Frog in Snow

I had to laugh this morning when I looked out the bedroom window into the back yard and saw this.

This little guy is sitting on a bird bath that used to sit in my garden.  It got knocked down during one of the storms but he's patiently waiting for spring.

Fini

I love it when projects go like this one did. 

 

Way back last year, early last year, I bought some fiber.  It was a special deal from Ashland Bay that had a variety of unusual wool fibers, including "Portuguese" wool and Masham (a breed of sheep).  I had some dark chocolate Shetland (another breed of sheep) in my stash already so that gave me a natural white (Portuguese), medium grayish brown (Masham), and dark brown (Shetland).  Several years ago I'd used the Ashland Bay Apple Green to spin some yarn for mittens and a scarf and I loved the color.  I thought that would be a great pop of color to go with the natural colors so I got some of that as well.  Late last year on my trip to Maine, I got to go to Halcyon Yarns (one of my absolute favorite places in the universe) and while I was there I found a Merino (yet another sheep breed) mix of 3 shades of natural colors that you spin together and get a medium brown with good depth to it.

 I started spinning a nice fluffy 2-ply yarn that after washing ended up much thicker than I expected.  But I had a picture in my mind of what a Fair Isle sweater would look like using these yarns.  Just a picture.  But I realized that the yarn was really too chunky for a sweater and I spent much of my drive to my Mom's mulling over what to do.  Lo and behold, I came across a knitting book in an antique mall that showed a cabled poncho using thick yarn and it hit me.  That would be a perfect use for my lovely yarn.

 I chose my needles and number of stitches to cast on (based on the cabled poncho pattern) and started out.  Actually first of all, knit a swatch using all the colors and decided that was how I wanted to start off.  And then I carried on.  I decided that, because of the chunky yarn, I should use smaller motif designs.  With my handy pattern dictionary at my side, I looked through, found a few that I liked, decided the order of them and I knit.  Once I got to the next section and it seemed like it was time for another one, I chose and knit another one and so on.

Once I got to the shoulders, I wasn't really sure how to do the decreases so I just winged it and it came out perfectly.  So how does one finish it off?  With a wide fold-over pivot edged collar.  The collar done like that made room for the button bands and finished it off just right (as did the heavy shell vintage buttons that I already had on hand - just right).        

I forgot to show you this...

 

This was my mother's Christmas present. She's a Texas Master Naturalist so when I saw this pattern, I knew it would be perfect for her. 

 

The problem was that when I went home for Christmas, it wasn't finished.  I don't know if you've ever tried to work a bobbin lace piece in stealth mode but it ain't easy, I can tell you.  So Santa's little elf had to hide herself away a few times to get it all done.  But Mom seemed happy with it and I was happy with it so I guess you can't ask for much more. 

Pilgrim's Progress

It's been a while but lest you think I haven't been doing anything, here are some things I have going.

Headbands
A couple of years ago, one of my co-workers asked me to make her some warmy, cozy headbands, which I did.  She's worn them each winter since and this year several of her friends decided they wanted one.

They're both ccrocheted  One has a rosy flower and the other has a more stylized flower and needs a button yet put on in the center of it to finish it off.  I just need to get up to the attic to rummage through the buttons.

Back behind the headbands, you'll see that I've got some bobbin lace bobbins loaded up with a golden sunshine of a linen thread and ready to start the new project.  It's going to be a fan from a Spanish magazine.
                             

Here's the start of it.  I've put this project off because it didn't come with instructions and I wanted to wait until I felt I had the skills to attempt it.  I think I'm pretty much there although I don't want to be too braggy until I actually get it started and end up with the right number of bobbins and those in the right place!

The real progress of this pilgrim, however, is with my fair isle poncho.  You know, the one I've been spinning yarn for and plotting for a while.  I finally got the inspiration  this weekend and started going to town on it.  (For "going to town" read "obsessing".)
                       

I am completely thrilled with how it's coming along and how the colors are interacting.  The fair isle pattern takes on a completely different look in the chunky yarn.  Now I just need to figure out how I want to shape the shoulders and draw in the neck line and I should be close to being done.  It will need a button band in the front and I'm mulling over how wide I want it to be and what I want it to look like.  I've got some ideas but I need to mull them over a little bit more before I talk about them. 

I very seldom knit with large needles (I'm using US size 8 for this project - very large for me) or chunky yarn and this project has 200 stitches.  Now that I'm doing it, I realize why I don't do it very often.  It's much harder to pick up any speed.  Yes, you have larger stitches and so are probably making progress much faster than you realize but the fact that I have to stop ever 5-6 stitches to move them along the needle where they won't bunch up and stop me in my tracks make it feel like a realllllly sloooooow process.

But once I'm done and get it blocked, I think it's going to be the go-to cover for many years to come.  And all conceived and spun and contrived and designed and knit with me own wee handiest.  For me, that's what it's all about.

By the way, I did the poncho because I didn't think I would have enough yarn for a sweater but now that I'm closing in on the finish line, I totally would have had enough for a sweater.  But, as always, go with the wisdom of the wool.  I wouldn't have thought of a poncho but now I'm in love with it and so glad the wool wanted to be a poncho.  So the moral of the story is: Never doubt the wool.

For Mom

My mother hinted the other day that she was tired of seeing the same post so I figured it was time to pull my socks (handknit, of course) up and get something posted.

Actually this post carries on from the last post.  I have done a number of other projects since the last post, way, way, way, long ago, but I can't show all of them because some are gifts and some because of other reasons.

But for this post, I show this:

This is a sample knit from the various yarns I've spun for my fair isle sweater which is no longer going to be a sweater.  I've decided that it's going to be a poncho so I can #1 - know that I have enough yarn (I don't think I have enough for a sweater and while I have more off the green and chocolate brown, I've spun all the fiber I had in the other colors) and #2 - better show off the bulky yarn.

Yes, the yarn came out a little bulkier than I'd originally anticipated but that's okay.  It's going to be cozy warm and I really like the idea of having more use out of it as a poncho than I might have had with a sweater.  I think, too, as a poncho, it won't have as much wear and tear, with accompanying pilling, as it might as a sweater.

That's what I've told myself anyway.

The plan as it stands right now is to do a wide border similar to this sample, then a large band of fair isle and then this sort of striping around the neck.

Catching up

Things have been so busy this year that I've been really inconsistent with posts.  But now that I've got a little time off, not only am I going to post, I actually have things to post about and have time to take the photos.

First.  Natural color fair isle sweater.
One of the projects I've had on my plate for a while now has been spinning yarn for a fair isle sweater using natural wool colors.  Quite a while ago, I finished a large hank of chocolate colored wool (which, of course, I can't find now but it will turn up).  Just this past week or so, I've finally finished 2 other of the colors.  I thought I would use a natural white for the background color and an Ashland Bay "Apple Green" color for the "pop" of color.

 The 2 skeins are the ones I finished this week, the brown and the white are the fiber for the other yarns and the green is the apple green.  I've got almost 2 full bobbins of singles of the white finished and about half a bobbin done of the green so I'm not all that far off.  Of course, the freezing weather is giving me a lot of incentive to get the yarn finished so I can get started on the sweater. 

Another project I got finished was a cloud of fiber I bought recently at the Bishop Hill Spin In from Fae Ridge Farms in Iowa.  I've done a number of these clouds from her.  She uses a number of types of fiber, each of which takes the dye differently and she adds some interesting highlights to give the spun yarn a lot of depth and texture.  See what you think:

It didn't make a lot of yardage but I'm interested to see what it will decide it wants to be.  This is one of those yarns with an opinion.  It's completely useless to try to decide what to make from it because it will only be what it wants to be.  Once it makes up its mind, though, watch out!!

And finally, this.

A friend of mine told me a few weeks ago that he wanted a scarf for the cold weather so when I was looking through the stash and found this yarn, I decided it would be perfect for him.  It's Elspeth Lavold Silky Wool in 2 shades of gray.  But I wasn't sure what pattern to use.  That's when it's time to go to the stitch dictionaries.  I knew I wanted something that would be reversible and something I wouldn't have to worry about having a pattern in front of me all the time.  When I came across this pattern, it just reminded me of the number of knitting geniuses there are.  It's simple and elegant and here's what it is:

Row 1:  Knit 3, purl 3 across the row.  It's a 6-stitch repeat so I cast on 48 stitches.
Row 2: Knit 1, purl 1 across the row.

Repeat the 2 rows.

That's it.  That's absolutely all there is to it.  It allows for a nice transition from color to color, it's reversible and it's an interesting texture.  What more could a guy ask for?  Right?

Now I'm off to keep knitting and to finish the flax I'm spinning for a friend and to finish the white for my sweater.  Of course, it would be nice to find the dark brown, too.

P.S. The project bag is from my friend, Karen at Karen Poulakos Studios.  If you're anywhere near Arkansas, she'll be at the Arkansas Fiber Arts Extravaganza on December 5-6.  She's got some great project bags, knitting needles and other fun stuff.

Mom's Slippers

The other day my mom made a comment to me about her feet starting to get cold and wondering about getting some warm socks that wouldn't bother her feet.  I had already been thinking about spinning her some cushy yarn for slippers so this was my push to try something.

After I figured out how I wanted to make the slippers, it was time to try one.

It came out okay but not exactly what I wanted and it was sized more to fit my foot than my mother's.  But now I had a plan.  The second one was better so I made a copy of the second one to finish the pair for my mom.  But now I had a single slipper that fitted my foot.  What was I supposed to do with my other foot?  Go cold?  I think not.

I still had some yarn left so I embarked on the final slipper.  I was okay up until the final band.  Then I realized it was going to be a very close thing indeed. 

So the band on mine (on the right) is a little mismatched but I'm happy with the pattern.  My mom's pair is turned with the stockinette side turned in so it will be softer on her little tootsies but we'll have to wait to see if they fit and if they're soft enough.

I should say that the yarn was spun on my Fricke wheel, on the largest whorl, so it would be a soft, open yarn.  The fiber is a cashmere, silk, merino mixture that will, if nothing else, keep our tootsies warmy and cozy!

Mom, I'll have them in the mail tomorrow.  Enjoy!

In case anyone would like to make your own slippers, here's what I did.

I was thinking sock, without the cuff.  So I started with the heel.

This was a medium yarn so I used size 4 double points, although circular needles would work just as well.  In fact, you could use straight needles up to the toe section.  On second thought, you could work it flat all the way around if you don't mind having the top and end of the toe seamed. 

So here goes:

Cast on 14 stitches and knit in stockinette stitch for about 2 inches.
To do the heel shaping, knit 9 stitches, then K2together. Turn.
Purl 3 stitches, purl 2 together.  Turn.  (there should be 3 stitches left on the needle)
Knit to the K2 together. Knit that stitch together with the next stitch (to close up the gap).  Turn.
Repeat this process until all stitches have been incorporated.  There will be 6 stitches on the needle.

Knit across all stitches and then pick up 9 stitches along the left side of the heel. Turn.
Purl across all stitches and then pick up 9 stitches along the right side of the heel.  With the double pointed needles, I spread the 24 stitches evenly across 3 needles and worked stockinette stitch for maybe 4-5 inches.  Stop when the slipper is about 2 inches from the tip of the toes. 

Increase 2 stitches each end on the next 4 rows and then join and begin to knit in the round with 8 stitches on each needle.  Work in the round for about an inch and then begin to decrease for the toe.

A number of decreases will work for this toe, including a round toe decrease, but I worked it like this.

I moved 2 stitches from each side needle onto the top and bottom needles.  So it was 12 stitches on the top needle, 4 on the side, 12 on the bottom, 4 on the side.  I worked the decreases at the beginning and end of both the top and bottom needles every other round until there were 6 stitches on the top and bottom.  At this point, I decreased the side needles by K2together, SSK, leaving 2 stitches on each side needle.

The I divided those stitches onto the top and bottom needles and then used a Kitchener Stitch to finish the toe.

For the band, I'm afraid I wasn't very consistent here.  On mine, I picked up 30 stitches along each side 8 across the back heel and 14 across the toe.  I worked K1, P1 ribbing around, decreasing the stitches on the toe end on almost every round until there were only 8 stitches on that needle.  On mine, I bound off by knitting 1 stitch and slipping the previous stitch over the one just knitted.

For Mom's, I did a single crochet across the toes, decreasing as I went across, then with the knitting needle, I picked up as for mine - 30 on each side and 8 across the back.  I did a stretchier bind off for hers because I wanted to make sure it was stretchy enough to fit her foot without binding.  Then I sewed the beginning and end of the ribbing to create the little keyhole at the foot.

The nice thing about this pattern is that you don't really need measurements or gauge because you just fit the foot.  If it's not as wide as you want, knit the ribbing longer, etc.  I have some other yarn that I may try another pair with.  Plus it goes really, really quickly.  I easily made a slipper in an evening, and that was with plotting and trying to figure out what I was doing.  Use a chunkier yarn and bigger needles and I bet you could easily make the pair in an evening.

Have fun!