Progress

I'm in one of those phases where I've got lots of large projects on the go and it's hard to see any progress on anything.  Usually I have a smaller project that I can finish quickly and have some sense of accomplishment but not right now.  So, it's slowly as we go.

Amish Center Diamond Afghan - I'm almost finished with the 3rd side.  After the 4th side I will still need to make a diamond motif for the very center.

1923 Lily Pond Breakfast cloth - I'm almost finished with the 3rd motif (some sort of pattern happening here).  There's supposed to be 6 of them but I'm going to see if it will work with 4.  I'll still need to make the placemat sections to go with it so I've got quite a way to go before finishing this one.

Colorful lace - I'm spinning this merino, trying to do some true laceweight yarn.  These are 1 ounce batches that I got in a sampler package several years ago.  Once I've got the colored singles done, the plan is to do a singles of black then ply the 2 together.  I have no earthly idea what I would do with it but it's a dream to spin.

Pima cotton - I got this cotton still on the seed a couple of months ago and I've been wanting to get at it ever since.  I've interrupted the colorful lace which, although it's a dream to spin, takes forever to spin.  I've taken the unprocessed cotton still, as I said, on the seed and combed it out with a little doggy comb to get it ready to spin.  I know there are cotton combs but I've found these work just as well and cost about $6 each. 

I've done a little bit of cotton spinning but never enough to really think I know what I'm doing from one time to the other.  So it's taken me a little bit to get up to speed and it's not very regular but it's okay for me for the present.  It's more about experimenting (playing) and getting a better idea of how cotton works.  I'm hoping to get a bobbin full. I'm certainly not a third of the way through this one!

Silk of my dreams

If you've ever looked at 19th century patterns, you've seen a purse pattern calling for purse silk.  I've often wondered what the purse silk was and have always substituted perle cotton crochet thread.  I was cruising through the online catalogue for Fire Mountain Gems and Beads, one of my favorite places to be.  If you're into beading or anything in that line, these are the people to know.  I started thinking about the silk thread I'd seen before and wondering how it would work for purse silk.  But I had no idea how the sizes worked.

I ordered 2 spools, one is sized "FFF" which is the largest size, and one is "FF," the next smallest size, to test it out.  The gold is the FF and the orange is the FFF.   I loaded each of them with 11/0 beads and knitted these samples.  I have to say, the handle of the knitted pieces is so luxurious I can't even describe.  The thought of having a reticule knitted out of this stuff is taking me over and I suspect that I will have one before the weekend is out.  I don't know that's the case but I have very, very strong suspicions.

In case you're wondering, the beads on the orange thread are turqoise and the palest of yellows.  The interaction of the beads against the color of the silk has really affected the color of the beads and I think I kind of like it.

In other things going on, I've finally gotten back to working on the 1923 pattern for the Crocheted Pond Lily Breakfast Cloth.  I've finished the second middle piece (you can follow the link for a picture) and started on the 3rd.  I didn't take another picture because, believe it or not, it looks exactly like the first one!  Nevertheless, I have determined that if I follow the pattern exactly and make 6 middle pieces, I'll never own a table large enough to ever use it or display it.  And I've used just the thread it calls for - size 60 cotton.  So I"ve decided that I can probably make 4 of them and it might be a little more manageable.  Also, that means that I'm halfway done with the middle section and that sounds a lot better than 1/3 of the way done!  Once I finish these, the very center will be linen and then there are crocheted place mats that fit in between each of these "tongues."  Very pretty.  Very vintage.

I have encountered one problem though that means I really shouldn't be spinning in the same clothes that I work the crochet in.  It seems that no matter how careful you are when you're spinning, small bits of fiber stick to you.  And when you're crocheting with size 60 cotton and a size 12 or 13 crochet hook, the cotton picks up those little bits of fiber and works it right into the fabric.  I think I've got most of it out but now I have to either crochet first, spin later or crochet all night and not spin at all.  Rough.

Live and learn, right?

Going Southwest and Progress

I had these the other day but the post was already too long so I decided to wait to share it. A few weeks ago a friend asked if I wanted to go in on a Navajo-Churro lamb fleece. She'd made herself a Navajo spindle which fascinated me and I'd asked her to make me one. The fleece seemed to be the next logical step.

The fleece came and we've both been playing with it in preparation to the spin along with a spinning group on Ravelry. She kept saying there was an aweful lot of vegetable matter in it but I didn't realize how much until I started working on it. Here's a shot of the locks before and after some preparation. To the left is a skeinlette of generic wool I spun on my beautiful handmade Navajo spindle. Here it is:

Ain't it purty!

On another note, I've finished the first section of the 1923 pattern. It's going to be HUGE but it's going to be gorgeous.

Reveling in the past

This will be quite a long post so if you're seated comfortably, we'll begin...

I'm back from vacation and have barely been able to catch my breath. That means I've got a lot of catching up to do here. I mentioned in a previous post about going to the Texas First Ladies exhibit at TWU. I got some pictures but my camera batteries went dead so I only got a few. Have a look:

And one of the fun things about hanging out with my Mom, is I have time to do some experimenting. Several years ago I made a sweater using Lion Brand's Fisherman's Wool and the Fisherman's Rib stitch which is also known under quite a few other names including Brioche stitch. We've found it all through 19th century patterns. I learned to do the stitch originally through an old Vogue Knitting magazine in an Elizabeth Zimmerman article. The way EZ taught it was to cast on an odd number of stitches, knit 1, then knit into the stitch below the next stitch. You repeat those to the end and then knit 1. On the opposite side you knit 2 then knit below and knit 1, repeating the last 2 until the end of the row. Once you get into the rhythm with it, it's quite fun to do. You just have to be really patient and aware of what you're doing for the first 8 or 10 rows until the pattern starts to emerge. After that, the previous row will give you clues about where you are.

As we've been researching, however, the most common instructions are to knit 1, put the yarn forward and slip the next stitch purlwise, bring the yarn to the back (really it's just a yarn over) and then knit 1, repeating the last 2 to the end. Generally they would tell you to cast on an even number of stitches and just do the same thing on both sides. With this version, you know immediately where you are and it's much, much easier if you make a mistake to go back.

One of the things I've been wanting to try out is doing it in 2 colors. I came across a great website devoted to the brioche stitch. She had very clear instructions on how to work with more than 1 color so I got some white wool and some green wool and cast on. I liked the pattern so much I just kept going until I had quite a decent length scarf. But I still had some green left (and lots of white) so I decided I would try to figure out how to do this in the round and make me a matching hat. Once I realized I just had to knit the white rounds and purl the green rounds, it worked like a dream! Have a look at this:

And totally reversible:

I cast on 20 stitches for the scarf and 80 for the hat on size 5 needles if you want to try it. One thing to keep in mind is for the scarf, you need to use either double pointed needles or circular needles.

Yarn store report: On my way back I stopped in Springfield, MO, at one of the friendliest yarn shops I've found and got some lovely fiber. If you're ever through Springfield, stop by Simply Fibers and have a look. Very cute, very friendly, and a very nice selection.

And FINALLY, I started a new project. I'll let the picture say it all for now except to say the middle part sits in the middle of the table and the six pond scenes are placemats. I'm doing it in the size 50 thread I used for the Starburst cloth.

(edited to fix the First Lady pictures)