Fiber College 2012

I spent the last few days at Fiber College in Searsport, Maine. What an amazing time!
Here are some pictures of the Searsport Shores Ocean Campground, where Fiber College is held.

I stayed in their honey bee bunk house. The first night there was one other person with me, who wasn't talkative. The second night I chatted with Donna and Jen - both bright beautiful souls who have a lot to share! The whole experience was amazing. I'm planning on spending longer there next year.

There are beautiful gardens, and this really awesome fence.

 A couple friendly angora goats.

 

  

The beautiful beach, where I really enjoyed doing some yoga and
listening to the waves on Friday morning. 

  

As part of Fiber College, I took a natural dying class with Jackie Ottino Graf (who's also the dye-queen at Swans Island Yarns). I'm feeling so inspired to start a dye garden and play with dying things naturally. It was a very inspiring class! 

 Jackie, sharing her knowledge with the class.

 Yarn and fiber soaked overnight in potassium alum sulfate mordant with some cream of tartar.

 

A variety of plants and extracts that can be used for dying, including goldenrod, brazilwood, dyers chamomile, onion skins, madder, logwood, cochineal, pomegranate, and a bunch more.

 

 Goldenrod

 

 

Dyer's chamomile

 

  

Yellow medley of goldenrod, dyer's chamomile and weld.

Result of the yellow plant medley.

Dried cochineal beetles. This won't be something I use, as I don't like the idea of killing the beetles to make a red dye, but it was in the class, and seeing the red it created was pretty impressive.

White yarn dipped into cochineal. 

 Cochineal yarn dripped orange into the white basin. We all found that a bit amusing.

 Yellow medley yarn dipped into the cochineal to create a variegated colorway.

 

We forgot to put the ring on this one.

Pomegranate (back); logwood purple (front)

 

Logwood purple results on fiber.

 Yellow medley, cochineal, longwood purple and pomegranate.

Pomegranate; variegated yellow medley and cochineal; yellow medley.

 

 Pomegranate in the iron after-dip.

 Pomegranate with an iron after-dip makes a sage green… who'd-a-thunk-it?

 Yellow medley fiber (back) dipped into the pomegranate/iron blend (front).

madder root

 

Yellow medley fiber dipped into the madder. LOVE this color!

A day's work.

 Notes.

 Friday I checked out the vendors. Some of them brought animals with them! There were sheep and llamas. That li'l llama wasn't too sure what to think of me taking pictures.

I also took a hula hooping class with Jen Appleby on Friday afternoon. No pictures of that though… I was too busy spinning a hoop around to pick up a camera. TONS of fun!

 The toys I returned home with!

 Lots of dye, yarn and fiber for me to play with!

roving from Ontheround and Dyemama.

 Natural dye extracts from Jackie, and some Dye For Me yarn that I got a great deal on from the Heavenly Socks yarn store in Belfast. They had ordered it for another customer, but she ended up not wanting it. Lucky me!

Elemental Affects Natural Shetland Fingering (also purchased from Heavenly Socks).

 A Wrinkle in Thyme yarns. This farm is about a half hour from my house!
I'll be visiting them, for sure!

 

Peace Fleece (purchased from Heavenly Socks)

Hope Spinnery

Fiber College is still going on - through Sunday September 9th. If you're in the Searsport, Maine area, I highly recommend checking them out! If you miss this one, there's always planning for next year. I know I will be! See you there?

Tundra

Like all my designs, Tundra began as a vision, then began manifesting itself into a sketch and swatch before becoming a sweater. I knew I wanted texture, something cozy, quick- and fun-to knit—something with a hood!


For this design, yarn choice came first. When I think "cozy", Quince & Co.'s Osprey yarn quickly comes to mind. Read more about the Eco-friendliness of Osprey.

Next I picked up a book of stitch patterns and began flipping through it, while thinking to myself, "cozy, warm, and fun-to-knit" over and over. The all-over star pattern,worked on the body of the sweater, has such an overwhelming presence of texture that when I saw it in the book I just had to see how it knit up! So, I swatched a bit of the star pattern in Osprey, and fell in love. There was the cozy, cushy fabric I'd been looking for! Not to mention, the thickness creates excellent warmth!

I continued to flip through the stitch patterns in search of a complimentary edging for the star pattern. I tried a few different edgings, and thought the basket pattern offered the nicest edge. The slipped stitch made it more interesting to knit than the others I'd tried. I swatched the two patterns together and had a match I enjoyed!
Then, just for fun, and to see an alternative option, I tried the basket pattern again with a little white accent. I submit both options to Quince & Co to let them decide which version they preferred.I enjoyed knitting and writing the pattern for this sweater quite a bit. It worked up SO fast, and Osprey is such a beautiful yarn to work with. The biggest challenge I faced with this design was maintaining the star pattern while increasing and decreasing. After a little trial and error, I came upon the perfect solution. Of course, it's all written out in detail in the pattern!

Photos by Carrie Bostick Hoge.

Find this design on Ravelry.

Weekend Hats

The newest book—Weekend Hats—by Cecily MacDonald and Melissa LaBarre has finally hit the stores! Amongst designs by the authors, are hats designed by many talented knitwear designers, such as Gudrun Johnston, Jared Flood, Carrie Bostick Hoge, Susan B. Anderson, Mary Jane Mucklestone, and many others.

You'll also find a hat designed by Caterpillar Knits founder, Kristen TenDyke (me). The Shore Hat is knit in one of my favorite organic cotton/organic wool blend yarns—O-Wool's Balance.


The hat is worked in the round from the top down beginning with an I-Cord knot at the top, and an attached I-Cord around the circumference of the brim. Some jewelry wire is enclosed in the attached I-Cord to give the brim a sturdy edge. A great all-year hat to protect the eyes from the sun, or snow.

Find this hat on Ravelry.

Petrel

This Petrel shawl is named after the species of bird. Petrel birds are a small web-footed, seawater birds, returning to land only to breed.

The word "petrel" comes from the Latin name for St. Peter, who was said to have walked on water. It refers to the habit of the bird species to hover just above the ocean waves. During a storm, because the birds can't actually *walk* on water, they need to remain in the air day and night, enduring the rough weather over the ocean until the storm passes.

There is a fossil record for Petrel birds assumed to extend back about 60 million years showing that the species has survived through many eras of history, and is still going strong today.

May this shawl, with its wings spread across your back, bring you the strength, perseverance and longevity of the Petrel bird.

Help me choose an ad, and win a free pattern!

I'm working on an online ad for the upcoming issue of Knitty.com, and I have a few options to choose from. Please take a look at them and leave any comments and/or suggestions you'd like to share. Each person who shares a comment will be entered into a drawing on Friday (June 17) to win a free Caterpillar Knits pattern of their choosing!

Critique away!
What do you like? What do you think could be better? Offer suggestions, or just toss out some ideas!

This is how the ad will look on Knitty.com:


Here are the ad options so far:
Please use the numbers beside each ad when referring to them.

#1
#2
#3
#4
#5
#6
#7

Thank you all so much for your help!

Spring designs & Mudita

As you may or may not know, I'm in the process of writing a book. Therefore, everything else in my life has seemed to slow down. But fret not! There is a small spring Caterpillar Knits collection in the works! Each of these spring patterns will be published one at a time, as they're finished.

To start off the collection, here is Mudita (pronounced moo-DEE-ta)

Mudita is knit in Pakucho's worsted weight organic cotton yarn. This yarn fits into six, yes SIX of the seven Caterpillar categories. It's a super-eco-friendly yarn. The only one it isn't list in is "animal friendly". But that's because it's vegan, and there are no animals involved! Read more about Pakucho.