cosmicpluto knits!

Twist on my 26th!

It’s my 26th birthday, and as a great birthday present the new Twist Collective fall 2010 is up and I have a sweater in it – Cityscape!

Knitting this sweater filled my May, and it is so very awesome to see it all done up fancy modeled by the always adorable Mary-Heather. All photos by Jamie Dixon (and aren’t they great?).

This cardigan is knit in the round and steeked, but never fear – this was my very first steek, and I’m delighted to report that while a little bit scary, it was actually very easy!

I first had the idea for this sweater back in the winter, and knit it up quickly for myself in grey and blue Dream in Color (photos another day of that one). Then I decided to submit it to Twist, and knit it up again in the fab Blue Moon BFL Sport.

Won’t you pick up a copy from Twist?

tour de fleece – the final wrap-up

So! I accomplished my goal of spinning every day, and got quite a bit done.

These four skeins are the only ones I spun in their entirety during the Tour – I also plied some silver merino/silk and spun and plied the rest of some tussah silk.

So how about some glamour shots and stats?

Ashland Bay Merino Silk in Cranberry – 300 yards/100g of 2ply, worsted weight.

Spirit Trail silk/camel – 320 yds/4oz of 3ply (chain ply), DK weight.

Foxfire 95% cormo, 5% silk – 350 yds/4oz of 2ply, sport weight.

and one that I snuck in the last few days of the Tour – a skein of 100% cormo that I am absolutely in love with!

100% cormo, 300 yds/100g of 3ply (chain ply), sport weight.

I’m not sure what my grand total is, because of the aforementioned finishing stuff up that was already on the bobbin. But I do know that I’m feeling really re-inspired to get back to the wheel, and I’ve already started some awesome wool/angora. I’m gonna keep spinning down the stash until Rhinebeck!

summertime eats

Well, I’m knitting lots, but it isn’t very exciting to look at – mostly working on my cabled scarf (so close to the end!) and I’ve restarted that little shrug too. Really I’m just itching to cast on for some new fall sweater projects, but I really need to get a few things done first!

So today I have a little bit of food to share, instead.

I brought home rather a LOT of pickling cucumbers from the produce stores near my work yesterday, and today set about making some refrigerator pickles. No water processing required, no fear of bad canning, and they stay so very crispy, which I love!

I made one huge vat of cucumber garlic dills – it’s 1.8L/2qt! The slightly smaller jar in the back is beans, done up with basically the same spices and brine. They were yellow, green, and purple to start with, but unfortunately now they’re all kind of greeny grey. Oh well, they’ll still taste awesome.

Super Easy Garlic Dills

Veggies:
Whatever you like. I did sliced kirby cucumbers and trimmed green beans, I’m sure this would be great with carrots, cauliflower, radishes, whatever! I’m not sure how many cucumbers I used – probably about 10 small ones for the 1.8L jar.

Brine:
4 cups / 1L water
4 cups / 1L white vinegar
6tbsp pickling salt

Seasonings:
garlic, peeled
dill seed
red pepper flakes
black peppercorns
celery seed
fresh dill

Mix together water, vinegar and salt in a largeish pot and heat on the stove to a simmer. While it’s heating, prep your veggies and add seasonings to your jars.

For the 1.8L jar of cucumbers, I used: 4 cloves garlic, 4 tsp dill seed, a dash each of celery seed and red pepper flakes, 3 stalks fresh dill and a few whole black peppercorns.

Pack the veggies tightly into the jars leaving some room at the top (1/2″-1″, not as important as when processing because we’re just sticking these in the fridge). Slowly add brine to cover. Let the jars cool on the counter, then stick them in the fridge. That’s it! They’ll begin to taste pickled after just a few hours, but it’s best to wait at least a few days.

Wow, that’s a giant jar of pickles!

I also managed to find Ontario strawberries at the big chain supermarket, which I was pretty surprised by – I picked up three containers and made jam with half (I might get more tomorrow or soon and make more or ice cream!). I prefer freezer jam because it uses much less sugar, and has that just-picked-fruit taste that you just don’t get with cooked jam.

I just followed the recipe on the gelling agent packet and it came out perfectly. I’ll definitely have to make at least 1 more batch of freezer jam soon, maybe wild blueberry!

What are you doing with this summer’s awesome produce?

Crossfield Shawl

I’ve gotten a few emails about what I’m wearing in my Welcome photo over on the side there, and I’m happy to announce that the Crossfield Shawl pattern is now available!

CROSSFIELD SHAWL

A super light, airy square shawl reminicient of a bandana or silk scarf. Easy to knit stockinette in the round with a fun garland lace edging. Wear it folded and tied, over your shoulders or any way you’d wear a bandanna!

This shawl would also make a beautiful baby or lap blanket worked in fingering weight or heavier yarn for a larger finished size.

Technical Editing by Jaya Purswani

SIZE
One Size; 28” / 71cm square, blocked

YARN
Laceweight yarn, 815 yards / 745m.
Shown in The Woolen Rabbit Whisper in Chocolate Chambord (100% merino wool, 1700 yds/235g skein), less than 1/2 skein used.

NEEDLES AND NOTIONS
US 2.5 / 3mm double pointed needles (or needles of choice for small circumferences in the round)
US 2.5 / 3mm 24-32” / 60-80cm long circular needles (change length as required as the shawl grows)
stitch markers
tapestry needle

GAUGE
26 sts and 40 rounds = 4” / 10 cm square in Stockinette Stitch

MORE INFO
Skills needed: cast on, knit, purl, increase, decrease, optional chart, knitting in the round.

Pattern is a 3-page PDF file with full colour photos, written and charted directions for the lace pattern, and abbreviations.

Available through Ravelry, payment through Paypal (no accounts required).

$5.00 USD

silk, silk, everywhere

I finally, finally (after ripping and reknitting several times) finished the little shrug I was working on before TNNA, out of Sweetgeorgia Merino Silk DK. The yarn stood up surprisingly well to the ripping, not a pill anywhere!

Unfortunately it’s too big for me. I made a bit of a math error and although it’s proportional and everything, it’s just about a size too big. I’ve blocked it and woven in the ends already (denying to myself the fact that it was too big) and I don’t want to rip again. So it’ll go off to a friend and I’ll work up another one. At least this time it’ll be even faster since it’ll be smaller?

In latest spinning news, I pulled out some tussah silk that I’d started spinning well over a year ago.

It’s Chasing Rainbows Dyeworks, definitely purchased at Rhinebeck – maybe the first time I went? I had spun up the first half of the fibre and it was just sitting on the bobbin all this time. I spun up the second half fairly quickly (not very evenly, really) and plied it together to get 430 yards of laceweight (2oz). Should be enough for a little shawlette! I love the colour.

I think my last bit of Tour spinning will be this silk/camel. It spins like a dream, but the pink comes off on my fingertips a bit. Super soft though! I’m planning to spin up the whole 4oz and chain ply by the end of the week.

After the Tour is over, I’m definitely going to keep spinning – it’s really given me that kick to get back to the wheel. It’s meditative, doesn’t require math (like my knitting always does) and it’s a good break from working on my knitting like I always am!

Have you achieved your Tour de Fleece goals? What are you planning to do with your spinning after it’s all over?

spinspinspin.

I’ve been doing lots of both!

This is the cormo/silk I was working on this week – it’s a blend of 95% cormo wool, 5% silk that I got at Rhinebeck awhile back. The roving was quite narrow, almost like a pin-drafted roving, which was lots of fun to spin.

Unfortunately, being such a fine wool, cormo is tricky to prep. This roving was pretty neppy – neps are little sort of ‘blobs’ of fibre that get tangled up when the wool is processed. They made spinning this fibre evenly pretty challenging, and the resulting yarn looks pretty rustic. Good thing it’s still super duper soft and squishy! I got 352 yards of sportweight 2-ply out of the 4 oz of fibre.

This wasn’t spun during the Tour, but I thought I’d just stick it up here anyway – some laceweight singles from a colour shifting batt. They’ve been sitting on the bobbin waiting for plying, but I decided to just wind them off. 430 yards.

I’m really fired up again about spinning! Last night after I wound off the cormo/silk I wanted to keep going but I really had knitting to do. I’ve been rooting through my spinning bin digging up interesting fibre to spin, and there’s bags of stuff sitting around my studio. I hope that after the Tour is over I still have this energy for spinning – it’s fun!