Goodbye Montana

I attended my last birth in Montana this week. It was a lovely home birth in Great Falls. Here's the new daddy with his baby. He is the quintessential Montana man and I love this photo.

It looks like I'll be able to leave tomorrow. I think it's a 10 hour drive or so. I'm sitting at Hastings again using the internet. The Lace Beret is coming along. I can't imagine getting any knitting done once I get to Seattle. I'll be busy hugging my family and unpacking my stuff. I'll be living in a condo so things are going to change for me. Dyeing in the kitchen will probably not be an option. I wont be picking stinky fleece in the yard, because there is no yard. I wont even have access to fleece so much. I'll go back to ordering it on the internet. Even with all the changes on the horizon, I'm happy to start my new city life. Goodbye Montana!

Baby Belle

It's done. Sewed the buttons on last night. I'm going to wait to do the next baby sweater when I get to Seattle and get to my stash. I have some hand-spun with me in Great Falls, but no contrasting yarn. The ruffle took quite a bit of yarn so I had to make the cuffs shorter than the pattern called for.

Knitting Projects Update

I'm still in Great Falls and I'm still waiting on a baby. I made these mittens out of some of the solar-dyed roving from last month. They are so soft and I love the colors. I just made up the pattern as I went and they fit snugly. It was a good project to do while watching movies and passing time.

I'm back at Hastings. Free wi-fi, Woo! Last night I started the #13 Lace Beret from the Fall 2009 Vogue. I'm using some hand-combed, hand-spun natural Shetland that I made a few months ago.

Yesterday I blocked Baby Belle and it dried very quickly because it was in the 90's in the shade. I bought some little buttons today and I will sew them on soon and take a real photo for the finished piece. August was suppose to be spinning month for me, but it turned into knitting month.

Babies to be born, sweaters to be made.

Back at Hastings for free wi-fi. And coffee. Baby Belle is coming along. This sweater is for either Sophia, born last week, or for Un-named baby to be born in Sept. You see, THREE of my friends, all in their 40's are getting baby girls this year. Steve S. and wife had one in the spring. Steven F. and wife had theirs last week. Devony F, whom is my good friend and someone I met at childbirth class SIXTEEN years ago, is due in the fall. They all live in Seattle. I can't wait to meet the new babies and see my old friends. I know Devony would appreciate a hand-made sweater for her baby, but I don't know the Steves' wives very well and I don't know if they would put their babies in wool. One wife is European and Europeans like wool garments right? I actually plan see the babies--their size and what they look like, before I decide which baby get what. So I don't know who gets the first Baby Belle.

Seattle Mittens made in Montana

Yesterday I finished the mittens I have been working on. I used hand-combed Shetland from a fleece I obtained from LaVonne Stucky. I embellished with some white Shetland from Maplewood North and the inspiration came from cosymakes who embroiders on her handspun items. I made up the pattern to fit my hands perfectly. It took a few tries, but the fit was pretty good in the end. These are my new Seattle Mittens for all the rainy gray days ahead.

Today I'm at Hastings in Great Falls using their free wi-fi. I wanted to start the Baby Belle sweater so badly that I considered not setting the twist in the yarn. But I was a good girl and I took the time to soak and dry the skeins. The skeins dried in about 6 hours outside, so the wait wasn't that bad at all. This morning I rolled them into ball and started knitting the Baby Belle sweater.

A (baby) sweater's worth

Before I left Helena I finished spinning the multi-colored batts that I thought were a sweater's worth. Maybe a short-sleeved sweater or... a baby sweater! Like the awesome one designed by Cosy. Check out Baby Belle. Happily I had already decided to spin a contrast skein with the dark purple even before I saw the pattern. There are 3 new baby girls in my life (one is not born yet) and I was thinking about trying the Baby Suprise Jacket. Baby Belle is more "girly" so I'm going to give it a go instead.

Now I'm in Great Falls. Not much happening here so I got up early and swatched for the Baby Belle sweater. I definitely will use the smaller needles. I'm sitting at the Barns&Noble using the free wi-fi. The lighting is pretty bad, so the photos don't show the yarn very well. I'm super excited about this project so my guess is once it's underway it will go pretty fast.

Plenty of Free Time

For the past week I have been working on a mitten pattern that fits my hands perfectly. After a couple of frogged starts, I think I got the fit right.

I had some commercially processed roving with a little sparkle to it. I spun it into a 3-ply but there's too much twist and the yarn feels rough and scratchy and I'm having doubts that I'll ever use it for anything.

I've been spinning the "Sweater's worth" batts that I carded earlier in the summer. I'm determined to finish tonight. Not too keen on the color so I just want to get it done and move on to something else. Tonight is probably my last night in Helena. Then I'll be in Great Falls for 2 weeks before I move to Seattle. I'm just waiting on one baby so there's plenty of time to spin and knit.

Spun the Purple Roving

This roving was scrappy left-overs that I solar dyed. The scrappiness turned it into an uneven yarn, but it's okay in the home-made kind of way.

A little color experiment...

When I was doing the solar dyeing, I used the last bit of roving with the last bit of dye and made a "left over" colorway. Well, the rust and lavender that came out looked odd to say the least. I love color experiments so I spun it up in a 2-ply. It looked awful. So I pulled all the lavender out of the roving and was left with mostly warm tones. The skein on the right is the result of this effort and I must say I like it much better.

Let the Spinning Begin

My family has gone to Seattle and I'm here in Montana with a heap of fiber to spin. I have already spun half the pinkish purple batts and have begun to spin some of the solar dyed roving. I'll be posting photos as the month goes on. My car is going to be so full when i head out to Seattle at the end of the month. I think I should spin up all the fiber so it will take up less room. We'll see how far I get.

My sister's web site

Check out Something To Make.