The green and purple baby blankets went out in the mail today. Such a nice feeling to complete a project!
Now the main yarn-based project is the variegated red shawl, which is progressing nicely. The more I get done, the more I like it, although all that openwork is going to take some blocking. Crotchet projects are so quick and satisfying, I like to do one now and then. At the end of the day, though, I like the knitted product better, so I always go back.
The big push this week is a shirt for Peter to wear at Blacksmith Days this weekend. He has been learning blacksmithing, and he joined a local group. This weekend they are putting on their big, annual festival with people coming from all over. They all try to dress up in mid to late 1800's style, so Peter wanted an appropriate shirt. I found a piece of fairly coarse weave linen in my stash, he says it's just what he wants, and I have an old Burda pattern that's a bit old-timey looking. With a few changes I think it'll look pretty good. The most time consuming part is that I don't want any machine stitching to show on the outside, so I've been spending my evenings doing the topstitching on the front placket, back yoke, and soon the cuffs by hand. I don't mind it, I actually love the rhythm of hand sewing. It's very soothing, much like a good knitting session. I hope I have it done by Saturday!
Wednesday, May 12, 2010
Thursday, May 6, 2010
hot wool
Last weekend was the Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival. Two days of petting wool. In 90 degree heat and blazing sun. You have to be pretty crazy about wool to do that, and apparently lots of people are. We made the mistake of not going early, and we spent an hour and a half in the line to get into the parking lot. There were a lot of people there.
I went with my sister-in-law Nel. She spent the night with us, which was fun. Her husband and sons go to a church "men's retreat" that weekend every year, so we have our own retreat to the Festival. On Saturday, my mom came with us, but the sudden heat was hard on her, so she stayed home Sunday. (The week before, we had frost two nights, so this was a sudden hot spell.) On Sunday, Peter came with us. He actually wanted to. How great is that?
In addition to eating some really good lamb for lunch (grilled kabobs Saturday, BBQ pulled lamb Sunday), I got some great yarn. The prices seemed a little better this year, probably in deference to the stinky economy. For those of you who are also really into yarn, I am now going to review the purchases. Non-yarn-geeks, feel free to link to somewhere else now.
The first purchase was at our favorite loopy yarn booth, which happens to be right inside the entrance to the grounds. We have bought from them every year, and they have the best loopy yarn I've ever seen. It's the softest, and the colors are great. This year Nel and I split a big hank of a yellow/red variegated yarn with little bits of pink in it. I wasn't sure at all about the pink, but I worked up a little bit yesterday, and by golly, it works. This will make a fantastic winter scarf to go with the red wool coat I'll be making later this summer.
The thing I went in search of was some yarn for a crotchet shawl. I'm sewing a summer dress which has a multi-tiered gathered skirt, in a dark charcoal washed silk. The style always makes me think Mexican, but summer dresses always make me think over-air-conditioned indoor spaces, so I decided I needed a shawl to go with it. Thinking Mexican, I thought a red to go with the almost-black would be cool. I had almost despaired, when finally I found it -- a variegated red superwash fingering weight merino with colors ranging from dark brick red to a bright reddish orange. Just enough brightness to make it pop. I love it. The pattern I had at home, it's a very open crotchet shawl, triangular, a big late '70's style, with sort of deep fringe around the edge.
After thinking overnight about the idea of a shawl with serious wool fringe in the summer, I thought maybe something else for the fringe. One of the stands had some interesting rayon ribbon yarn, so on Sunday I went back there and got the closest red I could find. I wasn't sure it was right, so I made sure I could order more if I wanted, and I only bought one skein. Turns out it isn't really a good shade, so I'll do something else with it. What I have in mind is another idea I got at the Festival. At one of the booths, I saw a knitted shawl, rectangular, that was mostly a variegated wool in a leafy pattern, then both ends of the shawl were borders about 8" wide knitted in a ribbon yarn that exactly matched the wool. It looked fantastic. The ribbon borders gave it a very interesting visual texture. I might try that with my red.
So once I decided I was not going to find my shawl fringe at the Festival, it was on to impulse buying. Woo hoo! Not much money left by then, but enough to get the real prize of the weekend. It's about a 4 oz. skein of variegated blue worsted weight llama with little silver strands in it. Just enough sparkle to catch the eye, and so soft, it's unbelievable. Everyone at my knitting group this week had trouble letting go of it. The blue is a warm tone, not a cool blue, ranging from a midnight blue shade to a late evening summer sky. I can't wait to work it up. I'm thinking sweater, and while it's not enough for a whole sweater, I think if I make a top-down yoke sweater, like the EZ sweater knit in reverse, I can make the yoke in this stuff until it runs out and the rest in a matching wool. I think it'll work, if I can match the color.
The final purchase was a skein Peter fell in love with. It's a 3 or 4 ply heavy worsted wool, with each ply being a different shade of beige or brown. I think it will work up into one of those nice heathery sweaters. Again, only a single skein, but this is from a farm that's only about an hour's drive away, and they have store hours on Saturdays at the farm. So I thought I'd get one, play with it until I find a pattern and gauge I like, then figure out how much a whole sweater will take and go get more. The farm had a whole big booth, and all their yarns were very pretty and exceptionally soft. I am looking forward to visiting their farm store.
It was a great weekend. Should keep me knitting until next year.
I went with my sister-in-law Nel. She spent the night with us, which was fun. Her husband and sons go to a church "men's retreat" that weekend every year, so we have our own retreat to the Festival. On Saturday, my mom came with us, but the sudden heat was hard on her, so she stayed home Sunday. (The week before, we had frost two nights, so this was a sudden hot spell.) On Sunday, Peter came with us. He actually wanted to. How great is that?
In addition to eating some really good lamb for lunch (grilled kabobs Saturday, BBQ pulled lamb Sunday), I got some great yarn. The prices seemed a little better this year, probably in deference to the stinky economy. For those of you who are also really into yarn, I am now going to review the purchases. Non-yarn-geeks, feel free to link to somewhere else now.
The first purchase was at our favorite loopy yarn booth, which happens to be right inside the entrance to the grounds. We have bought from them every year, and they have the best loopy yarn I've ever seen. It's the softest, and the colors are great. This year Nel and I split a big hank of a yellow/red variegated yarn with little bits of pink in it. I wasn't sure at all about the pink, but I worked up a little bit yesterday, and by golly, it works. This will make a fantastic winter scarf to go with the red wool coat I'll be making later this summer.
The thing I went in search of was some yarn for a crotchet shawl. I'm sewing a summer dress which has a multi-tiered gathered skirt, in a dark charcoal washed silk. The style always makes me think Mexican, but summer dresses always make me think over-air-conditioned indoor spaces, so I decided I needed a shawl to go with it. Thinking Mexican, I thought a red to go with the almost-black would be cool. I had almost despaired, when finally I found it -- a variegated red superwash fingering weight merino with colors ranging from dark brick red to a bright reddish orange. Just enough brightness to make it pop. I love it. The pattern I had at home, it's a very open crotchet shawl, triangular, a big late '70's style, with sort of deep fringe around the edge.
After thinking overnight about the idea of a shawl with serious wool fringe in the summer, I thought maybe something else for the fringe. One of the stands had some interesting rayon ribbon yarn, so on Sunday I went back there and got the closest red I could find. I wasn't sure it was right, so I made sure I could order more if I wanted, and I only bought one skein. Turns out it isn't really a good shade, so I'll do something else with it. What I have in mind is another idea I got at the Festival. At one of the booths, I saw a knitted shawl, rectangular, that was mostly a variegated wool in a leafy pattern, then both ends of the shawl were borders about 8" wide knitted in a ribbon yarn that exactly matched the wool. It looked fantastic. The ribbon borders gave it a very interesting visual texture. I might try that with my red.
So once I decided I was not going to find my shawl fringe at the Festival, it was on to impulse buying. Woo hoo! Not much money left by then, but enough to get the real prize of the weekend. It's about a 4 oz. skein of variegated blue worsted weight llama with little silver strands in it. Just enough sparkle to catch the eye, and so soft, it's unbelievable. Everyone at my knitting group this week had trouble letting go of it. The blue is a warm tone, not a cool blue, ranging from a midnight blue shade to a late evening summer sky. I can't wait to work it up. I'm thinking sweater, and while it's not enough for a whole sweater, I think if I make a top-down yoke sweater, like the EZ sweater knit in reverse, I can make the yoke in this stuff until it runs out and the rest in a matching wool. I think it'll work, if I can match the color.
The final purchase was a skein Peter fell in love with. It's a 3 or 4 ply heavy worsted wool, with each ply being a different shade of beige or brown. I think it will work up into one of those nice heathery sweaters. Again, only a single skein, but this is from a farm that's only about an hour's drive away, and they have store hours on Saturdays at the farm. So I thought I'd get one, play with it until I find a pattern and gauge I like, then figure out how much a whole sweater will take and go get more. The farm had a whole big booth, and all their yarns were very pretty and exceptionally soft. I am looking forward to visiting their farm store.
It was a great weekend. Should keep me knitting until next year.
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