Wow!

Look!

 Julia made me a cake, I suspect she was 'put up to it' by others who shall remain nameless, but she made me a cake. And not any cake, but a cake inspired by David Hockney's swimming pool art, all white and blue .... with dolls in jelly. Well there was jelly before the cake traveled home with me, a tsunami occurred, upon arrival at home the babies were found tumbled in a mass of blue jelly. Bear as an engineer pointed out that once one side of the pool had been munched - the collapse of the jelly water was inevitable. There is a back story, as would have to be with a cake like this. A few weeks/months ago the local knitters were discussing birthday cakes, and how as children we saw amazing decorated cakes in books .. I mentioned that as a child I had seen one formed like a pool with dolls swimming, and Julia remembered and recreated it. I'm happy to cut and pass slices to any who want any - and I apologize for the mess I made of the cake Julia crafted for me. 

Saturday night was the annual local Thursday night knitters gift swap - and I was gifted this amazing duo, a vintage toned crochet scarf and pencil case. I wish I could show you this in all its glory --- and as soon as Julia (yes the same one as crafted the cake  and so here is a link to her blog and much better photos). The colours in the scarf are all soft and tone with everything in my wardrobe ! The joins are amazing, Julia told me the details are all in the blog she links to on her blog, so I looked and I am further in awe that every sing side of every square was stitched to another that way.  I am one very lucky local knitter.

This was my humble offering for the swap, in amidst amazing illusion war of the words socks, and lace shawls and wraps and cabled tams, I managed a teeny little pencil case. Every year Ngaire organizes the swap, and every year we openly tease each other that all the gifts are actually for Ngaire. That way we can talk about gifts without really taking about who they are for. This year my gift was for Ngaire! Ngaire is amazingly artistic and loves all things grey, and draws like I imagine angels draw. When I saw Tom of Holland's Sanquhar pencil case - I knew I had to make it for my swap partner and fill it with things grey. I found this when I was searching out Sanquhar patterns, and now subscribe to Toms Blog, he has a great approach to visable mending that inspires me.

 The local fabric store had the perfect vintage inspired school print, with checkers that perfectly matched the folds in the pencil case.

And this is a new project, a Knit one Below inspired hat that I will introduce next post - because I want to go and admire cake and my lovely scarf, and amazing pencil case, besides my dad is here for the night so I really need to be a good host instead of tucked away with the computer, the internet and blogging.

na Stella

Some of this, and some of that ....

and I'm really feeling the need for more hours in my days and weeks just to play with all the things that I want to play with. I spent some time knitting and some time dying this week, and even started on a new and tempting hobby activity. 

The knitting is fairly monogamous right now, just the Banjo blanket, and pretty much going round and round and wondering when is a good time to stop and add an edge. Of course that involves making a decision about the edge, either the one from the pattern, or a side-knit band that matches the corner increases. And then there is a decision to make about proportions, I'm thinking twice as much burnt orange and brown is a good proportion for the edge colour.

Thursday little cub had friends around, and I wanted to leave them to their own play as much as possible. I like the idea that they are old enough not to need an adult to direct their play. Doing that mean I wanted to sort something for me to do, nothing so interesting that they would all want to join in, so stamping was out. I just knew any use of stamps with owls and flowers and frogs and colorful inks would result in requests to join in. So I opted for dying, I worked away for most of the day, worked is very much an overstatement as my dying involves leaving the pot for 20-30 minutes between different dyes being added, and not stirring or mucking the fibre about to much. Pretty much walking a short distance away and doing something else like knit. A whole day  and this is the result, four 100g merino top plaits, and two 150g perendale top plaits.

I had been inspired by the fibre dyed by Fibre Optics, the gradient dyed top is stunning, and I love the idea of a yarn that shifts from one colour to another. Her shop was bare, at the time I was there so I played. There was much play and a lot of learning and I found that whatever she is doing -- it was not what I was doing, as I had to return fibre to the pot and add more dye. Almost every batch had undyed patches when first removed from the pot. I suspect that her dye vat is larger than my dye pot, and that there is room for the fibre to be spread out a little more. Perhaps I should try 50g batches? And one day I might perfect more subtle colours ... something with less punch?

Some weeks ago I picked up a Paper recycling kit, and this week the cubas and I made paper. We used printer waste and two sheets of the deep purple tissue that VP yarn comes wrapped in. I was pleasantly surprised, we were successful. One side is smooth and the other has the mesh pattern from the screen, and the pale purple is rather pretty. The tissue didn't dissolve as I thought it would, instead resulting in deep purple feathers,  but did leak a huge amount of dye. All up this took us slighlty less than an afternoon, involved two cubs and I, and  was heaps of fun. So much so I'm looking forward to doing more of this. I've already had to stop myself pricing deckles, and I really had to stop myself pushing the buy now when I found a set that had not only A4 and A5 sized paper but an envelope shaped deckle as well to make matching envelopes with. I don't have enough room for the stuff I have now .. so really shouldn't be adding more on a one afternoon whim. Besides we already have a perfectly good  kit and it works just fine.

Which brings me back to where I began, wanting more hours in my days and more days in my weeks just to play with all this fun stuff.  If any one has answers please share.
Take care ...

na Stella

Thursday not wednesday

Today is Thursday, not Wednesday. In the past I've posted Sunday and Wednesday, twice a week. I'm going to have to change that, not Wednesday because right now that is my only full day of work, to Thursday when I will get to leave work most weeks at noon. So today is Thursday, I'm at home, I've had lunch (yum .. Toby-cub cooked last night with help and there were left overs), and there is light for photos and so I post. There are two finished objects today, one is a little quickie, a instant gratification knit-fix, and a little bit of spinning to report, because, you know the Tour de Fleece continues still. I have made progress on the Rouge Roses socks, I'm past the heel on the second one .. but no photos so I'll save that report for the weekend.



I've finished the baby vest, its pretty soft green and pink in an eyelet pattern. This is a classic Margaret Stove lacy baby vest, and I've knit it before, November of last year, in cobweb lace merino. This time I used 'mystery laceweight' yarn from the sale stock at the back of the Mill, no identification buyer beware. It is still laceweight yarn but thicker, and so the needles were larger and the finished vest larger. Technical specs:
Pattern: Margaret Stove Lacy Baby Vest
Needles: 3.25 for the body and 2.75 for the ribbing
Started: 3rd July 2010
Finished:20th July 2010
For: a baby at Bears work, not yet here, ETA 3 weeks
Modifications: none, but I did take more care in dividing the work to knit the front and back chest and shoulders flat. That way I was working lace on the right side of the work .. not on the reverse side as I ended up doing last time.

Look! Last time I knit it with lace cobweb weight and 2.75 mm needles. What a difference needle size and yarn weight makes .. I'd say a good 6 months growth in this case.

And the instant project? A moss stitch headband. Smallest cub wears her Quant ll the time, and I had 50 g of worsted weight handspun yarn that was BFL indigo dyed yarn from a Verb for Keeping warm. That is not a lot of yarn but half of it is enough for a headband. I mucked about for a bit, dithering over eyelets and lace and cables ... but really a simple moss stitch with a slip stitch edge was the best look with this yarn. I love the slight denim variation in the yarn - faded just like jeans and a perfect match for small-cubs blue eyes. I have enough to knit another .. which I just might do as a gift for one of her wee friends.

And spinning ...... yes I still am spinning with the tour. I have managed 30 minutes or more most days .. which surprises me. I'm still working away on the first half of the yellow perendale .. but Monday night I worked on this. A little 50g bag of wool/silk blend from Doe. One bobbin, fairly fine .. my plans are to wind it into a centre pull ball and two ply it - now I know that trick it seems a useful one to use.
My 'parenting' responsibility today, now I'm the 'after-school' parent is to transport cubs to swimming. Smallest one has a lesson, oldest one plays in the pool as he is a strong swimmer .. me I'm going to lane swim. That is something I used to do 4-5 times a week .. but with full time work it fell by the wayside. Tonight is knit night .. so there is that to look forward to, and this Saturday it is KSG (Knitters Study Group), the project is Mobius .. so I need to sort a project and yarn. Mobius knitting is something I'm keen to explore a little bit.

Take care
Na Stella

Last day of

my two weeks leave. Today I have plans to spin, and spin and relax ... already there has been buckwheat pancakes for breakfast, and the evening meal has been sorted and preparation started, and it is still not even midday yet. All this busy-ness is in order to have a relaxed afternoon and evening .. for tomorrow I start back at work, and the cubs start back at school.
At work it is the start of the final semester, the one in which our final year students undertake their biggest and most complex project, they design a collection of between 5 and 8 outfits and present them ... for them its a roller coaster of emotion and work, there are highs and lows and tears .. just as I image like any final year of study for most students groups. I have negotiated to reduce my hours - a difficult decision for me given that project looms but I think a good one, Bear will go back to full time work in August and I will be the one who picks up the cubs after school. There is a complicated work related meeting Tuesday which worries me a little, and I know I will relax more after then. I have really enjoyed this last two weeks, I have planned the evening meals, I've followed the sun around the house and had the chance to open windows on sunny days, having fresh air and light in ones day makes such a difference I think. I've even been able to get washing air dried and folded and away during the week not in a rush in the weekend! Oh the luxury of staying at home.

... and of course I have been spinning and knitting. Spinning has continued on my next Tour de Fleece fibre, 160g of yellow perendale combed top. Some I dyed myself, and knitting has continued on the Rouge Roses, and now one is done and the other started, and the baby-gift vest grows - but something slows me down on that one (I'll explain).


Look - I'm wearing Nightingale ..there are more photos on my Ravelry Nightingale Project page (I've shared it so those who don't have a Ravelry account can view it). I love these, I still think I need a new dress or skirt to go-with, and some new blue shoes .. but for now this will have to do.

Spinning, I'm still spinning away on my big Grace wheel, being home for two weeks has given me time to play with that wheel more than I have in the past. It is a big wheel, a powerful wheel and I have decided that I need only run it on the lower ratios for now. My hands just don't draft fast enough to work the higher ratios. I am going to have to make time to spin more on that wheel, usually use the little Majacraft Gem as it is portable and I can easily take it out Monday nights to spinning .. but really I see I need two spinning projects on the go at any one time, one on an 'at-home-wheel', and one more portable. I suspect I've thickened up the single a little .. so will attempt to refine it back to a thinner one as I work. I've spun 18g so far of the 160g ... the price of fine singles is very slow going.

And my Rogue roses socks ... I've started on the second sock. Well actually I've started on it 3 or 4 times, and ripped each time, the cuff worked well but for some reason I seemed unable to work the reverse of the chart easily. I kept defaulting to the original chart .. a simple thing, I tell my self the YO goes before not after ..... but that was enough to trip me up. Now on the 4th or 5th attempt and with focus and concentration I seem to have it sorted. I do like this pattern, and the way she writes it, quite conversational with explanations and suggestions rather than instructions, she being the Yarn Harolot, who suggests that one can work both socks the same, but it will be better to work them as mirrored pairs, and in her opinion they will look nicer that way, but then finishes with the choice is up to the knitter. I wonder if she had the same issues with initially mucking up the reverse chart as I did?

Look one all done, and isn't it pretty? Sprial socks almost never sit flat off the foot - as you can see from the previous image. but look just fine when worn.

Lastly the baby vest, a gift is needed in the next few months, and this will be it. I am nearly up to the armhole at which point the front is worked flat, and then the back worked flat before being joined at the shoulders. No problem there but again just like the Rogue roses socks the lace chart stays the same and yet changes .. as it is worked flat there are rows that must be worked in pattern and purled ... which was enough to throw me when I worked the last one. I'm sort of dragging my needles a bit on this one knowing that the 'knit-flat' section is nearly upon me. Of course I think the row that one starts the knit-flat lace is all important, and when I knit the last one I may have made a fatal error on that point that had me p3tod and s1, p2 psso, and p, Y0, P, k2. Or to put it more simply working all the tricky bits on the wrong side of the work. Lets see if I can learn from my mistakes and get it right this time?

take care, keep knitting and spinning and smiling ... (or humming - see two weeks leave is enough to leave me humming)
na Stella

Dying and Plying

I'm off on a wee road trip, my dad turns 75 this friday (happy birthday dad), and its a long weekend. Always is with his birthday, Anzac day, 25th of April, remembrance day for those who served in war. So road trip, off to Waimate, for a few days, catch up with KathyR, then on to a William Morris exhibition on in Christchurch. I'm a big fan, big fan, big big fan. Which means no post this weekend, but lots of car knitting.
but I have been on leave, with the kids and as well as baking cupcakes and going to movies (Spiderwick - for 5 year old Poppy scary but ok) ... I've been knitting, 3 item on the go, and one finished, and dying ready for the knitting camp on twined knitting, and plying the Alpaca for a Bears Scarf. Remember guess the knitting tool before end of April, and go in the draw to win Vintage Purl sock yarn, all commenter's go in the draw, and if any one does guess correctly - well they get sock yarn as well.
First up Salto socks are progressing nicely, the increases and decreases to move the cable forward have begun. There was little frogging incident, two actually, when I realise that I had mucked up a cable twist a repeat or so back, so I dropped back the stitches in question and repaired the damage - you would never know. I'm not sure what I like most, being able to spot mistakes in my own work or fixing them easily.


And yes, I'm still garter ribbing away on the 19cm required for the hem of the tangled yoke cardigan. Nearly 12 cm - what is this going to be like to knit when it is plain stocking stitch? Usually my socks are my mindless knitting, but right now the socks are the 'challenge me' project and the cardigan is the mindless project. Given how much knitting is in a cardigan on 2.5mm needles, I'd say there are a few more challenging socks on the way.

And this, a really quick knit, cast on and done in an hour or so. One of our admins came a knocking at work, with her music thing (not an Ipod some other type of mp3), and wanted to know if one of us would make her a leather cosy. You know, in that way that we knitters sit around waiting for sweater and sock and hat requests? Like mechanics are dead keen to fix and tune up other peoples cars for fun? Like accountants really want to sort your finances out ready for tax time just because they can. I've been guilty of that kind of request myself, mostly to my mechanic dad. Now I'm a good person most of the time, so I wizzed up this little bag, it has an opening down the side for the off/on switch, and a hole in the lower left corner for the ear phone cord. Its is silky alpaca, left over from a pair of modified fetchings. Yup thats a cardboard cut out of her mp3 player.



And dying, for knitting camp, twinned knitting, we need Z yarn if we have it. I have a whole 750g cone of it, some where between lace and fingering weight. Twined knitting can be plain, or can have a 2nd or 3rd colour at the cast on, and again in the patterning. So ... I've been dying some of my cone red and black. The cream in the back - well thats the left over from Toby's possum merino sweater, after I knit it I discovered it was Z twist. The grey is the original colour, all tweedy, and the two others I dyed. Should give me enough to play with at camp. I'm also taking the yarn left over from my Andean hat, its a lace weight 2 ply in about 6 colours.


And I've finished spinning and plying the alpaca merino beansprout blend. Total meterage is 514m, in 4 skeins. The last 2 are drying on the radiator. You can see I'm still a beginner, with some consistency issues to work on. Still its all good and knittable. I have had second thoughts about knitting My So Called Scarf (sorry can't link to it right now). When I printed out the pages, one of the commenter's raised questions about flaring at the cast on and the bind off edges. Stacey, poster of the scarf pattern, said hers flared to. So I've been considering a scarf in Milano stitch. I guess I will swatch and decide. I'm going to wind this into balls tonight and take the two patterns and yarn as my car trip knitting. I'm also playing with the idea of making the scarf 'fisherman' inspired. I think that is what its called where the center of the scarf if ribbed to fit the neck better.

Ok - enjoy the rest of the week, and the weekend, I will.
Stella

Colour, colour, colour deep and strong.

Quick post before we drive north tomorrow, and more colour, finally a fish report, Toby my 8 year old has a knitted project he insisted I include in this post, and more on my latest fetish - spindle spinning.

We plan on going north to Waimate Thursday, where we will leave the 8 year old with the 5 and 73 year old*, departing Friday morning to to Geraldine (rumored to have alpaca for sale), then on to Asburton (home of Ashford! - with the factory!), on to to Christchurch where Bear wants to take me out for dinner and buy lots of dark room supplies. He and two buddies are setting up a darkroom studio, and yes we know it is the age of digital, we have had that conversation already. Its the same as knitting when you can buy clothes.


I'm always surprised at the intensity of these yarns, somehow I expect hand dyed yarns to be pale, subtle and faint, but these are strong and vibrant. Usual recipe, skein up yarn in 210m hanks and soak in a liter of warm water with 1/3 cup white vinegar, this time I boiled the yarn, so to one liter of water, 2 mustard spoons of powdered food dye, a squirt of brown dye (in liquid form - to tie the colours all together), mix, add wet yarn, and simmer gently until liquid is clear or clear-ish. The yellow, green, and orange all exhausted, that is the water turned clear as all the dye was taken up by the fiber. The blue, rose red, and brown didn't - mental note, use less brown and blue next time. btw the rose red is sold as rose 'pink' - maybe I used to much? So beautiful strong colours, all ready for the Peruvian knitting workshop in 3 weeks, me I'm not over keen, am I? does it show? And I am wondering what colours I would dye for me to knit and wear ... something not so bright perhaps?

And this? I wound off the cone some of the 4 ply natural merino from the Mill shop in Milton. I want to swatch knit, and fish for the fish blanket seem a good idea. The first cone of wool bloomed so much, that while this looks like heavy fingering, - I just want to check it doesn't turn into something heavier once washed.


Here is the latest fish, No 97 I think ... each square of the check is just under a cm, so more of a goldfish or sardine really.


Toby is 8, and has been working on these for a while now, occasionally I catch him sitting quietly in front of kids-tv knitting away. He has a french knitting doll, the kind that makes I-cord (has around 70 cm done), and a plastic knitting frame. Some time early last evening he came and showed me his 'innovation', he had created a thumb hole by 'not knitting a few' and wanted me to cast off. So I did. I let him know there was a 'neater' way to make a thumb but his way was just fine - and just between you and me, that really isn't ribbing, its ladders. Nothing wrong with feeding fiber obsessions in one so young is there?



This is the frame he uses,







And spinning, yes I'm sort of addicted, mostly because I want to get it right. I can see my errors, to uneven, to thick, to slubby, and much to much twist. This is day 3/4, and I have switched to a different fibre. In the batch I bought from the mill there was a some smooth and straight, and some with more crimp. I've been to the library and got out every spinning book I could and they all say more crimp is good for beginners. This morning I switched to the crimpier fiber and it was immediately, and easier and finner. Some how I would have thought straighter fibers would produce finner yarn, but for me right now the crimpier ones make finner yarn. I'm working on reducing the twist, I realise the spindle shouldn't spin like a furious top, more like a lazy spin, giving me time to feed out a really fine even bit of fibre to add.


* the 73 year old is my dad, the 5 year old is Poppy. so nearly 2 days, one night childless ....... :-D

Its term break so ..... fibre time.

School holidays started on Saturday, for two weeks, and smallest child has gone to visit granddad for much of this week, which leaves one 8 year old underfoot. Things are pretty calm here so I've been playing, some dying, some buying and some finishing up of a project that never even made my WIP list a few weeks ago. And yes, Tania - another post another stash enhancement. So in a year when other knitters are knitting from their stash, I am actively growing mine.

The dying, when I finish Hedgerow, I plan to knit Brother Amos mostly because Brenda has made it clear just why she chose each construction technique, and you all know I'm a sucker for techniqe. I had stashed undyed trekking away to use and inspired by Clara's newsletter on how to create your own semisolid colour sock yarn I painted flame based colours onto the Trekking, using chocolate, two shades of red, egg yellow, and an orange mixed from the yellow and the reds. I took my time and did some test yarns first, and then painted away. I am still using at home amateur food colour dyes, the powder ones, but got a really good result. First result was a bit orange, so while it was still damp I returned it to the pot and over dyed with chocolate so now have glowing ember colours to keep my tootsies toasty warm.



At the last weavers and spinners knitting group, many of the other knitters had their little miniature Guernsey sweaters finished which spured me to finish mine. I reknit it, and it has little under arm gussets, a shoulder strap. I did omit the neck gusset as Curley has a large head and didn't need the neckline pulled in. Curley is in Waimate with Poppy just now, so she couldn't model for me. The Guernsey is sitting beside the sink as an indication of size. In case you are wondering, this is a Kauri wood bench, the original kitchen bench installed in the house in 1939. It shows wear, but looks much better than I'd imagine any 1939 formica or synthetic would look today. Its like having a giant chopping board to use, and no - we have never died or suffered from food poisoning.






The next 'class' is on Peruvian knitting and we were asked to bring fine yarn, in lots of colours to work with. I did a little swotting up and read about how bright colours are traditionally used so set about dying some. Yesterday Toby and I drove to Milton, 40 minutes south of Dunedin to check out the Milton Woolen Mill factory yarn shop, what a find! I purchased two cones of wool, one merino crossbred and one unknown 'wool' from the sale table. They also had possum merino 50g balls of dk weight for $3NZ, merino alpaca, and several weights of cone yarn, all labeled by sheep breed and spinning style. A fine gauge knitters idea of a yarn shop.

The original white yarn was a cone of merino 2 ply, the finer of the two in the image above, bought for the substantial sum of $5. It was marked 500m, but I wound of 2 batches of 200m yesterday to dye and didn't seem to alter the cone size at all. I clamped my warping pegs to give a skein length of 1m, and wound off two hanks each 210m, then dyed one orange and one green, they yarn bloomed considerably when dyed/washed. I plan to add blue, purple, pink and chocolate brown over the next 3 weeks so i am ready to knit something Peruvian at the next class.



While I was at the Mill factory shop, I did get waylaid by a basket of yarn at 20c a ball, which I though would be of use for the Peruvian class, but on arrival home found it was mostly singles yarn, so not of use for knitting. But I do have that table loom ...





At The Mill factory shop, also sold fibre for spinning in what I think are called slivers(?), most was merino blends, with silk or tencel, but they did have dyed merino fibre for $10 a kilo, in deep red, orange red and green. I've been thinking about spinning and so bought 50g of fibre on a whim, a whole 50c investment. Latter that same day I used internet instructions to build my own spindle, and last night played with spinning. Its not easy, but it was day one for me the beginner spinner and I liked it, I liked it a lot. The single yarn I made is not the kind of yarn I like to knit with, much to much twist, but I am a beginner and it was strangely satisfying. On friday I'm off to Ashburton home of Ashford, and thoughts of acquiring a spinning wheel are strong. Chris is not helping much, he is enabling this thinking, I have been scouting around second hand ones on Trademe, the New Zealand version of E-bay, .... I'll let you know.