I CAN Spin Thick!

I had a fun experiment with my spinning over the weekend. I started with this fiber, 4 oz. of BFL top from Miss Babs in a colorway called Van Gogh.

I decided to spin quickly and thicker, so I ended up with this two-ply yarn that's approximately worsted weight, about 167 yards. I had some singles leftover on one bobbin, so I Navajo plied them for about 10 additional yarns. Unfortunately the sun didn't want to come out when I took this picture, so colors aren't quite accurate in this shot (they're better in the shot of the original fiber):

One of my challenges for myself in the Tour de Fleece was to spin thicker, and this definitely met that challenge. It's amazing how quickly you can spin up some yarn when you're not spinning the thickness of sewing thread!

Right now I have the rest of the Rainbow fiber on the wheel. I'm spinning fine again, planning a Navajo-plied fingering weight to match the other yarn in order to make some matching accessories for the BSJ.

Speaking of the Tour de Fleece, the spindle I won arrived today, from Jesh. Isn't it pretty?

There was a bit of fiber wrapped around it (for added padding), so I tried out my spindling skills. Unfortunately, it looks like my skills are very much where I left them when I abandoned my original spindle for my wheel, so I may have to take a class or two so as not to be so embarrassingly horrible.

Oh, and also? The Mister and I went for another ultrasound over the weekend, and I've picked out the yarn for Rainbow's next pair of socks:

A Woolly Rainbow

My Rainbow yarn is done, and it has exceeded my expectations.

I ended up with approximately 435 yards of three-ply worsted weight. In real life, it's not quite as bright as it appears in these photos. I think the red (which is a true, cherry red) throws the camera off. Perhaps one day The Mister will teach me to use Photoshop and I can correct my images. Until then, I'm sorry for burning your retinas.

I'm really thrilled with how this yarn turned out, and I have more than enough to make my Rainbow a Baby Surprise Jacket (along with some matching accessories).

Up next, this delicious BFL in a colorway called Van Gogh. It does make me think of one of Vincent's paintings.

Wee Ones

Up next in the parade of tiny knitted garments: some accessories designed to keep Rainbow's hands and feet toasty when he or she arrives.

Everything is knit from some leftover handspun. The socks are a variation on my Baby Ribs pattern. I made them a newborn size by going down to a size 0/2.0 mm needle and doing fewer rows on the heel flap and gusset.

The thumbless mittens were inspired by the pattern as well. Using the same needles, I cast on 40 stitches and worked 15 rows of 2x2 rib and 20 rows of stockinette before following the directions for the Baby Ribs toe.

Here's a peek at a project that you haven't seen in a while. Remember the sock yarn blanket?

I've lost some steam on this project in recent weeks, in part because (believe it or not) I've started to run short on yarn. I've completed five squares and gotten close to finishing a sixth. The problem with this sixth square is one of shortage -- the little bit of yarn you see here is all I've got left in some shade of purple.

The brown square is the most recently started. You might recognize the chocolatey brown and the tan yarn I've just joined -- they're leftovers from Mr. Foster! I'm not sure what will happen to this project once I finish the current square, though. I've certainly got a fair amount of yarn that could be used in squares, but most of it is blue, black, or gray, and ideally I'd like this blanket to represent all the colors in the rainbow. I'm starting to regret that I have such predictable tastes in sock yarn!

If it's lots of color you want, look no further than the yarn I started plying last night. This photo is especially for Amy, just to prove that there were other colors hiding on my bobbins!

I'm hoping to finish this ginormous bobbin up tonight. Stay tuned for the final results.

Spin Away

I spent a fair amount of the weekend working on my Rainbow yarn. I finished the first two bobbins, which are a pretty good match for each other:

Unfortunately, these colors are virtually impossible to photograph accurately, probably because they're so bright. Here's another photo for proof:

I have probably a little more than half of the third, and final, bobbin filled. I'm hoping to finish it by tomorrow, if not tonight, so that I can have this yarn plied up this week. I'll still have a quarter of the original bump of fiber left, so I'm thinking about spinning that up a little thinner and Navajo/chain plying it for a coordinating yarn. (Perhaps for a hat and booties to match the sweater the main yarn will make?)

In the meantime, I received my prize fiber from the Tour de Fleece on Friday. This is a delicious 50% merino/25% silk/25% bamboo. I can't wait to get to it. I think it wants to be laceweight.

And Another

These baby sweaters practically knit themselves. Another one came off the needles yesterday.

Pattern: Baby Sweater on Two Needles (aka February Sweater) from Knitter's Almanac by Elizabeth Zimmermann
Yarn: Brown Sheep Nature Spun Sport (100% wool), colorway Bordeaux, approximately 1.5 skeins
Needles: US 5 (3.75 mm) Addi Turbo circs
Started/Completed: July 1/July 8
Mods: widened the neck by casting on more stitches and changed lace pattern to all stockinette for a more gender-neutral garment; also picked up four additional stitches under each arm and decreased them away in the first several rounds

I fully admit that I copied what Jen did with this sweater. I think the result of changing the lace to stockinette makes this look like a cardiganized, child-size version of Cobblestone, a sweater I still love and want to knit one day.

As usual, I knit this sweater entirely in the round. I put the sleeve stitches on scrap yarn and cast on the underarm stitches before finishing the rest of the body. Then I picked up stitches for the arms and knit them using magic loop. The only finishing was weaving in the ends and sewing on the buttons.

Speaking of which, the buttons came from my grab bag and are a light faux horn -- not nearly as light as they appear in the photo.

The Tour de Fleece is continuing, and thus far it's been very successful for me. I'm on my second bobbin of the Rainbow wool top (it's amazing how fast bobbins will fill up when you're not spinning super thin!). I also managed a feat I never imagined -- I won first place in the daily voting for my most recent sock yarn! So I guess you could say I won the yellow jersey for one day of the Tour.

I've been doing so much knitting for Rainbow lately that I thought it was time I started a project for myself. As it is the middle of the Tour de Fleece, I thought it only appropriate that the project be knit from handspun. So I finally wound my merino/silk laceweight and cast on for the Fountain Pen Shawl. I've made it through the set-up chart and the first several rows of the main body chart, and so far, I'm loving it.

Spin, Wheel, Spin!

While to the casual observer it may appear that I spent my Fourth of July weekend doing nothing but sitting around, the more well informed will realize that I was actually quite productive -- at least as far as the fiber arts are concerned.

You see, I signed up for the Tour de Fleece this year, with the hopes of spinning down some of my fiber stash and (gasp!) spinning something other than sock yarn for a change.

Alas, my first Tour yarn failed miserably to meet one of these goals. Yes, it is another sock yarn. I had hoped to have it off the wheel in time for the start of the Tour, but life intervened and prevented that from happening. I did manage to get all the singles spun by Friday, so when competition officially opened on Saturday, I was ready to ply.

I started with yet another superwash merino braid from my favorite fiber pusher, this one beginning at 4.3 ounces.

In the end, I got approximately 446 yards of three-ply fingering weight. This was a rather pleasant surprise, as I had no idea how it was going to turn out. My wanting to see the end result was probably what motivated me to ply it all in one day.

As soon as that was done, I broke out an enormous bump (10 ounces!) of Lorna's Laces wool top that I bought from Sonny & Shear about a year ago. I'd hoped to split it in half and use five ounces for a two-ply worsted weight in order to knit Rainbow a stripe-y Baby Surprise Jacket. Unfortunately, it looks like I'm really having trouble not spinning thin, so it looks like it might have to be a three ply. Here's the first section in progress:

Did I mention that the colorway of this fiber is also called Rainbow? Quite a happy coincidence, if I do say so!

Baby Chic

The sweater you saw all bunched up on a circular needle in the last post is done! (And I assure you that it's red, not pink.)

Pattern: Cabled Cardie with Shawl Collar, from Sirdar's "Little Kisses" booklet, size 0-6 months
Yarn: Crystal Palace Merino 5 (100% superwash merino), color 9798, three skeins
Needles: US 6 (4.0 mm) and US 3 (3.25 mm) Addi Turbo circs
Started/Completed: June 20/June 30
Recipient: Rainbow
Mods: I had to wing the button band and collar (see notes below)

I knew that I had to knit this sweater when I saw the sample hanging up at Natural Stitches; it was just too cute. However, the yarn called for -- Sirdar Snuggly Kisses DK -- is a nylon/acrylic blend. While there are certainly uses for synthetic yarn, I prefer to knit baby garments in natural fibers. This Merino 5 just happened to jump out to me, and while it resulted in a slightly chunkier sweater than the sample, I love how it turned out.

I followed the pattern exactly for all the pieces, but when I got to the collar and button bands, I basically had to throw the directions out the window. To begin with, I did not knit a gauge swatch. I know, I know, I really should have, but I wasn't really interested in knitting a sweater that was a particular size. After all, babies come in all sizes and they grow quickly, so I knew that there was a good chance that the finished sweater would fit Rainbow at some point. Because I wasn't knitting to gauge, when I went to pick up stitches, I didn't have the right number. On top of that, the pattern has you knit one button band and half the collar, then knit the other button band and other half of the collar, and finally seam the back of the collar. I didn't see a reason to knit two pieces, so I decided I was going to do it all in one piece.

I knit about three rows over all the stitches, then marked the center of the collar and worked a series of short rows around the neck for the shawl collar. On the next row, I made the buttonholes, and then it was just a few more rows of ribbing and a bind off. I think it worked pretty well, all things considered.

A good blocking helped to even everything out, and the buttons (picked out by The Mister himself!) were the finishing touch.

I really did enjoy working with this yarn, and I wouldn't hestitate to use it again. I feel I should mention that despite the fact that this color is shades of red and orange, there was absolutely no dye runoff in the water when I washed the pieces before the sewing up or when the whole sweater was done. It was such a pleasant surprise!

Quick and Satisfying

I've been knitting a lot of little projects these days, as you might expect. First of all, there are the socks -- which you'd also expect, given all the sock yarn scraps I have lying around.

Both of these are my Baby Ribs pattern. The pair on the left came first -- seeing as Rainbow is going to be born in the middle of football and hockey season, he or she just had to have a pair of black and gold socks. They're Lorna's Laces Shepherd Sock, colorway Bee Stripe, knit with size 1/2.25 mm needles. On the right, some handspun superfine merino on size 0/2.0 mm needles. These have been good lunchtime knitting, as each sock takes only a couple of hours to knit.

Meanwhile, in the evenings, I've been working on another sweater. This one is a Sirdar pattern; I bought the booklet at Natural Stitches when I fell in love with the sample. There are several sweaters I want to make, but this adorable cabled cardigan with a shawl collar was the first one on the needles.

I'm using a slightly thicker yarn than called for and (shhh! don't tell anyone!) I didn't swatch, so my gauge is a little off and I'm having to wing the collar. I should have only a handful of rows left and with any luck will finish it up tonight!

I'm not quite sure what will be on the needles next, but whatever it is, it'll be coming with me to Hurricane Knitting tomorrow night, Waterworks Barnes & Noble starting at 7 p.m.

If It Ain't Broke ...

I know it isn't Sunday, but I have a new yarn to share with you (and my hormone-addled brain might forget it altogether if I left it until Sunday). This is yet another All Spun Up superwash merino that looked like this before:

As usual, I went for a traditional three ply in a fingering weight (I'm starting to think that I can spin this kind of yarn in my sleep). My 4.3 ounces of fiber yielded approximately 390 yards.

The color is more accurate in the picture of the fiber; the finished yarn is really more pinkish red than orange.

As much as I love my three-ply sock yarn, I think I've been getting into a little bit of a rut in my spinning because of it, so I've signed up for the Tour de Fleece with the specific goal of spinning some yarns that aren't sock yarns. I'm thinking some heavier weight singles or two plies. I still have a little more than a week until the Tour starts, however, so I'm trying to get in one more three ply in -- surprise! -- ASU superwash merino, this one:

Tiny Bubbles

The Mister and I would like to thank all of you for your congratulations. We couldn't be happier about Rainbow, and we're both thrilled that we've gotten to the point in the pregnancy where we can share our good news with everyone!

Now that said news is out and on the Internets, I can finally share that project I alluded to last week (but was afraid to show you because I knew someone would guess why I was knitting it).

Pattern: Little Bubbles (Ravelry link) by the Knit Picks Design Team, 6-12 month size
Yarn: Knit Picks Comfy Sport (75% pima cotton, 25% acrylic), colorways Seafoam, Planetarium, Ivory, Marlin, and Jalapeno (one skein or less each)
Needles: US 2 (2.75 mm) Addi Turbo circs
Started/Completed: June 7/June 19
Mods: I added extra rows to the striped section of the body for added length

In spite of the many, many color changes and resulting abundance of ends to weave in -- I joked with The Mister that only for my child would I make something with so many ends to weave in -- this was a very fun knit. The "bubbled" yoke is my favorite part because of the wonderful texture.

The yarn itself was surprisingly (or perhaps not) soft and smooth, though the high cotton content meant that it was still a little rough on my hands. Once again, I found that this Knit Picks kit vastly underestimated the yarn needed to complete the project, however. The five skeins of yarn are supposed to be enough to knit the sweater as well as a hat and a pair of booties in this particular size (and the size smaller). After finishing only the sweater, though, I'm nearly out of the dark blue color. I'm going to try to eke out the hat, but I have my doubts. If you're thinking of buying this kit -- which is really a steal at $13.99 -- you might want to think about buying an extra skein of the background color in the color scheme you select.

The Mister thinks it's a cute sweater, but he was most impressed by the inside, so I have to show you this "guts" shot. The one-row stripes do make for an attractive wrong side!

After finishing this up, I had to make a trip over to Natural Stitches to get some more baby-friendly yarn for the next round of sweaters. If there's one thing I can say about baby garments, it's that they sure do knit up quickly! I have a feeling there will be quite a few little things on this blog in the months to come.

Surprise!

Dear readers, I've been holding out on you.

You see, I've been working on a very special -- and thus very secret -- project for several months now. It was so secret that not even the Hurricane Knitters knew about it until this evening.

Remember that period of blogging ennui from a few weeks ago? This secret project is the real reason why. I was dying to tell everyone, but I knew it would be better if I waited.

I'm sure you're all wondering just why this project is so special. Well, the truth is, it's not just my project. It's a collaboration with The Mister. He had a lot to do with getting it started, though I've been doing the majority of the work since then.

Have I dragged this out long enough? Okay, I'll let you in on the secret.



Meet Rainbow, due to make his or her appearance this December:

Expect to see a lot of baby knits on this blog in the near future!

Blocked

Thanks for all the compliments on my sweater! Although I'm a bit disappointed that I'll have to wait several months to wear it, I'm not complaining at all about the beautiful weather we've had since I finished it. I really need to remember this sweater trick next spring!

I've started another project since finishing the Tangled Yoke, but I'll have to show you that in a few days. Right now it's just a big mess of ends to weave in before I can go any further.

In the meantime, I've been making steady progress on my sock yarn blanket. I finished two more squares since last you saw it (and I promise the red square isn't nearly that electric in person).

I also have a partial square in purples that's on hold until I can find some more purple scraps. Seems I have plenty of blue, black, and gray to go around, but I'll have to be a little more creative with the other colors. I guess it's a good excuse to clean out the stash thoroughly!

Entangled

Finished, blocked, and modeled -- unfortunately not in natural light.

The color in these shots is much more accurate:

Pattern: Tangled Yoke Cardigan by Eunny Jang, fall 2007 Interweave Knits, size 38" bust
Yarn: Sublime Extra Fine Merino DK, color 0008, approximately 1,666 yards/656 grams (including two gauge swatches)
Needles: US 4 (3.5 mm) Knit Picks Options and US 3 (3.25) and US 0 (2.0 mm) fixed circs
Started/Completed: April 24/June 5
Mods: none

I first swatched for this sweater sometime last year -- so long ago that I don't even remember when. Luckily I had the foresight to note my gauge with my chosen needles on a Post-It in my copy of the magazine, so when I was ready to cast on, I didn't have to start from scratch.

My gauge was a little off, so I decided to knit a size larger than normal in order to ensure a little bit of positive ease (I usually wear sweaters with one or more layers underneath, so I didn't want this to be tight). I gained some additional ease in blocking, as the yarn stretched ever so slightly, resulting in a very comfortable sweater that will be cozy and soft to throw over my shoulders come fall.

I think the cables pop nicely in this cabled yarn, and thankfully the puckering I saw when the sweater was fresh off the needles smoothed out a lot in blocking.

As to the buttons, they're a dark gray that came from the grab bags I bought at a big-box store months ago, and as luck would have it, I had exactly the number I needed. I think they're a perfect fit.

Overall, I'd say this sweater was a success. Perhaps I didn't do the best job of substituting yarns, but I'm happy with the result and I know this sweater will be worn many times during the colder months of the year.

And, as predicted, as soon as the last stitch was cast off and all the ends were woven in, we began experiencing temperatures in the 80s.

The Usual

I am nothing if not predictable when it comes to my handspun. Take my latest. It's superwash merino, so naturally I spun a three-ply sock yarn. Here it was before:

and after:

This was for the All Spun Up May/June Ravelry spinalong, where we all get the same fiber (though everything but the fiber type is a surprise until we get it) and then spin it as we see fit. I surprised myself with the yardage, approximately 430 yards. Should make me a nice pair of socks!

Kitchen Renovation, Day One

Here's what it looked like before, after we finished packing up nearly everything in the kitchen:

And here's the same view, after the first day of demolition renovation:

Here's where the sink used to be:

And here's an interesting artifact we discovered behind some of the cabinets -- old wallpaper, circa 1950s:

It Should Be Getting Hot Soon

Why? Because I'm getting close to finishing my Tangled Yoke Cardigan, and I'm sure the minute it's done we'll get full-blown summer weather, forcing me to put it away until the fall.


I finished the cable section last week. It looks nice, but it's clearly in need of a good blocking.

I don't think I've shown you my on-the-go project, have I? As I'm sure you have no problem believing, I have copious amounts of leftover sock yarn in my stash. I decided it was high time I did something about it, so I've started a log cabin-style blanket using the scraps.

For now, I'm sticking with superwash yarns for ease of care, and I'm grouping scraps in the same color family for each square. This is a long-term project, so I have no idea how many squares I'll make or how big the blanket will end up being. Heck, I haven't even thought ahead to how I'm going to join the squares yet! So expect to see this project from time to time for the forseeable future.

Meanwhile, in non-knitting news, The Mister and I (along with my brother) spent a good portion of the weekend clearing out the kitchen in preparation for the big renovation. We're actually gutting the entire room, closing up a mostly unnecessary pass-through to the dining room, and putting in new cabinets and new appliances. I'm very much looking forward to an oven with more than one rack that will actually heat to the set temperature (two of them, actually!) and a gas cooktop. The demolition starts tomorrow morning, and the whole process is projected to be complete by mid-July. Stay tuned for progress pictures!