Extravayarnza

So,
I taught my first in a series of Thrummed Mitten classes today. It now looks like I'll be teaching three rounds of this class before the end of the year. It's the cool thing...

Since I have lots of opportunities to knit mittens along with the class, I'm knitting myself my own luxury pair of mittens.

My camera got left at work, but trust me these mittens are going to be terrific.

I'm using the chocolate brown Louisa Harding Wool/Silk blend for the knitting. Then I'm using brown fine fine cashmere for the thrums. Yep silk mittens lined in fluffy cashmere.
The best part?

We have a mini hank of Cashmere roving (just the perfect amount for a pair of mittens) for only about $2 more than the corriedale roving pack. So worth it...

Also,
For those of you near Lansing...
Do you have the itch to try and dye your own yarn?

This Sunday I'm teaching "Easy & Safe Yarn Dyeing"

Sept 17 Sunday 1:00-3:00
Learn to create the colors of yarn you want with a safe & fun dyeing method. Using food colors and a microwave this type of dyeing simple to do. Class fee includes all supplies except yarn. Wear grubby cloths because they could get stained. Come spend a fun afternoon playing with colors!

There are still a few seats left in the class & I know it's going to be tons of fun!

See the Rae's Yarn Boutique website for information on signing up or give me a call at the store 517 336 YARN

*Note: I thought I'd published this post on the 15th,  but now I see I never switched it off draft...*

I think that the Americanized theory of Karma is a very cool thing. I try to live my life well & do good things for others. My life has taken some pretty good turns & I'm generally a happy person.

I see Karma a lot in my life...

My favorite vineyard in Michigan is Karma Vista.  (I'm biased on this one because it's owned by an old school mate of my mom's).
They do have quite nice wines & thinking of it now I do have a bottle of 'Pink side of the Moon' in the cupboard.

This morning Scout posted a nice little post on Karma & I was lucky enough to snag up the 100% Merino,  Karma's a Bitch sock yarn. I was tempted several times by the Lime & Violet, but with the black in there I think the colors just jump.

I now have my camera again and can show you the super cool thrummed Mittens I'm making along with my class~

First off, Yes I'm making the mate for the original mitten...

The amount of yarn left is making me a bit squeamish about having enough, but I've weighted it and there is enough...

Second, I'm super excited about the new pair...
They are Louisa Harding Wool & Silk in Chocolate Brown with 100% cashmere thrums!

These are going to be so warm!

I just got word from Jonelle at South West Trading Company that I can go ahead and show off my design for the book of Karaoke Hats!

I love the way the final design worked out,

This hat makes me so happy. The lines zig zag right into the top. The decreases worked seamlessly into the design. I didn't put a specific turning ridge in so you can fold it to fit your head. In one of the brown or forest green colorways I would totally wear this hat.

The pattern will be available from South West Trading Company later this Fall.

So, I had to slow down last night. I've been letting myself get so stressed out the last few weeks. I actually got upset enough on Friday to make myself physically sick. So, my rule for the next weeks until I see my Doctor is that I need to stay calm, be the duck (see a post about a week ago if you didn't get that one...), the calm pond, visualize myself in my happy place (on a lake up in the mountains), what ever it takes. The deadline knitting (chart riddled black lace scarf) just had to go on the side lines. I can't handle a deadline right now. I also can't handle knitting that particular project at the moment.
So, what to knit?
I found my most pleasurable knitting projects, decided to use those magic words like Alpaca, silk, and cashmere & I became the finisher!
(lots of pictures in the rest of the post... just to warn you)

First off, I finished my Cashmere thrummed mittens~

Yarn: 2 balls of Louisa Harding Grace (Wool/Silk) & 1oz of brown cashmere from Ashland Bay (the best cashmere roving I've found... so soft!)

Pattern: Thrummed Mittens from My Bagatelle

I love these mittens! I wore them all day today. Can you tell which one was finished a month ago & had been tried on by God know how many customers & which one was finished Friday? I'll be so happy when they both have that lovely cashmere halo.

Then I dug into some new products & knit these little dragonfly adorned wrist warmers~

Yarn: Elsabeth Lavold Silky Cashmere (55% silk 45% cashmere... this is a truly magic combination!) 1 skein made a pair with leftovers.

Pattern: wrist warmers from E. Lavold Book #10

In fact I liked them so much I made a second pair out of Debbie Bliss Alpaca Silk Aran~

These are for Sunday (the big Opera & dinner). You can see that I actually painted my nails to coordinate with my shoes. I know my wrists get warm & then that causes my tendinitis to flair up so I needed some fancy warmers that went with my outfit. Today I also found these fab 100% cashmere gloves with little cables on the cuffs. The best part is that the fingers aren't too long for my hand. If you can see in the picture above, I have freakishly short hands. Here's a better view of the accessories for tomorrow.

I love the whole thing... Aren't those shoes so cute. I even like the purse. My dress has a beaded ribbon belt, so the purse really picks it up. I'm looking forward to a big day.

My big finished project is my Iris Garden socks!!!

Yarn: My Amber sock yarn in Dahlia & the yarn my dye-o-rama pal dyed for me using a machine knit blank (this yarn inspired my Iris Garden colorway)

Pattern: My Own! Iris Garden socks, pattern currently only available through the Six Sox Knitalong on Yahoo Groups.

What can I say. I love the socks, how couldn't I? I did better keeping the leg loose on the second sock so it goes over my heel better & the pattern distorts less when I where it.

Why put YES! on the second sock?

1~ I need something to help me remember to stay calm & happy. YES! is a very positive message.

2~ There were three letters I really wanted to use in my alphabet chart, K Y S. I figured out that YES was a pretty good way to at least use 2 of the 3. (KEYS could have used all three, but would have made even less sense)

I needed some portable knitting for the ride to and from Detroit tomorrow, so I cast-on for a new pair of socks~

This yarn rocks! Meet 'Karma's a Bitch' from Scout's Swag. I'm going to knit myself some toe-up knee socks. That will really cheer me up.

We now once again have working Internet service!
I think the biggest news from this week is our new shelving unit for the store's back room. Previously we had a hodge podge of shelves that didn't hold boxes well, now I have a customized unit that holds at least 4 times as much as the old one did!

It took 2 days to get all those screws in and the shelves up, then I got down to filling them up. I wish we had taken a before picture, the difference is truly amazing.

My other really big news is a finished pair of 'Karma's a Bitch' knee socks. Scout dyed this yarn a month or two back & I've really enjoyed knitting these socks. I had about 500 yards & used all but the last yard or two on these socks. They were knit toe up with a short row heel on size 1 needles. Despite the fact that I have shapely legs I only increased 6 stitches on the legs. The amount of spring in the yarn makes these stay up quite well.

To keep in the vein of socks, I have been working on some Christmas Stockings.

This first one is a store bought stocking I customized for a customer. I don't usually show this sort of thing on the blog, but I'm really happy with how the duplicate stitch worked up.

I've also finally started knitting the next wave of our family Christmas stockings. My Grandma (the one who taught me how to knit) used to knit these for the family. Now I'm attempting to knit a few for new members of the family plus one old one. My dad lost his stocking before I was born & his mother wouldn't knit him a new one. I am knitting him one for Christmas, but like her, I'm only ever knitting him one. He looses it again & he's out of luck!  So, here's his new stocking with one of Grandma's. The eye's and nose will be duplicate stitched on later... (I also choose to photograph is with a different stocking than I based the pattern off of so it's not exactly the same as this one anyways)

Next, I had a new session of my thrummed mitten class start on Thursday night so I took advantage of some new yarn at the shop. This pair is knit in Rowan Tapestry with Camel/Silk roving!

To close things up I'm issuing a warning to make sure small children aren't looking at the screen.

My brother decided to break out his old Teddy Rupskin. He needed a bit of work to clean up the tape deck & get all the workings of the face going. Teddy needed some major surgery to get going again & I couldn't resist a few pictures.

Teddy was a pretty complex toy, especially for being 20 years old. Now we just need a new cable to connect Grummy, a Christmas hat for Teddy, and we get to listen to the wonderful Christmas story book.

Thank You all for the Birthday wishes. I had a lovely day & am now left with more baked goods than I can possibly eat (although the crepes & cheesecake are so good I'll sure try to finish those off!)

Waiting for dinner tonight I finished the first of a project that's kinda special for me. One of my favorite tv shows over the last few years has been Dr. Who. Now I'm too young to remember any of the original versions of this show, but I really just love a little campy sci-fi each week.

Now, the season finale really left off with a heart wrenching cliff hanger. I've never been so anxious for a season premiere before. During the particularly sad scene at the end Rose was wearing these really beautiful wristwarmers.

Some really wonderful blogger went out & translated a pattern for these from the screen shots. I'm knitting them as my life line to the next season...

Even if your not a Dr Who fanatic these wristwarmers are a fantastic pattern & really fun to knit. Other than changing the color I only made one change to the pattern. The palm in the pattern is knit in stockinette, for me they were quite loose fitting. I did find a simple solution to make them fit that didn't require reknitting the whole thing.

I dropped every other stitch down in the stockinette section & worked them up with a crochet hook. In the photo your seeing the inside of the wrist warmer because it's easier to work a knit stitch back up than a purl. I only had to drop down a total of 6 stitches & it took me less than a hour to make my wristwarmers fit really well.

Be still my beating heart. The Doctor & Rose will be reunited...

It's been darn cold here lately. Nothing like double digit below zero temps to drive you to curling up on the couch with your knitting (and iPod...). I spent the last few days doing pretty much that with the Mid Michigan Knitters Guild (minus the couch & iPod). We all headed off to the Kellogg Biological Station for our annual knitting retreat (wonderful location for a retreat, just be sure to get good directions...ie not Google maps). I was very honored this year by being asked to teach one of the classes.
The class the first afternoon was on Shadow Knitting. It's an interesting technique that by knitting with only 1 color per row & just using knits/purls you can create nifty hidden images. Looking straight on a piece it just looks like lots of stripes...

But when you look at an angle the hidden pattern is revealed!

You can find lots of free patterns for this type of knitting my searching Shadow or Illusion knitting. Plus Vivian Hoxbro wrote an excellent book on the subject.

Then the second morning I taught Mobius knitting. We all started a basic scarf. Someone shoot me next time I agree to teach 25 knitters a new cast-on (just kidding, I think it actually went well). Everyone was smiling by the end of the class, so I count it as successful. I know I love the yarn my mobius is being knit out of. It's Easy Soft from Gedifra (kid mohair & cashmere!)

I used the yarn doubled on size 9 needles. I literally used up every last inch of the white & beige and will come close to using up all the black by the time the attached i-cord is complete. (I'm doing a 3 stitch i-cord, which I figured would use 3 rounds worth of yarn. So, I stopped 4 rounds from what I was able to do with the first 2 balls.) I love this scarf. It reminds me of all the fugley things in my 80's knitting books. Specifically a purl ridge, bat wing (dolmen sleeve), mohair jacket in shades of blue, green, and purple (from the book Wild Knitting). I'm totally going to wear this all the time!

At the retreat I also finished my Rose wristwarmers~

& got most of my second knee high sock knit (STR Heavy weight in Mist).

I also got brave enough to weigh the first one to see if I left enough yarn for #2. The first sock weighed 3.5oz on the nose, luckily that exactly half a skein. *let out deep breath*
I also discovered a project that missed blogging. The first of my Friday Harbor Socks! I finished this at Knit Michigan last weekend. Unfortunately the big push for finishing came when I needed the needle to use for my class sample. So, since that sock is still on the needles I haven't started sock #2 for this pair yet...

I have a new pattern almost ready to be released!

Meet Delphine~

And her twin~

The crazy thing is I posted the pattern page up on Ravelry about an hour ago (with a note that the pattern will be available soonish) and it's already been added to 2 queues. That's so wild!

So here's the details,
Delphine Mittens are written for 2 different gauges, DK and Aran weight yarn.

DK version:
Sample uses Debbie Bliss Rialto and Mirasol Hacho
Size 3 double point needles
7sts per inch over stockinette colorwork

Aran version:
Sample uses Debbie Bliss Railto Aran and Socks That Rock Heavyweight
Size 5 double point needles needles
6sts per inch over stockinette colorwork

This pattern would be a great first colorwork project. You never use the same color for more than 5 stitches in a row so floats are less of an issue, plus the palm pattern is pretty mindless.
Each mitten will probably take only a couple of evenings to knit.

I'm super excited about this pattern! The charts are done and the written instructions are roughed out. I just need to finesse things and finish the second mitten. Then the pattern can be released.

My only problem is these eyes keep following me distracting me from my work...

That and the now daily trips to the new dog park right by my house. I love that there is a dog park now within walking distance. It's got nothing on the big park across town, but it certainly gets Robin tired out so I can work.

Minor Setback...

I'm now the proud owner of 4 right hand mittens...

I might need to fix that.