fiber sandwich

2 weeks ago we had ROC day here in Groton, SD–for those who don’t know, ROC day is the day that the weavers and spinners began their work again after the winter break. I am pretty sure this dates back to medieval times. Well, all us spinners and knitters got together, had an awesome potluck and all in all had a great time with each other. 12 or so of us particiapted in a fiber sandwich which is where you contribute some raw fiber–batts, web, roving, top of all different types (basically a fiber pot luck) and then you layer the different types of fiber like you would a sub sandwich. The thicker the better I say! Then each who participated got an equal amount which in our case was a 5 oz!
Here is what my portion looked like:

I left mine just the way I got it and spun it by pulling random chunks–I had some pretty wild looking yarn!!!

Some opted to card their sandwich. This is a shot of the sandwich after Marie put it through a drum carder

Here is another carded into web. This is Kelly’s:

So each had a different method to the madness and each proved to make a beautiful yarn in it’s own right. Kelly, Marie and I all attended a second ROC day in North Dakota the following Sat. and spun our sandwiches. Upon the spinning, Kelly came up with the great idea that we take her more consistant sandwich yarn and ply it with my random chunks yarn. Thus creating this yarn:

That shot was before the yarn was blocked and now that it is blocked I am just to lazy to take another pic. You can easily see the colors in the yarn and that is what I really wanted to show. That is a digested fiber sandwich. So to speak.

Here are some pics of the ladies at the North Dakota ROC day–my camera battery was dead for the first ROC day!

We had a blast yet again and had yet again–a fabulous potluck!

Here is my Harvey with a closing comment:

cascade 220 hat and cowl

I have entered a really cool contest here on this blog and really hope I win the skein winder. Check it out!

I bought all this yarn with the idea of a helmet liner in mind or some of you may call it a baklava (probably spelled that wrong)–I found a free pattern but I have this thing about knitting hats from the top.. I hate making them from the bottom up and of course all the patterns started at the bottom. SO. I ended up making a hat and a giant cowl…you pull the cowl up, pull the hat down and low and behold! its one of those helmet liner thingys! Kinda…

I love this yarn! Its cascade 220 tweed. I have had this obsession with tweed for a while but never bought it for some reason. I would oogle at it in the yarn shops and think about all the cool things I could make with it but never bought any. Finally. My day has come! I was really torn between which color of tweed to buy but this one won in the end. Now, for those pesky matching mittens.

My friend Betty showed me this great magazine called SelvEdge. Those of you living in Europe may have heard of it–for me its a whole new world! Thanks Betty! If you like well made, inspiring visual stimulation–check it out!

Tonight I am making homemade pizza and chocolate chip cookies!

1/2 Vintage Quilt and 1 cute toy

I promised I would write about how to make crocheted flowers in this blog BUT I haven’t wrote the patterns out yet…SORRY.

I have been working on this quilt off and on for 2 years! And its still itty bitty. Maybe that will be my project this week! 95% of the fabric is vintage and the rest are little scraps of fabric. It is hard to find vintage fabric in South Dakota. I need to go back home to Tejas and stock up!

While I am sharing sewed items–I came across this guy today while cleaning. I did NOT make him/her–”it.” I bought this at the fiber fest in Fargo, ND this past summer. I think it is sooo cute and not to mention the pocket sewed on the back! What a cute touch! She even had tags with her info on it sewed onto the back. Seems like I remember her saying that she also made teddy bears…

Can you tell I like color?

top down felted cloche pattern

I recently came up with a pattern for a top down felted cloche hat. I like to start my hats at the top and couldn’t find a pattern for felted cloche that started at the top…I figure I would share the pattern:

I used cascade pastaza double stranded but you can use any bulky yarn double stranded.
Size 10 dpns and size 10 circulars
Divide 4 stitches on 3 needles
Rnd 1: Knit
Rnd 2: Knit one, make one all the way around (24 stitches)
Rnd 3: knit
Rnd 4: Knit THREE, make one all the way around (30 stitches)
Rnd 5: Knit
Rnd 6: Knit four, make one all the way around
Rnd 7: Knit
Rnd 8: Knit five, make one all the way around
Rnd 9: knit
Rnd 10: Knit six, make one all the way around
Rnd 11: Knit
Rnd 12: Knit seven, make one all the way around
Rnd 13: Knit
Rnd 14:Knit eight, make one all the way around
Rnd 15: Knit
Rnd 16 Knit nine, make one all the way around
Rnd 17 knit onto circulars, pm
Knit for 8 1/2 inches from top of hat
Brim:
Knit 3, make one all the way around
knit 5 more rounds

To get this dense fiber good and felted I boil some water and add that to my water in the washing machine, put bag in zippered laundry bag and add a little dish soap and some towels. I usually have to run the hat threw a couple of times

I like to crochet flowers to attach to pins and put on my hats…that will be my next blog!

Spinnin’ and Bakin’

I am getting ready to knit the elizabeth zimmerman surprise baby jacket for a friends new baby-http://knitting-gnome.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2009/04/sweater-hello-yarn.jpg and I decided to spin the yarn for the project.

I bought a 1 lb of lambswool roving:

 

and have managed to spin half a bobbin so far..lol…

This fiber is kinda dirty so I will have to give it a good washing when I get it spun up.
And in the spirit of the holidays I decided to bake some neiman marcus cookies and gift them out since the batch makes over 100 cookies…I have to go buy the ingredients and actually make them now.

Crocheted Improv Hat

For all those scraps of yarn that I have laying around I have started sticking them in hats and really playing with the texture and color combinations. Not only are these hats really fun but they are quick to make! I like to add bobbles on random rows so that the hat has lots of diverse texture.
Making a bobble is really easy you just: yo, go in stitch, bring working yarn through first loop on hook (there are now two loops on hook), *yo again, go back in stitch, bring working yarn through first loop* (you should now have three stitches on loop) continue from asterisks until there are 5 loops on hook, bring working yarn through all 5 loops on hook. wa-lah!

Here are some of my Improv hats:

Go all out with it!

I Need Suggestions For My Blog

If you are reading this: I would really appreciate any suggestions as to how I can change my blog to generate more views. Any feedback is welcome!

And now on to the knitting bags! I finished this humongous bag–seriously one of the biggest bags I have ever made. I honestly didn’t intend on it being so big! It just turned out that way… but anywho–here it is–oh and those things at the bottom of the bag are my attempt to make flowers out of buttons….

here is the side view:

Sooooo there it is in all its wrinkled glory…I need to iron it!

This bag was incredibly hard to take pics of by myself. Its another knitting bag and I was going for a doctors bag shape:

and here is the side view of this bag:

Whatever doesn’t sell at the craft show I am putting in an etsy shop. And then I will be adding new stuff as I make it. We set up our booth today at 2:30 so I need to put the finishing touches on everything…