Colors--A Fiber Festival

Yesterday was Colors in Berkeley. This event was pulled together by Sara, Kristine of A Verb for Keeping Warm, and Brooke and Maia of Tactile Fiber Arts. In addition to fiber and yarn from A Verb for Keeping Warm and Tactile Fiber Arts, there was fiber and other goodies from Pigeonroof Studios and Girl on the Rocks. Plus, there were three sessions of beginning drop spindling and three different fiber tastings. It was great fun.

I took the Exotics fiber tasting with Kristine. We spun baby alpaca, alpaca with silk, baby llama, baby camel with silk and 100% cashmere. It was all yummy and gave me an idea of what to ply with this merino/tencel blend I'm spinning on my Bosworth midi spindle.


This is going to look gorgeous with the baby llama I bought from A Verb for Keeping Warm.


Kristine is a really good teacher. There was the right mix of general chatting, discussion of the fibers we were spinning, and spinners silently concentrating on their spinning. I would highly recommend if you are in the Bay Area and get a chance to take a spinning class from Kristine that you leap. I've not taken spinning classes from Maia or Brooke; the buzz was that they are great teachers as well. I occasionally spin with both of them and can speak to their understanding of spinning and fibers--deep, very deep.

For me, one of the best parts of the day was meeting old friends from Deep Color and new friends from Ravelry. I loved sitting and knitting and spinning with Kathleen, Sara, Adrienne, Krista, Wonder Mike and Hizknits from Yknit. (If you haven't listened to their latest episode which is an interview with Lucy Neatby, what are you waiting for?) I met a lot of people from Ravelry whom I can't mention by name because I'm absolutely terrible about remembering names.

Here is the rest of the stash acquisition from yesterday.
100% Finn in Indigo Dip from A Verb for Keeping Warm.
80 merino 20 silk in Headlands from A Verb for Keeping Warm.
Superwash merino in Pink Cady from Pigeonroof Studios.
Superwash merino in Harlequin from Pigeonroof Studios.

I also bought the sweetest stitch markers from Girl on the Rocks and forgot to take a picture.

Just in case it looks as if I've done nothing but add to my stash, I present last week's spinning project: 268 yards of 80 merino 20 silk dyed with logwood grey from Tactile Fiber Arts.


Ada update: less than 20 rows to knit before I'm finished with both sleeves!

A little progress

I've made a bit of progress on Ada, not much really. There are a lot of stitches on the needle--you start with 260 and decrease 2 stitches every three rows plus it's garter stitch, which eats up yarn but doesn't add a lot of inches. I've probably got about 5" more to go before switching to stockinette and shaping the bodice. This really doesn't make for good blog fodder, but it is what it is.

On Sunday, I started spinning up some carbonized bamboo that I bought from Tactile Fiber Arts. It wasn't smooth spinning at all. I predrafted thin strips of fiber and was getting lumpy yarn. I fluffed it even more and tried spinning over the fold--still getting lumpy yarn. On top of all of that I wasn't enjoying the hand of this fiber at all. The last time I spun bamboo I had the same reaction about the hand. On Monday, I inspected my results and hated, hated, hated them. So the spun fiber came off the bobbin. I gathered up the unspun fiber as well and trotted off to the garbage shoot and gleefully dumped it. I just needed it out of my life. This is no reflection on the quality of Tactile's fiber. I've spun other fibers from them and they were quite nice. In fact, I'm spinning up a lovely merino silk blend that was dyed with logwood gray I bought from them at Lambtown last summer. I just think that bamboo and I don't get along!

Stitches West

I spent yesterday at Stitches West in Santa Clara. I had a great time, met a lot of people from Ravelry including the guys from Yknit and Jenny and Nicole from Stash and Burn, and visited a lot of vendors that were new to me thanks to the Ravelry passport game.

I'm still recovering from the yarn fumes, so here is my day in pictures.

The patterns:


The books:


The yarn:
Sock yarn from A Verb for Keeping Warm; for my mom.

Primero from Brooks Farm; also for my mom.

Sock yarn from Tactile Fiberarts; for my mom.

Millends from Blue Moon Fiber; medium-weight Socks That Rock.

The roving:
Fire on the Mountain merino superwash from Blue Moon Fiber.

50% merino 50% bamboo from Creatively Dyed Yarns.

Merino in "Cosmos" and polwarth in "Correopsis" from A Verb for Keeping Warm's Garden Series 2007.

A weekend for making stuff

"I'm going home to make stuff" I said to Kristine of A Verb For Keeping Warm as I departed from Glimakra Weaving Studio yesterday, clutching the yarn I had just bought from her. Kristine, Brooke and Maia of Tactile Fiber Arts were participating in the Open Studio weekend at Maj-Britt Morbrand's studio. I bought 3 skeins of BFL from Kristine; two skeins of "The Best Blue" and one of "Northerner". Glimakra Weaving Studio isn't all that large and was stuffed to gills with wonderful fiber-y stuff. I wanted to stay and take it all in, but I had to go home and start making stuff.

As soon I got home, I wound one skein of "The Best Blue" into a ball and started to knit Clara Parks' Maine Morning Mitts. These are going to be a Christmas gift. This first one was knit while watching A Midsummer Night's Dream and part of Chocolat. Since I'm not knitting much in the way of Christmas gifts, the second one will be done in no time.

While I was working on the mitt, I poached some pears. I got these from one of the attorneys I work with. They have a wonderful flavor on their own, but I like poached pears. These are dead simple to make and make your house smell wonderfully spicy. First, make a simple syrup of 2 parts water to 1 part sugar. Throw in some cinnamon sticks, whole allspice and fresh ginger. Add the peeled and halved pears and cook over medium low heat until tender. Cool.

I also started the second twisted rib sock. After knitting the Maine Morning Mitt on a US 7 going down to a US 1 felt a bit weird. I normally knit on small needles and was surprised that I couldn't get my coordination right. So, I didn't get as much done on the second sock as I'd thought I would. But that is okay because these are for me and I'm in no rush to finish them.

I set today aside for spinning. I started spinning this merino/tencel up at the last pot luck Sunday spinning day at Maia's. I finished spinning 2 oz. today and will start on the second 2 oz. later this week. This fiber was one of my solar dyeing experiments from this summer. I love that the colors are softer than they would have been had I steam set the dye. I also started spinning the Targhee I bought in September. It is turning out a lovely oatmeal color. I've spun up 1 oz. and have 5 oz. left. I'm thinking of making a 3-ply for a hat.

Speaking of 3-ply, I made my first successful 3-ply late last week. I ended up with approximately 1.9 oz. and 190 yards. I dyed three separate pieces of merino top in three strengths of Jacquard Black using a low-water immersion technique. I'm going to use this to make another Purl Bee Beret.