Catching up.......

I am once again remiss with keeping up to the date with this blog. I just haven't 'felt' it in recent years and it's a struggle.  I did get a warp on the loom yesterday for my secret holiday project. Just got started weaving on it and am pleased. The draft is from the Strickler book, page 20, #59.  I'm using 10/2 perle cotton sett at 30 epi.

I've knit two of these hats from the National Parks hat book - it is the Glacier hat.  I actually bought the yarn called for rather than use yarn from my stash. There's enough for another one or maybe two from that yarn. I may make a pair of mittens instead to go with my hat, have put it aside and will decide later. If you're a knitter and haven't seen that book you need to - beautiful book, great patterns.

I finally finished a pair of denim blue socks for myself. They've been on the needles for probably a year. They were set aside while I worked on socks for family last summer/fall. I thought I would finish these on the long drive to and from MT recently but didn't knit more than a half inch.

I started these socks while on the coast this past weekend. I bought the yarn at The Wool Co over there (Bandon) a few months ago. Kelly has a nice selection of yarn and other goodies.  I bought some locally made soap this past weekend in addition to a couple skeins of yarn. 

 
 

National Park hat

Our guild challenge this year is to create something fiber related based on a National Park postcard we received.  I got Isle Royale which is a Michigan island in Lake Superior.  I do have a weaving project planned and started winding the warp this afternoon.  Since I was gifted this book recently I decided I'd also knit the hat inspired by the park.  I like it.  I don't wear hats often but there are some incredible hats in this book so I will be making more for myself, my hubby and gifts. I used worsted wool that's came from the stash destined for hats for charity - I had the perfect colors. 

Sorry the picture is sideways - I took it using both orientations with my phone and both were turned. There's no rhyme or reason to why sometimes it works, sometimes not. I take several pix. 

 

A pile of hats

My goal this week was to get the first bag of hats delivered for those that could use them, those who are living in tents and cars in our community.  Finding out where to deliver was a bit difficult but then I read in a city email update where 2 shelters were opening tomorrow since the temp will be 32 or lower.  I called UCAN (United Community Action Network) and they were thrilled with the prospect of getting hats so I delivered them to their office this afternoon.  After getting home I knit 3 more beanie style hats and will continue to knit more fitting them in-between other activities with hopes I'll have another bag full soon.  I put tags on them with sizing, yarn content and a note saying they're reversible, often with different colors on the other side. There's another organization opening a shelter, it's doctor's and nurses who go out to help the homeless, but all I've found out so far is there's a facebook page and I'm one of the minority who is not on facebook so I can't message them. I'll be working on finding out how to get in touch with them.

I also knit a hat for a friend who had stopped by - she picked out these colors - she'll get it next time I see her. I like this color combo too. 

Knitting progress............

I finished the 2nd hot water bottle cover that will be a gift. Very cute. I love mine so I hope the recipient loves using this one.  (once again pix are sideways for what reason I don't know as they aren't sideways on my computer)

 I finally finished a pair of black socks, with specks, that I had set aside while working on holiday gifts. I love having handknit black socks but this is the last time I knit black ones, way too hard to see. I can cross these black socks off my to-do list.  In the bottom corner is another pair of socks in progress, always need to have some on the needles to work on when I have down time waiting somewhere. 

Another finished project in the new year.......

Upside down photo this time - makes no sense when taking photos with my phone as to how they'll upload to blogger, definitely not consistent.  Anyhow finished up a hot water bottle cover for a February birthday. A friend gave me one for my back issues and I love it - the water stays hot all evening. The pattern, Hot Water Bottle Cozy, is by Churchmouse. I'm going to start the snowflake design this evening for a March birthday. 

I continue to go through some stash/books to see if they need to go live elsewhere so they get used.  I have a container of novelty yarns that would be great to mix in as accents in knitting or weaving projects that will need new homes, still keeping some for myself.  Today I'm going to look over my knitting books, some of which I bought but will probably never knit any of the patterns. 

Sheesh - just noticed in the picture I have a mistake, a white stitch where it should be purple. Thinking it will stay that way. I could try doing a duplicate stitch overtop the white stitch but then that might even draw more attention to it.  Oh well.........

 

Post holiday

First off, sorry a couple pix are sideways - makes no sense, can't seem to correct it when it loads to blogger. Take the pic with phone held the same way but some come out different and no amount of editing on the computer reflects once they upload to blogger. 

I'm sorry I neglected to take photos of many of the gifts I made this year but that's life.  So below is one of them and a few other pix. 

I decided to make an inkling this year since I had an idea. This is #27 in the series started back in the 90's. Some years I have ideas, some years I don't, some years I've made a set that go together, some years just one.....or none.  This year's inkling is a Yellowstone Ranch cowboy (Yellowstone series starring Kevin Costner) The body is inkle woven and stuffed. What looks like feet is really a horse shoe he's sitting on top of. Part of the fun making these is searching for 'accessories' from all different sources.  I already have an idea for next year.....if I can pull it off. 

Yesterday I knit another hat on the Addi machine out of Cascade 220 worsted wool.  It's reversible. Here is one side of it........

...here's the other side. I thought I'd be doing good if I could knock out one a day fitting it in-between other activities - may not always happen but I'll work towards it.

And here are our holiday cards. Handwoven as they often are although I have been known to make quilted, crocheted or paper crafted cards. 

Finally, this is for Judy from Fundamentally Fiber, if you happen to read my blog. The photo of your current roving being spun on a turkish spindle is incredible - the colors are incredible and the photo is beautiful - I think you could put together a great calendar with your fiber photos. Anyhow, since you don't have comments enabled I'm writing here to say I love seeing what you're up to in your fiber life. 

 

New toy.......

Friend Yolanda 'enabled' me to buy a new toy - the Addi Express King knitting machine.   It is limited with what it can knit having only 46 stitches but it will knit tubes and although I haven't tried it yet, it will knit flat too.  I have a ton, I mean a whole lot, of worsted weight wool that I'd like to use to knit hats for charity but if I were going to handknit them I might only get a few done each year.  So, the Addi was a perfect solution - I haven't officially timed myself but I'm guess it takes between 30-45 minutes to knit a hat......will time it next hat. 

Here is it with some Red Heart pink yarn that I bought to learn on. I watched many You Tubes for instruction as learning from the minimal directions would be difficult......at least difficult for me. There are tons of You Tube videos on the Addi and many different project ideas. 

This is my first hat. It is double thick which means it could be reversible, different colors on each side. Learning the tension to put on the yarn coming through my hand takes a while - this hat is a little too tight for an adult but would fit a child just fine. I had enough of the big skein of pink yarn to make a second hat so I lessened the tension in my hand and it turned out perfect. 

Sorry, this is upside-down for what reason I don't know.  Next up I wanted to try the Cascade 220 wool yarn that I have shelves of. Sam requested a hat so I told him I wasn't in the mood to wind skeins into balls right then so I'd use some leftovers that were already wound. I was worried this would turn out too small as I needed to learn how much tension for this yarn but it's perfect. At first I was having troubled with dropped stitches and what is called tucked stitches - I learned how to fix them except a couple times the ladders on dropped or tucked stitches were crossed so I to take the hat out.  My friend told me to use a dryer sheet in my hand and let the yarn run over it, I also held my hand a little lower than the guide - perfect, no issues. I know I saw a video where it showed how to make a jogless change of color - need to go back and find that. Sam loves his new hat, being 2 layers it will be extra warm.  I made this hat a little shorter too which is perfect. The inside of the hat is a lighter green with the black. I can't wait to mix and match all the fun colors of yarn I have for some colorful hats. 

In addition to being able to knit many hats for charity I will be able to knit flat pieces. I've been wanting to knit my own flat pieces for dyeing. In the past I've bought some or had a friend make me some on her flatbed knitting machine. When I get to doing that I'll be learning how small the yarn can be on this machine. 

At the moment the two downsides to buying this new toy is that I have many, many skeins of wool to sit and wind into balls and then where do I make room to store it.......it does have a nice 'hat box' for storage but there needs to be shelf space for it. Oh, another downside - I need to not go too far the rabbit hole at the moment as I have other things to do too.............

 

All in an afternoon............

 Last month in my zoom (ASG) sewing guild meeting one of my fellow members showed a number of mini-quilt wall hangings she had made over the years. Most involved objects attached to the mini-quilt. Immediately the wheels started turning and I thought of this cute knitting 'goddess' that had been hanging in my studio for several years. I went through my fabric stash and found 4 different satins and a silk, just small bits of each. It's hard to see the woven patterns on the border and binding but they are satin and are different. I learned to have patience sewing with slippery, fraying fabrics but all turned out well in the end. I'm hoping the ribbon the 'goddess' is hanging from holds up over time......I did put some dots of glue on the knot to keep it from coming undone. Did you notice I'm using an old metal knitting needle for a hanger?  This was a very fun project. I'll be looking at little 'things' differently now wondering if they could be made into a small quilted wall hanging. 

I'd be remiss if I didn't mention the Olympics, I've been dvr'ing all the curling and watching it here and there speeding through the commercials. I am not a sports person but I got hooked on curling several years ago and it hasn't let up. It's a little bit of an overload right now but I need to get my fill as there's very little curling to be found on tv the rest of the time. While some will be watching the Super Bowl I'll be watching curling, doesn't matter to me which country is playing............my favorites so far were the Italian doubles team who won gold in doubles, she especially was incredible. 

Socks finally ready for feet.........

 These socks are finally ready to be worn.  I started these sometime last winter from a skein of sock yarn gifted to me by a friend..........then they got set aside as with many things this past year.  I pulled them out recently and finished them up.  Now I've got a pair of brown socks, which I needed.  On to the next pair to go on the needles - bright cheery colors. 

Handspun projects....

 I cut the shawl woven from my handspun off the loom today, twisted the fringe and washed it, it's now hanging to dry. I didn't agitate it but did think it might full a bit more than it did. I'll check it after it's dry and see if I need/want to full it a bit.

Yesterday at my spinning group I started another shawl.  It's the Pretty Basic shawl pattern I've knit in the past. I wanted to link to this shawl pattern on Ravelry but it's now discontinued and no longer available......glad I got it when I did...….

Askew........

Yes, here I am again using my phone camera and pictures coming out askew and no matter how I fix them on the computer when I upload them here they're wrong.  Oh well...…

I've made accessories to match The Sampler Cowl knit earlier.  This upsidedown hat is called Sisters Hat  by JanKnit Designs - a free download on Ravelry. It's named after the Three Sisters mountains in central Oregon around 4-5 hours from here.  I started knitting it using one strand of my handspun but it looked too flimsy so I doubled my handspun and it turned out perfect on size 7 needles.

And I made the Welted Fingerless Gloves to go with the set. This pattern is by Kit Hutchins/Churchmouse Yarns.  I used size 6 needles and a single strand of my handspun, which is around a DK weight yarn. This pattern was a little confusing but I went with what I thought it meant and did just fine. I did 2 purl rows before binding off which wasn't in the pattern.

So, this set is destined to be in my spinning group's display at the county fair this coming summer. I came up with a theme for our display of drawing inspiration from flower seed packets. My seed packet was Penstemon. Hoping it turns out to be a fun display with seed packets hung with items they inspired.  I may do another project since I got this one done early - that one in purples & blues.

This and that......

I hope all had a safe and happy holiday.  Life has been challenging these days but I'll muddle through it, hopefully without totally losing my mind.

Once again photos taken using my phone have a mind of their own. I took the first picture with the phone held vertically but it turned anyhow, and even though I saved it on the computer and turned it the correct way and it shows that way on my computer screen once I uploaded it to blogger it turned again.  The second picture the phone was held horizontally. The two pictures below the phone held vertically, they turned out perfect when uploaded to blogger.  I don't understand it. I guess I'm going to just make sure I use the camera which I know will turn out correctly every time, before and after editing. Does anyone know why this happens with photos taken with a phone???

So, sorry that you have to turn your head to see this. Right before Christmas after I had finished all gifts I knit this cowl - it's called The Sampler Cowl and is by Heather Lynch. This was knit from my handspun which was spun from merino/tussah silk roving I had hand-dyed. I have enough yarn left for a pair of fingerless mitts which are on the needles and either a hat or headband.  This cowl pattern is free on Ravelry.

I saw this adorable fabric at Jordan's Quilts and had to buy it - this incredible fabric shop is just 5 minutes from the house!  I thought when I bought the fat quarter pack that I was only getting the prints but there was the big panels folded up along with them.  So I put the panel in the center, pieced the light colored prints for the first border and darker colored prints for the wider outer border.....and then piece 3 solids for the binding. This quilt is for Misty.  Sometimes I like to lay on the floor with her and she loves being under an afghan with me - so that's what this afghan quilt is for. It was quickly machine quilted, good thing you can't see it the details!

Here is a before picture of our gas fireplace at this house which we bought 1 1/2 years ago. We're slowly updating it room by room. Not only was this ugly with it's drywall mantel but it also put out zero heat.  And it was very scary to light the fireplace.

Here is our new and improved gas fireplace. Not only does it put out tons of heat but it will put out heat without the fan running, total radiant heat which is great if there's a power outage. It couldn't be easier to light with a little battery operated remote. After the new fireplace was installed we closed the wall back up with cement board and tiled it. Big black tiles on the hearth and small black tiles with white running through them on the wall which complements the kitchen granite. Then we hired the kitchen cabinet maker to make our mantel. That took a while as there were several measuring mistakes made but eventually it was installed (last week) and we love it.

The carpet is just cut in front of the hearth as it will all be coming out soon. We're still trying to decide what kind of flooring - laminate, real hardwood, whatever. Our past two houses had real hardwood floors that stood up to running dogs and one dog who drank water so it ended up all over the floor. So, we definitely need a floor here that will stand up to a crazy dog. While we research flooring we'll move on to the painting project - white ceilings, light gray walls and white trim and doors. It's an overwhelming job with the high ceilings what we may or may not do ourselves.

In-between house projects I hope to get more time to spend in the studio this year although the January calendar is already looking stinky.

New on the needles.....

New on the needles is the Sampler Cowl.  This is out of my own hand-dyed, handspun - merino/tussah silk. I'll probably have enough to either knit a matching hat or fingerless mitts, or both. I'll work on this in the evenings while we watch tv. Here's the link to the free pattern on Ravelry - Sampler Cowl

A bit of this and that

 I'm working in Santa's workshop when I get free time so I can't really show what I'm working on but here's a glimpse of some sewing going on. I have a stash of lovely ribbons I'm putting to use.  After the holidays I'll show complete pictures of what I've made.

And here's some knitting - I'm coming down the home stretch on knitted gifts for a few family members. During our trips back and forth to the coast I work on the hexxie quilt squares, very fun project for down times like riding in the car. Some ask me how I do that kind of work riding in the car - I couldn't if I didn't wear Sea-Bands for motion sickness - they're great, I can stitch, knit or read in the car wearing those puppies.

Where did the year go?  I've made our holiday cards and am now working on gifts but the first part of the year seems lost, not much accomplished. Too many appointments for us and other family members......what happened to the days when I spent all day in the studio creating???  I thought I'd get back to that this year after the move but it still hasn't happened. There's always hope for next year......

Eye candy.....

 I decided to start knitting an asymmetrical shawl using the Inglenook Fibers 12 Days of Christmas fiber that I spun. You can check out the progress of the spinning starting Christmas day 2018 here on the blog. I'm now into knitting color #3, soon I'll be knitting color #4. The progression will be moving to golds, greens and even black. This ball will just get into the gold, then I have another huge ball that continues with the golds and others.


My roses are covered with hundreds & hundreds of buds, some blooming. Yesterday I cut a vase full to bring inside. I am so excited to have roses - never could have them at past homes as the deer loved to eat them. I snapped a few outside pix this morning......enjoy.

Festive.....

Festive wear for dog walking. I knit the rolled brim hat a couple years ago but never wore it because I wasn't sure if I'd gift it or keep it. I decided I needed some mittens to match so I found some red wools in my that matched pretty good. I'll wear this set on morning walks when I'm in a red mood as opposed to the purple mood. Tomorrow morning will definitely be red as it seems very festive.

Mittens

I decided I needed a pair of mittens for when walking Bailey. I have a knit rolled edge cap I wear that's in shades of purple so I checked my stash for a matching wool - yep, that huge stash had exactly the right color. Instructions were a bit of a challenge but then what is one to expect from a free pattern - in the end I figured them out.  Next up is to make a pair in reds to go with a red handknit cap I've got - those will have a bit longer ribbed section and maybe a stripe or two.

Finally.........shawls blocked

I took time early one morning last week to block a couple shawls so I could pack them away. It's not my favorite thing to do but I thoroughly enjoyed taking a break from house buying duties and getting the current house ready to put on the market. I love the way both of these turned out.

This is the Pretty Basic shawl pattern (Janina Kallio) knit from some beautiful hand-dyed fingering weight yarn a friend gifted me - I can wear this with so many colors - I love it. What I love about this shawl pattern is that I can knit it as long as my yarn will go, this one was knit several inches longer than the pattern calls for.

This is the Be Simple Variations asymmetrical shawl/scarf pattern (Carolyn Glauz-Todrank). I knit it in hand-dyed gradation fingering weight yarn, I think from Brambleberry Yarns but don't hold me to that, I can't find the label. I wasn't sure if I was going to like these colors but I love them.

Now back to cleaning windows and packing up coned yarns and knitting yarns in my studio so those rooms look bigger for showing of the house - one can barely walk in those  two rooms because of shelves and shelves of fiber. If I were looking at a house I could look past that, or get totally engrossed in seeing what was on the shelves, but most buyers would rather see an uncluttered room.

Hoping before the end of June I'll be weaving away again in my new space.........

What I've been up to......

Hmm, what have I been up to this week..........other than adminstrivia, which I've grown to hate.  Well, I've been out several days, one of them very fun getting together with a friend to lunch and start watching the new season of Frankie & Grace........or is it Grace & Frankie???  I can't remember, doesn't really matter.  I have pulled together all business and personal tax stuff but am still waiting on some 1099's - this is the earliest I've ever gotten it done. I've written a grant proposal for my weaving guild.......not submitted yet as I need to ponder on it a bit more. And I finally did a little work on my handout for the boundweave program I've got to present next month - I just can't seem to get my mind wrapped around what I want to write and what illustrations/photos to include.......to make myself feel like I've done something for it I did type up the bibliography this morning. This afternoon I started pulling many cones of cottons off some shelves, 4/2, 6/2 and slubs - time for them to move on to other homes. Eventually they may end up in my etsy shop but first I'll see if there are any takers here locally.

I needed to start another knit shawlette as I needed something mindless to work on while watching Frankie & Grace. This photo doesn't do this yarn justice - the color is much softer in person - I'm loving it.

In the evenings I've been working on a cross-stitch for the beach cottage. I've just got the border to finish up, charms will get attached on all the starfish. After I finish this one I'll pull out another one I already stitched with a shell theme - I'll need to add the charms, block the fabric over foam core and then get them framed.

Knit, knit, purl...........

A couple weeks ago I went through my (huge) stash of knitting yarn and came across a big skein of Mushishi by Plymouth yarn - 95/% wool/5% silk. This was all because a friend requested cute hats for a friend who lost her hair from chemo. So, I made the hat and it went off to it's new home. But I had quite a bit of this huge skein left and loved how the hat turned out so much I decided to knit another one, and then a pair of fingerless mitts. I was thinking I'd keep this for myself but now am not sure as I don't wear hats often so I think it will go in the 'gift box'. I know a couple people right off the top of my head who would love this set. 

I haven't been posting as often, just haven't had much to share and wonder sometimes how many really read it or care............so, I'll just post once in a while and see how it goes. I spent the day at the embroidery machine yesterday - pix to come of new celtic/st patricks day towels.........once I edit them, that is..........

First snow of the season overnight, much has already melted off. Up in the mountains they got more and there's even a rumor that the ski resort in the region will finally open this weekend. We are lacking in rain and snow this fall/winter.