Tag: #handcraftedwood

Miscellaneous News

I’ll start today’s post with an update on what is on my needles. You may recall I am working on the Bensusan shawl in my Classic Merino DK yarn in the color Cypress. I have progressed to the main chart and added the second skein of yarn. I am enjoying the variety of the stitch patterns. It’s easily memorized but interesting. I love cables.

The other project I have going is my cowl using the yarn my daughter brought me from Ireland. I am about 25% done on it. I cast it on a couple days ago. It’s a pretty quick and easy knit so it shouldn’t take too long to make.

It will be August very soon and I will be back to festival vending. We are still working on restocking inventory. Within the last couple weeks we have added some more Undyed yarn to the website. I stock two Organic Cotton yarns (a sport weight and a worsted weight) and also small quantities of all our Merino wool yarns as Bare yarn for those who wish to use it that way or to dye themselves.

We have also recently finished some new Darning-Eggs in Cherry and Maple woods. We have some more Walnut in progress.

Last night two of the grandchildren were over and were given a fun ride around the property in my husband’s new cart he built for the lawn tractor. They had fun and didn’t want it to end.

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Mid-break update

I was home this weekend but that is the last one for awhile. I have festivals booked every weekend through mid June except for the third weekend in May. So lots of traveling coming up soon. I am leaving Friday for a brand new festival in St. Louis, Missouri called Midwest Fiber Festival. I am excited about it 🤗.

I am working on my gansey as much as I can and if I don’t finish it before I leave, I am confident I will while I am gone. I am going straight on to Minnesota for the Shepherd’s Harvest Festival to save on gas and road time. I will have a couple free days there to knit and/or catch up on other work. I may be overhauling my Knitting Notions website soon. I am also planning another knitting project to take along and will share that when I have it picked. I know the pattern but haven’t decided on yarn yet so more on that later.

First sleeve done

I am actually a little farther down that second sleeve than I was when I took this picture. I just finished the definition ridge last night which is that band of garter at the elbow point.

Jerry has been hard at work on some new Shawl-Hair-Sticks and they are finished and thay are ready for packaging. He has also been preparing some slabs for turning blanks. These will be mostly Darning-Eggs and Nostepinnes.

While we are waiting for the wood to dry some more, it’s also garden starting time. We have a plow attachment for his lawn tractor but we needed a Tiller to break up the beds a bit more. We bought this one yesterday and here he is trying it out.

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Shop Work

I have made good progress on my knitting projects which I will share next time. Today, I am going to talk about our production we have planned during the off season to prepare for next year.

We have bought lots and lots of lumber and yarn.

These slabs of cherry, walnut, maple, and Osage orange will be for turning. It will be mostly darning eggs and Nostepinnes and possibly some bowls.

We have also been culling out the property of brush and trees. Some of this Osage orange and maple will also be for turning when they have cured for awhile. Jerry is painting the ends to help reduced cracks while it dries

This is about 140 board feet of walnut waiting to be dimensioned for Yarn Swifts.

This was 210 board feet of cherry which will soon be yarn swifts also.

This is 400 pounds of undyed yarn. I am still waiting on a other 40 pounds of the Merino Bamboo which was back ordered. So, in the mean time, I am mixing up dye stocks and then mixing my colors so we are ready to get this all dyed up in the coming weeks.

We will be working our way through it as the weather permits. I can dye in inclement weather because I am under cover now, but I do still rely on outdoor lines for drying. With 1900 skeins to process that is the biggest problem this time of year. The good news is that we have plenty of time at the moment 😀.

Okay that’s it for today. Next time, knitting updates.

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Back to it

I am back to the afghan this month after finishing my sweater before Christmas. I am trying to stay on it and resist the temptation to start something new.

I was working on it by doing a new color every time I started a new piece until I had a whole row of each color. I had four of every color and planned at that point that I would need at least ten of each to make a good size lap blanket.

So now I have switched to just knitting all six I still need, one color at a time. When I have ten I move on to the next color. So the sum total of my knitting since my last post is six hexagons in the blue. Maybe I’ll have a lot more to show you in my next post.

In other news, we have a bunch of new Sock Keepers on the website. We already had some Cherry, Walnut and Oak but we have added back Mahogany plus a small stock of Maple for the first time ever. These are all available to order for $20 each. I love using mine whenever I am working with double point needles. It works for socks of course but also for mittens, gloves, sleeves, etc.

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More random knitting

The fingerless mitts are finished and I’ll show you them in a minute but here’s what I started after stash diving a few days ago.

I am just making a plain old pair of ribbed socks with some sock yarn I had marinating in the stash for who knows how long. I still feel a sweater coming but this will tide me over until I make a decision on that. I have a few ideas for some stash yarn. You’ll be the first to know about it when I decide.

Here’s something else I started messing around with today.

I made this blanket for my husband years ago, but he has been saying he would prefer it to be smaller. So I am finally ripping it all out. It was knit with Cascade 220 double stranded. Once I get all the seaming ripped out I will need to rip out the squares and separate the strands into separate balls. Then I need to skein them up so I can give it all a good wash and dry to get the kinks out. I have an idea for what I will be doing out of this too. More on that next time.

Here’s a peek at what Jerry is working on for the time being.

These should be ready in time for the virtual festivals coming up soon.

And last but not least, here are the finished mitts. I’m sorry for the boring picture but it’s impossible to take a picture of both of your hands without a tripod. :-) No pattern at the moment but maybe in the next month or so.

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Shawl and Hair Sticks

I haven’t made much progress lately on my knitting project. I have been working on our new Shawl and Hair Sticks.

It took almost a week to get the final coat of finish on them and get the pictures, editing, and website updated. But they are finally ready for their official launch!

I have used them for holding on a shawl, as an alternative closure for my little swing cardi, but most often in the southeastern summer heat I am using mine to pin up my hair.

Our introductory price is $15 for double prong style. We have a limited amount of Single prong style at $11. These may be only occasionally available depending upon demand. More information on the website if you are interested.

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