Natural Rainbow

It's done! The Natural Rainbow Vest. A rib warmer, of course. What better way than to use my favorite vest to showcase my hand spun yarn. It's not the first I spun, it's the second. But it's the first that I prepared myself, and boy, have I learned a lesson about carding. This yarn is thick/thin/fuzzy. On purpose. But also because I knew that's what I'd probably get from my first rolags.

The GREAT thing about this though, is that it's from wool dyed with natural sources, under the guidance of Martha Owen in my class at the John C. Campbell Folk School last February. Read more about Martha and the Folk School by clicking my link on the sidebar. Click a photo for a clearer view of the yarn and the colors. If anyone is interested, post and I'll review what was used for which colors.

Now, about the magic of blocking. The last photo is the newly finished vest. A tad short in front, even for me (I like 'em short). I blocked, and the first photo shows an improved length in front.

However, also notice the "wing" at the left armhole in the newly blocked version. Sigh, I hate armhole wings. Sometimes that happens when you block a rib warmer and I'm learning I need to be more careful there. So the vest is back on the ironing board, having had the armhole steamed a bit and reshaped. I'm keeping my fingers crossed.

(PS - The I-cord is not handspun. It's Cascade Pastaza from The Yarn Patch, a wool/llama blend.)

Spinning My Wheel

As I said I would, I've been spinning. But first, I finished Andrew's hat and it's on it's way to Oklahoma. The colors in the photo aren't quite true. It's got green, not teal, charcoal, black and gray, and rusty brown. There's no blue or purple. I should get a better camera or something.
















I've filled two bobbins. This is 2/3 of what I need for a hat. I'll ply as soon as my tensioned lazy kate arrives. Or maybe sooner, since I'm running out of bobbins.















And I've been knitting with handspun, natural dyed yarn. Ribwarmer in process.



For thos of you who don't know, if you click on a photo you get a bigger, closer view. I think the fiber on the bobbins is pretty cool. When I'm finished with the hat, I'll post where I got the kit. I can't remember right now and I'd have to go back downstairs to look. I'll do it soon.

Jackie Lee has a new vest

This is Jackie Lee. She's come to live with me so I'll have a model. In my effort to prove to myself that I can knit a rib warmer in any size with any yarn, I made her a vest. BC is impressed with it.

In other knitting news..... I'm sewing the boondoggle sweater. The one I didn't plan on making and started on impulse because Maria and Betty at Tuesday Knit Night were making them. Theirs are green, so I felt like I'd be a copycat to do green. OK, I am a copycat, but I at least went for different colors. And I'm into fall colors right now. (We actually have some in the woods and fields here in Tennessee.) I'm calling this one Autumn Diamonds.

If I'm lucky and don't dawdle too long, I'll have this sweater done in time for the fashion gallery at Knit Out and Fiber Festival in Crossville on Saturday.

Ta-Da!!

Click to make the pictures bigger. I found ONE Monarch chrysalis! But since the caterpillars wandered off without telling me where they were going, I count myself lucky.

This thing is beautiful - like a little piece of jade jewelry with gold trim. Looks like a pretty safe place to hang out and turn into a butterfly if you ask me! I understand it will become more transparent the closer it gets to emerging, so I'll be keeping my watch. I'm excited. This is way more cool (and elegant) than watching caterpillars devour leaves and poop.

OK, second ta-da!

A ribwarmer almost complete. (It's not brown and blue, it's green and turquoise - strange colors and the camera will NOT get them right. At least not in this light. I'll try again when I've finished it.) I knitted most of this on our drive to and from West Virginia and over our weekend there. My LYS has asked me to conduct a workshop on making this garment, so I figured having a model knitted from yarn that they sell would be a good thing. I think we'll be ordering the Spun Out (see http://www.schoolhousepress.com/) as soon as we have an idea how many people are interested. In the meantime, my little finger will be knitting ribwarmers!

FO and Update

Another ribwarmer:








This time from EZ's pattern and Meg's variations in Spun Out ##42 from Schoolhouse Press. All my previous ones have been knit from Sidna Farley's variation that appeared in Knitter's #48, Fall 1997. This is another garment that I have finally "wrapped my head around" thanks to Meg's mini-camp in May. I no longer must blindly follow a pattern for ribwarmers. More on the way, and I'll try different variations as I go.





More of my mini-camp classmates showing their wonderful knitting:






It's summer, we're trying to prepare ourselves for a week paddling the Middle Fork of the Salmon in late June, so we're gone a lot these days. It's fun to meet friends and paddle, though it's been so dry lately that our best choice is the Ocoee River, in SE Tennessee. We were there for a 4-day weekend last week, and will be back for three days, leaving tomorrow.

Last week, about two days before we left for the holiday, a young, gray and white male kitty showed up on our porch. My first inclination was to chase him away as we do with the toms who occasionally hang around and harass my girls. But this little fellow was friendly and affectionate, and seemed disinclined to make trouble. He seemed to just want attention. And food. I finally fed him, especially after I noticed how thin and puny he looked. After we returned home, it took him a while, but he came back. I again gave him food and water, then easily ushered him into the carrier for a trip to the vet (note that "easy" is the operative word - no way to easily get ANY of my girls into the carrier).

My intention was to have his health assessed, get his immunizations, and neuter the little guy. Check-in at the vet requests a name, so he's Mosby. He's gray and white and disappears a bit in the shadows, so I named him after Confederate Colonel John S. Mosby, aka "The Gray Ghost". As it turns out, little Mosby might be pretty sick. The vet reported he's quite dehydrated and has an elevated BUN. So Mosby is in hospital and I'm awaiting further developments. Poor little guy. I really don't want another cat and my four girls don't want another one either (though Baby Kitty acts like she might accept him as a friend sooner or later). So Mosby will live outside, at least for the immediate future. Assuming he gets well. Positive thoughts for him, please?