A Most Pleasant Weekend

A soft breeze gently herded fluffy clouds easing the brilliance of the blue sky and heat of the sun. Over an hour was spent on my knees early Saturday morning, pulling small weeds from around the vegetable plants. Ed’s been keeping the space between the rows nicely hoed making my task easy.

Taking a hiatus from wholesale orders this summer has relieved Ed of the relentless pressure of working long hours pushing day after day. These days he heads out to the shop around 7:30 to work until around 3:30 then works awhile in the yard and garden. It’s been great to tackle some projects that’ve been on the back burner like conquering the blackberry brambles that were threatening to overtake our home, dig out the space between the grassy bank and his shop, shoveling out the dirt, weeds and brambles accumulating for 24 years since we had the shop built.

After giving the plants a good long drink I headed inside to spend the next couple hours weighing, writing on and recording the spindles that Ed had made last week. Normally this is a daily morning task but last week wasn’t normal.

Finally it was play time for me: weaving and knitting.

The rug is actually a bit more blue than grey. The thing I love about weaving rugs is the speed they’re finished once the warp is on. I started weaving Saturday afternoon. Washed and dried it yesterday, now it’s wrapped in tissue traveling the mail system in a box to be a birthday gift. But for a movie Ed decided to watch this evening, the second rug would be done too. It lacks only 4 inches and the tying of the fringe.

The lovely weather pulled me back outside for another hour late Saturday afternoon where I finished one sock before before fixing supper. Sunday, after services and tying the fringe on the first rug then tossing it in the washing machine, I headed back out to sit under the Montmorency cherry tree and enjoy the afternoon whilst finishing the second sock. The cherries have about another week to ripen before picking and putting in the food dryer. We had such a cool wet Spring that everything is still a couple weeks behind normal schedule.

Bird chirps and chatter and the darting of swooping birds caught my attention. Babies! Three nests full with three sets of parents darting to and fro, the pairs taking turns keeping watch or feeding very hungry little babies.

Action at the Swallow house

Why yes, the socks were completed!
Pattern: Everyone outta the Pool by Artsgal
Yarn: Abstract Fiber Mighty Sock 50/50 Merino/Tencel Sweet Pea Colorway. 382 yds per 100g skein I used 53 grams for the  pair. (I wanted this pair short & summery) Still plenty of yarn to make a small pair for a small grandchild.
Started May 29  Finished July 10
The toe up pattern uses a double-knit cuff which was a new method for me. I like the looks and it’s comfortable although the grafting together is twice as many stitches.  I’ve wanted to tackle a 2-in-1 sock where both socks are knit simultaneously one inside the other for the length of the leg separating them before turning the heel. Doing this cuff has helped me to conceptualize the process.T

This was only the second time that I’ve knit a wrap and turn heel. My technique needs improvement for it’s not the neatest job but with practice and better understanding it will come.
Overall I’m pleased with them.

 

09.09.09

Supper dishes were washed, the floor swept, and a few spindles were weighed and written on to get a head start on a busy day tomorrow. The chair with knitting projects to one side and laptop on the other beckoned as the perfect place to spend a quiet evening. There was one must-write email to discharge and then! the luxury of finally slipping into blog posting mode.

Of course the phone rang. It had to do with the pending email. Plans went into a tailspin and right out the window as much of the evening was chewed away by working out elusive details until the point was reached where I can do no more until I hear back from a key person. And now here it is, past my bedtime.

It’s been one of those days from the very beginning.
a cluster headache lurked,
a long list of must-dos, but a body/mind out of sync
a message that didn’t set right and I don’t know how to respond.
Or even if I should.

It’s good to sit here sipping tea, looking through pictures to post since I’m too lazy/tired to upload the more recent ones.

Two projects are on the needles these days. One should have been finished by the 4th, mornings and evenings have been rather consumed in the making of them. I’m well down the foot now but with #1 / 2.25 mm needles it’s slow going.  This picture was taken the end of August.

The other is a sweater for Ed, started just before his birthday. I can hardly wait until it’s done, it’ll be so cozy for him to wear in the house.  It too is a bit further along than in the picture. Knitting with #8/5 mm is a good change of pace for my hands.

We had a wonderful time watching the grandkids a few days while our son and wife moved their household to start his new job in Idaho. Such a precious time knowing they’d be moving too far away to watch them growing as we have for these first year(s) of their lives.

Here’s a few pictures from one day’s excursion to the creek.

The days are full of filling orders; finishing, writing on and packing all the individual items that Ed is continually turning out one at a time. We took a break from regular duties on Monday to can green beans with our daughter. We all enjoyed the change of pace, and especially watching the row of filled jars growing. The green beans in the garden have finally rippened and are growing at an alarming rate. I need to do another canner full tomorrow. With the rain we had last weekend it won’t be long before the yard will need mowing. Soon that’ll be a regular, almost weekly chore.

Friday morning my friend Grace and I plan to take her canoe out on the nearby resevoir. I’m so looking forward to being out on the water in the early morning calm.

 

Socks, a scarf, and some spinning

Two finished projects!

Finally the Brigid Socks where kitchenered, finished and given to the recipient. They had been tossed in both the washer, cold water, and in the dryer before modeling for the picture.

Pattern: Brigid
Yarn: Ball and Skein sock yarn, Mountain Spring Colorway. Handdyed, 80% Merino, 20% Nylon 4 ply – 400 yds.This was great sock yarn with nary a knot and plenty of yarn left over. A person adept with cabling could easily add a couple more pattern repeats without fear of running out of yarn. This was my first attempt at cabling and proved a good pattern to get my toes wet.

During last week’s morning business sessions a scarf was born. It came off the needles this afternoon.

This scarf was knit straight from silk hankies using US10/6mm Jenkins needles. A woman had demo’d this technique at the spinning conference in June.

It was the perfect project for business sessions where I needed to pay attention yet wanted to accomplish some knitting. Each hankie is carefully peeled away from the stack then pulled into a long thin roving and knit. The trickiest part was pulling each hankie to a consistent thickness. Then again, that’s part of the scarf’s charm. When the packet of silk hankies was gone, the scarf was done.

I also did some color spinning on my Turkish spindle last week.

80%Merino, 20%Mohair a combination for long lasting socks. The spindle currently have two split lengths of a yard. I’ll spin one more onto the spindle with the same color sequence, then try to spin three matching splits on another spindle and ply them together with the goal of the colors matching. This is harder for me than I’d first thought it’d be. Some sections get drafted just a bit thinner than others and over the long haul the colors don’t neatly match up.

Plying the corriedale/camel should be finished by tomorrow evening. I’m in a bit of a quandary: the bobbin is almost stuffed and I don’t think that all the singles will fit, yet the singles are getting to the surface of their individual bobbins. I’ve never spun this much yardage in one batch and I’m very reluctant to break the singles and start another bobbin. Any advice is welcome. I’m grateful to Freestyle Jo (you must take a look at the cute booties she’s made!) for letting me know that spinning around 8oz would most likely take me over 10 hours. It helped to know that I could expect to spin for that many hours and that I wasn’t plying excruciatingly slow.

 

More Videos, More WIPS

I’ve posted two more videos: One of Ed making a Turkish Spindle shaft. It’s a silent film. For some reason the sound didn’t record and I still haven’t figured out how to add sound while editing. The second shows the setup of a hairpin loom and the start of making a strip.

Works in Progress?
How about some socks?

Sock Pattern: Brigid

Yarn: Ball and Skein Sock Yarn: Mountain Spring
75% merino / 25% nylon
450 yd. skein … 4 ply
Needles: DPN Brittany US3

The second sock leg part is almost done, the cables seem to make the rounds go by quickly. This is a wonderful introduction to knitting cables.

Want a quick gift idea? Hairpin lace bracelets. Fast and fun.

The first one was for an exchange. To personalize it even more I used some of my handspun silk. The clasp part still needs some refining, at this point I’m just crocheting a knotty ball.

Next I made one for myself with linen thread.

I could get addicted.

Linen warp was put on the loom last Thursday. We had Faith on Friday and she spent the night with us not much was accomplished those days but I’m hoping to make decent headway on the my first block rug. I’ve been trying to wrap my brain around new concepts for tying up and block weaving.

Faith’s little brother was due to make his appearance last Tuesday, May 20th. He’s taking his merry time. I’ve been taking the phone to our bedroom at night, just in case. Faith will be staying with us while Mandy’s at the hospital. Any bets on when he’ll make his appearance?

 

Minding my P’s & Q’s

I was moving steadily forward in an orderly fashion, minding my p’s and q’s. I can’t dwaddle right now for there’s a deadline to meet in two weeks.

You know how it is when an acquaintance pops up who demands your time. KT one of those friends with whom I don’t mind spending small bits of time. When she’s around my path is sure to diverge a bit and wander in new tracks. The problem is that she’s almost always accompanied by her shadow, S, whom I’d prefer to keep as a brief nodding acquaintance. When first saw KT yesterday I waved in happy recognition. But I was quickly stopped in my tracks when I realized her friend was following close on KT’s heel, demanding attention from me.

While KT is straightforward, simple and quick, I get slightly frustrated with S’s awkward ways and at times downright orneriness, to say nothing of her slippery nature. I try to be calm and patient with S for I know that KT needs her for balance. I just wish that I could learn how to get S to move quicker, at the least somewhat gracefully, and not to be such a bother when I encounter her.

I’m thankful they only come around every other row or so and then I reach the place where I gladly bid these nodding acquaintances, K2T and SSK, adieu for three blissful rounds.

P for purl, Q for queue… You know, as in a line. Neat orderly lines formed by Knit stitches.
Don’t you think that’s really where that expression came from? Someone diligently tending to her stockings.

Who wants to say Ps & Ks when Q says it so much better. :-0

 

Numbers crunch

Ta Da! Finished, just in the nick of time.

Yarn: Fearless Fibers 100% Superwash Merino Wool Sock Yarn
One 4-ounce skein, 550 yards Colorway: Midnight Passion

Pattern:  Knitspot’s Smokin Socks This was a fun pattern to do. I loved the repeating sections. Aurora doesn’t like slouchy socks so I usually make the smallest size in a pattern but next time I’d go up one size since the socks are stretched a bit too much to show the pattern to its fullest.

Needles: #1/2.25mm 16″L Jenkins Circs for one sock, #1/2.25mm Brittany DPN for the other sock.
This was a test to see which I liked better for socks. Frankly I still don’t know. They both have their merits. I’ve mostly used dpn so initially I was much quicker with them but once I got the hang of two circs on one sock the speed really picked up. I suspect if I used circs on socks they’d soon be my favorites. But still, there’s something about seeing four needles danging from something so small – it makes sock knitting look so impressive to the unknowing.

Time frame: Began mid July, finished Sept 3rd.
One round = 60 stitches; 6 rounds = 16-18 minutes; Approximate total stitches (didn’t count the heel or toe rows) 18,000.  I started keeping track of stitches and time as the hours ticked away and there was suddenly only a few days to get them done. With a ton of other items to take care of I needed to know how many hours was needed to set aside for the task.

Ten p.m. Monday night the last strand was woven into place. The socks were handwashed and hung to dry the next morning. At 2pm they still weren’t dry so I tossed them in the dryer with a towel. 20 minutes, still not dry. They hung to dry some more until the clock ticked past 4 and still not totally dry so back into the dryer for another 20 minutes. Hmm, barely damp – it’ll do. Wrap them in green paper and tucked them in a shoe box to await the opening of presents. These were so cushy soft once they’d been washed and dried – I wanted to wear them! Fearless Fibers is definitely nice wool! I’m thrilled that there is plenty enough for a scarf. I don’t wear scarves much but this yarn would feel great draped around my neck.

(This was the first time I’d done a short row heel, and yes, there’s a small gap.)

Aurora’s birthday was Tuesday. She loves wearing hand knit socks especially ones made with love. We feel blessed to have her nearby and to celebrate her birthday with her.

She requested cherry pie, the cherries were from our tree and put into jars. Faith loved it too.
     

What else happened Monday? I signed 114 crochet hooks and 36 small circular needles. (Do you know how hard it is to write on a #1 2.25mm needle?) These are for a couple different orders – one huge order (100 items!) is just about packed and ready to ship to a store in the UK tomorrow. What a relief to Ed to have all those items marked off his long list!

Poor guy worked straight through his birthday which was on Saturday the 25th. He got an apple pie (the last of our Gravensteins) to soothe his spirits.

 

Slow smokin’ socks

Finally! The header reflects this fiber related web blog. It’s not quite what I was aiming for, but for now it’s acceptable. The yarn pictured is merino/tencil, from Chameleon Colorworks, handspun on a Turkish spindle during March.

How long does it take you to knit a row of 60 stitches? Does it make any difference if the needles you’re using are #1 (2.25mm) or #5 (3.75mm)? I’ve been frantically knitting a pair of socks for a deadline. Stitches do not fly off my needles. No, they languish on the tips compelled only by my fingers to move along. Except when trying to do a p2t, then they slide off before the needles are engaged.

1080 stitches an hour on #1 needles is what I’ve been able to knit when concentrating. That takes care of one full repeat on the Knitspot Smokin Socks. I’m doing a total of eight repeats – for each sock – without including the heel and toe areas, add an extra hour or two for those. You’d think these socks would have been finished in July. Ha! They are a bit further along than this:

The toe of the first one is nowseamed and another 12 rows have been finished on the remaining sock. They were worked almost simultaneously until the heel. One pair was worked on two 16″ circs, which I really started liking except the stitches don’t show up well on the rosewood needles in the evening, my primary knitting time. The other was worked on Brittany dpn, the old tried and true. The soft, beautifully colored yarn is from Fearless Fiber, I’ve been enjoying working with it and look forward to making something with the yellow Citrus yarn I got at the same time.

There’s been a lot happening around here which I’d like to put into future postings. The garden is calling for my attention at the moment.

 

Smokin’ Fearless Fiber!

It’s been a crazy past couple days. I will stew and ruminate over a decision until impulsively I bit off a bigger chunk than I can chew. Then I’m left gasping for breath.

In a rash flurry of the “it must be done NOW” mode I became cohorts with Rhonna , (she’s a whiz at this stuff!) in moving TheWeekendWhirls over to our new community, Weekend_whirls at Live Journal. If you’re into spinning please check it out. We’re still working out the bugs but it’s alive.

And now to Deb’s fabulous Fearless Fibers! Check out both her fibershop on etsy, and her blog.

I’ve been itching to use some of her fiber for several months, especially after seeing so many beautiful items designed by Anne of Knitspot. I have long been admiring Anne’s design savvy. If you’ve never read her blog please don’t wait any longer. She has a gift with words and pictures to go along with her math abilities.

Oh yes, socks. I’m not quite sure which came first; the socks, or the yarn. Socks for Aurora. No, yarn for Baby Faith. Hmmm. I think it’s Faith’s fault, but wait, no! it’s all Anne’s fault. You see, last fall I saw her pattern of a lacy dress for a little girl. Ever since I’ve wanted to make it but I don’t do lace. I have to if I want to make this dress. Fortunately the dress is for at least a toddler, Faith is only now crawling. I’ve got time. Umm, not really, not as slow as the stitches come off my needles.

No matter that Faith was a tiny babe in arms, I downloaded Anne’s sweet pattern. I’ve gazed at it, read over the directions, carried it around with me as I’ve fondled yarn but never found quite the yarn that clicked. Until browsing over at Fearless Fiber Etsy, when Citrus, a yellow yarn screamed, “Buy me!” I had no choice.

I don’t wear yellow. Don’t get me wrong. I love seeing yellow on people with deep tans, blond hair; rich brown skin, black hair. I have neither. Yellow makes me look sick, seriously, dog-sick. But suddenly I realized it was meant for Faith’s dress. But Aurora needs socks for her upcoming birthday. The next page over I. see. The Yarn – Midnight Passion! Less than a week later a box was waiting at the PO. Plump-full-of-goodness yarn inside.

Since I’m such a slow knitter I decided I’d best get cracking on Aurora’s socks. I was able to get my hands on Anne’s Smokin Socks pattern. Aren’t they a fun knit! I’m loving the rhythm and patterning of the sixes.

I’m using two sets of #1 needles to knit these socks, sort of an experiment. I like dpns for socks. Brittany 5″ bamboo feels right in my hands and I don’t mind switching needles but after hearing so many people raving the merits of knitting socks on circulars I decided it was time to try again. Ed made me two #1/3.25mm 16″ circulars for this project. I should have asked for 24″ length – the 16″ length almost gets in my way but once I figured out how to ignore the resting pair it’s very workable. I still favor dpns, except for their tips – I much prefer using the sharp tips Ed puts on his needles – but it’s not too bad knitting socks on two circs.

I’m really enjoying knitting with Deb’s Fearless Fiber yarn, it’s very soft yet sturdy, she’s great to work with!

As a self-taught knitter I don’t have a great deal of experience reading patterns so it’s nice to have Anne’s pattern which I don’t have to puzzle over before understanding what I’m supposed to do next. I can hardly wait to have the lace skills to tackle her Morning Glory Pattern or her latest, the skimmering, shimmery Bee.