Knitting with dog hair

Knitting with dog hair? Yep, you bet. It's not as strange as it sounds. And because I'm so nice, I'll even save you the hassle of combing the hair and spinning it in to yarn.

Sweet Polly Purebred

Presenting Fido Laceweight, a custom blend of 50% merino wool, 20% silk, and 30% samoyed fiber. Samoyed as in those beautiful fluffy white dogs.



Worry not: just like with angora rabbit fiber, the dogs are not hurt in any way; the fiber is combed out. And unlike the household doggies that we all love, the yarn does not get the dreaded "wet dog smell." (Trust me on this: I spent the last couple of days with it, wet and dry -- and it's odorfree.)

Dino

Rowlf

I've got a limited amount of Fido Laceweight, in batches of 400 yds/50g. One batch will make you a nice lace scarf; two or three will become a soft, fluffy shawl or shawlette.

Clifford

Cerberus

Available now at the BBF on-line shop! Free shipping, too, on orders over $25 by using the code on the home page of the website. Plus I've named the colors after famous dogs. Woof!

Astro (or should I say "Rastro"?)

Big news

I've been quiet lately -- a nasty case of bronchitis that has had me coughing like crazy. It always seems weird to be sick like that in the warm weather. But I am hoping the worst of it is over. In the mean time, big news:

I will be teaching this coming January at Vogue Knitting Live!



I'm teaching two classes, one called "Yarn Substitution Made Simple" and one called "Making Friends with Your Handpaints." I hope you will sign up for them so I am not mortified by poor attendance...I promise the classes will be fun and you will learn some helpful things that you can use in your knitting. It's going to be a tremendous weekend, with really amazing instructors like Meg Swansen and Shirley Paden and the Koigu ladies and Debbie Bliss and Kristin Nicholas and Brooklyn Tweed. Even Veve and Franklin will be there teaching!

Best of all, you can be sure that all proper visas will be obtained well in advance of the show.

While you are waiting for January to roll around, take a gander at some of the nice things I've just listed on the BBF site. Sport/DK weight grab bags... a great new base yarn in suri alpaca/merino with sweater quantity available...try a nice big skein of Superwash Merino Classic in WORSTED weight to make a nice scarf for yourself... so please help me create space for fall yarns by taking some of these lovelies home. Free shipping, too.

July Book Report

Having had some vacation time, I read a bunch of stuff in July -- a lot even given my quick-reading pace. Here's what I read; don't forget to post suggestions in the comments or your reactions to these books.

The Taken by Inger Ashe Wolf, is the second installment in a series set in rural Ontario. It features Hazel Micallef, who is a middle-aged divorced police inspector, recovering from serious back surgery. Micallef's sick leave is interrupted when a strange new case intrigues her. I enjoyed this book in part because the characters are well-drawn, but the puzzle that Micallef and her detectives have to untangle was offbeat enough to hold my interest, even if there were times when it was all a bit convoluted.

False Mermaid by Erin Hart, was a Vine book (meaning I got it for free so long as I post a review on Amazon). I mention this because I'm not sure I would have read it otherwise. It's a very soapy detective story in which forensic specialist Nora Gavin returns to her hometown of St. Paul, MN to try to figure out who killed her younger sister, a crime that remains unsolved after five years. Good beach reading; very Lifetime TV movie.

The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rachel Skloot, is a nonfiction book that combines biomedical history with social history. Medical researchers all over the world use human cells called the "HeLa" line in their work, and this book looks at the woman, Henrietta Lacks, from whose body those cells were originally taken. I liked the way that the book explained the biomedical issues relating to the HeLa cells (how they were taken from a cancerous growth in Lacks' body and cultured in labs due to their astonishingly fast growth rate; use of the HeLa cells is credited with major medical advances including the development of the polio vaccine) and contrasted it with the biography of Lacks herself (Lacks lived a hard life, growing up in a tobacco town in the south, and later moving to Baltimore, where her children grew up with a legacy of poverty, lack of education and other social ills). I found the end of the book a bit less engrossing, as it focused on the survivors of Lacks and their messed-up lives. Definitely worth a read if you are interested in biomedical issues.

Out of the Blackout by Robert Barnard. Sometimes a book benefits from its complete obscurity. I picked this one up for fifty cents at the library book sale and so I felt like I just couldn't go wrong in reading it, with so little at stake, but I ended up enjoying it. The plot is creative: Simon was a child sent from London to the British countryside during WWII to escape the dangers of the Blitz. After the war, Simon remained in the country village to which he was evacuated, and was essentially adopted by his host family. But Simon is vaguely aware that there is something odd about his departure from London; he half-remembers things which make him wonder who his parents were and under what circumstances he was placed on a train heading out of London. The book traces Simon's attempts to remember who he was and why he was sent away. As is often the case, Simon starts to wonder if he really wants to know the truth about his origins, given how much he loves his adopted family.

The Promised World, by Lisa Tucker, was another Vine selection that caught my eye because the main character, Lily, has a twin brother. (Regular readers know that I have boy-girl twins who are eight.) I thought it might be interesting to read a book that touched on the relationship between fraternal twins. In the opening scenes of the book, Lily gets word that her beloved twin brother has committed suicide by cop. Overwhelmed by grief, she tries to figure out what about Billy's current life could have led him to that point, and delves into their shared past, full of secrets, abuse and regrets. Lots of suspense and a quick read.

The Art of Deception by Elizabeth Ironside. Nicholas is a London art historian who runs into a woman being mugged. It turns out that she's a neighbor of his, and the two begin a somewhat unlikely romance. As Nicholas stirs up controversy in the art world by suggesting that a famous Vermeer is a fake, he gets further enmeshed in his neighbor's strange world. Although I really enjoyed a previous book by this author, this one didn't hold my interest as well. I wasn't that interested in the Russian mafia story line, and a good bit of the action seemed a little far-fetched. It did get better toward the end, though; maybe part of the problem was that the middle of the book is devoted to too much exposition.

A Clubbable Woman by Reginald Hill. This series of British police procedurals (currently with over 20 novels in the series) has been repeatedly recommended to me. Being an anal-retentive, I had to wait until I got hold of the very first in the series to try it out. (Because you HAVE to read them all IN ORDER!!!) Set in Yorkshire, the main characters are Inspector Dalziel and his sergeant Pascoe. The two are a sort of "Odd Couple" of detecting: Dalziel is big, sloppy, vulgar, working-class and old school, while Pascoe is young, dapper, college-educated and decidedly in the modern copper camp. The conflict between the two forms a good part of the backdrop to the action. The mystery itself involves the death of a middle-aged woman who is found bludgeoned in her living room chair, still staring vacantly at the TV screen. Her husband is suspect number one but the village in which she lives is full of gossip, intrigue and deceit.

An engaging book but not top-notch compared to some of the other British police procedurals I've read. However, I'm interested enough to try the next couple in the series to see how the author develops over time, especially in light of the excellent reviews his later books have received.

Lucy Gayheart by Willa Cather. A friend who is a college English professor seemed a bit dismayed that I was reading "Lucy Gayheart" so early in my exploration of Willa Cather but I really enjoyed reading it, even though it's a book with a very melancholy feel.

Lucy Gayheart is the main character of the book, a lovely and naive girl who grows up in a small prairie town. Her father teaches music in his spare time and sends Lucy to Chicago to study piano there. Lucy meets an older musician there, a singer who in modern parlance might be having something of a mid-life crisis. Lucy is hired to serve as his accompanist, and falls in love. Without giving too much of the plot away, it's safe to say that Lucy's love does not meet with a happy ending. Book One of the novel tells Lucy's story from her viewpoint; she's portrayed as a happy, innocent, sweet prairie maiden chasing her dream in the big city. Books Two and Three, however, paint a picture of a different Lucy -- spoiled, a bit petulant, narcissistic even beyond what's normal for the young.

While I can understand why it's considered a less important work than, say, "My Antonia," I still enjoyed "Lucy" for many of the qualities it had in common with "My Antonia": strong sense of place, beautiful descriptive passages, a clarity and elegance of style based in simplicity.

One for the Money by Janet Evanovich, is the first in the series of Stephanie Plum mysteries. The series has been recommended to me by so many people and I had the first paperback sitting around, but never read it for no apparent reason. I read this at the beach, and it was perfect for that. Stephanie Plum, laid off from her job, begins working as a bounty hunter tracing Trenton, NJ felons who skip out on their bail. I love the author's voice and her down-to-earth characters. Will definitely be reading more in this series.

Tender Is the Night by F. Scott Fitzgerald. Having read so many beach-type books, I decided to stretch a little and read some Literature-with-a-capital-L. It was interesting reading Fitzgerald so close on the heels of Willa Cather. While I like Fitzgerald, his style seems so compressed and turgid compared to Cather's elegant simplicity.

"Tender is the Night" begins from the perspective of Rosemary Hoyt, an 18-year-old American starlet recovering from a bout of pneumonia at the French Riviera. She encounters a group of witty, wealthy Americans at the resort, but her attention is most drawn by Nicole and Dick Diver. To Rosemary, the Divers are just perfect: good-looking, glamorous and full of charisma. Rosemary declares herself in love with them. The perspective then shifts, mainly to Dick Diver, and although he is intrigued by Rosemary -- the first sign of a crack in his seemingly-wonderful marriage -- he holds back. Rosemary learns that there is something wrong with Nicole Diver, and as the book hits its stride, we find out Nicole battles from some form of mental illness (schizophrenic breaks? bipolar?).

As the rest of the plot unfolds, we are given flashbacks that explain the Divers' backgrounds; it turns out (and this is a pretty well-known piece of the plot, so I don't think it's really a spoiler) that Dick Diver is a psychiatrist and Nicole Diver was a psychiatric patient at a friend's clinic when they first met. The novel tracks the crash and burn of the Divers' marriage, the consummation of Rosemary's infatuation with Dick, and the fates of the small group that the reader first encountered on the beach in the opening scene.

Fitzgerald is a good writer, albeit a dark one, and "Tender is the Night" is said to be his most autobiographical novel. It's hard not to see pieces of Fitzgerald in Diver himself (Fitzgerald struggled with alcoholism, and married a woman who developed severe mental illness) and maybe also Abe North, and Zelda obviously inspired Nicole. Perhaps that is part of what is so moving about the book, that Fitzgerald tried to wring something grander out of the pain and frustration of his own troubled life.

Broken by Karin Fossum. Fossum is one of those brooding Scandinavian mystery writers of which I've become so fond. She is best-known for her Inspecter Sejer series of books. This was a stand-alone book that did not feature Inspector Sejer. I was glad I got it as part of the Vine Program, because I would have been pissed if I had paid for it. It was really rather dreadful. As the book begins, we see a middle-aged author wake in the night to discover a man is standing in her bedroom. It turns out she recognizes the man, and he is a fictional character waiting for her to use him in a book. The rest of the book alternates between the character interacting with the author about what she's written about him, and the chapters that tell the character's story. Feh. No mystery, not very interesting, the characters aren't really likeable. Felt too much like Fossum was mailing this one in, or reworking a short story she'd written years ago just to put out another book.

The Palace Tiger and The Damascened Blade were two more installments in Barbara Cleverly's Joe Sandilands series of mysteries set in the 1920s British empire. These two installments took place in colonial India and were great escapist mystery reading.

Coming this winter.....from the infamous Barb Brown

It always gives me a warm, fuzzy feeling when a friend ends up creating something beautiful, so I was extremely pleased to see this on Amazon:



Knitting Knee-Highs: Sock Styles from Classic to Contemporary by GKIYH pal Barb Brown. The book is slated for a February 2011 release, although we usually see books arrive a few weeks earlier than Amazon's projected release date. In the book, you'll find instruction on knitting knee-highs as well as patterns for some gorgeous socks -- with each pattern shown in an alternate colorway and variation. I've seen some previews and I can tell you there are some wonderful, wonderful patterns in this book. I'll be sure to do a book review once it is actually available for purchase. Congrats, Barb!

Bamberino, anyone?

I just uploaded around 30 skeins of Bamberino fingering weight yarn. I really like this base yarn; while it contains 20% bamboo fiber (what the feds want us to call "rayon" now), it retains the feel and bounce of the merino without seeming stiff. I also like that it doesn't have a stark white ply like some commercial sock yarns too.

I did a couple of batches in twos and threes of the same colorway, because I know that the Mythos pattern from Knitty.com was getting a lot of buzz, and it calls for 750-1500 yds of fingering weight yarn. Each Bamberino skeins has about 420 yds, so two would make the smallest and possibly second smallest size, while three skeins would get you through the next three sizes.

Blue Dolphins

This is one of my favorite batches, and I've listed 3 in the same dyelot. Or if you're more of a red person, there are 2 of these:

Strawberry Girl

Of course, there are also some lovely single skeins, like this one:

Little Princess

There are also a few batches of a blend of bamboo fiber/alpaca/wool in the roving category; it reminds me of marshmallows, it's so soft and fluffy. It's a bit hard to photograph because of the softness and sheen, but it will make some striking semisolid yarn...

Thank you for your support with my pancreatic cancer fundraiser. The pattern will be on sale through the end of the year, and your support means a great deal to me.

Pancreatic Craftacular

My regular readers may recall that my father died of pancreatic cancer last December. In some respects, he was the classic pancreatic cancer patient: by the time he noticed symptoms that weren't vague and easy to ignore, the cancer had metastasized. He died just a few days after receiving his diagnosis. Pancreatic cancer is such a nasty disease that we actually took some comfort from the fact that he did not linger longer, suffering from all sorts of intense pain and indignities.

When I saw on Facebook that Kim Werker, former editor of Interweave Crochet, author of Crochet Me: Designs to Fuel the Crochet Revolution, and all around good gal, was beginning a fundraiser for pancreatic cancer research, I wanted to participate. Kim's family has been ravaged by this disease: she has lost a grandmother, aunt and uncle, and her father is currently undergoing treatment for pancreatic-related issues right now, although thankfully, his prognosis is good.

So I present to you the Electric Eyelet Socks.



It's a pattern that I had written a while back, and was planning on offering in PDF form, but for various reasons, it had fallen to the back of the to-do list. I am offering this on Ravelry (link here) and Patternfish (link here). From now through December 23, 2010 (the one-year anniversary of my dad's death), I will donate 50% of the purchase price to the Lustgarden Foundation for Pancreatic Research Center as part of the Pancreatic Craftacular that Kim has organized. (Be sure to check out the other participants in the Craftacular, who are offering crafty goodies with a portion of the proceeds going to this cause.)



Thanks for your support. I hope this will be a win-win situation, in that you will get a fun sock pattern to knit, while a worthwhile research center will get badly-needed funds to fight a terrible form of cancer.

Fall preview: Berroco

This is the time of the summer when -- if you live in the same climactic zone that I do -- the irony is inescapable. It is, literally, going to be 90 or more degrees F here today, and yet I am writing a blog post telling you about yarns made of wool and other cozy, heat-inducing fibers. But it's fall preview time here at GKIYH and if you are an early bird, you may be interested in casting on a new project now in order to finish it by the fall. (Or perhaps you are just a complete whore for yarn, like me, and like hearing about what's coming this fall...)

Fremont by Cirilia Rose (Vintage)

You've heard me kvell over and over again about the terrific yarns and patterns Berroco has produced in the last couple years under Norah Gaughan's direction. So I won't blather on and on about it any more. Let's head straight for the good stuff: the yarn and patterns.

Ana, by Cirilia Rose (Remix)

This fall, we're going to see five new yarns from Berroco. Two are new weights of some familiar favorites, while three are brand-new yarns. While in the past couple of years, Berroco was producing a lot of all-natural fiber yarns, this year, almost all but one of the new yarns include some synthetic content. I wonder why this is: price sensitivity, given the economy? desire on the part of knitters for more machine-washability?

Daron (Remix)

Maybe one reason is the desire to source reused fibers. Berroco Remix uses 100-percent recycled fibers -- 27% cotton, 30% nylon, 24% acrylic, 10% silk and 9% linen, a pretty eclectic combination. The end result is a non-wool, machine-washable tweed yarn. It's heavy worsted weight, and you get 216 yds/100g for ten bucks a ball -- an alternative for the wool-allergic at a versatile gauge, and around the same general price point as the uber-popular Cascade 220. (Even those who are not allergic to wool may appreciate the cooler blend of fibers for wearing on less-frigid days.) Remix comes in twelve colors, about half of which are neutrals; the others tend to deep, rich shades like a rich ruby red and a deep orange, along with favorites like denim blue and buttercup yellow.

Abi (Remix)

If you are looking for a yarn to wear on freezing-cold days, you can try Campus or Borealis. Campus is a blend of wool, acrylic and a little alpaca (the exact proportions are 50% wool, 40% acrylic, 10% alpaca), in a bulky weight (handwash).

Lutt-Witt (Campus)

Campus is priced at ten bucks a ball, and you get 130 yds/100g, knitting at 3 sts per inch. The texture is slightly thick-and-thin, and it's got some multicolored plies, although the nine color combinations tend toward the subtler rather than the crayon box.

Bourtanger (Campus)

Borealis also knits at around 3 sts per inch,

Outre, by Cirilia Rose (Borealis)

and features a 60% acrylic/40% wool mix. Borealis is also a multicolor but with brighter combinations than Campus. It retails for $14 a ball, and you get 108 yds/100g, with 10 colorways.

Boyd (Borealis)

I mentioned in one of my TNNA posts that in light of the economic situation, I got the impression that some of the yarn companies were trying to reduce the risk of introducing brand-new yarns by bringing out newer weights of old favorites. It makes sense: if you know customers like a yarn, it's less risky to get them to buy a different weight of that yarn than one they've never tried before.

This fall, you'll find Blackstone Tweed Chunky, a bulkier version of Berroco's popular Blackstone Tweed. Like the original, BT Chunky is a blend of 65% wool/25% superfine kid mohair/10% angora rabbit fluff but instead of knitting at 4.5 sts to the inch, the chunky version knits at 3.5 sts to the inch. There are ten colors, again with lots of versatile neutrals as well as favorite shades like blues and rich red.

Emerson Pullover, by Norah Gaughan (BT Tweed Chunky)

Similarly, the popular Vintage gets a thicker sibling; Vintage Chunky retains the 50% acrylic/40% wool/10% nylon blend of the original, but knits at 3.5 instead of 4.5 sts per inch. Vintage Chunky debuts with a nice selection of 24 colors, with a brighter palette than some of the other new yarns. Vintage is labeled for gentle machine washing, always a plus.

One of the great things about Berroco under Norah Gaughan is the strength of the pattern support that is offered. This fall, Berroco is releasing seven pattern booklets.

Aquamarina by Norah Gaughan (Lustra)

Gaughan fans will be interested in Norah Gaughan Vol. 7, the latest installment of her designs.

Zolfo, by Norah Gaughan (Ultra Alpaca + Lustra)

The booklet contains 17 designs inspired by "crystals, geodes and gemstones," and uses mainly the popular Ultra Alpaca yarn, along with Lustra.

Stibnite, by Norah Gaughan (Ultra Alpaca)

A book dedicated to the new Remix features knits for the family -- children's as well as a few adult garments; the book dedicated to Campus contains basic pieces for women; the Borealis book is also women's garments, mainly sweaters, but with more dramatic style. A booklet containing Blackstone Tweed in original and chunky weights is devoted to classic garments for women,

Reid, by Cirilia Rose (BT Tweed)

while a Vintage original and chunky weights booklet looks like it was designed to appeal to a slightly younger demographic (with that adorable Cirilia Rose modeling).

Vashon by Cirilia Rose (Vintage Chunky)

The final new booklet is a combination of sweaters and accessories in super-thick Sundae and Peruvia Quick.

Berroco's fall yarns and pattern booklets are already being shipped to fine yarn emporia like Loop and WEBS.


More yarn previews and book reviews coming soon....

I'm back....

After our rocky departure day, we had an absolutely gorgeous time at the beach.


The weather largely cooperated; although there were one or two days when it was cloudy or we had a thunderstorm, our first day (which was devoted to travel anyway) was the only rainy day -- we were able to get to the beach and in the water every other day, which is pretty amazing.



We did the traditional flying-of-the-kite


and sand-castle-building


and bodysurfing in the waves, and we ate ice cream


and even the crabbier members of the family (they know who they are) were laughing and having fun.


We even played a round or two of mini-golf, although it was dreadfully hot that day.

We met a cute little toad


and had some delicious seafood.


You'll be pleased to know that the Beach Bun had a great time, too. Look how relaxed he is.


With fall right around the corner (!), there's lots going on in the knitting world, so I'll try to catch up soon. I've got fall yarn previews and book reviews and all kinds of good stuff coming up....