Stitch Witch

Color.

There is nothing harder to resist in the glory of fiber. I am a tactile person myself… yet faced with beautifully balanced, lusty color I am helpless. I have been resting my eyes in lushness these many hectic and stressful months. Spinning, dyeing… dreaming of spinning and dyeing. One of these days I might return to my needles and knit. This roving above (half yet to be spun) is from Master Dyer Nancy Finn at Chasing Rainbows Dyeworks. I bought these four ounces of bombyx/merino blend from her at Rhinebeck in her Reds colorway. A complicated spin, but worth every minute. 205 yards so far of 3-ply, fingering weight yarn. Delicious. Helps me remember that delicate place where my sanity (or what’s left of it) lives.

To that end I have also been playing with one pot multicolored roving experiments. Always fun and the results are never what one might call expected.

Pour in the colors and watch them run! Not so much for the feint at heart. This fiber below, for example, was destined to become a roving filled with glorious yellows and fiery reds. ~delicate cough~ But hey, orange… and the colors are lovely nonetheless.

I also read the Knitty article on spinning silk hankies.

Well! Back to Nancy Finn and her More Teals colorway. There is something amazing about the strength of silk fibers. Also something odd about doing all the drafting separate from the spinning. Much less efficient.

But so beautiful.

This picture does no justice to either the colors or the shine. Remind me to hide the url on the lace flyer next time. Sigh. This is on a journey to becoming two ply laceweight. Pure silk. Oh the shawliness of it all!

Which of course got me exited about dyeing silk hankies. I mean, how could I resist? I sense projects in my future.

And some fabulously blessed person (Devorah) showered me in natural dyeing gifts for my birthday!

This after an adventure with weeding the waaay overgrown yard. And discovering (Devorah again) that the weeds were a dye plant. And not finding alum ANYWHERE. And now being prepared for next time.

Who knew mordants could be so pretty?

And last but not least I have been playing with the fabulous drum carder that wonderful Eric braved the frightening world of spinners to research and procure for Christmas. Yes. Haven’t blogged in a while.

Dyeing in solid colors to blend on a carder. SO differnt. Yet the heathered results. Yum.

These are waiting to be spun into a cabled yarn. Just as a soon as that second bobbin is spun.

Yep. Too much color. Poor me.

Well not really, more like a very sloooooooow and lazy blogger. I do love these socks though, and their image has been sitting in my camera since Christmas. Sad, I know.

Again they are ankle height, made for my aunt who lives in the tropics. I started something insane by making my mother socks the Christmas before. Or, let’s be honest, she started it. By demanding a pair of socks. To wear near the equator. Of course.

Then my aunt wanted a pair. This made for perfect last minute Christmas knitting, which is traditional to the season. These are made from Socks that Rock “Fire on the Mountain” colorway. Can you say BRIGHT?

Anyway, I love this yarn as so many do. The brightness of this pair of socks is astounding to the eye. I think I shall use the remainder to make myself a pair. Perhaps with toes and heels in black. Just for a break in all the screaming.

What could be more fun than wrapping a sweet, loving baby in something wonderfully warm? Knowing that I was headed out to meet Noah for the first time (just barely 3 months old if you can believe that from this picture) I knew I wanted to make him another sweater. I had heard rumors that in his athletic length the little man was already wearing 9 month sized sleepers and so I made him a 1 year sized sweater, using the fabulous Presto Chango pattern.

This was a great pattern! Simple to make, a tiny bit of lace, and super cute. The bulky tweed yarn also makes it nice and warm to keep out the arctic winds that the poor man must endure in this season.

May you all be showered in blessings during this holiday season!

I realize this should have been gathered long in advance of Halloween, but oh well. On this fabulous day of outer garment enthusiasm it seems appropriate to gather some lists of Halloween costume knitting. Party on!

If you did knit your Halloween costume (or a portion of it) this year, please do drop a comment with a link so we can celebrate your fabulosity.

Some suggestions for next time around:

Flying Spaghetti Monster

Princess Leia Wig

Jackyll & Hide hat

Wings

Curlers Wig

Wig with Bangs

Elvis Wig

Teletubbies Hats

I am aware that this is now the second non-Rhinebeck photo laden post in a row. Yikes. We will have to fix that later in the day.

That said, I had to share my new love of spinning lace weight yarn. I am biased, because that is what did so well at Rhinebeck, but also it has been such a joy. I picked up a lace weight flyer for my Ashford Traveler Wheel at The Fold before leaving Illinois. The kit came with a short length of undyed New Zealand merino wool for spinning. I started with that and spun half of it before my big move.

Then my wheel and all sundry supplies were packed up and shipped (or in the case of the wheel itself, driven by me, to Orlando). I finally started spinning the second bobbin of the merino this week.

I just spent a huge amount of time plying and ended up with 406 yards! From half an armspan worth of wool top! These photos are before wet setting. The soft squishiness came off the wheel nearly perfectly balanced. I just can’t stand myself. This photo is the yarn posing with my new niddy noddy, lovingly provided by Devorah at Rhinebeck. This was its first use!

Hooray for pretty tools.

Be forewarned there are serious Rockin’ Sock Club spoilers below.

I will admit that I have been a bit distanced from the sock club for the past two kits due to what I considered to be a great deal of pink. No complaints, mind you. I fully understand that selecting colors and kits for thousands of people means there will be months when the kit’s destiny is to be gifted to others.

My own lack of faith somehow kept me with with a Socks that Rock warm fuzzy in my heart (because how not?) but without a great deal of breath holding anticipation for this month’s sock club. And of course there was the little sneaky tactic of telling us things were not to be mailed until yesterday, when mine was clearly sent out earlier than that.

So without assaulting the postal carrier, or bouncing with hope, I got the mail today. My mailbox was stuffed with a priority mail envelope that STILL did not set off my clue bells.

Until I opened it and found Lenore!

Holy delicious socks, Batman! I love everything about this kit… the yarn (first release in the Raven series) is stunning and the pattern (provided by none other than the Yarn Harlot) is perfect perfect perfect. And spiders! Who can resist spiders? I cannot wait to get this on my needles.

No sooner had I said that before I realized that my last year’s Jaywalkers in Socktoberfest yarn have been in Second Sock Syndrome hell for a year. Crap. Do I leave them fester for one more year and dive into Lenore? Or do the responsible thing and return to the Jaywalkers first? Blargh. I travel again on Sunday. The truth will soon come out.

EDITED TO ADD: It didn’t even occur to me to share my ball band for the poetic license competition. My apologies! My ball band says “Looking Through Rose Colored Glasses.”

More Rhinebeck photos! Again, all the credit for the gorgeous pics goes to Devorah, who has the dubious honor of being our official blog photographer. *smile*

We had the unexpected pleasure of arriving at the Dutchess County Fairgrounds the day before the New York State Sheep and Wool festival began. I had to go on Friday to drop off my skeins of handspun yarn, and we made the most of an unexpected benefit. It turns out there were sheep competitions happening the day before, the first National Bluefaced Leicester competition to be exact.

Such joy. Recalcitrant sheep, loving owners, and open fairgrounds with almost no people in sight. We got to wander about and meet a bunch of fabulous animals. The sheep pictured above (like their friends below) were sporting supercute outerwear to keep their newly shorn selves neat and clean. Almost Paddington the Bear up above, but not quite.

I also loved the mad racing look of these sheepies. Aren’t they perfect?

I have to admit that I also learned a lot about Bluefaced Leicester, and sheep breeding just by listening to the judge. That would be the determined looking gentleman (wearing a cowboy hat)  in the upper left of this competition shot:

Oh the intricacies of sheep holding! Turns out I really loved the naturals (dark brown ones). They were just beautiful. And this sweet dam from what I think was the head competition. She didn’t win, but I still think her head is adorable, if not the “elegant” look of the winner.

This guy, whose breed I cannot remember, has four horns! Only three were captured here, but I think you can get a sense of his inner determination. Poor thing was having a hard time scraping all the paint off of his pen like his friends were, because his horns got in the way.

Too cute.

We also learned that next year’s featured breed is the Romney. I got some yearling carded wool in advance, for the spinning competition. They look like such traditional sheep, don’t they?

Thanks to Devorah and more soon!

Rhinebeck was amazing!!!

We could not have asked for a more perfect weekend and this was a phenomenal experience.  I have so much to write about Rhinebeck that folks are likely going to get sick of reading about it. The best part was going with my most beloved friend, who deserves huge credit as blog staff photographer! All the Rhinebeck photos (except for a few sad fuzzy ones of mine - don’t worry, I will take the blame for those) were taken by Devorah… she of hat modeling fame. My favorite is the one above. Couldn’t you just kiss that nose?

Anyway… in total self promotion I really kind of have to start by sharing my excitement. I submitted three handpun skeins to the novice spinning competition (for folks spinning for less than a year) and I took first, third, and fourth place!

I am super proud. I think these may be the first ribbons I have ever won… well, maybe some swimming ribbons as a kid. Anyway, in celebration I came home with piles of loot… I mean stash… I mean fiber for spinning. Woo hoo!

Here is the proof:

It was a huge joy just to see that much spinning on display as well. There were some 15 or so categories of competition for skeins alone, so there was a lot of soft fluff on hand.

Stay tuned for tons of photos and more Rhinebeck news (Yes, the green and pink in front are mine).

I cannot wait for Rhinebeck! I was so excited to get my Rhinebeck Blogger Bingo card that I decided to not only get my “I’m a square!” button, but to also get a tote bag. Soft and squishy to tote the soft squishies!

I think it is probably unfair that I told people to search the archives of this blog for my photo. Here is a direct link. Apologies for those of you that have already gone looking.

Sadly, my Lift and Separate sweater will not be done in time for Rhinebeck. My travels have been intense and nonstop and the knitting time just hasn’t been there. But I will be submitting three skeins to the novice spinner’s competition. I am in it more for the feedback than the competition. It will be my first!

I just don’t think I can stand it any longer! Woo hoo!

THIS JUST IN: There will be a Ravelers meet up in the wide sidewalk area outside the food building at 12 noon- both Saturday and Sunday. Come join us there!

Have you ever just had one of those days when all the things you are supposed to be doing drive you to the utter depths of frustration? Welcome to my Tuesday.

Nothing quite says, “feel good,” like a quick knit project that is completely fun and can be finished in under an hour. You may remember that I bought the book Naughty Needles, by Nikol Lohr just before my move. It was more than time to take on one of these projects.

I think knitting your own flogger out of suede lacing is the kind of quick pick me up that everyone can use! And it says, “nyah nyah!” in the face of the frumpy knitter stereotype.

Thwack!!!