The Usual Summer Knitting Funk

Every July I go through the same thing. I stop knitting and assume it is permanent and that I should quit blogging. I no longer even have the concentration for stranded work. Amazingly even the thought of buying yarn turns me off! Of course the problem is just the New Mexico desert heat and by the end of August I'm passionate about stranded color knitting again.

Until my knitting funk goes away I'll just knit the boring plain part of the first Dale of Norway Whistler sleeve. In case you feel the same way this time of year I have a few inspiring links for you:

Check out MariannAn's incredible colorwork on Ravelry! Especially the breathtaking socks based on the pattern from Tudor Roses - that may be my favorite Ravelry project of the year.

I am always a fan of Robyn's patterns at Red Bird Knits but the design of this Nordic sock inspired by Robert Frost turns me on even more than her other patterns. At Patternfish I also found the pattern for this incredible sweater To Knit for the Sun from Kristin Nicholas. I may make it for myself in Cascade 220 in neutrals. (I do prefer the original colors but I tend to look best in more subdued stuff.) I love, love, love that the sleeves are different.

Finally, Homespun Handknit is returning in October! Actually it looks like a completely different book with the same premise and lots of stranded projects. If I use it 10% as much as the original it will be worth the purchase. Also here is an upcoming book about Norwegian style knits with lots of small patterns.

If you have any colorwork inspiration to add, PLEASE post it in the comments! I need all the knitting inspiration I can find at this time of year.

Here's my final pair of red Easy Scrunchie socks done in Wool of the Andes in tomato red. I'm still sad they discontinued the color (I'd started my Great American Aran Afghan with it which will now be turned into pillows.)

Spanish Market in Santa Fe

Yesterday we went to Spanish Market in Santa Fe and I thought you'd like to see some examples of New Mexican Colcha embroidery from the young people's section of the market. The colcha stitch is kind of a long stitch with a diagonal stitch running through it and it is done in wool (usually churro) on wool, often hand-dyed.


Here are a few links to learn more:

Spanish Colonial Embroidery: An Endangered Art Form
Las Colchas de New Mexico
Spanish Colonial Arts Society: Colcha



I realized that although I've had a zillion photos of the outside of St. Francis Cathedral in SF over the years, I've never shown the inside. Isn't it beautiful?

Red, red everywhere!

This week all about red, the new red couch cover, and all the reds I have created over the last 2 years.
I looked back, and decided to bring back some special reds for a special encore, and of course called the collection the Red Collection.

Here is the one I called Red and that's it!



I ho[e you enjoy the red collection

More Easy Scrunchie Socks

Here's another pair of easy scrunchie socks in Peruvian Highland wool (a bluish-gray heather) - I did fewer purl rows to make sure I wouldn't run out of yarn.

Duh! I just realized I could link to all the worsted weight sock knitting patterns via Ravelry HERE. 535 patterns come up (you can also limit the search to just free patterns) but there are only a few that are stranded and I think I've already knit them all. I'm finishing a red pair and then I'm going to have to find some other socks to try.

Yarn, roving, and now fabric!

For the first time this week, I am offering my colorways in yarn, roving, and now fabric. I have to say that it was great fun to see the colorways come to life in the tie dyed fabrics.
I hope you will enjoy the boldness of the One Thousand and One Nights collection .

Handspun Sushi!

Yesterday evening was lovely, the air was soft and sweet, and after all these weeks of rain it was paradise. I took my spinning will to the front porch, asat on the steps and spun.

I chose 2 rovings (one merino/ tencel, the other alpaca) in similar colors, but one with a warm hue, and the other with a cold. The result after plying today makes me think of a sushi platter with salmon, ginger, wasabe and a little bit of rice!3 delicious skeins!



Now what to do with my sushi yarn apart from staring at it?

Insomnia and Creativity

Contrary to what one would expect, there is a benefit to insomnia. Now I do not suffer from it often, but the other night, there was a thunderstorm raging outside, and my mind was racing. I quietly tiptoed out of my bedroom, and settled in the living room. I tried to read, but could not focus. My knitting was on the bedside table, and I did not want to bother Mr. SockPixie. So I went to the "school room" (which is where we homeschool)and took some paper and a pencil, and I started sketching... By midnight I had something, a pixie sitting on a mushroom and knitting socks! By chance my embroidery box was in the living room. I took a piece of cotton in a natural tone, picked some brightly colored threads, and started stitching.



A few hours later, as the storm started to abate, I was practically done, and ready for sleep. I put the finishes last night, and here she is now!



Isn't she so SockPixie, bubbly, and colorful? Now what to do with her? My little daughter wants her as a pillow on her bed, and I would like her to become the pretty side of a sock knitting project bag. I will probably make the design available to you as well as a pdf.



Who knew insomnia could lead to so much embroidery fun!

How about an Orchid Garden?

Mr. SockPixie brought me a beautiful orchid this week, and it made me so happy that the orchid beame my inspiration for an imaginary orchid garden.
I decided to include a soft buttery yellow core to all my colorways to illuminate them, and to have a dominant color radiate from from that core gradually intensifying.
Dyeing the yarn was great fun, as I marveled at the interaction of the core yellow and the dominant tone.
Here is a little sample of the Orchid Collection.
A plumelicious Plum Orchid!



Here is it roving version (yes roving is back!)



Have a great Sunday!

Lavender in the Village Festival

I'm finishing up a freelance assignment and then I'll get right to work on the list of worsted weight sock links. Also, I hope to have an actual pair of socks to show soon but I know that July is always my worst month for completed FOs.

Today we attended the Lavender in the Village festival in Los Ranchos de Albuquerque. Most of it took place at Los Poblanos which includes an inn and one of the farms for our CSA Los Poblanos Organics. In the distance you can see folks picking their own bunches of lavender. It smelled wonderful! We also managed to get to another festival location, Casa Rondena Winery, for some lavender sangria.



In the center is Farmer Monte, the mastermind for our wonderful year-round CSA. I was late to his farm tour but I believe he said that we now have 1800 members and that he employs 15-18 farmers.



One of the most popular attractions at Los Poblanos was this beautiful display of water lilies.




The local House Rabbit rescuers manned a booth at the festival also. Thank you Criss, Cathy, and Clara and all the other volunteers for all your hard work this summer capturing rabbits, fostering rabbits, driving rabbits across the country, fundraising, etc.

Here is the Handsome Boy!

I thought you might want to see the famous Kitredge. Here is the baby boy looking all comfy. We are so happy he is feeling better!

Catching Up

Tha last few days have all been about catching up. I am really happy though that I was able to take care of Kitredge. You see, about a year ago, almost week for week, we lost our cat, Miche. I swore that I would not get another cat unless one came to the door, and this is exactly what happened, Kitredge came to our door. We took him in of course. He was on his way to becoming a mature boy, when out of the blue, he decided to jump from the third floor of the house to the second right over the stairwell, and he missed, and landed on the first floor. We heard the most horrific cry, we rushed. We quickly realized that something was really wrong. I packed him in the carrier, and ran (we do not have a car, and even if we did, I would not know what to do with it as I do not know how to drive) to the Angell Animal Hospital. After x-rays were taken, the doctor confirmed that he had a broken femur. She gave us options, amputation, surgery to repair the leg, or putting him down. I stopped her immediately and told her we would opt for the surgery. The vet was absolutely wonderful, and helped me reduce the very high costs, by letting me take on a lot of the before and after surgery care.
We emptied a room completely of any furniture so that he could have a space to rest without being tempted to jump. We set him up with a comfy large cushion. We tried the cone to prevent him from chewing the stitches, and licking the Fentanyl patch, but he is a very smart cat, and could take it off in the blink of an eye. So we sat next to him, handfeeding him, and watering him.
He is much better now, and can feed himself on his own, which means that my life is back to almost normal. I have spent the last few days packing and packing and packing orders, and going to the post office.
All this also made me realize that I cannot do everything. I realize I have to use tools that can help simplify my life, like scheduling a post office pick up instead of carrying 50 packages to the post office! So from now on, I will have 2 post office pick ups every week, one on Tuesday and one on Friday. So orders received from Friday to Monday will ship on Tuesday, and orders received from Tuesday, to Thursday will ship on Friday.
Isn't it typical though, that a Mom would try to do everything?!

The Colors Around Me

Like most knitters I'm influenced by the colors around me. It has been unusually wet this summer and my yard as seen below is unusually green for this time of year. I often dream of living somewhere really wet and green and I imagine myself knitting projects in all sorts of lovely grayish heathers.




This sort of red is not common around here but I think it would be a fun color combo for a project along with some light blue and gray. I really love the section in Alice Starmore's Fair Isle book where she shows colorwork projects based on photos. I love that idea but I suspect it would be much easier to do if you had a huge yarn color palette selection like she does with her Shetland yarns.



This photo shows the colors I associate with New Mexico. Our skies really are this brilliant blue (there is a local paint shade called Taos blue that is close to this color) and the intense sun washes out everything but the sandy browns. This is the newly renovated and sandblasted St. Francis church in Santa Fe.

Missing in Action

I have gone missing in action, I know! Thank you all for the well wishes for the cat. Kitredge, the crazy jumper had his surgery to repair his broken femur. He is now recovering at home. It has been a lot of work keeping an eye on him, and the dreaded Fentanyl patch. But I am now back at work, and I am sorry if I have not answered your email yet, but I am getting through the list... and of course I should resume posting on the blog really soon.