"Howling at the Moon"... and more!

Three new colorways have made their way into the shop! The first is called "Howling at the Moon" and is inspired by the moon in the night sky. It's dark blue-green with bits of yellow. 

You'll also notice that I have 2 skeins in each picture- these are from the same dye lot. The one on the right is straight from the dye pot. The one on the left is re-skeined. To do this I take the skein on the right and re-wind the yarn into a slightly bigger loop which re-distributes all the colors. I usually do this for 2 reasons: 1) The colors turn out much more like how they will look when the yarn is knit up and 2) it makes the skein look neater. I have always re-skeined my yarn but wanted to show how it looks both ways. If you like one more than the other feel free to leave me a comment! 

This next one was a little harder to name. Sometimes I start with a name and pick colors to match (which I did with the other two colorways in this post) and sometimes I just throw in some colors and name it later. These are usually harder for me to name, but for this one I came up with "Catching Butterflies." These colors make me think of butterflies. Rudy loves to chase butterflies (and all bugs for that matter) so the name seemed fitting. 

This last one is one that I've had in mind for a long time. I call it "Chasing Cars." When Lilliput was a puppy she wanted to chase every car she could. Every time we went on a walk she wanted to chase all of the cars. Luckily she seems to have grown out of this obsession, but I still thought it would be a fun colorway. There are lots of colors to represent cars driving down the road as Lily tries to chase them. 

Nieces and Nephews

In 2015 I had a new niece and a new nephew born. Of course this meant some baby knitting needed to occur. 

Maliyah was born in October and I knit her the same pattern I had knit her sister but in a different color. This is the in threes: a baby cardigan pattern by Kelly Herdrich. It's one of my favorite baby patterns to knit and it only uses one skein of yarn. In this case I knit it with Lilliput Yarn in the Simple Sock base. I held the yarn double to make it thicker. The colorway is a "Mutt" which is what I call my one-of-a-kind colorways. 

Then, in December, along came my nephew Asher. For him I knit the Little Coffee Bean cardigan by Elizabeth Smith. I used Lilliput Yarn again in two of my new solid colorways "Buddy" and "Bruno." 

I really enjoyed this pattern and I'm having so much fun being an aunt! 

Happy New Year!

Well, it's 2016 and it's been an embarrassingly long time since I've  done a blog update! 2015 was a busy year and a good year for Lilliput Yarn. I hope to get some posts up soon to show you some of the projects I completed since I last posted. 

In the month leading up to Christmas I was in stocking production mode. Last year I had made one for my nephew, Jacob, and I had promised his parents stockings for this year. It also so happened that Jacob ended up with a new little brother who needed a stocking, too! 

I also made some for myself, my husband and the corgis:

I love this stocking pattern so much and it went really fast as colorwork tends to do since I kept wanting to finish up each motif. The patterns come from Annie's Woolens Christmas Stockings eBook by Anne Mailette. They are well written and easy to follow. She even offers two different heel and toe options. The only problem I consistently had was completely my own fault for not paying attention to what I was doing. 

See how that last toe on the right looks different? Yup, I kept knitting toes on sideways. Over and over. Once I even knit one on the right way, thought it was sideways, re-knit it the wrong way and had to re-do it a third time! I don't know what my problem was exactly. I have knit many pairs of socks and don't ever have this problem. In the end, after much frustration and ripping out, all toes are on correctly. 

I hope you all had a Merry Christmas if you celebrate, and a Happy New Year!

Aftermath

I had such a good time at yarn crawl this year! Thanks so much to Tina (owner of Black Sheep at Orenco) for allowing me to set up a trunk show at her shop! I had a blast, sold my yarn and met lots of new knitters.  

After the Thursday / Friday trunk show, my mother-in-law, husband and I hit the other 14 shops that were part of this years Rose City Yarn Crawl. I wasn't planning on buying much (because let's face it- I have enough yarn to knit with for quite a while) but still got some goodies:

Overall it was a great weekend and I'm already looking forward to Yarn Crawl 2016. :)

Almost Yarn Crawl Time!

It's March, and that can only mean that it's almost time for the Rose City Yarn Crawl here in Portland! This is the 3rd year that I will have lived in Portland for the yarn crawl and I look forward to it every year. I had a good time at my first crawl in 2013 and had a fun time last year, too. 

This year the crawl is extra special for 2 reasons: 

1) My mother-in-law is coming down from Alaska and will be doing the crawl with me! (And probably my poor husband who will end up being dragged along. He's generally ok with this as long as we stop at some good places for food.). She is a knitter too and every year I mention that she should come. This year she is and I can't wait! 

2) I will be having a trunk show at Black Sheep! I am so excited and a little nervous. I have never done anything like this before. I will be selling my Lilliput Yarn on Thursday and Friday (March 5th and 6th) from 10-6. If you're local I'd love if you come by and say "Hi"! 

I've been working on knitting up some of my yarn so that I have samples to show at my table. The first thing is the super popular Sockhead Hat by Kelly McClure knit in the "Barking up a Tree" colorway. 

I really like how it turned out, but there was what seemed to be some never-ending stockinette stitch involved. 

I also made a sock in my "Lady" colorway. No pattern used, just a toe-up sock with a short row heel. I try to make all of my yarn in a way that it won't pool and it turned out well in this case. It really drives me crazy when I get pooling in socks so I do all that I can to avoid that from happening in my own yarns. 

Lastly, I finished up the Rose City mystery shawl aka the Washington Park Shawl by Debbi Stone. This was my first year doing the mystery shawl that they release as part of the yarn crawl and I really enjoyed it. 

The light color is Cascade Heritage Sock in the "Limestone" colorway and the blue is Lilliput Yarn in the "Salty Dog" colorway. I almost did the shawl out of two colors of my own yarn but thought that might be too busy and went with a neutral instead. 

Now that those projects are done I have spent most of the weekend re-skeining and labeling yarn in anticipation of the yarn crawl. It's been a lot of work, and I think I may have tired out my little helpers. 

Spring Self-Striping

I am very happy to share with you my two new self-striping yarns!

I love the greens in this first one. It's a great St. Patrick's day colorway, and I have to give credit to my husband for the name. I asked him "what's a good name for a yarn that has to do with both St. Patrick's day and dogs?" and almost immediately he came up with "Luck of the Irish Wolfhound." I was sold, and the name stuck. 

The next one was intended more as an all around spring color, but it screams Easter which is ok with me! This one is called "Springtime Frolic" and lets just say that the bright pink stripe is brighter that it looks in the picture. It pops for sure, which is what I was going for. 

There will be another post coming but if you live in the Portland area I will be doing a trunk show at Black Sheep at Orenco during the Rose City Yarn Crawl  on Thursday March 5th and Friday March 6th and would love to see you there! 

Spinnin' 'n Stitchin'

The last couple of evenings my husband was gone on a business trip. So, I had two evenings to myself and decided to work on two things that I haven't worked on in a very long time. 

The first one is spinning. I unfolded the wheel, oiled it and got out some wool. 

I am working on a fleece that I got at the Black Sheep Gathering a couple of years ago (!). I washed it and got most of it carded soon after I bought it. Then I started spinning it. I'm not sure exactly why, but after about 2 bobbins I just stopped spinning. I got a little more of it spun this past summer but haven't touched it since. My goal is to try to get another bobbin or two spun before Christmas. 

The second project that I have revived is my cross-stitch. I have been working on this on and off for many years and would really like to actually get it finished at some point in the near future.

All of the actual cross-stitching is done and now I am just working on the back-stitch. This is the thread that goes on top of the cross-stitches and really makes everything stand out. 

In the picture below you can see the blue area on the bottom that I am currently working on. The left part including the starfish is done while the right side and the fish are not. 

Of course, cross-stitching is always more fun when you have a corgi to help! 

New Winter Self-Striping

I have been working on some new self-striping yarns for this winter and they have just been added to my shop! I'm super excited to show them to you. 

The first one is called "Iditarod." I wanted a colorway that made me think of winter with blues and white. As someone who grew up in Alaska, "Iditarod" was the obvious dog-related event that came to mind for this colorway. This is probably one of my favorite yarns that I have dyed so far- I love the blue and teal stripes with the white. 

The second yarn I have done is called "Bumpus Hounds" after the dogs from my favorite Christmas movie, A Christmas Story. This one has stripes of red, dark green and light green and I can't wait to make myself a pair of Christmas socks to wear this winter. 

These are now up in the shop and ready to be shipped off to a new home. 

Also, starting November 28th through November 30th I will be having a sale and everything in my shop will be 20% off using the code "TURKEY". Enjoy, and have a Happy Thanksgiving! 

Autumn's End

When I first started this blog it was so that I could share the projects I was working on with friends an family. Now, since I have started dyeing yarn and moved the blog over the the new Lilliput Yarn website I had a decision to make. I wondered if I should change the blog to include only items relating to or made from Lilliput Yarn or continue posting as I have done in the past. 

Ultimately I decided that I would keep the same format and show projects even if they are not related to my own yarn. There are two main reasons for this: 1. I don't always have new colorways or items made from my yarn. 2. I still want to be able to share my projects with you and don't want to exclude projects from the blog simply because they aren't made from my own yarn. 

That being said, I would like to show you my newest sweater! From the time I first saw the book Botanical Knits by Alana Dakos I knew that I wanted to make Autumn's End. I loved everything about how it looked, it just took me a while to finally get around to making it. The yarn I used is Blue Moon Fiber Arts BFL Sport in the Saffron Jungle colorway which I loved working with and the color was exactly what I had in mind. 

Pre-blocking finished sweater: 

Pattern close-up while blocking:

Blocking again: 

And finally.... finished! It turned out as well as I could have asked for. It fits great and is comfortable and warm while not being too hot to wear indoors. 

More Treats

A few posts ago I wrote about my self-striping yarn called "Trick or Treats." I've been knitting up some socks to see how the color stripes turn out. I really like the final result: 

Sample sock

This is my own pattern. I started on the toe using Judy's magic cast on and increased until I had 64 stitches (this is the typical number of stitches that I cast on with size 1 needles to fit my foot). I kept knitting until I got the the heel. I decided to use an afterthought heel at this point so that the striping sequence wouldn't be disrupted. 

When I got to the middle of the orange stripe I knit in a piece of scrap yarn on half of the stitches (32 in this case) and then just continued knitting as usual. Once I cast off the top of the sock I went back to finish up the heel. 

I went back to the scrap yarn that I had knit in and took it out while picking up stitches as I went. Then I figured out where the halfway point was in one of the orange strands of yarn and started knitting in much the same way that I would make a toe in a cuff-down sock. I decreased down to 32 stitches then used the kitchener stitch to close the end. 

Picking up stitches to start the heel. 

Once I finished this sock I weighed the remaining yarn and determined that if I used a different ball of yarn for the toe and heel then I could get a 2nd and 3rd sock out of the same ball of yarn. For this pair I used Emily O'Grady's Vanilla Bean Striped Sock recipe. 

Vanilla Bean Sock Recipe

I love how this one turned out and I'm about halfway through making the next one. I'm also dyeing up some more of this colorway as I type this to re-stock my shop. Keep an eye out for it soon! 

Shop Update - Direwolves

A new update went up in the shop! One of the earlier yarns that I dyed was a grey and yellow yarn called "Nymeria." Game of Thrones fans may recognize this as the name of Arya's direwolf. I decided that if I have Nymeria then I should make a colorway for the other 5 direwolves as well. Each of these new colors has a large amount of grey or white (depending on the color of the direwolf) and other colors that in some way represent the character in the story that the wolf belongs to. So, in this update I would like to introduce: 

Grey Wind - the green and brown represent the forest area where Robb can often be found. 

Lady - I wanted to use a red/pink color for lady both for Sensa's red hair and because she is very feminine. 

Summer - Summer is usually depicted as more of a brown color than the other wolves. This along with the brown color of Bran's hair in the TV show made me decide to go with brown as the main color in this yarn.  

Shaggy Dog - While Rickon doesn't necessarily have anything to do with the color blue I chose blue because he is the youngest boy in the family.  

Ghost - This skein was dyed half white for Ghost and half black and brown to represent Jon Snow. 

Throwback Threes Cardigan

In my last post I mentioned that I had discovered a post that I had never actually published. Well, here it is! This was the first of the in threes: a baby cardigan sweater that I ever made and it was made for my niece, Madelynne. Since she just turned 1, this is far from being able to fit her anymore. 

This sweater was made from Madelinetosh dk yarn in the "la vie en rose" colorway. It is the 0-6 month size and again I was able to make it out of just one ball of yarn which is one of my favorite things about this pattern. 

Here it is just after finishing but before the yarn ends were woven in or buttons were added. 

And here it is on the adorable recipient: 

It's hard to believe how much she has grown since these pictures were taken! 

In threes... again

Welcome to my new blog and website! My husband and I have been working hard on getting this site up and running and I'm excited to be making the first blog post in the new location. 

This pattern has been one of my favorites lately. I have posted about this pattern before, but is is called in threes: a baby cardigan by Kelly Hendrich. I made one for a co-worker and another for my niece (I just went to link to the blog of my niece and discovered that I never actually published it. oops! It will be appearing at some point in the future.) 

For this sweater I used my Lilliput Yarn in the "Sasha" colorway. I held the yarn double since the pattern calls for a worsted weight yarn and my yarn is fingering weight. It worked out pretty well and I was able to make the 0-6 month size out of just one ball of yarn. 

This one happens to have been knit for another co-worker and was given to her at her baby shower. She seemed to like it and it ended up getting passed around the circle of guests so that everyone could check it out. 

I like how it turned out so much that I am actually knitting an identical one to use as a sample of how the yarn knits up. 

"Trick or Treats"

Lily and I have been busy working on Lilliput Yarn's first self-striping yarn called "Trick or Treats". It's out in plenty of time to knit up a nice pair of Halloween socks! First we got the warping board out and made a huge loop of yarn. This was then dyed in sections. This yarn is 6 stripes- purple, orange, purple, white, black, white. 

Once it was all dyed up we re-skeined it and brought it over to Black Sheep at Orenco where it waits for a new owner. (There will also be some going up in my Etsy shop in the near future.)

I was on my own by the end of this process as Lily decided that taking a nap would be more fun than getting yarn re-skeined. It's a rough life for Lilliput!

New Colors!

Since my last post some new colors have joined the Lilliput Yarn line.

"Barking up a Tree" (Name suggested by Lynne - thanks!)

"Limber Tail" (This color makes me think of swimming in a lake which is where the colorway name comes from. Limber tail is a condition that dogs can get when swimming in cold water where they temporarily can't wag. It's sad when it happens but I like to think that at least the dog probably had a great time while swimming.)

"Puppy Love"

"Sasha" (Sasha is my parents dog that we got when I was in high school. Her name seemed to fit well with this colorway.)

"Shadow"

Hand-Dyed Sock Yarn

Lately I have been having fun playing with my Jacquard acid dyes. I have been using a sock yarn base that is 80% merino and 20% nylon. Since I end up dyeing much more yarn than I can possibly knit up I decided to start up a new Etsy shop called Lilliput Yarn! My yarn is also now available at the yarn shop Black Sheep at Orenco in Hillsboro, OR. I have kept "recipies" of all of my colors so that I can repeat them in the future. Since the yarn is named after Lily, she appears on all of my yarn labels.

I started off with 10 colors but plan on increasing this number in the future. The colors that I have so far are:

Chocolate Lab

Clifford

Doggy Paddle

Evening Stroll

Goldendoodle

Jumping in the Leaves

Man's Best Friend

Nymeria

Raining Cats and Dogs

Rolling in the Grass

Warm Toes

More socks. What can I say- I like making them...  

Yarn- Sweet Georgia Superwash Sock, Boheme colorway

Pattern- My own standard toe-up, short row heel

 

Yarn-  Palouse Yarn Company BFL Sock

Pattern- Pomatomus by Cookie A.

 

Yarn- Black Trillium Fibre Studio Merilon Sock, Chennai colorway

Pattern- My own standard toe-up, short row heel

Maddy's Minion Hat

Way back before Halloween my brother and sister-in-law asked if I could make a minion hat for my niece for Halloween. Of course I couldn't turn them down as she is so much fun to make stuff for. I found this Minion hat pattern on etsy that seemed to be just what I was looking for.I even happened to have all the needed yarn in my stash leftover from other projects. I don't crochet much anymore since I over did it one time a few years ago to the point where my wrist really started hurting. Now every time I crochet the pain comes back and I have to be very careful to keep my crochet sessions short. Anyway, the baby hat was easy to break into short sessions and I still was able to finish it in a weekend.

Looks good, right? Well I always run stuff like this through the washing machine before giving it away if for no other reason then to make sure it will survive. I have never had an item (that is machine washable) not survive the wash session until this hat. I took it out and there was a gaping hole in the top. Since it was crocheted from the top down I didn't see any way to repair this without ripping out the whole hat. Luckily I was able to salvage the eyes and bow.

Attempt #2 turned out pretty well also.

But nothing can compare to how cute the little girl wearing it was! :)

The Post Christmas Post

Hope everyone had a happy holiday season! While we missed our families in Alaska we had a good, quiet Christmas and New Years. Lily and Rudy especially enjoyed having a tree in the house although it was a constant battle keeping them from tearing off branches to chew on (good thing they're cute!)  

Last Christmas I made Lily her own little stocking so this year I thought that I should make Rudy a matching one.

He wanted to eat it and run around with it in his mouth so I guess he approves of it.

Other than the stocking my main Christmas knitting project was a pair of felted clogs for all the parents. The pattern is Felted Clogs by Bev Galeskas. I knit them in worsted weight Wool of the Andes on size 13 needles and then felted them in the washing machine. Before felting they were huge. This picture has one of my shoes on the left for comparison.

After felting they looked like this: ( I forgot to take post-felting pics of the pairs for my dad and my father-in-law)

 

The maroon colored pair was for my mom and the teal color for my mother-in-law. The black and orange was for my dad who is a Flyer's fan and the green and gold pair was for my father-in-law the Packer fan.

Happy New Year everyone!

Rudy!

I'm very far behind in posts, but earlier this month my husband and I acquired a new family member. Meet Rudy:

Rudy is a Cardigan Welsh Corgi just like our other dog, Lily. If you recall from Lily's post she got a hand-knit blanket, so of course Rudy needed one too!

It's all made with scraps of worsted weight yarn held double on size 13 needles which  made it a relatively quick knit. The pattern is based on the Log Cabin blanket from Mason Dixon Knits with an i-cord added to the edge.

He is much calmer than Lily (which isn't hard to do as she is quite a spaz!) and likes to just chill out.

He and Lily have become best buddies. They love to hang out together and she is a pretty good babysitter. She always keeps track of where he is and what he's doing.

Happy Thanksgiving!