crafting at the speed of light

I really love knitting, but sometimes I also love having something quick to accomplish that's started and finished in one day.

Fabric and pattern from Purlsoho.com. Pattern includes top, long top, tunic and dresses sizes for girls and women. I made the girl's top size 8 for my 7 year old. They don't seem to have the same fabric I used anymore, but look at this awesome print. En-biggen the swatch to see the 3 knitting aunties.

Anyway, it should be a good summer top for the girl in this super hot weather. Now we're off to the beach.

Pods

Pattern: Pods (mine)

Yarn: Dale of Norway Heilo in #5042 Orchid, #5062 Plum Smoke and #9145 Asparagus

"Let's make [mittens] in May...large projects may lie heavy and warm on the lap, but small things like mittens and socks are easy to carry about outdoors, and can be made surprisingly fast. Stash them away as they are finished, and when the time comes, next winter, you can deal them out with a liberal hand"~ Elizabeth Zimmermann

About 16 months ago I made the Seeds hat. Soon after that I decided I like to have the option of matching hats and mitts sometimes and I should really design some mitts, too. I finally got around to that.

It's been so exhaustingly hot and humid lately, even thinking about wool has caused me to perspire. But if I go too long without knitting I start to get twitchy, so I dug out all the small projects I've been meaning to get done; hence the mitts. Besides, EZ said the warm weather months are perfect for knitting them.

For both the hat and mitts some basic colourwork skills are helpful to have. Both hat and mitts have turned hems for extra warmth and have similar charts. The needle sizes are slightly bigger on the mitts than on the hat, only because I have a bit tighter gauge on dpns than on circulars. Your own gauge may vary.

Hope you're having a great summer. :D

leonie

Pattern: Leonie - Adult Sizes by Dani Sunshine

Yarn: Debbie Bliss Cashmerino dk in #162B

I seem to have a thing for test-knitting cardigan patterns in the stifling heat of July....it's over 30 degrees C here right now, so I threw on the lightest tank top I could find and got this photo taken fast. This was a quick and enjoyable knit. A well-written pattern that I would completely recommend to anyone. There's also a wonderful child's version here.

The yarn caused it to grow during blocking, so it's roomier than I intended, but right now I'm not really minding that. I didn't enjoy the yarn in general as much as I first thought. It had several annoying knots and the plies had loosened in several places, causing them to fuzz. I may make this again in a different yarn at some point.

Dani herself has a fabulous wee yarn shop here. I just adore her colours.

I thought I'd also give a plug for a great readalong / knitalong group on Ravelry for those of you who enjoy Edith Wharton. I can't resist Misa and her great ideas! I'm actually listening to Brenda Dayne (from Cast On!) read 'The Age of Innocence' from LibriVox so I can knit these fabulous socks at the same time.

While I sit close to the air conditioner. And the panting dog.

Stay cool, cool peeps.

the dog hair won't show on this one...

It hasn't been all carding and spinning around here. I've also been testing another knit. I don't know what it is about "looking for test knitters" that I find so hard to resist, but I had to do this great cardigan. I may also need to make the adorable child's version. I enjoy the whole deadline thing, as it helps to counteract my natural urge to hop between a kazillion projects at once.

I'm using Debbie Bliss cashmerino dk, which of course is fabulous. It's been in my stash and been allocated and re-allocated too many times for too long and it just had to be used. This is the perfect fun but fairly simple knit to let my brain chill after a June which was way too crazy busy.

Hope you're keeping cool.

fleece project, part 2

I said I would talk about carding the washed wool so I will, but I should stress the fact that I'm totally new to this. In fact, this is the first time I've used my carders since they arrived a few weeks ago because I've always been uneasy about carding and bought combed top instead. All because I showed a complete ineptitude for it at a learn to spin class several years ago. Anyway, I'm over it now and this is a lot of fun.

my resulting little rolags...

I'm starting a single sport-ish weight but am thinking about a 2 ply.

I'm trying to practice long draw for this woolen situation, but it's really halfway to worsted. I'm guessing the wool is shetland, though the staple length is a bit shorter than I've seen before. If I'm a goof for trying woolen with shetland, feel free to say it, but it's looking nice.

and zoom out to show the ever-present dog nose...

Sophie can't resist the wool. It still has so much of its lovely sheepiness.

Happy Canada Day!!

fleece project, part 1

So, last night I got home after having a wonderful day at Wolseley Wool and I decided to finally take the plunge and try washing my first fleece. Some friends of mine own a sheep farm in Scotland, so they spend part of their year here and part of their year there. A few weeks ago they asked if I was interested in having a fleece from one of their dear sheep. It came to me wrapped in plastic:

Which, when unwrapped...

looked like this...

full of lanolin and straw and fabulous sheepy goodness. So I re-read the notes I'd taken from several sources on how to do it, and then I prepared my stuff: rubber gloves, nylon laundry bags (like you wash delicates in. people other than me, at least. I have no 'delicates'), clear dish detergent (you can't use 'soap'. it will make it felt), and my laundry room sink. I'm grateful, yet again, for having a double laundry room sink. But you could do it in your tub. It's pretty messy, though.

I weighed the fleece before unwrapping it and it was about 5 lbs, 10 oz. I divided it into 5 roughly equal portions and then put the first one into a laundry bag. I filled the sink with the hottest water I could, then added about 1/2 cup of detergent. I put on the gloves and swished the water just enough to mix it without making a lot of bubbles. Then I added the fleece bag and gently lowered it so it was covered. I was careful not to agitate, swish, etc, as this would cause felting. I left it there for about 15 minutes until it had soaked through but the water hadn't had time to cool. You don't want that.

The water was pretty dark brown after the 1st wash. I lifted the bag, let it drain, put it in the adjacent sink, and then emptied and re-filled the 1st sink with hot water and detergent. Another 15 minute soak which took most of the brown out. Then I did 2 similar soaks in water without detergent. Then I put the bag of fleece in my washing machine and just put it through the spin cycle, which took 90% of the water out of it without agitating it. Then I took it out of the bag and laid it over whatever I could find in my laundry room to dry.

I repeated with the other 4 bags, this time doing 2 together at a time, since the first bag's process took over an hour. (My children and dog were at the lake, so I had some time. Keeping the dog away from the wool this morning has been a challenge.)

After washing it all, it is now fluffy and sweet smelling and gorgeous:

Next segment: carding wool.

Hope you're having a great weekend. :)

coneflower

Pattern: Coneflower (mine)

Yarn: Viking of Norway Bjork in #568 'Mauve', #567 'Lilac' and #537 'Pea Green'

Finished Chest Size: 22” (23”, 25”, 27”, 29”, 30.5”, 32”)

Size: approx. 1 (2, 4, 6, 8, 10,12) yrs.

Here is the pattern for a child's stranded cardigan I've been working on. I tried to make it as accessible as possible to someone fairly new to stranded work. The pattern repeat is short and easily memorized, the floats are never too long, there's not a lot of shaping, and it only uses two colours throughout most of it.

The body and sleeves are knit in the round from the bottom up and join under the arms. Then you work the raglan yoke to the collar. There's a steek on the centre front, but this is not to be feared. I'm here for you.

I enjoyed working with this yarn and it's a great weight and content (90% cotton/10% merino) for milder temperature days. This was a store sample, but I plan to make another one soon for the girl.

Happy Friday!