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Category Archives: Blue Moon Fiber Arts

The Gifting of the Socks.

04 Wednesday Aug 2010

Posted by knitteratii in Blue Moon Fiber Arts, Fixation, Opal, Regia, socks, STR

≈ 4 Comments


Ever since I picked out the clothes for my mom to wear, I wrestled with the idea about how I would deal with the remaining 19 pair of handknitted socks I had made for her. This idea popped into my head sometime during the night before her services. After the service, family and close friends would be gathering at Robbie and Blanca’s house. What better time to gift them than this afternoon when everyone was gathered together in remembrance of my mom? I picked the socks up at my mom’s house. In the living room at Robbie and Blanca’s, I spread them out on the floor, sorted by method of construction. Top-down heel flap and traditional gussets, then toe-up Personal Footprints. I sorted each section according to fiber content—100% merino superwash, 75-25 blends, cotton-lycra blends. For those who know sock yarns, you can see lots of Blue Moon Fiber Arts STR, a couple of Regia, one Mini-Mochi, one Colinette Jitterbug, and some Opal. As I sorted them, I told the story of each sock. It was stroll through my life and my sock-knitting life starting in 2002.
In the journey that is life, my knitting marks where I was, what I was doing, and what I was thinking at that point. I remember I started with the self-striping yarn from Opal, I discovered it when I helped Carson move for his first semester at Brown. From Opal, I moved into Jitterbug and Brown Sheep hand dye, played around with Cascade Fixation, and fell totally under the spell of the Blue Moon. I was constantly in search of the perfect sock and my mom was a more than willing participant in my quest.
My mom loved these socks. She told me once, about 2 weeks before Christmas, that the only socks she could wear were the ones I knitted for her, all others hurt her feet. At that time, I had 2 pair finished, one about halfway done, and another pair that I had just cast on. I turned up the knitting to high speed and I think I gave her 3 pair with the 4th on the needles.

In the telling of the stories, more and more of the giftees became entranced with the socks and how they played into the life of my mom and I. Each one had its own history, when it was knitted, where the yarn came from, why some of them were worn more than others. What kinds of shoes she worn them with. What her likes and dislikes were as far as fit and color. She loved to wear denim, so many of them were blues. Differences in construction, heel flap and gussets as opposed to personal footprints. Monkeys, Jaywalkers, purl when you feel like it, hand dyed, self patterning, toe up, top down, Rare Gems, Socks That Rock, and on and on. My mom loved them and I could think of nothing better than for each of them to have a part of something she really loved. One of the asked if I was going to give them out, I told her no, I wanted them to each pick a pair- first come, first served. It was a shark-feeding frenzy that ensued! While listening to the story of the socks, unbeknown to me, they were all eyeing them and had located the ones they wanted. When given the go ahead they pounced on them and claimed a pair. I am sure my mom would approve. After a while, we gathered for a photo session. After everyone picked out their socks, I was asked several times “please tell me the story of my socks again, what is the name of my sock? what is the name of color of my sock? Where did my sock come from?” It was therapeutic and it turned a task that would truly paralyze me into a wonderful thing to share, The Gifting of the Socks.

Calling Miss Woodhouse.

09 Wednesday Jun 2010

Posted by knitteratii in Blue Moon Fiber Arts, Pond Scum, Seduction, shawlette

≈ 2 Comments

How often does it happen that you are snooping around on Ravelry and you find a shawl with your name on it? I mean literally, the shawl’s name is your last name? Well, it happened to me and here it is!

For details, see my Ravelry page. I love all things Blue Moon, and this is knitted in Seduction which is 50% merino ad 50% tencel. It has a luscious hand. More shawls to follow…………………..

I’ve Been Busy Lately.

31 Monday May 2010

Posted by knitteratii in Blue Moon Fiber Arts, Crabby McCrabbypants, Traveling Woman

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I bought this Rare Gem at Sock Camp 09, aka KnittyHaha. It was a mdwt STR and had two different kinds of yarn it that composed this skein. Half of it appears to be Silkie STR and the rest regular mdwt STR. I think the colorway is Crabby McCrabbypants. I decided to knit this shawl, aka TheTraveling Woman.


Here it is all blocked out. The SilkieSTR is on the top and when I broke out out to the patterned area, I went into the regular STR. It doesn’t show up so good in the photo, but in real life it looks heathered on the top and brighter on the bottom patterned section.

I went up 2 needle sizes from what was called for in the pattern because I wanted it really lacy. This ended up having me run short about 3 rows. I had a skein of ltwt McCrabby pants and so I went up a needle size for the last 3 rows and the bind off. You can’t tell. Even Tang can’t tell in this photo, as he gives it the final “Cat Scan”. Everything I knit seems to get Cat Scanned.

This Miss Woodhouse Shawl is blocking as I type. I knitted it in record time. There are two more shawls I want to knit before my cruise, so I am casting on the “Multnomah” Shawl from Ravelry in Silkie STR in the Grawk colorway (from the Ravens clan). I love all things Blue Moon Fiber Arts!

Photos of Miss Woodhouse hopefully up tomorrow!

Ooohhhh. Ahhhhh. Ooohhh. Qiviut…….Qivuk……

31 Friday Jul 2009

Posted by knitteratii in Blue Moon Fiber Arts, BMFA, qiviuk, qiviut

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Yuuummmmmmmyyyyyyy! Maybe better than Cashmere? This is Qiviuk, also called Qiviut (pronounced Kiv-ee-uk or Kiv-ee-ut, long u) from Alaska. My brother and sister in law went on an inside passage cruise this summer. I emailed him telling him that if he ran across any yarn stores to see if they had any Qiviut. They happened across this store in Skagway, Alaska. They sell garments made of it, and this yarn. Each skein is 217 yards. Believe or not, it is softer than cashmere(oh be still my heart!) I will let you pet them for a brief moment, so as not to create a Qiviut addiction in you. Warning: it is an incurable addiction and an expensive habit, but ohhhhhhhhh soooo soffffffffttttttttt.
What I have in mind for both are scarves. Pattern TBD. I don’t stray from Blue Moon Fiber Arts too often, but when I do, Omigosh do I stray. And how about this for a cool brother and sister in law? They can yarn shop for me anytime!
And speaking of people who can shop for me anytime, let’s add Aimee to the list! This 1224 yards of handspun bliss is 2!0% cashmere, 30% silk, and 50% merino. It has a little heather fleck in it. I finally discovered what it wants to be and I wound it into ready to knit cakes. It will be a Shoalwater shawl. I can’t wait to get started on it! The colors are so pretty, it begs to be done for the fall.
See you next time!

More of Camp KnittyhaHA

14 Tuesday Apr 2009

Posted by knitteratii in Blue Moon Fiber Arts, Camp KnittyhaHA, Sock Camp, STR

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Tina “smooshing” color as only Tina can do.  Beautiful in an instant.  Magical where the colors meet.
Ever seen a crab who knows how to knit?  This is one does , and he wasn’t the only crab there who knew how, there were at least 5 or 6 other crabs with projects in various stages of completion.
And this is Cat Bordhi  (Socks Soar on Two Circs, New Pathways for Knitting Socks and many more wonderful books)on the left and Stephanie Pearl-McPhee (The Yarn Harlot) on the right with their “Chicken of the Sea”.  A late entry into the homework presentation.  Some art just lives on forever and ever and ever and ever…………….

This is the view out of the huge atrium-garden dining room.  Beautiful .  Just to the left of this was a giant totem pole that was a favorite perch of 3 bald eagles.  
It was soooo 
 fun!  These photos don’t even start to do it justice.  The most fun you can have as a knitter.  Imagine 60 other, wait—make that 58 other women and one man, all like minded knitters who love knitting socks.  From all walks of life.   Nurses, teachers, surgeons, college professors, airline pilots, housewives, yarn store owners,  lawyers, professional dog competitors, and on and on.  All with one goal in mind for 5, almost 6 days.  Socks and fun.  You don’t have to be an expert knitter.  In fact, you don’t even have to knit socks.  Both years I met at least one person who had never knitted a sock, and one didn’t plan on learning.  
I want to go back right now!

Life at Camp KnittyhaHA

03 Friday Apr 2009

Posted by knitteratii in Blue Moon Fiber Arts, KnittyhaHA, Sock Camp, STR

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 If you are going to learn to dye yarn, why not learn from the best?   Here is Tina Newton from Blue Moon showing us how………………….

  

     
And here are my 3 hand dyed skeins of STR Mediumwt!
And here is Ozzie’s Monkey to be!

Melissa’s wedding and Cow Clogs

28 Saturday Mar 2009

Posted by knitteratii in Blue Moon Fiber Arts, Sock Camp, Sock Monkey, STR

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Ringo is the luckiest Drunken Party Monkey ever ! Not only did he stow away in my bag, he got to smooch up on the bride!  

And here he is …………………………………………………………and here are my new Cow Clogs, Carson got them for me for my birthday!  They will look great with my STR socks!  The agenda for this afternoon—Lush at Universal Studios, then on to Arc Light to see Sunshine Cleaning, by the same people who did Little Miss Sunshine.  Next Blog post—final touches on my “knit something from the sea assignment” and repacking!  Later!

A Big Monkey for the Little Guy

11 Friday Jul 2008

Posted by knitteratii in Blue Moon Fiber Arts, Sock Monkey, Socks That Rock, STR

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Here is the Little Guy today after his 2PM feeding. Ready to get the UV light turned back on. His bilirubin is still high, so he still has to be under the UV light. They gave him a different light today, it provides a much greater surface area and will hopefully help him to return to normal levels faster than the other light. His color is actually much better than when I first met him on Tuesday. He up to 2 ounces of formula today. He was visited by the speech pathologist and passed all of his tests with flying colors. These tests are done to assess any developmental problems and are all centered around the sucking reflex. It also is used to determine if he can move on to the bottle and/or breast. Tomorrow he will be visited by the physical therapist. We are all taking an infant CPR class tomorrow. Tune in tomorrow for an update!

Here is Jackson’s Big Monkey and his matching blanket. He needs a name (the monkey, not the Little Guy). Hmmmm….George is too obvious. Is Queck a possibility? (inside joke) He looks serious in this photo. He is visiting my office. Let’s have a naming contest. Leave me a comment with your ideas. The winner will get a hat or scarf custom knitted for you in whatever color you desire. Unless of course, you ARE a knitter, in which case I will do a stash dive in my “Yarn Sanctuary” (aka extra bedroom) for you.

He is praying that someone will come up with the perfect name, because he’s pretty sure he doesn’t want to be named Queck.

It is definitely Summer time!

12 Thursday Jun 2008

Posted by knitteratii in Blue Moon Fiber Arts, Monkey KawKaw, Nelly, Sock Monkey

≈ 1 Comment

I there knitting friends! It is officially summer, the middle of June. I am finally blogging again. I had rotator cuff surgery on June 9, and since my injury wasn’t to the point where a lot of repair work had to be done, I have the official blessing of the orthopod to type on the computer and knit as much as my pain level permitted. Which isn’t as much as I had hoped it would be, oddly enough. I did finish these, with the aid of Vicodin and donut holes.

And I worked on both of these–the coriolis (the one on my foot) I started at Sock Camp and the Monkey KawKaw I started while under the influence of drugs, because if I was thinking clearly I surely would not have cast on yet another pair of socks. Or technically, a sock, since for some reason I am doing only one, another clue that my thinking is clouded.


Speaking of Sock Camp, I came home with no dirty clothes, but a suitcase full of this

After tripping over the suitcase for a month, I was strolling through Joann’s looking for ideas about how to display and store this yarn. I found this

which I purchased and turned into this.

I can look at these wonderful Blue Moon colors while new ideas percolate in my mind.

I have also spawned a couple of monkeys—This one for Aimee’s little one who will be here the end of July,

and this little wild dancing monkey for Lilly, whose mom is a wonderful Public Health Nurse that I appreciate greatly!

This monkey’s name is Nelly, a combination that Lilly came up with to combine her name and mine. Last I heard, Nelly was much loved and was going to show and tell.

I will spare you the photos of my shoulder. I am getting more range of motion every day and I see the surgeon next Thursday. I have no photos of WWKIP Day, even though it was yesterday. I am envious of everyone who had gatherings in climates conducive to gatherings of knitters. The desert southwest doesn’t lend itself to gatherings of this sort when it is 113+ outside.

Till next time, happy knitting!

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tomofholland

The Visible Mending Programme: making and re-making

Mad Man Knitting

it takes balls to knit!

Knitting the world together, one stitch at a time!

Blog

A look into the wonderful world of Skacel

Outlander Online

Your #1 Source For All Things Outlander

DianaGabaldon.com

Cat Bordhi

Goddess Knitters

We Do Not Have A Knitting Problem

Yarn Harlot

tomofholland

The Visible Mending Programme: making and re-making

Mad Man Knitting

it takes balls to knit!

Knitting the world together, one stitch at a time!

Blog

A look into the wonderful world of Skacel

Outlander Online

Your #1 Source For All Things Outlander

DianaGabaldon.com

Cat Bordhi

Goddess Knitters

We Do Not Have A Knitting Problem

Yarn Harlot