I’m challenging myself to list something every day this week…..today’s offering is Romney!
Yummy, squishy, soft, and cuddly warm Polwarth! Pretty and like a cloud. The last time I had some, it didn’t last long….so if you see something you like, snap it up!
Well, hope you enjoyed my trials and tribulations with trying planned pooling with the knitting machine. Even my seed stitch didn’t work out….pretty, but it was going to end up about 17 inches long….more pillow-cover-ish than scarf-ish. So on to round 3.
While at Wisconsin Sheep and Wool, I happened to be reading the latest Spin Off (tent, lantern, peace and quiet, and fiber….it was fun!). Well, Carol Rhoades had an article in there (and I took class with her Saturday, BTW!), and her swatches were in Feather and Fan. It looked beautiful, AND the pattern looked dead simple. An idea sparked.
So the seed stitch was frogged, and I tried out larger needles (I grabbed #10’s), and cast on a few different times, and tried the pattern a couple of different times. Um, dead simple pattern requires you to actually pay attention to how it is written. Once I had figured that little ‘duh’ moment out, I was off and knitting.
Yeah, yeah, I’m not winning any awards for lining the pattern up with the color changes, or even stitches or anything, but it isn’t too bad for a first hand knit lace project. Most rows I can keep the stitch count going, and you can see the bit of yarn I put in the center for a stitch marker….it is very helpful and I may add a couple more. I love that a repeat or two adds inches to the project, so that type of progress will keep me going on this for awhile (I hope). I did some more math, and it looks like this will be about 55 inches with moderate blocking, which I think will do very nicely.
The cable to run the self-propelling part of our lawn mower broke, and hubby has just not gotten to fixing it. So our yard is becoming a bit overgrown, neglected, and prime wildlife habitat.
We have plenty of squirrels of all colors, and they are happily feasting on acorns. There’s a big groundhog/woodchuck who lumbers across the lawn, getting fat on whatever it can find. The neighbors’ little solar sound makers worked and their moles are now joyfully tunneling through our quiet yard. Chipmunks skitter about, and of course we flush out a few rabbits now and then, especially since the hawks seem to have moved on.
The other day I looked out the window, there was this pretty little thing:
I admit to being a little concerned….it is unusual for a deer with spots to be without supervision. I needn’t have worried…..
Time for another reveal! August was about the waning days of summer, and enjoying those last pretty evenings before we have to worry about bedtimes and homework. “Sunset over Sage” is a glorious purple-coral-straw sunset over a field of sagey green.
The hand painted Bengal sock yarn was designed for something called Planned Pooling, certainly not a new concept, but developed into an ‘on purpose’ technique by Gladys We and Karla Stuebing (a.k.a. wenat and statnerd on Ravelry). Here is their handout from a workshop they gave at Sock Summit. Hold that thought…..I’ll get back to intentional pooling in a minute.
Since I designed the sock yarn to do lace, I thought a fiber meant for lace would be a good compliment. So the fiber is Wensleydale. It has a lovely long staple, and begs to be spun thin. The color repeats are short, considering the staple length, so I will be interested to see what people do with it. Anyhow, hands far apart, and keep the twist low.
All right, back to the pool! My original thought was to try to knit the scarf on my knitting machine. It would be cool….I would be able to see the whole row knit at once and be able to control the tension more easily. And I could count the stitches in each color and design a lace pattern to match. And then I wouldn’t have to mess with directions or charts….just let the machine keep track of that.
So I diligently set out a few repeats.
Safety pins and knitting machines don’t mix, so I use a single ply of a waste yarn to pierce and tie where the turns would be.
And then I put it on the machine.
Too many stitches on this side…..
And not enough here…..
Ah….just right!
Once I got the first couple of rows lined up, it seemed to be going well.
Except you can see that top row shifting……and I tried to get it back, tried to cycle it around, tried different tensions and stitch numbers….and well…..I got this:
There’s moments in there….but not at all what I was imagining.
So ribbit ribbit ribbit……and some circular needles, and here is where I am. I have no idea what size these are, and I haven’t counted the stitches. I’m using seed stitch (because anything more complicated is going to fall out of my head right now), and it seems to be working out ok. I watch each color and adjust the yarn so the colors stack pretty well.
One inch down…..about 70 or so to go!!!
All right, all right, so not everything got done on my to-do list before vacation. I totally missed getting the July reveal up. So at long last, here it is.
For the last hurrah of summer, I wanted to do a cool fiber, so Bamboo was the go-to plan. And I had opportunity to purchase some of the neat carbonized bamboo, so I needed a colorway that would look striking with black. How about this…..
So, Northern Aurora was born!
And for sock yarn that matched, I wound up 1/2 skeins and dyed half black and half in the turquoise/pink/purple.
As a side note, this picture of the fireworks at Disney came up during my inspiration search. It is showing the battle of the fairies over Aurora’s dress color in Sleeping Beauty. Pink! No, Blue! I found it amusing, and it became a great teaser clue for the club colors.
Thanks for your patience about this reveal! August Club is closed and is being dyed as I type this. It is scrumptious….5 main colors and so pretty, perhaps hinting at fall, but not cliche. Stay tuned on Ravelry and/or Facebook for hints (or take a guess!).
Yesterday I overdyed some wool. I wish I had taken a before picture, because it is wonderful what overdyeing can do. The wool was all kinds of weird colors, dyed from remnants of dyebaths when I was just teaching myself how to dye spinning fiber. What was I thinking? Some weird pink, more pink with odd blue bits, apricot (ok, that wasn’t bad, but I’m not an orange person), strange greens, not-quite browns, and a black-red.
I have in mind to weave a nice blanket for myself (my acrylic throw isn’t that warm, and is always being ‘borrowed’ to make forts, anyhow). So, I tossed these odds and ends that would never be used otherwise into two dyebaths. One a golden green, the other a deep brown. Now I have a whole pile of lovely gradations and shades of colors. The goal is to spin much of it on vacation, these are Northwoods colors, it will be neat to do at least some of the project there. I’m also taking my new Valkarie Mini 2 pitch combs. They are really fabulous, and are going to make this wool a dream to spin.
To get to the title (!), I pulled an old sheet off of a box of fleece I’ve been meaning to wash all summer to use to dry the overdyed wool on the driveway. When I took the sheet back in the evening, I discovered a little ivory and grey marble. Erm. Egg. Where did that come from? I looked at the baseball helmet I was holding in my other hand….and hmmmm, yes. There’s a big nest in there!
With 3 more eggs in it. Well, I love animals, but I didn’t want an active nest on my fleece, so I cleared the area off, and grabbed a chunk of ‘junk wool’ (the bottom of the nest was very thin, since it was on the sheet, that is how the egg fell out). So now here is her little set up, and as you can see, Mama Wren is happy.
LOL, she does look a little wary, doesn’t she? The wildlife around here is sure enjoying the break in the temperatures. There was a doe in our backyard during lunch, and the woodchuck is busy getting fat. The kids saw a raccoon after our band concert last night. There are more chickadees at the feeder, and I even saw our poor Albert (Cardinal). He’s bald on his head except for a pitiful red mohawk.
I’m looking forward to seeing (and hearing) Loons and Bald Eagles in a few days. Hope you have plans to enjoy a cooler week before school starts!
Rainbows are always popular at The Painted Tiger…..I love to make them, and knitters and spinners love to make stuff with them. I’ve been overdue for a batch, so here’s what came out of the dyepot one sunny afternoon!
These are the new Fillet of Sole yarns I’ve been making on my new yarn, Safari (corriedale and nylon blend). Rainbow Brite is all bright and rainbow-ee with a side of navy that will really make the colors pop even more. Each side will alternate in rows about 3 stripes wide.
Here’s some Tropical Rainbow on Panda – Merino/Bamboo/Nylon blend. This is really great for items that want some drape…baby blankets, scarves, shawls. Fun for weaving on your Rigid Heddle loom. And it makes great socks, too!
Tiger Twist is the most popular sock yarn in my shop….it is thick and cushy, but high twist so it has great durability for merino wool. Here it soaks up the sunshine of a Tropical Rainbow.
All of these are located in the Rainbow section of the shop. Enjoy a rainbow today!
After long development and Tiger Club testing, I’m ready to release a new yarn to the line up. This is Safari, which is 75% superwash colonial wool and 25% nylon, this means sturdy and pill resistant. It has been knit into a double stranded sock blank, then dyed half and half in gradients. These will give you about 3 row stripes on socks like this:
You can find these 4 colors up in the shop, with more to come over the coming months.
Need more convincing….here’s some of my socks made from this yarn and style of dyeing:
I love this wool….spins up quick and felts nicely. I’ve dyed up ten new colors for you!
Need a link? Here’s one for the Corriedale Cross Wool Top!
