knitchanted

2010-09-14T14:41:00.000-07:00

In which trillium remembers that she has this fiber blog thing

So last summer at the Black Sheep festival I bought my first fleece.

It was a lovely small jacob, with the typical dual colored dark brown and ivory coat.

On and off (okay mostly off) all year I've been combing it and spinning it up.

I started with the dark wool, then did some combo and finished with the light fleece so as to have a nice gradation of finished yarn. It's all approximately worsted weight, and navajo plied.

Today I took the plunge and dyed it up a lovely jeweled purple, which gave me just the effect I was going for. There's slightly more difference between the light purple and the deep deep burgundy than shows in this picture, but it's pretty close.

Now I just need to let it dry and knit it up into a lovely cabled wrap I've had my eye on for a while.

Equinox yarn

2010-09-06T18:32:00.001-07:00

Equinox yarn, originally uploaded by trillium knits.

Weekend spinning.

115 grams 320yards of DK weight merino silk.

2010-01-09T12:47:00.000-08:00

I am the worst blogger ever. As always, check out the plurk to see what I'm up to when I disappear here :)

2 month fiber recap!

I'm still slowly spinning my way through the Jacob fleece. I've had a kind offer of drum carder usage, so I may get off my ass soon and finish it up. I have to finish this and the Shetland *before* black sheep in June.

I finished Kendra's shawl. Look, she likes it!

Let's see what else... I knit new gauntlets for the husband.

and a hat out of the chunky silk/merino from my last blog update

I wove 4 scarves that zipped out of here without photos, bad crafter.

and this last week I knit a super sweet little one skein shoulder shawl. The pattern is Damson, by Ysolda Teague.

Next up is a sweater for Gordon!

2009-11-25T04:44:00.000-08:00

By request, the booziest yummiest fruitcake evah.

I think this is probably most similar to what's known as a groom's cake in some circles, but this was always a holiday treat in our household.

I made up a batch yesterday, and instead of the candied cherries I used dried cherries soaked all morning in rum to rehydrate them.

.............................................................

SHIRLEY RAMEY’S AUSTRALIAN WEDDING CAKE (FRUITCAKE)

1 LARGE (29 OZ) CAN OF PUMPKIN
3 CUPS SUGAR
1 LB BUTTER SOFTENED
6 EGGS
1 TSP VANILLA
1 TBSP MOLASSES
1 CUP OF MILK
1 LB DATES CHOPPED
1 LB RAISINS
4 OZ CANDIED PINEAPPLE (OR DRIED)
4 OZ CHERRIES, CANDIED (RED OR GREEN)
6 CUPS FLOUR
1 TABLESPOON BAKING SODA
1 TSP CINNAMON
1 TSP NUTMEG
1 TSP GINGER
1 TSP CLOVES

1. SOFTEN THE BUTTER AND WARM THE PUMPKIN IN THE MICROWAVE.
2. MEASURE OUT ALL FRUIT INTO ONE BOWL.
3. MEASURE THE FLOUR INTO SEPARATE BOWL. ADD THE BAKING SODA, CINNAMON, NUTMEG, GINGER & CLOVES TO FLOUR.
4. CREAM BUTTER AND SUGAR IN MIXER.
5. ADD THE WARM PUMPKIN AND CONTINUE BEATING FOR SEVERAL MORE MINUTES.
6. ADD THE BEATEN EGGS.
7. ADD THE MOLASSES AND VANILLA

PUT THE ABOVE MIXTURE INTO YOUR LARGEST BOWL. ALTERNATELY ADD AND MIX 1 CUP OF FRUIT, 1 CUP FLOUR, A LITTLE MILK. CONTINUE UNTIL EVERYTHING IS MIXED IN.

SPRAY 3 LARGE BREADPANS WITH PAM AND DIVIDE MIX.
BAKE AT 325. CHECK AT 1 HOUR (WITH TOOTHPICK). CONTINUE COOKING FOR ANOTHER ½ HOUR IF NEEDED.

SPRINKLE WITH RUM OR BRANDY. WRAP IN CHEESECLOTH AND FOIL. RESPRINKLE WITH RUM OR BRANDY WHEN DRY (CHECK EVERY FEW DAYS). REPEAT FOR SEVERAL WEEKS.

GRANDMA RAMEY ALWAYS STARTED THIS IN NOVEMBER, IN ORDER TO BE READY FOR XMAS.

2009-09-22T08:26:00.001-07:00

A tale of two rovings.

I bought 2 hanks of luscious Sanguine Gryphon silk merino roving at Sock Summit and spun them both up this week.

The first one I spun up as a two ply lace weight. I got about 880 yards out of the 100 grams of fiber. It's so soft and shiny and begging to be a shawl.

For the second hank I wanted to practice spinning bulky. I don't want to become a spinner who can't spin anything but froghair. I've taken a few Judith MacKenzie classes and she gives excellent advice for intentional spinning. I switched to my standard flyer and set the brake to pull fairly firmly.

The high silk content of this roving made drafting out fat slightly challenging, the silk was a little compressed and not perfectly blended. This made for a delightful bit of texture and random fluffs of silk in the finished yarn.

I think the key to making fat yarn after you're proficient with fine spinning is picking a roving that has a bit of texture and really shines when left thick enough to show that off.

Here's the finished chunky yarn. 130 yards of 3ply

Fleece!

2009-06-24T07:39:00.001-07:00

jacobwasheddark, originally uploaded by trillium knits.

Monday night I washed up half of my newly acquired Jacob fleece. It was very easy to clean. The second soak in soapy water didn't even discolor the water, I could have gotten away with one. Two rinses and a few whirls around my head in the garment bag. (woohoo, I'm a giant salad spinner) and my fleece was ready to dry.

By yesterday afternoon when I was done with work, it was ready to go. Yay for a sunny morning. Here it is drying on my trampoline in the yard.

This batch is mostly dark wool. I'm hoping to spin up some lighter and darker skeins to play up the fleece variation. I'm tentatively thinking of the end product being a feather and fan shawl to show off the colors.

Here's my first few dozen combed puffs. I've also gotten about a half a bobbin spun. It's light and fluffy and quite soft.

I had considered saving this wool for the Tour de Fleece next month, but I just couldn't wait. This will be my first raw fleece to knitted item project and I'm very excited.

2009-06-20T21:08:00.000-07:00

I'm home from Black Sheep Gathering, a little light in the wallet, but oh so happy. :D

This was a quick trip, we went down on Thursday and came back this afternoon after the wool show.

Friday was spent learning how to blend fibers with cards and combs, making color wheels and custom palettes. It was fabulous. I think I see some primary dying and blending in my future. The depth of color you get from mixing already dyed fiber together is just stunning.

This morning was spent wandering through the barns making friends with sheep.
Look at this adorable face!

and someday... someday... these will be mine.
They're called "Babydoll Minature Southdown Sheep" They're 18-24 inches tall and just sweet and calm.

Please excuse the photos, I had my camera on manner mode so as to not annoy the beasties.

We stayed for the wool show this year. I was feeling vaguely competent with my hand combs after spending all Friday with them. I've been wanting to try to spin some Jacob, I love the variety of colors in their fleeces. I drooled over the 1st place Jacob fleece during the preview, and lucked out and snagged it when the sale opened. I also picked up a lovely shetland fleece on impulse. The prices were really reasonable, and I've got hours of fiber prep and spinning fun ahead. Also pictured with my newly acquired fleeces is a lovely hand-dyed wool/alpaca blend roving that I picked up in the market place yesterday. Three bags full indeed :D

My last purchase of the weekend was something that I don't really need, but just couldn't resist. It's a beautiful handmade shuttle for my loom. I kept wandering back to admire the wood working of Mr. Ledbetter and he's just the sweetest guy in the world and everything was so gorgeous....(His t-shirt, btw, says "I make stuff")

How could I resist? It's Australian lace wood, and light as a feather.

Plaid Wrap

2009-06-03T17:09:00.001-07:00

plurkcraft may30, originally uploaded by trillium knits.

Here is a belated picture of weaving project #2. This is four skeins of stash sock yarn woven in plain tabby at 10epi.

The finished length was 18"x91"

This weaving thing is addictive.

The next project up will be a gift, so mums the word on weaving here for a while.

But in the meantime I will distract you with a cute baby hat.

I'm also still working on Vivian. I finished the main body and the first sleeve. We're having a heat wave here this week so I'm glad I'm about to start sleeve #2 and won't have the whole thing draped over me :)

Voila!

2009-05-20T18:44:00.001-07:00

plurkcraft may20, originally uploaded by trillium knits.

It's a scarf! I still need to wash it, but I'm waiting until after stitch n bitch tonight so I can show it off. :D

2009-05-20T08:49:00.001-07:00

plurkcraft may19, originally uploaded by trillium knits.

This is so much like learning to knit. At first there is staring at diagrams, and furrowing of brows. A little cursing, and then, Aha! yes, of course! duh! And off I go.

This is actually my second piece of weaving. My first was a little sampler with loopy edges and a few misthreaded warp threads. Once I hit my stride with simple tabby and twill I ripped it off and started the ubiquitous first project, the scarf :D

The warp here is purple cotton fleece that I've had in stash forever, and the warp is the leftover handspun from last year's Tour de Fleece spinning. I love how the different colors in the marled handspun make the plain weave look all heathery and tweedy.

Also in the love column? making a row at a time instead of a stitch at a time. I can see this will be a great way to plow through stash yarn.

I'm still slowly knitting away on some stripy socks and my Vivian cardigan when I'm out of the house. Here's an picture from a week or two ago since I see I haven't blogged about it yet.
I'm just starting the bust increases on Vivian now and really need to take another picture. This is going to be such a great sweater, I'm in love with it already.

After those two knitting projects are done I'll be planning out and starting on a sweater for the lovely lady who gave me the loom. I think I already have the perfect yarn picked out; a new colorway of Kauni in just her colors.

2009-05-14T13:34:00.001-07:00

studio2, originally uploaded by trillium knits.

It's been an exhausting week here at chez Duke. I had the opportunity to bring home a loom fall into my lap a couple of weeks ago and Sunday we went and picked it up, even though there wasn't an inch of room in my craft space for it.

So I talked my way into switching spaces with the computer storage room. Since then it's been a blur of painting cleaning and moving two rooms up and down a narrow staircase.

But Voila! I have room to learn to weave. I've also managed to get a ton of assorted craft spillover out of the living room.

2009-04-13T08:17:00.001-07:00

plurkcraft april11, originally uploaded by trillium knits.

I wore my finished sideways aran all weekend. I love love love it. I think I need to score some more of this yarn. After hiking for miles in the thing, it hasn't even so much as pilled under the arms.

The yarn is Rustic 8 ply from Bendigo Woolen Mills in Australia. I bought it a few years back along with the yarn for another sweater for my Grandma (who was from Australia.)

For a while the exchange rate was so bad that I didn't anticipate buying from them any time soon, but it's much better the last time I checked, and this yarn is just something pretty special so I see another purchase from them in the near future.

On Thursday I cast on a new shawl. Shipwreck from the latest Knitty. What a fun and gorgeous shawl! All the pattern repeats are short so it just zooooms along.

I'm knitting it in Dream in Color Starry in Black Pearl. This is the normal DIC superwash wool base with the addition of little strands of silver and it's just gorgeous. This will be my first beaded shawl and I'm hoping the stringing of 5000 beads doesn't take as long as I'm anticipating. Progress shots and more details to come!

2009-04-09T13:28:00.000-07:00

Cables and Spinning

The sun has peeked out today and my sideways Aran is drying outside. I finished Tuesday night and it's been slow to dry with all the cables.

Here's a quick pre-blocking picture.

I've also been spinning up some BFL into a nice stripy fingering weight yarn. The roving was bought from Baker Jen and is just lovely. I've got something in mind for this yarn but it's hush hush for now.

A wee sock monster, Grrrr

2009-03-31T20:48:00.001-07:00

plurkcraft mar31, originally uploaded by trillium knits.

The theme for craft group this month was sock monster. I had considered making a sock eating monster, but in the end couldn’t resist casting on a 16 stitch sock in my leftover goth sock yarn.

A loverly Aran

2009-03-30T09:55:00.001-07:00

sidetoside, originally uploaded by trillium knits.

So this is what my side to side aran sweater looked like a week ago. In the meantime I have knit most of the body 2 1/2 times.

Funny how the cables breezed by, but the plain body is being such a bitch. I think this style of sweater wants to be boxy, and it's fighting my efforts at smooth body shaping. This combined most likely with a certain sloppiness in math calculations has been quite vexing.

Now I've backed up to the armpits once again, and I'm doing the whole thing in 6x2 rib on smaller needles and it looks to be just right. There's something to be said for making the ribbing do all the work.

It all goes well I'll finally finish in a few days. Any other project would be in time out by now, but I love this yarn so that I just keep plugging at it.

Sorry for the lack of disaster pictures, it would have been nice to post them, but I was too quick to rip. Luckily this yarn (Rustic Wool from Bendigo Mills) is proving to be very forgiving of all the frogging.

2009-03-03T07:20:00.001-08:00

plurkcraft March02, originally uploaded by trillium knits.

I finished my gauntlets last night.

I had a request from a friend on Plurk for the pattern (Hi Aponi!) so I've posted a link here. Look over in the top right corner of the page.

I also added it to Ravelry, which was quite fun. Somebody already queued it up, which makes me dorkily happy.

2009-02-27T12:42:00.001-08:00

Yet another catch up post!

I seem to be knitting lots of little things while I wait for inspiration for my next big project. Colorwork? a sweater of cabley goodness? lace shawl of the damned? I just can't decide.

In the meantime I've whipped up a pair of gloves for the husband

a quick little vest from knitty

and a cowl from my handspun Merino-Alpaca blend from a few weeks back

Currently I've got a pair of long gauntlets on the needles for myself out of some delightful stripy sock yarn from Rainy Days and Wooly Dogs called goth socks.

2009-02-05T07:14:00.001-08:00

Warm Hands

365.36, originally uploaded by trillium knits.

I finished my Trillium mittens last night after the big craft group meeting. I think I may need to knit a dozen more stranded mittens, they were so much fun.

I also finished Kate's birthday gloves. She is so very knitworthy. She jumped up and down and made every one "look at my fancy hands!" LOL

2009-01-31T22:13:00.000-08:00

Since I'm too lazy to block this sweater and take good pictures. (I'm instead wearing it all around town) Here's a less than stellar picture of my grayscale Sunrise Cardigan.

This was a total shot in the dark and I'm pretty pleased with it. I'm a sucker for stripes that turn corners, what can I say.

I finished my current socks tonight, more noro goodness. Just for giggles, I let this pair turn out identical. The amazing thing is that this yarn made a pair of large women's socks with enough yarn left over for another small project. Crazy.

I have another day or two of knitting on my trillium mitts and a quick gift project on the needles and that's it!

New gauntlets for the hubby and a shawl are up next.

2009-01-29T12:30:00.001-08:00

Mittens and Zombies

365.28, originally uploaded by trillium knits.

I finished my sunrise circle jacket and am back in love with my mittens, zooming through the second mitten this week. I'll post a pic of the jacket after I've blocked it properly.

In other news, zombies are terrorizing the fiber world again. Word has it that Mamma Monkey, the fabulous sock designer who passed away last year.... not so much deceased.

The news is being heavily censored on Ravelry today. I understand where the mods are coming from, but at the same time it makes my stomach a little queasy. I hope there will some kind of official acknowledgment once they talk to their lawyers.

As someone who bought one of her patterns (Kaylee) with the understanding that the funds were being donated to charity, I'd really like to see this whole thing see the light of day.

2009-01-14T08:48:00.000-08:00

New Year Knitting

Just a quick post to say I'm still alive and knitting in the new year. I'm multi tasking this month, so no finished objects to show off yet.

I finally restarted my trillium mittens with appropriately contrasting yarn. I'm using a pattern from the Selbuvotter book as my starting point, but then charted out some trilliums for the back of the hand. I finished mitten number 1 in a few days, even with re-knitting the top three times to get it the right size. Excuse the wonky picture, I expect this to look much nicer after blocking. The yarn is JMM's new shetland and I'm totally in love with it.

By the time I was done fixing the mitten top I was sort of burned out on stranded knitting so I cast on a Circle Sunrise jacket in a nice stripey merino I got at Little Knits in September. I'm done with the back and just about ready to cast off the first front. This is a fun little pattern, but the design is so odd that I really won't have any idea if it's going to fit/work until I start sewing it up. The upper arm seems to be the exact size of my arm, so I'm hoping this will block out just a bit. It's an Adventure! I love it when stripes turn a corner.

I also cast on a new pair of socks, so I'd have something simple to work on while goofing off with my knitters. (I had to rip out twelve rows on the jacket front after I messed up the shaping because I was laughing too hard and not paying attention)

This is the regular noro sock yarn, in just about my favorite color combo~ purple and green.
Toe up, plain foot with a chevron leg. I'm a few inches past this photo now and I'm liking the subtlety of the chevron in the wide stripes. Apologies to the cat, who insists on sitting in my lap every moment I am home and stationary.

2008-12-25T22:40:00.001-08:00

Knitting for Nephew

evanfront, originally uploaded by trillium knits.

"Pie goes in here!"

This child has enough toys that I didn't feel guilty knitting him a sweater this Christmas, though he could of course care less about it.

The important thing is all the adults oohing and ahhing and taking pictures of the handsome small man in his Aran cardigan. ;)

2008-12-21T16:00:00.001-08:00

A Winter Wonderland

I think the last time I saw this much snow was the winter of 1990. I had brought my then boyfriend (now hubby) home over Winter Break. It snowed and snowed, we lost power for a week and had to melt snow on the wood stove to wash our hair. Good Times :)

A snow filled week in this area is just crazy rare. I keep bouncing back and forth between "Oooh! Pretty!" and "Dear Goddess, make it stop, I want out of this house and I miss my friends"

As you can see, the dog is having an absolute ball. She came running inside this morning, covered in snow and shook it all onto my lap.

The cat however, says "Stop running around outside, sit down and make a lap"

2008-12-11T14:12:00.000-08:00

Gratuitous Handspun Photo

I plied up this yarn last night after work. We didn't get home until late*, so I was rushing against time to get it done by bed time. I hate to stop plying in the middle. It's kind of dangerous too, since the cat likes to eat inappropriate things.

I brought out the big plying head for my lendrum because I wanted this all in one nice fat skein. That meant treadling my butt off as fast as I could since the ratio is so low. By the time I was done I realized my left ankle was so sore I needed help to get down the stairs. Gordon was laughing so hard at my predicament that I thought he'd run back upstairs to plurk about it.

This yarn is a merino/alpaca blend, 100 grams, 2 ply and 334 yards. It's roughly a sport weight, but it varies a bit. I think it will be something lacey.

*I hiked all around downtown for a couple hours after work and then met Gordon for dinner

2008-12-09T14:55:00.000-08:00

Greetings!

I have been absent far too long, and though I have a few pieces of holiday knitting on the needles, not enough to justify falling off of the blogosphere ;)

Since we last met I was smitten with the wonder that is Malabrigo Sock. It is truly amazing. Standard malabrigo, while soft and beautiful, has always had that annoying diva temperament. I couldn't get past the pilling that comes with an achingly soft single. Malabrigo sock has no such drawback. It is a tightly twisted three ply that somehow manages to keep the softness of it's high maintenance sibling. I don't know how they do it, but I suspect black magick.

With my first skein of the loveliness I knit up a lacy little scarf. The pattern is Tudor Grace, by Anne Hanson. I couldn't be happier with how it turned out.

I've also been back on the wheel this month. I spun up that lovely black BFL into a navajo ply worsted and am making nice thick socks with it. I'm finally starting to make myself socks that don't need to be layered with two other socks to wear with my boots. Go team me ;)

And currently on the wheel is a lovely earthtoned merino/alpaca that I bought when Elaine was in town. I'm spinning this up a bit finer, but I'm not sure what I'm doing with it yet.

Oh! speaking of handspun, I almost forgot my latest Ysolda Teague hat. Rose Red, (or rather blue) made from handspun 3 ply South African Fine, dyed in the crock pot.

Ysolda Teague, have you ever written an ugly pattern? I'd hate you if I could stop knitting your stuff long enough to find the energy :P

2008-11-16T20:20:00.000-08:00

Silky Hikers

It seems to me that knitters either love Noro or hate it. It is what it is, a rustic twiggy riot of color. I have always been in the noro loving camp, and I still am, but this pair of socks has severely tested my love.

They are knit with the new sock weight Silk Garden. The yarn is a riot of color and texture. It looks like everything but the kitchen sink was thrown into the carder, wool, raw silk, bits of sari and nylon thread. It's really uneven in weight, with some places dangerously cobweb thin and others worsted thick and barely spun. If you can manage to keep it together what this gives you is a gorgeous tweedy textured yarn that melds into a great cohesive fabric.

The yarn snapped on me multiple times in the toe sections of these babies, which combined with the seven knots, yes SEVEN knots in one ball of yarn, made for a few moments where I wanted to throw the whole thing in the bin. But I suffered through and the resulting socks just make me so happy, smooshy and tweedy with lovely bits of silky shine.

2008-11-06T12:54:00.000-08:00

Victory Cables

My Drops cabled cardigan is finished. As 109-3 is not an acceptable knitting design name, I've called it a multitude of names in the last few weeks as I knit it up.

Thanks to the lovely people of plurk, it's final name shall be Sexy Victory Cables. I was knitting away on this Tuesday night watching election coverage, and it will always remind me of the moment when it suddenly seemed like everything might be okay again... or at least start moving in the right direction.

I finished the hood last night at my craft group meeting and did what little finishing was required this morning. I grafted the hood closed and sewed up the underarms, then it was just a few ends to weave in. That's another nice thing about Cascade Eco Wool, huge skeins mean very few ends to deal with.

The buttons are made by the fabulous Karen the Pottery Lady... I really should figure out her last name and see if she has a web presence so I can pimp her. I've been stuffing my cabinets (heh!)with her lovely goblets and bowls for years, collecting bits at each festival I see her at. The last year or so she's had a bowl of buttons and this is the first time I've knit something heavy enough to use them on.

Thanks again Trixi for saying that mismatched buttons could be a good thing :) I love the final effect.

The whole sweater used just three skeins of yarn, so I have two left over for a vest or what not. Now I can't wait to try some of the colored eco wool, or maybe overdye some of the fawn or grey to get a nice heathered green or purple.

Mom Socks

2008-10-27T20:11:00.001-07:00

finishedmomsocks, originally uploaded by trillium knits.

My husband just asked... "So are you sure your mom doesn't read your blog??"

*laughs* I'm about 99 percent sure that she does not, even though I've sent her various blog links in the past.

So I think I'm safe to post pictures of some yummy socks that I knit up for her birthday next week. I set her up with sock knitting paraphernalia for Mother's day, but I don't think she's quite caught the bug. As far as I know, she still only has one cuff done ;)

I loved my first knit with Alpaca Sox. It's soft and squishy, with a slight halo. There is also superwash merino and nylon in the blend, so hopefully it will wear well.

Now I can dive back into my ecowool sweater, I'm on to the sleeves now.

This just in

2008-10-20T04:49:00.001-07:00

cablebody, originally uploaded by trillium knits.

I forgot how yummy and squishy garter stitch is.

2008-10-14T16:54:00.001-07:00

ecocardi1, originally uploaded by trillium knits.

I've already knit one repeat of the cable pattern on my new cardigan.

Ecological wool is lofty, soft and just a bit sheepy, I love it. It's a very satisfying yarn to knit with. It makes me want to take long walks in fall leaves and jump puddles.

Here's a closer shot

I'm loving the look of the knit all at once garter button band. Garter stitch really pops in this yarn.

The Sweater of Cabley Goodness

2008-10-12T21:28:00.001-07:00

sexy cables, originally uploaded by trillium knits.

I just had to cast this on tonight now that hubby's socks are done. The yarn has been calling to me all week.

This is my first time using Cascade's Ecological Wool and I like it so far. I hope it wears well. Fingers Crossed. :)

2008-10-12T15:58:00.001-07:00

gcablesocks, originally uploaded by trillium knits.

I finally finished Gordon's socks yesterday. Boy socks with fine fingering weight always seem to drag a little towards the end, but I'm quite pleased with the end result.

Yarn: Melody Superwash
Pattern: Basic toe up with short row heel, cable nabbed from A Fine Fleece

I've also been working on some sport weight socks for myself with some yarn I picked up during my 4 day yarn bender while our friend Elaine was visiting us.

The yarn is Monarch from Fly Designs, purchased in person at the lovely Little Knits in West Seattle and the Pattern is Kaylee from Monkey Toes

I'm about halfway done with sock #2 now, these are a crazy fast knit. I love the little bee/firefly pattern. I think I may have to make some armwarmers with this pattern.

Next up are birthday socks for my Mom, and a sweater for me. I think I've settled on this cabled hoody from Drops Designs, sexily named 109-3. Seriously, those guys need to hire someone to name their designs ;)

Handspun Boot Socks

2008-09-23T11:05:00.001-07:00

handspun socks, originally uploaded by trillium knits.

I was unfaithful to Gordon's socks and whipped up these babies this week from my handspun. Knitting with handpun is just so irresistible ;)

Yarn details are a few posts back.

Now back to cable man socks, already in progress.

2008-09-16T07:35:00.000-07:00

Damn you Plurk! You make me neglect my knitblog something fierce.

Catch up time.

I finished my handspun cardigan and I really like it. I've worn it constantly in the mornings since it's completion and even slept in it one night at festival to stay warm and toasty.

I have two balls of this handspun left, which will most likely become some kind of matching accessory to be named later.

Also off the needles is a full set for Kate's auction, I just have to finish the icord on the top of the hat.

Fresh on the needles, well fresh-ish is a pair of socks for the hubby. He picked out this yarn (Melody superwash) which is new to me. I love the heathery subtle striping.

2008-08-27T10:23:00.000-07:00

A quick update

I'm still taking a break from my handspun sweater. This time to make up adorable baby items for a friends charity auction. I took this as an opportunity to knit my very first baby surprise jacket.

What a fun and quick knit! It definitely stood up to all the hype. I couldn't wait to get far enough along to fold it into shape (ta da!)

This took about 3 1/2 skeins of some Artyarn Supermerino that had been marinating in the stash for quite a while.

The buttons are from Grandma's collection. (I had so much fun rummaging through them, They're now out of their two large jars and sorted by color)

I'm following up with another ridiculously popular knit, the Saartje baby booties I just find this to be the cutest bootie evah, it makes my blood sugar rise to look at it. For these I'm using some pretty superwash sock yarn, also from stash, I *think* it might be fleece artist. I'm going to use the remaining yarn to make a matching hat.

Then it will be back to my sweater and time to think about holiday knitting, eep!

2008-08-19T13:49:00.001-07:00

A quick FO!

Because I am by nature a contrary person. I threw aside my Ravelympics project and finished my Cable Down Raglan.

I'm quite pleased with this sweater. The size is just right. I anticipated the correct amount of relaxation upon blocking so it was just a little snug on me before it hit the water bath. I was worried about the neck line being a little wavy, but it is perfect after a light block.

This yarn has been marinating for a few years. It's Rowan Pure Wool DK from an Elann closeout. I made the size 38 chest and used exactly 9 balls. I've got 4 left over for a matching hat/mittens or whatnot.

The first picture where I'm trying to smooth my hair when the timer went off shows the correct color.

2008-08-05T18:28:00.001-07:00

Cable Down

cdprog, originally uploaded by trillium knits.

I totally could have had this sweater finished by now if I wasn't so easily distracted.

I'm usually very "zoom to the finish" on sweaters but I keep seeing shiny things everywhere.

I was probably doomed when I signed up to knit my handspun sweater for the Handspun Heptathalon event of the Ravelympics 2008

Once there was an actual deadline looming, I started doing everything but knitting this sweater. I spent 6 hours decoupaging my kitchen cabinets... started a scarf with my handspun silk...plurked... and plurked and plurked.

(Here's a quick shot of one of the cabinet doors)

But there has been some progress. I'm about half way done with sleeve one. A weekend of dedicated knitting would finish her off. But she'll probably instead be knit in fits and spurts while I knit for the Olympics ;) the good news is that I tried her on before starting the sleeves and the fit is fabulous.

Now I just have to decide between knitting up my handspun as a basic raglan cardigan or using the Sunrise Circle pattern. Decisions Decisions!

Oh, and here's a shot of the spinning distraction. This 3 ply worsted was spun from Combed Corriedale top from Spunky Eclectic.

2008-07-27T19:44:00.000-07:00

I finished my tour spinning a week early, but forgot to post a wrap up here. I blame the plurk.

Here is 1600 yards of squishy 3ply worsted weight merino. As soon as I finish up the Cable Down raglan I will be casting on for a sweater of some sort, nothing too complicated. I want to concentrate on making an interesting progression through the various colors of the finished skeins.

There has been some progress on the current sweater, I've got about 3-4 inches to go on the body before I move up to the sleeves.

2008-07-15T17:18:00.000-07:00

I think I can I think I can

Note to self: when you half the amount of roving going into the dyepot.... half the amount of dye as well!

Here's how the latest batch of roving is spinning up. it's gorgeous, just shades and shades darker than the first batch. All will be well with the magic of plying though. I'm hoping to end up with a gradated effect in the finished sweater.

Also for your enjoyment, a soon to be plump squirrel, at least if he keeps hanging around my feeders.

2008-07-13T11:29:00.000-07:00

Subjecting people to more garden pictures. We finally finished with the gravel. The blank back corner will hopefully be a fire pit and zen garden by the fall.

2008-07-10T12:02:00.000-07:00

I finally got around to blocking out my alpaca scarf this morning, it's almost dry. If the sun comes out in the next hour or so I might even be able to take it to knitting, but I'm not holding my breath.

a close up

And an update on the snow peas! I know all 6 of you are on the edge of your seats ;)

That's what... a month's worth of growth. Peas are magic I tell you.

My latest spinning looks just like days 1-3, so I won't bore you with another picture just yet, but the tour continues. I only managed about an hour yesterday, but that still means I haven't missed a day yet. I may bring my wheel to knitting this afternoon.

day 4

2008-07-08T20:44:00.001-07:00

day 4
Originally uploaded by trillium knits

Tour de Fleece update, day 4

I've plied up three nice hanks of three ply. I have a little bit of single left on each bobbin, but I'll probably just refill them with singles before plying again. I thought about getting out the plying head to make giant skeins.. but the ratios on it are so big I'd be treadling like a mad woman ;)

Since this is for a sweater I'm (for once) measuring as I wind onto the niddy noddy. So far I have approximately 458 yards of worsted weight yarn. Not too shabby. I definitely won't be running out of roving for this project.

This merino is spinning up so light and fluffy. I abused the fiber just enough in the dyeing process to give it a bit of woolen character.

2008-07-08T15:20:00.000-07:00

Ooooh

The Yarn Museum

How cool! I may have to come up with a submission for "Self Portrait"

2008-07-07T21:06:00.001-07:00

three
Originally uploaded by trillium knits

Tour de Fleece: Day 3

I finished off the third bobbin tonight after work. My pace of a bobbin a day will probably slack off as work interferes during the week. Now for some plying fun.

Barley Wine

2008-07-06T16:16:00.001-07:00

bandcd
Originally uploaded by trillium knits

Took a break from the tour to knit on my pullover at the brewery.

purple merino

2008-07-04T20:06:00.001-07:00

purple merino
Originally uploaded by trillium knits

Yesterday I realized that the Tour De Fleece was upon us again.

Somewhat impulsively I thought that perhaps it was time to spin up a whole sweaters worth of yarn. I had two pounds of undyed merino from Paradise Fibers in my stash so I pulled it and the dye crockpot out.

Note to self, my crock pot does not hold a full pound of top, at least not gracefully. I couldn't stir it at all so I got some crazy color varigation. I would be displeased with this in yarn, but for roving it will be lovely since it all evens out and mutes in the spinning and plying. I'll be dyeing the second half in a couple of batches so the color should be more uniform. I'll ply the first batch to the later batches to even things out even more.

I'm thinking this will be lovely as a semi-worsted two ply knit into a nice semi fitted raglan. I guess we'll see how much spinning I can get done in 23 days!

2008-06-30T11:29:00.000-07:00

A Knitter's Stash

I'm back from my Grandmother's memorial. As Grandma was a knitter, and I'm the only other Knitter in the family, my car came back packed to the gills with Grandma's stash.

I stayed up until 1 in the morning the night we got down to Oregon, looking through a big box of patterns that I had received upon arrival. I had no idea what to expect. She was a prolific and varied knitter when she was younger, but has been exclusively knitting kitchen items for years. I wasn't sure what she had kept in the way of patterns and notes. I was keeping an eye out for the wolf cardigan she made for Dad when I was really little. I quickly found the pattern, along with many other similar intarsia wild life sweaters. When I told Dad that I had found it, he smiled and said, "You know she knit that sweater for me twice. I dropped a lot of weight right after she made it and she just ripped it right out and re-did it for me."

It was easy to see which patterns had been used and which just collected. She marked all over them like I do. She had multiple marked up copies of a butterfly afghan pattern, so when Dad said that he had a whole pile of afghans to divide up among the kids, I was keeping an eye out. Sure enough, it turned up... still in pieces. She had knit all the squares but not sewn them together yet. They're all in purple and green, just waiting for me to finish. I'm normally not a happy finisher, but I can't wait to get started.

There were lots of her afghan patterns, some of which I'll definitely have to make. Lots of seventies kitsch and some really wonderful sweaters from the sixties that I'll be adding to the queue once I get everything organized into a binder.

Most of the patterns were ordered through the mail, in groups of 4 or 5. One group was at least a dozen ordered in the space of a few weeks. It so reminds me of my own pattern collecting, especially since most of them were still neatly folded with no notes.

I have three giant bags of acrylic yarn. I can't bear the thought of it not being used so I think I'm going to start turning it into animal shelter blankets. I'll bring some down to the coffee shop for the scarf project too :)

2008-06-17T09:53:00.000-07:00

It's Green! (very, very green)

I cast on this scarf quite a while ago, the beginning of May probably. I hadn't knit on it much until last week when I finished Dad's socks.

The yarn is my handspun baby alpaca. It's about fingering weight and kettle dyed a very semi-solid green.

The pattern is Lace Ribbon Scarf by Veronik Avery, from the Spring Knitty. It's a nice, easy to memorize lace pattern. There are only three different right side rows to remember and mostly purling back. I wanted something simple that wouldn't compete with the color and fuzzy nature of the yarn, and I think this does the trick nicely. I can't wait for the magic of blocking on this one.

Next to be cast on are some socks for the husband. He picked out the yarn while I was shopping the sale at Linda's last week. (All the while explaining to the staff that he was there to keep me from getting too rowdy) I haven't tried this yarn before, it's Melody Superwash. It seems nice and bouncy and has a great twist.

2008-06-12T21:32:00.000-07:00

The joys of a quickie.

I cast on this little hat Tuesday evening after I finished Dad's socks. It's Gretel, by Ysolda Teague. I've been eyeing this pattern for a while, and suddenly realized that I had enough Cash Iroha left in stash to make it. This may be the first time I've ever knit a pattern with the yarn it was written for. The universe may wobble a bit.

Anyhoo, I can't say enough nice things about this pattern. It's quick, clear, and all around fabulous. It's written for three versions; fitted, standard or slouchy. This is the slouchy, almost snood like version. Yay for 60 degree weather, I'm sorry I bitched about you. Please forgive me. This will probably be glued to my head for the next couple days. I'm such a knit-dork.

I may have also already promised to make one for a friend who squealed over it tonight. Yay again for quick knits. :)

2008-06-10T08:50:00.000-07:00

Dad's socks took a trip out into the showery garden for a photoshoot. If I wait for dry weather to take pictures it could be weeks. I love how the east coast is sweltering and we're smack back in February weather. It was 55 and windy enough to knock the power out last night when we got home from work. Can't we meet somewhere in the middle? Pretty please?

Anyway here are Dad's finished socks and a shot of the left side of my garden for good measure. I've got about 150-200 square feet of gravel to finish on the right side and not quite enough gravel to cover it. The next batch will probably have to wait a few weeks due to the unexpected expense of replacing my computer. I'm loving the progress so far though. I disturbed a dozen or so chickadees to take this picture so they must be loving it too. Excuse the few extra edges of weed blocker fabric I haven't trimmed down yet. :)

2008-06-08T10:11:00.000-07:00

The computer is dead, long live the computer.

I'm sitting here at the Poulsbohemian, playing with the new laptop. Here's an action shot of Dad's socks on the webcam. :)

2008-05-27T19:37:00.000-07:00

Action Shots

2008-05-27T11:34:00.000-07:00

Irish Diamond Shawl by Cheryl Oberle, Folk Shawls
Elsbeth Lavold's Silky wool, approximately 8.5 skeins
Size 6 needles

This shawl turned out so much better than I'd even imagined. I love everything about it; The drape, size, color and feel, it's all wonderful. I need to get a picture of it on me, I can totally wrap myself up in it.

I used my knit picks blocking wires for the first time with this shawl. I'll never go back to pins, it took less than a half hour to get it all laid out. (It would have been painless if I hadn't already been worn out from yard work) It took up the whole floor of my craft room and had to hang way over the edges of my foam blocking squares.

I'm now deep in to Father's Day socks for Dad. FYI Austermann Step does not have enough yardage for size 11 man feet. Luckily, I had leftover DIC smooshy from knitting Thermal and I'm using that for the heels and toes. It looks just marvelous together I think. The other nice thing about this combo is that the DIC is a slightly thicker yarn so the heels and toes will be extra squishy.

I'm also almost done with my Bearfoot socks. They've been languishing in the basket while I was knitting other things. I haven't even got these on Rav yet.

All my knitting got to pose by the pond as I've been working like crazy getting the yard cleaned up and converted to a low maintenance oasis.

2008-05-20T11:51:00.000-07:00

Hey Beth!

Are you still lurking around here? Drop me an email if you're still willing to show me the ways of fleece prep this summer. I'm going to the Black Sheep Gathering and anticipate coming home with something in need of processing :)

In other news I should finally finish my Irish diamond shawl this week, huzzah! And I've started on some Father's day knitting.

2008-05-03T17:51:00.000-07:00

Pictures!

2008-05-02T11:34:00.000-07:00

Bad Blogger, No cookie!

The Happiness Cardigan

I have been entirely remiss in updating both here and on Ravelry. In fact I knit a whole sweater in the time I've been off playing hooky.

Perhaps I kept thinking, tomorrow I'll take pictures and *then* I'll update. Well the sweater in question is blocking on my mini trampoline and I still haven't taken any pictures yet. Such is life.

I got a nice deal a while back on lovely wool alpaca blend (Berkshire)from Webs in a nice, goes with everything, medium gray. This yarn is a single, which I normally avoid, but it's got a great twist and doesn't seem as prone to pilling as most singles. The alpaca fibers are quite long and seem to hold everything together nicely. It's quite reminiscent of Lambs Pride worsted, only firmer and sans the (to me) mohair itch.

Anyway, I've been josing for a nice longish cozy cardigan, and this yarn seemed just the ticket. I took the basic design of Sweater 19 from The Fall 06 Vogue, lengthened it a bit and added some celtic knotwork to the back. I used a lovely cable design from Elsbeth Lavold, set of intersecting diamonds that I believe she calls the happiness cable (or something to that effect, I'm at lunch and away from my books) The sweater as written just had a pair of cables running up both sides of the front and plain stockinette back.

There were a few errors in the pattern, but thanks to Ravelry (angels singing) I didn't even have to remember to look for errata.

The sweater was also written for a model with tiny tiny forarms, so I did away with the massive decreases after the ribbing and spread out the increases for a nice human proportioned sleeve. (Seriously, it was craziness how tight the arms would have been)

The fun part of this knit was the massive doubled shawl collar. I must have skimmed the finishing directions the first time through because I was totally surprised when I got to the button band/collar section and found that Each side took half again as much yarn as each front piece. It was the collar that would not die. I spent 3 days knitting it. I wanted cozy and this will definitely be it, though.

Hopefully by tomorrow the beast will finally be completely dry and I'll be able to sew on the lovely wooden buttons that I picked up at Amandas. They have stylized running horses on them and seemed to go with the happiness theme.

Pictures this weekend!

2008-04-05T23:25:00.000-07:00

I finished my Raven socks tonight while watching Night on Earth, a lovely little gem of a movie that showed up mysteriously on our netflix queue. I love it when we don't remember adding a movie. Actually, I think my husband claimed it eventually, if only for the honor of picking a winner.

While hauling out the camera to take a fo picture of my beloved handspun socks, I also took a snapped a shot of my Irish Diamond Shawl in progress. It's so hard to take pictures of bunched up lace, but now I at least have something for Ravelry, I hated seeing that blank box ;) I'm quite pleased with this shawl so far. I was a little worried that the heathery texture of the silky wool would obscure the lace, but the pattern is simple enough that it seems to be showing nicely, even before blocking.

2008-03-28T09:01:00.001-07:00

I love knitting with my handspun. I know I'm a broken record, but I'm still in the "I can't believe I made this" stage with the spinning.

My living room is kind of dark (I painted the ceiling night sky blue/purple, so I didn't even realize I was spinning a self striping yarn until well into the sock knitting. I just love how these socks are turning out.

I finished Gordon's gaunlets last weekend. I'll have to steal them back for blocking at some point, but it's been so freakishly cold this week. (Helloooooo, it's Spring already) that he's been wearing them every morning. I love knitting with the Baby Alpaca (Baby Silk from Elann) It's just yummy and decadent. One of these days I'd love to make a twin set in it.

2008-03-20T07:50:00.001-07:00

Spinning Goodness

Did I mention that I accidentally joined a fiber of the month club? Last months selection was a yummy soft breed I haven't tried before, South African Fine. I wasn't thrilled with the colors though, which were easter egg pastels. So it took a dip in the kettle.

I've spun up the first half so far. It's hard to capture the color, but it's nicely and subtlety variegated cool blue with hints of both purple and teal. Three ply heavy fingering weight, which is what my hands want to spin lately.

And after a few false starts, I'm finally happy with the design of Gordon's gauntlets. I just have to add a little loop and button to for securely attaching the cuff to the back of the hand. (Okay, it's really just an excuse to add skull buttons to the project) Then he can roll down the cuff when he's outside on the boat and needs to hide his hands.

And the last current project on the needles, my first socks with my own handspun. I'm so in love with this yarn, so soft and pretty. I think I even managed to capture the color pretty well. It's a deep black with hints of purple and green.

2008-03-17T04:36:00.000-07:00

We had a fabulous weekend in Bellingham. I finished Thermal on the way home. I still haven't blocked it, but I wore it home and I love it. I bought little metal thunderbird buttons for it at the Wool Station Sunday morning.

More fiber porn later. :)

2008-03-10T19:42:00.000-07:00

And while I'm at it.

Here's the current state of Thermal. I love getting to the end of a sweater with no worries about running out of yarn ;) It's just getting about time to wind up the 4th ball of Smooshy.

OK shutting up now.

2008-03-10T19:18:00.001-07:00

It's Green!

Here are the official stats

This started as baby alpaca combed top bought at Amanda's Art yarn.

The finished yarn is 2 ply 15wpi and 180 grams. Kettle dyed in the crockpot with Jacquard acid dye (sapphire blue, yellow & black) I'm so happy it's still shiny after the dying process. It's soft and fluffy, I love alpaca.

2008-03-10T07:14:00.000-07:00

I split my time over the last week pretty evenly between knitting and spinning. I spun up the rest of my baby alpaca roving into a two ply sportweight cloud of soft fluffiness. Oh my goodness do I love to spin baby alpaca. The roving was a lovely natural shade of ivory, but my wardrobe being what it is, I kettle dyed it a slightly varigated dark green. I forgot to take pictures of the pre-dyed yarn, but as soon as it's finished drying I'll take pictures of the finished product. I have about 600 yards of it and I'm thinking it will make a nice lacey scarf.

Back on the knitting front I finished up my worsted weight hiking socks made from leftover DIC classy. I think I might still have enough left overs for some matching fetching type gauntlets.

I love these socks. I wear a lot of stompy boots that my feet are too narrow for, so I don't know why I haven't already knit up a ton of these, they go so fast.

I also finished up sleeve one of Thermal, and I'm about up to the elbow of sleeve two. I can't wait to finish this baby up.

New on the needles are a pair of fingerless stranded gloves for my husband that are way overdue. I'm using the baby alpaca/silk fingering weight from elann.com in oxblood and black. I'm using a zigzaggy pattern from More Sensational Socks for them.

Yesterday I was back on my wheel spinning up some of the Raven series roving from BMFA that I scored at Madrona. I spun up the first 50 grams yesterday lace weight and navajo plied it into a bouncy squishy heavy fingering weight yarn that seems destined for socks or gloves. The color is very close to that of the yarn I'm using for Thermal. I switched over to my fast flyer for this yarn, as I was starting to have to treddle madly when I was spinning up the alpaca so it went really fast.

Lastly, (man I'm long winded today, I must not be updating often enough) I printed out the registration for Black Sheep Gathering and made the hotel reservation. FYI for anybody still planning on making hotel reservations, I got a better discount through AAA than the rates quoted on BSG website or though Hotels.com :) I still haven't made the final decision on what classes I'm going to try to get into, aside from Popular Wheel Mechanics with Judith. I'm still trying to decide on how my skill level matches up to the other spinning classes offered. There are a few good sounding knitting classes as well, it won't be a problem to mark down lots of second choices in case I don't make it into my favorites. Okay, time to get to work!

2008-02-28T10:18:00.001-08:00

Won't you wear a sweater

Awwwww Thanks to Marjorie of Prime Time Knitter for the heads up on this.

I'm feeling all Verklempt :)

Let's wear a Sweater Day

Thermal Continues

2008-02-25T04:46:00.001-08:00

thermalbody2
Originally uploaded by trillium knits

I got back to working on thermal this weekend. It's coming along nicely, even as I start designing my Kauni sweater :)

2008-02-18T12:49:00.000-08:00

Madrona Recap, abridged

I had a complete blast at Madrona. I probably spent too much money, but I don’t really regret any of it. ;) My first class was the Lapland Mitten Class, intarsia in the round with 11 bobbins. I had hesitated to sign up for this class but I’m so glad I did. The technique wasn’t nearly as challenging as I’d imagined, and I love having another colorwork tool in the arsenal. :) Susanna is a great teacher and was a wealth of information on the history of the technique.

My other two classes were taken purely for entertainment value rather than to learn new techniques. Stephanie’s (Yarn Harlot) class was really fun. About half of our class had brought in knitting problems, and the rest of us were just along for the ride. My last class was the Kauni hat. I’ve been wanting to try out this yarn for quite a while after seeing it on so many blogs. I’ve totally fallen in love with it. I finished my hat this morning. Ruth Sorenson was a delight. I bought a sweater’s worth of the yarn before class started and was amused to see I was not the only one in class to do so. ;)

Lucy Neatby’s presentation Friday night was great. She showed some amazing works of art. It was totally inspiring. I was tickled that she asked me about my hair color brand and where to get it :)

Saturday’s talk by Judith McCuin on the Bison history and fiber was really moving and informative. I’ve been prattling on about the Bison to my friends all weekend.

I bought a sheep to shoe kit and some other raven series roving from BMFA that’s totally drool worthy, as well as some merino silk roving from another vendor and the Kauni yarn. My last purchase was a gorgeous circular needle case. I also won an ounce of Bison roving as a door prize! I’m sooo excited to try it.

Last but not least I met a ton of Ravelers. I came on my own so it was so great to have made so many new friends.

I finished my Kauni hat this morning.

2008-02-10T21:28:00.000-08:00

I'm really loving this pattern. It's a satisfying knit in the smooshy yarn. I love how the stitch pattern and the twist of the yarn make it hold it's shape without blocking. I divided for the front and back this afternoon. It's moving along nicely for a fingering weight sweater.

2008-02-05T13:09:00.000-08:00

Delores for President, w00t

2008-02-05T06:51:00.000-08:00

More finished Objects

Here we have what I'm calling "The Kate Hat" even though I'm keeping it all for myself. The pink and purple yarn was spun up from the roving Kate brought back from Germany for us. The black and lavender roving is from our road trip to Bellingham to visit our friend Sarah.

The yarn is about aran weight and navajo plied. I am still in love with this technique.

The diamond pattern is from the second sensational socks book.

I love how the flat hat looks like a squid :)

Here are the Dashings I made for another friend. I'm not usually a fan of the merino single, I hate pilling with a passion. I knit these at quite a tight gauge in hopes that the pilling will at least be minimized. These are soft like the proverbial baby's bottom.

2008-02-04T07:12:00.001-08:00

Smooshy Thermal
Originally uploaded by trillium knits

I just have a quick update this morning.

I've been knitting away on Thermal for the last week and a half and I'm loving it. Smooshy is one of my all time favorite yarns. It's in the mindless knitting stage (inches and inches of waffle stitch with no shaping) so I've been catching up on some much neglected reading.

Pattern: Thermal (from Knitty)
Yarn: Dream in Color Smooshy, Black Parade
Needles: US size 2

Geeky trivia. There has been some discussion about knitting vs purling at our knitting sessions at the Poulsbohemian. It always struck me oddly that people would express a dislike for purling, or describe it as being slower than knitting. I've never noticed any difference. Since this stitch pattern involves a row of knits, a row of purls and two rows of ribbing, I couldn't resist timing myself. The results are in:

Knit rows- 8 minutes
Purl rows- 8 min. 30 secs.
Rib rows(2x2)- 9 min. even.

So there's a bit of a difference, but not enough for me to notice without a stop watch. This completes the science experiment portion of the week. :)

I also made some Malabrigo gauntlets in the Dashing pattern for my friend Casandra. What a nice bit of instant gratification those are. I knit each glove in a day. I still need to take a picture so I can mail them off.

Other fiber goodness over the last couple weeks has been spinning up the roving Kate brought back from Germany. I finished it up on Thursday and then this weekend cast on a Kate inspired fairisle hat. It's actually almost done, I'll finish up the 2nd earflap on the way home today and block it tonight so I can take pictures tomorrow. I'm so pleased with how it's turning out. Kate is such lovely inspiration. I wanted it to be kind of crazy and really warm and I think I've hit the mark on both fronts. I remembered at the last minute to take pictures of the spun up yarn before I cast on, so I'll post those pics tomorrow as well.

grow socks

2008-01-24T10:32:00.001-08:00

grow socks
Originally uploaded by trillium knits

So good to have an old project off the needles and conscience!

Now I need to figure out what's next, I'm being pulled in a million directions.

2008-01-20T20:44:00.001-08:00

More Socks.

I finally pulled out the languishing "Grow" socks from limbo this week. It only took a couple of days to finish the first sock. Squishy cabley goodness. I cast on the second sock on our Bellingham road trip to visit Sarah. I'm approaching the half way mark on sock two already.

Close ups:

Today I finished spinning up the rainbow merino silk. I bought some dark blue merino/tencel roving in Bellingham on Saturday that I think I will spin up to match. More on that later :)

2008-01-17T21:45:00.000-08:00

Behold the Fraternal Glory.

I am in the (small?) group of knitters who loves fraternal socks. It gives me much happiness to have socks that are the same yet not the same. Is it that store bought socks match? I'm just a weirdo? Who knows. This will not be the last skein of Noro sock yarn that I buy.

2008-01-15T20:18:00.000-08:00

She's gone color mad!

My wheel was calling me, but what fiber should be next up to the plate? I have a modest fiber stash compared to my yarn stash, but it's enough to tug me in several directions. (Including the fabulous new addition of some German roving gifted to me by the fabulous Kate)

Perhaps under the influence of the Noro sock project however, today's winner was the lovely silk blend top that I won in a drawing from Copperpot Woolies. It came in a variety of lovely shades that seemed perfect for some stripy goodness. I've also been wanting to try my hand at Navajo plying.

Here's the first half of the result. I separated each color into half and spun up one of each color in rainbow fashion with the 10:1 ratio. I then navajo plied onto another regular bobbin, this time at 6:1 I thought about pulling out the plying head so I could treadle even slower, but decided I could just park if my twist got too far ahead of me. This ended up working fabulously. By the time I was about 1/4 through the plying I didn't have to stop any more, my hands were keeping up with my feet.

Here's the resulting first half all plied up. I'm really proud of this. I had been prepared for this first navajo attempt to be an utter disaster ;)

And a close up with the obligitory dime for reference

I've already started the second half of the singles.... now I just need to figure out what this wants to be. Maybe something in a mosaic pattern with a dark solid? hmmm.

2008-01-14T19:51:00.001-08:00

These little gauntlets were a quick knit. They're very nice for driving and knitting in the chill.

Then I pulled out my new Noro sock yarn and cast on a Master Coriolis sock from Cat Bordhi's New Pathway's book. Love the yarn love the pattern. I knit the first sock in 2 days. I'm putting up the big picture, because I have to share the love.

Now to cast on sock two before I get distracted by something shiny.

Tomorrow I'm carving out some wheel time, hell or highwater.

2008-01-07T17:52:00.000-08:00

Handspun Fingerless Gloves

Why is it that when I *want* to take a picture of my cat she runs for the hills, yet sticks her face in my yarn the second I set it on the couch and reach for the camera? Oh yeah, she's a cat.

This yarn was spun from Merino/Tencel blend top that I purchased ages ago in Port Gamble, but it was too frustrating to spin on my drop spindle so I set it aside. It spun up like a dream on the wheel. I spun it worsted with a little extra twist than necessary, plied it and got out the kool-aid to dye it in the steamer. (Roughly equal parts fruit punch and grape) The result is a firm shiny & smooth yarn that I'm hoping will be tough wearing for gloves.

Handspun doesn't seem to sit in stash like bought yarn, it always jumps to the top of the queue.

2008-01-04T20:10:00.001-08:00

pi blocking
Originally uploaded by trillium knits

Wow was this poor shawl on the needles for a long time. (According to Ravelry it was cast on in July) I kept getting caught up in sweater and gift knitting. This is my first full size lace project and I'm quite pleased with how it turned out.

Pattern: Pi Shawl ala Elizabeth Zimmerman
Yarn: Malabrigo Lace Weight, Cypress colorway
Needles: size 5 Addis.

The next time I knit lace with this yarn I think I'll go up a needle size, it could have been a little more open. This yarn is soft like butter. I just want to wrap it around my head and snorgle it. We'll see how well it holds up. I'll try to be gentle with it.

2007-12-29T22:24:00.000-08:00

Happy Holidays and almost New Year! And now for the photo-fest.

I'm finishing up wips left and right around here lately and it feels great. I finished Dad's hat in plenty of time for Christmas, so I whipped one up for the nephew as well. I tried to take pictures of Dad wearing his hat both ways, but there was a bit of user error/dorkiness going on so the balaclava picture is a little wonky. It really does fold out into a normal looking balaclava with hat deelio.

Look while his cuteness tries to swallow your soul. Don't worry, it won't hurt. :)

Mom's socks fit perfectly, she does have two of them, but managed to hold up one foot for the photo op.

After the gift knitting was over I spent a couple of days knitting up my handspun bfl into a vest. This took about half of the yarn I made.

I've also been knitting like mad on my pi shawl for the first time in months. I'm 7 rows from starting the border (which will be an edging from Victorian Lace Today) so it shouldn't be long now. Here's my plump kitty posing with said lump of unblocked lace.

Today however, I took some of my leftover handspun and finally knit up a cozy for my odd shaped and rather bulky camera. I love my camera because it has a great optical zoom, but the lens cap is always falling off so it really needed a cozy. I knit the base in the shape of the camera and then used a zillion dpns to knit each section up and then sewed them together to keep the shape of the camera. I love the final product.

grandma cardigan

2007-12-20T14:05:00.001-08:00

grandma cardigan
Originally uploaded by trillium knits

Finished except for a final block. I'm really pleased with how it turned out. The color in this picture is a little too bright, the actual color is a shade darker, but this shows the cable detail nicely.

I'll see if I can find someone to model it for me at knitting tonight.

2007-12-11T17:12:00.001-08:00

forest batt
Originally uploaded by trillium knits

I ran out of dark bfl before I ran out of the light, so I finished off this bobbin of the dark with a pretty batt I picked up at the Fiber Station this weekend. This is some kind of random medium soft and nicely crimpy wool dyed in lovely shades of dark brown, moss green and rust.

It should coordinate nicely (I hope!) with the straight dark and light yarn I've already spun up once plied with my remaining cream colored bfl.

I'm hoping that these three hefty skeins should be enough to knit a nice v-neck vest with. This will be my first non accessory knitting with handspun, eep.

Spinning is crack. Seriously. I never thought anything could be worse than knitting in regards to addictive properties. Not that I want to be cured or anything. :)

Here's skein #2 where I finished off in dark on dark.

Smoooshy

2007-12-10T20:07:00.001-08:00

dad hat
Originally uploaded by trillium knits

In case anyone besides me was worried about my holiday knitting, it is still is in progress. I cast on Dad's convertible hat/balaclava Saturday morning at the coffeeshop.

The yarn is Knitpicks Merino laceweight, doubled. I'm getting about 8 stitches to the inch in 1x1 ribbing. This fabric is so light and smooshy. It's like a baby's bottom, heh.

I took terrible notes making Mom's hat like this last month, so I'm glad I kept the 30 yo prototype that Dad gave me.

Tomorrow I plan on casting on the last section of Grandma's cardigan (the right front) so I can get that all finished up soon. Then I can see how much time I have left for a few other holiday pieces. I'm definitely not knitting as much stuff this year as last, although I have a few other crafty (and not so time consuming) gifts underway.

More BFL

2007-12-10T18:46:00.001-08:00

barber bfl
Originally uploaded by trillium knits

I'm getting much better at this plying business. This batch is turning out nice and even. I spun up two bobbins each of oatmeal colored and dark grey blue faced leicester. I'm halfway through plying them together and very pleased so far. This first half is 126 grams and 12wpi.

2007-12-08T15:08:00.001-08:00

sweet honesty plied
Originally uploaded by trillium knits

Here's the copperpot meriono all spun up. The first bit of plying is still a bit wonky, but the rest looks much better to me.

Now I'm working on some oatmeal colored BFL from Spunky. It's sooo soft. I picked up some Alpaca/Merino at the Fiber station today that I can't wait to try out too.

How's my holiday knitting coming you say??

sweet honesty merino

2007-12-06T14:17:00.001-08:00

sweet honesty merino
Originally uploaded by trillium knits

Squeeee

2007-12-05T07:37:00.000-08:00

I received word yesterday that my spinning wheel is finally in transit. It left Oregon on Monday via UPS, so I should have it some time between today and Friday. w00t.

I'm hoping that the latest batch of fibery goodness will arrive in the mail for me today. I ordered some dyed locks from Spunky Eclectic and I can't wait to play with the hand carders that are shipping with my wheel. I would have most likely already received them, but someone plowed into our mailbox for the third time in 6 months and it was out of commisson Saturday-Tuesday Afternoon.

If I'm really lucky the yarn for Dad's hat will be waiting for me too. Mom is loving her silky wool prototype. She was bragging about it to my sister, by calling it a "face mask" and I thought she was talking about the goopy spa stuff rather than my convertible hat/balaclava creation. LOL. In the same order as Dad's yarn should be "Teach yourself Handspinning, Visually" (or something to that effect) I've got to remember to take the library spinning books back this week.

Here's a picture of the weekend snow storm. We got another inch or two after this picture was taken, but then it was all washed away in the deluge that followed. No pictures of the flood. We lucked out with just some water in the garage. We need to reseal the deck above the garage again. It was no match for 8 inches of rain, or whatever we ended up getting in those 2 days.

2007-11-28T07:13:00.000-08:00

Just a quick note to announce that I have knit over half of Grandma's sweater with under half of my allotted yarn. w00t. I have a hard time estimating how much yarn cables are going to eat, so this is quite a relief. I'll post some picture once I block the finished pieces.

2007-11-23T15:33:00.000-08:00

Spinning Fool

I received my Spunky Eclectic roving on Monday and I've already spun and plied a 100 grams of Neopolitan Merino. This stuff was a pleasure to spin, soft and crimpy. I'm thinking this will end up as a kitty hat. It's so light and fluffy. You can still see the variation in my spinning thickness, but it't much more even than previous skeins. I'd say this varies from dk to heavy worsted with most of it right in the midde.

Here's a picture of the BFL that I finished up last week, all the hanks are set and one is rolled into a cake so I can do a gauge swatch. This picture is a much better representation of the color than the one I posted last week. I have about 240 grams of this. I think this is going to be a vest, once I've spun up enough plain brown bfl to add to it.

Knitting continues on Grandma's Cardigan. I'm almost up the armhole on the first front.

2007-11-19T10:18:00.000-08:00

My Ravelry swag arrived on Saturday. I've already worn both shirts and have one of the buttons on my sweatshirt. Obsessed. Much. Me?

I'm waiting with baited breath for my Lendrum to arrive. (Insert lendrum lendrum lendrum chant here) I'm hoping like crazy that it will be here before Thanksgiving so I can play with it over the long weekend.

Also winging it's way to me are two orders of fiber. (In my defense, my roving stash is still minuscule, I swear!)

The new roving is coming from Spunky Eclectic & the Esty shop Copperpot Woolies. At the Copperpot shop I actually won a drawing, so will be getting some silk fiber in addition to the two colors of hand painted Merino I ordered. w00t. I was so excited to see Spunky Eclectic carrying roving because I love her skinny sock yarn to death. Good times.

Still no pictures to post, you may blame lack of daylight, rain & my tiny attention span, not necessarily in that order.

2007-11-16T08:16:00.000-08:00

This has been a big week on the fiber front. I'm exhausted and giddy and I spent too much money, but there's no real remorse.

Monday was the big opening registration day for the Madrona Fiber Arts festival. Last year this time I wasn't really in the loop on the whole fiber event world and didn't hear about it until long after classes were sold out. So this year I got on the mailing list and prepared myself to leap on some classes. (Especially after how much fun I had at Nordic Knitting)

Two weeks ago they posted the schedule so we could decide on classes ahead of time, and my goodness was that a good thing as the online reg. system had broken down by 8:15. I, however, was waiting like a vulture at 7:55 so I managed to snag all of the classes I wanted.

I'm registered for Mittens from Rovaniemi, Kauni Hats & a session with the Yarn Harlot. This is two full days of classes. I'm so dorkily exicted to try my hand at that mitten technique. 11 color intarsia in the round on size 000 needles, w00t. I'm also signed up for the Banquet on Saturday night, and even though this is pretty local to me (Tacoma, WA) I'm going to get a hotel room for Friday night so I can hang out in the bar and knit that night. :)

And if this wasn't enough fibery goodness, we got our quarterly profit sharing at work on Wednesday and before the money could even stretch it's legs I ordered a spinning wheel. Eeeep! I'm so excited about this. It's the complete Lendrum DT package from Woodland Woolworks in Oregon. This is the same model that my friend Mary has and I just love spinning on it. It's so giddily fast compared to the spindle spinning I'm used to.

In celebration of the wheel I spent three hours yesterday finishing up the pink and brown Merino/BFL yarn that's been languishing in my spinning basket for the last couple of weeks.

Excuse the crappy picture, I'll post some nice ones when I've got it all washed and set and we have a dry enough spell to take a picture outside.

I also snapped a picture of Grandma's first sleeve this morning, with equally bad lighting. The cables actually really pop on this, it's just impossible to capture with a flash ;)

Looking out to sea

2007-11-10T12:13:00.001-08:00

pirate 3
Originally uploaded by trillium knits

Gordon modeling his finished pirate sweater at the coffeeshop last week.

more dolls

2007-11-08T13:22:00.001-08:00

dolls2
Originally uploaded by trillium knits

Mine is the purple crazy haired girl clutching the test tubes.

Inside the test tubes are mummy and skeleton spider babies made by the ever so spooky Mary.

Craft Night

2007-11-08T13:20:00.001-08:00

dolls1
Originally uploaded by trillium knits

2007-11-06T14:18:00.000-08:00

I spent last week knitting mom a hat/balaclava hybrid that I then failed to take a picture of. I'll try to remember to take a picture of it next weekend when we do her birthday again, this time with my sister and her spawn.

The hat in question was deconstructed from a 30 year old hat my dad implored me to copy for him, as he can't find a replacement for it anywhere. He then added, "your mom wants one too." Since this was a week before her birthday, she got the prototype.

It was fun little project. Warm soft and ever so useful. Since I made it out of leftover silky wool it was hard to part with it. After Dad gets his, I might have to make another for myself.

2007-10-31T15:14:00.000-07:00

The pirate sweater is finished and drying on my drafting table. I think I maybe went a little *too* loosey goosey with the stranding this time around, but you can only tell in a couple of places. When it's completely dry I may fiddle with a few stitches here and there, though it will all probably even out on it's own after another washing or two. It actually looks pretty fab. I was worried that the finished sweater was going to grow a mile when it hit the water (despite what my small swatch fortold) so I was very careful laying it out to block. All seems well on that front.

I can tell you one thing, I'm never making another stranded chart with 12 stitches of one color in a row again. I knew it was going to be a pain to twist the strands a gazillion times around the sweater and boy it sure was! heh. I've gotten pretty comfy with the two handed fair aisle and that just totally broke my rhythm. The last few rows I just threw caution to the wind and knit without twist (shhhh)

I'm currently drooling over the class list for the Madrona Fiber Festival in February, and deciding how many classes I can try for and not interfere with my upcoming spinning wheel purchase. I have two weeks before registration opens to change my mind a dozen times. ;)

Pictures of the Pirate Sweater of Doooom this weekend.

2007-10-28T12:28:00.001-07:00

Remind me not to try to look off into the distance in pictures, I just look confused, lol.

2007-10-25T20:46:00.000-07:00

Finished!

I finished Kilronan tonight at Knit Night. I'm very pleased. The seaming went off almost without a hitch and it fits just right. I'm tempted to take pictures tonight, but our house is a cave at night, so I'm going to wait til the weekend so I can have Gordon take some good pictures outside.

2007-10-17T04:42:00.001-07:00

SLEEVES
Originally uploaded by trillium knits

Work on Kilronan continues. Knitting both sleeves together is making time seem to slow to a crawl, but I'm actually making fairly good progress I think. I've only been working on these at home because I don't want to accidentally break the size 2 wood needles they're knitted on.

Another week and I should be at the finishing stage I hope. I ordered a few more balls of telemark because things are looking very down to the wire.

2007-10-11T09:14:00.000-07:00

You must obey the cuteness of Evan in his little devil pants.

The sizing came out just perfect, they're nice and baggy but still wearable. Karen says he needs little old man suspenders ;)

2007-10-08T07:24:00.000-07:00

Nordic Knitting Conference

I had soooo much geeky knitter fun this weekend. It was slightly exhausting, falling on the weekend after a four day camping trip, but it was so worth it.

I didn't hear about this event until slightly after the first registration rush, so I was limited in my class choices, but the ones I ended up getting in to were absolutely fabulous.

Saturday Afternoon I arrived at the Nordic Heritage Museum in Ballard to check in. I was about 45 minutes early for my first class so I dropped in on the last half of the slideshow presentation on the Faroese Isles. (I would have arrived earlier, had I known this was going on) As I entered the narrator was explaining fishing practices on the islands and there was soft chattering from the crowd. Then the scene changed on the screen to a bevy of curly locked sheep. This sound went through the crowd in unison that was halfway between a sigh and an "Oooooh" It was so awesome, I felt completed surrounded by the likeminded. It was eerily reminiscent of my first arrival at a Pagan festival. ;)

My Saturday afternoon class was "The Magic of Runes" with Elsbeth Lavold. I didn't really learn anything new here it was just fun. Elsbeth charted our words for us ahead of time so we each got to knit our own design. I'd submitted "Blessed Be" but she thankfully shortened that to "Bless" (Okay, I did learn something, it takes an awful lot of space to knit words in runic, at least in worsted weight) ;) I had fun chatting with Katherine during class. (I got to pet her Qiviut yarn, swoon) Other highlights included fondling a new bamboo yarn that will be out in the Lavold line next year and having Elbeth compliment my hair ;)

After class there was a lovely happy hour event, that I sadly only got to stay at a few minutes as I had to rush off for my nephew's first birthday party. His momma loved the Little Devil pants. I can't wait to see a picture of him in them. It looks like they should fit him with room to grow.

Sunday was almost a disaster. I'm apparently unable to read a ferry schedule after all these years. I missed the little triangle next to the boat I planned to catch indicating it didn't run on Sundays.

I considered bailing entirely on my Faroese shawl class to save myself the embarrassment of stumbling into class 45 minutes late, but I forged ahead anyway and I'm soooo glad I did because it was fabulous. The class was taught by Marilyn Van Keppel, who was amazing. I learned a ton and was caught up in no time. I'm now itching to get my hands on the big Faroese Shawl Book, which School House Press is waiting to get back in stock. Marilyn did the English translation that is included when you buy the book from School House. For class we knit miniature shawls (Teddy bear sized) so we could get through all the various shaping bits. The design is just so clever and simple once you understand how it works. I can't wait to make a full sized one!!

Okay, I've probably rambled on enough here. Can you tell I had a blast? I hope they do this again. I'm itching to plan out a year's worth of knitting and fiber events now. I just need to find someone to drag along.

2007-10-04T08:29:00.000-07:00

OMG so adorable. I can't wait to see them modeled.

Click here to see Evan's birthday present if YOU ARE NOT MY SEESTOR.