FO: Black Diamonds vest

Posted on October 11, 2010 by Leslie

Before I got sidelined from knitting with an injury, I wanted to make a vest to wear over dress shirts in the fall. There are a lot of unflattering, poorly fitting vests out there, but I found one whose fit I liked and knit most of it last fall. Very recently I was finally able to finish up Black Diamonds/Sexy Vesty/whatever you want to call it. I didn’t make any modifications to the pattern notes, which means I’m lucky because I was a bit off on my gauge. I love how it turned out, especially since it’s my first adult-sized garment that’s not an accessory like a hat or scarf.

Shot of the back:

The yarn is Cascade 220 Superwash, which has the advantage of being fairly inexpensive for the yardage (even though I have no plans to throw this in the washing machine–superwash or not, handknits simply last a lot longer if you hand wash them). It feels fairly soft to the touch, but it’s not quite soft enough to wear next to the skin. I quickly discovered it needs to be worn with something with sleeves and a collar underneath, though I like the look of it with a tank top:

So, first non-accessory/non-child sized garment completed. Next up might just be a sweater.

Posted in finished object, Knitting | 4 Comments

Upcoming Classes

Posted on October 5, 2010 by Leslie

I’ll be teaching three classes this month and next at Wabi-Sabi:

October 23 – Drop Spindle 101 Learn the basics of spinning yarn on a drop spindle, including plying. No experience needed, all materials included.

October 30 – Fibre Prep How to choose, clean, and prepare a raw fleece for spinning. Learn how to use handcards, combs, and other fibre prep tools.

November 27 – Intermediate Spinning For those who can spin a continuous yarn and want to expand their skill set. We’ll use different drafting and plying techniques on a variety of fibres to create yarns with specific characteristics. Open to wheel- and spindle-spinners.

For those of you further east, I’m also in the process of scheduling an Intermediate Spinning class at Tric-o-Knit in Casselman, ON. Classes at Ariadne Knits in Montreal will start up again in the new year!

Posted in Spinning, teaching | 2 Comments

Focused and Distracted

Posted on October 2, 2010 by Leslie

Here are the two skeins I wrote about in my last post, both of which used Fleece Artist merino top I picked up a few years ago. The skein on the left is how I intended the yarn to be made: colour changes preserved through chain-plying. The skein on the right uses the same singles (top split lengthwise and spun to create long sections of single colours), but I wasn’t paying attention and started to Andean ply it by mistake. If you look closely, you might see the part where I even started plying in the wrong direction–obviously, my mind was on something other than the yarn. I think the colours look better in the 3-ply, and it’s a much sturdier yarn that better suits the fiber, but I was surprised how much I like some of the colour combinations in the 2-ply. Call it experiment and I’ll throw them both in the pile of skeins too small to do anything with.

Posted in Spinning | 1 Comment

Oops

Posted on September 27, 2010 by Leslie

This is the yarn I was spinning during the Harvest Festival a couple of weekends back. The drop spindle always garners a lot of attention, as people marvel at how I’m able to turn fluffy wool into very fine thread with such a simple device. “It even turns by itself!” said one woman. I’m afraid I had to burst her bubble and say that no, it doesn’t–but the rim-weighted design keeps the momentum going for a long time.

I spun up the last of the fiber and was ready to ply by the end of the day, while my friends and I waited to see if we had won the door prize of baskets of local cheese and wine (unfortunately, we didn’t have the winning tickets). I got distracted for a bit and didn’t really think about the fact that I was Andean-plying the singles back on itself, which would normally be fine except the rest of the fiber had already been chain-plied. Well, damn. I could go through the tricky task of unplying and fishing out one end to start a chain-ply but I think I’ll just keep it as is. Laziness always wins.

Posted in Spinning | 1 Comment

A new option for Ottawa locavores: Manotick Village Butcher

Posted on September 24, 2010 by Leslie

One of the biggest adjustments in moving from a good-sized US city to Ottawa was the lack of choices when it came to food, especially animal products. I used to be able to buy all local, free-range (and I mean real free-range, not chickens packed like sardines in a filthy but cageless barn) for reasonable prices when I was in the States, but there just aren’t as many options up here. For a long time I’ve bought meat at the Ottawa Organic Farmers Market, but organic meat is expensive and I don’t believe organic is always the best for small farmers and animals (more on that in a later post). So I was pretty excited when I heard about the impending opening of the Manotick Village Butcher, which stocks only local, humanely-raised meats and other animal products, all for prices that are pretty comparable to what I see at Loblaws. I had a head-start on most people in finding out about MVB, thanks to one of the co-owners being the woman who taught me to weave, and had been shopping there for about a month or so already before the Grand Opening this past weekend.

The event gave new customers the opportunity to meet the farmers who raise animals for the shop and get their questions answered. There was also a chef on hand to prepare a variety of meats on the grill, including some of the best wild board (well, the only wild boar) I’ve ever had in my life.


In case you coudn’t tell by the pants, this guy specializes in grilling.

I picked up a few pork chops to take home as well as a few other items that were not yet sold out (it was a very well-attended opening day).

So far I’ve had nothing but good experiences with MVB and I drop in about once a week. It’s great to finally have a source of local, ethically-raised meats–I can’t see myself ever going back to Loblaw’s, or even the Organic Farmer’s Market, for meat again.

Posted in sustainability | 2 Comments

Pinwheel houndstooth scarf

Posted on September 23, 2010 by Leslie

For my second weaving project, I wanted to do something more interesting than plain weave in a single colour. I chose a pinwheel pattern that resembles houndstooth, as it only involves changing colours (i.e., no pick-up sticks). For the warp, alternate two threads of one colour and two of another. Weaving is easy–two picks of the first colour, then two picks of the other, passing the loose end of the new colour under the old one. I used a 10-dent rigid heddle with DK-weight superwash merino yarn that I was trying to find a use for.

What this really shows is how inconsistent you are–or aren’t. I started off beating too hard and my pinwheels looked kind of squashed in that they were wider than they were long. After a few more picks I was getting a more proportional pattern, but when I went back to it a day later, I got a few more rows of squashed pinwheels. I’m so consistent in my knitting and spinning from years of practice that I have to remind myself to really pay attention to what I’m doing when I weave (this is, after all, only my second project).

Obligatory macro lens abuse shot:

Posted in weaving | 5 Comments

Spinning accomplishments for this year

Posted on September 21, 2010 by Leslie

I didn’t actually do a lot of spinning or other fibre arts this year. I suffered an overuse injury (computer-related) and had to take several months to rest, so my plans to enter several skeins in competition in 2010 had to be altered somewhat. Instead of spinning new skeins, I went with a few already-finished ones that were eligible for competition. I got some good feedback from judges and identified a couple of things to work on. The highlight, however, had to be my results from the Estes Park Wool Market:

That is my Jacob skein, with a first-place ribbon for its class and to my amazement, the Grand Champion ribbon for the entire competition.

A skein of laceweight llama down took second place in the camelid fiber class and was selected for the Llama Specialty Award. Here’s a closer look:

These awards, especially the ones for the Jacon skein, meant so much to me. They were confirmation of just how far I’ve come since I struggled to teach myself to spin on a cheap spindle from eBay back in 2005 and went through a good year or more of making mistakes before I got real instruction, and how confident in my own abilities I’ve become since first teaching others the same skills in early 2008. It’s also meaningful in that I bought the fleece for the Jacob skein at my last visit to Estes in 2007. I hope it make it back to Estes in person for the next Wool Market in 2011.

Posted in competition, jacob, Spinning | Leave a comment