Spin, Spun, Done!

I finished my latest spinning project last night. Paris' fiber is fabulous and it was an absolute joy to spin. The colors actually blended to create the yarn I had dreamed they would. My ideas don't always work out that way, so I am really quite pleased with myself.



I am absolutely smitten with this yarn. I love everything about it and I plan to knit myself a sweater with it right away.

Back in July, I dyed wool from Paris sapphire blue, teal, and violet. To create this blend, I added scarlet and a bit of his undyed natural off white fiber to the mix.

I used my little drum carder down in the basement to blend it all together. I feel a bit like Rumpelstiltskin down there -off in a dark corner, cranking away, and creating something wonderful.

I'm hoping for sunshine today so I can hang my newly spun and washed skeins in the sun to dry. I can't wait to start knitting, and I can only hoping my knitting project goes as well as the spinning did. Wish me luck.

Knitting Project: A Little Bag

This is one of several little bags I've recently made from a pattern by Sara Swett in the all new Homespun Handknit, 25 Small Projects to Knit with Handspun Yarn, a book that I reviewed for the Black Sheep Newsletter a while back. Sara's pattern was designed for knitting cotton; I adapted it to use my farm-raised Corriedale handspun. My intent was to use up my odds and ends left over from various projects. I was hoping for serendipitous success with the design, as happened with this first bag...



...but not so much with this one. It looks like Easter with too much kitsch.



I'm currently using my very last skein of natural colored gray Corriedale blended with dyed mohair to knit yet another little bag. I think it looks like our Pacific Northwest skies this time of year. It is a really lovely yarn (if I do say so myself) and I wanted to use it to knit myself a little bag to hang on my spinning wheel to hold my 'stuff.' This little bag is simplicity itself. You knit a garter stitch square, pickup along its edges and knit in the round to form the body, make drawstring holes at the top, then knit 2 i-cords to thread through the holes. You can add any color design you want. The following is not so much a pattern for making these little bags but rather a basic guideline I use. You can do the math before picking up the stitches around the edges of the square if you want evenness and perfect divisibility when making the holes for the drawstring. I used a US size 8 circular needle.

Bottom:
CO 3 st
K1, M1, K end; repeat until it measures the size you want (4-7 inches)
K1 row (this is the diagonal across the bottom); change colors if needed or desired.
K1, K2tog, K end; repeat until 3 st. remain; leave stitches on needle.

Body:
PU stitches all around 4 edges of bottom square using 3 or 4 dpn or circular needles (this is 60 st, 54 st or 66 would be better). Join stitches. Purl one round. Change yarn if desired or as needed. K in round to make body. Purl each round of 1st yarn before switching to a new yarn, then K when 1-2 inches less than desired height (4-5 inches total). I often have to adjust stitch numbers (K2tog as needed) to make divisible by 6 st to make drawstring holes.

Drawstring:
K3, BO 3, repeat to create holes. Next round, K3 above K3, CO 3 above BO st. P one round, K one round until desired height (1-2 more inches).

I-cord:
Make two I-cords of two contrast colors. CO 3 st and K each same length (15-21 inches, or at last as long as the bags circumference), or make one length to double and thread through of one color. Thread both I-cords through drawstring holes. Sew each to its own end to make two continuous loops. Pull alternate loops from two opposite sides (more or less depending on how even your hole numbers come out) to close. Turn the bag inside out and felt it by washing in hot wash/cold rinse in machine with a pair of very faded denim jeans.



I was feeling really inspired with my knitting this morning, making the I-cord for my latest bag while drinking my second cup of coffee. Last night I attended my first Snohomish Knitter's Guild meeting and joined as a new member -I think its going to be so much fun! I was knitting this little bag at the meeting and couldn't help but feel like I was making a stone-ground whole-grain bread amidst other's who were making croissants, souffles, and eclairs. Not that there is anything wrong with whole grain bread mind you, or that anyone was anything other than friendly, encouraging and welcoming to me, its just that the array of fibers, artistry and craft skills of the knitters present there was so amazing, I couldn't help noticing the contrast. Personally, I like knitting projects that require as little math and mental focus as possible. I also prefer knitting with handspun rustic yarns and find immense satisfaction in using yarn that is only a few steps of processing away from the animals in the barn.



In yarn and knitting (as well as in everything else), both beauty and art are in the eyes of the beholder; both are also often found in the most unexpected places. While cooking yesterday, I was struck by how really lovely these colors looked and just had to take a picture. Don't laugh -it's our compost bucket! Kitchen waste discarded and layered while I was cooking: leeks and tomatillo husks, then blue (lavender) potato and carrot peelings.

I'm inspired to create a bag with the colors in the compost bucket, or at least the yarns in my stash that are pretty close. I'm envisioning a felted handbag of greens and lavender with carrot-colored embroidery. We'll see where the inspiration actually leads me.

Knitting Project: A Felted Backpack

All knitters know that if you are going on a trip, you need to take a knitting project, something small and not too complicated, enough yarn so you don't run out, and the correct needles. For our trip last week, I decided to knit a backpack-type bag to felt, inspired by a conversation with my oldest daughter -the one who keeps leaving her wallet in her sister's or my handbags when we go out together -who she said she likes backpacks better than handbags.



I am not much of a knitter, so I adapted a pattern that was designed as a child's knitting project. I was hoping that would reduce the number of problems I encountered, but since my math and spatial skills are less than limited, I still made a key mistake (there is a reason the drawstring holes were an uneven number). I had to change the design a bit for it to work out but I am actually pleased with the end result.



Make sure and use a fiber that felts easily. For this project I used handspun Corriedale yarn made from Kia's wool which felts beautifully.



I just finished it last night and here are the directions for anyone wanting a REALLY easy project.

A Felted Backpack
Adapted from Kids knitting by Melanie Falick
300 yards Main Color (MC) -8 wpi Kia dyed Teal
100 yards Contrast Color (CC) -8 wpi Natural Colored Kia with dyed Red and Purple
24 inch US 10 1/2 circular needles

CO 48 st MC and K in garter stitch until it measured 5 inches. This is the bottom of the backpack.

PU end, other side and other end, 105 st and then K in the round to make the body of the backpack. Continue knitting in round until it measures 9-10 inches.

To make drawstring holes, BO 5 st, K 5 st for one round. Knit next round, CO 5 st above the BO 5 of previous row. K 2 rounds. BO 60 st leaving 45 st to make the flap.

Change to CC yarn for flap (I knit both yarns for one row). Continue knitting in garter stitch until flap measures 4 1/2 inches (6 inches if you want a longer flap and have enough yarn). To make buttonhole, K 20 st, BO 5 st, K 20 st. Continue knitting in garter stitch for 1-2 inches more. BO all stitches.

CO 5 st using the CC yarn and knit I-cord until measured 50 -60 inches. I is for idiot but I always have to look up the directions on how to knit one. You pull the needle through and then knit, pulling the yarn from the opposite side to make a tube. Kids Knitting has good pictures and directions.

Thread I-cord through drawstring holes. Crossover or overlap in back so the ends come out and can be drawn down to attach to bottom corners of backpack. Sew cord to bottom corners very securely.

To felt, wash hot and rinse cold in washing machine with detergent and a faded pair of denim jeans (to aid in felting). Dry flat. Sew on button.

Snohomish Farmer's Market Yarn Lady

This is my booth at the farmer's market set up and ready to sell yarn just before the market opened. The weather report said 'sunny and warm.' -Yeah, right, but at least it didn't rain. I love taking one day a week away from 'what I need to get done' here at home and having several hours to only spin and chat. Old friends stopped by to talk about their knitting projects, sheep and chicken raising, some new people about spinning and shearing alpacas and llamas and some new customers promised to bring by their completed projects. I really, really like seeing what other's make with my yarn. Like every week, I told several new spinners about Valley Spinner's Guild and what a wonderful group of people are there. Besides spinning and chatting, the next best thing at the market is the food. Well, actually it's probably the first. Cherries, strawberries and sugar snap peas are in and looked delicious when I walked through the market. What to eat? Darlene's big sugar cookies with pink frosting and the kettle korn are both a couple of my favorite choices for noshing and Whidbey Island Ice Cream Company's blackberry lavender ice cream bars sounded heavenly. What I actually ate was the same thing I have had the last couple of markets -a good old-fashioned cheeseburger made with organic, grass fed, locally raised black angus beef from Judy Pedersen's Pioneer Farms. Last week I talked with a mom of a ten year old boy who had his first tast of beef EVER eating one of these burgers -This is beef you can honestly feel good about eating.




My booth was across from the flower vendors and these ladies were so happy with their flowers they asked me to take their picture. They were so lovely I asked if I could take one too with my camera. I am looking forward to when Gypsy Rows Farm comes to the market (soon?) and fills this spot -We miss you Darren and Halle.





This is a quilt I made for my youngest daughter when she was little and loved all things pink. She passed her driver's test yesterday and I can't help thinking of when she was a wee tot. She is my third and last child to be let loose on the roads and all its perils. I should be seasoned enough by now, and therefore immune, to the fears and anxieties this step brings to my gut as a parent -but I am not. She has promised to keep her cell-phone in her bag when driving and I know from experience it will take me awhile to relax.