Ode to My Mittens

Oh, Mittens, so warm and snug
Who, though not as I thought I wanted,
Have proved your worth.

Oh, Mittens, knit from the yarn
Spun from the wool
On my spindle so fair and so true.

Yarn that betrayed me by
Running when washed only
After the stitches all had been made.

I was ready to send you
To the closet that would have
Been a sentence of invisibility.

Oh, Mittens, who hold back
The wind and the cold
No matter how cold and how strong.

No matter if snow must be shoveled
Or windscreen scraped clean
Nothing can penetrate you.

I sing your worth and your strength
And your warmth.
Thank you, faithful Mittens.
Surprising Mittens.
Worthy Mittens.

Clean Up and Go

The weekend was good.  Really good.  Of course, it's now snowing and I just watched the snow plow dump about 2 feet of snow right in front of my car.  But the weekend was good.

I managed to get my craft room organized.  It will probably never happen again but I can always say it happened once.  All of my spinning fiber is organized.  All of the silks are in the same bin, all the merino in another, all of the cotton in another.  The same for my yarns.  All my lace yarn is in one drawer, all of my sock yarn in its own bin and so on.  I found yarn that I have no memory whatsoever of having purchased.  Don't know if that's because it was purchased so long ago or because I was in a wool stupor at the time of purchase.  Six of one...

One of the other benefits of the exercise is that I found 4 different projects that I'd started and abandoned.  I loved all of them so I have no idea why they got abandoned but they're out now and moving on.  I'll get photos of them in the next few days but what I want to show you now is my latest weaving project because it's been such a surprise. 

My idea was to use some self-striping yarn and see what it would do.  I had this Fortissima sock yarn that had cotton, wool and nylon in it.  I didn't like it for sock yarn but I really liked the colors in it.  I also decided that I would use some Trekking XXL with similar colors as stripes to go with the Fortissima.  The Trekking XXL goes from white to turqoise in really long stripes and it just adds a bit of structure to the colors in the main yarn.  You can really see it in the warp but it does show up in the weaving.  I love the sort of broken tartan look to it because of the really long repeats of color in the main yarn.  The plan is to use this for a bag.  My plan is to use swatch to the left as the strap.

This is only my second project so I'm still learning about what will work but the result has been so fun to watch. 

I even managed to get one project finished this weekend (I was a busy little beaver, like I said).  If you've got any interest in learning to do bobbin lace, I've found an excellent book called Beginner's Guide to Bobbin Lace by Gillian Dye and Adrienne Thunder.  Gillian and Adrienne are a couple of British ladies with mad bobbin skills and a modern outlook.  I've got my patterns all prepped for the practice projects and I've started working through them.  One of the patterns is for a torchon lace bookmark that looks like this:

Isn't that pretty?  Their sample was done with 2 different shades of blue, which I didn't have.  So I did mine with a cream and light blue which was a good combination I think.  They've got some great tips and some interesting patterns like one for a little purse and one for a scarf using art yarn. 

Life Questions

Among the many important questions one asks about life and being, a new one occurred to me tonight.

Can one have too many handknit socks?
(P.S. This is about 15 pairs and certainly not nearly all of them.)

The other big question I've faced the past couple of years is when to get a loom and, getting a loom, what kind should I get.  I have weavers on every side of me all telling me that I should add weaving to my skillsets.  Most of them are pretty intimidating weavers (because they do such beautiful stuff, not because they're mean!).  But I've finally taken the step and decided this was the year to learn to weave.  My Christmas present to myself was a 24" Kromski Harp rigid heddle loom.  There are so many considerations as to what to get which I'll get into another day but I'm certainly very happy with my purchase and I'm learning a lot about warping it and choosing yarns for it.

And here's one of my first projects:

It's a loose, plain weave scarf using some zephyr/silk yarn that I had left over from a project several years ago.  The scarf is now completed and ready to wear.  The reason I started with this is, no matter what kind of job I'd done, it would be gorgeous because the yarn is beyond gorgeous.  It's like air.  And soft.  And a beautiful color.  Watch out, weaving.  Here I come!

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!