The Thrifty Knitter

While I’m well pleased with how these came out, I’m a little sad I didn’t have enough yarn left to make myself one. I guess I could make it of wool instead. I probably have enough stash wool to swing one.

Inspired by a vintage pattern, I adapted them to have realistic pansy coloring, but then screwed up and misordered the petals. They still look like pansies, though, so I’m pretty satisfied. They’re also a triple thickness almost throughout, thanks to the overlapping petals. I almost let the petals themselves form the 2 plies, but I decided I preferred the way the green backing/loop/leaf made the colors pop a bit more (those Sonata colors were duller than I expected). Because of all the gathering/overlapping, my 6 balls of yarn weren’t quite enough, and I had to add a ball of mercerized Nashua, which I wasn’t crazy about crocheting. It was only marginally heavier, but the plies were much looser, which made it easy to snag.

Maybe I’ll write up this pattern next week! There was a lot of freeforming to start, but I more or less standardized it by the end.

The weird part of this whole thing is that I am suddenly without any WIP, for the first time in years. I’m going to have to give careful consideration of what’s next!

In other news, I really hope the pattern I submitted to knitty gets picked for First Fall. I’m really pleased with it, though I probably could have gotten better pictures if the weather hadn’t been so glum. Either way, I hope I find out soon because I totally want to show it off.

This weekend, I’ll be vending at Knitting in the Heartland, and for the first time ever, I’ve actually taped out a little 10×10 square in my foyer so I can figure out in advance how to set up.  Now I just have to figure out how to fit all my crap in the car.

Here’s the info. The marketplace is free to the public, and they’re also offering various classes (I don’t know if they still have openings).

KNITTING IN THE HEARTLAND Featuring Melissa Leapman
Saturday, March 27 & Sunday, March 28 2010
Ramada Inn, 7240 Shawnee Mission Parkway, Overland Park, KS 66202

Come out and see me and blow all your hard-earned cash! Hurrah!

Slouching toward organization….

Sherri primed it and got it started for me this afternoon, and I actually followed my good intentions and finished up all the painting tonight! I’ve decided to let it cure for a week befoe putting everything back.

I picked a pale blue satin exterior Oops! Paint from the paint freezer (a dead freezer that’s become a repository for all the $3 -$4 paint mistakes we always buy at the hardware stores).

I thought exterior satin would be a good, sturdy coating for the rough walls and washable enough for the shelves. While I probably should have bought some floor paint for the floor, I thought I’d save some money and let myself off the hook. The floor probably won’t get too much traffic, and if the wear bothers me, I’ll only have to empty the bottom shelf to paint.

And in the spirit of not ignoring overdue projects because I can’t do a perfectly perfect job, I’ve decided not to paint the cubbies just now. While I’d prefer a bright interior to show off the contents, I’d rather have my stuff back in my closet that the prettiest pretty cubbies, and I can make some tidy labels for the edges to do the same job. Later, when I have some more time, I’ll probably paint them dark red with the pale blue interiors. I’m going to put the extra paint in a jar to keep it fresh–the original lid’s all rusty and gross.

Next week, after all the stuff’s neatly in place and I have my floor space back, I’ll empty out the other closet and get sorting. Or if I’m feeling too pressed for time, I’ll wait and do closet #2 after Yarn School.

Last weekend, I went to the Missouri Fiber Retreat in Jefferson City, MO. I stayed at the 4H camp and took 3 classes. I’d dying to go back with a gang next year, because while it was perfect from an educational standpoint, it would have been a blast with a group of friends. On the other hand, I probably wouldn’t have gotten the chance to spend as much time with Matt Nowak, the felted purse class teacher I met my my beginning weaving class. We spent a good deal of Saturday evening chatting, and I had a great time. That same night, I shared a fruity wine coolers with the ladies in my 4H cabin before retiring at 10pm. Although the limited conversation and early lights out was a little strange for me, I certainly wouldn’t have gotten the heavy duty sleep I enjoyed if I’d been with a group. I returned very refreshed and rested.

Friday morning, I made a 5-hour drive out to Jefferson City, MO. The Extension facilities are on the edge of the countryside, and the 4H camp is in an undeveloped wooded area. The first afternoon, I took the Beginning Rug Hooking class with Terry Keller. I’m really excited about rug hooking, because it’s a very thrifty, practical craft. You pull strips of wool through the holes in a base cloth with a metal hook, forming the pile of a looped rug. Designs can be as simple or complex as you wish, and people hook everything from traditional colonial styles to realistic portraiture to abstract designs. Dyed strips of wool become your paint colors for elaborate designs. Pretty much anything you could draw, you can hook. (Search flickr from hooked rug.) You can also hook with yarn instead of fabric strips.

Our class kit included a hook, wool cloth strips of many colors, a hoop, and a simple pattern drawn on burlap. Here’s my nearly finished pattern, which will be a trivet. This is the top (pile) side:

Here’s the back, which is just as pretty:

I purchased some additional hand-dyed fabric from Terry, and I plan to design my own simple pattern for my next try. Terry was an easygoing teacher and the class was relaxed and very pleasant, with lots of chatty, joking women.

I particularly liked hooking because, aside from the design, it’s easy, meditative work that requires little concentration and has almost no learning curve. That’s not to say my technique isn’t crude; but I could definitely produce primitive rugs I’d find very pleasing right now. I can see now that I did hook my sample too densely, but with a little practice, I’d sure I’d quickly develop a better notion of placement, and this would definitely be a very relaxing handicraft. With all our hard floors, I’m eager to learn as many different options for rugmaking as possible.

[ETA: I just had to add a link to Brenda’s rug hooking set on flickr. They are breathtaking! This is definitely what I aspire to make. The b&w jump rope girl is particularly striking. Here’s one in progress so you can see how they’re worked–to see the whole set!]

On Saturday, instead of two different morning and afternoon courses, I opted for the all-day Beginners Weaving with Jeff Reynolds. The first half of the class was a primer on weaving and the operation of looms, basics or reading a simple twill pattern, and wrapping the warp and dressing the loom, and the afternoon was devoted to hands-on weaving. Jeff is a sweet, charming, and patient teacher. He’s very traditional in his work and prefers historical reproduction over designing. His fine coverlets were just breathtaking.

I got really lucky and Matt (new friend I mentioned above) let me use the floor loom he had snagged since he had gotten to try a floor loom the year prior. I’m very grateful because the loom Laura donated to us is a beautiful 4-harness, 6-treadle Le Clerc. Until this weekend, that was meaningless to me. But now I know that this is an especially great loom because you can tie up separate treadles for your twill pattern and for your plain weave (tabby!) pattern. If you look at the sample below, the patterned section and the little checkerboard strip on the end were worked with to separate sets of treadles.

The loom is still very intimidating to me, but I feel like I have a very rudimentary understanding of its parts and operation, and I feel confident that if I set aside a full day, I’ll be able to warp the thing. After that, I have several Webs $5 clearance cones to play with risk-free, so I plan to get plenty of practice making blankets and rugs galore.

In class, we worked on a 2-part repeating twill pattern. After making 2 solid color mug rugs, I experimented and tried alternating rows of color in the same pattern, switching the odd and even rows every two complete repeats. I got enough practice with this simple pattern to be able to spot errors and back them out correctly.

When Jeff demonstrated dressing the loom, I took several pictures I’m hoping will jog my memory. Unfortunately, I won’t have time to try it out until next week at the earliest.

On Sunday morning, I took Spinning Fine Wool Yarns with Patsy Zawistoski. This was my first try both at fine yarns in general, and also my first try at spinning a silk hanky, which is challenging, but I got a sense of it and I think I’ll actually be able to pull it off later on. The class was only three hours, so we didn’t really have time to get into a groove, but here’s my first attempt at silk spun fine. The singles were about 75 wpi, and the plied was about 35 wpi!

Then we moved on to superfine merino. After silk, it was a breeze. I didn’t check my wpi yet, but it is very fine, like a thick thread. I’d guess in the 45 wpi range or finer! I intend to spin the remainder of the superfine merino sample we got. We also got a nice length of dyed Optim, some washed Polwarth locks, and some washed Merino-Romeldale and Merino locks to try out on our own. While I don’t see myself a fine spinner (mostly because I’m not much of a fine knitter), I really loved how much yarn you get out of how little fiber. Spinning fine is a very thrifty, relaxing way to spin!

Patsy’s teaching style is relaxed and fun, and she gives you plenty of examples and tricks to help you remember what you learn. I also learned some great general spinning tips in Patsy’s class. One of my favorite was to ply a foot of single on itself before you put it aside if it’s going to be a while before you get back to finishing it,  so you’ll have a sample of the level of twist as well as its diameter. When you’ve abandoned a bobbin for a long time, the energy fades and you can’t really see the yarn’s nature anymore.

Another trick was how to ply a small sample from your hand–the idea was to make it very easy to sample–no fussing with multiple bobbins, etc.–because it’s often such a pain people skip that step. And it’s nice to know how your final yarn will look before you’ve spun up several bobbins of singles.

Another tip was to roll your yarn onto your wpi gauge instead of winding it, which affects the twist (if you’ve ever wound roving into a ball, you know how much twist that simple action adds to the fiber–so at a tiny gauge, that can significantly tighten or loosen your twist and really change your WPI).

Last but not least, there was a modest but enticing marketplace. Because I’m still over-flush from Rhinebeck, it was easy for me to resist almost everything, but I did go home with a pound of this future sweater:

It’s a supersoft 2-color Finn roving from Little Farm in Gerald, MO.

Pattern: Bunny Hop (free pattern here); use the yarn/needles/gauge below:

Yarn: Valley Yarns Berkshire (not bulky)
Needles: US8/5mm
Gauge: 17 st = 4″ in plain (no thrums) stockinette

Downsizing they yarn & needles was a no-brainer way to reduce the size. She’s 3 years old and these, knit as a size small from the original pattern, are an inch or so too big for her. My guess is that the same yarn/needles (or maybe 7 instead)  w/o thrums would be just right (thrums take up room inside but also increase gauge). I’ll try them after the potholder swap!

This was my last UFO! I officially am off the hook and can start new projects with impunity! Hurray! My next project will be crocheted potholders for the swap, though I’m not certain I’ll be able to crank them all out in time, especially since I have two 5-hour drives and two 11-hour drives, a retreat and a music festival between now and the deadline. But at the very least, I’ll get a couple of cute potholders I can keep, so it’s a win-win.

In other knitting:

I actually finished a submission early! This is something I designed for my knitty first fall submission. I’m submitting it today and I hope they pick it. I think it’s lovely, if I do say so myself. And fun and easy to knit!

I woke up yesterday with a stomach bug from who knows where. I ate the same thing as everyone else (my mom & Ron) and they’re both fine. And while the worst punishment has passed, I’m still totally weak and exhausted and can’t really eat, and my gut sounds like a haunted house. The last time I was this gut-sick was in 2nd grade, when they finally had to plop me in the tub and spray me down because they didn’t know which end to aim at the toilet. And while I have a bit more will over my body as an adult, if I had a plumbed bathtub, I’d’ve been collapsed there last night. I don’t know if that would have been any more comfortable than the bathroom floor, but it would have seemed a little nicer.

I keep thinking I’m on the mend, but the most mundane tasks exhaust me in a matter of minutes. I’m totally behind in my work, and I can only do anything that takes focus for half an hour before I’m spent and have to go lay down. So, not enough time to accomplish anything productive, but just enough time to to get all wound up about it. Luckily, I feel too shitty to spend my usual hours in front of my computer looking up all my symptoms.

I sure hope I’m better tomorrow. I have a lot of catching up to do before the fiber retreat, and I really can’t swing another sick day and I definitely don’t want to miss the retreat, but I ain’t going feeling like this.

On the bright side, I did shed a few pounds. So there’s that.

Tonight I discovered that when I started knitting that leafy jacket, I used a smaller needle than my original. It was on a cable with an 11 tag when I picked it up, so I grabbed 11s and got started, though it seemed a bit tight. 8 balls in I realized my gauge was way off.  Long story short, I frogged it. Then I got froggy fever and frogged all of my hibernating projects I was reserving judgment on. All of them.

Now my only WIP are these little bunny slippers and my ongoing projects (building scarf and hibernating hate scarf), which are excluded from the WIP uberlist. Woo hoo! I can knit up the little bunny mate tomorrow and get cracking on my potholders. Yippee!

Overall, I’m pretty confident and comfortable with my animals. I’m pretty good about spending time and keeping an eye on them, checking their eyelids for a good FAMACHA score and worming when necessary, swapping out their suits as they outgrow them, keeping them in good hay and water and mineral–it’s all really basic stuff. But my Achilles heel (ahem) is hoof trimming. I’m lousy at it, timid and nervous. I’m not confident handling them and tend to give in immediately when they put up a fight. In short, I am a weak parent.

But I’m feeling just a little more confident today. I just got some very patient and much needed help trimming hooves from my friend Jenny. We trimmed Uncle Honeybunch and Mister Shivers (easy), Ronnie (a little weird–hers are more fleshy in spots–more like calluses than nails–but I was able to manage with guidance), and Agnes, who Jenny trimmed–her hooves were such a mess that I was at a loss.

In fact, that’s the whole reason I finally quit being such a procrastinator and finally called her up and begged for help. Yesterday, Agnes didn’t immediately hop up when I went down to let them out. Her hooves had been looking too long for a while, but she was running and jumping and so frisky, and it was so cold and wet for so long that I kept letting myself off the hook. But when I saw she was a little reluctant to get up and seemed to be limping a bit when she did, I realized I’d better nut up and address this before I had a crisis on my hands. She was still alert and bright-eyed and willing to go out and graze once she did get up, so I wasn’t panicked, but definitely concerned.

I tried to tackle it myself, with Ron helping me hold Agnes, but after a few ham-fisted, cringing, uncertain attempts, and a lot of kicking and thrashing from Agnes, had to accept that this just wasn’t something I could learn from reading about it and guessing. And though I had wanted to ask the vet or the shearer to slow down to a snail’s pace and let me try last year, I just didn’t have the confidence to really ask them to drag it out the way I’d need to to actually learn.

I hate going all Green Acres and pestering my critter-literate friends, but this time, I just had to. Luckily, Jenny was both willing and available. She’s not only a vet, but she also raised sheep for 4H as a girl, and she sponsors 4H now, so she’s very relaxed and patient with ninnies like me.

She got each sheep on its butt and held it while I carefully, nervously trimmed each hoof, then held it up and awaited her inspection and instruction about where to trim more. She was really fantastic, completely patient, and went back and trimmed a little more enthusiastically on the spots that were giving me problems. The Shetlands were relaxed, and their hooves were in pretty good shape, so I got started with Uncle Honeybunch and Mister Shivers and built a little confidence with them. Agnes was a mess–hers seem to grow at least twice as fast as the others, and were overgrown  and damaged, exposing the pads, which had built up a sort of protective callus that was getting pressed and was tender, like a hangnail or an ingrown toenail. On top of that, Agnes DOES NOT care for having her hooves trimmed–even when they were in good shape and not tender and overgrown, she would put up a mad fight (part of why I’m such a bad sheep mommy about hooves), so it was a godsend having someone who wasn’t the cover girl for Nervous Shepherd Magazine (i.e., me) handling her. She was completely unphased by the struggling and kicking. Jenny gave Aggie’s feet a good going over and pronounced them fine (no infection or suspect areas), but she said I do need to keep an eye on her to see that they heal properly, and that Agnes & I are going to need to become dear friends with the clippers. I’ll need to trim her hooves regularly, more frequently for a while than I probably will in the future, just to get everything grown back nice and even. In the end, she’s probably going to need a trim 4X a year, vs. the twice a year the others require. She’s the only one with white hooves–they just seem to grow a lot faster, and maybe they’re not as sturdy, either.

Post-pedicure, Agnes was trotting around pretty normally, and by dinner-time, she was stotting! (Man, I need to get a picture of that sometime. It’s only the Merinos. When I come out with the grain, they’ll often leap 2 or 3 feet straight up into the air–they truly jump with joy! Even Agnes, who is twice the size of the twins, does it regularly, and I was happy to see her leap especially high today.)

You can see by all the mud on Agnes’ jacket that she was thrashing around like a maniac. In contrast, Ronnie and Mr. Shivers (3rd & 4th at the trough) are pretty clean. They pretty much gave in the minute they were on their butts, which makes it a lot more quick and comfortable for everyone involved.

Jayne’s little piggies–a little long, but not gnarly. We’re going to do Hokey Pokey, Jayne and Fudgy next week. I’ll try to get some before and after pictures of the undersides next week so you can see how they look. From casual observation, they seem fairly sound–I remember Hokey Pokey’s were a little fleshy, like Ronnie’s, and Jayne’s may have been too–maybe a lamb thing? Luckily, my fabulous shearer will trim hooves for me again in a month or so, so I don’t have to trim as aggressively as I normally might, which is confidence-building. I can strive for a nice even job and no nicks and not fret too much about going shorter. I might even try to manage Hokey Pokey on my own! (Fudgy’s out of the question, and Jayne may be too big for me to take alone.)

What’s really cool is that Jenny and Sherri are going to loan me their old 4H grooming stanchion. My plan is to condition the sheep to actually like having their hooves trimmed, using a little grain-and-restrain routine. I’m hoping it will be much the way that milk goats will happily march up the stanchion to be milked once they know they get goodies for it. I need to tidy up the hay shed to make a nice, sheltered home for it, so it’s in good shape when Sherri’s girls are ready for 4H. That’s still a ways off–they’re the little girls here–but time does fly).

Speaking of time, I’m running out of time to finish my stupid WIP and start my potholders for the swap! Last week, my desire to get cracking on the potholders persuaded me to frog 4 items–3 single slippers and a tank that looked terrible on me–and finish 2 more (that red tank and the Noro sweater I showed off last week).

Right now, I’m working on a bulky sweater that’s going quickly, now that I’ve frogged and reknit a section I screwed up. I started this so long ago that I can’t remember my intentions for it. On ravelry, I called it “Leafy Cardi,” but it’s way too heavy to be a regular cardigan, so I’m calling it Leafy Jacket and planning on making it nice and loose. I’ll finish the body and sleeves with little or no (probably no, actually) shaping, adding a repeat of the leaf pattern at bottoms of each. Then I’ll finish the front and collar with several rows of either seed or ribbing, and if there’s any extra yarn, there will be pockets.

This yarn is quick to knit because it’s so thick, but it’s going to be a giant ass-pain to weave in the many ends (I should use all 12 100g balls). It’s bulky superwash 50/50 wool/acrylic with a zillion plies, a weaving nightmare.

I made great progress emptying and sorting my first Fibber MaGee and Molly closet last week, but I lost a little organizing momentum agonizing over how to repair it. But I believe I’ve found the correct product for the job (Presto Patch–Ron’s getting me some on the way home), so I’m back on track to repair, prime, and paint the thing, so I can put back all the stuff I removed and sorted last week. I’ve decided to take a pragmatic approach. I want the plaster repaired and painted to seal it, but I’m not trying to win a beauty contest, so I don’t care if the surface is like a lunar landscape. Letting go of that means that I can leave the shelves in place and just reinforce the joints instead of taking them down and properly scraping and patching the wall. I just want to keep out the cold and keep my shoes relatively plaster-free. It will be nice to take advantage of all the lovely storage space.

The better part of its former contents (most of the big bags and hampers on the right) will move up to the craft room. Three bags went to Goodwill, and if I were smart, I’d be ditching all the heels I never wear anymore. But I’m not smart. I’m not yet willing to abandon my cute shoes. After all, I do go on vacation now and again. Once all this stuff is back where it belongs, I’ll tackle Door #2, which is also crammed-chest high with teetering boxes–but it’s even more daunting than the first closet because the plaster is in worse shape, and since there are no shelves, it’s twice as full.

But I’ll think about that tomorrow.

I dug my old sewing table out from the corner of the craft room, re-arranged some storage bins, and made myself a nice little sewing area. It’s inset between the two closets, so it won’t be in the way for the Dye Lab (there are other white board Adrian can use–those notes are her formulas form Yarn Schools past).

My $4 garage sale sewing table could be sturdier, but it’s servicable for now. The index card cabinet holds sewing notions and general craft supplies. I’ve reserved the lower drawers–those at about waist level when you’re seated–for sewing machine accessories and tools, plus notions like elastic, twill tape, fasteners, etc.

The antique jars in the wine crate hold buttons (I don’t like to use any jars of uncertain provenance for holding food–you never know what the last guy stored in there), and the side of the filing cabinet, with a few more magnets, will make a nice inspiration/bulletin board.

I’ve got two vintage sewing boxes I need to sort through behind that little drawer unit, which holds notions, interfacing, and machine accessories. I want to remove all the sewing stuff and use them to hold current projects away from dust and clutter.

Over all, I’m quite pleased! I still need to mount my iron holder and ironing board rack (as soon as it turns up), but it’s already been quite handy to have a little organized sewing station. So far, I’ve been able to quickly mend two sheep jackets and a feed sack caddy recycled from two old feed sacks, and I’m going to make a bunch of bags and pillows next.

Pattern: Bunny Hop Thrummed Bunny Slippers (free pattern at craftzine.com)

Yarn: 2 balls Webs Northampton Bulky (100% wool; 100g/109yd) in Chestnut Heather

Thrums: 2 oz Kansas Cocoa Combed Top from Art Club (me!)

I also finished Ron’s slippers, a very late Christmas present. In the meantime, I lost the mate’s button and had to dig up some new buttons to use. I also had to knit the same errors into the 2nd that I made on the first (sleepy, last-minute knitting :)), and my gauge was a little tighter on the second one. I knit the first one on a big thrumming bender, so I was apparently knitting a bit looser than gauge then. But I’m still pleased with them. I gave the 2nd one little piggy green eyes instead of big blue ones. They’re fraternal twins.