distaff

sampling

Here's a tiny sample skein of the Corriedale that I did this weekend:

And here's a swatch, blocked and all (I'm impatient and also I ususally am more prone to running out of yarn than to having tons extra (except for socks) so I'm normally a stingy swatcher):

The colors are radically different because it was sunny this weekend but today it's cloudy. In aggregate they should give you some idea of the yarn, though, which is exactly as fuzzy and springy as I'd hoped. It's about 4 stitches to the inch on size 6 needles.

finally some progress

I don't know if it's the weather or what, but I just have not been that into knitting or spinning this spring. I haven't abandoned either craft, but I've only been knitting a row here, spinning for a few minutes there, and then getting distracted; so not much has been getting done, but I did manage to wrap up that Corriedale I posted about a while ago. Here are the singles:

And here's the plying ball (Shakespeare action figure for scale):

And hopefully I'll start plying on it this weekend. The singles are a little fuzzy and inconsistent, but they were a learning experience, both with woolen spinning and with the Navajo spindle, and I'm sure between plying and washing (Corriedale always puffs up quite a bit) it'll be a nice springy yarn.

some photos of lilacs

This weekend we went to the Arnold Arboretum to see the lilacs. Every year the Arboretum hosts a Lilac Sunday event on Mother's Day, but this year the lilacs seem to have other plans.

The Arboretum has a really huge collection of lilacs in all different colors, shapes, and sizes. Of course, the best thing about lilacs is their fragrance, but it's hard to capture the effect of a whole hillside full of flowers in photos or in words, so I leave that part to your imagination. Or, if you're local, you should really just visit and experience it for yourself -- but maybe don't wait too long to do it.

I am not very diligent about practicing photography, so, as a consequence, I'm not really good at it, but I do enjoy playing around with my Lensbaby Muse (I used the single glass optic for these photos) and then at least I get some big effects for my small efforts.

backburner projects (with bonus kid craft)

In addition to the knitting projects I'm currently actively working on (the brioche cowl and sweater vest, and socks for Jere), I have a couple of projects in the background that I only grab occasionally when I really need a break. The first is one that I started with the intention of its being a background project; it's an afghan made from leftover bits of sock yarn (of which I have a ton):

It will eventually be a very un-color-coordinated version of the Babette's Blanket pattern from Interweave, but seeing as how the pattern calls for 126 squares and I've made maybe 12? It may make a sweet going away to college present for one of my kids someday.

The other project lingering in the background was not so intentional. It's a myrtle leaf lace shawl from Victorian Lace Today by Jane Sowerby, and it is a lovely pattern, but when I chose it I didn't know very much about lace and didn't really realize how much of a pain it was going to be to knit. I fully intend to finish it, but I'm in absolutely no hurry to do so, especially since I don't have much occasion to wear lace shawls these days. I do expect to get some work done on it as the weather gets warmer and I have less patience for having a pile of wool on my lap.

Finally, the boy felted a weird little Portal diorama that I thought I'd share:

It has a sentry turret and that cannon thingy from the end, two portals, and a cake. He's working on a pokeball right now, but after that he plans on trying to felt a companion cube, too.

container gardening

Inspired by this post at Laughing Squid about yarn/plant bombing, I spent the last couple days messing around with making little containers for plants for a test run in my backyard:

The red one is wool and the pale blue/peach one is cotton, and the other two are acrylic; two have flat bottoms, one is rounded, and the last is more pocket-shaped. After a couple of months of hanging up outside I figure I'll have a pretty good idea of how each material holds up.

Then I went over to Allandale Farm to pick up some plants. They're just ramping up for the season, so there weren't a lot of succulents to choose from, so, more experimenting.

Here's the one I could find, a 'Red Rubin' hens and chicks plant:

Then there was this lovely golden moss called 'Aurea':

And the one thing they did have a ton of was pansies. These are 'Sorbet Coconut Swirl'. The starchild made me buy them.

At least she helped with the planting:

I'll let you know which plants/fibers work best, but the containers at least all worked well for their initial purpose as tiny pockets for plants.

works in progress: new and old

I did not mean to start another entirely unexpected project when I already have several works in progress and quite a few things in my queue to do, but I had a gift certificate to Windsor Button burning a hole in my pocket and I was determined not to spend it on sock yarn (my impulse yarn purchase of choice) and so I walked out of there with two gorgeous skeins of Malabrigo Rios:

which demanded to be knit into a cowl right now. So I'm making a biggish textured cowl (along the lines of the Honey Cowl or the Big Herringbone) but with a brioche stitch from Nancy Marchant's Knitting Brioche:

I love Knitting Brioche! It's a combination instruction manual, stitchonary, design workshop, and it has great patterns, too. Unfortunately I OD'ed on the stitch sometime last year, because that's when I started, and entirely failed to finish, a two-color brioche sweater vest for my husband:

I am determined, however, to have it finished before next fall -- I've already finished the back and part of the front, so there's really not so much left to do. Just don't wave any more fancy yarn in front of my face, okay?

easter eggs

Not at all fiber-related, but this weekend we tried dyeing Easter eggs with natural, food-based dyes that we made ourselves, and I thought I'd share the results:

We got the inspiration and instructions from theKitchn, via several friends on Facebook and Pinterest who all apparently had the same idea. Not gonna lie, it was a lot more work than the usual drugstore tablets, and the colors are a little wonky, and it took a lot longer, and the results are speckly and not consistently colorfast. We had a lot of fun messing around in the kitchen, though, and I think the eggs look wonderful and mineral and (duh) natural. The boy commented that if you were having an Easter egg hunt, you could hide them in a rock garden and no one would find them.

So, as per the instructions we boiled our shredded, chopped, or otherwise mangled ingredients in water (I estimated about a cup of water per egg we wanted to dye, and then I added a little extra, maybe a quarter of a cup, because I imagined I'd lose a little in the straining) and then simmered them for ten minutes or so:

Then we strained them, and added a tablespoon of vinegar per cup of dye. Then we let the dyes come to room temperature (more or less -- we may have been a little impatient) and dunked the hardboiled eggs (we used eight white eggs and four brown eggs -- next year I might go half and half because the brown eggs mostly turned up lovely), which went into the fridge:

We took a look after a half-hour, but they definitely needed more time, and we had things to do, so they ended up in there for maybe four hours altogether. Next time I would make sure to be around to stir them up every fifteen minutes or so, because several of them developed spots where they were resting against the edge of the cups. Then we took them out and air dried them and then they were done:

We did two eggs each with each dye, so we used about two cups of water for each color. From left to right we have turmeric (1 TB), yellow onion skins (from two onions), beets (two, shredded), red cabbage leaves (a quarter cabbage, chopped), Red Zinger (hibiscus) tea (6 bags), and red onion skins (from two onions). I think the tea and the red onions both could have used more dye. I've also seen people around the internet using spinach and black beans and paprika, and my brother suggested saffron, so next year we may have to go with two dozen and experiment some more.

corriedale

While I love spinning with brightly-colored fiber blends that give you color and texture effects that you rarely find in a commercial yarn, I'm also interested in natural fibers and the animals and plants they come from. When you're spinning with natural wool, you can isolate the qualities of that wool, and then better recognize its strengths and weaknesses in blends. Jere picked this corriedale up as a present for me, and it's so springy and grippy that it practically spins itself.

Here's some of it worked up on my Navajo spindle:

happy birthday to me

Yesterday was my birthday, and among many other lovely presents I got this pile of knitting books from my father-in-law:

He has great taste! Looking forward to reading, and knitting from, all of them!

work in progress: ambrose socks

Pattern: Kensington by Nancy Bush
Source: The Knitter's Book of Socks by Clara Parkes
Yarn: Jojoland Melody Superwash 100% Wool

It has been a while since I've knit socks for Jere (my huband), primarily because he threw the last pair in the wash. And the dryer. And now they fit the starchild. However, he promises, cross his heart and hope to die, stick a knitting needle in his eye, that he will never ever ever do that again, so these are for him.

I love the look of the Kensington pattern, which is achieved with simple 2-stitch traveling stitches in a diamond pattern on the front:

And little twists in back:

Unfortunately it only comes in one size, which was not nearly large enough for Jere's ankles, so I'm having to fudge it a bit with larger needles and more stitches. Fortunately it's a pretty stretchy fabric, so I didn't have to alter it too much to get it to work.