to note is the price is per 100g, not per hank of yarn. You’d ask a sales associate to take the yarn down for you and they’d weigh it and ask you if that was OK (kind of like at the deli counter). Then they give you a slip of paper and you take it to a cash register, where you’re usually helped by someone else. Another interesting thing is that the stores seemed to be staffed by about half men, half women, which is very different from yarn stores in the States, which are probably about 90% staffed by women.

I bought 3 hanks of yarn there, for about $25:

Yanabey had signs like this:

These prices are still in Argentinian pesos, but they’re in kilos. So these prices are $171 for 1 kilo, which is $17.10 for 100g. This is a wall of “seda vegetal”, or “vegetable silk“. By the way, that’s about USD $35 per kilo. So I bought 6 skeins, which was just over a kilo.

A lot of the stores have the recycled t-shirt yarn, and I bought some at Arte Natural:

BUTTONS!!!

I was thinking I might make a purse from the yarn, like this:

That purse is crocheted, but I’m sure I can come up with a knitted version.

Here’s what I bought from that store:

Here’s a Spanish primer for some important words:
cashmira – cashmere
acrilico – acrylic
lana – wool
seda – silk
alpaca – alpaca
hilo – yarn (plural: hilados)
Also, I found out that cashmerillo is just an acrylic yarn that’s very soft. Don’t be fooled by price, some of the acrylic yarns are *very* expensive, even more expensive than the wool.

I was very excited by the prospect of all these yarn stores, and after these three purchases I was done, and passed by 4 other yarn stores that I didn’t even walk into. In addition, there were at least 2 weaving stores, and another 2 fabric stores. Only one of the yarn stores had fiber to spin, and it looked like combed top, and was somewhat expensive (by US standards).

All in all, I was extremely satisfied by taking a few hours to shop for yarn, but I found the experience quite different from what I’m used to.

* I was instructed by a friend who had visited Buenos Aires to take a taxi to the corner of X and Y. However, I enjoy walking around and public transit, so I noticed the subway stop was not far, and decided to walk a few blocks. To those who are considering what to do, a taxi would have cost about 20 pesos (about USD $5) each way. The subway costs $5 for two rides, but of course is not door to door. Another thing to note about the subway is that it is not the most modern system:
subway car – IMG_0247.JPG

And you will get plenty of people trying to make money – some play music, which you may be used to from other subway systems. Others will go around a subway car, handing out products, and then go around and either collect the product back or collect money. I was handed tissues and Disney books – or at least, they attempted to hand stuff to me, and I refused. It helped that I had knitting in my hands, but I saw them just place stuff on people’s laps if their hands were busy, so don’t just look away, make sure you actually refuse by shaking your head.
Buenos Aires has a span of a few blocks, recipe not too far from the Malabia metro station* where there are many yarn shops, viagra sale I counted 15, web and went into 11 of them before I had to stop. There was a small bit of yarn bombing between two of the stores:

Yarn shopping in Buenos Aires is quite different from what I’m used to in the States. The stores all look like this:

The yarn is beautiful, and well-organized, but there’s no signs as to what the yarn is made up of, how much it costs nor the gauge of the yarn. In addition, you’re not supposed to take the yarn out of the bins. If you look at the bottom right of that picture, you’ll see some white yarn and blue yarn that is actually sitting on top of a counter. That counter separates you from the wall, and there are people behind the counter who can help you get what you want.

So it’s very different from the experience I’m used to. I got the feeling that a lot of people knew exactly what they wanted to buy, or walked in and would say “do you have anything made of wool?” I was feeling a bit shy due to the language barrier, so I picked up a Spanish phrase: “solamente mirando” – it means “Just looking”. The people are friendly and willing to help, but I like the yarn buying process to be a solo activity.

There were 2 exceptions to the fact that most stores don’t give any information about their items.: Milana hilados and Yanabey. Milana hilados had tags like this near most of their yarn:

Note that that’s in Argentinian pesos, and at the time, this was less than USD $10 per 100g. Another thing to note is the price is per 100g, not per hank of yarn. You’d ask a sales associate to take the yarn down for you and they’d weigh it and ask you if that was OK (kind of like at the deli counter). Then they give you a slip of paper and you take it to a cash register, where you’re usually helped by someone else. Another interesting thing is that the stores seemed to be staffed by about half men, half women, which is very different from yarn stores in the States, which are probably about 90% staffed by women.

I bought 3 hanks of yarn there, for about $25:

Yanabey had signs like this:

These prices are still in Argentinian pesos, but they’re in kilos. So these prices are $171 for 1 kilo, which is $17.10 for 100g. This is a wall of “seda vegetal”, or “vegetable silk“. By the way, that’s about USD $35 per kilo. So I bought 6 skeins, which was just over a kilo.

A lot of the stores have the recycled t-shirt yarn, and I bought some at Arte Natural:

BUTTONS!!!

I was thinking I might make a purse from the yarn, like this:

That purse is crocheted, but I’m sure I can come up with a knitted version.

Here’s what I bought from that store:

Here’s a Spanish primer for some important words:
cashmira – cashmere
acrilico – acrylic
lana – wool
seda – silk
alpaca – alpaca
hilo – yarn (plural: hilados)
Also, I found out that cashmerillo is just an acrylic yarn that’s very soft. Don’t be fooled by price, some of the acrylic yarns are *very* expensive, even more expensive than the wool.

I was very excited by the prospect of all these yarn stores, and after these three purchases I was done, and passed by 4 other yarn stores that I didn’t even walk into. In addition, there were at least 2 weaving stores, and another 2 fabric stores. Only one of the yarn stores had fiber to spin, and it looked like combed top, and was somewhat expensive (by US standards).

All in all, I was extremely satisfied by taking a few hours to shop for yarn, but I found the experience quite different from what I’m used to.

* I was instructed by a friend who had visited Buenos Aires to take a taxi to the corner of X and Y. However, I enjoy walking around and public transit, so I noticed the subway stop was not far, and decided to walk a few blocks. To those who are considering what to do, a taxi would have cost about 20 pesos (about USD $5) each way. The subway costs $5 for two rides, but of course is not door to door. Another thing to note about the subway is that it is not the most modern system:

And you will get plenty of people trying to make money – some play music, which you may be used to from other subway systems. Others will go around a subway car, handing out products, and then go around and either collect the product back or collect money. I was handed tissues and Disney books – or at least, they attempted to hand stuff to me, and I refused. It helped that I had knitting in my hands, but I saw them just place stuff on people’s laps if their hands were busy, so don’t just look away, make sure you actually refuse by shaking your head.
Buenos Aires has a span of a few blocks, not too far from the Malabia metro station* where there are many yarn shops, I counted 15, and went into 11 of them before I had to stop. There was a small bit of yarn bombing between two of the stores:

Yarn shopping in Buenos Aires is quite different from what I’m used to in the States. The stores all look like this:

The yarn is beautiful, and well-organized, but there’s no signs as to what the yarn is made up of, how much it costs nor the gauge of the yarn. In addition, you’re not supposed to take the yarn out of the bins. If you look at the bottom right of that picture, you’ll see some white yarn and blue yarn that is actually sitting on top of a counter. That counter separates you from the wall, and there are people behind the counter who can help you get what you want.

So it’s very different from the experience I’m used to. I got the feeling that a lot of people knew exactly what they wanted to buy, or walked in and would say “do you have anything made of wool?” I was feeling a bit shy due to the language barrier, so I picked up a Spanish phrase: “solamente mirando” – it means “Just looking”. The people are friendly and willing to help, but I like the yarn buying process to be a solo activity.

There were 2 exceptions to the fact that most stores don’t give any information about their items.: Milana hilados and Yanabey. Milana hilados had tags like this near most of their yarn:

Note that that’s in Argentinian pesos, and at the time, this was less than USD $10 per 100g. Another thing to note is the price is per 100g, not per hank of yarn. You’d ask a sales associate to take the yarn down for you and they’d weigh it and ask you if that was OK (kind of like at the deli counter). Then they give you a slip of paper and you take it to a cash register, where you’re usually helped by someone else. Another interesting thing is that the stores seemed to be staffed by about half men, half women, which is very different from yarn stores in the States, which are probably about 90% staffed by women.

I bought 3 hanks of yarn there, for about $25:

Yanabey had signs like this:

These prices are still in Argentinian pesos, but they’re in kilos. So these prices are $171 for 1 kilo, which is $17.10 for 100g. This is a wall of “seda vegetal”, or “vegetable silk“. By the way, that’s about USD $35 per kilo. So I bought 6 skeins, which was just over a kilo.

A lot of the stores have the recycled t-shirt yarn, and I bought some at Arte Natural:

BUTTONS!!!

I was thinking I might make a purse from the yarn, like this:

That purse is crocheted, but I’m sure I can come up with a knitted version.

Here’s what I bought from that store:

Here’s a Spanish primer for some important words:
cashmira – cashmere
acrilico – acrylic
lana – wool
seda – silk
alpaca – alpaca
hilo – yarn (plural: hilados)
Also, I found out that cashmerillo is just an acrylic yarn that’s very soft. Don’t be fooled by price, some of the acrylic yarns are *very* expensive, even more expensive than the wool.

I was very excited by the prospect of all these yarn stores, and after these three purchases I was done, and passed by 4 other yarn stores that I didn’t even walk into. In addition, there were at least 2 weaving stores, and another 2 fabric stores. Only one of the yarn stores had fiber to spin, and it looked like combed top, and was somewhat expensive (by US standards).

All in all, I was extremely satisfied by taking a few hours to shop for yarn, but I found the experience quite different from what I’m used to.

* I was instructed by a friend who had visited Buenos Aires to take a taxi to the corner of X and Y. However, I enjoy walking around and public transit, so I noticed the subway stop was not far, and decided to walk a few blocks. To those who are considering what to do, a taxi would have cost about 20 pesos (about USD $5) each way. The subway costs $5 for two rides, but of course is not door to door. Another thing to note about the subway is that it is not the most modern system:

And you will get plenty of people trying to make money – some play music, which you may be used to from other subway systems. Others will go around a subway car, handing out products, and then go around and either collect the product back or collect money. I was handed tissues and Disney books – or at least, they attempted to hand stuff to me, and I refused. It helped that I had knitting in my hands, but I saw them just place stuff on people’s laps if their hands were busy, so don’t just look away, make sure you actually refuse by shaking your head.
Buenos Aires has a span of a few blocks, apoplectic not too far from the Malabia metro station* where there are many yarn shops, I counted 15, and went into 11 of them before I had to stop. The shops are on Ave. Scalabrini Ortiz just southwest of Ave. Cordoba, towards Ave. Correintes. The Malabia metro station is on the corner of Correintes and Scalabrini Ortiz, which is 1 km away from the corner of Cordoba and Corrientes, and about half that until you see your first yarn shop. There was a small bit of yarn bombing between two of the stores:

Yarn shopping in Buenos Aires is quite different from what I’m used to in the States. The stores all look like this:

The yarn is beautiful, and well-organized, but there’s no signs as to what the yarn is made up of, how much it costs nor the gauge of the yarn. In addition, you’re not supposed to take the yarn out of the bins. If you look at the bottom right of that picture, you’ll see some white yarn and blue yarn that is actually sitting on top of a counter. That counter separates you from the wall, and there are people behind the counter who can help you get what you want.

So it’s very different from the experience I’m used to. I got the feeling that a lot of people knew exactly what they wanted to buy, or walked in and would say “do you have anything made of wool?” I was feeling a bit shy due to the language barrier, so I picked up a Spanish phrase: “solamente mirando” – it means “Just looking”. The people are friendly and willing to help, but I like the yarn buying process to be a solo activity.

There were 2 exceptions to the fact that most stores don’t give any information about their items.: Milana hilados and Yanabey. Milana hilados had tags like this near most of their yarn:

Note that that’s in Argentinian pesos, and at the time, this was less than USD $10 per 100g. Another thing to note is the price is per 100g, not per hank of yarn. You’d ask a sales associate to take the yarn down for you and they’d weigh it and ask you if that was OK (kind of like at the deli counter). Then they give you a slip of paper and you take it to a cash register, where you’re usually helped by someone else. Another interesting thing is that the stores seemed to be staffed by about half men, half women, which is very different from yarn stores in the States, which are probably about 90% staffed by women.

I bought 3 hanks of yarn there, for about $25:

Yanabey had signs like this:

These prices are still in Argentinian pesos, but they’re in kilos. So these prices are $171 for 1 kilo, which is $17.10 for 100g. This is a wall of “seda vegetal”, or “vegetable silk“. By the way, that’s about USD $35 per kilo. So I bought 6 skeins, which was just over a kilo, because the tree which this comes from (ceiba speciosa, or “silk floss tree”) is native to South America, and I haven’t seen “vegetable silk” in the US.

A lot of the stores have the recycled t-shirt yarn, and I bought some at Arte Natural:

BUTTONS!!!

I was thinking I might make a purse from the yarn, like this:

That purse is crocheted, but I’m sure I can come up with a knitted version.

Here’s what I bought from that store:

Here’s a Spanish primer for some important words:
cachemira – cashmere
acrílico – acrylic
lana – wool
seda – silk
alpaca – alpaca
hilo – yarn (plural: hilados)
Also, I found out that cashmerillo is just an acrylic yarn that’s very soft. Don’t be fooled by price, some of the acrylic yarns are *very* expensive, even more expensive than the wool.

I was very excited by the prospect of all these yarn stores, and after these three purchases I was done, and passed by 4 other yarn stores that I didn’t even walk into. In addition, there were at least 2 weaving stores, and another 2 fabric stores. Only one of the yarn stores had fiber to spin, and it looked like combed top, and was somewhat expensive (by US standards).

All in all, I was extremely satisfied by taking a few hours to shop for yarn, but I found the experience quite different from what I’m used to.

* I was instructed by a friend who had visited Buenos Aires to take a taxi to the corner of X and Y. However, I enjoy walking around and public transit, so I noticed the subway stop was not far, and decided to walk a few blocks. To those who are considering what to do, a taxi would have cost about 20 pesos (about USD $5) each way. The subway costs $5 for two rides, but of course is not door to door. Another thing to note about the subway is that it is not the most modern system:

And you will get plenty of people trying to make money – some play music, which you may be used to from other subway systems. Others will go around a subway car, handing out products, and then go around and either collect the product back or collect money. I was handed tissues and Disney books – or at least, they attempted to hand stuff to me, and I refused. It helped that I had knitting in my hands, but I saw them just place stuff on people’s laps if their hands were busy, so don’t just look away, make sure you actually refuse by shaking your head.
It has been almost a month since my last post on my crafty goings-on. Since then I have gone to Finland (click for pictures) and Charlotte, North Carolina, to speak at conferences. I bought yarn in both places, and have done a lot of knitting and spinning while on planes, in airports, and generally in the cities themselves.

Tony’s Crooked Little Scarf has gotten bigger, and while it’s not quite finished yet, it is over 32 inches long and you can see that the ball of yarn is getting smaller and smaller:



The scarf is done when I run out of yarn. Next week I fly to Buenos Aires, so I think I will be able to finish the scarf on the plane.

While in North Carolina, I went to some yarn stores, and picked up some Universal Yarn’s Cotton Supreme Batik yarn. I was very excited to find this yarn again, I had found it a few years ago when I was in the Raleigh-Durham area and visited Shuttles Needles and Hooks. It’s very very soft, feels more like a microfiber acrylic than 100% cotton, and was perfect to make a baby sweater out of. So I bought some more for some more baby sweaters….

I bought the cotton batik at YarnHouse, where I bought a skein of ribbon yarn, that made this scarf:

The yarn was difficult to work with, and I’m not in love with the final product, but I am sure there is someone I know who will love it, that I can gift this scarf to.

At Charlotte Yarn I helped my (new) friend Carrie Stokes pick out some yarn for a Mobius shrug, and helped her with the pattern for it – specifically I helped start it. I also got out of my comfort zone and bought some ribbon yarns.

I bought some leopard-print ribbon yarn, to make a scarf for my friend Victoria:

If you look in the middle of the scarf you can see the ribbon itself (there was some left over at the end) and you can see the holes cut into it. I feel like I could re-create this yarn, with 30 meters of wide yarn and a hole punch. This yarn cost $20, and for 30 meters I find that somewhat expensive (although for a whole scarf, it’s totally reasonable). The yarn itself is called “tecido trico”.

Also for $20 I picked up some purple ribbon yarn, which I am making a scarf out of (but it is not done yet):

While in Finland, I bought some amazingly colored sock yarn, from Novita, a Finnish yarn company. I have already made a pair of socks from half of one skein, and I have several more skeins which I think I want to make a Color Affection with. Here are the socks I have made (well, I am *almost* done making):

In this picture I really played with the settings of my camera, and I love how it came out:

Here is the other, completed sock:

I went back and played with the settings, lowering the F-stop as I did for the in-progress sock. I love how this came out:

Compare and contrast the two photos….I think I’m learning how to take some great photos! If you are curious about the pattern, it’s just a regular stockinette sock, with a Sweet Tomato heel, and 2×2 ribbing with an i-cord cast-off for the leg of the sock.

I also finished the Monkey Socks. Here is the 2nd sock:

You probably don’t remember what the first sock looks like, which is OK, here’s the picture I took a while ago of it:

As you can tell, they do not match….but they are from the same yarn! (Superwash Correidale….)

I have been on a bit of a sock kick – I started and completed a pair of socks from Mind’s Eye Yarns, hand-dyed by Lucy. It’s 75% merino, 25% tencel, and they are extremely comfortable socks…again, the pattern is just simple stockinette, with ribbing at the leg, and the Sweet Tomato heel. At $20 for 100g, I can get 2 pairs of socks out of one skein, so it makes me happy:

I have been spinning a fair bit, too. I got some BFL from Spunky Eclectic in the “More Coffee” colorway a while back, and decided a few nights ago to spin on my wheel while I was home. I have spun up about a bobbin and a half, and probably am about halfway done with it:

Also from Spunky is the May 2012 fiber club – also BFL, in the “Big Bang” colorway. As soon as I saw it I knew I had to spin it, so even though I still have not spun the clubs from December through April, I went to work on the May colorway right away. I’m still in love:

While in Finland I started to get back in touch with my spindles, spinning some of the Falkland mini-braids I bought at the Wild and Wooly Festival in April in Vermont, from The Spun Monkey Fiber Shoppe. I have spun just about half of one package – which is 2.5 mini-braids:

I also spun some of the fluff I received in a Phat Fiber sampler box I bought in February (a mixed box):

There was a spindle in the box that I spun on, but I have to say that the Bosworth spindles and my Golding mini ringspindles I have are so perfectly balanced, that everything else feels like spinning with a boat anchor (including the bigger Golding ringspindles, sadly).

The Monkey socks were knit using handspun, and I still have a lot of it. Rather than make tons more socks from the same yarn, which would probably result in 8 more unmatched socks, I decided to make a Cecilia. I have not gotten very far yet, I’m about 33 rows in:

It has been almost a month since my last post on my crafty goings-on. Since then I have gone to Finland (click for pictures) and Charlotte, and have done a lot of knitting and spinning while on planes, in airports, and generally in the cities themselves.

Tony’s Crooked Little Scarf has gotten bigger, and while it’s not quite finished yet, it is over 32 inches long and you can see that the ball of yarn is getting smaller and smaller:

The scarf is done when I run out of yarn. Next week I fly to Buenos Aires, so I think I will be able to finish the scarf on the plane.

While in North Carolina, I went to some yarn stores, and picked up some Universal Yarn’s Cotton Supreme Batik yarn. I was very excited to find this yarn again, I had found it a few years ago when I was in the Raleigh-Durham area and visited Shuttles Needles and Hooks. It’s very very soft, feels more like a microfiber acrylic than 100% cotton, and was perfect to make a baby sweater out of. So I bought some more for some more baby sweaters….

I bought the cotton batik at YarnHouse, where I bought a skein of ribbon yarn, that made this scarf:

The yarn was difficult to work with, and I’m not in love with the final product, but I am sure there is someone I know who will love it, that I can gift this scarf to.

At Charlotte Yarn I helped my (new) friend Carrie Stokes pick out some yarn for a Mobius shrug, and helped her with the pattern for it – specifically I helped start it. I also got out of my comfort zone and bought some ribbon yarns.

I bought some leopard-print ribbon yarn, to make a scarf for my friend Victoria:

If you look in the middle of the scarf you can see the ribbon itself (there was some left over at the end) and you can see the holes cut into it. I feel like I could re-create this yarn, with 30 meters of wide yarn and a hole punch. This yarn cost $20, and for 30 meters I find that somewhat expensive (although for a whole scarf, it’s totally reasonable). The yarn itself is called “tecido trico”.

Also for $20 I picked up some purple ribbon yarn, which I am making a scarf out of (but it is not done yet):

While in Finland, I bought some amazingly colored sock yarn, from Novita, a Finnish yarn company. I have already made a pair of socks from half of one skein, and I have several more skeins which I think I want to make a Color Affection with. Here are the socks I have made (well, I am *almost* done making):

In this picture I really played with the settings of my camera, and I love how it came out:

Here is the other, completed sock:

I went back and played with the settings, lowering the F-stop as I did for the in-progress sock. I love how this came out:

Compare and contrast the two photos….I think I’m learning how to take some great photos! If you are curious about the pattern, it’s just a regular stockinette sock, with a Sweet Tomato heel, and 2×2 ribbing with an i-cord cast-off for the leg of the sock.

I also finished the Monkey Socks. Here is the 2nd sock:

You probably don’t remember what the first sock looks like, which is OK, here’s the picture I took a while ago of it:

As you can tell, they do not match….but they are from the same yarn! (Superwash Correidale….)

I have been on a bit of a sock kick – I started and completed a pair of socks from Mind’s Eye Yarns, hand-dyed by Lucy. It’s 75% merino, 25% tencel, and they are extremely comfortable socks…again, the pattern is just simple stockinette, with ribbing at the leg, and the Sweet Tomato heel. At $20 for 100g, I can get 2 pairs of socks out of one skein, so it makes me happy:

I have been spinning a fair bit, too. I got some BFL from Spunky Eclectic in the “More Coffee” colorway a while back, and decided a few nights ago to spin on my wheel while I was home. I have spun up about a bobbin and a half, and probably am about halfway done with it:

Also from Spunky is the May 2012 fiber club – also BFL, in the “Big Bang” colorway. As soon as I saw it I knew I had to spin it, so even though I still have not spun the clubs from December through April, I went to work on the May colorway right away. I’m still in love:

While in Finland I started to get back in touch with my spindles, spinning some of the Falkland mini-braids I bought at the Wild and Wooly Festival in April in Vermont, from The Spun Monkey Fiber Shoppe. I have spun just about half of one package – which is 2.5 mini-braids:

I also spun some of the fluff I received in a Phat Fiber sampler box I bought in February (a mixed box):

There was a spindle in the box that I spun on, but I have to say that the Bosworth spindles and my Golding mini ringspindles I have are so perfectly balanced, that everything else feels like spinning with a boat anchor (including the bigger Golding ringspindles, sadly).

The Monkey socks were knit using handspun, and I still have a lot of it. Rather than make tons more socks from the same yarn, which would probably result in 8 more unmatched socks, I decided to make a Cecilia. I have not gotten very far yet, I’m about 33 rows in:

And that’s it! For now. I look forward to making more socks, finishing Tony’s scarf, working more on the Cecilia, and
It has been almost a month since my last post on my crafty goings-on. Since then I have gone to Finland (click for pictures) and Charlotte, North Carolina, to speak at conferences. I bought yarn in both places, and have done a lot of knitting and spinning while on planes, in airports, and generally in the cities themselves.

Tony’s Crooked Little Scarf has gotten bigger, and while it’s not quite finished yet, it is over 32 inches long and you can see that the ball of yarn is getting smaller and smaller:



The scarf is done when I run out of yarn. Next week I fly to Buenos Aires, so I think I will be able to finish the scarf on the plane.

While in North Carolina, I went to some yarn stores, and picked up some Universal Yarn’s Cotton Supreme Batik yarn. I was very excited to find this yarn again, I had found it a few years ago when I was in the Raleigh-Durham area and visited Shuttles Needles and Hooks. It’s very very soft, feels more like a microfiber acrylic than 100% cotton, and was perfect to make a baby sweater out of. So I bought some more for some more baby sweaters….

I bought the cotton batik at YarnHouse, where I bought a skein of ribbon yarn, that made this scarf:

The yarn was difficult to work with, and I’m not in love with the final product, but I am sure there is someone I know who will love it, that I can gift this scarf to.

At Charlotte Yarn I helped my (new) friend Carrie Stokes pick out some yarn for a Mobius shrug, and helped her with the pattern for it – specifically I helped start it. I also got out of my comfort zone and bought some ribbon yarns.

I bought some leopard-print ribbon yarn, to make a scarf for my friend Victoria:

If you look in the middle of the scarf you can see the ribbon itself (there was some left over at the end) and you can see the holes cut into it. I feel like I could re-create this yarn, with 30 meters of wide yarn and a hole punch. This yarn cost $20, and for 30 meters I find that somewhat expensive (although for a whole scarf, it’s totally reasonable). The yarn itself is called “tecido trico”.

Also for $20 I picked up some purple ribbon yarn, which I am making a scarf out of (but it is not done yet):

While in Finland, I bought some amazingly colored sock yarn, from Novita, a Finnish yarn company. I have already made a pair of socks from half of one skein, and I have several more skeins which I think I want to make a Color Affection with. Here are the socks I have made (well, I am *almost* done making):

In this picture I really played with the settings of my camera, and I love how it came out:

Here is the other, completed sock:

I went back and played with the settings, lowering the F-stop as I did for the in-progress sock. I love how this came out:

Compare and contrast the two photos….I think I’m learning how to take some great photos! If you are curious about the pattern, it’s just a regular stockinette sock, with a Sweet Tomato heel, and 2×2 ribbing with an i-cord cast-off for the leg of the sock.

I also finished the Monkey Socks. Here is the 2nd sock:

You probably don’t remember what the first sock looks like, which is OK, here’s the picture I took a while ago of it:

As you can tell, they do not match….but they are from the same yarn! (Superwash Correidale….)

I have been on a bit of a sock kick – I started and completed a pair of socks from Mind’s Eye Yarns, hand-dyed by Lucy. It’s 75% merino, 25% tencel, and they are extremely comfortable socks…again, the pattern is just simple stockinette, with ribbing at the leg, and the Sweet Tomato heel. At $20 for 100g, I can get 2 pairs of socks out of one skein, so it makes me happy:

I have been spinning a fair bit, too. I got some BFL from Spunky Eclectic in the “More Coffee” colorway a while back, and decided a few nights ago to spin on my wheel while I was home. I have spun up about a bobbin and a half, and probably am about halfway done with it:

Also from Spunky is the May 2012 fiber club – also BFL, in the “Big Bang” colorway. As soon as I saw it I knew I had to spin it, so even though I still have not spun the clubs from December through April, I went to work on the May colorway right away. I’m still in love:

While in Finland I started to get back in touch with my spindles, spinning some of the Falkland mini-braids I bought at the Wild and Wooly Festival in April in Vermont, from The Spun Monkey Fiber Shoppe. I have spun just about half of one package – which is 2.5 mini-braids:

I also spun some of the fluff I received in a Phat Fiber sampler box I bought in February (a mixed box):

There was a spindle in the box that I spun on, but I have to say that the Bosworth spindles and my Golding mini ringspindles I have are so perfectly balanced, that everything else feels like spinning with a boat anchor (including the bigger Golding ringspindles, sadly).

The Monkey socks were knit using handspun, and I still have a lot of it. Rather than make tons more socks from the same yarn, which would probably result in 8 more unmatched socks, I decided to make a Cecilia. I have not gotten very far yet, I’m about 33 rows in:

Buenos Aires has a span of a few blocks, more about not too far from the Malabia metro station* where there are many yarn shops, I counted 15, and went into 11 of them before I had to stop. The shops are on Ave. Scalabrini Ortiz just southwest of Ave. Cordoba, towards Ave. Correintes. The Malabia metro station is on the corner of Correintes and Scalabrini Ortiz, which is 1 km away from the corner of Cordoba and Corrientes, and about half that until you see your first yarn shop. There was a small bit of yarn bombing between two of the stores:

Yarn shopping in Buenos Aires is quite different from what I’m used to in the States. The stores all look like this:

The yarn is beautiful, and well-organized, but there’s no signs as to what the yarn is made up of, how much it costs nor the gauge of the yarn. In addition, you’re not supposed to take the yarn out of the bins. If you look at the bottom right of that picture, you’ll see some white yarn and blue yarn that is actually sitting on top of a counter. That counter separates you from the wall, and there are people behind the counter who can help you get what you want.

So it’s very different from the experience I’m used to. I got the feeling that a lot of people knew exactly what they wanted to buy, or walked in and would say “do you have anything made of wool?” I was feeling a bit shy due to the language barrier, so I picked up a Spanish phrase: “solamente mirando” – it means “Just looking”. The people are friendly and willing to help, but I like the yarn buying process to be a solo activity.

There were 2 exceptions to the fact that most stores don’t give any information about their items.: Milana hilados and Yanabey. Milana hilados had tags like this near most of their yarn:

Note that that’s in Argentinian pesos, and at the time, this was less than USD $10 per 100g. Another thing to note is the price is per 100g, not per hank of yarn. You’d ask a sales associate to take the yarn down for you and they’d weigh it and ask you if that was OK (kind of like at the deli counter). Then they give you a slip of paper and you take it to a cash register, where you’re usually helped by someone else. Another interesting thing is that the stores seemed to be staffed by about half men, half women, which is very different from yarn stores in the States, which are probably about 90% staffed by women.

I bought 3 hanks of yarn there, for about $25:

Yanabey had signs like this:

These prices are still in Argentinian pesos, but they’re in kilos. So these prices are $171 for 1 kilo, which is $17.10 for 100g. This is a wall of “seda vegetal”, or “vegetable silk“. By the way, that’s about USD $35 per kilo. So I bought 6 skeins, which was just over a kilo, because the tree which this comes from (ceiba speciosa, or “silk floss tree”) is native to South America, and I haven’t seen “vegetable silk” in the US.

A lot of the stores have the recycled t-shirt yarn, and I bought some at Arte Natural:

BUTTONS!!!

I was thinking I might make a purse from the yarn, like this:

That purse is crocheted, but I’m sure I can come up with a knitted version.

Here’s what I bought from that store:

Here’s a Spanish primer for some important words:
cachemira – cashmere
acrílico – acrylic
lana – wool
seda – silk
alpaca – alpaca
hilo – yarn (plural: hilados)
Also, I found out that cashmerillo is just an acrylic yarn that’s very soft. Don’t be fooled by price, some of the acrylic yarns are *very* expensive, even more expensive than the wool.

I was very excited by the prospect of all these yarn stores, and after these three purchases I was done, and passed by 4 other yarn stores that I didn’t even walk into. In addition, there were at least 2 weaving stores, and another 2 fabric stores. Only one of the yarn stores had fiber to spin, and it looked like combed top, and was somewhat expensive (by US standards).

All in all, I was extremely satisfied by taking a few hours to shop for yarn, but I found the experience quite different from what I’m used to.

* I was instructed by a friend who had visited Buenos Aires to take a taxi to the corner of X and Y. However, I enjoy walking around and public transit, so I noticed the subway stop was not far, and decided to walk a few blocks. To those who are considering what to do, a taxi would have cost about 20 pesos (about USD $5) each way. The subway costs $5 for two rides, but of course is not door to door. Another thing to note about the subway is that it is not the most modern system:

And you will get plenty of people trying to make money – some play music, which you may be used to from other subway systems. Others will go around a subway car, handing out products, and then go around and either collect the product back or collect money. I was handed tissues and Disney books – or at least, they attempted to hand stuff to me, and I refused. It helped that I had knitting in my hands, but I saw them just place stuff on people’s laps if their hands were busy, so don’t just look away, make sure you actually refuse by shaking your head.

Note: I hope this article is helpful! Due to spam reasons, all articles on this site have comments disabled after a short time. If you want to leave feedback, you can tweet @sheeri or e-mail me at awfief at gmail dot com. (replace “at” with @ and “dot com” with .com to get the real e-mail address).
Buenos Aires has a span of a few blocks, side effects not too far from the Malabia metro station* where there are many yarn shops, viagra buy I counted 15, and went into 11 of them before I had to stop. There was a small bit of yarn bombing between two of the stores:

Yarn shopping in Buenos Aires is quite different from what I’m used to in the States. The stores all look like this:

The yarn is beautiful, and well-organized, but there’s no signs as to what the yarn is made up of, how much it costs nor the gauge of the yarn. In addition, you’re not supposed to take the yarn out of the bins. If you look at the bottom right of that picture, you’ll see some white yarn and blue yarn that is actually sitting on top of a counter. That counter separates you from the wall, and there are people behind the counter who can help you get what you want.

So it’s very different from the experience I’m used to. I got the feeling that a lot of people knew exactly what they wanted to buy, or walked in and would say “do you have anything made of wool?” I was feeling a bit shy due to the language barrier, so I picked up a Spanish phrase: “solamente mirando” – it means “Just looking”. The people are friendly and willing to help, but I like the yarn buying process to be a solo activity.

There were 2 exceptions to the fact that most stores don’t give any information about their items.: Milana hilados and Yanabey. Milana hilados had tags like this near most of their yarn:

Note that that’s in Argentinian pesos, and at the time, this was less than USD $10 per 100g. Another thing to note is the price is per 100g, not per hank of yarn. You’d ask a sales associate to take the yarn down for you and they’d weigh it and ask you if that was OK (kind of like at the deli counter). Then they give you a slip of paper and you take it to a cash register, where you’re usually helped by someone else. Another interesting thing is that the stores seemed to be staffed by about half men, half women, which is very different from yarn stores in the States, which are probably about 90% staffed by women.

I bought 3 hanks of yarn there, for about $25:

Yanabey had signs like this:

These prices are still in Argentinian pesos, but they’re in kilos. So these prices are $171 for 1 kilo, which is $17.10 for 100g. This is a wall of “seda vegetal”, or “vegetable silk“. By the way, that’s about USD $35 per kilo. So I bought 6 skeins, which was just over a kilo.

A lot of the stores have the recycled t-shirt yarn, and I bought some at Arte Natural:

BUTTONS!!!

I was thinking I might make a purse from the yarn, like this:

That purse is crocheted, but I’m sure I can come up with a knitted version.

Here’s what I bought from that store:

Here’s a Spanish primer for some important words:
cashmira – cashmere
acrilico – acrylic
lana – wool
seda – silk
alpaca – alpaca
hilo – yarn (plural: hilados)
Also, I found out that cashmerillo is just an acrylic yarn that’s very soft. Don’t be fooled by price, some of the acrylic yarns are *very* expensive, even more expensive than the wool.

I was very excited by the prospect of all these yarn stores, and after these three purchases I was done, and passed by 4 other yarn stores that I didn’t even walk into. In addition, there were at least 2 weaving stores, and another 2 fabric stores. Only one of the yarn stores had fiber to spin, and it looked like combed top, and was somewhat expensive (by US standards).

All in all, I was extremely satisfied by taking a few hours to shop for yarn, but I found the experience quite different from what I’m used to.

* I was instructed by a friend who had visited Buenos Aires to take a taxi to the corner of X and Y. However, I enjoy walking around and public transit, so I noticed the subway stop was not far, and decided to walk a few blocks. To those who are considering what to do, a taxi would have cost about 20 pesos (about USD $5) each way. The subway costs $5 for two rides, but of course is not door to door. Another thing to note about the subway is that it is not the most modern system:
subway car – IMG_0247.JPG

And you will get plenty of people trying to make money – some play music, which you may be used to from other subway systems. Others will go around a subway car, handing out products, and then go around and either collect the product back or collect money. I was handed tissues and Disney books – or at least, they attempted to hand stuff to me, and I refused. It helped that I had knitting in my hands, but I saw them just place stuff on people’s laps if their hands were busy, so don’t just look away, make sure you actually refuse by shaking your head.
Buenos Aires has a span of a few blocks, recipe not too far from the Malabia metro station* where there are many yarn shops, viagra sale I counted 15, web and went into 11 of them before I had to stop. There was a small bit of yarn bombing between two of the stores:

Yarn shopping in Buenos Aires is quite different from what I’m used to in the States. The stores all look like this:

The yarn is beautiful, and well-organized, but there’s no signs as to what the yarn is made up of, how much it costs nor the gauge of the yarn. In addition, you’re not supposed to take the yarn out of the bins. If you look at the bottom right of that picture, you’ll see some white yarn and blue yarn that is actually sitting on top of a counter. That counter separates you from the wall, and there are people behind the counter who can help you get what you want.

So it’s very different from the experience I’m used to. I got the feeling that a lot of people knew exactly what they wanted to buy, or walked in and would say “do you have anything made of wool?” I was feeling a bit shy due to the language barrier, so I picked up a Spanish phrase: “solamente mirando” – it means “Just looking”. The people are friendly and willing to help, but I like the yarn buying process to be a solo activity.

There were 2 exceptions to the fact that most stores don’t give any information about their items.: Milana hilados and Yanabey. Milana hilados had tags like this near most of their yarn:

Note that that’s in Argentinian pesos, and at the time, this was less than USD $10 per 100g. Another thing to note is the price is per 100g, not per hank of yarn. You’d ask a sales associate to take the yarn down for you and they’d weigh it and ask you if that was OK (kind of like at the deli counter). Then they give you a slip of paper and you take it to a cash register, where you’re usually helped by someone else. Another interesting thing is that the stores seemed to be staffed by about half men, half women, which is very different from yarn stores in the States, which are probably about 90% staffed by women.

I bought 3 hanks of yarn there, for about $25:

Yanabey had signs like this:

These prices are still in Argentinian pesos, but they’re in kilos. So these prices are $171 for 1 kilo, which is $17.10 for 100g. This is a wall of “seda vegetal”, or “vegetable silk“. By the way, that’s about USD $35 per kilo. So I bought 6 skeins, which was just over a kilo.

A lot of the stores have the recycled t-shirt yarn, and I bought some at Arte Natural:

BUTTONS!!!

I was thinking I might make a purse from the yarn, like this:

That purse is crocheted, but I’m sure I can come up with a knitted version.

Here’s what I bought from that store:

Here’s a Spanish primer for some important words:
cashmira – cashmere
acrilico – acrylic
lana – wool
seda – silk
alpaca – alpaca
hilo – yarn (plural: hilados)
Also, I found out that cashmerillo is just an acrylic yarn that’s very soft. Don’t be fooled by price, some of the acrylic yarns are *very* expensive, even more expensive than the wool.

I was very excited by the prospect of all these yarn stores, and after these three purchases I was done, and passed by 4 other yarn stores that I didn’t even walk into. In addition, there were at least 2 weaving stores, and another 2 fabric stores. Only one of the yarn stores had fiber to spin, and it looked like combed top, and was somewhat expensive (by US standards).

All in all, I was extremely satisfied by taking a few hours to shop for yarn, but I found the experience quite different from what I’m used to.

* I was instructed by a friend who had visited Buenos Aires to take a taxi to the corner of X and Y. However, I enjoy walking around and public transit, so I noticed the subway stop was not far, and decided to walk a few blocks. To those who are considering what to do, a taxi would have cost about 20 pesos (about USD $5) each way. The subway costs $5 for two rides, but of course is not door to door. Another thing to note about the subway is that it is not the most modern system:

And you will get plenty of people trying to make money – some play music, which you may be used to from other subway systems. Others will go around a subway car, handing out products, and then go around and either collect the product back or collect money. I was handed tissues and Disney books – or at least, they attempted to hand stuff to me, and I refused. It helped that I had knitting in my hands, but I saw them just place stuff on people’s laps if their hands were busy, so don’t just look away, make sure you actually refuse by shaking your head.
Buenos Aires has a span of a few blocks, not too far from the Malabia metro station* where there are many yarn shops, I counted 15, and went into 11 of them before I had to stop. There was a small bit of yarn bombing between two of the stores:

Yarn shopping in Buenos Aires is quite different from what I’m used to in the States. The stores all look like this:

The yarn is beautiful, and well-organized, but there’s no signs as to what the yarn is made up of, how much it costs nor the gauge of the yarn. In addition, you’re not supposed to take the yarn out of the bins. If you look at the bottom right of that picture, you’ll see some white yarn and blue yarn that is actually sitting on top of a counter. That counter separates you from the wall, and there are people behind the counter who can help you get what you want.

So it’s very different from the experience I’m used to. I got the feeling that a lot of people knew exactly what they wanted to buy, or walked in and would say “do you have anything made of wool?” I was feeling a bit shy due to the language barrier, so I picked up a Spanish phrase: “solamente mirando” – it means “Just looking”. The people are friendly and willing to help, but I like the yarn buying process to be a solo activity.

There were 2 exceptions to the fact that most stores don’t give any information about their items.: Milana hilados and Yanabey. Milana hilados had tags like this near most of their yarn:

Note that that’s in Argentinian pesos, and at the time, this was less than USD $10 per 100g. Another thing to note is the price is per 100g, not per hank of yarn. You’d ask a sales associate to take the yarn down for you and they’d weigh it and ask you if that was OK (kind of like at the deli counter). Then they give you a slip of paper and you take it to a cash register, where you’re usually helped by someone else. Another interesting thing is that the stores seemed to be staffed by about half men, half women, which is very different from yarn stores in the States, which are probably about 90% staffed by women.

I bought 3 hanks of yarn there, for about $25:

Yanabey had signs like this:

These prices are still in Argentinian pesos, but they’re in kilos. So these prices are $171 for 1 kilo, which is $17.10 for 100g. This is a wall of “seda vegetal”, or “vegetable silk“. By the way, that’s about USD $35 per kilo. So I bought 6 skeins, which was just over a kilo.

A lot of the stores have the recycled t-shirt yarn, and I bought some at Arte Natural:

BUTTONS!!!

I was thinking I might make a purse from the yarn, like this:

That purse is crocheted, but I’m sure I can come up with a knitted version.

Here’s what I bought from that store:

Here’s a Spanish primer for some important words:
cashmira – cashmere
acrilico – acrylic
lana – wool
seda – silk
alpaca – alpaca
hilo – yarn (plural: hilados)
Also, I found out that cashmerillo is just an acrylic yarn that’s very soft. Don’t be fooled by price, some of the acrylic yarns are *very* expensive, even more expensive than the wool.

I was very excited by the prospect of all these yarn stores, and after these three purchases I was done, and passed by 4 other yarn stores that I didn’t even walk into. In addition, there were at least 2 weaving stores, and another 2 fabric stores. Only one of the yarn stores had fiber to spin, and it looked like combed top, and was somewhat expensive (by US standards).

All in all, I was extremely satisfied by taking a few hours to shop for yarn, but I found the experience quite different from what I’m used to.

* I was instructed by a friend who had visited Buenos Aires to take a taxi to the corner of X and Y. However, I enjoy walking around and public transit, so I noticed the subway stop was not far, and decided to walk a few blocks. To those who are considering what to do, a taxi would have cost about 20 pesos (about USD $5) each way. The subway costs $5 for two rides, but of course is not door to door. Another thing to note about the subway is that it is not the most modern system:

And you will get plenty of people trying to make money – some play music, which you may be used to from other subway systems. Others will go around a subway car, handing out products, and then go around and either collect the product back or collect money. I was handed tissues and Disney books – or at least, they attempted to hand stuff to me, and I refused. It helped that I had knitting in my hands, but I saw them just place stuff on people’s laps if their hands were busy, so don’t just look away, make sure you actually refuse by shaking your head.
Buenos Aires has a span of a few blocks, apoplectic not too far from the Malabia metro station* where there are many yarn shops, I counted 15, and went into 11 of them before I had to stop. The shops are on Ave. Scalabrini Ortiz just southwest of Ave. Cordoba, towards Ave. Correintes. The Malabia metro station is on the corner of Correintes and Scalabrini Ortiz, which is 1 km away from the corner of Cordoba and Corrientes, and about half that until you see your first yarn shop. There was a small bit of yarn bombing between two of the stores:

Yarn shopping in Buenos Aires is quite different from what I’m used to in the States. The stores all look like this:

The yarn is beautiful, and well-organized, but there’s no signs as to what the yarn is made up of, how much it costs nor the gauge of the yarn. In addition, you’re not supposed to take the yarn out of the bins. If you look at the bottom right of that picture, you’ll see some white yarn and blue yarn that is actually sitting on top of a counter. That counter separates you from the wall, and there are people behind the counter who can help you get what you want.

So it’s very different from the experience I’m used to. I got the feeling that a lot of people knew exactly what they wanted to buy, or walked in and would say “do you have anything made of wool?” I was feeling a bit shy due to the language barrier, so I picked up a Spanish phrase: “solamente mirando” – it means “Just looking”. The people are friendly and willing to help, but I like the yarn buying process to be a solo activity.

There were 2 exceptions to the fact that most stores don’t give any information about their items.: Milana hilados and Yanabey. Milana hilados had tags like this near most of their yarn:

Note that that’s in Argentinian pesos, and at the time, this was less than USD $10 per 100g. Another thing to note is the price is per 100g, not per hank of yarn. You’d ask a sales associate to take the yarn down for you and they’d weigh it and ask you if that was OK (kind of like at the deli counter). Then they give you a slip of paper and you take it to a cash register, where you’re usually helped by someone else. Another interesting thing is that the stores seemed to be staffed by about half men, half women, which is very different from yarn stores in the States, which are probably about 90% staffed by women.

I bought 3 hanks of yarn there, for about $25:

Yanabey had signs like this:

These prices are still in Argentinian pesos, but they’re in kilos. So these prices are $171 for 1 kilo, which is $17.10 for 100g. This is a wall of “seda vegetal”, or “vegetable silk“. By the way, that’s about USD $35 per kilo. So I bought 6 skeins, which was just over a kilo, because the tree which this comes from (ceiba speciosa, or “silk floss tree”) is native to South America, and I haven’t seen “vegetable silk” in the US.

A lot of the stores have the recycled t-shirt yarn, and I bought some at Arte Natural:

BUTTONS!!!

I was thinking I might make a purse from the yarn, like this:

That purse is crocheted, but I’m sure I can come up with a knitted version.

Here’s what I bought from that store:

Here’s a Spanish primer for some important words:
cachemira – cashmere
acrílico – acrylic
lana – wool
seda – silk
alpaca – alpaca
hilo – yarn (plural: hilados)
Also, I found out that cashmerillo is just an acrylic yarn that’s very soft. Don’t be fooled by price, some of the acrylic yarns are *very* expensive, even more expensive than the wool.

I was very excited by the prospect of all these yarn stores, and after these three purchases I was done, and passed by 4 other yarn stores that I didn’t even walk into. In addition, there were at least 2 weaving stores, and another 2 fabric stores. Only one of the yarn stores had fiber to spin, and it looked like combed top, and was somewhat expensive (by US standards).

All in all, I was extremely satisfied by taking a few hours to shop for yarn, but I found the experience quite different from what I’m used to.

* I was instructed by a friend who had visited Buenos Aires to take a taxi to the corner of X and Y. However, I enjoy walking around and public transit, so I noticed the subway stop was not far, and decided to walk a few blocks. To those who are considering what to do, a taxi would have cost about 20 pesos (about USD $5) each way. The subway costs $5 for two rides, but of course is not door to door. Another thing to note about the subway is that it is not the most modern system:

And you will get plenty of people trying to make money – some play music, which you may be used to from other subway systems. Others will go around a subway car, handing out products, and then go around and either collect the product back or collect money. I was handed tissues and Disney books – or at least, they attempted to hand stuff to me, and I refused. It helped that I had knitting in my hands, but I saw them just place stuff on people’s laps if their hands were busy, so don’t just look away, make sure you actually refuse by shaking your head.
I participated in this year’s Tour de Fleece. It was particularly difficult for me, was Sat 30 June through Sunday, 22 July – 23 days, and all but the last 5 days, I was abroad.

I did not make a ton of yarn (I spun up about 2 ounces total), but I did spin on 22 of the 23 days, which was pretty good. This was mostly all spindle-spun, because I did not take my wheel with me – I traveled from Argentina to Colombia, to Ecuador, to Trinidad, to Guatemala, to Honduras, to Costa Rica, and finally home to Boston.

If you want to see the picture progressions, you can see them on page 1 and page 2 of my Tour de Fleece photo album.
It has been almost a month since my last post on my crafty goings-on. Since then I have gone to Finland (click for pictures) and Charlotte, North Carolina, to speak at conferences. I bought yarn in both places, and have done a lot of knitting and spinning while on planes, in airports, and generally in the cities themselves.

Tony’s Crooked Little Scarf has gotten bigger, and while it’s not quite finished yet, it is over 32 inches long and you can see that the ball of yarn is getting smaller and smaller:



The scarf is done when I run out of yarn. Next week I fly to Buenos Aires, so I think I will be able to finish the scarf on the plane.

While in North Carolina, I went to some yarn stores, and picked up some Universal Yarn’s Cotton Supreme Batik yarn. I was very excited to find this yarn again, I had found it a few years ago when I was in the Raleigh-Durham area and visited Shuttles Needles and Hooks. It’s very very soft, feels more like a microfiber acrylic than 100% cotton, and was perfect to make a baby sweater out of. So I bought some more for some more baby sweaters….

I bought the cotton batik at YarnHouse, where I bought a skein of ribbon yarn, that made this scarf:

The yarn was difficult to work with, and I’m not in love with the final product, but I am sure there is someone I know who will love it, that I can gift this scarf to.

At Charlotte Yarn I helped my (new) friend Carrie Stokes pick out some yarn for a Mobius shrug, and helped her with the pattern for it – specifically I helped start it. I also got out of my comfort zone and bought some ribbon yarns.

I bought some leopard-print ribbon yarn, to make a scarf for my friend Victoria:

If you look in the middle of the scarf you can see the ribbon itself (there was some left over at the end) and you can see the holes cut into it. I feel like I could re-create this yarn, with 30 meters of wide yarn and a hole punch. This yarn cost $20, and for 30 meters I find that somewhat expensive (although for a whole scarf, it’s totally reasonable). The yarn itself is called “tecido trico”.

Also for $20 I picked up some purple ribbon yarn, which I am making a scarf out of (but it is not done yet):

While in Finland, I bought some amazingly colored sock yarn, from Novita, a Finnish yarn company. I have already made a pair of socks from half of one skein, and I have several more skeins which I think I want to make a Color Affection with. Here are the socks I have made (well, I am *almost* done making):

In this picture I really played with the settings of my camera, and I love how it came out:

Here is the other, completed sock:

I went back and played with the settings, lowering the F-stop as I did for the in-progress sock. I love how this came out:

Compare and contrast the two photos….I think I’m learning how to take some great photos! If you are curious about the pattern, it’s just a regular stockinette sock, with a Sweet Tomato heel, and 2×2 ribbing with an i-cord cast-off for the leg of the sock.

I also finished the Monkey Socks. Here is the 2nd sock:

You probably don’t remember what the first sock looks like, which is OK, here’s the picture I took a while ago of it:

As you can tell, they do not match….but they are from the same yarn! (Superwash Correidale….)

I have been on a bit of a sock kick – I started and completed a pair of socks from Mind’s Eye Yarns, hand-dyed by Lucy. It’s 75% merino, 25% tencel, and they are extremely comfortable socks…again, the pattern is just simple stockinette, with ribbing at the leg, and the Sweet Tomato heel. At $20 for 100g, I can get 2 pairs of socks out of one skein, so it makes me happy:

I have been spinning a fair bit, too. I got some BFL from Spunky Eclectic in the “More Coffee” colorway a while back, and decided a few nights ago to spin on my wheel while I was home. I have spun up about a bobbin and a half, and probably am about halfway done with it:

Also from Spunky is the May 2012 fiber club – also BFL, in the “Big Bang” colorway. As soon as I saw it I knew I had to spin it, so even though I still have not spun the clubs from December through April, I went to work on the May colorway right away. I’m still in love:

While in Finland I started to get back in touch with my spindles, spinning some of the Falkland mini-braids I bought at the Wild and Wooly Festival in April in Vermont, from The Spun Monkey Fiber Shoppe. I have spun just about half of one package – which is 2.5 mini-braids:

I also spun some of the fluff I received in a Phat Fiber sampler box I bought in February (a mixed box):

There was a spindle in the box that I spun on, but I have to say that the Bosworth spindles and my Golding mini ringspindles I have are so perfectly balanced, that everything else feels like spinning with a boat anchor (including the bigger Golding ringspindles, sadly).

The Monkey socks were knit using handspun, and I still have a lot of it. Rather than make tons more socks from the same yarn, which would probably result in 8 more unmatched socks, I decided to make a Cecilia. I have not gotten very far yet, I’m about 33 rows in:

It has been almost a month since my last post on my crafty goings-on. Since then I have gone to Finland (click for pictures) and Charlotte, and have done a lot of knitting and spinning while on planes, in airports, and generally in the cities themselves.

Tony’s Crooked Little Scarf has gotten bigger, and while it’s not quite finished yet, it is over 32 inches long and you can see that the ball of yarn is getting smaller and smaller:

The scarf is done when I run out of yarn. Next week I fly to Buenos Aires, so I think I will be able to finish the scarf on the plane.

While in North Carolina, I went to some yarn stores, and picked up some Universal Yarn’s Cotton Supreme Batik yarn. I was very excited to find this yarn again, I had found it a few years ago when I was in the Raleigh-Durham area and visited Shuttles Needles and Hooks. It’s very very soft, feels more like a microfiber acrylic than 100% cotton, and was perfect to make a baby sweater out of. So I bought some more for some more baby sweaters….

I bought the cotton batik at YarnHouse, where I bought a skein of ribbon yarn, that made this scarf:

The yarn was difficult to work with, and I’m not in love with the final product, but I am sure there is someone I know who will love it, that I can gift this scarf to.

At Charlotte Yarn I helped my (new) friend Carrie Stokes pick out some yarn for a Mobius shrug, and helped her with the pattern for it – specifically I helped start it. I also got out of my comfort zone and bought some ribbon yarns.

I bought some leopard-print ribbon yarn, to make a scarf for my friend Victoria:

If you look in the middle of the scarf you can see the ribbon itself (there was some left over at the end) and you can see the holes cut into it. I feel like I could re-create this yarn, with 30 meters of wide yarn and a hole punch. This yarn cost $20, and for 30 meters I find that somewhat expensive (although for a whole scarf, it’s totally reasonable). The yarn itself is called “tecido trico”.

Also for $20 I picked up some purple ribbon yarn, which I am making a scarf out of (but it is not done yet):

While in Finland, I bought some amazingly colored sock yarn, from Novita, a Finnish yarn company. I have already made a pair of socks from half of one skein, and I have several more skeins which I think I want to make a Color Affection with. Here are the socks I have made (well, I am *almost* done making):

In this picture I really played with the settings of my camera, and I love how it came out:

Here is the other, completed sock:

I went back and played with the settings, lowering the F-stop as I did for the in-progress sock. I love how this came out:

Compare and contrast the two photos….I think I’m learning how to take some great photos! If you are curious about the pattern, it’s just a regular stockinette sock, with a Sweet Tomato heel, and 2×2 ribbing with an i-cord cast-off for the leg of the sock.

I also finished the Monkey Socks. Here is the 2nd sock:

You probably don’t remember what the first sock looks like, which is OK, here’s the picture I took a while ago of it:

As you can tell, they do not match….but they are from the same yarn! (Superwash Correidale….)

I have been on a bit of a sock kick – I started and completed a pair of socks from Mind’s Eye Yarns, hand-dyed by Lucy. It’s 75% merino, 25% tencel, and they are extremely comfortable socks…again, the pattern is just simple stockinette, with ribbing at the leg, and the Sweet Tomato heel. At $20 for 100g, I can get 2 pairs of socks out of one skein, so it makes me happy:

I have been spinning a fair bit, too. I got some BFL from Spunky Eclectic in the “More Coffee” colorway a while back, and decided a few nights ago to spin on my wheel while I was home. I have spun up about a bobbin and a half, and probably am about halfway done with it:

Also from Spunky is the May 2012 fiber club – also BFL, in the “Big Bang” colorway. As soon as I saw it I knew I had to spin it, so even though I still have not spun the clubs from December through April, I went to work on the May colorway right away. I’m still in love:

While in Finland I started to get back in touch with my spindles, spinning some of the Falkland mini-braids I bought at the Wild and Wooly Festival in April in Vermont, from The Spun Monkey Fiber Shoppe. I have spun just about half of one package – which is 2.5 mini-braids:

I also spun some of the fluff I received in a Phat Fiber sampler box I bought in February (a mixed box):

There was a spindle in the box that I spun on, but I have to say that the Bosworth spindles and my Golding mini ringspindles I have are so perfectly balanced, that everything else feels like spinning with a boat anchor (including the bigger Golding ringspindles, sadly).

The Monkey socks were knit using handspun, and I still have a lot of it. Rather than make tons more socks from the same yarn, which would probably result in 8 more unmatched socks, I decided to make a Cecilia. I have not gotten very far yet, I’m about 33 rows in:

And that’s it! For now. I look forward to making more socks, finishing Tony’s scarf, working more on the Cecilia, and
It has been almost a month since my last post on my crafty goings-on. Since then I have gone to Finland (click for pictures) and Charlotte, North Carolina, to speak at conferences. I bought yarn in both places, and have done a lot of knitting and spinning while on planes, in airports, and generally in the cities themselves.

Tony’s Crooked Little Scarf has gotten bigger, and while it’s not quite finished yet, it is over 32 inches long and you can see that the ball of yarn is getting smaller and smaller:



The scarf is done when I run out of yarn. Next week I fly to Buenos Aires, so I think I will be able to finish the scarf on the plane.

While in North Carolina, I went to some yarn stores, and picked up some Universal Yarn’s Cotton Supreme Batik yarn. I was very excited to find this yarn again, I had found it a few years ago when I was in the Raleigh-Durham area and visited Shuttles Needles and Hooks. It’s very very soft, feels more like a microfiber acrylic than 100% cotton, and was perfect to make a baby sweater out of. So I bought some more for some more baby sweaters….

I bought the cotton batik at YarnHouse, where I bought a skein of ribbon yarn, that made this scarf:

The yarn was difficult to work with, and I’m not in love with the final product, but I am sure there is someone I know who will love it, that I can gift this scarf to.

At Charlotte Yarn I helped my (new) friend Carrie Stokes pick out some yarn for a Mobius shrug, and helped her with the pattern for it – specifically I helped start it. I also got out of my comfort zone and bought some ribbon yarns.

I bought some leopard-print ribbon yarn, to make a scarf for my friend Victoria:

If you look in the middle of the scarf you can see the ribbon itself (there was some left over at the end) and you can see the holes cut into it. I feel like I could re-create this yarn, with 30 meters of wide yarn and a hole punch. This yarn cost $20, and for 30 meters I find that somewhat expensive (although for a whole scarf, it’s totally reasonable). The yarn itself is called “tecido trico”.

Also for $20 I picked up some purple ribbon yarn, which I am making a scarf out of (but it is not done yet):

While in Finland, I bought some amazingly colored sock yarn, from Novita, a Finnish yarn company. I have already made a pair of socks from half of one skein, and I have several more skeins which I think I want to make a Color Affection with. Here are the socks I have made (well, I am *almost* done making):

In this picture I really played with the settings of my camera, and I love how it came out:

Here is the other, completed sock:

I went back and played with the settings, lowering the F-stop as I did for the in-progress sock. I love how this came out:

Compare and contrast the two photos….I think I’m learning how to take some great photos! If you are curious about the pattern, it’s just a regular stockinette sock, with a Sweet Tomato heel, and 2×2 ribbing with an i-cord cast-off for the leg of the sock.

I also finished the Monkey Socks. Here is the 2nd sock:

You probably don’t remember what the first sock looks like, which is OK, here’s the picture I took a while ago of it:

As you can tell, they do not match….but they are from the same yarn! (Superwash Correidale….)

I have been on a bit of a sock kick – I started and completed a pair of socks from Mind’s Eye Yarns, hand-dyed by Lucy. It’s 75% merino, 25% tencel, and they are extremely comfortable socks…again, the pattern is just simple stockinette, with ribbing at the leg, and the Sweet Tomato heel. At $20 for 100g, I can get 2 pairs of socks out of one skein, so it makes me happy:

I have been spinning a fair bit, too. I got some BFL from Spunky Eclectic in the “More Coffee” colorway a while back, and decided a few nights ago to spin on my wheel while I was home. I have spun up about a bobbin and a half, and probably am about halfway done with it:

Also from Spunky is the May 2012 fiber club – also BFL, in the “Big Bang” colorway. As soon as I saw it I knew I had to spin it, so even though I still have not spun the clubs from December through April, I went to work on the May colorway right away. I’m still in love:

While in Finland I started to get back in touch with my spindles, spinning some of the Falkland mini-braids I bought at the Wild and Wooly Festival in April in Vermont, from The Spun Monkey Fiber Shoppe. I have spun just about half of one package – which is 2.5 mini-braids:

I also spun some of the fluff I received in a Phat Fiber sampler box I bought in February (a mixed box):

There was a spindle in the box that I spun on, but I have to say that the Bosworth spindles and my Golding mini ringspindles I have are so perfectly balanced, that everything else feels like spinning with a boat anchor (including the bigger Golding ringspindles, sadly).

The Monkey socks were knit using handspun, and I still have a lot of it. Rather than make tons more socks from the same yarn, which would probably result in 8 more unmatched socks, I decided to make a Cecilia. I have not gotten very far yet, I’m about 33 rows in:

Buenos Aires has a span of a few blocks, more about not too far from the Malabia metro station* where there are many yarn shops, I counted 15, and went into 11 of them before I had to stop. The shops are on Ave. Scalabrini Ortiz just southwest of Ave. Cordoba, towards Ave. Correintes. The Malabia metro station is on the corner of Correintes and Scalabrini Ortiz, which is 1 km away from the corner of Cordoba and Corrientes, and about half that until you see your first yarn shop. There was a small bit of yarn bombing between two of the stores:

Yarn shopping in Buenos Aires is quite different from what I’m used to in the States. The stores all look like this:

The yarn is beautiful, and well-organized, but there’s no signs as to what the yarn is made up of, how much it costs nor the gauge of the yarn. In addition, you’re not supposed to take the yarn out of the bins. If you look at the bottom right of that picture, you’ll see some white yarn and blue yarn that is actually sitting on top of a counter. That counter separates you from the wall, and there are people behind the counter who can help you get what you want.

So it’s very different from the experience I’m used to. I got the feeling that a lot of people knew exactly what they wanted to buy, or walked in and would say “do you have anything made of wool?” I was feeling a bit shy due to the language barrier, so I picked up a Spanish phrase: “solamente mirando” – it means “Just looking”. The people are friendly and willing to help, but I like the yarn buying process to be a solo activity.

There were 2 exceptions to the fact that most stores don’t give any information about their items.: Milana hilados and Yanabey. Milana hilados had tags like this near most of their yarn:

Note that that’s in Argentinian pesos, and at the time, this was less than USD $10 per 100g. Another thing to note is the price is per 100g, not per hank of yarn. You’d ask a sales associate to take the yarn down for you and they’d weigh it and ask you if that was OK (kind of like at the deli counter). Then they give you a slip of paper and you take it to a cash register, where you’re usually helped by someone else. Another interesting thing is that the stores seemed to be staffed by about half men, half women, which is very different from yarn stores in the States, which are probably about 90% staffed by women.

I bought 3 hanks of yarn there, for about $25:

Yanabey had signs like this:

These prices are still in Argentinian pesos, but they’re in kilos. So these prices are $171 for 1 kilo, which is $17.10 for 100g. This is a wall of “seda vegetal”, or “vegetable silk“. By the way, that’s about USD $35 per kilo. So I bought 6 skeins, which was just over a kilo, because the tree which this comes from (ceiba speciosa, or “silk floss tree”) is native to South America, and I haven’t seen “vegetable silk” in the US.

A lot of the stores have the recycled t-shirt yarn, and I bought some at Arte Natural:

BUTTONS!!!

I was thinking I might make a purse from the yarn, like this:

That purse is crocheted, but I’m sure I can come up with a knitted version.

Here’s what I bought from that store:

Here’s a Spanish primer for some important words:
cachemira – cashmere
acrílico – acrylic
lana – wool
seda – silk
alpaca – alpaca
hilo – yarn (plural: hilados)
Also, I found out that cashmerillo is just an acrylic yarn that’s very soft. Don’t be fooled by price, some of the acrylic yarns are *very* expensive, even more expensive than the wool.

I was very excited by the prospect of all these yarn stores, and after these three purchases I was done, and passed by 4 other yarn stores that I didn’t even walk into. In addition, there were at least 2 weaving stores, and another 2 fabric stores. Only one of the yarn stores had fiber to spin, and it looked like combed top, and was somewhat expensive (by US standards).

All in all, I was extremely satisfied by taking a few hours to shop for yarn, but I found the experience quite different from what I’m used to.

* I was instructed by a friend who had visited Buenos Aires to take a taxi to the corner of X and Y. However, I enjoy walking around and public transit, so I noticed the subway stop was not far, and decided to walk a few blocks. To those who are considering what to do, a taxi would have cost about 20 pesos (about USD $5) each way. The subway costs $5 for two rides, but of course is not door to door. Another thing to note about the subway is that it is not the most modern system:

And you will get plenty of people trying to make money – some play music, which you may be used to from other subway systems. Others will go around a subway car, handing out products, and then go around and either collect the product back or collect money. I was handed tissues and Disney books – or at least, they attempted to hand stuff to me, and I refused. It helped that I had knitting in my hands, but I saw them just place stuff on people’s laps if their hands were busy, so don’t just look away, make sure you actually refuse by shaking your head.

Note: I hope this article is helpful! Due to spam reasons, all articles on this site have comments disabled after a short time. If you want to leave feedback, you can tweet @sheeri or e-mail me at awfief at gmail dot com. (replace “at” with @ and “dot com” with .com to get the real e-mail address).
Buenos Aires has a span of a few blocks, side effects not too far from the Malabia metro station* where there are many yarn shops, viagra buy I counted 15, and went into 11 of them before I had to stop. There was a small bit of yarn bombing between two of the stores:

Yarn shopping in Buenos Aires is quite different from what I’m used to in the States. The stores all look like this:

The yarn is beautiful, and well-organized, but there’s no signs as to what the yarn is made up of, how much it costs nor the gauge of the yarn. In addition, you’re not supposed to take the yarn out of the bins. If you look at the bottom right of that picture, you’ll see some white yarn and blue yarn that is actually sitting on top of a counter. That counter separates you from the wall, and there are people behind the counter who can help you get what you want.

So it’s very different from the experience I’m used to. I got the feeling that a lot of people knew exactly what they wanted to buy, or walked in and would say “do you have anything made of wool?” I was feeling a bit shy due to the language barrier, so I picked up a Spanish phrase: “solamente mirando” – it means “Just looking”. The people are friendly and willing to help, but I like the yarn buying process to be a solo activity.

There were 2 exceptions to the fact that most stores don’t give any information about their items.: Milana hilados and Yanabey. Milana hilados had tags like this near most of their yarn:

Note that that’s in Argentinian pesos, and at the time, this was less than USD $10 per 100g. Another thing to note is the price is per 100g, not per hank of yarn. You’d ask a sales associate to take the yarn down for you and they’d weigh it and ask you if that was OK (kind of like at the deli counter). Then they give you a slip of paper and you take it to a cash register, where you’re usually helped by someone else. Another interesting thing is that the stores seemed to be staffed by about half men, half women, which is very different from yarn stores in the States, which are probably about 90% staffed by women.

I bought 3 hanks of yarn there, for about $25:

Yanabey had signs like this:

These prices are still in Argentinian pesos, but they’re in kilos. So these prices are $171 for 1 kilo, which is $17.10 for 100g. This is a wall of “seda vegetal”, or “vegetable silk“. By the way, that’s about USD $35 per kilo. So I bought 6 skeins, which was just over a kilo.

A lot of the stores have the recycled t-shirt yarn, and I bought some at Arte Natural:

BUTTONS!!!

I was thinking I might make a purse from the yarn, like this:

That purse is crocheted, but I’m sure I can come up with a knitted version.

Here’s what I bought from that store:

Here’s a Spanish primer for some important words:
cashmira – cashmere
acrilico – acrylic
lana – wool
seda – silk
alpaca – alpaca
hilo – yarn (plural: hilados)
Also, I found out that cashmerillo is just an acrylic yarn that’s very soft. Don’t be fooled by price, some of the acrylic yarns are *very* expensive, even more expensive than the wool.

I was very excited by the prospect of all these yarn stores, and after these three purchases I was done, and passed by 4 other yarn stores that I didn’t even walk into. In addition, there were at least 2 weaving stores, and another 2 fabric stores. Only one of the yarn stores had fiber to spin, and it looked like combed top, and was somewhat expensive (by US standards).

All in all, I was extremely satisfied by taking a few hours to shop for yarn, but I found the experience quite different from what I’m used to.

* I was instructed by a friend who had visited Buenos Aires to take a taxi to the corner of X and Y. However, I enjoy walking around and public transit, so I noticed the subway stop was not far, and decided to walk a few blocks. To those who are considering what to do, a taxi would have cost about 20 pesos (about USD $5) each way. The subway costs $5 for two rides, but of course is not door to door. Another thing to note about the subway is that it is not the most modern system:
subway car – IMG_0247.JPG

And you will get plenty of people trying to make money – some play music, which you may be used to from other subway systems. Others will go around a subway car, handing out products, and then go around and either collect the product back or collect money. I was handed tissues and Disney books – or at least, they attempted to hand stuff to me, and I refused. It helped that I had knitting in my hands, but I saw them just place stuff on people’s laps if their hands were busy, so don’t just look away, make sure you actually refuse by shaking your head.
Buenos Aires has a span of a few blocks, recipe not too far from the Malabia metro station* where there are many yarn shops, viagra sale I counted 15, web and went into 11 of them before I had to stop. There was a small bit of yarn bombing between two of the stores:

Yarn shopping in Buenos Aires is quite different from what I’m used to in the States. The stores all look like this:

The yarn is beautiful, and well-organized, but there’s no signs as to what the yarn is made up of, how much it costs nor the gauge of the yarn. In addition, you’re not supposed to take the yarn out of the bins. If you look at the bottom right of that picture, you’ll see some white yarn and blue yarn that is actually sitting on top of a counter. That counter separates you from the wall, and there are people behind the counter who can help you get what you want.

So it’s very different from the experience I’m used to. I got the feeling that a lot of people knew exactly what they wanted to buy, or walked in and would say “do you have anything made of wool?” I was feeling a bit shy due to the language barrier, so I picked up a Spanish phrase: “solamente mirando” – it means “Just looking”. The people are friendly and willing to help, but I like the yarn buying process to be a solo activity.

There were 2 exceptions to the fact that most stores don’t give any information about their items.: Milana hilados and Yanabey. Milana hilados had tags like this near most of their yarn:

Note that that’s in Argentinian pesos, and at the time, this was less than USD $10 per 100g. Another thing to note is the price is per 100g, not per hank of yarn. You’d ask a sales associate to take the yarn down for you and they’d weigh it and ask you if that was OK (kind of like at the deli counter). Then they give you a slip of paper and you take it to a cash register, where you’re usually helped by someone else. Another interesting thing is that the stores seemed to be staffed by about half men, half women, which is very different from yarn stores in the States, which are probably about 90% staffed by women.

I bought 3 hanks of yarn there, for about $25:

Yanabey had signs like this:

These prices are still in Argentinian pesos, but they’re in kilos. So these prices are $171 for 1 kilo, which is $17.10 for 100g. This is a wall of “seda vegetal”, or “vegetable silk“. By the way, that’s about USD $35 per kilo. So I bought 6 skeins, which was just over a kilo.

A lot of the stores have the recycled t-shirt yarn, and I bought some at Arte Natural:

BUTTONS!!!

I was thinking I might make a purse from the yarn, like this:

That purse is crocheted, but I’m sure I can come up with a knitted version.

Here’s what I bought from that store:

Here’s a Spanish primer for some important words:
cashmira – cashmere
acrilico – acrylic
lana – wool
seda – silk
alpaca – alpaca
hilo – yarn (plural: hilados)
Also, I found out that cashmerillo is just an acrylic yarn that’s very soft. Don’t be fooled by price, some of the acrylic yarns are *very* expensive, even more expensive than the wool.

I was very excited by the prospect of all these yarn stores, and after these three purchases I was done, and passed by 4 other yarn stores that I didn’t even walk into. In addition, there were at least 2 weaving stores, and another 2 fabric stores. Only one of the yarn stores had fiber to spin, and it looked like combed top, and was somewhat expensive (by US standards).

All in all, I was extremely satisfied by taking a few hours to shop for yarn, but I found the experience quite different from what I’m used to.

* I was instructed by a friend who had visited Buenos Aires to take a taxi to the corner of X and Y. However, I enjoy walking around and public transit, so I noticed the subway stop was not far, and decided to walk a few blocks. To those who are considering what to do, a taxi would have cost about 20 pesos (about USD $5) each way. The subway costs $5 for two rides, but of course is not door to door. Another thing to note about the subway is that it is not the most modern system:

And you will get plenty of people trying to make money – some play music, which you may be used to from other subway systems. Others will go around a subway car, handing out products, and then go around and either collect the product back or collect money. I was handed tissues and Disney books – or at least, they attempted to hand stuff to me, and I refused. It helped that I had knitting in my hands, but I saw them just place stuff on people’s laps if their hands were busy, so don’t just look away, make sure you actually refuse by shaking your head.
Buenos Aires has a span of a few blocks, not too far from the Malabia metro station* where there are many yarn shops, I counted 15, and went into 11 of them before I had to stop. There was a small bit of yarn bombing between two of the stores:

Yarn shopping in Buenos Aires is quite different from what I’m used to in the States. The stores all look like this:

The yarn is beautiful, and well-organized, but there’s no signs as to what the yarn is made up of, how much it costs nor the gauge of the yarn. In addition, you’re not supposed to take the yarn out of the bins. If you look at the bottom right of that picture, you’ll see some white yarn and blue yarn that is actually sitting on top of a counter. That counter separates you from the wall, and there are people behind the counter who can help you get what you want.

So it’s very different from the experience I’m used to. I got the feeling that a lot of people knew exactly what they wanted to buy, or walked in and would say “do you have anything made of wool?” I was feeling a bit shy due to the language barrier, so I picked up a Spanish phrase: “solamente mirando” – it means “Just looking”. The people are friendly and willing to help, but I like the yarn buying process to be a solo activity.

There were 2 exceptions to the fact that most stores don’t give any information about their items.: Milana hilados and Yanabey. Milana hilados had tags like this near most of their yarn:

Note that that’s in Argentinian pesos, and at the time, this was less than USD $10 per 100g. Another thing to note is the price is per 100g, not per hank of yarn. You’d ask a sales associate to take the yarn down for you and they’d weigh it and ask you if that was OK (kind of like at the deli counter). Then they give you a slip of paper and you take it to a cash register, where you’re usually helped by someone else. Another interesting thing is that the stores seemed to be staffed by about half men, half women, which is very different from yarn stores in the States, which are probably about 90% staffed by women.

I bought 3 hanks of yarn there, for about $25:

Yanabey had signs like this:

These prices are still in Argentinian pesos, but they’re in kilos. So these prices are $171 for 1 kilo, which is $17.10 for 100g. This is a wall of “seda vegetal”, or “vegetable silk“. By the way, that’s about USD $35 per kilo. So I bought 6 skeins, which was just over a kilo.

A lot of the stores have the recycled t-shirt yarn, and I bought some at Arte Natural:

BUTTONS!!!

I was thinking I might make a purse from the yarn, like this:

That purse is crocheted, but I’m sure I can come up with a knitted version.

Here’s what I bought from that store:

Here’s a Spanish primer for some important words:
cashmira – cashmere
acrilico – acrylic
lana – wool
seda – silk
alpaca – alpaca
hilo – yarn (plural: hilados)
Also, I found out that cashmerillo is just an acrylic yarn that’s very soft. Don’t be fooled by price, some of the acrylic yarns are *very* expensive, even more expensive than the wool.

I was very excited by the prospect of all these yarn stores, and after these three purchases I was done, and passed by 4 other yarn stores that I didn’t even walk into. In addition, there were at least 2 weaving stores, and another 2 fabric stores. Only one of the yarn stores had fiber to spin, and it looked like combed top, and was somewhat expensive (by US standards).

All in all, I was extremely satisfied by taking a few hours to shop for yarn, but I found the experience quite different from what I’m used to.

* I was instructed by a friend who had visited Buenos Aires to take a taxi to the corner of X and Y. However, I enjoy walking around and public transit, so I noticed the subway stop was not far, and decided to walk a few blocks. To those who are considering what to do, a taxi would have cost about 20 pesos (about USD $5) each way. The subway costs $5 for two rides, but of course is not door to door. Another thing to note about the subway is that it is not the most modern system:

And you will get plenty of people trying to make money – some play music, which you may be used to from other subway systems. Others will go around a subway car, handing out products, and then go around and either collect the product back or collect money. I was handed tissues and Disney books – or at least, they attempted to hand stuff to me, and I refused. It helped that I had knitting in my hands, but I saw them just place stuff on people’s laps if their hands were busy, so don’t just look away, make sure you actually refuse by shaking your head.
Buenos Aires has a span of a few blocks, apoplectic not too far from the Malabia metro station* where there are many yarn shops, I counted 15, and went into 11 of them before I had to stop. The shops are on Ave. Scalabrini Ortiz just southwest of Ave. Cordoba, towards Ave. Correintes. The Malabia metro station is on the corner of Correintes and Scalabrini Ortiz, which is 1 km away from the corner of Cordoba and Corrientes, and about half that until you see your first yarn shop. There was a small bit of yarn bombing between two of the stores:

Yarn shopping in Buenos Aires is quite different from what I’m used to in the States. The stores all look like this:

The yarn is beautiful, and well-organized, but there’s no signs as to what the yarn is made up of, how much it costs nor the gauge of the yarn. In addition, you’re not supposed to take the yarn out of the bins. If you look at the bottom right of that picture, you’ll see some white yarn and blue yarn that is actually sitting on top of a counter. That counter separates you from the wall, and there are people behind the counter who can help you get what you want.

So it’s very different from the experience I’m used to. I got the feeling that a lot of people knew exactly what they wanted to buy, or walked in and would say “do you have anything made of wool?” I was feeling a bit shy due to the language barrier, so I picked up a Spanish phrase: “solamente mirando” – it means “Just looking”. The people are friendly and willing to help, but I like the yarn buying process to be a solo activity.

There were 2 exceptions to the fact that most stores don’t give any information about their items.: Milana hilados and Yanabey. Milana hilados had tags like this near most of their yarn:

Note that that’s in Argentinian pesos, and at the time, this was less than USD $10 per 100g. Another thing to note is the price is per 100g, not per hank of yarn. You’d ask a sales associate to take the yarn down for you and they’d weigh it and ask you if that was OK (kind of like at the deli counter). Then they give you a slip of paper and you take it to a cash register, where you’re usually helped by someone else. Another interesting thing is that the stores seemed to be staffed by about half men, half women, which is very different from yarn stores in the States, which are probably about 90% staffed by women.

I bought 3 hanks of yarn there, for about $25:

Yanabey had signs like this:

These prices are still in Argentinian pesos, but they’re in kilos. So these prices are $171 for 1 kilo, which is $17.10 for 100g. This is a wall of “seda vegetal”, or “vegetable silk“. By the way, that’s about USD $35 per kilo. So I bought 6 skeins, which was just over a kilo, because the tree which this comes from (ceiba speciosa, or “silk floss tree”) is native to South America, and I haven’t seen “vegetable silk” in the US.

A lot of the stores have the recycled t-shirt yarn, and I bought some at Arte Natural:

BUTTONS!!!

I was thinking I might make a purse from the yarn, like this:

That purse is crocheted, but I’m sure I can come up with a knitted version.

Here’s what I bought from that store:

Here’s a Spanish primer for some important words:
cachemira – cashmere
acrílico – acrylic
lana – wool
seda – silk
alpaca – alpaca
hilo – yarn (plural: hilados)
Also, I found out that cashmerillo is just an acrylic yarn that’s very soft. Don’t be fooled by price, some of the acrylic yarns are *very* expensive, even more expensive than the wool.

I was very excited by the prospect of all these yarn stores, and after these three purchases I was done, and passed by 4 other yarn stores that I didn’t even walk into. In addition, there were at least 2 weaving stores, and another 2 fabric stores. Only one of the yarn stores had fiber to spin, and it looked like combed top, and was somewhat expensive (by US standards).

All in all, I was extremely satisfied by taking a few hours to shop for yarn, but I found the experience quite different from what I’m used to.

* I was instructed by a friend who had visited Buenos Aires to take a taxi to the corner of X and Y. However, I enjoy walking around and public transit, so I noticed the subway stop was not far, and decided to walk a few blocks. To those who are considering what to do, a taxi would have cost about 20 pesos (about USD $5) each way. The subway costs $5 for two rides, but of course is not door to door. Another thing to note about the subway is that it is not the most modern system:

And you will get plenty of people trying to make money – some play music, which you may be used to from other subway systems. Others will go around a subway car, handing out products, and then go around and either collect the product back or collect money. I was handed tissues and Disney books – or at least, they attempted to hand stuff to me, and I refused. It helped that I had knitting in my hands, but I saw them just place stuff on people’s laps if their hands were busy, so don’t just look away, make sure you actually refuse by shaking your head.
I participated in this year’s Tour de Fleece. It was particularly difficult for me, was Sat 30 June through Sunday, 22 July – 23 days, and all but the last 5 days, I was abroad.

I did not make a ton of yarn (I spun up about 2 ounces total), but I did spin on 22 of the 23 days, which was pretty good. This was mostly all spindle-spun, because I did not take my wheel with me – I traveled from Argentina to Colombia, to Ecuador, to Trinidad, to Guatemala, to Honduras, to Costa Rica, and finally home to Boston.

If you want to see the picture progressions, you can see them on page 1 and page 2 of my Tour de Fleece photo album.
I participated in this year’s Tour de Fleece. It was particularly difficult for me, was Sat 30 June through Sunday, 22 July – 23 days, and all but the last 5 days, I was abroad.

I did not make a ton of yarn (I spun up about 2 ounces total), but I did spin on 22 of the 23 days, which was pretty good. This was mostly all spindle-spun, because I did not take my wheel with me – I traveled from Argentina to Colombia, to Ecuador, to Trinidad, to Guatemala, to Honduras, to Costa Rica, and finally home to Boston.

If you want to see the picture progressions, you can see them on page 1 and Finland (click for pictures) and Charlotte, North Carolina, to speak at conferences. I bought yarn in both places, and have done a lot of knitting and spinning while on planes, in airports, and generally in the cities themselves.

Tony’s Crooked Little Scarf has gotten bigger, and while it’s not quite finished yet, it is over 32 inches long and you can see that the ball of yarn is getting smaller and smaller:



The scarf is done when I run out of yarn. Next week I fly to Buenos Aires, so I think I will be able to finish the scarf on the plane.

While in North Carolina, I went to some yarn stores, and picked up some Universal Yarn’s Cotton Supreme Batik yarn. I was very excited to find this yarn again, I had found it a few years ago when I was in the Raleigh-Durham area and visited Shuttles Needles and Hooks. It’s very very soft, feels more like a microfiber acrylic than 100% cotton, and was perfect to make a baby sweater out of. So I bought some more for some more baby sweaters….

I bought the cotton batik at YarnHouse, where I bought a skein of ribbon yarn, that made this scarf:

The yarn was difficult to work with, and I’m not in love with the final product, but I am sure there is someone I know who will love it, that I can gift this scarf to.

At Charlotte Yarn I helped my (new) friend Carrie Stokes pick out some yarn for a Mobius shrug, and helped her with the pattern for it – specifically I helped start it. I also got out of my comfort zone and bought some ribbon yarns.

I bought some leopard-print ribbon yarn, to make a scarf for my friend Victoria:

If you look in the middle of the scarf you can see the ribbon itself (there was some left over at the end) and you can see the holes cut into it. I feel like I could re-create this yarn, with 30 meters of wide yarn and a hole punch. This yarn cost $20, and for 30 meters I find that somewhat expensive (although for a whole scarf, it’s totally reasonable). The yarn itself is called “tecido trico”.

Also for $20 I picked up some purple ribbon yarn, which I am making a scarf out of (but it is not done yet):

While in Finland, I bought some amazingly colored sock yarn, from Novita, a Finnish yarn company. I have already made a pair of socks from half of one skein, and I have several more skeins which I think I want to make a Color Affection with. Here are the socks I have made (well, I am *almost* done making):

In this picture I really played with the settings of my camera, and I love how it came out:

Here is the other, completed sock:

I went back and played with the settings, lowering the F-stop as I did for the in-progress sock. I love how this came out:

Compare and contrast the two photos….I think I’m learning how to take some great photos! If you are curious about the pattern, it’s just a regular stockinette sock, with a Sweet Tomato heel, and 2×2 ribbing with an i-cord cast-off for the leg of the sock.

I also finished the Monkey Socks. Here is the 2nd sock:

You probably don’t remember what the first sock looks like, which is OK, here’s the picture I took a while ago of it:

As you can tell, they do not match….but they are from the same yarn! (Superwash Correidale….)

I have been on a bit of a sock kick – I started and completed a pair of socks from Mind’s Eye Yarns, hand-dyed by Lucy. It’s 75% merino, 25% tencel, and they are extremely comfortable socks…again, the pattern is just simple stockinette, with ribbing at the leg, and the Sweet Tomato heel. At $20 for 100g, I can get 2 pairs of socks out of one skein, so it makes me happy:

I have been spinning a fair bit, too. I got some BFL from Spunky Eclectic in the “More Coffee” colorway a while back, and decided a few nights ago to spin on my wheel while I was home. I have spun up about a bobbin and a half, and probably am about halfway done with it:

Also from Spunky is the May 2012 fiber club – also BFL, in the “Big Bang” colorway. As soon as I saw it I knew I had to spin it, so even though I still have not spun the clubs from December through April, I went to work on the May colorway right away. I’m still in love:

While in Finland I started to get back in touch with my spindles, spinning some of the Falkland mini-braids I bought at the Wild and Wooly Festival in April in Vermont, from The Spun Monkey Fiber Shoppe. I have spun just about half of one package – which is 2.5 mini-braids:

I also spun some of the fluff I received in a Phat Fiber sampler box I bought in February (a mixed box):

There was a spindle in the box that I spun on, but I have to say that the Bosworth spindles and my Golding mini ringspindles I have are so perfectly balanced, that everything else feels like spinning with a boat anchor (including the bigger Golding ringspindles, sadly).

The Monkey socks were knit using handspun, and I still have a lot of it. Rather than make tons more socks from the same yarn, which would probably result in 8 more unmatched socks, I decided to make a Cecilia. I have not gotten very far yet, I’m about 33 rows in:

It has been almost a month since my last post on my crafty goings-on. Since then I have gone to Finland (click for pictures) and Charlotte, and have done a lot of knitting and spinning while on planes, in airports, and generally in the cities themselves.

Tony’s Crooked Little Scarf has gotten bigger, and while it’s not quite finished yet, it is over 32 inches long and you can see that the ball of yarn is getting smaller and smaller:

The scarf is done when I run out of yarn. Next week I fly to Buenos Aires, so I think I will be able to finish the scarf on the plane.

While in North Carolina, I went to some yarn stores, and picked up some Universal Yarn’s Cotton Supreme Batik yarn. I was very excited to find this yarn again, I had found it a few years ago when I was in the Raleigh-Durham area and visited Shuttles Needles and Hooks. It’s very very soft, feels more like a microfiber acrylic than 100% cotton, and was perfect to make a baby sweater out of. So I bought some more for some more baby sweaters….

I bought the cotton batik at YarnHouse, where I bought a skein of ribbon yarn, that made this scarf:

The yarn was difficult to work with, and I’m not in love with the final product, but I am sure there is someone I know who will love it, that I can gift this scarf to.

At Charlotte Yarn I helped my (new) friend Carrie Stokes pick out some yarn for a Mobius shrug, and helped her with the pattern for it – specifically I helped start it. I also got out of my comfort zone and bought some ribbon yarns.

I bought some leopard-print ribbon yarn, to make a scarf for my friend Victoria:

If you look in the middle of the scarf you can see the ribbon itself (there was some left over at the end) and you can see the holes cut into it. I feel like I could re-create this yarn, with 30 meters of wide yarn and a hole punch. This yarn cost $20, and for 30 meters I find that somewhat expensive (although for a whole scarf, it’s totally reasonable). The yarn itself is called “tecido trico”.

Also for $20 I picked up some purple ribbon yarn, which I am making a scarf out of (but it is not done yet):

While in Finland, I bought some amazingly colored sock yarn, from Novita, a Finnish yarn company. I have already made a pair of socks from half of one skein, and I have several more skeins which I think I want to make a Color Affection with. Here are the socks I have made (well, I am *almost* done making):

In this picture I really played with the settings of my camera, and I love how it came out:

Here is the other, completed sock:

I went back and played with the settings, lowering the F-stop as I did for the in-progress sock. I love how this came out:

Compare and contrast the two photos….I think I’m learning how to take some great photos! If you are curious about the pattern, it’s just a regular stockinette sock, with a Sweet Tomato heel, and 2×2 ribbing with an i-cord cast-off for the leg of the sock.

I also finished the Monkey Socks. Here is the 2nd sock:

You probably don’t remember what the first sock looks like, which is OK, here’s the picture I took a while ago of it:

As you can tell, they do not match….but they are from the same yarn! (Superwash Correidale….)

I have been on a bit of a sock kick – I started and completed a pair of socks from Mind’s Eye Yarns, hand-dyed by Lucy. It’s 75% merino, 25% tencel, and they are extremely comfortable socks…again, the pattern is just simple stockinette, with ribbing at the leg, and the Sweet Tomato heel. At $20 for 100g, I can get 2 pairs of socks out of one skein, so it makes me happy:

I have been spinning a fair bit, too. I got some BFL from Spunky Eclectic in the “More Coffee” colorway a while back, and decided a few nights ago to spin on my wheel while I was home. I have spun up about a bobbin and a half, and probably am about halfway done with it:

Also from Spunky is the May 2012 fiber club – also BFL, in the “Big Bang” colorway. As soon as I saw it I knew I had to spin it, so even though I still have not spun the clubs from December through April, I went to work on the May colorway right away. I’m still in love:

While in Finland I started to get back in touch with my spindles, spinning some of the Falkland mini-braids I bought at the Wild and Wooly Festival in April in Vermont, from The Spun Monkey Fiber Shoppe. I have spun just about half of one package – which is 2.5 mini-braids:

I also spun some of the fluff I received in a Phat Fiber sampler box I bought in February (a mixed box):

There was a spindle in the box that I spun on, but I have to say that the Bosworth spindles and my Golding mini ringspindles I have are so perfectly balanced, that everything else feels like spinning with a boat anchor (including the bigger Golding ringspindles, sadly).

The Monkey socks were knit using handspun, and I still have a lot of it. Rather than make tons more socks from the same yarn, which would probably result in 8 more unmatched socks, I decided to make a Cecilia. I have not gotten very far yet, I’m about 33 rows in:

And that’s it! For now. I look forward to making more socks, finishing Tony’s scarf, working more on the Cecilia, and
It has been almost a month since my last post on my crafty goings-on. Since then I have gone to Finland (click for pictures) and Charlotte, North Carolina, to speak at conferences. I bought yarn in both places, and have done a lot of knitting and spinning while on planes, in airports, and generally in the cities themselves.

Tony’s Crooked Little Scarf has gotten bigger, and while it’s not quite finished yet, it is over 32 inches long and you can see that the ball of yarn is getting smaller and smaller:



The scarf is done when I run out of yarn. Next week I fly to Buenos Aires, so I think I will be able to finish the scarf on the plane.

While in North Carolina, I went to some yarn stores, and picked up some Universal Yarn’s Cotton Supreme Batik yarn. I was very excited to find this yarn again, I had found it a few years ago when I was in the Raleigh-Durham area and visited Shuttles Needles and Hooks. It’s very very soft, feels more like a microfiber acrylic than 100% cotton, and was perfect to make a baby sweater out of. So I bought some more for some more baby sweaters….

I bought the cotton batik at YarnHouse, where I bought a skein of ribbon yarn, that made this scarf:

The yarn was difficult to work with, and I’m not in love with the final product, but I am sure there is someone I know who will love it, that I can gift this scarf to.

At Charlotte Yarn I helped my (new) friend Carrie Stokes pick out some yarn for a Mobius shrug, and helped her with the pattern for it – specifically I helped start it. I also got out of my comfort zone and bought some ribbon yarns.

I bought some leopard-print ribbon yarn, to make a scarf for my friend Victoria:

If you look in the middle of the scarf you can see the ribbon itself (there was some left over at the end) and you can see the holes cut into it. I feel like I could re-create this yarn, with 30 meters of wide yarn and a hole punch. This yarn cost $20, and for 30 meters I find that somewhat expensive (although for a whole scarf, it’s totally reasonable). The yarn itself is called “tecido trico”.

Also for $20 I picked up some purple ribbon yarn, which I am making a scarf out of (but it is not done yet):

While in Finland, I bought some amazingly colored sock yarn, from Novita, a Finnish yarn company. I have already made a pair of socks from half of one skein, and I have several more skeins which I think I want to make a Color Affection with. Here are the socks I have made (well, I am *almost* done making):

In this picture I really played with the settings of my camera, and I love how it came out:

Here is the other, completed sock:

I went back and played with the settings, lowering the F-stop as I did for the in-progress sock. I love how this came out:

Compare and contrast the two photos….I think I’m learning how to take some great photos! If you are curious about the pattern, it’s just a regular stockinette sock, with a Sweet Tomato heel, and 2×2 ribbing with an i-cord cast-off for the leg of the sock.

I also finished the Monkey Socks. Here is the 2nd sock:

You probably don’t remember what the first sock looks like, which is OK, here’s the picture I took a while ago of it:

As you can tell, they do not match….but they are from the same yarn! (Superwash Correidale….)

I have been on a bit of a sock kick – I started and completed a pair of socks from Mind’s Eye Yarns, hand-dyed by Lucy. It’s 75% merino, 25% tencel, and they are extremely comfortable socks…again, the pattern is just simple stockinette, with ribbing at the leg, and the Sweet Tomato heel. At $20 for 100g, I can get 2 pairs of socks out of one skein, so it makes me happy:

I have been spinning a fair bit, too. I got some BFL from Spunky Eclectic in the “More Coffee” colorway a while back, and decided a few nights ago to spin on my wheel while I was home. I have spun up about a bobbin and a half, and probably am about halfway done with it:

Also from Spunky is the May 2012 fiber club – also BFL, in the “Big Bang” colorway. As soon as I saw it I knew I had to spin it, so even though I still have not spun the clubs from December through April, I went to work on the May colorway right away. I’m still in love:

While in Finland I started to get back in touch with my spindles, spinning some of the Falkland mini-braids I bought at the Wild and Wooly Festival in April in Vermont, from The Spun Monkey Fiber Shoppe. I have spun just about half of one package – which is 2.5 mini-braids:

I also spun some of the fluff I received in a Phat Fiber sampler box I bought in February (a mixed box):

There was a spindle in the box that I spun on, but I have to say that the Bosworth spindles and my Golding mini ringspindles I have are so perfectly balanced, that everything else feels like spinning with a boat anchor (including the bigger Golding ringspindles, sadly).

The Monkey socks were knit using handspun, and I still have a lot of it. Rather than make tons more socks from the same yarn, which would probably result in 8 more unmatched socks, I decided to make a Cecilia. I have not gotten very far yet, I’m about 33 rows in:

Buenos Aires has a span of a few blocks, more about not too far from the Malabia metro station* where there are many yarn shops, I counted 15, and went into 11 of them before I had to stop. The shops are on Ave. Scalabrini Ortiz just southwest of Ave. Cordoba, towards Ave. Correintes. The Malabia metro station is on the corner of Correintes and Scalabrini Ortiz, which is 1 km away from the corner of Cordoba and Corrientes, and about half that until you see your first yarn shop. There was a small bit of yarn bombing between two of the stores:

Yarn shopping in Buenos Aires is quite different from what I’m used to in the States. The stores all look like this:

The yarn is beautiful, and well-organized, but there’s no signs as to what the yarn is made up of, how much it costs nor the gauge of the yarn. In addition, you’re not supposed to take the yarn out of the bins. If you look at the bottom right of that picture, you’ll see some white yarn and blue yarn that is actually sitting on top of a counter. That counter separates you from the wall, and there are people behind the counter who can help you get what you want.

So it’s very different from the experience I’m used to. I got the feeling that a lot of people knew exactly what they wanted to buy, or walked in and would say “do you have anything made of wool?” I was feeling a bit shy due to the language barrier, so I picked up a Spanish phrase: “solamente mirando” – it means “Just looking”. The people are friendly and willing to help, but I like the yarn buying process to be a solo activity.

There were 2 exceptions to the fact that most stores don’t give any information about their items.: Milana hilados and Yanabey. Milana hilados had tags like this near most of their yarn:

Note that that’s in Argentinian pesos, and at the time, this was less than USD $10 per 100g. Another thing to note is the price is per 100g, not per hank of yarn. You’d ask a sales associate to take the yarn down for you and they’d weigh it and ask you if that was OK (kind of like at the deli counter). Then they give you a slip of paper and you take it to a cash register, where you’re usually helped by someone else. Another interesting thing is that the stores seemed to be staffed by about half men, half women, which is very different from yarn stores in the States, which are probably about 90% staffed by women.

I bought 3 hanks of yarn there, for about $25:

Yanabey had signs like this:

These prices are still in Argentinian pesos, but they’re in kilos. So these prices are $171 for 1 kilo, which is $17.10 for 100g. This is a wall of “seda vegetal”, or “vegetable silk“. By the way, that’s about USD $35 per kilo. So I bought 6 skeins, which was just over a kilo, because the tree which this comes from (ceiba speciosa, or “silk floss tree”) is native to South America, and I haven’t seen “vegetable silk” in the US.

A lot of the stores have the recycled t-shirt yarn, and I bought some at Arte Natural:

BUTTONS!!!

I was thinking I might make a purse from the yarn, like this:

That purse is crocheted, but I’m sure I can come up with a knitted version.

Here’s what I bought from that store:

Here’s a Spanish primer for some important words:
cachemira – cashmere
acrílico – acrylic
lana – wool
seda – silk
alpaca – alpaca
hilo – yarn (plural: hilados)
Also, I found out that cashmerillo is just an acrylic yarn that’s very soft. Don’t be fooled by price, some of the acrylic yarns are *very* expensive, even more expensive than the wool.

I was very excited by the prospect of all these yarn stores, and after these three purchases I was done, and passed by 4 other yarn stores that I didn’t even walk into. In addition, there were at least 2 weaving stores, and another 2 fabric stores. Only one of the yarn stores had fiber to spin, and it looked like combed top, and was somewhat expensive (by US standards).

All in all, I was extremely satisfied by taking a few hours to shop for yarn, but I found the experience quite different from what I’m used to.

* I was instructed by a friend who had visited Buenos Aires to take a taxi to the corner of X and Y. However, I enjoy walking around and public transit, so I noticed the subway stop was not far, and decided to walk a few blocks. To those who are considering what to do, a taxi would have cost about 20 pesos (about USD $5) each way. The subway costs $5 for two rides, but of course is not door to door. Another thing to note about the subway is that it is not the most modern system:

And you will get plenty of people trying to make money – some play music, which you may be used to from other subway systems. Others will go around a subway car, handing out products, and then go around and either collect the product back or collect money. I was handed tissues and Disney books – or at least, they attempted to hand stuff to me, and I refused. It helped that I had knitting in my hands, but I saw them just place stuff on people’s laps if their hands were busy, so don’t just look away, make sure you actually refuse by shaking your head.

Note: I hope this article is helpful! Due to spam reasons, all articles on this site have comments disabled after a short time. If you want to leave feedback, you can tweet @sheeri or e-mail me at awfief at gmail dot com. (replace “at” with @ and “dot com” with .com to get the real e-mail address).
Buenos Aires has a span of a few blocks, side effects not too far from the Malabia metro station* where there are many yarn shops, viagra buy I counted 15, and went into 11 of them before I had to stop. There was a small bit of yarn bombing between two of the stores:

Yarn shopping in Buenos Aires is quite different from what I’m used to in the States. The stores all look like this:

The yarn is beautiful, and well-organized, but there’s no signs as to what the yarn is made up of, how much it costs nor the gauge of the yarn. In addition, you’re not supposed to take the yarn out of the bins. If you look at the bottom right of that picture, you’ll see some white yarn and blue yarn that is actually sitting on top of a counter. That counter separates you from the wall, and there are people behind the counter who can help you get what you want.

So it’s very different from the experience I’m used to. I got the feeling that a lot of people knew exactly what they wanted to buy, or walked in and would say “do you have anything made of wool?” I was feeling a bit shy due to the language barrier, so I picked up a Spanish phrase: “solamente mirando” – it means “Just looking”. The people are friendly and willing to help, but I like the yarn buying process to be a solo activity.

There were 2 exceptions to the fact that most stores don’t give any information about their items.: Milana hilados and Yanabey. Milana hilados had tags like this near most of their yarn:

Note that that’s in Argentinian pesos, and at the time, this was less than USD $10 per 100g. Another thing to note is the price is per 100g, not per hank of yarn. You’d ask a sales associate to take the yarn down for you and they’d weigh it and ask you if that was OK (kind of like at the deli counter). Then they give you a slip of paper and you take it to a cash register, where you’re usually helped by someone else. Another interesting thing is that the stores seemed to be staffed by about half men, half women, which is very different from yarn stores in the States, which are probably about 90% staffed by women.

I bought 3 hanks of yarn there, for about $25:

Yanabey had signs like this:

These prices are still in Argentinian pesos, but they’re in kilos. So these prices are $171 for 1 kilo, which is $17.10 for 100g. This is a wall of “seda vegetal”, or “vegetable silk“. By the way, that’s about USD $35 per kilo. So I bought 6 skeins, which was just over a kilo.

A lot of the stores have the recycled t-shirt yarn, and I bought some at Arte Natural:

BUTTONS!!!

I was thinking I might make a purse from the yarn, like this:

That purse is crocheted, but I’m sure I can come up with a knitted version.

Here’s what I bought from that store:

Here’s a Spanish primer for some important words:
cashmira – cashmere
acrilico – acrylic
lana – wool
seda – silk
alpaca – alpaca
hilo – yarn (plural: hilados)
Also, I found out that cashmerillo is just an acrylic yarn that’s very soft. Don’t be fooled by price, some of the acrylic yarns are *very* expensive, even more expensive than the wool.

I was very excited by the prospect of all these yarn stores, and after these three purchases I was done, and passed by 4 other yarn stores that I didn’t even walk into. In addition, there were at least 2 weaving stores, and another 2 fabric stores. Only one of the yarn stores had fiber to spin, and it looked like combed top, and was somewhat expensive (by US standards).

All in all, I was extremely satisfied by taking a few hours to shop for yarn, but I found the experience quite different from what I’m used to.

* I was instructed by a friend who had visited Buenos Aires to take a taxi to the corner of X and Y. However, I enjoy walking around and public transit, so I noticed the subway stop was not far, and decided to walk a few blocks. To those who are considering what to do, a taxi would have cost about 20 pesos (about USD $5) each way. The subway costs $5 for two rides, but of course is not door to door. Another thing to note about the subway is that it is not the most modern system:
subway car – IMG_0247.JPG

And you will get plenty of people trying to make money – some play music, which you may be used to from other subway systems. Others will go around a subway car, handing out products, and then go around and either collect the product back or collect money. I was handed tissues and Disney books – or at least, they attempted to hand stuff to me, and I refused. It helped that I had knitting in my hands, but I saw them just place stuff on people’s laps if their hands were busy, so don’t just look away, make sure you actually refuse by shaking your head.
Buenos Aires has a span of a few blocks, recipe not too far from the Malabia metro station* where there are many yarn shops, viagra sale I counted 15, web and went into 11 of them before I had to stop. There was a small bit of yarn bombing between two of the stores:

Yarn shopping in Buenos Aires is quite different from what I’m used to in the States. The stores all look like this:

The yarn is beautiful, and well-organized, but there’s no signs as to what the yarn is made up of, how much it costs nor the gauge of the yarn. In addition, you’re not supposed to take the yarn out of the bins. If you look at the bottom right of that picture, you’ll see some white yarn and blue yarn that is actually sitting on top of a counter. That counter separates you from the wall, and there are people behind the counter who can help you get what you want.

So it’s very different from the experience I’m used to. I got the feeling that a lot of people knew exactly what they wanted to buy, or walked in and would say “do you have anything made of wool?” I was feeling a bit shy due to the language barrier, so I picked up a Spanish phrase: “solamente mirando” – it means “Just looking”. The people are friendly and willing to help, but I like the yarn buying process to be a solo activity.

There were 2 exceptions to the fact that most stores don’t give any information about their items.: Milana hilados and Yanabey. Milana hilados had tags like this near most of their yarn:

Note that that’s in Argentinian pesos, and at the time, this was less than USD $10 per 100g. Another thing to note is the price is per 100g, not per hank of yarn. You’d ask a sales associate to take the yarn down for you and they’d weigh it and ask you if that was OK (kind of like at the deli counter). Then they give you a slip of paper and you take it to a cash register, where you’re usually helped by someone else. Another interesting thing is that the stores seemed to be staffed by about half men, half women, which is very different from yarn stores in the States, which are probably about 90% staffed by women.

I bought 3 hanks of yarn there, for about $25:

Yanabey had signs like this:

These prices are still in Argentinian pesos, but they’re in kilos. So these prices are $171 for 1 kilo, which is $17.10 for 100g. This is a wall of “seda vegetal”, or “vegetable silk“. By the way, that’s about USD $35 per kilo. So I bought 6 skeins, which was just over a kilo.

A lot of the stores have the recycled t-shirt yarn, and I bought some at Arte Natural:

BUTTONS!!!

I was thinking I might make a purse from the yarn, like this:

That purse is crocheted, but I’m sure I can come up with a knitted version.

Here’s what I bought from that store:

Here’s a Spanish primer for some important words:
cashmira – cashmere
acrilico – acrylic
lana – wool
seda – silk
alpaca – alpaca
hilo – yarn (plural: hilados)
Also, I found out that cashmerillo is just an acrylic yarn that’s very soft. Don’t be fooled by price, some of the acrylic yarns are *very* expensive, even more expensive than the wool.

I was very excited by the prospect of all these yarn stores, and after these three purchases I was done, and passed by 4 other yarn stores that I didn’t even walk into. In addition, there were at least 2 weaving stores, and another 2 fabric stores. Only one of the yarn stores had fiber to spin, and it looked like combed top, and was somewhat expensive (by US standards).

All in all, I was extremely satisfied by taking a few hours to shop for yarn, but I found the experience quite different from what I’m used to.

* I was instructed by a friend who had visited Buenos Aires to take a taxi to the corner of X and Y. However, I enjoy walking around and public transit, so I noticed the subway stop was not far, and decided to walk a few blocks. To those who are considering what to do, a taxi would have cost about 20 pesos (about USD $5) each way. The subway costs $5 for two rides, but of course is not door to door. Another thing to note about the subway is that it is not the most modern system:

And you will get plenty of people trying to make money – some play music, which you may be used to from other subway systems. Others will go around a subway car, handing out products, and then go around and either collect the product back or collect money. I was handed tissues and Disney books – or at least, they attempted to hand stuff to me, and I refused. It helped that I had knitting in my hands, but I saw them just place stuff on people’s laps if their hands were busy, so don’t just look away, make sure you actually refuse by shaking your head.
Buenos Aires has a span of a few blocks, not too far from the Malabia metro station* where there are many yarn shops, I counted 15, and went into 11 of them before I had to stop. There was a small bit of yarn bombing between two of the stores:

Yarn shopping in Buenos Aires is quite different from what I’m used to in the States. The stores all look like this:

The yarn is beautiful, and well-organized, but there’s no signs as to what the yarn is made up of, how much it costs nor the gauge of the yarn. In addition, you’re not supposed to take the yarn out of the bins. If you look at the bottom right of that picture, you’ll see some white yarn and blue yarn that is actually sitting on top of a counter. That counter separates you from the wall, and there are people behind the counter who can help you get what you want.

So it’s very different from the experience I’m used to. I got the feeling that a lot of people knew exactly what they wanted to buy, or walked in and would say “do you have anything made of wool?” I was feeling a bit shy due to the language barrier, so I picked up a Spanish phrase: “solamente mirando” – it means “Just looking”. The people are friendly and willing to help, but I like the yarn buying process to be a solo activity.

There were 2 exceptions to the fact that most stores don’t give any information about their items.: Milana hilados and Yanabey. Milana hilados had tags like this near most of their yarn:

Note that that’s in Argentinian pesos, and at the time, this was less than USD $10 per 100g. Another thing to note is the price is per 100g, not per hank of yarn. You’d ask a sales associate to take the yarn down for you and they’d weigh it and ask you if that was OK (kind of like at the deli counter). Then they give you a slip of paper and you take it to a cash register, where you’re usually helped by someone else. Another interesting thing is that the stores seemed to be staffed by about half men, half women, which is very different from yarn stores in the States, which are probably about 90% staffed by women.

I bought 3 hanks of yarn there, for about $25:

Yanabey had signs like this:

These prices are still in Argentinian pesos, but they’re in kilos. So these prices are $171 for 1 kilo, which is $17.10 for 100g. This is a wall of “seda vegetal”, or “vegetable silk“. By the way, that’s about USD $35 per kilo. So I bought 6 skeins, which was just over a kilo.

A lot of the stores have the recycled t-shirt yarn, and I bought some at Arte Natural:

BUTTONS!!!

I was thinking I might make a purse from the yarn, like this:

That purse is crocheted, but I’m sure I can come up with a knitted version.

Here’s what I bought from that store:

Here’s a Spanish primer for some important words:
cashmira – cashmere
acrilico – acrylic
lana – wool
seda – silk
alpaca – alpaca
hilo – yarn (plural: hilados)
Also, I found out that cashmerillo is just an acrylic yarn that’s very soft. Don’t be fooled by price, some of the acrylic yarns are *very* expensive, even more expensive than the wool.

I was very excited by the prospect of all these yarn stores, and after these three purchases I was done, and passed by 4 other yarn stores that I didn’t even walk into. In addition, there were at least 2 weaving stores, and another 2 fabric stores. Only one of the yarn stores had fiber to spin, and it looked like combed top, and was somewhat expensive (by US standards).

All in all, I was extremely satisfied by taking a few hours to shop for yarn, but I found the experience quite different from what I’m used to.

* I was instructed by a friend who had visited Buenos Aires to take a taxi to the corner of X and Y. However, I enjoy walking around and public transit, so I noticed the subway stop was not far, and decided to walk a few blocks. To those who are considering what to do, a taxi would have cost about 20 pesos (about USD $5) each way. The subway costs $5 for two rides, but of course is not door to door. Another thing to note about the subway is that it is not the most modern system:

And you will get plenty of people trying to make money – some play music, which you may be used to from other subway systems. Others will go around a subway car, handing out products, and then go around and either collect the product back or collect money. I was handed tissues and Disney books – or at least, they attempted to hand stuff to me, and I refused. It helped that I had knitting in my hands, but I saw them just place stuff on people’s laps if their hands were busy, so don’t just look away, make sure you actually refuse by shaking your head.
Buenos Aires has a span of a few blocks, apoplectic not too far from the Malabia metro station* where there are many yarn shops, I counted 15, and went into 11 of them before I had to stop. The shops are on Ave. Scalabrini Ortiz just southwest of Ave. Cordoba, towards Ave. Correintes. The Malabia metro station is on the corner of Correintes and Scalabrini Ortiz, which is 1 km away from the corner of Cordoba and Corrientes, and about half that until you see your first yarn shop. There was a small bit of yarn bombing between two of the stores:

Yarn shopping in Buenos Aires is quite different from what I’m used to in the States. The stores all look like this:

The yarn is beautiful, and well-organized, but there’s no signs as to what the yarn is made up of, how much it costs nor the gauge of the yarn. In addition, you’re not supposed to take the yarn out of the bins. If you look at the bottom right of that picture, you’ll see some white yarn and blue yarn that is actually sitting on top of a counter. That counter separates you from the wall, and there are people behind the counter who can help you get what you want.

So it’s very different from the experience I’m used to. I got the feeling that a lot of people knew exactly what they wanted to buy, or walked in and would say “do you have anything made of wool?” I was feeling a bit shy due to the language barrier, so I picked up a Spanish phrase: “solamente mirando” – it means “Just looking”. The people are friendly and willing to help, but I like the yarn buying process to be a solo activity.

There were 2 exceptions to the fact that most stores don’t give any information about their items.: Milana hilados and Yanabey. Milana hilados had tags like this near most of their yarn:

Note that that’s in Argentinian pesos, and at the time, this was less than USD $10 per 100g. Another thing to note is the price is per 100g, not per hank of yarn. You’d ask a sales associate to take the yarn down for you and they’d weigh it and ask you if that was OK (kind of like at the deli counter). Then they give you a slip of paper and you take it to a cash register, where you’re usually helped by someone else. Another interesting thing is that the stores seemed to be staffed by about half men, half women, which is very different from yarn stores in the States, which are probably about 90% staffed by women.

I bought 3 hanks of yarn there, for about $25:

Yanabey had signs like this:

These prices are still in Argentinian pesos, but they’re in kilos. So these prices are $171 for 1 kilo, which is $17.10 for 100g. This is a wall of “seda vegetal”, or “vegetable silk“. By the way, that’s about USD $35 per kilo. So I bought 6 skeins, which was just over a kilo, because the tree which this comes from (ceiba speciosa, or “silk floss tree”) is native to South America, and I haven’t seen “vegetable silk” in the US.

A lot of the stores have the recycled t-shirt yarn, and I bought some at Arte Natural:

BUTTONS!!!

I was thinking I might make a purse from the yarn, like this:

That purse is crocheted, but I’m sure I can come up with a knitted version.

Here’s what I bought from that store:

Here’s a Spanish primer for some important words:
cachemira – cashmere
acrílico – acrylic
lana – wool
seda – silk
alpaca – alpaca
hilo – yarn (plural: hilados)
Also, I found out that cashmerillo is just an acrylic yarn that’s very soft. Don’t be fooled by price, some of the acrylic yarns are *very* expensive, even more expensive than the wool.

I was very excited by the prospect of all these yarn stores, and after these three purchases I was done, and passed by 4 other yarn stores that I didn’t even walk into. In addition, there were at least 2 weaving stores, and another 2 fabric stores. Only one of the yarn stores had fiber to spin, and it looked like combed top, and was somewhat expensive (by US standards).

All in all, I was extremely satisfied by taking a few hours to shop for yarn, but I found the experience quite different from what I’m used to.

* I was instructed by a friend who had visited Buenos Aires to take a taxi to the corner of X and Y. However, I enjoy walking around and public transit, so I noticed the subway stop was not far, and decided to walk a few blocks. To those who are considering what to do, a taxi would have cost about 20 pesos (about USD $5) each way. The subway costs $5 for two rides, but of course is not door to door. Another thing to note about the subway is that it is not the most modern system:

And you will get plenty of people trying to make money – some play music, which you may be used to from other subway systems. Others will go around a subway car, handing out products, and then go around and either collect the product back or collect money. I was handed tissues and Disney books – or at least, they attempted to hand stuff to me, and I refused. It helped that I had knitting in my hands, but I saw them just place stuff on people’s laps if their hands were busy, so don’t just look away, make sure you actually refuse by shaking your head.
I participated in this year’s Tour de Fleece. It was particularly difficult for me, was Sat 30 June through Sunday, 22 July – 23 days, and all but the last 5 days, I was abroad.

I did not make a ton of yarn (I spun up about 2 ounces total), but I did spin on 22 of the 23 days, which was pretty good. This was mostly all spindle-spun, because I did not take my wheel with me – I traveled from Argentina to Colombia, to Ecuador, to Trinidad, to Guatemala, to Honduras, to Costa Rica, and finally home to Boston.

If you want to see the picture progressions, you can see them on page 1 and page 2 of my Tour de Fleece photo album.
I participated in this year’s Tour de Fleece. It was particularly difficult for me, was Sat 30 June through Sunday, 22 July – 23 days, and all but the last 5 days, I was abroad.

I did not make a ton of yarn (I spun up about 2 ounces total), but I did spin on 22 of the 23 days, which was pretty good. This was mostly all spindle-spun, because I did not take my wheel with me – I traveled from Argentina to Colombia, to Ecuador, to Trinidad, to Guatemala, to Honduras, to Costa Rica, and finally home to Boston.

If you want to see the picture progressions, you can see them on page 1 and Tour de Fleece.

I worked more on my top-down Cecilia raglan cardigan. Before I landed in Boston I was able to get to the point where I put the sleeves on hold, so I’m down to the armpits:

Cecilia cardigan progress

I finished all the yarn I had for Tony’s Crooked Little Scarf. Unfortunately, it’s a bit too short, so I’ll have to find some other wool to ply with the Louet Black Diamond, that will match the purple, and then knit on it some more:
Tony's crooked little scarf

I made a baby sweater for an impending baby girl that my friend Linda is having. This is made out of Universal Yarn’s supreme cotton batik, which is the softest cotton ever:
For Linda's baby

Also out of cotton batik, I made another hoot cardigan for my friend Nathan’s son, who was recently born. I have to sew on the buttons and
for Nathan's son

And I made a pair of regular stockinette socks, with a sweet tomato heel, out of Mind’s Eye yarns amazing merino/tencel hand-dyed yarn. This yarn is wonderful, it feels like the socks hug my feet! The top pattern is just a knit/purl basket-type pattern (repeat 4k, 4p for 4 rows, then 4p, 4k).
pink/green socks

And I made some hexipuffs in my spare time:
hexipuffs

That’s it for travel knitting, for now. Tomorrow I depart for the Sheep’s Ahoy knitters cruise, so I hope to get a lot of knitting and spinning done then, too!

The Tour de Fleece

It has been almost a month since my last post on my crafty goings-on. Since then I have gone to Finland (click for pictures) and Charlotte, to speak at conferences. I bought yarn in both places, and have done a lot of knitting and spinning while on planes, in airports, and generally in the cities themselves.

Tony’s Crooked Little Scarf has gotten bigger, and while it’s not quite finished yet, it is over 32 inches long and you can see that the ball of yarn is getting smaller and smaller:



The scarf is done when I run out of yarn. Next week I fly to Buenos Aires, so I think I will be able to finish the scarf on the plane.

While in North Carolina, I went to some yarn stores, and picked up some Universal Yarn’s Cotton Supreme Batik yarn. I was very excited to find this yarn again, I had found it a few years ago when I was in the Raleigh-Durham area and visited Shuttles Needles and Hooks. It’s very very soft, feels more like a microfiber acrylic than 100% cotton, and was perfect to make a baby sweater out of. So I bought some more for some more baby sweaters….

I bought the cotton batik at YarnHouse, where I bought a skein of ribbon yarn, that made this scarf:

The yarn was difficult to work with, and I’m not in love with the final product, but I am sure there is someone I know who will love it, that I can gift this scarf to.

At Charlotte Yarn I helped my (new) friend Carrie Stokes pick out some yarn for a Mobius shrug, and helped her with the pattern for it – specifically I helped start it. I also got out of my comfort zone and bought some ribbon yarns.

I bought some leopard-print ribbon yarn, to make a scarf for my friend Victoria:

If you look in the middle of the scarf you can see the ribbon itself (there was some left over at the end) and you can see the holes cut into it. I feel like I could re-create this yarn, with 30 meters of wide yarn and a hole punch. This yarn cost $20, and for 30 meters I find that somewhat expensive (although for a whole scarf, it’s totally reasonable). The yarn itself is called “tecido trico”.

Also for $20 I picked up some purple ribbon yarn, which I am making a scarf out of (but it is not done yet):

While in Finland, I bought some amazingly colored sock yarn, from Novita, a Finnish yarn company. I have already made a pair of socks from half of one skein, and I have several more skeins which I think I want to make a Color Affection with. Here are the socks I have made (well, I am *almost* done making):

In this picture I really played with the settings of my camera, and I love how it came out:

Here is the other, completed sock:

I went back and played with the settings, lowering the F-stop as I did for the in-progress sock. I love how this came out:

Compare and contrast the two photos….I think I’m learning how to take some great photos! If you are curious about the pattern, it’s just a regular stockinette sock, with a Sweet Tomato heel, and 2×2 ribbing with an i-cord cast-off for the leg of the sock.

I also finished the Monkey Socks. Here is the 2nd sock:

You probably don’t remember what the first sock looks like, which is OK, here’s the picture I took a while ago of it:

As you can tell, they do not match….but they are from the same yarn! (Superwash Correidale….)

I have been on a bit of a sock kick – I started and completed a pair of socks from Mind’s Eye Yarns, hand-dyed by Lucy. It’s 75% merino, 25% tencel, and they are extremely comfortable socks…again, the pattern is just simple stockinette, with ribbing at the leg, and the Sweet Tomato heel. At $20 for 100g, I can get 2 pairs of socks out of one skein, so it makes me happy:

I have been spinning a fair bit, too. I got some BFL from Spunky Eclectic in the “More Coffee” colorway a while back, and decided a few nights ago to spin on my wheel while I was home. I have spun up about a bobbin and a half, and probably am about halfway done with it:

Also from Spunky is the May 2012 fiber club – also BFL, in the “Big Bang” colorway. As soon as I saw it I knew I had to spin it, so even though I still have not spun the clubs from December through April, I went to work on the May colorway right away. I’m still in love:

While in Finland I started to get back in touch with my spindles, spinning some of the Falkland mini-braids I bought at the Wild and Wooly Festival in April in Vermont, from The Spun Monkey Fiber Shoppe. I have spun just about half of one package – which is 2.5 mini-braids:

I also spun some of the fluff I received in a Phat Fiber sampler box I bought in February (a mixed box):

There was a spindle in the box that I spun on, but I have to say that the Bosworth spindles and my Golding mini ringspindles I have are so perfectly balanced, that everything else feels like spinning with a boat anchor (including the bigger Golding ringspindles, sadly).

The Monkey socks were knit using handspun, and I still have a lot of it. Rather than make tons more socks from the same yarn, which would probably result in 8 more unmatched socks, I decided to make a Cecilia. I have not gotten very far yet, I’m about 33 rows in:

It has been almost a month since my last post on my crafty goings-on. Since then I have gone to Finland (click for pictures) and Charlotte, North Carolina, to speak at conferences. I bought yarn in both places, and have done a lot of knitting and spinning while on planes, in airports, and generally in the cities themselves.

Tony’s Crooked Little Scarf has gotten bigger, and while it’s not quite finished yet, it is over 32 inches long and you can see that the ball of yarn is getting smaller and smaller:



The scarf is done when I run out of yarn. Next week I fly to Buenos Aires, so I think I will be able to finish the scarf on the plane.

While in North Carolina, I went to some yarn stores, and picked up some Universal Yarn’s Cotton Supreme Batik yarn. I was very excited to find this yarn again, I had found it a few years ago when I was in the Raleigh-Durham area and visited Shuttles Needles and Hooks. It’s very very soft, feels more like a microfiber acrylic than 100% cotton, and was perfect to make a baby sweater out of. So I bought some more for some more baby sweaters….

I bought the cotton batik at YarnHouse, where I bought a skein of ribbon yarn, that made this scarf:

The yarn was difficult to work with, and I’m not in love with the final product, but I am sure there is someone I know who will love it, that I can gift this scarf to.

At Charlotte Yarn I helped my (new) friend Carrie Stokes pick out some yarn for a Mobius shrug, and helped her with the pattern for it – specifically I helped start it. I also got out of my comfort zone and bought some ribbon yarns.

I bought some leopard-print ribbon yarn, to make a scarf for my friend Victoria:

If you look in the middle of the scarf you can see the ribbon itself (there was some left over at the end) and you can see the holes cut into it. I feel like I could re-create this yarn, with 30 meters of wide yarn and a hole punch. This yarn cost $20, and for 30 meters I find that somewhat expensive (although for a whole scarf, it’s totally reasonable). The yarn itself is called “tecido trico”.

Also for $20 I picked up some purple ribbon yarn, which I am making a scarf out of (but it is not done yet):

While in Finland, I bought some amazingly colored sock yarn, from Novita, a Finnish yarn company. I have already made a pair of socks from half of one skein, and I have several more skeins which I think I want to make a Color Affection with. Here are the socks I have made (well, I am *almost* done making):

In this picture I really played with the settings of my camera, and I love how it came out:

Here is the other, completed sock:

I went back and played with the settings, lowering the F-stop as I did for the in-progress sock. I love how this came out:

Compare and contrast the two photos….I think I’m learning how to take some great photos! If you are curious about the pattern, it’s just a regular stockinette sock, with a Sweet Tomato heel, and 2×2 ribbing with an i-cord cast-off for the leg of the sock.

I also finished the Monkey Socks. Here is the 2nd sock:

You probably don’t remember what the first sock looks like, which is OK, here’s the picture I took a while ago of it:

As you can tell, they do not match….but they are from the same yarn! (Superwash Correidale….)

I have been on a bit of a sock kick – I started and completed a pair of socks from Mind’s Eye Yarns, hand-dyed by Lucy. It’s 75% merino, 25% tencel, and they are extremely comfortable socks…again, the pattern is just simple stockinette, with ribbing at the leg, and the Sweet Tomato heel. At $20 for 100g, I can get 2 pairs of socks out of one skein, so it makes me happy:

I have been spinning a fair bit, too. I got some BFL from Spunky Eclectic in the “More Coffee” colorway a while back, and decided a few nights ago to spin on my wheel while I was home. I have spun up about a bobbin and a half, and probably am about halfway done with it:

Also from Spunky is the May 2012 fiber club – also BFL, in the “Big Bang” colorway. As soon as I saw it I knew I had to spin it, so even though I still have not spun the clubs from December through April, I went to work on the May colorway right away. I’m still in love:

While in Finland I started to get back in touch with my spindles, spinning some of the Falkland mini-braids I bought at the Wild and Wooly Festival in April in Vermont, from The Spun Monkey Fiber Shoppe. I have spun just about half of one package – which is 2.5 mini-braids:

I also spun some of the fluff I received in a Phat Fiber sampler box I bought in February (a mixed box):

There was a spindle in the box that I spun on, but I have to say that the Bosworth spindles and my Golding mini ringspindles I have are so perfectly balanced, that everything else feels like spinning with a boat anchor (including the bigger Golding ringspindles, sadly).

The Monkey socks were knit using handspun, and I still have a lot of it. Rather than make tons more socks from the same yarn, which would probably result in 8 more unmatched socks, I decided to make a Cecilia. I have not gotten very far yet, I’m about 33 rows in:

It has been almost a month since my last post on my crafty goings-on. Since then I have gone to Finland (click for pictures) and Charlotte, and have done a lot of knitting and spinning while on planes, in airports, and generally in the cities themselves.

Tony’s Crooked Little Scarf has gotten bigger, and while it’s not quite finished yet, it is over 32 inches long and you can see that the ball of yarn is getting smaller and smaller:

The scarf is done when I run out of yarn. Next week I fly to Buenos Aires, so I think I will be able to finish the scarf on the plane.

While in North Carolina, I went to some yarn stores, and picked up some Universal Yarn’s Cotton Supreme Batik yarn. I was very excited to find this yarn again, I had found it a few years ago when I was in the Raleigh-Durham area and visited Shuttles Needles and Hooks. It’s very very soft, feels more like a microfiber acrylic than 100% cotton, and was perfect to make a baby sweater out of. So I bought some more for some more baby sweaters….

I bought the cotton batik at YarnHouse, where I bought a skein of ribbon yarn, that made this scarf:

The yarn was difficult to work with, and I’m not in love with the final product, but I am sure there is someone I know who will love it, that I can gift this scarf to.

At Charlotte Yarn I helped my (new) friend Carrie Stokes pick out some yarn for a Mobius shrug, and helped her with the pattern for it – specifically I helped start it. I also got out of my comfort zone and bought some ribbon yarns.

I bought some leopard-print ribbon yarn, to make a scarf for my friend Victoria:

If you look in the middle of the scarf you can see the ribbon itself (there was some left over at the end) and you can see the holes cut into it. I feel like I could re-create this yarn, with 30 meters of wide yarn and a hole punch. This yarn cost $20, and for 30 meters I find that somewhat expensive (although for a whole scarf, it’s totally reasonable). The yarn itself is called “tecido trico”.

Also for $20 I picked up some purple ribbon yarn, which I am making a scarf out of (but it is not done yet):

While in Finland, I bought some amazingly colored sock yarn, from Novita, a Finnish yarn company. I have already made a pair of socks from half of one skein, and I have several more skeins which I think I want to make a Color Affection with. Here are the socks I have made (well, I am *almost* done making):

In this picture I really played with the settings of my camera, and I love how it came out:

Here is the other, completed sock:

I went back and played with the settings, lowering the F-stop as I did for the in-progress sock. I love how this came out:

Compare and contrast the two photos….I think I’m learning how to take some great photos! If you are curious about the pattern, it’s just a regular stockinette sock, with a Sweet Tomato heel, and 2×2 ribbing with an i-cord cast-off for the leg of the sock.

I also finished the Monkey Socks. Here is the 2nd sock:

You probably don’t remember what the first sock looks like, which is OK, here’s the picture I took a while ago of it:

As you can tell, they do not match….but they are from the same yarn! (Superwash Correidale….)

I have been on a bit of a sock kick – I started and completed a pair of socks from Mind’s Eye Yarns, hand-dyed by Lucy. It’s 75% merino, 25% tencel, and they are extremely comfortable socks…again, the pattern is just simple stockinette, with ribbing at the leg, and the Sweet Tomato heel. At $20 for 100g, I can get 2 pairs of socks out of one skein, so it makes me happy:

I have been spinning a fair bit, too. I got some BFL from Spunky Eclectic in the “More Coffee” colorway a while back, and decided a few nights ago to spin on my wheel while I was home. I have spun up about a bobbin and a half, and probably am about halfway done with it:

Also from Spunky is the May 2012 fiber club – also BFL, in the “Big Bang” colorway. As soon as I saw it I knew I had to spin it, so even though I still have not spun the clubs from December through April, I went to work on the May colorway right away. I’m still in love:

While in Finland I started to get back in touch with my spindles, spinning some of the Falkland mini-braids I bought at the Wild and Wooly Festival in April in Vermont, from The Spun Monkey Fiber Shoppe. I have spun just about half of one package – which is 2.5 mini-braids:

I also spun some of the fluff I received in a Phat Fiber sampler box I bought in February (a mixed box):

There was a spindle in the box that I spun on, but I have to say that the Bosworth spindles and my Golding mini ringspindles I have are so perfectly balanced, that everything else feels like spinning with a boat anchor (including the bigger Golding ringspindles, sadly).

The Monkey socks were knit using handspun, and I still have a lot of it. Rather than make tons more socks from the same yarn, which would probably result in 8 more unmatched socks, I decided to make a Cecilia. I have not gotten very far yet, I’m about 33 rows in:

And that’s it! For now. I look forward to making more socks, finishing Tony’s scarf, working more on the Cecilia, and
It has been almost a month since my last post on my crafty goings-on. Since then I have gone to Finland (click for pictures) and Charlotte, North Carolina, to speak at conferences. I bought yarn in both places, and have done a lot of knitting and spinning while on planes, in airports, and generally in the cities themselves.

Tony’s Crooked Little Scarf has gotten bigger, and while it’s not quite finished yet, it is over 32 inches long and you can see that the ball of yarn is getting smaller and smaller:



The scarf is done when I run out of yarn. Next week I fly to Buenos Aires, so I think I will be able to finish the scarf on the plane.

While in North Carolina, I went to some yarn stores, and picked up some Universal Yarn’s Cotton Supreme Batik yarn. I was very excited to find this yarn again, I had found it a few years ago when I was in the Raleigh-Durham area and visited Shuttles Needles and Hooks. It’s very very soft, feels more like a microfiber acrylic than 100% cotton, and was perfect to make a baby sweater out of. So I bought some more for some more baby sweaters….

I bought the cotton batik at YarnHouse, where I bought a skein of ribbon yarn, that made this scarf:

The yarn was difficult to work with, and I’m not in love with the final product, but I am sure there is someone I know who will love it, that I can gift this scarf to.

At Charlotte Yarn I helped my (new) friend Carrie Stokes pick out some yarn for a Mobius shrug, and helped her with the pattern for it – specifically I helped start it. I also got out of my comfort zone and bought some ribbon yarns.

I bought some leopard-print ribbon yarn, to make a scarf for my friend Victoria:

If you look in the middle of the scarf you can see the ribbon itself (there was some left over at the end) and you can see the holes cut into it. I feel like I could re-create this yarn, with 30 meters of wide yarn and a hole punch. This yarn cost $20, and for 30 meters I find that somewhat expensive (although for a whole scarf, it’s totally reasonable). The yarn itself is called “tecido trico”.

Also for $20 I picked up some purple ribbon yarn, which I am making a scarf out of (but it is not done yet):

While in Finland, I bought some amazingly colored sock yarn, from Novita, a Finnish yarn company. I have already made a pair of socks from half of one skein, and I have several more skeins which I think I want to make a Color Affection with. Here are the socks I have made (well, I am *almost* done making):

In this picture I really played with the settings of my camera, and I love how it came out:

Here is the other, completed sock:

I went back and played with the settings, lowering the F-stop as I did for the in-progress sock. I love how this came out:

Compare and contrast the two photos….I think I’m learning how to take some great photos! If you are curious about the pattern, it’s just a regular stockinette sock, with a Sweet Tomato heel, and 2×2 ribbing with an i-cord cast-off for the leg of the sock.

I also finished the Monkey Socks. Here is the 2nd sock:

You probably don’t remember what the first sock looks like, which is OK, here’s the picture I took a while ago of it:

As you can tell, they do not match….but they are from the same yarn! (Superwash Correidale….)

I have been on a bit of a sock kick – I started and completed a pair of socks from Mind’s Eye Yarns, hand-dyed by Lucy. It’s 75% merino, 25% tencel, and they are extremely comfortable socks…again, the pattern is just simple stockinette, with ribbing at the leg, and the Sweet Tomato heel. At $20 for 100g, I can get 2 pairs of socks out of one skein, so it makes me happy:

I have been spinning a fair bit, too. I got some BFL from Spunky Eclectic in the “More Coffee” colorway a while back, and decided a few nights ago to spin on my wheel while I was home. I have spun up about a bobbin and a half, and probably am about halfway done with it:

Also from Spunky is the May 2012 fiber club – also BFL, in the “Big Bang” colorway. As soon as I saw it I knew I had to spin it, so even though I still have not spun the clubs from December through April, I went to work on the May colorway right away. I’m still in love:

While in Finland I started to get back in touch with my spindles, spinning some of the Falkland mini-braids I bought at the Wild and Wooly Festival in April in Vermont, from The Spun Monkey Fiber Shoppe. I have spun just about half of one package – which is 2.5 mini-braids:

I also spun some of the fluff I received in a Phat Fiber sampler box I bought in February (a mixed box):

There was a spindle in the box that I spun on, but I have to say that the Bosworth spindles and my Golding mini ringspindles I have are so perfectly balanced, that everything else feels like spinning with a boat anchor (including the bigger Golding ringspindles, sadly).

The Monkey socks were knit using handspun, and I still have a lot of it. Rather than make tons more socks from the same yarn, which would probably result in 8 more unmatched socks, I decided to make a Cecilia. I have not gotten very far yet, I’m about 33 rows in:

It has been almost a month since my last post on my crafty goings-on. Since then I have gone to Finland (click for pictures) and Charlotte, and have done a lot of knitting and spinning while on planes, in airports, and generally in the cities themselves.

Tony’s Crooked Little Scarf has gotten bigger, and while it’s not quite finished yet, it is over 32 inches long and you can see that the ball of yarn is getting smaller and smaller:

The scarf is done when I run out of yarn. Next week I fly to Buenos Aires, so I think I will be able to finish the scarf on the plane.

While in North Carolina, I went to some yarn stores, and picked up some Universal Yarn’s Cotton Supreme Batik yarn. I was very excited to find this yarn again, I had found it a few years ago when I was in the Raleigh-Durham area and visited Shuttles Needles and Hooks. It’s very very soft, feels more like a microfiber acrylic than 100% cotton, and was perfect to make a baby sweater out of. So I bought some more for some more baby sweaters….

I bought the cotton batik at YarnHouse, where I bought a skein of ribbon yarn, that made this scarf:

The yarn was difficult to work with, and I’m not in love with the final product, but I am sure there is someone I know who will love it, that I can gift this scarf to.

At Charlotte Yarn I helped my (new) friend Carrie Stokes pick out some yarn for a Mobius shrug, and helped her with the pattern for it – specifically I helped start it. I also got out of my comfort zone and bought some ribbon yarns.

I bought some leopard-print ribbon yarn, to make a scarf for my friend Victoria:

If you look in the middle of the scarf you can see the ribbon itself (there was some left over at the end) and you can see the holes cut into it. I feel like I could re-create this yarn, with 30 meters of wide yarn and a hole punch. This yarn cost $20, and for 30 meters I find that somewhat expensive (although for a whole scarf, it’s totally reasonable). The yarn itself is called “tecido trico”.

Also for $20 I picked up some purple ribbon yarn, which I am making a scarf out of (but it is not done yet):

While in Finland, I bought some amazingly colored sock yarn, from Novita, a Finnish yarn company. I have already made a pair of socks from half of one skein, and I have several more skeins which I think I want to make a Color Affection with. Here are the socks I have made (well, I am *almost* done making):

In this picture I really played with the settings of my camera, and I love how it came out:

Here is the other, completed sock:

I went back and played with the settings, lowering the F-stop as I did for the in-progress sock. I love how this came out:

Compare and contrast the two photos….I think I’m learning how to take some great photos! If you are curious about the pattern, it’s just a regular stockinette sock, with a Sweet Tomato heel, and 2×2 ribbing with an i-cord cast-off for the leg of the sock.

I also finished the Monkey Socks. Here is the 2nd sock:

You probably don’t remember what the first sock looks like, which is OK, here’s the picture I took a while ago of it:

As you can tell, they do not match….but they are from the same yarn! (Superwash Correidale….)

I have been on a bit of a sock kick – I started and completed a pair of socks from Mind’s Eye Yarns, hand-dyed by Lucy. It’s 75% merino, 25% tencel, and they are extremely comfortable socks…again, the pattern is just simple stockinette, with ribbing at the leg, and the Sweet Tomato heel. At $20 for 100g, I can get 2 pairs of socks out of one skein, so it makes me happy:

I have been spinning a fair bit, too. I got some BFL from Spunky Eclectic in the “More Coffee” colorway a while back, and decided a few nights ago to spin on my wheel while I was home. I have spun up about a bobbin and a half, and probably am about halfway done with it:

Also from Spunky is the May 2012 fiber club – also BFL, in the “Big Bang” colorway. As soon as I saw it I knew I had to spin it, so even though I still have not spun the clubs from December through April, I went to work on the May colorway right away. I’m still in love:

While in Finland I started to get back in touch with my spindles, spinning some of the Falkland mini-braids I bought at the Wild and Wooly Festival in April in Vermont, from The Spun Monkey Fiber Shoppe. I have spun just about half of one package – which is 2.5 mini-braids:

I also spun some of the fluff I received in a Phat Fiber sampler box I bought in February (a mixed box):

There was a spindle in the box that I spun on, but I have to say that the Bosworth spindles and my Golding mini ringspindles I have are so perfectly balanced, that everything else feels like spinning with a boat anchor (including the bigger Golding ringspindles, sadly).

The Monkey socks were knit using handspun, and I still have a lot of it. Rather than make tons more socks from the same yarn, which would probably result in 8 more unmatched socks, I decided to make a Cecilia. I have not gotten very far yet, I’m about 33 rows in:

And that’s it! For now. I look forward to making more socks, finishing Tony’s scarf, working more on the Cecilia, and
It has been almost a month since my last post on my crafty goings-on. Since then I have gone to Finland (click for pictures) and Charlotte, North Carolina, to speak at conferences. I bought yarn in both places, and have done a lot of knitting and spinning while on planes, in airports, and generally in the cities themselves.

Tony’s Crooked Little Scarf has gotten bigger, and while it’s not quite finished yet, it is over 32 inches long and you can see that the ball of yarn is getting smaller and smaller:



The scarf is done when I run out of yarn. Next week I fly to Buenos Aires, so I think I will be able to finish the scarf on the plane.

While in North Carolina, I went to some yarn stores, and picked up some Universal Yarn’s Cotton Supreme Batik yarn. I was very excited to find this yarn again, I had found it a few years ago when I was in the Raleigh-Durham area and visited Shuttles Needles and Hooks. It’s very very soft, feels more like a microfiber acrylic than 100% cotton, and was perfect to make a baby sweater out of. So I bought some more for some more baby sweaters….

I bought the cotton batik at YarnHouse, where I bought a skein of ribbon yarn, that made this scarf:

The yarn was difficult to work with, and I’m not in love with the final product, but I am sure there is someone I know who will love it, that I can gift this scarf to.

At Charlotte Yarn I helped my (new) friend Carrie Stokes pick out some yarn for a Mobius shrug, and helped her with the pattern for it – specifically I helped start it. I also got out of my comfort zone and bought some ribbon yarns.

I bought some leopard-print ribbon yarn, to make a scarf for my friend Victoria:

If you look in the middle of the scarf you can see the ribbon itself (there was some left over at the end) and you can see the holes cut into it. I feel like I could re-create this yarn, with 30 meters of wide yarn and a hole punch. This yarn cost $20, and for 30 meters I find that somewhat expensive (although for a whole scarf, it’s totally reasonable). The yarn itself is called “tecido trico”.

Also for $20 I picked up some purple ribbon yarn, which I am making a scarf out of (but it is not done yet):

While in Finland, I bought some amazingly colored sock yarn, from Novita, a Finnish yarn company. I have already made a pair of socks from half of one skein, and I have several more skeins which I think I want to make a Color Affection with. Here are the socks I have made (well, I am *almost* done making):

In this picture I really played with the settings of my camera, and I love how it came out:

Here is the other, completed sock:

I went back and played with the settings, lowering the F-stop as I did for the in-progress sock. I love how this came out:

Compare and contrast the two photos….I think I’m learning how to take some great photos! If you are curious about the pattern, it’s just a regular stockinette sock, with a Sweet Tomato heel, and 2×2 ribbing with an i-cord cast-off for the leg of the sock.

I also finished the Monkey Socks. Here is the 2nd sock:

You probably don’t remember what the first sock looks like, which is OK, here’s the picture I took a while ago of it:

As you can tell, they do not match….but they are from the same yarn! (Superwash Correidale….)

I have been on a bit of a sock kick – I started and completed a pair of socks from Mind’s Eye Yarns, hand-dyed by Lucy. It’s 75% merino, 25% tencel, and they are extremely comfortable socks…again, the pattern is just simple stockinette, with ribbing at the leg, and the Sweet Tomato heel. At $20 for 100g, I can get 2 pairs of socks out of one skein, so it makes me happy:

I have been spinning a fair bit, too. I got some BFL from Spunky Eclectic in the “More Coffee” colorway a while back, and decided a few nights ago to spin on my wheel while I was home. I have spun up about a bobbin and a half, and probably am about halfway done with it:

Also from Spunky is the May 2012 fiber club – also BFL, in the “Big Bang” colorway. As soon as I saw it I knew I had to spin it, so even though I still have not spun the clubs from December through April, I went to work on the May colorway right away. I’m still in love:

While in Finland I started to get back in touch with my spindles, spinning some of the Falkland mini-braids I bought at the Wild and Wooly Festival in April in Vermont, from The Spun Monkey Fiber Shoppe. I have spun just about half of one package – which is 2.5 mini-braids:

I also spun some of the fluff I received in a Phat Fiber sampler box I bought in February (a mixed box):

There was a spindle in the box that I spun on, but I have to say that the Bosworth spindles and my Golding mini ringspindles I have are so perfectly balanced, that everything else feels like spinning with a boat anchor (including the bigger Golding ringspindles, sadly).

The Monkey socks were knit using handspun, and I still have a lot of it. Rather than make tons more socks from the same yarn, which would probably result in 8 more unmatched socks, I decided to make a Cecilia. I have not gotten very far yet, I’m about 33 rows in:

It has been almost a month since my last post on my crafty goings-on. Since then I have gone to Finland (click for pictures) and Charlotte, North Carolina, to speak at conferences. I bought yarn in both places, and have done a lot of knitting and spinning while on planes, in airports, and generally in the cities themselves.

Tony’s Crooked Little Scarf has gotten bigger, and while it’s not quite finished yet, it is over 32 inches long and you can see that the ball of yarn is getting smaller and smaller:



The scarf is done when I run out of yarn. Next week I fly to Buenos Aires, so I think I will be able to finish the scarf on the plane.

While in North Carolina, I went to some yarn stores, and picked up some Universal Yarn’s Cotton Supreme Batik yarn. I was very excited to find this yarn again, I had found it a few years ago when I was in the Raleigh-Durham area and visited Shuttles Needles and Hooks. It’s very very soft, feels more like a microfiber acrylic than 100% cotton, and was perfect to make a baby sweater out of. So I bought some more for some more baby sweaters….

I bought the cotton batik at YarnHouse, where I bought a skein of ribbon yarn, that made this scarf:

The yarn was difficult to work with, and I’m not in love with the final product, but I am sure there is someone I know who will love it, that I can gift this scarf to.

At Charlotte Yarn I helped my (new) friend Carrie Stokes pick out some yarn for a Mobius shrug, and helped her with the pattern for it – specifically I helped start it. I also got out of my comfort zone and bought some ribbon yarns.

I bought some leopard-print ribbon yarn, to make a scarf for my friend Victoria:

If you look in the middle of the scarf you can see the ribbon itself (there was some left over at the end) and you can see the holes cut into it. I feel like I could re-create this yarn, with 30 meters of wide yarn and a hole punch. This yarn cost $20, and for 30 meters I find that somewhat expensive (although for a whole scarf, it’s totally reasonable). The yarn itself is called “tecido trico”.

Also for $20 I picked up some purple ribbon yarn, which I am making a scarf out of (but it is not done yet):

While in Finland, I bought some amazingly colored sock yarn, from Novita, a Finnish yarn company. I have already made a pair of socks from half of one skein, and I have several more skeins which I think I want to make a Color Affection with. Here are the socks I have made (well, I am *almost* done making):

In this picture I really played with the settings of my camera, and I love how it came out:

Here is the other, completed sock:

I went back and played with the settings, lowering the F-stop as I did for the in-progress sock. I love how this came out:

Compare and contrast the two photos….I think I’m learning how to take some great photos! If you are curious about the pattern, it’s just a regular stockinette sock, with a Sweet Tomato heel, and 2×2 ribbing with an i-cord cast-off for the leg of the sock.

I also finished the Monkey Socks. Here is the 2nd sock:

You probably don’t remember what the first sock looks like, which is OK, here’s the picture I took a while ago of it:

As you can tell, they do not match….but they are from the same yarn! (Superwash Correidale….)

I have been on a bit of a sock kick – I started and completed a pair of socks from Mind’s Eye Yarns, hand-dyed by Lucy. It’s 75% merino, 25% tencel, and they are extremely comfortable socks…again, the pattern is just simple stockinette, with ribbing at the leg, and the Sweet Tomato heel. At $20 for 100g, I can get 2 pairs of socks out of one skein, so it makes me happy:

I have been spinning a fair bit, too. I got some BFL from Spunky Eclectic in the “More Coffee” colorway a while back, and decided a few nights ago to spin on my wheel while I was home. I have spun up about a bobbin and a half, and probably am about halfway done with it:

Also from Spunky is the May 2012 fiber club – also BFL, in the “Big Bang” colorway. As soon as I saw it I knew I had to spin it, so even though I still have not spun the clubs from December through April, I went to work on the May colorway right away. I’m still in love:

While in Finland I started to get back in touch with my spindles, spinning some of the Falkland mini-braids I bought at the Wild and Wooly Festival in April in Vermont, from The Spun Monkey Fiber Shoppe. I have spun just about half of one package – which is 2.5 mini-braids:

I also spun some of the fluff I received in a Phat Fiber sampler box I bought in February (a mixed box):

There was a spindle in the box that I spun on, but I have to say that the Bosworth spindles and my Golding mini ringspindles I have are so perfectly balanced, that everything else feels like spinning with a boat anchor (including the bigger Golding ringspindles, sadly).

The Monkey socks were knit using handspun, and I still have a lot of it. Rather than make tons more socks from the same yarn, which would probably result in 8 more unmatched socks, I decided to make a Cecilia. I have not gotten very far yet, I’m about 33 rows in:

It has been almost a month since my last post on my crafty goings-on. Since then I have gone to Finland (click for pictures) and Charlotte, and have done a lot of knitting and spinning while on planes, in airports, and generally in the cities themselves.

Tony’s Crooked Little Scarf has gotten bigger, and while it’s not quite finished yet, it is over 32 inches long and you can see that the ball of yarn is getting smaller and smaller:

The scarf is done when I run out of yarn. Next week I fly to Buenos Aires, so I think I will be able to finish the scarf on the plane.

While in North Carolina, I went to some yarn stores, and picked up some Universal Yarn’s Cotton Supreme Batik yarn. I was very excited to find this yarn again, I had found it a few years ago when I was in the Raleigh-Durham area and visited Shuttles Needles and Hooks. It’s very very soft, feels more like a microfiber acrylic than 100% cotton, and was perfect to make a baby sweater out of. So I bought some more for some more baby sweaters….

I bought the cotton batik at YarnHouse, where I bought a skein of ribbon yarn, that made this scarf:

The yarn was difficult to work with, and I’m not in love with the final product, but I am sure there is someone I know who will love it, that I can gift this scarf to.

At Charlotte Yarn I helped my (new) friend Carrie Stokes pick out some yarn for a Mobius shrug, and helped her with the pattern for it – specifically I helped start it. I also got out of my comfort zone and bought some ribbon yarns.

I bought some leopard-print ribbon yarn, to make a scarf for my friend Victoria:

If you look in the middle of the scarf you can see the ribbon itself (there was some left over at the end) and you can see the holes cut into it. I feel like I could re-create this yarn, with 30 meters of wide yarn and a hole punch. This yarn cost $20, and for 30 meters I find that somewhat expensive (although for a whole scarf, it’s totally reasonable). The yarn itself is called “tecido trico”.

Also for $20 I picked up some purple ribbon yarn, which I am making a scarf out of (but it is not done yet):

While in Finland, I bought some amazingly colored sock yarn, from Novita, a Finnish yarn company. I have already made a pair of socks from half of one skein, and I have several more skeins which I think I want to make a Color Affection with. Here are the socks I have made (well, I am *almost* done making):

In this picture I really played with the settings of my camera, and I love how it came out:

Here is the other, completed sock:

I went back and played with the settings, lowering the F-stop as I did for the in-progress sock. I love how this came out:

Compare and contrast the two photos….I think I’m learning how to take some great photos! If you are curious about the pattern, it’s just a regular stockinette sock, with a Sweet Tomato heel, and 2×2 ribbing with an i-cord cast-off for the leg of the sock.

I also finished the Monkey Socks. Here is the 2nd sock:

You probably don’t remember what the first sock looks like, which is OK, here’s the picture I took a while ago of it:

As you can tell, they do not match….but they are from the same yarn! (Superwash Correidale….)

I have been on a bit of a sock kick – I started and completed a pair of socks from Mind’s Eye Yarns, hand-dyed by Lucy. It’s 75% merino, 25% tencel, and they are extremely comfortable socks…again, the pattern is just simple stockinette, with ribbing at the leg, and the Sweet Tomato heel. At $20 for 100g, I can get 2 pairs of socks out of one skein, so it makes me happy:

I have been spinning a fair bit, too. I got some BFL from Spunky Eclectic in the “More Coffee” colorway a while back, and decided a few nights ago to spin on my wheel while I was home. I have spun up about a bobbin and a half, and probably am about halfway done with it:

Also from Spunky is the May 2012 fiber club – also BFL, in the “Big Bang” colorway. As soon as I saw it I knew I had to spin it, so even though I still have not spun the clubs from December through April, I went to work on the May colorway right away. I’m still in love:

While in Finland I started to get back in touch with my spindles, spinning some of the Falkland mini-braids I bought at the Wild and Wooly Festival in April in Vermont, from The Spun Monkey Fiber Shoppe. I have spun just about half of one package – which is 2.5 mini-braids:

I also spun some of the fluff I received in a Phat Fiber sampler box I bought in February (a mixed box):

There was a spindle in the box that I spun on, but I have to say that the Bosworth spindles and my Golding mini ringspindles I have are so perfectly balanced, that everything else feels like spinning with a boat anchor (including the bigger Golding ringspindles, sadly).

The Monkey socks were knit using handspun, and I still have a lot of it. Rather than make tons more socks from the same yarn, which would probably result in 8 more unmatched socks, I decided to make a Cecilia. I have not gotten very far yet, I’m about 33 rows in:

And that’s it! For now. I look forward to making more socks, finishing Tony’s scarf, working more on the Cecilia, and
It has been almost a month since my last post on my crafty goings-on. Since then I have gone to Finland (click for pictures) and Charlotte, North Carolina, to speak at conferences. I bought yarn in both places, and have done a lot of knitting and spinning while on planes, in airports, and generally in the cities themselves.

Tony’s Crooked Little Scarf has gotten bigger, and while it’s not quite finished yet, it is over 32 inches long and you can see that the ball of yarn is getting smaller and smaller:



The scarf is done when I run out of yarn. Next week I fly to Buenos Aires, so I think I will be able to finish the scarf on the plane.

While in North Carolina, I went to some yarn stores, and picked up some Universal Yarn’s Cotton Supreme Batik yarn. I was very excited to find this yarn again, I had found it a few years ago when I was in the Raleigh-Durham area and visited Shuttles Needles and Hooks. It’s very very soft, feels more like a microfiber acrylic than 100% cotton, and was perfect to make a baby sweater out of. So I bought some more for some more baby sweaters….

I bought the cotton batik at YarnHouse, where I bought a skein of ribbon yarn, that made this scarf:

The yarn was difficult to work with, and I’m not in love with the final product, but I am sure there is someone I know who will love it, that I can gift this scarf to.

At Charlotte Yarn I helped my (new) friend Carrie Stokes pick out some yarn for a Mobius shrug, and helped her with the pattern for it – specifically I helped start it. I also got out of my comfort zone and bought some ribbon yarns.

I bought some leopard-print ribbon yarn, to make a scarf for my friend Victoria:

If you look in the middle of the scarf you can see the ribbon itself (there was some left over at the end) and you can see the holes cut into it. I feel like I could re-create this yarn, with 30 meters of wide yarn and a hole punch. This yarn cost $20, and for 30 meters I find that somewhat expensive (although for a whole scarf, it’s totally reasonable). The yarn itself is called “tecido trico”.

Also for $20 I picked up some purple ribbon yarn, which I am making a scarf out of (but it is not done yet):

While in Finland, I bought some amazingly colored sock yarn, from Novita, a Finnish yarn company. I have already made a pair of socks from half of one skein, and I have several more skeins which I think I want to make a Color Affection with. Here are the socks I have made (well, I am *almost* done making):

In this picture I really played with the settings of my camera, and I love how it came out:

Here is the other, completed sock:

I went back and played with the settings, lowering the F-stop as I did for the in-progress sock. I love how this came out:

Compare and contrast the two photos….I think I’m learning how to take some great photos! If you are curious about the pattern, it’s just a regular stockinette sock, with a Sweet Tomato heel, and 2×2 ribbing with an i-cord cast-off for the leg of the sock.

I also finished the Monkey Socks. Here is the 2nd sock:

You probably don’t remember what the first sock looks like, which is OK, here’s the picture I took a while ago of it:

As you can tell, they do not match….but they are from the same yarn! (Superwash Correidale….)

I have been on a bit of a sock kick – I started and completed a pair of socks from Mind’s Eye Yarns, hand-dyed by Lucy. It’s 75% merino, 25% tencel, and they are extremely comfortable socks…again, the pattern is just simple stockinette, with ribbing at the leg, and the Sweet Tomato heel. At $20 for 100g, I can get 2 pairs of socks out of one skein, so it makes me happy:

I have been spinning a fair bit, too. I got some BFL from Spunky Eclectic in the “More Coffee” colorway a while back, and decided a few nights ago to spin on my wheel while I was home. I have spun up about a bobbin and a half, and probably am about halfway done with it:

Also from Spunky is the May 2012 fiber club – also BFL, in the “Big Bang” colorway. As soon as I saw it I knew I had to spin it, so even though I still have not spun the clubs from December through April, I went to work on the May colorway right away. I’m still in love:

While in Finland I started to get back in touch with my spindles, spinning some of the Falkland mini-braids I bought at the Wild and Wooly Festival in April in Vermont, from The Spun Monkey Fiber Shoppe. I have spun just about half of one package – which is 2.5 mini-braids:

I also spun some of the fluff I received in a Phat Fiber sampler box I bought in February (a mixed box):

There was a spindle in the box that I spun on, but I have to say that the Bosworth spindles and my Golding mini ringspindles I have are so perfectly balanced, that everything else feels like spinning with a boat anchor (including the bigger Golding ringspindles, sadly).

The Monkey socks were knit using handspun, and I still have a lot of it. Rather than make tons more socks from the same yarn, which would probably result in 8 more unmatched socks, I decided to make a Cecilia. I have not gotten very far yet, I’m about 33 rows in:

Buenos Aires has a span of a few blocks, more about not too far from the Malabia metro station* where there are many yarn shops, I counted 15, and went into 11 of them before I had to stop. The shops are on Ave. Scalabrini Ortiz just southwest of Ave. Cordoba, towards Ave. Correintes. The Malabia metro station is on the corner of Correintes and Scalabrini Ortiz, which is 1 km away from the corner of Cordoba and Corrientes, and about half that until you see your first yarn shop. There was a small bit of yarn bombing between two of the stores:

Yarn shopping in Buenos Aires is quite different from what I’m used to in the States. The stores all look like this:

The yarn is beautiful, and well-organized, but there’s no signs as to what the yarn is made up of, how much it costs nor the gauge of the yarn. In addition, you’re not supposed to take the yarn out of the bins. If you look at the bottom right of that picture, you’ll see some white yarn and blue yarn that is actually sitting on top of a counter. That counter separates you from the wall, and there are people behind the counter who can help you get what you want.

So it’s very different from the experience I’m used to. I got the feeling that a lot of people knew exactly what they wanted to buy, or walked in and would say “do you have anything made of wool?” I was feeling a bit shy due to the language barrier, so I picked up a Spanish phrase: “solamente mirando” – it means “Just looking”. The people are friendly and willing to help, but I like the yarn buying process to be a solo activity.

There were 2 exceptions to the fact that most stores don’t give any information about their items.: Milana hilados and Yanabey. Milana hilados had tags like this near most of their yarn:

Note that that’s in Argentinian pesos, and at the time, this was less than USD $10 per 100g. Another thing to note is the price is per 100g, not per hank of yarn. You’d ask a sales associate to take the yarn down for you and they’d weigh it and ask you if that was OK (kind of like at the deli counter). Then they give you a slip of paper and you take it to a cash register, where you’re usually helped by someone else. Another interesting thing is that the stores seemed to be staffed by about half men, half women, which is very different from yarn stores in the States, which are probably about 90% staffed by women.

I bought 3 hanks of yarn there, for about $25:

Yanabey had signs like this:

These prices are still in Argentinian pesos, but they’re in kilos. So these prices are $171 for 1 kilo, which is $17.10 for 100g. This is a wall of “seda vegetal”, or “vegetable silk“. By the way, that’s about USD $35 per kilo. So I bought 6 skeins, which was just over a kilo, because the tree which this comes from (ceiba speciosa, or “silk floss tree”) is native to South America, and I haven’t seen “vegetable silk” in the US.

A lot of the stores have the recycled t-shirt yarn, and I bought some at Arte Natural:

BUTTONS!!!

I was thinking I might make a purse from the yarn, like this:

That purse is crocheted, but I’m sure I can come up with a knitted version.

Here’s what I bought from that store:

Here’s a Spanish primer for some important words:
cachemira – cashmere
acrílico – acrylic
lana – wool
seda – silk
alpaca – alpaca
hilo – yarn (plural: hilados)
Also, I found out that cashmerillo is just an acrylic yarn that’s very soft. Don’t be fooled by price, some of the acrylic yarns are *very* expensive, even more expensive than the wool.

I was very excited by the prospect of all these yarn stores, and after these three purchases I was done, and passed by 4 other yarn stores that I didn’t even walk into. In addition, there were at least 2 weaving stores, and another 2 fabric stores. Only one of the yarn stores had fiber to spin, and it looked like combed top, and was somewhat expensive (by US standards).

All in all, I was extremely satisfied by taking a few hours to shop for yarn, but I found the experience quite different from what I’m used to.

* I was instructed by a friend who had visited Buenos Aires to take a taxi to the corner of X and Y. However, I enjoy walking around and public transit, so I noticed the subway stop was not far, and decided to walk a few blocks. To those who are considering what to do, a taxi would have cost about 20 pesos (about USD $5) each way. The subway costs $5 for two rides, but of course is not door to door. Another thing to note about the subway is that it is not the most modern system:

And you will get plenty of people trying to make money – some play music, which you may be used to from other subway systems. Others will go around a subway car, handing out products, and then go around and either collect the product back or collect money. I was handed tissues and Disney books – or at least, they attempted to hand stuff to me, and I refused. It helped that I had knitting in my hands, but I saw them just place stuff on people’s laps if their hands were busy, so don’t just look away, make sure you actually refuse by shaking your head.

Note: I hope this article is helpful! Due to spam reasons, all articles on this site have comments disabled after a short time. If you want to leave feedback, you can tweet @sheeri or e-mail me at awfief at gmail dot com. (replace “at” with @ and “dot com” with .com to get the real e-mail address).
It has been almost a month since my last post on my crafty goings-on. Since then I have gone to Finland (click for pictures) and Charlotte, North Carolina, to speak at conferences. I bought yarn in both places, and have done a lot of knitting and spinning while on planes, in airports, and generally in the cities themselves.

Tony’s Crooked Little Scarf has gotten bigger, and while it’s not quite finished yet, it is over 32 inches long and you can see that the ball of yarn is getting smaller and smaller:



The scarf is done when I run out of yarn. Next week I fly to Buenos Aires, so I think I will be able to finish the scarf on the plane.

While in North Carolina, I went to some yarn stores, and picked up some Universal Yarn’s Cotton Supreme Batik yarn. I was very excited to find this yarn again, I had found it a few years ago when I was in the Raleigh-Durham area and visited Shuttles Needles and Hooks. It’s very very soft, feels more like a microfiber acrylic than 100% cotton, and was perfect to make a baby sweater out of. So I bought some more for some more baby sweaters….

I bought the cotton batik at YarnHouse, where I bought a skein of ribbon yarn, that made this scarf:

The yarn was difficult to work with, and I’m not in love with the final product, but I am sure there is someone I know who will love it, that I can gift this scarf to.

At Charlotte Yarn I helped my (new) friend Carrie Stokes pick out some yarn for a Mobius shrug, and helped her with the pattern for it – specifically I helped start it. I also got out of my comfort zone and bought some ribbon yarns.

I bought some leopard-print ribbon yarn, to make a scarf for my friend Victoria:

If you look in the middle of the scarf you can see the ribbon itself (there was some left over at the end) and you can see the holes cut into it. I feel like I could re-create this yarn, with 30 meters of wide yarn and a hole punch. This yarn cost $20, and for 30 meters I find that somewhat expensive (although for a whole scarf, it’s totally reasonable). The yarn itself is called “tecido trico”.

Also for $20 I picked up some purple ribbon yarn, which I am making a scarf out of (but it is not done yet):

While in Finland, I bought some amazingly colored sock yarn, from Novita, a Finnish yarn company. I have already made a pair of socks from half of one skein, and I have several more skeins which I think I want to make a Color Affection with. Here are the socks I have made (well, I am *almost* done making):

In this picture I really played with the settings of my camera, and I love how it came out:

Here is the other, completed sock:

I went back and played with the settings, lowering the F-stop as I did for the in-progress sock. I love how this came out:

Compare and contrast the two photos….I think I’m learning how to take some great photos! If you are curious about the pattern, it’s just a regular stockinette sock, with a Sweet Tomato heel, and 2×2 ribbing with an i-cord cast-off for the leg of the sock.

I also finished the Monkey Socks. Here is the 2nd sock:

You probably don’t remember what the first sock looks like, which is OK, here’s the picture I took a while ago of it:

As you can tell, they do not match….but they are from the same yarn! (Superwash Correidale….)

I have been on a bit of a sock kick – I started and completed a pair of socks from Mind’s Eye Yarns, hand-dyed by Lucy. It’s 75% merino, 25% tencel, and they are extremely comfortable socks…again, the pattern is just simple stockinette, with ribbing at the leg, and the Sweet Tomato heel. At $20 for 100g, I can get 2 pairs of socks out of one skein, so it makes me happy:

I have been spinning a fair bit, too. I got some BFL from Spunky Eclectic in the “More Coffee” colorway a while back, and decided a few nights ago to spin on my wheel while I was home. I have spun up about a bobbin and a half, and probably am about halfway done with it:

Also from Spunky is the May 2012 fiber club – also BFL, in the “Big Bang” colorway. As soon as I saw it I knew I had to spin it, so even though I still have not spun the clubs from December through April, I went to work on the May colorway right away. I’m still in love:

While in Finland I started to get back in touch with my spindles, spinning some of the Falkland mini-braids I bought at the Wild and Wooly Festival in April in Vermont, from The Spun Monkey Fiber Shoppe. I have spun just about half of one package – which is 2.5 mini-braids:

I also spun some of the fluff I received in a Phat Fiber sampler box I bought in February (a mixed box):

There was a spindle in the box that I spun on, but I have to say that the Bosworth spindles and my Golding mini ringspindles I have are so perfectly balanced, that everything else feels like spinning with a boat anchor (including the bigger Golding ringspindles, sadly).

The Monkey socks were knit using handspun, and I still have a lot of it. Rather than make tons more socks from the same yarn, which would probably result in 8 more unmatched socks, I decided to make a Cecilia. I have not gotten very far yet, I’m about 33 rows in:

It has been almost a month since my last post on my crafty goings-on. Since then I have gone to Finland (click for pictures) and Charlotte, and have done a lot of knitting and spinning while on planes, in airports, and generally in the cities themselves.

Tony’s Crooked Little Scarf has gotten bigger, and while it’s not quite finished yet, it is over 32 inches long and you can see that the ball of yarn is getting smaller and smaller:

The scarf is done when I run out of yarn. Next week I fly to Buenos Aires, so I think I will be able to finish the scarf on the plane.

While in North Carolina, I went to some yarn stores, and picked up some Universal Yarn’s Cotton Supreme Batik yarn. I was very excited to find this yarn again, I had found it a few years ago when I was in the Raleigh-Durham area and visited Shuttles Needles and Hooks. It’s very very soft, feels more like a microfiber acrylic than 100% cotton, and was perfect to make a baby sweater out of. So I bought some more for some more baby sweaters….

I bought the cotton batik at YarnHouse, where I bought a skein of ribbon yarn, that made this scarf:

The yarn was difficult to work with, and I’m not in love with the final product, but I am sure there is someone I know who will love it, that I can gift this scarf to.

At Charlotte Yarn I helped my (new) friend Carrie Stokes pick out some yarn for a Mobius shrug, and helped her with the pattern for it – specifically I helped start it. I also got out of my comfort zone and bought some ribbon yarns.

I bought some leopard-print ribbon yarn, to make a scarf for my friend Victoria:

If you look in the middle of the scarf you can see the ribbon itself (there was some left over at the end) and you can see the holes cut into it. I feel like I could re-create this yarn, with 30 meters of wide yarn and a hole punch. This yarn cost $20, and for 30 meters I find that somewhat expensive (although for a whole scarf, it’s totally reasonable). The yarn itself is called “tecido trico”.

Also for $20 I picked up some purple ribbon yarn, which I am making a scarf out of (but it is not done yet):

While in Finland, I bought some amazingly colored sock yarn, from Novita, a Finnish yarn company. I have already made a pair of socks from half of one skein, and I have several more skeins which I think I want to make a Color Affection with. Here are the socks I have made (well, I am *almost* done making):

In this picture I really played with the settings of my camera, and I love how it came out:

Here is the other, completed sock:

I went back and played with the settings, lowering the F-stop as I did for the in-progress sock. I love how this came out:

Compare and contrast the two photos….I think I’m learning how to take some great photos! If you are curious about the pattern, it’s just a regular stockinette sock, with a Sweet Tomato heel, and 2×2 ribbing with an i-cord cast-off for the leg of the sock.

I also finished the Monkey Socks. Here is the 2nd sock:

You probably don’t remember what the first sock looks like, which is OK, here’s the picture I took a while ago of it:

As you can tell, they do not match….but they are from the same yarn! (Superwash Correidale….)

I have been on a bit of a sock kick – I started and completed a pair of socks from Mind’s Eye Yarns, hand-dyed by Lucy. It’s 75% merino, 25% tencel, and they are extremely comfortable socks…again, the pattern is just simple stockinette, with ribbing at the leg, and the Sweet Tomato heel. At $20 for 100g, I can get 2 pairs of socks out of one skein, so it makes me happy:

I have been spinning a fair bit, too. I got some BFL from Spunky Eclectic in the “More Coffee” colorway a while back, and decided a few nights ago to spin on my wheel while I was home. I have spun up about a bobbin and a half, and probably am about halfway done with it:

Also from Spunky is the May 2012 fiber club – also BFL, in the “Big Bang” colorway. As soon as I saw it I knew I had to spin it, so even though I still have not spun the clubs from December through April, I went to work on the May colorway right away. I’m still in love:

While in Finland I started to get back in touch with my spindles, spinning some of the Falkland mini-braids I bought at the Wild and Wooly Festival in April in Vermont, from The Spun Monkey Fiber Shoppe. I have spun just about half of one package – which is 2.5 mini-braids:

I also spun some of the fluff I received in a Phat Fiber sampler box I bought in February (a mixed box):

There was a spindle in the box that I spun on, but I have to say that the Bosworth spindles and my Golding mini ringspindles I have are so perfectly balanced, that everything else feels like spinning with a boat anchor (including the bigger Golding ringspindles, sadly).

The Monkey socks were knit using handspun, and I still have a lot of it. Rather than make tons more socks from the same yarn, which would probably result in 8 more unmatched socks, I decided to make a Cecilia. I have not gotten very far yet, I’m about 33 rows in:

And that’s it! For now. I look forward to making more socks, finishing Tony’s scarf, working more on the Cecilia, and
It has been almost a month since my last post on my crafty goings-on. Since then I have gone to Finland (click for pictures) and Charlotte, North Carolina, to speak at conferences. I bought yarn in both places, and have done a lot of knitting and spinning while on planes, in airports, and generally in the cities themselves.

Tony’s Crooked Little Scarf has gotten bigger, and while it’s not quite finished yet, it is over 32 inches long and you can see that the ball of yarn is getting smaller and smaller:



The scarf is done when I run out of yarn. Next week I fly to Buenos Aires, so I think I will be able to finish the scarf on the plane.

While in North Carolina, I went to some yarn stores, and picked up some Universal Yarn’s Cotton Supreme Batik yarn. I was very excited to find this yarn again, I had found it a few years ago when I was in the Raleigh-Durham area and visited Shuttles Needles and Hooks. It’s very very soft, feels more like a microfiber acrylic than 100% cotton, and was perfect to make a baby sweater out of. So I bought some more for some more baby sweaters….

I bought the cotton batik at YarnHouse, where I bought a skein of ribbon yarn, that made this scarf:

The yarn was difficult to work with, and I’m not in love with the final product, but I am sure there is someone I know who will love it, that I can gift this scarf to.

At Charlotte Yarn I helped my (new) friend Carrie Stokes pick out some yarn for a Mobius shrug, and helped her with the pattern for it – specifically I helped start it. I also got out of my comfort zone and bought some ribbon yarns.

I bought some leopard-print ribbon yarn, to make a scarf for my friend Victoria:

If you look in the middle of the scarf you can see the ribbon itself (there was some left over at the end) and you can see the holes cut into it. I feel like I could re-create this yarn, with 30 meters of wide yarn and a hole punch. This yarn cost $20, and for 30 meters I find that somewhat expensive (although for a whole scarf, it’s totally reasonable). The yarn itself is called “tecido trico”.

Also for $20 I picked up some purple ribbon yarn, which I am making a scarf out of (but it is not done yet):

While in Finland, I bought some amazingly colored sock yarn, from Novita, a Finnish yarn company. I have already made a pair of socks from half of one skein, and I have several more skeins which I think I want to make a Color Affection with. Here are the socks I have made (well, I am *almost* done making):

In this picture I really played with the settings of my camera, and I love how it came out:

Here is the other, completed sock:

I went back and played with the settings, lowering the F-stop as I did for the in-progress sock. I love how this came out:

Compare and contrast the two photos….I think I’m learning how to take some great photos! If you are curious about the pattern, it’s just a regular stockinette sock, with a Sweet Tomato heel, and 2×2 ribbing with an i-cord cast-off for the leg of the sock.

I also finished the Monkey Socks. Here is the 2nd sock:

You probably don’t remember what the first sock looks like, which is OK, here’s the picture I took a while ago of it:

As you can tell, they do not match….but they are from the same yarn! (Superwash Correidale….)

I have been on a bit of a sock kick – I started and completed a pair of socks from Mind’s Eye Yarns, hand-dyed by Lucy. It’s 75% merino, 25% tencel, and they are extremely comfortable socks…again, the pattern is just simple stockinette, with ribbing at the leg, and the Sweet Tomato heel. At $20 for 100g, I can get 2 pairs of socks out of one skein, so it makes me happy:

I have been spinning a fair bit, too. I got some BFL from Spunky Eclectic in the “More Coffee” colorway a while back, and decided a few nights ago to spin on my wheel while I was home. I have spun up about a bobbin and a half, and probably am about halfway done with it:

Also from Spunky is the May 2012 fiber club – also BFL, in the “Big Bang” colorway. As soon as I saw it I knew I had to spin it, so even though I still have not spun the clubs from December through April, I went to work on the May colorway right away. I’m still in love:

While in Finland I started to get back in touch with my spindles, spinning some of the Falkland mini-braids I bought at the Wild and Wooly Festival in April in Vermont, from The Spun Monkey Fiber Shoppe. I have spun just about half of one package – which is 2.5 mini-braids:

I also spun some of the fluff I received in a Phat Fiber sampler box I bought in February (a mixed box):

There was a spindle in the box that I spun on, but I have to say that the Bosworth spindles and my Golding mini ringspindles I have are so perfectly balanced, that everything else feels like spinning with a boat anchor (including the bigger Golding ringspindles, sadly).

The Monkey socks were knit using handspun, and I still have a lot of it. Rather than make tons more socks from the same yarn, which would probably result in 8 more unmatched socks, I decided to make a Cecilia. I have not gotten very far yet, I’m about 33 rows in:

Buenos Aires has a span of a few blocks, more about not too far from the Malabia metro station* where there are many yarn shops, I counted 15, and went into 11 of them before I had to stop. The shops are on Ave. Scalabrini Ortiz just southwest of Ave. Cordoba, towards Ave. Correintes. The Malabia metro station is on the corner of Correintes and Scalabrini Ortiz, which is 1 km away from the corner of Cordoba and Corrientes, and about half that until you see your first yarn shop. There was a small bit of yarn bombing between two of the stores:

Yarn shopping in Buenos Aires is quite different from what I’m used to in the States. The stores all look like this:

The yarn is beautiful, and well-organized, but there’s no signs as to what the yarn is made up of, how much it costs nor the gauge of the yarn. In addition, you’re not supposed to take the yarn out of the bins. If you look at the bottom right of that picture, you’ll see some white yarn and blue yarn that is actually sitting on top of a counter. That counter separates you from the wall, and there are people behind the counter who can help you get what you want.

So it’s very different from the experience I’m used to. I got the feeling that a lot of people knew exactly what they wanted to buy, or walked in and would say “do you have anything made of wool?” I was feeling a bit shy due to the language barrier, so I picked up a Spanish phrase: “solamente mirando” – it means “Just looking”. The people are friendly and willing to help, but I like the yarn buying process to be a solo activity.

There were 2 exceptions to the fact that most stores don’t give any information about their items.: Milana hilados and Yanabey. Milana hilados had tags like this near most of their yarn:

Note that that’s in Argentinian pesos, and at the time, this was less than USD $10 per 100g. Another thing to note is the price is per 100g, not per hank of yarn. You’d ask a sales associate to take the yarn down for you and they’d weigh it and ask you if that was OK (kind of like at the deli counter). Then they give you a slip of paper and you take it to a cash register, where you’re usually helped by someone else. Another interesting thing is that the stores seemed to be staffed by about half men, half women, which is very different from yarn stores in the States, which are probably about 90% staffed by women.

I bought 3 hanks of yarn there, for about $25:

Yanabey had signs like this:

These prices are still in Argentinian pesos, but they’re in kilos. So these prices are $171 for 1 kilo, which is $17.10 for 100g. This is a wall of “seda vegetal”, or “vegetable silk“. By the way, that’s about USD $35 per kilo. So I bought 6 skeins, which was just over a kilo, because the tree which this comes from (ceiba speciosa, or “silk floss tree”) is native to South America, and I haven’t seen “vegetable silk” in the US.

A lot of the stores have the recycled t-shirt yarn, and I bought some at Arte Natural:

BUTTONS!!!

I was thinking I might make a purse from the yarn, like this:

That purse is crocheted, but I’m sure I can come up with a knitted version.

Here’s what I bought from that store:

Here’s a Spanish primer for some important words:
cachemira – cashmere
acrílico – acrylic
lana – wool
seda – silk
alpaca – alpaca
hilo – yarn (plural: hilados)
Also, I found out that cashmerillo is just an acrylic yarn that’s very soft. Don’t be fooled by price, some of the acrylic yarns are *very* expensive, even more expensive than the wool.

I was very excited by the prospect of all these yarn stores, and after these three purchases I was done, and passed by 4 other yarn stores that I didn’t even walk into. In addition, there were at least 2 weaving stores, and another 2 fabric stores. Only one of the yarn stores had fiber to spin, and it looked like combed top, and was somewhat expensive (by US standards).

All in all, I was extremely satisfied by taking a few hours to shop for yarn, but I found the experience quite different from what I’m used to.

* I was instructed by a friend who had visited Buenos Aires to take a taxi to the corner of X and Y. However, I enjoy walking around and public transit, so I noticed the subway stop was not far, and decided to walk a few blocks. To those who are considering what to do, a taxi would have cost about 20 pesos (about USD $5) each way. The subway costs $5 for two rides, but of course is not door to door. Another thing to note about the subway is that it is not the most modern system:

And you will get plenty of people trying to make money – some play music, which you may be used to from other subway systems. Others will go around a subway car, handing out products, and then go around and either collect the product back or collect money. I was handed tissues and Disney books – or at least, they attempted to hand stuff to me, and I refused. It helped that I had knitting in my hands, but I saw them just place stuff on people’s laps if their hands were busy, so don’t just look away, make sure you actually refuse by shaking your head.

Note: I hope this article is helpful! Due to spam reasons, all articles on this site have comments disabled after a short time. If you want to leave feedback, you can tweet @sheeri or e-mail me at awfief at gmail dot com. (replace “at” with @ and “dot com” with .com to get the real e-mail address).
Buenos Aires has a span of a few blocks, side effects not too far from the Malabia metro station* where there are many yarn shops, viagra buy I counted 15, and went into 11 of them before I had to stop. There was a small bit of yarn bombing between two of the stores:

Yarn shopping in Buenos Aires is quite different from what I’m used to in the States. The stores all look like this:

The yarn is beautiful, and well-organized, but there’s no signs as to what the yarn is made up of, how much it costs nor the gauge of the yarn. In addition, you’re not supposed to take the yarn out of the bins. If you look at the bottom right of that picture, you’ll see some white yarn and blue yarn that is actually sitting on top of a counter. That counter separates you from the wall, and there are people behind the counter who can help you get what you want.

So it’s very different from the experience I’m used to. I got the feeling that a lot of people knew exactly what they wanted to buy, or walked in and would say “do you have anything made of wool?” I was feeling a bit shy due to the language barrier, so I picked up a Spanish phrase: “solamente mirando” – it means “Just looking”. The people are friendly and willing to help, but I like the yarn buying process to be a solo activity.

There were 2 exceptions to the fact that most stores don’t give any information about their items.: Milana hilados and Yanabey. Milana hilados had tags like this near most of their yarn:

Note that that’s in Argentinian pesos, and at the time, this was less than USD $10 per 100g. Another thing to note is the price is per 100g, not per hank of yarn. You’d ask a sales associate to take the yarn down for you and they’d weigh it and ask you if that was OK (kind of like at the deli counter). Then they give you a slip of paper and you take it to a cash register, where you’re usually helped by someone else. Another interesting thing is that the stores seemed to be staffed by about half men, half women, which is very different from yarn stores in the States, which are probably about 90% staffed by women.

I bought 3 hanks of yarn there, for about $25:

Yanabey had signs like this:

These prices are still in Argentinian pesos, but they’re in kilos. So these prices are $171 for 1 kilo, which is $17.10 for 100g. This is a wall of “seda vegetal”, or “vegetable silk“. By the way, that’s about USD $35 per kilo. So I bought 6 skeins, which was just over a kilo.

A lot of the stores have the recycled t-shirt yarn, and I bought some at Arte Natural:

BUTTONS!!!

I was thinking I might make a purse from the yarn, like this:

That purse is crocheted, but I’m sure I can come up with a knitted version.

Here’s what I bought from that store:

Here’s a Spanish primer for some important words:
cashmira – cashmere
acrilico – acrylic
lana – wool
seda – silk
alpaca – alpaca
hilo – yarn (plural: hilados)
Also, I found out that cashmerillo is just an acrylic yarn that’s very soft. Don’t be fooled by price, some of the acrylic yarns are *very* expensive, even more expensive than the wool.

I was very excited by the prospect of all these yarn stores, and after these three purchases I was done, and passed by 4 other yarn stores that I didn’t even walk into. In addition, there were at least 2 weaving stores, and another 2 fabric stores. Only one of the yarn stores had fiber to spin, and it looked like combed top, and was somewhat expensive (by US standards).

All in all, I was extremely satisfied by taking a few hours to shop for yarn, but I found the experience quite different from what I’m used to.

* I was instructed by a friend who had visited Buenos Aires to take a taxi to the corner of X and Y. However, I enjoy walking around and public transit, so I noticed the subway stop was not far, and decided to walk a few blocks. To those who are considering what to do, a taxi would have cost about 20 pesos (about USD $5) each way. The subway costs $5 for two rides, but of course is not door to door. Another thing to note about the subway is that it is not the most modern system:
subway car – IMG_0247.JPG

And you will get plenty of people trying to make money – some play music, which you may be used to from other subway systems. Others will go around a subway car, handing out products, and then go around and either collect the product back or collect money. I was handed tissues and Disney books – or at least, they attempted to hand stuff to me, and I refused. It helped that I had knitting in my hands, but I saw them just place stuff on people’s laps if their hands were busy, so don’t just look away, make sure you actually refuse by shaking your head.
It has been almost a month since my last post on my crafty goings-on. Since then I have gone to Finland (click for pictures) and Charlotte, North Carolina, to speak at conferences. I bought yarn in both places, and have done a lot of knitting and spinning while on planes, in airports, and generally in the cities themselves.

Tony’s Crooked Little Scarf has gotten bigger, and while it’s not quite finished yet, it is over 32 inches long and you can see that the ball of yarn is getting smaller and smaller:



The scarf is done when I run out of yarn. Next week I fly to Buenos Aires, so I think I will be able to finish the scarf on the plane.

While in North Carolina, I went to some yarn stores, and picked up some Universal Yarn’s Cotton Supreme Batik yarn. I was very excited to find this yarn again, I had found it a few years ago when I was in the Raleigh-Durham area and visited Shuttles Needles and Hooks. It’s very very soft, feels more like a microfiber acrylic than 100% cotton, and was perfect to make a baby sweater out of. So I bought some more for some more baby sweaters….

I bought the cotton batik at YarnHouse, where I bought a skein of ribbon yarn, that made this scarf:

The yarn was difficult to work with, and I’m not in love with the final product, but I am sure there is someone I know who will love it, that I can gift this scarf to.

At Charlotte Yarn I helped my (new) friend Carrie Stokes pick out some yarn for a Mobius shrug, and helped her with the pattern for it – specifically I helped start it. I also got out of my comfort zone and bought some ribbon yarns.

I bought some leopard-print ribbon yarn, to make a scarf for my friend Victoria:

If you look in the middle of the scarf you can see the ribbon itself (there was some left over at the end) and you can see the holes cut into it. I feel like I could re-create this yarn, with 30 meters of wide yarn and a hole punch. This yarn cost $20, and for 30 meters I find that somewhat expensive (although for a whole scarf, it’s totally reasonable). The yarn itself is called “tecido trico”.

Also for $20 I picked up some purple ribbon yarn, which I am making a scarf out of (but it is not done yet):

While in Finland, I bought some amazingly colored sock yarn, from Novita, a Finnish yarn company. I have already made a pair of socks from half of one skein, and I have several more skeins which I think I want to make a Color Affection with. Here are the socks I have made (well, I am *almost* done making):

In this picture I really played with the settings of my camera, and I love how it came out:

Here is the other, completed sock:

I went back and played with the settings, lowering the F-stop as I did for the in-progress sock. I love how this came out:

Compare and contrast the two photos….I think I’m learning how to take some great photos! If you are curious about the pattern, it’s just a regular stockinette sock, with a Sweet Tomato heel, and 2×2 ribbing with an i-cord cast-off for the leg of the sock.

I also finished the Monkey Socks. Here is the 2nd sock:

You probably don’t remember what the first sock looks like, which is OK, here’s the picture I took a while ago of it:

As you can tell, they do not match….but they are from the same yarn! (Superwash Correidale….)

I have been on a bit of a sock kick – I started and completed a pair of socks from Mind’s Eye Yarns, hand-dyed by Lucy. It’s 75% merino, 25% tencel, and they are extremely comfortable socks…again, the pattern is just simple stockinette, with ribbing at the leg, and the Sweet Tomato heel. At $20 for 100g, I can get 2 pairs of socks out of one skein, so it makes me happy:

I have been spinning a fair bit, too. I got some BFL from Spunky Eclectic in the “More Coffee” colorway a while back, and decided a few nights ago to spin on my wheel while I was home. I have spun up about a bobbin and a half, and probably am about halfway done with it:

Also from Spunky is the May 2012 fiber club – also BFL, in the “Big Bang” colorway. As soon as I saw it I knew I had to spin it, so even though I still have not spun the clubs from December through April, I went to work on the May colorway right away. I’m still in love:

While in Finland I started to get back in touch with my spindles, spinning some of the Falkland mini-braids I bought at the Wild and Wooly Festival in April in Vermont, from The Spun Monkey Fiber Shoppe. I have spun just about half of one package – which is 2.5 mini-braids:

I also spun some of the fluff I received in a Phat Fiber sampler box I bought in February (a mixed box):

There was a spindle in the box that I spun on, but I have to say that the Bosworth spindles and my Golding mini ringspindles I have are so perfectly balanced, that everything else feels like spinning with a boat anchor (including the bigger Golding ringspindles, sadly).

The Monkey socks were knit using handspun, and I still have a lot of it. Rather than make tons more socks from the same yarn, which would probably result in 8 more unmatched socks, I decided to make a Cecilia. I have not gotten very far yet, I’m about 33 rows in:

It has been almost a month since my last post on my crafty goings-on. Since then I have gone to Finland (click for pictures) and Charlotte, and have done a lot of knitting and spinning while on planes, in airports, and generally in the cities themselves.

Tony’s Crooked Little Scarf has gotten bigger, and while it’s not quite finished yet, it is over 32 inches long and you can see that the ball of yarn is getting smaller and smaller:

The scarf is done when I run out of yarn. Next week I fly to Buenos Aires, so I think I will be able to finish the scarf on the plane.

While in North Carolina, I went to some yarn stores, and picked up some Universal Yarn’s Cotton Supreme Batik yarn. I was very excited to find this yarn again, I had found it a few years ago when I was in the Raleigh-Durham area and visited Shuttles Needles and Hooks. It’s very very soft, feels more like a microfiber acrylic than 100% cotton, and was perfect to make a baby sweater out of. So I bought some more for some more baby sweaters….

I bought the cotton batik at YarnHouse, where I bought a skein of ribbon yarn, that made this scarf:

The yarn was difficult to work with, and I’m not in love with the final product, but I am sure there is someone I know who will love it, that I can gift this scarf to.

At Charlotte Yarn I helped my (new) friend Carrie Stokes pick out some yarn for a Mobius shrug, and helped her with the pattern for it – specifically I helped start it. I also got out of my comfort zone and bought some ribbon yarns.

I bought some leopard-print ribbon yarn, to make a scarf for my friend Victoria:

If you look in the middle of the scarf you can see the ribbon itself (there was some left over at the end) and you can see the holes cut into it. I feel like I could re-create this yarn, with 30 meters of wide yarn and a hole punch. This yarn cost $20, and for 30 meters I find that somewhat expensive (although for a whole scarf, it’s totally reasonable). The yarn itself is called “tecido trico”.

Also for $20 I picked up some purple ribbon yarn, which I am making a scarf out of (but it is not done yet):

While in Finland, I bought some amazingly colored sock yarn, from Novita, a Finnish yarn company. I have already made a pair of socks from half of one skein, and I have several more skeins which I think I want to make a Color Affection with. Here are the socks I have made (well, I am *almost* done making):

In this picture I really played with the settings of my camera, and I love how it came out:

Here is the other, completed sock:

I went back and played with the settings, lowering the F-stop as I did for the in-progress sock. I love how this came out:

Compare and contrast the two photos….I think I’m learning how to take some great photos! If you are curious about the pattern, it’s just a regular stockinette sock, with a Sweet Tomato heel, and 2×2 ribbing with an i-cord cast-off for the leg of the sock.

I also finished the Monkey Socks. Here is the 2nd sock:

You probably don’t remember what the first sock looks like, which is OK, here’s the picture I took a while ago of it:

As you can tell, they do not match….but they are from the same yarn! (Superwash Correidale….)

I have been on a bit of a sock kick – I started and completed a pair of socks from Mind’s Eye Yarns, hand-dyed by Lucy. It’s 75% merino, 25% tencel, and they are extremely comfortable socks…again, the pattern is just simple stockinette, with ribbing at the leg, and the Sweet Tomato heel. At $20 for 100g, I can get 2 pairs of socks out of one skein, so it makes me happy:

I have been spinning a fair bit, too. I got some BFL from Spunky Eclectic in the “More Coffee” colorway a while back, and decided a few nights ago to spin on my wheel while I was home. I have spun up about a bobbin and a half, and probably am about halfway done with it:

Also from Spunky is the May 2012 fiber club – also BFL, in the “Big Bang” colorway. As soon as I saw it I knew I had to spin it, so even though I still have not spun the clubs from December through April, I went to work on the May colorway right away. I’m still in love:

While in Finland I started to get back in touch with my spindles, spinning some of the Falkland mini-braids I bought at the Wild and Wooly Festival in April in Vermont, from The Spun Monkey Fiber Shoppe. I have spun just about half of one package – which is 2.5 mini-braids:

I also spun some of the fluff I received in a Phat Fiber sampler box I bought in February (a mixed box):

There was a spindle in the box that I spun on, but I have to say that the Bosworth spindles and my Golding mini ringspindles I have are so perfectly balanced, that everything else feels like spinning with a boat anchor (including the bigger Golding ringspindles, sadly).

The Monkey socks were knit using handspun, and I still have a lot of it. Rather than make tons more socks from the same yarn, which would probably result in 8 more unmatched socks, I decided to make a Cecilia. I have not gotten very far yet, I’m about 33 rows in:

And that’s it! For now. I look forward to making more socks, finishing Tony’s scarf, working more on the Cecilia, and
It has been almost a month since my last post on my crafty goings-on. Since then I have gone to Finland (click for pictures) and Charlotte, North Carolina, to speak at conferences. I bought yarn in both places, and have done a lot of knitting and spinning while on planes, in airports, and generally in the cities themselves.

Tony’s Crooked Little Scarf has gotten bigger, and while it’s not quite finished yet, it is over 32 inches long and you can see that the ball of yarn is getting smaller and smaller:



The scarf is done when I run out of yarn. Next week I fly to Buenos Aires, so I think I will be able to finish the scarf on the plane.

While in North Carolina, I went to some yarn stores, and picked up some Universal Yarn’s Cotton Supreme Batik yarn. I was very excited to find this yarn again, I had found it a few years ago when I was in the Raleigh-Durham area and visited Shuttles Needles and Hooks. It’s very very soft, feels more like a microfiber acrylic than 100% cotton, and was perfect to make a baby sweater out of. So I bought some more for some more baby sweaters….

I bought the cotton batik at YarnHouse, where I bought a skein of ribbon yarn, that made this scarf:

The yarn was difficult to work with, and I’m not in love with the final product, but I am sure there is someone I know who will love it, that I can gift this scarf to.

At Charlotte Yarn I helped my (new) friend Carrie Stokes pick out some yarn for a Mobius shrug, and helped her with the pattern for it – specifically I helped start it. I also got out of my comfort zone and bought some ribbon yarns.

I bought some leopard-print ribbon yarn, to make a scarf for my friend Victoria:

If you look in the middle of the scarf you can see the ribbon itself (there was some left over at the end) and you can see the holes cut into it. I feel like I could re-create this yarn, with 30 meters of wide yarn and a hole punch. This yarn cost $20, and for 30 meters I find that somewhat expensive (although for a whole scarf, it’s totally reasonable). The yarn itself is called “tecido trico”.

Also for $20 I picked up some purple ribbon yarn, which I am making a scarf out of (but it is not done yet):

While in Finland, I bought some amazingly colored sock yarn, from Novita, a Finnish yarn company. I have already made a pair of socks from half of one skein, and I have several more skeins which I think I want to make a Color Affection with. Here are the socks I have made (well, I am *almost* done making):

In this picture I really played with the settings of my camera, and I love how it came out:

Here is the other, completed sock:

I went back and played with the settings, lowering the F-stop as I did for the in-progress sock. I love how this came out:

Compare and contrast the two photos….I think I’m learning how to take some great photos! If you are curious about the pattern, it’s just a regular stockinette sock, with a Sweet Tomato heel, and 2×2 ribbing with an i-cord cast-off for the leg of the sock.

I also finished the Monkey Socks. Here is the 2nd sock:

You probably don’t remember what the first sock looks like, which is OK, here’s the picture I took a while ago of it:

As you can tell, they do not match….but they are from the same yarn! (Superwash Correidale….)

I have been on a bit of a sock kick – I started and completed a pair of socks from Mind’s Eye Yarns, hand-dyed by Lucy. It’s 75% merino, 25% tencel, and they are extremely comfortable socks…again, the pattern is just simple stockinette, with ribbing at the leg, and the Sweet Tomato heel. At $20 for 100g, I can get 2 pairs of socks out of one skein, so it makes me happy:

I have been spinning a fair bit, too. I got some BFL from Spunky Eclectic in the “More Coffee” colorway a while back, and decided a few nights ago to spin on my wheel while I was home. I have spun up about a bobbin and a half, and probably am about halfway done with it:

Also from Spunky is the May 2012 fiber club – also BFL, in the “Big Bang” colorway. As soon as I saw it I knew I had to spin it, so even though I still have not spun the clubs from December through April, I went to work on the May colorway right away. I’m still in love:

While in Finland I started to get back in touch with my spindles, spinning some of the Falkland mini-braids I bought at the Wild and Wooly Festival in April in Vermont, from The Spun Monkey Fiber Shoppe. I have spun just about half of one package – which is 2.5 mini-braids:

I also spun some of the fluff I received in a Phat Fiber sampler box I bought in February (a mixed box):

There was a spindle in the box that I spun on, but I have to say that the Bosworth spindles and my Golding mini ringspindles I have are so perfectly balanced, that everything else feels like spinning with a boat anchor (including the bigger Golding ringspindles, sadly).

The Monkey socks were knit using handspun, and I still have a lot of it. Rather than make tons more socks from the same yarn, which would probably result in 8 more unmatched socks, I decided to make a Cecilia. I have not gotten very far yet, I’m about 33 rows in:

Buenos Aires has a span of a few blocks, more about not too far from the Malabia metro station* where there are many yarn shops, I counted 15, and went into 11 of them before I had to stop. The shops are on Ave. Scalabrini Ortiz just southwest of Ave. Cordoba, towards Ave. Correintes. The Malabia metro station is on the corner of Correintes and Scalabrini Ortiz, which is 1 km away from the corner of Cordoba and Corrientes, and about half that until you see your first yarn shop. There was a small bit of yarn bombing between two of the stores:

Yarn shopping in Buenos Aires is quite different from what I’m used to in the States. The stores all look like this:

The yarn is beautiful, and well-organized, but there’s no signs as to what the yarn is made up of, how much it costs nor the gauge of the yarn. In addition, you’re not supposed to take the yarn out of the bins. If you look at the bottom right of that picture, you’ll see some white yarn and blue yarn that is actually sitting on top of a counter. That counter separates you from the wall, and there are people behind the counter who can help you get what you want.

So it’s very different from the experience I’m used to. I got the feeling that a lot of people knew exactly what they wanted to buy, or walked in and would say “do you have anything made of wool?” I was feeling a bit shy due to the language barrier, so I picked up a Spanish phrase: “solamente mirando” – it means “Just looking”. The people are friendly and willing to help, but I like the yarn buying process to be a solo activity.

There were 2 exceptions to the fact that most stores don’t give any information about their items.: Milana hilados and Yanabey. Milana hilados had tags like this near most of their yarn:

Note that that’s in Argentinian pesos, and at the time, this was less than USD $10 per 100g. Another thing to note is the price is per 100g, not per hank of yarn. You’d ask a sales associate to take the yarn down for you and they’d weigh it and ask you if that was OK (kind of like at the deli counter). Then they give you a slip of paper and you take it to a cash register, where you’re usually helped by someone else. Another interesting thing is that the stores seemed to be staffed by about half men, half women, which is very different from yarn stores in the States, which are probably about 90% staffed by women.

I bought 3 hanks of yarn there, for about $25:

Yanabey had signs like this:

These prices are still in Argentinian pesos, but they’re in kilos. So these prices are $171 for 1 kilo, which is $17.10 for 100g. This is a wall of “seda vegetal”, or “vegetable silk“. By the way, that’s about USD $35 per kilo. So I bought 6 skeins, which was just over a kilo, because the tree which this comes from (ceiba speciosa, or “silk floss tree”) is native to South America, and I haven’t seen “vegetable silk” in the US.

A lot of the stores have the recycled t-shirt yarn, and I bought some at Arte Natural:

BUTTONS!!!

I was thinking I might make a purse from the yarn, like this:

That purse is crocheted, but I’m sure I can come up with a knitted version.

Here’s what I bought from that store:

Here’s a Spanish primer for some important words:
cachemira – cashmere
acrílico – acrylic
lana – wool
seda – silk
alpaca – alpaca
hilo – yarn (plural: hilados)
Also, I found out that cashmerillo is just an acrylic yarn that’s very soft. Don’t be fooled by price, some of the acrylic yarns are *very* expensive, even more expensive than the wool.

I was very excited by the prospect of all these yarn stores, and after these three purchases I was done, and passed by 4 other yarn stores that I didn’t even walk into. In addition, there were at least 2 weaving stores, and another 2 fabric stores. Only one of the yarn stores had fiber to spin, and it looked like combed top, and was somewhat expensive (by US standards).

All in all, I was extremely satisfied by taking a few hours to shop for yarn, but I found the experience quite different from what I’m used to.

* I was instructed by a friend who had visited Buenos Aires to take a taxi to the corner of X and Y. However, I enjoy walking around and public transit, so I noticed the subway stop was not far, and decided to walk a few blocks. To those who are considering what to do, a taxi would have cost about 20 pesos (about USD $5) each way. The subway costs $5 for two rides, but of course is not door to door. Another thing to note about the subway is that it is not the most modern system:

And you will get plenty of people trying to make money – some play music, which you may be used to from other subway systems. Others will go around a subway car, handing out products, and then go around and either collect the product back or collect money. I was handed tissues and Disney books – or at least, they attempted to hand stuff to me, and I refused. It helped that I had knitting in my hands, but I saw them just place stuff on people’s laps if their hands were busy, so don’t just look away, make sure you actually refuse by shaking your head.

Note: I hope this article is helpful! Due to spam reasons, all articles on this site have comments disabled after a short time. If you want to leave feedback, you can tweet @sheeri or e-mail me at awfief at gmail dot com. (replace “at” with @ and “dot com” with .com to get the real e-mail address).
Buenos Aires has a span of a few blocks, side effects not too far from the Malabia metro station* where there are many yarn shops, viagra buy I counted 15, and went into 11 of them before I had to stop. There was a small bit of yarn bombing between two of the stores:

Yarn shopping in Buenos Aires is quite different from what I’m used to in the States. The stores all look like this:

The yarn is beautiful, and well-organized, but there’s no signs as to what the yarn is made up of, how much it costs nor the gauge of the yarn. In addition, you’re not supposed to take the yarn out of the bins. If you look at the bottom right of that picture, you’ll see some white yarn and blue yarn that is actually sitting on top of a counter. That counter separates you from the wall, and there are people behind the counter who can help you get what you want.

So it’s very different from the experience I’m used to. I got the feeling that a lot of people knew exactly what they wanted to buy, or walked in and would say “do you have anything made of wool?” I was feeling a bit shy due to the language barrier, so I picked up a Spanish phrase: “solamente mirando” – it means “Just looking”. The people are friendly and willing to help, but I like the yarn buying process to be a solo activity.

There were 2 exceptions to the fact that most stores don’t give any information about their items.: Milana hilados and Yanabey. Milana hilados had tags like this near most of their yarn:

Note that that’s in Argentinian pesos, and at the time, this was less than USD $10 per 100g. Another thing to note is the price is per 100g, not per hank of yarn. You’d ask a sales associate to take the yarn down for you and they’d weigh it and ask you if that was OK (kind of like at the deli counter). Then they give you a slip of paper and you take it to a cash register, where you’re usually helped by someone else. Another interesting thing is that the stores seemed to be staffed by about half men, half women, which is very different from yarn stores in the States, which are probably about 90% staffed by women.

I bought 3 hanks of yarn there, for about $25:

Yanabey had signs like this:

These prices are still in Argentinian pesos, but they’re in kilos. So these prices are $171 for 1 kilo, which is $17.10 for 100g. This is a wall of “seda vegetal”, or “vegetable silk“. By the way, that’s about USD $35 per kilo. So I bought 6 skeins, which was just over a kilo.

A lot of the stores have the recycled t-shirt yarn, and I bought some at Arte Natural:

BUTTONS!!!

I was thinking I might make a purse from the yarn, like this:

That purse is crocheted, but I’m sure I can come up with a knitted version.

Here’s what I bought from that store:

Here’s a Spanish primer for some important words:
cashmira – cashmere
acrilico – acrylic
lana – wool
seda – silk
alpaca – alpaca
hilo – yarn (plural: hilados)
Also, I found out that cashmerillo is just an acrylic yarn that’s very soft. Don’t be fooled by price, some of the acrylic yarns are *very* expensive, even more expensive than the wool.

I was very excited by the prospect of all these yarn stores, and after these three purchases I was done, and passed by 4 other yarn stores that I didn’t even walk into. In addition, there were at least 2 weaving stores, and another 2 fabric stores. Only one of the yarn stores had fiber to spin, and it looked like combed top, and was somewhat expensive (by US standards).

All in all, I was extremely satisfied by taking a few hours to shop for yarn, but I found the experience quite different from what I’m used to.

* I was instructed by a friend who had visited Buenos Aires to take a taxi to the corner of X and Y. However, I enjoy walking around and public transit, so I noticed the subway stop was not far, and decided to walk a few blocks. To those who are considering what to do, a taxi would have cost about 20 pesos (about USD $5) each way. The subway costs $5 for two rides, but of course is not door to door. Another thing to note about the subway is that it is not the most modern system:
subway car – IMG_0247.JPG

And you will get plenty of people trying to make money – some play music, which you may be used to from other subway systems. Others will go around a subway car, handing out products, and then go around and either collect the product back or collect money. I was handed tissues and Disney books – or at least, they attempted to hand stuff to me, and I refused. It helped that I had knitting in my hands, but I saw them just place stuff on people’s laps if their hands were busy, so don’t just look away, make sure you actually refuse by shaking your head.
Buenos Aires has a span of a few blocks, recipe not too far from the Malabia metro station* where there are many yarn shops, viagra sale I counted 15, web and went into 11 of them before I had to stop. There was a small bit of yarn bombing between two of the stores:

Yarn shopping in Buenos Aires is quite different from what I’m used to in the States. The stores all look like this:

The yarn is beautiful, and well-organized, but there’s no signs as to what the yarn is made up of, how much it costs nor the gauge of the yarn. In addition, you’re not supposed to take the yarn out of the bins. If you look at the bottom right of that picture, you’ll see some white yarn and blue yarn that is actually sitting on top of a counter. That counter separates you from the wall, and there are people behind the counter who can help you get what you want.

So it’s very different from the experience I’m used to. I got the feeling that a lot of people knew exactly what they wanted to buy, or walked in and would say “do you have anything made of wool?” I was feeling a bit shy due to the language barrier, so I picked up a Spanish phrase: “solamente mirando” – it means “Just looking”. The people are friendly and willing to help, but I like the yarn buying process to be a solo activity.

There were 2 exceptions to the fact that most stores don’t give any information about their items.: Milana hilados and Yanabey. Milana hilados had tags like this near most of their yarn:

Note that that’s in Argentinian pesos, and at the time, this was less than USD $10 per 100g. Another thing to note is the price is per 100g, not per hank of yarn. You’d ask a sales associate to take the yarn down for you and they’d weigh it and ask you if that was OK (kind of like at the deli counter). Then they give you a slip of paper and you take it to a cash register, where you’re usually helped by someone else. Another interesting thing is that the stores seemed to be staffed by about half men, half women, which is very different from yarn stores in the States, which are probably about 90% staffed by women.

I bought 3 hanks of yarn there, for about $25:

Yanabey had signs like this:

These prices are still in Argentinian pesos, but they’re in kilos. So these prices are $171 for 1 kilo, which is $17.10 for 100g. This is a wall of “seda vegetal”, or “vegetable silk“. By the way, that’s about USD $35 per kilo. So I bought 6 skeins, which was just over a kilo.

A lot of the stores have the recycled t-shirt yarn, and I bought some at Arte Natural:

BUTTONS!!!

I was thinking I might make a purse from the yarn, like this:

That purse is crocheted, but I’m sure I can come up with a knitted version.

Here’s what I bought from that store:

Here’s a Spanish primer for some important words:
cashmira – cashmere
acrilico – acrylic
lana – wool
seda – silk
alpaca – alpaca
hilo – yarn (plural: hilados)
Also, I found out that cashmerillo is just an acrylic yarn that’s very soft. Don’t be fooled by price, some of the acrylic yarns are *very* expensive, even more expensive than the wool.

I was very excited by the prospect of all these yarn stores, and after these three purchases I was done, and passed by 4 other yarn stores that I didn’t even walk into. In addition, there were at least 2 weaving stores, and another 2 fabric stores. Only one of the yarn stores had fiber to spin, and it looked like combed top, and was somewhat expensive (by US standards).

All in all, I was extremely satisfied by taking a few hours to shop for yarn, but I found the experience quite different from what I’m used to.

* I was instructed by a friend who had visited Buenos Aires to take a taxi to the corner of X and Y. However, I enjoy walking around and public transit, so I noticed the subway stop was not far, and decided to walk a few blocks. To those who are considering what to do, a taxi would have cost about 20 pesos (about USD $5) each way. The subway costs $5 for two rides, but of course is not door to door. Another thing to note about the subway is that it is not the most modern system:

And you will get plenty of people trying to make money – some play music, which you may be used to from other subway systems. Others will go around a subway car, handing out products, and then go around and either collect the product back or collect money. I was handed tissues and Disney books – or at least, they attempted to hand stuff to me, and I refused. It helped that I had knitting in my hands, but I saw them just place stuff on people’s laps if their hands were busy, so don’t just look away, make sure you actually refuse by shaking your head.
It has been almost a month since my last post on my crafty goings-on. Since then I have gone to Finland (click for pictures) and Charlotte, North Carolina, to speak at conferences. I bought yarn in both places, and have done a lot of knitting and spinning while on planes, in airports, and generally in the cities themselves.

Tony’s Crooked Little Scarf has gotten bigger, and while it’s not quite finished yet, it is over 32 inches long and you can see that the ball of yarn is getting smaller and smaller:



The scarf is done when I run out of yarn. Next week I fly to Buenos Aires, so I think I will be able to finish the scarf on the plane.

While in North Carolina, I went to some yarn stores, and picked up some Universal Yarn’s Cotton Supreme Batik yarn. I was very excited to find this yarn again, I had found it a few years ago when I was in the Raleigh-Durham area and visited Shuttles Needles and Hooks. It’s very very soft, feels more like a microfiber acrylic than 100% cotton, and was perfect to make a baby sweater out of. So I bought some more for some more baby sweaters….

I bought the cotton batik at YarnHouse, where I bought a skein of ribbon yarn, that made this scarf:

The yarn was difficult to work with, and I’m not in love with the final product, but I am sure there is someone I know who will love it, that I can gift this scarf to.

At Charlotte Yarn I helped my (new) friend Carrie Stokes pick out some yarn for a Mobius shrug, and helped her with the pattern for it – specifically I helped start it. I also got out of my comfort zone and bought some ribbon yarns.

I bought some leopard-print ribbon yarn, to make a scarf for my friend Victoria:

If you look in the middle of the scarf you can see the ribbon itself (there was some left over at the end) and you can see the holes cut into it. I feel like I could re-create this yarn, with 30 meters of wide yarn and a hole punch. This yarn cost $20, and for 30 meters I find that somewhat expensive (although for a whole scarf, it’s totally reasonable). The yarn itself is called “tecido trico”.

Also for $20 I picked up some purple ribbon yarn, which I am making a scarf out of (but it is not done yet):

While in Finland, I bought some amazingly colored sock yarn, from Novita, a Finnish yarn company. I have already made a pair of socks from half of one skein, and I have several more skeins which I think I want to make a Color Affection with. Here are the socks I have made (well, I am *almost* done making):

In this picture I really played with the settings of my camera, and I love how it came out:

Here is the other, completed sock:

I went back and played with the settings, lowering the F-stop as I did for the in-progress sock. I love how this came out:

Compare and contrast the two photos….I think I’m learning how to take some great photos! If you are curious about the pattern, it’s just a regular stockinette sock, with a Sweet Tomato heel, and 2×2 ribbing with an i-cord cast-off for the leg of the sock.

I also finished the Monkey Socks. Here is the 2nd sock:

You probably don’t remember what the first sock looks like, which is OK, here’s the picture I took a while ago of it:

As you can tell, they do not match….but they are from the same yarn! (Superwash Correidale….)

I have been on a bit of a sock kick – I started and completed a pair of socks from Mind’s Eye Yarns, hand-dyed by Lucy. It’s 75% merino, 25% tencel, and they are extremely comfortable socks…again, the pattern is just simple stockinette, with ribbing at the leg, and the Sweet Tomato heel. At $20 for 100g, I can get 2 pairs of socks out of one skein, so it makes me happy:

I have been spinning a fair bit, too. I got some BFL from Spunky Eclectic in the “More Coffee” colorway a while back, and decided a few nights ago to spin on my wheel while I was home. I have spun up about a bobbin and a half, and probably am about halfway done with it:

Also from Spunky is the May 2012 fiber club – also BFL, in the “Big Bang” colorway. As soon as I saw it I knew I had to spin it, so even though I still have not spun the clubs from December through April, I went to work on the May colorway right away. I’m still in love:

While in Finland I started to get back in touch with my spindles, spinning some of the Falkland mini-braids I bought at the Wild and Wooly Festival in April in Vermont, from The Spun Monkey Fiber Shoppe. I have spun just about half of one package – which is 2.5 mini-braids:

I also spun some of the fluff I received in a Phat Fiber sampler box I bought in February (a mixed box):

There was a spindle in the box that I spun on, but I have to say that the Bosworth spindles and my Golding mini ringspindles I have are so perfectly balanced, that everything else feels like spinning with a boat anchor (including the bigger Golding ringspindles, sadly).

The Monkey socks were knit using handspun, and I still have a lot of it. Rather than make tons more socks from the same yarn, which would probably result in 8 more unmatched socks, I decided to make a Cecilia. I have not gotten very far yet, I’m about 33 rows in:

It has been almost a month since my last post on my crafty goings-on. Since then I have gone to Finland (click for pictures) and Charlotte, and have done a lot of knitting and spinning while on planes, in airports, and generally in the cities themselves.

Tony’s Crooked Little Scarf has gotten bigger, and while it’s not quite finished yet, it is over 32 inches long and you can see that the ball of yarn is getting smaller and smaller:

The scarf is done when I run out of yarn. Next week I fly to Buenos Aires, so I think I will be able to finish the scarf on the plane.

While in North Carolina, I went to some yarn stores, and picked up some Universal Yarn’s Cotton Supreme Batik yarn. I was very excited to find this yarn again, I had found it a few years ago when I was in the Raleigh-Durham area and visited Shuttles Needles and Hooks. It’s very very soft, feels more like a microfiber acrylic than 100% cotton, and was perfect to make a baby sweater out of. So I bought some more for some more baby sweaters….

I bought the cotton batik at YarnHouse, where I bought a skein of ribbon yarn, that made this scarf:

The yarn was difficult to work with, and I’m not in love with the final product, but I am sure there is someone I know who will love it, that I can gift this scarf to.

At Charlotte Yarn I helped my (new) friend Carrie Stokes pick out some yarn for a Mobius shrug, and helped her with the pattern for it – specifically I helped start it. I also got out of my comfort zone and bought some ribbon yarns.

I bought some leopard-print ribbon yarn, to make a scarf for my friend Victoria:

If you look in the middle of the scarf you can see the ribbon itself (there was some left over at the end) and you can see the holes cut into it. I feel like I could re-create this yarn, with 30 meters of wide yarn and a hole punch. This yarn cost $20, and for 30 meters I find that somewhat expensive (although for a whole scarf, it’s totally reasonable). The yarn itself is called “tecido trico”.

Also for $20 I picked up some purple ribbon yarn, which I am making a scarf out of (but it is not done yet):

While in Finland, I bought some amazingly colored sock yarn, from Novita, a Finnish yarn company. I have already made a pair of socks from half of one skein, and I have several more skeins which I think I want to make a Color Affection with. Here are the socks I have made (well, I am *almost* done making):

In this picture I really played with the settings of my camera, and I love how it came out:

Here is the other, completed sock:

I went back and played with the settings, lowering the F-stop as I did for the in-progress sock. I love how this came out:

Compare and contrast the two photos….I think I’m learning how to take some great photos! If you are curious about the pattern, it’s just a regular stockinette sock, with a Sweet Tomato heel, and 2×2 ribbing with an i-cord cast-off for the leg of the sock.

I also finished the Monkey Socks. Here is the 2nd sock:

You probably don’t remember what the first sock looks like, which is OK, here’s the picture I took a while ago of it:

As you can tell, they do not match….but they are from the same yarn! (Superwash Correidale….)

I have been on a bit of a sock kick – I started and completed a pair of socks from Mind’s Eye Yarns, hand-dyed by Lucy. It’s 75% merino, 25% tencel, and they are extremely comfortable socks…again, the pattern is just simple stockinette, with ribbing at the leg, and the Sweet Tomato heel. At $20 for 100g, I can get 2 pairs of socks out of one skein, so it makes me happy:

I have been spinning a fair bit, too. I got some BFL from Spunky Eclectic in the “More Coffee” colorway a while back, and decided a few nights ago to spin on my wheel while I was home. I have spun up about a bobbin and a half, and probably am about halfway done with it:

Also from Spunky is the May 2012 fiber club – also BFL, in the “Big Bang” colorway. As soon as I saw it I knew I had to spin it, so even though I still have not spun the clubs from December through April, I went to work on the May colorway right away. I’m still in love:

While in Finland I started to get back in touch with my spindles, spinning some of the Falkland mini-braids I bought at the Wild and Wooly Festival in April in Vermont, from The Spun Monkey Fiber Shoppe. I have spun just about half of one package – which is 2.5 mini-braids:

I also spun some of the fluff I received in a Phat Fiber sampler box I bought in February (a mixed box):

There was a spindle in the box that I spun on, but I have to say that the Bosworth spindles and my Golding mini ringspindles I have are so perfectly balanced, that everything else feels like spinning with a boat anchor (including the bigger Golding ringspindles, sadly).

The Monkey socks were knit using handspun, and I still have a lot of it. Rather than make tons more socks from the same yarn, which would probably result in 8 more unmatched socks, I decided to make a Cecilia. I have not gotten very far yet, I’m about 33 rows in:

And that’s it! For now. I look forward to making more socks, finishing Tony’s scarf, working more on the Cecilia, and
It has been almost a month since my last post on my crafty goings-on. Since then I have gone to Finland (click for pictures) and Charlotte, North Carolina, to speak at conferences. I bought yarn in both places, and have done a lot of knitting and spinning while on planes, in airports, and generally in the cities themselves.

Tony’s Crooked Little Scarf has gotten bigger, and while it’s not quite finished yet, it is over 32 inches long and you can see that the ball of yarn is getting smaller and smaller:



The scarf is done when I run out of yarn. Next week I fly to Buenos Aires, so I think I will be able to finish the scarf on the plane.

While in North Carolina, I went to some yarn stores, and picked up some Universal Yarn’s Cotton Supreme Batik yarn. I was very excited to find this yarn again, I had found it a few years ago when I was in the Raleigh-Durham area and visited Shuttles Needles and Hooks. It’s very very soft, feels more like a microfiber acrylic than 100% cotton, and was perfect to make a baby sweater out of. So I bought some more for some more baby sweaters….

I bought the cotton batik at YarnHouse, where I bought a skein of ribbon yarn, that made this scarf:

The yarn was difficult to work with, and I’m not in love with the final product, but I am sure there is someone I know who will love it, that I can gift this scarf to.

At Charlotte Yarn I helped my (new) friend Carrie Stokes pick out some yarn for a Mobius shrug, and helped her with the pattern for it – specifically I helped start it. I also got out of my comfort zone and bought some ribbon yarns.

I bought some leopard-print ribbon yarn, to make a scarf for my friend Victoria:

If you look in the middle of the scarf you can see the ribbon itself (there was some left over at the end) and you can see the holes cut into it. I feel like I could re-create this yarn, with 30 meters of wide yarn and a hole punch. This yarn cost $20, and for 30 meters I find that somewhat expensive (although for a whole scarf, it’s totally reasonable). The yarn itself is called “tecido trico”.

Also for $20 I picked up some purple ribbon yarn, which I am making a scarf out of (but it is not done yet):

While in Finland, I bought some amazingly colored sock yarn, from Novita, a Finnish yarn company. I have already made a pair of socks from half of one skein, and I have several more skeins which I think I want to make a Color Affection with. Here are the socks I have made (well, I am *almost* done making):

In this picture I really played with the settings of my camera, and I love how it came out:

Here is the other, completed sock:

I went back and played with the settings, lowering the F-stop as I did for the in-progress sock. I love how this came out:

Compare and contrast the two photos….I think I’m learning how to take some great photos! If you are curious about the pattern, it’s just a regular stockinette sock, with a Sweet Tomato heel, and 2×2 ribbing with an i-cord cast-off for the leg of the sock.

I also finished the Monkey Socks. Here is the 2nd sock:

You probably don’t remember what the first sock looks like, which is OK, here’s the picture I took a while ago of it:

As you can tell, they do not match….but they are from the same yarn! (Superwash Correidale….)

I have been on a bit of a sock kick – I started and completed a pair of socks from Mind’s Eye Yarns, hand-dyed by Lucy. It’s 75% merino, 25% tencel, and they are extremely comfortable socks…again, the pattern is just simple stockinette, with ribbing at the leg, and the Sweet Tomato heel. At $20 for 100g, I can get 2 pairs of socks out of one skein, so it makes me happy:

I have been spinning a fair bit, too. I got some BFL from Spunky Eclectic in the “More Coffee” colorway a while back, and decided a few nights ago to spin on my wheel while I was home. I have spun up about a bobbin and a half, and probably am about halfway done with it:

Also from Spunky is the May 2012 fiber club – also BFL, in the “Big Bang” colorway. As soon as I saw it I knew I had to spin it, so even though I still have not spun the clubs from December through April, I went to work on the May colorway right away. I’m still in love:

While in Finland I started to get back in touch with my spindles, spinning some of the Falkland mini-braids I bought at the Wild and Wooly Festival in April in Vermont, from The Spun Monkey Fiber Shoppe. I have spun just about half of one package – which is 2.5 mini-braids:

I also spun some of the fluff I received in a Phat Fiber sampler box I bought in February (a mixed box):

There was a spindle in the box that I spun on, but I have to say that the Bosworth spindles and my Golding mini ringspindles I have are so perfectly balanced, that everything else feels like spinning with a boat anchor (including the bigger Golding ringspindles, sadly).

The Monkey socks were knit using handspun, and I still have a lot of it. Rather than make tons more socks from the same yarn, which would probably result in 8 more unmatched socks, I decided to make a Cecilia. I have not gotten very far yet, I’m about 33 rows in:

Buenos Aires has a span of a few blocks, more about not too far from the Malabia metro station* where there are many yarn shops, I counted 15, and went into 11 of them before I had to stop. The shops are on Ave. Scalabrini Ortiz just southwest of Ave. Cordoba, towards Ave. Correintes. The Malabia metro station is on the corner of Correintes and Scalabrini Ortiz, which is 1 km away from the corner of Cordoba and Corrientes, and about half that until you see your first yarn shop. There was a small bit of yarn bombing between two of the stores:

Yarn shopping in Buenos Aires is quite different from what I’m used to in the States. The stores all look like this:

The yarn is beautiful, and well-organized, but there’s no signs as to what the yarn is made up of, how much it costs nor the gauge of the yarn. In addition, you’re not supposed to take the yarn out of the bins. If you look at the bottom right of that picture, you’ll see some white yarn and blue yarn that is actually sitting on top of a counter. That counter separates you from the wall, and there are people behind the counter who can help you get what you want.

So it’s very different from the experience I’m used to. I got the feeling that a lot of people knew exactly what they wanted to buy, or walked in and would say “do you have anything made of wool?” I was feeling a bit shy due to the language barrier, so I picked up a Spanish phrase: “solamente mirando” – it means “Just looking”. The people are friendly and willing to help, but I like the yarn buying process to be a solo activity.

There were 2 exceptions to the fact that most stores don’t give any information about their items.: Milana hilados and Yanabey. Milana hilados had tags like this near most of their yarn:

Note that that’s in Argentinian pesos, and at the time, this was less than USD $10 per 100g. Another thing to note is the price is per 100g, not per hank of yarn. You’d ask a sales associate to take the yarn down for you and they’d weigh it and ask you if that was OK (kind of like at the deli counter). Then they give you a slip of paper and you take it to a cash register, where you’re usually helped by someone else. Another interesting thing is that the stores seemed to be staffed by about half men, half women, which is very different from yarn stores in the States, which are probably about 90% staffed by women.

I bought 3 hanks of yarn there, for about $25:

Yanabey had signs like this:

These prices are still in Argentinian pesos, but they’re in kilos. So these prices are $171 for 1 kilo, which is $17.10 for 100g. This is a wall of “seda vegetal”, or “vegetable silk“. By the way, that’s about USD $35 per kilo. So I bought 6 skeins, which was just over a kilo, because the tree which this comes from (ceiba speciosa, or “silk floss tree”) is native to South America, and I haven’t seen “vegetable silk” in the US.

A lot of the stores have the recycled t-shirt yarn, and I bought some at Arte Natural:

BUTTONS!!!

I was thinking I might make a purse from the yarn, like this:

That purse is crocheted, but I’m sure I can come up with a knitted version.

Here’s what I bought from that store:

Here’s a Spanish primer for some important words:
cachemira – cashmere
acrílico – acrylic
lana – wool
seda – silk
alpaca – alpaca
hilo – yarn (plural: hilados)
Also, I found out that cashmerillo is just an acrylic yarn that’s very soft. Don’t be fooled by price, some of the acrylic yarns are *very* expensive, even more expensive than the wool.

I was very excited by the prospect of all these yarn stores, and after these three purchases I was done, and passed by 4 other yarn stores that I didn’t even walk into. In addition, there were at least 2 weaving stores, and another 2 fabric stores. Only one of the yarn stores had fiber to spin, and it looked like combed top, and was somewhat expensive (by US standards).

All in all, I was extremely satisfied by taking a few hours to shop for yarn, but I found the experience quite different from what I’m used to.

* I was instructed by a friend who had visited Buenos Aires to take a taxi to the corner of X and Y. However, I enjoy walking around and public transit, so I noticed the subway stop was not far, and decided to walk a few blocks. To those who are considering what to do, a taxi would have cost about 20 pesos (about USD $5) each way. The subway costs $5 for two rides, but of course is not door to door. Another thing to note about the subway is that it is not the most modern system:

And you will get plenty of people trying to make money – some play music, which you may be used to from other subway systems. Others will go around a subway car, handing out products, and then go around and either collect the product back or collect money. I was handed tissues and Disney books – or at least, they attempted to hand stuff to me, and I refused. It helped that I had knitting in my hands, but I saw them just place stuff on people’s laps if their hands were busy, so don’t just look away, make sure you actually refuse by shaking your head.

Note: I hope this article is helpful! Due to spam reasons, all articles on this site have comments disabled after a short time. If you want to leave feedback, you can tweet @sheeri or e-mail me at awfief at gmail dot com. (replace “at” with @ and “dot com” with .com to get the real e-mail address).
Buenos Aires has a span of a few blocks, side effects not too far from the Malabia metro station* where there are many yarn shops, viagra buy I counted 15, and went into 11 of them before I had to stop. There was a small bit of yarn bombing between two of the stores:

Yarn shopping in Buenos Aires is quite different from what I’m used to in the States. The stores all look like this:

The yarn is beautiful, and well-organized, but there’s no signs as to what the yarn is made up of, how much it costs nor the gauge of the yarn. In addition, you’re not supposed to take the yarn out of the bins. If you look at the bottom right of that picture, you’ll see some white yarn and blue yarn that is actually sitting on top of a counter. That counter separates you from the wall, and there are people behind the counter who can help you get what you want.

So it’s very different from the experience I’m used to. I got the feeling that a lot of people knew exactly what they wanted to buy, or walked in and would say “do you have anything made of wool?” I was feeling a bit shy due to the language barrier, so I picked up a Spanish phrase: “solamente mirando” – it means “Just looking”. The people are friendly and willing to help, but I like the yarn buying process to be a solo activity.

There were 2 exceptions to the fact that most stores don’t give any information about their items.: Milana hilados and Yanabey. Milana hilados had tags like this near most of their yarn:

Note that that’s in Argentinian pesos, and at the time, this was less than USD $10 per 100g. Another thing to note is the price is per 100g, not per hank of yarn. You’d ask a sales associate to take the yarn down for you and they’d weigh it and ask you if that was OK (kind of like at the deli counter). Then they give you a slip of paper and you take it to a cash register, where you’re usually helped by someone else. Another interesting thing is that the stores seemed to be staffed by about half men, half women, which is very different from yarn stores in the States, which are probably about 90% staffed by women.

I bought 3 hanks of yarn there, for about $25:

Yanabey had signs like this:

These prices are still in Argentinian pesos, but they’re in kilos. So these prices are $171 for 1 kilo, which is $17.10 for 100g. This is a wall of “seda vegetal”, or “vegetable silk“. By the way, that’s about USD $35 per kilo. So I bought 6 skeins, which was just over a kilo.

A lot of the stores have the recycled t-shirt yarn, and I bought some at Arte Natural:

BUTTONS!!!

I was thinking I might make a purse from the yarn, like this:

That purse is crocheted, but I’m sure I can come up with a knitted version.

Here’s what I bought from that store:

Here’s a Spanish primer for some important words:
cashmira – cashmere
acrilico – acrylic
lana – wool
seda – silk
alpaca – alpaca
hilo – yarn (plural: hilados)
Also, I found out that cashmerillo is just an acrylic yarn that’s very soft. Don’t be fooled by price, some of the acrylic yarns are *very* expensive, even more expensive than the wool.

I was very excited by the prospect of all these yarn stores, and after these three purchases I was done, and passed by 4 other yarn stores that I didn’t even walk into. In addition, there were at least 2 weaving stores, and another 2 fabric stores. Only one of the yarn stores had fiber to spin, and it looked like combed top, and was somewhat expensive (by US standards).

All in all, I was extremely satisfied by taking a few hours to shop for yarn, but I found the experience quite different from what I’m used to.

* I was instructed by a friend who had visited Buenos Aires to take a taxi to the corner of X and Y. However, I enjoy walking around and public transit, so I noticed the subway stop was not far, and decided to walk a few blocks. To those who are considering what to do, a taxi would have cost about 20 pesos (about USD $5) each way. The subway costs $5 for two rides, but of course is not door to door. Another thing to note about the subway is that it is not the most modern system:
subway car – IMG_0247.JPG

And you will get plenty of people trying to make money – some play music, which you may be used to from other subway systems. Others will go around a subway car, handing out products, and then go around and either collect the product back or collect money. I was handed tissues and Disney books – or at least, they attempted to hand stuff to me, and I refused. It helped that I had knitting in my hands, but I saw them just place stuff on people’s laps if their hands were busy, so don’t just look away, make sure you actually refuse by shaking your head.
Buenos Aires has a span of a few blocks, recipe not too far from the Malabia metro station* where there are many yarn shops, viagra sale I counted 15, web and went into 11 of them before I had to stop. There was a small bit of yarn bombing between two of the stores:

Yarn shopping in Buenos Aires is quite different from what I’m used to in the States. The stores all look like this:

The yarn is beautiful, and well-organized, but there’s no signs as to what the yarn is made up of, how much it costs nor the gauge of the yarn. In addition, you’re not supposed to take the yarn out of the bins. If you look at the bottom right of that picture, you’ll see some white yarn and blue yarn that is actually sitting on top of a counter. That counter separates you from the wall, and there are people behind the counter who can help you get what you want.

So it’s very different from the experience I’m used to. I got the feeling that a lot of people knew exactly what they wanted to buy, or walked in and would say “do you have anything made of wool?” I was feeling a bit shy due to the language barrier, so I picked up a Spanish phrase: “solamente mirando” – it means “Just looking”. The people are friendly and willing to help, but I like the yarn buying process to be a solo activity.

There were 2 exceptions to the fact that most stores don’t give any information about their items.: Milana hilados and Yanabey. Milana hilados had tags like this near most of their yarn:

Note that that’s in Argentinian pesos, and at the time, this was less than USD $10 per 100g. Another thing to note is the price is per 100g, not per hank of yarn. You’d ask a sales associate to take the yarn down for you and they’d weigh it and ask you if that was OK (kind of like at the deli counter). Then they give you a slip of paper and you take it to a cash register, where you’re usually helped by someone else. Another interesting thing is that the stores seemed to be staffed by about half men, half women, which is very different from yarn stores in the States, which are probably about 90% staffed by women.

I bought 3 hanks of yarn there, for about $25:

Yanabey had signs like this:

These prices are still in Argentinian pesos, but they’re in kilos. So these prices are $171 for 1 kilo, which is $17.10 for 100g. This is a wall of “seda vegetal”, or “vegetable silk“. By the way, that’s about USD $35 per kilo. So I bought 6 skeins, which was just over a kilo.

A lot of the stores have the recycled t-shirt yarn, and I bought some at Arte Natural:

BUTTONS!!!

I was thinking I might make a purse from the yarn, like this:

That purse is crocheted, but I’m sure I can come up with a knitted version.

Here’s what I bought from that store:

Here’s a Spanish primer for some important words:
cashmira – cashmere
acrilico – acrylic
lana – wool
seda – silk
alpaca – alpaca
hilo – yarn (plural: hilados)
Also, I found out that cashmerillo is just an acrylic yarn that’s very soft. Don’t be fooled by price, some of the acrylic yarns are *very* expensive, even more expensive than the wool.

I was very excited by the prospect of all these yarn stores, and after these three purchases I was done, and passed by 4 other yarn stores that I didn’t even walk into. In addition, there were at least 2 weaving stores, and another 2 fabric stores. Only one of the yarn stores had fiber to spin, and it looked like combed top, and was somewhat expensive (by US standards).

All in all, I was extremely satisfied by taking a few hours to shop for yarn, but I found the experience quite different from what I’m used to.

* I was instructed by a friend who had visited Buenos Aires to take a taxi to the corner of X and Y. However, I enjoy walking around and public transit, so I noticed the subway stop was not far, and decided to walk a few blocks. To those who are considering what to do, a taxi would have cost about 20 pesos (about USD $5) each way. The subway costs $5 for two rides, but of course is not door to door. Another thing to note about the subway is that it is not the most modern system:

And you will get plenty of people trying to make money – some play music, which you may be used to from other subway systems. Others will go around a subway car, handing out products, and then go around and either collect the product back or collect money. I was handed tissues and Disney books – or at least, they attempted to hand stuff to me, and I refused. It helped that I had knitting in my hands, but I saw them just place stuff on people’s laps if their hands were busy, so don’t just look away, make sure you actually refuse by shaking your head.
Buenos Aires has a span of a few blocks, not too far from the Malabia metro station* where there are many yarn shops, I counted 15, and went into 11 of them before I had to stop. There was a small bit of yarn bombing between two of the stores:

Yarn shopping in Buenos Aires is quite different from what I’m used to in the States. The stores all look like this:

The yarn is beautiful, and well-organized, but there’s no signs as to what the yarn is made up of, how much it costs nor the gauge of the yarn. In addition, you’re not supposed to take the yarn out of the bins. If you look at the bottom right of that picture, you’ll see some white yarn and blue yarn that is actually sitting on top of a counter. That counter separates you from the wall, and there are people behind the counter who can help you get what you want.

So it’s very different from the experience I’m used to. I got the feeling that a lot of people knew exactly what they wanted to buy, or walked in and would say “do you have anything made of wool?” I was feeling a bit shy due to the language barrier, so I picked up a Spanish phrase: “solamente mirando” – it means “Just looking”. The people are friendly and willing to help, but I like the yarn buying process to be a solo activity.

There were 2 exceptions to the fact that most stores don’t give any information about their items.: Milana hilados and Yanabey. Milana hilados had tags like this near most of their yarn:

Note that that’s in Argentinian pesos, and at the time, this was less than USD $10 per 100g. Another thing to note is the price is per 100g, not per hank of yarn. You’d ask a sales associate to take the yarn down for you and they’d weigh it and ask you if that was OK (kind of like at the deli counter). Then they give you a slip of paper and you take it to a cash register, where you’re usually helped by someone else. Another interesting thing is that the stores seemed to be staffed by about half men, half women, which is very different from yarn stores in the States, which are probably about 90% staffed by women.

I bought 3 hanks of yarn there, for about $25:

Yanabey had signs like this:

These prices are still in Argentinian pesos, but they’re in kilos. So these prices are $171 for 1 kilo, which is $17.10 for 100g. This is a wall of “seda vegetal”, or “vegetable silk“. By the way, that’s about USD $35 per kilo. So I bought 6 skeins, which was just over a kilo.

A lot of the stores have the recycled t-shirt yarn, and I bought some at Arte Natural:

BUTTONS!!!

I was thinking I might make a purse from the yarn, like this:

That purse is crocheted, but I’m sure I can come up with a knitted version.

Here’s what I bought from that store:

Here’s a Spanish primer for some important words:
cashmira – cashmere
acrilico – acrylic
lana – wool
seda – silk
alpaca – alpaca
hilo – yarn (plural: hilados)
Also, I found out that cashmerillo is just an acrylic yarn that’s very soft. Don’t be fooled by price, some of the acrylic yarns are *very* expensive, even more expensive than the wool.

I was very excited by the prospect of all these yarn stores, and after these three purchases I was done, and passed by 4 other yarn stores that I didn’t even walk into. In addition, there were at least 2 weaving stores, and another 2 fabric stores. Only one of the yarn stores had fiber to spin, and it looked like combed top, and was somewhat expensive (by US standards).

All in all, I was extremely satisfied by taking a few hours to shop for yarn, but I found the experience quite different from what I’m used to.

* I was instructed by a friend who had visited Buenos Aires to take a taxi to the corner of X and Y. However, I enjoy walking around and public transit, so I noticed the subway stop was not far, and decided to walk a few blocks. To those who are considering what to do, a taxi would have cost about 20 pesos (about USD $5) each way. The subway costs $5 for two rides, but of course is not door to door. Another thing to note about the subway is that it is not the most modern system:

And you will get plenty of people trying to make money – some play music, which you may be used to from other subway systems. Others will go around a subway car, handing out products, and then go around and either collect the product back or collect money. I was handed tissues and Disney books – or at least, they attempted to hand stuff to me, and I refused. It helped that I had knitting in my hands, but I saw them just place stuff on people’s laps if their hands were busy, so don’t just look away, make sure you actually refuse by shaking your head.
It has been almost a month since my last post on my crafty goings-on. Since then I have gone to Finland (click for pictures) and Charlotte, North Carolina, to speak at conferences. I bought yarn in both places, and have done a lot of knitting and spinning while on planes, in airports, and generally in the cities themselves.

Tony’s Crooked Little Scarf has gotten bigger, and while it’s not quite finished yet, it is over 32 inches long and you can see that the ball of yarn is getting smaller and smaller:



The scarf is done when I run out of yarn. Next week I fly to Buenos Aires, so I think I will be able to finish the scarf on the plane.

While in North Carolina, I went to some yarn stores, and picked up some Universal Yarn’s Cotton Supreme Batik yarn. I was very excited to find this yarn again, I had found it a few years ago when I was in the Raleigh-Durham area and visited Shuttles Needles and Hooks. It’s very very soft, feels more like a microfiber acrylic than 100% cotton, and was perfect to make a baby sweater out of. So I bought some more for some more baby sweaters….

I bought the cotton batik at YarnHouse, where I bought a skein of ribbon yarn, that made this scarf:

The yarn was difficult to work with, and I’m not in love with the final product, but I am sure there is someone I know who will love it, that I can gift this scarf to.

At Charlotte Yarn I helped my (new) friend Carrie Stokes pick out some yarn for a Mobius shrug, and helped her with the pattern for it – specifically I helped start it. I also got out of my comfort zone and bought some ribbon yarns.

I bought some leopard-print ribbon yarn, to make a scarf for my friend Victoria:

If you look in the middle of the scarf you can see the ribbon itself (there was some left over at the end) and you can see the holes cut into it. I feel like I could re-create this yarn, with 30 meters of wide yarn and a hole punch. This yarn cost $20, and for 30 meters I find that somewhat expensive (although for a whole scarf, it’s totally reasonable). The yarn itself is called “tecido trico”.

Also for $20 I picked up some purple ribbon yarn, which I am making a scarf out of (but it is not done yet):

While in Finland, I bought some amazingly colored sock yarn, from Novita, a Finnish yarn company. I have already made a pair of socks from half of one skein, and I have several more skeins which I think I want to make a Color Affection with. Here are the socks I have made (well, I am *almost* done making):

In this picture I really played with the settings of my camera, and I love how it came out:

Here is the other, completed sock:

I went back and played with the settings, lowering the F-stop as I did for the in-progress sock. I love how this came out:

Compare and contrast the two photos….I think I’m learning how to take some great photos! If you are curious about the pattern, it’s just a regular stockinette sock, with a Sweet Tomato heel, and 2×2 ribbing with an i-cord cast-off for the leg of the sock.

I also finished the Monkey Socks. Here is the 2nd sock:

You probably don’t remember what the first sock looks like, which is OK, here’s the picture I took a while ago of it:

As you can tell, they do not match….but they are from the same yarn! (Superwash Correidale….)

I have been on a bit of a sock kick – I started and completed a pair of socks from Mind’s Eye Yarns, hand-dyed by Lucy. It’s 75% merino, 25% tencel, and they are extremely comfortable socks…again, the pattern is just simple stockinette, with ribbing at the leg, and the Sweet Tomato heel. At $20 for 100g, I can get 2 pairs of socks out of one skein, so it makes me happy:

I have been spinning a fair bit, too. I got some BFL from Spunky Eclectic in the “More Coffee” colorway a while back, and decided a few nights ago to spin on my wheel while I was home. I have spun up about a bobbin and a half, and probably am about halfway done with it:

Also from Spunky is the May 2012 fiber club – also BFL, in the “Big Bang” colorway. As soon as I saw it I knew I had to spin it, so even though I still have not spun the clubs from December through April, I went to work on the May colorway right away. I’m still in love:

While in Finland I started to get back in touch with my spindles, spinning some of the Falkland mini-braids I bought at the Wild and Wooly Festival in April in Vermont, from The Spun Monkey Fiber Shoppe. I have spun just about half of one package – which is 2.5 mini-braids:

I also spun some of the fluff I received in a Phat Fiber sampler box I bought in February (a mixed box):

There was a spindle in the box that I spun on, but I have to say that the Bosworth spindles and my Golding mini ringspindles I have are so perfectly balanced, that everything else feels like spinning with a boat anchor (including the bigger Golding ringspindles, sadly).

The Monkey socks were knit using handspun, and I still have a lot of it. Rather than make tons more socks from the same yarn, which would probably result in 8 more unmatched socks, I decided to make a Cecilia. I have not gotten very far yet, I’m about 33 rows in:

It has been almost a month since my last post on my crafty goings-on. Since then I have gone to Finland (click for pictures) and Charlotte, and have done a lot of knitting and spinning while on planes, in airports, and generally in the cities themselves.

Tony’s Crooked Little Scarf has gotten bigger, and while it’s not quite finished yet, it is over 32 inches long and you can see that the ball of yarn is getting smaller and smaller:

The scarf is done when I run out of yarn. Next week I fly to Buenos Aires, so I think I will be able to finish the scarf on the plane.

While in North Carolina, I went to some yarn stores, and picked up some Universal Yarn’s Cotton Supreme Batik yarn. I was very excited to find this yarn again, I had found it a few years ago when I was in the Raleigh-Durham area and visited Shuttles Needles and Hooks. It’s very very soft, feels more like a microfiber acrylic than 100% cotton, and was perfect to make a baby sweater out of. So I bought some more for some more baby sweaters….

I bought the cotton batik at YarnHouse, where I bought a skein of ribbon yarn, that made this scarf:

The yarn was difficult to work with, and I’m not in love with the final product, but I am sure there is someone I know who will love it, that I can gift this scarf to.

At Charlotte Yarn I helped my (new) friend Carrie Stokes pick out some yarn for a Mobius shrug, and helped her with the pattern for it – specifically I helped start it. I also got out of my comfort zone and bought some ribbon yarns.

I bought some leopard-print ribbon yarn, to make a scarf for my friend Victoria:

If you look in the middle of the scarf you can see the ribbon itself (there was some left over at the end) and you can see the holes cut into it. I feel like I could re-create this yarn, with 30 meters of wide yarn and a hole punch. This yarn cost $20, and for 30 meters I find that somewhat expensive (although for a whole scarf, it’s totally reasonable). The yarn itself is called “tecido trico”.

Also for $20 I picked up some purple ribbon yarn, which I am making a scarf out of (but it is not done yet):

While in Finland, I bought some amazingly colored sock yarn, from Novita, a Finnish yarn company. I have already made a pair of socks from half of one skein, and I have several more skeins which I think I want to make a Color Affection with. Here are the socks I have made (well, I am *almost* done making):

In this picture I really played with the settings of my camera, and I love how it came out:

Here is the other, completed sock:

I went back and played with the settings, lowering the F-stop as I did for the in-progress sock. I love how this came out:

Compare and contrast the two photos….I think I’m learning how to take some great photos! If you are curious about the pattern, it’s just a regular stockinette sock, with a Sweet Tomato heel, and 2×2 ribbing with an i-cord cast-off for the leg of the sock.

I also finished the Monkey Socks. Here is the 2nd sock:

You probably don’t remember what the first sock looks like, which is OK, here’s the picture I took a while ago of it:

As you can tell, they do not match….but they are from the same yarn! (Superwash Correidale….)

I have been on a bit of a sock kick – I started and completed a pair of socks from Mind’s Eye Yarns, hand-dyed by Lucy. It’s 75% merino, 25% tencel, and they are extremely comfortable socks…again, the pattern is just simple stockinette, with ribbing at the leg, and the Sweet Tomato heel. At $20 for 100g, I can get 2 pairs of socks out of one skein, so it makes me happy:

I have been spinning a fair bit, too. I got some BFL from Spunky Eclectic in the “More Coffee” colorway a while back, and decided a few nights ago to spin on my wheel while I was home. I have spun up about a bobbin and a half, and probably am about halfway done with it:

Also from Spunky is the May 2012 fiber club – also BFL, in the “Big Bang” colorway. As soon as I saw it I knew I had to spin it, so even though I still have not spun the clubs from December through April, I went to work on the May colorway right away. I’m still in love:

While in Finland I started to get back in touch with my spindles, spinning some of the Falkland mini-braids I bought at the Wild and Wooly Festival in April in Vermont, from The Spun Monkey Fiber Shoppe. I have spun just about half of one package – which is 2.5 mini-braids:

I also spun some of the fluff I received in a Phat Fiber sampler box I bought in February (a mixed box):

There was a spindle in the box that I spun on, but I have to say that the Bosworth spindles and my Golding mini ringspindles I have are so perfectly balanced, that everything else feels like spinning with a boat anchor (including the bigger Golding ringspindles, sadly).

The Monkey socks were knit using handspun, and I still have a lot of it. Rather than make tons more socks from the same yarn, which would probably result in 8 more unmatched socks, I decided to make a Cecilia. I have not gotten very far yet, I’m about 33 rows in:

And that’s it! For now. I look forward to making more socks, finishing Tony’s scarf, working more on the Cecilia, and
It has been almost a month since my last post on my crafty goings-on. Since then I have gone to Finland (click for pictures) and Charlotte, North Carolina, to speak at conferences. I bought yarn in both places, and have done a lot of knitting and spinning while on planes, in airports, and generally in the cities themselves.

Tony’s Crooked Little Scarf has gotten bigger, and while it’s not quite finished yet, it is over 32 inches long and you can see that the ball of yarn is getting smaller and smaller:



The scarf is done when I run out of yarn. Next week I fly to Buenos Aires, so I think I will be able to finish the scarf on the plane.

While in North Carolina, I went to some yarn stores, and picked up some Universal Yarn’s Cotton Supreme Batik yarn. I was very excited to find this yarn again, I had found it a few years ago when I was in the Raleigh-Durham area and visited Shuttles Needles and Hooks. It’s very very soft, feels more like a microfiber acrylic than 100% cotton, and was perfect to make a baby sweater out of. So I bought some more for some more baby sweaters….

I bought the cotton batik at YarnHouse, where I bought a skein of ribbon yarn, that made this scarf:

The yarn was difficult to work with, and I’m not in love with the final product, but I am sure there is someone I know who will love it, that I can gift this scarf to.

At Charlotte Yarn I helped my (new) friend Carrie Stokes pick out some yarn for a Mobius shrug, and helped her with the pattern for it – specifically I helped start it. I also got out of my comfort zone and bought some ribbon yarns.

I bought some leopard-print ribbon yarn, to make a scarf for my friend Victoria:

If you look in the middle of the scarf you can see the ribbon itself (there was some left over at the end) and you can see the holes cut into it. I feel like I could re-create this yarn, with 30 meters of wide yarn and a hole punch. This yarn cost $20, and for 30 meters I find that somewhat expensive (although for a whole scarf, it’s totally reasonable). The yarn itself is called “tecido trico”.

Also for $20 I picked up some purple ribbon yarn, which I am making a scarf out of (but it is not done yet):

While in Finland, I bought some amazingly colored sock yarn, from Novita, a Finnish yarn company. I have already made a pair of socks from half of one skein, and I have several more skeins which I think I want to make a Color Affection with. Here are the socks I have made (well, I am *almost* done making):

In this picture I really played with the settings of my camera, and I love how it came out:

Here is the other, completed sock:

I went back and played with the settings, lowering the F-stop as I did for the in-progress sock. I love how this came out:

Compare and contrast the two photos….I think I’m learning how to take some great photos! If you are curious about the pattern, it’s just a regular stockinette sock, with a Sweet Tomato heel, and 2×2 ribbing with an i-cord cast-off for the leg of the sock.

I also finished the Monkey Socks. Here is the 2nd sock:

You probably don’t remember what the first sock looks like, which is OK, here’s the picture I took a while ago of it:

As you can tell, they do not match….but they are from the same yarn! (Superwash Correidale….)

I have been on a bit of a sock kick – I started and completed a pair of socks from Mind’s Eye Yarns, hand-dyed by Lucy. It’s 75% merino, 25% tencel, and they are extremely comfortable socks…again, the pattern is just simple stockinette, with ribbing at the leg, and the Sweet Tomato heel. At $20 for 100g, I can get 2 pairs of socks out of one skein, so it makes me happy:

I have been spinning a fair bit, too. I got some BFL from Spunky Eclectic in the “More Coffee” colorway a while back, and decided a few nights ago to spin on my wheel while I was home. I have spun up about a bobbin and a half, and probably am about halfway done with it:

Also from Spunky is the May 2012 fiber club – also BFL, in the “Big Bang” colorway. As soon as I saw it I knew I had to spin it, so even though I still have not spun the clubs from December through April, I went to work on the May colorway right away. I’m still in love:

While in Finland I started to get back in touch with my spindles, spinning some of the Falkland mini-braids I bought at the Wild and Wooly Festival in April in Vermont, from The Spun Monkey Fiber Shoppe. I have spun just about half of one package – which is 2.5 mini-braids:

I also spun some of the fluff I received in a Phat Fiber sampler box I bought in February (a mixed box):

There was a spindle in the box that I spun on, but I have to say that the Bosworth spindles and my Golding mini ringspindles I have are so perfectly balanced, that everything else feels like spinning with a boat anchor (including the bigger Golding ringspindles, sadly).

The Monkey socks were knit using handspun, and I still have a lot of it. Rather than make tons more socks from the same yarn, which would probably result in 8 more unmatched socks, I decided to make a Cecilia. I have not gotten very far yet, I’m about 33 rows in:

Buenos Aires has a span of a few blocks, more about not too far from the Malabia metro station* where there are many yarn shops, I counted 15, and went into 11 of them before I had to stop. The shops are on Ave. Scalabrini Ortiz just southwest of Ave. Cordoba, towards Ave. Correintes. The Malabia metro station is on the corner of Correintes and Scalabrini Ortiz, which is 1 km away from the corner of Cordoba and Corrientes, and about half that until you see your first yarn shop. There was a small bit of yarn bombing between two of the stores:

Yarn shopping in Buenos Aires is quite different from what I’m used to in the States. The stores all look like this:

The yarn is beautiful, and well-organized, but there’s no signs as to what the yarn is made up of, how much it costs nor the gauge of the yarn. In addition, you’re not supposed to take the yarn out of the bins. If you look at the bottom right of that picture, you’ll see some white yarn and blue yarn that is actually sitting on top of a counter. That counter separates you from the wall, and there are people behind the counter who can help you get what you want.

So it’s very different from the experience I’m used to. I got the feeling that a lot of people knew exactly what they wanted to buy, or walked in and would say “do you have anything made of wool?” I was feeling a bit shy due to the language barrier, so I picked up a Spanish phrase: “solamente mirando” – it means “Just looking”. The people are friendly and willing to help, but I like the yarn buying process to be a solo activity.

There were 2 exceptions to the fact that most stores don’t give any information about their items.: Milana hilados and Yanabey. Milana hilados had tags like this near most of their yarn:

Note that that’s in Argentinian pesos, and at the time, this was less than USD $10 per 100g. Another thing to note is the price is per 100g, not per hank of yarn. You’d ask a sales associate to take the yarn down for you and they’d weigh it and ask you if that was OK (kind of like at the deli counter). Then they give you a slip of paper and you take it to a cash register, where you’re usually helped by someone else. Another interesting thing is that the stores seemed to be staffed by about half men, half women, which is very different from yarn stores in the States, which are probably about 90% staffed by women.

I bought 3 hanks of yarn there, for about $25:

Yanabey had signs like this:

These prices are still in Argentinian pesos, but they’re in kilos. So these prices are $171 for 1 kilo, which is $17.10 for 100g. This is a wall of “seda vegetal”, or “vegetable silk“. By the way, that’s about USD $35 per kilo. So I bought 6 skeins, which was just over a kilo, because the tree which this comes from (ceiba speciosa, or “silk floss tree”) is native to South America, and I haven’t seen “vegetable silk” in the US.

A lot of the stores have the recycled t-shirt yarn, and I bought some at Arte Natural:

BUTTONS!!!

I was thinking I might make a purse from the yarn, like this:

That purse is crocheted, but I’m sure I can come up with a knitted version.

Here’s what I bought from that store:

Here’s a Spanish primer for some important words:
cachemira – cashmere
acrílico – acrylic
lana – wool
seda – silk
alpaca – alpaca
hilo – yarn (plural: hilados)
Also, I found out that cashmerillo is just an acrylic yarn that’s very soft. Don’t be fooled by price, some of the acrylic yarns are *very* expensive, even more expensive than the wool.

I was very excited by the prospect of all these yarn stores, and after these three purchases I was done, and passed by 4 other yarn stores that I didn’t even walk into. In addition, there were at least 2 weaving stores, and another 2 fabric stores. Only one of the yarn stores had fiber to spin, and it looked like combed top, and was somewhat expensive (by US standards).

All in all, I was extremely satisfied by taking a few hours to shop for yarn, but I found the experience quite different from what I’m used to.

* I was instructed by a friend who had visited Buenos Aires to take a taxi to the corner of X and Y. However, I enjoy walking around and public transit, so I noticed the subway stop was not far, and decided to walk a few blocks. To those who are considering what to do, a taxi would have cost about 20 pesos (about USD $5) each way. The subway costs $5 for two rides, but of course is not door to door. Another thing to note about the subway is that it is not the most modern system:

And you will get plenty of people trying to make money – some play music, which you may be used to from other subway systems. Others will go around a subway car, handing out products, and then go around and either collect the product back or collect money. I was handed tissues and Disney books – or at least, they attempted to hand stuff to me, and I refused. It helped that I had knitting in my hands, but I saw them just place stuff on people’s laps if their hands were busy, so don’t just look away, make sure you actually refuse by shaking your head.

Note: I hope this article is helpful! Due to spam reasons, all articles on this site have comments disabled after a short time. If you want to leave feedback, you can tweet @sheeri or e-mail me at awfief at gmail dot com. (replace “at” with @ and “dot com” with .com to get the real e-mail address).
Buenos Aires has a span of a few blocks, side effects not too far from the Malabia metro station* where there are many yarn shops, viagra buy I counted 15, and went into 11 of them before I had to stop. There was a small bit of yarn bombing between two of the stores:

Yarn shopping in Buenos Aires is quite different from what I’m used to in the States. The stores all look like this:

The yarn is beautiful, and well-organized, but there’s no signs as to what the yarn is made up of, how much it costs nor the gauge of the yarn. In addition, you’re not supposed to take the yarn out of the bins. If you look at the bottom right of that picture, you’ll see some white yarn and blue yarn that is actually sitting on top of a counter. That counter separates you from the wall, and there are people behind the counter who can help you get what you want.

So it’s very different from the experience I’m used to. I got the feeling that a lot of people knew exactly what they wanted to buy, or walked in and would say “do you have anything made of wool?” I was feeling a bit shy due to the language barrier, so I picked up a Spanish phrase: “solamente mirando” – it means “Just looking”. The people are friendly and willing to help, but I like the yarn buying process to be a solo activity.

There were 2 exceptions to the fact that most stores don’t give any information about their items.: Milana hilados and Yanabey. Milana hilados had tags like this near most of their yarn:

Note that that’s in Argentinian pesos, and at the time, this was less than USD $10 per 100g. Another thing to note is the price is per 100g, not per hank of yarn. You’d ask a sales associate to take the yarn down for you and they’d weigh it and ask you if that was OK (kind of like at the deli counter). Then they give you a slip of paper and you take it to a cash register, where you’re usually helped by someone else. Another interesting thing is that the stores seemed to be staffed by about half men, half women, which is very different from yarn stores in the States, which are probably about 90% staffed by women.

I bought 3 hanks of yarn there, for about $25:

Yanabey had signs like this:

These prices are still in Argentinian pesos, but they’re in kilos. So these prices are $171 for 1 kilo, which is $17.10 for 100g. This is a wall of “seda vegetal”, or “vegetable silk“. By the way, that’s about USD $35 per kilo. So I bought 6 skeins, which was just over a kilo.

A lot of the stores have the recycled t-shirt yarn, and I bought some at Arte Natural:

BUTTONS!!!

I was thinking I might make a purse from the yarn, like this:

That purse is crocheted, but I’m sure I can come up with a knitted version.

Here’s what I bought from that store:

Here’s a Spanish primer for some important words:
cashmira – cashmere
acrilico – acrylic
lana – wool
seda – silk
alpaca – alpaca
hilo – yarn (plural: hilados)
Also, I found out that cashmerillo is just an acrylic yarn that’s very soft. Don’t be fooled by price, some of the acrylic yarns are *very* expensive, even more expensive than the wool.

I was very excited by the prospect of all these yarn stores, and after these three purchases I was done, and passed by 4 other yarn stores that I didn’t even walk into. In addition, there were at least 2 weaving stores, and another 2 fabric stores. Only one of the yarn stores had fiber to spin, and it looked like combed top, and was somewhat expensive (by US standards).

All in all, I was extremely satisfied by taking a few hours to shop for yarn, but I found the experience quite different from what I’m used to.

* I was instructed by a friend who had visited Buenos Aires to take a taxi to the corner of X and Y. However, I enjoy walking around and public transit, so I noticed the subway stop was not far, and decided to walk a few blocks. To those who are considering what to do, a taxi would have cost about 20 pesos (about USD $5) each way. The subway costs $5 for two rides, but of course is not door to door. Another thing to note about the subway is that it is not the most modern system:
subway car – IMG_0247.JPG

And you will get plenty of people trying to make money – some play music, which you may be used to from other subway systems. Others will go around a subway car, handing out products, and then go around and either collect the product back or collect money. I was handed tissues and Disney books – or at least, they attempted to hand stuff to me, and I refused. It helped that I had knitting in my hands, but I saw them just place stuff on people’s laps if their hands were busy, so don’t just look away, make sure you actually refuse by shaking your head.
Buenos Aires has a span of a few blocks, recipe not too far from the Malabia metro station* where there are many yarn shops, viagra sale I counted 15, web and went into 11 of them before I had to stop. There was a small bit of yarn bombing between two of the stores:

Yarn shopping in Buenos Aires is quite different from what I’m used to in the States. The stores all look like this:

The yarn is beautiful, and well-organized, but there’s no signs as to what the yarn is made up of, how much it costs nor the gauge of the yarn. In addition, you’re not supposed to take the yarn out of the bins. If you look at the bottom right of that picture, you’ll see some white yarn and blue yarn that is actually sitting on top of a counter. That counter separates you from the wall, and there are people behind the counter who can help you get what you want.

So it’s very different from the experience I’m used to. I got the feeling that a lot of people knew exactly what they wanted to buy, or walked in and would say “do you have anything made of wool?” I was feeling a bit shy due to the language barrier, so I picked up a Spanish phrase: “solamente mirando” – it means “Just looking”. The people are friendly and willing to help, but I like the yarn buying process to be a solo activity.

There were 2 exceptions to the fact that most stores don’t give any information about their items.: Milana hilados and Yanabey. Milana hilados had tags like this near most of their yarn:

Note that that’s in Argentinian pesos, and at the time, this was less than USD $10 per 100g. Another thing to note is the price is per 100g, not per hank of yarn. You’d ask a sales associate to take the yarn down for you and they’d weigh it and ask you if that was OK (kind of like at the deli counter). Then they give you a slip of paper and you take it to a cash register, where you’re usually helped by someone else. Another interesting thing is that the stores seemed to be staffed by about half men, half women, which is very different from yarn stores in the States, which are probably about 90% staffed by women.

I bought 3 hanks of yarn there, for about $25:

Yanabey had signs like this:

These prices are still in Argentinian pesos, but they’re in kilos. So these prices are $171 for 1 kilo, which is $17.10 for 100g. This is a wall of “seda vegetal”, or “vegetable silk“. By the way, that’s about USD $35 per kilo. So I bought 6 skeins, which was just over a kilo.

A lot of the stores have the recycled t-shirt yarn, and I bought some at Arte Natural:

BUTTONS!!!

I was thinking I might make a purse from the yarn, like this:

That purse is crocheted, but I’m sure I can come up with a knitted version.

Here’s what I bought from that store:

Here’s a Spanish primer for some important words:
cashmira – cashmere
acrilico – acrylic
lana – wool
seda – silk
alpaca – alpaca
hilo – yarn (plural: hilados)
Also, I found out that cashmerillo is just an acrylic yarn that’s very soft. Don’t be fooled by price, some of the acrylic yarns are *very* expensive, even more expensive than the wool.

I was very excited by the prospect of all these yarn stores, and after these three purchases I was done, and passed by 4 other yarn stores that I didn’t even walk into. In addition, there were at least 2 weaving stores, and another 2 fabric stores. Only one of the yarn stores had fiber to spin, and it looked like combed top, and was somewhat expensive (by US standards).

All in all, I was extremely satisfied by taking a few hours to shop for yarn, but I found the experience quite different from what I’m used to.

* I was instructed by a friend who had visited Buenos Aires to take a taxi to the corner of X and Y. However, I enjoy walking around and public transit, so I noticed the subway stop was not far, and decided to walk a few blocks. To those who are considering what to do, a taxi would have cost about 20 pesos (about USD $5) each way. The subway costs $5 for two rides, but of course is not door to door. Another thing to note about the subway is that it is not the most modern system:

And you will get plenty of people trying to make money – some play music, which you may be used to from other subway systems. Others will go around a subway car, handing out products, and then go around and either collect the product back or collect money. I was handed tissues and Disney books – or at least, they attempted to hand stuff to me, and I refused. It helped that I had knitting in my hands, but I saw them just place stuff on people’s laps if their hands were busy, so don’t just look away, make sure you actually refuse by shaking your head.
Buenos Aires has a span of a few blocks, not too far from the Malabia metro station* where there are many yarn shops, I counted 15, and went into 11 of them before I had to stop. There was a small bit of yarn bombing between two of the stores:

Yarn shopping in Buenos Aires is quite different from what I’m used to in the States. The stores all look like this:

The yarn is beautiful, and well-organized, but there’s no signs as to what the yarn is made up of, how much it costs nor the gauge of the yarn. In addition, you’re not supposed to take the yarn out of the bins. If you look at the bottom right of that picture, you’ll see some white yarn and blue yarn that is actually sitting on top of a counter. That counter separates you from the wall, and there are people behind the counter who can help you get what you want.

So it’s very different from the experience I’m used to. I got the feeling that a lot of people knew exactly what they wanted to buy, or walked in and would say “do you have anything made of wool?” I was feeling a bit shy due to the language barrier, so I picked up a Spanish phrase: “solamente mirando” – it means “Just looking”. The people are friendly and willing to help, but I like the yarn buying process to be a solo activity.

There were 2 exceptions to the fact that most stores don’t give any information about their items.: Milana hilados and Yanabey. Milana hilados had tags like this near most of their yarn:

Note that that’s in Argentinian pesos, and at the time, this was less than USD $10 per 100g. Another thing to note is the price is per 100g, not per hank of yarn. You’d ask a sales associate to take the yarn down for you and they’d weigh it and ask you if that was OK (kind of like at the deli counter). Then they give you a slip of paper and you take it to a cash register, where you’re usually helped by someone else. Another interesting thing is that the stores seemed to be staffed by about half men, half women, which is very different from yarn stores in the States, which are probably about 90% staffed by women.

I bought 3 hanks of yarn there, for about $25:

Yanabey had signs like this:

These prices are still in Argentinian pesos, but they’re in kilos. So these prices are $171 for 1 kilo, which is $17.10 for 100g. This is a wall of “seda vegetal”, or “vegetable silk“. By the way, that’s about USD $35 per kilo. So I bought 6 skeins, which was just over a kilo.

A lot of the stores have the recycled t-shirt yarn, and I bought some at Arte Natural:

BUTTONS!!!

I was thinking I might make a purse from the yarn, like this:

That purse is crocheted, but I’m sure I can come up with a knitted version.

Here’s what I bought from that store:

Here’s a Spanish primer for some important words:
cashmira – cashmere
acrilico – acrylic
lana – wool
seda – silk
alpaca – alpaca
hilo – yarn (plural: hilados)
Also, I found out that cashmerillo is just an acrylic yarn that’s very soft. Don’t be fooled by price, some of the acrylic yarns are *very* expensive, even more expensive than the wool.

I was very excited by the prospect of all these yarn stores, and after these three purchases I was done, and passed by 4 other yarn stores that I didn’t even walk into. In addition, there were at least 2 weaving stores, and another 2 fabric stores. Only one of the yarn stores had fiber to spin, and it looked like combed top, and was somewhat expensive (by US standards).

All in all, I was extremely satisfied by taking a few hours to shop for yarn, but I found the experience quite different from what I’m used to.

* I was instructed by a friend who had visited Buenos Aires to take a taxi to the corner of X and Y. However, I enjoy walking around and public transit, so I noticed the subway stop was not far, and decided to walk a few blocks. To those who are considering what to do, a taxi would have cost about 20 pesos (about USD $5) each way. The subway costs $5 for two rides, but of course is not door to door. Another thing to note about the subway is that it is not the most modern system:

And you will get plenty of people trying to make money – some play music, which you may be used to from other subway systems. Others will go around a subway car, handing out products, and then go around and either collect the product back or collect money. I was handed tissues and Disney books – or at least, they attempted to hand stuff to me, and I refused. It helped that I had knitting in my hands, but I saw them just place stuff on people’s laps if their hands were busy, so don’t just look away, make sure you actually refuse by shaking your head.
Buenos Aires has a span of a few blocks, apoplectic not too far from the Malabia metro station* where there are many yarn shops, I counted 15, and went into 11 of them before I had to stop. The shops are on Ave. Scalabrini Ortiz just southwest of Ave. Cordoba, towards Ave. Correintes. The Malabia metro station is on the corner of Correintes and Scalabrini Ortiz, which is 1 km away from the corner of Cordoba and Corrientes, and about half that until you see your first yarn shop. There was a small bit of yarn bombing between two of the stores:

Yarn shopping in Buenos Aires is quite different from what I’m used to in the States. The stores all look like this:

The yarn is beautiful, and well-organized, but there’s no signs as to what the yarn is made up of, how much it costs nor the gauge of the yarn. In addition, you’re not supposed to take the yarn out of the bins. If you look at the bottom right of that picture, you’ll see some white yarn and blue yarn that is actually sitting on top of a counter. That counter separates you from the wall, and there are people behind the counter who can help you get what you want.

So it’s very different from the experience I’m used to. I got the feeling that a lot of people knew exactly what they wanted to buy, or walked in and would say “do you have anything made of wool?” I was feeling a bit shy due to the language barrier, so I picked up a Spanish phrase: “solamente mirando” – it means “Just looking”. The people are friendly and willing to help, but I like the yarn buying process to be a solo activity.

There were 2 exceptions to the fact that most stores don’t give any information about their items.: Milana hilados and Yanabey. Milana hilados had tags like this near most of their yarn:

Note that that’s in Argentinian pesos, and at the time, this was less than USD $10 per 100g. Another thing to note is the price is per 100g, not per hank of yarn. You’d ask a sales associate to take the yarn down for you and they’d weigh it and ask you if that was OK (kind of like at the deli counter). Then they give you a slip of paper and you take it to a cash register, where you’re usually helped by someone else. Another interesting thing is that the stores seemed to be staffed by about half men, half women, which is very different from yarn stores in the States, which are probably about 90% staffed by women.

I bought 3 hanks of yarn there, for about $25:

Yanabey had signs like this:

These prices are still in Argentinian pesos, but they’re in kilos. So these prices are $171 for 1 kilo, which is $17.10 for 100g. This is a wall of “seda vegetal”, or “vegetable silk“. By the way, that’s about USD $35 per kilo. So I bought 6 skeins, which was just over a kilo, because the tree which this comes from (ceiba speciosa, or “silk floss tree”) is native to South America, and I haven’t seen “vegetable silk” in the US.

A lot of the stores have the recycled t-shirt yarn, and I bought some at Arte Natural:

BUTTONS!!!

I was thinking I might make a purse from the yarn, like this:

That purse is crocheted, but I’m sure I can come up with a knitted version.

Here’s what I bought from that store:

Here’s a Spanish primer for some important words:
cachemira – cashmere
acrílico – acrylic
lana – wool
seda – silk
alpaca – alpaca
hilo – yarn (plural: hilados)
Also, I found out that cashmerillo is just an acrylic yarn that’s very soft. Don’t be fooled by price, some of the acrylic yarns are *very* expensive, even more expensive than the wool.

I was very excited by the prospect of all these yarn stores, and after these three purchases I was done, and passed by 4 other yarn stores that I didn’t even walk into. In addition, there were at least 2 weaving stores, and another 2 fabric stores. Only one of the yarn stores had fiber to spin, and it looked like combed top, and was somewhat expensive (by US standards).

All in all, I was extremely satisfied by taking a few hours to shop for yarn, but I found the experience quite different from what I’m used to.

* I was instructed by a friend who had visited Buenos Aires to take a taxi to the corner of X and Y. However, I enjoy walking around and public transit, so I noticed the subway stop was not far, and decided to walk a few blocks. To those who are considering what to do, a taxi would have cost about 20 pesos (about USD $5) each way. The subway costs $5 for two rides, but of course is not door to door. Another thing to note about the subway is that it is not the most modern system:

And you will get plenty of people trying to make money – some play music, which you may be used to from other subway systems. Others will go around a subway car, handing out products, and then go around and either collect the product back or collect money. I was handed tissues and Disney books – or at least, they attempted to hand stuff to me, and I refused. It helped that I had knitting in my hands, but I saw them just place stuff on people’s laps if their hands were busy, so don’t just look away, make sure you actually refuse by shaking your head.
It has been almost a month since my last post on my crafty goings-on. Since then I have gone to Finland (click for pictures) and Charlotte, North Carolina, to speak at conferences. I bought yarn in both places, and have done a lot of knitting and spinning while on planes, in airports, and generally in the cities themselves.

Tony’s Crooked Little Scarf has gotten bigger, and while it’s not quite finished yet, it is over 32 inches long and you can see that the ball of yarn is getting smaller and smaller:



The scarf is done when I run out of yarn. Next week I fly to Buenos Aires, so I think I will be able to finish the scarf on the plane.

While in North Carolina, I went to some yarn stores, and picked up some Universal Yarn’s Cotton Supreme Batik yarn. I was very excited to find this yarn again, I had found it a few years ago when I was in the Raleigh-Durham area and visited Shuttles Needles and Hooks. It’s very very soft, feels more like a microfiber acrylic than 100% cotton, and was perfect to make a baby sweater out of. So I bought some more for some more baby sweaters….

I bought the cotton batik at YarnHouse, where I bought a skein of ribbon yarn, that made this scarf:

The yarn was difficult to work with, and I’m not in love with the final product, but I am sure there is someone I know who will love it, that I can gift this scarf to.

At Charlotte Yarn I helped my (new) friend Carrie Stokes pick out some yarn for a Mobius shrug, and helped her with the pattern for it – specifically I helped start it. I also got out of my comfort zone and bought some ribbon yarns.

I bought some leopard-print ribbon yarn, to make a scarf for my friend Victoria:

If you look in the middle of the scarf you can see the ribbon itself (there was some left over at the end) and you can see the holes cut into it. I feel like I could re-create this yarn, with 30 meters of wide yarn and a hole punch. This yarn cost $20, and for 30 meters I find that somewhat expensive (although for a whole scarf, it’s totally reasonable). The yarn itself is called “tecido trico”.

Also for $20 I picked up some purple ribbon yarn, which I am making a scarf out of (but it is not done yet):

While in Finland, I bought some amazingly colored sock yarn, from Novita, a Finnish yarn company. I have already made a pair of socks from half of one skein, and I have several more skeins which I think I want to make a Color Affection with. Here are the socks I have made (well, I am *almost* done making):

In this picture I really played with the settings of my camera, and I love how it came out:

Here is the other, completed sock:

I went back and played with the settings, lowering the F-stop as I did for the in-progress sock. I love how this came out:

Compare and contrast the two photos….I think I’m learning how to take some great photos! If you are curious about the pattern, it’s just a regular stockinette sock, with a Sweet Tomato heel, and 2×2 ribbing with an i-cord cast-off for the leg of the sock.

I also finished the Monkey Socks. Here is the 2nd sock:

You probably don’t remember what the first sock looks like, which is OK, here’s the picture I took a while ago of it:

As you can tell, they do not match….but they are from the same yarn! (Superwash Correidale….)

I have been on a bit of a sock kick – I started and completed a pair of socks from Mind’s Eye Yarns, hand-dyed by Lucy. It’s 75% merino, 25% tencel, and they are extremely comfortable socks…again, the pattern is just simple stockinette, with ribbing at the leg, and the Sweet Tomato heel. At $20 for 100g, I can get 2 pairs of socks out of one skein, so it makes me happy:

I have been spinning a fair bit, too. I got some BFL from Spunky Eclectic in the “More Coffee” colorway a while back, and decided a few nights ago to spin on my wheel while I was home. I have spun up about a bobbin and a half, and probably am about halfway done with it:

Also from Spunky is the May 2012 fiber club – also BFL, in the “Big Bang” colorway. As soon as I saw it I knew I had to spin it, so even though I still have not spun the clubs from December through April, I went to work on the May colorway right away. I’m still in love:

While in Finland I started to get back in touch with my spindles, spinning some of the Falkland mini-braids I bought at the Wild and Wooly Festival in April in Vermont, from The Spun Monkey Fiber Shoppe. I have spun just about half of one package – which is 2.5 mini-braids:

I also spun some of the fluff I received in a Phat Fiber sampler box I bought in February (a mixed box):

There was a spindle in the box that I spun on, but I have to say that the Bosworth spindles and my Golding mini ringspindles I have are so perfectly balanced, that everything else feels like spinning with a boat anchor (including the bigger Golding ringspindles, sadly).

The Monkey socks were knit using handspun, and I still have a lot of it. Rather than make tons more socks from the same yarn, which would probably result in 8 more unmatched socks, I decided to make a Cecilia. I have not gotten very far yet, I’m about 33 rows in:

It has been almost a month since my last post on my crafty goings-on. Since then I have gone to Finland (click for pictures) and Charlotte, and have done a lot of knitting and spinning while on planes, in airports, and generally in the cities themselves.

Tony’s Crooked Little Scarf has gotten bigger, and while it’s not quite finished yet, it is over 32 inches long and you can see that the ball of yarn is getting smaller and smaller:

The scarf is done when I run out of yarn. Next week I fly to Buenos Aires, so I think I will be able to finish the scarf on the plane.

While in North Carolina, I went to some yarn stores, and picked up some Universal Yarn’s Cotton Supreme Batik yarn. I was very excited to find this yarn again, I had found it a few years ago when I was in the Raleigh-Durham area and visited Shuttles Needles and Hooks. It’s very very soft, feels more like a microfiber acrylic than 100% cotton, and was perfect to make a baby sweater out of. So I bought some more for some more baby sweaters….

I bought the cotton batik at YarnHouse, where I bought a skein of ribbon yarn, that made this scarf:

The yarn was difficult to work with, and I’m not in love with the final product, but I am sure there is someone I know who will love it, that I can gift this scarf to.

At Charlotte Yarn I helped my (new) friend Carrie Stokes pick out some yarn for a Mobius shrug, and helped her with the pattern for it – specifically I helped start it. I also got out of my comfort zone and bought some ribbon yarns.

I bought some leopard-print ribbon yarn, to make a scarf for my friend Victoria:

If you look in the middle of the scarf you can see the ribbon itself (there was some left over at the end) and you can see the holes cut into it. I feel like I could re-create this yarn, with 30 meters of wide yarn and a hole punch. This yarn cost $20, and for 30 meters I find that somewhat expensive (although for a whole scarf, it’s totally reasonable). The yarn itself is called “tecido trico”.

Also for $20 I picked up some purple ribbon yarn, which I am making a scarf out of (but it is not done yet):

While in Finland, I bought some amazingly colored sock yarn, from Novita, a Finnish yarn company. I have already made a pair of socks from half of one skein, and I have several more skeins which I think I want to make a Color Affection with. Here are the socks I have made (well, I am *almost* done making):

In this picture I really played with the settings of my camera, and I love how it came out:

Here is the other, completed sock:

I went back and played with the settings, lowering the F-stop as I did for the in-progress sock. I love how this came out:

Compare and contrast the two photos….I think I’m learning how to take some great photos! If you are curious about the pattern, it’s just a regular stockinette sock, with a Sweet Tomato heel, and 2×2 ribbing with an i-cord cast-off for the leg of the sock.

I also finished the Monkey Socks. Here is the 2nd sock:

You probably don’t remember what the first sock looks like, which is OK, here’s the picture I took a while ago of it:

As you can tell, they do not match….but they are from the same yarn! (Superwash Correidale….)

I have been on a bit of a sock kick – I started and completed a pair of socks from Mind’s Eye Yarns, hand-dyed by Lucy. It’s 75% merino, 25% tencel, and they are extremely comfortable socks…again, the pattern is just simple stockinette, with ribbing at the leg, and the Sweet Tomato heel. At $20 for 100g, I can get 2 pairs of socks out of one skein, so it makes me happy:

I have been spinning a fair bit, too. I got some BFL from Spunky Eclectic in the “More Coffee” colorway a while back, and decided a few nights ago to spin on my wheel while I was home. I have spun up about a bobbin and a half, and probably am about halfway done with it:

Also from Spunky is the May 2012 fiber club – also BFL, in the “Big Bang” colorway. As soon as I saw it I knew I had to spin it, so even though I still have not spun the clubs from December through April, I went to work on the May colorway right away. I’m still in love:

While in Finland I started to get back in touch with my spindles, spinning some of the Falkland mini-braids I bought at the Wild and Wooly Festival in April in Vermont, from The Spun Monkey Fiber Shoppe. I have spun just about half of one package – which is 2.5 mini-braids:

I also spun some of the fluff I received in a Phat Fiber sampler box I bought in February (a mixed box):

There was a spindle in the box that I spun on, but I have to say that the Bosworth spindles and my Golding mini ringspindles I have are so perfectly balanced, that everything else feels like spinning with a boat anchor (including the bigger Golding ringspindles, sadly).

The Monkey socks were knit using handspun, and I still have a lot of it. Rather than make tons more socks from the same yarn, which would probably result in 8 more unmatched socks, I decided to make a Cecilia. I have not gotten very far yet, I’m about 33 rows in:

And that’s it! For now. I look forward to making more socks, finishing Tony’s scarf, working more on the Cecilia, and
It has been almost a month since my last post on my crafty goings-on. Since then I have gone to Finland (click for pictures) and Charlotte, North Carolina, to speak at conferences. I bought yarn in both places, and have done a lot of knitting and spinning while on planes, in airports, and generally in the cities themselves.

Tony’s Crooked Little Scarf has gotten bigger, and while it’s not quite finished yet, it is over 32 inches long and you can see that the ball of yarn is getting smaller and smaller:



The scarf is done when I run out of yarn. Next week I fly to Buenos Aires, so I think I will be able to finish the scarf on the plane.

While in North Carolina, I went to some yarn stores, and picked up some Universal Yarn’s Cotton Supreme Batik yarn. I was very excited to find this yarn again, I had found it a few years ago when I was in the Raleigh-Durham area and visited Shuttles Needles and Hooks. It’s very very soft, feels more like a microfiber acrylic than 100% cotton, and was perfect to make a baby sweater out of. So I bought some more for some more baby sweaters….

I bought the cotton batik at YarnHouse, where I bought a skein of ribbon yarn, that made this scarf:

The yarn was difficult to work with, and I’m not in love with the final product, but I am sure there is someone I know who will love it, that I can gift this scarf to.

At Charlotte Yarn I helped my (new) friend Carrie Stokes pick out some yarn for a Mobius shrug, and helped her with the pattern for it – specifically I helped start it. I also got out of my comfort zone and bought some ribbon yarns.

I bought some leopard-print ribbon yarn, to make a scarf for my friend Victoria:

If you look in the middle of the scarf you can see the ribbon itself (there was some left over at the end) and you can see the holes cut into it. I feel like I could re-create this yarn, with 30 meters of wide yarn and a hole punch. This yarn cost $20, and for 30 meters I find that somewhat expensive (although for a whole scarf, it’s totally reasonable). The yarn itself is called “tecido trico”.

Also for $20 I picked up some purple ribbon yarn, which I am making a scarf out of (but it is not done yet):

While in Finland, I bought some amazingly colored sock yarn, from Novita, a Finnish yarn company. I have already made a pair of socks from half of one skein, and I have several more skeins which I think I want to make a Color Affection with. Here are the socks I have made (well, I am *almost* done making):

In this picture I really played with the settings of my camera, and I love how it came out:

Here is the other, completed sock:

I went back and played with the settings, lowering the F-stop as I did for the in-progress sock. I love how this came out:

Compare and contrast the two photos….I think I’m learning how to take some great photos! If you are curious about the pattern, it’s just a regular stockinette sock, with a Sweet Tomato heel, and 2×2 ribbing with an i-cord cast-off for the leg of the sock.

I also finished the Monkey Socks. Here is the 2nd sock:

You probably don’t remember what the first sock looks like, which is OK, here’s the picture I took a while ago of it:

As you can tell, they do not match….but they are from the same yarn! (Superwash Correidale….)

I have been on a bit of a sock kick – I started and completed a pair of socks from Mind’s Eye Yarns, hand-dyed by Lucy. It’s 75% merino, 25% tencel, and they are extremely comfortable socks…again, the pattern is just simple stockinette, with ribbing at the leg, and the Sweet Tomato heel. At $20 for 100g, I can get 2 pairs of socks out of one skein, so it makes me happy:

I have been spinning a fair bit, too. I got some BFL from Spunky Eclectic in the “More Coffee” colorway a while back, and decided a few nights ago to spin on my wheel while I was home. I have spun up about a bobbin and a half, and probably am about halfway done with it:

Also from Spunky is the May 2012 fiber club – also BFL, in the “Big Bang” colorway. As soon as I saw it I knew I had to spin it, so even though I still have not spun the clubs from December through April, I went to work on the May colorway right away. I’m still in love:

While in Finland I started to get back in touch with my spindles, spinning some of the Falkland mini-braids I bought at the Wild and Wooly Festival in April in Vermont, from The Spun Monkey Fiber Shoppe. I have spun just about half of one package – which is 2.5 mini-braids:

I also spun some of the fluff I received in a Phat Fiber sampler box I bought in February (a mixed box):

There was a spindle in the box that I spun on, but I have to say that the Bosworth spindles and my Golding mini ringspindles I have are so perfectly balanced, that everything else feels like spinning with a boat anchor (including the bigger Golding ringspindles, sadly).

The Monkey socks were knit using handspun, and I still have a lot of it. Rather than make tons more socks from the same yarn, which would probably result in 8 more unmatched socks, I decided to make a Cecilia. I have not gotten very far yet, I’m about 33 rows in:

Buenos Aires has a span of a few blocks, more about not too far from the Malabia metro station* where there are many yarn shops, I counted 15, and went into 11 of them before I had to stop. The shops are on Ave. Scalabrini Ortiz just southwest of Ave. Cordoba, towards Ave. Correintes. The Malabia metro station is on the corner of Correintes and Scalabrini Ortiz, which is 1 km away from the corner of Cordoba and Corrientes, and about half that until you see your first yarn shop. There was a small bit of yarn bombing between two of the stores:

Yarn shopping in Buenos Aires is quite different from what I’m used to in the States. The stores all look like this:

The yarn is beautiful, and well-organized, but there’s no signs as to what the yarn is made up of, how much it costs nor the gauge of the yarn. In addition, you’re not supposed to take the yarn out of the bins. If you look at the bottom right of that picture, you’ll see some white yarn and blue yarn that is actually sitting on top of a counter. That counter separates you from the wall, and there are people behind the counter who can help you get what you want.

So it’s very different from the experience I’m used to. I got the feeling that a lot of people knew exactly what they wanted to buy, or walked in and would say “do you have anything made of wool?” I was feeling a bit shy due to the language barrier, so I picked up a Spanish phrase: “solamente mirando” – it means “Just looking”. The people are friendly and willing to help, but I like the yarn buying process to be a solo activity.

There were 2 exceptions to the fact that most stores don’t give any information about their items.: Milana hilados and Yanabey. Milana hilados had tags like this near most of their yarn:

Note that that’s in Argentinian pesos, and at the time, this was less than USD $10 per 100g. Another thing to note is the price is per 100g, not per hank of yarn. You’d ask a sales associate to take the yarn down for you and they’d weigh it and ask you if that was OK (kind of like at the deli counter). Then they give you a slip of paper and you take it to a cash register, where you’re usually helped by someone else. Another interesting thing is that the stores seemed to be staffed by about half men, half women, which is very different from yarn stores in the States, which are probably about 90% staffed by women.

I bought 3 hanks of yarn there, for about $25:

Yanabey had signs like this:

These prices are still in Argentinian pesos, but they’re in kilos. So these prices are $171 for 1 kilo, which is $17.10 for 100g. This is a wall of “seda vegetal”, or “vegetable silk“. By the way, that’s about USD $35 per kilo. So I bought 6 skeins, which was just over a kilo, because the tree which this comes from (ceiba speciosa, or “silk floss tree”) is native to South America, and I haven’t seen “vegetable silk” in the US.

A lot of the stores have the recycled t-shirt yarn, and I bought some at Arte Natural:

BUTTONS!!!

I was thinking I might make a purse from the yarn, like this:

That purse is crocheted, but I’m sure I can come up with a knitted version.

Here’s what I bought from that store:

Here’s a Spanish primer for some important words:
cachemira – cashmere
acrílico – acrylic
lana – wool
seda – silk
alpaca – alpaca
hilo – yarn (plural: hilados)
Also, I found out that cashmerillo is just an acrylic yarn that’s very soft. Don’t be fooled by price, some of the acrylic yarns are *very* expensive, even more expensive than the wool.

I was very excited by the prospect of all these yarn stores, and after these three purchases I was done, and passed by 4 other yarn stores that I didn’t even walk into. In addition, there were at least 2 weaving stores, and another 2 fabric stores. Only one of the yarn stores had fiber to spin, and it looked like combed top, and was somewhat expensive (by US standards).

All in all, I was extremely satisfied by taking a few hours to shop for yarn, but I found the experience quite different from what I’m used to.

* I was instructed by a friend who had visited Buenos Aires to take a taxi to the corner of X and Y. However, I enjoy walking around and public transit, so I noticed the subway stop was not far, and decided to walk a few blocks. To those who are considering what to do, a taxi would have cost about 20 pesos (about USD $5) each way. The subway costs $5 for two rides, but of course is not door to door. Another thing to note about the subway is that it is not the most modern system:

And you will get plenty of people trying to make money – some play music, which you may be used to from other subway systems. Others will go around a subway car, handing out products, and then go around and either collect the product back or collect money. I was handed tissues and Disney books – or at least, they attempted to hand stuff to me, and I refused. It helped that I had knitting in my hands, but I saw them just place stuff on people’s laps if their hands were busy, so don’t just look away, make sure you actually refuse by shaking your head.

Note: I hope this article is helpful! Due to spam reasons, all articles on this site have comments disabled after a short time. If you want to leave feedback, you can tweet @sheeri or e-mail me at awfief at gmail dot com. (replace “at” with @ and “dot com” with .com to get the real e-mail address).
Buenos Aires has a span of a few blocks, side effects not too far from the Malabia metro station* where there are many yarn shops, viagra buy I counted 15, and went into 11 of them before I had to stop. There was a small bit of yarn bombing between two of the stores:

Yarn shopping in Buenos Aires is quite different from what I’m used to in the States. The stores all look like this:

The yarn is beautiful, and well-organized, but there’s no signs as to what the yarn is made up of, how much it costs nor the gauge of the yarn. In addition, you’re not supposed to take the yarn out of the bins. If you look at the bottom right of that picture, you’ll see some white yarn and blue yarn that is actually sitting on top of a counter. That counter separates you from the wall, and there are people behind the counter who can help you get what you want.

So it’s very different from the experience I’m used to. I got the feeling that a lot of people knew exactly what they wanted to buy, or walked in and would say “do you have anything made of wool?” I was feeling a bit shy due to the language barrier, so I picked up a Spanish phrase: “solamente mirando” – it means “Just looking”. The people are friendly and willing to help, but I like the yarn buying process to be a solo activity.

There were 2 exceptions to the fact that most stores don’t give any information about their items.: Milana hilados and Yanabey. Milana hilados had tags like this near most of their yarn:

Note that that’s in Argentinian pesos, and at the time, this was less than USD $10 per 100g. Another thing to note is the price is per 100g, not per hank of yarn. You’d ask a sales associate to take the yarn down for you and they’d weigh it and ask you if that was OK (kind of like at the deli counter). Then they give you a slip of paper and you take it to a cash register, where you’re usually helped by someone else. Another interesting thing is that the stores seemed to be staffed by about half men, half women, which is very different from yarn stores in the States, which are probably about 90% staffed by women.

I bought 3 hanks of yarn there, for about $25:

Yanabey had signs like this:

These prices are still in Argentinian pesos, but they’re in kilos. So these prices are $171 for 1 kilo, which is $17.10 for 100g. This is a wall of “seda vegetal”, or “vegetable silk“. By the way, that’s about USD $35 per kilo. So I bought 6 skeins, which was just over a kilo.

A lot of the stores have the recycled t-shirt yarn, and I bought some at Arte Natural:

BUTTONS!!!

I was thinking I might make a purse from the yarn, like this:

That purse is crocheted, but I’m sure I can come up with a knitted version.

Here’s what I bought from that store:

Here’s a Spanish primer for some important words:
cashmira – cashmere
acrilico – acrylic
lana – wool
seda – silk
alpaca – alpaca
hilo – yarn (plural: hilados)
Also, I found out that cashmerillo is just an acrylic yarn that’s very soft. Don’t be fooled by price, some of the acrylic yarns are *very* expensive, even more expensive than the wool.

I was very excited by the prospect of all these yarn stores, and after these three purchases I was done, and passed by 4 other yarn stores that I didn’t even walk into. In addition, there were at least 2 weaving stores, and another 2 fabric stores. Only one of the yarn stores had fiber to spin, and it looked like combed top, and was somewhat expensive (by US standards).

All in all, I was extremely satisfied by taking a few hours to shop for yarn, but I found the experience quite different from what I’m used to.

* I was instructed by a friend who had visited Buenos Aires to take a taxi to the corner of X and Y. However, I enjoy walking around and public transit, so I noticed the subway stop was not far, and decided to walk a few blocks. To those who are considering what to do, a taxi would have cost about 20 pesos (about USD $5) each way. The subway costs $5 for two rides, but of course is not door to door. Another thing to note about the subway is that it is not the most modern system:
subway car – IMG_0247.JPG

And you will get plenty of people trying to make money – some play music, which you may be used to from other subway systems. Others will go around a subway car, handing out products, and then go around and either collect the product back or collect money. I was handed tissues and Disney books – or at least, they attempted to hand stuff to me, and I refused. It helped that I had knitting in my hands, but I saw them just place stuff on people’s laps if their hands were busy, so don’t just look away, make sure you actually refuse by shaking your head.
Buenos Aires has a span of a few blocks, recipe not too far from the Malabia metro station* where there are many yarn shops, viagra sale I counted 15, web and went into 11 of them before I had to stop. There was a small bit of yarn bombing between two of the stores:

Yarn shopping in Buenos Aires is quite different from what I’m used to in the States. The stores all look like this:

The yarn is beautiful, and well-organized, but there’s no signs as to what the yarn is made up of, how much it costs nor the gauge of the yarn. In addition, you’re not supposed to take the yarn out of the bins. If you look at the bottom right of that picture, you’ll see some white yarn and blue yarn that is actually sitting on top of a counter. That counter separates you from the wall, and there are people behind the counter who can help you get what you want.

So it’s very different from the experience I’m used to. I got the feeling that a lot of people knew exactly what they wanted to buy, or walked in and would say “do you have anything made of wool?” I was feeling a bit shy due to the language barrier, so I picked up a Spanish phrase: “solamente mirando” – it means “Just looking”. The people are friendly and willing to help, but I like the yarn buying process to be a solo activity.

There were 2 exceptions to the fact that most stores don’t give any information about their items.: Milana hilados and Yanabey. Milana hilados had tags like this near most of their yarn:

Note that that’s in Argentinian pesos, and at the time, this was less than USD $10 per 100g. Another thing to note is the price is per 100g, not per hank of yarn. You’d ask a sales associate to take the yarn down for you and they’d weigh it and ask you if that was OK (kind of like at the deli counter). Then they give you a slip of paper and you take it to a cash register, where you’re usually helped by someone else. Another interesting thing is that the stores seemed to be staffed by about half men, half women, which is very different from yarn stores in the States, which are probably about 90% staffed by women.

I bought 3 hanks of yarn there, for about $25:

Yanabey had signs like this:

These prices are still in Argentinian pesos, but they’re in kilos. So these prices are $171 for 1 kilo, which is $17.10 for 100g. This is a wall of “seda vegetal”, or “vegetable silk“. By the way, that’s about USD $35 per kilo. So I bought 6 skeins, which was just over a kilo.

A lot of the stores have the recycled t-shirt yarn, and I bought some at Arte Natural:

BUTTONS!!!

I was thinking I might make a purse from the yarn, like this:

That purse is crocheted, but I’m sure I can come up with a knitted version.

Here’s what I bought from that store:

Here’s a Spanish primer for some important words:
cashmira – cashmere
acrilico – acrylic
lana – wool
seda – silk
alpaca – alpaca
hilo – yarn (plural: hilados)
Also, I found out that cashmerillo is just an acrylic yarn that’s very soft. Don’t be fooled by price, some of the acrylic yarns are *very* expensive, even more expensive than the wool.

I was very excited by the prospect of all these yarn stores, and after these three purchases I was done, and passed by 4 other yarn stores that I didn’t even walk into. In addition, there were at least 2 weaving stores, and another 2 fabric stores. Only one of the yarn stores had fiber to spin, and it looked like combed top, and was somewhat expensive (by US standards).

All in all, I was extremely satisfied by taking a few hours to shop for yarn, but I found the experience quite different from what I’m used to.

* I was instructed by a friend who had visited Buenos Aires to take a taxi to the corner of X and Y. However, I enjoy walking around and public transit, so I noticed the subway stop was not far, and decided to walk a few blocks. To those who are considering what to do, a taxi would have cost about 20 pesos (about USD $5) each way. The subway costs $5 for two rides, but of course is not door to door. Another thing to note about the subway is that it is not the most modern system:

And you will get plenty of people trying to make money – some play music, which you may be used to from other subway systems. Others will go around a subway car, handing out products, and then go around and either collect the product back or collect money. I was handed tissues and Disney books – or at least, they attempted to hand stuff to me, and I refused. It helped that I had knitting in my hands, but I saw them just place stuff on people’s laps if their hands were busy, so don’t just look away, make sure you actually refuse by shaking your head.
Buenos Aires has a span of a few blocks, not too far from the Malabia metro station* where there are many yarn shops, I counted 15, and went into 11 of them before I had to stop. There was a small bit of yarn bombing between two of the stores:

Yarn shopping in Buenos Aires is quite different from what I’m used to in the States. The stores all look like this:

The yarn is beautiful, and well-organized, but there’s no signs as to what the yarn is made up of, how much it costs nor the gauge of the yarn. In addition, you’re not supposed to take the yarn out of the bins. If you look at the bottom right of that picture, you’ll see some white yarn and blue yarn that is actually sitting on top of a counter. That counter separates you from the wall, and there are people behind the counter who can help you get what you want.

So it’s very different from the experience I’m used to. I got the feeling that a lot of people knew exactly what they wanted to buy, or walked in and would say “do you have anything made of wool?” I was feeling a bit shy due to the language barrier, so I picked up a Spanish phrase: “solamente mirando” – it means “Just looking”. The people are friendly and willing to help, but I like the yarn buying process to be a solo activity.

There were 2 exceptions to the fact that most stores don’t give any information about their items.: Milana hilados and Yanabey. Milana hilados had tags like this near most of their yarn:

Note that that’s in Argentinian pesos, and at the time, this was less than USD $10 per 100g. Another thing to note is the price is per 100g, not per hank of yarn. You’d ask a sales associate to take the yarn down for you and they’d weigh it and ask you if that was OK (kind of like at the deli counter). Then they give you a slip of paper and you take it to a cash register, where you’re usually helped by someone else. Another interesting thing is that the stores seemed to be staffed by about half men, half women, which is very different from yarn stores in the States, which are probably about 90% staffed by women.

I bought 3 hanks of yarn there, for about $25:

Yanabey had signs like this:

These prices are still in Argentinian pesos, but they’re in kilos. So these prices are $171 for 1 kilo, which is $17.10 for 100g. This is a wall of “seda vegetal”, or “vegetable silk“. By the way, that’s about USD $35 per kilo. So I bought 6 skeins, which was just over a kilo.

A lot of the stores have the recycled t-shirt yarn, and I bought some at Arte Natural:

BUTTONS!!!

I was thinking I might make a purse from the yarn, like this:

That purse is crocheted, but I’m sure I can come up with a knitted version.

Here’s what I bought from that store:

Here’s a Spanish primer for some important words:
cashmira – cashmere
acrilico – acrylic
lana – wool
seda – silk
alpaca – alpaca
hilo – yarn (plural: hilados)
Also, I found out that cashmerillo is just an acrylic yarn that’s very soft. Don’t be fooled by price, some of the acrylic yarns are *very* expensive, even more expensive than the wool.

I was very excited by the prospect of all these yarn stores, and after these three purchases I was done, and passed by 4 other yarn stores that I didn’t even walk into. In addition, there were at least 2 weaving stores, and another 2 fabric stores. Only one of the yarn stores had fiber to spin, and it looked like combed top, and was somewhat expensive (by US standards).

All in all, I was extremely satisfied by taking a few hours to shop for yarn, but I found the experience quite different from what I’m used to.

* I was instructed by a friend who had visited Buenos Aires to take a taxi to the corner of X and Y. However, I enjoy walking around and public transit, so I noticed the subway stop was not far, and decided to walk a few blocks. To those who are considering what to do, a taxi would have cost about 20 pesos (about USD $5) each way. The subway costs $5 for two rides, but of course is not door to door. Another thing to note about the subway is that it is not the most modern system:

And you will get plenty of people trying to make money – some play music, which you may be used to from other subway systems. Others will go around a subway car, handing out products, and then go around and either collect the product back or collect money. I was handed tissues and Disney books – or at least, they attempted to hand stuff to me, and I refused. It helped that I had knitting in my hands, but I saw them just place stuff on people’s laps if their hands were busy, so don’t just look away, make sure you actually refuse by shaking your head.
Buenos Aires has a span of a few blocks, apoplectic not too far from the Malabia metro station* where there are many yarn shops, I counted 15, and went into 11 of them before I had to stop. The shops are on Ave. Scalabrini Ortiz just southwest of Ave. Cordoba, towards Ave. Correintes. The Malabia metro station is on the corner of Correintes and Scalabrini Ortiz, which is 1 km away from the corner of Cordoba and Corrientes, and about half that until you see your first yarn shop. There was a small bit of yarn bombing between two of the stores:

Yarn shopping in Buenos Aires is quite different from what I’m used to in the States. The stores all look like this:

The yarn is beautiful, and well-organized, but there’s no signs as to what the yarn is made up of, how much it costs nor the gauge of the yarn. In addition, you’re not supposed to take the yarn out of the bins. If you look at the bottom right of that picture, you’ll see some white yarn and blue yarn that is actually sitting on top of a counter. That counter separates you from the wall, and there are people behind the counter who can help you get what you want.

So it’s very different from the experience I’m used to. I got the feeling that a lot of people knew exactly what they wanted to buy, or walked in and would say “do you have anything made of wool?” I was feeling a bit shy due to the language barrier, so I picked up a Spanish phrase: “solamente mirando” – it means “Just looking”. The people are friendly and willing to help, but I like the yarn buying process to be a solo activity.

There were 2 exceptions to the fact that most stores don’t give any information about their items.: Milana hilados and Yanabey. Milana hilados had tags like this near most of their yarn:

Note that that’s in Argentinian pesos, and at the time, this was less than USD $10 per 100g. Another thing to note is the price is per 100g, not per hank of yarn. You’d ask a sales associate to take the yarn down for you and they’d weigh it and ask you if that was OK (kind of like at the deli counter). Then they give you a slip of paper and you take it to a cash register, where you’re usually helped by someone else. Another interesting thing is that the stores seemed to be staffed by about half men, half women, which is very different from yarn stores in the States, which are probably about 90% staffed by women.

I bought 3 hanks of yarn there, for about $25:

Yanabey had signs like this:

These prices are still in Argentinian pesos, but they’re in kilos. So these prices are $171 for 1 kilo, which is $17.10 for 100g. This is a wall of “seda vegetal”, or “vegetable silk“. By the way, that’s about USD $35 per kilo. So I bought 6 skeins, which was just over a kilo, because the tree which this comes from (ceiba speciosa, or “silk floss tree”) is native to South America, and I haven’t seen “vegetable silk” in the US.

A lot of the stores have the recycled t-shirt yarn, and I bought some at Arte Natural:

BUTTONS!!!

I was thinking I might make a purse from the yarn, like this:

That purse is crocheted, but I’m sure I can come up with a knitted version.

Here’s what I bought from that store:

Here’s a Spanish primer for some important words:
cachemira – cashmere
acrílico – acrylic
lana – wool
seda – silk
alpaca – alpaca
hilo – yarn (plural: hilados)
Also, I found out that cashmerillo is just an acrylic yarn that’s very soft. Don’t be fooled by price, some of the acrylic yarns are *very* expensive, even more expensive than the wool.

I was very excited by the prospect of all these yarn stores, and after these three purchases I was done, and passed by 4 other yarn stores that I didn’t even walk into. In addition, there were at least 2 weaving stores, and another 2 fabric stores. Only one of the yarn stores had fiber to spin, and it looked like combed top, and was somewhat expensive (by US standards).

All in all, I was extremely satisfied by taking a few hours to shop for yarn, but I found the experience quite different from what I’m used to.

* I was instructed by a friend who had visited Buenos Aires to take a taxi to the corner of X and Y. However, I enjoy walking around and public transit, so I noticed the subway stop was not far, and decided to walk a few blocks. To those who are considering what to do, a taxi would have cost about 20 pesos (about USD $5) each way. The subway costs $5 for two rides, but of course is not door to door. Another thing to note about the subway is that it is not the most modern system:

And you will get plenty of people trying to make money – some play music, which you may be used to from other subway systems. Others will go around a subway car, handing out products, and then go around and either collect the product back or collect money. I was handed tissues and Disney books – or at least, they attempted to hand stuff to me, and I refused. It helped that I had knitting in my hands, but I saw them just place stuff on people’s laps if their hands were busy, so don’t just look away, make sure you actually refuse by shaking your head.
I participated in this year’s Tour de Fleece. It was particularly difficult for me, was Sat 30 June through Sunday, 22 July – 23 days, and all but the last 5 days, I was abroad.

I did not make a ton of yarn (I spun up about 2 ounces total), but I did spin on 22 of the 23 days, which was pretty good. This was mostly all spindle-spun, because I did not take my wheel with me – I traveled from Argentina to Colombia, to Ecuador, to Trinidad, to Guatemala, to Honduras, to Costa Rica, and finally home to Boston.

If you want to see the picture progressions, you can see them on page 1 and page 2 of my Tour de Fleece photo album.

Yarn Shopping in Buenos Aires

It has been almost a month since my last post on my crafty goings-on. Since then I have gone to Finland (click for pictures) and Charlotte, to speak at conferences. I bought yarn in both places, and have done a lot of knitting and spinning while on planes, in airports, and generally in the cities themselves.

Tony’s Crooked Little Scarf has gotten bigger, and while it’s not quite finished yet, it is over 32 inches long and you can see that the ball of yarn is getting smaller and smaller:



The scarf is done when I run out of yarn. Next week I fly to Buenos Aires, so I think I will be able to finish the scarf on the plane.

While in North Carolina, I went to some yarn stores, and picked up some Universal Yarn’s Cotton Supreme Batik yarn. I was very excited to find this yarn again, I had found it a few years ago when I was in the Raleigh-Durham area and visited Shuttles Needles and Hooks. It’s very very soft, feels more like a microfiber acrylic than 100% cotton, and was perfect to make a baby sweater out of. So I bought some more for some more baby sweaters….

I bought the cotton batik at YarnHouse, where I bought a skein of ribbon yarn, that made this scarf:

The yarn was difficult to work with, and I’m not in love with the final product, but I am sure there is someone I know who will love it, that I can gift this scarf to.

At Charlotte Yarn I helped my (new) friend Carrie Stokes pick out some yarn for a Mobius shrug, and helped her with the pattern for it – specifically I helped start it. I also got out of my comfort zone and bought some ribbon yarns.

I bought some leopard-print ribbon yarn, to make a scarf for my friend Victoria:

If you look in the middle of the scarf you can see the ribbon itself (there was some left over at the end) and you can see the holes cut into it. I feel like I could re-create this yarn, with 30 meters of wide yarn and a hole punch. This yarn cost $20, and for 30 meters I find that somewhat expensive (although for a whole scarf, it’s totally reasonable). The yarn itself is called “tecido trico”.

Also for $20 I picked up some purple ribbon yarn, which I am making a scarf out of (but it is not done yet):

While in Finland, I bought some amazingly colored sock yarn, from Novita, a Finnish yarn company. I have already made a pair of socks from half of one skein, and I have several more skeins which I think I want to make a Color Affection with. Here are the socks I have made (well, I am *almost* done making):

In this picture I really played with the settings of my camera, and I love how it came out:

Here is the other, completed sock:

I went back and played with the settings, lowering the F-stop as I did for the in-progress sock. I love how this came out:

Compare and contrast the two photos….I think I’m learning how to take some great photos! If you are curious about the pattern, it’s just a regular stockinette sock, with a Sweet Tomato heel, and 2×2 ribbing with an i-cord cast-off for the leg of the sock.

I also finished the Monkey Socks. Here is the 2nd sock:

You probably don’t remember what the first sock looks like, which is OK, here’s the picture I took a while ago of it:

As you can tell, they do not match….but they are from the same yarn! (Superwash Correidale….)

I have been on a bit of a sock kick – I started and completed a pair of socks from Mind’s Eye Yarns, hand-dyed by Lucy. It’s 75% merino, 25% tencel, and they are extremely comfortable socks…again, the pattern is just simple stockinette, with ribbing at the leg, and the Sweet Tomato heel. At $20 for 100g, I can get 2 pairs of socks out of one skein, so it makes me happy:

I have been spinning a fair bit, too. I got some BFL from Spunky Eclectic in the “More Coffee” colorway a while back, and decided a few nights ago to spin on my wheel while I was home. I have spun up about a bobbin and a half, and probably am about halfway done with it:

Also from Spunky is the May 2012 fiber club – also BFL, in the “Big Bang” colorway. As soon as I saw it I knew I had to spin it, so even though I still have not spun the clubs from December through April, I went to work on the May colorway right away. I’m still in love:

While in Finland I started to get back in touch with my spindles, spinning some of the Falkland mini-braids I bought at the Wild and Wooly Festival in April in Vermont, from The Spun Monkey Fiber Shoppe. I have spun just about half of one package – which is 2.5 mini-braids:

I also spun some of the fluff I received in a Phat Fiber sampler box I bought in February (a mixed box):

There was a spindle in the box that I spun on, but I have to say that the Bosworth spindles and my Golding mini ringspindles I have are so perfectly balanced, that everything else feels like spinning with a boat anchor (including the bigger Golding ringspindles, sadly).

The Monkey socks were knit using handspun, and I still have a lot of it. Rather than make tons more socks from the same yarn, which would probably result in 8 more unmatched socks, I decided to make a Cecilia. I have not gotten very far yet, I’m about 33 rows in:

It has been almost a month since my last post on my crafty goings-on. Since then I have gone to Finland (click for pictures) and Charlotte, North Carolina, to speak at conferences. I bought yarn in both places, and have done a lot of knitting and spinning while on planes, in airports, and generally in the cities themselves.

Tony’s Crooked Little Scarf has gotten bigger, and while it’s not quite finished yet, it is over 32 inches long and you can see that the ball of yarn is getting smaller and smaller:



The scarf is done when I run out of yarn. Next week I fly to Buenos Aires, so I think I will be able to finish the scarf on the plane.

While in North Carolina, I went to some yarn stores, and picked up some Universal Yarn’s Cotton Supreme Batik yarn. I was very excited to find this yarn again, I had found it a few years ago when I was in the Raleigh-Durham area and visited Shuttles Needles and Hooks. It’s very very soft, feels more like a microfiber acrylic than 100% cotton, and was perfect to make a baby sweater out of. So I bought some more for some more baby sweaters….

I bought the cotton batik at YarnHouse, where I bought a skein of ribbon yarn, that made this scarf:

The yarn was difficult to work with, and I’m not in love with the final product, but I am sure there is someone I know who will love it, that I can gift this scarf to.

At Charlotte Yarn I helped my (new) friend Carrie Stokes pick out some yarn for a Mobius shrug, and helped her with the pattern for it – specifically I helped start it. I also got out of my comfort zone and bought some ribbon yarns.

I bought some leopard-print ribbon yarn, to make a scarf for my friend Victoria:

If you look in the middle of the scarf you can see the ribbon itself (there was some left over at the end) and you can see the holes cut into it. I feel like I could re-create this yarn, with 30 meters of wide yarn and a hole punch. This yarn cost $20, and for 30 meters I find that somewhat expensive (although for a whole scarf, it’s totally reasonable). The yarn itself is called “tecido trico”.

Also for $20 I picked up some purple ribbon yarn, which I am making a scarf out of (but it is not done yet):

While in Finland, I bought some amazingly colored sock yarn, from Novita, a Finnish yarn company. I have already made a pair of socks from half of one skein, and I have several more skeins which I think I want to make a Color Affection with. Here are the socks I have made (well, I am *almost* done making):

In this picture I really played with the settings of my camera, and I love how it came out:

Here is the other, completed sock:

I went back and played with the settings, lowering the F-stop as I did for the in-progress sock. I love how this came out:

Compare and contrast the two photos….I think I’m learning how to take some great photos! If you are curious about the pattern, it’s just a regular stockinette sock, with a Sweet Tomato heel, and 2×2 ribbing with an i-cord cast-off for the leg of the sock.

I also finished the Monkey Socks. Here is the 2nd sock:

You probably don’t remember what the first sock looks like, which is OK, here’s the picture I took a while ago of it:

As you can tell, they do not match….but they are from the same yarn! (Superwash Correidale….)

I have been on a bit of a sock kick – I started and completed a pair of socks from Mind’s Eye Yarns, hand-dyed by Lucy. It’s 75% merino, 25% tencel, and they are extremely comfortable socks…again, the pattern is just simple stockinette, with ribbing at the leg, and the Sweet Tomato heel. At $20 for 100g, I can get 2 pairs of socks out of one skein, so it makes me happy:

I have been spinning a fair bit, too. I got some BFL from Spunky Eclectic in the “More Coffee” colorway a while back, and decided a few nights ago to spin on my wheel while I was home. I have spun up about a bobbin and a half, and probably am about halfway done with it:

Also from Spunky is the May 2012 fiber club – also BFL, in the “Big Bang” colorway. As soon as I saw it I knew I had to spin it, so even though I still have not spun the clubs from December through April, I went to work on the May colorway right away. I’m still in love:

While in Finland I started to get back in touch with my spindles, spinning some of the Falkland mini-braids I bought at the Wild and Wooly Festival in April in Vermont, from The Spun Monkey Fiber Shoppe. I have spun just about half of one package – which is 2.5 mini-braids:

I also spun some of the fluff I received in a Phat Fiber sampler box I bought in February (a mixed box):

There was a spindle in the box that I spun on, but I have to say that the Bosworth spindles and my Golding mini ringspindles I have are so perfectly balanced, that everything else feels like spinning with a boat anchor (including the bigger Golding ringspindles, sadly).

The Monkey socks were knit using handspun, and I still have a lot of it. Rather than make tons more socks from the same yarn, which would probably result in 8 more unmatched socks, I decided to make a Cecilia. I have not gotten very far yet, I’m about 33 rows in:

It has been almost a month since my last post on my crafty goings-on. Since then I have gone to Finland (click for pictures) and Charlotte, and have done a lot of knitting and spinning while on planes, in airports, and generally in the cities themselves.

Tony’s Crooked Little Scarf has gotten bigger, and while it’s not quite finished yet, it is over 32 inches long and you can see that the ball of yarn is getting smaller and smaller:

The scarf is done when I run out of yarn. Next week I fly to Buenos Aires, so I think I will be able to finish the scarf on the plane.

While in North Carolina, I went to some yarn stores, and picked up some Universal Yarn’s Cotton Supreme Batik yarn. I was very excited to find this yarn again, I had found it a few years ago when I was in the Raleigh-Durham area and visited Shuttles Needles and Hooks. It’s very very soft, feels more like a microfiber acrylic than 100% cotton, and was perfect to make a baby sweater out of. So I bought some more for some more baby sweaters….

I bought the cotton batik at YarnHouse, where I bought a skein of ribbon yarn, that made this scarf:

The yarn was difficult to work with, and I’m not in love with the final product, but I am sure there is someone I know who will love it, that I can gift this scarf to.

At Charlotte Yarn I helped my (new) friend Carrie Stokes pick out some yarn for a Mobius shrug, and helped her with the pattern for it – specifically I helped start it. I also got out of my comfort zone and bought some ribbon yarns.

I bought some leopard-print ribbon yarn, to make a scarf for my friend Victoria:

If you look in the middle of the scarf you can see the ribbon itself (there was some left over at the end) and you can see the holes cut into it. I feel like I could re-create this yarn, with 30 meters of wide yarn and a hole punch. This yarn cost $20, and for 30 meters I find that somewhat expensive (although for a whole scarf, it’s totally reasonable). The yarn itself is called “tecido trico”.

Also for $20 I picked up some purple ribbon yarn, which I am making a scarf out of (but it is not done yet):

While in Finland, I bought some amazingly colored sock yarn, from Novita, a Finnish yarn company. I have already made a pair of socks from half of one skein, and I have several more skeins which I think I want to make a Color Affection with. Here are the socks I have made (well, I am *almost* done making):

In this picture I really played with the settings of my camera, and I love how it came out:

Here is the other, completed sock:

I went back and played with the settings, lowering the F-stop as I did for the in-progress sock. I love how this came out:

Compare and contrast the two photos….I think I’m learning how to take some great photos! If you are curious about the pattern, it’s just a regular stockinette sock, with a Sweet Tomato heel, and 2×2 ribbing with an i-cord cast-off for the leg of the sock.

I also finished the Monkey Socks. Here is the 2nd sock:

You probably don’t remember what the first sock looks like, which is OK, here’s the picture I took a while ago of it:

As you can tell, they do not match….but they are from the same yarn! (Superwash Correidale….)

I have been on a bit of a sock kick – I started and completed a pair of socks from Mind’s Eye Yarns, hand-dyed by Lucy. It’s 75% merino, 25% tencel, and they are extremely comfortable socks…again, the pattern is just simple stockinette, with ribbing at the leg, and the Sweet Tomato heel. At $20 for 100g, I can get 2 pairs of socks out of one skein, so it makes me happy:

I have been spinning a fair bit, too. I got some BFL from Spunky Eclectic in the “More Coffee” colorway a while back, and decided a few nights ago to spin on my wheel while I was home. I have spun up about a bobbin and a half, and probably am about halfway done with it:

Also from Spunky is the May 2012 fiber club – also BFL, in the “Big Bang” colorway. As soon as I saw it I knew I had to spin it, so even though I still have not spun the clubs from December through April, I went to work on the May colorway right away. I’m still in love:

While in Finland I started to get back in touch with my spindles, spinning some of the Falkland mini-braids I bought at the Wild and Wooly Festival in April in Vermont, from The Spun Monkey Fiber Shoppe. I have spun just about half of one package – which is 2.5 mini-braids:

I also spun some of the fluff I received in a Phat Fiber sampler box I bought in February (a mixed box):

There was a spindle in the box that I spun on, but I have to say that the Bosworth spindles and my Golding mini ringspindles I have are so perfectly balanced, that everything else feels like spinning with a boat anchor (including the bigger Golding ringspindles, sadly).

The Monkey socks were knit using handspun, and I still have a lot of it. Rather than make tons more socks from the same yarn, which would probably result in 8 more unmatched socks, I decided to make a Cecilia. I have not gotten very far yet, I’m about 33 rows in:

And that’s it! For now. I look forward to making more socks, finishing Tony’s scarf, working more on the Cecilia, and
It has been almost a month since my last post on my crafty goings-on. Since then I have gone to Finland (click for pictures) and Charlotte, North Carolina, to speak at conferences. I bought yarn in both places, and have done a lot of knitting and spinning while on planes, in airports, and generally in the cities themselves.

Tony’s Crooked Little Scarf has gotten bigger, and while it’s not quite finished yet, it is over 32 inches long and you can see that the ball of yarn is getting smaller and smaller:



The scarf is done when I run out of yarn. Next week I fly to Buenos Aires, so I think I will be able to finish the scarf on the plane.

While in North Carolina, I went to some yarn stores, and picked up some Universal Yarn’s Cotton Supreme Batik yarn. I was very excited to find this yarn again, I had found it a few years ago when I was in the Raleigh-Durham area and visited Shuttles Needles and Hooks. It’s very very soft, feels more like a microfiber acrylic than 100% cotton, and was perfect to make a baby sweater out of. So I bought some more for some more baby sweaters….

I bought the cotton batik at YarnHouse, where I bought a skein of ribbon yarn, that made this scarf:

The yarn was difficult to work with, and I’m not in love with the final product, but I am sure there is someone I know who will love it, that I can gift this scarf to.

At Charlotte Yarn I helped my (new) friend Carrie Stokes pick out some yarn for a Mobius shrug, and helped her with the pattern for it – specifically I helped start it. I also got out of my comfort zone and bought some ribbon yarns.

I bought some leopard-print ribbon yarn, to make a scarf for my friend Victoria:

If you look in the middle of the scarf you can see the ribbon itself (there was some left over at the end) and you can see the holes cut into it. I feel like I could re-create this yarn, with 30 meters of wide yarn and a hole punch. This yarn cost $20, and for 30 meters I find that somewhat expensive (although for a whole scarf, it’s totally reasonable). The yarn itself is called “tecido trico”.

Also for $20 I picked up some purple ribbon yarn, which I am making a scarf out of (but it is not done yet):

While in Finland, I bought some amazingly colored sock yarn, from Novita, a Finnish yarn company. I have already made a pair of socks from half of one skein, and I have several more skeins which I think I want to make a Color Affection with. Here are the socks I have made (well, I am *almost* done making):

In this picture I really played with the settings of my camera, and I love how it came out:

Here is the other, completed sock:

I went back and played with the settings, lowering the F-stop as I did for the in-progress sock. I love how this came out:

Compare and contrast the two photos….I think I’m learning how to take some great photos! If you are curious about the pattern, it’s just a regular stockinette sock, with a Sweet Tomato heel, and 2×2 ribbing with an i-cord cast-off for the leg of the sock.

I also finished the Monkey Socks. Here is the 2nd sock:

You probably don’t remember what the first sock looks like, which is OK, here’s the picture I took a while ago of it:

As you can tell, they do not match….but they are from the same yarn! (Superwash Correidale….)

I have been on a bit of a sock kick – I started and completed a pair of socks from Mind’s Eye Yarns, hand-dyed by Lucy. It’s 75% merino, 25% tencel, and they are extremely comfortable socks…again, the pattern is just simple stockinette, with ribbing at the leg, and the Sweet Tomato heel. At $20 for 100g, I can get 2 pairs of socks out of one skein, so it makes me happy:

I have been spinning a fair bit, too. I got some BFL from Spunky Eclectic in the “More Coffee” colorway a while back, and decided a few nights ago to spin on my wheel while I was home. I have spun up about a bobbin and a half, and probably am about halfway done with it:

Also from Spunky is the May 2012 fiber club – also BFL, in the “Big Bang” colorway. As soon as I saw it I knew I had to spin it, so even though I still have not spun the clubs from December through April, I went to work on the May colorway right away. I’m still in love:

While in Finland I started to get back in touch with my spindles, spinning some of the Falkland mini-braids I bought at the Wild and Wooly Festival in April in Vermont, from The Spun Monkey Fiber Shoppe. I have spun just about half of one package – which is 2.5 mini-braids:

I also spun some of the fluff I received in a Phat Fiber sampler box I bought in February (a mixed box):

There was a spindle in the box that I spun on, but I have to say that the Bosworth spindles and my Golding mini ringspindles I have are so perfectly balanced, that everything else feels like spinning with a boat anchor (including the bigger Golding ringspindles, sadly).

The Monkey socks were knit using handspun, and I still have a lot of it. Rather than make tons more socks from the same yarn, which would probably result in 8 more unmatched socks, I decided to make a Cecilia. I have not gotten very far yet, I’m about 33 rows in:

It has been almost a month since my last post on my crafty goings-on. Since then I have gone to Finland (click for pictures) and Charlotte, and have done a lot of knitting and spinning while on planes, in airports, and generally in the cities themselves.

Tony’s Crooked Little Scarf has gotten bigger, and while it’s not quite finished yet, it is over 32 inches long and you can see that the ball of yarn is getting smaller and smaller:

The scarf is done when I run out of yarn. Next week I fly to Buenos Aires, so I think I will be able to finish the scarf on the plane.

While in North Carolina, I went to some yarn stores, and picked up some Universal Yarn’s Cotton Supreme Batik yarn. I was very excited to find this yarn again, I had found it a few years ago when I was in the Raleigh-Durham area and visited Shuttles Needles and Hooks. It’s very very soft, feels more like a microfiber acrylic than 100% cotton, and was perfect to make a baby sweater out of. So I bought some more for some more baby sweaters….

I bought the cotton batik at YarnHouse, where I bought a skein of ribbon yarn, that made this scarf:

The yarn was difficult to work with, and I’m not in love with the final product, but I am sure there is someone I know who will love it, that I can gift this scarf to.

At Charlotte Yarn I helped my (new) friend Carrie Stokes pick out some yarn for a Mobius shrug, and helped her with the pattern for it – specifically I helped start it. I also got out of my comfort zone and bought some ribbon yarns.

I bought some leopard-print ribbon yarn, to make a scarf for my friend Victoria:

If you look in the middle of the scarf you can see the ribbon itself (there was some left over at the end) and you can see the holes cut into it. I feel like I could re-create this yarn, with 30 meters of wide yarn and a hole punch. This yarn cost $20, and for 30 meters I find that somewhat expensive (although for a whole scarf, it’s totally reasonable). The yarn itself is called “tecido trico”.

Also for $20 I picked up some purple ribbon yarn, which I am making a scarf out of (but it is not done yet):

While in Finland, I bought some amazingly colored sock yarn, from Novita, a Finnish yarn company. I have already made a pair of socks from half of one skein, and I have several more skeins which I think I want to make a Color Affection with. Here are the socks I have made (well, I am *almost* done making):

In this picture I really played with the settings of my camera, and I love how it came out:

Here is the other, completed sock:

I went back and played with the settings, lowering the F-stop as I did for the in-progress sock. I love how this came out:

Compare and contrast the two photos….I think I’m learning how to take some great photos! If you are curious about the pattern, it’s just a regular stockinette sock, with a Sweet Tomato heel, and 2×2 ribbing with an i-cord cast-off for the leg of the sock.

I also finished the Monkey Socks. Here is the 2nd sock:

You probably don’t remember what the first sock looks like, which is OK, here’s the picture I took a while ago of it:

As you can tell, they do not match….but they are from the same yarn! (Superwash Correidale….)

I have been on a bit of a sock kick – I started and completed a pair of socks from Mind’s Eye Yarns, hand-dyed by Lucy. It’s 75% merino, 25% tencel, and they are extremely comfortable socks…again, the pattern is just simple stockinette, with ribbing at the leg, and the Sweet Tomato heel. At $20 for 100g, I can get 2 pairs of socks out of one skein, so it makes me happy:

I have been spinning a fair bit, too. I got some BFL from Spunky Eclectic in the “More Coffee” colorway a while back, and decided a few nights ago to spin on my wheel while I was home. I have spun up about a bobbin and a half, and probably am about halfway done with it:

Also from Spunky is the May 2012 fiber club – also BFL, in the “Big Bang” colorway. As soon as I saw it I knew I had to spin it, so even though I still have not spun the clubs from December through April, I went to work on the May colorway right away. I’m still in love:

While in Finland I started to get back in touch with my spindles, spinning some of the Falkland mini-braids I bought at the Wild and Wooly Festival in April in Vermont, from The Spun Monkey Fiber Shoppe. I have spun just about half of one package – which is 2.5 mini-braids:

I also spun some of the fluff I received in a Phat Fiber sampler box I bought in February (a mixed box):

There was a spindle in the box that I spun on, but I have to say that the Bosworth spindles and my Golding mini ringspindles I have are so perfectly balanced, that everything else feels like spinning with a boat anchor (including the bigger Golding ringspindles, sadly).

The Monkey socks were knit using handspun, and I still have a lot of it. Rather than make tons more socks from the same yarn, which would probably result in 8 more unmatched socks, I decided to make a Cecilia. I have not gotten very far yet, I’m about 33 rows in:

And that’s it! For now. I look forward to making more socks, finishing Tony’s scarf, working more on the Cecilia, and
It has been almost a month since my last post on my crafty goings-on. Since then I have gone to Finland (click for pictures) and Charlotte, North Carolina, to speak at conferences. I bought yarn in both places, and have done a lot of knitting and spinning while on planes, in airports, and generally in the cities themselves.

Tony’s Crooked Little Scarf has gotten bigger, and while it’s not quite finished yet, it is over 32 inches long and you can see that the ball of yarn is getting smaller and smaller:



The scarf is done when I run out of yarn. Next week I fly to Buenos Aires, so I think I will be able to finish the scarf on the plane.

While in North Carolina, I went to some yarn stores, and picked up some Universal Yarn’s Cotton Supreme Batik yarn. I was very excited to find this yarn again, I had found it a few years ago when I was in the Raleigh-Durham area and visited Shuttles Needles and Hooks. It’s very very soft, feels more like a microfiber acrylic than 100% cotton, and was perfect to make a baby sweater out of. So I bought some more for some more baby sweaters….

I bought the cotton batik at YarnHouse, where I bought a skein of ribbon yarn, that made this scarf:

The yarn was difficult to work with, and I’m not in love with the final product, but I am sure there is someone I know who will love it, that I can gift this scarf to.

At Charlotte Yarn I helped my (new) friend Carrie Stokes pick out some yarn for a Mobius shrug, and helped her with the pattern for it – specifically I helped start it. I also got out of my comfort zone and bought some ribbon yarns.

I bought some leopard-print ribbon yarn, to make a scarf for my friend Victoria:

If you look in the middle of the scarf you can see the ribbon itself (there was some left over at the end) and you can see the holes cut into it. I feel like I could re-create this yarn, with 30 meters of wide yarn and a hole punch. This yarn cost $20, and for 30 meters I find that somewhat expensive (although for a whole scarf, it’s totally reasonable). The yarn itself is called “tecido trico”.

Also for $20 I picked up some purple ribbon yarn, which I am making a scarf out of (but it is not done yet):

While in Finland, I bought some amazingly colored sock yarn, from Novita, a Finnish yarn company. I have already made a pair of socks from half of one skein, and I have several more skeins which I think I want to make a Color Affection with. Here are the socks I have made (well, I am *almost* done making):

In this picture I really played with the settings of my camera, and I love how it came out:

Here is the other, completed sock:

I went back and played with the settings, lowering the F-stop as I did for the in-progress sock. I love how this came out:

Compare and contrast the two photos….I think I’m learning how to take some great photos! If you are curious about the pattern, it’s just a regular stockinette sock, with a Sweet Tomato heel, and 2×2 ribbing with an i-cord cast-off for the leg of the sock.

I also finished the Monkey Socks. Here is the 2nd sock:

You probably don’t remember what the first sock looks like, which is OK, here’s the picture I took a while ago of it:

As you can tell, they do not match….but they are from the same yarn! (Superwash Correidale….)

I have been on a bit of a sock kick – I started and completed a pair of socks from Mind’s Eye Yarns, hand-dyed by Lucy. It’s 75% merino, 25% tencel, and they are extremely comfortable socks…again, the pattern is just simple stockinette, with ribbing at the leg, and the Sweet Tomato heel. At $20 for 100g, I can get 2 pairs of socks out of one skein, so it makes me happy:

I have been spinning a fair bit, too. I got some BFL from Spunky Eclectic in the “More Coffee” colorway a while back, and decided a few nights ago to spin on my wheel while I was home. I have spun up about a bobbin and a half, and probably am about halfway done with it:

Also from Spunky is the May 2012 fiber club – also BFL, in the “Big Bang” colorway. As soon as I saw it I knew I had to spin it, so even though I still have not spun the clubs from December through April, I went to work on the May colorway right away. I’m still in love:

While in Finland I started to get back in touch with my spindles, spinning some of the Falkland mini-braids I bought at the Wild and Wooly Festival in April in Vermont, from The Spun Monkey Fiber Shoppe. I have spun just about half of one package – which is 2.5 mini-braids:

I also spun some of the fluff I received in a Phat Fiber sampler box I bought in February (a mixed box):

There was a spindle in the box that I spun on, but I have to say that the Bosworth spindles and my Golding mini ringspindles I have are so perfectly balanced, that everything else feels like spinning with a boat anchor (including the bigger Golding ringspindles, sadly).

The Monkey socks were knit using handspun, and I still have a lot of it. Rather than make tons more socks from the same yarn, which would probably result in 8 more unmatched socks, I decided to make a Cecilia. I have not gotten very far yet, I’m about 33 rows in:

It has been almost a month since my last post on my crafty goings-on. Since then I have gone to Finland (click for pictures) and Charlotte, North Carolina, to speak at conferences. I bought yarn in both places, and have done a lot of knitting and spinning while on planes, in airports, and generally in the cities themselves.

Tony’s Crooked Little Scarf has gotten bigger, and while it’s not quite finished yet, it is over 32 inches long and you can see that the ball of yarn is getting smaller and smaller:



The scarf is done when I run out of yarn. Next week I fly to Buenos Aires, so I think I will be able to finish the scarf on the plane.

While in North Carolina, I went to some yarn stores, and picked up some Universal Yarn’s Cotton Supreme Batik yarn. I was very excited to find this yarn again, I had found it a few years ago when I was in the Raleigh-Durham area and visited Shuttles Needles and Hooks. It’s very very soft, feels more like a microfiber acrylic than 100% cotton, and was perfect to make a baby sweater out of. So I bought some more for some more baby sweaters….

I bought the cotton batik at YarnHouse, where I bought a skein of ribbon yarn, that made this scarf:

The yarn was difficult to work with, and I’m not in love with the final product, but I am sure there is someone I know who will love it, that I can gift this scarf to.

At Charlotte Yarn I helped my (new) friend Carrie Stokes pick out some yarn for a Mobius shrug, and helped her with the pattern for it – specifically I helped start it. I also got out of my comfort zone and bought some ribbon yarns.

I bought some leopard-print ribbon yarn, to make a scarf for my friend Victoria:

If you look in the middle of the scarf you can see the ribbon itself (there was some left over at the end) and you can see the holes cut into it. I feel like I could re-create this yarn, with 30 meters of wide yarn and a hole punch. This yarn cost $20, and for 30 meters I find that somewhat expensive (although for a whole scarf, it’s totally reasonable). The yarn itself is called “tecido trico”.

Also for $20 I picked up some purple ribbon yarn, which I am making a scarf out of (but it is not done yet):

While in Finland, I bought some amazingly colored sock yarn, from Novita, a Finnish yarn company. I have already made a pair of socks from half of one skein, and I have several more skeins which I think I want to make a Color Affection with. Here are the socks I have made (well, I am *almost* done making):

In this picture I really played with the settings of my camera, and I love how it came out:

Here is the other, completed sock:

I went back and played with the settings, lowering the F-stop as I did for the in-progress sock. I love how this came out:

Compare and contrast the two photos….I think I’m learning how to take some great photos! If you are curious about the pattern, it’s just a regular stockinette sock, with a Sweet Tomato heel, and 2×2 ribbing with an i-cord cast-off for the leg of the sock.

I also finished the Monkey Socks. Here is the 2nd sock:

You probably don’t remember what the first sock looks like, which is OK, here’s the picture I took a while ago of it:

As you can tell, they do not match….but they are from the same yarn! (Superwash Correidale….)

I have been on a bit of a sock kick – I started and completed a pair of socks from Mind’s Eye Yarns, hand-dyed by Lucy. It’s 75% merino, 25% tencel, and they are extremely comfortable socks…again, the pattern is just simple stockinette, with ribbing at the leg, and the Sweet Tomato heel. At $20 for 100g, I can get 2 pairs of socks out of one skein, so it makes me happy:

I have been spinning a fair bit, too. I got some BFL from Spunky Eclectic in the “More Coffee” colorway a while back, and decided a few nights ago to spin on my wheel while I was home. I have spun up about a bobbin and a half, and probably am about halfway done with it:

Also from Spunky is the May 2012 fiber club – also BFL, in the “Big Bang” colorway. As soon as I saw it I knew I had to spin it, so even though I still have not spun the clubs from December through April, I went to work on the May colorway right away. I’m still in love:

While in Finland I started to get back in touch with my spindles, spinning some of the Falkland mini-braids I bought at the Wild and Wooly Festival in April in Vermont, from The Spun Monkey Fiber Shoppe. I have spun just about half of one package – which is 2.5 mini-braids:

I also spun some of the fluff I received in a Phat Fiber sampler box I bought in February (a mixed box):

There was a spindle in the box that I spun on, but I have to say that the Bosworth spindles and my Golding mini ringspindles I have are so perfectly balanced, that everything else feels like spinning with a boat anchor (including the bigger Golding ringspindles, sadly).

The Monkey socks were knit using handspun, and I still have a lot of it. Rather than make tons more socks from the same yarn, which would probably result in 8 more unmatched socks, I decided to make a Cecilia. I have not gotten very far yet, I’m about 33 rows in:

It has been almost a month since my last post on my crafty goings-on. Since then I have gone to Finland (click for pictures) and Charlotte, and have done a lot of knitting and spinning while on planes, in airports, and generally in the cities themselves.

Tony’s Crooked Little Scarf has gotten bigger, and while it’s not quite finished yet, it is over 32 inches long and you can see that the ball of yarn is getting smaller and smaller:

The scarf is done when I run out of yarn. Next week I fly to Buenos Aires, so I think I will be able to finish the scarf on the plane.

While in North Carolina, I went to some yarn stores, and picked up some Universal Yarn’s Cotton Supreme Batik yarn. I was very excited to find this yarn again, I had found it a few years ago when I was in the Raleigh-Durham area and visited Shuttles Needles and Hooks. It’s very very soft, feels more like a microfiber acrylic than 100% cotton, and was perfect to make a baby sweater out of. So I bought some more for some more baby sweaters….

I bought the cotton batik at YarnHouse, where I bought a skein of ribbon yarn, that made this scarf:

The yarn was difficult to work with, and I’m not in love with the final product, but I am sure there is someone I know who will love it, that I can gift this scarf to.

At Charlotte Yarn I helped my (new) friend Carrie Stokes pick out some yarn for a Mobius shrug, and helped her with the pattern for it – specifically I helped start it. I also got out of my comfort zone and bought some ribbon yarns.

I bought some leopard-print ribbon yarn, to make a scarf for my friend Victoria:

If you look in the middle of the scarf you can see the ribbon itself (there was some left over at the end) and you can see the holes cut into it. I feel like I could re-create this yarn, with 30 meters of wide yarn and a hole punch. This yarn cost $20, and for 30 meters I find that somewhat expensive (although for a whole scarf, it’s totally reasonable). The yarn itself is called “tecido trico”.

Also for $20 I picked up some purple ribbon yarn, which I am making a scarf out of (but it is not done yet):

While in Finland, I bought some amazingly colored sock yarn, from Novita, a Finnish yarn company. I have already made a pair of socks from half of one skein, and I have several more skeins which I think I want to make a Color Affection with. Here are the socks I have made (well, I am *almost* done making):

In this picture I really played with the settings of my camera, and I love how it came out:

Here is the other, completed sock:

I went back and played with the settings, lowering the F-stop as I did for the in-progress sock. I love how this came out:

Compare and contrast the two photos….I think I’m learning how to take some great photos! If you are curious about the pattern, it’s just a regular stockinette sock, with a Sweet Tomato heel, and 2×2 ribbing with an i-cord cast-off for the leg of the sock.

I also finished the Monkey Socks. Here is the 2nd sock:

You probably don’t remember what the first sock looks like, which is OK, here’s the picture I took a while ago of it:

As you can tell, they do not match….but they are from the same yarn! (Superwash Correidale….)

I have been on a bit of a sock kick – I started and completed a pair of socks from Mind’s Eye Yarns, hand-dyed by Lucy. It’s 75% merino, 25% tencel, and they are extremely comfortable socks…again, the pattern is just simple stockinette, with ribbing at the leg, and the Sweet Tomato heel. At $20 for 100g, I can get 2 pairs of socks out of one skein, so it makes me happy:

I have been spinning a fair bit, too. I got some BFL from Spunky Eclectic in the “More Coffee” colorway a while back, and decided a few nights ago to spin on my wheel while I was home. I have spun up about a bobbin and a half, and probably am about halfway done with it:

Also from Spunky is the May 2012 fiber club – also BFL, in the “Big Bang” colorway. As soon as I saw it I knew I had to spin it, so even though I still have not spun the clubs from December through April, I went to work on the May colorway right away. I’m still in love:

While in Finland I started to get back in touch with my spindles, spinning some of the Falkland mini-braids I bought at the Wild and Wooly Festival in April in Vermont, from The Spun Monkey Fiber Shoppe. I have spun just about half of one package – which is 2.5 mini-braids:

I also spun some of the fluff I received in a Phat Fiber sampler box I bought in February (a mixed box):

There was a spindle in the box that I spun on, but I have to say that the Bosworth spindles and my Golding mini ringspindles I have are so perfectly balanced, that everything else feels like spinning with a boat anchor (including the bigger Golding ringspindles, sadly).

The Monkey socks were knit using handspun, and I still have a lot of it. Rather than make tons more socks from the same yarn, which would probably result in 8 more unmatched socks, I decided to make a Cecilia. I have not gotten very far yet, I’m about 33 rows in:

And that’s it! For now. I look forward to making more socks, finishing Tony’s scarf, working more on the Cecilia, and
It has been almost a month since my last post on my crafty goings-on. Since then I have gone to Finland (click for pictures) and Charlotte, North Carolina, to speak at conferences. I bought yarn in both places, and have done a lot of knitting and spinning while on planes, in airports, and generally in the cities themselves.

Tony’s Crooked Little Scarf has gotten bigger, and while it’s not quite finished yet, it is over 32 inches long and you can see that the ball of yarn is getting smaller and smaller:



The scarf is done when I run out of yarn. Next week I fly to Buenos Aires, so I think I will be able to finish the scarf on the plane.

While in North Carolina, I went to some yarn stores, and picked up some Universal Yarn’s Cotton Supreme Batik yarn. I was very excited to find this yarn again, I had found it a few years ago when I was in the Raleigh-Durham area and visited Shuttles Needles and Hooks. It’s very very soft, feels more like a microfiber acrylic than 100% cotton, and was perfect to make a baby sweater out of. So I bought some more for some more baby sweaters….

I bought the cotton batik at YarnHouse, where I bought a skein of ribbon yarn, that made this scarf:

The yarn was difficult to work with, and I’m not in love with the final product, but I am sure there is someone I know who will love it, that I can gift this scarf to.

At Charlotte Yarn I helped my (new) friend Carrie Stokes pick out some yarn for a Mobius shrug, and helped her with the pattern for it – specifically I helped start it. I also got out of my comfort zone and bought some ribbon yarns.

I bought some leopard-print ribbon yarn, to make a scarf for my friend Victoria:

If you look in the middle of the scarf you can see the ribbon itself (there was some left over at the end) and you can see the holes cut into it. I feel like I could re-create this yarn, with 30 meters of wide yarn and a hole punch. This yarn cost $20, and for 30 meters I find that somewhat expensive (although for a whole scarf, it’s totally reasonable). The yarn itself is called “tecido trico”.

Also for $20 I picked up some purple ribbon yarn, which I am making a scarf out of (but it is not done yet):

While in Finland, I bought some amazingly colored sock yarn, from Novita, a Finnish yarn company. I have already made a pair of socks from half of one skein, and I have several more skeins which I think I want to make a Color Affection with. Here are the socks I have made (well, I am *almost* done making):

In this picture I really played with the settings of my camera, and I love how it came out:

Here is the other, completed sock:

I went back and played with the settings, lowering the F-stop as I did for the in-progress sock. I love how this came out:

Compare and contrast the two photos….I think I’m learning how to take some great photos! If you are curious about the pattern, it’s just a regular stockinette sock, with a Sweet Tomato heel, and 2×2 ribbing with an i-cord cast-off for the leg of the sock.

I also finished the Monkey Socks. Here is the 2nd sock:

You probably don’t remember what the first sock looks like, which is OK, here’s the picture I took a while ago of it:

As you can tell, they do not match….but they are from the same yarn! (Superwash Correidale….)

I have been on a bit of a sock kick – I started and completed a pair of socks from Mind’s Eye Yarns, hand-dyed by Lucy. It’s 75% merino, 25% tencel, and they are extremely comfortable socks…again, the pattern is just simple stockinette, with ribbing at the leg, and the Sweet Tomato heel. At $20 for 100g, I can get 2 pairs of socks out of one skein, so it makes me happy:

I have been spinning a fair bit, too. I got some BFL from Spunky Eclectic in the “More Coffee” colorway a while back, and decided a few nights ago to spin on my wheel while I was home. I have spun up about a bobbin and a half, and probably am about halfway done with it:

Also from Spunky is the May 2012 fiber club – also BFL, in the “Big Bang” colorway. As soon as I saw it I knew I had to spin it, so even though I still have not spun the clubs from December through April, I went to work on the May colorway right away. I’m still in love:

While in Finland I started to get back in touch with my spindles, spinning some of the Falkland mini-braids I bought at the Wild and Wooly Festival in April in Vermont, from The Spun Monkey Fiber Shoppe. I have spun just about half of one package – which is 2.5 mini-braids:

I also spun some of the fluff I received in a Phat Fiber sampler box I bought in February (a mixed box):

There was a spindle in the box that I spun on, but I have to say that the Bosworth spindles and my Golding mini ringspindles I have are so perfectly balanced, that everything else feels like spinning with a boat anchor (including the bigger Golding ringspindles, sadly).

The Monkey socks were knit using handspun, and I still have a lot of it. Rather than make tons more socks from the same yarn, which would probably result in 8 more unmatched socks, I decided to make a Cecilia. I have not gotten very far yet, I’m about 33 rows in:

Buenos Aires has a span of a few blocks, more about not too far from the Malabia metro station* where there are many yarn shops, I counted 15, and went into 11 of them before I had to stop. The shops are on Ave. Scalabrini Ortiz just southwest of Ave. Cordoba, towards Ave. Correintes. The Malabia metro station is on the corner of Correintes and Scalabrini Ortiz, which is 1 km away from the corner of Cordoba and Corrientes, and about half that until you see your first yarn shop. There was a small bit of yarn bombing between two of the stores:

Yarn shopping in Buenos Aires is quite different from what I’m used to in the States. The stores all look like this:

The yarn is beautiful, and well-organized, but there’s no signs as to what the yarn is made up of, how much it costs nor the gauge of the yarn. In addition, you’re not supposed to take the yarn out of the bins. If you look at the bottom right of that picture, you’ll see some white yarn and blue yarn that is actually sitting on top of a counter. That counter separates you from the wall, and there are people behind the counter who can help you get what you want.

So it’s very different from the experience I’m used to. I got the feeling that a lot of people knew exactly what they wanted to buy, or walked in and would say “do you have anything made of wool?” I was feeling a bit shy due to the language barrier, so I picked up a Spanish phrase: “solamente mirando” – it means “Just looking”. The people are friendly and willing to help, but I like the yarn buying process to be a solo activity.

There were 2 exceptions to the fact that most stores don’t give any information about their items.: Milana hilados and Yanabey. Milana hilados had tags like this near most of their yarn:

Note that that’s in Argentinian pesos, and at the time, this was less than USD $10 per 100g. Another thing to note is the price is per 100g, not per hank of yarn. You’d ask a sales associate to take the yarn down for you and they’d weigh it and ask you if that was OK (kind of like at the deli counter). Then they give you a slip of paper and you take it to a cash register, where you’re usually helped by someone else. Another interesting thing is that the stores seemed to be staffed by about half men, half women, which is very different from yarn stores in the States, which are probably about 90% staffed by women.

I bought 3 hanks of yarn there, for about $25:

Yanabey had signs like this:

These prices are still in Argentinian pesos, but they’re in kilos. So these prices are $171 for 1 kilo, which is $17.10 for 100g. This is a wall of “seda vegetal”, or “vegetable silk“. By the way, that’s about USD $35 per kilo. So I bought 6 skeins, which was just over a kilo, because the tree which this comes from (ceiba speciosa, or “silk floss tree”) is native to South America, and I haven’t seen “vegetable silk” in the US.

A lot of the stores have the recycled t-shirt yarn, and I bought some at Arte Natural:

BUTTONS!!!

I was thinking I might make a purse from the yarn, like this:

That purse is crocheted, but I’m sure I can come up with a knitted version.

Here’s what I bought from that store:

Here’s a Spanish primer for some important words:
cachemira – cashmere
acrílico – acrylic
lana – wool
seda – silk
alpaca – alpaca
hilo – yarn (plural: hilados)
Also, I found out that cashmerillo is just an acrylic yarn that’s very soft. Don’t be fooled by price, some of the acrylic yarns are *very* expensive, even more expensive than the wool.

I was very excited by the prospect of all these yarn stores, and after these three purchases I was done, and passed by 4 other yarn stores that I didn’t even walk into. In addition, there were at least 2 weaving stores, and another 2 fabric stores. Only one of the yarn stores had fiber to spin, and it looked like combed top, and was somewhat expensive (by US standards).

All in all, I was extremely satisfied by taking a few hours to shop for yarn, but I found the experience quite different from what I’m used to.

* I was instructed by a friend who had visited Buenos Aires to take a taxi to the corner of X and Y. However, I enjoy walking around and public transit, so I noticed the subway stop was not far, and decided to walk a few blocks. To those who are considering what to do, a taxi would have cost about 20 pesos (about USD $5) each way. The subway costs $5 for two rides, but of course is not door to door. Another thing to note about the subway is that it is not the most modern system:

And you will get plenty of people trying to make money – some play music, which you may be used to from other subway systems. Others will go around a subway car, handing out products, and then go around and either collect the product back or collect money. I was handed tissues and Disney books – or at least, they attempted to hand stuff to me, and I refused. It helped that I had knitting in my hands, but I saw them just place stuff on people’s laps if their hands were busy, so don’t just look away, make sure you actually refuse by shaking your head.

Note: I hope this article is helpful! Due to spam reasons, all articles on this site have comments disabled after a short time. If you want to leave feedback, you can tweet @sheeri or e-mail me at awfief at gmail dot com. (replace “at” with @ and “dot com” with .com to get the real e-mail address).

In My Crafty World, Sat June 16th

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:

Floating Down as fiber

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:

Floating Down as yarn

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:

Floating Down as fiber

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:

Floating Down as yarn

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:

Floating Down as fiber

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:

Floating Down as yarn

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:

Floating Down as fiber

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:

Floating Down as yarn

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:

Floating Down as fiber

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:

Floating Down as yarn

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:

Floating Down as fiber

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:

Floating Down as yarn

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:

Floating Down as fiber

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:

Floating Down as yarn

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:

Floating Down as fiber

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:

Floating Down as yarn

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:

Floating Down as fiber

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:

Floating Down as yarn

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:

Floating Down as fiber

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:

Floating Down as yarn

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:

Floating Down as fiber

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:

Floating Down as yarn

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:

Floating Down as fiber

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:

Floating Down as yarn

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:

Floating Down as fiber

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:

Floating Down as yarn

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:

Floating Down as fiber

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:

Floating Down as yarn

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:

Floating Down as fiber

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:

Floating Down as yarn

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!
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!
I know, “spinning textured yarns” and “core spinning”. Both classes are on Saturday, so I figured I’d do classes on Saturday and shopping on Sunday.

This is a kate with 3 bobbins that are on semi-permanent “rest” until I can find something good to ply them with.

The top is remnants from an Enchanted Knoll Farm Batt that I made into a boucle yarn. It’s a 2-ply yarn right now, so it might just need me to take it off the bobbin. Which I really ought to do, since I need all the bobbins I can get my hands on for this weekend! The middle is carbonized bamboo, which sounds neat, but it not a fun spin – it’s a little squeaky (like dried chalk powder rubbed together), and has no memory. I plied a lot of it with some wool, and that’s what I’m making Tony’s scarf out of. It’s plenty fine to knit with.

The bottom of the kate is the rest of the undyed silk that I spun. I wanted to spin and dye this in April, but I have no idea if I want to ply this together (and have silk yarn) or ply it with something else…and of course what I ply it with will probably determine how I dye it. So for now, it’s all spun up but resting on the bobbin, ready to be plied, to itself or something else.

This next lot is some nice blue metallic thread that I recovered from a sweater. The thread was accompanied by blue acrylic, which I threw away, because I just wanted the thread. It looks like it’s not a lot on the bobbin, but there really is – I measured it at 96 wpi (well, I measured 24 wraps for a 1/4 inch):

I also have no idea of what I want to do with the metallic blue thread, it will probably be put into a few different projects since I doubt I’ll make a sweater with it.

And finally, I started and finished spinning some small samples I got in February’s Phat Fiber Mixed Sampler Box. There was some silver sparkly yarn and some red yarn, so I spun them up and plied ’em together, and got this:


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!
I know, “spinning textured yarns” and “core spinning”. Both classes are on Saturday, so I figured I’d do classes on Saturday and shopping on Sunday.

This is a kate with 3 bobbins that are on semi-permanent “rest” until I can find something good to ply them with.

The top is remnants from an Enchanted Knoll Farm Batt that I made into a boucle yarn. It’s a 2-ply yarn right now, so it might just need me to take it off the bobbin. Which I really ought to do, since I need all the bobbins I can get my hands on for this weekend! The middle is carbonized bamboo, which sounds neat, but it not a fun spin – it’s a little squeaky (like dried chalk powder rubbed together), and has no memory. I plied a lot of it with some wool, and that’s what I’m making Tony’s scarf out of. It’s plenty fine to knit with.

The bottom of the kate is the rest of the undyed silk that I spun. I wanted to spin and dye this in April, but I have no idea if I want to ply this together (and have silk yarn) or ply it with something else…and of course what I ply it with will probably determine how I dye it. So for now, it’s all spun up but resting on the bobbin, ready to be plied, to itself or something else.

This next lot is some nice blue metallic thread that I recovered from a sweater. The thread was accompanied by blue acrylic, which I threw away, because I just wanted the thread. It looks like it’s not a lot on the bobbin, but there really is – I measured it at 96 wpi (well, I measured 24 wraps for a 1/4 inch):

I also have no idea of what I want to do with the metallic blue thread, it will probably be put into a few different projects since I doubt I’ll make a sweater with it.

And finally, I started and finished spinning some small samples I got in February’s Phat Fiber Mixed Sampler Box. There was some silver sparkly yarn and some red yarn, so I spun them up and plied ’em together, and got this:


I know, decease I just posted a few days ago! I am excited and privileged to be attending the Wild & Woolly Weekend this weekend in Proctorsville, Vermont. I will be taking two classes, “spinning textured yarns” and “core spinning”. Both classes are on Saturday, so I figured I’d do classes on Saturday and shopping on Sunday.

This is a kate with 3 bobbins that are on semi-permanent “rest” until I can find something good to ply them with.

The top is remnants from an Enchanted Knoll Farm Batt that I made into a boucle yarn. It’s a 2-ply yarn right now, so it might just need me to take it off the bobbin. Which I really ought to do, since I need all the bobbins I can get my hands on for this weekend! The middle is carbonized bamboo, which sounds neat, but it not a fun spin – it’s a little squeaky (like dried chalk powder rubbed together), and has no memory. I plied a lot of it with some wool, and that’s what I’m making Tony’s scarf out of. It’s plenty fine to knit with.

The bottom of the kate is the rest of the undyed silk that I spun. I wanted to spin and dye this in April, but I have no idea if I want to ply this together (and have silk yarn) or ply it with something else…and of course what I ply it with will probably determine how I dye it. So for now, it’s all spun up but resting on the bobbin, ready to be plied, to itself or something else.

This next lot is some nice blue metallic thread that I recovered from a sweater. The thread was accompanied by blue acrylic, which I threw away, because I just wanted the thread. It looks like it’s not a lot on the bobbin, but there really is – I measured it at 96 wpi (well, I measured 24 wraps for a 1/4 inch):

I also have no idea of what I want to do with the metallic blue thread, it will probably be put into a few different projects since I doubt I’ll make a sweater with it.

And finally, I started and finished spinning some small samples I got in February’s
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!
I know, “spinning textured yarns” and “core spinning”. Both classes are on Saturday, so I figured I’d do classes on Saturday and shopping on Sunday.

This is a kate with 3 bobbins that are on semi-permanent “rest” until I can find something good to ply them with.

The top is remnants from an Enchanted Knoll Farm Batt that I made into a boucle yarn. It’s a 2-ply yarn right now, so it might just need me to take it off the bobbin. Which I really ought to do, since I need all the bobbins I can get my hands on for this weekend! The middle is carbonized bamboo, which sounds neat, but it not a fun spin – it’s a little squeaky (like dried chalk powder rubbed together), and has no memory. I plied a lot of it with some wool, and that’s what I’m making Tony’s scarf out of. It’s plenty fine to knit with.

The bottom of the kate is the rest of the undyed silk that I spun. I wanted to spin and dye this in April, but I have no idea if I want to ply this together (and have silk yarn) or ply it with something else…and of course what I ply it with will probably determine how I dye it. So for now, it’s all spun up but resting on the bobbin, ready to be plied, to itself or something else.

This next lot is some nice blue metallic thread that I recovered from a sweater. The thread was accompanied by blue acrylic, which I threw away, because I just wanted the thread. It looks like it’s not a lot on the bobbin, but there really is – I measured it at 96 wpi (well, I measured 24 wraps for a 1/4 inch):

I also have no idea of what I want to do with the metallic blue thread, it will probably be put into a few different projects since I doubt I’ll make a sweater with it.

And finally, I started and finished spinning some small samples I got in February’s Phat Fiber Mixed Sampler Box. There was some silver sparkly yarn and some red yarn, so I spun them up and plied ’em together, and got this:


I know, decease I just posted a few days ago! I am excited and privileged to be attending the Wild & Woolly Weekend this weekend in Proctorsville, Vermont. I will be taking two classes, “spinning textured yarns” and “core spinning”. Both classes are on Saturday, so I figured I’d do classes on Saturday and shopping on Sunday.

This is a kate with 3 bobbins that are on semi-permanent “rest” until I can find something good to ply them with.

The top is remnants from an Enchanted Knoll Farm Batt that I made into a boucle yarn. It’s a 2-ply yarn right now, so it might just need me to take it off the bobbin. Which I really ought to do, since I need all the bobbins I can get my hands on for this weekend! The middle is carbonized bamboo, which sounds neat, but it not a fun spin – it’s a little squeaky (like dried chalk powder rubbed together), and has no memory. I plied a lot of it with some wool, and that’s what I’m making Tony’s scarf out of. It’s plenty fine to knit with.

The bottom of the kate is the rest of the undyed silk that I spun. I wanted to spin and dye this in April, but I have no idea if I want to ply this together (and have silk yarn) or ply it with something else…and of course what I ply it with will probably determine how I dye it. So for now, it’s all spun up but resting on the bobbin, ready to be plied, to itself or something else.

This next lot is some nice blue metallic thread that I recovered from a sweater. The thread was accompanied by blue acrylic, which I threw away, because I just wanted the thread. It looks like it’s not a lot on the bobbin, but there really is – I measured it at 96 wpi (well, I measured 24 wraps for a 1/4 inch):

I also have no idea of what I want to do with the metallic blue thread, it will probably be put into a few different projects since I doubt I’ll make a sweater with it.

And finally, I started and finished spinning some small samples I got in February’s
I know, Vermont. I will be taking two classes, “spinning textured yarns” and “core spinning”. Both classes are on Saturday, so I figured I’d do classes on Saturday and shopping on Sunday.

This is a kate with 3 bobbins that are on semi-permanent “rest” until I can find something good to ply them with.

The top is remnants from an Enchanted Knoll Farm Batt that I made into a boucle yarn. It’s a 2-ply yarn right now, so it might just need me to take it off the bobbin. Which I really ought to do, since I need all the bobbins I can get my hands on for this weekend! The middle is carbonized bamboo, which sounds neat, but it not a fun spin – it’s a little squeaky (like dried chalk powder rubbed together), and has no memory. I plied a lot of it with some wool, and that’s what I’m making Tony’s scarf out of. It’s plenty fine to knit with.

The bottom of the kate is the rest of the undyed silk that I spun. I wanted to spin and dye this in April, but I have no idea if I want to ply this together (and have silk yarn) or ply it with something else…and of course what I ply it with will probably determine how I dye it. So for now, it’s all spun up but resting on the bobbin, ready to be plied, to itself or something else.

This next lot is some nice blue metallic thread that I recovered from a sweater. The thread was accompanied by blue acrylic, which I threw away, because I just wanted the thread. It looks like it’s not a lot on the bobbin, but there really is – I measured it at 96 wpi (well, I measured 24 wraps for a 1/4 inch):

I also have no idea of what I want to do with the metallic blue thread, it will probably be put into a few different projects since I doubt I’ll make a sweater with it.

And finally, I started and finished spinning some small samples I got in February’s Phat Fiber Mixed Sampler Box. There was some silver sparkly yarn and some red yarn, so I spun them up and plied ’em together, and got this:


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!
I know, “spinning textured yarns” and “core spinning”. Both classes are on Saturday, so I figured I’d do classes on Saturday and shopping on Sunday.

This is a kate with 3 bobbins that are on semi-permanent “rest” until I can find something good to ply them with.

The top is remnants from an Enchanted Knoll Farm Batt that I made into a boucle yarn. It’s a 2-ply yarn right now, so it might just need me to take it off the bobbin. Which I really ought to do, since I need all the bobbins I can get my hands on for this weekend! The middle is carbonized bamboo, which sounds neat, but it not a fun spin – it’s a little squeaky (like dried chalk powder rubbed together), and has no memory. I plied a lot of it with some wool, and that’s what I’m making Tony’s scarf out of. It’s plenty fine to knit with.

The bottom of the kate is the rest of the undyed silk that I spun. I wanted to spin and dye this in April, but I have no idea if I want to ply this together (and have silk yarn) or ply it with something else…and of course what I ply it with will probably determine how I dye it. So for now, it’s all spun up but resting on the bobbin, ready to be plied, to itself or something else.

This next lot is some nice blue metallic thread that I recovered from a sweater. The thread was accompanied by blue acrylic, which I threw away, because I just wanted the thread. It looks like it’s not a lot on the bobbin, but there really is – I measured it at 96 wpi (well, I measured 24 wraps for a 1/4 inch):

I also have no idea of what I want to do with the metallic blue thread, it will probably be put into a few different projects since I doubt I’ll make a sweater with it.

And finally, I started and finished spinning some small samples I got in February’s Phat Fiber Mixed Sampler Box. There was some silver sparkly yarn and some red yarn, so I spun them up and plied ’em together, and got this:


I know, decease I just posted a few days ago! I am excited and privileged to be attending the Wild & Woolly Weekend this weekend in Proctorsville, Vermont. I will be taking two classes, “spinning textured yarns” and “core spinning”. Both classes are on Saturday, so I figured I’d do classes on Saturday and shopping on Sunday.

This is a kate with 3 bobbins that are on semi-permanent “rest” until I can find something good to ply them with.

The top is remnants from an Enchanted Knoll Farm Batt that I made into a boucle yarn. It’s a 2-ply yarn right now, so it might just need me to take it off the bobbin. Which I really ought to do, since I need all the bobbins I can get my hands on for this weekend! The middle is carbonized bamboo, which sounds neat, but it not a fun spin – it’s a little squeaky (like dried chalk powder rubbed together), and has no memory. I plied a lot of it with some wool, and that’s what I’m making Tony’s scarf out of. It’s plenty fine to knit with.

The bottom of the kate is the rest of the undyed silk that I spun. I wanted to spin and dye this in April, but I have no idea if I want to ply this together (and have silk yarn) or ply it with something else…and of course what I ply it with will probably determine how I dye it. So for now, it’s all spun up but resting on the bobbin, ready to be plied, to itself or something else.

This next lot is some nice blue metallic thread that I recovered from a sweater. The thread was accompanied by blue acrylic, which I threw away, because I just wanted the thread. It looks like it’s not a lot on the bobbin, but there really is – I measured it at 96 wpi (well, I measured 24 wraps for a 1/4 inch):

I also have no idea of what I want to do with the metallic blue thread, it will probably be put into a few different projects since I doubt I’ll make a sweater with it.

And finally, I started and finished spinning some small samples I got in February’s
I know, Vermont. I will be taking two classes, “spinning textured yarns” and “core spinning”. Both classes are on Saturday, so I figured I’d do classes on Saturday and shopping on Sunday.

This is a kate with 3 bobbins that are on semi-permanent “rest” until I can find something good to ply them with.

The top is remnants from an Enchanted Knoll Farm Batt that I made into a boucle yarn. It’s a 2-ply yarn right now, so it might just need me to take it off the bobbin. Which I really ought to do, since I need all the bobbins I can get my hands on for this weekend! The middle is carbonized bamboo, which sounds neat, but it not a fun spin – it’s a little squeaky (like dried chalk powder rubbed together), and has no memory. I plied a lot of it with some wool, and that’s what I’m making Tony’s scarf out of. It’s plenty fine to knit with.

The bottom of the kate is the rest of the undyed silk that I spun. I wanted to spin and dye this in April, but I have no idea if I want to ply this together (and have silk yarn) or ply it with something else…and of course what I ply it with will probably determine how I dye it. So for now, it’s all spun up but resting on the bobbin, ready to be plied, to itself or something else.

This next lot is some nice blue metallic thread that I recovered from a sweater. The thread was accompanied by blue acrylic, which I threw away, because I just wanted the thread. It looks like it’s not a lot on the bobbin, but there really is – I measured it at 96 wpi (well, I measured 24 wraps for a 1/4 inch):

I also have no idea of what I want to do with the metallic blue thread, it will probably be put into a few different projects since I doubt I’ll make a sweater with it.

And finally, I started and finished spinning some small samples I got in February’s Phat Fiber Mixed Sampler Box. There was some silver sparkly yarn and some red yarn, so I spun them up and plied ’em together, and got this:


So, and mostly I took my bag up to my room, showered, and went to sleep. More about the Inn later….

I woke up early the next morning and met another woman staying at the Inn who was also going to the Weekend, Barbara. Barbara and I talked during the delicious breakfast that Julie and Michael (the owners of the Inn) provided. As it turns out, she’s a spinner as well, and was taking the same classes I was on Saturday. Both classes were taught by Patty Blomgren, a local Vermont spinning instructor.

The first class was Textured Spinning – we went over a few ways to make textured yarn.

The first way was to use some washed but unprocessed fleece – pick and tease apart locks and other fibers, and just use as-is. Then we tried practicing an autowrap. Here’s the yarn I made as a result — it’s definitely textured!

picking and teasing, autowrap sample

I took the rest of the handfuls of unprocessed yarn and ran them through the drum carder – part of the fun of this workshop was playing with one of three drum carders Patty set up for us. So here is the batt I made with the same stuff as is in the yarn above – I have not spun this up yet, but when I do I will spin it worsted and see how much smoother that yarn can be.

batt with same fibers as yarn above

Then I made a colorway I like to call “Creamsicle”:

creamsicle batt

And I spun it into yarn:

Creamsicle yarn

Then I made a thick-and-thin yarn with some targhee from Spunky Eclectic that I’d brought:

thick and thin yarn

Patty had a handout for us, so we’d remember what we did. We did not get to any of the plying techniques officially, but we did make some knots, and I’ve made some bobbles before.

The second class, also with Patty, was corespun yarn. She also provided a handout. These techniques were much more tricky, and we didn’t get to nearly as many.

We did some basic core spinning with commercial yarn as the core. I used a two-ply wool, and found that wrapping roving around was easy once I got the basic motion down and used *very* little fiber. I’ve tried core spinning before and never really got the hang of it. I think the secret really is using a very little bit of roving/top to wrap around the core. Here is some of this first type of core spinning:

first core spun

I then used the thick and thin yarn around the core to make a different kind of core-spun yarn. The little “beads” or “beehives” in the yarn are the thick parts. The most obvious of these are the three on the very bottom, in blue/brown. There are tighter/less fuzzy ones in the 2nd yarn from the top edge, the red/brown yarn. In this sample I showed a lot of the core on purpose:

core spun with beehives and showing the core

I’m working on the rest of the thick and thin targhee, core spinning it over a core where I’m trying not to show the core. It’s mostly working:

thick and thin core spun, not showing core

It’s not totally perfect, but it’s looking good.

All of the yarn is very kinky when I first spin it. I wasn’t able to let any of this rest, as I just spun it this weekend, but I did wash the samples, and dry them under tension – I don’t normally do this, because it will just re-kink up on washing, but I wanted to see what the yarn would look like when it was less kinky. The stuff still on the bobbin is very kinky, and I’ll probably let it rest, and then wash it.

Unfortunately, the vendor times were exactly the same as the classes, so I did not get a chance to shop on Saturday. Luckily, I noticed this ahead of time, so I figured Sunday would be for shopping. At the end of the class, Patty let us raid her stash, so I took home some firestar, Ashland Bay merino/silk, and hand-dyed corriedale. I did have some fiber I gave away – I let Patty take some of the targhee, and I gave her the rest of my Louet Black Diamond, a carbonized bamboo that I did not enjoy spinning (it felt like spinning chalk powder, and has absolutely zero memory). I also gave Jennifer, a fellow classmate, some silk hankies that I wasn’t enjoying pulling apart to spin.

I did, however, win a door prize – a Knit Local canvas bag:

knit local tote bag

Saturday night Barbara and I went to DJ’s Restaurant for dinner, which was a good pick (on Julie’s recommendation). After that, I spun by the fireplace for a few hours, practicing what I’d learned that day.

Sunday I woke up, packed up, had breakfast and a nice long conversation with Julie and Michael, checked out and went to the festival again. A few pictures from the Inn:

pottery

The record player:

record player

These chickens were crossing the road. I wonder why?

why did these chickens cross the road?

A bunch of teapots at the Inn. I think my favorite is the fish one (just to the right of the cow one):

teapots!

This was my shopping day, and it was a lot of browsing and also a lot of talking to people. I started out helping a booth set up, and then bought a few magazines (Cast On and Piecework), and some “knit local” stickers and a “knit local” car magnet, some knitty gift tags and a brooch/shawl pin.

I bought a bunch of fiber, including some locally grown Shetland, some hand-dyed Falkland, and a few batts. I also won some flax in another door prize, and got some spinning done. I talked to a LOT of people, including Dave Paul of The Merlin Tree, maker of the HitchHiker and Road Bug spinning wheels. I spun on one and LOVED it, but resisted buying one:

hitchhiker spinning wheel

It was a great day, topped off with a visit with a friend in White River Junction, Vermont, then a visit with another friend near Manchester, NH, and then finally home to my husband and dinner.
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!
I know, “spinning textured yarns” and “core spinning”. Both classes are on Saturday, so I figured I’d do classes on Saturday and shopping on Sunday.

This is a kate with 3 bobbins that are on semi-permanent “rest” until I can find something good to ply them with.

The top is remnants from an Enchanted Knoll Farm Batt that I made into a boucle yarn. It’s a 2-ply yarn right now, so it might just need me to take it off the bobbin. Which I really ought to do, since I need all the bobbins I can get my hands on for this weekend! The middle is carbonized bamboo, which sounds neat, but it not a fun spin – it’s a little squeaky (like dried chalk powder rubbed together), and has no memory. I plied a lot of it with some wool, and that’s what I’m making Tony’s scarf out of. It’s plenty fine to knit with.

The bottom of the kate is the rest of the undyed silk that I spun. I wanted to spin and dye this in April, but I have no idea if I want to ply this together (and have silk yarn) or ply it with something else…and of course what I ply it with will probably determine how I dye it. So for now, it’s all spun up but resting on the bobbin, ready to be plied, to itself or something else.

This next lot is some nice blue metallic thread that I recovered from a sweater. The thread was accompanied by blue acrylic, which I threw away, because I just wanted the thread. It looks like it’s not a lot on the bobbin, but there really is – I measured it at 96 wpi (well, I measured 24 wraps for a 1/4 inch):

I also have no idea of what I want to do with the metallic blue thread, it will probably be put into a few different projects since I doubt I’ll make a sweater with it.

And finally, I started and finished spinning some small samples I got in February’s Phat Fiber Mixed Sampler Box. There was some silver sparkly yarn and some red yarn, so I spun them up and plied ’em together, and got this:


I know, decease I just posted a few days ago! I am excited and privileged to be attending the Wild & Woolly Weekend this weekend in Proctorsville, Vermont. I will be taking two classes, “spinning textured yarns” and “core spinning”. Both classes are on Saturday, so I figured I’d do classes on Saturday and shopping on Sunday.

This is a kate with 3 bobbins that are on semi-permanent “rest” until I can find something good to ply them with.

The top is remnants from an Enchanted Knoll Farm Batt that I made into a boucle yarn. It’s a 2-ply yarn right now, so it might just need me to take it off the bobbin. Which I really ought to do, since I need all the bobbins I can get my hands on for this weekend! The middle is carbonized bamboo, which sounds neat, but it not a fun spin – it’s a little squeaky (like dried chalk powder rubbed together), and has no memory. I plied a lot of it with some wool, and that’s what I’m making Tony’s scarf out of. It’s plenty fine to knit with.

The bottom of the kate is the rest of the undyed silk that I spun. I wanted to spin and dye this in April, but I have no idea if I want to ply this together (and have silk yarn) or ply it with something else…and of course what I ply it with will probably determine how I dye it. So for now, it’s all spun up but resting on the bobbin, ready to be plied, to itself or something else.

This next lot is some nice blue metallic thread that I recovered from a sweater. The thread was accompanied by blue acrylic, which I threw away, because I just wanted the thread. It looks like it’s not a lot on the bobbin, but there really is – I measured it at 96 wpi (well, I measured 24 wraps for a 1/4 inch):

I also have no idea of what I want to do with the metallic blue thread, it will probably be put into a few different projects since I doubt I’ll make a sweater with it.

And finally, I started and finished spinning some small samples I got in February’s
I know, Vermont. I will be taking two classes, “spinning textured yarns” and “core spinning”. Both classes are on Saturday, so I figured I’d do classes on Saturday and shopping on Sunday.

This is a kate with 3 bobbins that are on semi-permanent “rest” until I can find something good to ply them with.

The top is remnants from an Enchanted Knoll Farm Batt that I made into a boucle yarn. It’s a 2-ply yarn right now, so it might just need me to take it off the bobbin. Which I really ought to do, since I need all the bobbins I can get my hands on for this weekend! The middle is carbonized bamboo, which sounds neat, but it not a fun spin – it’s a little squeaky (like dried chalk powder rubbed together), and has no memory. I plied a lot of it with some wool, and that’s what I’m making Tony’s scarf out of. It’s plenty fine to knit with.

The bottom of the kate is the rest of the undyed silk that I spun. I wanted to spin and dye this in April, but I have no idea if I want to ply this together (and have silk yarn) or ply it with something else…and of course what I ply it with will probably determine how I dye it. So for now, it’s all spun up but resting on the bobbin, ready to be plied, to itself or something else.

This next lot is some nice blue metallic thread that I recovered from a sweater. The thread was accompanied by blue acrylic, which I threw away, because I just wanted the thread. It looks like it’s not a lot on the bobbin, but there really is – I measured it at 96 wpi (well, I measured 24 wraps for a 1/4 inch):

I also have no idea of what I want to do with the metallic blue thread, it will probably be put into a few different projects since I doubt I’ll make a sweater with it.

And finally, I started and finished spinning some small samples I got in February’s Phat Fiber Mixed Sampler Box. There was some silver sparkly yarn and some red yarn, so I spun them up and plied ’em together, and got this:


So, and mostly I took my bag up to my room, showered, and went to sleep. More about the Inn later….

I woke up early the next morning and met another woman staying at the Inn who was also going to the Weekend, Barbara. Barbara and I talked during the delicious breakfast that Julie and Michael (the owners of the Inn) provided. As it turns out, she’s a spinner as well, and was taking the same classes I was on Saturday. Both classes were taught by Patty Blomgren, a local Vermont spinning instructor.

The first class was Textured Spinning – we went over a few ways to make textured yarn.

The first way was to use some washed but unprocessed fleece – pick and tease apart locks and other fibers, and just use as-is. Then we tried practicing an autowrap. Here’s the yarn I made as a result — it’s definitely textured!

picking and teasing, autowrap sample

I took the rest of the handfuls of unprocessed yarn and ran them through the drum carder – part of the fun of this workshop was playing with one of three drum carders Patty set up for us. So here is the batt I made with the same stuff as is in the yarn above – I have not spun this up yet, but when I do I will spin it worsted and see how much smoother that yarn can be.

batt with same fibers as yarn above

Then I made a colorway I like to call “Creamsicle”:

creamsicle batt

And I spun it into yarn:

Creamsicle yarn

Then I made a thick-and-thin yarn with some targhee from Spunky Eclectic that I’d brought:

thick and thin yarn

Patty had a handout for us, so we’d remember what we did. We did not get to any of the plying techniques officially, but we did make some knots, and I’ve made some bobbles before.

The second class, also with Patty, was corespun yarn. She also provided a handout. These techniques were much more tricky, and we didn’t get to nearly as many.

We did some basic core spinning with commercial yarn as the core. I used a two-ply wool, and found that wrapping roving around was easy once I got the basic motion down and used *very* little fiber. I’ve tried core spinning before and never really got the hang of it. I think the secret really is using a very little bit of roving/top to wrap around the core. Here is some of this first type of core spinning:

first core spun

I then used the thick and thin yarn around the core to make a different kind of core-spun yarn. The little “beads” or “beehives” in the yarn are the thick parts. The most obvious of these are the three on the very bottom, in blue/brown. There are tighter/less fuzzy ones in the 2nd yarn from the top edge, the red/brown yarn. In this sample I showed a lot of the core on purpose:

core spun with beehives and showing the core

I’m working on the rest of the thick and thin targhee, core spinning it over a core where I’m trying not to show the core. It’s mostly working:

thick and thin core spun, not showing core

It’s not totally perfect, but it’s looking good.

All of the yarn is very kinky when I first spin it. I wasn’t able to let any of this rest, as I just spun it this weekend, but I did wash the samples, and dry them under tension – I don’t normally do this, because it will just re-kink up on washing, but I wanted to see what the yarn would look like when it was less kinky. The stuff still on the bobbin is very kinky, and I’ll probably let it rest, and then wash it.

Unfortunately, the vendor times were exactly the same as the classes, so I did not get a chance to shop on Saturday. Luckily, I noticed this ahead of time, so I figured Sunday would be for shopping. At the end of the class, Patty let us raid her stash, so I took home some firestar, Ashland Bay merino/silk, and hand-dyed corriedale. I did have some fiber I gave away – I let Patty take some of the targhee, and I gave her the rest of my Louet Black Diamond, a carbonized bamboo that I did not enjoy spinning (it felt like spinning chalk powder, and has absolutely zero memory). I also gave Jennifer, a fellow classmate, some silk hankies that I wasn’t enjoying pulling apart to spin.

I did, however, win a door prize – a Knit Local canvas bag:

knit local tote bag

Saturday night Barbara and I went to DJ’s Restaurant for dinner, which was a good pick (on Julie’s recommendation). After that, I spun by the fireplace for a few hours, practicing what I’d learned that day.

Sunday I woke up, packed up, had breakfast and a nice long conversation with Julie and Michael, checked out and went to the festival again. A few pictures from the Inn:

pottery

The record player:

record player

These chickens were crossing the road. I wonder why?

why did these chickens cross the road?

A bunch of teapots at the Inn. I think my favorite is the fish one (just to the right of the cow one):

teapots!

This was my shopping day, and it was a lot of browsing and also a lot of talking to people. I started out helping a booth set up, and then bought a few magazines (Cast On and Piecework), and some “knit local” stickers and a “knit local” car magnet, some knitty gift tags and a brooch/shawl pin.

I bought a bunch of fiber, including some locally grown Shetland, some hand-dyed Falkland, and a few batts. I also won some flax in another door prize, and got some spinning done. I talked to a LOT of people, including Dave Paul of The Merlin Tree, maker of the HitchHiker and Road Bug spinning wheels. I spun on one and LOVED it, but resisted buying one:

hitchhiker spinning wheel

It was a great day, topped off with a visit with a friend in White River Junction, Vermont, then a visit with another friend near Manchester, NH, and then finally home to my husband and dinner.
So, I went to the Wild and Woolly Weekend this weekend. I drove up Friday after work, and arrived at the Golden Stage Inn around 9 pm, and mostly I took my bag up to my room, showered, and went to sleep.

I woke up early the next morning and met another woman staying at the Inn who was also going to the Weekend, Barbara. Barbara and I talked during the delicious breakfast that Julie and Michael (the owners of the Inn) provided. As it turns out, she’s a spinner as well, and was taking the same classes I was on Saturday. Both classes were taught by Patty Blomgren, a local Vermont spinning instructor.

The first class was Textured Spinning – we went over a few ways to make textured yarn.

The first way was to use some washed but unprocessed fleece – pick and tease apart locks and other fibers, and just use as-is. Then we tried practicing an autowrap. Here’s the yarn I made as a result — it’s definitely textured!

picking and teasing, autowrap sample

I took the rest of the handfuls of unprocessed yarn and ran them through the drum carder – part of the fun of this workshop was playing with one of three drum carders Patty set up for us. So here is the batt I made with the same stuff as is in the yarn above – I have not spun this up yet, but when I do I will spin it worsted and see how much smoother that yarn can be.

batt with same fibers as yarn above

Then I made a colorway I like to call “Creamsicle”:

creamsicle batt

And I spun it into yarn:

Creamsicle yarn

Then I made a thick-and-thin yarn with some Targhee from Spunky Eclectic that I’d brought:

thick and thin yarn

Patty had a handout for us, so we’d remember what we did. We did not get to any of the plying techniques officially, but we did make some knots, and I’ve made some bobbles before.

The second class, also with Patty, was corespun yarn. She also provided a handout. These techniques were much more tricky, and we didn’t get to nearly as many.

We did some basic core spinning with commercial yarn as the core. I used a two-ply wool, and found that wrapping roving around was easy once I got the basic motion down and used *very* little fiber. I’ve tried core spinning before and never really got the hang of it. I think the secret really is using a very little bit of roving/top to wrap around the core. Here is some of this first type of core spinning:

first core spun

I then used the thick and thin yarn around the core to make a different kind of core-spun yarn. The little “beads” or “beehives” in the yarn are the thick parts. The most obvious of these are the three on the very bottom, in blue/brown. There are tighter/less fuzzy ones in the 2nd yarn from the top edge, the red/brown yarn. In this sample I showed a lot of the core on purpose:

core spun with beehives and showing the core

I’m working on the rest of the thick and thin targhee, core spinning it over a core where I’m trying not to show the core. It’s mostly working:

thick and thin core spun, not showing core

It’s not totally perfect, but it’s looking good.

All of the yarn is very kinky when I first spin it. I wasn’t able to let any of this rest, as I just spun it this weekend, but I did wash the samples. The stuff still on the bobbin is very kinky, and I’ll probably let it rest, and
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!
I know, “spinning textured yarns” and “core spinning”. Both classes are on Saturday, so I figured I’d do classes on Saturday and shopping on Sunday.

This is a kate with 3 bobbins that are on semi-permanent “rest” until I can find something good to ply them with.

The top is remnants from an Enchanted Knoll Farm Batt that I made into a boucle yarn. It’s a 2-ply yarn right now, so it might just need me to take it off the bobbin. Which I really ought to do, since I need all the bobbins I can get my hands on for this weekend! The middle is carbonized bamboo, which sounds neat, but it not a fun spin – it’s a little squeaky (like dried chalk powder rubbed together), and has no memory. I plied a lot of it with some wool, and that’s what I’m making Tony’s scarf out of. It’s plenty fine to knit with.

The bottom of the kate is the rest of the undyed silk that I spun. I wanted to spin and dye this in April, but I have no idea if I want to ply this together (and have silk yarn) or ply it with something else…and of course what I ply it with will probably determine how I dye it. So for now, it’s all spun up but resting on the bobbin, ready to be plied, to itself or something else.

This next lot is some nice blue metallic thread that I recovered from a sweater. The thread was accompanied by blue acrylic, which I threw away, because I just wanted the thread. It looks like it’s not a lot on the bobbin, but there really is – I measured it at 96 wpi (well, I measured 24 wraps for a 1/4 inch):

I also have no idea of what I want to do with the metallic blue thread, it will probably be put into a few different projects since I doubt I’ll make a sweater with it.

And finally, I started and finished spinning some small samples I got in February’s Phat Fiber Mixed Sampler Box. There was some silver sparkly yarn and some red yarn, so I spun them up and plied ’em together, and got this:


I know, decease I just posted a few days ago! I am excited and privileged to be attending the Wild & Woolly Weekend this weekend in Proctorsville, Vermont. I will be taking two classes, “spinning textured yarns” and “core spinning”. Both classes are on Saturday, so I figured I’d do classes on Saturday and shopping on Sunday.

This is a kate with 3 bobbins that are on semi-permanent “rest” until I can find something good to ply them with.

The top is remnants from an Enchanted Knoll Farm Batt that I made into a boucle yarn. It’s a 2-ply yarn right now, so it might just need me to take it off the bobbin. Which I really ought to do, since I need all the bobbins I can get my hands on for this weekend! The middle is carbonized bamboo, which sounds neat, but it not a fun spin – it’s a little squeaky (like dried chalk powder rubbed together), and has no memory. I plied a lot of it with some wool, and that’s what I’m making Tony’s scarf out of. It’s plenty fine to knit with.

The bottom of the kate is the rest of the undyed silk that I spun. I wanted to spin and dye this in April, but I have no idea if I want to ply this together (and have silk yarn) or ply it with something else…and of course what I ply it with will probably determine how I dye it. So for now, it’s all spun up but resting on the bobbin, ready to be plied, to itself or something else.

This next lot is some nice blue metallic thread that I recovered from a sweater. The thread was accompanied by blue acrylic, which I threw away, because I just wanted the thread. It looks like it’s not a lot on the bobbin, but there really is – I measured it at 96 wpi (well, I measured 24 wraps for a 1/4 inch):

I also have no idea of what I want to do with the metallic blue thread, it will probably be put into a few different projects since I doubt I’ll make a sweater with it.

And finally, I started and finished spinning some small samples I got in February’s
I know, Vermont. I will be taking two classes, “spinning textured yarns” and “core spinning”. Both classes are on Saturday, so I figured I’d do classes on Saturday and shopping on Sunday.

This is a kate with 3 bobbins that are on semi-permanent “rest” until I can find something good to ply them with.

The top is remnants from an Enchanted Knoll Farm Batt that I made into a boucle yarn. It’s a 2-ply yarn right now, so it might just need me to take it off the bobbin. Which I really ought to do, since I need all the bobbins I can get my hands on for this weekend! The middle is carbonized bamboo, which sounds neat, but it not a fun spin – it’s a little squeaky (like dried chalk powder rubbed together), and has no memory. I plied a lot of it with some wool, and that’s what I’m making Tony’s scarf out of. It’s plenty fine to knit with.

The bottom of the kate is the rest of the undyed silk that I spun. I wanted to spin and dye this in April, but I have no idea if I want to ply this together (and have silk yarn) or ply it with something else…and of course what I ply it with will probably determine how I dye it. So for now, it’s all spun up but resting on the bobbin, ready to be plied, to itself or something else.

This next lot is some nice blue metallic thread that I recovered from a sweater. The thread was accompanied by blue acrylic, which I threw away, because I just wanted the thread. It looks like it’s not a lot on the bobbin, but there really is – I measured it at 96 wpi (well, I measured 24 wraps for a 1/4 inch):

I also have no idea of what I want to do with the metallic blue thread, it will probably be put into a few different projects since I doubt I’ll make a sweater with it.

And finally, I started and finished spinning some small samples I got in February’s Phat Fiber Mixed Sampler Box. There was some silver sparkly yarn and some red yarn, so I spun them up and plied ’em together, and got this:


So, and mostly I took my bag up to my room, showered, and went to sleep. More about the Inn later….

I woke up early the next morning and met another woman staying at the Inn who was also going to the Weekend, Barbara. Barbara and I talked during the delicious breakfast that Julie and Michael (the owners of the Inn) provided. As it turns out, she’s a spinner as well, and was taking the same classes I was on Saturday. Both classes were taught by Patty Blomgren, a local Vermont spinning instructor.

The first class was Textured Spinning – we went over a few ways to make textured yarn.

The first way was to use some washed but unprocessed fleece – pick and tease apart locks and other fibers, and just use as-is. Then we tried practicing an autowrap. Here’s the yarn I made as a result — it’s definitely textured!

picking and teasing, autowrap sample

I took the rest of the handfuls of unprocessed yarn and ran them through the drum carder – part of the fun of this workshop was playing with one of three drum carders Patty set up for us. So here is the batt I made with the same stuff as is in the yarn above – I have not spun this up yet, but when I do I will spin it worsted and see how much smoother that yarn can be.

batt with same fibers as yarn above

Then I made a colorway I like to call “Creamsicle”:

creamsicle batt

And I spun it into yarn:

Creamsicle yarn

Then I made a thick-and-thin yarn with some targhee from Spunky Eclectic that I’d brought:

thick and thin yarn

Patty had a handout for us, so we’d remember what we did. We did not get to any of the plying techniques officially, but we did make some knots, and I’ve made some bobbles before.

The second class, also with Patty, was corespun yarn. She also provided a handout. These techniques were much more tricky, and we didn’t get to nearly as many.

We did some basic core spinning with commercial yarn as the core. I used a two-ply wool, and found that wrapping roving around was easy once I got the basic motion down and used *very* little fiber. I’ve tried core spinning before and never really got the hang of it. I think the secret really is using a very little bit of roving/top to wrap around the core. Here is some of this first type of core spinning:

first core spun

I then used the thick and thin yarn around the core to make a different kind of core-spun yarn. The little “beads” or “beehives” in the yarn are the thick parts. The most obvious of these are the three on the very bottom, in blue/brown. There are tighter/less fuzzy ones in the 2nd yarn from the top edge, the red/brown yarn. In this sample I showed a lot of the core on purpose:

core spun with beehives and showing the core

I’m working on the rest of the thick and thin targhee, core spinning it over a core where I’m trying not to show the core. It’s mostly working:

thick and thin core spun, not showing core

It’s not totally perfect, but it’s looking good.

All of the yarn is very kinky when I first spin it. I wasn’t able to let any of this rest, as I just spun it this weekend, but I did wash the samples, and dry them under tension – I don’t normally do this, because it will just re-kink up on washing, but I wanted to see what the yarn would look like when it was less kinky. The stuff still on the bobbin is very kinky, and I’ll probably let it rest, and then wash it.

Unfortunately, the vendor times were exactly the same as the classes, so I did not get a chance to shop on Saturday. Luckily, I noticed this ahead of time, so I figured Sunday would be for shopping. At the end of the class, Patty let us raid her stash, so I took home some firestar, Ashland Bay merino/silk, and hand-dyed corriedale. I did have some fiber I gave away – I let Patty take some of the targhee, and I gave her the rest of my Louet Black Diamond, a carbonized bamboo that I did not enjoy spinning (it felt like spinning chalk powder, and has absolutely zero memory). I also gave Jennifer, a fellow classmate, some silk hankies that I wasn’t enjoying pulling apart to spin.

I did, however, win a door prize – a Knit Local canvas bag:

knit local tote bag

Saturday night Barbara and I went to DJ’s Restaurant for dinner, which was a good pick (on Julie’s recommendation). After that, I spun by the fireplace for a few hours, practicing what I’d learned that day.

Sunday I woke up, packed up, had breakfast and a nice long conversation with Julie and Michael, checked out and went to the festival again. A few pictures from the Inn:

pottery

The record player:

record player

These chickens were crossing the road. I wonder why?

why did these chickens cross the road?

A bunch of teapots at the Inn. I think my favorite is the fish one (just to the right of the cow one):

teapots!

This was my shopping day, and it was a lot of browsing and also a lot of talking to people. I started out helping a booth set up, and then bought a few magazines (Cast On and Piecework), and some “knit local” stickers and a “knit local” car magnet, some knitty gift tags and a brooch/shawl pin.

I bought a bunch of fiber, including some locally grown Shetland, some hand-dyed Falkland, and a few batts. I also won some flax in another door prize, and got some spinning done. I talked to a LOT of people, including Dave Paul of The Merlin Tree, maker of the HitchHiker and Road Bug spinning wheels. I spun on one and LOVED it, but resisted buying one:

hitchhiker spinning wheel

It was a great day, topped off with a visit with a friend in White River Junction, Vermont, then a visit with another friend near Manchester, NH, and then finally home to my husband and dinner.
So, I went to the Wild and Woolly Weekend this weekend. I drove up Friday after work, and arrived at the Golden Stage Inn around 9 pm, and mostly I took my bag up to my room, showered, and went to sleep.

I woke up early the next morning and met another woman staying at the Inn who was also going to the Weekend, Barbara. Barbara and I talked during the delicious breakfast that Julie and Michael (the owners of the Inn) provided. As it turns out, she’s a spinner as well, and was taking the same classes I was on Saturday. Both classes were taught by Patty Blomgren, a local Vermont spinning instructor.

The first class was Textured Spinning – we went over a few ways to make textured yarn.

The first way was to use some washed but unprocessed fleece – pick and tease apart locks and other fibers, and just use as-is. Then we tried practicing an autowrap. Here’s the yarn I made as a result — it’s definitely textured!

picking and teasing, autowrap sample

I took the rest of the handfuls of unprocessed yarn and ran them through the drum carder – part of the fun of this workshop was playing with one of three drum carders Patty set up for us. So here is the batt I made with the same stuff as is in the yarn above – I have not spun this up yet, but when I do I will spin it worsted and see how much smoother that yarn can be.

batt with same fibers as yarn above

Then I made a colorway I like to call “Creamsicle”:

creamsicle batt

And I spun it into yarn:

Creamsicle yarn

Then I made a thick-and-thin yarn with some Targhee from Spunky Eclectic that I’d brought:

thick and thin yarn

Patty had a handout for us, so we’d remember what we did. We did not get to any of the plying techniques officially, but we did make some knots, and I’ve made some bobbles before.

The second class, also with Patty, was corespun yarn. She also provided a handout. These techniques were much more tricky, and we didn’t get to nearly as many.

We did some basic core spinning with commercial yarn as the core. I used a two-ply wool, and found that wrapping roving around was easy once I got the basic motion down and used *very* little fiber. I’ve tried core spinning before and never really got the hang of it. I think the secret really is using a very little bit of roving/top to wrap around the core. Here is some of this first type of core spinning:

first core spun

I then used the thick and thin yarn around the core to make a different kind of core-spun yarn. The little “beads” or “beehives” in the yarn are the thick parts. The most obvious of these are the three on the very bottom, in blue/brown. There are tighter/less fuzzy ones in the 2nd yarn from the top edge, the red/brown yarn. In this sample I showed a lot of the core on purpose:

core spun with beehives and showing the core

I’m working on the rest of the thick and thin targhee, core spinning it over a core where I’m trying not to show the core. It’s mostly working:

thick and thin core spun, not showing core

It’s not totally perfect, but it’s looking good.

All of the yarn is very kinky when I first spin it. I wasn’t able to let any of this rest, as I just spun it this weekend, but I did wash the samples. The stuff still on the bobbin is very kinky, and I’ll probably let it rest, and
So, pills I went to the Wild and Woolly Weekend this weekend. I drove up Friday after work, recipe and arrived at the Golden Stage Inn around 9 pm, and mostly I took my bag up to my room, showered, and went to sleep.

I woke up early the next morning and met another woman staying at the Inn who was also going to the Weekend, Barbara. Barbara and I talked during the delicious breakfast that Julie and Michael (the owners of the Inn) provided. As it turns out, she’s a spinner as well, and was taking the same classes I was on Saturday. Both classes were taught by Patty Blomgren, a local Vermont spinning instructor.

The first class was Textured Spinning – we went over a few ways to make textured yarn.

The first way was to use some washed but unprocessed fleece – pick and tease apart locks and other fibers, and just use as-is. Then we tried practicing an autowrap. Here’s the yarn I made as a result — it’s definitely textured!

picking and teasing, autowrap sample

I took the rest of the handfuls of unprocessed yarn and ran them through the drum carder – part of the fun of this workshop was playing with one of three drum carders Patty set up for us. So here is the batt I made with the same stuff as is in the yarn above – I have not spun this up yet, but when I do I will spin it worsted and see how much smoother that yarn can be.

batt with same fibers as yarn above

Then I made a colorway I like to call “Creamsicle”:

creamsicle batt

And I spun it into yarn:

Creamsicle yarn

Then I made a thick-and-thin yarn with some Targhee from Spunky Eclectic that I’d brought:

thick and thin yarn

Patty had a handout for us, so we’d remember what we did. We did not get to any of the plying techniques officially, but we did make some knots, and I’ve made some bobbles before.

The second class, also with Patty, was corespun yarn. She also provided a handout. These techniques were much more tricky, and we didn’t get to nearly as many.

We did some basic core spinning with commercial yarn as the core. I used a two-ply wool, and found that wrapping roving around was easy once I got the basic motion down and used *very* little fiber. I’ve tried core spinning before and never really got the hang of it. I think the secret really is using a very little bit of roving/top to wrap around the core. Here is some of this first type of core spinning:

first core spun

I then used the thick and thin yarn around the core to make a different kind of core-spun yarn. The little “beads” or “beehives” in the yarn are the thick parts. The most obvious of these are the three on the very bottom, in blue/brown. There are tighter/less fuzzy ones in the 2nd yarn from the top edge, the red/brown yarn. In this sample I showed a lot of the core on purpose:

core spun with beehives and showing the core

I’m working on the rest of the thick and thin targhee, core spinning it over a core where I’m trying not to show the core. It’s mostly working:

thick and thin core spun, not showing core

It’s not totally perfect, but it’s looking good.

All of the yarn is very kinky when I first spin it. I wasn’t able to let any of this rest, as I just spun it this weekend, but I did wash the samples, and dry them under tension – I don’t normally do this, because it will just re-kink up on washing, but I wanted to see what the yarn would look like when it was less kinky. The stuff still on the bobbin is very kinky, and I’ll probably let it rest, and then wash it.
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!
I know, “spinning textured yarns” and “core spinning”. Both classes are on Saturday, so I figured I’d do classes on Saturday and shopping on Sunday.

This is a kate with 3 bobbins that are on semi-permanent “rest” until I can find something good to ply them with.

The top is remnants from an Enchanted Knoll Farm Batt that I made into a boucle yarn. It’s a 2-ply yarn right now, so it might just need me to take it off the bobbin. Which I really ought to do, since I need all the bobbins I can get my hands on for this weekend! The middle is carbonized bamboo, which sounds neat, but it not a fun spin – it’s a little squeaky (like dried chalk powder rubbed together), and has no memory. I plied a lot of it with some wool, and that’s what I’m making Tony’s scarf out of. It’s plenty fine to knit with.

The bottom of the kate is the rest of the undyed silk that I spun. I wanted to spin and dye this in April, but I have no idea if I want to ply this together (and have silk yarn) or ply it with something else…and of course what I ply it with will probably determine how I dye it. So for now, it’s all spun up but resting on the bobbin, ready to be plied, to itself or something else.

This next lot is some nice blue metallic thread that I recovered from a sweater. The thread was accompanied by blue acrylic, which I threw away, because I just wanted the thread. It looks like it’s not a lot on the bobbin, but there really is – I measured it at 96 wpi (well, I measured 24 wraps for a 1/4 inch):

I also have no idea of what I want to do with the metallic blue thread, it will probably be put into a few different projects since I doubt I’ll make a sweater with it.

And finally, I started and finished spinning some small samples I got in February’s Phat Fiber Mixed Sampler Box. There was some silver sparkly yarn and some red yarn, so I spun them up and plied ’em together, and got this:


I know, decease I just posted a few days ago! I am excited and privileged to be attending the Wild & Woolly Weekend this weekend in Proctorsville, Vermont. I will be taking two classes, “spinning textured yarns” and “core spinning”. Both classes are on Saturday, so I figured I’d do classes on Saturday and shopping on Sunday.

This is a kate with 3 bobbins that are on semi-permanent “rest” until I can find something good to ply them with.

The top is remnants from an Enchanted Knoll Farm Batt that I made into a boucle yarn. It’s a 2-ply yarn right now, so it might just need me to take it off the bobbin. Which I really ought to do, since I need all the bobbins I can get my hands on for this weekend! The middle is carbonized bamboo, which sounds neat, but it not a fun spin – it’s a little squeaky (like dried chalk powder rubbed together), and has no memory. I plied a lot of it with some wool, and that’s what I’m making Tony’s scarf out of. It’s plenty fine to knit with.

The bottom of the kate is the rest of the undyed silk that I spun. I wanted to spin and dye this in April, but I have no idea if I want to ply this together (and have silk yarn) or ply it with something else…and of course what I ply it with will probably determine how I dye it. So for now, it’s all spun up but resting on the bobbin, ready to be plied, to itself or something else.

This next lot is some nice blue metallic thread that I recovered from a sweater. The thread was accompanied by blue acrylic, which I threw away, because I just wanted the thread. It looks like it’s not a lot on the bobbin, but there really is – I measured it at 96 wpi (well, I measured 24 wraps for a 1/4 inch):

I also have no idea of what I want to do with the metallic blue thread, it will probably be put into a few different projects since I doubt I’ll make a sweater with it.

And finally, I started and finished spinning some small samples I got in February’s
I know, Vermont. I will be taking two classes, “spinning textured yarns” and “core spinning”. Both classes are on Saturday, so I figured I’d do classes on Saturday and shopping on Sunday.

This is a kate with 3 bobbins that are on semi-permanent “rest” until I can find something good to ply them with.

The top is remnants from an Enchanted Knoll Farm Batt that I made into a boucle yarn. It’s a 2-ply yarn right now, so it might just need me to take it off the bobbin. Which I really ought to do, since I need all the bobbins I can get my hands on for this weekend! The middle is carbonized bamboo, which sounds neat, but it not a fun spin – it’s a little squeaky (like dried chalk powder rubbed together), and has no memory. I plied a lot of it with some wool, and that’s what I’m making Tony’s scarf out of. It’s plenty fine to knit with.

The bottom of the kate is the rest of the undyed silk that I spun. I wanted to spin and dye this in April, but I have no idea if I want to ply this together (and have silk yarn) or ply it with something else…and of course what I ply it with will probably determine how I dye it. So for now, it’s all spun up but resting on the bobbin, ready to be plied, to itself or something else.

This next lot is some nice blue metallic thread that I recovered from a sweater. The thread was accompanied by blue acrylic, which I threw away, because I just wanted the thread. It looks like it’s not a lot on the bobbin, but there really is – I measured it at 96 wpi (well, I measured 24 wraps for a 1/4 inch):

I also have no idea of what I want to do with the metallic blue thread, it will probably be put into a few different projects since I doubt I’ll make a sweater with it.

And finally, I started and finished spinning some small samples I got in February’s Phat Fiber Mixed Sampler Box. There was some silver sparkly yarn and some red yarn, so I spun them up and plied ’em together, and got this:


So, and mostly I took my bag up to my room, showered, and went to sleep. More about the Inn later….

I woke up early the next morning and met another woman staying at the Inn who was also going to the Weekend, Barbara. Barbara and I talked during the delicious breakfast that Julie and Michael (the owners of the Inn) provided. As it turns out, she’s a spinner as well, and was taking the same classes I was on Saturday. Both classes were taught by Patty Blomgren, a local Vermont spinning instructor.

The first class was Textured Spinning – we went over a few ways to make textured yarn.

The first way was to use some washed but unprocessed fleece – pick and tease apart locks and other fibers, and just use as-is. Then we tried practicing an autowrap. Here’s the yarn I made as a result — it’s definitely textured!

picking and teasing, autowrap sample

I took the rest of the handfuls of unprocessed yarn and ran them through the drum carder – part of the fun of this workshop was playing with one of three drum carders Patty set up for us. So here is the batt I made with the same stuff as is in the yarn above – I have not spun this up yet, but when I do I will spin it worsted and see how much smoother that yarn can be.

batt with same fibers as yarn above

Then I made a colorway I like to call “Creamsicle”:

creamsicle batt

And I spun it into yarn:

Creamsicle yarn

Then I made a thick-and-thin yarn with some targhee from Spunky Eclectic that I’d brought:

thick and thin yarn

Patty had a handout for us, so we’d remember what we did. We did not get to any of the plying techniques officially, but we did make some knots, and I’ve made some bobbles before.

The second class, also with Patty, was corespun yarn. She also provided a handout. These techniques were much more tricky, and we didn’t get to nearly as many.

We did some basic core spinning with commercial yarn as the core. I used a two-ply wool, and found that wrapping roving around was easy once I got the basic motion down and used *very* little fiber. I’ve tried core spinning before and never really got the hang of it. I think the secret really is using a very little bit of roving/top to wrap around the core. Here is some of this first type of core spinning:

first core spun

I then used the thick and thin yarn around the core to make a different kind of core-spun yarn. The little “beads” or “beehives” in the yarn are the thick parts. The most obvious of these are the three on the very bottom, in blue/brown. There are tighter/less fuzzy ones in the 2nd yarn from the top edge, the red/brown yarn. In this sample I showed a lot of the core on purpose:

core spun with beehives and showing the core

I’m working on the rest of the thick and thin targhee, core spinning it over a core where I’m trying not to show the core. It’s mostly working:

thick and thin core spun, not showing core

It’s not totally perfect, but it’s looking good.

All of the yarn is very kinky when I first spin it. I wasn’t able to let any of this rest, as I just spun it this weekend, but I did wash the samples, and dry them under tension – I don’t normally do this, because it will just re-kink up on washing, but I wanted to see what the yarn would look like when it was less kinky. The stuff still on the bobbin is very kinky, and I’ll probably let it rest, and then wash it.

Unfortunately, the vendor times were exactly the same as the classes, so I did not get a chance to shop on Saturday. Luckily, I noticed this ahead of time, so I figured Sunday would be for shopping. At the end of the class, Patty let us raid her stash, so I took home some firestar, Ashland Bay merino/silk, and hand-dyed corriedale. I did have some fiber I gave away – I let Patty take some of the targhee, and I gave her the rest of my Louet Black Diamond, a carbonized bamboo that I did not enjoy spinning (it felt like spinning chalk powder, and has absolutely zero memory). I also gave Jennifer, a fellow classmate, some silk hankies that I wasn’t enjoying pulling apart to spin.

I did, however, win a door prize – a Knit Local canvas bag:

knit local tote bag

Saturday night Barbara and I went to DJ’s Restaurant for dinner, which was a good pick (on Julie’s recommendation). After that, I spun by the fireplace for a few hours, practicing what I’d learned that day.

Sunday I woke up, packed up, had breakfast and a nice long conversation with Julie and Michael, checked out and went to the festival again. A few pictures from the Inn:

pottery

The record player:

record player

These chickens were crossing the road. I wonder why?

why did these chickens cross the road?

A bunch of teapots at the Inn. I think my favorite is the fish one (just to the right of the cow one):

teapots!

This was my shopping day, and it was a lot of browsing and also a lot of talking to people. I started out helping a booth set up, and then bought a few magazines (Cast On and Piecework), and some “knit local” stickers and a “knit local” car magnet, some knitty gift tags and a brooch/shawl pin.

I bought a bunch of fiber, including some locally grown Shetland, some hand-dyed Falkland, and a few batts. I also won some flax in another door prize, and got some spinning done. I talked to a LOT of people, including Dave Paul of The Merlin Tree, maker of the HitchHiker and Road Bug spinning wheels. I spun on one and LOVED it, but resisted buying one:

hitchhiker spinning wheel

It was a great day, topped off with a visit with a friend in White River Junction, Vermont, then a visit with another friend near Manchester, NH, and then finally home to my husband and dinner.
So, I went to the Wild and Woolly Weekend this weekend. I drove up Friday after work, and arrived at the Golden Stage Inn around 9 pm, and mostly I took my bag up to my room, showered, and went to sleep.

I woke up early the next morning and met another woman staying at the Inn who was also going to the Weekend, Barbara. Barbara and I talked during the delicious breakfast that Julie and Michael (the owners of the Inn) provided. As it turns out, she’s a spinner as well, and was taking the same classes I was on Saturday. Both classes were taught by Patty Blomgren, a local Vermont spinning instructor.

The first class was Textured Spinning – we went over a few ways to make textured yarn.

The first way was to use some washed but unprocessed fleece – pick and tease apart locks and other fibers, and just use as-is. Then we tried practicing an autowrap. Here’s the yarn I made as a result — it’s definitely textured!

picking and teasing, autowrap sample

I took the rest of the handfuls of unprocessed yarn and ran them through the drum carder – part of the fun of this workshop was playing with one of three drum carders Patty set up for us. So here is the batt I made with the same stuff as is in the yarn above – I have not spun this up yet, but when I do I will spin it worsted and see how much smoother that yarn can be.

batt with same fibers as yarn above

Then I made a colorway I like to call “Creamsicle”:

creamsicle batt

And I spun it into yarn:

Creamsicle yarn

Then I made a thick-and-thin yarn with some Targhee from Spunky Eclectic that I’d brought:

thick and thin yarn

Patty had a handout for us, so we’d remember what we did. We did not get to any of the plying techniques officially, but we did make some knots, and I’ve made some bobbles before.

The second class, also with Patty, was corespun yarn. She also provided a handout. These techniques were much more tricky, and we didn’t get to nearly as many.

We did some basic core spinning with commercial yarn as the core. I used a two-ply wool, and found that wrapping roving around was easy once I got the basic motion down and used *very* little fiber. I’ve tried core spinning before and never really got the hang of it. I think the secret really is using a very little bit of roving/top to wrap around the core. Here is some of this first type of core spinning:

first core spun

I then used the thick and thin yarn around the core to make a different kind of core-spun yarn. The little “beads” or “beehives” in the yarn are the thick parts. The most obvious of these are the three on the very bottom, in blue/brown. There are tighter/less fuzzy ones in the 2nd yarn from the top edge, the red/brown yarn. In this sample I showed a lot of the core on purpose:

core spun with beehives and showing the core

I’m working on the rest of the thick and thin targhee, core spinning it over a core where I’m trying not to show the core. It’s mostly working:

thick and thin core spun, not showing core

It’s not totally perfect, but it’s looking good.

All of the yarn is very kinky when I first spin it. I wasn’t able to let any of this rest, as I just spun it this weekend, but I did wash the samples. The stuff still on the bobbin is very kinky, and I’ll probably let it rest, and
So, pills I went to the Wild and Woolly Weekend this weekend. I drove up Friday after work, recipe and arrived at the Golden Stage Inn around 9 pm, and mostly I took my bag up to my room, showered, and went to sleep.

I woke up early the next morning and met another woman staying at the Inn who was also going to the Weekend, Barbara. Barbara and I talked during the delicious breakfast that Julie and Michael (the owners of the Inn) provided. As it turns out, she’s a spinner as well, and was taking the same classes I was on Saturday. Both classes were taught by Patty Blomgren, a local Vermont spinning instructor.

The first class was Textured Spinning – we went over a few ways to make textured yarn.

The first way was to use some washed but unprocessed fleece – pick and tease apart locks and other fibers, and just use as-is. Then we tried practicing an autowrap. Here’s the yarn I made as a result — it’s definitely textured!

picking and teasing, autowrap sample

I took the rest of the handfuls of unprocessed yarn and ran them through the drum carder – part of the fun of this workshop was playing with one of three drum carders Patty set up for us. So here is the batt I made with the same stuff as is in the yarn above – I have not spun this up yet, but when I do I will spin it worsted and see how much smoother that yarn can be.

batt with same fibers as yarn above

Then I made a colorway I like to call “Creamsicle”:

creamsicle batt

And I spun it into yarn:

Creamsicle yarn

Then I made a thick-and-thin yarn with some Targhee from Spunky Eclectic that I’d brought:

thick and thin yarn

Patty had a handout for us, so we’d remember what we did. We did not get to any of the plying techniques officially, but we did make some knots, and I’ve made some bobbles before.

The second class, also with Patty, was corespun yarn. She also provided a handout. These techniques were much more tricky, and we didn’t get to nearly as many.

We did some basic core spinning with commercial yarn as the core. I used a two-ply wool, and found that wrapping roving around was easy once I got the basic motion down and used *very* little fiber. I’ve tried core spinning before and never really got the hang of it. I think the secret really is using a very little bit of roving/top to wrap around the core. Here is some of this first type of core spinning:

first core spun

I then used the thick and thin yarn around the core to make a different kind of core-spun yarn. The little “beads” or “beehives” in the yarn are the thick parts. The most obvious of these are the three on the very bottom, in blue/brown. There are tighter/less fuzzy ones in the 2nd yarn from the top edge, the red/brown yarn. In this sample I showed a lot of the core on purpose:

core spun with beehives and showing the core

I’m working on the rest of the thick and thin targhee, core spinning it over a core where I’m trying not to show the core. It’s mostly working:

thick and thin core spun, not showing core

It’s not totally perfect, but it’s looking good.

All of the yarn is very kinky when I first spin it. I wasn’t able to let any of this rest, as I just spun it this weekend, but I did wash the samples, and dry them under tension – I don’t normally do this, because it will just re-kink up on washing, but I wanted to see what the yarn would look like when it was less kinky. The stuff still on the bobbin is very kinky, and I’ll probably let it rest, and then wash it.
So, and mostly I took my bag up to my room, showered, and went to sleep. More about the Inn later….

I woke up early the next morning and met another woman staying at the Inn who was also going to the Weekend, Barbara. Barbara and I talked during the delicious breakfast that Julie and Michael (the owners of the Inn) provided. As it turns out, she’s a spinner as well, and was taking the same classes I was on Saturday. Both classes were taught by Patty Blomgren, a local Vermont spinning instructor.

The first class was Textured Spinning – we went over a few ways to make textured yarn.

The first way was to use some washed but unprocessed fleece – pick and tease apart locks and other fibers, and just use as-is. Then we tried practicing an autowrap. Here’s the yarn I made as a result — it’s definitely textured!

picking and teasing, autowrap sample

I took the rest of the handfuls of unprocessed yarn and ran them through the drum carder – part of the fun of this workshop was playing with one of three drum carders Patty set up for us. So here is the batt I made with the same stuff as is in the yarn above – I have not spun this up yet, but when I do I will spin it worsted and see how much smoother that yarn can be.

batt with same fibers as yarn above

Then I made a colorway I like to call “Creamsicle”:

creamsicle batt

And I spun it into yarn:

Creamsicle yarn

Then I made a thick-and-thin yarn with some targhee from Spunky Eclectic that I’d brought:

thick and thin yarn

Patty had a handout for us, so we’d remember what we did. We did not get to any of the plying techniques officially, but we did make some knots, and I’ve made some bobbles before.

The second class, also with Patty, was corespun yarn. She also provided a handout. These techniques were much more tricky, and we didn’t get to nearly as many.

We did some basic core spinning with commercial yarn as the core. I used a two-ply wool, and found that wrapping roving around was easy once I got the basic motion down and used *very* little fiber. I’ve tried core spinning before and never really got the hang of it. I think the secret really is using a very little bit of roving/top to wrap around the core. Here is some of this first type of core spinning:

first core spun

I then used the thick and thin yarn around the core to make a different kind of core-spun yarn. The little “beads” or “beehives” in the yarn are the thick parts. The most obvious of these are the three on the very bottom, in blue/brown. There are tighter/less fuzzy ones in the 2nd yarn from the top edge, the red/brown yarn. In this sample I showed a lot of the core on purpose:

core spun with beehives and showing the core

I’m working on the rest of the thick and thin targhee, core spinning it over a core where I’m trying not to show the core. It’s mostly working:

thick and thin core spun, not showing core

It’s not totally perfect, but it’s looking good.

All of the yarn is very kinky when I first spin it. I wasn’t able to let any of this rest, as I just spun it this weekend, but I did wash the samples, and dry them under tension – I don’t normally do this, because it will just re-kink up on washing, but I wanted to see what the yarn would look like when it was less kinky. The stuff still on the bobbin is very kinky, and I’ll probably let it rest, and then wash it.

Unfortunately, the vendor times were exactly the same as the classes, so I did not get a chance to shop on Saturday. Luckily, I noticed this ahead of time, so I figured Sunday would be for shopping. At the end of the class, Patty let us raid her stash, so I took home some firestar, Ashland Bay merino/silk, and hand-dyed corriedale. I did have some fiber I gave away – I let Patty take some of the targhee, and I gave her the rest of my Louet Black Diamond, a carbonized bamboo that I did not enjoy spinning (it felt like spinning chalk powder, and has absolutely zero memory). I also gave Jennifer, a fellow classmate, some silk hankies that I wasn’t enjoying pulling apart to spin.

I did, however, win a door prize – a Knit Local canvas bag:

knit local tote bag

Saturday night Barbara and I went to DJ’s Restaurant for dinner, which was a good pick (on Julie’s recommendation). After that, I spun by the fireplace for a few hours, practicing what I’d learned that day.

Sunday I woke up, packed up, had breakfast and a nice long conversation with Julie and Michael, checked out and went to the festival again. This was my shopping day, and it was a lot of browsing and also a lot of talking to people. I started out helping a booth set up, and then bought a few magazines (Cast On and Piecework), and some “knit local” stickers and a “knit local” car magnet, some knitty gift tags and a brooch/shawl pin.

I bought a bunch of fiber, including some locally grown Shetland, some hand-dyed Falkland, and a few batts. I also won some flax in another door prize, and got some spinning done.

It was a great day, topped off with a visit with a friend in White River Junction, Vermont, then a visit with another friend near Manchester, NH, and then finally home to my husband and dinner.
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!
I know, “spinning textured yarns” and “core spinning”. Both classes are on Saturday, so I figured I’d do classes on Saturday and shopping on Sunday.

This is a kate with 3 bobbins that are on semi-permanent “rest” until I can find something good to ply them with.

The top is remnants from an Enchanted Knoll Farm Batt that I made into a boucle yarn. It’s a 2-ply yarn right now, so it might just need me to take it off the bobbin. Which I really ought to do, since I need all the bobbins I can get my hands on for this weekend! The middle is carbonized bamboo, which sounds neat, but it not a fun spin – it’s a little squeaky (like dried chalk powder rubbed together), and has no memory. I plied a lot of it with some wool, and that’s what I’m making Tony’s scarf out of. It’s plenty fine to knit with.

The bottom of the kate is the rest of the undyed silk that I spun. I wanted to spin and dye this in April, but I have no idea if I want to ply this together (and have silk yarn) or ply it with something else…and of course what I ply it with will probably determine how I dye it. So for now, it’s all spun up but resting on the bobbin, ready to be plied, to itself or something else.

This next lot is some nice blue metallic thread that I recovered from a sweater. The thread was accompanied by blue acrylic, which I threw away, because I just wanted the thread. It looks like it’s not a lot on the bobbin, but there really is – I measured it at 96 wpi (well, I measured 24 wraps for a 1/4 inch):

I also have no idea of what I want to do with the metallic blue thread, it will probably be put into a few different projects since I doubt I’ll make a sweater with it.

And finally, I started and finished spinning some small samples I got in February’s Phat Fiber Mixed Sampler Box. There was some silver sparkly yarn and some red yarn, so I spun them up and plied ’em together, and got this:


I know, decease I just posted a few days ago! I am excited and privileged to be attending the Wild & Woolly Weekend this weekend in Proctorsville, Vermont. I will be taking two classes, “spinning textured yarns” and “core spinning”. Both classes are on Saturday, so I figured I’d do classes on Saturday and shopping on Sunday.

This is a kate with 3 bobbins that are on semi-permanent “rest” until I can find something good to ply them with.

The top is remnants from an Enchanted Knoll Farm Batt that I made into a boucle yarn. It’s a 2-ply yarn right now, so it might just need me to take it off the bobbin. Which I really ought to do, since I need all the bobbins I can get my hands on for this weekend! The middle is carbonized bamboo, which sounds neat, but it not a fun spin – it’s a little squeaky (like dried chalk powder rubbed together), and has no memory. I plied a lot of it with some wool, and that’s what I’m making Tony’s scarf out of. It’s plenty fine to knit with.

The bottom of the kate is the rest of the undyed silk that I spun. I wanted to spin and dye this in April, but I have no idea if I want to ply this together (and have silk yarn) or ply it with something else…and of course what I ply it with will probably determine how I dye it. So for now, it’s all spun up but resting on the bobbin, ready to be plied, to itself or something else.

This next lot is some nice blue metallic thread that I recovered from a sweater. The thread was accompanied by blue acrylic, which I threw away, because I just wanted the thread. It looks like it’s not a lot on the bobbin, but there really is – I measured it at 96 wpi (well, I measured 24 wraps for a 1/4 inch):

I also have no idea of what I want to do with the metallic blue thread, it will probably be put into a few different projects since I doubt I’ll make a sweater with it.

And finally, I started and finished spinning some small samples I got in February’s
I know, Vermont. I will be taking two classes, “spinning textured yarns” and “core spinning”. Both classes are on Saturday, so I figured I’d do classes on Saturday and shopping on Sunday.

This is a kate with 3 bobbins that are on semi-permanent “rest” until I can find something good to ply them with.

The top is remnants from an Enchanted Knoll Farm Batt that I made into a boucle yarn. It’s a 2-ply yarn right now, so it might just need me to take it off the bobbin. Which I really ought to do, since I need all the bobbins I can get my hands on for this weekend! The middle is carbonized bamboo, which sounds neat, but it not a fun spin – it’s a little squeaky (like dried chalk powder rubbed together), and has no memory. I plied a lot of it with some wool, and that’s what I’m making Tony’s scarf out of. It’s plenty fine to knit with.

The bottom of the kate is the rest of the undyed silk that I spun. I wanted to spin and dye this in April, but I have no idea if I want to ply this together (and have silk yarn) or ply it with something else…and of course what I ply it with will probably determine how I dye it. So for now, it’s all spun up but resting on the bobbin, ready to be plied, to itself or something else.

This next lot is some nice blue metallic thread that I recovered from a sweater. The thread was accompanied by blue acrylic, which I threw away, because I just wanted the thread. It looks like it’s not a lot on the bobbin, but there really is – I measured it at 96 wpi (well, I measured 24 wraps for a 1/4 inch):

I also have no idea of what I want to do with the metallic blue thread, it will probably be put into a few different projects since I doubt I’ll make a sweater with it.

And finally, I started and finished spinning some small samples I got in February’s Phat Fiber Mixed Sampler Box. There was some silver sparkly yarn and some red yarn, so I spun them up and plied ’em together, and got this:


So, and mostly I took my bag up to my room, showered, and went to sleep. More about the Inn later….

I woke up early the next morning and met another woman staying at the Inn who was also going to the Weekend, Barbara. Barbara and I talked during the delicious breakfast that Julie and Michael (the owners of the Inn) provided. As it turns out, she’s a spinner as well, and was taking the same classes I was on Saturday. Both classes were taught by Patty Blomgren, a local Vermont spinning instructor.

The first class was Textured Spinning – we went over a few ways to make textured yarn.

The first way was to use some washed but unprocessed fleece – pick and tease apart locks and other fibers, and just use as-is. Then we tried practicing an autowrap. Here’s the yarn I made as a result — it’s definitely textured!

picking and teasing, autowrap sample

I took the rest of the handfuls of unprocessed yarn and ran them through the drum carder – part of the fun of this workshop was playing with one of three drum carders Patty set up for us. So here is the batt I made with the same stuff as is in the yarn above – I have not spun this up yet, but when I do I will spin it worsted and see how much smoother that yarn can be.

batt with same fibers as yarn above

Then I made a colorway I like to call “Creamsicle”:

creamsicle batt

And I spun it into yarn:

Creamsicle yarn

Then I made a thick-and-thin yarn with some targhee from Spunky Eclectic that I’d brought:

thick and thin yarn

Patty had a handout for us, so we’d remember what we did. We did not get to any of the plying techniques officially, but we did make some knots, and I’ve made some bobbles before.

The second class, also with Patty, was corespun yarn. She also provided a handout. These techniques were much more tricky, and we didn’t get to nearly as many.

We did some basic core spinning with commercial yarn as the core. I used a two-ply wool, and found that wrapping roving around was easy once I got the basic motion down and used *very* little fiber. I’ve tried core spinning before and never really got the hang of it. I think the secret really is using a very little bit of roving/top to wrap around the core. Here is some of this first type of core spinning:

first core spun

I then used the thick and thin yarn around the core to make a different kind of core-spun yarn. The little “beads” or “beehives” in the yarn are the thick parts. The most obvious of these are the three on the very bottom, in blue/brown. There are tighter/less fuzzy ones in the 2nd yarn from the top edge, the red/brown yarn. In this sample I showed a lot of the core on purpose:

core spun with beehives and showing the core

I’m working on the rest of the thick and thin targhee, core spinning it over a core where I’m trying not to show the core. It’s mostly working:

thick and thin core spun, not showing core

It’s not totally perfect, but it’s looking good.

All of the yarn is very kinky when I first spin it. I wasn’t able to let any of this rest, as I just spun it this weekend, but I did wash the samples, and dry them under tension – I don’t normally do this, because it will just re-kink up on washing, but I wanted to see what the yarn would look like when it was less kinky. The stuff still on the bobbin is very kinky, and I’ll probably let it rest, and then wash it.

Unfortunately, the vendor times were exactly the same as the classes, so I did not get a chance to shop on Saturday. Luckily, I noticed this ahead of time, so I figured Sunday would be for shopping. At the end of the class, Patty let us raid her stash, so I took home some firestar, Ashland Bay merino/silk, and hand-dyed corriedale. I did have some fiber I gave away – I let Patty take some of the targhee, and I gave her the rest of my Louet Black Diamond, a carbonized bamboo that I did not enjoy spinning (it felt like spinning chalk powder, and has absolutely zero memory). I also gave Jennifer, a fellow classmate, some silk hankies that I wasn’t enjoying pulling apart to spin.

I did, however, win a door prize – a Knit Local canvas bag:

knit local tote bag

Saturday night Barbara and I went to DJ’s Restaurant for dinner, which was a good pick (on Julie’s recommendation). After that, I spun by the fireplace for a few hours, practicing what I’d learned that day.

Sunday I woke up, packed up, had breakfast and a nice long conversation with Julie and Michael, checked out and went to the festival again. A few pictures from the Inn:

pottery

The record player:

record player

These chickens were crossing the road. I wonder why?

why did these chickens cross the road?

A bunch of teapots at the Inn. I think my favorite is the fish one (just to the right of the cow one):

teapots!

This was my shopping day, and it was a lot of browsing and also a lot of talking to people. I started out helping a booth set up, and then bought a few magazines (Cast On and Piecework), and some “knit local” stickers and a “knit local” car magnet, some knitty gift tags and a brooch/shawl pin.

I bought a bunch of fiber, including some locally grown Shetland, some hand-dyed Falkland, and a few batts. I also won some flax in another door prize, and got some spinning done. I talked to a LOT of people, including Dave Paul of The Merlin Tree, maker of the HitchHiker and Road Bug spinning wheels. I spun on one and LOVED it, but resisted buying one:

hitchhiker spinning wheel

It was a great day, topped off with a visit with a friend in White River Junction, Vermont, then a visit with another friend near Manchester, NH, and then finally home to my husband and dinner.
So, I went to the Wild and Woolly Weekend this weekend. I drove up Friday after work, and arrived at the Golden Stage Inn around 9 pm, and mostly I took my bag up to my room, showered, and went to sleep.

I woke up early the next morning and met another woman staying at the Inn who was also going to the Weekend, Barbara. Barbara and I talked during the delicious breakfast that Julie and Michael (the owners of the Inn) provided. As it turns out, she’s a spinner as well, and was taking the same classes I was on Saturday. Both classes were taught by Patty Blomgren, a local Vermont spinning instructor.

The first class was Textured Spinning – we went over a few ways to make textured yarn.

The first way was to use some washed but unprocessed fleece – pick and tease apart locks and other fibers, and just use as-is. Then we tried practicing an autowrap. Here’s the yarn I made as a result — it’s definitely textured!

picking and teasing, autowrap sample

I took the rest of the handfuls of unprocessed yarn and ran them through the drum carder – part of the fun of this workshop was playing with one of three drum carders Patty set up for us. So here is the batt I made with the same stuff as is in the yarn above – I have not spun this up yet, but when I do I will spin it worsted and see how much smoother that yarn can be.

batt with same fibers as yarn above

Then I made a colorway I like to call “Creamsicle”:

creamsicle batt

And I spun it into yarn:

Creamsicle yarn

Then I made a thick-and-thin yarn with some Targhee from Spunky Eclectic that I’d brought:

thick and thin yarn

Patty had a handout for us, so we’d remember what we did. We did not get to any of the plying techniques officially, but we did make some knots, and I’ve made some bobbles before.

The second class, also with Patty, was corespun yarn. She also provided a handout. These techniques were much more tricky, and we didn’t get to nearly as many.

We did some basic core spinning with commercial yarn as the core. I used a two-ply wool, and found that wrapping roving around was easy once I got the basic motion down and used *very* little fiber. I’ve tried core spinning before and never really got the hang of it. I think the secret really is using a very little bit of roving/top to wrap around the core. Here is some of this first type of core spinning:

first core spun

I then used the thick and thin yarn around the core to make a different kind of core-spun yarn. The little “beads” or “beehives” in the yarn are the thick parts. The most obvious of these are the three on the very bottom, in blue/brown. There are tighter/less fuzzy ones in the 2nd yarn from the top edge, the red/brown yarn. In this sample I showed a lot of the core on purpose:

core spun with beehives and showing the core

I’m working on the rest of the thick and thin targhee, core spinning it over a core where I’m trying not to show the core. It’s mostly working:

thick and thin core spun, not showing core

It’s not totally perfect, but it’s looking good.

All of the yarn is very kinky when I first spin it. I wasn’t able to let any of this rest, as I just spun it this weekend, but I did wash the samples. The stuff still on the bobbin is very kinky, and I’ll probably let it rest, and
So, pills I went to the Wild and Woolly Weekend this weekend. I drove up Friday after work, recipe and arrived at the Golden Stage Inn around 9 pm, and mostly I took my bag up to my room, showered, and went to sleep.

I woke up early the next morning and met another woman staying at the Inn who was also going to the Weekend, Barbara. Barbara and I talked during the delicious breakfast that Julie and Michael (the owners of the Inn) provided. As it turns out, she’s a spinner as well, and was taking the same classes I was on Saturday. Both classes were taught by Patty Blomgren, a local Vermont spinning instructor.

The first class was Textured Spinning – we went over a few ways to make textured yarn.

The first way was to use some washed but unprocessed fleece – pick and tease apart locks and other fibers, and just use as-is. Then we tried practicing an autowrap. Here’s the yarn I made as a result — it’s definitely textured!

picking and teasing, autowrap sample

I took the rest of the handfuls of unprocessed yarn and ran them through the drum carder – part of the fun of this workshop was playing with one of three drum carders Patty set up for us. So here is the batt I made with the same stuff as is in the yarn above – I have not spun this up yet, but when I do I will spin it worsted and see how much smoother that yarn can be.

batt with same fibers as yarn above

Then I made a colorway I like to call “Creamsicle”:

creamsicle batt

And I spun it into yarn:

Creamsicle yarn

Then I made a thick-and-thin yarn with some Targhee from Spunky Eclectic that I’d brought:

thick and thin yarn

Patty had a handout for us, so we’d remember what we did. We did not get to any of the plying techniques officially, but we did make some knots, and I’ve made some bobbles before.

The second class, also with Patty, was corespun yarn. She also provided a handout. These techniques were much more tricky, and we didn’t get to nearly as many.

We did some basic core spinning with commercial yarn as the core. I used a two-ply wool, and found that wrapping roving around was easy once I got the basic motion down and used *very* little fiber. I’ve tried core spinning before and never really got the hang of it. I think the secret really is using a very little bit of roving/top to wrap around the core. Here is some of this first type of core spinning:

first core spun

I then used the thick and thin yarn around the core to make a different kind of core-spun yarn. The little “beads” or “beehives” in the yarn are the thick parts. The most obvious of these are the three on the very bottom, in blue/brown. There are tighter/less fuzzy ones in the 2nd yarn from the top edge, the red/brown yarn. In this sample I showed a lot of the core on purpose:

core spun with beehives and showing the core

I’m working on the rest of the thick and thin targhee, core spinning it over a core where I’m trying not to show the core. It’s mostly working:

thick and thin core spun, not showing core

It’s not totally perfect, but it’s looking good.

All of the yarn is very kinky when I first spin it. I wasn’t able to let any of this rest, as I just spun it this weekend, but I did wash the samples, and dry them under tension – I don’t normally do this, because it will just re-kink up on washing, but I wanted to see what the yarn would look like when it was less kinky. The stuff still on the bobbin is very kinky, and I’ll probably let it rest, and then wash it.
So, and mostly I took my bag up to my room, showered, and went to sleep. More about the Inn later….

I woke up early the next morning and met another woman staying at the Inn who was also going to the Weekend, Barbara. Barbara and I talked during the delicious breakfast that Julie and Michael (the owners of the Inn) provided. As it turns out, she’s a spinner as well, and was taking the same classes I was on Saturday. Both classes were taught by Patty Blomgren, a local Vermont spinning instructor.

The first class was Textured Spinning – we went over a few ways to make textured yarn.

The first way was to use some washed but unprocessed fleece – pick and tease apart locks and other fibers, and just use as-is. Then we tried practicing an autowrap. Here’s the yarn I made as a result — it’s definitely textured!

picking and teasing, autowrap sample

I took the rest of the handfuls of unprocessed yarn and ran them through the drum carder – part of the fun of this workshop was playing with one of three drum carders Patty set up for us. So here is the batt I made with the same stuff as is in the yarn above – I have not spun this up yet, but when I do I will spin it worsted and see how much smoother that yarn can be.

batt with same fibers as yarn above

Then I made a colorway I like to call “Creamsicle”:

creamsicle batt

And I spun it into yarn:

Creamsicle yarn

Then I made a thick-and-thin yarn with some targhee from Spunky Eclectic that I’d brought:

thick and thin yarn

Patty had a handout for us, so we’d remember what we did. We did not get to any of the plying techniques officially, but we did make some knots, and I’ve made some bobbles before.

The second class, also with Patty, was corespun yarn. She also provided a handout. These techniques were much more tricky, and we didn’t get to nearly as many.

We did some basic core spinning with commercial yarn as the core. I used a two-ply wool, and found that wrapping roving around was easy once I got the basic motion down and used *very* little fiber. I’ve tried core spinning before and never really got the hang of it. I think the secret really is using a very little bit of roving/top to wrap around the core. Here is some of this first type of core spinning:

first core spun

I then used the thick and thin yarn around the core to make a different kind of core-spun yarn. The little “beads” or “beehives” in the yarn are the thick parts. The most obvious of these are the three on the very bottom, in blue/brown. There are tighter/less fuzzy ones in the 2nd yarn from the top edge, the red/brown yarn. In this sample I showed a lot of the core on purpose:

core spun with beehives and showing the core

I’m working on the rest of the thick and thin targhee, core spinning it over a core where I’m trying not to show the core. It’s mostly working:

thick and thin core spun, not showing core

It’s not totally perfect, but it’s looking good.

All of the yarn is very kinky when I first spin it. I wasn’t able to let any of this rest, as I just spun it this weekend, but I did wash the samples, and dry them under tension – I don’t normally do this, because it will just re-kink up on washing, but I wanted to see what the yarn would look like when it was less kinky. The stuff still on the bobbin is very kinky, and I’ll probably let it rest, and then wash it.

Unfortunately, the vendor times were exactly the same as the classes, so I did not get a chance to shop on Saturday. Luckily, I noticed this ahead of time, so I figured Sunday would be for shopping. At the end of the class, Patty let us raid her stash, so I took home some firestar, Ashland Bay merino/silk, and hand-dyed corriedale. I did have some fiber I gave away – I let Patty take some of the targhee, and I gave her the rest of my Louet Black Diamond, a carbonized bamboo that I did not enjoy spinning (it felt like spinning chalk powder, and has absolutely zero memory). I also gave Jennifer, a fellow classmate, some silk hankies that I wasn’t enjoying pulling apart to spin.

I did, however, win a door prize – a Knit Local canvas bag:

knit local tote bag

Saturday night Barbara and I went to DJ’s Restaurant for dinner, which was a good pick (on Julie’s recommendation). After that, I spun by the fireplace for a few hours, practicing what I’d learned that day.

Sunday I woke up, packed up, had breakfast and a nice long conversation with Julie and Michael, checked out and went to the festival again. This was my shopping day, and it was a lot of browsing and also a lot of talking to people. I started out helping a booth set up, and then bought a few magazines (Cast On and Piecework), and some “knit local” stickers and a “knit local” car magnet, some knitty gift tags and a brooch/shawl pin.

I bought a bunch of fiber, including some locally grown Shetland, some hand-dyed Falkland, and a few batts. I also won some flax in another door prize, and got some spinning done.

It was a great day, topped off with a visit with a friend in White River Junction, Vermont, then a visit with another friend near Manchester, NH, and then finally home to my husband and dinner.
So, phthisiatrician I went to the Wild and Woolly Weekend this weekend. I drove up Friday after work, and arrived at the Golden Stage Inn around 9 pm, and mostly I took my bag up to my room, showered, and went to sleep. More about the Inn later….

I woke up early the next morning and met another woman staying at the Inn who was also going to the Weekend, Barbara. Barbara and I talked during the delicious breakfast that Julie and Michael (the owners of the Inn) provided. As it turns out, she’s a spinner as well, and was taking the same classes I was on Saturday. Both classes were taught by Patty Blomgren, a local Vermont spinning instructor.

The first class was Textured Spinning – we went over a few ways to make textured yarn.

The first way was to use some washed but unprocessed fleece – pick and tease apart locks and other fibers, and just use as-is. Then we tried practicing an autowrap. Here’s the yarn I made as a result — it’s definitely textured!

picking and teasing, autowrap sample

I took the rest of the handfuls of unprocessed yarn and ran them through the drum carder – part of the fun of this workshop was playing with one of three drum carders Patty set up for us. So here is the batt I made with the same stuff as is in the yarn above – I have not spun this up yet, but when I do I will spin it worsted and see how much smoother that yarn can be.

batt with same fibers as yarn above

Then I made a colorway I like to call “Creamsicle”:

creamsicle batt

And I spun it into yarn:

Creamsicle yarn

Then I made a thick-and-thin yarn with some targhee from Spunky Eclectic that I’d brought:

thick and thin yarn

Patty had a handout for us, so we’d remember what we did. We did not get to any of the plying techniques officially, but we did make some knots, and I’ve made some bobbles before.

The second class, also with Patty, was corespun yarn. She also provided a handout. These techniques were much more tricky, and we didn’t get to nearly as many.

We did some basic core spinning with commercial yarn as the core. I used a two-ply wool, and found that wrapping roving around was easy once I got the basic motion down and used *very* little fiber. I’ve tried core spinning before and never really got the hang of it. I think the secret really is using a very little bit of roving/top to wrap around the core. Here is some of this first type of core spinning:

first core spun

I then used the thick and thin yarn around the core to make a different kind of core-spun yarn. The little “beads” or “beehives” in the yarn are the thick parts. The most obvious of these are the three on the very bottom, in blue/brown. There are tighter/less fuzzy ones in the 2nd yarn from the top edge, the red/brown yarn. In this sample I showed a lot of the core on purpose:

core spun with beehives and showing the core

I’m working on the rest of the thick and thin targhee, core spinning it over a core where I’m trying not to show the core. It’s mostly working:

thick and thin core spun, not showing core

It’s not totally perfect, but it’s looking good.

All of the yarn is very kinky when I first spin it. I wasn’t able to let any of this rest, as I just spun it this weekend, but I did wash the samples, and dry them under tension – I don’t normally do this, because it will just re-kink up on washing, but I wanted to see what the yarn would look like when it was less kinky. The stuff still on the bobbin is very kinky, and I’ll probably let it rest, and then wash it.

Unfortunately, the vendor times were exactly the same as the classes, so I did not get a chance to shop on Saturday. Luckily, I noticed this ahead of time, so I figured Sunday would be for shopping. At the end of the class, Patty let us raid her stash, so I took home some firestar, Ashland Bay merino/silk, and hand-dyed corriedale. I did have some fiber I gave away – I let Patty take some of the targhee, and I gave her the rest of my Louet Black Diamond, a carbonized bamboo that I did not enjoy spinning (it felt like spinning chalk powder, and has absolutely zero memory). I also gave Jennifer, a fellow classmate, some silk hankies that I wasn’t enjoying pulling apart to spin.

I did, however, win a door prize – a Knit Local canvas bag:

knit local tote bag

Saturday night Barbara and I went to DJ’s Restaurant for dinner, which was a good pick (on Julie’s recommendation). After that, I spun by the fireplace for a few hours, practicing what I’d learned that day.

Sunday I woke up, packed up, had breakfast and a nice long conversation with Julie and Michael, checked out and went to the festival again. A few pictures from the Inn:

pottery

The record player:

record player

These chickens were crossing the road. I wonder why?

why did these chickens cross the road?

A bunch of teapots at the Inn. I think my favorite is the fish one (just to the right of the cow one):

teapots!

This was my shopping day, and it was a lot of browsing and also a lot of talking to people. I started out helping a booth set up, and then bought a few magazines (Cast On and Piecework), and some “knit local” stickers and a “knit local” car magnet, some knitty gift tags and a brooch/shawl pin.

I bought a bunch of fiber, including some locally grown Shetland, some hand-dyed Falkland, and a few batts. I also won some flax in another door prize, and got some spinning done.

It was a great day, topped off with a visit with a friend in White River Junction, Vermont, then a visit with another friend near Manchester, NH, and then finally home to my husband and dinner.
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!
I know, “spinning textured yarns” and “core spinning”. Both classes are on Saturday, so I figured I’d do classes on Saturday and shopping on Sunday.

This is a kate with 3 bobbins that are on semi-permanent “rest” until I can find something good to ply them with.

The top is remnants from an Enchanted Knoll Farm Batt that I made into a boucle yarn. It’s a 2-ply yarn right now, so it might just need me to take it off the bobbin. Which I really ought to do, since I need all the bobbins I can get my hands on for this weekend! The middle is carbonized bamboo, which sounds neat, but it not a fun spin – it’s a little squeaky (like dried chalk powder rubbed together), and has no memory. I plied a lot of it with some wool, and that’s what I’m making Tony’s scarf out of. It’s plenty fine to knit with.

The bottom of the kate is the rest of the undyed silk that I spun. I wanted to spin and dye this in April, but I have no idea if I want to ply this together (and have silk yarn) or ply it with something else…and of course what I ply it with will probably determine how I dye it. So for now, it’s all spun up but resting on the bobbin, ready to be plied, to itself or something else.

This next lot is some nice blue metallic thread that I recovered from a sweater. The thread was accompanied by blue acrylic, which I threw away, because I just wanted the thread. It looks like it’s not a lot on the bobbin, but there really is – I measured it at 96 wpi (well, I measured 24 wraps for a 1/4 inch):

I also have no idea of what I want to do with the metallic blue thread, it will probably be put into a few different projects since I doubt I’ll make a sweater with it.

And finally, I started and finished spinning some small samples I got in February’s Phat Fiber Mixed Sampler Box. There was some silver sparkly yarn and some red yarn, so I spun them up and plied ’em together, and got this:


I know, decease I just posted a few days ago! I am excited and privileged to be attending the Wild & Woolly Weekend this weekend in Proctorsville, Vermont. I will be taking two classes, “spinning textured yarns” and “core spinning”. Both classes are on Saturday, so I figured I’d do classes on Saturday and shopping on Sunday.

This is a kate with 3 bobbins that are on semi-permanent “rest” until I can find something good to ply them with.

The top is remnants from an Enchanted Knoll Farm Batt that I made into a boucle yarn. It’s a 2-ply yarn right now, so it might just need me to take it off the bobbin. Which I really ought to do, since I need all the bobbins I can get my hands on for this weekend! The middle is carbonized bamboo, which sounds neat, but it not a fun spin – it’s a little squeaky (like dried chalk powder rubbed together), and has no memory. I plied a lot of it with some wool, and that’s what I’m making Tony’s scarf out of. It’s plenty fine to knit with.

The bottom of the kate is the rest of the undyed silk that I spun. I wanted to spin and dye this in April, but I have no idea if I want to ply this together (and have silk yarn) or ply it with something else…and of course what I ply it with will probably determine how I dye it. So for now, it’s all spun up but resting on the bobbin, ready to be plied, to itself or something else.

This next lot is some nice blue metallic thread that I recovered from a sweater. The thread was accompanied by blue acrylic, which I threw away, because I just wanted the thread. It looks like it’s not a lot on the bobbin, but there really is – I measured it at 96 wpi (well, I measured 24 wraps for a 1/4 inch):

I also have no idea of what I want to do with the metallic blue thread, it will probably be put into a few different projects since I doubt I’ll make a sweater with it.

And finally, I started and finished spinning some small samples I got in February’s
I know, Vermont. I will be taking two classes, “spinning textured yarns” and “core spinning”. Both classes are on Saturday, so I figured I’d do classes on Saturday and shopping on Sunday.

This is a kate with 3 bobbins that are on semi-permanent “rest” until I can find something good to ply them with.

The top is remnants from an Enchanted Knoll Farm Batt that I made into a boucle yarn. It’s a 2-ply yarn right now, so it might just need me to take it off the bobbin. Which I really ought to do, since I need all the bobbins I can get my hands on for this weekend! The middle is carbonized bamboo, which sounds neat, but it not a fun spin – it’s a little squeaky (like dried chalk powder rubbed together), and has no memory. I plied a lot of it with some wool, and that’s what I’m making Tony’s scarf out of. It’s plenty fine to knit with.

The bottom of the kate is the rest of the undyed silk that I spun. I wanted to spin and dye this in April, but I have no idea if I want to ply this together (and have silk yarn) or ply it with something else…and of course what I ply it with will probably determine how I dye it. So for now, it’s all spun up but resting on the bobbin, ready to be plied, to itself or something else.

This next lot is some nice blue metallic thread that I recovered from a sweater. The thread was accompanied by blue acrylic, which I threw away, because I just wanted the thread. It looks like it’s not a lot on the bobbin, but there really is – I measured it at 96 wpi (well, I measured 24 wraps for a 1/4 inch):

I also have no idea of what I want to do with the metallic blue thread, it will probably be put into a few different projects since I doubt I’ll make a sweater with it.

And finally, I started and finished spinning some small samples I got in February’s Phat Fiber Mixed Sampler Box. There was some silver sparkly yarn and some red yarn, so I spun them up and plied ’em together, and got this:


So, and mostly I took my bag up to my room, showered, and went to sleep. More about the Inn later….

I woke up early the next morning and met another woman staying at the Inn who was also going to the Weekend, Barbara. Barbara and I talked during the delicious breakfast that Julie and Michael (the owners of the Inn) provided. As it turns out, she’s a spinner as well, and was taking the same classes I was on Saturday. Both classes were taught by Patty Blomgren, a local Vermont spinning instructor.

The first class was Textured Spinning – we went over a few ways to make textured yarn.

The first way was to use some washed but unprocessed fleece – pick and tease apart locks and other fibers, and just use as-is. Then we tried practicing an autowrap. Here’s the yarn I made as a result — it’s definitely textured!

picking and teasing, autowrap sample

I took the rest of the handfuls of unprocessed yarn and ran them through the drum carder – part of the fun of this workshop was playing with one of three drum carders Patty set up for us. So here is the batt I made with the same stuff as is in the yarn above – I have not spun this up yet, but when I do I will spin it worsted and see how much smoother that yarn can be.

batt with same fibers as yarn above

Then I made a colorway I like to call “Creamsicle”:

creamsicle batt

And I spun it into yarn:

Creamsicle yarn

Then I made a thick-and-thin yarn with some targhee from Spunky Eclectic that I’d brought:

thick and thin yarn

Patty had a handout for us, so we’d remember what we did. We did not get to any of the plying techniques officially, but we did make some knots, and I’ve made some bobbles before.

The second class, also with Patty, was corespun yarn. She also provided a handout. These techniques were much more tricky, and we didn’t get to nearly as many.

We did some basic core spinning with commercial yarn as the core. I used a two-ply wool, and found that wrapping roving around was easy once I got the basic motion down and used *very* little fiber. I’ve tried core spinning before and never really got the hang of it. I think the secret really is using a very little bit of roving/top to wrap around the core. Here is some of this first type of core spinning:

first core spun

I then used the thick and thin yarn around the core to make a different kind of core-spun yarn. The little “beads” or “beehives” in the yarn are the thick parts. The most obvious of these are the three on the very bottom, in blue/brown. There are tighter/less fuzzy ones in the 2nd yarn from the top edge, the red/brown yarn. In this sample I showed a lot of the core on purpose:

core spun with beehives and showing the core

I’m working on the rest of the thick and thin targhee, core spinning it over a core where I’m trying not to show the core. It’s mostly working:

thick and thin core spun, not showing core

It’s not totally perfect, but it’s looking good.

All of the yarn is very kinky when I first spin it. I wasn’t able to let any of this rest, as I just spun it this weekend, but I did wash the samples, and dry them under tension – I don’t normally do this, because it will just re-kink up on washing, but I wanted to see what the yarn would look like when it was less kinky. The stuff still on the bobbin is very kinky, and I’ll probably let it rest, and then wash it.

Unfortunately, the vendor times were exactly the same as the classes, so I did not get a chance to shop on Saturday. Luckily, I noticed this ahead of time, so I figured Sunday would be for shopping. At the end of the class, Patty let us raid her stash, so I took home some firestar, Ashland Bay merino/silk, and hand-dyed corriedale. I did have some fiber I gave away – I let Patty take some of the targhee, and I gave her the rest of my Louet Black Diamond, a carbonized bamboo that I did not enjoy spinning (it felt like spinning chalk powder, and has absolutely zero memory). I also gave Jennifer, a fellow classmate, some silk hankies that I wasn’t enjoying pulling apart to spin.

I did, however, win a door prize – a Knit Local canvas bag:

knit local tote bag

Saturday night Barbara and I went to DJ’s Restaurant for dinner, which was a good pick (on Julie’s recommendation). After that, I spun by the fireplace for a few hours, practicing what I’d learned that day.

Sunday I woke up, packed up, had breakfast and a nice long conversation with Julie and Michael, checked out and went to the festival again. A few pictures from the Inn:

pottery

The record player:

record player

These chickens were crossing the road. I wonder why?

why did these chickens cross the road?

A bunch of teapots at the Inn. I think my favorite is the fish one (just to the right of the cow one):

teapots!

This was my shopping day, and it was a lot of browsing and also a lot of talking to people. I started out helping a booth set up, and then bought a few magazines (Cast On and Piecework), and some “knit local” stickers and a “knit local” car magnet, some knitty gift tags and a brooch/shawl pin.

I bought a bunch of fiber, including some locally grown Shetland, some hand-dyed Falkland, and a few batts. I also won some flax in another door prize, and got some spinning done. I talked to a LOT of people, including Dave Paul of The Merlin Tree, maker of the HitchHiker and Road Bug spinning wheels. I spun on one and LOVED it, but resisted buying one:

hitchhiker spinning wheel

It was a great day, topped off with a visit with a friend in White River Junction, Vermont, then a visit with another friend near Manchester, NH, and then finally home to my husband and dinner.
So, I went to the Wild and Woolly Weekend this weekend. I drove up Friday after work, and arrived at the Golden Stage Inn around 9 pm, and mostly I took my bag up to my room, showered, and went to sleep.

I woke up early the next morning and met another woman staying at the Inn who was also going to the Weekend, Barbara. Barbara and I talked during the delicious breakfast that Julie and Michael (the owners of the Inn) provided. As it turns out, she’s a spinner as well, and was taking the same classes I was on Saturday. Both classes were taught by Patty Blomgren, a local Vermont spinning instructor.

The first class was Textured Spinning – we went over a few ways to make textured yarn.

The first way was to use some washed but unprocessed fleece – pick and tease apart locks and other fibers, and just use as-is. Then we tried practicing an autowrap. Here’s the yarn I made as a result — it’s definitely textured!

picking and teasing, autowrap sample

I took the rest of the handfuls of unprocessed yarn and ran them through the drum carder – part of the fun of this workshop was playing with one of three drum carders Patty set up for us. So here is the batt I made with the same stuff as is in the yarn above – I have not spun this up yet, but when I do I will spin it worsted and see how much smoother that yarn can be.

batt with same fibers as yarn above

Then I made a colorway I like to call “Creamsicle”:

creamsicle batt

And I spun it into yarn:

Creamsicle yarn

Then I made a thick-and-thin yarn with some Targhee from Spunky Eclectic that I’d brought:

thick and thin yarn

Patty had a handout for us, so we’d remember what we did. We did not get to any of the plying techniques officially, but we did make some knots, and I’ve made some bobbles before.

The second class, also with Patty, was corespun yarn. She also provided a handout. These techniques were much more tricky, and we didn’t get to nearly as many.

We did some basic core spinning with commercial yarn as the core. I used a two-ply wool, and found that wrapping roving around was easy once I got the basic motion down and used *very* little fiber. I’ve tried core spinning before and never really got the hang of it. I think the secret really is using a very little bit of roving/top to wrap around the core. Here is some of this first type of core spinning:

first core spun

I then used the thick and thin yarn around the core to make a different kind of core-spun yarn. The little “beads” or “beehives” in the yarn are the thick parts. The most obvious of these are the three on the very bottom, in blue/brown. There are tighter/less fuzzy ones in the 2nd yarn from the top edge, the red/brown yarn. In this sample I showed a lot of the core on purpose:

core spun with beehives and showing the core

I’m working on the rest of the thick and thin targhee, core spinning it over a core where I’m trying not to show the core. It’s mostly working:

thick and thin core spun, not showing core

It’s not totally perfect, but it’s looking good.

All of the yarn is very kinky when I first spin it. I wasn’t able to let any of this rest, as I just spun it this weekend, but I did wash the samples. The stuff still on the bobbin is very kinky, and I’ll probably let it rest, and
So, pills I went to the Wild and Woolly Weekend this weekend. I drove up Friday after work, recipe and arrived at the Golden Stage Inn around 9 pm, and mostly I took my bag up to my room, showered, and went to sleep.

I woke up early the next morning and met another woman staying at the Inn who was also going to the Weekend, Barbara. Barbara and I talked during the delicious breakfast that Julie and Michael (the owners of the Inn) provided. As it turns out, she’s a spinner as well, and was taking the same classes I was on Saturday. Both classes were taught by Patty Blomgren, a local Vermont spinning instructor.

The first class was Textured Spinning – we went over a few ways to make textured yarn.

The first way was to use some washed but unprocessed fleece – pick and tease apart locks and other fibers, and just use as-is. Then we tried practicing an autowrap. Here’s the yarn I made as a result — it’s definitely textured!

picking and teasing, autowrap sample

I took the rest of the handfuls of unprocessed yarn and ran them through the drum carder – part of the fun of this workshop was playing with one of three drum carders Patty set up for us. So here is the batt I made with the same stuff as is in the yarn above – I have not spun this up yet, but when I do I will spin it worsted and see how much smoother that yarn can be.

batt with same fibers as yarn above

Then I made a colorway I like to call “Creamsicle”:

creamsicle batt

And I spun it into yarn:

Creamsicle yarn

Then I made a thick-and-thin yarn with some Targhee from Spunky Eclectic that I’d brought:

thick and thin yarn

Patty had a handout for us, so we’d remember what we did. We did not get to any of the plying techniques officially, but we did make some knots, and I’ve made some bobbles before.

The second class, also with Patty, was corespun yarn. She also provided a handout. These techniques were much more tricky, and we didn’t get to nearly as many.

We did some basic core spinning with commercial yarn as the core. I used a two-ply wool, and found that wrapping roving around was easy once I got the basic motion down and used *very* little fiber. I’ve tried core spinning before and never really got the hang of it. I think the secret really is using a very little bit of roving/top to wrap around the core. Here is some of this first type of core spinning:

first core spun

I then used the thick and thin yarn around the core to make a different kind of core-spun yarn. The little “beads” or “beehives” in the yarn are the thick parts. The most obvious of these are the three on the very bottom, in blue/brown. There are tighter/less fuzzy ones in the 2nd yarn from the top edge, the red/brown yarn. In this sample I showed a lot of the core on purpose:

core spun with beehives and showing the core

I’m working on the rest of the thick and thin targhee, core spinning it over a core where I’m trying not to show the core. It’s mostly working:

thick and thin core spun, not showing core

It’s not totally perfect, but it’s looking good.

All of the yarn is very kinky when I first spin it. I wasn’t able to let any of this rest, as I just spun it this weekend, but I did wash the samples, and dry them under tension – I don’t normally do this, because it will just re-kink up on washing, but I wanted to see what the yarn would look like when it was less kinky. The stuff still on the bobbin is very kinky, and I’ll probably let it rest, and then wash it.
So, and mostly I took my bag up to my room, showered, and went to sleep. More about the Inn later….

I woke up early the next morning and met another woman staying at the Inn who was also going to the Weekend, Barbara. Barbara and I talked during the delicious breakfast that Julie and Michael (the owners of the Inn) provided. As it turns out, she’s a spinner as well, and was taking the same classes I was on Saturday. Both classes were taught by Patty Blomgren, a local Vermont spinning instructor.

The first class was Textured Spinning – we went over a few ways to make textured yarn.

The first way was to use some washed but unprocessed fleece – pick and tease apart locks and other fibers, and just use as-is. Then we tried practicing an autowrap. Here’s the yarn I made as a result — it’s definitely textured!

picking and teasing, autowrap sample

I took the rest of the handfuls of unprocessed yarn and ran them through the drum carder – part of the fun of this workshop was playing with one of three drum carders Patty set up for us. So here is the batt I made with the same stuff as is in the yarn above – I have not spun this up yet, but when I do I will spin it worsted and see how much smoother that yarn can be.

batt with same fibers as yarn above

Then I made a colorway I like to call “Creamsicle”:

creamsicle batt

And I spun it into yarn:

Creamsicle yarn

Then I made a thick-and-thin yarn with some targhee from Spunky Eclectic that I’d brought:

thick and thin yarn

Patty had a handout for us, so we’d remember what we did. We did not get to any of the plying techniques officially, but we did make some knots, and I’ve made some bobbles before.

The second class, also with Patty, was corespun yarn. She also provided a handout. These techniques were much more tricky, and we didn’t get to nearly as many.

We did some basic core spinning with commercial yarn as the core. I used a two-ply wool, and found that wrapping roving around was easy once I got the basic motion down and used *very* little fiber. I’ve tried core spinning before and never really got the hang of it. I think the secret really is using a very little bit of roving/top to wrap around the core. Here is some of this first type of core spinning:

first core spun

I then used the thick and thin yarn around the core to make a different kind of core-spun yarn. The little “beads” or “beehives” in the yarn are the thick parts. The most obvious of these are the three on the very bottom, in blue/brown. There are tighter/less fuzzy ones in the 2nd yarn from the top edge, the red/brown yarn. In this sample I showed a lot of the core on purpose:

core spun with beehives and showing the core

I’m working on the rest of the thick and thin targhee, core spinning it over a core where I’m trying not to show the core. It’s mostly working:

thick and thin core spun, not showing core

It’s not totally perfect, but it’s looking good.

All of the yarn is very kinky when I first spin it. I wasn’t able to let any of this rest, as I just spun it this weekend, but I did wash the samples, and dry them under tension – I don’t normally do this, because it will just re-kink up on washing, but I wanted to see what the yarn would look like when it was less kinky. The stuff still on the bobbin is very kinky, and I’ll probably let it rest, and then wash it.

Unfortunately, the vendor times were exactly the same as the classes, so I did not get a chance to shop on Saturday. Luckily, I noticed this ahead of time, so I figured Sunday would be for shopping. At the end of the class, Patty let us raid her stash, so I took home some firestar, Ashland Bay merino/silk, and hand-dyed corriedale. I did have some fiber I gave away – I let Patty take some of the targhee, and I gave her the rest of my Louet Black Diamond, a carbonized bamboo that I did not enjoy spinning (it felt like spinning chalk powder, and has absolutely zero memory). I also gave Jennifer, a fellow classmate, some silk hankies that I wasn’t enjoying pulling apart to spin.

I did, however, win a door prize – a Knit Local canvas bag:

knit local tote bag

Saturday night Barbara and I went to DJ’s Restaurant for dinner, which was a good pick (on Julie’s recommendation). After that, I spun by the fireplace for a few hours, practicing what I’d learned that day.

Sunday I woke up, packed up, had breakfast and a nice long conversation with Julie and Michael, checked out and went to the festival again. This was my shopping day, and it was a lot of browsing and also a lot of talking to people. I started out helping a booth set up, and then bought a few magazines (Cast On and Piecework), and some “knit local” stickers and a “knit local” car magnet, some knitty gift tags and a brooch/shawl pin.

I bought a bunch of fiber, including some locally grown Shetland, some hand-dyed Falkland, and a few batts. I also won some flax in another door prize, and got some spinning done.

It was a great day, topped off with a visit with a friend in White River Junction, Vermont, then a visit with another friend near Manchester, NH, and then finally home to my husband and dinner.
So, phthisiatrician I went to the Wild and Woolly Weekend this weekend. I drove up Friday after work, and arrived at the Golden Stage Inn around 9 pm, and mostly I took my bag up to my room, showered, and went to sleep. More about the Inn later….

I woke up early the next morning and met another woman staying at the Inn who was also going to the Weekend, Barbara. Barbara and I talked during the delicious breakfast that Julie and Michael (the owners of the Inn) provided. As it turns out, she’s a spinner as well, and was taking the same classes I was on Saturday. Both classes were taught by Patty Blomgren, a local Vermont spinning instructor.

The first class was Textured Spinning – we went over a few ways to make textured yarn.

The first way was to use some washed but unprocessed fleece – pick and tease apart locks and other fibers, and just use as-is. Then we tried practicing an autowrap. Here’s the yarn I made as a result — it’s definitely textured!

picking and teasing, autowrap sample

I took the rest of the handfuls of unprocessed yarn and ran them through the drum carder – part of the fun of this workshop was playing with one of three drum carders Patty set up for us. So here is the batt I made with the same stuff as is in the yarn above – I have not spun this up yet, but when I do I will spin it worsted and see how much smoother that yarn can be.

batt with same fibers as yarn above

Then I made a colorway I like to call “Creamsicle”:

creamsicle batt

And I spun it into yarn:

Creamsicle yarn

Then I made a thick-and-thin yarn with some targhee from Spunky Eclectic that I’d brought:

thick and thin yarn

Patty had a handout for us, so we’d remember what we did. We did not get to any of the plying techniques officially, but we did make some knots, and I’ve made some bobbles before.

The second class, also with Patty, was corespun yarn. She also provided a handout. These techniques were much more tricky, and we didn’t get to nearly as many.

We did some basic core spinning with commercial yarn as the core. I used a two-ply wool, and found that wrapping roving around was easy once I got the basic motion down and used *very* little fiber. I’ve tried core spinning before and never really got the hang of it. I think the secret really is using a very little bit of roving/top to wrap around the core. Here is some of this first type of core spinning:

first core spun

I then used the thick and thin yarn around the core to make a different kind of core-spun yarn. The little “beads” or “beehives” in the yarn are the thick parts. The most obvious of these are the three on the very bottom, in blue/brown. There are tighter/less fuzzy ones in the 2nd yarn from the top edge, the red/brown yarn. In this sample I showed a lot of the core on purpose:

core spun with beehives and showing the core

I’m working on the rest of the thick and thin targhee, core spinning it over a core where I’m trying not to show the core. It’s mostly working:

thick and thin core spun, not showing core

It’s not totally perfect, but it’s looking good.

All of the yarn is very kinky when I first spin it. I wasn’t able to let any of this rest, as I just spun it this weekend, but I did wash the samples, and dry them under tension – I don’t normally do this, because it will just re-kink up on washing, but I wanted to see what the yarn would look like when it was less kinky. The stuff still on the bobbin is very kinky, and I’ll probably let it rest, and then wash it.

Unfortunately, the vendor times were exactly the same as the classes, so I did not get a chance to shop on Saturday. Luckily, I noticed this ahead of time, so I figured Sunday would be for shopping. At the end of the class, Patty let us raid her stash, so I took home some firestar, Ashland Bay merino/silk, and hand-dyed corriedale. I did have some fiber I gave away – I let Patty take some of the targhee, and I gave her the rest of my Louet Black Diamond, a carbonized bamboo that I did not enjoy spinning (it felt like spinning chalk powder, and has absolutely zero memory). I also gave Jennifer, a fellow classmate, some silk hankies that I wasn’t enjoying pulling apart to spin.

I did, however, win a door prize – a Knit Local canvas bag:

knit local tote bag

Saturday night Barbara and I went to DJ’s Restaurant for dinner, which was a good pick (on Julie’s recommendation). After that, I spun by the fireplace for a few hours, practicing what I’d learned that day.

Sunday I woke up, packed up, had breakfast and a nice long conversation with Julie and Michael, checked out and went to the festival again. A few pictures from the Inn:

pottery

The record player:

record player

These chickens were crossing the road. I wonder why?

why did these chickens cross the road?

A bunch of teapots at the Inn. I think my favorite is the fish one (just to the right of the cow one):

teapots!

This was my shopping day, and it was a lot of browsing and also a lot of talking to people. I started out helping a booth set up, and then bought a few magazines (Cast On and Piecework), and some “knit local” stickers and a “knit local” car magnet, some knitty gift tags and a brooch/shawl pin.

I bought a bunch of fiber, including some locally grown Shetland, some hand-dyed Falkland, and a few batts. I also won some flax in another door prize, and got some spinning done.

It was a great day, topped off with a visit with a friend in White River Junction, Vermont, then a visit with another friend near Manchester, NH, and then finally home to my husband and dinner.
So, contagion I went to the Wild and Woolly Weekend this weekend. I drove up Friday after work, online and arrived at the Golden Stage Inn around 9 pm, drug and mostly I took my bag up to my room, showered, and went to sleep. More about the Inn later….

I woke up early the next morning and met another woman staying at the Inn who was also going to the Weekend, Barbara. Barbara and I talked during the delicious breakfast that Julie and Michael (the owners of the Inn) provided. As it turns out, she’s a spinner as well, and was taking the same classes I was on Saturday. Both classes were taught by Patty Blomgren, a local Vermont spinning instructor.

The first class was Textured Spinning – we went over a few ways to make textured yarn.

The first way was to use some washed but unprocessed fleece – pick and tease apart locks and other fibers, and just use as-is. Then we tried practicing an autowrap. Here’s the yarn I made as a result — it’s definitely textured!

picking and teasing, autowrap sample

I took the rest of the handfuls of unprocessed yarn and ran them through the drum carder – part of the fun of this workshop was playing with one of three drum carders Patty set up for us. So here is the batt I made with the same stuff as is in the yarn above – I have not spun this up yet, but when I do I will spin it worsted and see how much smoother that yarn can be.

batt with same fibers as yarn above

Then I made a colorway I like to call “Creamsicle”:

creamsicle batt

And I spun it into yarn:

Creamsicle yarn

Then I made a thick-and-thin yarn with some targhee from Spunky Eclectic that I’d brought:

thick and thin yarn

Patty had a handout for us, so we’d remember what we did. We did not get to any of the plying techniques officially, but we did make some knots, and I’ve made some bobbles before.

The second class, also with Patty, was corespun yarn. She also provided a handout. These techniques were much more tricky, and we didn’t get to nearly as many.

We did some basic core spinning with commercial yarn as the core. I used a two-ply wool, and found that wrapping roving around was easy once I got the basic motion down and used *very* little fiber. I’ve tried core spinning before and never really got the hang of it. I think the secret really is using a very little bit of roving/top to wrap around the core. Here is some of this first type of core spinning:

first core spun

I then used the thick and thin yarn around the core to make a different kind of core-spun yarn. The little “beads” or “beehives” in the yarn are the thick parts. The most obvious of these are the three on the very bottom, in blue/brown. There are tighter/less fuzzy ones in the 2nd yarn from the top edge, the red/brown yarn. In this sample I showed a lot of the core on purpose:

core spun with beehives and showing the core

I’m working on the rest of the thick and thin targhee, core spinning it over a core where I’m trying not to show the core. It’s mostly working:

thick and thin core spun, not showing core

It’s not totally perfect, but it’s looking good.

All of the yarn is very kinky when I first spin it. I wasn’t able to let any of this rest, as I just spun it this weekend, but I did wash the samples, and dry them under tension – I don’t normally do this, because it will just re-kink up on washing, but I wanted to see what the yarn would look like when it was less kinky. The stuff still on the bobbin is very kinky, and I’ll probably let it rest, and then wash it.

Unfortunately, the vendor times were exactly the same as the classes, so I did not get a chance to shop on Saturday. Luckily, I noticed this ahead of time, so I figured Sunday would be for shopping. At the end of the class, Patty let us raid her stash, so I took home some firestar, Ashland Bay merino/silk, and hand-dyed corriedale. I did have some fiber I gave away – I let Patty take some of the targhee, and I gave her the rest of my Louet Black Diamond, a carbonized bamboo that I did not enjoy spinning (it felt like spinning chalk powder, and has absolutely zero memory). I also gave Jennifer, a fellow classmate, some silk hankies that I wasn’t enjoying pulling apart to spin.

I did, however, win a door prize – a Knit Local canvas bag:

knit local tote bag

Saturday night Barbara and I went to DJ’s Restaurant for dinner, which was a good pick (on Julie’s recommendation). After that, I spun by the fireplace for a few hours, practicing what I’d learned that day.

Sunday I woke up, packed up, had breakfast and a nice long conversation with Julie and Michael, checked out and went to the festival again. A few pictures from the Inn:

pottery

The record player:

record player

These chickens were crossing the road. I wonder why?

why did these chickens cross the road?

A bunch of teapots at the Inn. I think my favorite is the fish one (just to the right of the cow one):

teapots!

This was my shopping day, and it was a lot of browsing and also a lot of talking to people. I started out helping a booth set up, and then bought a few magazines (Cast On and Piecework), and some “knit local” stickers and a “knit local” car magnet, some knitty gift tags and a brooch/shawl pin.

I bought a bunch of fiber, including some locally grown Shetland, some hand-dyed Falkland, and a few batts. I also won some flax in another door prize, and got some spinning done. I talked to a LOT of people, including Dave Paul of The Merlin Tree, maker of the HitchHiker and Road Bug spinning wheels. I spun on one and LOVED it

hitchhiker spinning wheel

It was a great day, topped off with a visit with a friend in White River Junction, Vermont, then a visit with another friend near Manchester, NH, and then finally home to my husband and dinner.
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!
I know, “spinning textured yarns” and “core spinning”. Both classes are on Saturday, so I figured I’d do classes on Saturday and shopping on Sunday.

This is a kate with 3 bobbins that are on semi-permanent “rest” until I can find something good to ply them with.

The top is remnants from an Enchanted Knoll Farm Batt that I made into a boucle yarn. It’s a 2-ply yarn right now, so it might just need me to take it off the bobbin. Which I really ought to do, since I need all the bobbins I can get my hands on for this weekend! The middle is carbonized bamboo, which sounds neat, but it not a fun spin – it’s a little squeaky (like dried chalk powder rubbed together), and has no memory. I plied a lot of it with some wool, and that’s what I’m making Tony’s scarf out of. It’s plenty fine to knit with.

The bottom of the kate is the rest of the undyed silk that I spun. I wanted to spin and dye this in April, but I have no idea if I want to ply this together (and have silk yarn) or ply it with something else…and of course what I ply it with will probably determine how I dye it. So for now, it’s all spun up but resting on the bobbin, ready to be plied, to itself or something else.

This next lot is some nice blue metallic thread that I recovered from a sweater. The thread was accompanied by blue acrylic, which I threw away, because I just wanted the thread. It looks like it’s not a lot on the bobbin, but there really is – I measured it at 96 wpi (well, I measured 24 wraps for a 1/4 inch):

I also have no idea of what I want to do with the metallic blue thread, it will probably be put into a few different projects since I doubt I’ll make a sweater with it.

And finally, I started and finished spinning some small samples I got in February’s Phat Fiber Mixed Sampler Box. There was some silver sparkly yarn and some red yarn, so I spun them up and plied ’em together, and got this:


I know, decease I just posted a few days ago! I am excited and privileged to be attending the Wild & Woolly Weekend this weekend in Proctorsville, Vermont. I will be taking two classes, “spinning textured yarns” and “core spinning”. Both classes are on Saturday, so I figured I’d do classes on Saturday and shopping on Sunday.

This is a kate with 3 bobbins that are on semi-permanent “rest” until I can find something good to ply them with.

The top is remnants from an Enchanted Knoll Farm Batt that I made into a boucle yarn. It’s a 2-ply yarn right now, so it might just need me to take it off the bobbin. Which I really ought to do, since I need all the bobbins I can get my hands on for this weekend! The middle is carbonized bamboo, which sounds neat, but it not a fun spin – it’s a little squeaky (like dried chalk powder rubbed together), and has no memory. I plied a lot of it with some wool, and that’s what I’m making Tony’s scarf out of. It’s plenty fine to knit with.

The bottom of the kate is the rest of the undyed silk that I spun. I wanted to spin and dye this in April, but I have no idea if I want to ply this together (and have silk yarn) or ply it with something else…and of course what I ply it with will probably determine how I dye it. So for now, it’s all spun up but resting on the bobbin, ready to be plied, to itself or something else.

This next lot is some nice blue metallic thread that I recovered from a sweater. The thread was accompanied by blue acrylic, which I threw away, because I just wanted the thread. It looks like it’s not a lot on the bobbin, but there really is – I measured it at 96 wpi (well, I measured 24 wraps for a 1/4 inch):

I also have no idea of what I want to do with the metallic blue thread, it will probably be put into a few different projects since I doubt I’ll make a sweater with it.

And finally, I started and finished spinning some small samples I got in February’s
I know, Vermont. I will be taking two classes, “spinning textured yarns” and “core spinning”. Both classes are on Saturday, so I figured I’d do classes on Saturday and shopping on Sunday.

This is a kate with 3 bobbins that are on semi-permanent “rest” until I can find something good to ply them with.

The top is remnants from an Enchanted Knoll Farm Batt that I made into a boucle yarn. It’s a 2-ply yarn right now, so it might just need me to take it off the bobbin. Which I really ought to do, since I need all the bobbins I can get my hands on for this weekend! The middle is carbonized bamboo, which sounds neat, but it not a fun spin – it’s a little squeaky (like dried chalk powder rubbed together), and has no memory. I plied a lot of it with some wool, and that’s what I’m making Tony’s scarf out of. It’s plenty fine to knit with.

The bottom of the kate is the rest of the undyed silk that I spun. I wanted to spin and dye this in April, but I have no idea if I want to ply this together (and have silk yarn) or ply it with something else…and of course what I ply it with will probably determine how I dye it. So for now, it’s all spun up but resting on the bobbin, ready to be plied, to itself or something else.

This next lot is some nice blue metallic thread that I recovered from a sweater. The thread was accompanied by blue acrylic, which I threw away, because I just wanted the thread. It looks like it’s not a lot on the bobbin, but there really is – I measured it at 96 wpi (well, I measured 24 wraps for a 1/4 inch):

I also have no idea of what I want to do with the metallic blue thread, it will probably be put into a few different projects since I doubt I’ll make a sweater with it.

And finally, I started and finished spinning some small samples I got in February’s Phat Fiber Mixed Sampler Box. There was some silver sparkly yarn and some red yarn, so I spun them up and plied ’em together, and got this:


So, and mostly I took my bag up to my room, showered, and went to sleep. More about the Inn later….

I woke up early the next morning and met another woman staying at the Inn who was also going to the Weekend, Barbara. Barbara and I talked during the delicious breakfast that Julie and Michael (the owners of the Inn) provided. As it turns out, she’s a spinner as well, and was taking the same classes I was on Saturday. Both classes were taught by Patty Blomgren, a local Vermont spinning instructor.

The first class was Textured Spinning – we went over a few ways to make textured yarn.

The first way was to use some washed but unprocessed fleece – pick and tease apart locks and other fibers, and just use as-is. Then we tried practicing an autowrap. Here’s the yarn I made as a result — it’s definitely textured!

picking and teasing, autowrap sample

I took the rest of the handfuls of unprocessed yarn and ran them through the drum carder – part of the fun of this workshop was playing with one of three drum carders Patty set up for us. So here is the batt I made with the same stuff as is in the yarn above – I have not spun this up yet, but when I do I will spin it worsted and see how much smoother that yarn can be.

batt with same fibers as yarn above

Then I made a colorway I like to call “Creamsicle”:

creamsicle batt

And I spun it into yarn:

Creamsicle yarn

Then I made a thick-and-thin yarn with some targhee from Spunky Eclectic that I’d brought:

thick and thin yarn

Patty had a handout for us, so we’d remember what we did. We did not get to any of the plying techniques officially, but we did make some knots, and I’ve made some bobbles before.

The second class, also with Patty, was corespun yarn. She also provided a handout. These techniques were much more tricky, and we didn’t get to nearly as many.

We did some basic core spinning with commercial yarn as the core. I used a two-ply wool, and found that wrapping roving around was easy once I got the basic motion down and used *very* little fiber. I’ve tried core spinning before and never really got the hang of it. I think the secret really is using a very little bit of roving/top to wrap around the core. Here is some of this first type of core spinning:

first core spun

I then used the thick and thin yarn around the core to make a different kind of core-spun yarn. The little “beads” or “beehives” in the yarn are the thick parts. The most obvious of these are the three on the very bottom, in blue/brown. There are tighter/less fuzzy ones in the 2nd yarn from the top edge, the red/brown yarn. In this sample I showed a lot of the core on purpose:

core spun with beehives and showing the core

I’m working on the rest of the thick and thin targhee, core spinning it over a core where I’m trying not to show the core. It’s mostly working:

thick and thin core spun, not showing core

It’s not totally perfect, but it’s looking good.

All of the yarn is very kinky when I first spin it. I wasn’t able to let any of this rest, as I just spun it this weekend, but I did wash the samples, and dry them under tension – I don’t normally do this, because it will just re-kink up on washing, but I wanted to see what the yarn would look like when it was less kinky. The stuff still on the bobbin is very kinky, and I’ll probably let it rest, and then wash it.

Unfortunately, the vendor times were exactly the same as the classes, so I did not get a chance to shop on Saturday. Luckily, I noticed this ahead of time, so I figured Sunday would be for shopping. At the end of the class, Patty let us raid her stash, so I took home some firestar, Ashland Bay merino/silk, and hand-dyed corriedale. I did have some fiber I gave away – I let Patty take some of the targhee, and I gave her the rest of my Louet Black Diamond, a carbonized bamboo that I did not enjoy spinning (it felt like spinning chalk powder, and has absolutely zero memory). I also gave Jennifer, a fellow classmate, some silk hankies that I wasn’t enjoying pulling apart to spin.

I did, however, win a door prize – a Knit Local canvas bag:

knit local tote bag

Saturday night Barbara and I went to DJ’s Restaurant for dinner, which was a good pick (on Julie’s recommendation). After that, I spun by the fireplace for a few hours, practicing what I’d learned that day.

Sunday I woke up, packed up, had breakfast and a nice long conversation with Julie and Michael, checked out and went to the festival again. A few pictures from the Inn:

pottery

The record player:

record player

These chickens were crossing the road. I wonder why?

why did these chickens cross the road?

A bunch of teapots at the Inn. I think my favorite is the fish one (just to the right of the cow one):

teapots!

This was my shopping day, and it was a lot of browsing and also a lot of talking to people. I started out helping a booth set up, and then bought a few magazines (Cast On and Piecework), and some “knit local” stickers and a “knit local” car magnet, some knitty gift tags and a brooch/shawl pin.

I bought a bunch of fiber, including some locally grown Shetland, some hand-dyed Falkland, and a few batts. I also won some flax in another door prize, and got some spinning done. I talked to a LOT of people, including Dave Paul of The Merlin Tree, maker of the HitchHiker and Road Bug spinning wheels. I spun on one and LOVED it, but resisted buying one:

hitchhiker spinning wheel

It was a great day, topped off with a visit with a friend in White River Junction, Vermont, then a visit with another friend near Manchester, NH, and then finally home to my husband and dinner.
So, I went to the Wild and Woolly Weekend this weekend. I drove up Friday after work, and arrived at the Golden Stage Inn around 9 pm, and mostly I took my bag up to my room, showered, and went to sleep.

I woke up early the next morning and met another woman staying at the Inn who was also going to the Weekend, Barbara. Barbara and I talked during the delicious breakfast that Julie and Michael (the owners of the Inn) provided. As it turns out, she’s a spinner as well, and was taking the same classes I was on Saturday. Both classes were taught by Patty Blomgren, a local Vermont spinning instructor.

The first class was Textured Spinning – we went over a few ways to make textured yarn.

The first way was to use some washed but unprocessed fleece – pick and tease apart locks and other fibers, and just use as-is. Then we tried practicing an autowrap. Here’s the yarn I made as a result — it’s definitely textured!

picking and teasing, autowrap sample

I took the rest of the handfuls of unprocessed yarn and ran them through the drum carder – part of the fun of this workshop was playing with one of three drum carders Patty set up for us. So here is the batt I made with the same stuff as is in the yarn above – I have not spun this up yet, but when I do I will spin it worsted and see how much smoother that yarn can be.

batt with same fibers as yarn above

Then I made a colorway I like to call “Creamsicle”:

creamsicle batt

And I spun it into yarn:

Creamsicle yarn

Then I made a thick-and-thin yarn with some Targhee from Spunky Eclectic that I’d brought:

thick and thin yarn

Patty had a handout for us, so we’d remember what we did. We did not get to any of the plying techniques officially, but we did make some knots, and I’ve made some bobbles before.

The second class, also with Patty, was corespun yarn. She also provided a handout. These techniques were much more tricky, and we didn’t get to nearly as many.

We did some basic core spinning with commercial yarn as the core. I used a two-ply wool, and found that wrapping roving around was easy once I got the basic motion down and used *very* little fiber. I’ve tried core spinning before and never really got the hang of it. I think the secret really is using a very little bit of roving/top to wrap around the core. Here is some of this first type of core spinning:

first core spun

I then used the thick and thin yarn around the core to make a different kind of core-spun yarn. The little “beads” or “beehives” in the yarn are the thick parts. The most obvious of these are the three on the very bottom, in blue/brown. There are tighter/less fuzzy ones in the 2nd yarn from the top edge, the red/brown yarn. In this sample I showed a lot of the core on purpose:

core spun with beehives and showing the core

I’m working on the rest of the thick and thin targhee, core spinning it over a core where I’m trying not to show the core. It’s mostly working:

thick and thin core spun, not showing core

It’s not totally perfect, but it’s looking good.

All of the yarn is very kinky when I first spin it. I wasn’t able to let any of this rest, as I just spun it this weekend, but I did wash the samples. The stuff still on the bobbin is very kinky, and I’ll probably let it rest, and
So, pills I went to the Wild and Woolly Weekend this weekend. I drove up Friday after work, recipe and arrived at the Golden Stage Inn around 9 pm, and mostly I took my bag up to my room, showered, and went to sleep.

I woke up early the next morning and met another woman staying at the Inn who was also going to the Weekend, Barbara. Barbara and I talked during the delicious breakfast that Julie and Michael (the owners of the Inn) provided. As it turns out, she’s a spinner as well, and was taking the same classes I was on Saturday. Both classes were taught by Patty Blomgren, a local Vermont spinning instructor.

The first class was Textured Spinning – we went over a few ways to make textured yarn.

The first way was to use some washed but unprocessed fleece – pick and tease apart locks and other fibers, and just use as-is. Then we tried practicing an autowrap. Here’s the yarn I made as a result — it’s definitely textured!

picking and teasing, autowrap sample

I took the rest of the handfuls of unprocessed yarn and ran them through the drum carder – part of the fun of this workshop was playing with one of three drum carders Patty set up for us. So here is the batt I made with the same stuff as is in the yarn above – I have not spun this up yet, but when I do I will spin it worsted and see how much smoother that yarn can be.

batt with same fibers as yarn above

Then I made a colorway I like to call “Creamsicle”:

creamsicle batt

And I spun it into yarn:

Creamsicle yarn

Then I made a thick-and-thin yarn with some Targhee from Spunky Eclectic that I’d brought:

thick and thin yarn

Patty had a handout for us, so we’d remember what we did. We did not get to any of the plying techniques officially, but we did make some knots, and I’ve made some bobbles before.

The second class, also with Patty, was corespun yarn. She also provided a handout. These techniques were much more tricky, and we didn’t get to nearly as many.

We did some basic core spinning with commercial yarn as the core. I used a two-ply wool, and found that wrapping roving around was easy once I got the basic motion down and used *very* little fiber. I’ve tried core spinning before and never really got the hang of it. I think the secret really is using a very little bit of roving/top to wrap around the core. Here is some of this first type of core spinning:

first core spun

I then used the thick and thin yarn around the core to make a different kind of core-spun yarn. The little “beads” or “beehives” in the yarn are the thick parts. The most obvious of these are the three on the very bottom, in blue/brown. There are tighter/less fuzzy ones in the 2nd yarn from the top edge, the red/brown yarn. In this sample I showed a lot of the core on purpose:

core spun with beehives and showing the core

I’m working on the rest of the thick and thin targhee, core spinning it over a core where I’m trying not to show the core. It’s mostly working:

thick and thin core spun, not showing core

It’s not totally perfect, but it’s looking good.

All of the yarn is very kinky when I first spin it. I wasn’t able to let any of this rest, as I just spun it this weekend, but I did wash the samples, and dry them under tension – I don’t normally do this, because it will just re-kink up on washing, but I wanted to see what the yarn would look like when it was less kinky. The stuff still on the bobbin is very kinky, and I’ll probably let it rest, and then wash it.
So, and mostly I took my bag up to my room, showered, and went to sleep. More about the Inn later….

I woke up early the next morning and met another woman staying at the Inn who was also going to the Weekend, Barbara. Barbara and I talked during the delicious breakfast that Julie and Michael (the owners of the Inn) provided. As it turns out, she’s a spinner as well, and was taking the same classes I was on Saturday. Both classes were taught by Patty Blomgren, a local Vermont spinning instructor.

The first class was Textured Spinning – we went over a few ways to make textured yarn.

The first way was to use some washed but unprocessed fleece – pick and tease apart locks and other fibers, and just use as-is. Then we tried practicing an autowrap. Here’s the yarn I made as a result — it’s definitely textured!

picking and teasing, autowrap sample

I took the rest of the handfuls of unprocessed yarn and ran them through the drum carder – part of the fun of this workshop was playing with one of three drum carders Patty set up for us. So here is the batt I made with the same stuff as is in the yarn above – I have not spun this up yet, but when I do I will spin it worsted and see how much smoother that yarn can be.

batt with same fibers as yarn above

Then I made a colorway I like to call “Creamsicle”:

creamsicle batt

And I spun it into yarn:

Creamsicle yarn

Then I made a thick-and-thin yarn with some targhee from Spunky Eclectic that I’d brought:

thick and thin yarn

Patty had a handout for us, so we’d remember what we did. We did not get to any of the plying techniques officially, but we did make some knots, and I’ve made some bobbles before.

The second class, also with Patty, was corespun yarn. She also provided a handout. These techniques were much more tricky, and we didn’t get to nearly as many.

We did some basic core spinning with commercial yarn as the core. I used a two-ply wool, and found that wrapping roving around was easy once I got the basic motion down and used *very* little fiber. I’ve tried core spinning before and never really got the hang of it. I think the secret really is using a very little bit of roving/top to wrap around the core. Here is some of this first type of core spinning:

first core spun

I then used the thick and thin yarn around the core to make a different kind of core-spun yarn. The little “beads” or “beehives” in the yarn are the thick parts. The most obvious of these are the three on the very bottom, in blue/brown. There are tighter/less fuzzy ones in the 2nd yarn from the top edge, the red/brown yarn. In this sample I showed a lot of the core on purpose:

core spun with beehives and showing the core

I’m working on the rest of the thick and thin targhee, core spinning it over a core where I’m trying not to show the core. It’s mostly working:

thick and thin core spun, not showing core

It’s not totally perfect, but it’s looking good.

All of the yarn is very kinky when I first spin it. I wasn’t able to let any of this rest, as I just spun it this weekend, but I did wash the samples, and dry them under tension – I don’t normally do this, because it will just re-kink up on washing, but I wanted to see what the yarn would look like when it was less kinky. The stuff still on the bobbin is very kinky, and I’ll probably let it rest, and then wash it.

Unfortunately, the vendor times were exactly the same as the classes, so I did not get a chance to shop on Saturday. Luckily, I noticed this ahead of time, so I figured Sunday would be for shopping. At the end of the class, Patty let us raid her stash, so I took home some firestar, Ashland Bay merino/silk, and hand-dyed corriedale. I did have some fiber I gave away – I let Patty take some of the targhee, and I gave her the rest of my Louet Black Diamond, a carbonized bamboo that I did not enjoy spinning (it felt like spinning chalk powder, and has absolutely zero memory). I also gave Jennifer, a fellow classmate, some silk hankies that I wasn’t enjoying pulling apart to spin.

I did, however, win a door prize – a Knit Local canvas bag:

knit local tote bag

Saturday night Barbara and I went to DJ’s Restaurant for dinner, which was a good pick (on Julie’s recommendation). After that, I spun by the fireplace for a few hours, practicing what I’d learned that day.

Sunday I woke up, packed up, had breakfast and a nice long conversation with Julie and Michael, checked out and went to the festival again. This was my shopping day, and it was a lot of browsing and also a lot of talking to people. I started out helping a booth set up, and then bought a few magazines (Cast On and Piecework), and some “knit local” stickers and a “knit local” car magnet, some knitty gift tags and a brooch/shawl pin.

I bought a bunch of fiber, including some locally grown Shetland, some hand-dyed Falkland, and a few batts. I also won some flax in another door prize, and got some spinning done.

It was a great day, topped off with a visit with a friend in White River Junction, Vermont, then a visit with another friend near Manchester, NH, and then finally home to my husband and dinner.
So, phthisiatrician I went to the Wild and Woolly Weekend this weekend. I drove up Friday after work, and arrived at the Golden Stage Inn around 9 pm, and mostly I took my bag up to my room, showered, and went to sleep. More about the Inn later….

I woke up early the next morning and met another woman staying at the Inn who was also going to the Weekend, Barbara. Barbara and I talked during the delicious breakfast that Julie and Michael (the owners of the Inn) provided. As it turns out, she’s a spinner as well, and was taking the same classes I was on Saturday. Both classes were taught by Patty Blomgren, a local Vermont spinning instructor.

The first class was Textured Spinning – we went over a few ways to make textured yarn.

The first way was to use some washed but unprocessed fleece – pick and tease apart locks and other fibers, and just use as-is. Then we tried practicing an autowrap. Here’s the yarn I made as a result — it’s definitely textured!

picking and teasing, autowrap sample

I took the rest of the handfuls of unprocessed yarn and ran them through the drum carder – part of the fun of this workshop was playing with one of three drum carders Patty set up for us. So here is the batt I made with the same stuff as is in the yarn above – I have not spun this up yet, but when I do I will spin it worsted and see how much smoother that yarn can be.

batt with same fibers as yarn above

Then I made a colorway I like to call “Creamsicle”:

creamsicle batt

And I spun it into yarn:

Creamsicle yarn

Then I made a thick-and-thin yarn with some targhee from Spunky Eclectic that I’d brought:

thick and thin yarn

Patty had a handout for us, so we’d remember what we did. We did not get to any of the plying techniques officially, but we did make some knots, and I’ve made some bobbles before.

The second class, also with Patty, was corespun yarn. She also provided a handout. These techniques were much more tricky, and we didn’t get to nearly as many.

We did some basic core spinning with commercial yarn as the core. I used a two-ply wool, and found that wrapping roving around was easy once I got the basic motion down and used *very* little fiber. I’ve tried core spinning before and never really got the hang of it. I think the secret really is using a very little bit of roving/top to wrap around the core. Here is some of this first type of core spinning:

first core spun

I then used the thick and thin yarn around the core to make a different kind of core-spun yarn. The little “beads” or “beehives” in the yarn are the thick parts. The most obvious of these are the three on the very bottom, in blue/brown. There are tighter/less fuzzy ones in the 2nd yarn from the top edge, the red/brown yarn. In this sample I showed a lot of the core on purpose:

core spun with beehives and showing the core

I’m working on the rest of the thick and thin targhee, core spinning it over a core where I’m trying not to show the core. It’s mostly working:

thick and thin core spun, not showing core

It’s not totally perfect, but it’s looking good.

All of the yarn is very kinky when I first spin it. I wasn’t able to let any of this rest, as I just spun it this weekend, but I did wash the samples, and dry them under tension – I don’t normally do this, because it will just re-kink up on washing, but I wanted to see what the yarn would look like when it was less kinky. The stuff still on the bobbin is very kinky, and I’ll probably let it rest, and then wash it.

Unfortunately, the vendor times were exactly the same as the classes, so I did not get a chance to shop on Saturday. Luckily, I noticed this ahead of time, so I figured Sunday would be for shopping. At the end of the class, Patty let us raid her stash, so I took home some firestar, Ashland Bay merino/silk, and hand-dyed corriedale. I did have some fiber I gave away – I let Patty take some of the targhee, and I gave her the rest of my Louet Black Diamond, a carbonized bamboo that I did not enjoy spinning (it felt like spinning chalk powder, and has absolutely zero memory). I also gave Jennifer, a fellow classmate, some silk hankies that I wasn’t enjoying pulling apart to spin.

I did, however, win a door prize – a Knit Local canvas bag:

knit local tote bag

Saturday night Barbara and I went to DJ’s Restaurant for dinner, which was a good pick (on Julie’s recommendation). After that, I spun by the fireplace for a few hours, practicing what I’d learned that day.

Sunday I woke up, packed up, had breakfast and a nice long conversation with Julie and Michael, checked out and went to the festival again. A few pictures from the Inn:

pottery

The record player:

record player

These chickens were crossing the road. I wonder why?

why did these chickens cross the road?

A bunch of teapots at the Inn. I think my favorite is the fish one (just to the right of the cow one):

teapots!

This was my shopping day, and it was a lot of browsing and also a lot of talking to people. I started out helping a booth set up, and then bought a few magazines (Cast On and Piecework), and some “knit local” stickers and a “knit local” car magnet, some knitty gift tags and a brooch/shawl pin.

I bought a bunch of fiber, including some locally grown Shetland, some hand-dyed Falkland, and a few batts. I also won some flax in another door prize, and got some spinning done.

It was a great day, topped off with a visit with a friend in White River Junction, Vermont, then a visit with another friend near Manchester, NH, and then finally home to my husband and dinner.
So, contagion I went to the Wild and Woolly Weekend this weekend. I drove up Friday after work, online and arrived at the Golden Stage Inn around 9 pm, drug and mostly I took my bag up to my room, showered, and went to sleep. More about the Inn later….

I woke up early the next morning and met another woman staying at the Inn who was also going to the Weekend, Barbara. Barbara and I talked during the delicious breakfast that Julie and Michael (the owners of the Inn) provided. As it turns out, she’s a spinner as well, and was taking the same classes I was on Saturday. Both classes were taught by Patty Blomgren, a local Vermont spinning instructor.

The first class was Textured Spinning – we went over a few ways to make textured yarn.

The first way was to use some washed but unprocessed fleece – pick and tease apart locks and other fibers, and just use as-is. Then we tried practicing an autowrap. Here’s the yarn I made as a result — it’s definitely textured!

picking and teasing, autowrap sample

I took the rest of the handfuls of unprocessed yarn and ran them through the drum carder – part of the fun of this workshop was playing with one of three drum carders Patty set up for us. So here is the batt I made with the same stuff as is in the yarn above – I have not spun this up yet, but when I do I will spin it worsted and see how much smoother that yarn can be.

batt with same fibers as yarn above

Then I made a colorway I like to call “Creamsicle”:

creamsicle batt

And I spun it into yarn:

Creamsicle yarn

Then I made a thick-and-thin yarn with some targhee from Spunky Eclectic that I’d brought:

thick and thin yarn

Patty had a handout for us, so we’d remember what we did. We did not get to any of the plying techniques officially, but we did make some knots, and I’ve made some bobbles before.

The second class, also with Patty, was corespun yarn. She also provided a handout. These techniques were much more tricky, and we didn’t get to nearly as many.

We did some basic core spinning with commercial yarn as the core. I used a two-ply wool, and found that wrapping roving around was easy once I got the basic motion down and used *very* little fiber. I’ve tried core spinning before and never really got the hang of it. I think the secret really is using a very little bit of roving/top to wrap around the core. Here is some of this first type of core spinning:

first core spun

I then used the thick and thin yarn around the core to make a different kind of core-spun yarn. The little “beads” or “beehives” in the yarn are the thick parts. The most obvious of these are the three on the very bottom, in blue/brown. There are tighter/less fuzzy ones in the 2nd yarn from the top edge, the red/brown yarn. In this sample I showed a lot of the core on purpose:

core spun with beehives and showing the core

I’m working on the rest of the thick and thin targhee, core spinning it over a core where I’m trying not to show the core. It’s mostly working:

thick and thin core spun, not showing core

It’s not totally perfect, but it’s looking good.

All of the yarn is very kinky when I first spin it. I wasn’t able to let any of this rest, as I just spun it this weekend, but I did wash the samples, and dry them under tension – I don’t normally do this, because it will just re-kink up on washing, but I wanted to see what the yarn would look like when it was less kinky. The stuff still on the bobbin is very kinky, and I’ll probably let it rest, and then wash it.

Unfortunately, the vendor times were exactly the same as the classes, so I did not get a chance to shop on Saturday. Luckily, I noticed this ahead of time, so I figured Sunday would be for shopping. At the end of the class, Patty let us raid her stash, so I took home some firestar, Ashland Bay merino/silk, and hand-dyed corriedale. I did have some fiber I gave away – I let Patty take some of the targhee, and I gave her the rest of my Louet Black Diamond, a carbonized bamboo that I did not enjoy spinning (it felt like spinning chalk powder, and has absolutely zero memory). I also gave Jennifer, a fellow classmate, some silk hankies that I wasn’t enjoying pulling apart to spin.

I did, however, win a door prize – a Knit Local canvas bag:

knit local tote bag

Saturday night Barbara and I went to DJ’s Restaurant for dinner, which was a good pick (on Julie’s recommendation). After that, I spun by the fireplace for a few hours, practicing what I’d learned that day.

Sunday I woke up, packed up, had breakfast and a nice long conversation with Julie and Michael, checked out and went to the festival again. A few pictures from the Inn:

pottery

The record player:

record player

These chickens were crossing the road. I wonder why?

why did these chickens cross the road?

A bunch of teapots at the Inn. I think my favorite is the fish one (just to the right of the cow one):

teapots!

This was my shopping day, and it was a lot of browsing and also a lot of talking to people. I started out helping a booth set up, and then bought a few magazines (Cast On and Piecework), and some “knit local” stickers and a “knit local” car magnet, some knitty gift tags and a brooch/shawl pin.

I bought a bunch of fiber, including some locally grown Shetland, some hand-dyed Falkland, and a few batts. I also won some flax in another door prize, and got some spinning done. I talked to a LOT of people, including Dave Paul of The Merlin Tree, maker of the HitchHiker and Road Bug spinning wheels. I spun on one and LOVED it

hitchhiker spinning wheel

It was a great day, topped off with a visit with a friend in White River Junction, Vermont, then a visit with another friend near Manchester, NH, and then finally home to my husband and dinner.
So, and mostly I took my bag up to my room, showered, and went to sleep. More about the Inn later….

I woke up early the next morning and met another woman staying at the Inn who was also going to the Weekend, Barbara. Barbara and I talked during the delicious breakfast that Julie and Michael (the owners of the Inn) provided. As it turns out, she’s a spinner as well, and was taking the same classes I was on Saturday. Both classes were taught by Patty Blomgren, a local Vermont spinning instructor.

The first class was Textured Spinning – we went over a few ways to make textured yarn.

The first way was to use some washed but unprocessed fleece – pick and tease apart locks and other fibers, and just use as-is. Then we tried practicing an autowrap. Here’s the yarn I made as a result — it’s definitely textured!

picking and teasing, autowrap sample

I took the rest of the handfuls of unprocessed yarn and ran them through the drum carder – part of the fun of this workshop was playing with one of three drum carders Patty set up for us. So here is the batt I made with the same stuff as is in the yarn above – I have not spun this up yet, but when I do I will spin it worsted and see how much smoother that yarn can be.

batt with same fibers as yarn above

Then I made a colorway I like to call “Creamsicle”:

creamsicle batt

And I spun it into yarn:

Creamsicle yarn

Then I made a thick-and-thin yarn with some targhee from Spunky Eclectic that I’d brought:

thick and thin yarn

Patty had a handout for us, so we’d remember what we did. We did not get to any of the plying techniques officially, but we did make some knots, and I’ve made some bobbles before.

The second class, also with Patty, was corespun yarn. She also provided a handout. These techniques were much more tricky, and we didn’t get to nearly as many.

We did some basic core spinning with commercial yarn as the core. I used a two-ply wool, and found that wrapping roving around was easy once I got the basic motion down and used *very* little fiber. I’ve tried core spinning before and never really got the hang of it. I think the secret really is using a very little bit of roving/top to wrap around the core. Here is some of this first type of core spinning:

first core spun

I then used the thick and thin yarn around the core to make a different kind of core-spun yarn. The little “beads” or “beehives” in the yarn are the thick parts. The most obvious of these are the three on the very bottom, in blue/brown. There are tighter/less fuzzy ones in the 2nd yarn from the top edge, the red/brown yarn. In this sample I showed a lot of the core on purpose:

core spun with beehives and showing the core

I’m working on the rest of the thick and thin targhee, core spinning it over a core where I’m trying not to show the core. It’s mostly working:

thick and thin core spun, not showing core

It’s not totally perfect, but it’s looking good.

All of the yarn is very kinky when I first spin it. I wasn’t able to let any of this rest, as I just spun it this weekend, but I did wash the samples, and dry them under tension – I don’t normally do this, because it will just re-kink up on washing, but I wanted to see what the yarn would look like when it was less kinky. The stuff still on the bobbin is very kinky, and I’ll probably let it rest, and then wash it.

Unfortunately, the vendor times were exactly the same as the classes, so I did not get a chance to shop on Saturday. Luckily, I noticed this ahead of time, so I figured Sunday would be for shopping. At the end of the class, Patty let us raid her stash, so I took home some firestar, Ashland Bay merino/silk, and hand-dyed corriedale. I did have some fiber I gave away – I let Patty take some of the targhee, and I gave her the rest of my Louet Black Diamond, a carbonized bamboo that I did not enjoy spinning (it felt like spinning chalk powder, and has absolutely zero memory). I also gave Jennifer, a fellow classmate, some silk hankies that I wasn’t enjoying pulling apart to spin.

I did, however, win a door prize – a Knit Local canvas bag:

knit local tote bag

Saturday night Barbara and I went to DJ’s Restaurant for dinner, which was a good pick (on Julie’s recommendation). After that, I spun by the fireplace for a few hours, practicing what I’d learned that day.

Sunday I woke up, packed up, had breakfast and a nice long conversation with Julie and Michael, checked out and went to the festival again. A few pictures from the Inn:

pottery

The record player:

record player

These chickens were crossing the road. I wonder why?

why did these chickens cross the road?

A bunch of teapots at the Inn. I think my favorite is the fish one (just to the right of the cow one):

teapots!

This was my shopping day, and it was a lot of browsing and also a lot of talking to people. I started out helping a booth set up, and then bought a few magazines (Cast On and Piecework), and some “knit local” stickers and a “knit local” car magnet, some knitty gift tags and a brooch/shawl pin.

I bought a bunch of fiber, including some locally grown Shetland, some hand-dyed Falkland, and a few batts. I also won some flax in another door prize, and got some spinning done.

It was a great day, topped off with a visit with a friend in White River Junction, Vermont, then a visit with another friend near Manchester, NH, and then finally home to my husband and dinner.
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!
I know, “spinning textured yarns” and “core spinning”. Both classes are on Saturday, so I figured I’d do classes on Saturday and shopping on Sunday.

This is a kate with 3 bobbins that are on semi-permanent “rest” until I can find something good to ply them with.

The top is remnants from an Enchanted Knoll Farm Batt that I made into a boucle yarn. It’s a 2-ply yarn right now, so it might just need me to take it off the bobbin. Which I really ought to do, since I need all the bobbins I can get my hands on for this weekend! The middle is carbonized bamboo, which sounds neat, but it not a fun spin – it’s a little squeaky (like dried chalk powder rubbed together), and has no memory. I plied a lot of it with some wool, and that’s what I’m making Tony’s scarf out of. It’s plenty fine to knit with.

The bottom of the kate is the rest of the undyed silk that I spun. I wanted to spin and dye this in April, but I have no idea if I want to ply this together (and have silk yarn) or ply it with something else…and of course what I ply it with will probably determine how I dye it. So for now, it’s all spun up but resting on the bobbin, ready to be plied, to itself or something else.

This next lot is some nice blue metallic thread that I recovered from a sweater. The thread was accompanied by blue acrylic, which I threw away, because I just wanted the thread. It looks like it’s not a lot on the bobbin, but there really is – I measured it at 96 wpi (well, I measured 24 wraps for a 1/4 inch):

I also have no idea of what I want to do with the metallic blue thread, it will probably be put into a few different projects since I doubt I’ll make a sweater with it.

And finally, I started and finished spinning some small samples I got in February’s Phat Fiber Mixed Sampler Box. There was some silver sparkly yarn and some red yarn, so I spun them up and plied ’em together, and got this:


I know, decease I just posted a few days ago! I am excited and privileged to be attending the Wild & Woolly Weekend this weekend in Proctorsville, Vermont. I will be taking two classes, “spinning textured yarns” and “core spinning”. Both classes are on Saturday, so I figured I’d do classes on Saturday and shopping on Sunday.

This is a kate with 3 bobbins that are on semi-permanent “rest” until I can find something good to ply them with.

The top is remnants from an Enchanted Knoll Farm Batt that I made into a boucle yarn. It’s a 2-ply yarn right now, so it might just need me to take it off the bobbin. Which I really ought to do, since I need all the bobbins I can get my hands on for this weekend! The middle is carbonized bamboo, which sounds neat, but it not a fun spin – it’s a little squeaky (like dried chalk powder rubbed together), and has no memory. I plied a lot of it with some wool, and that’s what I’m making Tony’s scarf out of. It’s plenty fine to knit with.

The bottom of the kate is the rest of the undyed silk that I spun. I wanted to spin and dye this in April, but I have no idea if I want to ply this together (and have silk yarn) or ply it with something else…and of course what I ply it with will probably determine how I dye it. So for now, it’s all spun up but resting on the bobbin, ready to be plied, to itself or something else.

This next lot is some nice blue metallic thread that I recovered from a sweater. The thread was accompanied by blue acrylic, which I threw away, because I just wanted the thread. It looks like it’s not a lot on the bobbin, but there really is – I measured it at 96 wpi (well, I measured 24 wraps for a 1/4 inch):

I also have no idea of what I want to do with the metallic blue thread, it will probably be put into a few different projects since I doubt I’ll make a sweater with it.

And finally, I started and finished spinning some small samples I got in February’s
I know, Vermont. I will be taking two classes, “spinning textured yarns” and “core spinning”. Both classes are on Saturday, so I figured I’d do classes on Saturday and shopping on Sunday.

This is a kate with 3 bobbins that are on semi-permanent “rest” until I can find something good to ply them with.

The top is remnants from an Enchanted Knoll Farm Batt that I made into a boucle yarn. It’s a 2-ply yarn right now, so it might just need me to take it off the bobbin. Which I really ought to do, since I need all the bobbins I can get my hands on for this weekend! The middle is carbonized bamboo, which sounds neat, but it not a fun spin – it’s a little squeaky (like dried chalk powder rubbed together), and has no memory. I plied a lot of it with some wool, and that’s what I’m making Tony’s scarf out of. It’s plenty fine to knit with.

The bottom of the kate is the rest of the undyed silk that I spun. I wanted to spin and dye this in April, but I have no idea if I want to ply this together (and have silk yarn) or ply it with something else…and of course what I ply it with will probably determine how I dye it. So for now, it’s all spun up but resting on the bobbin, ready to be plied, to itself or something else.

This next lot is some nice blue metallic thread that I recovered from a sweater. The thread was accompanied by blue acrylic, which I threw away, because I just wanted the thread. It looks like it’s not a lot on the bobbin, but there really is – I measured it at 96 wpi (well, I measured 24 wraps for a 1/4 inch):

I also have no idea of what I want to do with the metallic blue thread, it will probably be put into a few different projects since I doubt I’ll make a sweater with it.

And finally, I started and finished spinning some small samples I got in February’s Phat Fiber Mixed Sampler Box. There was some silver sparkly yarn and some red yarn, so I spun them up and plied ’em together, and got this:


So, and mostly I took my bag up to my room, showered, and went to sleep. More about the Inn later….

I woke up early the next morning and met another woman staying at the Inn who was also going to the Weekend, Barbara. Barbara and I talked during the delicious breakfast that Julie and Michael (the owners of the Inn) provided. As it turns out, she’s a spinner as well, and was taking the same classes I was on Saturday. Both classes were taught by Patty Blomgren, a local Vermont spinning instructor.

The first class was Textured Spinning – we went over a few ways to make textured yarn.

The first way was to use some washed but unprocessed fleece – pick and tease apart locks and other fibers, and just use as-is. Then we tried practicing an autowrap. Here’s the yarn I made as a result — it’s definitely textured!

picking and teasing, autowrap sample

I took the rest of the handfuls of unprocessed yarn and ran them through the drum carder – part of the fun of this workshop was playing with one of three drum carders Patty set up for us. So here is the batt I made with the same stuff as is in the yarn above – I have not spun this up yet, but when I do I will spin it worsted and see how much smoother that yarn can be.

batt with same fibers as yarn above

Then I made a colorway I like to call “Creamsicle”:

creamsicle batt

And I spun it into yarn:

Creamsicle yarn

Then I made a thick-and-thin yarn with some targhee from Spunky Eclectic that I’d brought:

thick and thin yarn

Patty had a handout for us, so we’d remember what we did. We did not get to any of the plying techniques officially, but we did make some knots, and I’ve made some bobbles before.

The second class, also with Patty, was corespun yarn. She also provided a handout. These techniques were much more tricky, and we didn’t get to nearly as many.

We did some basic core spinning with commercial yarn as the core. I used a two-ply wool, and found that wrapping roving around was easy once I got the basic motion down and used *very* little fiber. I’ve tried core spinning before and never really got the hang of it. I think the secret really is using a very little bit of roving/top to wrap around the core. Here is some of this first type of core spinning:

first core spun

I then used the thick and thin yarn around the core to make a different kind of core-spun yarn. The little “beads” or “beehives” in the yarn are the thick parts. The most obvious of these are the three on the very bottom, in blue/brown. There are tighter/less fuzzy ones in the 2nd yarn from the top edge, the red/brown yarn. In this sample I showed a lot of the core on purpose:

core spun with beehives and showing the core

I’m working on the rest of the thick and thin targhee, core spinning it over a core where I’m trying not to show the core. It’s mostly working:

thick and thin core spun, not showing core

It’s not totally perfect, but it’s looking good.

All of the yarn is very kinky when I first spin it. I wasn’t able to let any of this rest, as I just spun it this weekend, but I did wash the samples, and dry them under tension – I don’t normally do this, because it will just re-kink up on washing, but I wanted to see what the yarn would look like when it was less kinky. The stuff still on the bobbin is very kinky, and I’ll probably let it rest, and then wash it.

Unfortunately, the vendor times were exactly the same as the classes, so I did not get a chance to shop on Saturday. Luckily, I noticed this ahead of time, so I figured Sunday would be for shopping. At the end of the class, Patty let us raid her stash, so I took home some firestar, Ashland Bay merino/silk, and hand-dyed corriedale. I did have some fiber I gave away – I let Patty take some of the targhee, and I gave her the rest of my Louet Black Diamond, a carbonized bamboo that I did not enjoy spinning (it felt like spinning chalk powder, and has absolutely zero memory). I also gave Jennifer, a fellow classmate, some silk hankies that I wasn’t enjoying pulling apart to spin.

I did, however, win a door prize – a Knit Local canvas bag:

knit local tote bag

Saturday night Barbara and I went to DJ’s Restaurant for dinner, which was a good pick (on Julie’s recommendation). After that, I spun by the fireplace for a few hours, practicing what I’d learned that day.

Sunday I woke up, packed up, had breakfast and a nice long conversation with Julie and Michael, checked out and went to the festival again. A few pictures from the Inn:

pottery

The record player:

record player

These chickens were crossing the road. I wonder why?

why did these chickens cross the road?

A bunch of teapots at the Inn. I think my favorite is the fish one (just to the right of the cow one):

teapots!

This was my shopping day, and it was a lot of browsing and also a lot of talking to people. I started out helping a booth set up, and then bought a few magazines (Cast On and Piecework), and some “knit local” stickers and a “knit local” car magnet, some knitty gift tags and a brooch/shawl pin.

I bought a bunch of fiber, including some locally grown Shetland, some hand-dyed Falkland, and a few batts. I also won some flax in another door prize, and got some spinning done. I talked to a LOT of people, including Dave Paul of The Merlin Tree, maker of the HitchHiker and Road Bug spinning wheels. I spun on one and LOVED it, but resisted buying one:

hitchhiker spinning wheel

It was a great day, topped off with a visit with a friend in White River Junction, Vermont, then a visit with another friend near Manchester, NH, and then finally home to my husband and dinner.
So, I went to the Wild and Woolly Weekend this weekend. I drove up Friday after work, and arrived at the Golden Stage Inn around 9 pm, and mostly I took my bag up to my room, showered, and went to sleep.

I woke up early the next morning and met another woman staying at the Inn who was also going to the Weekend, Barbara. Barbara and I talked during the delicious breakfast that Julie and Michael (the owners of the Inn) provided. As it turns out, she’s a spinner as well, and was taking the same classes I was on Saturday. Both classes were taught by Patty Blomgren, a local Vermont spinning instructor.

The first class was Textured Spinning – we went over a few ways to make textured yarn.

The first way was to use some washed but unprocessed fleece – pick and tease apart locks and other fibers, and just use as-is. Then we tried practicing an autowrap. Here’s the yarn I made as a result — it’s definitely textured!

picking and teasing, autowrap sample

I took the rest of the handfuls of unprocessed yarn and ran them through the drum carder – part of the fun of this workshop was playing with one of three drum carders Patty set up for us. So here is the batt I made with the same stuff as is in the yarn above – I have not spun this up yet, but when I do I will spin it worsted and see how much smoother that yarn can be.

batt with same fibers as yarn above

Then I made a colorway I like to call “Creamsicle”:

creamsicle batt

And I spun it into yarn:

Creamsicle yarn

Then I made a thick-and-thin yarn with some Targhee from Spunky Eclectic that I’d brought:

thick and thin yarn

Patty had a handout for us, so we’d remember what we did. We did not get to any of the plying techniques officially, but we did make some knots, and I’ve made some bobbles before.

The second class, also with Patty, was corespun yarn. She also provided a handout. These techniques were much more tricky, and we didn’t get to nearly as many.

We did some basic core spinning with commercial yarn as the core. I used a two-ply wool, and found that wrapping roving around was easy once I got the basic motion down and used *very* little fiber. I’ve tried core spinning before and never really got the hang of it. I think the secret really is using a very little bit of roving/top to wrap around the core. Here is some of this first type of core spinning:

first core spun

I then used the thick and thin yarn around the core to make a different kind of core-spun yarn. The little “beads” or “beehives” in the yarn are the thick parts. The most obvious of these are the three on the very bottom, in blue/brown. There are tighter/less fuzzy ones in the 2nd yarn from the top edge, the red/brown yarn. In this sample I showed a lot of the core on purpose:

core spun with beehives and showing the core

I’m working on the rest of the thick and thin targhee, core spinning it over a core where I’m trying not to show the core. It’s mostly working:

thick and thin core spun, not showing core

It’s not totally perfect, but it’s looking good.

All of the yarn is very kinky when I first spin it. I wasn’t able to let any of this rest, as I just spun it this weekend, but I did wash the samples. The stuff still on the bobbin is very kinky, and I’ll probably let it rest, and
So, pills I went to the Wild and Woolly Weekend this weekend. I drove up Friday after work, recipe and arrived at the Golden Stage Inn around 9 pm, and mostly I took my bag up to my room, showered, and went to sleep.

I woke up early the next morning and met another woman staying at the Inn who was also going to the Weekend, Barbara. Barbara and I talked during the delicious breakfast that Julie and Michael (the owners of the Inn) provided. As it turns out, she’s a spinner as well, and was taking the same classes I was on Saturday. Both classes were taught by Patty Blomgren, a local Vermont spinning instructor.

The first class was Textured Spinning – we went over a few ways to make textured yarn.

The first way was to use some washed but unprocessed fleece – pick and tease apart locks and other fibers, and just use as-is. Then we tried practicing an autowrap. Here’s the yarn I made as a result — it’s definitely textured!

picking and teasing, autowrap sample

I took the rest of the handfuls of unprocessed yarn and ran them through the drum carder – part of the fun of this workshop was playing with one of three drum carders Patty set up for us. So here is the batt I made with the same stuff as is in the yarn above – I have not spun this up yet, but when I do I will spin it worsted and see how much smoother that yarn can be.

batt with same fibers as yarn above

Then I made a colorway I like to call “Creamsicle”:

creamsicle batt

And I spun it into yarn:

Creamsicle yarn

Then I made a thick-and-thin yarn with some Targhee from Spunky Eclectic that I’d brought:

thick and thin yarn

Patty had a handout for us, so we’d remember what we did. We did not get to any of the plying techniques officially, but we did make some knots, and I’ve made some bobbles before.

The second class, also with Patty, was corespun yarn. She also provided a handout. These techniques were much more tricky, and we didn’t get to nearly as many.

We did some basic core spinning with commercial yarn as the core. I used a two-ply wool, and found that wrapping roving around was easy once I got the basic motion down and used *very* little fiber. I’ve tried core spinning before and never really got the hang of it. I think the secret really is using a very little bit of roving/top to wrap around the core. Here is some of this first type of core spinning:

first core spun

I then used the thick and thin yarn around the core to make a different kind of core-spun yarn. The little “beads” or “beehives” in the yarn are the thick parts. The most obvious of these are the three on the very bottom, in blue/brown. There are tighter/less fuzzy ones in the 2nd yarn from the top edge, the red/brown yarn. In this sample I showed a lot of the core on purpose:

core spun with beehives and showing the core

I’m working on the rest of the thick and thin targhee, core spinning it over a core where I’m trying not to show the core. It’s mostly working:

thick and thin core spun, not showing core

It’s not totally perfect, but it’s looking good.

All of the yarn is very kinky when I first spin it. I wasn’t able to let any of this rest, as I just spun it this weekend, but I did wash the samples, and dry them under tension – I don’t normally do this, because it will just re-kink up on washing, but I wanted to see what the yarn would look like when it was less kinky. The stuff still on the bobbin is very kinky, and I’ll probably let it rest, and then wash it.
So, and mostly I took my bag up to my room, showered, and went to sleep. More about the Inn later….

I woke up early the next morning and met another woman staying at the Inn who was also going to the Weekend, Barbara. Barbara and I talked during the delicious breakfast that Julie and Michael (the owners of the Inn) provided. As it turns out, she’s a spinner as well, and was taking the same classes I was on Saturday. Both classes were taught by Patty Blomgren, a local Vermont spinning instructor.

The first class was Textured Spinning – we went over a few ways to make textured yarn.

The first way was to use some washed but unprocessed fleece – pick and tease apart locks and other fibers, and just use as-is. Then we tried practicing an autowrap. Here’s the yarn I made as a result — it’s definitely textured!

picking and teasing, autowrap sample

I took the rest of the handfuls of unprocessed yarn and ran them through the drum carder – part of the fun of this workshop was playing with one of three drum carders Patty set up for us. So here is the batt I made with the same stuff as is in the yarn above – I have not spun this up yet, but when I do I will spin it worsted and see how much smoother that yarn can be.

batt with same fibers as yarn above

Then I made a colorway I like to call “Creamsicle”:

creamsicle batt

And I spun it into yarn:

Creamsicle yarn

Then I made a thick-and-thin yarn with some targhee from Spunky Eclectic that I’d brought:

thick and thin yarn

Patty had a handout for us, so we’d remember what we did. We did not get to any of the plying techniques officially, but we did make some knots, and I’ve made some bobbles before.

The second class, also with Patty, was corespun yarn. She also provided a handout. These techniques were much more tricky, and we didn’t get to nearly as many.

We did some basic core spinning with commercial yarn as the core. I used a two-ply wool, and found that wrapping roving around was easy once I got the basic motion down and used *very* little fiber. I’ve tried core spinning before and never really got the hang of it. I think the secret really is using a very little bit of roving/top to wrap around the core. Here is some of this first type of core spinning:

first core spun

I then used the thick and thin yarn around the core to make a different kind of core-spun yarn. The little “beads” or “beehives” in the yarn are the thick parts. The most obvious of these are the three on the very bottom, in blue/brown. There are tighter/less fuzzy ones in the 2nd yarn from the top edge, the red/brown yarn. In this sample I showed a lot of the core on purpose:

core spun with beehives and showing the core

I’m working on the rest of the thick and thin targhee, core spinning it over a core where I’m trying not to show the core. It’s mostly working:

thick and thin core spun, not showing core

It’s not totally perfect, but it’s looking good.

All of the yarn is very kinky when I first spin it. I wasn’t able to let any of this rest, as I just spun it this weekend, but I did wash the samples, and dry them under tension – I don’t normally do this, because it will just re-kink up on washing, but I wanted to see what the yarn would look like when it was less kinky. The stuff still on the bobbin is very kinky, and I’ll probably let it rest, and then wash it.

Unfortunately, the vendor times were exactly the same as the classes, so I did not get a chance to shop on Saturday. Luckily, I noticed this ahead of time, so I figured Sunday would be for shopping. At the end of the class, Patty let us raid her stash, so I took home some firestar, Ashland Bay merino/silk, and hand-dyed corriedale. I did have some fiber I gave away – I let Patty take some of the targhee, and I gave her the rest of my Louet Black Diamond, a carbonized bamboo that I did not enjoy spinning (it felt like spinning chalk powder, and has absolutely zero memory). I also gave Jennifer, a fellow classmate, some silk hankies that I wasn’t enjoying pulling apart to spin.

I did, however, win a door prize – a Knit Local canvas bag:

knit local tote bag

Saturday night Barbara and I went to DJ’s Restaurant for dinner, which was a good pick (on Julie’s recommendation). After that, I spun by the fireplace for a few hours, practicing what I’d learned that day.

Sunday I woke up, packed up, had breakfast and a nice long conversation with Julie and Michael, checked out and went to the festival again. This was my shopping day, and it was a lot of browsing and also a lot of talking to people. I started out helping a booth set up, and then bought a few magazines (Cast On and Piecework), and some “knit local” stickers and a “knit local” car magnet, some knitty gift tags and a brooch/shawl pin.

I bought a bunch of fiber, including some locally grown Shetland, some hand-dyed Falkland, and a few batts. I also won some flax in another door prize, and got some spinning done.

It was a great day, topped off with a visit with a friend in White River Junction, Vermont, then a visit with another friend near Manchester, NH, and then finally home to my husband and dinner.
So, phthisiatrician I went to the Wild and Woolly Weekend this weekend. I drove up Friday after work, and arrived at the Golden Stage Inn around 9 pm, and mostly I took my bag up to my room, showered, and went to sleep. More about the Inn later….

I woke up early the next morning and met another woman staying at the Inn who was also going to the Weekend, Barbara. Barbara and I talked during the delicious breakfast that Julie and Michael (the owners of the Inn) provided. As it turns out, she’s a spinner as well, and was taking the same classes I was on Saturday. Both classes were taught by Patty Blomgren, a local Vermont spinning instructor.

The first class was Textured Spinning – we went over a few ways to make textured yarn.

The first way was to use some washed but unprocessed fleece – pick and tease apart locks and other fibers, and just use as-is. Then we tried practicing an autowrap. Here’s the yarn I made as a result — it’s definitely textured!

picking and teasing, autowrap sample

I took the rest of the handfuls of unprocessed yarn and ran them through the drum carder – part of the fun of this workshop was playing with one of three drum carders Patty set up for us. So here is the batt I made with the same stuff as is in the yarn above – I have not spun this up yet, but when I do I will spin it worsted and see how much smoother that yarn can be.

batt with same fibers as yarn above

Then I made a colorway I like to call “Creamsicle”:

creamsicle batt

And I spun it into yarn:

Creamsicle yarn

Then I made a thick-and-thin yarn with some targhee from Spunky Eclectic that I’d brought:

thick and thin yarn

Patty had a handout for us, so we’d remember what we did. We did not get to any of the plying techniques officially, but we did make some knots, and I’ve made some bobbles before.

The second class, also with Patty, was corespun yarn. She also provided a handout. These techniques were much more tricky, and we didn’t get to nearly as many.

We did some basic core spinning with commercial yarn as the core. I used a two-ply wool, and found that wrapping roving around was easy once I got the basic motion down and used *very* little fiber. I’ve tried core spinning before and never really got the hang of it. I think the secret really is using a very little bit of roving/top to wrap around the core. Here is some of this first type of core spinning:

first core spun

I then used the thick and thin yarn around the core to make a different kind of core-spun yarn. The little “beads” or “beehives” in the yarn are the thick parts. The most obvious of these are the three on the very bottom, in blue/brown. There are tighter/less fuzzy ones in the 2nd yarn from the top edge, the red/brown yarn. In this sample I showed a lot of the core on purpose:

core spun with beehives and showing the core

I’m working on the rest of the thick and thin targhee, core spinning it over a core where I’m trying not to show the core. It’s mostly working:

thick and thin core spun, not showing core

It’s not totally perfect, but it’s looking good.

All of the yarn is very kinky when I first spin it. I wasn’t able to let any of this rest, as I just spun it this weekend, but I did wash the samples, and dry them under tension – I don’t normally do this, because it will just re-kink up on washing, but I wanted to see what the yarn would look like when it was less kinky. The stuff still on the bobbin is very kinky, and I’ll probably let it rest, and then wash it.

Unfortunately, the vendor times were exactly the same as the classes, so I did not get a chance to shop on Saturday. Luckily, I noticed this ahead of time, so I figured Sunday would be for shopping. At the end of the class, Patty let us raid her stash, so I took home some firestar, Ashland Bay merino/silk, and hand-dyed corriedale. I did have some fiber I gave away – I let Patty take some of the targhee, and I gave her the rest of my Louet Black Diamond, a carbonized bamboo that I did not enjoy spinning (it felt like spinning chalk powder, and has absolutely zero memory). I also gave Jennifer, a fellow classmate, some silk hankies that I wasn’t enjoying pulling apart to spin.

I did, however, win a door prize – a Knit Local canvas bag:

knit local tote bag

Saturday night Barbara and I went to DJ’s Restaurant for dinner, which was a good pick (on Julie’s recommendation). After that, I spun by the fireplace for a few hours, practicing what I’d learned that day.

Sunday I woke up, packed up, had breakfast and a nice long conversation with Julie and Michael, checked out and went to the festival again. A few pictures from the Inn:

pottery

The record player:

record player

These chickens were crossing the road. I wonder why?

why did these chickens cross the road?

A bunch of teapots at the Inn. I think my favorite is the fish one (just to the right of the cow one):

teapots!

This was my shopping day, and it was a lot of browsing and also a lot of talking to people. I started out helping a booth set up, and then bought a few magazines (Cast On and Piecework), and some “knit local” stickers and a “knit local” car magnet, some knitty gift tags and a brooch/shawl pin.

I bought a bunch of fiber, including some locally grown Shetland, some hand-dyed Falkland, and a few batts. I also won some flax in another door prize, and got some spinning done.

It was a great day, topped off with a visit with a friend in White River Junction, Vermont, then a visit with another friend near Manchester, NH, and then finally home to my husband and dinner.
So, contagion I went to the Wild and Woolly Weekend this weekend. I drove up Friday after work, online and arrived at the Golden Stage Inn around 9 pm, drug and mostly I took my bag up to my room, showered, and went to sleep. More about the Inn later….

I woke up early the next morning and met another woman staying at the Inn who was also going to the Weekend, Barbara. Barbara and I talked during the delicious breakfast that Julie and Michael (the owners of the Inn) provided. As it turns out, she’s a spinner as well, and was taking the same classes I was on Saturday. Both classes were taught by Patty Blomgren, a local Vermont spinning instructor.

The first class was Textured Spinning – we went over a few ways to make textured yarn.

The first way was to use some washed but unprocessed fleece – pick and tease apart locks and other fibers, and just use as-is. Then we tried practicing an autowrap. Here’s the yarn I made as a result — it’s definitely textured!

picking and teasing, autowrap sample

I took the rest of the handfuls of unprocessed yarn and ran them through the drum carder – part of the fun of this workshop was playing with one of three drum carders Patty set up for us. So here is the batt I made with the same stuff as is in the yarn above – I have not spun this up yet, but when I do I will spin it worsted and see how much smoother that yarn can be.

batt with same fibers as yarn above

Then I made a colorway I like to call “Creamsicle”:

creamsicle batt

And I spun it into yarn:

Creamsicle yarn

Then I made a thick-and-thin yarn with some targhee from Spunky Eclectic that I’d brought:

thick and thin yarn

Patty had a handout for us, so we’d remember what we did. We did not get to any of the plying techniques officially, but we did make some knots, and I’ve made some bobbles before.

The second class, also with Patty, was corespun yarn. She also provided a handout. These techniques were much more tricky, and we didn’t get to nearly as many.

We did some basic core spinning with commercial yarn as the core. I used a two-ply wool, and found that wrapping roving around was easy once I got the basic motion down and used *very* little fiber. I’ve tried core spinning before and never really got the hang of it. I think the secret really is using a very little bit of roving/top to wrap around the core. Here is some of this first type of core spinning:

first core spun

I then used the thick and thin yarn around the core to make a different kind of core-spun yarn. The little “beads” or “beehives” in the yarn are the thick parts. The most obvious of these are the three on the very bottom, in blue/brown. There are tighter/less fuzzy ones in the 2nd yarn from the top edge, the red/brown yarn. In this sample I showed a lot of the core on purpose:

core spun with beehives and showing the core

I’m working on the rest of the thick and thin targhee, core spinning it over a core where I’m trying not to show the core. It’s mostly working:

thick and thin core spun, not showing core

It’s not totally perfect, but it’s looking good.

All of the yarn is very kinky when I first spin it. I wasn’t able to let any of this rest, as I just spun it this weekend, but I did wash the samples, and dry them under tension – I don’t normally do this, because it will just re-kink up on washing, but I wanted to see what the yarn would look like when it was less kinky. The stuff still on the bobbin is very kinky, and I’ll probably let it rest, and then wash it.

Unfortunately, the vendor times were exactly the same as the classes, so I did not get a chance to shop on Saturday. Luckily, I noticed this ahead of time, so I figured Sunday would be for shopping. At the end of the class, Patty let us raid her stash, so I took home some firestar, Ashland Bay merino/silk, and hand-dyed corriedale. I did have some fiber I gave away – I let Patty take some of the targhee, and I gave her the rest of my Louet Black Diamond, a carbonized bamboo that I did not enjoy spinning (it felt like spinning chalk powder, and has absolutely zero memory). I also gave Jennifer, a fellow classmate, some silk hankies that I wasn’t enjoying pulling apart to spin.

I did, however, win a door prize – a Knit Local canvas bag:

knit local tote bag

Saturday night Barbara and I went to DJ’s Restaurant for dinner, which was a good pick (on Julie’s recommendation). After that, I spun by the fireplace for a few hours, practicing what I’d learned that day.

Sunday I woke up, packed up, had breakfast and a nice long conversation with Julie and Michael, checked out and went to the festival again. A few pictures from the Inn:

pottery

The record player:

record player

These chickens were crossing the road. I wonder why?

why did these chickens cross the road?

A bunch of teapots at the Inn. I think my favorite is the fish one (just to the right of the cow one):

teapots!

This was my shopping day, and it was a lot of browsing and also a lot of talking to people. I started out helping a booth set up, and then bought a few magazines (Cast On and Piecework), and some “knit local” stickers and a “knit local” car magnet, some knitty gift tags and a brooch/shawl pin.

I bought a bunch of fiber, including some locally grown Shetland, some hand-dyed Falkland, and a few batts. I also won some flax in another door prize, and got some spinning done. I talked to a LOT of people, including Dave Paul of The Merlin Tree, maker of the HitchHiker and Road Bug spinning wheels. I spun on one and LOVED it

hitchhiker spinning wheel

It was a great day, topped off with a visit with a friend in White River Junction, Vermont, then a visit with another friend near Manchester, NH, and then finally home to my husband and dinner.
So, and mostly I took my bag up to my room, showered, and went to sleep. More about the Inn later….

I woke up early the next morning and met another woman staying at the Inn who was also going to the Weekend, Barbara. Barbara and I talked during the delicious breakfast that Julie and Michael (the owners of the Inn) provided. As it turns out, she’s a spinner as well, and was taking the same classes I was on Saturday. Both classes were taught by Patty Blomgren, a local Vermont spinning instructor.

The first class was Textured Spinning – we went over a few ways to make textured yarn.

The first way was to use some washed but unprocessed fleece – pick and tease apart locks and other fibers, and just use as-is. Then we tried practicing an autowrap. Here’s the yarn I made as a result — it’s definitely textured!

picking and teasing, autowrap sample

I took the rest of the handfuls of unprocessed yarn and ran them through the drum carder – part of the fun of this workshop was playing with one of three drum carders Patty set up for us. So here is the batt I made with the same stuff as is in the yarn above – I have not spun this up yet, but when I do I will spin it worsted and see how much smoother that yarn can be.

batt with same fibers as yarn above

Then I made a colorway I like to call “Creamsicle”:

creamsicle batt

And I spun it into yarn:

Creamsicle yarn

Then I made a thick-and-thin yarn with some targhee from Spunky Eclectic that I’d brought:

thick and thin yarn

Patty had a handout for us, so we’d remember what we did. We did not get to any of the plying techniques officially, but we did make some knots, and I’ve made some bobbles before.

The second class, also with Patty, was corespun yarn. She also provided a handout. These techniques were much more tricky, and we didn’t get to nearly as many.

We did some basic core spinning with commercial yarn as the core. I used a two-ply wool, and found that wrapping roving around was easy once I got the basic motion down and used *very* little fiber. I’ve tried core spinning before and never really got the hang of it. I think the secret really is using a very little bit of roving/top to wrap around the core. Here is some of this first type of core spinning:

first core spun

I then used the thick and thin yarn around the core to make a different kind of core-spun yarn. The little “beads” or “beehives” in the yarn are the thick parts. The most obvious of these are the three on the very bottom, in blue/brown. There are tighter/less fuzzy ones in the 2nd yarn from the top edge, the red/brown yarn. In this sample I showed a lot of the core on purpose:

core spun with beehives and showing the core

I’m working on the rest of the thick and thin targhee, core spinning it over a core where I’m trying not to show the core. It’s mostly working:

thick and thin core spun, not showing core

It’s not totally perfect, but it’s looking good.

All of the yarn is very kinky when I first spin it. I wasn’t able to let any of this rest, as I just spun it this weekend, but I did wash the samples, and dry them under tension – I don’t normally do this, because it will just re-kink up on washing, but I wanted to see what the yarn would look like when it was less kinky. The stuff still on the bobbin is very kinky, and I’ll probably let it rest, and then wash it.

Unfortunately, the vendor times were exactly the same as the classes, so I did not get a chance to shop on Saturday. Luckily, I noticed this ahead of time, so I figured Sunday would be for shopping. At the end of the class, Patty let us raid her stash, so I took home some firestar, Ashland Bay merino/silk, and hand-dyed corriedale. I did have some fiber I gave away – I let Patty take some of the targhee, and I gave her the rest of my Louet Black Diamond, a carbonized bamboo that I did not enjoy spinning (it felt like spinning chalk powder, and has absolutely zero memory). I also gave Jennifer, a fellow classmate, some silk hankies that I wasn’t enjoying pulling apart to spin.

I did, however, win a door prize – a Knit Local canvas bag:

knit local tote bag

Saturday night Barbara and I went to DJ’s Restaurant for dinner, which was a good pick (on Julie’s recommendation). After that, I spun by the fireplace for a few hours, practicing what I’d learned that day.

Sunday I woke up, packed up, had breakfast and a nice long conversation with Julie and Michael, checked out and went to the festival again. A few pictures from the Inn:

pottery

The record player:

record player

These chickens were crossing the road. I wonder why?

why did these chickens cross the road?

A bunch of teapots at the Inn. I think my favorite is the fish one (just to the right of the cow one):

teapots!

This was my shopping day, and it was a lot of browsing and also a lot of talking to people. I started out helping a booth set up, and then bought a few magazines (Cast On and Piecework), and some “knit local” stickers and a “knit local” car magnet, some knitty gift tags and a brooch/shawl pin.

I bought a bunch of fiber, including some locally grown Shetland, some hand-dyed Falkland, and a few batts. I also won some flax in another door prize, and got some spinning done.

It was a great day, topped off with a visit with a friend in White River Junction, Vermont, then a visit with another friend near Manchester, NH, and then finally home to my husband and dinner.
Today I received my very first shipment of the Gnomespun Yarn and Fiber Arts Mythic Fiber Club. It is a *gorgeous* green-with-browns, search on Manx Loaghtan. Various sources say it has a staple length of 3 inches and a micron count of 28, and is classified as a “primitive breed”.

The colorway was inspired by the Egyptian goddess Heqet, and comes with an information sheet about the mythology of Heqet and a bit about the Manx Loaghtan breed. The information says it’s “lofty” and I’m not sure if that means it’s a “down” fiber, though it does feel “downy”.

The Gnomespun etsy shop has very little in it now, because he’s gearing up for all the festivals this month. But I highly recommend his fiber…I cannot wait to spin this!
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!
I know, “spinning textured yarns” and “core spinning”. Both classes are on Saturday, so I figured I’d do classes on Saturday and shopping on Sunday.

This is a kate with 3 bobbins that are on semi-permanent “rest” until I can find something good to ply them with.

The top is remnants from an Enchanted Knoll Farm Batt that I made into a boucle yarn. It’s a 2-ply yarn right now, so it might just need me to take it off the bobbin. Which I really ought to do, since I need all the bobbins I can get my hands on for this weekend! The middle is carbonized bamboo, which sounds neat, but it not a fun spin – it’s a little squeaky (like dried chalk powder rubbed together), and has no memory. I plied a lot of it with some wool, and that’s what I’m making Tony’s scarf out of. It’s plenty fine to knit with.

The bottom of the kate is the rest of the undyed silk that I spun. I wanted to spin and dye this in April, but I have no idea if I want to ply this together (and have silk yarn) or ply it with something else…and of course what I ply it with will probably determine how I dye it. So for now, it’s all spun up but resting on the bobbin, ready to be plied, to itself or something else.

This next lot is some nice blue metallic thread that I recovered from a sweater. The thread was accompanied by blue acrylic, which I threw away, because I just wanted the thread. It looks like it’s not a lot on the bobbin, but there really is – I measured it at 96 wpi (well, I measured 24 wraps for a 1/4 inch):

I also have no idea of what I want to do with the metallic blue thread, it will probably be put into a few different projects since I doubt I’ll make a sweater with it.

And finally, I started and finished spinning some small samples I got in February’s Phat Fiber Mixed Sampler Box. There was some silver sparkly yarn and some red yarn, so I spun them up and plied ’em together, and got this:


I know, decease I just posted a few days ago! I am excited and privileged to be attending the Wild & Woolly Weekend this weekend in Proctorsville, Vermont. I will be taking two classes, “spinning textured yarns” and “core spinning”. Both classes are on Saturday, so I figured I’d do classes on Saturday and shopping on Sunday.

This is a kate with 3 bobbins that are on semi-permanent “rest” until I can find something good to ply them with.

The top is remnants from an Enchanted Knoll Farm Batt that I made into a boucle yarn. It’s a 2-ply yarn right now, so it might just need me to take it off the bobbin. Which I really ought to do, since I need all the bobbins I can get my hands on for this weekend! The middle is carbonized bamboo, which sounds neat, but it not a fun spin – it’s a little squeaky (like dried chalk powder rubbed together), and has no memory. I plied a lot of it with some wool, and that’s what I’m making Tony’s scarf out of. It’s plenty fine to knit with.

The bottom of the kate is the rest of the undyed silk that I spun. I wanted to spin and dye this in April, but I have no idea if I want to ply this together (and have silk yarn) or ply it with something else…and of course what I ply it with will probably determine how I dye it. So for now, it’s all spun up but resting on the bobbin, ready to be plied, to itself or something else.

This next lot is some nice blue metallic thread that I recovered from a sweater. The thread was accompanied by blue acrylic, which I threw away, because I just wanted the thread. It looks like it’s not a lot on the bobbin, but there really is – I measured it at 96 wpi (well, I measured 24 wraps for a 1/4 inch):

I also have no idea of what I want to do with the metallic blue thread, it will probably be put into a few different projects since I doubt I’ll make a sweater with it.

And finally, I started and finished spinning some small samples I got in February’s
I know, Vermont. I will be taking two classes, “spinning textured yarns” and “core spinning”. Both classes are on Saturday, so I figured I’d do classes on Saturday and shopping on Sunday.

This is a kate with 3 bobbins that are on semi-permanent “rest” until I can find something good to ply them with.

The top is remnants from an Enchanted Knoll Farm Batt that I made into a boucle yarn. It’s a 2-ply yarn right now, so it might just need me to take it off the bobbin. Which I really ought to do, since I need all the bobbins I can get my hands on for this weekend! The middle is carbonized bamboo, which sounds neat, but it not a fun spin – it’s a little squeaky (like dried chalk powder rubbed together), and has no memory. I plied a lot of it with some wool, and that’s what I’m making Tony’s scarf out of. It’s plenty fine to knit with.

The bottom of the kate is the rest of the undyed silk that I spun. I wanted to spin and dye this in April, but I have no idea if I want to ply this together (and have silk yarn) or ply it with something else…and of course what I ply it with will probably determine how I dye it. So for now, it’s all spun up but resting on the bobbin, ready to be plied, to itself or something else.

This next lot is some nice blue metallic thread that I recovered from a sweater. The thread was accompanied by blue acrylic, which I threw away, because I just wanted the thread. It looks like it’s not a lot on the bobbin, but there really is – I measured it at 96 wpi (well, I measured 24 wraps for a 1/4 inch):

I also have no idea of what I want to do with the metallic blue thread, it will probably be put into a few different projects since I doubt I’ll make a sweater with it.

And finally, I started and finished spinning some small samples I got in February’s Phat Fiber Mixed Sampler Box. There was some silver sparkly yarn and some red yarn, so I spun them up and plied ’em together, and got this:


So, and mostly I took my bag up to my room, showered, and went to sleep. More about the Inn later….

I woke up early the next morning and met another woman staying at the Inn who was also going to the Weekend, Barbara. Barbara and I talked during the delicious breakfast that Julie and Michael (the owners of the Inn) provided. As it turns out, she’s a spinner as well, and was taking the same classes I was on Saturday. Both classes were taught by Patty Blomgren, a local Vermont spinning instructor.

The first class was Textured Spinning – we went over a few ways to make textured yarn.

The first way was to use some washed but unprocessed fleece – pick and tease apart locks and other fibers, and just use as-is. Then we tried practicing an autowrap. Here’s the yarn I made as a result — it’s definitely textured!

picking and teasing, autowrap sample

I took the rest of the handfuls of unprocessed yarn and ran them through the drum carder – part of the fun of this workshop was playing with one of three drum carders Patty set up for us. So here is the batt I made with the same stuff as is in the yarn above – I have not spun this up yet, but when I do I will spin it worsted and see how much smoother that yarn can be.

batt with same fibers as yarn above

Then I made a colorway I like to call “Creamsicle”:

creamsicle batt

And I spun it into yarn:

Creamsicle yarn

Then I made a thick-and-thin yarn with some targhee from Spunky Eclectic that I’d brought:

thick and thin yarn

Patty had a handout for us, so we’d remember what we did. We did not get to any of the plying techniques officially, but we did make some knots, and I’ve made some bobbles before.

The second class, also with Patty, was corespun yarn. She also provided a handout. These techniques were much more tricky, and we didn’t get to nearly as many.

We did some basic core spinning with commercial yarn as the core. I used a two-ply wool, and found that wrapping roving around was easy once I got the basic motion down and used *very* little fiber. I’ve tried core spinning before and never really got the hang of it. I think the secret really is using a very little bit of roving/top to wrap around the core. Here is some of this first type of core spinning:

first core spun

I then used the thick and thin yarn around the core to make a different kind of core-spun yarn. The little “beads” or “beehives” in the yarn are the thick parts. The most obvious of these are the three on the very bottom, in blue/brown. There are tighter/less fuzzy ones in the 2nd yarn from the top edge, the red/brown yarn. In this sample I showed a lot of the core on purpose:

core spun with beehives and showing the core

I’m working on the rest of the thick and thin targhee, core spinning it over a core where I’m trying not to show the core. It’s mostly working:

thick and thin core spun, not showing core

It’s not totally perfect, but it’s looking good.

All of the yarn is very kinky when I first spin it. I wasn’t able to let any of this rest, as I just spun it this weekend, but I did wash the samples, and dry them under tension – I don’t normally do this, because it will just re-kink up on washing, but I wanted to see what the yarn would look like when it was less kinky. The stuff still on the bobbin is very kinky, and I’ll probably let it rest, and then wash it.

Unfortunately, the vendor times were exactly the same as the classes, so I did not get a chance to shop on Saturday. Luckily, I noticed this ahead of time, so I figured Sunday would be for shopping. At the end of the class, Patty let us raid her stash, so I took home some firestar, Ashland Bay merino/silk, and hand-dyed corriedale. I did have some fiber I gave away – I let Patty take some of the targhee, and I gave her the rest of my Louet Black Diamond, a carbonized bamboo that I did not enjoy spinning (it felt like spinning chalk powder, and has absolutely zero memory). I also gave Jennifer, a fellow classmate, some silk hankies that I wasn’t enjoying pulling apart to spin.

I did, however, win a door prize – a Knit Local canvas bag:

knit local tote bag

Saturday night Barbara and I went to DJ’s Restaurant for dinner, which was a good pick (on Julie’s recommendation). After that, I spun by the fireplace for a few hours, practicing what I’d learned that day.

Sunday I woke up, packed up, had breakfast and a nice long conversation with Julie and Michael, checked out and went to the festival again. A few pictures from the Inn:

pottery

The record player:

record player

These chickens were crossing the road. I wonder why?

why did these chickens cross the road?

A bunch of teapots at the Inn. I think my favorite is the fish one (just to the right of the cow one):

teapots!

This was my shopping day, and it was a lot of browsing and also a lot of talking to people. I started out helping a booth set up, and then bought a few magazines (Cast On and Piecework), and some “knit local” stickers and a “knit local” car magnet, some knitty gift tags and a brooch/shawl pin.

I bought a bunch of fiber, including some locally grown Shetland, some hand-dyed Falkland, and a few batts. I also won some flax in another door prize, and got some spinning done. I talked to a LOT of people, including Dave Paul of The Merlin Tree, maker of the HitchHiker and Road Bug spinning wheels. I spun on one and LOVED it, but resisted buying one:

hitchhiker spinning wheel

It was a great day, topped off with a visit with a friend in White River Junction, Vermont, then a visit with another friend near Manchester, NH, and then finally home to my husband and dinner.
So, I went to the Wild and Woolly Weekend this weekend. I drove up Friday after work, and arrived at the Golden Stage Inn around 9 pm, and mostly I took my bag up to my room, showered, and went to sleep.

I woke up early the next morning and met another woman staying at the Inn who was also going to the Weekend, Barbara. Barbara and I talked during the delicious breakfast that Julie and Michael (the owners of the Inn) provided. As it turns out, she’s a spinner as well, and was taking the same classes I was on Saturday. Both classes were taught by Patty Blomgren, a local Vermont spinning instructor.

The first class was Textured Spinning – we went over a few ways to make textured yarn.

The first way was to use some washed but unprocessed fleece – pick and tease apart locks and other fibers, and just use as-is. Then we tried practicing an autowrap. Here’s the yarn I made as a result — it’s definitely textured!

picking and teasing, autowrap sample

I took the rest of the handfuls of unprocessed yarn and ran them through the drum carder – part of the fun of this workshop was playing with one of three drum carders Patty set up for us. So here is the batt I made with the same stuff as is in the yarn above – I have not spun this up yet, but when I do I will spin it worsted and see how much smoother that yarn can be.

batt with same fibers as yarn above

Then I made a colorway I like to call “Creamsicle”:

creamsicle batt

And I spun it into yarn:

Creamsicle yarn

Then I made a thick-and-thin yarn with some Targhee from Spunky Eclectic that I’d brought:

thick and thin yarn

Patty had a handout for us, so we’d remember what we did. We did not get to any of the plying techniques officially, but we did make some knots, and I’ve made some bobbles before.

The second class, also with Patty, was corespun yarn. She also provided a handout. These techniques were much more tricky, and we didn’t get to nearly as many.

We did some basic core spinning with commercial yarn as the core. I used a two-ply wool, and found that wrapping roving around was easy once I got the basic motion down and used *very* little fiber. I’ve tried core spinning before and never really got the hang of it. I think the secret really is using a very little bit of roving/top to wrap around the core. Here is some of this first type of core spinning:

first core spun

I then used the thick and thin yarn around the core to make a different kind of core-spun yarn. The little “beads” or “beehives” in the yarn are the thick parts. The most obvious of these are the three on the very bottom, in blue/brown. There are tighter/less fuzzy ones in the 2nd yarn from the top edge, the red/brown yarn. In this sample I showed a lot of the core on purpose:

core spun with beehives and showing the core

I’m working on the rest of the thick and thin targhee, core spinning it over a core where I’m trying not to show the core. It’s mostly working:

thick and thin core spun, not showing core

It’s not totally perfect, but it’s looking good.

All of the yarn is very kinky when I first spin it. I wasn’t able to let any of this rest, as I just spun it this weekend, but I did wash the samples. The stuff still on the bobbin is very kinky, and I’ll probably let it rest, and
So, pills I went to the Wild and Woolly Weekend this weekend. I drove up Friday after work, recipe and arrived at the Golden Stage Inn around 9 pm, and mostly I took my bag up to my room, showered, and went to sleep.

I woke up early the next morning and met another woman staying at the Inn who was also going to the Weekend, Barbara. Barbara and I talked during the delicious breakfast that Julie and Michael (the owners of the Inn) provided. As it turns out, she’s a spinner as well, and was taking the same classes I was on Saturday. Both classes were taught by Patty Blomgren, a local Vermont spinning instructor.

The first class was Textured Spinning – we went over a few ways to make textured yarn.

The first way was to use some washed but unprocessed fleece – pick and tease apart locks and other fibers, and just use as-is. Then we tried practicing an autowrap. Here’s the yarn I made as a result — it’s definitely textured!

picking and teasing, autowrap sample

I took the rest of the handfuls of unprocessed yarn and ran them through the drum carder – part of the fun of this workshop was playing with one of three drum carders Patty set up for us. So here is the batt I made with the same stuff as is in the yarn above – I have not spun this up yet, but when I do I will spin it worsted and see how much smoother that yarn can be.

batt with same fibers as yarn above

Then I made a colorway I like to call “Creamsicle”:

creamsicle batt

And I spun it into yarn:

Creamsicle yarn

Then I made a thick-and-thin yarn with some Targhee from Spunky Eclectic that I’d brought:

thick and thin yarn

Patty had a handout for us, so we’d remember what we did. We did not get to any of the plying techniques officially, but we did make some knots, and I’ve made some bobbles before.

The second class, also with Patty, was corespun yarn. She also provided a handout. These techniques were much more tricky, and we didn’t get to nearly as many.

We did some basic core spinning with commercial yarn as the core. I used a two-ply wool, and found that wrapping roving around was easy once I got the basic motion down and used *very* little fiber. I’ve tried core spinning before and never really got the hang of it. I think the secret really is using a very little bit of roving/top to wrap around the core. Here is some of this first type of core spinning:

first core spun

I then used the thick and thin yarn around the core to make a different kind of core-spun yarn. The little “beads” or “beehives” in the yarn are the thick parts. The most obvious of these are the three on the very bottom, in blue/brown. There are tighter/less fuzzy ones in the 2nd yarn from the top edge, the red/brown yarn. In this sample I showed a lot of the core on purpose:

core spun with beehives and showing the core

I’m working on the rest of the thick and thin targhee, core spinning it over a core where I’m trying not to show the core. It’s mostly working:

thick and thin core spun, not showing core

It’s not totally perfect, but it’s looking good.

All of the yarn is very kinky when I first spin it. I wasn’t able to let any of this rest, as I just spun it this weekend, but I did wash the samples, and dry them under tension – I don’t normally do this, because it will just re-kink up on washing, but I wanted to see what the yarn would look like when it was less kinky. The stuff still on the bobbin is very kinky, and I’ll probably let it rest, and then wash it.
So, and mostly I took my bag up to my room, showered, and went to sleep. More about the Inn later….

I woke up early the next morning and met another woman staying at the Inn who was also going to the Weekend, Barbara. Barbara and I talked during the delicious breakfast that Julie and Michael (the owners of the Inn) provided. As it turns out, she’s a spinner as well, and was taking the same classes I was on Saturday. Both classes were taught by Patty Blomgren, a local Vermont spinning instructor.

The first class was Textured Spinning – we went over a few ways to make textured yarn.

The first way was to use some washed but unprocessed fleece – pick and tease apart locks and other fibers, and just use as-is. Then we tried practicing an autowrap. Here’s the yarn I made as a result — it’s definitely textured!

picking and teasing, autowrap sample

I took the rest of the handfuls of unprocessed yarn and ran them through the drum carder – part of the fun of this workshop was playing with one of three drum carders Patty set up for us. So here is the batt I made with the same stuff as is in the yarn above – I have not spun this up yet, but when I do I will spin it worsted and see how much smoother that yarn can be.

batt with same fibers as yarn above

Then I made a colorway I like to call “Creamsicle”:

creamsicle batt

And I spun it into yarn:

Creamsicle yarn

Then I made a thick-and-thin yarn with some targhee from Spunky Eclectic that I’d brought:

thick and thin yarn

Patty had a handout for us, so we’d remember what we did. We did not get to any of the plying techniques officially, but we did make some knots, and I’ve made some bobbles before.

The second class, also with Patty, was corespun yarn. She also provided a handout. These techniques were much more tricky, and we didn’t get to nearly as many.

We did some basic core spinning with commercial yarn as the core. I used a two-ply wool, and found that wrapping roving around was easy once I got the basic motion down and used *very* little fiber. I’ve tried core spinning before and never really got the hang of it. I think the secret really is using a very little bit of roving/top to wrap around the core. Here is some of this first type of core spinning:

first core spun

I then used the thick and thin yarn around the core to make a different kind of core-spun yarn. The little “beads” or “beehives” in the yarn are the thick parts. The most obvious of these are the three on the very bottom, in blue/brown. There are tighter/less fuzzy ones in the 2nd yarn from the top edge, the red/brown yarn. In this sample I showed a lot of the core on purpose:

core spun with beehives and showing the core

I’m working on the rest of the thick and thin targhee, core spinning it over a core where I’m trying not to show the core. It’s mostly working:

thick and thin core spun, not showing core

It’s not totally perfect, but it’s looking good.

All of the yarn is very kinky when I first spin it. I wasn’t able to let any of this rest, as I just spun it this weekend, but I did wash the samples, and dry them under tension – I don’t normally do this, because it will just re-kink up on washing, but I wanted to see what the yarn would look like when it was less kinky. The stuff still on the bobbin is very kinky, and I’ll probably let it rest, and then wash it.

Unfortunately, the vendor times were exactly the same as the classes, so I did not get a chance to shop on Saturday. Luckily, I noticed this ahead of time, so I figured Sunday would be for shopping. At the end of the class, Patty let us raid her stash, so I took home some firestar, Ashland Bay merino/silk, and hand-dyed corriedale. I did have some fiber I gave away – I let Patty take some of the targhee, and I gave her the rest of my Louet Black Diamond, a carbonized bamboo that I did not enjoy spinning (it felt like spinning chalk powder, and has absolutely zero memory). I also gave Jennifer, a fellow classmate, some silk hankies that I wasn’t enjoying pulling apart to spin.

I did, however, win a door prize – a Knit Local canvas bag:

knit local tote bag

Saturday night Barbara and I went to DJ’s Restaurant for dinner, which was a good pick (on Julie’s recommendation). After that, I spun by the fireplace for a few hours, practicing what I’d learned that day.

Sunday I woke up, packed up, had breakfast and a nice long conversation with Julie and Michael, checked out and went to the festival again. This was my shopping day, and it was a lot of browsing and also a lot of talking to people. I started out helping a booth set up, and then bought a few magazines (Cast On and Piecework), and some “knit local” stickers and a “knit local” car magnet, some knitty gift tags and a brooch/shawl pin.

I bought a bunch of fiber, including some locally grown Shetland, some hand-dyed Falkland, and a few batts. I also won some flax in another door prize, and got some spinning done.

It was a great day, topped off with a visit with a friend in White River Junction, Vermont, then a visit with another friend near Manchester, NH, and then finally home to my husband and dinner.
So, phthisiatrician I went to the Wild and Woolly Weekend this weekend. I drove up Friday after work, and arrived at the Golden Stage Inn around 9 pm, and mostly I took my bag up to my room, showered, and went to sleep. More about the Inn later….

I woke up early the next morning and met another woman staying at the Inn who was also going to the Weekend, Barbara. Barbara and I talked during the delicious breakfast that Julie and Michael (the owners of the Inn) provided. As it turns out, she’s a spinner as well, and was taking the same classes I was on Saturday. Both classes were taught by Patty Blomgren, a local Vermont spinning instructor.

The first class was Textured Spinning – we went over a few ways to make textured yarn.

The first way was to use some washed but unprocessed fleece – pick and tease apart locks and other fibers, and just use as-is. Then we tried practicing an autowrap. Here’s the yarn I made as a result — it’s definitely textured!

picking and teasing, autowrap sample

I took the rest of the handfuls of unprocessed yarn and ran them through the drum carder – part of the fun of this workshop was playing with one of three drum carders Patty set up for us. So here is the batt I made with the same stuff as is in the yarn above – I have not spun this up yet, but when I do I will spin it worsted and see how much smoother that yarn can be.

batt with same fibers as yarn above

Then I made a colorway I like to call “Creamsicle”:

creamsicle batt

And I spun it into yarn:

Creamsicle yarn

Then I made a thick-and-thin yarn with some targhee from Spunky Eclectic that I’d brought:

thick and thin yarn

Patty had a handout for us, so we’d remember what we did. We did not get to any of the plying techniques officially, but we did make some knots, and I’ve made some bobbles before.

The second class, also with Patty, was corespun yarn. She also provided a handout. These techniques were much more tricky, and we didn’t get to nearly as many.

We did some basic core spinning with commercial yarn as the core. I used a two-ply wool, and found that wrapping roving around was easy once I got the basic motion down and used *very* little fiber. I’ve tried core spinning before and never really got the hang of it. I think the secret really is using a very little bit of roving/top to wrap around the core. Here is some of this first type of core spinning:

first core spun

I then used the thick and thin yarn around the core to make a different kind of core-spun yarn. The little “beads” or “beehives” in the yarn are the thick parts. The most obvious of these are the three on the very bottom, in blue/brown. There are tighter/less fuzzy ones in the 2nd yarn from the top edge, the red/brown yarn. In this sample I showed a lot of the core on purpose:

core spun with beehives and showing the core

I’m working on the rest of the thick and thin targhee, core spinning it over a core where I’m trying not to show the core. It’s mostly working:

thick and thin core spun, not showing core

It’s not totally perfect, but it’s looking good.

All of the yarn is very kinky when I first spin it. I wasn’t able to let any of this rest, as I just spun it this weekend, but I did wash the samples, and dry them under tension – I don’t normally do this, because it will just re-kink up on washing, but I wanted to see what the yarn would look like when it was less kinky. The stuff still on the bobbin is very kinky, and I’ll probably let it rest, and then wash it.

Unfortunately, the vendor times were exactly the same as the classes, so I did not get a chance to shop on Saturday. Luckily, I noticed this ahead of time, so I figured Sunday would be for shopping. At the end of the class, Patty let us raid her stash, so I took home some firestar, Ashland Bay merino/silk, and hand-dyed corriedale. I did have some fiber I gave away – I let Patty take some of the targhee, and I gave her the rest of my Louet Black Diamond, a carbonized bamboo that I did not enjoy spinning (it felt like spinning chalk powder, and has absolutely zero memory). I also gave Jennifer, a fellow classmate, some silk hankies that I wasn’t enjoying pulling apart to spin.

I did, however, win a door prize – a Knit Local canvas bag:

knit local tote bag

Saturday night Barbara and I went to DJ’s Restaurant for dinner, which was a good pick (on Julie’s recommendation). After that, I spun by the fireplace for a few hours, practicing what I’d learned that day.

Sunday I woke up, packed up, had breakfast and a nice long conversation with Julie and Michael, checked out and went to the festival again. A few pictures from the Inn:

pottery

The record player:

record player

These chickens were crossing the road. I wonder why?

why did these chickens cross the road?

A bunch of teapots at the Inn. I think my favorite is the fish one (just to the right of the cow one):

teapots!

This was my shopping day, and it was a lot of browsing and also a lot of talking to people. I started out helping a booth set up, and then bought a few magazines (Cast On and Piecework), and some “knit local” stickers and a “knit local” car magnet, some knitty gift tags and a brooch/shawl pin.

I bought a bunch of fiber, including some locally grown Shetland, some hand-dyed Falkland, and a few batts. I also won some flax in another door prize, and got some spinning done.

It was a great day, topped off with a visit with a friend in White River Junction, Vermont, then a visit with another friend near Manchester, NH, and then finally home to my husband and dinner.
So, contagion I went to the Wild and Woolly Weekend this weekend. I drove up Friday after work, online and arrived at the Golden Stage Inn around 9 pm, drug and mostly I took my bag up to my room, showered, and went to sleep. More about the Inn later….

I woke up early the next morning and met another woman staying at the Inn who was also going to the Weekend, Barbara. Barbara and I talked during the delicious breakfast that Julie and Michael (the owners of the Inn) provided. As it turns out, she’s a spinner as well, and was taking the same classes I was on Saturday. Both classes were taught by Patty Blomgren, a local Vermont spinning instructor.

The first class was Textured Spinning – we went over a few ways to make textured yarn.

The first way was to use some washed but unprocessed fleece – pick and tease apart locks and other fibers, and just use as-is. Then we tried practicing an autowrap. Here’s the yarn I made as a result — it’s definitely textured!

picking and teasing, autowrap sample

I took the rest of the handfuls of unprocessed yarn and ran them through the drum carder – part of the fun of this workshop was playing with one of three drum carders Patty set up for us. So here is the batt I made with the same stuff as is in the yarn above – I have not spun this up yet, but when I do I will spin it worsted and see how much smoother that yarn can be.

batt with same fibers as yarn above

Then I made a colorway I like to call “Creamsicle”:

creamsicle batt

And I spun it into yarn:

Creamsicle yarn

Then I made a thick-and-thin yarn with some targhee from Spunky Eclectic that I’d brought:

thick and thin yarn

Patty had a handout for us, so we’d remember what we did. We did not get to any of the plying techniques officially, but we did make some knots, and I’ve made some bobbles before.

The second class, also with Patty, was corespun yarn. She also provided a handout. These techniques were much more tricky, and we didn’t get to nearly as many.

We did some basic core spinning with commercial yarn as the core. I used a two-ply wool, and found that wrapping roving around was easy once I got the basic motion down and used *very* little fiber. I’ve tried core spinning before and never really got the hang of it. I think the secret really is using a very little bit of roving/top to wrap around the core. Here is some of this first type of core spinning:

first core spun

I then used the thick and thin yarn around the core to make a different kind of core-spun yarn. The little “beads” or “beehives” in the yarn are the thick parts. The most obvious of these are the three on the very bottom, in blue/brown. There are tighter/less fuzzy ones in the 2nd yarn from the top edge, the red/brown yarn. In this sample I showed a lot of the core on purpose:

core spun with beehives and showing the core

I’m working on the rest of the thick and thin targhee, core spinning it over a core where I’m trying not to show the core. It’s mostly working:

thick and thin core spun, not showing core

It’s not totally perfect, but it’s looking good.

All of the yarn is very kinky when I first spin it. I wasn’t able to let any of this rest, as I just spun it this weekend, but I did wash the samples, and dry them under tension – I don’t normally do this, because it will just re-kink up on washing, but I wanted to see what the yarn would look like when it was less kinky. The stuff still on the bobbin is very kinky, and I’ll probably let it rest, and then wash it.

Unfortunately, the vendor times were exactly the same as the classes, so I did not get a chance to shop on Saturday. Luckily, I noticed this ahead of time, so I figured Sunday would be for shopping. At the end of the class, Patty let us raid her stash, so I took home some firestar, Ashland Bay merino/silk, and hand-dyed corriedale. I did have some fiber I gave away – I let Patty take some of the targhee, and I gave her the rest of my Louet Black Diamond, a carbonized bamboo that I did not enjoy spinning (it felt like spinning chalk powder, and has absolutely zero memory). I also gave Jennifer, a fellow classmate, some silk hankies that I wasn’t enjoying pulling apart to spin.

I did, however, win a door prize – a Knit Local canvas bag:

knit local tote bag

Saturday night Barbara and I went to DJ’s Restaurant for dinner, which was a good pick (on Julie’s recommendation). After that, I spun by the fireplace for a few hours, practicing what I’d learned that day.

Sunday I woke up, packed up, had breakfast and a nice long conversation with Julie and Michael, checked out and went to the festival again. A few pictures from the Inn:

pottery

The record player:

record player

These chickens were crossing the road. I wonder why?

why did these chickens cross the road?

A bunch of teapots at the Inn. I think my favorite is the fish one (just to the right of the cow one):

teapots!

This was my shopping day, and it was a lot of browsing and also a lot of talking to people. I started out helping a booth set up, and then bought a few magazines (Cast On and Piecework), and some “knit local” stickers and a “knit local” car magnet, some knitty gift tags and a brooch/shawl pin.

I bought a bunch of fiber, including some locally grown Shetland, some hand-dyed Falkland, and a few batts. I also won some flax in another door prize, and got some spinning done. I talked to a LOT of people, including Dave Paul of The Merlin Tree, maker of the HitchHiker and Road Bug spinning wheels. I spun on one and LOVED it

hitchhiker spinning wheel

It was a great day, topped off with a visit with a friend in White River Junction, Vermont, then a visit with another friend near Manchester, NH, and then finally home to my husband and dinner.
So, and mostly I took my bag up to my room, showered, and went to sleep. More about the Inn later….

I woke up early the next morning and met another woman staying at the Inn who was also going to the Weekend, Barbara. Barbara and I talked during the delicious breakfast that Julie and Michael (the owners of the Inn) provided. As it turns out, she’s a spinner as well, and was taking the same classes I was on Saturday. Both classes were taught by Patty Blomgren, a local Vermont spinning instructor.

The first class was Textured Spinning – we went over a few ways to make textured yarn.

The first way was to use some washed but unprocessed fleece – pick and tease apart locks and other fibers, and just use as-is. Then we tried practicing an autowrap. Here’s the yarn I made as a result — it’s definitely textured!

picking and teasing, autowrap sample

I took the rest of the handfuls of unprocessed yarn and ran them through the drum carder – part of the fun of this workshop was playing with one of three drum carders Patty set up for us. So here is the batt I made with the same stuff as is in the yarn above – I have not spun this up yet, but when I do I will spin it worsted and see how much smoother that yarn can be.

batt with same fibers as yarn above

Then I made a colorway I like to call “Creamsicle”:

creamsicle batt

And I spun it into yarn:

Creamsicle yarn

Then I made a thick-and-thin yarn with some targhee from Spunky Eclectic that I’d brought:

thick and thin yarn

Patty had a handout for us, so we’d remember what we did. We did not get to any of the plying techniques officially, but we did make some knots, and I’ve made some bobbles before.

The second class, also with Patty, was corespun yarn. She also provided a handout. These techniques were much more tricky, and we didn’t get to nearly as many.

We did some basic core spinning with commercial yarn as the core. I used a two-ply wool, and found that wrapping roving around was easy once I got the basic motion down and used *very* little fiber. I’ve tried core spinning before and never really got the hang of it. I think the secret really is using a very little bit of roving/top to wrap around the core. Here is some of this first type of core spinning:

first core spun

I then used the thick and thin yarn around the core to make a different kind of core-spun yarn. The little “beads” or “beehives” in the yarn are the thick parts. The most obvious of these are the three on the very bottom, in blue/brown. There are tighter/less fuzzy ones in the 2nd yarn from the top edge, the red/brown yarn. In this sample I showed a lot of the core on purpose:

core spun with beehives and showing the core

I’m working on the rest of the thick and thin targhee, core spinning it over a core where I’m trying not to show the core. It’s mostly working:

thick and thin core spun, not showing core

It’s not totally perfect, but it’s looking good.

All of the yarn is very kinky when I first spin it. I wasn’t able to let any of this rest, as I just spun it this weekend, but I did wash the samples, and dry them under tension – I don’t normally do this, because it will just re-kink up on washing, but I wanted to see what the yarn would look like when it was less kinky. The stuff still on the bobbin is very kinky, and I’ll probably let it rest, and then wash it.

Unfortunately, the vendor times were exactly the same as the classes, so I did not get a chance to shop on Saturday. Luckily, I noticed this ahead of time, so I figured Sunday would be for shopping. At the end of the class, Patty let us raid her stash, so I took home some firestar, Ashland Bay merino/silk, and hand-dyed corriedale. I did have some fiber I gave away – I let Patty take some of the targhee, and I gave her the rest of my Louet Black Diamond, a carbonized bamboo that I did not enjoy spinning (it felt like spinning chalk powder, and has absolutely zero memory). I also gave Jennifer, a fellow classmate, some silk hankies that I wasn’t enjoying pulling apart to spin.

I did, however, win a door prize – a Knit Local canvas bag:

knit local tote bag

Saturday night Barbara and I went to DJ’s Restaurant for dinner, which was a good pick (on Julie’s recommendation). After that, I spun by the fireplace for a few hours, practicing what I’d learned that day.

Sunday I woke up, packed up, had breakfast and a nice long conversation with Julie and Michael, checked out and went to the festival again. A few pictures from the Inn:

pottery

The record player:

record player

These chickens were crossing the road. I wonder why?

why did these chickens cross the road?

A bunch of teapots at the Inn. I think my favorite is the fish one (just to the right of the cow one):

teapots!

This was my shopping day, and it was a lot of browsing and also a lot of talking to people. I started out helping a booth set up, and then bought a few magazines (Cast On and Piecework), and some “knit local” stickers and a “knit local” car magnet, some knitty gift tags and a brooch/shawl pin.

I bought a bunch of fiber, including some locally grown Shetland, some hand-dyed Falkland, and a few batts. I also won some flax in another door prize, and got some spinning done.

It was a great day, topped off with a visit with a friend in White River Junction, Vermont, then a visit with another friend near Manchester, NH, and then finally home to my husband and dinner.
Today I received my very first shipment of the Gnomespun Yarn and Fiber Arts Mythic Fiber Club. It is a *gorgeous* green-with-browns, search on Manx Loaghtan. Various sources say it has a staple length of 3 inches and a micron count of 28, and is classified as a “primitive breed”.

The colorway was inspired by the Egyptian goddess Heqet, and comes with an information sheet about the mythology of Heqet and a bit about the Manx Loaghtan breed. The information says it’s “lofty” and I’m not sure if that means it’s a “down” fiber, though it does feel “downy”.

The Gnomespun etsy shop has very little in it now, because he’s gearing up for all the festivals this month. But I highly recommend his fiber…I cannot wait to spin this!
Today I received my very first shipment of Gnomespun Yarn and Fiber Arts‘ Mythic Fiber Club. It is a *gorgeous* green-with-browns, infection on Manx Loaghtan. Various sources say it has a staple length of 3 inches and a micron count of 28, and is classified as a “primitive breed”.

The colorway was inspired by the Egyptian goddess Heqet, and come with an information sheet about the mythology of Heqet and a bit about the Manx Loaghtan breed. The information says it’s “lofty” and I’m not sure fi

The Gnomespun etsy shop has very little in it now, because he’s gearing up for all the festivals this month. But I highly recommend his fiber…I cannot wait to spin this!
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!
I know, “spinning textured yarns” and “core spinning”. Both classes are on Saturday, so I figured I’d do classes on Saturday and shopping on Sunday.

This is a kate with 3 bobbins that are on semi-permanent “rest” until I can find something good to ply them with.

The top is remnants from an Enchanted Knoll Farm Batt that I made into a boucle yarn. It’s a 2-ply yarn right now, so it might just need me to take it off the bobbin. Which I really ought to do, since I need all the bobbins I can get my hands on for this weekend! The middle is carbonized bamboo, which sounds neat, but it not a fun spin – it’s a little squeaky (like dried chalk powder rubbed together), and has no memory. I plied a lot of it with some wool, and that’s what I’m making Tony’s scarf out of. It’s plenty fine to knit with.

The bottom of the kate is the rest of the undyed silk that I spun. I wanted to spin and dye this in April, but I have no idea if I want to ply this together (and have silk yarn) or ply it with something else…and of course what I ply it with will probably determine how I dye it. So for now, it’s all spun up but resting on the bobbin, ready to be plied, to itself or something else.

This next lot is some nice blue metallic thread that I recovered from a sweater. The thread was accompanied by blue acrylic, which I threw away, because I just wanted the thread. It looks like it’s not a lot on the bobbin, but there really is – I measured it at 96 wpi (well, I measured 24 wraps for a 1/4 inch):

I also have no idea of what I want to do with the metallic blue thread, it will probably be put into a few different projects since I doubt I’ll make a sweater with it.

And finally, I started and finished spinning some small samples I got in February’s Phat Fiber Mixed Sampler Box. There was some silver sparkly yarn and some red yarn, so I spun them up and plied ’em together, and got this:


I know, decease I just posted a few days ago! I am excited and privileged to be attending the Wild & Woolly Weekend this weekend in Proctorsville, Vermont. I will be taking two classes, “spinning textured yarns” and “core spinning”. Both classes are on Saturday, so I figured I’d do classes on Saturday and shopping on Sunday.

This is a kate with 3 bobbins that are on semi-permanent “rest” until I can find something good to ply them with.

The top is remnants from an Enchanted Knoll Farm Batt that I made into a boucle yarn. It’s a 2-ply yarn right now, so it might just need me to take it off the bobbin. Which I really ought to do, since I need all the bobbins I can get my hands on for this weekend! The middle is carbonized bamboo, which sounds neat, but it not a fun spin – it’s a little squeaky (like dried chalk powder rubbed together), and has no memory. I plied a lot of it with some wool, and that’s what I’m making Tony’s scarf out of. It’s plenty fine to knit with.

The bottom of the kate is the rest of the undyed silk that I spun. I wanted to spin and dye this in April, but I have no idea if I want to ply this together (and have silk yarn) or ply it with something else…and of course what I ply it with will probably determine how I dye it. So for now, it’s all spun up but resting on the bobbin, ready to be plied, to itself or something else.

This next lot is some nice blue metallic thread that I recovered from a sweater. The thread was accompanied by blue acrylic, which I threw away, because I just wanted the thread. It looks like it’s not a lot on the bobbin, but there really is – I measured it at 96 wpi (well, I measured 24 wraps for a 1/4 inch):

I also have no idea of what I want to do with the metallic blue thread, it will probably be put into a few different projects since I doubt I’ll make a sweater with it.

And finally, I started and finished spinning some small samples I got in February’s
I know, Vermont. I will be taking two classes, “spinning textured yarns” and “core spinning”. Both classes are on Saturday, so I figured I’d do classes on Saturday and shopping on Sunday.

This is a kate with 3 bobbins that are on semi-permanent “rest” until I can find something good to ply them with.

The top is remnants from an Enchanted Knoll Farm Batt that I made into a boucle yarn. It’s a 2-ply yarn right now, so it might just need me to take it off the bobbin. Which I really ought to do, since I need all the bobbins I can get my hands on for this weekend! The middle is carbonized bamboo, which sounds neat, but it not a fun spin – it’s a little squeaky (like dried chalk powder rubbed together), and has no memory. I plied a lot of it with some wool, and that’s what I’m making Tony’s scarf out of. It’s plenty fine to knit with.

The bottom of the kate is the rest of the undyed silk that I spun. I wanted to spin and dye this in April, but I have no idea if I want to ply this together (and have silk yarn) or ply it with something else…and of course what I ply it with will probably determine how I dye it. So for now, it’s all spun up but resting on the bobbin, ready to be plied, to itself or something else.

This next lot is some nice blue metallic thread that I recovered from a sweater. The thread was accompanied by blue acrylic, which I threw away, because I just wanted the thread. It looks like it’s not a lot on the bobbin, but there really is – I measured it at 96 wpi (well, I measured 24 wraps for a 1/4 inch):

I also have no idea of what I want to do with the metallic blue thread, it will probably be put into a few different projects since I doubt I’ll make a sweater with it.

And finally, I started and finished spinning some small samples I got in February’s Phat Fiber Mixed Sampler Box. There was some silver sparkly yarn and some red yarn, so I spun them up and plied ’em together, and got this:


So, and mostly I took my bag up to my room, showered, and went to sleep. More about the Inn later….

I woke up early the next morning and met another woman staying at the Inn who was also going to the Weekend, Barbara. Barbara and I talked during the delicious breakfast that Julie and Michael (the owners of the Inn) provided. As it turns out, she’s a spinner as well, and was taking the same classes I was on Saturday. Both classes were taught by Patty Blomgren, a local Vermont spinning instructor.

The first class was Textured Spinning – we went over a few ways to make textured yarn.

The first way was to use some washed but unprocessed fleece – pick and tease apart locks and other fibers, and just use as-is. Then we tried practicing an autowrap. Here’s the yarn I made as a result — it’s definitely textured!

picking and teasing, autowrap sample

I took the rest of the handfuls of unprocessed yarn and ran them through the drum carder – part of the fun of this workshop was playing with one of three drum carders Patty set up for us. So here is the batt I made with the same stuff as is in the yarn above – I have not spun this up yet, but when I do I will spin it worsted and see how much smoother that yarn can be.

batt with same fibers as yarn above

Then I made a colorway I like to call “Creamsicle”:

creamsicle batt

And I spun it into yarn:

Creamsicle yarn

Then I made a thick-and-thin yarn with some targhee from Spunky Eclectic that I’d brought:

thick and thin yarn

Patty had a handout for us, so we’d remember what we did. We did not get to any of the plying techniques officially, but we did make some knots, and I’ve made some bobbles before.

The second class, also with Patty, was corespun yarn. She also provided a handout. These techniques were much more tricky, and we didn’t get to nearly as many.

We did some basic core spinning with commercial yarn as the core. I used a two-ply wool, and found that wrapping roving around was easy once I got the basic motion down and used *very* little fiber. I’ve tried core spinning before and never really got the hang of it. I think the secret really is using a very little bit of roving/top to wrap around the core. Here is some of this first type of core spinning:

first core spun

I then used the thick and thin yarn around the core to make a different kind of core-spun yarn. The little “beads” or “beehives” in the yarn are the thick parts. The most obvious of these are the three on the very bottom, in blue/brown. There are tighter/less fuzzy ones in the 2nd yarn from the top edge, the red/brown yarn. In this sample I showed a lot of the core on purpose:

core spun with beehives and showing the core

I’m working on the rest of the thick and thin targhee, core spinning it over a core where I’m trying not to show the core. It’s mostly working:

thick and thin core spun, not showing core

It’s not totally perfect, but it’s looking good.

All of the yarn is very kinky when I first spin it. I wasn’t able to let any of this rest, as I just spun it this weekend, but I did wash the samples, and dry them under tension – I don’t normally do this, because it will just re-kink up on washing, but I wanted to see what the yarn would look like when it was less kinky. The stuff still on the bobbin is very kinky, and I’ll probably let it rest, and then wash it.

Unfortunately, the vendor times were exactly the same as the classes, so I did not get a chance to shop on Saturday. Luckily, I noticed this ahead of time, so I figured Sunday would be for shopping. At the end of the class, Patty let us raid her stash, so I took home some firestar, Ashland Bay merino/silk, and hand-dyed corriedale. I did have some fiber I gave away – I let Patty take some of the targhee, and I gave her the rest of my Louet Black Diamond, a carbonized bamboo that I did not enjoy spinning (it felt like spinning chalk powder, and has absolutely zero memory). I also gave Jennifer, a fellow classmate, some silk hankies that I wasn’t enjoying pulling apart to spin.

I did, however, win a door prize – a Knit Local canvas bag:

knit local tote bag

Saturday night Barbara and I went to DJ’s Restaurant for dinner, which was a good pick (on Julie’s recommendation). After that, I spun by the fireplace for a few hours, practicing what I’d learned that day.

Sunday I woke up, packed up, had breakfast and a nice long conversation with Julie and Michael, checked out and went to the festival again. A few pictures from the Inn:

pottery

The record player:

record player

These chickens were crossing the road. I wonder why?

why did these chickens cross the road?

A bunch of teapots at the Inn. I think my favorite is the fish one (just to the right of the cow one):

teapots!

This was my shopping day, and it was a lot of browsing and also a lot of talking to people. I started out helping a booth set up, and then bought a few magazines (Cast On and Piecework), and some “knit local” stickers and a “knit local” car magnet, some knitty gift tags and a brooch/shawl pin.

I bought a bunch of fiber, including some locally grown Shetland, some hand-dyed Falkland, and a few batts. I also won some flax in another door prize, and got some spinning done. I talked to a LOT of people, including Dave Paul of The Merlin Tree, maker of the HitchHiker and Road Bug spinning wheels. I spun on one and LOVED it, but resisted buying one:

hitchhiker spinning wheel

It was a great day, topped off with a visit with a friend in White River Junction, Vermont, then a visit with another friend near Manchester, NH, and then finally home to my husband and dinner.
So, I went to the Wild and Woolly Weekend this weekend. I drove up Friday after work, and arrived at the Golden Stage Inn around 9 pm, and mostly I took my bag up to my room, showered, and went to sleep.

I woke up early the next morning and met another woman staying at the Inn who was also going to the Weekend, Barbara. Barbara and I talked during the delicious breakfast that Julie and Michael (the owners of the Inn) provided. As it turns out, she’s a spinner as well, and was taking the same classes I was on Saturday. Both classes were taught by Patty Blomgren, a local Vermont spinning instructor.

The first class was Textured Spinning – we went over a few ways to make textured yarn.

The first way was to use some washed but unprocessed fleece – pick and tease apart locks and other fibers, and just use as-is. Then we tried practicing an autowrap. Here’s the yarn I made as a result — it’s definitely textured!

picking and teasing, autowrap sample

I took the rest of the handfuls of unprocessed yarn and ran them through the drum carder – part of the fun of this workshop was playing with one of three drum carders Patty set up for us. So here is the batt I made with the same stuff as is in the yarn above – I have not spun this up yet, but when I do I will spin it worsted and see how much smoother that yarn can be.

batt with same fibers as yarn above

Then I made a colorway I like to call “Creamsicle”:

creamsicle batt

And I spun it into yarn:

Creamsicle yarn

Then I made a thick-and-thin yarn with some Targhee from Spunky Eclectic that I’d brought:

thick and thin yarn

Patty had a handout for us, so we’d remember what we did. We did not get to any of the plying techniques officially, but we did make some knots, and I’ve made some bobbles before.

The second class, also with Patty, was corespun yarn. She also provided a handout. These techniques were much more tricky, and we didn’t get to nearly as many.

We did some basic core spinning with commercial yarn as the core. I used a two-ply wool, and found that wrapping roving around was easy once I got the basic motion down and used *very* little fiber. I’ve tried core spinning before and never really got the hang of it. I think the secret really is using a very little bit of roving/top to wrap around the core. Here is some of this first type of core spinning:

first core spun

I then used the thick and thin yarn around the core to make a different kind of core-spun yarn. The little “beads” or “beehives” in the yarn are the thick parts. The most obvious of these are the three on the very bottom, in blue/brown. There are tighter/less fuzzy ones in the 2nd yarn from the top edge, the red/brown yarn. In this sample I showed a lot of the core on purpose:

core spun with beehives and showing the core

I’m working on the rest of the thick and thin targhee, core spinning it over a core where I’m trying not to show the core. It’s mostly working:

thick and thin core spun, not showing core

It’s not totally perfect, but it’s looking good.

All of the yarn is very kinky when I first spin it. I wasn’t able to let any of this rest, as I just spun it this weekend, but I did wash the samples. The stuff still on the bobbin is very kinky, and I’ll probably let it rest, and
So, pills I went to the Wild and Woolly Weekend this weekend. I drove up Friday after work, recipe and arrived at the Golden Stage Inn around 9 pm, and mostly I took my bag up to my room, showered, and went to sleep.

I woke up early the next morning and met another woman staying at the Inn who was also going to the Weekend, Barbara. Barbara and I talked during the delicious breakfast that Julie and Michael (the owners of the Inn) provided. As it turns out, she’s a spinner as well, and was taking the same classes I was on Saturday. Both classes were taught by Patty Blomgren, a local Vermont spinning instructor.

The first class was Textured Spinning – we went over a few ways to make textured yarn.

The first way was to use some washed but unprocessed fleece – pick and tease apart locks and other fibers, and just use as-is. Then we tried practicing an autowrap. Here’s the yarn I made as a result — it’s definitely textured!

picking and teasing, autowrap sample

I took the rest of the handfuls of unprocessed yarn and ran them through the drum carder – part of the fun of this workshop was playing with one of three drum carders Patty set up for us. So here is the batt I made with the same stuff as is in the yarn above – I have not spun this up yet, but when I do I will spin it worsted and see how much smoother that yarn can be.

batt with same fibers as yarn above

Then I made a colorway I like to call “Creamsicle”:

creamsicle batt

And I spun it into yarn:

Creamsicle yarn

Then I made a thick-and-thin yarn with some Targhee from Spunky Eclectic that I’d brought:

thick and thin yarn

Patty had a handout for us, so we’d remember what we did. We did not get to any of the plying techniques officially, but we did make some knots, and I’ve made some bobbles before.

The second class, also with Patty, was corespun yarn. She also provided a handout. These techniques were much more tricky, and we didn’t get to nearly as many.

We did some basic core spinning with commercial yarn as the core. I used a two-ply wool, and found that wrapping roving around was easy once I got the basic motion down and used *very* little fiber. I’ve tried core spinning before and never really got the hang of it. I think the secret really is using a very little bit of roving/top to wrap around the core. Here is some of this first type of core spinning:

first core spun

I then used the thick and thin yarn around the core to make a different kind of core-spun yarn. The little “beads” or “beehives” in the yarn are the thick parts. The most obvious of these are the three on the very bottom, in blue/brown. There are tighter/less fuzzy ones in the 2nd yarn from the top edge, the red/brown yarn. In this sample I showed a lot of the core on purpose:

core spun with beehives and showing the core

I’m working on the rest of the thick and thin targhee, core spinning it over a core where I’m trying not to show the core. It’s mostly working:

thick and thin core spun, not showing core

It’s not totally perfect, but it’s looking good.

All of the yarn is very kinky when I first spin it. I wasn’t able to let any of this rest, as I just spun it this weekend, but I did wash the samples, and dry them under tension – I don’t normally do this, because it will just re-kink up on washing, but I wanted to see what the yarn would look like when it was less kinky. The stuff still on the bobbin is very kinky, and I’ll probably let it rest, and then wash it.
So, and mostly I took my bag up to my room, showered, and went to sleep. More about the Inn later….

I woke up early the next morning and met another woman staying at the Inn who was also going to the Weekend, Barbara. Barbara and I talked during the delicious breakfast that Julie and Michael (the owners of the Inn) provided. As it turns out, she’s a spinner as well, and was taking the same classes I was on Saturday. Both classes were taught by Patty Blomgren, a local Vermont spinning instructor.

The first class was Textured Spinning – we went over a few ways to make textured yarn.

The first way was to use some washed but unprocessed fleece – pick and tease apart locks and other fibers, and just use as-is. Then we tried practicing an autowrap. Here’s the yarn I made as a result — it’s definitely textured!

picking and teasing, autowrap sample

I took the rest of the handfuls of unprocessed yarn and ran them through the drum carder – part of the fun of this workshop was playing with one of three drum carders Patty set up for us. So here is the batt I made with the same stuff as is in the yarn above – I have not spun this up yet, but when I do I will spin it worsted and see how much smoother that yarn can be.

batt with same fibers as yarn above

Then I made a colorway I like to call “Creamsicle”:

creamsicle batt

And I spun it into yarn:

Creamsicle yarn

Then I made a thick-and-thin yarn with some targhee from Spunky Eclectic that I’d brought:

thick and thin yarn

Patty had a handout for us, so we’d remember what we did. We did not get to any of the plying techniques officially, but we did make some knots, and I’ve made some bobbles before.

The second class, also with Patty, was corespun yarn. She also provided a handout. These techniques were much more tricky, and we didn’t get to nearly as many.

We did some basic core spinning with commercial yarn as the core. I used a two-ply wool, and found that wrapping roving around was easy once I got the basic motion down and used *very* little fiber. I’ve tried core spinning before and never really got the hang of it. I think the secret really is using a very little bit of roving/top to wrap around the core. Here is some of this first type of core spinning:

first core spun

I then used the thick and thin yarn around the core to make a different kind of core-spun yarn. The little “beads” or “beehives” in the yarn are the thick parts. The most obvious of these are the three on the very bottom, in blue/brown. There are tighter/less fuzzy ones in the 2nd yarn from the top edge, the red/brown yarn. In this sample I showed a lot of the core on purpose:

core spun with beehives and showing the core

I’m working on the rest of the thick and thin targhee, core spinning it over a core where I’m trying not to show the core. It’s mostly working:

thick and thin core spun, not showing core

It’s not totally perfect, but it’s looking good.

All of the yarn is very kinky when I first spin it. I wasn’t able to let any of this rest, as I just spun it this weekend, but I did wash the samples, and dry them under tension – I don’t normally do this, because it will just re-kink up on washing, but I wanted to see what the yarn would look like when it was less kinky. The stuff still on the bobbin is very kinky, and I’ll probably let it rest, and then wash it.

Unfortunately, the vendor times were exactly the same as the classes, so I did not get a chance to shop on Saturday. Luckily, I noticed this ahead of time, so I figured Sunday would be for shopping. At the end of the class, Patty let us raid her stash, so I took home some firestar, Ashland Bay merino/silk, and hand-dyed corriedale. I did have some fiber I gave away – I let Patty take some of the targhee, and I gave her the rest of my Louet Black Diamond, a carbonized bamboo that I did not enjoy spinning (it felt like spinning chalk powder, and has absolutely zero memory). I also gave Jennifer, a fellow classmate, some silk hankies that I wasn’t enjoying pulling apart to spin.

I did, however, win a door prize – a Knit Local canvas bag:

knit local tote bag

Saturday night Barbara and I went to DJ’s Restaurant for dinner, which was a good pick (on Julie’s recommendation). After that, I spun by the fireplace for a few hours, practicing what I’d learned that day.

Sunday I woke up, packed up, had breakfast and a nice long conversation with Julie and Michael, checked out and went to the festival again. This was my shopping day, and it was a lot of browsing and also a lot of talking to people. I started out helping a booth set up, and then bought a few magazines (Cast On and Piecework), and some “knit local” stickers and a “knit local” car magnet, some knitty gift tags and a brooch/shawl pin.

I bought a bunch of fiber, including some locally grown Shetland, some hand-dyed Falkland, and a few batts. I also won some flax in another door prize, and got some spinning done.

It was a great day, topped off with a visit with a friend in White River Junction, Vermont, then a visit with another friend near Manchester, NH, and then finally home to my husband and dinner.
So, phthisiatrician I went to the Wild and Woolly Weekend this weekend. I drove up Friday after work, and arrived at the Golden Stage Inn around 9 pm, and mostly I took my bag up to my room, showered, and went to sleep. More about the Inn later….

I woke up early the next morning and met another woman staying at the Inn who was also going to the Weekend, Barbara. Barbara and I talked during the delicious breakfast that Julie and Michael (the owners of the Inn) provided. As it turns out, she’s a spinner as well, and was taking the same classes I was on Saturday. Both classes were taught by Patty Blomgren, a local Vermont spinning instructor.

The first class was Textured Spinning – we went over a few ways to make textured yarn.

The first way was to use some washed but unprocessed fleece – pick and tease apart locks and other fibers, and just use as-is. Then we tried practicing an autowrap. Here’s the yarn I made as a result — it’s definitely textured!

picking and teasing, autowrap sample

I took the rest of the handfuls of unprocessed yarn and ran them through the drum carder – part of the fun of this workshop was playing with one of three drum carders Patty set up for us. So here is the batt I made with the same stuff as is in the yarn above – I have not spun this up yet, but when I do I will spin it worsted and see how much smoother that yarn can be.

batt with same fibers as yarn above

Then I made a colorway I like to call “Creamsicle”:

creamsicle batt

And I spun it into yarn:

Creamsicle yarn

Then I made a thick-and-thin yarn with some targhee from Spunky Eclectic that I’d brought:

thick and thin yarn

Patty had a handout for us, so we’d remember what we did. We did not get to any of the plying techniques officially, but we did make some knots, and I’ve made some bobbles before.

The second class, also with Patty, was corespun yarn. She also provided a handout. These techniques were much more tricky, and we didn’t get to nearly as many.

We did some basic core spinning with commercial yarn as the core. I used a two-ply wool, and found that wrapping roving around was easy once I got the basic motion down and used *very* little fiber. I’ve tried core spinning before and never really got the hang of it. I think the secret really is using a very little bit of roving/top to wrap around the core. Here is some of this first type of core spinning:

first core spun

I then used the thick and thin yarn around the core to make a different kind of core-spun yarn. The little “beads” or “beehives” in the yarn are the thick parts. The most obvious of these are the three on the very bottom, in blue/brown. There are tighter/less fuzzy ones in the 2nd yarn from the top edge, the red/brown yarn. In this sample I showed a lot of the core on purpose:

core spun with beehives and showing the core

I’m working on the rest of the thick and thin targhee, core spinning it over a core where I’m trying not to show the core. It’s mostly working:

thick and thin core spun, not showing core

It’s not totally perfect, but it’s looking good.

All of the yarn is very kinky when I first spin it. I wasn’t able to let any of this rest, as I just spun it this weekend, but I did wash the samples, and dry them under tension – I don’t normally do this, because it will just re-kink up on washing, but I wanted to see what the yarn would look like when it was less kinky. The stuff still on the bobbin is very kinky, and I’ll probably let it rest, and then wash it.

Unfortunately, the vendor times were exactly the same as the classes, so I did not get a chance to shop on Saturday. Luckily, I noticed this ahead of time, so I figured Sunday would be for shopping. At the end of the class, Patty let us raid her stash, so I took home some firestar, Ashland Bay merino/silk, and hand-dyed corriedale. I did have some fiber I gave away – I let Patty take some of the targhee, and I gave her the rest of my Louet Black Diamond, a carbonized bamboo that I did not enjoy spinning (it felt like spinning chalk powder, and has absolutely zero memory). I also gave Jennifer, a fellow classmate, some silk hankies that I wasn’t enjoying pulling apart to spin.

I did, however, win a door prize – a Knit Local canvas bag:

knit local tote bag

Saturday night Barbara and I went to DJ’s Restaurant for dinner, which was a good pick (on Julie’s recommendation). After that, I spun by the fireplace for a few hours, practicing what I’d learned that day.

Sunday I woke up, packed up, had breakfast and a nice long conversation with Julie and Michael, checked out and went to the festival again. A few pictures from the Inn:

pottery

The record player:

record player

These chickens were crossing the road. I wonder why?

why did these chickens cross the road?

A bunch of teapots at the Inn. I think my favorite is the fish one (just to the right of the cow one):

teapots!

This was my shopping day, and it was a lot of browsing and also a lot of talking to people. I started out helping a booth set up, and then bought a few magazines (Cast On and Piecework), and some “knit local” stickers and a “knit local” car magnet, some knitty gift tags and a brooch/shawl pin.

I bought a bunch of fiber, including some locally grown Shetland, some hand-dyed Falkland, and a few batts. I also won some flax in another door prize, and got some spinning done.

It was a great day, topped off with a visit with a friend in White River Junction, Vermont, then a visit with another friend near Manchester, NH, and then finally home to my husband and dinner.
So, contagion I went to the Wild and Woolly Weekend this weekend. I drove up Friday after work, online and arrived at the Golden Stage Inn around 9 pm, drug and mostly I took my bag up to my room, showered, and went to sleep. More about the Inn later….

I woke up early the next morning and met another woman staying at the Inn who was also going to the Weekend, Barbara. Barbara and I talked during the delicious breakfast that Julie and Michael (the owners of the Inn) provided. As it turns out, she’s a spinner as well, and was taking the same classes I was on Saturday. Both classes were taught by Patty Blomgren, a local Vermont spinning instructor.

The first class was Textured Spinning – we went over a few ways to make textured yarn.

The first way was to use some washed but unprocessed fleece – pick and tease apart locks and other fibers, and just use as-is. Then we tried practicing an autowrap. Here’s the yarn I made as a result — it’s definitely textured!

picking and teasing, autowrap sample

I took the rest of the handfuls of unprocessed yarn and ran them through the drum carder – part of the fun of this workshop was playing with one of three drum carders Patty set up for us. So here is the batt I made with the same stuff as is in the yarn above – I have not spun this up yet, but when I do I will spin it worsted and see how much smoother that yarn can be.

batt with same fibers as yarn above

Then I made a colorway I like to call “Creamsicle”:

creamsicle batt

And I spun it into yarn:

Creamsicle yarn

Then I made a thick-and-thin yarn with some targhee from Spunky Eclectic that I’d brought:

thick and thin yarn

Patty had a handout for us, so we’d remember what we did. We did not get to any of the plying techniques officially, but we did make some knots, and I’ve made some bobbles before.

The second class, also with Patty, was corespun yarn. She also provided a handout. These techniques were much more tricky, and we didn’t get to nearly as many.

We did some basic core spinning with commercial yarn as the core. I used a two-ply wool, and found that wrapping roving around was easy once I got the basic motion down and used *very* little fiber. I’ve tried core spinning before and never really got the hang of it. I think the secret really is using a very little bit of roving/top to wrap around the core. Here is some of this first type of core spinning:

first core spun

I then used the thick and thin yarn around the core to make a different kind of core-spun yarn. The little “beads” or “beehives” in the yarn are the thick parts. The most obvious of these are the three on the very bottom, in blue/brown. There are tighter/less fuzzy ones in the 2nd yarn from the top edge, the red/brown yarn. In this sample I showed a lot of the core on purpose:

core spun with beehives and showing the core

I’m working on the rest of the thick and thin targhee, core spinning it over a core where I’m trying not to show the core. It’s mostly working:

thick and thin core spun, not showing core

It’s not totally perfect, but it’s looking good.

All of the yarn is very kinky when I first spin it. I wasn’t able to let any of this rest, as I just spun it this weekend, but I did wash the samples, and dry them under tension – I don’t normally do this, because it will just re-kink up on washing, but I wanted to see what the yarn would look like when it was less kinky. The stuff still on the bobbin is very kinky, and I’ll probably let it rest, and then wash it.

Unfortunately, the vendor times were exactly the same as the classes, so I did not get a chance to shop on Saturday. Luckily, I noticed this ahead of time, so I figured Sunday would be for shopping. At the end of the class, Patty let us raid her stash, so I took home some firestar, Ashland Bay merino/silk, and hand-dyed corriedale. I did have some fiber I gave away – I let Patty take some of the targhee, and I gave her the rest of my Louet Black Diamond, a carbonized bamboo that I did not enjoy spinning (it felt like spinning chalk powder, and has absolutely zero memory). I also gave Jennifer, a fellow classmate, some silk hankies that I wasn’t enjoying pulling apart to spin.

I did, however, win a door prize – a Knit Local canvas bag:

knit local tote bag

Saturday night Barbara and I went to DJ’s Restaurant for dinner, which was a good pick (on Julie’s recommendation). After that, I spun by the fireplace for a few hours, practicing what I’d learned that day.

Sunday I woke up, packed up, had breakfast and a nice long conversation with Julie and Michael, checked out and went to the festival again. A few pictures from the Inn:

pottery

The record player:

record player

These chickens were crossing the road. I wonder why?

why did these chickens cross the road?

A bunch of teapots at the Inn. I think my favorite is the fish one (just to the right of the cow one):

teapots!

This was my shopping day, and it was a lot of browsing and also a lot of talking to people. I started out helping a booth set up, and then bought a few magazines (Cast On and Piecework), and some “knit local” stickers and a “knit local” car magnet, some knitty gift tags and a brooch/shawl pin.

I bought a bunch of fiber, including some locally grown Shetland, some hand-dyed Falkland, and a few batts. I also won some flax in another door prize, and got some spinning done. I talked to a LOT of people, including Dave Paul of The Merlin Tree, maker of the HitchHiker and Road Bug spinning wheels. I spun on one and LOVED it

hitchhiker spinning wheel

It was a great day, topped off with a visit with a friend in White River Junction, Vermont, then a visit with another friend near Manchester, NH, and then finally home to my husband and dinner.
So, and mostly I took my bag up to my room, showered, and went to sleep. More about the Inn later….

I woke up early the next morning and met another woman staying at the Inn who was also going to the Weekend, Barbara. Barbara and I talked during the delicious breakfast that Julie and Michael (the owners of the Inn) provided. As it turns out, she’s a spinner as well, and was taking the same classes I was on Saturday. Both classes were taught by Patty Blomgren, a local Vermont spinning instructor.

The first class was Textured Spinning – we went over a few ways to make textured yarn.

The first way was to use some washed but unprocessed fleece – pick and tease apart locks and other fibers, and just use as-is. Then we tried practicing an autowrap. Here’s the yarn I made as a result — it’s definitely textured!

picking and teasing, autowrap sample

I took the rest of the handfuls of unprocessed yarn and ran them through the drum carder – part of the fun of this workshop was playing with one of three drum carders Patty set up for us. So here is the batt I made with the same stuff as is in the yarn above – I have not spun this up yet, but when I do I will spin it worsted and see how much smoother that yarn can be.

batt with same fibers as yarn above

Then I made a colorway I like to call “Creamsicle”:

creamsicle batt

And I spun it into yarn:

Creamsicle yarn

Then I made a thick-and-thin yarn with some targhee from Spunky Eclectic that I’d brought:

thick and thin yarn

Patty had a handout for us, so we’d remember what we did. We did not get to any of the plying techniques officially, but we did make some knots, and I’ve made some bobbles before.

The second class, also with Patty, was corespun yarn. She also provided a handout. These techniques were much more tricky, and we didn’t get to nearly as many.

We did some basic core spinning with commercial yarn as the core. I used a two-ply wool, and found that wrapping roving around was easy once I got the basic motion down and used *very* little fiber. I’ve tried core spinning before and never really got the hang of it. I think the secret really is using a very little bit of roving/top to wrap around the core. Here is some of this first type of core spinning:

first core spun

I then used the thick and thin yarn around the core to make a different kind of core-spun yarn. The little “beads” or “beehives” in the yarn are the thick parts. The most obvious of these are the three on the very bottom, in blue/brown. There are tighter/less fuzzy ones in the 2nd yarn from the top edge, the red/brown yarn. In this sample I showed a lot of the core on purpose:

core spun with beehives and showing the core

I’m working on the rest of the thick and thin targhee, core spinning it over a core where I’m trying not to show the core. It’s mostly working:

thick and thin core spun, not showing core

It’s not totally perfect, but it’s looking good.

All of the yarn is very kinky when I first spin it. I wasn’t able to let any of this rest, as I just spun it this weekend, but I did wash the samples, and dry them under tension – I don’t normally do this, because it will just re-kink up on washing, but I wanted to see what the yarn would look like when it was less kinky. The stuff still on the bobbin is very kinky, and I’ll probably let it rest, and then wash it.

Unfortunately, the vendor times were exactly the same as the classes, so I did not get a chance to shop on Saturday. Luckily, I noticed this ahead of time, so I figured Sunday would be for shopping. At the end of the class, Patty let us raid her stash, so I took home some firestar, Ashland Bay merino/silk, and hand-dyed corriedale. I did have some fiber I gave away – I let Patty take some of the targhee, and I gave her the rest of my Louet Black Diamond, a carbonized bamboo that I did not enjoy spinning (it felt like spinning chalk powder, and has absolutely zero memory). I also gave Jennifer, a fellow classmate, some silk hankies that I wasn’t enjoying pulling apart to spin.

I did, however, win a door prize – a Knit Local canvas bag:

knit local tote bag

Saturday night Barbara and I went to DJ’s Restaurant for dinner, which was a good pick (on Julie’s recommendation). After that, I spun by the fireplace for a few hours, practicing what I’d learned that day.

Sunday I woke up, packed up, had breakfast and a nice long conversation with Julie and Michael, checked out and went to the festival again. A few pictures from the Inn:

pottery

The record player:

record player

These chickens were crossing the road. I wonder why?

why did these chickens cross the road?

A bunch of teapots at the Inn. I think my favorite is the fish one (just to the right of the cow one):

teapots!

This was my shopping day, and it was a lot of browsing and also a lot of talking to people. I started out helping a booth set up, and then bought a few magazines (Cast On and Piecework), and some “knit local” stickers and a “knit local” car magnet, some knitty gift tags and a brooch/shawl pin.

I bought a bunch of fiber, including some locally grown Shetland, some hand-dyed Falkland, and a few batts. I also won some flax in another door prize, and got some spinning done.

It was a great day, topped off with a visit with a friend in White River Junction, Vermont, then a visit with another friend near Manchester, NH, and then finally home to my husband and dinner.
Today I received my very first shipment of the Gnomespun Yarn and Fiber Arts Mythic Fiber Club. It is a *gorgeous* green-with-browns, search on Manx Loaghtan. Various sources say it has a staple length of 3 inches and a micron count of 28, and is classified as a “primitive breed”.

The colorway was inspired by the Egyptian goddess Heqet, and comes with an information sheet about the mythology of Heqet and a bit about the Manx Loaghtan breed. The information says it’s “lofty” and I’m not sure if that means it’s a “down” fiber, though it does feel “downy”.

The Gnomespun etsy shop has very little in it now, because he’s gearing up for all the festivals this month. But I highly recommend his fiber…I cannot wait to spin this!
Today I received my very first shipment of Gnomespun Yarn and Fiber Arts‘ Mythic Fiber Club. It is a *gorgeous* green-with-browns, infection on Manx Loaghtan. Various sources say it has a staple length of 3 inches and a micron count of 28, and is classified as a “primitive breed”.

The colorway was inspired by the Egyptian goddess Heqet, and come with an information sheet about the mythology of Heqet and a bit about the Manx Loaghtan breed. The information says it’s “lofty” and I’m not sure fi

The Gnomespun etsy shop has very little in it now, because he’s gearing up for all the festivals this month. But I highly recommend his fiber…I cannot wait to spin this!
Today I received my very first shipment of Gnomespun Yarn and Fiber Arts‘ Mythic Fiber Club. It is a *gorgeous* green-with-browns, view on Manx Loaghtan. Various sources say it has a staple length of 3 inches and a micron count of 28, and is classified as a “primitive breed”.

The colorway was inspired by the Egyptian goddess Heqet, and come with an information sheet about the mythology of Heqet and a bit about the Manx Loaghtan breed. The information says it’s “lofty” and I’m not sure if that means it’s a “down” fiber, though it does feel “downy”.

The Gnomespun etsy shop has very little in it now, because he’s gearing up for all the festivals this month. But I highly recommend his fiber…I cannot wait to spin this!
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 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 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!
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, pharmacist and the weekend before was a quiet weekend at home.

I finally finished the Color Me Pretty sweater for my niece, 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! Next week I head off to Finland for an adventr
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 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!
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, pharmacist and the weekend before was a quiet weekend at home.

I finally finished the Color Me Pretty sweater for my niece, 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! Next week I head off to Finland for an adventr
It has been almost a month since my last post on my crafty goings-on. Since then I have gone to Finland (click for pictures) and Charlotte, dosage North Carolina, to speak at conferences. I bought yarn in both places, and have done a lot of knitting and spinning while on planes, in airports, and generally in the cities themselves.

Tony’s Crooked Little Scarf has gotten bigger, and while it’s not quite finished yet, it is over 32 inches long and you can see that the ball of yarn is getting smaller and smaller:

The scarf is done when I run out of yarn. Next week I fly to Buenos Aires, so I think I will be able to finish the scarf on the plane.

While in North Carolina, I went to some yarn stores, and picked up some Universal Yarn’s Cotton Supreme Batik yarn. I was very excited to find this yarn again, I had found it a few years ago when I was in the Raleigh-Durham area and visited Shuttles Needles and Hooks. It’s very very soft, feels more like a microfiber acrylic than 100% cotton, and was perfect to make a baby sweater out of. So I bought some more for some more baby sweaters….

I bought the cotton batik at YarnHouse, where I bought a skein of ribbon yarn, that made this scarf:

The yarn was difficult to work with, and I’m not in love with the final product, but I am sure there is someone I know who will love it, that I can gift this scarf to.

At Charlotte Yarn I helped my (new) friend Carrie Stokes pick out some yarn for a Mobius shrug, and helped her with the pattern for it – specifically I helped start it. I also got out of my comfort zone and bought some ribbon yarns.

I bought some leopard-print ribbon yarn, to make a scarf for my friend Victoria:

If you look in the middle of the scarf you can see the ribbon itself (there was some left over at the end) and you can see the holes cut into it. I feel like I could re-create this yarn, with 30 meters of wide yarn and a hole punch. This yarn cost $20, and for 30 meters I find that somewhat expensive (although for a whole scarf, it’s totally reasonable). The yarn itself is called “tecido trico”.

Also for $20 I picked up some purple ribbon yarn, which I am making a scarf out of (but it is not done yet):

While in Finland, I bought some amazingly colored sock yarn, from Novita, a Finnish yarn company. I have already made a pair of socks from half of one skein, and I have several more skeins which I think I want to make a Color Affection with. Here are the socks I have made (well, I am *almost* done making):

In this picture I really played with the settings of my camera, and I love how it came out:

Here is the other, completed sock:

I went back and played with the settings, lowering the F-stop as I did for the in-progress sock. I love how this came out:

Compare and contrast the two photos….I think I’m learning how to take some great photos! If you are curious about the pattern, it’s just a regular stockinette sock, with a Sweet Tomato heel, and 2×2 ribbing with an i-cord cast-off for the leg of the sock.

I also finished the Monkey Socks. Here is the 2nd sock:

You probably don’t remember what the first sock looks like, which is OK, here’s the picture I took a while ago of it:

As you can tell, they do not match….but they are from the same yarn! (Superwash Correidale….)

I have been on a bit of a sock kick – I started and completed a pair of socks from Mind’s Eye Yarns, hand-dyed by Lucy. It’s 75% merino, 25% tencel, and they are extremely comfortable socks…again, the pattern is just simple stockinette, with ribbing at the leg, and the Sweet Tomato heel. At $20 for 100g, I can get 2 pairs of socks out of one skein, so it makes me happy:

I have been spinning a fair bit, too. I got some BFL from Spunky Eclectic in the “More Coffee” colorway a while back, and decided a few nights ago to spin on my wheel while I was home. I have spun up about a bobbin and a half, and probably am about halfway done with it:

Also from Spunky is the May 2012 fiber club – also BFL, in the “Big Bang” colorway. As soon as I saw it I knew I had to spin it, so even though I still have not spun the clubs from December through April, I went to work on the May colorway right away. I’m still in love:

While in Finland I started to get back in touch with my spindles, spinning some of the Falkland mini-braids I bought at the Wild and Wooly Festival in April in Vermont, from The Spun Monkey Fiber Shoppe. I have spun just about half of one package – which is 2.5 mini-braids:

I also spun some of the fluff I received in a Phat Fiber sampler box I bought in February (a mixed box):

There was a spindle in the box that I spun on, but I have to say that the Bosworth spindles and my Golding mini ringspindles I have are so perfectly balanced, that everything else feels like spinning with a boat anchor (including the bigger Golding ringspindles, sadly).

The Monkey socks were knit using handspun, and I still have a lot of it. Rather than make tons more socks from the same yarn, which would probably result in 8 more unmatched socks, I decided to make a Cecilia. I have not gotten very far yet, I’m about 33 rows in:

And that’s it! For now. I look forward to making more socks, finishing Tony’s scarf, working more on the Cecilia, and spinning more, on my trip to Buenos Aires and various locations in Central and South America in the next month or so.