Chattanooga River Market this Saturday.

Chattanooga River Market 2011 opens Saturday, Mar 19. Held at the Tennessee Aquarium every Saturday from now until September 24, you'll find all sorts of fun stuff here. Mainly, the Lucca Dot Yarn booth. Lucca Dot Yarn is the brain child of the infectious Claire Cabe, who asked me to teach her to spin a couple years ago and hasn't stopped since. This is her second year at the market with her wild and crazy yarns. It's so funny, because since she's a knitter, she hopes for knitters to want her yarns and of course, not all who come to the market are knitters. But they buy her yarns anyway...as necklaces!...wearing them around their necks. You may remember her yarn Thruway in Knitty Winter 2010. Her yarns range from crazy to elegant...see her new shabbychic collection for elegant.

Tomorrow Claire will have a few new things in her booth. Four pair of ready to wear Fern Spiral Fingerless Gloves to be exact. I knit them up in shabby chic naturally dyed colors of Iron and Wine (taupe grey), Dahlia Flowers (gold green), Madder Root and Eucalyptus Leaves (dusty apricot peach) and Au Naturel (undyed natural ecru scoured with hand made soap). These are all colors that defy description and are difficult as heck to photograph. She'll also have a Fern Spiral knitting kits complete with one 300 yd skein of naturally dyed or scoured 100% merino wool complete with pattern.

So if you are in the Chattanooga, TN area check her out. Cheers!

Direction of Twist/Food for Thought

We spinners are used to spinning to the right and plying to the left. So much so that these directions have become hardwired in our brains, hands and feet. Spinning singles? Don’t you automatically start treadling your wheel clockwise?

Let’s start thinking about direction of twist a little bit from a knitter's perspective. Ever knit stockinette in the round with a millspun singles? Have you ever noticed that it seems like it’s coming untwisted as you knit, so that after a while, you see no twist at all in the yarn as it wraps around your needle? Do you think that is a good thing? Or not? Why?

The best way to get a good idea of how different directions of twist handle is to use the singles fresh, active, right off the bobbin. Pay attention to what is happening as you work different types of stitches, patterns, cables and the like. Alternate knitting 6 rows/rnds of stockinette with one direction of twist, then 6 rows/rnds with the opposite direction. Crochet with it too. You’ll really get an idea of how much twist you introduce into your yarn, what happens as you knit with it. Don’t spin? Knit a sample with singles and with plied yarn and look for the differences.

Plied yarns, although balanced, have their final direction of twist to the left. Try spinning a singles to the left and plying it to the right. Knit with it. Now what happens? How does it differ from your usual knitting with yarn that’s plied to the left?

What happens? What you do like about it? Don’t like? Why go to all this trouble? Everyone spins differently, knits differently to some degree. There is a real push nowadays to standardize knitting techniques, language, instructions. But knitting is far from standardized in the hands of knitters themselves. Many of us still knit as our mothers or grandmother taught us, techniques that have been handed down for generations. So here’s another question: when you wrap your knits and purls, is your yarn taking the same path around your needle? Do you wrap knits counterclockwise and purls clockwise (looking from the pointed end of the needle at your hands)? Many will say yes, but I don’t. Does it matter? It depends.

Ok. Now get ahold of some ribbon…something you can knit that has no twist in it whatsoever. Knit with it as usual. What happens? It twists. What do you do to keep it from twisting?

The reason I’m not answering these questions is that I want you to notice what’s happening for yourself. Because it will give you a better understanding of how you knit, a better understanding of yarn. It also will help you as a spinner to understand how much potential variety you have at your fingertips.

I have also posted this topic on Twisted Friends group on Ravelry so that it will be easier for you to have a running discussion amongst yourselves.

Circle of Toes

Ok, fess up. Which one were you?
I'll admit it. I'm mauve, lower right corner...the obvious flipflop wearer. Mom warned me that I'd get a space between my toes. Here's proof. Of course I really like that emerald green...

Workshop Eye Candy

hand blended plied

Some examples of yarns we'll spin during Hands On Color: Fiber Salad!

You don't have to have a drum carder to get that layered batt look. Learn handblending with us at Dubose in May. We'll also play with various plying techniques and spinning an ensemble of yarns from one handpainted roving. Come and play with us!

hand blended corespun singles

handblended corespun singles and plied

a few fun plying techniques

more plying techniques

ensemble of yarns from same roving seen as single upper left

2011 Workshops: Fun Will Be Had

Kathy's rovings dyed in my Harrisville Class, 2010

HANDS ON COLOR: FIBER SALAD! Residential 2 day intensive spinning workshop, Dubose Conference Center, Monteagle, TN. Friday evening May 20- Sunday May 22, 2011.

DYE SPIN KNIT: Residential 5 day spin, dye, knit workshop, Harrisville Designs, Harrisville NH.
Two Sessions! August 1-5, 2011 and October 3-7, 2011.

Also, offering private or small group spinning lessons in Sewanee, TN in March and April, beginner through advanced. Contact me for more information.

Fiber Frenzy! Handblended yarns.

Hands On Color: Fiber Salad!
Join us for a Fiber Frenzy. Spin yourself silly! This year's retreat will focus on working with many different materials, combining them in beautiful art yarns. We'll work with roving, fleece, locks, silk, glitz, fabric, yarns, felt items,beads, you name it, learning sound techniques for joining these different materials and using them to maximum effect. Class materials include a 4 ounce hank of handpainted Blue Face Leicester wool to use as "glue" plus a large bag of mixed materials (fiber salad). Hone your manual acuity! By the time you leave this class you will probably be able to spin the phone book. There will be tons more fiber for sale as well. Come join the fun! Contact Jan Quarles for official flier and registration form.

Cynthia's fibers and yarns, Harrisville 2010

Dye Spin Knit
This year I'm offering my Harrisville class twice, once in August and again in October. This is a wholistic yarn design class, focusing on color usage: how to spin many different yarns from one handpainted roving, understanding how handpaints spin up, handpainting your own fiber, color mixing, and knitting your sample yarns. We'll focus on different types of singles yarns, plus different ways of using and plying these yarns. This class is designed to bring out your inner yarn diva and cement your self confidence in your own artistic vision. We also have tons of silly fun, like the photo somebody took of all our crazy toenail polish colors! (would somebody please email me that photo?) Contact Harrisville Designs for more information.

Zel and Kane

Why is it that I never have a camera when I need one? The following is an update about Zel, a cute little bulldozer of a bulldog mix I’ve been working with who is being fostered at my friend Pat’s house. For those of you who haven’t been following on Facebook, we sprang Zel and another dog, Petey from the Sewanee pound (which is nothing but a wire shed with a roof and one wall) just before we had sub zero temperatures. Pat was kind enough to take them in. Petey was practically therapy dog material, so he moved on to better digs, but Zel was feisty with other dogs and needed work, so thanks to Pat, she has a place to stay while we try and find her a good home. She is very loving and such a clown, great with people, but not always happy with other dogs.

I’ve had the flu for a couple weeks, so I haven’t had the energy to take Zel on the two-mile walks we had been taking since Christmas break. Pat has walked her in my absence, but with a full time job and 4 dogs of her own, plus puppy fosters, Pat hasn’t been able to put in as much time as she’d like. Zel has been storing up energy like the Hoover Dam, so finally I wandered over to Pat’s today to just play with Zel, wondering how I could wear her out without wearing myself out in the process.

One of Pat’s own dogs, a brindle mountain cur named Kane, came on the scene last summer as part of a rescued pair. One was very outgoing, as curs usually are, and that one got to go to Animal Harbor, our no-kill shelter here in Franklin County, TN. But Kane was so shy that we couldn’t get a leash anywhere near him so he stayed at Pat’s and she finally adopted him. He’s a very cool dog, just very shy with people. Pat figured he’d be good with Zel so she sometimes lets them play, but doesn’t leave them unattended. Today I got to watch these two clowns in all their glory. When I got there, Pat put the other dogs up so Zel and Kane could have the whole yard. I opened the gate of Zel’s pen and she ran out full throttle and broadsided Kane. Much tumbling and chasing ensued. Soon Zel had Kane where she wanted him and was humping him like a porn star (Zel is a female, mind you). Kane is only a little larger than Zel, but not quite so well muscled, so it took him a while to wrench himself free. When Kane had had enough, he ran in his doghouse, but Zel was hot on his heels. Both dogs disappeared into this two piece plastic house what was kind of coming apart at the seams. The house started rocking around, bumping up and down, but sounds from within were peaceful enough…sounds of wrestling, just the sound of two muscular dogs rolling over and over, like wet beach towels in the dryer. Soon I saw Zel upside down with her feet sticking out the door, pointed heavenward, waving her paws around in mid air as Kane chewed playfully on her neck. I could see Zel’s huge pink tongue lolling to the side of her mouth with her eyes rolled back in her head. She was obviously in heaven. This is a dog that had started several good fights, so seeing this was priceless.

Kane finally stuck his head out, looking a little overwhelmed, so I coaxed them out with food, gave them treats and they headed off into the back part of the yard where they played the humping game for another 15 minutes straight. Finally, Kane just had enough and he grabbed Zel by the collar and flung her to the ground. She rolled over and let him nibble her chin, obviously loving every minute of this. Before long, Kane managed to dump her into a large hole in the dirt that the other dogs had dug previously. It was hilarious. She couldn’t get out because the hole was exactly her size and her back fit the hole like a chicken in an egg. He finally had her! So every time she managed to struggle out of the hole, he’d roll her back in and stand on her smiling, like a bird standing on a beetle. After a few more rounds of this Zel was finally tired and the two of them decided to share a bone that was floating around the yard. They settled into a pile of leaves and passed the bone back and forth, one holding it for a while, then the other. It took about 45 minutes for them to get to this state, but I was satisfied that they were on completely friendly, even affectionate terms. They both got what they’d both been needing for some time. A good friend to roll with. Zel is going to make somebody a really good pet…now to find that certain someone!

Mrs. Ramsey's Knitting

There's a new knitting blog that you all have to check out! It's called Mrs. Ramsey's Knitting. It's written by Mary Kaiser, a high school english teacher by day, and an artist every waking moment. She writes, she knits (you may remember her Wedgewood Socks from Socks Socks Socks or her Daisy Stitch Vest from Twisted Sisters Knit Sweaters), she spins and dyes, but it's the way that she sees the world, like a work in progress, that I find constantly enriching. She is a kindred spirit to us all, pulling the threads of her perception into a rich fabric, reminding us to notice things we let pass by, encouraging us to see living compositions, juxtapositions of life itself. Her blog is no exception. An added plus, you can download the pattern for these delicious socks for free on her blog. You'll find her on Ravelry as MrsRamseyKnits.

Independent Uprising!!!!

More power to Indies!!! My newest pattern Thruway just went live on Knitty and it's for all of you who buy, spin and or sell beautiful, bulky, artisan handspun yarn. This super easy design is offered in three versions, each for different needle and yarn size. This is funny, because different sizes of patterns usually give different sizes of finished items. This time, the size of the finished item stays the same. The pattern is written in sections and each section shows approximate yardage, so you can really tailor the pattern to your yarn rather than the other way round. It will help you combine multiple yarns of lesser yardage amounts and ultimately help you figure yardage for future projects.

I didn't offer a commercial substitute as such. So if you don't spin, where will you find the yarn? There's plenty out there, though you may not find it in a brick and mortar shop. That's because it's expensive to produce. To keep costs down and quality up, most of us Indies sell our stuff on Etsy. You can start in my Etsy shop, where I'm offering my bound boucle handspun in Black Hollyhocks and other colors. Check out Lucca Dot Yarns for some really fun stuff. The WPI 5 version is knit from her "Man for All Seasons" yarn which she is offering in her Etsy Store. That's her lovely daughter Lauren modeling Thruway. Talented family! Then browse through Etsy for all the delicious handspuns of which there are many many many. I have many in my Etsy circle and they have other in their circles. So much fun!!!

Wanna spin my bound boucle yourself? Check out my accompanying article "From Spiral to Boucle' " on how to spin the whole yarn from handspun (absolutely NO commercial yarn included). And this brings me full circle as it were. The fiber I used to spin the yarn in this article is "Friday Harbor" superfine merino from Woolgatherings, originally owned by Twisted Mom Sandy Sitzman, my Yoda, from whence the Twisted Sisters Sock Workbook was born, now in it's second generation (that's right folks), now owned by daughter in law Kate Sitzman who is doing a bang up job of carrying on the crown of fiber goddess and queen enabler! (You've gotta give me the James Joyce award for that last sentence.) A second generation handpainted business. To me that says we're here to say!

Homage to Dad

Have you ever had one of those days when you just couldn’t think straight? The brain sits in its cozy environs and refuses to answer its email, phone or text. There’s a little sign on the grey door, in filigree script, pinned with an icicle: “Snow Day”. These are the days when I knit.

Yesterday was one of those days. I knit something very simple indeed…side to side short rowed cuff. I’ve been wearing Cassy’s Cuffs backwards, with the garter stitch end pulled up to my thumbs. It’s warmer than the lacy end which rides decoratively over my sleeves like Elizabethan gauntlets. These are my handspun merino pair, the really cushy ones that have spoiled me for all other pairs, so I’m knitting Cassy’s Cuffs sans lace or decoration or any kind. Basically it’s one long garter stitch end. These could even be guy cuffs…really…especially in Olive Medley. The yarn is similar, but in BFL, still a 2 ply handspun, still spun from the fold…softer than soft with lots of loft and character. There’s one down and one to go. I’ll finish the second before seaming them in case I have extra for a thumb or something mildly interesting. I’ll kitchener the seam closed with the tail leftover from my provisional cast on which I started like a long tail cast on, but worked in provisional instead. This geek-greek ultimately means I have one less end to run in, or have work out in the wearing.

After half a day of working without a brain to speak of, it occurred to me that perhaps the freeze was due to the fact that it was my Dad’s birthday. Dad has been gone since 2003, so all celebrating of birthdays must be done without the jolly good fellow. This makes it seem more like an anniversary of a death than a birth. Dad would say, “Forget it! Relax,” But that didn’t work then and it doesn’t work now. So I knit. And it seems to me that I’ve knit through a lot of difficult times. Good times too, for sure. But knitting has served me as a heavy anchor in drifting times. I know Dad would understand this. His anchor was his model hobby…trains and planes. His business was art…animation…so when he had time off, art was the last thing on his mind, especially when he was older. He’d rather figure out how things ticked, so he’d take things apart to make them run better, or make them from scratch. I guess the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree, because even on brain-freeze days I’d rather design than follow a pattern, no matter how simple. So here’s to you, Dad. Cheers.

Studio Tour This Weekend, Dec 4 & 5, 2010

"Fritillary" handpainted, handspun, knitted and crocheted cowl, by Lynne Vogel

This coming weekend is a big deal here in Sewanee. People come by the busloads this Sunday to take part in the Festival of Lessons and Carols at University of the South's All Saint's Chapel. What better weekend to hold TACA's CAST Studio Tour in Sewanee and Monteagle. Local Tennessee craft artisans open their studios to visitors who come to enjoy and purchase beautiful arts and crafts. This is my first year to open my studio to this tour. Sharon Bandy and Jan Quarles will be joining me in welcoming all and sundry to see our fiber art, including knitted, crocheted, handspun, felted, and handdyed pieces, both large and small, decorative and wearable. My studio at 456 Tennessee Ave in Sewanee will be open Sat, Dec 4th from 10 AM-5 PM and Sunday, Dec 6, from noon-5 PM. The studio is in the garage, so please go there directly. If you knock on the front door you'll only incur (no pun intended) the wrath of Monk. You'll find a downloadable pdf map of the tour here. You can also find a map of the tour this Thursday via the Sewanee Mountain Messenger.

Also, don't miss the Full Cast Exhibit at St. Andrews Sewanee Gallery in Simmons Hall on the SAS Campus. All these pieces shown here are offered for sale in the gallery.
These are just a small sample of the items we'll have available in my studio. Jan will be showing an array of colorful nuno felted scarves. Sharon will have all sorts of felted items, including flower rings and flower keychains for stocking stuffers, plus felted scarves and bags. My collection includes wristers, scarves and mobius wraps knit and crocheted from handspun yarns. My favorite piece is a moebius wrap knit entirely from handspun art yarns in colors reminiscent of fresh rose petals strewn amongst winter leaves and twigs (photo forthcoming).

Nuno Felted Scarf by Sharon Bandy

So we hope you'll join us this weekend. After all, we'll have cookies!

Felt Hat by Jan Quarles

You can find more of Sharon's work in her Etsy shop "Feltware". Jan is know also as "Daily Fibers" handdyed yarns and fibers, available at Haus of Yarn in Nashville, TN and also on Etsy. I'll be listing finished items on Etsy after the tour, so check it out next week.

"Fritillary" back detail by Lynne Vogel

Soap and Vogue

As I was lathering up with Three Waters Farm Handmade True Soap this morning, I realized I've never sung it's praises. What took me so long? This is the most marvelous stuff. I don't know about you, but I have very sensitive skin and this lovely traditionally made goat milk soap is always kind and effective. Mary Ann has been tucking bars into fiber and yarn shipments ever since I've known her, keeping me well supplied. And at SAFF last month she brought me the bestest of the best bonus...a bag of soap ends! In all sorts of flavors as well. A felter's dream come true, since I can leave My hands in these suds for ages without ill effects. I LOVE it. If you haven't experienced this perfect, practical, minimalist artisan bar, go here and check it out.  It's made from purest goatmilk, milked by hand. The fragrances are delightful, but never overbearing. My personal faves are Oatmeal Lavender, Palmarosa Rosewood and Bay Rum (which is like root beer and spice...yummy) and of course unscented. Very few soapmakers these days even offer and unscented bar.
There's nothing off the wall about this soap. It's a sensible rectangular shape. I like this because when the bar gets really thin, I can stick it to a new bar and make it go longer. That isn't so easy to do with fancy shapes. It has no dyes either...a real plus for those of us who have enough dye in our lives already. And the fragrance is mild, just enough to enjoy but not enough to follow you around for hours.

Before I get off the soapbox I just have to mention how flattered I was to receive totally unsolicited mention in the Holiday Vogue Knitting. Kelly Wills writes a column about web knit offerings called "Give a Knit" in which she gave the Justify Spinning Kit a lovely plug. Thanks, Kelly!

Long Draw Question Debunked

For a spinner, things could be worse than being left holding a wad of silk. Nevertheless, I had to laugh when one of my students at SAFF last weekend said she'd been told you can't spin a merino/silk preparation from the fold because of the discrepancy in the staple lengths of the two fibers...that you'd be left holding a wad of silk in your hand. "Ha! Wad of silk my ***", I exclaimed (not able to contain myself after three days of teaching). "Hand me a chunk of it if you don't mind and we'll just see." She handed me her lovely light red Ashford merino/silk preparation. I popped off a nice piece and it came loose at the staple length of the merino, no loose silky ends to mess with. I folded and drew it out to the last little fiber. Nothing left in my hand. Goes to show...a little skepticism goes a long way.

We had a great time messing with Navajo or Chained Ply on Sunday. I'd been wanting to ply an "art" yarn with that method and hadn't gotten around to it. So here's one of my demo yarns from my Foundation Singles for Art Yarns class all chained up. Fun. Also, check out one of my Friday students, Andrea, zipping up a speedy chained ply. She's been spinning since February and just look at her go! What's more fun that watching somebody really get it in class? Zowwy.

Thanks to everyone who came to my classes at SAFF. I met so many fun new people, many of them neighbors now and even neighbors once upon a time (a fellow Pasadenan). Hope to see you all again and soon. Follow me on Twitter to learn about new classes as soon as they are scheduled. Next class on the roster will be my yearly Spin, Knit, Dye class at Harrisville, NH, first week of August 2011. Others will pop up before too long. Have even thought about organizing a weekend at Dubose this winter...maybe early February and more than likely again in May or June. I'll keep you posted.

Wheel's Angels

Spinners unite! Our new spinning group Wheel's Angels had it's maiden meeting (like maiden voyage?) with our core group of 5 on Monday. It's been hard to find the right space here in Sewanee, one that is large enough, well lit and comfortable and not taken when we can manage to conviene. Thanks to Lucinda, we now meet in the Parish Hall of St James Episcopal Church in Midway, TN. And we had a blast. We all found it rejuvenating to just sit and spin with friends. I for one came home and burned on the electric guitar, a pastime I have sorely neglected. Definitely looking towards this coming Monday. Spinners are welcome to join us. It's not a class, it's just a casual spin in. Spinners only, please, since there are knitting groups on the mountain. St. James is across from the Midway Market on Midway Rd in Sewanee, TN. We go from 6:00 PM till around 7:40 every Monday evening. Ravelry users will find a Wheel's Angels topic in Twisted Friends Group.

Response is very positive for my Art Yarn patterns on Etsy. Got included in an awesome treasury and included on Magpyi's blog about same. There will be more patterns this fall. Also, remember that I'll be teaching at SAFF in a couple weeks. The Active Twist Singles class was changed to Foundation Singles for Art Yarns on Saturday, Oct 22, so if you've been wanting to take this class, here's your chance.

Oh, one more thing. If you are in the market for a lightly used 24" Ashford Table Loom with Treadle Stand and live within approx 150 miles of Sewanee, please contact me. This sweet loom needs a new home.

Indigenous is in Knitty!

The Late Fall Knitty'10 (and Knittyspin) is out today and I"m sitting here for the first time this season wearing the Baby Llama Glow version of Indigenous, which you'll find in the patterns section of Knitty's just released issue, and my white handspun Cassy's Cuffs. After weeks of weather in the 90s, it suddenly cooled and rained. Temps today are in the low 60s, but feel like low 50s after all that heat. A perfect day to pull out the knitwear and the needles.

I really love this pattern and have knit it in wool, silk, llama, handspun (like the TWF Canyonlands Bfl/Tussah version, left), millspun, you name it. It's beautiful knit as openwork lace or just as regular knitting (though I wouldn't knit it on too firm a gauge myself). Since it's modular you can knit it as large or small as you want, from a neck bandana to a sumptuous shawl. The brown version shown here at right is Three Waters Farm Organic Sportweight Yarn in Chocolate.

Indigenous has a crochet edging. I know that many knitters do not crochet and I suspect this is because they tension their yarn exclusively with their dominant hand (usually the right). Crochet is pretty slow if you tension with the right hand, goes way faster with yarn held in the left. I'm a continental knitter, so crochet comes naturally. Rather than not include the crocheted edging, I decided to include instructions for "knitchet", or crocheting with knitting needles. Knitchet is really simple to understand and work, and although it will never replace the speed and efficiency of the hook, it will allow those who have never picked up a hook the chance to finish the pattern without learning a whole new skill. It goes like this:

Here's how you pick up into the edge to form a single crochet stitch with knitting needles. I"m starting in the middle of the row so I already have one stitch on my rh needle. I'm using a contrasting color so you can see the stitches. Of course in real life you'd use the same yarn as the body of the shawl. Photo A: With one st on rh needle, pick up next st.
Photo B: Place 2 sts on lh needle. Photo C: k2tog through the back of the loop. It's that easy. To work a chain stitch, you simply return the st from the rh needle to the lh needle and knit it.

Got Handspun? Check out these patterns!

Recently Claire Cabe of Lucca Dot Yarns asked me if I ever wrote patterns for small amounts of art yarns. Claire has had a booth in the Chattanooga Market this summer and her yarns are walking out the door around people's necks! She is getting return customers asking, "What can I do with 20-40 yds of yarn?" So here's my answer. Got Handspun? Here are some easy, quick ideas, now available on my Etsy Store: These patterns are perfect for TWF Thick and Thin Yarn as well. BTW, that's her lovely daughter Lauren in the photos. Lauren is well on her way to becoming a professional model.

In fact, response has already been really positive. Several handspun stores on Etsy have asked to link my patterns to their yarns. So I'm going to start listing those shops on my sidebar with links to their stores. If you want me to link you, convo me on Etsy and I'll be glad to add you to the list.

Two Way Street Scarf (photo 1): takes total of approx 75 yds, one 35 yd skein and one 40 yd skein.

Lynx: a modular scarf in three pieces. Photo 2 shows all three Lynx, photo 3 shows one Lynk with Rose is a Rose. Divvy up 100 yds of yarn into three different length pieces and lynk them together or wear alone.

Lynx Headband (photo 4): Takes approx 40 yds and a button.

Rose is a Rose (photo 2): No wallflowers here. This is one in-your-face rose. Takes 10 yds of bulky weight yarn and about 30 minutes to knit.

SAFF 2010: Hands On Color and Active Twist Singles

 SAFF (Southeastern Animal and Fiber Festival) in Asheville, NC is just around the corner. I'll be teaching two different classes there this year. Hands On Color will be all day on Friday, Oct 22, 2010. We'll cover many spinning techniques for getting the most out of handpainted rovings, including various ways of separating your fiber for color effects, different drafting techniques, and several different ways to ply. As usual, there is new stuff in my class every year. Foundation Singles for Art Yarns will be all day on Saturday, Oct 23. We'll focus on spinning fine and heavy singles, including spinning two different directions of twist, and ply them into several types of art yarns.

Hands On Color will repeat again on Sunday, Oct 24. So you have two chances to take that particular class.

If you haven't signed up yet and want to, you can go here for more information. Hope to see you there.

MARYLAND SHEEP AND WOOL

Don't miss Three Waters Farm booth at Maryland Sheep and Wool this weekend, May 1, 2010. Here's a preview of my new collection for the TWF Superfluity Yarn Kit. Colorway shown is Olive Medley. You can knit all these items from one kit. These are all basic patterns for any experience level of knitter. If you can knit, purl, join and knit in the round and knit back and forth and increase/decrease, you can knit them all. Included in the collection are A Fine Hat with Rose, Quick and Easy Scarf, Two Button Cowl, Touch Screen Mitts, and 3-D Flower in two sizes. This pattern will be available in hard copy at Three Waters Farm's booth in the main exhibition hall, or you may purchase the PDF online at my Etsy Shop. Yarn subs? Fine Hat with Rose takes approx 70 yds of bulky yarns (art yarns would be perf), Two Button Cowl take approx 65 yds of bulky yarn (again, art yarns...). These yarns should be heavy enough to knit on US 15/10mm needles. Touch Screen Mitts take approx 180 yds any worsted weight yarn, knit on US 3/2.75 and 3-D Flower takes approx 45 yds to knit both sizes of flower. Quick and Easy Scarf takes approx 200 yds mohair silk boucle or any other textured yarn knittable on US 11/8mm.

The bag shown is not included in the pattern. It's one of my original handspun/ hand felted bags.

Wavelength Jacket

If you are going to Maryland Sheep and Wool this year, you have to check out the Three Waters Farm booth. It's B23 in the Main Exhibition Hall. They will have all kinds of new colors in yarn and fiber this year, plus many of the old faves as well. If you are a fan of the Three Waters Farm Superfluity Yarn Kit, check out this new pattern. This beautiful and flattering textured jacket takes one Superfluity Kit plus three additional skeins of mohair/silk boucle. I"ve written this pattern in regular and petite sizes, so if you think this is too long, you'll be able to knit it in a shorter version. It's an easy-to-knit side to side swing jacket that looks like a circle jacket, but with slimming vertical lines. This one is knit in Stone House colorway.

You can also find this pattern at my Etsy Shop. Handspinners, you'll love this pattern. I want to knit one in different weights of handspun yarn. It's really a great basic pattern for embellishing with all kinds of yarns. You can knit the body with anything that knits up on a size 10 needle, then use heavier yarns in the surround that knit up on 11s and 15s.

New Patterns and Upcoming Events

With Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival on the horizon I've been plenty busy lately. Three Waters Farm will have their booth again, and with it heaps and gobs of gorgeous new colors. I have three very cool new patterns this year and will be posting specifics about each of them this coming week.

Two of these patterns are written specifically for Three Waters Farm's Superfluity Yarn Kit. Over the past several years I've written pattern support for this kit, the most popular of them being Superfluity, this textured moebius wrap. This year we'll have a very cool jacket called Wavelength. It's kind of like Superfluity in a jacket. Even though it's knit side to side it looks like a circle jacket, the difference being that it fits better than a circle jacket and is more slimming due to its vertical lines. This year we'll have a fabulous collection of basic patterns called Hat, Scarf, Cowl, Mitts and Flowers. You'll be able to get all these items out of one Superfluity Kit. Handspinners will love this pattern collection as well, especially art yarn spinners, as several of these patterns are perfect for chunky and bulky yarns that knit up well on size 15 needles. I will be offering these patterns and more on my Etsy store within the next week as well. So stay tuned for all the new pretties.