Category: Blog

Featuring a couple special requests today- one completed, and the other still underway.

Completed- one skein of dog 50/50 fur & wool blend yarn.

Was pretty pleased with how it turned out- very light and springy thanks to the Jacob wool in the mix. And check out the fuzz factor on the swatch!

and the in-progress is The Shepherd’s next vest-

7 inches in, and one full cable panel repeat down. Really like how it’s shaping up!

Tentative goal is to have it done by early October. It’s not a quick knit, with the front and back cabling, but feel like I’m getting into a rhythm now, so hopefully it will flow along at a reasonable pace.

Have a great week everyone- and if you’re in the area, hope to see you at the Alger Market Fun(d) Raiser next Saturday (yes, it’s usually a Sunday Market, but this event is Saturday instead)!

This week I got down to business with the vest project.

I’m about 5 inches in now, and getting comfortable with the twisted stitch pattern. It’s a nice a symmetrical, repeating pattern, and doesn’t require a cable needle. win win win. 🙂 Feels really good to have that underway.

Also playing around with making garland from locks of wool-

It’s kind of fun. Just stripping out narrow locks and crocheting them together into a continuous line. Seems pretty stable so far, but if necessary I figure I can run some yarn through it afterwards.

Also made some more felt this weekend of Felix fleece from a few years ago that wasn’t a particularly good candidate for spinning. Not sure if I’ll have a chance to make any more puppets this season, but nice to have a stash of felt ready to play with.

I learned a few things this year that has really helped make my wet felting process more manageable (and less exhausting)- 1. using a piece of chiffon (or other suitable fabric or netting) to hold fibers in place during wetting and initial agitation and rolling, and 2. a new rolling method that has really saved my back.

Sharing this video here in case it’s of help to anyone else- the rolling method starts at about 3 minutes in

Finally, here is a cool random thing I found out in the yard yesterday evening-

A complete, intact snakeskin, about 2 feet long, including the head! Wild, eh?

Somewhere on our property is a snake sporting a fresh new outfit 🙂

Done and done!

Sweater is officially wrapped up, ends woven in and all. Woot! Elizabeth Zimmerman is a genius. Her seamless saddle should really save the day on this one.

And I’ve officially made a start on The Shepherd’s next vest (fleece from Olivia) in the form of a swatch. Its looking like a size 5 needle will work nicely.

Will be fun working traveling stitches after the recent acres of stockinette.

Little bitta knit, little bitta purl, little bitta twist.

Feelin’ it here today. 89.8F

Was really lovely this morning, before the heat started to mount. Did a little yoga by the apple tree and was inspired to snap a few photos of garden details

Despite the degrees, wool work continues apace 🙂

4th (and hopefully final) reknitting of JUiST neckline is complete.

Although I’m pretty sure that with this most recent revision to the shoulder shaping I can’t really call it JUiST anymore. So it’s now adJUiSTed. Neckline and hem have just been soaked and are now drying/blocking to manage the roll of the edges.

Finished up what I think will be the last bobbin of Octavia yarn for The Shepherd’s latest vest project-

Now that adJUiSTed is off the needles, I can get it going in earnest. Going to use the same twisted stitch pattern as my SuperGreen sweater, and hopefully the three-ply will give it a really nice refined finish.

And I decided to do another small batch of sheep puppets, since I had the felt onhand.

I have to admit I had kind of missed these guys. So cute. Hopefully they’ll all have their hairdos and other embellishments by next weekend’s Sunday Market.

I’ll sign off with this short clip of Tiny Gus basking in the late summer sunshine (with Yella and Speck cameos)