shout out, yippee.

Ok, so after meeting and blogging about our meet, Courtney Kelly gave me a shout out on her blog The Pattern Factory , yay. Here is what she posted:



the picture was taken at hill country weavers in Austin, TX complete with my Ben Folds shirt and the little cloud that follows me everywhere since he is connected to my purse.

my style likes

Here are my favorite items from the following brands latest collections. I'm liking the retro 30's / 40's shoes, babydoll / 40's & 60's inspired dresses, simple & tunic tops, drapey thin jersey knit tops, wide legged pleated pants, the tie belt, the table cloth scarf, wing sleeves, buttons on tops, detail in tops / dresses lk. lace, patchwork and backs, vests, linen, cotton, denim, nutral tones of grey, blue, kacki, navy, brown, cream, faded sea foam green, dark mustard and splashes of redish orange, yellow and bolder greens. enjoy.

Chie Mihara

Totokaelo

Toast

Sessùn

Lover (Northern Hemisphere)

Matilde

Kuu Kukka

Coton

Built By Wendy

A.P.C.

Anthropologie

"Tuck", spinning and a little striped mole

Marigold smoothie mango, peach & fresh orange again from daily juice. A little striped mole plushie my little sister made for a class of hers to remind her of mole: a unit of amount of substance.

The "Tuck" back is finished. The yarn is Cascade Yarns 220 Heathers in 2440. It took almost 2 skiens. I knit the back with size US 8 needles.

I bought some new fiber the other day from Hill Country Weavers. A brown alpaca and a baby sky blue wool 2oz. of each this time. Up till now I've only spun the sliver wool. The alpaca is sooo soft and I like the way it seperates when I pull on the roving to thin it more than the how the wool reacts. Here is my drop spindle in action spinning away.



woops, the yarn escaped the groove. I hadn't even noticed when taking pictures.

Here is a days work of the right front of the "Tuck" vest by Norah Gaughan. The pattern is in the Berroco pattern boolet spring/summer 2009 Norah Gaughan "excess story" collection. The cover says story: flower child which is the other collection in the same booklet. The yarn is also a Cascade Yarns 220 in a grayish color. I'm using size US6 needles for the front pieces.

Jeero knits

I'm currently working on the "tuck" cardigan vest by Norah Gaughan. Jeero was sweet enough to helped me knit some of it today.

and another smoothie from Daily Juice; this time I tried Sugar Magnolia, Watermelon and Peaches mmm...

buttons and daily juice

I awoke this morning to a surprise "maya papaya" smoothie from Daily Juice from my loving husband. After sifting through my button box I chose the 22 buttons to use for my new "Forest" arm warmers.

The majority of the buttons were left over from my antique market shopping days from when I lived in France. These were from Sommières.

Yay, one arm warmer with buttons down & one to go.

Ruffled Neck Kercheif

Here is my finished "Ruffled Neck Kerchief" from boutique knits. I really loved this pattern, it made me love chevron lace.

Spinning

I've thought how cool it would be to own sheep or an alpaca and raise them for their wool and have off and on thought of spinning my own yarn, inspired by the artisan yarns spun by local spinners you can find at local yarn stores. They just have so much more depth to them than more processed yarn & have this magical air around them that seems to whisper to you stories as if they are glass slippers. You know someone picked these colors and worked on their technique of spinning worked with the fiber maybe hand painting it and then after choosing the weight of yarn spun up one unique skein of yarn available to you if you could only afford it. Well I'm not in the boat of people who will spend over $100 for 400 yds of yarn. I love finding yarn for under $10 probably from my background of Michaels, Hob Lob & Wal-Mart. For a very special skein though I've spent up to "cough" $21 "cough".

So a couple of weeks ago after visiting the Austin yarn stores for a week I felt the urge one day that I wanted to spin. I'd eyed the wool but just in passing. I was there for the yarn. It looked interesting some of the fiber braided some of it wrapped into what looked like woolen watermelons some in bags. There were lots of colors, mesh bins and drawers full. (I'm refering to Hill country Weavers) Different types and of course prices. And little ol' me not quite knowing how much an oz of wool roving would be bought 4oz of turmeric, white and brown in basic sliver wool. Ok, so that is a lot of wool. The ladies at the yarn store warned me 2oz is enough to start out with of each color. But that is ok; I plan on spinning it all. I also got a basic small wooden drop spindle and after searching you tube I learned the basics from Megan and started spinning. I spun and spun deciding I liked the top whorl method and rolling it down my right leg (twisting the fibers clockwise) while sitting and while spinning in the car (in the passenger seat) I spun the dowel part with my fingers.

So far all I have to show are my first two days work. I don't seem to be a very fast spinner, but that is ok. I love how the first two came out. After I had spun them I wrapped them around a chair back and tied some extra string around the yarn in 2 places making a hank. Then I boiled the hank. I didn't realize it was going to smell like sheep. After removing it from the pot I extracted the extra water with a towel and shimmied it back around the chair back (this part was hard) and if I couldn't I untied it and wrapped it around anew. A mostly let it air dry using a hair dryer some because I was ancy to hold it and say it was finished. Now I can say I'm a spinner, yay. It is exhilarating learning something new related to something you really love, knitting.

Kelbourne Woolens at Hill Country Weavers

I met Courtney Kelly from Kelbourne Woolens today at the Austin not so little Little Yarn Store Hill Country Weavers. In front of her Fibre Company yarns and patterns display trunk show for March madness first Thursdays. It was really by God’s perfect timing actually. I arrived at Hill Country Weavers for their first Thurday sale that was 20% off of all (specifically) balls of yarn and The Fibre Company yarns.

So I picked up a plastic shoe container they have available for use as a shopping basket and proceeded to walk slowly around the store at least twice. Eyeing out all balls of yarn and touching everything for its softness. Sounding out the names of the yarn companies from their labels as I walked along building my knowledge of yarn distributors and the fiber combinations that made up the endless amount of yarns. 65% baby alpaca, 10% cashmere, 10% camel & 15% silk is what makes up the The Fibre Company yarn Road to China light silken jewels that I got 4 hanks of, 2 in plum jasper and 2 in blue tourmaline. After checking out with 2 balls each of Berroco Pure Merino Heather in colors Winter Chocolate, Pesto Genovese, Mowbray Beige & Debbie Bliss Pure Cotton in colors yellow 4, pale blue 13, red 29 & beige 28. I proceeded to their kitchen ball winding area where I wound my 4 Fibre Company hanks into balls.

And then to their back room where a knitting class was finishing up I pulled up a chair and worked on my “Tuck” by Norah Gaughan in vol. 4 for a moment. When the knitting class left they turned off the window unit and it started getting stuffy but it took me about four rounds of saying to myself “ok, I’m going to leave after this round” before I actually did. I put my knitting back into my giant bag and headed for the front of the store making sure I took a path that would take me by the Kelbourne Woolens table display again before I left. I then remembered that I had my camera with me and asked if it was ok if I took some pictures of the lovely laid out table of yarn to blog to you knitters about. And after getting the go ahead I took a picture and then turned around and noticed Courtney from having stopped in to Hill Country Weavers the day before to pick up another hank of cascade yarns heathers 220 in this golden mustard color 4010 for my tuck vest.

Anyways I got to talk to her a bit. I asked her about her design method to which she gave some tips of having access to some good stitch dictionaries is vital. She mentioned one in particular that my mind is blocking on the name of at the moment but I own the vogue stitchionary 1&2 since I haven’t really ventured much off into fair isle yet which is number 3 and number 4 is crochet. I’ve seen some cool ones at yarn stores that I can’t seem to find anywhere else. Some of these are The Harmony Guides, Knitting Essentials by Melissa Johnson, A treasury of knitting patterns by Barbara G. Walker of which there are four.

She warned that if you also wish to have your own yarn company you should look forward to 50 hour work weeks but in the end that it is fulfilling doing something you love because for many of us knitters if you are a knitter you are a knittin’ day and night a real through and through knitter since it is something you love you do it every chance you get. She said that the "Give a Hoot" owl mittens were inspired by this 1940’s baby sweater and that the baby sweater “Lucille” started from the buttons and that they made a sweater for them.

Afterwards I walked across the street to Hey Cupcake
and got a Snowcap cupcake which is white (well, mine was pink) icing on a chocolate cupcake and picked up a Double Dose which is chocolate icing on a chocolate cupcake for my husband back home. In all, a wonderfully beautiful day and a praise that at the exact time I decided to leave I got to meet Courtney from Kelbourne Woolens.

Kniting Needle Preference

My favorites are bamboo and wood knitting needles. I only have birch wood needles so far though so I'm not sure the difference in knitting with them if any noticeable difference would occur. I like them because they are light and the feel of them, they don’t get cold like metal needles. I like metal needles for just throwing into my bag because they bend instead of break. I’m always a little worried when I put my wooden needles in my bag. Circular needles are good when you are going to be sitting close to other people. Long straight needles keep on hitting and poking the people beside you. Circular needles are good for traveling also. I prefer shorter 10” needles to the 14” long ones, unless that is what you need for a pattern.

acorn hat pattern

I plan on making this pattern available to be bought at a later time, but before I do I want some people to knit and critique the pattern (for design and the written pattern itself
) for me and in exchange the pattern will be free for them. If you are interested in following through this proccess reply to this post or message me on ravlery. 2 Spots still available as of 2/14/09.

DFW Fiber Fest

This sounds pretty cool, vendors and classes.

DFW Fiber Fest is a yearly event that occurs in April in the Dallas-Ft. Worth area. It is dedicated to offering classes from both nationally known and local teachers in crocheting, dyeing, hand knitting, machine knitting, spinning, weaving, and other fiber arts. Other related topics such as button-making, colour choices, are also offered.

For 2009, DFW FiberFest is held on Friday - Sunday, April 24-26, 2009

at theAddison Conference Center

15650 Addison Road

Addison, Texas 75001

Map Website

ravelry group
dfwfiberfest

How to knit a ruffle

Ruffles are usually something you want to add to something. It tends to look better that way. Rather than just going into a ruffle pattern instead of Binding Off and then picking up the stitches and making the ruffle pattern.

There are some different ways to pick up and knit stitches. One way is to tie the yarn you are going to make the ruffle with to the tail yarn that is the left over from the Casting On at the beginning. And using a crochet hook, I tend to use a size 5/H, pick up the yarn (you are using for the ruffle) with the hook and pull through last loop of every row along that edge. You want to pull the loops through so that they come out on the top. You can then slip the loops off of the crochet hook and onto your knitting needle.

1. pick up the number of stitches divisible by 4.


2. Purl


3. Purl 2, Make 1, Knit 3, [Purl 2, Make 1, Knit 2] 4 times, Purl 2, Make 1, Knit 3


4. knit the knit stitches, purl the purl stitches and the new stitches (make 1).


5. Purl 2, Make 1, Knit 4, [Purl 2, Make 1, Knit 3] 4 times, Purl 2, Make 1, Knit 4


6. repeat row 3


7. Purl 2, Make 1, Knit 5, [Purl2, Make 1, Knit 4] 4 times, Purl 2, Make 1, Knit 5


8. repeat row 3


9. Purl 2, Make 1, Knit 6, [Purl 2, Make 1, Knit 5] 4 times, Purl 2, Make 1, Knit 6 [You can continue to make the ruffle wider just increase one after every purl stitch on the right side and repeat row 3 for every wrong side]


10. Bind off stitches in the pattern (meaning bind off knit stitches as knit stitches and purl stitches as purl stitches. (ruffle instructions from "boutique knits")

Make 1(M1) can be interchanges with Yarn overs (Yo) instead either way it makes a ruffle.

M1 (Make 1): Lift the yarn lying between the stitch just worked and the next stitch and place it on the left hand needle, then knit (from learn2knit.co.uk )

YO (Yarn Over): When working on the knit side of Stockinette Stitch hold the yarn at the back of the work. Pull the yarn forward between he two needles and over the right needle to the back of the work. Knit the next stitch. (from knit 911. com )

road trip

After a 27 hour drive leaving with a 1/4 inch of ice on the car after an ice storm that swept over north Texas last Tuesday, we left Wednesday morning and ended up in Las Angeles, CA Thursday morning. We passed 4 wrecked 18 wheelers within the first 2 hours that we left. Ever wonder why you've never met anyone who said that they came from east California. That's because there isn't any life out in east California. 40w is a road in the middle of an ocean of rock, there is like a 3 hour expanse of nothing. You see a turn or a hill in the road in front of you that you can’t see the road after that and you reach the point where you’ve peeked the hill or turned the corner and you’ve been thinking surely there is something over this hill but there isn’t, it’s a little scary. You need to fill up the tank when you can because you don’t know how long it is till the next station. I guess eastern California stuck out in the trip because there was day light when we were driving through it. I may have had similar thoughts of Arizona and New Mexico but the sun set as we drove over the Texas/New Mexico border. The night sky is amazing in New Mexico; you can see all the stars compared to northern Texas where there are 4 stars. It was really amazing. We drove through Albuquerque, NM during the night. I've never seen so many lights over such a large expanse before. But at 6000 ft. altitude I got a headache. There were some funny things, like signs we came across during the night like "come in and hug a waitress", “yellowhorse”, "smoke ahead", "wind may exist" and some others that you couldn't see all of the sign so it said "keep pets on" & "on walls climb".

save handmade

Sylvi by Mari Muinonen

I bought my first PDF knitted pattern today. I think it is beautiful. It is called Sylvi by Mari Muinonen located on the website twist collective. It is $7 but I thought it was worth it, since I like it so much. I was thinking of making it in purple, yellow, or blue.

drinking lots of tea

On my fifth cup of tea the boiling water reminded me that I wanted to try and shrink my acorn hat. So I filled a sauce pot with water till it began to boil I placed the hat in the pot poking it under the boiling water with tongs. I let it soak for 4min. I poured out the water in the sink and with the tongs I placed the hat on a folded in half towel waiting on the floor. It was still steaming, so carefully I laid the scalloped edging out flat. The hat didn't seam to have shrunk much. I think it got larger... So I'm filling up my spaghetti pot this time, the sauce pot seamed to be a little small. Ok so I let the hat boil in the pot for 20 minutes. It didn't shrink at all. I guess Lion Brand fishermen's wool doesn't shrink. Well now I know. This time when I poured out the hot water in the sink. I have a double sink, so I poured out the water in one and had dilled up the other side with cold water. And placed the hat into the cold water after pouring the water out. I squeezed the water out being sure not to rink it out & then hung it up to dry. When searching for info on shrinking knits I found this wool crafting.

I added the acorn rib pattern around the edge. I decreased the rim from 106 to 81 stitches. And now it is a dread hat.

inspired to knit

Yay, so on Saturday I ordered "Inspired to Knit" from target.com and it came yesterday. I'm excited I want to start knitting the winter wonderland coat but I have to pick what yarn to use first. I don't know, I think I want it to be a vibrant red. We will see. I have to earn some money to buy yarn first. Anyways I'm excited that I have the book now. Here is a picture of the coat that shutter honey’s finished & posted on Ravelry.

More wash rags

the rainbow one is diagonal eyelet brocade, blue & green is the fan stitch, the large orange yellow & white one is chevron lace, the top orange yellow is the moss stitch and the left orange yellow is sugar cubes.
The chevron lace pattern I found in the book boutique knits and the rest in the book Vogue Knitting Stitchionary

always something to learn

While going through my new Stitchionary book today making washcloths and face cloths (smaller wash cloths) learning the fan stitch I came across "P2tog tbl" not knowing what that meant I googled it and found the info below.

P2tog tbl (purl 2 together through back loop)

I'm not yet to the point where I know all the knitting lingo out there, so, for the time being I am a knitting sponge soaking up all there is to learn.

Last night I joined the girls in the smitten-for-knittin Ravelry group. It was fun. There were two blankets being made by two crocheters and the projects below were being knitted my myself and the other knitter there.

Sunflowers in the morning

The morning light reminded me of the opening scene in "Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind". Some beautiful sunflowers my mom found at Kroger in January for me :)
an excerpt from the poem "Eloisa to Abelard" by Alexander Pope

How happy is the blameless vestal's lot!
The world forgetting, by the world forgot.
Eternal sunshine of the spotless mind!
Each pray'r accepted, and each wish resign'd;
Labour and rest, that equal periods keep;
"Obedient slumbers that can wake and weep;"
Desires compos'd, affections ever ev'n,
Tears that delight, and sighs that waft to Heav'n.
Grace shines around her with serenest beams,
And whisp'ring angels prompt her golden dreams.
For her th' unfading rose of Eden blooms,
And wings of seraphs shed divine perfumes,
For her the Spouse prepares the bridal ring,
For her white virgins hymeneals sing,
To sounds of heav'nly harps she dies away,
And melts in visions of eternal day.