Mittens

I am getting a head start on fall / winter knitting. I find it is nice to knit small things in Summer. They are quick and easy and don't warm up my lap too much.

I have also been on a bit of a handspun kick lately. I love knitting with handspun. So, using Ann Budd's mitten pattern, I cast these on for my son. They were really fun to knit. I love that they came out almost identical for colors. He loves them and now his sister is begging for a pair too. 

X Hoody

I finished a hoody (rav link) for my son back in April. Of course, it's been so warm he won't really get to wear it until next fall. Good thing I made it extra long!

His sister is wearing the one that I made for him a couple of years ago out of Tosh DK. I really love this pattern from Debbie Bliss's Design It! Knit It!: Babies. It's really easy to modify, which I definitely had to do both times I knit it. The first time I made it longer. This time I used handspun I spun during Spinzilla, so the gauge was a bit different. I used Naturspun Worsted as the accent grey. Now, I can't wait for cold rainy days so they both can get use out of their sweaters!

Tonight I am speaking at the Tigard Knitting Guild at the Tigard Senior Center. If you are a member, I'm looking forward to seeing you tonight!

Shetland Gradients

Shetland Gradients are coming soon!

They should be ready just in time for Knot Another Hat's Knit Night, next Wednesday, April 28th, 5pm - 8pm. Come and check them out!

Hats for the Kids

So after Spinzilla I had all this handspun yarn. Winter is coming, so I whipped out a couple of hats for the kiddos. 

I love simple hats that go right over the ears. 

These were fun and fast and a big hit with the kids! They both loved them and didn't want to take them off once they were on their heads. Hopefully they will keep them warm all through the winter!

Spinzilla Finale!

I finished up Spinzilla with a 6456 yards! Not bad for a week, while being a full time mom!

I really had fun with this event, as I do every year. Now we are just waiting for final results! Our team did such a good job this year. Fingers crossed we made #1!

Spinzilla Week

Spinzilla is this week and I am spinning up a storm! I have 8lbs currently laid out ready to spin. So far I have spun about 1 1/2 lbs! We'll see if I can do it all!

Merino / Black Tussah Silk Roving

Introducing Merino / Black Tussah Silk Roving! It is 80% merino wool and 20% Black Tussah Silk. I had the joy of spinning some of it up while I was at Black Sheep and it was simply gorgeous. It is so soft and silky. Simply a joy to spin. I love how it takes dye too! The black silk makes the yarn sort of shadowy and mysterious. I definitely plan on spinning up more!

Childs Play Handspun

I have a new goal for shows and that is to spin up a sample skein of each of the fibers I carry in the booth. First up is MIO Roving: 

This fiber is incredibly bouncy and spongy to spin. The yarn comes out the same way without even trying. The color I chose was Childs Play. 

It was really fun to see how the colors came together as I spun it. Overall, a really fun yarn. 

This is the original roving before it was spun. You can find the spinning fiber here and the final yarn for sale here.

Black Sheep!

Another Black Sheep Gathering has come and gone. It was a great show this year. I had a lot of fun.

I even got out of the booth for a little bit too! I got a fringe twister for making my ends pretty on my weaving. I also couldn't resist this Polwarth from Huckleberry Knits. It's in color Lady Edith. I just had to have it. I'm thinking of spinning yarn for another tunic dress for my girl. I bet it will be beautiful spun up! Then on the right is fiber from Knitted Wit from her Indiegogo campaign. I absolutely love it! I think it would make another fun top for the girl child! So now I have lots of projects to look forward to!

I also got some spinning done at the show too! I need to set the twist on these and then they will be ready to knit! I want to knit up little samples for the booth to show how each spins up. From left to right: Merino/Tencel in Little Koi, Merino/Tussah Shadow in Apple Cinnamon (coming soon), and Superwash BFL in Copper Kettle.

Freya Dress

I designed and made my baby girl a dress out of some handspun yarn I had made before she was even born. 

The yarn was some fiber I bought back when we traveled to Colorado. I plied it with some fiber I got when Woodland Woolworks went out of business. So, I definitely wasn't going to get more of it any time soon. I decided that I wanted to make the dress top down, but I didn't want to do a lot of cutting because the yarn is so special. So no running out of yarn and limited cutting! Check! So I thought I would do some experimenting with short rows. I started with the back and made it to the sleeve holes, then started the front and made it to the sleeve holes, then attached them together and continued in the round until it was long enough and added the bottom border. So that's only one cut of the yarn. Then I crocheted around the sleeve and neck openings adding the button holes at that time. I might try knitting the next time to see if I can make it work. I have ideas! Making that only 3 lengths of yarn!

What I love about it is it works great as a dress. It can be worn on it's own with shorts or tights or layered over a long sleeve shirt and pants in the winter. As she grows bigger it will work great as a tunic. I see her getting a lot of use out of this outfit. Also, it's so cute, I kinda want to size the pattern up for me.

I have also been working on letting the little miss pick out her own clothes. Note the black turtleneck and pink stripe pants for underneath. I especially loved the addition of dinosaur rubber boots, so had to snap a final picture of the whole ensemble. I plan on knitting her more of these dresses. I think it would be easy to size up and down. So, when I get a few moments I plan on writing it up. Maybe I can even make one for the booth in the near future!

Black Bean Dyeing

So, I saw online some examples of people using Black Beans to dye where they got blues and purples out of it. I have done a little natural dyeing, so I thought I would give it a try see what would happen.

I soaked my black beans overnight. I decided I would try following a recipe from the Food Network and then use the leftover "juice" as my dye. Best of both worlds! Most dye recipes call for soaking for upwards of 3+ days to get deeper, richer colors. However, this was my experiment, so here we go. After soaking overnight I put the beans through a strainer and I saved the juice. Then where it says to skim off the foam I added that too. There was also a bit of extra juice in the final product so I saved some of that too. All together there was about 2 cups.  

Then I got together my supplies. 2 cups of bean juice (or one large ziploc container full) and some distilled vinegar. Not shown is my fiber, which was superwash merino roving and weighed 74 grams.

Into the pot it goes! This is after I added 4 cups of water (or two large ziploc containers full) and 1/2 cup of vinegar. I used a large pot that allowed the fiber to move around pretty freely. Typically I would use a dye pot for this type of thing, but since everything was kitchen safe I went ahead and used a stainless steel kitchen pot. The vinegar definitely turned it toward the pink side while in the pot. It also did the trick for setting the color. I might try it again using alum or some other mordant. I simmered it about an hour and then let it cool completely so it would soak up the most amount of color

The finished result is rather stunning. It's a soft purply grey color. I'm thinking I might blend it with some other superwash I dyed and then spin it into something. What, I don't know yet, but something pretty for certain. So, if you have black beans on the menu and want to do a little experimenting with natural dyeing, make sure to save that juice!

New Colorway! Spring Wildflowers / Pink Lady

Today we have 2 colorways to share! They are a variation on one another, but I love them both, so I am keeping them both! The first is Pink Lady, soft and subtle with bits of soft pink and pale green. Then Spring Wildflowers adds a dash of deeper green, creating a whole new colorway!

The first is Pink Lady. Growing up in the Hood River Valley I was introduced to many different apple varieties. My favorite ones were always the ones the blended soft greens and pinks, including Pink Ladies.

Merino Tencel Roving

Superwash BFL Roving

This yarn is named Spring Wildflowers. I love Springtime! Especially the little pink wildflowers peeking through the new spring grass. 

Superwash Sport Yarn

New! MIO Columbia Roving

For those wanting something local to spin I am introducing MIO Columbia Roving! Grown in Oregon and dyed in Oregon! This wool is a medium wool, very squishy and dense! I know it will make great yarn, because I also carry Pencil Roving and Aran yarn made out of the same wool. They are both delightful to work with. Lovely stuff!

Copper Kettle

This roving is named Copper Kettle. I love copper. I love the rusty orange color it has when it is new and shiny. I love the green to aqua tones it has when it ages. I set out to capture those colors in this fiber. The end result is even more gorgeous than I planned.

Merino Tencel Roving

Merino Tencel Roving

Superwash BFL Roving

Superwash BFL Roving

Now available in Merino Tencel Roving and Superwash BFL Roving. Click the links to see all of the new colors before I post them here!

Sneak Peek!

So if you are wondering where all the wool fiber went in the shop, most of it went to the sale page from what is leftover from the sale. You can find it here: http://www.lavendersheep.com/shop/sale.html. There is a little more Mixed BFL I need to post, which will hopefully be done soon!

So why all the change? Well, I have decided to go in a slightly different direction. I have always had a love of locally grown fibers. I have searched locally, but it's really tough to find quality processed locally grown yarns and fibers at a price where both the farmer and I can make a profit. I have been thinking it over a lot lately, when it struck me, Imperial Stock Ranch! They are local to Oregon and have one of the best sustainable farms in the US. So much so that Ralph Lauren has commissioned them to provide the yarn for this next year's Olympic Sweaters! (Thank goodness I got my order in before that hit the news!!!)

I have decided to start a new line of yarns and fibers under the title MIO (Made In Oregon). All of the Imperial Stock Ranch fibers will be MIO-Columbia. So far I will have roving. pencil roving, and an Aran weight yarn. My plan is to start dyeing them this week. So if you have a favorite colorway you would like to see, please let me know, either in the comments or email me at lavendersheep(at)gmail(dot)com. Thanks!

Spinzilla Finale!

I'm so proud of all that I spun last week! I had a blast being a part of Spinzilla! I definitely plan on doing it again next year!

The pink I plan on plying together and making Wee Ambrosia (rav link) for my daughter. Then the grey will be plied together and will make a raglan sweater for my son, possibly with stripes to make it go further. Then the bright multi-color will be a stripe in a sweater I'll design for my son too. I'm so excited about all of this new yarn!

Note: I'll be out of town next week, so all orders placed between October 19 - October 27 will be shipped on Monday October 28th!

Spinzilla Week!

I am really enjoying spinning for Spinzilla #teamknotanotherhat

This first bobbin is 6.2 oz and 340 yards. I'm very proud of myself because I only have an hour or so each evening to spin after the kids have gone to bed. I can't wait to finish off the light pink and ply them both together. I'm thinking either a small sweater for me or something warm and fuzzy for my daughter. Either way, it's just so much fun to be spinning again!