Lisa Kay Knits... and Quilts!

I spun wool for a colorwork sweater, a pattern called Aftur, available as a free download on the Istex site . The pattern name is the first word in the post title... and the rest is from the yarns. The main body yarn is "House of Bricks," a mixed fiber batt from Southern Cross Fibre. I had three four-ounce packages, and ended up with 940 yards of worsted singles. The four small colored skeins are "Barn Raising," an organic merino club from Southern Cross Fibre. To get the "white" in the colorwork chart, I added some undyed merino to the group. The Aftur pattern has a special aspect to it... Scarlett Johansen wears one in the movie, "We Bought a Zoo." I went and found the movie on DVD, and there are actually many excellent sweaters in the movie. I wonder if the folks doing the costumes were knitters... I am eager to cast on the Aftur sweater, but I'm making good progress on another handspun sweater, which I'm planning to finish, firs...

For the last day of summer, we had a beautiful, cool, crisp day, and Mitchell and I went to the park after I picked him up from school. As we were getting in the car at school, we found a wooly worm in front of a car tire and rescued it. We took it to the park, and Mitchell pushed it on the swing. Mitchell ran into a friend from school, and they ran amok for about an hour until we had to go home. This last one is taken under our tree at home, a couple days earlier. I think he really looks like me in this picture. (Compare it to the last photo in this post ...) Happy Knitting, Lisa Kay

I spun up five bumps (20 ounces) of Southern Cross Fibre club fiber, "Grevillea" on Polwarth. It was a colorway from 2010, before I was getting the club, but I traded/purchased from other club members to put together enough for a sweater. Here's a link to an inspiration photo... Grevillea is a type of flower! And a link to another club member's awesome Grevillea mittens. And below is a shop photo of the original fiber... I spun it at an aran weight, already thinking of making a Forever Tweed turtleneck pullover, which calls for aran. I got just over 1000 yards, so it should just be enough. If I make the collar last, I can just make it shorter if I run out of yarn. I separated the colors prior to spinning, creating eight batches of yarn in a color gradient. I'll switch yarns every 2-3 rows, transitioning back and forth from pink to green to pink... Happy Spinning, Lisa Kay

I finished matching knee socks for the Leaf Peep Idlewood. They should look great with boots, a skirt, and the sweater. :) The socks used almost exactly two bumps of fiber. I have a total of 375 yards left after the sweater and socks. Happy Knitting, Lisa Kay

We ran over to Latzer Homestead in Highland, today. They always have their Homestead Harvest Days the second weekend in September. Chris and I were married there in 2004, on the third weekend in September, and we usually go over for Harvest Days. Burning a table with a lens The lady made us buy a bird whistle after Mitchell blew it Mitchell liked the petting zoo the best... ...along with the corn box... ...and the pony rides! Three generations Happy Knitting, Lisa Kay

I finished up the Idlewood sweater I'm making as my third "SCF and Friends" SAL sweater. In this case, it is a "friends" yarn, Spunky Eclectic. Leaf Peep, the colorway I used, is one of many stock colorways that can be ordered on any of the available bases at the Spunky Eclectic site . I blogged the spinning here . I had to remove the cowl from the CO edge down, and four rows of raglan shaping (two increase rows) and work it back from the bottom up. I decided the cowl was not as wide as I wanted. I am very happy with the results, though. I also re-worked Herd of Trolls a little bit. It had always struck me as a bit too short. I had 40 grams of yarn left, so I frogged the bind off and ten rows of garter stitch edging and put ten rows of stockinette on before re-doing the edging. Happy Knitting, Lisa Kay