Black Sheep Gathering Here We Come!

I went to Lori's (http://paintspinknit.blogspot.com/ and CapistranoFiberArts.etsy.com) today to drop off my yarns and rovings in preparation for our early morning departure tomorrow.  We are both really excited for the trip!  I was in awe of all of the beautiful yarns and spinning fibers that she dyed for the Black Sheep Gathering.  Her work is amazing!

Last evening I finished knitting a Baby Surprise Jacket (a la Elizabeth Zimmermann) using six colorways of my organic merino yarn (sea grass, midnight, dusk, pink clouds, geode, and cherry blossom) and two colorways of my handspun yarn (calypso and tourmaline).  I finished the jacket with three pale pink thumbprint buttons handcrafted by my friend, Barbara.  We will have the BSJ on display in our booth at the Black Sheep Gathering.

Hope to see you there!

5 Days and Counting

The main purpose of this post is to test my mobile blogging capacities. I won't be bringing my laptop to the Black Sheep Gathering, so I will have to rely on my cell phone and iPod touch. I hope it works!

So far today I have skeined 5 pounds of yarn. This evening I will finish up the labeling on the last of the yarns and rovings. Yay!

More Dyeing for Black Sheep Gathering

I have been spending each afternoon playing with dye and fiber in preparation for the Black Sheep Gathering (June 19-21 in Eugene, Oregon).  Here is a quick snapshot of some of the recent bluefaced leicester rovings.



The colorways are Olympia, Glass Beach, and Mediterranean (from left to right).

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.