Finished Objects!!!

It has been a productive Fall for knitting so far -- I've finished a pair of socks for Stephen, am 85% finished with a pair for me, and have just finished up the Pretty Thing cowl. Without further adieu, here's the evidence:


Spey Valley socks for Stephen -- he took them for their first test drive at The Common Ground Fair this September.


This is Lacunae -- which I decided to knit in part because I think the pattern is interesting and in part because "lacuna/ae" was always one of my favorite words in academia...


...isn't it cool how the pattern opens up to show the spaces between the ribbing (the proverbial lacunae)? These two photos show the first sock in progress -- I'm at about the same point with the second sock now. This is my PATH train knitting project so I probably get to knit about 5 rounds a day (it's a short commute...)



Finally, we have the afore-mentioned "Pretty Thing" cowl. I've been wanting to knit a cowl for an age because as anyone who knows me at all knows, I would wear a turtleneck even in the middle of July if I could get away with it, and a cowl is essentially a stand-alone turtleneck. This cowl is knit from a wool/angora (rabbit) blend that is stunningly soft and warm.


...and is also well known, I always pull my turtlenecks over my chin...this cowl is so soft and fluffy that I might just never take it off.

I have some traveling to do this weekend which is always good for knitting -- I hope to finish Lacunae, seam a Baby Surprise Jacket, and start another pair of socks...we'll see!

Candy Stick Wool

I returned home from a trip to Minnesota to find this waiting for me and promptly burst into tears:


Bobbins from left to right: merino, bamboo/merino, alpaca.

Why tears? Because it was a total surprise; I'd been talking about buying or making a lazy kate for an age and had done nothing about it. While I was traveling, Stephen made one for me (out of a box that had contained contractor bags, a detail I quite enjoy) -- and even covered it with paper and set up the 3 loose bobbins that were lying around.



What's funny, too, is that I would never have considered combining the blue/green/white together but I like it -- the white alpaca softens and helps blend the blue/green tones; it reminds me of candy sticks I used to buy on car trips when I was growing up. It reminds me, too, that it's good to get a different perspective on colors and textures, too.

How Does Your Garden Grow?

Time for a mid-August garden update:

I wasn't expecting the Hopi Black Dye sunflowers to be poly-headed but we have one that is out of control! I've been able to harvest two sunflower heads which are drying in the study right now.


Closeup of an immature sunflower. My test for seed "done-ness" is to wait until the center of the flower turns dark and the bracts begin to shrivel.


Cosmos, purple basil, dahlias, and black-eyed susans.


A mound of dahlias....I now have four tupperwares filled with flowers in the freezer.

There are two pots of black-eyed susans (one of flowers and one of leaves) steeping in the kitchen right now -- I'm hoping to dye some yarn this weekend so stay tuned!

What To Do At The Laundromat

Tie teeny, tiny knots on the fringe of my scarf...I'm really almost done!!

Flowers, Yarn, and a Finished Object!

What an amazing couple of weeks: the weather has been like what I remember summers were during my New England childhood (70's to low 80's, sunny, and dry), I spent a wonderful long weekend in Portland, Maine, the garden is exploding with flowers, and I finished both a skein of wool AND the Fiddlehead scarf.

First, the finished objects:


Fiddlehead is what became of my first experiment dying wool with an indigo vat. I've soaked the finished scarf thoroughly in salt water to ward off turning my neck blue when I wear it in the fall. We'll see how well that goes...stay tuned. The pattern itself is easy to memorize and very forgiving -- just what I look for in a lace pattern.

Next up is my first attempt at 3-ply — "New Day" (Spunky Eclectic's February 2009 fiber...SURPRISE! I'm way behind in my spinning...):


It's a dangerous place for yarn in this household. Between cats and crazy yarn slugs...no yarn is safe...

As an aside -- if anyone is searching for a good video tutorial on how to create 3-ply from singles, check out this. It's very clear and accessible. Reading how to navajo ply wasn't working for me, just because of my learning style. I had to see it in action to understand it.

Last but not least, here's a look at garden progress! I've been gathering marigolds and cosmos to dry. Dahlias and zinnias have just started appearing; I've been keeping flowers in a tupperware wedged in the back of the freezer. Here's a look at the latest:



There's progress on the weaving front too -- more on that soon.

Dyer's Garden

One of the things that has made me happiest in the past few months has been working on the Dyer's Garden that Stephen designed for me in his Urban Garden Design Class at Brooklyn Botanic Garden last fall. If you click the image in the post, you'll see all the plants we're growing in our 9 x 6 plot as well as a key listing what color each plant should yield. (My favorite two things about the garden map itself -- besides all the care and thought that went into creating it -- are the compass rose and the leafy 'M').

We spent the winter gathering seeds and growing seedlings...and then turned over the plot in April. But now the flowers are starting to come up, at last. Here are some images:


French Brocade marigolds, grown from seed. Once you realize you can dye with marigolds, you never look at this common border plant the same way...


Cheery Cosmos...these are from seeds we gathered last year.


Two Coreopsis plants. We had planned on yellow [ed. maroon] Coreopsis, but found these pink plants instead. I'm not sure what color they'll yield (if any), but it will be fun to find out.


This is a Hopi Black Dye Sunflower -- I cannot wait to see how it is coming along!


This is a view of our crazy Dahlias, Black Eyed Susans, the mound of Madder (which will take forever to establish itself, so no dye from that this year), and the Hopi Red Dye Amaranth in the background.

All the plants are coming along now that it has gotten a bit warmer and isn't raining incessantly. This year is my "experiment and see what happens" year -- I have no idea how any of this will turn out. Regardless, it's fun to play in the dirt and admire the flowers.

Embarking on Weaving I Final Project

I think my favorite aspect of weaving so far is that it allows me to bring together all the bits and pieces of yarn, ribbon, fabric, images, thoughts that I've been gathering for so many years. I finally DO have a reason to use the scraps of ribbon left over from dresses my mother made me when I was growing up or the few odd yards of a spinning experiment. Here's how some of the work for my latest project is shaping up:









You can see more here.