All posts in Uncategorized

On Friday while I was at work at Wolseley Wool, two books I had ordered were delivered, and I could not wait to get home to look at them. I ordered Spin Art: Mastering the Craft of Spinning Textured Yarn by Jacey Boggs and Hand Spun: New Spins on Traditional Techniques by Lexie Boeger. They did not let me down. The books are similar, but compliment each other really well.

Spin Art is a step by step guide to making texturally intriguing yarns. It takes you from a simple ply to tail and corespinning, and the one I am most intrigued by, the Bubblewrap, which is a corespun plied with a thin yarn or thread. It looks pretty awesome. The book is like a textbook for spinning fun yarns.  It’s even suggested you work through the yarns from beginning to end, which reminds me of math class. You know, where you need to do the easy stuff so you do the cool stuff really well (shush, there is totally cool stuff in math). I had eyed this book when it first came out, but someone bought it before I really got a chance to look at it. I haven’t had a chance to check out the DVD that comes with it (isn’t that awesome?) because my MacBook Air does not have a disc drive at all, but I will. Especially once I start working on some of the techniques. I am a really visual person so I think it’s great that it includes one. The pictures in the book are gorgeous and just make me want to spin all the yarn right now. I have a small bunch of mohair locks I am going to try some tail spinning with ASAP. With this book I can spin anything!

Hand Spun is similar in that there is instruction on how to make different textured yarns, but it’s more of an artistic approach. While the Spin Art is a great book for someone who wants to know exactly how to make certain kinds of yarn, Hand Spun is more about taking that knowledge and applying it artistically. So they compliment each other really well as I said. I especially liked the bit on crocheted yarns, I never would have thought of that and I am all about the crochet right now. This book also has projects in it. I really like the Monkey Wrap, I spin lots of bulky textured yarns and now I know what to do with the next one. And thanks to the Finger Crochet tutorial, I can finally teach B to make the scarf he has been wanting to make. I have (and love) Intertwined, and this book is a great set of ideas building on that book. And the pictures are just gorgeous in this book too. This book really speaks to the part of me that wants to bring more art back into my fiber arts.

After spending the weekend with these two books I feel so inspired. And then I spent last night making a simple 2 ply yarn. Ha. I’ve also been knitting a plain (!) stockinette (!!) scarf (!!!) with Rowan Kidsilk Haze Stripe. OMG. It is so gorgeous I don’t even notice I am knitting my nemesis, the boring scarf. I am using the circus color way and it is just amazing. I saw the Lorax last week with B, and I keep likening it to knitting Thneeds with the tufts of Truffula Trees (which everyone needs!) because it is so bright and might just be softer than silk. Ha. Thanks to Mona I finally got the hang of knitting continental. I always purled wrong. With such a fine yarn and bigger needles it is a lot easier than throwing.

I knitted this thing a few weeks ago out of some super pretty yarn. And I loved it more than any thing I have ever knitted. And I went on to knit two more (and another on the way). It shows off variegated, long colour change or handspun yarn (the best kinds of yarn!) really well and is really addictive to knit. I mean it. I really dislike knitting things more than once, and I am on the fourth already. Really. The above picture is a close up of the second one I made, in Knit Collage Gypsy Garden. Which might just be my most favoritest yarn ever. It’s bulky and colourful and has flowers and shiny bits and even some neony in it. I had a bit leftover, so I made myself a bedside bowl. I need more of this yarn in my life.

I’ve been working away on an ebook full of gorgeous colourwork patterns that I am really excited about. So excited I had to post something! It’s going to have lots of colour and detail of course. The release date is not until July (I still have more to knit!), but here are some pics of the reverse sides of a couple of projects in it. I’ve always liked how the inside of colourwork looks. I’ll post more bits here and there over the next few months because it’s hard to keep hush!

Here’s another shawl I finished. I actually finished this in December but just blocked it last week. I don’t know why it took so long, I actually like blocking shawls with pins and junk. I really like knitting shawlettes, which means I really really need to wrap my head around wearing them. Or knit laceweight loose squares so I can wear them like my favorite scarves. Um no. I just need to get a shawl pin.

When I saw the pattern for Debaser I had to knit it! Especially since Diamond Luxury Collection Mulberry & Merino is such a gorgeous yarn, and I am always wondering what to knit with it. You might also notice that the shawl I knit is not made out of that yarn. Being me I had a certain colour in mind (Taupe, which is really more of a shimmery champagne kind of colour) which was on order. But that same day we got in a shipment of one of my favorite yarns, Malabrigo Silky Merino. So it all worked out. I used one and a half skeins of it in Piedras and did the extra repeats of the shawl body to make it bigger since my yarn and needles were a bit smaller. There is this mottled blue in there I just love. Meghan has some really beautiful shawls. Two on my knit one day list are Point and Repeater (Fugazi and lace knitting together at last!).

I finished this shawl a while ago, but just blocked it on Friday. The yarn is gorgeous, I don’t have a good enough space in my house to properly capture the grey-green-blue colour of it. I bought this yarn while in Minneapolis at Steven Be. You know how hard it was picking one skein of sparkly glittery yarn in that store?!?! If you don’t, you should go there, it’s pretty amazing. The good thing is I am going back at the end of April for Yarnover so maybe more sparkly glittery yarn is in my future. Oh yeah. Info. The yarn is Artyarns Mohair Splash, a silk-mohair yarn with an amazing halo and spatterings of beads and sequins throughout. I like that the sparkliness was on the yarn already, it made things easy! Seriously, I love this yarn.The pattern is the Graceful Curve Shawl which had a nice pace and patterning to it. And it was written to take around 1 skein of this yarn which was what I was on the hunt for when going to knit it. I need to find a nice pin to wear with it. I don’t actually wear a lot of shawls, but I do wear a lot of scarves. I really need to change that so I don’t give all my shawls away. Here’s another picture of the whole thing (with Miss Gnocchi, who can’t resist knitwear – the other day she was sleeping on a sweater I was working on with one paw outstretched so she could also keep a handle on a cowl of mine):

I’ve been knitting some shop samples this weekend. One with beads. I really like adding beads to knitting, mostly because I like to make things sparkle as much as possible. The beads are a touch small for my yarn, but there are not too many of them (34 more to go!) so I am going to let it go. I feel so delicate working with a tiny crochet hook to pick up all those beads. I’ve still been knitting mostly for publication, which means I can’t share much yet. But soon! I am also in the middle of working on projects for an upcoming ebook. It’s full of juicy colourwork so I am really excited. And I am almost finished my quilt! I just need to sew on the back and add some buttons. So excited. I do not think I am finicky enough for quilting. Mostly I hate ironing.