Freshisle Fibers

Ravenclaw Shadow Knitting Wine Cozy

Now you see it, now you don't.

Maybe you need some more wine.  One friend said it was a great test - you know you're okay and can have another as long as you can still see the eagle!

Presenting my Ravenclaw Shadow Knitting Wine Cozy.  Available in the shop -  pattern only or as a kit with yarn and pattern.

If you look closely you'll hopefully see the eagle, the mascot for Ravenclaw House done with illusion knitting.  Illusion or shadow knitting continues to be one of my favourite techniques.

This is my fourth and final shadow knitting pattern for the four Hogwarts houses.  Gryffindor was mittens and socks, Slythern was socks, Hufflepuff was socks, and now for something different, a wine cozy.  The chart could easily be adapted for the socks or mittens and the other charts would also work on the wine cozy.  All are available in my shop as a kit or just the patterns alone.  Options are a good thing!

Still Winter

With temperatures still below freezing and winter storm warning reports, it doesn't feel much like spring!  We did see a robin last weekend, so maybe there's hope!

School is well underway again for our final term.  This one always seems to go more quickly. 

I suffered a little startitis over my March break and now have even more projects on the go.  I can blame it on spending time enjoying different stitch dictionaries!  I re-visited some of my Barbara Walker books and completed a small mosaic cloth.  Not content to stop there, I've started a second.

 

A new pair of socks somehow found it's way onto the needles.  Vesper Sock Yarn  in the Tartan colourway and another Barbara Walker stitch pattern.

 

A simple seed stitch scarf in hand dyed wool/cashmere blend.  This yarn has been around for years and years, purchased on eBay maybe in the early 1990's?????, long before I started dyeing myself! 

 

Severe startitis.  Thank heavens school started again.  There might have more!!

Lazy Dyeing

Yesterday was the first day of spring and it was glorious.  Sunny, warm, snow melting, muddy puppies, everything that spring is supposed to be.  Today, it's snowing.  Grrrrr.

At least it's still my March break holiday and I've had a little time to enjoy dyeing some new skeins.

This is a lazy method of dyeing, an easy and fun way, and great if you're not too particular about the exact shade.  First, I made a strong, saturated solution of a red/wine shade in the pot and hung only a section of the skeins in the pot.  Let simmer.  Remove skeins.  The dye as not exhausted because it was so strong.

Rinse skeins.  Select another small section of the skeins and hang those sections in the dye pot again.  This will give a lighter shade because some of the dye has already been used in the first section.  Simmer, remove skeins.  Rinse

The dye is still not exhausted.  Sometimes at this stage I dye a third section for another lighter shade, but this time I added some black dye.  Hang a third section of the skeins in the pot, simmer, remove skeins, rinse.  And once more for a fourth section and the last colour.

I love the results for these variegated skeins of our Softspun Mixed Breed yarn.  Two shades of pink, a deep purple black, and a softer lavender, but the colours all have that undertone of the original red/wine dye.  I may have to save one for myself!

One Day

I think this might be my one day of the holiday for me.  If I'm lucky.  It's still early.

Our curling weekend went well, but it was almost deja vu to last year's local mixed bonspiel.  Last game, extra end, last rock, ..  and just like last year, we lost.  Sob, sob.  It wasn't all bad as we still came home with lovely gift certificates to My Ol' Blues, a local clothing business.  They have so many more beautiful things than what is shown on their site and I know we'll be able to find something nice.

That's tired me in the grey and pink with darling husband on my right in the cream plaid shirt .

Curling was no sooner over than I was off to Sudbury to entertain my mother and father with some shopping.  It was a welcome change to actually go to the city for something other than a doctor's visit!!  I'm played out and I know although they enjoyed their couple of days, my parents were tired too and ready to be back home again.

My city shopping always includes Chapters book store.  I went a little overboard.  Just a little.

This should satisfy the need for new knitting reading material for a few weeks at least!

Today's plans include a quick houseclean and then a start to organizing and sorting through the mountains of wool in my basement.  Tomorrow - dyeing.

Cotswold

Ahhh.  My March break has arrived.  That's a sigh of relief.

I've started my holiday with curling.  We've been curling all weekend and have one game left this afternoon.  Let's hope it goes well!

I had a long awaited delivery this week.  Last winter my father, my brother and his partner had a short holiday in Arizona and returned with a magnificent Cotswold fleece for me.  I decided that we would have it processed by Wellington Fibres.

 

I now have the loveliest yarn and roving.  Three pounds of yummy three-ply fingering weight yarn and one pound of the softest roving for spinning.

I'm not sure what the yarn will become but I have a small bit wound and ready for swatching and testing.

We also had a delivery of our Suffolk yarn a couple of weeks ago.  We're preparing some of last year's Mixed Breed wool to be sent to the mill this week as well.  My basement shop area is overflowing with wool and one of my jobs this holiday is to re-organize and get all of this wool under control!

Bits and Pieces

My weekend went so fast!  We had beautiful days and the snow was starting to slowly go away.  Then it snowed again!  Right now it's raining/freezing rain/snowing, we have a wind warning, and more snow flurries in the forecast.  Ugh!

This picture was taken a couple of weeks ago.  It's our backyard.  In town!  I guess he thought it was a safe and cozy place to spend the night.

 

We watched him wake up, covered in a dusting of snow, turn around, do his bathroom thing!!, and then lay back down.  After a couple of hours, he slowly rose again and meandered off.

The bits and pieces socks are completed but I had to wait for my model (dear hubby!) to get some pictures.  Sock pattern to come - with some revisions - 3.25 mm needles, and naturally hand dyed Suffolk wool yarn.  Very sturdy and warm work socks.

Two more school days until March break, until I can sleep in, and rest, and knit, and dye.  Soon.

A Manitoulin Forest

We are drowning in snow.  There is so much snow that trying to see around the corner at a stop sign is downright impossible for the banks of snow.  There is so much snow that we've run out of places to put it.  There is so much snow that we're all worried that we're going to float away when it melts.

We're ready for spring.

But, because it's still winter - sob, sob - warm mittens are still needed.

These are the beginnings of my Deep in the Forest Mittens.  I love the braid.  It wasn't terribly hard to figure out and what a stunning result.

 

I was struck by just how perfect the design is when we were out for a walk this past weekend.

 

 

 The CBC interview is now available for your listening pleasure on my About Freshisle Fibers page and there's been a mini-update of the shop.  Enjoy! 

It Can Only Get Better

I think, hope the wild rush of the last few weeks has peaked and my calm, slow, normal routine of life can resume.  I'm used to that thing called Manitoulin Time where life is just a little bit slower!

Thank you for all your lovely e-mails and comments regarding my father's health.  He is improving daily and feeling much better.  I'm not sure who has missed the daily walks more - my dad or my Shadow puppy!

I survived the CBC interview although I thought my heart would surely be heard pounding through the phone lines.  I was very nervous, but hope those that heard it enjoyed it and I was able to share a little bit about Manitoulin and the wonderful wool that is available from our sheep.

My own knitting progress has been hit and miss.  I haven't been able to stay at one thing for long without losing interest and/or concentration.  I think that's coming back, too!

These are some new socks knit with our own Freshisle Fibers Suffolk wool yarn.  I have a tub full of ends of the Suffolk from previous projects and dyeing disastersexperiments.  I know the bits used in these socks are all from natural dyes but have long ago lost track of exactly what achieved these colours.  I was also trying out a new cable stitch for the front of the sock. 

This will be a test knit, a practise sock, with a better and revised one to follow.

We had another winter storm warning on Friday and received even more snow.  The banks are so high!  Yesterday was spent digging out - again.  We're also back down to freezing cold temperatures, -28.  Everyone has had enough of winter.

 

Nine school days until my March break holiday.  And counting.