Now here's something vintage...

From the British Pathe film library, a short about Tunisian crochet from the 1930s. Video-based instruction isn't just an invention of the internet! Shorts like this might have been shown in a movie theater along with newsreels before the main feature started.


The blanket that she crochets is fine, but man, what I'd really like to find a pattern for is that amazing blouse with the zig-zag design!

Aurora Fiber Festival

The DH and I had our birthdays recently -- his on the 10th and mine on the 15th (yeah, yeah, tax day, sorry, couldn't help it, my father was an accountant, but at least it fell on a Sunday the year I was born). My son wanted to get together with us and the inevitable question was, "And what shall we all do?"

My suggestion -- "Well, there's this little fiber festival up in Aurora..."

Neither of the fellows seemed disinclined, so we picked up the man-child and went to Aurora to spend some time the Aurora Colony Handspinner Guild's annual Fiber Faire, the lead offering as fiber show season begins.

It's just a small fiber faire, held in little Grange hall just outside of Aurora. But oh, there were some lovely things to be had! There were plenty of vendors:


And quite a number of spinners:


There were spinning tools for sale. My son was a bit alarmed by the sign that read, "Orifice Hooks," which took some explaining and a handy wheel to point out where the orifice in question is located.


One could, if one were so inclined, buy an entire fleece and prepare it as one desires:


That was a little beyond my current equipment list and skill set, so I browsed the lovely prepared roving and top available, including this eye-popping display of saturated color from Dicentra Designs:

I came for pygora and I found pygora. I knew I wanted to leave with some pygora, so the only difficulty was deciding which of the angelically soft fiber I wanted to leave with. At $12 per ounce, one must decide these things carefully.

I sat in on a quickie needle felting workshop, as I hadn't tried needle felting before, and made this pretty kitty:

From there, we went to lunch (next door at Top 'o Hill Restaurant, since 1926!), and then drove into Aurora to visit the Old Aurora Colony Museum, which documents the Christian communal society that settled and thrived in the area in the 1800's. Then up to Portland because both DH and I needed some new pants, and we had a visit to the Apple Store to see the new iPads. Very nice! Want! But I'll wait for the early adopters to find all the bugs first. Then a bookstore and dinner.

So what fiber did I come home with? My son bought me this azure-and-malachite colored silk/merino top from Dicentra Designs for a birthday present. Licorice approves of the choice:


And I decided on this silvery pygora top, blended with about 20% merino to make it easier to spin yet still cloud-like and retain it's oh-so-cashmere softness:

A lovely day was had by all.

Shaun the Sheep - the Musical!

Have you seen this little musical cartoon from Aardman studios yet? Wallace and Gromit fans as well as sheep lovers everywhere will like this:



(If the video is getting cut off on the right side on your screen, here's the YouTube link)

If you don't know who Shaun the Sheep is, get yourself a copy of A Close Shave. Brilliant!

A contest! From Lorna's Laces!

There's $500 worth of yarn at stake here. Did that get your attention? Thought it would!

Check out How 'Bout a Contest? on the Lorna's Laces blog. There's a luscious new silk/alpaca DK yarn just waiting for a great new name, and Lorna's Laces is offering up an armload of yarn as the grand prize. Break out your Thesaurus, browse the yarn database on Ravelry, and see what you can come up with.

And speaking of new arrivals...

Meet the newest member of my knitting group, Josephine! She must have been so eager to get in on the fibery fun that she decided to arrive early. About 7 weeks early. Now that she's out of the NICU, she's thriving, eating and sleeping and growing like crazy to catch up.

Everyone played "pass the baby" the minute she showed up. Squeeeee!

Ladybug, Ladybug...

...fly away home.

And she did! To my home, that is. My Schacht Ladybug spinning wheel that was my Christmas present arrived near the end of January -- some delay at the factory -- and now we are at the dawning of a new fiber obsession.

She came via Woodland Woolworks, which also sent a kit with oil, orifice hook (there must be a better name -- sounds like a medieval torture device), and a pound of fiber, labeled Falkland Top from Argentina. I also ordered a tensioned Lazy Kate that integrates into the frame -- and talk about terrific customer service, I had that Lazy Kate within a week of ordering.

So here's what I started with: a pound of undyed wool top, ready for spinning:

A friend in the local spinning guild invited me to an open spin-in and got me started, whereupon I worked up a couple of bobbins full of somewhat wobbly singles:

Once I had two full bobbins, I took the third and started plying, figuring that out from pictures in books and on the web:


And once the first bobbin of plied yarn was full, I stopped at the yarn shop on the way home from work and said, "I need a niddy-noddy, which is not easy to say at the end of a long day!" (Need a niddy noddy.... nod a needy-niddy... nid a noddy-needy...)


After I had the first yarn skeined, I washed it in Soak, squeezed out the water, whacked it a few times to fluff it up, and hung it up to dry:


And voila! Yarn!

Okay, so I have some tension issues and plying issues to work out. But you have to start somewhere. After all, no one sits down to the piano for the first time and plays Chopin perfectly -- and no one sits down at the piano thinking they're going to butcher Chopin on purpose, either. Practice, practice, practice, that's how you get to Carnegie Hall as the old joke goes. And that's how the yarn gets better and better.

That's the first 8 ounces of the pound of fiber. Now on to the second half, where I can see my singles are already starting to get a little more even.

Ravelympics: And three for the win!

Aaaand we're done! My third and last project for the 2010 Ravelympics project crossed the finish line last night, a Ripple Cowl done in Plymouth Baby Bunny and finished with vintage pearly plastic buttons.

The yarn is listed as a worsted, but I found it knits up more like a DK. I cast on using size 5 needles and followed the directions in the pattern, resulting in a smaller, closer-fitting cowl. It's soft-as-a-bunny and fits fine, though I forgot to move up to larger needles to do the body after the garter borders, so the borders are somewhat ripply. Steaming helped a bit.

And now back to our regularly-scheduled knitting: getting the WIPs in shape, then knitting the stash down in preparation for Black Sheep Gathering in June.

Ravelympics madness, round 2

Welcome back to the Ravelympics. We're live at the Mitten Moguls, watching pair after pair of amazing mitts, gloves, and mittens come sailing down the track. And here we have a very fetching pair of Fetching mitts, knitted in plushy soft Plymouth Baby Bunny, a cotton, rayon, and angora blend. So soft, and yet machine washable! The cats adore the bunny aroma and have already tried to make off with the first mitt before the second one crossed the finish line. A winner all around.

Next up: The Scarf Super-G. Will this knitter cross the finish line before the end of the Olympic events? Stay tuned!

It's the Muppet Show! With our very special guest...

It seems that if you're one of the Beautiful People, you can wear any damn thing you like and not only get away with it, but enjoy the ooohs and aaaahs of admiration from the crowd. Check out this post from The Sartorialist and see what I mean.

Don't know about that coat, but having the enormous self-confidence and panache required to pull off a Muppet coat is something to aspire to. I think my motto as I approach the "next third" of my life is the Ravatar I saw on Ravelry: "I may be weird, but I'm saving up to be eccentric."

I haven't vanished -- just been in training...

...for the 2010 Ravelympics! Crazy Ravelry folks from around the world are competing with their favorite teams (and the plural form can hold true for individuals, if one is entirely mental, present company included), knitting like gangbusters to complete their pledged projects before the winter games in Vancouver B.C. come to a close.

First project on my list, for Team Ivory Tower (go Eggheads!), is now officially complete since I stopped to buy a glass button on the way home and stitched it on. It's the Spiral Cowl from Knitty Gritty Thoughts, done in Manos del Uruguay, Violets colorway, that I had left from a project completed some time ago, perfect for the Stash Compulsory Dance event. A pretty quick knit, with a pattern that you can memorize by the end of the first round.

Next up, Fetching mitts for Team Rose and Ram, the local yarn store team. Not the most original choice, since it's THE number one most popular pattern on Ravelry. But hey, I wanted some mitts, I had the yarn in my stash just waiting for a good project, and it looks like a quick knit.

On with the games! KNIT two three four, KNIT two three four!