Thrumming, and cutesy kid knitting

Last week one of the Knitting Daily posts was about thrumming.  When I read about it, I realized it's what I want to do to make slippers for my mom, who has diabetes and needs warm foot coverings.  If you haven't heard of thrumming, it's a very pioneer concept -- using all of what you have and not wasting anything.  Thrums are the trimmed ends off of weaving.  The wool was looped and knitted into the stitch on the inside of mittens, and provides extra warmth.  The technique was also used with the locks of wool from sheep shearings, when the lock was not acceptable to go into the carding to be spun.  I decided to try the technique with some roving I had on hand, and this is how it is turning out:

I think I got a little carried away with the fleece!  Luckily, what I've read says that the wool will felt with wearing, so it won't look like a wooly mess forever.


I think I'll save my first effort for myself, and make my mom another pair.  I'll put some puff paint on the bottom, and have some no-skid snuggy slippers for myself.  I live in Wyoming, in a house that my husband likes to "comfort" to temperatures he likes: 65 degrees in the daytime, and 55 degrees at night, so I'm always cold.

Grab bag

I've been working on a lot of fun and new (to me) techniques, so I decided I would just put the projects in a grab bag for my kids to go through at Thanksgiving.  If they like them, they can take them.  If not, I can donate them or give them to somebody I know who would like them.

I have been learning fair isle knitting with two hands at once (how lucky that I learned how to continental knit, as well as English knit that I have always done).  Two hands at once is a huge time saver, rather than dropping and picking up strands.  I love snowflake patterns, but couldn't find a fair isle snowflake hat that I liked, so I designed one myself. 

 

 

 

This cowl was the October KAL from knitpurlhunter.  I didn't have any Simpliworsted when I got the itch to start the mystery KAL, so I grabbed a skein of Bamboo Ewe that was in my stash, and got to work.  Luckily the yarn lasted just long enough (it called for 2 skeins of Simpliworsted and I only had one skein of Bamboo Ewe in Grape, but there was more yardage in one skein of Bamboo Ewe than in Simpliworsted.  I don't know what I would have done if I had run out!)  It was a quick knit and I liked the two pattern stitches it used.

 

On a lighter note, I think I need to take this head to an art student I know and get her to draw features on the face!



 

 

This scarf is the Pioneer Braid pattern in Crystal Palace MiniMochi (at least I think it was MiniMochi).  There is a young woman in our neighborhood who is learning to knit, and decided she didn't like the yarn for what she had bought it for.  Karessa is a sweet girl who comes over once every couple of weeks and I teach her something new about knitting.  She gave me two balls of the yarn as a thank you, so I went to the LYS where she got it and got another ball to try this scarf.

 

 

 

I wanted to try the Susie's Reading Fingerless Mitts pattern, so I grabbed a ball of Paton's Lace out of my stash and got busy.   There's a lot of yardage in one ball of that stuff, I can tell you!  So I had a lot left over after the mitts, and wanted a project to learn provisional cast-on with a circular needle cable, so I did the slanted stitch in an infinity scarf with the 3-needle bind off.  Karessa liked the slanted row stitch so much that she decided to do one herself.  Hers is coming along very nicely.

(The head looks a little less creepy when covered, don't you think?)

Wow, has it been that long?

Just realized it has been almost 8 weeks since I last posted.  Since then I have been working on lots of projects, and doing a bit of spinning.  I'll give a quick update tonight on what I've been up to, and more updates tomorrow.

Halloween day my LYS had a sale -- 40% off all merchandise between 6:30 and 7:30 a.m.; 30% off from 7:30-8:30; 20% off between 8:30 and 10 a.m.; and 10% off the rest of the day.  There were about 15 of us in the store between 6:30 when I got there and 7:15 when I left.  The shop owner said her husband wanted to know if she thought there'd be anybody there.  I told her it was Black Friday for yarnies!  Here's the picture of my haul -- $87 at 40% off.  John knows the credit card showed $87 -- I just don't think he knew how small a bag would hold the $87 purchase! (Maybe I should try to impress him with my wise spending, since the bill would have been $215 without the discount!) For some reason, I was drawn to muted and neutral shades. Maybe it was the hour of the morning, and I didn't want strong "wake me up" colors

The variegated colorway is Ella Rae Lace Merino (2 skeins I've been coveting for a while).  I don't know what lace I will knit with it, but I'll hold onto it for something special.  The 3 balls of beige are Sublime baby cashmere merino silk.  I'm thinking a very elegant style of scarf for that, maybe an infinity scarf, because I love those.  The 3 hanks of lavender are Kollage Corntastic.  I couldn't resist knitting with corn!  I've got some socks on needles right now from a corn/elastic blend that I can't wait to try on!

And for another update -- a few months ago I posted a picture of the football baby cocoon and hat that I knitted for a friend to give to her younger brother and his wife for their newborn.  The anticipated delivery has arrived, and they sent a picture to me today.  So here is Warrick in his cocoon.

Slouchy cowl

As the temperature dropped into the 50s today, it reminded me that winter is on the way to Wyoming (and other places as well!) and reminded me that I have never posted my simple cowl pattern.  The sample pictured here was knit in a 5 Bulky yarn on size 9 needles, but it has no gauge and is totally adaptable to your taste.  If you want a drapier cowl, use a lighter weight yarn  or larger needles to make a looser fabric; for a more stiff fabric, use smaller needles or heavier yarn.  You can also change the appearance by adapting the number of stitches in the pattern repeats.  If you want a very cowl-y scarf look, cast on more stitches and use more stitches in the repeats so that the fabric "stacks"; for a more neckwarmer look, use fewer stitches in the repeats.  The pattern below is to get the effect of the sample pictures.  The first number in parentheses is for a cowl look, the second for a neckwarmer look.

Hope this works well for anybody that might try it.


Slouchy cowl by Joanna Perkins

Cast on 80 (88, 80) stitches, and knit in the round in the following pattern:

*Knit 10 (11, 8), purl 10 (11, 8)*.  Repeat stitches between ** to the purls at the end of the row for a total of 4 (4, 5) sets of ** stitches.  Purl 11 (12, 9), attaching round as you go.  Continue pattern, which essentially is 81 (89, 81) stitches in each row.  This will cause the stitching to slant, creating the "stacking" fabric.  Continue until cowl is 9" (12", 8").  Bind off, weave in ends.

Another baby present

What is it with everybody having babies?  Our neighbors here in Cheyenne just became first-time grandparents, so I made the Puerperium baby set for their new granddaughter.  Laurie was kind enough to provide me some pictures of the little gal, who apparently liked her outfit and made a face when they changed her for baby pictures!   There is a pair of booties and a diaper cover that go with the outfit, but they don't fit quite yet.  This set was knit in Bernat Baby Jacquards yarn in apple blossom.

Happy notes .... and sad

I got a text from Dani, whose husband works with John, with a knitting job to commission me for.  She had seen on Pinterest a baby cocoon and hat made like a football.  So we got some yarn, and below is the result.  I will post a picture of her nephew in his cocoon whenever he arrives.

On the sad note, I have been harvesting fur from our akita, Kuma, for 2 years, so that I can spin his fur into yarn.  Last Thursday, I got the last of his fur, as we had him put to sleep,  He was 14 years, 9 months and 28 days old, but he began suffering from canine cognitive dissociative disorder (doggie dementia) and the meds for his dementia made him ill.  So now I have to learn to spin dog fur, to have that part of him still.

Kuma in his prime, posing for his mama in front of her handiwork

 

 

On the happy note, 2 weeks before Kuma passed, we adopted another akita who needed a good home.  Her name is Seiya (SAY-yah) and she is 2 years old.  Having her for 2 weeks was good for Kuma (who ate better when he had to compete for food) and for her (who learned the rules at our house from the big guy).  She has been a big comfort for us, and she already loves us and we love her.  I will miss Kuma every day, but Seiya fills some of the empty hole after almost 14 years with Kuma.  But her fur is different than Kuma's (much shorter shaft), so I'm not sure about spinning it.



Seiya insisting on some attention

Where has the time gone?

Just saw that it has been over 6 weeks since I posted, so here I am again.  I have lots of things on my needles right now. I just finished and sent off to my friend in Florida another Summerflies shawl, this one bigger than the one I did for myself.   I have been doing the knitpurlhunter KAL Independence pillow.  I also have a pair of 2-at-a-time toe-up socks on the needle to try the Fleegle heel.  Just about ready for the heel, so I'll let you know.  I also started another Ashton shawl (my 5th) in worsted weight black sequined yarn for my daughter Liz.  I have been knitting more Puerperium sets (see previous post) for more friends with babies or grandbabies on the way or just arrived. I also have a Garn studio top-down sweater/smock for myself, that I get too bored to do for very long: about 250 stitches per row in garter stitch -- man, that's mind-numbing!  But it's so much better than the about 400 stitches it was before I put the sleeves on waste yarn!

I am here today to report on my newest spinning try.  This time I separated 12 ounces of raw undyed fiber (Colonial sheep) into three 4-oz batches.  I dyed two of the batches in sapphire, and the third batch in a higher concentration of the same dye.  After this adventure, I have decided John and I need to build our garage in Colorado with the apartment above it, so that I have a dyeing studio.  John hates the smell of hot wool, and the mess it can make is stupendous!  I won't be able to do much dyeing in the house, so I'd better have someplace to do it all.  So I spun the three batches of wool and plied them together, and this is the result:

The lighter patches are from the light coming through the trees, but the color is a pretty close match.  I'm pleased with it.  I got about 400 yards of 11-12 wraps per inch yarn.  Hopefully it will yield enough yarn to make a substantial item for me.

Gerri:  Since you're the only person who follows my blog, I should let you know.  The Hot August Knits yarn crawl starts next week, and I'm planning to get registered for the grand prize, which means visiting (and buying at) all 9 shops.  The participating shops are in Cheyenne and Laramie, Wyoming, and in Fort Collins and Estes Park Colorado.  I thought of you when I saw the newest participant in the crawl:  The Loopy Ewe!  I'm planning to make my first visit there in a couple of weeks.  I hope there's some money in my bank account when I leave!