New Etsy shop

As some of you know, I not only knit, spin, and write knitting patterns, I also make felt scarves and dye and pleat silk scarves.  In the past, I've sold these at a holiday craft fair that my former employer sponsored.  As you can imagine, the audience at this fair was very limited.  So to gain wider exposure, I opened an Etsy shop.  Today I stocked it with some scarves. 

Each scarf is unique.  Some are nuno felt, which is wool that is felted onto another fabric, usually silk.  Some are straight up felt made of wool that I dyed.  Some take it a step further and are over dyed using resists to create a pattern.  The pleated silk scarves are individually dyed using a low water immersion technique and then pleated borrowing a Japanese technique that is also used in shibori dying. 

Yes, I've been knitting...

and felting. This just hasn't been exciting in the sense of drama. No horrible mistakes discovered deep into the project. No pending deadline of doom. No nothing.

First up, The Road Not Taken Scarf from A Fine Fleece knit from A Verb For Keeping Warm merino colorway cosmos, which I handspun.



This is two ounces is about six feet long. It is currently on loan to Kristine as a sample for her shop.

I just finished the Lace Ribbon Scarf last night. It is currently soaking in preparation of blocking it. I knit this from some cormo/soy silk I spun up last summer. It's not as long as the pattern called for; I knit until I ran out of yarn.



I've also been felting. I am exploring the idea of selling felted knitting needle cases, business card cases, etc. and these are prototypes for DPN cases. They were still wet when I took the pictures so are very unfinished at this stage.

In which I am a bad, bad girl

Here it is Friday afternoon before a three-day weekend and I can think of nothing but wanting to knit. The problem is that I still have a few hours to go before I can leave my office and I really should be writing performance reviews. I, of course, have no desire to write performance reviews at the moment--or at any time, if truth be told. It's really quiet around the office and streets of the financial district are basically empty. Do you think I can get away with a row or three? (I've got a clapotis as my carry around knitting.)

Riffing on patterns

This is my version of the Parallelograms scarf from Knitting New Scarves. It's for my daughter, the scarf queen. This was a fun, easy knit; perfect for BART knitting or while watching over the caramel pot (I made caramels on Saturday). I used two skeins of Noro Silk Garden on US 8s. It is about 4 inches wide and 6 feet long. Perfect for the child who believes that one must wrap your scarf about your neck multiple times.

I used the Tweed Beret pattern from IK Winter 2006 as the basis for this beret. I used an aran weight blue face leicester yarn I bought from Kristine earlier this month. This took one skein plus a little bit that was left over from knitting the Maine Morning Mitts. I started with a four stitch i-cord; increased to eight stitches and then increased 8 stitches every other round until it was the diameter I wanted. In the next round, I knit 2 together all around. I finished it off with 1x1 ribbing, knitting the last two rounds in the contrasting color.

Late last night I cast on for the Architectural Rib Pullover from The Natural Knitter. I'm using some Alice Starmore Dunedin I've had in my stash forever. I haven't gotten very far, so I haven't taken a progress photo yet. Besides it's black and I'm not sure a photo would show all that much detail.