The Thing with Feathers

Hope is the thing with feathers 

That perches in the soul,
And sings the tune--without the words,
And never stops at all,

And sweetest in the gale is heard;
And sore must be the storm
That could abash the little bird
That kept so many warm.

I’ve heard it in the chillest land,
And on the strangest sea;
Yet, never, in extremity,
It asked a crumb of me.
Emily Dickenson

That's what I have been calling this scarf.  The pattern is Dreambird KAL by Nadita Swings.  The yarns are 8/2 Dragon Tale black rayon from Earth Guild and Sexy bison down and silk in the color way Calamity Jane, dyed by Lorna's Laces and sold by The Buffalo Wool Co.

There was plenty of the colored yarn to make at least more feathers, but I ran out of the black since it was a cone of yarn I had mostly used for a weaving project some time ago.  Eighteen feathers worth is plenty though, it wraps around my shoulders with at least two overlaps easily.  With the drape of the yarns, it is very soft and clingy.

Everyone has their own thoughts on this pattern but here are my own.  The first time through I just followed word for word and row for row, and it worked, despite my typical troubles with knitting geometry.  The next few times through of course I got more and more comfortable.  By the eighth feather I stuck the instructions in my knitting bag and worked entirely from memory for the rest of it, without difficulty.  So what does a knitter whose mind is more or less broken with stress and depression do at this point?

Cast exactly the same thing on the needles, with hand spun yarns this time.

Test Knit Gone Right--Nine Maidens for Lucy Hague

Well things in the house have been the usual level of chaos.  Kids doing well, kids not doing well, me going pretty nuts. 

So naturally I decided to help out with an insanely complex cabled scarf test knit for a designer I've never worked with before, Lucy Hague.

I'm so glad I did.  I'm also so glad that some other people got started ahead of me and fixed a few major charting/written errors that I would have gotten totally lost with.  The designer was a delight to work with.  And I felt accomplished that I solved one of the pattern mistakes that cascaded over several rows, with corrections I came up with which solved the whole problem and with new stitch counts/instructions I was able to provide.

Now if I just ignore the various little cabling mistakes I made (like crossing left instead of right here and there...) I can just enjoy the lovely pattern and scarf.

It took about 350 yards of fingering weight yarn.  For some reason all the photos are coming out grayish in indoor light, but the colorway is "Blue Spruce" (The Buffalo Wool Co. Tracks yarn), and it is much more of a real blue-green in real life.

The Sheepiest Day(s) of the Year

This was the first full weekend in May which means it was MARYLAND SHEEP AND WOOL FESTIVAL, sponsored as always by the Maryland Sheep Breeders' Association.

This year brought the most glorious possible weather; sunny and pleasantly cool.

So I started the day with a 5:30 AM alarm.  Got up, ran to Krispy Kreme for mini donuts, came home for breakfast, headed out the door with the donuts and two cups of coffee plus two friends for the drive up to the Howard County Fairgrounds in West Friendship, right up Rte 97 from our house.  The coffee and donuts weren't from me, they Tom Coughlin.  Susan and Tom own the wonderful Coughlin's Homespun Yarns company and more than that they were doing me a huge favor; Susan had agreed to meet up on my behalf with some women who were driving an antique spinning wheel I had bought from upstate New York to the festival, but who weren't arriving until too late Friday for me to comfortably meet them.  Not only that, but then despite the chaos and business of MDSW vending, Susan and Tom held the wheel in their van until we arrived at 7:45.

It followed me home.  It's not livestock, so I am keeping it.

If you're wondering why I brought 2 cups of coffee and a box of donuts for Tom and not Susan, it's only because Susan doesn't drink coffee or eat donuts :)

So we picked up my wheel (thankfully I did have two friends with me already), took it back to the car (even more thankfully, we got an incredible parking space at the beginning of the first row, facing out!), headed back in finding another friend (Hi, Mary!) on the way in, and started looking and shopping.

And here's how I made out shopping wise.  First, Cotswold roving, yak from Wild Fibers, Fiber Optic purples Shetland top, Valkyrie 3 pitch Super Fine combs from Carolina Homespun, Poseidon sock kit from the Tsarina of Tsocks, MDSW cap, wool blend for spinning, Jacob fleece from Shiloh Manor, Border Leicester fleece, white alpaca, and two jars of honey from The Bee People (cranberry and hot pepper flower)!

And then (from top left, clockwise) a Spanish Peacock diz/wpi tool; some drive bands for double drive; some peppermint soap, and the best magnet ever:

 

And then there was the skein and garment show.  My alpaca/wool vest took a blue ribbon and a special award for best alpaca garment

My Forest Path stole won a second place red ribbon and a special award for best hand spun article

and two skeins won third place awards.  Two of my skeins which did NOT win awards received 95 and 92 points respectively, but I guess they were in incredibly hot categories to not win a ribbon but have such high scores.  I'm fine with that!

Overall, a great time and a mild sunburn was had by all I think.  I'm already counting the months to next year.

Bead it

A few months ago I dabbled briefly in knitting with seed beads.  I really liked that but I just haven't gotten back to the other projects I planned using those techniques.  Beads kept calling my name though so I decided to try something else...

Left bobbin: plied yarn; center bobbin: alpaca with beads; right bobbin: Rambouillet

Beaded yarn!

One strand of cinnamon alpaca, on which I pre-strung beads as I spun it, 50 beads or so every now and then; and one strand of the fawn Rambouillet from the fleece that won't end (actually at this point there are only a few ounces left).  Each was spun at about 13:1 with a short forward draft.  Then I plied them at a slower ratio so I'd have plenty of control, and voila!  I have 877 yards of beaded 2 ply lace weight yarn.

The beading took much less time and effort than I'd always imagined it would, so I would definitely do it again soon.  In fact I have a gorgeous white fine wool fleece and about a pound of grey Cotswold, and I may experiment with this with both of them.

Neck to Toes in Knits

Well I have finished my Intertwined socks and my Derecho shawl.

I do particularly like the very neutral colors of the shawl, they remind me of the seashore.  It's a real mish-mash of yarns.  The white is some random cheap sock yarn of which I had most of a ball; the multi-color is fingering weight from Green Mountain Spinnery which I picked up at MDSW; and the brown is Euwool from Elspeth Lavold which I bought on remainder at Tuesday Morning, believe it or not.  I don't know that I'm doing another again right away, but it was quite easy and didn't take too long.  I wish I could figure out basic geometries, but I get all turned around and to make this pattern type up I would be keeping the longest of note sets, you can't imagine.  So a big thanks to the designer, Laura Aylor.

Also done are my Intertwined socks.  This was a test knit, and so I had to follow the pattern exactly to help the designer figure out how much yarn was needed in this size (large), and unfortunately the answer to that question turned out to be "more than Elise started knitting with by about 30 yards or so." So the toe of the second sock is in a different but similar color yarn; and the socks are knee socks (at least they fit well) even though I would have normally knit only regular length socks.  But they're pretty.  The yarn is 100% merino from Ellen's 1/2 Pint Farm, and I also bought this at MDSW:

Feather Fantastic Socks

I wanted to make another pair of socks for my beloved Aunt Hedy (waves!  Hi!) but I wanted them to be, well, special.  She shares the curse of the big feet many of my cousins and I have (well my feet are actually quite short, but extraordinarily wide), and I just couldn't find a proper pattern for making a nice, feminine sock to properly fit a women's size 13WWW more or less, especially to fit well while I'm knitting on the other side of the country from where she lives, and I can't fit them right to her foot daily while I work.

So I made up a pattern, and I might as well share it.  Please note this isn't written as a beginner's full instruction pattern, but should be clear and complete for anyone who wants to knit a large, pretty sock and has worked socks before.  It can easily be shortened to make a sock to fit someone like me who often finds WWW shoes too narrow but doesn't have a long foot, too.

Materials:

for shorter length socks (women's 6-9 more or less), 4oz/100grms of fingering weight sock yarn (I used Rock Creek Yarns Cable-icious in "Raiment")

for longer length socks add 2oz/50grams of identical or contrasting yarn in fingering or sport weight to be used at the cuff, heel, and/or toe (I used Frog Tree Yarns Pediboo in pink)

a note regarding the need for extra yarn:  I was very nervous about having enough of the hand-dyed, but in the end I had plenty left over, enough that I could have knit either the cuffs or the toes of both socks in the hand-dyed if I had wanted to.  Your yardage may vary.

Tools:

1 long circular needle in size 1.5 or size needed to get gauge of 8 st/1" in stockinette stitch

1 tapestry needle for weaving in the yarn ends

Feather and Fan stitch instructions:

Rounds 1,2, and 4: knit all stitches

Round 3:  (K2tog) 3 times, (YO, K1) 6 times, (K2tog) 3 times, repeat this pattern 3 more times around

Instructions:

Cast on 68 stitches, join and work in the round.  Half the stitches go on each half of the needle. Work 13 rounds or the desired length in K1, P1 ribbing.  Next round, work (K17,M1) 4 times, to finish with 72 stitches.  If you want to switch to main color yarn, do so at the end of this round, as you begin working Feather and Fan.

Work Feather and Fan stitch pattern 17 times, finishing after round 4 (or work until the sock leg is the length you wish).  Now begin working the heel.  Switch to your contrast yarn at this point if you wish to work the heel in the alternate yarn.  DO NOT cut the main color yarn--you will use it to pick up gusset stitches.

Work the heel on the first half of the stitches, the first 36 stitches.  Work it as:

Row 1:  Slip 1, Knit to the end, turn work

Row 2:  Slip 1, Purl to the end, turn work

Work these two rows 18 times, 36 heel rows worked.  Now turn the heel:

Slip 1, Knit 19, SSK, K1, turn work

Slip 1, Purl 5, P2tog, P1, turn work

Slip 1, Knit 6, SSK, K1, turn work

Slip 1, Purl 7, P2tog, P1, turn work

continue in this manner, working short rows and increasing stitches worked by one stitch each row, until you end working the last two rows as 

Slip 1, Knit to last 2 stitches, SSK, turn

Slip 1, Purl to last 2 stitches, P2tog

If you have been using contrast yarn for the heel, cut the contrast yarn at this point.

Using your main color yarn still attached to the leg of the sock, pick up 19 stitches along the right side of the heel.  Knit across the heel stitches.  Pick up 19 stitches across the left side of the heel.  For the rest of the sock, you are going to begin counting your rounds at the beginning of the foot top, still in Feather and Fan pattern.

To work the gusset decreases, work the following two rounds alternatively:

Round 1:  Work Feather and Fan across the top half of the sock.  For the bottom half of the sock, K1, SSK, knit to the last 3 stitches, K2tog, K1

Round 2:  Work Feather and Fan across top half of the sock.  Knit across bottom half of the sock.

Alternate these two rounds until you have decreased back to only 36 stitches on the bottom half of the sock.  Then just continue working as round 2, working in pattern on the instep and working in stockinette on the bottom of the foot.  Continue this for 22 complete pattern repeats, or until you are about 2" shorter than your desired finished foot length.  Now begin toe decreases alternating the following 2 rounds, and changing now to your contrast yarn if you wish to do so:

Round 1:  (K1, SSK, knit to last 3 stitches, K2tog, K1) twice

Round 2: Knit all stitches

Alternate these two rounds until you have only 24 stitches on each needle half, then work only the decrease round, round 1, continually, until you have decreased to 10 stitches on each needle half.

Cut yarn, and work Kitchener stitch to close the toe.

This coming week

I won't be around much; I tentatively still have jury duty Tuesday, then have Sheep and Wool classes scheduled all of Wednesday and Thursday! Whoo, hoo!

So what's going on? The little kids are still nuts. However, Gilad is the one giving us fits. He cut his own hair at school this week (not too noticeably, fortunately), but more of a problem is that the teacher called a second time to report that he has been getting so physical with the other kids he's hurting others and is becoming the real class troublemaker. How did my little boy get to this point? They've recommended an OT eval for one thing, which I'm trying to set up, but irritatingly it looks like because he's in the Spring before he's eligible to enter kindergarden, the public schools in our county don't want to deal with him. He's too old to enter "Child Find" and too young for kindergarden so he's in that black hole even for evaluation, and definitely for all services other than speech, which is the only itinerant service they'll provide for non-public school students here. Still, I've started the paperwork process and trail.

Why haven't I been posting much spinning and knitting? Because I was spinning the killer yarn of lacy overabundance. Nine ounces wound up spinning up to 2000 yards of 2 ply lace yarn! Modeled here by Kayla so you can get an idea of just how much of this stuff there is:

I also finished an April hat for the Larkin project for homeless teens

But my real excitement has been my research on German torah wimpeln from baby bris swaddling clothes. I did my talk and now I'm hoping to submit an article for publication! Now I just have to get my act together and get my submission in.

Passover looms

So I'm in denial. Instead I've been knitting a hat for Larkin Ctr for Homeless Teens:

A sweater for new nephew Parker:

and a shawl just to knit using stash yarn and because I sometimes just need to knit lace:

I have cleaned the little kids' room, the boys' room, our room, the bathrooms (except for the final product checking and chucking); and I've done most of the shopping (and I did remember the bedika kit). Other than that, I am totally unprepared for Passover, because I'm far too obsessed with spinning, knitting, and general denial.

However, I'm horrified to read and hear that the state government is totally rejecting the possibility of a 10 cent alcohol tax increase (some funds from which would be earmarked for the Developmental Disabilities Administration and its decades-long waiting list for services) despite the fact that MD has the second lowest alcohol tax in the US; while at the same time 39 legislators are co-sponsoring a bag-tax bill. I don't mean that I'm against a bag tax or the use of re-usable bags; I myself use them almost exclusively and encourage others to do so and in fact I would personally probably support the bill. What infuriates me is that this comes right on the heels of the legislature clearly stating that they couldn't consider the alcohol tax ostensibly because they felt that any increase in taxation in today's economy would be inappropriate. Obviously the real reason was simply because they listen to lobbyists money and care more about the alcohol lobby's dollars than they do about their own constituents.

bad blogger, bad!

So I am around, it's just that every time I try to sit and write what's going on, either a little kid comes up to me with a crisis (like Dora the Explorer is over), or there's a computer slow-down, or I really am supposed to be doing something else like de-disgustingifying the kids' bathroom or...well, you all get the idea.

I did have a great trip to Israel once we were finally able to leave the snow-deluged US East Coast. I didn't even have a camera along, but other family members' photo albums are here and here, plus there's an article about my uncle's project, the object of the whole trip, here. Every time Adele sees the photos of the playground, she complains that she's not there and wants to be there right now. I only wish I could take her!

We continue to have stupid issues with MCPS, but at least the current one is really stupid and not high on my "pick your battles" list. They sent home a copied letter announcing that the kids' Alt-MSA portfolios would be available for parents' review on a single day (and they got the date wrong in the letter); I'm sure 90% of the parents never saw the letter as they didn't even manage to get it into the students' communications folder, it was just loose in Feivel's backpack. Once I sorted out the actual time and date, Adele wound up sick at that time so I couldn't go and when I called to make alternate arrangements I was told that's not possible. So a great waste of time was had by all, and separate continues to not be equal. Way to go MCPS. Oh, and it looks like after spending $1.7 million for 2 years worth of use, MCPS is abandoning its online IEP system in favor of the *FREE* one provided by the state that every other jurisdiction in the state has chosen to use the whole time. Good thing they didn't try to spend that $1.7 million on actually educating the special ed students or anything wasteful like that.

We had Purim, hosted by the perfect pink perky pretty poodle puppy

but it was the day my grandmother's z"tl burial was held, as she passed away last week at the age of 90, so the girls and I went to the burial in NJ while Jeffrey held down the Purim fort here.

And I have been trying to do a little knitting in the meantime, while waiting for yarn to come in for Feivel's sweater he's demanding:

headband in Kollage Luscious

fingerless mitts in yarn contact-dyed in cutch, plus a sheep

cashmere scarf in historic Estonian pattern stitch

where am I?

Okay, the super good news is that Adele has been okay. I didn't realize I hadn't posted since the middle of her crisis. For now we're working with the "she's weird and had a strange series of viruses and somehow got the one-in-a-million case of toddler viral tenosynovitis" theory until proven otherwise.

I was supposed to head out to Israel on last Wednesday. Here it is Sunday and I'm still here thanks to the mid-Atlantic blizzards. Hopefully we'll be able to fly out today! So I'll leave you with an extensive gallery of all the knitting I've been doing and not posting, including the projects that were supposed to be for my trip!

crocheted (!) scarf for Tirtze

kappa socks for my HP OWL project set

600 yards of laceweight CVM yarn

my flower garden vest

a vest for The Yarn Spot in Glisten yarn

this and the following hat are my own designs, both hats destined for the Larkin Center for Homeless Teens' annual hat drive

This is a my "where's the sheep" hat; the yarns are yak, alpaca and mohair, and the only wool is some white CVM lamb plied with the mohair.

So I guess it was getting too dull around here

I was just knitting along, and spinning up 7 ounces of 3 ply Finnish Landrace sock yarn, knitting hats, vests, and shawls, and apparently getting too complacent.

So yesterday Adele woke up and was crying all morning. We took her to school and after just a little bit they realized she really couldn't walk. The nurse took a look and saw she had swelling under her right knee and that it was somewhat warm to the touch. Pediatricians hope it's Lyme disease (yes, only my kids would be dx'd with Lyme in late January), and have ruled out injury, so now we wait until tomorrow when they have more of the bloodwork results back. Adele was WONDERFUL at all the appointments yesterday.

It's going to take forever!

My Flower Garden vest, that is. Here's the first set of motifs done (yarns are bright pink cochineal dyed comeback type, brown tea dyed Corriedale, natural grey CVM and natural white Corriedale):

And I don't think I posted the pics from Gilad's 5th birthday party held at school:

Some finished objects

Finished a pair of socks--yarn is Mountain Colors Bearfoot in Sun River colorway; pattern is Classy Slip-Ups from the book Knit Socks!

And an Estonian lace scarf and cowl to be donated to a service center for homeless teens:

and an extra picture of a cute Adele:

Hippo Gnu Year!

It's 2010 and I'm still catching up on 2009.

Gilad is now officially 5 years old (the cake is evidence that it's all official and everything):

Adele just keeps getting cuter and goofier:

Jeffrey just keeps getting more wonderful:

And I keep getting crazier, as evidenced by the fact that I'm proposing to do two OWLs for this new Term over in the Harry Potter Knit/Crochet House Cup game, for the glory of team Hufflepuff:

The one above is actually 4 different projects representing 4 different magical creatures: 2 pairs of socks (blast-ended scroots and kappas); a lace shawl (dragons); and a hat and mitts (bowtruckles).

This one is a Fair Isle steeked vest, to be knit in some of my hand spun (natural colored or natural dyed) yarns as shown above.