Porpoise Knits

A finished present, only 6 months after the fact

2012-01-26T21:03:00.000Z

My lovely mother-in-law turned 70 last August, and as a present I gave her the choice of any knitted item she might like. After a bit of hemming and hawing, she said she wanted a sweater. Off I went to Ravelry to search for a pattern. After a bit of back and forth, she settled on a lovely pattern from Artesano Yarns. And now, several months later, it's all done.

Pattern: Rachel by Ros Wilson
Yarn: Bartlettyarns Fisherman 2-ply in midnight, just under 5 skeins for the 43" size
Needles: US 10/6.0 mm
Gauge: 15 stitches/20 rows per 4 inches
Start/finish: 4 November 2011 - 23 January 2012
Comments and modifications: Of course I changed things up - it's what I do after all. Can't leave well enough alone...

First off - the arms. The sweater is knit from one cuff to the other, casting on stitches for the body when you get there. The pattern calls for some seriously belled sleeves, but Mermaid wanted normally shaped sleeves, so I did a bit of math and off I went. Not a terribly difficult change, all in all, but I did have to take some careful notes to make sure the arms matched (since they were knit 2 months apart!). The only other change that I made in this version was to work a slightly deeper collar, to match the cuff detail.

However...the pattern, as written, is quite compressed, and I found what I interpreted as a number of errors. Nothing too egregious - mostly around the shoulder shaping and the number of rows that needed to be worked to get both sides to match. And a couple of instances where it seemed like an extra row was thrown in that would mean working things on the wrong side. It's entirely possible that it was operator error, so take that critique with a grain of salt. It's hard to complain with a free pattern after all.

If I made this sweater again (which I'm considering - it's nice and cozy), the only additional mods I would make are as follows: make the body a bit shorter - it's quite long in this version. Might be my gauge at issue, but when I tried it on, it came down way past my hips. I'd prefer it a bit shorter. I'd also change the hem. This has a double thickness hem around the bottom which I'm not a real fan of. I'd add a few of the same ridges that are around the sleeve cuffs and neck to make it a bit more cohesive.

The overwhelming upside of this project was the glorious yarn I used. Bartlettyarns are one of the last mule-spun yarns made. This results in a rustic, nubbly, almost-handspun feel that was a pleasure to work with. And as I was seaming up the finished item, I noticed an interesting thing about the yarn after blocking.

See that? The strand on the left is the unwashed yarn I used for seaming, the one on the right is the end of my blocked swatch. There's a bit of difference, no? I love how much the yarn poofs up after finishing, and I'm really glad I washed my swatch before I checked the gauge and cast on. Imagine the disaster otherwise!

So Mermaid: the sweater is finished. It needs one more bath to even out the seaming, and then it can be on it's way to you. It might go via the Far East though, depending on how organized I get. Hope you can wait! But I'll need some better pictures once it makes it to its new home, ok?

Can't blog, too busy knitting

2012-01-20T16:17:00.002Z

My plan was to celebrate the end of this week with a finished sweater for my mother-in-law. Instead I'm pulling together a care package to send to a knitter/spinner friend whose house caught on fire this week. She's not sure if she's going to have any stash left, so I'm pulling out things from my stash left, right and center to send to her. And doing a couple little things for her wee ones as well. So the sweater, lacking only one seam to be a FO, will have to wait a little bit longer. I think Mermaid will be ok with that...

Weaving projects 2 and 3

2012-01-18T19:48:00.000Z

After my initial foray into the wonderful world of weaving, I quickly warped up the loom again, started weaving and then...took a two week break. Last Thursday I climbed back on the horse so to speak, and finished up Scarf #2 before moving on to Scarf #3 - handspun variation.

Here's Number 2:

The yarn is Knit Picks Stroll Tonal in Blue Violet - I bought two skeins of this a couple of years ago for a pair of knee socks, but never got around to knitting the socks. Now it's been transformed into a wide scarf that I Love. I wear it every chance I get. I'm so pleased with it, even though my selvedges are still not what one might hope for - they've improved though!

Emboldened by finishing off one project, I promptly warped the loom for Dev's handspun scarf (she'd been asking about it). That was Sunday. Yesterday, thanks to some concentrated time with John Luther and a couple of animated features, I managed to finish, wash and trim this little beastie.

Warp is handspun Shetland in the colorway "Happy Dance" from Hello Yarn. Weft is some pale blue fingering weight 2-ply recycled from a Goodwill sweater bought long ago in a galaxy far, far away. I was dubious about the weft color (I managed to talk her down from Bright Electric Blue), but I like it in the finished project.

And what's more important, Dev likes it. She was anxious for it to dry so she could wear it to her first Big Girl School Visit this morning (aka "assessment"), which went swimmingly.

I think maybe I'll warp Boo's scarf tonight...this weaving thing is addicting!

Christmas spinning

2012-01-13T19:23:00.000Z

The loom did not come as any sort of surprise, and I was so excited by the mere prospect of weaving that three days before Christmas I had the girls pick out some fiber from the stash that I could spin up for scarves for them.

Dev chose some Hello Yarn Shetland fiber that I got from my 4 Oz Challenge prize in 2010, in the colorway "Happy Dance". It ended up like this:

212 yds/4 oz, 10-14 wpi. I spun this using a point-of-contract draw (i.e. using the twist to pull fibers out from the drafting zone). I ended up with something very squooshy and soft and lovely. After I spun this up I got a bit concerned that it wouldn't hold up to being warp, so I did a little research on how to spin strong warp yarns, which I applied to Boo's scarf yarn.

Boo chose HY Merino in "Overfond".

256 yds/4 oz, 8-10 wpi. I spun this worsted (inchworm drafting), with lots of twist, and I'm much more confident in its ability to hold up to weaving strain.

At that point, I was so hopped up on the spinning-for-weaving idea that I jumped into 100 grams of wool/silk blend that I got in a trip down to Guilford to George Weil.

95 yds/100 grams. Very smooth and dense and gorgeously shiny. I can't wait to weave this up! But I need to do some stash diving to find the right weft yarn for it. Hmmm...

I've also been working on the River Run Pullover again, now that I've got a firm, final, finish-or-be-damned! deadline on it (aka Himself's birthday). I spent yesterday on the couch, recovering from my wicked plague, and working one repeat of the sleeve.

Ooof. I'm not sure it will ever be done!

Hooray!

2012-01-11T16:42:00.001Z

Found: one knitting mojo

Please note: 95% of what you see there was knit between Christmas and New Year's - I'm just showing it off because I actually added some rows today. It's a fingering weight version of the Penobscot Bay Shawl using Misti Alpaca sock, and it's luscious!

Diagnosed: one case of flu morphing into a never ending series of colds. Now on antibiotics and feeling infinitely better. Phew!

In fact, I'm feeling so much better that I photographed approximately a year's worth of fiber club that had been neglected. I feel so much more organized, despite the fact that it looks like a herd of sheep exploded inside a dye factory in my guestroom right now. Oh well.

Nothing to see here

2012-01-09T13:44:00.000Z

I am currently experiencing something that I don't have a lot of experience with - I have no desire to knit.

Last week I got sick (yet again) and since then my knitting mojo has fled. I just don't have any motivation (or spare concentration) to donate towards the knitting thangs. Instead I'm lying on the couch blogging, with "American Chopper" on the TV, the dog chewing on his rawhide on the rug, and wishing I didn't feel like my lungs were going to erupt out of my throat every time I inhale. WebMD informs me that I probably have viral pneumonia (hooray!) which I believe about as much as I do the idea that Bram Stoker covered up the real existence of vampires. Here's hoping that I've got more knitting mojo by the end of the week!

Retrospective

2012-01-06T14:23:00.002Z

There was quite a bit of crafting over the course of 2011, along many different lines and in many new directions. I've gone into many details already, so I thought I'd just offer up this as a visual record.

I didn't quite get through my goal of 11 sweaters and 11 pairs of socks in 2011, but that's ok. Clearly the world is not going to end if I don't live up to my knitting goals, right? I'm pleased that I knit sweaters for myself and my loved ones. I'm pleased that I spun up some lovely yarns, and I can't wait to knit them up. I'm thrilled that I learned some new skills (thank you Judith!), and that I managed to knit three pairs of handspun socks (now only Ironman is lacking in that department). I'm thrilled to bits with the designs that I've managed to put out this year - two sweaters, one pair of socks (for Sock Madness - I've still got to get the general release pattern out the door!), a scarf and some mittens (finally finishing up the Southwark Collection - got to get that ebook out the door as well!). I spun more during the 2011 Tour de Fleece then in 2010. I started dyeing fiber for the general public (ohmygodwhathaveIgottenmyselfinto?). It's been a really good year on the craft front.

So what's ahead for 2012? I'm not convinced I want to do the whole list of resolutions this time around. I think a sweater and a pair of socks a month is a bit beyond my capabilities, to be fair. But there are some things I would like to accomplish:

Dye my little head off and get Porpoise Fur really up and running. I've got ideas for colorways and patterns for certain colorways and so on and so on. Now I've got to get going on the reality.

I've got at least four more design ideas ready to be knit up, and I want to get going on those ASAP. It's a bit tough, since three of them are for summer weather, and it's 45 degrees with 40 mph winds in London today. Makes it tough to think about tank tops, to be honest...

Get rid of my stash yarn that I'm seriously never, ever going to use. There's a lot of it. My Ravelry stash (which sadly, does not include everything) is at 53,286 yds of yarn. Holy fuck...that's...that's...that is waaaay to much yarn for one person to have lying around. To be fair, I may have included in that total some stuff that's been used up, but still. OK, Real Goal #1 for 2012: update Rav stash to be totally accurate and keep it that way. And list a bunch of stuff for sale - good God woman!

I think I'm going to stop there. The grim reality of that amount of yarn is more then a little bit disturbing. I need to go lie down for a bit...

And please, someone out there tell me that's not that bad?

Down the rabbit hole

2012-01-04T14:34:00.001Z

Otherwise known as the slippery slope. Or perhaps that road paved with good intentions.

Wait a minute - let me back up. Happy New Year everyone! I hope everyone had a fantastic winter holiday season. We took the family to Prague for a few days (gorgeous! new mitten inspiration!), and I celebrated New Year's by being sick for the fourth time in about 6 weeks. Yee haw! But it's been a fun couple of weeks since the last you heard from. But back to my new obsession...

Every year, Himself asks me what I want for Christmas (or my birthday) - my answer is typically a shrug and "I don't need anything" (damn Puritan heritage tells through every time...). And this year was no different, except that after a couple of days, the same thing kept popping in to my head: a rigid heddle loom. Partly this is motivated by a burning desire to get rid of the massive amount of yarn that I have lying around, and the other motivation is the recent inheritance by Himself and my brother-in-law of a very large, heirloom floor loom that belonged to their great grandfather. So...I did some research, sent Himself an email with the appropriate webpage linked, and a suspicious package arrived and appeared under the tree.

Well, come Christmas morning, I opened it up, got all the bits and bobs sorted out, grabbed some yarn and off I went.

Details:
Loom - 25 inch Schacht Flip rigid heddle loom
Yarn - leftover Cascade 220 for the warp (light blue) and some of my first handspun Corriedale (~87 yds) for the warp.

I just warped with as much yarn as I had, aiming for about a 36 inch long warp. Then I wove for a while until I ran out of warp.

Things I have learned: whoa. Whole new vocabulary to learn. I remember this from when I started spinning as well, but it takes a while to get up to speed. I've watched a lot of You Tube videos this time around, which has been really helpful. The warping bit was pretty straightforward, but the weaving is not quite so easy. My selvedges suck big time, but I've been assured by a number of handspun weaving experts that they'll get better with time.

I ended up with this wee scarf-like thingie, that has been washed and is now lying abandoned in a corner. Because the new toy is now warped with 8 feet worth of purple sock yarn that I am busily weaving into a longer scarf-like thingie. There's nothing quite so satisfying as dispensing with 400+ yds of yarn in an afternoon's worth of play time!

Happy Boxing Day!

2011-12-26T11:08:00.000Z

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year, from me to you.

And from Gimli too.

Did you get some lovely yarn for Christmas? Maybe about 400 yds worth? Here's a project for you, if you need one...

A free pattern for the Penobscot Bay Shawl, modeled by mi madre. I used some gorgeous angora-wool blend DK weight yarn from Scotland, but it will work with any yarn weight, in any number of colors (including just one color - I'm starting that one today!). More details are on the pattern Ravelry page.

download now

Happy Boxing Day to all!

Looking back...hahahahahahahahaha!

2011-12-23T10:35:00.000Z

So I went back and checked my overly optimistic list of goals for the year a few days ago, and that maniacal laughter you heard is what came out of my mouth when I contemplated a) the number of days left in 2011, and 2) the state of the list.

Ehem. Here's what I mean:

1. Eleven pairs of socks - well, I've managed nine pairs. Which is pretty good. Two of those pairs are Christmas presents, three pairs were handspun (which feels a bit like cheating since they're thicker yarn). That will have to do for 2011's sock output. Sadly, I'm not sure my supply of sock yarn has diminished in the slightest.

2. Eleven sweaters, including:
3. Pas de Valse - hahahahahahaha!
4. Handspun Vine Yoke Cardigan - hee hee hee hee hee!
5. Rollneck sweater for Devil - done
6. a handspun River Run Pullover - ~~yarn spun, dyed and sweater started~~ I steeked and knit the neck band this past week, although it took me four tries to get the neckband going the right way. I have also steeked and started the first arm, but yarn supplies are getting low. New goal date for finishing: 10 March 2012.

I did end up with eight finished sweater/vest objects. Including four of my own design (to be fair, three of them are the same sweater with a few variations)(beyond different sizes that is!), one handspun, and one for me. I've also got a pile of handspun yarn begging to be turned in to a sweater and at least one vest in the near future.

7. Spin more during the 2011 Tour de Fleece then I did in 2010 (39.4 oz) - 51.3 oz, 2425 yds, check!

8. Get my first full fleece (figuring out what to do with it is 2012's project) - Weeeeeeeeelll...I have discovered that getting a raw fleece in the UK is not quite so simple as pulling up to the local Sheep and Wool Festival* and throwing down some cash. I'm afraid this one might have to be tabled until we return Stateside.

9. Design a shawl - it's done, and the pattern is written, but I need to weave in the ends/block/photograph the darn thing. Thankfully, it's a freebie pattern, and I'm not getting it test knitted (it is dead easy), so I'm hoping to get that out by the end of the year. I've got delusions of a handspun shawl design too...it has been a bit of a design-filled autumn, though: I've released three patterns in the last couple of months, and have a looming sock pattern that needs to go out the door. And there's one more being tested, and a raft of summery patterns waiting to get out the door. Oy! I'm having fun though...

10. Submit a design to Knitty - submitted to Knitty, got rejected. Submitted to Knitcircus, got rejected, submitted to a book editor, got accepted. Heh heh heh heh... More details on that when it becomes possible - knitting the sample for the book is January's project.

11. Design a spinning/knitting project for Ennea Collective. Eh. Didn't happen. I got busy starting a fiber-dyeing business. But I have grand plans for 2012 (see number 9)...

* My spinning group is going "Whaaaaat local Sheep and Wool Festival?????" I know, I know...

Gherkin Mittens

2011-12-21T20:32:00.000Z

I'm very pleased to be able to say that the fourth (and final) pattern in my London-inspired collection is now available.

The Gherkin Mittens are inspired by the Gherkin, a rather ~~phallic~~ odd building in the Financial District. While it's not in the London Bridge area where I used to work, it is extremely visible from there (as well as many other parts of London). I've been enthralled by its lines since I first saw it, and I'm thrilled to bits with these mittens.

Worked in bulky weight wool, these are super quick to knit up, so if you need a last minute Christmas gift, these are for you! I knit the large size for the prototype, and used about 220 yds of bulky yarn over the course of a couple of evenings.

The pattern includes both charts and written stitch directions, plus a cute picture of the wee small dog serving as a prop. Something like this:

Gherkin Mittens, $5.00

God willing and the crick don't rise, I'm hoping to release all four patterns as a mini-e book before the end of the year. Stay tuned!

Ooops!

2011-12-17T15:06:00.000Z

Meant to blog about this yesterday.

A handspun sweater for Devil, finally photographed
Pattern: Tappan Zee by Amy King, from Knitty
Yarn: handspun Targhee from Hello Yarn, coloway Sprout, about sport weight
Needles: US 4/3.75 mm
Gauge: 6.5 sts/inch
Start/finish: 10 October - 28 November 2011
Modifications: the pattern calls for a heavier weight yarn so I had to do some finagling with the numbers. I knit a swatch (gasp!), got my stitch and row gauge, and plugged some numbers into a spreadsheet to figure out which size to follow from the pattern to get something that would fit her. From that point on it was pretty straightforward knitting from the pattern.

I did work buttonholes all the way down, as requested, and omitted the diamond detail at the bottom. I've got some yarn leftover, so I'm hoping to be able to lengthen it as necessary as she grows.

For the sleeves, I knit straight for about three inches, then decreased two stitches every inch down to about 7 inches at the cuffs, which are finished with a garter stitch band to match the neck and hem. Buttons are yellow hedgehogs found in a shop in York as we were wandering about in the fog.

This is the third time I've knit this pattern, and it's still fun to do. Now I just need to work up one for Boo, and we'll have a matching set in the house. So far the sweater seems to be a huge success. At least it's getting worn a lot! Most gratifying when that happens.

Borough Market Scarf

2011-12-14T18:49:00.000Z

This pattern is the third of four in a collection, but it's the most recent design, and easily the fastest from idea to completion.

Worked lengthwise, the scarf starts with a long cast on. Then the lace border is knit, after which the scarf is shaped into a gentle curve using short rows in the stockinette section. It can be worn as a narrow shawlette or wrapped a couple times around the neck for extra warmth.

The pattern includes both written and charted directions, at a gauge of 18 sts/24 rows per 4 inches. Worked in worsted weight yarn (approximately 430 yards/395 meters), this scarf works up really quickly - my prototype took me three evenings worth of knitting - so it's perfect if you need a last minute gift for the holidays.

I borrowed a technique from Cat Bordhi for hiding the wraps in the stockinette short rows, and the pattern includes a photo tutorial to aid you in the process.

Many thanks to Lotz, tlpearce82 and lazylibran in the Ravelry Free Pattern Testers group for speedy and careful test knitting.

Borough Market Scarf
$5.00

There is still knitting for Christmas

2011-12-12T13:55:00.000Z

It's just that it's stuff I've been knitting over the course of the year. There are a couple of pairs of socks in the gift pile, and a scarf that I made a long time ago but don't ever wear, so it might as well go to a good home. And there's this sweater,

which is only slightly past this stage (shoulders are bound off), but desperately needs a steeking and a neck band ASAP. Like, tonight. Otherwise it's going to turn in to a birthday present three months from now.

I've managed a vest (no pictures yet), and a hat that needs a lining. There's a hat/mittens combo in the works for Devil (one mitten totally done, second mitten outside done (they are lined!), and a hat cast on), but I'm not sure I have enough yarn for them all.

Then there's the things I want to be working on, i.e. spinning up some new fibers to see if I want to carry them in the shop, starting to dye January's fibers, sewing the girls new nightgowns for Christmas Eve. And the things I have to work on, i.e. cooking, cleaning my house for the influx of personages on Thursday and Friday, setting up some things for the girls and I to do because OMG school ends tomorrow at noon. Oh yes, and photographing and getting out not one, not two, but three patterns that are more or less done except for decent pictures.

It's a crazy time of year, that's for sure. Thank goodness there is a full mug in my hands with the chemical structure of caffeine imprinted on the inside (both literally and figuratively).

FO: Some socks

2011-12-09T18:00:00.000Z

I managed to get a few photos done yesterday.

My new handspun socks, which I adore (although I realized when taking these pictures that one is shorter then the other, so I need to go back and add a bit of length...).

Spinning this yarn was an exersise in trying to spin two skeins that would knit up into two matching socks. Ummm...actually, not so much, despite my best efforts.

That is ok, because I am madly in love with these socks. And it's finally gotten cold enough that I might actually wear them!

But it is hard to take pictures of your own legs that don't look funny.

Stats: toe up socks, size US women's 10/UK 8/EU 41 (otherwise known as porpoise-sized). I did an eye of partridge heel and calf shaping. Finished with about 3 inches of 2x2 ribbing.
Yarn: handspun Insect Wings BFL from Hello Yarn, two skeins of 255 and 254 yds, approximately DK weight. Spun as part of the Tour de Fleece 2010.
Needles: US 2/2.75 mm bamboo douple points.
Start/finish: 14 - 30 November 2011 (finished just in time for the November Sock a Month KAL)
Verdict: bliss

Photo-frustration

2011-12-07T12:24:00.000Z

It's that time of year when blogging becomes much more difficult due to the fact that I seem to find it impossible to remember to take pictures of things on the weekends when the sun is out. During the week, we end up getting home anywhere from 4:00-6:00 pm, and by then it is pitch black. And I'm no good at taking good pictures with a flash yet.

It's frustrating, because I've got two patterns that are test knit and ready to go, except for pictures. And there is now a large backlog of unblogged finished projects. Bah! For the moment, I'll have to settle for a couple of cell phone pictures of girl stuff from the weekend.

Boo in a handspun hat and Devil in a new handspun sweater

I have grand plans however, grand plans...tomorrow I am going to actually be at home during the day, and the weather is looking like maybe it will cooperate a little bit (i.e. maybe a drizzle early on, but no heavy rain. No sun either, but we'll see how that plays out). The plans involve me, a tripod, Himself's lovely fancy camera, my back porch, a confused dog, and hopefully some good pictures! Although I'm afraid Dev's sweater won't fit me...might have to pin her down for some pictures on Friday afternoon. If I'm lucky, I'll get enough photos for a really looooooooooong post on Friday to update you on all this stuff.

Something is different

2011-12-02T17:11:00.000Z

Here we are. The second day of December. And you know what I haven't done yet on this blog? (or anywhere else for that matter)

Posted my list of Christmas knitting. And to be fair, I haven't really been thinking all that much about Christmas knitting. More importantly I haven't been stressing about Christmas knitting.

Sure, there's the handspun Fair Isle sweater that I was hoping to finish by December 25th, but since I haven't gone near it in almost a month, I think it's fair to say it's not going to be done. Which is fine - it will be a March birthday present. I've got a couple pair of socks done from earlier in the year, and a vest. I'm not knitting anything for my brother since he just got a sweater. So I'm heading in to this first of the last few weekends before Christmas idly thinking about cranking out a scarf over the weekend to be sent back to the States. Maybe a non-slouchy Fartlek Hat* for Himself out of some handspun I finished in this year's Tour de Fleece.

We'll see. This is the first time in a while I haven't been in a state at the beginning of December trying to figure out exactly what needs to be done and when in order for it to get to where it needs to go in time.

It's a nice feeling, it is...

*Such a gorgeous pattern

Preview

2011-11-30T07:17:00.001Z

So...you may recall I mentioned something about starting to sell handdyed fiber to the wide world of spinning enthusiasts out there. That is all going to start tomorrow (squee!) (panic!) over here at my new shop Porpoise Fur.

Here's some photographic enticement for you...

Into the wild

2011-11-28T21:57:00.001Z

Last weekend we packed up and went off to Yorkshire, just for fun. I was very excited because, after looking at the map, it became quite apparent that we were heading into the mother lode of sheepdom. Masham, Swaledale, Wensleydale..swoon

We drove up on Friday afternoon, and Saturday morning found us out and about wandering in the Yorkshire Dales National Park, a place that has now imprinted itself on my heart because there's a sheep head in their logo.

I found out later that it's a Swaledale sheep head, to be specific. Anyway, there we were, wandering about in the hills, and guess what we found wandering around all on their lonesome?

Sheep, strangely enough. There was something very unexpected (to me) about these sheep.

They've got tails! Long, shaggy, kind of gross tails! Once I got over that excitement, I had a lovely time running down the trail, calling out to the sheep and stopping to take even more crappy mobile phone photos (I dropped my point-and-shoot digital camera a couple of weeks ago, and while it still takes pictures just fine, the display screen doesn't work, so I have no idea what I'm taking pictures of).

My family thinks I'm nuts, but thankfully, they still put up with me. The Fleece and Fiber Sourcebook identifies these babies as the famous Swaledale sheep breed, which is both yay! and boo!, because we were in Wensleydale and I wanted to see some sheep dredlocks.

Sunday dawned (and stayed!) extremely foggy, so we wandered around York, walking along the medieval city wall, disturbing Sunday services at York Minster, and checking out the Vikings at the Jorvik Viking Centre.

These would be the disturbances

Twas a fab trip, and has only instilled a desire to go back and wander the Dales until I find some more sheep. Barring that, I have some pictures of what I've been doing with all the dye and fiber that's been flying around my house of late for the next post. Don't miss the pretties!

The importance of rinsing

2011-11-25T15:55:00.000Z

Yesterday I took a break from all the knitting that is ongoing, and did a wee bit of spinning instead. I tried another new-to-me wool, some mixed English wool that Boo dyed a few months back - same color scheme as her Cheviot socks, but slightly darker colors. However...I discovered that the fiber didn't get rinsed out quite enough, because my fingers turned blue. Oops!

That's after an hour of plying this morning - last night after a couple hours of spinning the singles, my fingertips were bright blue! I gave the finished yarn a good soak, so hopefully all the other excess dye is now gone. I guess I'll know for sure when I start knitting with it.

This wool reminded me of the Cheviot in that it was not terrifically soft, but had a nice grippy feel when spinning the singles. The finished yarn reminds me a bit of the Bartlett yarn I'm using for my MIL's sweater, although not as lofty. It's a very rustic yarn. I'm thinking lined mittens for Boo, to match her socks.

In other spinning/handspun news, I've almost finished off Dev's Sprout sweater.

We went to York last weekend, and my yarn-dar did not let me down. While wandering around the city streets, we happened upon a yarn store. Dev and I went in while Himself and Boo continued on. The yarns were lovely, but nothing I needed to snatch up and take home with me. They also had a nice selection of buttons, so after much hemming and hawing, we brought home these.

Perfect buttons for my little English schoolgirl. Hopefully she'll be wearing it by next weekend.

Dragonlady

2011-11-23T13:50:00.000Z

Those of you who know me in real life (and maybe some of you who don't) may be aware that I have *ehem* a small book problem. Or rather, a large book problem. To be more specific, a large collection of what my husband lovingly* refers to as "trashy science fiction". I can trace the origins of this problem directly to two people: my father, who (perhaps by intention?) put his extensive sci-fi collection within easy reach (Thanks Dad!) and, more indirectly, my Aunt Laura.

We moved to Boston when I was seven, and there I discovered my aunt's fabulous house and her books. Oh the books. Hallways and rooms covered floor to ceiling with packed bookshelves, which she was more then happy to loan to me. It was like my own private library. And one of the first authors she introduced me to was Anne McCaffrey. She handed me "Dragonsinger" and that was it - I was hooked. I read it cover to cover, barely pausing to take a breath, and then I went out and read all the other Pern books I could find. And then the Crystal Singer series, and then The Ship Who Sang. And on, and on, and on.

In sixth grade, my very writing-centric teacher had us all write a letter to our favorite authors, and I chose her. I sent off my letter, and lo and behold, some months later, I got a reply. That she had actually written (or dictated - it was typed) and signed and sent to me. This was heady stuff for a ten year old, and I was thrilled. I wanted to have green eyes and white hair and live on a farm in Ireland and write books about dragons when I grew up.

My eyes are still blue, and my hair is going a bit grey around the edges, and I don't live on a farm - London is as close as I've managed to get to Ireland, and the books I've managed to write typically don't have dragons in them. I have spent the intervening 30-odd years since that first introduction obsessively reading and rereading Anne's fantastically accessible and thoroughly engaging books. And I still enjoy them every single time. In this season of thankfulness and celebration, I would like to say "Thank you Anne. Thank you so very much. You will be missed."

* Really. It's loving when he says this. I promise...

What happens when you knit socks out of handspun yarn?

2011-11-21T15:05:00.000Z

They go really quickly! We went to York this weekend, and I managed to finish the first sock more or less on the way up. Of course, I had to redo the ribbing because I decreased too far and it wouldn't stretch enough to fit over my (rather generous) calves. But now the first one is done and I'm halfway down the foot of the second. Win!

Hopefully by the end of the week I will have handspun thigh high socks to enjoy. Maybe even in time for Thanksgiving!

A four handknit day

2011-11-16T13:51:00.000Z

And it should have been five...

The list: socks, sweater, scarf and mittens. One handspun, one of my own designs, and four (!) different color families. The thing that's missing is the hat my mom knit me, in yet another color group.

I guess this means winter is here, hunh? Brrrrr!

bleh

2011-11-15T22:01:00.000Z

Yesterday was the first of the Grim Days of Autumn here in London: grey, cold (about 9/45 degrees), and drizzling. I had one of those mornings where nothing goes right, including getting to work forty minutes later then planned and not having anywhere to lock my bike. In the cold rain. And I had a headache and wanted to put my head down on my desk and go to sleep. Bah.

So I came home early and snuggled the dog, dug out this yarn and wound it up on the ball winder. And I cast on some socks.

Suddenly, the day was much better...

Birthday present

2011-11-11T10:54:00.000Z

Himself asked me what I wanted for my birthday, and I had no hesitation in asking for an installment of the Wildcraft Fiber and Spindle club. Now, to be fair, I ordered it and all the rest, but I probably wouldn't have done so otherwise - I suspect I have enough fiber already.

Yesterday it arrived.

A gorgeous resin spindle with a sunflower, and a cherry shaft, and a big braid of Shetland dyed in the "Last of the Sunflowers" colorway. Bliss.

If anyone is looking for a new ~~crack~~ fiber dealer, I can recommend Karen's stuff. She's got some lovely gorgeous colorways, and her own sheep! So head over and check out her site. You can thank me later.

Whiplash

2011-11-09T20:07:00.000Z

So on Monday, I was pondering as to what I could dress up as a semi-entertaining little tidbit of wooly ether to share with you. And then my brother came through in the most serious fashion with a load of gorgeous photos of him in his new sweater, and suddenly the Monday blog post was taken care of. Ok, I still had to write it, and finish the final pattern editing and get it uploaded to Ravelry, etc, etc, etc (why does that always take so much longer then I remember?).

Now it's Wednesday, and I feel like I've been running as fast as I can on all things fibery and wooly, and I'm still in the same place. I have serious startitis cravings: some folks on the Hello Yarn group are going on about a steeked-striped-handspun vest-along that I am absolutely salivating to cast on. And I've got two test knits ongoing that I'm anxiously looking to for feedback. In the meantime, there's the soaking-dyeing-cursing over-drying of fiber stuff going on, and regular life things (i.e work, school, laundry, more dishes then are really necessary in any universe). Thankfully, instead of feeling overwhelmed, I'm more or less enjoying it all, although my enthusiasm for discussion of said events is somewhat less then existant. So my apologies to those in the real world if I've been less then forthcoming about it all.

Here is the earthshattering revelation that I was going to share on Monday that is now postponed until Wednesday: I have too many sweaters in progress.

One is a vest, two are handspun, and three (of the four) need to be done by Christmas. Ehem. Thankfully, the two handspun sweaters are lacking four sleeves and a neckband. Two of the four sleeves are pretty straightforward (it's a sweater for the 6 year old), but the other two...the less said about them and their attendant neckband, the better. The vest should be pretty quick, but as of this writing, I'm ~~three~~ 9.5 inches* (out of 18) in on my way to the underarms. ~~Not exactly breaking any land speed records with that puppy. Ehem, take two.~~

Sadly, the sweater that doesn't have a firm deadline is the one that is working up the fastest, on the biggest needles. I started last week, and in three days, I had a sleeve. It's also a side-to-side construction, which I haven't done before, so that's pretty intriguing. It's the thing that I find myself gravitating towards, and it's the last thing I should be working on! Aaaargh!

Sometimes I can't even believe how knotty my problems are! /sarcasm

*Today was more productive then expected on the knitting front. On the work front however...

Harpswell Pullover

2011-11-07T21:57:00.001Z

The Harpswell Pullover pattern is now available.

This comfy pullover is designed with a crew neck, set-in sleeves and an easy-to-memorize-yet-still-interesting stitch pattern that should satisfy even the most unadventurous of male recipients. The body is worked in the round to the underarms, then split for the front and back. Sleeves are knit in the round to the sleeve cap and then worked back and forth before being seamed into the body of the sweater.

This pattern ranges in size from 36-60 inches (finished chest measurement) and requires between 1100-2100 yards of worsted weight yarn. More information can be found on the Ravelry pattern page here.

SKILLS REQUIRED

Knitting, purling, increasing and decreasing (both k2tog and ssk), knitting in the round and knitting back and forth, seaming. This pattern is suitable for an advanced beginner.

Harpswell Pullover

$7.00

Many thanks to my test knitters in the Ravelry Free Pattern Testers group, my fabulous model, he-who-must-model-for-me-because-I-knit-him-sweaters-and-he-can't-break-up-with-me (aka my brother), and the lovely JoAnna for her mad photo skills.

Wednesday and a(nother) trip to Islington

2011-11-02T18:29:00.000Z

The Thursday before we left for Houston, I trekked up to Loop in Islington for some present shopping (the Wollmeise in Monday's post). I also picked up a couple of balls of grey merino for a re-try of the Gherkin mittens that I was designing about this time last year, that stalled out. The stalling was due to 1) I wasn't happy with the way the stitch pattern was working out and the charting was making me INSANE, and 2) fingering weight yarn on US 2 needles = slow progress. So the lovely StR that was going to be these mittens is now repurposed to something else, and I'm doing them in a much heavier yarn*. Not surprisingly, they are going much faster this time around!

First finished mitten on top of the book I just finished (it's brilliant and made me cry)

In any event, after my shopping spree (which also included a couple skeins of Cascade 220 for the 4th London-inspired pattern...), I decided to walk back towards Waterloo and set off down the road in a somewhat southerly direction. It was raining a little bit, so I went along under my somewhat tattered cheap umbrella, watching the buses and taxis go by, through a part of London I'd never been through before, just generally enjoying being able to wander about on my own. I finally found the river, after passing Fleet St. and St. Paul's, had lunch and took the train home. It was lovely.

And in striking contrast to the following week in Houston, where walking a few miles on a whim just isn't an option. It's something I'd managed to forget about (largely), since my childhood in Boston certainly involved much walking/public transportation/getting myself places using things other then a motor ve-hicle. I was the last of my high school friends to get my driver's license, partly because they could drive me around, but also because it wasn't really necessary. I realize that the presence of accessible public transportation is something of an anomaly in US cities, and that seems truly unfortunate.

Today I "had" to go back to Loop, because two balls of the merino was not enough. Thankfully they still had some of the same dyelot left, so the mitten prototype should be done tonight. I also perused the Angel antique market (gorgeous buttons!) and then I took the bus to work - along another new route that I hadn't traveled before, enjoying yet another part of this amazing place where I am lucky enough to live.

* And I have new charting software that makes it all so much easier...

Back in Space City and a commission

2011-10-31T20:36:00.001Z

A week and a half ago I got to resume (for one brief evening) my Thursday knit night. We went back to Houston for a week long holiday*, and I got to visit with the girls over beef and vino. It was a lovely evening, only bringing back to me how much I miss the people in Houston** - there was much good conversation. And good steak. And wine... And then there was some yarn.

I did take orders before I left London, but only one of them took me up on it. I brought this:

Some lovely green Wollmeise in Pesto and an incredibly soft skein of orange alpaca-wool goodness. In return, she gave me this:

and said, in a tone that brooked no argument, "You need to design something with the StR. Because I have another skein in the same color and I want to make something out of it."

Ummm...yes ma'am! *salutes*

Over the course of the evening, we came up with a plan for the yarn that goes something like this:

a long scarf thing, not a triangular shawl
some lace is good
but no more then a couple of charts please
we'll all wear them to Rhinebeck next year

Because Rhinebeck (aka the NY Sheep and Wool ~~Orgy~~ Festival had been the previous weekend. None of us went. None of us have ever gone. It seems like a good thing to do. And if we make plans this far in advance, it's a bit more likely it might even happen.

So...October 2012...we'll be reuniting in upper New York state to ogle the foliage, eat some appropriate fair food, fondle some wool and generally have a weekend to ourselves. Anyone else in?

* Just long enough for everyone to get adjusted to the time only to turn around and come back!
** Houston itself? Not so much...

This week's to-do list

2011-10-24T21:13:00.001+01:00

1) Order approximately 10 lbs of undyed fiber
2) Hit up a wine supply place for citric acid
3) File with Her Majesty's Customs and Revenue Service so I don't get in trouble with the po-po
4) Harass my property manager into fixing the electricity in the part of the house where I plan to do this silly dyeing thing
5) Release a pattern (dependent on a) my brother having received the darn thing and b) my getting some photos of him doing his best ANTM imitation).

However, before I get too overwhelmed by that list, I can pat myself on the back for having knit a hat today. Out of this lovely yarn, which is a potential colorway for the store.

Candy Cane yarn, appropriate for the upcoming holiday season I think. The very cute hat (for Boo, but it fits me too!) is currently blocking, so I'll try to get an FO picture later this week.

We have managed to return from our half-term trip to Houston where we roasted in ludicrous October weather, saw lots of good friends, ate some really exquisite steak, and scored some yarny goodies, in both knitted and unknitted forms. Well, technically I scored the yarny goodies, cause the rest of the family isn't so keen on the yarn stuff. Philistines...

FF: Boo's 'andspun socks

2011-10-21T21:59:00.000+01:00

Yarn: handspun Cheviot (some details here), approximately DK weight
Needles: US 5/3.75 mm
Start/finish: 6 Oct - 9 Oct 2011 (hooray for large gauge and small feet!)
Comments: a totally plain vanilla sock, toe up, with gusset and heel flap a la Cat Bordhi, with 1x1 ribbing at the top. I knit the first sock until I had used up 48 gr of the 100 gr I started with - I am less stressed out with handspun yarn and socks if I leave a couple of grams leeway for the second sock, since weight is not always an accurate reflection of yardage (particularly the way I spin).

I continue to be a huge fan of Cheviot. Not only was it fun to spin, and the yarn felt softer then the combed top, but the knitted up socks are soft and cushy and springy and just about perfect.

Boo is very pleased with them. I finished them Sunday morning and she promptly put them on to go for a walk in the Surrey Hills. They are a bit big, so she should be able to wear them for at least this winter. Now it's actually cooling down so that thick, cozy wool socks sound pretty good instead of overwhelming. Hooray for autumn!

Travel knitting again

2011-10-16T21:58:00.000+01:00

While I was packing on Friday, I kept thinking of the knitting things I wanted to work on, and try out, and oh maybe I should bring that just in case. By the end of this internal dialogue and random collecting of yarn and needles and patterns, I had a pile of stuff larger then the pile of clothes I was bringing. Ehem. This is what happens when I pack for a trip and Himself isn't around to quell my hoarding impulses.

So I took a biiiiiiiig step back and realized that I really am looking at three major knitting times - two plane rides and knit night on Thursday with the ladeez (which, to be fair, is likely to involve lots of wine and food, and not so much on the knitting). So I whittled the pile down to:

1) the handspun Sprout Tappan Zee for the elder child-demon*
2) a hank of Cascade 220 Heathers and a bunch of charts from BW's books to try out some swatches for a new design

That was it, until I 3) tossed in a couple of balls of grey DK weight superwash merino to try for the Gherkin mittens that should have been released in pattern form almost a year ago...still, three projects isn't so bad, is it?

* so designated because, after arriving at our home for the week at 8:30 pm local time/2:30 am our time, she decided that 2:30 am local time was time to be awake. I managed to keep them corralled with a combination of threats, sheer force and DVDs on my laptop until almost 6:30, but I'm still considering child-icide.

A week in sweaters, part III

2011-10-14T12:25:00.001+01:00

Subtitle: The Unfinished.

One of my goals for the past week while Himself has been away was to finish the body of the River Run Pullover. I'm happy to say that I reached that fantastic point last night:

There it is, complete with front and back neck steeks. I started the three needle bind off at the shoulders, but it was 10:30, my silly movie was done, and I needed to go to bed early. I'll finish the bind offs tonight, then put it away while we go back to H-town. The plan is to do the neck ribbing next (~~just in case~~ so when I have to spin and dye more, it will be in the sleeves), then get going on the sleeves. I'm hoping for a 23 December finish for this (so it has time to be blocked and dried).

I also had a bit of startitis this week and did this:

Started a Tappan Zee for Devil out of the handspun I did earlier this summer. The yarn is quite a bit lighter then that called for in the pattern, but I managed to pull together a nifty little spread sheet that converted the numbers in the original pattern to actual measurements using my new gauge - turns out that instead of re-jiggering the whole thing with new numbers, I can knit the second size and have it fit her perfectly.

I am beyond obsessed with how this is turning out. I can't manage to get a good picture of the really bright greens in this yarn - it's electric! - but I am enjoying the knitting immensely.

So, we're off for half-term tomorrow. I am busily planning my travel knitting list which includes this sweater, some long neglected mittens I should have finished and published last winter, and a new design idea involving orange worsted weight yarn and short-row shaped scarves. Hmmm...

A week in sweaters, part II

2011-10-12T13:55:00.001+01:00

I am so grateful that my kids are still small enough that I can work up a sweater for them in about a week. From the front,

and the back.

Pattern: my own, using the same stitch pattern as in this sweater, but with YOs instead of M1s
Yarn: random worsted weight yarn bought many years ago in Florence, originally grey but we dyed it with fuschia and ended up with purple.
Needles: US 6/4.0 mm
Start/finish: 29 September - 7 October 2011 (that's when it was wearable, not knitting finished)

The story: so I've got this men's sweater pattern that's being test knitted, and one of the testers noted that it would be easy to make it girly by substituting yarn overs for the make ones in the stitch pattern (that syntax would only make sense to other knitters, wouldn't it?). I was intrigued by the idea, but not enthralled to work up another adult sized garment trying it out. Boo had laid claim to this yarn for a sweater for her, so I whipped this up relatively quickly.

The sweater is knit in one piece to the underarm, then split for fronts and back. Sleeves were knit separately and sewn in, the neckband was picked up and knit, and then the button bands. I've had these buttons for ages and they were just the perfect match.

And Boo was a most agreeable little model, although I can't quite manage to get behind the purple lace sweater over pink with white polka dots. So be it.

A week in sweaters, part I

2011-10-10T12:14:00.000+01:00

Last week was a big finishing up things week for me. To whit:

Pattern: Dahlia Cardigan by Heather Zoppetti, Interweave Knits Fall 2011
Yarn: Elspeth Lavold Silky Wool (the old version), 65% wool/35% silk, don't know how many skeins, but I'll weigh it and find out
Needles: US 4/3.5 mm
Start/finish: 13 August - 5 October 2011
Comments/modifications: The moment I saw this cardigan, I knew I had to make it. I loved the flowy style, the back panel, the three quarter length sleeves. I even had yarn in stash. So I cast on just before we left for our trip back to the States in August.

I was a bit worried that I would knit the lace panel and then stall out on the stockinette sections. There was a bit of that going on, but it actually made for excellent TV knitting - I had to pay attention enough to get the borders right, but it was mindless after that.

The modifications: well, surprise, surprise, I didn't use the yarn called for in the pattern. Silky Wool (my favorite yarn ever) is listed as a DK weight, but is kind of a light DK, so it worked perfectly for the sportweight yarn recommended by the pattern. The silk gives it a nice nubbly, slightly crunchy texture that I really like knitting with, and it drapes beautifully once it's blocked.

I also used Judy's Magic Cast On instead of the crochet chain provisional cast on (which I despise)(I despise it because I always screw it up and end up having to unpick it stitch by stitch. Always). My lace panel ended up slightly bigger then called for in the pattern, so I adjusted the amount of knitting needed to get to the armholes accordingly. That being said, if I were to do it all over again, I might make the back slightly wider - the afterthought armholes/sleeves mean there isn't any shaping at the shoulders, and it pulled the tiniest bit when I first wore it. Thankfully, it's stretched out a bit now, so it's fine.

No idea why this photo is so washed out/overly bright

I like it with the fronts open and closed - I think it's going to be a very versatile item. I finished it last week in time for Ally Pally, and was very gratified to have someone ask me about it. Hooray for a new fall sweater! And there will be more to come this week. Bwahahahahaha!

Current 2011 sweater tally: Four. Uh oh...I must be forgetting something...

Truant

2011-10-07T10:20:00.001+01:00

This week somehow totally got away from me, but it has been productive. This hasn't, of course, helped with the backlog of as-yet-unblogged projects, but there you have it. Sometimes life gets in the way of the whole blogging thing and that's just how it is.

Yesterday, I played hookey and took myself off to North London to Ally Pally, aka Alexandra Palace, the home of the Knitting and Stitching Show. I hadn't realized the show was coming up until my spinning group on Tuesday night, and the more I thought about it, the more I wanted to go. The girls had an after school club yesterday, so I took them to school and marched myself off to the train.

On the one hand, it was the kind of event where you pay for the priviledge of going in and spending more money on stuff that really, do you even need? But, in addition to loads of booths of stuff to buy, there were the most incredible displays - tapestries, textile artists, design students' final projects, various guilds displaying samples...It was just such an amazing variety of the things people do with fiber in all its myriad incarnations.

There were beads, miles and miles of beads...

There were clothes, of various degrees of wearability,

and yarn, lots of yarn (this is just one example).

Have paid my £14 to get in, I wasn't too interested in spending a lot more. I spent most of my time wandering around just looking and taking in all the colors. But I got sucked in by a new-to-me local magazine (to which I now have a subscription),

a gorgeous orange sketchbook,

and a cone of mohair boucle to use in some core spinning, which I've been dying to try for a while now. I managed to make it out without getting a new sewing machine (though it was very tempting), or with any yarn. I was on a mission to find some DK weight, dark grey-slatey blue handdyed yarn, but by far the vast majority of the yarns available were sock and lace weight. Bah! Any UK-based indie dyers up for producing some heavier weight gorgeousness? Please?!!!!

FF: Lincoln Socks

2011-09-30T14:31:00.000+01:00

I am feeling a bit like the unblogged projects are piling up and I don't really know where to start. There's so much going on at the moment that blogging is taking a bit of a back seat, so I'm going to try and get some things posted just to keep them straight in my own head.

This is a terrifically craptastic nighttime picture of Dev's new handspun socks, made out of Lincoln that I dyed. Since Lincoln is a longwool, and I didn't want the yarn to feel like twine, I spun the singles at 7.25:1 and then chain plied at 6.5:1 - I'm hoping the length and strength of the fiber will keep these from wearing out too soon.

Pattern is a simple toe-up, short-row heel, worked in k3, p1 rib. I changed to k2, p2 ribbing at the cuff. And I managed to get them on to her feet for an even worse modeled shot.

Given that it has been extraordinarily warm here recently (they're calling for 28 degrees over the weekend - bliss!) (Also: WTF end of September? This is July weather. Of course, in July we had October weather, so maybe it's all evening out), these babies are destined for the back of the sock drawer for quite a while. Thankfully they're a bit loose, so she shouldn't grow out of them before December.

I hope...

Sweater updates

2011-09-28T17:05:00.001+01:00

I've been moving along in the sweater-production phase pretty steadily recently. Exhibit 1:

A finished almost-for-Dad-sweater, which needs to be photographed, packed up, and sent off to the US so I can get my brother to do a photo shoot for me ASAP. I'm hoping to have the pattern available by the middle or end of October. A vest version will follow shortly thereafter.

Exhibit 2:

~~Progress being made on sleeve #2 of my Dahlia cardigan~~ A finished Dahlia cardigan being blocked. I had to cannibalize my failed Aleita Shell for the second sleeve, but ~~I'm hoping to have it done by the end of the month~~ it's actually almost done! Left to do: sew up the seams on the back and decide whether or not to make the front panels a bit longer.

Exhibit 3:

115 yards of dark grey Falklands, for the River Run pullover. This was the one color I messed up on in the dyeing process, by dyeing about half the yardage I actually needed (in my defense, I think that's a boo boo in the yardage requirements in the pattern, but whatever). I spun up another skein pretty quickly, but it took a few days to get the color close enough to work. It's not the same, but there's so much going on in the colorwork, that I'm hoping it will be good enough. But I'm about halfway up the armholes, so I'm feeling like it's moving along. By the end of the current repeat, I should be able to put in the neck steek. And then I'll be almost done with the body!

It's definitely turning into sweater-knitting weather here (even despite todays 25 plus degrees - WTF September?). I'm already itching to get the next batch on the needles. There's some handspun that needs to be knit up for the girls, and I'm having fits about doing Pas de Valse in overdyed alpaca again, so I might actually have to get going on that. And then there's this to deal with - anybody have any good handspun sweater suggestions?

Disaster!

2011-09-26T13:58:00.000+01:00

My lovely, lovely Aquaphobia socks, knit out of the only skein of Hill Country Yarns I will probably ever own, took an ill-advised trip through the washing machine last week.

Now they will fit Devil (in a year or so), and I have a new system for dealing with handknitted items that need to be washed (also known as hoarding them in a bag under my bed so that this Never. Happens. Again). And instead of Mummy having some nice socks, and Devil getting a new pair of handspun socks this month, she gets two pairs. Grrrr...

Rainbow Icelandic singles

2011-09-23T23:13:00.000+01:00

From the gradient fiber I posted earlier this week, I ended up with this:

163 yds of singles (out of ~3.5 oz). I spun these at a low ratio (7.5:1) so that I didn't end up with wire instead of yarn. I hadn't spun Icelandic before, and it wasn't the smoothest experience. I think this top had both fiber types (tog and thel, which is the outer and under coats respectively), so the staple length wasn't consistent. I kept getting points where the shorter undercoat made clumps and slubs in the singles. It was a bit of a frustrating experience, but the finished yarn is pretty nice anyway.

I couldn't resist, so today, after I took the finished skeins pictures, I balled it up,

these colors are pretty true to life

and cast on for EZ's Pi shawl.

I'm working the increase rows as invisible increases and doing yo, k2tog whenever the color shifts in the yarn. It's not going to be very big, but maybe the girls can use it for a stuffed animal or something.

Oooo...pretty colors!

2011-09-20T16:54:00.000+01:00

I've been messing around with the dyes recently, and having a grand time trying to figure it all out. I've been doing mostly semi-solid or tonal colorways, like these two.

Both of these are a combo of two different colors, added in various proportions. The purple dye in one broke a bit, adding some more variation to the batch. Both of these are on Targhee.

I've also tried out a gradient rainbow colorway, which was really fun to do.

This is on Icelandic fiber, which has since been spun up as a fingering weight singles yarn. I think it's going to become an EZ Pi shawl.

I'm going to redo the purple and see if I can't get it a bit less variegated. Thankfully I've got lots of undyed fiber lying around to play with!

Imaginary post

2011-09-14T11:31:00.000+01:00

Warning: picture-overloaded post ahead

I was absolutely convinced that I'd started a post about my finished Sour Fig yarn, but Blogger says no. I'll just have to blame my aging Mommy brain for that little mental hiccup. So this post will be a finished yarn and a finished object all in one!

First up: the yarn. As previously described, I took my spindle on our trip back to the US, and after a horrible injury and fabulous repair, I whizzed through 4 oz of Sour Fig Shetland from Adrian.

That's it in the lower right corner - sadly I have no photo of the original fiber, but there's a bunch here.

It took me about four days to spin up the six singles and do the 2-plies. This included spinning in the car, and spinning at every available second during the day. I was determined to ply in one go, so I ended up with a very full spindle, to say the least.

When it was all wound off and soaked and thwacked and dried, I had 56 yds of super bulky yarn with a very interesting texture.

The next problem was to figure out something to make out of it - 56 yds is not very much, but I thought I could maybe get a cowl or a hat out of it. I went for the one willow cowl by Jennifer Casa, and 3 hours later I had a finished object.

The pattern is a simple 1x1 twisted rib cowl, where you knit through the back loop but purl normally. I kept going until I ran out of yarn, which meant I had to tink back several rows so I could cast off successfully. But there it is - instant gratification knitwear, and it's thick enough to ward off some serious winter weather.

Which means it will probably go in to the gift box. Because no matter what my office mates say, London winters are so not bad. But there's one Christmas item done!

Who's sweater exactly?

2011-09-12T20:05:00.000+01:00

Finally, at long last, I have finished (the knitting on) my Dad's birthday sweater. However, not only is this not the original birthday sweater, it's also not going to go to Dad.

After my shocking realization that knitting a sweater for my father includes working four feet of sleeves, not including sleeve caps, and the fact that it was a bit closer fitting then I had envisioned, I had to repurpose the whole thing. 'Cause with 1.5 sleeves and an entire body done, there's no way I was going to either trash the thing or rip it back and redo it.

So now it's going to my brother, who only has 21 inches of arm to cover. And who has promised me a photoshoot once he gets it. The plan is to hit publish and go sew in the sleeves. Blocking will commence at 21:00 hours, plus or minus a bit, and it should get into the mail by the end of the week. Hooray for a September sweater!

Spinning new wools

2011-09-09T14:32:00.000+01:00

Right, it's Friday, which must mean it's time for some fiber, right? We've successfully arrived back in the UK, and have had a lovely week getting over jet lag and getting back to the Real Life (TM) schedule. I now have not one, but two English schoolgirls, who are pretty thrilled to be back in academia.

I've spun two yarns in the 6 days we've been back (hooray for the wheel!), both of which are destined to be turned in to socks for the school girls. I ordered a bunch of different wools that I've never spun before we left, and have been happily working my way through dyeing and spinning them. First up is for Devil - some Lincoln Longwool dyed in blues.

This was dyed to give a specific stripe pattern, so I split it in half and spun each half separately, then chain plied. Since Lincoln is a longwool, and I tend to overspin, I spun and plied at much lower ratios then I usually do, hoping to avoid ending up with wire (spun at 6:1, plied at 7.5:1). The fiber was fairly slippery, surprisingly so, and it took a bit for me to figure out the right amount of twist to keep the single together without overspinning. I ended up with 114 yds of bulky chain ply, which I'll knit up into some quick, cosy socks for her. It's not terribly tightly plied, but I'm hoping a small needle size and the durability of the fiber itself means they won't wear out by Christmas.

The second yarn is for Boo Boo, dyed by herself:

Cheviot fiber, spun/plied at 12:1, 2-ply.

I spun this one as a quick wheel fix right after we got home. I think I did the entire 100 gr in a day and a half. I've never spun Cheviot before, but I now consider myself a huge fan. It's not a soft as some fibers, but it has such a great toothy feel while spinning - it would be great for sturdy mittens or outerwear sweaters. Plied up, it's a lot softer then I was expecting from feeling it in top form. I'm not terribly sensitive to wool prickle, but I'm not sure I could wear a Cheviot sweater without a layer underneath, but that may just be this batch. I plied fairly tightly for durability, and I think these socks will be a huge hit.

There they are, all balled up and ready to go. Time to bust out the bigger needles and get started!

Birthday presents

2011-08-30T22:11:00.000+01:00

One for me, one for my MIL (in progress):

One LYS down, one to go!

Spindling again

2011-08-28T21:32:00.000+01:00

I brought my Golding spindle and some Hello Yarn Shetland (in "Sour Figs") with me for vacation, with the idea of doing a bit of real handspinning while we were away. When we got to the airport, I opened my bag to discover that the spindle had broken. Disaster! The whorl cracked across in two separate places, and came completely detached from the shaft. Things were not looking good in Porpoise-ville.

However, it just so happens that Tom and Diane Golding live a mile from my mother-in-law in Vermont. So I called them up, went by with my broken spindle, and hoped that Tom could work his magic and fix it. Lo and behold, two days, some wood glue and a rebalance later, my spindle is back and better then ever!

Since Friday, I've spun up 5/6ths of my Sour Figs. I've got one more single to spin, a two-ply to do, and then I'll get to the cabling portion of the program. I can't wait to see how the yarn comes out! People keep asking me what I'm going to do make with it, and I have no idea. A six-ply cable is a serious time investment, and I have no idea if I'm going to have any real amount of yardage. But I'm hoping for a hat or a cowl-worth of yarn. And at the rate I'm going, I need a trip to Amy to get some more fiber before we leave!

FF: The last of the worsted spinning experiments

2011-08-26T18:22:00.000+01:00

Fiber: Hello Yarn Fiber Club merino, in "Patchwork"
Spun/plied: 17:1/15:1, short forward draw, aiming for speed.
Stats: 179 yds/4 oz, approximately worsted weight.
Comments: I split the top in half, then stripped each half into four long pieces and spun each half on to one bobbin. I was trying to spin this quickly, so I used a high ratio to get the twist into the fiber fast. I also tried to spin a slightly thicker single then my default, so the final yarn would be a heavier weight. I'm pretty pleased with how it came out though, and I think this skein is destined for Boo legwarmers.

From start to finish, the spinning took 3:36, so I rounded it up to 4 hrs with finishing. So that gives a starting price of £40 for spinning, plus £15 for the fiber itself, which ends up at £0.31 per yard. £55 seems like an awful lot for one skein of yarn though, so I might split this in half. It's still within the range I've found online though, so we'll see. This certainly isn't going to make me rich however! I also need to try some woolen spinning and see if that makes a dramatic difference in the amount of time this takes, or the yardage. That, however, will have to wait until September.

The dangers of having tall relatives

2011-08-22T18:03:00.000+01:00

I was hoping, in some very out-of-touch and theoretical way, to finish a sweater before we left for the States. Then I was hoping to get a lot done on the plane (seeing as how I strategically seated myself away from the rest of my family...), and managed to get through most of the increases on sleeve #2.

That was all well and good. And since I got to see the intended recipient, I decided it might be wise to measure his arms and make sure that I'd made the sleeves long enough.

Well. That was a mistake...

I'd knit sleeve #1 to be 18.5 inches long at the underarm, the totally reasonable length suggested by my lovely sweater design software.

My Dad's arms require sleeves that are at least 23 inches long.

Um.

What kind of genetic mutant (no offense Dad!) has arms almost two feet long? It's not like I'm knitting a sweater for Larry Bird, right? Or Michael Phelps?

Suffice to say that my lovely father, having now waited five months for his birthday sweater, is going to have to wait a bit longer. I've got enough yarn, but the last skein is, predictably enough, on top of my washing machine in London. Bah! It's going to be nice though, once it's done...

FF: 3-plies, as far as the eye can see

2011-08-19T21:25:00.000+01:00

The second experiment in my exploration of selling handspun yarn came in the form of two Spunky Eclectic tops I'd been eyeing for a while, and was inspired by my friend Caro, the Queen of the Three Ply.

Fiber: on the left, SE Panda (60% superwash merino/30% bamboo/10% nylon) in "Blue Moon", on the right, SE superwash merino in "Emerald Isle", both purchased on my first visit to Amy's bricks and mortar store in August of 2009.

Spun/plied: 15:1/12:1 and 15:1/15:1 respectively, both spun worsted, with a short forward draw. I prepped each top by splitting it into three equal lengths, and then stripping each piece into 6 sections. I spun each length on to one bobbin and then 3-plied.

Stats: 241 yds and 144 yds respectively (might have to double check that second measurement). Approximately DK weight on both.

Now for the experiment part. I spun up the Panda willy nilly, and loved every minute of it. The finished yarn is smooth and drapey and I desparately want more so I can make a tank top out of this stuff. The bamboo gives it a lovely shine.

When I pulled out the other superwash merino, I decided to keep track of how long it took me to spin it up.

Not counting prep time, it took me four hours to spin the yarn. I finished it by soaking in warm wat, spinning out the extra water in the washing machine and hanging to dry. So, this skein (if actually 144 yds) works out at £55 (including cost of fiber), which is £0.38/yd. Which falls into the range I've found. So now I've just got to see what the cost is for a 2 ply, and I should have my bases covered. Although if I spun woolen, it might end up being a bit faster...

Travelling

2011-08-16T18:22:00.000+01:00

Tomorrow we hop on a plane and head westward for a couple of weeks, so today I have been dealing with the age-old question of which projects to bring. This is a serious consideration - you want to bring a good number and variety of projects so that you don't get bored, but also don't run out of things to do. Running out of knitting might resort to a panic-driven yarn buying spree the likes of which Himself could not forgive! So, I've spent some time thinking about what to bring with me. And here's the pile:

Not actually all the bad, given the circumstances. There's the self-designed sweater that needs only a sleeve to be finished (and the pattern needs to go out to testers by Friday, but that's a different problem). This is the key project for tomorrow's7.5 hr flight, and I'm hoping to land in Boston with a mostly finished sleeve.

There's the August socks, which are lagging woefully behind. I was making good progress, but had to rip everything out and start on smaller needles to get something that might vaguely fit my foot. However, that means they're now being knit on US 0/2.0 mm needles. Metal needles. I know they're technically allowed, but given that my last trip with metal pointy sticks resulted in my being held up at security for a while, I think these will be going in the hold instead.

Third up is my guilty project: the Dahlia Cardigan from the latest issue of Interweave Knits. I couldn't help casting on this weekend, but I've finished the interesting bit (the lace panel on the back). I predict that this one is going to languish now that I've hit the stockinette stage, but maybe it will be good car knitting. This one is also on metal needles, so it will get packed in the checked bags. Hopefully TSA is a bit more understanding/less paranoid about metal needles then the Brits, so I can work on it on the way home.

Lastly, I've packed a spinning project: My oldest remaining Hello Yarn Fiber Club stash, from June 2009. This is Shetland in the colorway "Sour Fig". And my trusty Golding spindle. I haven't tried a spindling project on a trip before, and I'm looking forward to it. I think I'm going to try a 6 strand cable with this fiber - three 2-ply yarns plied together. Means I need to split up the fiber by weight before we leave though. Another item for this evening's list.

I'm looking forward to some quality family time, both with the girls and Himself, as well as with various (grand)parents, brothers/sisters (aunts/uncles) and friends. Happy August!

Fiber Friday: more singles

2011-08-12T08:52:00.001+01:00

I mentioned a while back that I was having some issues in the day job. Those issues are not yet resolved, sadly, mostly due to the crapshoot that is the research funding roulette wheel. I've been thinking very seriously about starting some kind of fibery business venture. With that in mind, I've been playing around with different types of handspun yarn, trying to get an idea of how much time it takes me to spin up X number of yards. The first ventures have centered around singles yarns.

This is the skein of Corriedale singles I spun up during the Tour de Fleece. 1.5 hours, 227 yds. Not too bad for 90 minutes work, but my hands and wrists were pretty tired by the end of it. So I wanted to try again with a different fiber, just to see how it went.

Fiber: Hello Yarn Merino in "Harmonia"
Spun at 8.5:1, 282 yds.

The ratio was a bit high for the final yarn - I wanted to add a bit more twist then I did with the Corriedale, given the shorter staple length of the merino, but the thin bits are a bit overtwisted. It will probably come out fine in the knitting, but we'll see. I also fulled the yarn when I finished it - three shifts between hot and cold water baths until the single started sticking together. The finished yarn is nice and fluffy where it's not overtwisted.

This skein took me 2 hours to do, but my right wrist and hand were still a bit unhappy. I didn't do any predrafting with the fiber, just stripped it into sections (6 I think). I think that next time I'll do a bit more predrafting just to loosen the fiber up a bit more and make it a bit easier to spin into a single. I also might try to keep the single a bit more even next time and see if that helps the wrists.

If I were going to charge £10/hour for my labor, these skeins would end up at £30 and £35 respectively with the cost of the fiber, which works out to £0.13 and £0.12/yard. From my research, singles yarns are being priced at anywhere from £0.10-0.50/yard. That's quite a spread, with art yarns running on the higher end of that scale.What would you spend for handspun yarn? Would you rather get a full 4 oz or standardized skeins (i.e. 100 yard skeins)? Would you rather thick and thin singles, even singles or multiplied yarns? Please do leave a comment if you have any thoughts along these lines. Thanks!

A long neglected FO

2011-08-10T20:49:00.002+01:00

So, there's a number of unblogged and neglected projects lying around. Sometime in the last few months I managed to finish up one of these unloved things and got it into wearable shape.

I did blog about this project a few times last summer...I started it on June 4th of last year and finished it on August 30. And then put it on and screamed in agony. Behold, the disaster that was the Aran Necklace Camisole:

Not so bad from the front, right? But look.

Ooops! For a summer sweater, that's a bit low in the armholes I'd say. So...the above pictures were actually taken in March of this year. It ended up being an easy fix when I finally got down to it. I started by just using some matching weight yarn and mattress stitching the armholes closed a few inches, but it looked terrible. Out came the yarn, in came a needle and thread. Ta da!

Not the best look up close, but it works in the wearing.

Sorry for the craptastic photo, but I'm on Day 5 of 10 of single parenthood - my photographer is gallivanting around northern China for the week, courtesy of his employer, so I'm stuck with the self-photo.

Pattern: Aran Necklace Camisole (Rav link) by Caroline Bautista
Yarn: Jo Sharp Soho Summer DK Cotton, 6 skeins (approximately 650 yds)
Needles: US 4/3.5 mm
Start/finish: 4 June - 30 August 2010, finally finished in March 2011
Comments/mods: loved knitting the neckline section with the cabley bits, even though I seem to have messed it up a bit so that it's off center. Picking up the stitches around the neckline and then knitting down in stockinette was, um, boring. And the yarn? Let's just say I'm glad that it is out of the stash and into a sweater that I can actually wear. Cotton and I do not get along well, particularly splitty harsh-to-knit-with cotton...

Note: this does not count for my August sweater, since the knitting was finished last year. But it will go in the FO win column for the year.

I swear to Bob I'm going to finish a sweater this month

2011-08-08T12:21:00.000+01:00

Sadly, but totally unsuprisingly, I've fallen a bit behind in my quest to knit 11 sweaters this year. However, I have high hopes for the month of August!

That is the body and back, and the start of the front of a manly man sweater. That is going to be for...someone for whom I started a sweater before deciding (with some input from his spouse) that it wasn't quite his thing and I should probably give it to someone who would appreciate it fully. Like my spouse, who has been making goo goo eyes at the thing since I started it, but that's another story.

This yarn was rescued from my abandoned Hurrication vest from the fall of 2008. Intended recipient is a big fan of blue, so I overdyed the yarn with some Jacquard Acid dyes.

I've blogged before about my previous attempts to dye sweaterlots of yarn so as to avoid dye lot variability. As you can see from the above picture, it didn't work out so well this time! So I separated out the various shades of blue that I ended up with and re-dyed the seriously lighter ones. I'm knitting the sweater alternating every row or every two rows from two skeins of yarn, in hopes of minimizing any major color differences. It helps that even the darker/brighter skeins have some variability as well. I don't think you can see a difference...

I'm loving the way the stitch pattern looks. When blocked, it flattens out quite a bit, but still keeps that wavey feel. I'm hoping to finish this up in the next couple of weeks, and get the pattern out to testers by the end of this week. Look for this one to be available in early October, just in time for fall knitting!

The last of the Tour de Fleece yarns

2011-08-05T13:55:00.003+01:00

A horrible picture of a nice yarn

Fiber: merino/alpaca/camel/silk from Krafty Koala
Spun/plied: 12:1
Stats: 278 yds/4.5 oz, about sport weight
Comments: I was drawn to two things about this fiber - the blend and the dark, gloomy colors. Maybe it was the fact that it was grey and rainy and cold during Knit Nation...in any event, I was excited to spin this up, and jumped right in during the Tour de Fleece.

I split the top in half across the length and then split each half into four strips - this seems to have become my standard fiber prep these days. I used to do a lot more spinning from the full width of top from one end going straight through to the other end, but I've been trying to mix up and blend the colors in a lot of the stuff I've been spinning recently, to move away from dramatic stripey-ness. It remains to be seen if that approach has been actually successful.

Back to the fiber: I had a tough time spinning this, largely due to the difference in staple length between the various fibers. The merino and alpaca and silk were all ok, but I kept ending up with little puffs of short, fuzzy, presumably camel fibers that wouldn't stay integrated in the top. The silk was also pretty obvious in the blend and not terribly well mixed in. To be perfectly honest, I should have expected this problem ahead of time, just given the composition of the top, but I don't think I'll try a similar combination again.

I was hoping to end up with enough yardage for a Bitterroot shawl, but fell well short. The yarn is lovely and drapey and has gorgeous sheen, so maybe this should be my yarn for a little shawlette design. I can do Bitterroot with last year's TdF laceweight instead.

Blue July

2011-08-02T13:20:00.000+01:00

Well, August has suddenly arrived in full swing (it's gotten hot here, FINALLY!!!!), and I've discovered that there was quite a bit of blue in my fibery pursuits last month.

These include: some yarn I overdyed for a new men's sweater design, but ended up with some dyelot issues, a lovely pile of merino/alpaca/camel/silk fiber from Knit Nation, mohair/nylon/merino from Adrian, a finished Lacey Baktus for Dev's Year 1 teacher, my first Polwarth (from David) and two girls who finished yet another year of school. Not pictured: some lovely 3-ply SW merino/bamboo sock yarn I finished on Sunday evening, and a couple of handdyed BFL tops in navy and turquoise. I can not believe how quickly the summer has gone by so far, and there's a bit more to come before autumn!

August's colors are purple and pink. Hmmm...I think I'd better hunt through the fiber stash and find something to take to spinning tonight that falls into those categories.

Fiber Friday: TdF Yarns #4 and #6

2011-07-29T11:30:00.007+01:00

Fiber: Hello Yarn Fiber Club January 2010, "Loch", 83% mohair/15% nylon/2% merino
Spun/plied: 12:1, short forward draw
Comments: I was a bit concerned about this colorway - the combo of blue and orange has never really appealed to me, regardless of what the colorwheel says should be true. I decided to split my first 4 oz bump into two color groups and spin them seperately. Here's what the fiber looked like originally.

I broke the top apart into blue/green chunks and orange/olive chunks. Each piece was stripped into 4 lengths and I tried to mix them up as much as possible in the spinning. Here is the first batch of finished singles before plying.

I spun this with a short forward worsted draw, and the singles ended up a bit thicker then my usual default yarn - the mohair seemed a bit clumpy, more like tencel then wool I think. But really fun to spin, and so smooth and drapey - I knew the finished yarn was going to be incredible.

Originally I was going to split the second four ounces down the middle and spin for matching chain-plied stripey socks. However. Once the first two skeins came out of their spa treatment, I started thinking that I needed to do the same with the second bump. So when the cyclists hit the Alpes, I was spinning away on another orange vs. blue situation.

Hooray Tommy!

I ended up with about 220 yds of blue and 150 yds of orange, approximately DK weight. Now I just have to find the right pattern for them!

FO: June/July socks

2011-07-27T10:57:00.000+01:00

Pattern: Charade by Sandra Park
Yarn: Brooklyn Handspun Soft Strength, colorway "Persephone", from Knit Love Sock Club 2010
Needles: US 1.5/2.5 mm magic loop
Start/finish: 1 June - 15 July 2011
Comments/mods: This yarn arrived in one of my Knit Love Club shipments last year, and I wasn't sold on the yarn/pattern combination so it went into the stash. A year later, and it's become a lovely pair of socks.

This pattern is well written, with a really nice stitch pattern. The only change I made was to make the foot long enough to fit me. The socks are a bit tight around the foot, and not really my colors, so I think they're going to become a gift. If my grandmother were still around, I'd give them to her - I have fond memories of pouring over the Preppy Handbook with great fascination on our summer visits to her house, and this pink and green color combo would have been perfect for her.

I like the herringbone rib alot.

So, after two months almost, my June socks are finally done. Total pairs so far for 2011: 7, right on track. I've already cast on for August's pair - they're awfully fiddly, so I'm getting a head start.

Tour de Fleece roundup

2011-07-25T23:28:00.000+01:00

It's been a wooly few weeks.

That right there is 2425 yds of spun yarn (of varying ply numbers ranging from 1-3), totalling 51.3 oz (3.2 pounds) and 20 oz more of handdyed BFL fiber that I got distracted with somewhere along the line there (more on that later perhaps). Clockwise from the right side: 3 skeins of 3-ply Romney from Hello Yarn in "Timber" with a mini-skein of chain plied leftover singles, 1 skein of merino/alpaca/camel/silk blend from Krafty Koala that I picked up at Knit Nation and couldn't resist, 5 mini-skeins (~30 yds each) of natural colored Shetland that I spun up as bulky samples for a biiiiiig sweater coat project idea percolating in my head. Then there's a teensy skein of purple merino/Shetland blend that Judith handed out in her class at Knit Nation which I finally plied and washed. Next up: my experiment with thick and thin singles in Amy's "Twenty Ten" Corriedale. Then David's glorious Polwarth in "Cairns": one skein of 3-ply and one skein of 2-ply from the leftover singles. Finally, in the middle, 4 skeins of incredible drapey mohair/nylon/merino from Hello Yarn again. Originally one colorway ("Loch") of orange/olive/blue/green, which I split into two color groups and spun separately. The Romney is going to become a sweater for me me me, and I think Loch will be some kind of triangular shawl with some garter ridges. The rest of it is as yet un-assigned to particular projects.

Once again, the Tour de Fleece was an absolute blast. I did about 12 oz more then I managed last year (one of the goals on my List), got through one of my (at least) three sweater lots of Hello Yarn fiber, and got to spin new-to-me fibers (Polwarth, mohair blend, merino/alpaca/camel/silk). Plus I've got material for several weeks of Fiber Friday posts.

I must say that I'm not terribly motivated to start the wheel spinning again anytime soon, but...tomorrow is Tuesday, and according to Stephanie, Tuesdays are for spinning. There is some Spunky Eclectic Panda that I was wanting to get to...

Knit Nation recap

2011-07-20T20:45:00.000+01:00

I'm a bit slow off the mark here with my weekend report, but it's been a crazy week. Truly crazy, and more then a little slapdash in a number of ways. In any event...

Last weekend I was able to go to Knit Nation 2011, an extravaganza of knitting, spinning and wool fumes strong enough to knock out a shepherd. On Saturday afternoon, I took Merike Saarniit's "Spinning for Knitting" class. Although it was largely targeted at beginning spinners, there was plenty to keep me busy, including some new-to-me fibers,

From left to right: merino/silk, kid mohair, handdyed wool top, 100% bombyx silk, superwash merino, Coopworth roving in three natural colors, more handdyed wool of some kind, baby alpaca and two more wool/silk blends

and an opportunity to do a bit more spindle spinning then I normally do. I discovered that sampling on a spindle is really quick and easy, and a great way to try out a new fiber. I also found that spinning up the samples on my wheel was way too fast!

All done :-(

I stopped by the marketplace on Saturday afternoon and did a wee bit of damage. I got 500 gr of the merino/silk that Merike had samples of from John Arbon, a Devon-based wool purveyor/mill/yarn/handknit producer. And then I got a braid of fiber from Krafty Koala: a dark and gloomy (but wonderful!) merino/alpaca/camel/silk blend which has now leapt on to the wheel, pushing all Hello Yarn fiber out of the way in it's mad scrum to become yarn.

There was also a fair bit of German eye candy still around by 5:00 pm on Saturday, but I managed to refrain.

On Sunday, I headed in to Imperial for a class on spinning for Shetland Lace from the master herself, Judith Mackenzie McCuin. We were unfortunately stuck in a class in the basement, but all that was just background when she poured out piles of freshly washed but otherwise not processed Shetland fleece on to the carpet. The next three and a half hours flew by in a blur of the history of sheep domestication, specific characteristics of Shetland sheep, descriptions of life on a sheep farm in Montana, dehairing, more dehairing, throwing bits of Montana vegetation all over the floor and a bit of spinning. Here are some pictures:

Fleece!

One Shetland lock

One Shetland lock, dehaired

Detritus

Bits of Montana

We spun up a bunch of samples from our freshly prepped fleece. Starting with the outer coat, we spun a 4-ply cabled yarn that is probably strong enough to tow a truck. Next up was a worsted spun 2-ply, then a woolen spun 3-ply. Unlike most things I've read/heard over the years, Judith defined worsted and woolen spinning not primarily by fiber prep, but by drafting style - worsted spinning means no twist in the drafting triangle, while woolen spinning means the opposite. An interesting way to think about it.

She then pulled out some batts, and we experimented with blends and fine spinning, with different joins, with long draw from rolags, and so on and so on. It was an amazing day, and by the time I got home I was more or less incapable of coherent speech due to information overload.

In addition to the fiber, I came away on Sunday with a signed copy of Ysolda's book, which I am greatly enjoying. I will admit that the patterns hadn't really grabbed me terribly hard before, but having now looked through it several times, there are at least 4 that I think I could happily knit. Plus the designing info and all the stuff on fitting makes it well worth it.

So, Knit Nation 2011 gets a huge thumbs up. Sadly, there is no event planned for 2012 (damned Olympics!), but my fingers are crossed for 2013.

Fiber Friday: Tdf Yarn #3

2011-07-15T12:09:00.000+01:00

Hooray! The huge whacking pile of Romney is done!

Fiber: Hello Yarn Fiber Club September 2010 offering, "Timber" Romney
Spun/plied: 9.25:1/8.5:1, 3-ply (and chain ply for the leftovers)
Stats: 1087 yds/23.5 oz, ~10-12 wpi, ~730 ypp, about DK weight.

My first experience spinning Romney was not terribly successful - it was fun to spin, but the finished product was scratchy and not so pleasant. I suspect that spinning from the fold was the culprit, leaving all those coarser staple ends to stick out. This time around I spun worsted style, and the finished product is a win.

I had six bags of fiber, and I wanted to mix up all the colors as much as possible. I split each 4 oz piece into fourths, then strip each length into four pieces. I lined up the six bags and put a strip into each one sequentially. I won't know until I start knitting it up how well the mixing worked, but I'm pretty certain there won't be a predictable stripe sequence!

Given my prediliction to overtwist, and the tendency of coarser fibers to get wirey with too much twist, I choose to spin this on a lower ratio then I usually use, and to ply on an even lower ratio. This is the first time I've used the plying head for my Lendrum in almost 4 years, but it was perfect for this yarn (and gave me 8 oz skeins!). I tried to be sure I wasn't putting in too much plying twist especially - I wanted the yarn to be nice and loose and drapey. The first skein is perfect, but the other two might have a bit too much plying twist. I debated going back through and taking out a bit of twist, but decided to leave it for post-TdF.

I had 0.5 oz of singles left over which I chain plied - I don't know the yardage yet, as they're drying on the back porch as we speak - and I hope there's enough there for trim on something. It's kind of neat to see how the chain ply compares to the 3 ply in terms of how the colors play off each other. The 3 ply looks pretty garish up close, but from farther away (or on the spinning bobbin as I was skeining it) the colors blend really nicely.

Now I've got to decide on a sweater pattern. I'm thinking something with garter stitch because of the 3 ply, maybe Cobblestone, but I need to go do some pattern searching on Ravelry. After the Tour finishes however...there's about 12 oz to go on my list!

Day 14: 32 oz of a proposed 44 finished. I only need to do another 8 oz to beat last year's total!

TdF Yarn #2 and a Rest Day

2011-07-11T17:03:00.001+01:00

My second TdF project was/is 1.5 lbs of Romney from Hello Yarn.

So I started in on the spinning. And I spun. And spun. And spun. And all my bobbins were filling up, and it didn't really feel like I was getting anywhere. Here's a photographic rundown of multiple days of spinning:

Day 5:

Day 6:

Day 7:

By Friday I was over the Neverending Romneying. Over. It. So after I finished that third bobbin, I totally jumped ship, threw the plying maiden on the wheel, and banged out this.

1.5 hours, 227 yds/4 oz of my first attempt at thick and thin singles. The fiber is Amy's Corriedale in the "Twenty Ten" colorway (from my 4 Oz Challenge prize last fall). Fun colors, quick yarn, end product is soft and squishy. Love it.

And then it was back to the Romney, Day 9:

Today is a rest day, and so far I have: read on the porch with the girls.

Played with (and bathed) the dog.

Gone raspberry picking.

Made raspberry chocolate chip ice cream.

As yet, there has been no spinning. I suspect that won't last, as I'm on a tear to get all these singles done so I can start the neverending plying. The extra special good news is that I've cracked open the last bag of fiber, so the end is in sight!

Now I just have to decide what's going to be next...

The last day of school

2011-07-06T21:08:00.001+01:00

And the teacher gifts are finished. Blocked even. I have got to start doing this earlier next year!

Patterns: Lacy Karius, Lacy Baktus, Mezquita Shawl (from left to right)
Yarn: Malabrigo Sock in Aguas (which is mostly green), Cote d'Azure and Playa (again left to right), less then a full skein for each
Needles: US: 3/3.25 mm, US 2/2.75 mm and US 5/3.75 mm.
Start/finish: 6 June - 27 June, 5 June - 1 July, and 2 July - 4 July
Comments/mods: I started off with the middle scarf, but then thought the variegation of the yarn might look better in the stockinette version (Karius), so I started the left hand scarf and finished it first.

I worked the first and last stitch of every row in garter, hoping to keep it from curling too much, and after blocking it seemed ok. I love the drape of the yarn in stockinette at a larger gauge. I also love this colorway - I'm desperate for a sweater in this yarn, but as the rotational speed of the Earth has not yet slowed, I'm kind of out of luck for the immediate future.

When I went back to the garter stitch version (Baktus), I had more done then I remembered, so I kept on in garter stitch. And it works quite well too, although next time I think I would use a US 3/3.25 mm needle instead of the US 2/2.75 that I started with.

By scarf 3, I was tired of the Baktus/Karius deal, so I found a lovely shawl pattern with a construction similar to the pattern I used for last year's teacher gifts. I cast on with a needle 3 sizes smaller then called for, and the scarf was still going to be monstrous (and take forever!), so I cut the number of repeats almost in half - from 36 down to 20. I should have done something in the middle - maybe 27 - because this mini version is really mini. Blocked out, it sits very nicely over my shoulders, but there isn't really enough extra to wrap loosely. I'm hoping the fact that the recipient is smaller then me will help that problem.

Right, now that the pesky deadline knitting is done with, it's back to the spinning wheel! WIth assistance from my little buddy of course...

Tdf Yarn #1: SCF Cairns Polwarth

2011-07-04T16:30:00.000+01:00

Fiber: Southern Cross Fibre's Polwarth, in the Cairns colorway, 115 gr
Spun/plied: 12:1, 15:1, short forward draw (worsted)
Stats: 3-ply skein: 168 yds/3.5 oz, ~10 wpi. 2-ply skein: 49 yds/0.7 oz, ~14 wpi.

This was my maiden voyage spinning Polwarth, and I wasn't really sure what to do with it. Out came my handy dandy copy of "In Sheeps Clothing", which recommended worsted-style spinning. Okey dokey. I prepped the fiber Saturday night while the girls were having a bath: I split the entire length of top into three equal pieces by weight (40 gr, 40 gr, 39 gr). One length I left alone, one I split in half and one I split into fourths - hello fractal spinning!

Spinning on back porch while girls/dog played in sprinkler = win/win

This particular braid of fiber was also my maiden voyage into David's world, and was part of my prize pack from last year's 4 Oz Challenge event. I enjoyed every single moment of this spin, and it went by far too quickly! I managed the to finish the three bobbins by yesterday morning, and started plying last night. Finished off the plying today - I ended up with extra singles from the half-width and quarter-width bobbins, and put those into a 2-ply mini-skein.

3-ply

2-ply

I wasn't sure as to the provenance of the colorway name - living in the UK, all the cairns I've ever seen are mostly rock colored. Or covered in moss. But a quick Wikipedia glance reveals that Cairns is actually a city in Queensland that serves as a starting off point for going to the Great Barrier Reef (among other things). So the images of coral reefs and gorgeous blue and turquoise oceans that were floating through my brain while I spun this weren't far off. Well done David!

Fiber Friday returns: Devil's Sprout

2011-07-01T14:01:00.001+01:00

Fiber: Hello Yarn Fiber Club April 2011, "Sprout" Targhee
Spun/plied: 15:1, 12:1, 2-ply
Final stats: 946 yds/~8 oz, around sportweight.

I knew as soon as this fiber darkened my doorstep that it was destined for one person, and one person only:
Is there any way that could match her eyes better?

I split each 4 oz piece of top into three pieces, then stripped those down to 4 pieces each. I threw it all in a ~~bowl~~ bag (the Wee Ridiculous Dog LOVES fiber, and I had several heartbreaking instances of finding him on the floor gnawing on a large hunk of Targhee - wretched creature!) and spun the sections at random using a short forward (worsted) draw.

I was hoping to finish all the singles before RAB, but such was not to be. The day we got back from Cornwall, I started back in, and managed to finish up the plying by this past weekend. I tried to ply a little more loosely then I usually do, hoping for a less dense finished yarn. It seems to have worked out - almost a thousand yards from half a pound is pretty good!

I think Dev is pretty pleased with the result. She wants a simple crewneck cardigan out of this stuff, which I think will be gorgeous. Although the prospect of a sportweight cardigan for a 6 year old who will grow out of it nano-seconds after it is finished is a bit daunting. Thankfully Boo's eyes seem to be tending towards a similar color, so maybe she'll get some use out of it as well!

I can't wait to start. Maybe by September - there are too many projects already in the works! Like this pile o' wool:

This is my pile for the TdF (detailed notes on the Flickr page). It works out to 2.75 lbs total, which is just over last year's total (39 oz vs 44 oz). That is, provided this plan doesn't get completely thrown out the window because of a super secret handspun project(TM) that may be in the works. We'll see...but a weekend with Wimbledon and Le Tour? Bliss!

Goodby Green June

2011-06-29T13:28:00.002+01:00

1. Miss R's scarf, 2. New sweater yarn, 3. June sock in Kynance Cove, 4. Men an tol, 5. RAB tent city, 6. The Lizard, 7. Sprout prepped, 8. Sprout, 9. Canadian sock yarn, 10. Cheshire, 11. Bodmin Moor, 12. RAB map

Created with fd's Flickr Toys

The past month's Project Spectrum photos. There was not a huge amount of knitting that got done over the past 29 days, but I did manage to get Dev's new yarn finished after I returned from RAB, knit up a sock design prototype in worsted weight yarn (hooray for a 2 evening sock!), and finished off the first teacher gift. Oh yeah, and rode my bike 965 miles across Great Britain - I guess that counts for something too!

Now on to July - blue is my all-time favorite color. I've got one blue project on the needles already, which needs to be done in a week, so that will take care of that. Socks...I need to finish this month's socks first, so maybe no blue socks this month (sad day). As for spinning: the Tour de Fleece starts on Saturday, and I've got one mostly blue top and one partly blue top in the lineup. Now if I can just manage to get the girls to feed themselves for three weeks, I'll be all set!

Admitting defeat in the face of ridiculous odds

2011-06-27T18:58:00.000+01:00

Not surprisingly, after the amount of time I spent not knitting this month, my June socks are not going to be done. Sad day. In fact, as of June 21st, they looked like this:

Which is not all that different from how they looked on June 10th, on my way to John O'Groats.

Oh well, such is life. Recent knitting time has been taken up with teacher gifties - numero uno (which is actually the second one I started) will be finished tonight,

which will let me get back to numero dos, which is about one third done. I'm hoping that garter stitch goes faster then stockinette on this one. The socks will just have to wait for July, and having one sock almost done will hopefully make up for the fact that the Tour de Fleece starts (gulp) this weekend!

On hiatus

2011-06-10T20:22:00.001+01:00

I'm in the Inverness airport waiting for the bus up to John O'Groats. I have knitting, but I doubt if much will get done in the next nine days. But I'll leave you with my current progress. See you in about a week and a half!

Deadline knitting begun

2011-06-07T10:06:00.001+01:00

I've started the first school scarf of the year - this one is for Dev's Year 1 teacher. After some debate, I chose Lacy Baktus as this year's semi-mindless project. It's a great pattern, but I'm not totally sold on Malabrigo Sock in garter stitch. Or maybe its that I think the garter stitch isn't quite drapey enough for what I had in mind. In any event, the next one might have to be the stockinette version. Onward!

It's that time of year again

2011-06-04T08:55:00.001+01:00

The end of the school year, that is. Last year, I went a bit nutty and made six scarves (in about three weeks) for the girls' teachers. This year, there are only three teachers, but I still need to get on the ball here. So today I took advantage of a trip to Islington to go to Loop. Here's what I ended up with: three skeins of Malabrigo sock in Cote d'Azure and Playa for Devil's teachers, and Aguas for Boo's teacher. Yummy!

Farewell Red May

2011-06-01T20:55:00.000+01:00

There was some spinning, some knitting, some yarn hoarding and some photography. Looking forward to Green June!

FO: Bright red socks for May

2011-05-28T20:50:00.000+01:00

Pattern: Lanterne Rouge, by yours truly, part of a set of four Tour de France inspired anklets I designed a couple of years ago
Yarn: Cascade Fixation in really, really, really bright red, 1.8 skeins, approximately 180 yds total in the socks.
Needles: US 1/2.25 mm for the foot and heel, US 1.5/2.5 mm for the leg
Start/finish: 1 May - 28 May 2011
Comments/mods: As this is my own pattern, I certainly can't own up to it being anything less then stellar. However, I did modify a few things (and found a few boo boos in the pattern that I'll fix once RAB is over and done with). First off, I knit the medium size for stitch counts, but used the length measurement for the large size. I did this because I was worried that the lace pattern stretchiness might make the size large too loose around the foot.

I knit the pattern as written for the first sock, tried it on, and realized I needed some adjustments for the leg - it was impossible to get on! So I increased 4 stitches after finishing the heel flap (instead of decreasing) and switched to slightly larger needles. That did the trick.

Finally instead of making these short, ankle-length socks, I kept going until I was almost out of yarn. I really like how socks made from Fixation fit and feel, but I hate hate hate knitting with it. It hurts my hands like nothing else. Sadly, there are now several partial balls of Fixation in my stash (as well as a couple of whole ones!) that I may just have to get rid of.

So, I am absolutely thrilled that after five months of 2011, I have five finished pairs of socks to show for it. I'm a bit worried that June is going to throw a spanner into the works however, what with this silly 953 mile bike ride I seem to be doing. But I think I've come up with a possible solution: Aran weight socks.

To be fair, using aran weight yarn seems like a huge cop-out, on many different levels. But here's my rationale: for at least 10 days next month (and probably more like 12 or 13), I will be too tired from riding my (lovely new, see in first picture) bike up and down the myriad hills that make up this damned island, or too busy lying on a beach in Cornwall trying to recuperate (please don't let it rain!) to knit a single stitch. And I'm also going to design these socks myself instead of digging in to the pile of SISC bags waiting upstairs (deadline is early July). So that seems fair, doesn't it?

Maybe?

Bueller?

There's been a lot of spinning going on

2011-05-25T13:06:00.000+01:00

But it's mostly been of the non-fibery type. I.e. my butt has been on my bike quite a lot in my spare moments over the last few weeks/months. There's a good reason for this...

See that point up there at the top of the map? The one with the green arrow? That's John o'Groats, the northernmost point in mainland Scotland.

See that point at the bottom of the map? The one with the red arrow? That's Land's End, the southernmost point in England.

On June 11th, I climb on my bike and start riding at the green arrow, with hopes of making it down to the red arrow more or less in one piece by June 19th. Ooof. 953 miles, baby - that's a lot of spinning.

If you're reading this, and are inclined to assist me, I'm fundraising for ParalympicsGB for the ride. My online donation page is here, more info on ParalympicsGB (who are amazing) is here, and I'll be blogging each day of the ride here.

Thanks!

The madness goes on...

2011-05-22T22:12:00.002+01:00

This morning, my Sock Madness 5 design was released to the competitors.

Meet Argus Panoptes, shown here in Cherry Tree Hill Supersock in "Blueberry Hill". I'm hoping to release this in three sizes sometime after RAB finishes (so late June), but if you'd like to see other peoples' versions and cheer on the madness, head on over to the Sock Madness Forever group on Ravelry. Go knitters, go!

FF: Shaking Leaves

2011-05-20T14:12:00.000+01:00

My resolution to make Tuesdays a spinning day/night seems to be working, for behold: my second finished yarn in the last month!

Fiber: Hello Yarn Fiber Club January 2011 offering, "Shaking Leaves" Finn top
Spun/plied: 9.25:1/7.5:1, chain plied
Final stats: 10-14 wpi (worsted/aran weight), 275 yds/~4 oz (~1100 ypp).

I love these colors (which are a bit greener then they're showing up on my monitor) - they remind me of the beach in Charmouth on the Jurassic Coast. I decided to spin this fiber up for a Baktus scarf (or a scarf with a similar construction), so I wanted to spin it in a way that would generate stripes of more-or-less the same width as the scarf was knit from end to end. I split the entire length of top in half, then split one half again, and spun it up as follows: 1/4 width, 1/2 width, 1/4 width. Then I chain plied the singles to keep the striping.

I've noticed of late that my spinning output seems to have shifted towards a lighter, loftier, less dense yarn, and this was no exception. I spun the singles with a short forward draw at 9.25:1, and chain plied at 7.5:1, trying not to overply. And I managed to end up with a yarn that came off the niddy noddy balanced (!) - I don't think that's ever happened before.

You can see in these photos how much less tightly plied this is then some previous chain plied yarns. Before washing I had 298 yds at 17-20 wpi. After a soak in cool water, the Finn Puffball Effect worked it's magic and I ended up with 275 yds at 10-14 wpi. Poof!

I still like the Baktus idea for this yarn. Maybe a lacy one. Or an extra lacy one. Anyone have a vote?

Early onset

2011-05-19T20:41:00.000+01:00

In graduate school, I studied Alzheimer's disease, albeit at a somewhat oblique angle. That is to say, I studied something else in the context of AD. In any event, I am somewhat familiar with some of the symptoms of dementia, including the loss of any ability to form new memories. And I think perhaps I am suffering from some of these symptoms, because somehow I completely managed to forget that I signed up for the IKnit London (not just) Sock Club.

And when I say forget, I don't mean that it just slipped my mind. I mean that I saw an announcement of a party for the start of the club and thought "I wonder if I can still sign up for that..." Imagine my surprise when I arrived home after a looooong day to find a package waiting for me on the doorstep, and it wasn't from Adrian, as I expected. This was what was inside:

A lovely little project bag and a skein of Gorgeous Crimson Yarn - perfect for May of Project Spectrum! Plus not one, but two patterns. One for a pair of socks (Tantalus) and one for a pair of glorious fingerless mitts called Ambience, both by Janie B. At the moment, I'm leaning towards the mitts, simply because I'm working on a pair of lacey red socks at the moment. Those socks are slowly moving along - I reknit the leg of the first one adding four stitches and going up half a needle size, and they fit much better now. I managed to get through the toe on sock #2, which will be joining me on a bit of a road trip this weekend, so I hope to get them done soon. After which point, I will never knit with Cascade Fixation Ever. Again.

gratuitous yarn shot

FO: Boo's Elephants

2011-05-16T21:55:00.001+01:00

My copy of Interweave Knits Summer 2011 arrived in its belated fashion last week (it goes through a corporate forwarding system from Houston), and as I paged through it the first time, I wasn't so impressed. But the girls were yelling at each other and the dog was chewing on a dirty sock, so I had to leave it and go deal with the chaos. And when I came back, I discovered in the very last section the perfect sweater for Boo, the future veterinarian.

A vest! With elephants! What could be better? So last Thursday I cast on, and today I've got this:

Pattern: Baby Elephant Vest by Melanie Rice, Interweave Knits Summer 2011
Yarn: Classic Elite Provence, 100% mercerized cotton, 205 yds/100 grams, 2 skeins in a lovely periwinkle that I picked up at the Yarns2Ewe Christmas sale many years ago.
Needles: US 5/3.75 mm and US 6/4.0 mm.
Gauge: ~5 stitches per inch in stockinette on larger needles
Start/finish: 12 May - 16 May 2011
Comments/mods: the modifications were many and huge with this sucker. To start off with, there was no way in hell I was going to get 6.25 stitches/inch with this yarn without making a bullet-proof, stand-up-by-itself sweater. So I threw gauge out the window (always a dangerous idea!), swatched a bit, found a fabric I liked, cast on for the smallest size (21" chest), and hoped for the best. I used the measurements for the Boo-sized sweater (27" chest) for the length to the underarm and the length of the armholes. That was the first major modification. Thankfully, the FO ended up at just about 27", so win-win.

Major modification #2: worked in the round instead of in pieces. I hate seaming, so I did this sucker in the round. I cast on the appropriate number of stitches with 2 extra (for seam stitches), and worked the garter stitch band back and forth. Then when I started the lace pattern I joined to work in the round. The two extra stitches (one on either side) were purled every row to make a nice side seam and to hide the jog that happens with garter stitch in the round.

Major modification #3 (which isn't actually so major): instead of casting off and seaming the shoulders, I kept the stitches live and used a three needle bind off to finish. Ta da! No seaming! Well, except for the bit at the hem and the neck band and armhole edges. But still, not too bad...

Are these not the cutest elephants you've ever seen?

And Boo seems pleased.

So that's May's sweater done. And it's not the one I was planning by a long shot. Maybe this will be a two sweater month???

May is for Red

2011-05-13T18:18:00.000+01:00

May 1st was the beginning of the fifth round of Project Spectrum, the brainchild of Lolly. Originally started as an exploration of color, before moving on to inspiration from the cardinal elements and the four directions, she's gone back to the color wheel. May's color is red, followed by green, blue, pink, yellow, cyan/aqua and black/white/grey. My goal for Project Spectrum is to end up with either a spinning or a knitting project for each month/color, and to do some photography. The photography might end up here or on the other blog, so check there if you haven't seen any project spectrum stuff.

I've also come to the conclusion that if I don't designate one night a week for spinning, my wheel will rust away and I'll go insane. Last week was spinning night, and I happily went off, on time for once because my MIL was in town, with two bags of Hello Yarn fiber to play with. I was beyond excited.

And then I got there and realized I'd forgotten kind of a critical piece of the spinning wheel – the mother of all. So I prepped all that lovely fiber, and then ate crisps and drank wine for the next hour and a half. The next night I sat down at the now complete wheel and got to work on some Wensleydale laceweight singles.

Fiber: Hello Yarn Fiber Club August 2010, Wensleydale, colorway “Heirloom”. I got 510 yds out of about 4 oz.
Spun at 7.5:1, short forward draw – no plying.
Finished with three rounds of hot water, cold water with agitation.

I spun this fiber in a color progression. First I separated out all the colors: chartreuse, orange, red/purple, pinky brown and brown/black. My idea is to knit a shawl with this yarn, with stripes of approximately the same size, so I started with the color I had the least of (chartreuse), and then went in order by weight to end with the brown/black. I'm thinking either Citron or the Holden Shawlette would work well, but I'm open to suggestions...

So for now, a la Yarn Harlot, Tuesdays are for spinning. We'll see what else comes off my wheel over the next few weeks, and also what else pops up in the red corner of the color spectrum.

At least something got finished in April

2011-04-30T21:13:00.002+01:00

With all the rampant starting of projects (and willful ignoring of projects in progress - I'm looking at you River Run), I was sure I would end the month without any finished objects under my belt. Thankfully last week's 9 hours (cumulative) on the train to and from Scotland and a trip from London to Somerset yesterday meant that last night I grafted toe #2 of my April socks while getting all weepy watching Wills and Kate on the BBC1 highlights show last night*.

Pattern: Nornir by Caoua Coffee, the round 2 pattern for Sock Madness 5
Yarn: Woolcraft Superwash Sock Yarn, bought for cheap cheap cheap at my semi-local haberdashery in December
Needles: US 1.5/2.5 mm double points
Start/finish: 1 April - 29 April 2011
Gauge: I am steadfastly ignoring gauge in my socks this year because I'm largely knitting them for other people. These are for someone in the States, and if they don't fit the intended recipient, I'm sure they will find a happy home.
Comments/mods: No mods from the pattern, although I knitted the large (72 stitch) size instead of the smaller version. I guess I originally thought they would be for me, but the slipped stitch/ribbing pattern coupled with a slipped stitch sole makes for a fairly inelastic fabric. They might actually fit me, but they'd probably be a bit tight, so I didn't even try. Off they go for a present instead.

The pattern was very nicely laid out and clearly explained. The stitch patterns used do eat up a fair bit of yarn, and take some time. At least it seemed like it took a long time. The leg is 82 rounds long, but the stitch pattern compresses quite a bit, so they aren't very high.

The bad news: I'm in Somerset, 3+ hours from London, I will be here until Monday, and I don't have the May socks with me. Aaaaaaaaaaaargh!

* I was not terribly in to the whole Royal Wedding TM coverage by any stretch of the information, but was interested to see all the hoopla. Imagine my surprise when I found it all to be actually really wonderful - they were so sweet**, and I thought the whole ridiculous affair was fairly restrained as these things go***. Maybe that's a function of the Veddy British coverage that I watched - what was it like in the States?

** Must give huuuuuge kudos to Mrs. Wales, as the media circus has been unbelievable and I think she's nutso for having agreed to this whole thing in the first place. As an English friend pointed out to me, "Well, she must really love him." Amen.

*** My childhood memories of Charles and Diana's wedding includes a train the length of Westminster Abbey. That might be a wee bit exaggerated, but not as much as I'd like to think.

Stuck

2011-04-28T19:52:00.001+01:00

I have found myself in a bit of a rut recently, hence the general blog silence. Sadly, this is not only a fibery rut, but also a major career rut that I'm trying to work out. There is more to be said on that, but I'm not quite at a point to lay down my thoughts on virtual paper, so it will have to wait. Instead, I will give you some images from our Easter weekend in Edinburgh.

We went hiking on Salisbury Crags in Holyrood Park.

Girls in gorse

We saw some interesting people on the Royal Mile.

Weirdest spinning outfit I've seen yet

I bought a bit of yarn,

and a new ring.

And I knit most of half a sock in three days.

Life goes on...

The perils of faithfulness

2011-04-12T16:31:00.000+01:00

So, when last we had any knitting content on this here blog, I was gleefully starting my April socks after many evenings devoted to stranded colorwork, and bemoaning project monogamy.

Ehem. Starting those socks may have been a mistake. Because in the last week I've also cast on for a stashbusting "cat" bed and a new sweater design project. So much for being faithful!

The cat bed is actually for the SRD, who at his vet appointment today, tipped the scales at a whopping 3.13 kg, aka 6.9 lbs.

Gratuitous cute puppy pic - he was looking at the treat in my hand.

This is kelp's Dotty Cat Bed. I'm using some random recycled grey merino, some leftover Karisma from IM's Aran, the last of the handspun pencil roving from the Northman Mittens and leftover Mountain Mohair from two incarnations of sweater. Excellent for getting rid of ~600 yds of yarn.

Socks are still singular, but are on to the gusset. I'm hoping to finish these in time for a May birthday. Hmmm.

I was about to start the last row before setting the armhole steeks on River Run last night when I realized I'd screwed up the stitch pattern at the beginning of the previous row. Grrrr....tink, tink, tink. After that I was too irritated to keep going on it, so I go the pattern going in the right order again and put it down to turn to this:

The prototype of my newest design. It doesn't look like it, but this is almost ten inches (of 12 needed) of ribbing. In a couple of inches, I get to switch to the lace pattern - yippee! This is going to be a cardigan with a deep scoop neck and elbow length sleeves (or a bit longer) - ribbing to just under the bust with vine lace on the bodice. The yarn is one of my favorites - Elsbeth Lavold Silky Wool in a dark purple. The real life color is much darker then I'm able to get a picture of for some reason. This is a batch I bought in Houston at the Yarns 2 Ewe winter sale right before I started my year-long yarn diet, and is the old formula (65% wool, 35% silk - currently it's 45% wool, 35% silk, 20% nylon). I love this yarn - it's soft to work with, but has a slightly crunchy feel from the silk. And the drape is awesome. I'm hoping to get the lace going tonight, but I've got to get the River Run steeks set first - there's a lot of armhole to go on the March sweater! Not to mention sleeves...

So that the ridiculous number of active projects I've got on my needles. What about you? Are you a mono- or poly-knitting type? Anyone have more then four active projects going?

I'm not dead yet,

2011-04-08T16:58:00.001+01:00

although part of me is kind of wishing I were. Allergy season hit with a bang at 11:34 pm on Tuesday, and I'm in the throes of snot rivers, hacking coughs, and bright red itchy eyes. It's been an absolutely spectacular week here weather-wise, and all I've wanted to do is lie on the couch while the girls watch videos. Not good. I finally perked up enough today to actually do some knitting, but I refuse to subject you to more pictures of a colorwork sweater that look exactly the same as the last pictures, even though it is growing ever so slowly.

I do have great plans in mind however, and I'm hoping that I can entice the girls upstairs to wind up some yarn for me. Usually they like doing that! And I hope to have more interesting things to talk about next week when* my pharmaceuticals beat my immune system into some sort of submission.

* Note: that's "when", not "if" because I am nothing if not optimistic. And possessed of a singluar faith in the power of better living through pharmacology. Whether or not that faith is warrented remains to be seen...

Monogamy is boring

2011-04-01T17:13:00.000+01:00

Project monogamy that is. I've been slogging away on the handspun sweater without a break for the last week plus, and I'm almost to the underarms. It's lovely, but I've had to tink back 300+ stitches several times because I used the wrong color a few rows back, and I'm getting a bit tired of it. Thank goodness it's April 1st and I can start my new socks!

Originally this yarn was slated for Vinnland socks, but when I pulled it out I decided that particular pattern really needed a solid color yarn. So I cast on for Nornir, the Round 2 pattern for Sock Madness 5 - it's working beautifully with the short color runs in this yarn (Woolcraft Superwash Sock Yarn).

I also had a fit of procrastination last week and finished spinning up the Little Barn tweedy fiber I started at the last Spin Night at the beginning of March.

It's actually a lot darker in real life - teal and navy and fuschia. The two big skeins are 562 yds of true 3 ply, fingering weight. The teensy skein is the remaining singles chain plied - I didn't both to measure the yardage, but it's probably somewhere in the range of 15-20 yds. Aka not much. This is not the softest yarn in the world, but it will be okay for mittens or something like that, somewhere down the road. Spun/plied at 15:1/12:1, drafting style was short forward draw from the fold.

I've also got a couple more sweater projects on the brain, so there's been much swatching going on.

This is the latest one. The plan is to knit up the prototype in the next month and write up that pattern for testers to finish by early June. I think it will be cute, but we'll see.

So, Month 3 is done - socks were finished, sweater was not, but I'm still plugging away. Hopefully it will be April's sweater.

Seventy two months, plus or minus

2011-03-28T13:27:00.000+01:00

Dear Devil,

On this exact day six years ago, I was at our house in Houston, supremely grateful to be out of the hospital and to have my mother around, and more then a little gobsmacked at the job we'd taken on. I was counting your age in hour and days. Then, for the longest time, whenever anyone asked me how old you were, the unit of time was weeks. It eventually shifted to months, and now it's finally reached years.

You are six years old. The cliche is that time flies, and that's exactly how I feel, even though I remember events all along the course of those six years. Somehow it's gone by so quickly that I look at you and can't figure out where you came from or how we got here. We recently had to go to the US Embassy to renew your passport, and one of the things we had to bring was a photo montage to show how you've grown from a total standard looking baby to the gorgeous creature you are now. While I was putting it together, I realized that I could see the person you are now in those little baby and toddler photos, but I never would have extrapolated forward from those points to now.

This past year has been an incredible one for your brain - in the last few months something has clicked and all of a sudden you are voraciously reading everything you can get your hands on. You told me a few days ago that reading was your favorite thing ever, and I have to agree with you on that one babe - it is amazing. When you and Boo don't want to go to sleep right away, she climbs up on the top bunk with you and you read her stories by the light of a doll someone gave us years ago that has a necklace that lights up. Not the best thing for your eyes no doubt, but I have fond memories of doing the same under my covers with a flashlight for years, so you come by it honestly. And very often in the morning we'll find the two of you snuggled up together cosily, having fallen asleep together the night before.

You and the SRD are huge buddies, and you take your responsibilities as dog trainer very seriously. After an initial attempt to take both of you along to puppy class, your sister stayed home with me last week and you and Daddy had a much better time of it. You came home all excited to show me how to make him lie down, and you love taking him for walks on the Common. And I think all the attention from your friends and other people at school about the dog has made you much more confident - last week Daddy and I came to assembly to hear your class talk about their day at the Golden Hind and Tate Modern. You had to stand up and recite a line about the trip, and you did it with nary a hesitation or stutter - a far cry from last year's end-of-term school play. I'm not sure whether it was knowing the audience, practicing more, or just feeling more sure of yourself, but boy was I proud of you.

I love you sweet pea, even more then ever, and I can't wait to see what the next year brings for you.

Love,
Mumma

March socks: Aquaphobia

2011-03-24T20:45:00.001Z

I do not have aquaphobia. I do, however, have a lovely new pair of socks. And since my sock output so far in 2011 has been all for other people, these are mine! All mine!

Pattern: Aquaphobia by Crystal Smith
Yarn: Hill Country Yarns Sweet Feet in "Blueberry Wine", 400 yds/100 gr.
Needles: US 1/2.25 mm
Start/finish: 1 March - 20 March 2011
Gauge: 10 sts/11 rows per inch in stitch pattern, 8 sts/12 rows per inch in stockinette.
Comments/mods: This is a terrific pattern for breaking up variegated or handdyed yarns with lots of contrast. The slipped stitch pattern lets you break up any pooling (except around the gussets there on the foot), and makes a really nice cozy, thick, cushy fabric.

Sorry for craptastic night time photos - will replace ASAP

The designer included a two-stitch cable on either side of the instep to give a bit of extra stretch. This was a great feature, and the pattern, while written for a women's medium, easily fit around my US 10s. I might have had to make them a bit longer, but that wasn't a big deal.

Fast knit, great breaking up of colors, new socks. What's not to love?

Cheeky girl

2011-03-21T21:32:00.001Z

The pattern for the Cheeky pullover is now written up, test knit and available!

This easy rollneck pullover is worked from the bottom up with raglan sleeves. Sizes include 12 months [18 months, 2 years, 4 years, 6 years, 8 years]. Pattern as written is one color in stockinette, but it can easily be done in stripes or with a colorwork pattern.

Pattern calls for approximately 315-850 yds of DK weight yarn. I did mine in Stylecraft Life DK, an acrylic-wool blend, but the testers used Cascade 220, Sidar Click DK, Berroco Comfort DK and Dashing Dachs superwash DK.

Many thanks to FeistyMuse, bellarose4, monatraix and rocksteady from the Ravelry Free Pattern Testers group for their quick test knitting and helpful suggestions. And to Boo for being such a good sport while I shot a ton of pictures!

Cheeky

$5.00
Pattern includes written instructions and schematic. Gauge is 22 sts/30 rows over 4 inches.

Woe is Boo

2011-03-20T15:02:00.000Z

Crossposted at the other blog

Dear Boo,

Welcome to the life of the middle child. It's now almost 3 weeks after your birthday, and I'm finally getting around to your letter. Poor neglected thing...

It's been quite a year for you. You started off your fourth year by exhibiting a strong tendency towards incandescent and uncontrollable meltdowns, usually without warning. That phase persisted for a while, but things finally took a turn for the better. You've really blossomed over the past few months, and even more so since the wee dog arrived, interestingly enough. About a week after he came home, we had a conference with your teacher, who said "Getting a dog has been so wonderful for her!" We were kind of surprised - how much of a difference could a week make? But apparently my plot to irritate the crap out of all the other parents in the school* by bringing the puppy to pick up and drop off had resulted in a nursery full of kids who only want to talk about puppies. It seems that this trend has given you a whole burst of confidence - you're engaging the other kids, initiating games, joining in with the others. All good things, particularly for someone who has always been happiest playing by herself. It's good to see you branching out kiddo.

On our way to school on your birthday, I asked you if you being four was different from being three. You thought about it for a minute, and said seriously "Oh yes Mumma, I'm much older now." You sure are growing up sweetpea, and I can't imagine how you're going to be grown up enough to start school in the fall. You can't be that old, can you?

I love you Sunny Sunny. Welcome to the world of four.

Love,
Mama

* Wee dog comes to school several days a week, and I've had more then one parent indicate that this is making life difficult for them at home. Sorry! But only a little bit...

Process versus product

2011-03-18T17:12:00.002Z

I been thinking lately about whether process knitting verus product knitting. I think it's fair to claim that I am largely a product knitter - 11 pairs of socks and 11 sweaters as a yearly goal seems to indicate someone who is concerned with the endpoint more then the process. And some of the evidence holds up that conclusion; for example:

Aquaphobia socks and my current book in progress. Luv. Him. To. Death. The socks are pretty good too.

It's barely halfway through the month, and I've got 1.65 socks there. Not too shabby.

But on the other hand, it's T = -4 days to my theoretical River Run deadline, and I've got this:

The ribbing and almost 2 full pattern repeats of the body chart. That's it. There is no way this sweater is going to be done by the end of the month, much less by the deadline. And I'm ok with that. After deciding that I would enjoy this project rather then rushing through it, I'm finding that I actually am really enjoying it. The way the colors are coming together is working much better then I anticipated, and I really like the semi-arrowhead pattern. I find it very difficult sometimes to translate Fair Isle charts into actual knitting in my mind's eye, and it's always a relief to see what the chart looks like knitted up.

So I guess I'm enjoying my foray into process knitting. It's funny - I'm definitely a process spinner, as evidenced by the whopping pile of handspun sitting up in my guest room, but not so much with the knitting. It's nice to be able to sit down and knit a few rows each night (or each night that I don't fall asleep at 8:30, like last night) and see how the pattern is developing, how the colors blend in to each other, and not feel like I have to keep going when I get tired. Which is good, because with the new addition to the family, I've been getting waaaay less then my usual allotment of sleep. Good things he's so cute...

I guess the only two questions now are: when will it get done, and will my Dad like it? I might need to ask him that now before I get too much farther on, I think. If he doesn't like it, he can have something else and this can be IM's 40th birthday present - he's already made approving noises!

11 in 2011 update

2011-03-06T13:26:00.001Z

I've checked a few things off my list of goals for the year, so I thought I'd give you the progress.

1. Eleven pairs of socks - two months, two pairs of socks from my stash. On track. Yippee!
2. Eleven sweaters, including:
* 3. Pas de Valse
* 4. Handspun Vine Yoke Cardigan
* 5. Rollneck sweater for Devil - done!
* 6. The River Run Pullover, for which I will also spin the yarn - yarn spun, dyed and sweater started.
7. Spin more during the 2011 Tour de Fleece then I did in 2010 (39.4 oz)
8. Get my first full fleece (figuring out what to do with it is 2012's project)
9. Design a shawl
10. Submit a design to Knitty - well, I submitted a design for a kid's top to Knitty for their spring/summer issue, and was very kindly directed elsewhere. So I've done that one, but I probably should have left the target publication a bit more open. In any event, I've also submitted a design to Knitcircus for their fall issue. And I've got another one in the works for a winter coat thing.
11. Design a spinning/knitting project for Ennea Collective.

Strangely enough, there is very little spinning ongoing at the moment - small puppy plus things that spin/dangle string equals frustration all around. So goals 7, 8 and 11 are on hold for a bit. I'm hoping that he figures out that he can't actually chase everything that catches his eye before July though!

There has been spinning

2011-03-04T12:58:00.000Z

But only a very little bit.

Finished before the half-term holiday:

Mom's All Spun Up Falklands. This little hank (~50 yds) was left over from my failed attempt to get the whole 4 oz on to one bobbing while I was plying. It's nice and squooshy and fluffy. I love how the browns and greens and bit of blue in the fiber blended together in the finished yarn. Now must find some itty bitty project for this.

Last week, I was feeling spin-deprived, so I pulled out this and whipped it up in a couple of nights.

Hello Yarn Fiber Club, superwash merino in "Curiosities". It's been a long time since I spun anything but friggin' Falklands wool, so it took me a little while to get used to the slipperiness of the superwash. It was so slippery! I also noticed this time around that it felt a bit plasticky while I was spinning it - none of that remained in the finished yarn, but it was just an observation.

Spun/plied at 9:1/6.5:1. Finished with a soak in warm water and wool wash, then thwacked and hung to dry.

I ended up with 200 yds from the 4 oz, at ~8 wpi. As you can see, not the most even spin I've ever done. I found it hard to control the superwash slipperiness, and it took a long time to get comfortable with it. I was planning on a baby surprise jacket for a friend, but since the yarn came out pretty bulky, I'm going to have to reconsider that plan. A hat maybe? A cushy cowl? Hmmm....

March socks

2011-03-02T12:58:00.001Z

Yesterday, I managed to remove myself from the scrum that is currently my life for 20 minutes so I could pick out March's SISC.

Last night after getting home from Spin Night, I wound the yarn.

Today, I plan to actually cast on while Boo is at her swimming lesson. Watch me go folks!*

* Please note sarcasm/wry self-deprecation at my less-then-rapid progress. I am not convinced that these socks are actually going to make it to the finish line this month, but so be it.

FO: February's socks

2011-02-27T22:28:00.000Z

Pattern: Paul Attwell by Emily Johnson
Yarn: Knit Picks Bare, dyed by me
Needles: started with US 1.5/2.5 mm, but sock was waaaaay big, so the final version was knit with US 1/2.25 mm double points. I knit the 72 stitch version, to fit a men's US size 9 foot.
Start/finish: 1 February - 24 February 2011
Gauge: 9.5 stitches/inch in stockinette, 13 stitches/1.5 inches in pattern stitch.
Comments/mods: A total and shameless mimic of the Yarn Harlot, this pattern is fantastic. The stitch pattern is a 4 row repeat, with every other row being plain (i.e. straight stockinette or seed stitch). The pattern is really well done - great pictures, clear instructions (although no charts, but they aren't necessary). Since splitting the sock up by repeats worked so well for me last week, I did the same with this - with a four row repeat, it didn't lend itself quite as well to that technique, but I settled on five repeats a day. They languished a bit with the dyeing/starting of next month's sweater, but I got a lot done on the bus to and from Geneva over the half term.

I'm really pleased with how the dyeing came out. These are a birthday present for Ironman, and he liked the color of the yarn in the original pattern, so I tried to replicate that. I added a tiny bit of burnt orange to golden yellow, with a small bit of black to tone it down. Some of the orange ended up on the yarn in small flecks, which add a nice varigation (IMHO). I did my best to tie the skein loosely enough that there weren't any white areas, but there are still some spots that are quite light. But no matter - I like how it ended up in the knitted fabric. And look, they sort of match the Small Ridiculous Dog.

So now I have a breather of a few days to get in some work on Dad's sweater before March hits in full force, with Sock #3. Two months of 2011 down, two pairs of socks produced (plus one not in the club). Still on track, but next month brings the start of Sock Madness, in which I am once again participating (in a fashion). I'm hoping to be able to stay on track through that (I've got another pattern in the competition), but it may get a bit nutty in short order. We'll see, I guess.

The knitting I did on my Spring Vacation

2011-02-21T19:17:00.000Z

I did this:

First sock is not finished because I lost the directions somewhere and wasn't sure what to do with the toe. So I put it on an extra needle and started #2

And worked on this, for the few moments I could keep my eyes open in the evening:

It's coming along, but oh so slowly! I'm pleased with the way the colors are working out though. So it's all good. Of course, knitting time is about to come to a dramatic halt (with the arrival of the wee dog) or take a large upswing (arrival of the wee dog = "working" from home for a while). We'll see...

I which I have a realization

2011-02-09T20:53:00.000Z

So, on Monday night I wound up all the handspun for the sweater - it took two freakin' hours. Ugh! And then I cast on - 280 stitches on US 1/2.25 mm needles. And I started knitting the ribbing.

Approximately 45 minutes later I'd finished the first row and started the second. Items of interest:

1. Steeking this puppy will be a no brainer because the yarn is a wee bit sticky (understatement of the year that). This is a good thing generally speaking, but it does make for some slow knitting, as I pause to detach the two colors from each other every few stitches.

2. It is a good thing my professional life is not dependent on basic numerical skills, because I can not repeatedly count *two, one, two, one, four*. Because of this inability, I ended my knitting session last night at the same exact point I ended on Monday, having put in double the knitting time. Trying to tink back 200 stitches to fix the colorwork pattern in the Very. First. Row. is just not on. Riiiiiip, redo cast on, try again.

3. I've realized that I have two choices for this project. I can either drive myself (even more) batshit insane rushing through this thing and trying to get it finished in time for the Big Day, or I can enjoy the process of knitting a beautiful sweater for my Dad with yarn that I made and dyed myself, in celebration of the great milestone that is his seventieth birthday. I think I like the second option better...

I'm liking the second option even more given that, in exactly two weeks time, a large portion of my waking and sleeping hours are going to be taken up by the newest member of our family.

Meet the Wee Dog, a (somewhat crosseyed in this picture, but not in real life) Cavalier King Charles Spaniel. Girls are way too excited to even be able to articulate their joy, and I go back and forth between glee and pure abject terror. It feels kind of like when I was pregnant with Devil, in fact. My only saving grace is that housebreaking him is going to happen a lot faster then with the real kids.

A big pile of handspun

2011-02-06T18:08:00.000Z

The River Run yarn, now dyed and ready to be wound up and cast on. I posted the exact dye formulas on Ravelry, but I used jet black, silver gray, gunmetal and navy to get 8 shades (one black, three gray, three blue and one other blue). Now all I've got to do is finish up this:

February's sweater for Devil. Should be done tonight, if I don't spend too much time winding up handspun.

The bonfire and the hamster wheel

2011-02-02T14:03:00.000Z

Last night I packed up my wheel in the lovely bag my Mom made, got on the Tube, and trekked over to Tricolette for an evening of spinning. When I proposed this excursion to my other half, I said "Guess where I might go with my wheel next week?" His response was "A bonfire?" Ha, ha, bloody ha mate. Just for that, I won't make you any more socks...

The trip on the Tube was actually fine, although I kept waiting for someone to ask me what was in the bag. It helped a great deal that I was going in to town when most people were coming out and the trains were largely empty. I made it there without too many problems, after a trek from the Tube station, and had a lovely evening. A lovely bunch of people, a gorgeous shop (!), and best of all, this is what I was spinning.

I was able to start on the Falklands for my mom because this past weekend, I finished up this:

Six skeins, ~2100 yds, of 2-ply fingering weight Falklands for the River Run pullover (aka March's sweater). I had an interesting experience with this stuff - the first four skeins I spun over the period of about 2 weeks, and they were in the neighborhood of 1600-1800 ypp. The last two, I did in the last week, and when I finished the first one of the two, it came in at 2100 ypp (435 yds/3.4 oz).

Gulp. Whaaaaa? whimpers

So I plied up the next skein and, instead of soaking it in cold water, soaked it in hot water, with a tiny bit of mussing around. It came out at 1847 ypp. Hmmmmmm, said the curious porpoise, perhaps I can utilize the Falklands-puffball effect to fix that darned first skein. Skein skinny got unwound, thrown in some hot water, and jiggled around a bit. After drying:

400 yds/3.4 oz, 1820 ypp. Done.

I checked the schematics for the pattern, and I fully expect to have to spin up some more yarn somewhere along the line, as the intended recepient of the finished item is both skinny and long*. So I will need to do some veeery scientific dyeing to minimize any dye lot issues with future skeins. But I think it's time to get started with the dye jars. Black, white, three shades of grey, three shades of blue and teal.

Now I need to see if I have enough dye...

* Must remember to find out how long the sleeves have to be...

FO: Ironman's Christmas Aran

2011-01-31T16:47:00.000Z

Pattern: Heirloom Aran Pullover by Sue Mink
Yarn: Garnstudio DROPS Karisma Classic, colorway 16, 120 yds/50 gr, 14 skeins.
Needles: US 4/3.5 mm and US 6/4.0 mm circulars.
Gauge: 20 stitches/28 rows in stockinette
Start/finish: 20 October 2010 - 24 January 2011
Comments/modifications: this pdf is quite a minimalist pattern (all of 2 pages) with no charts, which (as a dedicated chart-ist) I found irritating. However, it is a pretty straightforward pattern. The other thing is that I used DK weight instead of worsted weight yarn, so I ended up using US 4/6 needles instead of US 7/9 - I still got gauge, so that was fine.

I started with the sleeves for a couple of reasons. 1) I hate knitting sleeves because they take forever, and 2) I wanted a chance to learn some of the cable patterns before launching into the front and back, particularly as I was changing the big middle cable panel. I think this is the first time I've knit both sleeves at the same time and, while it meant that all the increases and decreases matched up fine, it also took me a month. A solid month of knitting, to get two sleeves. Bah!

I swapped the odd, very in-and-out middle cable panel from the pattern with a much more uniform one from the Harmony Guides (the Lattice Cable, page 162 in cables & arnas if you're curious). Back and fronts went fairly smoothly. The yarn was really nice to work with - a bit stiff in the ball, but lovely and soft once knit up. And extremely economically priced, as these things go.

I blocked all the pieces before seaming and doing the neckband, but then had to reblock as the finished sweater was a bit too close fitting for Himself, and the sleeves were a bit short. Blocking took care of that but I may have to go back and redo the hip band - like a doofus I didn't check my notes on how much ribbing I did on the sleeves, and the waist ribbing is probably an inch too short. It was deemed acceptable by my husband, who has been waiting for this sweater for two Christmases now. But I can't guarantee that I won't be redoing the ribbing and trying to graft knit 1, purl 1 rib at some point in the future. I just couldn't face the prospect right now...Another thing that I would do over: I'd add some short rows at the back to get it to hang a little better. There's just not quite enough fabric coming up to the neck there.

So, Sweater #1 of 2011 is done. Thankfully sweater #2 is up to armholes on both body and sleeves, and might even be done before leaving for our ski trip in a week and a half. Which is good - Devil needs a new sweater!

FO: Smaug and Boo

2011-01-27T15:00:00.000Z

I finished my first installment of my Self-Imposed Sock Club (SISC) on Monday, wove in the ends and blocked them. Ta da!

Pattern: Smaug by MoragOgg
Yarn: Brown Sheep Wildfoote Luxury Sock, colorway "Vinca Minor", approximately 1.25 skeins
Needles: US 1.5/2.5 mm, magic loop
Start/finish: 1/1-24/1/11.
Comments/mods: This was a nice pattern - enough to keep me moving on it (aka not bored silly), but an easy stitch pattern to memorize. I made one modification on the toe - I continued the purl ridge down the sides of the toe, just because I liked the continuity.

I knit these just as written (60 stitch sock) and, as a result, they are waaaaay too small to fit me. I wanted a modelled shot, but Boo's arms were as close as I could get.

At least you can see the stitch pattern a bit better...these will go to some deserving soul with more petite feet.

In an unbelievable, once-in-a-lifetime convergence, I actually finished two pairs of socks this month.

These are for Boo, toe up, no pattern to speak of, short-row heel, an inch of 2x2 ribbing, find right spot in ball, repeat for matching stripes. I started these on our three-day trip to Copenhagen just after Christmas, and finished them a couple of weeks ago? I think? Anyway...Month 1, two pairs. It can only go downhill from here!

Tower Bridge Mitts

2011-01-24T20:15:00.001Z

Finally, I've gotten the next pattern in the Southwark Collection finished and available.

These mitts are the perfect project for that special skein of luxury yarn you've been saving for a rainy day. Knit up with under 175 yds of fingering or sport weight yarn, these mitts are the thing to slip on for a cold March day, or to add an extra layer of warmth in February when the boiler is acting up.

The size is adjusted by changing the needle size and/or yarn weight. The teal mitts shown above were knit with 1 skein of Blue Sky Alpacas Alpaca & Silk (size medium), and the variegated pair below were knit with 1 skein of Indie Dyer 100% Superwash Fingering Merino (size large).

Many thanks to Knitapotamus, knucna, lindseylou, Mistydawn, oddbird26, phoenixblue and vshawn7, my intrepid test knitters from the Ravelry Free Pattern Testers group.You can see some of their projects on the TB Mitts project page here (Ravelry link).

I'm hoping to have the last pattern in the collection out to testers by the end of January, which would get it out probably around the end of February. Stay tuned.

River Run spinning

2011-01-21T18:50:00.000Z

As of today (thanks to a one-day work week due to a wicked cold) (and the Australian Open!), I've spun up 1341 yds of 2-ply fingering weight Falklands wool yarn for the Big Colorwork Project. The size I'm knitting calls for:

380 yds black
380 yds medium gray
190 yds white
190 yds light brown
190 yds dark brown
190 yds light gray
190 yds dark gray
190 yds light tan
190 yds medium brown

For a grand total of 2090 yds. Holy crap! I'm more then halfway there! And it's still JANUARY! cue happy dance

I was totally right* about the Falklands-puffball mushroom effect too. Look at this:

On the left is the freshly plied, unwashed yarn - it is slightly slick, with a nice smooth feel to the yarn. On the right is the washed, thwacked, dried poofy yarn - unbelievably squishable!

The first two totally dry skeins came in at 1484 and 1527 ypp so...still a bit under where they "should" be, but close enough for government work (at least in my experience of government work).

* This happens rarely enough in my fiber adventures that it makes me feel very smug. Which, of course, guarantees that the dyeing is going to be an Utter. Nightmare.

Finishing

2011-01-19T21:42:00.000Z

I hate seaming sweaters, but the list of this year's goals has inspired me; I managed to finish up the knitting on the IM Aran last Friday, and for once, I wasted no time in throwing the bits and pieces into some water and laying them out to dry.

I pinned out the body pieces to measurement (22 inches across for each), but the sleeves I just laid flat and smoothed out. I pinned the strips for the saddle shoulders down because they were twisting a bit. This proved to be a good idea, since the girls later admitted to going up to the guest room and jumping on the bed.

I've sewed in the sleeves and knit the collar, but a few problems have cropped up. The first is that I obviously miscounted the rows needed for the waistband ribbing, and it's a bit shorter then the ribbing on the sleeves and collar. The second problem is that it turns out I probably should have knit the 46 size, not the 44. I'm hoping I can block it out a bit wider, to meet Himself's specific requirements, but I may be out of luck. Thnakfully I've figured out tentative fixes for both issues: if post-seaming and re-blocking, the ribbing is still too short, I'll pick up the stitches, pick out the cast on edge (groan!) and knit a bit more ribbing. If it's still too narrow through the body, I will not rip out the whole thing and redo it - that would require a good divorce lawyer. Instead, I'll knit two strips of ribbing/seed stitch about an inch wide, and sew them in at the sides. I'll need to carry the gusset up through the armpit and down the sleeves a bit, which might add way too much volume to the sleeve, but we'll wait and see. Blocking first!