Stash Enhancement!

Purchases at Stitches Midwest this weekend.


Wool/Mohair roving. The pink is the mohair.



I'm planning on spinning the pink as it's own single, then splitting the brown and spinning two more singles and plying all three together.





Happy Feet sock yarn, I bought what should (crossing fingers) be a sweaters worth.






Alpaca, yum. Black, brown, and camel plied together.






Some wool/nylon sock yarn to knit Josh a pair of gloves with.

Japanese Short Rows

Sunday afternoon with Sussana Hansson.

Probably the best samples I've ever seen.  Super clear, well mounted, examples of what she was talking about.  Awesome handouts as well.  

This technique isn't necessarily easier than a wrapped short row, but it looks much nicer in the end, no little lumpy bit where you wrapped the stitch.  

Deliberate Drops

Saturday Morning with Chris Blysma.

She walked us through several ways to drop stitches (intentionally).  My favorite swatch is the aran sampler.  In my own knitting so far I seem to favor the controlled yarn over variety.  I think the big runs of dropped stitches scare me a bit.  

A big run of dropped stitches in plain stockinette.





Another big run of dropped stitches in my aran sampler.

The controlled yarn over variety of dropped stitches in ribbing.

Dropped edge stitch fringe. And quite possibly the ugliest baby hat I've seen in a long time. Too bad. Some people in class liked it a lot. Different strokes for different folks I guess.

Ethnic Textured Stitches

Friday, all day, with Joan Schrouder.  We learned about Scandinavian Twined knitting, Bavarian Traveling Stitch patterns, and making bobbles.  I don't really like bobbles.  

Details of Large Swatch:

My twined knitting.  You knit with two strands of the same yarn, alternating stitches.  Creates a very smooshy fabric.  

The Bavarian Cable I knit up.  They cable a twisted knit stitch for a raised more defined pattern.  

Fiendishly Difficult Stitches

Our first class, Thursday at 9:00 am, with Merike Saarniit.  She was awesome.  We knit up a little sampler in class.  

A previous participant dubbed it "The Cod Piece".  

At the bottom, we started with an Alsacian Scallop, next (above) we knit an Estonian Embrace Cable, then an Estonian Butterfly, and topped it all off with the Berry Kisses colorwork.  

More "Nothing"

Just attended Stitches Midwest with Mom. I'm exhausted, we were up at 6:00 every morning, some vacation. I learned a lot though. I'll start taking pictures of all my swatches tonight. I bought yarn, roving, and needles too, of course.

Nothing Doing

I just knit another green bear, no pictures though. I was rushing to get to work and didn't set up my little white, bear-portrait, sudio. He's the same color combo as Francis. I dyed a little yarn, for my swatches for Stitches. I have to knit those up, maybe tonight at Stich n' Bitch. I spun a little more of peanut (the spindle looks the same so no new pictures). It is getting easier with practice. I've been swatching for a little stripped sweater that I'm contemplating, but nothing I'm in love with yet, so again, no pictures. Maybe later...

Spinning Peanut

So this is my first attempt at spinning peanut's fleece. You can see how well she cleaned up. This yarn is less consistent than I have been, but the wool was not prepared as well (read, I prepared it myself with a dog comb, instead of getting it from a mill). I feel like it'll get smoother with practice. Also, peanut's wool is crimpy-er than the merino and corriedale top that I've been working with, so this yarn will have a bit of a halo. Halo equals more warmth, so that's not too bad.

Peanut

Sandy's dad sent me several pounds of raw fleece.  It came to me at work, so you can see the world from my desk (the lobby of the firm).  

Opening the box...

Reading the note.  

And my first glimpse of Peanut, tan, a little poopy,  and full of hay.  

Sorry for the poor photo quality, all photos taken with my iPhone.

Stripes

And he's done!  He turned out a little more potbellied than the others, probably just a function of where I attached the legs to the body.  I like it.  

Still Headless

Needs to be sewn together, and of course he needs a head. I'll get that knit up tonight.

Just a Peek

Another bear!
Two of three. Next I'll be knitting another green one like Francis.