To Baby Land

I'm not a fan of flying, so my sister held my hand for a flight to baby land to see my daughter and son-in-law.
I took a few <wink, wink> things I'd made for the coming baby.

 

Remember that tangle of yarn? Here's Blake from Edward's Menagerie, all made up. And I knit a Raggedy doll, too, with the standard dress and overalls. When the baby of unknown gender made an entrance (after this photo was taken), I dressed the doll.



Every baby needs a pair of muck-lucks, a hunter's cap

and a pink bunny.

And just because, I made baby a few pairs of socks.

What's there to do while away from home and waiting? I found this knitted lace, shawl pattern on Ravelry. It is Orenburg Harmony by Loginova Svetlana and made up from Forest Hills, silk 51%, merino 49%.



Once I was home again, I went back to the baby blankets on Sophie and her drawloom. For the purple blanket, I designed as I went. I also used it as a sample, to see what would work for the next design. You see, normally, there are, for example, 4 warp threads and 4 weft or 6 X 6 or 8 X 8 to make a [design] unit (like a pixel or square on graph paper). Each one of the tiny squares on the design on the top edge of the blanket in this picture is a single unit. In this case, each is made with 6 warp and 12 weft threads. If I hadn't bothered to sample, my next project would have shown a distorted picture. 

Yay! No flat cats!      Now, look near the top of the picture, you can see white and brown threads that are pulled down onto pegs. Look directly over the left hand cat's head. That's one unit (six warp threads) raised by pulling down the brown draw cord. This pattern is one I found on Pinterest: club-kreuzstich.com. 

 



I've been a bit out of control, making stuffed animals out of patterns from Edward's Menagerie. I made this elephant for the grandbaby and another for a friend (she begged).



Father tested, baby approved.

Baby tested, father approved requested a few minor changes.  <Snort!> I just read what I wrote. It stands.        I saw this cloth at the fabric store. How could I resist giving it a try, making some cloth diaper covers?

I had nothing to do, so...

I had nothing to do, so...

I bought some yarn I didn't need from Anzula's trunk show. The pattern's called a shrug, and hat (from Knitter's magazine, Summer 2009). To me, it seems like a tea cozy for people!

Then, I had nothing to do so I bought some yarn for a shawl. I didn't realize that I'd made this pattern before, from Victorian Lace Today. It's beautiful, but the corners make me crazy.

My classic "nothing to do" project is always socks (cotton this time). And I learned to do a new kind of heel shaping. With this easy heel, I can start knitting at the toe and work my way up (instead of top down). That way, I can keep knitting until there's no yarn left!

The last time I posted, I had just finished spinning up the BFL on the left of this picture. I plied it with the fiber I got from Redfish for that purpose.

And here, it's finished up. Now, what to do with it?

A sweater's always better than a swatch (a small sample) for selling yarn. My LYS needed a sweater to show off some Debbie Bliss, Falkland Aran (that's this yarn), so they gave it to me! And since I still had nothing to do, I gave them my time (one month) and labor and made this sweater. It'll be mine at the end of the season. But now that it's finished, I have nothing to do.! 

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!

Handspun Lace Shawl

Remember the yak/silk I showed you? 

Well, after I finished spinning it, I plied it.

 Then, I knitted it following the pattern, Inflorescence, on page 13 of Sock-Yarn Shawls. 

I just finished blocking it. It's so soft and pretty. And I can't remember when the last time was that I used any of my handspun! Let's do it, again!!!

Stop and Go

It's been kind of stop and go around here. I've finished some things and struggled on others. I finished spinning and plying the fiber I bought at Imperial Yarn in Oregon.

It's three ply, done Navajo ply method.

And I've started spinning up this luscious 50/50 yak/silk blend from RedFish.

Another completed project is this lace scarf/shawl I've been knitting from my standby, Victorian Lace Today. It was supposed to be a stash buster. Sigh. There's probably enough yarn left to make a second one. Maybe I'll donate it.

 

 

 

And also, compliments of RedFish, I bought three sock yarns. They're 75% super wash merino wool and 25% silk. I've started on the green skein.

Interesting. I just noticed that the one in back is very similar in color to the fiber shown above. (And fyi, in the photo, the colors do not show as rich as they truly are.)

 Now, as to my weaving, it's been a struggle. As I've said before, I learn best by seeing and then doing. Book learning and no feedback is hard for me. So, I got stumped for a while on the 12 treadle/12 shaft tie up. I got it all done, but too many of the sheds were iffy. Thanks to some generous feedback from Karen at Warped for Good, I took all the ties off and started, again. I marked them as described by Becky at Vavstuga.

I did all 120 of them. And then, put them back on.

Most of the sheds were better, but the shafts still dropped. The shafts and lamms should be parallel to the ground. Because I kept stopping out of frustration, it took a while to get to the point where I could just weave. The sheds are not all good, but they're usable. I just have to push the shafts down, before stepping on some of the treadles. 

Luckily, this is yardage, so the selvedges (which are effected most) don't matter. This is another pattern I got from handweaving.net.

 

It's done!

I finally finished the lace shawl I've been knitting! It's so soft! It's made from Scrumptious Lace, a blend of 45% silk and 55% merino. Yum!

Now, I can cuddle in this while I focus on my son's cable knit sweater.

I need to finish the tie up for the place mats I'm going to make with Sophie.

And I've been spending some time weeding amongst the plants in our backyard. Not a year ago, this was all bare. I can't wait to see it in the spring!