In a recent knitting endeavor, I designed a scarf specifically for Swiss Mountain Mulberry Tussah by Handmaiden.  Using a single skein, I wanted a scarf as long as possible, but not too wide.  I chose a lace pattern in a Barbara Walker pattern treasury.  The pattern looked to me like grapes on the vine, tempting me to have a glass of wine.  The lace and a gorgeous purple colorway (Phlox, a Colorsong Yarn Fashion Color exclusive) were a perfect, delicious pair.

So I had the glass of wine.  And while knitting (slightly) under the influence, I forgot to calculate exactly how much yardage each pattern repeat required.  Thus, when I got dangerously close to the end of the ball, I didn’t know if I had enough left for a final repeat.  What to do, what to do?  Because the yarn is so exquisite, I didn’t want to waste a single inch.

The answer: a lifeline!!  Of course, I’d known about lifelines for most of my knitting career.  I’d just never used one.  The idea is simple – thread a strand of yarn through each stitch of the row just knit, then continue knitting.  If you have to rip back your work, rip all the way to the lifeline, then replace the stitches on your needle.  There are numerous uses for the lifeline; for me, it usually comes down to wanting to use up every single inch of yarn.

So, with the lifeline in place, I started a final repeat.  And you know what?  I got the whole repeat completed, plus several border rows and about 8 yards left over.  PERFECT!  The pattern for the scarf can be purchased here.

To make up for lost time, I will attempt to post about all the projects that have kept me occupied for the last few months, as well as all the roller derby shenanigans for the 2011 season.

Hopefully I’ll be all caught up before I leave on an epic journey across the States!  My sister is getting married in South Carolina in just over a week, and after flying into town for the wedding, I’ll be driving back home to the Pacific Northwest over the course of a week.  I’ll be bringing with me not only all the odds and ends of my childhood, but also a new item of precious cargo!  More on that once I get to South Carolina!!

Maiden Hair, by Hand Maiden in Morgana

When I first started at Colorsong Yarn, the photo room was full.  And by full, I mean there were probably about 300 skeins of yarn waiting for their close-up.  At the very bottom of the pile, in a non-descript bag, sat a skein of yarn that immediately brought to mind a colony of honey bees.  The color was so rich, you could almost taste the sweetness. 

Honey Bee Scarf

After petting and drooling over the skein forever, I decided to ask Nancy about it.  She said it was the sample skein of Maiden Hair sent out by Hand Maiden months and months before.  Since we didn’t have much pattern support for the yarn, we decided that I should use the skein to develop a quick, easy pattern.  I wound it into a ball and just had to knit it immediately.  The Honey Bee Scarf was the finished outcome.

Honey Bee, as a wrap

The yarn is a loosely spun 2-ply – one ply is a shiny, smooth strand of silk, and the other is of kid spun together with nylon (67% silk, 23% kid, 10% nylon).  The plying gives the yarn a curvy, undulating effect, while the kid produces a fine, soft halo.  It slips through the fingers like butter (so sensual); the silk ply prevents the kid ply from sticking to the needles.  The finished fabric is light and warm, with a nice drape that hugs the wearer.  The two plies can be easily split, so use needles with a slightly blunt tip (I used addi Turbo Clicks).

SMS Silk Cotton, in Pumpkin

After working at Colorsong Yarn for over a year now, I don’t know why I’m still surprised to discover that I’m completely in love with yet another yarn.  It seems like every new specimen brings unique, delightful qualities that compel me to knit more!  SMS Silk Cotton is no different – I’m hooked.

Transatlantic Scarves

This yarn is a 50/50 blend of silk and cotton, all the best qualities of each fiber lending itself to the other.  There is so much shine and sheen that your eye dances over the colors, never settling on an exact shade.  The drape gives the finished fabric an almost fluid quality, while still maintaining excellent stitch definition after blocking.  The yarn feels slightly cool to the touch as it slides through your fingers.  Though the staple fibers are fairly short, there’s not much in the way of fuzz-factor.

Stitch Detail

This is the perfect yarn for Spring or Summer accessories.  I used it to design Transatlantic, a set of scarves.  One skein will make both the triangle head scarf and the open-stitch neck scarf.  Try not to use needles with a very sharp point, as the yarn does not recover well from splitting.

Enjoying the new knits!

Whenever Fleece Artist adds a new yarn to their already delicious line, we find a skein of it hiding in a box along with our regular shipments.  The hand-written labels spell out the details, and we all pet and drool (we usually wear bibs) and exclaim our first impressions.  Several weeks ago, we received a skein of O’paca among the pile of BFL 2/8.  The halo is so fluffy, and the core yarn so fine, that the whole things looks like a twist of roving, not like yarn at all.

O'paca, by Fleece Artist; Nymph colorway

As we contemplated carrying the new yarn, the skein sat on the packaging table, calling out to my fingers.  It’s amazingly soft, demanding to be held against your face.  You cannot walk by it without touching it, even with your hands full of cashmere, mohair, and BFL.  It’s really just that enticing.

Opal Scarf

Once we settled on carrying the yarn, we started thinking about pattern support.  I had ideas from the first time I handled the skein.  I wanted a light, open lace that would show just how fine the yarn is, while giving the bloom enough room to fluff up a bit.  I also wanted to make something that would be worn against the neck or head; it feels too good!  Quick fix – the Opal Scarf!

Blocking Detail

I began with a simple ribbing, knitting long enough to create a loop.  Then I started the lace portion.  The fagoting is a simple 4-stitch, 1-row repeat.  The border is knit-on sideways, a quick garter stitch.  Pull the tail through the loop, and drape around a lucky neck.  The scarf can be made longer and wrapped around more times.  It’s light as a feather, and warmer than you might expect.  The alpaca is just so awesome.  Seriously.

Opal Scarf in the photo room

Strut, Picked Fiber by BohoKnitterChic in "Peacock Feathers" colorway

My latest contribution to the challenge is Strut, a yarn spun of picked fiber.  For me, this is a very “out of the box” concept in spinning.  As a person with some (many) AR/OCD tendencies, I usually spin yarn that are very even, follow a color pattern, and are, in general, very controlled.  With this picked fiber, it’s just a big pile of fluff – you reach in, grab a handful, and start spinning.  The color distribution, thickness, texture, etc. all come together organically, and quite randomly.  The outcome: beautiful!  I really like the finished yarn.  I believe it wants to be a cowl in the near future.

Purple Haze; Blue-Faced Leicester in Blomidon colorway by Fleece Artist

Next up, we have my first attempt at a thick-n-thin single.  It’s not exactly what I wanted it to be, but there are in fact thick parts as well as thin parts, so I’m gonna call it a success!  The fiber is 100% blue-faced leicester; the roving is left over from my Thrummed Mitten kit by Fleece Artist.  The colorway is called Blomidon, which I absolutely love.  It’s a very small skein, but I’m thinking it will be a wonderful accent to the brim of a hat.  The BFL is so soft, it begs to be next to the skin.

Flower Buds; Blue-Faced Leicester from Fleece Artist in Snow Crocus colorway

Another yarn of 100% BFL, this Fleece Artist colorway is called Snow Crocus.  As soon as it came into the shop, I knew I had to have it.  I wanted long repeats of the colors, so I split the roving into about 8 or so lengths and spun them all from the same end, so that the repeats would be sort of regular.  I really like how the colors flow from one to the next, and I can’t wait to see how it knits up.  My sister Natalie is pregnant with a little girl.  I think this will become a hat for her tiny head.

At the Beach; Drum-Carded Batt by BohoKnitterChic, Tortuga colorway, mixed fibers

Finally, At the Beach was spun from a batt by BohoKnitterChic called Tortuga.  When I first got it, I didn’t realize how much peach-pink was hiding underneath the blues, greens, and golds.  At first, I thought I wouldn’t like it.  But by the time I’d spun it all into a lace-weight single, I’d converted.  Then, after navajo-plying the single, I was completely in love.  It came out very even, and is a bit lighter weight than a worsted.  I’m still completely enamored with the navajo-plying, and will probably continue to play with it.  I think this yarn will become the base for a shrug for a particular cousin for Gift-mas.  I can’t wait!

Monster S*M*A*S*H (bout poster)

Last weekend was Sick Town’s last bout of the season, Monster S*M*A*S*H!  We played the Cherry City Derby Girls (CCDG), of Salem, OR.  Earlier this season, we played CCDG and lost by a fair margin.  This time, we couldn’t lose!  We knew they’d been to our most recent bout, watching our strategy, analyzing our skaters, trying to figure out how to beat us.  They even had it all on video!  As for us, we hadn’t really seen them play since our last bout together.  We didn’t really know what to expect.  So our plan – go out HARD!

Racking up a 30-point Jam!

My captain put me in for the first line-up of the night.  It was amazing!  My team helped me to score 30 points in the first jam – that’s a great score for one jam.  Early in the jam, the opposing jammer got sent to the penalty box.  So my blockers slowed the pack down to a crawl, making it easy for me to lap the track over and over again.  The other team was so distracted trying to get out of our traps and trying to get to the front, they didn’t have much time to keep an eye on me.  It was really fabulous teamwork.  I don’t smile much while playing, but I had a grin from ear to ear for the whole two minutes!

Frame-by-Frame Escape!

My coach, Izabell Ringer, recently told me to drop my shoulder when a blocker is coming in for a hit.  If done correctly, this a) makes you more stable by getting low, b) presents an illegal target zone for the blocker, and c) allows you to push off the blocker, giving yourself a boost forward!  I kept this in mind during the bout, and as you can see in the montage above, it worked!  Beautifully!

S*M*A*S*H Unit, Teamwork

The S*M*A*S*H Unit really codified our teamwork for this bout.  You can see our team captain, Back Alley Bruiser, working with D-Train in unison to push the opposing jammer, Sybil Riot, to the inside.  We really made each other proud at this bout, proving that we are, in fact, a team – not just 13 women skating together.

WE WON!!!

So the final outcome?  TOTAL VICTORY!!!  Sick Town won the bout 208-94.  Cherry City, however, won the after-party, hands down!  Those ladies were so awesome, I can’t wait to skate with them again.

Mitten, yarn, and pile of thrums

So this year, I decided I would make the warmest mittens known to man (and woman).  I would make thrummed mittens!!  Thrums are short lengths of unspun wool knitted into an item, creating one side with a fluffy layer of fiber.  I purchased a Fleece Artist Thrummed Mitten kit from work.  I’m pretty lucky, getting to choose my favorite colorway before they ever hit the website!  I began knitting at once.

Inside the mitten

The thrums are fairly easy to do, once you get the hang of it; I knit them into the stitch below the next stitch in the round I was working.  On the next round, I would tug the ends of the thrums to make sure they were even and snug.  The thrums are done every 5th round, with three stitches between them.  Even with this sort of spacing, the thrums quickly form a soft, dense cloud of fiber on the inside of the mitten.

Thrummed Mitten Kit, Red Fox colorway

 The kit comes with 125g of 100% Blue Faced Leicester aran weight yarn and approximately 60g of 100% BFL roving.  It also includes the written pattern for the mittens in sizes from Child to Adult Large.  I made the adult small size, and modified the pattern once I got to the thum gusset.  I didn’t like purl columns framing the thumb, so I chose to use “increase one left” and “increase one right” on either side of the thum gusset every other round.  I really like how this turned out.  I also modified the decreases for the tip of the thumb and fingers, mostly because I left the pattern at home and had the knitting with me.  I couldn’t wait to check pattern, so I made it up as I went along.  Another modification I will make on the next pair that I knit will be to add a few inches of K1P1 ribbing to the wrist to form a snug cuff.  I didn’t do that with this first pair because I didn’t know how much yarn I would have leftover after following the pattern.

Giving the Thumbs Up!

Now, I’m a firm believer in the warming power of the thrum!!  I have plans for another set of mittens for a friend, as well as some knee-high boot socks.  Fleece Artist also makes a Thrummed Sock kit.  The kit uses Marina (65% Merino, 20% Kid Mohair, 10% Nylon, 5% Silk) for the yarn, and Silk Merino (50% Silk, 50% Merino) for the roving.  The kit produces an average women’s medium sock, reaching to the lower calf.  Since I want knee-highs, I’ll skip the kit and get two skeins of the Marina, and one or two lengths of the Silk Merino roving.  I’ll use a basic toe-up sock formula, knitting in the thrums with the same spacing at the mittens.  I can’t wait!  Winter, this year, I’m ready.

Me and Niko

Apparently, it was a headband with earflaps.  The photo was pretty grainy, and it was hard to see much detail in the item.  Plus, it was mostly black.  My best guess, it was mostly single crochet, on a fairly large hook.  The shape was simple enough, so I told her I’d have some prototypes in a week or two.

Jasmine Headband

Since I was so excited about my Aladdin and Jasmine yarns, I wanted to use them in a project, PRONTO!  I never calculated the yardage, but I knew it wasn’t much, certainly not enough for a hat.  But half a hat, with earflaps?  I started with the earflaps, working triangles until large enough to cover the ears comfortably.  Once I had two, I cast on the rest of the stitches to encircle an average adult head, and kept knitting until it was the right height.

Aladdin Headband

There was plenty of yarn for each headband, and they knit up so fast!  I made one from start to finished before I left for work one morning.  The yarn has plenty of sparkles, which don’t show up so well in these photos, but they make the headband extra fun.  I’m going to let Niko pick out whichever one she wants.

Sick Town S*M*A*S*H Unit (I'm front row, center; argyle socks)

 My roller derby league, Sick Town Derby Dames, recently hosted SkatemberFest 2010 in Albany, Oregon.  We played against the Atomic City Rollergirls  from the Tri-Cities area in eastern Washington state. 

Atomic Rollergirls Line-up

Only a few ladies on my league had seen Atomic City play.  They bouted against the Lava City Roller Dolls’ Cinder Kittens a few weeks ago, and won.  We bouted the Cinder Kittens last year during SkatemberFest ’09, and lost.  We were a bit worried.

A front wall controls the pack's speed

Our S*M*A*S*H Unit came out hard, and took a substantial lead at the very beginning.  We used all the strategies we’d been practicing this season, using traps and controlling the pack’s speed.  The Atomic City skaters were hard-hitters, but by half-time, we had a comfortable lead.

Just squeeking through

Personally, I had two goals for this bout : 1) communicate constantly, and 2) actually RUN through the pack.  I was pretty successful with running through the pack; I had several grand slams and scored over 50 points.  However, as usual, I didn’t talk to my teammates as much as I should have.  I will continue to work on this (I blame my mouth guard, which is too big and makes talking difficult).

Sprinting past the pack

The second half of the game got pretty heated between teams, and there might have been some slightly unladylike behavior, but we’ll forgive all parties involved.  The final score…well, see for yourself:

Skatemberfest 2010 Final Score