Fiber Dreams

You’ve probably all heard about the deluge of rain California has been hit with recently. Rain wasn’t the only thing we got. At higher elevations there was also snow.

While we obviously got a lot of rain, for the most part our neighborhood came through just fine. There were some very small areas were a little dirt trickled down, but unlike the new people on the hill above us, most people make sure there’s some vegetation on their hilly yards to help hold them in place. These (expletive deleted) people removed every tree, every shrub, every scrap of anything green and living from their downhill slope two months before the winter rains were due to hit. What were they thinking? A significant amount of their topsoil ended up in the street below their house, which also happens to be right in front of my house. It wasn’t so much soil that it blocked the road, but it certainly narrowed it quite a bit, and made getting in and out of my driveway… interesting. The next non-rain day they had people come and remove some of it, but still. Wouldn’t it be better to have some plants, and keep that hard-to-come-by topsoil in their yard in the first place?

The day most of their topsoil slid into the street was a day when it seemed that someone with an impossibly huge bucket of water dumped it on the county. I was out in it. I never let a little rain slow me down, so I was out running errands. It was truly amazing how hard the rain came down for a little bit there. There’s a small back street that wanders through a neighborhood that I take to go to the local post office branch. It wasn’t a street that day. It was a river. Seriously. There was so much water that it was level with the sidewalks when I went through, and it was all flowing like a river toward the drains, and draining away. Thank goodness the drains were open, and not clogged with debris as they sometimes are. It made navigating the street interesting, though, I’ll tell you that.

Anyway, other than a new leak in one of the upstairs rooms—Dave thinks it’s coming in around one of the roof jacks where the sealant is letting loose a bit—and another in the garage—he hasn’t found that one yet—we seem to have come through it all just fine. Whew. What a ride.

What about the knitting you say? Yes, I have been knitting. I knit a sweet little thing that I can’t tell you about yet, and a bunch of swatches. I’m planning another project that I can’t tell you about, and while all that’s been going on I’ve been plugging away at Wanida from Cookie A’s book, Sock Innovation. I’ve finally turned the heel on the second sock. The gussets are nearly done. Soon it will be that seemingly endless straightaway before the toe decreases start.

I also cast on for another pair of socks recently. This project I can tell you about. The yarn is a merino sock yarn from Lush Yarn down in Australia. They contacted me a couple months ago about doing a special project for them, and sent up some yarn. This is the one that didn’t go into the special project. I’ve been looking forward to knitting with it ever since it arrived on my doorstep.

You’re probably wondering about me a bit. I don’t normally go for anything remotely yellow. First I knit up Domus Aurea in that luscious silk from Claudia Hand Painted Yarns, and now this. Okay. Caught. No, I don’t go for yellow, but one of its biggest drawbacks for me is how horrible I look in it. Really disgusting. So I never, ever choose yellow. But when it ends up on my doorstep, and it’s a glorious hand-dyed yarn with a beautiful hand? What’s a knitter to do? I ask you.

I’ll tell you: knit with it.

So far I’m definitely enjoying knitting this pattern, in no small part because of how lovely this yarn is, but also because the stitch is pleasing. I’m just not sure if it’s good for a sock. Any thoughts? I’m not sure, either. I’m still plugging away at it. Perhaps it will be easier to tell when it’s a bit bigger.

Have you noticed my little Fiber Dreams buttons on the sock pictures? I got a button making machine earlier this month, and made a bunch of these little guys. Are you going to Stitches West in Santa Clara at the end of February? I am. I’ll take my buttons with me. Tell you what. If you see me there and ask for a button, I’ll give you one. Offer limited to supply on hand—I have about 30 of them—and all that jazz. They’re small, only about 1¼ inches, so they’ll fit nicely on your badge holder. Hint, hint. Plus, my url is on them, so you’ll be able to find my patterns later. Hint, hint. Nudge, nudge.

There’s so much to catch you up on, I don’t even know where to start. I’ve been knitting like a mad woman, designing new things, printing and stuffing patterns into sleeves, and shipping them off to my distributor, labeling blocking wire tubes and getting them shipped out (I’m currently behind by about 300 labels), coordinating a test knitting project, and on and on and on.

Earlier this month Dave and I went to TNNA in Long Beach. I love having Dave with me at these conferences. Unlike me, he has no qualms at all about walking up to people, introducing ourselves, and asking questions. It’s fabulous. Though that part of Long Beach is only about 30 miles from here, we opted to stay at the hotel on site. We’re so glad we did. We had late nights and early mornings, and would have at best been zombies on the days in between if we’d stayed at home. I don’t even want to think about what could have happened in traffic or during a late night trip home. No. It was crazy expensive, but worth it in the end.

I had knitted samples in three booths this time, and don’t have a picture of a single one. I had a number of things in Bryson Distributing’s booth, of course, since he’s my distributor now. I also had a shawl in Fibre Isle’s booth, Sevilla. Silvie loved my design almost as much as I enjoyed knitting with her Kami Bison yarn, so having the shawl in her booth was wonderful for both of us.

The real surprise was that my sweater, Denim Lace Tunic, was one of only two samples hanging in Love of Knitting’s booth. My sweater was evidently quite a hit with the magazine’s staff. It was fun seeing it on display. They didn’t tell me beforehand that it was gong to be there, so it was a complete surprise.

While at the conference we went to the AKD panel discussion, Yarn Group and Designer/Teacher Group meetings, and the TNNA general meeting. We learned all kinds of new stuff. And we met people. Lots of people. Talked to tons of folks. We finally got to meet Julia from Patternfish. She’s a delight. It was a blast meeting Marly of Yarn Thing the first night. I think we must have run into her half a dozen times every day after that. It seemed that every time we turned around the Ravelry group (Casey, Jess, Mary-Heather, and Sarah) was there. It got to be pretty funny after a while. We also spent a bit of time in the Bryson booth, mostly meeting and starting to get to know the staff who were there, as well as some of the other designers whose work he carries.

I got yarn to play with. Some really luscious yarn. I don’t know what’s going to come of all of it yet, some might end up being involved with secret projects, so I’m not going to tell you what all I got. Know that it’s all gorgeous, some quite special, and all wonderful. And soft. Oh-so soft.

Back home again, the testing of Gloriosa, my first cardigan pattern, is progressing. Not quickly, not without its bumps (all my fault), but it is progressing. Let’s just say that my test knitters this go ’round have been very patient with me. There are a lot of people who wouldn’t agree, but I find grading sweater patterns to be a lot more difficult than anything to do with designing lace shawls. The pitfalls are seemingly endless. We’re slowly making our way through them, so with any luck at all it won’t be too much longer before the pattern is ready for the general public.

A shawl design that I came up with late last year is now done with test knitting, goof-catching, and photography sessions. I hope to get it out later today. More about that little project then. I’ll leave you with this progress picture of it.

Dave came in a moment ago. We’ve been promising each other an outing to see Avatar. We’re finally going to go do that today. We plan on catching the noon showing. See you there.

Edited to add stuff!
There were two things I forgot to tell you, so I’m updating this post to add them while I’m thinking of it. First, I need volunteers to test knit a garter stitch baby blanket for me. The blanket is knit in panels that are attached to each other as they are knit—no seaming! Except for the border, the rows are short and knit up quickly. I found it to be a rather addictive knit. Here are some photos of it. The finished baby blanket isn’t very large, only about a yard in each direction. The pattern is based on a quilt block, like Pinwheel is. If you want to volunteer to test knit this pattern, please contact me for details.

The second thing I forgot to tell you is that there’s going to be a knit along for my Pacific Islands pattern on Ravelry. If you’ve been on the fence about knitting this one, now is the perfect time to start planning. The KAL start date is February 12, 2010, to coincide with Ravelympics. If you’re participating in Ravelympics, this could be the perfect project for you. Non-Ravelympians don’t have to worry. There’s no specific end date for this KAL.

Here I go again. Another boring blog post after a long absence, and promises of near future real blog posts. My intentions are good. Events are conspiring against me. Continue to keep your fingers crossed. There’s still hope.

In the meantime, I have another pattern out there in the world that I want to share with you. I had what I thought was a lovely named picked out for it, but the magazine, Love of Knitting, had something boring in mind: Denim Lace Tunic. <-- Go visit my pattern page for more photos.

But, exciting name or a boring one, the pattern combines my two knitting loves—cables and lace—and can be found in the Love of Knitting’s Spring 2010 issue. The totally cool thing? My model tunic was displayed in the Love of Knitting booth at TNNA this month. I didn’t know it was going to be there. I sort of wondered if it might be, since I hadn’t received the sweater back yet, but no one said a thing, so I didn’t know. Know what I mean? I was at the show, walking down an aisle with Dave, rounded a corner, and there it was, hanging on a hanger next to only one other garment, and under big signs showing previous issue’s covers on the back wall of their booth. Squee!

I do truly hope to be able to get back to at least shorter gaps between blog posts soon, and posts with a little juicier information in them. I’d even continue right now, I have so much to tell you, but I’m freezing. In spite of wool socks and felted wool slippers my feet are so cold the goosebumps are traveling up to my thighs, and my hands are so cold that typing is… interesting. Besides, it’s after 11 pm, and I have knitting to do, an episode of the Tudors to watch, and a cuddly afghan to curl up under. So, more will have to wait. Hang in there. I’ll be back. I promise!

I originally designed and released the Tilia shawl (here on Ravelry) pattern in collaboration with Dee of Posh Yarn using her Diana lace weight yarn (50% silk, 50% merino = yum!). She distributed it as a limited edition kit, which sold out almost immediately. The period of exclusivity is now over, and the pattern is available for individual sale. You can get it online at Patternfish. The printed patterns will start trickling into shops across the U.S. sometime about the middle of January or so, so be sure to look for them there, too. The shawl is knit from the bottom up, starting with a huge cast on, and decreasing to the top where a handful of stitches are grafted together to finish it up. The pattern includes oodles of nupps, but those can either be left out or replaced with beads (instructions for the bead option not included).

I know. I’ve been one of the world’s most pathetic bloggers lately. I have tons to tell you, lots of photos to share, all sorts of things to write about… and no time to do it in. I’m hoping to have more time after recovering from next weekend’s TNNA convention in Long Beach. If you’re going to be there, please let me know. Maybe we can hook up!

KALs

If you’re on Ravelry already, and want to participate in a KAL for one of my lace patterns, be sure to come and vote for your favorite. Voting will be closing after I get back from TNNA, so that everyone has time to get yarn and needles, and be ready to cast on in early February.

Also, if you wanted to participate in the Basket Whip cowl KAL, but were too busy with holiday knitting in December, never fear. The KAL is still going strong. We’re currently at 357 members and 151 projects, and going strong.

I’ve been a bad, bad blogger. But then, I’m quite sure you’ve noticed this. Life has been more than a little out of control of late. I’m here this time just for a very quick update. I have a new pattern release to report. This time it’s a freebie. About this time last year I discussed doing a pattern for Classic Elite Yarns’ web-letter. Things got in the way of a quick release. Honestly, if it wasn’t one thing it was another. We all finally got our ducks in a row, however, and the pattern is out! Classic Elite added a bit to my simple pattern name, and released it as Fresco Basket Whip Cowl, as last week’s free pattern. I don’t know about the people who aren’t on Ravelry, but of those that are quite a few have already marked this pattern as a favorite, and put it in their queue to knit up.

On Wednesday morning, my good friend Denise (sadly blogless) talked me into sponsoring a KAL for this pattern. If you’re on Ravelry, please join us for the Basket Whip KAL. If you’re not on Ravelry, please join so that you can knit along with the group! The official start date is December 1, 2009, but one person has already finished her first cowl, and many others won’t be starting until after their Christmas knitting is done, so there’s plenty of time to get in on the action.

If you’re interested, I have more pictures of Basket Whip on my web site. Also, if the pattern seems vaguely familiar that’s because it is! I used the same stitch for three other patterns, which I have begun referring to as my West Coast Swing Collection: Flying Lindy (socks), Sugar Push (fingerless mitts), and Syncopation (shell).

I went out for a quick walk this morning, and saw a very odd fungus along the side of the footpath I was taking. When I returned to our room, I googled “orange white toadstools oregon -golf -fish -pumpkin” and found it! The fungus I found is called Amanita muscaria. It likes to be around trees, is poisonous, and has certain psychedelic properties. It sounds like most of the poisonings are accidental, when small children eat them. Personally, I can’t imagine wanting to put that thing in my mouth! The second photo is of a nearly adult version of the same thing that I found when I wandered back into the trees a little bit. It’s not quite as strange looking when it’s closer to full size. At least, I don’t think so.

I turned around after taking the pictures of the fungus, and saw a gorgeous rainbow over the water. I just love being here. Not ten minutes before it was raining enough to chase me indoors.

On Saturday I had a grand time meeting with the ladies at the Ravelry meet-up at The Wool Company here in Bandon. They graciously allowed me to join them. I actually remembered to get a picture of my Garden Party pattern in the shop. Geri, one of the shop owners, disappeared when she saw me take out my camera. What she probably doesn’t realize is that I caught her anyway. That’s her in the back of the photo at the other side of the shop.

One other thing happened recently that I haven’t blogged about yet. For the first time ever, one of my patterns is in a magazine! Get yourselves off to your LYS, newsstand, or bookstore, and get a copy of the winter 2009/holiday edition of Love of Knitting, and knit up my Aventine scarf. It’s a quick little lacy knit that I designed with Malabrigo Sock. Yum!

Edited to add: I finally got a copy (well, 3 of them) of this issue of Love of Knitting. I love the photo they took. Plus, it’s so fun to see my name and my pattern in a magazine! The editor even mentioned my design in From the Editor. Sweet. There’s a bit of a problem, though. Somehow a bit was dropped somewhere, and the same symbol was used on the chart for a purl stitch and for a k2tog. I put errata in my pattern shop.

Love the sound of those storm-tossed waves hitting the beach and rocks. A storm at sea when I’m safely onshore is one of the best things in life. Having fun watching the rains come and go, the sun shine and the winds blow. I just love this stuff. Boy, do I live in the wrong part of the world.

One of the best things about having a digital camera and Photoshop is being able to take a full color picture that’s really pretty nice, into a black and white one that’s something special with the click of a button.

I have pictures up in my gallery of coastal highlights so far. There’s another experiment in black and white conversion in the gallery. Also a few of the two places we’ve stayed so far: Itty Bitty Inn in North Bend, and Table Rock Motel in Bandon.

I designed Birches for Woolgirl’s October 2009 Sock of the Month Club using yummy sock yarn from Pigeonroof Studios that was dyed specially for this project. It won’t be available for individual purchase until July 1, 2010. I’ll let you know when it is available, so you non-sock club members will be able to get your own copy of it.

Here are the stats:

• Pattern: Birches, of my own devising.
• Yarn: Pigeonroof Studios superwash merino original sock in Winter Birch.
• Needles: Size 1 (2.25 mm).
• Crochet hook: US 13 (.85 mm), or size to fit through bead—used for applying optional beads.
• Finished size: small, medium, large
• Notes: Sock is knit from the toe up. Beads or nupps are added optionally on the cuff. Stitch pattern is both written and charted.

The first two days of this week were fun, fun, fun. Monday we went into San Francisco with Mom, and spent a good chunk of the day at the new California Academy of Sciences. This is an incredible new structure that completely replaces the old Steinhart Aquarium building, designed with the ecology firmly in mind (I wrote more last September).

We went to the new aquarium (the clown trigger is still one of my all-time favorite reef fish), saw the dive show featuring Diver Rick, looked at the rare white alligator (yes, he’s real, though he looks to be made of plastic until he moves)—they still have the original seahorse railing around his pen!, saw the show at the planetarium, walked through the rain forest, and went up on the roof. We could have been there at least two days longer—there was so very much to see—but we had to dash across town for an early dinner at Sinbad’s with my aunt and uncle. Sinbad’s is one of my all-time favorite seafood restaurants in the City. It’s on Pier 2, right next to the Ferry Building, and has a commanding view of the bay and the Bay Bridge, fabulous service, and wonderful food. Yum. We had a lovely meal, and an even nicer visit, while ships came and went, cars crossed the bridge, and the sun went down, lighting the sky and water with brilliant reds. Happy sigh.

The next day, Tuesday, Dave and I got up early, and went back across the bay and back to Golden Gate Park, to see the King Tut exhibit at the de Young across the plaza from where we’d spent the day Monday. As with most major exhibits, cameras weren’t allowed inside, so I don’t have any pictures to show you of that amazing exhibit. You’ll just have to go and see for yourself how incredible this collection is. And it is. It’s truly worth the time and effort to go see it, especially if you’re going to be in San Francisco anyway. After coming out of the Tut exhibit, we went directly to the car to get our cameras for the rest of our visit. Back inside and up in the tower, the new de Young has quite the view: 360° of stunning San Francisco vistas. One of my favorites is of the building across the way that now houses Steinhart, the rain forest, and all that wonderful stuff. You get a really good view of the shape of the living roof from here.

After having some lunch we continued our tour of the museum. We started with the large exhibit from Africa. Wow. Some really amazing stuff there. Toward the end, though, we hurried through it. We got full of seeing masks, costumes, and other things made with human skulls and other bones. Ick. The de Young currently houses quite a few paintings, statues, the sort of things that you’d normally expect in a museum. I loved this statue of a woman. Neither of us found anything at all that mentioned what it is, who she was, or who carved her. Anyone know? Then we saw this cathedral. It was designed with elements from a number of Europe’s cathedrals, and it’s made of parts of guns. Yes, guns. More than 200 guns, and 2,000 rounds of ammunition were used to build it. It’s beautiful, interesting, fascinating, and chilling all at the same time.

After leaving the museum, we decided to try to find one of San Francisco’s hidden gems that we’d found out about while having breakfast at Mel’s on Geary that morning. It’s the Columbarium, built in 1898 and lucky to survive the 1906 earthquake, it is one of the finest pieces of architecture around. It took some doing, and a fair amount of driving in circles, but we found it. It was well worth the effort. From the architecture to the stained glass and mosaic floors, it’s a feast for the eyes, plus it’s still in use.

Staying the extra hour to tour the grounds and all four floors of the Columbarium put us in the midst of rush hour traffic for the trip home, but we made it across the bridge before it had its troubles on the upper deck later that evening. Thank goodness! We were quite relieved to hear that no one was hurt.

It’s done! It’s finally done! Woohoo! I swear, I think I ripped out the pieces of this sweater and re-knit them more times than anything else I’ve ever knit. Honestly, except for the back, which was only knit twice, each piece was knit at least four or five times. Some of the ripping back and restarting was design-related—I’d try out an idea, it didn’t work, so I ripped it out. But the rest? Bad knitter on needles. I swear. Sometimes I can’t measure to save my life, much less follow even my own instructions. For instance, I knit only one inch of ribbing on the left front, instead of the two inches of ribbing that was supposed to be there. I didn’t see this glaring error until I tried to seam that side of the sweater. After knitting the button bands, after knitting the collar, after attaching the sleeve. Yeah. Misery. I had to take all that out, tear out the shoulder seam, too, rip back the whole front down to the ribbing, and re-knit that piece. Again.

You can bet that I made extra careful measurements to ensure that I had two inches of ribbing before starting the stitch pattern. Arg.

Through all of that, the yarn behaved very well. Beautifully, in fact. It never complained, never frayed, never pilled or got thin and icky. It still looks fabulous.

And now, finally, after all of that, it’s blocking.

Not only is it blocking, but I have the perfect, absolutely perfect buttons for it in my stash. I dragged Dave into Brytex Fabrics in San Francisco once, years ago, led him straight to the top floor of the building (now it’s on the third floor), and showed him their button collection. It’s an awe inspiring button collection. If you ever need a button, or think you might some day need a button, and you’re in the area, go. Go to Brytex. It’s an awesome store. It’s been there in the same building for about forever. My grandmother used to shop there for fabric. And buttons. Anyway, we were there, I found some buttons for something I had made, and saw these wonderful leather buttons near the register. On close-out. I bought ten of each of two sizes in brown, plus ten lovely small dark green ones. The larger of the brown ones are perfect, utterly perfect for this sweater. I’ll sew them on as soon as the sweater is dry.

Now that the sweater is done, I can concentrate on the blue floral shawl again. Guess what I did to it after knitting one row last night. Yeah. I ripped it out. It’s too wide for its height. Back to the drawing board… You know, it’s a good thing I like to knit!