Stumpy announcing his presence
Dottie and Edgar showing off their Fall partial haircuts
And Denise learning a new skill!
Oh Norwegian Purl, where have you been all my life!? 🙂 Can’t wait to try it out on some corrugated ribbing.
And, I am really close to finishing the Tomato Bisque cowl (maybe 90%).
I think that is probably the closest I have come to accurately capturing the color of the yarn.
September light seems to suit it!
Back in July I was down in Portland, Oregon for a few days (work conference).
Portland is a pretty darn good place to have to go for work if you are a knitter.
From my downtown hotel, there were three yarn shops within walking distance!
Not that I need yarn, mind you. But I’m looking at this as an entertainment expense.
(And souvenir yarn occupies a special exempt status in the stash)
I like to look, of course, but usually commercial yarn doesn’t hold much appeal for me anymore.
But browsing around Knit Purl I found a yarn that really made my day.
I think I was initially drawn in by the color.
A rich but creamy pink-red, with little flecks of orange.
And the sheer size of the skein- a whopping 660 yds.
And then I touched it. And I couldn’t put it down.
Galler Yarns Heather Prime Alpaca. In Tomato Bisque.
I’m not even a big fan of alpaca, but I love this yarn.
And I just found the perfect pattern for it (thank you Ravelry!)
Just cast on Friday, and I really like how it’s coming along!
In other wool news, I am playing around with making dryer balls.
Another use for wool leftovers!
But in a good way 🙂
Today I finished washing up all the remaining fleece from this spring’s shearing. Plus the Border Leicester fleece from Jonasson’s last Fall Fleece sale.
I sometimes think that washed fleece is my favorite stage in the wool processing pipeline.
It still looks all sheepy, but is fresh and fluffy.
Just mah-vel-ous.
I had the washed fleece sitting out to dry on our picnic table, but then it started to rain!
Woo Hoooooo! It hasn’t rained in about two months. I’m sure it’s not going to amount to much, but it sure feels good.
While one of the fleece batches was soaking, I did a little playing with a new Kool Aid flavor.
Peach Mango. Mmmmmm.
So pretty
And plays well with others, too!
Thanks to everyone that came out to the Bow Little Market Fiber Day!
It was a hot one (about 90 degrees), and so I don’t think that a lot of folks were really in the mood to try on hats and fondle skeins of wool yarn. I think I’ll try again in the Fall once the weather has turned and everyone is concerned with keeping toasty.Hopefully I’ll get accepted to participate in the Holiday Market in November.
But I did chat with a lot folks about the sheeps and my wool process, how I do it all in-house from shearing to knitted object.
I kind of take it for granted anymore, but I guess the entirely hand-processed aspect of my wares is fairly unique.
So I’ve started a page that outlines the steps that the wool takes from Sheep to Skein.
That at least gets us to the designing and knitting stage in the project life cycle.
I hope you enjoy it.
Oh, and speaking of designing and knitting, I wanted to share the recipe for my basic fairisle hat.
Pick out some cool, flashy colors.
Cast on 120 stitches on size 3 circular needles (16 or 18″ length)
Knit about 10 or so rows in corrugated ribbing.
Work two or 4 rows in garter stitch for a bit of a border.
Work chart below for body of the hat until approximately 6 inches from cast-on edge.
Place markers every 20 or 40 stitches for shaping the crown of the hat
Decrease 6 stitches per round until 12 stitches remain.
Run two working yarns through remaining stitches and weave in all ends.
Wash and block, and there you have it!