swirls 3

Pattern: Fiber Trends Swirls Hat

Yarn: Noro and mystery yarn from the yarn tag sale stash

Mods: Brim knit w/ bigger needle for bucket style hat, a few rows left out of the top portion for a shorter, more rounded dome

Verdict: Knit in one day while she was sick recently, Leah is as psyched about this third Swirls hat as she was about Swirls 1 and Swirls 2. She might keep this one for herself (she says that about all of them), but has already started Swirls 4 as a gift for a friend's upcoming b'day party. Has proclaimed that she LOVES stranded knitting.

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It's good that one knitter in this family is making progress on things, as the other knitter is floundering about, attempting to get Jesse's slippers to felt down to size, swatching this and that for a sweater for Scott, tossing the stash, browsing library books and Ravelry. I haven't quite settled on the next big project yet, but narrowing in on it! Meanwhile, charity hat knitting is filling the void and I have a sudden strong urge to get back to the spinning and also do some wet felting (from roving, not knitted first).

swirls hat 2

Ever since Leah's first stranded colorwork back in 2/07, she's been enjoying 2-color knitting, but lately she's nuts about doing colorwork. She was so happy with the way her first swirls hat turned out, but it was out the door as a friend's birthday gift so fast that she decided to make another one right away. She chose another skein of Noro and plucked a skein of purple wool from the yarn tag sale bonanza stash, and a few days later...

Again she went with the happy accident bucket hat style that happened on the first go-round. We both love this one every bit as much as the first. There are two more skeins of Noro in the stash and I have a feeling it won't be long until she has a third hat on the needles. Seeing how the contrasting color yarn works up with the Noro colorways is So. Much. Fun!

one we like, one not so much

Well, I guess it was bound to happen eventually. Leah finally, on her fifth one, knit a Swirls hat that neither of us love. Nothing wrong with it; just the colors are not favorites around here. What is that, anyway? Chartreuse?! Grellow?! That's what we get for stepping outside of our happy purple-green-blue box. ;-)

Anybody out there want it? Leah says it's a freebie for anybody who might be interested. Just leave a comment (make sure you're signed in and/or leave an email/Rav ID/blog in the comment text) by Monday, January 26, 5:00 p.m. If more than one person wants it, we'll do a random drawing. Please be aware that this is a bucket style hat with a loose fit. If you like your hats snug, this is not the hat for you. If it doesn't find a home among this blog's readers, into the charity pile it'll go.

Another new knit in the past few days is my Forest Canopy Cowl out of Malabrigo Silky Merino. This one's a keeper.

Mmmmmalabrigo!

moments at the farmers' market

The last farmers' market of the season was yesterday and it couldn't have been more pleasant.

Leah wore the Fiber Trends Swirls Hat she knit last week, using Noro Kureyon and a skein of tweedy something or other from our stash. For some reason, the brim came out way wider than expected, so we turned it into a bucket hat by removing a few rounds to make the top more rounded. It's her first time trying the Latvian braid, which adds so much to this design. There's maybe not as much contrast between the yarn colors as we would have liked, but she's still very happy with how it turned out. This will be a gift for a friend's birthday coming up soon and I know she'll be making more of this design. I wonder if the next one will be a bucket hat or the expected shape. I'll make a point of helping her understand yarn dominance for her colorwork the next time too.

A swarm of hungry customers early in the day. Scott brought as much as he could make in the bakery on Saturday and just about sold out of everything. Again. :-) How cool to recognize old friends from high school among the crowd later in the afternoon.

My sister, who conveniently showed up wearing a pink shirt and immediately got drafted as the model for my recently completed Wisp cowl, knitted in Sheep 3 silk and merino handpainted yarn, a row of 11 tiny vintage buttons holding it in a ring. She rec'd compliments on it throughout the day and reluctantly gave it back when it was time to leave. I had it on the day before and am wearing it as I type now. I think it's safe to say this one is a winner! Mmm...silk.

Daughter of the farmer whose booth was next to ours. Dressed in her witchy Halloween costume, she watched me knit and off during the day, asked a couple of questions, and eventually I offered to show her how to knit (and swapped her farmer mom some garlic-parmesan bread and molasses crinkle cookies for leeks and napa cabbage). When we got home, there was an answering machine message from the mom of another young knitter, a sheep-for-Noro swap confirmed, and another online friend with request for pattern info.

So. Much. Fun!

one winter day

Recently recovered from what I *swear* was fever and ague (except for the malaria part), I was working on Jesse's felted clog slippers, which I have beaten and boiled mercilessly to get them to felt down to size. They've felted excellently, but are still too big. Last ditch effort: take scissors to them for a remodel. Just might work. Will keep you posted.

Scott was warping a second-hand loom, using freebie yarn from a kind fiber fanatic, happy in a sunbeam, wearing his favorite handknit hat on his follicularly-challenged noggin. :-)

And Leah was giddy about her newest Swirls hat (what is this, the 4th or 5th, maybe?). I love seeing her chubby little 10-year-old fingers in this pic, with fingernails kept short for ukulele playing! Her knitting belies her age.

Enliven, Enrich, Enjoy! banner in our stairwell, a burst of cheerful color in a cozy woodstove-heated home, comfortable and content when everything outside is stark white/gray and frozen solid.

giva geta

Spa Knit and Spin 2009 with the New England Textile Artists, an entire weekend spent amongst hundreds of fiber enthusiasts, has come and gone. A few highlights, in list form:

The entire thing is based on the premise that we all have something to teach and we all have something to learn, and that many hands make light work, so here are some of the entirely enjoyable ways that we contributed to the event:

1. donated 4 handknit hats for soldiers
2. demonstrated how to frame needlework (Debbie), how to wire beads to make stitch markers (Scott), two-handed two-color no-tangle knitting (Leah - see above), and how to make a felted scarf out of leftover yarns (Debbie). I actually did that last demo three (or was it four?!) times because more people kept asking to see it!
3. Spa 2009 glass bead stitch markers for the main organizers
4. Donations to the group's Treasure Chest for giveaways.

5. Two hours as volunteers at the Greeters' Table, answering questions and selling raffle tickets for the beautiful afghan some members made to raise funds for charity. 

That's the "giva" part of the weekend. We gave a little, but oh, what we got in return!

First, the tangibles:

1. Spunky Eclectic black cherry roving for Leah to spin and ply with Grafton Fibers singles already on a bobbin.
2. burgundy angora yarn for Leah's Just Enough Ruffles scarf.
3. Dye Dreams royal purple merino/tencel yarn for Leah to make Knitspot's Delicato handwarmers.
4. Dye Dreams sea green merino/tencel yarn for Debbie to make Knitspot's Gust scarf.
5. Woolen Rabbit's Arabian Nights for Debbie to make Knitspot's Brambler scarf. Apparently we're liking the Knitspot patterns. :-)
6. Ball and Skein's burgundy yarn for Debbie to knit Miriam Felton's Persephone scarf.
7. Three beautiful natural colors of Icelandic Lamb roving blended w/ baby alpaca or Tussah silk, a fabulous door prize won by Debbie from Frelsi Farm Icelandics!

Intangibles also received:

1. Tatting workshop with Kat Parks. This was a refresher for me, since I took a tatting class many years ago. I never got very good at it, but apparently tatting is like riding a bike because as soon as I saw Kat do a knot or two, I was off and running.
2. Nalbinding workshop with Rudy Amman, who was even able to teach a lefty! I've always been curious about this technique and am tickled to have learned the basics. That's the little gray bit of stitching in the center of the lowermost row in the yarn photo above.
3. A new cast-on taught to Leah. 

4. Time to relax and chat with friends we've known for years (see that character above, concentrating on his very first knitting project ever? You might recognize him from Spa 2007. This time, Bart was knitting while Scott was spinning.) and those we just happened to sit near or stop along the way to admire something they were making/wearing/using/doing.

Other random reasons for smiles:

1. Within minutes of arriving, Leah spotted somebody wearing one of Scott's sheep beads as a necklace.
2. Free, fresh, delicious cookies in the lobby.
3. When I stopped at the Frelsi Farm Icelandics booth to say thanks for the door prize I won, we learned that the owner used to live in our hometown.
4. Warm pool, cold days, kids splashing about with glee.
5. The owner of Dye Dreams yarn, also wearing one of Scott's sheep beads as a necklace.
6. People randomly stopping us to chat because they remembered us from the 2007 Spa or they read our blog, and us doing the same with others.
7. Thai Garden. Yum.
8. Willing observers of impromptu yo-yo tricks from our favorite yo-yo guy.

9. A whole slew of new-to-us local microbrews to sample!
10. The bed at the Hilton, which was comfortable enough that Scott and I have debated -- MULTIPLE TIMES -- whether it was The Most Comfortable bed we've ever slept in (besides our own), in close competition with the awesome bed at the Rose Island Lighthouse. Hotel reservations were a xmas gift from my mom, so thanks, mom!
11. People who get it admiring something you've made, such as the Sylvi coat and Swirls hat modeled by Leah in the fashion show. BTW, the pic above shows approx. 1/8th of the crowd gathered for the fashion show. The stuff that paraded by was amazing. Even Jesse was impressed -- enough so that he didn't choose to zone out with the Dragnet radio shows on his iPod!
12. Those same people romping about with items we admired and found inspirational. Seriously, some mind-boggling fiber artists gathered at this event. And not just knitters. There were spinners, weavers, feltmakers, lacemakers, quilters, and probably countless other fiber arts represented.
13. With every such event, the circle of friends grows, the horizons expand, and the enthusiasm is refreshed.
14. We expect to get to do it all again next year! Yahoo!!

outgoing

When meeting the newborn daughter of a knitterly friend, it's an opportunity to knit wee baby things! I already had the baby sheep hat stashed away for just such a day. Leah wanted to add something to the gift too. We've known about Christine's Stay-On Baby Booties pattern for a long time, so Leah grabbed some sock yarn and DPNs and scurried off to do her thing.

With no help from me (which is good because I've been happily up to my eyeballs in work), she whipped these little tootsie-warmers out.

They're ultra-stretchy, so hopefully they'll last this sweet babe a good while. Baby snuggles all 'round, shared with the open arms of a half dozen other knitters in the room, including one who is a fan of Scott's silly sheep stitch markers, had a variety of them with her and has sent others to friends' homes across the country. (I'd link to those silly guys, but it looks like they're all sold out for now, with most recent thanks to a knitter in the UK. Which reminds me, omg, you guys, the buttons -- the BUTTONS he's making lately -- awesome! I wish I could knit faster and use them all.)

Another outgoing knit is one of Leah's Swirls hats. Seven commenters out of eight said they'd like to give it a home and the Random Number Generator chose the 7th commenter,

so, Coleen, it's coming your way soon! Thanks, everybody, for playing along!