Patti Purls

Saturday, September 29, 2007


Bridemaid's Second Choice

Or, should I say, Bridemaid's Choice, the Second? Be that as it may, I am once again knitting on this underappreciated, versatile pattern from IK Knits, summer 2001. This one has Nepalese recycled sari silk for the neckline and the entire body is black alpaca from All Strings Considered. I bought this stuff last summer at the Scandinavian Folk Festival. I showed it to Birgitta when I saw her at the Fingerlakes Fiber Arts Festival and she heartily approved. (Of course she would, she is a vendor). But, I do think that the materials are suited to the design in that the sari silk is rather rigid and creates a firm neckline, and the body of the sweater is lightweight and thin and in Alpaca will be warm with a nice drape.

That teeny photo doesn't really do it justice. It is hard for me to get a good photo of the black alpaca because it does not have the gloss or shine of merino. It wants to absorb all of the flash the camera wants to muster and other photos end up over exposed. Oh, give me my plain old 35 mm with automatic nothing!

Soon, the sleeves will be off of stitch holders and I can try this on in daylight. That will be a better photo op.

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Loot from the Fingerlakes Fiber Arts Festival!

I brought home many hours worth of spinning pleasure in the form of ready to spin rovings:

The blue and white, above, is alpaca with tussah silk (the blue is the silk) purchased from Birgitta Nostring, All Strings Considered. It is softer than velvet and the blue has a sheen to it.



Merino Tencel blend
The camel colored stuff is just a little hank the vendor gave me to practice with. The purpley, shiney ball is a future pair of socks!

This pretty mix is a wool blend with streaks of yellows, greens and bluish purples. I look forward to seeing how that spins up. Mostly, I picked that one to see what happens with colored roving.

This is still part of the original roving Debi got me started wtih. The skein on the left is the second skein, all ready to fondle, knit or simply admire.

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Saturday, September 22, 2007

Fingerlakes Fiber Arts Festival

Look at how much fun Sue is having knitting on the World's Largest Sock. I wonder what she is thinking about as she smiles so radiantly? Perhaps she is smug that she seems to be the youngest knitter on the job at that point in time. Her birthday is looming.




I worked on the big boy, too, at the Fingerlakes Fiber Arts Festival in Hemlock, NY. We enjoyed a scenic two and a half hour drive there on a beautiful Sunday. We arrived shortly after the opening, say about 10:30 AM and stayed until they were closing the place down after 4 PM.


The industrious guild members worked on a sheep to shawl project. It looked quite promising at the start time of 11 AM.


I must confess that I did not see the finished product but have no doubt that it was a beautiful sight. I got swept away supporting the vendors. More on that, next time. The festival was a delight of demos, classes, vendors and like-minded people. I thoroughly enjoyed the day and will definitely attend again.

Which of these looks like lunch?



Actually, both look like they COULD be lunch, but the actual lunch is on the right and was as big a treat as the fiber festival for me. It was Artichoke French over Beans and Greens with a couple of slices of baguette. Loved, loved, loved it.

The salad on the left is only mulberry leaves for the silkworms squirming on it. Not MY lunch.

Next time: Acquisitions and RAVELRY! Yep, I'm in! Look for Pattipurls. Well, after I get my act together there. I wonder if there is a knitting group on Ravelry for fans of Dr. Who?

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Tuesday, September 04, 2007

Please Mr. Postman!
  • You signed up on July 8, 2007
  • You are #15138 on the list.
  • 3952 people are ahead of you in line.
  • 15547 people are behind you in line.
  • 36% of the list has been invited so far
Remember Mr. Rogers' song, "What do you do while you're waiting, while you're waiting for something new to do? Let's thing of something to do while we're waiting..." One of my sons used to finish the song at that point with, "let's just sit, sit, sit." Yep, I know. He missed the point.

What SHOULD I do while I'm waiting? Photograph my stash? List my WIPs? Take more portraits of FOs and try to recall where the patterns came from? I fear that by the time I get my invite, I won't have time to enjoy the pleasure that is Ravelry! Please advise how I can best spend my waiting time!

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Monday, September 03, 2007

Monkey Mess

The other day I smugly and fearlessly knitted on my current Monkey socks on the needles without checking on the pattern to see where I was because I was "certain" I knew I was finishing the gusset. As it happens, I was finished with the gusset and went on to decrease too much. I've ripped back, and now and working on sorting out the stitches on the four needles. Ugh.

Then, the Pea Pod baby sweater measurements went awry for me and I will now be reknitting the sleeves to fit the body which managed to come out as a 24 month size. That's typical for me. The gage was really okay when I started, but I didn't check it as I went along and managed to loosen up as I went along. It is not an insurmountable problem. Actually, in this size, I can take my time since Baby C is only two months old.

One thing that has been going well is SPINNING!



Here is my first skein hanging in my kitchen following a plying, twist setting and fulling session at Debi's home. Next time, I will not twist it QUITE so much. This has a tad too much desire to turn.
My Darling Husband, who had no idea what to expect from this spinning thing I've been doing, looked at the skein in astonishment and said, "It's like you just pulled it out of the bag!" He was referring to the bag of bats I got from Debi. You know, if you know wool, that the bag looks as though it has just as much in it as when I started. Actually, this two ply skein weighs one ounce and has 26 yards of wool before fulling. It probably has a bit less length, now, but I am not sure I will use it in a project or just save it for my own astonishment.

Look below and you will see that plying was a good thing for this skein since my product was uneven. It has a nice spring to it, thanks to the romney blend and also due to my twist.


Oh, but it is time for more plying. See the ball I wound off today, having spun it since Saturday. It is, I am pleased to say, more even than the first.




This is so much fun. I'm hooked.

Tomorrow I must go back to earning a living. That means less time to spin and knit and other fun stuff, but it does mean more filthy lucre to spend on supplies. I'll be needing my own niddy-noddy and a lazy kate and certainly some more roving...

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