It's underground knitting time here right now, as I frantically work on half-finished Christmas presents and try to figure out the most attractive way to package them still on the needles. But one of the cool things I've been working on at the Fiber Gallery is rehabbing an old Macomber 32" loom that my boss picked up a couple weekends ago. She's a beaut! Dark, luminous mahogany wood, quirky brass pivots and fittings, and a great sense of history.

She's also got this one fantastic detail:

Serial number 1. How cool is that?

We're still waiting on a bunch of parts from Macomber, but I jury-rigged it and threaded a simple diagonal twill in merino/tencel, with a hand-dyed cotton warp. The one problem?

Yes, Ms. Cleaver, it's pink. Sigh.

p.s. still looking for a Christmas present for someone obsessed with yarn and fiber? I've put together a collection of my fiber photography into an adorable desktop calendar. It's basically a beefcake calendar, but with fiber instead of naked men. I promise there are no naked men.

Earl Grey

I spent the Monday after we got back from Rhinebeck not wanting to do anything. (Except perhaps add up the amount of money I spent on pretty, pretty fiber there, and shudder.) My wrists were killing me from some hardcore computer work I had done the week before, and from a nutso idea I had to spin, design, and knit a cabled sweater in what amounted to probably a two week period. I had also just gotten my hands on the DK weight farm yarn we had had spun for SuriPaco, a gorgeous 75/25 blend of domestic alpaca and Maine wool that made me swoon. So, the combination of apathy, hurty wrists, and pretty yarn?

The Earl Grey Mitts. A simple, gentle, comforting knit, with a clean and tailored aesthetic, just like a good cup of tea. (I'm addicted to Earl Grey tea. It's a bit of a problem.)

These are knit in stockinette in the round, then flipped at the end to show off the reverse stockinette side. The yarn, spun on Bartlett Yarns' wonderful old mulespinning machinery, is nubbly and rustic, and works wonderfully with the purl side of the fabric.

Available as a free download over on Ravelry!

Another Introduction!

Okay, at some point I promise to have actual content on this blog, but, introducing:

Bristol's Cowl! (Note: I promise I am not narcissistic enough to name this after myself! I had called it the Cathedra Cowl in proofs, but I bow to higher judgment.)


(photos by the lovely and wonderful Carrie Bostick Hoge)
This cowl is knit from just one skein of Quince and Co.'s Puffin, a lovely, lightly spun bulky single in the most gorgeous colors. The lace lets you play with a couple different techniques on a large scale for instant gratification! Plus, the one skein requirement lets you try out a great yarn with minimal investment. It would also be awesome for that skein of Lopi kicking around, or that bit of bulky handspun you've not found a use for yet. . .


Check it out at Quince and Co. here, or on Ravelry here.


And up soon on the blog (I promise): can I design and knit an entire Fair Isle sweater in the month of November? Well, not if the yarn's still drying! (Which it is. Eek.)

The Christchurch Shawl

It's a bad sign when your internet history doesn't even remember your blog's URL. Sigh. But! There is exciting news! I finally have something cool to share!

Introducing the Christchurch Shawl, born of a long day spent wandering the museums and botanical gardens in Christchurch, New Zealand. My head was full of leaves and spear points, and this lace pattern, developed on the road from Christchurch to Queenstown and knit for the first time among quizzical Austrians at the hostel in Queenstown, was the result.
I knit the first version of it for Betty back in February, and the second version this summer.

(modeled by my gorgeous friend Dana, who is a phenomenal weaver to boot)

The pattern is up for sale on Ravelry here!

Ah, yes. Well. Hi. One month later, and I still apparently fail at the posting frequently thing. I will work on it! But in the meantime?

I'm knitting, and nesting.

It's my two week anniversary in my adorable little apartment, and I'm still trying to put the bits and pieces together. Painting trim, finding frames, hanging pictures, figuring out the oven, trying canning for the first time (apple and pepper chutney!),

dreaming of covering the entire place in textiles. . . I think I'm going to like it here.

I've also been knitting furiously, and have no less than five projects going at the moment, heaven help me, with another in the testing knitting stage and yet two more bubbling away cranially. There's just not enough time in the world! And did I mention Rhinebeck is in a month? Where I will no doubt be acquiring great quantities of fluff and yarn? Oh dear. Still, this is a pretty darn good life, and I could get used to it. I've just got to get better at posting about it.

Hmm. . . well, there went any semblance of keeping posting in a timely manner! The Tour de Fleece is finished, as of almost a month ago (my bad), I've been knitting:

(Deerpath Socks by Lisa Lloyd in Cherry Tree Hill DK Supersock, my July socks in my self-imposed sock-a-month club, ravelled here)

and even !!crocheting!! (never thought I'd say that!),

(Queen's Anne's Lace by Khebhin Gibbons in my own handspun, ravelled here)

and have been working on finding an apartment in town and generally soaking up as much of the summer as possible. But the two big things that have been taking up most of my time?

Meet Natasha, a 9-10-month-old black and tan coonhound from down South. She may look all sweet and innocent in that picture, and okay, yeah, the sweet bit certainly is true, but the innocent? Nuh-uh. Here she is "helping" me take sock pictures:

Anything not nailed down is totally game for her to chew on. That includes knitting projects, toes, and cats. So we're working on it!

The other big thing involves these lovely creatures:

The baby in that picture is approximately ten hours old. Everybody together: awwwwww. I've started work up at a local alpaca farm as their creative designer. This means I get to play with fiber and yarn. A lot. Occasionally I get to play with the animals. Does this make me the happiest person on the planet? Yeah, pretty much. So, even though I'm not posting too much, life's pretty awesome. On with the adventure!

The Tour de Fleece keeps on trucking. . .

My hand-dyed roving stash is getting pretty low at this point--lucky Rhinebeck is in 2 1/2 months!