Sonatina

I am so excited to finally be able to reveal this dress! It was my first design for the Brown Sheep Yarn Company. I love that Brown Sheep is an American company and the majority of the wool they use is domestic and that they are a family owned business. I was fortunate enough to be able work with them this summer & designed this little dress back in July.My youngest just loved wearing it and I really wanted to keep it, but it was sent off to Brown Sheep and was just shown at the TNNA trade show in San Diego last week.
The yarn is Wildfoote, a sock yarn made of 75% washable wool and 25% nylon. When I was trying to decide what to design, this yarn just told me that it wanted to become a sweet little dress instead of socks, so I went with it! The color I chose for this Spring/Summer was a handpainted combination of pinks, oranges and lavenders, but I can also imagine it in darker colors for fall, layered over a top & tights. Brown Sheep has some fantastic colors to choose from.
In the midst of making this dress, we decided to relocate to New Hampshire from San Diego (with 1 week to pack), so I had to knit like crazy to make the submission deadline right before we moved...a lot of knitting on size 2 needles! It was a very fun knit & I look forward to seeing others finished versions.

Experimental Felting: Results #1

The hat felted to the approximate size I was looking for, but this is definitely a trial & error process. I ended up with a head circumference too large and a cap length too short. I think I know how to alter my pattern to get what I am looking for, but unfortunately I won't know until after I knit and felt the entire thing. I haven't done much research on this process and wonder if there's a surefire way to guarantee that the finished hat will have the desired dimensions? Anyways I will try again and see what I get!

Experimental Felting

I'm trying to design a felted child's hat with Eco Wool, which is just perfect for felting. Lots of yardage, economical and good for the environment! The problem is that I am guessing regarding how it will felt up. I just checked it's progress and is not felting as much in circumference as in length...which is normal, but I think I should have cast on fewer stitches. Once it's spun out I will block it and see how things look. The bonus is that it knit up so quickly on size 15 needles & I like how blended the felted fabric looks after just peeking in the washing machine.

Welcome 2009

Starting the year off on the right foot with lots of positive happenings. My husband passed a very important licensing exam which will help him get ahead with his work and help our family maintain the goal of me staying home with the girls full time. I've taken on teaching chemistry in the evenings starting in February which will help us a bit financially. And...through that same school, I'll be teaching a knitting workshop on how to knit one of my own designs! Exciting, but at the same time, I'm going to be SO busy. I have designed the knit, but still have to actually make 2 versions and write up the pattern all before the end of the month. I think I have picked the yarn from Spinning Yarns. The red is Cascade 128 and the grey is Cascasde Eco Wool. I still want to visit Yarn for Ewe to check out their selection because they are actually a bit closer for the students to visit and I'm still in search of the perfect bulky weight wool, wool/cotton or wool and some natural fiber mix that is still lightweight and economical. Cascade 128 is pretty great, not sure why I must keep searching and making things more complicated...Also, I've discovered that I'm definitely becoming more of a wool fan than I thought I would be. Margot & Rick have some beautiful Harrisville yarns and I love the idea of supporting NH businesses. More on this as it progresses.
Here are some images from around our place the last couple of days. My oldest took a guess as to which day our amaryllis would bloom and she was right! December 29th....And some frosty ferns from the window this morning...