Black Sheep Gathering

Over the past month I have been busy dyeing up some yarns and rovings for the Black Sheep Gathering.  I am delighted to be joining my friend Lori Lawson (http://paintspinknit.blogspot.com/ and capistranofiberarts.etsy.com) in her booth this year.  We will be in booths 49 and 50.  We hope to see you at the Lane County Fairgrounds in Eugene, Oregon June 19th - 21st!

I will be bringing an assortment of my handpainted rovings in lovely fiber blends including bluefaced leicester and alpaca/merino/tussah silk.  I will also be bringing my organic superfine merino wool and organic cotton/bamboo yarns in a number of new colorways.  Here is a sample of some of my recent handpaints:

One of the other things that I have been busily working on is a bootie pattern that calls for handspun yarn.  We will be selling this pattern and others in our booth, and we will also have some kits that include the bootie pattern and some of Lori's beautiful handspun yarn.  Here is a teaser:

If you aren't able to make it to BSG this year, I will restocking my Etsy shop (blarneyyarn.etsy.com) with lots of new colorways shortly after we return from Eugene.

knit.1 magazine

The "celery" colorway of our handdyed organic cotton/bamboo yarn is featured in the Spring/Summer issue of knit.1 magazine, which hit newsstands on May 5. Check out Friends of the Earth on page 13. This yarn is available for purchase through our Etsy shop (blarneyyarn.etsy.com).

Knitting Lessons

My friend, Misa, visited this week from Japan.  She brought with her many special Japanese gifts, including two great knitting books.  The garments included in these books are very inspirational, especially the garment shaping and stitch patterns that are used.  I know that I will take advantage of many of these features in my own design process.

During her trip, we set aside some time for a knitting lesson.  Teaching Misa how to knit was great fun!  She was a very quick study, and within an hour she was knitting and purling!  At the end of her stay she was still excited about knitting (this is always a good sign), so I sent her home with the swatch that she had been creating on a circular needle.



Teaching Misa to knit reminded me of my experiences in high school math class (have I mentioned that I love math?). Mr Wallace, our math teacher, loved to assign story-problem worksheets that were written in French.  When we would groan about how difficult it was to solve math problems in another language, he would say, "math is the same in every language."  I now feel that the same can be said for knitting.  With Misa, our lesson mostly involved practicing the movements of the knit and purl stitches, and studying the fabric that resulted from using these stitches independently or in tandem.  With this understanding (and without much knowledge of the English terminology for these maneuvers), she began to create a scarf-like swatch that included alternating bands of garter stitch and stockinette stitch. I am in awe of how quickly she caught on, and I think that she is going to be an excellent knitter!

Top-down Raglan - Finished!

I finished my top-down raglan sweater early this afternoon.  At the end of every project, I am overcome with feelings of elation as I weave in and snip the final yarn ends.  This project was no exception.  And I could hardly wait to wear it, so I gave it a quick steam with the iron and put it on the bed to cool and rest.  I am wearing it now, and it is just wonderful!  It hope that I never tire of the exquisite feeling of handspun and handknitted wool goodness.

Knitting a sweater from the top down was a new experience for me, and I think I will be knitting the vast majority of my future sweater projects this way.  It is just so logical.  Though I really can't stand slipping my knitting onto waste thread in order to check the fit, I found myself giving in to this necessity every couple of inches.  As a result the sweater fits me very well.

I am off to scheme about my next sweater.

Oscar Knitting

I have been working on a top-down raglan sweater with my handspun yarns over the past couple of weeks.  I was inspired to knit a top-down raglan after taking Stefanie Japel's workshop at TNNA last month.  I spent the bulk of last afternoon and evening watching the Academy Awards and working on this sweater.  I can't think of a better way to spend a lazy Sunday afternoon.

The yarns that I am using for this project have been on a long journey (see my January 2008 post about some of the yarns I am including).  I originally cast on for a Fair Isle vest on March 1, 2008.  I didn’t like how it was turning out, so I frogged it and began to knit a top-down poncho-like garment on March 6, 2008.  During March 2008, I worked this garment until I was about 4 inches from the cast-off edge, and then I put it aside so that I could focus on preparations for my April 2008 wedding.  In early February 2009, I found this project in the bottom of my WIP pile and decided to finish it.  So I did.  And then I tried it on.  The poncho was lovely, but it was clearly much too large for me.  There was another fatal flaw: the entire garment, including the bottom edge, was worked in stockinette stitch, causing the poncho to roll severely toward my neck.  After thirty minutes of wearing it, it had morphed from a lovely poncho to a very large and heavy necklace.

I was quite discouraged at this point, so I put the garment down for a few days.  During this time I spoke with my good friend, Emily, who convinced me that I must make something worthy of the handspun yarn.  At this point I was able to muster the courage to rip out the poncho, and immediately cast on for the top-down raglan sweater.  Fortunately, this effort has been a success so far!

Spinning at Common Threads

Lori, Karen, Margie and I made the pilgrimage today to Common Threads in Encinitas for some spinning fun.  There was a great turn out - nine ladies in all.  As always, we had a great time sharing spinning stories and knitting adventures.

Before all spinning journeys, I search through my entire spinning stash with the hope of identifying the perfect spinning project for the day.  As I was searching through my stash this morning, I was overcome with indecision about what colors and fibers to bring.  After a few minutes of hemming and hawing, I just grabbed a few different things and off I went.  I ended up spinning a 80% superfine merino/20% tussah silk blend in a colorway that I call "Tourmaline."

I spun this yarn using the fractal striping method that Janel Laidman described in the Summer 2007 issue of Spin-Off Magazine.  I am really pleased with the look and hand of the final yarn, and I can hardly wait to start knitting with it.

Spinning Workshop with Janel Laidman

On January 31, a group of us spinners got together at Lori's house for a workshop led by Janel Laidman on how to get the most out of your handpainted rovings.  During the workshop we learned several techniques for splitting handpainted rovings prior to spinning in order to reduce the stripy look.  All of the rovings we used were handpainted by Lori, who has an amazing color sense.  We spun for about 5 hours, and in the end everyone had some very beautiful yarns to take home with them.

I have already decided that my yarns are destined to become Lynne Vogel's Starry Night Scarf.  I purchased the pattern from her Etsy shop back in December, and have been wanting to cast on since then.