Is it sinus? Is is hormones? No, its too many ideas! The best kind of dilemma but it can also be paralyzing. Not only do I have a bazillion fiber projects I want to accomplish in 2008 but I also have 906 home improvement projects (including gardening), 618 organizing projects, and 356 (as of today) things I want to Blog about. Where to start!?!?

I also seem to be suffering from start-itis. Just because I finished a pair of socks, I felt compelled to start another, and then another. So I finished one but have 3 started. This does not take into account the sweater I started last winter that is stalled because I’m not wild about the yarn, now that it’s being worked with - too scratchy. Hmmm, at least I have plenty of “travel” knitting. and a good excuse to buy more yarn (to replace the scratchy yarn that will be a good “felted” project someday).

And I haven’t done anything with my Ravelry account yet.

I did do some yarn dyeing and got my Etsy Shop updated. That was a biggy as it needed attention. The yarns; an alpaca and pima cotton blend, turned out delicious (see sidebar) and as always, I have mixed feeling about them selling. I have to keep telling myself, these are not my children.

The socks I finished? My silk/wool mock cable in gray. They turned out lovely and I think I feel a pair of hand warmers to match coming on.

I do believe I will wash these by hand though. As soon as they were done, I threw them in the washer (gentle) and dryer (low) and they did “fuzz” a bit, leaving the cabled pattern a little less defined. But, I’m still happy and they are wonderfully soft!

And since today is a real “rambling on” day. I have to share a new toy that is just too cool. One of the things I love to do besides play with fiber is play in my herb garden. Since Michigan winters are so long, I have a short part of the year I can do that. My wonderful hubby found me a terrific solution. An AeroGarden that grows my herbs indoors with minimum fuss. It’s only been planted for a few days and I already have sprouts, I’m very tickled with this new winter solution! He found mine at Sam’s Club, I’ll keep you posted.

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Well, to find some focus in this New Year; one of my favorite mentors, Laura Cater-Woods has told me, write it down in your journal, make a list, use the SMART method to plan goals.

So, I’m off to plan and reduce the overload trauma a New year always gives me

Deb

Knitting in the News; the Wall Street Journal had an article in today’s paper on how deadly serious knitters can get. I thought it was a hoot and it even sounded like wicked fun It was all about a game of Assassin with hand knit socks - a sock knitting race/competition, if you will. I sooooo loved this! Read all about it at Sock It to Me.

And the Coping with Winter thing has started. We had 4 or 5 inches of snow yesterday in the SE corner of Michigan. Other parts got it worse. Personally, I can live without ever seeing another snow flake the whole rest of my life. I guess I wouldn’t mind so much if the brutal cold did not go with it. Can’t someone invent warm snow? Oh, wait! Mother Nature has already done that, it’s called rain

But, on the bright side (there is always a bright side, sometimes its just good at hiding), cold weather means you can wear all that wonderful knitting and weaving and quilting you’ve been doing. From about Halloween through April, my hands are cold. It interferes with all of my hand-ish chores. My solution is (of course) knitted hand warmers. Most of mine are very practical and almost all of them are made of odd bits of left over yarns. I did do one pair from a lovely cashmere and silk blend that I dyed just for the purpose. The problem arose when my dye job - an adventure, as always - produce two balls of very different colors. I had been teaching a class in adventurous dyeing (the only style I know) and grabbed two balls of this lovely expensive yarn off the shelf and didn’t even skien it up, much less scour it. I just took a syringe and squirted green and blue dye into the center and around the outside of each ball, set the dye and rinsed. I skeined it and was surprised at the results (so, what is new about that)? Both skeins had both colors but one was very blue and one was very green. This was about three 0r four years ago and I had been meaning to write a short article for my web site on knitting with hand dyed yarns. This presented the perfect opportunity. To make a long story short, the finished hand warmers matched perfectly! Here is the tutorial I wrote so long ago on knitting with hand dyed yarns when all the skeins don’t exactly match.

But, back to using up all those odd bits. My favorite pair of hand warmers, and the ones that get me the most attention are my Ruffled Rags. Pictured above and below, they were a combination of two patterns, the basic fit is a pattern I bought; Arthritis/Carpal Tunnel Hand Warmers, by Joan Sheridan Hoover at Heritage Spinning and Weaving and a free pattern; Mrs. Beeton’s Wrist Warmers, by Brenda Dayne from Knitty.com. I did some adjusting of gauge and number of stitches cast-on and in the thumb. The Heritage pattern was written for sock weight yarn and I used worsted weight. Bit of a difference there. Then I used sport weight on my ruffles and changed them a bit too. But they were the inspiration and the launch pads for my favorite warmers OK, small confession here; the ruffles are a bit big and often get in the way. But its a small price to pay for knitting couture

OK, I’ve procrastinated the things I should be doing to get ready for Christmas long enough. I think I’ll try to avoid the distractions that keep jumping in front of me and focus (a novel concept). Have a terrific Holiday to everyone and see you after Christmas!!

Deb H

 This Monday was Spinning group day. I belong to the Friends of the Fleece spinning group that meets in Imlay City once a month on the 2nd Monday and we sit and spin and do other fiber related things as well. This month Margot L. taught us all how to make braided rugs out of felted roving. I did not attempt to start one as I already have 9,456,351.6 projects in the works and let’s face it, I think I’ve finally hit my limit for WIPs. I did file it away for future consideration as I have a braided mat someone brought me from a trip once and it’s the perfect trivet! I did do a bit of spinning though.

I like color. I like bright colors. I like a lot of color. Have I mentioned I like color? Here is a picture of my spinning WIP, a painted roving by moi that is being spun into sock yarn. It started life in my possession as a pure white, lovely, super-soft, superwash merino top from Louet. I just love this top (top is like roving but combed more for more parallel fibers). It’s a delight to touch and run through your fingers, in other words, a delight to spin! Throw in some color and you have nervana 

This top was dyed by the “paint” method. I soaked it in acid water, squeezed it out (not too dry) and laid it zig-zag style in a (clean, never used!) cat litter tray. I then applied dye from squirt bottles in stripes cross-wise across the zig-zagged top, sorry, no pictures of this step. after baking in the dye oven and rinsing and drying - it became truly luscious stuff! Since I seriously believe all projects have to have a challenge where you learn something new, my something for this yarn is to spin it a little thicker than my usual default of super fine lace weight. My goal is something between sock and sport weight. At the moment it looks a bit more like a thick-and-thin yarn but I’m working on it. I do plan on dyeing a solid(ish) teal merino superwash to ply with it to give it a bit of contrast.

True confessions, I rarely get time to spin, I go to spinning group just so I can actually do some spinning. So, 2 hours of spinning, once a month, calculates to a finished yarn, ready for knitting in June of 2012. Check back here on that date and see if I made it! ;o)

I love color. If you haven’t read my About page, you may not quite understand how much that is an understatment  ;o)  So, dyeing is a natural part of my process, whether I’m working with yarn, fabric, roving, or odd bits. My favorite fiber is silk. I love how it can be as heavy and rough as burlap or as soft and sheer as… well, silk! It also has body and drape. Silk noil, or raw silk, is one of my favorite fabrics. It has texture and is heavy enough for clothing but light enough for summer. With a bit of industrious scouring, it takes dye superbly. Here is a 1/2 yard of silk noil I dyed recently and was one of the pictures that Gloria used in my Blog’s banner/background design. I used Gaywool dyes on this one as they are a favorite to use at home. They are easy and tend to be less toxic then some of the other varieties of acid dye. This fabric was done using my favorite technique of wadding it up into a dye bowl that is really a bit too small and dumping in about 3 different colors that are left over from other dyeing projects. Don’t you just love serendipity?

Speaking of dyeing, I found a Blog that I have added to my Blog-roll (see sidebar). This is the Blog of Karren Brito, a wonderful Shibori artist and author. When you read her blog, have napkins ready. You will drool.

Another Blog I have added is for “Whip It”, an artist’s Blog with fantastic info on all aspects of being a fiber (or mixed media) artist. I love this one for all the treasures you find buried in it. BTW, I found this site because Karren Brito had it listed on her Blog. I’m starting to find this whole Blog thing very addictive and informative. Cool!

And lastly, Cindy’s comment asked about the ruffly tops on my daughters red & white striped socks pictured in the last post. Hi Cindy! and no, they are not crocheted. You work with me every Friday and you don’t know I’m allergic to crochet by now??  ;o)  They are a variation of the Frilled Bind Off explained in Charlene Schurch’s book More Sensational Knitted Socks (both SKS books are favorites of mine). If you have the book, it’s on page 78. Briefly, I worked a last row with a YO (yarn over) in between every stitch, doubling the number of stitches. Then I followed the directions in the book; *work a stitch, make one, bind off the first stitch*, repeat around. This doubled the number of stitches again as I bound them off. It gave a very ruffly top and enough ease that I did not have to worry about it being uncomfortably tight on her thigh.