What's Happening on the Mountain

Rain. I thought perhaps I'd been whisked off to the Pacific Northwest. Finally, this morning, there was sunlight, so I grabbed the camera and took some pictures. I think the pictures come out so much better in natural day light. My favorite "studio" is the large bay window at the front of the house.

Look what Mom has made:

You may recognize these from the Whistle & Ivy pattern site because Craft Gawker picked it up and spread it around FaceBook. A family member called and Mom had a commission as quick as you please!

I've finished the sock yarn cowl kit from Friends & Fiberworks:

I've begun a second cowl, the Head in the Clouds cowl by Susie Bonell, using the Berroco Remix in Merlot:

I've finished the middle part of Norah Gaughan's Sturgeon scarf, which I'm knitting in Malabrigo Arroyo's Plomo ("lead" in English):

The color seems to me to have a purple character to it that doesn't come through in the pictures.

Mom has also begun crocheting the entire cast of main characters from Disney's cartoon Frozen for my niece Alex! Here's Anna:

If you haven't watched Frozen, I highly recommend it. It is a musical. It is by Disney studios. It does have a princess and a queen in it. It is about love. BUT it breaks many stereotypes and pops many expectation bubbles. It is a very different film to Brave, so it remains my favorite, but Frozen is a close second, partly because there is some sophisticated character development for a cartoon. Watch it! And, for what it's worth, in my humble opinion, the Idina Menzel version of "Let it Go" is better than Demi Lovato's version. But that's neither here nor there.

Annual Picnic on the Farm

The Smoky Mountain Knitting Guild has an annual late Sunday picnic that one of our members, Julie Wilson, hosts on her farm, the Jehovah Raah Farm. It is tucked deep into the mountain folds, in one of those pockets we call coves. You think you can see everything there is to be seen from the paved road, until you pull off onto a separate little drive and enter a cove. Suddenly the mountains open up to give you a magical peek into just what these ancient hills are capable of. The Jehovah Raah Farm is one of those especially magical places. Part of that magic certainly comes from the Wilson family that owns and operates the farm. They appreciate the little details that keep family and farming heritage alive in their daily work and surroundings.

On the farm, they raise Scottish Highland cattle, Angora goats and rabbits, Shetland sheep, free-range chickens and Spanish Black turkeys, Guinea fowl, and both llamas and alpacas...and honey bees. (I think I got everything.)

The Angora goats and rabbits, the alpacas, and the llamas are raised for their fiber. Julie is a dealer of Lendrum spinning wheels and also teaches spinning. She is my first personal friend on the inside of the fiber world. (More magic! Except it's not really magic. It is hard, hard work, faith, and dedication. How do people who work so hard smile so much?)

Julie Wilson

Julie Wilson traditionally begins the annual picnic day early in the afternoon with a yarn dyeing class in one of her barns. By the time the yarn has been prepped, dyes mixed and added, and the yarn pulled out to dry on racks, the late afternoon picnic crowd begins to arrive. Members bring covered dishes and the Wilsons throw chicken on a barbecue. We end the day with a triumphant show of the dyed yarns.

The dye party.

I cannot truly explain how much Mom and I love this event. Even Julie, who continues to volunteer to host it every year despite the strain it puts on her and her generous family, admitted that she'd "almost" like to do it twice a year. Perhaps it is the joy of seeing such a group gathered to appreciate the farm life. Or the delight of the children chasing the chickens. Or the special treat of seeing how the yarn we love so much is taken from furry creatures, spun into workable thread, goes through the dyeing process, and arrives directly into a crafter's hands. I spent much of my time at this year's event roaming and snapping pictures. Last year, I roamed, but I had forgotten my camera. So, for me, perhaps it is all of the above, because I want to soak all of it up. Sure, I've lived on a farm before, but not one with this much livestock. When I lived with my grandparents, they no longer raised hogs for slaughter. There was a large garden, honey bees, ginseng patches, and chic\kens. For a while there were Guinea hens and hunting dogs. It is a life lived by the earth's rhythm. Work and sleep is dependent on weather conditions and sunshine. Beauty takes on a totally different meaning. You can still love your Saks 5th Avenue fashion, but nothing will be more lovely to a working farmer than a reliable piece of equipment and a successful livestock birthing season. And, here in the mountains, as I mentioned, there's that trick of the cove, the "holler" or "hollow"...the place where pasture land suddenly spreads out like a blanket laid over the earth, a scattering of weathered barns and houses are the heart of a family's livelihood, and the elevation is high enough that clouds can cut you off from the outside world.

Mom and I feel like little girls again. We pet the animals, tramp through mud and dung, point out interesting things to one another, and Mom teaches me plant names. I'll even admit that we sneak into the Wilson's house to see their collection of sheep trinkets, the antique enameled cast-iron stove in the kitchen, and the little handmade art creations that Julie has rigged from whatever has found its way into her hands. There was a tiny, swirling ring of corn seedlings. A wee corn maze in the making?

 

We didn't get there in time to dye, which was just fine because all of the hot plates and pots kept tripping the circuit in the barn! But we did purchase 6 skeins of hand-spun sport weight in a blend of Shetland wool, mohair, and alpaca, 200 yards each. 

It was a fantastic and blessed day. Thank you so much to the whole Wilson family for welcoming us all.

Prepping to Felt in Color

First, you must have something to felt.

You may remember my plans to create a felted purse to match the one that my Aunt saw at the fiber show in Sanford this past April. I'm currently knitting up the bottom piece and will pick up the body stitches along the edges. The yarn is 100% wool from Ella Rae (here's their online supplier) in classic solids and heathers. I've already done a felting swatch in faire isle and it felts lovely. Here are the colors  and my matching pencils for sketching the color patterns onto graph paper:

The body will be fair isle patterns, some metal beads added near the top, and leather handles attached once it is felted. Color work is wonderful to do when felting is involved because I don't need to be overly worried about the backside of my work looking perfect or all those different colored yarn ends being sewn in invisibly. Everything really does come out looking great in the wash!

The tricky part with felting is sizing and estimating shrinkage. I think I've got this pattern under control after one good afternoon of fiddling with numbers and a handy online percentage calculator. Thank goodness I took careful notes of gauge of the felting swatch before and after felting to determine shrinkage. Throw a couple of extra stitches in for good measure, and I felt solid to cast on. Note to self, throw even more rows onto the pattern because knitted fabric shrinks vertically far more than it does horizontally. As in 33% (vertical) compared to 12% (horizontal) after two wash cycles and air drying flat. Big difference. (I almost sound like I know what I'm talking about, don't I?)

In the meantime, I whipped up a little Leaf Top (here's the direct Rav link) for Mom from stash yarn (Naturally Caron Spa, which is unfortunately now discontinued, in "Misty Taupe"). Ok, maybe not entirely unfortunately, because it splits like nuts. It does feel like a million bucks, though. It's made of 75% acrylic and 25% rayon from bamboo. I made it as a little surprise and I am so pleased that it fits and she likes it! (It is kind of difficult to make surprises for her when we live together.)

I modified the edgings and hem length. Check out my notes on Ravelry for specific details.

Ooh, also, I have new stuff! I have recently discovered Interweave (my favorite multi-craft blanket company) publishes a magazine called Knit.Wear--and I love it. They recently had an online "hurt" sale and I discovered the entire back issue collection (just 4 issues, since the premier in 2011) priced at $10 on some of the online store pages (but not all). I called and they honored the $10 price over the listed $24.99. I now have a nice CD-ROM with all 4 issues in PDF. The magazines are normally about $14.99 each and they aren't available in normal craft or book stores, only at your LYS or from online through Interweave.

Then, in the public library, I discovered one of the books that was advertised in one of the Knit.Wear issues, Shades of Winter: Knitting with Natural Wool by Ingalill Johansson and Ewa K. Andinsson, published by Interweave (see, they are my favorite company). It is gorgeous. It partly photographed in one of the seasonal ice hotels that really exist! (I had previously thought they were just made up for that James Bond movie. Nope. They're real and apparently there's more than one of them.) You can preview some of the patterns at the Interweave online store, here, where it happens to be on sale for less than $7. Sweet deal. As I found mine in the library, I'll be visiting an office supply store to ink up my all-in-one printer/copier magic machine to copy the patterns I plan to make one fine day. It's never not good weather to knit, I don't care how hot. 

Here are my selections from the book:

Copyright Ewa K. Andinsson & Interweave.

Copyright Ewa K. Andinsson & Interweave.

Copyright Ewa K. Andinsson & Interweave.

I'll take another day to wax poetic about Knit.Wear and the patterns I'm so excited about...oh, and the articles and tips! 

*I noticed that sometimes my pictures in other posts were taking a ridiculously long time to load for viewing. To fix that, hopefully, I've reduced the resolution size of my images on this post. 

The Shop Hop Haul

We did pretty well for ourselves, didn't we? And most of it is already tagged for specific projects, so it counted as smart purchasing, not blind stash padding. Several of the shops carried a little booklet about smart stash building, which I totally intend to purchase soon: StashBot by Hannah Fettig. It was about $6.00. Right now, though, I'm broke.

The trip itself was a treat, from the company, the bus ride, the lunch (at The Trailhead Restaurant, conveniently located immediately beside the Black Mountain Yarn Shop), to each and every LYS visited. We were excited to start the day on an excellent note by getting to see Crystal, who had worked so hard to make the event possible, up and moving around so soon after her surgery--and smiling! If that happened to make us a little late to the bus (OK, we were the last to scramble aboard), it was worth it. No one seemed too out of joint since we were able to give such a good report. Then we were off!

We hit Enka Middle School first, where Friends & Fiberworks had invited other vendors to a small retreat. Mom and I were delighted to see familiar faces from Sanford's Carolina Fiber Fest, Knitting Notions (from Nashville, TN). We nabbed these skeins of their own hand dyed classic merino lace, one in solid "Dark Rose" and four in "Roses 'n' Thyme":

We loaded back up and headed to Purl's Yarn Emporium, located on Wall Street in Asheville. That is a little magical, unique street in a magical, unique center of the city, but no place for a tour bus. We were dumped near enough and made our way across charming, if inconvenient, cobbles (I told you it was "magical, unique" and I meant it) to the store. This is what was outside:

There sock monkey pirates in the windows:

And sock monkey ninjas in the other window:

We hadn't even made it inside yet. You could say that Purl's is ground zero for this magical, unique little city tucked into the Blue Ridge Mountains. For knitters and crocheters, of course. 

I think we technically broke the bank before even getting to lunch. We left Purl's with the following:

That is Universal Yarn's Bamboo Bloom in Zen Garden, which should look familiar. Remember the Stitch n'Pitch? We received 2 free skeins of this! We had already planned to use it for a project, so this completes part of this "thick & thin" dress. 

Above is a triplet serving of Berroco's Remix in luscious "Merlot". It is soft and wonderful and made of 100% recycled fibers: 30% Nylon, 27% Cotton, 24% Acrylic, 10% Silk, 9% Linen. I plan these for Norah Gaughan's Valdai scarf / wrap (below). The pattern is free from Berroco. 

Norah Gaughan's Valdai design for Berroco. Copyright Berroco.

I picked out Malabrigo's Arroyo in purply-blue "Plomo," a superwash Merino:

...to make Norah Gaughan's Sturgeon (below). The pattern is in Berroco's Norah Gaughan, Vol. 13. 

Norah Gaughan's Sturgeon design for Berroco. Copyright Berroco.

Keeping with the Norah Gaughan theme (she is one of my favorite designers), I nabbed the Berroco pamphlet Norah Gaughan, Vol. 7 at Purl's, too. Berroco has produced 15 volumes of Gaughan's designs and I've only got numbers 7 and 13 (my top picks). Volume 15 was just released this year and is now at the top of my pattern wish list, followed by number 8. I love that she lets her own background study of biology and ongoing curiosity in natural shapes to influence her designs. She looks at the world with a rich imagination and then isn't afraid to play. The latest volume is full of chunky aran-like projects with lots of cables, which I especially love. I'll share with you another thing I love that Norah Gaughan does with Berroco: audio slideshows of each pamphlet. That link will also give you Berroco's other shows not designed by Gaughan, but her slideshows are in the list, too. I really like listening to the designer discuss their inspiration, and the surprises that popped up along the creative process, with another member of the Berroco team. 

Back to yesterday's shopping. We're not finished with Purl's! Mom picked out these two skeins of Malabrigo superwash Merino sock yarn in "Pocion," dark variegated blues and browns.

This may (or may not) become part of the "thick & thin" dress mentioned above. That will definitely be an experimental piece. 

Finally, she nabbed these skeins of Fibra Natura Good Earth, a blend of cotton and linen, in "Ivory" and "Gold":

The proprietors of Purl's sometimes drive from Asheville to join us for our monthly Smoky Mountain Kitting Guild membership meetings. They spread out a selection of their wares for sale. This is a great thing because many of us aren't able, or can't afford the cost of gas, to drive to Asheville, which is about 30 or more minutes out of town. Friends & Fiberworks will sometimes do this, too. Mom first purchased some of the Fibra Natura Good Earth from a selection that Purl's brought to a meeting. I don't think she's decided on what it will all become, but I'll let you know as soon as I find out.

That's it for the Purl's visit. We waited patiently through another leg of the bus tour, waited not so patiently through lunch--after all, the yarn shop was one brick wall away as we sat and placed our orders--enjoyed a fabulous lunch, and then descended upon the Black Mountain Yarn Shop for dessert.    It was mine and mom's first visit to the shop. They stocked Cascade along at least one wall and organized other yarns so that one whole half of the store gave the illusion of walking into a paint or crayon box, from one end of the color spectrum to the other. Interestingly, we left with only one color: grey. Not just any grey, though. This silvery grey color (#003) of Tahki Yarns Rosa:

We made up for color with quantity, obviously. It is a soft, blooming 100% cotton. Mom plans on making a sleeveless top with it. 

Last, but not least, we headed back west, and found The Knitting Diva at its new location in a new complex off of north Merrimon Avenue, Asheville. We were weary travelers welcomed with open arms by the staff, sunny open layout, and comfy seats of the shop. I was sad to fall in love with a very lonely ball of Berroco Boboli Lace in a color (#4395) which I just discovered is called "Tree Swing" (awwwww, how sweet). I immediately wanted to use it for the Bermuda Shawl as a gift for mom. When I first saw that shawl, a member of the guild had made it in lovely bright colors, but I immediately envisioned it as sand dunes and drift wood in earthy shades. This yarn fit the bill perfectly. But there was no way near enough of it. I brought it home with me anyway. It was lonely, you know. What else could I do? Oh. I did find it a friend. A little ball of Berroco Folio in #4505 ("Peak"). They were friendly with one another so they may become a joint project.

I also picked up a skein of Berroco Ultra Alpaca Fine in turquoise. It is going to be born into a second knitting of the Wedgewood scarf as a gift. 

Are you worn out yet? 

We're not done. Mom discovered this treat:

That is Queensland Collection's Uluru in #08. It has a barely-there core of silver and is a blend of cotton, acrylic, and polyester. It just is. There are no plans for it yet. So we bask in its beauty. 

After traveling all over western NC, fondling yarn, whispering and listening to fiber, chatting with fellow knitters, and standing (who knew there'd be so much standing when you spent hours in shops?) for 8 hours yesterday, I've now sat here and wrote, linked, and photographed my way through six hours today. I'm worn out. Knit and peace out.