A Vest for All Seasons

Here it is, blocked, dried, and modeled!

Pattern: All Season Vest by Noriko Ichikawa (Ravelry link), size 3 (41.5 in./105.5 cm bust circumference)
Yarn: Handspun from three HipStrings batts (fiber content unknown)
Needles: US 5/3.75 mm (for stockinette) and US 3/3.25 mm (for ribbing)
Started/Completed: February 16/February 27
Mods: none, other than working to a slightly different gauge (which gave me a smidge more positive ease) and picking up some extra stitches around the neck and armholes

If you think this knit up quickly, you're right; I guess not having to deal with sleeves makes a lot of difference when knitting a garment! I didn't even feel that I was particularly pushing myself to get this done quickly, so that should tell you that even with lots of short-row shaping and alternating skeins, this is a fast project.

I've really been enjoying knitting myself garments with handspun, and the two skeins that I used in this vest really begged to be something simple and without a lot of texture so that the yarn could shine. I know that the batts I spun to create the yarn were mostly/nearly all wool, and a lot of the pops of color are from bits of sari silk, but if I had any sort of tag indicating their composition, it's long gone. It really doesn't matter at this point -- I'm going to hand wash this vest in any case -- but it does leave me scratching my head a bit because I'm usually so good about keeping records of these sorts of things. It's also, of course, possible that they came to me as mystery batts and I never knew much more than I've shared to begin with! I do know that they were beautiful and that they were carded by my friend Jill, and that makes my enjoyment of the resulting garment even greater.

You might think, looking at the finished garment, that this is a very simple project, but it's impeccably designed and more complicated to execute than you'd think. I've already shared in a previous post how it's constructed and how extensive short rows are used to shape the shoulders. There's also shaping along the armhole to allow the ribbing to sit out a bit from the body and then gussets under the arm to reduce the extra stitches (which you might be able to see in the above photo -- the gusset is right on top of that slightly lighter vertical line where the vest was folded to block).

The color of the yarn and the finished garment continue to give me trouble when I'm photographing it, so I had to edit the images a bit. It keeps blowing out and showing up lighter than it is in real life. But the pops of color from the sari silk are that bright, and they bring me so much joy, as any bright color does in the gray that is a Pennsylvania winter. I ended up using approximately 658 yards and 294 grams of the yarn and have a good amount leftover (though, as per usual, at one point I was worried about a game of yarn chicken). The vest is light but warm, not enough for me for a really cold day but great on top of a long-sleeved tee for the March weather we often get, when the sun is warm even when the air temperature is still only a little above freezing. I have a feeling I'm going to be wearing it a lot this spring and fall, and I would absolutely recommend the pattern. I'm also absolutely going to knit another handspun garment, and likely soon, but I have to do some more pondering on what and with what.

A Final Spin for the Tour

The Tour de Fleece (and, naturally, the Tour de France) wrapped up today, and thanks to several hours at my wheel yesterday, I finished one more skein of yarn for the year -- well, technically two, if you count the wee mini skein that came with it.

This skein used 11 of the mini batts that came in my giant bag 'o fluff from HipStrings. The tag that came in the bag said simply "TdF 2022 Bits n Bobs," so I have no idea of the content. Obviously there's wool, but what kind, I could not tell you. Similarly, I could identify bits of silk of different colors and some sparkle here and there, but really what I was spinning was a mystery. And I think that's what made it so fun. I picked out the more neutral batts from the bag -- four that were cream with some black silk and a hint of a pale pink, four that were a medium gray, and three that were a dark gray with tons of colorful add-ins -- and split them so that I spun them in that order onto three bobbins. Then I plied them together, and because the batts weren't all the same weight and I split some up, there were obviously some areas of overlap in the transitions. When the first bobbin ran out, I wound of the singles from the fullest remaining bobbin and made a plying bracelet; the mini skein is a two ply created from just those singles when the second bobbin ran out (there were more, but they got all tangled and I decided I didn't want to fight with them).

The finished yarn is roughly sport weight -- I couldn't make my singles as consistent as I do with combed top just due to the nature of the carded prep, so it's a bit thicker in some places and thinner in others -- and very nearly 440 yards. The skein was still a bit damp when I photographed it, but once I'm sure it's dry, I'll weigh it to get a sense of how much fiber I used. The mini skein is about 10 yards of heavy lace weight, and I'm just going to add it to a little baggie I have of small skeins like this that are really not enough to do anything with but are too cute to throw away.

Something I really love about this skein is how it reads as neutral colors from far away, but when you look closely, there are really a ton of bright colors in it. Spinning batts with a lot of textured elements is also a bit outside my comfort zone, so it's good for me to do to stretch my spinning skills. I still have about a dozen batts in the bag, so I'll be spinning more of them soon!

It wasn't my most productive Tour ever, but I very much enjoyed it, and really I think that's what counts. I plan to spin some more this week as well, because the organizers of the Ravelry event have announced that spinning will continue to coincide with the Tour de France Femmes. I didn't even know this event was happening until a couple of days ago, but I really could not have picked a better week to take a vacation!

Unraveled, Week 28/2022

Happy Wednesday, friends! It's been a long week already, even though we're not officially halfway through it. I am looking forward to the week off I am taking at the end of the month, not that I will be going anywhere -- I've taken so little time off from work because I've been working from home that I had hit my limit of accrued vacation time and needed to take some of it or I couldn't earn anymore!

As per usual on Wednesdays, I'm linking up with Kat and the Unravelers today to talk about what I'm making and what I'm reading.

Surprise, surprise -- I'm still knitting sleeves. My brother's birthday is next Tuesday, and it's now looking unlikely that I'll be completely done by then. I did finish the increases on the sleeves (the orange marker on the sleeve on the right above shows where that happened) and the pattern calls for working another two inches straight before starting the sleeve cap shaping, but there's an important note in that instruction: work two more inches or to total length desired under the arm. I double-checked the measurements my sister-in-law took for me using one of my brother's store-bought sweaters, and it's a good thing, because he needs more length than another two inches. His total length from the underarm is 19.5 inches. Right now, I'm at about 16. So I still have a bit of knitting to do. And I have to say that I'm feeling much less stressed about this project since I told myself that it's no big deal if it's not done by next Tuesday -- after all, my brother isn't expecting it, and even if he was, he won't be wearing it anytime soon!

I started a new spinning project last night for Tour de Fleece using a set of mini batts from HipStrings. I have no clue what's in them, so this is going to be a very fun spin!

Reading has been slower this week, unsurprisingly, so I've only finished one book. But it was a good one!

The Painted Drum is the next book we're discussing for the Erdrich-along, and it is a bit different from the previous books we've discussed. In this book, we learn the origin story of Fleur Pillager, one of the central characters in many of the previous books we've discussed, but she's really a minor character in this one, as she's only in one part of the book and is a baby for that part. But this book is classic Erdrich -- gorgeous, complex writing that requires the reader to slow down and fully appreciate it. There is tragedy in this book, but out of that tragedy we get a beautiful story of sacrifice and healing that provides a fuller appreciation of Indigenous customs and ritual objects. I gave it 4 stars.


I finished the book yesterday evening, so I've only just started my next book, The Cartographers. I'm only a chapter in, but I can tell that it's going to be a lighter read, which is just fine with me.

What are you making and reading this week?

That's More Like It

Ah, now that was the weekend I needed! It was a busy one with a lot of activity crammed into it, but I got everything done that I wanted to -- and no one was sick in bed!

The weekend kicked off slightly strangely in that we did not have our usual Friday night dinner at my parents'; they are in Florida for the month, so we're left to fend for ourselves for the next several weeks. I did, however, finish my sister-in-law's socks:

They are perfectly matched (I know the green on the toes looks a little off, but I think that's just because they weren't arranged precisely the same on the sock blockers). Despite the extra yarn I wound off, I had plenty of yarn to finish -- it's very helpful to be knitting for someone with small feet! I more or less used my typical stockinette recipe, worked over 68 stitches on size 0/2.0 mm needles. I still need to wash and block these (if you look closely, you might see my magic loop ridges), but it feels good to have a holiday gift done in October.

The next socks on the needles will probably be for my mother-in-law, with this yarn that arrived about a week or so:

Yes, we all know that I don't need more sock yarn, but I couldn't resist signing up for the Fibernymph Dye Works Encore club. I'd previously been in three of Lisa's clubs -- Happy Hour, Tea for Two, and Just Desserts -- and this club promised one more colorway for each of the three themes. I justified the purchase by deciding that I'd likely use the shipments as gifts for others, so they won't really be going into the stash. This shipment falls under the Just Desserts theme, and the colorway is called Apple Turnovers (and came with the recipe for them). This colorway looks like an apple orchard to me, and I think it'll be perfect for my mother-in-law, who wears a lot of reds and browns.

I mentioned on Friday that we were planning on going to a local fiber event here on Saturday. And we did, and was ... weird. We didn't get there until mid-afternoon, so I don't know if it was as empty as it was at the beginning of the event, but there were very few people there other than the vendors when we got there, and we overheard one of the organizers talking to a vendor who was saying that sales were lower than in the past. I felt bad about that and would have liked to have bought from every vendor to support them, but I am trying to be strong in my resolve not to add to my stash needlessly, so I kept my purchases to just two items: a project bag for Rainbow and this braid of fiber for me:

 

This is a new and unusual blend from HipStrings, a blend of Southdown and Dorset Horn wools and bio-nylon, an ecologically created nylon that creates no waste and is biodegradable. I've been wanting to try this blend for sock yarn for a while, so I figured this event was a good excuse to pick some up. It won't be going on the wheel just yet, though, because I am still working on my combo spin. Bobbin number two is under way:

I haven't given this spin a ton of attention in the past week or so because I've been trying to focus on finishing up the socks and getting my Shifty to move forward before the trip (I want to split for the body and the sleeves before I leave), but it's moving along. I'm hoping I can at least finish the singles, if not the plying, by the end of the month.

Rainbow is home with me today due to a teacher in-service day, so I need to go see if she's awake yet. I hope you had a good weekend and are feeling like the new week is off to a good start!

Wearing My Yellow Jersey

Today marks the end of the Tour de Fleece, which really seemed to fly by this year. Traditionally the leader of the Tour de France wears a yellow cycling jersey, so spinners are encouraged to do the same on the final day. Yellow is not a great color on me, though so I am only wearing one in spirit.

My goals for this year's Tour weren't very lofty -- I just wanted to spin at least a little every day and finish a small number of skeins. And that's exactly what I did. I didn't even have to spin up to the last minute to finish my last project, my HipStrings custom-blended batts. I had finished spinning the last bobbin of singles on Thursday, so I plied a bobbin each on Friday and yesterday and skeined and washed the resulting yarn last night.

I've had to edit these photos quite a bit to get them to even somewhat resemble what the yarn looks like in real life; for some reason, every photo I take comes out looking washed out and much lighter than the actual color. So the surface the skeins are sitting on is actually white, even if it appears blue here.

I ended up with two bit skeins of three ply, falling roughly in the sport to DK range, and a tiny mini skein of the remaining singles from the dark purple batt. The yarn is reading overall as a blue, but I love how there are not only two different shades of blue, plus purple, in the plies but also pops of many other colors from all the bits of silk and sari silk and other add-ins. I still have no idea of the actual fiber content of these batts, but that's just fine -- they were a delight to spin!

My two big skeins gave me nearly 780 yards, which is more than enough for a little sweater (I have my eye on Zero Crops Given, though I might work the body plain and lengthen both the body and the sleeves just a bit). My mini skein is only about 8.5 yards, and I only spun it to use up the rest of the singles, not with any real use in mind.

This may not have been my most prolific Tour ever, but by my count, I finished a bit more than 1,500 yards of yarn. Not too shabby! These most recently finished skeins also put me over the 10K mark for Stash Dash, thanks to the way that handspun is calculated (you get to count the length of each ply plus the total final length of the skein). In fact, I'm almost to 11K!

I am still on a long-term effort to spin down my stash, so don't think that because the Tour de Fleece is over you'll be seeing any less handspun from me. But you just might see me knitting with the handspun more in the months ahead.

Embracing the Texture

Before I get into the spinning for today, I want to thank all of you who left comments or sent me emails about my brother-in-law and sister-in-law. I really appreciate all your thoughts. The Mister has talked to his brother a few times, but they've decided to spend some time with just their little family for a bit, so we've told them to let us know if they need anything and are around when and if they want company.

We are now entering the last week of the Tour de Fleece, and I'm determined to finish at least one more spin before it ends. In a typically go big or go home move, I've decided that the final project won't be an achievable 4 oz. spin but rather to spin up all my HipStrings custom batts -- all 12 oz. of fiber. I dithered a bit about how to spin them and whether I wanted to fade them together somehow, but I realized that if I was going to use the yarn for a garment of some sort (because with 12 oz. I very well might end up with enough yarn), then I didn't want to end up with yarn that I'd have to fiddle with if there were sleeves to deal with. I landed on the simplest option, short of spinning each batt into its own skein: I am spinning all of each batt onto its own bobbin and then will ply the three singles together. And I have already completed the first:

I know many people will spin batts woolen (they are a woolen prep, after all), but when I do long draw, I have to watch what I'm doing and can't read at the same time. And I think you all know how much I enjoy being able to multi-task while I spin or knit! So I am spinning these batts semi-woolen, which means that I'm taking a woolen prep (carded batts) and spinning them with a worsted technique, short forward draw. It means that I press a lot of air out of the fiber as I spin, so the singles are denser, but I also find that worsted spinning helps to trap some of the textured add-ins to these batts -- things like colored silk, sari silk, etc. I will admit that I've been pulling out some of these bits when I get a good clump of them that won't draft evenly, but for the most part these singles are much more textured than my typical singles spun from combed top. And all those bits and bobs create real depth of color in addition to texture. I'm nearly halfway through the second batt (the darker blue), and I love the bits of yellow, orange, and hot pink that have been showing up.

I finished a knitting project last night and have a really good library book started, so if we get the predicted thunderstorms later this afternoon, I should be very happy spinning and reading for the remainder of the day.

I also got a surprise in the mail yesterday (well, I knew it was coming, but I didn't expect it to come until Monday) in the form of my June Southern Cross Fibre club shipment. This is called Ice Cave and it's on Bond wool:

This will work very nicely for my Shifty sweater spin, don't you think? It'll be going on the wheel just as soon as I finish up the HipStrings batts.

Spinning on Monday, Thwarted by Nature

Monday, Monday. Most of you who are regular readers will know that I don't usually post on Mondays but I do usually put up a spinning post on Sunday. And I was planning to do that yesterday evening, as I had an unexpectedly busy day -- first the annual meeting at our synagogue, then my usual walk, then watching In the Heights with Rainbow and my brother and sister-in-law. But a crazy storm blew in just after we got home, with high winds and even hail, and at around 6 p.m., the power went out. And it's still out. The poor Mister had to go into his office because there were all sorts of (metaphorical) fires to put out related to the storm and power outages and didn't get back until 4 a.m. So Rainbow and I have decamped to my parents', where there is power and air conditioning, and I'm playing a little catch-up.

I don't have a ton of spinning to share because I spent so much time last week focusing on finishing my Threipmuir (spoiler alert: it's done, and you can expect an FO post tomorrow). But I have started my next skein for my handspun Shifty spin. This is the first bobbin of singles of Southern Cross Fibre South African Superfine in the colorway First Star:

Rather than faffing about with the colors this time, I just split the top into three roughly equal pieces, so this will be a much more relaxing spin. I hope to give it some more attention this week.

In the meantime, I've had some stash enhancement recently that I can share to make up for the lack of spinning content. First, I received my Tour de Fleece shipment from Jill at HipStrings. This year she offered three options for hand-carded batts: a rainbow set, a set of neutrals, or a set custom blended for you based upon your previous orders. I went with the last option, and these are the gorgeous batts I received:

When I saw these, I knew right away where Jill had gotten her inspiration! I have a total of 12 oz. to spin, and I think these would work very nicely toward another sweater, perhaps with a neutral to tie them together.

I also received the May 2021 SCF club shipment (it arrived quickly again, so here's hoping the mail issues are over!):

The colorway is called Sunrise Sunset (yes, every time I read it or think it, I get the Fiddler on the Roof song in my head!), and it's on South African Superfine. I love it!

I hope your Monday is off to a better start than mine. Please keep your fingers crossed that my power comes back on before the day is out!

Perfect Timing

It can be risky to knit a wool sweater in April. This most recent April, more so than any I can remember, was a real roller coaster of a month in terms of weather. We had snow and we also had days that were downright hot. We toggled between heat and air conditioning several times. And while I don't usually pay much attention to the weather when I choose what to knit and am happy to knit wool sweaters in the summer, there is always a part of me that likes to be able to wear something when I finish it. I almost always expect that when I finish a sweater and it's not the middle of winter, I will automatically trigger a heat wave, and we did have some warmer weather last week right after this sweater came off the needles. But then we had a cold front come through last Thursday night, and as a result, I got to wear my new sweater not once but twice!

Pattern: Aldous (Ravelry link) by Isabell Kraemer, size 2 (37.5 in./93.5 cm bust), straight body option
Yarn: HipStrings Buoy DK (37.5% BFL/37.5% Shetland/25% Manx Loaghtan) in Dionysus, 3.1 skeins (893 yds./816 m)
Needles: US 5 (3.75 mm) and US 3 (3.25 mm)
Started/Completed: March 23/April 27
Mods: nada

This was my second Isabell Kraemer sweater and my third in Buoy DK -- it's really become my favorite sweater yarn. The blend of wools is really unusual, and while some people might find it a bit scratchy, I think it softens up really nicely as you wear it, and it's light and warm but also sturdy feeling. I am surprised that I used as little as I did, about 100 yards less than the pattern called for, but I have no complaints on that front!

The pattern itself was really well written, and it used a new-to-me construction: a top-down saddle shoulder. It begins with the collar and some short-row shaping so that the back of the neck sits higher than the front. The sweater is entirely in stockinette and seamless, though there are faux seams (in the form of columns of single purl stitches) to give the illusion of a seamed garment and one down the center of the back, just because.

While the shoulder construction was fun to do because it was new to me, I'm not sure it fits me as well as some other methods. I know it looks just fine in these shots, but if I lift my arms, the shoulder area looks a bit constricted to me. There's enough positive ease that it doesn't cause an issue in the actual fit, but I don't love the look of it. Still, it's good to try something new.

Speaking of which, this pattern gave me a chance to try another new technique -- a lateral braid:

This decorative element is worked just above the ribbing on both the body and the sleeves. It's actually much easier than you might think, though it's very fiddly. Essentially you are using two strands of yarn and twisting them between every stitch. It's a two-round process, so you twist them one way on the first round and the opposite way on the second. Theoretically the second round should undo all the tangle of the first, but I couldn't deal with it on the body with so many stitches on the needles and stopped to untangle frequently. For the sleeves, I left the tangle alone and did have success with the second round (mostly) undoing the mess of the first.

All in all, I am very pleased with this sweater and can highly recommend the pattern. I'm sure there will be more Isabell Kraemer sweaters in my future, though I'm hoping to have to wait a while before it's chilly enough to need one again!

Three Things Making Me Smile

It's Thursday (I think? I've been confused again this week), so once again I'm joining up with Carole and friends for Three on Thursday. Today, because it's been a busy, stressful week, I'm focusing on three things that are making me happy today.

1. My yarn finally came!
I mentioned on Tuesday that I was expecting a package from HipStrings that day, but due to the snow, we never got mail delivered that day -- so much for the USPS creed! I did see mail carriers out delivering that day, so I think they just must've gotten a late start due to the snow and didn't manage to make all their deliveries that day. But my yarn arrived safely yesterday, and it's even more beautiful in person.

This is my beloved Buoy DK (a blend of BFL, Shetland, and Manx Loaghtan) in the colorway Dionysus. I'm planning to use it to make myself an Aldous (Ravelry link).

2. I finally released my first pattern of 2021!
The new year hasn't done much to fix my lack of motivation to get my designs knit and written up, but I was determined to get through this one. You've seen these socks before -- they're the ankle socks that I just finished for Rainbow -- but now you can knit your own. I've named them Piccoletti, which is Italian for "shorties" or "little guys," and they're a quick and super comfy ankle sock.

She's not only a great knitwear photographer, she's also a willing model!

The pattern is now up on Ravelry and Payhip and is on sale for the first week!

3. I have a long weekend!
Rainbow is off from school tomorrow and Monday, so I decided to make use of all the time off I've accrued at work (in no small part because after this month we can no longer accrue unlimited time) and take those days off as well. We have a few activities planned (we're going to bake challah and likely do a Target run tomorrow, and we want to cook a Valentine's day dinner on Sunday), but I think both of us are looking forward to having a relaxing few days. First, though, I have to get through what's looking like a long day of work and a board meeting this evening. Thank goodness I will have yarn in my hands for much of it.

I hope you have some reasons to smile this weekend! See you back here on Sunday!

C'mon Get Happy

Good morning, friends! Yesterday was a very long day in part because I spent the last two hours of the work day doing school pickup and then at the pediatrician's office with Rainbow (she's fine -- it was just her annual checkup, but she had to get three vaccinations, so it was a bit dramatic for my needle-fearing girl). After such a Monday Monday, if you catch my meaning, I did not expect to wake up so happy this morning, but I did, so I thought I'd share some of that happiness with you!

First of all, look at what we woke up to (with apologies for the screen):

We were supposed to get 1-3 inches of snow overnight, but the Mister estimates that we got more than that. He was out shoveling for a full hour this morning and said that what he'd shoveled was already covered again by the time he came in. Normally I'd not be that excited by snow, but there was enough overnight that Rainbow's school decided to close for the day, so she's home doing school online. That means I get to have lunch with her and I don't have to drive in this mess to pick her up! She's also excited because it means she can stay in her pajama pants all day!

One good thing to come out of yesterday was that I managed to finish up the baby sweater, just in time for the last day of the Pigskin Party, too.

This is, of course, the classic Baby Surprise Jacket by Elizabeth Zimmerman. I used the instructions found in The Opinionated Knitter, but you can now get the pattern for the baby, child, and adult versions directly from Schoolhouse Press. I was a bit worried that this version was going to come out a tad small, even for a preemie, but I compared it to the version that Rainbow came home from the hospital in and it's just a tad smaller (I blocked out a little more room in it as well). I used scraps of several fingering weight yarns for this one -- the green is Knit Picks Stroll Tonal, the blue is Little Skein in the Big Wool House Sock, the yellow is Dale Garn Baby Ull, and the red is Malabrigo Sock. I followed the pattern as written except for working on a smaller needle (US 3)/at a smaller gauge to make it suitable for a preemie and adding the applied I-cord around the entire body edge. If you look very closely, you might be able to see where I joined the I-cord at the center of the back, but I think I did a decent job of finishing. I did add buttonholes to one side, but I think the neck opening becomes way too small for even a tiny baby if you overlap the fronts enough to button it, so I'm going to do some duplicate stitch on the wrong side to close those holes up before I deliver it.

Another reason to be happy? Finishing the sweater means I can move on to the next WIP to finish, and that's my C2C crochet blanket. I've officially started decreasing!

The colors are again completely off here, but at least you can see that the sides are starting to square up. I've noticed that I'm also getting a little faster at this and can manage a little bit of it without looking, so clearly all the practice is paying off. And now that I understand this method of construction, I can see making a lot more blankets like this in the future.

Finally, what is happier than getting yarn in the mail?

These two half skeins of Fibernymph Dye Works Ridgetop Fingering arrived yesterday (they were a prize). They should have been here on Saturday, as the USPS told me they were out for delivery, but when they didn't show up, I checked the tracking and discovered that they hadn't been delivered because the carrier "could not access the delivery location." I'm not sure what that was supposed to mean; the mail carrier delivered the rest of our mail with no problem, so I can only surmise that we had a sub for our usual carrier who didn't want to be bothered with carrying packages down our street. In any case, it arrived safely yesterday, and at least it didn't take a tour of the state this time! I also am expecting another squishy delivery today, as I might have taken advantage of the HipStrings moving sale (they are moving out of their commercial studio and into a new space). Assuming the snow doesn't deter the mail carrier today, I'll share that tomorrow.

Stay warm out there, friends, and keep and eye out for things to be happy about!

My City in Yarn

As promised, I have finished Pittsburgh mini skeins to share! Each skein was spun from about 1 oz. of custom-blended fiber from HipStrings and has some connection to my hometown. I spun each fiber sample end to end and chain-plied, so the resulting yarn is a sort-of three ply, and they're all roughly fingering weight.

Here are the details on each skein, from left to right:

Cathedral of Learning (50% Rambouillet/25% baby llama/25% baby alpaca): The Cathedral of Learning is the second-tallest educational building in the world at 42 stories and is arguably the most well-known building on the University of Pittsburgh campus. It was build at the height of the Depression with the financial support of, among others, a number of local schoolchildren who contributed a dime each to "buy a brick" in the building. Today it's home to several Pitt schools and offices as well as the internationally known Nationality Rooms. Learn more here.

Won't You Be My Neighbor (50% BFL/50% Shetland): I think that most of you will recognize the reference to Mister Rogers' Neighborhood, but what you might not realize is that it was filmed here at WQED, the nation's first community-sponsored TV station and one of its very first public television stations. You can still visit the Fred Rogers Studio at the station's building today.

Environmental (50% Merino/50% Shetland): Pittsburgh is home to a number of large parks and green spaces as well as the historic Phipps Conservatory. Pittsburgh is also the birthplace of noted writer and naturalist Rachel Carson.

Hill District (75% Merino/25% Bombyx silk): Pittsburgh's Hill District neighborhood is special to me, as it's where my maternal grandfather grew up. Though back then it was a Jewish neighborhood, it eventually became the center of the city's African American cultural life. It's where playwright August Wilson was born, and it's the setting for his series of 10 plays.

The Pinkertons (75% Merino/25% Tussah silk): You might have heard of the Pinkerton detectives, but I'm guessing that you've probably never heard of the Homestead Steel strike in which they were involved, even if you're a native Pittsburgher. I have, but only because in my junior year of high school, I had to write a term paper on local history and it was my topic.

And finally Coal (25% Black Welsh/25% Black Finnish/25% Black Shetland/25% Tussah silk): Pittsburgh has long been known as the Steel City, and the making of all that steel requires a lot of power. And back when steel was still being made here, that power came from coal.

In all, I've got just shy of 410 yards of yarn. I have no idea what I'll do with them -- I really just spun these for the sake of spinning them!

Plying Time

At the beginning of the week (or last week, depending on whether you think of Sunday as the first or last day of the week), I started spinning up a fiber sampler that has been in my stash for far too long. I never entered it into my fiber stash or even took a photo of the full box, so I have no idea when it was that I bought it. I actually lost it in my stash for a while, which I know sounds ridiculous, but it was in a white cardboard box that was identical to the boxes that some fiber club shipments had come in, and I'd saved those boxes for mailing, so I just assumed the box with this fiber sampler was one of those empties. But when Rainbow and I did our stash clean-out in December, I found it again and set it aside to spin.

This sampler is from HipStrings, one of my favorite fiber companies that also happens to be local to me. They are known for their interesting fiber blends, and I have never spun any of their fiber that wasn't perfectly prepped and thoughtfully blended. The sampler contains 1 oz. each of six different fiber blends all designed to represent something about Pittsburgh and its history. In addition to the fiber, the box contained a small photo album with images and cards explaining each fiber blend (or, more accurately, the inspiration behind each blend) and tags for each blend. I am spinning each blend on its own and chain-plying the singles. I thought I would do most of the spinning first, but now that I've filled all the slots on my lazy kate, it's time to ply:

Left to right here are Coal, Cathedral of Learning, Won't You Be My Neighbor, and Environmental. Once these are plied and skeined, I'll get to the last two blends (and I admit they're my favorites of the six, so I saved them for last). This time next week, I should have all six spun, plied, skeined, and washed, and I'll be able to share more about the blends and their names!

First Skein of the New Year

My vacation is wrapping up (tomorrow is officially the last day), so it's back to paying attention to what day it is. Fortunately I was happy to learn that it was Sunday because I have a new skein of yarn that is finished and ready to share! You may recall that a week ago I was trying to finish up my HipStrings Base 12 spin. I was hoping to finish all the spinning and plying before the end of 2020, but in the end I settled for just finishing the singles. On New Year's Day, I sat down at my wheel and plied the whole thing, which just fit on my bobbin. Yesterday I skeined it up and washed it, and it sat on the radiator overnight to dry. And now it's officially finished:

January in Pittsburgh is not an ideal time to try to photograph much of anything -- even after editing to brighten these photos, they're still not capturing the shine of all the silk or the depth of color.

I had planned to chain-ply this yarn, and when I was spinning the singles, I thought I was spinning for fingering weight, more or less. I figured I'd end up with yarn that was a bit thick and thin because some of the fiber was a lot more textured, shall we say, than other bits. There was a mix of batts and combed top, and some bags contained a lot of things like sari silk and silk noil, which are very difficult to draft perfectly evenly. I knew that wool was a decent component of each bit, but what I didn't realize (until I opened the envelope containing the fiber key at the very end) was that most of that wool was merino or superfine merino. So the yarn poofed up quite a bit when I washed it, and it's now in the DK to worsted territory.

I am actually rather pleasantly surprised at how even the finished yarn looks in spite of all the differences in fiber content from bag to bag. When I planned spin fingering weight, I figured I'd use the finished skein for a Hitchhiker, but now I'm not so sure (I know I could knit one on larger needles, but at only 327 yards in this skein, I'm not likely to get a very big shawl out of it).

For the curious, here is the card with all the information on the fiber content:

This is almost exactly the order in which I spun the fiber (I did 1-10 and then A and B). When I said there was a lot of silk, I wasn't exaggerating!

This was a fun spin and a good exercise in letting go of a bit of control in spinning, but I'm ready for what's next. I'm not sure yet exactly what that will be, but I can tell you that it will likely have less (or no) silk content.

The Thrill of the Mystery

Hello, friends! I hope you all had an enjoyable Christmas and Boxing Day. We woke up to a white Christmas -- the snowiest Christmas in Pittsburgh in 85 years, apparently! We officially got 7 inches total for the entire snow event, followed by some frigid temperatures, so the roads were in terrible shape for a couple of days (or so I heard from the Mister -- I wasn't going anywhere!). Today, though, the sun was out and things were starting to melt.

Our Christmas was lovely, despite the fact that we did not spend it in Florida as we usually do. Usually we'd be going to the movies and getting Chinese takeout (the typical Jewish Christmas), but we decided that we were going to cook as long as we were home and had the time. We started the day with homemade cinnamon rolls (I used this recipe), which we'd prepped the night before, but I got up early to get them out of the fridge and let them rise. They were spectacular -- and I got to enjoy watching the snow while I had a cup of tea while I waited. For dinner, we made a pot roast, thanks to the Mister's being willing to brave the roads and the kosher supermarket still being open; the piece of meat we'd previously bought did not look good, so we decided not to risk it. And thanks to my sister-in-law, the family's amazing baker, we had a tin of Christmas cookies to enjoy for dessert.

I've done a fair bit of knitting this vacation, but because it's Sunday, let's talk about the spinning! I started opening up my HipStrings Base 12 fiber and spinning it a bundle at a time. I've been taking a photo of each bag's contents as I open it so I can document the process. I have opened six bags so far:

For the first four bundles, at least, the fiber seemed to start out smooth and get increasingly textured with things like sari silk. Starting with day five, things got smooth again. There's an envelope in the package that says what in each bag, but I decided to wait to open it until I'm done spinning so I don't ruin the surprise.

I have been spinning each fiber selection in order and plan to chain-ply all the singles when I'm done. I know the skein will be very textured in some spots and certainly uneven, but I think that will make for an interesting yarn and an interesting project when knit up. I'm hoping to be able to finish the rest of the singles in the next several days so I can ply it before the end of the year. It would be a good way to say good-bye to 2020!

It's a Triumph

Sunday again? Time to talk about spinning!

I did indeed get a chance to give my wheel some attention later in the week, so I have a finished skein to share!

The colors are not quite as intense in real life, but the light at this time of year is dim enough that photo filters are necessary. In any case, this is approximately 278 yards of chain-plied organic merino that is overall in the neighborhood of sport weight. It's not my most consistent skein ever, in large part because I know I was more focused on getting it finished then in maintaining my consistency. But I'm pleased with it even so, because it turned out soft and bouncy and round. And of course there are these amazing colors.

I even think this skein goes well with the last one I spun:

The fiber was one of my earliest shipments from the Southern Cross Fibre club -- definitely in my first year (I think the very first shipment I received was for February 2015; this one was from August 2015). I'm really enjoying the little trip to the past I've been taking via deep stash. I've got another well-marinated bag of fiber on the wheel now, Bond in the colorway Esmerelda from September 2015:

When I finish this skein, I will officially finish all the fiber items on my 20 in 2020 list! Even though I've been on a chain-plying kick lately, I decided to do something a bit different with this skein because the colors are more uniform (shades of blue and green). I'm still spinning it end to end, but when I finish the singles, I'll wind them off the bobbin into a center-pull ball and ply from both ends for what I hope will be a fingering (or maybe sport) two ply.

And I already know what's going the wheel next:

 

This is my HipStrings Base12 spinalong kit, a fiber Advent calendar of sorts. The link shows the yarn version, and I have no idea if the fiber version is the same (I haven't peeked at all). The set included a die to roll in order to spin at random, but I think I'm just going to go in order and create a mash-up skein. It's been a couple of years since I last did this, so I'm looking forward to it!

Let Me Spin You a Yarn

It's Sunday again, and November to boot! I have lost all concept of time this year, and I'm sure it's the same for all of you. But I got an extra hour of sleep, I've had my coffee and reset all the clocks, and I am ready to talk about spinning!

I finished my latest spinning project on Friday, and thanks to the temperature dropping quite a bit over the course of the day, the radiators were kicking and served me well to dry the wet yarn overnight.

The large/main skein here is a crepe yarn. This is a ply structure in which you spin a two-ply yarn and ply it with a single. I know that doesn't seem very complicated, but it requires careful attention to the way you're spinning so that you have twist in all the elements going the right direction. Typically, handspun yarn is spun with singles twist in the Z direction (meaning it's twisted to the right) and plied in the S direction (twisted to the left). That's what I did with the two-ply component of this yarn. But because it was plied S, that meant that the second step of plying would have to be in the Z direction, and thus the single I'd be plying it with would have to be spun S. Confused yet? Basically the rule here is that for each step, you need to reverse the direction to balance out the twist. That's not that hard to keep track of, but muscle memory is a real thing to contend with, so I had to put a note with an arrow on my wheel so that I remembered which direction I was meant to be spinning.

The finished skein is in the sport to DK range and about 208 yards. The mini skein above is what was left of the two ply when the single ran out. I find this ply structure to be interesting, but I don't love it. I suspect it's something to do with the unevenness of the structure -- crossing one ply with two. I also admit I didn't do a great job of balancing the twist, so the yarn does kink up a bit. But it was good to do for the learning aspect in any case.

Up next on my wheel is another item from my 20 in 2020 spinning list: battlings from the now out of business Hobbledehoy:

"Battlings" are just small bits of fiber that come from pulling apart a larger batt. I have two bags of these, for a total of 4 oz., and my plan is just to spin them at random onto one bobbin and then ply from both ends to use every last bit. These are a blend of merino, silk, bamboo, and sparkle, so they should be pretty easy to spin.

I also got some fiber in the mail yesterday that was a bit of a surprise!

Over not-Rhinebeck weekend, Loop Fiber Studio had a series of giveaways on Instagram, and I won one of them! I had a choice between a skein of their Yin Yang yarn or one of their bullseye bumps, and as it's been years since I've spun one and I'm always tempted when I visit their booth at festivals, I chose the fiber. These are pretty fun to spin, because they're made like a center-pull ball of yarn but in fiber form. The one I chose is called Vernal Equinox, and it's a mix of merino, nylon, and sparkle. It looks like it'll alternate sections of black with pastel colors.

Finally, I have some photos to share that I promised Vera I would take. These are from the front yard of a house in my neighborhood; I rerouted my run yesterday so I would be able to stop and take photos. Whoever lives in this house clearly has a sense of humor and is left leaning. Click the photos to embiggen and read the signs!

We had a very low-key Halloween here. We went out to have a small get-together with my brother and sister-in-law and some family friends on their deck (so we were outside and socially distanced) and then picked up pizza for dinner. We did not hand out candy or carve pumpkins. I suppose it was a bit depressing, but no one complained! Today is supposed to be another gloomy, cold day, with rain turning to snow(!) later on. I am helping out at a clothing drive at our synagogue for a couple of hours this afternoon, but otherwise I plan to stay home and craft and try not to think about Tuesday.

I almost forgot to mention! Eileen and I have been talking about doing a virtual spin-in via Zoom or Google Hangouts. If you would be interested in joining us, please let me know! It would likely be on a weekday evening or weekend afternoon.