Craft fair spinning and a sock

Thought I would update with a view of the vibrant colours which spawned from the dye pot this week. The Honey said the blue and green was his most favourite so far. The orange and browns were inspired by J. from craft night.

Let's see... All the roving is merino. The dyes Jacquard dyes, new to me. I am not as happy with these as the Maiwa dyesbut maybe I just need to make a stronger solution? It seems fine now, but they were more smelly, and I think more expensive too. Starting with the far left we have a small merino skein I dyed up from some leftovers. Beside it is a silk skein. The silk is definitely not as vibrant in colour as the merino, but pretty. I think I will ply it with the red merino ball top right. The first blue/green is merino (from Grandma), beside two skeins of lincoln (also spun by Grandma) in orange and then blue green. I love spinning lincoln! It has a much longer staple length than merino and once I got the hang of spinning it I loved the sheen. It has to be spun worsted because of the staple length, and produces a nice soft smooth yarn. My lincoln skein is still undyed and thus not pictured. Grandma prefers to spin merino though, it is all a matter of preference. Top right is a small ball of taupe alpaca. Lovely, but no idea what it will get plied with yet.

I will be spinning the blue/green roving tonight and then taking this project with me on another Kamloops trip: sox on two stix from knitty.com. I am knitting in the same handdyed purple yarn I used for my celtic vest (which is awaiting finishing and blocking). I followed the pattern but didn't check my gauge so I tore out the first sock this morning to redo on same needle size with 16 rather than 20 stitches. We'll see!

In need of a pick up?

The days just got SOOOOOO SHORT, and the greyness and rain is coming more often. Despite a beautiful, if not a little chilly, hike at Spectacle Lake with the parents under lovely fall colours this evening has left me a bit blue. Even after dying up some yarn and wool!

I see numerous suggestions for Yarnageddon, all fabulous. I highly recommend cracking out the knitting and settling in with these two on their podcast: Miss Lime and Miss Violet. Knitting, spinning, fibre and lots of laugh, makes me feel like my stitch and bitch [oops "craft night"] girls are hear a day early...

The promised update on projects

The Nov 16-17 Christmas Chaos Craft Fair is fast approaching. I am planning to fill a dye pot this afternoon, but am worrying whether or not I will have enough spun wool! What I don't sell I can post on Etsy since I have gotten behind keeping the wool up to date here.

I am also contemplating felting Christmas baubles, in the price range of $6 each. Will see how that works.

This here is a picture of my Witches Knickers (name of wool, see store link on right) scarf. I am not very happy with it and want to tear it apart and make a wee purse. Too scratchy for a bare neck, it is mohair after all (and I guess just not soft mohair).

Jen and Pippa and I went to the Fleece and Fibre Fest last Saturday. Wooohoo! I had a little euphoric high after the even which lasted the rest of the day. Everything was sooooo beautiful. I got the name of someone who raises alpacas and am looking forward to getting some fleece locally. The Crofton Fibre Mill woman was so very busy the entire time I could not get to talk to her, but I will be taking my alpaca there to be cleaned and carded into rovings and am looking forward to meeting her. Hummingbird Fibre Arts from Nanaimo had a wonderful booth filled with dyed wool of all colours and kinds, and I bought some Jacquard dyes to try. Jen and I talked with the Tzouhalem Spinners and Weavers and hope to get updates from them. They meet during the day on Tuesdays though which isn't good for a working girl.

Below is the progress on my Celtic Vest. It is pretty fun to knit and is progressing at a fast enough rate to keep me at it and entertained. A woman at our Monday night craft group is going to try the pattern next too because she was impressed at how fast it was knitting up.

Craft group is fun. We aren't allowed to call it Stitch N Bitch because of internal and external protest that we wouldn't really be bitching would we? Sorry girls, but keep the definition of bitch broad enough and we fit the bill :) It will be a pre-Hallowe'en Craft Night this Monday but everyone is rather concerned about the craft fair where we are having a collective table so we must be extra productive and not be tempted by carving pumpkins!

Finished knitting

I see compared to some I am not a very good (as in frequent) blog poster. Tough to find the time, which is too bad, because I always have ideas :)

I knit up a skull hat for a friend of mine who turned 5 the other day (Hemp Boy we can call him since he is the son of Hemp Woman). Hemp Boy is also known as Captain Silvertooth around town (house, daycare, school) because of recent dental work. Yes he has a silver tooth! Went to Hemp Boys birthday party and we: had an obstacle course, scavenger hunt, horse rides, donkey rides, played pin the tail on the donkey with a real donkey, and rowed a boat in the pond. Ok the kids did most of that but I got to watch and help.



Hat details:
As usual, I made up the pattern. I also neglected to count stitches, or rows in making it, so I really am proving to be a terrible knitting blogger. I used scrap wool with no label. I did use a size 5 circular needle though! And I got the skull pattern from here. I did felt it once through the wash on hot/cold because it fit me, and thus would have been too large for him.


Next up is the sweet baby sweater I just finished.
What: Rainbow Dust from April 2006 Knitting magazine.
Yarn: Superwash Merino. I dyed this wool in various purples using Logwood. The white is the natural yarn colour.
Started: July 2006
Finished: October 2006
Size: Medium (second sizing).
Modifications: Of course there are! I skipped the knit row every fourth row because I always forgot to do that in the last sweater I knit. This was easier. Four buttons instead of 5 (eliminated the top). I accented the button bands with a simple crochet stitch after it was knit. This tied in the two colours nicely. The pattern with the two colours is my own doing. First three are knit 2 purple, knit 2 white. Then knit four purple, 2 white twice. There are also various mistakes in there but I am not going to tell you about those :)

Next up is the celtic vest from fleeceartist. Mom bought the kit and I love it so I am taking the pattern with me to Kamloops for a week. I think this is ok to do- use the same pattern over from a kit? Fleece artist I hope you don't mind, and I would gladly purchase your patterns without the kit if you would let me!

The Honey and I are off to Kamloops on our first forestry contract. Woohoo! We will be staying in the in-laws rv in the forest at night and locating trees for a research project by day. Should be fun, and the lovely sunny weather is supposed to hold.

As for defense news I still have no date. Looking like early November now. I swear others who finished their thesis later than I have defended earlier than I and are now allowed to be called Dr.! I must have patience. Thus the knitting to take mind off this frustration.

I will try and update you on the progress of the celtic vest. I'll try anyway!