Lida!

Man, can we talk about how much I love Quince and Co.'s Sparrow yarn? Gorgeous! Luminous! Effortless! I knit three sample garments in it in quick succession earlier this year, and absolutely jumped at the chance to design with it myself. The fruits of that labor appeared today in the Quince newsletter. Introducing: the Lida Shawl!







(photos by the inimitable Carrie Bostick Hoge, and modeled by the lovely and eponymous Lida. Check it out over on Ravelry!)

I will be knitting this for myself as soon as I can. Maybe multiple times. =)

Unions and Reunions

I spent this past weekend in one of my favorite places in the entire world, Grinnell College. I spent four incredibly happy years there as an undergrad, and it was a delight to go back and spend time among some of the coolest people ever. I'll spare you most of the reminiscences (both sober and tipsy), but rest assured that it was exactly what I needed.

One of my other reasons for heading back to Iowa was the wedding of two friends, Rachel and Lindsey. I met them while at Grinnell, and in addition to being some of the most amazing people ever, they've been serious advocates for gay marriage rights throughout the states. When Iowa passed legislation legalizing gay marriage, they were the first couple I thought of. And the icing on the cake was getting to attend their beautiful wedding.

But of course you know there has to be a fibery bent to this story! What could it be?!



Yeah, yeah, I wove them a blanket. So far, my marrying friends have been few and far between enough that I can still give them something handmade, but due to the recent spate of engagements going on, this may not last long. . .



You all may have seen hints of this blanket in Aimee and Leah's blog posts about our knitting group's dyeing weekend; it's the turquoise stuff hanging on the fence! While the blanket is all the same base yarn (Jaggerspun's Superlamb 4/8, which takes color well, but was shedding like crazy throughout), the original base colors were wildly different. The warp started out as golden yellow and white, and the weft started as the same bright turquoise seen in the stripes, and white. The yarn was also dyed in two different locations, with two different dye brands. It was a little tricky. =)



The finished blanket measures around 54" by 50", with 8 ends per inch and about 13 picks per inch. This was my first time working with double weave in pattern, but once I wrapped my head around the idea of it, it went pretty smoothly.



It was woven to a background of British period dramas and this year's Eurovision Song Content, which felt appropriate for this couple. Rachel and Lindsey, I hope you cuddle up together under it in cold midwestern nights. Lots of love and mazel tov!

Rainy Days

Usually, I'm a great person for rainy days. Give me a good book, a big cup of tea, a spinning wheel, and a napping cat, and I'm happy. But we've had a spate of more than a week of grey skies here recently, and yeah, I'm about done. My friend Rachel was feeling the same way this past weekend, so we buzzed down to the last day of the New Hampshire Sheep and Wool Festival on a whim. In a word? Rejuvenation.

Now I just need another fiber festival this weekend to do the same thing!

In the Quiet Times

I am coming to the tail-end of a two-week knitting moratorium. After having knit two sample garments for Quince and two samples garments for myself in the space of a month and a half, my wrists were in dire need of a break. At first, I was unsure of what to do with myself while watching Netflix at night (by the way, Downton Abbey? Oh my goodness). But my mom reminded me of the hurried and breathless question I got to ask Neil Gaiman in the signing line in Wellington this time last year--if one is working for one's self, what does one do when the phone isn't ringing? What do you do in the down times? He said that that was the best time for exploration, for trying new things, for making messes and not having a deadline to clean them up by. So, in the last two weeks, I have:

• made progress on my quilt
• finished writing two patterns
• listened to good music
• hung out with friends
• got my hands thoroughly covered in dye with the best knitting group in the world, as wonderfully documented by Leah and Aimee
• read some old favorites
• spun some frog-hair silk for my knitolution
• cooked yummy food
• I even made time to detangle skeins of yarn, one of my favorite guilty pleasures
• and naps! How could I forget the naps?
  

So, all in all, it was a good, if knitting-less, couple of weeks! However, duty calls, and there are a few more samples calling my name. How would you spend two weeks without knitting?

Nesting

The weather is getting warmer here in Maine; the grass is a vivid, emerald green (thanks to the rain of the last few days), the spring flowers are popping up everywhere, and, in hope, I have begun wearing sandals every day (even if I really shouldn't). But, even though we're moving towards spring, my crafting dreams recently have been about the perfect things for a midwinter night: bulky, colorful knit blankets, and jewel-toned handmade quilts.

When the Mitered Cross Blanket pattern came out, I loved it, but was initially dubious about the amount of Noro it needed. While I love Noro, the stuff ain't the cheapest, and a blanket's worth seemed a little extravagant. So the pattern sat on the backburner for a while, until I remembered the yarn I had dyed using Leethal's long-stripe dyeing with recycled yarn idea, where, instead of unraveling the thrifted sweater and then dyeing it, you dye it in stripes while it's still in pieces, like a sock blank.

I'm planning on pairing it with a deep cocoa-colored natural Irish yarn from the erstwhile Irish Ewe. Of course, it may be a long time until I actually get around to knitting it. . .

The other project I'm actually working on is a quilt based on the color scheme and lay-out of this pattern:

(from imagingermonkey on Flickr)

I grew up in a quilter's household, surrounded by my mom's fabric stash and tools, so it was a delight to come back to that world. About half the fabric in my quilt is actually from my mom's stash, and it feels wonderful to put all the eclectic pieces together into something beautiful.

I spent a great day over at Leah's house this past weekend working on it and hogging the ironing board, and while there's still a lot to get done, it's amazing to get back into this world and play.

As for things that I'm actually getting done, rather than just dreaming about, here's a sneak peek of the cowl pattern that will be coming out in September:

Stay tuned! In the meantime, I'll keep nesting and dreaming of chilly days, scented by woodsmoke, where I'll get to wrap up in my cozy quilt and blanket with a cup of tea and daydream.

Back in the Saddle

(The title is a hopeful reference to my horrid blogging habits, but since there wasn't really a saddle to begin with, the metaphor may not be apropos. Any suggestions?)

We're just going to ignore the fact that I've been gone for two months. The cool things in that time?

• there was over $800NZ raised for Red Cross NZ Earthquake Relief through the sales of the Christchurch Shawl. Knitters are awesome.
• I have knocked out all but two WIPs on my list--the socks for my Sock of the Month Club that I started in August (oops), and the socks that were one of my brother's Christmas presents (double oops). But! Since the last blog post, I've finished: 2 vests, 1 camisole, 1 shrug, 1 tee, 1 sweater, 1 cowl, 2 warps (1 scarf and 1 couple of rugs) and 1 pair of socks. Fear my productivity!
• Unfortunately, most of that knitting is secret. Well, internet secret. So I can show you pictures of. . . the socks! And that's about it.

These socks have been on the backburner forever, which is a shame, since they're awesome and I've rarely taken them off since I finished. My basic sock pattern, knit on size 2s in 4-row stripes (as per usual). I spun the yarn prior to my second Tour de Fleece a couple years ago, and it's amazing what those twenty days of concentrated spinning did to my yarn quality. While this is soft, squishy, and lots of fun, it was pretty underplied and uneven. However, the socks are holding up like steel, so who knows? The fiber was hand-dyed from Fat Cat Knits, in the colorways Brutus and Raja. Ravell'd here. (Incidentally, eagle-eyed readers of the blog will recognize this combination from the first pair of socks finished in New Zealand. I am glad I get to keep these!)

There's lots else going on, but we'll see if I can spread it out and actually have some consistent blog content. Plus, the laptop battery's dying. Priorities!

Christchurch

Well, I had hoped that my next blog post would be a joyous happy one, but I've been glued to the news for the past few days, watching the crisis in Christchurch unfold. I have never had such feelings of helplessness and sadness, and while I've donated (Red Cross NZ), I wish there was more I could do. So here's what I can do. 90% of sales of my Christchurch Shawl will go to the earthquake relief effort in New Zealand. You can buy the pattern on Ravelry here, Etsy here, or in kit form from Little Country Wools here. Every little bit counts, and hopefully us knitters can do our part!