A Crafty Lawyer

How did 65 painstakingly decorated cookies become 51?

2010-08-02T23:01:00.005-04:00

Need I say more?

Now it's back to the kitchen to bake replacements before the party. Sigh.

Annual Weekend in New York

2010-06-21T17:32:00.015-04:00

Crafty Daughter and I just got back from our annual girls-only trip to New York. Sure, we did some typical touristy things, like visiting the Metropolitan Museum and the American Museum of Natural History. But mostly, to us, New York represents a giant craft supplies/handmade crafts shop.

First stop was Kinokuniya, a fantastic Japanese bookstore next to Bryant Park. Crafty Daughter and I both bought books there -- hers a patchwork book, and mine two crochet books. The crochet patterns are charted out, so there's no need to understand Japanese in order to follow them.

The book on top contains instructions for some really unusual crochet jewelry, that I can't wait to try out.

I also picked up some miscellaneous items from the stationery department.

After Kinikuniya, we headed to another bookshop -- Books of Wonder -- one of my daughter's favorite places in New York. And then the focus shifted to yarn.

We made it to three yarn shops on Friday, including two I'd never been to before. First stop was the Lion Brand Studio, which carries all of the Lion Brand yarns, with computers for printing out patterns and a sampling wall from which you can cut yarn for swatching to try it out. Their new LB collection includes this wool-covered stainless steel yarn (really thread), which is similar to a Habu product, except that LB's has a bit of sparkle to it.

Next, we headed to the relocated and much larger Purl shop in SoHo. Their new space is such a treat -- still a little tight because it's rather narrow, but much more spacious than the old locations (which had separate shops for yarn and for fabrics). I was somehow able to resist the lure of yarn, but my daughter picked up this pretty fabric bundle.

Final yarn shop for the day was Knitty City, on the Upper West Side. This was was a bit chaotic and crowded, but they did have some gorgeous Madelinetosh yarns, which was why I was there in the first place. I bought a couple of skeins recently at Webs, and was immediately hooked on their lovely colors. These three new skeins are destined to become small shawls. (Sadly, this photo isn't capturing the richness of the colors.)

Phew ... that was just Friday! On Saturday, our main activity was a visit to the Brooklyn Flea Market.

This is a wonderful collection of typical flea market booths, handcrafts (mostly jewelry and screen-printed t-shirts), and fantastic foods. It was hard to choose, but for lunch, I had a fresh, warm lobster roll and a waffle cookie with meringue and caramel filling. I got this wonderful ceramic tumbler from alyssaettinger design to hold my double pointed needles. Don't you just love it? She uses old sweaters to make her ceramic molds.

Last year, I was a little surprised to see a booth selling nothing but pickles, but I thought well, in New York, there's room for every little niche product, right?

But this year, there were two pickle booths! Are New Yorkers inordinately fond of pickles?

On Sunday, we spent the day in museums -- first the Silk Road exhibit at AMNH, and then "American Woman: Fashioning a National Identity" at the Met. (Crafty Daughter is very interested in fashion design, and the Met has had a number of fashion exhibits in the past few years that we've enjoyed.) After that, our aching feet could barely hold us up any more, so we headed to Penn Station for the trip home. Now that I'm rested up, I'm ready for another trip!

A trio of triangular shawls

2010-06-12T17:43:00.011-04:00

Never one to be deterred by the fact that I already had several projects in progress, I recently came acrodd the Daybreak shawl pattern, and decided that if I could find some Malabrigo Sock yarn at the Maryland Sheep and Wool festival, I would make one. Then, of course, I made it a priority to track down some Malabrigo. I instantly fell in love with the Indiecita colorway, but struggled with what to use for the contrasting stripes. The yarn I picked initially just didn't work -- there wasn't enough contrast to make distinct stripes -- so I went off in search of an alternative. I found the perfect color, Violeta Africana, at Fibre Space. And here's my (first) Daybreak shawl.

My next project was a design that I'd seen worn by the designer at Md S&W, the Nancy & Judy shawl. For that one, I selected a deep blue yarn by Tess. This was not the smoothest project ever. First, the yarn rubbed off blue dye onto my hands the whole time I was working, although the vinegar rinse I gave it at the end seems to have solved the problem. Then, I struggled to execute the left twist stitch that has to be done hundreds (thousands?) of times in this pattern. But in the end, I got this gorgeous blue shawl.

While I was still working on Nancy & Judy, I listened one day to a Stash & Burn podcast (episode 84) devoted largely to a discussion of knitting shawls with sock yarn. That led me to look up Ishbel, which became my next project. I pulled out some Socks that Rock Lightweight in the Lovers Leap colorway that I had already decided should become a shawl or scarf rather than socks. As I was working, I kept thinking that the color was too vivid, but once I put it around my neck, I fell immediately in love with it.

So now I'm hooked on fingering weight shawls -- at Webs recently, I picked up four more skeins of sock yarn just for that purpose, 2 Malabrigo and 2 Madelinetosh. The Malabrigos include a dark blue that will stripe beautifully with the yarn I decided not to use in my first Daybreak, and a spectacular turquoise called Persia. The tosh sock was my first of that brand -- and they are perhaps the most gorgeous green and brown yarns ever. I haven't decided yet whether to stripe them together, or make two separate shawls. Either way, the finished product will undoubtedly be lovely.

I'm going to New York next weekend via train, so now I just need to decide which new shawl to work on en route.

Confessions of a Fiberholic -- Maryland Sheep & Wool, part 2

2010-05-03T12:41:00.013-04:00

So I decided to return for a second day -- and what a contrast from Saturday! On Sunday, the booths that had been too mobbed to even get into Saturday were open for leisurely browsing. Of course, that means that I bought more, but not so very much really.

The spectacular blue Tess Merino Petite is for a Nancy and Judy Shawl - after seeing the designing wearing hers on Saturday, I knew I had to make one. And the Tess yarns come in such nice big hanks that I'll be able to knit the entire shawl with no extra ends to weave in.

As for the Socks that Rock, well ... I know I didn't need any more sock yarn, but there was no line to get into the booth, and no wait to pay, and that color was so pretty, that I just lost my head.

Of course, it wasn't all about buying more. One of the main reasons I went back was to watch the Sheep to Shawl competition. Having seen this competition twice now, it still amazes me that it's even possible to go from unshorn sheep to finished shawl in only 3 hours, but these amazing teams pulled it off. I've got lots of photos, but here are just a few.

A nice fluffy Corriedale ready for shearing,

a half shorn sheep,

and the spinners from Mount Vernon.

And now ... only five and a half months until Rhinebeck!

It's Too Darn Hot!

2010-05-01T18:31:00.011-04:00

The Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival is this weekend, and it's just too darn hot! Forecast was for 88 degrees today, and it felt like it got there by 11 am. Scarcely an ounce of wool to be seen actually being worn in this weather. But the heat didn't seem to keep anyone away.

And it certainly didn't diminish the desire to buy wool! So much gorgeous fiber in one place, so hard to resist taking home far too much of it. But I'm in the midst of reorganizing my craft room, so I recently had to come face to face with the size of my stash...and there was just no way I could possibly bring home more than a token amount of fiber. I was actually quite restrained -- aside from a lazy kate, this is all I bought.

A glass shawl pin from Moving Mud, some malabrigo sock yarn for a Daybreak shawl, some BFL spinning fiber from Three Waters Farm, a little batt of cashmere/silk/baby camel from Faerie Mountain Fibers (who could have resisted?), and some gift cards that say “I made this. I expect to see you wearing it.”

I also came home with a new project for my queue -- the Nancy & Judy shawl, which I saw being modelled by the designer. Can't wait to start one, but I really ought to finish at least one of the three other projects I've already got going.

I finally got myself a pocket-sized digital camera, so this year I took photos at the festival for the first time. Naturally, cute, cuddly lambs had to be captured.

And some Blue-Faced Leicesters, since I'm so fond of their wool for spinning.

And what's up with this one ... is she getting a pedicure?!?

Two years ago, I bought my first Loop batt at Md S&W at the Cloverhill booth, and now Steph has a booth of her own. I wanted to bring home bagfuls of her fiber, but had to resist. Maybe next year, though ...

I'm on Jeopardy next week!

2010-02-27T10:39:00.002-05:00

I know I've been absent for months, and ought to be starting out with a post about knitting, or spinning, or sewing. And there will be one of those very soon. But in the meantime, just wanted to let whoever's out there know that I'm going to be appearing on Jeopardy next week! Wednesday, March 3. Will have a longer post with more details about the experience after air date, but in the meantime...tune in to see if Alex asks me about the crafty part of being ACraftyLawyer!

Oh, and if you want to watch, you can find your local air time and station on the Jeopardy web site.

Rhinebeck, and my post-Rhinebeck vacation

2009-10-31T21:17:00.021-04:00

I've been having so much fun going places and making things that I haven't had a chance to update the blog. It's time to catch up.

So…two weekends ago I got to go to the NY Sheep and Wool Festival. I have family in Massachusetts, just two hours away from the festival, so I got to have a great visit, and bring some of them to Rhinebeck with me. My focus this year was on spinning and dyeing.My plan was to buy some natural dyes, and some wool and yarn to use them on. But not yarn … I tried really hard to resist the gorgeous yarns, and amazingly enough, I pulled it off. (The bags bulging with wool top and roving did help me restrain myself. In fact, I only bought one thing that wasn’t on my shopping list, this beautiful cherry case to hold a sock-in-progress:

Since I didn’t know that such a thing existed before I saw it at Rhinebeck, I couldn’t very well have put it on my list, could I? One thing that was definitely on my list was the new Cat Bordhi sock book – I haven’t tried her latest method out yet, because I’m already in the middle of a pair of Cookie A socks, but I’ll definitely use Cat’s book for my next pair.

With help from the Ravelry discussion boards, I found a couple of vendors selling natural dye materials, and chose some kits of Earthues dyes from Long Ridge Farm. I got two kits – one containing osage orange, quebracho, and logwood, and the other an “overdyeing kit” containing indigo, cochineal, and pomegranate. Once the dyes were in my bag, I started focusing on fibers to use them on – eventually buying two skeins of fingering weight alpaca, 2 pounds of rambouilllet top, and about a pound and a half of wool roving of different breeds.

And these bags of “wool” – they’re actually maple cotton candy, and it was delicious! I did do a double-take when I first saw someone eating some of this, because it really did look like a bag of wool.
As much fun as I had at Rhinebeck, the real fun was when I got home … because I’d arranged to take the week off to play with all my new fiber goodies. For the next several days, I was free to knit, spin, and dye all day long. And I really lucked out – the weather was warm and sunny most of the time, so I was able to sit out on my back deck with my spinning wheel while I was tending the dye pots. First thing when I got back home, I went out to buy a hotplate so that I could work outdoors (by the end of the week, I’d picked up a second one so that I could have two dye pots going at once.)

Day one was devoted to mordanting the fibers I was planning to dye later in the week – heating them in an alum solution that helps hold the dye. It wasn’t until day two that I actually got to break open the dye kits. The first colors I tried were quebracho red

and logwood gray.
The quebracho made a really gorgeous warm red, definitely a color I want to repeat. As for the logwood, I ended up putting a bit more dye than I’d really intended, but it made a great dark purple. I’ve saved the dyebath to reuse, and am curious what the weaker solution that’s left will make. The next day, I used the osage orange and cochineal dyes.

I used the cochineal first on one of the skeins of alpaca from Rhinebeck, and then I reused the exhaust bath on some roving.

The yarn dyed with osage orange is half a skein of Cascade EcoWool, and undyed Peruvian wool that comes in fat 8 ounce skeins, perfect for dyeing yourself.

I think we’re up to Friday now – I dyed another skein with osage orange, so that I could overdye it with indigo later, and also dyed some roving with pomegranate.

Saturday it rained, so I spent the whole day on spinning. By the end of the week, I’d spun these three skeins (and boy did my back ache!):

Sunday was devoted to indigo dyeing, and I’ve got lots of photos, so stay tuned for my next post to see all the beautiful blues.

A productive three-day weekend

2009-08-30T16:59:00.012-04:00

It's been a busy and productive 3-day weekend (I took Friday off from work) -- jewelry, knitting, and spinning. Nothing finished in the knitting category, so no photos there. But here's what I've been spinning:

4 ounces of merino and bamboo top, spun into a 2-ply yarn. Handdyed by Miss Babs, purchased at Fiber Space. I haven't skeined it yet, so I don't know what the yardage is. I've got another entire 4-ounce braid of fiber left to spin. I hadn't done any spinning in quite a while, and my spinning muscles are really aching now! I'll have to give my back a rest for a few days before I tackle that other braid.

Now, the jewelry.

I started out with a beading project, using some of the brass findings that I got at BeadFest.

This is made with a brass bird charm, brass chain, aquamarine beads, and oxidized sterling silver wire.

After the necklace, I started playing with some polymer clay, inspired by a new book that I picked up at BeadFest. It's called Ancient Modern: Polymer Clay + Wire Jewelry, by Ronna Sarves Weltman. Ronna stopped by class last Sunday with some polymer clay pieces that she had made using Objects and Elements bezels, and they were so gorgeous that I couldn't resist buying her book.

Here's my first piece -- a polymer pendant with silver wire, strung (for now) on a silk cord.

I'm not sure about this one yet -- maybe a glaze coat to bring up the color would make me like it more. I think I blended the clay a little too much, so that the colors ran together and lost their vividness.

The next piece combines metal with more polymer clay, in the same color scheme, held together with a brass screw. This one's on a silk ribbon for now, as well, but I haven't really decided how to finish it off. Also, while I like the basic idea, I may redo the polymer pieces.

The final piece of finished jewelry for the weekend is a bracelet, using rubber cord, sterling silver, a brass bezel with glass bead, and sari silk. I can't really claim credit for this design, as it was published in the Handcrafted Jewelry magazine that I bought at -- BeadFest, of course. So it's not original, but it's a great design, and I already had all of the components on hand.

It's Sunday night now, and I've started in on one last piece -- but this one involves resin, so it's going to take a couple of days to get all of the layers poured and cured. Hopefully, I'll have photos for my next post.

...and finally, here are a couple of pairs of cufflinks that I actually made a couple of weeks ago, as a birthday present for my husband. One pair made with NY subway tokens, and the other with 10 franc coins -- neither of which is in circulation any more.

BeadFest Philadelphia

2009-08-29T15:57:00.000-04:00

Most of what I've posted here has been fiber-related -- knitting, spinning, dyeing, sewing. But this past weekend, I got to spend some time on another hobby that I haven't done much of in a while -- jewelry making.

Taking a class is always a great way to get inspired again, and that's what I did. I took a class called "Rings, Relics, and Riveting," with a wonderful teacher and jewelry artist, Susan Lenart Kazmer. The class was part of BeadFest Philadelphia, a huge bead and jewelry show with lots of classes. So on Saturday, I arrived early to check out the marketplace, where I of course spent more than I'd intended to on materials and supplies.

Then on Sunday, I had my class. Here's the course description:

Combine layers of metal sheet, objects, paper, rocks and fiber build unusual wearable rings. Focus on cold joining techniques such as riveting, prongs and staples. Add height and dimension by use of negative and positive space. Fabrication of metal by hand and tools such as disc cutters and forming block.

We started with a simple design that involved stringing various types of beads (loosely defined as anything that had a hole in it, or could have a hole drilled into it) onto a long piece of brass wire that was then hammered and shaped into a ring shank. Here's the result of mine, using a hammered copper disk and a chunk of hematite.

Then we started using rivets, tiny nut & bolt sets, staples, and prongs to hold rings together. I'd brought along all sorts of odd materials that I thought I might be able to add to a ring, and ended up focusing on a little bag of rocks that I'd brought back from a vacation to Prince Edward Island a few years ago. I made my first PEI rock ring with copper, a pale blue glass bead, and a silver-colored metal spacer bead:

I love the patina that the copper got from heating it with a torch, and the slightly irregular hammered edges of the metal disk. Unfortunately, though, in the process of riveting it all together, I cracked the rock. I haven't had the heart to take it apart yet, but at some point I'll probably put in a new rock to replace the cracked one.

After that, I decided to break out the expensive supplies -- a sheet of sterling silver. I made another ring very similar to the copper one, but this time I'd learned some things about how not to break the stone (give it better support in the metal disk, and don't hammer so hard on the rivet!) Here's the result:

It's kind of ridiculously huge compared to what I'd ordinarily wear as a ring, but I really like the color and texture of the metal, the shape of the silver disk compared to the shape of the rock, and especially the fact that it will always remind me of a wonderful vacation. And believe it or not, it's surprisingly wearable.

So ... it's Saturday now, and I took yesterday off from work to play with my jewelry supplies. So expect more jewelry photos soon!

Mimi Kirchner and her wonderful, whimsical creations

2009-08-26T22:27:00.003-04:00

Did you like my teacup pincushion and felt doll? Both are from patterns by Mimi Kirchner -- check out this Etsy video about Mimi and her work.

(I know I've been horribly delinquent in posting any of my own projects -- I'll get some photos up here this weekend for sure. I made some great jewelry this past weekend that I'd love to show off as soon as I can get it photographed.)

The "Jeanne G. Tour" tote bag

2009-07-04T17:15:00.005-04:00

I guess it's been a while since I've managed to finish a project ... but I've been on vacation all week, so I've finished a few. Some still haven't been photographed, though, so for today we have just one -- the "Jeanne G. Tour" tote bag.

This bag is based on the "road-trip tote bag" in Alicia Paulson's beautiful book, Stitched in Time. The bag was made as a gift for Jeanne G's birthday, and shows the route from where she was born to where she lives now, with french knots marking the cities where her family members live.

Details:
Main body of the bag is cotton twill, bottom is ultrasuede, both purchased at Mood.
Cotton lining fabric and embroidery thread from Purl Patchwork.
Leather strap for the handles from Leather Impact.
Vintage bakelite button purchased at the D.C. Big Flea Market.

Another project courtesy of Mimi Kirchner

2009-05-17T16:41:00.004-04:00

When the Purl Bee published the pattern for Mimi Kirchner's "purl girl" doll, they included a link to her website, Doll. I added Doll to my list of favorites, and have really been enjoying seeing Mimi's delightful projects. The popularity of the purl girl doll pattern encouraged Mimi to write up a pattern for one of her other projects, the Tiny World Pincushion. Naturally, I couldn't resist buying the pattern as soon as I saw it. And those who know how obsessive I can be about craft projects will not be at all surprised to know that I immediately started looking for suitable teacups to make the pincushions in.

I ended up spending a little more money than I'd intended on teacups, but I did find two really lovely ones, that we're really that expensive. (I'm still hoping to score some really inexpensive thrift shop finds.) So here's my first Tiny World Pincushion -- the Tiny House of Violets.

The tree seems maybe a little too plain, so I may replace it with an embroidered one. Still, I think it's really charming. To play up the purple of the violets in the cup, I made the house yellow (purple's complementary color), with a purple door, then scattered violets across the grass. I pretty much followed the basic pattern for this one, but am looking forward to improvising more on the next one. I've got another cup like this, but with a different type of flower on it. There were a couple more similar ones at that consignment shop ... maybe I'll pay them another visit this week.

If you'd like to see more of these sweet pincushions, check out Doll, or the Flickr group that Mimi started.

There's also a new Flickr group for the purl girl dolls.

I (heart) Mimi Kirchner and The Purl Bee

2009-04-26T16:43:00.010-04:00

... for collaborating to give us all, for free, the pattern to make this wonderful doll.

The pattern appeared in the April 8 post on The Purl Bee. The project journal, with thoroughly illustrated instructions, is here.

Mimi's blog, Doll, shows off lots of her clever, quirky, and whimsical creations. Be sure to check out her Etsy shop, too, for more photos. I'd seen her Tiny World Pincushions at Etsy before, but I hadn't seen her blog until The Purl Bee project.

I could hardly wait to start one of these dolls, and luckily I already had a stash of nice wool felt to work with. All I needed to buy was some embroidery thread and a couple of buttons. Then it was a just a matter of tearing myself away from my yarn for a while in order to sew. The pattern and tutorial are very well-done; I didn't have any trouble at all stitching this sweet doll.

For my first, I pretty much made her just like the originals -- except that I moved the rose from the front of the sash to the back, to camouflage the fact that my sash didn't quite reach all the way around (oops!).

I do plan to personalize her a bit, though, with a small bit of knitting. I'd thought I would make her a sweater, but I'm not sure a sweater would fit well over this dress. So I think I'll probably knit up a little shawl. Next time around, I'll customize the clothes in order to incorporate a sweater into the outfit. Just had an idea .... maybe turn the shoes into ice skates, keep the nice full skirt, and knit her a sweater and scarf and hat ... can't wait to get started!

That bowl of yarn

2009-04-05T18:38:00.006-04:00

So what was that bowl of yarn in the last post?

A couple of weeks ago, I went on a 10-day trip to Colorado. Thinking this was a wonderful opportunity to start a new project, I ordered a sweater's worth of yarn to be delivered directly to Colorado. Sure, I could have finished one of the many projects I have in the works, or started something with yarn I already had ... but I had just fallen in love with the sweater on the back cover of Vogue Knitting (here, if you're on Ravelry), and just had to have it. It would have been a great project, if the yarn had arrived in time. Unfortunately, it took so long for the seller to ship that the yarn wasn't scheduled to arrive until two days before the end of my vacation.

No problem, though, right? I had a pair of socks to work on, plus another ball of Socks that Rock in my suitcase, so I had plenty of knitting to keep me busy.

But then I went to Shuttles, Spindles, and Skeins in Boulder. Wow, what a wonderful store! One of the first things I saw when I walked through the door was the book Beautiful Sheep: Portraits of Champion Breeds. Who would have though portraits of sheep could be so striking? That same table held a variety of Japanese knitting and felting books, something I've rarely found other than online or at Kinokuniya in New York. That was one of the best things about this store -- an amazing collection of books related to all the fiber arts. And years' worth of back issues of fiber-related magazines. I could easily have browsed for hours. And that was before I even started looking at the yarns!

I thought I'd pick up a little project to make up for the fact that I couldn't start my sweater. Then I saw the Koigu rack.

Lots of stores carry Koigu, but very few seem to have much of a selection of the solid colors. SS&S had them, though -- dozens of gorgeous hand-dyed solids. My first thought was that I might pick up some yarn for a couple of pairs of lacy socks. But then I remembered why I really needed some solid-colored Koigu ... the Babette Blanket!

This pattern is in the Spring 2006 issue of Interweave Crochet. I don't even know why I happened to pick up that magazine when I saw it at Barnes and Noble three years ago, but when I saw that blanket I decided to buy the magazine -- notwithstanding the fact that I hadn't crocheted in years. Every once in a while since then, I've pulled out the magazine to look at that beautiful riot of color and contemplate whether I was ready to tackle it.

So I guess all the stars were aligned on that day that I went to SS&S. They had that rack full of Koigu, and the magazine with the pattern in it. And the series "Knit and Crochet Today" had recently piqued my interest in trying crochet again, and given me a bit of a refresher course. It was time for Babette!

I picked out seventeen colors, more or less the same as those used in the original version. I spent hours winding them into balls (since my skein and ball winder were back at home). And I started crocheting. Here's what I've got so far. Isn't it gorgeous?

The blanket is divided into ten modules, and I've finished the first six. (They get larger as you go, though, so I"m not yet half finished). The crocheting is very straightforward, and luckily Knit and Crochet Today taught me how to weave in the ends as I work -- with all these squares, and all these colors, I believe there are approximately 967, 347 yarn ends in this piece! I'm sewing each module together as I finish it, partly because I'm anxious to see the blanket come together, and partly to avoid the daunting task of sewing it all together at the end.

On my project page on Ravelry, I've named this "Memere's blanket," in honor of the grandmother who taught me to crochet when I was a child. My Memere was an expert crocheter, and I'm so glad she gave me the skills to make this beautiful blanket.

I'm still here ...

2009-03-29T19:28:00.003-04:00

... just haven't gotten a chance to post anything for a while, partly because I've been off enjoying a wonderful spring break ski trip. I still don't have much, mainly because I need to take some photos, but I wanted to share this beautiful bowl of wool:

Twenty-two balls of gorgeous Koigu. What's it for? More on that next time ... when I get some more photos taken!

Little Bunny Foo Foo

2009-02-20T22:15:00.004-05:00

Little Bunny Foo Foo, hopping through the forest, scooping up the field mice and bopping them on the head. . .

Two years ago, I decided to join the insanity at the Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival by lining up at The Fold to buy some Socks That Rock yarn. Sure, you can buy it online, but I thought it would be fun to see lots of colorways in person. The thing is, there was such a crush of people in the booth, that I got overwhelmed and completely forgot to look for the one color I knew I wanted to see – Little Bunny Foo Foo. (Really, how could you not love a yarn called Little Bunny Foo Foo?) So while I was in line waiting to pay, I saw someone holding a skein, and asked her to pass one out to me. The woman behind me saw the yarn being passed over, and told me that she had used a skein of the same colorway to knit Monkey socks, and that she was really pleased with them. So I made a mental note to check out the Monkey pattern for this yarn.

I seem to buy sock yarn a lot faster than I knit it, though. So finally, nearly two years later, I pulled out my Little Bunny Foo Foo, printed out the pattern, and started on my socks. Monkey turned out to be a great pattern to knit – more interesting than simple ribbing, but not so complicated as to require my full attention.

This is my first completed pair of lace socks (let’s not speak of the other pair, 75% finished, languishing among my UFOs). The design is pretty, but simple enough for a lace novice.

I’m still not sure that I’m ever going to be a big fan of lace knitted in multi-colored yarn, but I do like my Little Bunny Foo Foo Socks.

And that name is going to make me smile every time I wear them.

Happy Valentine's Day

2009-02-14T11:41:00.003-05:00

Pattern: Heart Sachet, by Vicki Sever for Interweave
Yarn: Koigu premium merino
Needles: size 1, bamboo DPNs
Made for Valentine's Day for my mother.

This pattern was a bit of a challenge to get started on, mainly because I have no three-dimensional spatial sense whatsover. But after the first couple of squares were done, it was fairly easy to see how all of the pieces fit together. After square 1, all the subsequent squares are attached by picking up stitches from earlier squares -- the only seaming required is to close up the top. The sachet is filled with lavender, and smells wonderful. I really like the cute, tiny i-cord for the hanging loop.

Happy Valentine's Day!

O'Keeffe

2009-02-01T12:16:00.008-05:00

Several years ago, I stayed at a house in Provence that had a little field of poppies out front, and I’ve loved these bright and cheery red flowers ever since. When I decided to knit a bag with a floral design, the poppy came immediately to mind. Once this bag was finished, it reminded me of Georgia O’Keeffe’s paintings of oriental poppies, and so I named it in her honor -- the O'Keeffe.

Because I'd only designed one pattern of my own previously, I decided to experiment with this design by making a smaller version first -- that way, I'd have spent less money on yarn if I decided I didn't like it. I did like it, though, and that experiment gave me the idea of enlarging the bag by simply knitting the larger version with two strands of yarn held together. As a result, the large bag knits up just as quickly as the smaller one, and the extra yarn gives it the extra body you need for a large tote.

For the yarn, I turned to Ella Rae Classic, which has a gorgeous array of colors in a basic worsted weight yarn. The background color is "eggplant" -- a really versatile almost-gray shade of purple. It functions as a neutral, but with a more lively color than a pure gray. It sets off the red flower and green leaf beautifully. The red leather handles are from Grayson E -- expensive, but worth it for a special project.

The bag is knit all in one piece -- starting at the bottom of the stem as seen in the picture above, then wrapping around to the other side, ending with the poppy blossom. After knitting this long rectangle, I picked up stitches for the sides, knit them at right angles to the main section, and then seamed the bag together and felted it.

Would you like to make an O'Keeffe of your own? I've posted the pattern online, and added it to the Ravelry pattern database. Let me know if you make one -- I want to see pictures!

Make hay while the sun shines

2009-01-24T15:25:00.012-05:00

...or for the modern-day blogger, make photos while the sun shines.

I like to take my photos in strong, natural sunlight. That's why the background of most of my fiber projects is the picnic table in my back yard. But strong, natural sunlight has been a scarce occurrence around here lately. The cloudy, gloomy winter days have far outnumbered the clear, sunny ones. So even though I've finished a number of projects, the blog has been neglected because I couldn't get any good pictures.

This afternoon, the sun finally came out! I grabbed the camera, and an armload of projects, and ran outside. But as soon as I got set up, the sun vanished again.

I took everything back indoors, and as soon as I did, the sun came out again.

So back outdoors I went, where I managed to get a quick set of photos taken. I'll be so glad when spring comes, and the sun returns with it!

So ... let's see what we've got.

First, some weaving projects. When I put up my last post, my first woven scarf was still on the loom. Here it is, all finished.

The edges gradually got more even as I worked, slowly getting the knack of making a neat selvedge. I think it's fairly nice for a first project.

For my second project -- another scarf -- I got more adventurous and started experimenting with color patterns. This scarf is woven in two shades of Valley Yarns Stockbridge yarn, periwinkle and chocolate.

This houndstooth check was much easier than I would ever have guessed -- I just alternated two strands of periwinkle with two strands of chocolate in both the warp and the weft. Here's a closeup of the checks.

The next challenge was to try a new fiber and a looser weave. This lightweight little scarf follows directions in the book Weaving Made Easy. It's actually two scarves layered on top of one another.

One uses Kidsilk Haze in "heavenly" for both the warp and weft, while the other uses that same Kidsilk Haze for the warp with a weft of Kidsilk Night in "moonlight." The Kidsilk Night is a new yarn for me -- basicaly Kidsilk Haze with a little bit of sparkle in it. It's really beautiful.

And there's been knitting, too. I continue to work on the Kusha Kusha scarf that seems like it will never be done. Where did I ever get the idea that knitting with thread would be fun? Oh right -- it's because the result is so stunning. I've also finished the knitting portion of the Pillow of Sei Shonagon, and am working on the sewing part.

Some projects have even gotten finished. I found out over the holidays that my niece was going to have a baby, so of course I had to knit something tiny and adorable. I turned to one of my very favorite knitting books, Knitalong. You really should seek out this book if you haven't seen it before -- I find myself wanting to make nearly everything in it, and it's enjoyable reading as well. I finally had a reason to make the adorable Victorian Baby Bonnet.

This sweet little hat took only a couple of nights to make, and the lace pattern is very simple to follow. This one is knit in Rowan RYC silk cotton, in "cucumber," with the edging knit in "peat." Since the contrast color is used for only one row of edging, I had nearly a full ball of brown left. The obvious use for it was to make another hat, this one brown with green edging.

For now, I'm working on a pair of socks -- I'm the 8 millionth person to try out the "Monkey" pattern. Maybe I'll manage to get a photo on the next sunny day.

A new fiber arts adventure

2009-01-01T13:37:00.006-05:00

The book Intertwined has a couple of interesting woven projects using handspun, non-traditional yarns -- a scarf and a vest. Ever since I first saw them, I've been intrigued by the idea of weaving with my handspun yarns. I was curious about the way that non-traditional yarns might look in a woven fabric, and it also seemed like a good way to make small amounts of handspun go farther than with knitting.

So my Christmas wish list this year included a 24-inch Kromski Harp Loom.

Of course, it didn't quite look like this when I found it under the tree -- it took about two hours to go from looking like a box of loom parts to looking like an actual loom. Even with the instructional video, I found it pretty confusing to assemble, but eventually managed to get all the parts in the right place.

I knew I was going to be in the neighborhood of Webs a few days later, so I decided to pick up some yarn there for my first couple of projects. Yarn choice was my first weaving challenge -- with knitting, I'm generally using one yarn at a time, so I'm not used to having to envision how two different yarns will look when worked together. After a full hour in the store, I finally settled on yarn for three scarves. I've got some robin's egg blue and chocolate brown baby alpaca, a pink/brown/cream variegated to mix with pink and brown solids. And for my first project, I picked out two skeins of Cascade heather, in colors 9451 Lake Chelan and 9452 Summer Sky.

It's not exactly an adventurous combination, but it does look pretty nice.

It took quite a while to get from the empty loom to a piece of relatively even weaving, though. There's quite a lot to figure out right up front.

One thing I wish I'd figured out sooner -- which is the front of the loom, and which is the back. I managed to warp the loom backwards and had to rewind the warp to sort it all out. I'm pretty sure I won't make that mistake again!

It took me at least a couple of hours to warp the loom for a scarf, although I'm sure it will be much quicker the next time around. I had almost all of the yarn measured out when I somehow let some of it pop off the warping board, and I had to start over again. It was a little scary holding all that carefully measured and wound yarn on my hand as I tried to figure out how to attach it to the loom, but it all went on pretty smoothly (except for the fact that I attached it the wrong way around, as noted above). My daughter helped, and we managed to get all the yarn on without tangling.

Finally, it was time to wind some weft yarn onto a shuttle and start making fabric. Those first several inches were quite a mess -- wavy rows, loopy selvedges, and uneven spacing between rows. Eventually, though, the edges became straighter and the selvedges became less loopy. Still not exactly professional looking, but much improved.

I've made about three feet of passable fabric so far, and I think this scarf may actually be wearable when it's done. I'm hoping that washing it will work some magic to even everything out, the way blocking does for knitting.

After I finish weaving the yarn I bought at Webs, it'll be time to try out some handspun.

Those Christmas projects I couldn't show before

2008-12-31T18:05:00.005-05:00

I did lots of knitting this month, but very little blogging, because most of the projects were Christmas gifts.

Now that Christmas is over, I can finally show what I was working on.

There were some sewing projects. A pear-shaped pincushion, for my mother-in-law the quilter. This is from a Heather Bailey pattern.

... and some patchwork picture frames, from Denyse Schmidt Quilts.

Then there were lots of knitted ornaments. There were mini mittens, shown in the previous post, and tiny sweaters on silver-wire hangers, pattern here.

According to German folklore, finding a bird's nest in your Christmas tree is good luck, and will bring your family health and happiness throughout the year. That inspired these knitted nests, with little blue felted eggs.

The pattern for the nest is in Closely Knit -- I modified the design slightly to make a smaller, shallower nest. The book includes a pattern for knitted eggs, but I made mine by needle felting some blue merino roving.

I made my mother a simple triangular shawl from some salmon-colored hand-dyed mohair boucle from Mohair in Motion. This one really went down to the wire -- I finished it at about 11 pm the night before I had to give it to her. Unfortunately, in the rush, I forgot to take a photo when it was done. I'll have to try to remember to get one later.

And here's one final photo -- the pilot cap from the previous post, modeled by my four-month-old great-niece. Isn't she adorable?

A difficult time for blogging

2008-12-12T20:19:00.004-05:00

It's a difficult time for blogging about crafts projects, because I've been spending so much time working on Christmas gifts -- and I wouldn't want to spoil the surprise by showing them here. And on top of that, I've been working on a project that I'm trying to get published, so I can't show that yet either.

As is so often the case, I've been overcome by a last-minute urge to give handmade Christmas gifts. This feeling tends to strike somewhere around Thanksgiving, rather than in July when it would be more useful. I've been knitting and sewing up a storm since Thanksgiving weekend, alternating back and forth as I get tired of one project, or my hands start to ache. I don't think I've taken on more than I can handle, but we'll see if I'm still knitting on the car ride to visit family!

I think I can safely show a couple of projects, since their intended recipients are much too young to be reading my blog. The first is from the book Denyse Schmidt Quilts, Steve the Cat.

I think he's pretty adorable, don't you?

And then there's this little pilot cap.

I'm afraid it doesn't really look like much without a baby to model it. Hopefully I'll have a better photo to post later. This is from the second Mason Dixon Knitters book, Knitting Outside the Lines.

There's one more thing I can safely post, some ornaments for our Christmas tree (which hasn't even been bought yet!) Aren't these teeny little mittens the cutest thing ever? They're only about an inch and a half long. The pattern is here, at Pink Argyle.

Well, back to the holiday knitting ... more photos to come in a couple of weeks.

Anyone know how to remove a knitting curse?

2008-11-22T14:02:00.002-05:00

... because I've apparently been hexed. Or at least the project I've been working on today has been cursed. I'm working on a Christmas gift -- small, not too terribly complicated, and something I've made before. But I just can't seem to get past row 5 without having to rip it out! First I discovered that I had several cables twisted in the wrong direction. I tried to frog just that one row, but couldn't manage to get the stitches back onto the needles, so I gave up and pulled the whole thing out. Next time around, I cast on the wrong number of stitches. I decided to just decrease to get rid of them and press on ... until I messed up the cable pattern again. Once again, I tried to just rip back a row or two, but ended up ripping out the whole thing. Tried again, and somehow ended up with a huge gap in the stitches where I joined to knit in the round, so I ripped it out once more after two rows. Next time around, I started knitting row 1 with the yarn tail. Tinked it back ever so carefully and resumed knitting. Then I started knitting with the tail again on row 2, and yet again on row 3. AAARRRGH!!

I've finally gotten through the first 5 rows with no obvious mistakes. If I have to rip back one more time, I think the yarn is going to disintegrate, so wish me luck! And let me know if anyone out there knows how to remove a knitting curse.

Experiments with dye

2008-11-17T10:50:00.006-05:00

In my recent post about Stitches East, I noted that I had bought some dyeing supplies from Indie Dyer. This past weekend, I had my first opportunity to try them out.

I started by watching The Superwash Manifesto. This 70-minute instructional video was made by Jenna (the Indie Dyer) and Cheryl Potter of Cherry Tree Hill Yarns. I’m so glad I took Jenna’s advice to buy this. In the past, when I’ve read about dyeing, it seemed so daunting – using chemicals and additives I’d never heard of, and making me think that if I didn’t follow every step to the letter, all the dye would bleed right out of my yarn, or everything would turn to mucky brown. Jenna and Cheryl, however, do a great job of making the dyeing process much more approachable. After watching, I was ready to jump right in.

For my first project, I pulled out a skein of KnitPicks bare superwash merino sock yarn – I had bought it for a project that called for just a little bit of white yarn, so I had almost the full skein left. I decided to try fairly bright colors on this one, so I mixed up some squeeze bottles of kiwi, rosebud, robins egg blue, and sky blue dyes. I put the yarn into a big shallow pan, and started squirting the colors on, letting them merge just a little where they joined. After heat setting the yarn in the microwave, I rinsed out the excess dye and let the yarn hang to dry. The great thing about starting out with a superwash yarn is that I could feel free to manhandle it as I dyed and rinsed without having to worry that it would felt. Here’s the end result:

After the sock yarn, I wanted to experiment with some roving. I rummaged through my (way too big) stash of fiber, and found a bag of undyed wensleydale. This time, I went for subtler, more fall-like colors, using nutmeg, golden pineapple, and a little bit of sky blue. The blue ended up merging with the nutmeg and pineapple to form a soft green. The end result looks a lot like the colors I was seeing as I worked on a table out in my back yard.

The end result really reminded me of something, but I couldn’t figure out what. Finally, after staring at it for a couple of days, I realized that it looks very similar to the colors in the Yarn Harlot’s One Row Scarf.

To round out my experiments, I got some loose kid mohair locks that I had bought from the Martha's Vineyard Fiber Farm. I had to pick through these a bit to pick out some vegetable matter and loosen them up. I did one batch using rosebud and kiwi,

and another using kiwi, golden pineapple, and sky blue.

I’ve got one more skein of undyed yarn on hand, and a fair amount of white wool and mohair … going to have to restrain myself from buying lots more to play with until I spin and knit some of what I already have!

Lining Tutorial -- how to construct a lining for a flat-bottomed rectangular bag

2008-11-16T12:23:00.014-05:00

A handknit bag with a beautiful lining is much more polished and professional-looking. Take a look at this felted lattice bag – it wouldn’t be nearly as nice without that sumptuous black silk brocade.

Making a lining isn't difficult at all.

Step 1: Choose and prepare the fabric

Start by selecting a lining fabric that suits the style of your bag. Is the bag small and elegant? Try a silk dupioni or heavy silk brocade. Is the bag large and sporty? A heavyweight cotton might be a better choice. If the bag has a lot of color or texture on the outside, you may want a solid color, or a subtle woven design. If the bag itself is plain, you could choose a print for the lining.

Once you’ve got your fabric, cut it to the following dimensions:
Width of lining = width of bag + depth of bag + 1 inch for seam allowance
Height of lining = twice the height of bag + depth of bag + 1 inch for seam allowance

Step 2: Sew the side seams

Fold the lining fabric in half lengthwise, right sides together. With the folded edge at the bottom, stitch up the two sides using a ½ inch seam allowance.

Press the seam allowances open.

Step 3: Construct the gusset

You now have a flat envelope, open at the top. In order to make the lining match the shape of the inside of the bag, you need to add a gusset to the bottom. Take a corner of the lining and shape it into a point.

Measure out a triangle whose long side matches the depth of your bag. In this case, the lining is for a bag 2 inches deep, so I've marked off a triangle that's 2 inches at the top.

Press the triangle into place, then stitch across like this.

Do the same on the other side, and you’ll have your two gussets. Your lining now has a flat bottoms, just like your bag. The gusset looks like this from the right side:

(I know that's not the same lining -- I forgot to photograph the white one!)

Step 4: Fit the lining into the bag

Fold the raw edge over to the wrong side. Fit the lining into the bag, right side showing, and check to see if the top edge of the lining is where you want it to be in relation to the top edge of the bag. Adjust the top folded edge as needed to get the look you want – the lining could come right up to the very edge of the bag, or you might prefer to have a ½” or 1” gap. When you’re happy with where the top of the lining falls, sew it into place with a running stitch or whipstich.

Step 5: Admire your beautifully lined bag!

Stitches East 2008

2008-11-11T16:52:00.003-05:00

This past weekend, I spent two days at Stitches East in Baltimore. 48 hours of knitting heaven! On Friday, I had two classes. The first, taught by Gwen Bortner, was on revising patterns to match the gauge of your own yarn and knitting. Gwen was a wonderful instructor, and I found the class very useful. It would have been even more useful a few weeks ago when I was working on the Debbie Bliss v-neck slipover -- I didn't like the result when I knit to the specified gauge, and I had to pretty much just wing it when I decided to make the sweater in a looser gauge.

During the lunch break, I raced off to the marketplace, and scored some absolutely gorgeous yarn from Tess. It's "silk and ivory," a blend of 50% wool and 50% silk. The raspberry color (not very well reproduced in the photo, unfortunately) is my absolute favorite color for clothing. I"m not sure what I"m going to make with it yet, but I bought enough for a sweater.

After lunch, I had a class on designing cables, with Fiona Ellis. Here's what I knit in class, just made up on the fly:

I had a bit of time for more shopping at the marketplace after class, but not nearly enough, since it was only open for about an hour after I finished.

On Saturday morning, I took Cat Bordhi's class on knitting the Coriolis Sock in her latest book, New Pathways for Sock Knitters.

In order to have a chance to finish an entire sock in three hours, we made these wee little baby-sized socks:

On the needles, you can see the full-sized Spiraling Coriolis that I started when I got home. The yarn is Socks that Rock mediumweight, Faulty Dyer colorway. The Coriolis sock is knit from the toe up, with a swirling band that wraps across the instep, and can continue spiraling around the leg if you choose that variation.

As I expected, Cat's class was informative and well-taught, with lots of little tidbits of knitting knowledge scattered throughout. One great piece of information I learned in connection with the class is that she has posted several instructional videos on YouTube -- we had to watch some of them for our pre-Stitches homework. You should check them out, just search "Cat Bordhi" on YouTube. That little bit of a Coriolis sock on the needles has now grown up past the ankle, but I haven't had a chance to take another photo.

With class over, I finally got to spend as much time as I wanted in the marketplace. So much to see! It's like being in the world's largest yarn shop. Despite my resolve on Friday to resist the call of sock yarn, I succumbed at The Sanguine Gryphon's booth. And not just to one skein, but to three. But seriously, who could have resisted these amazing colors, especially after having just left a sock knitting class? I only wish this photo showed how subtly gorgeous they are.

I also picked up some leather bag handles, fun reading glasses, and pattern booklets.

The Webs booth had samples of several of the sweaters from the Norah Gaughan booklet, and they were so much more beautiful in real life than they looked in the booklet. In particular, there's a cardigan with a big folded over collar that's absolutely stunning when you can get close enough to see the stitch pattern at the collar and cuffs.

One last purchase -- dyeing supplies. I got some dyes, and an instructional video, and some undyed sock yarn to practice with from Indie Dyer. I'm planning to try dyeing some Blue Faced Leicester fiber for spinning.

Stitches East moves to Hartford next year. I know a lot of people are disappointed that it won't be in Baltimore, but I've got family in New England, so I think I'll still be able to go. I'm hoping that I can convince my mother to go with me -- after all, she's the one who first taught me to knit.

An old project, finally finished ... and a new one, too

2008-10-14T09:25:00.005-04:00

I spent lots of hours this past weekend on finishing work – if I have to weave in one more yarn end anytime in the next week, I may actually run screaming into the streets! When will I learn to weave in some of those ends along the way, instead of saving all 8000 of them (there were 8000, weren’t there?) until the end? Or maybe learn to spit splice to eliminate some of the ends? Luckily, TCM was running a Paul Newman marathon, so I recorded several movies I’d never seen before. Watching Torn Curtain while I worked made all that weaving quite a bit less painful.

The end result of all those hours of sewing and weaving was two finished sweaters. First, an old project finally done. I started the Urban Aran Cardigan way back in March, and got most of it done within a month or two. But once the weather turned warm, I set is aside for something lighter weight. I picked it up again in September, and finished all of the knitting three or four weeks ago. I kept procrastinating on the finishing, though, because I was intimidated by the zipper.

Most of the sweaters I’ve knit have been pullovers. There have been a couple of button-front cardigans (the Tangled Yoke and Nantucket Jacket), but I never put a zipper into a handknit sweater before. And I was awfully nervous about it. I started obsessing about it almost from the day I first cast on. Should I hand sew it? That might not be strong enough. Machine sew it? All my hours of knitting could get mangled up in the sewing machine.

So I started searching the internet for zipper installation tutorials, and found some really helpful ones. In the end, I followed the instructions here, at Pickin’ and Throwin.’ For anyone about to tackle a zipper, I highly recommend using the Wash-A-Way Wonder Tape she recommends to help position the zipper. That tape made it easy to line up the two front pieces, press them down onto the tape, and then unzip before pinning into place. Then I hand-stitched the zipper, using a backstitch from the wrong side.

So here’s the finished product:

And here are the details:
Pattern: Urban Aran sweater, converted from pullover to cardigan following the example of Brooklyn Tweed.
Yarn: Elann Peruvian Highland Chunky in chestnut. The color of this yarn is gorgeous, much richer than you can see on your computer monitor. I bought 24 skeins (so long ago, I can’t remember how I calculated that amount), and I’ve got a lot left over.
Needles: sizes 10 and 10.5
Zipper: 2-way separating zipper, shortened to fit at the fabric store. The sweater is fairly long, so I wanted to be able to unzip it from the bottom when I sit down.

Now for finished project number 2. This one only took about 9 days from start to finish, because it’s knit in a very bulky yarn, and has no sleeves. Here’s the v-neck slipover from the cover of the new Debbie Bliss Knitting Magazine.

I fell in love with this sweater as soon as I saw it. A good friend of mine has been knitting Twinkle patterns lately using the super-bulky Twinkle Soft Chunky yarn, so I was inspired to try something in a heavier weight than I ordinarily use. I love the big cable up the front of this sweater, and the moss stitch shows up beautifully at this gauge. Now I just have to find a very lightweight top to put under it so that I can wear it here in Virginia without overheating.

The details:
Pattern: V-Neck Slipover from Debbie Bliss Knitting Magazine, fall/winter 2008-10-14
Yarn: Debbie Bliss Como in gray, 13 balls
Needles: size 13.
Gauge: The pattern calls a gauge of 3 stitches to the inch. I had to go down to a size 11 needle to get gauge, and thought the fabric was too stiff at that gauge. So I used the size 13s, and went down one pattern size to compensate.

Spinning in public for the first time

2008-10-13T22:22:00.003-04:00

Well, I've done plenty of knitting in public -- when I first began knitting many years back, I used to take my projects onto the subway with me while commuting, and now I rarely go out without a knitting project, just in case I have some spare time. Now I've spun in public, too.

On October 4, I participated in the Art on the Avenue festival in Alexandria. I hadn't even heard of Art on the Avenue until I responded to a post on Ravelry looking for volunteers for a fiber arts demonstration. So I packed up my spinning wheel and a bag full of fiber, and headed out on Saturday morning. What fun! It was a gloriously beautiful fall day, sunny and warm without being hot. The demonstration included spinning on wheels and spindles, fiber carding, knitting, and weaving. In the beginning, I had some fairly quiet spinning time, just answering questions as I spun. But then I started letting the kids try the wheel, and we both had a really fun time. They were fascinated, and loved working the treadles (although some of them couldn’t reach them without help). And many of them were so excited when I offered to let them take home the yarn they’d help me spin – it was really sweet! It was tricky at first figuring out how to actually produce yarn with them, but eventually I got the knack of letting them treadle while I drafted the fiber.

Two hours flew past, and then we were finished. At the end, though, I found out that some of the other participants were members of a spinning group that meets twice a month – they invited me to join them, and I’m looking forward to spinning with them in calmer circumstances! And not only that, I got invited to another spinning demo the following weekend.

So this past Saturday, it was off to the Torpedo Factory Art Center for the annual Art Safari. This time I was prepared for the kids, and brought a basket of really soft blue faced Leicester fiber for them to spin with, and some pretty red and yellow wool. I also brought some drop spindles, to see if that would make it easier to work with them. Once we got going, there was barely a moment to catch my breath! We had spinning, and knitting, and carding, and weaving, just like the weekend before. This time, though, someone brought a drum carder to let the kids make up their own special, sparkly batts to spin. In the beginning, I focused on using spindles – I’d draft the wool while the kids kept the spindle spinning for me. Then for a while, we used the wheel – this group loved sitting and treadling as much as last week’s kids. It was especially fun when they had their own little handfuls of fiber to spin into a special yarn to take home.

I’ve only got one regret after these wonderful weekends – I forgot to bring a camera, so I haven’t got any photos! I guess I’ll have to learn to tuck a camera into my traveling spinner’s kit in the future.

Some sewing projects I've finally photographed

2008-09-22T08:05:00.003-04:00

I finished sewing these weeks ago, but somehow kept forgetting to photograph them. So here's more from Alabama Stitch -- the Rose Applique Shawl, and beaded applique skirt:

The skirt was made from a kit that I mail-ordered from Alabama Stitch. The pieces were cut out and stencilled, and the kit included all the thread and beads that you need.

We interrupt this blog’s usual fiber-related content…

2008-09-15T20:34:00.003-04:00

… for a detour into another of my hobbies, jewelry-making.

I love browsing on Etsy, and I’ve noticed a number of interesting pieces of jewelry incorporating a twig motif. So I decided to create one of my own.

The twig is made from precious metal clay. If you’re not familiar with it, PMC is an amazing product. Fine silver particles are bound together with a clay-like substance. While it’s soft, you can work with it just like any other type of clay. Roll it, shape it, texture it. But then when you fire it in a kiln, or with a torch, the binder burns away, the silver particles fuse together, and you’re left with a slightly smaller piece of pure silver that retains all of the shape and texture it had in its clay form. The pure silver isn’t as strong as sterling, but because it’s not alloyed with copper, it has a beautiful whiteness in color as compared with sterling.

Back to the twig – for this piece, I used PMC in paste form, thinned with water to a consistency that can be painted onto things. I painted ten thin coats of PMC onto a dry twig that I found in the woods, allowing the paste to dry thoroughly after each coat. Then I fired it in a kiln at 1650 degrees for two hours. When it had cooled, I soldered a jump ring onto each end and then gave it a slightly matte finish with a stainless steel brush. I prepared some silver chain, jump rings, and a handmade clasp, by oxidizing them with liver of sulphur. I attached the pieces of chain to either side of the twig, and added the hook and eye closure. Then, as a finishing touch I suspended a faceted tourmaline briolette from one end of the chain.

I haven’t done much jewelry-making lately, although I’d been thinking about it for the last couple of weeks. My new twig necklace has definitely inspired me to try to design some more pieces!

A few baby gifts, finally finished

2008-09-08T09:18:00.003-04:00

I finally got some baby gifts finished and packaged for shipping. For some reason, these projects having taken me ages to get finished. First, there are two pinwheel blankets:

These are knit from the pinwheel blanket pattern in the book knitalong. The yarn is superwash merino from Tess' Designer Yarns.

And this little Baby Surprise Jacket has been 98% finished for months -- all I needed to do was to sew up the seams at the tops of the arms, and add buttons. The baby it was originally intended for has probably long since outgrown it, but luckily there's a new baby in the family that I'm going to give it to. Maybe I should stick with blankets, since they can't be outgrown?!

What I Did On My Summer Vacation

2008-09-03T07:52:00.006-04:00

This year's vacation wasn't terrribly exotic, but it was fun and relaxing ... and I had lots of time to knit, sew, and read. We spent nine days on the coast of Maine, enjoying the sunshine, the cool temperatures, and the beautiful ocean views. We did a little bit of sightseeing every day, but spent lots of time just hanging out. That gave me time to finish the Harry Potter socks that I started for my daughter ages ago. These are knit from a hand-dyed self-striping yarn that I bought on etsy. The cuffs are a basic 2x2 rib, and the toe is the star-shaped toe from Sensational Knitted Socks.

And I was able to knit another pair of socks for myself, too. (all those hours of driving back and forth to Maine allowed for plenty of knitting!) These are knit with a self-striping Lorna's Laces sock yarn that I bought at purl. The pattern is the Yarn Harlot's basic sock recipe, with ribbing all the way down to the ankle and a slight modification at the toe (after doing half the toe decreases, I started decreasing every row rather than every other row, in order to make a less pointy toe).

And I got a good start on the blocks for a quilt that I'm working on, from Alabama Stitch.

What a shame to be back at work, instead of making things! Oh well, the weekend's coming.

I just love the Alabama Stitch Book!

2008-08-01T10:57:00.005-04:00

I haven't got much time to put together a post this morning, so I'll just put up a few photos of projects based on the Alabama Stitch Book. Next time I'll get photos of the skirt and headband I've made, but for now, here are three t-shirts.

A Crafty Fourth of July

2008-07-07T09:32:00.005-04:00

Notwithstanding the cloudy and often rainy weather, I had quite a good holiday weekend – basically three days of making things, and what could be more fun than that?! I started out with sewing, working my way through more of the projects and techniques in Alabama Stitch. I finished this “3-D appliqué” t-shirt:

Made myself this headband:

Then I started on another shirt, which still needs to have some leaves stenciled on and beaded, I think.

Along the way, I took a detour to make this needle book from Last Minute Patchwork & Quilted Gifts. I’d been wanting to make one since I saw it in the book, and was spurred to finally do it after struggling to pull some new hand-sewing needles out of their plastic packaging – I wanted to get them into an easier to use case. This was my first time using computer-printable fabric sheets – pretty cool, although the ink did bleed a little bit.

On Monday, I spent the day spinning. I had a number of partly-done spinning projects that I was beginning to feel guilty about, so before starting anything new, I finished up a big hank of tailspun kid mohair:

finished corespinning my “pixie meadowbrite” locks from HollyEQQ:

and finished off a bag of “drunken sailor” batts from hobbledehoy:

I still need to finish off my “neapolitan” roving and a bag of suri alpaca locks, but I decided to let myself start something new anyway … some English Leicester locks from HollyEQQ to corespin:

What a letdown having to go back to the day job (sigh).

More yarn, and some sewing

2008-06-29T12:00:00.005-04:00

Here are my two latest yarns. The first is corespun suri alpaca, in a colorway called "Rosewood Orchid." It's every bit as soft as it looks, and then some! The second is a simple thick and thin merino, in a colorway called "Drunken Sailor."

I also took a break from spinning this weekend to finally try a project from a book I bought a few months ago, Alabama Stitch. This is a "reverse applique" cover, designed to dress up a basic composition book from Staples. I love making covers for these inexpensive notebooks.

My first corespun yarns

2008-06-25T09:41:00.006-04:00

Still high on inspiration from Camp Pluckyfluff, I pulled out some beautifully dyed locks this week to try some core spinning. What fun! I used a commercial mohair yarn for the cores -- the fuzziness of the mohair grips onto the wrapping fiber really easily. On Monday, I took out some cotswold locks from HollyEQQ, in a colorway called "pixie meadowbrite," and made this:

I liked the results so much that on Tuesday, I took out some more cotswold locks -- this time from Homestead Wool, in a colorway called "hydrangea," and spun up 50 yards of this:

I suppose that one of these days I should try knitting up some of these handspun yarns, but for now I'm having so much fun making them that it's interfering with my knitting projects!

Post-Pluckyfluff spinning

2008-06-24T09:21:00.003-04:00

While I was at Camp Pluckyfluff, I bought some beautiful hand-dyed blue-faced leicester fiber, in a colorway called "neapolitan." Given its ice cream-y name, it just had to be spun up into something swirly, right? So here's Neapolitan Soft Swirl:

Camp Pluckyfluff!

2008-06-22T09:50:00.013-04:00

Last weekend was 48 hours of spinning fun -- I got to go to Camp Pluckyfluff in Vermont! We met at The Spun Monkey's studio for two days of spinning instruction from Lexi Boeger of Pluckyfluff. Lexi taught us lots of fantastic techniques for spinning novelty and art yarns. Many of them are discussed in her latest book, Intertwined -- if you haven't seen this book, you should look for it the next time you go to the bookstore. If you're a spinner, it will inspire you to spin. And if you're not a spinner, it could well inspire you to start.

Unfortunately, I haven't got any photos of camp, because my camera battery died when I got there. Lexi's got some great ones on her blog, though. And I've got photos of my yarns. Here's my favorite:

I started this yarn with a base of green wool, with some bits of of orange thrown in as well. Then following Lexi's technique, I spun in some orange silk poppies (bought at Michael's, and plucked off their stems), some tulle, lace, fabric scraps, little flowers, and even a green zipper. Maybe I'd better take another photo that actually shows the zipper.

I spun lots of other yarns, as well.

This one, plied with a textured green thread, has beehive coils, granny stacks, and some spiky bits.

Then there's one with contrasting crescents (left), and one with pre-made felt bits added (right).

This one was spun from a crazy-carded batt -- we just grabbed bits of wool, sparkle, threads, and whatever else we had around. Then our random fibers were run through a drum carder, and spun up rather randomly as well -- thin where the fiber was smooth, thick where it was clumpy.

This technique, along with the others we tried, convinced me to order a drum carder of my very own when I got home.

... and this wild spiky skein was made by plying a heavily over-twisted single with a red thread.

And finally, this was the last yarn of the weekend, still on the bobbin because I didn't have time to spin very much it of. Gorgeous jade green locks tail-spun onto a core of commercial green mohair yarn. Soft, fluffy, and exotic-looking -- I can't wait to spin more of this one!

Thanks to Lexi, our host Shannon, and to my fellow campers for a fabulous spinning weekend!

I'm still here!

2008-04-28T09:21:00.003-04:00

Somehow, I just haven't remembered to post anything in an incredibly long time. Maybe I've just been distracted by Ravelry. And it's hard to get good photos in the winter because of the shortage of natural light. And maybe I've just been too busy knitting. But whatever the reason, I'm back. I'm not going to try to fill in everything I've worked on over the past few months, but maybe I'll take some photos of old projects this weekend.

In the meantime, two fibery things are occupying my thoughts:

(1) I bought a share in the fall shearing of the Angora goats at Martha's Vineyard Fiber Farm. If you don't know what this is, you can read about it in a Wall Street Journal article. The farm has a wonderful blog to update "shareholders" on day-to-day happenings throughout the year -- and it's full of photos of the most adorable kids and lambs.

(2) I'm anxiously counting down to the Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival this coming weekend. Only five more days! I've got a marked up map and vendor list, and a list of projects that I want yarn for ... but mostly I want to buy fleece to spin on the wonderful Majacraft Suzie wheel that I got for Christmas. I'm planning to spend all day Saturday at the festival, and maybe even go back on Sunday for the parade of breeds and the sheep-to-shawl competition. I'll surely have more to post when it's over.

Some knitting, some jewelry, some fiber madness

2007-10-08T18:50:00.001-04:00

Let's start with the knitting. I finished my Tangled Yoke Cardigan from the fall Interweave Knits. It's no exaggeration to say that this may be my all-time favorite knitted sweater. The tweedy green yarn is a beautiful color, and the cabling around the shoulders is gorgeous. I like the deep ribbing on the body and sleeves, especially since the garter rib doesn't pull in tight the way that a regular 2x2 rib would. And for once, I made a sweater that's lightweight enough to wear in Virginia.

Even Zoe likes it. But then, she's not very discriminating -- she firmly believes that all wool was intended to become a cat bed.

Pattern: Eunny Jang's Twisted Yoke Cardigan, Fall IK
Yarn: Rowan Felted Tweed, 9 skeins of "herb"

As for the jewelry, the recent mention of my stitch markers and pendants in Knitty has been great for business, as you might imagine. I've had a number of sales (from Australia even!), and have gotten some wonderful feedback. Thanks everyone! I'd better get another batch made up quick ... stock has run low again.

And as for the fiber madness, I've got two fiber-related weekends coming up! This coming weekend, I'll be taking classes at Stitches East in Baltimore. I'll be in Two Hands Two Colors, Freeform Potpourri, and Fair Isle Knitting. Two of these classes will be put to immediate use, as I've already bought the yarn for Eunny Jang's Autumn Rose pullover. And then, the next weekend, I'm going to Rhinebeck. I hadn't been planning to go, but then I found out from a friend about a reunion of our high school class -- that same weekend, and only 100 miles away. I almost had to go then, right?!

The fall issue of Knitty is online . . .

2007-09-13T16:12:00.000-04:00

. . . and I'm so excited! Back in June, I sent off a necklace and a set of stitch markers to the product review folks at Knitty magazine, hoping that they might put them into the "Cool Stuff" section of the fall issue. I've been obsessively checking for the new issue since Labor Day, and it finally went online this afternoon. And there they are -- my "knit" pendant and a set of "I (heart) yarn" stitch markers. Click here to see the Knitty column, and on this link to go to my shop.

And now I have to get back to reading Knitty!

Lots of finished projects -- not all knitting

2007-09-09T18:02:00.001-04:00

I'm shocked by the date of my last post. I knew it had been awhile, but I had no idea it had been so long. I've accumulated lots of finished projects in the meantime. My favorite is this messenger bag:

This is the "Cheery Os Book Bag" from Tink Knit. The original has lots more circles, but I liked the way it looked after I finished the first row, so I stopped there. The front flap is knitted and felted, with the circles needle-felted into place. The yarn is Ella Rae Classic, eggplant and a variety of other colors. The body of the bag, though, is sewn from a buttery soft black leather that I bought on a recent trip to New York at Leather Impact. This was my first time working with leather, but the leather was so soft that I didn't have any trouble with it.

I also finally finished another bag that I knitted and felted weeks ago. This one is the medium-size Adventure Bag from Noni Patterns.

I used some Brown Sheep yarn that I've had sitting around for several years (it was supposed to be a sweater). The lining is from Purl, in New York.
The knitting was easy enough, but I was a little intimidated by sewing in the zipper. Luckily, it went in straight on the first try.

Those are the main knitting projects, but I did make these socks while I was on vacation.

I've also got some non-knitted items to show off today. I got a shiny new Bernina sewing machine last weekend, so I've got a few sewn projects as well -- a cute pincushion, an eyeglass case, and a composition book cover made of some adorable cowgirl oilcloth.

I'm feeling the urge to try a patchwork quilt next . . . but first I ought to finish that cardigan I've been knitting.

Quidditch Sweater for A Crafty Daughter

2007-07-15T20:05:00.001-04:00

I promised my daughter a Quidditch sweater to wear to "Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix," and I delivered it just in the nick of time. I wove in the last yarn end about three hours before we left for the movie. And true to her word, Crafty Daughter wore the sweater to the movie, despite the sweltering summer heat. Here it is:

The pattern is from Charmed Knits, by Alison Hansel. I adjusted the size to halfway between the small and medium. I made one other modification, as well -- I knit the sleeves in 2x2 ribbing throughout, rather than doing a 1x1 ribbing at the cuffs as called for by the pattern.

The yarn is the huggably soft Debbie Bliss Cashmerino. The red is aran weight, color #611, and the yellow is DK weight, color #12. The yellow wasn't available in aran, so I had to mix two different gauge yarns to get the perfect Gryffindor color combination. I knit a swatch first to see if they were compatible, and was very happy to find that the combination worked beautifully.

The sweater is scheduled for its next wearing at the Harry Potter 7 release party this Friday night -- I hope Borders is very well air-conditioned!

My first original design

2007-06-29T12:39:00.002-04:00

Don’t you love the Noni bag patterns? If you’re not nodding enthusiastically right now, it must be because you haven’t seen them yet – so go check out Noni Patterns.

On the past two Saturdays, my friend R. and I took a wonderful class with Noni herself (Nora Bellows), called “Design Your Own Felted Bag.” And that’s exactly what we did. Nora talked us through the process of looking for inspiration, sketching ideas, and then translating those ideas into knitting patterns. At the second meeting, she shared her tips for finishing – that critical step that makes all her bags look so beautifully handcrafted. And with Nora’s help, I made this beautiful bag:

Here's a photo of the other side, where the colors are somewhat different:

I’m beaming with pride at how well it turned out, and can’t wait to use it. Look at the beautiful silk brocade lining:

and the nifty magnetic snap closure and pocket:

It’s even got feet!

Thanks Nora!

Suzanne’s Felted Lattice Bag
Yarn: 4 skeins of Classic Elite Lush, 4 skeins of Noro Kureyon
Needles: size 11, knitted with 2 strands held together

jewelry for your knitting . . . and for you

2007-06-29T11:40:00.001-04:00

I haven’t posted in awhile, because I haven’t managed to get anything finished in weeks. One of the things that has been taking up my time is the launch of my Etsy shop:

My last post was about some sterling silver stitch markers that I made for my Secret Pal from the Knitty board. If you make handcrafted items, I’m sure you’ve heard your friends say “you should sell those!” This time, when my knitting group friends said that, I decided to follow up on it.

My shop is at Etsy.com, “your place to buy and sell all things handmade.” Etsy is a great site that lets handcrafters set up individual shops, and allows buyers to interact directly with the artisans. My shop, which is still small but growing, features stitch markers, pendants, earrings, pins, and charms. There’s a sampling of items over there to the left – click on any of the pictures, or on “acraftylawyer” below the pictures, to be routed to my shop. (If you click on “Etsy” or “Buy handmade,” that will take you to the Etsy home page, rather than to my shop.)

These pieces reflect my love of bright colors and simple shapes. Maybe I’m crazy to be selling stitch markers when there are so many others out there, but I think these are special, and I hope they find an audience. So please check out my shop, and read my profile there. And while you’re there, take a look at some of the other amazing Etsy shops, too.

New Stitch Markers -- posted at last

2007-05-30T15:58:00.000-04:00

A few weeks ago, I made some stitch markers for my Secret Pal from the Knitty board Spring Fling. I decided not to post a photo here until she had received them, to be sure she didn't stumble across the photo before the package arrived. Well, the post office sent the package into limbo for nearly three weeks, eventually returning it to me a couple of days ago with my flawlessly correct address overwritten with an incorrect one. In the meantime, though, I made her another set, and at long last, they've been delivered. So here's the photo I've been waiting to post:

It was the Secret Pal exchange that inspired me to design a set of stitch markers -- I'd never made any before, but thought it would be fun to combine two hobbies, knitting and jewelry making. The markers are made of printed paper set into sterling silver bezels, and coated with clear resin. They hang from the needles on sterling silver split rings. Here's another set that I made for myself:

Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival (and socks)

2007-05-06T20:22:00.001-04:00

I spent several hours on Saturday at the Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival. This was only my second time there, but since last year I've taken up both spinning and sock knitting, which are reflected in the day's purchases. I left home early to be sure I'd arrive by the 9 a.m. opening. That's because I wanted to join the sock yarn madness by getting in line at The Fold to buy Socks That Rock. I got in line around 8:35, with maybe about 20 people there ahead of me. The wait was pleasant enough, though -- I worked on a sock, and chatted with the other knitters. I even got a gift -- I admired a sheep pin that a woman behind me was wearing, and she pulled out a bag and gave me one!

Once I joined the crush inside the booth, I managed to squeeze my way back out with these, in Little Bunny Foo Foo, Waterlilies, Mystic Kelp, and Henpecked:

It was only about 9:15 at that point, so I raced off to see if I could get some Koigu, too, but it turned out the Koigu folks hadn’t made it to the festival after all. Since I didn’t have another crazy sock yarn line to stand in, I just started wandering around to check out all the other vendors. By the time it was over, I had acquired all these goodies:

Bamboo knitting needles with glass tops, from Sheila and Michael Ernst; one fat skein from Seacolors, for a felted bag; and baby alpaca from The Fibre Company.

Terra yarn from The Fibre Company, at a great price; a case for circular needles; and some gorgeous glass buttons from Moving Mud. I plan to design a felted bag around the big blue and gold one. No idea yet what the others are for, though.

Lots of gorgeous, fluffy fleece from Grafton Fibers. This should keep my spindle going until next year’s festival!

And while I was photographing all my goodies from the Festival, I finally got around to getting a picture of the socks I finished last weekend.

Pattern From Sensational Knitted Socks, beaded rib stitch, knit toe-up.
Lorna’s Laces in the Gold Hill colorway, on size 0 needles

EZ Baby Surprise Jacket

2007-04-28T16:10:00.000-04:00

I've spent the past week working on an Elizabeth Zimmermann Baby Surprise Jacket, for a cousin's baby shower. I knit like a maniac for days because I couldn't wait to see how this ingenious design was going to work. The sweater is knit entirely in garter stitch, in one flat piece. The finished knitting looks like this:

A little bit of folding, and it starts to look like a garment:

Fold a bit more, sew up the shoulder seams, and you get this adorable sweater:

I'll definitely be making more of these.

Pattern: Babies Garter-Stitch Surprise Jacket, from Elizabeth Zimmermann's Knitting Workshop.
Yarn: Socks that Rock heavyweight superwash merino in the Barney Rubble colorway, 7 oz/350 yds. The sweater used all but a few yards of the skein. This yarn was a great choice for a baby garment -- beautiful colors, very soft, and machine washable.
Gauge: 5 sts per inch on size 6 needles.
Modifications: My only variation was using a slightly heavier yarn than the pattern called for, 5 sts per inch instead of 6. This first time around, I couldn't envision the finished product enough to even think about changing it. Next time, though, I think I'll put the buttonholes one ridge closer to the edge of the jacket.

Shetland Triangle Shawl

2007-04-07T14:59:00.000-04:00

Well, here it is -- my first post on my new blog! A couple of people on the Knitty Coffeeshop responded to my posts about this shawl by asking to see photos, and this seemed like as good a way as any to make them available. I'll post more later as I figure out how to use Blogger, but for now, here's the shawl:

Shetland Triangle Shawl, from Wrap Style.
Knitted in Alchemy Synchronicity yarn, Foxglove colorway, on size 7 Addi Turbos.

I followed the example of another blogger by using a heavier yarn than the pattern called for, and by eliminating rows 13 and 14 of the edge pattern to make the scalloped edge less pointy.

I really enjoyed making this shawl. The yarn is the softest I've ever used -- 50% merino and 50% silk. These photos don't do justice to the color, which is a rich, purple-red that reminds me of the color of red onions. The curving leaf-shaped design looks complicated, but the pattern was simpler to memorize than I expected. I finished the shawl in under a week. And while I was excited to see the finished product, I was a bit sorry to be finished with it. I may make another, maybe larger, in a different yarn. Maybe just a different color of the same luscious yarn.