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Sorry to have missed last week- I was off the homestead and otherwise engaged. But I had wool for company in my travels! First off, the colorwork sweater vest project that I pulled together shortly before departing.

I was actually kind of surprised how much I got done! The little dots are so fun and easy to work. After each 5 row repeat I dig around in my bag of colors and find another combo and go again, and the colors just stack up.

I’m pretty excited about the effect so far. It feels so fresh and fun, but not too matchy-matchy.

I also got some quality time with with my Florida spinning wheel, Mims.

I took some carded fiber with me, and got all the singles spun. Brought them home wound off on toilet paper roll cores and just plied them up today on my e-spinner.

Not sure I have quite enough ply twist in them, so might have to revisit that at some point, but the colors are beautiful and vibrant (indigo, madder, and a blend of greens from different dye batches).

Now that I’m back, it feels like Fall is right around the corner. Still harvesting things out in the garden, but also planning and planting for next year.

Just got my garlic in the ground, and an almost ready to rototill my plot for planting rye. It feels good to be back on my home ground, with a digging fork in hand. 🙂

I was making steady progress on Freya, and stopped about 2 inches past the underarms for a quick try-on. The fit is good. But I think that I underestimated the impact of a color variation in one of the plies, and now I’m wondering if I need to pull it back and reknit so that it doesn’t distract from the pattern.

Setting it aside for a bit while I mull it over and view it in different lighting.

In the meantime, I’ve been playing around with an idea for a scrappy colorwork project

The basic plan is to choose a bunch of colors and do a cardigan vest, randomly mixing and matching them throughout. Corrugated ribbing at the bottom, steeked front and armholes. finished with doubleknit button band. The hat was done on size 3 needles, so I’ll just take the gauge from this and figure out the required stitch count. Should be plenty of knitting to keep me occupied on my upcoming travel, and no chart required!

A few new colors fresh off the wheel this week-

That’s all I’ve got for now.

Take care, folks, and have a good week. 🙂

Not a lot to report this week, but making steady progress on Freya. Joined front and back under the arms and am now working int he round.

It’s coming along nicely, and has a nice rhythm to it. Did a quick try-on a few rows ago, and seems to be on track. So will be going round and round for a good while now.

I’ve got some travel coming up, and so have been giving some thought to project packing. And while Freya is a good candidate in some ways (circular needle, memorized pattern), it’s getting a little larger than is ideal for working while in transit. So I’ve been playing around with the idea of starting a small-scale colorwork project.

I have a lot of colorwork motif references, and was browsing through them the other day, but I really don’t want to be tied to a chart. It’s got to be almost autopilot, but fun.

And then I found It Is A Sarah’s Advent Vest . I love the scrappy look, and the repeating pattern is a really simple base for playing with colors. So I’m trying it out first on a hat

Cast on 120 stitches, 2.5 inches of corrugated ribbing, purl 1 round increasing to 130 stitches, start colorwork. Will figure out the crown shaping when I get there 🙂

Oh- I almost forgot to share the Newtons- The Man made Fig Newtons !

Our green figs took a long time to cook down, and probably could have even reduced further to be more paste-like, but they are quite tasty. Highly recommend.

That’s about it for now. Have a good week, folks-

Our Desert King fig tree is having a big year!

The Man has already made two batches of jam-

So I’m cleared to eat some fresh now. nom nom 🙂

And in woolly news, I found out at the last minute on Saturday that Flora Carlile Kovacs, a local felt artist, was giving a talk in LaConner about her process, in conjunction with her works being exhibited at the Quilt Museum, so I registered online and headed over there just after lunch.

I’d seen listings for her multi-day felt rug making workshops , and some beautiful examples of her works of that type, but wasn’t familiar with some of her other works, in which dyed silk features prominently. The silk really adds in interesting luminosity to the works that is hard to capture in photos (at least for me!)

These recent works focus a lot on creating dimensionality in the felt, both through creating scale-like folds in the embedded silk, and aligning the wool in different directions that causes the ruffling effects. Amazingly, the works are created all in one piece. the layers are formed using a plastic resist.

I was hoping to see/hear more about her process with the rugs, but her other works are a real inspiration as well. Might have to sign up for one of her workshops next time it’s offered nearby!