Nikol Lohr's Blog

While contemplating pocket layout options for my recent Dress No. 3, I eyed the two castoff armpit scraps. They were too small for any of my pocket patterns, so I fashioned a reasonably roomy patch pocket that can be made with an awkward, narrow scrap, allowing me to hoard my bigger scraps for something else …

Continue reading "Armpit cutout pockets"

Last week, bumping along a gravel road after a two-and-a-half hour drive, I thought to myself: What the fuck am I doing? That didn’t stop me from pushing on, of course. But it was the bud of an epiphany. An epiphany that didn’t change my behavior in any way in this case—but maybe it will, …

Continue reading "My Ongoing Chick Situation: Doubling Down (or, why I will never be really successful)"

A couple days before Yarn School, a rooster showed up out of nowhere. Long story short, for the last 3 weeks, Ruby has been sitting on half a dozen eggs and I’ve been getting more and more excited with every passing day. A few days before the big day, I candled them all and all …

Continue reading "Don’t count your chickens before they hatch. After they hatch, either. Just don’t count them."

My plan was to finish/produce one new project a week, but it turns out maintaining my focus is easier said than done. Instead of finishing each project in turn, as I meant, I bounced around and did little tidbits of various odds and ends. Le sigh. Still, progress! Project #1: Use the indigo vats.  I dyed …

Continue reading "Project a Week! Well, sorta."

I’m always so giddy and inspired after Fiber School that I can’t wait to get started on an exciting new project. Usually I spin around in circles for a few weeks and get nothing done and lose all my good good motivation. So this time, I decided to make a list of all the projects …

Continue reading "Fiber School inspiration!"

Due to concerns about ice this weekend. Winter Woolfest has been moved to Saturday, January 28. I’m a bit excited to get a couple extra weeks to dye, card, and obsess over my new booth (the Columbian nixed tents this year, so I finally invested in some fancy panels). Please join us in Wamego at …

Continue reading "WINTER WOOLFEST RESCHEDULED"

My Tour de Fleece goals this year were modest: 1) a fractal spinning project; 2) complete an unfinished spinning project. Given the volume I still have left of my chosen  YIP, I’m not overly optimistic about my chances, but I’m still going to give it a shot. I’m visiting my folks, so without any competing projects from home, I have more spinning time than usual.

I’ve culled so much of my fiber stash that I had a rough time selecting a good candidate for a fractal spin, since most of my remaining fiber is either natural colored fiber, farm roving, or Hello Yarn dyed in random rather than repeating progressions. Since I didn’t have an ideal candidate, I picked something I though would make a good shawl  (my planned project), a BFL/silk blend.

Hello Yarn for Yarn School, “Kindled” colorway. Halved lengthwise, one half spun continuously, then continue to halve each remaining strip lengthwise and repeat. I think I got a total of 4 splits. You can see how the progressions get shorter across the bobbin with each split. Spun on a Scacht Matchless to Jessica Jones and Sarah & Duck.

Finally, chain-plied to preserve the scale/repeats–except I don’t think the colorway was inheriently suited to this projects, too many colors spaced too closely to really spell out the intention really clearly. I won’t know for sure till I knit it. Either way, it’s soft and beautiful, and a pleasant, gentle colorway.

Next project, still underway, is to add to the half bobbin spun at the last Spinsters meeting I attended last winter. Started as Littlefarm bicolor roving purchased at Missouri Fiber Retreat in 2011. I think it was BFL, or maybe Finn? It’s always harder to guess roving that top if you can’t remember, since there’s so much variation within a breed & small farm runs can be more indicative of individual animals than the breed standard.

Lazy, sloppy spin in a 2-ply. It’s been all over the place depending on my mood, sometimes careful shortdraw, sometimes fuzzy long draw. I figure it’s going to be a rough, fuzzy, irregular sweater. Spun to lots of Last Week Tonight, a bit of Stranger Things, and Cosmos.

I brought my Electric Eel with me  to MD Anderson this time for my dad’s chemo & realized if I’d been doing that all of the last year instead of joylessly dicking around on my ipad, I’d have a lot more yarn & sweaters right now. I’m going to leave the Eel in Houston so I can spin whenever the relentless Fox News barrage makes me want to self-deport. (Though today, Dad’s letting T binge on cartoons, so I’ve gotten a refreshing break from the “fair” and “balanced” news (that’s where they put the quotes, right?).

In bright news, dad’s current chemo is making good progress against his cancer, after many months of mixed results, progression, and autoimmune & diabetic complications. It was great getting good news that wasn’t immediately tempered with bad news! If only he would quit smoking, I could start to relax again. Anyhoo, back to spinning!

I’m knitting again! Huzzah!

Hats are what I should probably be knitting, but since it’s been such a crazy mild winter (with the exception of a smallish ice storm after Thanksgiving that kept knocking out the power for a couple days)–I’m talking December days in the 60s!–it’s been hard to get to excited about hats. And I love sweaters, so that’s where I started.

First up, garter toddler cardigan in 4 balls of Noro Silk Garden Lite (hope to publish the pattern this winter). It’s so cushy and cute, I kinda wanna make my own, but I’m not sure how the shape will suit a woman’s body. But since my own Silk Garden Lite sweater is possibly my favorite handknit pullover (the Silk Garden just wears and resists pilling surprisingly well, especially for a single–though I guess it’s technically kind of a phony single…), it’s very tempting.

As usual, I had to break up the color progressions because the orange was too long and too aggressive to use full strength as it appeared, so I just busted it near both ends and rejoined it to omit the retina-blasting section of all but little bit on the yoke. The buttons are natural antler from Melissa’s Mohair.

And now! I’m making myself a funnel neck sweater from some long-abandoned Schulana Morbido, which apparently only 6 users on all of Ravelry have actually made into anything (and two of them were me, and both of those were frogged or chucked out). It looks like of like a horrid blob of crusty lava on the needles and I was getting nervous about my improvised pattern, so I put it on some scrap yarn at the last Spinsters Club last Sunday (Christmas swap! I got mine stolen three times, but still ended up with something that suits me) and tried it on and huzzah! Down to the shoulders, anyway, it looked pretty much just as I had hoped. Stable, tallish funnel neck and nicely fitted raglan shoulders.

But since my neck and shoulders are pretty much the only parts of my body I don’t kind of hate right now, we’ll see if I’m as well pleased when I’ve knit my way down to the trouble zones (so, pretty much everything including and below my armpits). I’m about to divide for sleeves, which should spread the funnel out to my shoulders a bit.

The trick will be to find a compromise between the bulk of the yarn and the camouflaging requirements of my lumpy torso and thick arms. I need it to stretched down my shoulders with some negative ease for the funnel to have the look I want, but I don’t want a bunch of lumpy bumpy yarn clingy to my own lumps and bumps, so I need a bit more ease below the pits. Maybe a quick tuck under the bust and then an A-line? But I don’t know how that will shake out.

Besides knitting, I’m busy as usual with my little datebook factory. This year is The Year of the Rascal! I love love love making these, mostly because they involve HOURS of poring over magazines from well before I was born. So many candy-colored appliances, so much bacon & cake, such shiny cars and adorable children and crazy rocket ships, and so, so many bras!

Calendar time, of course, means Überlist time. I haven’t started making my 2016 list, but early December is when I start sifting the current list, writing off anything failed or unrealistic, sorting out and color coding the slim-chance possibilities (instead of actually doing shit), patting myself on the back for the successes, and scrambling to squeeze in a few last-minute accomplishments in a vain attempt to finally, once, ever reach Brenda status (there’s a 90210-based ranking system, and I’m forever stuck in stupid Kelly territory). I’ve got about 3 more days of self-delusion before I scrap 2015 and start dreaming about all the amazing stuff I’ll never get around to next year.

Ahhh! Fiber School is over, everything’s back in order, and the buildout of Ron’s new tattoo shop is wrapping up. Now if the rain would just lay off for more than a day at a time and let my basement dry out, I could relax.

I haven’t knit in forever and despite my rigorous culling, I was kinda languishing under the weight of a stale stash. But my new rigid heddle loom inventory (a pleasant side effect of Rigid Heddle School) has gotten me energized about weaving, I’m looking at my old stash with new eyes.  I just made a yummy new rug, I’ve already got the loom warped again for another variation & I’m going to build up a nice inventory of them and start selling them this summer. It’s always a struggle to fine a lovely handmade thing that a million other people aren’t making.

Aside from rugs, I’m warping my little SampleIt so I can make one of these amazing bags. Shit like this is why I love Pinerest (everything else is why I hate Pinterest).

On my back-burner to-do list forever has been craft projects from all the baby duds that aren’t special enough to keep or fancy enough to sell. For the most part, that means I have bags of unsorted baby crap, but one of the few things I devised that I think is worth sharing is this baby overalls clothespin bag. Baby overalls are super cute and outgrown immediately. They’re also sturdier than your average baby duds, which make them ideal for something useful you can have in service for many years. Twyla’s still pretty small (though years too big for these), but I’m sure when she’s big, I’ll get a tickle out of thinking of her in these.

Here’s how you make them. Step one, cut off the legs and sew up the bottom.

The other steps (box the corners and screw to a wooden hanger if you don’t want to fuss with latching it over the clothesline) are optional. Shown here, it’s only a quarter full. Filled, it can hold all of my clothespins, which equals more than I need to completely fill my 70′ of clothesline, even with baby clothes.

(By the way, if you’re fed up with shitty clothespins, invest in some vintage ones from ebay. New ones, even the big ones from Lehman’s, are crap. Maybe they’re fine for gentle climates, but they’re a joke in Kansas wind. Vintage ones are worlds better. Look for the 3 3/4″ size and thick wire in the picture, as  there are a lot of people selling ratty weathered new clothespins as “vintage.” The non-springy type work pretty well on lightweight items, too.)

Wait, that sounds like a bomb. I was going for timer. (But, you know, not the timer on a bomb. The regular kind.)

Last night, Charlene was in the basement weighing wool in front of the TV, which means Fiber School preparations are officially underway! September is when I abandon the grand and never-realized plans of my summer projects and buckle down and  TCB. I’m working on menus, supplies, boring boring admin, and also continuing what was supposed to be last month’s wondrous spurt of amazing productivity and clutter clearing, which turned out be more more like: meh.

September is also birthday season for me & Twyla. Mine was last week (So. Old.) and Twyla will be two on Saturday! We had a little family party for her last week because Ron will be away for her actual birthday. She is totally a little person now, talking up a storm in her semi-decipherable way and getting into all kinds of trouble and being alternately charming and dreadful. Mostly charming. Her tantrums are frequent but short, and she reserves most of them for me, which saves me embarrassment, but involves me feeling like a total killjoy asshole a lot of the time. Killjoy Asshole is kinda my specialty, alas.

So part of the reason August wasn’t my SUPERPRODUCTIVE DECLUTTERPALOOZA was because I was busy designing patterns for this year’s Central Kansas Yarn Hop. Yarn Hop participants get a free mini-skein at each shop on the route, and the Hop supplies new patterns to use up all the little bits & bobs. The patterns are free for Hop participants, and will be for sale in my ravelry shop afterwards. They’re designed to use up odds & ends of assorted weight and fiber content, but will also work up nicely with a skein or two of any bulky yarn at gauge, if you’re one of those rare knitters who doesn’t hoard her leftovers.

The knit pattern is a slouchy beret with a big fat pompom, inspired by all the big slouchy berets (and in particular, one with a big fat pompom) I saw all over Santiago on our vacation in July.

SANTIAGO BERET

And the crochet pattern is Mary Jane slippers with a self-button. They’re fast and easy and fun to adjust for a custom fit.

SHOP HOPPERS

I intend to finish mine with a leather sole both so I can wear them outside of the building and so they won’t act as a wearable swiffer for cat hair and spinning fiber a problem I have with all socks and slippers all winter. I love the look of hard floors but hate that there is always errant cat hair and spinning fiber whirling about, hoping for a sticky sock or slipper or sweater to cling to. Carpet acts like a massive lint brush, keeping all the furry bits where they land until you vacuum them up.

Having an adorable 2-year-old tugging on your skirt all day also limits your productivity, though I can’t really complain, because she’s mostly a delight, and an excuse to take a breath and pay attention to my surroundings instead of whizzing around like a maniac. Whizzing Maniac is my second-biggest occupation, after Killjoy Asshole. (#3 is Neurotic Freak.)

We’ve been having a lot of Future-related stress lately, and it’s still not resolved. I’m happy that it, for the most part, has helped cement the team (aka, our family, aka The Tigers!) instead of rending it apart. It’s still unresolved, and though we’ve had a few disappointments, I think we may be on the track to some excitement. Or a totally different direction (not for me; for Ron), who knows. Tumult always seems to appear when Ron and I are at our busiest–or maybe it’s that we’re just never not really fucking busy.

A few nights ago at 3am, laying in bed wide awake, my head spinning with second-guessing and fretting, I realized that Disgruntled Housewife used to be my big therapeutic anxiety-relief valve, and that the occasional angsty tweet doesn’t really serve my mental health as well. But when I moved to a tiny town in Kansas, suddenly the intimate exposure of Disgruntled Housewife was just way too intimate. In a city, you can somehow tell everyone who will listen your life story and still have a cozy wall of privacy. There’s sort of a friendly layer of fuck-off that’s understood. Nobody gives a shit, unless they have an actual relationship with you. But in a small town, it’s different. Or maybe it just seems that way if you’re not accustomed to it. You feel like something of a spectacle, under constant scrutiny, like everything you say or do is public property. And in a way, it is. Since there are few people, everyone has a greater stake in what everyone else does.  You can’t be invisible like you can in a city. I’m not capturing it exactly.  But when I moved here, I quickly found myself  self-censoring. You still risk gossip if you shut the fuck up, but there’s comfort in knowing at least you’re not fueling it.

But anyway, with that decision comes the consequence that I keep all my neurosis in my head, maybe discussing it a bit with Ron or the handful of real-life friends I occasionally see, and occasionally whining a bit here, but mostly just keeping it in my poor, over-taxed brain. My brain, of course, revolts by making me a leeeetle bit crazier with every new layer of repressed neurosis, until it starts to crusts over with the delicate, crinkly strata of cuckoo. And the strain of keeping it from crumbling keeps me up sometimes.

This is also probably why my memory is so shitty.

Anyway, I was lamenting losing that steam vent when I realized: oh, right. I can still write. It doesn’t have to be for public consumption to serve its purpose. So I wrote and I edited (editing is for rethinking and refining your own ideas as much as polishing your work, so it’s just as valuable for journaling as publishing).

And then I slept like a baby. Ta da!

Note the ridiculous frilly vintage hostess apron! Part of a cache of fracking adorable vintage baby duds we got a few weeks ago.

Cooler weather. Today we relieved our little tree of its apples. Quite a few, even minus the many we’ve been nibbling the last couple of weeks. I figured I’d better grab them all before the bugs hit them or the sheep or chickens figure out how to get at them. They’re tart and crunchy, yum!

Georgie, too, is enjoying the cool weather.

And the hens are much calmer and laying beautifully since Francis the jerk rooster left for Freezer Camp (though I did feel sad for poor, bewildered Francis for about a day, until I realized how much more pleasant outdoor life is without him).