Winter: A Sanquhar Glove Pattern

I was planning a cool, professional,  grown-up blog post in my head, but the thing is BETH BROWN REINSEL designed a glove patter using my yarn, and IT WAS PUBLISHED IN THE LATEST ISSUE OF KNITTING TRADITIONS MAGAZINE (sorry for the yelling - this is exciting).

Let me try again.

I always look forward to the latest issue of Knitting Traditions magazine, but this spring, in amongst the usual, interesting, assortment of articles about the kind of obscure  knitting traditions that fill my heart with geekish knitterly joy, and patterns that have me plotting new types of yarn that I will someday produce, there is a pattern designed by Beth Brown Reinsel using my yarn.  Beth designed a charming pair of Sanquhar gloves, complete with finger gussets, using my 3-Ply Cotswold x Romney fingering weight yarn.

I was anxious to begin knitting my own pair, but I was unprepared for how addictive this pattern is.  I started knitting them during my last rotation on the Sea Lion, and during our positioning trip from Costa Rica to Baja (no guests) a co-worker (who crochets) and I decided that when other crew members took smoking breaks, we were entitled to take crafting breaks.  I knit most of the left glove in cigarette-break-length bursts, sometimes during rough weather.  There are a few mistakes (knitting on the sly does not encourage great care, never mind rough seas) but I am thrilled with the pattern and the gloves.  As always with Beth's patterns, the directions are clear and informative.

For those interested in learning Sanquhar knitting from a DVD, Beth has created a DVD available at her etsy shop here.  

Beth designed the pattern using pine green and white.   I happened to have had a couple off-length evergreen skeins saved for my own use, so I went ahead and used evergreen instead, and I quite like how they are turning out.   The effect is a bit more spruce trees in winter than white pines in winter, but I am already looking forward to wearing them next winter (a ridiculous thought, given that I'm not even sure that we've really had spring up here yet).

Fiber Trek

I have always been a fairly solitary person, and a fairly solitary knitter, so one of my favorite things about this whole “starting a yarn business” adventure is discovering the wider community of knitters, and the myriad of ways they engage with their craft. Sarah Hunt, in addition to starting and hosting a yarn retreat (at which I will be vending and perhaps even teaching this fall) is filming a travel show about the larger fiber community, showcasing every aspect of fiber production and use, from farmers to owners of small spinning mills to designers and knitters.  At the moment she is focusing on the fiber scene in Maine, though I suspect as her project grows she will branch out to other states (though the Maine fiber scene is large and varied, so it may take a while).  Check out her buzzreal here, and her blog here.  I am very much looking forward to getting back to the land of fast internet so that I can catch up on her latest posts!

Yarn! Lots of New Yarn (and now I am back on a boat).

My time at home was lovely and cold and way too short.  It was also very productive (on the yarn front, though not on the blogging front…). I returned home to find the fleeces I sent off to the mill in the fall returned to me in the form of lovely yarn on cones.  A storm of dyeing ensued.  Yarn took over every available surface in the house, the bathtub was pressed into service for drip-drying, and a giant drying rack took up the prime space in front of the woodstove (much to Nell’s annoyance).

I experimented with new colors and dyed new lots of older colors (which sometimes resulted in new colors).

Above, “Light Butternut”, “Rosewood”, and “70% Cacao”.   70% Cacao is actually a fleece from one of Liberty Wool Farm’s Romney rams (he is or will be responsible for the “Romney” portion of the “Cotswold x Romney” yarn).  I had his fleece spun to the same weight as my other 3-Ply fingering weight yarn.

This is “Aspen”, a lovely, lively green, but not quite the “Cress” that I was aiming for. (Natural Dyeing is not an exact science).

I am back at my “day job” on the boat.  Last night we finished our transit of the Panama Canal and currently we are bound for Isla Iguana for a bit of snorkeling.  As my very slow internet connection allows I will be updating the “yarn” section of this site to reflect the work of the last few weeks.  In the meantime, if you would like to order any yarn, please email me at uptonyarns (at) gmail.com.  My internet connection is sometimes a bit spotty on the boat, but I can usually check it at least once a day.  Yarn is being shipped out in my absence.