Wildlife Wars

The netting barrier that we put up to foil the raccoons worked for only one night! By the next night they were back:

Curses!! They must have climbed over the railing from the top of the barbeque below. So now we are trying this:

The spigot has to be put inside the pot and this board on top. With the Auk looking very grumpily on guard! The board is too heavy for a raccoon to move. Every morning Thom has to remove it, fish out the bamboo spout and put the board aside. Every evening before bedtime, he does the reverse. Boring! But sadly necessary. You never know when those bandits are going to show up. They’ll leave things alone for weeks and then…bam! Could be worse I suppose. It could be deer! Or bears. And someone spotted a bobcat in nearby Burnaby recently. Gotta love living with the wildlife.

Anyway, in crafty news I’ve finished my Rainbow Dark Cardi and I love it! It’s still waiting on Thom to finish a toggle button before the big reveal. Meanwhile, here’s an illustration of what I was talking about with the cuffs. When casting on 4 stitches for the i-cord bind-off, I merely forgot to move those stitches back to the left-hand needle before beginning. So instead they were left to knit at the end instead:

So I bound them off and tucked them underneath the beginning. It actually looks quite nice I think:

Of course I had to deliberately make the same mistake on the second cuff! It took less yarn than I thought to make this sweater so now I have 400 metres of this yarn left. And I don’t want to waste all that prep and spinning! I think I know what I can do with it but I need to spin some contrasting yarn first to have enough for my plan. More on that later.

But first, I started something else. After my Buonasera Tunic (which showed up prominently in the photo of the Annual Woolie Wash from the other day) I still had plenty of that navy blue Italian noil silk left on the cone. I also had this pattern:

This is the Ophicleide Cardigan by Kamicha. She has sadly discontinued her free pattern though I luckily snagged it before she did. I’m getting a little larger gauge but to compensate I’m making a size smaller (91 cm). Not sure how long I’ll make it but I kind of like the little puff sleeves. Do I have a fondness for these top-down open-front cardigans lately or what? I spent some time re-charting the yoke pattern for myself because I found the original kind of hard to decipher from my printout. Her symbols are somewhat unfamiliar and the image isn’t high enough resolution to see well. It all became much clearer in my mind as I worked it out. I also tend to use a cable needle for the crosses even when everyone else is trying to avoid them. I’m more proficient and actually faster with a cable needle than without.

Naturally I had to look up the unfamiliar title: Ophicleide (pronounced something like “offa-clyde”) and found that it’s an antique brass instrument, the successor of the serpent and the ancestor of the tuba and euphonium. Lovely bass tones! I’m sure the designer was inspired by the brass-coloured yarn she chose for her sweater. Mine is not going to evoke the same musical romance but never mind.

In weaving news, I’ve wound 3/4 of the warp for the waffle weave towels. I’m not working very quickly obviously but progress is being made which is good. Some of the skills are starting to come back to me after such a long time/no weave! The last thing I did was my bedroom curtains back in 2012 and that was the first woven project in many years. I’ve been telling everyone that I will weave more but still got sidetracked with other things. I’m trying to rectify that by starting with one little project. Hopefully more will follow.

More soonest! I’m off to go wind the last part of the warp.

A Mental Block

I know I don’t usually wax political on here (though nothing else seems to be off-limits!) but I saw this article about the Yarn Blockade that the First Nations people of Hartley Bay in northern BC put up as a protest against the proposed oil pipeline and oil supertankers that would go right past their doors. It’s made from yarn crocheted into a chain 4.6 kilometres long stretched across Douglas Channel! Impressive. They couldn’t blockade a road so they had to come up with something that could go across the water. The Federal government has approved this oil project even though most British Columbians (including yours truly) strongly oppose it. I don’t know if the chain will help convince the government that it’s a stupid idea but at least they are trying to get their point across. Testing the power of yarn.

In case you hadn’t noticed I’m really an ardent environmentalist. I love my Earth and I’m more than concerned about how things are going. Greed and ignorance and apathy are not doing Her any favours. Somebody has to be the Lorax and speak for more than the trees! I just hope the Important People will finally pay attention before we reach some unimaginable tipping point. I don’t know. (My cynical side says not to bet on it.) But I’d like a clean and happy world for my grandkids to inherit. I don’t think it should be too much to ask.

OK, I’m done now. Jumping off the soapbox. Moving right along.

I have lots of photos for you today. First up, let me show you the upgrade that I did on my Guild’s rental Lendrum spinning wheel. It was one of the oldest models (the company began in 1976) with the horrible (to me anyway) wire footman. It was the single biggest reason why I didn’t buy a Lendrum as my first spinning wheel way back then. I hate the spongy action of the wire. I’m sure good old Gord got lots of feedback on this so he eventually changed to a wood footman and now makes double-treadle wheels as well. In his wisdom he came up with a retrofit option for the earlier model. Here’s the original wire footman:

Swaged stainless steel. Reminds me of the rigging on the sailboat we used to own. A little shout-out to our more-or-less local supplier and fellow guild members Fibres Plus for the replacement part. (I’d give you a link to them but their minimal website seems down at the moment.) The only difficulty was trying to snip off the wire at that little white pulley. That stuff is tough! Thom finally sawed it off (wire cutters weren’t biting through) and we attached the new footman:

The new wood doesn’t match terrifically well to the old darkened finish. But that’s ok. It works really nicely now! I just need to clean it up a bit more and make this beast some kind of padded carry bag out of stash materials like I’ve been promising for a year or so now. Plus a separate tote for the optional plying head. Which, btw, should be called a jumbo head because that’s what it is. It might be old but it’s still a perfectly serviceable spinning wheel. Now if only someone would rent the poor thing! It gets tired of hanging about in my attic.

What else? I’ve wound about 1/4 of the warp for the Waffle Weave Towels. I would have gotten more done but it took about 2 hours just to wind the handspun yarns (threads really) into balls. The skeins were rather tangled and I had to go very slowly and carefully. Even the weight of the skein winder was too much for the thread and it snapped several times when I accidentally went too fast or lost concentration for a moment. Not a pleasant experience. I’m pretty patient though – especially when it’s my own super-fine handspun I’m dealing with. So why bother to spin my own thread you ask? Because I can! Heh.

I’m somewhat concerned that the thicker hemp/blue jeans won’t fit comfortably doubled through the 15-dent reed. Cross that bridge when I come to it. It’s pretty squishy. As long as the slubby bits don’t catch, it should be fine. I hope.

Meanwhile I’m at the second i-cord cuff on the Rainbow Dark sweater. Hope it matches the first one when I’m done. Notice that I’m full of hopes today?

I’ve been taking advantage of the lovely weather to start on the Annual Woolie Wash. Here’s the first instalment:

More sweaters are on the agenda for today. It gets more complicated when I start doing the lacy scarves and shawls that need proper blocking with wires and pins. I can only do about 3 at a time. Ummm…yes, I have a LOT of woolies. I love them.

And because you haven’t seen it recently, here’s some garden goodness. My little baby Juliet tomatoes:

Baby Black Cherry tomato:

The tomatoes are up to the top of the greenhouse! These are indeterminates so they just keep growing until either frost kills them or I pull them out. It gets very jungly in that greenhouse.

Baby spaghetti squash. As big as a baseball now!

All in all, it’s looking pretty nice out there this year. This is about 1/4 of the veggie patch:

Those lemon cucumbers in the foreground are planted much too closely together. I usually lose quite a few of them to bugs so I overplant but that didn’t happen this year. They seem to be doing ok so far so I’m not going to disturb them. Maybe they just like to party! Cukey mosh pit. (Yes, I anthropomorphise randomly. So?)

So this is the quickly-rigged Raccoon Foiler we’ve been putting up at night. So far it’s been working – even though it’s kind of a PITA to set up and take down every day. We probably need proper gates. Or even a baby gate. We’ll be on the lookout for an appropriate option. Meanwhile this ugly thing is doing what’s necessary:

Curse you, Rocky! You made me do it!

Speaking of Which

True confessions – I’m not a deep or complex thinker. I’m actually pretty WYSIWYG as a person. I don’t spend a lot of time contemplating and analysing and debating every little issue. My parents used to think I was pretty black and white in my opinions and I was when I was younger, though time and experience has greyed a lot of that oversimplified view. I’m really very positive but with a cynical side that can trip me up occasionally. I know there are always exceptions, reasons, forgiveness, overlooking of flaws and just plain humanness. (But I’d still like to smack a few people upside the head!) Mostly I try to only get worked up about things that are actually within my control. No point in stressing out over something you can’t do anything about. I try to just live my life as best I can and hope that I don’t annoy or hurt or rip off anybody else. Can’t say I always succeed! But I do try.

Well. Don’t know where the above statement issued from. I wrote it a few days ago with some kind of bee in my bonnet! But I didn’t want to waste the words as they spilled out of my head. You just never know what could be important to say. Or not.

Moving right along.

In crafty news, I’m cruising down the last sleeve of the Rainbow Dark Cardi. I’m really happy with how it’s looking. I did have a bit of trouble with the i-cord bind-off on the cuff. I know I made a mistake but I kind of like how it turned out in the end. I didn’t start the i-cord correctly so it ended in a way that made it impossible to join into a neat circle. Instead the result is that instead of picking it all out and starting again, I ended it by tucking it under and stitching it down. It looks like the i-cord grows out of the sleeve stitches, winds around the cuff and disappears under the beginning. The second cuff will have the same mistake. It won’t be bilaterally symmetrical though but that’s ok. One of these days I’ll figure out how to do it right. Maybe. Photos to come.

And I’m planning some weaving! Yes, I’ve been hanging out in my studio attempting to get an idea together for something to go on my poor lonely barenaked loom. I need towels. To that end, I took a booklet out of my Guild library at the meeting last Thursday:

Handwoven’s Design Collection 18 – A Treasury of Towels. (If you hurry you can download a copy for $4.98.) These are all 4-shaft drafts and I realise I actually have 8 but I thought I’d start myself off easy. I’m not likely to copy anything exactly but I decided that the waffle weave towels on the back cover by Marilyn Murphy would be fun. I have a cone of natural 16/2 hemp/cotton and some fine handspun hemp/recycled blue jeans and even finer handspun organic green cotton. I’m pretty pleased with the idea of using up some ridiculously fine yarn that I spun on my little brass tahkli supported spindle years ago. No point in just admiring it in skeins, right? The Blue Blazes hemp/cotton was only a singles but I spent some time plying it up on my Louet Victoria wheel with the lace flyer. I thought that even though it’s not as fine as the other yarns it would benefit from plying for warp since it tends to pull apart somewhat easily. It actually broke a few times so it was probably a good idea even though I was originally planning to weave it single. Might have worked ok for weft but not warp. The recycled jeans waste makes it a bit lumpy and slubby. Now I’m just waiting for the handspun to dry from setting it and then I’ll get to winding a warp.

I had to recalculate the draft since it called for slightly thicker yarn. It was kind of fun trying to remember all the details like adding take-up and shrinkage and loom waste. I want 4 smallish towels that can either go on my oven door handle or in the bathroom as a hand towel. I already have a waffle weave towel that I use regularly but it was woven by a dear friend so long ago that she doesn’t even weave anymore! She paints watercolours instead.

Those ones won’t be for drying dishes. For that, I have a second plan from the same booklet. This one is a 4-shaft crackle weave and will use up some vintage cottolin and probably some 8/2 cotton when, as I suspect, I will run out of the cottolin. They’re very colourful so it doesn’t really matter if I throw in some odd lots! The original design is for “sauna towels” so I’m reducing them down to a dish towel size. Can you tell I’m having fun with the planning? I just have to get to the actual weaving part of the projects before I run out of steam.

Oh drat! I just read about a job offer that was absolutely tailor-made for me! If only I were in the market for a job. And at least a decade younger. Sweet Georgia Yarns has an opening for a studio assistant/precision dyer. I can do that. And it’s only a fairly short rapid transit ride away from me too. However, I’m rather thoroughly retired. Oh well. Someone else really smart and energetic will get the position and thrive at it. Felicia is obviously doing really well with SGY! Hurray!

We’ve been pestered by the Really Evil Raccoon again. Twice more. Thom is getting seriously tired of reassembling the water garden every morning. Tonight we have a net over the entry to the upper deck. We’ll see if it deters the beast. Yes, I know they can climb very nimbly. I’m hoping that they’re put off enough to go elsewhere rather than tackle something different that’s in their way. I’ll let you know how it goes.

Happy Solstice!

It’s officially summer here and the sun is shining! However the furnace kicked in this morning because it was only 15C in the house. (That’s just below 60 for you Fahrenheit people.) Just a little chilly. It’s going up fast now though and will be nice and warm outside very soon. Must get out into the garden and get some more weeds pulled before it heats up.

However first there’s a little tidying job to do. We woke up this morning to this scene on the upper deck:

Can you guess the culprit? Yeah, it was raccoons. Again. Must have been a big’un too! They squashed my coleus and lobelia, pulled the pump apart, knocked the whole spout and the metal bird (aka Auk) into the water, pulled out another glass bubble (there’s only 7 left) and draped salvinia bits all over the deck. Grrrr….annoying wildlife.

The garden is mostly doing well so far this year. There’s tiny tomatoes, pattypan and spaghetti squashes. We’re picking peas and the first raspberries. Still getting some kale buds and I harvested the full crop of garlic scapes. They seem a little ahead of schedule this year. Must be the warm sunny May we had. June has been more rainy and cool so far.

Which brings me to Car Free Day. If you remember the Fambly was coming over on Father’s Day and we were going to head over to Main Street, only 3 blocks away, to walk up the street and see what was to be seen. It didn’t start out well though. Before everyone got here we had a thunderstorm and hail and a LOT of rain. I felt sorry for the participants on Main trying to set up booths and such in the deluge. It went on for quite awhile too. Happily though by the time everyone finally arrived it had cleared up and we had a great time, especially the Grandbeasties. They got to make monster bubbles in front of the soap shop, dance to various musicians, have cupcakes and suckers, get a balloon, sit in a vintage fire truck, get stickers from the handsome fireman and generally enjoy themselves thoroughly. Of course the grownups did too. We didn’t go that far but that’s ok. We saw the best bits anyway. Then it was home for barbeque and a relaxing evening on the deck chatting and watching the kids play. I love my Fambly. It was a delightful Father’s Day.

What else? In crafty news, I’ve got yet another kumihimo class scheduled for July. This is the last one for definite and I hope to sell off at least some of the equipment afterward. No point in having it all taking up valuable space in my attic. Somebody could actually be using it! Or having it take up valuable space in their attic…

I am somewhat surprised at how popular the kumihimo has been! Though I guess I shouldn’t be. It’s not well enough known and there really aren’t that many people around who know how to do it on the marudai. They might know just one braid (Kongo) on the disc because it’s easy and the instructions are available in lots of places. But there are so many more braids and the possibilities are pretty much endless once you figure out the underlying principles to using the marudai. Not quite so portable but I don’t mind the trade-off at all. I find it so much faster and easier than the disc and with less mistakes and neater results.

What else? As you might suppose, I’ve been obsessing over my Rainbow Dark sweater . I’m done with the body and am onto the sleeves using bamboo dpns. It’s not particularly portable at the moment. Just a big lump of wool:

I jumped ahead in the instructions a little and finished putting the pockets together. They’re joined at the bottom while knitting but the side edges and the top of the lining are still loose. I wisely steamed the pocket pieces flat before stitching up the pocket sides. Made it much easier and neater to sew. They still need the curved garter stitch “moons” added but I have to knit them first. They have to be completely hand-stitched on. I tried the sweater on me (instead of Debbie, for a change) and really like how my adjustments to the pattern worked out. <pats self on back> I’m going to have lots of yarn left over – better than not enough! Maybe I’ll make a matching beret.

Best get to gettin’ (as my auld poppy would say). The garden is awaiting my tender attentions and the water garden and deck won’t clean up themselves. Sadly. More soon!

Oh BTW, the photos are going to be larger from now on. It was brought to my attention that dinky little thumbnails are so passé. Everyone prefers to see the big picture. OK. Now you don’t need to click on them to see the details. Hope that works for you.

Thoughts On Sweaters

It’s been raining on and off today which is nice because it saves having to water the garden. I’m a bit “hung-over” from the migraine and not really inclined to do anything terrifically energetic. I still haven’t cleaned up all the kumihimo stuff! But I will. There’s a deadline.

Meanwhile I’ve been knitting away on my Rainbow Dark cardigan. I nearly forgot how much I love knitting with handspun wool yarn in all its slightly uneven but very lively glory. It’s pretty special stuff, each inch having gone through my hands many times before I even get to knit with it. Back in the day I would never knit with anything else but recently I’ve gotten out of the habit. I’ve made quite a few sweaters from stash yarns including sock yarn. I really prefer manufactured yarn for socks – although that might change if I could find a combination of fibre and spinning technique that would make yarn durable enough to pass the wearing test in my Blunnies. Plus there’s no way I was going to handspin anything for a Grandbeastie! Poor babies. A least not until they’re doing their own laundry and can prove to me they appreciate the work involved and know how to take care of knitwear. Yes, I’m a mean granny like that.

While I was knitting I was pondering. As you do. And I decided that not only was I going to strive to use handspun yarns in future but I was going to spin from stash fibres as much as I possibly can. It means that projects will take at least double the normal amount of time to complete but I really enjoy the many processes so it doesn’t matter. I’ve got a rather large collection. It needs to be utilised. All it takes is Actually Doing It. Right.

Also while the heavy pondering was going on, I realised that I really like cardigans the best. They are versatile garments and work with a lot of different outfits. Pullover sweaters are nice with some combinations and I particularly love my most recent Simple Tweedy Pullover. With its fine yarn and short sleeves it can even be worn on a cool rainy late spring day. Like today. I also love my sleeveless pullover tunics for layering. But a regular loose pullover sweater without shaping doesn’t really work for my body very well. If it’s loose enough to go over the tummy it can easily overwhelm my narrow shoulders. On the other hand a very close-fitting pullover sweater just makes me look blobby. Or pregnant. Not good. A trapeze shape is doable if the shoulders and arms fit well and the body isn’t too voluminous. But somehow a cardigan left partially unbuttoned seems best of all to me.

Some stats: out of the last 12 sweaters I’ve made for myself only 4 were not cardigans. Only one other one was handspun (though several were hand-dyed) and I specifically bought yarn for only 3 of them. The rest were scrounged from what was already in my stash. And before you ask, it took me 3-and-a-half years to make that many! I’m actually a rather slow knitter. Just very persistent. I knit on something nearly every day.

Back to Rainbow Dark. What I love best about knitting a sweater top-down is that you can try it on as you go. Here’s Debbie Double testing the fit so far:

 

Obviously my size adjustments are working out fine. So far so good anyway. I feel I’ve learned a lot in the quest to make clothes for the body that I have – rather than the one I wish I had. It’s been hard work but very empowering! It’s finally getting a lot easier to figure out what size to start with and where and how to add width and length where I need it so I’m not locked into the designer’s choices. The only tricksy bit on this particular sweater will be working the pockets. Heidi Kirrmaier has written the pattern really clearly with enough detail, but not so much wordiness as to make it confusing. I am having a little trouble memorising the unfamiliar pattern for the 4-stitch front edges and have to look at the instructions every time. That could just be me though. It’ll probably sink in around about the time I’m finished the thing.

The top-down method has other advantages too besides the try-on. If you are short of yarn you can make the body slightly shorter or the sleeves can be 3/4 length instead. And you can make these decisions on the fly at the end rather than having to anticipate in advance or rip back to start again. I also really like knitting sweaters in one piece. I don’t mind seaming – and this sweater has a few to join the pocket pieces – but it’s just so satisfying to only have a couple of ends to sew in and you’re done and ready to block. I see no real reason to have side seams or underarm seams on the sleeves. Knitting is just as easy to do tubular as flat. Unless you have a stitch pattern that just doesn’t work in the round (and I can’t really think of any except maybe intarsia, though there is a round-about way to do that too). Fair isle or any two-colour knitting is actually much easier in the round because you don’t have to purl. I wonder if knitting flat pieces was a habit that extended from dressmaking? Traditionally, knitting was seamless. Another encouragement for knitting in the round has been the huge improvement in circular needles. I never use straights anymore even for flat knitting. Only double-pointed needles and circulars. Yes, I could avoid the dpns altogether using 2 circs or magic loop techniques but where would be the fun in that? I love my pokey sticks.

There’s been some debate about whether or not seamed sweaters are more stable, hang better or are more durable in the long term. I think with knitting completely in the round there may be some stretching and sagging issues if the yarn is very heavy, slippery or stretchy and the needle size is large for the yarn thickness. It’s helpful to stabilise shoulder seams with a seam or a 3-needle bind-off but you can’t do that on a circular yoke or raglan sleeves. I think something looking off is more likely to be due to fit issues rather than unstable construction. The better the sweater fits the more likely it is to keep its shape. I haven’t noticed anything terrible happening with any of my recent sweaters anyhow.

However, the one real drawback to knitting a sweater all in one piece is the bulk of the thing! As it gets bigger it gets harder to drag around and eventually outgrows being a portable project. I definitely need a larger tote bag for my sweater projects. I have plans. And fabrics. Just have to do it. Soon. This current sweater is getting larger by the day!

So why do I love sweaters so much? Our house can be quite cold! On purpose. We keep the thermostat deliberately lower than the usual room temperature. I’ve adjusted so well that I often feel too hot in shops or others’ homes. There are times when I’m not moving around (like right now while I’m typing!) where I need some woolies on to stay comfortable. In winter I often wear several layers of clothes. Knitwear is a big staple in my wardrobe. As Brenda Dayne of the Cast On podcast always says “If you’re cold put on a sweater. That’s what they’re for.”

Happy Father’s Day tomorrow! Thom & I sadly don’t have our fathers around any more but he is a father and our son and son-in-law are both fathers too so we’re having a wee family barbeque. And maybe a visit to Car Free Day on Main Street if the weather cooperates. I love walking down the middle of what is usually a busy 4-lane street along with thousands of neighbours all enjoying themselves. Music, food, merchandise, information, games, events and demonstrations. This year it extends 21 blocks. Fun.

More later!

Hindsight

This isn’t going to be a very long post because I’m expiring with a very nasty migraine today which my usual medication refuses to affect much. But since it’s been awhile and somebody might be wondering how yesterday’s Kumihimo Class #2 went, I thought I’d suck it up. Just for you. Besides what else do I have to do besides lie around and read and knit while Thom keeps serving me tea and the occasional ibuprophen? (He’s adorable.)

The weather was threatening to include some rain but it kindly held off so I could set up the outdoor classroom, otherwise known as the lower deck. Everyone showed up this time so I had 8 and luckily there were exactly enough equipment kits for all. With one small exception: I found out at the last minute that I was short 8 bobbins in each of 3 of them but luckily had the bolts and nuts which only had to be assembled. The threads of the bolt have to be wrapped with a strip of cling wrap to protect the threads, the nut screwed on and a leader string attached. I got most of them done before everyone showed up and the rest finished later while they were busy setting up but I needn’t have bothered since we never got past 8-strand braids anyhow. Unfortunately I didn’t sell any of the kits this time either. Perhaps they were reluctant because I still need 6 sets for yet another proposed class, not scheduled as to date yet. However I would eventually like to sell them all so I’ll have an excuse not to do this again more space in my attic. I can always put an ad in the guild newsletter next autumn and hope there’s still some interest.

Anyhow, I think a good time was had by all! We got quite a lot done. Everyone was making nice braids and, apart from a little frustration at one of the more difficult ones, I’d say they all learned at least the basics including preparing the warp, setting it up on the marudai, attaching and winding on the bobbins, how to read the diagrams and how to hold the threads and move them around the “mirror”. After that it’s just practice, practice, practice. One does need a marudai to practice on though. Just sayin’.

As we were winding down around 3:30pm we felt a small drip or two of the wet stuff. It never amounted to more but it encouraged everyone to pack up more quickly. I had lots of help getting all the books and yarns and paraphernalia back into the house. My dining room looked like this after the storm of kindly assistance:

Well, I didn’t expect anyone to put it all away! That’s my job. Since Thom was off at his mom’s we also had to put the big folding table away in the shed by ourselves. It’s very heavy (thick particle board with metal legs) but we managed. Can’t leave it out because it’s definitely NOT outdoor grade particle board and I didn’t want it to dissolve into a pile of sawdust. And it did end up raining but not until sometime early this morning. It’s pretty nice out now. Even if I don’t care because it’s too bright for my poor eyes! At least it saved us some garden watering.

Now for the true confessions. I felt I was more relaxed the second time, at least once I knew the weather was going to hold off. But I made two mistakes: one was not taking any medication for the headache that was already starting when I woke up yesterday morning (obviously I was in denial) and the second was totally forgetting to put in my hearing aids. Doh. I seemed to manage OK because didn’t even realise I’d forgotten them until things were pretty much over. I was probably talking louder than normal! But I definitely should have taken an Advil or 2 before class started because if I had gotten it early perhaps it might not be so much worse today. Grrr…

Hindsight is just so 20/20.

In knitting news my Rainbow Dark sweater is coming along nicely. I’m cruising down toward the point where I need to divide for the sleeves. More later!

One Down, One To Go

Well, I survived the first kumihimo workshop but I’m not so sure about my poor students! I always want to give them everything I know about a subject which does tend to overwhelm too much. I can’t help it! Of course they were all feeling a little intimidated so I dialled back the information and just concentrated on giving them the basics until everyone was more relaxed. By the end of the day brains were melted but hands were getting the rhythms down so we were all happy. Two people bought their marudai kit to take home. It’s kind of improvised (a folding stool with a hole drilled, 16 nuts’n’bolts for bobbins, a chopstick and a little counterweight bag) but it works nicely. I hope there’s enough sets left for the next class on Thursday.

Through some confusion 2 students didn’t show up so there were only 4 in Saturday’s class. Later I heard from one who thought she was signed up for Thursday so I told her I’d squeeze her in. Not sure about the second missing person but if we have 8 it will be a definite squeeze! Especially if the weather doesn’t cooperate because it sure worked a treat having it out on the deck – even with the walnut tree throwing tiny baby walnuts down on us. (Those are the ones that didn’t get pollinated.) It was sunny but not too warm and we had plenty of shade. The breeze tossed my notes a couple of times. (You’d think I’d learn to weight them down, wouldn’t you?) We had a lot more room outside and the bottom step was just the right height to reach the marudai properly from a chair on the grass. No standing to work – except for me. Here’s hoping it goes as well with twice as many students on Thursday. According to the weather report they’re calling for sunny with cloudy periods and a chance of showers. Who knows if that’s true or not? Not ideal. But I’m sure we’ll manage somehow.

Backing up to last week’s Spectrum dye session, I have photos. The first two are Bonnie’s:

This is a bunch of everyone else’s skeins, divoré velvet and other fabric samples on the drying rack. The dyes were cochineal (bright pinks/fuchsia), logwood (deep purple-blue), and osage plus iron modifier (browns/khaki). And here’s Bonnie’s little pieces of wool flannel fabric. Most had leaves pressed in and shibori tied:

Here’s my items after they were rinsed and dried:

Top left is superwash wool/nylon sock yarn (one end in logwood and one in cochineal overlapped to purple in the middle), some divoré samples from the different vats, and the piece of creped wool gauze with marbles and some shibori stitches tied in. The logwood came out very dark on the silk/rayon velvet and the wool but much paler on some of the other things in the dyebath. We were hoping for more of an olive green with the osage/iron bath but got more of a slightly greenish tan instead. Oh well. Love the colour you get, right? I might do some overdyeing in an indigo vat with the shibori piece later on. The “bubbles” and the maki-nui stitch’s textures should remain after the ties are removed – as long as the piece doesn’t get wet ever again! I’m also hoping for some colour contrast where the ties were. Some darker areas will be better. Can’t remove the ties until I’m done messing with it anyway. 

The other good news is that I finished spinning all the yarn for my next sweater:

That’s 6 skeins, 530g, and somewhere around 1400 yards of 2-ply worsted weight yarn. I’ve already got them all wound into balls and cast on for the collar (though it’s really more like a yoke) in garter stitch. So far it’s looking very good but no photo yet.

The Harvest Moon pattern by Heidi Kirrmaier is very nicely written and it wasn’t too hard to work it up into something that would fit me better. I’m morphing the sizes up as I go, beginning with a medium for the yoke. If I have enough yarn I’m hoping to make it a little longer than the pattern states as well because I like my sweaters between 16” and 18” from the underarm. That means starting the pockets a little later so I hope that doesn’t drop them too far down on the body, a definite concern with my short arms. We’ll see how it goes. It’s only knitting and it can be reversed if necessary! I like that. It means you can take chances and easily rip it out if it doesn’t work out. All you’ve lost is a little time. It’s so worth it to get a good result.

The garden is growing, the bugs are munching and we’re trying to beat them to the produce. The poor scarlet runner beans look like lace but they’ll hopefully soon outgrow the tiny little yellow slugs that eat them in the middle of the night. Also the tomatoes have flea beetles as usual but that doesn’t slow them down much. I’m very concerned about the small variety of cabbages which are not doing well at all. The regular big ones right next to them are just fine, if a little nibbled. No idea but something is getting their roots and killing the whole plant. Boo. Those are the things you live with in an organic garden. I need to plant some new seeds. The lettuces are heading up now. Earlier in the season I could pick a few leaves from each plant but now there are way too many of them for us to eat before they all bolt to seed. Oh well. Still getting kale buds but the Chinese and Japanese greens are definitely bolting now that it’s too warm for these early season plants. I still pick the flower heads off the same way as the kale buds. We almost have peas! And garlic scapes are coming! I love my garden.

Be back when I have something new to share!

Quickie

Yes, I’m still here! I’ve been somewhat busy as well as somewhat avoiding blogging. Nothing much to report actually. I’ve been doing the usual weeding and watering in the garden. I spent a hefty portion of 2 days printing out class notes and finding all the equipment for my kumihimo class on Saturday (with a second class next Thursday). Spent half an hour hunting for the bobbins and counterweights because I forgot where I put them! Doh. They were in the attic, logically enough right next to the box of folding stools converted into marudais. But I needed to dig for them. And use a flashlight.

Today was spent with my Spectrum Study Group and we dyed all kinds of things in 3 dye pots: osage with iron, logwood and cochineal. We threw in various mordanted skeins of tencel, silk, cotton, and superwash sock yarn plus swatches of wool, silk and linen fabric and silk/rayon velvet divoré. There’s photos coming (I hope) and I’ll try to snap one of my little pile of goodies which is currently drying on the clothesline. It was a fun day and quite productive.

Finally finished spinning the Rainbow Dark yarn. I might have gotten a little finer grist towards the end, both because I was worried I wasn’t going to get enough yardage (and there ain’t no more of this stuff to be had for love nor money) and also because if I’m not paying strict attention I tend to slide back into to a default thickness, which with this wool is a light worsted. I found when I began this project that I was somewhat out of spinning practice and it got quite a lot easier as I went. Now I hope it isn’t too thin though most of it is pretty consistent except for the first skein. If it isn’t too much thicker I think I have enough for my sweater plan. I have nearly 1400 yards total but I need to put the 6 skeins on the scale to be sure what weight I ended up with. Next project is to wind skeins into balls and swatch some more.

However, that will have to wait for awhile. I have to spend tomorrow cleaning up the house, setting up the big table on the deck and locating a few more items for the class. I’m hoping the good weather holds though they’re predicting more cloud on Saturday. As long as the wet stuff whose name we shall not mention stays away. Our deck definitely is the best place to hold the class. We can put the chairs on the grass and the marudais on the wide step and everything is at the perfect height to work comfortably. Lots of table space as well. I love working outdoors this time of year.

So, moving right along. Things to do. Swamps to muck out. People to see. How did it get to be nearly a week into June already? More soon!