An Alabama Chanin Handmade Wardrobe

My current obsession with creating all things Alabama Chanin has temporarily slowed down any  knitting progress.  I didn't see this obsession coming.  In fact, I bought a sewing machine recently, and right away bought a companion sewing book, Alabama Studio Sewing + Design.  I could have looked closer at the subtitle (A Guide to Hand-Sewing an Alabama Chanin Wardrobe) to realize that this book is all about sewing by hand, and there is nary a mention of a sewing machine anywhere among its beautiful pages.  Nonetheless, I picked up my needle and thread, dove straight in, and fell in love.
All of the patterns recommend using 100% Organic Jersey fabric which you can purchase from the Alabama Chanin store.  I need to hone my skills before cutting into something so special and pricey, and so I went to my local thrift store and bought several XXL men's t-shirts.  I used my seam ripper to cut them at the seams, and was able to harvest ample yardage to start on several small projects.  The first project is the Fitted Top, in navy blue jersey:
 

 

It was a joy to create.  The art of "slow sewing" is right up my alley.  

And the best part is, it fits!  And I love it!

The Blues - Dyeing with Indigo and Woad

I recently attended The Fiber Event at the Putnam Co. Fairgrounds in Greencastle, IN, and there was so much fibery goodness in one place I could barely stand it.  Two large barns were filled with vendors of fleeces, roving, dye supplies, equipment, notions, buttons, combs, wheels, carders, etc.... I met so many new people, and learned a lot.  Various workshops related to spinning, weaving, knitting, and dyeing were offered, and I took a course about dyeing with indigo and woad.  Below are natural dyed yarn samples from the dye work of one of the instructors, Kathy Sparks.  The blues in the center were most relevant to our class.  Kathy taught the portion of the class on woad, a plant with a long history for making the color blue. 

Kathy dips a yarn sample in the woad vat.

The indigo portion of the workshop was taught by Gina Crowder of Across Generations.  Though I have dyed with indigo before, this was a great refresher course.  Working with indigo requires practice and more practice.  It is a dance with the weather, temperature, exposure to oxygen, and proper manipulation of the fibers being dyed.  I purchased some supplies from Gina's booth, and will continue to practice in my own little dye studio, with hopes of becoming more proficient in the years to come.  Below are the samples I dyed in the class.  Clockwise from top left: linen, silk, wool, and cotton.  Each sample was dipped three times in the indigo vat.  The linen swatch clearly took the most dye, and the wool took the least.  It should have been the opposite!   

Below are some samples of overdyeing with woad.  Initially, the samples were dyed with dandelion (flower heads), daffodils (flower heads), osage orange (wood chips), and fustic (wood chips).  The result was a rainbow of the yellow, blue, and green spectrum.  My favorite (not pictured) was sample dyed initially with lichens, then overdyed with woad creating a soft teal blue-green color. 

I had so much fun, and will definately be back next year!  

Lace Stole

This ethereal lace stole was finished almost a year ago, and then packed away (for the move) and nearly forgotten!  Not to worry, it was packed away neatly in tissue paper, and will make many appearances this Spring.

Pattern specs:   

Georgiana Darcy's Fancy Shawl

by Karen Joan Raz

from Jane Austen Knits, Fall 2013

Unfortunately, I don't remember the specific yarn used, other than it was a lace-weight silk/alpaca blend, and it's beautiful.  The lace pattern was a breeze once repeated a few times, though at first it was a bit difficult to grasp.  The edging is a pattern I've worked before, but adding beads was completely new.  The beads are added both to look beautiful and to add weight to the edges and enhance the drape of the stole.  

Close-up of the beaded edging.  Each repeat contains five beads placed at the edge, over 200 beads in all.  Remember when I was working the beaded edging on an aiplane?  Now that takes dedication and courage!

Also, as you can see here, I use blocking wires to block my lace (and most other knitted projects).  They give me perfect results with minimal effort every time.   



This was a satisfying lace project, interesting enough to keep my focus and just difficult enough to push my limits and boost my confidence as a lace knitter.  And, of course, the result is quite satisfying!  I will enjoy wrapping this around my shoulders for years to come.   

Spring Cleaning

Finally, I have begun the process of picking through two very special Tunis fleeces!  Last Sunday was sunny and beautiful, so I set them out on a tarp in the driveway and let the wind blow through them and the sun shine on them.  Of course, I had a couple of loyal helpers:

By Tuesday, my sweet man had built the perfect table for the process:

The top is a wooden frame with chicken wire stretched over it.  This way it's off the ground and more ventilated, and the debris can easily fall through.  Perfect. 

It's nice to get the fleeces out and begin the process of cleaning them!

Big Charcoal Cowl

I finished this cowl last November, and it has been a permanent fixture around my neck and shoulders since.  The pattern, "Keep it Casual Cowl," comes from the book Creative Knitting Presents, Fall 2014: Wraps Capelets & Cowls.  My sweet man brought the book home to me when I was grieving the passing of a dear friend in California.  The simplicity of the pattern was just what I needed, and knitting it soothed my spirit and gently coaxed my mind from grief and sorrow.
I used some yarn I had on hand, Cascade Yarns Rustic, a singles blend of wool and linen, which is very similar to what the pattern calls for.  The lower edge is cast on, and then the cowl grows upward from there.  I found the cast on too tight, making it difficult to pull down over my shoulders.  After wearing it for a few weeks, I performed a tedious surgery to fix this problem.  I snipped a single stitch a few rows above the cast on edge, unraveled an entire row, re-knit the bottom edge, and then finished with a very loose bind off. The result is perfect.  If I make this again (likely), I will do a provisional cast on, then come back at the end and do a loose bind off. 

Farmhouse Shawl

Apparently I have an addiction for making (and wearing) shawls, and if there exists a cure for this affliction I want nothing to do with it!  Shawls are the perfect layering piece for all seasons and especially the transition of seasons. They can be worn many ways, and with almost any outfit.  Therefore, as I see it, the only reasonable thing to do is to keep making more of them.  

The most recent addition to my collection is the lovely Farmhouse Shawl, by cabinfour.  Made with exactly 3 skeins of Berroco Ultra Alpaca (50% wool, 50% alpaca), it's a bit luxurious for what I intend to use it for.  It will most likely be worn at home, in the mornings while walking through the garden, and for cool mornings and evenings sitting on the porch with my sweet love.  If we had chickens, I would wear this while gathering the eggs.  I'll do chores wearing this shawl.  You get the idea... when not on my shoulders, this shawl will likely be found right by the back door, ready to grab and throw on.  The yarn for this shawl was originally purchased to make a complicated cabled sweater (Ondawa from the Brooklyn Tweed Fall 14 collection), but I needed a mindless, easy project and this was just what I had in mind.  The cabled sweater is still on my wish list, but it'll have to wait.

 

February Spinning.

Here are the fruits of my spinning labor in February.  This isn't all of it, but most (there are still a few singles waiting on bobbins to be plied).  And I don't plan on slowing down any time soon.  My goal is to spin the rest of the wool I brought from California before Spring.  This wool came from my coastal community, from the sheep of Stillwater Cove Ranch).  The sheep are a mix of Romney and California Red, and the wool has been lovely to work with, and provided a great opportunity to practice and hone my skills as a spinner.

The skeins on the left are natural, un-dyed.  On the right are my experiments of dyeing with Black Walnut.  The lighter shade in the middle was dyed as roving, and the darker shade on the right was dyed as a spun singles which I later plied.  What a difference, as the spun singles took much more of the dye and turned a much deeper shade of brown.  The marled one in the middle was a fun experiment of plying one strand of the natural un-dyed with one strand of the Walnut-dyed singles.    

The spinning resumes today, as I am still (happily) snowed in...