Summertime!

Wow, it's been a while since my last post. I think I have a pretty good excuse though. I moved to a different city and started a new and very satisfying job in May. My knitting time has suffered a little and I've resorted to knitting plain socks most days.

This sock may be plain but that heel is extraordinary: Sweet Tomato Heel by Cat Bordhi!

I've made a little time to dabble in a summer pastime that began last year. Dyeing yarn with natural dyes. So last summer I had some success but I wasn't totally impressed with the colours. I don't wear pastels, peaches, lime green or yellow... I love vibrant, rich deep colours. My favorite colours, red, purple, blue and teal, are the most difficult to get from natural dyes! The colours I got last summer were not those ones.

This year, with the move an everything, I didn't get a chance to plant any dye-plants in my pots. I cheated a little and bought some natural dyes from Maiwa.  I bought Madder, Cochineal and Indigo. I had Logwood as well from my initial trip to Maiwa when I was in Vancouver. These should give me the colours I craved.

I started with logwood, and some copper-acetate liquor I made using copper pipes, vinegar and hydrogen peroxide. I mordanted my Polwarth fingering yarn (from Rovings near Winnipeg) in the copper and then put it in the dye pot. When I pulled it out this is what I got:

Gorgeous navy and purple mix! I'm knitting it up into a Travelling Woman shawl. 

Then I had some merino sock yarn from Acme Fibres that I had dyed with black beans. While the process was fun, the pale grey blue just wasn't doing it for me anymore. I put that in the dye bath, thinking it would turn a medium periwinkle or something. When I pulled it out though:

A dark denim-y navy! Almost black but definitely blue overtones. WOW. That was unexpected but really cool. I know black is hard to get with natural dyes. This came close.

Stay tuned for more!

A tale of two thumbs

When I began knitting, I knit mostly for myself. I felt had to learn how to knit before I felt that the things I made were worthy of giving away. I've been knitting (obsessively!) for about 7 years now, and lately I've knit more for other people than I have for myself. I love seeing the expression on the person's face when I give them something handmade. Knitted gifts are a rarity nowadays. I like to knit patterns with interesting details: cables, lace, colourwork. However, sometimes the simplest thing is the most appreciated.

My friend Mark is the Mennonite chaplain at the University of Manitoba. I've spent a fair amount of time there over the course of my two degrees. It's well known in the "Menno office" that I'm a knitter. One day Mark came to me and said he had worn through the thumbs of a pair mittens that his mother had made for him. Those mittens were especially important to him because his mother could no longer knit and therefore she couldn't repair them or knit him new ones. He wanted to know, could they be fixed?

Well if there's one thing I love to knit, it's mittens. Mittens in are an essential item in Manitoba and no friend of mine would have cold thumbs if I could help it! I said I could probably attach brand new thumbs in an hour or two! Mark was ecstatic!

So one afternoon I brought yarn and needles to school with me and attached some new thumbs. This is the response I got from Mark:

Such a simple thing, but I made his day and I was happy do to it. He said now the mittens were even more special now because they were made by his mother and fixed by the "queen of knitting", as he put it.

In this throw-away world, it feels great to know that some people still value hand-made items!

Monsters!!!

I know I haven't posted in awhile. I've been busy writing a hundred page thesis so I know you'll forget me :) Despite not posting, I have still been knitting! My current obsession is knitted toys and monsters.

Back in September I ordered 5 patters from DangerCraft. Wow talk about addictive. I'm so addicted I ordered her Big Book of Knitted Monsters with my Christmas money!

First I knit a monster chunk:

Then I knit a little boucle monster that hubby named Mortimer:

Then I knit Sammie the sock monster, complete with his own little socks:

Then I knit two little monkeys for my niece and nephew for Christmas. I put little magnets in their hands and I'm told my niece wears her monkey around her neck! Adorable!

Then this week I decided to cast on Penelope. She is super soft and adorable. I know the little girl who will get her (it's a surprise) is going to LOVE her! :)

 

Going to cast on another right now!

 

Knitting Season

Where did August go? I must have blinked and missed it. Oh wait, I was working full time and writing my thesis, which means a black hole must have opened up and swallowed every waking hour.

Well it's September now, and that means one thing.

No, I'm not thinking of school.

Despite the +30C temperatures today, autumn is just around the corner. It's my favorite season, with cool crisp weather and leave crunching underfoot. And then there's knitting.

I haven't had a lot of time to knit lately, but I recently went on a trip to visit my family in Ontario, which kick started my knitting mojo. My aunties requested some knitted items so we hit up the local yarn shop of non-other than the Yarn Harlot herself: Lettuce Knit.


They picked out some lovely yarn (Koigu KPPPM for a triangle scarf and Berroco Vintage for some mittens), so I think I'll really enjoy knitting for them!

My knitting addiction seems to be infectious.

I knit a pair of lovely handspun alpaca mittens for my cousin Rochelle who is crazy about alpacas, and I have a hunch that she likes them.

(I think her friend might be jealous!)

My cousins have a balcony in their house, and 20 foot ceilings in the main entrance. I couldn't help myself, I had to try spinning over the railing. My 13 year old cousin Nic helped me by keeping the spindle spinning as I lowered it down (that's his hand).


Even my engineer brother learned the basic knit stitch while we were stuck in traffic (again) on highway outside Toronto.


I also managed to finish a sock, in a new pattern I'm really excited about. It's the Minnesota Moonlight sock by Cat Bordhi, with the new and amazing Sweet Tomato Heel. Love. It.


My grandma was really excited to see the lovely yarn I was spinning and all my knitting projects. She even gave me a set of handcarders made for her mother by my great grandfather. Cool!



All in all, a great trip, with lots of knitting :) I'm all ready for fall and winter! Bring on knitting season!

The right tools

So when I first read about Signature knitting needles on the Yarn Harlot's blog, I thought to myself: "Who would spend that kind of money on knitting needles??" Those needles are almost 10 times the cost of a regular pair. I got a set of 9 pairs of interchangeable circulars for about $75 and one pair of Signatures costs 3/4 of that.

That was before I tried them.

A woman in my spinning group had 2 pairs of circulars and a set of dpns. I tried the dpns and I tell you, I didn't want to give them back. They had stiletto tips for Pete's sake!

I'm a different sort of crafter than I was when I read that post by the Harlot. I realized that I was willing to spend $50 multiple times over for well-balanced, well-crafted spindles, to maximize enjoyment of spinning. Why not spend money for a good pair of knitting needles? I also know what kind of knitting enjoy and I figured that stiletto tipped needles would be very useful for knitting lace. Lace knitting something I've been enjoying more and more.

Well, they came today...

4mm, Stilettos. mmmmmmm...

I think I might be in a new knitting needle bracket (a la Corner Gas).

I might actually finish my Gnarled Oakwoods shawl now! (yes that's right. I start it in 2008.)
(Also: bunny nuggets!!!)

Expect the unexpected...

...when using natural dyes.

I've been experimenting again with the dye pot. I did another batch of black beans, and I got a much deeper blue this time! I soaked the beans at room temperature this time instead of in the fridge. Much better.


Then I ventured out in the rural area south of Winnipeg and found some St. John's Wort (with the help of a good friend, thanks Laura!) I used them fresh, and I've heard you're supposed to be able to get green, maroon and yellow from one dye bath!



So I simmered the flowers, and mordanted my yarn in alum.

And then I put my skein into the red liquid.


And I simmered that, while enjoying my balconey garden. :)

The skein did not turn green. But it also didn't quite turn maroon either.

In artificial light it looks like this:


But in sunlight, it's got a browner hue (even more brown than the photo suggests).


Colour changing yarn? Wow! But not really colours I enjoy... peachy brown. Lovely. Oh well, back to the drawing board I guess. What should I make out of it?

In other news, I'm knitting alpaca mittens in the middle of July. Yes. I know. They are for my cousin, whom I'm visiting over the September long weekend. I'm using my handspun baby alpaca, 3 ply chunky. One mitten is almost finished. Here's a teaser. I don't want to ruin the surprise. ;)


Also I got two more Jenkins spindles. One heavy hickory standard (1.5oz):


and the other a boxwood Aegean, which might just be my new favorite.

Both fibres are from Sheeples. The top one will be a sweater some day.

Ok back to thesis writing. Will post again when the golden rod is flowering! (I'm going to dye with that too!)

Dyeing with food colouring

Well I was getting a little impatient for my dye plants to grow and I have been accumulating white and cream coloured fleece and wool.



(this stuff is from a sheep named Dot. I recently found out she met a tragic end at the jaws of a coyote... RIP Dot, you'll live on in your lovely, soft, creamy fleece.)

So I got out my crockpot and some Wilton's icing gels (AKA food colouring) and got busy.


Superwash Merino/Mohair/Nylon blend from Paradise Fiber:

I used Teal, Kelly Green, and Golden Yellow with a bit of No Taste Red.


I love how it turned out. I can't wait to see how it looks spun and knitted up into socks!!

Also I finished one of my black bean socks and started the next one. Perhaps I might have to go for a little forage in the woods later today and see if I can get some oak galls.

Or maybe I could dye some handspun with the onion skins my friend Esther has been saving for me...


Or perhaps I should try out the logwood chips I purchased when I was at Maiwa in December.


Or maybe I should go write more of my thesis.... :P