Medomak and the New England Fiber Arts Retreat

I got back from teaching at the New England Fiber Arts Retreat on Saturday afternoon, and I'm pretty sure I left most of my heart up there.  Here's a view of the week in pictures:

 

the view of the walk up to the cabin I shared with three of my best friends

 

the four--count 'em, four--Stephen West Mystery shawls in progress at camp

 

working on the community weaving project

 

a panel from Dana's rigid heddle-woven blanket

 

another kind of spinning--we met lots of rather amazing spiders this week

 

visiting Cloud Hollow alpaca farm

 

Rachel's natural dyeing class--indigo as it begins to oxidize

 

midway through . . .

 

fully oxidized!

 

a visit to Katharine Cobey's studio

 

a view from the loft.  I never wanted to leave.

 see why?

 

fogged-in cove, gorgeous studio, knitting goddess, standard poodles--yeah, I'm happy

 

Rachel's yarn for the week, both handspun and naturally dyed

 

the varied and wonderful results of the needle felted sheep class

 

some of the amazing felted bowls we made on the last day

 

 

 

These felted bowls, one of the best classes I've ever taught, summed up the week for me.   We all had the same materials and the same time, but the finished pieces were all wildly different, and all absolutely gorgeous.  Everyone's experience at camp was completely different, but I'm pretty sure that none of us would trade it for anything.  Next year we'll be meeting up from July 28th to August 3rd.  There is nothing that will stop me from being there, and I'm already counting the days.  Hope to see you there!

July Happenings

July got away from me this year.  What with the Tour de Fleece, a spate of housesitting, getting back into running, starting a fashion illustration class, finishing up a couple designs and having a few others published, a trip up the coast for a wine and yarn weekend, and, oh yes, normal, day to day life, I feel like July picked me up like a whirlwind and dropped me off at the cusp of August, breathless and a teeny bit dizzy.  So here's a quick rundown before August treats me the same way!

This year's TdF started with a bang and ended. . . kind of with a fizzle.  For the first time in five years, I was a DNF--there were too many other things going on and working spinning into my schedule was stressing me out.  And since this is supposed to be fun, I made the grown-up choice (note: not my normal mode; I am far more likely to stick to something if it kills me, just because I said I would) and let it go for this year.  Instead, I got some sleep, worked on some deadline knitting projects, and petted the yarn that I had spun.  In addition to the first week's spinning, I managed to ply the eight ounces of 1 ply BFL, 1 ply Falkland fingering/sport weight from Pine Star Studios:

I also got started on that yummy CVM/Romeldale fleece I got back from Morro Fleeceworks.  Here's how it's spinning up:

 

I have plans a-foot for a 3-ply Aran weight to make a cable-y shawl collar cardigan, should I ever get the rest of it spun!

During TdF, and just when I needed it most this past month, my friend Elise came through with the best proposal ever: a weekend in a cabin on the ocean, with spinning wheels, knitting, friends, and wine.  Elise runs Nerd Wars over on Ravelry, so she has about as much, if not more, on her plate as I do! Some of the CVM/Romeldale spinning happened then, but my weekend mostly looked like this (you'll have to imagine the glass of wine that was out of the frame):

 

It was such a great weekend--loads of fun, lots of new friends, and a chance to take a step back from the rest of the crazy.  When I came back, I was ready and raring to go, which is good, because I had two designs come out in the next two weeks!

The Kit Camisole came out with Quince & Co. first.  This was a big leap of faith for me--it was the first time I'd done a garment with this much positive ease to it, and I was nervous as to how it would come out or what the reception would be.  It's been so great seeing people's reactions to it!

 

Kit is worked in Quince's Sparrow, which, as we've discussed, is one of my favorite yarns.  :) It takes texture SO well, and was a delight to work with once again.  You can find the pattern on Ravelry here!

The second pattern that came out this month was the Tideline Cowl, which will be published as part of Cecily Glowik MacDonald's first self-published book, Landing: Winged Knits Vol. 1.  Cecily is possibly the sweetest, nicest, most hard-working person I know, and it was a complete honor to get to be part of this latest endeavor.  

 

(both pattern photos by Carrie Bostick Hoge; she's amazing!)

Tideline is knit in Quince & Co.'s Puffin, another one of my favorite yarns! I LOVE the stitch definition and texture in this; I had originally thought about knitting it in Finch, but fell in complete love with the idea of knitting it with a larger yarn for even more of a statement.  You can find this on Ravelry here, where you can pre-order the book both in e-book and hard copy, and quick! Cecily's doing a giveaway about the book on her blog here!

So now that July's almost under my belt, what will August bring? Only one of my favorite weeks of the year! I'm leaving tomorrow for a week up at Medomak and the New England Fiber Arts Retreat.  I'll be teaching classes on designing a top-down shawl, picots, pleats, and welts, and wet-felting a bowl or vase.  I will also be swimming every day, spending as many hours as I can on the porch, and hanging out with some of my best friends.  I.  Can't.  Wait. 

Tour de Fleece Week 1

So, I've got this relationship with the Tour de Fleece.  This is my sixth year playing along (that's crazypants right there), and it's probably one of my favorite times of year.  This year is no exception! Here's what I've been working on so far:

This is 8 oz of 2-ply sportweight, spun worsted.  1 ply is Sour Fig in Shetland by Hello Yarn, and the other is Rambutan in BFL by Into the Whirled.  I still need to check yardage, but I love this yarn unabashedly.

Also on the wheel was 4 oz each of BFL and Falkland from Pine Star Studios:

 

The fast and furious plying on these started last night, and I'll hopefully have it finished up today.  I should have probably around 800 yards, and I have no idea what I'm going to do with it.  But I'm excited to move on to the next project! 

One thing I forgot to mention in the whirlwind of last week (thank you all for your kind words, by the way!) is that I got two fleeces back in the mail from Morro Fleeceworks.  I had sent them off during The Great Beetle Scare, which helped me be realistic about the actual likelihood of me washing those fleeces in my closet.  So off they went, and two of them came back to me last Tuesday.  Want a peek?

This is a CVM/Romeldale lamb fleece I picked up at Rhinebeck in--wait for it--2008.  It was an absolutely stunning fleece and I wasn't doing it justice by keeping it in the closet.  I can't wait to give it a spin! What are you working on for TdF?

A Big Week

So this week, I had a pattern release on Monday with Quince & Co., two patterns with Brooklyn Tweed's Wool People 3 on Tuesday, and chopped my hair off on Wednesday.  It's been a busy week! Let's start at the beginning.

(All Gemma photos by Carrie Bostick Hoge!)

The Gemma Shawl was a project that I absolutely loved knitting.  It was my first time knitting with Finch, Quince's fingering weight, and I went into it knowing that it was one of the springiest yarns out there on the market.  I wanted to respect that and not force it to block into serious lace, so I decided to play with simple textural stitch patterns with a single lace detail along the edge.   I was absolutely thrilled and delighted to block this and find out that, in addition to some amazing spring, this yarn has incredible drape as well.  I love it! I'm in the middle of a new project using it, and I'm loving it even more.  Stay tuned for that in the next few months!

Gemma is knit differently than my typical top-down shawls; it starts with only a few stitches and increases slowly only on one side to create a sideways triangle.  I loved the subtle asymmetry that creates!

The shawl takes 5 skeins of Finch, and can be found here on Ravelry. 

So that was Day 1! Day 2 dawned bright and early with the release of Auden and Bayard.  Eagle-eyed readers might recognize Auden as the sweater starring in the knitting catastrophe of a few months ago.  There is really nothing more *awesome* (sarcasm) than having to email Jared Flood with "the cat destroyed my sweater", but he was really awesome about it and gave me a couple extra weeks.  I was really glad, because I actually had the chance to change a few things from the first version of the sweater that were bugging me! (For those interested, Jashu is just fine--he's currently talking to himself in the other room.  Silly cat.)

(All Wool People 3 photos by Jared Flood!)

Auden is knit from the bottom up in the round, and then split to work back and forth for the armhole.  The allover pattern utilizes a series of smaller and smaller cables to create a gentle, delicate fern.

Auden uses Brooklyn Tweed's fingering weight Loft yarn, which I can't say enough good things about.  It blocks so beautifully in lace, cables, stockinette--you name it.  And the colors? Love 'em.   You can find it on Ravelry here. 

The colors of Loft were what drew me to design Bayard.  I must have spent an hour in the yarn room when I first decided to swatch for it, ending up with about twenty different possible combinations! It was almost a relief when I was assigned a color combo--it would have been really hard for me to choose.

Bayard is knit from the ribbing up, and utilizes slip stitches to pull one side of the hat shorter than the rest.  That lets the hat slouch without adding too much bulk.  Bayard takes less than a skein of Loft in two colors, and it's on Ravelry here!

The sample was knit in Old World and Woodsmoke, but I wanted to show a few other color combos that I wanted to explore as well!

Top row, L to R: Tent and Artifact, Blanket Fort and Plume, Nest and Sweatshirt
Middle row, L to R: Tent and Foothills, Homemade Jam and Wool Socks, Long Johns and Pumpernickel
Bottom row, L to R: Hayloft and Meteorite, Sap and Birdbook, Woodsmoke and Barn Owl

So many to choose from--these didn't even make a dent!

So on top of those, yeah, I cut all my hair.  When I realized I'd be going into a hot and humid Maine summer with buttlength hair, I balked, and off it came.  And yes, it's still long--but it's short for me!

 

I have committed myself to being a curly girl again! We'll see how long that upkeep lasts.  (Yes, it's in a ponytail right now.)

So that was a pretty awesome week for me.  But it's not over.  Because you know what starts tomorrow?  Oh yeah.  Tour de Fleece.  It's on.

The View from Downtown

 
 
 
 

 

Sometimes the other knitters and crocheters of Portland are pretty darn cool.  Also cool? The fact that this has been up in the middle of downtown Portland for at least two weeks, and no one's either defaced it or tried to take it down, not even the authorities.  Another reason to love this town! (Also, can you imagine how long this took?!)

Catching Up . . . and Catching Bugs

Oooh, hey blog! It's, uh, it's been a while, hasn't it? But there's been so much going on!

I planted a tiny salad and herb container garden!


(I also planted a raised bed garden, which was then followed by two steady weeks of torrential rain.  I'm not showing you that one.)

We had Cake Day!


(Lucia's completely yummy pumpkin whoopie pie cake pictured here.  It didn't last long.)

I finished spinning some yarn that I started at last year's SPA!


(Fiber is BFL in the colorway "Seaweed" from the Portland Fiber Gallery.  I snagged it right before I left for New Zealand.  Yardage is around 650 for 7 or so ounces, fingering to sportweight.)

I hung out with Maggie's foster kittens! (And hung out some more.  And then some more.)


(This is Waffles.  She's adorable.)

I visited the Maine Fiber Frolic!


(One of the gorgeous merino fleeces at the fleece tent.  I did not succumb, but it was a hard struggle.)


(Lunch.  I LOVE fair food.)

But besides these things, and work, and designing, and running (did I mention I started running? I'm sidelined right now with a foot injury, but can't wait to get back out there!), the big thing I'm battling is beetles.  Right about when we were having the first of our really rainy periods here in Maine (the first of MANY), I started noticing these little beetles near the front door of my apartment.  There were two kinds, one bullet-shaped and dark brown, and one round and zebra stripey.  I just figured that they were lost or coming indoors because it was rainy, and didn't pay them any attention.  To be honest, I thought that I was just seeing the same two bugs, hopelessly lost and befuddled by my apartment.  One night right before bed, though, I googled them (note: never google suspicious bugs right before bed), and found out what they were.

Drugstore beetles and carpet beetles.

CARPET BEETLES.

MY WOOOOOOOOOOL!

So after not sleeping at all that night due to hyperventilation, I enlisted the help of my saint of a mother the next weekend, and we went through Every.  Single.  Skein. of yarn in my stash.  And all the fiber.  And all the weaving yarns.  And the swatches.  And the sweaters.  And the scarves and shawls and socks.  Let me tell you, I didn't really think I had that large a stash (though what I do have is disproportionately chartreuse) until I pulled it all out into one place.

So we went through every single piece of fiber in my house, and you know what we found? Five beetles, all in stuff that had been out in the open or by the front window.  WHEW.  After thanking the fiber gods profusely, we spent the rest of the afternoon shoving every single thing into a Ziploc and sacheting it for all it was worth.  Here's what my stash looks like now:



Since then, I've seen a few beetles, but I've been pretty vigilant about keeping everything tucked away and clean.  In addition, the sachets I made are helping to keep the critters away, so I thought I'd share the recipe here for those with, god forbid, a similar problem.

Beetle-Be-Gone Sachets:
2 parts cedar shavings or chips
1 part lavender
1 part thyme
1 part rosemary

Combine and stuff into mesh teabags or cheesecloth. 

I found bouquet garni bags at the local Whole Foods that have been working wonderfully.  These also make your wool smell lovely!

So now that the beetles are on their way out, I'm hoping I can breathe a little sigh of relief and get on with my summer plans.  What are you up to this summer?

When people ask what my favorite yarn is, I have a very, VERY hard time narrowing it down.  I am a wooly girl for sure, but surprisingly, over the last few years, among the raves about Shelter and Puffin and Noro, a little linen birdie has flown into the mix.  Sparrow, the fingering weight linen from Quince, is a seriously wonderful yarn.  Which is why, when I talked to Pam at Quince about designing some shawls for the spring, it was at the very top of my list.
One of those shawls came out a few weeks ago--meet Rue!



I started working on this shawl design right as winter was turning into spring here in Portland.  In my walks around my neighborhood, the sidewalks were starting to show through the dirt and sand of the winter and the new grasses were starting to come up through the old, frost-bleached ones.  Later, as time went on and I was knitting the sample, the tiniest of the early spring flowers started appearing.



The shawl was designed to mimic those seasonal changes--the transition from cold to warm, season to season, linear to organic.



And let me gush about this yarn a bit further: holy GOODNESS does it hold a block beautifully.  The crispness and the drape of the lace pattern wouldn't be possible without the wonderful staying power of the linen.  I can't wait to work with it further!



Rue is knit in a traditional top-down triangular shape, and calls for 5 skeins of Sparrow in sans.  You can find it at Quince here, and on Ravelry here!