Author: denisemor

Looking back over my posts from May of this year, it appears that I never shared with y’all this cool book I picked up in Langley, WA while away on knit retreat: Folk Embroidered Felt Birds

I’ve been meaning to give them a go- and so finally got out the parchment paper today to trace some patterns and get started.

I decided to try a fairly simple shape first, and so settled on the Song Thrush

I’ve got quite a bit of felt scrap in natural colors, and decide to do this birdie in black and light brown, with embroidery in shades of brown and gold

It’s coming along ok- hopefully my handstitching will get better with practice 🙂 Thinking maybe a bright orange eye?

Once I’ve got a few of these under my belt I’d like to maybe do a variation on one of the patterns to make a cedar waxwing. I just love those guys.

I’m also back to working on my Dottie’s Freya sweater. It’s a nice, rhythmic knit, and feels so nice in my hands. Starting to wonder if I’ve spun enough yarn, though, Might have to go back to the wheel before it’s all done. Good thing I’ve got a massive vacuum-packed back of Dottie fleece to draw upon!

I just keep going round and round- I’m about 7 inches below the underarms, and should probably consult the pattern to see how much further i continue with the cables before it turns to ribbing. It’s going to be so cozy. Been toying with the idea of doing edges in a contrast color. Thoughts?

Was just out to give the critters some snacks before I sat down to blog and noticed Fiona partaking of the cobalt block. Good girl!

And as I stood there, out of the corner of my eye I saw an unexpected flash of red

A rose! which isn’t entirely unexpected of this plant, since it is a rosebush, but it’s funny, because I thought that this old long-suffering shrub had entirely reverted back to the variety of it’s rootstock. All the flowers I’d seen this year were violet-y singles. And here comes this single long stemmed velvety red number, which I think might be Mr. Lincoln.

An unlikely and most welcome surprise so late in the season.

“We can complain because rose bushes have thorns, or rejoice because thorn bushes have roses.” — Abraham Lincoln

The Granny Stripe Vest is a wrap (so to speak)-

Edged and ends tucked and blocked and buttoned and now happily part of my cool weather wardrobe!

It feels so nice and cozy. So happy with how the button band worked out. Makes me almost want to revisit the finishing on my Alcott cardigan…..

other Fall scenes around the homestead- rye is coming along nicely

Rosehips glowing like jewels in the afternoon sunshine

Fiona and Daphne looking mischievous

Dottie and chickens enjoying some of the last apples from this year’s harvest-

It’s a beautiful afternoon- so I’m going to go out and do some tidying in the sheep shed.

Have a good week, and go vote!

This week I finished up knitting the body of my stranded vest, and prepped to steek. As anxious as I was to slice it open and see if it fit well, there were a few steps I needed to take beforehand to keep it all neat and tidy.

The many many loose ends from the start-of-round color changes I snug up to get the stitches tensioned evenly, loosely tie in pairs and, lay out horizontally. Then I tacked down lightly with a couple strands of waste yarn to keep them out of the way.

Next I gave the whole vest a light steam block from the reverse side.

I did a little bit of needle felting of the steek stitches for good measure, and took to the snips!

And just like that, a wonky tube turns into a vest! The beauty of this method is that all those multicolor ends just come away when the front is opened. No weaving in necessary 🙂

Next step- picking up stitches for the button band (4 stitches every 5 rows)

then the tubular caston for the doubleknit buttonband (15 stitches)-

I’m not quite halfway around now, but took a little break to find some suitable buttons

I’m really enjoying how the white buttonband looks so crisp against the changing color stripes. I changed out my original yarn choice for the buttonband to a little bit lighter selection- a new spin fresh off of Marjorie the CPW and chain plied on Sophie. Its the Diné fiber that I picked up at the PNW Fiber Expo a few weeks back.

So that’s this week in wool. Hopefully will have something to model for y’all next time-

This week I made quite a bit of progress on my granny stripe stranded vest-

I’ve finished the neck shaping, and am only about an inch away from the top. Just need to decide if I want short rows to angle the shoulders a smidge. Then I’ll do a quick wash and block, and it’ll be steeking time!

I’m planning a double knit button band, and have tentatively settled on a creamy white for that. Need to do a little practicing on the technique to refresh my memory, tho.

In other news, I’m pleased to report that Mighty Red has found a new home

(disassembled you can see how many threaded parts she has. cool, eh?)

I just handed her off this afternoon, and wish her many years of happy spinning.

And I’ll leave you with a short clip of the sheeps out in the pasture earlier today. Beautiful weather for October!

Have a good week, folks.