The Glorious Hand Spun Blanket

I find that my most favorite projects can take years to finish. Celestarium and Lit Knits each took two years or so. But my hand spun blanket project has taken much longer. From start to finish, it's been more like 5 years. I'm pleased to say that it is finally complete.

It all started when I worked at the Yolo Wool Mill. I collected scraps with the intention of making a large project. At the time I wasn't sure what the project would be, only that I wanted to make something large. What ended up happening is that I separated the brown tones scraps from the grey toned ones. The browns were destined to be a blanket. It took me several years to finish the spinning.

Once I had decided I wanted a blanket, it took some time to decide what kind. Did I want to knit or crochet a blanket? Because the yarn was not completely consistent, I was sure that gauge would be an issue. Also, I felt that knitting would be too stretchy for this yarn while crochet would be too bulky. Eventually I decided that woven was the way to go. There was only one problem: I don't weave.

Robin Lynde of Meridian Jacobs had been weaving blankets for customers of the Yolo Wool Mill for some time. When I saw that she had woven at least one handspun blanket, I knew that I needed her to weave this one for me. She's a busy person, though, so I had to wait a bit. But the wait was so worth it. I let her know that I had imagined some sort of gradient and that I wanted there to be more of a focus on the browns. Robin is a true artist. She came up with something better than I could have ever asked for. I especially love that she added subtle stripes to the blanket.

It now lives on our bed. And for the record, while I love all of the blanket, my favorite part to snuggle under my chin is the dark brown alpaca corner. As for the leftovers, not much was left after the weaving, relatively speaking.

Perhaps the leftover yarn can go with grey scraps that have yet to be spun. I haven't decided what kind of big project the greys might grow up to be. Maybe a sweater or jacket? Perhaps in another five years I'll find out.

Update: If you'd like to see the weaver's side of the story, have a look at the Meridian Jacobs blog.

2014 Creative Recap

It's time for the annual creative recap. I don't know why, but this year I was convinced I hadn't knit or designed all that much. I was wrong. When I looked at my ravelry projects from 2014, I was impressed to see that I had knit up 7 samples for designs, two of which are not yet released. Overall, I'd knit up 11 pairs of socks, 4 hats, 2 sweaters (one sport weight and one fingering), 2 pairs of fingerless mitts, 1 shawl, and 1 infinity scarf. I'm most impressed with the number of socks that were knit. I know many people like to challenge themselves to knit 12 pairs of socks in 12 months. I almost did it on accident. 

I also finally finished spinning the yarn for my blanket project. For the last 4 years, I've been working on spinning all the brown colored mill scraps I had collected while working at the Yolo Wool Mill into yarn. Before I left for New Zealand, I mailed all of the yarn off to a weaver. I'm not sure how the blanket will turn out or what size it will finally end up being. But there is enough yarn for about a Queen sized blanket. I'm looking forward to snuggling under it at some point.

This year proved to me that I have no idea what the future will hold, creatively or otherwise. What I do know is that I will continue to learn as much as I can about fiber and yarn. It still is a passion. But what form that will continually evolve.

Spinning All The Things

My Ravellenic project this year was going to be spinning a 3 ply sock yarn on my spindle. I was making really good time on it, but after having a bit of a design emergency, the project sat. I just wasn't motivated to finish once the Olympics had ended. However, my desire for the yarn grew, so yesterday I finished off the second bump of wool. I only have one more to go before plying! 

Greenwood Fiberworks sock roving in the Enchanted colorway

Unfortunately, after finishing the second bump I tried to slip it off the spindle onto a knitting needle and it didn't go well. I had no problem the first time. I'm not sure what changed. Tyler suggested I wind off all the yarn with my ball winder. It took a couple hours, but I was able to rescue the yarn without having to cut any of it. (I won't lie... I did get close to making fiber confetti.) Now the singles live on toilette paper tubes... because that is all I could think of putting them on after winding them.

I hadn't spun yarn on my wheel in quite some time because I don't feel like I should start another project for the wheel without finishing the epic blanket project I've been working on for the last few years. But you know how that goes: no spinning of any kind has gotten done. I'm too stubborn to break the arbitrary no-new-wheel-projects rule I've made for myself. Having such a big project still sit around really started to bother me, so I spun the singles and plied this beast of a skein in one day.

And now that it is done, I'm seeing the light at the end of the tunnel. I think I have one more skein beast and one slightly smaller skein to go before I am done with the spinning! 

Sail To Treasure Island

Sail To Treasure Island is based on Robert Louis Stevenson's book Treasure Island which was published in 1883. This is the 6th pattern to appear in Lit Knits. The blanket is knit from the center out with an option to knit a larger border. Although this pattern could easily become a shawl or lap blanket if it were knit with a different weight yarn.

The idea behind the blanket is that it is actually the map to Treasure Island. The outer edge is the ocean. The ocean waves give way to the beach. Past the beach is the forest that covers a good part of the island. And near the center is the texture of the mountains. The increases that give the blanket its square shape also represents the most important part of any treasure map: the X marks the spot.

A slightly more subtle detail of the blanket is that the mountain texture and sand texture are the same cable pattern, but the cabling is offset on the sandy shore. Since mountains crumble to form silt and sand, I thought it would be neat for the cable patterns to be related.

The props I got for this shoot are some of my favorite. Both the compass and coin were my Opa's. The coin in particular is a real piece of eight. Minted in 1744, it is a Spanish 8 Reales. 

Although my Opa didn't live to see this book completed, I was able to tell him that both his coin and compass would be in the book. He was unable to talk at that point due to the effects of Alzheimer's, but he understood. He teared up when I told him. 

The photo shoot for Sail To Treasure Island took place on New Years Day of this year (2013). I blogged about some of the amusing things that happened in an earlier blog post. But I'll let you all in on a few other things. My brother declared himself a diva. This was his excuse for not helping to carry the big black sea chest across the beach. He didn't really want to model that day, but Mum "convinced" him that it was a good idea. (i.e. He didn't have a choice in the matter.) Of course this meant that he messed around a bit. After this picture was taken, Mum yelled out, "Stop messing around! You are still in the shot." To which he said, "Oh."

After we joked about him being a diva, he gave me his best Fabio look.

A picture of the black sea chest almost didn't make it into the book. But we made such an effort dragging it out that I shuffled around charts to make it fit. And what is a map of Treasure Island without a chest full of treasure? (Or potential treasure. You'll have to read the book to find out.)

Getting pictures of such a large item was pretty tough. But I'm quite happy with how all the images turned out in the end.

Design #9 - The Sneak Peek

After finally coming up with a swatch I was happy with, I bought the yarn for design #9. Actually, I bought far more yarn than I need for design #9. What can I say? I tried to estimate the yardage I needed, then I panicked.
The picture below is of 18 out of the 20 skeins I now have (not counting the skein that I was swatching with but doesn't match in dye lot with the rest of these guys). I'm not going to lie, I winced when I swiped my card. But it sure beats running out of yarn while binding off.

So I've spent that last few days watching lots of Magnum, P.I. and knitting this monster. It will be an epic blanket when I'm done. My knitting prowess will be worshiped. Well, at least by Scooter. He is quite fond of knit blankets. Although for now it just looks like a a basket of noodles.

On a slightly separate note... and perhaps this is silly since I haven't even finished this book, but I'm already fantasizing about my next book. Because, apparently, I just love to torture myself with long term projects. No instant gratification for me. (I really could use some instant gratification right about now.)

Spinning Spinning Spinning Keep Them Fibers Spinning

Around two years ago I started a giant spinning project. I was going to spin all the brown mill scraps I had collected/ been gifted/ bought while I was working at the mill and make a blanket to commemorate the time I spent there. It was even #1 on my 2011 goal list. I ended up spending most of 2011 designing knits so this project was never finished. 

I felt re-inspired to take up the project again, but there were a couple of other smaller projects I thought I ought to finish before working on the blanket project again. Today I finished plying the Woolgatherings sock yarn that will probably become Denature socks. One skein for each sock.

I also finished up my indigo dyed silk/yak yarn. I've always heard that silk is hard to spin, but was extremely surprised to find that I didn't seem to have a problem. It was a bit more slippery, but not too bad.... until I tried to ply it. Bahhhh. I had overspun one of the singles a little bit and didn't realize it until I was plying. Luckily the skein settled down after a good soak and yank. It came out to 286 yards of laceweight. I have no idea what to do with it, but it's really pretty... and shiny.

With all my other spinning projects completed, I have cleared the way for the blanket project. There's quite a bit of fiber to go. Thank goodness I'm spinning worsted weight yarn. 

Holiday Cheer

Christmas went well. We usually have a Christmas Eve dinner and go to a movie on Christmas. (This year we saw Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows.) There isn't much done in the way of present or a tree. So I was quite surprised that my brother got me something. He never gets me a present. It was even a thoughtful gift! We'd been watching Venture Bros together and I mentioned that I didn't have the season 4.1 or 4.2 DVDs. He secretly went out and got them, wrapped them, AND labeled them. And while I deeply appreciate all the effort, there is one little thing that confused me. He spelled my name wrong. He said it was because he knows my name is spelled "the weird way" but the normal way looks weird to him, so he spelled it with an E. My personal theory as to why he didn't spell my name right is because he's never actually ever had to spell my name. The gift still made me feel special, though.

Mum has taken to decorating one of the house plants in lieu of a tree. I put Scooter's gift under it.

And he loves it. Or at least he can't tell me otherwise. I've been putting it on him every time he lays down so he might develop a bond with the blanket or something. He doesn't seem opposed to being tucked in at least.

Mum gives us all stockings. This year a donkey was donated to Heifer International on behalf of me. I put some mini knitted socks that she requested into her stocking this year.

I hope everyone has had a lovely holiday season. Does anyone else have any holiday traditions?

Love Blanket

The other day I was reading a blog post on Needled called Generosity. Kate talks about how generous knitters can be. She was a recipient of a hand knitted blanket made by ten people that she didn't know. I'm sure every knitter who reads that blog was a wee bit jealous. (Although she very much deserved every bit of love that blanket contained) Fast forward a few days. As I went out to walk the dog, I saw a package addressed to me from my old employer (and friend). I put it inside and continued on. Scooter had a quick walk that day. As soon as I got home, I ripped the box open.

Tore past the tissue paper to find this. A hand crocheted blanket made for me! Especially for me!!! For anyone who knits/ crochets/ quilts, etc, you know that each stitch was done with that special recipient in mind. As soon as I saw it, I exclaimed, "It's a love blanket!" And boy do I feel loved in it.

It's huge! It's heavy! It's double thick! All the color work is carried inside the stitches.

Thanks so much Mrs. L! I think about you, your husband, and camp very fondly. And every time I look at the blanket, I'll be reminded how loved I am. (I also appreciate the amount of postage it took to send the blanket to me)