Playing with Fibre

Yesterday I attended a workshop in Lindsay where we played with different colours of fibre to create carded batts for spinning. Mostly we experimented with colour.

Rebecca was our facilitator. She encouraged us to 'play' with different colours to see what we would come up with. She pointed out some colour theory aspects and also things to avoid.

She brought all kinds of roving for us to card. We had also brought some from our own stashes.

There were a couple of blending boards for us to use,

as well as a couple of drum carders.

I mostly used my hand carders in my attempt to 'make a rainbow'. I will probably spin these in sequence to make a multicoloured art yarn.

This is how the blending board can be used - just layering on pieces of roving and combing them with the blue comb to align all the fibres.

They're then wound around dowels creating tight rolls which can then be easily spun.

I used the drum carder and made these colouful batts.

I have no idea what procedure I'll use to spin them.

I did most of these with the hand carders.

Here's a lovely, silky batt that was created using orange, pink, and purple fibre.

Janis created this batt on the drum carder.

Mayah used several fibres to create her rolags.

The Kawartha Handspinners and Weavers Guild meets in Lindsay at the Armoury on the first Thursday of the month from September to June for their business meeting. The second Thursday is their 'fun' meeting where they often have a programmed activity for the members. If you live in the area, check them out.

Random Garden Shots in May

We generally don't plant new garden material until all danger of frost has passed - around the end of May.  However last week during a summery, warm spell, I bought some plants to get things going.

We have lots of perennials but the severe winters and dastardly rabbit have eaten some of them down to nothing. This English daisy is one replacement. I don't know how long it will bloom or if it will spread but it's a nice bit of colour right now.

One of my Facebook friends inspired me to haul out a tiered planter I had stashed away and load it up with useful herbs. I will be able to transplant many of them into the garden at the end of the season.

There is parsley, garlic chives and 'mojito' mint. On the bottom tier is some rosemary.

On the other side is thyme and more mint for mojitos.

I have two of these squarish pots, so plopped a little citronella geranium plant into one of them. I don't know if it will keep the mosquitoes away but I like the scent when I rub the leaves.

This third tier got a basil plant and some oregano that I dug up from the garden.

Skip has a cold frame for the cool weather edibles. He planted a row of lettuce which will need to be thinned out. The other lettuce plants were already in leaf when he bought them. There is a kale plant and a pepper plant still waiting to be planted after the danger of frost has passed. Bottom right is some cilantro.

In the morning, I look out the window and can see the feeder (the bottom spins and flings off any greedy squirrels) and the birdbath. Mr. American Goldfinch is one of many we have nesting nearby.

We have several resident cardinals as well. In the background, you can see the domed item in the birdbath. It is a "Water Wiggler" - a solar powered device that twirls around, making gentle movements on the surface of the birdbath. This thwarts mosquito larvae and attracts birds to the water.

Beneath the feeder, 'Chippy' scavenges for any seeds the birds drop from above. We have had to put a baffle  on the hook that holds the feeder to discourage Chippy from continuously filling his pouches with seeds and hiding them.  There is more than enough seed that gets dropped to keep him fed.

The purple sandcherry is in bloom. Skip cut it almost down to the ground last year so it is sending out shoots again.

We only have one of the spurge plants. It is yellow like this for a couple of weeks then just provides nice texture to the garden for the rest of the summer.

Our first lilac (of the two bushes) is in bloom. These are gently fragrant.  I cut this particular bunch of blooms off

and brought them inside. The other lilac bush we have will bloom next month and is much more fragrant.

Knitting for Baby Girls

I have been doing a lot of knitting for baby girls. Four of my friends will have or have had baby granddaughters this spring or summer. I have finished two cardigans except for picking out and sewing on the buttons.

This Baby Ull yarn has been in my stash for a couple of years and am glad to have found a use for it. This is the Modified Drops Eyelet Baby Cardigan. I wasn't that thrilled with the right-leaning double decrease in the eyelet so will try a centre double decrease next time.

This is the third or fourth Provence Baby Cardigan I have knit. I did a post about what I went through to get gauge. Here it is with the pieces all sewn together. I did the sleeves in the round rather than have to seam them as well.

Like I have done on the other ones I have knit, I mirrored the lace pattern on the front by starting the second pattern halfway up the chart.

The pattern calls for the button bands to be knit with smaller needles. Instead, I used the same size needle and picked up three edge stitches and skipped the fourth. The pattern also called for the bindoff on the button bands to be done in pattern, that is, bind off the knit stitches knitwise alternating with purlwise bindoffs on the purl stitches. However, I prefer the look of the consistent bindoff that I did - purlwise with the private side facing and knitwise with the public side facing.

The collar edging is very easy and makes a nice finish.

I'm working on a third sweater and have all the parts knit. I just need to sew them together and again, find an appropriate button. It will be revealed very soon. Here's a sneak peak at part of the back.

Yes, folks. That's the Coach logo. It's the Upscale Baby cardigan pattern by Kathleen Sperling and I'm using South Pacific pima cotton yarn. I just noticed a mistake I made (not shown) that I will have to fix with duplicate stitch.

I do plan to knit coordinating hats for all of the items and possibly little Mary Jane booties.

Two of the babies have been born so I have to get the items done and to the grandmothers pronto. The other two have yet to be born so I'm not under quite as much pressure to get them all done.

Cormo Handspun

At the 2010 New York Sheep and Wool Festival (at Rhinebeck), I purchased many things - one of which was some lovely cormo top. Cormo sheep are a cross between corriedale and merino - creating a very soft fibre. It is pictured here with a little (19g) Jenkins Turkish spindle that I also purchased on this spree.

On Monday, I finished plying the yarn.

I was pleased that I got 410 yards out of the 93g. I had spun some of the fibre with two different drop spindles so they were quite different weights from this spun on my Ashford Joy.

It wasn't the most consistent spinning and plying but I really like the tonal result and how thin I was able to spin it.

Now... what should I spin with it?

Napkins

While in the US last week, I picked up some fabric to make some more dinner napkins.

I have summer ones that I made with faux gingham and stitched bugs on them,

Christmas ones,

 Halloween placemats,

and autumn ones which can be used with the Halloween placemats or other placemats.

I had a set that I used when we had company but I left one of them in Texas by mistake so I needed to make another appropriate set.

I wanted something to go with the placemats that I use when we are dining outdoors on the deck. I fashioned these spring-themed napkins that work with the placemats.

 And these that would be good for company. They also work with the green faux cane placemats.

Now we can wipe our mouths with impunity and avoid using paper napkins.

The napkins are easy, peasy to make. I buy a yard of fabric (a metre if I'm buying fabric in Canada) and cut into quarters. I stack and trim them to the same dimensions.

Then I iron a 1" hem all around and tuck the raw edge up to the ironed edge and top-stitch all the way around, mitreing the corners. There are lots of helpful videos/websites with instructions for mitred corners.

And that's it! Do your bit for the environment and use cloth napkins!

Getting Gauge

I made a quick trip back to the old hometown on the weekend to visit family, do some cross-border shopping, and have breakfast with former colleagues who meet the first Friday of every month.

While at Mary Maxim in Port Huron, MI, I purchased a couple of balls of yarn which I thought would be perfect for a Provence Baby Cardigan.

It is 50% acrylic and 50% Viloft - made from eucalyptus fibre. I needed a DK weight yarn and noted on the label that there were 23 stitches to 4" on a 3.25 needle.

After swatching, starting to knit the left front, I realized that this was actually fingering weight yarn and would not work at all for this pattern. I tried several needle sizes and different sizes in the pattern and it just wouldn't work.

While driving home, I considered stopping in at a yarn shop en route to pick up some appropriate weight yarn. Then I remembered that I have several cones of yarn in the basement that I could blend with this yarn and possibly get the gauge I needed.

By some miracle, the cone of thread-thin yarn was an exact colour match to the yarn I had purchased. I guessed that two strands of it added to the fingering weight would bring it up to DK weight. I think it's cotton so it should work OK with the eucalyptus yarn. I'm not too worried if it shrinks a bit, I'm making it an ample size.

After swatching, I got gauge!  Yay!

I finished the left front and started the right front. I brought the project on the GO train into the city today but was unable to continue beyond beginning the armhole decreases as I hadn't brought the left front to compare it to. What to do. What to do...



Rather than take make the 50 minute ride with nothing to knit, I cut the yarn of the right front and pulled out the needles and started the back.

Now, back at home, I'm beyond the underarm decreases and well on the way to finishing the back. Then I'll pick up the right front stitches and finish it.

This is the third or fourth time I've knit this sweater. On the moss stitch edging, I made the first and last stitches of every row stocking stitch. That will make it much easier to seam the pieces together.

Another Pair of Afterthought Heel Socks

I finished the heel of these socks yesterday on the GO train on the way home from HotDocs.

We took advantage of the same day free tickets for seniors and saw the behind the scenes documentary about the Monty Python performance - their first together in 35 years. In the afternoon, we watched "Listen to Me Marlon", a documentary recounting the life of Marlon Brando through his private audiotapes.

Back to the socks...

They started out as humble tube socks. They were very quick to knit.

I used the one sock as the template for the other.

On this pair, I continued the ribbing down the front/instep.

It took a bit of fiddling to get the toes just right.

 The heels took some adjusting as well.

I am somewhat of a yarn snob, but I admit I rather like this line of Kroy sock yarn. They wear like iron and the colourways are interesting and fun to knit.

I may give them to someone who is knitworthy that has narrow feet.