Barefoot Shepherdess

Year-End Destash

I like to end the year with a good, thorough house-cleaning and re-organization to start the new year afresh.  And this includes a re-examination of my yarn stash.  I've found a few things that I no longer need, so if you are interested, please send me an email.  All of the yarns comes from a smoke- and pet-free home and have been stored in sweater bags.  I've also listed these in my stash over at Ravelry, so you can see them there too.  Payment through PayPal only, please.

Rowan Felted Tweed, color 141 whisper.  Two balls, one of which is partially used and now weighs 35.5 grams.  $12 + shipping.  (There’s actually another partially used ball left (16.5g), but it’s not nicely wound. If you are interested, I can rewind it for you and sell it for $2 more.)

 

Rowan 4 Ply Soft, color 370 whisper.  Single ball, entirely unused.  $7 + shipping.  (There’s actually another partially used ball left (14.0g). If you are interested, I will sell it for $2 more.)

 

Rowan Rowanspun 4 Ply, color 701.  Two skeins, one of which is balled up on a ball winder.  A small amount of the balled yarn has been knit into a swatch and unraveled.  $10 + shipping.

 

Rowan Rowanspun 4 Ply, color 723.  Two skeins, one of which is balled up on a ball winder.  A small amount of the balled yarn has been knit into a swatch and unraveled.  $10 + shipping.

 

Vuorelma Satakieli, color 765.  Single skein that has been wound on a ball winder. It’s otherwise unused.  $12 + shipping.

 

Vuorelma Satakieli, color 873.  Single skein that has been wound on a ball winder. It’s partially used, so it now weighs 98.0 grams.  $10 + shipping.

 

Vuorelma Satakieli, color 433.  Single skein that has been wound on a ball winder. It’s partially used, so it now weighs 98.0 grams.  $10 + shipping.

These, along with the other yarns I have available, are also listed on my destash page, accessible through the link on the top navigation bar.

Thanks for looking!

Destash Sale

I'm reorganizing my stash and found a few things I'd like to let go.  If you are interested in any of the following items, please email me or leave me a comment here.  The yarn comes from a smoke- and pet-free home.  I've also listed these in my stash over at Ravelry, so you can see them there too.  Payment through PayPal please.

Rowan Kid Classic, color 828.  Eight balls.  A small amount of one ball has been knit into a swatch and unraveled.  $53 + shipping.

Rowanspun DK, color 734 Cloud.  Three skeins, fourth balled up on a ball winder and slightly used-- now weighs 48.5g.  $28 + shipping.  sold

Rowanspun DK, color 733 Lavender.  Two skeins, third balled up on a ball winder.  $22 + shipping.

RichMore Excellent Mohair (Count 10) Gradation, color 114.  A small amount of one ball has been knit into a swatch and unraveled.  $22 + shipping.

Mountain Colors Bearfoot, color juniper.  The yarn was partially knit with (half a sock worth), then unraveled and wound into a ball.  $19 + shipping.

Karabella Frost, color 6380 white.  Three balls, entirely unused.  Fourth ball, partially knit with but unraveled and rewound on a ball winder.  $40 + shipping.

Karabella Frost, color 6280 black.  Three balls, entirely unused. Fourth ball, 28g.  It has been rewound on a ball winder.  The yarn has some white fiber on it as it was in the same bag as white yarn when I purchased it.  $37 + shipping.

Thanks for looking!

Stashing

In celebration of my birthday this past Monday, I treated myself to a little stash enhancement:

 

Some Heirloom Knitting Merino Lace yarn in cranberry, violet, and ocean blue.  Yes, lace is very much on my mind; my Ravelry queue will attest to that!  [But then again, when is it not?]  I'm looking forward to trying out this yarn-- the hardest part will be matching these to the 'right' projects.

And it looks like I've started a fiber stash as well:

The pink roving is Merino, and the blue is a Merino/ Silk blend, both from A Verb for Keeping Warm.  There are just two ounces of each, which I'm determind to turn into enough laceweight to knit up a little something.

With all these goodies, it looks like I'll be busy for a good while!

Knitting? What Knitting?

It's all about spinning here, lately.  Right now, I'm working on spinning up some Spanish Merino that I had on hand into some laceweight yarn, for practice.  It'll be a 2-ply yarn, so I'm trying to spin the singles as thinly as possible-- which, I've quickly found out, isn't very easy.  So far, this is as thin as I can manage:

As I'm a little impatient to see how the resulting yarn will be like in terms of thickness and twist, I'm calling this bobbin done, and am moving onto the next.  This way, I can also figure out if I need to change my spinning technique to achieve the kind of yarn I want.

Meanwhile, I've been looking around for fibers to spin after I'm done practicing.  Here's what's coming next:

Merino roving from Freckle Face Fibers.  Yum!

Going Tropical

Café Cocount, 70% cotton, 30% coconut

What better way to enjoy a bit of the tropics at home than to play with some coconut yarn?  This Café line also offers yarns that incorporate banana fibers and sugar cane fibers.  So unique!  Here's a close-up of the yarn to show the texture:

I just brought it home today, so I'll let you know how it knits up once I try it out.

The Latecomers

Okay, so I had another reason why I wanted to get the completed shawls blocked and finished.  Last week, the last of my Christmas presents from B finally arrived in my mailbox:

Jaggerspun Zephyr in Elderberry and Teal-- they’re such lovely colors, perfect for some spring lace knitting.  Already, I know what they’ll eventually become:

The Elderberry Zephyr will be for Madli’s Shawl from Interweave Knits Summer 2004, and the Teal Zephyr will be for the Sampler Stole from A Gathering of Lace.  Can you tell I’m just itching to get started?  But I made myself a promise-- no new projects until I finish the current ones!

Organized Color

Thank you for all of your nice compliments on my Jaywalkers.  I'm still amazed and pleased by how well the colors stripe and match on the two socks.  It’s no wonder so many people have enjoyed knitting this pattern!

Happy from the success of this project, I decided to tackle another one with handpainted yarn, this time using my long-stashed Margaret Stove Artisan Lace yarn.  Since I only have a single skein of this beauty, it's destined to become a small scarf.

Rather than letting the colors mingle and play on their own, I've opted to create vertical stripes of color-- much like this scarf I've made in the past-- by strategically pooling the colors.  It's not at all a difficult technique; all you have to do is align the colors on the skein in advance (sorry for the dark photo-- this was done at night, so the lighting was poor)...

...and cast on the appropriate number of stitches to match both a single color sequence of the yarn and the chosen stitch pattern.

Now just wind up the yarn, and you're ready to go!

Luckily, I was able to have just the right number of stitches in the color sequence for Margaret Stove's Trellis Stitch Scarf.  So that's what I decided this would be.  It's nice to have a simple lace pattern for this type of knitting as most of the effort goes into making sure the colors stay aligned.  Often times, I knit a row, only to have to unravel it at the end because the colors shifted slightly to one side.  I remedy the problem by adjusting my tension on the yarn-- this wouldn't work with knits that require a specific gauge, but with lace, the inconsistency becomes unnoticeable after it's blocked.

So far, mine looks like this:

You can read a more detailed description of the process here on Margaret Stove's website (scroll down to the April tip) or in the Interweave Knits Fall 2004 issue ("Pooling Colors Scarf," p.122-23).

Because this is such a two-steps-forward, one-step-back sort of process, I needed another project to pick up when I want something more mindless and carefree to knit.   So I started this last night:

Lichen Ribbed Socks from Knitting Vintage Socks by Nancy Bush.  It's turning out to be a very quick knit!

Change Of Heart

I encountered Claudia Hand Painted Yarns.  Need I say more?

After all, how could my heart not waver at the sight of all her beautiful colorways?  As soon as I saw them, I knew that my firm resolve to not purchase any more hand-painted yarns would crumble.  And crumble it did.  I immediately hopped over to The Loopy Ewe and purchased these exquisite skeins:

Claudia Hand Painted fingering-weight yarn in Sea Dreams and Just Plum.  So lovely!

In addition to the yarns, the package also included these:

A couple of yarn samples and needle inventory charts for double point, circular, and straight needles.  What a nice, thoughtful touch!  Yet the best part for me was that The Loopy Ewe ships internationally; Japan, though known for its vast offering of nice craft goods, has a curious lack of handpainted/ hand-dyed yarns.  Their service is amazingly fast too-- I placed my order on Friday and received it already yesterday.   Do I foresee more purchases in the not-too-distant future?

Unpredictable

That, to some, is the beauty and charm of handpainted yarns.  But to me, it's precisely the reason why I've shied away from such yarns in the past.  When I knit with multiple colors, I like to have control over exactly how the colors will appear and interact.  Though some handpainted yarns look beautiful in a skein, they don't necessarily look as good when knitted up.  And as the colors are already established on the yarn, rearranging them is not an option.  Working with such yarns just seems too uncertain for me-- there's too great a chance for things to go wrong.

If I knit with a handpainted yarn, I would want the colors to blend in a subtle and gradual manner, not just horizontally across the length of the yarn, but also vertically on the knitted fabric.  But all too often, I've seen examples of colors mixing to the point of appearing muddled or gathering themselves in large blocks, i.e. pooling.

That's not to say that I haven't been tempted by handpainted yarns in the past.  In fact, a couple skeins of Lorna's Laces Shepherd Sock in a variegated colorway inevitably made it into my stash and are the reason for this post in the first place.  For almost a year, this yarn has been sitting in my stash, waiting for the appropriate project.  A project that would show off the colors in a pretty way, and not be overwhelmed by the variegation.  Something that wasn't all stockingnette, but with a little bit of texture.  And after a good long search and a lovely example to reassure me, I settled on a design.  RPM from Knitty:

Needless to say, I was very wary-- I might go as far as to say, apprehensive-- when I started to knit.  But luckily for me, the colors ended up arranging themselves in an acceptable sort of way.

Still, it's not my favorite color combination, though I admit that has to do with my choice of colorway rather than the yarn itself.  Also, after I reached the heel, I realized that I had miscalculated the size and made the sock a little too big.  As I felt I was too far along to begin again on a sock towards which-- by this time-- I only felt lukewarm, I kept going and simply remedied the problem for the foot (which, by the way, does fit quite well).  So here's my dilemma now-- to knit the second sock to match for the sake of discipline, use the remaining yarn to knit a different design that might display the colors better, or abandon the yarn altogether and move onto something I really like.  Or I could even re-stash the yarn for a project down the road.  I'm leaning towards option two...  Any recommendations for a fun sock pattern using variegated yarn?

A Long-Awaited Package

Finally, it's here!  I placed this order with The Wooly West (Nancy Bush's mail order company) back in May for my self-chosen b-day present from B, but it just arrived last week.  One of the items I had ordered had been backordered and had delayed the entire package.  Look at all of the wonderful goodies:

Several Estonian mitten books, a couple of skeins of the Footpath yarn, the color card for Footpath (not pictured-- next time!), and some double points in sizes I was missing.  Here's a close-up of the yarn:

Was it worth the wait?  You bet.  The books are truly inspirational, and the Footpath yarn is a gorgeous heathered blue-green shade.  This particular yarn had peaked my interest because of its subtle, yet beautiful (not to mention, highly wearable) color selection.  They're certainly not colors I've seen often in sock yarns, and I'm excited to see how the yarn will look when it's knitted up.  Now, I just need to choose a fitting pattern for them.

There'll be plenty of time this weekend to think about it-- B and I are going on another trip, this time to visit my other grandparents in the mountains of Nagano.  We’ll be gone for 5 days-- maybe this time, there *really* will be some knitting…