Tag: knitting

A Knitting Post From Home and Some New Office Stuff

Flames and Lace Stole Knitting Pattern

Home Time, Books, and New Office Stuff

I am home for this weekend and have some knitting to show you. I also have a few new things in my home office.

I drove home from Pittsburgh on Sunday . The trip was long but uneventful. The one bonus of a long drive is more audio book time. During my trips from Nashville to Kalamazoo to Pittsburgh and back to Nashville, I had many hours of listening time. I listened to Later by Stephen King, Secrets of a Charmed Life by Susan Meissner, and began The Weight of Ink by Rachel Kadesh.

This was my second time reading Later. I had forgotten how good it is. If you like the movie The Sixth Sense, you might like this book. Secrets of a Charmed Life is very good for fans of historical fiction set in two time periods. The main characters are two sisters separated by World War II and how that affected their lives. I am not even halfway through The Weight of Ink yet. It’s a bit historical too, but in a different way from the other one I read. It doesn’t feel as personal but it is very interesting. The main plot revolves around some manuscripts from the mid 17th century and the people that wrote them in the past versus the ones discovering them in the present. Technically it is the year 2000, so the past to us, but in modern times.

While we are on the topic of home, I want to show you that I added a few things to my home office recently. I added a few desk lamps, a filing cabinet and best of all, a comfortable desk chair. I am writing this post from here and it’s awesome! I really do feel more productive. Now, I just need to use that productive feeling to get my new knitting pattern written for that shawl I finished.

Knitting Updates

Speaking of that shawl, let’s take a look at the blocking shots and a few after blocking pictures.

I love how the pattern opens with the blocking. This stitch pattern is not hard to work because as you can see it’s pretty solid for a lace pattern. That is the reason I chose to use US 3 needles for the fingering weight Classic Merino Bamboo yarn that I used. Normally I used US 5 needles to knit lace with either of my fingering weight bases. I am happy with the body in this shawl that the tighter gauge creates.

I ended up using almost all of the 3 skeins. The shawl weighs 295g. I measured it after removing the pins. The length is about 84″ and the width about 23.5-24″. The width was more than I had planned but it’s actually a nice size for wrapping up in. I think the width is a result of how I blocked it. The edging wanted to be stretched more and therefore, I went with it rather than making the fabric stretch more lengthwise. You may also notice that I chose to accentuate the shaping of the selvedge that occurs due to the lace. Now, I just need to get the pattern written and published. I would like that to be done in time for my next show in Wisconsin next weekend.

I have one other knitting project to share before I end this post. You may recall that I started Saltarello in my Classic Merino Superwash Sock yarn.

I am finding the stitch pattern easy to follow, even in the dark yarn. I do need good light to work on it but that can be true no matter the color when working lace patterns. I have gotten through the first two charts at this point. I hope it will show the design well in the booth in the dark color. Blocking will help I think. I am using US 5 needles on this shawl to help the stitch pattern open up more. See you next time.

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Two Fiber Festivals and What Am I Knitting?

So it has been super busy in my world. I am on the the road traveling between Michigan and Pittsburgh for two fiber festivals. I will get into that first and then on to what am I knitting lately.

Michigan Fiber Festival

Michigan Fiber Festival was awesome as always this year. The weather was lovely for most of the weekend. It did rain some on Thursday morning, which was booth set up day, but after that it was sunny and pleasant. Sunday got a bit hot but it wasn’t too bad. The attendance was good and sales were fantastic. It is so satisfying to meet and chat with other knitters and to help them pick out tools and/or yarn that they will enjoy using. It’s the best!

Pittsburgh Creative Arts Festival

On Monday morning I drove from Kalamazoo to Pittsburgh. The drive was fine. I took the Ohio Turnpike since it was the most direct and the fastest route, but oh boy! The tolls are nuts! I paid $48 so far and I think I will be getting another bill from Pennsylvania for the 376.

I arrived at the hotel and got settled in for the week. I had one full day off, which I haven’t had for weeks, and I spent that day just hanging out. I did make a short run to a grocery store up the road and got a few supplies but other than that I spent the day reading and knitting. More on the knitting in a moment.

I got the booth set up on Tuesday and Wednesday was when I had a day of rest. Today, Thursday, is opening day at the Pittsburgh Creative Arts Festival. The market is open on Thursday from 12-7, Friday from 10-5, and Saturday from 9-5. I am glad to be here this year. I have been a vendor in this festival since 2008 and only had to miss one year. That was 2021 because of the date change and a prior commitment. I have met many knitters over the years in this area and I look forward to seeing them each year. It’s especially nice when customers show me what they are doing with their yarn from previous years.

What Am I Knitting?

Which brings me to my own knitting. While I was in Michigan, I finished my shawl! Of course I have had no way to block it yet, but I took a picture in the hotel for you.

I haven’t named it yet or written up the pattern, but you will be the first to know when I have that part done. I will be blocking this lovely thing as soon as I return to Nashville. I think that seeing it after it’s blocked will help in picking out a name, but if you have any suggestions I would be happy to hear them.

For the remainder of my down time in Michigan, which was very little mind you, I worked on my second sock in progress.

New Knitting Project

I also picked out a yarn and color to begin a new project. This one is one of Dee O’Keefe’s designs called Saltarello. I decided to use my Classic Merino Superwash Sock yarn this time in Obsidian. Dee used an 80/20 Merino/Silk blend which almost made me choose the Classic Merino Bamboo, which I used for my shawl I just finished above. I has a nice drape which is similar to a wool and silk blend. However, in looking at the stitch pattern, I felt like the crisper hand and better stitch definition of the 100% wool 2 ply spun with a tight twist, would be a nice substitute. I may be crazy for picking the Obsidian, but I think it will be very dramatic if it doesn’t kill me. I am not gonna lie, the garter tab in black was tedious. Once I was past that part it got easier but I definitely need good light to work on it.

I brought my yarn swift and ball winder along because I knew I would be starting this project before I got home. I hadn’t decided on which yarn I was going to use before I left. It is much easier to consider them when I can see them all hanging in the booth. Here I am winding the yarn for Saltarello and the spare skein I need to complete the sock.

This is my progress on the new shawl at the end of the first chart. I think that when it is blocked it will open up and show the stitch pattern well enough. I will reassess after completing a bit more.

Closing Comments

It is getting close to the time I need to head over to the Double Tree for the market opening today. If you are in the area this weekend, come on by and stop in to say hello. I am in the Green Tree Ballroom in booths 25-26.

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Time to Head Back Out on the Fiber Market Trail

Southern Comforts Fiber Market

Wells kids, it’s time to head back out on the fiber market trail. Break time is coming to an end and I am off to Charlotte, NC for the Southern Comforts Fiber Market. Click the link for more details. I am looking forward to using my new trailer. I have taken it for a few spins just to check on the brake adjustments and such. Restocking the booth between market days is going to be much easier with all the room to spare. It’s all stocked and ready to hitch up today. I will be driving on Wednesday, setting up on Thursday, and market days are Friday and Saturday.

Oh! I forgot to tell you, we found a new owner for the old black trailer. Hopefully, someone will fix her up and get some more use out of her for many more years.

Knitting

I am glad to be feeling myself again today because I was feeling under the weather for 3-4 days. So much so in fact, that I wasn’t up to knitting. I would pick it up and realize I just didn’t have the energy. I wasn’t severely ill, it was just a low grade fever that hung on for days and a couple days of lower GI discomforts, but knitting a lace edging was a bit taxing. After countless cups of various herbal and medicinal teas, and quite a few bowls of chicken soup, I am grateful that I was feeling better by Sunday. I wanted a least a few days to get back on my feed before hitting the road.

Before I got sick, I had started and completed one of the repeats of the lace edging on my shawl design. I decided 3 skeins would be a decent size. I had 20g of yarn left and the edging should only use 17g, so I should be good. I didn’t touch it again until yesterday. When I picked it back up, I worked 3 repeats in one sitting. There are only 18 repeats across and each is 12 rows. The end is in sight! I am excited to see how it looks when it’s blocked.

Work Shop News

Just a day or so before I was briefly out of commission, we decided it was a good time to make a visit to our lumber supplier. The plan had been to work on more Shawl/Hair Sticks for awhile and get more lumber in the fall. We had bought a few new boards of exotics last month at Woodcraft for these. We revised that plan, however, and decided it was better to go ahead and start a batch of Yarn Boxes first. We had completed a small batch in June to fill out the inventory some, but one wood is already sold out. Time to make more boxes. Who remembers the old Dunkin Donuts commercial? You know the one? “It’s time to make the donuts”, says the sleepy guy who is rising in the middle of the night to get the dough started. That’s what I thought of just now. LOL

While I was trying to get healthy again, Jerry has been busy cutting, sorting, jointing, and planing wood. We bought some walnut, cherry, and white oak. We haven’t made any cherry boxes for quite a few years, and while we use oak quite frequently, it is usually red oak. At this point in the process, they are now all planed to the proper thickness and ready to be marked out for cutting down to the dimensions needed for the sides, tops and bottoms. Then the joinery cuts are made and they get assembled and glued together. There are dozens more steps after that to get to the finished product. These are probably the most labor intensive, as far as number of processing steps, of anything we make.

Parting Comments

Thanks for the comments on my new office. I am really enjoying having my own space. As a matter of fact I am writing this post from there. I got a couple better desk lamps and a desk stuff organizer. I have a comfy chair, which I am in now, for work like this. I am, however, realizing that the kitchen chair as a desk chair is going to have to go. It’s not inviting to sit in for any task longer than, say packing an order. So, I am in the market for a suitable replacement. Maybe I’ll have found one by my next post. We’ll see. See you soon!

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We are Wrapping Up the Summer Break Time

Yarn Dyeing

It’s the end of July and that means we are wrapping up the summer break time. The yarn is all dyed, labeled and in it’s storage bins. About 2/3 of the yarn is in the trailer and the remainder is stowed in the work room as back up to restock the trailer during the late summer and fall show season.

Yarn Bowls

In addition to yarn dyeing, we have some new Yarn Bowls in the works. We will be bringing a selection of these to the festivals and adding them to the website. There are a large variety of woods and sizes, so the best way to see them is in person. The woods used include oak, cherry, walnut, and mahogany. We ended up with so many different sizes that we will have a range of prices to fit most budgets and uses. They will vary from $40 to $70.

Fiber Festivals

I will be heading off to Charlotte, NC on August 9th for the Southern Comforts Fiber Market. The festival will be at the Oasis Shriner’s Auditorium on August 11-12, 2023. We have a full schedule after that, so hopefully you can make it out to one. I would love to see you!

Knitting

I have been working on my new shawl design when I can. I would love to have this finished and ready for displaying in the booth soon. You may recall that I am using my Classic Merino Bamboo yarn for this shawl. The pattern will be forth coming as soon as I decide on a stopping point.

At this point I could work one more repeat of the lace pattern and still have enough yarn left for the edging. I am currently on the the third skein. The shawl measures around 65″ long unblocked. If I add another section and the edging, it will add around 7″. That’s 72″ before blocking. I think I may want it about a foot longer. That’s my indecision at this point. Do I stop at a 3 skein project? Or continue on and use some of a 4th skein?

Is bigger better in this case? ;-)

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A Little Bit of Interim Knitting

As I mentioned in my last post, I needed a little bit of interim knitting. The shawl is still coming along but some variety was called for. Here’s where my shawl in progress is at the moment. I am down to the last 30g or so of the second skein of Classic Merino Bamboo. I measured the main section, aside from the edging, and it is about 38-40″ unblocked. The edging adds about 3″ which means it is going to require at least 3 skeins of yarn to be long enough. I should have known that 2 weren’t going to be enough.

I apologize for the photo quality. I am currently in another hotel room, this one is in St. Louis, MO. I am going to be setting up the booth this afternoon at the second annual Midwest Fiber Festival. I am excited to be here. It was a great show last year. The staff are wonderful and the enthusiasm of everyone is contagious. I’ll share some pictures from the festival later. For now, let me get back to the bit of interim knitting I teased in my title.

We all have tons of fingering weight/sock yarn in our stashes right? I got an idea recently to pull out some of mine and make myself some summer shorty socks. The first pair on the needles are made with some of my hand dyed Classic Merino Superwash Sock yarn in some discontinued colorways. I have all sorts of remnants from booth samples and such, so I will be combining them in fun ways to keep it interesting. I am just following a basic cuff down sock formula with a 1×1 cuff (2 1/2″) and a slip stitch flap heel. I am using 68 stitches and my US1 (2.25mm) Signature Needle Arts DPNS. I have no affiliation for the link, but I am a fan of their needles. I only have two sets of DPNS and one circular US5, but they are great. I love the stiletto points. They are pricey but the quality is there.

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It Has Been a Good Week

It has been a good week. Last Saturday, I was at The Yarn Patch in Crossville, TN doing a trunk show. It is a very lovely shop. You should definitely stop in and shop if you are in the area. There’s a bit of my Classic Merino DK there now too. I had a great time meeting knitters and crocheters, helping them select yarn for their projects, and knitting a bit on my latest design. I will get to that in a minute.

On Monday, the weather was finally improved enough to get back out to the dye pots. We dyed the remaining color for the order I showed you last time. It was even dry by the end of the day. That is a bonus this time of year. Once again the color looks a little bit distorted here. It’s actually much greyer in person.

I mentioned above about a new knitting design. I did some preliminary calculations and planning and then cast on with the Classic Merino Bamboo in Ironstone.

The shape is a stole knit from end to end with knitted on edging at each short edge. I began with a provisional cast-on onto a spare circular needle. I dislike this process but it was necessary in order to have live stitches for the edging later. I find it less tedious using a spare needle than using waste yarn when need to use those live stitches later. It saves the effort of putting them onto a needle, which is tedious to me.

I recorded the weight before and after knitting the first two repeats of the body lace chart. That let’s me know how much yardage it will take for a given size shawl. Then, as you can see, I joined a new skein to knit the edging. I want to know how much yardage will be used to knit each edge. I weighed the skein before starting here too. It is a little fiddly with two skeins attached, but it won’t take too long and it is worth it for the information gained. I am happy with how this looks and lace knitting is my happy place!

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A Lot of Dyeing Going On Here

I have knitting to report but before I get to that, here’s what else I’ve been doing. There has been a lot of dyeing going on around here. We will be dyeing our own yarn next month, which is what some of those boxes contain in the back ground. At the moment, however, we are working on a custom dye order for Anne Hanson of Knitspot Designs and Bare Naked Wools.

Before we proceeded with the order, I skeined some of their base to dye samples of the colors they want.

These are the results I sent. The bottom samples are actually less violet in person than they look in the picture. It is actually a silver color. After they approved which colors to use, we spent a couple days getting the dyes mixed and the yarn prepped. We also added a fourth dye pot and propane burner to gain efficiency.

We planned to dye the larger portion, the blue, first. Monday was chilly and damp but was better than Tuesday, so we got the blue yarn dyed before the bad weather started. It will be awhile before we get this fully dry though. We had to bring this all in Monday night. We’ll put it back out ASAP. The silver will get dyed later this week, if possible, but Tuesday was too cold. It makes it difficult to heat the pots and rinse when it below 40 degrees.

It would be great to get the second half of the order dyed by Thursday, if possible, because I am going to The Yarn Patch in Crossville, TN on Friday afternoon. They are hosting a trunk show with our yarns on Saturday, February, 4. I am really excited to be invited. That brings me to the knitting portion of this post. I need some knitting on the needles for the weekend because I will be hanging out all day Saturday at the shop and will want something to knit, right?

If you remember, I worked on a few ideas for shawl designs. I haven’t totally pitched the idea for the triangle one but I am not ready to commit to it yet either. So, I needed something to knit. My son expressed a desire for gloves when I was knitting the ones for Christmas gifts. This began my interim knitting project with some stashed Cascade 220.

This was a quick knit and my needles are once again empty. So, now what to knit? I decided to move on to the other idea I swatched instead. Do you remember this?

My plan is to begin this idea. I am going to knit this design in my Classic Merino Bamboo yarn. I narrowed my color choice down to these three colors: Ironstone on the left, Garnet in the middle, and Fern on the right. I am leaning towards Ironstone. What do you think?

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Do You Swatch Before You Knit?

The answer to the question “Do you swatch before you knit?” is, for myself, yes and no. I will sometimes swatch for a sweater for gauge. I will also swatch for a project if the yarn is new to me and I want to get an idea of it’s properties. When I am working on design ideas though, knitting up samples of stitch patterns is essential. I want to get familiar with the pattern; see how it looks and feels with the yarn and needles I may be using; and to work out the chart.

I am a firm convert to knitting stitch patterns with charts. Written directions are fine for verifying a charts when there is part that is confusing. Knitting from them (written directions) though is an exercise in frustration for me. I always chart lace, cables, etc. before knitting a stitch pattern if it is not already done by someone else.

Here are a few interesting stitch patterns I am working with at the moment. I charted both of them first and then started knitting some samples. I worked up both stitch patterns in two different yarn bases. The red samples are in my Classic Merino Superwash Sport in Garnet. The fingering weight samples are in my Classic Merino Bamboo in Sea Oat. I used US 5 needles on the sport samples and US 3 for the fingering weight ones.

I took both of these pictures before I blocked them. I wanted to have a record of the texture because I planned to block them as for a shawl. My initial idea was to design an asymmetrical triangle using both of the elements. After working up all four of the samples I am not sure if that is still the plan. I like both but they might end up being used in two separate designs. I also can’t decide between the bases. It’s early in the process so anything goes at this point.

I mean, just look at the post blocking pictures! It’s hard to choose between the slightly chunky texture of the sport weight and the light, silky drape of the fingering weight Merino Bamboo. I will be moving on to the next phase of swatching with the shaping and see how that works. At the same time I can determine whether combining these two elements will be a good idea or not. I share those results in my next post.

I’ll leave you with a few photos of my new pizza stone and the pizzas we made for New Year’s Eve.

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Here We are Again Facing a New Year

Here we are again facing the start of a new year. I will choose to be an optimist and look for the good I hope for in the days ahead. There is always both good and bad but I find it’s healthier to focus on and be thankful for the positive and pray for strength to get through the negative. So, welcome, 2023!

I am making plans for the coming year this weekend. I have twenty festivals and a possible trunk show on the schedule. We are also ordering yarn to dye for spring/early summer shows. Jerry is busy on the lathe in the wood shop at the moment making more Darning Eggs and Nostepinnes. (Note this picture was from a few months ago, we don’t have leaves on the trees here at the moment).

I probably should be knitting some new samples for the booth soon, but for the moment I think I will finish my Cables and Lace Blanket first. I am on the last skein of yarn so it shouldn’t take much longer. I am not decided on what my next booth sample will be. I am still considering designing a shawl but we will see.

I did get all the Christmas knitting done in time.

They were very well received.

In fact one of my daughters hinted that that hat would be perfect for her to “borrow”. I volunteered to make her one to which she didn’t say no, LOL. So, I took the day after Christmas off, a well earned break I decided, and made one for her too. This is the Hot Waffles pattern again and I do highly recommend this one for a quick, fun knit.

We had a nice holiday gathering with lots of good food and presents. I am afraid that I am terrible at getting pictures while people are here. I received lots of useful and fun stuff. I picked a few out myself, which were some new large ceramic mixing bowls for bread rising and a larger pizza stone. I also got the classic Julia Child Mastering the Art of French Cooking 2 volume set. I also got a candle, framed pictures of two of my grands, handmade lotion bar and body balm made by my daughter. I love this by the way. I use it all the time.

Here’s the one thing I got that was really fun and I actually have a picture handy. It’s that Rush sticker on my window. Love!

Okay, I will close for now. It’s just three of us here tonight. I promised my 12 year old son that I would make pizza. Maybe I’ll even take a picture of my new pizza stone in action! See you soon. Happy New Year!

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On This, the Longest Night of the Year

On this, the longest night of the year, my holiday preparations are in the final sprint.

The larder is stocked for festive meals. There are some lights, candles, and a tree to ward off the darkness. The presents are mostly wrapped, except for a couple items. I am still waiting on two things in the mail.

I am feeling very confident that the gift knitting will be done in time too. The Hot Waffles set is all done. It is washed and drying so that it can be wrapped tomorrow.

One of the fingerless gloves in Classic Merino Superwash Sport is finished and I am knitting in earnest on it’s mate. These are pretty big so it’s a lot of knitting for a glove, so I’d better get back to work on them.

Keep the lights burning, and the needles clicking! Remember the days start getting longer tomorrow. :-) Happy Solstice and Merry Christmas!

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