Shop Update - New Kits!

Like many other knitters, I fell in love with Kristin Drysdale's Ingeborg Slippers the moment I first saw them on my Instagram feed.  It turns out they are as fun to knit as they are to pad about in.  So I put together kits. 

For my slippers I used Upton Yarns DK Weight Bluefaced Leicester spun from the wonderful fleece of the flock at Two Sisters Farm.  The pattern calls for size 3 needles, but I found that to get the correct gauge I had to go up to size 6s (I tend to be a tight knitter).  I used light blue Glacier Bay, dark blue Delft, and for a blaze of contrast, bright orange Tiger Lily to finish the edges. 

The kit includes those three colorways, and of course, one of my very happy hand printed project bags. 

Sold Out

Yarn Kits - Ingeborg Slippers

$37.00

Any orders placed between now and Friday will go in the mail the day they are ordered (as long as the order is placed before 3:00 - I still need time to pack them up and get to the Post Office - but I will do my best!). 

And don't forget the Moth Discouraging Sachets!

Happy knitting, and Happy Holidays!

Dyeing away -

I have been dyeing away, mainly working with the Straw’s Farm Island Sheep fingering weight (with an eye towards Kanoko socks and more importantly, Kanoko yarn kits, see below for one idea) but a few dye lots of DK weight BFL have snuck through, including one of my favorites, Coe’s Naptime.  I think it would make a great Arboreal sweater. (Now listed for sale over at the DK weight BFL page). 

DK Weight BFL spun from fleece from Two Sisters Farm, Warren, Maine

With a skein of Silver Birch. Because reasons. 

Stay tuned for Kanoko kits, and a whole lot of Straw’s Farm Island Sheep fingering weight in an array of colors.

Potential Kanoko Kit #1 - Zounds those colors are bright! 

Arboreal!!! (I am so very excited!)

I am very pleased to announce that latest design from the  incredibly talented Jennifer Steingass (@knit.love.wool on Instagram) features Upton Yarns Bluefaced Leicester DK weight yarns (spun from the fleece of Two Sisters Farm, Warren, Maine). 

That was my grown-up voice.  My actual voice implies much more gleeful undignified muppet dancing. (The muppet dancing took place on several occasions) .  (Sam the Eagle did not and does not approve).

Moving on. 

Jenn's design, Arboreal, published here on Ravelry, is a lovey top down yoked sweater using a very pleasing, intuitive, motif of repeated leaves, and just enough waist shaping to be flattering.  (Jenn currently has a 20% off sale going, use the code LEAVES).

photo credit, Jennifer Steingass

Her patterns are easy to follow, and really just a pleasure to knit, though I was impatient and left the sleeves off of my version. 

please excuse the lack of blocking and the untucked ends...

I really love the elegance of Jenn's original two color design, but when I started planning my own I got a bit sidetracked by the potential for more color inherent in such a simple design.   Because of the way I use natural dyes, repurposing the exhaust from one dye bath to combine with other dyes or exhausts (never mind the multiple dip nature of dyeing with indigo) I often end up with color gradients. 

So then I had a few gradients that I really liked.  

And then yoke kits happened. 

I'm dyeing the main color to order (the 2017 BFL DK weight just made it back from the mill in time!) and offering yoke kits on the Arboreal page I've put together . 

This would be the more dignified version of the muppet dancing this pattern inspires. 

Jenn and I will be at the Highlands on the Fly knitting retreat at the New England Outdoor Center in Millinocket, Maine next weekend (she's the keynote speaker, I'm a vender) and most of my yarn will be going with me.  So if you have your eye on anything, don't wait!  All my yarns are extremely limited in quantity. 

Happy knitting!

Slater Mill Knitting Weekend (the yarn pile grows...)

Since returning home from the boat my life (and apartment) have been taken over by preparations for the Slater Mill Knitting Weekend in Pawtucket RI (and yes, I did get the vending dates wrong in that last post - vending is Jan 21 and Jan 22).  I feel a bit like I just accepted an invitation to a fancy dinner only to realize that I have nothing to wear....  Luckily the beautiful DK weight BFL spun from the 2016 Two Sisters Farm fleeces came back from the mill, and I have been (gleefully) hard at work.  So, if you are in the neighborhood next weekend, please stop by. 

This is just the neatest of the epic piles of newly dyed BFL that have taken over the apartment..

For people still on my coopworth gansey yarn wait list, fear not, I do still have 2016 yarn available and but for a small sample it will not be going to Slater Mill.  Efforts to fill orders for those on the wait list have been preempted by the mad work to have yarn to sell in person, by the following week will be back to normal.  I'll be sending emails to folks in the order they expressed interest.  And with time already running out on this rotation home (seriously, how does it go so fast when I'm home?) I will probably still be filling wait list orders when I get home again in March.  I thank you all for your patience and understanding of my (frankly ridiculous) day job. 

And in totally unrelated news, I have been hesitant to mix politics with business because to my New England raised sensibilities doing so is just impolite, but strange times and all are forcing a bit of a rethink on that one.   Today I worked up the courage and called the offices of a senator and a member of the House of Representatives.  It's baby steps in terms of political involvement, but it wasn't nearly as scary in reality as I had made it seem in my head.  I encourage everyone to give it a try.  It may be yelling into the wind, but maybe if enough of us yell.... 

Engineer’s Armwarmers Kits and DK weight BFL, or: What I Got Up To During My Last Rotation Home.

Now that we are in Costa Rica for the winter and the engine room thermometer measures 100 degrees it seems impossible that only during my last rotation (when the boat was in Alaska) I was thinking about what to layer under my coveralls to stay warm, but I really was, and my solution was a pair of armwarmers in a random rib inspired by the geological formations of the Endicott Arm in Southeast Alaska.  

With a little bit of shaping for the forearm and the simplest of holes for the thumb they are lovely and simple to knit.  When I wrote up the pattern I realized how little yarn the three accent colors actually required and so I decided to make up a few kits.  And once I decided to make kits, I got a little carried away, but in a good way.  

I talked Sam into drawing a crossed pipe wrench and set of knitting needles, which I then turned into a block print. 

And on a lazy Sunday morning printed flour-sack muslin bags.  

And once there were bags, there had to be stitch markers.  So I got in touch with Wendy at Blue Dog Workshop (a fellow Mainer) who has made lovely stitch markers for me in the past, to see if she might have any charms that fit the emerging theme.  She had the perfect charm in mind, and was happy to pair it with a light blue bead the color of glacier ice.   (I wish I had taken a better photo of just the stitch marker before I left - I could not be more pleased).

All in all, I had a lovely time putting the kits together and am really pleased with the results.  

In addition to working with my Romney > Cotswold fingering weight yarn for the kits, I also got to dye this year’s worsted spun DK weight Bluefaced Leicester from Two Sisters Farm in Woolwich, Maine (I feel like I earlier mis-identified the farm as being in Waldoboro, which is one town over).  

The yarn is lovely and lustrous and soft and also the perfect weight for knitting Kate Davie’s Epistrophy, which has been on my “to knit” list ever since Yokes was released.  I will admit that I dyed the Aspen and Tongas color ways with my Epistrophy in mind. 

Sadly, I had to return to the boat before I gathered my courage to cut the steek, but it is almost finished, and I really enjoyed the pattern and am very happy with how it is turning out. 

The remaining BFL (that I didn't hoard for myself) is currently listed for sale here. 

I will be on the boat in the sweltering heat until mid-January, dreaming of colder climes and knitting. 

The sunsets are lovely here though.

Flamenco Anchorage, waiting to head into the Panama Canal, Caribbean bound.