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Dear Jan,

Ever since WestKnits Book One came out, I’ve been itching to knit Pogona.  The interesting construction with multiple increase points (not just another triangular shawl), the organic way it curved around the neck with just enough ruffle for flow and not so much to be girly, and the wearability of a shawlette for work or play - I knew this shawl was for me.  And when I got my Rhinebeck braid of Rambouillet (dyed by Erica at DesigKnit) spun up into a lace weight yarn, I knew I had the right yarn, too.

Erica captured the color of autumn foliage perfectly.  I actually toned down the saturation in this photo - it is that gorgeous!

My only problem is that the gauge is much finer than that for which Stephen West designed the shawl, so what should be a super fast knit is more of a slow but enjoyable process.  I’m using a smaller needle and have a lot more stitches, but the fabric is fine and dreamy - even better to allow the fabric to drape.

Here is some more brilliant color I’ve enjoyed of late, a Baltimore Oriole (first I’ve seen, ever!).  He would go well with the shawl.

And for a bit more color, in case that wasn’t enough, we got our first-of-the-year ruby-throated hummingbird to the feeder.

And that reminds me - I need to go refill that feeder!

Love,

Ellen

Did you know that the last stage in an insects life is the imago, plural imagines?  While I wish I had imagined this, unfortunately I didn’t.   A moth flew out of my closet a couple of days ago.

Though said insect is now smashed to smothereens, I am sure it was Tineola bisselliella, the dreaded clothes moth.  Powdery, silvery green wings, erratic flight, yup, sure is the fiber artist’s nemesis.

As many of my sweaters were due for a wash, I went ahead and used my soaking and spinning machine* to work my way through all of my wool sweaters over the course of a few days. I thoroughly vacuumed the drawers in which I keep them and the closet itself.

The shawls gave me pause. All of that blocking to be redone was more than I could face. So I baked them.

Recalling that at work (where we handle tons of grains and flours) we occasionally heat the whole building up to quell meal moth infestation, I wondered if something like this would work for wool moths. After some research in agricultural texts and on-line information**, I concluded that if I got my knits over 140F for several minutes (or 160 F for less than a minute), I should be able to knock out any and all forms of moth - egg, larva, or adult.  Combine this info with my favorite feature of my kitchen range, the warming drawer, and you’ve got a straightforward method for disinfesting delicates of these pests.

I set the warming drawer on High, wrapped the shawls in a light cotton towel, stuck a meat thermometer into the middle to make sure I get them up to 140F, and baked my shawls free of any insidious infestation.

.

Bonus - thanks to this unasked for prompt, I have gotten my annual sweater wash done earlier than ever before.

Imagine that.

Love,

Ellen

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Note - do not do this with garments that you aren’t sure are clean. Heating causes all sorts of great chemical reactions between sugars and proteins (like the ones in that egg salad that dripped on your sweater the other day, or the sweat that has been accumulating on the edge of that cowl) and these reactions create delicious flavors and very brown stains. This is what is happening, by the way, when stains slowly appear on old clothing - the heat just speeds all that up.

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*A.K.A. washing machine - great for soaking multiple sweaters at once and spinning the water out - just don’t ever let it agitate them!

** Tang, Juming; Mitcham, Elizabeth; Wang, Shaojin; Lurie, Susan. 2007. Heat Treatments for Postharvet Pest Control: Theory and Practice. CAB International, Oxon, UK.

**Cranshaw, W. 2003. Fact Sheet No. 5598, Indian Meal Moth. Colorado State University.

Image of clothes moth from Wikimedia Commons.

Dear Jan,

I have started rooting for the owls to come out during the daytime.

While watching the squirrels raid our feeder, I’ve been working on my Fiber Fusion sweater.  After the precision demanded by the Master Knitter program, the freedom to create a knit fabric that is organic and rustic and in which I have no preconceived notion of the final garment is quite freeing.

I did get back that first round submission, by the way.  I’m pleased with how I did.  Several swatches to reknit or reblock, a few more swatches to rewrite, plus a reknit of the wrister (I forgot a row in the pattern - huh!?).  But the big happy is that all of the reports were accepted!  Lisa and I will start back on our work this week.

I’ve decided I’m going to make the Decibella cowl by Gale Zucker.  It just keeps haunting me with its magnitudeness.  (I’m sure that is a word.)  But I didn’t want to spend the big buck for the big yarn suggested.  Good thing I know how to make my own!

I’m using the cerulean blue fleece, colored in the remnants of the dyebath that I used for all that 5-ply yarn I spun a while ago, drum carded and spun into singles.

I saved a chunk of the last batt  to blend on the drum carder with some more of the natural colored fiber.  The misty blue that resulted is equally enchanting.

Six plies of each makes for bulky yarns with just enough contrast for interest, and close enough that your eyes won’t hurt looking at the cowl.

Too bad I don’t have that cowl done already as we are getting socked by a good snow.  Nothing like out east this weekend, but enough that getting to work in the morning will be challenging.  And that morning will come fast enough, so bye for now.

Love,

Ellen

…Penguin, that is.

Dear Jan,

We had, as always, a wonderful gathering for the holidays at our house.  The entire family on Wilson’s side (with the notable exception of Wilson’s own daughters and son-in-law (mine, too, I haven’t been keeping something from you)) came for a rolicking-good time.   In our heartbreak over our offspring being responsible working adults who couldn’t make it across half a continent to see us for a day, we had to adopt a new child.

Meet Peterson*.

Peterson  helped Merry bake cookies.

and helped Mom cook dinner.

Peterson chose yet more cookies to bake.

Peterson snacked with Paula on Wilson’s famous party mix while waiting for cookies to come out of the oven.

When Wilson hung the Shining Hippo** on the top of the tree, Peterson was there to catch him if he fell.

Peterson listened as Dad read Silver Packages,

and went on the cold (and short) Christmas Eve walk with Margaret and Merry and Jon and Wilson and me.

Wilson helped Jon open gifts,

and wore Beauty Bows with Mom.

Peterson was concerned about the menu for dinner,

but wholly approved the job Marty and Dad did in constructing shelves for the new closet.

All that work made Peterson sleepy.  (Poison was sleepy from general naughtiness.)

Peterson thinks feathers are better, but still found carding wool to be fun if you get to do it with Margaret and Mom.

And Peterson even pulled a New Year’s Eve cracker with me.  He was brave and didn’t cry when it went off.

Don’t worry, Karen, Brandon, and Jenny.  Peterson doesn’t take up much space.  There is always room for you.

Love,

Ellen

*In the Fun Facts to Know and Tell category, Roger Tory P. was known by the nickname King Penguin.

**Newlyweds, be careful of little jokes you make like hanging a cheap pompon ornament at the top of your tree because you don’t have a star.  It is amazing what will stick for 32 years.

Dear Jan,

After the miles of worsted lace weight spinning (well, maybe not miles, but perhaps a quarter mile) I’ve done lately, I needed some instant gratification.  A batt - I needed to spin a batt with a woolen draw and to make it interesting I’d try to spin at a little heavier gauge than I have a tendency to do.

I made a trek to the Chamber of Secrets and the icy blue batt that from the drum carding class I took last spring practically jumped into my hands.  It is lustrous Coopworth fiber from Carol Wagner at Hidden Valley Farm and Woolen Mill, mostly in blues & teals but with a smidge of yellow and yes, to spice it up, a little bit of pink.  (I know, I don’t do pink.  Yet there it is.)  The locks were dyed the individual colors and then I carded them together.

I spun the singles with a forward semi-woolen draw, fairly long because the staple on Coopworth is several inches, letting enough of the twist slip back into the fiber to grab yet controlling it enough to prevent locking up and to enable slight smoothing of the yarn.  I drafted quickly and was able to produce a heavy laceweight singles which when chain plyed produced a heavy dk weight yarn.

The yarn that this fiber produces is strong and supple, perhaps not next to the neck soft but it would be fabulous for rugged mittens or an outerwear sweater.  The flecks of color remind me of tweed, but don’t have that slightly unkempt look some tweeds can have because the tweedy bits appear to be about to fall off the yarn.  And I have to say, I even like the pink.

I hope you are feeling more and more in the pink every day.

Love,

Ellen

P.S.  Happy Solstice tomorrow!