About Rayna

Newfoundlander, returned home from Toronto a few years ago after 14 years in exile! Knitter of pretty string, spinner of fluff (mostly wheel), sometimes designer and newbie dyer. Occasional stringer of shiny rocks. Wife, and doggie mom.

Creativity is a Funny Thing

Posted on May 13, 2014 by Rayna

I have been involved in that conversation – the “what is creative, really?” debate – several times and in several places, with no real agreement among participants. I, personally, never really considered myself a creative person. As far as I was concerned, buying a knitting pattern and finding a skein of yarn to knit it with….not really all that creative. Many people respectfully disagreed, for the record. To me, creative requires vision, and imagination…and I really wasn’t sure I had either, to be honest.

Lately, things have been different. I am finding myself interested in, well, creating. Shireen taught me some polymer clay fundamentals a few weeks back, while her hubby Tito was showing me some copper metal work.

The makings of a copper bezel for a clay and resin insert.

Clay work done without supervision (I really need to learn to take better pics!)

Polymer clay work done at a later date without supervision (I really need to learn to take better pics!)

I still need to play around with my copper wire and anvil to start making the shawl pins that started all of this!

I have been playing with design ideas for my own knitting patterns; in fact, I am looking at a series of them…who’da thought?! I have been playing with kettle dyeing fibre, and hope to eventually dye some yarn. (I don’t really have any sort of set up or training for hand painting yarn at the moment, but the kettle dyeing has been fun.)

I am super excited! Tonight, I pick up a loom from someone here in Toronto who is destashing hers and hope to get a warping lesson from Shireen ASAP.

Still not sure where all of this is coming from, but I think I should enjoy it and take advantage of it while I can.

A Knitting Bucket List

Posted on May 8, 2014 by Rayna

So…I was bored the other day and started meandering about in WordPress. A blog post caught my eye…a post by The Mad Knitter called “Knitting Bucket List”. Considering how many things I see and ooh and aah over, I wondered if I really had a knitting bucket list and if I didn’t…perhaps I should. Sadly, while Ravelry has favourites and a queue, it doesn’t really have a spot for that, but I digress.

I think a bucket list should be “stretch” goals. I mean, sure, my queue has lots of things I’d like to knit. That’s what my queue is for. For me, a bucket list would contain patterns that I love that would contain something I deem to be a real challenge for whatever reason.

So I started thinking…what would I put on my knitting bucket list? The very first thing that sprang to mind? The socks that made me become a sock knitter three years ago, and that I still have not got the courage to start: Kate Atherley‘s My Vampire Boyfriend. I fell in love with these the moment that I saw them, all pretty and red and heart-y and cable-y. They are basically Rayna in a sock. Yet…each time I contemplate casting them on, I freeze and cast on something simple instead.

How awesome are these?? (Photo by Sarah Fay from Knitty.com)

On the shawl side of things…I’d have to go with Lucy Hague’s Taliesin. My friend Jocelyne linked to it on a Ravelry board that she and I moderate together and I literally gasped out loud. Now this one, I actually have the pattern for. Shireen decided she was going to knit it and sent it to me as a gift with the three word message, “Misery loves company”, a reflection on how hard it was going to be, not the finished item, of course.

Just look at all that Celtic knotwork! (Photo courtesy of lucyhague.co.uk)

Also on the shawl front is Cheryl Oberle’s Irish Diamond Shawl. I fell in love with this one as my friend Caryn made one years ago and wore it to work with great frequency for a long time. It’s so pretty but SO huge. I expect I’d buy a commercial yarn just so that I didn’t have to worry about obtaining five or six matching skeins of indie dyed yarn to make up the prescribed 2200 yards of yarn. I can’t imagine having to alternate skeins on this pattern.

The last thing on my bucket list? A sweater for me. This is another area in which I have no excuse. I have a code that was a gift from my friend Jenn for a Custom Fit sweater by Amy Herzog, a set of Custom Fit measurements just waiting to be entered into the software and not one but two sweater quantities of yarn. For some reason, I balk at the thought of casting it on. I think I have lived for so long with the fear of spending all that time knitting something that won’t fit, that I can’t bring myself to believe those who say that the Custom Fit software makes all of those fears null and void. I am a knitting wuss…there, I said it. Someday, I’ll get brave enough to start. Today is not that day. Tomorrow is not looking good, either!

So…what’s on your knitting bucket list?

Dyeing Alone

Posted on May 7, 2014 by Rayna

Saturday evening’s dyeing experiment made me brave. So when Shireen left her dyeing supplies in my kitchen when she left, Sunday suddenly became filled with colourful possibilities.

When we did our dye date last fall, some of the fibre we tried to dye met with unfortunate endings. One of the couple of batches I did at the time ended up quite felted, and the other stuff never was all that tempting to spin.

So Sunday morning, I grabbed a couple of the single batches of unknown-but-likely-wool fibre and gave them a go.

I soaked the fibre in vinegar and water for the prescribed time and then drained the soaking water into the crock.

The first braid was supposed to be a pale watery blue-green and a chocolate brown – but after immersing the fibre in the blue dye bath, I wimped out with the brown, fearing it would not stick to the fibre properly and that I’d end up with a grungy mess. This one is sort of pretty, but I’d have preferred that it was either lighter and more water-y or darker and more turquoise-y.

Water’s Edge

I had an idea for a blood orange colourway, so I mixed up some orange dye using the colours I had on hand and then when the fibre was fully immersed, I dropped some more red on the top of the fibre.

I left it in the crock and promptly forgot about it….returning later to find the dye bath exhausted, but the water actually boiling. Shockingly, it does not seem to be felted at all and the resulting braid looks something like this.

Blood Orange

I am not delighted with either of them, but it was a fun experiment and I am hoping I’ll get brave enough to try something more interesting next time the spirit moves me.

World’s Craftiest Weekend

Posted on May 6, 2014 by Rayna

It’s always fun and relaxing to spend the majority of the weekend crafting, but those full weekends come along far less often than I might like. Getting to spend half that weekend with like-minded friends? That happens even less often again.

Saturday saw all sorts of fun things, including spinning, knitting, weaving and dyeing.

Weaving…where shall I start? First off, I blame Shireen, The Enabler. She has been posting some of the most beautiful FO shots since acquiring her 20″ Ashford Knitters Loom about a month ago, and she has been regaling me with tales of how quickly these lovely items are going from skeins to wearable items. I have a rather substantial number of single skeins of sock yarn and Kim at indigodragonfly has also been telling me for a long time that a great way to use some of these up is to get a loom, but I wasn’t sure weaving would be my thing.

Then, Shireen brought the loom over on Saturday and let me weave some of her leader, so as not to spoil her actual project. I have to say that while I am sure that producing really nice clean looking edges and such takes some practice, the motions of weaving in and of itself really is pretty easy and the little bit I did led me to believe it could almost be as “zen” an activity as spinning. (Disclaimer: I may be somewhat delusional!)

She has enabled me into looking seriously at acquiring a loom…so much so that I got a line on a second hand one by posting on Ravelry to see if someone had one to destash. I will know more next weekend.

Shireen showed up at my place like she was moving in…there was the aforementioned loom, and wonderful Indian food, and decadent chocolate birthday cake for Leslie, but she also brought with her an entire set up for dyeing yarn. I had a skein of yarn that I got in a swap that I was very unhappy with and I decided to overdye it to see if I could improve it. I won’t mention the dyer name because it’s irrelevant and seems kinda uncool. As it was, it took me a while to reconcile myself to doing it as it feels rather like defacing someone else’s art, but I digress.

The photo made it look pretty nice, if not insanely bright. It was at least enticing enough to make me want to claim it in a Ravelry swap.

Original Skein

What was not clear in this photo was that the yellow-y lime sections had navy blue “smudged” over them, almost like the navy bled and stuck to the lime, rendering it sort of “dirty looking”. I figured that perhaps overdyeing the skein with some blue might render the lime colour a darker green and I was right. I kettle dyed the skein in a Crock Pot, using Jacquard acid dyes in a mixture of Sapphire and Turquoise (I didn’t bother to measure as I knew it wasn’t a recipe I’d ever need again). I let it simmer away until the entire dye bath was exhausted, and hung it to dry. Sunday morning, this was the result.

The “After” Shot

I still don’t love it, per se…but I sure like it a whole lot better. Perhaps I’ll knit socks out of it, and then if I don’t love the colourway knit up, I’ll overdye the socks to make them even more green. We shall see.

My Return to Spinning

Aside

One of my fibre goals for this year was to spin more. Spinning always seems to take a back seat to knitting for me, and even more so recently because I had deadline projects where spinning always has less of a sense of urgency.

When I finally did manage to pick up spinning again recently after a several month long hiatus, I got quite discouraged as I was finding I was encountering some difficulties that I hadn’t previously. I had started using some Schoppel Wolle pencil roving that was a gift from my mother in law for Christmas, thinking this would help me get back into the swing of things after such a long break…I mean, predrafted fibre…what could possibly go wrong? Instead my yarn was dissolving in my hands any time I pulled on it at all, but it didn’t seem woefully underspun.

Time to call in the expert! Leslie Ordal, my first-spinning-class-teacher-turned-friend, offered to come take a look, and Shireen thought this would be a great chance to come learn how to spin on a wheel. So the three of us convened at my place on Saturday, with Shireen and me ready to absorb the knowledge imparted by the pro. This was the inaugural use of my new WooLee Winder (more on this miraculous device at another time!), so I put on an empty bobbin and spun up some new fibre, using some bits and bobs samples I had lying about. I showed Leslie what I had been doing and she decreed that overall, I was doing fine and that while I should probably be putting a little more twist into it, she could not see what was causing the issue. And this new yarn wasn’t falling apart. So I showed her the bobbin with the pencil roving and she immediately knew what had been going wrong. The fibre had tweed-y slubs in it, so when I was spinning, most of the yarn was spun with enough twist, but the slubby parts, because they were thicker, not so much. Those were the parts that were falling apart.

Once I switched to something with a more consistent texture, I got this:

Random Halloween-themed fibre spin

Not bad at all, considering I hadn’t spun in ages.

Once I got the hang of it, I broke out a braid of superwash merino and decided to try that. So far I have turned this:

Into this:

Handpainted Merino

I spent about an hour last night spinning away in front of the Penguins/Rangers game and I am planning to set aside some time each day to try and move my spinning forward.

FO: Sign of Four Socks

Posted on April 24, 2014 by Rayna

So, a while back I mentioned that I have this weird habit of getting super obsessed with a pattern and needing to knit it right. now. Anne Hanson’s Sign of Four was another one of those patterns.

Someone posted a finished object shot of a pair of these on a forum I am part of on Ravelry and it was love at first sight. I had planned a pair of Anne’s Long John Socks for my dad, on her recommendation, but as soon as I saw these I was sunk. I had given Dad a pair of Anne’s Waffle Creams in blue for Christmas and he loved them so much, Mom told me each time they got out of the laundry, he had them on again the minute he could get his hands on them. Since he had requested brown socks (OMG, more brown socks!) I cast on. After all…there is really no better compliment, is there?

As I was knitting I was struck by the fact that the texture was definitely more puffy and “popcorn-ish” than the photos, an effect I was less than pleased with, but I soldiered on, figuring that once they were on his feet, it would not matter. It was an easily memorize-able pattern so it made for great travel knitting.

The first sock went off perfectly, so on the needles went the second, and everything went swimmingly…until I picked up my gusset stitches and went to knit the first stitch of the instep. And it was not the right stitch. The entire pattern had somehow gone one stitch off. One of the stitches has to move at the end of the leg, before the heel flap, and I am guessing in retrospect that I somehow managed to move the wrong one. I decided that, since I was on a bit of a deadline because they were coming to visit…I’d keep going. After all, it’s just texture! Plus, I knew I was the only person in the world who would ever notice (ok, maybe Anne herself might see the mistake!). Far as I can tell, no one else noticed.

Pre-blocked socks

Once they were done, I soaked them and rolled them in a towel to squeeze the water out, before laying them out to dry. As I placed them on the windowsill, I noticed something wonderful…the puffier texture I hadn’t loved was gone and the pattern I had loved in the FO shots had emerged. I could not have been more thrilled!

Socks in the park in Lindsay! (Thanks to Shireen for the photo!)

Dad loves these, too…and I will be knitting them again soon. He’ll still get his Long John Socks…those are next!

Pattern: Sign of Four (A Sock For Sherlock) by Anne Hanson

Yarn: SweetGeorgia Tough Love Sock in Espresso

Who Was It Made For? Dad

Were There Changes Made To The Pattern? Only in the sense that I made a slew of mistakes that luckily no one will notice.

Did I Learn Anything New? Yes…that I should check the pattern of the stitches on reserve for the instep before I start knitting the heel flap to make sure the configuration of the remaining stitches is correct.

Anything Else? Not that I recall.

Would I Make Another?: I already have it queued, for me this time, with a second skein of Tough Love Sock in a gorgeous blue green colourway called Deep Cove.

FO: Winter Birch

Posted on April 8, 2014 by Rayna

Occasionally, I will be surfing Ravelry or Twitter and I will come across a photo of a new (or not-so-new) pattern and the strangest thing happens. I become utterly and completely obsessed with the item in question and I have to knit it right. this. second.

So starts the story of how I ended up knitting a Winter Birch in a weekend.

Someone on my Twitter feed posted that they were having a KAL of the scarf and while I didn’t have the yarn required to participate, I did have a stunning silver-grey skein of Illimani Silky Baby Llama that I had picked up on a recent trip to a yarn shop in Kitchener. It was the right weight and the right size skein, and I was completely in love with the pattern so I cast on on a Friday evening.

It was ridiculously simple to memorize; I think I had it totally committed to memory by the end of the first repeat.

~Photo by Shireen Nadir

I found the repeats to be like potato chips…”just one more”. Within a couple of days, voila! A gorgeous and soft creation, just the right length for tucking into the front of a coat.

It was already pretty enough, but then my friend Shireen came over, armed with her camera, and took some lovely pics for me. Someday I am going to finish my Craftsy “Shoot It!” class, I swear!

~Photo by Shireen Nadir

I am extremely happy with how it turned out, and considering how quickly I was able to churn it out, the pattern is definitely going to stay at the top of my list for gifting possibilities.

Pattern: Winter Birch by Debbie Stone

Yarn: Illimani Silky Baby Llama in the ever-so-descriptive colourway “1804”

Who Was It Made For? Me? Not entirely sure if it will get gifted elsewhere.

Were There Changes Made To The Pattern? Only in the sense that I knit and knit until I was out of yarn and thus ended up with extra repeats.

Did I Learn Anything New? No

Anything Else? Not that I recall.

Would I Make Another?: I already have it queued for a skein of Handmaiden Great Big Sea.

FO: Reunion Cowl

Posted on April 8, 2014 by Rayna

Sometimes, a gal just needs mindless knitting. There are knit nights, lunch hours with a friend, airports and parent visits. These things all require knitting where I am not trying to remember where the cable crosses are, or how many knit stitches between the YOs and k2togs.

Enter, the Reunion Cowl. Utterly brainless knitting that can be done just about anywhere. And when it’s done with indigodragonfly MCN Lace (now known as MerGoat Lace), it’s pure pleasure to knit.

This is my second of these; the first was knit in a OOAK blue-green colourway in late 2012. But I was always wishing for a red one and Kim and Ron created this lovely colouway a few years back that just cried out to be my newest cowl.

MCN/MerGoat Lace in “Only The Exact Word Word I Used Was ‘Don’t'”

It took a while to knit up, mostly because it was my carry around knitting so I wasn’t entirely devoted to it. I love the way it turned out. Long enough to double up for extra warmth and wonderfully soft and squishy.

I made a couple of alterations, including knitting the first set of garter rounds as flat rows and doubling up the number of eyelet rows to add both visual and knitting interest.

I am sure this won’t be my last one of these. They are a nice change from plain-ish socks when I am looking for easy knitting.

Pattern: Reunion Cowl by Natalie Selles

Yarn: indigodragonfly MCN/MerGoat Lace in “Only The Exact Word Word I Used Was ‘Don’t'”

Who Was It Made For? Me

Were There Changes Made To The Pattern? Added extra eyelet rows to alleviate boredom, and knit the first garter section and seamed it to help avoid twisting my cast on and to avoid purling. I have an unnatural aversion to purling, especially when the rounds are some 300+ stitches long.

Did I Learn Anything New? No

Anything Else? Not that I recall.

Would I Make Another?: Likely!

A Pair of Shireens!

Posted on March 6, 2014 by Rayna

This is pretty exciting for me…the person I designed a pair of socks for has now knit them and blogged about it! 😀

A Pair of Shireens!.

Best Laid Plans

Posted on February 3, 2014 by Rayna

I woke up Saturday morning with goals…several of them, in fact. DH was working 7-3 both Saturday and Sunday, and this meant I had lots of time to do what I wanted, so I made plans.

I had planned to knit my Dad a pair of Anne Hanson’s Sign of Four socks. So determined was I to cast them on, that I started the Rav project. That’s commitment, right there. If I build it, it will cast on, right?

I had also determined that I was going to re-start my spinning, so again, one Ravelry project coming right up!

And third, I had determined that my Reunion Cowl in a stunning red indigodragonfly MCN Lace that I had been working on steadily since Christmas was coming off the needles, by hook or by crook. So I queued up Season 4 of Angel, and settled in, feeling pretty good.

Right.

I once heard an expression: “Man Plans. God Laughs.” Yep…that was my Saturday.

The Reunion Cowl took a lot longer than I expected to finish and cast off. There were a few reasons, the largest of which was that my adorable dog decided she wanted all. the. attention. and needed to go outside an unprecedented 5 times in 8 hours. Now, there are a few things to note here.

1) You can be in the apartment for hours, and never know Kayleigh is there. She sleeps a lot and is generally like a cat in the amount of attention she wants. Nope. All day long she was in my face looking for attention. If I picked up needles…there she was. No way I was knitting on her watch.

If she didn't weight 40+ pounds, the rest of her would have been in my lap!

If she didn’t weigh 40+ pounds, the rest of her would have been in my lap!

2) We live on the 14th floor of an apartment highrise. So this means that there is no “letting her out”. Nope…you have to get dressed, dress her up in her coat, go all the way down stairs etc etc… This is a very time consuming activity.

So much for my nice quiet Saturday. I did manage to get the cowl done by the time DH got home but that pretty much covered it.

Saturday evening, I was determined to get my other two goals accomplished so while catching up on some TV, I cast on Dad’s socks…SweetGeorgia Tough Love Sock in Espresso.

Socks…more brown socks.

I swear there will be a moratorium on brown knitting and 1×1 ribbing the minute these are done. Then when DH turned on a hockey game at 8:30 or so, I hauled out my wheel for the first time in at least six months. I only spun for half an hour, and it was not a good start (I appear to be having issues with underspinning and my yarn keeps falling apart) but it was a start. Hooray for determination!

Sunday, I didn’t anticipate getting a lot done. I was awake half the night with the aforementioned puppy, and slept in a little. I did finish the cuff of Dad’s sock but that was about it. I woke up to an email from Christina over at Lone Maple Studio, with her new pattern attached for test knitting, so I went stash diving for the most cheerful sock yarn I owned. By the end of the evening, I had decided on a discontinued multi from Tanis Fiber Arts in a colourway called Tulip.

I figured when I need a break from the never ending socks of brown, this colourway will be spring-like, with it’s teal, purple and yellow.

So, I did manage to get my goals accomplished, although I am still not entirely sure how. It does, though, go to show that the best laid plans of mice and me often go awry.