Letting the Cuttlefish Out of the Bag!

It's not a "sekrit" anymore, so finally I can disclose my recent stealth project.

On Ravelry, there is a very active board called "Yarn Hoars." No, it's not just a mispelling of "whores!" It's a loving reference to stalking and hoarding exceptional indie yarns. Our mods (who are marvelous and multitudinous) are quite indulgent of our antics, our obsessions, and our quirks and eccentricities. They "rule" by benign neglect -- we are a fairly irreverent lot, and when we title a thread "Random Chatter," you'd better believe that's what we mean!

It's a hilarious, supportive group of gals of all ages, all means, all walks of life, all political and religious circumstances, all 'round the world. Most of us have never met each other -- and yet, I tell ya, some of those hoars know me better than my own best friends!

From time to time, as a group or individually, we undertake some fundraising. For instance, we had a very successful raffle, and an auction, to benefit relief efforts related to the tragic Japanese earthquake.

Recently, one of our Texas hoars let us know about the destruction there, in the wake of massive forest fires. Some Austin-area LYSs (translation for non-knitters: "local yarn stores") banded together in a project called "Phoenix Rising." Fiber artists from all over made personal donations of yarns, project bags, patterns, etc. which were distributed to Texas textile artists who had lost so much.


Long story short: after hearing about the devastation in Texas, another DC area hoar (who shall remain nameless in this blog, tho the Hoars know who I mean) had the idea to do a fundraiser around this disaster. And so our scheming began!

We put together a package consisting of a pattern, the yarn to knit it, and a coordinating project bag. We chose a wonderful colorwork pattern, Emily Peters's Octopus Mittens, and Emily very kindly donated a copy of the pattern.

Two skeins of glorious Sanguine Gryphon yarns were purchased (Casco Bay in Traveller and Gimmizah in Free Range), and the fine folks at SG were kind enough to announce the raffle on their own Ravelry board. 




And then I made a OOAK piecework project bag, using mostly Spoonflower "custom printed on demand" fabrics. In addition to some wonderful cyanotype cuttlefish fabric by Trollop (wonderful name!), and "Inky cephalopods" by Leighr, we also chose Fireflies by Kelly "WeavingMajor",  and Donna Kallner's"Face Off,"

So there you are for now, I just wanted to show you some pics. The raffle is running now, and we're off to a good start, so that feels terrific.

And I've moved on to the next project ... more deets on that another time!

Cephalopods: Love 'em or Leave 'em? Discuss!

I just wanted to do a quick "drive by" blogging, to show you something I just finished that I am really pleased with! A lovely local knitting pal and I pooled our resources to create a donation for a very worthy endeavor. We picked out some of Spoonflower's wonderful custom-printed fabrics -- www.spoonflower.com/ -- and I made a piecework project tote bag. The finished bag is about 11.5" x 11.5" measured flat, plus a 4" base. It's ample for a large shawl project, or many other kinds of WIPs (translated for non-knitters: "work in progress").

We loved the inky cuttlefish cyanotype-style fabric, which I used on both the front and back of the bag, combining it with a variety of water-inspired prints.

On one side, and the handle, there's also a fabric called "Face Off," by Donna Kallner, which I love. (It's on the upper left section of the bag above at right.) It is reminiscent of the textile art of a dear friend's mum, we'll just call her "Mother-of-Cynthia."

Here's a peek at the inside, just for fun. The lasso is handy for guiding yarn, or can be used as a keyfob or to hook a pair of scissors or phone onto.

So, yes indeedy, it's been a productive Sunday here! Now, I'm off to try a new recipe for Bourbon Corn Pudding (Well, maybe it's actually more like "Corn Pudding with a little bourbon in it," but doesn't it sound better my way?)


And after dinner? Time to kick back and do a little knitting! I'm still hard at work on my Catkin Shawl by Carina Spencer of Sweet Mama - Small Sugar. You can see her patterns on Ravelry at: http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/catkin. Or check out her website: http://www.sweetmamasmallsugar.com/.

Here's a peek at my progress thus far, just a few rows away from finishing Chart #1. And yes, that IS Madelinetosh merino light -- again! (I love it. I use it. Simple, right?)