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We have a strange cat. Her name is Whisper, and we don't know how old she is, except to say "very old." She has had radiation treatment for a hyperactive thyroid, has had many of her teeth pulled, and is a cranky little creature. But she loves CJ's poncho.  And, I've noticed that my basil planting has looked quite pitiful all summer, never growing much.  Apparently the cat like to sleep on it. Aha!  For knitting content... I'm in the home stretch on the Mona Socks, finally. I love this pattern but these have gone slowly for me. I think I have too much happening at work to knit much.  Or maybe it's the distraction of having too many projects going on at once. Or summer vacations. Or cleaning the house while our wonderful housekeeper recovers from an illness. Or dyeing yarn. Oh yeah, that! Check the Baywood Yarns Blog for the new yarn! | | |
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On Thursday at Stitches West, I took a class on Knitting Backwards with Candace Eisner-Strick. It was a great class, and I sure wish I'd known how to do that when I knit entrelac socks! The swatch is boring however, and not worth showing you. What is worth showing is the Ravelry reception. It was quite full in the ballroom, and you could tell Casey and Jess were not used to being treated like Rock Stars!  I hung out with TheClam, and we happily wore our Ravelry buttons.  We ran into Spinnity in the drinks line, which was long at first, but not so long for the second drink!  And then, off to the market! Moments before the market opened, I managed to get this shot of the Baywood Yarns display at the Nine Rubies booth. The two columns on the right are Baywood, and the top bin in the 3rd column from the right. Whew!  Next up: Friday's class with Cat Bordhi, and more Market fun... | | |
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After two weekends of dyeing a lot of yarn, it was all dry enough to skein. Since Nine Rubies is featuring my yarn at Stitches West, I figured I'd better give them a good supply. Plus, I hadn't dyed much since 2007, and I was itching to touch the dyepot. When all was said and done, I had this.  That's 120 skeins of yarnie goodness! Fortunately I had a little help at the end with labelling the yarn.  She also sorted everything. What a sweetheart! We're off to Tahoe for a few days, when I'll do my Stitches West homework and work on my first toe-up sock, knit using Ann Budd's guidelines from Interweave Knits and a skein of Sea Otter that had too many knots in it to sell. Yes, that happens, and it's the most annoying thing. Sometimes it's the manufacturer - I've seen a few bad batches come to me. Sometimes I get it tangled and then it breaks on the skeinwinder. I try to pull it out of the delivery pile and put it in my own stash for sample socks or my own knitting, but sometimes a bad one slips through. That happened this past year, and it sucked to have it noted on Ravelry in a comment. Darn. Anyway, I have packing to do... see you at Stitches! | | |
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 They are getting so big! K is now in 4th grade, and CJ is in 1st grade. Both were very excited about starting school, although K admitted that she wished summer lasted longer. In yarn news, here's a new colorway of Baywood Yarns - Autumn Maple in Pearly Twist Sock Yarn.  Have a great week! | | |
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It was time for a San Mateo Knitters meeting last night, and we had a great turnout. (Jocelyn, we missed you!) I showed off my purchases from Copenhagen, which you've seen already. Lenore showed us the front of her multidirectional tank, knit in Baywood Yarns Light Creme (Azul Vivo colorway). Lenore really is the expert on this pattern - I think she's finished at least three by now!  Christina presented the Tuscany shawl she is working on from No Sheep for You, This is a gorgeous pattern and I might buy the book just for it. She's using Baywood Yarns Luxury DK in Blackberry Jam.  Ada showed off the crochet shawl she made - she designed it with Knitware. This was made with Baywood Yarns Superwash Sock in Ollalieberries, double-stranded. She said the crochet went really fast, but we all talked about how our hands hurt after doing a lot of crochet because we're not used to it!  Laurie is still working on her funky vest, which uses three yarns - I'm not sure what the solids are but the mohair boucle is from Baywood Yarns.  We also had Rebecca and Susan, who finally moved to San Mateo from San Francisco. (Welcome!!!) And, we had a lot of red wine... I'll have to check whether I need to tink any of the darn zigzag tank today... | | |
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Just before my trip, I managed to deliver some new yarn to Nine Rubies! Here are my favorites...  Sea Otter Superwash Sock Yarn (the lighter-weight stuff)  Wine and Roses Pearly Twist Sock Yarn There is more to be seen at the Baywood Yarns blog! | | |
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The Negative Bricks socks are done!  I love them, and they are mine. The stitch pattern was fun.  They fit absolutely perfectly.  And now for the 20 questions... 1. Name of Project: Negative Bricks socks 2. Pattern Source: Sockbug3. Yarn: Blue Moon Fiber Arts Socks that Rock Mediumweight 4. Fiber: 100% superwash merino 5. Color: Pebble Beach. 6. Where did I get the yarn? Stitches West 2006 7. Is it the yarn called for? No. 8. How long did it take to knit? One month 9. Did I change anything? Yes, I cast on 52 stitches rather than whatever the pattern calls for. I have small fit and the yarn is a bigger gauge than the pattern yarn. 10. What would I have done differently? Nothing. 11. Were the instructions clear? Yes, the pattern is written really well. 12. What did I learn? How to try a sock pattern, and rip out when it doesn't look right. This yarn was going to be Jaywalkers, but the yarn pooled badly and didn't show the pattern well. I messed around with different variations of Jaywalker and finally gave up. 13. Was it worth it? Yes. 14. Would I do it again? Yep, but why bother when there are so many good patterns out there! 15. What seaming methods were used? Kitchener, at the toe. 16. Will I knit with the yarn again? Yes. 17. Do I think I’ll wear it? Already have! 18. Process or Product? Both. 19. Do I have shoes to match? Yes, cute little mary janes. 20. Final Thoughts: Sock Bug has some great patterns! I really liked the yarn, it is nice and squishy. I've been skeining yarn. Sock yarn to be precise. This is the new Baywood Yarns Pearly Twist sock yarn in Blackberry Jam and Jewel Box.   On the left is the basic sock yarn, in an old dyelot of Jewel Box, next to the Pearly Twist on the right.  And the gratuitous close-up shot. Pearly Twist on top, tradition on the bottom.  The Pearly Twist is Louet Gems, which is an awsome yarn. The traditional also is really nice. The traditional is a bit smaller and will thus knit a somewhat thinner sock. Both hold up well and are very soft. These have gone to Nine Rubies already, and some will go to ABCs soon! | | |
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I just got my order from Threadless the other day, and this was in it.  Is that not the best shirt? I have two other good ones with sheep from Threadless. I think they must have a cult customer base of knitters, to keep putting up these sheep designs! I skeined a bunch of yarn, some of which is in the box for ABCs of Creative Pursuits, and some is going to Nine Rubies this weekend. My favorite? Absolutely positively the 100% cashmere in Waves.  You have to touch it to believe it. I'm having a hard time taking this to the shop. The garden is happy with the warm weather.  And the roses are stunning.  And, the cherries are in! I bought over two pounds at the farmer's market this morning, and I think at least 1/2 a pound is gone already! Red. I think I'll dye some yarn in red. | | |
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We went to Massachusetts for the kids' Spring Break, we being myself, K and CJ. DH had to stay home to work, lucky boy! I finished these just in time for the trip. 20 Questions below.   The weather forecast said cold and cold and cold, so I packed all my hand-knit wool socks! I nearly finished one more of a new pair on the trip - I was using Socks that Rock mediumweight for Jaywalkers, but it was turning out too big. So I adjusted the size, and then it pooled. I gave up after a while, and then started the negative bricks (see the sidebar for the link to the pattern). So what was Massachusetts like? We went to Worcester, and saw my Grammy, who is now 89 years old.  Her health isn't what it once was, but she is still sharp as a tack. I cannot believe how good her memory is, she remembers all sorts of stories about things that happened 50 years ago! I can't remember what I ate for dinner last night. What a blessing for K and CJ to know her. We went to my cousin's for Easter. We enjoyed the annual cracking of the cascarones. Cousin Ryan got it badly!  We spent a few more days in Worcester, hitting the bookstore (not much else to do in Worcester on a cold day), seeing Bridge to Terabithia (recommended), having dinner with my cousin and his family, having dinner with my aunt and uncle, and so on. And then we drove to Concord, NH, to visit my friends Marianne & Robert. In the snow.  Yeah, it snowed. It was quite lovely, although it was really wet crappy snow. We didn't have snow boots so I didn't let the kids play in it. Mean mommy. On our last day we enjoyed the Boston Museum of Science with the Carrie-Claude-Cecile-Gabe crowd. To top off the past two weeks, somebody got her cast off today!  Back to those socks... 1. Name of Project: A Step Ahead Socks 2. Pattern Source: Knitters 75, Summer 2004 3. Yarn: Baywood Yarns Superwash Sock 4. Fiber: 100% superwash merino 5. Color: Mermaid Jewels, which is not available right now - it was a limited run, but maybe they'll have it again some day. 6. Where did I get the yarn? I dyed it myself! 7. Is it the yarn called for? No. 8. How long did it take to knit? I think I cast it on last October or November 9. Did I change anything? Yes, I used 10-stitch blocks rather than the 11 called for in the pattern. I made other adjustments accordingly but don't remember all of them. This is why I don't write patterns - my note-taking sucks. 10. What would I have done differently? I really really really dislike the afterthought heel - it looks great but doesn't fit me as well as other heel types. I'd try to alter the pattern to use a different heel. 11. Were the instructions clear? Yes, the pattern is written really well. 12. What did I learn? This was my first entrelac pattern, and my first afterthought heel. 13. Was it worth it? Yes. 14. Would I do it again? Probably not, unless I can figure out how to adjust the heel. 15. What seaming methods were used? Kitchener, at the heel and toe. 16. Will I knit with the yarn again? I had better, since it's the stuff I dye! 17. Do I think I’ll wear it? Already have! 18. Process or Product? Process. 19. Do I have shoes to match? Yes, cute little mary janes. 20. Final Thoughts: There are some great pointers about this pattern on the KnitFlix blog. I printed out her post and carried it with the pattern. Very helpful! | | |
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I've been knitting since Stitches West ended. I used up all my undyed yarn, and it's been quite a joy to sit with the needles and create. I even have a finished object  This is another sweater using the nifty pattern that Spinnity shared with me. I haven't returned the pattern yet, and had another 2 skeins of the Fingerpaints yarn, and a new baby arrived. We will meet Teague next weekend, and I wanted a nice and quick project for him. Success! I've been plugging along with the Claudia Handpaints Green Boucle sweater, with a pattern created from Knitware. The pattern is bottom-up in the round with set-in sleeves. However, when seaming the shoulders, I came to a clear epiphany: Seaming Boucle Is A Royal Bitch. So, taking a cue from Lauren, I am doing top-down set-in sleeves, from Barbara Walker's wonderful Knitting From The Top. So far so good.  Yeah, that's the sleeve on the right side. I'm almost done with the cap. I got most done while watching Kill Bill Vol. 2 last night. Of course I'll finish the nice, warm, mohair boucle just in time for spring and summer.  Gotta love 80 degrees in March. Take that, New England! Lest you think I'm not dyeing any yarn, I got a nice big box from my primary vendor last week. It was full of a new-to-me DK silk and fingering silk. I have more Creme de Soie to dye, and more Luxury Sock. But what's missing? The superwash sock! Yes, they are backordered until April. I was annoyed enough to call Louet and talk with them about their delivery time and prices. When I first started this business, their yarns were twice the cost of what I chose, and the minimum order was quite a bit higher. Now there is no minimum order and the undyed yarn is reasonably priced. Soon I'll be offering 430 yard skeins of yarn with Gems Pearl as the base. I'll still offer the other yarn, which is slightly lighter weight. What should I call the new sock yarn? I'm thinking Crown Jewel Sock Yarn. Or Pearly Sock Yarn? I want to acknowledge the wonderful product Louet provides in the name. Today's effort produced 12 skeins of Summer Sunset in the Luxury Sock - 10 of which are already claimed. And then I played to get a brilliant blue in the DK silk and Luxury sock (front and very back right).  I still need to skein this, which was dyed in February. I love the color, which I'm calling Persimmon, and will probably dye some silk in it.  On the work front... I did The Great Debate in Helene Lipton's health policy class for pharmacy students. I was the market-oriented health reform advocate, against Kevin Grumbach. Here is Kevin in his Canada Hat, which was a gift from Hal Luft during their debate a year or two ago. Hal's on sabbatical, so I got the job!  | | |
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As I last posted, I had a great time at Stitches West in the classes I took. The first class was The Joy of Steeks. We were instructed to knit a swatch at home, baste a line with yarn up the middle to mark the steek location, and then machine-sew on either side. And then, after about 30 minutes of preamble, we cut! And then we added a simple garter-stitch border to one side, and we then learned how to do a front border with back facing. And then, just in case our heads were not ready to explode, we learned how to secure our steek with crochet rather than a machine. The crochet produces a nicer-looking steek. Here is my two pieces, post-steek, and the edging on one.  My Friday class was Bias Knitting without Prejudice with Lily Chin. She is a fabulous teacher, and I have learned a lot from all her classes. We started the class with bias strips - how to make them and how to put them together in a garment. We then spent the afternoon on how to design a full garment, such as a sweater, on the bias. Here are two of my swatches - the left is a bias-knit eyelet with garter ridges, and the right one is a nifty thing you can do for edgings. It also happens to be about the same as the base triangles for entrelac...  At the market, I saw this book at the Great Yarns booth - it's from Twisted Sisters and all the patterns are knit on the bias! The patterns are really fun and I think would work well my own hand-dyed yarns (plus the stash).  The lovely woman next to me in the Bias Knitting class had a slew of this yarn that she was using for her swatches. How lovely - it reminds me of the yarn from Mama-E that I used for my Embossed Leaves socks. I think I have about 300 yards of it - maybe embossed leaves fingerless gloves?  Yes, I did a little shopping. Since I am not dyeing any cellulose fibers, I picked up some merino-tencel sock yarns. Left is one from Blue Moon, and right is one from Ellen's Half-Pint Farm. I also grabbed two of Cookie's sock patterns and some solid Gems to go with one of them.   I couldn't resist getting some Caravan from Just Our Yarn. Did you see the review in Knitters Review? What a unique yarn!  I got these hair-clips-shawl-pins from some guy.  All of the above happened on Thursday and Friday! As for Saturday and Sunday... I finally met Seltsame! She was knitting the Bella sweater at the same time I was. I wore mine on Saturday, and she wore hers today. Hers is really beautiful, in a great shade of red. It was great to have a personal meeting to go with the blog. I spent a lot of time at the Nine Rubies booth, helping them sell Baywood Yarns and the other products they had on show. Linda and I spent a fair amount of time demonstrating the beaded scarf kit, which is beautiful and really easy. Here's Linda demonstrating.  In the evenings, I demonstrated my appreciation for MIL, who babysat the kids on Thursday night and Friday morning so I could help at Great Knit Designs and take a class. I seamed her sweater for her.  I didn't do too bad a job! I finished the seams, and decided to flip it inside-out to weave in the ends. This is what I found...  Yep, she cut the yarn at every color transition. I called her... "Uh, Mom, how do you want to handle the million ends?" "I was thinking I'd weave them in with a crochet hook." "Is the plan that YOU were going to weave them in, or that I am?" "Oh no, I can do it." Whew! Off to seam the Eloise sweater... | | |
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I'm already a day behind schedule... here's what happened Thursday!
I packed a good dinner snack, just in case...
I arrived as the Nine Rubies sign was going up! Look at all that Tilli Tomas right below the sign... And the Artyarns too!
Front and center is the Baywood Yarns rack - I was flabbergasted. On the front side is superwash sport, superwash sock, Butter, Luxury DK, Creme de Soie, Boucle.
Here's the back side of the rack... worsted merino, luxury sock, Fluffy Sheep, and Thick-and-Thin. Last I saw, I don't think the Fluffy Sheep and Thick-and-Thin are selling, but the Luxury Sock is going fast. So is the sock yarn and the DK silk-merino.
And here is where I worked Thursday night - the Great Knit Designs booth! Doesn't it look great?
My class Thursday was on steeks. It was really good, and I learned some tricks about how to face the steek and pick up from it. Today's class was Bias Knitting with Lily Chin - great class, although it could have been a 3-hour rather than 6-hour class. I did some shopping today too. Pictures later... | | |
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Stitches opens today! Here's my schedule...
Thursday noon-ish - help Nine Rubies and Great Knit Designs set up their booths
Thursday afternoon - class on steeks. I finished my swatch last night, with the help of MIL's sewing machine
Thursday evening - working at the preview market at the Great Knit Designs booth
Friday - bias knitting class with Lily Chin, and shopping at the market. Nine Rubies will have the Domiknitrix signing books!
Saturday 12:30-7:30pm - working at the Nine Rubies booth
Sunday 9:30am-12:30pm - working at the Nine Rubies booth
In the past few weeks, I have delivered to Nine Rubies:
23 skeins of Butter (50% merino, 50% silk, aran weight) in 4 colorways
36 skeins of Fluffy Sheep (100% wool, super bulky) in 5 colorways
35 skeins of Luxury DK (50% merino, 50% silk, 2-ply) in 5 colorways
16 skeins of Luxury sock & shawl (50% merino, 50% silk) in 6 colorways
11 skeins of Superwash Sock (100% merino) in 4 colorways
16 skeins of Superwash Sport (100% merino) in 2 colorways (8 more skeins coming soon)
24 skeins of Thick-n-Thin (100% merino) in 3 colorways
36 skeins of The Best Worsted (100% merino) in 5 colorways
Holy cow! That's 197 skeins of yarn! Y'all had better buy some, so I can afford to buy more yarn to dye!
Here are some of my favorites... to see the full set, go to the Baywood Yarns website.
  
(Luxury DK in Barcelona, Superwash Sport in Harvest, Luxury Sock & Shawl in Blackberry Jam)
I'll take tons of photos, and will see a lot of you there!
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It is February 10. Stitches starts in 12 days. It takes about 7 days for the silk-wool to dry in this weather. Oh yeah, and hours to skein.
What does that mean?
I think I need to dye about 20 pounds of yarn this weekend.
And write two grant proposals due Tuesday.
And write a lecture for Wednesday. And a homework.
DH just left for China, for 6 nights.
So what am I doing? I'm in complete denial, having two kids sleep over with K and CJ, blogging, and dyeing yarn. Yep.
There is yarn everywhere. The racks in the garage are nearly full. Actually, at this moment, they are truly full - the photo was taken before the last 3 batches were hung.
The yarn that was in the garage, but not fully dry, has joined the laundry in the basement. (Check out the socks behind CJ's leotard!)
The pots are full. Below left is Waves (silk-wool fingering and sport superwash merino... I think I'll do this one in DK silk-merino also. Hey, Mom, if you are reading this, is this your color?) On the right is, uh, what the heck to call it? The orange-pink color is just the shade of a persimmon. The rest? Hmmm. I love it.
 
And now that the bias-knit shawl is done, what has gone into my purse for traveling knitting? The second entrelac sock!
I'd better get back to that grant proposal... make it those grant proposals! | | |
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 I've been skeining and dyeing yarn at night, after the kids go to bed... since I'm working on bulky and super-bulky yarns, I've decided kettle immersion is the way to go. It's really hard to "paint" with anything resembling uniformity with huge skeins - four of them at a time! Above is Spring Show, a classically painted DK silk-merino. Something about the silk-merino calls "spring colors" to me. More product at the Baywood Yarns blog, as usual! | | |
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I have a giant bag of yarn for Nine Rubies - I'll take it today on my way to a manicure-pedicure. DH's company is having a winter party tonight - the Fire & Ice Ball - so I figure I'll doll up a bit. DH and I have a hotel room in the swanky hotel where the event will be held, so we don't have to play "who's the driver?" The new yarns of which I'm the most proud are...  "Near the Hearth" in fingering-weight 50% silk, 50% merino. This yarn is so darn nice undyed that I think I can do anything to it and it will still be pretty.  "Cha Cha Cha" sock yarn, which you've seen already.  "Purple Denim" worsted-weight merino. This felts beautifully, which I have learned the hard way in my dyeing experiments! There are four other colorways of the worsted merino available. You can see the whole kit and caboodle at the Baywood Yarns Blog. | | |
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Some knitting photos! Here is the Eloise sweater, after a dunk in some Eucalan. I hope it's dry when I get back from Vail.  Here is the bias-knit shawl from Hand Maiden Silk Rumple... About 1/3 done!  Here's the progress on skeining the latest batch of Baywood Yarns. Sock yarn on the right, worsted on the left, and some silk-merino fingering down the middle.  Here is a close-up of the silk-merino fingering, which is lighter and more shimmery than this photos shows. I have no idea what to name it. Suggestions?  Off to skiing! | | |
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At San Mateo Knitters this week, Lenore said she finished a multidirectional scarf with Baywood Yarns Creme de Soie (100% worsted-weight silk). She emailed a photo today. Isn't she a great knitter!  I finally finished all the pieces of Eloise, but need to seam her up... Off to Vail for the weekend! And get this - it's just me and my DH... no kids! | | |
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It's vacation time! Well, sort of. I'm bringing my laptop, because I have to prepare my lecture for the first session of Health Economics & Policy on the day after we return. There are a million other work-things I could do, but that's the firm deadline. DH is bringing his laptop too. Are we crazy? Bringing laptops to Hawaii? Here is the pile of yarn waiting for me to skein and label it when I return...  That's about 16 pounds worth. Some of it got really tangled, and I am not looking forward to untangling it! I managed to skein some sock yarn to donate to the Yarn Harlot's Tricoteuses Sans Frontières fundraiser. This will be a raffle item, so be sure to donate! I think it will be named Cha-Cha-Cha.  I've been busy packing my projects for the trip. Overpacking, really. On the left, some La Lana Phat Silk Fine and the Knitty Branching Out pattern. In the middle, some ArtYarns Regal Silk and Annie Modesitt's lovely cami pattern. On the right, some Hand Maiden Silk Rumple for a simple shawl.  And off I go to bed! | | |
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On a clear day, the views from UCSF are stunning.  The above is the view from the terrace at the student union. Yes, that is the Golden Gate Bridge on the left. The architecture is interesting. This is an old building, but notice the modern skylight part at the top?  When my parents were in town for Thanksgiving, my mom and I went to Nine Rubies. My mom has few yarn shop choices in Bakersfield. She was quite excited to see the Baywood Yarns display in the front window. Notice the entrelac sock in Mermaid Jewels (top right)? One more sock to go!  Off to Denver tomorrow... I have a few yarn shops in my PDA, and maybe I'll get to visit one! | | |
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