One sock done....

The first sock is done. Yea! Didn't turn out too bad. Unfortunately it was a bit snug for my hubby, but fit his father beautifully. So the socks will end up going to his father. Then I get to knit a second pair for his mother. Will most likely use a different pattern though....so they can tell their socks apart. :.) I will be using the same yarn.....which is nice since I have enough for a second pair of socks.....and since she really likes the yarn used in this sock.

As for the second sock...it has been started. The cuff is done and I've got a good start on the leg. I'm hoping to have it finished in about a week. I have to finish it in about a week. If I don't, then I won't have enough time to get a second pair of socks knitted before hubby's parents leave. And I really want to finish up that second pair before they leave.

Switching gears....from socks to fiber......here are pictures of Jack's lamb fleece. I know I've shared pictures of this fleece before, but I just couldn't help myself. It's so pretty!! I washed his fleece up a couple of days ago and the colors are even more vibrant. It's a very stunning fleece. In fact, I was so excited about it that I washed up a single lock and then spun it on my drop spindle. The yarn turned out amazing! All that color variation came through in the yarn. Now I have to decide how I want to spin the fleece. Do I want to spin the entire thing lock by lock? Or will I blend some of it with another fiber? I just got some very lovely true black alpaca fiber in the mail. It would look stunning blended with Jack's fiber. Or do I card it and hope the colors don't blend so much that I end up with an all gray batt. Decisions, decisions, decisions!!!!

One the drum carder is a lovely blend that I hope to get pictures of soon. The wool is from my ewe, Willow. She is this lovely soft moorit color. Her fleece tips tend to get lighter...almost a honey colored blonde. Very pretty against the soft moorit coloring. Well, her 2009 fleece was one of the first ones to sell this year. As I was skirting it I noticed that all the skirtings were really clean....and rather pretty. So I set it aside for myself. Washed it all up and have been playing with it. It's mostly britch, so it's not as soft as the rest of her fleece....and will end up being made into socks. I recently bought some very pretty cinnamon colored llama wool that I decided to blend with Willow's fiber. Thought the red would make for a pretty accent against the soft moorit coloring. Then I decided to blend in a bit of honey colored soy silk.....to give the finished yarn a bit of strength since I know it will be used for socks. What I didn't plan on was how pretty the completed batt looks. The llama picks up the red coloring the wool while the soy silk highlights the honey blonde tips. Really , really pretty! I can't wait to finish carding up the rest of it so I can start spinning. There's nothing like being pleasantly surprised by a blend. :.)

Socks!!

It's been a while since I've posted to my blog. Life got busy for a bit.....as it tends to do from time to time. While I haven't gotten much spinning done.....or been able to play with fiber very much.....I have managed to squeeze in some knitting. Pictured above is one pair of socks that I have finished recently. These are for me. The pattern used was a Broad Spiral Rib.....which can be found in the book "More Sensational Knitted Socks". The yarn used was Lorna's Lace Shepard Sock yarn. It was a lovely yarn to knit with. I had started knitting with it using a different pattern, but was not happy with the way the colors were pooling. Love the way the yarn and the Broad Spiral Rib pattern play so nicely. :.) The socks fit beautifully and will be a dream to wear....once it gets cool enough that is.

This second pair of socks is still on the needles. The pattern is called "Fear Not the Cold" by a designer in Colorado. I'm a test knitter for this pattern, so it's not available just yet. I opted to use one of my hand-spun yarns for this sock. The yarn I'm using is a Corriedale/Merino/Targhee blend (natural color). The yarn is about 14 WPI. After doing a swatch using different sized needles, I finally decided to knit the pattern using a 3.0mm needle (US size 2 1/2). I just really loved the way the swatch looked. Gave me a nice tight knit while still retaining the stretch. This is knitting up at 6 1/2 inches per stitch. The pattern gave the choice of either continuing the leg stitch pattern on the foot or switching to ribbing instead. I chose to switch to the ribbing. It's a feels a bit softer and should be more comfortable for wear. The finished socks are for my hubby who will wear them with his hiking boots. So I want to make sure they not only fit him well, but are comfortable as well.

It's been a definite learning experience. The heel on this sock is a short-row heel with wrapped stitches. Something I have never done before. The toe is will also be done the same way. The pattern is written to where you have to have specific measurements so it can be custom fit. You figure out your cast-on and all the other things needed to knit a pair of socks. Another first for me. I'm so used to following a pattern and only having to do minor adjustments in order to get a nice fit. :.) I should have the first sock finished in a day or so. Hope to start the second sock soon after. It should go much quicker since I already have things figured out.

Fiber Fun!!

I have been able to play on my spinning wheel lately and here is the end results. :.) This first yarn is a Shetland/nylon blend.....just for socks. The Shetland is from my own sweet sheep, Sophie. I dyed the fiber prior to carding/blending. The colors were layered during the final run through the carder. I really like the way it turned out. Can't wait to knit it up into socks.

This fun yarn was spun from wool top from Louet. The colorway is Circus. I spun it using the fractal spinning techinque. This will eventually be made into socks for my youngest. She really loves the way the yarn turned out. I just hope the socks turn out as nice. This yarn was spun from hand-dyed Targhee top that I had purchased over a year ago. I was looking for something a bit different to play with. It is also spun using a deviation of the fractal spinning technique. Gave me some really soft looking yarn.....which will end up being knit into a pair of socks....some day.

This colorful yarn was spun from hand-dyed superwash wool that I purchased a couple of weeks ago. I was looking for something fun to demonstrate the fractal spinning technique with.....and this worked perfectly. I even knitted up a small sample from the yarn I had spun while demonstrating the technique. Turned out quite nice. I'm thinking I will use this yarn to knit a pair of socks for my loving hubby.

I have always spun my colorful hand-dyed fibers using the fractal spinning technique.....or some deviation of it. Just never knew what it was called until recently. :.) I always thought I was doing something wrong since my yarn never striped when it was knitted up. Now I know better. :.)

May's block

Here is May's block....finished!! Yea!! I'm still a month behind, but hope to correct that real soon. This block of the month program ends in August. The new one starts up in September....which I will be signing up for. I would love to be able to put this quilt together in the fall. So there is still time. :.)

Finally started on the graduation quilt. It's going pretty good so far. At least with the actual piecing part anyway. Ran into a small glitch with the machine embroidery on the setting squares. Everything was going great until I looked at the pattern again and realized that the setting squares were set on point. I was embroidering them as if they were going to be set straight. Arggghhhhh!! Needless to say, my blocks weren't large enough for me to cut down to size on point and had to be re-done. The only good thing is that I didn't have very many of them done (only 7 out of 26). So into the "extra block" pile they went....and I started all over again. I now have 7 out of the 26 blocks embroidered and everything is looking good. I'm over half way done with the pieced blocks (there are 72 in all). With any luck I will have everything ready to be put into a top by this weekend.

Well, the quilting isn't the only thing I've had problems with. The knitting hasn't been any better. I have had to frog the last two socks that I have knitted up. One I was a few rows away from finishing when I decided to try it on (wanted to make sure I would have enough yarn) only to discover that it was too small. With the other sock (a different pattern) I was down to the heel when I tried it on. The fit was okay. The problem was that the lace pattern just didn't lay flat and was incredibly unattractive. Don't have a clue as to what I was doing wrong. So it was frogged as well. Wasn't going to attempt another sock pattern until my youngest pointed something out to me. Not every sock pattern will work for every knitter. She suggested I go back to the type of patterns that I had been knitting before joining the local sock club. So I did. I am now working on a sock from the book "More Sensational Socks" (I think that is the name of it). So far, so good. Of course I'm still working on the cuff. :.) With any luck the rest of it will go as smoothly and I will have gained a bit more confidence in my sock knitting skills.

New Fleeces!!

I always enjoy trying out a new breed of sheep wool and when a breeder was advertising a "close-out" sale of 2008 fleeces I just couldn't help myself. I browsed the pictures and descriptions of all the 2008 fleeces before choosing 3.....which arrived today. Yea!! Upper left hand corner is a lovely fleece from an older icelandic ewe. I can't wait to play with this!! The fiber is soft to the touch. Lots of lovely crimp.....and there is even a soft sheen. Plus the color is lovely. This fleece weighs over 5 pounds.

Upper right hand corner is a picture of the Border Leister fleece I purchased. It's from an ewe and looks like it will be a sheer joy to wash up and play with. The fleece is over 6 pounds. I plan on dyeing some of it.

The picture on the bottom left is of another icelandic fleece from a younger ewe. Love the various colors in this fleece. This one weighs about 2 1/2 pounds. Wonder how it will spin. Will I get a lovely variegated natural colored yarn? Or will all those lovely colors blend together? This one also feels very nice, although it doesn't have the sheen the other fleece does. It is lighter in color though. I've never worked with icelandic or border leister. I'm really looking forward to playing with all 3 fleeces and discovering the characteristics of each.

Going from fiber to fabric.....here is a picture of my latest quilt. It is a table topper that was made from half square triangles that were left over from a swap I did eons ago. I had thought all the hst's had been used in a quilt (with matching pillow) project that I did. Guess not. Found these while I was looking for something else. While I wasn't pleased with the batting (the batting was real stiff, but did soften up with washing) I used, the finished quilt did turn out rather nice.

Sheer frustration......

.......is when you have nearly finished a project only to find out that it doesn't fit. This is what happened to me last night. I have been working on a pair of socks for quite some time now. I noticed that I didn't have much yarn left so I decided to try the sock on to see if the foot of the sock was long enough so I could start on the toe. The sock went on fine over my foot. Didn't have problems until I tried to pull it up. It was too small!! I ended up having to frog the entire sock....and I was rows away from finishing it. :.(

The sock didn't look small as I was knitting it. Yes, I did get gauge. And, yes, I did have to go up a needle size in order to get gauge. The foot of the sock fits beautifully. It was the leg of the sock that was too small. I was using the Jaywalker pattern by Grumperina (found on Ravelry) and Panda Superwash (a bamboo blend yarn) so I really don't understand what happened. I know I could simply re-knit the sock in a larger size so the leg would be bigger (which would work), but then I would end up with a baggy foot. Or I could re-knit the leg in a larger size and then try to decrease down to the size I need for the foot.....but I'm not experienced enough for that.....and am not sure I really want to mess with the pattern that much. Right now I have absolutely no intention of re-knitting the sock using the Jaywalker pattern. I may eventually find another pattern that has more stretch and use the yarn with it. There is an upside to all of this though. I learned how to knit a chevron pattern.....and learned that the chevron pattern has no give whatsoever......and learned that I really need to stay with sock patterns that have some give to them. At least for now anyway.

Fund Raising Quilts

I don't know how many of you have experienced this, but I'm starting to think that this is just normal "teenage" behavior. My youngest is an active member in FCCLA (Family, Career, Community Leaders of America.....formerly known as FHA...Future Homemakers of America). Anyway, a small number of them will be competing at FCCLA nationals in July and have started fund-raising for it. One of the fund-raisers was a silent auction for which my youngest volunteered to donate a quilt. "Wonderful!" I said. "And you will be making this, right?" "Yes, mom. I'm going to make it." "Great!" So I gladly provided the pattern and the fabric. Even went out and bought thread to match for the machine quilting. Five days before the silent auction is to happen.....the quilt is sitting on her sewing machine in pieces. "When do you need the quilt?" "In a few days." "Will you have time to finish it?" "No. I was hoping you would do it.....and a second quilt to go with." I was beyond words. Once again, my teenager needed to have something done and waited until the very last possible moment to do it.....and then expected mom to come to the rescue. How many times have I had these last minute requests? Way too many times. I knew I should have simply let her deal with it, but I just couldn't. Thankfully, I had already had another top made (we were making the same pattern together) that could be donated. The question was.....could I quilt and finish two quilts in five days? The answer: Yes!!! But it would mean spending lots of time in front of the sewing machine to do so.




Pictured above are the two quilts that were made and donated to the silent auction. Both are done using the same pattern.....and both are done using fabric from my stash (including the backing). They ended up measuring approximately 57" x 73". The one on the left was made using all Winnie-the-Pooh fabric I had collected over the years....even the backing. It was quilted using an all-over clamshell pattern. The quilt on the right was quilted using a 2" diagonal grid. I had played with a zig-zag stitch so that it was wide and a bit squashed looking. Helped soften up all those sharp lines rather nicely. It took me four hours per quilt to stitch the binding on. And many, many hours at the machine doing the machine quilting. But they both came out really nice and ended up being the top items at the silent auction. Would I do it again? Only if I absolutely had to. I'm not real fond of these last minute fund raisers....and will be happy when my yougest goes off to college. It will mean an end to these last minute things. It will also mean that I will miss her and our quilting afternoons very, very much.