inspiration – Page 8

January, the Selfish Month

January 8, 2012 | 1 Comment

As it should be. Surely I’m not the only person who thinks this. Almost every year of my adult life I have taken the month of January to recharge myself. In fact, for many years, the day after Christmas was a day when I’d gather all my knitting and weaving journals from past years and look through all of them, enjoying the inspiration and letting ideas for my own work wash over me.

January is also my birthday month, so I get special dispensation to be selfish. I can put my post-holiday inspiration and project-planning into action by spending money on myself! There you go!

This year I’m struggling to finish a shawl for a friend during my selfish January. This shawl should have been done back in November, but as I mentioned in another post, life has thrown some difficult stuff at me lately. I’m a bit behind schedule. I’m not worried though….I don’t mind having a selfish February if it comes to that.

Back in October, I bought four balls of Crystal Palace “Mini Mochi” from my local yarn store (The Stitchery in Pearl River, NY) for “Lala’s Simple Shawl” (available as a free download on Ravelry). Just moments ago I bound off! I hope I have just enough left to make a crocheted scalloped edge around the shawl. If not, I have some Jaggerspun “Zephry” in a deep warm red that should fill the bill. I’d prefer the edge to be Mini Mochi, but it will be what it will be!

I think these colors will suit my friend perfectly! She wears a lot of reds/greens/browns. The LaLa shawl is simple and not too lace-y so the pattern doesn’t distract from the wonderful color changes.

It’s not blocked yet, so don’t judge it too harshly! I’m not feeling confident about that little ball of extra yarn making it all the way around the shawl….but at least I have the “Zephyr” as back up!

Now to get back to Selfish January….
Here’s what has called to me….another shawl that is a free download on Ravelry. The shawl is called Revontuli which is Finnish for Aurora Borealis, which is Latin for Northern Lights. The designer is AnneM and you can get the pattern from either her site (follow the link) or here on Ravelry.

Here’s the thing about this shawl. It looks best with a yarn that has l-o-n-g color runs. The designer shows this shawl made with a yarn called “Aade Long 8/2 artistic.” I did a search and discovered that it’s not available in the US, but is easily found on ebay and from an online shop in Germany, as well as from some individuals in Estonia. Selfish me…. I’m getting two colorways! “Pink/Brown” and “Red.” They are both coming from Estonia, although from two different vendors. Let’s see how long it will take for each skein to arrive. Countdown starts tomorrow.

Aade long 82 artistic red — Aade Long 8/2 Artistic "Red"

Aade Long 82 artistic pink brown — Aade Long 8/2 Artistic "Pink Brown"

Thankful

November 22, 2011 | Leave a Comment

Autumn in NY (by Chris)

Today I’m playing in the kitchen, making stuffing from a whole wheat baguette, a loaf of raisin pumpernickel, turkey sausage, onions, celery, chestnuts, a few more raisins, and lots of thyme, and also making pie dough in which I’m tempted to substitute vodka for water (have you tried this?).

My kitchen counter is also strewn with several colors of Jaggerspun zephyr which I’m swatching for Pam Power’s lovely Devonshire sweater. Sigh…. Life is good.

Happy Thanksgiving….

Bittersweet Season

November 11, 2011 | Leave a Comment

It is the bittersweet change of season and here is the last rose from my garden, a David Austen “Heritage” (I don’t count the ever blooming shrub roses for some reason….).

I love the change of seasons. The days are warm, and the sun on my skin feels almost like summer, ‘though by late afternoon there is a chill in the air that clearly means summer is gone…long gone. Yesterday and today I stood for a while in a blizzard of yellow leaves swirling all around me.

Fall is festival time, and last weekend was “Lace Day” for the Metro Chapter of the Intenational Old Lacers. There were demonstrations, vendors and classes!

This group (of mostly, but not entirely, women) proves that lace making is not a dying art. Their knowledge is legendary: they can tell the difference between Torchon, Milanese, Honiton from 20 yards (not to mention about a dozen other types of laces), and they have strong preferences about bobbins: midlands, bayeaux, honiton…again, more names than I can keep track of… The vendors had some beautifully painted bobbins and other tools that were as pretty as the lace itself.

This is just a small portion of what was on display during the event, all made by members of this group.

Look at that fan.

These lace mavens do demonstrations all year long, at historic sites and local libraries. Somehow they manage to talk to people as they work. Impressive!

Making a lace border for a handkerchief has been my goal since my first lesson. Now I’m there!

Reconnecting….weaving memories

October 11, 2011 | 1 Comment

This was a week when my dance card was over full, but how could I say no to so many wonderful opportunities?

My adult ed bobbin lace class has started again! I am on the last third of the edging for some hand towels, so I guess I’d better get busy weaving the towels! It’s wonderful to be back with these women again, who are very nurturing to me as a slow-learning beginner!

On Wednesday I rode with a friend up the Hudson River to Ghent, where she had arranged for us to have a one night farm stay at Kinderhook Farm, which is owned by old family friends and managed by two other friends. I had no idea what a treat we were in for. There are chickens with a delightful roosting house. (I did not know chickens roosted up in rafters and on high perches). There were lots of cows….I forgot to ask how many. And there were over 200 sheep!

This is the renovated barn you stay in for the ‘farm stay.’ It has two generous bedrooms with sitting areas that look out the large barn doors at the fields of cows and sheep, and a large kitchen in the center that separates the two bedroom/sitting rooms.

When we arrived the wind was howling and we had to close the large folding barn doors and insert beams to hold them closed!

Kinderhook farm 3 — View from the farm stay barn

This is the view of the sheep grazing from the the barn where we planned to stay!

Shortly afterward Lee came to suggest that we stay in the guest room of the main house since the night temperature was expected to be in the low 30s. We were disappointed to miss staying in this bucolic spot with its view of all the sheep grazing in the nearby fields….but in the middle of the night we were both very happy to be warm in the heated guest room!

Before going out to dinner we watched the managers and two helpers bring the sheep into the barn. In fact, we helped herd the sheep toward the barn. They have two guard dogs and a donkey, but no herding dogs.

Lee caught the two new babies for us to hold. He wants them to get used to being handled, but they were definitely not used to it yet! And the mother of the lamb I’m holding was not happy about it either!

The next day was my first Wednesday Group class in the new location right on the river in New Baltimore! Archie and Susan have a beautiful, renovated historic house overlooking the river. The enclosed porch which is now their studio is 40 feet long and has spectacular river views! The Clearwater motored down river, right in front of us, in the afternoon! Susan has filled their new house with many of her antiques, there is a 2nd floor wrap around porch for sitting outside, and the grounds go right down to the river. She will have a garden next year!

We drove home after my class on Thursday evening, and early Friday morning I headed out to Mendham for my 2-day workshop with Daryl Lancaster called “Weaving a Memory.” It’s been a fun two days, using the Theo Moorman technique to inlay silk habotai strips that were first ink jet printed with our personal photos. Daryl covered the Theo Moorman technique as well as photoshop manipulation of our images. You always get more than you can conceive of in a workshop with Daryl! I will write more on that next time! Meanwhile, check out what she has to say…

Knitting and Fabric Shops in Coastal Maine

August 10, 2011 | 1 Comment

Several of our usual ports have surprised me with wonderful knitting and fabric shops! Our ‘guest room’ is quickly filling up with my treasures!

Bath: Halcyon (the photo on their homepage is that Ecobaby sailor pattern! Ha!) I have to admit that I’ve never been to Halcyon by

HALCYON-YARN-STORE-PICTURE — Halcyon Yarn

boat, but I have been going by car for 15 years. You could get there by boat if you wanted to go that far up the Kennebec River and brave its challenging currents. In all the years I’ve driven over that bridge I’ve never actually seen a sailboat moored in the river near Bath. That’s not to say no sailboats ever go, just that I haven’t seen them on my yearly visit. And what can I say about Halcyon, other than it is a weaver’s and knitter’s Mecca, not to mention spinners, rug hookers, crocheters, braiders, felters, etc…etc… If you do anything related to fiber, this is a great resource! Halcyon is celebrating its 40th anniversary this year. I had a wonderful shopping spree there!

Boothbay Harbor: You need a car to get to Onboard Fabrics, but it is really worth it! It’s a barn on Rte 127 (and their address is Edgecomb but my point of view is the harbor where a sailing seamstress might disembark), not far off Rte. 1 on the way to

onboard_fabrics_barn — On Board Fabrics, near Boothbay Harbor

Boothbay Harbor. They have lots of nautical fabrics, inweights from upholstery to cotton lawn. This year I bought fabrics to make aprons for gifts. No sewing machine on board Pandora, so these projects will have to wait ’til I get home (meanwhile, my husband does have his sailrite sewing machine on board…but it will only sew heavy canvas and sail materials!).

Rockland: Quilt Divas. They have fabric and yarn! And the selections for both are great! It is walking distance from the harbor

for us sailors! I bought the Debbie Bliss “Ecobaby” book here as well as the yarn for the sailor sweater that is currently challenging me to re-design the collar! I also bought more fabric for aprons here. Now I’m going to make a lot of aprons for gifts!

Camden: The Cashmere Goat is new this year, in a good location right in the center of town (what used to be a shoe store). The shop

cashmere goat camden me — 'The Cashmere Goat in Camden

is not yet full, but they do have some wonderful yarns. I bought Manos del Uruguay’s “Serena” (kettle dyed, 60% baby alpaca, 40% pima cotton) in a handpainted colorway (#9796) of watery blues and greens. I’m going to knit a lace shawl from one of the free patterns at Interweave Knits

Belfast: Sock Heaven. This yarn store has been in business for about 10 years now, but I haven’t been to Belfast in about 15 years,

Knitting Sock Heaven Belfast ME — Heavenly Socks in Belfast

so it is new to me! There is an entire wall of yarns produced in Maine, including Hope Spinnery and Done Roving. My big score here was Louet “KidLin”(49% linen, 35% kid mohair, 16% nylon) which I’ve been hoping to find during all my yarn store hunting. It was hard to choose a color for Louet’s “Cia” Pattern, but I finally settled on “Mexican Orange,” a fun blend of gold and warm pink.

There is also a beautiful fabric store on High St. in Belfast. I did not note the name yesterday, but I hope to go back today to spend more time there. I will take a photo and get the name!

Other places. I’ve been to the guild shop in the center of Blue Hill, as well as the yarn shop slightly out of town that has since gone out of busines (sigh…), and I’ve been to Shirley’s Yarns in Hancock (where I bought Dale microfiber years ago for a tank top I never finished because it was so unflattering on me!). Now I understand there are two shops in Blue Hill that I may not know: Blue Hill Yarn shop on Ellsworth Rd. and String Theory on Beach Hill Rd. I don’t know if we’ll get to Blue Hill this year, but now I hope so! And a google search shows two promising shops on Mt. Desert, one in Southwest Harbor (Lilac Lily Yarn Shop) and one in Bar Harbor (Bee’s, Inc.), so I hope to visit both of these since we are on our way there for the weekend.

I am putting aside the Debbie Bliss sailor sweater for the moment. This is quite a disappointment to me, but I do want to give some thought to that collar. The knitters on Ravelry did not have any solutions that appealed to me, so I will take a look in my library of knitting design books when I return home in September.

Here is my next knitting project, Louet’s “Cia.”

Louet KidLin Mexican Orange — Louet's KidLin Mexican Orange

First I will finish my own design that uses Tess Designer Yarns’ micofiber ribbon. I’ll be writing up that pattern to share here and on Ravelry. It’s a very simple pattern, and I’m almost finished!