sweaters

little ones. without arm holes.

well, that might not be entirely accurate. they do have spout holes.

For no particular reason I became inspired to get working on my teapot sweaters this week. Of five pots, two are now cozy. And the great thing about it? They neither take a lot of time nor yarn. I just might get all five done before December 5.

must. make. mittens.

I did it AGAIN. Yes, AGAIN. I waited until the last minute to beef up my stash of mittens for the Holiday Craft Show. Can we just pretend that planning that wedding took up all my free time?

For the sale this year, I’m not doing any neckwarmers. They were too confusing for most people. In place of those, I was hoping to get some tea cozies made, with the pot included. However, I have pots but no cozies. We’ll see how that ends up…

Another change to the status quo is the type of yarn I’m using. The first few years I purchased white commercial yarns and dyed them before knitting simple ribbed mitts. Gradually, I’ve incorporated handspun yarns and different styles of mittens. This year I don’t have any of that first style of mitt and most are made of handspun. I will also be using some undyed fiber and recycled sweater yarn.

And here are some of my most recent pairs of mitts. The middle pair was knit two at time and finished in one day! I’m excited about that accomplishment.

tom’s favorite mitts.

Apparently Thomas has a favorite pair of fingerless mittens.

It began when I left a pair in progress on the couch and came back to find him using the ball of yarn as a pillow. He had been resting his chin between both balls, but then adjusted to favor the blue-green one.

Then, after I had finished knitting the pair, I brought out the stool to take photos. He joined me.

Or perhaps he just wanted to look out the window.

questioning.

I’ll be the first to admit that I’m not very creative when it comes to writing my own patterns. For mittens, I don’t really need a pattern because I’ve made so many pairs that I have an idea of the stitches to cast on and when to increase, but they aren’t very interesting. They are just mittens. So I can’t claim with any amount of pride that “this is MY pattern”.  In fact, I don’t even know what to do to make them unique or special. Your hand goes in, there is a thumb hole, your fingers come out the top. I suppose using a stitch pattern of some sort would add a bit of intrigue, but the basic structure is the same. My brain just doesn’t think outside the box.

But another reason I have difficulty either claiming a pattern as “mine” or even attempting to write my own is because there are so many out there already.

• How does one determine that a pattern has become theirs?
• What if you start with a written pattern and make modifications?
• At what point is it a new pattern?
• What if two people simultaneously write patterns that are so close they are indistinguishable?
• Or you start with something like Ann Budd’s basics book to get an idea of the number of stitches to cast on, but from there you just wander off?

These questions stress me out. Whenever I do knit something that doesn’t really follow a pattern, I neither write it down nor share it because it looks so basic and average that I figure someone else must have already written it. I bring this up because someone asked if the Green Circles hat that I made a few weeks ago was an Ann Budd pattern. Well, I cast-on her recommended stitches (actually for a cap, not a tam), but I didn’t follow anything else. In fact, the hat didn’t even turn out how I wanted it. So am I wrong for not saying it is HER pattern? None of her hats look like that – at least to me.

I’d appreciate any thoughtful comments on the subject.

Thank you.

alpaca: beyond samples

The past few weeks I’ve been trying to spin alpaca yarns to show at the farm day event that occurred last weekend. Overall it went well, except for the completely dreary weather on Saturday. Sunday morning we had a birth right at the farm. One of the momma alpacas had a little girl. She had gotten up yet when I left later that day so I’m hoping she’s doing better.

I orchestrated a swap with one of the alpaca owners. She wanted some dyed fiber spun into yarn, so I took that and a big pile of natural colors to spin for myself. My plans for it include mittens for the Christmas show. I think folks will respond to “Handspun Alpaca in Natural Colors” especially since I have some black (close enough anyway). Everyone is always asking about black. Not going to do that!! Plus it’s really boring, but if it’s a natural color fiber I don’t mind so much.

Also, I used the left-over yarns from the green striped hat to make a pair of fingerless mitts for myself. I think I’ve always wanted a matching set, so now I’ll have one! Green and white stripes with brown coat – it should work. Although I’ve never been concerned about matching in the past, so really it doesn’t matter.

We’re finally meeting with the caterer tonight. What’s on the menu? I have no idea!

alpaca samples: hat for me!

finished this hat yesterday. consists of a natural alpaca/merino blend and a green alpaca yarn. with left-overs, i will knit a pair of matching mittens.

for some reason i tend to look a bit on the annoyed side in my photos. i felt relaxed when i was taking them.

alpaca samples: tiny hat

Continuing with the alpaca theme, I made a small beret with the left-over yarn from the fingerless mitts. Unfortunately I am incredibly bad at guessing how much yarn it will take to finish a project. Therefore, I ended up with a very tiny hat that doesn’t quite fit any of my stuffed animals. Too small for Flick and slightly too big for this other little monkey.

And guess what? I still have yarn left over from that ball!

alpaca samples

Last summer I realized that, when conducting a demo at an alpaca farm, it is a good idea to have samples made from alpaca fiber. Otherwise you are continually correcting people and saying, “no, actually this is all sheep’s wool.”

The plan to create more alpaca samples got under way… this week!! When is the demo?? In three weeks!! Am I awesome at getting things done ahead of time? NO. Did I do this last-minute scramble all through high school and college? YES.

After scouring my stash, I discovered many more bunches and balls of alpaca fiber than I thought I had. I also found one ball of spun yarn to get some knitting going too. That was turned into a pair of fingerless mitts (I can sell them in December too! Even I’m impressed!) and the remains I’m hoping to be able to make into a tiny beret.

These three skeins are brand new this week. From left, we have a very heavy skein of grey alpaca spun and navajo-plied. It’s actually rather scratchy and unpleasant. I purchased it as combed top. Next to that is a cream-colored skein that I spun from locks, which may have been unwashed. The floor was quite dusty afterward. I like to spin alpaca messy since I don’t think people do that very often. And finally is a pinkish-grey bulky weight skein. This one is very soft, spun from a mound of fluff. Not exactly sure how it was processed. The locks were not distinguishable, so maybe something like a batt?

Must keep going! What else is good to make for samples?

flip-top mitts

Every year I sell fingerless mittens at Christmas, people always ask about those convertible flip-top type. They go from fingerless to full mittens – BAM! And I always say, “yes, I should do that! Maybe next year.” A year goes by, nothing happens. I don’t think about mittens in July. Well, I didn’t really think that much about mitts this summer either, but I decided to try the flip-top mitts anyway. It was interesting. For next time I need to make the edges overlap just a wee bit more. Buttons and loops to secure the flap, and we’ll be done! Except I have to make the other one to match. That’s the hardest part!

pink pouch!

Three years ago I met Lydia primarily because her daughter, the Wee E, crawled into our camp at Pennsic. Happily, we’ve become really great friends. However, we only get to visit for two weeks once a year. I can say with confidence that she has made my Pennsic experience so much better! Well, last year Eleanore had a lovely pink cloak and pink gillies. So when I dyed and spun a skein of pink yarn, I had to name it in her honor. The yarn was spun bulky weight (4 WPI) from combed Romney top. I was really happy with that skein and listed it in the shop for a long time, but no one purchased it.

Then I found out that Lydia had been wanting it! I brought it out with me when I came back for the second week. She asked if I’d knit something for her, so I made this little woolly pouch. Success! I’m glad to know it has a happy home, plus it’s the most productive thing I did the entire week!