I'm not gonna make it! There are only 3 fingers and a thumb left to go and only this much yarn left.

I'm still considering how to mix up all the fiber I have here to spin up for some mittens and hats. Here are some more color experiments:

Top to Bottom: Red, Pink, Turquoise & Yellow / Red, Pink & Yellow / Red & Pink / Turquoise & Yellow / Turquoise & a dash of Red / Turquoise

So far, I have mixed up a batch of red, pink & yellow fiber and spun up a little on my spindle. Here is what the yarn looks like knitted up:

-----------------------------------------------------------------------

After a short grieving period over the olive green results of the hollyhock dye (I wanted purple damn it), I'm back trying again with some Queen Anne's Lace picked from the experimental growing field of Longwood Gardens, which is across the street from my dad's house.

I'm happy to say that even though yellow isn't my favorite color, I'm overjoyed with the results of dyeing with Queen Anne's Lace. It turned out exactly as expected, unlike the hollyhock, with its vast and unpredictable range of mud brown to purple.

I used about 30 flower heads to dye some white Romney fleece gifted to me by Claudia last January. It took about 60 minutes of simmering for the dye to start to "stick" (the dye didn't exhaust) and achieve the color depth I wanted. At that point, I rinsed it out and left it to dry overnight on a towel.

This morning, I though about what I could make with yellow yarn and decided it would be more fun to card the yellow Romney together with some other colors.

After spinning up some samples of different color mixes, I think my favorite is a mix of 50% yellow and 50% pink roving from some Fantom Farm roving bought in Rhinebeck. Here are some of the experimental color mixes I did:

L-R: Yellow with White / Yellow with Pink / Yellow with Turquoise / Turquoise

What's your favorite?

Are you interested in some Phildar Yarn?

Phildar Oxygene is 40% Acylic, 35% Chlorofibre and 25% Wool

Gauge is 23 sts & 30 rows to 4 inches using US 5-6 Needles

142 yd/ball and I have 10 balls for sale of Jeans, a denim color.

The Phildar Automne 2003 Catalog has some nice sweaters that call for Oxygene:

I'm selling it for 4.00/ball and in one lot for 40.00 USD. I paid 98.00 USD so this is a great deal!

Or, make me a trade offer!

It was 8 inches too wide!

Apparently my gauge measuring was off and the only other choice was to rip it all out and rethink my approach.

I decided it would be too complicated to try to redo the whole Nordic Memories sweater at my gauge, so I am just going to wing it and work out a pattern as I go. It will be a simple stockinette stitch sweater with a v-neck. The sleeve cuffs will be cabled and flare out slightly.

Here is a close up of how the Hebridean 2-ply looks in all its cabley goodness:

32 stitches/4 inches

I have 450 g of the Hebridean 2-ply and was a bit worried I'd not have enough to make the sweater I want, but after checking out VY's yarn info, it looks like there will be more than enough.

So what do you think of this comment from a reviewer of 1000 Sweaters on Amazon.com:

"These sweaters are all knit on U.S. size 4 and size 6 needles. Perhaps British women are faster knitters, or perhaps they have more leisure time than we over-scheduled Americans. It would take me months to make a sweater on size 6 needles and I just don't have that much free time."

Not very nice huh? Not very smart.

And come on, size 6 needles are honking huge.

I really love this sweater:

Nordic Memories from Interweave Knits, Winter 2003

So, I decided to adapt it to the Pebble Beach Hebridean 2-ply from Virtual Yarns I originally bought to make Elizabeth from Tudor Roses. The Red Rattle color is leftover from another VY design, Widdicombe Fair.

This is what I have so far:

I'm knitting in the round and have been having a curious time trying to adapt the Mistake Stitch Ribbing--it took me a while to wrap my head around what it was supposed to look like! Whatever I have now looks like 3 rows of seed stitch with one ribbed column. Kind of interesting.

Although I love the little fair isle seedy pattern all over the sweater, I'm going to omit that I think, because the only other color I have leftover is Corncrake and it's not one of my favorites. But we'll see, maybe combined with the other colors it will look good.

Haven't been doing much knitting lately. This is the cuff of a glove I'm making using the Habu silk yarn. I wasn't sure what to do with the yarn when I bought it but one night I was swatching aimlessly and the idea for a horizontal cabled cuff popped into my head and wouldn't go away. I wanted a cuff that flared out slightly and that presented a problem since the cuff would be knit bottom to top and then then ends sewn together to make the horizontal cables. All sides would be the same length then (the width when sewn up).

Doing a few short rows helped create a slight flare on the side I wanted to be the bottom. When it was flarey enough, I grafted the top to the bottom and it is exactly what I wanted. Cross your fingers that I can replicate what I did on the first for the second glove!

Here's a wrist distaff I made following the directions over at the Urbanspinner.

I used some Silja sock yarn originally intended for the Pippi Kneestockings.

We are headed out to Pittsburgh this week for the 4th of July. Then we will go to State College for the Central Pennsylvania Festival of the Arts. It's fun to see what the vendors are selling, but there isn't any fiber or yarn for sale so my interest isn't what it used to be.

Dave and I always go on a food tour of all the old places he used to eat at when he was in college at Penn State. (Brothers pizza--yum! Grilled Stickies==yum!)

So, with that itinerary in mind, I've decided to bring this with me. It is a big indigo ball of Coopworth wool, hand dyed by Stefania and bought at MDSW.

As well as this:

Osage Orange Bosworth spindle the wrist distaff I made out of some old Blackberry Ridge wool and cheapo beads.

Hopefully, next week I will return home with about 400-500 yards of spindle-spun yarn.

Then there will be 3 more balls to go.....
_______________________________
Extra Credit! (and what a tenuous connection to the topic at hand it is)

Did you know there is a town in Pennsylvania called Blue Ball? Yes, haha. Here's some history on how Blue Ball, Pa got its name.

And if you can't drive through Lancaster and laugh at the signs in person, well, here you go: Interesting signage in Lancaster, PA

The ever patient Lucie as the main course

What happens when you buy a new toy and the cat tries to take a nap in it before the kids have tired of it.

Found some flax tow at Labadie Looms in Lancaster a few weekends ago and bought it out of curiosity.*

Click

Spinning flax is not as hard as I imagined it to be and it smells like sweet hay, which caused me to sneeze a bit.

It's not rough on the fingers to spin. For some reason, I thought spinning flax would be like spinning rough twine and would tear up the fingertips, but it's surprisingly soft.

As I was first learning to get a feel for the flax, my spindle fell a few times on the cement. Curses! Now there are some big old dents in the whorl.

Lesson learned: Spin over grass when outside!

-----------------------
*Bought in the same spirit of curiosity as the Habu Felted Ball Necklace.