Drop Spindlin'

Has it really been since March 4th that I last posted on here? I'm sorry. I've been keeping busy with my lovely Ken Ledbetter drop spindle.

My first five skeins in order,
starting at the back
with the tomato red
(all merino wool)

The coral and mixed colors are also merino.
The second and sixth are spun from locally sourced Tunis roving
and the third skein is Navajo-Churro

These five are all from a roving of
Bluefaced Leicester Top
dyed by Mountain Colors.

The colorway is called Indian Corn
and I love it

Lastly I spun two skeins like this (merino).

felted rugs

All three of my rugs have now been machine-felted and are blocking to dry outside.  Here they are, at approximately 1/3 smaller and with a new rustic, shabby appeal?!

I love how the little knots I tied with the warp became felted fringe.
I was planning to cut it off, but I am going to leave it like this instead.

wool rugs

I am pleased to show you my new weaving adventure: rugs!  I'm using Cascade 220 (worsted) in the beautiful neutral Doeskin Heather for the warp with 2 ends per inch, and Cascade Magnum (super bulky) for the weft in a multitude of fun bright colors.

One skein of 220 is just right for warping three rugs approximately 23" x 40".  I cut my first batch of three off the loom a little while ago and here is what they looked like:

I'm kind of laughing now because I just machine felted the pink/orange/red one as I started this post, and it looks so completely different already!!  Stay tuned for a post-felting update on all three!

Twill Scarf

I finished my first handwoven piece, a semi-plaid scarf woven in a twill pattern.  I'm not sure if it can really be considered plaid since there is no repeating pattern of the three colors.  If you are unfamiliar with twill, it basically refers to the way the parts are woven together forming diagonal lines.  I have learned only the tip of the iceberg so far - there is a lot you can explore with twill.  It adds strength and stability to the fabric, and this is why all denim is woven on a twill.

I used stash yarn to make this scarf:
Black and charcoal grey wool
and poppy red cotton.

more progress on Applewood

On Friday I joined the underarms with 2" worth of stitches on each side. Ever since then this sweater has been knitting up very quickly! I love how it is turning out.

Notice something funny about the color?  One thing to consider with hand-dyed yarns such as Malabrigo is that no two skeins are exactly alike.  If this is a problem for you then you can knit each row from a different ball and have them blend together, but I prefer to play up this feature and ensure that my sweater is one-of-a-kind.  It's helpful to have a plan for how the colors will be distributed.  In my case, one of the three balls I have is much lighter than the other two.  I thought it would be pretty if there was a wide band of the lightest yarn (containing the most pink color) in the top-middle area, and having the darker (more brown) parts on the very top and on the bottom half.  I saved part of the light ball to pick up the sleeves and knit a few inches with it there too.

Schacht weaving loom

Recently I took up another new activity: Weaving! Working at Tempe Yarn & Fiber, it was only a matter of time. Soon after I took my beginning floor loom class, my employers found that they had too many floor looms in the shop and needed to make room for some new rigid heddle looms.  I jumped on the opportunity and so I became the happy new owner of this beautiful Schacht loom.  For practice I weaved off the piece that was already warped on it when it came to me.  Finally this past weekend I threaded my first warp (warp=lengthwise strands) since taking the class probably over a month ago. I don't expect perfection in my tension at this point and so I figured this would be a good time to use up some stash yarn. The color scheme is probably a little too wintery by now, but I picked it out several weeks ago. I still love it though!

better views of applewood

On The Needles

After the snowflake sweater I knit on size 15's, I was itching to knit something with teeny tiny stitches. And I don't care how long it takes me!  I had three 470-yard skeins of Malabrigo Lace (100% merino single ply) in the beautiful colorway Applewood purchased a few months ago and I am finally free to work with it as my #1 priority project.  I experimented with needle sizes and settled on a size 4, which gives a light airy look to the fabric while keeping the stitches small enough to not feel like I'm cheating satisfy my lace craving.  At my relatively tight gauge, I get 7.5 stitches to the inch.

Terry, the owner of the LYS where I work, let me borrow a very helpful book called Hand-Knitting Techniques, which was put out by Threads magazine in the early 90s.  It's a collection of focused articles written by various knitting experts.  The article I'm using is about knitting "designer raglans" from the top down.  Basically it talks about breaking from the traditional raglan shape by deciding on your desired ratio between the measurement across the back and the measurement of the sleeve width along the shoulder.  Beginning at the neck of a top-down raglan, you always increase at four points every second row to give the traditional sleeve shape. At any point there is a constant relationship between the two, explained by the formula

Back = Sleeve + D

so you can create a wide sleeve (where D is a smaller value), or a very tight small sleeve (where D is a larger value), and still use the simple top-down raglan technique to knit your sweater.

If I haven't lost you yet, I would like to show my progress on the sweater so far!  I wanted a very wide neck that is as low in the back as it is in the front, so I started by casting on 53 stitches  for each of two sleeves and increasing at the neck edges as well as the regular sleeve points.  Finally I cast on extra stitches at the end of each piece and began to knit in the round to join the two pieces and form the neck opening.  Of course to show the maximum potential of this gorgeous yarn I had to add in some lace.   I chose a sweet rose leaf panel that I believe works well in this colorway.  I guess I am really into sweaters where the front and back are identical - that's what's happening here! (Not unlike this)

One of the four sleeve increase points

Rose Leaf Lace panel.  I got the idea
for this and lots of other lace samples
here. I modified the first repeat
so that there didn't appear to be
the bottom half of two leaves at the neckline.

This is the best view of the whole thing
right now.  It's not easy to look at on the
needles but once I get to the underarm
it should start to look more like
a sweater!

Been Thinking...

The infrequency of my posting lately is definitely not due to any lack of knitting or other creative projects - I will get to those soon enough!  After my last update on the snowflake motif sweater I forced myself to bear down and work on that thing nonstop until it was finished.  But that really got me thinking about the direction I want to take with my work.  Commission projects mean a guaranteed sale, but they are not nearly as satisfying to work as something of my own choosing.  So at this point I am ready to put all of my focus on following my own instincts, creating things I love and then trying to sell those - rather than taking the safe route of the guaranteed sale.  Luckily with my two paying jobs, I don't have to rely on income from my sales yet.  So it will probably take some time to build a viable line, but I'm very excited about it.


Naturally, my antennae are out for a new name. Something beautiful, memorable, radiating an inexplicable, effortless wisdom?

Finishing a Sweater

I've noticed a sad but interesting thing about myself and, in my very rough calculation, this seems to apply to about 50% of knitters I meet everyday. Some projects, like hats, are very easy to finish, but those that require "making up" can sit, completely knitted, in a closet for years just waiting to be finished and shown off. Let us not fear success! Just think of all the compliments you will receive on your sweater, of the baby that is now six months old and in need of a hand knit blanket, or whatever the incentive that works for you.


If you haven't noticed, I'm trying to motivate myself here.  I have been working on a coat-style sweater on commission since October now.  In my defense, I had to take a break from it for my Christmas knitting, at which time I was able to finish several different projects, though mostly small ones.  But I finished almost all of the main knitting on this sweater about two weeks ago and I've just been avoiding the assembly of the pieces, the next necessary step.  So today I forced myself to sew the side seams and the sleeve seam of the one trial sleeve.  Note that it took no more than an hour.  Oh, and it didn't hurt at all!

New Baby

  Working at the yarn shop means I am always thinking about which items might want to come home with me.
  We sell these beautiful drop spindles on consignment from the talented Tucson artisan Ken Ledbetter.  Each one is unique and they vary in weight, wood type, and embellishments.  This one has always stood out to me and I have seen it passed over time and again by shoppers.  Originally I was waiting until a spot opened up in one of the shop's popular spinning classes, but I decided yesterday that I couldn't wait any longer to bring this baby home with me!

This spindle features a lacquered Russian broach
on a Koa wood whorl
with dyed maple for the shaft.
weight: .88 oz

I watched several tutorials on YouTube and found this one to be most helpful to me:

My first handspun yarn!  It is merino wool which is known as the easiest
for a beginner to spin.  The only question is what will I use it for?

My First Tag

Welcome to 2012

Happy New Year, everyone!


It's been a busy few months for me wrapping up 2011. Since I've been back in Tempe, I've been working two jobs while attempting to keep some time available for my knitting sales. I work at Tempe Yarn & Fiber, which is great because I get to surround myself with other knitters just as obsessed as I am. It's also great because I will be able to learn lots of new skills - I'm particularly excited to take some weaving and spinning classes hopefully starting this month. To help support my yarn habit, I also work at a brand new restaurant/bar called O.H.S.O. in Arcadia, one of my favorite neighborhoods in Phoenix.


It's nice to keep busy, but I need to make sure to keep my priorities straight - so here are my New Year's Resolutions:


1.  Finish Every Project I Start!


2.  Get More Involved On Ravelry!
        ->Find me here as MeghanCecilia


3.  Burn Through My Yarn Stash!

Goin International

In the words of my sister, "business is booming" for my PennyMae shop this week.  I've made four sales to four different countries (Japan, Australia, the US and Spain)!


Three of my items were immediately relisted, but the last one (my Southwestern top) I couldn't, due to a hard-to-find yarn I picked up in Sequim, Washington.  However, I do have the same yarn in a different colorway, which is light pink and orange.  Keep an eye out for this one coming soon...

Southwest Fantasy

As you can probably tell I have many many projects going all at once.  It gives me lots of variety and little chance of boredom.  As much fun as it is to start new projects, of course nothing compares to the satisfaction of actually finishing something!



Coinciding with the miracle of a computer returned from the dead, what a great time to finish a bright and (I think) stylish new top to photograph and edit with the latest version of iphoto!

This Southwestern top is knitted in one piece with an identical front and back.
The bias cut drape was created using a combination of yarn-over increases (at front and back) and decreases (at both sides).

Back to the 21st Century

I am pleased to report that my computer (whose hard drive crashed in like May) is back up and running, and it only cost me $75!  That is the cost of a new replacement hard drive with 500GB of memory.


If you are like me and many I know, you love your Mac. Let me give you another reason to love it, if you don't already know.  You can replace your own hard drive in about 5 minutes with two screwdrivers and a YouTube video, okay?  Do not shell out $85 in labor to hire a "professional"!


"But Meghan," I hear you say, "I didn't plan ahead for this. I threw away my original 2007 Mac OS disk and Application suite disk!" (Okay, maybe you weren't stupid enough to do this, but I was.)  Well, not to worry because you can just go to the Apple store and they will give you the BRAND NEW versions of everything, and it will be free! 

Yarn Bombing

I'm going through some big changes (back in Arizona for the winter...and I believe I mentioned my laptop has been down, et cetera) so I'm far behind in listing new items on Etsy as well as updating the blog here.

In the meantime, here is some inspiration for today!  Oh, I hang out at the Tempe Public Library every day now, and when I'm not using the internet I can be found wandering the stacks.  I rented an interesting book called Yarn Bombing.  I've never been lucky enough to come across this type of graffiti, but I have a feeling some people in my neighborhood might, soon enough!

The Next Level: Knitwear Design!

     Last year at this time I was working my trail crew internship at Baxter State Park and, in my spare time, knitting my first sweater (The Sublime Organic Cotton dk Pullover).  At that point if I so much as dropped a stitch off the needle, it would be a week before I would even look at the project again for fear of accidentally twisting the stitches trying to pick them back up!

It's encouraging to think how far I've come in the past year. When I opened my PennyMae shop on Etsy, I was just beginning to push beyond the basics of knitting.  In the next several months I filled my shop with many small projects using all of the new skills I was learning.  Now I have reached a skill level where I am comfortable enough to really move into the exciting world of knitwear design!  Despite my lack of recent posts, there are actually several things I have been working on that I can't wait to share.  Here are two of them:



Purple sweater vest using 100% local handspun wool from Chittendon, Vermont.
Since this picture was taken, I actually finished the main knitting (all except the edging along neck and sleeve openings).  However, I'm not satisfied with my decrease method on the sides of the sleeves, where you can see big stitches on each side, so I am going to redo it.  More on that later...





My favorite - I will go into much more detail about this item later.
Just a little teaser for now :)



the dip dye-ing process

Yesterday I began the dip dye-ing process for my knitted boho bag.Well, the beets did not exactly produce the color I was looking for - less deep red and more of a stomach acid yellow-grey, I would say. Luckily I did some small test pieces before throwing my final product into the pot.

I was about to give up on the whole "nature" route and spring for some powdered Kool-Aid when I decided to try using a bottle of cranberry juice berry dye.  Actually I will probably try Kool-Aid too another time, but for now I am keeping things natural.  Here are some photos of the process so far!

Step 1: almost all in, except the top of the handle.
I let it simmer for about an hour.

Step 2: lifted out the handle and simmer some more.
I left it in approximately this position overnight
then simmered for another hour this morning.

Step 3: after rinsing the cranberry juice off the bag,
I placed only the bottom portion in some tea,
where it is currently simmering.
I'll probably let it go about an hour.



UPDATE:

Here it is all done.  The cranberry juice barely stained the cotton at all!  I may add some store-bought dye to it later but for now it is a very light pink on top - although I do like the way the tea stain worked on the bottom.  On further research I learned that Kool-Aid works great on wool but does not work on cotton.



Color From Nature

I absolutely love color and while there are so many colorful products out there, I am excited to try dying things myself!  Rather than buying from the store, I'm gonna start experimenting with natural plant dyes.


I knitted another one of these "boho bags" but this one is bigger and made with a natural off-white cotton.

Everything about this screams "blank canvas" to me.  So I've done a little research and I'm planning to use some of the beautiful beets Ned brought home from his co-worker's farm the other day, along with some strong tea, to dip-dye this handbag and hopefully turn it into something much more exciting!