Madison Fund
In case you are interested, the shawl that I spun and wove is up for raffle this month.
Tickets are $5 each. For more information, check out the Madison Fund webpage for Triadelphia Veterinary Clinic.
Thanks for your support!
Hound Dog
Well, I said that I would tell you what was keeping me away from the blog, so here it is.
Actually, it is more than one thing. I have been very busy at work, so coming home to sit at the computer to write some more isn’t high on my list of things to do. But the bigger thing has been what many of you are already aware of, we had to say goodbye to our dog Bogey back on July 31.
We did see the day coming. In fact, the socks that I made for Mr. Penney’s birthday are in the Hounddog colorway because of how closely it mimicked Bogey’s own coloring.
It sounds silly to some, I know, but without having Bogey around; things just have not been the same around here. Motivation to do things kind of went away with him.
As time passed, we decided to start looking at rescues because we thought that maybe we should give another dog a home. At the same time, we decided to donate items to be raffled off by our vet because of how good they were to us when the time came for Bogey. They use the funds from the raffle to pay for the medical expenses of strays that people bring in as well as those that don’t have enough to meet the bills that a pet can sometime rack up. Paul donated a gift certificate for a massage, and I donated the shawl that I entered in this past year’s Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival.
Just as Paul was about to leave the house to take our donations up to the vet, the vet emailed Paul. Mind you, the vet had no idea that Paul was coming over there with donations, nor that we were contemplating adopting a dog. The email was that a beagle had just come to them through one of their other clients. This beagle’s owner had just died, and the beagle needed a home or he would be going to the pound. Were we thinking about adopting a dog?
The stars had aligned and we adopted Comet, a six year old beagle on December 15.
Are things the same? No, but they aren’t supposed to be the same either. Comet is a very good boy, like Bogey was, but has a good bit more energy. He is still getting adjusted to his new home, as he was shuffled around for awhile before he came to us.
I must say, when I was contemplating writing this blog entry over a month ago, this was not the ending I thought this story was going to have. But I am very glad it does end this way, by beginning something new. We still miss Bogey, but we like to think that he was somehow involved in getting Comet to us.
Next up, one more reason why you haven’t heard from me in awhile.
Copyright 2013 by G. P. Donohue for textillian.com
Thank you!
Thank you to all that have donated in support of my run in the Race for the Cure. As always, it is very much appreciated.
This year, I ran my fastest 5K. That was truly unexpected. I finished in 23:10. My previous best was 23:38. Yeah!
To celebrate that, I have added these shibori scarves to the prize list. I give you the details on how I made them in a later post.
But for now, the winners of the prizes:
For the scarves: Mary Jane Pfeffer, Teresa Greenhalgh, Joan Hajek, and Roseann Mauroni.
And the winner of the throw is Ellen King!
Thank you all!
Copyright 2013 by G. P. Donohue for textillian.com
Missing You
Hi all! It has been a while, hasn’t it? (Please don’t go back and count how many times I have said that in this blog.)
A lot has gone on since that last post. Some good, some bad, some indifferent. I will get into all of that later, but right now, I am raising funds for my run in Race for the Cure.
And this year’s thank you gift that will be raffled off to those who support me is the Still Waters throw that got a first place in this year’s Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival.
There is one catch, though. The throw will be in my weaving guild’s show that ends in June, so the winner of the throw will not actually receive it until June.
For every $5 donated in support of my running the Race for the Cure, you get an entry in the raffle for the Still Waters throw. And there will be more prizes to come.
Thank you for your support. And good luck!
Copyright 2013 by G. P. Donohue for textillian.com
Every Day I Write the Book
The following projects have gotten me to try something new for me: taking notes.
You see, usually, I just go by memory and examining the first item I knit of a pair to knit the second one of the set. That doesn’t seem to be working for me anymore.
Case 1:
These are Seed Vessels cowl and mittens from The Country Diary Book of Knitting, knit in Spirit Trail Fiberworks’ Brigantia that I got as part of Jennifer’s club. Actually, it is more accurate to say the cowl and mittens are based on, rather than actually are, as the cowl in the book is over 20 inches long, and I couldn’t imagine someone wanting 20 inches of knit fabric under her chin, so I kept it to 12 inches. That, and the mitten pattern is knit flat and sewn together to make very small mittens that would not fit an adult. This is where the problems came in.
I used Ann Budd’s The Knitter’s Handy Book of Patterns as the basis for the mittens, adding the cable pattern to match seed vessels. I played around with the cap of the mitten, and got the result you see above. When it came time to make the second mitten, I could not get the count right for where to start the cap so that the mittens would match up with the cable pattern. I knitted, ripped, knitted, ripped, and knitted again. I finally got it right, but if I had written things down as I went, I could have saved myself some trouble.
Case 2:
These are the basketweave socks in Sheila’s Hounddog colorway. (On a side note, Sheila is closing the doors to the dye shop, so if you want a particular colorway, you better hurry.) I did the first sock, but didn’t get around to the second sock for a month or so. Figuring out which row I stopped on to start doing the heel was annoying. Again, if I had just made a few notes, I would have saved myself some aggravation.
So, that is where this comes in:
I picked up some journals with grid paper that I can take notes in for my projects. I have a journal for knitting, for weaving, for spinning, and for dyeing.
And I have started using the knitting journal.
This is the Brigantia that I picked up at MDSW. Pretty sweet, huh?
BTW, in totally unrelated news, Mr. Penney and I are now officially married! Woot!
Copyright 2013 by G. P. Donohue for textillian.com
Still
This blanket started out as just wanting to make a blanket to enter into the blanket competitions at the Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival this year. Now, being that I came up with this bright idea somewhere around March, I knew I didn’t have time to spin the yarn for the blanket. In fact, I wasn’t exactly sure when I was going to be able to go and shop for yarns for this blanket either. Then it hit me, “I have been weaving a lot with sock yarns. Why not use the sock yarns that are in my stash for the blanket?” And so my quest began in earnest.
The sock yarns in my stash are mostly fingering weight and light fingering weight, so each skein is usually at least 400 yards. After decorating the bed with all of these yarns, I chose five skeins of Djinni (by Kate at Dragonfly Fibers) in different shades of blue/blue-green for the warp. I decided to wind all of the yarns together at once so that the color could blend together when viewed from a distance. (At least, that was my hope.)
I still hadn’t decided on a color for the weft, and was immediately thinking of something around orange as blue’s complement. But after seeing the warp chains, the warp reminded me of water, with the light reflecting off of it. I ran with that theme and went looking for a blue/blue-green for the weft.
Fortunately, just as I was finishing winding the warp chains to dress the loom, the Homespun Yarn Party came around for me to look for weft yarn. Kate was going to be there, as well as other vendors that may have a yarn to use as weft for the blanket. Because of the quantity that I needed (at least four skeins) I got there early. Evidently, a lot of other people “needed” yarn as well, because there was a line to get into the place. After doing a few loops of the place to determine my options, I was right back at Kate’s booth, buying Djinni in the Blue Spruce colorway for the weft.
With the warp on the loom at 12 epi and a weft yarn in hand, weaving commenced.
The pattern is a variation on what is called a progressive twill. The threading sequence, along with the treadling sequence, causes the pattern to kind of gradually go from one color to the other. I chose it so try and get two different effects, one of a simple twill from a distance, and close up showing something much more complicated. (It is not really that complicated, but it is not as easy to figure out compared to a simple twill.)
I found my Schacht end deliver shuttles just before starting the weaving, so I decided to use them. It turns out that this light fingering weight yarn is as big as I would want to go with these shuttles. That said, using them again after a long absence reminded me of how much I love them and why I got them in the first place.
The blanket was woven in about a month, with a few days of quality spent with me, it, and Mary Kate and Ashley. I actually had a day or two to spare before entering it into the festival, which gave me just enough time to obsess over it.
I really do like the finished blanket and am very happy with the results. I call it “Still Waters Run Deep”, taking off the water theme and something that appears very simple and quiet from a distance, is actually rather complicated and interesting when viewed up closed. And speaking of up close.
Copyright 2013 by G. P. Donohue for textillian.com
What I Got
Another Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival has come and gone. This year, the weather could not have been more perfect. It was just cool enough for those that wanted to wear the sweaters and shawls that they had knit could do so without dying from heatstroke, and it was sunny the entire weekend. People thought I was a little underdressed (I was in t-shirt and shorts), but I work in a freezer-like environment, so my personal thermostat is a bit off at this point.
While I still got plenty of fiber this year, it is nowhere near the amount that I have purchased in past years. This is mainly due to not having gotten to working with what I have purchased in past years, and I didn’t see a point in just adding to the queue if I didn’t already have a project in mind for it, or if I already had something extremely similar waiting for me at home. So I did not get a fleece this year, nor did I get any large bumps of Romney and mohair.
That is not to say that I came home empty handed.
On Saturday, my first purchases was at Kimber’s Fiber Optic booth. She has started applying her gradients to yarn as Paintbox Gradients, and she had those that she has already released at the booth. I picked up Bitter Lime to Rose and Copper to Verdigris on Kashmir sock yarn. Each little skein is 30 yards, for a total of 450 yards for each colorway.
I then stopped by Jennifer’s Spirit Trail Fiberworks booth for yarn to make a cardigan. As I already mentioned, I work in a freezer-like environment, so I have decided that I am going to make myself a cardigan to wear at work. This yarn is Brigantia, a DK weight that is 85% Polwarth wool and 15% silk. The skeins are arranged as shown because I am planning on a stripe across the chest. I am going to be using one of Ann Budd’s Knitter’s Book of Handy… patterns for the cardigan, though I have not entirely decided which one.
On Sunday, I went back to Fiber Optic to pick up Bitter Lime to Rose in the merino/silk to spin. For some reason, I always miss this on the pre-orders, so I picked it up at the festival, since it has all of my favorite colors in one place!
I also picked up a bullseye bump from Loop. The colorway is Sand Dollar, and the fiber is merino, tussah silk, and bamboo. I have seen these around for awhile and always wanted to try one. I currently have it on the wheel, and will give you a report on it later.
Finally, on Sunday, I picked up my entries.
The shawl got a first place, though it was moved from shawl to scarf, which is fine by me.
And my blanket, that has been a poorly kept secret, also got a first in its category: blankets made with at least 50% wool. I will tell you more about this next time.
Copyright 2013 by G. P. Donohue for textillian.com
Get Lucky
If you are judge for Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival, please turn back now.
Point of No Return
These socks took close to forever for me.
I blame this on the needles. No, really. The needles. And those needles? Signature Needle Arts 6 inch double points. Why? Because they are too damn pointy. I was splitting yarn like I have never split yarn before.
I got the needles at last year’s Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival. I had heard so much about them, and such raves, that I thought that I would give them a try. To try them out, I made the socks above using Smooshy with Cashmere that I got from Cloverhill at the same festival. And a splitting I went with the first sock. Another problem that I had is that I had a difficult time seeing my stitches on the main part of the needle, as the needle’s color was close to the yarn that I was using. Maybe I just need better lighting, in that case.
The first sock took a darn long time, but since the needles were new to me and the yarn was new to me, I needed to eliminate one variable to see what was causing the splits. So for the second sock, I changed back to my Addi Turbos. No splits. Not a one. (BTW, Smooshy with Cashmere? Very nice yarn. Will definitely use again.)
Just to confirm, I started another pair of socks in a yarn that I have used before with no issues, Sheila’s Wullenstudio sock yarn.
As you can see in the photo, I am back to using Addi Turbos. Why? Because I was splitting with the Signatures.
Now maybe all of those that rave about these needles aren’t using the stiletto points, but that is all that is available for the double points unless you get a custom order or get the 4 inch needles, which are too small for me. Or maybe they are using the needles with yarns that have a harder twist than what I have tried before. I will have to give that a try, as these needles are too expensive to just let sit idle.
Copyright 2013 by G. P. Donohue for textillian.com.