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.

Twisted Sisters Meets Mason Dixon

Back in May I had the distinct pleasure of meeting Ann Shayne of Mason Dixon Knitting fame. If any of you are Mason Dixon fans you'll already know that Ann and "fambly" spend a lot of time in the Monteagle Assembly which is 5 measly miles from moi. One would think that the two of us would knit together but as life speeds by we seem to wave frantically as we pass in opposite directions (see photo of life whizzing by). So last weekend I decided to call on Ann, flowers and copy of my new book in hand. We had an awesome visit as usual. We simply MUST get together more often.

Meanwhile Ann (whose middle name is Fun) has posted a contest on Mason Dixon Knitting and the prize is two skeins of LV ltd handspun. How cool is this? But the contest! O M G, just check it out...words fail me. I am still reeling from some of the comments. This gal really knows how to whip up an instant cyber party!

Also, Ann brought to my attention that Twisted Sisters Knit Sweaters was number three on Amazon's knitting book bestseller list. At least is was yesterday. Not only did I stop breathing for about 15 minutes, but now I have a new obsession. Amazon updates the list every hour so this kind of status is fleeting at best. But nevertheless I'll probably wear out my mouse before next week. I can hear my chiropractor now: "How did this happen? Your eyes are bloodshot, your elbow is locked, you've got an acute case of carpel tunnel syndrome and your right index finger is swollen like a summer squash, not to mention the curvature of your spine. " Ego figure.

Fitted Sweaters

For those of you who have bought my book and would like to knit a sweater with fitted bodice and sleeves, check out Fit Central. This blog is a supplementary chapter on fitting a classic crew, complete with a groovy new way to take the mystery out of fitting sleeve caps. I just couldn't wait to write another book...had to share this info now. Happy Knitting

Workshop Approaching

It's just over two weeks until my class at Harrisville Designs. Check out workshopcentral to see what we'll be dabbling in. The class is full with a waiting list, probably cuz we had so much fun last year. It's called Spinning for Colorwork Knitting, complete with a dye portion.

It's Official!

It's official! The book is out! You can order it from Interweave and get it soon, soon, soon. If you ordered from Amazon, it will take longer, they tell me another month, but you saved enough dough to make the wait bearable.

Carlene and Byron Mays

Every Saturday morning from early June to early October you can fine Carlene and Byron Mays at the Sewanee Farmer's Market selling their flowers. For $6 you can take home a one of a kind arrangement with over 3o stems of assorted fresh flowers. And these aren't the florist variety either. These are the floral equivalent of free range chickens...loose, free and fragrant as mother nature intended.

On acreage around the Mays' Tracy City, TN home and greenhouse, Carlene grows every flower imaginable, at least every one that can find purchase in our thin mountain soil. Her zinnia bed alone is larger than most folks vegetable gardens. She collects countless varieties of rudbeckia daisies, a flower that in the species version is more than at home here. Add to the list all varieties of sunflowers, dahlias, larkspur, snapdragons, feverfew, celosia, ageratum, canterbury bells, monarda, pincushion flower, hydrangea, mountain mint, butterfly weed (some folks would kill for her stand of these native beauties) and more. In fact, just about the only flower she doesn't include in her arrangements is the rose. But heck, roses don't much like it here anyway.

Every bouquet is completely different from the next. This is pretty amazing, seeing as her arrangements cover three long folding tables that they bring every week in their pickup. Choosing is gruelling and favorites always stay behind or get chosen by other shoppers before I get to them. I've taken to going early, as most of them are gone by 8:30 or 8:45. I've bought two bunches a week (sometimes three) for over three years now.

Buying the flowers is half the fun though, as the Mays are delightful people in their own right as you might imagine of folks that spend their entire day Friday (sun-up to flat dark) picking and arranging such riotously beautiful flowers. Carlene is always warm and friendly, sunny as her arrangements and Byron is always up for a good chat with a bank of stories up his sleeve.

So if you're ever in Sewanee early on a summer Saturday, look up Carlene and Byron at the Farmers Market on highway 41A one block east of Shenanigans. You can't miss 'em. Just look for flowers.

And get there early.

Twisted Sisters Knit Sweaters

My authors' copy just arrived and I'm stoked. Ann Shayne (who I had the sheer delight of meeting recently and who hasn't actually seen the book yet, but comments on her blog as per my description, thusly dubs TSKS , "a heroic piece of figuring". She's right. This book is just that. Every pattern here is formatted so that you can knit it to your own dimensions with your own yarn, gauge, proportions. Really it is a guide to help you strike out on your own, to understand the workings of the sweater so that you can alter the myriad of more elaborate patterns available everywhere. Or just start knitting and figure it all out as you go. There is almost no math in this book...I mean knitting wouldn't be knitting without numbers...but for most of the projects, all you need is a cast on number and off you go!

I am amazed at the beauty of this book. Paulette Livers designed this as a labor of love. Content wise it has all the brass tacks of one of those really helpful but not so glamorous self published black and white spiral bound workbooks, but Paulette has brought it into 3-D color, pretty enough to flip through just cuz you want some eye candy. Ann Budd is the content wizard behind the scenes, who helped me turn my spiral shaped spiderweb of puzzlepieces into a simple understandable graphic whole. Joe Coca outdid himself, especially on this covershot...one of my favorite knitting shots of all time...Sandy's sweater too...yeeehaaa, Queen Millenium Enabler of all things Fibery.

I deliberately wrote this book for both spinners and non-spinners...as I believe that knitters are knitters whether they make or buy yarn. Although there is handspun yarn, handdyed yarn, commercial yarn, artisan yarn in here, directions for such are not. TSKS is all about what to do with the yarn once you have it. And there are so many cool books that will give you that kind of information, such as Dyeing to Knit, Color in Spinning, Twisted Sisters Sock Workbook......

This is the book I wished I had when I was a young knitter designing by the seat of my pants. Beautifully appointed, inspiring, full of conceptually founded information. The deconstruction of the sweater. Sneek a peek inside. Order your copy today.

A Sorry Nod to Wegman

If one has a weimeraner on hand, one must dress it and take photos. William Wegman found this irrisitable and I can see why. My weim at the moment is Pearl, a beauty that someone dumped in the woods in our area. She was out there in the same place for over a week, not particularly trusting passersby (accepting food handouts, then fleeing, finally accepting a harness from me, jumping in my truck and coming with). This dog doesn't leave our sides...there is no way she wandered there or got lost, not this scent hound. Anyway, here she is in all her silver glory. She is the color of tree trunks, weathered wood, concrete, forest soil. She is so camouflaged in her sleekness that I tied a bright bandana around her neck so I could find her. Uh oh. Couldn't stop there. I entitled this photo "not a flamingo". Just because Wegman can dress his weims doesn't mean I can get away with that with Pearl. She is giving me the clear message that she doesn't do fashion. And just forget doing her nails, please!

Upcoming Events

I'm going to be offering handspun and handdyed yarn and fiber for sale at two fairs this spring/summer: Sewanee's Mayfair on May 12, 2007 and the Black Sheep Gathering, June 22-24 2007.

Mayfair is our local spring craft fair. It's a small event with many different kinds of crafts (pottery, painting, wrought iron, quilts, etc), so it isn't a fiber fair as such. But if you are located near Nashville or Atlanta and you can't make it to Maryland Sheep and Wool this weekend, consider dropping by. The booth will be loaded with gorgeous handspun, plus sock yarns galore. Many of the handspun yarns are superwash, great for socks. Yarns above are in groups clockwise from top: merino tencel sock yarn, merino/bamboo sock yarn, kid mohair boucle and assorted variegated handspun yarns. There will be fiber also, including blue faced leicester wool, merino/bamboo top, merino/tencel top, all great for felting as well as spinning. We'll even have some gorgeous handspindles by Georgia Spindlemaker Janet Yost. If you've ever been to SAFF, you will know Janet's work.

Mayfair is located in Managault Park on the campus of the University of the South, Sewanee, TN. If you click on the above link, Managault Park lies between the star and the blue shaded area on the map. Fair hours are 9:00 to 5:00, rain or shine. This is an outdoor fair.

The Black Sheep Gathering needs no introduction. One of the largest fiber fairs on the west coast, Black Sheep draws vendors and fiber enthusiasts from many western states. Visit Sandy Sitzman's Woolgatherings booth to see gorgeous fiber and yarn by Sandy, Lori Lawson of Capistrano Fiber Arts and work of yours truly. We'll have Janet Yost's spindles there too.

Look and drool.

Not a Bad Dye Job

Here are yarns spun from the "two Pams". The yarn below is spun from Pam's original dark roving (see small hank in previous post). The yarn above is spun from my copy. It is lighter overall but has the same color balance. It is missing the delicious dark aubergine areas that really excited me about Pam's original, but I still like it and it totally coordinates with Pam's. Not too bad for a first try.

Flamingo and Mitt

Sandy, you are a bad, bad influence. Now just look what's in my yard. Shame, shame. Not only is she completely tacky, she's missing one leg to boot, but seems unphased. As a side note, the mitt I"m wearing is knit from the dye along yarns. I had to knit something very textured to match the feel of these yarns. Instead of using a fair isle pattern like the one in your mitts, I used the interrupted rib from my sock book and turned it into a mitt. I like it.

I really wanted more of Pam's dark roving from our dye along, but by the time I realized that both Sandy and Pam had spun up all of it. So off to the dyepot to try and copy a hot pour. Good luck. But as luck would have it, I did ok. Below left, the small piece is Pam's, the big hank is mine. Now I do have enough for a pair of plain, wear-'em-into-the-ground socks...the kind I like best. I'll spin the big hank for the main part of the sock and keep Pam's original for heels, toes, and other places that I want darker.

Now that I"ve made mitts, I"ll use the rest of the yarns for something else. But this has been fun because I discovered within this melange a few new simpler color combinations that I really like and am racing in a new direction with these.

And I'm dyeing yarns too, which has been very very satisfying.

Endless Combinations

Whenever I start combining colors and colorways, look out. Once that train gets arollin' there is no stopping it. I spun up a smattering of all of our colorways and plied them on themselves...and you've seen those already on Sandy's and Pam's blogs. So I"ll go into how I started messing with them beyond that point.

First off, I loved Pam's so much I didn't want to mess with them. I am saving them for socks...will just spin em up straight and ply on themselves and hoard in the stash. I did separate the darker (above left) and lighter (above right) bits of her darker colorway and spun small samples. Although I like these, I really like the entire thing all spun together(above, second from right), and since there is no way to duplicate this baby and there isn't enough to play with and still have enough for socks, I'll spin it straight. I really do like my purple (above second from left) yarn with it as an accent tho (see below for more on the purple yarn).

I wanted some yarns that weren't quite so variegated

so decided to take half of my darker colorway and split

it up into three main sections. Above left you see the

piece of roving as it was dyed. Center left you can see

how I divided the red/orange sections from the blue/green sections and the purple/violet/aubergine sections. I

stripped these and spun them lengthwise, alternating one

strip from each hunk of color.

I took some lime green out of Sandy's darkest roving and combined that with my blue/green sections, alternating a

strip of each (below left). The resulting green and orange/red

yarns are shown below flanking a skein of one ply Sandy's

and one ply of my darker colorways.

Now the challenge is to knit something from these puppies. Stay tuned.

Dye Along

Sandy, Pam and I did a dye along yesterday. Sandy worked in her studio in Oregon, Pam and I in my studio here in Tennessee. We chose three stock colors (Sabraset Scarlet, ProChem Washfast Acid (PW for short) Bright Orange and PW Ivy) that we would all use plus one extra of our own choosing. My extra color was PW Brilliant Violet. Even though we started with the same colors we decided we could mix or dilute them to our liking. We'll swap, spin and knit from these, blogging along as we go. We were interested in seeing how different our stuff could get using the same materials. BTW, this is all on superwash colonial fiber. Check out Sandy and Pam's progress.



Using the cold pour method, I grouped my warm and cool colors in mini gradations. I wanted there to be a large area of brilliant color with smaller areas of muted ones. I got that funky tobacco brown by mixing brite orange and ivy...tres cool. Brilliant violet dilutes to a very clear light violet, and I really like how it balances the denser looking hues of scarlet and ivy. I left a fair amount of water in my roving so the colors could migrate before striking. This helped to make beautifully intense colorbands with none of the pale spots that superwash is prone to. To my surprise, scarlet and ivy are true compliments, so mixed in equal amounts they really make grey...as I found out when I went to mix aubergine (Sandy and I are aubergine freaks from way back). These colors are pretty, but much deeper than I had envisioned, so I tried a lighter version.

This time I poured several dilutions of Ivy first, then spotted the white areas with various dilutions of the other colors. I didn't mix them to mute this time, just added water. I love the effect. I was inspired by a quilt in Kaffe Fassett's Museum Quilts. I'm hoping I can spin this to resemble some of those fabrics.

BTW, Pam and I were of the same mind and wore almost indentical socks. Pam's are merino/tencel she spun and knit from a Sandy roving. Mine are from superwash colonial I dyed.

Now we get to spin! I'm going to make yarns to knit Sandy's mitts below.

Free Pattern

Sandy knit these tres fun mitts from her handspun stash. Want the pattern? It's free. Just go to wool etc. and check it out. I love the assymetrical effect, but those of you who are symmetrically inclined get a twofer! You can add thumbs to these too...instructions are in the pattern. Check out her blog for her three versions.

Sandy, Pam and I are going to do a dye swap. We'll pick three stock colors we all have, then use them any way we wish, and add one more color to the mix. Pam and I are getting together here tomorrow to dye our fibers for the swap. We'll blog our results as we go along...the dyed fiber, the yarn, the knitted item. I'll knit these mitts with thumbs...probably with a few small changes too...can't ever do anything the same way twice...it would be against my religion. Anyway, I'll tell you what I did when I do it. Stay tuned.

Lynne Vogel * LV ltd * limited edition

Yes, there was quite a dry period there for a while…one might call it a drought. But my second book, The Twisted Sisters Knit Sweaters, a Knit to Fit Workshop is in the final stages of production, due to arrive for my review in about two weeks then off to the printer. Finally! So with nothing to do (yeah right) I started a yarn line. Good handspun yarn is one of those pricey yet priceless commodoties…when you can find it. And I knew I could never spin enough to have a line all by myself. But after mind melding with Carla Kohoyda Inglis of Michigan’s Spinner’s Flock and Pam Harris of Twisted Friends, spinners started stepping out of the woodwork. I dye the fiber, they spin. Kismet.

The line is called Lynne Vogel * Limited because it is just that. Limited amounts of one-of-a- kind colorways. Don’t expect to find enough yarn to make a one color sweater here. Do expect to find dazzlingly beautiful unique yarns for small projects or for use in combination. And do expect to find impeccably soft and touchable yarns…no scratchy, lumpy, greasy stiff stuff full of veg matter here….no way. Yarns are mostly two ply (with the occasional laceweight single) and range from Blue Faced Leicester wool or superwash Colonial sock yarns to Merino/Bombyx or Alpaca/Tussah luxury blends. There are no special orders available…sorry. What you see is what you get. After all. This is the nature of handspun.
At this point there are only two places you can buy my yarn. La Petite Knitterie in Ladera Ranch, CA and Harrisville Designs in Harrisville, NH. (You can find my handdyed fibers at Harrisville as well.) Production is in the baby stages, so internet sales are not an option yet and these yarns aren't on their websites. But call them if you can't visit in person. They'll be glad to help you.

Calvin Adopted

Great news! Calvin was adopted!

dog blog

Just have to share the new dog blog from our local no-kill shelter. (I can say that this is fiber related because from time to time a really nice fiber dog will show up at the shelter...and I try to get the word out about them, though most locals aren't spinners and don't know about cheingora.)I used to be on the board of Sewanee Animal Rescue League a few years ago before it merged with Frankin County Humane Society's Animal Harbor. I cleaned the shelter (an alpaca barn donated by a community member) twice a week and really got to know the 20 odd dogs in the process. I can remember dog's names when I can't remember people (blush) and can tell the difference between members of a litter of 10 identical black dogs. It's amazing rewarding work, but also very stressful. When a my parents needed me in California, I resigned from the shelter. Now that I have a little time, I've been volunteering again in the best of all ways...socialization. I love to visit the dogs, spend quality time and get to know them one on one. Although the marvelous shelter staff gives them plenty of love and attention and even some training, the day often goes by before they can spend a lot of time with each individual, so I've started a little bit of rudimentary training to support the staff. There are several dogs at the shelter now that have been there for a long time. They are wonderful dogs but have just been passed up time and time again. Both Sarah Doyi and I have started working actively to find homes for these long timers, so I started the dog blog. Here we will post our experiences with these dogs in hopes that prospective adopters will take a closer look at our friends in need of a forever home. End of sermon.
PS: That's Calvin in the photo.

Got Fiber?

Harrisville Designs is now carrying my handdyed rovings. Check them out, especially if you are in the neighborhood. For more info, see wool etc.

cult classic

Seems like my workshops are destined to be cult classics. Get a load of this display of unbridled enthusiam from one of the knitting world's current major attractions, a one mizz Jillian Moreno.
Check out Workshop Central for the scoop.

We're Baaack

Sandy and I returned yesterday from our first Shakaerag 2005 Reunion workshop in Crane Hill, Alabama. A good time was had by all. Not only was it a great class, but the Red Rooster Retreat was a marvelous venue, complete with good food, a pool, and a beautiful lake. Jim the proprietor took us on an hourlong cruise of the lake on his pontoon boat. It was a sultry summer evening with distant rosy thunderheads and that Alabama glow on green water. Nothing better than messing about in boats to soothe after a busy day. We'll just have to go back there again.

Sandy will stay till the 5th, so we are now busy eating ourselves silly in preparation for the 4th. A dear fraternal alumnus and his friend have arrived from way deep in Alabama with great frigging wadges of seafood and slabs of meat, coolers of refreshments, stacks of music. We have turned the house into Seldon Hall and won't let up till it's burned to the ground. I'm hoping I'll still be able to stagger out to the annual Mutt Show ring with Monk tomorrow morning to perform the fancy little trick we've worked on all year long. Last night we dined on juicy steaks the size of basketballs. Sandy survived the transmogrification from hen party to boys nite out with flying colors. Way to go, Sandy!!!

As summer wears on all my classes are full except for Taos. Sandy and I will be teaching Spinning for Colorwork Knitting Wed, Oct 3-Fri, Oct 5th. Check out www.taoswoolfestival.org for schedule and details, and check back here after the 4th for more details! Be there or be square. (sorry...just had to say that...)