More Spinning Adventures

I had meant to post about spinning earlier, but Young Mr. SockPixie, one of our sons, gave us a little excitement. The few trips to the emergency room from early evening until the early hours of the morning forced me to reorganize my life for a few days. On the positive side, I was able to knit a hat, and of course, the hat was promised to the sick boy.
Now that everything has returned to normal, I can resume my blogging.

The soy/wool roving was spun, and as I am a new spinner, I found it a little harder to spin than the BFL. Again, it has a lot of the charm of a new spinner's hand! The soy made it incredibly silky. The colors seemed to glow, and I could not stop spinning.



Then came my favorite part, the plying. I am not kidding, I just love plying. I like to see the two strands twist together to create the richly colored and textured yarn that I know I will soon be knitting with.

I am really happy with my choice of colorways. The Petunia and the Madame d'Haussonville really flatter each other.




The yarn had just finished drying after being set when it became clear that I would have to take Young Mr. SockPixie to the hospital that night. I stuffed the yarn and needles in my pocket, and off we went.

As I was sitting there, casting on, Young Mr. SockPixie expressed his undying love for purple, and whether the hat could be his. How could I say no? There he was, sick and scared. The hat was promised to him. Between you and me, he really deserved it, as he proved to be so courageous all night, even as the doctor came with scalpel in hand!

I did not finish the hat the first night, rather I finished it on our second visit to the hospital the following night.
By the time we went home, in the middle of the night, as a gorgeous blizzard was transforming Boston into a snowy paradise, the hat was given to Young Mr. SockPixie.

Here is a picture of proud Young Mr. SockPixie wearing his first handspun, hand-dyed, and of course hand-knit hat with our snowy world in the background.

Let it Snow!

Boston has been a real Winter Wonderland. Snow, snow, and more snow. Christmas is so much in the air that I could no resist the temptation to create SockPixie colorways with a Holiday theme. I found my inspiration in Vintage Christmas ornaments.

Here is Candy Cane in a faboulous Finn roving...



Have a great holiday season!

Change of Plans

Thank you for all your comments about my handspun. You are so right. Spinning is not about perfection. The organic nature of its "imperfection" is what makes handspun yarn magical.

I had truly intended to post pictures of the single that will be plied with the Petunia colorway, but as always, life took over.

Homeschooling and work merrily filled my day yesterday. I did have a great dinner with my parents,then decided to work a little more last night, and took a late night walk to the post office to drop your orders in the mail.

Today was very much like yesterday, except for the fact that I changed my mind on the fiber I would spin to ply with the Petunia. The fiber, is from this week's colorways, and is Madame d'Haussonville in the wool/soy mix. I pre-drafted the fiber during Math and History. It is all set to be spun tonight. As soon as the little ones are in bed reading their books, I will spin!



But back to serious things, the wool/soy fiber. I am really excited to be spinning it tonight. It is my first time with this fiber. During pre-drafting, it felt incredibly soft, silky, and fluid, almost like butter. I expect it will be a very smooth yarn. The little bit of shine should liven up the BFL, and the colors should complement eachother beautifully.

As a last eye candy, here is another shot of the unspun fiber. I just can't help seeing a Van Gogh there. Don't you think?

I have been shy...

I have been shy lately. I have been learning to spin, and in my usual way, refused to post anything about it. Why? Because, you guessed it, I am a perfectionist. I hate showing something that is not perfect. Mr. SockPixie thinks I am being silly, and he has been encouraging me to post about my progress...

I have been enjoying spinning beyond words. I love how relaxing it is, and how satisfying it is to see the bobbin fill up, and of course, to knit the handspun yarn.
Spinnning has become my treat. To congratulate myself for completing my work,I allow myself to spin.

To go back to the issue of perfectionism dicussed earlier, I have decided to listen to Mr. SockPixie, and post a picture of my imperfect handspun single.Here is what I just spun on my Louet Victoria, a 100% BFL roving, in the O'Keefe colorway Petunia.




I just dyed a Tencel roving that will be spun today, and plied with the petunia single tomorrow. I had a long debate with myself, about which color I would ply with it. I settled on a periwinkle blue semi-solid. I thought the periwinkle would bring out the purple, and once plied, the effect would be subtle yet enticing. I really like plying a variegated and a solid together. It seems to add subtlety to the variegated.

Maybe tomorrow, I will be able to show you the periwinkle solid. And I will force myself, no matter how imperfect it is!

This week it is Ingres

This week, Sockpixie's colorways were inspired by the gorgeous paintings of Ingres. I love the textures, and the brilliance of his colors.

A picture is worth a thousand words. Here is the Ingres eye candy!

The Georgia O'Keeffe Colorways are up!

After huffing anf puffing, the store update is done, and the Georgia O'Keeffe colorways have found their home!
I had to make a lot of changes to the site, which of course took all day. It is mostly done. I will make a few more changes, but the core is done.
Back to the O'Keeffe colorways. I hope you will enjoy them as much as I do. They are really stunning, like the paintings that inspired them.
Again I think, the grey winter made me long for color, which is why, these bright, and colorful paintings called to me.
There is a depth in O'Keeffe's colorwork that mesmerizes me. I almost do not see the flowers, but rather just the colors, and their interactions.
Here is my favorite painting, the Red Canna Lilly, and its yarn and fiber sisters.



The yarn sister...



The fiber sister...




Enjoy!

Vermeer Colorways, and let's go for a spin...

This week I found my inspiration in Vermeer's Girl with a Pearl Earring painting.
The yellows and blues were a true inspiration as well as the rich browns.



I am also really excited because for the first time this week I am offering rovings in the Vermeer colorways. I cannot wait to see the beautiful yarns you will spin with them.



Enjoy the Vermeer Collection!

A New SockPixie Group on Ravelry

There is a new SockPixie Group on Ravelry. It is called SockPixie Circle .

This will be a great place for us to meet and talk, see eachothers' projects, and discuss SockPixie patterns. Maybe we could add a little knit along too!

I hope you will join the group. See you in the circle!

Inspiration of the Week

It is time for my weekly update. The SockPixie colorways are ready and up on the site.

This week my inspiration came from one of my favorite paintings by Hopper. The colors are among my favorites: teals, greens, oranges, and ochres...



For this week, I decided to dye "almost" solids, using a salt resist to create subtle monochromatric shadings. The results are glorious, the colors seem to be illuminated from within.



This week is also special because I created special little project pouches that coordinate with the yarns. From now until Christmas, for every 3 skeins you order, your will receive a project pouch in a coordinating color!
These little pouches are lined with the softest satin fabrics and are just perfect for a center pull ball, and a sock or lace in progress. They are so cute... I will let the pictures speak for themselves...



When opened they are almost flower like!



Enjoy!

Andy Warhol Colorways

The days have been grey and short out here. I needed color, so here we go. Andy Warhol's Marilyn Collection gave me plenty to play with for this week's SockPixie Colorways. Enjoy...

The Pdf Link for the Pixie Warmers is Fixed

Thank you to all of you who emailed me to let me know that the link was not working. It is working now. See last night I did what you should never do when you are tired. I tested the link, and everything worked, and then I saw a little thing I could change in the post, and instead of leaving this very minor thing till later, I "fixed"it. In the process... well you kow the rest!

Enjoy the gloves, and the pattern!

Pixie Warmers FREE Pattern

This is a perfect night. The new fingerless gloves, the Pixie Warmers, are finished and I love them! The pictures are done. The pattern is typed , the soundtrack from Vicky Cristina Barcelona is playing in the background...

I had intended the Pixie Warmers to be a Christmas present for Miss. A., but as always, I let them be claimed by the recipient ahead of schedule!
Her verdict: she loves them. Isn't that the best feeling on earth when the person you knit for loves what you made?


The gloves as I said in an earlier post were the result of an obsession with EZ and her work. They are loosely based on the February Baby Sweater, in that they combine
gull lace and garter stitch. I like the simplicity of the garter, and how it really sets off the lace. I inserted only one 7 stitch repeat of the lace, thus letting it make its full impact.

For this project, I picked one of my own SockPixie hand-dyeds,a sport weight merino in a solid colorway. I like that the coloway is a soft plum color, and does not overpower the stitches. The slight natural variation in the dyeing only adds dimension to the gloves.

I gave a lot of thought to the construction of the gloves. I wanted the garter and lace to appear understated. I did not want any heavy borders. This is why the gloves start and end with the actual gull lace and garter, and are only delicately finished by a discrete picot edging. The underside of the hands is all garter.


For the first time I created a pdf file for the pattern instead of posting the pattern directly into the body of my post. I think it really adds to the clarity of the pattern. As always, the pattern is free. Click on the thumbnail below to download the pdf file.

I hope you will enjoy the pattern. Feel free to send comments if you have questions or to give me your feedback. I will do my best to answer your questions. Enjoy your Pixie Warmers!

Norman Rockwell Colorways

This week I found my inspirations if the works of Norman Rockwell. The Christmas spirirt is already there. I was listening to the radio as I was dyeing the yarn, and they were playing Christmas songs!
I hope you enjoy this week's SockPixie Norman Rockwell Colorways. AS a little preview here is Christmas Rush!

Not Quite Two Left Feet!

My last pattern was the February Beret, a beret inspired by EZ's February Baby Sweater. It seems that I am so in love with the look of the baby sweater that I have not been able to knit anything without some garter, and the lovely gull lace pattern.

I chose a skein of SockPixie Merino Sport, in a beautiful muted solid plum color. It is my first pattern using this yarn. It is very soft and lofty. I love the stitch definition.

Over the last few weeks, I have been getting emails from you asking for a fingerless glove pattern, so I decided to design a pair of fingerless gloves.




So there we are, a long circular needle, some soft yarn, a spoonful of garter stitch, a pinch of gull lace, a great Doris Day movie, a warm blanket, and what do you get? 2 right gloves!

The sad thing is that I was almot done with the second one when I finally realized my mistake.
The upside is that the pattern for the right glove is perfect! The other upside is that I can't seem to get tired of knitting the gloves as I love the pattern so much!

If all goes well, and I don't end up with a fingerless glove with two thumbs, the pattern should be ready this week!

On the Eve of a Presidential Election...

Voting has always been a special moment for me. In particular since I became an American citizen. Voting, as a woman is also very meaningful to me. I became familiar with the vibrant suffrage movement in the US while studying at Smith College. I became so engrossed in the history of this incredible grass root movement, that I made it the topic of my PhD dissertation. So today, as we approach the presidential election, it only seemed natural that I should remember the great women whose tireless work gave me, as a woman, the right to vote. Each SockPixie colorway this week commemorates the work of a woman reformer. There are so many great women that I could not create a colorway for each, but I am grateful to all of them. I created colorways that reflected their personalities. The colorways range from soft variegates, to monochromatic variegates, and all involve an overdye process over a natural base dyed with acorns. I really like the glow that the acorns give each color.
I hope that you will enjoy tonight's colorways, and I want to wish you a happy voting on Tuesday.

Point Reyes Natural Colors

This week, like last week, I decided to create SockPixie colorways using natural dyes. I collected salvia leaves from my yard to create beautiful greens, mushrooms, acorns, and gathered red cabbages from our little vegetable garden. The colors reminded me of our trips to Point Reyes when we used to live in California.
I have so much fun with the process. There is something undeniably magical about it. When I dye with chemical dyes, I know which color I can obtain. But with natural dyes, the first steps are always a sort of miracle. I collect local plants, guessing at their color potential, I extract the pigments, and then the moment of truth when I plunge the yarn in the dye bath, and see the colors appear!
I hope you will enjoy this week's magic...

Nature...

This week's SockPixie colorways are so different for me. I turned into a little witch, collecting leaves and berries, extracting pigment, and creating lusciously deep colorways for you and for me to enjoy!
Here are the witches pots boiling and fuming...A witch's brew...



A brew and a few spells and you get this...



I am a happy witch. These colorways are maybe my favorites so far, and just looking at them makes me happy, and peaceful. Enjoy!

I put my knitting needles down...

I have done the unthinkable! I have put my knitting needles down.I am always knitting. The first thing I do after I wake up, is grab a cup of tea, and my knitting. Well, things have been different around here for the last few days. The house almost seems empty without the reassuring clickety click of my trusted Addis. There is however no idleness, trust me. I have been working on a crochet project.
I had this mountain of left over tweedy yarns. So I decided to embark on a granny square project, with the idea of making a blanket for one of my children as a Christmas present.
Crochet has the great advantage of being fast. I actually doubled the yarn to make it super fast. Why knit a blanket in months, when you can crochet a spirited Granny Square blanket in weeks? I know some of you will say that knitting looks nicer, but I personally like both the efficiency, and the vintage spirit of the crochet blanket.
I have so far completed 22 squares, and probably have at least 13 more to go...

I Love Boston in the Fall...

I just love Boston in the fall. This week, for my new SockPixie colorways, I decided to pause a moment, and just look around me. I even decided to collect and use local black walnuts to overdye the yarn. As always this was a fun adventure, and the new colors turned out to be incredibly rich, and beautiful. The black walnut added a golden depth to the colors.



A lot of you have been asking me how I do this. I first dye the colors by hand, because I love the fact that it gives the skeins a more artisanal look, whith areas that are more deeply colored than others.
For this week, I dyed some warm colors, as well as some cool colors, and separated them into 2 batches, one warm, the other cool.




I took about 2 cups of the soft outer shell of the walnuts, and chopped them into little pieces. I cut 2 simple natural cotton muslin squares, and placed 1 cup of walnut in each, and closed the bundles with thread.




I emersed the wet already dyed yarn (the yarn has to be completely free of residual dye) in water, the warm colors altogther in one pot, and the cool colors altogether in another. In each pot I placed a little bundle of walnuts, and I "cooked" the yarn for about 45 minutes, stirring often, until the colors had reached the golden hue I was looking for.

The results are really worth the effort...Happy Fall to you all!

Dear Elizabeth, how about a February Beret... FREE PATTERN

If you asked my husband who my favorite author is, he would answer without a moment of hesitation, Elizabeth Zimmermann. I have read, and reread her books, and seem to each time learn a little more.
One of my favorite projects is the February baby sweater. The gull lace, and the simple garter stitch are just lovely, a timeless classic.
The other day, I was working at Windsor Button, and we had just received a shipment of Manos Silk Blend, and I was assigned the job of twisting the skeins. Each color was more beautiful than the last, and soon enough, I started making a little side pile just for me. I did exercise some restraint, and settled on 2 skeins of color 300X, a lovely ochre.
What could I do with the 2 skeins? A February Beret!







I chose an i-cord to edge the beret as opposed to a rib. I did not want it to detract from the fluidity of the gull lace. The gull lace starts right after the cord, and like in the inspirational sweater, the project is finished with a simple garter stitch crown. I chose to make the beret large enough for it to have a slight slouchy, relaxed appearance.
Knitting the beret was so relaxing, the pattern easy, and the yarn silky soft.







February Beret


Yarn: 2 skeins Manos silk Blend color 300X
Needles: 16" US 5, set of dpt US 5
Gauge: 6 sts/inch in garter st

Gull Lace:
R1: K1, K2TOG, YO, K1, YO,SSK, K1
R2: Knit
R3: K2TOG, YO, K3, YO, SSK
R4: Knit

1. Make a 6 stitch Icord until the cord measures 18".
Graft live stitches to the beginning of the cord, or for a simpler solution, BO, and sew both ends together.

2. Pick up and knit 126 stitches. Join the round.
Round 1: *K1, K1f&b* Repeat from * to *. You will have 189 sts total.

3. Continue in the gull lace pattern for 5" (ending with R3)

4. Continue in garter stitch as follows:
R1: Knit
R2:Purl
R3:*K5, K2TOG* Repeat from * to *
R4:Purl
R5:Knit
R6:Purl
R7:*K4, K2TOG* Repeat from * to *
R8: Purl
R9: Knit
R10: Purl
R11: *K3, K2TOG* Repeat from * to *
R12: Purl
R13: Knit
R14: Purl
R15: *K2, K2TOG* Repeat from * to *
R16: Purl
R17: Knit
R18: Purl
R19: *K1, K2TOG* Repeat from * to *
R20: Purl
R21: Knit
R22: Purl
R23:*K2TOG* Repeat from * to *
R24: Purl
R25: Knit
R26: Purl
R27: *K2TOG* Repeat from * to *
R28: Purl
R29: Knit
R30: Purl
Gather the remaining stitches, and weave in ends.

Enjoy your beret!

Entrechat

This week I found my SockPixie color inspirations in the paintings of Degas.
Eventhough he painted ballerinas, I love the fact that he chose vibrant colors, reflecting their passion.
Here is Entrechat...

This week it's Halloween at SockPixie

This week it's Halloween at SockPixie . I have created a whole collection inspired by famous characters.
Here is the colorway Halloween. Enjoy!

William Morris

This week's SockPixie colorways are inspired by William Morris. I am so fond of his deep saturated colors.
I hope you enjoy them.

Autumn

This week's new SockPixie colorways are all inspired by the lovely colors of fall.
Above is Indian Corn shown in a luscious Bamboo Merino blend...
Enjoy!

Words are Colors

Do you ever hear a word and see colors? I do! This week's SockPixie collection is a play on words and colors. This was great fun to design and I hope you will enjoy the colors.
The Colorway above is called Intense...

We are off to Venice

Last week I took you on a voyage through literature. This week, SockPixie is taking you on a voyage to Venice. We will see so many beautiful places, the Ponte dei Pugni, Burano, the Rialto, and of course we will take a lovely ride in a Gondola... I hope you enjoy your visit!

Romantic Couples

This week's SockPixie colorways were inspired by famous literature couples.
Here is the irresistible Mr Darcy!

New Colorways

This week's SockPixie new colorways were inspired by Hermes, Dior, and other creative designers. I had fun capturing their spirit, and giving my own interpretation of their work.
I really love their deep saturation, and I hope that you will enjoy them.

Hexagon Progress

Progress has been made on the Hexagon Scarf. I am finishing the picking up. I did find the perfect dark purple yarn. It is Debbie Bliss Donegal Tweed. I chose it for its natural handspun look. I thought this would go really well wit the look of Kureyon.I just love the new dimension that is added by the two-tone edging.
The next step will be blocking then piecing.



I purchased the velvet at Winmill Fabrics, the other day. I have to say that this project has made me really happy. There is nothing like combining great colors, and interesting construction.