All Things Fiber

In Dreams KAL Project (part 2)

2011-09-25T15:40:00.007-04:00

I thought I would post an update on the In Dreams shawl I started and post a couple of pics. I really debated with myself wether or not to even post it because I have decided that it would be best to take out what I have done so far and start over, eekkk. I did make a couple of errors along the way that are not that noticeable so I thought I could keep going and it would turn out fine. However I have also missed one very crucial direction in the pattern that has been causing my stitch counts to be wrong every other row. So by restarting this project I will be more aware of all those oopsie spots I made and hopefully do it better the second time around. But I won't be restarting this project till after Christmas because the holidays are always so hectic for me in the first place and this project requires my full attention. So below are a couple of pics to show you where it is at the moment.

Ok I had trouble placing this pics side by side so the one on top here is of the whole thing so far. The one underneath shows the up close detail of the beads, you can notice that some of them are hiding behind my stitches. This was one of my mistakes that I thought I could fix during the blocking stage. I discovered I was placing the beads on wrong by knitting the stitch first then placing the bead when I should have placing the bead first then knitting the stitch. So this should work out much better when I re start this project in January of 2012 :)

In Dreams KAL Project (part 1)

2011-03-31T14:25:00.013-04:00

The current project I am working on is a lace shawl entitled In Dreams. This is a mystery shawl Knit A Long (KAL), which means you don't know what the design looks like before you knit it, that's the mystery. There are clues given at timed intervals so the design is revealed as each clue is worked. The design is by Susan Pandorf of Sunflower Designs and was inspired by Galadriel's crown from the movie Lord of the Rings.

I decided to spin my own yarn for this project so the picture below is of the fiber I decided to use. This is a 50/50 blend of Merino/Silk, I love the way it shines.

This shawl is going to have a ton of beads, 5,000 I think is the right number so below are the beads I have chosen for it. I have the beads laying on top of the fiber to give you an idea of how they will go together.

I am using my Schacht double treadle wheel for this and below you can see the lace singles on the bobbin. I will be making a lace weight 2-ply yarn.

In this next picture I have placed a green sewing machine thread to the left of my spun single so you can get an idea of the size of the single.

This is the plied yarn drying on my homemade pvc niddy noddy for blocking, (setting the twist).

For those of you who read this who are not spinners, after spinning the yarn I wind it onto a niddy noddy and then wash it and set it out to dry. Before making a niddy noody from pvc I would wind it onto a wooden one to make a skein. I would then take the skein and wash it and would have to dry it under tension to set the twist. By making the pvc one I can skein it, wash it, and set it all on the niddy noddy in fewer steps.

I am currently half way through knitting the first clue and will post pictures after clue one is complete, in part 2 of this post.

My new Wheel

2011-03-11T13:09:00.014-05:00

This is a Great Wheel that was given to me by a wonderful friend this week. This wheel has been in her family since the wheel was new. She gave it to me because, due to health issues she has to move to a one level home and won't have the room to keep it and she choose me because she knew I would love her and take good care of her forever.

She is in pretty good condition considering her age but is not currently is working order. She does show signs of being repaired throughout the years and I have a few pictures to show you what I mean.

In this photo if you look carefully at the two spokes you can see the one on the left, as compared to the one on the right, looks hand carved. Of the ten spokes on the wheel three of them are like the one on the left. I found something similar on the legs.

Above you can see the leg on the left has decorative turning and the one on the right does not. This leg on the right looks hand carved like the replacement spokes and I am guessing the repairs to all the wood were done by the same person. I could find no identifying markings as to identify the maker of this wheel. The next repair I found is in the following picture.

What you're looking at above is the bottom of the large wheel, it appears as though the wheel had split at some point and was repaired with these three thin sheets of metal that were riveted to the wood to keep the wood from splitting further. What I have noticed about this repair is that even though the metal is very thin it has added weight to this section of the wheel and it will move the wheel around until these metal sheets are on the bottom. So the wheel is now off balance.

This next photo shows why the wheel isn't in working order.

The peg sticking up on the top left hand side is called a maiden, there is supposed to be two of these and in between the two maiden is supposed to be a spindle, without these parts the wheel won't work. Another interesting thing you can see in this photo is hanging from the maiden by a string that has been tied at the top, it looks like a miniature base ball bat and I honestly have no idea what this would have been used for. It doesn't look as though any part of this wheel has been banged on by a little bat such as pegs being tapped into place so this is a mystery to me. Perhaps someone reading this might know what it is and what it is for and mention it in the comments.

I would like to get this wheel in working order again if at all possible. I do have a few messages out to people who do wood turning and I am just waiting for replies now so I will post any progress reports as I get them. Thanks for reading and if anyone out there has information that might help with getting this beauty working again please leave a comment.

2010-02-15T14:18:00.008-05:00

Wow, where does the time go. I suppose during my long hiatus from the blogging sphere I have lost readers I previously might have had. Well, I guess that's ok and I'll just have to deal with it but hay, I blog mainly for myself anyway as a way to journal my crafting activities. I have been crafting, just not blogging. Sometimes the necessities in life take up a little more time than one expects and takes away from the things one really loves to do, as is in my case. At any rate, here is what I'm doing now, I won't go into all the things that have been keeping me from blogging like, finding facebook (spend way too much time there), my handspun yarn business, homeschooling, wait, I said I wouldn't go there, so where was I.... oh yeah what I'm doing now.

Over on the Ravelry site I joined a Lord of the Rings Mystery Shawl KAL (Knit-A-Long) and I am having a lot of fun with that. Here is what I have done so far without giving to much away, I don't want to spoil the mystery for those who might not be as far along.

Clue number one came out on February 12th, By the way it is not to late to sign up for this project and you can find all the details you need here

This particular shawl is only one in a Lord of the Rings series so if your a LOTR fan like me you might want to check this out.

This project is called the Evenstar, the pendant worn by Arwen Evenstar in the movie played by Liv Tyler.

I have spun up a light lace weight yarn from a 50/50 blend of Mulberry silk/Merino for this project, the silk gives off a beautiful shine that I think will be perfect for this shawl.

I have also knit up the swatch but I didn't use the good yarn for the swatch, I used crochet thread instead.
I had a couple of reasons for doing this. This swatch was my 4th attempt to get it right so I didn't want to mess up the good yarn. Also the crochet thread is the same WPI as my handspun so it would work for obtaining the gauge. I will be using size 4 needles instead of the size 3 prescribed. I also wanted to play around with bead placement to see if I even wanted beads. My real camera is not working so I had to use my camera phone and it doesn't get close enough for you see the beads in this picture but they are there, trust me.

The flower on the bottom has 4 beads, one in the center of each flower section, (don't like this at all). The two flowers on the upper right and left each have one single bead right in the center where a hole is but I placed these beads on different stitches to see what the difference would be and here is what I found.

The one on the left- I placed the bead in the 4th increase stitch on the pearl side prior to purling the stitch, now the bead wound up on the purl side so I had to push it through the hole in order for it to be on the front but the bead is directly in the center of the hole.

The one on the right-I placed the bead on the 5th increase stitch on the purl side prior the purling the stitch and the bead wound up on the front side not the purl side, however it is not perfectly centered and has a rightward slant which I don't like.

I have not yet decided if I like any beads at all at this point but I hope that if anyone else out there is doing this KAL that wanted to place beads that this post is somewhat helpful to you.

Cheers

Punch Needle Embroidery Part II

2009-06-29T12:30:00.006-04:00

This photo above is of a quilt pattern called Autumn Eyes by Toni Whitney. I purchased this pattern last year around August with the intentions of making this 32" X 31" wall hanging as a Christmas gift for my mother who loves all things bears. But as I was hunting for just the right fabrics for this beauty I was having trouble finding what I wanted and time was quickly running out for getting this ambitious project done in time for Christmas giving.

The Photo below is of the pattern and as you can see there are many tiny pieces to be put together, when I first pulled the pattern out of the package I gasped for air and though to myself, I must be nuts.
I quickly realized that without finding just the right fabrics for this quilt I wasn't going to get it done for Christmas and needed to choose another project I could do in the time that was left and that's when it hit me, I could do this in punch needle in half the time if I made it smaller and turned it into a pillow that would match the quilt when I do finish that.

So I took the pattern to my local Kinko's and had it shrunk to a 12" x 12" image and started my hunt for the yarns the same day. It took me a month to gather all the yarns from many stores, I traveled miles just to find what I was looking for and when we went on vacation to visit family in Iowa I found most of the yarn in a tiny store there that carried just what I was looking for. I selected in all, over 100 different colors for this piece and most of those were hand dyed wools that were variegated.

Once I had all the yarns I chose an even weave background fabric in a light green shade that would work well with all the colors of yarn. I taped the paper pattern to my sliding glass door on a sunny day and then taped the fabric over that and using a black quilting pen I traced the entire pattern to the fabric, this took hours. Once I was done with that I stretched the fabric over stretcher bars and stapled it in place. I started in the center and worked my out working one section at a time till it was all done and picture below is of the finished pillow.

This was a great project and I plan to do many more Punch Needle projects in the future. By the way I now have all the fabric for the quilt and working on that this year so stay tuned for the blogs on the matching quilt.

Thanks for reading.

June 19,2009

2009-06-19T11:12:00.008-04:00

Last year I went into my LYS and found on display a craft I'd only heard about but never had the opportunity to see up close, Punch Needle Embroidery. This is very easy to do and works up quickly. Above is a close up of my first project and below is my first project agian but with the needle used to create this included. The was what I did for practice before I started the project I purchased.

All I did was find a picture I liked and traced the pattern onto a scrap piece of muslin by taping it all to my sliding glass door and using a quilting marker to trace with. For the center, leaf, I used a variegated DMC floss that I had left over from a cross stitch project and I am very happy with the result. The deep red inside border and black outer border are also DMC leftovers.

The needle is hollow and threaded from the bottom of the handle up through the top, there is an eye at the top of the needle you pull the thread through. After that all you do is punch down through the fabric and up again until the whole picture is filled in. The project is worked from the back, this leaves loops on the front, (right side). I know these aren't the best pictures but you may be able to see the loops in the top photo. These pictures were taken last year before I got my new camera. This whole project took me only an hour from start to finish and is a lot of fun!

I liked it so much in fact, that I skipped doing the project I first purchased and jumped into something a little more challenging. But I will save this for the next post so I can get some better pictures. Sorry for the suspence ;)

June 3, 2009

2009-06-03T13:51:00.007-04:00

While my shoulder is healing the spinning production has come to a screeching halt which is very bad for business. Thankfully the customers that had orders in are patient and understanding of my situation. I am however, able to knit so I though I would update you on a project I haven't updated in a while, the afghan.

I have three of the 6 panels completed and I'm half way done with the 4th. The last two panels are cables so I have saved these two for last because I love doing cables and thought I would save the best for last. Below are the pictures of the completed panels.

This first panel is called the Moss Stitch, the picture was taken before it was finished.

This second one is called Little Shells.

The last one is called Diamond Net Mask.

I also started a new craft last year before Christmas that I have not yet blogged about so my next post will be about that, Punch Needle Embroidery.

2009-05-26T13:31:00.002-04:00

Hi everyone,
I have been out of the loop for a while because of a rotator cuff shoulder injury I sustained from falling down a flight of stairs back in January. I have been through x-ray's, an arthrogram MRI (that is where they stick a needle into your joint and pump it full of contrast dye) excruciatingly painful. At the present I am still in physical therapy where I have been for the past 3 months but the doctor is still not happy with the progress and will most likely give me cortisone shots next.

The MRI found no tear which was good news but it did find a bone spur, extremely inflamed tendons, bursitis, and osteoarthritis.

All this is taking a long time and I get very discouraged at times, I just want to be myself again. I don't think my shoulder will ever be the same again.

One thing this experience has shown me is the poor condition I have allowed my body to slip into and that has prompted some healthy changes.

You know, "they say" everything happens for a reason and I believe my falling down the stairs was what I needed to open my eyes to the unhealthy choices I was making.
It may have saved my life.

I hope you all are well and I will try to start posting more often as my healing progresses.

Natural Dying with Pokeberries

2008-11-12T13:46:00.020-05:00

Hello again, it’s been a while since my last post so I thought I would let you all know that I am still here and still without a computer. However, do to the generosity of a dear friend who just so happened to have a spare computer lying around the house for us to borrow, I can post about my recent dying fun with pictures!
I decided to venture out into the woods recently in search of Pokeberries and found just enough to work with.

I decided to use these berries fresh instead of drying them just to see what would happen. I also wanted to experiment with different mordents to see if I could get different colors using the same dye stuffs.
For the first batch I used Alum with Cream of Tartar for the mordents and for the second I used only white vinegar.
To prepare the berries I carefully removed them from the stems and placed them in a large dye pot, I used about 1 cup of berries for the first batch, with about 12 cups of water. I brought the dye pot to a boil then reduced the heat to a simmer for about an hour. I then crushed the berries with a potato masher and simmered for another hour. I turned off the dye pot and let it cool so I could strain out the crushed parts and seeds. Once strained, I reheated the dye, added the mordents, and then for the first batch added about 3 oz. of pre-soaked silk/merino blend top. I then brought the pot back up to a boil for 1 hour. I noticed with this first batch that the longer it boiled the lighter the color was getting.

After an hour I turned off the pot and let it soak in the pot overnight so it would cool on its own to room temperature. The next morning I drained and discarded the dye stuff off the fiber, rinsed it and hung it outside to dry. I found that in the rinse most of the dye washed out and I was left with a flesh color, this is a beautiful color in the silk but it wasn’t the color I was hoping for so I started preparing the second bath.

I changed the procedure slightly for the second batch in the following way; I used about 2 cups of berries instead of 1 to the same amount of water and used white vinegar as my mordent. Also, when I added the fiber, (same kind), I didn’t pre-soak it and I didn’t bring the bath up to a boil, I just kept it hot enough to produce a little steam. This time the deep wine color I saw in the first batch didn’t lighten up over time but stayed the same. When I rinsed it out the next day, I kept the dye bath to re-use, very little color washed out of the fiber and the merino wound up taking the beautiful wine color while the silk took the flesh color as in the first batch, so it is streaked. I liked the look so much I decided to dye another batch, expecting a lighter color but to my surprise I achieved the very same results so I saved the dye bath again, in mason jars, for future dying.

This photo below shows the two results side by side, the one the left is the first batch and the one on the right is the second.

Computer Problems

2008-08-13T11:23:00.002-04:00

Hi everyone, sorry I've not posted in a long time but the hard drive on my computer went bad and it is in the shop getting a new hard drive put in. So until I get it back I will not be posting, nor can I check e-mail unless I make a special trip to the library.

I have been doing a lot of spinning and knitting since not having a computer, though I can't show pictures from a library computer. I guess I spent more time on the computer than I realized, but I'm sure none of you have that problem right?

Well my time is limited here so I need to make this short. I just wanted to let you all know what was up and that I will be back soon.

Independence Day Greeting

2008-07-03T11:36:00.002-04:00

Happy Independence Day!

I'm off to the campground for a long week-end and taking the wheel with me, it's always great for starting conversations with camp neighbors. The last time I took the wheel out in public I was asked if I was "weaving my own string". I have heard a lot of funny questions about my spinning.

Leave me a comment with some of the funny things people ask you when you take your hobby out in public.

Knitting With Handspun Angora

2008-06-26T10:47:00.005-04:00

With all the spinning I’m doing I am finding it hard to spend quality time with my knitting but here is a little progress report on the stuffed knitted bunny I started. Since I am making a bunny I thought what better fiber to use than bunny fiber so I am using the fiber from my own Sable colored German Angora bunny. I no longer have this bunny since I couldn’t bring any of my fiber animals with me when we made our move to Virginia two years ago so I have had this yarn for a long time now and it is actually my first angora spinning ever so it is a little sentimental to me. It has been sitting just waiting for the right project to come along and I thought this one was fitting. I spun this fiber from the fold and is a fingering weight. The pattern calls for a cast on to measure 6” and I thought I had done that but as I kept knitting each row the width began to multiply and maxed out at 12 inches, exactly twice what I thought I started with so I guess the whole thing about bunny’s multiplying is true even when knitting, hee hee hee. No, seriously when I measured my CO stitches they were tight and close together. As I knitted those stitches they became a lot more relaxed and expanded out to their true measurement. I decided to keep the size and just make a larger bunny.

Here is the link to the free pattern I’m working on, since the photo is copyrighted I can’t post it here so you’ll have to go to the link to see what I’m making, it’s really cute!

http://www.heartstringsfiberarts.com/bunny.shtm

One Time Announcement!

2008-06-17T13:19:00.004-04:00

The exciting news you have all been so patiently waiting for. Drum role please…

For all the years I have been spinning one question people ask me keeps popping up over and over again and that question is, do you sell your handspun yarn?. My answer has always been no but my wonderful husband to me that I should give it a try, so that is what I’m doing.

Now everyone has always known me around the web as either littlehouseinthewoods or on Ravelry as littlehouse so it seemed only right to name my new handspun yarn business Little House Yarns. My website is not finished yet but is up and located at http://www.littlehouseyarns.com you can currently go there and put a push pin on a guest map to let me know you were there. I will also have a business blog located at http://littlehouseyarns.wordpress.com/ but it is not up yet so don’t try to go there just yet, I will post the entire link when it is up and running.

So, what will I carry? Handspun yarn of course! In all weights, types, and colors. I will have “dye your own” white/natural and colors I dye myself. I will even be offering my own hand dyed, handspun, self striping sock yarn as well as solid colors. I will also take special requests from my special blog friends here just because I love you all so much!
I will also have handmade accessories, I am currently working on my own design of needle case holders and I’m busy making stitch markers and a few other things too.

I do have a special request from some of you that regularly read this blog. I am in need of some test knitters that will be willing to knit shop samples for me, using my yarn and then writing a review of the yarn. If you are interested in doing this and would like more information just leave a comment stating that your interested and I’ll get back with you regarding all the details. I think you will like the benefits.

Because this is my personal fiber crafts blog, this is the only announcement regarding my new yarn business that I will post here. I want to try and keep my business separate from this personal blog so when the business blog is up and running I will post the link in the side bar and all business information will be over there.

I am very busy spinning so that I can hopefully be open for business in July. I would love it if you all would post any suggestions regarding what you would like to see in my shop. Sizes/weights, yardages, colors, smooth yarn or funky novelty yarn, or all of the above etc.

Happy knitting everybody!
Michelle

Out With the New In With the Old?

2008-06-11T09:40:00.008-04:00

That seams kind of backwards doesn't but as I put the Laminaria in the UFO pile for a while I spotted this old beauty and decided to resurrect it. It is the Floral Felted bag pattern by Nicky Epstein.

The only reason It was put there on hold was because we were moving. The bag is finished as far as the knitting and felting goes as you can see but I have made some changes by adding a few beads, and that is what I am working at finishing up. Now if I can find where I put the beads I was using. Then I just have to add handles and it’s done.

One other change I made is a hidden compartment in the bottom (inside) of the bag.

When I felted this it became floppy and this space allows me to slide in something sturdy to stabilize the bottom and keep it flat, I show plastic canvas here because that is what I used during the felting process to keep from felting the space shut. I could also leave this space empty and use it as a floppy bag, so this adds a little versatility I think.

This has been a fun project so far and I’m looking forward to getting it done so I can use it!

The "Hole" Truth

2008-06-04T08:06:00.007-04:00

Well, my Laminaria shawl will be going into the time out corner with the rest of the UFO’s for a while. Last night I was moving my lifeline for the next section of the pattern. I checked very carefully to make sure all the stitches were correct before removing the lifeline. But to my surprise, when I was putting the lifeline back in just over this spot, the huge gaping hole you see in the photo formed right before my eyes. This tells me that I must have knit that stitch right into my lifeline so that when I pulled out the lifeline, I also pulled out the stitch. As Homer Simpson would say, DOPE!

If you have been following this project then you know that I have frogged this shawl several times already and once all the way back to the beginning. With out a live line that is what I would have to do again, all the way back to the beginning and I am not willing to go through all that work again just now, so the Laminaria shawl will be laid to rest for an undisclosed period of time.

Maybe I can do some research on how to fix mistakes, can you fix lace mistakes? A girl can dream can’t she?

I'm Back! Did you miss me?

2008-05-23T22:52:00.001-04:00

No, I didn’t fall off the face of the planet. I have been away for the past week to the most wonderful and enlightening, writer’s conference ever, The Blue Ridge Mountain Christian Writers Conference. What a beautiful place, when it’s not raining that is. Anyway, this is a fiber blog so if you want to know more you’ll have to visit my writing blog http://the-write-words.blogspot.com/
By the way, I was told that I should be telling people that I’m a writer. Isn’t that a great hint?

I did take my Laminaria shawl with me to the conference because I truly believed that in the evening I would have time to work on it, wrong! I did manage to get the transition chart on the shawl done before I left but it never even came out of the bag and remained in my suitcase the whole trip. It really doesn’t look any different from the last photo I posted so I don’t have a new one to show you. Wait, I just looked and the last photo is when I messed it up and had to frog, ooops, it does look different but I don't have a picture right now. Sorry about that.

Tomorrow I will be attending the Sedalia Fiber Festival with my Ravelry group pals and I plan to take my spinning wheel along to give it a workout. Will post pictures of that event on the next post, I can’t wait to do that because my wonderful husband bought me a new camera that takes fabulous pictures. I’m sure you’ll see a lot of them here because I seem to take the thing with me everywhere and take pictures of everything just to play with it to see what it can do.

I had a comment on my market bag post while I was at the conference and to answer that question, the pattern for the bag came with the hemp yarn as a kit so I can’t send you a link for the pattern, I suggest looking at your local yarn store on online for hemp market bag patterns. From what I see on other posts this kit may no longer be available but I’m not sure about that. To answer you next question, when I make the bag again I will try cotton and make it larger to allow for shrinkage. I hope I answered your question. Also, I do know that the cotton yarns you can buy in the craft stores, like peaches and crème, have patterns on the inside of the labels and they do have a market bag pattern, you just have look at the labels carefully to find the right one. But again there is a ton of free pattern on the net for market bags, just do a Google search and if you’re on Ravelry there are some free patterns there as well.

I have more great news to share but I will save that for another post, I’ll only post it once and you won’t want to miss it so keep checking back. Hint: it has to do with … oh, I can’t say that it will give it away, hmmm. You’ll just have to wait, hee hee hee

Laminaria in The Frog Pond

2008-04-30T15:38:00.003-04:00

The center of this picture shows a little mistake in the Laminaria Shawl. There are three single stitches smack dab in the middle of 3-1 combinations. This means all the rest of the stitches to the left of the boo boo are in the wrong places. Frogging is a must, Boo Hoo :( My lifeline is 4 rows back.
What I learned? To move my lifeline more often :)

Hemp Market Bag Finished

2008-04-27T13:55:00.003-04:00

Here is the completed Bag. I only put one single strap on it instead of the two the pattern called for mostly because I just wanted it done but I really think I like it better with only one strap.

As you can see, this bag hold holds a lot of loot!

This is a picture of the strap before I put it on the bag.

Here is the bag before the strap was put on. It didn't look tall enough to me when I finished the top of the bag but this thing really stretches out when you put stuff in it.

Overall, I like the bag and will probably make another one sometime in the future, but not with the hemp yarn. This project would have been less troublesome with a better yarn that didn't have knots throughout and might have been down right enjoyable.

Change Is Good

2008-04-21T10:53:00.007-04:00

The photo above is the re-do of the Laminaria shawl project. It's a bad picture I know but if you can see it, the left and right sides are now symmetrical and I am very happy with the results of the changes I made in the pattern and the needle size change.

In this second photo you can now see how the pattern shows up nicely when stretched out. I love this project and am enjoying it immensely.

DANIELLE'S HEALING

The photo below is showing how brave my daughter is. That's her on the left with the splint on the right foot, she doesn't like her picture taken so she flung her head around when she noticed my friend's (right), husband with the camera in his hand.

I say brave because she was trying to hop down the hallway on the good foot to the restroom by herself without the splints on her two arms that have not fully healed yet. My friend Kathy on the right ran to her aid. Danielle is healing is nicely and has a wonderful sense of humor about the whole thing.

Thank you all for your thoughts and prayers for her during this trying time.

Laminaria Progress

2008-04-17T10:24:00.003-04:00

The photo posted here is of the progress on Laminaria shawl I previously blogged about and it will be frogged because I don’t like the fact that the left and right sides don’t match. If you look closely you can that the stitches on the right side of the spine are horizontal while the stitched on the left side are vertical. The pattern calls for a 3 into 3 stitch which is [k3tog, yo, k the same 3tog] all the way across. But as you can see the effect is different on either side of the spine. So instead of the 3 into 3 stitch as the pattern states on the set-up and star charts, I will try the sssk on the left side of the spine only and that should make the left side a mirror image of the right. I will also be going up one needle size to a 6 instead of the 5 the pattern calls for because I chose a colorful yarn I think the lace pattern will show up better if it’s a little larger. Hopefully it won’t make it too large.

New Project

2008-04-08T10:51:00.003-04:00

I have started a new Estonian lace shawl project entitled Laminaria that I am very excited about and the pattern is free at this link if anyone else would like to try it. http://www.knitty.com/ISSUEspring08/PATTlaminaria.html

I purchased the yarn for this project from One Planet Yarn and Fiber and I am very pleased with their service, very fast shipping. To check them out you will find their link on the upper right side of my blog. Back to the yummy yarn! This stuff is a little bit of heaven after working with that hemp crap (more on that later). Anyway, here it is…

It is a 50/50 blend of Suri Alpaca & Blue Face Leicester (BFL) and the color is called Mermaid, the yarn is by Fleece Artist out of Mineville, Nova Scotia and is from the hand dyed Suri Blue line. My photo of this yarn doesn’t really do it justice but they have a much better picture of it on their website, just click on Suri Blue to see the whole line of colors. The colors remind me of all the colors of nature I experienced by the ocean while living in Maine so I think it is very well named with colors of forest and moss green and fall leaf brown to the hues of blues and violets of wild flowers growing on the hillsides in spring and a hint of yellow reflecting off the beautiful crisp clean waters. Oh boy, I’m getting carried away here aren’t I, well it ok to get lost sometimes right? It helps break up the madness in this world. I will have pictures soon of my progress on this new project.

Back to the hemp market bag project, I am now working on the handles and this nightmare is just about over. I am happy with the final outcome despite all the problems I had with this yarn but I will not be using this yarn ever again that’s for certain. I may use the pattern again now that I have worked out all the bugs.

Till next time… happy knitting!

The Reason For My Abscence

2008-03-26T12:45:00.001-04:00

The above photo is what is left of my daughter’s car after she struck a tree at 45 miles an hour. I thank God everyday that she is still with me and did not perish in this accident. She spent 2 weeks in the hospital with me by her side the whole time. She had to undergo several surgeries and is now home. A lot of people were praying for her through this whole ordeal and we have felt the prayers and they worked. Even though she is presently bound to a wheel chair and cannot take care of herself and requiring full time care by me, the doctors believe that she will make a full recovery and after a lot of physical therapy will one day be able to walk again and resume an active lifestyle.

Thankfully she is not in a lot of pain and is in good spirits.

Thanks to all who have prayed for her and please continue to pray for healing and a full recovery.

Problem Child

2008-03-10T20:02:00.005-04:00

I have decided on and started my next short term project while still working on the Afghan. The project I chose is a market bag. I purchased this kit while on a trip to Tennessee last year to meet a very special on-line knitting friend. The pattern is from Lanaknits Designs and the kit came with the pattern, 2 skeins of Hemp for Knitting hemp yarn and a cute little project tote to hold it all in for knitting on the go. I have always wanted to knit a market bag and I’ve never worked with hemp before so I thought I would give it try. However now, I wish I hadn’t.

My trouble with this project began when I had to wind the skein into a ball. Normally this process is not a problem but this time it was as the skein kept getting tangled as I was winding it. I had to enlist the help of two of my sons; one held the skein and the other tried unsuccessfully to keep the skein from tangling while I wound the ball. The whole process that should have taken only a few minutes took nearly 30 to complete.

The next sign of trouble appeared while I was casting on the called for 100 stitches. KNOTS! And I’m not talking small knots (see picture below). I took out the CO and cut off the first few knots and CO again. I got about an inch up the bag and more knots began to appear. I did manage to put them on the inside of the bag so they won’t be noticed and kept knitting. By the time I reached 7” on the bag I had a total of 8 knots knit into the bag.

I also had problems with the pattern for the first few inches of the lace part of the pattern till I figured out what the problem was, I didn’t rip it out and do over I just kept going after correcting it. I figured it is just a market bag and no one will really notice anyway right? Anyway the problem was in this section of the pattern (K2tog, yo, rep to last 3 sts; sl1, k2tog, ppso). Well every time I knit the next round I was always coming out one stitch short of finishing the pattern for the next row. So I figured I was in need of a yo before the (sl1). Once I added this, the pattern worked out fine. I wasn’t taking the yo from before (;) and placing it in the instruction after the (;), my mistake I guess.

The second problem with the pattern is the last 3 stitches on the other row of the pattern that sais (yo, p1, yo). This is creating a line of stitches that pops out on the outside of the work and the way the rest of the lace pattern is working up is all flat, so I don’t like that very much.

The pattern also claims that one skein makes one bag so I thought I was going to be able to make two bags from the two skeins that came with the kit but nope! The pattern sais to knit 11” of the lace pattern before starting the top and straps, well….. I am currently only 10” up the lace pattern and just ran out of skein #1. I didn’t cut that much when I removed the knots.

Who knows what other surprises await me on this project I now call my problem child. I think is certain, I will not be making another market bag using this pattern or yarn. I don’t know how many of you have ever worked with hemp but I can tell you that this stuff is hard on the hands. After working a few rows with this stuff and then going to the Afghan project where I’m using an acrylic yarn, it make the acrylic feel like Alpaca!

February Heart Dishcloth

2008-02-18T19:00:00.008-05:00

I have one project finished this year whoo hoo! That is amazing considering I only have about 10 minutes a day to spend knitting with all this school work I have. Which by the way I have decided I'm done after this term. It has become to much of a strain on my family and they are more important to me than a peice of paper that sais I know how to take tests. Besides that my yarn stash has started groaning too and I just can't take anymore complaints. So anyway,jumping back off the rabbit trail and back on to this post.

Here is the picture of my finished February dishcloth.

I got the free pattern on Kris's blog

To continue with the last post, the first picture of the afghan progess, according to the pattern, is the right side. However, I see it as reversible which is a good thing for an afghan because no matter which way you lay it, it will alway look good. Now I just have to hope the other panels are reversible as well but I will have to wait till I get to those to figure that out.

I am going to try to keep smaller, faster projects on the needles too so I feel like I'm getting somewhere on my stash recuction efforts. This dishcloth nearly used up all the hot pink I had left so that is one ball of yarn down. I think there is enough left in that pink to make some cat nip toys. Not sure yet if that will be my next project started or not, the jury is still out on that one so you'll have to wait till next post because right now I have to get back to the books. boohoo

Afghan Progress

2008-02-05T16:59:00.000-05:00

Here is the progress on the afghan I’m working on. This panel will be about 60” long when it is finished and I am presently at about 30”, so I am ½ way through this first of 6 panels. I have listed two photos, one of the front and one of the back. There are some in my house that believe the back should be the front and the front should be the back and we are split down the middle 3/3 so I thought I would ask you what you think. I am not going tell you which is the front or the back, I just want you to tell me which view you like the best, view one (upper right) or view two (lower left). After I have a few replies I’ll let you know what the pattern says is the front and back.

Something Done Something New

2008-01-07T10:34:00.000-05:00

School starts back up for me this coming Monday but I have had a very productive 2 weeks off. I finished the Hallowig knitting project I was working on,

I started a new Afghan project as part of my de-stashing efforts

put together a kitchen window treatment I purchased fabric for about 6 months ago,

and tried to finish that Irish Chain quilt I posted about a few months back but decided it would go in the UFO pile due to some difficulties I just couldn’t stress over, I may never finish that one and that’s a shame too because it was really nice and the supplies were expensive. I think my talents remain with knitting and spinning.

I have also been working on my Ravelry site; I’m “littlehouse” over there. I’ve actually been there since last June but didn’t have the time to really do anything with it till now. So I have done a needle and fiber inventory so far, even though I have way more needles than are on their little chart, and I’m not quite finished with the yarn inventory yet. It turns out I have more than I thought I did, surprised? I will be posting a lot more pictures of finished projects, yarn stash, and books as soon as they allow direct upload or Picasa as an option. Anyway I’m being selective as to which photos I post because of the limited photo options. Even though I have spent a LARGE amount of time over there, Ravelry has been good for me because I am getting all my yarn and projects organized, and a de-stashing plan is beginning to take shape.

Introductions

2008-01-05T16:44:00.000-05:00

This is my first all fiber crafts blog here on Blogger. I have been blogging on yahoo 360 but since they decided not to develop that any further I decided it was time to move on. So here I am. My love for the fiber arts started when I was very young and have now been quilting, knitting and other crafts for the last 31 years or so adding new skills and crafts along the way. I wasn’t blessed to have a grandmother or mother who taught me these skills, I taught myself using books, with the exception of Fair Isle knitting, I did take a class to learn that and spinning I learned from some friends. There are still some fiber crafts I have yet to try so this blog is where I’ll be sharing my fibery adventures. I hope you find it interesting, maybe funny at times and perhaps a bit educational too. Thanks for reading, now I’m off to another fiber adventure! TTNF