Madrona 3

Hello,

The tulips and daffodils are getting taller.

The gospel in mass today was the one where Jesus is out in the desert for 40 days (precursor to Lent) and the devil tempts him.  I bring this up because I am continuing my coverage of the Market at the Madrona Fiber Arts Winter Retreat, and well, temptation temptation temptation.  Luckily, I did not give up yarn for my Lenten Sacrifice.

Angora Valley Fibers and Fly Designs shared a booth.  They are out of Tenino, WA, and specialize in both hand dyed yarns, and New Zealand naturals.  Their yarns were very vibrant.

In addition to the beautiful wool blends, they had some beautiful "other" fibers, including Tencel.

But, I thought their wool blends were the best.  Just look at the colors in this rack of fingering weight yarn by Fly Designs:

Great Yarns, from Everett, WA had a booth.  While I was checking out the lys booths, I wasn't really looking to buy.  Not because I don't love what they have, but, well, I can easily drive up and DO plan on stopping by during the North Puget Sound LYS Tour this Spring.  They did have more of their Pure Elegance yarn which is 100% mink.  And they swore to me that no mink are harmed in the making of the yarn.  The yarn is from COMBED mink, so you can knit a mink stole, completely guilt free. 

Island Fibers, from Lopez Island, WA offered both local yarns and fibers.

Another local fiber booth was Rainbow Farms Pygora.

I remember from the Whidbey Island Fiber Festival, that Pygora are pygmy angora goats.  This booth had raw fiber, beautiful bats, and yarn for sale.

They were sharing a booth with Spindle Wood Co. 

They had some of the most beautiful spindles I have ever seen.

It was fun to see the beautiful spindles with the local fibers.

On to my knitting.

Right now, I am working semi-monogamously on socks.  Semi because I am working on two pairs:  The Improvised Crossings, which are my "bring places" project, since I have the fun chart memorized,

and the Smaug Socks which have a complicated pattern, and can only be knit on at home.

I have finished the heels and am 2-more-rows-to-go on the gussets.  I was finding the gusset instructions very complicated.  They are written for one sock at a time on 4 double pointed needles.  I am knitting 2 at a time on Magic Loop.  I had a stitch marker in the middle of the backs so I could think needle one (back, left side of marker), needle two (front), and needle three (back right side of marker).  But, it was very confusing jumping from right sock to left sock and up and down from directions to charts.  I had to simplify it for myself.  So I put 18 plain stitches on the "back" or "sole" needle for each sock, then all of the other stitches in front, and rewrote the pattern so I could read it this way.  MUCH faster knitting for me.  I am finally beginning to make sense of how it all works.

I have about 10 more days to finish these 2 pairs to be able to submit them to SolidSocks and Sock Knitters Anonymous (SKA).  Well Smaug will go to both, and Improvised Crossings just to SKA.  That is about 1 inch per day on Smaug, and 1/2 inch per day on Improvised Crossings.  I can do it.

Peace.
f1bercat
shaping the planet with gussets.

Knitters and Spinners at Madrona 2013

Madrona 2

2012.02.16

 

Hello:

Continuing my blogging about the 2013 Madrona Fiber Arts Festival in Tacoma, WA.

 I stopped at a booth run by Blue Moon Fiber Arts.  I have heard of this company from the many many knitting podcasts that I listen to, but never seen the yarn in person.  Although I had said that I only need yellow sock yarn for next year's SolidSocks yellow month (I like to have the color in my stash, ready to go), I have been checking out Sock Madness on Ravelry. 

This is an international sock making competition based on the US College Basketball competition, March Madness.  This is a quote from the group's main page explaining how the competition works: 

There are 7 rounds of patterns. The first pattern is reasonably straightforward and as the rounds progress the socks become increasingly more complex in design.
Registered players will be placed on one of 4 teams with approximately 50 players per team. It is announced ahead of each round how many will proceed to the next pattern/round. By the 7th pattern there are 4 knitters left to battle it out.

All last year, as I knit my socks for SKA (Sock Knitters Anonymous), and SolidSocks, I would drool over certain amazing socks.   I asked someone where they had gotten one of the patterns, and she replied that it was from Sock Madness.  Of course, this made me check that group out.  I was way too late to join up, but decided to give it a try this year.  The competition starts March 1, but they have posted a list of the yarns and other supplies needed for the planned socks.  One of the many cool things is that these will be new designs, and only released to Sock Madness Competitors at first.  From what I understand, the competitors get the patterns even after they have been kicked.  Kicked is perhaps not the best term, so, after they have been eliminated.  I doubt that I will last long as I am a slow knitter.  But, knitting socks this last year has taught me so much about knitting in general, that I am willing to give it a good try, and not be embarrassed when I lose.

Back to Madrona, and Blue Moon Fiber Arts.  So one of the socks planned for Sock Madness (sock number 8 - though the order in the supplies' list is random, and doesn't have anything to do with the competition order), is obviously a colorwork sock because it calls for 6 different colors.  I have never knit anything with more than 2 colors (unless it was striped), so this will be a real challenge.  Since the Blue Moon Fiber Arts Booth had smaller skeins for sale, I decided to get my colorwork yarn there.

I am just a tiny bit worried because, although the yarn is "sock" yarn, there is no nylon in it.  Just 100% superwash merino, which is lovely, but I wonder how it will wear.  Perhaps for a colorwork sock, that won't matter since the floats will make it extra thick.  We shall see.

The next stop was Sincere Sheep.

The colors of the yarns offered by this booth were just lovely.  They do not have the eye popping neon of some dyers, but their booth almost looked like it was full of embroidery floss.  The colors were so subtle, like a painter's palette.

Of course, the colors of this photograph do not do the yarns justice, as I was inside, yada yada yada.  But, I really loved their colors.

Next to this booth was a woman knitting socks.  Knitting... with a sock machine.

How long does it take to knit a pair?  2 hours (but of course, she is a pro.)  I asked if you had to make them with an Afterthought Heel, but no, she was knitting short rows as we watched.

I enjoy knitting socks, so this type of thing does not tempt me.  Good thing as it cost about $3000.  Really.

More Madrona tomorrow.

Just a quick update on my own knitting.

I brought my Improvised Crossings to  knit at the festival, since I don't need a chart for them.

But a minor disaster struck anyway.

I am using my prize yarn from SKA, Mombasa by Lisa Souza Dyeworks, and knitting them on Addi Turbo size 0 needles.   But one of the needles broke off the cable!

Lucky thing I was at a fiber festival, with lots of booths selling knitting needles.  I was able to buy a new circular ChiaoGoo stainless steel size 0 (2.0 mm) needles.  I have been wanting to try these out, as many of my Stitch Buds have the interchangeable sets of this brand.

With my new needles, I was able to finish the gussets and am working my way up the legs.

Peace.
f1bercat
Shaping the planet with new needles.

The Yarn Harlot, Stephanie Pearl-McPhee, hangs out with our own Vanesapolo

Sock Progress

2013.02.14

 

Hello:

It's Lent.  I am going to try to post every day.  Can I do it?  They might be little quick posts, but I will try to make them meaningful.

One of the problems with this is that I often wait too late to take photos of my work, and since the sun is still setting pretty early here, that means no photos or badly lit photos.  I need to set up a light box or something to take care of that problem.

I did take photos of the 2 pairs of socks that I am working on, though, in bad light.  This makes the colors look really sad.  Which is wrong because both of the yarns that I am using are really amazing looking.  And, for entirely different reasons.

The first pair are the Smaug socks by Claire Ellen.

I have turned the heels on both of the socks.  In this photo, taken at about 4:30, I had turned one heel, but just finished the heel flap on the other.

You can see the wonderfully fun dragon scale pattern.
Here is a much better photo of the color of these socks:

I am just loving them.

The second pair are the Improvised Crossings by our own Hrvdmnky.  I flipped her pattern and am making them toe up.  I rarely knit socks in anything but solid colors these days (it is all about submitting for as many possible prizes as I can, and if I use solid yarn, I can submit to SolidSocks and Sock Knitters Anonymous SKA as well as Harry Potter Knit Crochet House Cup HPKCHC).  This partly for the prizes (ok, it started out ALL for the prizes) but then, I realized that you can see the pattern way better with solid yarns.  I have a few skeins of multicolored sock yarns from before I joined SolidSocks.  One skein, especially, is just particularly lovely.  I WON this yarn in an SKA drawing last year from Lisa Souza Dyeworks.  I decided that since I was going to try to make 2 pairs of socks this month (am I crazy?  it's the shortest month of the year), I thought I would use this yarn.  The pattern is simple enough that the yarn does not overwhelm it.  I think the yarn and pattern are working well together.

I have been bringing these with me to knit on when I need something that does not take a lot of brain power.  That means that I am knitting them in the offices of our local high school and middle school while I wait for the kids I am tutoring to show (or not) up.  No less than three people asked me if they were cookies.

What is wrong with people?

Here are the tops. 

You can see that I have finished the heels, picked up the gussets, and am beginning to knit up the legs.  I will probably bring these to Madrona tomorrow as they don't require a chart and a lot of counting.

If you are at Madrona, please look for me.  You will know me by the socks!  I would love to have someone who reads this blog say hi.

Peace,
f1bercat
shaping the planet with 4 heels.

Sometimes You Need A Cloud To See the Blue

Hello:

I have been stitching like a fiend lately, so much that I haven't even stopped to photograph my work.  But, I took a break last night to stitch with my neighbors in our new stitching group, and then again this morning to meet my stitch buds, Eastside Stitchers, at Crossroads Mall.

I have to say that I got 0 done at both meet ups.  The neighborhood group has some very new stitchers.  They are really doing well, and it is so much fun to see their progress.  They are so new at both knit and crochet, that they think I am the expert.  That about says it.  They are a really fun and nice group, and there is a lot of laughing.  I am really enjoying our Thursday evenings, but, I am not getting much accomplished there.  That was fine last night because I was waiting for Feb. 1 and both the new month of classes for HPKCHC and the February challenges in SKA (Sock Knitters Anonymous) and SolidSocks to begin.

But, today is February 1, and I can start knitting seriously, again.  I brought the beginnings of the Improvised Crossings Socks that I cast on last night, to the Friday morning meet up.  And I frogged them 3 times.  Honestly, I don't know what my problem was, but I am altering the pattern to Toe Up, and I just couldn't get the Judy's Magic Cast On to work.  I kept getting a ridge right on the tip.  You get this if you start with the wrong needle when you first start knitting.  I spent 4 hours not knitting anything.  I finally got 2 rows completed right before I left.  2 rows.  Since I am knitting these toe up, I cast on 6 stitches for each sock.  So, 2 rows of 12 stitches.  Yes.  That is all I finished in 4 hours of not knitting.

But!  I did manage to photograph the work of the OTHER Stitchers who came this morning.

Our newest member, CathyClove was weaving in about 1 gazillion ends on this beautiful afghan she has finished knitting.  I met CathyC at the Eastside Knitters Guild meeting on Monday.  She is new to the guild, and was also looking for a group to hang out with and knit.  I am so happy we met.  Anyway, CathyC says she is a new knitter, and has only knit this afghan.  Only!  It is just beautiful.

Lots of ends though!

Wireknitter was knitting swatches.  Lots of swatches.  For?  MADRONA!  The Madrona Fiber Arts Winter Retreat in Tacoma, WA, is in two weeks, and a nice short drive for our group.  We will be down with some of us taking classes (hence the swatches), some just hanging out, shopping the market, meeting people and enjoying the fiber fun.

Redbird1 was also knitting for Madrona, but not a swatch.  She is determined to finish her Jared Flood BF Sweater.  Ok, it's not called the BF sweater, it is the Eternity Sweater.  Today, Redbird1 was knitting the sleeves, as she has finished the body.  Go!  Go!  Go!

VanesaPolo was working on another baby item.  Lots of Baby Showers, lately.  This little cutie is the Flared Baby Jacket by Elizabeth Zimmerman in Knit One Knit All.

Skeinherder, wearing a beautiful knit sweater,

I took 4 photos of this sweater and never caught the color.  It's green.

was starting her Smaug socks.  We are trying to knit 2 pair this challenge, and I will be casting on Smaug, too,  just as soon as I figure out how to knit more than 12 stitches. 

Even if my knitting was cloudy, hanging out with my stitch buds was great!  The sun was out when I got home.  Moogie is coming home for her birthday weekend.  I need to head out to the train station in Seattle right about now to pick her up.  Then, it's out to dinner!  Pookie is down in Portland for the National Science Bowl NW Regional Competition.  GO!  Interlake High School!

Hope I have my knitting act together tomorrow.  I need to knit like the wind to get those socks finished in this short month.

Peace,
Yours,
f1bercat
shaping the planet with 12 stitches.