Glacier Bay Scarf

I designed the Glacier Bay Scarf for a family knit-along taking place during an Alaskan cruise.  With a combination of brand-new and seasoned knitters, the pattern needed to be super-easy, yet interesting, and provide fast visible progress.  This pattern  includes only knit, knit 2 together, and yarn over, and due to the open mesh sections knits up really quickly.  The design of the scarf is reminiscent of rippling waves interspersed with horizontal sea ice.

Glacier Bay Scarf

Materials:

Approx. 220 yards worsted weight yarn (or heavy worsted)

U.S. Size 10 straight or circular needles (or 10.5 if using heavy worsted)

Gauge is not important, though adjust needle size if resulting fabric is firmer or looser than you prefer (I like it pretty loose).

Abbreviations:

K - knit

K2tog - knit 2 together

YO - yarnover

Instructions:

Set up:

- Cast on 21 stitches using any cast-on technique you like (cast on 19 if using heavy worsted and larger needles).

- Knit 8 rows (hint - there will be 4 garter ridges on each side)

Begin slanted mesh section:

- Row 1 - *(K2tog, YO)* until 1 stitch remains, YO, K last stitch

- Row 2 - K across

Repeat rows 1-2 for a total of ten times, ending AFTER a row 2. (Hint - there will be 10 rows of holes that can be easily counted.)

Horizontal section:

Knit 7 rows

(until there are 4 ridges on each side).

That's it! Repeat these two sections until your scarf is long enough or you run short of yarn. Cast off at the end of a horizontal section.

If you are detail oriented, you can block the scarf, pinning to enhance the zigzag. Or not.

Happy knitting!

Spindle Camp 2013

It was warm. Really warm.

It was also great fun.  We hung out and spun/knitted/chatted/ate/drank/laughed and hung out in Lake Francis during a record-breaking heat wave. Some folks made great progress on projects.  I miscalculated a bit by bringing a nearly finished wool shawl to knit. No matter how light and airy, a lapful of wool in 104 degree heat is a bad idea. So I mostly spun cotton on a takli.  I did bring the firebird wheel, but didn't use it much either. Progress was not really the point anyway; it was all about laughing, chatting and sharing ideas with other fiber addicts.

Some folks brought stuff to sell.  Sharon wove these gorgeous towels that I snapped up for the little trailer.

We had a "pirate" exchange and I am going home with some great yarn. 

Here's a video Lucy took of Barbara Sue:

Spindle Camp 2012

What: 25 or so handspinners spending the weekend together to talk fibers, spin, eat, drink, laugh and swim in the lake. Some camped and some stayed in cabins. All perspired in the 100 degree heat.

Where: Lake Francis Resort in Dobbins, CA. 

When: June 13-16, 2012

This was the 3rd annual Spindle Camp, with spinners from both sides of the hill (and even one from Las Vegas). I took the little trailer (of course). Two years ago we dealt with freezing rain; this year the temps hovered around the century mark. I spent part of each day swimming in the lake. Although the focus of the informal event was on spinning, I spent most of my fiber-time finally finishing the cashmere Citron shawl I started over a year ago. (More about that another time.)

I did not take my usual boatload of pictures, possibly because it was just too darn hot to do much more than sit chatting in the shade, but I did get a few. I am not going to list folks names, in fear that I will get some of them embarrassingly wrong, but suffice it to say that it was great to spend the time with both new and old friends. Most of these pictures were taken with the Nikon AW100, which I am happy to report emerged from the lake without any hint of a leak. If you want to see all 100 or so, you can check out my Flickr set.  For lots more detail about Spindle Camp 2012, check out Sharon's blog: Here, here, here, and here.

Closet full of fun

Friday night I did a bit of kamikaze dyeing. No planning ahead - just mixed up dye in plastic cups and went to work. I pulled merino roving, targhee roving and coopworth handspun out of my stash. Some I painted with dye, wrapped in plastic wrap, and steamed in the microwave. Some I immersion dyed. By the end of the evening I had a wealth of green and blue drying over the heat vents. Sunday, after smugly admiring the (now dry)results, I went back into my chaotic fiber room to put it away. I had an inspiration - since most of the roving was still on the plastic hangers used for drying, why not leave it on the hangers and park them in the closet? The resulting light and airiness (along with some of this year's lavender harvest)would discourage moths, and a simple glance into the closet would remind me what I had available next time I wanted to start a new project.

Once started, I got on a tear, hunting through bags and bins for dyed roving to hang in the closet. I am amazed at how much I had! And these are just some of the dyed rovings. Now if I can find a good way to store and display the fleece and the myriad of fiber equipment, I may be able to clear some floor space and change my "Fiber Room" to my "Fiber Studio".

Dye Results (Lucky Me!)

Here are pretty pictures of the results of Saturday's dyeing.

Merino for funky-stripy socks:










More merino for more funky socks (less like road kill in person):




And here is the blended huacaya - suri alpaca. The picture does not do it justice. In person it is greener, has a silken sheen that is amazing, and it is oh-so-soft. The colors remind me of the desert around here, so I call it my Great Basin Colorway. I have 16 oz of it. Lucky, lucky me!

CSSW Retreat at Davis Creek

The Carson Sierra Spinners and Weavers held their annual Retreat September 7-9. Davis Creek County Park is a beautiful, piney site along the western side of Washoe Valley, between Reno and Carson City. Every year the Guild rents the group camp site for a weekend in September. Sometimes it is extremely hot and sometimes it snows. This year we had pretty much perfect weather - highs in the 80s and lows in the 50s. At first I was only going to attend the Saturday meeting, but at the last minute I changed my mind and hooked up the little trailer. I went down Friday after work and stayed until Sunday morning. There were only three of us who stayed the nights, but many folks joined us on Saturday.




Linda brought her dyepots, burners, and lots of dye so we spent all afternoon dyeing fiber using the cling-wrap/steaming method. I rainbow dyed a couple of balls of merino roving for eventual sock production. Plus I bought some alpaca roving that is a blend of huacaya and suri, and dyed it a woodsy combination of greens and yellows over tan. Huacaya alpaca produce very soft downy fiber, while suri alpaca produce coarser, drapy fiber. It will be interesting to see how it works up!

As for the camping, my little trailer proved again to be quit cozy.