From Where I stand: Spring, Summer & early Autumn

For some odd reason that I can't quite place I like to document where I stand by taking a foot photo. Perhaps it comes from not liking to take the proverbial "selfie" and plaster it all over the internet. And perhaps it's just the fact that foot photos can make interesting compostions, depending on where you are standing & what you are doing at the time. Each one of these photos brings with it a special memory. 

Sinking toes in a mossy carpet on the bluff, a late evening walk down the pebble strewn beach, an afternoon of climbing on sun-warmed rocks, fishing off the dock, a sunny afternoon reading & spinning in the sand....and then there is the various bounties of the summer...dill for drying, mulberries to turn into jam, mint for tea, and sassafras leaves to dry for making filé. Lastly, the glories of autumn which came and went so quickly this year.

 What about you? Are some of these scenes familiar ones? Or would your series of "where I stand" photos look quite different?

Looking back & ahead: Holiday snapshots

This past May we went on a family holiday to one of my most favorite places on earth, a little cabin on a spit of land in the middle of nowhere, smack next to a glorious body of water. It is sort of tradition to go there on Holidays and for a blissful week we are off the grid and living electricity and gadget free. It feels so good to unplug and not worry about anything or anyone. No obligations, no place to go, no phones ringing.....just nature and family, making memories and treasuring our time together. And time does truly slow to a crawl as the pace of life becomes less busy. We have time just to sit and read or be read to.  Or time to sinply do nothing at all if we wish! We poke about looking for driftwood, or knit quietly while looking across the gently rippling water.

We beach comb a lot, looking for rocks that strike our fancy, sometimes strolling slowly down the beach, other times sitting right in the piles of rocks and sifting throught them for hours at a time. We clamber over breakers, clinging with our toes and finding spots to sit on sun-warmed boulders. We poke feet in frigid water and wade out too far in the hunt for the elusive "perfect" rock. And then there are the huge driftwood bonfires on dark nights. Lying on our backs in the cool, almost cold sand, we gaze at the countless stars twinkling in a blue-black sky. Sometimes ghost stories are told around the fire, & then with a healthy thrill of delight & terror shivering down our spines we scurry back through the dark, over the dunes & bluff to the cabin. The haunting call of the loon & eagle float across the waters and at night the wind whips up with a lonely moan in the tops of the pine trees. Cozy around the table, under the light of the lamp we read, knit, play games, sip tea,  until dark sets in and we retire early to bed. Morning comes, sometimes foggy & still as glass, other times sunny & marvelous. A walk down the shore at 6am with coffee in hand is a glorious thing indeed. 

As we slowly swing towards the winter months it cheers my heart to look back over these Holiday photos and reminisce about that lovely week. More then once over the summer I have longed to be back there. And so we shall be again, if the Lord wills it. But for now I will dream of mist, rocks, sand, and moss, and of wind murmuring in the pines, as I eagerly await the return of spring. 

Heading off on Holiday.

One of the most delightful things ever to see is a pile of handknits. And its even better if they are handspun as well. Of my stack the top four are handspun, the middle two of those four were dyed by me. What is this pile you say?
Well, it is some of the knits I collected together for my trip.
Weather is such a fickle thing. And being in the Wild, surrounded by woods and water, one day you may need a light & airy shawl, the next you could be bundled up from toes to nose & braving a blizzard.
So into my trusty Thirty-one cinch sack these all went.
And while I can not say that I used all of them, I did use most.
When it comes to knits & weather I hold by, "Its always better to be safe then sorry".
What about you? Lots of knits or very few? Over-packer or under-packer? I'd love to hear from you!

Holiday Knitting.

Tiny knits are in progress! This is for my sweet little niece who will be making her appearance very soon.
It was a quick knit, though I did have some trouble at the beginning and had to restart it. But I began again yesterday and  just finished it this evening. We are on Holiday so between hiking and spending time together there has been plenty of time to knit. I still have to gift this, that is if I make it back from Holiday in time to attend the shower! After that I can show the reveal of the whole project, from start to finish.

Tata for now, my friends!

Spinning For A Pumpkin Sweater

I know I was planning on showing you fair isle today. And I know I had no intention of starting a new spinning project, after all Christmas is fast approaching. But we "happened" to be at a fiber mill today. And I just "happened" to spot this gorgeous pumpkin colored roving. And I did it. I bought a whole pound and a half for a sweater. Gulp. I did not plan on that. But there you have it. 
And you know what? I am very happy with my purchase. It was an excellent price, I LOVE the color, and I have been longing to spin and knit a sweater. So the sweater is now in the very beginning stages. I must say its very fun  to spin this roving, but I am sure by the time I get to the bottom of the bag I will be just a wee bit tired of it. No matter, it will be gorgeous. And I'm looking forward to wearing it!
It's our last night on Holiday. I need to hustle to bed, morning comes early when you have to be packed and out by 10am!

Knitting On Holiday

 This week we are on our autumn family holiday. I haven't done a whole lot of knitting as of yet. But last night I pulled out all these skeins and started winding them while watching Sherlock: The Riechenbach Fall. I got them all wound and today I cast on for Gayle Bunn's "Fair Isle Tam". I have been admiring this tam for a while now, dithering back and forth over which colors I could use, and slowly spinning up small amounts of fingering here and there as time allowed. I finally just decided to dive in, sometimes I over-think a project, trying to get it to be just so, and either it doesn't get started at all because I want it to be perfect, or I start second guessing my decisions. So I decided just to wind it all up and start knitting. I have a pretty good idea of what I want. I know the design will not be as defined as shown in the picture because I'm not using solids.

Nevertheless, I think it will be gorgeous. I love knitting with handspun yarn, and it has been quite awhile since I worked on a fair isle project. Winter is just around the corner and I am nowhere near ready for it. My handknit collection is woefully short of where I had hoped for it to be by this time. Of course many unexpected things arose late summer and early fall. The last of which was my Grandma moving in with us. It was quite sudden, and we only had a few weeks to decide where we were all going to be, then clean, sort pack and switch the whole house around. Grandma moved in this past weekend but I already had a previous commitment Thursday through Monday, so I had to be moved out of my old room and into the new by Wednesday. It was lots of hurry and flurry, and I was so glad to be done with my room and out on the road, driving the three hours to our friends home on Thursday afternoon. It was nice just to sit still for a bit!
We arrived back home on Monday, packed up and headed off on holiday. It has been a slow, quiet, restful week thus far. Despite the chilly weather and rain we are really enjoying ourselves, especially the slower pace and lack of pressing duties. This holiday arrived at the perfect time for us. Lord willing we will go home recharged and ready to get back into the swing of autumn busyness. 
I'll hopefully be back soon with some knitting to show you!

Tearing Back, While On Holiday

I am finally making time do a bit of blogging! I haven't accomplished a whole lot that would even make for an interesting post. Life has been a little busy while on holiday. However I have availability to wireless access and am taking the opportunity to touch base with my friends in the blogging world.

I haven't got anywhere on my tunic in awhile. I had to set it aside for a bit. But I brought it on the trip and have been working on it.

Here is the back, which I finished about a month ago. I was measuring the front the other night and found that it didn't line up with the back. I put it all away because I didn't want to deal with the headache so late in the evening. But today I laid it out on the table, measured, re-measured and found that I made a serious mistake somewhere on the upper portion of the back. I finally found it. Looks like I stopped mid-row, for who knows how long, then I started back in going the wrong way on my row! So one side is a little too long and the other side is a little too short. I am not going to tear it back though until I finish the front.

Here is the roving that I dyed up, and then spun to a fingering-weight yarn this summer. It is my beautiful Ocean Splendor yarn!

And check out the gorgeous pottery! I love it when I have new items to use for props. This stunning pottery was handmade by a gal in the household here. Such talent!

I love pottery.

Here is what I am making with the Ocean Splendor Yarn: Prairie Rose Lace Shawl designed by Evelyn Clark. The pattern is from the Knitter's Book of Wool. I love this pattern because it is so easy, and is knitting up very quickly. It does help that I am using Addi Turbo needles, it goes SO fast! I can actually work on it while watching a DVD!

It is an interesting and rewarding experience knitting a project with yarn that I have hand-dyed and hand-spun on a drop spindle. Notice the subtle striping going on. Sigh. I love it. :) 4 more lace repeats, then a border and edging before I am done.

Alright, things to do now. I am going to sign off and do some more knitting!

Take care everyone!

Setting Off On Holiday!

Hello Everyone! I hope you are having the loveliest of days! I am sneaking in one more quick post before heading of on holiday, as our friends in some parts of Europe say. I find "holiday" a FAR more interesting word than "vacation". Actually I might get a chance to blog while on holiday, but we"ll see. My holiday involves a long road trip, spending time with friends, meeting new people, and who knows what else! I am looking forward to it.

I started this yarn at the beginning of summer, but it has been languishing in a corner 'cause I wasn't looking forward to plying so many yards. But I split it up into skeins and that made it so much easier. The bigger skein is about 230yards and the smaller skein is 105yards. Both are a heavy worsted weight.

I still have some of this yarn to ply, just a tiny amount. And then some plied yarn on my Navajo to wind off. I was going to do it all on my navajo spindle, but I wanted to get it done before my trip so I switched to my big plying spindle.

And this is pretty exciting.....mohair I spun! This is from the batt that I carded and then dyed in the beginning of July. I tried to spin it up very fine, but I don't have a lace-weight spindle so it is a little tricky. It's only 95yds of fingering weight.


But look at that lovely halo! To be frank, I really didn't enjoy spinning this up as much as I have other fiber. But I think it was because I was trying to spin so very thin on a heavy spindle. It wasn't the fault of the fiber itself.
I did have fun brushing it though, to bring out the halo. I was rather fierce in my brushing, but I think it turned out quite well.
I have been doing some reading on commercially spun mohair. Rarely will you buy mohair yarn that is pure mohair. Due to the properties of mohair it often is plied with nylon thread, silk or merino wool. It is often quite difficult for hand spinners to produce mohair that looks like the commercial spun stuff (not that that is necessarily a bad thing). Mainly because of the rate at which they spin it, and the type of machinery involved for brushing etc. If you want an interesting read on different types of yarn and why they behave the way they do, check out The Knitter's Book of Yarn.
I have learned many interesting things about fiber and yarn from both The Knitter's Book of Yarn, and also the Knitter's Book of Wool.
I think it would be of immense help to any hand spinner to read these in-depth. Even though they are not written for handspinners, per se, they are wonderful tools to use.


But on to more knitting.... My birthday shawl is finished!!!! I am so glad to have it done, but also a little sad because I really enjoyed working on it. I had some trouble with the last three rows. I made a mistake somewhere and had to tear them out. So I ended up putting stitch markers between every pattern repeat. It made everything much easier and kept me on track. The crochet bind off is a little tedious but well worth the effort in the end.

I haven't blocked it yet, but I didn't want to wait until after Holiday to show this to you. Buddy insisted on getting in the photo shoot. He tried to sit on the shawl, and sprawled here and there in a charming manner, but in attitudes that entirely rumpled my knitting. I finally agreed to let him lay just his head on my shawl. I think he was pleased. And who could resist that sweet face?

I think one of my favorite things about this shawl (besides the fact that it is green) is the feminine ruffle on the edge. It is so lovely!

Well, that is one large lace project behind me. But I already have two more in the planning stages. One will be using some of my handspun, and the other will be with more birthday yarn from 2 years ago.

I'm debating whether or not I should take any lace knitting with me. Because every now and then holidays have tedious moments that are perfect for complicated lace charts.

I am taking my tunic, I need to get back to work on it and finish the front. Other than that and a spinning project I don't know for sure what is going with me. Some mindless knitting for the scenery stretches on the road.

I'll tell you all about it when I get back, or possibly while I am gone! For now though I must run, supper is on the the table and I have a lot to get accomplished yet tonight.

Have a lovely week!