Lovely Handspun

I didn't spin this yarn. My lovely sister, Lisa, did, as I prepared to talk about spinning and socks to a bunch of spinners who are probably better spinners than I. Having the yarn there gave me a little more confidence. Thanks for all of your hard work, Lisa!!!!!

Green Handspun Hat

I don't make resolutions (much), but I have decided that I really need to use my handspun! 

Clara Parke's class on stashbusting on Craftsy is a big help. She has a lesson on "letting go" of yarns, which I kind of needed. (Her organization lesson is important, too...)

So, I'm knitting up a spring hat. Easy, peasy. 

A Little Spinning

I'm still trying to figure things out, but life is getting closer to normal. Which means, when my awesome sister sends me beautiful Coopworth wool dyed with indigo from the Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival, I can spin some of it without everything else going off the rails. 

So, I did. Hooray! I can't wait to ply it. (In return, I sent her some Ply magazines, and she loved them! You might, too. Go check them out.) 

Q: Is Anything More Sublime?

Than a freshly-washed warm wool shawl on a cold day?

A: No.

Design Inspiration: PB&J Cowl

When I saw the Hello Purl batts on the shelf, I knew I had to buy one. I had only been spinning for a few months, but they were just too awesome to pass up.

I brought it home, split it in half and spun it on my loaner Kiwi wheel.

I ended up with a nice, two-ply yarn that was roughly worsted-weight. 

My mom loves purple and sparkle, so I decided that it had to be something for her. There wasn't enough yarn for a shawl and she doesn't wear a lot of hats, so I played around a little bit and came up with a simple cowl shape that could work either with a lot or a little handspun yarn. 

I sent an email to the Ennea Collective about publishing my pattern. They said yes! They were a fun group. 

The result is the PB&J Cowl, named after the first art batt I ever spun. 

OK, enabling time:

Even for people who don't spin or aren't into art batts, I think this is a pretty awesome, easy pattern. 

2 skeins of Manos Del Uruguay Wool Clasica Space-Dyed Yarn would be more than enough.

2 skeins of Malabrigo Chunky would be gorgeous and super warm.

Or, ooooh, Marble Chunky would be awesome. Just one skein would work. 

Design Inspiration: Sunday Morning Slippers

Sunday Morning Slippers came from my desire to improve an earlier design, my Short-Row Felted Slippers.

Boomer doesn't care about slippers.

Those first slippers were actually what encouraged me to write knitting patterns. They were only the second knit pattern I put on Ravelry, and they are still the most popular pattern I've ever written. (Part of their popularity is that they are free. A free pattern simply gets downloaded a lot more than most paid ones.)

I also learned a lot from comments and questions I got from people who made the slippers. Is there any way to make the back collapse less? How do I make knitting them a little less awkward? 

Instead of starting with the top of the slipper, I started right at the back. This simplified the construction and made most of the knitting more straightforward. Less time juggling stitches from one needle to the next helped a lot. I called them "Sunday Morning" because I knit a pair in a few hours at my Sunday morning knitting group.

I made the very back of the slipper a triangle instead of a rectangle, because I noticed that most shoes taper a little there, and it seemed it would help keep the sides from flattening out. I added notes to the pattern and video to help show a few of the more unusual techniques. 

Since I knit the first pair (and second, and third) from my own handspun yarn, I needed some ideas of commercial yarns people could use. A group of test knitters gave me great notes for improving the pattern and used their own yarns to suit them. They all used at least two strands of yarn held together to get to the yarn thickness needed for gauge and one knitter used 5 strands of Aran-weight yarn as one on a US 15 needle to make a men’s size 11 slipper!

The original pattern was designed to fit a woman with small-to-medium-sized feet. Knitters have expanded that a bit with their yarn and needle choices. That's one of the great things about Ravelry. You don't have to reinvent the wheel all of the time.

I love slippers and I'm always looking for new ways to try different techniques and shapes. In fact, I'm working on a new design right now. I just hope people like them and find them useful.