The Day in Pictures

Just a quick, quick post to give you a link to photos of the Needle in a Haystack day, courtesy of the kind folks at Lincoln Land.  Click here to view a slide show.

Weekend Report

I'm not sure how many superlatives there are in the English language but I think I could use them all from Saturday's Needle in a Haystack event.  The facilities were fabulous, the organization was flawless, the classes were an exciting mix and the people who came along were all the loveliness that anyone could ever ask for.  The guilds did a great job of their displays and demonstrations. 

In case you can't tell, it went alright!

My Intro to the Drop Spindle was overflowing with 12 women who blew me away at how quickly they picked up the spinning.  In a mere hour and 20 minutes, minus time for getting in and taking care of class stuff, they were all spinning.  By the end of the time, every single one of them had yarn on their spindles and smiles on their faces.  We'll definitely be putting this class on the roster.  Just think what they could do with several hours.  Wow.

There were 5 intrepid crocheters in the Amigurumi Crochet class.  There wasn't nearly enough time to get the whole Lazy Bee done but they got a good portion of it done, including learning the magic loop cast on, increases, decreases and attaching appendages.  That's a whole lot in that amount of time.  They did a great job and I can't wait to see the finished projects.

All of the classes had enough students to go ahead and there were probably at least 80-85 people who participated in the day.  An amazing results considering there was so little lead time for the event.  In fact up until a week ago, there were grave concerns that it would go at all.  But in the last week, everyone started signing up and it was a great day.  We all fervently hope the College will see its way to hosting another event next year.  THANK YOU, Lincoln Land, Judy and all your staff.  You gave us a wonderful experience.

I was so wrapped up in everything, I didn't think to get pictures but I'm hoping some others who took photos will be able to pass some along.

New Video

I just wrote a whole post that disappeared when I was trying to post it.  Never mind.  Here we go again.

I've just posted a new video on spinning cotton from the seed so give it a look.  Here's the link.  It came out of a program I've been preparing for the Prairie Weaver's group this coming Tuesday.  I thought this would be a fun way to have a follow up for those who want to go back and practice spinning from the seed (which, by the way, is my favorite way to spin cotton).

I also wanted to remind you that if you've ever wanted to try out spinning with a drop spindle and are in the Central Illinois area, be sure to sign up for my class at the Lincoln Land "Needle in a Haystack" event on January 15th.  There's still some room in the class.  You'll be able to put together your own spindle, learn the basics of handling fiber and get started spinning.  Although the class is a little over an hour, I'll be around all day in the demonstration area and you can bring your stuff over and we'll spin all day.  Here's a link to more information about the day and how to get registered.  There are lots of other classes, too.  Hope to see you there.

Finally finished

I decided I needed a basic, neutral cardigan (last May) so I pulled out my stock of Lion Brand Fisherman's Wool and got started.  I just wanted something simple and I love this yarn more than any other commercial yarn.  The price, colors and style is perfect for experimenting with patterns and for any kind of sweater.

It looks a little weird on the dress form but it fits great.  The yoke is a bit weird but I kind of like it.  Actually I'm not bothered by it because it fits and will do what I wanted it to do.  I haven't done buttons yet I think what I'm going to do is put snaps down the front instead of buttons and then put an accent button where the saddle shoulder section come together.  Might look cool.

Happy New Year, by the way!

An Ode to Split Peas (and other stuff like a 3 needle cast on)

I had a bunch of ham left over and was trying to think what to do with it.  So I whipped out my trusty Betty Crocker cookbook app and came across a Split Pea and Ham soup recipe that was unbelievably easy - once I found the yellow split peas it called for.  I followed the recipe and dumped all the listed ingredients into the crock pot last night and got up this morning to the most amazing soup I've had in years.  It was all of about 5 ingredients and BAM!  It made me curious, though, to find out the difference between the green and yellow peas (nothing) and I found out some really interesting facts.  Here's what it says on Wikipedia:

They are a great source of protein and are also a very lean and healthy type of cereal, with only 1 gram of fat per 350 calorie serving. Most of the calories come from protein and complex carbohydrates. The split pea is known to be a natural food source that contains some of the highest amounts of fiber, containing 26 grams of fiber (104% DV based on a 2,000 calorie diet). Fiber is known to help the digestive system and to make people feel full and satiated.

I used to make a lentil soup but hadn't even thought about it for years.  I will be making more in the future, I guararntee.  Excuse me a minute, will you?

OK, I'm back and I'll try not to drip on the keyboard.

I decided I had enough of the handspun used for the hat and scarf for mittens.  Now, knitters will know that these decisions are as often made by wanting something to be true as by being able to prove the thing is true.  I was sure.  OK, I was pretty sure.  Who said trust but verify?  I decided to ball the skein into two equal size balls, then I'd be able to handle any surprises.

My second decision was to work the mittens from the tips down, something I've never done before but I decided if I had to substitute another yarn to make up for any shortages, it would be better to do that on the cuff rather than the tips.  But, hey, there's not much to a mitten, right?  But how to start?

I've heard of 3 needle bind-offs but couldn't that work the other way around?  Couldn't you do a 3 needle cast on?  I know there are a number of ways to cast on socks and whatever.  This is just how I figured out how to do it and here's what it looks like:

1. First I used a US size 7 double pointed needle (the size the mittens would be made with) and a US size 3 double pointed needle held together and did a long tail cast on to get 10 stitches.
2. Next, I pulled out the 7.  Using the 3 gave me lots more room to work the magic.
3. Using 2 size 7 needles, I knit 2 stitches from the first stitch on the needle.  I knit 1 stitch into the front of the stitch using 1 needle and I knit 1 stitch into the back of the stitch using the second needle.
4. Then I repeated the process across, giving me 20 stitches.  This isn't a great photo of the needles but it will give you an idea of what it looked like in the process:

6. Finally, I added 2 more needles and put 5 stitches of each of 4 double pointed needles and got ready to go.

 Then I just worked backwards, increasing on each side instead of decreasing.  When I got to the thumb, I bound off the number of stitches I would have normally cast on going the other way, knit around and then cast on the number of stitches I would normally have put aside on a stitch holder going the other way.  This does give you a little ridge at the bottom of the thumb when you have to go back and pick up stiches for the thumb but it doesn't show at all on the outside.

If I get a chance this weekend, I'll write out the pattern as I worked it but it was a very interesting new thing to learn.

Oh, yeah.  Did I end up with enough yarn?  Of course I did - with about 4 yards to spare!!

Busy Bee

I've been kind of quiet lately because I've been up to my elbows in projects and/or work (mostly work) but that just means there are reports to be made and even a couple of photos to show.

As I mentioned before, I will be teaching a class on Amigurumi crochet during the Lincoln Land Needle in a Haystack event on January 15th (you can register online here).  I have to say, I'm really getting into this.  I showed you some project I did earlier here.  I thought I might use the little turtle as the class project but in the back of my mind I kept thinking I wanted to do a bee.  I couldn't really find a pattern I liked so today I did this:

He turned out to be a happy little bee and cute to boot!  I'm pretty sure this is going to be our project.

I also got a couple of project finished up.  On the link above, along with the animals, is a scarf I made from some wool I'd spun up.  I started a hat but ran out of yarn.  Fortunately, I had another braid of roving left to spin.  From all that I could see, both braids were the same but when I got into the second braid, I realized that the colors were much mudier than the first and it did not turn out nearly as well as the first batch.  I'm so glad I did them in the order I did.  But I did get the braid finished, and with it, the hat:

I love it more than I could have imagined.  This yarn softened up tremendously when it was washed and I'm ready for tomorrow morning going back to work.  I love the vintage, almost flapper look of the hat, too.  It was totally unintentional, though, I have to say!

And talking about finishing, remember the felted clogs? I finally got around to actually felting them and something happened that I've never had happen before.  First, the felt:

These are shown next to the same shoe as the other.  I never get tired of it!  But the unexpected thing was that one of the clogs felted much more than the other. You can see the one on the left is larger than the one on the right. I've put it though another felting which helped but it's still too large so another felting will be on the horizon.  I just have to be careful to not overdo it and get one that won't fit my feet!!

Ready for Cold

I got a bright idea last night.  I had come across some single ply black alpaca I'd spun several years ago just waiting for the right project.  A couple of weeks ago at the Three Sisters Folk Art Guild, one of the ladies had a hat she'd knit of black, using a slightly variegated green in a fair isle pattern.  It was so beautiful.

So, I was spinning away on some variegated fiber and had a brainwave that it would look great knit with the black alpaca.  Here's what happened:

It hasn't been blocked but it was a little tight so on the brim, I decided to do an i-cord bind off.  But as I was doing it, I decided it wasn't going to make it quite loose enough so I went with just doing a knitted off edging (instead of slipping the 4 stitches back to the left hand needle and knitting it from the beginning, I knit the edging back and forth).  I really like the little rim it made and it's going to be snuggly and warm.  Who's afraid of the big, bad snow.  Ha!