Fiberly One

Acquistions
I have really tried to curtail my acquisition, but I put myself in situtions where it’s just too hard to resist temptation. It started with a day trip to Phoenix to bring my Dad’s ashes to Oregon. Well that took all of two hours (with traffic), and I knew I’d have four hours to kill before I needed to be back at the airport, so what better thing to do, but visit a yarn shop. I scoped out three, but ended up only seeing one – Fiber Factory in Mesa. The Berroco Jasper (100% Merino) caught my eye and was on sale, and ever on the look out for different fibers, I picked up the last of their Elsebeth Lavold Hempathy (Hemp, Cotton, and Modal blend) on clearance.

Then there was the Knit and Crochet Show in Portland, where I took a class on tatting and broomstick lace. The latter was taught by Stitch Diva’s Jennifer Hansen, who was an excellent instructor. But I digress…

I didn’t make it to the market till Sunday, which was probably what saved me from buying more than the Teresa Ruch handpanted bamboo and tencel yarns.

My neighbor, Laurie, and I took a road trip to the Yamhill county where we visited Woodland Woolworks in Carlton, where I found to Conjoined Creations Pastimes soysilk yarn in colorway “Strange Brew”.

Next we headed to McMinnville, where we lunched at Orchards Bistro, where I had a fabulous asparagus, turkey, ham and gruyère with baked Yukon Gold potatoes that were good the next day. But again, I digress…

Boersma’s Yarn Basket was our next stop and we were not disappointed. In the end I brought home Jojoland Harmony (Merino laceweight), Dream in Color Classy (worsted Merino) in colorway “Pansy Golightly”, and Berroco Softwist (wool/rayon).

This past weekend, there was the Oregon Flock and Fiber Festival (OFFF) in Canby. Laurie and I signed up for a beginning spindling class. That was Sunday afternoon. Of course we had to shop first. There were lots vendors with some interesting fibers and yarns in lots of pretty colorways. Though tempted by many, in the end Lisa Souza Dyeworks yarns were the most tempting—Baby Alpaca Lace, colorway “South Pacific” and Timaru (Merino/Bamboo), colorway “Mother of Pearl” along with Hokulani Farms (Bend, OR) Cashmere/Cotton were the yarns that made it to my shopping bag.

Another skirt
My BFF, Evelyn, finally came to visit us last month (has it really been a month???). I wore Indigo Ripples, and she made no comment on it, till she asked she could commission me to make her a version. She wanted it in a dark brown that could be worn year-round. She chose Knit Pick’s Shine Worsted in Fedora. It took exactly 11 balls to make her skirt. Unfortunately, I only ordered 10 balls, so what would have taken a week was extended out to a month. But it’s done.

Unfortunately, because we ordered the yarn, I can’t claim any stash reduction.

Hand Spun
And finally, there’s the yarn I made. I can’t claim to have been a prodigy and made this in class, but I did spin and ply this yarn the next morning while the process was still clear in my head. My goal is to spin an even thin single, but I can tell that will take a great deal of practice.

Skirts

When I was in high school (lo! those many years ago!) I preferred dresses over pants because my body was never made to fit junior clothes. And though pants were easier to wear, I’ve always loved skirts.

The first skirt I knit was the Luna Flickering Flames from the Elann.com site in their Luna rayon/cotton yarn.  It was probably the first project where I realized how much I like knitting lace.  And although it was a lot of knitting, I enjoyed making it. I’ve since made Sasha,  Elderflower and Indigo Ripples.

I was looking on Ravelry for a new skirt and came upon Wry Punster’s version of the Show-Off Ruffled skirt from Lace Style. I was inspired, so I started the skirt in some stash Elann Luna in red that I’d ordered to make another Flickering Flames skirt (I said I liked knitting it…). Once I got going on the bobbles, I actually enjoyed making them since I got to backward knit and was doing fine till I dropped the stitches that make the “lace.” Luna was not made for the Show Off Ruffle.  I think it is just too fluid.  I didn’t like the look of the “lace” and wasn’t convinced blocking would improve it, so I frogged it and went in search of another pattern.

Indigo Ripples was really a fast and satisfying knit, but I didn’t want to make it again for two reasons: 1) I wanted something different and 2) Evelyn asked me to knit the same skirt for her.  I’m not much for making things multiple times so three just wouldn’t work.  But I did like how Kat Coyle did the shaping, so I did a little math and cast on. I searched several books for lace patterns and settled on “Dainty” from Barbara Walker’s Second Treasury of Knitting Patterns for the main knit panel and “Daintier” for the bottom ruffle. To make it flippy like Indigo Ripples, I used the same cast off, and I have a new red skirt.

It was a pretty fast knit, if you don’t take into consideration how many times I had to redo the lace foundation row, after knitting the second lace pattern row.  There was over 200 sts, so reknitting at least three times was no small feat.  Still it was done in a week, and I wore it yesterday.  It’s a comfortable, “swishy” skirt.  I may have to get more Luna for more skirts.

Shirts

Last year I sewed Tom 25 shirts. The promise was for one a month (I have A LOT of fabric for shirts stashed).  I had hoped to do at least one shirt a month this year, but it just hasn’t happened – only seven so far, with the lastest in July.