Shelter Chic

Announcing "Shelter Chic" a new line of hand crocheted dog apparel. Both original pieces and patterns are becoming available as we speak. Why "Shelter Chic"?
Most people who know me know that one of my non-fiber passions is volunteering at our local no kill animal shelter Animal Harbor. I love to socialize the dogs and help out any way that I can. (BTW, my current favorite is Rover...he is a bone-a-fide disc dog candidate). Our shelter manager Amber Kelly started crocheting dog sweaters a while back for the smaller short haired dogs that ended up at Animal Harbor. She came up with a great style that is completely non-restrictive (for dogs who aren't used to wearing clothes perse), sturdy, warm and very hip.  So far there are two basic styles, the wrap (top two ) and the vest (bottom). Amber made so many that she started selling them at the shelter. But there isn't all that much foot traffic there so I thought it would be cool to sell them on Animal Harbor's ebay site (check 'em out). All proceeds from these dog coats go to the shelter. Amber will make custom "Shelter Chic" wraps, vests and coats to specific measurements. Materials used are acrylic or washable wool (any comments from yarn snobs will be booed out of the building...these are dog coats, not haut couture). Just email her with your requests. I'm sure she'd crochet them out of your handspun too. Just ask her.

I'm currently writing up a pattern for the wrap and vest which will be available soon on my Etsy Store. Just as the original coats, all profits from patterns will go to Animal Harbor.

 Our model "Squeeky" is a rescue belonging to my friend Pat Keran. Pat has four poodles in all sizes, all rescues. Yay, Pat!

Hands On Color Class

Meg Manning of Yarn Expressions is hosting my Hands On Color Class in Huntsville, Alabama, April 5, 2008. This is a one day workshop for spinners of all levels. You'll get to practice how to get many different yarns out of one handpainted roving, from solid color, heathered blend, sequential repeats, random blending, combination drafting and use of multiple colorways. Bring your wheel or spindle and have some fun with us. For more info contact Yarn Expressions. This is the first time I've taught this class south of the Mason Dixon for 3 years! 

Justify available in German

Today I received an email from Germany. A knitter named Sabine from Bad Driburg asked if she could post a German translation of Justify on her blog. Of course I said yes, so it's up and running already! Wow. Check it out. How cool is this?

New Twist on the Pumpkin Bag

Twisted Sister Rachael just sent me her two new versions of the Pumpkin Felted Bag. This one has mohair locks felted right into the bag. Rachael says she lost a couple in the felting process, but as you can see they look great. She couldn't stop at one (this seems to happen often) so she also knit a version in periwinkle blue sans locks. What is that cat thinking?

Superfluity

Superfluity is my new mobius wrap, designed especially for Three Waters Farm to show off their gorgeous handpainted yarn. This is an easy to knit wrap in five yarns, mohair boucle, mohair/silk boucle, wool boucle and two different colorways of merino/alpaca worsted weight. Mary Ann at Three Waters Farm is now offering this in kit form on their website and will also feature the kit in the Three Waters Farm booth at Maryland Sheep and Wool in May.  

If you want the pattern without the yarn now, I'll be posting it on my etsy store soon.

I love this wrap. It's cozy, warm and feminine. Easy to knit. Fun colors (knit in these or chose your own).

Lace Knitting Class

Join me in a two session lace workshop! We’re going to knit my Spiralling Leaves Fingerless Gloves and learn about lace knitting in the round in the process. Not only that, Lori Lawson of Capistrano Fiber Arts will be supplying her beautiful handpainted superwash merino yarn for the class (two skeins included in the price of admission). Gloves in the photo are knit from her yarn. Class will be given in two 2-hour sessions, the first on March 8 and the second on March 22, 2008. This will give participants time to practice their lace pattern before tackling the thumb and hand. For more information check out Stone Light Studio, a wonderful new fiber shop in Soddy Daisy, TN. Just 20 scenic minutes north of Chattanooga, Stone Light carries fabric, yarn, fiber and supplies for quilters, knitters, felters and fabric collage artists. Check out their other classes too.  Veronica and Dee's beautifully arranged shop is housed in a cute stone house with a lovely view of the undulating hills of the Tennessee Valley. What a great place to have a class. For those of you in surrounding areas, Stone Light Studio is certainly worth a day trip. I had never been up State Rt 27 from Chattanooga and was awed at the majestic brow of Signal Mountain which overlooks the road most of the way. 

I Dyed Some Yarn

(Update as of 5 hrs later...yep...it's all sold. Every last inch. Thanks!!!! L)
Yeah...believe it or not I actually dyed some yarn. Many of you know how rare this is. What with two eye surgeries this year and a growing chemical sensitivity to acid dyes, not to mention second stage water restriction in Sewanee, I'm not doing much dyeing these days. But the weather was positively balmy the other day so I couldn't resist. After waking up with sandpaper eyeballs the next day I can tell you it won't happen often. So there are two colorways left of Merino/Bamboo Sock Yarn (one has already been purchased in toto). I posted one 300 yd skein of each remaining colorway on ETSY...Abalone and Sea Anemone. That's Sea Anemone on the left. It's a little darker than that in reality. The digital camera cannot do justice to Abalone. Just can't pick up the mauves and pale lavender greys. It's almost icy, this skein.

Never Before Seen in Digital Format

Can you stand it? I found this snap of Monk from puppyhood, taken 8 1/2 years ago in the kitchen in Cannon Beach, pre digital camera, etc etc. Look at that expression. We called him "Little Man" because he was too serious to be a baby. Had to share it. 

enuf

Freaky

Yes, this is an icicle. Just one. It appeared in our birdbath a couple days ago the morning after a rain (yes...it actually rained here in the Desert Southeast). No, the picture isn't upside down. You can tell by the "deer" in the background, actually our weim Pearl. If you look closely, it almost looks like it has a head and shoulders (OMG...a Virgin M?, tongue firmly embedded in cheek). This happened  I'm sure there is a perfectly logical explanation for this phenom. The temp that night took a steep dive...say a 15 degree drop in the time it took us to walk the dogs around 10ish. But just one stalicemite? Freaky.

Carolyn's Spiralling Leaves

Carolyn just finished her Spiralling Leaves Fingerless Gloves. She spun the yarn (which she calls "Green Card" from a carded blend of her handdyed wool. These leaves are cushy, deep, a real stand out. She says: " I do love the way they fit. They are very elegant. In fact, I love everything about them!" Way to go Carolyn!

My new ETSY Shop

Check out my new ETSY Shop! This should make it much easier for you to buy my patterns. Soon I should have some handspun yarn posted here as well, so keep checking back. Am adding new stuff all the time. You'll find my newest pattern there, Spiralling Leaves Fingerless Gloves (top). These are so fun to knit, with leaf motifs that spiral in opposite directions...right for the right hand, left for left. I knit these from Capistrano Fiber Arts superwash merino sock yarn.

Please see the new link to Three Waters Farm. If you haven't checked this out yet, see some of my official colorways that Mary Ann at TWF is dyeing on fiber and yarn. The gorgeous winter blend "Mansock", featured on my Tiny Triangle Fingerless Gloves  (bottom, pattern available on ETSY) is available at Three Waters Farm. You can get it in fingering weight, sport weight, or fiber. If you don't see it, just email Mary Ann and she'll dye it up for you. She also has fiber kits for my Justify pattern on Knitty.com Winter 2007.

Yvonne's Version of "Zylie"

Check out this beauty!!! Yvonne, better known by her Ravelry handle "lavendersheep", finished her version of Sandy's Sweater for Zylie. She painted her own roving for her handspun too.  As anyone knows who has tried to change a colorway for a pattern, it isn't always that easy to balance a whole new set of colors and have them look the way you want. Yvonne did a lovely job of that here, toning the brilliant colors into a frosty pale version that still has plenty of punch. Great work, Yvonne. Thanks for finding the errata in the pattern too! This helps everyone. 

Check Yvonne's blog and her Ravelry pages for more.

Justify Your Stash

Justify all the small amounts of fiber in fiber stash by spinning for my new pattern "Justify" which just went live on Knitty! My accompanying article on Knittyspin, Color Combining 101, walks through my process of selecting and combining colorways of handpainted roving for this awesome and easy wrap. It will give you plenty of pointers on how to use the fibers you've been collecting with no particular project in mind, purchases you made on the basis of beauty alone. But there's more. You can now purchase my colors in a new fiber kit from Three Waters Farm.

LV ltd for Three Waters Farm is a brand new collaboration. Master dyer Mary Ann Pagano of Three Waters Farm and I are now putting our heads together to make my colorways more widely available. Until now I've only been able to dye fiber for my classes, because after several eye surgerys I've become too sensitive to the dyes to do production dyeing, only offering my handdyed fiber and yarn as part of my workshops. Our dye relationship started last summer when I gave Jean Lampe a skein of my handdyed yarn as a gift. She immediately knit a pair of socks and she will include this pattern in her co-authored book which is due to come out in 2008 (I'll post all that info when I know more). She loved my yarn so much she asked for a man's colorway and I quickly obliged. When she asked where the yarn would be available for knitters I gasped! That's when I called Mary Ann. She dyed the colorways so beautifully that I thought she had sent me back my own yarns! So we are both excited to announce our collaboration in the form of LV ltd @ Three Waters Farm.

Patterns Now Available

My original patterns are now available in PDF format on Wool Etc! I will be adding more, so keep checking Wool Etc for more offerings. I'm going to post the patterns as projects on Ravelry for those of you who are enjoying that site. Lori of Capistrano Fiber Arts has knit this hat twice and has posted both of them in her projects on Ravelry. She goes by SpinSpin. If you haven't checked out her blog lately, you should. She has gorgeous roving and yarn for sale. I'm currently spinning some merino/tussah in Stormy Skies. It's delicious.

The first pattern I'm offering is my Four Rings Entrelac Hat. Start from a "core 4" of rectangles and build this into a seamless and very comfy hat. This challenging pattern comes complete with clear illustrations. For experienced knitters.

I knit this one from my own handspun. It's merino/angora 14 wpi approx DK weight. Allow 300 yds.

NW Wools IS Twisted Sisters Central

NW Wools really is Twisted Sisters Central. Those of you who live in the Portland, OR area may already know that you have regular access to these awesome teachers. The following teachers are active members of the Portland area spinning group Twisted Sisters and contributors to either my sweater or sock books (or both). They teach regular ongoing classes plus specially scheduled workshops.

Jane Penny: her socks on pg 4 TSSW are knit from her Black Sheep Gathering-Reserve-Grand-Champion-winning navajo plied yarn. She teaches Drop Spindle and How to Knit Socks.
Laurie Weinsoft: The creator of Laurie's Panel Jacket in TSKS, Laurie's massive creativity and verve are channelled into Beginning and Intermediate Spinning, Adventures in Carding and "Somewhere Over the Rainbow", a class devoted to getting the most out of your handpainted rovings. Laurie will wake up your creativity espresso style.
Ellen Farr: A walking knitting encyclopedia, Ellen and I have knit over the phone together, especially working out her fancy seed stitch cast ons and bind offs. She teaches one on
one help as well as no tears general knitting classes. She is lively, funny, and remarkably inventive. Not to be missed.
Jan Prewitt: Encyclopedia Volume Two, Jan's patient clear style illuminates the foggiest recesses of the knitter's brain. Jan can teach you to avoid problems and to remedy them. What a brain.
Alina Egerman: Alina is listed as a teacher, but she has recently moved to LA to get married and start a whole new life. Best Wishes, Alina. You will be sorely missed in Portland.

Sisters' Squares Sweater: The Project That Got Away. (photo above)

Speaking of Alina, she organized a very cool project for TSKS, but sadly we didn't have room to include it. We called it the Sisters Squares Sweater. Alina chose yarns and distributed them among the sisters along with handdyed fiber from Sandy and myself. Sisters then were to knit squares of their own chosing. Some knit bold stripes while others included textured patterns and stranded colorwork. Some used the yarn provided, others spun the fiber and included that yarn. Alina sent me a pile of squares and some leftover yarn and I put them together into a cropped pullover.
This pullover was an unexpected hit at the Twisted Sister Party Linda held after Black Sheep last June. She had so many requests for the pattern that she decided to do a class. For more information, contact Linda at NW Wools, 3524 SW Troy St, Portland OR 97219, 503 244-5024

Booksigning at Yarn Company

Ya'll don't forget! Booksigning this Friday, Oct 12, 2007 at Yarn Company in Cookeville. Come and visit Ruth Rhea, Diane, Cindy me from 4-6 PM. There will be books, there will be yarn. We'll party. Yeee hah!

Yarn Company
380 S Lowe #E1
Cookeville,TN 38501
931-528-8822

A New Thinking Knitter

Here's proof that one doesn't need be born a thinking knitter. Anne from "Nashville Knit In" below sent me a picture of her completed sweater. But don't take my word for it...take Anne's. Here's her story. Way to go Anne!

"As I said at last month’s Knitting at the Library, I’ve always been a pattern knitter. My granddaughter picked out the pattern, the yarn and the buttons for a sweater to wear riding this winter. When I finished her sweater, which should have been a child’s size 7, it fit an adult woman. Gauge was not the problem, the pattern was totally incorrect.

As luck would have it, I had just gotten a copy of The Twisted Sisters Knit Sweaters A Knit-to-Fit Workshop, and with some encouragement from my knitting group, decided to reknit the sweater using the form and ideas outlined in your book. I changed the size of the diamonds to be more in proportion with the smaller size, knit the front and back sections as one from the bottom up ( eliminating the side seams) and knit in the raglan sleeves (eliminating that seam also). Allie kept trying on the sweater as we proceeded, but all of your suggestions and the form in the book worked perfectly. I especially liked your suggestion that completing all of the calculations on the form at the start is not necessary. Just a couple are required to begin, and the rest will follow.

Allie loves her custom fitted sweater and can’t wait for colder weather to wear it for her riding lessons.

I’m now working on a sweater from Vicki Square’s Knit Kimono, but this time as a thinking knitter, no longer blindly following a pattern.

Thanks so much…Anne"

Capistrano Fiber Arts Studio

Many of you know that Lori Lawson of Capistrano Fiber Arts Studio in Southern California and I collaborated on two of the sweaters in the gallery of Twisted Sisters Knit Sweaters. Lori has been selling her handpainted yarn and rovings for a while now, but has only had a sporadic web presence. I am really happy to say that she is finally getting serious about offering her work online, so if you aren't familiar with her gorgeous stuff, please check it out. Not only does she have some of the most beautiful yarn and fiber around, she also offers pattern support.

Especially cool is the yarn she spun from a recent trade of ours. The trade came about when I accidently dyed some merino/cashmere/angora to spin thinking it was merino/tussah. Sheesh. I'm allergic to unspun angora and cashmere...what was I thinking? So we traded. Here's a taste of what I'm doing with my yarn from our fiber trade.

Nashville Knit-In

My local world has just opened up! Hermetaceous moi had the distinct pleasure yesterday of joining Ann Shayne and company for their monthly knit together at the Nashville Public Library. The group meets in a large, well lit room in a far corner of the library where we could be loud and even eat! Everyone brought knitting of course and there was loads of cool stuff. Margot had started a log cabin blanket out of vibrant reds, oranges and pinks. Something happened in the progress of the piece and it puckered into....A BAG! The most awesome hobo bag. Wow. Then someone brought a tunisian gauntlet in progress. I can remember her name because I couldn't take my eyes off her knitting. The three dimensional slip stitch pattern looked like little flames flickering in a deep weblike grotto of black alpaca. GOT to try this. She knit it on zero needles ...we decided to call them oooooooooooos as in oooo scary.

Ann had brought a load of fun yarns to raffle off. Many went home with new stuff to try, including the newest knitter who had just learned Saturday..and moi, who am now the proud owner of a cool skein of Lorna’s Laces Swirl Chunky in Sherbet. A delightful young woman sat next to me an announced she was my husband's distant cousin Francie. Turns out that Francie was the artisan of my favorite stitch markers. A couple years ago I'd bought two of Francie's sets of fimo markers at Yarn Company in Cookeville, Tn, a cool and ever growing shop co-owned by our cousin Ruth Rhea, her friends Diane and Cynthia . One of these sets I always keep at hand...black and white milifiori style...easily my favorite stitch markers. So this was a great meeting. Also got to meet Meredith, owner of the Knaughty Knitter in Murfreesboro who carries not only yarn but FIBER as well and a whole lot of other things. (This marvelous shop had escaped me until I heard about if from Murfreesboroan Jan, who traveled all the way to New Hampshire from Tennessee to take my Harrisville class.) Meredith had the funnest felted bag, complete with some crazy handspun detail that absolutely made the piece.

Last but not least, Meredith's friend Anne spoke to the group of a bad pattern experience she'd had recently. She said she'd always been a pattern knitter (and I"m thinking, hmmm, maybe she could use my book). She'd knit a sweater from a pattern only to find that the pattern had been misprinted. All the while she was knitting what she thought was a girl's size 6, she was knitting an adult woman's medium! With cables no less. So she said her friend showed her a great book that made it so easy for her to alter her pattern and reknit it in the girls' size. She went on and on about this book, calling it THE book. I'm crocheting away thinking, hmm…did someone else write a book like mine? Then she said that that book was MY book. And she just beamed at me. I got all misty. We all cheered. A new thinking knitter! And they said it couldn't be done. LOVE IT. So I asked her more about how she used my book to solve her prob. She said she just read the chapter on the basic sweater, glanced around at the other variations, then went for it. Reading TSKS she found she didn't have to make all her decisions at once, but could manage them in stages as she worked and this was most helpful of all. Great feedback.

Vest Central

Cuz a lot of you are already knitting the Rectangle Vest (pg 75), I've started a new blog page where I'll post the finished variations of this vest as they come into being. Check out Vest Central for more details.

Meanwhile, here's my newest variation. Sis fell in love with the grey one so it's hers now...lucky sis! This one is knit from two shades of Malabrigio worsted and two colorways of Morehouse Merino laceweight. Both those companies make both weights and all are interchangeable. I just used what was in my stash. This vest takes about 850 yds, give or take. I finished it in less than a week. Now I'm ready to start another...this could become an obsession.