It's time to retire

If you're Hellen, of Hellen's Needlework in Mt. Vernon, 

retiring isn't something you have contemplated very often.

Hellen is in her 80's, and has been running her yarn shop for so many years

that she's a mainstay of the downtown Mt. Vernon experience.

Sometimes it's years between our visits to Hellen's,

but she's always been there and with a great selection of sock yarn.

Hellen has been knitting socks for 70 years.

She knit every single sock that hangs in her shop.

We visited on Saturday, June 1st, and I bought this:

Two hanks of sock yarn, 

50% wool, 20% Super Fine Alpaca, 30% nylon

It's $10.50 a hank.  For 433 yards.  

Hellen prices her yarns quite reasonably.

During the last few years she's lost her long-time staff, and then last year her husband passed.

He was her back-up, he did the paperwork. 

She's been struggling with doing it all herself, and she's worn out.

The yarn shop business isn't for wimps.

Hellen is no wimp, but she's done.

The Hellen's Needlework store is closing this month.

She is starting the close-out sale on Friday, June 7th, with everything 25% off.

Higher discounts as June progresses.

Mt. Vernon is south of the Skagit River bridge, 

so the bridge being unusable is not an issue if you're coming from the Greater Seattle direction.

Hellen, thanks for all the yarn!  We'll miss you.

Artful Ewe Green Shetland

Roving and Singles
3 hanks of 2-ply

Spinner: Rebecca
Fiber: 100% Shetland, hand-dyed by and purchased from Heidi Parra of The Artful Ewe in Port Gamble, Washington. Heidi also has a blog, which has wonderful photos of her shop.
Results: Spinning began November 6th, 2007 and ended on November 18th, 2007 with 1600 yards of 18-20 wpi 2-ply. I'm stumped for a project to knit with it because that's a lot of yarn. It is probably the best spinning I've done and I owe it to the fiber, which was wonderful to spin. If you have the chance to get hand-dyed Shetland from Heidi, go for it. You won't be sorry. Hey! She's going to be vending at Madrona again this year! You could get some there, or you could stop in at her shop on the weekends, which is when she's open. Or you could just call her and find out what colors she has right now.

Arrow Lace Socks

The Book:
Socks
from Interweave Press

On the cover: Arrow Lace Socks
The book is still available even though it
was published in 1997. For the spinners amongst us,
each pattern is based on and knit up in handspun but
commercial yarn can be used with good success,
as follows:

Yarn from The Artful Ewe, one of our favorite LYS's. Heidi does a masterful job at her dyeing and the resulting fiber and yarn is fabulous and very economical. This sock yarn is 75% Superwash and 25% nylon. We added a picot top with #8 24k gold plate seed beads. Knit by Rebecca for her buddy Pat B. for the "Friday Knitters 2007 Sock Exchange." (Photos of the results of this event will be posted at the end of the year.)

Sock yarn is 3-ply 100% Blue Faced Leicester from Wool2Dye4. Knit by Rebecca, this yarn was given to me by my buddy Pat B. the day the Friday Knitters got together for dye-day earlier this summer. This creamy yarn turned into a successful purple. Same 24k beads because they were just wonderful on this color.

Sock yarn from The Artful Ewe (in a different red colorway) and these were knit by Peggy with the same24k beads because we love them!

All socks knit between September 7th and October 18th.

Boy Socks

I told David I'd knit him socks only if he promised to not tell anyone who did it. You know the problem: knit one person some socks and then everybody wants some. He's a very sweet graduate student in the department at the UW where I work, saw me knitting one day and pined for some hand knit socks with "red cuffs, heels and toes and crazy yarn in between." It took quite some time to knit them. Boy Socks go on forever!
Knitter: Peggy
Yarn: Opal in the leg/foot and the red is Fortissima Socka mit Bamboo, both purchased locally at Village Yarn.
Pattern: Basic stockinette with more stitches for The Boy, size 2 needles.
Note to Self: "No more Boy Socks."
Big Doily: It is called 'Willow Basket Lid' and the pattern can be found on page 99 in Traditional Lace Knitting by Furze Hewitt, published in 1997 by Kangaroo Press. This was a gift to me, knit years ago by Rebecca in #5 cotton. I keep it under glass on my end table.

An accidental yarning

Yum. It's lace weight 50/50 BFL and Suri, hand dyed by Fleece Artist. If that's not enough, how about 660 yards for $21.50? wow.

It was an accident! I swear! Totally by happy chance, two blogless friends (Pat and Sandi) and I car-pooled to Village Yarn and Tea on Friday morning to see their new yarn. It was the beginning of the LYS Tour and I had been given a preview the night before (while I happened to be there ) of the special yarn they were going to be offering the next day. I was talking about it with the two blogless knitters while we were having a knit and a coffee at a local book store and before I knew it we were all in the car together heading north.

Long story short, we each bought some and when I took my sister back the next day it was all gone, bam! Just like THAT! I guess it was a happy accident that I managed even the one ball...

Shetland

Natural cream Shetland Top
from Artful Ewe

Judith McKenzies light gray Shetland Top
from Artful Ewe

Dark gray Shetland Top
from WhoaMule Farm

2-ply samples from left to right: cream, cream and light gray,
light gray, light gray and dark gray, dark gray.

The plan: with about 1 pound of each top and spun finely enough and plied as five different colors, there may be enough to knit a graduated color shawl or blanket, or even a fair isle sweater! There's lots of time to come up with a plan because spinning and plying 3 pounds of top should take awhile.

By the by, Peggy and I have this much EACH. If one of us runs out...

On a totally unrelated subject:
Peggy and I both received this answer.
Go figure.

What kind of yarn are you?

Take this quiz!

Estonian Garden Wrap

770 yards of Romeldale/Angora
from Toots LeBlanc

First end done enough to
determine weight needed for the other end.

Wrap completed and ready for blocking.

Blocked

As worn with a shawl pin

Knitter: Rebecca
Fiber: Romeldale Angora (60/40 blend) lace weight from Toots LeBlanc, 764 yards; I also added 42 ivory beads from an old necklace I took apart (a far better use for them than sitting in a box as a necklace I would never wear.)
Pattern: Estonian Garden Wrap and Scarf by Evelyn A. Clark, a Fiber Trends pattern.
Details: I bought this yarn from Michele quite a long time ago and wanted to use it for something special. Being part of the Evelyn Clark KAL led me to the perfect pattern but I was about 80 yards short of pattern requirements. A shorter wrap was ok with me, so I knit one end through the Lily of the Valley and edging, weighed what was left, determined what I would need for the other end and knit the middle until that's all that was left. I ended up with 5.5 yards ~ close enough to using all of it! Knitting began on January 31st, '07 and the wrap was finished on March 29th, '07. Size before blocking: 18X48 and after 20X60.
Notes: I wore this for the first time this weekend at the Whidbey Island Spin-In and I can't believe how many spinners and knitters stopped to look at it. Honestly, my peeps, if you want a sweet little project which will give you maximum impact with your peers, go for an angora blend and an Evelyn Clark pattern ~ what a combo!

The leftovers: 5.5 yards

Artful Ewe

Details

Fiber: Purchased from Artful Ewe in Kingston, WA last November, 2006. 50/50 superwash merino and alpaca, dyed by Heidi Parra with Mother MacKenzie's Miracle Dyes (non-toxic and environmentally friendly and available at Artful Ewe) and bonus: Heidi and Judith MacKenzie will be in Tacoma today and through Sunday for the Madrona Fiber Arts event at the Sheraton. They're sharing a booth in the Market. Come. Get some fiber and some dye!

16 0unces spun between December 15th and January 20th.

3 hanks for a total of 1250 yards at approximately 14 wpi, also known as sport weight. That's enough for a vest! I've never spun enough yarn for a whole vest before...this is cool! Or I could make a really big shawl, 'cause I need another shawl....

Another Swallowtail Shawl

Because I must do as Peggy does:

Getting started

Lifeline at point where Lilly of the Valley pattern

would begin if I knit as given in original

Pre-blocked but finished knitting

Blocking close-up of Lilly of the Valley
Blocking on towels

Indoor natural light
Finished and indoor with natural light
Finished and outside in natural cloudy light

Spinner/Knitter: Rebecca
Pattern: Swallowtail Shawl, design by Evelyn A. Clark
Source: Interweave Knits, Fall 2006
Fiber: Corriedale X, hand dyed by Baa Bette's Fleece
Source: The Bellwether, purchased March, 2006 at the Whidbey Island Weavers Guild Spin-In
Treatment: Spun in April, 2006 on my Betty Roberts Russian Olive wheel and then I chained the single and ended up with a fingering weight yarn, 667 total yards.
Shawl knitting began on Dec 26th, finished January 7th, 2007
Beads: #6 seed beads from Stash (Yes, I also have a bead stash. Your point?)
Finished measurements: 31" Neck to point, 64" tip to tip (32" each tip to neck)
Changes: I used a size 8 needle. Because I had enough yarn and didn't want a lot left over, plus I like a big shawl, I increased the first pattern by 5 more repeats, a total of 60 added stitches, 30 each side of the center marker. The next 2 patterns are ten stitch repeats and fit right in. The third pattern is a 6 stitch repeat so needed slight modifying at the beginning and end so that the repeats line up as they should ~ no big deal, really.
Notes: You may notice the radically different colors, photo to photo. It was impossible to maintain the actual color of the fiber, but the one that comes closest is the Finished inside with natural light.

In love with Lisa

DICENTRA DESIGNS

Hand Painted Fiber
from Lisa Milliman

This is Blue Faced Leicester Top
5.1 oz of a colorway called DELPHINIUM

I took out most of the yellow after it was spun, not because I didn't like it but because I wanted to 2-ply it and the yellow washed out the other colors a bit more than I liked. I only had 5.1 oz, so I lost a little by removing the yellow instead of one third by chaining. I ended up with just 260 yards, but it's lovely.

Here are two other Dicentra fibers I've been working with,
both of them chained singles.

LOVE HER FIBER!

Before:

After:

Before (on the right):

After:

I wasn't going to buy any more fiber...

But that's not important now. The funnest thing ever is finding a new 'yearn' shop, and hooo-boy, how exciting is THAT! It's called The Artful Ewe, is owned and operated by Heidi Parra out of her home in Kingston, WA. Kingston, for those of you from elsewhere, is a ferry ride across Elliott Bay/Puget Sound from Seattle. Five minutes out of town and there's Heidi, thanking you for calling ahead and welcoming you into her home because THAT is the studio, the shop, where the 'yearn' is. I fell in love with her and her fiber. She uses Mother MacKenzie's Miracle Dyes, sold everywhere through Judith MacKenzie McCuin, the famous dye/spinning/weaving/textile expert/teacher. Judith and Heidi will be sharing a booth at the Madrona Fiber Arts event in January, so if you're there you'll be seeing Heidi's wonderful stuff. In the meantime, here's some photos of her studio and some of the fiber I bought:
It was extremely difficult to choose but then I saw this colorway and wham! It's a superwash merino/alpaca blend and I won't tell you how ridiculously priced it was because I want to see more of it at Madrona in January. Come. It'll be fun! Registration for classes is open as of today and there are some good ones. Or come just for the market. It's going to be FABULOUS!