Category: Blog

Sorry to have missed last week, but I was away at a retreat organized by the Spindrifters spinning guild down in Seabeck, WA.

Was nice to get away for a few days with the spinning folk. We stopped in Port Gamble and grabbed lunch at the cafe at the General Store. While there checked out the Sea and Shore Museum upstairs and snapped a few photos of these crazy critters.

At the Artful Ewe, I picked up a few skeins of Heidi’s amazing suri silk cloud yarn in luscious, fruity colors.

I just love this stuff. Carrying a strand of it along with another yarn makes the fabric feel so luxurious ( i did that with the back of my first Alcott vest).

From Port Gamble we headed straight down to the Seabeck Conference Center, and got spinning!

I took Moto, my espinner, and worked from rolags to create some new blended colors for stranded knitting-

That is the resulting two-ply yarn of the blendy colors on the left, and a lovely icelandic/silk blend that I picked up from Skagit Woollen Works on the right-

Also started a new knitting project while away at Seabeck- Glaciar Vest– but with some mods. Really like the neckline, and the rounded hem that is longer in the back, but instead of the textured stitch in the pattern for the body I’m just working a broken rib. Using some unspun wool which i think is Briggs and Little Country Roving .I un-plied it and am working with just one strand + Knitting for Olive silk mohair.

Also decided to knit it bottom-up rather than top-down (primarily because short rows for neckline and shoulder shaping aren’t great for social knitting). So for now I’m just going round and round alternating knit and ribbed rows. I find ribbing very relaxing. Will see how far the blue mohair gets me up the body. Not sure it I’ll change roving color when the mohair switches or not. Have a couple shades of roving and mohair to play with.

Alrighty folks- take it easy, and have a good week.

Spent some time this morning picking and carding Esther fleece that I dyed last summer-

Felt a bit like visiting with the girl herself, which was kind of bittersweet. So glad I still have some of her fleece to work with. I think that I’m going to use these (and other) colors to build back up my stranded colorwork yarn stash. So, small batches (1-2 oz) in a wide range of colors, at about 80-90 yds/oz.

I just wrapped up a custom chiengora (dog fur) spinning job for some folks I met at the St. Distaff’s Day Spin -in, so it will be fun to change gears and do some color blending.

Will take a bunch of dyed batts and my handcards with me to the Spindrifter’s Retreat next weekend and just play 🙂

Going to close out this post with just a little quiet spinning with Elsa. I thought the light in the wool room looked so pretty on her dark golden finish-

Have a good week, folks-

Esther and Daphne’s Pluviae Vest is complete!

And it’s a good fit! I expect I’ll be pulling it into service right away. The colors are more true in this try-on photo.

I really love how the colors work together, and the weight of the doubleknit button band. Despite the fiddly-ness of intarsia in general, and all the ends, I did enjoy the process on this project. And the end results was definitely worth the time and trouble.

Other good things that I’m trying to focus on- beautiful weather this weekend giving me the opportunity to do some garden work- yesterday organizing and cleaning in the hoophouse-

which reminds me- I got some exciting new seed starting equipment the other day! Check out these lovely trays from Bootstrap Farmer!

They are flashy- but don’t let the pretty colors fool you- they are really thick and sturdy. Will hopefully hold up to a lot of use.

Today I tamed the raspberries. These original plants, no idea what variety (came with the house- so over 20 years old) have been so productive for us. It always feels good to get them tidied up and ready for another season.

And here are a couple of sheep in the sunshine photos for good measure. 🙂

Because sheep in the sunshine make everything a little bit better.

Take care folks-