musindigo

It is.  In May.

And I know other folks in different parts of the continent are guffawing about SNOW in May.  (Bad word, snow).  So I’m trying very hard to enjoy our heatwave here even though it slogs me out and makes me feel about as energetic as a snail.

However.  It has been too long since I’ve last typed so despite the heat I am typing.  And I also dyed today because it’s about time I do some of that too.  Especially since it’s nummy new limited edition mill-spun alpaca-merino laceweight I just retrieved very recently from a local mill.  They did a fabulous job and I can’t wait to get it up in the shop.  50/50 alpaca merino.

It’s gorgeous to knit with (I’m working on a pattern in it) and wonderfully soft.  Great for next-to the skin wear.  And it will be very pretty for lace knitting.

As of late it’s sort of been touch and go.  Physically, things are a little better due to new meds.  The trick is finding balance between meds and activity.  Sometimes the meds are the culprit keeping me from moving about and sometimes I overdo it and the meds don’t do as good of a job.  I’m getting there!  Just being able to get into the dyeroom is thrilling.  And I am quite happy to not have to deal with negative temps (again, my sympathies to those of you who are still stuck with frost and other bad words).

Otherwise, I’ve kept myself busy with my usual round of weekly startitis projects (see flyby photos below).  I did manage to finish a few things (or halves of pairs of socks, that sort of thing).  And one shawl is finished.

I don’t have pretty pretty pics of it yet - but here are a few pics:

Specs:  Daybreak by Stephen West.  Medium size, yarn is Oceanwind Knits Merino in various shades.  I think I used 3.75mm needles.  It’s gotten a lot of wear already.

Other bits of recent fibre-y activity (in no apparent order - just pretty fibre pictures :)):

hand-spun merino (Lakehouse Loft) - Wanida sock (Cookie A)

Sylvi

hand-spun corriedale (Lakehouse Loft)

wensleydale roving - potential spinning

wensleydale roving (more) - spinning in progress

Traveling Woman (in hand-spun corriedale from above)

And, due to aforementioned heatwave, plants are coming alive and blooming and just generally growing like mad.

I totally love poppies, don’t you?  This is a shot of the first one to open.

This last photo is Sam’s magic bean plant, which grew from ‘just popped out of the seed pod’ to about 4 inches, as you see, overnight.  Magic, indeed.  :)

So, there we are.  A sort of fly-by update but a blog post, nonetheless.

Hoping to post the new yarn by the end of this week.  :)

Tags: Canada, dyeing, finished, knitting, life, millspun, oceanwind knits, projects, roving, snow, wip, wool, work in progress, yarn

… things happen.

Such was the case last evening when I found myself in a position to do ‘whatever’, with the youngest more or less asleep, and hubby & eldest out.  It was a stormy evening, with localized squalls (the first major snow of the season around here) and the 100th Anniversary of the Montreal Canadiens was on CBC.

This all combined well with a quiet evening of spinning.  And, so, this is what happened.

The last Oceanwind Fibre Club offering was a batt based on Kandinsky.  As mentioned previously, I’ve decided to become a member of the club myself, this time around, to push my personal spinning boundaries a little.

My apologies.  I realized partway into the first batt I’d (typcially) forgotten to take a photo during daylight so it could be a little better.

The batts are based on this piece (but also on Kandinsky’s work, in general), entitled Farbstudie Quadrate, 1913:

There are 12 colours in the batt, blended in such a way to emphasize gradations but also hiding little surprise ‘bursts’ throughout.  Fibres include corriedale, alpaca, silk and merino.

I have to admit, although I love making batts, I am still quite a novice when it comes to spinning them.

With this batt in particular, Anne has gone before me which boosted my confidence.  So part of my determination and approach was based on her beautifully spun example.  However, being a little bit of a chicken, I wasn’t sure I was quite ready to go the whole hog and spin a completely transitional yarn.  I debated about doing singles for a transitional shawl or something along those lines, but, in the end, I decided to leave that idea for another time.  So I modified her approach somewhat.

I split each batt into quarters (widthwise, across the grain).  Each quarter is then split into thirds lengthwise (with the grain).  I am spinning each quarter in particular order so I have two gradations from ‘reds to yellows’ and two from ‘yellows to reds’ (each repeated) in each batt, reversing the order for the second batt, planning a 2-ply light fingering yarn.

Here’s the first bobbin (first batt):

I’m hoping for gradual, subtle transitions throughout the yarn.  I’m hoping to spin quite a lot today - NHL hockey starts at 1:30.  ;)

We will see how it comes out, if my approach works (I hope I am not muddying up the colours too much).

One of the joys of spinning - there is usually a surprise included.  :)

Tags: Canada, hockey, roving, snow, spinning, wool, work in progress

Yes…it really is a teenager shoveling snow.

(This was taken right about the time he asked if he was going to wind up in ‘one of those yarn books’).  You can see he’s pondering the thought.  LOL.

And here, he’s trying really hard to not do the dorky smile he usually does.  I’m so happy he didn’t.

Impressive, I say.

Tags: Canada, knits, knitting, snow, winter

A new design.  :)

This one was my baby for what seems like forever.  I kind of fitzed around with it in my head and otherwise (noodling around through stitch pattern books, thinking about what I wanted to represent, wanting to grab some of that Van Goghesque feel of the yarn colour-way, doing up arm-lengths of swatches… finally deciding on three lace patterns out of a zillion, making them all work together and adjusting repeat widths/lengths, charting, determining how many and how often and calculating yardage… I felt like I was sleeping with this shawl design for a good chunk of a year).  At the same time, I was really in love with it.

When it was all said and done, I needed a drink lol.  I was left wondering for a while if it was really off the needles and blocked and folded neatly in a special spot on my work-shelf.

It was a lot of fun to photograph (even some curious onlookers from the neighbourhood came driving slowly along peering at me out there in the park).  I got some early long wished-for snow (which is still around, under many further layers of later snow… did I wish too hard?) and found a fab crabapple tree to complement the blues of the yarn.  It was semi-overcast and a little breezy but not too much of either and if I was careful I was able to avoid photo-ing my footprints.  (Some photos taken indoors, too).

Anyhow, without further long-windedness -

Here is the Longest Night Shawl, AKA the ‘Solstice Shawl’ between Anne, and I.  (I’m sure she must have gotten tired of hearing about it.  ;))

Further photos available here (my Rav project page) and on the pattern page at Ravelry.  Download from my Rav shop or in the Oceanwind Knits Shop.

Tags: knit design, knitting, patterns, snow, winter