The Crafty Rabbit

In which the Rabbit spins in the Tour de Fleece

2010-07-18T16:32:00.001-07:00

The Tour de Fleece is an annual event for spinners that takes place, not so surprisingly, at the same time as the Tour de France. The idea is that one chooses a more or less challenging spinning project and works away at it every day the racers in the Tour de France are riding. So as Lance and co. are spinning away, so are we.

Having crashed and burned during the Ravelympics, I was a little reluctant about the TdF. But I thought I should probably join in for the podcast's sake. So I threw in my lot with Team Sasquatch, an amalgamated group of podcasters and their listeners on Ravelry. I'm so glad that I did.

I decided that I wanted to spin the California Red lamb's fleece from Apple Rose farm. It was a small fleece; after washing and doing some preliminary sampling I had about twenty ounces. That seemed like a manageable amount to work on for the TdF; the challenge, I thought, would come from the day-in, day-out sameness of the color.

Using my handy digital kitchen scale purchased for fibery pursuits, I divided the fleece into one-ounce clumps, which I spent most of June, it seemed, painstakingly turning into one-ounce batts. Twenty in all. Here's a picture of half of them:

I used one of the batts for training purposes--to experiment with wheel settings, etc. I decided to add to the challenge by using this as an opportunity to practice my long draw, recently fine-tuned in a class with Maggie Casey (more on this in the podcast). I wanted to make a nice, round three-ply yarn, so I wanted the individual plies to be as fine as I could comfortably make them with a long draw at this stage. So I'm spinning at a 14:1 ratio and plan to ply at 16:1.

This is the first big spinning project I've done and so I decided to invest in a bobbin winder and storage bobbins. I'm spinning the 19 ounces, putting them on bobbins as I go. When I ply, I'll be selecting bobbins randomly in hopes that this will tend to even out any differences in width and color and produce the most consistent yarn possible.

Here's how the bobbins look, all lined up like little soldiers.

I took this picture several days ago. These have been joined by seven more. Very satisfying.

In addition to the pleasure of working methodically through the carding and spinning of this lovely fiber, I've also had the fun of being part of Team Sasquatch. Folks are reporting daily or every other day on their progress, and generally cheering each other on. It's a lovely group of people.

In which the Rabbit apologizes to her blog for neglecting it

2010-06-12T09:34:00.001-07:00

Not much has been going on here. All the activity around the podcast these days has been eating up a lot of my creative energy. I haven't been doing much knitting. The projects I have going seem either stale (Mr. Rabbit's Smooshy socks) or, like the afghan, interminable. And while I have been spinning, it's all been podcast related, so I'm loathe to scoop my own podcast by revealing it here.

I'm going to cast on a couple of new things today in hopes of jumpstarting my knitting mojo. I'll report back soon. Promise.

In which the Rabbit makes a list

2010-05-29T07:24:00.001-07:00

Five things I should have on the needles at all times:

1. Something that is knitted from handspun

2. Something that is all garter stitch

3. Something that is a gift for someone

4. Something that is a challenge

5. A sock

In which the Rabbit waxes philosophical about fulling

2010-05-14T09:10:00.001-07:00

So yesterday, I was plying up some yarn that I made with Coopworth roving. It is a lovely dark, rich brown.

I bought it because a) I wanted to practice supported long draw (see Abby Franquemont's video here), which is best done with roving, and b) it's lovely and soft. In that respect, it's a way better version of the Coopworth fleece I bought at the Vermont Sheep and Wool Festival, which is so coarse that no matter how I process it, and no matter how I spin it, I can't seem to make a yarn that I would want to spend any time knitting:

Anyway, I was finding this roving a little, well, challenging. Mostly because I'm not so good at supported long draw. I'm way too much of a control freak, and you pretty much have to abandon yourself to the twist and let it do what it's going to do. And what it's going to do—at least, if you're me—is pull the fiber out of the supply hand in a somewhat uneven way. And, since I'm a control freak, this makes me a little crazy. Did I mention that I'm a control freak?

Compounding what I have come to think of as my long draw problem is the fact that this roving has some of what spinners call "VM"—vegetable matter—in it. Mostly this is little bits of hay. So I'm spinning along, trying to get into some kind of rhythm with the long draw, and having to keep stopping to pick out the hay, which is surprisingly tenacious. Suffice to say, I found this a less than entirely relaxing experience.

So last night I plied about half of it, and I wasn't happy. It just didn't look good. It was uneven. It was fuzzy, and not in a way I liked. But, hearing Abby Franquemont's voice in my head, from her video on drafting, saying that woolen yarns change a lot when they are washed, I dutifully went downstairs to my basement, where the yarn washing happens, and fulled the heck out of that yarn, using the method Judith McKenzie McCuin describes in Teach Yourself Visually Handspinning. In other words, I felted the yarn a bit to give it more structure, help the plies cohere, and encourage the fiber to puff up and take up more space. I soaked it in hot water and Eucalan for a bit, then moved it to very cold water to shock it, then back to hot. Then I agitated it with a sink plunger (brilliant, Judith) purchased for the purpose. Then back to cold. Etc. Then, as usual, I wrapped it in a towel and spun the water out using the spin cycle of my washing machine, gave it a few good smacks against the stainless steel surface of my laundry folding table, and put my hands through the loop of the skein and snapped it a few times, a la Maggie Casey. The last two steps are said to distribute the twist.

Suddenly, I loved this yarn. I loved the way it felt, and looked, and smelled. It's still quite "rustic," but it's also soft and lovely and bouncy. And much more even in diameter than I expected.

And then I had two thoughts.

Thought Number One: this is why I spin. Because even though I disliked picking out all the little bits of hay, this is a much nicer, livelier yarn because the fiber has been so minimally processed. It still smells a tiny bit sheepy (in a good way). It's a little tweedy because it hasn't been carded to within an inch of its life to blend the colors. And it's bouncy in a way that most commercial yarn isn't, because most commercial yarn has been made from wool that has been through a process that literally burns the VM out of the fiber. It really is a different creature from commercial yarn.

Thought Number Two: fulling is a pretty good metaphor for life. You're all ugly and uneven and imperfect and full of little bits of hay. Then you get beaten up--tossed from hot to cold, agitated with a plunger, smacked against a table. And then it turns out, after all that, that the abuse has smoothed you out, rendered you shiny and resilient. You're still imperfect, yes, and you're beautiful.

In which the Rabbit announces a new endeavor

2010-05-10T08:44:00.001-07:00

The Rabbit has started a podcast! It's called SpinDoctor, and it's a show that reviews stuff for spinning. It's not up on iTunes yet, but the show notes page, where you can download the first episode, is here. Give it a listen and let me know what you think.

It's bi-monthly; I'm going to shoot for the first and the fifteenth of the month as posting dates.

If you're on Ravelry, there's a discussion group for listeners here.

In which our story continues . . .

2010-05-07T06:13:00.001-07:00

In the car on the way to and from Maryland I continued working on the Log Cabin afghan. These squares are big fun—just when the garter stitch starts to get tedious, it's time to bind off and pick up stitches again. So I'm feeling quite enthusiastic about this project. Hence my conclusion that it needs more pink and green, and my purchase of three more colors for it yesterday. Do I need this yarn? Nope.

Really: no. But, as the woman in the store said: "they look like a watermelon." How could I resist?

In which the Rabbit, and Mr. Rabbit, go to the Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival

2010-05-06T10:04:00.001-07:00

Along with a lot of other people!

So last weekend the Rabbit and the ever-stalwart Mr. Rabbit got in their car and headed south to the Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival. The Rabbit was so excited she could hardly contain herself.

I used to live in Baltimore, you see, and I love the city and miss it terribly. So this trip meant not only unparalleled fiber-y shopping opportunities, but also a chance to eat the best crab cakes in the universe—Faidley's, in Lexington Market, below, hands down—drive by my old house in Charles Village (no pics, sorry).

Then we went to the Baltimore Museum of Art, and generally hung out in the city on Saturday. At the Market we were even treated to some live music by a fabulous blues band, which afforded me a chance to dance (and sing!) with total strangers. Fabulous. And in the BMA sculpture garden we even found a lagomorph!

Then, after a nice dinner in Canton, we went home to bed so that we could head to the festival early Sunday morning.

I knew from my study of the Maryland Sheep and Wool group on Ravelry that Sundays at the festival are generally less crowded than Saturdays, so we opted for Sunday and boy oh boy was I glad we did! Apparently the crowds and traffic on Saturday were insane. Sunday was managable, but still blistering hot. All the animals were panting. So were we, at times.

We saw some Alpaca. Mr. Rabbit said that they look like Dr. Seuss characters, and, as usual, he's right:

We also saw tons of sheep breeds in person that I'd only read about, and a blade shearing competition.

While we were watching the competition, Heather Ordover of CraftLit happened by and struck up a conversation about lamb sausage. I knew it was Heather Ordover because a) I recognized her voice from the podcast and b) she was helpfully wearing a CraftLit tee-shirt. We had a nice chat about Dracula, among other things. She is lovely.

I picked up an absolutely gorgeous Corriedale fleece that I had selected a couple of weeks earlier, sight unseen, from Ruppert's Corriedales. I wish I had thought to take its picture before I handed it, and the nine-pound (!) black Cormo-Corriedale cross fleece I bought at the festival's fleece sale, off to Ozark Carding Mill for processing. (Added bonus: in the Ozark booth I met spinning guru Maggie Casey, whose classes I'll be taking next month at The Spinning Loft.) You'll just have to take my word for the fact that the Ruppert's fleece was stunning. And the black fleece was also pretty lovely.

Aside from the two big fleeces, I was pretty restrained. I bought some lovely silk and merino painted top from Cloverleaf Farms in their "Autumn" colorway.

And two skeins of worsted, minimally-processed Polwarth yarn, dyed in seawater, from Seacolors Yarn (they don't have much of a web presence, but they're profiled in the book Shear Spirit). I've been wanting to see this yarn in person since reading about it, and it didn't disappoint. One skein for me, one for my friend Aara.

Last, but not least, I was able to visit the Three Waters Farm booth, meet Mary Ann Pagano, and see her beautiful hand-dyed yarn and fiber in person. Wow. Just . . . wow. The pictures on her website are impressive—I've been stalking this fiber online for a while now; the color palette is so rich and original I couldn't decide which I wanted—but they really don't do the fiber justice. My pictures don't either (my camera seems a bit vague and unfocused today), but they give a hint.

It was so hot that we actually left the festival around 2. I know I didn't see everything, but that just means more discoveries next year, right? We drove back Monday. It was pretty much a perfect weekend.

In which the Rabbit confesses her adoration of Kay Gardiner

2010-04-29T08:33:00.001-07:00

The Rabbit just loves Kay Gardiner, the "Mason" half of Mason-Dixon Knitting.

I adore her affection for the rectilinear, the clean-lined, and the graphic. I swoon over her passion for garter stitch, and her brilliance in deploying it in ever-new ways. And I totally heart the fact that she hearts the quilts of Gee's Bend. So, inspired by her fabulously cukoo-for-coco-puffs plan to knit an entire log-cabin afghan out of sock yarn, I have embarked on a log cabin project of my own (first, experimental square, above). Partly because I want to use up all that Cascade 220 I bought for the Penny Rug Purse that got frogged when the color decisions all got too much for me. But mostly because I want to be more like Kay Gardiner.

Here are some things of hers that I particularly love. Most of the postings on Mason-Dixon Knitting don't seem to have their own links, so you'll have to search for these: "A Dingo Stole My Baby," and "Blue, Orange, Green, Green, Green, White, White, White, White." The latter I find heartbreakingly gorgeous.

In which the Rabbit ponders her ambivalence about processing fleece

2010-04-24T07:59:00.001-07:00

The Rabbit is amassing something of a history with fleece. Raw fleece, right (more or less) off the sheep, skirted—that is, with all the really filthy bits removed—but still all greasy and smelly and delightfully sheepy.

I love raw fleece. But here's what's a little weird: once I've washed it, I kind of lose interest. Because once it's washed, it—and I—enter a space not unlike the waiting place in Dr. Seuss' Oh, The Places You'll Go. The Carding Place. Or, in some cases, the Combing Place. In either case, a place one has to be for a very long time. And the fact is, I don't care much for these places.

My drumcarder has helped. It's a Strauch Petite, and it makes big, lovely batts. But not everything is suitable for drumcarding.

This big, beautiful Cormo fleece (above) that I bought in the fall from Sue Reuser is too fine for the drumcarder; it needs to be combed by hand. Somehow, I find the prospect of combing a five-pound fleece kinda daunting. And I haven't even started it. Even though the fleece is to die for.

On the other hand, the drumcarder is perfect for this little beauty:

This is a two-pound (manageably sized!) fleece from a California Red lamb. It's from Elizabeth and Leonard Ferraro at Apple Rose Farm, and I think I got it within a week or two of shearing. Because it's a lamb's fleece, it's soft, and the color variation in the lock makes a lovely, tweedy, oatmeal-colored yarn.

The plan was that the California Red fleece was going to be a sweater for Mr. Rabbit. But I'm not sure that I have enough of it. So I've arranged to buy a big Corriedale fleece (seven pounds) from Windborne Farm that will become Mr. Rabbit's sweater. But I'm getting smarter in my old age. I'm going to pick up the fleece next week at the Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival, and then I'm going to trundle it right over to Zeilinger's Wool Co. and give it to them for washing and processing into roving.

Thus completely avoiding The Carding Place.

In which the Rabbit considers the mysteries of dyeing

2010-04-22T21:35:00.001-07:00

For the past few months, the Rabbit has been experimenting with dyeing fiber, and trying to learn about what fiber dyed in particular ways looks like when it is spun into yarn. There has been a lot of brightly-colored paw fur and some interesting results.

For example, this is some of the first fiber I dyed, with food coloring from the local Metro. It's hard to get much depth of shade with food coloring, so the fiber ended up looking like Easter eggs. Which, if you're a rabbit, isn't such a bad thing, as Easter is the national holiday of bunnies. Anyway, here's some fiber from that experiment, some Cormo top from Apple Rose Farms:

See what I mean about Easter eggs? So here's what that top looks like as yarn:

I found it hard to draft the Cormo smoothly, so I went for a thick and thin yarn. This was before I read Judith McKenzie McCuin on thick and thin yarn, so the bumps aren't exactly mathematically precise. But I still think this would make a nice baby hat.

For my second experiment, I used acid dyes (Sabraset, to be exact, from Pro Chemicals) on some lovely Polwarth top from Legacy Studio:

At the time, I was deep into Lynne Vogel's Twisted Sisters Sock Workbook. I highly recommend this book to anyone interested in dyeing fiber. Vogel keeps the math involved in mixing dye solutions very simple, and advocates just mixing colors intuitively and playing, which gave me the courage to dive in.

I used the same four colors, a persian blue, an olive, an eggplant and a plum using different dyeing methods on different sections of fiber. I was thus able to get a range of different values that I then combined in different ways (still following Lynne Vogel's advice). Here was the result:

The braid in the back was painted in solid stripes; for the ones in the front, I scattered the dye onto the fiber in artful, Pollock-esque drips (the difference between the front and middle braids was only in how much dye I used).

I then made a series of two-ply yarns using these braids in as many different combinations as I could.

Then I became interested in what happens when one uses one solid ply and two painted plies together in the same yarn. I started with this Finn top, from Village Spinning and Weaving, dyed with Sabraset dyes:

Then I dyed up some border leicester locks in coordinating blues:

and

Spun and plied together, these yarns look like this:

Finally, and this will catch you all up on the dyeing experiments thus far, yesterday I dyed three 3 oz. bumps of Wensleydale (from the fabulous Beth Smith's Spinning Loft) in tones of red, green and brown, with one light bump, one medium, and one dark. I used the same base color for the browns, adding black for the darkest bump and water for the lightest. I aimed for a forest, olive and sage green, and for a maroon, medium red and a pink for the other two. Things turned out unexpectedly:

Not exactly what I was going for, but I'm going to try plying them together and see what happens.

In which the Rabbit makes a recommendation

2010-04-22T09:38:00.001-07:00

The Rabbit has been hugely enjoying Barbara Parry's blog, Sheep Gal, of late. Barb is the shepherd to a flock of Cormos in Western Massachusetts, and her accounts of life on the farm are delightful. Her videos are pretty great, too.

In which the Rabbit neither apologizes for nor explains her long absence from this blog.

2010-01-10T08:39:00.000-08:00

The Rabbit has been spinning, spinning, spinning.

When not spinning, spinning, spinning, she has been knitting warm things for herself in a vain attempt to say warm in the frigid Ontario January:

A cowl and fingerless mitts made out of Malabrigo silky merino:

Typically, the Rabbit's camera is making this color, touchingly called "Ravelry Red," look much more orange than it does in person. It's really quite a pinky-red, and very flattering to the bunny.

A pointy hat made from Noro Kureyon:

An ingenious pattern from Rosie's Yarn Cellar in Philadelphia (available here)that uses short rows to make the stripes in the Kureyon go up and down instead of around the hat. The Rabbit is finally seeing the point of that Noro stuff.

Another cowl made of an alpaca/silk blend from Americo Original's Cadena (a tiny bit scratchy, but warm):

Another cowl and mitts, made from my handspun yarn. This yarn was spun from hand dyed Blue Faced Leicester top in the colorway "Patina" from Frabjous Fibers:

The Rabbit must now turn her attention to a) more hats for herself b) felted slippers for Mr. Rabbit. Both must be completed by the opening ceremonies of the Olympics, when she will join Team Sasquatch for the 2010 Ravelympics.

In which the Rabbit explores the relation between cotton candy and cashmere

2009-10-11T13:00:00.000-07:00

The Rabbit calls this the "Pink Confection Scarf." It was knit from three different yarns: Debbie Bliss Pure Silk, Artyarns Cashmere Sock, and Artyarns Mohair Splash (the one with the beads). It is delicious.

In which the second Red Scarf is finished, and both are sent on their way

2009-10-10T13:00:00.000-07:00

For some reason, the second red scarf took the Rabbit forever. It will be a while before she does another scarf involving K1 P1 ribbing. But she did finish it, and was quite happy with how it came out:

Red Scarf #2 was then put into a box with Red Scarf #1 and mailed off to the Orphan Foundation of America, and thus the Rabbit's first charity knitting endeavor was complete.

In which the Rabbit starts a whole new stash

2009-10-09T13:00:00.000-07:00

Now that Esmé is on the scene, the Rabbit has started laying in Stuff to Spin in a concerted way. She bought two half-fleeces at the Festival. The first is from a Coopworth named Helen:

The second is from a Border Leicester named Adeline. Adeline's shepherd told me that one year Adeline gave birth to triplets, only one of which she liked, so they named that lamb "Preferred." I didn't ask what they named the other two. "Rejected" and "Abandoned"?

I also bought some hand-dyed Border Leicester locks from Tidal Yarns. These were dyed using cochineal (I think).

Since the Rabbit is traveling at the moment, and a) doesn't want to wear out her welcome by commandeering her friends' washing machine for washing raw fleece, and b) doesn't yet have any combs or hand cards for the dyed locks, she has also bought some fiber that has already been processed, so she can bond with Esmé right this second. She found this roving from Mountain Fiber Folk at the festival:

This Crosspatch Creations batt came from The Fiber Studio in Henniker, NH:

And this merino top came from The Elegant Ewe in Concord, NH:

Pictures of the yarn Esmé comes up with from the fibers to follow. Watch this space.

In which the Rabbit has a bit more to say about the Vermont Sheep and Wool Festival

2009-10-08T13:00:00.000-07:00

Predictably, there were lots of sheep at the Sheep and Wool Festival. These apparently decided to commemorate the occasion with Henna tatoos:

Here are the same sheep participating reluctantly in a herding demonstration. That was their day—standing around in the rain for a while sporting their tatoos, then being herded for a while, then standing around some more.

Here are two Romneys:

And a Coopworth:

And a fabulously coiffed Cotswold:

There were other fiber animals as well. No alpacas (apparently their truck broke down) but two very haughty-looking llamas:

A creature described affectionately by his goatherd as "cashmere on the hoof":

And, last but not least, a distant cousin of the Rabbit's, ready for her closeup:

In which the Rabbit makes a new friend

2009-10-07T13:11:00.001-07:00

Her name is Esmé, and she is a Schacht Ladybug. The Rabbit found her at the Vermont Sheep and Wool Festival in Tunbridge, VT. She's right out of the box here, waiting to be put together by the Rabbit's delightfully handy friend, Jonathan.

The Rabbit's extremely excellent spouse, Mr. Rabbit, agreed that a spinning wheel would be a very good present for the Rabbit's 45th birthday. But outlets selling spinning wheels are scarce in Rabbit Country. So they agreed that the Rabbit would try out some wheels while in Vermont. And then, while at the Festival, the Rabbit spotted a sign: "Ask me about my one-day Festival pricing on the Schacht Ladybug." And so she did. And she tried out one of Esmé's sisters on the spot. And she bought Esmé.

Every Ladybug has a birthmark, each in a different spot. Here is Esmé's:

The Rabbit believes firmly that Esmé is the Best. Spinning. Wheel. Ever. Here's what she and Esmé whipped up the first time out:

This was spun from 100% Rambouillet roving, hand-dyed by Christine of Now and Zen Yarns. Note to self: Rambouillet is yummy.

In which the Rabbit starts another lacy thing

2009-09-15T08:31:00.000-07:00

The Rabbit seems to have come down with a bit of startitis, (see, e.g., here) but she consoles herself with the fact that she will have twenty hours in the car during the next five days in which to finish things. Here's the new thing on the needles:

It's another scarf, made with the Handmaiden Double Sea Silk that the rabbit (ahem) "acquired" on Saturday. The pattern is Christine Vogel's Drop Stitch Scarf from her blog, Frazzled Knits. The wavy pattern seemed appropriate for seaweed-infused yarn.

In which the Rabbit knits lace

2009-09-13T12:03:00.000-07:00

It's hard with paws. There has been much ripping back and re-knitting.

In which the Rabbit goes to Kitchener, and participates in a yarn orgy

2009-09-13T11:39:00.000-07:00

It's call the Kitchener Knitter's Fair, and it's two large room jammed with yarn. And some roving. And lots and lots of knitters. The Rabbit was driven into a frenzy by wool fumes. Here is some of what she scored (notice that she doesn't say "bought." That would bring the reality of the thing too close.)

First, some sock yarn. Three skeins, to be precise:

The Rabbit notes that in a way, these are three different versions of the same skein of sock yarn: lots of reds, with bits of blue, green and purple. She was in a red mood.

Another theme that emerged: fuzzy neutrals, one in Shetland wool (she met the shepherd), one in suri alpaca, and one in angora (angora!):

Another theme: yarn to make drapey shawls with. The first of these is a hand-dyed blend of merino and tencel, and is wonderfully shiny; the second is a mix of silk and something called SeaCell, which is a man made fiber made with seaweed (the manufacturing process is similar to that for rayon and tencel):

Finally: small amounts of Very Decadent Fibers, to make small decadent things with. Some paco-vicuna, and some qiviut:

In which the Rabbit prepares for winter

2009-09-13T11:31:00.000-07:00

The Rabbit has decided that one way to make winter more tolerable might be to assemble a wardrobe of yummy handknit hats and scarves. To that end, she has just finished another winter scarf, this one knit out of chunky baby alpaca yarn:

The pattern is from Leigh Radford's One Skein. That woman is a genius. (Apparently, One More Skein, the sequel, is now out. Note to self: must get.)

She has commenced work on a cabled hat to (more or less) match. Early days yet.

In which the Rabbit finishes some scarves and starts some socks

2009-08-31T13:35:00.000-07:00

Finished: One scarf for Mr. Rabbit.

And one scarf for the Rabbit herself:

Started: one pair of stripey socks to keep the Rabbit's paws warm as winter approaches:

Also in progress: something Top Secret.

In which the Rabbit spins some silk and merino

2009-08-16T17:14:00.000-07:00

As part of her plan to spin the Bluefaced Leicester, the Rabbit has begun spinning a pale green merino and silk roving from Louet that she will ply with the fleece. It will give the yarn some consistency through the color changes in the Leicester.

Here's how it looks so far:

The silk makes the roving quite slippery. It took the Rabbit quite a while, and much sotto voce cursing, to be able to manage this, but she is not unhappy with the results. More spinning on Thursday.

In which the Rabbit dyes some wool

2009-08-12T11:58:00.000-07:00

Last week the Rabbit got together with her spinning teacher, Kassy, and another of Kassy's students for a yarn-dyeing session.

This yarn was handspun (by someone else). The Rabbit dyed it using different colors of pink—and one called "mushroom"—as it lay in a warm bath in a roasting pan sitting on two of the burners of Kassy's stove. She used the same process with the blue-green skein below.

Below is the Rabbit's homespun, now dyed a fabulous delphinium blue.

In fact, this yarn reminds the Rabbit of nothing so much as the delphinium she saw in Peter and Annie's garden on the way home from Marblehead:

In which the Rabbit finishes a hat, and starts a scarf

2009-08-11T16:03:00.001-07:00

Something about this pattern made the Rabbit sure her father-in-law needed this hat (here, modeled by Mr. Rabbit) for Christmas:

The Rabbit is about a quarter of the way through the second Red Scarf Project scarf:

In which the Rabbit finishes another adorable baby kimono

2009-08-11T11:43:00.000-07:00

In which the Rabbit finds the Best. Knitting. Organizer. Ever.

2009-08-11T10:00:00.000-07:00

It's the Mead Five Star Stand 'N Store. It came from Staples, of all places. It doesn't look like much, but it has a place for all the little bits and bobs the Rabbit uses while knitting—so much better than the little plastic sack she was using before.

Open it up, and fold down the sides, and the BKOE has lots of little pockets both open and with zipped or velcro closures. Of the open ones, the Rabbit uses one for stitch holders, crochet hooks and a needle gauge and one for a little notebook, pen, and post-its. There's a zipped pocked for the three things she uses most often: scissors, tape measure and darning needle. There's also one with a velcro closure for stitch holders.

And on the other side, there's a longer pocket for everything else.

All hail the BKOE.

In which the Rabbit describes her tour of New England yarn stores

2009-08-10T11:45:00.000-07:00

The New England trip would best be described, really, as a tour of yarn stores (and places that sell lobster rolls). Here are some of the highlights, yarn-wise:

The yarn store in Norwich, Northern Lights, carries the complete line of Manos del Uruguay—all the solid colors and all the variegated. The Rabbit went a tiny bit crazy. These will become a striped scarf for Mr. Rabbit, probably garter stitch, with the stripes running lengthwise.

The Rabbit bought this Cash Vero DK at Whippletree Yarn in Woodstock, VT. It's for a scarf for the Red Scarf Project which the industrious lagomorph has already finished:

This Rowan Romance came from Seed Stitch Fine Yarns in Salem, MA. The Rabbit loved this yarn store.

Courtney, the owner, helped with finding a pattern for this yarn, a cabled clutch that is also all finished:

In Beverly Farms, MA, the Rabbit made her way to Yarns in the Farms, and boy was she glad she did. It's a little enchanted cottage crammed to the rafters with beautiful, hard-to-come-by yarns. It's a warren-away-from-home. It's fabulous. She bought this skein of merino/cashmere/dehaired angora (angora!) there. She's going to make it into Clapotis. She's the only knitter in North America (the world?) who hasn't knit this pattern, and she feels left out.

Last, but definitely not least, the Rabbit went to Webs, in Northampton, MA. "America's Yarn Store." Huge. Overwhelming. And that's not even counting the 15,000 square foot warehouse filled with closeouts and discontinued colors at half price. Nevertheless, the Rabbit was able to pull herself together to buy a few things, including an umbrella swift (love it, love it, love it) and this, for another red scarf project scarf, already underway . . .

. . . and this. More angora (angora!).

In which the Rabbit finds fiber at the farmer's market

2009-08-09T11:55:00.000-07:00

During the Rabbit's New England sojourn, she went to the Norwich, VT farmer's market. Though traditionally rabbits and farmer's don't get along, the Rabbit braved the market in hopes that there might be some yarn from locally-raised sheep or, even better, some fleece. The Norwich farmer's market did not disappoint.

Below is the first find: 300 yard of handspun made by the delightful owner of "Muscle in Your Arm Farms" in Etna, NH. Such lovely colors; this skein makes the Rabbit think of the Caribbean. No plan for this yarn yet.

Muscle in Your Arm Farms also provided these two beautiful, soft, lofty skeins of undyed Cormo (a breed descended from Corriedale and Merino):

But perhaps the best find of the day was this fleece:

This is Bluefaced Leicester, dyed a variety of shades of green. It's incredibly soft. When the Rabbit brought it to show her spinning teacher, Kassy exclaimed "It's like a salad!" This remark is probably unrelated to Kassy's observation, a few days later, that the sheep who produced it must have been fed a steady diet of olive oil to produce such unctuous fleece.

The Rabbit is planning to spin the Leicester eventually, probably plying it with something else. Watch this space updates on the fate of the fleece.

In which the Rabbit blogs from the road, about washcloths

2009-07-25T09:42:00.000-07:00

The Rabbit has been knitting up a washcloth storm, thinking that handknit washcloths knit from organic cotton would be perfect host(ess) gifts for the friends with whom she is staying on her travels. These, photographed in situ in their bathroom, went to Jonathan and Meli:

These are for Peter and Annie, with whom the Rabbit is staying on Monday.

You will note that Peter and Annie get soap. Soap for my friend Meli would be coals to Newcastle. She is the bath supply queen of the century.

In which the Rabbit finishes the Shibori Cravat

2009-07-12T14:23:00.000-07:00

Here it is! The Rabbit is delighted with how it turned out. Here are some detail shots of the baubles, which were made by bunching up one-inch squares of the fabric and securing them with pony-tail holders before felting:

You can see that the Rabbit removed this from the washing machine before the stitches completely disappeared in the felting process, to allow the fabric to retain some drape.

The alpaca was lovely to work with and felted beautifully. Could knitting make the Rabbit look forward to winter? She is looking forward, at least, to wearing this.

In which the Rabbit arranges some flowers from the garden

2009-07-11T09:38:00.000-07:00

Hip Hop Hooray! The Monarda are blooming! (Also the daisies, the salvia, the astilbe, the butterfly weed.)

In which the Rabbit felts yet more bowls

2009-07-05T18:04:00.000-07:00

These are made with variegated Manos del Uruguay (left over from the felted clutches) around the rim; the rest of the bowls are knit from Álafoss Lopi. The two yarns behave quite differently during felting, hence the shape of the bowls.

In which the Rabbit reports on another couple of works in progress

2009-07-05T17:25:00.000-07:00

OK, so the Rabbit is a little addicted to that baby sweater pattern. This one's for donation, probably to the local women's shelter.

The Rabbit is also working on an alpaca scarf for herself.

This will be felted, a la Leigh Radford's AlterKnits Felt. It's going to become the Shibori Cravat.

The Rabbit loves alpaca.

In which the Rabbit learns to spin

2009-07-05T16:43:00.000-07:00

About a month ago, the Rabbit wandered into a local establishment called The Wagon Shed in search of roving (unspun wool that's been carded and that's ready to spin) to use in a wet felting project she was planning. There she encounted the redoubtable Kassy K. Wells, proprietor, spinner and weaver extraordinaire. Before the Rabbit knew it, she had signed up for spinning lessons and left the place, slightly dazed and without any roving. The Rabbit chalks this up to what The Yarn Harlot calls "wool fumes." (see, for example, here), which are well known to produce unpredictable effects in the susceptible. Anyway, a week later, the Rabbit returned, ready to learn to spin.

Spinning, dear reader, is difficult with paws. At first, all sorts of terrible things happened. The wheel went in the wrong direction, or the yarn got wound around parts of the wheel it wasn't supposed to. The yarn's width swerved wildly from thread suitable for knitting panty hose to extra-bulky. Huge, marshmallow-like fluff balls clogged the wheel's orifice (yes, it's really called that) and brought the entire operation to a standstill. The yarn got so twisted that Kassy had to stop spinning herself and, ever so gently, come and get things going again. But eventually the Rabbit started to get the hang of it.

The first week's yarn looked like this:

Here's a detail of that first attempt:

It's pretty uneven and overtwisted in spots—turns out that learning when and how to start and stop the wheel is pretty much the hardest part of spinning. But the thrill of actually making yarn was totally exciting and, the Rabbit fears, addictive.

Things were much easier the second time around. Here's the yarn from the second week, and a detail. The spinning is a lot more even this time.

At the end of the second lesson, Kassy gave the Rabbit some raw fleece to take home and wash. (I wish I had thought to take a picture of it, all full of hay and lanolin and sheep poop. It had such a fabulous barnyard smell.) The Rabbit loved washing the raw fleece, and kept wandering downstairs to the basement to fondle it as it dried, fantasizing all the while about where she would get the next raw fleece to wash. Driven crazy by the wool fumes, no doubt.

Here's how the fleece looked when it was washed and dried:

The next week, the Rabbit brought the washed fleece back to Kassy's to spin. First the Rabbit had to learn how to card—another challenge for one with paws. Then came the spinning: spinning this was a very different experience from working with the commercially processed roving. The carded fleece has more lanolin left in it, so the fibers have more grab. This is the result:

The little bumps are mostly from the inadequacy of the Rabbit's carding. Fortunately, she gets to have another go at it next week. In the meantime, she's researching all the fiber festivals within a three hour drive, dreaming of more raw fleece.

In which the Rabbit gardens

2009-07-04T12:59:00.000-07:00

Granted, most rabbits spend their time eating gardens, but the Crafty Rabbit, with the help of her thumb-bearing spouse, has been gardening up a storm: spreading manure and mulch, weeding, moving plants around. After six years, the garden is finally beginning to look like something.

That's astilbe around the water feature, with daisies and coneflower behind it. The clematis climbing up the deck railing looks like this up close:

And here's its sister (brother?):

In the back corner (the sunniest spot), there are lots more daisies, catmint, and butterfly weed:

Some impatiens in pots on the deck:

And some herbs:

The Rabbit says yum.

In which the Rabbit acknowledges that other projects are under way . . .

2009-06-24T09:52:00.001-07:00

but are being kept secret from certain readers of this blog. Enough said.

In which the Rabbit knits a shawl

2009-06-24T09:46:00.000-07:00

Also in progress: this Roman Holiday shawl, knit with lovely slubby pima cotton yarn from Americo Original, one of the Toronto yarn shops the Rabbit hopped to this past weekend. Loved the women who sold me this yarn, and love the taupe.

In which the Rabbit struggles with color

2009-06-24T09:30:00.000-07:00

This is a picture of a current work in progress, the Penny Rug Purse from Bag Style. The Rabbit feels as though she has been working on this forever. She has started it at least twice, but each time has found color juxtapositions that didn't work, so frog, frog, frog. She is not entirely happy with this, but is happy enough to go on with it.

It goes slowly because when the Rabbit is prudent she can really only work on it during the day. Knitting this bag at night in insufficient light leads to infelicitous color combinations, which leads to frogging (see above). In one case, for example, it resulted in a horrible Tommy Hilfiger-esque combo of yellow and navy (which in the yarn store didn't exactly look like navy, but never mind) that made color-sensitive lagomorphs everywhere cringe. Ripping it out was a public service, really.

In which the Rabbit knits a tiny baby kimono

2009-06-24T09:18:00.000-07:00

This is the baby kimono pattern from Mason-Dixon Knitting. It's made from worsted-weight cotton. The Rabbit loves cotton, but finds it hard to knit with (perhaps this is an excuse to buy some Addi Turbos?). But this was a perfect project for meetings: it's just garter stitch, garter stitch, garter stitch, and it's all in one piece so the finishing demands are minimal. Speaking of finishing, the Rabbit took this opportunity to practice mattress stitch, and is, for the first time ever, pretty happy with the finishing. It still needs the ribbons added, by the Rabbit will do this when the sex of the intended recipient is known.

Now all we need is for someone in the Rabbit's acquaintance to have a baby.

In which the Rabbit makes felted bowls

2009-06-13T07:47:00.001-07:00

These are three felted bowls from Leigh Radford's One Skein. The Rabbit loved making them (they are essentially small hats knitted on big needles from bulky yarn), and loves how they turned out. There will be more, more, more.

It which the Rabbit attempts a Good Work

2009-06-13T07:35:00.000-07:00

Inspired by Betsy Greer's Knitting for Good, the Rabbit has decided to make a series of items to donate to various local charities in the fall. "Donation Hat #1," above, is the first of them. It was a wonderful excuse to use this fabulously garish (and soft, soft, soft) Patons Rumor, an alpaca/acrylic blend (the colorway is called moonstone). Normally the Rabbit eschews acrylic, but she couldn't resist the hand of this yarn.

The pattern is the "Garter Stitch Cap," from the first book of knitting patterns the Rabbit ever bought, Handspun Handknit. With bulky yarn and big needles, it only took an evening.

In which the Rabbit perseveres

2009-06-13T07:27:00.000-07:00

This is the Knitting Needle Knitting Bag from Bag Style. It was nearly the death of the Rabbit. First, there was the stitch, which initially gave her fits. Then there were the handles: endless six stitch rows of garter stitch which seemed to go on for much longer than they actually could have. Then, due to lagomorphic haplessness, the Rabbit attached the handles wrong twice, and both times managed to cut the knitted fabric when removing them—and thus had to frog and reknit a number of rows. Then there was the lining (see remarks on sewing, below). But all this builds character. And the finished bag is lovely and functional.

In which the Rabbit felts yet another clutch

2009-06-13T07:24:00.000-07:00

Clutch number three, for the only person I know who really looks good in that olive-y green right under the handle.

In which the Rabbit makes excuses, and needle cases

2009-06-13T07:18:00.000-07:00

The Rabbit has been so busy making things that it's been hard to find the time to blog about them all. So a series of short posts about a bunch of finished objects will follow. Above are a the knitting needle cases the Rabbit made out of sweaters purchased at Value Village and felted in the washing machine. There's one for straight needles, one for circulars, and one for dpns. This project reminded the Rabbit of how much she hates to sew--knowledge that is always useful in preventing future sewing projects.

In which the Rabbit keeps felting

2009-05-22T08:39:00.000-07:00

At 170 stiches per row, this bag kept the Rabbit knitting until her little paws ached, but she's pleased with the result. The Paton's worsted weight merino felted beautifully, and it was cheap!

But alas, all is not copacetic in the warren. Last night the Rabbit tried to teach herself to knit berry stitch, which involves knitting, then purling, then knitting all into the same stitch. This concept proved way too much for the bunny brain. Fortunately, there's a fab video on YouTube that demonstrates how to do it quite clearly. She also tried to start a tiny iPod case using sport-weight merino on tiny double-pointed needles. This proved very difficult without thumbs.

But today is a new day, and the Rabbit will try, try again.

In which the Rabbit makes collages

2009-05-11T19:35:00.000-07:00

The Rabbit will have more the say about the collages, and about collage in general, at a later date. But for now, here are a few of them.

In which the Rabbit knits and felts another bag, and it's even better than the first

2009-05-10T21:00:00.000-07:00

Same yarn, different color, yet this bag is a bit larger and a lot fuzzier than the first. The first one, by the way, is still waiting for buttons.

The Rabbit is now working on another felting project to be named later, and which will probably take her at least a week. Watch this space.

In which the Rabbit knits and felts a bag

2009-05-08T11:43:00.000-07:00

The Rabbit decided that she might stop just buying the yarn and actually make something with it. She chose a pattern from Leigh Radford's One Skein, which, by the way, has lots of intriguing-looking quick projects. The wool, which is not in the stash picture below, is Manos del Uruguay's Wool Classica. The Rabbit loves this combination of colors—she seems to be in a major rusty-orange and deep-pink phase. Since the project uses size 15 circular needles, it knits up really fast (even with paws!). None of that pesky purling. Before felting, the bag looked like this:

In other words, a very baggy bag. But, with the help of a fantastic little primer about felting on Knitty.com, the finished version ended up looking like this, which made the Rabbit perform a little hop of pleased excitement:

The plastic bags peeking out the top are for blocking purposes.

The pattern calls for a little embellishment with buttons. The Rabbit is considering using some or all of these:

A picture of the blocked, dried and embellished bag will follow.

The Yarn Stash

2009-05-08T11:29:00.000-07:00

As promised, a picture of the yarn The Rabbit can't seem to stop buying.

In which the Rabbit buys yarn

2009-05-07T09:09:00.001-07:00

The Crafty Rabbit is on a yarn-buying binge. Five days ago, she woke up with an overpowering urge to knit, something she has not done for years, stimulated by listening to a single episode of Brenda Dayne's knitting podcast, Cast On. Why, you may ask, was the Rabbit listening to a knitting podcast when she hadn't knit for years? Well, the Rabbit likes to listen to crafty podcasts while working away in her warren/studio, and she had run out of Craftcasts and gotten dangerously low on CraftyPods. And she happened across the fabulous Ms. Dayne.

The episode was called "Panacea" and one of the things it was about was knitting as a mindfulness practice. And this spoke to the Rabbit. That, and the fact that the TiVo had been filling up to overwhelming levels while the Rabbit was busy experimenting with collage and found-object assemblage. The Rabbit saw that an answer to the dilemma of how to make something every day and keep up with In Treatment, all while cultivating equanimity, was . . . knitting.

So she went to the yarn store. And she bought some yarn. And the next day, she went to another store, and bought some more yarn. And the next day, another store and yet more yarn. The Rabbit may soon require an intervention. Or, she's just in the collecting mode that Twyla Tharp, in The Creative Habit, calls "starting with a box." Hard to tell.

Pictures of the growing yarn stash, and the current project on the needles, to come.