Wool Quilting Batts Part 2

Remember the wool batts? I thought about them for a while. What to do, what to do? I don't like the looks of tied quilts and sewing by machine or hand through all the thickness was just not going to happen. It finally struck me! Duvet Covers! Some surfing and soon enough I came up with flannel Duvet covers and with sheep! of all things sheep all over!
I ordered two twin bed size knowing that the batts are lapsize but maybe two would fit in one? or I could always cut them down to fit. Here are the results, excuse the lousy phone pictures and the blur on the second one:

I stretched out one cover on the floor and the two batts on top, perfect fit...sideways but who said they had to go in lengthwise?

The tricky part, or so I thought, was getting them inside with no wrinkles, it was really easy holding the corners of the cover and moving my arms towards the opening:

Here it is! the two lap size batts in one cover folded in four. If they shift, I can always tie them ...I know I said that is what I did not want to do, but a girl can change her mind, we always do. After everything was set and done, I crawled under it on the couch to read and nap for a while. Wonderful!

Slouchy Hat

I have been working on samples for the kids to knit at Knitting Machine program down in Colombia. My 13 yo nephew saw the hats and wanted one in yellow and navy blue. I explained to him the hats were not mine to give away but that I would knit him one to his liking. I handed him a box of cotton/silk blend yarn that I had in stash and left him to decide on colors.
Quite a surprise awaited me when I came back to find him with 5 colors! He said it would look cool....OK....says me....lets do it!

We did the math and he stood by me handing the yarn over in the color order he wanted, and the number of rows that would give the thickness of stripe he wanted.
Here is his creation:

I have to say I love it! Turns out the hat matches his Nike running shoes!

Wool Quilting Batts

Sometime back I dyed a beautiful wool/silk blend with Indigo. It was great fun and the colors came out lovely. I was going to card it myself but decided to send it to a mill .... the name I will not mention here.
The carded fiber came back and into a bin it went....several months later I discovered the fiber had been shredded, a horrible carding job, the only way to recover some of the fiber was to comb it and see what I could save. In the bin it went again, with a firm thought of 'Never again will I use the mill'. I tried to spin it several times, the resulting yarn was lumpy and horrible. I was going to throw it away when a friend said she had heard that Zellinger Wool Co. would card wool to make quilting batts!
A quilting batt made out of wool/silk blend?! Now that would be warm. Since I had nothing to lose at that point and maybe lots to gain, I called, made arrangements and off I sent 5 lbs. I ordered 2 lap size blanket quilting batts. I had no idea what to expect because I could not find pictures of anything similar anywhere.
The batts came back a couple of weeks ago, I am beyond delighted to see the results!
Thick wool batts enclosed in cheese cloth, nice seams , and nicely tied to keep the wool in place!
Here they are, a couple of pictures to give you a good idea of what they look like. The pictures are a bit dark...but so is the world these days.
If you have any wool that has gone beyond the recovery/hope edge, I suggest you consider this alternative.
Now I have to come up with the top and backing for the quilts. I will probably tie them, there is no way to machine quilt these batts, they are too thick,hand quilting is not something I will do just because I don't have the time.

Giving Tuesday your donation will be matched!

Today is the day to help us raise funds for Friends of Colombian Orphans!
Please donate !
More info and link to donate
http://www.crowdrise.com/ColombianOrphans

Project Bags

I love bags, and boxes and anything that will hold something else. It seems that I have a bag/box for each thing and a thing for each box/bag. If you have visited my Etsy shop you have seen what I make. I also love embroidery and the embroidery machine. Out of all the embroidered bags I have made, of course there was yet to be one for me.

Most of my bags are my own pattern, adaptations from things I see. But when I saw the 241 tote pattern, I knew it was perfect to embellish with embroidery. I set to make my own version and make my own denim bag from recycled jeans.

It has a magnetic snap inside, I might make another one with pockets inside.

I debated if I wanted embroidery in the back, rubbing against the body might not be the best thing on the embroidery, but we will see. I don't plan to walk miles with it.

I am in finishing mode, you might see more things show up around here soon.

Wool People, Rhinebeck 2012

Earlier this year my two best friends and I decided to go to Rhinebeck. Good thing it was decided in March, we had a bit of problem finding hotel reservations, and finally settled for one night in one place and one night in another, no big deal. Of course when we realized hotels were taken in March, we wanted to go even more.

The clerk at the hotel asked us if we too were going to the Fiber Show, we said yes, are there others? at what he replied: 'Yes! the whole place is loaded with Wool People!'

They live in Idaho and Utah, and like in previous occasions, on Thursday , they flew in different flights that landed minutes apart. The fun began days before with the review of the vendor list and our own list of 'must see', 'must have', and must eat'.

We left Maryland Friday mid morning, the drive up to Harrisburg was uneventful, there the GPS took us off the main highway, via a little road, quite colorful and fun. I could not figure out why this was happening and thought the radar was avoiding traffic for us. It took a good two extra hours to get there, but the scenery was worth every minute of it. Settled in the hotel, off to dinner we went, the GPS would calculate up to 99% and get stuck, then and only then I checked the settings, it had 'avoid toll roads' checked and the poor thing could not figure out how to get us across Hudson River with its respective toll, and not swim!

After a delightful dinner and window shopping, back to the hotel. I of course woke up at 4:30 am like I have done for the past 8 years or so. This time it served us right, a good cup of coffee, and ready for the road. Our usual breakfast with cheese souffle at Panera Bread, and at the festival doors right before 8 am. We got a great parking spot right by the gate, we were 4th in line for the tickets, it worked out great.

The fun began, Fiber Optic was the first stop, I had not gotten over the lust since MDSW and had showed them pictures of the graded colors roving, of course they too wanted some. Golding booth was next were I had a big disappointment when I discovered that the cute travel wheel is loaded with plastic knobs, plastic ring on the drive wheel, and a metal type flyer.....I will reserve the rest of my comments on this. I don't want to hurt anyone's feelings but really? a lovely wood, folding wheel that does not fit in a carry on bag and is loaded with plastic? Oh well!

Then the Bossworth booth to pickup my pre-ordered spindle, which turned out to be missing and maybe left back home? I don't know I don't have my Rhinebeck spindle and I am quite disappointed with that. Hopefully Sheila will find it, or make another, and it will show up along with the other spindle I picked that day. I picked one, but did not bring it home with me, I wanted the Kauri wood spindle....

After that we were pretty much game for whatever came, browsed booths, and colors, and stools, and looms, looked at things we had or had not seen before.

The place was busy but it never felt crowed to me, lots and lots of people but no pushing, no one was grouchy, everyone was in Zen mode. Seriously, people focused on the treasures they wanted, and laughing and sharing with friends. What a wonderful place to go. One of the biggest highlights of the show are the knitters themselves, you see people wearing lovely handmade items, colors everywhere, people wearing their creations with pride. This does not happen at MDSW because May is too warm, but Rhinebeck! talk about a fashion show.

One of my friends found heddles for my Structo loom! what a treasure! I was overjoyed to see them and of course bought a bundle, now I can weave at 40 epi on it. Cutie and wonderful is my little loom.

We laughed and shared, I had a number of people I wanted to meet with, that task became difficult since we overloaded the cell towers and messaging and calls were not going through. I did get to see several of my favorite people and meet in person others that I had only met via the interwebs. It was all fun and plans were made for next May in Maryland. Fun fun fun!

My two friends and I had the most wonderful time ever, the trip was easy, no problems agreeing on what we wanted to do, eat or see. I am blessed with my two wonderful friends/sisters that share with me passion for fiber and love for it all.

The biggest laugh was provided by one of them, she was at a booth looking at a spool of silk thread, she bought it, a stranger close by asked her what she was going to do with it, my friend replied, 'Look at it', and that was it!
Oh I can just see the face of the other person, surprised and shocked! but isn't that what we do with most of our treasures that sometimes turn out to be too pretty to use?

I leave you here with the picture of the silk so you too can 'look at it' and dream of garments and wonderful things.

Three Days of Magic! CWDC 2012

Complex Weavers DC 2012
That is where I have been the past three days. The Seminars take place every 2 years, this was my first time, I will do my very best to go next time and the time after that.

I started weaving in 2003 when I had accumulated enough handspun yarn to open a store. I told my friend I was going to give the yarn away because there was no way on earth I could ever knit it all up. She said, no, no, NO! you don't give your yarn away, you buy a loom! so I did, and started one of the most fabulous journeys in my life. From a four shaft table loom and a basic How to book, I soon moved to a 10 shaft Glimakra, and added a couple more along the road.

After I bought the first loom, it was at least 4 years before I took the first weaving class, I did things on my own with email help from my friend. Then came Mary Meigs Atwater Handweavers Guild in Utah, the most wonderful group of people I have ever met. Then Complex Weavers, and moving to Maryland added a spice to my weaving.

Complex Weavers is an international group of creative people, the name intimidates most beginners, but there is no reason for it to be that way. People weave on Inkle looms, with cards using something as simple as two clamps to hold the warp tight, frame looms, treadle, many have computerized and even Jacquard looms. Along with the Seminars, there is a Journal published three times a year, and online study groups. There are members from the USA, Canada, England, Continental Europe, Australia,New Zealand, and other places.

So where is the magic? in creativity, and sharing with 180 like minded people. We all speak the same warp, weft, shaft and shuttle language, we all love color and structure, we share, we learn, and admire each other's work.

The Seminars were all wonderful, full of information, and ideas that jump in your head, all these things we want to create, all the hard learned lessons from others make a dent in our knowledge, and encourage us to just go home and try. The study group meetings allow sharing of interests, discussion of roads we want to take. The Fashion show, the exhibits, lunches and informal group discussions.

Today I realized I only took a couple of pictures, there was so much to see, and so much to take in, I committed things to memory and jotted down notes. The best thing of the whole experience was to be able to put faces names of people I have known for years, many have helped me along the lines, with all I have shared.

Deciding which seminars to sign up for was difficult, since it was my first time I decided to go for simple, and with instructors I knew. You can't go wrong with Daryl Lancaster, Inge Dam, with Inkle looms and Tablet weaving, I took others of course but those two were the highlight for me. With so little time to make things, I have to settle for simple and beautiful and doable.

I attended the double harness study group meeting, because drawlooms fascinate me and I have one in the maybe one day department. You can make similar things with sliding sticks and heddle bars, without committing to the huge intimidating equipment. I 'knew' from online lists most of the people in the meeting, they remembered me, and were just as nice or nicer than online.

I chaired the meeting for the study group in which I am actively involved, the leaders could not make it. It was well attended, and interesting.

With so many wonderful things out there to make,and so many ideas gathered up in my head, there is not enough time in the world to even scratch the surface. I will keep at it, dreaming with the glorious day I can retire and play with yarn all day!

and here we have it! all spun up!

This is the yarn from the graded colors I dyed in May. I used supported spindles and plied on the Hansen espinner.
I am in love!

Next up, ply the Merino, Cashmere, Possum blend I received as a Tour de Fleece Prize

Graded colors

While at MD Sheep and Wool, I fell in love with graded dyed rovings, the shawls make with the yarns spun from them! I had seen one done by Fleegle but somehow it had not clicked.

I did not buy the Fiber Optic roving, because well I had done enough damage for one day and because (trust me on this one) I have plenty of fiber to spin, probably beyond SABLE status by now. I figured the itch would be gone and I would get interested in the next best thing...not so, its been almost a month and I keep going back to the website to look at the beautiful colors. I asked around and was told the dye effect is achieved with Lanaset dyes. Well I have a nice collection of dyes, not the right ones of course..sound familiar?

All of sudden it clicked while watching a plying video! Even if I did spin the right roving , split right down the middle, there is no guarantee that I would end up with the exact same colors on both lengths and would probably have to join at some point to end up with matching colors in both singles. What if I dye the colors separate and spin the singles then join while plying? it would be perfect, I don't even have to spin one continuous skein with all colors, the end goal is the shawl in graded colors, I can join while I knit! Problem solved.

I picked a pound of roving from my stash, the least favorite to over dye. If this works, I will do the same with a pound of lovely Merino Silk I have around here somewhere.

Here are the results: I think I like the set with 6 colors better than the set of 7, not sure. The lightest color is the one I started out with. Not bad considering it was over-dyed and I had to go for saturated and dark in order to cover the old lighter ones. What do you think?

Yarn Fumes at MDSW 2012

This past weekend was 2012 MDSW, my third! can’t believe how fast time goes by, I have been in Maryland 2 years and a bit. This time around I decided I would go on my own since I had a long list of people to meet and a longer list of of things to buy and look for including $xxx worth of stuff a friend had commissioned. I wanted to park close to the gate because I was going to buy a fleece, left the house at 7:10 which got me to the Fair Grounds a bit past 8 am, perfect! great parking spot not before a bit of argument with the boy scout who wanted me to park close to Baltimore because he had to have all his ducks cars in a row, no way no how. I got what I wanted, a spot close to the gate, after all I got there early just for that!

First target, the Spanish Peacock booth, shock! I was already third in line at 8:30! He had published pictures of the booth the night before and I knew exactly which spindles I wanted. It was a matter of seconds after he opened, before I had my spindles, paid and was on my way, no second guessing there, you just can’t go wrong with what you get from Mike. Next up, the Golding booth where I found a lovely spindle for my friend, and another one for me but not before test driving at least 10. Third stop the Bosworth booth for which I had no rush because my spindle was paid and safely tucked away for me to pick up, while there I could not resist and ended up buying another one, they are just too nice, plus now a days it is seldom you get to test drive spindles before you purchase, and after you do, there is no saying what you end up getting. Sheila and I had a few minutes of hugging and tearing up in remembrance of my dear friend Llyn Payne who left us last November, to me it was losing a sister more than a friend. But we won’t go there now, it is still too painful, time will come when I can write about her and reveal more of the wonderful friendship we had, and what she gave me as she left.



With the loot safely secured in my self made (clever if I say so myself) spindle bag, off I went to find the fleece. I stepped into the fleece area, three tables away lay a half opened bag with the most beautiful locks I had seen in some time, picked up a lock, took a picture to IM to my friend with sheep breed and fleece description. If she did not want it, I did! ….not that I needed any fleeces to process mind you, I am already behind as is. She said yes to it, and the fleece hunt was over. To the car with the fleece, not the spindles because it was already too hot and I worried about leaving the spindles to bake in the car, plus I wanted play with them of course. By 9:20 I was done with my homework and had all day to play and meet with friends!



Back to the Main barn to visit, and check stuff out, yes it is pretty much the same people and spirit every year but the colors change there are a few new things to look at, try and admire, the fun is always there. I seriously believe all those wool fumes get in peoples heads and we all enter a stage of hypnosis. I found another spindle at Carolina Homespun, a mid whorl Forrester I had been looking for ‘for ages’, some silk from the Yarn Barn, a wheel or two to try. The Hansen to test spin, yet again.... I had the greatest time teasing Nathan from the Woolie Winder about my Roberta wheel bobbins. Time went by so fast!

At noon I met with a group from the KBTH list, good old time friends, some I had never met in person but we have been corresponding for so long it felt like we knew each other, you know how the online/in person relationships with people end up being. I held a sign with KBTH in big block letters so we could find each other quickly. One of my friends had found some lovely sock yarn from Fiber Optic and the others odds and ends all as pretty. After that I trailed off with another friend, this time a very young enthusiastic knitter , spinner, and clever designer to explore the outside booths at the North end, and most of the barns. A nice chat with ‘The Merlin Tree’ who was amazed to hear I still have a working #2 Hitchhiker wheel, bought a pretty antique/vintage plate from him. Looked at the goats, the sheep, and ate ice cream cones with hard chocolate topping, love those! there is no fair without them for me.

At 6:00 pm it was time for the spin in, I was going to meet yet another friend, we spun until 8:30 and finally left. Way too tired to go back the next day, no way! So I stayed home and played with the birds, the dogs and my new lovely spindles.

What a wonderful weekend! can’t wait for next year!

I did not disappear, I did not forget!

I have been embedded reading Fleegle's Book.

I started spinning way back then, I have loads of books. There is not one book out there that has the wealth of information as this one has.

The only thing I think is wrong with the book is the title. It is not a book just on support spinning, about half or more contains fabulous information on different types of fiber, fiber preparation, advice on what to look for when buying all kinds of fiber and what to avoid. It is not exhaustive information, the type that makes you sleepy and you end up wandering off, the content is rich, entertaining, well researched, and to the point.

I am reading mine (yes, I have not finished, because just reading makes me want to go and find my spindles and experiment) on the NookColor using EZpdf reader. Browsing is easy, fast, the zoom works on the text and the pictures better than any other ebook I have read before.

If you don't have it yet in your hot little hands, I advice you do so as fast as your mouse can click. The pictures, the format, the information are worth more than you can expect to get for the price.

Even if you are not yet a spinner, but have even thought about learning, go get the book, all your doubts will be clear and all you will need after that is a nice amount of fiber and a spindle to spin!

Spin happy!

Support Spindles

If you want an excellent lesson on support spinning, and understand why we spin, just watch this:

But don't stop there, visit: Fleegle's Blog

and after that sit tight for a review coming up on her unique publication: The Book!

Watch read, and if after that you are not tempted, wait till you hear more from me about the book. For now I am reading and watching and learning!

It's not as easy as they make it look

You might have run across this video, Karen Allen interviewed by Martha Steward while knitting a sweater for her on the electronic knitting machine. Scroll down on the page, the video is in the left side almost at the bottom.

In about 5 minutes she casts on, knits the sweater, assembles it and Martha goes out of the shop with the sweater in a bag. We all know the video is heavily edited, also you should know that only due to the properties of Cashmere, a very sticky fiber, is Karen able to cut, sew and assemble the sweater easily without a running stitch.

What brings me to share this video with you? In fact, there is more than one reason.

I have seen there a lot of knitters who are turning to machine knitting. I think they all finally got scared from looking at their stashes and are figuring they will never ever make unless they wise up somehow, and its not going to be by cutting on the yarn budget, that's for sure. Used machines are going for a lot more money than they used to, younger kids are figuring out ways to interact with the machines with opensource source software instead of the very expensive proprietary packages we have. Brother machines are coming back into the market with another brand name, word has it, its the same machines. The yahoo groups and machine knitting Ravelry groups are growing in number of members by the day.

I love the process and the efficiency of it all. I struggle with machine knitting sometimes, specially when it comes to stitches and designs and patterning. No problem with plain garments, no shaping, no changing stitches, that's the easy part. Although I struggle and sometimes I rip more than I knit, I keep at it, I know that in the process I learn and eventually I do come up with things I like and someone can wear.

There are several kinds of knitting machines, as far as stitch patterns are concerned. Shaping, increasing, decreasing, casting on and off, is on the knitter's plate exclusively, of course operating the machine so it will knit different patterns stitches is also up to the knitter. That is where the challenge begins.
There are several kinds of machines, completely manual were the knitter hand manipulates the stitches to create the stitch patterns she wants. Punch card machines, these are limited to 12 or 24 stitch wide patterns and electronic machines which interface with a computer of some sort and can create patterns the width of the machine. Both punch cards and electronic machines require operator's input, push the buttons, unlock the cards, send the command from the computer to the machine, and so on. It gets confusing sometimes and it is easy to forget from one project to the next. I am getting better at it, earlier I showed you several machine knit scarves I made, and now the challenge is a Fair Isle sweater.

Amazing the number of problems I have had with this! I designed the overall fabric in the software, knit a swatch, designed the sweater, and have started it five times! Once I ripped the body, and both sleeves!
Why? Because I got over confident and forgot a few steps....after knitting the body and both sleeves I knew I did not have enough yarn to complete the whole thing. I still wanted to use the yarn, so back to the design board to figure out how to use a lot less contrasting yarn just enough so that the main color will suffice. The latest design is yet to be tested, this time I am feeling confident that I might make it. Just need time to try.

Here is the first swatch:


Yet another try:


Hopefully this one will do the trick:

Copyright in the fashion industry

Every time there is a copyright discussion among fiber artists, it ends up bad, 'every one' knows it all, and 'they' hold the truth.

I run away from those discussions, I acknowledge those who serve as inspiration and ask for permission to use a technique...(bad experience with this one)...long story, not worth the trouble.

However, things might be different than everyone thinks.

The facts are:

• Copying a pattern, and selling it as is, is illegal.
• Copying patterns to include as free with yarn purchase, is illegal.
• Techniques (such as stitch patterns), caston methods, are not under copyright protection. EVEN if it was an original idea.
  
• A garment made based on a finished garment, or a picture, is not illegal. You had to do the math.


• Using someone's idea without acknowledgement is RUDE.


ETA: This is important enough to pull out of the commnents. Fleegle wrote:
"And you forgot the most important point. Forbidding someone from selling something made from your pattern is not legal. If you purchase a pattern, you have every right to sell the finished product, regardless of the bafflegab on the pattern itself."
Thank you! for valuable input.

Enjoy! and play nice! Johanna Blakley on TED

Camouflage Socks

Socks are the perfect portable project, minus the heels and toes, for those you have to be at home. I always have a pair on the needles. I also have enough sock yarn to knit a pair a month for the next N years...but lets not go there...

Way back then, a long time ago, when I first learned to turn heels and toes, in my first ever visit to the Black Sheep shop in SLC, I found a couple of skeins of camouflage sock yarn, from Lorna's lace. I remember the yarn cost a lot of money, it was more expensive than any other sock yarn I had ever seen. But I had to have it. I knit the socks and wore them until the toes wore out! It was probably my third pair of hand knit socks ever.

Toes and heels wear out, of course that happens, it has happened to many pairs since then, and will continue, no way out of that one. I usually throw them out because by then the rest of the socks are not even worth re-knitting the damaged parts. This pair however was special, too special to me. I had the two little balls of left over yarn and the old torn socks in a sack. I could not get myself to throw them out....I looked all over for similar yarn, no luck, they just don't dye the color!

Then one day it hit me! what if! I unravel the socks, condition the yarn, get rid of the areas that are not worth saving and re-knit the socks using the new yarn for the feet and the old for the legs? at least I can wear them around the house ...thought me.

I set to the task, skeined and washed the yarn, added a tid bit of olive oil to the rinse water. The resulting yarn was almost perfect, even the pills fell off! a bit lighter in color than the unused balls, but who was going to know?

....and here my friends are my new camo socks that will probably last a good number of years, I have almost given up on finding similar yarn, I might as well enjoy these, can you even tell where the old and the new yarn came together?

now it seems the picture is a bit dark, will have to fix that.

On other great news for your spinning wheels, we have now available to us carnauba wax in a blend that contains no toxins and is perfect to condition the leather bearings, look here! Etsy Shop with Carnauba Wax

Colombia 2012

ETA: Grumble! blogger is up to something now. I can't get hard returns to show up. Excuse the mess!

I had to add all the paragraph tags by hand!.......so much for a content editor

The first month of the year is almost gone...well gone really! Fiberwise I have not done much this month, . I have not knit except for a couple of inches on my camo socks, the back of a cardigan on the machine that promptly became balls of yarn, and a cowl I knit yesterday, and is now drying. I have not sat idle either, I went to Colombia for a quick trip, a very short week. Getting ready for the trip took most of my time and energy the first two weeks in January, gone one week, and now the month is almost over.

The trip was wonderful, but bittersweet, my grandma passed away on January the 2nd, life played its tricks and I did not make it in time to see her one last time...I spent precious time with my dad, his wife, my siblings and nephews. A couple of visits with my cousins, and a dear family of very close friends. I did not visit with anyone else, not that I did not want to, time was too precious so I had to cut it short and be very selective of who I was going to spend time with. I had it all planned out, in a calendar, day by day, hour by hour. It all happened like clockwork, amazing since Bogota is a crazy city of 10 million people in which traffic is a daily nightmare. Somehow it all happened.

Three days into the trip my Lolita dog became ill, I found out via a bizarre email in which the pet sitter in answer to my question said she did not know if Lola had eaten..... With this I contacted a dear friend,asked her to go over to the house and check on her. Sure enough, she was very ill, was rushed to the vet and for a couple of days we did not know if she was going to make it. Miracles do happen, and now my beloved 14 yo yorkie is back home and doing quite well.

This is me being really picky, the other person in the knitting teacher wondering what else I could possibly find :)

Part of the reason of my trip to Colombia was to visit the Friends of Colombian Orphans Machine Knitting Workshop at Hogares Club Michin. I was the only board member of the organization that had not visited the site yet! About time since we have been at it for almost 4 years now. Two other board members and I had made arrangements with Michin to visit. We wanted to have time to talk with the kids in training, the teacher, and the admin staff. I wanted to see first hand the finished goods, the machines and get a feel for the teacher and the kids. They are my people and I can read them well, there is a cultural take in how people communicate. Communication is not just about spoken language, it is also about body language and the person listening on the other end.

I am very happy to report that things are going smoothly. The kids that have trained or are in training are happy, they have learned quite a bit, they are capable of making useful things on the machine. A little guy wants to become a fashion designer, and he is dead serious about it. Some of the others see it as a potential source of income in their future, there is even one that wants to become a doctor and sees machine knitting as a pass time and distraction for stressful times in her life. Hurray! in their eyes, it has a purpose, they are learning a skill, their lives are enriched with it.

The teacher is a wonderful woman who enjoys machine knitting and has now discovered that she loves teaching, and the kids, she is fully identified with the purpose of Michin, and is having a great time at it, aside from the fact that now she has become a full time employee. This means that we are touching yet more lives, expanding the purpose, we are giving this woman a steady source of income, health insurance and benefits for her and her kids.

The staff at Michin is the best! The organization was started 50 years ago by a woman who invited kids to her home after school in hopes of keeping them occupied and out of trouble until their parents got home from work. She fed them and came up with stuff for them to do. Much to her dismay she soon found out that some of the kids had no homes to go to, and no parents to wait for. Very soon she had more kids than space at her house, as time passed she learned of the troubling lives some of these kids had. Through donations and hard work she bought a house where kids could go after school and some even live at. Today they have seven houses, one for each age group, boys and girls are separated after a certain age, a new program created by the Colombian government is sponsoring one of the houses exclusively for battered women and their kids. The Colombian child protective services helps support the organization, but with so many kids there is never enough money. The big concern for everyone, and FOCO’s target population, kids over 14 who will soon age out of the orphanage and will have to leave if not adopted by 18. Bound to the streets or who knows where if they don’t have a skill that can help them earn a living. There are 170 kids at Michin, 100 of them have no legal ties with their families, either because they have been taken away or because they were abandoned so long ago that there is no telling where the families are. Eighty percent of those kids are 12 years old or older....those are the kids we have to focus on, and pray that the rest get adopted before they get there.

That is the short version of the story, lots more to it of course.......

Future goals, to create a cooperative so the machine knitting program becomes self sustainable, and a source of work for kids that age out, and expand to the battered women group. For that, we need money to buy more machines, and hire at least one more teacher. Michin is in the process of buying another house to move the woodwork shop, the bakery and the knitting shop. Once there we can expand the program. They are close to getting the house, most of the cash is ready, one more little push and it will happen....in the mean time, FOCO has to come up with the resources to full fill the goals.

Can you help? Five bucks will buy a pound of yarn for the kids to learn with...

And now we have Ewe

This pattern came out at the end of the year, Fair Isle and stranded knitters quickly fell for it. Of course me too!

I used my own handspun yarn...not surprised to find out I had more than the 9 natural shades of wool called for, and the 9 I used are Shetland wool.

Ram heads:

Then the ewes:

It gets worse:

Ram and Ewe blanket

and even worse with a cowl

I think the cowl is a bit too much, but the blanket is a cutie for sure!

I might knit it but on the machine, as I said before I am focused on lace knitting and time is precious, since I want the blanket, have the yarn and it will go quicker on the machine....why not? Specially if it is my handspun yarn, and remember we said it is not like I am going to put the yarn on the machine push a button and come back to a finished blanket...nope..I have to start by drafting the pattern, punching the cards or drawing it in the software, it all depends on which machine is best for the yarn I have.

That will happen when I come back from far away lands in about a week or so.

Stay tuned!

Necessity Is The Mother Of Productivity

The green one is a different pattern, here is a close up:

I needed a number of presents, and I had to come up with something quickly. I went shopping, but not store shopping, I went stash shopping instead. One pound 8 ounces each color of lovely mohair yarn, good for anything and nothing really. I had not been able to come up with a purpose for it in a couple of years. That would be nice, to make ‘something’ with all that, but what? what could it be that would go quickly, cover the required number of presents and be good enough to be proud of and worthy of giving away to loved ones?

I had thought about woven scarves, at 8 epi x 10 inches wide considering 10% takeup x 70 inches... 155 yards per scarf plus fringes plus loom waste, plus the amount required for weft, roughly another 100 yards. The plan sounded like a good one except I had controversial sources for the number of yards per pound, I did not want to wind and measure mohair yarn of all things, did I really have enough? Sampling in this case is tricky you need to weave at least one complete scarf to know if the end product is worth it, then set up the loom for bulk production. It sounded doable IF I had enough yarn, but something in the back of my mind did not really trust how the mohair would behave on the loom. What if I ended up with a big mess of yarn, sticky warp and a nightmare to weave? I did not have enough time to deal with a mess.....think think think.

Handknitting was out of the question, no time for that, the project had to involve some kind of machine either loom or knitting machine. Off to Ravelry I went, on the machine knitting list there is an ongoing thread where people post completed projects for the month. (it is a spin-off from ‘a garment a month’ something we did a couple of years back inspired by the Cabled Sheep, yes blame me, I was a copycat) There is where you are likely to find things that people are liking and making. Sure enough, Tuck Lace scarves by the bundle. Someone got a pattern from a guild meeting, shared it with everyone, and as quickly as ‘I like it, its easy’ tons of scarves made their appearance.

My next question: Would the mohair knit up easy on the machine? would I get all kinds of hanging fuzz on the gatepegs? Quick answer from another machine knitter who had done a complete tutorial on working with this yarn! Yarn and pattern in hand I went to the machine, 40 minutes later I had a lovely scarf, and then another, and another and another. In about three weeks I had 12 scarves! all the yarn used up, all the needed presents (and then some) ready to go.

Fiber friends are wonderful, all the community is great! The machine knitting community is smaller and we are all learning and unearthing old techniques together, also coming up with new stuff more suitable for current times and available yarns. There is hardly a question that goes unanswered, most of the 60’s hard core machine knitters are still around, and active, lots of new comers available to learn. I am sort of in the middle, I don’t know a lot, I learned bits and pieces from my mom, have read my way through books, handouts, magazines and tutorials, I know more about it than most of the newer generation of machine knitters, but have lots yet to learn.

We are seeing more and more people interested in machines, mostly its people that started out as handknitters and are overwhelmed with huge stashes. There are only a couple of companies making new machines, most of the people have found theirs in a basement, under a bed, in an attic, on Craigslist or Ebay. What is amazing most of these machines get be brought back to life with a new sponge bar ($30) and a bit of oil and TLC. Newer generations, the really geeky ones, are finding ways to connect electronic machines to computers bypassing the expensive connecting systems available. It will only get better. Hopefully the existing companies will keep production going, and maybe the ones that left will come back on board.

….and no its not cheating, you can’t put the yarn on the machine, push a button and walk away...it does not work that way. You have to have a swatch, figure out your gauge, cast on, knit, decrease and increase, cast off, block, steam and seam just like any other piece of knitting. In handknitting it is easy to spot a mistake, you can see both the right and reverse sides of the fabric at any given time, in machine knitting you are seeing only the wrong side all the time. Make a mistake and you might not see it until the piece is completed and off the machine....make a mistake, push the wrong button, forget to thread the carriage and all your work will land on your feet, unceremoniously just with a big ‘broken toe bang’. In machine knitting you really have to understand pattern construction, there are a number of techniques for bands, button bands and shaping that are similar but different than hand knitting. Of course you can buy a pattern and follow the instructions, push the carriage and come out with something wearable, but patterns for modern looks are not all over the place....the whole process makes you a more recursive knitter I think.

…..No doubt things go faster on the machine, disasters are also bigger and not as forgivable as in hand knitting. Do I hand knit? of course all the time! my sticks are my loyal companions every where I go.

What is ahead for 2012?

I am here! knitting and weaving and spinning and having a grand time at it. This past year was not big on knitting projects, I completed a few but not as many as in the past. I wove more than I knit, I think.

I also set up the knitting machines again, knit a couple of sweaters on them, and never took pictures, that must be a first for me.

The last two years have not been very good in my personal life, but we won't go there. I am grateful I am hanging in there and still tangling up yarn.

My stash did grow, a LOT with the recent closing of the LYS, it is hard to stay away from lovely yarns at great closeout prices. I bought several packages for complete cardigans, some for the machine some for handknitting. But I don't have specific patterns in mind for any of them. Time will tell and I will either design something or follow/modify a pattern.

The plan this year is to make a good dent in the stash, both weaving and knitting. Weaving just got easier and I should not procrastinate as much between projects because I bought a tieup assist contraption for the Glimakra loom. Now that I don't have to crawl under the loom to tieup and I can put on one long warp and weave and change tieups easy, I should be able to do a lot more. I wanted to do this for a long time, but I kept putting it off. Finally in early Fall I set up the loom with a 16 yd warp for towels...I could change the treadling sequence but did not want to crawl and change the tieup. I soon grew bored with the possibilities and lack of pattern variation, it took me a long long time to finish the warp. That is when I decided life is too short and if want to get more weaving done the tieup assist was the way to go.

The second and big plan is to knit more on the machines, there are so many things I want to do, and so many lovely things out there, I have to do at least some on the machine if I ever want to get at least half way down the list.

Handknitting of course, my forever love with lace. I have to finish Princess so I can move on to another large project which will likely be the Queen Spider shawl. The piece is lovely, and I love the story behind it, it is a must.

Then there are socks, and more sock yarn that is waiting for me to work on.

In conclusion, I doubt I will sit idle, and I know I will have fun.

Last but not least revive the blog, keep track of what I make and write down the good and the bad so at least I can learn from my own experiences.

With that in mind, I welcome a New Year and wish you all the same!

Weaving Deflected Threads

Last night I was reading emails and wondering how I could use some glitter yarn to weave a scarf (yes I tend to multitask). To my surprise there had been a recent discussion in one of the weaving lists. As always, generous fiber artists had lots of references, among others one to an article in Handwoven, Nov./Dec. 2009, pp. 28-29 by Bobbie Irwin. Magazine, yarn and loom came out, and by 3:00 am this morning I was ready to start weaving. I started measuring the warp at 12:30 am, so it wasn't too bad.

The article says to pickup the individual threads, but I figured there had to be a faster way of doing it. I combined techniques, made string heddles attached to a heddle stick. I am almost done weaving the scarf.

Because I know others are interested in using novelty yarns in the warp, I made this short video illustrating how I did it. Hope it helps someone.