FO: Butterfly Shawl!

I finished knitting the Butterfly Shawl last night. I really like how it turned out. I substituted a simple shell stitch crocheted edge for the one in the pattern. I washed and blocked the shawl before I went to bed last night. Set under a ceiling fan, it was dry and ready to unpin this morning. :-)

Specs:
Size 9 needles
Fingering weight yarn
Wool/silk blend
5 ounces/540 yards
Blocked Width: 74"
Blocked Length: 38"

This is a big shawl. I used fingering weight but you could use any weight of yarn you like. It's a very simple pattern to knit.

The pattern called for size 11 needles with fingering weight. I thought that was too big though I could easily have used a 10 or a 10-1/2 if I wanted it lacier. I like the look I got with the size 9's.

I found out this morning that the link to this free pattern is broken. (An object lesson in why you should print out or save a copy of any free pattern you like that you find on the web.) The website has been disabled for some reason. I've emailed Dani at Knitty Paws asking about her website and the shawl pattern. I fear that this shop has gone out of business. If this is the case, I've asked for permission to post the pattern on my blog giving all credit to her and the designer. We'll see if I get a response and what she has to say.

ETA: The Butterfly Shawl is a word-for-word copy of Lion Brand's Easy Triangle Shawl #2.

Fiber acquisition

There's nothing like fresh fiber to cheer me up. Not that I needed any more spinning fiber. But could you resist if you saw these colors? I know I couldn't. LOL!

The orange, pink, and red bundle on the right is called Tequila Sunrise. It's a mix of Rambouillet, Targhee and other soft wools. With only 3.8 ounces in this, I may have to go back and buy more. :-)

The one on the left is called Caribbean Sea. It's a little over 4 ounces of merino. I love the colors and it's so soft.

Mary dyes fiber from the Brown Sheep Company. This is top and not roving. Much easier to spin in my opinion. Some fiber I've bought has felted a lot in the dyeing process, making it a lot of work to get it ready to spin. This wool is in much better shape.

Even though I have a fiber project going on both of my wheels, I'm severely tempted to put a fresh bobbin on and start on the Tequila Sunrise. LOL!

Take a look at Mary's products at her Etsy shop, The Art at Eagle's Find. BTW, she ships fast. :-)

Tears & Torrents of Rain

After I posted last Wednesday, I received word that my dad's half sister, Betty, had died. Her husband, John, died last fall. Even though she had been sick for several months, her death came as an unexpected shock to all of us. My cousins, Rhonda, Robert, and Leon, have now lost both their father and mother in less than a year. If that isn't a tough thing to deal with, I don't know what is. :-(

Friday, hubby and I made the long drive to southern Illinois for the funeral. I took some knitting along. With no concentration for knitting lace, I started another EZ Square Baby Blanket. It's mindless knitting which is just what I needed. We arrived in the small town my parents hail from too late for the visitation on Friday night. We stayed overnight with my Uncle Bob and Aunt Janet and caught up on family news. Their daughter, my cousin Kim, gave birth to a baby boy on Monday, June 18. I brought along the baby blanket I recently finished as a baby gift. I'm sad to say I didn't get a chance to see the baby.

Saturday started out hot, humid, and sunny. The funeral took place in the early afternoon at a small church in the country where my aunt was lifetime member. Her grandson, Brent, played guitar and sang. The pastor kept the service short, sweet, and very personal. It's the first time I've seen a pastor break down during a funeral. He had to pause for several minutes as emotion overtook him. You see, my aunt was well-loved by everyone she knew and every life she touched. Betty embraced life and radiated joy. I always remember her with a smile on her face or laughing. She had a very generous heart and was there to help whenever someone was in need. Her hugs wrapped you in love. I will miss her.

After the burial, we were invited back to the church for a buffet lunch prepared by members of the church. The food was wonderful. I got to see and talk to family members I haven't seen in a few years. I wish we could have stayed longer to visit but hubby wanted to drive partway home tonight.

At 5:00 pm we began what should have been about a 3 hour drive to Indianapolis. We were only 50 miles into the trip when the sky got very dark. As we continued on, it began to rain and then pour. The ditches on either side of the road were flooded, the corn in the fields was blown over (though we hadn't felt any wind), and the lightning show was breathtaking and intense. Out in the middle of nowhere, with no place to stop, we kept going. When we finally reached Interstate 70, we stopped for a break. Lots of cars were pulled off in this small town. We heard reports that there had been 3 tornado touch downs in the area we had just driven through. Yipes!

We got back on the road heading east from Illinois into Indiana. The weather wasn't improving and the heavy rain didn't stop. To get a break, we decided to stop in Terre Haute for dinner. We pulled off the interstate to find the city streets flooded. While we ate dinner, we hoped that the storm would move off. It didn't. We got back on the road, darkness fell, and the rain followed us all the way to Indy. It's hard enough to see to drive in heavy rain in daylight; it's even worse when it's dark. Our neverending drive finally ended at 10:30 pm when we pulled into our motel's parking lot. I was so glad to get off the road!

Lots of people were looking for someplace to stay due to the heavy rain. If we hadn't had reservations, we might not have had a room for the night. I was so worn out I was asleep not long after we arrived. Happily, the trip home from Indy on Sunday was quick and the weather cooperated. I'm happy to be safely home again.

Wool Dyeing Workshop

Here's my finished yarn from the Dyeing Workshop on Saturday. None of the colors is as intense as it looked when it was wet. The middle skein is Knit Picks laceweight yarn (880 yards). I squirted on green and a red violet color. The outside skeins are Skacel merino laceweight (1,375 yards). The Skacel yarn started out a very pale pink color that I didn't like. I overdyed one skein with a purplish color and the other with turquoise. I like how they both turned out. I may use one of them to knit Mystery Stole 3. (If you'd like to join the fun, don't wait long. Membership will be closed on July 6.) I've ordered some crystal beads to use on the stole.

Our Frog Pond Fiber Arts group had a lot of fun dyeing wool at Elizabeth's house. One member, Janet, had bought out one store's supply of Easter Egg dye at 90% off. We didn't even put a dent in it! I was the Dyemaster for the day. I laughed at that since I'm no expert. I've only done this twice before. Once everyone saw how easy it was to do, they had fun with it. I heard a number of people talking about trying it again.

Supply List:
Wool yarn or roving (or other animal fiber or silk)
Easter Egg dye tablets
A gallon of white vinegar
16 ounce hot beverage cups
Plastic spoons
Ziploc gallon size bags
Vinyl gloves (which no one used)
Plastic wrap
Squirt bottles
Paper towels

I warned everyone to wear old clothes they didn't mind getting dye on. I set up the dye station on the patio in the shade. We presoaked the yarn in a big plastic tub in warm water laced with vinegar. While it was soaking, we mixed up the dyes in cups. We drained the yarn, placed it into Ziploc bags, added dye and some water, sealed them, and laid them on the hot patio to cook in the sun.

Several of us tried another method. We laid our yarn out on plastic wrap, filled some squirt bottles with different colors, and had fun squirting it on. Wrap it up, put it in a bag, and lay in the sun to cook. You can turn the bags over after awhile to make sure that all the yarn gets colored.

With the intense sun and heat, it didn't take long before the water in the bags was clear. This is good. It means the dye has been absorbed in the yarn and should be set.

Elizabeth's house has a pool. When everyone was done dying wool they sat on the edge of the pool with their feet in the water to cool off. The chlorine in the pool water was helpful in getting dye off your hands too. LOL!

It was very hot, even in the shade where we were working. I found out later it was 93 degrees. It was almost too much for me. I didn't realize how much the heat was affecting me until I went inside.

We all left for home with bags full of hot, wet yarn. I told them to take it home, let it cool, and rinse it out in cool or warm water. Gently squeeze out some of the excess water and hang it in the bathtub to drip.

Some notes about dye tablets:

Read the package instructions. Some colors will split if you add vinegar to the dye. Be aware of this fact unless you don't mind what color(s) you get. If you're using non-vinegar dyes, don't presoak your yarn in vinegar. Add the dye to your wet yarn and let it cook for awhile before you add some vinegar. Adding the acid at this stage, should stop the color from splitting.

You can't always tell what color a dye tablet is just by looking at it. If you want to find out without mixing then all up, here's what you can do. Dampen a paper towel. Take a dye tablet and touch it lightly to the paper towel to see what color it is.

Have fun! We did!

Butterfly Shawl

In cleaning out my yarn stash, I stumbled across 4 skeins of hand painted merino/silk that's just a hair heavier than a fingering weight. I decided I'd make a shawl with it. Something easy and somewhat lacey. I searched through my list of triangle shawl patterns and found one called the Butterfly Shawl at the Knitty Paws web site. (See my July 1st post for a link to the pattern.)

The picture isn't very clear but the pattern sounded simple, yet intriguing. The pattern calls for size 11 needles with fingering weight yarn. I thought that was too big so I used size 9 (5.5 mm). The shawl is knit from the top down using increases along a central stitch and along both edges. Once the pattern is established, you do a simple repeat, alternating knitting 4 different rows. The shawl also has an interesting knitted on, knotted fringe edging.

I have 720 yards of yarn which should be more than enough to knit this shawl. I've nearly through one 180 yard skein and the shawl is growing quickly. I'll post my yardage on the triangle shawl pattern list when I'm done.

Here's an unblocked look at the shawl. I think it looks very good, don't you?

What happened?

For some reason my Sitemeter counter has gone missing. I've checked their site and it's still counting hits on my blog. Just for some reason it isn't showing up in my sidebar. Anyone have a clue what's going on?

A couple of hours after my last post, our power went out. I was watching the evening news at 5 pm when I heard an explosion and everything went off. It sounded like an electric transformer blew. Our temps here have been hovering around 90 degrees most days. I would lay odds that people near me got home from work and cranked their air conditioners down. The resulting demand for power blew the transformer and the power to 1100 homes. I live somewhat in the country but also in the midst of a large number of subdivisions with huge houses. Some of these houses have 2 or even 3 central air conditioners to cool all that square footage. I'd certainly hate to pay their electric bills. When hubby got home from work we went out to dinner. By the time we got back about 8 pm, our power was back on.

Tomorrow, my fiber arts group is having another Fiber Frolic. We meet at one of our members homes for an afternoon of fiber fun. We knit, spin, talk, have a swap table for unwanted stuff, and, of course, eat. I'm running a solar dyeing workshop for wool yarn using Easter Egg dyes. I've been collecting up the things I'll need for this all week. It should be a lot of fun. They're giving a high of 90 degrees so we should have no trouble getting our dyes to set. LOL!

I've cleaned out some of my yarn and spinning fiber stash. I'm taking what I've cleaned out to swap or sell. Anything leftover may get posted for sale on my blog soon.

Lacy Leaf Water Bottle Carrier

I came up with this cute little carrier last year. I put my bottled water in it, place it over my shoulder, and keep my hands free to shop. It's a good use of scrap yarn plus a small exercise in lace knitting in the round. I made mine with a ball of leftover Brooks Farm Yarn Four Play (wool/silk blend).

Lacy Leaf Water Bottle Carrier

Size 7 double points
Worsted weight yarn (about 60 yards - less than 1 oz)
9 oz plastic bottled water (about 8" around)


Pattern will be made available soon on Ravelry.