Puttering

It feels like I've just been puttering, doing small projects.

For starters, some years ago, I wove this yardage for curtains. I don't remember why I took them down, but our old front door curtains needed to be replaced and they did the trick!

I finished the last baby blanket on Sophie.

And I've been playing with more of the crocheted creatures from Edward's Animals. Here's a Lakeland Terrier,

 

a Cocker Spaniel,

and a gray cat.

 

My grandbaby needed a hat for Groundhog Day.

And he definitely needed a Dude sweater!

This may not look like puttering to you, but for whatever reason, this time around, each step to dress Julia has felt like a separate project. This Tencel basketweave will be yardage.

 

This is the first time I've ever knitted up a swatch and actually washed it. My usual is to knit it up, measure to make sure I'm getting the right number of stitches per inch and rip it back out.

I just finished spinning this fiber with Gingie and plying it with Suzie.

And next up is this cotton.

This "wool" was spun up, but not plied, because I didn't know what I wanted to do with it. Typical. Anyway, when I realized I needed a hat, I went ahead and took the singles and Navajo plied it (finger crocheting the spun fiber while spinning it some more). 

Knitting it up took no time, so, here we are!

 

Help for a Bit of a Mess

Things have been a bit of a mess lately.

I got a load of free mulch for my garden. It was free, but not yet mulch. My husband and his friend have been spending Hours re-chipping it.

In reorganizing my sewing room closet, I pulled out some yarns and fibers for re-homing. I wound this handspun for making dryer balls.

A couple of them didn't stay in the prep stocking...or felt.

But, I've just kept putting one foot in front of the other

Knitting socks always helps.

I finished the yardage I was weaving on Julia and made up some requested grocery totes.

With help to do some of the Heavy Lifting, I've been getting things done.

Time for a Road Trip

My husband said it was time for a road trip.

So Suzie, my Majacraft, and I finished spinning and plying the wool/silk I'd been playing with.

And I finally blocked the cowl I'd knitted of my handspun (yellow to green) and store bought (charcoal).

Then, I headed to my LYS (local yarn store) for an afghan in the making. I found the pattern on Ravelry. Instead of knitting it in strips, I planned to drop a few edge stitches from the pattern and make it all in one piece.

Gingie (as I've said) is a Pocket Wheel. She was made on a nice, humid island in Washington state. The dry air during that trip we made in the spring to Death Valley was a bit too much of a shock for her and, not a common occurrence, it split her wood. Jon McCoy (Mr. PW) said he'd fix her up and send her back to me. We put her in the car and off we went!

This time around, we pretty much visited all of the volcanoes in the Cascades range from Lassen in California, all the way up to Mt. Baker, just below Canada. This photo was taken at MacArthur-Burney State Park.

At Maryhill Museum in Washington, right on the Columbia River, there was an exhibit of Trade Blankets.

Are you drooling, yet?!

As we drove, Gingie and I finished spinning and then Navajo plying this silk from Anzula. Then, we dropped her off with her personal Geppetto on

Whidbey Island.

This was taken at Picture Lake. We'll have to work on our selfie skills. This looks more like photo bombing.

In Oregon, we followed a sign to an alpaca farm and store.

I'm going to have to quit my day job in order to have enough time to play with all of the wonderful fibers I just couldn't do without!

A road trip plus a month, and I completed the afghan and

gifted it to my daughter and son-in-law.

And I finally finished the sample towels I've been making on my drawloom!

Cotton/linen warp with cotton weft. The patterns are from books, pinterest and my doodles. If you can draw them on a grid, they can be woven. It's been a good summer!

Maiden Voyages

My name is Karen and I'm a fiber addict. You see, there was this trunk show...

And my brand new, just born Pocket Wheel had finally arrived...!!!

Her name is Ginger, Gingie for short. She weighs six pounds. The show side of her wheel is a red wine, copper veneer and her treadles are quilted maple.

Here's Gingie's maiden voyage! She's so petite that, take a closer look at this picture, she fits in the front passenger seat of the car!

Here she is, showing off just outside of our hotel room at Death Valley, CA.

This desolate land was having what is called a "super bloom".

By the time we got home, Gingie and I had spun all four ounces of the tussah silk/superwash merino.

To speed the time it takes and simplify dressing Sophie, here's another first. Do you see the water bottles? They're hanging from a trapeze. Without it, I have to move each of those bottles every time I wind 18 inches (the distance they can rise between floor and breast beam) onto the warp beam. Using this simple tool, two long boards and one pole, extends that distance to as much as six feet!

And I took another step closer to getting to use my new drawloom. I threaded and tied all the strings.

I'm so close to being able to play with my new toy!

 

Something New

Remember when I said I'd learned something new?
Lace patterns are written on a grid. (That part, I knew.) For the right side of the work, we knit right to left and read the pattern right to left. For the wrong or back side, we knit right to left and read the pattern left to right and backwards (think black is now white and white is now black). Yeah. That's what I think, too. NUTS!

Well, my experiment worked! I was worried my stitches might be a little wonky, but all is well!

The yarn is a lace weight wool, from Anzula (stash busting). The pattern is from the cover of the book, Curls.

 Knowing that I'd soon finish the red curl, I decided to plan ahead and buy some fiber that could grow up to be another shawl. I contacted Redfish to make sure they would be at WEFF in Torrance, CA. I thought I wanted some more silk/yak like I'd used here.    

But this was even softer!

Times two. I couldn't resist!

And this supported spindle and bowl were just too exquisite to pass up. Shouldn't all spindles look like magic wands?

The base is hand-blown glass. Thank you Mingo and Asho!