Knitwear.............

 Love that I can finish one clue

for a couple of the KALs

 and also have time to completely knit

something else

I love knitting lace and Elizabeth Ravenwoods 

Estonian Flower Garden patterns are going to be

so wonderful--here is the beginning of the January block on the left

and on the right photo is the finish of January and February

The yarn is Knit Picks Lace weight--love the feel of this wool/silk yarn

Toni L Lorenz has an Estonia Sampler going for 2020--

I found this lovely white lace weight yarn in my stash and

combined with pearl beads, I've got a soft feeling beginning 

for this shawl!  

Here is February section--there are lots of Nupps!  Okay, I've resigned myself to

doing these tedious stitches--hope not to drop any of the yarn overs!

How about a heart pattern in time for Valentine Day--it's easy peasy and fast knit from

purls and pixels

Books! Books! Books!

Let's talk books--yes, we can talk books forever as far as I'm concerned!  I love books--the smell of the paper--oh yes, you can read on a screen, but there is nothing like turning the page in a book!

We have many shelves throughout the house filled with books!

There are books for reading, books for research, picture books,

children books, silly books, serious books, books for

fiber, etc.

Our granddaughter received a book for her Christmas gift and she

was so happy--needless to say, she is 29 years old-- she

is still excited to begin reading this specific book--she thumbed through the

pages and ahh, the smell of fresh ink rose to my nostril--and I

was happy also! 

I picked up these two books to add to my reading list;

recommended by fellow blogger.

Paulette Jiles:  "News of the World"--a post civil war Texas book--

I'm reading this book now and can't put it down!  

I've read couple of other Paulette books which were quite interesting.

Williams Kent Krueger:  "This Tender Land"  a story from 1932, an

adventure with orphan lads--I'm familiar with Krueger's writing

about Cork O'Connor mysteries--all taking place in Minnesota

Just received this one from Paperback swap the

other day--first few pages are page turners!!

You don't have to read only with your eyes--you can listen to a book!

We listened to this terrific book about Sam Houston and

the history of Texas as we traveled--made the trip seem short--

How can you read more books in 2020??  Seven Easy Habits suggestions from

Scott Young-- if you follow these habits, you can read more books--

Read, Read, Read

What To Do With Odds and Ends?

What do you do when you have a whole box of 2.5" squares?

You make this!  Traffic Jam! from Pat Sloan--it is

truly a scrap busting quilt

and when you have several leftover blocks--where do they go?

Into the beginning of a full size quilt top--all those 'orphans' will be put to good use!

not bad but I still have two orphan blocks left over--oh well, guess

those blocks will linger till there are a few more orphans to work with

or maybe--the backing will contain those two blocks.

Seek and you Shall Find--Evidently!

Either you love Youtube or you hate it!  I've found some useful articles, photos and videos on this popular social network.  Just recently, An article about a Navajo weaver winning best of show appeared on my news feed--move over--Here I come to do more research--you see, I enjoy Navajo weaving A LOT!
I've taken several weaving and dyeing workshops with Navajo weavers--I have collected Navajo weavings and I cherish each and every one.

Navajo Times had the article and photo of  Isabel Deschinny

doing a review of her award winning piece of

Navajo natural dyes and weavings--

Many moons ago I took a natural dyeing workshop

with Isabel in Taos--what great knowledge she

offered.  Not only is she a weaver and dyer, but her

mother was Mabel Burnside-Myers!  The one and

only, who produced this piece

I have had this wonderful weaving/dyeing chart for years and I searched

and searched to see the maker, to no avail,

then I met Isabel and she told us the story of

her mother's work--each piece is individually woven

on a small loom and Mabel was not given any credit-

no wonder I couldn't find a maker.

So happy to have a maker's name with an outstanding work of art!

Her Stash Lives On....................

January spin-in brings lots of good memories for future years--it also brings many different fibers to add to your stash!  How do we accumulate so much fiber?  Why can't we keep up with the spinning required to make that yarn we need for weaving or knitting?  Sometimes Life gets in the way while we are living each day..............................................

Two days before we arrived at Spin-in, we received a call from a family member who had some fiber to donate to spinners who would appreciate it.  Okay, we'll accepted it and it give it as door prizes, which is a big thing each day for registrants--needless to say, we did not expect what we received----27, yes 27 TUBS!!  Yes TUBS!! of fiber--all good fiber--most processed.  We felt sad for this person who had to move to assisted living facility--there was no way she could take it with her--
I'm sorry I didn't get photos of all the tubs--it was hard to believe that someone could have so much lovely fiber--

 This was one of the dyed rovings--Corriedale fiber--she seemed to like this breed of sheep as there was many tubs with processed white fleeces

 She also liked Merino, 80's count;  lovely roving--spinning quality right to the wheel.  There were so many different fleeces--Alpaca, wool, Jacob, etc.  We asked those members who had study groups if they would be interested in these fleeces--there were also soy silk bags, mohair rovings--raw fiber too.  And Silk!  yes, lots of silk.

The photo above is merino--it would be great for felting as well as spinning.

The fiber to the left is 50/50 merino/mohair--

 There wasn't much dyed fiber rovings, like the one on the right--if she did the dyeing, she did a good job--fiber wasn't felted or matted.

 Most of the bins had the price tag and merchant she purchased from--most from 2002-2004.  There was no cotton fiber but lots of synthetic, that could be used for stuffing (in my opinion)   There was also lots of tencel--which a study group wanted to study.  Don't think I'd want to spin it, but some of the attendees were happy to accept for their study.

Photo to the right is bleached tussah silk, almost a pound--Pollywogs  lovely stuff!  Her stash will keep many spinning for many years to come.

Several of us decided right then, we were going home and spin up our stash!  No one wants to leave so much fiber without a home--

She had very little hand spun yarn in her stash--there was one woven shawl with her

handspun--that shawl was delivered with our charity "Helping Hands" hats and gloves.

The above fiber is 50/50 wool and tencel--Her skeins were lovely--

these are in my stash now--I want to make something that would

showcase her spinning--maybe, return it to her someday.

Needless to say, I didn't purchase much fiber-usually don't.

A vendor graciously gave me this bag of Acadian grown brown cotton--

I'll add it to my stash!! 

2020 January Spin-in Wrap Up

What began in 1989 as a small group of 8 spinners who just wanted to gather in

January and have a spinning retreat--has now gone to over 125 spinners plus

vendors coming together the last full weekend in January.  We begin

on Wednesday with vendors setting up their booths with registrants

arriving at 1 PM--they are usually waiting in the hallway rather

impatiently to enter.

the doors open and the spinners begin!  

It's the best laid back place to be for three and half days--there

are no workshops or seminars, just spinners making new friends,

greeting 'old' friends and spinning to their heart's content.

You can stay as late as you want, then back to their condo

to rest to begin again the next day.

One of the vendors has the best designed 

booth-always intriguing and usually to the theme--this year's theme "Helping Hands"

This year the vendor's display was with these wonderful overshot coverlets!  All dyed with

indigo--just a delight to see and touch.  I'm sorry I didn't get a photo of their completed booth set-up

Every one of these spinners are wearing a handmade item--either handspun or not--it doesn't matter--

Lovely it is for body adornment!

Each day around 10 AM--give or take 30 minutes or more--there is a show and

tell and we encourage anyone who wishes to talk about and show off their

latest creation.  We have some wonderful knitters amongst these spinners.

Around the room, there are various sizes of circles--some large, some small, but each spinning away on their purchased product--
Doesn't matter how experienced or novice you are, there is always something to learn from each other--that's why there are no workshops or seminars.

Gorgeous colors flow throughout the days--natural dyes along with chemical dyes--all brightly shining with eager hands spinning away.

Several of our spinners are also knitters and weavers--so here are the latest in color study from Charlene--I loved this study--constant warp with weft of warp colors crossing over--

great way to see how some colors fool the eye --no mudding here or there!

I was surprised how many E-spinners were being used--no electric cords allowed-- But

the "old" fashion way of treadling was majority

Since our theme for 2020 was Helping Hands--we had collected handmade items from those

who wished to participate.  There were many who donated their items to their local

charity, but this group of hats, gloves, scarves, lap robes and blankets were going to a

northern state--in the South we have only 3-4 days of cold a year

We did not count the total number of gifted handmade presented--wonderful

contribution from our "helping hands" spinners

Another year has come to a close for our gathering--it is with sadness we hug and say goodbye to our friends--we'll see you next year in 2021!  Our theme was voted by our

participants--"Alpacalypse is coming"--what fun will we have with this!

2020 Knitting Challenges

Ohlalana is hosting a beginner knit along with

mystery blanket of blocks for 2020.  Each block will be 

different and use techniques that a beginning knitter

will find that helps with knitting.

• Skill level of BEGINNER (only use knits and purls!)
• All squares have the same number of stitches (43) and rows (63).
• The approximate measure for each of my blocks is 8.75” x 8.75” (22.5 cm x 22.5 cm). Of course, this will vary if your tension is different than mine or if you decide to knit them with another yarn weight and needle size.
• They will have 4 rows garter st at each end (casting-on and binding-off edges) and 4 garter stitches at each side. This means that the internal surface (my stitch pattern design playground!) has 35 stitches x 55 rows.

Ohlalana also is featuring a lace blanket knit along.  Maybe,

you don't want to make a full blanket--here are some suggestions:

• Knit some of the patterns instead of all 15 to make a shorter blanket.
• Knit each pattern for more than 4” to make a larger blanket.
• Add more horizontal repeats of each pattern to increase the width of your blanket.
• Add a final border to all the perimeter of your blanket at the end (you might find useful to use provisional cast-on in this case).
• Knit additional rows between patterns to enlarge the blanket effortlessly.