What Housework?

Slightly obsessed lately

It's been over a week since my last post, one that was devoted entirely to knitting. And that's all I've got this time. That, and some spinning. If you've come here hoping to see Milo, you're going to be disappointed.

I have been knitting like crazy. A few days after starting the Neck-Down Hooded Tunic for Women by Diane Soucy (Ravelry link), I was this far:

Here's the deal: I wanted waist shaping in this puppy and despite my rush-rush nature, I forced myself to take this project off the needles a couple of times and try it on as I went. I hate to admit it, but even though such painstaking fussiness slows things down, it does help. The waist shaping went fine although, as usual I still have a bit too much fabric around my upper back/high waist. (Not enough to balance in the front, I know, I know.)

After a week, I have the body done:

I'm really enjoying the simplicity of this pattern. Unfortunately, it's giving me some reasons to be self-critical. For one thing, my knitting gauge and purling gauge have nothing in common, so the parts not worked entirely in the round have glaring horizontal stripes (top half of photo):

I decided to try the fancy sounding "Norwegian purl," which I've heard can help tighten up loose purl stitches. Mine just got even looser. I'm still contemplating using my thumb to hold the yarn on purl rows but so far I haven't gotten the hang of it.

Anyway, who cares about loose purl rows when one's hemline is rolling up like a window shade?

The edge (5 rows of garter) isn't rolling, but everything above that is. Tell me this will block out or I'm going to have to hang weights off the bottom of my sweater when I wear it.

I'm forging ahead with the sleeves and pretending everything is fine. For the record, I'm using The Shearer's Wool, which is a very rustic and firm yarn that fits exactly what I wanted for this sweater: functional, country, not too chi-chi. I like it.

Christmas is coming, and although I hadn't planned to do much gift knitting, I have a few things in the queue. For some crazy reason, I decided to spin up some yarn to make boot socks for my husband. Having a drum carder within easy reach inspires me to blend up any and all fibers I have lying around. Here you see, clockwise from the upper right, the following:

• Real Vermonter wool/alpaca roving (I found the last bit of this behind some boxes!)
• Nylon (for strength)
• Walnut-dyed Blue-Faced Leicester (not for sale because I forgot to strain this batch through cheesecloth and bits of walnut gunk got in parts of it)
• Mystery gray yarn (I've got a bunch, I love it, but I don't know what it is)

One pass through the carder looked like this:

After two passes:

I decided to quit at two because I was going to dye it anyway (although it looks quite lovely and toasted-marshmallow just like that). I wanted a dark, mostly blue/black with other colors in the final yarn.

Each batt dyed up looking like this:

My blue-black scheme ended up a lot more green/red than I had planned, but I'm not complaining. I couldn't resist predrafting little fiber nests while we played a family  board game the other night:

The difference between this and other spinning projects is I am planning on making this a 3-ply, my first attempt ever. Since my default spinning yarn single thickness is somewhere between worsted and tree-trunk, I've tried to make this a lot finer. I do want a heavy, possibly even bulky final yarn for big, wonking socks, but I'm not looking for ship's anchor rope. I'm not in love with the colors so far, but they should get pretty will blended up with three plies, I hope.

I have been kind of disciplined lately, as far as project monogamy goes. I only have the tunic on the needles right now, and I forced myself to finish up my last spinning project before starting this one.

If you recall, I recently succumbed to Drum Carder Fever and blended up some dyed silk, Romney, mystery wool, and black alpaca and turned this:

into this:

I have now turned that into this:

If I recall correctly, this is 5.5 ounces or so and is about 188 yards. It's extra special because it marks another attempt at double-drafting or American supported long draw or whatever-the-hell-it-is-that-is-not-my-usual-spinning and it came out pretty decently, I think.

I think you can see from the fuzziness that it's woolen, not worsted, spun. I was hoping to make thrummed mittens out of this and I still may, but I'm interested in making gloves now, so who knows?

Anyway, I've also got a baby shower next weekend and my brain is stuck on February Baby/Lady so I might try to whip out one of those this week (after dyeing the yarn for it!) and my 13 yo niece has requested a Juliet. I might abandon my sweater until the shower is over, but I'm okay with that.

Last, since it appears I don't ever go outside, take care of animals, or enjoy life beyond spinning and knitting anymore, there is this to share. A sweet new bag:

Megan (formerly blogging as the Knitting Philistine) has launched 1 0 0 % p h i l i s t i n e m a d e ,  where she sells linen and canvas tote bags, pillow covers, pincushions, and all kinds of other hand-sewn stuff. Megan has a very cool sense of color and pattern. Check her out.

We traded yarn for tote, and that reminds me that I've had a shop update you should know about. As usual, I recommend you join A Piece of Vermont Yarn & Fiber's mailing list so you can get timely updates with full photos. (I don't sell your address or anything, hell I barely know how it all works.) If you don't care to get connected or you're worried I'll steal your soul or something, just go to A Piece of Vermont Yarn & Fiber and poke around. I've recently put up new Homestead Aran superwash, Sugar Hill Lace, and some new undyed fiber and carded batts, including Stark Raving Red, hand-dyed, drum carded 100 percent Vermont alpaca:

I wish I could come up with more non-fiber, non-yarn news to share, but I just found out this morning that Thanksgiving is next week.

Boy, that came up on me quick.

February in November

Done!

No doubt, if you are a knitter, you are aware of the February Lady Sweater and its meteoric rise to fame in the past five months.

And, if you are on Ravelry, you are possibly one of the other 2,758 people who have made or are making one. That's up from about 2,200 when I started it five weeks ago.

I won't lie to you, it's not perfect. There is some poofiness around the armpits caused by the extra armhole depth I added after stopping the raglan increases. But I'm not complaining.

Love it.

Specs:
February Lady Sweater (adapted from the 1974 February Baby Sweater by Elizabeth Zimmerman, published in The Knitter's Almanac, a $7.95 gem) by flintknits
Yarn: Cascade 220
Size XS
Needles: Size 5
Remarks: Easy lace pattern even a YO failure can handle. Go for it.

Next up: Neck-Down Hooded Pullover by Diane Soucy, started yesterday. Pictures to come.

And also a teaser: What do you get when you drum card deliciously soft black Vermont alpaca with shimmery hand-dyed merino/bamboo top?

A lace-spinner's dream:

Available for sale Monday...

Why are these pumpkins smiling?

  

If they knew what was in store for them, they wouldn't be quite so cheerful. You see, these jack-o-lanterns(from my friend Christin) are about to meet their destiny. 

Hello, destiny.

  

  

  

The big pigs got some, too.

  

  

  

But it's not only the pigs who are reaping the benefits of post-Halloween treats. Look who's on the run.

  

  

  

  

  

Now, about Halloween. My daughter's skeleton costume was so uninspired, I won't bother to share photos. She got candy, that's all that mattered to her. And (insert sob here), I lost her new Celtic cable headband while we were out trick-or-treating. "It's fine," she assured me. "You can just whip up another one." Hm.

But I've been knitting. The February Lady Sweater nears completion. 

  

I'm on the second sleeve, but it's hard going. I am using 12" circulars and between my big hands and those short shafts, they are KILLING me hands and wrists.

  

They beat dpns as far as portability goes. And they beat magic loop because (a) there's less stopping and adjusting and (b) I didn't have any long circulars anyway. But man, my hands hurt. I wonder if Addis have a longer straight part.

Fortunately, this arrived:

  

My new Louet drum carder is here, and it gave me a chance to take a knitting break. I wasted no time throwing together something I thought would give me a nice gray mitten yarn. 

Clockwise from the top: gray mystery wool from my friend Donna, white Romney from my friend Jake, leftover bits of dyed silk/merino in pink and aqua (because that's all I had), and some black alpaca from Champlain Valley Alpacas. I wasn't sure if the silk would show or not but I thought it would add a little bit of sheen and softness and warmth and maybe a touch of color.

 

The result. Amazing how things combine, isn't it?

  

It's actually a bit pinker than I was hoping for, but I'm happy with the feel of it, and I carded up six ounces to be sure I'd have enough. I'm still working on my double-drafting (can someone tell me if this is the same as American, or supported, long draw?). I think it's easier with drum carded fiber than rolags, or maybe I'm getting better.

  

I still have a hard time controlling the thickness of the yarn, but I think the unnevenness makes it a bit more rustic. In a good way.

Now, about Milo.

Good cat:

  

Bad cat:

  

I finally caught in pictures (albeit long-exposure, before-dawn, no-flash photos) the kind of Jeckyll-and-Hyde mood swings that characterize this weird cat. In a span of less than 2 minutes, you can see for yourself the feral cat Milo transforming into contented pet Milo. Again, excuse the blurs.

6:17:18 a.m.:

 

(Note the rabbit-kick action in the next photo)  

  

  

  

  

  

  

 

6:18:59 a.m. Zzzzzzzzz.

The weather is rotten, but life is good

According to the National Weather Service, the imminent winter storm is going to pass to the west of us tonight, so instead we're getting rain, wind, and cold, which will briefly become snow and then go back. I'm knitting like a madwoman, and baking a lot, too, in the hopes that I can stave off the cold for another month or so.

Last week, my 39 brothers-in-law (okay, not quite that many) badgered me into making doughnuts, "like Mom used to make." I reminded them that I attempted to do just that exactly 16 years ago and I did such an un-Mom-like job (may her sainted doughnut-ness rest in peace) that I never heard the end of it and vowed I'd never try it again.

I tried it again. This time it worked.

I made a double batch (72, plus "holes"?). They didn't go stale.

And I've been urged to make them again this Friday morning. Drop in if you're in the neighborhood. There's plenty if you get here early enough.

As for baking, I started baking sandwich bread (3 loaves once a week) when I realized it would save us over $10 a week at the grocery store. I suspected my oven thermostat was messed up because the bottom of every loaf kept burning, even when I set the temp 25 degrees lower than called for. This week, an oven thermometer found something: When I set the oven to 350, it was baking at 410. Hmm. Until I get the thermostat replaced, I've been baking at 290 with excellent results. Go figure.

My husband did finally finish his homemade cider press, as I mentioned he might:

Unfortunately, we ran low on apples. We also need to re-vamp our apple grinder, to better prep the apples for pressing. In short, it went like this:

That's all she wrote:

2.5 gallons isn't much for a whole season, but it's pretty much in line with the rest of my year's bounty, which included 2 half-pints of raspberry jam, 3 carrots, no onions (my husband made a six-foot dirt pile over the onion patch), 2 meals' worth of peas, and 3 blueberries. We got a decent amount of corn and tomatoes, anyway.

So, knitting. I'm just finishing the body of my February Lady Sweater. (Last count on Ravelry: 2,567!) I am seeing this style and shape everywhere lately: garter yoke, lace body (or vice versa, sometimes), slight swing shape, closures only on the yoke, not down the placket, etc. I'd like to finish this before it goes out of style.

Then I want to move onto my planned Neck-Down Hooded Tunic (Knitting Pure & Simple), which is so basic, it's either never in style, or never out. I want something to keep me warm that I can wear year after year. It's not too much to ask.

I finished my daughter's glittens. I called them fingerless gloves but they're actually mittens that convert into fingerless gloves. I worked her initials in the design; that's not a designation for which hand each mitten goes on!

Mittens:

Fingerless gloves:

The pattern is Gloves + Mittens = Glittens! by nuttinbutknittin and the yarn is A Piece of Vermont "Bristol" Real Vermonter.

I really enjoyed this pattern. Rather than fingerless gloves with a mitten flap, this starts out as a complete mitten that you sort of slice open and insert gloves into. And I learned something important: glove fingers are fun to knit! Another groundless fear shot to hell.

The pattern was a bit time consuming as I was working it on a finer yarn than what is called for and two-color knitting is always a little slower for me. But how warm and wonderful! (I didn't block them yet; it shows, I know.)

But here's the real big excitement: I have just updated A Piece of Vermont Yarn & Fiber with a new yarn: Homestead Aran, a super-soft 100 percent Merino superwash in an Aran weight. Yum! I won't bore you with photos of all 8 colorways, as those of you on the APOV mailing list have already been through it, but I will at least show you how it knits up. This is the Blaze colorway (although incandescent lights do it no favors):

I started this Celtic Cable Neckwarmer by Storm Moon Knits on Sunday. It was almost finished by Sunday night; I just needed to do two or three more inches, add buttons, and I'd have a nice neckwarmer to go with both my winter coat and my maroon vest.

Then my daughter spoke up.

She loves hats and neckwarmers and headbands and she felt that if I closed it up into a circle, it would make her a good headband. How can a mother object to her child wanting warm ears?

I couldn't get a good photo of the little project thief, but you get the idea.

And when not in use as a headband, it makes a good neckwarmer after all.

My husband had to undergo a surprise medical procedure on Friday for an infection in his, well, let's just say he doesn't have to worry about the wound site ever getting sunburned. So that's been overshadowing life on the farm this week. But while he's been an invalid, Milo has taken advantage of the available warm lap.

Have a good week.

It's really fall now

In case you hadn't noticed, it's getting colder:

We've had two hard frosts and we are now enjoying classic fall weather. The foliage has been beyond spectacular and this weekend is just as colorful as the last one. I don't remember when we've had a more fabulous or long-lasting fall, in terms of color. I'm not even a tourist and even I took a bunch of pictures from the car the other day. Our neighbors' house:

The woods down the road from our house:

At the crossroads:

This is in our yard. The white of the birches against of blue of the sky, with the leaves and all. Well, I'm impressed.

The backyard early yesterday morning, complete with frosty ground and apple trees:

When the temperatures drop, a lot of this kind of thing appears at our house:

That's Semolina Bread, from Nick Malgieri's must-have book, How to Bake. It was okay but no better than any of the other breads I make from that book all the time. The semolina does give it a nice golden color, but no noticeable flavor. And it occurs to me that I have no idea what semolina even is.

Then, there are the nuts.

They are black walnuts, and they came from a tree in our yard. My husband and brother-in-law want to dry the nuts for eating. I wanted to dye fiber. We're both happy.

I read all kinds of things about the near-impossibility of getting the husks off the nuts. After hearing you could hit them with a hammer, or drive over them in your driveway, I chose to cut them open like an avocado: I used a paring knife to cut through the husk down to the hard shell in the middle, then made the cut all the way around the husk, then turned each half in opposite directions. I'm not sure why it was so easy for me. I was probably doing it wrong or have used the nuts too soon or too late. In any case, voila:

Here are the nuts, uncleaned and in their very hard shells, just before being set on a rack to dry for a couple of weeks:

And here are the empty husks, just before being boiled on the stove:

I didn't get any interim shots of the dark brown dye being simmered, cooled, or strained. But I did get a picture of the Blue-Faced Leicester top I dyed with the liquid:

Awesome. This was great fun, and I dyed two portions, one to keep and one to sell. I have plenty of dye left over so there may be more for sale. It's wonderful. Another view out of direct sunlight:

I was warned not to get any on my fingers because the dye is very permanent. I did okay except for my left thumb. It should disappear in a couple of months...

There has been knitting. I finished the first outside part of my daughter's fingerless gloves:

Palm:

That white line across the palm is temporary. Eventually, I'll take it out for the opening. I'll rib the top part and make glove fingers from the bottom part. It took me a looong week to finish this first one. Fortunately, I'm half done the second one and I didn't start it until yesterday. I don't know if I'm getting better at my stranded knitting or I'm feeling the pressure of the imminent winter. Must. Knit. Faster.

I felt I had to throw in some gratuitous animal photos, which always seem to make people happy. I don't have any of Milo, but if you just imagine a gray-and-white ball of fur being held down by my husband while I go in with tweezers and remove a tick or two each morning and night, you'll have the idea of Milo lately. He is a tick magnet. And he's beginning to hate the sight of tweezers.

Here's Sophie with her dad:

 

And piggies!

 

 

 

Cow-cows:

And poultry:

Today we picked the last of the apples from our very sparse trees. Next year, when the trees have recovered from their severe pruning, we should get more. We've got a few batches of applesauce and maybe a half-dozen bags of pie filling in the freezer. We got about 2 bushels today, maybe a bit less, which should be enough to make a few gallons of cider, presuming my husband finishes building the cider press today. That will be in its own post shortly. I hope.

I almost forgot there was a shop update a few days ago. Still available are some yummy Blue-Faced Leicester top:

Some bamboo-blend sock yarn:

And the new introduction in fabulous fall colors, Sugar Hill Lace yarn!

Not to keep harping on this, but there was more available a couple of days ago. If you want to get a chance at the stuff that sells out the fastest, I recommend you sign up for A Piece of Vermont's mailing list for early email notification. I don't sell your address or anything and you can un-sub any time.

Now, I'm going to sneak in a few more rows of knitting before my family notices I haven't been outside in a while.

Daisy hopes you enjoy what's left of your weekend...

 

October madness

"Hello, Well Enough? This is Jessie. I just can't leave you alone."

And there you have my progress on my daughter's fingerless gloves over the weekend. I promised her that starting Friday, I'd abandon my February Lady Sweater to whip up something for her little fingers. But I can't do things the easy way.

I found the perfect pattern on Ravelry (Rav photo link here), designed by Nuttinbutknittin. At first it appeared that it wouldn't work for my daughter's small hands, but then I found that my own "Bristol" Real Vermonter on size 3 needles did the trick perfectly. As far as I can tell, that's still the case.

Only I couldn't start Friday night, as we went to a football game. And Saturday morning I decided I needed to tweak the given colorwork pattern, so as to include my daughter's initials (one on each hand). Out came the pencil. And the eraser. And the pencil again, until I finally settled on a pattern I liked, thanks to much unsolicited but nonetheless valuable advice from my husband.  I consider myself the Creative One in our marriage, so it irked me that he seemed to have a better eye for colorwork patterning, but he did help.

I cast on Saturday afternoon. By Sunday morning it became clear that I had mis-charted some of the colors and left a motif off altogether. Back to the drawing board.

Last night I started the colorwork over and I'm quite pleased so far.

Granted, working mittens in two colors is a fiddly business. It seems just as I get settled with the pattern, a pencil, one yarn wrapped around my left fingers, the other wrapped around my right--the dog needs to come in, the phone rings, the poodle gets wrapped up in the yarn, or I sneeze.

But I persevere.

I would have done more yesterday, but there were Extenuating Circumstances, in the form of peak foliage and beautiful weather. To stay indoors would have been close to a criminal act, especially considering we're heading into a very dull, dark, and cold time of year.

So my daughter, her friend, and I went hiking in Salisbury, Vermont to see the Falls of Lana and walk up to Silver Lake. Some random photos:

Lake Dunmore:

Silver Lake:

It's a pity pictures can't capture the views very well, or the smell of the forest, the feel of the breeze, or the sound of trudging through fallen leaves. October is definitely my favorite month.

This week finds me hard at work dyeing, and you'll see results by Wednesday at the latest, including some bamboo-blend sock yarn in fall colors, some stunning peak-foliage BFL top, and even something new: laceweight yarn. Possibly more. I'm on a roll.

If your weather is as beautiful as ours is right now, I hope you have time time to get out and enjoy it. There will be plenty of knitting time soon enough...

Foliage break

We're heading into a classic Vermont autumn weekend, and I'm taking a small getaway. Unfortunately, I'm not actually going anywhere. I'm just taking a weekend off from the February Lady Sweater (on Ravelry here):

I'm making steady progress and all that, but the weather is about to turn sharply colder, and a lacy sweater is not really at the top of my list right now. I promised my daughter some fingerless gloves (not fingerless mittens; she wants the individual finger holes) and I decided I would devote this weekend, starting tonight, to making her a pair. We'll see how I do...

The February Lady sweater is interesting. Assuming you have been under a rock, knittingwise, the deal is that the pattern was originally a lovely baby sweater designed by Elizabeth Zimmerman. In June, Flint Knits reworked it "to fit a grown ass woman" and posted it on Ravelry, where it took off. When I cast on for it a couple of weeks ago, 2,013 people had it listed as a project. Three days ago, that number was 2,254. Today it's 2,282. I'm a sheep, but a very trendy one.

Anyway, I was at the local farmer's market last weekend, and damned if I didn't see a woman wearing one. I practically tackled her. Yes, lots of people are knitting them, but in Middlebury, Vermont? Her husband rolled his eyes as soon as we started gabbing about lace repeats in the arms and such and said, "Here we go." He and my daughter chatted while we gushed.

It was a lovely week, weatherwise. Yesterday, I accompanied my daughter's class west across Lake Champlain (via ferry) to Mt. Defiance, a Revolutionary War site that looks down on Fort Ticonderoga and also Mt. Independence, which her class hiked last fall.

The view doesn't suck.

This is the view looking east at Lake Champlain and Vermont and the Green Mountains in the background.

Although you may not be able to tell from the picture, Fort Ti is that gray thing just to the left of the cannon tip. (Try clicking on the picture.) Mt. Independence is on the point of land off to the right.

Fort Ti was built by the French and was a pivotal place in the 1700s, because at the time the lake was surrounded by virgin forest and the lake was about the only way to travel. It's sited at the point where the LaChute River (which starts at Lake George) flows into the Champlain; the mouth of the LaChute is there in the left foreground. The fort changed hands a lot during the Revolution, but it may be best known for one early morning in 1775, when Benedict Arnold, Ethan Allen, and the Green Mountain Boys surprised the French garrison there, and scored the first American victory of the Revolutionary War.

Here is a view of Lake Champlain looking south from Mt. Defiance.

.

The very steep (now paved) road that we hiked up yesterday was originally cleared in 1777 by 700 of British General Burgoyne's men, in 36 hours. They wanted a place from which to rain cannon fire down on Fort Ti, and the oxen that hauled the cannon couldn't get through the dense forest. The move was a good one, apparently, as it allowed the British to retake the fort until the end of the war.

Thirty-six hours is pretty quick to clear a road using hand tools, considering how long it takes today's road crews to get paving done. But then, the British army probably didn't have to follow union rules...

It's not quite peak foliage here yet, but the views were still beautiful, both at long range and close up.

This also marked the second day in two weeks that I have spent with my daughter's class. Last week, we hiked through the woods behind the school--to our house! Farm field trip, don't you know.

Anyway, despite all the chaperone time I've been putting in, I did update the shop a couple of days ago. If you are on the mailing list, you've seen all this. For the rest of you, here goes. I posted my favorite decadent-luxury spinning fiber: bombyx silk and merino top. Delicous.

Sea Glass:

Crime of Passion:

Monet's Bridge:

Monet's Bridge is actually 7.5 ounces (or a little more), whereas the others are just over 4 ounces. I may end up keeping 3.5 ounces of it for myself, but first I'll offer it up to the spinner who wants a somewhat larger project. It's the same stuff I photographed in process in my last post.

I also have yet another non-yarn, non-fiber offering: silver-wire jewelry. You remember way back when I bragged about the bracelet my friend Amy surprised me with? I asked her to make more jewelry for me to sell, and she did. Like this:

And this necklace:

And this necklace:

Amy bends almost all the wire herself, so even the beads that go through the wires are her own, not factory-made. Each piece is unique, all are lovely, and you can get more details by clicking on the links.

Life continues on the farm. Here's a shot of the trout having breakfast. I should have brought my camera out last night. They must have been hungry because the water looked like there was a piranha attack going on; sometimes the fish flip right up, almost completely out of the water. When a dozen of them are doing it at once, it's pretty fun to watch.

Milo injured a baby rabbit that my husband and brother-in-law tried to nurse back to health.

It didn't work, or I'd have pictures.

Rotten cat.

That's all for now. I've got merino/silk yarn and BFL top to dye today. And bamboo-blend sock yarn. Have a wonderful weekend.

Catch of the day

   

Remember how we stocked our pond with brown and brook trout?

We sampled a few brownies the other night. Don't get me wrong: I am totally squeamish about a lot of things, including fishing. I hate the idea of fish dying by suffocation or whatever slow method it is when they suffer and flop around and eventually croak.

So I wasn't thrilled when my husband brought a in pail of three little trout (in water) and left them on the counter, where at first they thrashed around and splashed water on me as I prepared dinner. When he finally agreed to put them on the porch, they kept flipping out of the water on to the floor. I'm not sure why he wouldn't put them out of their misery, or how one even does that, so, sadly, they faded away over the course of the next half-hour. I tried not to think about it.

Eventually I got over it.

  

They were delicious.

On a less barbaric note, I knit a sweater for my sister-in-law.

  

  

Unlike my husband's handspun sweater, this wasn't started last winter. I think I cast on around the end of August, did the sleeves and lower hem and then put it aside for a few weeks. These Lopi patterns (knit on 10.5 needles with Lamb's Pride Bulky) knit up amazingly fast. I started the body above the hem pattern on Sunday the 21st and finished the whole thing on Sunday the 28th.

As you can see in the picture (compare the cuff pattern to the same motif on the body), I had some indecision about which color to carry in my dominant hand, and it does matter:

  

But overall, carrying a different color in each hand does make for a nice, tangle-free knitting experience:

The only problem with this pattern is because of all the colors, there were 6 rows that had 3 colors all going at the same time, and I lack the third hand that would have made it manageable. 

But, hey: Two sweaters finished in the same week. It feels good.

I have now cast on for the February Lady sweater, even though I meant to start something heavier for outdoor wear, not some feminine, probably-not-even-flattering little diversion. But Carole made one for her daughter, and look how cute. I'm just finishing up the garter stitch section (and Carole, actually I have plenty of room for the third button):

 

What about A Piece of Vermont Yarn & Fiber? I have just updated the shop with some more Real Vermonter yarn. I was hoping to "stitch" several photos together to show a nice collage of all the colors available. But I didn't overlap my shots enough so it didn't work. Here's the lame manual version:

I am trying to keep up with wholesale orders and still keep going online. I have just dyed up some bombyx/merino top in three shades, which will be available next week along with some BFL top. Two batches are 4 ounces, but one batch is 7.7 (!) and I'm torn between selling it as is (for a beautiful handspun shawl, perhaps?) or keeping the extra 3.7 ounces for myself. I knew I was going to love it as soon as I started dyeing it, so I took pictures of it in progress.

After dye applied:

"Smooshed" and ready to steam:

 

Dried and gently pre-drafted:

 

Oh, yes, I'm going to have a hard time parting with that. It wants to be my future neck warmer.

One other note of interest to spinners: I'm about to buy a Louet drum carder, and I can get you a deal on one if you're in need of your own carder. Email me if you want the details.

Other than that, life continues at the farm, where my 14-month-old niece gets a skewed sense of what is normal:

 

Have a great weekend. I'm either going to work on the February Lady sweater or make mitten thrums, a la Hello Yarn. 

Green Eggs and Damn

It's like this.

We have these Araucana hens (they lay the greenish blue eggs) who have finally started laying. But I've only found 2 eggs in the nest box. My brother-in-law discovered their hiding place the other day:

Right there in the dirt, in the lower part of the shop barn (right under the dye studio, in fact). Damn chickens. There are disadvantages to free-ranging your chickens, that's all I'm saying. And I know for a fact that several of our other hens are hiding their eggs, too, but I'm not sure where.

We are such half-assed farmers. If we were serious, these girls would be incarcerated so we could have a decent supply of eggs in the fridge.

Damn chickens.

Knitting update: I have been knitting like a madwoman. I feel like I've been a prisoner of size 0 needles since I made the pledge to knit a pair of socks a month. I've thrown away the pledge (although I like it for summer) and have raced to needles that one can see with the naked eye.

My latest finished object: The Opus 2007 (ha) sheep-to-sweater project:

This is hardly my finest work. I stopped working on it last winter when it became clear that my yarn was going to run out. I couldn't bear to get it almost done and then have to give up, so I abandoned it instead. But it was taking up a lot of room in the knitting basket, so I decided to finish it for the husband's birthday on Friday.

I did.

As it turns out, I did have enough yarn to finish, but that was only because I resorted to using spare bits of sample yarns. The neck and shoulders are made with the super-chunky version, so they're huge. And I haven't blocked it yet, so maybe that will help with the bulging in the upper back.

If you want a trip down memory lane to see how this project began, you can check out the original brown fleece (the darker part of the ragg wool) in this post from September 2006(!). The carded fleece, in both brown and white, the white being from our own J.J., makes its appearance in a post from August 1, 2007. Most of the spinning took place late this winter. Then came the dyeing. And, after a few false starts I got knitting soon after that.

The sweater was based on the Seamless Hybrid pattern (Ravelry link here) by Elizabeth Zimmerman in Knitting Without Tears. I love the freedom of making a sweater with just a general idea of shaping, based on percentages of the body stitches. I just wish I hadn't taken such sloppy notes and put the project away for so many months. When I got around to finishing it last week, I was so panicked watching my yarn slip away without knowing if I'd have enough, I completely lost track of the big picture. If I do a similar sweater again, which I probably will, I'll make sure I have more yarn so I can concentrate more on the details. I'd also go with the shirt-yoke back, in