Still making progress on the doily, though I took a few days off. Here it is with 35 rounds completed, and 14.75 hours elapsed.



I have five rounds left. Then each point is worked separately, followed by three rounds of single crochet worked around the entire thing. It's going to take a while.

I do like how the zigzags look, though!

Moving right along on the doily, with a break over the weekend for some contract spinning.



This is 30 rounds completed, and 11 hours elapsed. I like how the pattern is working up. The zigzags are pretty, and complement the pineapples nicely.

In OrchidWatch news, the Aerangis citrata has opened! All the full-plant shots I took this afternoon came out blurry, so I'll leave you with this closeup from Sunday, when the first two flowers opened.



I'll definitely have to get a good picture tomorrow, because all the flowers are open now, and it's so pretty!

Speeding right along with the sewing thread doily. Here it is with 25 rounds complete, and 7.5 hours elapsed.



I like crocheting pineapples. They're pretty, easy to figure out what comes next, and nice and orderly. They can verge on too frou-frou when done in excess, though. I think what hooked me with this pattern is the layers of bold zigzaggy lines between the rings of pineapples. Sort of a more modern look than just lots of frilly pineapples.

The second orchid bud opened! Yay! Aren't they pretty?



And here's a shot of the amaryllis from yesterday. Each flower is fully 8" in diameter.



I can't wait to see if the first two flowers will last long enough for all five to be open at once! I'm not holding my breath, though. The fifth bud (you can see it there in the middle) is pretty immature still. Four might be possible, though!

Pretty! Remember a couple weeks ago I posted about the floral happenings around my house? Well, the first Phalaenopsis 'Golden Light' flower has opened, and the second bud looks ready to pop!



And the Aerangis citrata is sooooo close to opening...



Two of the five amaryllis buds opened today, but somehow I neglected to take a picture of them. I'll get those tomorrow.

In crocheting news, the doily is growing. Here it is Saturday night, with 15 rounds complete, and 3 hours elapsed time. Approximately 2 inches in diameter.



And here it is last night, with 20 rounds complete, 4.5 hours elapsed time, and approximately 3 inches in diameter.



I find tiny thread crochet oddly satisfying, in spite of the exorbitantly high hours-to-size ratio of these pieces.

I started a new project, of a type I haven't done in a while.



I'm once again crocheting with sewing thread. This is the Sunburst Pineapple doily, originally published in 1951.

That picture shows the results of an hour and a half of work: 10 rounds.

I have a couple more actual finished object to show! Wow! It's amazing how things get done when you...do things.

First up is a pair of owlets. How cute are these guys??!! I saw this pattern on Ravelry, and knew I would be making some sooner or later. It seems that last week was the time, as Emma and I were meeting my former co-worker for lunch in the park, and she had mentioned one time how much she likes owls. So I made three, and Emma picked out one to give to her.



These are my own handspun; the gray is Romney/Border Leicester from Friday Harbor, and the cream is Finn from eBay, and is some of my first handspun. The owlet that has left the nest was the largest of the three, same color pattern as the smallest.

I'm not entirely happy with the eye placement on the smallest, and I think the middle sized one would be better with the large eyes I used on the largest owlet. But overall? Such a cute pattern! My mom would have loved these.

Next up is a pair of baby socks, from OnLine sock yarn, 75% superwash wool/25% polyamide, size Small (0-6 mo).



These were mostly knit while camping two weeks ago, the weekend of the triathlon and the giant waterfall. I stupidly started the toe of the second sock too soon, and didn't realize it until I had already cut the yarn and kitchenered the blasted thing together. So it went to time-out for a couple weeks. I took it up again Friday, un-kitchenered it, frogged the toe, and reknit it, this time to the proper length. All better. These will be in my shop, if anyone's interested.

I'll close for now with a picture that makes me smile.



Emma's weaving! I bought her a looper loom a couple weeks ago, and she's been having fun with it. We did the first one together to teach her how it works, but now she's doing one all by herself. Not terribly fast, but all by herself.

I had one of these when I was little, and spent many fun hours making potholders. Unfortunately, Emma's loom came with polyester (or some synthetic) loops, so her potholders are useless as potholders. They do make nice doll rugs, though, and the other day she asked me if it's possible to "make a really lot and sew them together to make a dolly blanket."

That's my girl.

I have some dribs and drabs of fibery work to show today, just to prove that I'm keeping busy. I'm still spinning on the pretty blue merino/silk, but a slightly-more-filled bobbin of tiny singles isn't very interesting, so I'll hold off on more pictures of that project until I have two beautiful full bobbins to show.

Instead, here's a bookmark that I made on Wednesday night. It's the fan pattern I've made before, and this one is mine, all mine. Every one of these that I made before has been sold, and I wanted one for myself. Plus, I left my other bookmark at home in Oregon.



I've also been knitting on two shawls. The first one is made with the blue yarn I spun in May, from the roving I won from Panda Bonzai. I tried a couple variations before I settled on this very plain stockinette triangle.



I tried a tip up triangle first, but didn't like that because the stripes came out horizontal and looked too static, then I tried a rectangular scarf/stole in a simple lace pattern, but that was completely wrong because of both the horizontal stripes and the lace/stripe interaction.

I finally went with what I had originally planned in the first place: a neck-down triangle. My original instinct was the right one. I started with beads on the stockinette, and while they looked nice on the more solid blue section at the center neck, looked too elegant for the marbled, variegated yarn. So I laddered down to each bead, removed them all, and laddered back up. (I must admit to being inordinately fond of laddering down and up stockinette with a crochet hook.) I like the way this is coming out, with the V's that are forming from the variegated yarn. It looks like blue agate.

I've been somewhat stalled on this for a couple days because I want to put an interesting but simple border pattern on, but don't know which one. I'd like it to have a shaped edge, like scallops or zigzags, and be knit in the same direction as the rest of the shawl so I can just keep knitting until I run out of yarn. I was thinking maybe the pattern I used for this afghan would work, but need to try it out, and work out the point detail. I also need to weigh the remaining yarn so I don't start the border too soon.

The second shawl I have going is a Chevron Shawl from my own pattern. I was very concerned when one of the people who bought the pattern said that there was a discrepancy in how much yarn I said the shawl takes, and how much she was using. There was quite a large difference. And of course, I'm in a completely different state from both the original shawl I knit and the leftover yarn- I couldn't check the yardage I had left over or weigh the shawl.

I went to the yarn store here on the island yesterday to get some yarn to knit another one.



I am now quite sure that the yardage I listed in the pattern is wrong. This is very embarrassing, and I don't know how it could have happened. The only thing I can think of is that the label from one of the skeins of yarn went missing before I totaled everything up at the end. Perhaps I misplaced it, perhaps a certain then-two-year-old child absconded with it, perhaps the wind blew it away. I'll be revising the pattern and contacting the people who purchased it. At least there weren't that many.

I thought I was being so careful when I wrote the pattern.

~~~hiding in shame~~~

Anyway. This Chevron Shawl is being knit with Brown Sheep Wildfoote yarn. It's actually sock yarn (75% washable wool, 25% nylon), but is knitting into a nice, fairly soft fabric with US 5 (3.75mm) needles.

This is not the yarn I had in mind when I went into the store, but it was one of the few there that was the right thickness (~15 wpi) and a solid color. And it was the ONLY one of those that didn't cost $16 per skein. I'd rather it was 100% wool, but oh well. I think I'll be overdyeing it when it's done. The gray is OK, but a bit boring for a decorative shawl. If it was natural sheep gray, maybe, but not a flat dyed gray. Emma said it needs to be purple, and I think purple over the gray will work nicely.

Going into yarn stores has been an interesting experience over the past few years. There just isn't anything there that I want to buy, except spinning fiber or hard goods. Even when I went to Weaving Works last month, I completely bypassed the yarn and went straight to browse the fiber, book, and equipment sections. This is a strange feeling, but I'd really rather knit with my own handspun. I am enjoying working with the Zephyr for MS3, but in general, I like my yarn better than commercial yarn. That's a good feeling.

I finally, finally finished up the crocheted lattice scarf. I have had this thing mostly done since the beginning of July, all it needed was the final row of single crochet and blocking! One measly row, and it took me almost a month to get around to it. Anyway, here it is.



This is from the skein of yarn I spun from the handdyed roving given to me by Liz . The scarf is 2 oz, measures 50" x 6.5" and used about 445 yards. I have 4.5 yards of yarn left over, since I stopped before I ran out in order to maintain the pattern.



It blocked nicely, and you can really see the lattice pattern. It feels nice and soft against the skin, and I would happily wear this. It turned out shorter than I initially thought it would, but it's still long enough to toss the tails to the back and block the chill at the neck of a jacket. I'm not a fan of long scarves that get in the way, anyway.



AND, I'll have you know, those last two pictures were taken by Emma! Not bad for a three year old!

In addition to whirlwind trips to Oregon, there has been a lot of fibery activity this week. First of all, I finished Clue 1 of the Mystery Stole. It's working up nicely so far. Adding the beads isn't nearly as fiddly as I feared it was going to be, and I think they'll add a lot to the finished stole. (Even though you can't see them in the picture.)



The Jaggerspun Zephyr merino/silk yarn is lovely to knit with, not splitty at all. I'm glad I went with the size 3 needles, though. I think when I give the finished stole a hard wet blocking, it will open up just the right amount. The stole pattern has more open space than the swatch pattern, so it opens up more. I'm happy with my choice.

I've also been continuing on the crochet scarf, and am nearly at the end of the ball of yarn. This has mostly been worked on during the day while babysitting (I've been watching two kids plus Emma for a week and a half), so it has been to the beach, the playground, the sandbox, and the library. Oh yes, it will definitely need to be washed before it is blocked. I try to be careful, but beach/sandbox dust gets everywhere. It's 40" so far, unblocked.



I have been spinning in the evening, while watching DVDs on the computer. After finishing the Sheep-to-Shawl warp yarn, I pulled out the delicious 8-oz bag of merino/silk (80/20) from my sister. I'm spinning this worsted, laceweight, and the singles are about 80-90 wpi.



This bobbin is about 2/3 of the first half of the fiber. I'm going to spin each 4-oz half on a separate bobbin, spinning all the singles first, then ply. I'd love to have just one giant skein of yarn, but I'm not sure my bobbins are big enough for that.

This fiber is beautiful stuff, and is basically spinning itself. Even though it's so fine, it seems like it's going really quickly. I'm loving the Super High Speed whorl that I got this weekend, too. I started the bobbin on the small side of the High Speed whorl (17:1), but switched to the Super High Speed this week. My High Speed whorl doesn't fit my flyer shaft tightly, and makes an annoying rattle at high speeds. The larger side of the Super High Speed whorl isn't that much different (18:1), and it fits tightly (doesn't rattle), so I'm a happy camper. Next time I do laceweight, I'll use the smaller side (21:1), and it'll go even faster. Fast is good when you're spinning lace.


High Speed on the left, Super High Speed on the right.

So what am I going to be doing this summer? This:



I didn't bring a lot, but most of what I did bring is time consuming. Because that's how I get the biggest bang for my fiber buck, dontcha know. Clockwise from the top left, I have spinning, spinning, knitting, crochet, crochet, and crochet. The merino scarf you've seen before, and the ball of white thread next to it is for crocheting bookmarks like the one shown (to sell at the Fair), or possible a doily. The two balls of cotton yarn are for crocheting a potholder. (Which is already done, see below. This was not one of the time consuming projects.)

As for the rest, first there is 8 oz. of Louet 80/20 merino/silk in the colorway "Princess Blue," which is a gorgeous streaky blend of dark dark dark midnight blue wool and white silk:



(This picture makes the blue look brighter than it really is. In real life it's almost black.)

Next is 16 oz. of Ashland Bay colonial top, in the colorway "Northern Lights," which is one of their beautiful multicolored mixes. This one has black as the base color, with generous streaks of teal, royal blue, chestnut brown, emerald green, tan, gray, and just a bit of lavender.



(Again, this is brighter and more colorful in the picture than in real life.) My sister gave these two delightful bundles of fiber to me last Christmas, and it's high time I dove into them. I'm thinking laceweight 2-ply for the merino/silk, and sportweight 3-ply for the Ashland Bay. I haven't made Emma her yearly sweater yet.....

I also brought a cone of Jaggerspun Zephyr laceweight and a range of needles for swatching. Somewhat to my surprise, I found myself joining the Mystery Stole 3 over at Pink Lemon Twist. I've never done an "along" before, and I'm not entirely sure what came over me. I'm not usually a lemming. But her other designs are pretty, and I figured this was a good summer project. Not having to tax my brain to design the pattern will be nice- I can just knit it. (Me and the other 1464 knitters who have signed up so far..... )

I haven't mentioned it before, but I'm teaching an "Introduction to Crochet" class this weekend, so I've been making samples and getting my handout together. Perhaps it would have been better to start this more than three weeks before the class, but what can I say- I'm a procrastinator. I'm nervous but not too worried. I haven't taught a class since grad school (12 years) but I can crochet in my sleep.

One of the samples I made last night is this potholder:



Front and back. It's Tunisian crochet (afghan stitch), very basic. Just chain 30 stitches, work even for 26 rows, make another the same, and attach them with single crochet around the outside. I used Sugar 'n Cream cotton yarn and an H afghan hook. It took me about two hours total. These are great potholders. I have several at home that I use all the time (hence the need to make a new, unstained one for the class) and I've never gotten burned or even felt the heat of a pan. They are super thick and sturdy.

This is the first time I made one with variegated yarn, and I really like the way it turned out. Each side is a different colorway, and I especially like the way the blue/green/yellow side came out.



Because of the way the afghan stitch is worked, the colors are mixed more than in regular crochet, and it looks more shaded than color-blocky. A nice effect.

The scarf continues to grow. I worked on it for a couple hours last night, and am about a third of the way through the ball. I don't think it's going to be quite as long as I thought.



I'm loving the way the subtle stripes are forming.

I started a scarf yesterday, in a lattice crochet pattern.



The yarn is the laceweight I spun from the roving from Liz, and the pattern is one I made up as I went along.



Surprisingly, I think this is the first time I have crocheted with my own handspun. I had to stop and think about that, but I think it's true. I have only ever knitted and woven with handspun. I'm liking the way this is working up, and I plan to crochet until I get to the end of the ball. Based on what I have so far, that should give a scarf that is approximately 8" x 70".

The good news is that the volunteer sunflowers are blooming.



The bad news is that the feeling of being on the Tilt-A-Whirl has not subsided. The packing is going along, slowly because I need to get more boxes. I've been working on bookcases and closets, and made a really good dent this morning. It's such a hideous job.

Fiber-wise, progress has been mixed. The urchin shawl may not be finished in time for the Fair. I'm on Row 194 of 290. Then there's the edging. It just takes so long to go around each row now. I did have a potential solution, though. If I can get the body of the shawl done, I may just do a loopy crocheted chain edging to finish it off to show it at the Fair. Then I can go back later and take out the crocheted edging and do the wide knitted one.

The daffodil filet piece, though, is done, done, done! It took two complete evenings to pin it out, and over a thousand pins...



I'm quite pleased with the way this turned out.



I also spent some time this weekend putting the finishing touches on several smaller projects that were almost done. First, I sewed up a hardanger closet sachet. I've had the hardanger done for a while, it just needed to have the backing sewed on and the hanger added. I filled this completely full of dried lavender buds (no fiberfill this time) and made the hanger long enough to go over the clothes rod in a closet. This is an original design. Yay me!



I also lined and backed another hardanger piece, this time as a wall hanging. There will be a dowel through the tabs on the top, with a ribbon hanger. I was going to frame this, but I think I like it better like this. The backing fabric is the same purple-flowered print as the tabs.



This is a commercial sampler pattern, and it's very versatile. I've used the line of five fancy motifs through the center as a bookmark, and the heart motif at the top as a sachet topper.



I also finished the fulled and needlefelted purse that I started last November. All that was left was to sew in the lining and put on the strap. I haven't decided yet if I will add some sort of closure. I think it would have to be a magnetic catch, because I don't want to have a button or anything on the front of the bag.



The design on the front of this just makes me smile. It was such a serendipidous accident, the way my random needlefelted swirls made a face when the fabric was folded.



The last fibery thing I did over the past week was to fix my Chevron Shawl. I took out the i-cord along the top edge, knit six rows of garter stitch and knit the i-cord again. It looked fine the way it was while it was blocking, but the top edge had quite a curl when I took the pins out. Stockinette shawls are prone to that. Adding just those few rows of garter stitch completely cured the curling, and now I'm perfectly happy with the shawl.

So my Fair entries are shaping up well, the packing is progressing, the house is sold, we have temporary quarters to go to between closing day and moving day, and Emma is thriving.

I really have nothing to complain about.

Last Thursday morning, we got the sad news of the death of one of Shaun’s one-month-old twin nieces. She died of SIDS. It’s such a horrible thing to have happen, and I feel just awful for her parents and siblings.

As hard as it was for me to lose my mom, I think it would be even worse to lose a child. Just the though that something might happen to Emma makes me get a panicky, crushing, suffocating feeling in my chest. I would do literally anything to protect her. I would jump into an icy river, I would run into a burning building, I would stand up to a giant mean dog. I don’t mean to sound overly dramatic, but there you go. Anything.

The thought of what my sister-in-law must be going through is terrible. She was the one to find the baby. I’m sure she feels the same way about her kids as I do about Emma, but in this case there was nothing she could do for her little girl. She had already taken all the precautions like laying her on her back to sleep, breastfeeding, not smoking, etc. It’s just so tragic.

Shaun went to California to the funeral, but we couldn’t afford for all of us to go. I wanted to do something for them, more than just sending a store-bought card, so I made this card on Sunday night.



The angel is crocheted with #80 tatting thread, and is removable from the card. I hope it serves as a loving remembrance of their little one who has gone back to the angels.

It’s been sporadic, but I have been working on the sewing thread Daffodil. After not doing much on it at all for quite a while, I picked it up again for real, and in the past two days I’ve done twelve rows.



That’s 63 rows, 4 ½ inches, and roughly 33 hours of work. The flowers of the daffodils are just starting to show (the double blobs on the left and right sides).

I’ve had a bit of a change of direction with this project. I was originally going to do it as it was written, for a table runner. You crochet the chart once bottom to top then turn the chart around and work it the other way to mirror the daffodils. However, I realized that I would probably never actually use it as a table runner, because I wouldn’t want anything spilled on it. In fact, if I do display it, framed and on the wall will probably be the method. And I think it would look strange to have a framed runner. One of the daffodil clusters would have to be upside down, or they would both be sideways. So instead, I will only crochet the chart once and just finish with the top border.

This feels strangely like a cop-out to me. But really, I’m not out to prove anything by making this project. By doing it this way, I will have a finished piece that I will actually look at and enjoy, rather than just have rolled up in a drawer.

I’ve also been making fan bookmarks.



I used up the last of the blue variegated thrift store thread on a long bookmark, then the next morning went into the living room to see that Emma had been playing with my scissors. The short blue bookmark on the top is in fact the very same one I showed last Thursday. See anything different between the first picture and this one (other than the twisted tassel)? Yep, it’s now shorter. She had snipped the tassel and the base two fans into itty-bitty little pieces. I was extremely unamused. Emma went for a nice long time-out, and I sat down and repaired the bookmark. Because she had snipped the first fans, not the last ones, I had to completely unravel and re-crochet it. I made it with 12 fans instead of the original 14, and cannibalized the tassel from the long blue bookmark to make the tassel for the short one. I think the long one is long enough that it doesn’t really need a tassel, but the short one definitely does.

The purple one is also thrift store thread, #8 perle cotton, worked with a #11 hook. The perle cotton has a much softer twist than crochet cotton, and is a bit of a pain to crochet with, but the finished fabric is nice and smooth and sheeny. I don’t think it will wear as well as a more firmly twisted thread (the blue variegated is a nice firm 6-ply cable), but I crocheted it tight and really, how much wear does a bookmark get?

Lastly, it’s time for an aquarium update. All the fish are swimming, the plants are thriving, and all is well.

• The Amazon Sword (left background) keeps putting out more leaves, though the three oldest have died back. I think these were the original leaves that were on the plant when I got it.
• The tapegrass (far right) has put out another leaf, and I saw today that it is starting a bloom spike!
• The Borneo fern (second from right) isn’t doing much. The leaves are still all there, but I haven’t seen any new ones. I know this is a slow growing plant, though, so it’s probably still just acclimating.
• The Java fern (left foreground) keeps getting bushier, though some of the oldest leaves have died off. It is also producing plantlets from the tips of the leaves, and I detached a couple and started them on the other piece of wood (the one with the Borneo fern). Their roots have attached to the wood, and they’re making lots of leaves.
• The Micro Sword (center background, right foreground) is doing well, though it seems to have trouble rooting in the gravel. I think the grain size is too large- this plant would probably do better in coarse sand. But it hasn’t lost any leaves, and I just keep poking it back into the gravel when it floats out.
• The “lily grass” that I thought was going to die (center foreground, between the pieces of wood) may make it after all. It stopped losing leaves when it had four left, and now actually has a new leaf starting! We shall see.

Lest you think I haven't been doing anything fibery at all in the recent past, here's a little project I did Wednesday night.



A thread crochet bookmark, done in #30 crochet thread (from the Thrift Store!) and a #11 hook. Super quick and a fun design. I'm normally not big on variegated crochet thread because I don't like the uneven striping and pooling it produces when worked in the round, like for a doily. In this design, though, I think it works and doesn't detract too much from the fan motif. I will definitely be making one for myself in white, though.

I think this pattern would also look nice as a band, around something like a basket or a straw hat. Never mind that I don't have a straw hat or that it would perhaps be excessivly girly for me. I just think it would look pretty. Perhaps with a floaty sundress. Walking on the beach. In Costa Rica. With my binoculars.

The daffodil runner continues to grow, and is about 3 1/2 inches high now, unstretched. This is 48 1/2 rows (out of 260) completed, and approximately 25 hours of crocheting. Each row takes half an hour.



Here's a crochet tip that I especially like with fine thread: Use a safety pin (coil-less is best, but mine seem to have all disappeared) to hold the working loop when you put the project down. That way, there's absolutely no chance that it will start unravelling while you're gone. I've found that there is a law of probability similar to Murphy's, which states that the finer the thread and the smaller the stitches, the more likely a catastrophic, unplanned frogging is to occur.

I also knit a bit on the urchin shawl yesterday, but I'll spare you another picture of the lace blob. It looks essentially the same as it did here.

Last night, because I was tired of tiny yarns and intricate lace, I started this (and finished this morning):



A child's hat, knit from Brown Sheep Cotton Fleece (color is Jungle, and not quite as shockingly green it may appear. I had to fiddle in Photoshop because my camera wanted the yarn to be blue). This was knit on #6US Addi circs, the design is original. It will probably fit a 7-9 year old. I need to find one of those to try it on, because it's too big for Emma and too small for me.

I like the top of the hat because it lays flat when it's not on a head, even in its unblocked state (as it is in these pictures).



With this yarn, these needles, and my gauge, decreasing every other round at nine points gives a flat circle.

I've also been spinning a bit recently, though (amazingly) not Ashland Bay top. We've begun the Sheep-to-Shawl warp! We do a practice shawl at the Fourth of July celebration, and so like to have the warp spun and ready for dressing the loom by the middle of June.



This year, we're doing a blended yarn. It's 60% Romney ewe lamb and 40% baby alpaca. Both these animals live on the island at local farms, the fiber was shorn by an islander, and it will be washed, carded, spun, and woven by my spinning group, so the shawl will be truly an island original. (Hey, Liz! does this count for anything toward the Eat Local Challenge? Maybe it's Spin Local! Supporting local fiber farmers... ) I love Sheep-to-Shawl.



It's really amazing what the addition of the alpaca does to the Romney wool. I find Romney, even Romney lamb, to be on the coarse and scratchy side. But that bit of alpaca changes the hand of the fiber to something soft, puffy, and incredibly luxurious. It's a dream to spin.