The Great Indoors

I've been dodging quite a bit of hail lately, so basically I take this as the universe's way of saying, "stay inside! Make something warm." I will dart out in all sorts of weather in honor of my social calendar, but between the wool, the cloth, and a film class I'm taking, I'm happily popping Vitamin D supplements and crafting until my fingers are bloody. Hard core.

I'm ambitiously trying to finish up a big-ass men's sweater this week. I make one every year. This one isn't particularly technical, but it has a lovely stitch pattern and quite soothing to knit. I have been monogamous on it for the past week and a half, and I'm pleased to say that it's getting close to done.

Whooo! That's a ton of stitches. I'm using Cascade 220 tweed and size US 6 needles. I like it fine for the stitch definition and durability, but the tweedy bits are a bit crayonesque. I think I prefer a more subtle tweed. Too late for that though!

I've also been spinning a bit. Really!

I have a gorgeous little Bosworth spindle that's been working the wool lately. Above was a bad attempt at andean plying a really beautiful Ent batt of Corriedale. I'm still working out the logistics of trying to spin and ply with just one spindle, no niddy noddy, and a handful of TP rolls to roll the finished singles on. Next time, no andean. The beautiful lion-mane batt will be spun up and plied as well, and the two will be striped to make a really nice slouchy hat.

I currently have a really beautiful bit of indigo-dyed merino silk on the spindle from A Verb for Keeping Warm. It's so much fun to spin and it's turning my hands blue, as Indigo is want to do.

This is all made possible by all my kick-ass friends back in NYC who hooked me up with care packages and gave me the nudge to start spinning again.

FO: Glorious Cable Mitts

I'm a bad knitwear role model when it comes to my hands. I dislike the bulk of knit gloves, and only wear mittens if it's so freezing cold out that your fingers need to snuggle up next to your other fingers for warmth, like puppies. I do love the elegance of leather gloves, especially if they are lined with something wonderfully soft and warm, like cashmere or deerskin.

A few of my friendos in my local knit group made these Glorious Cable Mitts. I really liked the delicate but complex cabling and the fine gauge.

I started with a skein of A Verb For Keeping Warm Annapurna Cashmere in the Peacock's Tail colorway. It's dyed with Indigo. Aside from the gorgeous color, it's lovely yarn- a blend of cashmere, merino and nylon. Soft, and after a wash, the cashmere blooms and fills in the fabric nicely.



There was a little bit of "crocking" that is, my hands turned an alarming shade of frostbite blue. That's totally normal with Indigo, and after I soaked it I got hardly any bleeding at all. You have to think of indigo as not just a dye, but a live organism, so you learn to love its quirks.

I used size 0 needles, but realized pretty quickly that I'd have to fudge the pattern a bit as they were going to be huge if I didn't cut down the stitch count. 72 stitches were a bit too many if I wanted them to fit.



I ripped back, cast on 62 stitches, and then re-worked the cable pattern so that it would be centered on the new stitch count.



I love them.



They keep my hands free to fumble through my bag, find my phone, wallet, keys, metrocard, whatever. All that ribbing means they fit nice and snug. I love the cabling detail- it took a bit of time to work the cables but nothing so bad that it couldn't be done. They took me a little less than 2 weeks from start to finish. I didn't have the goal of having them Rhinebeck ready, but it worked out that way.



The thumb gussets are brilliant- I think I've only ever done an "afterthought" thumb, which just sticks out like a hitchhiker. These lie nice and flat without any thumb bulk to get in the way. They keep me toasty warm as they are snug around my pulse points. I did a stretchy bind-off so I can wiggle my thumb out and roll them back if I'm doing something where I don't want to get them dirty. Still, the ribbing keeps them snug across my hands so they don't get saggy baggy.



Someone stopped me to admire the gloves and asked me, "Can I just get those at Walmart or something?" to which I replied non-verbally with a careful peeling off of my new fingerless gloves and giving the poor ignorant soul a sound slap across the face with them.

No, actually, you can not get these at Walmart.

FO: Star-Crossed Hat

Oh, surprise, I made another hand spun hat. Giftmas will be easy and breezy affair for me this year. I hope.

This started out as two equally beautiful bits of fiber- a bump of baby camel and silk blend, plus some AVFKW club fiber of dyed Polworth.



The color was called "Rosemary".



I carded both of these together and ended up with 3 oz of soft, silky fiber. I pulled out the colors into sections so it would get muddy, but would have a more tweedy effect. I spun it up as a 2-ply worsted weight.





The blended color has really gentle shifts of purple and green. I loved it- it was soft and drapes nicely and it's very warm. I only ended up with 120 yards.

I choose the Star Crossed Slouchy beret as a pattern. I started running scarce on yardage, so I skipped six rows of the pattern before I ran out...this means I don't have a slouchy beret. I have a beanie.



Which is fine by me- I like the giant undulating cables and sometimes you have to just go with it until you run out. It's a pretty hat and I could always make another one when I feel like yardage won't be such an issue. I think it would be quite stunning in a blend that includes a little angora- something with a soft halo.



It seems like a ridiculously warm hat by summer standards. The thought crosses my mind on hot and muggy days that no one will ever need a hat this warm again in the history of the planet. However, the days are starting to grow noticeably shorter, and early mornings now call for an urgent scramble to find a long-abandoned and heavily wrinkled sweater from the depths of the wardrobe.

The Shetland Who Wants to Be Pretty Returns...

And this time it's in yarn form.

My wee Shetland fleece has been all spun up.



It started out as a fleece that had tons of cross-fibering. It was clean and didn't have any other terrible flaws aside from the fact that it looked like it had been carded already. It was hard to pull out individual locks, but they weren't so stuck together where I was getting tears and breaking the fleece. I didn't pay a whole lot for it and I washed it up in the bathtub with no issues. It was taking the leap from fleece in a bag under my bed to usable product that was hanging me up.

I had the brilliant idea to turn it into roving at the Loop spin-in, and blended it with a good deal of tussah silk that I had dyed up. It gave it a rich, slightly metallic sheen. I threw in some angora I had lying around for good measure.





I spun it up as thick as I can and now I have an Aran-weight 2ply.


It didn't take me that long- I whipped through the almost 2 lbs of roving an just a couple weeks- but I've been lazy about plying. Having time to sit down in front of the wheel to finish everything has been a huge challenge.



It's lovely- I really enjoyed spinning this and I was a little melancholic when the last bit of it got sucked onto the bobbin. The staple on the shetland was very long, and the silk reinforced that, so I didn't been much twist in the singles. I plied it tightly though because I love the way a tightly plied yarn looks- so neat and orderly. I have 5 skeins plied up so far, all with 110-160 yards a piece (yeah, I know. I have to work on my consistency). In the end, I'll have enough for a small sweater. I love the fact that it's not so blended that the silk didn't get lost here.

So aside from resolving to get more spinning done (and knitting and cooking and organizing and weaving and dyeing and jewelry-making and blogging and learning new languages and doing yoga and everything else that I feel like my skills are constantly withering away) I will have to eventually pick a project for this yarn.

Meanwhile, as my spinning stash gets spun up and the knitting stash gets knitted, I keep getting my AVFKW club in the mail. Luckily, they are small bumps.



This is "Cherry Blossom", a blend of Alpaca/Silk and Merino/Silk.



This one is "Ambrosial", which is a nice soft chunk of Targhee. I love how dark and saturated with color it is. I should probably discontinue this club for a bit. I now have 11 little bumps of fiber in need of being spun up. It's starting to add up and I'm just not spinning fast enough. The colors and fibers are so gorgeous though. I don't think there has been one month where I wasn't thrilled with the colors.

I promise an etsy update soon- I have a huge stack of freshly dyed yarn and roving that I need to get listed. Also, a giveaway of sorts, but it's going to take some thought and some organizing on my part and I really do want to go on vacation sometime this summer, so it might be a little while until that happens.

I Am Running Away to Join the Circus.

It seems as though a series of odd, tragic, stressful and downright weird events has been plaguing the people around me lately. I feel like everyone I know has been the recipient of bad news and the past few months have been especially trying because of it. Before you draw conclusions about my toxic effect on people, I'm pretty sure I'm not the Bad Seed. Just a helpless-feeling bystander.

Also...my job. It's gotten a bit too much lately. I know I get compensated monetarily quite nicely and really have nothing to complain about, but more days than I care to count I feel like I'm ready to move on. I have the Peace Corps website open in another tab. Oooh, Fiji. Really? You send people to Fiji? Wait...but I have to speak Hindi or Fijian, or be willing to learn? I must admit, my Fijian is a bit rusty at this point. Wait...you don't serve any English-speaking countries at all? How about un peu français, non? Well then. Maybe the Peace Corps is not for me after all. Sitting in an office in Manhattan is really quite nice actually, with the running water and flush toilets. Never mind.

Happily, I am planning a nice little vacation next month. It's piggy-backed with a work trip, but it's in a location that I love and would gladly go for a nice vacation on my own. More on that soon.

I've been knitting in fits and starts, but I chose a bunch of projects that require my full attention at all times. None of this round and round we go stuff...I'm making a lace shawl with the lace pattern on both sides, which means one little mistake could end in disaster and I try to tink back to the blissful and innocent time where I didn't make mistakes. I'm also making an oversized cable sweater, where the cable pattern runs on both sides requiring me to stare at the pattern with laser-like intensity. Then I cast on for an "easy" project, which involves a laceweight and delicate silk/mohair blend to be adorned with dozens of tiny beads. So much fun! Not stressful at all! My dentist says I should try not to grind my teeth during my waking hours!

Maybe it's time to start a really simple hat, or a pair of socks.

I did get something pretty in the mail a couple weeks ago:



It's the March Essential Luxury club from A Verb for Keeping Warm. A very touchable blend of baby camel, merino and silk. I can almost feel my stress melt away as I dream about spinning it. It's gorgeous dahhling, gorgeous. It's going into a bin for a bit as I am still spinning my Shetland fleece and I'm [trying my best to be] a spinning project monogamist. I can actually fill a bobbin with the Shetland in about 45 minutes.

There's been lots of other fun stuff going on- lots of pork cookery and dumpling folding and beer making and spin-ins and jewelry creating and honey bee education and trying not to fail at it all. Being bored in New York means you probably have no pulse.

Spinning: Now with bits of Bactrian Camel!

I once spun and wove up a scarf made out of baby camel fiber.



The purple/yellow was a merino silk blend, but the camel colored yarn all came from a baby camel. Weaving doesn't bias if your yarn is out of sorts with balance, so you can use singles without worry.



It's fantastic to work with. Camels are double-coated, and this is the finest downy undercoat. It's like cashmere. The outer coat is terribly scratchy and rough, and much more hair-like. The undercoat is just buttery soft and wonderful to spin.

Here it is, blended with silk.



I had some of this tucked away in my stash that was leftover from my scarf project. Lucky me, my December AVFKW club also contained a bundle of camel silk blend, along with some dyed Polworth.



The color is "Rosemary". I took the opportunity to use up as much stash as possible in one hit and blended my existing 2 oz of Camel/silk with the club fiber.



I spun it up into an Aran-weight 3-ply. It's lovely- very slinky and drapey. I'm hoping the bit of Polworth gives it at least a little memory when knitted up.



The color is very subtle. It's overwhelmingly camel-colored, with just a hint of the purples and greens in the dyed bit of fiber.

Oh, and the static really killed me here. Every time I sat down to spin, I would get covered from head to toe with staticky bits of camel down. It clung to everything, and then after it came out of the wash I had bits of camel felt netted into my clothes. I really recommend spinning these downy fibers when the radiator has been turned off and the humidity is higher. It tames it and makes the whole process much more pleasant.

I keep a spray bottle with a mix of water, vodka (the cheapest stuff is just fine) and a few drops of essential oils (I'm a fan of a blend of lavender, eucalyptus and tea tree oil). I spray down the fiber before touching it- not to soak it but it does help with the flyaways. I also use this as my all-purpose "Smell Better" spray- yoga mats, shoes, linens- whatever has a bit of a funky odor, this will take care of it without overly perfuming.



I ended up with about 120 yards Aran weight from 4 oz of fiber. Not the best yardage, but enough to make an awesome warm hat.

Some Works in Progress

I've been a busy worker bee lately. I need to take advantage since I usually get sluggish in winter. I'm totally on a roll and checking things off my to-do list at a furious pace.

We made beer.



I don't even like the taste of beer. I keep trying it, thinking one day I will get over it and be the average beer-drinking american. I drink beer and I feel bloated and full of burps and unwell. Because I drink it so slowly, I never get a buzz going and spend the rest of my time desperately searching for a glass of wine to wash the taste out of my mouth.

I do like to make things though. I seem to like to make things that people will ask/tell me, "You could get that at WalMart/Target/Safeway, etc for cheaper/easier". Also, isn't science fun? Starches and sugars being converted into alcohol for our pleasure? It's entertaining on so many levels. Get to work, you yeasty bastards!

Please observe my wort.


I'm in love with the way everything smelled in the brewing process. It's currently sitting in the fermeneter, getting big and strong and alcoholic. If anything, I figure the one with the beer is the one with the friends, so this will get drunk by someone eventually.

My brew-happy co-worker also informs me that no one has ever died from drinking home-brewed beer. Always a huge concern of mine.

So I cheated and even though I took a dumpling-making class, I went out and made someone else make them for me.

Mandoo in Koreatown makes their own dumpling, right then and there. They are beautiful little gems that are the perfect cold-weather cheap-but-delicious eats. There's pretty much no limit to how many dumplings I can eat.



If this woman goes missing it's because I've kidnapped her. She'll be safe in Brooklyn, I assure you, making a mountain of dumplings in the comfort of my own kitchen.



Now I'm inspired...I will make dumplings very soon. I've been also making pickles lately. Cukes and cauliflower and garlic and hot peppers and pretty much anything else I can put in jars. Then I make bloody marys with the leftover pickle juice. It's fantastic.

I've been knitting and spinning as well, but I'm slow with the picture taking.



This is the Devon sweater by Norah Gaughn. It's from her lovely little book of men's knits that was published by Berocco a couple of years ago. This picture is a bit old as it is now done the sweater with the exception of the ribbing around the neck and blocking. It took no time at all- I really love making sweaters that are huge swarths of stockinette stitch, with some interesting details thrown in to keep things interesting. I used Cascade Eco in the lichen colorway (the yarn color doesn't show up true in the above photo at all, and that's my fault).

I finished another handspun hat, but I need daylight to do it justice in photographs.

I cast on for a pair of ribby socks in BMFA yarn. Socks are my daily commuting activity and I feel kind of lost if I don't have a pair in the works.

I spun up some fiber:



I made a big fat 3-ply from it. It's very soft, and I would imagine that it really blooms up nicely with all that downy baby camel in it. I'll post pictures soon.

Oh, and my mom got me some Angora fiber. She bought it at the Fryeburg Fair, which is an enormous agricultural fair that happens every fall in picturesque western Maine.



It's lovely and soft, but I think the downy fibers need some humidity in the air in order to be manageable- the static really creates a monster.

FO- handspun Victorian Shoulderette

I've become addicted to project spinning. It's not a bad thing. I used to spin for the sake of spinning, and then end up with hundreds of yards of yarn that I wasn't particularly inspired by. It would just sadly sit around in a bin, waiting for a moth to cozy up to it, or perhaps for me to get my act together and create something that didn't look like clown barf.

This was part of my conscientious effort to create yarn that would make a beautiful, wearable finished project.

The Fiber:


A Verb for Keeping Warm in Rainer Cherries. This was the July club selection. It's 3 oz of a 80% merino, 20% silk blend. I split the roving in half lenghtwise and spun each half up as a ply.



I ended up with 300 yards of fingering weight yarn.



It's very soft. I chose the Victorian Shoulderette by Sivia Harding. It's small, delicate and purdy. I also thought that the colors would transition nicely with the pattern.



I love it when I'm right.





The specs:

I used almost all of the 300 yards of yarn, but I also modified the pattern and threw in two extra repeats. I hate having leftover handspun. I used US 7 needles. The bind-off was fun- after the lace section, you rotate the shawl on its side, and then do short rows to make the border. A little time consuming, but I like the effect.

Totally unrelated, but I can't keep this to myself any longer.



This. This is the guy who lives next door. He's always out on the stoop, smoking a cigarette wearing nothing but a ratty old robe and flip-flops. Mind you, it's cold enough for me to pile on my winter woollies when I go out even for a few minutes. He actually goes out and talks to people like that. There's just something a bit disturbing dealing with someone who is that comfortable talking to people with nothing but a thin veil of terrycloth between him and an icy wind.

Sigh. I guess instead of purchasing a super-soaker and getting my revenge, I should just continue to wear accessories that have names like "Victorian Shoulderette".

Fiber Club

Let's talk about stash, shall we? I've been kind of holding out on you stash-wise. A few months ago, I joined the A Verb for Keeping Warm Essential Luxury Fiber Club. All I can say is "wow". The talented Kristine only uses natural dyes and unique blends and rarer breeds of sheep. I have been super pleased with everything I've received so far. Plus, it's only in 2-3oz increments so I never feel overwhelmed by fiber, but just insanely tickled and inspired that I have this bit of awesomeness in my hand.


This is the latest club shipment. It's 2 oz of Wensleydale fiber and 1 oz of tussah silk. I'm thinking about spinning the Wensleydale into a thick-ish single, spinning the silk into thread, and then crazy-plying them together.


2oz of a 50/50 merino and cashmere blend. The colorway is called The Pyrenees. It's begging to be spun up soft and lofty and knitted up into something that you could wrap around your neck and purr like a kitten.


Merino/Silk/Yak blend. The colorway is called "The Best Bite". It's dyed with Indigo. Heavenly soft.


"Sweet Tart". 3oz of Targee Roving. I love the fact that she searches out less common breeds of sheep.

I'm busy knitting away a small lace shoulderette with this selection:

It's "Rainer Cherries" merino/silk.

I split the roving and lined up the colors for minimal candy-cane effect.


Spinning it was a joy. It's knitting up so soft and lofty. Swoon.