My hubby's hat

My husband has been bugging me for a while to make him a hat. I saw this pattern in a Woodland wool works catalog awhile back. www.knitology.com . He also wanted it to be hand spun. So of course I did. I bought the fiber from Woodland too and its called Tartan green. The dark brown is some hand spun I had for a long time. I'm not sure what it is but it was the color he wanted. When I finished, it was way to large so I washed it and then put it in the dryer for about 10 to 15 minutes until it fit him the way he liked. So its lightly felted.

One skein wonders

If you have been reading this blog for any length of time,then you know I love to knit and collect great patterns. Well this weekend I bought the neatest book. Called One skein wonders . If you have not seen this book I highly recommend it. There are 101 different patterns that use only one skien of yarn. I bought the book so I could hopefully use up some of my hand spun yarns. There are patterns for hats, bags, shawls, and a how bunch more. In the picture I made a pain of fingerless mits. They worked up really fast and only took about 100 yards. I used some hand spun black with glitter spun in. They are great. I have found that they work great when my hands are cold while I spin. I'm working on some more yarn with glitter in it. I think these will make great gifts for next Christmas. Yes I am talking Christmas already. Yikes.

My last heavy Winter sweater I'll knit

OK so this is the last heavy winter sweater I will Knit! this year anyway. I have been teaching a class on steeking and color knitting. This is the sweater I made along with my class. The pattern comes from the lopi book number 22. I used Lopi yarns through out the sweater. It was really fun to knit up but by the end it was getting a bit heavy to have sit on my lap. Its kind of hard to see but the lower and upper bands are used with a bit lighter grey then the snowflakes. I can't wait to wear this sweater next winter. I'm thinking of getting some black leggins to wear with it.

Feb's mid-month dishcloth

Here is my version of the mid monthly dishcloth KAL from the email list monthly dishcloth at yahoo groups. I used Sugar and Cream in the color of sea side. There for a few days we were what we thought was the early stages of Spring. Well we have had snow everyday this weekend and are expected to have some everyday. Now it not sticking on the ground in the Boise valley, but the foothills and mountains are all white. As a matter of fact the local ski area has gotten a foot. Anyway I chose a springy color because I know its on its way soon. Enjoy!

Spring is coming some time

I know in many parts of the US there is more snow then you would want to ever see again. But here in Idaho we have very little snow and the temps are very mild. As a matter of fact we will be in the 50's all week. I even have some tulips and daffodils coming up already. So thoughts of Spring and Summer are coming to mind. So I thought I would get started on some Spring projects. I saw this pattern a couple of years ago and just fell in love with it. This tank comes from the book Cool Crochet. I had some different colors of cotton yarn on cones in my stash so I thought I would use it. However the yarn is on huge cones so I can only work on the tank while in my bedroom watching TV. I really don't want to pack around all the cones when I want to work on it. I did change the pattern some. Instead of crocheting the front and back then sewing it together I decided to make it in the round. I do this by adding and then doubling what my beginning chains are supposed to be. For example if the pattern calls for me to chain 100 for the the back I chain 200 and then join in the round. I will then continue working in the round until I reach the place for the arm shaping. At that point I will separate the front from the back and just work one side at a time until its complete. That way it saves me on sewing the pieces together.

What I did this president's weekend

President's weekend is known for its big sales and great deal on shopping. Well instead of heading to the mall I went with a couple of my girl friends to a Spin-In. We went on Sunday to a small town about an hour away from Boise called Crouch. Now I have been there one other time but years and years ago. This first picture shows what the scenery looks like outside the community center where we were. Crouch it located in a small valley on the other side of the foothills of Boise. Even though its in the mountain you can see that there is very little snow on the ground. At this time of year there should be all kinds of snow on the ground. I know that other places back east are just covered in snow we in Idaho are once again in the middle of a drought. Anyway its was a wonderful to look at the snow on the mountains on the raining Sunday.
There were about 25 spinners, knitters and weavers that attended this Spin-in. One of my girlfriends is just learning to spin so I think she was able to practice and learn some more to help her improve her skills. Of course every time I sit down to spin I learn something new. I was pretty excited because I was able to try out my wheel cart, for my schacht wheel for the first time. I have to tell you if you own a matchless wheel then its well worth the $54 to buy the wheel cart attachment. It was so much easier to get my wheel from the car to the building. Above was the wool that I brought to spin. I wanted to bring something fairly easy to spin because I know I would be distracted watching everyone else. Which I was. I bought this roving last year at the Snake River Fiber Festival in Idaho Falls. The roving comes from Notlwork Spings in Cornish Utah. I paid $8 for 8 ounces. On the bobbin has a little less then 4 ounces and the roving pictured is 4ounces. My plan is to use this yarn, which I will make into a 2 ply, for fingerless gloves/hunters mittens for my husband. I really like how the three brown tones are blending together to make a type of tweed.
Of course when you are around other spinners at a spin-in there is always something to buy. I was able to meet up with my other friend Merri who owns the Fiber Addict ( which you can find the link to her web site on the side bar). I had planned to pick up some fiber from her so I sent in an order to pick up. All the rovings cost me about $42. Each ball is 4 ounces. The pink is a hand dyed Angora,silk, cashmere blend that is 25 grams, but boy is it soft. There was another vendor there where I picked up some fire star in 4 colorways, greens, purples, tropical and reds. I also picked up some white to dye later along with some roving to match. I just love with things match. I also picked up some red Angelia to add to some hand dyed roving that I have in my stash. The orange yarns were part of a white elephant gift that I got at the spin -in. Along with the yarn I got a loaf of home baked wheat bread, and a box of chocolates and a flour sack tea towel. All in all even though the day was grey and rainy. My friends and I had so much fun. I learned some more on my path to become a better spinner, we all picked up some nice fibers and was inspired to make some future projects. I will talk with you later about a mobious idea I have and some hand painted roving I want to make. There was a gal there that had the neatest scarf in a very cool colorway that I plan to copy some time soon. So stay tuned..

Class projects

Even though the month of February is beginning to wind down I have been working on a couple of projects for classes that I'm teaching. Durning the first two Saturdays I taught a class on how to steek a teddy bear sweater. Well everyone has been able to get there sweaters complete. A couple of the gals are finishing up the ribbing. Our plan is to donate our bears to the local police department, so that they in turn can give them to children that are in crisis. I plan to get a picture of all the bears at once add to the blog to be looking for it. Now that we have learned to steek we are tackling a big project. We are all working on a Lopi type sweater. Each gal chose her own pattern and we are now working through the color work and steeking if they chose to. I'm working on a pullover. I know I know its a bit of a cop out when the teacher of a steeking class doesn't do a steek. But I like pullovers better then cardigans.. Anyway the pattern I chose comes from the Reyonlds Lopi Book #22. This pattern comes it two forms. A cardigan and the pullover. The pullover is done in blues and oranges. The cardigan was in whites and tans. I chose greys to blacks.
My other projects that I started so that I could show my beginning Knitting class how to read a chart. This is the shawl on the cover of the Victorian lace today book, recently out by XRX. If you have been reading my blog for a while you know how much I love this book. I have a rule I don't buy a book unless it has three pattens that I would like to make. Well this book has only two things that I would not make so I bought it the minute it showed up at my local yarn store. I decided not to use the yarn called for in the pattern. Which was Rowan Kid silk Haze. Which is a lovely yarn that I have used before. But the problem I had was the only store that carries this yarn in my area I refuse to shop at. They have terrible customer service and I know for a fact as it happened to me, they photo copy patterns and sell them at full price, without checking with the designer. Anyway I chose to use Alchemy's Haiku. The picture doesn't show the color very well but its more of a lime green then yellowish. By the way the pink yarn on the bottom is part of the provisional cast on, it will come off later.

Comfort Spinning

Friends of mine on an email list that I belong to were talking about comfort spinning a few weeks ago and that www.serenity-farms.com owned by Cary Smith was the best comfort fiber there is. Well that must be proven! So when she offered some bumps for sale I just had to order a few. Well as you can see in the picture I haven't spun them up yet but I can tell you that they are might nice and I just know they will be a comfort to spin. So I think I will added them to my stash until I need a little bit of comfort in my day.

Fiber, Fiber and more Fiber all over the place

Fiber, Fiber and more Fiber. I have in the last couple of days been flooded with fiber. Oh Yea! First in the mail came my Fiber of the month box. Amy at Spucky Fiber has done it again. This months offering is called "Walkabout". Her inspiration is the beautiful contrasts in color of Australia. From the Blue Blue skies to the Reds and rusts of the desert of the outback. I can't wait to spin this up to see how it turns out. By the way its 4 ounces of a nice and soft wool. My second box came from Woodland wool works. With some of my tax return money I was able to order some parts for my Matchless wheel, bobbins, whorls, a kate and some fiber. In the picture from the top at about 1 o'clock its called Karaoke which is a soy silk/wool blend. The color is called Mermaid and is on sale right now. At about 4 o'clock and 11 o'clock is 8 ounces each of Wensleydale handpainted. At 4 o'clock its called Oregon lakes and at 11 o"clock its called Fiesta. At about 6 o'clock is 8 ounces of colonial wool in the color of Tartan green. My husband as asked for a toque hat and I plan to spin this for the hat. I was also able to pick up some other great sale wool that I didn't add to the picture because of size. I picked up some Targee, Jacob, merino, Romney, some Blueface and some Wensleydale in white that I plan to dye in a sold color to match the handpaints. If you are in the need to add to your fiber stash you might want to check out Woodland at www.spinology.com they are great to order from and have some wonderful fibers.

Feb's First Dishcolth

Here is my version of the Monthly KAL dishcloth. If you look real closely you can see the nine little hearts. Again this one was fun. I used Sugar and Cream. The color is baby pink, the color is a discontinued one but I think is perfect for this time of year. I was able to pick up some more of the sugar and cream colors at my LYS's Big Super bowl sale this past weekend. So now I have at least one ball of every color in their pallet. Of course they are coming out with new ones So I guess I need to make another list of must haves.

Crochet!

I haven't talked about crochet in a long time. I have been crocheting for about 20 years. I did stop for a time as I could not find a pattern that I liked. I do on a a regular basis crochet baby afghans and regular size afghans. First let me start by saying that I was able to purchase a complete set of Palmwood crochet hooks from Bryspun. If you have never seen these hooks then you don't know what you are missing. They are, in my opinion, the best on the market. They are very smooth, I think smoother then the Brittany hooks. Plus they are just gorgeous. I'm currently working on a baby afghan. I'm using Caron one pound ball in a cream color. This pattern comes from the Leisure Arts book called Quick and Easy Afghans. This one takes about 14 ounces of yarn and uses a size K hook so it works up really fast. I'm trying to get a head of baby items. It seems there is always a new baby on the way and I want to get a bit of a stock pile ready so that I don't have to stop whatever I'm working on to make a baby item. I'm planning on also making a pink and then a blue one.