FO Friday: Siobhan Part One - Yarn Travels and Love at First Sight

Every now and then, a project just jumps out at me. I see it and I know immediately that I need to make it. That was how the Siobhan shawl came about.

Last October, my mom and I took a trip to San Antonio, Texas. We did all the normal tourist things, saw the Alamo, visited the Spanish missions, went up the Tower of the Americas, ate barbeque and Tex-Mex, drove up to Stonewall, Texas to visit the LBJ Ranch and Texas Whitehouse, and took a ghost tour.* In addition to those things, we also shopped for yarn. I like to try to find a local yarn store whenever I travel; yarn makes a great souvenir. My mom is also a knitter, so she was up for doing some yarn shopping. We happened to be visiting during the 2016 Hill Country Yarn Crawl and made it to 5 of the shops on the crawl.

One of those shops was a place called Inskein Yarns, a cute little shop in Northwest San Antonio. If you are a fiber artist and in the area, stop by. The staff is amazingly friendly and helpful and they have a great selection of yarns.

While browsing, I came across a shawl up by the check out. Something about the shawl caught my eye, the colors, the texture, the design; I’m not sure what it was, but I knew I had to make that shawl in that yarn. I asked about it, the design was created by the shop owner and the yarn was from a local indie dyer. That was all I needed to know, I bought the yarn and the pattern on the spot.

Design wise, Siobhan is a simple shawl, with a couple of interested elements. The body of the shawl has a stitch pattern that creates a great texture that works well for hand-dyed yarns. The bottom of the shawl has these great little loops, which add so much to the overall look. Overall, the knitting wasn’t difficult and it was fun to knit.

Detail of the loops on the bottom of the shawl and the texture of the shawl body.

The yarn, as I mentioned before, is from an indie dyer in San Antonio, Irish Girl Crafts. The yarn base is called Tullamore and is a blend of superwash corriedale wool (75%) and nylon (25%). The color way, Amber’s Fire in the Sky, is a combination of white, purple, yellow, and orange (there may be another color or two in there) and is gorgeous! The colorway makes me think of Disney villains. It is possibly the combination of purples and blacks, or maybe the fact that I started knitting this project on my way to Disney World. Either way, it is a great color combination, I may have to watch the dyer’s Etsy store to see if she ever lists more for sale.

 

*On a completely unrelated note, I have participated in three ghost tours now, Key West, New Orleans, and San Antonio. I highly recommend checking one out if you are visiting a city that has one (there are lots). Even if you aren’t big on the whole looking for ghosts thing, it is a great way to see some forgotten corners of your destination and hear some local legends. I don’t know that my mom is big into hunting ghosts, and she still seemed to have a great time on the San Antonio one.  

Fibery Exhibitionism

I’ve been knitting for almost ten years now, and my skills have developed considerably from the time I started. Like any artist, I’m proud of my accomplishments and try to take advantage of opportunities to showcase my work. Usually this comes in one of two forms, either posting pictures on various social media outlets (primarily Ravelry, Twitter, and Facebook) or dragging the knitted goods around with me and showing them to anyone who looks even remotely interested. This year, I took advantage of another method of showing off my work, I entered several pieces into the county fair.


I come from (and still live in) rural Wisconsin and I can remember while growing up, the county fair was an extremely big deal. It has lost some of its luster now, but still includes a variety of events, including a needle work contest. Every year, I think about entering items into it, but usually not until after the entry deadline has passed.

This year, I managed to be on top of things and got the entry form in on time (and by on time I mean the day before it was due). I decided to enter pieces in five categories (knitters are limited to one item per category). I entered my Invisibility Wrap, my Llama Chullo hat, my Spatterdash fingerless gloves, my Carry-All Tote and my Cubist socks shawl. That seemed to offer a fair cross-section of my knitting abilities.

By the time I dug out the pieces, washed and reblocked the ones that needed it, I was pleased with my entries. I felt there were a couple of pieces that had a chance of winning a ribbon. I dropped off the pieces at the fairgrounds and went back Friday after the judging had been completed.

I was surprised to find that out of five pieces, I had won five ribbons. Yup, every piece had one something. My Llama hat and my Carry-All tote both took firsts, with the Llama hat also winning a Special Merit Award. The socks, Invisibility wrap, and Spatterdash mitts all took seconds.

Entering the pieces in the fair wasn’t about winning ribbons, and with my prizes adding up to a grand total of about $9, it certainly wasn’t about the prize money. However, I would like to think that it wasn’t just about ego, either. For me, a big part of knitting is the tradition. Knitters today are doing basically the same thing that they’ve been doing for generations. We might be doing them for different reasons (because we want to rather than we need to), we might have newer tools, and a wider variety of materials available; but the process is still the same. Generations of knitters have been making socks, mittens, hats, purses, and other things. And generations of knitters have been entering their best work into county fairs and other exhibitions for the feeling of pride that comes from knowing that you have a skill and you are good at the skill.

And, a lot of it is ego.

 

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Wouldn't You Know It?

I'm a big fan of wooden knitting needles,they have a much better feel than plastic and are much warmer (and less noisy) than metal. With the exception of socks,* almost all of my projects are knitted on wooden needles.



But, one problem with wooden needles is that they can break. In my experience, they don't break often, just when you do things like step on them. Thankfully, breakage is usually pretty rare.

However, I'm knitting on a deadline right now. So, breakage was inevitable. Husband forgot that a house rule is to check for stray needles before sitting (though Husband would say that it was my fault for leaving my knitting of the couch). I was left with a broken stump of a needle, and a half finished sweater.

I was forced to order replacement needle tips, and of course, I had to include some yarn (I needed to qualify for free shipping after all). The package took about a week to arrive, so that forced gave me the opportunity to complete my Citron shawl. It worked out well, actually, I bound off the shawl on the same day the box arrived.

Still, that was a week with no progress on the sweater, and now the wedding is only 13 days away. I have divided for the armholes and have about seven inches left on the body, plus the sleeves, and the ruffle trim. As a precaution, today I ordered a cardigan that would also work well with the skirt.

*As a side note , I would love to knit socks on wooden needles as well, but when they are that tiny, wooden needles just don't withstand the wear and tear I inflect upon them (and yes, I'm reasonably certain that the problem is me, not the needles.

 

Project Talk: It's a Wrap

So, my invisibility wrap has been completed for some time now (done in enough time to wear to the wedding I wanted to). But I've been slacking on getting the photos off of my camera and getting them posted, both on here and on Ravelry. I wish I could say it was because I was super busy doing something super wonderful, but alas, I've pretty much just been lazy (and no, I haven't written up that sock pattern yet, either). Though the past couple of weeks have been a little bit crazy, it is still mostly laziness.

 So here are, as promised, photos of the wrap:



There are a couple from a photo shoot outside, one showing the length, and one showing more detail. Both shot while hanging from my porch railing. I'm still looking for good places to photograph my finished projects.


And a final couple of photos from the wedding, where you can see the wrap in actual action. It was a hit at the wedding. It looked great with the dress and got a ton of compliments. However, the wedding was outdoors, in July, in Wisconsin, and there was no real need for any kind of wrap. Plus the alpaca and silk blend is warmer than I ever thought a thin little thread couple be. This is actually a common mistake for me with lace, I forget, because it is lightweight and full of holes, that it can be warm. And let me assure you, it can be.

One of the few time a pic of my bum will
be posted, believe me.

With the exception of an extra large hole in one column, I am happy with how this piece turned out. At first I was less than pleased with the bead placement. I imagined them more sporadically placed and not in the rows, but I've adjusted to that and moved on. The yarn is beautiful and transitions from light to dark grey and will look great with a variety of colors. The beads add just the right amount of sparkle to the piece. It is big enough to work as a wrap, but also light enough to wear as a scarf. The length is enough to wrap around my neck a couple time or loop around my head and then wrap around my neck like a cowl in the cold. It will be a great addition to my wardrobe and hopefully, get a lot of use.