Knitting update

In December I found myself on a sheep farm! My friend Chloe's aunt and uncle are living on Dancing Lamb Farm in NY state and we got to tour the farm, meet the sheep, and take home some raw wool. I'm hoping to process the wool like I did the last time I got my hand on some raw wool, but I don't have the resources I did back then (tools to borrow and a spinning class to take at the Craft Center at UC Davis). So we'll see how long the wool stays nice and stinky in its bag, it may be a while.









I'm currently working on another Baby Surprise Jacket, for my new baby cousin, Ezra. I made him this little blanket from Elizabeth Zimmerman's Knitting Workshop when he was born in August, but I'm excited to be making another BSJ, and this time creating stripes as I go. I'll post when that's done, hopefully in the next month or so.

Finally, M and I were visiting Jaja in NYC last weekend and I dragged M into The Yarn Company on the Upper West Side. It's a great little store that felt nice and welcoming, and I picked up this cute book. West Knits, Book Two by Stephen West. It has lots of cute patterns that are unique and actually wearable, I can't wait to start the Splitbark mittens or Loxley hat/scarf!

Baby's First Surprise!

Two of M's cousins had babies this summer and I had a field day deciding what to knit for them. I've been ogling the amazing baby surprise jackets that everyone seems to be knitting (especially the ones that Amanda Soule makes over at Soulemama), and decided to have a go myself. I picked up 4 skeins of Koigu for $20 (total!), so I figured if I messed up I wouldn't be doing it with expensive yarn. I picked up "Knitting Workshop" by Elizabeth Zimmerman, where the original pattern is, and struggled through the pattern. It took me about 5 months to complete (I got married in the middle so I don't feel so bad about it) and I relied heavily on the "Knitting Nuggets" tutorials from Lorilee Beltman at City Knitting in Grand Rapids, MI. And here it is!



Raveled.



I really enjoyed making it and I feel like there are many more in my future (oh those stripey possibilities!). At the last minute I decided to embroider my new cousin's nickname into her jacket, and use buttons from M's grandmother's sewing kit.



The other cousin got another item from "Knitting Workshop" but I haven't photographed it yet so you will have to wait, dear readers. Hopefully I will take a photo soon so I can send the gift to them before the baby outgrows it . . .

Tiger's Eye

That's the name of this gorgeous hand dyed sport weight sock yarn I bought at the Pennsylvania Association for Sustainable Agriculture conference last weekend! It's from Steam Valley Fiber, in Trout Run, PA, and I can't wait to knit it into socks!

The conference was great fun and a wonderful place for networking. But the best choice I made was to go to the workshop "Dual Purpose Sheep: Meat and Wool" where I learned all about how to raise sheep for wool. Not that I'm going to, but it was really interesting to learn about yarn from that perspective.



The teachers of the workshop, Marie and Stephen Minnich of Marushka Farms, were wonderful and they brought lots of wool in various stages of processing from their own CVM/Romeldale and Icelandic sheep.



Up until this workshop I had been very good about not spending money at the yarn vendors that had come to the conference, but afterward I totally succumbed and got my Tiger's Eye from this gorgeous vendor.



Sigh . . the power of fiber.

Christmas recap: Mom's fancy socks

Now that most of my gifts have been received I can tell you what they were! Here's my second pair of socks, made for my mom using the same pattern as the first, but with a different variation. Raveled here. I used one skein of gorgeous Mountain Colors Bearfoot yarn in Harmony Plum and I still have a large ball left over. I might try to make one more pair with it, with much shorter cuffs.



I made this pair with the "mini-faux cable" ribbing and a textured heel. I love the way the patterns came out; the only problem is that the entire sock is reinforced except for the bottom of the foot, which is the most important part. I told my mom she's not allowed to walk around the house in them because I think they will wear thin too quickly.



I'm so proud!

Sock-tastic

While I was on my computer hiatus I started in on my holiday gift-making. Some of them can't be posted here because of prying eyes, but some have already been given and/or will go to people who don't read my blog.



The first project was my very first pair of socks! I used the pattern "Sock Basics" by Chris de Longpre, from www.KnittingatKNoon.com (Raveled). I bought the pattern and the yarn, Filatura Di Crosa Zara Chine, at a lovely knitting store in South Philly called Loop. It's a gorgeous place with friendly people who helped me find a good "first sock" pattern. They even suggested I use a larger yarn to make the knitting easier. What they didn't mention is that larger yarn = larger sock. So these will be for my Dad. But it was incredibly easy and I'm already almost half way through my second pair of socks (I'll have to post about that after the gifting is over).



I also finished up my Califon Cowl (Raveled) and gifted it to my future mother-in-law for Channukah. It was a sinch and I think I'm going to make another one for someone else for Christmas (secrets are so hard when it comes to crafting for the holidays!).

There's more holiday crafting to come!

Rekindling the Fiber Love

I've been fiber-inspired recently because I found this hilarious podcast, The Knit Wits. It's a husband and wife team who podcast out of Tennessee and have a wonderful repore with one another. They usually end up talking about lots of things other than knitting, like "what's in your wine glass?" and these pirate stories that the husband, Rick, tells (he's in radio/voice-overs and you can tell by his incredible voice).



So dug into my stash and pulled out a beautiful Malabrigo yarn in fall-type colors and started a cowl. I had to unwind the boring one I started a few months ago to start this new one, the Califon Cowl by Lelah Olender.

I also dropped by Rosie's Yarn Cellar and Loop, two great stores here in Philadelphia to bulk up my staff. I got a great deal on some Koigu yarn in a beautiful seashore color (four skeins for $20!).



I also picked up a simple sock pattern and some yarn to knit my very first socks! Wish me luck, I'll need it.





Oh, and of course I'm on Ravelry where you can see the shameful WIP that I started almost a year ago, the Balthazar Vest.

Something New

I'm knitting my first piece of real clothing. It's not a scarf, hat, or mittens, but something that you can actually wear on your body! For this new step in my knitting life I chose the Balthazar Vest from Twinkle's Big City Knits by Wenlan Chia, an amazing book I found in the Philadelphia Free Public Library.

I'm knitting it for myself, which is also new because I give away about 90% of the things I knit. I'm cruising along so far, with only one little snag that my friend Leslie helped me work through (I failed to divide the body soon enough and the vest was a wee bit too long.) The yarn is as chunky as they get, so I should finish it pretty soon enough, though it's on hold now because I'm finishing up another mystery project first. I'll let you know how it comes out!

Oh There's No Place Like Home for the Holidays . . .

. . . baking a mince meat pie with Mom (crust recipe to come) . . .



. . . enjoying a sunlit room . . .



. . . knitting and watching the Parade and the Dog Show . . .



. . . having our own little dog show . . .



. . . receiving two dozen perfect brown eggs from Aunt E's chickens . . .



. . . and eating that meal that you know so well, with people you love (and looking forward to the leftovers). I hope everyone had a happy Thanksgiving!

Woolens and Woodens

One large skein of gorgeous wool yielded me four wonderful hats. I sent these out to my lovely housemates back in California (and one in St. Louis) for the winter holiday festivus celebration. Matchy match!



I actually ran out of yarn at the very end and the last pompon hat had to be finished with a different lovely yarn in moss green.



I also went out to an art opening last night at Space 1026 (obsessed much?) called New Ancient Structures. That's me, next to the goofball in the blue hat. The wooden sculptures by AJ Fosik were amazing and intricate, using a folk art style and forcing us to confront the animal violence in ourselves. And the colors were pretty.

Woolly Love

This past weekend a few friends and I biked out to the Yolo Wool Mill open house, pretty much the best thing, ever. I've been looking forward to the open house this year for a few weeks now.



This year we got there earlier than last year and we got to see the sheep shearing demonstrations. I took a few photos, as you can see. And it had nothing to do with the adorableness of the sheep-shearing-guy, no sirreee . . . (ahem, check out the second video, right at the end, ahem).





We got to see them shearing by hand and by machine, and learn about the pros and cons of each (and the pros and cons of shearing white versus black sheep; apparently you want to shear a black sheep when you're in front of an audience because they can't tell when you nick the sheep with your shears, ew).





Oooh, and these guys were there, too! Alpacas and something rarer that I can't remember. So cute and soft.





Check out those bangs, that's gonna be my new look. God, I love farm stuff. Pretty soon I'll be trying to figure out urban farm stuff. Speaking of which, read this wild article about urban farming in Toronto.

The best fall hat EVER

If I do say so myself. I'm pretty pleased with the way this one turned out - I used the same pattern for the wool hats last Christmas but I've learned to tweak the pattern a bit, plus this yarn was well made and NOT knobbly as all get out.



I got the yarn a year ago at the Yolo Wool Mill open house (which is coming up in two weeks!). Unfortunately, I forget who made it and what the blend is, though I do know that it is hand dyed and at least partly if not all merino wool. It's so soft and gorgeous, I just want to rub it on my face all day (is that weird?).



Aaaaaaand, I used those buttons right away! Shocking.



Here's a detail of the pompons - you can really see all of the rich colors in there.



This hat will be perfect for walking around town on blustery fall days like those we've been having lately in Davis. The shadows have been intense.



Yesterday, Sammy and I went for a long walk on just such a blustery day; partly to take the hat for a test drive, and partly because the light and temperature were just the way we like it. What a happy boy.

Bits and Pieces

Bit number one: My friend Kim participated in a "sheep to shawl" contest at the state fair this weekend. She was part of a team of 5 people who have to spin and weave a sheep fleece into a shawl in 5 hours. Incredible. Check out her pictures here.



Bit number two: You should also add Jaja's blog to your reader because she is constantly putting up THE coolest things. Her last post had my jaw dropped for about 5 minutes.



Bit number three: The photos in this post are part of a series I did at my old house. I took a photo every morning for about 2 months, and I'm surprised at how beautiful they are when I look back at them. I'm posting them to my Flickr account as a set called "Morning Pictures."



These remind me a lot of the type of photo I took in college in my color photography class. Very simple, very domestic, lots of strange angles. They remind me of William Eggleston's Guide, which we "read" and analyzed in that class. Funny, at the time I was completely uninspired by William Eggleston's work. I always wanted to shoot photos more like Joel Meyerowitz. And these seem to be a blend of the two, actually.

The Wool Hats are DONE!

My Epic Project is finally finished. I successfully washed, teased, carded, spun, and knit the Suffolk wool and it is now in hat form, ready to wear. I didn't get a chance to document the carding, and I wanted to dye the wool, but you take what you can get sometimes.





I used a pattern for an earflap hat that I found from knitscene magazine online (the link opens up a PDF document). It was relatively simple, and they had a little glossary and illustrations for the harder terms.



They also had a little tutorial for making these adorable pompoms. I cheated a little bit and used some kool-aid dyed yarn that I bought in Arizona two summers ago for the pompoms. They actually smell kind of sweet.



I also fiddled with the pattern a bit and made a chord at the end of each earflap and put the pompoms at the end of the chords. This way you can tie the hat under your chin.



I'm pretty happy with the results, all in all. I do think they look a little bit like old football helmets. But my sister (who is modeling above) claims that all the stores are trying to make their knitwear look knobbly and handmade now, so I guess I'm right in step.

1 large bag of raw Suffolk wool, probably one fleece's worth = enough wool to make four knobbly earflap hats