Episode 90 New Rule for Buying Yarn

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This show by sponsored by my Longaberger Home Business and Quince & Co.

The folks at Quince &  Co have created a line of thoughtfully conceived yarns spun from American wool or sourced from earth friendly overseas suppliers.  Their newest addition are colors in Sparrow, 100% organic linen, grown in Belgium.  In addition to the original Sparrow in its silver/brown glory sparrow now comes in six colors.
Their names come from flora you'd find on a forest trail: Juniper, Birch, Nannyberry, Blue Spruce, Little Fern, and Butternut.  Still the same lovely hand and drape. Perfect in all Sparrow patterns.  See Sparrow and all the beautiful Quince yarns at www.quinceandco.com

Giveaway of Knitbot Essentials

Leave a comment on the show blog under Episode 89 or 90 by May 23 to be in a chance to win a copy of Knitbot Essentials, signed by designer Hannah Fettig and Quince owner and renown knitter/designer Pam Allen.  KnitBot Essentials by Hannah Fettig  

Please be sure to leave a way to contact you in case you do not hear your name on the air.  If you have problems leaving a comment then send me an email and I will include your name but please try the blog first. 

I enjoy your feedback, comments on the blog, and questions.  Feel free to write to me at Paulaef@aol.com or on Ravelry as PrairiePiper.  My business site is www.longaberger.com/paula

Thank you for your iTunes reviews and star ratings! A wonderful review showed up this week from desertflower105.  Thank you so much for your encouragement.

I appreciate all the ways that you participate in the Knitting Pipeline Community whether it is leaving a comment on the show blog, participating in the Knitting Pipeline group on Ravelry, or just downloading and enjoying the show.  Show notes will be found at knittingpipeline.com 

Thank you to everyone who was in touch with me this week. If I missed you please let me know. I do have new Pipeliners wannabelle100, miaandme, knitzjazz, knitpicky199, xanthey, and Treefinder.  Thank you so much for writing and introducing yourselves.  If you are a first time writer please let me know in your note so I can recognize you on the show.

I must put out a plea and apology to the person who wrote to me about meeting at the Chicago Highland Games in Itasca later in june.  Inadvertently deleted your post before responding and I cannot find you.  I feel terrible about that so I hope you hear this and resend your message.  I think your name is Debbie.

Pipeliner Notes

Thanks for the wonderful tips!

From Margaret/knitwish I learned to use the Russian Join when I knit a Dr. Who scarf for my son - 8 feet of striped garter stitch , but no ends to weave in at the end. I found a tutorial on the Dr. Who rav group that showed how to place the join exactly at the edge of the stripe. (knitwish on Ravelry, if you want to see the scarf).

from Treefinder new pipeliner and also a piper: Now, to the Russian Join. I find that it blends in better with my work when I pull the loops as small as I can. I do a lot of work on fine yarn and when the loops are pulled fairly tight, they never show as lumps.

From Pergola: Thanks for the video on the Russian Join. I had been doing it from written directions and have been sort of sewing in and out with the needle instead of going through the middle. It makes more sense now that I’ve watched the video and think I will have better results. I have to confess, I’m currently working on a cardigan with the same yarn and have been doing a felted join with no problem. I don’t think the silk content affects the felting that much. I hope not anyway!

From Finnsmydog: I have a little trick for the russian join the will help in snugging up the second join against the first one….Once the first yarn is “joined”, I weave the needle through the yarn first, making sure that the eye is as close to the point where the second yarn is going through the eye of the first yarn (I think this is clear if you’ve ever done a russian join). Thread the needle at this point and pull the yarn through. The two interlocking loops will be really close to each other this way.

From Pinneguri: I am a great fan of Russian join too, but unlike you I find that I do not need the needle, I just open the thread with my fingers and put the join in there. I don't cut the ends either, just leave them be.
And I knit in all other ends so in the end there is only the last end again to sew in. I am not sure if it saves me any time though, but it is nice to don't have to spend a lot of time at the end on boring stuff.

Nature Notes

Last week I mentioned that I made a bit of a spectacle of myself at a baby shower when instead of taking photos of the baby I ran into the back yard to photograph the black squirrels.  Lots of you wrote on the board and on the show blog about your sightings of black squirrels which appear to have populations scattered across the country.  They are a variant of the gray squirrel so they behave the same way.

A marauding band of four teen male turkeys attacked our windows.

Bird Watcher’s Digest May-June 2012: Ten Junes on the Prairie Julie Zickafoose

10^th Annual Potholes and Prairie Birding Festival:  The Chieftain Hotel and Conference Center  June 13-17 Carrington ND  Fly into Fargo or Bismarck or and easy hop from Mpls (2 hours).  Bill Thompson, Julie Zickafoose and other expert guides.  Visit www.birdingdrives.com

Martha/Goldybear wrote on the board that experts think it will be a good year for butterflies.  We are not experts but judging from what we have seen so far this year we have made the same observation.  During our Sunday hike in Forest Park Nature Preserve we saw Red Admirals (lots!), Eastern Comma, Mourning Cloaks, Spring Azures, and random Skippers. 

Medieval European Folk Ballad, sometimes called Song of the Unicorn

I stood in the Maytime Meadows

By roses circled round

Where many a fragile blossom

Was bright upon the ground;

And as though the roses called them

And their wild hearts understood

The little birds were singing

In the shadows of the wood.

The nightingale among them

Sang sweet and loud and long

Until a greater voice than hers

Rang out above her song

For suddenly between the crags

Along a narrow vale

The echoes of a hunting horn

Came clear along the gale.

The hunter stood beside me

Who blew that mighty horn

I saw that he was hunting

The noble unicorn.

  

Needle Notes

Note from Leaaline:    I have big plans to knit featherweight and love the looks of Hannah's designs. I have not used Quince and Co. But I really want to try it. Paula- what is your FAVORITE quince and co. Yarn?

Answer: I love them all but have a special fondness for Chickadee and Tern because I more often knit with lighter weight yarns.

Hyla Brook will be released in June.  Calls for 2 skeins of Quince & Co Tern which is a fingering weight wool/silk blend.  442 yds fingering weight.  This shawl is completely reversible and has no purl stitches!

Sarah wearing Hyla Brook. Quince & Co Tern in Buoy colorway. This is the woods in early March.



I tried to start another pair of socks with Fleur de Fiber Gnome Sweet Gnome with the pattern Lil Bit by Laura Linneman.  The cables were totally lost in the color. Will Hyla Brook work with it?

Koigu Beaded Beret by Churchmouse Yarns and Teas

Should have been a clue when there were a lot of projects on Ravelry that were modified. 

I am not thrilled with the end result but I had a ball knitting it!

Beret ove a pie plate. Believe me, it looks better on a pie plate than it does on me.

The Blethering Room

A new rule for buying yarn: sweaters worth or one more skein than first impulse.

If I don’t like the yarn enough to commit to more than one or two skeins then maybe I don’t like it enough to buy it.  (please feel free to quote me on this, especially if you see me buying yarn somewhere!)

Vodka Lemonade by Thea Colman/Baby Cocktails

Stockinette Zombies.  Megan and Amy

Product Notes

Signature Needle update.  After using Signature Circular Needles for nearly a year I do find that these are my first choice for a project.

HiyaHiya Size 5 16” circular had a card for knitting a hat in sizes from baby to adult large. 

Chiagoo Red Lace Circular Needles.  I buy HiyaHiya and Chiagoo at Ewe-nique Yarns in Morton IL.  They are happy to ship your order.  309.266.9398

Knit Picks new catalog with new colors of Stroll Tonal

High Note

Talking to the Sun: An Illustrated Anthology of Poems for Young People

Metropolitan Museum of Art c. 1985

Used copies available from .01

Shira Kammen Wild Mountain Thyme Music of Waters  www.magnatune.com

Haste ye back!