New Pattern on Ravelry: Whistling Thorn Socks

These socks are so lovely, and the color from A Hundred Ravens is a warm green that feels just right for the project. Knit up in Iachos, Whistling Thorn is not only the pattern name, but the name of the colorway as well. Kate's newest colors are in a series called Ol Pejeta, which is an animal conservancy in Kenya, and to whom a portion of the proceeds from the yarn sales will also go.

Yet again, I found a stitch I liked in my mom's old Japanese stitch dictionary that turned out to be perfect for the socks Kate wanted. Easy to memorize, great in both tonal and variegated yarns, and with an added bonus of being both feminine and masculine in appearance. I truly enjoyed knitting them, and when I completed the second sock while at Stitches East, I gave them to Becca. Whether she ever gets to wear them is another story, as at least one sock is supposed to be a shop sample. :)

I spent September finishing up the socks, doing the final edits on another sock pattern (which will come out next year, and I am so excited about it!), and looking for full-time work. The days seem to be longer than usual, which is in contrast to the decreasing sunshine as the year deepens into autumn. It's my favorite time of year, perfect for leaf peeping, cowls, shawls, and of course, socks!

My casual mention of Stitches East belies the excitement attending the event. I had just said to my friend Cate as we drove back from Shenandoah Valley Fiber Festival (which was a blast, and quite a great event itself) that I hoped to go to Stitches East someday. That night, I got an email from Kate asking me if I were available to work in A Hundred Ravens' booth there... and I naturally jumped on the chance!

Kitty and I drove up, taking our time. The air was crisp, but still somewhat warm. Leaves were changing, but nothing like what they'd be the following week when we drove back down! I had a blast working my first ever fiber show while Kitty enjoyed herself in the sunshine and glory of a fully-fenced yard with Becca and the kids.

I met an amazing number of people, and learned quite a lot about the intricacies of setting up and tearing down a show booth. We had a yarn tasting table, so folks could "taste-drive" the various AHR fibers, and quite a number of samples for folks to admire and fondle.

When I got home, I immediately cast on one of the projects I admired (and whose designer, Christiane, is marvelous!): Volan. I'm using two AHR club colorways for it, Gloriana and Scheherazade. Currently on the last ruffle, and I cannot wait to wear it! And, in a super cool moment, I got to meet Dizzy of Dizzy Sheep, and kiss his adorable lil face as he snooped around the AHR booth. Best first festival ever for me!

I've been knitting more than spinning lately, maybe because I now have a cute pile of handspun yarns waiting to become finished objects. The queue is long, the days are not, and I need more coffee already this morning. Adieu!

A Long Time Ago....

I've been having a few health issues over the summer, which led me to stop posting until I got a better handle on myself. Being chronically ill is no picnic. And at the beginning of September, I and several of my co-workers were laid off, which led into a round of all sorts of calls, appointments, and various mayhem.

On the bright side, I've taken some time to bring some projects to completion in between applying for jobs. Spinning and knitting are truly marvelous rehab opportunities! And as usual, my knitting group has been super supportive, which I am forever thankful for. Love you guys!

A while back, Kate asked me to design a couple of pairs of socks for A Hundred Ravens. I finished up pair one and sent that to her last week, and it's really quite nice. I'll post photos after she's sent it to her club. The pattern itself won't be available separately for a few months as it's a club exclusive, but I'm quite pleased with it! Nice textured pattern that looks good in tonal yarns, and has looped stitches which can help break up pooling in more colorful handpaints.

Spinning's been keeping me busy too as I want to bring down the spinning WIP count. So far, so good!

Finished a lovely Inglenook Fibers batt, in colorway Crocus (the purple above). Super sweet, very soft, and will make a nice knitted necklace, I think. It's been quite a joy to spin, and I definitely recommend Mother Macrina's fibers.

Earlier in the year, I succumbed to the lure of a sale at Mad Angel Creations and bought two lovely bright blue and gold batts named Royal Fireworks. Normally I just pull strips from the side of a batt and spin, but this time I divided the fiber horizontally, spinning sections of blue, then gold, and finally plying them together for some sweet barberpole action. :) This yarn is destined to become an Elis cowl, a nifty free pattern on Ravelry by Reiko Kuwamura.

And today, I finished spinning a Wild Hare Fiber Studio superwash wool in a gradient colorway called Midnight Orchid. The feel of this fiber reminded me very much of the Targhee wool I spun last year and gave to Anna. Soft, bouncy, sproingy... it'll make a great shawl. I spun 678 yards in fingering, so I'll have plenty of patterns to choose from.

That'll be the trouble, won't it? Settling down to pick patterns for my handspun. Guess there are worse problems to have though.

June is Busting Out All Over!

I am not a fan of heat and humidity (see what I did there?). Mainly during the summer in Baltimore, I dash from air conditioned car to air conditioned office, then back home from work to my un-air conditioned home.

Central air conditioning is on my list of future improvements to Hampden Place, as it gets progressively less comfortable to sit and work on anything. I move up to my bedroom, where I have a nice portable unit set up, but it's not as comfy as relaxing in one of the living room chairs.

On the bright side, when I'm in my room, I can finish up things that would otherwise be consigned to bins to wait until the weather cools enough that I can face having wool in my hands.

I finished plying the Greenwood Fiberworks BFL and silk I'd done while in Hawaii last month. It's so beautiful, I spend time staring at it. Maybe I'll enter it into the State Fair this year. I measured out 360 yards of sport-weight yarn, which is quite a nice chunk. Right now, it's drying on a cookie cooling rack, a gorgeous display of color and shine.

I've been knitting up a baby sweater, Phazalia's Mitered Baby Jacket, for a co-worker's expectant wife, and as usual, I have spent much time tinking back and trying to figure out where I've gone wrong. :) Looked over all the other projects on Ravelry to see where I might have made my mistakes, and will be taking the project and pattern to knit night tomorrow to consult with everyone.

The yarn is Wisdom Yarns Marathon Socks--North Pole, in Candy Cane Red. I'd forgotten I had this until a nice Raveler contacted me to ask if I'd be willing to sell it to her. As I was on holiday, I told her I'd need to get back home before I could do anything. She later sent me a message that she'd found someone else to buy it from immediately. And since the skein was now uppermost in my mind, I pulled it out of its bin to use for the jacket, which has few seams and looks striking in self-striping colorways.

I hope I finish this before the baby arrives. We shall see!

Post-Holiday Catching Up

Our vacation went quickly and nicely, with my sister and niece, plus my own two little cherubs, spending random hours together. We talked story, slept in, ate all the things (I love, love, love what local kine foods they have at Zippy's), and enjoyed our holiday.

I finished one of my vacation projects, spinning up 4-ounces of a luscious Greenwood Fiberworks BFL and silk roving, using my new Bosworth Moosie. This fiber is fabulous, drafted easily and flowed like water onto the spindle.

The roving I chose was dyed in even horizontal stripes, so I decided to do some fractal spinning. I divided the roving in half lengthwise, spun up the first half, then divided the remaining half again lengthwise. After I spun up half of that, I divided the remaining fiber in half once more. The last two strips were pretty thin, so I didn't split it further.

Sometimes when I spin, there are bits of fluff which cause nepps in the singles. Not so with this roving! I had absolutely no waste whatsoever! And it had divided pretty darn equally, so that I only had a couple of yards left on the original cop. I simply Andean plied it and added it to the ply ball.

As you can see in the photo above, the result is a lovely, shimmering ball of pliable goodness. I've been plying it together since my return home, admiring how the colors shift and meld along the singles. Though I thought I'd use this for socks, I may knit up a shawl instead, especially as I expect to get a lot of sport-weight yardage.

Knit, Frog, Knit! Ace!

Ribbit!

I've been working on all the designery things lately. Knitting samples, ripping them out, poring over stitch patterns, doodling on graph paper....

And playing a lot of solitaire on my phone. O.o

The nice thing about solitaire is its simplicity. After I uninstalled Candy Crush, I wanted something easy to play while my mind's inner gears dealt with the math-side of knitting. Solitaire totally fits the bill as your visual brain bits identify the cards, your physical brain bits manipulate the movements, and your satisfaction brain bits ka-ching every time you make a successful play.

Meanwhile, your knitty brain bits percolate. What if I added cables? What if I did this stitch totally differently than it appears? What the heck do these instructions mean, slip 2 stitches then slip them back; why not leave them alone? Why?

One of the patterns I'm working on is for Kate's fiber company, A Hundred Ravens. We'd worked on it together, brainstorming in fits and starts, before she moved back to Massachusetts. Now that a couple of years have passed (cough, cough), and I feel a bit better, I decided to tackle our shawl once again.

It's truly a thing of simple beauty. Here's an old photo of my Wee P'shawl test knit because I love how it turned out in its tiny mock-up. So cute!

Am also working on socks, naturally. :) I love this sort of work, mindless and mindful. Solitary. Solitaire.

2014 Maryland Sheep and Wool

The weather was glorious for this year's Sheep and Wool festival! Bright, mostly sunny, and relatively low humidity. Whee! If only MDSW had this weather every year. :)

I entered three handspun skeins, and my sample pair of Aqueduct Socks this year, and the socks and one of my skeins won ribbons!

This is a little over 2 ounces of buttery fiber from Kid Ewe Knot in Pennsylvania. Veronica gave the roving to me for Christmas, and I've loved every minute of spinning it. I hadn't yet finished the remainder when I needed to choose what to enter, so the rest is waiting to be joined with this winning section.

Lovely, lovely stuff. Highly recommend the fiber, if you can get your hands on some!

And then, Aqueduct Socks! Squee! I almost didn't enter these as I had made a mistake on one row of the eye of partridge heel, but grabbed them from the table on the way out the door anyway. And lookee! Second Place! The judges comments made me happy, as they commented specifically on how nice the stitch pattern is. Yay!

Since my Aqueduct Socks won second place in the Maryland Sheep and Wool commercial yarn sock category, I’ve put the discount code MDSW2014 on them for 50% off through May 10th. Click through the link on the sidebar to get straight to the pattern store.

My knitting sister Catherine and I had a great time, browsing all the vendors, and then snacking on some funnel cake. I bought a bunch of fiber, including my very first "unprocessed" bits from Feederbrook Farm so I can try my hand at totally preparing wool by myself. Gulp! Good thing the weather's nice. I am totally washing and rinsing it outside.

Anyone else go to MDSW? Share thoughts on your favorite fiber festival!

Free Pattern: Dunharrow Socks

This isn't a new pattern; it's been available for free on my blog for a couple of years. I just finally sat down and plunked it into a .pdf so I could upload it to Ravelry.

If you already have the pattern from my blog, or especially if you don't, please head over to my Ravelry shop and download a copy!

Free Pattern: Opera Socks Available!

Finally sat down and put the directions and chart for my Opera Socks into a .pdf and uploaded it to Ravelry. Yay!

Download Opera Socks now! The pattern is free! No cost! Freeeeee!

I really love how the pattern swirls around. I might need to knit a pair in a nice blue, to look like waves. I probably wouldn't knit this is a super variegated yarn, as the pattern would get lost. The Crystal Palace Yarn's Panda Cotton Print in the photo (colorway Red Cinnamon, though it's more pink/orange) has plenty of interest without taking away from the swirls. In a plain or kettle-dyed color, the pattern itself will pop even more.

Do let me know if you find any errors. Enjoy!

New Life, Old Blog

I've moved most of my personal posts off this blog and onto a different one. I'm going to use this blog to hold my knitting and designing posts, for the most part.

Always moving ahead, we are!

For behold! I've managed to figure out the arcane ways of uploading .pdf format patterns to Ravelry, and will be selling my designs thereat!

Now to figure out how to get the buttons and things from Ravelry onto my blog. :)

In Which Only Happy Things Exist

My most recent bestest creation and third place finisher at the 2013 Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival! Eeee! Most exciting revelation: I know how to spin, and am quite good at it. :)
Observe the fine thread. The gloss of silk and the rich rust color of the fiber. I used a drop spindle for this, which is unusual for me as I'd had such trouble with that method of spinning until this year.

Which makes it sound as though I've been spinning forever, but I didn't start until last April or so, borrowing Molly's wheel and then going to The Mannings to pick out one for my very own. Lenny, as he's known, is very dependable and cute, spending most of his time in the living room with me, the cats, and the fibers.

But earlier this year, I decided to attend the Madrona Fiber Festival in Tacoma, combining my love of fiber with a much-needed visit home to see Candyce. There, I learned how to use a drop spindle from the lovely women in the Spindlewood booth, and left the festival with two of their spindles and a considerable quantity of various wools.
I also got to semi-Kinnear the Yarn Harlot. It's not a true Kinnear, as I had to ask her to stand still for a moment so I could get the shot. She's very mobile!

This post is sort of the Memento of my last year, since it starts with my recent spinning achievement and works its way backwards in time. :)

I've done some knitting too, but this past 12-month is really marked by my shift to spinning. I'd always loved watching people spin, and it was so relaxing to let my mind drift while I turned little bits of fluff into something completely different.


And my year isn't all about knitting and or spinning, either. While not a luminary in the game world, I've done a couple of presentations that seemed to be well-received. And while I haven't been in the public eye much while our game was unannounced, I was pleased to be invited by an actual game luminary, Richard Dansky, to come speak at the East Coast Game Conference last month.

I like public speaking, especially on topics I enjoy. My presentation was about creating memorable NPCs in games, and folks seemed to like it, which was nice. I found I missed talking to other people about working in the games industry, people who love games and want to work on them, or learn more about working on them.

Good things happened to me in the past year, and that's been very pleasant.

Happy 2011!

A busy end to 2010, and let me tell you, I have never been happier to see a new year. Ever!

Chris came for the holidays, and we crammed as much activity into his visit as we could. The only downer for me is that Phil is off in basic training and so wasn't with us. =\ Still, we talked about him and imagined his take on different things that were going on, so it's almost as though he were with us, too.

Thanks to Chris's presence, I was able to finish Fallout 3, finally. =D Now I just have to play through the add-on packs, but the main story is done. Yay!

I've been doing laundry, dishes, and nibbling on leftovers all day. The house seems so quiet without Chris. I can see him lounging on the couch, playing Halo 3. Or in the kitchen, rummaging for snacks. Or upstairs in the back bedroom, helping me schlep furniture around. I'm glad he came out; I wish he were here all the time.

This year, I'm participating in the Ravelry group "Harry Potter Knitting/Crochet House Cup," despite not knowing much about Harry Potter at all. Kate was in the group last year, and talked so glowingly of her experiences (even the frustrating ones) that I decided to join, too. I sorted into Hufflepuff as a House, which makes sense as every quiz I've taken online points that way.

Which Hogwarts house will you be sorted into?

Except for the one that made me INFJ.

Harry Potter Personality Quiz by Pirate Monkeys Inc.

Anyway, will finish up some more laundry and then begin Jose's scarf. It's in gorgeously soft Malabrigo and will be a real treat to knit up for him! If I have any leftover yarn, I'll make him a hat, too. :)

Ravelympics 2010

I signed up, then backed out, then decided at the last minute to actually give it a go.

Ravelymics is a knitting event on Ravelry in which participants cast on a project during the Opening Ceremonies and complete that project before the end of the Closing Ceremonies. Some of the events are pretty funny take-offs on real Olympic events with names like Hat Halfpipe, Nordic Colorwork Combined and Scarf Super-G.

I am on Team Socksters, in the Sock Hockey event, and will be knitting Rick. This is a Cookie A pattern in which each foot is knit "mirrored" to the other. Hitherto, I have leaned toward patterns that are completely written out with supplemental charting. With Sock Innovation, though, every pattern is only charted.

While it might not be snowy in Vancouver, where the actual Olympics are taking place, Maryland is a wintery wonderland. I've dug out Jane Grey twice this week, and predictions are for more snow next Tuesday. Our office closed Monday, which was funny/sad, as I had spent all that time digging out Jane and actually made it to the office before it was shut for the day. It closed again Wednesday for another snowstorm and then on Thursday because streets were still messed up.

I'm glad I made it to the office yesterday. Candyce and Kevin sent me flowers and a tower of cupcakes for my birthday! Yay! And when I came home last night, there was a box of chocolates from the Wiesmans, whom I haven't seen since leaving San Diego, waiting for me on my doorstep.

After all the turmoil last month, I feel remarkably calm and peaceful now. I have very wonderful old friends and very wonderful new friends. I'm very lucky.

Knitting Along

I've really enjoyed knitting; I think that's not much of a surprise to anyone who's been reading this here blog! But I've never really tackled anything particularly difficult.

When I think about all the projects I've been doing, they sort of grow one into the next in terms of techniques. The first baby blanket I knit, for Amy and Isaac, was pretty simply constructed on a diagonal with lacy yarn overs. I learned how to do increases and later realized all the yarn overs in that blanket are done incorrectly! I'd just learned how to knit Continental and was still shaky on the differences between that and the English method.

Now I know better :)

Once my friends stopped having babies, I began branching out into scarves with different yarn types. Poor Candyce received one of the experiments: a super bulky purple keyhole scarf that, though I used huge needles and made "skinnier" than normal, is still dense enough to choke a llama (and I'll re-knit if for you, Can, if you unearth it!).

Each project helped me see how stitches ought to sit; how increases and decreases matched up; how to pick up stitches; how to cast on in different ways. I've been on Ravelry for a year now and it opened up a whole new world of projects and possibilities!

My "stash" of yarn is now more wool and natural fibers than the boxes of acrylics that I had gotten from Suz, via Broos. I've knit with alpaca, silk, wool, soy and now have a hank of yarn made of banana fiber. Bananas! I've learned how to wind hanks of yarn into neat center-pull balls.

I've further learned that it takes viewing both The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi to wind 1,400 yards of laceweight yarn into a ball by hand. =)

My foray into fingerless gloves taught me about kntting small things in the round, which naturally led to the year-end sock project. My new socks are nice and warm; I've worn them several times now. Can't wait to make more, to try out more techniques.

And so, I am participating in a Knit-Along (abbreviated as KAL, because knitters are funny that way) that takes obscure-but-cool projects and knits them at the same time. It provides a support group of folks who are doing the same project while not confining one to knitting at the same time and place as everyone else.

I chose to knit Sunshine, a cute pullover. Hopefully all the techniques I've learned thus far will help me make it fit for a two-armed human to wear!