Finished “Balsam Lake” made out of Handmaiden Yarns silk Rumple and mohair Angel.  This was an exclusive colorway and pattern from StevenBe during the recent Yarn Shop Hop.  Light as air and very yummy. Pattern written by Don Waalen.

Today is the start of the home update.  Removing wallpaper, re-surfacing ceilings, and new granite counter tops.  Whoo-hoo, I am soooo excited. There will be some purple walls when we are done!  Maks is making sure he doesn’t lose any of his toys in the process.

There are so many pictures of these two together, but they are so cute…

My new yarn winder arrived and I LOVE IT!  It is quite a large thing which is great, because it can handle a lot of yarn.  I spend a day, just winding up yarns.

Took a little break from the other projects and made this cotton T-shirt yarn shawl.  It is made on really big needles and had lots of Yarn-overs for the loopy look!

TODAYS CUTNESS…….

Lot o’ knittn’ -   I am working on a couple of shawls and both are a LOT of knitting!

The first one is mohair and silk exclusive from Handmaiden Yarns for StevenBe  during the Shop Hop, it is a wonderful color and lovely hand, but it is a lot of knitting. 

I started the mohair piece as a  change of pace from this bigger one, talk about a lot of knitting!  I really like it, since I have admired this garment for such a long time, I am going to own one come heck or high water, but it is a LOT of knitting too.

I am working on the two sides at the same time, to help break up the monotony.

  

NEW TOOL……….Whoo hoo!  I just ordered one of these heavy duty ball winders. I hate the plastic ones, I have gone through about 3 of them already, so I am very excited to get this.

TODAYS CUTENESS –

Stephen West modeling the little feather vest he whipped up in a couple of days at Fiber Fest.  He is pretty cute.

But nothing is cuter than my boy……….

It has been another Fiber Extravaganza this pass weekend.  StevenBe hosts Fiber Fest for 4 days.  This years teacher line-up was pretty extraordinary- Franklin Habit, Melissa Leapman, Julie Weisenberger, Stephen West, Ragga Eiríksdóttir, Mary Scott Huff,  and Stephanie Pearl McPhee.  We have classes all day, are fed lunch from local restaurants, get the usual tricks and tips, get to mingle with like souls and get a fabulous Swag bag.  This year the Swag was just as wonderful as in years past.

But for me, this is the thing.  For those of you who know my knitting style, I do not follow patterns.  They are only suggestions and quite confining.  It’s like rules – they apply to the unimaginative!  That all said – look at this-  I made this!!! And I liked it. 

This is a Fair Isle hat, it is made with two colors per row following a schematic, otherwise known as a pattern.  I have NEVER completed a project like this before.  The colors a a little wonkily, because I didn’t know what we were making and I grabbed scrap yarns, but it is a bunch of trees going all around.  Here is the inside showing the “floats.”  I amaze myself.

 

Posing for his centerfold shot-

Maybe it is because winter will just not let go this year, I was inspired to knit this piece.  Here we are at the end of April and the view out the studio window yesterday was this……

This piece is called “Winter’s Last Thaw”  I just had to knit it, I was a little possessed, I pulled the colors and just had to sit down and knit it. 

It reminds me of the gray dirty snow at the end of winter; the purples and blues of icicles and the dark bar tree trunks.  When the snow melts, the sun is shining against a blue sky and the wetness creates browns and blacks of the wet mud with the blues of the new puddles.  Then there are the little spots of green grass and new spring plants popping through. There is so much color as winter dies and spring emerges.

I am a big boy sitting in your chair….

For a girl that does not like to follow a pattern, I am really in uncharted territory here – pun intended!  But because it is something new, I am really enjoying it.   This is the back of the shawl and I have started down the left side – in green.

Day at the Farm!

Went to Hidden River Farm for the spring shearing of the goats.  Topaz became my friend, he and I had a good talk. 

This is Tabby – the oldest and a little timid. Nice earrings!

CoCo – after the shearing – the humiliation of it all.

Blue- handsome boy.

Despite all the winter we have had, it still is beautiful.

If there  hasn’t been enough cuteness so far………

Well, it is over…  What a fabulous Shop Hop. Three extraordinary days -  It was a GREAT time. Carol and Leslie in one car, Jean, Jane and I in the other. We had a ton of fun, lots of laughs, and fabulous yarns. A few illegal u-turns, a couple of red lights seen just as suggestions, up a free-way ramp, just to go down it on the other side, lots of Starbucks stops, but we went to all 16 shops!  Did I mention we had a ton of fun?

Jeannie had a good time flaunting a skein of yarn and  feathers from the  StevenBe collection all over town.  She even found a coat and hat to complete the ensemble. This is what a Shop Hop diva looks like….

And the haul is marvelous – yeah yeah, it is plenty.  But if you are a fiber addict- you understand.  As I started to look though all the skeins, something emerged.  I pulled out all the yarns in a similar color palette and discovered a group of yarns to be made into a new project.  Aren’t they pretty?  Each shop has an exclusive yarn made just for them and many of them fell into this color range.

Today’s cuteness - I think he missed me!

And we are off……….  Minnesota Yarn Shop Hop has begun  and the J&J Twins have arrived despite the STUPID snow storm in April!  First Stop- StevenBe’s of course!!!!!!!

The most delicious EXCULSVE colorways from Handmaiden!  OMG……..

Spent the weekend with Jane Slicer-Smith and had a great time even though I have information overload.  She really knows how to engineer a knitted garment so that it will fit.  She has tons of techniques that make all the difference in having a garment that fits instead of just hangs.  Here is an example of the complexity in her garment construction, and I understand this!

I started this garment after the workshop on miters.  She not only talked about how to make miters, but how to size them within a garment – they aren’t just tittle squares!

This is where I am headed-

On the complete other end of the design spectrum is this free-style piece that I am continuing to work on. 

There are such a wide variety of styles and techniques; it is one of the reasons why I like knitting.  Besides the fact that the rhythm of just doing it is relaxing, there is color and texture and a million different ways to get a million different results.  There is so much to learn and experiment with.

Sometimes, you just have to change course – here is the re-do of the previously knit poncho in a crochet version.  The stitches are not as exciting as the previous garment, but this one is wearable.  While the other was wonderfully made, there was just way too much fabric.  So, I unraveled it into a new crochet garment. 

Start of something new…

Yarn swift…..

Happy Easter!

Re-do- making the really beautiful but unwearable poncho into a crochet poncho instead.

Finished Maggie Jackson  project.  Very interesting piece.

Pretty kitty…..

Been in a little creative slump lately.  Not feeling terribly inspired by anything.  I am spending lots of time looking at patterns and doing research, but nothing much is turning me on.  I started working on a Maggie Jackson kit. It is a shawl made of many pieces that are sewn together. It is a unique piece, for sure.

I was introduced to rolags this weekend. My friend, Carol  gave me this fiber in these cute little rolls.  Reminds me of what our hair looked like in brush rollers  in the really old days!  But, wow, what a blast to spin.

Since the fiber pulls off the end nearly pre-drafted, it is so easy to spin.  I then used Mango Moon Zing String to ply.  Voila!

The rolags are made on a blending board like this – I HAVE to have one!

Mommy-Thank you giving me my own yarn…..