Mandy Moore's Blog, page 75

Jillian’s Spinning: Rhinebeck Fibers Up Close

I couldn’t just leave you with an image of a pile of yarn and fiber I bought at Rhinebeck, I know you need details, you need up close.

Rhinebeck goodies!

You saw my Lisa Souza haul last week, now here’s the rest.

Into the Whirled

First stop Into the Whirled. I bought a pound of Element Number 5 in Shetland (far left) for a textured shawl, and Rhinebeck in BFL/Silk (second from left) because I had too. I also bought two Falkland batts in Bigger on the Inside (left) and Captain Tightpants (right) because of pretty and becasue the slash fanfiction that instantly jumped in my mind made me laugh out loud.

Miss Babs

Miss Babs was one of the booths that had a long winding line all day Saturday. I finally elbowed my way in on Sunday and bought a little yarn. Left is three skeins of Yummy in (L to R) Space Truckin, Bat Sh*t Crazy and Blue Ridge for a Color Variation shawl that I will keep for myself. I also got two skeins of Tarte in (L to R) Slate and Shaken not Stirred I will swatch with this, but I think it would be beautiful woven. Yes, you heard me right.

Enchanted Knoll

I finally got to shop for Enchanted Knoll batts in person! I bought two batts of Gargoyle Brownstone, shown closed, far left and open, middle. A couple of braids of Bruised Ego (SW Merino and Tussah) also leapt into my hands. Funny how that happens.

Oh, , how I love your yarn. I bought fours skein of mini Empire, two in Cranberry and two in Brown Sugar, and two skein of Hudson in Night Ruler. I started swatching the Cranberry Empire in the car on the way home from Rhinebeck and haven’t been able to stop. I ‘ve swatched an entire skein. I know the Cranberry is going to be a cabley long cowl. Night Ruler may become socks and Bunrt Sugar is destined for mittens. I went back at least three times to her booth and just stopped short of buying a sweater’s worth. Maybe the winter elves and fairies will bring me some if I’m especially good.

Yesterday she did a shop update and I noticed she has spinning fiber………..

I am astonished that I have plans for at least half of what I bought. I usually go hog wild and just buy without thinking. A new level of fiber crafting maturity or am I just running out of space for stash?

 

 

Knit Companion Designer Series Giveaway: Romi!

Romi’s App

Sally Holt at knitCompanion has turned her powerful system to Romi Hill and her gorgeous shawls. This is year four of her 7 Small Shawls Series, can you believe it? Wasn’t the first year just last week? This year her topic is Friends, she’s naming each one of her shawls after a member of her Ravelry group. There are 7 shawl patterns and 3 extra patterns. The first extra is a available now, A Cowl for Jeanne.

Jeanne’s Cowl

This app updates with each shawl release, adding the new pattern to knitCompanion’s amazing system and a technique video featuring Romi.

If you haven’t tried the knitCompanion system the designer apps are a re great way to get a taste. knitCompanion allows a knitter to see the written and charted patterns at the same time, mark and save in many spots in a pattern with place holders and reminders – highlighters, stitch markers and pop up notes. It’s a wonderfully organized program.

I really like that I can keep very accurate track of my knitting, especially lace, with this app, but what I love is getting to see Romi’s smiling face, talking me through each pattern!

7 Small Shawls is also available as just a PDF series.

Romi!

We have one Romi app to give away. Regular contest rules: leave a comment on this post between now and midnight eastern time, Sunday November 10th. One comment will be chosen at random to answer a skill testing question. If the commenter answers correctly they will win a copy of the Romi App. If you have already won a prize from us in the past year, please do give other knitters a chance.

WWW: US Olympic Sweater, A Shawl Replaced and A Barbara Walker Auction

Imperial Stock Ranch 2-ply Columbia

 

I saw this on Laura Nelkin’s blog and had to share. Ralph Lauren is the Official Outfitter for the USA 2014 Winter Olympic team. His opening ceremony sweater  is 100% US grown and made. The fiber is Columbia and  originates from Imperial Stock Ranch. The is wonderful!

 

 

Susan Cottrell’s original shawl

A few weeks ago Kate mentioned that a Toronto woman’s shawl went missing at a local hospital. Not any shawl, but a shawl she knit while her husband underwent a double lung transplant. This story has a happy ending that only knitting can make happen.

Katrina King read Susan Cottrell’s story on Facebook and knit her an intricate beaded lace shawl.

Proving once again that knitters are amazing and generous people!

One of Barbara Walker’s sweaters

 

 

November 13 is the start of the last round of auctions of Barbara Walker’s handknit garments at Schoolhouse Press.

The wonderful people at Schoolhouse Press say this on their website,

“It is thrilling to see the actual garments that were photographed in many of the first editions of her books and to recognize so many of BGW’s original stitch-pattern designs in various sweaters and skirts. All of the items exemplify Barbara Walker’s fastidious knitting and imaginative eye for technical detail. Items are tagged with their names and Barbara G. Walker’s signature.”

 

Christopher Walken knits for Jack and Jones

Chrsitopher Walken stars in a series of ads for clothier Jack and Jones.

In one of the five ads he knits a sweater.  Does he or doesn’t he?

Jillian’s Spinning: A New Spinning Obsession – Embroidery Thread

I’ve shown my embroidery, a slow learning curve for me. I’ve talked a little about wanting to spin my own threads after looking at the commercial variety that exists. Now I’m ready to start. I need to do more research, if you have tips or a source for me to read I’d appreciate hearing!

I’m not starting with cottons. Notice I didn’t say, “I’ll never spin cotton”, becasue I just don’t know. I’m not interested in spinning cotton right now. The threads I’m interested in spinning for embroidery are wool and wool blends, alpaca, silk and tencel.

I stopped by to hug Lisa Souza at her Rhinebeck booth and noticed she had quite a few interesting dyed fibers. I picked up a few that looked like they would be interesting thread:

From left: cashmere/silk, alpaca/silk and tencel in two colors.

I did some really quick sampling, no stitching just spinning, of the alpaca/silk and tencel.

The alpaca silk went well, it just needs to be thinner. It makes gorgeous yarn:

Lisa Souza alpaca/silk fiber and yarn.

I really like the look of the light ply twist. I think it needs to be at least a third finer. I need to measure a few stitching threads that aren’t cotton to get a range to spin to.

I am a little obsessed with the idea of tencel as embroidery thread – the way it takes color, the shine!

Lisa Souza 100% tencel

I spun a little, and said a lot of words that I don’t want to commit to print. My personal newsflash is that I can’t spin tencel the way I spin most everything else. Duh. It helped that while I was spinning I had someone who loves spinning fine yarns next to me, mocking offering suggestions.

My fist bit:

A variety of sizes in one tiny skein!

I was all over the place with size and twist, but there are some spots that I like. I tried again.

Tencel – second spin

I like the size, and it’s much more even. In between laughing, Beth told me to use a much lighter take up and it worked great. It’s over twisted. The hand is a little wiry, but mostly the extra twist took away the shine (Beth again, between nearly snorting hot chocolate out of her nose).

Those are my first tries at thread. It doesn’t seem like much, but it has me excited. I’m even thinking about dyeing, but that’s for later.

My next steps are:

measuring different sizes of embroidery threads, especially non cotton ones.
choose a size to spin too
practice for consistency in size and twist for hand and shine.
practice with a wider variety of fibers
stitch with the samples!

Who has fine spinning, thread for stitching spinning or tencel spinning advice for me?

WWW: What are you doing for November?

November is a busy month for fiber! You have some spare time don’t you?  Are you participating in either of these?

Just one of Sugaroni’s Ravatars for NaKniSweMo

 

 

Can you knit a 50,000 stitch sweater in a month? You bet you can with the NaKniSweMo group there for support. Founded in 2006 by Shannon Okey the participation grows every year. The Ravelry KAL group has some sweet Ravatars, designed by Sugaroni. Everything is easier with a cool Ravatar.

WOVEMBER is all about showing our love and appreciation for all things wool in the month of November.

For the first time this year there is a WAL, a Wool-Along, an idea concocted in the Wovember Ravelry group. The idea behind the WAL is to spend the month of November using only wool.

For the competitive fiber folk out there, there are prizes for the WAL. All of the details are here.

 

 

The one, the only, NaNoWriMo

 

 

There are some fearless fiber folk who are also participating in the November project that started it all   NaNoWriMo. They will write a 50,000 word novel in the month of November as well as knit a sweater. Someone pass the coffee.

 

 

Jillian’s Spinning: A Sweater Fail and Fiberstory Fiber Blending

I believe I alluded to a sweater fail a couple of posts ago. I still need to rip it. Another thing I love about handspun is how resilient it is to riiiiiping.

Here’s the fail, a wonky set of increases, perfectly matched on both sides.

Weird increase

I knew the fail was there and that it looked weird and I just kept knitting. I knit about 4 more inches past the weird increase. What did I do? I convinced myself to increase into every other stitch, instead of just at the beginning, for a cardigan front. What did I get? A ripple, a ruffle, a lump, and a bump. I can clearly remember saying to my knitting self, “That looks wrong, rip it now!” My knitting self answered the ultimate knitting lie, “It’s fine, an increase is an increase. It will block out”.  The arguing went on in my head until my knitting self threw out a lie so big, that I finally had to stop knitting and laugh, ” I can just embroider over it”.  I’m going away for the weekend for a knitting/spinning getaway with friends and this is coming along for some ripping among friends who will understand.

I went to Rhinebeck and I shopped more than I should have. Of course, that didn’t stop me from going to the Ann Arbor Fiber Expo this past weekend. I wasn’t going to go, really wasn’t. But as the clock ticked toward the opening time, I finished my tea, took a shower and hollered to my family that I’d be back in an hour. A fiber event 15 minutes from my house is just like having potato chips in the house, I know I’m going to go there.

I only shopped at one place, Fiberstory, a long time favorite. The Weird Increase sweater is Fiberstory fiber from last year (or is it two years?). I did buy enough for a sweater.

Fiberstory, Steptember (BFL/Tussah) and Cider Mill (Merino)

I plan on blending them, mostly. In a weird twist of my brain, I decide to only blend most of it, a pound, and leave the last 8 oz of Cider Mill by itself, and work them together in a garment. We’ll see how it goes.

Yes, I did sample and swatch.

Blended/plied and just plied. Both are 2-ply, woolen spun.

On the left, I blended the colorways while drafting and plied. I think it kills all of the colors, especially the odd little gold/green. The right is each colorway spun separately and plied together. I like it much better. The pink/purple is more a cast or shadow than a blanket like it is in the blended version. Now I need to sample and swatch Cider Mill all by itself. I’ll add that to my weekend list.

This weekend I’ll have about a day and a half for crafting. First I started with one project – finish spinning my Spunky Eclectic Pomegranate Martini. I could do that easily. Then the what-ifs start. What if I finish and I have nothing to do? What if we get snowed in? What if there is some seismic activity that causes a rip in time and what is a day in half in the lower part of Michigan is really 5 days up north? A girl can dream.

I’m bringing 20 movies and a pile of projects.

A colorway and a contest!

Tina keeps chickens because she loves having them around. Eggs are a bonus.

In spring, I got a chance to visit the Blue Moon Fiber Arts world headquarters in Scappoose, Oregon. An unassuming barn/dye studio, full to the rafters (literally) with rich color, built by Tina as the perfect workspace for her and her team to produce the Blue Moon yarns we are so fond of. And occasionally, you’ll find her latest brood of baby chicks, until they’re big enough to join the rest of the flock outside.

Here’s Tina’s recounting of our time together:

Almost everyone who comes to visit me wants to immerse themselves in the dye barn for at least a few hours. Some come just to play and some come with a clear vision. Amy had a very clear vision and even a photo. I love a woman with a clear plan.

She had this beautiful picture of lobelia in a grey metal bucket against a white wall. Great contrast between the white wall and the jeweled richness of Lobelia’s cobalt blue.

The blues and greens are what we decided we wanted to focus on since you can always knit it with white yarn as the contrast. I had a great time playing with colors and helping Amy translate her color ideas onto yarn. I think Amy did too.

I did! I took this photo outside a Farm Shop in Wales. The color is unretouched…Lobelia really is that deep blue color and I imagined it might be a challenge to replicate. Silly me! It was fascinating watching Tina pull a few jars of color from her well-stocked shelves, knowing exactly which tones would produce the result we wanted the first time. I was mesmerized with the way her eyes, brain and hands effortlessly translated the photo into this colorway!

Tina starts working out the colorway, taking careful notes so she can replicate it.

The final result! So lovely! What would you call it?

The colorway is the star of one of our Surprise patterns…Regatta, designed by Kate Atherley! But the colorway needs a name, so we’re turning to you! What would you name this colorway? Prize is two skeins of Socks That Rock: one in the new colorway and one in the colorway of the winner’s choice.

Contest rules: leave a comment on this post with your name for the colorway between now and midnight eastern time, Monday, October 28th. The winning name will be chosen by a Knitty committee and Tina. Our winner will be notified by email.

Good Luck!

WWW: Rhinebeck video, World Record, Mary Maxim Sweaters

Love love love: “Rhinebeck Style” by Gale Zucker. In 2010 and 2012 Gale put up a backdrop at Rhinebeck and asked knitters if they wished to pose in front of it for pictures. Knitters, as they do, obliged, and this fantastic slide show, set to very appropriate music, was born. So much wonderful eye candy. I kept pausing it to see the individual pieces.

This is the best thing I’ve seen all week.

There are so many things I love about this story: David Babcock, a graphic design professor from the University of Missouri, has set a new world record for the longest scarf knitted while running a marathon. I am highly amused that someone tried knitting while running. I think it’s rather amazing that someone kept knitting through an entire marathon. I adore that the article reports on the technical details of the scarf. But best of all: I love that there’s actually a Guinness World Record for this activity.

A classic example.

A tremendous piece in the Toronto Star from last weekend about the history of the “Mary Maxim” sweater – also known as a curling sweater. This garments were the height of fashion in the 1950s and 60s, and their story is part of the fabric (pun intended) of Canadian life. So many Canadians tell stories about these sweaters – the remember their mothers and grandmothers making them, they remember wearing them, they’ve made one themselves. The comments on the article online are all reminiscences about these sweaters. They remain popular, vintage clothing stores continue to sell them, and interesting examples are highly sought after. The patterns are still available in Canada and the US through Mary Maxim, and you can buy kits or a booklet.

I’m lucky enough to have a few of these original patterns – and a 1960s vintage catalog – in my library, acquired from my husband’s elderly relatives. I’ve blogged about this, and I get a request at least once a month from a knitter seeking out the patterns.

Yeah, this is pretty great: a giant squid yarnbomb !

If you’re in the Pacific Northwest, consider a trip to KnitCity in Vancouver this weekend. I’ll be there! Say hello!

And if you’re on the eastern seabord of the US, consider the Blended Threads workshop in Maryland, lead by author Deborah Robson. The focus of the retreat is fiber, and the weekend will be spent preparing, spinning, playing with and working with all sorts of fibers. Sounds most wonderful.

Love love love: “Rhinebeck Style” by Gale Zucker. In 2010...

Love love love: “Rhinebeck Style” by Gale Zucker. In 2010 and 2012 Gale put up a backdrop at Rhinebeck and asked knitters if they wished to pose in front of it for pictures. Knitters, as they do, obliged, and this fantastic slide show, set to very appropriate music, was born. So much wonderful eye candy. I kept pausing it to see the individual pieces.

This is the best thing I’ve seen all week.

There are so many things I love about this story: David Babcock, a graphic design professor from the University of Missouri, has set a new world record for the longest scarf knitted while running a marathon. I am highly amused that someone tried knitting while running. I think it’s rather amazing that someone kept knitting through an entire marathon. I adore that the article reports on the technical details of the scarf. But best of all: I love that there’s actually a Guinness World Record for this activity.

A classic example.

A tremendous piece in the Toronto Star from last weekend about the history of the “Mary Maxim” sweater – also known as a curling sweater. This garments were the height of fashion in the 1950s and 60s, and their story is part of the fabric (pun intended) of Canadian life. So many Canadians tell stories about these sweaters – the remember their mothers and grandmothers making them, they remember wearing them, they’ve made one themselves. The comments on the article online are all reminiscences about these sweaters. They remain popular, vintage clothing stores continue to sell them, and interesting examples are highly sought after. The patterns are still available in Canada and the US through Mary Maxim, and you can buy kits or a booklet.

I’m lucky enough to have a few of these original patterns – and a 1960s vintage catalog – in my library, acquired from my husband’s elderly relatives. I’ve blogged about this, and I get a request at least once a month from a knitter seeking out the patterns.

Yeah, this is pretty great: a giant squid yarnbomb !

If you’re in the Pacific Northwest, consider a trip to KnitCity in Vancouver this weekend. I’ll be there! Say hello!

And if you’re on the eastern seabord of the US, consider the Blended Threads workshop in Maryland, lead by author Deborah Robson. The focus of the retreat is fiber, and the weekend will be spent preparing, spinning, playing with and working with all sorts of fibers. Sounds most wonderful.

Jillian’s Spinning: A Little Bit of Rhinebeck

Just back from teaching at Rhinebeck – my heart is full and my brain is disastrously empty. I couldn’t find toothpaste at the grocery store this morning.

I have only a few pictures and they are all from my phone, so forgive the quality.

 

Beth Smith and I traveled together. We had so much stuff for our classes that we had to borrow her husband’s SUV because it all wouldn’t fit in my car.

Heading out!

My classroom sign. Happy sigh. I taught 6 classes over 4 days.

It never gets old….

Into the Whirled’s booth right before the show opened. I may have shopped, and didn’t get everything I wanted. I left the Multipass colorway behind and at the end of the show there was none left.

Did some shopping at Into the Whirled.

A gathering of the cool kids at Jennie the Potter’s booth.

The cool kids at Jennie’s booth.

Beth bought a hat. I called her Princess Anastasia for the rest of the show.

Beth channels the lost Princess Anastasia

One day we went to the Me Oh My Pie Shop in Red Hook and had a pie appetizer before dinner. This is pear, ginger and sour cream pie. It was a s good as you think.

Pie appetizer

My students were smart, curious and game to try everything I threw at them. Tina from Nimblestix demonstrates how they felt at the end of class, exhausted, but smiling.

Tina

Did you know that both Jennie and Beth love Justin Timberlake?

Jennie and Beth bonding over their love for Justin Timberlake

My companions for the ride home: Jill Draper’s Empire, my Denise2Go needle set,  Starbucks and Pride and Prejudice on audio. The drive to Rhinebeck and back from Ann Arbor is almost exactly as long as an unabridged audiobook of P&P.

Homeward bound

The haul. Even though we only had about an hour to shop in between teaching, I managed to shop. I even scored a Jennie the Potter Rhinebeck mug!

Rhinebeck goodies!

I’ll talk about the haul in detail another day, right now I have to do laundry!