Madrona report and knitting

I'm sorry I didn't post last week. To make up for it, I am posting a very, very long update this week.

First of all, we went to the glass museum in Tacoma. To access it from the hotel where the fiber arts retreat is held, you walk across a bridge of glass. One side of the bridge is lined with a gallery of Chihuly glass objects called the Venetian Wall . Here are some of the items showing how they are arranged. The light coming through the back is daylight. This section is open to the air though the objects are inside cases.

These photos are taken with my cell phone camera so they aren't the best. I forgot to take my real camera to Madrona.

Another section of the gallery.
A third section. The objects are amazing.
These glass block towers are at the end of the bridge, showing a promise of things to come. Another section of the bridge is covered. The ceiling is filled with Chihuly glasswork that makes it look like a coral reef.
More ceiling.

We spent 3 hours at the museum in the Hot Shop watching Lino Tagliapietra making gorgeous glass objects. His specialty is balloon like glass objects with lots of color and long trailing ends. You can see a bad photo of two objects on the table below. Again, I blame my cell phone camera. You can see better photos at the link above and here. At Madrona, I took a stash busting scarf weaving class. The yarn I brought with me was too fragile for the warp so I borrowed yarn from the teacher, Syne Mitchell. Syne is the author of the Weavecast and is an amazing teacher. We used a rigid heddle loom and completed this scarf in a day. I am very pleased with mine. It looks very Indian to me. I braided the fringe.I bought these persimmon dyed skeins. Chris Conrad uses a Japanese method called Kakishibui to dye these. The lavendar grey comes from iron and the golden color is the natural color from the dye. These are skeins of tencel. They will become a shawl but I don't know what kind yet.

I also took a class from Janine aka Feralknitter. As I was knitting the swatches in class, I realized that I had almost no yellow in my small collection of Shetland at home. So I invested in 5 skeins of yellow Shetland.

I also used a coupon to get a discount on these skeins of Mini-Mochi sock yarn. I love the colors.

Lastly, I finally finished the Lorna's Laces sweater after much ripping. I had to re-do the hem twice. The first time I went down a needle size without thinking and the resulting hem was too small to go over my head. A few minutes of thought made me realize that for a lace pattern that stretches, with a garter hem, I needed to go UP a needle size, not down. Since my size 8 KP Harmony needles had the same problem as my size 7 ones, I decided to use the size 9 and make a split hem. So 2 bodies and 3 hems later, it is done.
Here is a close-up of the body pattern. I used the coin lace pattern without any bordering twisted stitches for the body. You drop the stitch in between the coin lace to create the lacy effect. I get the vertical lines I wanted and the color of the garment below breaks up the striping.

I also pulled out my copy of Spinning the Old Way and started reading it. I am determined to practice my spinning. I thought I would do it every Thursday but last week I had to go grocery shopping and was too tired to spin after. But my resolution is to spin at least once a week.

That is all for now. I am starting a modular sweater for a knit-along but I'll save that for later.

Madrona, here we come!

I'm sorry! I made a mistake and took the completed socks to the yarn store without taking their portraits. So while I finished the socks, I have nothing to show you. I promise I will photograph them and post the photo the next time I go the yarn store. They are for a sock knit-along so I wanted to get them there as a sample.

In the meantime, I've been getting ready for the Madrona Fiber Arts Winter Retreat. It starts this Thursday and runs through Sunday in Tacoma. Last year was my first year and I had such a good time that I decided to go back.

First, I had to find a way to transport my spindle because I am hoping to practice my spindling when I am there. There are lots of superb spinners there and I need help desperately. After much searching, I found this tin at the local wine store. It is cute.

It makes a good spindle transporter because there is room to package the spindle in bubble wrap and it is rigid.

This is my spindle with the pathetic amount of yarn I have spun on it over a couple of years. It is a lovely Bosworth spindle that feels gorgeous so I want to spin some more on those days when I am brain dead and can't knit.

I am taking a weaving class and this is the yarn I've put together for the class. They are all laceweight singles from Morehouse Merino. I have to finish winding the remaining skeins tonight before I pack.

The other class I'm taking is from Feral Knitter who is an amazing fair-isle designer. She is going to teach us how to pick colors for fair-isle. One of her designs is in Sweaters From Camp and I've seen her lovely designs at Knitting Camp each summer.

The Travails of Travel Knitting

My initial objective was to finish the yoke of the Wild Apple and get started on the sweater body on the trip to Madrona. I had hours of uninterrupted knitting time on the way out and back, and bits of time during the trip. So I wound up a couple of extra balls of the main color and set out. The yoke attracted a lot of attention on the plane and in the airport. People were fascinated by the colors.

Now, I knit everywhere. I rarely encounter comments on my knitting. Maybe I am so absorbed in it that people don't comment. Sometimes I get into long conversations with folks but mostly I don't get comments. This yoke generated comments. People walked over to ask what it was and to see pictures of the finished product. Sadly, I had none. I got as far as round 56 or so - the last round that used color #60. I ran out of it with 6 repeats to go to the end of the round. There was no way out except to put it away. I knew I could get more yarn from Solveig but not while I was travelling. I emailed her, she replied she would send it but my knitting plans were all awry.

Fortunately, I was at Madrona. It has a market! And I had taken a number of fine gauge needles with me for the Wild Apple. So I bought the Shibui sock yarn which I had meant to try anyway. I figured that I could always use some more socks and it was good to have a project in my back pocket even though I had brought an emergency knitting project. Which knitter doesn't? And I moved on to the emergency project I had brought with me - a double-knitted headband.Two years ago at Meg Swansen's Retreat 2.75, M'lou Baber had done a workshop on double knitting and given us the pattern for this headband. M'lou is the most amazing double knitting wizard. Schoolhouse Press is publishing a book of her designs which you can see at the link above if you scroll down. I started it in Berroco Ultra Alpaca (yummy!) but had not gone too far into the design. On a whim, I packed it for Madrona thinking I could finish it there if something happened to the Wild Apple.

As you can see, I finished it on the trip. I can vouch for the durability of this yarn. That cast on edge was ripped out and re-used at least 6-8 times and was looking bedraggled when I cast on. But it is fine in the finished headband. The first couple of rips was due to not figuring out what pattern I was actually knitting from two years ago and making the headband too big. Then my tails were too long or too short. I am a perfectionist when it comes to the length of the tail and I cast on anything at least 3 times. The side I plan to use is above.Here's the other side. The snowflake doesn't look as nice done in red on black. But the entire thing feels very lovely. Of course, since I returned, I haven't had a chance to wear it.By Sunday, as I was travelling to the Bay Area from Madrona, I was done with the headband. I cast on for the sock on the flight to San Jose. Here's the sock as it was when I returned. But I could have finished the heel. I am only half way up it. What stopped me? This little thing down below. My needle snapped. Now Knitpicks sends an extra needle with their double pointed sets. But it was not in my carry-on bag. So I had to wait till I got home and dug the extra needle out to continue.
Since I got home, I haven't knit much. I got the yarn from Solveig and am working on the Wild Apple. I am in the middle of round 61. 10-ish rounds to go. There are 71 in the chart. But with 400 sts on the needles, each round takes some time.

Madrona Acquisitions

Part II of the Great Madrona Report is what I bought. I didn't buy as many items as others but I am not sure I spent any less. I didn't buy much yarn. I bought the DVD I mentioned last time and the bulk of my purchases were from Sheila and Michael Ernst at glasspens.com. This is the primary purchase - the one I'm most excited about. It is a blown-glass bead with glass filigree work on it. You can't see the colors in the photo. It has red and orange and bits of yellow when the light hits it and of course it reflects the colors around it. In this photo, the undertones are blue because of the tissue paper surrounding it. It is large. That is a standard #2 pencil next to it. I am going to make a necklace with two relatively large beads on either side of this one and then seed beads to pick up the colors in the bead. This bead will serve as a pendant.I also bought dichroic glass buttons to go with the yarn I am going to use for the Jean Wong sweater. The swatch is underneath this button. It was the buttons that made me not want to knit a pullover but knit a jacket. Ideas for it are coming to me.These are the rest of the dichroic glass buttons. Sheila attaches the buttons to the card with a little clip so you can take them off and pin them to your swatch or sweater to see them without the card. Lastly, I bought two skeins of Shibui sock yarn so I would have something to knit since I ran out of one of the colors of the Wild Apple yoke. Solveig is sending me more yarn but I had a week's business trip after Madrona and wanted (no, needed) to have something to knit. I had taken an emergency project (which knitter has not?) but even that wouldn't serve to keep me occupied for a week. I finished the emergency project and half a sock. Here's the untouched skein - a bit over-exposed to show the colors. After Madrona, I went to the Bay area for a week. While there, Joy and I went to Daiso, a Japanese 100-yen ($1.50) store. It was a fun trip. I bought silicone baking cups and ocean life picks for my lunch. I take salsa in a little loaf pans to dip my veggie burger into, and hummus for my carrots or pretzels in a baking cup. The picks serve as fun replacements for a fork, to pick up pieces of fruit or cheese. I want to go back but there isn't one in this area. I have to wait for another trip to the Bay area for more.
Part III will be my knitting during the trip. I haven't knit much since I returned as I've been a bit tired.

Back at last

I have been silent because I've been travelling and not well. There is nothing worse than being ill while on the road.

I had good intentions. I took my camera to Madrona to record the event and blog about it but I didn't. I lost my memory card and so that plan came to naught. Then I was going to blog text posts but caught a cold or had a bad allergy after I left Madrona and went to the Bay area on a business trip. It was all I could do to keep up with work for the first couple of days and just wanted to stay in bed. But staying in bed in a hotel room is not exactly like staying in bed at home so I didn't.

After that, I got better with drugs but I was still exhausted and falling into bed after dinner without even thinking about blogging.

I came home early this am (12:15 am to be exact) and will now set about recording my doings over the past couple of weeks. There is a lot of exciting stuff to talk about but each deserves its own time in the spotlight so I won't rush it.

I am glad to be home.