Booties

I've made similar booties in the past for a niece so decided to try a different pattern that I had in a book. Knit flat and then seamed up. I like the other pattern that uses dpns. ;-) I think it was the seaming up portion.

Here they are:

 

My brother Scott is going to be a father again next month. I get to meet the mother-to-be at their shower on Saturday. Just have to whip up a baby quilt by that time. ;-) Robyn is the mother's name and they know that the baby is a boy, and have named him Cole. Estimated due date is December 13th.

Also casting on for a Norwegian Sweet Baby Cap the cap most likely will be set aside as a Christmas gift. There's also a sweater planned out of this same yarn as the booties and for the cap. Should make a nice set.

Spinning Wednesday

Wednesdays are for spinning. Meet the ladies at the Aloha Grange and spin for on average four hours. Back in January when I went on the Seattle-PDX Yarn Crawl, I bought some Jacob at Dublin Bay. It was a pound and just over $13.

It languished while I spun other things. Then when I had the drum carder for the first time I ran the Jacob through and made batts out of the mass that it was. I don't remember the batts causing me any problems, other than running through the drum carder.

I started spinning some of the Jacob Tuesday night and noticed that my tongue got a prickly feeling and my face felt itchy. I have found dirt bits in the batts and some grass and some wirey stuff, but I don't think this is what is causing the allergic reaction. I think its the dye. It's similar but not exact to the reaction from Noro Kureyon - that was more extreme.

So I was working with the Jacob again today. It's definitely an allergy reaction that I'm getting. This stuff is also very coarse and would definitely be outerwear. I'm trying for a thicker single and was thinking of trying for a three ply worsted weight yarn.

The question is - do I really want to deal with this stuff? Spinning is supposed to be fun and relaxing and this is the second stuff that is not enjoyable. I'll be able to knit something nice from the cormo, but this I'm already thinking that its destined to become something that would be felted up.

So bag it up and offer it up in the Spin-Cycle trade? Does anyone else want this? Here is what one bobbin kind of looks like:

Gail shared some free fiber she received from the Louet guy at SOAR (I gave her a little back massage). I've figured out that it must be their Merino/Silk 80/20 blend. It's 2.4 ounces of a pretty red. I think that I can do a nice lace weight and  get enough yardage for a pretty scarf or cowl.

I divided them into one ounce bundles.

ETA: the swapped skein of yarn I got on Monday? It's a thick & thin skein. Did I mention that? It so won't work for the Diamonds & Pearls shawl. It may just become a "Three Cornered Scarf" out of "The Intentional Spinner" book. Or! I just found this pattern - what do you think I should do?

Love it!

Some may remember my finished big project last year of my Cascade Lizard Ridge blanket. Found out in the Lizard Ridge class that I must be allergic to the vm or dyes in the Noro Kureyon so switched to Cascade 220 and had the balls in a bag and would randomly draw. I seemed to have gotten a lot of yellow. ;-)

It's been a great blanket to snuggle up through last winter and with the cooler days of fall starting I was snuggled up under it one morning recently. There was also a cup of coffee involved. Can you guess? Yes, there was spillage that happened. 

The blanket has been hanging out on the back of the couch during this last year too. Norbert favors it and the flannel quilt that I sewed a couple of years ago to lay on top of. Those diamonds were tricky to line up and there might have been some swearing involved since it was Brandon's idea.

Anyway, one of the other things that happened last year is, to say thank you to Brandon for all the computer help that he's done, his grandfather took us out and bought us a new washer and dryer set. A nice huge capacity front loader and dryer - Maytag Epics, if you're curious. I hadn't had time to do the research so I was going in blind and went with size, energy rating and known name brand.

I've used the dryer to help dry fiber and handspun yarn - it came with a dryer tray so the stuff can lay on the tray and have all the heat and none of the agitation that causes felting. Love it!

With the Lizard Ridge Blanket and the coffee spill it was the first time I was able to use a washer setting - Wool. I first fixed some of the snags, darn dog nails grabbing strands and pulling, then popped it into the washer with a smidgen of detergent, then walked away. I didn't want to watch - chicken I know. ;-)

Twenty minutes later I came back to get the washed blanket - looked awesome! A clean and bright again. Then I looked at this wet wool blanket and was so not going to go through the air dry process. So looked at the dryer to see what it could offer me. There's a 'delicate' cycle but there's also a 'super delicate' cycle. Score! In went the blanket and it did take two times through the super delicate cycle for the blanket to get dry, but it didn't felt at all! Love it!

See! No felting. The boobies came back too.  Oh come on, if you've seen one in progress the short row sections end up looking like boob bumps. (They were blocked out for sewing them up.) So the only drawback to the new set is the whole felting process. Frontends are not inclined to let you open the door in the middle of a cycle, all that water whooshing out. So felting things is interesting but I'm not a huge felter so not a HUGE loss. The old top loader was given to the BIL since they were going through a lot of laundry with two small kids in the house.

Yarn Monday

I love these!

I have been working on Bailey's Fairy Wings. They are all knitted. Then I read ahead and I had to crochet on the funky border. Then I re-looked at that funky border and I had done mine wrong. Not a problem, undid the cast off and tinked back ten rows and un-cast off twenty-five stitches and fixed both wings. Hey, if I'm going to do it wrong, why not to both? Once fixed I started the crochet portion of the wings. They use crochet to give an edge and condense down the number of stitches, giving a 'wing' look to them - use your imagination!

Currently still soaking in the sink are the wings. I need to get them out and block them. I have one wrist band crocheted and will do the other. The back and ties are also supposed to be crocheted and then sewn to the wings. I'm trying to decide if there's a way to combine those two steps. I'm sure there is, or I'll make one might be a better way of saying it. ;-)

I did a little spinning over the weekend. I spun up the single Abstract Fiber, think its Shady Glen, minus the black, 1 ounce bump I had from the Summer of Spinning prize package:

It rested overnight and then I took the time to chain play it into this:

I have 67 yards of it to play with. Not sure what it might become, but it sure is pretty!

Also in the mail is a skein of yarn that I traded my Knitters Without Borders sock yarn I'd gotten at the Yarn Harlot book signing. I wasn't really in love with the color combination together. So it had been languishing in my 'Trade/Sell' area. Sara contacted me from New Jersey and asked about selling it. I took a look at her stash and saw that she had something that might work as a trade. So that's what we did!

I now have Ellie a pretty dark reds and dark orange thick and thin yarn that I think might work out nicely in the Diamonds and Pearls Shawl that I've been wanting to make. Shelia is the designer. I'll show her the yarn on Wednesday at spinning and see what she thinks of it as a yarn possibility.

Well those wings won't block themselves so off I go!

Bailey's Mitts

Bailey has a "Spider Geisha" costume she wore last year for Halloween and planed to wear again this year. I thought I'd make her some mittens to keep her hands warm but also be part of the costume.

I found a child's basic fingerless mittens pattern and then adapted it to suit my purposes. Cindy came up with using the Vogue Stitchonary's "butterfly" stitch for the spider. Then there was the test knitting. Getting a couple rows of "spiders" done and seeing how they looked. The black knit stitch to define the body wasn't really giving it enough in Brandon's opinion. His suggestion - beads. Well I had pre-strung the black yarn with some lavender beads I had. The original thought was to put some in the wrist ribbing and at the hands. I didn't like how they looked but still had the beads being pushed on the yarn.

Some tinking back a bunch of rows and re-doing the spiders with their new body and these are the mittens that we ended up with:

Some of them work a little better at looking like spiders, I also see butterflies or angels. Yarns used were Knit Picks Essentials black sock yarn and some of the yarn used in Kaisha's Fairy Wings, Filatura Di Crosa Ritratto.

The mitts can be worn as above, but I also included some yarn overs to allow for weaving in some ribbon at the wrists. Not sure how well that idea worked but this is what they look like using some lavender ribbon I had on hand. I think black or silver would work well too:

ETA: Bailey has been reported to 'love' her mitts and is happy that they are also something she can wear during recess. Success!

Curious Competition

Darn FaceBook had an ad for Celtic Thunder and I clicked on it and have lost some time listening/watching songs. I stumbled across someone who was doing a comparison of one song Caledonia between Celtic Women and Celtic Thunder. A lot of people thought that Lisa Kelly's version better, but personally I found Celtic Thunder's more stirring.  What's your vote?

Celtic Women:


Celtic Thunder:


Then I love Enya's Orinoco Flow and so listened to Celtic Women's verision:


Enya's version with the original video:


Which do you think is the better version? I'm still leaning towards Enya's but then that might be because I've heard it more often.

William's Jayne

I figured with the weather and his newer confidence in himself William would totally be willing to wear the Jayne Hat that he thought of as 'cool'. Ravelry has many in the database, but I went with the pattern directions from someone who is just a little OCD in her details. Renee's Cunning Jayne Hat design.

I had to learn something new for me the German Twist Cast On. I found this video helpful and it also popped up as a nice elastic cast on for socks and some people were planning on using it on the Yarn Harlot's Pretty Thing Cowl.

I went with Knit Picks for the yarn since they had great prices on small skeins.  I used up almost all of the yellow but still have the red and orange with a little more than half skeins. Just have to come up with a use for them. Cool names - Gold, Saffron and Serrano.

The hat:

William wearing the hat:

It's his 20th birthday today. So a little something to keep him warm and a little gift of handmade love from him mom.