This past week I got to spend a lot of time with 4th graders. For those of you sans small people in your life, these kids are nine or ten years old and can follow directions pretty well. This particular group can also explain the difference between sedimentary and igneous rocks; discuss the three branches of government; and have embroidered the Seal of the State of Maine for an art project.

I was invited in to teach 81 students how to make felted geodes. If you want to know more about rock geodes check out Wikipedia. We made geodes with wool. How fun was it? VERY. There were four groups of about 20 students each. I did an interactive presentation on how felt is made, the students put together there own geodes using commercial, dyed Corridale roving, then we spent about 40 minutes washing our hands.

Since my hands were wet throughout this part of the class I didn’t get any pictures. Even though I presented the class four times, I never got any pictures. I just get too busy with the kids.

After washing our hands (and geodes) in hot and cold water and a liberal squirt of Dr. Bronner’s magic soap (in peppermint, of course) for about 40 minutes, I squeezed them out and cut them almost in half (half spheres–hemispheres; another word we used during this project).

Much fun was had, we all ended up clean (with wrinkled fingers), and we learned a bit more about geology and wool.

Here’s what T2’s geode looks like:

It’s a bit smaller and softer than a tennis ball.

Here’s the recipe for making your own geode:

Materials (for each geode):

• ½ oz. wool roving
• one knee-high stocking
• hot and cold water
• soap (Dr. Bronner’s is best, but dishwashing detergent works in a pinch)

Method:
1. Lay out roving in a pleasing way. Remember that your geode will be approximately 1/3 the size of the original (fluffy) ball of roving.
2. Carefully place ball of roving into stocking.
3. Squeeze all the air out of the ball and plunge into hot water (you do NOT need to have scalding water, but it should be a bit hot for your hands when you start).
4. Add a bit of soap and, using a snowball-making motion, work the ball into a lather.
5. Dip into hot water and add soap as you work the ball. Continue for 10 minutes.
6. Take stocking off of ball and squeeze all water out of the ball.
7. Plunge ball into cold water.
8. Continue the snowball-making motion, squeezing the ball together and rubbing it with some soap for 10 minutes.
9. Squeeze all water out of ball.
10. Plunge back into warm water (you can reuse the water from above) and continue to work with a bit of soap for another 5 minutes.
11. Squeeze all water out of ball.
12. Put ball into cold water (again, you can reuse the cold water from above) and work all the soap out of it.
13. After another 5 minutes in the cold water, test for doneness. If the geode is very firm you can squeeze dry and cut; if the geode is still very mushy (more Nerf-like than tennis-ball-like), repeat the hot and cold water treatments.
14. Cut geodes with an electric knife.

Oh, as a child of the 70s I remember the Atari 2600 fondly.

They are very difficult to find after all these years. The one I had in college was donated to the UCLA Medical Center’s children’s wing. But some intrepid knitter decided that memories weren’t enough and whipped this one up. There’s a tv as well, along with 9 other very geeky yarn creations (not all knitted).

If this site doesn’t make you chuckle, nothing will.

Son number two asked me for socks for his birthday. His birthday is less than a month away and, of course, I wanted to dye them myself. Insanity runs in my family.

I wanted to try out an idea from Spin Off Magazine, the Winter issue. The article included handspun yarn, knit on a knitting machine, dyed in stripes, and then re-knit into a finished object. I started with Briggs and Little’s Tuffy yarn (sorry, I don’t spin much white wool). It’s a wool/nylon blend in a worsted weight. I knitted it on the machine 40 stitches wide.

I then painted the giant swatch in red, blue and green.

Here’s where fate took a hand. I didn’t have time to steam it, so I let it sit for a day. In my opinion it got very muddy, but, as I’ve knit it, I like the way the bright colors peek out around the muddy/dark parts. Here’s the first sock:

I’m working on sock 2 and need to have it completed in about 10 days. I think he’ll like it!

Two weeks ago we got a new color of Plymouth Encore in the store. I couldn’t figure out what to make to see how the pattern worked out–it looked like it would have stripes and maybe some “fair isle”-type colorwork. I decided a baby hat was fast and big enough to suit my needs.

Worsted weight yarn–Encore worsted is perfect; washable and warm–much less than one skein (I may make some baby mitts to go with it)
Size 7 needles–double points and 16″ circulars
Note: this project can be done with the double point needles alone, I find that the circulars are faster and I don’t mind switching.
Stitch marker

Gauge 5 st/inch

k2tog = knit two stitches together

CO 72 st on circular needles, join in round being careful to not twist stitches

K1, P1 ribbing for 1 inch

K around for a total of 4 inches from edge

Decrease as follows, switching to DP when necessary:
row 1 *K7, k2tog*
row 2 K around
row 3 *K6, k2tog*
row 4 K around
row 5 *K5, k2tog*
row 6 K around
row 7 *K4, k2tog*
row 8 K around
row 9 *K3, k2tog*
row 10 K around
row 11 *K2, k2tog*
row 12 *K1, k2tog*
row 13 *k2tog*

Cut 12″ tail and draw tight through stitches. Do NOT weave in at this time.

Make three curly-ques:
CO 25
row 1 knit in front, in back, and in front again in each stitch (total of 75 stitches)
Cast off loosely

CO 20
row 1 knit in front, in back, and in front again in each stitch (total of 60 stitches)
Cast off loosely

CO 15
row 1 knit in front, in back,a nd in front again in each stitch (total of 45 stitches)
Cast off loosely

Weave in cast on tails. Use Cast off tail to attach curly-ques to top of hat. Tie curly-que tails and hat finishing tail together. Weave in all ends.

Some of you may have noticed that the progress bars in the sidebar don’t move regularly. A few projects seem to be . . . stuck. I noticed that, too. This past week I decided to attend to that by picking up the Chinese Red Vest and going to it. I was making incredible progress–both vest fronts complete and finishing the second button band! Then I looked at the “collar” instructions (which were only a few lines) and found that it involved picking up 100 stitches and more than a pattern repeat (18 rows) of knitting. The bad news? I was down to 1/2 ball of yarn. I was at least one ball short.

The woman who’s been known to do math in her head, really messed this one up. It was a meters/yards issue (with the math), or at least that’s what I’m telling people. I only need one more ball, but it needs to be this dye lot.

I got a lot of suggestions on how to find it–call around, check eBay, put WTB (want to buy) emails out to fiber buy/sell mailing lists. I did all of them. And, then I contacted Plymouth Yarns, the distributor of Country 8-ply. I sent an email listing exactly what I needed. The next morning I got a response from Pattie with a list of Maine stores; all of which I had already called.

But another email got me a longer, New England, list of retailers just a few hours later. I started calling and found that everyone has the color, but not the dye lot. Sigh. I kept calling.

Carol at Knitting Treasures in Plymouth, MA was just as lovely as all the other Yarn Store Ladies I spoke to (no offense to you Yarn Store Gentlemen, but I didn’t speak to any), but she also had four balls of said yarn on her shelf! Yipee!

It should be here before the weekend. I will wear this vest before Memorial Day!

Huge Thanks to Pattie at Plymouth Yarns and Carol at Knitting Treasures!

This project went so quickly I didn’t have time to put it on the progress list! I loved the yarn: Alchemy Migrations, the color: Purple Martin, and the pattern: Homeward Bound Scarf. It was a fast, easy, and stunning-looking project.

As a bonus, you get to see my DH.

The scarf is made with two skeins of yarn, and even though it’s a space-dyed colorway, I didn’t do anything to try to make the colors match or continue in any specific fashion when I joined the second skein. Upon hanging the scarf around my DH’s neck I noticed that the pattern came out perfectly bookmatched!

I used up all except about a foot of yarn (a tail at the cast on end and a little bit at the end) and I think this is a very nice length for a scarf.

Want to know a little secret? This is only the second hand-knit scarf I’ve ever completed (the other one was for an exchange). I usually find scarves to be long and boring and don’t finish them. In the future I will make more like this though. I really enjoyed the stitch pattern!

I’m very lucky to have good friends. Some (most?) of those friends are on the weird side. Which may be why they are my friends. Chef to Cook forwarded this fun to me:

Click on it. Really. It’s a knitted mask, part of an exhibition in The Netherlands. There’s a whole series of masks like this; each one slightly weirder than the last.

This is the perfect example of why I’m a “fiber worker” and not a “fiber artist”. Only on a dare would I knit something like these masks. I’m so much happier knitting socks and sweaters. I am unimaginative and happy to be so!

Down at ye olde yarn store, we got in some amazing new yarns. Honestly, it takes a lot for me to be impressed, but I was so impressed that I immediately went looking for a pattern so I would have an excuse to play with this one.

It’s from Alchemy Yarns, but this yarn is so new it’s not up at their website yet. The name is “Migration” and it’s made out of 70% wool and 30% silk. The 50 gram skein is 170 yards, so two are enough for a nice scarf. It’s softly spun; reminicent of Brown Sheep Handpaint Originals (one of my old favorites). You’ll notice the name of the yarn matches the names of the colors. Here are the colors at the shop:

The Boss Lady said that the reason why we have the yarn was the luscious scarf that was shown off at the Last Big Yarn Show (I believe it was TNNA, but my memory is hazy since I didn’t get to go ;-). The pattern is called Homeward Bound scarf and it’s really (really, really, really) easy. There’s only one set of three stitches that are repeated on both sides of the scarf. What’s better? No purling! Here’s how far I’ve gotten in just a couple of days (one skien complete):

Here are the colors close up. This is done on size 7 needles. You can tell the stripes are pretty wide. I think this yarn would make a perfect hat or a decadent sweater.

Even just working on it every few days (while watching The Tudors, Raines, Blood Ties and Gray’s Anatomy) I should be done in a few weeks at most. You’ve really got to touch this yarn to believe it. Stop you by your LYS and check it out.

Yipee!

I found a place in Maine that carries all the dyes I like! And, it’s within easy driving distance of my house. Searsport Rug Hooking has Jacquard, ProChem and Cushing Dyes (all acid dyes). It’s womanned by smart, knowledgeable women; has tons of fabric for rug hooking (plus many other things for RH that I don’t understand); plenty of classroom space for the many workshops they host; and dyes, dyes, dyes.

In addition to the dyes, they also have dye swatch books for Cushing, Jacquard and ProChem. “What’s a dye swatch book?” you may ask. It’s a book filled with real wool samples dyed in various strength of color.

The also had something I haven’t seen before, but I found to be fascinating: Dye Cards with Formulas. You need to know how to make 75 different colors by mixing Jacquard dyes? This is your answer. The cards are written in straightforward formulas (1/2 tsp X and 1/4 tsp Y) and include a swatch on wool.

What a wonderful find! Well worth a drive in the rain. I had good company as well–PJ came along for the ride and fixed their serger while we were there. We seem to make friends no matter where we go. I’ll go back to Searsport Rug Hooking, and I’ll recommend people shop there as well.

My friend Petula*Darling has been raving about how great the tv show Friday Night Lights is. I ignored her, telling her that I just didn’t have enough time to start watching another tv show.

But I am weak and found out that the show is available on the NBC website. By the end of the first show I was hooked. I won’t go on about the show, but I encourage you to check it out.

Over about a week I watched all 22 episodes of the season and knit on this little sweater. Over that time I cried over Jason, fell in love with the stitch definition of O-Wool, rooted for the Panthers, and finished this little sweater.

The sweater is now hanging in the shop (right next to the O-Wool). I can’t say enough wonderful things about the yarn and the pattern, Minnowknits “China Doll”, was simple and fast. I plan to make something cabled out of the yarn in the future.

My friend, PJ, picked out the absolutely adorable buttons:

After six months the sweater is mine. I will change the buttons to zebras if there’s a new little boy on the horizon (one of my sisters has big plans ;-). I think these buttons are too girly for a boy though.

I was going to write about my new project for work, but I did some searching and found out that neither the yarn nor pattern are on-line yet (brand new products from Alchemy Yarns), so I’ll have to go take pictures of the yarn and pattern at the store tomorrow. I’ll write more about it then.