The best laid plans....

If you remember, a long time ago, I bought some buttons to put on mittens I was going to make with handspun Romney.

I suppose I could have used them had I planned my mitt better. There are two problems with using these buttons. The first is that I have 10 buttons but I made 6 button holes on the first mitt. Since there should be 6 buttonholes on the second mitt to match the first, 10 buttons just won't do. sigh I did think about not putting a button on the last button hole. Which brings us to the second problem.

Let me remind you of what the mitt looks like:

It is a chunky, bold sort of fabric and the buttons are rather delicate and small. In fact, they are too small. The yo buttonholes I made are too big for the buttons. double sigh

This past Sunday, we took a trip back to the notions market, mitt in hand. I found these lovely lilac and pewter looking buttons. I couldn't find anything that matched the colors in the mitt but there is a darker lilac and I thought the contrast with the lighter color brightened up the mitt.

I did buy 12. I put only 4 on the mitt as they slid off. I will be traveling over the next couple of days and will finish up the second mitt and then I can sew them all on. I had to buy sewing thread to match. The thread shops had these huge cones of thread and I thought I'd have to buy one of those (think serger thread on steroids). But then one shop had sets of smaller amounts in related colors. I found one set with a color I could use.

So maybe I will have a completed pair of mitts by next week.

Fun with buttons and beads

I had a Raveler friend visiting me from Beijing this weekend. Our plan was to go on a yarn and bead crawl. And did we!

We started yesterday afternoon by taking the Metro to the Dupaqiao station. From there, it is a short walk to Ruijin Er Lu, where there are about 6 yarn shops. I had visited three of them on my walk through the Former French Concession back in March. I had also gone back to a couple when I bought my mink yarn about a month ago.

We just looked yesteray. Then we continued to the Metro station at Shaanxi Nan Lu and went to YuYuan Garden. We had heard that there was a whole building of haberdashery/notions there. And we wanted to check it out.

It took us a while to find it. We wandered through a building that had lots of costume jewelry stores and another one where they make knotted decorations to order. I have to go back to both, but yesterday we were on a mission! We had to find the beads and buttons before the stores closed at 5 pm. We had lots of time but not if we took to browsing. We found a shop selling cross-stitch kits and they told us to go to Shanghai Tan "just across the street". A bit more asking got us to Shanghai Tan - which turned out to be a giant 4 story building. As we got close, we were excited because we saw street vendors with buttons.

We had hit the motherlode. This building has small shops - imagine streets of booths with various notions all inside a building. I didn't take photos as I was battling plantar fasciitis and that and our hunt took all my attention. We found lots of button booths and bought the buttons we needed.

I bought buttons for a pair of mittens I am going to make with the Romney I just finished spinning.

Then we found these lovely art deco buttons that we shared...

And I bought these monkey's fist buttons:

If these look familiar, Hiyahiya makes stitch markers with them. Which is exactly what was on my mind.

We didn't have time to explore all 4 stories of laces, zippers, cords, fringe, plastic fabrics with bling (used for cell phone covers and purses, I think), fur strips, wooden beads, sequins, fake gem stones, etc. We wanted beads!

We had heard of this shop just behind the building that was devoted to beads so we headed off to investigate. On the way we passed larger shops of beads and notions on the street and finally found the bead shop. Sadly, most of the beads were too tiny for knitting. The largest ones could be used for lace weight yarn but we didn't have any yarn to match and none of the colors jumped out at us as easily used colors. But now we knew where it was.

As we walked back to the Metro, I spotted a bead shop on the outside of the Shanghai Tan building. We popped in and found a few bags of beads we could use. But again, without specific yarn, we stuck to colors that would work with a variety of colors.

We split the big bags but this is equivalent to about 4 tubes of beads each.

By this time the stores were closing and my feet hurt badly so we headed home.

This morning we made stitch markers -
I had brought some beading filament from the US just for such purposes:

It is a bit fine. I need thicker monofilament for stitch markers but these are functional.

I put a length of the monofilament through the little loop on the monkey's fit buttons and melted the ends together. It took some trial and error to melt it cleanly on the gas stove, as I didn't have either candles or a lighter. We also experimented with the length of the monofilament. I will try them out and see if they are usable or if the loop is so thin that it doesn't work.

Then I pulled out some cord I had bought in the US to make knotted stitch markers. We tried and tried to make a jar sling knot. [I have since found some videos on it and will try again]. Giving up in frustration, we switched to figure-8 knots and had a bit of success.

I bought wildly colored variegated cord just to have a variety of colors to make the markers.

They are quite functional but I think they would work better for thicker yarn - just as I think the first set would work well for lace weight. We passed the ends through the gas flame to prevent them from fraying.

I can see having a lot of fun making these knotted markers and learning some knots along the way. The biggest challenge is controlling the size of the loop. We found that having the color change in the loop makes for more interesting knots although the cord didn't always cooperate.

After the stitch marker making, I pulled out the Hansen and we started spinning some Briar Rose BFL I had. My friend is a newbie spinner and she had fun spinning worsted, thin yarn. She did very well. I continued a bit after I got home in the evening.

This yarn will have very subtle colors. I am hoping to ply it with another lot that has some coordinating colors but I have to make sure the combination doesn't turn to mud. Based on her advice, I am planning a fingering weight yarn to make a Featherweight Cardi. It will be my first spinning for a garment so I am excited. I have 5.5 oz of one lot and 6 oz of the other so if the colors work out, I should have enough. Otherwise, I will ply each one to itself and maybe combine them into the cardi in some way.

This afternoon we went back to one of the yarn stores which was closed yesterday for some internal business - looked like inventory through the door. She bought some mink yarn and we both bought some sock yarn that she has used before. I bought a few balls that looked interesting in color. It is mostly wool (about 90%) and washes and wears well.

After that, we went our separate ways. She took off for the railway station to head back to Beijing and I came home to spin and blog!

Rhinebeck 2012

I am still in a daze after a glorious weekend at Rhinebeck. I know that too much of a good thing diminishes its value, but I could live a life full of Rhinebeck weekends.

It started early for me. I took a breed study class from Beth Smith on Friday. She is a font of knowledge and extremely organized. The amount of information she managed to impart in 6 hours was phenomenal. I don't have pics of the class but I have results.

 We got samples of 12 different fibers. We flicked the fine wools, combed the long wools and carded the down breeds (or something like that). We then spun each one into samples that we put in folders. The folders were categorized by color. Beth gave us index cards for each folder with the name of the breed on it.

It all makes me look incredibly organized, doesn't it? I spun and plied most of my samples. There were a few that are still singles. Some were ply-back samples but many of them were actual 2 plies. I got very good at Andean plying!

 

Since we didn't have time to play with all the fiber we received, Beth provided bags and labels so we could put the rest of the sample aside and play at home. Here is my set of 12 breed samples. I spun all but two. I had to skip the two just to keep up with Beth's pace. For the first time in a long time, I felt brain dead at the end of the class.

I was one of the first 250 to enroll in class so I got a goodie bag. 

 

It had goodies in it.

 

A ball of sequined acrylic yarn from Lion Brand along with a tape measure. Another tape measure from Webs. One cannot have too many tape measures. A small sample of fiber and some coupons. I didn't use the coupons as I forgot the bag at home on Saturday and Sunday.

It matches my Rhinebeck bag from last year, which is a great size and very, very useful. I use it all the time to haul things around.

 

It poured on Friday. In the middle of class, we had to go and move our cars to avoid having them flood. As a result, my shoes, socks and pant hems were all wet for most of the afternoon. But it was better than having water get into the car's innards.

I went early on Saturday to help out at Jennie the Potter and Briar Rose's booths. It was hard work as both booths were mobbed as soon as the festival opened. It is a good thing that I'm an extrovert, isn't it?

I bought this lovely little bowl from Jennie. 

No, those are not cracks. Don't even think that!

 

It fits my supported trindle perfectly! And speaking of supported trindles, guess what I bought for mine?

Pretty disco ball jewelry! These are heavier arms that the red skulls above.

I also wandered over to the Fiber Optic booth and bought some gradients.

 This is Ebony-Gold-Crimson.

And this one is really hard to see but it is called Midnight and has some gorgeous blackish shades.

That was pretty much all I did on Saturday. I wandered around some with a visiting friend, but was tuckered out by 3 pm and left to go home and rest.

On Sunday, I had volunteered to help out with the workshops. I got there early to check people in and show them their class rooms. This is fun because I know some of the other volunteers but I always get to meet a few new ones. I also saw some familiar faces in the students.

Another friend was visiting Rhinebeck for the first time on Sunday so I spent the day with her. And in the process, a bunch of stuff came home with me.

 I  bought these carbon fiber double pointed needles from Sheila and Michael Ernst.

 Handspun by Stefania is one of my favorite vendors. I got two 8 oz bumps of roving from her. The one above is dyed with Indigo and Iron. The one below is Lac and Cochineal. Her fiber spins like a dream!

 Another favorite is Lisa Souza. This was my first time seeing her fiber in person. I got two 4 oz bumps from her. The one on the left is baby alpaca/silk. The one on the right is just marked wool but I think it is BFL. I fell in love with the colors.

 Lastly, Chris of Briar Rose Fibers gave me these two bumps of Cormo top as a reward for keeping her Sea Pearl yarn presentable all day Saturday. More color!

I also visited the Hansencrafts booth and came away with two cool pins.

I also bought some hand cream from Maggie's Farm, lotion bars from Heal my Hands, and soap from Bittersweet Ridge. I love hand-crafted soap and cream and they do wonders for my skin. So I stock up at Rhinebeck. I also talked (I hope) Maggie into making lip balm in tubes. My favorite lip balm vendor was missing this year and there was no one else making balm in tubes.

And now all I have are fabulous memories and gorgeous fiber. As I spin and knit these, I will remember the place and time that I bought them and the friends who were there with me. After all, it is all about the memories and the good times, isn't it?

The girl with kaleidoscope eyes

I started with 2 skeins of natural Cascade 220. I knitted a rectangle of stockinette with garter borders. 

Then I used these tools...

 

Food dye pens.

Icing colors and stencil brushes

Paper cups, water and measuring spoons. Teeny tiny measuring spoons.

Did I mention paper cups?

I drew the outline of the girl and her rainbow hair with charcoal and then painted on each color using the stencil brush. She is floating in the sky...

After painting, the knitting was covered up in plastic wrap - top and bottom.

It was rolled up and steamed.

Then it cooled.

After drying, the details of the girl were added. I used buttons for her eyes, black and red and yellow yarn for her features. I was going to paint them in but the buttons made her look bug-eyed without some other texture. She has some braids and some loose hair.

I used a food writer pen to add a chin and some neck shading. Also, give a little shadow to her nose. French knots make up her nostrils and she has stem stitched eyes and eyebrows.

And there she is.. Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds!

Remember the buttons I showed you a few weeks ago? They turned into her kaleidoscope eyes.

Swarovski crystals scattered over her hair and then sewn down represent the diamonds.

After looking at her for a few days, I felt she looked rather thin-lipped so I got out some Ultra Alpaca and gave her more voluptuous lips with satin stitch around the original lips.

 And there is she is in all her glory - floating in the sky...

for those who are wondering what this is all about - the Beatles song "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds" features John Lennon singing about a hallucinatory state in a monotonic, slow, mesmerizing tone. The title is supposed to stand for LSD. Hence: Knitting Under the Influence.

Sadly, many of the younger members at Camp had no clue about the song and so only half the attendees laughed when I told my story about how my knitting flowed in multi-colors from my needles as I played the song on my iPhone.

I won this lovely kit. The shawl is pretty but

 the yarn is even prettier!

 I also get a nice zippered case. I think this laceweight will be a nice shawl.

I hope you enjoyed my Knitting Under the Influence! It was a fun adventure, a grand experiment. I had never used stencil brushes to paint on colors, much less use the food writer pens. I didn't set the dye after I used those so I don't know if they will last.

The entire project is recyclable except for the bits of yarn. The hair will come right out, the crystals and beads can be removed and once I snip out the embroidery out, I have a dyed blank which can be used to make a cowl or a hat or mittens.

A couple of weeks of catch-up

I took pictures last weekend but somehow forgot to post. So you are getting a double post today.

Last Sunday, I washed the Coopworth fleece that I got in May as part of the Fleece of the Quarter club. I was not very careful. I forgot to weigh it. I just put them in two mesh bags and soaked and washed them in two foil pans. I used an old spatula to move them around in the pans.

 

I spun them dry between washing and rinsing in my washer. Yes, it is a front loader but if you put it on a high spin cycle the fiber doesn't move. It just sticks to the outside of the drum. I wash my handknits in there too.

 There are the clean washed locks. I didn't photograph them before I washed them.

 There is still a lot of vegetal matter in the locks. I am going to pick and fluff them before I card the fiber.

 Here you can see some of the VM that I was able to pull out. A lot of hay and grass seeds.

 

 Some of the tips are still dirty. I have to pull them off as I pick.

 There is the clean fleece drying in my bathroom. I am afraid it is still there. I haven't touched it since. I have been busy spinning.

Here is the next and last batch. This is a Montadale/Corriedale cross and I am excited because it isn't white.

 I am working away trying to get this Briar Rose Polwarth spun before Knitting Camp on July 12th. You can see how much I have left. 4 sections left to spin. If I do 2 a week, I'll be done in time to ply and finish it before Camp. You can see the two plying balls that I have been winding as I spun. This one is all spindle spun.

 I have also been spinning on this Blue-Faced Leicester from Miss Bags. I got it at Rhinebeck last year. It is called Scarlet Ibis and I love the color!

 

Lastly, aren't these buttons cute? I just got them this week. I can't tell you why yet. But I love them.