Gray Day and Pearls in the Sea

Ever have one of those days when nothing quite works out?

Today has been that for me... and a weird weather day to boot, with gray skies, cool temps, hail and rain and then some sort-of sun. Not exactly June-ish even for Vancouver. This does affect me, truly it does. Maybe because I am doing a rather intense "spring cleanse" with herbs and a restricted diet too...

Then, there is the sock, a *secret* sock for the Blue Moon sock club, which has been a long time coming, what with the show sample knitting and all. Finally finished last night... just to find that the trusty little postal scale tells me that the leftovers won't be quite enough to make its mate. Grrr. Back to the frog pond for me, at least for a little while.

The good news is the quickie Diamond Fantasy I made for a dear friend who attended TNNA and who wanted a new scarf for the occasion. This pattern is kind of a restful knit for me actually. I have knit it many times and I am always pleasantly carried along by the rhythm of the lace. Such a nice knit... and this time, I made it with beads. I don't know if you can see them very well, but they gleam when the light hits them right. I did something different with the pointy edges.. put the beads one stitch in from the edge, kind of subtle-like.

The scarf's recipient calls it "pearls in the sea". Yarn is Sea Wool by Fleece Artist, one skein of Capri. Beads are 4mm silver lined crystal megatamas from Earth Faire.

I gave myself the finger

I saw this on Nathania's blog today and couldn't help myself...

You Are a Pinky

You are fiercely independent, and possibly downright weird. A great communicator, you can get along with almost anyone. You are kind and sympathetic. You support all your friends - and love them for who they are. You get along well with: The Ring Finger Stay away from: The Thumb

What Finger Are You?

Making Waves

Yesterday was the photo shoot for the new version of Waves in the Square. Thanks to my wonderful and creative friends (and co-owners of Three Bags Full) Yee Jee and Zoe, who seem to regularly bail me out when it is time for picture-taking, here are the results below. Zoe was kind enough to model the shawl as it was much more her color than mine.





It was very hard to decide (and very late at night to boot) which shot should grace the pattern cover, but I decided on the top one because it shows the shawl as I love to wear it most - like a wrap with one long end thrown over a shoulder. But I LOVE the interesting corner details that the other shots reveal. This shawl is kind of a mystery... very few people figure out that it is three-quarters of a square unless they actually see it lying flat. The shape lends itself to a very stable fit and "seats" over the shoulders very much like a raglan sweater. Yet there are lots of interesting ways to drape and wear it.

I am very happy with this latest version... the beaded picot border is new and I think it adds a lot of charm to what used to be a very minimalist garter stitch bottom border.

This shawl is being packed up today to fly away to TNNA. Join me in waving a tearful bye-bye... Don't know where, don't know when, but we'll see each other again someday...

New version, Waves in the Square, available now in pdf and printed format.

Addi Love

In answer to questions about the new Addi lace needles, yes, they are SO much nicer for lace than the "regular" Addis. Here is a visual comparison of two 3.75mm (US 5) needles, the bottom of which is a lace Addi, the top is a regular Addi:


Click for bigger if you want...See how the point is longer on the bottom needle, and the tip is sharper? It IS very nice to have a sharper tip, although to tell you the truth, I was getting along just fine with the old ones. I have also heard a lot about the better grabbing of the lace needles and I do notice a different surface texture on the needle (gold in the photo) that is less slick, but again, I had no trouble with the slickness of the old ones so that is nice but not a selling point for me.

But the longer tip area is what is really winning me over to the lace needle camp. All of a sudden, I am noticing that is no longer such a chore to do k2togs and ssks. I actually enjoy the maneuver as I get to watch those elegant long tips swoop in and out of those stitches in style! Yeah, baby!

The cables are still wonderful on the new needles, as you can (hopefully) see... almost exactly the same as the old, as far as I can tell.



And thanks to all who commented on the new shawl and the new wheel... yes, I am thrilled with both! However, just to clarify... the Waves in the Square pattern has been around for a while - this is just an updated version, with a picot bind off added to jazz up the bottom edge. I beaded mine because I love what that does to the drape of the shawl, and I will be including instructions for doing this in the new version of the pattern. If you want the new version, PLEASE WAIT TO PURCHASE IT.. I still need to take a new cover photo of the shawl! Alternately, please email me if you want to be put on a list for the new version with the beaded picot border. The rest of the shawl pattern will be exactly the same as the current version.

As for my new Sonata, I love her! I love her! Just need more time to sit in front of her and spin to my heart's content. One little tiny thing... I am finding that the bobbin spindle needs a good bit of lubrication, and oil doesn't quite seem to be cutting it as I still seem to be having a tiny bit of noise/vibration (but I am very sensitive to noise and vibration - this may not be a problem for most, and it does not affect the spinning one little bit). I am about to try some vaseline for my next spinning session.

Other than that minor point, I am really really happy with the wheel, the action of the treadles is smooth as silk and I like sitting right in front, almost on top of the wheel, so the positioning is perfect for me. I love the light-yet-solid feeling of the wheel, the footmen with their cute little plastic tubing connectors, love the quick-snap bobbin change, love the beautiful turning on the wheel, love the easy fold and perfect flatness of the folded wheel, in a word, love it all!!! Even with my Symphony (now gone to a new owner who had more floor space than I), spinning wasn't this easy and fun. Those Kromski folks have done up a nice one, folks.

Now... back to trunk show knitting!

New Waves

New waves... fresh off the needles and blocking...


Am I alone in loving lace that is not quite symmetrical? Take a look at what's happening in the corners, first the bottom front:


Then the top where the "seams" meet:

Nice, eh?

And this was coincidentally right above the shawl:


I am getting turned on by pink everywhere!

New Waves in the Square, yarn Handmaiden Mini-Maiden, 2 skeins rose. This shawl is to be shown at TNNA and will be made available for a travelling trunk show thereafter.

The trunk show knitting is almost done! Here is what I washed and blocked today:

One more brown Journey Cable Sock to go...

Not much spinning has been done unfortunately, with the close knitting deadline, but here it is for what it's worth:


Can you imagine this plied with the licorice all-sorts from the previous post? No, I can't either... hopefully I will have some newly plied yarn for you to see in the next installment...

Playing Hooky

Yes, procrastination continues to happen as the deadline for the TNNA trunk show mail-off looms very near...

Saturday was FibreFest International, at nearby Abbotsford, and two friends escorted me away from duties and responsibility into the fantasy world of fibre...

Where I purchased this:

a Kromski Sonata folding wheel. She is beautiful and I love her. I think we will be getting along just fine!

I also purchased these:



The bottom two are topknots from Aurelia Wool, lovely little bite-sized confections that are perfectly sized for socks or a hat. Charming, eh?

The one in the last picture has been split into two parts, one that I think is Aurelia's "licorice all-sorts" colorway, black with brights, will be one ply, and the other, strips of soft lilac and purple roving, will be ply #2. Here is what the black combo looks like on the bobbin:


I am just having way too much fun.

However, knitting for the trunk show is also happening, thank goodness. I have a new-to-me yarn on the needles that is gorgeous, Mini Maiden by Handmaiden Fine Yarns, and for a special treat, I am using the new lace Addi Turbos. Pictures will be forthcoming soon, I promise...

Bead Show Swag

The Whole Bead Show came to Vancouver this weekend. I wasn't going to go, having in mind a weekend of intense "good girl" knitting, with TNNA coming up straightaway and a new trunk show to fill.

It didn't take much to sway me from my straight and narrow path. One little email from my friend Cathalynn, fellow beader and designer, and I was gone. Yesterday we toured the shop displays and took a class on wire working.

Swag was purchased - almost none of which is destined for knitting projects. No, a new obsession has been born... making wire and bead jewelry. Here are some of the not-so-ill-gotten gains:


The priciest gems I bought (although not nearly as expensive as I thought they were going to be) were strings of faceted garnets and faceted hematite rondelles, which seemed to go very well with some beautiful handmade glass beads and sterling silver chain. I love garnets, which are not only my birth stone, but are my favorite color. These will become something very special...


Then there were some lovely rosy-gray freshwater coin pearls which begged for some zebra rose quartz to go with. Not shown are some almost transparent gray phantom quartz beads which will almost certainly be included in the piece. Such a sophisticated mix of textures and subtle color.


I could not pass up some more "show specials" - multicolored freshwater pearl strands that had broken from the original threads and sold for an astonishingly low price, and some lovely semi precious beads made from amazonite and jasper, all in greens and other earthy colors.


In the class, I did a freeform wire bracelet adorned with magenta freshwater pearls and small silver beads, courtesy of Cathalynn who shared them from her stash. I think I like it better today than I did at the class yesterday. Maybe we will make friends yet...

I actually do not wear a lot of jewelry, preferring knitwear as a quieter form of embellishment, but that may change soon if the earrings, neckpieces and other playful ornaments dancing in my head ever come forth into creation. Here's to creative play in all of its forms...

A beautiful partnership

Linen and lace go beautifully together, and don't let anyone tell you different. Linen is an amazingly classy fiber to wear. I know it makes me feel like a million bucks!

There are however a few extra steps needed beyond the usual blocking process to bring lacey linen to its best possible conclusion. I recently did a new sample of the Gothic Leaf Stole in linen and documented the process.

Knitting with linen can be a trying experience as with any bast fiber. It is rough and wiry and needs to be knitted rather firmly to counteract its lack of memory. For my stole, I used a US 5/3.75mm circular needle and Euroflax Sport Linen.

Side note to those of you about to embark on a linen Gothic Leaf Stole of your own: I would not recommend making two symmetrical halves to be grafted in the center (as I did) unless you are really really an expert grafter. I am apparently not an expert grafter (even though I always seem to be doing it) because I can still see the grafting line even after the thing has been washed, dried in a dryer, blocked, and worn some. But I am getting ahead of myself...

To you fans of crumpled lace, here is a nice example, just off the needles:














Linen yarn is actually improved in several ways by exposure to heat and agitation... unlike the animal fiber yarns in your stash. So in the washer and dryer it goes, protected only by a mesh bag. Hot water wash, high heat dry.














After this punishment, the lace is even more crumpled, but soft. I have un-crumpled it a little as I patted it very roughly into a rectangle.













Now I shpritzed (misted if you don't know Yiddish) with water and you can see it relaxing into uncrumpledness. This is actually all the blocking you may need.














However, I went ahead and did the whole shebang with wires and tape measure, well, just because I could. You do get a beautifully drapey garment when you go through the whole process. The stretching and drying flat makes a gorgeous finished piece.














And here is Yee Jee Tso's vision of the finished piece:


Thank you, Yee Jee. And thank you, Three Bags Full.

Chicken Fever

I don't have any chickens to show. No knitted chickens, no eggs, no camp photos. Boohoo.

This is what I do have, spurred by one I saw on Nathania's blog:

Read my VisualDNA™ Get your own VisualDNA™

Leave me to my dreamy chicken dreams...

Back in the Saddle

I went awol, big time. It has been long, long since I blogged. Much has happened in the mean time.

Biggest news on the home front... a brand new pattern got born today. Welcome, if you please ... the Journey Cable Socks pattern!

This baby has four sizes, two weights of yarn, and lots and lots of hours of knitting and planning. It IS a really fun sock to make, especially the baby sock (if I may say so myself). I couldn't have done this without mucho help from many corners. Thank you, all the invisible helpers...

My favorite belongs to the little legs at left... Aija, "shop baby" at Three Bags Full
and all around charmer. She likes to practice walking (which she just started to do) with little bunny-soft Moebius baskets in each hand. Obviously this little girl has grown up around some fiber! Go, girl!

Another new, new thing is the advent of downloadable pdf patterns for sale on my website. Yes, it is true. After talking about this for months, many pattern pdf's are available for sale. More will be posted soon. I know you international folks will be happy to hear about this, and I REALLY HOPE it cuts down on the number of emails I send to people in Europe and Australia when they purchase printed patterns at the wrong rate of shipping. You gotta love Paypal shopping carts, folks.

If you would like the immediate gratification of having the Journey Cable Socks Pattern in your hot little knitter's hands today, go here and make it so!

Shawl Emergency

It finally happened to me. A hole appeared in my shawl. I always thought this was one of those things that happens to everyone else, but not me. Never me. Well, here it is. My Shetland Garden Shawl got an owie somehow and it showed up in the blocking stage. Ow, ow, ow. Doesn't it hurt just to look at that hole?


I put the shawl away for a couple of weeks to let my feelings settle. I knew it had to be fixed. Furthermore, I knew I could probably fix it. But sometimes it takes courage to step up to the plate.

Today I did surgery on my shawl. See the clean sheet underneath her? Here is a closeup of the damage.


And a closer-up, pointed the way the shawl was knitted this time (top-down). I picked up the live stitches and placed them on a double pointed needle. Yay... just three stitches to be fixed! It could have been a lot worse.


I was able to follow the chart and just knit that baby right back up. Phew!


After it was done, I had one live stitch, which I anchored with a spare piece of shawl yarn and wove the ends into the back of the shawl. I think it's almost undetectable now (hint... it was the middle leaf).

All congratulations gratefully accepted. May your shawls never sprout holes...

No Sheep for Me

Last Monday I showed up at Three Bags Full to teach a lace class and what did I see????



Be warned... this is going to be a shameless plug for the new book, No Sheep for You by Amy Singer, just out from Interweave Press.

If you haven't yet heard about it, this book is a compendium of gorgeous projects, none of which contain wool or animal fibers. Which leaves... let's see... silk, cotton, bamboo, linen, soy, tencel, and probably lots more that I am forgetting. Glorious stuff, right? Right.

I happen to have a piece in this book, the River Rock Scarf. The pictures below won't be in the same colorway or have the same beads, but I hope you can get a good idea.





Yarn: Silken by Handmaiden. Beads: 6/0 Matte silver lined gold beads. Design: My own.

This design is based on a simple 2x2 rib with a little lace openwork at the edges. The scarf is meant to be like a freely running river with beads simulating the little rocks that interrupt the stream from time to time. It is freeform in that you can place your "rocks" anywhere you please, and put in as many as you like. For those who like to follow a pattern, I have included a plan that will give you rocks just like the one pictured in the book (which will be different from this one...every one I have made has been quite different from the others. Lots of room to play in this design!)

River Rock Scarf. In the book, No Sheep for You. Play in your river...

The Squares Have It

Thanks to all who responded about my square/triangle conundrum. The squares have it! As a matter of fact, the center square of the shawl is finished, now on to picking up stitches for the border and knitting in the round - yay! I am just putting off knitting on this for today so I can use the shawl as it is to demo adding on a new ball with Russian Join for my lace knitting class tomorrow night. I normally find this join just a little fussy but it will be perfect for the sea silk I am using for the shawl.

Want to see a crumpled up piece of knitted lace? Here 'tis so far...



I like what the ivory sea silk is doing - kind of pooling but so subtly that it looks like sand dunes. I don't know if the sheen of the yarn comes through the photo, but it is really really nice. I am kind of hooked on this project even though I have several others I could/should be working on...

Well, actually I am working on one other thing, a scarf based on the Gothic Leaf Stole that I re-configured for the new lace knitting classes I am teaching now.

Want to see a semi-crumpled up piece of knitted lace?


I blocked out the scarf after the first three repeats to demo blocking out a swatch for the class, then just kept going. To tell the truth, I am becoming quite enamored of crumpled up lace knitting. See what I mean? So organic, and the beads are fascinatingly random in their crumpled state too.


I think a crumpled lace project may be coming soon...

For your information, the yarn used for this lace scarf is Sweet Georgia Yarn's merino superwash sock yarn in the afterglow colorway. Beads are silver lined crystal megatamas from Earth Faire, placed in with a crochet hook as I knit.

Thanks to a very generous knitting friend, I now have sock blockers for the very first time! I finished the second Journey Cable Sock last night and washed the pair. Now they are very happily resting on Smokey Jo Sock Blockers from chappy, who makes these at home with her husband in a multitude of sizes and patterns. I am now a convert to using them as they do smooth out your socks and make them dry faster too. Please go and give her online store a peek.

In the meantime, here are the socks:


Journey Cable Socks. Pattern to be published soon.

Bloggers (silent) poetry reading

In honor of poets, long may they inspire... This is one of my all-time favorite poems, and I think the reason I have always loved handpainted yarn, and any art inspired by the inner spirit of nature. Enjoy... Pied Beauty
by Gerard Manley Hopkins
Glory be to God for dappled things-- For skies of couple-colour as a brinded cow; For rose-moles all in stipple upon trout that swim; Fresh-firecoal chestnut-falls; finches' wings; Landscape plotted and pieced--fold, fallow, and plough; And all trades, their gear and tackle and trim. All things counter, original, spare, strange; Whatever is fickle, freckled (who knows how?) With swift, slow; sweet, sour; adazzle, dim; He fathers-forth whose beauty is past change: Praise Him. This is part of the Second Annual Brigid in Cyberspace Silent poetry reading. Please join in...

Pink Eyed Lady of the Morning

I am sick, y'all. This came about because I boasted to people that I haven't been sick in ages and ages. Instant karma, whammo. Now, I am in coughy, wheezy, sneezy, drippy-ville. We're just having lots of fun.

But there is some news on the knitting front. This swatch will soon become a shawl. It is now formulated as a square, but the thought entered my foggy brain last night that it might be better as a triangle, not a hard transition to make... a triangle is half a square, right? Please give me your comments on this. I shouldn't have to rely on my own judgement right now... have pity.



Yarn: Handmaiden Sea Silk, ivory colorway. Potential title: Norwegian Woods (see the little branches in the middle section and the leafy edges?

Whaddya say... square or triangle?

Beautiful Butterscotch

...Cables, that is:



Yarn: Louet Gems Sportweight, handpainted by Indigo Moon, a local and very talented dyer, Needles: 2.75 mm
Design: My own

Beautiful yarn does inspires me!

I gave today...

and a nice, round $284.00 is now in the hands of MSF! Thank you to all who contributed. I am so proud of our little group fundraiser.

Now to answer a comment that was left a while ago under the post about my Mooshie and his yarn-bringing obsession... yes, I am extremely careful not to allow him to chew on yarn. I am very aware of the dangers of yarn twisting around a cat's insides and the thought horrifies me.

Fortunately, both my husband and myself work from home so we can watch him pretty much all the time (we don't go out much), and I don't leave tantalizing bits and bobs of yarn lying around, believe it or not. Moosh pretty much just likes to carry yarn balls around in his mouth, and deposit them in certain places. That seems to be the main thrill. And he does have lots of regular toys other than yarn. In case you wondered.

Awwwww...

Thank you for all the nice comments about the FOs. I am pretty happy about them myself! Today I am getting some sock samples done for the class on Monday. This class will be teaching heels and gussets, so I am doing one sock down to the start of the heel flap, and one sock down to the heel turn.

The yarn is my lovely mediumweight Rare Gem from the lovely folks at Blue Moon Fiber Arts, makers of Socks that Rock and purveyors of the Rockin' Sock Club. If you haven't yet heard about the events that these ladies have been going through for the last couple of weeks, please read about it here and here and here. They have now updated their website and are open and ready for business, so please support them. Their sock yarn is legendary, and they are absolute peaches.