I chose the Wicked pattern for my handspun sweater. My goal was to have an off the shoulder sweater and as the yarn was a worsted/bulky it seemed to fit. My gauge was off so I went down a size in the pattern to compensate. The pattern is a top down pull over so as long as the cast on wasn’t too big I can kind of fudge it and try it on to make sure the gauge issue does not become a problem and luckily I didn’t have to do any real fudging. I knit until it fit my shoulders well and then put the sleves on scrap yarns. I did cast on 6 stitches under the arm as I have a fair sized chest and know that my sweaters often stretch in the chest if I don’t cast on a few extra stitches.

(if anyone knows how to make a top down sweater in progress look good in photos let me know…gah!)

At this point I have kind of abandoned the pattern to an extent…I have no idea how many stitches I have on the needles and I do not plan to knit the sweater acording to the pattern’s stitch count. This is the beauty of a top down sweater, I can knit and try it on! I will check back for shaping notes as I know the sweater needs to be increased for my hips, but not for a while yet…for now it is just miles of stockinette and watching the colour changes…sounds good to me.

Yesterday Rani asked:

How much fiber do you spin?

These are good questions…and difficult to answer. I haven’t decided if it is intuition or that I have no idea and I wing it!

Depending on the size/complexity of the sweater I often spin 1.5lbs to 2lbs. For this sweater I spun 1.5 lbs or 6 4oz braids (I think my next sweater needs to be fully documented from start to finish yes?) I tend to spin my yarns larger/bulkier than needed so my gauge is often tight…which requires more yarn. I also ply my yarns very tightly so that eats up fiber too….and I hate to run short, so I do spin quite a bit.

If you were making this choice for yourself I would look at your size vs the sweater requirements…most spinners will spin between 1-2lbs for a sweater.

Rain also asked: How do you know it will be enough?

In an attempt to be professional I will not laugh..much. Last year I knit a sweater….I ran out of yarn twice! Yikes…I call it my bullet proof sweater because it is SO THICK…it was a learning experience. A good spinner would tell you to do a swatch and get gauge and they count your yardage and you should be fine….I on the other hand tend to wing it…mainly because…well I like to wing it and hate math, but also because when you are working with handspun things to not always go according to plan…it is handmade yarn and doesn’t always fit into a category or weight…it may be between aran/worsted…it is handspun…do your best! I prefer to always over estimate.

And so I plod on! I think I might be in love with sweaters…I have so many planned for the fall!

Come join us for Fall Sweater Madness…it is going to be fun and I am picking a sweater for chris…so I will be knocking off a Christmas present too…how can you beat that!?!

Well We made it! After a VERY long Wednesday of flying and sitting and flying some more we arrived in portland just in time to eat dinner and go to sleep…also a very long sleep…12 hours so that our bodies could adjust to the time change. Whoo we were pooped!

Today we woke up to headed to the convention center and set up our booth.

It was so naked when we started and we dressed it up with some pretty yarn. I forgot to take the after picture…but I promise to post one tomorrow before the booth gets ravaged (I hope)

When I say we who am I talking about!

My beautiful mom, who is always so wonderful in helping me do shows..she is a true joy to hang out with and didn’t hesitate when I asked her to fly across the country!

Sorry for the bad pic…I have to learn to not stick my finger in front of the flash!

On the actual knitting front I started another pair of anklets for my flight…I love vanilla socks for traveling. These are Fleece Artist’s Sea wool

And nothing is sexier than a sock photo shoot on the hotel air conditioner right?

So far…a good first day! Tomorrow promises to be fun.

It has come to my attention that my family now reads the blog…this is not good for my holiday or wedding knitting…so I have been doing a bunch of secret knitting…but I can show you this

I can tell you that it is sea silk and that knitting with sea silk makes me very happy!

My appologies for being such a bad blogger this year. I have plans for much blog fodder when everything in my life does not revolve around the upcoming wedding. That tends to happen 9 days before you leave. I am so very excited!

I am working on a malabrigo update and another wedding project which I will be able to blog about..since I am knitting it for myself, but just cast on last night…so it isn’t pretty yet.

Things are moving along at break neck speed…but I hope to see more of you all soon!!

xoxo

Michelle

I have been doing A LOT of secret knitting for Christmas. In the past I was safe…but my family has now found the blog and it is no longer safe here…ha ha ha!

However, with the last shipment of Lovesticks I could no longer resist and had to cast on some mitts…but I had a vision for exactly what I wanted and so I just kinda made up the mitts as I went along.

May introduce my  B.A mitts**

Sorry for the bad pics..it was late…and I used photo booth…so lazy..I know!

If anyone is interested in the pattern let me know and I will write it up.

** for those of you who do not listen to Dane Cook’s comedy BA= Bad Ass**

At this point most of you probably know I am a Christmas fanatic. As of yesterday my Halloween decorations started coming down and the Christmas decorations are slowly moving upstairs. I know that my US friends are still waiting on Thanksgiving, but we had ours already and I am hopping on the Christmas train!

I try really hard every year to get an early start on my Christmas knitting….this rarely happens and I am often giving an “IOU”, so this year I am going to try again to be prepared!

I started a blog for my Christmas knitting adventures and would love to have you join me! There is no need for me to be the only author over there! This way we can support each other in our Christmas knitting frenzy!!

Just leave me a comment here and I will send you an invitation to join in my knitting madness!

Our Wed winner is Linda

And our thurs winner is Manon

Congratulations ladies! I hope you love your prizes!

In amongst all the wedding madness going on around here I did manage to get some knitting done on the handspun shawl and cast it off last night! I really don’t think I could be happier with this shawl.

Today there will be a bunch of weaving in of ends and hopfully some blocking. Next time you see this baby she will be ready to wear to rhinebeck.

And with the shawl off the needles I figure it is time to cast on the wedding stole. I will keep you updated on her progress!

Oh and I forgot to mention that the Pigeonroof is up.

Some time ago Anne allowed me to test knit her new leaflet set of gloves and scarf and it is finally finished!

The stitch pattern was  totally addictive and fun to watch unfold.  I used my  Sweet Super Skeins in Joker for the set.

The gloves we a TON of fun to knit and went quickly. They will be warming my hands this fall.

I am doing my best to get through some WIP’s so hopefully there will be some more shortly.

I will be going on a mini vacation this Friday-Wed so I am planning for a lot of travel knitting…we are hiking so I am thinking that some socks that have been hanging around FOREVER will get some attention.

What are you up to for the long weekend?

Canada Day was full of fun and fireworks and I hope all of our American friends have just as wonderful 4th of July and we did on the 1st.

The shrug has made small progress

I am hoping to have some more to show next week (although it will look the same just longer.)  I am still enjoying the stitch pattern and can’t wait to get it off to the test knitter!

Happy Canada Day to all my Canadian friends! I hope you all have a great red and white day!

In lieu of any actual content in this post I bring you a blurry KIP picture

I am re designing the belleflower shrug to be a fall type shrug. The yarn is Dream in Color in flamingo pie and I am loving the colour!

Check out the recent updates of:

Painted Skeins

Dream in Color Lace

Dispite the quiet around here there has been a bit of knitting. This little beauty that I am so in love with is Anne’s newest fingerless glove pattern. She graciously is letting me test knit it.

The pattern is for 2 gloves and a beautiful matching scarf which uses one of my Sweet Super Skeins in the Tight Twist.

The colourway that I am useing is Joker and Anne is knitting her set in Shamrock.

As you can see my roses are just starting to bloom and I am so excited, they are my favorites in the garden.

What are your favorite flowers from the garden?

There has been a huge lack of posting here lately. It is not for lack of things to talk about, but I just have been feeling a bit quite. I am taking some time to recharge after a long time of running off my feet. However there has been knitting!

I finished my spring shawl! Here are a few blocking shots:

And the spine..my favorite part!

I am hoping to have some modeling shots soon. We did do a photo shoot, but I wasn’t happy with the photos, so we will try it again.

Of course I have cast on for a  new shawl

This is Evelyn Clark’s Hyacinth Shawl in my Great Big Skein Cherry Popsicle. I hope to have some of this colourway in the shop soon.

On the spinning front I am getting pretty close to finish the spinning for my shawl…photos hopefully by the end of the week.

I feel so out of the loop…what is everyone else up to?

It has been quite a while since I have shown you all what I am knitting. You don’t like to see knitting do you?

I am constantly struggling to find better ways to photo my in progress blobs of knitting, but taking a photo of a blob just turns out to be…well a blob. So here are my blobs in progress!

Blob #1

Today is C’s birthday and I was trying to surprise him with a sweater. As you can see it is not finished. I was moving along really well but have for the last few days had really sore hands from knitting too much and reskeining a lot of yarn before maryland. I tried to push through the sore hands, but they seem to be getting worse so I may have to take a few days off from knitting

Enough about me! This sweater is knit with shelridge farms in the worsted weight Chocolate. As you can see I used two dye lots…brilliant! Luckily Buffy from shelridge has kindly offered to overdye the sweater for me when it is done…thank you! I am currently finishing the first sleeve and will be sure to take pictures of C in the sweater when it is finished.

Blob #2

Knitting this shawl has been A LOT of fun. The pattern is from the most recent Knit 1 magazine and is incredibly simple which makes for great TV or traveling knitting. The yarn is Oceanwind Knits Fingering weight in Jardin and is so stunning. This blob should be finished soon, her progress was slowed by Blob #1

Blob #3

My Second “Look how Pretty My Yarn is!” Shawl in Ceyeberfiber fingering weight which by the way we have a HUGE order in the mail and coming soon.  I love these shawls simply because of the way they show off the yarns and they are such simple knitting which is great for traveling, which I seem to be doing a lot of.

Speaking of lace we are doing a Lace A Long over at the March Sweater Madness blog if you care to join us. For June and July each member is picking their own project that has a lace motif in it…does not matter what the project is or the weight of the yarn! Let me know if you would like to join, we would love to have you!

Handspun sweaters! I have finished both of my handspun sweaters and just absolutely love them both!

First up is my Bitchin sweater

This sweater was a labour of love!

And do I ever love it!! The roving was Funky Carolina  in Merino Tencel, which is now officially my favorite blend to spin…it is just sooooo smooth!  The pattern is a HEAVILY modified version of the little red riding hoodie. I don’t like to spread negativity so i will just say that I didn’t like the pattern and leave it at that.

Want some more pics?

Sunday was a BEAUTIFUL day for taking FO pictures. I must admit that I didn’t sew the zipper in. I took it to a professional as my sewing skills are less than desirable and I wanted the zipper to work!

I adore this sweater even if it is REALLY heavy!

Up next…

My Buttony Sweater 

I really love this sweater too…it is super comfortable!

This is my “I’m a model” pose! Ha ha ha.

The sweater is knit from the Buttony pattern with very few modifications. I did add some extra length because sweaters seem to be a bit short on me and I really think that length can just ruin a sweater’s comfort level.

The yarn is my handspun from some superwash merino I dyed specifically for a sweater. I am really happy with it and love the feel of the superwash on my skin. The neckline on this sweater is fantastic…I really love the way that it sits so I am planning to knit another one of these sweaters minus the buttons.

And if that wasn’t enough I also finished my Clapotis!

Sweet sheep colourway dyed by Union center knits.

Whew! I wish I could say that is all of my UFO’s finished…but it is not even close!

I have plenty of roving put aside for a few sweaters, but of course I have to finish spinning for my shawl first!

Next up..my LONG awaited Seraphim…did I mention it has been on the needles forever?

So what are you knitting?

Sorry for the blog absence…I have no idea where I have been!

There has been packing of orders, dyeing, planning, re organizing….and knitting!

Most of you probably don’t know but I teach classes at my LYS so I have been putting together a pattern (very very basic pattern) to show off your hand dyed yarns. I have so many beautiful hand dyed yarns that just absolutely would lose a lace pattern in a shawl…but I want a shawl from them…so I am working on a basic stockinette shawl.

Check out the shawl blob photo

I am also multi tasking by test knitting a new yarn that I am dyeing. It is a high twist superwash merino that I have dyed in 8oz for shawls, tank tops, knee highs…ect. Although I love socks I have been finding that my single skeins want to be projects other than socks and scarves so I will be dyeing these base yarns in 8oz skeins.

The pattern will be in the shop when I am done for a very small fee because it is just such a basic pattern. I am also hoping to have a selection of the tight twist and soft spun shawl yarns next week. The soft spun yarns are in semi solid colourways for more of the lacy shawls!

I have also been uploading a LOT of yarns to the shop including some HANDSPUN yarns which are just stunning one of a kind skeins!

Hopefully I will have an FO shawl for you later this week…I can’t wait to block it and wrap myself in it. Mother Nature has yet to agree with me that it is time for spring and slammed us with another storm, but I am ignoring her and moving on with my shawls!!

The Sale at the shop continues! Thank you all for making it so successful! At this point next tuesday will be the last day of the sale so make sure you grab the yarns that you want while they are on sale.

I have been busy packing orders and knitting.

Here is the current state of the over achiever sweater

As you can see I am almost done! However this is how much sleeve I have to go

And this is how much yarn I have left

That is a bit of a problem for me. I wonder why I always seem to run out of handspun. It must be my own sweater curse. Luckily, I have some roving left over, so getting the rest of the sleeve finished will not be a problem…eventually. I need these needles for my March Sweater Madness sweater…so they might be in use when the yarn is finished…cest la vie!

Speaking of March Sweater Madness there is still time to join! I have chosen the sweater patterns, they are all very user friendly top down sweater that can be easily customized to you! There will be a lovely prize that will include some of my handspun yarn!

I was also thinking of doing a series of blog posts on the process of a handspun sweater and was wondering if that is something you would be interested in seeing?

There are lots of new yarns arriving too! There will be an update as soon as the sale is over.

We have:

Dream in Color Baby, Funky Carolina Rovings, Avery Allison yarns, Handmaiden camelspin new colours and Ceyeberfiber worsted weight semi solids!