I’m Knitting As Fast As I Can

I’d been searching to no avail for the perfect yarn for my Rhinebeck Not-Sweater when serendipity intervened.

Last Tuesday Katherine gave me a belated birthday present – a skein of Alpaca With A Twist Fino in a grey color that is exactly the same color as the sky in Syracuse during a snowstorm. Perfect!

I fiddled with the charts a bit then decided to just start knitting and work out the kinks as I go since time is running short. Here’s the baby shawl at 129 stitches:

Not too impressive, I know. But I’m trying.

Several people wrote and asked if I’ll offer the pattern once the shawl is finished. That was my plan–assuming it comes out looking good. So I’ll probably be looking for a test knitter in a couple of weeks unless the shawl doesn’t pass the smell test at Rhinebeck.

And several people wrote and asked what I made from the not-yellow yarn I dyed with turmeric. It’s being transformed into a pair of mittens. They’re almost finished, but since my resident hand model is at cheerleading practice and can’t model them right now, I only have this “in process” photo:

The pattern is the May pattern from Knitter’s Almanac by Elizabeth Zimmermann. I didn’t make any changes this time, but I did jot down a few things I might try with the next pair.

Let’s begin with the last day.

On the last afternoon of the fiber festival, Margene, Teresa, Carole, and I took a dyeing class. The premise was to produce roving which, when spun up and then knit, results in two identical socks.

We wet two pieces of roving and set them out on a piece of plastic wrap, parallel to each other.

It was quite windy that afternoon and we had a difficult time keeping the plastic wrap from sticking to itself. Margene got frustrated and let loose a string of expletives, shocking the class (and herself) with her potty mouth:

After applying the dye, you wrap up the roving in the plastic wrap and steam it.

Here’s what mine looked like after steaming:

Then you remove the plastic wrap and set it out to dry:

The roving should be fun to spin up (yellow? what yellow?). However, I’m a dedicated pre-drafter so I might tear mine into strips and not worry so much about making 100% identical socks.

And where was Kim through all this?

I tell ya, that grrl.

Last week was crazy. In addition to the usual chaos, Margene and I gave a presentation to the Salt Lake Knitting Guild one night and I taught the second installment of my Baby Surprise Jacket class another night. Alas, there was no rest for the weary this weekend. But since the weekend activities included out-of-town luminaries and a fiber festival, I’m not complaining.

I promise a proper post with details will find its way to this page later this week, but first I have to catch up on some emails, laundry, and storage issues *cough, cough.* So I’ll leave you with a photo of:

• Margene blogging me,
• Me blogging Carole,
• Carole blogging Teresa.

Yikes.