Tag Archives: fiber arts

Baby knits, part 2

Posted on May 16, 2012 | 8 Comments

Word Lily knitsI knit two sweaters for Sprout while he was in utero. They’re both still too big for him, so no modeled shots today. Hopefully they’ll fit him well once we get back to cooler weather this fall/winter.

I knew I wanted to knit something from handspun for the little guy, and this is it, so far (I’m sure there will be plenty more handspun handknits for him in the future):
cardigan
I spun the main yarn used for this Baby Beau several years ago, with no particular use in mind. The blue is Lion Brand wool and the green for the button bands is Cascade 220.

This sweater is made from cotton yarn reclaimed from an old store-bought sweater.
hoodie
I knew I wanted to make a cotton sweater. When stash-diving, I found this yarn and decided I wanted to use it for that piece. And then the pattern hunt began. I first tried a sweater vest, but I couldn’t get the gauge to work (it had an animal on the front, using intarsia, so I couldn’t just fudge the gauge). After abandoning that vest idea, I had some trouble. But eventually I found this pattern that included the hood option. I modified it (as many others before me) to be a pullover rather than another cardigan.

Just one more post of baby knits left: blankets! And speaking of baby, he just woke up.

Ta!

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Baby knits, part 1

Posted on May 13, 2012 | 18 Comments

Asa Anders Nielsen was born at 6 p.m. April 28, 2012.
He weighed 7 pounds, 6 ounces and was 19.5 inches long.

Word Lily knitsA much-delayed post of baby knits.

One advantage of my tardiness: You can see at least some of them modeled. :p

Let’s start with the one fibery failure, shall we?
These booties, while super cute, simple and quick to knit, were too small for wee Asa when he was born. They’ve a place in the nursery decor for the moment.


These booties/socks did work, though, and they also have a matching hat.
[Age: 2 weeks]

Then there’s the hat you’ve already seen.

[Age: 1 week]

I’ll have two more posts of baby knits for you when I can get them drafted.

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New studio

Posted on March 4, 2012 | 13 Comments

With the impending birth of the little one, my yarn room had to move. What used to be the yarn room is now (in process of being) set up as the nursery, and what was the home office has now all but disappeared and been replaced by my studio. It’s not perfectly organized, not neat and orderly, but it’s mostly reached the point where I can find things, which took awhile.

Wanna see?

Basement studio north

The north wall of the new studio space, what you see from the doorway.

Basement studio east

The east wall of the studio, to the right of the entry way.

It does get a decent amount of daylight, especially for a basement. It was a bit difficult to get photos, actually, because the windows were completely blowing out!

On the west wall is a couch, which serves double duty as a guest bed.

Oh, I almost forgot: A bookshelf in the next room, right next to my usual knitting spot, has my reference books and patterns.

It’s not perfect, but it’s functional, which is better than perfect. I’m so thankful for all the hours Paul put in getting it all moved, the floor painted, and helping me get it semi-organized. And it’s *done enough* that we’ve been able to focus on other things the past few weeks, which has been a necessity.

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Garland of Hearts

Posted on February 14, 2012 | 9 Comments

We don’t usually do much to celebrate Valentine’s Day, but I came across this crocheted heart pattern (by Lucy of Attic24, Teeny Tiny Hearts (Ravelry link)) and just knew I had to try stringing them up.

So, I did. On Friday I pulled the Valentines-y colors from the scrap bin and started hooking. Stowing it all away over the weekend so it would remain a surprise for Paul was hard. Then, Monday, I was crocheting in earnest. The hearts whip up quickly, each one took me less than 10 minutes to complete. When I reached 50 — the number I’d estimated I would need to span the chosen space — I stacked them all up, grabbed a ball of neutral yarn and my needles and came upstairs.

I cut a length of yarn, threaded my needle, and started stringing! (Here’s my project page.)

To borrow Lucy’s phrase, ta-da!

Here’s a wide view:

So, what do you think? I thought it added a touch of fun, of whimsy. I thought the variations in the hearts (they’re not all the same size, some of them are actually duo-toned) would be more visible, but that’s OK.

Happy Valentine’s Day! I appreciate you!

Note: I’m probably more behind on telling you about my fiber arts endeavors than I am about my bookish ones, but I’ve finally got another post (or two) almost ready to go, so hooray!

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Posted in free pattern

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Fiber Arts fun day

Posted on September 21, 2011 | 3 Comments

Yesterday we (Maisie and all) traveled to Clearwater, NE, to spend some time with MareLee at Prairie Threads. We’d visited once before, and had a blast, but this time we were more intentional with planning our time, and it was even more fun!

First of all, this shop? In a cute house in a little town, Prairie Threads is full of quality yarn, spinning fiber and tools. But the real star is MareLee herself. She’s been doing fiber arts for decades, and she’s had an answer for every question I’ve thrown at her so far. [I'm already plotting more occasions to pepper her with queries.]

Since it’s such a long drive (2 hours one way), we’ve thus far made it a habit to call ahead when we’re planning to visit. And this time, we did more than that; we asked for some instructional time. I was able to dye with her, experimenting with several different methods and tools than I’ve used in the past, and Paul finally got to try his hand at felting.

Picture time?

I dyed three items, 2 skeins of yarn and a length of combed top:

The yarn I dyed (this and the green) is fingering weight sock yarn, 50 percent superwash merino, 25 percent bamboo and 25 percent nylon. It has 459 yards in each 100 gram skein.

Look, it is green!

Mmm, wool.

None of the things I dyed came out exactly like I wanted them, but I had fun and I learned quite a bit, too. So all in all, a success.

I also came home with some other, ahem, stash enhancement. I’ll just show you a couple of the new additions:

This is hand painted by MareLee, 100 percent wool, single ply, and such great color!

I had never seen Brown Sheep's lace weight yarn before. This skein is huge! Its 170 grams provide 1500 yards of 75 percent wool, 25 percent nylon. The color, Deep Plum, is gorgeous, too.

I just love playing with color, it’s so vital to me! I hope I can get back to Clearwater soon. Do you like taking day trips?

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Fiber Arts Friday: Green

Posted on June 17, 2011 | 7 Comments

Word Lily knits and crochets

Greens

Stack of WIPs

green yarn

And more to come!

The Project Spectrum color for June is green. In addition to finishing my Citron (Rav link), I’m hoping to really dive in and make significant progress on this collection of designs.

Those I’ve started, above, aren’t the only patterns I’ve got planned for this collection. :)

Happy Friday!

Where are you seeing green today?

Fiber Arts Friday

Also, see the Fiber Arts Friday roundup at Wisdom Begins in Wonder to see what other people are crafting this week.

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Words from my reading

Posted on May 18, 2011 | 9 Comments

I think these might be the last words I pull from Godric:

gillyflower, n Carnation or a similar plant of the genus Dianthus; wallflower
page 52, Godric by Frederick Buechner
“We stood beside my father’s stone where I had laid a gillyflower down.”
This reminded me of Harry Potter!

woad flowers

woad, n An annual Old World plant (Isatis tinctoria) in the mustard family, formerly cultivated for its leaves that yield a blue dye; the dye obtained from this plant
page 54, Godric by Frederick Buechner
“Her hands were blue as Father’s lips with woad from dyeing fustian for my lord, and she seized with blue fingers round the wrists.”
Apparently you get the same indigo dye from this plant as from “true indigo,” Indigofera tinctoria, but in a lower concentration. [This plant is considered invasive in the United States.]

fustian, n Formerly, a coarse sturdy cloth made of cotton and flax; presently, any of several thick twilled cotton fabrics, such as corduroy, having a short nap; pretentious speech or writing, pompous language
page 54, Godric by Frederick Buechner
“Her hands were blue as Father’s lips with woad from dyeing fustian for my lord, and she seized with blue fingers round the wrists.”

I just love that two of these words are related to dyeing!

Previous words posts drawing on the vocabulary of Godric:
First installment
Second installment

More great words on my Words from my reading page.

Book cited here:
Godric by Frederick Buechner [Amazon]*

What new words have you found lately?

* That’s an affiliate link; I am an Amazon Associate and receive a small commission on sales through my affiliate links.

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Posted in books, word

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Fiber Arts Friday: Project Spectrum, week 1

Posted on May 6, 2011 | 16 Comments

Word Lily spins

I’ve been really enjoying Project Spectrum this first week. Red isn’t exactly a color I gravitate toward, but the project is certainly making me more mindful of it, so far. Not all my Project Spectrum endeavors are fiber-related; I started a Tumblr as a sort of homebase for my Project Spectrum — although I may end up posting other things there as well, who knows?

RED that’s been through my hands

handspun

Remember those two batts I posted two weeks ago? I finally got them skeined and photographed. They’re both composed of the same mix of fibers and colors, but the more homogeneous was carded twice and the yarn with more distinct colors was carded once.

handspun from my hand dyed, hand carded, wool
50.2 grams of fiber yielded 114 yards, pre-bath.


55.6 grams of fiber yielded 100 yards of thick and thin, pre-bath.

I also spun up 4 ounces of a wool/silk blend fiber:

handspun wool-silk blend

Plying this is on the agenda for today.

Planning ahead

I think I’ll also be ordering beads today, for my first-ever beaded knitting project, the large-size Aeolian Shawl (Ravelry). I’m looking at these beads, to go with the Jaggerspun Zephyr wool/silk in mahogany I already have. I certainly won’t finish this within the month, but I’m looking forward to the challenge, regardless.

Where are you noticing red today?


Have you crafted a finished object this week? Check out the roundup of other people’s finished objects for the week at Tami’s Amis.

Fiber Arts Friday
Also, see the Fiber Arts Friday roundup at Wisdom Begins in Wonder to see what other people are crafting this week.

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