Body is done up to the underarms. Attempting to knock out at least one sleeve tonight!
Thursday, May 24, 2012
No Time to Blog
Too busy knitting!
Body is done up to the underarms. Attempting to knock out at least one sleeve tonight!
Body is done up to the underarms. Attempting to knock out at least one sleeve tonight!
Tuesday, May 22, 2012
I May Be Crazy
Why, you ask? Because apparently I decided that I could knit another baby sweater by the end of the month for the Mad May knitalong. I picked up more tosh dk at my LYS over the weekend and cast on for another Gramps Cardigan last night. This is for a gift for my best friend, who is expecting her first in September. Her sisters are throwing her a baby shower in early June, and as it looks unlikely that I'll be able to attend (it's out of town and not close enough to do a day trip), I'll need to get her gift mailed off even early than that.
I cast on last night and got a few rows into the cable pattern on the body before I realized that I'd neglected to switch over to larger needles after the ribbing and had to rib back. Tonight I'll be able to rectify that error and get moving on the body. I'm making the smallest size, and considering that I finished Rainbow's version in 14 days, I think I can knit a baby size in 10 -- there is a long weekend coming up, after all.
I cast on last night and got a few rows into the cable pattern on the body before I realized that I'd neglected to switch over to larger needles after the ribbing and had to rib back. Tonight I'll be able to rectify that error and get moving on the body. I'm making the smallest size, and considering that I finished Rainbow's version in 14 days, I think I can knit a baby size in 10 -- there is a long weekend coming up, after all.
Sunday, May 20, 2012
Loose Ends
I used a fair amount of time this week to finish up some spinning projects. First was a small amount of fiber that one of several samples Steven gave me before he left town. This particular bit of fiber was guessed to be bison; there was only 16 grams of it, so not enough to really use for a project, but it seemed perfect for this month's challenge in the Ravelry Spindlers group -- the theme was "my precious." I pulled out my Jenkins Turkish (sadly unused for nearly a year), spun up the two cops you saw here last week, and on Monday night I plied. Here's what I got:
It's every bit as soft as it looks. I ended up with approximately 34 yards. No idea what I'll use this for; for now, I'm quite enjoying petting the skein.
Most of my spinning time this past week was devoted to finishing up a rather large project. I had used a little bit of some Paradise Fibers colonial wool top when I did my corespun yarn about a month ago, and as long as I'd already dug out the fiber from deep in the stash, I figured I should probably just spin the rest of it up. I did one bobbin of singles and then chain plied; I weighed the bobbin afterward and discovered I had a little more than 7 ounces worth of fiber on that bobbin, so it's no wonder it took as long as it did! The finished yarn is heavy fingering to sport weight and about 497 yards.
The resulting yarn, being a blend of different types of wool, is not especially soft, but I do like the great mix of colors in it.
Only part of the bag would actually fit in the shot -- it's a lot of fiber! I'm spinning this pretty quickly into a two-ply DK to worsted, most likely.
Then there's a big bag full of scoured merino to comb:
More fleece was washed last night, and there's more waiting for me!
It's every bit as soft as it looks. I ended up with approximately 34 yards. No idea what I'll use this for; for now, I'm quite enjoying petting the skein.
Most of my spinning time this past week was devoted to finishing up a rather large project. I had used a little bit of some Paradise Fibers colonial wool top when I did my corespun yarn about a month ago, and as long as I'd already dug out the fiber from deep in the stash, I figured I should probably just spin the rest of it up. I did one bobbin of singles and then chain plied; I weighed the bobbin afterward and discovered I had a little more than 7 ounces worth of fiber on that bobbin, so it's no wonder it took as long as it did! The finished yarn is heavy fingering to sport weight and about 497 yards.
The resulting yarn, being a blend of different types of wool, is not especially soft, but I do like the great mix of colors in it.
There are several spinning projects now in progress. First is a favor for a friend -- I'm spinning up 16 oz. of mystery wool roving.
Then there's a big bag full of scoured merino to comb:
More fleece was washed last night, and there's more waiting for me!
Tuesday, May 15, 2012
Mad for May
It seems that all it takes for me to finish a sweater in two weeks is a knitalong!
Pattern: Gramps Cardigan by Kate Oates, size 4
Yarn: Madelinetosh tosh dk (100% superwash merino) in Robin's Egg, two skeins plus ~5 yards or less of a third skein
Needles: US 5 (3.75 mm) and US 6 (4.0 mm) Addi Turbo circs
Started/Completed: May 1/May 14
Mods: quite a few (see below)
I knit this as part of the Mad May knitalong in the Madelinetosh Lovers group on Ravelry. I didn't want to aim too high and try to knit myself a sweater, but I figured this would be a good challenge because of all the cables. It made for some good car and hotel knitting on the trip to Maryland Sheep and Wool.
While I'm very pleased with how the sweater turned out, I did have some issues with the pattern along the way. I'll be the first to admit that I did not swatch. I had used the same yarn and needle size for my Effortless Cardigan, so I knew I'd be pretty darn close on stitch gauge. I also chose to knit a size up from Rainbow's current size (intending this to fit this fall and winter), and I was counting on the fact that the yarn is superwash to allow it stretch out a bit in blocking.
The main difficulty was with the sleeve. I cast on for the first sleeve in the car on the way back home from MDSW, and the two friends in the car with me both agreed that it looked impossibly tiny. So I ripped that attempt out and cast on again using the number for the next size up (four stitches more, so almost an inch larger). That cuff seemed to be a better size, but I ripped it again when I started the cable and realized that it did not grow out of the ribbing the same way the cables on the body had. On my third attempt, the cuff was the right size and the cable split a column of two knit stitches so that it was symmetrical. However, this time around, I forgot that I was knitting in the round and was omitting every other line of the chart (I was used to knitting flat, knitting the stitches as they appeared rather than consulting the chart), meaning my cable was coming out half the height it should have been. The fourth attempt was finally successful in all aspects.
Nearly all of my mods were on the sleeves. I increased to the number specified in the pattern for the size I was making, but I added an additional 2 inches of length (I know Rainbow is tall, but I don't think she has gorilla arms!). I also changed the way the cable crossed on the second sleeve so that, when the sleeves were connected to the body, the cables would cross toward each other. Finally, as the raglan decreases in the yoke were eating into the cable area, I made the cables narrower at the top of the shoulder so that they would stay intact. The only non-sleeve modification I made was to do a smaller buttonhole (a k2tog, yo buttonhole rather than a three-stitch one-row buttonhole). I wasn't planning on using huge buttons on this sweater, so I didn't think a larger buttonhole was necessary.
In spite of all these changes and challenges, I really did enjoy knitting this sweater. It was really a fast knit once I got used to the cables and could know intuitively what to do next. I will probably knit this again as a baby gift, but there are several things I will do differently next time. For one thing, I might use a heavier yarn (and perhaps go up a needle size) in addition to working a size up. A number of projects on Ravelry indicate that the pattern does run a little small; Rainbow's fits okay now, but if she continues to grow the way she has been lately, it may be a bit snug this fall and winter. I would also switch the direction of the raglan decreases, as I don't really care for how they look as written.
The most important factor of all in determining whether or not this was a successful knit, of course, is Rainbow's response. She is thrilled with it, and it's always a joy to knit for someone who appreciates the knitting.
Pattern: Gramps Cardigan by Kate Oates, size 4
Yarn: Madelinetosh tosh dk (100% superwash merino) in Robin's Egg, two skeins plus ~5 yards or less of a third skein
Needles: US 5 (3.75 mm) and US 6 (4.0 mm) Addi Turbo circs
Started/Completed: May 1/May 14
Mods: quite a few (see below)
I knit this as part of the Mad May knitalong in the Madelinetosh Lovers group on Ravelry. I didn't want to aim too high and try to knit myself a sweater, but I figured this would be a good challenge because of all the cables. It made for some good car and hotel knitting on the trip to Maryland Sheep and Wool.
While I'm very pleased with how the sweater turned out, I did have some issues with the pattern along the way. I'll be the first to admit that I did not swatch. I had used the same yarn and needle size for my Effortless Cardigan, so I knew I'd be pretty darn close on stitch gauge. I also chose to knit a size up from Rainbow's current size (intending this to fit this fall and winter), and I was counting on the fact that the yarn is superwash to allow it stretch out a bit in blocking.
The main difficulty was with the sleeve. I cast on for the first sleeve in the car on the way back home from MDSW, and the two friends in the car with me both agreed that it looked impossibly tiny. So I ripped that attempt out and cast on again using the number for the next size up (four stitches more, so almost an inch larger). That cuff seemed to be a better size, but I ripped it again when I started the cable and realized that it did not grow out of the ribbing the same way the cables on the body had. On my third attempt, the cuff was the right size and the cable split a column of two knit stitches so that it was symmetrical. However, this time around, I forgot that I was knitting in the round and was omitting every other line of the chart (I was used to knitting flat, knitting the stitches as they appeared rather than consulting the chart), meaning my cable was coming out half the height it should have been. The fourth attempt was finally successful in all aspects.
Nearly all of my mods were on the sleeves. I increased to the number specified in the pattern for the size I was making, but I added an additional 2 inches of length (I know Rainbow is tall, but I don't think she has gorilla arms!). I also changed the way the cable crossed on the second sleeve so that, when the sleeves were connected to the body, the cables would cross toward each other. Finally, as the raglan decreases in the yoke were eating into the cable area, I made the cables narrower at the top of the shoulder so that they would stay intact. The only non-sleeve modification I made was to do a smaller buttonhole (a k2tog, yo buttonhole rather than a three-stitch one-row buttonhole). I wasn't planning on using huge buttons on this sweater, so I didn't think a larger buttonhole was necessary.
In spite of all these changes and challenges, I really did enjoy knitting this sweater. It was really a fast knit once I got used to the cables and could know intuitively what to do next. I will probably knit this again as a baby gift, but there are several things I will do differently next time. For one thing, I might use a heavier yarn (and perhaps go up a needle size) in addition to working a size up. A number of projects on Ravelry indicate that the pattern does run a little small; Rainbow's fits okay now, but if she continues to grow the way she has been lately, it may be a bit snug this fall and winter. I would also switch the direction of the raglan decreases, as I don't really care for how they look as written.
The most important factor of all in determining whether or not this was a successful knit, of course, is Rainbow's response. She is thrilled with it, and it's always a joy to knit for someone who appreciates the knitting.
Sunday, May 13, 2012
Fun with Fluff
After hosting the grandparents for brunch this morning, the Mister and Rainbow let me have the afternoon off to have fun with fiber-y stuff. In between rewashing batches of fleece from Monday (I probably had too much in the bags the first time, because there was still a fair amount of lanolin in most of the fiber after it was dry), I worked on finishing up Rainbow's Gramps sweater and finishing the rest of the bison fiber I started spinning on my Turkish spindle last weekend. I now have two pretty cops of fluffy singles:
I had a whopping total of 16 g of fiber to start with and split it roughly in half. It was an interesting experience spinning this because I could not use my typical spinning style, nor could I produce my usual smooth, even singles. The staple length was pretty short, so the prep was suited to woolen spinning. As a result, the singles are fluffy and thicker in certain spots, but I actually kind of like it. The plied yarn should be very airy, soft, and warm. Considering how quickly I was able to spin the singles, I'm assuming I can ply this up in one evening later this week (I'm letting the singles rest for a day or so first).
On the agenda next: finish spinning up the colonial top that's been on my miniSpinner for weeks. I have about a yard's length of top left and a new disk of Lark Rise to Candleford to watch, so I will be milking Mother's Day for all it's worth to get maximum spinning time in tonight.
 |
| Burt and Ernie for scale |
On the agenda next: finish spinning up the colonial top that's been on my miniSpinner for weeks. I have about a yard's length of top left and a new disk of Lark Rise to Candleford to watch, so I will be milking Mother's Day for all it's worth to get maximum spinning time in tonight.
Wednesday, May 09, 2012
Back to the Grind
I am still recovering somewhat from the trip to Maryland Sheep and Wool. I'm very glad I had the foresight to take Monday off from work as well this year, because there was a lot I needed to get done (and frankly I don't blame the Mister for not getting it done -- a toddler can be a handful!). Once I had done a load of laundry, restocked the fridge, and cleaned all three bathrooms, I finally had some time to have some fun with my purchases.
The first order of business was washing some fleece. I decided to start in on the Merino X first because it definitely seemed like the greasier of the two. I managed to get two batches (two lingerie bags' worth) washed up over the course of several hours -- each had two 20-minute scouring soaks and two 20-minute rinses -- and left them on a mesh drying rack in the basement to dry. As soon as they are dry, I'll pull out my combs and see what I can do with the fiber. This is my first time washing fleece, so we'll see if I did an okay job with it, but the rinse water was running clear at the end, so I know I at least got the dirt out.
While waiting for my kitchen timer to go off to alert me that it was time to switch out the water, I did a bit of spinning on my Jenkins Turkish. I'd taken it, along with a small amount of what may or may not be bison fiber, along with me this past weekend and had spun a small amount. I managed to finish the first half of the fiber and start in on the second in really not much time at all, so if I can squeeze in another hour or two of spinning this week, I could ply this up this weekend.
Most of my crafty time since getting back, however, has been spent working on Rainbow's Gramps Cardigan, which seems to be moving along at a rapid pace. I finished the body up to the underarms on Saturday and started (and ripped and restarted) the first sleeve in the car on the way home on Sunday. Right now, I am about two rows away from finishing the second sleeve and joining the three pieces together.
I'm making the size 4, figuring that it will have a little bit of room so it will still fit come fall, but I had to modify the sleeves quite a bit. I ended up casting of the number of stitches for the next size up; I finished the cuff following the pattern, and it was positively tiny! I think this is probably because my gauge was a little off (I was a bad knitter and didn't swatch because I knew roughly what my gauge was with these needles and this yarn) but also because Rainbow is tall! I also had to add about 2 inches in additional length to get the arms to be long enough to reach to her wrists. I'm counting on the sweater growing a bit when I wash it, too (it is superwash, after all), so that it will be just a little more roomy.
Think she likes the sleeves?
The first order of business was washing some fleece. I decided to start in on the Merino X first because it definitely seemed like the greasier of the two. I managed to get two batches (two lingerie bags' worth) washed up over the course of several hours -- each had two 20-minute scouring soaks and two 20-minute rinses -- and left them on a mesh drying rack in the basement to dry. As soon as they are dry, I'll pull out my combs and see what I can do with the fiber. This is my first time washing fleece, so we'll see if I did an okay job with it, but the rinse water was running clear at the end, so I know I at least got the dirt out.
While waiting for my kitchen timer to go off to alert me that it was time to switch out the water, I did a bit of spinning on my Jenkins Turkish. I'd taken it, along with a small amount of what may or may not be bison fiber, along with me this past weekend and had spun a small amount. I managed to finish the first half of the fiber and start in on the second in really not much time at all, so if I can squeeze in another hour or two of spinning this week, I could ply this up this weekend.
Most of my crafty time since getting back, however, has been spent working on Rainbow's Gramps Cardigan, which seems to be moving along at a rapid pace. I finished the body up to the underarms on Saturday and started (and ripped and restarted) the first sleeve in the car on the way home on Sunday. Right now, I am about two rows away from finishing the second sleeve and joining the three pieces together.
I'm making the size 4, figuring that it will have a little bit of room so it will still fit come fall, but I had to modify the sleeves quite a bit. I ended up casting of the number of stitches for the next size up; I finished the cuff following the pattern, and it was positively tiny! I think this is probably because my gauge was a little off (I was a bad knitter and didn't swatch because I knew roughly what my gauge was with these needles and this yarn) but also because Rainbow is tall! I also had to add about 2 inches in additional length to get the arms to be long enough to reach to her wrists. I'm counting on the sweater growing a bit when I wash it, too (it is superwash, after all), so that it will be just a little more roomy.
Think she likes the sleeves?
Monday, May 07, 2012
MDSW: The Haul
We got to the fairgrounds just before 8 on Saturday morning, though technically the festival didn't open until 9. This gave me plenty of time to get my bearings and get in line for the fleece sale, which was the first thing on my list. I had made plans to meet up with a friend from Ravelry to pick out fleeces together (I wasn't completely confident that I could pick a good one, so she offered to help). We were in the first five or so people to get in, so we had our pick of fleeces and were very happy with what we found. I will get to that later.
After a fleece, the next highest priority on my list was to find a pair of wool combs. I had decided that I would wash and process this year's fleece myself; I was very happy with my experience last year sending my fleece to a mill, but what I got back was roving when I find I really prefer to spin from top. I had researched the vendors carrying the combs I wanted and ended up at Carolina Homespun, the same vendor that sold me my Lendrum four years ago, where I bought these:
These are Valkyrie double pitch extra fine mini combs (and a pad to hold one while in use). I'd done a lot of reading in the Fiber Prep Ravelry group, and these had gotten good reviews, so I'm very excited about them.
There were two fiber vendors whose booths I wanted to visit -- Loop, whose "bullseye bumps" I'd looked at last year and regretted not purchasing, and Into the Whirled, a new vendor this year. Both booths were conveniently located in the main building (where I already was to make the first two purchases of the day), so I stopped by and picked up the following beauties:
 |
| Wisteria bullseye bump -- 4.6 oz. blend of merino, bamboo, tussah silk, and angelina |
 |
| Nebula drum carded batt -- 4-4.5 oz. blend of 85% Polwarth/15% silk |
 |
| Gale's Art Blueface Swirl, 4 oz., colorway Velvet Elvis |
 |
| Verdant Gryphon Eidos, 4 oz./420 yds., colorway Hathor |
 |
| Miss Babs Color Affection kit -- Yummy Sock in Peony, Impatiens, and Lilacs (4 oz./400 yds. each) |
I bought a little more than I was planning, but I'm really happy with all my purchases, especially the ones I spent several hours playing with today:
I wanted to buy one fleece, but I ended up coming home with two half fleeces -- a Rambouillet on the left and a gorgeous deep chocolate brown Merino X on the right. My fleece shopping friend and I each found a good one, so we decided to split them both. Each was about 8 pounds, I think, so I have an awful lot of fiber to wash and process. I started in on the merino today. It's quite sticky -- lots of lanolin! -- but I think you can see why I picked it when I show you this detail shot:
Isn't that crimp spectacular? We saw the sheep from the farm this fleece came from when we were touring the sheep barns on Sunday morning and found that the sheep were coated -- which explains why this fleece was so clean. The Rambo is pretty spectacular, too:
I'm really interested to see how this will wash up, as the locks seem to be multicolored, but I can't tell if some of that might be dirt. My plan is to try to wash a batch up every evening, if I can, and maybe a couple over the weekend. I know it will take me a while to actually comb or card it all, but I want the fiber to be clean at least.
All in all, it was a great, if expensive, weekend. I'm going to have lots of fun with the stuff that came home with me, and I'm fairly certain my wallet is glad that this won't happen again for another year!
Thursday, May 03, 2012
Packing and Planning
By this time tomorrow, I will be in Maryland, probably with a stomach full of crab cake. Before then, though, I have a lot of packing to do. I've made my list of what to take but there's always that fear that I'll forget something important -- and by "important," I don't mean clean underwear or medication, I mean yarn!
My main project for the trip is the Gramps Cardigan I am knitting for Rainbow as part of the Mad May knitalong in the Ravelry Madelinetosh Lovers group. I'm knitting this in tosh dk in the colorway Robin's Egg. I cast on for it on Tuesday night and worked on it most of the time last night at knit night, and I've made a decent start:
This will be my car knitting for the drive down and back as well as (most likely) my evening knitting at the hotel.
Because this project requires charts and counting, I didn't think it would be practical to carry around -- and you know that I must have a small project to take to the festival when I need to take a break from the shopping! -- so I printed out the pattern for the Shur'tugal socks (a pattern that's been in my queue for quite some time) and will have to dig in my stash for some appropriate sock yarn.
Finally, because two knitting projects is clearly not enough to keep me busy, I figured I should take a small spinning project as well, because I have no doubt that buying fleece and other spinning stuff is going to make me want to spin. I thought briefly about bringing my miniSpinner along, but I figured it would be just another thing to have to shlep, so instead I am bringing the Jenkins Turkish spindle I bought at last year's festival with 16 grams of what may be bison fiber that I got from Steven when he moved away (that's his best guess, anyway).
Whatever it is, it's very soft and short stapled, so I think this small spindle is a good fit. I'm going to try to finish it this month for the Ravelry Spindlers group monthly spinalong. With such a small amount of fiber, even if I spin it very fine, I don't think it will take me that long to spin.
If you happen to be at the festival this weekend, please say hi if you see me (I will be wearing my Ravelry pin)! If not, stay tuned for a recap and (I hope) lots of pictures on the flip side!
My main project for the trip is the Gramps Cardigan I am knitting for Rainbow as part of the Mad May knitalong in the Ravelry Madelinetosh Lovers group. I'm knitting this in tosh dk in the colorway Robin's Egg. I cast on for it on Tuesday night and worked on it most of the time last night at knit night, and I've made a decent start:
 |
| In real life, it's light blue, not mint green. |
Because this project requires charts and counting, I didn't think it would be practical to carry around -- and you know that I must have a small project to take to the festival when I need to take a break from the shopping! -- so I printed out the pattern for the Shur'tugal socks (a pattern that's been in my queue for quite some time) and will have to dig in my stash for some appropriate sock yarn.
Finally, because two knitting projects is clearly not enough to keep me busy, I figured I should take a small spinning project as well, because I have no doubt that buying fleece and other spinning stuff is going to make me want to spin. I thought briefly about bringing my miniSpinner along, but I figured it would be just another thing to have to shlep, so instead I am bringing the Jenkins Turkish spindle I bought at last year's festival with 16 grams of what may be bison fiber that I got from Steven when he moved away (that's his best guess, anyway).
Whatever it is, it's very soft and short stapled, so I think this small spindle is a good fit. I'm going to try to finish it this month for the Ravelry Spindlers group monthly spinalong. With such a small amount of fiber, even if I spin it very fine, I don't think it will take me that long to spin.
If you happen to be at the festival this weekend, please say hi if you see me (I will be wearing my Ravelry pin)! If not, stay tuned for a recap and (I hope) lots of pictures on the flip side!
Tuesday, May 01, 2012
Sweater Project 2012: Complete!
It is done! Just in time for 80 degree weather, too. ;-)
Pattern: I Heart Aran by Tanis Lavallee
Yarn: my handspun three-ply heavy worsted weight Romney from fleece purchased at MDSW 2011
Needles: US 6 (4.0 mm) and US 7 (4.5 mm) Knit Picks Options
Started/Completed: February 23/April 26
Mods: bound off all stitches and seamed rather than grafting at underarms and shoulders, added an additional inch of length to body
I am thrilled with how this turned out. The start-to-finish time span is not quite representative of how long it took to knit, because I was working on other projects at the same time and thus was putting it down and picking it up during that period. The front, with all the cabled details, probably took the longest of all the parts, as you would expect, but even that didn't take more than probably a couple of weeks' worth of knitting sessions all told.
The one minor modification I made to the pattern was to bind off underarm and shoulder stitches and then seam them; the pattern called for putting these stitches on holders and then grafting them at the end. I love to graft, but I felt that because this sweater was so heavy (handspun is generally a lot denser than commercial yarn), the added stability of sewn seams, especially at the shoulders, would help this sweater to keep its shape and wear better over the long run.
I found this pattern to be generally well written, and when I did run into one area of difficulty, I was able to PM the designer and get great help. (For the curious, the difficulty came in the form of the word "repeat." When I see repeat, I always assume that you do something once and then repeat -- do it again -- x number of times. In this case, "repeat" was used to mean do a direction x number of times total.) Tanis double checked the numbers on the sleeve shaping for me and even sent me the pattern again just in case I had downloaded before an update had happened. She even acknowledged that the way the directions were worded was a little confusing. Turns out, the numbers were correct and it was just my interpretation of the directions that was at fault. The experience was great, though, in that I got an excellent example of what customer service and good pattern support should be.
One of the things I was most worried about was having enough yarn. I selected this pattern first and foremost because I loved it but also because all the cabling was only on the front -- as you can see, the back and sleeves are in stockinette. Of course, I still worried that I wouldn't have enough, especially as I only had about 150 yards more than the yardage specified in the pattern. As it turns out, I shouldn't have worried. I have two skeins completely untouched, one of them with fairly high yardage, and according to my calculations, that means I used approximately 925 yards for my sweater, including a swatch and these leftovers (with iPod for scale):
All in all, I can say with certainty that this year's Sweater Project was a huge success! The sweater fits really well and is not nearly as scratchy as last year's sweater, meaning I will wear it often when the weather is amenable. I still have a fair amount of fiber leftover and am thinking of spinning up matching yarn to make Rainbow a coordinating sweater for next winter. Plus, even though I didn't set a specific time frame for completing the sweater, I happened to finish this a week before Maryland Sheep and Wool -- which means I feel completely okay with bringing home another fleece!
Pattern: I Heart Aran by Tanis Lavallee
Yarn: my handspun three-ply heavy worsted weight Romney from fleece purchased at MDSW 2011
Needles: US 6 (4.0 mm) and US 7 (4.5 mm) Knit Picks Options
Started/Completed: February 23/April 26
Mods: bound off all stitches and seamed rather than grafting at underarms and shoulders, added an additional inch of length to body
I am thrilled with how this turned out. The start-to-finish time span is not quite representative of how long it took to knit, because I was working on other projects at the same time and thus was putting it down and picking it up during that period. The front, with all the cabled details, probably took the longest of all the parts, as you would expect, but even that didn't take more than probably a couple of weeks' worth of knitting sessions all told.
The one minor modification I made to the pattern was to bind off underarm and shoulder stitches and then seam them; the pattern called for putting these stitches on holders and then grafting them at the end. I love to graft, but I felt that because this sweater was so heavy (handspun is generally a lot denser than commercial yarn), the added stability of sewn seams, especially at the shoulders, would help this sweater to keep its shape and wear better over the long run.
 |
| One shiny button purchased at my LYS! |
One of the things I was most worried about was having enough yarn. I selected this pattern first and foremost because I loved it but also because all the cabling was only on the front -- as you can see, the back and sleeves are in stockinette. Of course, I still worried that I wouldn't have enough, especially as I only had about 150 yards more than the yardage specified in the pattern. As it turns out, I shouldn't have worried. I have two skeins completely untouched, one of them with fairly high yardage, and according to my calculations, that means I used approximately 925 yards for my sweater, including a swatch and these leftovers (with iPod for scale):
All in all, I can say with certainty that this year's Sweater Project was a huge success! The sweater fits really well and is not nearly as scratchy as last year's sweater, meaning I will wear it often when the weather is amenable. I still have a fair amount of fiber leftover and am thinking of spinning up matching yarn to make Rainbow a coordinating sweater for next winter. Plus, even though I didn't set a specific time frame for completing the sweater, I happened to finish this a week before Maryland Sheep and Wool -- which means I feel completely okay with bringing home another fleece!
Sunday, April 29, 2012
Deep Stash Spin
After I dug out some very old fiber from my stash for my corespun yarn, I figured I'd might as well finish spinning up the rest. I haven't devoted very much time to it in the past week because I've been so focused on finishing my sweater, but I'm slowly but surely adding to what's on the bobbin.
This is colonial wool, meaning it's likely a mix of a number of domestic wool breeds. From far away, it looks like a dark green, but you can see from this detail shot that it's a mix of dark green, red, blue, and yellow. The plan is to spin all the fiber that's left into a fine single and then chain ply. It should come out approximately fingering weight, but because I don't know how much fiber I started with, I have no idea what kind of yardage I'll end up with. I imagine it'll be enough for a pair of socks or a small shawl at the very least.
In the meantime, just as I'm trying to reduce my stash, some new fiber has arrived. My May shipment from the Crown Mountain Farms fiber club came in yesterday's mail. This is Jacob top in a colorway called Season of the Witch (yes, I have had the song stuck in my head since I opened the package):
I'm excited to spin this because I've never spun Jacob before. It's on the scratchier side (I would not make this into something to wear next to my neck!), but it has a good body to it and should make a fairly bouncy yarn, I think.
This is colonial wool, meaning it's likely a mix of a number of domestic wool breeds. From far away, it looks like a dark green, but you can see from this detail shot that it's a mix of dark green, red, blue, and yellow. The plan is to spin all the fiber that's left into a fine single and then chain ply. It should come out approximately fingering weight, but because I don't know how much fiber I started with, I have no idea what kind of yardage I'll end up with. I imagine it'll be enough for a pair of socks or a small shawl at the very least.
In the meantime, just as I'm trying to reduce my stash, some new fiber has arrived. My May shipment from the Crown Mountain Farms fiber club came in yesterday's mail. This is Jacob top in a colorway called Season of the Witch (yes, I have had the song stuck in my head since I opened the package):
I'm excited to spin this because I've never spun Jacob before. It's on the scratchier side (I would not make this into something to wear next to my neck!), but it has a good body to it and should make a fairly bouncy yarn, I think.
Tuesday, April 24, 2012
Positive Outlook
Things are looking good on the sweater front, and barring any unforeseen emergencies or complications, I should be able to finish it this week. I seamed the shoulders and picked up for the collar on Sunday evening and then got through the short row portion last night. Tonight or tomorrow I'm hoping to finish the collar off, and then all that will remain is seaming, which should be able to be accomplished in an evening.
I think I am going to cheat and wait to block until after I've seamed; usually I block the pieces first to make seaming easier, but it'll be more complicated with this sweater because the front and back are already attached, so I think I'll just suck it up and deal with some curling edges. I would normally block the whole thing again anyhow, so I'm only saving a little bit of time and effort by skipping that one step.
I'm really amazed by how well my yarn supply has held out given that I only had a little more in the way of yardage than the pattern specified. Clearly the yarn requirements were a bit inflated, which I really like -- always better to have too much yarn than not enough. Once the sweater is done, it looks like I'll only have used about five of my seven skeins.
It seems rather apropos that I will finish the sweater this week given that it's been unseasonably cool -- cold, even. We were under a winter weather advisory yesterday and were supposed to get snow, although it seems to have skipped the city (we just got rain) and landed mainly in the higher elevations. In any case, I may not need the sweater once it's done, but it'll certainly be cool enough that I won't be sweltering when it comes time to take a modeled shot of it!
I think I am going to cheat and wait to block until after I've seamed; usually I block the pieces first to make seaming easier, but it'll be more complicated with this sweater because the front and back are already attached, so I think I'll just suck it up and deal with some curling edges. I would normally block the whole thing again anyhow, so I'm only saving a little bit of time and effort by skipping that one step.
I'm really amazed by how well my yarn supply has held out given that I only had a little more in the way of yardage than the pattern specified. Clearly the yarn requirements were a bit inflated, which I really like -- always better to have too much yarn than not enough. Once the sweater is done, it looks like I'll only have used about five of my seven skeins.
It seems rather apropos that I will finish the sweater this week given that it's been unseasonably cool -- cold, even. We were under a winter weather advisory yesterday and were supposed to get snow, although it seems to have skipped the city (we just got rain) and landed mainly in the higher elevations. In any case, I may not need the sweater once it's done, but it'll certainly be cool enough that I won't be sweltering when it comes time to take a modeled shot of it!
Sunday, April 22, 2012
Sensing a Theme?
I have two spinning things to show you today, and until I sat down to start this post, I didn't realize that they kind of go together.
First is the most recent yarn off my wheel, which I finally finished nearly a year after buying the fiber. Last year at the Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival, I picked up a 4 oz. bundle of Cormo top. I started spinning a tiny amount of it on the Jenkins Turkish spindle I bought there as well but never got beyond what you see in this photo:
A couple of weeks ago, as was starting to mentally plan for a return trip to the festival, I realized I'd never finished spinning this and decided it was high time that I did so. So, in a fit of "git 'er done," I spun up a two ply as fast as I could -- and that means I was a little lackadaisical about my consistency.
You can see there are some thin sports and some thick spots, but overall it's about sportweight and around 325 yards. What it lacks in consistency it makes up for in softness -- it's divine! I haven't even begun searching for a pattern yet, but this is definitely destined to become a cowl or shawlette -- something to wrap around my neck (that is, if Rainbow doesn't steal it because it's her favorite color!).
Meanwhile, I finally got my Lendrum out again this weekend; I'd moved it up to the stash room when we were having our bedroom painted back in, oh, December, and it'd been neglected there ever since. But yesterday I had a special spinning class at my LYS and my first love had to come with me. I was learning how to spin these:
The class was a lot of fun. As it turns out, they aren't that difficult to spin -- the hard part is prepping the silk (you have to predraft this fiber) and getting it not to stick to you and everything else. Actually, the spinning is the easiest part because all you have to do is add twist. After about an hour and a half of spinning time, I had a good layer built up on my bobbin:
Although it's almost impossible to get a perfectly consistent yarn with this type of prep, my singles are, for the most part, the diameter of thread. It also looks like I've barely made a dent in my supply, too. I'm planning to do a two-ply, but I've got to do some serious exfoliation and moisturization before I sit down for another spinning session on these!
First is the most recent yarn off my wheel, which I finally finished nearly a year after buying the fiber. Last year at the Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival, I picked up a 4 oz. bundle of Cormo top. I started spinning a tiny amount of it on the Jenkins Turkish spindle I bought there as well but never got beyond what you see in this photo:
A couple of weeks ago, as was starting to mentally plan for a return trip to the festival, I realized I'd never finished spinning this and decided it was high time that I did so. So, in a fit of "git 'er done," I spun up a two ply as fast as I could -- and that means I was a little lackadaisical about my consistency.
You can see there are some thin sports and some thick spots, but overall it's about sportweight and around 325 yards. What it lacks in consistency it makes up for in softness -- it's divine! I haven't even begun searching for a pattern yet, but this is definitely destined to become a cowl or shawlette -- something to wrap around my neck (that is, if Rainbow doesn't steal it because it's her favorite color!).
Meanwhile, I finally got my Lendrum out again this weekend; I'd moved it up to the stash room when we were having our bedroom painted back in, oh, December, and it'd been neglected there ever since. But yesterday I had a special spinning class at my LYS and my first love had to come with me. I was learning how to spin these:
 |
| Frabjous Fibers Silk Hankies |
Although it's almost impossible to get a perfectly consistent yarn with this type of prep, my singles are, for the most part, the diameter of thread. It also looks like I've barely made a dent in my supply, too. I'm planning to do a two-ply, but I've got to do some serious exfoliation and moisturization before I sit down for another spinning session on these!
Thursday, April 19, 2012
Inching Along
I am getting closer and closer to a finished handspun sweater. I completed the front over the weekend and cast on for the sleeves on Sunday (I'm doing both at once in the interest of both getting them finished faster and having two sleeves that match). Thanks to knit night with the Hurricane Knitters last night and staying up to watch the end of the Pens game, I now have sleeves that need just five more inches on them before the sleeve cap shaping starts.
I had run into a bit of trouble with the pattern instructions for the increases on the sleeves that had me scratching my head for a day or so, but I PMed the designer on Ravelry and she was super helpful. Seems it was the term "repeat" that was the cause for confusion for me -- a general theme when it comes to my not understanding something in a pattern! Fortunately, thanks to some great customer service/pattern support, I had it figured out so fast that there was no delay in my knitting time.
It may be a bit unrealistic, but I'm hoping to have this thing wrapped up by the end of the month. I really don't have that much left to do -- I have to finish the sleeves, seam the sweater, and knit the shawl collar. Provided I can put in some serious knitting time this weekend, it just might be doable.
Speaking of this weekend, my trunk show opens at my LYS tomorrow. If you're local, I hope you'll stop by sometime in the next couple of weeks to see it. All of the designs you've seen on the blog already will be featured, but there are also a couple of items in the show that you haven't seen yet that I'm prepping for a fall release.
I had run into a bit of trouble with the pattern instructions for the increases on the sleeves that had me scratching my head for a day or so, but I PMed the designer on Ravelry and she was super helpful. Seems it was the term "repeat" that was the cause for confusion for me -- a general theme when it comes to my not understanding something in a pattern! Fortunately, thanks to some great customer service/pattern support, I had it figured out so fast that there was no delay in my knitting time.
It may be a bit unrealistic, but I'm hoping to have this thing wrapped up by the end of the month. I really don't have that much left to do -- I have to finish the sleeves, seam the sweater, and knit the shawl collar. Provided I can put in some serious knitting time this weekend, it just might be doable.
Speaking of this weekend, my trunk show opens at my LYS tomorrow. If you're local, I hope you'll stop by sometime in the next couple of weeks to see it. All of the designs you've seen on the blog already will be featured, but there are also a couple of items in the show that you haven't seen yet that I'm prepping for a fall release.
Tuesday, April 17, 2012
A Study in Stripes
It took about six weeks, but it's done!
Pattern: Stripe Study Shawl by Veera Valimaki
Yarn: my handspun -- polwarth from All Spun Up in Goldfish Wearing a Tutu and Koi Pond
Needles: 32" US 3 (3.25 mm) Knit Picks fixed circs
Finished dimensions: 66.5" wide by 26" tall
Started/Completed: February 26/April 13
Mods: added almost (see below) two additional stripes to maximize my yarn usage
If you're on Ravelry with any regularity and look at the patterns that are available, chances are you've seen this pattern -- as of this writing, there are 2,275 projects logged on Ravelry. I'd had it in my favorites for some time before I finally got around to buying the pattern a couple of month ago. I knew I wanted to use these two yarns for it as soon as I finished the second skein during last year's Tour de Fleece and discovered that the two skeins had nearly identical yardage (not to mention that they both shared that beautiful goldfish color!).
The pattern is actually very simple but also very clever. It starts as a typical top-down triangle shawl, but it quickly becomes asymmetrical through the use of short rows. In essence, you work increasingly longer sections of each stripe at a time, adding more stitches each short row, until you're back at the beginning. It's quite smart, I think, and because of the way it's constructed, it's very easy to add or subtract stripes to accommodate your yarn supply. In my case, I tried to add two additional stripes (for a total of 14), but discovered that my GWAT was going to run out before I finished the full last stripe (I needed five more short rows to finish it), so I just knit to the end of the row. That means my 14th stripe is a little uneven, but frankly I don't think you can tell.
The only other mod I made was to go down three needle sizes from what was recommended in the pattern. My yarn was closer to laceweight than fingering, and I knew if I used what was called for, my shawl would be really flimsy and would probably stretch out a lot. I was worried that it might end up a little on the small size, but as you can see, it's plenty big.
You might think that after spending six weeks on this shawl I'd be sick of garter stitch, but apparently I'm not, because I bought the pattern for Color "Affliction" (as my friend Anna has named it) today. There is lots of garter stitch in my future!
Pattern: Stripe Study Shawl by Veera Valimaki
Yarn: my handspun -- polwarth from All Spun Up in Goldfish Wearing a Tutu and Koi Pond
Needles: 32" US 3 (3.25 mm) Knit Picks fixed circs
Finished dimensions: 66.5" wide by 26" tall
Started/Completed: February 26/April 13
Mods: added almost (see below) two additional stripes to maximize my yarn usage
If you're on Ravelry with any regularity and look at the patterns that are available, chances are you've seen this pattern -- as of this writing, there are 2,275 projects logged on Ravelry. I'd had it in my favorites for some time before I finally got around to buying the pattern a couple of month ago. I knew I wanted to use these two yarns for it as soon as I finished the second skein during last year's Tour de Fleece and discovered that the two skeins had nearly identical yardage (not to mention that they both shared that beautiful goldfish color!).
The pattern is actually very simple but also very clever. It starts as a typical top-down triangle shawl, but it quickly becomes asymmetrical through the use of short rows. In essence, you work increasingly longer sections of each stripe at a time, adding more stitches each short row, until you're back at the beginning. It's quite smart, I think, and because of the way it's constructed, it's very easy to add or subtract stripes to accommodate your yarn supply. In my case, I tried to add two additional stripes (for a total of 14), but discovered that my GWAT was going to run out before I finished the full last stripe (I needed five more short rows to finish it), so I just knit to the end of the row. That means my 14th stripe is a little uneven, but frankly I don't think you can tell.
The only other mod I made was to go down three needle sizes from what was recommended in the pattern. My yarn was closer to laceweight than fingering, and I knew if I used what was called for, my shawl would be really flimsy and would probably stretch out a lot. I was worried that it might end up a little on the small size, but as you can see, it's plenty big.
You might think that after spending six weeks on this shawl I'd be sick of garter stitch, but apparently I'm not, because I bought the pattern for Color "Affliction" (as my friend Anna has named it) today. There is lots of garter stitch in my future!
Sunday, April 15, 2012
For the Heck of It
One of the podcasts I listen to regularly is the SpinDoctor podcast. Sasha's 'cast is great for new and experienced spinners alike, as it's filled with great reviews as well as discussions of her own spinning. So when she announced that she was hosting a spinalong of art yarns to go along with Jacey Boggs' book Spin Art, I thought I'd spin along for a bit.
Normally, I'm not that into art yarns; I can appreciate how interesting and pretty they can be, but I've never spun any myself because I don't know what I'd knit with such yarns (not that I end up knitting that much of the yarn I spin anyway!). There were a few yarns in the book that I wanted to try however. The first was a cabled yarn, which I did last month with a Crown Mountain Farms club shipment. Another was a corespun yarn, which is the most recent thing off my wheel:
The core was a bit of fiber leftover from last year's sweater project; I spun it, with lots of extra twist, in the direction I normally ply so that I could do the wrapping in the direction I normally spin my singles. For a corespun yarn, you hold the fiber perpendicular to the core so that it can literally wrap around the core. This means that some twist is introduced as the core is wound on, so you need more twist than usual in the core so that the yarn is balanced in the end. For the wrap, I dug deep into my stash and found some colonial wool top from Paradise Fibers that I bought for practice (and evidently never used) when I first got my Lendrum four years ago.
This skein is about 111 yards and pretty wildly inconsistent -- not surprising, given how awkward the process felt the whole time -- but it's pretty well balanced and fairly soft, so I'm pretty happy with it. I still, however, have no idea what to do with this yarn! I didn't love corespinning, but I suspect that's mainly because it felt so awkward; it's hard to love something that's hard. I'd be willing to give it another try -- eventually. For now, I am spinning up the rest of this colonial top into my usual yarn (I started with 8 oz., so this'll make a good dent in my stash).
Normally, I'm not that into art yarns; I can appreciate how interesting and pretty they can be, but I've never spun any myself because I don't know what I'd knit with such yarns (not that I end up knitting that much of the yarn I spin anyway!). There were a few yarns in the book that I wanted to try however. The first was a cabled yarn, which I did last month with a Crown Mountain Farms club shipment. Another was a corespun yarn, which is the most recent thing off my wheel:
The core was a bit of fiber leftover from last year's sweater project; I spun it, with lots of extra twist, in the direction I normally ply so that I could do the wrapping in the direction I normally spin my singles. For a corespun yarn, you hold the fiber perpendicular to the core so that it can literally wrap around the core. This means that some twist is introduced as the core is wound on, so you need more twist than usual in the core so that the yarn is balanced in the end. For the wrap, I dug deep into my stash and found some colonial wool top from Paradise Fibers that I bought for practice (and evidently never used) when I first got my Lendrum four years ago.
This skein is about 111 yards and pretty wildly inconsistent -- not surprising, given how awkward the process felt the whole time -- but it's pretty well balanced and fairly soft, so I'm pretty happy with it. I still, however, have no idea what to do with this yarn! I didn't love corespinning, but I suspect that's mainly because it felt so awkward; it's hard to love something that's hard. I'd be willing to give it another try -- eventually. For now, I am spinning up the rest of this colonial top into my usual yarn (I started with 8 oz., so this'll make a good dent in my stash).
Thursday, April 12, 2012
An End in Sight
Thanks to those of you who chimed in on the decision of what to do with the edging on my Stripe Study Shawl. I have decided to knit to 4 inches or as much as I can by Friday night, whichever comes first, so that I can weave in the ends and block it in time to show it off at my LYS on Saturday for their annual Show Us Your Shawl event. As of last night, I had 3 inches done, so I think that's a reasonable expectation. It looks like I will use up most of the yarn, too, so I won't have to worry about what to do with a lot of leftovers.
In the meantime, look! I finished a blanket!
This is my Gothic Leaves Baby Blanket, knit exactly as specified in the pattern with Cascade 220 Superwash in a cheerful lime green color. If you recall, I gave away the original earlier this year as a baby gift, so I needed to whip up another for my trunk show at my LYS later this month. This was a very fast knit (started one weekend and finished the next) and fairly mindless except when I apparently stopped paying attention and forgot yarnovers only to put them in the wrong places, resulting in a couple instances of required tinking. Despite the amount of time I've spent with this pattern, I still enjoyed it, and I especially love how easy it was to block -- I took advantage of the yarn's tendency to stretch and just smoothed it out on my drying racks. While this is going into the sample pile for now, it'll be good to have on hand should I need a baby gift in a hurry.
I've also given my I Heart Aran sweater a bit of attention this week; one front is now complete and the other side is partially done. I'm still amazed by how well my yarn supply is holding out -- I haven't even gone through three skeins yet! Assuming the shawl is off the needles by tomorrow night, the sweater will get my full attention this weekend.
In the meantime, look! I finished a blanket!
This is my Gothic Leaves Baby Blanket, knit exactly as specified in the pattern with Cascade 220 Superwash in a cheerful lime green color. If you recall, I gave away the original earlier this year as a baby gift, so I needed to whip up another for my trunk show at my LYS later this month. This was a very fast knit (started one weekend and finished the next) and fairly mindless except when I apparently stopped paying attention and forgot yarnovers only to put them in the wrong places, resulting in a couple instances of required tinking. Despite the amount of time I've spent with this pattern, I still enjoyed it, and I especially love how easy it was to block -- I took advantage of the yarn's tendency to stretch and just smoothed it out on my drying racks. While this is going into the sample pile for now, it'll be good to have on hand should I need a baby gift in a hurry.
I've also given my I Heart Aran sweater a bit of attention this week; one front is now complete and the other side is partially done. I'm still amazed by how well my yarn supply is holding out -- I haven't even gone through three skeins yet! Assuming the shawl is off the needles by tomorrow night, the sweater will get my full attention this weekend.
Tuesday, April 10, 2012
This Is the Shawl That Never Ends ...
I have just about reached my limit on my Stripe Study Shawl. I'm a little more than 2 inches into the border (after working on it for nearly a week and a half) and my progress is moving along at a snail's pace. The rows are so long now that I can only get about two done during my lunch break. The thing also has overgrown its project bag and has been relocated to a gallon-sized ziploc bag.
As you can see, there's still a good amount of yarn left, and I could conceivably knit until I run out of yarn. The question is whether I want to. I spread the shawl out after taking this photo, and it appears to be pretty big. Some gentle encouragement in blocking will make it bigger.
So, dear readers, what do you think? Should I knit the requisite 4 inches and call it a day? End the misery now? Or bite the bullet and use up the yarn?
As you can see, there's still a good amount of yarn left, and I could conceivably knit until I run out of yarn. The question is whether I want to. I spread the shawl out after taking this photo, and it appears to be pretty big. Some gentle encouragement in blocking will make it bigger.
So, dear readers, what do you think? Should I knit the requisite 4 inches and call it a day? End the misery now? Or bite the bullet and use up the yarn?
Sunday, April 08, 2012
Leftovers Spinning
Maryland Sheep and Wool is now less than a month away, and I'm planning on buying some more fiber to spin there (mostly in the form of a fleece), so I thought it would be a good idea to finish spinning what I bought at the festival last year before I acquire anything additional. For nearly a year, I'd had a bundle of Cormo top shoved in the back of my closet; I'd started spinning it at the festival on the Jenkins Turkish spindle I bought the same day but never made much headway. This week I put it on the wheel.
It's a little hard to tell from the picture, but this is some pretty uneven yarn. Cormo is a very fine wool, so it gets neppy and felty easily. I thought the fiber was a real steal at $4/ounce, and I'm seeing that you get what you pay for. The prep on this fiber wasn't great, meaning it was difficult to get a really consistent yarn, but it wasn't horrible either. I decided to go with the flow and enjoy the experience as much as I could. The color is great and it's very soft, so the finish yarn should be nice. I finished up the second bobbin this afternoon while Rainbow was napping and will ply later this week.
While the singles are resting on the bobbins, I decided to challenge myself and spin an art yarn. I had a small amount (probably less than an ounce) of fiber leftover from my sweater spin last year that I knew I was never going to use for anything really because it was so rough. I hate to waste fiber, though, so I figured it would be perfect for the core of a corespun yarn. I spun the singles up quickly last week with lots of extra twist, and this afternoon I started "plying" with some Colonial wool top I've had for probably as long as I've been spinning.
Apologies for the dark photo -- using the flash was the only way to get the camera to focus and really show the yarn! This is definitely a spinning technique that's outside my comfort zone, but I'm enjoying it!
It's a little hard to tell from the picture, but this is some pretty uneven yarn. Cormo is a very fine wool, so it gets neppy and felty easily. I thought the fiber was a real steal at $4/ounce, and I'm seeing that you get what you pay for. The prep on this fiber wasn't great, meaning it was difficult to get a really consistent yarn, but it wasn't horrible either. I decided to go with the flow and enjoy the experience as much as I could. The color is great and it's very soft, so the finish yarn should be nice. I finished up the second bobbin this afternoon while Rainbow was napping and will ply later this week.
While the singles are resting on the bobbins, I decided to challenge myself and spin an art yarn. I had a small amount (probably less than an ounce) of fiber leftover from my sweater spin last year that I knew I was never going to use for anything really because it was so rough. I hate to waste fiber, though, so I figured it would be perfect for the core of a corespun yarn. I spun the singles up quickly last week with lots of extra twist, and this afternoon I started "plying" with some Colonial wool top I've had for probably as long as I've been spinning.
Apologies for the dark photo -- using the flash was the only way to get the camera to focus and really show the yarn! This is definitely a spinning technique that's outside my comfort zone, but I'm enjoying it!
Thursday, April 05, 2012
A Replacement
Although I'd really like to finish up my handspun sweater (and my shawl, which needs at least three more inches of border), I've been spending the past week mainly focusing on knitting a Gothic Leaves Baby Blanket for my collection of samples. My LYS is hosting a trunk show of my designs later this month, and as I'd given away the original some time ago, I needed to knit up a replacement!
I'm using the same yarn (Cascade 220 Superwash) that I used for the original, but this time around I chose a bright springy green. I'm into the seventh repeat and am hoping to have this wrapped up and blocked this weekend.
I am still working on the shawl, primarily during my lunch break, though I got in about four rows today while I was home with Rainbow. It's gotten to be a struggle to get it to fit in my Stitched by Sasha project bag, so it needs to get finished soon!
Finally, a bit of housekeeping. You may have noticed that the pattern images are gone from the sidebar. There's now a tab at the top (it's marked Patterns) where you can see all my original patterns. I'll add to the list as more come out and I may put a photo or two up in the sidebar from time to time, but I felt that all those images were starting to clutter things up. If you have strong opinions about them being there, they can always be put back!
I'm using the same yarn (Cascade 220 Superwash) that I used for the original, but this time around I chose a bright springy green. I'm into the seventh repeat and am hoping to have this wrapped up and blocked this weekend.
I am still working on the shawl, primarily during my lunch break, though I got in about four rows today while I was home with Rainbow. It's gotten to be a struggle to get it to fit in my Stitched by Sasha project bag, so it needs to get finished soon!
Finally, a bit of housekeeping. You may have noticed that the pattern images are gone from the sidebar. There's now a tab at the top (it's marked Patterns) where you can see all my original patterns. I'll add to the list as more come out and I may put a photo or two up in the sidebar from time to time, but I felt that all those images were starting to clutter things up. If you have strong opinions about them being there, they can always be put back!
Tuesday, April 03, 2012
Minor Adjustment
The opinions in the comments of my last post on my Stripe Study Shawl seemed to be pretty unanimous, so I plowed ahead and started a 14th stripe. Unfortunately, because the rows were getting so long, my yarn supply did not hold out. I was hoping to just eke out that last stripe, but I got to the point where I had five rows left to finish the stripe and only a small ball of the yarn (smaller than a golf ball) remaining. I decided to just knit to the end from where I was when I realized this rather than risk running out somewhere in the middle, so I have a last stripe that's a bit thin on one end. I'm hoping it's not too obvious.
.JPG)
So now I've started the border, which I may or may not make wider than the pattern specifies. I have plenty of yarn to do it, but the rows are also now 400+ stitches, so it takes a good 10-15 minutes to finish just one row. I'm not sure I have the stamina to keep going past the specified 4 inches, but we shall see!
.JPG)
So now I've started the border, which I may or may not make wider than the pattern specifies. I have plenty of yarn to do it, but the rows are also now 400+ stitches, so it takes a good 10-15 minutes to finish just one row. I'm not sure I have the stamina to keep going past the specified 4 inches, but we shall see!
Sunday, April 01, 2012
More Poof, Fewer Yards
The latest yarn off my wheel is the February 2012 shipment from the Crown Mountain Farms fiber club, 4 oz. of Debouillet roving in a colorway called Trinity. Here was the fiber:
I decided to do a traditional three ply fingering weight (usually my "default" yarn) with this, so I split the roving into three roughly equal sections and spun up each of them. It was not, I am sorry to say, an entirely enjoyable spin. I encountered a fair number of neps and bits of VM, so I was stopping frequently to pull them out. This isn't what you want to deal with when you want to get into the rhythm of spinning and just relax.
In spite of the frustrations, I got the yarn I wanted, for the most part. There are a few thick spots where I encountered a neppy or felty bit of fiber, but overall it is fingering weight.
The color in these photos is really not at all accurate -- in real life, it's much more of a pinky orange, almost like what you might see in rainbow sherbet.
The yarn did fluff up considerably in the finishing process, which I was happy about -- it's now a lot more light and airy. But that fluffing up did come at the cost of some yardage, so I have only about 318 yards in this skein. That's probably not enough to make myself a pair of socks, but that's probably for the best -- I don't think this fiber would make great socks anyway.
I decided to do a traditional three ply fingering weight (usually my "default" yarn) with this, so I split the roving into three roughly equal sections and spun up each of them. It was not, I am sorry to say, an entirely enjoyable spin. I encountered a fair number of neps and bits of VM, so I was stopping frequently to pull them out. This isn't what you want to deal with when you want to get into the rhythm of spinning and just relax.
In spite of the frustrations, I got the yarn I wanted, for the most part. There are a few thick spots where I encountered a neppy or felty bit of fiber, but overall it is fingering weight.
The color in these photos is really not at all accurate -- in real life, it's much more of a pinky orange, almost like what you might see in rainbow sherbet.
The yarn did fluff up considerably in the finishing process, which I was happy about -- it's now a lot more light and airy. But that fluffing up did come at the cost of some yardage, so I have only about 318 yards in this skein. That's probably not enough to make myself a pair of socks, but that's probably for the best -- I don't think this fiber would make great socks anyway.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)