Spinning Jenny

Something new

2011-06-21T22:18:00.004-06:00

I haven't abandoned the blog again, promise. There has sadly been little crafting since last I posted. I did, however, finish a pair of ankle socks today:
I like having ankle socks to wear in sneakers for the summer. I also like them as a way of using up the leftovers of a skein of sock yarn. I have found with some of my other pairs that the cuff does not properly cover the back of my heel. This time I used a few short rows after the ribbing and before the heel. This should make them more comfortable and keep my shoes from rubbing. I will have to remember this modification for future pairs.

Speaking of modifications, I made some to my last full sized pair of socks. I've been finding that my hand made socks are wearing out on the bottom of the heel and the top of the toe. The toe holes are easy to sew up and can be largely prevented by making the socks a few rows longer than usual. The bottom of the heels require quite a bit of darning, which is why I have a number of pairs of socks sitting waiting to be repaired.

I wanted to do something to make the heels a bit better wearing. For this pair I decided to try using the eye of partridge stitch on the bottom as well as the back of the heel. I don't notice a difference in how they feel but I'm really hoping that there will be a difference in how they wear. I'd rather be knitting than darning.
I'm going to try to maintain this sock momentum I seem to have built up. I'll be sure to share when I cast on for my next pair since I also hope to build up some blogging momentum. Until then.

Renewal

2011-06-01T11:52:00.003-06:00

After meaning to get back to the blog for what turns out to be more than a year, here I am finally posting again. I realize that I really do like have the record of my handiwork that this blog provides. I've also recently bought a loom so I have a whole new craft to show off and try to keep track of.

I could kick off the second coming of the blog with pictures of my new loom, but instead I thought I'd share a project that I planned to start back when this blog was new and only recently picked up and finished:
Another Tangled Yoke with much the same modifications that I made on the first one except this time I decided to keep the bobbles. I bought the yarn for this way back with the intention of knitting this sweater. I was still pretty new to knitting so I chose to use the yarn recommended in the pattern. I ordered the Rowan Felted Tweed online in a colour I thought would suit me. Sadly it turned out that Clover was less peach than I thought and didn't suit my complexion as well as I had hoped.

So the yarn sat unloved in my stash waiting to be redyed or sold or traded. Meanwhile I found another yarn that was closer to the colour I was looking for so I knit the sweater up from that. Years passed.

Finally I decided that I needed a dark coloured sweater and that I'd love another Tangled Yoke. So I took my chances turned the balls of yarn into skeins of yarn and dumped the whole bunch into a big pot on my stove with some black acid dye. I couldn't be happier with the results. I was worried that I'd loose the nice tweedy look of the yarn but it totally survived the dye bath.

Once I had yarn in a colour I liked it was only a matter of a couple of weeks before I'd finished knitting myself a new sweater. I love it and am so glad that I was finally brave enough to risk the dye pot.

A new project

2010-04-05T21:45:00.003-06:00

This weekend I lucked into two days off in a row so it was the perfect time to cast on a new project. I tend to find starting a project takes more time than knitting it. First yarn and a pattern need to be found and matched. This can take me months, especially since I tend to want to design my own patterns.

After yarn and pattern are chosen needles need to be found in my stash. Then the gauge swatch needs to be knit and measured and washed and measured and sometimes reknit on different needles and measured and washed...

The larger the project the more time this seems to take. I can decide on a sock pattern and get it started in about an hour unless I really love the yarn and am waiting for the perfect pair that will be worthy of it. Sweaters take me much longer in part because I am more likely to want to use my own design or because I have trouble finding the perfect yarn for someone else's design that I have fallen in loved with. The delay can be so long that the appropriate season passes me by and the sweater gets set aside until next year. This is why I have sweater quantities of yarn in my stash that should have been sweaters some time ago.

This year I am going to challenge myself to knit as many of these up as possible. I'm curious how many sweaters I can knit up in a year if I really put my mind to it. So far this year I have knit one sweater. I need to pick up the pace.

To this end I cast on for a Habu sweater that I bought in kit form when it was on sale. The yarn is two strands held together; one is a laceweight stainless steel wrapped in silk and the other is a 'paper' yarn made of linen. Needless to say this sweater will be like nothing else I own. So far I have knit about half of one of the sweater fronts:
I think this is going to be a very cool sweater. I fear it will be impossible to photograph well, though. The fabric has such an interesting hand and photographs just don't capture it. I'll keep trying so stay tuned.

The first of many

2010-04-01T23:24:00.002-06:00

Since I have a bit of a blog backlog I thought I'd start with the oldest project and go from there. This project was actually knit early September 2009 but I couldn't share it then because it had to remain secret until the pattern was published. The pattern is appearing in the April 2010 issue of Yarn forward so I can now share:
The pattern is Entrelac Gloves designed by Sarah Sutherland. They are knit using Noro Silk Garden sock and if you pay attention to the colour repeats it is quite easy to make a matching pair of gloves. I was really pleased with the way these gloves fit and I was sorry to have to hand them over when they were done (the fact that it was a warm September did help).

This was actually my first entrelac project. I'll admit to doing some early swatching to make sure that I wasn't getting myself into something I couldn't finish but that was a simple flat piece. The pattern is well constructed and I would recommend it to anyone looking to try entrelac.

Two months later...

2010-03-31T19:37:00.003-06:00

When last we heard from our intrepid crafter she had just completed a pair of plain socks and was planning to knit a sweater using some yarn she got for Christmas. Since then nearly two months have passed (and let the record show that one of those months was a short month) with nary a peep. But while the blogging went unwritten, knitting and spinning continued apace (though perhaps at a slower pace than desired.)

The sweater did get designed and knit, though it was in March rather than in February. There will eventually be a full reveal, but for now this small detail will have to suffice:
There was also most of a sock completed and some spinning on both spindles and wheel. All of the above sadly went unblogged.

Here on the eve of a new month blogging will resume. Projects past and present will get their fair airing. First person will supplant third and all will be well. But only after a good night's sleep.

Letting the yarn do the work

2010-02-08T22:23:00.002-06:00

A couple of weeks ago my fellow Tuesday coffee knitter was working on some plain socks using one of the more complicated self-striping sock yarns. The socks looked great and she was really enjoying seeing what the yarn would throw at her next. I was intrigued so on my next trip to the LYS I picked up a ball of Trekking XXL that looked like it would produce interesting stripes.

The plan was to knit up a pair of plain socks, but I'll admit that until they were well underway I was still considering something more complicated. Since I intended these socks to be a gift for someone I haven't knit socks for before I was a bit worried about fit. I didn't feel like taking the time to knit a full pair of socks in a ribbing pattern but I was seriously considering knitting yet another pair of Monkey socks. I find that the Monkey socks behave a lot like ribbed socks and make for a more forgiving fit.

In the end I managed to convince myself that, since I had bought yarn that had a lot of visual interest on its own, any stitch pattern would be lost and might detract from the yarn itself. I stuck to knitting a plain 64 stitch sock, top down, with gusset heels:

I really enjoyed sitting back and letting the yarn do its thing. I cast on for these last Tuesday and they were finished Saturday, so they were also a very quick knit. Now I just need to put these somewhere safe until their intended recipient's birthday comes along in early May.

Now I just need to find something to work on during tomorrow's coffee and knitting get-together...

A month in review

2010-01-31T23:26:00.003-06:00

Here we are already at the end of January and since I just finished a knitting project this seems like a really good time to cover what I was up to this month. After all of my Christmas knitting I found myself somewhat unmotivated in the knitting department. I spent much of what would otherwise have been knitting time at the start of the month reading a couple of novels. I also read through a copy of "Respect the Spindle" that I was lucky enough to get for Christmas and a copy of "Reversible Knitting" that I bought with a gift certificate that I also got for Christmas.

For Christmas I had also asked for and received a couple of balls of lovely "Shepherd's Own" undyed brown worsted weight wool. I had planned to make a hat and gloves to go with a brown coat that I rarely have the chance to wear. This plan changed when I realized that I could get another 4 balls with a gift certificate I was given. This means that I now have enough yarn to knit myself a sweater and I fully intend to get this sweater knit in the coming month.

On top of reading and shopping I did some more spinning from fleece samples handed out at the guild meeting. I also worked on spinning up some merino on my drop spindles. I am currently plying up the results and reminding myself of why I usually opt to do my plying on the wheel (it is a bit slow and mindless).

Even though I spent much of my time reading and spinning, I did start a knitting project so that I would have something to work away at during my regular knitting and coffee Tuesday nights. I've had a pair of balls of Trekking xxl yarn floating around in my stash waiting for me to turn them into knee socks. I was originally planning on knitting something quite complicated but then I realized that a plain pair would get more wear and fit better with my current wardrobe.
I cast on the second Tuesday of the month and was ready to start the second sock the next week. Sadly the second ball of yarn chose to disappear for a week, which meant that I only got started on the second sock last week. They are done now:

This was a nice mostly mindless project and my fingers really took to the knitting after their early month break. Despite their size they were a remarkably quick and easy knit. I'm looking forward to wearing them with skirts come spring. I might even wear them with shoes.

St. Distaffs Day

2010-01-07T09:28:00.003-06:00

January 7th is St Distaff day, a.k.a. the 'Christmas is over now get back to work' day. Most years I only realize this after the fact as I am reading all of the blog posts about spinning . This year mine will be one of those blog posts.
Unless I am much mistaken there is a spinning guild meeting tonight, which seems a perfect way to celebrate the day. My spindle is packed and ready to go. The last meeting I went to, back at the beginning of November we were given samples of fleece to spin up. I have completed this task and now have a nice little collection of skeins:
Well, time is up and I actually have to get to work. Have a nice St Distaff's day everyone.

Christmas hats and a list

2009-12-31T18:55:00.005-06:00

I've shown off the completed Christmas sweater but not the hats I was making. The first hat is the green fish hat, last seen missing only its eyes. The second hat is an off the cuff smaller version of the fish hat that I knit when I realized that I still had nothing to give my baby nephew, whom I was going to see the next day. The bodies of both fish are made of handspun yarn and the mouths, fins and tails are Briggs & Little Softspun. I couldn't be happier with how these hats turned out:

Since it is New Year's eve, I had a look at Ravelry to see what projects I finished this year. I'm quite pleased with just how many things I've knit:
1 baby blanket
1 skirt
1 scarf
1 shawl
1 pair of gloves (still unblogged)
1 pair of mitts
5 hats (two of which were for a baby)
7 sweaters (two of which for babies, and 4 of which were for me)
14 pairs of socks (5 of which were ankle socks)

Only three of these projects were started before the beginning of the year, the rest were started and completed in 2009. I'm also happy to say that 11 projects used yarn I made.

I've very pleased with this tally. With all of the upheaval that occurred this year I can't say that my knitting has really suffered. With tonight's forecast of -33 degree weather, I'm really thankful to be going into the new year with a lot of knitted wool clothes.

The sweater story

2009-12-27T22:00:00.005-06:00

Christmas preparations (knitting and other) prevented me from blogging as promised but I've finally found some time so here it goes. The last time I really talked about my Christmas sweater progress I was working on the shoulder area and I had a ball and a half left. It turned out that this was not enough yarn to finish the shoulder area even after I ripped out my gauge swatch and knit it into the sweater.

I still had a couple of balls of the brown yarn left so I decided to use some of the orange yarn from the body and make up the length by making the brown stripe wider. To do this I could have ripped all the way back and reknit the body with more brown and less orange. I probably had enough time to do this but I would have had to guess just how much yarn to leave for the shoulders and I would have had to reknit the whole top intarsia section. Instead I decided to cut the sweater in half.
I put the bottom section of the sweater on spare needles and I spliced the end of yarn from the bottom of the top section to my working yarn at the shoulders. I then knit the shoulders out of yarn that was unraveling from the middle of the sweater.

Once the top of the sweater was completed I put the loose stitches on another needle and then I used kitchener stitch to reattach the top and bottom of the sweater.

I'm not sure that it is clear from the picture, but the body was now a good 3 inches shorter than it needed to be. I had planned for this (though I was surprised that it at up quite so much length). My next move was to cut the brown section in half and knit another 3 inches into it. Of course this had to be done once for the front and once for the back because the brown section was knit back and forth to allow for the intarsia. Having knit the extra 3 inches I once again kitchener stitched the sweater back together.

Finally I sewed up my side and underarm seams and tucked in a whole lot of ends. Here is the result modeled by its recipient:
It fits and he's happy with it. Hurray.

I think that this sweater may deserve an award for most seams in a 'seamless' sweater design.

Made it

2009-12-23T22:53:00.001-06:00

The sweater is finished. I promise to write about the whole thing tomorrow, with lots of pictures. Now I just need to knit two hats.

Gone fishin'

2009-12-18T21:19:00.003-06:00

I took a break from sweater shenanigans to knit up another of my Christmas projects. I've had my eye on Knitty's Fish Hat for some time and I have a penchant for knitting novelty hats as Christmas presents. This year I have a nephew type person who likes to fish so I finally had my excuse.

I dug up some hand spun that was waiting for the right project, bought some Briggs and Little Soft spun for contrast and now I have this:
All it needs is some white felt for eyes and it is done. I'm hoping to find time on Sunday to buy felt and sew eyes and then this guy can be crossed off my list for good.

If the recipient doesn't like it, I'd gladly take it back and wear it everywhere. It is just such a cool and weird hat.

Intermission

2009-12-14T22:17:00.002-06:00

The Christmas sweater is progressing well. I ran out of yarn just short of the saddle shoulders, but I've found a solution that should work. I have pictures of this solution in progress and I promise to share soon.

First, though, I have to share a secret project from the summer:

Now that the winter knitty is up, I can share some of my summer sample knitting. Back in July I answered a call for sample knitters posted by Sarah Sutherland on Ravelry. We met and I took the job of knitting the sample of her 'Four Corners in Tokyo' sweater. It was an interesting and fun pattern, and getting paid to knit it was just the icing on the cake. I'm happy I get to add it to my Ravelry projects and write about it, now that it isn't so secret.

Final push

2009-12-09T22:57:00.001-06:00

The sleeves and the body are now one. The next few rows will be really long but the decreases will eventually take care of that. I have about a ball and a half left, so wish me luck.

Plugging along

2009-12-08T22:28:00.002-06:00

The second sleeve is about 4 1/2 inches away from completion. I'm finding the progress slow, but that is because I'm looking forward to knitting the shoulder section and discovering if I'll need more yarn. Tonight I'm thinking I will have just enough to finish but I'll probably change my mind again once I know just how much yarn the rest of this sleeve eats up.

We are certainly having a sweater worthy winter in Regina this year. The high today was -28, not counting any windchill there might have been. The low tonight is -35. My car does not have a block heater but so far has been bravely starting. I certainly hope it will start again tomorrow morning. Poor car just got used to winters in southern Ontario and Quebec and now it is back in the prairie deep freeze. I really need to get it a new block heater. Or maybe I should just knit it a sweater...

Plugging along

2009-12-07T22:42:00.002-06:00

I've now finished one sleeve and started on the second. Each sleeve takes slightly more yarn than a ball and a half, which means I will have less than two balls to knit the shoulder section of this sweater. I think this will be enough but I won't know until I've done it.

At least the suspense is motivating me to knit quickly.

No problem (?)

2009-12-06T23:06:00.003-06:00

The sweater is coming along really well. I have the body within an inch of where I will join the sleeves and I'm about half done the first sleeve. I don't think that finishing in time will be an issue. Now I'm just hoping that I won't run out of yarn.

I have 4 full skeins of yarn left. I think the sleeves will take about a ball and a half each, which will eat up 2 of the remaining balls. This should be enough to add a bit to the body and knit the shoulder section. I also have some small balls of the orange yarn thanks to the intarsia section.

I based my yarn needs for this sweater on the Swisher sweater I knit last year out of similar yarn. This sweater is longer but knit at a looser gauge. I also didn't use as much of the brown as I guessed I would so I effectively have about 2 balls fewer than I estimated I'd need. I think the looser gauge will save me, but it might be close.

Whenever I knit a sweater I'm always sure one minute that I will have tons of yarn leftover and then ten minutes later I'm sure that I will run seriously short. This is just one of the things that makes knitting sweaters interesting.

Round I go

2009-12-05T23:45:00.003-06:00

Tonight I got so caught up in knitting that I almost didn't get around to posting anything. The upside is that the intarsia section is now done and I'm back to working in the round. My guestimating was way off, though, and I didn't use nearly as much of the brown yarn as I planned. This may lead to not having enough orange yarn to finish the rest of the sweater.

I don't think that this will happen but I won't really know until my sleeves are knit. I still think the knitting fates are on my side. Fortune favours the foolhardy right?

A job for tomorrow

2009-12-04T22:30:00.003-06:00

I am now done the colourwork on one side of the sweater and I'm well underway on the second side. To my great relief the knitting gods seem to have ignored my reckless claims and may allow this sweater to be finished by Christmas. Furthermore it is actually starting to look like I hoped it would.

Tomorrow after work I should be able to get all of the intarsia done and then I can return to knitting in the round. Yay. First, though, I might have to do a bit of yarn wrangling:

Choices

2009-12-03T22:40:00.001-06:00

Tonight it came down to a choice between blogging or drinking beer.

Knitting flat out

2009-12-02T22:59:00.002-06:00

I made some decent progress on the Christmas sweater today. I spent my lunch hour winding small balls of yarn since this sweater involves an intarsia section. Tonight I took advantage of my prep work and set about actually knitting part of the intarsia. I have a bunch of ends to tuck in but the knitting was mercifully quick and mindless.

Since I wanted to knit this sweater in the round and using stranded knitting instead of intarsia was very impractical, I cast on in the round but am knitting the colour work section flat in two pieces. I will then join back into the round and sew two short sections of seam at the finishing stage. To make this work neatly I increased 4 stitches right before I started to knit flat so that my seamed section wouldn't be narrower than the seamless sections. In theory this should work. In theory.

Thankfully my brother will enjoy his Charlie Brown sweater enough to make all of this fiddling worthwhile.

2/13

2009-12-01T22:50:00.002-06:00

Now that the sweater is on the needles it is flying right along. I've knit almost two balls worth which, if I need the 13 balls that I ordered, means I'm about 15% finished. I've had to pause to do some simple charting but I should be back underway tomorrow. It is a nice feeling to be so productive. I may actually have time to do all of my Christmas knitting. Cue the ominous music.

Pretty little skeins

2009-11-30T22:20:00.002-06:00

Today was not as fiber centric as yesterday, but I did manage to get some photos of the fiber I plied up yesterday. First, here are three skeins of the fleece I was given by the guild:
The skein on top is Targhee spun longdraw from hand carded rolags. Next is Shetland spun worsted draw from hand carded rolags rolled to keep the fibers aligned (if that makes sense). I remembered the prep of this fleece but for some reason thought that it was Romney. Luckily I wrote about it earlier this month so I could go back and learn that it was actually Shetland. The last skein is the Romney prepped and spun woolen.

Once all of my samples are spun I'm going to have to knit them up into a scarf or something that can take advantage of all these little skeins. I may knit up a small sample of each just to get an even better sense of the wool characteristics.

Speaking of samples here are the small skeins of Romney I made from the top I bought when I bought my new spindle:
The one on top is the one I spun up on my spindle and the bottom one is the new one I spun up on my wheel. Part of my reason for buying these bits of Romney was I want to spin and knit myself a grey sweater and I wanted to see if either of these colours would work for me. While I really like both of them I don't think that either is quite the right grey for me. I will keep looking.

In the meantime I have finally cast on for the Christmas sweater after getting the needed measurements. The race is on.

No Christmas knitting today

2009-11-29T22:43:00.003-06:00

I had a lovely day off today playing with fiber. I did some spinning and a bunch of plying (pictures to follow) on my wheel. Then I took a break and finished up my snap dragon mitts. Finally I did some prep work so that I will have more things to spin next time I sit down at my wheel.

I'm very pleased with how the mitts turned out. If I had had any extra yarn I would have made them a few rows longer but they will work just fine as is. I ended up ripping the one mitt back several rows and starting the ribbing sooner, but I was in luck and had slightly more yarn in the second ball, so I did have enough yarn for some ribbing on the thumbs.

Tomorrow is another day off for me and I have made plans to get the measurements I need to get the sweater started. Now that the mitts are done there should be no other knitting to interrupt my Christmas knitting. Now if only I can keep myself from spending all of my time spinning...

Almost ready

2009-11-28T23:16:00.002-06:00

I didn't find much time to knit at work today, but after supper I managed to knit a few rows on my mitt and another gauge swatch for the Christmas sweater. I have now washed my gauge swatches and all that remains is to get the measurements for the sweater. With any luck I will have all of the measurements in the next day or two and I can really get started on this.

In the meantime I have my mitts and my spinning to keep me busy.

Reward for good behaviour

2009-11-27T21:04:00.002-06:00

I think I was right about the universe hiding my mitt pattern so that I would get going on Christmas knitting. Tonight I picked up the yarn for the Christmas sweater I'm planning and there was the mitt pattern hiding underneath. I'm going to be good and make a sweater gauge swatch instead of working on my mitts tonight.
Since the swatch will need to be measured and washed and measured again, I guess I will just have to work on my mitts instead tomorrow.

M.I.A.

2009-11-26T21:40:00.002-06:00

Not much to share tonight. I'm on the Thursday late shift and I had errands to run this morning, which means I didn't have much time to knit or spin. I did a few rows on the second mitt, but I seem to have lost the printed pattern for it sometime between when I went to bed last night and when I got up this morning. I think the universe is trying to make me work on my Christmas knitting.

Yarn

2009-11-25T22:30:00.003-06:00

Another lousy photo, but it shows one of my fingerless mitts all but done. The problem is that I am knitting these with leftover yarn, which I carefully divided in two, and I've run out. Ideally I would knit a couple more rows of ribbing at the top of the mitt and a few rows of ribbing around the thumb hole.
My plan is now to knit the second mitt in the hopes of having a bit more yarn leftover on it. If I don't have slightly more yarn, or God forbid I have less, I will place the thumb hole a bit lower on the mitt and make up the hand length that way.
In other yarn news, my Knit Picks order was delivered today. I now have the yarn I need to knit my brother's Christmas present sweater. Now I need to get together with him to discuss fitting and other pertinent details. I won't show pictures of the yarn tonight, since I'm sure it will soon dominate my blog and you will be lucky to see anything but it.

Restart

2009-11-24T22:31:00.002-06:00

Having finished the pair of socks, I needed something to take to knit night tonight. I would have taken my next Christmas knitting but I didn't have time to find the yarn and the needles, and print the pattern. So I picked up the fingerless mitts I've been making to match my orange hat. I found my 4 mm needles (or at least I found 4 of them) and my yarn and I was out the door.
I'm glad I switched from the 4.5 mm needle I was using on the first mitt (the one on the left.) The picture sucks, but the new mitt has better stitch definition and it also seems to have a better fit. Now I just need to finish the new mitt and rip out the old one and reknit it. I also need to not run out of yarn. Wish me luck (and remind me to get back to Christmas knitting).

Look what I have

2009-11-23T22:26:00.004-06:00

The once-birthday-and-now-Christmas-present socks are finally finished. What is more, I have actual natural lighting pictures of them:
I'm pretty pleased with these and I really hope they fit. Next on my Christmas knitting agenda is a hat, I think.

Of course I could have cast on a new project once the socks were finished, but instead I spun a bit on my spindle and then spun a bit more on my wheel. I didn't take any pictures of this work but I did snap a quick shot of the little skein of finished Romney spun up on my new spindle:

The yarn is about a fingering weight and I don't have a whole lot of it. I'm sure I will find something to do with it. I should soon have another little skein of a lighter coloured Romney spun up on my wheel. Perhaps I will have enough for a small hat or something. We shall see.

Fresh air

2009-11-22T21:33:00.005-06:00

My mother and I took advantage of the really nice November weather we've been having here and escaped the city. We drove out to one of the wetlands west of Moose Jaw and had a nice walk along the partially frozen shore. There wasn't much wild life around but I found plenty to interest me on the ground:
a pile of tiny shells,a patch of lacy ice,
and a patch of lacy ice catching the winter sun.
It was really nice to have a quiet walk with no real agenda. It was also nice to get home, curl up under a warm blanket and knit away at a sock. What a great day off.

Tired

2009-11-21T22:04:00.002-06:00

It was a long day at work today and boy am I glad that I have the next couple of days off. I had just enough energy to make a skein of my spindle yarn and drop it in some hot water. It isn't dry yet, but I like the look of the results so far.

I also managed to get the heel turned on the now Christmas socks. It will be nice to get them off the needles on my days off. With as many knitted gifts as I have planned another Christmas project should be cast on as soon as they are cast off. I guess I had better start thinking about which project will be next.

Or maybe I will just sleep for the next two days...

Spin by day and ply by night

2009-11-20T22:57:00.003-06:00

This morning before work I managed to finish spinning the last of my spindle singles. I was planning on letting them rest a little before trying to ply them up. That didn't happen.
After making a couple of really small samples, I decided that I wanted to make a 3 ply yarn. Going by weight I tried to split the singles into 3 equal parts. I wrapped the singles around some large marbles I had on hand and then plied from these balls.

I must admit that there was some cursing in the early going. Part of my problem was that the cat decided to help by chasing my little balls. I took a short break and when I picked it up again things went much more smoothly.

I'll probably make a small skein tomorrow and set the yarn. I look forward to seeing how the final product turns out.

Pictures as promised

2009-11-19T13:41:00.001-06:00

Success

2009-11-18T23:47:00.002-06:00

The socks did not get finished but I did get a lot of spinning done at the birthday fete. I'm going to chock this up as a success. I'm also going to post pictures tomorrow. Promise.

I give up

2009-11-17T22:59:00.002-06:00

Even after working away at the unfinished sock at knit night tonight it is still only at the heel. There is sadly no way that this pair of socks will be done in time for dinner tomorrow. Unless I called in sick at work... no, these socks will go unfinished.

Happily, though, I realized that while they would be late as a birthday present, they are a Christmas present ready well before they are needed. So the plan is that I will get something else as a present for tomorrow and hold these in reserve for Christmas.

Since they will eventually be a gift I will not be able to knit on them at tomorrow's party. Perhaps I should pack my spindle...

More than half done

2009-11-16T22:49:00.002-06:00

Well I managed to get one sock done and the second started. I'm not sure the pair will be done by Wednesday evening, though. I only really have tomorrow evening to work on finishing the second sock. At least one is finished and can be gifted. The second will be done sometime this week I'm sure. Wish me quick fingers.

Keep going

2009-11-15T22:17:00.002-06:00

Today I ignored the siren call of spinning and plugged away at the pair of socks I need done by Wednesday evening. I'm about half way through the foot portion of the first sock, so things are looking good.The trouble with tight deadlines is that they don't allow for a lot of ripping back to fix mistakes. I managed to make a couple of mistakes in the heel portion of this sock. The first mistake (and the only one I was even tempted to go back and try to fix) left me with an odd number of stitches after I'd finished the turn when I should have had an even number. I'm not sure where I made the mistake but if I had had more time I might have ripped back and redone the whole heel turn. Whatever went wrong here I will try not to repeat it on the second sock.

The second mistake that I realized part way through the gusset decreases involved not remembering that I had 4 more stitches on the last needle than on the other three. The result is that, instead of working the heel flap and turn on half of the sock's stitches, I worked it on just under half of the stitches. I decided I could live with this, as long as the second sock is made to match.

Hopefully by tomorrow night I will have this sock finished and it's twin progressing nicely.

Cast on

2009-11-14T22:51:00.002-06:00

This evening I finally set my new spindle down long enough to cast on the pair of socks that I'm hoping to have done by Wednesday evening. Since I want them to knit up quickly I didn't want to chose a fancy pattern or knit them entirely in ribbing. I did, however, want them to have some give in both width and length since I am making them to fit someone whose foot measurements I don't know exactly. I've settled on knitting 3 rows plain and then knitting one row of 2 x 2 ribbing. I'm pleased with the results so far.

The race is on.

Big plans

2009-11-13T21:59:00.002-06:00

Well, I managed to do almost nothing on the fibery front today. I spun a few more yanrds on my new spindle before work but that was about all. I have lucked into a 3 day weekend, though, so I'm planning to redeem myself. I have a pair of socks to make major headway on. I would also like to finish my fingerless gloves before it is too late to wear them. There is also spinning and plying to be done. With any luck this will be a very productive weekend.

But it will have to wait until tomorrow.

Temptation

2009-11-12T22:12:00.002-06:00

I had this morning off since I was on the evening shift. I took advantage of the free morning to make a quick run to Golden Willow, my LYS. The plan was to pick up a ball of sock yarn destined to be knit up into a very plain pair of socks that I want to knit as a present to be gifted next week.

I thought I might buy one of the more heavily patterned self striping sock yarn since I never get a chance to use it with most of my socks. After much contemplating I ended up buying a much plainer ball of Trekking XXL. The more patterned stuff just really didn't speak to me.

So I picked out my sock yarn and made my way to the till. And right there near the till was a jar full of Magpie Woodworks spindles. I have often considered ordering one of these spindles and here was a whole selection of them available without the worries of shipping. I succumbed to temptation. I am now the very happy owner of a top whorl cherry spindle.

My plans to cast on and get to work on this slightly rushed pair of socks gave way to playing with my new toy. I regret nothing.

Food and fiber

2009-11-11T22:45:00.003-06:00

Well, I took full advantage of having today off. I slept in, did some knitting, did some spinning prep, did some spinning proper and made quiche and sweet potato pie. I did not, however take day-lit photographs. In fact, by the time I decided to take pictures for my blog (which was well after I had eaten quiche and pie), I couldn't find where I had put my knitting project. So instead, here is a picture of some of the rolags I made out of the Shetland fleece sample:

I decided that I wanted to try spinning it with a worsted draw so instead of rolling the fleece off my handcarders top to bottom I rolled it side to side. This results in funny little rolags that are much shorter than the usual variety. I think I've spun a bit more than half; this picture is of all that remain.

I can't say that spinning Shetland this way is all that easy, but with mix of really different fiber lengths I don't think that spinning it woolen would be much simpler. I plan to prep the white Shetland to be spun woolen to see if I'm right about this.

Change of plans

2009-11-10T23:48:00.002-06:00

Sadly two person knit night was canceled because the other person wasn't feeling well. I shouldn't say 'canceled' since 'postponed' is closer to the truth. Since I was planning on spending the night at home I actually picked up an older project that has been languishing and started putting on the finishing touches.

My plan was to finish the neckband, take some bad flash photos, and then write about the whole history of the project. My mother invited me out for a beer, though, so knitting and photography was put on hold. I'm not complaining, it was a very tasty beer. The result is that I'm quickly writing up a post minus both knitting details and pictures before the strike of midnight.

Tomorrow is a day off, here, so there is some chance that knitting, photographing and blogging will take place at a more reasonable hour. Unless, of course, there is some change of plans.

I'm a genius!

2009-11-09T22:09:00.002-06:00

No new knitting to share tonight. I still need to find the needles I want to use for my fingerless gloves and I haven't cast on anything else in the meantime. This is sure to change tomorrow since it is my two person knit night and I will want to bring some sort of knitting.

Until then I thought I would share something about the crochet I showed off yesterday. As I'm pretty sure I have mentioned before I learned to crochet well before I learned to knit but I never did much with it and I never followed a written pattern. The first pattern I followed was for the hexagons I started back in April. It is a really clear, nicely written pattern so I didn't take my success with it as proof that I could actually use a crochet pattern.

After the hexagons I followed a pattern to learn to make granny squares. Again I thought that this only proved that I could follow this particular pattern. So yesterday when I found a picture in the old crochet pamphlets that caught my eye, I decided to see if I really could follow just any crochet pattern. Low and behold I could.

For several minutes I felt like a genius. Here I was able to follow the confusing looking instructions and make something that resembled the picture provided. Then it hit me that this are not a confusing code that I managed to crack using only my tenacity and careful reasoning. This was a set of instructions meant to be followed and written to be as easy to follow as possible. Oh well it was a nice feeling while it lasted.

Day of rest

2009-11-08T23:05:00.003-06:00

My Sunday off turned out to be less the day of knitting and well lit photographingthat I had planned and more a day of sleep and small projects. I ran some errands I needed to do with limited success and organized some of my stuff but that was about as productive as I got.

I kept starting or almost starting something only to move on shortly after. Most of what I did accomplish was a direct result of my foray into organization.

First I made a home for some old knitting and crochet patterns I was given several years ago. Inevitably I spent some time flipping through the pattern booklets looking for interesting things to make. This led me to try to follow one of the crochet patterns. It makes a table cloth of joined squares and I wanted to try to make one of the squares. I got this far before I had to run my errands:

I'm not using the right hook size or the correct yarn but it is more of a little experiment than anything else. I've learned that I can follow crochet instructions and I'm getting used to how to read my finished work.

Second, I found my hand cards so I made rolags out of the Targhee and the Grey Romney fleece that I got at the guild meeting. I then spun them up long draw on my wheel. I'll let them rest a day or two before I wind them off to ply. Unsurprisingly, the short stapled Targhee spins much better long draw than the long stapled Romney. I think I will try spinning the other two colours of Romney short draw.

And that was basically my day. I'm looking forward to next weekend when I actually get two days off in a row and I can run errands, catch up on sleep and get some knitting done. Or at least that is the plan and I think I've shown how good I am at following through on this sort of plan.

Whoops

2009-11-07T22:05:00.003-06:00

After writing last night that I had made two pairs of sock out of one ball of Opal sock yarn, I took a closer look at the pair of Rick socks and realized that the colour was the same but the yarn was not Opal. Then I remembered that I made a pair of ankle socks out of the Opal but forgot to take a picture of them before I gave them away. So while it is true that two pairs of socks were made out of this yarn it is not such an amazing feat after all. Sigh. That is what comes from not keeping better track of my summer knitting projects. I could also blame my penchant for buying very similar colours of yarn again and again.

While I'm admitting my faults I might as well share a not very good picture of the fingerless mitts I am making to match my orange hat:
I finally weighed my remaining yarn and I am cautiously optimistic about getting a pair of matching mitts of a reasonable length. Looking at the fabric produced so far, though, I am less sure about knitting these mitts with 4.5 mm needles. I think I may rip out my work so far and restart with 4 mm needles. I want my mitts to be a bit tougher and denser than my hat since they will be seeing more rough wear.

Luckily I have tomorrow off and I can devote some time to serious knitting. Unless, of course, I sit down at my spinning wheel. Whatever happens, I'll try my best to get in focus pictures in natural light.

Finished socks

2009-11-06T22:40:00.003-06:00

Since I had no other commitments tonight I managed to finish the pair of Monkey socks I have been working on. I think it took me longer to find the skein of contrast yarn for the second toe than it did to knit the thing. But the pair is finished and currently blocking.
What impresses me most about these socks is that the main colour yarn is the leftovers of the pair of Rick socks I knit in June and wrote about in July. One ball of Opal sock yarn yielded two pairs of socks. I might have to buy another ball or two.

I can now say that my Christmas knitting is well underway. Now I just need to figure out what I am going to knit for my brother for his birthday later this month. Hmm, maybe I should have started with that...

A nice welcome

2009-11-05T22:04:00.002-06:00

I wasn't sure if I was going to have a picture to show tonight. I actually managed to remember that there was a Weavers and Spinners guild meeting tonight and moreover I had both the energy and desire to attend. This meant, though, that I couldn't really spend my evening working on something to show the blog.

I was in luck, though. Tonight's guild meeting ended with the start of a fleece study. We were offered parts of several types of fleece to take home and spin up however we chose. We are supposed to bring in a small sample of our results along with details on how we achieved it. I now have bits of Sheltland (in two colours), Romney (in three colours), Targhee, Merino (top rather than fleece), and some sort of cross:
This bounty alone would probably ensure my return, but it turns out that the guild is also full of friendly welcoming people. I think my first Thursday of the month's evenings are now spoken for.

Day off

2009-11-04T22:20:00.003-06:00

I had today off and I did almost nothing, knitting or otherwise. I did find some time to work on the Monkey socks and I am now a toe short of being done the pair. I will wait until the pair is done and blocked before I show another picture, though.

Tonight I will share a picture of my current spinning project. I took advantage of being home during daylight hours to snap this photo:It is some merino that I dyed up when I dyed the wool for Liam's Surprise Jacket. I've divided the top into 3 equal strips so that I will get clearer stripes. I've spun up one third of the top and am now working on the second third. I think the final 3 ply should come out about fingering weight.

I think it is interesting that I rarely crave spinning on a spindle the way I do spinning on my wheel or knitting but when I actually start I find it very hard to put down. I find that I prefer spinning merino on my spindle rather than on my wheel, but I'm not sure quite why.

Tomorrow night I'm thinking of attending the Regina spinning and weaving guild's monthly meeting. I'd love to have fellow spinners to hang out with. If I go I'm sure my spindle and merino will go with me. There really is something to be said for portable spinning tools.

Coffee and knit night

2009-11-03T22:27:00.003-06:00

More or less since I moved back to Regina my friend Veronica and I have been getting together Tuesday nights to drink warm caffeinated beverages, chat and knit. Two or three weeks ago I didn't have a portable project on the go so I grabbed some sock yarn and some needles and a pattern book. My plan was to start knitting some new socks but all of the patterns in the book required a bit more focus than I had that night. So I cast on for yet another pair of Monkey socks.

It was just as well I didn't get started on something more complicated since I realized shortly after that the yarn I had picked up was already half gone. I decided to use some contrasting yarn for the heels and toes of my Monkey socks so that if I ran out it wouldn't be as obvious.

So far so good. I am finished one sock up to the toe and am about this far into the second sock:

At my current rate of progress I will need to find a new project for next week's knit night. I will also have the first of my Christmas knitting done. Hurray for Monkey socks.

Perfect fall hat

2009-11-02T22:05:00.006-06:00

OzB wants pictures which rules out my current works in progress. Luckily (?) I have several finished projects that never made it to the blog. I think my favorite of the lot is my Snapdragon hat:
This project began back in April when I was participating in a Ravelry spin along. The challenge was to spin something everyday. I had a bunch of white wool top which I dyed up in small batches so that I would have something colourful to spin. One of the batches of top came out a really lovely bright orange:
As soon as the top was dry I sat down at my wheel and spun it up and then made it into a simple 2 ply:
I ended up with about 300 yards of yarn somewhere between a fingering weight and a dk weight. It reminds me a lot of Shetland jumper weight yarn used for colour work.

I loved the yarn but didn't have a project in mind so it remained on the top of my stash pile waiting for me to find the perfect thing. I thought about using it for some stranded work but I wasn't sure what colour I would use it with or what sort of garment it would work best as.

The I spotted the Snapdragon hat on Ysolda's blog. The yarn weight was just about right and the colour matched so I jumped on the excuse to buy the entire Whimsical Little Knits 2 collection.

I cast on September 17 and was done a couple of days later. I've been wearing this hat every chance I get since it came off my needles. It is the perfect fall weight hat and I'll be sad when it finally gets cold and windy enough here that I'll need something warmer.

I still have some yarn left so I've been working on a pair of fingerless gloves to go with the hat. I don't know if I'll have enough yarn to knit the mits I have in mind but we shall see. One of these days I'll get a picture of them...

It's November already

2009-11-01T22:09:00.002-06:00

Now that it is November all of the Christmas knitting plans that have been quietly stewing in the back of my mind should star appearing on my needles. Since I've got several hats planned, a few pairs of socks, and a sweater I should really be getting a move on. So far I'm half done one of the pairs of socks and I'm getting ready to place an order with Knit Picks for the sweater yarn.

November also means that it's time for NaBloPoMo, which gives me some extra motivation to return to the blogging habit.

Here's to a productive month.

Surprise

2009-10-18T17:09:00.006-06:00

At first I didn't have internet on my computer, and then I spilled coffee on my keyboard and got by using my mouse alone, and all the while I was spending most of my knitting time working on secret projects, but eventually I bought a new keyboard and finally found time and inclination to show off some knitting on my blog. Surprise!

I thought it was appropriate to take this opportunity to show off a project that I was working on sporadically for the better part of my blog silence. Though I don't think I mentioned it on the blog, my brother was expecting a baby boy in mid October. I decided that this was a good excuse to make another Baby Surprise Jacket out of handspun. To this end I bought some superwash merino roving and dyed it blue, yellow and brown.
Since I'm not crazy about spinning superwash merino worsted style, I took my hand cards to the coloured roving and turned it into a pile of rolags. This mixed the colours and toned them down.
I then sat down at my CPW and made a nice woolen 3 ply.
Sometime in the course of all of this my nephew Liam was born. Since he arrived on time in the first half of August, there was no real hurry to get him wrapped up in a wool sweater. However, as the end of September approached it seemed like the right time to get the sweater started. I finished it on October 4, just after the cold weather arrived.
There was a day delay between when the sweater was all ready to go and when I could drop it off, so I took some of the leftover yarn and knit an Aviator cap. I'm really glad I did, too.

Sadly without internet

2009-08-03T08:18:00.002-06:00

Things may have been quite on the blog the last couple of weeks but that is because they have been crazy in ever day life. I've just finished moving, by which I mean that everything has been moved to the new place and things are slowly emerging from boxes and looking for places to settle. Now I'm just waiting to have the internet hooked up at the new place (the long weekend isn't speeding things along) and borrowing my brother's computer once in awhile to check email and waste time.

Soon, though, I will have my computer online again and I can dig my two almost finished projects out of wherever they got packed and take pictures and everything. See you again soon.

Flyer assembly

2009-07-20T22:07:00.004-06:00

Having promised pictures of a near completed scarf I will now have to renege. I did some knitting on the scarf and some knitting on the long neglected Tempest sweater but I failed to take pictures of either before it got dark. Since I am off work at 6 tomorrow there is some chance I will take pictures then.

I did, however, take pictures of the flyer assembly of my CPW in order to help answer Jane's question in yesterday's comments. When it is all put together and ready to spin my flyer looks like this:

and all taken apart it looks like this:

So now I'm curious what part, if any, Jane is missing.

For anyone interested in CPWs there is a great resource developing in one of the groups on Ravelry.

Mother and daughter spinning wheels

2009-07-19T22:04:00.004-06:00

My current work schedule gives me Sunday and Monday off and has me working a mix of morning and evening shifts the rest of the week. This does not make it easy to find the time and motivation to blog twice a week. I will keep trying, though.

Despite the weird work hours I am getting knitting done. I finished the last pair (for now) of ankle socks but then gave them away before I got a picture of them. D'oh! I'm also about two thirds of the way through my flutter scarf. I promise to take a picture of it tomorrow; it might be finished but it probably won't be blocked.

I did take time, yesterday, to take some pictures of my old Canadian production spinning wheel and my mother's even older Canadian production spinning wheel.
Mine is the one on the right. One of these days I will do a proper post about these wheels. They are fantastic machines. I really want to find the time to figure out their dimensions and ratios. Until then I will just say that there is a good reason that this was the wheel that I packed up and moved across country with me, despite the fact that it is much larger and less collapsible than the Lendrum that I parted with. To spin on a CPW is to never want to not spin on a CPW.

200th post

2009-07-12T19:44:00.004-06:00

My second post of the week, like my first post of the week, is mostly socks. I've finished the pair of ankle socks I was making with my leftovers from the Monkey Rooster socks.
I used a short row heel for these socks. I discovered that I prefer the fit of heel flaps to the short row heels on these short socks. I find the short row heels cause the back of the sock to ride a bit too low.

So for my next pair I went back to heel flaps:
I used some Trekking leftovers for these and let the self striping yarn make them look interesting. My next pair will be knit out of a solid coloured Opal yarn so I'm going to knit them in the Monkey lace pattern to make things interesting. After they are finished I may take a break from ankle socks for a while.

Also on my needles is a nice straight forward lace project, the Flutter scarf:
I'm using the leftover Habu silk laceweight from my first lace project, the Icarus shawl. It should make a lovely scarf. It will have to wait until I finish this last pair of ankle socks, though...

Still more socks

2009-07-06T18:52:00.006-06:00

Here I was thinking it had been a couple of weeks since I last blogged and that I should get back to it only to discover that it has been more than a month. When I think back to all of the things I planned to share I guess I shouldn't be too surprised. From now on, though, I fully intned to blog at least twice a week. With any luck this will also motivate me to knit more than just plain mindless socks.

When last I blogged I was half way through a pair of Wanidas. After I finished the second of the pair (which I still haven't photographed) I cast on for a pair of Rick socks from the same book.

This pattern makes a beautiful pair of socks (again, only one of which I have managed to photograph). All of the twisted stitching make it a more time consuming knit but well worth the effort.

The Rick, Wanida and Grey and Blue Monkey socks were given to my mother for her birthday. I managed to finish the Rick pair the night before her birthday, much to my relief. I was also relieved that she hadn't guessed that the socks that I was knitting and she was admiring were in fact for her. So you can blame at least some of my lack of blogging on my mother.

The next pair of socks on my needles was another pair of Monkeys. These were comissioned by my mother for one of her friends. They are knit mostly out of Kroy sock yarn, but since I ran out before the end of the second sock I had to employ another bit of stash yarn. Had I been making these for myself I would have ripped out the first toe and knit it to match. My mother has an odd penchant for asymmetry so the socks don't match. I've been thinking of these as my 'toe the line' monkey socks.
Lest one get the impression that all of my sock knitting was for gifts, here are a couple of pairs of ankle socks I have been working on (one pair finished and one half done):
Since I am wearing shorts at work a lot I decided that ankle socks would come in very handy. Of course, since I finished the first pair the weather has become cooler and I have been wearing pants and full sized socks but the theory is otherwise sound. By the end of the summer I hope to have quite the collection of stash busting ankle socks (just in time for winter).

Socks, socks and more socks

2009-06-09T18:04:00.008-06:00

Having not done a lot of knitting in the past couple of months, I am now on a sock knitting jag. It started with the pair of Monkey socks I cast on at the end of the month. I chose to knit them because I was in need of a pattern I could knit easily and I had some stripy yarn in my stash that I thought would work well. I'm quite happy with the result as is my mother who has claimed them for herself.

I planned to follow the pattern as written but I forgot a couple of the plain knitting rows in the pattern. I didn't feel like ripping back so I knit both socks with a slightly compressed lace pattern. They are knit out of the Austermann Step sock yarn that contains Aloe and jojoba. It is nice soft yarn but it makes my nose run when I knit with it so I don't think I will be buying more of it.

I finished the Monkey socks on the fourth and immediately cast on for a pair of Angee socks from Cookie A's new book. I used the Louet Gems yarn that didn't work for the Intertwined Leaves socks and a 2.5 mm set of needles. I'm much happier with how the yarn worked with this pattern. I still found the fabric a bit loose and when I knit with this yarn in the future I will try to remember to go down to a 2.25 mm needle for the heel and sole of the sock.

I was far enough into the foot of the sock when I realized I wanted the fabric a bit tighter that I didn't want to rip back. Since the yarn is super wash I simply put the finished sock in the dryer for a little bit and that tightened everything up just enough.

I finished the Angee socks on the seventh and the next day I cast on for the Wanida socks from the same book. By tomorrow I should have the pair finished. I hope the next picture I take captures the colour of the yarn better. It is Shelridge Farm Soft Touch Ultra in Pumpkin, though I find the colour much more coppery in person. It has a lovely shine that is really hard to photograph.

The Wanida pattern is a much quicker knit than the Angee but that might be in part because I have already knit a pair. In fact I knit the pair that appears in the book.

The sample knitting was fun and the fact that a pair of socks I knit appears in a book makes me happy. It doesn't hurt that I also get my name in the acknowledgments. I would jump at the chance to sample knit again.

Finally, while I am on the topic of socks, I should share a pair of socks that I knit just before my life got turned upside down. I knit these out of yarn I spun up back in October of 2007 (and blogged about in November 2007). Since I only had 200 yards, I knit them toe up and finished them with a picot edge. They fit much better than my first pair of handspun socks and I only wish I had had more yarn. Still, having ankle socks can be quite useful in the warmer months.

Stress relief

2009-05-31T21:12:00.003-06:00

There's still time for another blog post before May turns into June (!!!). In keeping with the end of the month I have the end of a project to share. Unfortunately it is not a finished object but a frogged object. I'm trying to avoid thinking about the theme of unraveling.

I originally cast on the Interlocking Leaves sock pattern on April 22 using 2.5 mm needles. I found the fabric a bit too loose so I ripped out and started again with 2.25 mm needles. The fabric was perhaps a bit too dense but I persevered during the times I felt like knitting. I got the lace pattern more or less memorized and I started to make actual progress.
At this point I stopped and tried it on only to discover that the heel was uncomfortably tight. I could have just ripped back and reknit the heel but I wasn't happy enough with how it was turning out to make that worthwhile. As of this evening the sock has been frogged.

I still really like this pattern and would like to knit a pair of socks from it. First I need to find another sock yarn (I was using Louet's Gems super fine.) Then I need to find another pattern to use with this sock yarn.

In the meantime I have cast on for a pair of Monkeys in one of my stash yarns. I think I can handle Monkeys. Maybe casting on will act as some sympathetic magic to help me find and start a new job.

Maybe I should also cast on some lace, and maybe a sweater,...

I should have been blogging

2009-05-29T21:26:00.005-06:00

May is almost over and I don't want the whole month to disappear without a single post. It has been a very eventful couple of months since last I blogged. I kept meaning to blog but I was too caught up in what I was doing to sit down and type about it.

The first thing I should have blogged was my return to crochet. I learned to crochet when I was 12 or 13 but never learned to follow patterns. Mostly I made slouchy hats following my mother's instructions.

Early April found me wanting to learn how to make one of the many wonderful hexagon blankets to be found on Ravelry. I tracked down the great instructions on attic24 and re-familiarized myself with the names of the stitches. After a couple of mistakes I had the hang of it. I practiced with leftover yarn I had and was completely hooked (pun intended?)
I've got a small pile of hexagons started using leftover bits of my hand spun. I especially love how hand spun singles and crochet mix to produce shapes with lovely drape. Branching out I also found simple instructions for granny squares and started making them with hand spun too.

I should also have blogged my adventures in woolen spinning. I recently bought some hand cards and I finally sat down and started making rolags. I'd done a bit of long draw spinning with some commercial Shetland roving but I'd never tried with hand carded rolags. My first attempt was with some old fleece my mother passed on to me. I eventually made it into a bulky three ply to hide some of the unevenness that comes with learning a new technique.
I kept practicing with various bits of fleece and left over roving and I now feel quite comfortable spinning this way. I also feel comfortable doing some colour blending with the handcards. I also tried spinning cotton from a rolag with some success.

The crochet and woolen spinning all took place in early and mid April. At the end of April Ken and I broke up and I moved back to Regina. I found new homes for my Lendrum and the old non-functional spinning wheel but packed my old Production wheel. Most of my stash is now stashed in with my boxes of books and other possessions. But I have my spinning wheel and spindles out where I can use them regularly. I find spinning to be a relaxing and calming thing to do while I try to find a new job and place to live.

The last week or so I've been practicing spinning on my top whorl Forrester spindle. I've now got the hang of rolling it off my thigh for speed and I've been spinning lace weight pretty consistently. My favorite result so far is a silk single and a merino single plied together. I don't have much of it but I'm sure I will find something nice to do with it.
So that's what I've been up to in the last two months. Fingers crossed that things settle down and I can find a job, unpack my stash and get knitting again.

Sweater pictures

2009-04-02T19:21:00.007-06:00

So apparently it takes me as long to get around to photographing a sweater as it does for me to knit it. Last Thursday I finished the last of the knitting on my handspun yoke sweater and now I finally have pictures to share:

I'm pretty happy with how this turned out, though it is a bit loose in the yoke at the back. I was worried that it wouldn't have as much ease as I wanted but it relaxed when I washed it and now it fits just as I wanted. I'm glad I washed my gauge swatch else this sweater would have been much too large.

While I'm at it I should share some pictures of my Juno sweater:

It is the leftovers of this sweater that went into the body of the yoke sweater. I finished it at the end of January but only took pictures of it today. Sigh.

Maybe now I'll get around to finishing and photographing my Tempest.

Soon with button bands

2009-03-25T19:03:00.003-06:00

Not a great picture but I didn't want to wait for daylight. Today I knit a bottom for the sweater and one button band and then I ripped them out. I took time to take the picture between knitting and ripping.

I decided that I wanted the dark collar to go all the way to the end rather than being interupted by the button bands. I also decided that I wasn't completely crazy about the ribbing I was using for the button bands. Garter stitch seemed like a better fit. Since the bottom of the sweater is also garter stitch I decided to rip it out too and have a nice continuous band of garter stitch with mitered corners.

So now I'm working on reknitting the bottom and button bands. Once that is done I'll rip out the current collar and reknit it so that it meets. Then I will have a finished sweater. Hurray.

Now with sleeves

2009-03-24T19:37:00.002-06:00

Well the yoke sweater now has sleeves. It took me a few tries to get the sleeve length and shape right which means I now have a couple of extra ends to tuck in when it is finished. I like them as they are now, though.

I decided to do the cuffs using a size smaller needle and discovered that I do have 5.5 mm DPNs after all, but I don't have 5 mm DPNs. Grr. So I knit the cuffs using the 5.5 mm DPNs and slightly fewer stitches. As a result I knit the stockinette portion of the sleeves flat and the garter portion in the round. In other words I unintentionally made sure I was always purling every second row.

Now I'm planning to pick up stitches for the button bands and the bottom of the sweater. I'm still debating whether I should knit these in 2x2 ribbing or garter. There is also a little voice telling me I should skip the button bands and put a zipper in instead. I'll sleep on it and decide how to finish this sweater in the morning.

A slightly strange sweater

2009-03-22T15:39:00.007-06:00

I think I'm finally working on a knitting project whose progress deserves to be blogged about. In fact I've meant to blog about it since I cast on on Thursday but knitting kept getting in the way. Luckily I ran out of yarn and had to search my stash which gave me a good reason to set the knitting down, take some photos and write this blog post.

First a bit of background. When I dyed the Falklands handspun blue I was planning to knit it up into a sweater for Ken. To that end I knit up a striped swatch using the Falklands and some aran weight blue tweedy wool I had left over from knitting my Juno sweater (which still needs to be properly blogged). I liked the swatch but wasn't completely crazy about the stripes. The two yarns worked really well together, though, and it was a great way to use the thicker skein of Falklands.
Bumming around Ravelry I discovered these two sweaters (Ravelry links) and fell in love. I decided to knit myself a yoke sweater with the Faulklands for the yoke and cuffs and the navy tweed for the rest.

I had one problem however; the yarns knit up best on a 5.5 mm needle and although I had two pairs of straight needles in this size I lacked circulars and dpns. I didn't want to buy more needles so I decided to stick with straights. I wanted to knit this sweater from the top down so that I could adjust edgings and cuffs and over all length based on how much yarn I had left. I therefore decided to knit a top down sweater with side seams and underarm seams.

On Thursday I cast on for the yoke which I was knitting all in one piece. I started by following Barbara Walker's top down instructions. I wasn't sure whether to change the rate of increase (4 stitches every row) since I was knitting garter stitch rather than stockinette. I knit and ripped several times while adjusting the increases and the number of stitches cast on. By the end of Thursday's knit night I had decided on using the same rate of increases and following the Walker pattern had produced this:
On Friday I ripped all of my work out and started again without the extra neckline shaping. I increased 8 stitches every wrong side row and soon had the yoke portion completed. Part way through the yoke I had too many stitches to fit comfortably on one needle. Since I had two pairs of straight needles, I put half of the stitches on one needle, half on the other and then knit them using a third. It was just like knitting on DPNs while working flat rather than in the round.
Since the yarn is thick, the pattern simple and the needles big this project is just flying along. The fronts and back are basically done and I'm just working on the sleeves. If all goes well (and I don't have to go searching through my stash again for more of the leftover yarn) I think this sweater will be done in a couple of days.
Back to knitting for me.

More handspun

2009-03-16T17:49:00.005-06:00

It's Monday again which means it's time for my weekly blog update. One of these days I'll get on a more frequent schedule but until I do Monday is blog day. This last week I did some spinning and finished a pair of socks but I'll stick to the spinning for this post.

My most recent creation is the result of having a few bits of BFL top lying around which had been dyed in various shades of green. I used these bits of fiber to soak up excess dye from some of my earlier experiments with darker greens. Some of the top was a saturated yellow-green and some was a much less saturated blue green. I split these into strips and alternated them as I spun. I then plied the resulting single to itself to get a nice sport/dk weight yarn.

Before I spun it up I was thinking that I would probably over dye the yarn but once I saw how it was coming out I decided to leave it as is. I really love this little skein and I can't wait to knit it up into something. Spring is coming, though, and I no longer feel the need to knit mitts or winter hats. I only have about 170 yards and I'm not sure what to do. I'm thinking I might do something with stripes. Suggestions?

Prior to knitting up my BFL leftovers I was working on a couple of pounds of Falklands. Well it started out as a couple of pounds of white Falklands wool form Hello Yarn. Some of it got spun up as a two ply which I have been making into the wintergreen mittens (the subject of a future post, I promise). The remainder I used getting the hang of spinning on my old Quebec Production wheel (also due a proper blog post). I spun the singles on the production wheel and turned them into a three ply yarn on the Lendrum (with some cursing). A couple of weeks ago I finished up the last of it.

Since it was spun over the course of several months with long breaks in between, the final skein doesn't quite match the previous ones. It is better plied but it is also thicker and stiffer; the last skein is an aran weight and the others are dk/worsted. I'm currently trying to decide if I knit it up alternating skeins or knit separate projects.

I'm getting ahead of myself. After I finished all of the spinning I decided to try dying it (the cat thought it should be left as is for her comfort).
I got the big stock pot and tossed it in with some blue dye and vinegar. Thanks to temperature gradients I didn't get an even colour, but I'm still happy with the results. The final, thicker skein is 350 yards and the others are 126, 260 and 442 yards respectively. The two large skeins are much too large for my ball winder to handle so I've balled them up by hand. I took this picture after the 350 yard skein was balled but before I did the 442 yard one.All of this Falklands yarn has a beautiful sheen. I would jump on the chance to knit more Falklands. It drafts beautifully and produces a really beautiful worsted spun yarn.

Now I just need to decide what to knit.

Handspun and Garter stitch

2009-03-09T15:48:00.006-06:00

I guess it is time for my weekly update. I have a lot of spinning and knitting to show off from last week and I think I'll split it up into a few posts. Today I want to show off a couple of baby gifts that got mailed off to their new home this afternoon.

The octagonal baby blanket finally got its stars. I used this knitted stars pattern, only worked in the round. The actual colour of the blanket is somewhere between how it appears in these two photos.

I also knit up a Baby Surprise Jacket. A trip to the library got me the pattern and I had the yarn already spun up and waiting. It is the pink and green merino that I had originally intended as part of a handspun swap. It wasn't up to snuff as a skein but it knit up really beautifully. It is so soft and springy. I was really worried that I would run out of yarn since I only had about 250 yards. As it turned out I had just enough. There was only about a yard left over after I had cast off.
The jacket took about a day to knit and I would gladly knit another. It really is a very charming pattern.

Update

2009-03-02T18:12:00.003-06:00

I thought I'd write up a quick post before I fell too far behind on my blog again. I've been doing some spinning recently but I don't have any pictures at the moment. I spun up some baby alpaca that has been sitting around for quite awhile. It is lovely and shiny but I was surprised by how much dirt came out when I set the twist. I'm used to very clean roving/top but I guess alpaca doesn't need washed like wool does so that step is sometimes skipped. Next time I use preprepared alpaca I'll be sure to wash a bit before I spin.

I also spun some of the dark BFL that I dyed red. I haven't figured out the yardage yet and I'm not sure what it will become. I also discovered a partial bobbin with undyed dark BFL singles on it so I plied it up.

I think I just convinced myself that I should do a yarn photo shoot in the next couple of days.

I do have a picture of my most recently finished pair of socks. They are a simple ribbed design using some yarn that has been in my stash a couple of years. I used to have the label but I don't think it came with me when I last moved. All that I remember is that is is hand dyed and that I bought it at a booth at the Kitchener Waterloo Knitter's sale. These socks are for someone else but I've already cast on a pair of socks for myself using the yarn leftovers. I seem to be on a bit of a leftover sock yarn knitting jag. Pictures to follow.

Catching up

2009-02-22T17:10:00.004-06:00

Sorry it has been so long since the last post. I got caught up knitting with my hand spun and then I caught a cold which derailed my knitting and blogging plans for a couple of weeks. Despite a cough that doesn't seem to want to go away I am feeling better and am ready to sow off my recent knitting.

My most recently started and finished project is a pair of monkey socks. I ran across my Dream in Color Smooshy sock yarn leftovers and decided that I had enough for another pair of socks. I was almost right. I dug up some leftover Louet fingering yarn for the toes and now I have a new pair of socks.
Before I got sidetracked by easy socks I was working on a couple of pairs of Wintergreen mittens. I knit the first mitten on 3.25 mm needles without swatching and it came out just barely large enough. I like it enough that I'm not going to frog it but I decided to knit another pair on larger needles. The second pair is going to be a gift and I've been fiddling with the pattern to get it just right. I won't go into all of the details right now but here is a picture of the first mitten and the first attempt at the second pair of mittens.
I thought I might prefer green on white but then I decided that white on green really looked better so I frogged. Since then I've been through so many different adjustments that these mittens really need their own post. I will mention, though that these are knit out of the green handspun BFL that I dyed and the white Faulkland's two-ply that I originally spun as part of my 3 wool sweater. I'm glad I didn't use it in the sweater because it is perfect for these mittens.
Finally here is the octagonal baby blanket that I knit in garter stitch using the Garnet merino and the Crown Mountain Farms Corriedale I spun last month. I'm planning to embellish it with a couple of knit stars and then get it in the mail for a friends' baby who is due at the beginning of March. Looking at the baby blanket and my newest socks I'd say I'm on a blue/purple and red jag.

Hat and yarn

2009-01-28T18:46:00.006-06:00

I may have mentioned this before, having blog posts planned out seems to get in the way of my blogging. After my last post I planned to get picture of my hat and sweater taken so that I could write one post about both finished objects. I managed to snap a couple of pictures of my hat but the sweater, while finished, remains unphotographed. If I hadn't been planning a post with both items I would have certainly posted my hat photos last week.

The sweater almost got photographed today but the light wasn't bright enough, so it will just have to wait. Here are a couple of pictures of my Thorpe:

The first one shows the colour best but I like the second one because you can see more of the coat I knit the hat to match. I love this hat but I think I may knit another red hat. Thorpe is warm but somewhat hair crushing. I have vague plans for another slouchy hat to match my bright red coat.

While I don't have pictures of a sweater to complete this post, I do have some handspun pictures to share. The garnet merino from a couple of posts ago is all spun up and ready to be knit.
It is about 220 yards of DK/Worsted weight yarn. I'm still planning to use it to edge the baby blanket that I'm knitting out of handspun. It is so soft and beautiful and should go wonderfully with the Twilight Corriedale.

The other handspun I have to show off came to me as part of a swap (the swap I spun the Amethyst merino for). This is a really beautiful skein of 50/50 shetland and merino in blues and yellows and browns. I can't wait to knit this up into something. I'm thinking gloves...

Finishing touches

2009-01-22T14:08:00.003-06:00

Yesterday as I was writing my post about all of the spinning I've been doing I decided that I needed a quick project to knit up. Enter Thorpe using leftover yarn from a sweater that I keep promising to post about. Since I was using a heavy worsted weight yarn instead of a bulky yarn I knit the larger size and got a hat that fits my small head.

However the worsted weight yarn also gave me a thin feeling hat and since I made this hat purposely to match my heavier winter coat I decided that the hat needed to be thicker. So I cast on for a lining using the black Cascade 220 that I used for the trim.

Now my hat is nice and thick and the perfect pairing for my cold weather Hudson's Bay Blanket coat. The other benefit of knitting and sewing in the hat's lining was that it got me in the mood to do some sewing up. I dug out my partially sewn up Juno sweater and got cracking. I might actually have it as a finished object in the near future. (We shall not speak of the Tempest which also needs sewn up.)

I will post pictures of the hat tomorrow once it is dry and I have decided if I am going to embellish it with a tassel.

Dyeing and Spinning

2009-01-21T12:49:00.007-06:00

Lots of pictures today. I have been spinning up a storm these days, which probably explains why I haven't been knitting much (well not knitting much since I finished all that knitting I was doing).

It started off with some merino that I spun up for a hand spun swap on Ravelry. Though I loved the colours I hadn't spun merino for a long time and the result was more uneven than I liked. I'm sure it will knit up beautifully but I didn't think it made a very nice swap skein. I think I may try knitting the baby surprise jacket with it. It is about 250 yards of a dk/sport weight yarn.

Since I still needed a skein to swap I played around with dying some white merino I had on hand. It came out a really lovely mix of purples (I think of it as an Amethyst colour). It also spun up much more evenly. It has been sent to and received at its new home.

Between the two merino swap skeins I started spinning the Crown Mountain Farms Corriedale Pencil roving. It spun up really quickly and I now have 680 yards of worsted weight yarn. The plan is to knit this into some sort of baby blanket with a softer merino edging.

With that in mind I dyed up the rest of my white merino. I was aiming at a sort of raspberry colour and got a darker garnet colour that I am really happy with. I purposely dumped in more vinegar than needed so that the colour would break and give me something more mottled. I really can't wait to start spinning this.

Once the merino was as full of dye as it was going to get I still had rather a lot of dye in the water. I dug out my dark BFL and dumped it in to soak up the last of the dye. I'm also thrilled with the colour it came out and it too may become part of the baby blanket.

All of this hand spun baby stuff is for a couple of grad school friends of ours who are expecting their first in early March. Winter babies need wool as far as I am concerned. It is also a lot of fun to make baby stuff. So stay tuned for cute knitting.

Another finished project

2009-01-19T10:04:00.002-06:00

After finishing my Cafe Latte skirt the only project that I still had on the needles (omitting the two projects that are waiting to be seamed) was the Cliete. I dug out my red roving and spun up enough yarn to finish the last repeat. Unfortunately I used the wrong red roving (I have two batches) and the new yarn didn't have the same saturation as the rest of the shawl. It took me knitting many rows before I finally admitted to myself that it really wasn't a close enough match. So I sat down again with the other red roving and spun up some more yarn.

Once I had the right yarn, it didn't take me long to finish knitting up the shawl. I finished the bind off last Friday and then washed and blocked it. I thought about taking pictures of it yesterday but it was kind of grey and dreary. Today is also kind of grey and dreary but I took photos anyway.

The picture doesn't exactly capture the colour but it is close. When Ken saw it pinned out he said it looked like a phoenix and it really does have a fire/feather look.

First project of the year

2009-01-12T13:56:00.004-06:00

I'm glad I didn't make a New Year's resolution to blog every day otherwise I would be feeling pretty disappointed about now. I'm going to blame short winter days and my inability to get decent photos taken of my WIPs for my lack of recent posts. Today, though, I finished my first project of the new year and got Ken to take some pictures while it was still light out. Yay.

This is Veronik Avery's Shocking skirt. I wanted to knit a skirt but I didn't want a light summer weight skirt that seem to required a slip which sort of undermines summer wear-ability. A nice worsted weight wool skirt seemed perfect and this is a beautiful design.

I knit it with a variety of yarns. I originally planned to knit it using Knit Pick's wool of the Andes in Chocolate and Cloud. I ordered the yarn at the same time as they yarn for Ken's sweater. Unfortunately Cloud was back ordered so the project was put on the back burner. I finally decided to use a light beige Cascade 220 with the Chocolate Wool of the Andes and Lamb's Pride's Brown Bear for the accents.

Though I bought the Lamb's Pride especially for this project it took me a while to decide if it was the right thing. I tried a dark brown handspun and a navy blue tweed
as accent yarns before deciding that the Lamb's Pride was the best of the options. Part of my indecision was fueled by the fact that I don't have much brown in my wardrobe and I'm not always sure what looks best with it.

I've been thinking of this skirt as my 'Latte with Cinnamon" skirt. The mix of dark brown and light beige remind me of milky coffee and the Lamb's Pride is the perfect cinnamon colour. Now I just need to wear it out for coffee.

Trying on my skirt for the first time made me want to mix and match some outfits:

It looks great with my Tangled Yoke. Peach and brown is one of the colour combinations that I love and tend to return to again and again. I actually thought that I might use peach yarn for the skirt accents before I decided to try something new.

I also love how it works with my Value Village Shearling coat. Now I just need some nice brown boots...

Wrap up

2008-12-31T14:35:00.005-06:00

Between traveling and holiday craziness I've put off blogging too long. Now that the year is at an end I thought I should post my last couple of projects.

I almost finished Vinnie while in Regina. I managed to get everything but his cape knit before leaving. I had to knit his cape and stick it in the mail. Sadly it arrived just after Christmas; but I'm sure my nephew will forgive the tardy wardrobe.

I'm so pleased with how this turned out. It is such a great pattern with lots of nice little details. I think if I knit it again I will knit the clothes on a slightly bigger needle. A bit more positive ease would make it easier to get his pant legs and sleeves on.

I did go up several needle sizes for his cape which required that I adjust the number of stitches so that it would be the correct size. I wanted the cape to have more drape and I also wanted it finished as soon as possible. I also added some elastic suspenders to his pants since they weren't staying up the way I wanted. A heart tattoo on his upper arm was my final modification.

Vinnie was my second to last Christmas knit. At the last minute I cast on for an improvised pair of mittens to 'match' Ken's hat. I ran out of the blue background yarn and had to knit the thumbs in different colours. While not finished when I gave them to Ken, these were done by the end of Christmas day.

On the unfinished knitting front I've run out of yarn for Cliete. I'm trying to decide whether I should rip out two rows of knitting and bind off or sit down and spin enough yarn to give me another repeat of the pattern. I've completed 8 repeats and I'm tempted to try for the suggested 9 repeats before binding off. If it were only one row to be ripped the shawl would be finished by now I'm sure.

Finally, I washed the green shawl/lap blanket and it decided to stretch into something resembling a scarf. Since I'm having doubts as to the softness of the mill spun yarn I'm using I think this project will be frogged. I'm already thinking about using the green hand spun for a hat and mitten set.

A lot of knitting

2008-12-15T14:03:00.010-06:00

While I haven't been blogging since I began my trip home I have been knitting. On the plane I cast on for a simple ribbed hat for my brother. I finished more than half of it between knitting on the plane and knitting while waiting for the connecting flight (Winnipeg airport is not a very exciting place to spend a few hours).

I used most of a ball of Cascade 220 Heathers, 3.75 mm needles for the crown and the rolled up knitting, and 3.25 mm needles for the under ribbing. I think it is a bit tighter than I want but I'll wait and see what my brother thinks. If it is too tight I'll knit him another one and find this one a home with someone who likes tight hats or has a small head.

Once the hat was done I concentrated my efforts on knitting the Pirate Mittens for my other brother. I just finished tucking in the ends early this afternoon which is good since I will probably be giving them to him at dinner tonight.

These are also knit with Cascade 220 on 3.75 mm needles. I was trying to get a looser gauge so that the mittens would come out larger and fit a man's hand. Unfortunately I got the exact gauge the pattern called for (I can't believe I just wrote that!). I could have tried again on larger needles but I liked the fabric I was getting so I ripped back to the end of the cuffs and added 12 stitches (2 inches circumference). I knit a white stripe between two black stripes on either side of the patterning on the back of the mitten to use up those 6 stitches and I just knit the extra palm stitches in the palm pattern. Since I also wanted the mitten to be longer I moved the thumb 6 stitches (1 inch) down. Since the mitts have lots of cuff this worked out really well.

Despite all of the ripping back and adjusting these mittens were a quick project. I still have lots of both colours of yarn, too. The black yarn remainders are being pressed into service for Vinnie's cape and shirt. Vinnie is actually the only Christmas knitting that I still have to finish so I'll be working on him exclusively for the next few days.

With all of this knitting I also managed to finish a simple sock (which completed the pair) and embellish the Urchin I knit using my wine coloured hand spun.

Very little knitting

2008-12-08T21:03:00.003-06:00

Despite my plans to start a mitten or a hat, the only knitting I did today was to finish the second leg of Vinnie's pants. Most of the day was spent getting ready for a last minute early trip home to Regina. Since I decided to make the trip home the deadline for my much of my Christmas knitting has been moved up. With any luck I will be able to finish (and start) a hat or mitten on the planes tomorrow. It may be a day or two between blog posts for the next few days.

Complete Rooster Monkey

2008-12-07T21:55:00.002-06:00

I got distracted last night and didn't post, but tonight I'll make up for it with a finished object. The rooster monkey socks are off the needles and just waiting to be blocked. As you can see they really do need to be blocked to show off the design properly.

I'm so happy with how these came out. The yarn and the pattern work so well together. I'll miss typing "rooster monkey," though.

Now I need to get back to the rest of my Christmas knitting. It is time to cast on some mittens or a hat. I'll see what calls to me tomorrow.

Progressing

2008-12-05T16:42:00.002-06:00

Last night was post-less because I spent my evening at the Plateau knit night. Knitting and pie go so well together. Why can't every night be Plateau knitting night.

All of my current in progress knitting continues. I've finished half of the leg of the second monkey sock. I knit a few rows on my shawl. Vinnie now has two legs and half a pair of pants. The green shawl center is finished and I'm just washing it to see if I can get it to soften up a bit before I knit the border.

As soon as one of these projects is done I'll cast on another. It is actually kind of nice to have such a variety to work on. If I get bored or tired of a needle size I just switch.

I'll post pictures of something tomorrow. The safe money is probably on socks or Vinnie.

Half a rooster monkey

2008-12-03T19:56:00.002-06:00

One sock down and one more to go. Then I need to cast on for a couple of pairs of mitts and a hat, and finish the vampire and green shawl. Actually that list doesn't sound so bad.

My Christmas knitting might even be done early enough that it will reach its recipients early. Since most of it is being put in the mail, finishing a bit early is a definite plus.

Maybe I should do some of Meridith's knitting. Wait, she'd probably want the finished pieces back... sigh. There goes another perfectly good stash acquisition plan.

Christmas socks

2008-12-02T20:46:00.002-06:00

My Christmas knitting has begun in earnest. Today I cast on for a pair of socks using one of the skeins of Blue Moon Fibers that I got in the mail last month. I started by casting on for the Herringbone socks from the Winter Interweave Knits which arrived in the mail today.

I cast on for the smaller size but soon realized that it was going to be too small to fit over the heel. I could have cast on for the larger size but since I was finding some of the slip stitches fiddly and time consuming I decided to use a different pattern.

Since I have yet to knit a proper pair of Monkey socks I cast on this quick and charming pattern. Second time was the charm. I'm really happy with how the yarn is striping in this pattern and how quickly it is knitting up.

Poor Vinnie didn't get any attention today, though I did add a few more rows to the green shawl. This should be a month of many projects, though the abandoned sweaters will likely not be worked on.

Green Thing

2008-12-01T20:54:00.003-06:00

I said that I would post a picture of my green shawl when I was half way through the center section. This evening I finished the third ball and attached the fourth so I guess I have to share a picture:

Despite being a flash picture this pretty accurately captures the colours of the yarn. It still looks like a long strip of knitting but that probably won't change until it is off the needles. At least I think my 6 balls of yarn should be enough for the center section. I'm not sure how far my hand spun border yarn will go though...

In other news I've been offered some black worsted yarn for Vinnie. I've knit one of his legs down to where the black attaches and I'll probably knit the other one tomorrow. Then I can knit the red part of the cape and the white bits of his clothes. By that point I should have the black and be able to finish him off (perhaps with a bamboo DPN through the heart).

Yay!

2008-11-30T20:57:00.002-06:00

I made it through the month and managed to post every day. I think I will try to keep posting every day or two since I still have a bit of a blog backlog. One of these days I will press gang Ken into being my photographer (unless he wants to be my model instead).

Today's knitting was all about the toy. I now have two arms, a trunk, a head and two ears (not pictured). Thanks to a trip to Fabricland for some stuffing these bits actually look like body parts; for a while they looked like monochromatic deflated balloons.

I've started on the first leg. The only problem I can foresee at this point is a lack of worsted weight black yarn. I will either have to use a few strands of sock yarn held together or I will have to spin up some of my black Alpaca. Decisions, decisions.

Almost over and newly cast on

2008-11-29T20:45:00.002-06:00

Then end of November is upon us. At this point there is no hope of the abandoned sweaters being finished (or even worked on) by the end of the month. I have also failed to post the sweater I finished some time ago but which has yet to be properly photographed. Also the hand spun sweater and the two Urchins deserve proper photos.

Some, but not all of this may be rectified tomorrow. Today I spent a little time working on my green shawl but most of my time on a new project. I bought the pattern and cast on for Vincent the Vampire. I've never knit a toy before and this one has so many charming little details.
The pattern calls for worsted weight yarn and since I have the white Faulklands that didn't get used in the sweater I'm using it. I'm pretty sure that a dig through my stash should yield a black yarn of this weight. I will have to go out and buy some stuffing, though.

So far I have the trunk knit and half of the head. This should be a reasonably quick knit. It should also be a good gift for my nephew (who I'm pretty sure doesn't read my blog). Depending on how long this takes to knit I'm tempted to make an extra sweater for the toy; vampires have casual Fridays too right?

Plugging away

2008-11-28T15:50:00.002-06:00

I've not made much progress on my shawl today, though I did manage to snap a photo before the sun set, which was at 4:14pm according to Environment Canada. It is big enough that it is hard to really stretch it out on the circular needle. I had to settle for stretching out half of it.

Mostly I've been knitting away at the green shawl. After 9000 stitches it is 4 inches wide. It has so far used up two of the six skeins I dyed. I may end up dying another skein or two to get the width I'm looking for but I'll wait until I'm closer to the end to decide. I'll also wait until its at least half done before I bother posting a picture. It really only looks like a long green strip of knitting at the moment.

Shawl progress

2008-11-27T21:52:00.003-06:00

A quick post after spending an enjoyable evening at the Ariadne knit night.

Today I managed to knit an inch and a half on my green shawl/blanket. Most of this progress was managed while waiting for my number to be called so I could get Quebec plates for my car. (I can't believe how few people bring something to entertain themselves in such situations. Even before I knit I would pack a book to keep myself from dying of boredom and frustration.)

I spent most of this evening working on my Cliete. I've just started the 7th repeat of the chart and looking at the available yarn I'm pretty sure there won't be 9 repeats. If I'm lucky I might get 8 repeats out of my remaining yarn. Judging by its current length that might be enough. I will probably only spin more yarn if I run out mid repeat (or mid row).

I only have a hastily taken photograph but it gives a vague sense of the length and the way the yarn is producing the occasional stripe. Tomorrow I'll be sure to grab a picture in natural light and with the shawl more stretched out.

Long rows

2008-11-26T20:55:00.002-06:00

Today I knit a couple of gauge swatches for my green shawl/blanket. I'm usually a big fan of tight gauge so I assumed I'd be knitting on 4.5 mm needles. I found, though, that the mill spun yarn has no drape and I needed to go up to a 5 mm needle to get a fabric I like. I'm still finding it stiff but I'm hoping that a good soak in some Euclan or hair conditioner will make this yarn more relaxed.

Part of the problem , I think, is that I have gotten used to knitting with handspun which has a lot of drape. Another part of the problem is that this yarn still has some excess dye in it, as I discovered when I washed my swatches. I'm hoping that washing this dye out and adding some conditioner in will give the yarn and the fabric a nicer hand.

Now that I know my gauge (5.5 stitches/inch) I'm facing casting on some 360 stitches. This will be the sort of project that makes you go to bed before finishing one more row. My orange shawl is the same since it is now some 320 stitches wide and growing. I may have to cast on for some mittens or some socks or another hat just to have something that shows progress when I work on it.

In the mail

2008-11-25T11:07:00.001-06:00

I always love getting mail and the last two days have been especially good to me. Yesterday I got two skeins of Blue Moon lightweight Socks that Rock (Rooster Rock colourway) in the mail. These skeins are part of my payment for knitting a pair of sample socks for Cookie A's upcoming book. If you look at the PDF my socks are the purple ones that appear on the back cover. I knit the socks back in April but I will wait to post my pictures until the book is actually out (and I know what the socks are named).

This morning the mail man delivered 8 oz of Crown Mountain Farm's Corriedale Pencil roving (Twilight colourway). I won this after donating to Trampled by Fleece. They are raising money to help pay the drug costs of a knitter and philosophy undergraduate who has Lyme disease. This roving is actually an early bird prize; the final raffle will be a t the end of this month.

Sadly I doubt any fiber or yarn will arrive in the mail tomorrow.

Finished, in progress, almost begun

2008-11-24T20:45:00.003-06:00

The I finished the wine coloured Urchin first thing this morning and it is now blocking/drying on a dinner plate. I'm pleased with ow it came out but I feel it is missing a little something. I'm going to look for some ribbon or a button or something to jazz it up a bit.

In the meantime I'm plugging away at the shawl. I just finished the fifth repeat which means I'm 30% finished. It also means that the shawl is now more than half its final length and width. It actually looks like a shawl. This is when it pays to remember that half the length is not half the shawl. I will be knitting this for a while yet.

Since Christmas is starting to appear on the horizon, the shawl won't be my only knitting on the needles (and I'm not referring to the two sweaters that are lying abandoned). After doing some swatching with my green hand spun I realized that a) I really like how it look in garter stitch and b) I don't have enough to knit the shawl/lap blanket. My solution was to take some white and green marl yarn (dk weight) that I got at the big NDG destash and dye it to match the hand spun.

In the original version of this shawl the center was hand spun and the border was mill spun. My plan for this version is to have the center mill spun and the border hand spun. Now that I have all of the yarn dyed up and dry I should be casting on any day now.

Bulky yarn

2008-11-23T16:25:00.002-06:00

The wine coloured Corriedale is dry. I think it qualifies as a bulky yarn. Hurray. I ended up with 134 yards and approximately 6 oz of yarn.

I cast on for another Urchin but found that all of the twist in the yarn was coming out as I knit. I ripped back and put the yarn back through the spinning wheel to give it more twist. It is no longer balanced but it is knitting up really nicely. I should have another hat by tomorrow.

Determining progress

2008-11-22T20:57:00.003-06:00

I've spun up the wine coloured yarn and now I'm just waiting for it to dry to see how close to a bulky yarn I managed to get. In the mean time I'm knitting away at my lace shawl (and ignoring the sweaters that still need sewing up). The lace is nice and easy and repetitive so progress has been pretty fast.

The thing about shawls like this, which start out with very short rows and then get longer and longer rows, is that it is hard to tell just how much you have completed. It takes no time to add inches to the length at the start but you know it will take forever by the end. Since I like to know how far I still have to go, I broke out the basic algebra and geometry.

The shawl is a simple equilateral triangle with the base twice the length of the height. All I want is what percentage I have finished at any given point in the knitting. I could have figured it out row by row but I don't need anything that precise so I figured it out based on chart repeats. Assuming I am knitting the shawl with the suggested 9 repeats, after one repeat I'm 1% finished; after two I'm 5%; after three I'm 11%; after four I'm 20%; after five 31%; 44% after 6; 60% after 7; and 79% after 8.

I'm almost finished my fourth repeat tonight. I'll update my Ravelry progress bar.

Spinning for an Urchin

2008-11-21T20:33:00.004-06:00

I really enjoyed knitting the Urchin pattern and I've been wearing the hat when ever I go out, so I've decided to knit another one. This time, though, I want to use yarn I've spun. The pattern calls for a super bulky yarn, maybe thick and thin, which is a good deal thicker than I have made before. So tonight I spun up some small sample skeins to decide how to proceed.

I knew I wanted to use the Louet Corriedale roving in the warm wine colourway. I also wanted to add some Fiddlesticks laceweight in a similar colour (50 % merino, 50% tussah silk).

My first sample (far left) is a thick and thin single plied with a strand of Fiddlesticks. Because I'm not used to thick and thin I think I over felted this in the finishing step fearing that it would come apart otherwise.

Moving right, my second sample is a cabled yarn. I spun a single of Corriedale and then plied it with a strand of laceweight, adding extra twist while plying. I then plied this 2 ply to itself to get a 4 ply cabled yarn. I think I added a bit too much twist but otherwise I like how this sample turned out.

My last sample is another single of Corriedale plied to a single of laceweight only this time I held the laceweight taut and let the Corriedale wrap around it as I plied. I really liked the effect but I'm not sure I could make it as thick as I need.

I finally decided that I would do a cabled yarn to get the desired thickness. I wanted more shine, though, so instead of plying a single strand of laceweight to a strand of Corriedale I decided to use two strands of lace weight. This should also help build up the thickness a bit. I've spun and plied one bobbin's worth of 3 ply. Tomorrow I will spin another such 3 ply and then ply everything together. Hopefully I'll end up with something bulky.

Pictures

2008-11-20T16:43:00.004-06:00

It is knit night again, so I thought I'd post some quick pictures.

The green is dry and ready to be knit as soon as I decide what it is going to be. I'd like to make it into some sort of wrap but I will probably have to supplement it with some other yarn to get sufficient yardage. There is swatch knitting in my future.

Last night I cast on for the Cliete using my orange hand spun. I'm going to see how large a shawl I can get with my 680 yards of yarn. I'm making a point of not spinning the rest of this orange roving into something until I know if I will need to make myself some more lace weight to finish the shawl. It will be awhile before I get to that point.

Nothing much doing

2008-11-19T18:28:00.002-06:00

If it weren't for NaBloPoMo I don't think I'd bother posting today. Most of the day was taken up getting my Ontario driver's license converted to a Quebec license and working to get the car licensed in Quebec. Good times.

The green hand spun is currently drying and I should have a nice picture and a good idea of its final weight tomorrow. In the meantime I've been using the Ravelry pattern search as inspiration for what to do with my hand spun. I think I will make something up for the green but I've picked out Cliete to make with my orange lace weight. It's been awhile since I knit a shawl and I'm looking forward to it.

Christmas knitting should get started any time now...

Plied

2008-11-18T21:09:00.005-06:00

Another day of spinning and now my green yarn just needs to be over dyed.
Everything went pretty much as I predicted. I got about a bobbin and a half of singles from my roving. I skeined them on my niddy noddy and discovered that I had about 1170 yards.

So I divided this number by 2, since my niddy noddy makes 2 yard skeins, and then by 3. This gave me the number of wraps of the skein I needed to get into each ball. I put the skein on my swift and counted off the rotations of my swift as I wound the singles into center pull balls.

Finally I plied my 3 singles together and got 396 yards of finished 3 ply.

Now I just need to give my yarn a good whack or two and stick it in the microwave with a bit more blue dye.

Single focus

2008-11-17T20:10:00.002-06:00

I've been spinning away at the yellow/green/blue BFL because I can't wait to knit with the finished result. I was originally thinking of making a baby blanket for some friends but I've changed my mind. Now I'm thinking about a nice lap blanket/shawl. It would make a great Christmas present if I can stand to part with it. It really depends what kind of yardage I end up with.

I've spun up one bobbin full and I've got enough fiber for at least another half bobbin. Once it is all spun up I will wind it off onto the niddy noddy and count my yardage. Then I will divide it into 3 equal balls and ply them together. This is what I did for the sample and I'm pleased with how it worked.

I've really fallen in love with how the hand spun knits up. It is soft and has beautiful drape and is full of character. Commercial yarns just can't compete.

I will set aside the hand spun soon, though. I've still got a couple of sweaters that are a bit of sewing and some knitted edging away from being finished. I've decided that I want to get them both done by the end of this month. We'll see how this goes.

Now back to my spinning.

Some pictures

2008-11-16T17:44:00.005-06:00

I've got an evening of babysitting ahead of me so I'll make a quick, picture heavy post.

First a picture of the red/orange lace weight now that it is washed and dry and behaving like balanced yarn:

Next the blue BFL I dyed back in May:

And finally the blue/yellow/green mix of BFL:
(before I over dyed with more blue)

(after I over dyed)

(a swatch knit with the final result)

Spun lace weight

2008-11-15T21:38:00.007-06:00

Today was another day without knitting. I mostly spent my time plying a bobbin of the BFL that I dyed red back in May.

I'd spun it up as fine as I could thinking I would make a 3 ply for socks or something. Since I'm having fun spinning a bit thicker at the moment, I decided to just ply this single to itself to make a lace weight 2 ply. The plying seemed to take a really long time, which made sense once I got the finished yarn off the wheel and discovered that it was about 680 yards.

When yarn has been sitting on a bobbin for a day or two you can describe it as "rested." This single had been on the bobbin for months so I think it should be described as "hibernating." I had to make a guess about how much twist to put in the ply because the single no longer really twisted up on itself. When the plying was done and I took the finished yarn off the niddy noddy it really wanted to twist up on itself in strange ways:

I have since given the skein a good soaking in hot water and a whack or two and now it is behaving like nicely balance yarn. I'm thinking of knitting myself a nice lacy stole with this. I'm so excited to be spinning yarn in yardages that allow me to knit more than simple hats and scarves.

Spinning my wheels

2008-11-14T21:09:00.003-06:00

Today I did absolutely no knitting. This morning I tucked in the ends of yesterday's hat then washed it and blocked it on a dinner plate to stretch it out a bit (I'll have to get some modeled pictures in the next couple of days). This was as close to knitting as it got, though.

Instead I played around with my spinning wheel. First I spun the blue BFL that I dyed last May. It came out to about 170 yards of sock weight yarn. Then I spun up a sample of some BFL that I dyed blue/yellow/green a couple of days ago. The result has a bit too much contrast so I think I will try over dying with some more blue to eliminate the bright yellow and produce a more even green.

Of course a few pictures would go a long way to explaining what I mean but my camera batteries died so they will have to wait until tomorrow. Sigh. I'm going to end up having to do a post that is nothing but a collection of photos: the hat being worn, the sweater in natural daylight, the other sweater I haven't shown yet, the yarn I'm spinning... I'm going have to press gang Ken in the next few days to help me take all these photos. But first I will have to wait for my camera batteries to recharge.

A warm hat

2008-11-13T20:15:00.004-06:00

After joking a couple of days ago about knitting a new project in a day, late this afternoon I cast on for a simple hat in bulky wool and now I have a new finished object.

Pattern: Ysolda's Urchin

Yarn: Malabrigo Aquarella. I had 2 skein in the same colourway but differnt dye lots so I alternated wedges. I'm not sure if I ended up using more than one skein total, but I do have leftovers.

Needles: 8 mm. I could easily have gone up a needle size (and technically I should have because I didn't get gauge with the 8mm) but 8mm was the largest sized needle I have.

This is a great little project. It is knit on straight needles, which I love but don't use enough, and is simple garter stitch. So pretty and so quick.

Tomorrow I'll tuck in my ends and neat up the top and then it should be ready to wear.