More Etsy

I am almost sold out of fingerless gloves and very busy making a few customs pairs. I made these ivory gloves with pastel embroidery a while ago, but no one seems to like white gloves - so last week I over-dyed them a light brown.

I like the new look a lot and may even keep them for myself - I have one pair of my own fingerless gloves and would like another pair. But they are on Etsy for now, as well as this beautiful Wedgwood blue pair.

new gloves

I almost sold out of fingerless gloves at the Public Market Artist Row. And I have had a number of custom orders, but I am pleased to say that I have finally posted some new fingerless gloves on Etsy.

Cotton, the fabric of our lives

I am trying to post a few new items on Etsy today. These cotton gloves are really wonderful. I purchased the yarn at the Knitting Guild Auction last spring and it is hell to knit with but the end result is worth it. The yarn had little pieces of plant material in it and although it hurt my fingers like the devil I pulled every little piece out of the gloves as I knit them.

Isn't the cotton plant just the most wonderful thing in the world?

More Sun

More Sun means more gloves.

See the bee on my hand? I put my life at risk for the art of knitting! Well, at least for the art of photographing my knitting! Isn't my wonderful son a fantastic photographer?

These sky blue gloves are repurposed cashmere sweater sleeves. The other two pairs are hand knit and have embroidery on them. I hope to get them into my shop this afternoon. Then it is off to More Fire to make More Beads. Below are the beach pebbles that are mostly dark ivory with some copper green and transparent glass. I finally etched them and I am ready to make a necklace. I love how etching the glass makes the black lines super crisp. The images show the glass beads mixed up with some turquoise, mother of pearl and coral. There are also two of Lucinda's beads in the mix.

The bead on the left is Lucinda's. I love how the etch took away some of the brighter turquoise that the copper green creates. The softer color is much more to my liking.

The picture below looks like something I found on the beach, doesn't it? But actually it is a mushroom that I photographed on a stone. I guess I can find the beach in my own back yard.

Empowered

I feel a lot less helpless today. I saw Inglourious Basterds last night and it gave me courage and stamina. Simply, the best movie I have ever seen. As a film, it is brilliant.As a story it is captivating, thrilling and full of feeling.

It has shocking visual stills, gorgeous scenes and scenery and unbelievably interesting nods to other

cinematic masterpieces.

You can probably tell that I really enjoyed the character of Shosanna Dreyfus, played by Melanie Laurent. You can read the NY Times review here. Although I disagree with much of the text, I did like this group of sentences -

As usual Mr. Tarantino gives you a lot to chew on, though there’s plenty to gag on as well. Much depends on whether you can just groove on his framing and staging, his swooping crane shots, postmodern flourishes (Samuel L. Jackson in voice-over explaining the combustibility of nitrate prints) and gorgeously saturated colors, one velvety red in particular.

I did not know it is a somewhat re-make of obscure spaghetti WWII and forgotten B-movie classic,

The Inglorious Bastards. This really isn't important. I just thought it was interesting.

Finally, there was some sun today and I was able to get photos of gloves taken.

These are made from recycled repurposed sweater sleeves that have been fulled (felted) in the washing machine. The gloves are simply the ends of the sleeves of the sweater. The tops are the ribbing of the sleeve, the other ends are rough cut as the thumb hole is too. I am trying to get them posted now and then we are off to shop for school supplies.

Friday at Crocus

I have been invited to be the guest artist at Crocus Clay Works. Please come see my work on Friday 5-9.

This show will focus on felted objects. I am selling felted bags, felt jewelry, felt and hand knit fingerless gloves and mittens and some lovely little stuffed animals that I call Foundlings. I will also have January Boxes on exhibit. 

Friday August 7, 5 -9 Crocus Clay works          

http://www.crocusclayworks.com

1115 East Main Street  

The Hungerford building

Rochester, New York 14609 

Door #2, Suite 225 

FO and on the needles

I actually finished something - the silky light blue shawl/wrap (unknown yarn). Although I am seriously thinking about putting sleeves on it and making it into a sweater. I just love the yarn and I know that I hardly ever "throw" on a wrap, as I own quite a few and never wear them.
Oh, who am I kidding, I need to complete the thing and move onto the long list of the things I have on the needles.

List of all the things I have already started:

1. I have been knitting all my itchy awful wool yarns into a striped bag/purse to be fulled (as fulled is the correct term for when you wash a knitted wool object in order to felt it).
2. I started a baby sweater using the off white hand spun cotton I got at the Guild Auction.
3. I have a bubble gum pink cotton Aran baby sweater that I started possibly fifteen years ago.
4. I have to finish that horrible stripey cardigan. I still have to knit the sleeves and I just hate knitting on small circulars. I also have to knit the piping - so maybe I can get motivated to do that soon.
5. I started a beautiful intargia sweater years ago that is using various yarns for which I do not know the yardage. It is, so far, a brassy copper, dark chocoalate and raspberry. I have yet to find one more perfect complimentary yarn to make sure it will work. I have knit one side of the front and half of the back- hard to believe, isn't it? I really have to frog the front side piece and just can find the heart to do it.
6. I have fingerless gloves going (always).
7. A second bag to be fulled, made of an awful dirty snow colored mohair with sparkles. The sparkles get all over me when I work on it.
8. And today I am casting on for a lavender bag, the yarn is a great color, but itchy, itchy, itchy!

I think that's it.

Summer Twist Collective

Check out the latest issue of Twist Collective

Flattering Knits

I am interested in making more shapely sweaters for myself. I just found out about this new book posted on The Blue Blog and it looks like a good one. I love the green sweater on the cover (and pictured below). The subtitle of the book is 30 Designs to Flatter and Fit. The Blue Blog states that the chapter about knitting to fit is classic Sally Melville: full of clear, concise details and a multitude of useful illustrations. And there are explanations for sweater lengths and shapes, how to measure yourself (not just a basic bust measurements, but more specific measurements like shoulder width and waist length), and how to adjust any pattern to fit you better.

also on the needles

I purchased this yarn at the local Fiber Festival almost two years ago. It is very very soft and I love the color. I took it with me to New Orleans so I could knit while waiting at airports and on the plane. I had no plan and stupidly got a lot done not knowing what it will become. I could make a sweater, but considering the other sweater I would prefer to complete, I have decided to make a wrap. It should be a wonderful thing to throw on at the beach at the end of the day. I don't know the fiber - I assume it not a natural fiber because it looks ribbon like, as if it were spit out of a machine. But, boy, is it soft. I have another skein which I think will become a baby blanket. It is on top of my pile there on my bedside table pictured below. I did finally get some Orla Kreily pieces at Target. I got a great Pears table cloth (of which two would make amazing curtains for the right room) and these containers for my yarn. The blue is an exact match to our vintage wall paper. I wish they produced this fabric in tablecloths as I have been looking for curtains, or fabric for curtains, for 4 years for this room.

Yarn of an unknown source

I am more afraid of an army of 100 sheep led by a lion than an army of 100 lions led by a sheep.

- Charles-Maurice de Talleyrand

I purchased this yarn with no label at a yarn auction. I really like it and am wondering what it is. I believe it is hand spun (actually it is quite over spun), it has no odor at all and is pretty soft. I am certain it is a natural fiber and maybe it was spun so long ago and any natural element has dissipated.

Then I saw a post at Lolly Knitting Around and I think the yarn is similar to something she used. (From http://lollygirl.com/blog/page/4)

“The yarn was wonderful to knit. It was raw and over spun in sections and crunchy and flubby and perfect. I love to be reminded of the source when I am knitting. In this case, the source was some lovely ivory fleeced Chilean cordero.”

I researched the term cordero and found it is simply Spanish for lamb. But I think it may be a term used for a type of South American sheep. (Most of what I found were recipes on how to prepare lamb). I had originally thought that this yarn I have is wool and the little pieces of wood and straw in it made me think it was from South America. It reminds me of those itchy sweaters you can get a flea markets and summer craft festivals. But this yarn is finely spun, not bulky and very, very soft.

Later.... I am sure it is cotton , now that I have worked with it all day - it has got to be cotton. I never saw hand spun natural cotton befoe. I have started a little baby sweater, it should be very sweet.

I just found out that I get to watch the movie Gattaca in the classes I am subbing in today - it is one of my all time favorite movies. Uma Thurman, Ethan Hawke and Jude Law...mmmm. The story illustrates that there is no gene for the human spirit and that enthusiasm and drive can overcome any obstacle.

never say never

I said I would never order yarn off the internets again. I hate not being able to feel it before I buy it, but I went and did it again. I ordered enough yarn for a brown cotton sweater for myself, all because I wanted to wear a brown cotton sweater tomorrow and I realized I do not own one! (and because I am very bored and all I can think about is knitting, specifically sitting on the beach and knitting).

Berroco Pure Pima -Color - Walnut

Gauge:5.5 sts = 1" on US 6 Weight/Yardage:50g/115yd $6.00 discounted 20%, plus shipping it comes to $58.75 for a sweater I still have to make. So as soon as I finish the Stripey Cardigan I will start on this walnut one - I might make the Turbulence U-Neck Pullover by Norah Gaughan... Which means I have to order her book - as the pattern is not free on Ravelry....

or maybe I'll make the Riding to Avalon Sweater by Connie Chang Chinchio

from Knitscene, Fall 2008. t is a hooded sweater that is super cute.

on the needles

Feeling very accomplished with the February Lady Sweater from Ralvelry, I have decided to try another one. I decided to use up all my cotton yarn that is a light color or pastel and I am making a stripey cardigan. I am planning to over dye the entire sweater in a periwinkle blue. I  am hoping that the pinks will become purples and the whites periwinkle and the greens nice aqua. I am attempting a different neck line from the Febraury Lady Sweater, as I prefer a V neck for my body shape. I appropriated the neck line from f. pea. She offers alot of free patterns which is really nice. She posted a children's stripey cardigan pattern which can be found in her free pattern Friday archive. It i a top down raglan too. My other problem with the Febraury Lady Sweater is that the button band is knit as you go. But if you change colors that just isn't possible and the cardigan hangs too low along the button band. f. pea uses an I-Cord to edge the sweater, so I am going to try that.

soft sweater

So, after the disaster of the itchy sweater, I ordered some beautiful soft cotton and silk yarn by Cascade. I do not recommend getting yarn sight unseen from the internet but I bought a couple of balls of this stuff from my local yarn store and loved it so I ordered what I needed from Webs. The sweater is based on the most knitted cardigan on Ralvelry, the February Lady Sweater. It is a great top down raglan on #8 kneedles, I just changed the lace pattern to cables and voila!

itchy sweater

I started this sweater eons ago - I was trying to save money and use up some old yarn that I had on a cone  from who knows where. I completed it in November but just got around to photographing it. Although I am happy with the design and the fit, I will never wear this sweater because it is super itchy! I will never again waste my time using inexpensive yarn.

Easter Bunnies

I have posted these three hand knit Easter bunnies on Etsy. The white one is made from hand spun angora - so it is actually made with real rabbit fur (but with no harm to the real rabbits).
The brown one is mohair and the gray one is wool. They each have pompom tails (I just love pompoms) and button eyes.

New gloves

I have lowered my prices on all of my fingerless gloves. I realized I had a great go of it after the Dooce post, but I think that I know my best prices now and I don't want to fool around with it any more. Please check out Second Seed when you get the chance.

Mom's Mittens

I gave my mom thse mittens for Valentine's Day. She bought me the yarn which is a wonderful soft bamboo and merino mix. I put some pink french knots in the flowers' centers to match her pink scarf.

new knitting

This wrap has taken forever. And I did not really like the color combination so it was painful to knit. I had these vintage buttons and I chose colors so that I could use them as the closure. But the colors just were not that wonderful when knit up in the pattern I chose. I was worried it was too striped. Six skeins later I am very pleased with the result. I actually sewed metal snaps on the underside of the buttons, because the button holes would have stretched. The end with the buttons is 8 inches wide and the wrap widens to 12 inches wide on the other end. It is for sale, check it out here.