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.

a petite homemaker

All that time I spent collecting and stashing household goodies… it has all led to this! Rich and I are now finally settling into our little apartment. My cupboards are full of green Pyrex and I don’t have to feel guilty about decorating the living room with wool.

While we were on our honeymoon, we stopped at several antique malls. I found some special things including this wonderful linen tablecloth. During some intense browsing, I came across a pile of linens, and just happened to pull this one out without knowing its special hidden secret. A wheel! Of course I couldn’t pass up something with a spinning wheel on it! When we got home I put it on the table immediately. An unexpected bonus: it’s inspiring me keep the table clean.

the perfect day

We’re married now, Mr. and Mrs. R. Richard Brown. Despite mediocre weather, the day was superb. The only hiccup was my slip – it kept rotating around under my dress, making the strap hang out. Otherwise everything went perfectly! We had a great group of friends come support us. We had delicious food, a positive atmosphere, and lots of fun. Thanks to everyone who helped with cookies. And thank you for showing us so much love!

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.

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.

less than a month now

The official countdown begins, although I’m not officially counting down. My grandmother sent up the cake-topper from her wedding over 50 years ago. I’m not sure I’ll be putting it at the top of my cupcake tower, but it will definitely be present.

The lady appears to be missing a bit of her chin.

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?

lone bobbin

Hasn’t been a fiber-filled summer, that’s for sure. I think I’ve been spinning once a month for the past 2-3 months. Rather shameful, I’d say. In fact, I’ve actually been spinning on my Ashford more than the Kromski since the latter was packed in its backpack since the beginning of July and the Ashford is sitting at Rich’s apartment.

I’ve finally unpacked the Sonata even though I’ll probably have to pack it up again pretty soon. It is a traveler after all. Anyway, I had purchased some funky wool at Pennsic – left overs from a yarn machine. Dyed it (also something I haven’t been doing much lately) and carded it. It ended up extremely lumpy, so I’m curious to see how it plies.

These are also my wedding colors. In fact, I have several skeins around the house that are blues and greens. hm.