On the Needles and On My Mind

The fish mittens are completed as of yesterday morning. Also, the second pair, with cats, are well started despite several tinkings (because I get distracted reading, and forget something crucial like colour changes). So definitely on track to get both pairs done and delivered for the 11th.

End results of the January spinning attempt to destash: 4 skeins alpaca-silk to Johanne, 1 skein mohair to Constance, and 4 assorted skeins in my basket - from top to bottom, a mouse-brown mohair/Romney x Leicester blend, some white Jacob, kid mohair, and yearling mohair.

February's goal will be to get the spinning done for a baby sweater on the list - the white fleece for the body is mostly picked but needs carding and spinning, then there are the dyed bits of fleece for the yoke to pick, card, and spin. That will be the focus after the mittens are done.

I have been bringing home copies of Vav magazine from our Guild library, less because I weave than because they have great articles and occasionally something way inspiring that could transfer to knitting. Right now I'm crushing on textiles from Skane, and a 3-shaft weaving from Bosarp which I think has some major possibilities as a knit:

I do love traditional textile patterns and history, and have a number of books and magazines with motifs and knits from many countries, mostly European. But it struck me the other day that there is very little from the Netherlands that I've seen. It would be nice to have more information on something more in my heritage. My mother is Dutch, and she knits, her mother knit, the relatives in Holland knit (and sent mittens to her family when she was growing up.) There is certainly a knitting tradition there - what little information I turned up in a few searches mentions guilds, and glove exports, and damask knitting, and old photos show people knitting (often what looks like socks, and hey, there's a Dutch Heel). I know I saw an article on knit lace caps also. One book mentioned in passing that colorwork motifs were limited, small and geometric. But with a plethora of books on Baltic and Scandinavian, and Shetland knitting, the only ones on Holland I could find are of fishermen's ganseys, which are nice - but where's the rest? Wouldn't a country with sailors habitually travelling to other countries with strong knitting traditions have brought back some souvenirs that might have been copied and elaborated on? And despite the stereotype of hard-working Dutch practicality, I can't see that a people whose folk costume has starched lace bonnets, gold ornaments, and ribbon trim would have only knit plain things. Where are the colourful mittens, the clocked socks? I need to do some investigation.

Startitis

The prodigal cat is home :) The rain today drove her indoors, and she got caught and shipped back. She's happy to be back though- couldn't decide what she wanted to do or check out first, so she shuttled between rooms and food and water and milk and treats for a while, snuggled on the couch with me for purrs and belly rubs, and is now sleeping and content on her favorite chair.

And I've got startitis. Got two stripes done on the green and gold shawl, thought maybe a pair of mittens would be better to get done this week for the sale, swatched and started a pair in DK wool, then changed my mind again and decided that a pair of mittens in handspun might be nicer, so dug out some white and indigo-dyed alpaca handspun and started those. Motifs semi-inspired from some Sami ones I've seen.

I've been weighing the yarn as I go, though, and I think I'll have just enough...fingers crossed...if the first mitten shows I'm screwed, then at least I can always fall back on one of my other startitis projects!

Olympic Socks, Alpaca Mittens

Ah, yes, the Olympics. I freely admit that didn't watch much of it, except for the opening ceremonies and the semifinal Canada vs USA mens' hockey game, and those were because it was Fridays and I was at my Friday fiber group get-together. Of course during the opening ceremonies we all ogled the various mittens, hats, and other knits the athletes were sporting. I'm just mildly annoyed that I couldn't find a decent picture of the Estonian team's mittens online afterwards, since they looked very nice...

But I did make an effort for the concurrent Ravellenic Games, and polished off not only that baby sweater with alpacas on the yoke, but my Alpha Socks. It was about time - my Rav page listed them as having been cast on just over 2 years previously!

Now I have to be heroic and not wear them until next fall, since I want to save them to enter in the local fair next August.

The other project which has gotten finished this week is this pair of mittens. These are the ones I've been designing as a counterpart to the dyeing classes I taught last summer at L'Ourse Qui Danse. Chantal of OQD has been testing the pattern, and I think it's about ready to go. So with any luck it will be up on Rav as well as available at L'Ourse Qui Danse in the next week or so.

I have to say they're a great knit to use up small amounts of yarn - I knit them in 5 colours because that's the number of samples each dye class produces, but you could technically use up to 20 colours if you felt inclined to. The only drawback is - you guessed it - weaving in ends. Whether it's 5 or 20 colours, you will still have something like 80 ends to deal with. Ah, well. Cuppa tea and something on the telly, and it goes pretty fast!

Bits of Winter Life

I was happy to be out at the parents' for a couple days last week, in that so-lovely frigid weather. Nothing like having a good heat source, like a wood stove, on a cold day. It was very pretty, though - sunrises sparkling over the snow (that's what I get out my window when I'm there), and the feeders thronged with birds. But I watched from inside, thankyouverymuch.

I expect the good part of the cold for the birds is that they don't have to worry about the cats so much. Certainly none of them spent much time outdoors. Some, like Julia, found vantage points to watch the feeders, and some, like Pumpkin, just found a nice cozy spot (with a sunbeam, if possible) to nap in.

There's always erranding to do when I'm down, and this was no exception. Mom and I went to meet up with Jo and Chantal at the alpaca ranch - and I always come home with homework from the meetings. This time it was a pair of thrummed mittens that someone wanted me to knit up from a Fleece Artist kit, which I knew was waiting to pick up. I spent the next couple days enjoying making those!

There was also showing the model and discussing some pattern adjustments to be made to the stranded mitten pattern I've been designing for the shop, to go with the dye classes or with shop kits (and which I hope to get posted on Rav after Chantal tests them for me), and a bundle of yarn and some patterns and ideas for commissions for the shop, and a commercial sweater Jo loves and would like reverse engineered and adjusted for their yarn.... I think most of my personal projects are going to be put off again!

Mom's thing is weaving, and she had some books and magazines to lend Chantal, who wants to do some scarves for the store. She also brought her latest project, linen towels for the bathroom, to show. I can't blame her, they are lovely! They look so nice lined up on the towel rack.

There is also a matching bath mat - and a runner for the cats' table in the kitchen, where their food bowl is. Only in a weaver's house would the cats have a handwoven, wool-backed, linen runner to lie on and eat their food on!

Speed Demon

That has to have been the fastest pair of mittens I've ever knitted.

I cast on Wednesday night, cast off Friday at knit night, blocked and dried them overnight, and delivered them to Marianna this morning at 10:30 - slightly damp around the cuffs still, but done and tagged and ready for her to give as a Christmas gift. AND I remembered to take pictures before leaving this morning.

I do not want to knit at that speed on a regular basis.

Except for a few rows on a sock foot redo, there has been no knitting today, for a change. I finished picking up a few things for Christmas, then got the cookies for the exchange baked. Holiday Oatmeal cookies, with coconut and raisins and nuts and maraschino cherries.

I needed 48 cookies for the exchange. The recipe produced 50. Sooo...48 neatly bagged, and two in me. After all, I had to make sure they were good, didn't I?

Mostly Mittens

I think there's a knitting book by that title. At any rate, book or not, that's what's been in my knitting bag for a few weeks now, and what will mostly be in it for a few weeks more. I've been having fun with colorwork and gotten 3 pairs done for the sales this weekend and next. Yeah, there was only supposed to be the one more, but Mom signed us up for one in our neck of the woods too. The rest of this week, I think I will be doing a couple baby things, since there seems to be a baby boom going on, so the demand ought to be there.

And then I have now 5 pairs in queue commissioned from classmates. Three are for Christmas gifts, so I certainly know what my study projects will be. (I need to have something in my hands while studying, or I tend to fall asleep over my books.) That sounds like a lot, but only 2 pairs are full-sized mittens, the others are two pairs of fingerless mitts and one pair baby mitts. We are joking that while our green shirts  are the official uniform, at this rate, my mittens may be the unofficial one in the Hort building.

Lest you think it's been all mittens, I will show you a pic of what last weekend looked like. I was teaching my very first spinning class at Johanne's last Saturday. You can't see Jo in the picture, or one of the students, Josee, but Chantal and Josee's daughter (Anne-Sophie, I think it was) and Jean, are all visible, in Jo's cozy studio. I hope everyone learned something. A first class is a bit nerve-wracking, especially if you don't know the language distribution. Turned out Jean was the only one mostly English, everyone else mostly French with some English, so I ended up switching languages a lot.

It was a fun afternoon, and Jo is talking of doing a dye workshop over the Christmas holidays...well, if that goes through, that's me teaching again!
In the meantime, Mom and I started Christmas prep, so I have a few delectable little fruitcakes in the fridge. Next time it will be butter tarts and mince tarts, as fuel for exams ;)

The good, the bad, and the ugly

Weekend Results
Good:
1. Finished Montreal Deb's mitts, and I think the revised pattern is still cute.

2. Lovely weather this weekend, got some work in the garden done, and planted a row of lettuce. Everything is going crazy.
3. Kit was destashing knitting magazines, and I found several I liked. Plus she lent me the TV series of  'The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy', so I'm looking forward to seeing that.
4. I made chocolate chip and pecan cookies.

Bad:
1. I completely zoned on the fact that I was supposed to be helping out at the OC Transpo unclaimed items sale on Saturday.
2. I also managed to forget some of my new magazines at a friend's on Sunday when I brought them for people to look at.
3. My laptop appears to be dying - it shut off several times randomly in the last week or so. I hope the newer one I was supposed to get comes through soon.

Ugly.
1. It's grey and rainy and it's Election day. 'Nuff said.

News on the Knitting Front

Because, y’know, it’s kind of a knit blog, but it’s been a few days since fiber got mentioned. I’ve been busy, honest! I started a shawl…

The yarn is some I had extra from a Christmas project, beautiful laceweight silk and cashmere from the Diamond Luxury collection. I’m kind of doing my own pattern for it – what’s showing is the blueberry motif (super easy) from Nancy Bush’s book on Estonian shawls, and I’ll put a nice edge on it. I also managed to whip up two pairs of fingerless mitts from project scraps, and they’ll go to the Etsy store.

Not that getting all that out of the way has diminished my stash much. Besides taking advantage of the sale at Knit-Knackers last weekend to the extent of two balls of laceweight merino/silk and one of sock yarn, I was just gifted with a ball of undyed merino/silk roving from a friend, as a thank you for babysitting. Yes, she’s a knitter and dyer, so she knows what I like!