Introducing: Knoll Rib Cowl

As anyone who knows me knows, when it comes to yarn, I have one of the world's smallest stashes. So it is perhaps surprising that this pattern came from the need to knit a yarn that sat in my stash for exactly two years.

Back before I did any spinning myself, I picked up a skein of handpsun from the booth for Enchanted Knoll Farms at the 2008 Common Ground Fair, weeks after I moved back to Maine.

I was in love with this yarn and called it my Rumpelstiltskin yarn, since it looked like straw spun into gold. (It's true name is Gold Dust Woman). I admired the yarn and petted the yarn and could come up with nothing worthy of this yarn.

Fast forward to September 2010. Faced with the need for a simple knit and feeling as if I had neglected this prize yarn for too long. I picked up my needles and tried to find a good stitch pattern for a scarf. My first attempt resulted in something that looked overwhelming 1980s in style, so I frogged, did a garter stitch sample, thought that was too boring and went back to the books.

I flipped through my stitch dictionaries and came across a squishy-looking rib stitch, which I promptly memorized incorrectly, and thus, came up with my own stitch pattern. I'm sure that this was not the first time something like that had happened.

As I neared the end of my then-scarf, I decided that the short length (about four feet long) would work better as a cowl, so I seamed it up, blocked it out, and there you have it.

I think this worked out as a perfect way to display a limited amount of a lovely handspun yarn. I used pretty much every inch of the 200 yards in my skein, but the cowl stretched a lot both ways when blocking, so it could take less if need be.

In case anyone else finds themselves in my predicament (lovely handspun, limited amount, no clue what to do.) I whipped up the pattern last night. You can grab it as a free download, using the link below.

download now

The Notary Dress

This weekend I finished my "Notary Dress" I showed a peek of last week. It's made of a navy blue wool/poly blend with an Egyptian cotton lining in the sleeves and bodice. The pattern is McCall's M5972 View A, but I've made a number of changes.

I've been wanting a classic navy blue dress for a while, and I picked the pattern for a number of reasons:

• The class silhouette. The straight skirt in particular, was different from anything else in my full-skirted closet.
• The open yoke. I knew I wanted to add some horizontal pleating to the yoke of the dress, so I selected a pattern where I wouldn't have to deal with moving any darts or seams.
• Wide neckline. I wanted a boatneck, which I find very flattering. From the envelope illustration this appeared to be a fit but in reality it was more of a wide scoop.
• On a side note, when it comes to patterns from the major publishers, my preference goes Vogue, McCall's, then Butterick. I've worked with Burdastyle patterns, but never a Burda one.  Maybe I need to branch out?

( If you're curious, the necklace, which I love, was purchased at the most recent Picnic fair, but the artist, Kriya, also has an Esty shop.)

So in terms of modifications, I made a ton. My go-to guide to design modifications is Adele P. Margolis's Make Your Own Dress Patterns. For fitting modifications, I use Fit for Real People.

• As with all commercial patterns, I cut out the pattern on different size lines for the bodice and skirt to match the envelope measurements, smoothing the lines with a french curve.
• I redrafted the neckline as a boatneck.
• During the tissue fitting (Gertie has a great series on tissue fitting that I highly recommend), I took a wedge out of the center front, to make the neckline lie flat and so the center of the pattern lined up on my center. I also rolled the shoulder seam forward about a 1/2 inch, which is typical for me.
• The bodice fitted, I cut out the lining and then went back to the pattern piece and added my three horizontal pleats. Each pleat is about an inch wide, with an inch folded under, so I added two inches at each pleat point. I will mention that once I got it on my body, I had to refold the top pleat some to get it to lie flat. I also blind-stitched the pleats downs.
• Raised the waist seam an inch or so to match my natural waistline.
• Added cap sleeves. I used the "sport sleeve" instructions from Margolis' book. Basically, I traced the armhole and then made a few muslins that I based into the actual dress until the fit was right.
• Because I added the sleeve, it made the side zipper a little difficult. If I had been smart, I would have added a seam allowance to the back and moved the zipper there. As it is, there's no closure, I just pull the dress on over my head, which works, but is not ideal. Actually getting it on is fine, getting the dress off is a little more difficult.
• I ended up slimming the extra I had cut into the skirt at the hips, so a smoother silhouette.

So after all that, how do I think it turned out?? Hmmm....

I give it my official seal of approval. (Seriously, I love this dress!!)

Coming Attractions

Just when you though she didn't sew anymore, coming soon to a blog near you: The Notary Dress, in the world's most lint-attracting fabric,  just a zipper and a hem (and some hand-finishing) away!

The Lady Grey Sew-Along: My first attempt at a coat!! (But first to find some fabric for the muslin...)

Lemon Blueberry Muffins

I have a love/hate relationship with blueberries that falls directly on the low bush/high bush divide. I'll admit it, before I moved to Maine I didn't know there were different kinds, but boy is there a big difference. The low-bush or wild blueberry is a thing of beauty, small, tart and delicious. The high bush blueberry on the other hand, I feel is gritty, heavy, and lacking in flavor. In short  - I am not a fan.

I wish I could say the berries in the recipe came from wild blueberries we hand picked somewhere in a distant field (and if you know a good place to pick wild blueberries in Southern Maine, let me know - please!!), but they didn't - but they are wild Maine blueberries, and those are tasty enough for me.

Lemon Blueberry Muffins

(adapted from Whipped's Cranberry Orange Muffins)

Makes 12-16 muffins

• 1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 3/4 cup wheat flour
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
• 1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, melted and cooled
• 2/3 cup sugar
• 2 large eggs
• 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• zest
 of one washed lemon
• 1 cup buttermilk (or 1 cup milk + 1 Tablespoon lemon juice)
• 1  to 1 1/2 cup fresh or frozen wild blueberries

Preheat oven to 375°F.

If making buttermilk, mix milk and lemon juice and set aside until needed.

Grease  or line muffin cups. Combine flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and nutmeg in a medium mixing bowl.

Whisk together butter, sugar, eggs, vanilla, lemon zest, and buttermilk in a separate mixing bowl. With a wooden spoon or spatula, stir in the flour mixture until just combined.

Toss blueberries in a small amount of flour until coated and fold into batter. Fill each muffin cup about three-quarters full. Bake until golden and a toothpick comes out clean (20-24 minutes). Let muffins cool in pan for 5 minutes and eat warm with butter.

Sweater Love

I finished my newest sweater last week and while, realistically, it's too warm to wear it yet, I am in love.

The pattern is Manu by Kate Davies, and based on this pattern, I will happy knit anything else she writes up. The sweater itself if relatively simple, but such thought has been put into the details and finishing (with one small exception - the pleats don't mirror, and unlike many people on Ravelry, it didn't bother me enough to change it). The i-cord edging is so very polished looking and the shaping fits like a dream. I also enjoy that I learned a number of new techniques on the project, including the i-cord bind off and the pleating.

I made a few modifications - namely I went down a needle size to account for my yarn (more later) and I skipped the pockets, since I felt they would look weird unless my hands were in them all the time.

As for the yarn? The yarn is Malabrigo Silky Merino in Sand and the product of at least a month of searching for the perfect shade of mustard yellow. I'm sure it will pill like crazy in the future, being a single ply and all, but it is so soft and lovely to the touch that I have never enjoyed knitting with a yarn more. Based on a number of reviews that mentioned the post-blocking growth of this yarn, and my own gauge swatch, I ended up knitting everything a needle size down, which ended up being perfect.

I'm not wishing summer away, but as soon as it gets cold this sweater will get some heavy rotation.

Share and Share Alike

Yesterday I joined my knitting friends over at Maggie's for an afternoon of knowledge sharing and enabling each other's crafting addictions. Maggie taught Bristol & I crochet:

and I taught them embroidery:

Lynn taught Karen punchneedle technique:

Maria (who's trying to finish 12 knitting stash projects before Rhinebeck!) provided the locally made gelato:

And Chase, Jackson, Hobbes* and Cocoa Bean* provided fur and company (*not pictured):

Tour de Fleece: The Finish Line

After checking in with the Tour de Fleece police tonight, it was ruled that yesterday was my last day of le Tour - so here's a round up of everything I worked on since the 3rd.

Rust-Colored Llama from Botanical Shades

• purchased at Common Ground Fair 2009
• during the Tour I.... plied it
• 1.5 oz
• 120 yds
• 2-ply

Purple Llama from Botanical Shades

• purchased at Common Ground Fair 2009
• during the Tour I.... spun (about half of the total fiber) and plied
• 2.1 oz
• 190 yds
• 2-ply

Natural Turquoise from Enchanted Knoll Farms

• purchased at Common Ground Fair 2009
• during the Tour I... spun
• Currently at 1.4oz

I probably won't spin everyday, but I'm in a good grove and I'm loving the turquoise fiber, so I'll try to keep this roll going. And at the rate I'm going, I'll have used up all my fiber by Rhinebeck, so I can pick up a bunch more guilt-free!

Weekend Update

Somethings I've been up to this weekend:

What did you do this weekend?

Roadtrip: The Cleavers Go Camping

Camping is in my blood. My brother and dad both reached the rank Eagle Scout and as a kid we when car camping all the time in all the state and national parks up and down California. I've always lover camping, but since I started college I've been camping a total of once. So this summer the mister and I decided that we would go camping for our big vacation.

Problem being that aside from the sleeping bag my mother mailed me, we had zero camping equipment.  So in the past few months Mr .Cleaver and I have stockpiling camping equipment thanks to a number of gift cards we had received for LL Bean.

While we've made a reservation for a site for a number of days in August, we wanted to take our new gear for a test run first. So this weekend we took a one-night jaunt to the campground at Bradbury Mountain State Park.  I brought along the camera to document our test run:

(Didn't think I'd skip my Tour de Fleece responsibilities did you?)

I won't say the box was completely full when we started on the fire, but it was pretty close - but in my defense the wood was kinda damp

I earned this s'more!

Sweet dreams - and then we realized that sleeping pads would be a good idea :)

First Meet-Up, First Batch, First Harvest

Yesterday I had my first blogger meet-up with Amy of stash, knit, repeat (also the "Fit to Flatter" series). She was in town visiting some family and we met up at Knit Wit to checkout the new Quince & Co. yarn line, which is made in Southern Maine.

It was great meeting Amy in person and I definitely felt like I was hanging with the cool kids when Amy was recognized about 3 minutes after coming into the shop. It was even more cool when Pam Allen herself popped in to drop over another load of yarn.

The range of colors in this line is fantastic - there are so many variations of each color - 3 or so yellows a half dozen blues, it's a color lover's dream.  Amy came out with two sweater's worth, while I restrained myself to 5 skeins of the Chickadee in Delft and Carrie's Yellow (I'm totally in a yellow phase right now).  And this yarn is so new, it doesn't even have dye lots yet, because there's only been one!

In other news, I've had my first harvest from my garden - this little head of broccoli. It's been so warm, that it accelerated the growth process and I had to cut it before it bloomed. I actually dreamed about it the day before - I was so worried about the broccoli going to seed. It was ready to go on Thursday, so I chopped it off and ate it raw with some ranch dressing. Don't worry I shared some with Mr. Cleaver.

p.s : I must admit, whenever I work with the broccoli in my garden, I find myself singing the Dana Carvey broccoli song (it starts at the 2:00 minute mark).