I’ve done a little knitting

Ravelry Project Page

A little spinning

California Red locks from A Verb for Keeping Warm Raverly page

and…. i adopted a kitty! Introducing… Bean!

She’s mouthy (like me). This last picture is a video…. Click through to hear Bean!

insane number of kitty pics in my flickr stream.

Patterns I have been eyeing (Most links are Ravelry links - sorry. The waiting list is only 2 days long - hurry up and join):

- Anything from the Selbuvotter book ($24.95)

For example, NHM #9:

Or NHM #10:

Order this directly from the author like I did. It arrives quickly!

-Okka By from Randi K. Design ($7)

Her chart for a tiny little knitting village in Norway captures an amazing amount of detail. I am also impressed with the little crab that pops up on the other side…

All of her designs are amazing, so be sure to check out her etsy shop.

- Baske by Nicole Hindes ($6)
Simple enough for a beginner, but truly gorgeous! I love the yellow color that she chose.

- Hello Yarn’s amazing fiddlehead mittens. ($5.95)




I saved this for last cause I have big plans for this one. Adrian makes kits of hand-dyed yarn to go with the knitting pattern. As far as I can tell, it would be impossible for me to ever score one of those rare gems. I love her suggestion of using something for the outside that is durable and has a little mohair in it… So I am challenging myself to dye and spin all of the yarn that I will need for this project. Truly ambitious, I know, but I give myself until this winter to get it done. Wish me luck!

It is an 8 inch wide Clemes and Clemes drum carder. I am particularly enamored by the fact that Clemes and Clemes is literally up the street from me, so it is like the drum carder is coming back home. It is certainly well loved, and it arrived with one of the wooden gears cracked and broken. I was able to not only wood glue that back together, but eventually replace it with a stronger acrylic piece and get down to business…

I have been very satisfied with the batts I have purchased from Hobbledehoy and Stickyfingers on etsy. But in general I want a batt to have a blend of different types of fibers and not contain any sparkle and/or angelina. I’m not in it just for the colors; I have some specific textures in mind. Because of this I have been coveting drum carders for some time now (in fact nearly exactly one year), but they just haven’t been in my budget. So as soon as my little carder was running, I made a tiny batt of merino and mohair that resulted in this:

It was pure fun to spin…..
Next, I was FINALLY able to add camel down to some merino (I have had this camel down lying in wait for YEARS).

I am also excited to use it to process some of the fleeces I have piling up. It has done an awesome job with all of the Romney that I fed it:

More fun blends to come - I am ready to try a little colored fiber experimentation…

There are two versions available. The Stash ’stache is filled with the natural moth repellents cedar chips, and lavendar with added pennyroyal essential oil to protect your yarn and fiber from bugs. A variant on the original contains only lavender and can be used as a traditional sachet - perhaps finding a home in a drawer with your unmentionables.

Abby, Ingrid and I printed up the bags on my gocco. They have a ’stache on one side and “Girl on the Rocks” on the other.

Head over to my shop and pick one up!

I loved hanging out here and meeting other Ravelers and especially several of my blog readers. Hi Ladies - leave a comment!! I was tickled every time I met someone that I recognized from their Ravelry avatar.

The festival provided not only an opportunity to shop, but also several free classes. I taught two rounds of “Weaving on small hand looms” and was so happy that I had so many participants! A big high-five to everyone that was in my class! I hope you left with lots of ideas and that you aren’t all bidding against each other on ebay right now.

And just because I was selling doesn’t mean I wasn’t buying….

California Red Wool

Icelandic, Gotland and Wensleydale Wools
I sure hope there are more Color: Events in the future. Seriously, it was SO much fun. Thanks so much Sara for your awesome organizational skills!

Links

• I started a flickr Group so if you have photos on Flickr, send them over.
• There is also a Color: group on Ravelry
• Looms to go Ravelry Group

With the advent of Ravelry, and its awesome pattern delivery service the dream can become a reality. Now I know that you are itching to get your hands on some more beer cozy patterns so I have excerpted a pattern available for free. the pattenr is hosted on Ravelry, but I think everyone should be able to download it Behold! The Sock Yarn Beer Cozy!

You know the kind that contain onions, potatoes, or California Cutie tangerines. I found that some are just the right size and elasticity to hold a yarn cake, but most couldn’t fill that job.

Probably because of my recent fascination with tawashi (crochet and knit dish scrubbers) I thought of how much the mesh reminded me of nylon mesh pot scrubbers. So I decided to incorporate the plastic into knit and crochet scrubbers to increase their scrubbiness!

In order to knit or crochet with the mesh, I first cut it into a long, continuous, 1 inch wide strip by spiraling down the bags.

Since the mesh strips were pretty snaggy, I loosely wound them into balls.

I decided to adapt two free patterns for my use, but you could use this technique with any washcloth pattern. The patterns I chose are a knit (pdf download) and crochet version of a spiral scrubbie. The general idea is that you make a rhombohedron by increasing at one side and decreasing at the other side of your work (both increases and decreases are done on every row).

Then you sew together the cast on and bind off edges to make a short tube. Then you cinch the openings closed and it buckles down into a circular spiral.

Doesn’t it look like a little urchin?!

Details for my Sea Urchin scrubbie
Yarn: Peaches and Cream solid or other worsted weight 100% cotton yarn; Mesh strips.
Needles: US#11 or US#12 or even larger if you knit tightly.

I held the yarn doubled along with the mesh strip.

Using yarn only cast on 10 sts.
Row 1: Sl 1, knit front and back, knit 5, k2tog, k1
Row 2: Sl 1, k2tog, knit 5, knit front and back, k1

Repeat rows 1-2 16 times (8 garter ridges). Cast off using yarn only. Using yarn only sew together cast on and bind off edges to make a tube with diagonal garter ribs. Cinch the top and bottom of the tube closed, and hide yarn and mesh ends inside the scrubbie.

Crochet scrubbie

For this one, I pretty much stuck to the pattern, using only a single strand of yarn held with the mesh. I used only the yarn to cast on 10 stitches and used a size J crochet hook.

Tips for working with plastic mesh

• The smaller the mesh size (smaller spaces in the mesh) the easier it is to work with
• Cast on and bind off with yarn only - leave the mesh out of that messy business
• Stretch the mesh a bit as you work, but try to leave some flexibility in it to make working the next row easy
• Keep your work loose!
• Mesh strips can be joined with a knot as you work. Don’t worry if the knot sticks out - it is just extra scrubbiness.

If you end up adding plastic mesh to your knit or crocheted cloths I would love to see how they turn out!

After I posted my inside-out-envelope tutorial, some back linking led me to the Junk Mail Gems blog. Wow! Gretchen is a master re-purposer with a shop filled with awesome recycled projects.

So with security envelopes still on the brain, and a giant pile growing on my desk, I used some to decorate some 3×5 recipe cards. I used a few round hole punches to add some accents.

Nice nice nice. It is the greatest free paper around. I even used some to make product tags for my fibery goods in prep for the upcoming Color Fiber Festival. (Can you tell that I am trying to link to the festival in every post… Is it obvious?)

Get more security envelope inspiration from the Flickr Security Pattern Group.

If you live in the bay area and you want to buy some nice Carnivorous plants, you should stop by the UC Botanical Gardens Spring Plant Sale. It is Saturday April 26 from 10-2. Of course you should go there AFTER you stop by Color: A Fiber festival.

You should definitely check out the session/class schedule - there will be fun things to do all day. I might sneak in there with a few weavette/weave-it demonstrations, and I’ll even let you give one of my looms a try!

If you have an hankering for anything in my shop, let me know and I will bring it and you can pick it up! You can even get recycled vinyl wallets from Abmatic as she’ll be representing with me.

Did I say how excited I am about this?? There is inside and outside space available so you can come and shop for fiber, hang out and spin, and even get lunch nearby! I hope I can sneak away to try out some fibers from Rare Wool Breeds.

So, will you be there?