Freebie Friday - Mayfaire Cami

How pretty is this?!  I love it.  The pattern is by Corrina Ferguson for Classic Elite Yarns, and it came out late last summer, too late for me to make it before the weather turned here in Buffalo.  This year, though, I have plenty of time. 

In a cotton/silk/nylon blend, it gets the best of all three fibers.  The cotton keeps it cool, the silk keeps it soft and light, and the nylon adds durability. 

Over a skirt, or under a jacket, this is definitely one of my new summer wardrobe staples.  Give it a try!
Download here.

Back From Classic Elite

I'm back from Massachusetts, and had a fabulous visit at Classic Elite Yarns.  As you might think, it's nothing short of knitter's heaven.  Wandering their halls, seeing samples, skeins, sketches, and of course lots of great people made me think I'd walked through the looking glass to the perfect wonderland.

If you haven't been, they're in Lowell, MA in the historic mill district.  Their building is a treasure of a place, and huge!  It's now home to dozens of artist studios, a musicians' studio and music school, a restaurant, their entire company, a yarn shop, and more.  This is several city blocks' worth of interconnected real estate with an 1890's feeling.  Really amazing.  Their "Hub Mills" yarn shop is chock full of their yarns as well as several other very high-end brands making for shopper heaven.  I particularly loved the cashmere display with 6 shelves of cubbies!  I could have died happy just with the shopping.

On to the office of Betsy Perry, the President and sole owner of CEY.  She is a cheerfully dynamic woman, and welcomed me warmly into her office. Her office has huge windows original to the historic building forming one wall, making for a spacious, naturally lit workspace.   Well-placed industrial antiques and turn-of-the-century knitting accessories gave the otherwise efficient room a clear personality and purpose.  We visited about Lowell and her company for a few minutes before getting down to work. 

I showed some sketches of patterns for their recently-added Verde Collection of eco-friendly yarns, and Betsy was very supportive.  We decided to work on a project together with a long ramp-up period. And then it happened.

Judy, an employee charged with trunk show and designer management responsibilities, brought in the fall color cards for Woodland and Chesapeake (limited color cards below).  OMG!  Woodland is a DK wool with nettles, a natural moth and bug retardant.  It's soft with a slight halo, and a faintly marled color absorption.  It comes in cozy, cottage-y colors that are heavenly.  Chesapeake is a worsted 50/50 blend of cotton and merino in richly saturated colors with a distinct marle.  With its high cotton content, it exhibits excellent stitch definition.


Chesapeake -

5903 Mephisto

5904 Scuba Blue

5912 Meyer Lemon

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5920 Oxford

5925 Tokyo Rose

5938 Bracken

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5948 Bronte Blue

5949 Arabian Night

5955 Shanghai Red

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5957 True Blue

5979 Catawba Grape

5981 Tendril Green

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5985 Mandarin Orange

5995 Rosetti Purple

5998 Metro Green

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Woodland -

3101 Ivory

3103 Silver

3138 Bracken

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3148 Prussian Blue

3150 Sunshine

3155 Carnelian Red

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3175 Charcoal

3177 Ash

3185 Orange

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3192 Celestial

3195 Violet

3197 Fern

 

It's an abundance of riches to have so many exciting yarns in wonderful colors at hand.  Where to start?  After some deliberation I realized I can start anywhere.  It's all that good.

CNY Wool and Fiber Festival

Well, I'm back.  I had a lovely time.  There were so many really nice people!  There were about 20 vendors, all with cool product.

There were also 6 spinning wheels in use that I saw.  A charming woman named Ann patiently tried to remind me how to spin.  Treadle, pinch, draft, and again.  After most of an hour, I had achieved about 12 feet of yarn, and several yards of completely ruined roving.  Ann didn't laugh at me once, which is remarkable.  She was calm and supportive the whole time.  The skill of spinning is more complex and delicate than it looks.  I saw crafters making gossamer-thin threads, and multi-ply yarns. Beautiful.  I am definitely in awe of their skill.

Amy Klee, from Stone Edge Fibers, Phelps, NY, explained quite a bit about her herd, and which types of sheep yield which types of fiber. She was pleasant and informative, and I really enjoyed getting to know her.  Her yarns were varied and remarkable, in particular due to her jewel-toned color palette.  It's stunning stuff, and though I'm allergic to wool, I'm hoping to find a way to work with it.  It's just seductive!

Chris Gilman, from A+ Alpaca Fiber Mill, showed me her wares as well.  Whe runs a small mill and dying operation in Jordan, NY.  The fibers were soft and beautiful, and for handmade product the price was surprisingly affordable.  She also possesses a unique color palette, with a variety of solids and marled colors. 

I wandered the fair for about 2 hours, and then took a spinning lesson.  I knew I was tempting fate, but I had doubled up on the antihistamines in the morning, and thought I could get away with it.  WRONG!  My hands developed hives, and I had a full-blown allergy attack.  I went in the restroom and washed my face and hands, took off my sweater to get stray wool fibers farther from my face, and sucked down some cool water.  Not enough.

I went to my car with itchy eyes, coughing and sneezing, and took a look in the rear view mirror.  Swollen red eyes.  Rats.  My fiber day was over - no getting around it.  On the long drive home it occurred to me that I probably will never take another spinning lesson with wool.  That was a mistake.  And I'll need to wash my hands often as I go through the fair, and try not to touch my face.  Because I'll be back next year. 

Ghosts of Knitting Past

I was trying to tame my stash last night.  I don't know why.  I know better.  I had this notion that I could separate all the wools from all the non-wools, and that this would somehow make my life more - I don't know.  Better.  In this process I discovered many things:



Applique Stocking Sample



1. I own a whole heckuva lot of yarn.

2.  The stash is about the same weight as my dog.  Max is a German Shorthaired Pointer, Labrador Retriever mix.  Think your average 8 year old child.

3.  My children become concerned when they see the entire family room furniture and floor covered in yarn, when I'm sitting in the middle, head in hands, saying, "Maybe. Maybe."

4. While purchasing yarn I have largely disregarded my allergy to wool.

5. I really DID buy a ton of Cascade Pure Alpaca about a year ago.  I just found it again after looking several times.

6. While purchasing yarn I have made a great many dubious choices.



Tweed Faroe Mitten.  Why?



Why would I buy one skein of cashmere that is only 60 yards? Why would I buy tweeds for a Faroe Project? (Yes I did.  There are pictures to prove it.)  Why did I store the stash in so many different places?

How could I lose track of making Christmas stockings for my children, and just quit after designing and knitting a sample? Why would I store FOs in with the stash?  When did I ever think I would use acrylic for anything except baby blankets?  Why is my darning egg in with the bulky yarns?

This makes me think that a few years from now, while re-sorting the stash, I may find more unanswered questions.  Will I be wondering why I made so many cowls?  What was my obsession with mittens all about?  How much sock yarn does any woman need?  What the heck was I thinking the last time I sorted out the stash?

Wool Dispute

The Mr. Mittens are finished, and within moments of finishing them, the Mr. put them on and walked out to work.  He then left them in his car, and so I have no pic to show you.   I will nab them back for photos, I promise.  They came out nicely, and very warm. 

Then I cast on the Guinan Hat (see Ravelry pattern of the same name) to make for a class I'm teaching soon about basic knitting in the round.  It's an easy pattern for a cute and very un-fussy hat.  Unfortunately, it's in wool, like the last several projects in a row, and with my allergy to wool my hands are really beginning to rebel.  Hives and redness abound.  They're threatening strike action, and I'm doing my best to negotiate with the union.

Why make things in wool at all? you may ask.  Well, the purposes of having classes are to sell yarn, and increase the skills of the students.  The bread and butter of Karma Knitting (my LYS) is definitely wool, as it is for most of the students.  As such, I feel obligated to show the students how the pattern will behave in the fiber they will likely use for the project.  If it's a project I'll keep for myself, I'll make it in a non-wool fiber.  If it's a summer pattern, ditto.  But for most of my classes, I teach in the fiber called for in the pattern. 

Update:  Whatever the next couple of classes are, I'll be knitting them in non-wool.  Strike arbitration has made me promise to take a one month leave from wool.  I've caved to the hands' demands, not for higher pay or more vacation days, but for a hive-free workplace.  It's the least I can do.

All I Really Do Is Knitting

I have an allergy to wool, which makes it more difficult for me to buy yarns than the wool-tolerant folks. (As the granddaughter of dairy farmers, I'm also lactose intolerent. My luck runs to the ironic.) Fortunately for me, most "superwash" wools cause me to react very little, so I can knit with them for other people. Otherwise, there is a lot of Alpaca, Cotton, and Silk in my knitting life.

So, at the moment I'm making the Mr. a pair of socks with a fabulous yarn called Nichole by Schaefer Yarns http://www.schaeferyarn.com/yrn_nichole.html (80% extrafine merino wool superwash/20% nylon, 405yds over 5oz.) I'm about 70% through with them, and love the yarn so much I've bought two more skeins to make more projects! I know I will use and love other yarns, but it feels like when you get towards the end of a really good novel and you don't want the story to end. More later, with photos to follow.