12 Nov 2011
Okay, so what did I get at the Fiber Festival of New England? Yarn for a sweater project, of course!
Some beautiful Riverstone Wool. It’s very soft and the blue is a fantastic icy colorway named “French Blue”. After Thanksgiving I will be joining a knit along for the February Lady’s Sweater. I think I am one of the only knitters around who hasn’t knit this sweater yet! It took a while to find yarn I liked, this is it.
21 Feb 2011
So, after reworking the neck, here it is. Finally, my sweater and me striking a pose in it.
LOL, I crack myself up! I do love this sweater so much. It is so soft and comfy. I may rip out the bottom still and adjust the sleeves, but I am still wearing it in the meantime. It doesn’t matter how many I knit, it still amazes me that I made a sweater out of two sticks and some string!
Happy Knitting!
2 Feb 2011
The Sweater- I finished my sweater (quick yay!) But I am not happy with the neckline. I think the alpaca is stretching a bit and making the neck fold out. When wearing it, the neckline will almost fall off my shoulders. So I need to rework it (bummer). I love how warm and cozy it is. I want to be sure I will wear it. The plan is to rip out the neck, pick up on smaller needles, decrease about 6 sts and knit into a roll neck. I am hoping that will stretch out less. I did love this pattern and plan on knitting it again with different fiber.
The Phenomenon Mittens are made to match the sweater. I love the color. I have the first mitten completed and have cast on the second. I really like this pattern too. I modified it by not using the drop stitch on the palm and just used sts sts. I am very pleased with them. They are super fitted and are very warm. I love how long they are.
I started a new project for a friend who is expecting, Saarje’s Booties by Saartje de Bruijn. These are the cutest little things.
They are super easy and a fun quick knit. It’s a little hard for me because they are on size US1 needles, but this one is worth it! It is also a fantastic stash buster. How cute are these?
Lastly, I got some new yarn at the Fuzz Fest this past weekend. It’s a beautiful green and purple, Romney/Leicester Fin Cross yarn from Wooly Bears Yarns. I just couldn’t resist the colors. I plan on making a striped earflap hat.
That’s about it this week. What do you have in your queue? Happy Knitting!
30 Jan 2011
Yesterday I attended the local “Winter Fuzz Fest” at the Congregational Church in Exeter.
There was a lot going on for what I thought was going to be a small festival.
There were demonstrations of all sorts.
Spinning wheels were all over the place. There were also looms of all different kinds.
Each showing different techniques.
This guy was spinning right off an Angora Bunny.
It always amazes me to see where yarn comes from!
The colors they were spinning were incredible.
There were many vendors there with yarn to sell as well. Talk about amazing colors!
There were tons of great handmade notions and accessories to choose from,
And all kinds of already knit wears, baskets, and other fun things.
It really was a well done local festival. Every space was filled with great vendors with so many items to look at. What I liked best about this show was that it wasn’t centered around purchasing from the vendors, it really was more of an “exposure” show. There were demos around every corner and very helpful people to answer your questions about their crafts. It was so much fun to just watch the passion people had in their eyes as they explained how they used their looms, wheels and techniques. This small show is a definite for my list for next year. Thank you all from the show. What a great day.
23 Jan 2011
In between working on Griffin’s quilt and my sweater, I have been working on these beautiful mittens for myself. They are the Phenomenon Mittens by Carine Ancel. I made one mod on the palm. I used a sts sts and omitted the drop stitches. It is a very well written pattern.
I am using a great worsted weight called Montera by Classic Elite Yarns. It is 50% Llama, 50% wool and 100% soft and comfy. These mittens are being made to match my gray alpaca sweater and maggie hat. YAY! Happy Knitting!
19 Jan 2011
I am bummed to not have better pictures on this experience. I had some awesome pictures taken for each stage of this process. My computer had different ideas on what to do with the images. I have had some major computer problems and lost most of my pictures from this experiment. I am bummed because they were great pictures. Oh well, tis the risks when being a slave to technology.
One of my knitting goals for 2011 was to try Kool Aid Yarn Dyeing. I was really anxious to try this after seeing a great tutorial over on Tiny Twist Creative. I had some stash yarn, for it was something I wanted to try last year but wasn’t on my “goal” list.
At my LYS, I got the “Dye for Me” merino, cashmere, silk blend by Plymouth Yarns. It is a specialty yarn made for dyeing projects. It is a very soft lace weight yarn. We used 4 packages of kool aid, pink lemonade, black cherry, grape and fruit punch.
We added water and vinegar to the crockpot. I didn’t have measurements, but an almost full crockpot with a half cup of vinegar if I had to guess. After letting the yarn soak for 15 mins in the water and vinegar mix, it was simple. We just added kool aid.
This is where I lost all my pictures. I had great shots of all the colors in the pot, rinsing and it drying, but alas, they are gone. So, to explain, we dumped one packet on each corner of the crockpot and pushed it down a bit with a spoon. The color soaked up very quickly. I left it a bit longer because I wanted a more uniform looking yarn. Once the color is gone from the water, we rinsed it until the water ran clear. That didn’t take long at all. The color really attaches fast. Then we hung it to dry. This is the result…
It was so simple and fun. We will definitely try it again. Next time I think I will try to use more kool aid and possibly get a darker richer color. But what a fantastic project for the kids and another goal to check off the list!
Happy Knitting!
