A Penny Spent

 

I'm not much of a shopper these days, waiting until I want to start a new project before looking for yarn or other supplies. But every now and then I'll stop at a charity rummage sale, usually held at a local church, to see if there is anything useful waiting for me to take it home.

Over the years I've made quite a few scores in this area, finding wonderful knitting, crochet and sewing supplies for pennies, and I get a bonus good feeling knowing the money is going to charity. 

One such bargain sale find was an Ashford Electric Spinner (normal retail price $750) for $5. Granted, it did not include extra bobbins, a lazy kate or other accessories, but is was new in the box, in perfect condition, so I consider it money well spent. 

At other sales I've poked around under piles of acrylic yarn, abandoned plastic canvas projects and musty fabric to find vintage knitting needles in a rainbow of colors, fabulous cashmere yarn for $2, and other fun, useful things. 

I pretty much stick to a strict rule that anything I purchase must have a useful purpose, but recently I was intrigued by a tiny cardboard box, simply because it was cute. That and because it said "Paris" on the front.

Upon opening the box I was delighted to find several skeins of silky cotton embroidery floss, in lovely shades of antique beige and gold, nestled in tissue paper (see top photo). 

Not being an embroiderer, I nearly left the little box behind, but the beautiful, rich, neutral colors spoke to me and for .25 cents I decided to take it home and try my hand at a project. I might share the results here sometime, we'll see... 

How about you? Have you ever happened upon a wonderful needlework bargain? 


Thanks for stopping by my studio today, have a wonderful week!






Ashford Spinner Photo: The Woolery

May Day Spinning and Knitting

 

Gosh, there is a lot of stuff going on around here including only a little knitting this week, and work on two upcoming patterns.  

The patterns are coming along nicely, Spring weather has arrived and although I had to wait on more yarn to arrive to finish up the pattern projects, I am finally knitting the last version and putting the final touches on the first pattern. 

The "Grasshopper" colorway Madeline Tosh Merino Light yarn shown in the photo above is one I've been working with for this pattern and it positively shouts "Spring!" to me and makes me smile.

The non-knitting parts of my life are a bit chaotic right now, and I feel like my head is spinning sometimes, so I decided this would be a good time to take a short timeout from work on the patterns and do some spinning.

I've finished a bobbin of fingering weight singles in the beige Coopworth and decided I needed to work on something with a little color.  

The beige will eventually be multi-plied to knit some sort of coat or jacket from it, but that yarn will most likely take me the rest of the year to complete since I plan to intersperse working on it with other, more vibrant fibers.

  

Craving some cheerful color, I went stash diving.  I didn't have anything light-colored (wool festival anyone?), but I did pull this pretty BFL hand-painted roving from Handwoven by Tina in the "Wildflower" colorway out of my stash to play with.  

 

OK, all you expert spinners out there, please keep in mind I'm not super experienced as a spinner and be kind in your assessment of my spinning.  Our little spinning group at Temptations seems to have become defunct, and I miss having other spinners to consult with for advice.  I'm mostly learning from videos, Youtube and written materials.

The fiber is soft and well-prepared, and very easy to spin, great for the relaxation I was seeking.  After deciding I wanted to knit a shawl with the finished yarn, I split the 4 oz. bundle into two even portions, then split those into five thinner sections each before drafting them to spin.  

One end is much darker than the other.  

Although the singles is slightly different than I expected, I love the way the colors are blending in the twist and can't wait to see how it looks when knit up. 

This has certainly whetted my appetite for colorful spinning and knitting and I'm looking forward to attending the 16th annual Great Lakes Fiber Show in Wooster, Ohio at the end of this month.  

Held May 28th and 29th at a fairgrounds about an hour south of Cleveland, this show features workshops in knitting, crochet, weaving, spinning, tatting, carding fibers, felting and more, competitions for fleeces and handspun yarns, multiple buildings filled with vendors, demonstrations, a sheep show and sale, and loads of other fun things to see and do.  

Our dog always has a great time riding in her backpack.

Every year that I attend Great Lakes, I see lots of beautiful fiber and yarn, take tons of photos, and leave with great memories.  

This year I'll definitely be on the lookout for some fresh, light colorways, inspired by the beautiful, native wildflowers.  Although I live in a densely populated, semi-urban area, my city is ringed by many beautiful parks featuring wooded nature trails.  My husband and I try to visit all the different parks, and this is where I get many of my photos, shared here on this blog.

This weekend I was able to snap a few more examples of our local flora, including this  Geranium maculatum, commonly known as Wild, or Cranesbill, geranium.  

Violets of every color are abundant.

Jack in the pulpit is a more unusual sight.

And this blue beauty is a stunner, but I'm not familiar with it's name.

I hope you are enjoying Spring wherever you are, happy knitting and happy May Day! 

Who's got the button?

My gray tweed cardigan is finally blocked and dry and I have to decide on just the right button.  As this is a one-button closure the right button choice can really make the sweater.

I had in mind pewter metallic or solid black, so I dug through my stash to see what I have. 

Turns out, not much that will work.  What I have on hand are some fussy, vintage black glass (totally not right for this simple style), and some carved bone brown/ black ones (a little better, but maybe too organic).   I'm totally open to ideas, so any suggestions or links appreciated. 

I'll have FO photos and a full run-down on this project once I find a great button!

 

It's always fun when a new Knitty comes out, and this Winter issue includes an interesting variety of designs with a pretty fair balance of sweaters and accessories (photos from Knitty.com).

I especially love Heather Desserud's Chrysanthemums, a Norwegian stranded mitten design, and all the other nice color work projects in this issue. 

 

 

Sock lovers will be intrigued with the architectural Maeva, by Stefanie Bold, with it's Art Deco-ish cables and ribs.  An appealing design for both men and women I think.

Winter 2011 has lots of sweaters to love including Teva Durham's lacy  Lady Lovelace cardigan and capelet set, Kathleen Dames' Turn of the Glass fitted cardigan and Karina Liu's Jacqueline collared jacket. 

Knittyspin's  simple, trendy earflap hat Southern Lights, by Christine McCormick, might be good for my husband who stands at a cold bus stop every morning.  

Speaking of spinning, so far I am making good on my goals for 2011 by spinning a little bit every week.

This 4 pound batch of natural beige Louet Coopworth roving will take me forever!  

Although beautiful, this fiber may not be completely spun and ready to knit until winter 2012...  I might have to intersperse some more lively rovings in between now and then to keep me motivated.   Goodness knows I have plenty in my stash.

Have a fun, safe weekend and as always, peace, blessings and happy knitting to you!

FO - Fall Shawl

My Fall Shawl is finished just in time to wear for our Thanksgiving festivities!  I love how a colorful scarf dresses up the simplest of outfits.

This project was inspired by a photo of colorful autumn leaves and berries I took out in the woods this month,

using this Noro Kureyon Sock yarn,

 

as well as a skein of Isager Spinni (Wool 1) in a deep charcoal heather for an edging to ground the multi-color striping effect a bit.

The colors are rich, autumnal and more subtle than usual for many Noro yarns.

I used every scrap of the Noro and only had about 5 yards of the Isager left over.

The rustic, slightly rough feeling of both of these yarns has great appeal for me, although a few spots in the Noro yarn were a bit too slubby for my taste so I cut those out.  

These are not yarns for someone in love with soft, soft, soft, rather they are alive with texture and color in a way a smooth yarn cannot be.  However, I still cannot imagine wearing socks knit with the Kureyon Sock - too rough even for me!

Last week we attended another spin-in at Temptations in Dublin.  It was a small group but it made for interesting conversations.

One gal in the group owns Himalayan cats and is in the process of spinning up their fur into yarn to knit mittens.  For the kittens. Seriously.

ACHOO!!!!!!!!!

 

I am still slogging away on some boring Louet Coopworth roving that came with my wheel.  I'm planning a 3-ply and since I have 2 pounds of the stuff, probably something like a chunky cable sweater.  That's going to be a ways down the road though.

 

As I reflected on the many blessings I have to be thankful for - love, freedom, knitting! - it occurred to me that there are also some things that can go unappreciated.

These things can sometimes even be annoying or difficult to deal with, but viewed through a different lens, they can sometimes also represent good things.  I bring you my new Thanksgiving list of things I am grateful for:

1. A tangled mess of yarn - because this means I have the physical ability to knit and the yarn to do it with.

2. A mountain of laundry to wash - because this represents the fact that I have not only enough clothing to wear, but enough multiples of things like socks and shirts that I'm able to let them stay dirty (a few days at least) until I find time to wash them.

3. My husband's dirty underthings - (ugh!!) but really, it means I have someone this close enough to me in my life and still love him, and him me.

4. A dirty bathtub and toilet - because this means I have a home with clean, hot, running water with which to bathe and with which I am able to clean these things - something so many people in this world do not have. 

5. A sink full of dirty dishes - because they are evidence that I have had not just enough to eat to keep me alive, but abundant choices as well.

Wishing you a peaceful week of great cooking and knitting, safe journeys and lots of Thanksgiving goodies!

Gathering Wool

This week has been a very fiber-y one for me. I recently finished knitting some projects that are being written into patterns for release soon, took a few days to finish spinning and plying some yarn projects, and attended a fiber festival.  

I've only been spinning for a couple of years now, and don't spend nearly enough time at it as I'd like, but I can see progress.  

The 4 oz. skein of yarn shown above was spun with an attempt at a woolen-style, slightly thick-thin 2-ply, which is mostly what I ended up with. A few areas are somewhat overspun, and a few are underspun, but overall it's fairly balanced. It knits up at about 17 stitches per four inches in stockinette.

The wool was from a ball of .79 cents-per-ounce generic breed roving I purchased in natural white, and dyed with Wilton's cake icing dyes.  

I found this handy icing guide on the Wilton website, but I have to warn you - the color of the icing dye before setting it with heat is frequently different from how the yarn color turns out!  

This batch was dyed using pale sky blues, green and purple.  Using this way to dye your yarn requires a relaxed attitude and enjoyment of serendipity! 

Ravelry groups are helpful in finding information on this technique which is essentially acid dyeing using vinegar as the mordant, in the same manner as dyeing with a drink mix such as Kool Aid.  Check out this group, and this group for ideas and helpful links.  Knitty.com also has a helpful page on using drink mixes to dye yarn here.

Last weekend was the Wool Gathering fiber festival in Yellow Springs, Ohio.  

Held every year at Young's Jersey Dairy, this annual event has grown and improved over the years to become an exceptionally nice, excellent quality small show with a true heartland 'country' feel.  I think this giant cow sign is so retro-Americana cool.

For city-dwelling fiber lovers like me, it makes for a fun drive through scenic farmland to an attractive dairy ranch compound boasting several restaurants on-site, a sports pavilion, picnic areas, tractor rides and games for children, animals of all sorts, spinning, knitting,  and weaving demonstrations, and duck-herding border collies. 

And Young's serves wonderful ice cream, gelato, and cheese made fresh in their dairies.

This year's event was even larger than last  year's with another large tent full of vendors added and many more individual vendors in the areas between the tents. 

My only complaint about the show is that the tents are striped yellow and white, which makes it difficult to discern colors in fiber. Shoppers end up taking skeins of yarn over to tent openings to try to evaluate the color. Vendors in their own small tents outside were much better off in terms of ability to show off their merchandise.  

Of course the gorgeous fiber and yarn was everywhere, like this from Knitting Notions.

But there were also spinning wheels, looms, ceramics, glass, mosaics, framed art, jewelry, shawl pins, body products and other fun things to peruse. 

This vendor made the most exquisite jewelry in petit point wool worked in bargello and quilt designs set in tiny sterling silver frames.  

 

We enjoyed the peaceful drive, the gorgeous September weather (sunny and dry in the high 70's). Of course we enjoyed the animals too - sheep, goats, alpacas, and bunnies galore. 

I am in love with this darling little Angora baby bunny.  I wonder how my dog would feel about a new friend to play with....

This will be a crazy week for me as I prepare to head to New Mexico and to attend some really cool festivals and more.  I will definitely take many photos and notes to post so you can 'go-along' with me on the trip, but between now and then I have a ton of stuff to get ready.  I'll try to post at least one more time before I am off.  

Adventures in Yarndom

Last weekend my husband and I took off through the Ohio countryside for a bucolic day of driving and yarn shop hopping around the Dayton area.  I was on a mission to find some specific things for project ideas I am working on. 

En route we stopped to enjoy a typically pastoral scene.

 

Although Dayton is one of Ohio's smaller cities, the surrounding communities do offer a few shops, and our first stop was at Arlene Graham's Fiberworks, specializing in spinning fiber and supplies.  I chose a small amount of a lustrous silk/ alpaca blend to experiment spinning with.   

After meeting up with my cousin for lunch at a favorite BBQ place (City Barbecue), we headed south to the town of Springboro for a visit to the Wooly Bully Yarn Company.  

 The shop's proprietor greeted us with a friendly smile and an open door.  

Although tiny compared to the shops in my area, it still held a nice assortment of yarn, and I found a bargain - fingering weight wool from Jojoland in a mouth-watering red the color of ripe cherries - 3 balls for less than $10.  I have a terrible time trying to photograph reds, but this yarn is a much deeper, blue-er color than this photo shows.  More on the wine side of red.

Our final destination before heading for home was the Yarn & Needle shop in quaint Centerville, an old village full of beautifully restored homes and shops.  I'd love to go back sometime to see more of the town.   

  

Yarn & Needle was the smallest store we visited, but had a beautiful selection of yarn, arranged by color, lots of knitted samples and vintage knitting memorabilia on display. 

I found some exceptionally soft fingering-weight beige Suri alpaca, by Frog Tree (shown in the first photo of this post), to swatch for a pattern I'm working on.  I considered a silk/ mohair yarn (one of my most favorite fiber blends!) but wanted to try something new, and I was drawn to the physical and visual texture of this yarn.  

All in all, a fun day in which I heroically stuck with my project-related shopping list and still managed to find some lovely things to work with my ideas. 

And knitting update:  I'm nearly finished with my Misti alpaca shawlette (on temporary hold), also nearly finished with my lace project in the pink fingering weight cotton (which I'll show more of soon), and have made some progress on my textured cardi-shrug pattern.

I'm also working on a new little handspun project which I will write more about in another post.  I really love to knit lace, but I'm balancing that out with other styles too.

This coming weekend I'll be teaching a Brandywine Falls wrap class at A Tangled Tale in Powell, so please join us if you are local!