FO: Coffeehouse Pullover

Months ago, I was lucky enough to get on the special order list for Southern Cross Fibre. I knew for sure that I wanted to make a colorwork *something*, but I wasn't certain of just what. I toyed with the idea of a little bit of EVERY color from the Spring/Summer 2012 Semi-solids collection, then narrowed it down to something like 8 different 2-color combinations. In the end, I decided on "Java" and "Silver Sconce" on Shetland. I set out to spin yarn that as similar in hand to Jamieson's Shetland 2-Ply - I had been eying the Schoolhouse Pullover by Meg Swansen in the book "Knitting in America" for YEARS. This seemed to be just the right time - and yarn! - for it. Adding to that, I had a wedding anniversary right around the corner. I decided that I'd make this for D as an anniversary present. The pattern calls for a purl-when-you-can border, but I read that many people still had the lower edge curling. I opted for a turned cuff, and decided to sneak in a little bit of personalization on that edge - I put D's name, my name, the year knit, etc. The body of the sweater went quite quickly. The patterns are easily memorized, and the whole thing is knit in the round. When it came time to steek the armholes for the sleeves, I decided to work a crochet steek and to pick up and begin knitting the sleeves down BEFORE cutting the steek. This was just a little bit of insurance to make sure the stitches wouldn't pull out from the strain of picking up stitches. Things slowed down a bit on the sleeves knitting, as it became very hot and humid here (once again, ugh) and at this point I had to have the entire sweater on my lap while working on it. There is an I-cord detail worked along the top of each of the sleeves, and the decrease shaping is ingeniously worked under it. The collar gave me a bit of trouble - it turned out to be quite boat-necky, even with my having made it smaller in the knitting. I knew D wouldn't wear it if it was too wide. I worked an I-cord bind-off, and then picked up inside of that to work a turned hem mitered collar. I think the double bind-offs around the neck give it some much-needed structure and shape. And it fits! And he loves it! I'm thrilled to have finally made this sweater, and I can't wait to see it worn. Hooray!

Mini-Skein Madness

Lest you believe that the drum-carding extravaganza is the end of my fiber-related tasks, I present to you MINI-SKEINS: That's HY "Pate de Fruit" in Rambouillet HY "Burnished" (BFL) HY "Kitsune" (Polwarth/Silk) ....and HY "Smells of the Sea" (Wensleydale) Now to figure out what to knit! Or maybe weave???? Anyway, mini-skeins are a blast to make. They are fast! They are really satisfying! And they are super cute! And then I lost my spinning mojo and moved on to sewing - I'll put all that up in the next few posts.

Tour & More

My July was spent watching the Tour de France, and spinning for the Tour de Fleece. I really enjoy watching the TdF - it's a lovely snapshot of France, and I find the logistics and endurance of the cycling to be fascinating. And with the Tour de FLEECE, I actually get a ton of spinning done:



This year's goal was to tackle a lot of the long wools that have been piling up. I managed to get a few sweater lots of Romney and Wensleydale spun up, with some breaks for shorter wools and smaller quantities. I'm pleased as punch with my progress this year: 8 pounds, 1.5 ounces - 7889 yards total.

I've also been working on getting these things printed up and out of the house:



I picked up an L Letterpress for invitation printing. I don't have the floor space, money, or structural beams to have a true letterpress here, but this seemed to be just the right size for making up these invitations. I had some plates made through Boxcar Press (from paper cuts that I made) and read some of their reviews and hints for using the L Letterpress. The printing went fairly well - that little machine is pretty cool and I do see myself making more things with it. The plates from Boxcar were crisp and easy to clean. Registration was easy and smooth, and the imprint was fine on the 160gsm cotton rag I used.

Envelopes are addressed and these are heading out the door!

Busy-ness, assorted.

Things have been a hodge-podge of busy over here. We got a new couch, which involved getting rid of the old couch (and chairs), taking down a ton of shelves, and basically re-configuring the entire living room. Behold, comfort:

...and excessive shelf space:


It totally opens up the room and makes everything fabulous.

Of course, this was just one stage of numerous home-repair projects. A month or two ago we helped a friend move, and managed to score 6 new-to-us dining room chairs. They're comfortable, and fit wonderfully in our dining room, but the seats were a blase beige (and dirty!) microsuede. Not so much. Off to IKEA! A staple gun, some fabric, and a half hour later, and we've got stellar new chairs:



I love that they are each a little bit different from one another but all play well together.

There was also some smaller crafting going on (the quilt is on hold for a bit as it's been a bit too warm to work on the hand-quilting) - these shoes:



Someone pinned these a few months ago and I haven't stopped thinking about them. The originals were Marc Jacobs for Vans, but they seemed easy enough to replicate, no? Air-erase marker, fabric marker, and a half hour later.....I have awesome new summer shoes! Hooray!

There's also been some paper-cutting:


These were sent out to have plates made in order to letterpress invitations and miscellany. The plates came out WONDERFULLY and I can't wait to get printing. Oh! Also in paper-cutting news, the Ignite presentation I gave a few months ago is now up online. It's all those 80s papercuts.....

There's been some knitting too:

Saartje's Booties, HelloYarn Fat Sock leftovers.


Damask, handspun HY "Winter Storage" singles spun by the most delightful Sparkcrafted. I'm knitting this up for her.

And thinking about knitting a Stripe Study with these:

That's Malabrigo Lace on the left, and Spunky Eclectic "Orchard" Romney handspun singles on the right. The mal lace is....felty and pilly. ALREADY! Grumble.

Catching Up

I've been quilting up a storm recently - I decided to make YET ANOTHER Color Wheel quilt, from "Last Minute Patchwork and Quilted Gifts". I believe this is the FOURTH one of these that I have made, but I just can't help it! They are really fast, and very satisfying.



I also cut out the arc pieces for 3 more of these while I was in fabric-cutting mode, and those are being distributed to some lucky quilters. One of the sets is heading out to Chawne, who is a gigantic quilting inspiration with all of her lovely, incredible, adventurous, tiny, meticulous sewing. I'm doing a trade with her for a mini-quilt - my end of the bargain was simple: fingerless gloves.



I opted for Eunny Jang's "Endpaper Mitts" (again, knitting these for the FOURTH time) because I ADORE mine and wear them constantly. I love the length of them - there is no chilly exposed wrist when wearing them with a jacket. I knit them to be fairly snug, knowing they may stretch out a bit. The yarn is SCF Club from forever ago, in the "Hades" colorway. It's Polwarth/Tencel, and has a most delightful sheen to it. I spun it up as a 3-ply last year during the Tour de Fleece. I hope she enjoys wearing them as much as I enjoyed making them!

I've been teaching a bit:



Limp Vellum, my favorite binding structure to teach, and such a satisfying book when done.



I've been converting people to "Settlers of Catan", it's such a great game, and has been perfect for kicking the winter doldrums.

Chop Chop

I've been teaching a bunch lately, mostly the same basic courses as usual (Non-Adhesive Bookbinding, Cloth Case Bookbinding, &c.) and I recently had a student contact me about a paper cutter that had come his way. He was looking for a long-arm style paper cutter, like this Kutrimmer, but his neighbor ended up giving him a guillotine paper cutter. It really wasn't going to work for him, so he asked if I'd like it and of course I would! Here it is (blade off):

This puppy weighs about 50 pounds. It could use a little bit of oil to make the cranks turn a bit smoother, and the blade is tip-top shape. I was able to trade him a disused Ingento-style paper cutter that I have been moving for about 12 years. Everyone wins! I'm excited to cut some stuff.

In other news, I've been spinning and knitting (surprised?) - I'm back up to speed on my Coventry cardigan, which I'm knitting in Quince&Co yarn (Chickadee) in the "Snap Pea" colorway. Boy Howdy, this yarn is delightful. It really has great stitch definition and holds it's shape well. I'm about 8" in after a horrid mis-reading of the decreases and a ripping-back incident (5" worth) and it's proceeding smoothly and quickly.


And I finally got around to spinning up all of my "Alpine" Romney (Hello Yarn Fiber Club, July 2009) into this lovely, drapey 2-ply, for about 1500 yards. I don't have a specific sweater planned for it yet.


Also, The Pork. For Christmas, we gave most of my family the gift of pork, specifically pork from our friend Inga, who is Farm Girl At Large. It turns out that it costs more to ship 60 pounds of pork halfway across the country than it does to fly someone out here with it, so Inga came to stay with us for a few days, and we took a quick jaunt down to Jersey for pork distribution. Here's what 60 pounds of pork looks like:


And here's a little glimpse of the Paterson Falls in the snow:


We visited the Falls, discussed the late Alexander Hamilton (a LOT), and ate lots of pork with family a friends. Delicious, and delightful.

These Things I Do

Oh hello! And another month passes, just like that! But I promise I've been absent with good reason:



I made this very awesome, very last-minute, very special travelogue wedding book. The client was a member of the wedding party, and the bride and groom had not chosen a honeymoon destination. The groomsman contacted the guests and had them create a travel page talking about where they would recommend. he gathered them all up at the rehearsal dinner the night before the wedding, dropped them off to me the morning of the wedding, and I bound them all into this book and dropped it off at the hotel for the bride and groom to return to after their ceremonials. Word from the client is that they loved it and found it to be the nicest gift of the day :)



I started spinning this wonderful Hello Yarn Wensleydale in the "Heirloom" colorway with plans to eventually weave it and sew a slightly tailored jacket. Expect to see this completed around....oh, 2014 or so.



I test-knit this amazing shawl for Kirsten of throughtheloops - this is Snow Drops and Snap Peas shawl, and it is a fast, fun, easily memorized pattern. This version is in my own handspun Polwarth from David at Southern Cross Fibres. It's DEEEEElightful. I love how the striping worked out on the lace pattern.

I've been teaching a 3-month bookbinding workshop. It's been going wonderfully, and it has given me a chance to work on this 80 80s Instruments/Tools project of paper cutouts. I've been trying to do 1 or 2 of them a day. Each cutout is 5" x 7". They're a blast to work on. Oh yeah, we've been making books in that class, too :)

Oh yeah, this other thing happened:



...I got engaged! The ring was custom designed and made by the lovely Tracey Jenkins of Green Spot Studio. It's a rose-cut diamond, which is fairly uncommon and antique-y but enables it to have a flatter profile. Hooray craftpeople making rings for other craftpeople and taking hand use into consideration :)

TdF Wrap-Up & OSBeeeeee!

As happens this time every year, I have been obsessively watching the Tour de France and spinning for the Tour de Fleece. This year, as most, was EPIC! My goals for the Tour de Fleece were to spin as much as possible, and attempt to get caught up on my Club fibers from Hello Yarn, Southern Cross Fibers, and Spunky Eclectic. I also had some bits and bobs of random fiber around that I was hoping to take care of. A few weeks before the TdF I (finally) invested in some more bobbins for my Majacraft Rose, bringing my total up to 14, and mid-way through the tour I replaced the entire head assembly of my wheel, which had been giving me some difficulties (and being LOUD) for some time now. I learned that my wheel is 10-12 years old! Next on the maintenance list is a new drive band.

But the spinning! I spun the equivalent of a CAT this year!



That's 8 lbs, 03 oz. of fiber, for a total length of 8489 yards (15,648 yards pre-plying). I've got 2 sweaters' worth of yarn in there, a honking skein of color progression laceweight singles, some low-twist singles slated for a woven project, and much much more. My stash runneth over!

I did take some breaks from the spinning - I worked on my first assignment for One Scrappy Bee! Julie Frick requested some Vortex Blocks featuring bunneh fabric:



I couldn't resist giving him fangs. But then the second bunneh seemed to be lacking.....



..so this one got sexy lady eyelashes. I believe rabbit embellishments have been added to her OSB Assignments :) I'm really enjoying this Bee - I love seeing everyone's interpretations of the assigned patterns.

Oh yeah, I knit something too:



This is the Annis Shawlette from a recent knitty. This was a great stashbusting project - I have had this 300 yard skein of alpaca from Touch of Twist for a few years now, and this pattern seemed simple enough, and while it used slightly more yardage, I opted to knit it anyway and go down a needle size. As it is now, it's lovely and light and ethereal, though a bit of an odd size - neither here nor there.

Here We Go Again

Yes, I have been an absentee blogger. It's not for lack of DOING things, though:



























....and now, here we are, approaching July, which means I need to consider some things for the Tour de Fleece:



Tour de Fleece runs July 3 - July 25! I'll be participating as a member of Team HelloYarn/Sassenacho/TimeBenders and also Team Monkey Farts! And somehow I will manage to blog more, as well :)

*** ETA some information: From top to bottom:
- Holly Jean Hat & Mitten, test-knit in Cascade 220. Super-duper pattern, soon to be available from zigzagstitch!
- Bova Book, handbound by me as a teaching model in my Cloth Case Bookbinding Workshop.
- Magical Scissors, paper cutout, about 5" x 7". Cut with a #16 X-Acto® blade out of Canson Ingres scrap papers. I want to make 100 of these, all with different 70s & 80s lyrics accompanying tools :)
- Bookbinding Models for my Non-Adhesive Bookbinding Workshop.
- Color Progression Insanity - handspun by me using Club Fibers from Hello Yarn, Southern Cross Fibres, and Spunky Eclectic.
- Cobb Salad, my all-time favorite salad.
- Handwoven continuous hand-towel for next tot he sink. FINALLY completed, after 2 years or so.
- Hello Yarn Knee-High Socks! Knit while the passenger on MidWest road-trip!
- The Spam Museum. Visited on our way from Iowa to Minneapolis.
- My haul during the 2010 Potholder Swap - lovely lovely hand-crocheted potholders by Lynda, Kathy, Susanne, Beth, and Cathy (click through for Flickr details).
- Quilt I made for D's mom before we headed out to Iowa.
- Delicious "Orchard" Romney singles - me-spun, Spunky Eclectic-dyed. Purchased at SPA.
- Wonderful, wonderful pork.
- Some things I am considering spinning during the TdF. :)