Bumble Bee Tuna Blankie

"I love Bumble Bee, Bumble Bee Tuna

Yum, yum, Bumble Bee, Bumble Bee Tuna."

(proceed up a half step and keep singing)

So goes the vocal warm up that inspired the name for this project. This blankie is going to the new son of a co-worker of mine. You see, I saw this blanket on Ravelry and thought it was so awesome looking that I racked my brains to think of a baby worthy enough to wrap in its spectacular self. Then it hit me. Greg is a man who is genuinely cool and his wife is just as lovely. Greg was very kind to me last summer, and since it was my first time working at that job it was nice to be treated so well. Plus, he is a very good friend of my sister so why not make it a combined gift (i.e. "hey Meg, why don't you buy the yarn and I will make it ;). Anyway, the title has multiple meanings. I was gazing at the work in progress in the mirror at one point, and I thought, "huh, kind of looks like a bumble bee." Immediately the above tune popped into my head. I smiled. That warm up is one Greg used for his vocal intensive that he taught at the camp, and it always made me smile when I heard it. So, the blanket was dubbed thus. Hopefully, both parental units enjoy it, because I truly love the finished product.

My first Handspun

It is officially carded, spun, plied, and washed! This is 100% alpaca yarn spun fairly bulky and the colorway is Echo (named properly after the owner of the fleece.) I was not able to spin a great deal of yardage, but it turned out beautifully none the less. I can honestly say that it was a unique pleasure to hold this completely raw creation in my hand and just squishhhhh it with my fingers. Hopefully, it knits up nicely.

The Curse

My co-blogger and I agree on many things, but when it comes to knitting we are experiencing a disagreement of the most interesting sort. I am knitting a sweater for my boyfriend. It was originally going to be his Christmas gift, but it has since turned into a 1 year anniversary gift. Whenever the thing comes up my dear partner in blogging purses her lips and mentally sends the "don't say I didn't warn you" with a mere look. You see she believes in the curse that is supposedly tied to knitting a sweater for your significant other, especially if you are not married or unionized. I will not pretend that I did not consider this factor when I started thinking about making this sweater. After all there is a reason that such legends occur, and I am perfectly aware that there is an uncanny number of stories of people knitting a sweater for their partner and having the relationship go up in smoke. Am I so arrogant that I think I can make this work and not be affected by this insidious threat? The answer is that it has nothing to do with arrogance. I believe that such a curse is not the sweater itself, but in the energy one invests in it. I know full and well I could be knitting for a man who might leave me, but that is a fact that will exist whether I make the sweater or not. Secondly I believe that God is stronger than curses. I pray fervently when I knit and this sweater is so thickly covered in them that I believe it is quite saturated. Thirdly, I chose a pattern type that has a history of being knit for lovers and important men in the lives of knitters. I chose a gansey pattern, and they were originally created by women who knit for the fishermen in their lives. I would be very surprised to discover that some women did not make such things for their sweethearts whether married or not. Granted my man is not going out on the stormy seas any time soon, but the desire to give him something beautiful and special is the same. The bottom line is that even if he and I break up the day after I give him this sweater (highly unlikely, I would give it at least two :), I would not regret a single stitch I spent on him. He will always be special in my heart no matter what the future dictates. This is how I have chosen to express my feelings for him and I will say that it is the curse that is arrogant to think that it can harm something created in love.

The Cardigan Refused to Be Finished Part 4

The final installment in the saga. When last we left the tale I began knitting on the dreadful thing. I tried to be optimistic because I could tell the work would not cooperate with me if it knew my dislike. So I took it with me to my summer job every day and pretty much knit on it with every spare moment I had. As first, nothing extremely bad occurred. I worked my way through the back finding it to be meditative if a little boring. Then I began the front pieces. That is when I noticed my hands were not happy. I was very careful to keep them relaxed and not knit too tight. I even cut down the amount of time I knit to add more time of hand rest. Still, I was cramping very easily. I finally decided it had to be the yarn. Cottons do not slide through my hands as easily as the natural wool fibers or the nylon sock yarn I am used to working with. On top of the monotonous pattern, the ugly color, and a deadline, I now had to deal with the fact that my hands were being ripped apart! Plus, it just never seemed to end. The cardigan was worked in pieces so that involved a back, two front panels, two sleeves, and a button band. Not to mention that I was mortified it would not fit my pixie stick of a sister. She is incredibly thin, and after the near fiasco of my first sweater I did not want a repeat performance. Granted I had done a swatch and accounted for my idiosyncrasies, but it never left me that I could be going through all this for naught. By the end of July, all the pieces were knit. Seaming is usually not a big deal for me. However, cotton is not nearly as forgiving as a fuzzy wool or acrylic. Any little mess up in your seaming process will show as a glaring error which I knew could not occur in this sweater. As a result, the process took twice as long as usual simply because I was being so flipping careful to make the seams look clean. When I was finally through with that, I had to move on to the buttons. My sister had insisted on some lackluster light beige buttons, and they absolutely refused to cooperate! How hard is it just to stay where I put the initial tacking thread? How come they could not just work on this cardigan that I needed TO JUST BE FINISHED DAMNIT! But low and behold some hours later, the thing was finally ready. I gave it to my sister some weeks later fairly biting my nails with nervousness. I need not have worried for the cardigan fit beautifully. She had to roll up the sleeves, but other than that she was smitten. I was proud and relieved that I would never have to touch the stupid thing ever again!

A Day Steeped in Fiber

Some times, the Lord shows his love in ways we can least expect. At some points in life the Lord provides a beautiful opportunity that never entered into our thoughts. Such an event has occurred in my life in the form of a completely unexpected connection to a person whose family raises alpacas. This girl stopped me in class one day with a query as to where I got my yarn. Before I could even begin to go into detail she told me that her mother raises alpacas and they are willing to sell me the fiber for extremely cheap. I could barely contain my ecstasy as she continued to explain that her family had far too much fleece and nothing to do with it. What providence that I just learned to spin this summer! How could I not jump at the opportunity to own oodles of my favorite fiber for so little cost. I eagerly agreed to some terms of a deal, and we arranged a visit for me to pick out the fiber I desired. So that is what I did yesterday dear co-blogger, and here are some lovely shots of my adventure and its fruits. 

 

These are the views that met my eyes from the back patio. My friend's step-father built that barn. 

The interior of the barn was just as beautiful as the outside. Every edge routed to perfection, and full of light as well as the smell of animal. Not the manure smell that can clog the nostrils just hay, fur, and wood. The white cutie is the baby alpaca that is the newest member of the herd. She got curious first, and she looks so boldly at the camera. She is simply called Baby. The other is the alpaca that has my favorite fleece that I purchased. I know the picture is shadowy, but you can see the softness of her coat. Her name is Bambi. 

The farm has three females counting Baby, and all the others are males. The second picture is of the three females (Amber is the front and mother of Baby in back. Bambi is the other female.) The dark man in the top picture is the lover boy of the farm. He is Baby's father, and the only male to successfully convince a female to mate. His name is Echo, and I think that his coat is the most beautiful color of the entire bunch. I don't know if it translates well, but it is this amazing maroon brown like the color of cherry juice on a black forest cake. I did not actually buy Echo's fleece. However, the family proposed an even bigger discount if I agreed to knit scarves from the fiber. My friend's mother picked Echo's fleece for the project. The fiber I bought for myself was from Bambi (the tawny female behind Amber) and a male named Sundance. I did not get a good close up of Sundance. However, there are pictures of his fleece below. His is actually award winning, and I liked the touch of it more than Echo's. Still, after playing with Echo's fleece when I brought it home I have decided that I must get some for myself next time I visit. (The order of the fleece below from top down is Bambi, Sundance, and Echo). 

I know this post is long, but I cannot help but wax poetic about this stuff. It needs some cleaning. It needs to be carded. It still smells of animal. But, there are few pleasures as tactfully beautiful as dipping your arms elbow deep in clouds. I will need another post to talk about each fleece specifically so for now I leave you to gaze at my treasures.

Vermonters

Until very recently, I have been adverse to knitting fair isle, mostly because knitting with more than one ball of yarn at a time is extremely difficult when you're confined to a tiny desk in a lecture hall. This year, however, I have learned to deal with it. I went to WEBS after Halloween and bought 6 balls of Northampton wool in various colorways. The woman at the cash register asked me what I was knitting. "Hats. For Christmas. Everyone's getting hats this year."
Now, you may recall how frustrated I became last year after having knit about 30 hats in the span of a semester. Clearly, I've gotten over it, because I spent the next week knitting hats. Many colored, snowflake-y hats. I knit 6. In 5 days. My modmates reveled in them, and began pick the color combinations for me. Every day, it was "Wow, Heather, ANOTHER one!" They got really invested, and I just kept knitting.
So, when it became time to photograph the first six of these hats (I have enough yarn to make about 15), I knew I'd have to make it a group effort. My modmates and honorary modmates all gathered on the couch, and had a lovely FO shoot.
Sarah (the one with the plant--I don't really understand why that is) directed, and made sure each hat looked nice on each person. She then demanded poses, like from Haley above, "Look cold! But cute!" We all decided that the photos looked like they were from some ski trip to Vermont that we never took. I couldn't have done it without them...

...And now I have too many hats. Again.

The Cardigan Refused to Be Finished Part 3

(Parts 1 and 2 can be found in earlier posts) I knew I was doomed because the moment I saw the color only one word came to my mind, "ick!" Taupe is the less than attractive step-sister of beige and it is completely against my nature. I like to knit with bright, bold, and saturated colors. I enjoy yarn whose color makes you drool with desire to wear it. When I had previously knit things for my sis, they were in beautiful greens or deep merlot. She is a gorgeous woman with a taste for good clothing, and the one time I offer a sweater she manages to pick the color that I would never have even considered touching unless it was for a dish rag. I will admit the color does have one advantage; taupe matches everything. Even though black can achieve the same advantage taupe is lighter and less stark simply because it has not personality of its own. Bemoaning my own stupidity and quietly cursing my fickle sibling I began to search for yarn. I decided knitpicks was my best option due to my limited funds. My sister had requested that the cardigan be light enough to wear around in spring, but heavy enough that she could potentially wear it in the cooler months. Keeping this in mind, I settled on knitpicks Cotlin in the colorway Cashew. It was the right weight, machine washable, and the linen would give it a nice drape while the cotton would keep it from being too warm. I went ahead and ordered the stuff and prayed that it would less yucky in person. No such luck, but the die was cast.