Love my Laceweight

Sorry to make you wait so long for a finished photo!

As the baby is fond of saying: Da-Da!



There's no blue in it . . . it's really dark dark dark purple with shades of burgundy. The red filter strikes again . . . and ain't no way I can bring that red back. It looks lousy when I try. ;o) Use your imagination . . . .

Fun in the Sun

It has been pretty hot here. Not as hot today as earlier in the week, but still hot enough to encourage me to stay inside. So, I decided to make the sun work for me.

Here are three skeins of Shimmer (70% Baby Alpaca, 30% Silk) from Knit Picks. I actually got it on eBay, and thought that it was all shades of blue, not blue/gray/white. I haven't been able to figure out what to do with it as is, because I really don't like the color. But today, while I spent hours steam cleaning carpets, I mulled over over-dyeing it with either red or yellow. I opted for red, as you can see. Black Cherry, actually.



Here's the new swift, btw. It arrived in today's mail, and handily wound the top skein in the photo above. (That's what the 5th dowel is for.) It works very well, and I would recommend one as a good swift for the price. It has only one coat of stain on it (the wood grain is still raised), so I'm thinking about staining it either dark cherry or near-black. I'm leaning toward the black. But, we'll see. (MS3 included for scale.) I might just need to buy another one in a larger size . . . we'll see how different skeins of yarn work on it. This swift has 24" arms. (That means they extend 12" from the center.)



Here's the yarn in a nice vinegar bath in the sink. This stuff had an astonishing amount of air in it. It floated like a cork, and had to be ever so gently pushed down and the air squeezed out against the bottom of the sink. It took quite a bit of persuasion before the stuff didn't want to float, and then even more before it was saturated.



And here it is, sitting comfortably in the dye bath. That's just one packet of Kool Aid in a 10 quart enamel stock pot. I might do another dye bath if this doesn't end up dark enough, but it looked awfully dark when I had it all mixed in. I shudder to think that I drank untold packets of this stuff back at school . . . I wonder what happened to all of that food dye . . .



And here is the dye pot, basking in the golden glow of the afternoon sun along with the Yarrow.



And here's what I've been taking blog photos with the last couple of days. It's very cool--the only thing it doesn't do better than my Olympus is zoom--and it's hard to beat a 10x optical zoom when you've only got 3.8x. But this baby starts up in less than a second, takes shots a whole lot faster, has a macro focus of just about an inch (opposed to the Oly's 3"), and has excellent battery life. I'm glad that Vern's sharing his new toy. (And that he doesn't take it to work! lol :o)



And now, we wait for the sun . . .

Some nifty handspun.

I have three skeins, and they aren't a matched set. Compliment each other nicely, yes. Match, no way. I've been trying to figure out what to do with them, but haven't come up with much yet. The darker skeined one is spun in the grease, and has a wonderful lanolin smell. The photos don't do them justice, really. The camera has a hard time picking up both the dark & light fibers and doing them justice side-by-side. Just try to use your imagination, if you would. ;o)

I bought these quite a while ago, sight-unseen. I know now that the spinning isn't the best, but I haven't tried washing them or setting the twist. I'm hoping that will help, and make them easier to work with. I still like them more than I probably should, though. ;o)

When I first received this, I wound the last ball and tried knitting a Warm Heart Woolies soaker with it, but didn't get very far. The over-twisted sections were just too hard to manage, and the variations in thickness and really dense nature of the yarn made for a fairly unyielding fabric. Not a good thing for sensitive baby skin.

Anyway, here 'tis. Any ideas, anyone?



This first photo is pretty close to real. The light fibers aren't quite that bright.



This one is the closest to reality of the lot.



(This one is a lot darker, and more chocolate-y.)

Have a great Thursday!

What are your favorites?

So, today I discovered Beaverslide Dry Goods. Wow. Sample cards are on their way, and I can hardly wait to see what their yarns in real life. I've been reading the Foxfire Fiber blog, What I'm wondering now, since I've been unable to make it to any fiber shows (Rhinebeck and MD Sheep & Wool are a trans-continental endeavor where I am, and I'm just not finding them in the Northwest yet), I want to know if any of you have favorite small-time producers whose booths you haunt at shows, or whose fiber you just can't resist. I love supporting small-time, fiber producers; local to me is a huge bonus. In fact, I've just discovered one a few miles from me, and am going to give her a call soon to chat about how she preps her fiber and to see if she sells any ready-to-spin. All of her yarn I've seen at a local health food store is handspun, and it's exceptionally even and nice. (Her colors just aren't my thing, though.) But the wool is very, very springy and nice. Not really soft, but not scratchy at all.

Sooooo anyway, what are you favorites?

Sock Yarn Frenzy

Over the weekend, I sort of bought some sock yarn. Okay, a lot of sock yarn. But, it's for socks, right? Very useful, beautiful, comfy, "See-how-much-I-love-you,-I-knit-you-some-socks" yarn.

See for yourself:

Clearanced Knit Picks Memories Merino sock yarn in Gladiolus, Easter & Hawaii. (I think the Easter colorway is a misnomer, though. The Paper Dolls colorway below looks more like Easter to me--the green is the very color of green plastic Easter basket grass.)



More sock yarn--and just $1 a skein. My kind of socks; except that the AnderMan has claimed these stripes for himself. :o)



This is a 14oz lot of scrums I found on eBay. Too impatient for the auction to end, I bought-it-now, and paid for this what I paid for 100g of sock yarn new. I'm going to have fun with this. ;o)



For scale . . . I don't have a good scale that measures in grams (yet), so you'll have to get a basic idea this way.



Then, on Saturday, Vern loaded all of the munchkins in the Honda and we all went to town so I could spend an hour at my favorite LYS, Stitchin' Sisters. Isn't Audra just beautiful? She's one of my favorite people, honestly. She started Stitchin' Sisters to provide a place for women to build strength in each other . . . and she knows how to run a fun shop, too. (The items below were all from the Spring Sale--30% off! Woo-hoo!) She carries yarn, quilting fabric and most notions/accessories you could imagine (she also has stuff for needle felting & embroidering).

A skein of Collinette Zanziba (wool, viscose, and a little nylon) destined as a scarf/neckwarmer thingie for me, and a skein of lovely sport weight brown virgin wool from a farm in Bonner's Ferry Idaho (destiny unknown--I just love local fiber that's not outrageously priced!).



Some sock yarn for me. (The sock yarn above is all for the kids, so I'm justified, right? ;o) Regia Bamboo Color and Panda Wool from Crystal Palace. (I'm beginning to fall in love with Crystal Palace, btw. They have some really gorgeous yarns, and their bamboo dpn's are my favorite so far.)



Some Fortissima Cotton Socka for Vern. He's big on comfy socks, but he hasn't ever known anything as nice as these are going to be. Hopefully I'll be able to work him into something more colorful in a while. This is just for starters. (And it will go with the black Keen Newport sandals that he wears for "formal" occasions. {chuckle})



Last week, before the yarn bonanza, I, um, {ahem, cough cough} bought some knitting books, too.

When I saw Stephanie's Rib Warmer, I knew I needed this book. I'm knitting socks & a sweater out of "Knitting Without Tears", and I dearly love Elizabeth Zimmerman.



Someday I'll save up my Amazon reward certificates and buy the set of DVD's that were recently released of her PBS series; but for now, I'm going to have to just read it. I also decided that I really and truly needed something to supplement my daily dose of the Harlot:

.

And, I decided I needed some good ideas on what to do with all of the lovely, lovely lonesome skeins that I've got in my stash. (Alpaca, lovely soft wool, pretty mercerized cotton, etc.)



In other news, here are status shots on some of my WIP's. (I'm hoping to get a line on some progress meters for the sidebar soon.) The socks I started for myself in KP Dancing haven't grown since I started socks for the baby, but I'll get back to them . . . honest.

Socks for the baby, in Knit Picks Memories "Paper Dolls" following EZ's instructions in KWT. (I still say this colorway should be called "Easter". Can't you just see the pastel candy chocolate eggs and plastic grass in those colors?)



Sleeve #1 on the baby's cardigan. Knit Picks Crayon in Periwinkle, held double, knit on #6 needles. (KP Options for the body, Brittany birch dpn's for the sleeves.) The body is long enough to join the sleeves now, so I've got to get moving so I've got some sleeves to graft in. The baby simply adores this yarn--she has been known to come and cuddle with the ball while I'm knitting. (It's the cutest thing you've ever seen, too.)



And, best for last . . . my nightstand. :o)

My first handspun.

In all it's glory. ;o) About an ounce of 2-ply woollen-spun Merino in a colorway I can't remember (I'll fix it later, promise!) bought locally. I spun it on a drop spindle I made myself following instructions at The Joy of Handspinning.

I plied this with my spindle, using some leftover doweling from the spindle project laid across a notched child's size shoebox to hold the singles. I have two more bobbins of singles I spun waiting to be twisted some more on my spinning wheel before plying. We'll see what happens with that another day. . .