Stash – Rush Hour Knitting

Sunday, 8 May, 2011Sunday, 8 May, 2011

Catching Up

I’ve been really busy.

I started a new job, which means a new commuting route:

So there is more train knitting.

I bought some yarn too:

Isn’t that luscious? I’m still trying to decide what I want to do with it.

And I made my sister a shawl for her birthday:

This is the Pinkerton Shawl that was on the cover of the Spring Interweave Knits. I knit it in Dream in Color Smooshy in Chinatown Apple, stretched with a little bit of DiC Baby in the same colorway. (This shawl eats yarn for breakfast. Plan accordingly.) And then I took pictures of it at my parents’ cabin in upstate New York, where my whole clan had gathered for Easter.

The cabin is tiny and up on top of a hill. It has electricity and really good 3G service, but no television. There’s a wonderful porch that catches the breeze and I have visions of summer weekends knitting and looking out over the hills.

We’ve dubbed the cabin “Balmoral,” in honor of the royal vacation estate. I think it’s entirely fitting.

Wednesday, 23 March, 2011Wednesday, 23 March, 2011

Catching up

Just because I didn’t post about February’s socks in February doesn’t mean they weren’t finished in February.

Really.

RIVENDELL

Pattern: Rivendell by Janel Laidman
Yarn: Tanis Fiber Arts Blue Label in Deep Sea, a birthday gift from J
Needles: US 1 dpns
Notes: Oh, these did come out breathtaking, didn’t they? But that wasn’t without some pain. The pattern calls for a wrap design around the top of the leg that makes a scalloped effect. Very pretty, but… I have fairly short, wide calves, and they just did not fit. I ended up ripping back the first sock to start over. My options were to figure out increases, or… skip the scalloping entirely. I went with the past of least resistance, and just did ten rounds in the ribbing pattern before starting the charts.

This pattern is so, so pretty. And being rather fond of Lord of the Rings, I really love how it evokes Arwen’s pendant and the general beaux-arts elegance of the elves:

Naturally, within hours (seriously) of weaving in the last end, Janel Laidman released a pattern update including more sizing options. I think next time I will see if I can manage it with the scalloping. (Of course there will be a next time, are you kidding?)

Incidentally, Tanis Fiber Arts? Amazing. These are the second pair of socks I’ve done in Tanis and I love it love it love it. If you can get a hold of some, do so as quickly as possible and do not let it out of your hands.

I’ve been watching the news out of New Zealand and now Japan with a rather dull dread, but like last year, LSG, my main hangout on Ravelry, has stepped up with verve. I decided against doing any pattern-sale fundraisers this time around, but when a few LSGers volunteered their time to run a silent auction, I decided to donate a pair of October Leaves. So, if you have a ravelry account and you’d like to see what else is available, point your browser here for a look. My offering is the fourth one down, a pair of October Leaves mitts knit in the winning bidder’s choice of KP Gloss Fingering colors, as well as their choice of patterns from my shop. The first round of auctions (including mine) end on Friday the 25th, so get a move on!

While I’m not doing pattern sale donations, plenty of people are. Two that I indulged in are Mitered Crosses Blanket from the Mason-Dixon ladies, and the Japanese Garden Shawl from Wendy Knits. I have some Sekrit Plans for that blanket, yes I do. And I bought myself some really beautiful Madtosh this week, because I had news that was worthy of celebration and this is how I celebrate:

and I think that one of these skeins will work exceptionally well for Japanese Gardens. (And the other will become a Saroyan, I am thinking.) Of course, now I have to decide…which color with which pattern? I’m all about the tough choices.

Saturday, 4 September, 2010Saturday, 4 September, 2010

Success!

So among the things I have been working on this summer is my spinning. I have a really adorable little Golding spindle that I picked up two Marylands ago that I have been getting more and more comfortable with, and ages and ages ago I started spinning up this bagful of fiber I got from a kind fellow Raveler who RAK’d it to me so I could have something to practice with.

This is what it looked like when I started:

Now, I’ve been messing around with my spindles for a while — I have this big generic one that I got cheap at Rhinebeck years ago, and it was just too heavy for me to spin comfortably with. It wasn’t until I picked up my Golding that things finally started falling into place.

And how.

Say hello to 91 yards of roughly sport-weight, chain-plied YARN. Yarn that I spun, all by myself.

The skein is sitting next to me right now, because I can’t stop patting it and touching it. Guys, I can make yarn! This changes everything!

In fact, I’ve already started spinning more. As the internet would put it, MUST SPIN ALL THE FIBER. If you’ll excuse me, my spindle awaits.

Thursday, 10 September, 2009Thursday, 10 September, 2009

Vintage

My parents have a fondness for antiquing. They like to go poke around shops and shows for treasures. My mother hunts for dishes and silver (she has two collections she is working on finishing, piece by piece) and my father just looks for whatever catches his eye.

Well. I must have trained him well. They came home today from two days spent enjoying the Brimfield Antique Show with this:

That’s three cones of various amounts of wool, eight skeins of wool, two of tussah silk (labeled for weaving, actually), three of “irish lace”, and two and change of a cotton/linen blend.

All that for two dollars.

I know. My dad’s awesome, isn’t he? I have already determined that he shall receive a Christmas present constructed from some of this haul.

Let’s get some close ups:

And tucked in with all of this was this label, ripped of what appeared to be butcher paper — maybe wrapping from a package?

It’s a little clue about this stash — perhaps this Mrs. Olmstead was the owner? Or maybe the owner bought something from her. There’s really no way to tell, but it’s so intriguing to wonder.

Everything smells musty, like the cardboard box it came in, and there’s a faint whiff of mothballs to it, so my first order of business is going to be reskeining everything in order to give it a proper soak. After it’s all clean and ready to move in with the rest of my stash (which is starting to outgrow its home) then we can truly get down to business.

When I told my dad that I was going to blog his find and it would make him the most popular father-of-a-knitter ever, he laughed. I don’t think he quite believed me.