Madrona 6

Hello,

Clouding over here, and just starting to rain.  Surprise.  Not.  However, as far as weather goes, it is snowing down in Tucson, AZ.  What's up,  global climate change?

This is a quick Madrona post (I need to keep the momentum going), then I am off to Crossroads to meet up with my Stitch Buds.

Chameleon Colorworks Dyeworks and Fiber Studio had some very interesting and beautifully dyed fiber in their booth.

I love that these small studios always give you the fiber origin.  They never just say "wool."  Now that I am reading up a bit on fiber, it actually really makes a difference.

The most beautiful bin in their booth was the silk cocoon bin.

You have to boil these in soap to get rid of the silkworm glue, but then you can either pull out one long giant thread to ply,  or you can make it into a silk hankie, from which you can then make some yarn and knit.  Aren't they beautiful in this shape?

Next booth over was Churchmouse Yarn & Teas. 
I am not really posting about our local shops who were present, but I am mentioning Churchmouse because there was a very special shawl on display at the Churchmouse booth.

Jared Flood had pieces from his new pattern collection knit up and on display along with his Shelter Yarn.

There are people in my stitch Bud group, Eastside Stitchers, who ... well LOVE Jared Flood AND his Shelter Yarn. 

Even better than finding the patterns and yarn,  we found the actual shawl that our own Redbird1 test knit for Jared Flood's newest pattern collection.  And it is beautiful.

The pattern and yarn aren't so bad, either.

Almost time to get ready to meet up with my Buddies, but I just wanted to show the progress on my frogged back Smaug Socks.

I had somehow reduced them too much when I was knitting the gussets, so I briefly thought of tinking, but I could see that it was going to need too many rows, and that would take forever since I was knitting them 2aat.  I decided to just frog back to the heels, and add about 1/2 in. more to the flaps.  Then, restart the gussets.  I have finished the gussets and knit about 3 inches of the foot on the right sock:

I have reknit the heel, and am about 1.5 in along on the gusset of the left sock:

My goal is to have these completely finished by Sunday.  I can do it.

Peace,
f1bercat
shaping the planet with two partial socks.

Franklin Habit at Madrona

Madrona 4

Hello,

I'm going to continue writing about the vendors I saw at the Madrona Fiber Festival in Tacoma, WA.

RainShadow Yarn, from Kingston, WA carries specially spun yarn and rovings from fiber from their own sheep and wool from other Pacific Northwest farms.

The unspun fiber was just beautiful.

I felt like I was in an artisan ice cream shop.

The idea of being able to eat this stuff is not too far off the mark, either, as they use only natural dyes.  Ok, I wouldn't really eat it, but you get my meaning.  They also had the dyes for sale.

I had the idea that naturally dyed fibers would have pale, muted colors. And that the colors would be rather limited.  These were vibrant, and covered just about any color you could want.

The Artful Ewe, from Port Gamble, WA carries beautiful hand dyed yarns

and fibers for spinning, knitting, and weaving.

Abstract Fiber, from Portland, OR carried handpainted yarns and fibers.

I mean, just look at these colors:

Some of the colors were so eye-popping, I felt a bit overwhelmed, but in a great way.  You know that dizzy feeling you get when you walk into a really great yarn store, and you have money and know that you need yarn for a few projects?  Better than candy.

Black Water Abbey Yarns from Aurora, CO bucked the local fiber trend and carried yarns imported from Ireland.

They had a nice selection of patterns to support the yarns.  You could see the garments knit up, and even try them on.

I will continue my Madrona posts tomorrow.

On to my own knitting!

I knew I shouldn't have posted that I had gotten the Smaug Socks pattern under control.  Somehow, I had reduced the gusset too much, and was short the correct number of stitches in the feet.  I have lost quite a bit of weight since last summer, and this has really slimmed down my feet (why can't it affect my waist and big butt as much?), but although I could still get the socks on, they were a bit tight.  Because I have sock group deadlines, I was tempted to just keep going, finish them and deal with it all later, but I was afraid that I wouldn't deal with it, and just end up giving the socks away.  I really love this pattern and the sock color.  I took a big breath and frogged back quite a few rows.

I would rather have the socks fit, than win a prize and never be able to wear them.  If I hurry and catch back up, though, I can wear them, AND still be in the running for prizes.

I also started a pair of fingerless mitts.  These use the Toast pattern by Leslie Friend.  These are for the Quidditch Challenge 3 which is a partner challenge.  We have to find a partner, pick a pattern jointly, then both modify the pattern.  When I say I am using the Toast pattern, I say that in the loosest way.  The pattern is for "fingerless mitts."  Really just 2 tubes of knitting.  I don't think I am breaking any copyright rules here by saying the pattern states something like, "cast on X stitches, divide over 3 needles, knit in the round for Y inches."  I am using some mystery yarn from my stash that I got in a School Charity Auction Basket years and years ago that doesn't quite make the gauge.  So my first modification is to cast on extra stitches.  Mod #2 is that I am knitting mine in a ribbed pattern (KKP).  Mod #3 will be that I plan to make them a bit shorter than the pattern length.  I also hope to donate these to charity, and get a Quidditch Charity Bonus.  This is perfect brainless knitting so I can do it while watching NCIS with the Doc tomorrow night if I haven't finished them by then.  The yarn is pretty, though, and I think they will look very nice when I am done.

Back to the Smaug Socks.

Peace,
f1bercat
shaping the planet with frogged socks.

knitting at Madrona

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

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.