I have some holiday knitting plans. I also have a new pair of socks to show you.
New Pair of Socks
I will begin my post with my newly finished Hedgerow Socks.
I love the simplicity of the stitch pattern. The pattern is continued in the heel flap which is a nice touch. My favorite element is the round toe decreases.
I have made these in the past but I ended up gifting the first pair. I will probably be making this pattern again. It has become my new go to sock pattern.
Holiday Knitting
I am calling this holiday knitting, because I am starting it Christmas week.
Last January I was doing some swatching of a few stitch patterns. I was planning to design a shawl or two. I tabled that idea since it was not working as I had envisioned. This week I had an idea, using one of those swatches, for a vest pattern. I plan to knit the sample and write up the pattern.
At first I was just going to make it for fingering weight yarn, using my Classic Merino Superwash Sock yarn. Later, I remembered that I had swatched the same stitch pattern in sport weight yarn. That gave me a really interesting idea. I think I will make the pattern for multiple gauges. It shouldn’t be difficult to do that.
fingering weight swatchsport weight swatch
I am knitting the vest in two pieces and seaming the sides. The neck and arm edgings will be picked up and knit later. I haven’t decided what style I will make the neck shaping. A V-neck is nice but the stitch pattern may work better with a crew neck. We will see when I get there. In any case I am starting with the back so that can wait.
Upcoming Shop Update
In other news, we have been making some new Nostepinnes this month. We have some almost finished and there will be more after the holidays.
It’s been longer than I like since my last post. Things have slowed down as far as traveling, but there is still lots going on every day. Most of that lately is just catching up on the household and production work. Let’s start out my update post with my knitting progress. After that I’ll get to other goings on.
Knitting
In my last post I was still on Clue 2 of the Go Go Dynamo Shawl. I began Clue 3 sometime in the second week of October, I think. I thought the brioche was slow. The short row triangles in Clue 3 took FOREVER. I finally got that completed this past week sometime. So, yeah, that was around six weeks to get that accomplished.
I have started Clue 4, finally, and it is progressing much faster. Part of the reason for that is that there are much less stitches. It is now proceeding from the middle of the shawl towards the top. The rows are getting shorter and there is not all the back and forth happening.
There is an additional edge that can be added at the bottom. I haven’t decided whether or not I will be doing that yet. The primary determiner will be yarn supply. If I still have plenty of the balls I am using, I will consider it. On the other hand, I may just be DONE regardless. We shall see.
Last Festival
The last festival on our schedule for 2024 was November 8-9 in Fayetteville, AR. The NWA Fiber Festival was founded in 2023 and I attended both years. I am looking ahead to seeing this festival grow in an area that is a new market for me. I expect to return next year.
I experimented with a different booth setup because there was a pole in the front of my space. That was also where the electricity was. It again took a little canoodling, but I liked it. I plan try some other arrangements next year.
Preparing for 2025
We are making festival plans for 2025. I have booked a few new ones and will be returning to many of our favorites. I haven’t updated the schedule on the website for 2025 yet. I will be getting to that sometime in December.
In the wood shop, Yarn Swifts are in production. Jerry started working on this batch in late September. All the bases and arms are completely finished. He is now making the dowels. I spent a week in November sewing bags and preparing the tags.
I will be starting to assemble, bag and store the Oak and some of the Walnut today. We have enough dowels ready to get started while he works on the rest.
I will be ordering more yarn for dyeing some time in December or January. I am planning to get the restock dyeing done in February. The days are starting to lengthen enough by then. It’s hard to get enough done in the day in December and January. When you depend on daylight hours outside to work by and get the yarn dry, more is better.
Reading Plans
While I am on the topic of plans for 2025, I will share my tentative TBR list. I always have a list in my head. Sometimes I lose focus. The books I wanted to get to don’t happen. So, this morning while I was having my quiet time with my coffee and my Kindle Scribe (LOVE this thing BTW!), I made a check list.
Now, this is just to remind me of what I really want to get to in the coming year. I am still somewhat of a mood reader. This is mainly a pared down list of my higher priority books that I already own. This doesn’t mean new books can’t jump to the top. I can decide to do that. :-)
I included a good variety of books I haven’t read, and re-reads of classics. There are plenty of shorter works and chunky reads. I love both! Again, it depends on my head space and mood at a given time. I am sure about one thing. I want to start War and Peace on January 1. I plan to do a slow year long read. I want to just live in that book while also picking other ones for variety. I am excited to start!
I have only read War and Peace once. I did some background reading this past summer to prepare for this re-read. I read a History of Russia and a very thorough and interesting biography of Napoleon. I think my read through this time will benefit from the additional historical familiarity. (not an affiliate link, but I do recommend these).
Closing
This has been brief, considering how much time has elapsed, but I covered the basics. I hope to get back to a more regular schedule of 2-4 post a month.
I hope you all enjoyed your Thanksgiving celebrations!
I shouldn’t be at home this week, but because of the sad tragic losses inflicted on Asheville by Hurricane Helene, that is where I am. Hopefully there is restoration in progress and they will be getting their lives back to normal soon. My prayers are still with everyone affected.
Upcoming Travel
I do have two more festivals before we wind down for a couple months. I am driving to Frederick, MD on Wednesday and Thursday. The Frederick Fiber Festival is on Saturday October 26th. This will be my first time attending there. I wouldn’t normally sign up for a one day event that is so far from Nashville. This year I thought I would try it out since SAFF was going to be the weekend before and it would be a shorter drive from there. Of course that all changed but I didn’t want to cancel the Frederick show, especially after losing our SAFF income. Therefore, I am doing it anyway. I hope it will be worth the drive for us. I have heard good things about it so that I am hopeful.
I was at the Fall Fiber Expo in Ann Arbor last weekend. Here’s a few pictures. You may notice my Geogradients hanging in the booth. It got a lot of attention.
Knitting
While I was still in Virginia earlier this month, I decided to join the Westknits MKAL again this year. On the day that Clue One released I picked out my two colors from my Classic Merino Superwash Sock yarn base. I chose Cypress and Sea Oat. I was able to work on it all day that day and get the first section of Clue One done.
Over the course of the next two weeks, I finished the rest of Clue One. Clue Two was released while I was in Ann Arbor, MI for the Fall Fiber Expo. I waited until I had completed Clue One before I even looked at Clue Two. I said that if brioche was involved I wasn’t going there.
It turns out I am going there after all, however. The alternative to brioche sounded too boring, so I decided to go for it. It’s not terrible, but it’s slow going. For every row work, you have to work it twice. So for 8 “rows” of knitting you actually work across 16 times. At the end of the whole clue there are over 400 stitches, so they are are pretty long rows.
I have completed the first brioche ribbing section. After that is another section of the Bubbles. Then you do both again. Clue Two is going to take awhile. I like how it looks but man, it’s time consuming.
In other knitting news, I have done a bit of knitting on my sock in progress. It’s a nice palette cleanser when I don’t want to have to focus so much.
Closing
It has been three weeks since my last post, so it seems like there is probably more I could report on. I can’t think of what all that might be at the moment though. I think I’ll close for now since it is getting late here and I want to have some knitting time tonight. See you soon and take care.
Good Morning from Pittsburgh! I have an update on my Summershine Top knitting and a major book haul to share with you.
Knitting
I will start off my update with my current progress on my Summershine Top in Organic Cotton Sport.
I am still on the back piece, where I have reached the underarm bind-off and shaping. I had yesterday and today off so I hope to finish this part soon and begin the front.
Mini Break Between Festivals
So, as I said in the opening of my post, I am currently in Pittsburgh for the Pittsburgh Creative arts Festival. I was in Allegan, MI last weekend for the Michigan Fiber Festival. That festival was wonderful as always. The weather was mixed between rain and sun. We had a good turnout and fun was had by all.
I drove from Michigan to Pittsburgh on Monday. Since I don’t have to set up the booth until Thursday (tomorrow), that gave me two days off. It goes by pretty quick and it has been nice to just hand out with my knitting and books. I am very easily entertained. :-)
Book Haul
Speaking of books, there is a Barnes & Noble just a few miles from my hotel. So, of course, I had to pop in on Tuesday. There is a big book haul sale going on. How could I resist that, I ask you? Recently I did some culling of my book shelves in my office. I am pretty sure I just refilled a bit of that space. ;-)
I have read all of these before with two exceptions. The book on the top of the stack, Wild and Distant Seas by Tara Karr Roberts, intrigued me with the cover art. I love the ocean, and whales. I picked it up and read the summary. It is based on a spin off from Moby Dick, one of my favorite novels. I was ALL IN at that point. I have already read the first chapter and I like it so far. (No affiliation, just a book-lover who likes to share)
The other one that has some stories I haven’t read yet is the Great American Short Stories collection. I have read probably at least 30-40% of the ones contained in the volume. I am excited to dip into this and just read whatever one strikes my mood.
I will start off by showing you my knitting progress on the Summershine Top. I only worked on the Organic Cotton Sport one lately. I finished knitting and blocking a sleeve in this yarn and in the Linen/Cotton one. After checking for gauge on both and they looked good, I cast on the back piece in the Organic Cotton Sport.
organic cotton sport sleevecotton linen sleeveorganic cotton sport sweater back piece
Over the weekend while I was in Charlotte, I got about half of the back piece knit. I haven’t measured the length but I think it needs to 15″ or so before beginning the armhole shaping. It looks like around 8″ maybe.
I haven’t worked at all on the Veritas Shawl since the last post. No brain space for that one right now.
Festival
Now on to my festival update. I returned yesterday from the Southern Comforts Fiber Market in Charlotte, NC. This was the fourth year for this show and it is growing nicely. I was excited that there was a noticeable increase in the customer attendance this year. We had a great show and I am looking forward to going back next year.
hand dyed yarn displayhandcrafted yarn swiftshand crafted darning eggs and nostepinnes
I don’t often get a chance to do much shopping while I am vending. I planned, however, to make a visit to Brick House Fiber Arts booth and pick up a few sets of my favorite needles. I am slowly collecting a set of all of my most used sizes and lengths.
What I love most about their knitting needles are the cables. They are wonderful and drapey. No coiling at all! The needles themselves are perfectly sharp and friction-less. I highly recommend!
One of my vendor neighbors had some lovely bags. I had been thinking lately that I could use a new, larger, main knitting bag to hold my supplies and extra yarn that won’t fit in my project bag. This is especially handy on longer trips, which I will be on his coming week. More on that later. Anyway, I fell for this beauty.
I have moved in and I absolutely love it! It is nice and roomy. It has several pockets and a holds quite a lot. What I really like is that it folds in and looks smaller than it is. When you open it up, it is very expansive. When you are carrying it though, it doesn’t feel huge. The maker doesn’t have a website but her business name is Yours By Design. I think she’s on Instagram. Wait..I found her Etsy shop.
Where I’m Going Next
Before I close this post, I will mention where I am off to Wednesday. I will be going first to Allegan, MI for the Michigan Fiber Festival. After that I will be headed from there to Pittsburgh, PA for the Pittsburgh Creative Arts Festival. I will have a couple days off between, so if I don’t post before that I should have time to post then. See you soon!
My Miss BB Sweater is all finished! I also started a couple of new knitting projects.
Sweater
The seaming was problem free. All the pieces fit together as they should. I got it all done in a couple of sessions.
I went to Joann’s and got some buttons and grosgrain ribbon. I hand sewed in the ribbon to the inside of the button bands to stabilize them. It also adds more fabric for attaching the buttons. I am very fastidious when I sew in buttons, but they still fall off frequently. I hope this will help with that.
I am very happy with the finished sweater. The fit is roomy but not too oversized. This is going to be a nice outerwear garment for chilly days.
New Knitting
Now that my sweater is finished, I have cast on a new shawl/scarf. I showed you the yarn for the Veritas Shawl in May. It is Monologue by LMFA.
Now, you have probably noticed if you have been reading my blog for awhile, that I am a pretty experienced lace knitter, right? This pattern is intense. The set up and first chart (about 28-30 rows) took my most of last Sunday afternoon.
I spent a good deal of this Saturday and Sunday working on the set up for the next section. I am now at the point where all the elements are on the go. There are five parts to each row. There are edge stitches at the beginning and end of the rows. In between are three different stitch patterns. I feel like I have a handle on them now. When I was just starting them, it was constant chart checking.
First full chartall sections begun
You can see here how I had to print out the pattern so I could easily have everything visible. This is my one complaint about the pattern. The formatting of the charts and row directions are all over the place. The information is there and correct but it isn’t very user friendly.
I am really happy with how it looks now that is starting to look like something. While I was on the first chart, it was hard to tell what I was knitting.
Another New Project
While I was in Joann’s getting the stuff for the sweater, I picked up some yarn I saw on sale. I never do this but I had just been thinking how I haven’t made a summer sweater in ages. I also have not knit with linen and would like to try some. I saw this cotton/linen blend and couldn’t resist.
I went looking for some pattern ideas. I love Anne Hanson’s designs and looked there first. I found a few options but decided on Summershine Top. I did some swatching since this yarn is new to me. I used US 6 and then again on US 4. The gauge and fabric were better on the US 4’s.
Since I was unsure how gauge might change on the project, I decided to start with a sleeve and after washing it I will check gauge again.
I am also thinking that I will make a second garment using my Organic Cotton Sport for a booth sample. I will probably cast on a sleeve in that yarn as soon as I complete the cotton/linen one. I can knit them concurrently. I should have two sleeves completed by next time. I will also be sharing a new product on the website!
All the knitting on Miss BB is complete and it’s time to seam my sweater.
Knitting
Since my last post I knit the second front, and both of the sleeves. I blocked each piece as I completed them.
sleeve piece blockingbody pieces all ready for seaming
Last night I knit the final section where the side collar pieces meet at the back. My favorite detail of this sweater is that cable that is on the back of the shawl collar. I love how it meets up with the cables on the center back!
I still need to seam the shoulders, sew up the side seams. Then sew up the sleeves and set them in to the openings.
back view of assembled body piecesfront view of assembled body piecesall body pieces laid out
I might sew in some grosgrain ribbon to the button bands. I haven’t picked out buttons yet.
Festival Preparations
We are still working full time on restocking products for the fall festival season. Jerry is busy making more Yarn Swifts at the moment. I have been busy sewing bags for those. I also washed, dried, and labeled some Bare Yarns. We restocked all the Bare Yarns in the wool bases and also the Organic Cotton Sport and Organic Cotton Worsted yarns.
I am getting excited to get back out on the road next month. I am enjoying being home, but I love seeing the knitters too!
May has been quite a busy travel month. This weekend is the Hoosier Hills Fiber Festival in Franklin, IN. We have a long history with this show beginning in 2008, which was the year of the Flood. If you were there, you know what I mean. That year, Friday was epically rainy but the turn out was pretty good, considering the weather. Saturday morning it was STILL raining and things were looking dire. Roads were closing due to ponding and about midday we were told we would need to start loading up because a nearby dam broke. It sounds scary, but really the biggest problem was finding a route out of the area when roads and even Interstate 65S was closed for a time. We made it out fine. We did, however, have to take the long way home via I74 East through Cincinnati to Louisville.
But, I digress. Hoosier Hills is the last festival on our schedule from the first half of 2024. I am setting up the booth in a few hours from now. The market hours are 10:30-5:30 on Friday and 9-4 on Saturday. When I get home on Sunday I have a break from traveling. I have got more yarn ordered to dye over the summer break. It is arriving in a week or two.
Great Lakes Fiber Show 2024Great Lakes Fiber Show 2024
Here are a couple pictures from The Great Lakes Fiber Show last weekend. We had a really wonderful turn out this year. The weather was nice for the most part, except for Friday, which was set up day for vendors.
Knitting
So, as I mentioned above, I have been busy. I am working on my two projects but not as much as I would like.
Miss BB Left frontSampler sock
Miss BB is coming along. I completed the left front piece but I didn’t have time to block it yet.
My other knitting project is my sock in Classic Merino Bamboo. As you may recall, this was originally Stephen West’s Mingling Daisies Socks. That is no longer the plan and let me explain why that happened.
I began the pattern stitch section after the ribbing, which started with the Daisy Stitch. I remember that when working this on the shawl it was a bit fiddly until the fabric grew. The fiddly bit is worked on the wrong side and is done by working P3tog, leave those on the left needle, YO, P3tog again into those same three stitches. It got easier as the fabric grew.
The problem, for me, was that with the socks it is done on the right side. So, that means that you are working in the round (for me on DPN’s) on 2.25mm needles and doing the stitch pattern as K3tog, YO K3tog. Oh. My. Goodness. That was so slow and aggravating to me. AND, you have to shift the beginning of row every other row. UGH. I worked a few repeats and I hated it. I also promptly trashed any plans for making the companion sock pattern that was ALL Daisy stitch.
So, the 2.5″ ribbing was knit. I ripped back to that and got out my stitch pattern books. I decided to pick 2-3 out and make up a sample sock pattern. I looked for ones that were multiples of 4 or 8 since I have 64 stitches. I am using one called Swedish Check, the Broken Rib that was in Mingling Daisies, and a lacy pattern called Little Frogs. I just finished the gusset decreases last night.
I think that’s enough for today’s post since it is getting close to time to go set up the booth. See you again soon!
If you take a look at the projects that I currently have on the needles, it looks like it is a year of knitting for me. I haven’t done this much in the last 18 years. It is mostly sample knitting in my knitting bag, but at the moment it’s all “just because” knitting. Let’s get to the details.
Sweater Knitting
I shared with you in my last post that I am making Miss BB in some stash yarn. I like using natural colored yarn every now and then. I also like working with non-superwash wool for outerwear. It has a nice woolly feel and smell. I also appreciate the structure of a seamed garment. The knitting is easier on my hands because it is made in pieces which means that you don’t have the full weight of the garment as it gets nearer to completion.
I finished the back piece and have washed and blocked it. I prefer to do this as I go so that I can get straight to the seaming once all the pieces are done. Another advantage is that I don’t have to have the whole thing in my project bag when I am traveling, like I am right now. I left the finished back at home. More on that later in the post.
I have completed about half of the left front of the cardigan. It is going rather quickly when you consider my limitations on knitting time each day.
Sock and Other Knitting
I am normally project monogamous, but I am breaking that practice just because I feel like it. I have cast on for a pair of socks, plus I have two other small projects that I will cast on this week.
On the left is the start of my Mingling Daisies Socks in my Classic Merino Bamboo in Midnight Blue. I enjoyed making the Mingling Daisies Shawl, so I hope these will be fun to make and wear. I have never made a pair of socks for myself from this base, and I am interested to try the results. I often am asked by customers how they wear for socks and now I will be able to answer more accurately. I am using this color for the whole sock instead of the three colors Stephen uses for his sample. I don’t care for changing colors in socks because one color means only two ends to weave in. :-)
The middle yarn is going to be the other Year of Socks 2024 May release, Lazy Daisy Socks. I neglected to mention above that the Mingling Daisies Socks were also from the May release. I am having a lot of fun doing these this year. I haven’t made a few of them, but that doesn’t mean I won’t get to them at some point. The yarn I have wound is some stash yarn I bought from Webs in 2010. It is Kollage Yarns Sock-a-licious in Stormy.
My final soon to be project is Veritas Shawl. There is a story for how this got into my queue. I was at the Midwest Fiber Festival a couple of weeks ago. A fellow vendor friend who has her first grandchild on the way, saw that I had a retired baby sweater sample for sale. She asked if I wanted to do a trade for it since she is short on knitting time. I agreed and the yarn on the right was what I chose from her booth.
The yarn is a very lovely hand dyed dyed skein of Leading Men Fiber Arts Monologue. I am linking to Ravelry because it is a discontinued yarn. I did a pattern search on Ravelry for something to make with this one skein since I didn’t want to make socks with a single ply yarn. I found the above shawl, which I am very excited to begin. I think this will be a nice scarf type shawl and I love the color!
Travels
So, as I mentioned above I am on the road this weekend. I drove to Beloit, Wisconsin on Wednesday and stopped for the night. On Thursday I completed my drive to Hudson, Wisconsin which is just a couple of miles from the Minnesota state line. Here is a view from my hotel room window at the Wisconsin country-side. That’s my rig in the parking lot. :-)
I am going to be setting up the booth later today at Shepherd’s Harvest Festival. I really like doing this show. It’s a bit of a haul to get here, but it is always worth the trip. I first discovered it 13 years ago, in 2011.
I love the atmosphere of the festival. There’s always a nice turn out of fiber enthusiasts but it’s not overwhelming. There are lots of great fiber vendors, food vendors, and live music. Sometimes the weather can be a bit cool, to me anyway, coming from the south, but this year looks to be in the low 70’s and 80’s. That’s pretty warm in my experience. I am also glad that the rain, which had been forecast for today, seems gone and set up should be much more pleasant.
I will close this post for now since it’s getting close to the time that I need to head out for the days work. Thanks for reading!
It may seem weird, but I think spring is the perfect time for sweater knitting.
Baby Sweater Knitting
I am continuing my spring sweater knitting with some more baby sweaters. You may recall that after I finished the large size Dora Cardigan, I planned to partially re-knit the other two sizes.
I have already finished the small size sample. In the picture below it is the green one. I have added back the buttons after I took the picture but I am waiting until I finish the white one to wash and block them together.
This morning I ripped back the cotton version with the aid of my Yarn Swift so that I could steam out the crinkles as much as possible. I have it back in the needles so I can work on it this evening. I like to use a needle that is a couple of sizes smaller than my working needle for this task. I find it is easier to catch the stitches.
It may take two evenings to complete. I would really like to have it ready to wash and lay out to dry by tomorrow if I can. I would like them both ready to be back in the booth this coming weekend in Ann Arbor for the Spring Fiber Expo.
Another Sweater and Socks
I finished my Glittering Snowscape Socks while I at the Greencastle Wool Show. I washed them in the hotel room sink, and wore them in the booth on Saturday. I love there socks and can see them being favorites in my stash.
Since the baby sweaters were in the booth at the time, I cast on for one of the sweaters I had yarn with me to make. It is the Miss BB Cardigan that I am making with stash yarn. This has been in my queue for many years. I knit it’s predecessor around 15-20 years ago. I am not sure when it was. Bonnie Marie Burns originally released the Miss CB’s Camp Jacket that is shown on the far right. I made that from some Bartlett Yarn and it is my coat on the rare occasion that I need something that heavy. This newer version of that pattern is much smaller and more in sweater territory.
It is a pieced garment. I rather like to knit sweaters in pieces. The knitting is more portable since you can just have the piece you are working on in your project bag. I also like the structure from the seams which helps it keep it’s shape. I make seamless sweaters too and can appreciate their benefits but I don’t shy away from seamed garments. What are your thoughts? Seamless, seamed, or both have their place?
