Warped

String along
Originally uploaded by littlekidd

We trekked down to Boulder, Colorado last week for a lovely visit with Jim's family.

Since we lived in Denver for 10 years, we also made arrangements to see countless old, great friends. It was a VERY busy week. We hiked, we ate, we took Zack climbing and to the drum store and spent a lot of time driving around to meet people.

We also spent a ton of time doing "mandatory retail therapy." Because we live in the sticks, we take advantage of rare opportunities to stock up at places like Coscto and Target and Nodrstrom and REI when we go to The Big City.

So, having spent an entire week enduring fun but tightly-scheduled schlepping, I was faced with the prospect of Not Enough Time Left.

I had had about an hour of personal discretionary time the entire week... and it did not fall during Regular Business Hours. Suddenly we were on our last day and, other than one emergency needle stop, I had not spent ANY quality time in any of the local yarn shops.

Grandma and Grandpa graciously agreed to shepherd Zack through an afternoon of fun, and I high-tailed it down to Shuttles, Spindles and Skeins..

I had been in this wonderful store once before looking for yarn. I admit, I didn't find it the friendliest place at the time. But I went back because all the way down from Jackson I'd been hatching a plot in my mind to explore spinning and weaving, and I knew they had the goods.

Well, I now understand that, for the folks at SS&S, knitting is wonderful fun. But spinning and weaving are their passions. The store is co- owned by one of the spinning world's Great Ones... Maggie Casey. My timid inquiry about which drop spindle might be right for a beginner led to a terrific 15 minute private primer from Maggie on how to draft and spin.

After that, Maggie hooked me in with one of her weaving folks, who hooked me up with this groovy loom. In a cool 45 minutes I had dropped a wad of cash at this place. No wonder they were so happy.

Now, since I have more yarn than I can possibly knit in a lifetime, I think this weaving thing is going to work out just fine. I confess I haven't had time to play with the drop spindle again yet, but I warped a skein of Noro Silk Garden Sock yarn and I'm going to use a skein of my own hand-dyed for the weft. (The red in the picture is just a dishtowel I put under the loom clamps so they wouldn't mar the table.) Pictures of progress forthcoming.

Pom-tastic cammo
Originally uploaded by littlekidd

This past weekend several friends and I spent a day learning to dye yarn. Before I left for this odyssey in color, I asked my son what color he might like for a hat. His reply: "Cammo. With a pom-pom."

This is KnitPicks bare merino bulky, pre-soaked with vinegar and then dyed using fiber-reactive dyes.

The dyeing was a gas, and easier than I thought. We spread out on tables all over my friend Christie's front lawn. She lives on the main drag in the little (and I mean LITTLE) town of Kelly, Wyoming. By the end of the day, we were surely the talk of the town.

Not knowing better, we didn't use combinations of yarn/dye to create very vibrant color. But we all had a great time experimenting. I have several other fairly subdued skeins in shades of blue and orange.

I loved the way the cammo skein turned out. Zack loves the hat, tho I don't expect any calls from the Pentagon requesting mass production.

TWO DAYS LATER:
When I showed Zack how to use the pom-pom maker he discovered his latent love of fiber creation. Not wanting him to burn through all my hand-dyed silk and cashmere to satisfy his crafty itch, I bought him a skein of Red Heart cammo yarn that he can shred to his delight. After making his first pom-pom with it, he announced that THIS pom-pom belongs on the hat I made him because, "No offense, Mom, but THIS yarn is really a much better cammo color than the hat." Red Heart vs. hand-dyed merino. You be the judge.

Love Hat Relationship

Braid & Bobble Hat
Originally uploaded by littlekidd

Hats come in handy where I live. So, I made another one. This was my travel project for our Spring Break trip to Washington, DC. Braid and Bobble Hat by Fiber Trends, knit on size 5 needles with Debbie Bliss Cashmerino Aran.

This pattern seemed an inordinate amount of work for a hat. Several cable patterns, all different numbers of rows, worked flat, then seamed. Seed stitch a-plenty in between. Stitches picked up along a selvedge for the crown. Along the opposite side, the cable is turned on the WS, and then that whole edge is flipped to the front and hemmed. Sheesh! Clever construction, but a little fussy!

The whole time I was working on this, during those afternoon rests from museum and monument hopping, I sort of loathed it. If I had been home I would have dropped it like a hot potato, but stuck in a hotel room with nary a yarn shop in sight, it was the only thing I had to knit. So I plodded along.

The thing is, now that it's done, I LOVE it. I love the way it fits. I love the softness of the yarn. I love the horizontal cable orientation. Two skeins barely made it. I used tails for the seam and hem, and had to skimp on the little top braid.

When I finished this hat last week it was 55 degrees and sunny. I didn't expect to get the chance to wear it until next winter. But lo and behold... winter is not done with us yet. I took this photo just a couple of minutes ago on the front porch. On Easter Sunday, I washed the car in a t-shirt in the driveway. Today, I had to scrape the windshield. I would be TOTALLY over the snow... that is, if I didn't have this great new hat to wear.

Race to beat the babies

Two By Two
Originally uploaded by littlekidd

I have six babies coming into friends' lives in the next few weeks. Two sets of twins, and two other friends who are just having one baby at a time.

So, while I've been looking longingly at my half finished "Must Have Cardigan," I've been knitting a flurry of tiny little sweaters and hats and booties.

These are for the twins. Baby Boleros and matching hats for the ones I know are girls. Knit with Cascade 220 Paints Superwash.

The white and tan hats are from One Skein, and the booties are from a wonderful book called "Knits from the Heart," by Kristin Spurkland. It's out of print, I think, but if you can lay your hands on a copy you won't be disappointed. The yarn is an organic cotton from Plymouth.

These are going in the mail today! Hopefully they will beat the babies. They're all due in May, but you know how twins are. Those mammas better get some sleep while they can!

Why Leigh Radford is a GODDESS!

Northern Lights Hat
Originally uploaded by littlekidd

OK, first, let me say that self-portraits are not my strong suit. Especially when I'm shooting into the snow. (Alison, any pointers from a pro photographer?) This isn't the greatest picture of my Northern Lights hat, but I thought the ice formations in the upper left corner of the frame looked cool, so there you have it. Plus I didn't have any shoes on when I was taking this picture, so time was of the essence, if you know what I mean.

Anyway, I wear this hat ALL the time. I love it. You may ask, what does this have to do with Leigh Radford? Well, nothing but a tangential experience that occurred in my brain.

Yesterday I was wearing my Northern Lights Hat when I took seven first-grade boys out on a little snowshoe jaunt behind the school. The boys spotted a ton of moose and bunny tracks and it was snowing and beautiful and I thought, "Man! What a lucky thing to have kids and have fun with them!" (I even thought this as I had to stop every 20 seconds and refasten a lost snowshoe to one boy or another).

Thinking of how lucky I am to be a mom made me think of the many good friends of mine who will be come first-time moms this spring. Then with a jolt I realized I have FIVE babies coming into my friends' lives in May, and only ONE little sweater made. That one little sweater is darling and cabled and knit at six stitches to the inch and I could never knock out four more by May.

Enter Leigh Radford. Last year I helped a knitting student with the Baby Bolero pattern found in her wonderful book One Skein. I remember thinking it seemed clever, and squirreling away plans to knit one myself when the opportunity presented itself.

Well. Now I have two friends each with a sets of twins on the way. So dug a little Cascade 220 Superwash Paints out of my stash and set to work. In the time it took to watch Survivor and The Daily Show, I had the thing mostly done! It is wee and wonderful. Thank you, Leigh Radford! I will love making more of these. After I get the next one done I'll post a picture of the two, and you can imagine those tiny little twin girls filling them up in a couple of months!

Actually, it's done

Northern Lights Cap
Originally uploaded by littlekidd

Finished. Worn. Just don't have a more updated picture. Besides, I like the way this one glows. This is the Northern Lights Cap from Homespun, Handknit. I made it at a finer gauge, more like 7.5 sts/inch, with KnitPicks Palette yarn. I think it's pretty groovy.

I'm trying to find more resources, patterns, etc. for Bohus knitting. I know there are a couple of nice sweater patterns, but I want to find a book with history, techniques, etc. Any ideas?

Sorry I'm not here on the blog much anymore. Since I moved to Jackson Hole six months ago I've spent more of my computing time in Ravelry and on Facebook. I like Ravelry because I can post nuts-and-bolts info about my work to which I can refer later. And Facebook has become my lifeline to friends and family, now that I'm so far-flung. In general I enjoy writing, but I don't have much to say that is interesting to blog-reading folks, I don't think.

I'll continue to throw up (bad choice of words) the occasional post here. However, I much prefer the two-way communication of Facebook. If you're not there, sign up! It's wonderful. If you are, come find me! Carolyn Kidd Little. I'm wearing a ski helmet in my profile pic. Says I live in Eastern Idaho, but that's just because Jackson Hole doesn't have a FB network yet, and Eastern Idaho was the closest one. Like saying Jupiter is close to Mars.

Now, a quick offering to catch up on my knitting life. I just returned from the Madrona Fiber Arts Festival in Tacoma. It is SUCH a wonderful event, and for me it was as much a chance to learn and grow this year as it was a reunion with my northwest buddies. This year my classes were all exceptional. I took a Gansey construction class with Beth Brown-Reinsel, A knit-to-fit class with Sally Melville, and double knitting with Lucy Neatby. I gained a ton of great knowledge to enhance my own knitting, and to pass along to my students.

Today is my birthday, and Madrona is my annual birthday present to myself. If you've never been to a knitting conference, this is the one. The folks who organize it do such a wonderful job. It's not like the big "Stitches" conferences. It's intimate, but not small-time by any stretch. I already have the dates on my calendar for 2010

From Blanket to Doily

Hemlock Ring
Originally uploaded by littlekidd

Well, this was fun.
I followed the original Hemlock Ring Doily pattern, with Noro Silk Garden Sock Yarn. I skipped the last four-round repeat, because I was afraid I might run out of yarn. In hindsight, I probably had enough, but it would have been close. I like this size, though. It will be perfect for the back of a boring white chair in my living room. I have two of those chairs, and another skein of this Noro, so I might just whip out another one of these.