Another Finished Project

 Project number 5 for the year.  A gradient spin with 5 different yarns from the same 8 ounces of roving.  This roving was thinner then pencil roving. Yes, it is possible.  It was a tricky spin until I got my rhythm down.  The biggest skein was a two ply of the yarn.  The 4 smaller skeins were plyed with commercially produced yarn. This will be off to a new home as soon as it is packed up. 

Number One Finished

 My first finished UFO.  Now I only need to complete 9 more before I can start another project. I did find that my drop spindle from Ankerworks broke on the top of the whorl, but the 3D Turkish spindle that John made for held up.  The stitch marker has been put in the the small vase.  

This is a mini skein of wool yarn.  I spun the wool on the Turkish spindle starting with the pink then adding the green. I plyed them together.  It will be washed thwacked,then put in a box for coasters or embellishments.  

More weaving

 The second color stripe was finished tonight.  The play on textures and colors are just fascinating to me.  As you can see from the picture the next shuttle is loaded and ready to go.  This will be one of the bigger stripes.

 I am really having fun with this one.  I just love how the yarn is creating optical illusions on its own.  It is very visible in the green section. 

A Side Effect of Looking for Craft Supplies

 I found another UFO today. This one was a coaster project. One of the two coasters was halfway done. I finished the one that was halfway done and started the second coaster aka mud rug. I am using hand spun yarn made on one of my drop spindles. Finding the UFO was unintentional, what I was really looking for was a Navajo weaving needle that was between eight and 10 inches long. Obviously I did not find the weaving needle. I don’t think I have one.

Since I will not be going to any more yarn festivals this year I hope to source one or 2 Navajo weaving needles on line. Wish me luck.  If you know a source, please let me know  

I have found that weaving during the day makes knitting easier at night. Did you know that weaving uses more yarn than knitting. To my family that must be a plus. Another plus is that if you would like a unique one of a kind gift for the holidays I will be selling the pair as I have all the coasters I need in the house. They are made from wool which will help absorb moisture. The pair will sell for $25.00 which includes postage in the United States. After I finish weaving the second one, I will wash them in hot soapy water to set the weaving. Then they will be trimmed. And ready to go. Email me if you would like them.  Then I will mark them pending until payment is received. 

A Slow Day

 Slow best describes my day. I did manage to get most everything done. The hardest part was locating flu shots. Normally this is not a problem, but 2020 has made flu shots scarce.  So call before you go.  I had to make a lot of calls and wait on hold at least 5 minutes per call.  So go get your flu shot sooner than later.  

I did have one big surprise today. I had ordered a kit to make kitchen towels for Teri on the loom.  I opened the kit today and to my surprise half of the yarn was wool. John’s only comment was who would design a kitchen towel using wool? The water would not absorb. So I went stash diving in hopes of finding enough yarn with cotton and or linen content.  I really hope that Teri likes the colors.  Lesson learned is just go pick the fiber myself, the heck with kits unless they come from Mary Gavin.  

Wow Just Wow

I was never fond of this Lion Brand Wool Ombré, it never knit up as well as I liked. I decided to try weaving it into a scarf. All I can say is wow. I think this is just meant for weaving scarfs. It’s just perfect. Not muddy like in hand knit hats and scarfs. Just clear, clean and crisp. Well you know where the rest of this ombré yarn in my stash is going.

Knitting Withdrawal

The stitches are out as of yesterday. I slept last night until freshing time, when I woke up John to change Eric. No freshing duty until the wounds heal. Knitting is a no go until mid March. So spinning it is.

Today I started a spinning some merino blended with silk on one of my Forrester drop spindles. The color ranged from dark green to yellow. It spun like a dream. The color looks awesome. I will finsh spinning it and ply it tomorrow. Then it will sit in the fiber sink until my hand heals enough to finish processing the yarn.

In The Blender

Eric had a rough night last night and I don't even remember what time that I got him settled down for the night.  All I know is that 6 am came much too quickly. Eric's bad night lasted for most of the day. So,Eric skipped his day program and helped me sort the double pointed knitting needles by size. I now can say that I know where most of my double pointed knitting needles are. I think that I can lose quite a few before I have to run out and buy replacements. Of course there is still the odd one floating around the house and a set with each hat knitting bag. I keep one bag for knitting animal fiber hats and one bag for plant based fiber hats. The are no bags for petroleum based fiber hats, as I feel that no one should be forced to wear clothing made from a non-renewable resource.

I think that I will be putting all my knitting accessories in one spot too. I have not decided what I will put all the accessories in yet. That and single pointed straight knitting needles will be done on Friday. I find it kinda of odd that after over 30 years of marriage that I am finally starting to understand my engineer's mind for organization and that sometimes less is more.

I usually do not run the washer and dryer after 100f, but I got a late start at  laundry today. Even though I was finished with the laundry by 10:30 am it was over 100f already. It did feel on the cooler side today at lunch time it felt a bit chilly at 105f with a light breeze after last weeks 115f and 116f days.

I also found time to start knitting a new wool hat tonight and am halfway through with it. I think that is is time to go do some reading.

Day 13

Today is day 13 of Eric being home sick.  The good news is that he is starting to feel better.  John still needs to kick this cold. So I spent the day spinning. I managed to spin 8 ounces of wool today.  I am in the middle of plying the yarn now.  

With all that spinning I am surprised that I did not kick the headache that woke me up at 4 am. Usually I find spinning very relaxing. I hope that this headache is gone by tomorrow.  I think it might be do to both guys being sick and me not getting enough sleep. I need to get everything back in control in the house.  

Catching Up

Spring cleaning is well under way. There might be hope that the house will be ready for Passover.  It is nice sharing the work with John. We work well together.  I also took time to organized fluff. Instead of being scattered around the house it is all in Teri's closet or the garage. My stash is getting realitivty smaller. At least it is not growing.  

I also got caught up on some sleep. Which helps with the arthritis pain.  Last night it got so bad that I got up to clean house on the theory that moving would help loosen things up.  After an hour it was aspirin time.  So I took a 3 hour nap today which helped a lot.  

I also figured out why 2 rows of the shawl is enough for one night. At 398 stitches per row will do that.  It was also easier to work the lace pattern tonight with a stitch marker every 14 stitches.  So as it stands now 4 rows of lace are done and only 16 more rows of lace to go.  I should have it done in a week or so.  Then I will block it.

Tomorrow I conquer the craft room.  Teri's never ending blanket will go on the table that has the beads on it. I will also need to find a pattern for my next sewing project.  So the sewing table will need to be done too. 

I have a busy day tomorrow so I am calling it a night. 

A Day in Pictures

A Fantastic Day

After a very slow start to my day, yes I am sure it had nothing to do with being up with Eric until 2ish this morning. Or getting 3 out of the 5 loads of laundry for the day done before 2 am.  I did manage to sleep in until 6:30. I did leave the folding until 7:30 this morning, after breakfast.  I did take a nap too. That must have been my catalyst for the day.

After my nap I got the computer desk picked up a little. Straightened the kitchen counter of all the odd junk mail, did the shredding, and took out 3 loads of trash. Carded a 3 ounce combination of 75% wool and 25% silk, this is when I found out that my carder can only do a 2 ounce batt. So 1 ounce for me and 2 ounces for a swap. The strawberry's got planted and the flowers got trimmed and re potted in to a bigger pot. I started looking at stitch patterns and after dinner worked on incorporating it into a wash cloth pattern. I am a third of the way through the pattern and I like it very much. As usual I am knitting it while I am doing the design. It will debut at the May OPK luncheon and after that for non-OPK members it will be available on my Raverly Designer page. All I can say is that I am having fun with this one.

I did manage to get some knitting for the World Wide Knit in Public Day done at dinner. This was my first venture out of the house for today.

After dinner we did a quick stop at the drug store, yes I know a great date right? This is where my ganga* of the day came in. I got 2 bottles of vitamins at buy one get one free and a small spray bottle for the strawberry plant. The original cost would have been about $29.00 for the 3 items. After the deals and gift card we paid a  total of .51 cents for the whole shopping trip. Now that is what I call a great shopping trip.

Well it is summer so if I get to bed soon I will have another fantastic day tomorrow.

*Ganga is Tucson speak for a really great deal.

Getting Ready

I have been busy getting ready for the Tucson Wool Festival at the Withers Ranch this Saturday. Just in case you need more information. the location is The Withers’ Ranch 4010 W Palo Seco. It is from 9 am to 3 pm. with farm tours at 9 am and noon. Even if you are not a fibre person this is a great learning experience for the family. There will be all kinds of fibre demonstrations. and a lot of one of a kind items for sale. There is no cost to come to the Tucson Wool Festival. There will be a charity raffle and various vendors.


 I have been making stitch markers like mad. I hope to have at least 1 more gallon zip lock bag filled with finished products by late Friday. I have also been knitting a few items to show case using wonderful hand spun wools and mohair. The great thing about buying a handmade item from hand spun yarn is that you can sometimes track the wool or mohair back to the ranch were the yarn is produced. In this case I will have a number of items ready that are totally local. Kathy Withers raised the animals, had them sheared, processed the fiber, dyed the fiber and spun the yarn. How lucky am I to be able to say that I actually got some of this fabulous yarn to knit with.

In case you can not make it to the Tucson Wool Festival I will include a link to Kathy's Etsy shop http://www.etsy.com/shop/uniquedesignsbykathy

Well I have to get back to the stitch markers. Have a great evening and enjoy your families.

The Friday Pattern -Wash Cloths and Beyond

This was the most wanted pattern by new knitters on Friday.

The pattern is for a wash cloth for new knitters this is a perfect pattern to leap off from. Use the needle size recommended by your yarn of choice. I like Lilly "Sugar and Cream" or Lion Brand cotton for dish cloths, but feel free to use any cotton you like.

Cast on 2

Row 1 knit one (K1), yarn over (YO), knit one (k1)

Row 2 knit one (K1), yarn over (YO), knit (K) till the end of the row.

Repeat row 2 till your wash cloth measures 10 inches up the diagonal side.

Row 3 knit 1 (k1), knit 2 together (k2tog), knit (K) till the end of the row.

When you have 2 stitches left on the needle bind off (BO).

Weave in the ends.


The abbreviations in the brackets are like the ones you would see in a typical knitting pattern. The pattern would look like this in in a typical book.

CO2

Row 1 K1, yo, K1

Row 2 K1, yo, K till the end of the row

Repeat row 2 till the diagonal measure is 10"

Row 3 K1, k2tog, k till the end of the row.

repeat row 3 till you have 2 stitches left on the needle.

BO and weave in ends

The thing I like about this basic pattern is that it can be grown into different projects by just adding a little more knitting. I like to use cable needles when knitting blankets, the weight is distributed more evenly and does not get as heavy as if knit on straight needles.

For a preemie blanket knit till the diagonal is 20-26 inches long. I would use a soft washable yarn with NO metal threads in it. The nurses in the NICU's generally do not like wool because it tends to felt when washed and is not quite suitable for their smaller charges.

For a full term baby blanket knit till the diagonal is 36". Use any yarn you like. If it is meant to be a show only blanket the yarn does not matter, if however, you want a usable blanket make sure that the yarn is machine wash and dry able.

To make different size blankets make 9 (3 blocks by 3 blocks)to 30 (5 blocks across by 6 blocks long) wash cloth size squares and sew them together. This is a good way to use left over yarn. Once the squares are sewn together a a small crochet trim to bring the project together.

If you have any questions please feel free to leave me a comment with your e-mail and I will answer to the best of my ability. Have fun knitting and see where the yarn will take you.

Have a wonderful day.

Felted totes, befrore and after

Two more of my Stash Buster projects are shown below. The challenge is to see how many one of a kind items I can make just using the yarn from my yarn stash. I'll let you know when I have paired my yarn down enough to move more of it back in to the house from storage :)

My friend Candy suggested that maybe I should show the before and after of a felt purse or tote bag. So since I just finished 2 new felted bags on Friday and I finally have time to blog, here goes.

The first step is to knit a bag from 100 % wool, that has not been treated in the super wash process. The bag is knit on larger knitting needles using a worsted weight yarn. This takes between 30 and 35 hours to knit one tote bag, The tote bags are rather funny to see at this stage. I am 5'4" and the purple bag is almost as tall as I am. The orange bag was taller than I was so the picture is taken as it lays on the floor.

Then I put the tote bags in zippered pillow cases and washed them on a long cycle twice using very hot water at the lowest water setting. The section that was about 3 feet long is now barely 11 inches long. This makes a nice sturdy bag for your small projects or for an evening out. I usualy hang the bags outside to dry, because of Tucson's low humidity. However, these bags had to dry in the house because we had a rare rainy day on Friday.

After they're dry, I trim up any odd bits that don't seem to fit the style of the tote bags. Then they are ready to be photographed to list on my Art Fire shop Handmade~by~Sheri.

Please visit http://www.artfire.com/users/Handmade~by~Sheri to purchase these or any of my one of a kind hand knit items. Thank you for supporting the hand made movement.