Knittingsmith

Worlds Within Worlds

2009-01-04T15:53:00.004-05:00

More glass-related art.

I took a weekend glassblowing workshop this past summer at the Diablo Glass School in Boston. Glass is a seductive medium and I'd like to learn more about it. And since a glass studio with 6 furnaces is only slightly cooler than--you guessed it--hell, maybe January would be a good time to take the advanced paperweight workshop...

Color and Form

2009-01-03T17:02:00.005-05:00

Dye samples as art... Who knew?

These are Jacquard colors Sun Yellow, Cherry Red, and Sapphire Blue. Together they make a rainbow.

After the Storm

2008-12-24T09:31:00.003-05:00

Welcome Yule!

2008-12-21T12:18:00.007-05:00

The Shortest Day

And so the Shortest Day came and the year died
And everywhere down the centuries of the snow-white world
Came people singing, dancing,
To drive the dark away.
They lighted candles in the winter trees;
They hung their homes with evergreen;
They burned beseeching fires all night long
To keep the year alive.
And when the new year's sunshine blazed awake
They shouted, revelling.
Through all the frosty ages you can hear them
Echoing behind us - listen!
All the long echoes, sing the same delight,
This Shortest Day,
As promise wakens in the sleeping land:
They carol, feast, give thanks,
And dearly love their friends,
And hope for peace.
And now so do we, here, now,
This year and every year.

by Susan Cooper

Happy Holidays!

2008-12-16T10:26:00.003-05:00

It's been a busy year, and I've not had much to write about. But I always seem to find the time for our annual holiday card.

Happy Holidays and here's to a great 2009!

Cuteness

2007-12-28T15:40:00.000-05:00

I finished a sweater this morning. Granted, it's for a very small person, but it's still a bona fide sweater.

It's a Debbie Bliss pattern knit in Rowan Wool Cotton with a few of my own modifications. Since it's for the soon-to-be-born baby boy of my chic french colleague, I took extra care to give it a special dose of je ne sais quoi. She loved it.

I had help with the finishing of course. Tortellini says, "Am I not also the embodiment of cuteness?"

Winter Wonderland

2007-12-27T12:04:00.000-05:00

The weather outside has been rather nice the last few days, so we went for a walk on Christmas to survey the winter wonderland. Even though the warmer temperatures have dispensed with some of the 26 inches of snow we had last week, the little wetland near my house was still beautiful. Everything was quiet and still.

Having lived all of my adult life in northern states beginning with the letter M (Maine, Michigan, and Massachusetts), I've always been fond of the snow-shrouded landscape. I bought this excellent book, A Guide to Nature in Winter, by Donald Stokes back when I was a student at the University of Maine. I spent many a winter afternoon cross-country skiing behind campus, then reading the book afterward to learn more about the things I saw on the trail. I pull it out and look at it nearly every year at this time.

I also spent some time at the studio this week. I'm working on a special project for someone out there in blogland. Stay tuned for more as it develops ...

Happy Holidays!

2007-12-24T15:29:00.000-05:00

Chesapeake Bay

2007-11-23T09:17:00.000-05:00

Thanksgiving week presents a bargain opportunity that no self-respecting new england yankee can pass up: five days of vacation for the price of three. So we decided to combine thanksgiving travel with a bit of vacation and spend a couple of days on the eastern shore of Chesapeake Bay. In spite of growing up in Maryland, he hadn't been there in thirty years. I'd never been there. So we took the Prius for a road trip. The destination: St. Michaels, Maryland. We stayed at the Five Gables Inn and Spa, a delightful B&B with that most wonderful of amenties: a steam room. It was just the cure for the cold that hit me right before vacation.

Chesapeake Bay was calm and inviting, and the weather was suprisingly warm while we were there. The bay is the largest estuary in the world, and you can easily imagine what it was like there 50 or 100 years ago--a waterman's life dominated by fishing, oystering, crabbing, and boats of all shapes and sizes. At the Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum we learned about log canoes, skipjacks, bugeyes, Baltimore clippers, and other water craft peculiar to the bay. Much of the land is still devoted to agriculture. We saw cornfields framed by views of the bay, and by the side of one quiet road we met this cute little character dozing under a tree.

I brought knitting of course; my second Mountain Colors handspun targhee watch cap. The pattern is here. I started it on Saturday night and have already made it to the crown shaping on the first side. As I've always suspected, monogamous knitting is the fastest way to have new things to wear but it's hard to stick to. Even while knitting the hat I'm thinking about switching to the socks!

Oasis

2007-10-30T18:19:00.000-04:00

This little wetland oasis is just down the street from my house. Early in the morning on this misty autumn day it has an almost other-worldly feel. Standing on the bridge, listening to the sound of the cattails moving in the breeze and watching a heron fly over, I could be anywhere in space and time: England, Ann Arbor, or Middle Earth. Any of those would be fine today.

Fall is in the air

2007-10-07T11:22:00.000-04:00

After yesterday's unseasonal warmth, today feels more like fall. There's the smell of leaves in the air, and a bit of mist. Not long 'til Rhinebeck now...

The turn of the screw...

2007-08-27T21:22:00.000-04:00

Which in this case means the wood screw that holds the bowl-sized block of maple onto the lathe chuck. My fascination with woodturning continues.

I took two classes a couple of weekends ago: pen turning and bowl turning. The contrast between them is startling. When turning the wood to make a pen you use a proportionally small gouge. When turning a bowl you use a very large, very sharp bowl gouge. (This is not my hand or my bowl, by the way.) FIrst I shaped the outside of the bowl. Then I flipped it around, clamped the chuck around the foot (in wood parlance it's called the tenon) on the bottom, then hollowed the inside. The pile of shavings was immense.

In the end, I thought I did pretty well. It was round, it was even, and it looked like a bowl. My first bowl. I was ridiculously pleased.

I've done a bit of the other sort of turning this week too. Since Rhinebeck is coming up, I figured I'd better clear out at least one of the bags of fleece I bought last year. Finally completed: 127g and 720 yards of Persimmon Tree wool/mohair in "Autumn Leaves."

Veni, vidi, almost vici...

2007-08-21T17:45:00.000-04:00

Or, more accurately, "I came, I saw, I turned."

One might view woodturning as just another form of spinning, but instead of a saxony wheel you use a lathe; instead of fleece you use wood; and instead of your hands you use sharp tools to shape your end product. Turning is also a lot like spinning in that it only takes minutes to learn the concepts but a lifetime to truly master them. That's why I can't say, vici: "I conquered."

I really enjoyed the wood turning class I took this past weekend at Woodcraft in Woburn, MA. There's nothing more exhilarating than learning a completely new skill and getting the hang of doing it. While I wouldn't call myself an expert yet, I feel that I made a lot of progress between my first tentative application of the gouge to the rapidly-spinning 3x3x10-inch chunk of wood (far left), and my last attempt, where I cut the smooth set of beads and coves you see on the right side of the photo.

Like any serious craftperson, I love nice tools. Consequently, I bought several wicked-looking gouges including this nearly two-foot-long high-speed steel roughing gouge.

It's really neat to think that it may soon help me make my first drop spindle.

Random bits...

2007-08-07T22:06:00.000-04:00

...In other words, what you talk about when you don't have much to talk about.

In spite of my woodworking obsession, I am still knitting. Lately it's been socks; in particular, Silky Socks from Great Adirondack in "chili peppers". With 70% merino, 20% silk, and 10% nylon, this is some of the nicest sock yarn I've worked with. The colors are wonderful.

I've been spinning too. I finished this during the Tour de France: It's a Corriedale/Border leicester blend and is working up at about DK weight.

Finally, an illustration of how to stay cool on a hot summer day.

It was only a matter of time...

2007-08-02T18:53:00.000-04:00

It begins small: with a threading tool and a diz. Soon you're on to orifice hooks. Before you know it, you've escalated to the harder stuff. I guess it was just a matter of time before I turned to drop spindles.

While perusing the goods at Rockler last week, I bought a bag of maple toy wheels. Add some walnut doweling that, conveniently, comes in just about the right diameter to fit through the hole, apply the now-ubiquitous sandpaper and tung oil, et voila! I've got a rather nice drop spindle or two. Since the spindle with the copper wire rotates more evenly than its sibling, I've decided that the wire is in fact a design feature, not random decorative fiddling.

For the inquiring minds who have asked, the spindles are 9 inches long, and weigh about 1.5 oz. (One weighs 42g and the other 46g.) They spin pretty well considering I've done nothing to balance them. One thing I do need to do is cut a groove in the side of the whorl. This will be part of the balancing act.

I've signed up for a woodturning class later this month, and I'm learning some new lingo: Skew Chisel, Spindle Gouge, Parting Tool, Cocobolo, Bubinga, Macassar Ebony.

Ahh! There's nothing more exciting than a new obsession.

Dizzy

2007-07-25T13:15:00.000-04:00

It began with a diz, or the lack thereof.

This past sunday, I spent a relaxing day with Etherknitter and learned the art of wool combing. I'd bought a set of Indigo Hound 5-pitch english combs about fifteen years ago and am slightly embarassed to admit that I've hardly used them—mainly because I couldn't get the knack of how they work. I've got it now, and I'm finally salvaging the lackluster prep job that was done to a nice border leicester fleece by a mill that shall remain nameless.

Upon returning home I set up the combs, but couldn't find the diz. What's a maker to do? Make a new one.

I rooted around in my (small) wood stash and found a nice slice of black-and-white ebony. This stuff is very dense, and is difficult to cut and work, but it polishes wonderfully.

I now had a fine-looking diz, but I had no (stylish) way of feeding the fiber in. I needed a threader. Back to the stash for some spindles, which I had in maple, cherry, and oak.

After a trip back to the metal studio for some cutting, sanding, bending, and finishing (with the now-infamous tung oil), I had a threader... or four.

But why stop there? Why not make some orifice hooks to go with them? And how about adding some silver accents? Wouldn't these look great in ebony?

I think it's finally time sign up for that woodturning class...

Cardinal numbers...

2007-07-19T12:32:00.001-04:00

The other day, as I was looking out the window in front of my desk at work, I noticed a cardinal disappearing into the bamboo. When I took a closer look, I saw the nest.

This is the third nest that this pair of cardinals has built in the bamboo garden here at the office. It's a great place for babies; it's fully enclosed, with access only from the sky or from our office. Of course, they have to put up with curious engineers staring at them through the glass, but I imagine that's a small price to pay for safety.

Here's my workspace. See the red arrow? That's where the nest is. I'm thrilled that I have a front-row seat.

Wheee!

2007-07-17T20:10:00.001-04:00

Free fall...

(Or what you do when you've been sitting in meetings for 8 hours and can't pay attention for another second...)

Eye candy for the feet

2007-07-11T15:44:00.000-04:00

Kaffe Fassett for socks. Need I say more?

True grit

2007-07-09T19:21:00.000-04:00

I've always loved to tinker. I get it from my dad who is, among other things, a talented cabinetmaker, mechanic, and all-around fiddler with things. (I also play the fiddle, but that's a story for another day.) My dad was always tinkering with and fixing things around the house. He was my first teacher, and he taught me the art of using sandpaper.

Having spun on my new saxony for a few days, I noticed that the fiber was making a lot of noise as it flowed through the orifice. This wheel is unusually quiet so the noise (and the vibration) was irritating. Having successfully tamed the steel orifice on my Schacht, I couldn't wait to tinker with the lovely brass orifice on the Lendrum.

One of the reasons I love wet/dry sandpaper is that it works equally well on wood or metal. I used the same 400- and 600-grit papers I used on the wood to polish the orifice. I wet the 400-grit, and being careful not to get any water on the wood, sanded inside the openings and around the outside. Brass is fairly soft, so by rolling a small piece of sandpaper into a tube I was able to quickly sand all the edges and smooth out the sharp spot around the front opening. Switching to 600-grit and using just a little water, I buffed the metal to a soft shine. Now the wheel is silent, incredibly fast, and the metal glows.

And should you be curious as to what fiber is flowing onto the bobbin, it's Persimmon Tree's wool and mohair in the colorway, "Autumn Leaves."

One last observation: tinker spelled backwards is reknit. The former is an obsession. The latter is, well, an obsession I'd rather not cultivate.

Voila!

2007-07-05T12:09:00.000-04:00

The Lendrum Saxony is finished!

Yesterday I gave all the parts a final polish with a clean cloth and reassembled. Before screwing down the stops on the wheel posts I installed both a cotton string for DD and a stretchy plastic drive band for scotch tension. If you've ever joined the ends of a plastic drive band you'll know that it's far easier to do so off the wheel than on. It spins wonderfully in either mode, so I have the best of both worlds.

I'm very happy with how the finish turned out. I would encourage anyone who is considering buying an unfinished wheel to not be intimidated by the prospect of finishing it. All you need is patience. The key to a beautiful finish on hardwoods like maple, cherry, and walnut is the sanding. If you do a meticulous job of sanding using progressively higher abrasive grits (180 to 320 to 400/600 to 0000 steel wool or a nonwoven abrasive pad), the application of the finishing compound becomes a no-brainer. You just wipe it on, wipe it off, let it dry, and buff or sand lightly with fine steel wool. Repeat one or two more times and it'll look great.

You also can't go wrong with tung or linseed oil. If I had been finishing a maple or a cherry wheel I might have used Tried & True Original Wood Finish instead of 100% tung oil. This product, which is a combination of linseed oil and beeswax, smelled great and gave me a wonderful finish, but it darkened the walnut more than I wanted. On maple or cherry it would be gorgeous.

Now it's time to start spinning. First up: Corriedale laceweight singles. This wheel makes it so easy...

Sandpaper and Tung Oil

2007-07-03T18:47:00.000-04:00

After initial assembly and a test spin, I took apart the Lendrum Saxony in preparation for finishing. I'm using tung oil, which along with linseed and a couple of other oils is known as a "drying oil". This means it will eventually harden into a durable, water-resistant finish.

Why tung oil? Well, I knew I wanted a more old-fashioned finishing compound that wasn't loaded with organic solvents, so that ruled out Watco and all the so-called wipe on "Danish oils" and polyurethane finishes. I also didn't want to darken the walnut, so that ruled out the linseed oil-based finishes. Finally, I wanted a matte rather than a glossy finish. Tung oil won in every category.

The Finishing Process

The wheel came to me reasonably well-sanded by Lendrum, but it needed a bit more work before I'd call it "finish sanded." On the rough spots I started with 180-grit wet/dry sandpaper followed by 320-grit sandpaper. Where the wood was fairly smooth I started with 320-grit. (I prefer the black wet/dry papers to the standard aluminum oxide papers commonly used by woodworkers. They last longer, and they bend more easily to fit the curves.) I then went over all the pieces again with maroon and grey non-woven abrasive pads. These wonderful scrubby pads are the same as 00 and 000 steel wool. I use them a lot in jewelrymaking and they're great—no steel wool filings to pick out of your fingers when you're done. Finally, I gave the flat parts an additional pass with 600-grit sandpaper. As is often the case on turnings, there were a few rough spots on the wheel spokes and the legs. I sanded these with successive passes of 180, 320, 400, and 600-grit sandpaper. Anything I couldn't smooth down I just left to be worked on later. Once the first coat of tung oil was dry, I'd be better able smooth the spot. After wiping the dust off all the pieces with a tack cloth, I was ready to apply the first coat of oil.

Tung oil straight out of the bottle is similar in consistency to maple syrup. To help the first coat penetrate into the wood, I thinned the oil about 1:1 with mineral spirits. Fortunately, the weather was nice and I could work outside. Using a small rag (and wearing latex gloves), I wiped on a coat of oil. The trick is to use the right amount: enough to look shiny, but not enough to drip. I let the oil penetrate for about 5 minutes then I wiped the surface dry. Tung oil doesn't dry by solvent evaporation in the traditional sense, but gradually polymerizes on contact with air. As this process begins to happen the surface gets sticky. It's important to wipe the residue off before the surface gets too sticky to wipe. After all the pieces were oiled and wiped, I waited a day or two for them to dry thoroughly. The difference between done and not done is amazing.

After everything had dried, I got out the sandpaper, scrubby pads, and steel wool and started again. I went over each surface with 600 grit sandpaper, the grey pad (000), and 0000 steel wool. The wood glowed. I paid particular attention to the rough spots and was able to to smooth down most of them.

At this point, the wood already looked so nice that I decided to apply only one more coat of oil. Tung oil may be applied many times, so I can always put another coat on at some point in the future. This time I used the oil right out of the bottle at 100%. I wiped on a very thin coat and rubbed it in with my hand (this is why it's called a hand-rubbed finish!) When most of the oil had absorbed and the surface was getting sticky, I wiped it dry and set it aside.

Fast-forward another day. I've started buffing each piece with 0000 steel wool. The finish is amazing: just a slight sheen and lots of depth. As soon as all the pieces are done I'll reassemble and start spinning.

My hands are sore from the endless sanding and I've been getting by on less sleep than usual this last week, but the end result will be worth the effort. This wheel is a lovely piece of functional art.

The Saxony Has Landed

2007-06-28T23:15:00.000-04:00

It started with a big box.

After unpacking it looked like this.

By the time I was done it looked like this.

Even unfinished it spins wonderfully—like a walnut dream. Best of all it fits in the spinning space. Now I'll take it apart and sand, oil, steel wool, oil, steel wool, oil, steel wool then reassemble for good. At some point in the next month or so I'll actually start to spin on it. I can't wait.

Thanks Gord. Thanks Toni.

Finishing

2007-06-27T22:30:00.000-04:00

Not of knitted samples, but of walnut. Tung oil. Two coats, scrubbed in between with steel wool to a silky smooth surface. The object of my finishing experiments arrives tomorrow...

Evergreen

2007-04-18T07:33:00.000-04:00

Double-layer Watch Cap
Mountain Colors handpainted Targhee roving in "Evergreen"; handspun to 2-ply at approximately 500 yd/100g (4-ply or fingering weight). I used about 90g of my 105g skein.
Finished measurements: 20" around (and wonderfully stretchy)
Gauge: 7 st and 9 rows per inch
Needles: 1 US size 2 (2.75mm) 16" circular needle
1 set US size 2 (2.75mm) DPNs

Outer hat
Provisionally CO 140 st. Place marker, join (taking care not to twist stitches around the needle), and knit in the round for 9".

Crown shaping:
1st dec round: Starting at beginning of next row, K12, K2Tog. Repeat to end of round.
Knit 2 rounds even.
2nd dec round: K11, K2Tog. Repeat to end of round
Knit 2 rounds even.
3rd dec round: K10, K2Tog. Repeat to end of round
Knit 2 rounds even.
Continue in this manner, knitting 1 stitch fewer between each K2Tog on each dec round until you've completed the K4, K2Tog round. Change to DPNs when sts no longer fit comfortably on circular needle.
Next round: Knit
Next round: K3, K2Tog
Next round: Knit
Next round: K2, K2Tog
Next round: K1, K2Tog
Next round: K2Tog
Cut yarn leaving a 10-inch tail. Using a needle, thread the end through each of the remaining sts. Pull tight and tie off on the WS. Clip end to about 1". Don't worry about weaving in the end.

Inner hat
Unzip the provisional CO one st at a time and place all 140 st on 16" circ needle. Place marker, join yarn, and knit 9" as before, weaving in the yarn end as you go.

Shape crown and finish as before, but leave the 10-inch yarn end on the outside.

Finishing
Push one side of the hat inside the other, making sure the sides are not twisted. (I ran a thread up one row all the way from one crown to the other, then aligned them to make sure the sides were parallel.) Using the yarn end that was left over from the second crown shaping, sew the two crowns together at the point. Make a small knot on the inside, then thread the needle between the two layers and pull it out about 2" away from the crown. Snip the end close to the hat and stretch to pull the end inside. Voila! The watch cap is completed.

Lately

2007-02-26T21:47:00.000-05:00

Nothing much has been happening lately. Work is busy, so everything else (like blogging) takes a back seat. I've been doing a bit of metalworking, and have been working on a design for a ring featuring an ancient greek coin and greek motifs.

Knitting and spinning are proceeding, and I've actually finished a few things. For example, this skein of 4-ply targhee, dyed by Mountain Colors in the Evergreen colorway. It's on its way to becoming a reversible hat.

Then there's the not-quite-4-ply grey border leicester and the Grafton Fibers corrie ...

... and the Persimmon Tree, still on the bobbin.

Last week, those wild and crazy guys from Wooly Knob sent back Captain Spalding, Cubby, and Garth, all perfectly-processed. Garth was my sight-unseen purchase from a gal in Ohio, and shipped directly from her barn to WK. It's a soft, heathery brown BFL x border leicester that will look wonderful spun up.

Not too bad for nothing much happening lately.

Fleece Heaven

2006-11-21T17:47:00.000-05:00

One can never have enough shetland fleece. These three beauties were scored from Weston Hills Farm in the opening moments at Rhinebeck:

Marble, a ewe lamb;

Cubby, also a ewe lamb;

Captain Spaulding, a ram lamb and soon to be the breeding ram at Weston Hill Farm.

And an unexpected but welcome addition to my stash: some fabulous Gotland-Shetland cross

Here's what I do with fleece when I don't feel like spinning it:

Taking Stock

2006-10-31T20:11:00.000-05:00

In spite of having a huge stash (see yarn sale post below), I still stocked up at Rhinebeck. There's something about wool that just makes one feel... safe and secure. Fleece in warm, rich browns make me feel warm and rich. Yarns in rich colors satisfy the artist designer and magpie in me. I met lots of great people too. As a sometime blogger, it was nice to finally put names to faces.

So now I sit and contemplate three lovely Shetland fleeces. Do I send them to Wooly Knob, the most hilarious men in the fleece business, or do I try a different mill? Or do I finally buy (or split with Laurie) a decent drum carder and do them myself? Nice questions to ponder.

Destashing

2006-08-09T15:46:00.000-04:00

There comes a time in the life of every knitter when the stash must be brought under control, so here are items from my stash that need to find new homes. All have been carefully stored in a smoke- and pet-free environment. Contact me at lorrielejeune at gmail dot com if you're interested. I take personal checks and cash-funded paypal. My prices all include shipping within the continental U.S. I'm happy to ship worldwide. Please email me for the additional shipping charge to your noncontinental U.S. location.

Rowan Wool Cotton
Shade 938, "beechnut"
123 yards/50g, knits at 5.25 - 6 st/in.
13 skeins (2460 yards)
Dyelot 11D1
A long-discontinued color of Wool Cotton, beechnut is a sophisticated neutral—a light milk chocolate brown with a grey tone. There's enough here to make a garment in just about any size. One ball has been swatched and rewound, but is otherwise complete. I love this color, but unfortunately, it doesn't love me. $80 (includes shipping within the continental U.S.)

Jo Sharp Classic DK Wool
Shade 329, "Khaki"
107 yards/50g, knits at 5 - 5.5 st/in.
20 skeins (~2140 yards)
Dyelot 2
Though it's called "Khaki", this discontinued shade of Jo Sharp DK is really a light chocolate brown. A wonderfully neutral shade that doesn't work well on me. There's enough here to knit most any of Jo's cabled designs. $90 (includes shipping within the the continental U.S.)

Knitting kit for Drops pattern 59-20: a women's Nordic-style ski sweater.
Yarn: Garnstudio Karisma Superwash; 100% wool, 120 yards/50g
650g (13 skeins) Color 05, black
400g (8 skeins) Color 62, brown
50g (1 skein) Color 04, dark brown
50g (1 skein) Color 37, gray-blue
Karisma is a wonderful dk-weight yarn that's very similar to the old Rowan Designer DK. It knits and wears beautifully. The complete pattern for this sweater is freely available on Garnstudio's site, and I will happily provide a printed copy. $115 (includes shipping within the continental U.S.)

Rowan Chunky Tweed
Shade 873, "Night"
109 yards/100g, knits at 3 - 3.5 st/in.
2.5 skeins (~275 yards)
Dyelot 31E0
Rowan Chunky Tweed is a discontinued classic. Night is black with reddish tan flecks. Two full skeins plus a couple of small balls that add up to a half. $16 (includes shipping within the continental U.S.)

Brora Softspun

Shade 9035, chestnut-red tweed
900 yards/lb
2.2 lb (1 cone, approximately 1980 yards)
Brora Softspun is 100% shetland wool spun by the now defunct Hunters of Brora mill in Scotland. It knits at 4.5 to 5 st/in, and after washing is identical to Jamieson's Soft Shetland in look and feel. Each cone is equivalent to about 16.5 skeins of Soft Shetland in the original 2oz. 120-yard skeins, and nearly 20 balls in the new 50g put up. $20 per cone, $10 per cone shipping within the continental U.S.

Ann Norling Truck Sweater (pattern + yarn)
Yarn: Tahki Cotton Classic
4 skeins red (3488, lot 732)
1 skein each of yellow (3549, lot 605); blue (3871, lot 631); green (3782, lot 194); purple (3913, lot 535); black (3002, lot 559); off-white (3003, lot 573).
This kit contains an official copy of the sweater pattern plus enough Cotton Classic to knit the largest size. I was going to make it for my nephew, but missed the window of opportunity (he grew up too fast!) $45 (includes shipping within the continental U.S.)

Too cute for words...

2006-07-12T16:27:00.001-04:00

The trouble with blogs is that they require one's life to be interesting, or at least reportable. Lately the reportable items in my life have been uninteresting, and the interesting things have been, well, not really that interesting. So what's the reluctant blogger to do? Post a photo, of course.

This is Dori, the cutest mini-pomeranian ever to have graced the halls of my workplace. She and her person are off to Harvard Business School in a couple of weeks. I'll miss them both.

The Taming of the Schacht

2006-06-21T16:38:00.000-04:00

Even though I've spun successfully on a Lendrum for many years, the Schacht Matchless has always been my dream machine. It's the wheel I learned on, and I always knew that someday I'd own one. I haven't been spinning much these last few years, so I kept putting it off. If I'm not spinning on the old wheel, how can I justify a new one? Well, I finally realized that I wasn't spinning because I wanted to make laceweight yarns and the Lendrum, even with a new fast flyer, just wasn't doing the trick. After MDS&W this year, I decided that the time had come for a Schacht. I placed an order with Bountiful.

The wheel arrived a couple of weeks ago and I set it up in scotch tension with minimal fuss. Ah! I've finally reached spinning nirvana, I thought, as I sat down to spin. The treadling was smooth and even, the wheel turned effortlessly, the Danish oil finish smelled wonderful, and the danged flyer wouldn't draw or wind on from the left. I tried everything to encourage it including more oil, changing the brake spring, changing the brake band, even switching to double drive. Nothing worked. It refused to cooperate.

Laurie told me that she had had a similar problem with her Schacht, and she solved it by only using the hooks on the righthand side. No, no NO! I thought. For nearly $900, the darned thing should work. I wrote to Lois at Bountiful. She'd never heard of this problem and forwarded my message along to Schacht. They were stumped too. I was almost ready to send the wheel back to them in disgrace.

But I'm a scientist and a metalsmith, and I just couldn't give up without a fight. I analyzed the situation carefully and observed that everything worked perfectly until I tried to wind on, and then the yarn got stuck. On a particularly bad snag, I cut the yarn, took off the flyer, and dug out my jeweler's loupe. I was astonished to see the yarn caught in a burr of metal on the inside left edge of the orifice. All the inside edges, in fact, were rough and sharp. So I took the flyer to my studio, ground and polished the edges to a high shine (by the time I'd finished, the reflection was blinding), and reinstalled it. Voila! It drew and wound on perfectly; left and right and on all hooks. Problem solved. I'll also note that Lois at Bountiful and the folks from Schacht were great. I was very impressed by their collective level of responsiveness.

My spinning corner is set and ready to go. Now I just need to figure out which fleece to dig into first.

The Road to Alpacas

2006-06-11T07:56:00.000-04:00

We took the Prius and headed west...to Berkshire County in western Massachusetts, that is. Not only did we get 49 mpg, we got yarn... and fleece... and had a great time in the process.

First stop: Web's in Northampton. Laurie had never experienced Web's famous warehouse, but she handled it like a pro. She emerged with only three cones and a ball of sock yarn. I exercised restraint (given my already monumental stash) and selected just a single bag of natural-colored closeout Jo Sharp DK for the dyepot. Well, that and some single balls of a few other colors. The cones of alpaca/silk laceweight in the front room, however, were another story. Yum. I also got a whorl and a copy of the most recent SpinOff. I have to make one of those sheep puppets!

The highlight of the trip was our visit to Red Barn Alpacas in Sandisfield, an hour or so west of Northhampton. Sonja and Jeff made us feel right at home, and Wotsie, my favorite little dark brown alpaca, marched right up to say hello. Maybe it's because we made the trip specifically to buy his fleece. I have his 2005 fleece as well, and will send one of them out to be processed with the black border leicester fleece I got at MDS&W. The other I'll spin solo.

Since I was in the groove, I also bought an amazing light brown cria fleece from Copper. It'll spin into fabulous lace on my new Schacht.

Everyone had a good day.

Fleece Binge

2006-05-30T21:22:00.000-04:00

Today I've been thinking about Romeldale fleece, in particular, the one recently shorn from this sheep. I don't know his name, but his owner tells me that his is the fleece of my dreams!

I'm also looking at this fleece from Moonbeam: four pounds of brown, grey, and creamy variegated goodness. I've never played with a variegated fleece. I see marled yarn in my future.

Decisions, decisions.

Black and silver

2006-05-19T09:44:00.000-04:00

First, the black, as in black lace. Sockotta is one of my favorite yarns. Part cotton, part wool, part nylon, part indestructible. Imagine my delight when I discovered that it comes in black. I've been thinking lately about making a lace pullover--the sort you could wear all the time. Sockotta will be the perfect medium, and vine lace the perfect pattern (easy, fast, and finishable....)

There's not much happening in my metalsmithing world lately. My bench is set up in the new studio, but I've just been too distracted with my day job to get over there and create. Then again, maybe my metalworking malaise has been brought on by the exhorbitant price of gold. It spiked to $725 and ounce last week, but seems to have dropped to $663 today. What a deal!

So I've been thinking in silver lately. It's only $14 an ounce (which is still exhorbitant compared to the $6 it was not too long ago), and it's nice to work with. It also pairs nicely with black. Perhaps I'll knit a black lace cabochon and forge a silver ring to set it in. It could be the start of a new trend...

What's your favourite colour?

2006-05-14T20:30:00.000-04:00

With all due credit to Monty Python, my 'favourite colour' today is not yellow or blue, but green. Green as in the gecko who let me photograph him in Hawaii this past winter; green as in the plant that Mr. Z is daring me to shoo him away from; and green as in the lawn that's growing an inch an hour due to all the rain. Have you ever noticed how rain brings out the green in green? Even though it was soggy outside today, I still enjoyed walking around the garden soaking up the greenness.

Thankfully, we're not suffering any negative effects from the weekend's deluge other than a trickle of water in the basement. Our house is an antique with a fieldstone foundation. When it rains hard, we know it. The cats come up from the basement with wet feet. The puddle may be tiny but they'll find it and play in it. Fortunately, my yarn is safely tucked away in bins above the waterline.

Speaking of green, I finished the first of my Fixation "Effects" socks in color 9205, which is green. Fixation is interesting stuff. In general, I hate knitting with cotton; it's too much like knitting with string. Fixation, with its elastic core, has lots of give. It works up more like wool than like cotton. I'm not sure I love Fixation as socks, but I do know that I'll love it as a sweater. (Already got some on order in a nice winey red.)

As soon as I finish these socks, I can move on to another of my vast array of UFOs. Perhaps I'll reacquaint myself with the Princess Line from Norsk Strikkegarn (the chart is monumental and unmemorizable). Or maybe I'll pick up Leaf Lace shawl number two (I finished leaf lace shawl number one, thankyouverymuch). Or maybe I'll dig into my Hunt Valley cashmere. What color is it? You guessed it: Green!

Maryland and ever after

2006-05-12T18:22:00.000-04:00

Like most of the rest of the knitblogging universe, I went to the Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival last weekend. My in-laws live in Columbia, MD, a short hop from the festival, so the first weekend of May is a very convenient time to schedule a family visit. My step-mother-in-law is also a rabid fiberholic, so we left for the show early on Saturday and left the menfolk at home to entertain themselves.

At the show, I immediately pounced on a small Border Leicester fleece from Betty Levin and Ellen Raja who, ironically, live less than 10 miles away from me here in Massachusetts. I have a long history of buying fleece from these ladies. They and their fabulous fleeces are responsible for my Border Leicester lust. This fleece will soon be mixed with a lovely alpaca fleece from "Mr. Wotes" of Red Barn Alpacas.

I maintained control until nearly the end of the day, and then I went whole hog: a sweater's worth of cashmere (Oh my!) from Hunt Valley Cashmere, and some handpainted 65% wool, 35% camel from Just Our Yarns. Very yummy. See photo.

My step-mother-in-law outdid me, however. She bought a beautiful custom-made tapestry loom from Fireside Fiberarts. It makes the Schacht spinning wheel that I finally ordered to replace my 20-year-old Lendrum seem modest in comparison!

A great way to use up those leftovers...

2006-05-01T10:20:00.000-04:00

Spotted this pink tank cosy while browsing Flickr. What a great way to use up your collection of oddballs. Here's the Flickr link.

In the beginning...

2006-04-29T08:03:00.000-04:00

Everything has to start somewhere, so this is it. Why blog? Is it because I have interesting things to say? Maybe. Is it because I knit therefore I blog? Nah, I was a knitter long before blogs were a glint in the eye of the web. It's because of the fear of being known as "blogless Lorrie" in knitting circles. This label of deficiency was brought to my attention by the Etherknitter, who pointed out that I might even be called "sadly blogless Lorrie." Yikes.

So voila! A blog, complete with photo of cat (named Ziti).