It’s been a bit crazy around here lately, and I have hardly had a chance to sit down and knit.

Except on the bus.

And it’s amazing how two 20-minute blocks a day add up.

That’s the beginning of a sweater with my yarn from Briar Rose fibers (Grandma’s Blessing)  that I bought at Jefferson Sheep and Wool last year. It’s been waiting patiently for me to have time to knit it, and I am so glad I’ve finally gotten around to it. I love, love, love this yarn.

I decided on a really basic knit-purl pattern to add some subtle texture under all the color shifts, and it’s going to be an absolutely simple sweater. It’s knitting up pretty quickly, considering that I had to go down to size 2 needles to get the fabric I wanted. A little at a time, and suddenly there’s progress.

I’m going to keep that in mind when I close my computer and head off to start packing the office tonight. A little at a time…

(Oh, and on an unrelated note: I just noticed a few minutes ago that my comment notifications must have failed. I thought it had been quiet over here lately, but it turns out that the blog just hasn’t been sending me my comments. So if you said something and I didn’t get back to you, sorry!)

My building on campus is right next to a marshy area that is just full of cattails. Every time I see them, I wonder if you could spin the seed fluff to make yarn. So, the other day, I ignored the puzzled looks of the local joggers and picked a stalk to find out.

Many of the seeds have already flown, so it’s a bit ratty looking, but it was enough to play with. From the stalk, I collected a handful of downy fluff:

I don’t know much about spinning plant fibers, but I could tell right away that those were some tiny fibers. They’re about half an inch long (I think cotton is about an inch?).

I decided to try anyway, since I had the fluff and I have the spinning tools. I started out on the wheel, and quickly realized that there was way too much takeup, even on the lightest setting. So I switched to a spindle.

There, I had a bit more success. I got twist into the fiber, but it couldn’t hold enough to keep the fibers together without snapping. I’d manage to get along for an inch or so, and then it would snap off again because of too much twist, or the yarn would fall apart from not enough. Perhaps it’s just tricky (I hear tell that cotton is no easy thing for a wool spinner to spin), but for now I don’t think I’ll be going into production of cattail yarn.

The reeds, though, still seem promising. I think you could probably rett them like linen and spin that…

Well, it took a bout of insomnia to do it, but the February cardinal fibers are finally posted to Etsy. Apologies if you’ve been waiting (you can always poke me).

If it seemed a little quiet on the blog this weekend, it’s because I was away for a two-day workshop put on by the local weaving guild. The best part about being in the guild (and any craft circle in general) is that we get to see what other people are doing. This workshop was especially fun because it was a round robin. Everyone was given a set of instructions ahead of time, and we all brought looms that were already set up and ready to weave. During the workshop, we switched back and forth between looms, weaving a sample on as many as we could get through (I only missed one that I wanted to try, so the timing was also perfect).

All of the projects were based on a single woven structure, called double weave. Like with double knitting, you’re basically just working two layers of fabric at the same time, except in weaving they don’t necessarily have to be connected into one piece of cloth.

I was familiar with the idea of this technique only as a way of weaving cloth twice as wide as your loom (you weave two layers that are connected along just one side, and then open it up when you take it off the loom). As you can see from the samples below, there are many, many more things to do with double weave than to make wide fabric.

Of course, if you can make two layers of fabric connected on one side, you can make a tube by connecting them on both sides. If you then switch which layer of fabric is on top, you can create pockets, which can be stuffed with things. (Because, you know, we all need pockets in which to put stuffing.)

And if you go back and forth between tubes and double-wide fabric, you can have a pocket that opens on the side.

I find that pocket to be very, very exciting. Think of all the things you could weave with pockets in them…

Instead of pockets, you can have blocks of color that switch back and forth.

(Actually, each color block is a pocket here, too. They’re just hidden because they’re all sealed up.)

Or, you can use a looser cloth and weave things right into the fabric.

Those are little sequins added in before sealing the pockets up. You can’t really see here, but they do sparkle quite a bit. This isn’t something I would have woven for myself, but it was fun to try. There has to be some use for it…maybe buttons rather than sequins?

If you’re willing to get a little more complicated (and have the loom to do it), then the blocks don’t have to be plain anymore. The other side of this fabric is perfectly reversed, and it’s all made up of blocks that are black and white on one side and red on the other. Unfortunately,  I ran out of time on this one, but you get the idea.

You can also do amazing things with color.

This piece is one of my favorites, simply because the colors are so spectacular. On the reverse side, the squares are black and the lines are colored. I want to make this, except I don’t have enough shafts on my loom. Someday…

If you don’t want blocks, you can always have the layers switch back and forth in a different sequence. This piece looks the same on the back, except that the blocks are blue and the lines are white.

And then again, you don’t have to weave the second layer at all. This leno lace is made by weaving one layer (the background color), and letting the other have really long floats. Then you go back and twist the floats around one another to get an hourglass shape.

Lots of things to play with here! This has only scratched the surface of what’s possible, and I can definitely see myself using double weave for some future project. Not a bad way to spend a weekend!

I’ve been quietly spinning away on the gray fleece from Jefferson Sheep and Wool for several months now. It hasn’t been moving very quickly, but it’s been progressing. It doesn’t get much blog face time because, well, it’s gray wool. I love it and it’s beautiful and it makes a great yarn, but there’s really not much else to say about it. One skein looks about the same as three skeins, which look about the same as 9.

With no knitting in the works, the spinning has gotten a lot more attention this week. As I’ve gotten closer to the end of the gray fleece, I’ve begun to realize that I’m getting more yardage than I would have expected from the weight alone. This is a gently-processed roving, and so it has a lot more air in it than a commercial top.

I originally bought the fleece for me, but it just so happens that the sheep is named MacGyver, and I know a particular engineer who would dearly love to have a MacGyver sweater. When I hit 1000 yards, I thought that I might just squeeze out enough to make a sweater for Branden instead.

Last weekend, we tallied up the current yardage, what was left on the bobbins, and made some educated guesses about how much we could expect to get from the bag.

And it’s not quite enough. It is very, very close, but it is not enough.

And so, I started exploring ways to get around that niggling problem of not enough yarn. The sweater can’t get any smaller. The yarn shouldn’t be knit any looser. Lace is not an option. But what about a blend?

When I went to Jefferson, I bought one roving for me and two rovings for Branden. His rovings were huge, and I am sure to have more than I need from them. Of course, neither of those sheep are a MacGyver. But one of them is a dark brown that matches quite nicely with the gray.

I spun a few samples. We liked the outcome. So I spun a few skeins. I thought about a sweater design that would use all of them, fading from gray into dark brown with mixed skeins in between.

And now, instead of being a couple of bobbins away from done with MacGyver, I’m spinning another 2/3 of a sweater in two-tone and solid brown. It’s a lot more Shetland to spin, but there will be plenty of MacGyver left over.

Not much has gotten done this week, I’m afraid. We heard back on the house, and they went with someone else.I was afraid of that, since one of the other people looking at the place seemed to know the landlord really well, and if I were in her shoes I’d go with my friend over a stranger. So, we begin the house hunting again.

My knitting has hit that awkward in-between stage where one project is done before another has quite taken off. (I seem to run into this problem a lot lately. Need to work on planning for the next project sooner.)

I’ve been swatching happily away for the past couple of weeks, using this as my bus knitting. It’s made great progress, and I’m excited about the stitches I’ve been coming up with.

But then, last Sunday, I finished one swatch and just couldn’t figure out where to start looking for another. I’m working on “plain weave” textures right now, feeling my way through two-color linen stitch variations. I’ve tried quite a few, but haven’t found what I want just yet. I thought I had it two or three times this week, knit a few rows, and then realized that no, that still wasn’t it. There’s a lot of one step forward and two steps back in this project right now. I think it’s getting closer, but it isn’t moving yet.

The Namaste scarf has met a similar fate. I had swatched two different stitch patterns that I really liked in a similar yarn, and then bought this yarn to make the actual piece. I was home sick from work one day about three weeks ago, and I managed to get half a skein knit up. Yes, I have been that behind in blogging. I could have sworn that I’d taken pictures and blogged about it weeks ago, but can find evidence of neither. So, belatedly, here is the scarf I started:

The problem is that I don’t like the stitch in this yarn. I love the yarn, and I like the stitch, but the two aren’t playing together well. I think the silk and the tencel together give the yarn a little too much drape where the stitch requires bounce. I knit as far as I did hoping that I’d suddenly like it once the fabric got to a size where I could really see how it hangs, but the next day I looked at it again and had to admit that it’s just not there yet. I like it, but it just doesn’t “pop.”

So, the scarf requires some more tinkering with stitch patterns and swatches. It’s amazing how hard it is to come up with interesting stitch patterns in fully reversible lace with simple repeats. I had fallen into two in a row almost by accident, but now it’s looking like others may be harder to find. That’s not a problem, but it requires time and brainspace to find what I want, and I’ve been rather short on both lately. And so, the Namaste scarf has also been put aside to ripen.

Unfortunately, nothing else has really been stepping forward to be knit, and so I have had an almost entirely knit-less week. I’m hoping to cast on for something this afternoon, or else it will be another week before I have time to figure out what’s next. (And it will be another week before I can get into the stash closet, since we have a houseguest coming tonight and there is now a twin bed set up in front of the closet door.)

So, here’s hoping for more knitting next week!

I have gotten lots of comments about the yarn that I used for my latest sweater.

It’s beautiful stuff, and it’s hand dyed by Ruth over at Knitting on Impulse. It just so happens that she’s having a sale. They don’t come around very often, and all of her yarn is irresistible to anyone that shares my color palette (which would be most of you, I believe). That’s probably why it also sells out very, very quickly.

So, if you’re looking for some yarn that just must be bought, you might want to jump over and take a peek. If you’re not looking to buy, I would recommend not clicking through (consider that fair warning).

A few notes on the yarn: I bought the BFL worsted. It’s a lovely, sturdy, high-twist yarn. I would really call it a fingering-weight, though, so beware that you might be knitting “worsted” on size 3’s. (Unless I somehow got the fingering weight labeled as worsted, but I think that’s unlikely.) It took me 8 skeins to make a sweater, and I have a little bit left over. Because the yarn is high-twist, it is also very dense, and makes a heavy-weight garment. If you’re someone who tends to pick up sweaters and say “but it’s so heavy“, the BFL might not be for you. I love it, and I think it will wear like iron. The extra weight also makes it nice and warm. Ruth also has many other yarns that look equally delicious…I just have a particular weakness for BFL.

So, if you’re hankering after some beautifully-dyed yarn, go take a peek. I just got the email in my inbox, and thought I’d share in case anyone was tempted by the earlier links that I’d posted and needed an excuse to check out her shop.

The house hunt is officially on. I don’t know if I’ve mentioned before, but we are moving (again) in June. Or at least Branden is moving in June. I don’t have a job down there yet, so I may end up staying here a little while longer and moving in July; there are lots of things still up in the air. Honestly, I’m beginning to think that everything will always be up in the air, but at least I think I’m getting better at juggling with all this practice.

Either way, we have now officially begun the house hunt. This starts out many months in advance of a move, with a profiling of yarn shops, craft guilds, and hackerspaces in the new place. You know, the important things. Fortunately Chicago has all of these things in spades, so there won’t be any worries there.

Then begins the haunting of Ravelry boards for the given area, a few months in advance. Mapping out of particular neighborhoods begins in earnest, and extra details are added into the list for our top choices.

And now, the actual hunting begins. We drove down to Chicago for the day on Saturday to view our first candidate, and it looks really good.  The current tenants are still in the house, and we felt badly enough snooping in their closets and such, so we didn’t take pictures, but it’s very cute and has pretty much every feature on our list. I’m trying not to get my hopes up too high, since there was a lot of competition, but we applied and we think things went pretty well. So maybe. Fingers crossed!

Sunday was also a busy day. Franklin Habit was in Madison for the Knitter’s Guild Knit-In (which I missed due to house hunting), and he was teaching at our favorite LYS & coffee shop. We ended up on the wait list for the morning class, and only got one spot, so Branden took the Photographing Your Knitting class, and I took the afternoon Knitting from Antique Patterns class. Lots of good information, increased temptation to wander through the forests of old patterns (once I have brain space). We basically camped out in a yarn shop all day; it’s hard to complain about that.

In all, it was a busy but pretty good weekend. And now somehow it’s Tuesday night already. How does it do that?

Every once in a while, the universe has a message that it tries to send your way. Sometimes it gets through, and sometimes it’s a bit garbled. This month, it appears to be talking to me with a mouth full of marbles.

On two separate occasions, I have apparently had problems with financial documents (from different companies) just not showing up. Actually, in both cases there is pretty clear evidence that they never sent the documents in the first place, but we’ll be nice and just say that I never got them.

And, because I never got the original message which would have been simply fixed, this month I have received threatening letters about accounts overdue (for which I had never received a statement, and for which no statements had been sent) and tonight for an account about to be closed (because one part of their system has lost a certain number that they need after having stored it safely without anything changing for 7 years, and even though the same number is stored in a different part of the same system it can’t be transferred, because the two parts of the system can’t access one another).

So I get the message that I missed the message. But how am I supposed to respond to a message that was never sent? And why, oh why, are you suddenly going to close my bank account for lack of a number that you already have???

Clearly, there’s something I’m missing here.

Well, after months and months of knitting, the sweater is finally done.

I don’t really know why this one took so long; I started it way back in October, which puts it at about 5 months to finish. That beats my three-month record for Oblivion, and this one wasn’t even knit on particularly small needles. (Well, they’re not small anymore…threes feel downright large some days). I love the yarn, and I even liked the knitting.  The stitch pattern made me a little crazy at the cuffs, but that only lasted for a few hours.

Nope. I’m afraid that the only real reason that this sweater has taken 5 months is: distraction. I’d work on it for a while, and then the current body/sleeve would get too big for bus knitting and it would become evening knitting. I don’t get to do a lot of that, and I tend to like to work on projects that move quickly in my limited evening hours. So it got replaced by one thing after another.

But now, it is done. I finally finished the neckline and bound off on Saturday afternoon, and then wore it all day on Sunday. I may also have worn it to work on Monday, but since no one saw me both days it doesn’t count. Besides, I had to verify that it goes equally well with the green shirt and the red shirt. (It does.)

As it turns out, it was finished just in time. Today was in the high 50’s, and tomorrow we’ll be well into the 60’s. It’s still likely that the cold will be back, but my heavy sweater days for this year are numbered. At least now I’m ready for fall!