Tag Archives: Knitting

Mar27

Remember The Crack?

Posted on March 27, 2013 by caldwella

About a year ago I wrote this blogentry. It turns out that putting The Crack yarn in the freezer did calm the fibers down and I had no more asthma related knitting incidences! So what did I do with The Crack?

Well, I found a pattern in a book called Boutique Knits. This is a beautiful book with beautiful patterns and I have knit quite a few items out of the book. In the very back of the book is this lovely little pattern called Soft Kid Bubble Tunic. I was at first drawn to this pattern because it was so different but I wasn’t sure if it would look good on me. I decided that I would give it a whirl and by looking just at the picture I got even more excited because it appeared to be knit in The Crack, Kid Silk Haze. However, upon actually reading the pattern it turns out it was knit with a much heavier weight yarn but that was just as fuzzy and soft as The Crack. My advisors and I decided that as long as I was wearing something underneath the garment I could use the lace weight yarn. So I did the appropriate gauge knitting and math to get the correct size since I was using smaller yarn and got started. The first problem with knitting this garment was that it’s a fairly large piece and using such a thin yarn was going to take A LOT longer! Then we had the whole Asthma issue along with many other projects getting thrown in front of this one and then some confusion with the pattern. All in all this project has taken me about a year and a half to finish (that is not straight knitting, simply time on the needles). It had way more headaches than I ever expected and quickly went from one of those projects I just couldn’t wait to finish to the project I avoided at all costs. It’s all done now, except for a tiny bit of crochet edging that a dear friend is doing for me since I don’t crochet and on a coveted project is not the time to learn. However, I’m not super happy with the end result. I don’t know if it’s because I lost my love for the project amidst all the problems or if it’s because I didn’t use the proper yarn and I feel The Crack isn’t very forgiving so it shows some minor glitches and things like that. Or maybe it’s the fact that I put all that work and pain into this piece and after all that it doesn’t fit because I’m pregnant!!! I tried the tunic on in the fall, beginning of the pregnancy, and because it is sort of flowy it seemed I had plenty of room to grow in to the item and wear it at least once before I got too big for it. The night I finished the project up I quickly put it on hoping I could wear it to church the next day. NOPE! Now I have to wait even longer to wear this garment that has become a thorn in my side.

So here are some pictures of the finished item but unfortunately you will have to wait probably another year until I actually fit into it again! Stay tuned for installment 3 of The Crack Yarn!

Did I mention the tunic has pockets? My favorite feature on the garment!

Feb19

Catch Up

Posted on February 19, 2013 by caldwella

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My lack of writing has not been due to a lack of knitting or creating. It’s just been due to my lack of time since there has been so much knitting and sewing going on! It’s been a very busy six months full of new businesses, lots of baby’s being born (not my own) and other various people to knit and sew for. So lets look at what I’ve been creating.

I’ll start with the babies. My daughter has a play group made up of about 7 families. Three of those families had babies in October and they ALL had boys! I also had a friend who gave birth to a baby boy in August. First to be born was Andersson to my friends Steph and Erik. This couple and their extended family are all HUGE Steelers fans. I am really against knitting themed things, specifically for sports teams but this couple is very dear to me so I made an exception. We also had special Steelers themed yarn at the LYS in town. So I decided to knit little Andersson a Baby Surprise Jacket.

I finished this literally 10 minutes before the baby shower and my hands were so cramped up from knitting so fast that I could barely sew the buttons on. It came out a bit small and I actually found myself hoping Andersson came a tad early so the sweater would fit. Andersson did not come early but he was on the smaller side (not dangerously so) and I was able to block the sweater enough that he wore it home from the hospital!

The next friend to be born was Owen! He is one of the boys of October and was the biggest of the three. I decided he should have a hat and little knit shoes. Oddly he received his gift last of the three boys that were born in October but hopefully it was worth the wait to his Mama! I had a hard time picking out his gift. His Mama is an artist as well and very dear to me and I just couldn’t seem to find the perfect pattern. I finally found a cute bootie pattern and created a matching hat to go with it.

As I said Owen was the biggest (and still is at about 20 pounds at 4 months old) and seemed to grow the fastest of all the kids. So the main reason hi present got done last was because he grew out of it before I finished it so I had to start over! I’m glad I stuck with it though because doesn’t he look handsome?

Tod was born next to my friends Cheri and Joe. I knew right away that I wanted to knit something classy for this little guy. Cheri and Joe are very involved in their church and I knew that Tod would get a lot of use out of a sweater vest and bow tie. Plus, this family already has two little girls so they needed something that screamed “BOY”! I used a pattern from this book, Sock Yarn One Skein Wonders
We altered the pattern a bit so I could use the yarn I wanted and I went with two colors for the vest instead of one to make it POP a little more! I think it came out pretty darn cute!
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Pretty spiffy, huh?

The last little man to join us was Dylan. We have been friends with Dylan’s family since the Mama’s were preggo with their first kids so it was pretty exciting to see Erick and Sarah adding another little one to their family. Dylan was the only one of the October Boys that we knew before hand was going to be a boy. His Mama has specifically requested a certain pair of baby booties for him. These are also from the Sock Yarn One Skein Wonders book.

NO I did not give him pink booties…these were actually made last spring for another friend who had a girl. Dylan’s were a lovely shade of blue! While his Mama was in labor I had the pleasure of caring for their daughter Clara and I was just so excited about Dylan’s arrival I couldn’t stop myself from knitting him a little hat as well.

Isn’t he yummy?! I could just eat him up!

That’s it for the babies but I also did some other knitting this fall. I was commissioned for a few hats and knit a few hats to sell in a local show. There were a number of knit flower hair clips that were also sold to various customers. Another commissioned piece this fall was for a friend’s daughter-in-law. She wanted this cabled head band for Christmas. It was a nice quick project but a lot of fun with all the different cables.

I made two other gifts for two very special people. The first one was for my husband for our anniversary. We didn’t really do gifts this year but I had extra yarn laying around so I knit him this little cabled neck warmer from the book, One Skein.

The other gift I made was a pair of fingerless for my dearest kindred spirit Barb. Last year when we went away to a sheep farm, Autumn House Farms, Barb came along even though she isn’t a knitter. I had been telling Barb that I would knit her a pair of fingerless gloves so when I was purchasing yarn at the farm I told Barb I would knit her gloves out of the yarn from the farm if she wanted to pick some out. The pattern I used was the Spring Shorties again from Sock Yarn One Skein Wonders (love that book!). I did lengthen the gloves a bit and they were quite the headache but they came out beautifully and Barb loved them so that’s all that matters.

I have a few other projects that I have been working on but they have longer stories and will get a post all of their own. I think we will also save the sewing projects for another day as well since I don’t like reading really long blog posts so I try to keep mine somewhat short. I’m going to try and be better about writing about my projects on a more regular basis, maybe you can keep me accountable to that! It’s been fun writing this entry though, I sort of felt like I hadn’t really produced much of anything in the last few months but I can see now that just wasn’t the case…I just don’t really have the items in my possession anymore. That’s not a bad thing though…I love sharing my knitting with others…it makes my heart happy!

Sep8

Fuzz is a verb…

Posted on September 8, 2012 by caldwella

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My daughter has an obsession with soft things. She especially loves fuzzy things, and items that she can pull bits of fuzz off of. When she was younger she would pick at the sweaters we were wearing or the furry head of a stuffed animal and then rub the fuzz under her nose for a little bit until she then ate the fuzz ball. I use to wear a pair of knit felted slippers and as I wore them they would continue to felt and I would often pull large pieces of wool out of them. One time I pulled a large piece of “fuzz” out of the slippers, it was about the length of an avocado and Ella asked me what it was. I said it was a fuzz ball. She then looks at me and says, “Mommy, you eat you fuzz?” As though, if I wasn’t going to eat it, the fuzz should not be wasted and she would eat it. As a baby Ella had a gorgeous knit blanket made by one of my dearest friends Jill. It’s soft and pretty and the perfect blanket for Ella made in the colors of her bedroom.

At a young age Ella started picking at this blanket and trying to pull pieces of fuzz off. She use to wake up in the morning with bits of brown fuzz glued to her face with drool. The blanket is made with nice yarn so it didn’t pill real easily and thus did not produce the best fuzz. For some reason the green squares did not release any fuzz and Ella started complaining that it didn’t work, that the green squares wouldn’t “fuzz”. She wanted Aunt Jill to fix the green squares. We all sort of laughed off her little obsession and I secretly worried that one day we would be on a reality show about weird obsessions because Ella would have a ball of fuzz lodged in her stomach.

This past Christmas my Mom got Ella a bed for her dolls and decided to crochet a blanket for Ella’s dolls. My Mom is a novice crocheter and just used a cheap brand of yarn that seemed very soft and fuzzy. The blanket was meant for the dolls but it’s REALLY fuzzy and so Ella adopted it as her blankey and my life has never been the same since.

Ella picks at the fuzz on this blanket whenever she is holding it. She has perfected her technique and can show you exactly how to properly “fuzz” a piece of fuzz. She no longer eats the fuzz (thankfully) and I don’t even see her rub it under her nose that much any more. What she does now is rubs it in between her fingers for a while and then discards it on the floor. The rubbing technique looks a lot like the motion spinners use to spin fleece into yarn (if she becomes a spinner we could be a pretty amazing mother/daughter team) and when she is done the piece of fuzz almost looks felted.

She gets quite obsessive with this process and really can’t be interrupted during this process. If you ask her to do something while she is in the process of working on a piece of fuzz she will tell you, “Hold on I have to finish fuzzing this”. When she is in her bed she fuzzes her fuzz and then discards the finished pieces on either side of her bed.
This is what the front of her bed looks like if I don’t vacuum every day (which I don’t, we are sort of learning to live with the fuzz):

This is the epicenter of the fuzz but it is literally all over our house. My poor husband often leaves for work in the morning with a sheath of red fuzz stuck in his stubble. Where ever we travel we leave a trail of red fuzz behind us. This morning I had to move Ella’s bed to get something she dropped behind it and I found this sight:

I just had no words when I saw it!

Ella and I went camping with my Dad a few weeks ago in his motorhome. Ella was put to bed on a king size bed and could not reach the edge of the bed to drop the fuzz on the floor so my always inventive little girl took the cup holder from the side of the bed and laid it on her pillow to act as a fuzz receptacle.

The fuzz situation can get frustrating at times. Even if I vacuumed everyday there would still be red residue around. My mother has humbly apologized several times for bringing this mess into our house. There was really no way of knowing the fuzz would grow to such a huge problem. Making her a new blanket will not make a difference because she will discard it for it’s lack of fuzzing abilities as she did with her Aunt Jill blanket. She is such a sweet, funny little love and this is her one vice so I will continue to walk through the house and shove fuzz balls in my pockets as I go and shake my fist in the air and curse the soft, fuzzy, acrylic crap that is Lion Brand Homespun Yarn!

Aug14

Closing Ceramony

Posted on August 14, 2012 by caldwella

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As I wrote a few weeks ago (Let the Games Begin) I participated in the knitting olympics team at my LYS, Team Stitch Your Art Out. I was planning on knitting The Cedar Leaf Shawlette. The Friday the Olympics started I was so excited to cast on I could barely contain myself. I was going to have to wait all morning until it was time for Ella’s nap to get started. Fortunately we had a very fun morning planned so I figured it would go by quick. While we were out that morning Ella was acting a little off and was complaining of her belly hurting. I started to realize that she must have a bit of a stomach bug that I had earlier in the week. I decided to take her home from our activities, sad that my baby was sick but excited about the prospect of an early nap and the rest of the afternoon spent on the couch once she woke up snuggling, watching movies and of course knitting. She fell asleep on the way home which is normally not a big deal, I can just carry her into her room and she goes back to sleep or stays asleep just fine. This was not the case today. She woke up and was not having anything to do with going back to sleep. I begged, pleaded and maybe even tried to bribe her to take even a short nap. She would not work with me. I usually try not to knit too much when she is awake unless we are in the car. I don’t want her to ever feel like I didn’t have enough time for her or give her enough attention because I was knitting, and I know myself and know that I could easily get sucked into that. I also just can’t always concentrate as well when she is around so harder projects are out of the question because I have to stop so much to tend to her. I made an exception this afternoon….I put a movie on and cast on! There was a lot of stop and start knitting going on as I got her juice or a snack or whatever she needed but I was at least able to get a taste of the new project, get a feel for the yarn in my hands, get the knitting fever out of my blood a bit.

My thoughts on the project before I cast on was that the main body of the shawlette was going to be long and tedious. It was just short rows of knit and purl, easy knitting that was going to be great for watching the Olympics but I was still going to have to pay attention because of the wraps for the short rows, which would be kind of annoying. What I was really excited for was to get to the lace leaf edging. I thought it would be a lot of fun and much more interesting. I was right, it was fun and interesting for about three leaves…the twenty-seven other leaves were torture. The rest of the them were tedious and got very boring and took all my focus so watching anything was almost impossible. It turned out that the project was the exact opposite of what I thought it would be. The project turned out nice although I’m not head over heals in love with it like I have been with other projects I knit. I’m excited for the cooler weather so I can wear it and I’m excited that I took the time to make something for myself but my love for the finished project is just sort of ho-hum.

I am glad that I participated in this little event. I’m not sure how much of the Olympics I would have watched if I hadn’t been working on it. But as I sat down to knit every day I found myself turning it on and getting really into the various competitions. I was rooting on Gabby Douglas and the rest of the Fab Five, I was in awe of Michael Phelps and his record breaking career and moved at watching Oscar Pistorius run his race despite his disability. It brought my family together as my husband and I excitedly showed our daughter different events and watched her face light up with awe as she watched the synchronized divers, watched her tumbling around the house like the gymnasts and say she wanted to watch the swimming “forever and ever”. I am looking forward to the next Olympics as I think we have started a fun family tradition of watching them together.

As far as the knitting olympics go, I did not win a prize. There were about eleven entries of knitting, crochet and quilting at the shop. People brought beautiful projects, some of them brought multiple projects (clearly they don’t have young children). It was fun to come together and hear about the trials and triumphs of their projects and see all the beautiful work and talent we have wandering around our little shop. The games gave everyone a goal, something to work toward, together. It doesn’t matter who won, what matters is that we set goals, we met our goals or came close and we cheered on our country as we did it. I’m looking forward to knitting with these woman during the next games…they were feirce competators!

Incase you were curious what my end product looks like:

Jul27

Let the Games Begin!

Posted on July 27, 2012 by caldwella

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I’ve never been very interested in the Olympics. I usually watch a little bit of the gymnastics in the summer and in the winter games I watch a little ice skating but I’m not much of a sports fan. The only sport that I really watch is Penn State Football (and I still plan to watch)! So up until a few weeks ago I really wasn’t all that interested in the 2012 Summer Olympics other than to show Ella a little bit of the gymnastics since she takes gymnastics and I figured she would like to watch probably about 5 months of it. But then a few weeks ago Stitch Your Art Out announced that they were going to have a team in the Ravellenic Games this year. What is that you ask? If you are not a knitter you may not know about Ravelry….it’s a social media site for knitters and crocheters. During the Olympics Ravelry holds a sort of knitting olympics where people form teams and can compete in different knitting competitions. So our local shop, Stitch Your Art Out formed Team Stitch, we had to state ahead of time what project we would knit during the 17 days that the olympics are held. The project should be something that is a bit of a challenge to you. You are to cast on during the opening ceremony or there after and you must have the project completed (pieced together, ends woven in and blocked) by the end of the games on August12, 2012. We will then head up to the shop to share our accomplishments. Everyone will get to vote and gold, silver and bronze “medals” (baskets of knitting goodies) will be awarded. So for weeks I have been going back and forth about what I would knit. I’ve been searching for patterns on Ravelry and trying to decide what would be enough of a challenge for the time frame but not too challenging that it wasn’t fun or that I wouldn’t be able to accomplish the project within the time frame. I have many projects at home that need to be finished and many projects that have been waiting to be knit up for a long time (many of them for other people) but I decided I wanted to pick out a completely new pattern and that I wanted to knit something for myself which I don’t do very often. So what did I decide on? I’m going to knit this shawlette, The Cedar Leaf Shawlette. I’m using some beautiful green yarn I got last year when I went to The Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival. It’s a sportweight Alpaca from Delly’s Delights Farm.

I made my final decision on this shawlette about a week ago and since then I’ve been dying to cast on and I am even more excited to wrap up in what I hope turns out to be a beautiful piece in the fall. I will be sure to let you know how it turns out and if I become a Ravellenic medalist!

The other activity that has gotten me more in the season is the Expand Your Taste luncheon that I have with three other friends and their kids once a month. We started doing a once a month luncheon back in the fall to try different types of ethnic food. So far we have had Korean, Chinese, Spanish, Indian and Polish food. When we planned July’s even we really didn’t have a plan other than what day we were going to meet and I don’t think that any of us realized it was the day the olympics started. So this week we threw together high tea in honor of the olympics being held in London. We had a lovely morning, Ella and I enjoyed dressing up in hats that propers ladies wear to tea.

(I need to my pinky lifting skills)

Our hostess Melinda, went all out making everything delicate and fancy:

She even set up a picnic on the floor for all the little ones to have tea:

At our luncheons, the older kids have started making little presentations about whatever country we are dining from. We have had informative and humorous songs performed, flags made, and today was no exception. Wendy and her kids Emily and Ryan made flags, and book marks and presented us with lots of facts about The United Kingdom.

Melinda had olympic torches for the kids to create and even Baby Judah got dressed up in his formal onsie for the occasion.

My contribution to the day was the blooming tea flower that the kids all really seemed to enjoy and of course even though we were honoring the United Kingdom, we were still also celebrating the olympics so we couldn’t leave out the wonderful United States of America, so I made a flag fruit pizza!

A few pictures of my lovely lady friends who join me each month in exploring another part of the world, Wendy, Melinda and Paige:

After all this I’m sitting here now watching the opening ceremony and I can safely say that I think I’m now full of the Olympic spirit. Best of luck to all of the athletes representing all their countries proudly but especially the American athletes. Thank you for representing our country so wonderfully! Now if you’ll excuse me, I must go knit!

May7

A school of fish, a gaggle of geese, of bus of knitters?

Posted on May 7, 2012 by caldwella

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Hello! It’s been a long time. I apologize for the time away. I’m not really sure what happened…I was sort of in a creative slump in every sort of way, but more on that in another post. Today I want to share with you about the trip I took this weekend.

This past Saturday I went on a charter bus with 55 other women, knitters, spinners, weavers, crocheters and felters to The Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival. The Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival is one of the largest of it’s kind (yes there are other sheep and wool festivals!). There are over 250 vendors and over 1000 sheep…along with entertainments, food, lectures and competitions. The festival brings a wide variety of people, from sheep farmers to fiber artists and everyone in between.

This was my second year going to the festival and I think I enjoyed it much more this year because I knew what to expect and it wasn’t so over whelming. I fortunately have been going with a veteran the last two years who has showed me the ropes of the festival. She told me about picking a few projects ahead of time and having the info on the projects written in down in a note book so my shopping was a little more focused, she knew all the best places to make sure we hit first and she also had great tips on packing enough water and keeping it cool so we stayed well hydrated during our marathon shopping day. I remember getting off the bus last year with my friend Eleanor and she just made a run for a specific vendor. When I finally caught up to her and started looking at the yarn I had stars in my eyes it was so beautiful but then I picked up a skein and saw the price….a little more than I was use to paying to say the least. I froze! I told Eleanor I didn’t think I could do this! She gently helped me see that I just needed to make an initial purchase fast and the rest would be a lot easier….just rip it off like a band aid! So that’s what I did and the rest of the day was history!
But again this year when we got off the bus I felt that initial cinching up of my wallet…I said, “Eleanor, it’s happening again…I’m seizing up!” But then I found this:

It’s sock yarn from Persimmon Tree Farm and it’s beautiful…I would you could feel the picture and feel how soft it is. Oh and by the way it’s called Piggy Toes Sock Weight (which just tickled me,) and the picture doesn’t do it justice of how beautiful it is!

After the sock yarn purchase I quickly relaxed and we were able to get down to business. Purchasing yarn:

Fondling yarn…there was so much fondling that went on…

This yarn was so soft there were tons of people just standing around this rack petting the yarn endlessly:

We snacked next to our yarn:

We saw the wool in all forms…from sheep…to fleece pelts…to roving…to the yarn…

All in all it was a wonderful day. I got beautiful yarn:

I got to spend the day with a great friend and have some me time which as a mother of an almost 3 year old is very precious and I got to be among “my people”. A good friend of mine was asking me before I left about the trip. The fact that we are a bus of knitters, the fact that in the rules of the bus trip they actually have to state that if you buy a live animal, goat, rabbit, alpaca or sheep you need to find another way home (yes I’m serious that it Read the rest of this entry →

Mar4

Idle Hands…

Posted on March 4, 2012 by caldwella

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I named this blog Knit and Wit because obviously I like to knit and also, I have my moments where I can be quite witty. I also have my moments where I can just be a plain old knit wit. That would be what the case was about two weeks ago. There may or may not have been an altercation between myself and a pair of jeans that I may have been wearing. I may or may not have gotten my toe stuck in the bottom of my jeans that were not really all that long. I then may or may not have tripped and fell into the wall smashing my temple against the thermostat, hurting my wrist and separating my AC (where your clavicle joins your shoulder). There is a chance I may not have been able to knit for the last two weeks of my life.

So what have I been up to?

I made a cute fabric covered ring.

I spray painted a bunch of old frames to display my daughters art work.

I took an old t-shirt and….

turned it into a super fun scarf.

I found some other fun ways to display my daughters art work in her playroom.

I made my daughter a fun little halter top for the summer…it was super easy and looks way cute when she doesn’t puff her belly out.

I got some of Ella’s art supplies a little more organized with these cute little pockets I sewed.

I made this fabulous little purse with some special fabric I got in Canada this fall.

And last…

I made Ella this sweet little dress that she has lots of room to grow into. I’m especially proud of this dress because it is probably the most complicated item I have sewn all by myself.

So I suppose my hands weren’t as idle as one might have thought they would be when I couldn’t knit. Actually this forced break was almost a little freeing. It gave me the time to finish some other projects that I’ve wanted to work on for a while that were always getting pushed to the side due to a knitting project. I’m not saying I wasn’t thrilled that I had an hour of pain-free knitting tonight because I was and I’m looking forward to getting to knit a little tomorrow as my shoulder feels like it is healing up nicely. I am saying, I actually had a lot of fun working on these other projects these past two weeks, especially the sewing projects and I plan on making more time for sewing on a regular basis.

P.S. Incase anyone is curious the patterns for the halter top, dress and wall pockets came from the book One Yard Wonders, the bike purse was inspired by a pattern from the magazine Molly Makesand the t-shirt scarf came from a tutorial on Pinterest. Also, my beautiful fabrics other than the bike print came from Stitch Your Art Out.

Feb26

From Sheep to Shaw

Posted on February 26, 2012 by caldwella

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This the last installment of my trip last weekend. While my friends and I visited Autumn House Farms we had the privilege of touring the farm and seeing most of the process that the wool goes through before it becomes the beautiful yarn we love to knit with!

First we met the sheep…

As Harriet put it, “We could feed our sweaters if we wanted.” We just watched them eat but we did get to meet and hold our sweaters which was just as much fun. The most incredible part was actually watching the herding dogs work their magic with the sheep. It was incredible how they were able to herd specific sheep into specific pens for feeding. The dogs really truly seemed to enjoy their work. They just couldn’t wait to get in and chase those sheep around!

I don’t know how many sheep were there, I forgot to ask but there were a lot and Harriet and her husband create their own breeds at Autumn House to get the specific qualities of wool they want. The animals were beautiful as well as was the barn they live in. These animals were extremely well cared for and you could tell Harriet loved them all as pets even though they are her livelihood.

This is Moo…one of the newest members of the Autumn House Farms family.

This is Valentine…she really lived up to her name…she was such a lover and just wanted to be petted and have attention the whole time we were there.

The next place we visited was the carding house.

I believe the only part of the process we didn’t see was when they dyed the yarn or fleece. In the carding house there are two things that happen. The first thing is that the fleece is sent through the picker.
This is what the fleece looks like when it comes off the sheep but obviously it has already been dyed …Harriet has also gone through and picked out any nature or trash like hay or other materials that aren’t wool.

Here is at Harriet at the picker. She puts the fleece in and as you can see the machine has giant spikes that sort of fluff the fleece up and spit it out the other side.

Next the fleece goes through the carding machine. The carding machine has a number of barrels that have different sized teeth on them. The fleece is rolled in and out of the various drums and comes out the other side combed and nice and neat. In this form it is called roving and is ready to be spun in to yarn or hand felted in to some beautiful creation.

When Harriet turned on the carding machine the whole tiny building that had once been a hunting camp came alive shaking from the vibrations of the machine. I could feel my whole body trembling under the rumble. Despite the loud noise and vibration I could see how spending a day alone working the carding machine could be therapeutic, almost hypnotic…a sort of escape. When the machine was finally turned off I felt tingly all over from the vibrations!

The last step is that Harriet takes the roving over to her studio where she spins it into beautiful artisan yarn or sends it to a larger mill that will spin the yarn to her specifications. As Harriet sits and spins her yarn she completely controls the ply and weight of the yarn. This process looks so effortless as she works the wool in her hand, runs the spinning wheel while pressing a peddle with her foot and talking to us about raising our daughters in such trying times. Every once in a while she stops spinning to make an important point about the life lesson she is teaching us but most of the time she is spinning and looking as natural as if she were brushing her hair.

When she is done she will wind the the freshly spun yarn into a hank ready for me to wind into a ball once I’ve purchased it.

And she has finally made what will sit on a shelf, probably not for long judging by it’s beauty, and wait to be made into a shaw or sweater of other beautiful and warm garment.

Feb20

Girls Gone Crafty

Posted on February 20, 2012 by caldwella

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On Friday I shared that I was going away with some friends to Autumn House Farms for a girls get away craft weekend. We were to stay at The Shepherd’s Rest on the property of the farm. The weekend turned into so much more than just a weekend away with some of my friends to knit and paint bird houses.

Yes, we drank wine and ate Girl Scout Cookies.

Yes, we acted silly and took silly pictures, we acted like a typical group of girls do when they are together (even girls in their 30s).

(We drove through Punxsutawney, PA so we had to get a picture with a ground hog.)

But the weekend turned into so much more than all that. It was a weekend that made you think. Think about what is really important in life, think about what kind of life you want to lead, think about what kind of person you want to be. This was all because of our host at the farm Harriet Knox. She was such an incredible woman that I will dedicate a separate post to her tomorrow. She not only taught us about life but also about running a sheep farm and wool mill which I think we will also save to talk about later this week.

So for today I’ll just show you some highlights of the farm.

This is The Shepherd’s Rest where we stayed…it’s the guest house on the farm and was built in the 1860′s. It was rustic but beautiful with beautiful antiques throughout the house where ever you turned. We will also save the antiques for another day because that could be a post in its self.

Barb and Mouse the lamb we all got to hold.

The carding house….more about that this week.

This is a line of their yarn…is there any wonder why I love these people if they name their yarn after coffee.

The barns on the property.

Not only can you clothe your family in garments made with knitting needles but they make great decorations.

As I mentioned I will be continuing to write about my weekend for the rest of the week because there was just too much to put in one post. So please check back in with me because I have so much more to share about this incredible place. If you would like to hear another perspective of the weekend check out my friend Anne’s blog. She joined us this weekend and is excited to share her experience so take a jaunt over to her site at:All About the Beez

Feb16

Girls Gone Wild

Posted on February 16, 2012 by caldwella

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When: This Friday afternoon to Sunday afternoon

Who: Myself and 4 (suppose to be 5, we’ll miss you Sarah) of the most wonderful people I know

Where: Autumn House Farm and Shepherd’s Rest House

What: These crafts:

The projects are as follows: one knit jumper, several wooden bird houses to be painted by girls attending, needle felted Christmas ornaments, knit lace socks, knit picture frame and silk flower hair pins and knit flower hair pins.

Why: Because we have amazing husbands or roommates who will watch our children and cats so we can go away and relax!

I’m super excited about this trip. I’ve been looking forward to it for months. One project I’m particularly excited about working on are the socks I’m going to knit out of my Misty Alpaca Sock Yarn. It looks like this:

It’s pretty knitalicious if you ask me! (It’s a little brighter and prettier than the picture shows)

I will be sure to write about the weekend and it’s prodcutivness later!

Knit & Wit:

Tales of Fiber, Motherhood and Life

Tag Archives: Knitting

Remember The Crack?

Catch Up

Fuzz is a verb…

Closing Ceramony

Let the Games Begin!

A school of fish, a gaggle of geese, of bus of knitters?

Idle Hands…

From Sheep to Shaw

Girls Gone Crafty

Girls Gone Wild

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