When Kate Davies first published the Miss Rachel's Yoke a couple of years ago, I knew I had to make it. I quickly bought the kit, intending to cast on right away.

Of course, life intervened, as it does, and by the time I was ready to knit there were a few roadblocks in my way:

1. I wanted to knit it as a cardigan, which would require extra yarn (that I didn't have) for a button band.
2. I wanted to knit the gauntlets into the sleeves, and wasn't yet confident in my pattern-hacking skills to do so.
3. I swatched (really!) and found that the recommended gauge is quite tight, and didn't really want to subject my hands to that kind of strain. 

But mostly, I was convinced I didn't have enough yarn. (Side note - I've decided always buy/spin more yarn/fiber than I think I need from here on out. I always end up picking the projects that require tons of yardage...)

Earlier this month, we had a snowy day that had followed a very gray week. It was one of those weekends where I can't think of a reason to leave the house, and I was downright grumpy. My husband, in an attempt to cheer me up, suggested a trip to the movie theater. The only problem was, I didn't have anything to knit - at least, nothing I could knit in the dark. 

When I first learned to knit, I taught myself to knit without looking so that I could knit on the dark schoolbus, in dark cars riding home from dance lessons, and in the movie theater. Now, my "movie theater knitting" is always very basic. I can knit and purl in the same row if it's not a fancy pattern, but anything that might require a chart is out of the question. Usually I keep a sock on the needles for just such an occasion, but the socks I had going were too close to being done to entertain me for a whole two hours.

I dove into the stash to see what my options were, and the Miss Rachel kit jumped out at me. I figured that even if I didn't have enough yarn, at least I'd have something to knit in the movie theater.  And though I'd originally meant to make it a cardigan, I've realized that I wear pullovers a bit more often than I did when I first bought the kit, so a pullover it was.

One benefit of waiting so long to cast on is that plenty of other Ravelers have had the chance to knit and write about this pattern, so I could let go of some of my anxiety about how it would turn out.  Some standouts are:

Uncrossed has incorporated a great short-row detail into the yoke.

Ltnknitter, Agameda, and Lizoid have an interesting trick for hiding the jog. 

Crochet-Julie made the darker version, and managed to do her modeled shots in front of a photograph of the shawl that inspired the design.

My project page is still in progress, but you can find it here. 

Welcome to August! Are you ready for fall yet? I know I am. We spent (at least) two or three weeks in the hottest days of July with a non-functioning swamp cooler.* Now that it's fixed, I have the air blasting just so I can put on a long-sleeve shirt every now and then and dream of fall.

In July, I managed to finish a machine-knit sweater. I tried it on to make sure it fit, but took absolutely zero photos of it. And I made a SAORI-style table runner...and tons of yarn for Tour de Fleece. But the biggest thing is what you see above! I am now selling rug hooking wool and other supplies over on FiberCrafty!

Rug Hooking/Needlepunch​

• I've dabbled in it before, but now I have a whole bunch of stuff to work with and so little time! Trying to come up with a fun project to kick it off.
• I'm listing lots and lots of wool and other tools on FiberCrafty - it's a project in itself. Be sure to check out my page!

Knitting

• Believe it or not, I finally took my stash sweater out of hibernation. (It needed to sit in a corner and think about what it had done to me!) Part of why I haven't been knitting much has to do with how much my hands can handle (more on that later), but I was also disappointed that it wasn't perfect the first time (even though it started out as an experiment, and I shouldn't have expected perfection.) Anyways, it rested for long enough, and so did my hands, and it was the perfect companion for a short road trip/long car ride at the end of July. I've got another one of those trips coming up soon, and hope to make real progress on the sweater, if not finish it, by the end of August.

Weaving

• I have a SAORI style warp on the Jano. I started out weaving a little bit on it every morning, and then it got too hot/life got in the way, and not much has happened lately. Luckily, it's easy to just go and weave a few inches now and then, so it's almost the perfect thing to have set up all the time. 
• I rescued a loom from a trip to the dumpster....it needs some TLC, starting with a little bit of rust removal. So that's on the list. 

Spinning

• I got the opportunity to try out my Guild's single treadle Schacht Matchless. I'm in love. Right now I'm spinning some CVM that has been languishing in stash. There's quite a bit of it, but I'm hoping that by putting in some good time on the Matchless, I'll be able to actually finish the project.
• A few months ago, I got a blending board. I've done a handful of things on it, but wanted to explore using it for a bigger project. All the fiber is blended, now I just have to spin it!

There are lots of other odds and ends, but I think that's most of it! What are you working on this month?

xx,

​Pamela

*​For all y'all who live somewhere humid, a swamp cooler is an air conditioner that intentionally adds humidity to your air. If you live in a dry climate like I do, it actually works pretty well to cool you off. (And if you grew up in a swampy place like I did, it's pretty alien to you to consider a swamp cooler to be a good thing.)

May is done and dusted, and now it's on to June...I'm happy to say that despite my busy schedule for May, I managed to get rather a lot done. Unless you count blogging!

My main knitting goal was to finish the Lucca shawl, which I did fairly early on in the month. Plus, I finally finished warping my floor loom, and have been happily weaving away on it. And then there were all the workshops! So much fun, and so much information flying around in my head, and there's more to come with MAWS coming up in June! 

Knitting

• If you're tired of hearing me say I'm going to finish that stash sweater someday, I'm right there with you. I did get some excellent ideas on how to rescue it with as little work as possible, so the chances that I actually get to work on that are getting better and better.
• I'm in love with the overdye job I did on the leftover skein from Lucca....but getting a project started with it has proven challenging. The first few attempts weren't quite right, and then I took it over to my knitting machine to learn how to use the lace carraige, which in turn ended up chewing up a bit of yarn in a bad way. So this is in a holding pattern.
• There's that fancy Shetland scarf that needs work, but it requires so much concentration that I rarely have time to work on it. 

Weaving

• I managed to get my floor loom warped, and I'm actually at the tail end of weaving that warp. I did two yards of blue/gray weft, and am aiming for two yards of a fuschia weft. Then, I'm hoping to tie on a new warp to the old one so that I'm not sitting with an unwarped loom for six months. I've also decided there's no huge rush - if I weave about 6 inches a day, I'm happy.
• I'm taking a weaving workshop at MAWS (Montana Association of Spinners and Weavers), so have to get my table loom warped for that. It's actually quite an easy warp, and it's 90% done. 
• I desperately want to build a warp-weighted loom, but I'm thinking it will have to wait at least another month or so. 

Spinning

• The problem with having more than one spinning wheel is that I have a bunch of projects on the go at once. I'm working on consolidating that. But for now, I have two alpaca spinning projects going, and one pound of wool, and....then there's the plying. 

Sewing

• Sewing is back! I managed to make a Gemma Tank without any major catastrophes. More on it later, maybe. I don't love it, and I don't hate it, and I'm thinking my opinion of it is suffering from my fabric choice. So I'll be making at least one more in a different fabric before I give a final verdict.
• The end goal is to make a top or two out of the yardage I'm weaving on my floor loom. So there may be one or two more wearable muslins in my future...

That's it...I think! What are you up to this month?

xx,

​Pamela

Another month, another opportunity to say, "Last month went by so fast," and to say that everything's still in progress!

I did know April was going to be busy, and somehow I've already overloaded myself for May, too. Good in some ways, and not so good in others. I'll be taking a dye workshop with one of my guild members, and then traipsing over to Boulder for a week of workshops with Elizabeth Johnston and Martha Owen ... leaving not so much time for turning WIPs into FOs. 

Knitting

• Pictured above, my main knitting goal for May is to finish my Lucca shawl. I'm about 2/3 of the way through the border, and every time I count, it seems like I still have the same number of "teeth" in the edging. There's a reason why most traditional lace knitters do the edging first - it takes forever, and it's a pain to turn every row when the knitting is as huge as it is now...
• I'm sort of itching to cast on this hat with some handspun...but so far, I've managed to restrain myself.
• One of my Yarn Fest classes was Shetland lace knitting with Elizabeth Johnston. In it, we started a scarf - so once I finish Lucca, it will be on to that one.
• And, of course, the stashbuster sweater is still on the needles. I'm thinking I'll take that one to Boulder with me. 

Spinning

• There's lots of plying to do! I've managed to ply quite a bit, but there's always more. 
• I'm wanting to weave an al-plaid-ca ruana. Sorry, I just couldn't help the pun. Anyways, it uses all natural alpaca colors, and I've spun up all the alpaca that's in my stash and am just waiting for the supplemental colors to come in the mail. Then it will be spinning (and more plying).

Weaving

• I'm still not finished warping the floor loom and starting to think I bit off more than I could chew. Whoops. Someday I'll get this thing going for real.
• I'm taking a couple of dye workshops and need to wind warps for those. I haven't painted a warp before, so this will be something new. 

What are you working on this month?

xx,

​Pamela

Welp. A lot happened in February, and to say that I got lots of stuff done would be ... not quite true. Yes, things did get done, just not all my pie-in-the sky plans, and some of the things that got done weren't exactly in the plans. The biggest thing that happened was that my husband got a new job, which means I'm doing a lot more work in our business. And, of course, a little bit less time for yarn. 

Here's what I'm counting as finished for the month of February

• The ruana pictured above. I've been posting progress photos and videos over on Instagram. Full post on the FO coming soon.
•  The baby camel sweater.
• Not one, but two Willow Tanks. I made a second with this print, in the next size up. That version will remain unblogged...it's wearable, but (1) too big and (2) not my color. Plus I think the print is a bit big for my taste. Anyways, I think I'll be exploring a full bust adjustment on the original size I chose.
• I also read several books on color theory - I started with Itten's The Elements of Color, then read Bobbie Irwin's Weaving Iridescence: Color Play for the Handweaver, and finished up with Stephen Quiller's Color Choices: Making Color Sense out of Color Theory. The last is really written for painters, but it had a lot that helped me understand more complex color schemes. 
• I wound the warp ends for my floor loom project from last month, but go no further than that. More below. 

So, with slightly tempered expectations, here's what's on the list for March:

Knitting

• The stashbuster sweater hasn't had any progress at all. I'm avoiding unraveling the yoke because I wove in ends, and I'm secretly afraid that I might not have enough yarn if I don't unravel. It wouldn't kill me to order more (it should only be 3-4 colors of Shetland Spindrift), but I'm avoiding it just the same. Or maybe I'm letting the ideas marinate in the back of my mind.
• A pair of helical stripe socks.
• More practice on the knitting machine - I have a plan for a top to go with the ruana.
• Organizing the knitting machine equipment, and my fiber art area in general .

Spinning

• Still working on that Finnsheep yarn from last month. 
• We practiced handcombing at our Guild spinning group last month. When I get through the Finnsheep, I'd like to combine some colors on Shetland wool that's been sitting idle in my stash for a while. But that's not a huge rush.

Weaving

• Warping the big floor loom didn't happen last month. I did wind all the warp ends, but I have yet to dye or even warp and weave. I was leaning towards dyeing an ikat effect, but am starting to think that might be too involved ... for now. So then the question is, do I dye it now, or once it's cloth? 
• I've been enjoying Jane Stafford's Online Guild, and am tempted to re-warp my table loom with the first project for this year. Then the question becomes, how do I do that with my existing stash? I have *almost* enough of a couple of colors, but not quite as much as I think I'd need, and am trying to restrain myself from buying too much. 

Sewing

• I'd like to get the hang of a full bust adjustment. I think I just barely need it, but it'll be a good skill to have. The plan is to make another Willow Tank, using a stash fabric that I don't love as a muslin. 
• I have a sample of fabric - about 20" square - from my ruana project. A swatch, if you will, that is perfectly good fabric. I really want to make something with it, but can't figure out what will be the *perfect* thing.
  
• And of course, the albatross of the log cabin blanket. I've maybe almost gotten myself ready to drag it out - it's soooo cold in my house, even with the heat turned up, and working under it would be the coziest thing.  

With the change in my time committments, I'm reevaluating a couple of things, and I know that not all of this can possibly get done in March. But a girl can always dream!

xx,

Pamela