Heritage Quilt #1: Miss Lani ZJ

Back in 2020, I turned attention to sewing face masks and ended up collecting beautiful fabrics. It was also fun exploring and shopping at wonderful online fabric shops!

Well, like most things with me, one thing leads to another and sewing masks turned into sewing quilts. I created a t-shirt quilt from my old movie crew shirts and that came out well for a newbie quilter. I then decided I wanted to tackle something a little bigger.

I found some great patterns on stores like Connecting Threads, Missouri Star Quilt Company. I fell in LOVE with designer Riley Blake’s “Destination” Panels and started putting tother a plan. . .

Our goddaughter, Lani, was turning 15 in 2021. I thought it would be fun to create a quilt for her showcasing some of the places she’s lived, where she was born, her family ancestry and the place for which she was named. Here are some initial swatches for Lani’s “Heritage Quilt”.

The pieces came in from different stores so once they all arrived, I washed the fabric, ironed then starting measuring and cutting. Now, I’m terrible at measuring so I measured many many many times. I started by cutting out her name using a solid dark blue fabric and applique-ing it on top of the pretty turquoise swirl fabric.

I did the same for the squared versions of the Japan and Swiss flags – cutting out each shape, then sewing the pieces on the background color. And yes, they are two different shades of red. (Some of these images are from the final quilt. I didn’t take work-in-progress photos of each step unfortunately.)

Then I sewed the “Lani” section to the “Hawaii” section to form the top part, and the “Flag” Section to the “Hooray for Hollywood” for the bottom – with a light gray fabric in between for the sashing.

Another round of measuring for the backing fabric, then making the quilt top + batting + backing sandwich. I used fusible backing for the quilt and placed an ironing mat underneath the quilt so I could iron on the floor. I ended up using quilt pins anyway so I think I’ll just use non-fusible batting after these quilts.

Now, for the FUN part! Hand quilting! I first used fabric pens to mark the wave pattern on the quilt top. Then I tried using quilt hoops but ended up just making a 2 ft x 1 ft PVC frame which worked wonderfully! I was able to have one hand on top and one underneath the frame since it sat on my lap. I used HUGE binder clips to hold the fabric down, but later found nice PVC pipe clamps that worked better.

After 3-4 months of nightly hand quilting, I sewed the binding on to finish the quilt.

At the end of January 2022 (literally 2 days ago), I was finally able to give this quilt to Lani – just a couple weeks shy of her 16th birthday. It had been nearly 2 years since we last saw her and her brother (I’ll follow up with Kai’s Heritage Quilt next!).

Between the Hand-Painted Mermaid Skateboard my husband gifted her and the Heritage Quilt from me, it truly was a fun gift exchange – and a fabulous way to end the first month of the new year.

Lani’s Heritage Quilt by Godmother “Gotti” #2, Christina Rowell

Lani’s “Stained Glass Mermaid Skateboard” by Godfather “Götti” #2, Jake Rowell

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2016 Yarn & Fiber Colors – Weeks 34 – 43

Aloha and Happy Fall!

The summer just flew by and now we’re in the home stretch towards the holidays!!

This past month, I was so excited to have met the amazing indie dyer, Margaret Chong, of Eat, Knit, Dye!! Margaret was here in Los Angeles and we met up at a Japanese noodle house in the fun Sawtelle area. We were the first to arrive and within the hour, the place was packed.

We then went across the street to Volcano Tea for some awesome boba tea and sock knitting. . . well, that was the idea at least, LOL! We actually ended up talking the whole time and it was a blast. So fun to meet another indie dyer and chat about yarn, some trade secrets (sshhhhh), travel and life in general. Here we are posing with the sock projects we *meant* to have worked on! Thanks again for a wonderful afternoon, Margaret.

 

~~

I finished up my Hawaiian Collection of yarn and wool this summer then moved onto the next theme which I’ll touch on in a bit. Here are some colorways from the Hawaiian collection.

LAST SUNSET AT TURTLE BAY was inspired by this photo I took during, you guessed it, our last night on the North Shore of Oahu. We stayed at Turtle Bay Resort and each night, the hotel patrons would migrate towards the beach to watch the sun go down. As always, it was truly magical and I thought I’d try to capture these colors in yarn and wool.

HAWAIIAN PROTEA was inspired by a photo taken by my sister-in-law, Hermine, on the island of Maui. It’s such an unusual looking flower and I am now interested in seeing it up close (doesn’t it look like a huge flower?).

MENEHUNE MINI’S are back! This set of 10x 10-gram mini skeins were all hand-dyed in Hawaiian colorways and already made into center-pull balls so all you have to do is pull the top strand to start crafting!

~~

Now onto the European Collection! This first new colorway was inspired by a photo taken by my parents when they visited Prague in the Czech Republic.This is an amazing photo of the PRAGUE CASTLE. Prague instantly became one of their favorite cities and now it’s on our bucket list!

I was a teenager the first time I visited Switzerland, and since then it has always had a special place in my heart. Hubby and I were lucky enough to travel there in the winter a few years back for our Godson’s baptism, and I took this photo during one of our walks. PILATUS is the name of the mountain where our Godson and his family lived and is a fantastic inspirational for a colorway!

An oldie-but-goodie colorway, PARISIAN SUNSET, was inspired by the photo I took while in Paris for my Mom’s birthday. I just loved all the colors in this November sky!

I’ve been to Italy twice and twice have visited Vatican City to bask in the presence of masterpieces including this one from Michelangelo. Just inside St. Peter’s Basilica is the famed marble statue, the PIETA, in a secluded alcove behind an iron gate. I took this photo through the spaces between the gates and am grateful I was able to see it in person!

During my first trip to Italy, I traveled to the Ligure area and one morning ventured to the famed city of PORTOFINO. The residents were just starting their day so it was fun to watch them get their boats ready!

Back to our Switzerland trip, we did visit Lucerne one day and strolled through the town. We came across this fantastic MEDIEVAL WALL that borders the ‘old town’. This high wall has many towers along the length of the wall – each fashioned with a different top. I took this photo at a park near a portion of the wall and love the different stone colors just on this part.

I have one more European colorway to share next time. In the meantime, here are other colorways I dyed up for the shoppe.

The newest colorway, HEY PUMPKIN, was inspired by this photo from artist friend, Sue Blanchard! I loved all the different shades of pumpkins and thought they’d look great in yarn and wool. You can find more of Sue’s amazing art @ http://www.soobeeart.etsy.com and http://www.soobee.com.

PAGSANJAN FALLS, an oldie-but-goodie, based on the photo I took while braving the rapids in the Philippines!

SEPTEMBER IRIS was inspired by a photo taken by Tim Batog of In the Way of Beauty @inthewayofbeauty on Instagram. This photo was the inspiration for the September SPIN THIS BOX and I dyed up some yarn and wool as well for the shoppe.

PRINCESS CAYS, a small Caribbean island, was the inspiration for this colorway. I wanted to show the different colors of the ocean shot through palm leaves.

I’ll post some of my sock projects, weaving projects and more on the next post! Some items still available @ www.AlohaBlu.com.

2016 Yarn & Fiber Colors – Weeks 20 – 33

Aloha!

It has been a very busy summer and I’ve been doing a little bit of knitting, dyeing, weaving, spinning and more these past few months.

Here are some photos of this summer’s projects.

First, I put together my very first project bag/sock kits!  These were a great collaboration of amazing artists and I’m so happy with the result.

The AlohaBlu logo and pineapple design were created by my wonderfully talented artist hubby, Jake Rowell. He has a fantastic eye for color, design, merchandizing and marketing and has been my biggest inspiration and supporter.

Debra Garner of AddictedToSockKnitting.com hand sewed the bags for me. She carries her own line of fabulous project bags (I have one!) and I am thrilled and honored that she helped create mine.

I also partnered with Denise Ilmanen, the creator of the Sock Ruler, to bring this amazing sock knitting tool to the kit. I already was using the Sock Ruler so I knew how valuable this was to have.

I loved partnering with these wonderful small-business owners to bring this sock kit to life. Thank you Jake, Debra and Denise!!

~~ On to SPINNING ~~

I did take part in this year’s Tour de Fleece and though I wasn’t able to finish all my projects, I managed to spin up a little bit.

This next one I started during TdF, but only finished recently. I tried a new technique – lacing the flyer – which worked out wonderfully well. My friend Chantal gifted me this gorgeous roving that she bought from Mad Color Fiber Arts when she was up at Stitches West. These are ‘my’ colors so she did a fantastic job picking it out. The organic Polwarth was a dream to spin and I was able to spin 582 yards of lace weight yarn! I’m thinking it will make a pretty shawl.

In June I took part in the “Fractal Gradient Challenge” on the Facebook group, A Spinner’s Study. This is where you take say, 2 different rovings (roving A & B) and you spin a 2-ply yarn in A:A, A:B and B:B. Here are my results using my own hand-dyed wool.

Back in May, I tried out my new Hansen MiniSpinner using wool I dyed for the May 2016 SPIN THIS BOX. I ended up with 422 yards of Sport weight yarn (I mistakenly wrote fingering on the photo). I’m still thinking I can make socks with it 🙂

For the May 2016 SPINNING BOX, I dyed up an oldie-but-goodie colorway for the theme “Birds of Paradise”. This is WAIMEA ROOSTER in Merino/Black Tencel which I spun up a sample. This little rooster – named Waimea Willy – resides at the Waimea Falls Park on the island of Oahu and I took this photo of him while he was stalking the tourists!

~~ On to WEAVING ~~

I actually never thought I’d become a weaver, but after receiving a gift of a rigid heddle loom for Christmas it has been all downhill ever since (in a good way, of course). Earlier this year, I started having pain in my left thumb which left me unable to knit for a while. After 2 MRI’s, they still don’t know what caused the pain. I recovered earlier this summer only to have it start up again recently after thinking I could go back to speed knitting (I know, what was I thinking?). Weaving has been a godsend as I can still be creative while giving my thumb a chance to heal. Here are a few of my finished projects.

My very first table runner! This was woven with pima cotton and fits our table perfectly.

My friend Joanne Alderman of Knitter’s Nest sent me this awesome blue handspun yarn for a yarn exchange a few years ago and I wove a wonderful scarf for myself.

This green scarf using a wonderful Merino/Silk worsted yarn that is just yummy!

This scarf uses a Merino/Silk fingering yarn for the warp and weft. It was the first time I used a single-ply yarn for the warp and learned fairly quickly that it wasn’t strong enough to withstand the rigors of constant beating. I ended up using a dog comb to beat each strand into place which took a bit more effort, but I’m happy with the result.

This next one uses my hand-dyed yarn for both the warp and weft. The weft is a self-striping yarn so there are fun blocks of color in this scarf.

I finished this scarf recently and it has become one of my favorites. I used KnitPicks‘ Stroll Tweed for the warp and Chroma for the weft. I love how the tweedy bits poke through the fabric for a great texture!

 In my last post, I showed the yarn that I finished spinning from the January 2016 SPIN THIS BOX – colorways from 7 different artists! Here is the scarf I wove from the yarn.

~~ SOCK PATTERNS ~~

I did manage to publish some sock patterns too! These are available now on KnitPicks.com.

LOVE IS LOVE SOCKS

DIAMONDS IN THE ROUGH SOCKS

FLOWERS ON A FENCE SOCKS

TORCELLO BRIDGE SOCKS

~~ On to COLORS ~~

And finally, the colorways. I’ve been dyeing up Hawaiian-themed colorways in preparation for a set of mini-skeins that will be out soon. Here are some of my favorites.

Happy Summer everyone!

Some items are still available @ www.AlohaBlu.com

2016 Yarn & Fiber Colors – Weeks 12 – 19

Aloha! Happy Spring to you all!

These past few months flew by so quickly and I am excited for the Spring/Summer seasons. I am still dyeing wool for SPIN THIS BOX and did a couple months for SPINNING BOX.

Here are some of the colorways from each of these boxes.

SPIN THIS BOX

April box

May box

SPINNING BOX

April box – theme: English Garden. This collage was inspired by photos I took at the Huntington Library and Gardens in San Marino, California and the Wellington Botanic Gardens in Wellington, New Zealand.

May box – theme: Birds of Paradise. This colorway is WAIMEA ROOSTER, inspired by a rooster that I photographed at Waimea Falls Park on Oahu, Hawaii. I later learned this rooster is named ‘Willy’ and is a long-time resident of the park!

As some of you may be aware, the KnitPicks Community website has been closed down. The members have migrated to our own Ravelry group called “The Frog Prince and his Knitting Community Orphans” and is dedicated to Susan the Blue Lake Knitter, who we lost a few years ago.  Feel free to join us on Ravelry!

We completed a Spin-A-Long last month and they were kind enough to ask me to dye up custom colorways in our group’s colors for the next SAL, which will coincide with Tour de Fleece. Here are the colorways I will be dyeing this month:

Most recently I’ve been working on more sock patterns while keeping up with some dye colorways for the shoppe. Let’s talk about some sock projects . . .

DIAMONDS AND PEARLS Socks feature a diamond pattern created with bobbles (pearls) and a diamond pattern on the foot/back.  This pattern is in honor of the musical legend, Prince, and was knitted with KnitPicks Stroll Tonal in Blue Violet and Stroll Duchess Heather. I hope The Purple One would approve 🙂  Pattern is in progress.

LOVE IS LOVE Socks was completed this past month as well, and was knitted using KnitPicks Felici Rainbow (discontinued) and Stroll Firecracker Heather. Pattern is in progress.

I love animated movies and these socks were inspired by a Disney classic from the 1990s. I loved how the the main character in ALADDIN was called a “diamond in the rough” and turned out to be a true hero in the end. DIAMONDS IN THE ROUGH Socks is an homage not just to this animated hero, but to the hidden gems in all of us. Pattern is available on KnitPicks.com

Onto the colors! This first new colorway is inspired by one of my artist friends, Sue Blanchard. I just fell in love with this image last year and knew I had to re-create I PROMISE TO BE GOOD in yarn and wool.

PICCOLO is another art piece from Sue that I thought was pretty fabulous. Here is my re-creation in yarn and wool.

Sue’s amazing artwork can be found at:

soobeeart.etsy.com & soobee.com

Facebook: Soobee Illustration & Instagram: soobee362

The next new colorway was inspired by an image that fiber friend, Faith, sent me. This is SUMMIT LAKE in her home state of Indiana.

I also dyed up some pima cotton in fingering weight yarn:

Having decided to go back to some of my Hawaiian/Tropical themes, I dyed up 2 oldie-but-goodies, with a few more on the way. This first one is COCONUT LIME (Put the lime in the coconut and drank it all up . . . )

and POI, which is a Hawaiian side dish made from the Taro plant which gives it the purple color. Now, if you’ve ever been to a Hawaiian luau they would have most likely had a small bowl of Poi for you to try and the consistency is usually paste-like, though for most people, it is an acquired taste.

Onto some weaving projects! This first scarf was created for a friend’s mother who is once again fighting cancer. We hear she is doing OK and really loved the scarf.

I did finish one more weaving project which I’m very happy about. This scarf is made from Merino wool that I dyed, spun then wove using plain weave and Brooks Bouquet techniques.

I’m currently working on a table runner on my 32″ rigid heddle loom, and I’m excited for my 10″ Ashford SampleIt loom to arrive today! This smaller one will be easier to port around 🙂

Lastly, I have been spinning more and here are some of my finished skeins from this year.

A = SW Targhee/Nylon from the December 2016 SPIN THIS BOX

B = Mixed BFL in my KEEGAN colorway

C = Corriedale Cross in blues/greens

D = Mixed BFL in my MOODY RAINBOW colorway from the March 2016 SPIN THIS BOX

E = Merino/Black Tencel in my WAIMEA ROOSTER colorway from the May 2016 SPINNING BOX

The following skeins were all spun from the January 2016 SPIN THIS BOX

F = This skein was spun from fun Merino/Firestar/Bamboo rolags from Tiffany King of The Wooly Witch

G = This wonderful 50/50 Merino/Silk wool was dyed by Joe Cole of What The Flock Hand Dyed Yarns

H = Nicholette Reynolds of Spun Sugar Yarns dyed this fabulous Merino wool

I (middle) = LaDonna April of Fistful of Fiber dyed the beautiful Merino/Bamboo/Nylon wool for this skein

J (two skeins) = These two art skeins were spun from vibrant Mystery wool and Bluefaced Leicester locks from Jeri Powtak of Jeri Lynn’s Farm

K = This lovely Rambouillet was dyed by Cherish Stevens of Dandelions & Daisies

SPIN THIS BOX is curated by Anna Barnett of Fiber Felt n More

Here are the individual images so you can see what the original wool looked like.

Lastly, I’ve been wishing for an electric spinner and my wonderful hubby was kind enough to give me one as an early birthday gift! Here is my Hansen Mini Spinner in Wenge wood.

I can’t wait to do more spinning and weaving and dyeing and knitting! 🙂

2013 Yarn & Fiber Colors – Weeks 46-49

ALOHA!

Aloha all and Happy December! Just an FYI –  the shoppe will be closed on December 9th, re-opening later in the month.

Here are the colors and projects for weeks 46-49.  These first 3 colorways all were inspired by photos I took during the Christmas/New Year’s holiday season 🙂

MR. BUTTERFLY in superwash merino lace yarn and superwash merino roving. I took this photo at a butterfly farm in St. Maarten, French West Indies during a Christmas cruise to the Caribbean.

SUNSET OVER FüRIGEN in Falkland roving and superwash merino/nylon fingering yarn. I took this photo while visiting our godson and family in beautiful Fürigen, Switzerland over Christmas 2010.

HONOLULU FIREWORKS in 50/50 silk/merino fingering yarn, superwash merino/tencel roving, sparkle lace yarn and mixed BFL/silk/firestar painted batt. This photo was taken at Waikiki,  just before New Years’.

I had great fun dyeing this new OVERLAY SERIES, inspired by the 2D animation technique of ‘overlaying’ a cel on top of another to bring an object to the foreground. For these skeins, a base color was applied, then a top color was ‘overlayed’ for a multi-color effect.

BLUEBERRY, OLIVE & PEACH-RASPBERRY

and LANIKAI, MOSS & BLACK-PURPLE

 I carded this fun batt of hand-dyed purples & black in superwash merino/nylon wool.

JOKER in handspun, hand-dyed corriedale yarn

And some socks!

These are CHUTES & LADDERS SOCKS in olive tweed.

BLOCKED SOCKS in green & red-multi

ROMAN FORUM SOCKS in green/purple-multi

I was excited to learn this week that my Roman Forum Socks pattern was approved and published into Knitpicks.com’s Independent Designer Program! This is my 7th submission into the program with my colorwork sock patterns and can be found here.

I also posted a set of rolags in hot pink and black. I must admit these are quite bright and fun!

This past week we had a fun gift exchange in our knitting group and we were to make either fingerless gloves or a pair of potholders. I made a pair of smocked fingerless gloves, but fearing I may have made them too small, I also crocheted a potholder using hand-dyed mercerized cotton yarn. I also added a small skein of undyed wool yarn with some kool-aide and dye-your-own-yarn instructions. 🙂

This is me opening my exchange gift – a pair of fingerless gloves is sparkly black and red made by Diana! They are super comfy and I just love the bling!

I also finished a pair of cabled fingering gloves for myself using a beautiful yarn my friend Debra gave me. The wool is merino and silk and the length is about 17″ so they are above the elbow (opera length, I think?).

Lastly, I am trying to finish spinning 5oz of beautifully dyed Rambouillet roving from CorgiHillFarm. I’ve never spun Rambouillet (a fine merino wool) and it’s wonderful to work with. I am thinking about plying the single with silk thread for a lace weight yarn.

Happy Holidays!

2013 Yarn & Fiber Colors – Weeks 40-42

ALOHA!

Here are the colors for weeks 40-42.

First is FALL HARVEST in sw merino/nylon roving and merino/nylon sock blank. A sock blank is basically one full skein of yarn that I knitted with two strands held together to form a ‘blank’ – essentially a long knitted piece – which then I hand painted. The knitter unravels the yarn from one end and can make two socks at the same time that will have a near-identical pattern.

I also created a custom order in 50/50 merino/silk fingering yarn.

TEAPOT STILL LIFE inspired by artwork by artist friend, Aaron Spurgeon! This is sw merino/nylon roving, sparkle fingering sock blank and cotton roving.

BILTMORE BENCH 2 in merino/bamboo/nylon roving and merino/silk lace yarn.

BERRY PIE in superwash BFL mini-batt and rolags.

EGGPLANATEE (inspired by Cloudy With A Chance of Meatballs 2) in merino/silk lace yarn and alpaca/wool/bamboo roving.

SUNSET OVER TITLUS in sw merino/merino/silk roving and lightweight fingering yarn.

and another braid in polwarth for me to spin!

WORLDLY in merino & leicester longwool roving.

Purple & Gray mercerized cotton in sport weight and cotton worsted.

MONSTER MASH in cotton worsted.

I also created some rolags!

SOCKS! My Desiree Diamond Socks pattern is now available on KnitPicks.com!

These socks are available on the shoppe.

And lastly, here’s the finished alpaca skeins that I processed from raw to sport weight 2-ply handspun in LANIKAI colorway.

Before re-skeining:

After re-skeining

And a close-up 🙂

Enjoy!

2013 Yarn & Fiber Colors – Weeks 37-39

Aloha and Happy Fall! I’m excited for my favorite season and the weather has already been cooler here in SoCal.

Lots to post, and I’ll start with colors for weeks 37 – 39. These first 2 are new colorways inspired by my friend and folk artist, Sue Blanchard. Her “Overheard” series is based on comical snippets of overheard conversations which she then re-creates as whimsical pieces of art. The first is called MY FRIEND and I re-created this in 50/50 merino/silk fingering yarn, superwash merino/merino/silk roving and an alpaca/wool/bamboo mini batt.

The second in this series is called BLESS HIS HEART in polwarth roving and merino/bamboo lace yarn.

Sue’s artwork can be seen on Etsy @ www.soobeeart.etsy.com, on her site @ www.soobee.com and on Facebook.

These next colorways are ‘oldies but goodies’ starting with PIETA ALCOVE in a new base, merino/superwash merino/silk roving, and superwash merino fingering yarn.

WAILUA FALLS in BFL/silk roving and merino/nylon fingering yarn.

MORNING AT BILTMORE INN in 50/50 silk/merino fingering yarn and targhee roving.

And wouldn’t want some SWISS CHOCOLATE?? These are merino/tencel roving and baby alpaca/silk lace yarn.

Some Fall-ish colors in DARK CAMO, merino roving and sw merino/nylon fingering yarn.

MONSTER MASH in cotton worsted weight yarn.

Our eldest niece, Alayna, is now a freshman at Ohio State University, so I created OUR FAVORITE BUCKEYE colorway in her honor. This first skein is superwash merino/bamboo/nylon finger yarn.

And in cotton worsted weight yarn.

Keeping with the red theme, this is PELE batt in CVM/Romeldale, Merino/Romney and Peruvian wool.

I also dyed up some small pieces of bamboo roving.

And sparkly FIRESTAR!

Whew! Now on to the SOCKS!

I presented WAHINE & KANE Socks on this blog before, however they are now available on the shoppe 🙂

SQUIGGLE SOCKS were created using merino/bamboo/nylon yarn that I hand-dyed in my ALOHABLU colorway.

Speaking of dyeing, these are two silk/velvet scarves I hand-dyed in bright fuchsia and lemon yellow.

I love crocheting ballet bags and thought I’d add a mini bag to go along!

And finally, some spinning projects!

First, I spun up 2oz each in purple and orange of Opulent Fiber’s merino/silk roving for Chantal.

Here’s the final yarn. 2-ply lace weight, 696 yards.

Next, some spindle spinning using a Spindolyn and Russian support spindle. I am in the process of plying the Merino/BFL/Silk with silk thread for a cobweb lace yarn. Will post photos when done!

And finally, I’m working a ‘test’ project to process raw alpaca wool from start to finish for DK weight yarn. Here are some photos of my progress so far.

WASHING/SCOURING

Raw white alpaca!

I separated the raw wool into two 8oz sections and one 3oz, and washed the first 16 oz. Here the wool is soaking in the right sink and I’m filling up the left sink for the rinse.

This is what the right sink looks like after draining the water out (knitting group ladies asked to see the process so I thought I’d post the good, bad and ugly!).

Next, rinsing in clean water. I repeat the scour/rinse process one more time to get more dirt and debris out. Note: there will still be vegetable matter (VM) in the wool all through the process as it is impossible to get it all out, but I try to get the bigger pieces out as I go along.

DRYING/DRAFTING

After taking the wool out of the rinse, I draft out the wool into smaller pieces so they dry faster and to make sure the wool isn’t felted.

Once dried, I draft again to loosen more VM and get the wool ready for carding.

CARDING/SPINNING

I use my drum carder to create lofty batts to spin up.

Taking a batt off the drum.

A batt ready for spinning. On the upper right is my spinning wheel with yarn-in-progress.

Spinning fingering weight singles.

Each of these bobbins have 3oz of fingering weight singles, ready for plying.

2-ply DK weight on my Jumbo bobbin.

Here is one skein of spun yarn and the specs:

6oz Alpaca Wool | Prep: Woolen | Spin: Worsted

Spinning Wheel: Ashford Joy | Singles @ 14:1 ratio | Plied @ 8:1 ratio

WPI: 14 | DK weight | 180 yards

Next steps: finish spinning the remaining wool then dyeing them up!

I’ll end with a fun image or two. On 21 September, hubby and I attended the Premiere of Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs 2 in Westwood, California. Cloudy2 is the last project I worked on and I’m always nervous when my projects come out just because I’m so proud of the work and hope my crew and viewers like it too.

We had great seats in the theater, right behind Lou Diamond Phillips and his family, and what was I doing to calm my nerves? Knitting socks of course!

And if you do get a chance to see the movie, please look for me at the end. This is the artwork for my ‘card’ credit that I share with our wonderful digital producer, Mandy.

Thanks for reading this rather lengthy post! Hope you enjoyed it! ~ christina

2013 Yarn & Fiber Colors – Weeks 34-36

Aloha!

This week through 9/15, I’m having a ‘20% off purchases over $15’ sale. Use coupon code: 20OFF @ www.AlohaBlu.com.

Here are the colors for weeks 34- 36.

A new colorway, STAINED GLASS ALTAR, in sparkle lace yarn and merino/silk roving. I took this photo while we were touring Our Lady of Paris, the famous Notre Dame cathedral in Paris, France. It was an overcast November day so it was pretty dark inside. For a quick moment, the sun came through and illuminated this altar just as I was passing. I snapped the photo and now here is the wool & yarn. 🙂

We are less than a month away from the opening of Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs 2 and this colorway – WILDEBEETS – was inspired by the creatures that are part wildebeest, part beet. This is corriedale cross roving and sparkle fingering yarn.

This is an updated version of NZ SHELL in BFL/silk roving and cashmere/merino/nylon fingering yarn. This inspirational photo was taken while strolling on a beach in Wellington, New Zealand.

Another Cloudy2-inspired colorway: FRUIT COCKATIEL in BFL/silk roving and merino/bamboo lace weight yarn. This fun creature is made up of a pear body, orange slices for feet, pineapple and cherry eyes, a grape nose, and parts of a banana for wings and hair!

ZION 3 in superwash BFL roving and Falkland British Merino/Tencel lace yarn was inspired by a photo I took years ago while visiting Zion National Park in Utah.

MEMORY 2 in merino/tencel roving and a hand knitted sock blank in sparkle fingering yarn was inspired by a fiber friend’s winter memory. If you’re wondering what a sock blank is, I’ll explain. I took a full skein of yarn and cut it in half. Using both strands held together, I knitting a long piece of undyed yarn (kind of resembles a scarf) and dyed that up. The knitter will then unravel from one end and start knitting two socks at the same time from the two strands I held together resulting in two identically patterned socks. Cool, huh? (Nope, the idea is soo not mine!)

LANIKAI DEEP is a beautiful mercerized cotton worsted weight yarn that reminded me of the deep waters off Lanikai Beach.

BILTMORE SUNFLOWERS batt in targhee/polypay, corriedale cross wool and banana fibers were inspired by well, sunflowers at the Biltmore Estate in Ashville, North Carolina.

EVIL STEPMOTHER batt in corriedale cross, silk, merino, peruvian & BFL wool was named for a KnitPicks yarn colorway that I love! I believe they still have that in stock 🙂

These two are my new favorites. Having ‘can’ dyed each color separately, I then drumcarded each colorway and pulled it off as roving. This is TOXIC WATER in polwarth roving.

And WEATHER WATCHER in 80s count merino roving.

I dyed up another silk/velvet scarf in blue with a fun paisley pattern.

And a few more ballet/pointe crochet bags.

Thanks for stopping by and remember the sale goes through 9/15! Mahalo!

2013 Yarn & Fiber Colors – Weeks 32-33

Aloha! Here are the colors for weeks 32-33.

Since I haven’t posted socks for a while, I thought I’d start with those. Here are some newly finished pairs. (I’ll post them on the shoppe at a later date.)

KANE SOCKS in merino/silk.

DESIREE DIAMOND SOCKS in merino/bamboo/nylon with glass beads.

DESIREE DIAMOND SOCKS in merino/alpaca/nylon with glass beads.

SQUARED SOCKS – work in progress. After over a year I finally finished ONE sock and am having serious Second Sock Syndrome. This pattern calls for 2 fingering weight and 1 lace weight yarn and it taxes my brain (I designed the pattern so only have me to blame!).  This pair will be for me so I’m in no rush to complete them.

On to the colors. . .

The first is PACIFIC SEA NETTLE in polwarth wool roving and baby alpaca yarn. The photo was taken of the North Pacific Sea Nettle at the Long Beach Aquarium of the Pacific.

Next up is FOG in a 64 count merino 2oz mini-batt and superwash merino light-fingering weight yarn (750 yds).  The inspirational photo was taken while cruising through Alaska.

JOKER batt in merino & peruvian wool, banana fibers.

More ballet/pointe shoe crochet bags

And here are some other fun color projects that I’ve done these past couple of weeks.

First, I FINALLY completed the last bit of Tour de Fleece yarn. This is 6oz of Falkland @ 512 yards of Navajo-plied yarn. Am thinking it’s fingering weight yarn but haven’t checked it yet.

Here are the other yarn pieces completed for the 2013 TdF season.

Secondly, some dyeing and  carding projects . . .

These next two braids were fun to make! I first dyed each color separately, then carded them on my drum carder. Using a 1/4″ diz, I pulled the wool off as thick roving which I was able to braid. Here are the before and after photos.

80’s count merino dyed in gray, blue, bright green (colorway name TBD):

Carded & Braided:

And polwarth wool dyed in black, aqua & bright green (to be called TOXIC WATER):

Carded & Braided:

And since I was inspired by a friend’s (Susan D) tomato canning, here’s mine. I was playing around with iPhoto, trying to make a collage and did this ‘card’.

Enjoy!

2013 Yarn & Fiber Colors – Weeks 29-31

Aloha and Happy August! Here are the colors for weeks 29 – 31, available on the shoppe.

I’ll start with an oldie but a goodie: GLACIER BAY in merino/bamboo/nylon roving, sw merino/nylon batt&bump and merino/silk lace yarn.

And the inspirational photo taken in Alaska

CALICO GHOST TOWN in corriedale cross roving and sw merino/nylon fingering yarn.

SUNSET SEA ALASKA in mixed BFL/silk roving and sw merino lace yarn

and the inspirational photo

COOL JEWEL PLAID in black alpaca/silk roving

DARK AVALON in Falkland British merino/nylon fingering yarn

WOLF IN SHEEP’S CLOTHING batt

And a couple more ballet/pointe shoe bags

Lastly, I’m working on a couple spinning projects.

The first is a spindle-spun lace yarn that I started a couple weeks ago. The fiber is merino wool in my FOG colorway that I carded on my drum carder then pulled the wool off as a center-pull bump of roving.

The spindle itself has an interesting story. It is a picasso jasper stone flower top spindle from ZebisisDesigns. In the fall of 2010, I was heartbroken when I hesitated to buy this spindle and it was sold on her shoppe to someone else. Instead I purchased another beautiful spindle from her over the Thanksgiving holiday and when my spindle arrived, this was also in the box as a gift! I literally stared at this amazing gift and could not believe my eyes. Apparently the seller gave everyone who ordered from her during that season an extra spindle. Of all the spindles she could have given me, she gave me the ONE that I really wanted! To this day I’m truly amazed at how it has come to pass that I own this amazing work of art.

The second spinning project I’m trying to finish is plying the last bit of wool from Tour de Fleece. It’s 6.2 ounces of Falkland wool that I spun in a laceweight single and am now Navajo-plying. For you crocheters, N-plying is basically looping the single strand as if making a single crochet and twisting the yarn together to form a 3-ply (strand) yarn. N-plying will give you long sections of the same color, and with 6.2 ounce that I’ve just started I’ll probably be done plying in time for next year’s TdF . . .

Enjoy!