Pictures and Projects

Good Afternoon!

Hot and humid, yeah I know, everyone is feeling it except maybe Siberia.

Late start today, so much to share. First I would like to add some pictures.

 This is the French Beret that I completed after taking Mariepaule's class.  She is an incredible fiber artist. Spinning, dying, picking and cleaning fleeces, designer, and knitter just to name a few of her talents.  She resides in the Mid Hudson Valley and you can read more about her and her fiber artist husband, Arturo, at her Etsy shop,
http://www.etsy.com/shop/cheltenhamcottage.

This is the Pashmina Scribble Lace Cowl that  I finished knitting and then blocked yesterday.  I thought it was soft while knitting it, but after washing and blocking, I couldn't believe how much sofer it became.

This is a little trio of Mother Earth Washcloths.  They are knit from 100% cotton and the colors represent the sun (yellow), the lush greenery (green) and also water, because they have to be wet to use them.  They are amazing to use.  My favorite is with handmade soap. 

So, now for the reason I am so late in getting this out to you.  I have spent the last couple of days setting up the loom.  I weave with a Riggid Heddle from Ashford.  The loom itself I have used before, but I purchased a loom stand awile back and just finished building it up yesterday.  My sweetheart, Emerson, is going to retrofit it with a box on the back to hold my  heddles and shuttles. 

Well, when I got home from work this morning, it just started singing to me.  So I pulled out the fiber, filled out the worksheet, used to determine how much warp (lengthwise) and weft (crosswise) I would need to begin weaving.  Once I had the loom warped, I just couldn't just walk away, I had to sit down and I wove til noon.

I also have some silk fiber that I want to use, but first I have to spin it.  Too much fiber and not enough hours in the day.  Do you ever feel like that?

I will appologize for tooting a horn here, but my daughter Ashley, made the Dean's list at Ulster County Community College.  She is taking an accelerated Calculus course.  What a brainiac!
Congratulations Ashley!  Love You!

Have a great weekend everyone.  Stay cool, hydrated and bring on the fiber.

Knitting Tip

Good Morning!

I hope you all had a great weekend, I know I did.  I took a class at yarnandteashop.com which was fantastic.  I haven't taken a class for quite awhile, but I must say, if you haven't, find one and spend a great couple of hours.

What I find is that I may not really need the class for the learning per se, but it is all the "unadvertised" wonderful things that you learn that you can't put a price tag  on.  And then, there is the meeting of new friends who share your passion and usually on more than one level. 

What I mean by that is, there are all levels of knitters, even if the class is for, say, intermediate to advanced.  All of us have knowledge of our craft that is freely shared.  How awesome is that!  I used to work in the food industry, and one thing I found out is that information is not always enthusiastically shared.

Here is one tip that I learned and want to pass along.  Copy and paste this or take notes.  It is so simple I don't know why I haven't heard of it before.  Let me give you just a little background.  The project was a French Beret knit in fingering weight handspun, hand dyed yarn, which the instructor, Mariepaule, prepared for us (check out cheltenhamcottage on Etsy).  If you have ever cast on firmly using fingering weight yarn, getting the cast on over the join on a circular needle can be a major headache.

Cast your stitches on a double point needle the same size.  Then begin the first round transferring stitches to your circular needle. Make sure there are no twists in your knitting and join as usual.  I couldn't believe what a pleasure this was instead of struggling. 

Now you can pull out all your fingering weight projects, cast on and get knitting!.