May Spinning and Classes

My spinning life has taken off.  The trip to Harveyville for Yarn School really did that for me.  Being around 40 passionate spinners rubbed off on me.  It also empowered me.  I feel like I could try any technique and without hesitation.  I have tried some coils - they were fun and tricky and fiddly.

I have spun some batts.  I carded some stuff and it was based on some Miss Babs BFL/Silk blend that I got from the website.  The color was called 'Cats Cradle' and I thought it was great in the picture, but it was a lot more salmon than I cared for.  I blended it with some browns and whites and some add-ins from Yarn School, sparkles and the like.

It looks fluffy and warm.

The next thing on the wheel is the Two if By Hand Polwarth.

It's spinning fine.

It was so nice to spin outside.  Although spinning in the wind is a new sensation.  A fun fun sensation.

On the classes front, I'm teaching the garter class.  I had fun knitting it up, and pinning it out was so satisfying.

I'm taking the Amy Herzog Craftsy class on Knit to Flatter.  I am enjoying it, what I love the most is that I can go at my own pace.  Diagnosing my shape I've learned I need a better bra.  I also am bottom heavy (no kidding) and what kind of sweaters should I have been knitting for myself.  And I have been swatching for a new sweater with Amy's guidance.

It's Berroco Flicker on a size 11 and 10.5.  I can't wait for it to dry!

April's FO's and WIP's

With my trips out of town and a death in my partner's family, I'm a little behind.  It's ok.  Super pretty stuff is worth the wait I hope.

Trip was safe, learned some good things, got lots of pretty treats.

On the Needles:

I've been doing a few hexapuffs for the beekeepers quilt.  I've been using scraps of sock yarn, the latest puffs came from a pair of socks I made for my mom for Christmas in 2009.

Those puffs are very colorful!

I have been working on a hooded scarf for my mom out of yarn that is similar to muppet pelt.  No pictures of this, I will deny working with fun-fur.  I'm a "real" knitter after all...

I am going to work on a sweater soon, very soon.  If I blog it, it makes it true.

I am lastly working on some sock out of Tough Sock from Knit and Fiber Creations.  The color is inspired by The Walking Dead Season 3.  Yay!  I'm making up the pattern.  Sprial Slipped Stitches...

So pretty.  A deep brown on white with hints of pink.  

FINISHED OBJECTS:

I finished stuff, oh yeah!  

I finished a pair of plain socks also with the Walking Dead season 3 sock yarn ... 

Browns, greys, white and blue, inspired by Rick.  mmmm.

I finished working up a pattern with the help of test knitter RachelCables, and here we are on my front porch modeling our socks.  I have the little feet, my feet are child sized, she's a normal human being.

I also finished a sample for Fuzzy Wuzzy Yarns, a garter stitch lace garter.  A wedding keepsake!

Classes are on May 14 or June 11!  I used a lace edging from Franklin Habit's Knitty.com article and went at it with excel and swatches.  I think the result is very nice.

And lastly, 2 shawls.  A very special couple is getting married next month, the colors of the wedding are Bird of Paradise colors.  Her shawl is here in black and white.

The other shawl is likely what I will where to the wedding...  it's a WIP picture, but I will get better pictures for my ravelry page later.

To get back on track you can expect a double May entry in a couple days!

April Events!

There have been goings ons.  I have been busy the last few weeks.

In March for "Spring Break" I went to Arizona to see my brother.  We looked at the Grand Canyon.  And I did not do anything yarny except knit on the plane and in the car and showed a 10 year old how to knit.  I wish I had brought a starter kit with me.  I would have left some knitting with my brother's home...

I also got to birthday tickets Book of Mormon.  Fantastic Show!  And a long trip to downtown Bank of America Theatre was great for knitting!  I also went to YarnCon.  I wasn't planning on being first through the doors, but I was up early and headed down after chores.  Was probably number 25 or so.  I got a great good bag, with patterns and yarn and YarnCon swag.  And then I went into the gym with all the fun vendors in it!

YarnCon is like a live Etsy Marketplace.  It is fantastic.  A good vibe, the Plumber's Hall is an amazing venue.  I got to meet Tammy of Knit and Fiber Creation Etsy shop.  She runs the Walking Dead yarn club I'm in.  LOVE it, and since it was shortly after the season finale, it was good to talk about the show too.
I spent about an hour and change there.  There were shops selling scented goods and it started to bother me.  A big thank you to all those who worked hard to put on the show!

I head off tomorrow for Yarn School in Harveyville KS and I can't wait to give you a full report :)

Books For April

So, I have been reading a lot lately.  I got books for Christmas and they included The Hunger Games series and The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo.  I tore through the Hunger Games books and had started reading a book I picked up on vacation a while back, Breaking the Rock.  It's about the escape attempt from Alcatraz.  It's interesting, but I don't know that I care for the writing style much.  Bounces around a bit, switches between calling people by first, last, and nicknames.  Hard to follow.  But I'm over half way through.  I NEED TO KNOW!

All this other reading really has led me to open some of these other knitting books.  And I got a couple new books, The Spinner's Book of Yarn Designs.

I'm going to take this one to Yarn School with me.  I hope to have some time to really look at it and find out who has tried what.  I like the section on plying.  The Visually Learning book for spinning really does a lousy job with explaining plying.  My favorite part is that there is a swatch knit up in the sample yarn.  I like it.  I think this is a great little resource book!

I have a couple fit for your body books I'd like to get a little further into before I talk about them here.  I also have the Craftsy.com class for Amy Herzog's book.  I hope to cover them together.

A new blogging schedule, with math and themes

I think I've come up with a way to regularly post!  Themed posts across a month.

Every day divisible by 5 (oh yes there is math) will have a theme.

Here's a tentative schedule, On the:

• 5th: Spinning 
• 10th: Classes and other learning
• 15th: Books!
• 20th: Events
• 25th: Finished Objects
• 30th: On the needles

So, let's see how this goes.  I guess I'll see you one Monday.  Which is about Books!  Good, I've gotten some books :)

But, since I missed classes and other learning I thought I would clue you in on what I've got in hopper.

I've put out my April - June teaching schedule for Fuzzy Wuzzy Yarn.  I'm teaching Navigating Ravelry, and my knitting friend N let me test drive it on her.  She liked it, and left feeling a little better about what's out there.  I'm teaching sock classes, TAAT on 2 Circs, Beginning, and Toe Up.  Then a summer project class.  It's a keepsake Wedding Garter!  I've given these away at a couple showers, I think it's been well received and I love picking out colors that I think the bride will love.  I think my students will too.

I am taking a class too, it's from Craftsy.  I got Felicia Lo's Spinning Dyed Fiber and it has been very helpful.  I love the platform, and I love watching Felicia spin while I'm drifting asleep.  I hope she doesn't take umbrage with that, but I also find myself treadling along with her too.  And I was cleaning off my bobbins, spinning a Frabjous Fibers bump of Merino and Nylon Sparkle in color Trapeze.  I was intending to chain-ply it, but one of my bobbins was under-spun (Thanks for the feedback Felicia) and so I made a true 3-ply and chain plied the rest.  Here are my results:

The chain plied is on the left and the fractal plied is on the right.  Stunning right?

Knitting for perfection blows

Man, I have been doing the Master Knitter Program (Level 1) from The Knitter's Guild of America.  I started in September, worked one swatch.  I bound off and discovered I split the yarn about half way through the swatch.  I put it aside in the tupperware tote of misc dresser things that I never unpacked after moving.  It sat there until December.  I then decided that for New Year's resolution time I would resolve not to start anything new until I finished these swatches.

I would work at them at knit nights and bring them along.  It provided a talking point with new people and maybe it made me come off crazy and self important.  But I could tell them about the guild program and what it was helping me become.  It's helped me with a few problems I've had in my technique and I was learning communication skills and pattern writing skills.  VERY COOL!

The tote I am using is from the Irish themed store in Long Grove IL, It's got lots of little emoting sheepies on them.  It gets a lot of attention and helps me love the project.  You can check out it and the line of Wacky Woolies here ... http://www.dublingiftcompany.com/wackywoollies.aspx

What I don't care for is that these swatches are still not done.  They don't make great pick up and drop projects.  I need to have some time to sit work on them.  I take notes and look things up but .... The REST of my projects are very good pick up and drop projects....  So I am very pleased that the pledge I've made had the effect of finished objects raining about me. (and yes I have picked up a couple new project even with my pledge)  A baby sweater, two sweaters for myself, a pair of socks that are too small for me, a pair of socks for my mom, a pair of men's socks, a cowl with yarn I just had to ditch, a couple shop samples for classes I'll teach, and a hot water bottle cover.

And I've even finished the sock yarn scrap blanket wrap thing ... faboo!

I need another project for scrap yarn!   Hello Beekeeper's Quilt...

Classes From the Summer

I did a lot to push myself as a knitter over this summer.  Finding balance between my different little lives.  I knew the house and work would push me mentally, so I wanted a challenge I could throw myself into.

I made it a resolution for 2012 to take a spinning class.  I signed up to take 'Spinning for Knitting' at Stitches Midwest this year.  The teacher was Merike and she'd been teaching knitting since I was an infant.  She knows her stuff, and really made me feel confident.  I was one of 3 in a class of about 12 that had spun before.  I was confident on my spindle and just gotten my electric spinning wheel and was feeling good about that.  I wasn't too sure about proper techniques to ply and I wanted to play around with different fibers.  This class helped a lot on both those fronts.  Next I'd like to try spinning woolen (vs worsted?  I get the two confused because the terms hold little meaning to me yet).  I left with a bunch of samples of fibers to try, and some wonderfully balanced 2 ply.

What did I learn from this class?  I learned that a lot of things I've heard on spinning podcasts were not true. You cannot balance your yarn with 'blocking' and that water re-energizes your yarn.  It also made me realize how picky I'm going to be about my own handspun.

I took a couple classes from guest teachers at Fuzzy Wuzzy this summer.

I had a class on the History of Lace Knitting with Franklin Habbit.  He is such a wonderful, patient teacher.  Talking about knitting and lace for 3 hours just seemed so short.  I think I could sit and listen to this all day.  It was great information and fun to learn a few new tricks for making polished lace projects.  Thanks!

I had a class from Marly Bird on Entrelac Crochet.  The class was fast paced and really challenging.  Learned the 3 basic blocks and how to put them all together to make different types of entrelac patterns.  I ended up settling on the easiest set for a project.

I left class and started a baby blanket for a co-worker.  That was the original plan, rather than stripes I wanted to do something fun.  The coworker had me show her how to knit so she could start a blanket herself.  She had learned to knit a long time ago and had put her needles down.  I don't know that she's gotten very far, but at least she'll have one right away :)

The Check-in

I have been busy!  Not just with the new house, but crafting!

I have 3 holiday gifts to finish.  And I hope I can make it.  1 pair of socks, 1 table runner, and another pair of house socks.

I'm going to be keeping the socks pretty simple, my own pattern of women's socks in some fun fall colors for my unofficial SIL.  You can check out the pattern - Lazy and Cabled Socks on ravelry here!  She actually ASKED for hand knits, which makes you knit-worthy in my book.  I dug around in my stash for some yarn that would be durable and cozy.  I came up with some Trekking XXL that I think I won from the KnitPurlHunter KAL last winter.  I love the colors, I think I have these tones in at least 2 other brands of sock yarn!  I hope she loves them.

The table runner is for my mom.  She reads this blog so, no details.  I'm making it up based on the basic scarf we all make as our first project.  You know - knit every row until you run out of yarn?  Oh, but I have the right number of stitches on my needle for the width I want it to be and I'll stop at 5 feet.  I also made pointy ends.  POINTY!

The last pair of socks is for my buddy Evan.  He got one of my first scarves when I was learning to knit.  And now that I'm considerably more skilled, he should be rewarded for having suffered through my learning curve right?  He's getting hipster pink house socks.  Big man feet are my sock kryptonite, so I hope I can power through them.  I am kind of making it up as I go based on basic sock patterns.  I don't know if I want to put an afterthought heel or a heel flap on it.  I think the flap would be more durable, and I could put a heart back there, but I know a short row after thought would be quicker.  So I haven't touched them in a while.

Thems the holiday knits.  I will be back next week to touch base on the adventures over the summer.  Highlights being some classes I've taught, Stitches Midwest & Vogue Knitting Live, Guest Teachers at my LYS, Some KALS, and a new wheel  :)

All the yarn be packed!

It's moving in month - slow going too.


I packed up all my yarn, that wasn't already in a project, those I have packed up but ... in a bag - easily grabbed :)


I got a comment on an older post and I thought it was timely after having revisited all of my stash... "What are your favorite types of yarns to knit with? Do you ever use eco-friendly yarns?"


I guess I love a lot of different yarns so I'm going to split this one into groups.

1.  Sock yarn.  I love sock yarns ALL the sock yarns be mine!

I have been in many a sock club, Yarn Pirate, Yarntini, Socks that Rawk, and Mean Girls YC.  I absolutely loved the tightly spun superwash merino & nylon bases of the first three, and I can honestly say I haven't used a skein of the Mean Girl yarn.  I'm hoarding it.  I love the indie dyers, hand dyed, small batches, one of a kind - just like my hand knit socks.  :)  My favorite sock yarns from bigger companies would be Dream in Color Smooshy, Trekking and Opal.  Fun colors and a tightly spun superwash merino.  :)  Least favorites would include Cascade Fixation and Socka.  Fixation's elastic content makes gauge and tension hard to maintain.  While Socka is a wonderful yarn - workhorse - it is not pleasant to the hand.  And I have used others, Malabrigo, Araucania, Tofusties, and Stroll to name a few - they are good, but not my favorite.

2. Other Wools.  I prefer to work with wool if at all possible, it's squashy and wonderful :)

  My favorites are Malabrigo, Dream in Color Classy, Cascade 220 & Eco Wool, and Lorna's Laces Shepherd lines.  I love my locally dyes - Both DiC and Lorna's colors are made right here in Chicago-land :)


3. Cotton?  I don't like cotton much, I find the lack of give very unfriendly.  Although I like some of the chainette cotton yarns like Classic Elite's Katydid.  I made the top below out of it.  Very nice on the hands.

4.  The fluffy? Those very glowing yarns like mohair and angora?  I love angora, so soft and the finished fabric feels like it floats above the skin.  I made a sweater from a Sublime Merino Angora.  


5. Lastly - Acrylic.  I honestly don't mind acrylic, it has it's place in the fiber world.  It's synthetic and good for those with sensitivities.  My mom gets a lot of acrylic blends, and these days the more affordable yarns have some acrylic or nylon in it, keeping costs down.  If I need to use a 100% acrylic I'm going to use Berrocco's Comfort or Lion's Vanna's Choice.  Comfort is very soft, easy to care for but can be splitty.  Vanna's is probably the best traditional acrylic I've worked with - actually has fluff to it!

3KCBWDAY7 - Crafting Balance

So balancing my crafting life?

I feel like hobbies are just that - you do them in your free time, and sometimes one hobby takes over.  I pretty much stopped paper crafting, and should pass on some of my stamping and paper craft stuff.  I also don't use my sewing machine much, although with the new house, I think that curtains are in my future.

I love my yarn crafting.  Knit and crochet are pretty interchangable in terms of which I want to work on.  Although it's usually project driven.  I worked very hard on my crochet scarflette when I was loving that yarn!

And now I'm in love with Malabrigo Rios and only work on my sweater sleeves in front of the TV.  yummy yarn.  Although I think that if I didn't "force" myself to spin I might not.  So Mondays are spinning days.  My guild meets one Monday a month, so that made sense to me.

Here's some spinning pictures: