This lovely 12 minute documentary on a collaborative effort to share and promote the fiber industry in the Pacific Northwest is excellent. It’s beautifully filmed and informative. I think it will strike a chord with those who are passionate about our craft – and with those who love fiber.
This 12 minute documentary film describes the state of the niche wool industry in the Pacific Northwest. And how the Pacific Northwest Fiber Web is making a difference in bringing together the sheep farmer, wool mill owner and processor, the yarn shop owner, and the wool artisan in this venerable and age-old agricultural industry…
This film was commissioned by the Northwest Cooperative Development Center and was grant funded by the US Department of Agriculture’s Rural Community Development fund.
The last six weeks have been a whirlwind. Finally now I’ve enjoyed a few moments to catch my breath, to reflect, and to look forward to possibilities for the new year. Not to go into too much detail right now, as the upcoming designs are still shadowy and lurking around in my brain, waiting to take form…but I wanted to share with you the palettes I will be playing with…and I’m sure that other ideas will crowd in and push some of these further down the line, but for now, here are some possibilities for 2016.
These are a few of the skeins I picked up at the Columbia Gorge Fiber Festival in November. I believe they will become a two-color yoked sweater, with the green as the main color. I haven’t decided whether the yoke will be striped, a stranded design, or some sort of mosaic knitting. I’m sort of picturing a honeycomb type of pattern using slipped stitches for the yoke – maybe.
These yarns are also set aside for sweaters, perhaps with a lace or cable panel. I couldn’t decide on color, so picked up both:
I also want to experiment with an allover lace pattern for this lovely Shibui yarn. You can see the ready-to-wear sweater that’s inspiring me in the upper corner. I may or may not knit the linen and the mohair together. The colors are amazing in real life.
And I am so thrilled to be working on the colorwork tee again. Christmas knitting, among other things, took me away from it. But I’m back! And my tension is more even now. Woot! I am hopeful that testing can begin on it once I have placed the sleeves on waste yarn and joined for the body.
Other possibilities: fingerless mitts related to the colorwork tee, fingerless mitts inspired by this design inspiration session with friend and fellow designer Marie Greene, a pencil skirt related to the The Wayfarer Hat and the Passport Mitts, and, possibly, a cabled home decor project using Weston Hill Farm cottage spun yarn.
I would love to hear from you if any of the above colorways/palettes speak to you. And are you planning to attend any fiber-related events this year? So many possibilities!
I’ve been dreaming of designing a top-down colorwork short-sleeved sweater, filling my Pinterest boards with images and colors that inspire me. In the spring, I found all the colors I was looking for in a certain yarn line, only to discover that the yarn was spun too tightly for colorwork and that I didn’t like how it looked or felt for this design.
Finally I was introduced to the perfect yarn, Sunday Knits yarn by Carol Sunday. I’m using her 3-ply yarn, with colors from three different fiber blends, Eden (100% Merino), Angelic (75% Merino, 25% Angora) and Nirvana (92% Merino, 8% Cashmere). The yarn has a lovely hand, is available in over 60 colors, and is reasonably priced. All of the fiber blends work well together.
I wanted to work a swatch to find out how the yarn behaves and to see how the colors would look together.
The first thing that I learned is that Sunday Knits yarn is my new favorite for colorwork! Look how nicely the fabric lies, even before the fabric was soaked and blocked.
Next I learned that if I initially don’t like a color, such as the Rose colorway in the swatch above, knitting lots of it will never make me miraculously like it. Why did I think that knitting more of that pale pinky-red would make me like it more? (Just to clarify, there’s nothing wrong with the color, I just wasn’t happy with the way it looked with the other colors.)
Conversely, if I do like a color, such as Bronze, which is the cast-on and is immediately below the blue in the swatch above, even in little bits it makes me happy!
I also was reminded that I really don’t like white in a piece like this with lots of different colors – the contrast is too jarring. I will be using Sand as the light background color in this pattern.
And finally, basic algebra is still useful!
I can’t wait to work more on this sweater! I will keep you posted!
Two Special Surprises This Week
My friend Meg sent me custom-made knit equals joy ribbon. How special was that?!? I have some fantastic friends!
A friend at work had two extra yarn bowls (!) and she gave one to me! It’s so pretty!
I’m so thankful for the kindness of others! I wish you all a wonderful week, and may you find or share those special moments of kindness!
