September, 2012

My Dear Fiber Friends, here is your dose of September Love…

If you love to core spin from cones and have a wheel with jumbo bobbins, I know you are going to want to save up for this:  the Anything But Lazy Kate made by Nancy’s Knit Knacks and available through Esther Rodgers/JazzTurtle Creations.  Esther helped design this wonderful tool which has a tilting tension system and a traditional cord tension system, an open yarn guide,  options to put a yarn guide in front of each bobbin,  is big enough to fit jumbo bobbins, and can hold cones.  On top of all of that, it is travel friendly!

Next up, we have another great offering from Suzy Brown aka Wool Wench — a great guide to photographing yarn.  And, it’s free.  Yay!!!  Personally, I can use all the help with this I can get.  Of course, I have to move away from using my phone to take the pics, right?  But, with Suzy’s fine instructions, I have hope to do better.  Thank you, Suzy! 

Now, onto our third and final love for the month…It’s more of an idea to share.  I’ve been going crazy knitting fingerless gloves.  Up until recently, I didn’t understand how important fingerless gloves are!  But, of course, how else does one text in the cold????  Debra Lambert of Picasso’s MoonYarn Shop was knitting beauties like these at Yarnival using a double strand of superwash Cascade 220 for the sleeve and then trimming them with a crocheted edging of handspun yarn.  I decided to make a pair for a holiday gift and ended up using Berroco Remix (a cotton/linen blend) in conjunction with the superwash Cascade 220 for the sleeve and then adding the crocheted trim of my own handspun yarn.  I spun the two ply yarn from a 4 oz. art batt I’d had for awhile and it was just the right amount to trim all the edges of both sleeves.  I have now made three pairs!!!  In order to make a pair, just select a basic fingerless glove pattern and then to trim with the handspun, crochet into each stitch, chaining inbetween — I alternated chain lengths as I went along.  You have to experiment a little to see what you like.  You might want to try alternating chains of 15 and 10 or 10 and 7.  This is an easy and fast gift to make!