Tag Archives: fiber

WIP Wednesdays: Back In The Saddle

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Oh my dear blog! How I have neglected you! I have a million excuses. First the business of Advent and Christmas…then the trip…then the exhaustion of getting back into the swing of working after such a nice break. Really, they don’t add up to a month and a half of silence. I had such plans. Ah, well. We shall begin anew with a WIP Wednesday post, just as we started in the beginning. A nice link up with the Yarn Along at Ginny’s will do us good.

The Hook

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A woman at my church recently started a business with two other women called Greater Northwest Fibershed. I really don’t know much about her business other than it involves alpaca fiber and fleece from local alpaca farmers and people (like me) to make things out of said fiber and fleece to sell. They provide the yarn, I make something pretty with really yummy alpaca yarn, give it back to them, and they pay me for my play…I mean…work. Anyway, what is on my hook currently is a test for the Fibershed. It’s a woven ribbon-like yarn that I think is alpaca and silk. You can kind of see it in the second picture. I’m making a simple cowl/neck warmer using a US-Q hook and single crochet. I don’t like the way it turned out, and it’s way too short, so I’m going to rip it out for the third time and try something different. I went crosswise. I think I’m going to go lengthwise instead. I do love the way the yarn looks in single crochet! If I work it right, each stitch is a different color.

The Book

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I’m soooooo excited! My friend, and favorite new writer, Laural got me hooked on Patrick Rothfuss’ Kingkiller Chronicle. I, along with the rest of his readers, am awaiting the release (heck, word that it’s done!) of the third book in the series with baited breath. In the mean time, he decided to tide us over with a tastey snack* in the form of The Slow Regard of Silent Things. The book is a spin off story of one of the characters we meet in his first two books. Her name is Auri. That, really, is all I will say other than if I were to ever have a white, female cat, I would name her Auri after this character. If you have never read the other books, anything I would tell you wouldn’t really make sense. You really should read them first. Patrick even says so. If you have read them, get your hands on this book!

*Auri’s story is a mere 159 pages vs. the last book which was 1,001!

The Needles

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Part of the Fibershed is also going to involve crafting things for charity, specifically the homeless in our community. They call it “Hands and Fleece.” Right now, they are collecting fingerless mitts to distribute to a local shelter and the Tent City currently residing at Seattle Pacific University. Again, they provides the fleece (a lovely, soft DK weight alpaca yarn in this case), and we (my church’s knitting group) are providing the hands. I knit one mitt single stranded, but that took forever and produced a rather thin mitt. My bff, Lisa, decided to knit them double stranded, and I followed suit. Much better! Thicker mitts, but not too thick, and I can crank them out much faster. I just cast on for the second mitt of my fourth pair. The yarn really is lovely. I love that hot pink! The cream yarn is local, handspun alpaca. I don’t know what weight it is, but it feels thicker than the other yarn. I’m excited to give it a go next.

And that concludes this first post in a long while. I hope I still have a few readers after that hiatus. I do still have plans.  😉

Have a great rest of your Wednesday!

~Janet

WIP Wednesday: A Pinwheel and A Confession

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Alas! ‘Tis Wednesday! The day set aside for Works In Progress to be revealed to the masses. The day designated for linking up with fellow crafters at yonder site known as “Small Things.” The day for reckoning just what I have and have not accomplished over the past seven days.

The Hook

Umm…

Not much progress on the Magnum Opus this week. I’ve been focused elsewhere. Loving Threads (my church knitting/crocheting/quilting group) is this Saturday, so I’m planning on bringing my afghan to work on. I’ll try to get some pictures this meeting and tell you a bit about our little group.

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The Book

Ha!

Book? Book? I know not this word.

In all seriousness, any reading I’ve done this week has really been in blogs. I’ve been catching up on the blogs in my blog roll, which I just remembered I need to actually create here.

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I’ve pretty much given up on reading Bonhoeffer. I’m just finding that I’m not all that interested right now. I think I liked the idea of reading it along with the book club, but, in reality, it started feeling more like an assignment than a choice. Weird, I know. I was like that in school, too. If it was my idea, I was all over it. But, if it was an assignment, it was drudgery. I’m sure this book will tickle my fancy at some point. Right now, I’m trying not to let these little feelings of guilt settle in for not reading it. I’ve been talking about not reading it for a month!

The Needles

Now here is where my focus has been!

I’ve been working on the Pinwheel Blanket that I mentioned last week, and I’m very nearly done. I worked the blanket until there were 30 stitches in each wedge section, and now I’m knitting a seed stitch ruffle as the edging. The ruffle is created by knitting into the front and back of every stitch, thus doubling the number of stitches. So, what was once a 300 stitch edge is now a 600 stitch edge! I had to switch to my 60 inch cable to accommodate all those stitches, and it feels like it takes an eon to knit a round.  I know the end result will be great, though, so it’s certainly worth it! I should be done by the weekend. I’m trying to beat Little One’s arrival.

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To give myself a bit of a break, and my thumb a rest from purling, I knitted up a quick little hat for Little One and started another. I don’t think I mentioned it in the last post, but Little One’s gender isn’t known, thus the “neutral” colors. I think the little red hat is rather Christmas-y, don’t you?

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I also got a few more rounds done on the sock in my purse while visiting my parents this past weekend.

I think that concludes my progress report for this week. What are you reading or working on? Join the Yarn Along, or tell me in the comments. I’d love to know!

Have a great Wednesday!

~Janet

WIP Wednesday: On My Hook, On My Needles, and In My Lap

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It’s time for my weekly link-up with Ginny over at Small Things.  I think this is my sixth Yarn Along post. I do really enjoy it. Each week it seems I discover a new blog or a new pattern I want to try. It seems my weeks just fly by! One would think that, as a single working woman, I would have more free time. I worked six nights last week, though, and “free time” wasn’t always “free.” That affected my crafting and reading time, of course.

Anyway, on with the post!

The Hook

This is starting to sound a little redundant, but I’m still working along on my afghan, or my “Magnum Opus” as I like to call it. I missed my challenge deadline of having 23 squares totally completed. No matter, I plan on working on it in earnest in the coming weeks. I would like to be able to use it this Winter, at least for a little while. I don’t have a new photo, but here’s a peek into that tote I mentioned a couple weeks ago.

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The Book

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I’m not sure why I keep taking pictures of Bonhoeffer when I haven’t touched all week. Maybe to remind myself to get on it! The next book club meeting is the 14th.

The “book” I did read this week was that voters’ pamphlet. Did you vote yesterday? To be perfectly honest, I didn’t care much about who was running in my area, but that didn’t stop me from doing my civic duty and voting. I won’t tell you how or for whom I voted. My political views are my own business. I’m actually not sure how the election went. There were a couple of initiatives I was particularly interested in, so I should at least check those out. The point is that I voted, and I hope you did, too, regardless of how.

The Needles

In case you missed it, I finished the monster I was knitting for Louise. Now I’ve moved on to knitting a baby blanket for a friend of a friend.

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Doesn’t look much like a blanket, does it? It’s a Pinwheel Baby Blanket. It is started with six stitches and is worked completely in the round, increasing every other row. You can see the radial yarn-over lines in the photo. It’s my favorite baby blanket to knit because it’s so easy and is different than a “normal” blanket. Because it is knit in the round, there is no purling until the edging and no flipping your work over to knit back and forth. Any yarn will work, and you just knit until it’s a size you like. The pattern is actually rather easy. Once you get beyond the beginning and use stitch markers, you don’t even have to think. Great TV or church knitting! (Yes, I knit in church. 😉 )

There are 10 radii forming 10 sections. Currently, I have 24 stitches per sectionsection for a total of 240 stitches. It’s about 24 inches across at this point. I only have one skein of this yarn (discontinued), but I think I can get it to 30 inches.

The Lap

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When I started this post, this was the view of my lap. Jasper in his favorite spot. He moved after I got a little too excited while watching the soccer (futbol/football) game that was on.

Now the game is over (Liverpool lost 😦 ), this post is done 😉 , and it’s bedtime for this night nurse. Well, as soon as I link up to the Yarn Along, that is.

Have a great rest of your day!

~Janet