Russet Lodge Custom Knits

Just a quick post today, since I can't share most of my current works in progress because they're holiday gifts and test knits.  This is my current purse knitting project, a pair of toe-up socks in a 3x1 rib using David's Toe-Up Sock Cookbook .  The yarn is good old Red Heart Heart & Sole.  What can I say?  It was in my stash and it wears like iron. What's on your needles this week?

In honor of my birthday in two weeks I am giving away copies of my knitting patterns! Enter below for a chance to win your choice of any of my designs available at my designer page on ravelry a Rafflecopter giveaway

I don't have a lot of time to chatter today, but I do have pics of my latest finished socks.  I cobbled together pieces of various patterns I liked to come up with this.

I have to admit, today I am as pleased as the cat that got the cream.  For all the years I've been making custom kilt hose for sale I have had the idea rattling around to make a universal pattern calculator for kilt hose.  I am a knitter who loves the freedom of knitting without a pattern to make something unique and well-fitted.  There is something thrilling in sitting down with paper and pencil and working it out every step of the way.  That said, I know not everyone's mind has the degree of math geekery and OCD that mine does, and I wanted to find a relatively simple way to help people who don't daydream about becoming an engineer to create something fully customized.  I've avoided this project for a long time because, well, pattern design is complicated.  It requires a lot of time and thought, even when you're not doing algebra that includes nineteen different variables (yes, really). I would first like to say a huge thank you to the kind folks over a...

Boy have I got a mess o' projects to share with everyone! First is a simple scarf I'm weaving in the pinwheel houndstooth pattern, also known as the friendship star.  This is 100% Peruvian Highland wool and will be heading to a dear friend in a cold place. Remember that SPAKAL (spin and knit-along) I'm doing?  I've spun 9 out of 24 ounces of the wool for my sweater.  It's still possible I could do this in 2012, though I'll have to work hard. I have just a few repeats of the last section on my Color Affection shawl before starting the solid border.  I should have yarn left over for hat/mitts too. And heavens preserve us, I've started an English paper piecing project.  I'm not sure how I'll put these together yet, right now I'm happily making hexagons, then I can lay them out and see what speaks to me. Come check out all the great projects at Idaho Etsy Team and please make sure to say hi and check out what everyone else is ...

I have been working up a storm and haven't posted any works in progress for two weeks, so I pulled out the camera and took a mess of pictures for y'all today! Last weekend I got out the dye pot and dyed 8 ounces of white merino spinning fiber so I can make the Nymphaea shawl by Becky Herrick  (click the indie patterns link at the top of the page to purchase/download).  She was kind enough to give me a copy of this pattern, which she just published, after I told her I thought it would be lovely in handspun.  I considered the gift a challenge, and when I realized nothing in my stash would work, I got down to business. I dyed the fiber using Wiltons' Icing Dyes.  I don't like acid dyes because they're so toxic, and you can get some amazing color variations from simple food coloring.  To me this still counts as a WIP because I still have all the spinning and knitting to do.  Yay! I have been doing a lot of drawing and doodling lately.  Ther...

I have been on a major finishing kick lately. I'm not sure why, but suddenly the sight of my big bin of unfinished objects (UFOs) is driving me batty.  Every time I finish something lately, I go to the UFO bin, and pull something out.  Half the projects I pull out have been frogged or even thrown away because I don't like them or the yarn any more.  Most of them wound up abandoned in the UFO bin for that reason in the first place.  The other projects, though, have been getting quickly finished up.  It is so satisfying! One of the ones I resurrected and finished is Cookie A.'s Wedge sock pattern from her book Knit. Sock. Love.   The yarn I used isn't anything classy or pricy, it's just Premier Yarns Serenity Sock Weight that I bought on sale at Joann's.  The colors are pretty and it's actually very soft.  The yarn is 50% merino, 25% bamboo, and 25% nylon.  The bamboo gives it a nice shine, and I'll report back on how it wears.  The ya...

This week I haven't had time to photograph all my works in progress.  In fact, I realized that in addition to the spinning and knitting (the loom hasn't been out of the box for a couple of months, which is a tragedy) I have a sewing WiP that I'm starting to feel ready to finish. However, the one WiP I do have pics of is barely a WiP at all, and I could really use some help nailing it down.  I bought this beautiful yarn at Happy Knits in Portland on a recent vacation.  The yarn is Madelinetosh's Tosh Vintage in the Shoreline colorway.  It is a discontinued color so it was 20% off.  That, of course, meant I had to buy two skeins instead of one.  Look at those pretty colors.  As a blue-eyed girl I think it is going to be perfect for me! I think this wants to be a long infinity scarf.  I wasn't sure if I liked them or not, but my sister gave me one for the holidays last winter and I wore the heck out of it.  This is a round springy yarn th...

I know I've been scarce lately.  My summer's been busy and I've kind of lost my mojo for designing and taking care of my etsy shop lately.  For now, I'll just share a project I posted about back in May .  I have to admit that lace isn't really my forte.  I like it, but I find it challenging and occasionally frustrating.  It's hard to admit that, because every knitter worth her salt knits lace.  I know my tastes change, which makes it even harder when you're working on long-term projects. This shawl was for a friend of mine.  She chose the yarn and pattern.  Since this friend isn't a knitter herself she chose a yarn and pattern that didn't really match.  Lace weight yarn on a pattern meant for something thicker and more toothsome.  This required some improvisation on my part, and the look is very different from the photos from the designer.  I still think the shawl is lovely, but it's very small despite two extra repeats of the mai...

Well, today is day four of the Tour de Fleece, the annual event where handspinners spin along with the cyclists in the Tour de France. My goal for this year is to spin for an hour per day for every day of the tour. I can work on whatever's at hand, I just have to get my hour. I had hoped to spin a sweater's worth of yarn, but many forces conspired to prevent that, so I'm just spinning what I've got.  On day one I only managed half an hour of spinning. A very special young friend of mine had his Bar Mitzvah on that day, and getting to attend the service and help him celebrate took up a good portion of the day. I did sit down in the afternoon and spin, and it was marvelous, a great way to relax with a good podcast.  On day two I got my full hour in, and probably more. I opened up my queue on hulu and turned on autoplay so it would just keep playing my favorites. I switched back and forth between knitting and spinning and polished off several weeks worth of Colb...

I've made some good progress since the last time I shared my projects in progress, and I even took the time to take decent photos this week, or at least better than the phone pics from a couple weeks ago.  You can click on the photos for a larger view if you like! The Targee wool from Crown Mountain Farms is coming along nicely.  This bobbin plus the ball of unspun roving is the first half of the 4 oz I got.  I haven't focused much on spinning since I'm currently on a knitting deadline, but once in a while when my hands/wrists are too sore to knit I get out the wheel for a relaxing spin. The kilt hose have come a long way since the last time I shared them too!  I've included a picture of the chart I made as well.  The pattern is from the much-sought Knitting Scottish Kilt Hose and Hiking Socks by Joanne Gibson Hinmon .  The book is really popular, but honestly I'm not sure why.  There are no charts, the patterns are full of typos, and the hose...

Well, along with WiP Wednesday I thought it would be nice to occasionally share some items I've actually completed.  This doesn't happen nearly as frequently as I'd like, but it is nice to let people see what I'm up to. Today's FO is some hand-painted corriedale roving from Fiber Fancy .  The colorway is called Jungle Fever, and I got it on sale.  Corriedale isn't next-to-the-skin soft, but the fiber was very well prepared and drafted beautifully.  Here's a picture of the fiber from the etsy shop: And here's the finished fiber.  It's about 330 yards of sport-weight yarn, a fractal-plied three ply.  It hasn't told me what it wants to be yet. I like devoting a day to finishing things up, sharing what I've completed, and remembering that every once in a while I am, in fact, productive.  What have you finished this week?

It's that time again, WiP Wednesday, where I show off the things I'm working on.  I've got crummy pictures this week because i used my phone, but I wanted to make sure I had something to share, so just imagine they're as lovely as Franklin Habit's photos . First, I've got a pair of kilt hose on the needles.  They've progressed a bit since this photo, but not by nearly as much as I'd like.  The pattern is mostly from my head, with input from several toe-up sock calculators and books of kilt hose patterns.  I'll try to share these again once they look a little more like socks. I'm also spinning some hand-dyed Targhee pencil roving from Crown Mountain Fibers.  Targhee sheep were developed right here in Idaho (and named for Targhee National Forest) at the U.S. Sheep Experiment Station in eastern Idaho.  The fleece is very soft and a nice length, and they are raised for meat too.  I don't have a lot so far, but it spins quickly since it was...

This summer brings together two very popular events in the fiber/crafting world. The Tour de Fleece runs June 30th through July 22nd. This is an event where spinners spin along with the Tour de France, spinning on cycling days and resting on rest days. Spinners typically set themselves a challenging goal and try to "win" by meeting their goal by the end of the tour.  My goal is a simple one, to spin an hour a day every day of the Tour. Ideally I will have hand-combed all the fleece for the SPAKAL (spin and knit along) sweater that I am doing with the Knitmore Girls Podcast and I will spin that for the Tour, but in case I don't have it all done I will spin whatever I can for an hour a day. I have lots of stashed fiber to choose from. The second big event comes not long after the Tour, it's the Ravelympics! During this event knitters cast on a project during the opening ceremonies of the Olympics (July 27th) and try to finish it by the closing ceremonies (Aug...

Well, it's high time I came out of my shell and posted another work in progress with my friends over at the Idaho Etsy Team. Hopefully it will motivate me to get this sucker finished in time. I always say I hate deadline knitting and won't do it any more, but I just keep winding up with deadlines! Here is a (rather crummy) photo of one of my many current WiPs, a lace shawl done as a swap for my friend Monica. The lace is madelinetosh prairie in the "tart" colorway, a truly stunning tonal red. The pattern is Lily Go's Narnia Shawl . I am working on the shawl in size 2 needles. It's requiring a bit of improv because the shawl is designed for heavier yarns and larger needles, so it's slow going and extra repeats to get it to a respectable size. I pinned the shawl to my couch to take this photo, but it's still not as flat and open as it will be when it's properly blocked. Someday this is going to grow up to be a magnificent shawl. I can'...

Up to this point I've mainly used this blog to talk about items I'm selling or what's going on in my etsy shop , but I think it would be far more interesting if I try to use it to share information about my crafts, whether personal or for sale, as well. I am a member of the Idaho Etsy Team , and it's high time I joined in the fun of their weekly WiP Wednesday feature, where members post about what projects they have in the works. I just started a new knitting project today, it is one of my eighteenth-century Scottish bonnets for a client. The yarn is Knit Picks Wool of the Andes in the color Amber Heather and it's beautiful, it just glows! The bonnet's small now, but I will probably have it done in no more than a couple of days. It's a quick and easy pattern and I'm a speedy knitter. The other project I've got in the works is a group project with listeners of the Knitmore Girls Podcast , they are doing a SPAKAL (spin and knit along), we are ...