Studio Donegal

When I last posted we were on the airplane headed to Ireland. Finally Here are the photos!

Steeking update:  That steeking did not go well.  I am not sure I am wholly happy with the sweater yet. After my little taking of scissors and a first attempt to build a steek sandwhich was a failure I put the sweater in my bag and left it there for a good two weeks.  Finally a couple of days after Christmas I pushed myself to make some progress.  I will get back to the topic later.

Ireland:  We landed in Cork to a very stormy and foggy dusk.  You might be wondering why we chose to fly into Cork so far away from our Kilcar destination.  I have friends in Cork and planned a couple of nights with them on our way back to the UK.  Thus chose Cork as our entrance and exit airport.  

David made the trip possible.  Not only was he my driver but he took all of the photos!  With him on photography duty I had the opportunity to listen to Tristan tell me all about the yarn making, weaving and Kilcar area.  Honestly if David had not been on the job I am sure there would hardly be any photos for you to see!

We drove from Cork up to Athlone Where we stayed in an aging but quaint hotel that was once a masonic lodge.  Although we really saw nothing of the countryside on the road as it was dark we did smell what we later discovered was the smell of peat fires.  While we stopped for gasoline we saw piles of peat bricks for sale.  Peat really does smell nice in a fire.  

As David and I were both jet-lagged we were up and ready to get on the road by 4:30 am.  we drove further north to Donegal city by day break.  The roads were small and there was very little freeway driving.  We stopped into a coffee shop for breakfast and a walk around the village.  This was a photo of a particularly lovely pub across the street from the cafe.

Finally we were ready to head to Kilcar for our meeting with Tristan and to see Studio Donegal and the  Donegal Tweed Mill.  As there are so many photos I am going to break this bit up into two posts.  This first one will include the photos from Studio Donegal.  Studio Donegal is a small but powerful mix of a business located just off the main street in the small village of Kilcar.  The building is quite large but with hidden treasures that Tristan and his parents before him have created into a lovely business.  When you walk into Studio Donegal you might think it is just a little gift shop.  Two rooms are filled with knitwear, woven blankets, tweed clothing and yarn.

 The front of Studio Donegal.  The shop is located in the lower level, Tristan's office area and the area where are yarn ships from is located in the upper front right windows.  upstairs through the left windows are where clothing design takes place.  The weavers do their work in the back of the building on the second floor.  Down in the basement Tristan has put together a lovely spinning mill from surplus or out of use equipment that he has put back into working use.

Sadly David did not get any good shots of Tristan but I found one on the Studio Donegal Webpage.

A sweet little hat made from the Snow Shade of Soft Donegal Tweed.

Who doesn't love a v necked cable sweater?  It does look great with the woven tweed flat cap.

These hats are knitted from the homespun yarns we carry.  Each skein of yarn is unique and made from area sheep and spun in the mill onsite.

Nice warm knitted socks.

David and I got to watch one of the weavers work on a throw very like this one.  They called the pattern zebra.

A wall of Aran tweed yarn.

Tristan said that these are the are the reason Studio Donegal started milling the homespun yarn.  These gloves show the lovely long stripe variation of the yarn and are long wearing.

A woven scarf.

Tristan has put together a nice group of clothing designers, seamstresses and commercial sewing equipment to produce jackets like this.

The hand mechanized multi-harness looms were fascinating to see.  Four looms filled the space.  If you would like to have your own guided tour of the shop, spinning and weaving you can watch a video created by Studio Donegal here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hZ2JObK-fT

The Mill Area: A carding machine sat off in one corner of the basement. Wool went in and nice lengths of roving came out.

The machines below took washed wool and turned it into narrow strips of roving ready to go into the spinning machines. Uncarded fleece went into the line, was carded once and then carded again at right angles.  The machine then divided a wide band of wool batt it into narrow strips. These strips of pre-yarn were then agitated back and forth in such a way that they became slightly felted.  the resulting 'cheese wheels' of pencil roving looked very knitable even at this stage.

The fleece goes into the machine at this end

Wheels turn while the fleece is carded twice and then divided into narrow strips

Those narrow strips look like yarn but they are not twisted yet. They were wrapped onto rollers and agitated back and forth to slightly felt each narrow band.  At the top you can see early small cheese wheels of this roving being rolled up.



The cheese wheels (they are lined up along the tubes at th top of this spinning machine) were then twisted into single ply yarn on the spinning machines bobbins.

I am hand spinning a finished a piece of roving into a length of yarn.  When I was done I had a bunch of lengths of finger spun yarn in my skirt pockets.

The photo below is a warping machine.  lengths or yarn are reeled on in preparation for the weaving looms upstairs.

Steeking on an Airplane

After some avoidance I finally steeked.  On the airplane from Portland to London this poor sweater mostly sat in my bag.  I played around with some Alpaca Laceweight in preparation for a double sided hat pattern rolling around in my head.  I knit up a fingerless mitt out of some Hollywood yarn.  Grace picked it out and wants me to knit a pair for her and her 12 year old cousin Kate.  Finally in my sleep deprived state right about over Scotland I took out the sweater and…moved the needles and holding cables in the readying position.  I chickened out and put the thing back in my bag.

We arrived in London, hopped on a series of two trains up to Wales and discovered our telephones didn't work at all!  We expected expensive but not non-functioning.  In this state we could not call Jean, David's mum to pick us up from the train station.  at 2pm the three of us in a sleep deprived stupor walked around Newport, Wales looking for a cell phone store.  we found one and Starbucks too!!  While Grace and I got a much deserved coffee David sorted out our telephone problem.  Newport is not the most civilized town in the world.  It is a bit rough and tumble but they have done a wonderful job of decorating their main street area.  I just ignored the youths yelling obscenities at each other and drank my coffee.

By 3pm UK time we had our ride up to Jean's house visited a brief while and then fell into bed.  I am not an airplane sleeper and only slept on the train as we came up from London.  In all I was probably awake for 22 hours straight.  

The next morning we got up at a decent hour and prepared to board an airplane for Ireland.  David and I were on our own.  On the airplane guess what I did? :)  yup I crocheted the steek securing edge and cracked out the scissors.

 chop chop chop chop chop chop chop..well actually it was snip, take a deep breath, snip…this had better be OK, snip...

 I started to pick up stitches along the front and knit the four rows needed for what Kate Davies calls a 'Steek Sandwich".  but because I did not actually re-read the instructions I picked up my stitches incorrectly and mucked it up.  After a re-read at the airport on the way back from Ireland I ripped these rows out and corrected my mistake.  So far my review on steeking the front of a sweater is…not so positive.  The key is to pick up stitches in a stabby way so that loops form in both the front and back of your knitting.  you pull one side and knit on the front and then go back and slide your needle into the loops left on the back to knit matching rows int he back.  these back to back rows of knitting form a facing/placket for your cardigan.  The problems I am having (as the sweater is now back in my bag being avoided) is that it is really difficult to pick up all of the stitches in the back.  They are just basically sewing stitches positioned horizontally in the crack of a column of stitches and since they are mostly the same shade as the rest of the sweater is is very difficult to see them.

After you knit your two flaps to form the front placket you use a three needle bind off technique to join them for a nice edge.  The problem with this plan is that 1.  If you do not have the same number of stitches on each bit of facing (and I didn't) your bind off  runs short and you have a flappy bit of extra at the end (5 stitches for me).  I also dropped 3 stitches on my path to a bind off and the are all running down the placket..gah!!

my Christmas plans are to again rip out my work and using a darning needle and two sets of circular needles sew over and under both cables so that my cast on is even on both sides of the placket.  Oh did I tell you I have to do this all again on the other side of the cardigan?  I keep telling myself it will get easier but I am in the frustrated hiding the sweater in my bag stage of this game.  by the way-the sweater has unravelled a little bit but not so much that I am crumpling in fear.

An update on the trip-and what you are really waiting for I imagine!

We have been to Ireland and taken photos of the Donegal Tweed mill and Studio Donegal.  We have also been to Cornwall and Blacker Yarns.  Those posts are coming next as soon as I transfer the photos to the computer!

A selfie at the hotel bar in Athlone Ireland. If you look closely you can see the word shamrock on the beer tap.

To get to Athlone we flew into Cork Airport and then headed north.  This trip was fine but not a freeway drive at all.  Mostly through villages and on two-lane roads.  Because we arrived after dark we did not see any of the countryside but interestingly there was a lovely smell in the air in every village we passed through.  David and I suspected this was from peat fires.  They sell peat at the gas station in piles like our pressed sawdust logs.  The difference is peat smells nice!  After we returned to Cork I discussed this with a friend and he confirmed our suspicions and said that there are even better sources of peat than the pellets we saw that smell even nicer.

I hope you are all having a great December!  Julianne is sending me reports and says the shop has been bustling while I have been gone.  Make sure and check the calendar for upcoming events.  I do want to make sure and let you know that Black Sheep at Orenco will be closed the week after Christmas.  I made a mistake in the newsletter but have fixed it on the online calendar.  We will be open again bright and early on January 2.  Of course there will be a sale and new yarn fro my trip to come look at!

Heading Out-

After a very long gap (embarrassingly long)  I am putting forth some effort on the Wool Shed so all of you non-facebook users can see the photos and progress as I head out on a working vacation.  The facebook users will get to see these too as I am going to figure out how to dual post (Grace is going to help me gain the skill).

We are at PDX airport right now using the wonderful Portland free wifi and waiting for the airplane.  On the Max ride in David spotted a sweet little yarn bomb along side the train-right near Pioneer courthouse square the otters are wearing sweaters and the deer have leg warmers on.  If you get the chance go check it out (rather cute).

To get us restarted here are a few photos I should have posted long ago!  See the captions for information.

 In the shop-A walking wheel for sale!  He is on the large side but spins beautifully!  Dilly was created in 1976 but has a lovely old feel look.  He would be perfect for Renaissance fairs or Oregon Trail demonstrations and travels well.  He is $400 and ready to walk out the door.

 Dilly from a side view.

Close up view of my Icelandic sweater.  I often hang this in the shop and put it on for coffee runs.  This week I have used the sweater for my winter coat and it is warm!!  as warm as my wool coat.  Amazingly this rough often itchy yarn is fine when it is icy cold out.  It is only when the weather warms up that it gets itchy.

 The coolest yarn bomb in San Mateo.  I got to go see this when I was at Knit lab on Halloween weekend.  The town is filled with creative yarn bomb installations.  If you are down that way it is worth a look.  Notice the close up goldfish!  very cute.

 Ok-the concourse.  as cruddy as the weather has been this week it looks like we are going to make it out of here…Next post will be from the UK and Ireland.

Watch the Webpage.

Decorations!

The last few days have been busy busy busy.  Although the store was closed on Wednesday and Thursday the shop was not still.  With the help of a family friend (Jamari Whiteside) We decorated the front of the house and store.  Right now we are decked out with white lights, cedar garlands and big yarn ball ornaments hanging from our tree.  I have a couple of gnomes guarding the stairs amongst the lavender Pansies (I do love that Oregon weather allows Winter long blooms).

Black Friday 1
We opened on Friday for our first ever Black Friday.  I was very pleased that a steady stream of people came through getting their Christmas knitting projects sorted out. Don't forget that you can always add your shopping want's to our shop wish list and get Gift certificates for the fiber lover's in your life.


New Samples and Patterns
On Saturday and Sunday we were open and the customers were up and down.  During the down time I managed to knit a new warm and oh so soft cowl (A brand new Black Sheep Pattern you can get with the purchase of the two skeins of yarn needed to knit it up).

Looped around double or left single this large cable design has a little bit of sparkle and a lot of soft and fluffy warmth.

 Mrs Snowy on the left and the original Snowy from the mid-70's on the right.

I finally tried to duplicate the snowman ornament that my grandma made in the 1970's.  Snowy has had a place of honor on our Christmas tree and my daughters have been after me to get one made for them.  The resulting Mrs. Snowy is not a perfect match but she isn't too bad for a first stab.  I am now refining the construction and writing up directions.  I am also trying out a larger version and think I might try to felt it to see how it turns out.


Coming Soon-Online inventory/Shopping

We are int he process (and it is a big job) of getting a photo and description of all of our stock online.  Of course our ultimate goal is to open up the shop to online sales but more importantly anyone can check to see if we carry the items they want to come in and get a closer look at.  Right now we are about 1/3 of the way through the inventory list.  I hope that we can at least get it done before the New Year if not sooner.

Re-Check the November/December Classes and Workshops Pages.

We updated and ADDED workshops and classes during these last few days of November and December.  Make sure and take another look at the class and workshops link on the webpage to see if there is any that interests you.

If you have not stopped in and joined us (or not lately) for any of the opportunities to just come and work on your own projects do (hand-work guild or Chardon-knitting).  There is a lovely group of ladies who support each other in any kind of project you want to work on.  We would love to have you!!

The Leaf Shawl:  Because it takes so much blogging time and space I am in the process of moving/changing the leaf shawl project over to another page on this blog.  I am hoping to format things in a calendar so I can just upload the photos each day and spend more time actually knitting on the thing :)

More Leaves, Lopi Felted Love, Green Hombre Scarf.

11/11/2012 David (my husband and I) went out to see the new James Bond movie and out to dinner on a date.  While walking along the sidewalk in the quickly fading dusk we found these leaves.  I have no idea what kind of tree (do leave me a comment if you know) but at least in the light they looked like a rich dark Copper color.  I do not even know if I can find this color yarn but I am sure going to try.

This is Letilopi in Orange 

11/12/2012 Orange maple Lovely and vibrant.  the color is not unlike that strange toned Oak tree across the street from the shop.  Interestingly now that we are further along in the season I think this is an accident.  It is the only one on the block of its color.  The trees across the street are dropping their leaves much later than on our side of the street but this orange one is the only one on the whole block of this color.  Do Oak trees have male and female trees like Holly does?

Painted Heritage Sock yarn from Cascade in Fall Foliage.



11/13/2012 My Hoya plant lives outside in the summer.

Today it was time to bring it back into the house.  This plant was at my grandmothers house and then at my mothers.  My mother took a leaf and rooted it in water and I snuck a leaf off of my mother's one year while I was watering plants for her.  I have killed many, many house plants in my day but this one is foolproof.  It can go months without water and survive.  It loves to live in a steamy bathroom and will bloom waxy pink flowers if treated to steam and root bound but with quite  bit of neglect it creates these lovely glossy green leaves.

This Cascade Superwash Sport in Army Green picks up the darkest tones in the Hoya leaves.  Although they look like different greens the true green is somewhere in between these two shades.

11/14/2012

This is from a variegated Corral Bell plant in my front flower pot.  The color range is amazing and it still looks great this late in the season.
This Black Trillium yarn in Snowy Tiger Eye show much more peachy in this photo.  In reality it show more of the golden color with hints of pink toned orange and light green tones.
11/15/2012
  The leaf blowers came by and cleared off our front sidewalks however in the process they blew half of the remaining oak leaves and maple leaves down into the shop patio.
  
I raked it all up into a pile this morning and bagged it.Of course I took photos first!  I find it interesting how all of the leaves (maple and Oak) as well as the acorns are becoming a deeper brown as we head into winter.  We had a frost last night (the first I was aware of anyway). 
It was between more lopi or Cascade heritage in Walnut.  Since the heritage yarn in Walnut is a fingering weight I am going with that.  


11/16/2012

Variegated leaves are now obvious on my walk to and from my morning coffee. This could be because most of the leaves have now fallen.

  All along my neighborhood pathways are these plants and in my front flower bed I have planted this ornamental cabbage for winter color.  I also have a purple one but I am not sure if I should go there on this shawl..what do you all think?
I will strand both the lime (lopi laceweight) and white (heritage sock) together.

Tomorrow I will show you a progress photo of the shawl.  It is finally getting big enough where you can see the stripes.

Lopi Felted Love: The Christmas Stocking Revisited 
I have not yet had a chance to get a new Christmas stocking on my needles but had a customer come in this week who was interested in finding a felted stocking pattern.  For the rest of the afternoon I looked at the somewhat unsatisfactory horse Christmas stocking and debated felting it to see what would happen.  It couldn't get any worse right?  Well I am so glad I went with my instincts.  I called Grace downstairs (it is after all her stocking).  She agreed to do the felting as long as I promised that if it all went bad I wold knit her another stocking with the same design on it but with an improved heel and foot.  So Grace took the stocking into the shop bathroom.  Filled the sink with hot then cold then hot then cold water and swished the stocking around for a while.  We won't even talk about the water on the floor here..needless to say my bathroom floor had a little cleaning session at the same time.  The stocking did not felt much.  So..we decided to run it upstairs and throw it into the dryer for more abuse.
Before FeltingAfter Felting


You might at this point be wondering why i didn't use the washing machine technique.  You see the problem is that I have a front load washing machine and cannot (well make that not supposed to at any rate) open it while it is running.

 Before Felting

 After Felting

After about 20 minutes in the dryer the stocking was noticeably changed.  you can still see the stitch definition but it is SOFT!! and FURRY!!  It also got a reasonable bit (but not too much) smaller.  In short bot of us LOVE this new and improved stocking.  So much so that I am definitely going to knit up the other stockings and then felt them. I am also scheming up a sweater and some slippers to felt.


Finished Scarf:  I am calling it Chaos to Ordered Hombre.

I used one set of Colorshift yarns in Botanical Green.  The scarf is 10 inches wide and 57 inches long while still pinned. I am sure there will be some bounce back when the scarf dries.  The pattern is very simple.  Cast on 52 stitches,  Knit 7 rows as the bottom border.  351 rows of: a: knit 52 and b: knit 7 purl 37 knit 7alternating.  Finally for the last 7 rows knit.   In total you will have 365 rows (handy for one row a day for a year).  The 489 yards that come in the set I used was more than enough.  I have quite a bit left still.   On the board the scarf looks great but in these photos is looks like I should have used my shawl wires and still might as these take longer to dry now that the sunshine has gone.

the long view

The ordered part-one row of natural followed by rows of each graduated green in the group.

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The chaotic part of the scarf.  I just randomly pulled each color from the bag and knitted.  I did not cut off any shade of green unless the space between rows used was greater than 4.  I just moved the yarn up and gently starteed knitting with it (to limit puckers on the edges).  I found that if I attempted a leap  of more than four rows it looked messy. I won't lie-hiding my ends was not a bundle of fun here.  I definitely recommend cleaning up yarn ends as you go!