I finished 2 of the 3 scarves that I auctioned off last fall. The one on the left is Mrs. Montagues Pattern II, using Chasing Rainbow’s cashmere/silk in colorway Iris. The one on the right is Fern Lace, using Chasing Rainbow’s cashmere/silk in colorway Purple Haze.
Here’s a photo of me with the girls (L-R: Seema, Kandra, Sara, me, Nancy) at the Snow Globe party. We gorged on snow crab claws, shrimp, and BBQ salmon wraps. There were much more food, but those were all I was interested in. The food wasn’t quite as nice as what we get at work, but still pretty danged good.
And, yes, I asked. Nancy did not knit her sweater. She bought it at Costco, of all places, for a measly $125. You can’t even buy the yarn required for that price.
Speaking of hobbies that don’t really pay for itself, if you look at it from a pure monetary perspective. Here’s a lousy picture of the pens I made from my class.
But, I think $25/hour (6 hour class) to learn something completely new, use of the equipment, great instruction, and materials for making 4 pens, is a heck of a deal.
The real dilemma now is, is this something that I want to pursue? Unlike spinning, I’m going into this with my eyes wide open. The instructor walked us through the wood working store and talked about the equipment we would need as a basic setup, next level of equipment, etc. Pros and cons of the equipment at different price levels.
Left to right: plain tube in maple, first attempt at ergonomic shape in poplar, refined ergo shaping in plum, and variation of a theme of the ergo shaping in cedar. The last two pens were a result of me taking a good look at the pens on my desk and thinking about what I like and don’t like about each pen. I’ll see if I can take a better picture this weekend.
I turned that Z-plied silk into this little silk pouch (click for larger image). It’s made using Tvåändsstickning, or two end knitting, which is also known as twined knitting. This is a technique that I’ve wanted to try for over a year, but kept putting off because I never got around to spinning my own z-plied yarn, as Ann-maj Ling recommends in her book, Two-End Knitting.
This all came about because I received Piecework Magazine in the mail on Thursday. It is a beautiful issue, focused primarily on folk knitting. In addition to the twined knitting article by Nancy Bush, there was also a wonderful article about the history of the purse, with a pattern for the Miser’s Purse. I highly recommend this issue to any and everyone interested in knitting history.
I combined the two ideas (twined knitting and purses) into a little project. I plan to make a little braid strap for the top and add some beads to the bottom. This is sized to hold my little bottle of spinning wheel oil.
Stats: about 5 gm of Chasing Rainbows silk spun S/Z, knitted on 2.25 mm dp needles, 2.25″ diameter at the top, 4″ in length. 2 hours to spin and ply, and about 4-6 hours to knit up. Since I didn’t use up all the yarn I spun up, this is definitely a quick 1 day or weekend project to play with.
As the astute of you out there might notice, it looks like faux fair isle when used with handpainted yarn. Unfortunately, there isn’t enough contrast in this yarn to really show it off. The fabric is extremely dense and cushy. I can see why this is preferred in cold climates. It’s definitely warm! I know a lot of it is the silk, but I can see how fabric made with this technique will keep the wind out. But the thing that kept going through my mind while I was knitting this was — this would make a mighty luxurious pair of silk slippers. The density would make it cushy on the toes. Yum.
The creative juices are definitely flowing on this one. Higher contrast hand painted yarn to show off the two-ends playing off of each other. Worsed instead of woolen spun yarn to show off the stitch texture (the silk was too fuzzy for my taste). Navajo-plied to preserve the colors, if handspun. That lincoln-corriedale roving I have in the garage would make beautiful gloves in white. And there is plenty of stash fiber. I’m sure I can find something that would be suitable for testing out the faux-isle ideas. Perhaps a hat is in order.
One might think that it would be too warm in the San Francisco area to ever warrant needing clothing made in this dense of a fabric. I am here to assure you that you need lots of very windproof, but breathable clothing for winter sailing around here. There is nothing worse than being cold, damp from your own humidity, and have the wind whistling through your clothes, while you are trying to manage the sails, or worse, standing still and steer the darn boat.
Rosie Toes
December 1993 – January 5, 2007
I had to put Rosie Toes to sleep on Friday. I had to make the decision while I was in the middle of a meeting — that was when the vet called to say, basically, anything would be extraordinary measures to save her life, and even that wouldn’t be guaranteed. She would be put through a lot of stress and pain for no sure resolution at the end. She had already been through much during the past month. She had surgery just before Thanksgiving to remove a cancerous tumor from her bowels. I just couldn’t see putting her through more surgery, when it looks like her heart was failing, and she had pneumonia to boot.
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