It's Here, Definitely

Here in mid-Missouri we're at that tipping point where the annual cycle of growth is about to accelerate wildly. Every morning now will bring some new bit of color to the tatters left by winter. It's an exciting time. You need to keep your eyes wide open for every little change. How can I be sure this is really that moment when there is no doubt that spring has arrived? Here are the signs -



All day long and then with even more gusto at night, the spring peepers have been serenading us from down at the pond. Their song is so sweetly romantic and hopeful. I love to sit on the back porch in the dark and listen to their singing, almost like a bedtime lullaby. Now each morning the painted turtles clamber up on fallen branches at the pond's edge to sun themselves. It must feel wonderful to finally leave the chilly mud and let the sun warm their shells. When I walk around the pond, they slip back into the water in a fluid, unconcerned manner, as if I am someone they know, don't especially dislike, but they simply don't want to talk to just now.



Out in the garden, while it's been far too muddy to plant, the weather is settled enough for me to pull the covers off the beds of greens we planted last autumn. Lo and behold, the spinach is growing and big enough to harvest a bit to perk up our dinner salads. There is something so extraordinary, so rich and buttery about this first spinach. Could it be that its fresh taste shouts "Wake up!" to our winter-dulled taste buds?



All around the yard and across the pond under the trees, clusters of daffodils are blooming. Is there anyone who doesn't like daffodils? I can't imagine it. They come in so many shapes. Some with long trumpets, some with short flattened trumpets, whites, pale yellows, brilliant yellow-golds. Some with double ruffly petals and an indistinct trumpet. Some with their petals tossed backward as if they'd been facing into the wind for days. One of my favorites has white petals with a rosy-peach trumpet. We only have a few of these, but daffodils very thoughtfully multiply over the years.




Wait a minute... Is this a sign of spring? It's sure no Easter rabbit that I've ever seen. No indeed, but after I finished knitting and felting this little hedgehog, he seemed anxious to get outside and check out the daffodils for himself. I couldn't resist posing him here and there around the backyard. I suppose it's a good thing the houses are spread out in our neighborhood; people might think I'd eaten one too many marshmallow peeps.



The pattern for the little hedgehog is from Fiber Trends, a Debbie Radtke design. The yarns are Cascade 220 Heathers and Lion Brand Fun Fur. I've made a number of these critters over the years and always enjoy making them. It's a quick and easy pattern. This particular little guy will be a gift for a friend who is expecting a baby in mid-May.

So now let's all bid farewell to March which is indeed going out as gently as a newborn lamb. Savor these days. Each one holds small and fleeting delights, things to feed your senses and soul. Happy Easter. Happy Spring!

Never Stop Learning

As immersed as I've been in the fiber arts for all of my adult life, I'm sorry to admit that my sewing skills are few. I never had any home economics classes in high school or before. The little I know has been cobbled together on my own, with the result that I've never made a garment with which I was really pleased. My confidence in my sewing was nil. So I felt considerable trepidation this past Saturday when I walked into Daryl Lancaster's Jumpstart Vest workshop, my handwoven cloth in my basket. Thanks to our local Guild, Daryl spent the weekend teaching eleven of us how to create a vest that fits well using our handwoven yardage.

Here's a detail of my fabric which I wrote about in my last post. Originally this fabric had been destined for other things, not a garment. But I ran out of time to weave something simpler, less patterned for my vest.



Using Daryl's master patterns, we each made our personal pattern that suited our own bodies and tastes. We spent Saturday making our patterns, marking and cutting the pieces in our yardage using tailor's tacks, and fusing interfacing to the neck and armhole bands. On Sunday we fired up our sewing machines and began assembling our vests. Daryl is a very knowledgeable seamstress, fashion designer, and a superb teacher. She helped each of us over any obstacles, and for those of us with slim sewing skills, there were many. I was nervous cutting into my fabric, wondering if I was dooming a nice piece of yardage to a dark dresser drawer forever. On Sunday I was still nervous as I began putting everything together. Now it's true, there were a few areas where I had to redo and redo yet again, but by Sunday evening, I left with my vest complete except for the hand sewing.

We all learned so many useful tips as we worked on our vests. Learning how to put in a lining was completely new to me. This armhole treatment was tricky but the finished edge is well worth the effort and ripping out a few times.



Daryl demonstrated how to make bias tape from the lining material. We then used it for a Hong Kong seam finish on the hem and for the ends of the armhole bands. I really liked the neat, unifying look of this technique, all raw edges nicely tucked inside the hem.



Hand hemming towels, runners, etc. is always relaxing for me, so Monday I finished up all the edges. After one last pressing, I tried it on. It fits great and I like it so well! At last night's Guild meeting many of us from the workshop wore our finished (or nearly finished) vests. There were big smiles all around. Each of us had a garment made from our own hands that fits and makes us happy to be wearing it. For myself, I have new confidence in my sewing skills and a renewed desire to drive my sewing machine again. The lesson here - it is never too late to learn. Never.

Yardage

It's been quite some time since I've woven a long piece of yardage. This cloth came off my 16 shaft Megado loom last week. On the loom it measured 5 1/2 yards. After wet-finishing, its length is 4 yards, 31 inches.



The warp yarns are a variety of 8/2 unmercerized cottons and cotton/linen blends, set at 24 ends per inch. For weft I used a lustrous 8/2 tencel yarn from WEBS. There are 12 colors in the warp which shade gradually to the center and then back to the other selvedge. The pattern, Fairy Hills, is one I've developed and use frequently. Among its many variations is this one which I call Double Pine Trees because viewed from one direction the design resembles a forest of little trees.



So what am I going to do with this almost 5 yards of cloth? Not towels, not table runners. It's for a special project coming up this weekend - and that's all I'm going to say for now, except that I've oiled up my sewing machine and purchased a packet of sharp and shiny new needles ...

Finished in February

Last month, even though I worked diligently on many of my fiber projects, I didn't finish any of them. Not a one. Although I'm fairly patient, I do need to savor the satisfaction of completion from time to time. This month I kept plugging along and now, even though it's late in the month, I have two finished projects to share.

I'm calling this handspun yarn Missouri Dark Chocolate because 1) the rich color reminds me of - yum - dark chocolate, and 2) it's completely produced in Missouri. The fleece came from a Rambouillet x CVM sheep who was raised by a wool grower in the Kirksville area. I sent the fleece to Bonnie Ahrens at ABC Naturals to be washed and processed into a fine spinner's roving. The fine, soft fibers were a delight to spin.



I spun the roving into a cushy 2 ply medium weight yarn. After washing, processing, spinning, and plying, the 3.75 pound fleece yielded 1,232 yards/ 27.5 ounces of yarn. See those little waves running along the locks of wool in the photo below? That's known as crimp in sheep lingo, and nice wavy crimp like this usually yields a lofty, insulating yarn. It will knit up as a warm yet lightweight fabric.



My other completed project is this triangular knitted shawl. The pattern is Akimbo by Stephen West. The yarn is Pagewood Farm Denali sock yarn in two colorways, knitted on a US size 4 circular needle. I started this shawl last Thanksgiving and enjoyed working on it, but it had to compete with quite a few other projects for my attention. It wasn't growing very quickly. Luckily the Ravelympics came to the rescue. My sisters and I decided to resurrect our 2008 Ravelympics Team Sennott. I needed a knitting challenge to attempt to complete during the Winter Olympics, and the Akimbo shawl seemed like the perfect challenge.



My shawl was only about one third knitted when the Ravelympics began. To be honest, it's a good thing I enjoy watching many of the Winter Olympics sports. Watching those short track speed skaters, those crazy halfpipe dudes, the amazing mogul athletes, and others helped me knit right through my shawl in a much shorter time than if I hadn't attempted the challenge. Saturday evening I knitted the final stitches and freed the fabric from the needle. Yesterday I blocked the Akimbo. It's a lovely, eye-catching design. The colors will coordinate with many things in my closet. And best of all, our weather is still cold so I can wear it this winter!




Well then, two projects completed this month doesn't mean I'm nearly through with all my works-in-progress ... not by a long shot ... but I'm getting there!

Winter Rainbows (or Don't Cry, Just Dye!)

Even a fiber fanatic with a myriad of interesting projects to distract her can succumb to cabin fever in the long thread of cold, grey January days. I know this. It happens to me occasionally when I can't get outside for a hike in the woods or a tad of spindle spinning in the bright afternoon sunlight. Last week I was feeling "blah" even though I was enjoying my knitting, weaving and spinning. When I saw that Bex at True Blue Fiber Friends was offering a microwave dyeing session on Saturday, it seemed like just the ticket to nudge myself out of my late January funk. Sure enough, I had a great time, learned a new technique, and came home with some colorful rovings to spin.



The roving I dyed was 12 ounces of 50%/50% wool/mohair that has been in the spinning fiber stash for a few years. Thanks to the mohair, it has beaucoup luster. I bought it with the intention of spinning sock yarn. On Saturday Bex mixed a nice array of Country Classics protein-fiber dyes and gave a demonstration of applying the dyes to your yarn or fiber, wrapping it in plastic wrap, and heat-setting the dyes in the microwave. Over the years I've done lots of dyeing in many techniques, but I've done very little microwave dyeing. The Country Classics are premixed protein-fiber dyes. No checking acid levels or fussing with dye assistants is required. And the microwave method was a revelation. Just a few zaps of Ready Kilowatt, and presto, the fibers/yarns are dyed!

For the blue roving above I painted alternating areas with Cornflower Blue and Mountain Aqua. Then using a sponge brush, I dabbed random splotches of Purple on top of the other colors.

For the remaining 8 ounces, I painted areas with Pine Green, Turkey Red and Chestnut. After it had dried, this color combination reminded me of our raspberry bushes when they are producing fruit.



After so much fun, I'm looking at my cream/white fiber and yarn stash with new eyes. Now I KNOW what I'm going to do with that natural-colored Durasport sock yarn, and that bag of ivory Border Leicester roving, and oh yeah, that very large bag of snowy merino top ... And yes, now I'm in the market for an inexpensive microwave oven for dyeing. It just proves what I'd suspected. Sometimes the surefire way to jog oneself out of a January funk is simply to dye!

Click, Click, Click Go the Needles

My knitting has gotten out of hand recently. Well, no, to be more accurate, my knitting has been in my hands quite a lot this month. Usually I have two or, at most, three knitting projects that I'm actively knitting on at any one time. But right now I have 5 projects underway, all competing for my knitting attention. If knitting was my only craft, five projects would perhaps not seem so unreasonable. But weaving and spinning also make demands on my time too, so that's why I'm feeling like my knitting is a little (or perhaps a lot) out of control. To make matters worse, all five projects are interesting. I'm not willing to banish any of them to the "Knitting Basket of Limbo." So here they are, in no particular order.

First of all, the project that has been on the needles the longest is a Fair Isle vest in Jamieson & Smith 2 Ply Jumperweight Shetland Wool. The pattern I'm using is Meg Swanson's April in Wisconsin Vest.



In the perfect vision of hindsight, I can see that I would have been wiser to have just knitted the pattern as written, especially considering that this is my first attempt at a Fair Isle vest. But no, I wanted a button-up vest rather than a pullover. Now that I'm up in the armhole and neck opening decreases, there is so much happening in every round that I can only work two or three rounds before my brain starts to beg for mercy. This is definitely an "early in the day with a cup of tea" project.

The most recently started project is a pair of socks. The pattern is Cauchy from Cookie A's book Sock Innovation. The yarn is Briggs & Little's Durasport. I launched this project a couple of weeks ago because I was on call for jury duty last week and wanted a compact project to take along in the event I was required to report to the courthouse. My juror number was never called, so a sock project has joined the WIPS. These socks are destined to be a gift and there is no deadline, so I don't need to rush to finish them. By the way, the graphpaper notebook (which barely shows in the photo) has a nice handsewn fabric cover and was a Christmas gift, from and made by my sister Bonnie.



The next project is the one I am focusing on the most right now. The pattern is Elizabeth Zimmerman's Green Sweater. Pattern and Briggs & Little Sport yarn are from Schoolhouse Press. Although it presently looks like a floppy shapeless thing with random holes, with time it will turn into a neat stockinette stitch cardigan with dolman sleeves. The knitting is easy and relaxing. I'd like to finish it while our weather is still cold enough to wear it.



Another conglomeration of yarn that doesn't look like anything recognizable at the moment is the Akimbo Scarf. Designed by Stephen West, this is a triangular scarf which can be worn in lots of ways. I'm using Pagewood Farm Denali Hand Dyed Sock Yarn in two colorways. The second colorway hasn't been introduced yet.



The last in my knitting projects quintet is a double knit tam. I've only finished the ribbing so far. The pattern is the Double Knit Trinity Tam by Bex Oliger, the intrepid knitwear designer and partner/manager of True Blue Fiber Friends. This is my first foray into double knitting and I'm enjoying it so far, although I can already tell it's not going to be a fast knit. I'm using two colors of Knit Picks Palette fingering weight wool. The pattern is lovely. Hopefully I'll do a good job with it, so that it can be used for an Access Arts fundraiser.




Well, there's my current knitting line-up. Plenty of variety and luckily it's winter, so chilly afternoons and long evenings allow for lots of knitting time. But did I mention, there are weaving and spinning projects scattered around our house too? So, that's all for now. I'm going to go whomp on my loom for awhile ...

Blue Jay Way

In these harsh winter days I've been busy at my looms and spinning wheel, not inclined to write much. But today the weather was just mild enough for me and the dog to do a little walkabout around the pond and through the pasture. Sure enough, the spare beauty inspired me to snap a handful of photos. Just as I was ready to retreat to the warm kitchen, I walked round the old chicken coop and glanced at the weatherbeaten door. Stuck in a gap in the wood was an acorn, stashed there by some blue jay, I'm sure. A morsel of food, a bit of survival for the blue jay, a smile on a cold day for me.