Filling my head with sparkles….

You may not have noticed in the original May challenge post, but I’m the rumbler who doesn’t already have any designing under her belt. I’ve adapted other people’s patterns, and even free-form crocheted a Manatee, but I’m yet to make the step of writing down my ideas for others to share.

Don’t get me wrong, it’s not that I’m selfishly squirreling away ideas,  not happy to let others play with them. I just tend to get carried away with a project, at which stage pens/notes etc go out the window (not literally!) and before I know it, I have a completed object which there is now way I ‘ll be spending the time reverse-engineering to get down on paper.

So I’m finding this challenge, more so than any of the others, um….challenging! I’m way out of my comfort zone…..and so, like any brave, mature woman who tackles life head-on, I ignored it and started spinning!

And as I spun one of the beautiful batts that Julianna made me for my birthday, the ideas started to flow….

While I was spinning, I had a new birdy visitor to my windowsill. The blue of the batt  mirrored Mr. Grackle with his shiny blue head…..and that bird’s sparkly golden eye led me on to a Van Gogh painting.

The wonderful ‘The Starry Night‘, with its deep blues and swirly golden stars. Incidentally, if you haven’t discovered the google art project yet, follow the link…..they have fabulously detailed images of iconic paintings, that you can zoom in on and explore in incredible detail. It’s mesmerizing.

Anyway the grackle/Van Gogh pairing led me to plying the blue with some gold thread, creating my own yarn inspired by these images. Check out the sparkly wonder:

 

 

 

 

 

 

So, the next stage is to design something using this yarn and the swirly images of Van Gogh’s painting. Currently I’m leaning towards a cowl or hat…..who knows where I’ll end up. With luck I’ll have it done by the end of the month so I can claim my points, and wear it to the Van Gogh exhibition when it arrives in Ottawa on the 25th. Wish me luck!

Blueberry Swirl Handspun Yarn

Going out of my comfort zone and spinning this yarn woolen-style was a challenge for me.  It took me a long time to get the hang of spinning woolen and before this, I had only really done it for short periods of time on sample-sized yarns.

I think the reason it has been so hard for me to learn to spin this way is that in order to do it successfully you have to give up a certain amount of control.  Letting the twist into the drafting zone without stopping it by pinching my fingers goes against everything I’m used to doing in my spinning.  Even when my mind says “Do it!” my fingers didn’t want to obey.  I am now able to “let go” and do just that but I’m not yet comfortable with it.

Blueberry Swirl roving

This is one of the fibres I picked up at Belfast Mini Mills in PEI.  All of the spinning fibre available there is carded in their mill and is truly “roving” not combed top.  I have some other bags of more precious fibre (involving qiviut!!) in my stash from there so I thought I should start with this one first to get my feet wet with this particular type of fibre preparation.

Singles on the bobbin

The fibre is “Blueberry Swirl”, a blend of merino, baby alpaca and silk. It’s very difficult to get an accurate picture of the colour, which I would describe as a violet or purple that leans toward the blue side and also has flecks of white and the red-purple of blueberry juice.

I spun it a little more thick and thin than usual as I was still getting used to this style of spinning.

I ended up with about 274 yds of 2-ply yarn from the 4 oz. of fibre.  I’d say it’s a sport or dk weight with many thin spots and thicker slubs that add a bit of “character” to the yarn.

Points:

5.5 points = 548 yds of singles spun

1 point = plying

6.5 points = Total

 

Emily’s May Challenge Completed

May’s challenge is a design challenge. The girls and I discussed what kind of things we were inspired by. We discussed art, photography, music, colours, nature, and many many other things.

I am generally inspired by people. I’ve been very fortunate in my life to have really great people surrounding me. I’m not sure what I have done to deserve it, but I will take them.

My family is the most important thing to me. I’ve been so lucky to have a great and loving family. My family inspires everyday.

I chose to use a person as my inspiration. I’ve just come out of a fairly difficult time in my life. I was down, I was grumpy, I was sad. When I feel like that, I always remember one person. My grandmother. She had a hard life. She was born in Hungary during World War One. She lived through the Depression. She was a nursing sister during the Second World War. She lived through the Hungarian Revolution. Then she came to Canada as a refugee and lived in poverty for most of her life.

She had blue eyes, high cheeck bones, a curvy figure, wild hair, and a kind smile. I was lucky enough to inherit all of these things from her. I would also like to think that I have inherited her strengh, patience, and grace.

Here is a photo of Gramma:

My Gramma, holding my syounger sister, Elizabeth

I know that the photo is lousy, but I love it. It was taken about 25 years ago (my sister turns 25 next week), then it was scanned into a computer, posted on facebook, then I downloaded it from there.

My Gramma was funny, she was cute, she was my hero. She couldn’t cook very well. Her English was never good. She was old — she died in her 90s about 6 years ago. But she lived through horror, terror and strife. And she survived. When I am down, I remember that I live in great apartment, in a great city, with food in my cupboards, with clothes on my back. If Gramma could make it through 2 wars, a depression, Communism, a revolution, and coming to Canada with nothing, I can survive anything.

I found some blue yarn (the same colour of her eyes) in my stash. I found a cool retro stitch pattern in my retro stitch dictionary and I knew what I had to make:

It is a simple slouchy hat with an assymetrically placed lace panel. I love it! If my Gramma was a stitch pattern, it would be this. It just feels so Old World.

Here are the points I collected for this hat:

Hat = 1pt

Yardage: 150 yards = 1.5 points

Stash: 1 pt

Designing: 1pt

Sub total: 4.5

And we decided this month that we would double the points for finishing this challenge. So that gives me 9 points!

This one is for you, Gramma! Szeretlek!

I kind of look like her, don’t I?

I am planning on writing this design up. Does anyone want to test knit for me???

A visitor…

Now I live in a lovely neighbourhood, so I wasn’t too upset this morning when I found the back door ajar. That was until I noticed that someone had been rummaging through the book-shelves. Wierd. Hang on, who is that with their nose in a cook-book:

Surely anyone with a penchant for cook books and a tail that perky has to be friendly, right?

Yes! It’s Moomin-mama, come to cook up some lunch for me on this soggy May morning. She spent an age browsing, and finally decided on Snuffkin’s Thinking Bouillon, apparently she thinks I need a mental boost…..maybe she’ll add some secret Finnish ingredients from that snazzy looking hand-bag.

After a very hearty lunch, Moomin-mama and I spent the afternoon working on my spinning. Moomin-mama has experience spinning wool from Finnish sheep,  and provided me with lots of expert advice on how to make the most of this beautiful roving Emily dyed for my birthday.

I may have to get myself an apron like hers to keep the fibres of my trousers, stylish and practical.

Whilst Moomin-Mama has her afternoon siesta I’m taking this opportunity to blog about her visit. I am extremely curious to see what she has hidden in that hand-bag, even while she’s napping she’s holding on tight to it, and keeping both eyes open – very cautious!

Never heard of the Moomins? They are creatures created by the wonderful Tove Jansson, and appear in a series of beautifully illustrated books, as well as a couple of animated series I watched as a child, and you can now find on youtube.

Moomin-Mama was created from an incredibly detailed pattern you can find etsy, which comes with the accessories to create an entire family of Moomins. I used scraps of acrylic and found the pattern really easy to follow, lots of photos which is always helpful.

Points?

Toy/Accessory: 1 point,  Stash yarn: 1 point,  New pattern to me: 1 point.                 Yardage ~ 150yards, 1.5 points.           Total: 4.5 points

Oops, I think she’s waking up, the snoring has stopped anyway…..I’m hoping she’s going to give me some pointers this afternoon to help with the design challenge, but first a cup of tea!

Happy Wednesday everyone. x

Bella’s B-day

It was my niece, Bella’s, birthday recently so of course I had to knit her something.

After I gave her the presents (fingerless mitts and a headband), I scooted her outside and told her “Knitters do lots of crazy things and this is going to be one of them”.  One of my specialties is saying terrifying things to children, obviously.

I then proceeded to tell her that you can’t just take a picture of hand-knit mitts doing nothing (actually, you can and I probably should have done just that) and that we must create a situation involving her doing something with her hands  so that I could take pictures.

I spotted a pile of gardening equipment in my parent’s yard and chose the shovel.  Once Bella was all set in place she asked me, “Why would I be shoveling on the grass?”  Good question!   At the time, it seemed preferable to raking with no leaves on the ground.

Then we moved to the deck for the sweeping, much better and not as bright.

Then we had cake that I had decorated with smarties.  The end!

I’m being honest here – the cabled headband was knit long ago so I’m not going to count it for points.

The fingerless mitts were knit out of the same yarn as the headband: Debbie Bliss baby cashmerino plus I added a few stripes of Art-By-Ana Dreaming dk thrown in for fun.  Both projects were improvised by myself and there are no patterns for them.

Points:

0.5 points – yardage (had to be less than 50yds, I forgot to weight them)

1 point – mitts

1 point – stash

1 point – designed by me

3.5 points – Total

Ravelled here.

Log Cab for a log cabin

I know that I have been pretty silent for a week! Can you believe it? I’m such a chatter box! Life keeps me busy now (I just started my new job and I LOVE IT!).

I cast this blanket off last week, but haven’t had a chance to post it.

There is a bit of a story behind it. My Dad is awesome (and I know that everyone says they have an awesome dad, but my Dad is the best dad in the world. No contest). Him and his wife recently moved into a log cabin just outside of Edmonton. I guess it is huge fixer-upper. So he spends his free time rebuilding, refinishing, painting, and all that jazz, to fix up the house.

Since he moved into a log cabin (and is working his hands to the bone), I figured he needed a Log Cabin blanket:

I know the photo isn’t great, but it is a grey and dreary day out there and the natural light was really poor. Please forgive me.

I earned a few points for this one:

Blanket: 5pts

Yardage 1800yds: 18pts

Total: 23pts

And now I am back on top!

Here is a close-up shot (because what is a post without one?)

blocks!

May Challenge: Design

Here at Knitters Rumble, the three of us (Amy, Emily and Julianna) wanted to push ourselves to design more, so our May Monthly challenge is all about designing.

We thought spring would be the perfect time for this challenge because inspiration is starting to pop up everywhere.

We have already created a number of knitting and crochet designs between us.  Some were spontaneous, some have gotten written down, and some were even published!

Our focus will be on one design each for the month.  The patterns we design will be eligible for double points!

We want to share as much of our design process on the blog as possible, so we are endeavoring to post at least one inspiration or process post as well as our finished object post.

Test knitting, tech editing and publishing are not required for this challenge, but if they are completed we will get extra points as per “The Rules”.

Check out our already published patterns:

Emily’s Ravelry pattern store.

Julianna’s Ravelry pattern store.