twinset.us

Dear Ellen,

I surely have felt fenced in of late.  The post-surgical complications (nothing too serious, dear readers) have been a figurative and literal pain in the……okay, okay, I won’t go there.  I was going a bit stir crazy, but I’m very happy to report that in just the last few days I have seen a dramatic increase in my ability to sit upright without doing additional damage or suffering some very discrete yet powerful pain.  This translates directly into my being able to do things with my hands like knitting, doing needlepoint, needlefelting, etc.  One is far less likely to go insane more able to entertain oneself when not limited to lying about on one’s stomach.  This has yielded a number of completed projects on which I’ll focus most of the rest of this blog post (assuming anyone who reads this blog  also listens to the podcast so I don’t need to tell them about Thanksgiving or the chickens).

I will comment on one other item though — Dale, with some help from Allen, Heidi, one of our teenaged neighbors and me (on the very last short board so I could say I helped) has completed putting up the posts and rails for our first paddock.  Isn’t it fabulous?  (Okay, it’s a crappy picture from Dale’s very old phone, but at least you get the idea.) We (and by we, I mean Dale) still have to put in the gates and trim the posts to height, but the hardest work is finished.  I’m now working on the shopping list for halters, water troughs, hay racks and medical supplies.  I can’t wait to see alpaca inside that fence.

Now to those finished projects.  I’m really pleased with my Spring Grove Tocque and Mitts.  They’re knit from yarn produced by Spring Grove Alpaca Ranch — our intended source for our first alpaca.  (But you can only see the tocque here, and not yet blocked at that — imagine very similar mitts till I post a picture some day.)  Carl, the owner was so generous with his time and alpaca for the wedding that I wanted to knit him something to repay him.  I think he will appreciate it doubly since they’re made from his yarn — a lovely sport weight in natural fawn and tan colors provided kindly by the alpacas Prediction and Ellamy.  I do so love knitting with alpaca yarn — kitten belly soft (TM).

I also created a little menagerie of fiber friends to keep me company in my confinement.  They are all needlefelted, most have a partial or complete pipecleaner armature.  Each one only took a few hours to complete — pretty quick and I think they turned out really cute.  Each is the representation of a well loved pet.  Can you pick out Max and Ruby?  These guys are destined to find themselves under a Christmas tree (or in a stocking).  I’ll miss them, but by then I should be able to be out and about and talking to humans.  (No, I haven’t been talking to these guys….much.)

I also knocked out a handful of felted ornaments — 2 sheep, a snowman and a whoopie pie.  I gave the little Wensleydale to my friend Jeri who raises them.  The little snowman went to our knit group ornament exchange.  Dale will get the whoopie pie and I get the little white and black sheep (perhaps a Suffolk?) is for me.  I think I need to add a ribbon to the whoopie pie to make sure Dale doesn’t think he can eat it.

And Show Me Your Larch Pack is finished!!  Off the needles, pieced and photographed…though not blocked yet.  I do think you can see it’s fantastic potential in these photos — just imagine what it will look like after a good wet blocking.  I am so looking forward to wearing it.

I haven’t cast on Pretty Thing yet, but I hope to before the weekend is over.  I’ve got some other things to get done, so I’d better get to it if I’m going to get this posted and pick out yarn!

Love, Jan

Dear Ellen,

My needles have been a clickin’ and my spindle and wheel have been a spinnin’ — one reason my blog posts had fallen behind.  Here’s a quick run down of the fiber activities from the summer.

I knit a scarf that I called my Four Star Scarf as an appreciation gift for Chief of Naval Operations Greenert’s willingness to preside and speak at my retirement.  Navy blue and gold, of course.

Fooling Around is almost complete.  You can see some of my mattress stitching mastery in this collage.  The sweater is fully pieced now, but I need to attach the hook and eye closure and get some modeled shots.  Soon.

Hiya, Brooke! is named for a grad school classmate of mine.   It’s the Hyla Brook shawl pattern by Paula Emons-Fuessle, Prairiepiper of the Knitting Pipeline podcast.  A very relaxing and enjoyable pattern that turns out a most wearable shawlette.  I really like Paula’s patterns, having also knitted Piper’s Journey and admitting I just bought her newest pattern, Ellison Bay.  One thing I love is the background she gives about her inspiration for each.  Hyla Brook is inspired by the hyla, the European tree frog, and a brook named for it’s population thereof.  The lace pattern is called hyla lace and you can just imagine the little peepers all in a row.  I modified mine slightly from Paula’s pattern so that the lace would be symmetrical mirror images from the spine. It’s not blocked yet in this pattern, but will be soon.  You can see an end waiting to be woven in…you wouldn’t have any experience in loose ends would you?  (Heh!)

Hoof Jam is my own pattern made from the Alisha Goes Around Marmalade (of Ponies) fingering weight in the Landscape colorway that you gifted me at Christmas.  The pattern is toe up with ribbed horseshoe cables along the outside of the cuffs and eye of partridge heels.  (How could I not use horseshoe cables when knitting with Marmalade of Ponies???)  A sock pattern like this, that has a nice stretch of stockinette with only a short stretch of patterning each round is a nice balance between challenging and boring.  It’s very knittable during social settings and even with adult beverages!  After the wedding this will be one of the patterns that makes it up onto Ravelry for sale.

Lazy Sunrise, knit from Kauni Effektgarn is a cleverly assymetric shawl in the Lazy Katy pattern by Birgit Freyer that really shows this yarn off well.  It was a pretty darned fast knit too.  Either that or I just couldn’t put it down as watching the colorway work through it’s gradients was so much fun.

I finished up a few mitts — the Mrs. Beeton mitts by Brenda Dayne.  (Mine are called Fancy Pants for my Wrists.)

And I finished the my Beady Ayes mitts based on the Opposites Attract Heavily Beaded Cuff Pattern by Susanna Hansson that I started in the class we took from Susanna at Yarnover.  I couldn’t leave well enough alone and felt compelled to add a bit of ruffle and some eyelet edging to Susanna’s basic pattern.  I still have other mitts in the works — those Bohus mitts for which you gave me the yarn and pattern several years ago.

Ori-mommy has been in the works.  I’ve finished my piece — the large rectangle, and Marie is making good progress on her piece — the smaller rectangle.  She hopes to be done by the wedding so she can leave it with me for seaming together and blocking.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

Iteration number two of the Sunny Day at Sea Hat, Mittens and Stripey Neck Gaiter is complete.  A few more modifications and I’ll work on getting this set put together as a pattern.

Twin Boy Bunting was sent off to you for your use in completing your Twin Girl Bunting.  I’m so glad to hear from you that you finished yours (despite my efforts to sabotage my accidental mistake in not providing notes on the color chart) and that Julie loved them!

  Summer Skies Tank was finished in time for autumn to kick in.  That’s okay as I need to lose a few more pounds before it would look great on me.  Right now it looks good, but great would be so much better!

Sitting and waiting for me to return to it is Death Spiral.  It will be some great travel knitting for post-wedding events.  Right now it needs to be patient while I finish up the wedding knitting!

Country Gentlewoman is done except for closures and sleeves.  Here it’s drying, having just soaked for about 15 minutes in, well, Soak, of course.  I wanted to wet block the body so I’d be extremely confident about closure placement and sleeve length.   I still have 12 days, so I feel like I’m in good shape.  It fits well, and looks great with the palazzo pants I’ll be wearing…no mother-of-the-groom dress for me!

And finally, the Valentine Ring Bearer’s Pillow still has half a backing and the side edging to complete.  I am going to have it done this week so Libby can help add the blue and gold ribbons (her colors) to make it more festive for the wedding.  Those will come right off after the big day and the pillow will be a nice addition to their bedroom decor.

As for spinning, my big summer achievement is 1900 yards of DK weight Wensleydale 2 ply.  I love, love, love it.  And have plans for it to become the Larch cardigan.  You’ll see it at Rhinebeck (in process!) for sure!  I also have a nice little yurt of natural colored finn on my lark spindle.  I’m going to chain ply it — hopefully about 100 yards worth for dyeing in my natural dyeing class at Rhinebeck.

That’s all I’m covering right now — believe it or not, there are a few other projects for which I have yet to create Ravelry pages.  At least this clears my backlog of posting, so now maybe I can keep up a bit better.  I’ll try!

Love, Jan

Dear Jan,

This last month seems to see me logging a fair amount of travel to all sorts of places.  Can you figure out the most recent?  Here are some hints.

Crazy good berries and cherries.  The strawberries didn’t even make it into the picture before they made it into our mouths, and there is barely more than color left of the raspberries.

Kites, flown by handsome men.

Insanely lush flowers, including more colors of hydrangea, often on the same bush, than I have ever seen.

Time enough to actually finish a project.  Here is my Glitter Train wrister project out of MadelineTosh Light,  pattern by Susanna Hansson.

Got it figured out?  If not, look just above my index finger in the wrister photo.

Yep, there is little else that looks like the Oregon Coast, where Wilson and I are vacationing with his family.  We are so fortunate.

Love,

Ellen

P.S.  A bit of saturation editing on the last photo as the weather was getting a bit murky, but zero retouching of the first four, it is just that dang beautiful.

Dear Jan,

This last weekend was a weekend of finishes.

Wilson and I rode in the Tour de Cure, a bike ride that raises research funds for diabetes.  We did 27 miles in absolutely perfect weather.

It must have been all those wheels turning.  When I got home, I was simply compelled to finish spinning the last bit of silk/merino roving that I had started about two years ago when I bought this spindle.  So satisfying to have 4 oz spun, even more satisfying once I get it plied.

Did your sharp eye catch the last bit of finishing for the weekend?  Yes, underneath the TdC medal, my finished Spiral Shawl by Erica Gunn of DesigKnit.

The shawl is knit on US Size 1’s out of Juniper Moon Findley Dappled laceweight in the colorway, Woodland.  The 50:50 wool:silk blend gives it sheen, drape, and it blocked very nicely.

This was a test knit for Erica - watch for the pattern to arrive soon on her site.  The construction is clever.  Twin spirals circle your shoulders in a very simple to remember pattern of increases that makes this excellent travel knitting.

Oscar would be happy to circle your shoulders with a little kitty hug.  He tried to entice me to rub his belly at knit night, but I was busy weaving the ends into the shawl. (ETA: Oscar is one of Lisa’s kiddens.)

Selkie and The Poison Pawn find nothing amusing about another cat’s belly.

I hope you find your Last Week of Work to be highly amusing.

Love,

Ellen

Dear Jan,

I told you I was a bona fide test knitter some time ago; now I can reveal the test knit!  It is the Woman’s Cardigan from the new book WearWithAll, published by a group of active knitting and designing friends from one of my LYS’s.  Edited for clarity: the pattern for this sweater is not my design, I simply test knit it as part of the editing process of the book.  My sweater doesn’t appear in photos in the book, but may go on any trunk shows in the next few months.

Knitting this sweater in just 4 weeks on size 3 needles (the pattern calls for 4’s, I’m a loose knitter (not in THAT way!) was surprisingly fun.  Who’d have thought miles of stockinette in a fine gauge would be lovely.  The secret - gorgeous yarn (Kidsilk Haze).  Hmm, reminds me of knitting Bohus sweaters!  Another secret - a simple, elegant design and pattern.

I’m very happy with the way it turned out.  When it returns home to me after touring with the book, I will really enjoy wearing it.

You can read the story of the rest of the book here, and we will do our best to get our hands on a copy of the book this weekend.

This weekend!  And it starts tomorrow, really, when I pick you up after work.  Sure, we both have to work the rest of the week, but I suspect it will be a much more interesting week than recent ones, for me, anyway.

Love,

Ellen