Russet Lodge Custom Knits

 Hi friends. Life has been really tough for the last few months.  The late winter/early spring slog is tough for a lot of us, and mine has come with illness, family drama, relationship ups and downs, mental health stuff, work stuff, travel, etc.  Life just keeps happening.  I have finished some projects and I have some more in progress, but I do want to refocus myself on finishing (or frogging) UFOs, organizing my stash (there's always more yarn to log and organize and catalog), and continuing to finish projects.  I also took on some commissions during the holidays and got a reminder that they're not my favorites, but I do have one more to finish before I'll be free of them. Here are the finished cabled aran kilt hose for a bagpiper who found my Etsy: Here's my current UFO list, those in bold are new since my last entry: Outlander MKAL shawl: will probably frog it but would like to knit eventually Kelley's Ski Sweater: will frog, no longer the right size Woolly ...

Somehow November showed up before I could even process October, but here we are.  I've been very faithful to a small number of projects recently.  Due to a water/mold situation in my craft room and laundry room (where all my extra craft stuff lived) everything is packed up while we wait for restoration to happen.  I do have a few fun things to share though. I still pick up the Vacillate shawl pretty steadily.  It's going well.  It's easier than I'd usually choose for a project that large, but I'm beginning to appreciate the less high-concentration projects. The Boyfriend socks are done!  The photo doesn't really do the colors of the yarn justice.  I could have made the feet slightly shorter, but not enough to redo them.  I added calf shaping and made the socks as tall as possible.  I like long socks and there's something satisfying about using up every bit of the yarn. I made a second Jacobite bonnet for my customer in Canada, the first wasn'...

 Well.  The days fly by and I haven't been back to update things in quite some time.  I haven't done a ton of knitting, but I do have a few updates on my fiber arts. I picked a new pattern for the brown yarn from Miss BB, I'm going to do the Rocky Coast cardigan by  Hannah Fettig.  It's knit slightly looser and in a wider variety of sizes.  I may modify the pattern to put a couple buttons in the front, but otherwise I think it'll be a good pick, and I'm going to make sure my gauge is spot-on and I choose the right size if I get back to this project. I'm still working steadily on the Vacillate shawl, and I'm more than halfway done.  I'd love to be able to wear it this winter. The Boyfriend socks are one of my other main projects these days, I have moved up the legs and have started the calf increases.  I plan to just keep going until I'm low on yarn and then do the cuffs.  I can't wait to wear these. The Jacobite bonnet is done.  I maile...

 I've had a lot of life lately, and for a while I lost steam on my craft projects, but it's back and I've actually got a lot going on, so let's get to it. With much sadness, I ripped out the entire Miss BB cardigan.  I have taken new measurements and picked a new pattern for that yarn, but it's going to be a bit before I start it.  I'm really trying to clear out WIPs and take care of obligations. The green spinning on the goat spindle is progressing nicely.  Having a distaff to hold my fiber and having less time to use my wheel means I'm getting quite a bit of this done.  I'm almost done with the second of three plies.   The baby alpaca (Harley) fleece project is still progressing slowly.  It's hard to get wheel time and processing by hand takes time too, but it's so silky soft. The whipcord braid is done (for now).  There's always a demand for cord for SCA awards, so I imagine I'll make more as it gets used up. The Bayou Giles wavy socks...

 It's been a long time since I've sat down to write here.  I've felt swamped at work, I've felt swamped at home.  I've felt obligated to work on things that didn't bring me joy.  I made little progress and got sick of saying so.  But I'm shaking the dust off today with a few updates.  Hopefully it'll help my momentum continue.  Here's how my art has been going lately. UGH - I finished all the knitting on the Miss BB cardigan, and was heartbroken to realize that the sleeves are too small.  The project has been in time out for a while before I decide if I rip out and reknit the sleeves, which would be faster but I'm already knitting the largest size (hello body dysmorphia), rip out and reknit the whole thing (because at one time I really liked this pattern) or rip out and find another use for the yarn, either a more size-inclusive pattern or something I customize myself.  I've had little experience with sweaters and I've never made one I ac...

 Life has been full and busy lately.  I earned a promotion at work but that means I've been absolutely swamped with that stuff.  Life at home has been challenging too, and I've been doing a lot of work on myself.  All that is to say it's been hard to make myself sit down and write with all that going on.  I have done a bit of knitting though, so here's a brief overview. I'm working on the shoulder shaping for the sleeves (which I'm doing two at-a-time) on the Miss BB cardigan, which means I'm closing in on the end!  I'm going to have a lot of that handspun yarn left over when I finish the sweater, so I'll have to decide what to do with that.  Maybe sell it or make it into gifts. I've been working on my blue/gray/white spinning project on the Turkish spindle.  I don't know what that wants to become, but I'm enjoying it. I did decide to go ahead and toss the already spun portion of the red and gray spinning project.  I just wasn't feeli...

 Goodness, somehow 2.5 months have flown by since I updated this blog.  I've been really busy with work and SCA activities and just kept thinking I'd come back to this when I had more bandwidth.  Oops.  I haven't come very far on my quest to wrap up some WIPs, but here's an update. The Hue Shift Afghan remains in time out.  After looking at the pattern more closely I realized I'd done not one, but two sections backwards.  I should have left the backwards sections intact and ripped out the correct one.  Sigh.  I haven't had the heart to do any more ripping, so it's still marinating and thinking about what it's done. The Lizard Ridge socks are done.  They're shorter than I tend to make socks because I wasn't sure how I'd work calf shaping into the short row pattern. The fit is good and I have lots of yarn left, so I'm planning to make a pair of socks for my daughter with what's left. Picture is below. The Miss BB sweater is going slowly...

 Well, we're into August and I've been hard at work on SCA garb and trying to keep my head above water with life and work.  Here are a few project updates from the last couple of weeks. I have been working on the Hue Shift Afghan again after my ball of yarn arrived to finish off the last square of the third section.  I also started unraveling the incorrect first section, so I'll probably do that one before I start on section four.  This project feels like a black hole right now. I'm on to the second of the Lizard Ridge socks after finishing the afterthought heel on the first.  I'm now almost to the point where I'll put in the contrast yarn for the heel on the second sock.  This pattern goes quickly for some reason.  Those short rows are fun. The New Year's Socks are done!  They still need ends woven in because my knitting tool kit is currently hiding, and it has all my darning needles in it.  It's too hot for socks right now anyway. I've work...

 Well, the summer is flying by.  I haven't had as much time to craft lately.  Real life stuff is getting in the way of my hobbies, but I do have a few progress updates. The Hue Shift Afghan is stalled again.  I started working on that last bit of section three, but ran out of one of the yarn colors with only a square and a half to go.  This necessitated a dig through the project bag where I've been tossing all the ball bands since I started the project lo these many years ago.  There seemed to be two labels for the two different shades of yellow, but I had no idea which one was the darker one I have enough of and which the lighter one I used up.  Looking on the website made it hard to tell which was lighter too, but I think I figured it out, and of course had to buy some clearance sock yarn while I was at it.  Let's not talk about how much is already in my stash. I started the afterthought heel on the Lizard Ridge socks.  I have a high instep...

 Hi all!  I'm having a small amount of panic about the fact that it's the middle of July already.  I have a big SCA event in late August involving making a bunch of new garb, and I haven't gotten nearly enough done on that yet.  But that's for another day and another blog.  Here's my knitting updates for the past two weeks. Work on the Miss BB sweater is going on, slowly but surely.  The sleeves about five inches each on them and I've started the shaping.  So far so good. The Hue Shift afghan has had a minor tragedy.  Here's what I wrote about it on Facebook: "A sad story: many years ago I started knitting myself a rainbow blanket. It is worked in four sections. I made the first section, then took several years off. I made the second section, then the third, and started the fourth. The other day I decided to look at the pattern. I had started making the fourth section backwards. Okay, I'm less than 25% done with that one, I can rip it out. I...

It seems people like free things, and they like knitting socks, because my toe-up hose have now been downloaded 1766 times.  I am now on the main ravelry pattern page in the number 1 spot of "Designs that Ravelers are looking at today."  I never expected this pattern to do any better than my others did.  None of my other free or purchase patterns have been made more than a few dozen times.  I've also sold about five of my for-pay patterns since offering the temporary freebie, so I guess that's a bit of spillover interest.  Time will tell if this giveaway helps my pattern sales in the long run (i.e. if it gets enough buzz while it's free to make people want it after it's not). For now, here's another gratuitous screen shot with yours truly in that coveted spot...

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?

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...

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...

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...

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...

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 ...

Photo by indigoace on ravelry . EDIT 7/28/16 - clarifying instructions and adding a photo that actually works. I love the Gulls and Garter stitch pattern. It's lovely and interesting, it looks good in both variegated and solid yarn, and it's fun to knit without being too difficult. Cast on 45 stitches (or a multiple of 8 stitches plus five). Rows 1-4: work in garter stitch (knit every row). Row 5 (wrong side): k4 *p5, k3* to last 4 stitches, k4 Row 6 (right side): k4 *With yarn in front, slip 5 stitches purlwise, k3* to last 9 stitches, with yarn in front, slip 5 stitches purlwise, k4. Row 7: repeat row 5. Row 8: K4, *k2, insert RH needle under strand 2 rows below, k next st on LH needle, catching the yarn float behind your stitch, k7; rep from * (end last rep k2)  k4 Continue working Rows 5-8 until cloth is desired length. Work rows 1-4 again. Bind off, weave in ends, enjoy! Below is a chart of the Gulls and Garter stitch.  Red lines indicate the repe...