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This past weekend was  my long-awaited “Fair Isle for Handspinners” workshop down on Whidbey Island, which is pretty fair in it’s own right.

The class was held at Greenbank Farm

and teachers were Elizabeth Johnson (from Shetland)

and Martha Owen (from South Carolina)
.

Elizabeth brought a ton of wool from Shetland- some raw and some washed and mordanted for dyeing- so we had lots of wonderful raw materials to play with. We each got a pack of raw natural colored wools to start.

After that came the color!
Three dyestuffs- onion skins, cochineal, and logwood
yielded a wide range of shades for blending and spinning!

The right yarn for fair isle knitting is a little different than my usual spin-
It’s done long-draw, but with more spin in the single, and a fairly loose ply. So that was new for me.

Another cool thing I learned about was the Shetland Knitting Belt. (sorry, no pictures from the demo)
I think the best thing about this technique is that it frees up one of your hands from having to hold a needle, and makes the of the two working yarns easier to manage. Very neat idea.

We did a little knitting with our sample yarns on day three-
I got a little carried away with all the colors, I think…

Here are some other scenes from around South Whidbey courtesy of The Man.

This afternoon the sun came out, so it seemed like a good time to get the boys together for some group photos!

This one almost worked, except Chone looked away at the last moment.

Ok, let’s try it  again guys!

Ok. That one’s a keeper.

I love how Frank and Felix’s faces are getting dark again.

(You can see how different he and Felix looked back in May here– that’s Frank on the far right)

Anyway,

I turned away for just a minute to see what the dogs were getting into, and

when I looked back, Egdar had the whole gang lined up and lookin’ sharp.

Pretty neat, eh?

They left after that, sure that I’d gotten it on the first take.

Except for Edgar , who hung around so I could tell him how impressed I was.

And give him some ear rubs. He’s my buddy. 🙂

In other news, Dad’s Classic Oak cardigan is essentially done, but I need to find the right buttons.

And I think I might wash and block it once more, now that it’s all assembled.

I’m really happy with how it turned out, but am finding it very hard to photograph.

If I use no flash (below), you can see all the texture of the cables and ribbing.

But if I use flash, the color is more accurate (warmer, more brown). This time texture won.

Love the texture. Of both the yarn and the cables.

It’s perfectly Fall.

Sorry for leaving y’all hanging last week.

Now that I have a moment to sit down and blog, I’ll give you a quick rundown on the workings of this cool little gadget.

The peg loom is simple to construct. Just a length of wood with holes drilled into it (not all the way through, but deep enough for the pegs to sit securely) and as many pegs the same size as the holes.

In each of these pegs, there is a small hole drilled through, just above where it sits in the base.

And in each of these little holes you thread through yarn or string, which will serve as your warp.

You want each warp thread to be twice the length of your intended project. Pull it through the hole, join the ends and tie. So each warp thread is independent, just threaded through it’s peg.

Once you’ve got the warps threaded through each peg, you’re ready to weave!

To get started, you’ll take whatever you are using as weft and make a slip knot with it, placing it around the first peg on whichever side you’re starting from- just to anchor it.

Then you simply weave back and forth around the pegs, figure-eight style-

Do this weaving back and forth until you’ve built up a fair amount of weft on the pegs.

Now here is the magic part.

You pull the pegs up and out.
One at a time.

And then put them back in.

Pulling the warp through the weft as you go.

Until all your pegs are empty again and ready for another round.

Neat, eh?

It goes quickly if you use thick materials- roving, multiple strands of yarn, fabric strips.

I saw on Ravelry someone who uses a peg loom to weave rugs from felted fleeces that are unspinnable- cutting or tearing the fleece into strips.

Pretty, pretty cool.

Classic Oak is assembled (not that you can tell that from the picture, but I swear it’s true!)

Now all that remains is the button band/collar.
I’ve never done a button band before, and the buttonhole technique/size was worrying me a bit-
so I’d been procrastinating all week.

Tonight, after much gauge measuring and button size contemplation, I decided to go for it.

All the stitches are picked up (all those little tan yarn bits are markers for stitch spacing).
And after all my fussing and cogitating about buttonhole techniques, I’ve decided to just do the darn thing exactly according to the instructions and buy buttons to fit after it’s done.

Why do I find it so hard to trust patterns?