Slow and Steamy

I finished the bias scarf cowl today,

this one is knit with hand spun and dyed silk hankies.

I stood to cut out 12 more blocks for the latest quilt and sewed only one.

I made a swatch to make a kid's sweater on the knitting machine kids and did little else but rest.

I don't do well in the heat/humidity and it was hard to have the house

 which is usually my refuge, be a sauna, too.

It will be nice to knit in the car and attend church today!

(The repairman can't come until Tuesday and

worse, we will need a whole new compressor and air handler--

let me say, that is a lot of yarn and fabric!)

Open Weave Bias Scarf

 This one took a bit longer because of the open weave areas.
I worked simple k2tog and yo's to balance the count but these are worked by hand.

 The scarf ended up 7" x 52' like the other.
This one is also made of silk and has a super soft yet weighty hand-just right.

 I lay the two bound off/cast on ends next to each other to work a kind of grafting stitch over the edges.  It works easiest pinned to the sleeve roll.

 I had just began work while catching up on the Fruity Knitting Podcast when I was interrupted by...

 this sweet guy.  He butted against my hand a few times and then looked disinterested until=

he made his move!

Pins, thread and my hand were all fair game!

I did manage to finish the seam eventually and steam block it!

Knitting Is Going On Around Here!

 I cast on a new shawl, shh! wrap, and have moved right along even though I am using lace weight yarn instead of the sport weight called for in the pattern.  

I like a very light shawl and will get more use out of it this way-we will see what happens to the size!

 I am also working on the sock while I wait to pick up Will after school! 

I also dug in the stash and found some more silk yarn for a different scarf for the knitting machine.

And this project is calling me, an article from last issue of  Spin Off.

Silky Bias Scarf Cowl

The Bias Scarf is off the knitting machine and ready to wear!

It blocked out at 7' wide and 50' long.  It is so light and drapes so beautifully;

I wish you could feel it!  This is 100% silk, sport weight yarn
(but it looks like fingering weight to me)
from the Darn Good Yarn Co.

You can see the texture of the stitches with an interesting slub every once in a while.  

I grafted the ends together to make it a cowl without adding a twist.
 This will make a very pretty accessory.
 I will want to repeat this pattern with different yarns!

(40 stitches wide on a mid-gauge knitting machine

200 rows long

increase one stitch on one side while decreasing one stitch on the other,

knit one row even)

A Silky Neck

 This month's silk yarn arrived.  I love the color;  it is called morning glory!

And it includes the cutest sheep charms........

....which I immediately attached to clips for stitch markers/progress keepers!

I caked up the skein-it is called fingering weight

but it has the feel and drape of #5 crochet cotton;  

it is a fine yarn. 

But it knits right up nicely into a little shawlette.  

The pattern alternates garter with mesh to work however you want to do it; 

 I am working these two sections in ever increasing row counts

on #3 needles.

A nice diversion, as always!

Smooth Sailing with Silk

The openwork scarf if going to be a good portable knitting project!

It is only a four row repeat and now that I know

how to tell if I am coming or going with the front row, 

I will enjoy it! lol

It moves right along and since I have done a lot of  'sit n the car and knit' time,

I should be able to finish this pretty quickly!

I ended up using this old pair of needles that have just the right 

balance of slick and stick for working with the silk.

I call them teflon needles-they were popular decades ago

but still sold by the Susan Bates company.

Silky Plans

The latest arrival of the yarn club is in and it is a very soft yarn.

The directions is for a scarf.

I'm not usually a scarf knitter but I think this one will be a good change for me.

The pattern says the yarn will make a scarf 48" long which is a bit shorter

than my usual plans.  I will make it narrower to give me some more length.

I will begin as soon as that other sleeve is finished.........!

Heads Up!

 Last month's project from DarnGoodYarn was these headbands....I had enough to make two from the one skein.

And I had enough left over from the TWO planters to make two headbands from that skein, too!

Simple knit in seed stitch and I graft the ends together. 

 Silk doesn't have a ton of stretch but the combination of stitch 

and the right needle size gives a nice cloth for this-

oh, and the fact that I knit them only 17-18' long so they have to stretch to fit! 

 (it wouldn't do to have a sag factor for a headband!)

Silken Bowl

I finished the January project; 

the sari silk 'yarn' bowl.

I ended up ripping out the knitted bowl 

and did the crocheted one instead.

Neither was very comfortable on the hands

but in the end, this one was just plain faster.

Also, the knitted one started brim to base and I preferred the base to brim of the crocheted version

so I knew when I ran out of yardage, I was done!

Here is a piece of the fabric ironed out flat measuring

about 2" wide.

The ball comes hand wound so the strips are already thin and more yarn-like.

The purpose of this yarn club is to give me a bit of variety and freshness-it's working!

No Tears for this Hanky

It certainly wasn't a joyful spin but I have a skein of yarn for all the hard work and blisters! 

Of course, I learned at the end of the second bobbin that my previous way of prepping the silk hanky for spinning was not the best way to spin! 

Stretching each hanky out like this and then trying to further muscle it even finer as I was spinning it was causing the displeasure!

Instead, I found it best to just spin it right from the hanky shape using a long backward draw and skipping all the attenuating altogether!

Genius.....at the finish line! 

So now I will hold onto this knowledge if I ever get the urge to buy 2 ounces of silk hankies for dyeing in the future! 

The skein has 267 yards of 2 ply yarn for a good future knit! 

Here is this year's haul so far-over a mile of yarn!

Going Bananas

 I purchased some fiber called Banana Silk and dyed it , well, banana color!  I think a pretty little scarf will result from this eventually!

 On the way out to take one of my daily excursions, I realized I've never photographed this flower Bill planted by the gopher turtle hole where he doesn't mow.  It is called a Candelabra Cassia and it stands almost 5' tall.

 The flowers are very pretty and you can see why this is named candelabra...

 This is the second grove of banana trees Bill has started.  Hoping to have fruit on them next year.

 Another member of the banana family-a Banana Spider!  I met her down a side path!  I did stop before I ran into her rather large and strong web!  She is a bane to lawn mowers because her web is so strong and sticky .  I tried to capture the color of the web-also a very bright yellow like her!  She is about 4" in size, non-poisonous but might cause a heart attack from the fright!

 You can see her elaborate web work-it covers a 6' by 4' area.

 When I took Bill back to see what I had discovered, we saw her with a yellow moth!  She had made a good job of cocooning him for a snack later on.

I am glad they do not like peoples.........!

Strawberries and Silk

 Bill and I bought a flat of Plant City strawberies when we went into town this morning.  When I got home, I gave Mom  a call.....Oh, how wonderful to have another woman in the kitchen to make some jam; especially when it is my owm Mother!  What a great time we had.  Instead of work-it was fun!  Twenty jars for the pantry!

On the fiber front,  Mom has passed on her silk knitting on to me!  I am making good progress on the first mitt.  I will make these a bit shorter than mine to fit Mom, and silk stretches rather than bounces back like wool.  Definitely has its own charm but is SO different from wool!

 For enquiring minds, here is a quick run through of how to knit from the silk hankie.  Peal one layer off from the stack,

 Poke a hole in the center and pull the circle out -you will hear/feel the fibers slide by each other.

 Continue drafting out the circle of silk until it is the same size around.  Break one side and knit from your lengthn of silk 'yarn'. 

I finished my pair of mitts!  They have been washed and blocked.  I will be saving them for a chilly morning-right now we are having a very warm spell-80's!

Silk Knitting and Waiting

It was beautiful outside if a bit windy, but Mom and I began to draft our silk from the hankies.  The wind would grab our fiber and loft it on high like a kite tail.  Quite entertaining! 

We drafted and wound on five hankies to have enough  yardage to begin our knitting.

The colors really sing on the silk, you can understand the appeal of this long-kept secret fiber!

Mom doesn't love circular knitting-loves the needles but keeps her work flat.  I cast on and began knitting in the round and right away had that nagging thought that it wasn't working.  Silk is nothing like wool and you can't have the same expectations.  I ripped out for two reasons, my needles were too big for the diameter of fiber I had drafted and the circular needles were causing an unsightly gap where the needles change and I knew it wasn't going to get better as I continued.  Rip!  Mom didn't want to rip out her knitting on #4 needles  but saw the wisdom of smaller needles, too, as her wrist warmers were more ankle circumference than wrist!  We have been knitting long enough to know that a little ripping out never hurt anyone!

A much better knit and the finished piece is more balanced on the straight needles!  The drape and luster is mesmerizing!  Going strong now.

Project two on the needles-a mystery knit from Ravelry (mystery 220).  Thanks to a blog friend, Lynne, for getting me going from my stalled state in knitting!  And blog friend, Kay, has given me a test project to knit  as she prepares a project for publishing!  Ahhhh, knitting is bursting out all over again thanks to a bit of help from my friends!

Sitting , knitting, talking and anticipating this...............brother, Bob, and wife, Shelly, are here for a few days!!!!  (My family tanks are near full!)