Nymphalidea

I suddenly found myself in a place where I had to think a bit on both of the projects I was working on.  I had finished the face mask.  I decided that I needed to start a new project so that there was no chance that I could find myself in the terrible predicament of having nothing to knit!  The pattern and yarn that were yelling to me are:

Nymphalidea by Melinda VerMeer

The Yarn is Ellyn Cooper's Yarn Sonnets  Jenny in colors Chasing Autumn and  I'll have to look....
I have 225 yards in each color.  It is fingering Weight.  I am using size 6 needles.  Oh, Phooey.  I just pulled the work out to double check the needle sizes and I have been knitting it with the brighter color in the lace and the duller color the welts which is not what I meant to do at all.  I guess I am going to rip out and start again.  It was not hard to start.  And I had not done that much knitting.








I finished the project in October 2020.  I really do love this scarf/shawl!

Vogue Live 2020 in the time of quarantine

The Vogue Live 2020 that was supposed to happen this spring was to be in Seattle.  But as with everything it was cancelled.  However, they decided to host a virtual presentation.  Tickets were $3.99.  Which lets you see everything that is public.  Classes cost extra.  However by the time I registered, the classes were pretty much full.  There was a class still open Thursday afternoon of interest to me.  But it is supposed to be 80 degrees and pretty on Thursday....think I'll play golf.  But I still thought it fun to register for the Big Event.

So tonight I showed up for a session from 6-7 PM.  It was a virtual presentation from a yarn shop in Williamsburg, Virginia called the Flying Needles.  The lady who owns the shop wears two hats.  She sells the yarn made by others in her shop and at the same time she sells the yarn that she dyes. The yarn that she dyes is sold under the trademark Robin's Promise.  So tonight was a presentation of both faucets of what she sells.  Although the Robin's Promise yarn received the most "show time".  Susan, the lady who owns the shop and dyes the yarn, has a keen interest in birds and the colors of birds.  All of her hand dyed yarns have names suggesting a bird on our planet.

Probably the biggest part of the show was a shawl that one of her buddies made from Stephen West's pattern, Painting Bricks.  The shawl was very pretty.  But the kits that Susan was showing were sensational.  Susan had braided two assortments of small skeins of her hand dyed colors.  One is a rainbow assortment and the other she calls Designer.  Both are in her Songbird base which is fingering yarn.  And each small skein is 93 yards.  One needs to order two of the main color in Songbird and the big skein is 463 yards each.  The price for the entire kit is $109.  The shipping is free if you spend more than $100.  And the discount code is VKLLIVERP.  The phone number for the shop is 757-345-3655

Here is the rainbow:




And here is the designer kit.  I have made the note that I would like this kit with Tarred and Feathered

Neither of my photos show it very well.  Here is another try:  It is the color to the far right.

 I would go on her website to see these photos better!  They do not show so well in these photos.

However, I wanted to talk about the three  colors above.  These were the colors used in the Pappilon pattern that one of the helpers used to make for her mother.  They showed a very brief photo and it was wonderful.  These colors are from left to right:  Fawlkes,



Pheasant Feather

and CowBird Feather

Another wonderful color that I found while looking for these two was:
Pheasant Feathers in the sun (below)

But the trio of colors shown just above were colors that one of the other women in the shop used for the shawl papillon that she made for her mother.  Oh, WOW, the shawl was exceptional!  The colors are Cow Bird feather (the brown), pheasant feathers (deep burgundy) and Fowkes (variegated on the left end).  

One other thought that I don't want to loose is a color that she calls Perched in Tip Top of the Big Top.  It was amazing paired with Flamingo Feathers or a green that she pulled out that was a bit of a neon chartreuse.



One other color that I want to mention is Luv your LYS.  It is the variegated below.

This morning I went on Ravelry to look at some of the combinations for the Painting Bricks shawl.  I found one in another yarn that absolutely blew me away.



This version is made with Hedgehog's Alpaca Boucle and the knitter used West Wool Bicycle for the black background color.  She made some modifications in the pattern ....so be sure to read her notes.



And this version was interesting as it is much more muted and uses blues, but is still very pretty.



And here is another version with a light background:





Oh, wow, I just can't get enough of looking at the many color possibilities







A few days later I am deleting e-mail in my inbox to try to get them to below 6000.  I found an old e-mail from Jimmy Beans that has a yarn that reminds me of the above and the below.  If is from a dyer who calls her yarn Fully Spun.  It is being sold on Jimmy Beans website for $35 for 440 yards and come in about 5 or 6 colors.  It is fingering and the base yarn is from Argentina.





I am still playing with the possibility of this purchase.  Here are some of the things that I have liked:

The first is Rikaart Cowl bu Mega Burcl.  I would buy the rainbow set with a funky yellow.  This version is by

qltnbe

Next is MamaHare's Smooth Move knitted from pattern Garter Breeze by Steven West



Next is On the Spice Market by Melanie Berg.  Oh, wow....so many great color ways that I couldn't choose:











Next is Lamina Wrap by Ambah O'Brienn



Next is Casapinka's Perfect Blend MKAL






Next is the Joker and the Thief by Melanie Berg

Hand Knit mask for times of Quarantine

I don't know what made me decide that I had to knit a mask for the covid epidemic.  But finally the right mask came across pinterest and I started,  First I found crochet cotton upstairs from my grandmother's box of cotton crochet supplies.  Then I decided on what size knitting needles to use.  I chose size three needles because the pattern called for 2.5 to 3mm needles.  

I had a bit of trouble getting started and figuring it all out.  I had knitted from charts very little.  And that was part of the fun:  learning how to knit from a chart.  The designer had a you tube presentation to help with interpreting the symbols on the chart....but the You tube was in her native language ....and she is oriental.  However there were English prompts and also the symbols that she was illustrating were shown on the screen,  The pattern is called a Seed Mask and her version is made out of  AGA organic cotton.  The You tube video (in her native language) can be found at:



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9nR6qtAkzGQ

And here are the photos of my mask:





Oh, I almost forgot the most important thing.  I had decided to use the elastic hair ties to go over my ears instead of tying the masks on with cords.  So I did not do the first step of chaining stitches.  Instead I cast on 20 stitches and started the chart.  I left a long enough tail to sew the elastic hair ties in place.

Decorating with Yarn

I found myself chatting via e-mail with a young woman who thinks she would like to learn to knit.  After explaining to her that You Tube is the very best way to learn to knit,  our conversation turned to yarn.  She already knows how to crochet so she has a bit of it on hand.  I took a few photos to send to her and when I got ready to discard the photos, I thought that I would like to put them on my blog site.  Here is what she wrote to me:

How kind of you to offer to send me a knitting needle and yarn

I will pick one up a knitting needle soon and I have plenty of yarn from crocheting

I always have such a hard time making a decision on yarn ..what color to get etc

I could stand there for hours looking at it and sometimes do

And here is what I wrote back that prompted my photos:

 It is a fun hobby.  I definitely know about looking at yarn for hours….I have some yarn that I love so much I can not seem to find a project worthy of it….it sits in a bowl in my house…and I have looked at it for years…..not hours.  To get even more nerdy, I put winter yarn up from these bowls and get summer yarn out just as I do with my clothes.  I get pleasure just from looking at my yarn.  Don’t hesitate to get back with me if you have any questions.  marsha