HAT!

The weather has finally cooled here - we dipped into the 60's last night and it feels great! Of course, nowhere near as cool as Montana for our vacation 2 weeks ago, where the temps were in the 30's and 40's. Still, cool weather makes it nicer to knit with wool, and I decided I wanted a new hat. A RED hat. So I dug into my extensive fiber stash and came up with some lovely tonal red targhee wool, dyed by Mountain Colors:

I spun it up into a lovely bouncy 2-ply worsted weight yarn:

And knit myself a hat!

I won't get much use out of it here, alas. But anytime we can get away and go back to the mountains, I'm ready!

My Happy Place

Our hearts are in the mountains - that's where we spend every vacation we can possibly manage. We're blessed to be able to go every 18 months or so and spend a week in the Rockies. Montana with its National Parks (Glacier and Yellowstone) is our favorite place of all.

Last week we spent a week in our idea of heaven. Alas, the National Parks were closed due to government gridlock, but we had a wonderful time anyway, driving through spectacular scenery and enjoying the dry cool air. We stayed in Gardiner, right outside Yellowstone. We were sorry to leave, and can't wait to go back!

Handwoven Huckleberry Dishtowels

You know, I really thought I blogged these. Apparently not. I wove them last year, but they've sat in my hemming basket awaiting needle and thread. Finally I've done the hand-hemming (I prefer that over machine-hemming, mainly because I'm all thumbs with the sewing machine) and taken some pictures. I've listed them in my Etsy shop - I have 6 available. I also had a short one (end of the warp) that I'm keeping for ME. They remind me of my beloved Montana, and of my friend Sandi who lives there (and bakes huckleberry muffins each time I visit - so the first towel I hemmed was gifted to her!)

The details: I used 6/2 unmercerized cotton (with 20/2 cotton in plum for hems and hemming), in mulberry and purple. The structure is log cabin. The finished towels are 26" x 18". They're soft and absorbent, and will be more so over time and laundering.

I'm transitioning us to using cloth towels in the kitchen and cloth napkins at the table. Not just environmentally friendly, but more pleasing to the hand and the eye!

Montana Trip 2012

We spent last week in glorious Glacier and Yellowstone National Parks. We usually take the week of our wedding anniversary (33 years and counting!) to get away in the mountains and spend quality time together in close quarters. This usually means driving all over creation in a rental car. :)

We had a wonderful time, as usual. We flew into Great Falls, Montana, and spent the first two days in Marysville, Montana, with my dear friends Sandi and Colin. Then we headed down to Yellowstone in upper Wyoming for two days of hot springs, geysers, and wildlife.

(click for bigger pictures)

Funnel Hot Spring

Old Faithful

Bison Herd

Bighorn Sheep

Coyote

Next we drove up to Glacier (northeast Montana) to do lots of driving and a little hiking - two separate 5-mile hikes gave us some gorgeous scenery:

St. Mary Lake

St. Mary Falls

SwiftCurrent Lake

Running Eagle Falls

At the higher altitudes, there's snow year round. I can't get used to snow in June!

Logan Pass, on the Going To The Sun Road

Is it any wonder we love Montana so much???

Kraken Sweater, Finished!

We traveled to our favorite place on earth this past week. Yes, Montana, land of big sky and mountains. We visited my friend Sandi at the beginning of the week, and she helped me sew the sleeves and neckband onto my sweater, making it complete. Honestly, it was so much easier than I feared. A simple backstitch did the trick. My first handspun handknit sweater is complete! It's warm and fits so nicely - I love it! We took it up to Glacier National Park and showed it some snow at Logan Pass, on the Going To The Sun road.

 

Now I'm eager to start my next sweater spin! 

Kraken Sweater - Growing!

The yarn:

And now, big progress:

There is nothing that I don't love about this sweater. The colors are gorgeous, the feel of the polwarth handspun is delicious, the knitting is easy. If I didn't also spin and weave, I'd probably be finished already, but the sweater has had to share time with my other pursuits.

The pattern is the Bailey Cardigan  (Ravelry link) and is very straightforward and easy to understand. It HAS to be - I needed a simple pattern for my first handknit adult sweater! I've knit children's sweaters before, with chunky yarn, but this one has to fit ME, and be useful for daily wear.

Since I'm knitting it in a light fingering-weight polwarth wool yarn, it will be lightweight, yet warm. I can see wearing it in the fierce air-conditioning of our local NOLA restaurants even in summer, and as daily wear in the winter. It will serve as indoor warmth in Montana, as well - and as a layer under a jacket.

I've used a little more than half the yarn spun - I'm thinking I'll need to spin more for the sleeves. I have a few more ounces of the fiber, no problem! Oh, the joy of being able to spin my own yarn - a dream come true!

Here's the post about the beginning of my sweater.

Another One Bites The Dust

So I've told you that we want to move to the mountains of Montana, right? In order to make that happen, we have to sell our current house. The last time I checked, neither of us was made of money... The house is 50 years old and in need of a fresh coat of everything - and it will all have to be DIY.

Our younger daughter moved out on her own in February, and I claimed her bedroom for a Studio. We pulled up the carpet, painted the walls, installed nice laminate flooring, and replaced the bedroom door (full of pushpin holes from her teenage poster phase). Now it's a lovely bright space for my looms and supplies and stash - I'll take pictures for you when it gets all set up (not yet, too many other projects going on!)

ONE ROOM DONE.

Keep in mind that we've lived in this house for 25 years, and we're all what is lovingly referred to as "packrats." Not "hoarders" - we don't have skeletons or mushroom farms in the house - but we HAVE collected a lot of STUFF over the years, and since we don't have a garage or a shed, a lot of it accumulated in our extra bedroom.

Now that I have my Studio, the husband wants an Office. I want him to have an Office too, because otherwise there is clutter in various places throughout the house that would be better stored in an Office. He's not the "Man-Cave" type, being a computer geek, but he's got pieces/parts/tools/supplies that need a home.

Enter the spare bedroom (or rather, don't!) It was full to the brim with storage boxes and bookcases, all bursting with STUFF. Today we emptied it. (Whew!) I have a huge pile outside for the garbage collection, another huge pile of boxes for donation (the Vietnam Veterans of America have a pickup service that comes right to my door, bless them!) and a third (much smaller) pile of boxes for storage in other places in the house.

The carpet is old and tired and dusty - tomorrow we'll rip it up and add it to the garbage pile. Then we'll put down underlayment and the same laminate flooring as in the Studio. The walls will get a fresh coat of paint, and then we'll start moving HIS stuff in there and all the clutter will be gone! OK, it probably won't, but don't disillusion me.

Then I'll be able to say TWO ROOMS DONE. Only 8 more to go!

Kraken Sweater - Beginning

After 11 years of dabbling, I'm still a beginner knitter. Oh, I can knit a mean (basic) sock, and I can knit/purl a ribbed scarf with the best of 'em, but to me, advancing past "beginner" will entail knitting real SWEATERS.

Now, I've knit two sweaters, but they were both child-size and the same pattern, in the round with a 3-needle bind-off at the shoulders. No piecing, no seaming. I knit them from Reynold's Lopi, for a charity serving Russian orphans. They were simple, WARM, and bullet-proof.

But an adult sweater has not yet sprung full-born from my needles. I've started one, the Oatmeal Cardigan, in (appropriately) oatmeal bfl, handspun of course, but the staggering neutral yardage bored me to tears, and it languishes in a knitting bag somewhere.

Handspun handpainted - now THAT's the way to go, to keep my interest during both the spinning and the knitting. So I joined the SCF & Friends Sweater SAL/KAL (Rav-link) because I knew the wonderful members of the Southern Cross Fibre forum on Ravelry would encourage me and give the kick in the pants I'll need when the going gets tough.

I chose one of my very favorite Southern Cross Fibre colorways - Kraken - and one of my very favorite fibers - polwarth.

 (picture courtesy of David at SCF)

(Isn't it scrumptious???) I have enough fiber for half the sweater, and David (one of the best dyers on the PLANET) was happy to dye more. It's shipping today (from Australia). I'll wait until I have all the fiber together, so I can split it all up to combine the dyelots, for a nice blend throughout.

Since this is my first real sweater, I knew I'd need a simple pattern - the Bailey Cardigan (Rav) is great for handspun, and has good clean lines. My friend Sandi has already knit it and I was able to see (and feel!) it in person on our last Montana trip. I'll knit mine in fingering weight yarn rather than in DK, because I want it to be lightweight and useful for indoor wear.

And since I want the sweater to be wonderful and perfect, I knew I'd need to sample and swatch. (Yikes.) I did both. I spun samples of 2-ply, 3-ply, and navajo-ply:

(My camera washed out the colors - they're actually rich and vibrant like David's fiber photo above.)

I really like the 3 ply best, but needed to knit a swatch, not only for gauge, but for the look and feel of the fabric. So I knit my first ever swatch:

(top, n-ply; middle, 2-ply; bottom, 3-ply)

I love the look of the n-ply, but for socks, rather than for a sweater. I prefer the heathered transitions of the 2-ply and the 3-ply. In the end, I chose the 3-ply, because its fabric gave me the look and feel I liked best. It's so soft (yet durable) and pliable, and it drapes nicely.

I cannot wait to get started on this project! I'll keep you posted...

Welcome, 2012!

I loved 2011.

It was my first full year of retirement from my fulltime job, where I'd worked for 24 years. My first full year of freedom and rebuilding of my self-esteem and confidence. We paid off our last bit of consumer debt, leaving only our mortgage - oh, what a great feeling of freedom! I learned a lot about me as a person this year, and about myself as a fiber artist.

Spinning: I did a lot of commission spinning this year, and a good deal of spinning for the shop as well. I got much more comfortable with the Hansen miniSpinner as a spinning wheel, not just a plying wheel (though I still spin most of my yarn on my beloved Schacht Matchless.) I spun 32,010 yards of yarn this year (and I only started keeping track in April.) That's 18 MILES of yarn! Much of it was lace and 3-ply sock weight. My wheel has been very busy this year! The widget that keeps track in my sidebar has started over fresh for 2012 - I'm eager to see if I can beat 2011's total. :)

Weaving: I took several local informal workshops this year - learned to work with cottolin, how to weave overshot, and creative design with Saori. I wove a lot of scarves, some dishtowels, and a few table runners. I'm planning a lot more in 2012 - some traditional, some Saori-style. I am blessed with a lovely stable of looms - a Macomber 10H, a Baby Wolf 8H, two Flip RH looms and a Cricket. The plan for 2012 is to keep them all warped and in use.

Knitting: Hmmm. Well, you know I'm not much of a knitter. I like to knit, but I far prefer weaving and spinning. I mostly knit when I'm a car passenger - it keeps my hands busy and passes the time. I usually keep a pair of handspun socks going for that purpose. That's all I knit this year - a few pairs of socks. I just finished spinning samples for my first real handpainted handspun sweater - I'll show you that later. I'm planning to knit several of those this year, as well as a few pairs of socks for my husband, who's finally agreed to wear them. :)

This will be a year of transition for us. My younger daughter is moving out on her own next month (after being back home with us for 6 years post-Katrina). My husband's company is being bought by a larger one, that will likely allow him to work from home. And this is the year we plan to realize our dream to sell the house and move to Montana.

Lots of changes ahead, all of them good. 2012, I'm happy you're here.