Goodbye Dear Friend

I had to say goodbye to a dear old friend a few days ago. Kona was not "my" dog, but for the past seven years or so she has been my friend, walking buddy, and daily companion. Her absence is deeply felt.

This first photo is one of my favorites. She was such a gentle sweetheart, and she loved her stuffies. In this photo she managed to pick up a "bouquet" of them, five in all, to greet her dad when he came to pick her up after work.

The photo above is not a great one, but for me, it remains a great memory. At seven years of age, she was still a puppy at heart, and she had great fun that snowy day in December of 2016, racing back and forth along the heavily snowed in path of Townsend Park.

Such a beautiful girl, here laying her heavy head across my knee in hopes that I will stop weaving for a moment to give her some one on one attention.

Kona was a wonderfully well behaved girl who could be trusted to lay quietly at my side, not disturbing a thing in my weaving room full of enticing yarny temptations.

Kona and I walked together at least five days a week, through the deep heat of summer, 

and in the bitter winds of winter. 

 You'll be dearly missed my old friend!

Imaginarium Monster

 A while back my daughter destashed my way, a crochet amigurumi monster book, "Edward's Crochet Imaginarium" by Kerry Lord. It sat in my fibre arts library unused for a long time because I find crocheting tightly rather hard on my hands -- or at least I did at the time. Since receiving a wonderful set of ergonomic crochet hooks as a gift that has changed. 

I've tackled creating my first monster. He (she?) is made completely from handspun yarn. The division for those bulbous toes and fingers, as the pattern was written, was darn near impossible, but once I worked out my own "toe-up" version it was much easier and a lot of fun.

The pattern book is a modular type of thing with mix and match parts you can put together in any combination. Combined with yarn choices and colour placement the variety you can achieve is endless -- and FUN!

The knobby tail, scruffy hair, and belly button were my own innovations. The project was fun and interesting enough that as soon as the last stitch was done on the first, I started on the second. 

The eye on a stalk is the start of a monster being made to meet a guild challenge that is due in September. Stay tuned!

DRK Everyday Socks

Socks. A minor finished project. 

Simple mindless knitting to occupy my hands while I watch episodes of "Fruity Knitting", a favorite knitting podcast that I highly recommend to anyone interested in knitting, wool production, sheep, or hiking. It is very well done with loads of interesting content. There are even small nods to crochet, weaving, and spinning.

"I'll Knit If I Want To", is another knitting podcast I regularly watch. The sock pattern I used for these socks, the "DRK Everyday Socks" is one designed by that podcaster, Andrea Mowry of "Drea Renee Knits".

The socks fit very well, but I find having ribbing on the soles a bit to textured for my sensitive feet. I think next time I'll knit them with stockinette soles instead, but keep the ribbed tops.

A New Band

Late last December I dressed three of my looms to "start the New Year off right" without naked looms. Then the looms sat, mostly untouched. Well, I finally have the smallest of the projects finished. It's just an Inkle band, but it is one I do have a purpose for.

Years ago I bought myself a medical alert bracelet that you can buy interchangeable bracelets for. They are expensive, so right from the start I was determined to make my own. Initially I tried making beaded bracelets, but they had a tendency to break and, with that, came the risk of losing them. 

I then tried making decorative Inkle band bracelets for it, and that was far more successful. I have quite a collection of them now, and often make them so that they coordinate with items in my wardrobe.

This is the newest bracelet and it's made from that recently finished Inkle band. I often get questions from Inkle weaving enthusiasts wanting new and creative uses for their beautiful bands, so I'll answer them here.

The findings I finish the bands with are available through Etsy, and if you are lucky, sometimes you can find them at local beading supply stores. The ends that finish the band are called "ribbon ends" and I connect those to the lobster claw clasps with split rings.

The tools I use are flat round pliers that I use to get a good grip on the split ring when I am turning it to feed it onto the ribbon ends and lobster claws, flat round nylon jaw jewelry pliers which I use to close the ribbon ends without damaging them, and split ring pliers used for opening the split rings. Those last pliers are less expensive if you pick them up from a fishing supply store. 

To prevent the cut Inkle band from fraying and possibly pulling out of the end findings, I use a good glue that works for joining porous and non-porous materials before I pinch those end findings closed.

My personal preference is to aim for a fit that is close enough that it doesn't move around on my arm, but long enough that it is still easy enough to do up.

In case you're curious, I wear a medic alert bracelet any time I leave the house because I have a couple of severe allergies, one of which would be unexpected by the medical community and could be life threatening if I was unconscious and could not warn them.

Stephen King Meets Dora the Explorer

I like to read in the bathtub for awhile most nights. I started a new Stephen King book tonight. Since it was loaned to me I would like to keep it in good shape. I took the original jacket off the book and tucked it away for safe keeping and then I covered the book with a nice thick shiny paper jacket, just like we did with text books back in the 60s and 70s. Rather than use brown paper bags, which aren't as readily available nowadays, I opened up a discarded gift bag.

Stephen, meet Dora. She'll be keeping your book safe while it's in my possession. 

If you are curious about the book covering technique, here's a link to a quick tutorial. 

Plan B Cardigan

My "Plan B" cardigan is now finished and tucked away for safe keeping until next September. I refuse to wear it until then because I'd like to enter it in the 2023 Chilliwack Exhibition and the amount of dog hair Teddy would add in the meantime would not be considered an enhancing decorative element.

I would have liked a little more room in the sleeves, they are a bit narrow for wearing over other sleeved shirts. Otherwise the cardigan fits well.

I changed a couple of things about the pattern. First I omitted the notch and instead added short rows in the neckline portion of the button band to bring it closer to the neck. 

Second, I changed the size and placement of the buttonholes. The pattern called for four 4 stitch buttonholes unevenly spaced. I chose to do five 2 stitch buttonholes evenly spaced. My two stitch buttonholes were all that were needed for these large 1 inch buttons.

Other than that the cardigan was knitted as written by Hinterm Stein. Her attention to detail is exquisite.

Debuting 18 Years Later

Have you ever made something, loved the making of it, loved the finished item, but then never ever wore it?

That has been the fate of my gorgeous beaded Peacock Feathers Shawl, knit way back in 2005. I don't think I've worn it a single time! Well that is about to change. I'll wear it casually, as above, to FibresWest next Saturday. 

Here's how I displayed it for the finished object pictures in September of 2005. It shows off the lace pattern nicely, but I never wear a shawl that way. 

According to my Ravelry project page notes, the finished shawl weighs only 3 3/4 ounces with the beads. Without the beads it would have weighed less than 3 ounces. 

Happy Saint Patrick's Day!

Are you wearing green today for Saint Patrick's Day? Although I'm not Irish I still make a bit of an effort to wear green on March 17. I think it's a leftover from my school days when not wearing green, Irish or not, was likely to get you pinched. this year I also made a little green doll's dress.

The model is Ruby Red Fashion Friend's Sara. She is wearing a dress I sewed using a Adams-Harris pattern, "Kate". The dress is supposed to be worn with a little pinafore, but I'm still waiting for a lace insertion for that. The leggings and faux long sleeves were sewn long ago when I had ball jointed dolls.

Happy Saint Patrick's Day!

 

Targhee, a New Favorite

I initially had a bit of a fight with my new Nano2 electric spinner, but after sorting out a problem with the developing single not wanting to wind on, all went well and I had three little bobbins of lovely Targhee breed wool singles as a reward for my perseverance.

I then plied the 3 together to get this luscious 3ply 100g hank of squishy, bouncy goodness.

 

I think Targhee may be my new favorite to spin. It is soft to the touch and easy to spin. What more could a spinner want? Well --- MORE Targhee, that's what I want! Several sweaters worth would be nice.

Targhee is an American breed of sheep developed by crossing Lincolns and Rambouillets. I hope it soon becomes a more popular, and therefor more readily available wool, in Canada.

Setback

I finished and bound off the left front of my "Plan B" cardigan and admired it, with it's lovely contrasting patch pocket, then I went on to pick up stitches for the back portion. 

I had all 104 stitches for the back picked up when I realized that they seemed to be off centre, so I counted the remaining stitches. Something was off!

It only took me a moment to realize that I had not made adjustments for the additional 12 stitches added for the shaping of the A-line version of the cardigan. The pattern does mention in a small side note that the shaping will throw off the stitch count from that point forward. I forgot, and it is not mentioned again in the instructions. In this left front portion my error is a difference of only 3 stitches, but I'll have to frog it anyway. *sigh*

At least I hadn't knit the entire lower back section as well, before noticing my error. Besides, it's all knitting anyway, and I like knitting, right?

Bouncing Around Between Hobbies

Yesterday I managed to work on two different knitting projects. I also got a good start on an involved bag sewing pattern, and I spent some time weaving at one of the looms. It was a good day. I'm bouncing around from one hobby to another, not because of a lack of attention, but to reduce muscle strain from spending too long doing any one particular thing. 

It was nice to get a bit of weaving done. It's been awhile!

Happy Valentine's Day

 A top secret project can be revealed now that the gifts have been delivered.

These two versions of "Louie the Lovebot" were knit up last month and have been waiting around to become Valentine's Day gifts for my teenage granddaughters. They seemed to have been well received.

The pattern by Rebecca Danger was at one time a freebee on the Knitpicks website.

From ACK to Mmm

In an attempt to pare down the stash, which is nothing but partial balls of this and that, I did some sorting and discovered that over the years I have acquired a bunch of acrylic yarn. Some of it was given to me, some was leftovers from making toys or afghans. Anyway, I decided it was time to either use it or give it away.

I decided to knit myself a cozy cardigan for wearing around the house using some of the partial balls of acrylic -- not so fondly nicknamed by some, "ACKrylic". This is the "Penguono" pattern by Stephen West. 

It actually fits quite well and, with it's raised neckline, is super comfy. I chose the pattern size based on the measurements of a favorite sweatshirt.

Unfortunately I still have a significant amount of ACKrylic left to either use up or give away. Although I'm not a complete yarn snob, acrylic certainly isn't my favorite yarn to knit with. I may knit a few toys or charity items with it, but lately I'd rather spend my time with nicer, natural yarns. Which brings me to my next cast on ---- the Mmmmm of this post.

I have begun knitting "Plan B", a cardigan pattern by Hinterm Stein. The name of this pattern is very fitting since I'll be ripping out this almost completed handknit, handspun pullover I had begun way back in April of last year ---

---and I will be reusing the yarn for Plan B instead. The first version was looking good, but was more form fitting than I was comfortable with, and I finally had to admit I'd much prefer a cardigan that I can put on and take off easily as the temperature changes.

The cannibalized yarn is my own handspun, fingering weight, 3ply from a Merino/Silk/Kid Mohair blend and it really deserved to be used in something I will love. This time I'll be holding a strand of Sandnes Garn Silk Mohair along with it to plump the gauge up to the DK required for the Plan B pattern and to add a lovely soft halo to the cardigan. 

Swatching with the two has gone very well. I tried 3 different needles sizes and then wet blocked the swatch. It's a good thing I did that final step! It bloomed quite a bit and the gauge changed rather significantly. Pre-wash I got perfect gauge on a 4mm needle. Post-wash I got perfect gauge from the section knit with a 3.75mm needle.

Twists and Turns

Long after the finish I am finally writing about my "Twists and Turns" shawl by Stephen West. It was a mystery knit-a-long, and there was considerable pressure during the knitting to not give out any "spoilers" to those still knitting.

The knitting of this shawl took all of October -- and I do mean ALL. Clues came out once a week for 4 weeks. I knit for at least a couple of hours every single day for an entire month, but managed to keep up.

I LOVE it!

Well --- at least from an artistic point of view I love it. I love the colours and the very eye catching contrasts of it. I love that it is knit entirely in yarn that I spun myself. I loved knitting it, and the challenge of making a few changes to the pattern. I even love how it looks when worn.

What I don't love about it has nothing to do with the pattern itself or my knitting of it.

 

What don't I love?

Well, it turns out that as much as I do love the challenge of knitting shawls, and even the finished shawls, I just am not much of a shawl wearer.

I like my clothing to be fuss free, and I find a shawl to be the exact opposite. 

It seems that no matter how I drape a shawl I am constantly fussing and fiddling with it. If I get it "just right" it doesn't stay there long. 

It's exasperating! Fuss, fuss, fuss ---

fiddle, fiddle, fuss 'n' struggle.

I think I'll admire shawls from a distance now and stick to something more wearable. A cowl that looks like a shawl perhaps? Far more wearable!