sewing stitches: purl bee linen tunic with gathered shoulders

I did a thing. I made a top! 

Started and finished: August 6, 2015

Fabric: Pinstripe Linen Slub purchased at JoAnn's, 1 yard

Pattern: Purl Bee Linen Tunic with Gathered Shoulders

I saw this pattern on the Purl Bee when it was released a couple of weeks ago, and while it's not the typical top that I go for when thinking about what I like to wear, I was completely infatuated with how easy it seemed to construct. Four rectangles, and you gather the shoulders. Done! Not having a ton of experience with sewn garments (outside of some doll clothes I made when I was little), this seemed like a good starting point. 

Being a completely novice sewer(?), the directions were really easy to follow, except for the description of how to sew the channels at the sleeves to lace the cording through. (This could also have been because I was doing this at midnight and slightly delirious.) But I got there! And after being SUPER skeptical when I first tried it on, I now really like this top. And maybe most importantly, I proved to myself that I can, in fact, sew in a straight line.

I'm now more motivated than ever to bust out my vintage sewing machine for simple projects like this. Like knitting, it is such a thrill to be able to take a huge piece of nothing and make it into something beautiful and useful, and at this stage in my life it's cool that I can make clothes that are going to fit me EXACTLY the way I want them to. It's really empowering. Huzzah!

I hope everyone has made it to the new website and is digging the new look! After blogging with my old platform for almost a year I knew it was time to make a change, there were a lot of things I wanted to update about the website and honestly the easiest scenario was just to change platforms completely. I'm still tweaking a bit but am excited for the future of the blog and hope you are too!

Is it too early to make a post about winter?

1/2/3

To be fair, it was recently Christmas in July. And while I agree that Christmastime deserves recognition during more than one month of the year, something about it being 87 degrees at night just doesn't get me in as festive of a mood. :)

Anyways - as we inch closer and closer to the start of school, bouquets of sharpened pencils, end of summer clearance, and the like, I get so excited. I've been enjoying seasonal summer food this season in a new and wonderful way with my job at the farm; our whole menu this week has been planned around ripe tomatoes. Glorious. But still - on some level, summer is a season I get through to get to fall and winter. It might be blasphemous, but it's true. 

What's exciting about planning my fall and winter knitting is that I actually already have the yarn for all three of these projects! The Lila Winter sweater is a bulky variation on a shape that has really been popular this year, and I have plans to dye some wool for it before the season is over that I currently have in my stash. The Trellis Scarf is already in progress in worsted weight, after frogging a failed shawl design and refusing to let the 2 skeins of Flax Down that the hubs gifted me go to waste on a crummy pattern. And then, Timberline. I'm a bit scared of this pattern. The schematic is comprehensive but daunting, this will be my first seamed sweater, and the charts, while very doable, are LONG. Just what I get for letting B pick out whatever men's sweater he liked from my favorites on Ravelry ;). It will be a fun challenge, but I can see it also being a marathon. The swatch alone took me an hour. But we've bitten the bullet and decided to go for Knit Picks Wool of the Andes for the beautiful color and affordability. (And they answered all of my questions on where they source their wool, which made me pretty happy.)

The great thing about these patterns too, they are all so cozy. We don't get "real" winter in NC the way so many others do, but I literally get so excited thinking of snuggling up in all of these knits with snow falling outside and watching a movie. It's going to be glorious. 

Only 148 days til Christmas!

And only 79 days until the NY Sheep and Wool Festival in Rhinebeck, NY! I just found out today that I'll be going again with Virginia and her crew. Anyone else planning on going this year??

Love: spinning dreams

Top Left/Top Right/Bottom Left/Bottom Right

I'm spinning my life away these days. The past two weekends we have been laying low, staying out of the heat, spinning, reading about spinning, and dreaming about it. There are so many beautiful places to buy fiber in the U.S., and these are some of my favorites I've found so far. I would love to find others - there is so much out there I want to spin, and so little time to do it. :)

It's so funny with my spinning, I have been gravitating towards these vibrant, almost neon colors but in reality I love to wear neutrals (at the store this weekend, I picked out a tan, navy and gray top. And black pants. Ha!). Eventually, I'm going to have to reconcile what I like to spin with what I like to knit and what I like to wear. But for now, I'm loving these colors as I get better and better. 

Cheers to summer and color!

Spinning in color

Continuing in my recent trend of working with LOTS of color this summer, I worked on a couple of spinning projects this past week that were filled with bright color changes, soft fiber, and all around just a great time. 

I first found Melissa of Hey Lady Hey months ago via the Woolful podcast (really, my source for every fiber goodness ever) and just made my first purchase this past week. I'm so sad it took me this long! The fiber pictured above is Targhee dyed in a colorway called "Flower Power". The picture doesn't totally portray its range of colors: pinks and orange and lots of green and blue. I used my drop spindle (my only spindle...so far) and plied together 2 oz each. My spindle was SO full towards the end, it kept breaking and I had to use a bit more twist just to keep it together! I'm really happy I didn't cave and spin two skeins, though, it is so big and squishy and feels like a real accomplishment! I measure about 8 WPI so an aran/bulky weight for sure, about 100 yards. 

My second project was a spontaneous decision coming off the high of finishing Flower Power - while it was drying I launched immediately into this project. The fiber here is BFL which Melissa kindly sent me because she knew I was practicing my drafting! She is the sweetest! Amazingly, despite the long staple length, this fiber was SO soft. Is there anything else you could want?? Every time I finished one of the little batts it felt like another mini project done - so fun! This was her "Hodgepodge Fiber Kit" which you can still find on her website, but I wouldn't wait! Her fiber is one of a kind and goes fast. 

This project was about 2 oz of fiber so I imagine it will be for something small, or as an accent to a bigger piece, and I spun it as a stand-alone single. I soaked it and attached a weight as it was drying to help set some of the extra twist I got in it, and am pretty happy with how I spun it!

One element I'm really still working on in my spinning is consistency. On some level, I love the charming thick and thin nature of handspun yarn, and my drafting is getting much more consistent, but I find that the longer I spin, the more the thickness of my singles increases as I go. I've been reading all sorts of spinning books recently and am hoping to pick up some tips on how to avoid this, any experience from readers would be much appreciated!

These are the only two projects in my Handspun section on Ravelry, but I have no doubt it's just going to grow from here. I've already ordered some new top - BFL and silk blend I am going to try to spin into some sock yarn - on request from a certain husband and crazy sock lover. ;)

Happy week!

Off the needles: Dotted Rays

"Dotted Rays" by Stephen West

Started: June 28, 2015

Finished: July 11, 2015

Fiber: Madelinetosh Pashmina DK in "Holi" - 2 skeins

Notes: 2 countries, 2 weeks, one shawl. My sweet friend Virginia gifted me this beautiful yarn back in March and when I decided to go with my O-Wool Local for my Pure shawl, I knew this would be my next yarn to use, but couldn't find the right pattern. This yarn is loud and bright and beautiful so eventually I landed on Stephen West - all of these things describe his style and his patterns. I knit the small version of Dotted Rays and it was almost exactly 2 skeins. The pattern took some concentration at first, and I found that it was really helpful to place stitch markers every time I turned a short row, it made keeping track of where I was in each row so much simpler. There's also a great little tutorial over at Odette-DS's ravelry page that helped me get started! 

As the project grew, it became more and more of mindless garter which was just what I wanted on my vacation in Mexico. The I-cord bind-off took a while, but I think it's worth it, the piece looks so finished and I even wore it to a coffee shop yesterday, couldn't resist. :) It'll be hard to wait to wear this until the fall, the colors are just so summer-y. 

I'm really glad that I knit this, it stretched my color palette and my ideas about shawl construction! And to top it off, there's this awesome video. :)

I hope everyone is having an awesome summer! I'm excited about my next two projects, one spinning and one which is going to be a massive undertaking. I can't wait to get started and am swatching this week!

Off the needles: Pure

Pure|Worsted by cabinfour

Started: May 30, 2015

Finished: June 16, 2015

Fiber: O-Wool Local, one skein each of Gingko Nut and Steelhead

Notes: After much debating I decided to go with a yarn I knew I would love for a pattern I had a feeling I would love. Now that I have knit a few large shawls, it's really fun to compare the construction techniques and how it affects the overall shape of the finished piece, and how it grows on your needles! Pure starts with a stockinette section, a textured stitch section, and then straight garter for the border. I picked up these two skeins of Local in the 2nds quality section of O-Wools website a few months ago and really wanted to use both of them up, so I did the stockinette section as normal, did 1.5 sections of the textured stitch, and then a little less than the garter section originally called for (because I ran out!). I love the versions of Pure that I saw that were only one color, so to unify the two colors in this one I decided to add in a stripe of the yellow before finishing the textured section, too, and I think it came out really lovely. Towards the end of that section, I was quite ready for it to be over - after knitting miles of stockinette in my Gable I forgot how slow pretty much every other stitch pattern is! 

The only other modifications I made were to go down a needle size to US 7 so it would be nice and dense (and because I'm a loose knitter generally). As expected, this yarn was a delight and I highly recommend it to anyone who has never tried it! Jocelyn's dedication to fair pricing and good relationships with her farmers is very much what I'm about, and I just love the way that my hands feel so soft after a long session of knitting with it. 

The background for these photos is a bit different, you may notice, because the Mr. and I moved this weekend to a little cottage in Chapel Hill. It has been a crazy week of unpacking and organizing, the little moments of "this used to go here in our old space, how does it go here" that happen as your belongings get accustomed to new surroundings. We are really loving it more every day and can't wait to spend time on our front porch and back deck soaking up some summer sun. 

In a week we leave for Mexico for family vacation and I'm sure the next 7 days will move by as if in standstill. My biggest question right now is, will the security guards let me take a drop spindle on an international flight?? Thoughts and experiences are welcome :)

Have a lovely Friday afternoon, we are headed to go see "Inside Out" in a few minutes!

Off the needles: Gable

It's done! It's done! It's done!

Gable by Hannah Fettig

Started: March 18, 2015

Finished: May 28, 2015

Fiber: O-Wash Fingering in color "Barn Owl", 3.5 skeins

Notes: This was SUCH a great first sweater. I've admired Hannah's classic and beautiful designs for a long time and knew I wanted to knit one, and this one is just great! The twisted rib was simple but just different enough to be interesting, and I even took on short rows. Only somewhat successfully, but still. Like I mentioned in my first post about this sweater, I was a little nervous about not alternating skeins with this yarn that came with instructions to do so, but even now looking at it I can't tell even the slightest variation or pooling of color, so I'm glad I didn't go through that process for this project. 

I knit a size 38" to accommodate for the intended 1-2" of ease. The only real modifications I made were to knit the sleeves about a half inch shorter, and when I got to the collar I got a bit impatient and only knit about 1.5" instead of 2". :) And the only real panic moment I had (aside from the short rows) was when I blocked the sweater and laid it out flat to dry. The weight of the water, even after I dried it with a towel, stretched the garments' gauge out significantly. Even though the yarn is an organic superwash, I was afraid to throw it in the dryer. However, when I did put it in the dryer for about 10 minutes, it went right back to the gauge I had swatched and was perfect. How great is that? One of my favorite things about this piece is that I don't have to worry about accidentally shrinking it, but also that the fiber was made organically. And it is so soft. It's been such a bummer that I finished it right as summer is really kicking in here, because I just want to wear it all. the. time. 

I'm not going to lie, I definitely got a little bit sentimental finishing this sweater, as I thought about all that knitting has brought to my life over the past few years and all the ways that I'm excited to grow. If anyone is looking for a fun, slightly challenging first sweater, I highly recommend it. Thank you to Jocelyn for making this awesome yarn, and thank you Hannah for this beautiful pattern! I cannot wait to knit more. 

And just for kicks, here's a picture of a sleepy kitten :)

The great debate for Pure

Well, I'm doing it again. The classic, I'm-almost-done-with-a-project-lets-preemptively-start-working-on-the-next-one dance I seem to do every time a monster project is close to being done.

Tonight I joined all of the pieces of my Gable together and while I'm so excited, I'm also catching all of the infectious energy surrounding Marlee and the wonderful news that Have Company is going to be Grand Rapid's first LYS! It's been so fun to watch a brand I love become a yarn store that I wish I could visit in person. If you can, please go check out their Kickstarter and help if you are able. It's going to be so lovely, I just know it.

Anyways! Marlee is hosting a Pure KAL starting next week, and I'm definitely going to join. Pure is on my short list of summer shawls I just wrote about, after all! The great debate is as follows. I have this lovely Madelintosh Pashmina that was a gift from a friend. It is only sport weight, but held double it could be exactly on gauge for the worsted version of Pure. It is so soft, perfect for snuggling next to skin and the colors are so vibrant, but I'm not sure how two individual skeins would look held double (the colorway is Holi, and the skeins are rather individualistic!).

On the other hand, I also recently purchased two skeins of O-Wool Local, which I knit my Mountain Moss Shawl with this past fall, and it was by far my most worn piece for the past few months. With Local, I could knit Pure in two colors, one for the border and one for the middle section. It is a little bit more rustic, but it definitely fits the aesthetic of the pattern, being simple and lovely and one of my favorite yarns.

I'd love to hear everyone's opinions about this! In the end, I guess I could just knit Pure twice, but I love both of these yarns so much, I don't want to waste a bit!