Slow Fashion October – Week 1

Ok, sliding in here under the wire for week 1. I’ve been reading Karen Templer’s excellent blog for a while now and she posted weekly topics for Slow Fashion October.

So, week one’s topic is me. I knit, I spin, I can sew enough to fix things, and I can crochet a chain to do a provisional cast-on. I once assisted in teaching a crochet class last minute and I told the teacher I didn’t know how to crochet and she laughed and said, “all you have to do is stay a step ahead of a group of ten-year-olds.” I’m not sure why but that little pep talk has always stuck with me.

As the weather has gotten chilly and rainy here the last week or so (thanks, Joaquin!), it’ll be pretty easy to wear something handmade every day this month. I always look forward to pulling my scarves and mitts and sweaters out of storage when fall arrives.

The big goal is the two sweaters I’m working on. One is Brooklyn Tweed’s Stonecutter for my friend Lily, and the other is Hannah Fettig’s Sycamore vest for me. Stonecutter takes a lot of time so I don’t know how realistic it is to knit the front and back panels AND block all the pieces AND sew everything together AND knit on the neckband, so I’m setting a more realistic goal of finishing the front panel. Maybe I’ll surpass this and surprise myself. The real goal is to finish the sweater by Thanksgiving.

I have finished Stonecutter’s sleeves and look, here they are on Lily!

Sycamore is a stashbuster project and I happen to know the names of all three of the animals its fiber comes from. To make gauge I’m holding two fingering weight yarns together. The darker grey is a sheep from Pennsylvania named Luck of the Irish and I believe she is a Leicester Longwool. I got it at Carolina Fiber Fest last year. The lighter grey is two alpacas from Florida named Roxie and Charm. My grandparents visited Florida this summer and brought me three skeins.

I’d also like to knit an accessory out of some of my own handspun and spin more. For over a year now I’ve been working on two pounds of brown and white wool and every once in a while I throw in some green top roving. Here’s how that comes out:

Finally, I want to build our dining room table. Home decor sort of counts as fashion, right? We are hosting Thanksgiving this year and I want to give myself plenty of time to build the table and go thrift shopping for chairs to go with it.