Mayan Garden Lace Shawl

 Mayan Garden  Lace knit shawl is one of the many incredible patterns designed by Kitman Figueroa.  I bought this yarn and pattern at last years fiber fest when I saw this knit up.  It was immediate "I have to knit this!"  

The pattern says intermediate...hum, I consider myself at least intermediate in knitting skills, but this pattern took me to places where my needles have never gone before. 

Pattern on both sides, no resting row, the stitches grew and grew till I could only go up one side and back in a full night of TV!  I might have gotten a bit further but with Yorkie love hopping all over there were big pauses or paw's for hugs and kisses.

 I was running out of yarn!   I had two skeins so almost 800 yards and was pretty sure there might not be enough to finish and bind off.   With a bit of planning I left out 4 rows, 4 rows before the end of the pattern and made it work. 

This is to date the largest shawl I have ever committed to.  Its not even my colors, but I love this mossy gree and Mayan Garden is the perfect name for this color.

I hope when you see something you fall in love with you take the personal challenge to give the pattern a try, you might be thrilled to find out you can do it!

There and Back Again Socks

 I am a huge Lord of the Rings fan.  I had no idea there were sock patterns created around the Hobbit and LOTR!  I believe there are at least 30!  Patterns revolve around characters and places...Oh my gosh, talk about excited and when you think of LOTR and the "journey" and the time and work getting from one place to another, its just the same for these sock patterns.  Talk about challenging!   These socks are Gollum by Claire Ellen  gollum-socks  The little cables on the back are holes!  At the heel is a circle or ring, the one ring to rule them all!  

 My friend and I took the challenge to knit them at the same time.  Here we share footsies as the big sigh of relief escapes us...FINALLY finished.

 Clair Ellen designed this pattern called Smaug!  I had purchased some amazing yarn with a bit of sparkle to in last fall at a fiber fair.  I used it for these Smaug socks because I wanted the scales to have a bit of cool dragonish fun.  Again this was really a tough knit for me.  Not only did I have to rip out when I discovered I skipped the page to mirror image my pattern, but the pattern changes every row as the angles that make it so interesting make it all so hard. 

Well, I may never wear these they are so cool, I might just put them into a collection of I cant believe I made these! 

Man, So many I want to knit, and all are so different and I Wants thems all, my precioussss.

 Well, finally an easier sock from the LOTR's  The Road Goes Ever On.called TreeBeard.

As I knit these I remembered the Ent's and their role in the trilogy.  Its fun to knit along and have such cool memories.

This was a much more easy pattern.

 My yarn was Malibrigo sock yarn in color Lettuce!  I think its perfect for an Ent, don't you!

Ahh, back at the knitting table, other socks in progress, having so much fun taking footsie selfies.  Out of all of us who come to the knitting table, only two of us are sock obsessed...  Our road goes ever on.

Sunrise Scarf its Bambalacha!

 Wowzer, I am finished with knitting this lace pattern called Sunrise Scarf which I found on Ravelry knitted up in handspuns.  Sunrise Scarf

I wish these colors were true to the actual color of the yarn as in the previous post on this single ply yarn I spun. Its really purples and turquoise...its so luscious.

I have knit a bit of lace, no big deal right!  Just a bit of lace at the end of shawls and simple things, how hard can a little 8 inch wide scarf be to knit?

 This is one of the more challenging things I have knit.  The pattern is knit on front and back, so there is no resting row to give yourself a little breather between following pattern charts. 

I think the only thing that really kept me going was I could not stand to wait for the colors to change.  Each row became more lovely, the colors just rich and exciting.

At one point I did consider to stop or continue as you really could not see the pattern much unless you stretched it out with your fingers, so I blocked an end. 

That was all it too, I was off and knitting again with light at the end of the yarn tunnel.  This was so worth the time spent and I have a OOAK amazing scarf that no one can resist reaching out to touch.  My finished size is 7 inches x 72 inches long.  YUMM, handspun yarns rock.

Soon I will be announcing TimelessDog Studio is opening its fiber business which will encompass hand dyed yarn, roving and art bats.  Formerly Windyglen Designs I feel like I am re inventing the past with fresh ideas and fiber infused excitement. 

Bambalacha is Finally Spun

This was a LONG spinning session.  I managed to get 625 yards out of my 5 ounce braid.  I got out of my normal happy spinner speed and got the ratio cranked up and gave this single a tight twist.  I was not really sure if I had ruined it with so much twist, but after the twist was set, shocked and slapped a bit it hang just beautifully to dry. 

 The fiber in this braid is BFL (blue faced Leicester sheep) and Bombay Silk.  I believe the difference between this silk and Tussah is the worm for tussah is not strictly mulberry and its fiber is not super white.  The Bombay silk worm is strictly a Mulberry leaf eater giving the rich white silk.   This was dyed by Corgi Hill Farms and purchased on Etsy.  Their graduated fibers are my obsession.   Also their braids are 5 ounces!   I have given myself the pleasure of creating a pre-knitting swatch for a project I want to do using this size US#5 needle.  Looks perfect!  Its a beautiful strong single ply in a fingering weight, perfect for several different shawl patterns.  

Looking Back at 2014 Handspun FO's!

 I just realized that my knitting needles probably had put on several miles of knitting and might be worn out!   I always find an excuse to get new needles.  I love the square wood ones!
This shawl is called Age of Brass and steam, its over on Ravelry.com.
Fiber is BFL which came dyed from Three Waters Farm, and it spun up like a champ, the colors are amazing. Super soft, I love it.

 I love HeartBeat colorway! Its so vintage and this Rouched scarf kit up so cute in it.  This is so light weight and delicate even with all the squished edges.  I think this was also dyed by Three Waters Farm.
I spin pretty fine and like a fingering weight type feel.  Some fibers are more KD, some are more lace.   I often don't use a gauge for my pattern unless I get really picky.  Sometimes it doesn't work, so for 2015 I will do a swatch!

 I LOVE this shawl.  Its called Nirmulintu and knits on the diagonal.  This is a polwarth and tussah silk blend which was dyed by Corgi Hill Farms in a color way called Mango Martini.  I love graduated hand spun yarns.  You can't find that in a store!

 This is probably one of my most used scarves.  Its called an infinity scarf only I didn't want to make it connect, but be long and draping.  LOVE.    Its another polwarth tussah silk blend fiber dyed by CorgiHillFarms and the colorway is called Manits Shrimp.  Their names are so fun, and I wear my shrimp well.

 Opportunity Rocks is a BFL wool, and I spun it as it came off the braid and it did this color changing between sections on its very own, nothing planned out.  This is Age of Brass and Steam again, and it was gifted to a friend.  Again this is a CorgiHillFarm dyed fiber. 

Tuscan Sunset roving also another CorgiHillFarm delight in a interesting merino and black dyed tussah silk.    The black tussah silk gave the yarn such an antique feel, the golds became so rich and these images just don't do justice to the knitted items.   The edging I used on this was part of another pattern which worked nice for this.





As 2014 comes to a close this blog will change over to spinning and knitting for 2015.  Many of my handspuns will be offered on Etsy, it won't be a huge amount as spinning is not a race to the finish, but slow and methodical, a work in progress from start to finish.  A zen experience.   I will still be working on a limited amount of quilted wall art and personal pieces.  See ya all next year.

Message in a Bottle

 Spin on!  Don't you just love how the colors in the fiber just move so gradually into eachother.  This shawl pattern is called Beithe  over on Ravelry.  I was not sure how I was going to like casting on over 400 stitches to start this as it goes from the bottom up!  Once that was done it was a very fast knit and I just LOVE it.  Love the drape of the Polwarth and silk blend of this fiber, the lightness and drape.  I spun almost 600 yards out of my 5 ounce braid of fiber.  The color way is Message in a Bottle and dyed by CorgiHillFarms on etsy.    The biggest challenge was blocking it! 

I have a few patterns in my ravelry library that are just crying out for some handspun yarns.  If you visit ravelry and want to friend me I am timelessdog over there. 

Spinning Delights

 I might as well change this quilting section to just knitting and spinning. I am unable to quit playing with fiber, I confess I am just addicted to spinning and knitting up the hand spun yarn.  I know knitters will understand how much fun it is to knit with special yarns and hand spun yarns.

This fiber blend is a polworth and silk blend dyed up by CorgiHillFarm over on Etsy.  I love their fibers and colorways.  This is called Tidal Froth.  I spun it up lightly, and gave it a two ply in about a fingering /dk weight and sat on it till I found a

 pattern that spoke to me.

The pattern here is a little cowl that only took about 180 yards is called Pei and you can find it on Ravelry.  It was so easy to knit up and was done in two days.  I blocked it and its so light and like a feather weight it will be an amazing little accessory for spring going into summer.  

I am spinning on a Sonata Kromski wheel.  Its great to have my wheel close at hand because when I have knit my hands into arthritic revolt, I can go spin which leads to more ideas for knitting...and the cycle continues!