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. 

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! 

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. 

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

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!

Fall Cowl

If you remember a few posts ago  I had spun some yarn using the fractal spinning method. I just finished knitting this yarn up into a cowl. The pattern is Stacked Eyelet Cowl by Ami Madison. I ended up making it too small at first and had to rip it out and start again with more stitches and bigger needles. Here is the pre-blocking picture:

and post-blocking:

I think that the colors turned out pretty interesting and will most likely be trying this fractal plying method again in the future.

The cowl is long enough that I can either loop it around my neck once or twice, I am pretty excited that the weather is finally cooling down enough that I will be able to wear it soon!

 

Lily was very interested in what I was doing and decided to be in the pictures as well.

She's even a pretty good model!

After

My craft room is mostly set up and I love it! I got a desk from Ikea that fits in the corner. It's hard to see, but in the back corner of the desk I have my swift set up with the ball winder on the edge behind the chair. I am also able to keep my sewing machine out. It used to live on the top shelf of a closet which means I never used it. Maybe now that it's more accessible I will actually sew once in a while.

Behind the desk is my bookshelf/yarn shelf. On top of this I have my drum carder, drop spindle and all of the knitting needles that I got from my grandma last time I visited.

The closet has the majority of my yarn. The black container to the left of the closet holds all of my spinning fiber.

It's great having so much room for all my crafting stuff. I could pretty much hang out in this room all the time. :)

Springtime Socks and Spinning

We've had some great spring weather around here lately. Warm and sunny and I've been doing lots of spinning. The skein that I just finished started off as this 85% merino, 15% silk roving.

It's interesting that the roving had separate chunks of red and blue but once it's spun it looks purple.

The silk makes it shiny and it's really soft. I like how it turned out. I'm now spinning some corridale which I will have pictures of once it's all spun.

Recently I also finished some socks. This is a stitch pattern from Charlene Schurch's book Sensational Knitted Socks. I used the stitch pattern for the top of the foot and leg but used my own toe and a short row heel.

Here you can see the stitch pattern in a little more detail:

The only thing I would change if I were to do this pattern again would be to use a more solid colored yarn. I think this would make the cables show up a little better. They kind of blend in with the stripes of color in this sock.

I also finished these socks a while ago but only just got around to taking a picture of them. They are just plain socks knit from the toe up.

And, because I can't resist, here is a picture of a silly pup known as Lily waiting for the ball to be thrown at the dog park. She loves springtime, too.

In Threes: a baby cardigan

Baby cardigan is finished.  Pattern is called "in threes: a baby cardigan" by Kelly Herdrich. Yarn is Pico Accuardi Dyeworks Marco in the Burnt Candy colorway. I am extremely happy with how it turned out. It has been given to its new owner who seems to appreciate it very much.

Rose City Yarn Crawl

This past weekend was the Rose City Yarn Crawl. The yarn crawl involves visiting 18 Portland area shops in 4 days (Thursday-Sunday). I was able to hit a few Thursday and Friday after work, but I hit most of the shops this weekend. My husband came along for the ride on Saturday and we hit 10 shops. I hit the rest on Sunday. You print out a passport to take to all the shops to get stamped. Once your passport is full you turn it in to the last shop you visit and are entered into a prize drawing. Ever since we moved to Portland I have wanted to visit all of these yarn shops, but hadn't made it to most of them. So, the yarn crawl was the perfect opportunity to see all the yarn shops in the area.

I ended up with a good bit of new yarn and fiber.

Clockwise from top to bottom:

• Mountain Colors Hand-painted yarn in the Harmony Sweet Grass colorway
• Debbie Bliss ecobaby in Brown and Denim colorways
• Sweetgeorgia sock yarn in the Boheme colorway
• Madeline Tosh Vintage in Teddy Bear
• Blue Moon Socks that Rock in Aurora Borealis
• Woolgatherings fiber 70% BFL / 30% Seacell

I am super excited about all of these yarns. With the exception of Madeline Tosh I have never knit with any of these brands before so they are all new to me.

This year they even had a tote bag that you could take from shop to shop and pick up a pin for each shop you visit.

I had an awesome time participating in the yarn crawl and can't wait to do it again next year!

My Little Helper

I am almost done with the little baby top that I showed you last time I posted - it just needs buttons. Yesterday I washed it and pinned it out to dry.  

(The picture of the back side is more true to color than the first picture.)

Lily was very interested in the whole process and especially liked the smell of the wet wool. It made me laugh that, while I went to work on other things, she stayed by the sweater. She just liked to lay next to it like she was helping it to dry or something.

She kept getting up, walking around, then going back to the sweater. What a funny little dog!

While she was "helping" the sweater to dry, I was winding some skeins of yarn into balls. (She loves to watch the ball winder, too.)

I got them all wound, and here's a sneak peak at my next project:

Brainstorming

Thanks so much for all the great feedback on Lilliput Yarn! I hear that some of it has even sold already. Pretty exciting! In other news, I recently found out that I'm going to be an aunt! My brother and his wife are expecting a baby this August and I'm super excited! I can't stop looking at knitting and crochet patterns for everything baby (much to the annoyance of my husband). Blankets, hats, sweaters, you name it. So, I'm sure there will be much baby knitting happening soon, especially once they find out if it's a girl or a boy. If anyone out there has any favorite baby patterns feel free to share them with me.

I have also started a baby cardigan for someone else we know who recently had a baby girl. The pattern is in threes: a baby cardigan by Kelly Hendrich. I am using Pico Accuardi Dyworks yarn in the "Burnt Candy" colorway on size 8 needles.

Last night I also got all my pictures framed that are going to go on the walls in my craft room. Along with the 4 shown below I have a huge picture of Paris that is black and white except for the Eiffel Tower which is lit up. I can't wait to finish getting my craft room set up and hang  my pictures.

Before

My new craft room!

Can't wait to fill it with yarn. :)

Lily's First Christmas

This past Christmas was little Lily's first Christmas. (Yes, I realize that Christmas occurred an entire month ago and I am only just now posting this.) I decided that she needed to have a stocking to match the stockings that I made for Jason and myself a few years back. I used some old Red Heart Super Saver yarn that I have had hanging around since way back in high school. I just kind of winged the pattern. It's basically made like a sock that I would make for myself with a short row heel, but bigger yarn, bigger needles (I think I used US 6 needles) and a shorted foot section.

The paw print was a free chart on Ravelry as was the snowflake pattern. For her name I used a cross-stitch program that I have. It doubles pretty well for making knitting charts. The hardest part in making this stocking was keeping Lily from helping. She seems to love yarn almost as much as I do - which isn't exactly a good thing.

In the end, the whole family had matching stockings.

I don't think Lily really cared about her stocking, though. She was having too much fun playing in the snow!

Life is Like a Box of Chocolates

Hello, I'm back again! I don't know how long this posting more than once a week business is going to hold up, but I really want to get through some of this backlog of projects. Also, I have made some progress on that yarn that I dyed last week that didn't quite turn out as expected. This next project goes along with the falling leaves hat. When I was done with the hat I had a ball of yarn left over and thought I should make something to go along with the hat. Someone from the knitting group at my local yarn store (Black Sheep) was making some fingerless mittens that I really liked. The lace pattern doesn't match the hat, but the yarn does and I think they look just fine together.

They are surprisingly warm considering the amount of holes in them. The pattern is called "Mericash wrist warmers" by Jean Gray and is free on Ravelry. (By the way, I'm crystalcrafts on Ravelry if anyone out there wants to check out my project pages.)

On another note, remember that roving from last week? I spun it and plied it into this:

 

I was not such a fan of the colors. I decided to make up a dye pot of dark blue (Wiltons royal with a little black) and throw it in. After round 1 of dye it looked like this (sorry for the bad picture):

I still wanted it darker so I added more dark blue and put the yarn back in. Here's what it looks like now:

 

It's weird, but I can't decide if I like it. I definitely like it more now then how it was. I just don't know. Although, after getting a great response from my knitting group yesterday I'm feeling a little better about it. You just never know what you're gonna get when dying yarn.

Falling Leaves

Now that I am back to blogging, I am going to try something new. The idea of this blog was to be able to show family and friends (and anyone else that is interested) what I have been working on. As I finish projects I have been storing them in a "blog" folder on my desktop. I have accumulated quite a backlog of projects there. So, my idea is to post something that I am currently working on along with something that has been finished and sitting around waiting to be shown to you. For my "old" project this post, I will show you my Falling Leaves beret. This hat was designed by one of my favorite designers- Alana Dakos. She also does the "never not knitting" podcast and blog. This pattern comes from a book called Coastal Knits that she co-wrote with Hannah Fettig.

I used Kollage Yarns sock-a-licious in the Indian Rose colorway.

My pictures are not great, but I love this hat. I have never owned a beret before, but it is perfect for this area. It doesn't usually get cold enough to need a winter hat (with the exception of the last few days) but it still keeps the top of my head warm.

One fun thing about this hat is that to block it you stretch it around a dinner plate. Kind of interesting.

Ok, now back to my current spinning project. The roving from my last post is all dry and I have started spinning it. I just wish I had a picture of the look on my husbands face when I first showed him this roving (before he even saw the blog post about it). We both agree that it is not a very pretty sight. Although it seems that Lily still likes it as I just had to pull it out of her mouth while writing this post. I guess I left it a little too close to the edge of the table. She couldn't resist.

Here is how it looks on the bobbin so far:

The white really washes out the little bits of color that are there. I'm going to just keep spinning it, and probably make it 3-ply using the navajo plying method. Once it is all done and plied I will see what I think but right now the plan is to over dye the enitre skein. I'm thinking a darkish orange color, but I'm not sure so if anyone has any better ideas feel free to let me know!

Sock Collage

I realize that this blog has been highly neglected since the arrival of little Lily, but given the choice between typing on the computer or playing with this...

the puppy tends to win. She is now 14 weeks and growing like a weed.

In the knitting world I have been on a bit of a sock kick lately. They are just so easy to carry around with me. It is also easy to work on a row or two here and there in between stopping the puppy from chewing on table legs or chairs or blinds or shoes.

Most recently finished were these:

 

They are not the softest socks in the world, but I just love them. They are nice and thick and toasty warm. The yarn is called ONline Supersocke 6-ply which I believe is a German company. It is actually the same kind of yarn that my mom's birthday socks were made from last year:

The yarn has held up well through many washes which is good because I am not a fan of hand-washing my socks.

I love the color of this next pair (Cascade Heritage in the "fall foliage" colorway) but they were a pain in the butt to get just right! With a multi-color yarn you just never know what you will end up with. Many factors play into this such as the length of each color section, what size needles you use,  how many stitches you have on your needles and how tight you knit.

It took a while to get just the right combination of stitches and needle size to make the colors turn out. At first the colors kept pooling which means that one half of the sock was entirely red and the other half was gold. I ended up having to use size 0 needles and 64 stitches to make the pooling stop.

 

They are a little small but I'm ok with that. :)