Storm Clouds

This last week in Vermont has been full of misty mornings and magnificent thunderstorms. I wish I could paint the the mist nestling around the white pines, or the clouds rolling, dark and tumultuous, across the sky. But as my medium is fiber, what I did was knit myself a little storm cloud to wrap around my shoulders.

This was the first garment that I knit out of my own handspun. I started with 3.5 ounces of silvery kid mohair from an angora goat farm in Connecticut. It was drum carded, which loosened up the locks, but I still flick carded the whole batch to align the fibers and sort out second cuts and fiber tangles. Here's a handful of fiber to give you a sense of it:

I spun it on my spindle over several weeks into into a fingering weight, Andean-plied yarn. It took me a while to figure out how to get those silky, slick fibers to behave, but I ended up with about 150 yards of usable yarn. I had half a dozen small hanks - like this one - and I used Russian joins to seamlessly weave them together (Andean-plied yarn works well with Russian joins, because one end of each yarn strand already has a tidy loop)

Since I wasn' t sure how much of a wrap I'd get out of that yardage, I wanted something that I could knit until the yarn ran out, and that would be usable at any size. I settled on a half-circle shawl in elongated garter stitch, constructed along the lines of Elizabeth Zimmerman's pi shawl. It's just big enough for a traditional shoulder shawl (I'll never wear it this way, but it shows off the size):

I prefer to wear it wrapped asymmetrically around my shoulders. For the time being, I'm fastening it with a spiral pin that I improvised from galvanized steel wire. I'll be keeping my eyes out for a lightweight pewter pin - let me know if you have any suggestions!

This shawlette is also the perfect size to casually nestle around my neck. This is where the mohair really shows off its special qualities: it floats like a cloud and creates the most luscious, airy layers rather than just sinking into a mass. So, I do feel like I've reached up to the sky and grabbed a stormcloud to cloak myself in!

I promise a pattern in the next post ...

memories of sheep

In the end, I won't really be writing about my trip to Wales. It was such a whirlwind of a reunion that there was hardly time to sleep, let alone knit or yarn-seek. But, it being Wales, I did get to see some sheep and evidence thereof.


I used to walk along here a hundred times a day, since this pasture is right in the center of campus. The lambs would frolick here in the spring and then fatten up and settle down over the year, and they are such a part of my memory of the place. It's curious that I never asked what became of those sheep; clearly, I wasn't a knitter in those days!

London & Loop!

In London here. I popped across the pond to come to a school reunion in Wales, and I have a few delicious days in the city beforehand. All I want to do here is walk, walk, walk! and observe things and reacquaint myself with this city that I used to know. And, of course, visit yarn stores along the way.


The premier destination of yesterday's 8 mile walk was Loop. It's a darling and colorful place with beautifully composed scenes tucked about: a collection of vintage buttons in apothecary jars, a basket of knitted dolls, swatches hanging as a garlands, and pom poms strung up in the windows.


I picked up four skeins of Rowan's purelife yarn, which is a naturally-dyed organic cotton that I've been coveting and which was on sale there. My plan is to make a simple camisole, like my green one from last week. Of course, this being my London yarn, it had to be a steely gray. But I'll stripe it with bit of pink.


Next stop was the famous Liberty store. I marveled at their fabrics and Rowan selection, and I found a sweet cotton ribbon to match my gray and pink yarn.


The last treat for me came in the post. I've been hankering for Garthenor's organic wool yarns ever since I came across them in my Green Knitter research. I ordered a hat's worth of their DK Loghtan Sheep yarn, and it came promptly in the mail to my friend's flat here.


Another time I'll tell you about trying to track these four-horned sheep down on the Isle of Man, which is why I have a special place in my heart for this rare wool. This yarn - and this place - is a wonderful trigger of memories.

Heidi knits a preppy top

Mountain Man and I visited friends in some serious mountains over the weekend. It was glorious: snow-topped peaks,meadows of alpine wildflowers, intense blue skies and glacial lakes. When I pulled out my knitting on the 12,000 foot pass, I felt like a modern-day Heidi!


In case you're wondering, modern-day Heidis knit themselves preppy little tube tops. Here's what I was working on, all finished now in Vermont:


Yarn: Knitpicks' Shine Sport in 'grass,' 3 balls
Needles: size 5 bamboo circular
Pattern: improvised -- just a stockinette tube with 1x1 ribbing at the top and bottom and ribbon straps.

The story behind this is that I received 3 skeins of Shine sport from Studio Knit, as part of an awesome prize that I won on her blog (also included: spinning fiber from Hanks in the Hood). I loved the color and immediately started planning a top that I could finish in just 3 skeins.


Initially, I thought I'd make a lacy camisole. But my lace swatches looked so unbearably bulky. And, frankly, I find those lacy camisoles kind of annoying to wear. (In my mind, the whole point of a tank top is to have a lightweight garment, so I find it bothersome to have to layer them.)

So, a tube top it was. It took a few false starts to get the sizing due to the incredible stretchiness and drape of the fabric. In the end, I decided to forgo waist shaping because I realized that as I wore the top, the fabric would stretch downwards and the waist could move. The solution: I designed it to just fit my waist and have negative ease elsewhere. Worked like a charm! And to finish, I sewed some simple straps out of matching ribbon.


I feel pleasantly preppy in this little top, mostly because it matches my high school color (girls' boarding school in Connecticut -- can't get much preppier than that!). The clean lines and grosgrain ribbon help, too. :)

In the swatching stage

When we left Arizona, I carried with me enough yarn for six projects: thee pair of socks, two camisoles, and a pair of gloves. I figured I'd find some lovely Vermont wool this summer, but my overall goal was to go home with less yarn than I brought here.

Fat chance!! To my credit, I did finish the Sea Wool and Jitterbug socks on my drive. But thanks to Webs, my local farmers' market, and one contest I won through WiKnit (more on that in another post), I now have enough for eleven projects! And that's not even counting the spinning fiber. So, I'm swatching and trying to get on the ball with a few projects.


That's farmers' market wool for a baby sweater and a felted bag, organic cotton and Fleece Artist flaxen for the camisoles, unbleached linen for a grocery bag, and Shine for a little tank top. I don't know what your swatches tend to look (tell me! I'd be curious), but mine usually turn into these long, strange rectangles because I'm trying out so many stitch patterns. I start with garter stitch and some stockinette and then move through cables, lace, seed stitch, ribbing, etc. Some of the swatches in the picture above are a foot long!

From those swatches, I've got three projects on the needles. And I should have some FO's to show off soon enough ....

Roadtrip Part 3: Vermont!

How I love Vermont - its forested hills, clear lakes, cattails, pale blue skies, and, above all, its wild and enveloping GREENNESS!!


I had a fantastic drive through thunderstorms to get here last week, with a few yarn detours. In Connecticut, I visited Tranquil Morning Farm for silky kid mohair and maroon alpaca for spinning. In Massachusetts, I stopped at Webs, where I found Blue Sky Alpacas sportweight and a cone of Louet unbleached linen -- green yarns at excellent prices. (I also met Cirilia, who was gracious and good-natured about having a stranger say "I know you from your blog!")


I ran out of time to stop at the Green Mountain Spinnery in southern Vermont. But the next day, I found myself some lovely, minimally processed and naturally colored wool yarn at a farmers' market. So, now I'm happily settled into my family's cottage for the summer with plenty of yarn to keep me busy. Isis is pretty blissed out, too.


In other knitting news, the end of our cross-country adventure brought the finishing of Mountain Man's socks. Here are the details: 2.5 mm needles, Colinette Jitterbug yarn, figure-8 cast on at the toe, garter rib stitch, short row heels. Simple but with a subtle texture.


I'm pretty happy with how they turned out -- and Mountain Man says he loves them -- but I was displeased by the yarn. After the glory that was Fleece Artist Sea Wool, the Jitterbug felt like icky string to knit with. I will say that it makes a nice, hard-wearing fabric once knit up. But here's the real kicker: one skein of Jitterbug is not enough for a pair of mens' socks.


I planned to get a skein of plain sock yarn to finish the socks with a ribbed cuff, but Mountain Man says he likes them as is. So that was the end of that. And it's probably time to wrap up this post, too! I'll leave you with a photo of a painted turtle that I caught at the end of the lake, among the cattails and waterlilies. Everything about this place is so beautiful!

Roadtrip Part 2: Back East

From Taos, we drove north through stormy weather into the eastern edge of the Colorado Rockies


We took a deep breath of mountain air and then headed east across Kansas, with its straight roads


and even straighter horizons. If it weren't for my knitting and NPR podcasts, I might have gone mad.


Every now and then, we'd see a billboard for yarn stores. I'd never been anywhere where yarn was so important that it'd be advertised so broadly (note: most of the other billboards in Kansas were either fire-and-brimstone religious messages or ads for adult stores, though, so I can't say that all their signals were right).


Then it was on through Missouri. The weather gave the landscape a beautiful, soft, painterly feel

when we could see through the rain, that is! The midwestern storms were so nervewracking that I couldn't even concentrate on my knitting!

Anyways, from there we went on through hilly West Virginia and Kentucky. Isis was all smiles to find sunny weather and a lake to swim in

And I was happy to see the rolling, green, pastoral Appalachians.


We finally started taking it easy when we got to Washington, DC, where we took a few days to rest up and visit family. My sister brought us to a lovely outdoor jazz concert in the National Gallery's sculpture garden. Perfect knitting time. Here's Mountain Man showing off his new sock, while I work on the second one. Imagine jazz floating through and enlivening everything up!

We took a few tourist photos as we walked around the capital, but I think they were much improved by a sock monster. Raaawwwwrrrr

And then we got our manners back together and headed up to Connecticut. Here's the rose garden in Elizabeth Park, just down the street from where I grew up in Hartford. It's lovely to be back!


Next up: it's on to Vermont, and I'll have photos of the finished socks. Still a few inches yet to go ....

Roadtrip Part I: Taos

Mountain Man and I are on the road again, driving across this country to spend the summer back east. Our first day took us to Taos, New Mexico, with its rugged plains and snowy mountain peaks. After the blistering heat of Phoenix and an 11 hour day on the road, it was bliss to find ourselves in this high country, with air perfumed with sagebrush and rained-soaked soil.


While in Taos, I finished the first and perhaps only item of the trip: a pair of socks in Fleece Artist Sea Wool, colorway 'Nova Scotia.' Here they are in the bright sunlight the next morning (and if you peer carefully, you'll see Isis wandering in the background).


These socks may be what finally turn me into a sock knitter. The yarn, which is a blend of wool and seaweed-derived lyocell, was marvelous to knit with. It's soft but durable, gorgeously painted, and pleasantly thick for a sock yarn.


I made the pattern up as a I went along, using the magic loop method on a 2.5 mm (I think) circular needle . I started with a figure-8 cast on at the toe, increased to fit the width of the foot, and then added a subtle slip stitch pattern (I slipped every 5th stitch every other row). I did a short-row heel on slightly more than half the stitches. And then I just kept knitting until it was my desired length. It was simple and meditative, and the fit is divine.


The other major excitement of Taos is that the friends we were staying with were friends with an alpaca farmer. We had a great visit to the farm, Phi Beta Paca, which could not have had a more beautiful location.


In addition to the alpacas, they raised angora goats and one lumbering Dorsett sheep. It made for a wonderful, spirited menagerie.


I love Taos, and I hope to be back before long. Any Phoenix knitters up for a road trip to the Taos Wool Festival this October?

Vinnlands!! (and flood irrigation trivia)

Yay, yay, they're finally finished! The process seemed to go on forever: I dyed the yarn in early December, picked out the pattern and knit the feet when my sister visited for Christmas, measured and turned the heels when I visited her in March, and finally finished them now in June. But it was so worth it to have such a FABULOUS pair of socks for my sister.


Here are the details....
Pattern: Vinnland Socks
Yarn: Henry's Attic Treadsoft, which I dyed a semi-solid red with kool-aid (color is much deeper and richer in real life, but I desaturated these photos a little so that you could see the stitch pattern better -- red is very hard to photograph!)
Needles: size 1 circular using the magic loop method
Modifications: Instead of a short-row toe, I used a figure-8 cast on (tutorial here). I think I added a few stitches for width. I did the short-row heel using a no-wrap method (tutorial here). And I used plain ribbing on the back of the leg.


I love the central vine motif and will undoubtedly use it on socks again in the future, although I think next time I'll find a slightly thicker yarn and go up to 1.5 needles. I'm really not so refined that I need to knit on size 1s.

Now, you may notice something strange in the pictures above. I'm standing on a picnic table, but that's not the strange bit (it gets the best light). What may strike you as unusual is that our yard is flooded to several inches. You see, our little 1940s ranch house was built in a grapefruit orchard, and our neighborhood still retains the flood irrigation rights. Eighteen times a year, we open up the pipes at the front of the yard, and we get water flooding out for an hour and a half. Here's a full shot of what the backyard looks like during a flood irrigation:


We do feel guilty about this water use. But doing a deep watering every few weeks is more efficient than a sprinkled watering every few days. And we've tried to make productive use of it by planting lots of fruit trees around our yard: valencia and blood oranges, meyer lemon, tangerine, apples, apricots, fuyu persimmon, and black mission fig in addition to the mature grapefruit and pecan trees. Anyways, this was a curious thing to encounter when I moved to the southwest, and I hope you enjoy getting a glimpse of it!

Colinette in Connecticut

I spent a delightful week in Connecticut, visiting my parents and dearest old friends. One of those friends had a birthday. And I knit a fantastical collar for her ....

(I swear, she must have been laughing at a great joke I told, not the collar)

It's a little strange, but I love it! What a big, bold piece to wear over a dark jacket in the depths of winter. Much more modern than a scarf, and a good windblocker to boot. There are lots of ways to wear it, with different effects.


Rachel was a great sport, gamely putting up with this extensive modeling session. The fact that we were visiting a Connecticut vineyard, and had just finished our lovely wine tasting, may have assisted in this matter. I think I timed it well.


Oh! And I suppose I should share the details ...
Yarn: Colinette Shimmer 5 in 'Fire,' every last inch of 2 skeins
Needles: 10.5 bamboo straights
Pattern: improvised!

Red Socks & Red Rocks

Mountain Man and I went rock climbing in Sedona last weekend, and I toted along the Vinnland Socks. I fully expected to have them finished by the end of the weekend, but the intensity of the climbing and the sun left me too exhausted (and stiff-fingered) to knit. So, all I've got is 1.75 socks to show you.

They're shown off in front of Queen Victoria Spire, which is the spindly, 220-ft formation in the right background. It looks small compared to the socks, I know. But it was a spectacular climb, and more than a little scary with the whipping wind, the crumbly sandstone, and the vertigo-inducing looks down.

We got to the top just before sunset and got a breathtaking view of Sedona. In the rosy light of sunset, the red rocks looked almost - almost! - as red as these Vinnlands.