Welcome to babyland

The adventures in babyland have officially begun.  I found out about a month ago that one of my remote colleagues was pregnant but isn't due until December.  She doesn't yet know the sex of the baby so I've been sort of waiting for that before I start some of the small stuff.  The big stuff is being begun tonight as I've finally decided which of my vintage patterns to use.

That being said, after I found out about that baby, I've found out there are 2 other co-workers with babies or grandbabies coming or just here so this weekend, I've been working on those.  Both include my Vintage Rocks Baby pattern but now I've added a pair of booties to the outfit.  I haven't got the booties added to the posted pattern yet but I'll be trying to get that done soon.

I just love this pattern.  I also have an idea for soakers to go with it using the same feather and fan pattern.  I have 2 more skeins of this yarn so I may try to work on that this week.  These booties are based on a 1946 pattern but I adapted it to match the sweater and I think it makes such a sweet addition.

I won't be mosting most of the other stuff since I have a suspicion that Mom peeks at the blog from time to time but if I do the soakers (and maybe a little hat to round it off) I'll be sure to get a photo of them, too.

I ran away from home

Last week was such a hard week, I decided on Friday to run away from home.  I had friends who were vending at the Midwest Fiber and Folk Festival and this weekend was the monthly meeting of the LACE group in Chicago.  So I decided to go up for the meeting and then head further north for the festival.  There's no better therapy after a really hard week than being among my people - the people of the fiber.

Unfortunately my weekend started at 7am with me at the ATM discovering I didn't have my checkbook with me.  I'd had it out the night before balancing it and hadn't been out of the house since so I knew it was in the house.  I went home to grab it and after tearing the house apart for an hour and a half, decided to go on without it.I never did find it and had to report a lost card to the bank this morning but the most important thing was that it made me late for the LACE meeting.  They were having a program on the crocheted "crocodile" stitch which sounded really interesting, even though I'm not that crazy about crocheting with yarn.  I got to the meeting as people were leaving but the lovely teacher (whose name I didn't even get) stayed and walked me through the beginnings and gave me a copy of the pattern.  See what you think:

It's really easy (once you get the hang of which side of the work you're working on) and there are a lot of possibilities.  There's even a whole Annie's Attic book with projects using this stitch.  I haven't been able to track it down yet but I'll definitely have to find it.

At the festival, I ended up getting the most beautifuly hand-thrown teapot (sorry, I don't have a photo handy) and fiber.  Lots of fiber.  19micron Merino.  Merino and silk.  Merino and kid mohair.  All in white.  I'll probably dye the merino/silk and maybe the merino but the merino/kid mohair is going to stay in the lovely natural white.

I also got the most beautiful Driftwood Spindles spindle.  I don't remember the wood used for the whorl and can't find my card but the shaft, which is also beautifully detailed, is Mesquite wood.  Anyone from Texas would understand why finding that out confirmed my purchase.  It's extremely light and spins like the wind.  I've started on the merino/kid mohair with this spindle and the outcome is going to be breathtaking.  Yet another candidate for the white on white project.

I can testify to the fact that if you get your butt kicked at work, what you need is fiber and people of the fiber.  That makes everything better!

Determination

This post is about determination.  Not mine but my yarn's.  This is Blue-faced Leicester wool, dyed by Frabjous Fibers, spun by me several years ago that I've attempted to make various things with. The last effort was going to be a Shetland shawl.  I got the middle done and 3/4 of the border before I realized I wasn't going to have enough yarn.

One thing about getting fiber that's been hand-dyed.  It's never going to come out the same any two times, even if you have a recipe.  But I hoped against hope that it would work and ordered more of the colorway.  But there was no joy.  I got the new rope and, although deeply beautiful (as all their fiber is), it was not close enough even for government work.

But I so wanted to knit with this yarn that I ripped out the border and started again on a wrap shawl with one of my favorite lace patterns, one that, once established, is really easy to work without having to reference the pattern.  I've just finished the yarn that made up the border and have a good 25 inches (unblocked but slightly stretched).  Now I'm going to join on the yarn from the middle section, which was knitted corner to corner.  I decided not to rip it out and ball it up first.  I'm just going to knit right off the previous knitting to cause the least wear and tear to the yarn.  It's a little wider than I intended but it will be fine.  The plan is to finish the main body and then I have some merino roving that exactly matches the turquoise in this variegated yarn that I am spinning to match and I will use that to add a wide border to each end of the shawl to finish it off.  I may even go crazy and add some beads to that!

If you want to do this easy lace pattern, which creates a lovely wavy, leafy sort of pattern, here's what you do.

Cast on in multiples of 8 with at least a couple of extra stitches on either side.
The first half of the pattern goes like this:

• Yarn over, SSK, knit 6, repeat to end and then do your extra stitches (I've got 10 garter stitches on either side)
• Purl wrong side rows
• Yarn over, knit 1, SSK, knit 5, repeat to end
• etc.  Keep knitting 1 more stitch before the SSK and 1 stitch less after it until you get to
• Yarn over, knit 6, SSK, repeat to end.

For the second half of the pattern you reverse this, so you have:

• Knit 6, K2tog, yarn over
• Knit 5, K2tog, knit 1, yarn over
• Knit 4, K2tog, knit 2, yarn over
• etc. until you get to K2tog, knit 6, yarn over

This way your traveling stitch (whether it's moving to the left with the slip, slip, knit 2 stitches together (SSK) or moving to the right with the knit 2 together (K2tog)) weaves back and forth.  Really nice and really easy.  If you lose count, just keep an eye on where the traveling stitch is and you can find your place again.

Play Time

I finally got around to playing with my Fimo clay this weekend to make different configurations of spindles.  I'm not deeply satisfied with any of the efforts but it was kind of fun.

I mixed a sheet of colors and did a few cut outs.  The little pieces in the front were cut from leftovers and I've made holes on each corner of the triangle spindle that I'm going to attach a little leaf to and see what happens when that spins.  The ball shaped one would have been prettier if the ball underneath had been a solid color and then had the colored leaves and flowers attached.  On the square blue and brown one, I added two smaller square pieces in the brown color underneath the blue to add some weight and that makes it a much better weight for spinning.

Lessons learned. 

1. It was fun to play with clay when I was 4 and it's still fun to play with it today.
2. I need to get a handle on how much the hardened clay weighs so I can have an idea on how to design them so they spin right.
3. I need to find a straw or something hollow to cut the holes instead of just poking the sticks through.
4. When you lay out ropes of clay in different colors and  flatten them together, the color distribution is different on the bottom than on the top.  Check out both sides.
5. All the shapes seemed reasonably well balanced except the ball.  (refer to #3)
6. More play uhm, work needed.

I've been waiting to show you this

I love spinning.  I love spinning with spindles.  I love drop spindles and I love supported spindles.  A few weeks ago I made a spindle from a clay whorl from Gambia (I think that's where it was from).  While I was spinning with it, I suddenly thought, what keeps me from making my own whorl.  I had a tub of clay that I've been using for another project so I got it out and started playing.

First I made one that was sort of oblong, another was square and then I found some cutters and came up with these:

With the round one, I did a little design before it dried all the way and I did a little something on the tip of the flowers but I haven't done any other decorating.  I need to get some paint to play around with now.  I love the retro look of the layered flowers.  They all spin reasonably well but I still need to finish the tops so I can spin of the end. 

Next I'm going to play around with adding some beads to the clay but I'll need to get some varnish or something first so the beads can be set into the clay.

In the meantime, I'm going to get started spinning.

Quick peek

I've been very lax in posting the last couple of weeks because there have been a few things going on, including a quick trip to Paris.  Sounds very cosmopolitan, right?  Well, it was cool and it was quick (I had a day and a half to sightsee and a very, very looooong day in meetings with 3,000 people - company meeting) and I haven't quite caught up with myself yet.  It hasn't helped that I spent the entire weekend sleeping fitfully and sneezing and blowing my nose.

But regardless, I got my beaded purse all but finished.  I don't think this is going to be the final handle for it but I've got it lined and attached to the frame and I wish I had somewhere to wear it!

It came out far, far, far more fancy pants than I intended when I started but it started and there was just no stopping it.  I've got it hanging on my dress form just because the black showed up the beads better but it is carried by hand.  I love the clever frame that expands out to open.  Very Victorian.

It's summer, right?

Sorry, but blogging has taken a back seat during this time in my life to life.  There's still plenty going on but I'm usually just too tired to take pics and post.

This weekend ended up being pretty productive, even considering all the things I had to get done for an upcoming trip.  I've been working on a beaded bag that got this far until I ran out of beads.  I had to wait for my favorite bead store to open after the holiday so I could go get another tube but darned if they didn't have any more of the beads I'd used for the bag.  But they did have something close, the beads you see in the fringe here.  Yes, I got this far, had to rip out, tread the new beads and got to the same point and ran out of beads.  But this time I only ran out of beads that were threaded.  Don't worry, I got 2 tubes of the suckers so I would make sure I had enough.  You can's tell too much in this photo but the new beads are a square cut and they have a little more shimmer color in them than the beads in the bag.  But I think it's going to work fine.  There will also be a row of loops about an inch from the top.  I'll have to save showing you the frame I'm going to use until I get it finished.  It will be lined and I already have the lining made.  It will just need to be sewn in. 

 Another project I started this week was an Elizabeth Zimmerman Pi Shawl.I found this fingering weight boucle (I think it's a JoAnn Fabric store brand) in these great spring colors.  You know I love the lime.  I thought this would be a great wrap for the warmer weather when you need a little something in venues with air conditioning.  It's only just begun and there's no way I'm going to knit a lace edging for it.  This one will have a crochet bind off and like it!

 And, finally, I have no earthly idea why I started this project other than I just really liked the pattern and I'm a sucker for color work.  It's just dawned on me that these 3 projects represent the 3 types of knitting I most like to do - beadwork, lace and color work.  Humm...

I didn't have the light weight yarn the pattern called for but I did have a bunch of different colors of Brown Sheep Nature Spun (my favorite yarn) and I was able to approximate the colors from the pattern.  Mine's going to be much longer than intended but I'm probably just going to frame mine anyway (if it comes out alright, that is).  I just love the process.