No posts mean a busy life. Since the Sunrise Circle Sweater, I finished another sweater, the Adrienne Vittadini fitted raglan sleeve pullover out of Woolbearers bulky cotton boucle. It was easy! It's a model for the store, and now I wish I would have made it big enough to fit me because it looks like the kind of garment you could wear with shorts in the summer, the yarn is light enough for hot weather.

In the meantime, a jacket I wove as an example for a class Woolbearers' offers, Painted Warp Jacket, appeared in the Spring '06 Handwoven Magazine in Daryl Lancaster's Forecast column. That was a real honor. The warp is painted, a thick and thin wool and mohair blend we sell in the store. The weft is part handpainted mohair and part La Gran. The La Gran was too dark, I thought, so after I constructed the sleeves, I pushed them over a plastic yarn cone and tied them up shibori style. Then I put them in my kitchen sink full of water with a little bleach thrown in and soaked it for a few minutes. The effect is subtle. It's simple rectangles sewn together. I had an old taffeta gown that made perfect lining after I stamped it with gold paint and stitched it a little bit.

We are getting ready to be vendors at The Knit and Crochet Show in King of Prussia, PA in July. Other than that, it is business as usual, madly knitting models, dyeing yarn, teaching and shmoozing. More later...

Indigo dye Update .... Oh my gosh, I guess the word 'fermented' should have tipped me off, however, I never expected the stench that came from that dye pot to be as vile as it is (was). I got used to it yesterday, but even after a shower last night, it was still in my sinus'.

This morning, like a blast of heat, the smell greeted me when I opened up the studio and knew right then that my Sunday weaving students wouldn't be able to tolerate it. Mary K. got the back door opened and the breeze that comes off the creek right behind the building blew through and freshened things up. We moved the vat out of doors. I'm going to have to trade control over it's temperature for a breathable work space. The yarn is pretty smelly too, but I haven't washed it yet. I'll have to investigate and see if this is supposed to happen. Maybe I'm keeping the vat too warm. Any advice will be greatly appreciated.

Also, I sewed the Sunrise Circle together and steamed it. It looks very lovely. The sleeves are a little long, but I measured them and they are the right length for the size I made. The pattern calls for four toggle closures, but I decided to use just one. It's a dark toggle, so it blends in with the yarn color which is a chocolate brown tweed. We'll post a picture later in the week.

Myra's Knit Along of Nicky Epstein's Tapestry Cape is going well. The knitters are using
Jamiesons's DK weight shetland wool in the most luscious colors. The bottom of the cape is fair isle and the body has a lot of intarsia flowers and leaves. Joanna finished one side and she is doing a beautiful job. Intarisa is a technique I am looking forward to trying. We'll also post pictures of the cape and the other gorgeous sweaters that customer's are bringing in.

Kelly finished her Alice Starmore fair isle cardigan and it is a breathtaking color study of greens, pink and burgundy leaves done in Frog Tree Alpaca. She did a remarkable job. It's trimmed in burgundy velveteen. Carolyn brought in her Wonderful Wallaby hooded sweater with pouch in Cascade 220. It is so soft and just perfect for the cool weather we've had. Sandy is almost finished with her's; the sleeves are finished and she is adding them to the body of the sweater.
One of the many things I love about having a knitting store is the inspiration I get from seeing all the beautiful knitting going on.

Happy knitting, spinning and weaving!

Sunrise Circle Sweater

The Sunrise Circle is finished!!!! Well, the knitting is finished. When I find the courage, I'll sew it together. The pattern was an interesting journey for an 'intermediate'* knitter. Every single row, except for ten stockinette rows on the sleeves, is different. I found that using stitch markets, even though their position changed at each right side row, helped me considerably. I'm a little worried about the length of the sleeves; they are LONG.

The Jo Sharp Silkroad Aran Tweed was as soft as butter and a real joy to use. I hope this sweater, which is a model for the store, does the yarn justice and knitters can see how lovely and soft it is. Now that it's finished, I can return to working on the Adrienne Vittidini pattern that I'm doing out of our bulky cotton hand dyed. I am allowing myself to fantasize about my next project. Rowan Classic is a front runner, a capelet out of Soft Lux with lots of beading. Myra said she would help me with the beading part......I've no idea where to begin with that.

*I think I can now refer to myself as an intermediate knitter after knitting this sweater. I can't wait to block it; my increases look fairly invisible!


Brown Sheep finally arrived. I'm getting used to it's new location slowly. We moved our Dale Of Norway Baby Ull and Stork to a new and more visible location and put the Brown Sheep where the Dale used to be, closer to the other felting wools.

Indigo Update..... I tried it out yesterday and it wasn't ready, so let it rest today and will try again tomorrow!

Indigo Update
Three days now and the vat is starting to look like it might be fermenting. It smells alive, but not bad. I hope I'm doing it right; you keep it warm but not hot, keep the air out of it, yet stir it daily; it needs a little pampering to keep it going. Already this is becoming one of those projects that I think about all of the time, which yarn I am going to try first, (our own Shadyside spun Columbia X) and also, a pima cotton warp for a woven kimono.

The vat is ready when it has a coppery film on top. Will write more when I see the vat again Tuesday.

Indigo Dyeing mystifies me, because of it's history and also for the length of time it takes to prepare. The dyehappy group on yahoo has been having an interesting discussion on dyeing, what else, that has inspired me and also lead me to check out some of the participants sites. Cheryl Kolander 's site, www.Aurosasilk.com , is full of exciting techniques and things to buy. She describes a method of preparing indigo that doesn't require lye, so we thought we'd try it for dyeing at Woolbearers.

Indigo is mixed with wheat germ, madder and soda ash in three gallons of warm water and then kept warm for one week. Being careful not to incorporate air into the bath, skeins of wetted yarn are slowly placed into the bath, squished around, and then brought out, squeezed, and placed on newspaper. Successive dips darken the color. We mixed up our vat last evening so I'm expecting to dye next weekend. This just thrills me. I usually want things done yesterday, and the idea that I'm having to wait is not making me as crazy as I thought it would. Cheryl writes that the process is meditative, and I agree.

Myra and I have been dyeing up a storm, stock piling yarn for TKGA in King of Prussia in July where we will be vendors for the first time. (Not counting years ago at Salem Harvest Sheep and Wool.)

One of the best parts of getting a block of time to dye is the opportunity it brings to try out new colorways when the inspiration strikes. I don't like to mix dye, so when I get the bug to try something new, I generally write down the recipe and try it on fiber later.

Dyers know what preparation is involved with dyeing. Preparing the yarn by skeining it, prewashing it, soaking it in an auxiliary, mixing the dye and then finally the application and heating. Since mixing the dyes is not my favorite part of the process, I try to get it done in one sitting. I use liter sized bottles that sterile water and saline comes in for the Operating Room (my old life). They are perfect for dyes because they are graduated, they clean up well, and they are unbreakable. I fill the bottles with fairly hot water, not too hot, but as hot as comes from the tap and line up as many as will fit on the counter. I use disposable t-spoons so I can move quickly and not stop to wash off real measuring spoons, and with my nose and mouth covered, start adding dye powder to the bottles. Occasionally a customer will come down to our studio when I am in the process of doing this and it always amuses me to see the expression on their face when they see the mask.

When I mix a big batch of dyes like this, they tempt me for days. Until I can get there again for the real application, it will nag me that all that color is waiting to be released.

One of the many benefits of having a business partner is that I get to use her dyes. I think I will shop at her house tomorrow for some new inspiration.

woolbearers
Last night was our meetup.com group meeting. As usual, it ended with me feeling refreshed and relaxed. I did drink a one inch glass of wine, but I don't think that was what helped. The women were sharing their stories, the older gals giving wisdom to the younger. It was very cool. There is something about a group of women coming from all walks of life who have knitting in common. Everyone's knitting totally different projects. Sabra is working on a tremendous Colinette mitered square afghan, Bernadette had some lovely cotton stranded novelty yarn that she is making a shell from, Joanne is doing an entrelac felted bag from the class we offer, Barb is knitting socks from handspun yarn she spun from blue wool and mohair she bought from Woolbearers; I can't remember what other lovely things I saw. I am inspired now to try other yarns and patterns. Fun!

Saturday night is a time for wine and straight brain waves for me. I know my partner is sitting at a performance of The Wizard of Oz right now, watching her eleven year old daughter dancing her heart out. I am too old and decrepit to do anything but reflect on the week and drink this wine.

We had five new customers this week. While our old customers sustain us, the new ones keep us on our toes. They don't know (or maybe they do) how important their comments are. Our faithful customers probably are used to seeing the store so may not notice that the patterns, while in the same place, have some new additions. I try to surprise them by mixing up things; Tuesday I love to change things around a little bit. Make things look new.

Myra and I had a small chance to converse this evening and remarked about how our most important role is to get the yarn the customers want. For instance, since we opened, you asked for Brown Sheep. We couldn't get it for a year because they were overwhelmed with new dealers. Then we didn't think we needed it because we have so many wonderful yarns that are great substitutions for it; Lopi among others. Finally, we wanted it. That seems like the cycle. We have to like it in order to sell it. Now I can't wait to get it in.

The Mission Falls cotton still isn't in, but we are hoping for Tuesday. I already have something in mind to knit. We got our Regia Sock Silk in, it is gorgeous and soft! New Lorna's Laces, Fleece Artist Sock Kits' and Felted Purse Kits. We have no idea how we managed to find room for all of the new yarn.

We've been dyeing up a storm, too. Myra has dyed some sock yarn that is to die for. I wish I had time to knit socks.

I didn't get my Jo Sharp Silkroad Aran Tweed sweater done like I said I would. It is so much fun to knit, the Sunrise Circle Sweater in Spring Interweave Knits, but you must count each stitch on every other row as you are knitting, and this is slow going for me.

Myra and I counted all the sweaters, bags, shawls and scarves we knit this year and we impressed ourselves. I took some pictures and will put them on the blog once I figure out where to put them.

Have a great weekend and do comment if you want. suzie

Monday is the only day the store is closed, and as much as one would think we would welcome it, I always feel a little paranoid. Maybe I should run in and see if I remembered to turn the heat down, see if there are any knitters wandering around, lost, looking for a yarn fix, see if UPS came.....you get the point. So I am forcing myself to stay put and actually work on some projects. This has me thinking about setting goals, planning the next project, and for some reason, trends.

If you have lots of projects in mind, and weaving projects really fall into this category, how do you stay ahead of the trends? Is that important? I have a lot of yarn in my stash that is from the 1970's. LOTS of Manos, believe it or not, and some Lopi, both of which have changed in quality dramatically, but you should see the colors! I must have purchased the Manos with the Partridge Family in mind.

I think there must be a big difference between trends and trendy. Thank God and my partner, Myra, that we don't have a lot of 'trendy' yarn in our store. We got some, but just enough for the customers who asked for it. I wondered what it must be like for some great stores who have a ton of it. So I went to some their websites last night and got a surprise. One of the stores still specializes in it. It must mean that their customers like it and want more. This just amazes me, because it means that everything that the sales representatives and magazines are telling us doesn't apply to that store and it's customers. Are their any demographers out there?

My son is big on demographics and his theory is that you can forget everything you thought you knew about them and create the market you want. You provide the interest and motivation to capture the interest of your customer. If you like it, they will buy it. And then you have the internet, which upsets the balance. What we like on the east coast is completely different than what is liked on the west coast, or so I've heard.

I wonder what other's are doing with their eyelash ribbon fake fur acrylic $15 a skein yarns? Surely not another scarf? I like Chris Bylsma's Crayon Jacket as a way to use several interesting yarns together. Maybe I'll do that project next!

Weekends at Woolbearers are usually hectic, always interesting, and include a host of interesting knitters and weavers who come from all over the state to visit. This weekend was no exception. Yesterday Daryl Lancaster came from Lincoln Park to teach Seams and Finishing Techniques for Handweavers. She is a nationally known designer and popular teacher among the guilds. But my new weaving students heard of her for the first time this past month and were definitely in awe by the end of the workshop. Her garments are constructed of handwoven fabric, but that is the only common link they have with weaving. She guides you in thinking out of the box when planning a piece.

I have woven fabric for clothing with the intention of cutting into it as little as possible, using narrowly woven textiles to drape across the body with just a small amount of sewing. Daryl does just the opposite. The fabric is treated with interfacings and stabilizers so that it can be cut and pieced and trimmed. She uses techniques that utilize the tiniest piece of fabric. One of the students had a piece of silk she wove in another workshop that wasn't larger than 4" X 10", and Daryl suggested some ways it can be used by added commercial fabrics that compliment it to make a vest. Fabulous ideas and inspiration from a wonderful teacher right in our little urban studio made us proud to have been able to offer her workshop.

Today we had two more classes, one taught by a young woman, Susan Saladini, who comes from Woodbridge about once a month to teach some wonderful knitted technique, and Maureen Oberle, who lives a little closer. I wish I had been a fly on the wall in Maureen's classroom; I heard laughter the entire time class was in session. The ladies are a joy to have in the store.

In addition to the two days of workshops, Myra had a class each day herself. Wonderful Wallaby, probably the most popular and well attended class we have had, and today was the first day of The Felted Tapestry Capelet Knit Along, Nicky Epstein's beautiful fair isle cape of Jamieson's Simply Shetland.

A short, tense visit by our landlady and a little cold rain was the only dark spot. And today we saw some of our favorite customers and met several new gals as well. We just got Fleece Artist Hand Dyed Sock Kits on Friday and saw most of it go out the door this weekend.

I got a little, tiny bit of knitting done on the Sunrise Circle Sweater from Interweave in Jo Sharp; my goal is to finish it this week. Hold me to it.

Starting to blog feels a little strange to me. Why do I think I have anything to say about knitting that anyone would want to read? I'm not an experienced knitter; my partner, Myra, has been knitting for forty years, and much of what I know is from her generous teaching. The rest I made up as I go along. I've been told I bind off like no way anyone has seen. Yarn requirements and gauge are still a challenge. I avoid trying patterns that have abbreviations of longer than four letters. No pair of socks from my hand are the same size. Yet. I want to perfect what I do with needles and yarn. I rip all the time.

And I love knitters. There are no generalizations I can make about knitters, except they like yarn. Yarn and fiber, especially wool, gives me goose bumps. As a weaver, I obsessively bought yarn until there was no room for me to weave with it. My weaving studio housed an impressive range of coned yarns, much of it now stored in Woolbearers studio, ready for our students to weave with.

I learned to love yarn in skeins and balls when we opened Woolbearers, in 2004. We use a color wheel to arrange the yarn in the cubbies Myra's husband built for us.

Knitting needles are for more than knitting; they are for collecting, too. When I first met my business partner, my knitting accomplishments amounted to two scarves and a couch throw, but I had more than 100 pair of needles. The old white plastic, bakelite and wooden needles are a thrill to use. Until we opened the store, I had never heard of Addi Turbo; now I lust after them. How lucky am I to own a knitting store and be able to use whatever my heart desires to knit with, meet wonderful women, and occasionally men, who knit.

Woolbearers has a yahoo group called twisted woolbearers. On it a young woman posted a list of her unfinished projects and they amount to over 70. I have four or five in progress right now and feel nervous about not getting them done. They are an Adrienne Vittidini designed fitted sweater from Vogue Very Easy Knits that I'm doing in Woolbearers hand dyed bulky cotton, the Sunset Circle sweater in the latest Interweave Knits in Jo Sharp Aran Tweed, a fair isle papoose that will be felted of hand dyed, some lace gloves from a Simply Shetland book and several pair of socks. The socks date about a year old. Not good.

So that is it for now. I'm taking the knitting bag to the gym tomorrow so while I'm waiting for a class to start, I can accomplish something. I wonder how many ladies will ask what I'm knitting?