Knitterka's Justify

I just noticed on Ravelry that Knitterka spun up one of my Justify Wrap Kits from Three Waters Farm. 

How cool is this?? This is the first time I've see it worked up from the kit. So hooray for Karen, aka Knitterka. Thanks for letting me post your photos.

For those of you on Ravelry, check out her project page. Karen says that she liked the technique of plying merino with merino/silk so much that she has used it in other projects.

Rhinebeck

It's just about a month till the world's biggest fiber party ever, NY Sheep and Wool Festival in Rhinebeck. It's like be there or be square. Fur shure.

Announcing a change to my teaching schedule. I'll still be teaching a two day color spinning class Thursday and Friday, but instead of Lace Knitting in the Round, I'll be teaching a half day beginning spinning class Saturday afternoon. It's for first time spinners and we'll use drop spindles to spin my handpainted roving. If you've been wanting to learn to spin, this is a very easy, step by step class. Plus we play a little with color so it's anything but boring. I'll bring an assortment of groovy spindles from some of the woodworking artists represented at the festival, so you'll have a chance to try some of the spindles out before shopping. 

The class is half full but there's room for a few more. Sign up soon. 

Two October Classes; Threadbear and Rhinebeck

If you've been hankering to take my color spinning class and couldn't make it to Harrisville this year, check out my 2008 October schedule. 

Oct 11 and 12 I'll be at the marvelous Threadbear in Lansing, Michigan. Saturday and Sunday are two separate classes, Saturday's "Spinning and Color Fundamentals" is geared for novice to intermediate spinners who just want to come and have some fun with handpainted rovings and learn (or hone) come color spinning techniques. Sunday's "Advanced Color Blending, Color Theory and Beyond" will focus on color theory, contrast, blending, plying combinations of colorways with an eye towards using these yarns in a project.

The following week I'll be offering two classes at the New York Sheep and Wool Festival in Rhinebeck, NY. 

Thursday and Friday, October 16 and 17, I'll be offering a two day long color workshop, "Hands on Color". We'll cover a host of color spinning and blending techniques. This class is an out and out color feast and will interest many levels of spinners, but it is not a beginning spinning class. Please know how to spin and be reasonably comfortable at the wheel or spindle before you sign up.

Saturday October 18, I'll be offering two sessions of Knitting Lace in the Round. I"ll get you started knitting a shortie version of my Spiralling Leaves Fingerless Gloves and talk about the differences between knitting lace in the round and knitting flat lace. I'll provide beautiful yarns for this class, both handpainted variegated yarns and subtle naturally dyed solids and tone on tones. 

Please know that these are not dye classes. From now on the only dye class I will teach is at Harrisville Designs, once a year. Next year class will meet August 3-7. 

The Head Between Two Heads

I'm caught in a time warp. Living on the campus of my old alma mater, I sometimes don't have any idea what year it is. This isn't entirely my fault either, as I see young men walking through the quad with rosy cheeks, seersucker jackets and bow ties.  I shake my head like Elmer Fudd (I tought I saw a wabbit) but they are still there. Not only do they look as though they stepped out of the 70's, they play Allman Brothers and Led Zeppelin (not complaining, mind you). It's just weird. I wanna see more goth and I'm not talking architecture.

So I took the opportunity to walk through the old halls, the haunts of ages past, with model Elizabeth. What better place for a photo shoot than a "bastard gothic" university campus loaded with carved wood and stained glass? I wanted to get into Convocation Hall and take a shot against some blisteringly beautiful stained glass windows. You can stand right next to them on a carved balcony...wild. But Convocation was locked...floor re-finishing in progress. Why complain? Right outside the double-wide half-ton walnut doors resides "Sir Walter Really", the Head Between Two Heads, his marble nose still stained even after many scrubbings from cigarettes parked there by students taking brief relief

between classes. Notice the doors to either side of the alcove. Men's on the right, Women's on the left. First rate facilities, albeit a mite tight. To Sir Walter's right is the stairwell leading up to Breslin Tower, the clock that chimes the Westminister Chimes every quarter hours. Some things never change.

Sir Walter is wearing "Superruffly", my newest design. The Superruffly pattern teams up with the Superfluity Kit, so now there are two choices to knit with that ensemble...a wrap and a scarf.

Here's Elizabeth (also an alumna of said alma mater...nothing like a little nostalgia) whispering sweet nothings in Sir Walter's ear. Captions, anyone? 

Kick Starting Harrisville

This blog entry is addressed to everyone who will be taking my Hands On Color class at Harrisville Designs next week. I'm really stoked about this year. If you have questions or need clarifications, please feel free to contact me.  

Class this year is going to be amazing. Those of you who have taken my class before will be able to expand on your skills and those of you who are new will get a more cohesive introduction to color.  

This year we're going to concentrate on building our individual color palettes and we'll concentrate a bit more on color theory and color mixing. The first day of class we'll work in small samples that we can pin on the cork board and rearrange into compositions. With the use of a camera, you can record your compositions and the compositions you make by combining your colors with those of your classmates. That way you can keep rearranging pieces and work up a body of samples. We'll have a computer on which to view all these photos. Think in small pieces that can be sewn or felted into a bag or scarf. This exercise is designed to kick-start your understanding of color relationships on an intuitive level. I'll even show you how to make a small square of felt in your hands, no other tools needed. You can make your samples by knitting your handspun, wrapping your handspun on a card, felting your fiber before spinning it, crocheting, or any other technique you chose to work with small amounts of fiber and yarn. By the end of day one you'll be ready to expand your understanding at the dye table. Depending on your design experience you may dye with a reasonably small piece in mind, such as my Justify Wrap on Knitty.com. If you haven't read my two color spinning articles on Knittyspin, you should check them out:

Stretch Your Color  

 Color Combining 101

We'll do a couple color mixing exercises at the beginning of dye day on Tuesday. Everyone will get 6 oz of BFL top to dye which is included in their materials fee, but everyone will want more...and more. I'm bringing a 22 lb bump of undyed BFL which I'll offer at $1.75 per oz so there will be plenty to go around. You may want to bring your own fiber and yarn from home. Light colors of wool are beautiful overdyed, so feel free to bring anything you want.  

We're going to be dyeing with a combination of microwave and solar power. No more steaming pots!!!! (I can hear the sound of cheering from here.) If anyone has a craft use microwave, one that will not be used for food after class is over, and can bring it along, great. The more we have, the smaller the dye teams can be. Everyone will have their own black garbage bag as a solar oven. It doesn't have to be sunny for this to work. You might want to bring an old towel or two in case we have cloudy weather to help keep the heat in the bag. I've had amazing results with this technique.

Superfluity Yarn Kits: New on Etsy

Superfluity was easily the most popular item in our booth at the Monteagle Assembly Bazaar Wednesday. The only negative we heard was that we didn't sell needles to go with the kit (needles are hard to come by on the mountain). Several bazaar goers considered learning to knit so they could make their own. Many asked if the yarns were available online and of course the answer is yes. At Three Waters Farm.

Three Waters Farm now has an etsy shop. Superfluity kits are the first available item, so now you can buy the pattern from me at my etsy shop, then buy the yarn from Three Waters Farm's etsy shop without even logging off etsy. How convenient is that? It's a great way to showcase these yarn kits. Even though they come in standard colorways, such as Cousteau above, or the original Fall Riff on the model, no two kits are exactly alike. 

Monteagle Assembly Bazaar and Cottage Tour; Wed. July 23, 2008

Ann Shayne of Mason Dixon Knitting fame recently asked if I'd be interested in having a booth at the Monteagle Assembly Bazaar and Cottage Tour, a fundraiser for the Assembly's Women's Club for maintenance of the library and many of the common areas at the Assembly. It sounded like fun so I said yes. It's next week, Wednesday, July 23 2008 from 9:00 AM to 4:00 PM at the Monteagle Assembly in Monteagle, TN. Admission tickets are $10. For this fee you get to take a walking tour the marvelous vintage victorian cottages that proliferate this one of a kind gem of a summer community. Come early and shop the Bazaar, then take the Cottage Tour in the afternoon. Box lunches will be for sale in the dining hall and there will be several food booths.

Our booth is going to be spectacular. It's a multiple artisan booth, full of yarn, fiber, screen printed silk scarves, and miscellaneous fiber realted items. Stay tuned for more information.

Our Buddy Rover

I know this is a knitting blog, but sometimes life presses me to chose other subjects. Many of you know I'm a volunteer for our local no-kill animal shelter Animal Harbor in Belvedere, TN run by the Franklin County Humane Society. My primary function is socialization and canine moral support. Recently James and I brought Rover home with us as a foster dog to prepare him to show in Sewanee's annual 4th of July Mutt Show. Since Rover has been at the shelter long enough to earn himself "halfway home" status, meaning he's half the fee to a good home, we thought he should have the publicity and spotlight of the dog show, hoping to find him a forever home. We made tshirts with his likeness coming and going (shown here) and entered him in "Owner Lookalike". He even won a trophy. Good dog! You can see photos or Rover in the ring at My Daily Snap. Just scroll down to July 4th. That's me holding the sign in the first photo, with Linda Cockburn of Copia's Dacshunds, a new volunteer to Animal Harbor and local trainer, groomer, etc handling Rover. I had no idea Robley, author of My Daily Snap, was going to blog about Rover...this was totally spontaneous on her part.

So even with a successful show, lots of local support, lots of good wishes, no one has called to actually  adopt Rover. If you want to know more about him, see my Animal Harbor Dog Blog. 

Three Waters Farm Website

Stephen has posted all the new spring colors on the Three Waters Farm website! Check 'em out...awesome. Fiber and yarn...yowwy zowwy. 8 pages of 'em!

Feast for the Colorstarved

Couture on yarn. Combine it with Right as Rain.

Here's a riff on "Right as Rain" (see blog below) on fingering weight yarn. Tiny dots of color knit up as single stitches providing a pointalist background to the longer colorbands.

Eye Candy

More colors you'll see at Three Waters Farm booth at Maryland Sheep and Wool. (main building B23)

Semi Pink

                                                                             Cousteau

Mediterranean

Tidepools Riff

Warning! Color Maniacs at Maryland Sheep and Wool

Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival 2008 is next weekend, May 3 & 4, and my colors will be there! If you’re going, don’t miss the Three Waters Farm booth: B23 in the Main building. As two completely unbridled color maniacs, Mary Ann Pagano and I in collaboration are very pleased to bring you “LV ltd for Three Waters Farm: handpainted fiber and yarn”.

Warning! Colormania! The Three Waters Farm booth will be a color FEAST (bring extra napkins). For starters you’ll find a complete selection of the colorways and fibers I used in “Justify” such as Tuscany, Undercurrent, Velarde, Sunshine, Roses and TWF’s own Lotus. My new spring color line will debut on both yarn and fiber including colorways (see photo) Right as Rain (jungle leaves and flowers), Semi-Precious (spring for rockhounds) and Tidepools (hang out in the underwater grasses).  Plus: a large Riff Redux selection of a new earthtoned palette called Hug Point, rich with basalt browns and clay greys, deep viridien greens, chalky earth ochres and purply shadow tones, named after the Oregon sea cliff of the same name. All colorways will appear on fiber and many on an array of yarns. Add this to Mary Ann’s gorgeous new collection of rich colorways such as City Nights (see photo)(broody jewels), Coustea (swim with dolphins), Lilac (can you resist blue and purple…huh, huh?), Couture (mauve velvet and pink lipstick with an earthy vengeance) and Lothlorien (party with a forest fairy) for a totally decadent outpouring.

I’m so stoked about our colors. Even though each colorway stands on its own, they are coordinated as a group, offering the spinner or knitter with an artistic eye a diverse palette with so many possibilities. For example, my spring colors all dovetail into each other; colorfield anyone? Or toss together Lothlorien and Hug Point, marry Lotus, Couture and Semi Precious Pink Riff. Pull Tuscany, Undercurrent and Cousteau. To make it even more decadent, Mary Ann has dyed many of these colorways in what she calls “Riff Redux”. She starts with one colorway, then takes a section and riffs on those colors, dyeing many different but related hanks. She has done this SO magnificently with my colorways of Semi-Precious and Hug Point…bet you can’t spin just one!

As an added bonus, the original Justify wrap (Knitty, Winter 2007) and Spirogyra fingerless gloves (Knitty, Spring 2008) will be on display in the booth. As you know the patterns for these are still available for free on Knitty. Three Waters Farm will also have patterns of some of my other designs available for purchase, including Superfluity, Spiralling Leaves Fingerless Gloves, Pumpkin Treasure Bag and the Tiny Triangle series of fingerless gloves, writstlets and socks. Superfluity kits will be available in several colorway combinations or you can dream up your own.

If you can’t make it to Maryland, keep checking for updates at the Three Waters Farm website or contact Mary Ann with specific requests. And don’t forget that TWF has signed copies of both my books. 

Check back in the next couple days. There should be more color photos by then.

cheers, Lynne

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