Octopus Knits

Spinning, Spinning, Spinning Some More...

2010-09-11T10:53:00.004-04:00

Since I participated in both the Tour de Fleece (Ravelry link) and the Spunky Eclectic Ravelry group's Great Stash Spin Up (Ravelry link) this year, I've got a backlog of skeins to show you.

Handspun Yarn I: Cinnamon and Sugar

Fiber: Call of the Wool Shetland Wool Roving
Stats: 295 yards (113 g), 13 wpi (heavy fingering weight)
Ply: Navajo-ply

Comment: Fiber courtesy of Chantel the shetland sheep :) Thanks, Chantel!

Handspun Yarn II: Hidden

Fiber: Spunky Eclectic Bluefaced Leicester Roving
Stats: 652 yards (113 g), 26 wpi (lace weight)
Ply: Single-ply

Comment: This colorway reminds me so much of lichen on rocks in a forest.

Handspun Yarn III: Aqua

Fiber: Tranquil Morning Farm Navajo Churro Lamb Batt
Stats: 122 yards (60 g), 13 wpi (heavy fingering/light sport weight)
Ply: 2-ply

Comment: A little challenging to spin, but I love this color.

Handspun Yarn IV: Red Dwarf Star

Fiber: All Spun Up Merino Combed Top
Stats: 285 yards (121 g), 11 wpi (DK weight)
Ply: 2-ply

Comment: Holy squishiness, batman! This stuff is soft.

Handspun Yarn V: Esmaralda

Fiber: Enchanted Knoll Farm Farm-raised Roving
Stats: 236 yards (110 g), 12 wpi (sport weight)
Ply: Navajo-ply

Comment: I'm thinking I'll use this with another yarn in a weaving project :)

Handspun Yarn VI: Thunderstorm

Fiber: Spunky Eclectic Panda Combed Top (60% Superwash Merino/ 30% Bamboo/ 10% Nylon)
Stats: 480 yards (119 g), 17 wpi (light fingering/lace weight)
Ply: Single-ply

Comment: I need to figure out what to do with this cool color progression! Probably a simple shawl of some kind...

Handspun Yarn VII: Koi Pond

Fiber: All Spun Up Polwarth Combed Top
Stats: 346 yards (119 g), 12-15 wpi (fingering weight)
Ply: 2-ply

Comment: Polwarth is somewhat different than other wools I've spun. It feels soft and wonderful, but seems to eat up a lot more plying twist than I'm used to. I need to practice more with this fiber :)

Handspun Yarn VIII: Cheshire Cat

Fiber: Enchanted Knoll Farm Merino/Bamboo/Silk/Sparkles Batts
Stats: 371 yards (87 g), 18 wpi (light fingering/lace weight)
Ply: Navajo-ply

Comment: Meow! Another blue/green/black combo. I seem to have an affinity for them :)

Handspun Yarn IX: Subtle Tiger

Fiber: All Spun Up 50% Merino/ 25% Silk/ 25% Bamboo Roving
Stats: 1143 yards (120 g), 27 wpi (lace weight)
Ply: Single-ply

Comment: Roar!

Handspun Yarn X: Eric

Fiber: Southern Cross Fibre Merino Wool Top
Stats: 668 yards (114 g), 19 wpi (light fingering/lace weight)
Ply: 2-ply

Comment: Such deep, delicious reds!

Handspun Yarn XI: Jabberwocky

Fiber: Blue Moon Fiber Arts 50% Merino/ 50% Silk Roving
Stats: 654 yards (192 g), 18 wpi (light fingering weight)
Ply: Navajo-ply

Comment: The jaws that bite, the claws that catch! (No unattended yarn snuggling. Bug, that means you!)

Knitting With My Handspun Yarn

2010-08-30T21:00:00.001-04:00

Since I'm producing a fair amount of handspun yarn, I'm trying to knit it up when I can. Here are two projects I recently completed using my handspun.

First, a wildly-hued pair of fingerless mitts:

Susie's Reading Mitts by Janelle Masters

Yarn: My handspun "Raisin Wannabe", 100% Shetland Wool (185 yards / 113 g per skein), 0.73 skeins
Needle: US 3 (3.25 mm) double pointed needles
Size: Smallest

Here's the yarn, before knitting (and the fiber it came from):

The mitts have a fun turned picot hem:

... and a little bit of garter stitch and lace for added interest:

The colors are definitely wild, but I love them in a simple accessory like this:

Happily for me, this was the kind of low-pressure photoshoot that Moana could get into:

Alas, this might have been pushing it a little...

Next, here's another handspun knitted item, that just happens to match Bug's eyes:

Percy Shawl by Sanne Kalkman

Yarn: My handspun "Mermaid", Wool/Silk/Recycled Sari Silk/Angelina (727 yards / 74 g per skein), 0.91 skeins
Needle: US 2.5 (3.0 mm) double pointed needles
Size: 62 inches wide, 24 inches deep at center ( = 8 repeats of Chart A, 3 repeats of Chart B (starting with row 5 and ending with row 27, as the pattern directs), and 1 repeat of Chart C)

The yarn (and fiber):

I love how the different patterns come together in this shawl:

...Chart C
...Chart B
...Chart A

And in silhouette:

...Chart A
...Chart B
...Chart C

The whole thing:

OK, Bug, show us the proof...

Now that's just not fair! Give us a peak... please?

Pretty please, with yarn on top?

Ahhh... That's better!

Adventures in Weaving

2010-08-21T12:25:00.005-04:00

Hi again! I'm actually posting twice in one month--I don't know what's gotten into me!

I got a Schacht Cricket rigid heddle loom at Christmas, but haven't put it to very much use yet. So far I've only made two scarves (my husband has also given it a try, making some hemp straps he'll impregnate with epoxy to make a lightweight but strong kite aerial photography rig), but I have grand plans for lots more weaving projects.

My first scarf was the project that came with the loom. The box included a ball each of Brown Sheep Nature Spun Worsted in "Blue Boy" and "Spring Green." I used pretty much all of the blue, and less of the green.

It's kind of a Kermitty scarf (well, maybe more of a "Kermit meets Cookie Monster" scarf), but it was a good introduction to basic weaving technique.

Sticking with the blue theme, here's my second woven scarf:

Sparkly Scarf by me

Yarn 1: Handspun by me (Enchanted Knoll Farm Superwash Merino/Silk), colorway "Dragonfly" (445 yards / 116 g per skein), 0.73 skeins
Yarn 2: Handspun by me (Tranquil Morning Farm Navajo Churro Lamb), color "Aqua" (122 yards / 60 g per skein), 0.28 skeins
Reed: 8-dent
# Ends: 58

I used two of my handspun yarns:

... and did a twisted fringe:

I don't know if you can tell, but the dark yarn is quite sparkly, thanks to Josette's magical fiber blend). This photo hints at the sparkle:

A few caveats:

I wish I'd made the scarf a little longer for ease of use. It's only about 46 and a half inches long excluding the fringe (about 56 and a half inches including the fringe. Also, the thicker, lighter-colored yarn is pretty much hidden where it is used as warp beneath the darker, thinner yarn that makes up most of the weft. You see hints of it, but it's not producing the plaid-effect I was going for. I like it anyway :)

Bug tried it out:

He says it's pretty comfy (and, of course, it matches his eyes)!

I have a bunch of yarn lined up for future projects... now I just need to make it happen :)

Funky Baby-Wear

2010-08-13T12:51:00.006-04:00

Because two of the attorneys at my summer job were expectant mothers (congrats to both!) and I have a new nephew, I've gotten to knit some cute and tiny baby things lately.

First there was the Baby Sheep Hat for my little nephew:

Baby Sheep Hat by Melissa Burt

Yarn 1: Morehouse Merino Gator Yarn, color "CreekCroc," 100% Merino Wool (225 yards / 57 g per skein), 0.3 skeins
Yarn 2: Patons Classic Wool Merino, color "Worn Denim," 100% Merino Wool (223 yards / 100 g per skein), 0.19 skeins
Yarn 3: Cascade 220, color "Natural," 100% Wool (220 yards / 100 g per skein), 0.13 skeins
Yarn 4: Cascade 220, color "Black," 100% Wool (220 yards / 100 g per skein), 0.02 skeins
Yarn 5: Brown Sheep Lamb's Pride Superwash Worsted, color "Corn Silk," 100% Washable Wool (200 yards / 100 g per skein), a yard or so
Needle: US 3 (3.25 mm) double pointed needles

I cast on 84 stitches for a bigger hat, adding two of the front-facing sheep to fill in the blank areas between the normal pattern repeats, giving me 8 sheep in total.

The last time I tried to make a pom-pon I managed to produce only an anemic shadow of one because I didn't use nearly enough yarn. This time I was determined not to make the same mistake -- so instead I used so much yarn that my little "fluff" ball is actually quite solid and significantly heavier than you might expect. Ah, well... such is life.

The hat has multiple uses. For example, it doubles as a tiny wastebasket (with a fluffy surprise in the bottom):

A close-up of the sheepies:

Moana graced the hat with one of her rare photo sessions:

Next, I knit a Baby Surprise Jacket for the daughter of one of my co-workers (although we didn't know the baby's gender when I started):

Baby Surprise Jacket by Elizabeth Zimmermann

Yarn 1: Blue Moon Fiber Arts Socks that Rock Lightweight, color "Muddy Autumn Rainbow," 100% Merino Wool (360 yards / 127 g per skein), 0.33 skeins
Yarn 2: Malabrigo Yarn Sock, color "Ochre," 100% Merino Wool (440 yards / 100 g per skein), 0.29 skeins
Needle: US 2.5 (3.0 mm) Knitpicks circular needle

It's a pretty ingenious design. I love the way it comes together, from this...

...to this...

I added ribbed cuffs and a little collar after seeing this cute version.

Here are some other views:

All in all, a very cute little sweater :)

Lastly, I knit these short-tailed albatross* feet for my other co-worker's new baby boy:

* Note: Descriptions of short-tailed albatross foot color range from pale bluish to pinkish gray to yellow. Evidently, juveniles have dark legs, and as they mature their legs become paler.

Duck by Jeny Staiman

Yarn: Malabrigo Yarn Sock, color "Ochre," 100% Merino Wool (440 yards / 100 g per skein)
Needle: US 0 (2.0 mm) Knitpicks circular needle and double pointed needles

And now for the modelled shots. On my fingers:

On Moana (hey, it was worth a try!):

On Bug:

On the back feet:

...and on the front feet:

(bat ears in first and last pictures courtesy of a wide-angle lens)

Big Spinning Update!

2010-04-27T23:28:00.003-04:00

First, thanks for all your nice comments about my cabled sweater and my Citron :) Second, as you might have deduced from the thumbnails above, I have developed a bit of a backlog of handspun yarns to show you: five single ply, two Navajo ply, and one 2-ply.

Handspun Yarn I: Serpent

Fiber: Pigeonroof Studios 80% Merino Wool, 20% Silk Roving
Stats: 288 yards (129 g), ~11-14 wpi (sport weight)
Ply: single ply

Comment: Silky, shiny, ssslithery... (alliteration is my friend)

Handspun Yarn II: Amethyst

Fiber: All Spun Up 50% Merino Wool, 25% Silk, 25% Bamboo Roving
Stats: 355 yards (127 g), ~14 wpi (fingering weight)
Ply: single ply

Comment: A silky, shiny yarn that was a smooth spin.

Handspun Yarn III: Beach Glass with Peaches

Fiber: Whorling Tides 60% Merino Wool, 40% Bamboo Roving
Stats: 533 yards (110 g), ~20 wpi (light fingering / lace weight)
Ply: Chain (Navajo) ply

Comment: Hmmm... is anyone else noticing that I seem to have a thing for silky, shiny fibers :)

Handspun Yarn IV: Blaze

Fiber: All Spun Up Wensleydale Combed Top
Stats: 628 yards (129 g), ~23 wpi (light fingering/heavy lace)
Ply: single ply

Comment: I found out I love spinning Longwools!

Handspun Yarn V: Raisin Wannabe

Fiber: Spunky Eclectic, Spunky Club November 2008, Shetland Roving
Stats: 185 yards (113 g), ~9-11 wpi (light worsted)
Ply: Chain (Navajo) ply

Comment: This was such a fun, easy spin!

Handspun Yarn VI: Dragonfly

Fiber: Enchanted Knoll Farm Superwash Merino/Silk Batts
Stats: 445 yards (116 g), ~16 wpi (light fingering)
Ply: single ply

Comment: Sparkly! A pleasant spin.

Handspun Yarn VII: Jade

Fiber: Faerie Mountain Fibers Superwash Bluefaced Leicester Roving dyed with Weld and Indigo
Stats: 243 yards (54 g), ~22 wpi (light fingering/heavy lace)
Ply: single ply

Comment: Required quite a bit of pre-drafting, but the lovely, natural colors made up for it!

Handspun Yarn VIII: Champagne

Fiber: Spunky Eclectic, Spunky Club December 2008, Wool Combed Top
Stats: 441 yards (108 g), ~16 wpi (fingering)
Ply: 2-ply

Comment: A nice spin :)

Citron

2010-04-21T21:09:00.003-04:00

Citron by Hilary Smith Callis, Knitty Winter 2009

Yarn 1: My handspun "December Sunset", 50% Merino Wool, 50% Tencel (187 yards / 64 g per skein), 1 skein
Yarn 2: My handspun "Graphite", Carbonized Bamboo (440 yards / 59 g per skein), ~0.75 skeins
Needle: US 4 (3.5 mm) Knitpicks Options Needle

I decided to use two color-compatible yarns I've spun to make this shawl, as I didn't think I had enough of either (and I was right!). Although the multi-colored yarn is much thicker and a (Navajo-plied) 3-ply and the solid silvery yarn is a slenderer but significantly more variable thickness single-ply, I think it worked out pretty well :)

The fiber:

The yarn:

The shawl:

Some close ups:

And closer:

And, of course, here's Bug's Citron photo shoot!

Bug looks a little bit like a fuzzy flower, don't you think?

Happy (slightly early) Earth Day!

Plum Cabled Sweater

2010-03-23T18:54:00.007-04:00

Modell 509 by Gedifra

Yarn: Queensland Collection Uruguay DK, 70% Merino Wool, 20% Alpaca, 10% Silk (124 yards / 50 g per ball), ~8.64 balls, color 05
Needle: US 3 (3.25 mm) Knitpicks Circular Needle and bamboo DPNs

I know I haven't posted in a while, but I have been knitting (some, though less than I'd like). I had been wanting to make this sweater ever since late 2007 when I saw Smallbird's lovely silver-gray version. The cables are just plain drool-worthy (in my opinion, at least - I'm a sucker for a good cable!).

Of course, I finished it just in time for the weather to be mostly too warm to wear it (this is always a hazard in northern California - especially when one is using an alpaca blend - toasty!), but I will make it my mission to seek out a few cooler days in the next month or so when I won't be at risk of heat stroke if I wear it :)

The yarn:

I found the yarn to be very soft and pleasant to work with. The only slightly odd thing about it was the occasional little blebs of white fluff I found intermingled with the plies. If one was particularly large, I gently pulled it out, but otherwise, I generally ignored these. If there were more (many more), it would work well as a tweed, but as it is, there are simply a few random white flecks in my sweater. Luckily this is not something I'm concerned about, but if it would bother you, I'd recommend either inspecting the yarn in person before buying or being consistent about pulling the white bits out as you encounter them.

I used the cable chart from the Gedifra pattern flipped upside-down to knit top-down in the round, but I made up the rest of the sweater as I went along, adding 2x2 rib to the cuffs and bottom. I had some excitement at first because I didn't immediately realize I needed to flip the symbols for the different cable patterns (I had scanned the chart and flipped it upside-down and backwards, which turned out to be a little too much flipping). I was essentially knitting the cables inside out (see below for what that looks like - kind of cool, but not quite what I was going for). After I corrected this situation, the going was much smoother.

Bug tried to help me with blocking:

(If you were wondering, the T-pins were used here purely as anti-cat devices; they do keep the kitties from laying on my drying sweater, but the little beasts still think it's fun to walk through the forest of pins whenever they pass by.)

Here are some close-ups of the cables:

The cables look pretty cool inside-out, too:

And, for good measure, here are a couple more shots:

Chocolatey Eliina Shawl

2009-11-27T23:41:00.010-05:00

Eliina Shawl by Lankakomero

Yarn 1: My handspun yarn, 50% Superwash Merino, 50% Tencel (503 yards / 119 g per skein), ~1 skein, colorway "Milk Chocolate Lizard"
Yarn 2: Knit Picks Gloss Sock Yarn, 70% Merino Wool, 30% Silk (220 yards / 50 g per skein), ~0.42 skeins, colorway "Cocoa"
Yarn 3: My handspun yarn, one ply Falkland wool, one ply Alpaca, silk, merino (372 yards / 109 g per skein), ~0.12 skeins, colorway "Turkish Delight"
Needle: US 3 (3.25 mm) Knitpicks Circular Needle

The main yarn:

Blocking:

Backlit:

The "wrong" side:

Close-ups:

Hope those of you who celebrate it had a Happy Thanksgiving!

Two handspun scarves...

2009-10-04T13:40:00.000-04:00

Here are two scarves I made from my handspun yarn (fairly) recently. As you will see, Bug kindly offered to model them for me...

Scarf 1.

A garter stitch scarf with knotted fringe made from my handspun Owl Clover yarn:

Fiber: Ancient Threads Farm, Merino Superwash Roving (naturally dyed with cochineal, osage orange, tumeric, and lac)
Yarn: 1 skeins = 578 yards (126 g), 14 wpi (fingering weight), single ply (~0.85 skeins used)
Needle: US 4 (3.5 mm) Bamboo Circular Needle
Size: 76.5" long x 7" wide, not including fringe (fringe adds 16 inches to length)

Gratuitous cat modeling:

Scarf 2.

A stockinette stitch scarf with simple fringe made from my handspun Live Shrimp yarn:

Fiber: Creatively Dyed Milk Protein, Seacell, Wool Roving
Yarn: 1 skeins = 365 yards (114 g), ~15 wpi (fingering weight), 2-ply (every bit of 1 skein used)
Needle: US 3 (3.5 mm) Addi Turbo Circular Needle
Size: 65.5" long x 7.5" wide (unrolled), not including fringe (fringe adds 8.5 inches to length)

Some recent spinning projects...

2009-09-15T19:40:00.003-04:00

...and a word (well, several) of warning:

Be sure to add enough twist to your singles!
(For an answer to the question "Why do you mention this?" see my note for the last yarn, below.)

First: Thanks so much for all the nice comments about my Printed Silk Cardigan!

So far I'm surviving law school, and finding it pretty darn interesting - which is always good when you decide to devote a good chunk of your life to something :) I spun all three of these yarns BEFORE I started, however. I need to work on "working in" more spinning time here and there, now that I've got so little "free" time on my hands...

Handspun Yarn I: Mermaid

Fiber: Enchanted Knoll Farm Wool/Silk/Recycled sari silk/Angelina Farm-Raised Roving
Stats: 727 yards (74 g), ~25 wpi (lace weight)
Ply: single ply

Handspun Yarn II: Give Me Roses

Fiber: Enchanted Knoll Farm Cotswold/Merino/Bamboo/Silk/Recycled sari silk/Angelina Farm-Raised Batts
Stats: 483 yards (84 g), ~22 wpi (lace weight)
Ply: 2-ply

Handspun Yarn III: Artichoke

Fiber: Spunky Eclectic Corriedale/Alpaca Roving, colorway "Lichen"
Stats: 700 yards (109 g), ~20 wpi (lace weight)
Ply: 2-ply

An, ahem, extended note about this last yarn... which took me a little over 2 months to complete:

I initially spun it thinking I would leave it as a lace weight single. The fiber drafted beautifully, and while spinning I had a few instances of breakage, but nothing to be worried about (I thought). Then I decided it would be a really lovely 2-ply, instead of a single. When I started plying, all hell broke loose (more or less literally).

Every meter or so (sometimes even more frequently) a ply would drift apart, causing me to stop and reattach it. After a while (which actually enveloped a rather large chunk of time), I was extremely frustrated, having made so little progress in the face of serial-breakage. I thought, fine - it doesn't have enough twist in it to ply (you ply in the opposite direction, which removes twist from the singles), it needs to remain a single - so I stopped and tried to wind the singles off onto my niddy noddy. The singles broke again, and again... and again.... So I thought, OK then - I'll just run the singles back through my wheel, adding more twist. More breakage ensued - ack!

This had never happened to me before, and I was suddenly unsure of everything. Was there something wrong with the fiber (which had seemed quite pleasant to work with when I initially spun my singles)? Was it me? At this point the intransigent singles were inhabiting 4 of the 5 bobbins I owned (the two I'd spun the singles on, the plying bobbin, and another regular bobbin from when I'd tried to add more twist to the singles). I was stuck, and I didn't see a way to spin anything else (to renew my spinning confidence) without removing (and thereby destroying) my pretty but non-coherent singles.

I didn't spin for weeks... and weeks.

Finally, desperate to finish my yarn, I decided that my only hope was, indeed, adding more twist to the singles. I approached this cautiously, and with some trial and error, I found that adjusting the intake, treadling more slowly, and watching like a hawk that the tension on the singles coming off my lazy kate and running through my fingers remained consistent, I was able to slowly work through the remaining singles a bobbin at a time with much less frequent breakage.

I was surprised just how much additional twist I needed to add - I had significantly underspun the singles!

Finally, I plied them together (with little incident!), and I'm happy to say, I was able to rescue my yarn (with some wastage, to be sure, but nothing like the total loss I thought I had on my hands at one point).

All I can say is - Phew!

(and... be sure to add enough twist to your singles!!!!!)

Embossed coral goodness!

2009-09-05T17:26:00.002-04:00

Printed Silk Cardigan by Connie Chang Chinchio

Brooks Farm Yarn Solo Silk 50% wool, 50% silk (400 yards / 113 g per skein), ~2.41 skeins, color "SW" (coral)
US 3 (3.25 mm) Addi Turbo Circular Needle
US 2 (2.75 mm) KnitPicks Circular Needle (for neckline and upper button band ribbing)

Hi again! Here's another in my series of sporadic postings :)

I started law school at UC Berkeley a few weeks ago, so my knitting and blogging time remains limited. However, I have a decently long bus ride (45-50 minutes each way) to and from school every day, so when I'm not madly trying to finish up reading before class or having to stand (clinging to a bar for dear life - lets just say the bus drivers get away things I would never accept as a passenger in a car) because it's so crowded, I have some nice, built-in knitting time :)

I had been wanting to knit this pattern for a while and got the yarn for it over a year ago at Maryland Sheep and Wool, but finally went ahead and took the plunge.

The Solo Silk is truly lovely stuff - smooth and soft, with a beautiful sheen and great depth of color. It has amazing yardage, hence I only used a little less than two and a half skeins. Of note, the dye did bleed when I soaked my sweater before blocking. However, comparing my leftover (unwashed) yarn to the sweater, I don't notice a decrease in saturation at all. Overall, I'm very satisfied with it.

My ongoing wacky gauge issues (I generally knit pretty loosely) and my desire to have a more fitted sweater (smaller than the smallest pattern size) led me to make some adjustments to stitch counts, etc., but otherwise I knit it essentially as written, with two exceptions. The first is that I didn't do the bust increases within the patterned portion, and the second is that I waited to start the neckline shaping for an extra inch and a half, so that my neckline scooped less deeply than the original. I also added a single crochet edging to the lower border of the sweater after sewing up, because that edge was curling like crazy. It seems to have done the trick - post washing and blocking the edge lays pretty flat :)

Here is a characteristic blocking shot with anti-cat devices (i.e. excessive, frequently placed T-pins, which weren't really needed to facilitate blocking per se, at least in the absence of cats) in place to prevent feline trespass:

(You can see that Bug appears to be considering whether it might be worth it to learn to sleep on a bed of nails, as it were. Really... who would want to sleep on a padded chair seat with a damp bed of silky wool so close at hand? It would be nice, at least, to massage with ones toes...)

Some close-ups:

I purchased the vintage glass buttons at Britex in San Francisco. My husband read about it online, and thought I might like to go there to check out their extensive button selection (organized by color!) in addition to the four floors of fabrics, trimmings, and even a small yarn selection. He was right :) Definitely worth a field trip!

Here's a slightly closer view:

I think the only thing I would do differently if I were to make this sweater again is to use an even smaller needle for the ribbing at the neckline. It would be nice if the neck opening was a little tighter, but works as is just fine.

Thanks for the great pattern, Connie :)
(Actually, she has a lot of great patterns - and I fully intend to knit more of them in the future!)

Have a wonderful labor day weekend!

Guanaco Capelet (minus the Guanaco)

2009-08-04T16:55:00.005-04:00

Guanaco Capelet by Helen Hamann

Jade Sapphire Lacey Lamb 100% extrafine lambswool (825 yards / 60 g per ball), ~0.62 balls, color "Oyster" #601
US 5 (3.75 mm) Knitpicks Options Circular Needles

I usually knit quite loosely (in comparison with project gauge/needle combinations), however, I'm noticing a different trend with lace weight yarn and lace shawls - namely, I seem to knit lace more tightly than expected.

The Guanaco Capelet pattern suggests a US 9 (5.5 mm) needle, but I chose a US 5 (without swatching), because I usually have to go down to a US 4 to get something resembling the proper gauge when a pattern (for worsted weight yarn) suggests US 8's. Evidently this personal "rule of thumb" is not transferrable to knitting with very fine yarns. I know I should be swatching, but I generally figure that size isn't that crucial for a shawl or scarf.

Before blocking, my Guanaco Capelet looked tiny.

Exhibit A:

Exhibit B:

Note that it appears to be about the right size for my 8.5 lb. cat to wear (it was about 27 inches wide and only 10 inches deep at the center back).

It would not be an exaggeration to say that I was terrified (e.g. that I had just put a lot of effort into making a hanky too holey to blow your nose on - or a very fancy cat afghan that would be shredded by eager claws in short order).

Very luckily, blocking made it big enough (about 42 inches wide by 17 inches deep at the center back - I forgot to put the measuring tape in the post-blocking photo, but you get the idea) for me (and my 14 lb. cat) to wear comfortably.

Here are some shots of Bug looking deceptively docile, as usual:

At this size, the capelet is only long enough to cover my upper arms (it hits approximately mid-bicep at the sides and is several inches longer in front), however, it looks very nice worn as a scarf, so I'll probably mostly wear it that way. Worn as a capelet, I think elbow length (which I think the original was) would be optimal.

I first saw the pattern in the Windy Valley Muskox booth at Rhinebeck two years ago. They had one knit up, and I thought it was lovely, but, apparently, so did everyone else, because they had run out of copies of the pattern. After a bit of research I learned that I could purchase it from the Windy Valley Muskox website, however, I thought they were charging a bit much for shipping, so I decided to wait and see if I could find it in person later. Happily, Windy Valley Muskox was a vendor at Stitches West this year, and this time, they had the pattern in stock :)

The only real complaint I have about the pattern is that it uses quite a bit more paper than I think it needs to (9 pages, single sided, with a much larger than necessary font size). Other than that, this was my first time working an edging like this, so I found that I wasn't always sure I'd picked up stitches in the right spots, etc., but I don't think that was a failing of the pattern.

Two lovely stitch patterns make up the body of the shawl:

...and then there's the edging:

I think the combination is really beautiful.

Partly because I knit it on the small side, and partly due to the light and springy nature of the Lacey Lamb yarn...

...my capelet seems to weigh little more than a breath of air. The original was knit in Windy Valley Muskox's gorgeous - but much too expensive for my budget - guanaco/merino/silk blend yarn in "natural," a silvery, heathery fawn tone. I think the Lacey Lamb makes a nice substitute.

Tempting Turkish Delight Tokyo

2009-05-30T19:13:00.003-04:00

Tokyo by Ruth Homrighaus

My handspun yarn - made from Enchanted Knoll Farm Alpaca Silk Merino Batts & Purple Fleece Falkland Top (~372 yards / 109 g per skein), ~1.1 skeins, colorway "Turkish Delights"
Knit Picks Gloss Sock Yarn, 70% Merino Wool, 30% Silk (220 yards / 50 g per skein), ~1.58 skeins, colorway "Cocoa"
US 2 (2.75 mm) Knitpicks Circular Needles

As you may have guessed, this is what I mentioned I was working on with my handspun yarn in the last post :)

Ruth's Tokyo pattern has been tempting me since she first posted her gorgeous version on her blog. Initially I had planned to use another handspun yarn for this project, but when I swatched, I noticed there was not enough contrast between my chocolatey handspun and the solid-color Knit Picks Gloss.

With one ply of white Falkland added to a ply made from "Turkish Delights" Enchanted Knoll batts, I found the contrast that my original choice lacked.

+

=

...and here's a peak at the "wrong" side:

I worked Ruth's pattern pretty much as is, however, I decided to add some variously spaced stripes of the handspun, as I was worried that the bands at the top and bottom provided a little too much contrast (there's that word again) to the much darker overall effect of the main pattern. I think it worked out nicely.

The top is worked in two identical pieces, front and back, starting with the garter stitch band at the bottom and working upward. There is no waist shaping (everything is strictly rectangular), but the garter band (which I knit on the same size needles as the body) provides some welcome width over the hips and the rest of the body seems to fit nicely (with a little stretching of the pattern evident over the bust area).

Ruth gives tips on adding shaped side panels to accommodate a larger bust, but I decided I wasn't well-endowed enough to warrant that, so I'll just have to live with a little stretching :)

When you get to the sleeves, Ruth has you cast on stitches to achieve the extra width. After front and back are finished, you just seam up the shoulders and the sides. It's a very simple and beautiful design.

Here you can see a little of the color variation within the handspun yarn:

There are shimmery red, magenta, green, and copper strands in there in addition to some luminous cream-colored silk, and it's actually quite a sparkly yarn (though you may not be able to tell from the photos).

BLOCKING:

I've received a few questions about my blocking set-up. I use a 4 piece "high impact" tiled mat system that I found in the sporting goods sections of a Target store a while back. I see that they're now selling a 6-piece set online.

The pieces have interlocking edges and can be placed in several different configurations, according to the shape of the item to be blocked. As you can see, Tokyo only required a single tile.

The foam works well with blocking pins, and it's nice not to have to worry about getting the carpet or a bed wet in order to block something. To dissuade my cats from lounging on blocking garments, I have taken to placing a bunch of extra pins a few inches apart over the whole thing. I can also lean the tiles upright to dry if I don't want to spare the floor space (all those extra anti-cat pins help support the damp weight, so the garment doesn't stretch out).

Recent Spinning Projects...

2009-05-11T21:36:00.001-04:00

Long time, no blog...

Happy May! I hope you're having a good month.
It would appear that I'm not doing any better at blogging regularly - I think I'll just have to settle for sporadic :)

Anyway, here are 3 yarns I've spun in the last several months.

Handspun Yarn I: Live Shrimp

Fiber: Creatively Dyed Milk Protein, Seacell, Wool Roving
Stats: 365 yards (114 g), ~15 wpi (fingering weight)
Ply: 2-ply

Handspun Yarn II: Four-color

Fiber: Merino Batt (I don't remember who I bought this from, but it was at Maryland Sheep & Wool last year)
Stats: 206 yards (114 g), 9-12 wpi (thick & thin worsted weight)
Ply: single ply

Handspun Yarn III: Turkish Delight

Fiber: Enchanted Knoll Farm Alpaca Silk Merino Batts & Purple Fleece Falkland Top
Stats: 744 yards (219 g), ~18 wpi (light fingering weight)
Ply: 2-ply

I'm actually making something with this yarn right now, so hopefully I'll have an update on it soon. As you can see, I had a bit of the Falkland singles left-over, so I plied them with one another. I'm not sure what to do with the mini-skein, but I'm sure it will be useful eventually :)

Owls in a Tree

2009-04-12T21:38:00.003-04:00

Maybe they're not chicks or fuzzy bunnies, but they're pretty cute just the same...

Owls in a Tree by Me, using the Owls stitch pattern and the Tree Bark Rib stitch pattern
Cascade 220, 100% Wool, (220 yards / 100 g per skein), ~5.14 skeins, colorway "Lake Chelan Heather"
US 3 (3.25 mm) Knitpicks Circular Needles
US 4 (3.5 mm) Knitpicks Options Circular Needles

This is sort of a mish-mash of ideas. When Kate Davies posted her Owls pattern, I fell in love with it, however, I didn't make it right away, as I didn't really think I needed a pullover sweater (I'm living in the San Francisco Bay area, where I feel that cardigans are, in general, much more useful).

Eventually I settled on making a "cardiganized" version of Owls in a lighter (worsted) weight yarn, but the more I thought about it, the more I wanted to use a stitch pattern instead of stockinette stitch for the main part of the sweater. I had been wanting to make some form of Teva Durham's Slinky Tree Bark Rib Tunic (probably something similar to this beautiful version by SiggaSif) for a while, so I compromised by borrowing its stitch pattern and then selected some lovely blue-green heathered Cascade 220 from my stash.

I used Ysolda's method for a Tubular Cast on for 2x2 Rib to cast on the body and sleeves. It worked quite well and produced a nice edge.

I probably should have looked into trying to find a bind-off that would look something like it for the button-band/collar.

Because I knew the ribbing would be very stretchy, I departed from my normal methods and decided not to do any body shaping.

I knit a rectangular body up to the armpits, then I knit two sleeves flat (I did use shaping for them, increasing up the arm), seamed each individually, then joined my body and the two sleeves and began knitting the yoke as one piece. I have to mention that I found it very difficult - or maybe just extraordinarily annoying (even with a long cord on my circular needle) - to knit the first 10 or 15 rows of the yoke. The sketchy part was the tightness and degree of stretching that occured as I tried to shuffle stitches around near (I use this term loosely) the sleeve junctions with the body. Argh. I think the next yoked sweater I make will be knit top-down, instead of bottom up....

After I completed the owls, I did some decreases along the neckline to form a bit of a V-neck. I added a ribbed button-band/collar knitted all at once using short rows to shape the collar and add depth at the back of the neck. I should have added more short-rows and knit the collar taller, as it's a little too short in the back (and tries to flip up sometimes). I may make some adjustments to this at some point if it bugs me enough.

Here it is blocking, with anti-cat devices (a slew of T-pins) deployed:

To create the illusion of shaping and create some hip room, you can see that I stretched the ribbing out a bit toward the bottom of the sweater.

I'm quite happy with the way it turned out - except for the shallow collar in back. There's also some excess fabric in the yoke, such that there's puckering above the owls, so I probably could have decreased a bit and left off one or two of the owls for a smoother look.

My husband tells me it just looks as if they are long-eared owls :)

I ended up with 31 owls ringing the yoke - a lot more than in the original Owls pullover - due to my tighter gauge.

The buttons I've used are polished, cut pieces of rock (ruby in fuchsite from Southern India, for those who are curious) that my husband drilled holes in for me.

I think they go quite nicely, but they're somewhat flamboyant, so I'm not sure the owls will get button eyes. If they do, I'm thinking they will be small and similar in color to the sweater itself. I'll keep my eyes peeled for buttons matching this description....

Happy Easter :)

Two socks are better than one

2009-02-22T17:15:00.005-05:00

At least, they are more useful for performing vulcan mind-melds with your cat :)

Sock Recipe: A Good, Plain Sock by Stephanie Pearl-McPhee (in Knitting Rules!)
Lorna's Laces Shepherd Sock Multi, 80% Superwash Wool, 20% Nylon, (215 yards / 57 g per skein), ~1.51 skeins, colorway "Vera"
US 00 (1.75 mm) aluminum dpns

I made the first of these socks in May/June 2007 to convince myself that I would be able to produce something resembling socks for Sockapalooza 4. I made a pair of fiery looking Monkeys for my Pal in June of 2007, and... I've been intending to make the second sock (to complete what should have been my first pair) ever since.

I have been trying to put my new job's long public transportation commute time to good use, and the second sock was the first knitting beneficiary (I've also gotten more reading done than usual). I'm pleased to report that I didn't lose any of my needles on Caltrain or MUNI, and my yarn ball managed to behave itself - admirably resisting the urge to leap off my lap and go tumbling down the aisle or beneath the seat in front of me.

There's not much to say about this basic sock, except that I like the pattern very much :) I found it to be straightforward: easy to follow and to understand. I cast on 76 stitches and used teeny-tiny needles (00) to accommodate my gauge. I did make some notes in the margins of Stephanie's book, but I mainly used the first sock as a guide for the second.

Bug was game for a little photoshoot once he discovered I could itch him under the chin (albeit rather clumsily) with my toes.

Of course, he's always happy to model blanket-like objects...

I'm trying to post more often, even though I'm feeling awfully busy, and I hope to get back to more blog reading as well as I get settled into my new schedule - I am missing so much of what you guys are doing!

In the meantime, I hope you all have a great week!

In which Bug catches a swallow by the tail

2009-02-12T11:01:00.011-05:00

or something like that...

Swallowtail Shawl by Evelyn A. Clark (Interweave Knits, Fall 2006)
My handspun yarn (made from AllSpunUp Bluefaced Leicester Roving), 100% Bluefaced Leicester Wool, (442 yards / 115 g per skein), ~0.87 skeins, colorway "Shallow Water"
US 5 (3.75 mm) Knitpicks Options Circular Needles

I must confess that I've been pretty busy lately with a new job that requires a long, multi-part public transportation commute, so this post is a little late (as I finished the shawl about a month ago).

I followed the pattern pretty closely and didn't do anything differently (that I know of). The nupps gave me some trouble, but I got better at them with time, and I think they add a little somethin' - somethin' to the overall look, so I'm glad I did them :)

I used my handspun yarn, and the color transitions worked out nicely. Here's a refresher of what it looked like in roving form and all spun up(!), in a lovely little skein. I must compliment Kristen (of All Spun Up) on her color sense - her rovings are always gorgeous.

The leftovers:

Here the shawl is blocking...

I have been admiring Swallowtails online for quite a while, so I'm very happy to finally have my own :)

Here are some close-ups of the three main patterns, from the center outward:

I do love these colors!

Here you can see the "wrong side":

... and with light shining through:

I had to persuade Bug to model the shawl. At first he was more than a little annoyed (hello - I'm trying to nap here):

...but he warmed up to it:

In fact, he kind of lost himself for a bit:

He appreciated the lovely colors and pleasing pattern, but what really won Bug over was his discovery that Swallowtail makes an excellent curtain in a sunny window - letting through just the right amount of skin-warming light.

Happy Lincoln's Birthday (and Charles Darwin's, too)... and Happy almost Valentine's Day :)

Christmas Knitting Wrap-Up

2009-01-19T20:48:00.002-05:00

OK... so it's been a while since Christmas, but now that everyone has received their knitted items (and I'm finally getting around to posting), here's a summary of my (no longer) secret Christmas knitting projects.

Santa Claus Stockings

Santa Claus Stocking by Ruth Homrighaus (with permission from Bernat, original publisher of the pattern)
US 4 (3.5 mm) bamboo circular needles (used for knitting flat)
US 5 (3.75 mm) bamboo dpns (used for knitting the toe in the round)

Yarns used (yardages are per stocking):

Plymouth Yarn Baby Alpaca Brush, 80% Baby Alpaca, 20% Acrylic, (110 yards / 50 g per ball), ~0.07 balls "White"
Valley Yarns Lenox, 60% Alpaca, 30% Merino, 10% Cashmere (109 yards / 50 g per ball), ~0.05 balls "Ballet Slipper"
Cascade 220 Wool, 100% Peruvian Highland Wool, (220 yards / 100 g per skein)
- ~0.39 skeins "Natural"
- ~0.35 skeins "Christmas Green"
- ~0.20 skeins "Christmas Red"
- a few yards of "Black"

When they were small, my husband and his siblings all received personalized handknit stockings from an elderly (and very generous!) family friend. She used an old Bernat pattern (published in the 1950's, I think) in holiday appropriate red, green, and white. My mother-in-law had mentioned that she would be interested in having me recreate these stockings for my nephews and niece. So, in November of 2007 I set about trying to find the pattern. Extensive web searches revealed that many other people were searching for a similar sounding pattern.

Eventually I discovered that Ruth Homrighaus's family also had a tradition involving this stocking pattern, and that she had knitted a number of them from a photocopy of her grandmother's pattern from the original kit. I contacted Ruth and - to make a long story short - she was kind enough to get Bernat's permission to make the long out of print pattern available via PDF. I know she put some serious work into it, recharting the pattern and typing up the instructions. Thanks so much, Ruth! I (and many others) really appreciate it :)

After finding the pattern, I needed to find the right yarn. As I was still living in Connecticut at that time, my mother-in-law mailed us my husband's stocking, and we went to Webs' year end sale to look for good yarn substitutions. We weren't able to find exact matches, but we came away with Cascade 220 in Natural, Christmas Red, and Christmas Green (how could I pass those names up?) as well as a brushed alpaca yarn for fuzzy Santa hair/beard and a peachy pink for his face.

Here are some in progress shots of one of the stockings:

As you can see, it's knit flat from the top down. The colorwork is a combination of stranded knitting and intarsia. When you're knitting Santa's head, you need to have a lot of different yarn strands/bobbins going at once (my maximum was 13).

Part way through the mirrored candy canes on the top of the foot, you put stitches to either side on holders, finish the instep, then slip the previously held stitches together onto a needle (so that the back opening is in the center of the needle). You knit a heel flap across these stitches and turn the heel. You now have the instep stitches and the heel stitches on two different needles/holders, as shown here:

Then you knit in the round on all the stitches, decreasing for the toe. This leaves you with 3 seams to sew up: 1 long seam up the center back above the heel and 2 short seams (one on each side of the foot) between the instep and the heel itself.

After making the first stocking, I thought that Santa's beard/hair could look a little fuller, so for the second stocking I doubled the alpaca brush yarn. This was more difficult to deal with logistically, and it resulted in a wider Santa head / wider stocking in addition to a fuller beard, so I went back to a single strand for the final stocking. You can see the difference here (single strand on the left, double on the right):

...and when all the stockings are layed out next to one another (fat-headed Santa on the far right):

I didn't try too hard to get the same gauge as the original stocking (on the left), so, as you probably noticed, my stockings are much longer. You can also see how different the colors are - both the red and the green in the original are much yellower than the yarns I was able to find.

P.S. I changed the candy cane chart, because I thought the original version was pretty weird looking. Mine aren't fabulous either, but I think it's an improvement.

Tiny Sweater Ornaments - 2 Types

1. Mini Weasley Sweater Ornaments by Alison Hansel in Charmed Knits
Miscellaneous leftover DK to heavy worsted yarns
US 4 (3.5 mm) bamboo circular needles

2. Cheers! by Cheryl Niamath
Miscellaneous leftover DK to heavy worsted yarns
US 3 (3.25 mm) Knitpicks Harmony dpns

I made these entertaining little sweater ornaments for various friends and family members.

Bug had fun modeling 6 of the 7 the tiny sweaters for me (I hadn't made the last one at the time of the photoshoot)...

So dignified ;)

Tiny Stocking Ornaments

Tiny Sock Ornament by Everwhelming Liz
Leftover fingering and DK weight yarns
US 0 (2.0 mm) Knitpicks Harmony dpns (for fingering weight)
US 3 (3.25 mm) Knitpicks Harmony dpns (for DK weight)

Bug decided these tiny stocking ornaments were the height of ear fashion:

I'd have to agree! He was sad to see them go to their recipient...

Le Mieux (and Pucker Stitch, too)

2008-12-28T13:57:00.011-05:00

International Cat Hat: France, Le Mieux by Stacy Mar of Spindles and Spices
Debbie Bliss Cashmerino DK, 55% Merino Wool, 33% Microfibre, 12% Cashmere (120 yards / 50 g per ball), ~0.56 balls color 18011
US 5 (3.75 mm) bamboo dpns

I hope everyone is having a relaxing and happy holiday season :) What better way to celebrate than with cats in handknit headwear!

I followed the pattern except I increased more (repeating rounds 7 and 8 six times for a total of 132 sts) than specified in the pattern for a slightly bigger, floppier hat (it would have been fine with fewer repeats, too).

I actually got a few shots of Moana in this one:

...très chic!

As usual, Bug tolerated a somewhat longer (and less blurry) photo shoot, so here are a few more photos of him modeling Le Mieux:

Jaunty!

I also recently finished a scarf:

Pucker Stitch Scarf by me, with the help of Vogue Knitting Stitchionary, Vol. One: Knit & Purl, stitch pattern #207, "pucker stitch"
Foxhill Farm Millspun Cormo Silk, 65% Cormo Wool, 35% Silk (255 yards / 117 g per skein), 1 skein
US 4 (3.5 mm) bamboo circular needles

I tried this lovely yarn with several different stitch patterns before finding one that I thought showed it off nicely.

The full width of the stitch pattern in Vogue Knitting would have eaten up my yarn too fast and resulted in a very wide and very short scarf, so I modified the pattern to suite my needs. The pattern I ended up using is a 22 stitch pucker stitch pattern with a 2 stitch garter stitch border on each side (as well as garter stitch border to finish the CO and BO edges).

PATTERN

Yarn: DK weight
Gauge: approximately 21 sts and 30 rows = 4" (blocked) in stockinette stitch
Needles: US 4 (3.5 mm) needles (I knit somewhat loosely)
Size: 49" long x 5.5" wide (blocked)

-CO 26 sts.
-Knit 2 rows.
-Begin Pucker Stitch Pattern:
-Rows 1,3,5,7,9,11,13,15,17, and 19 (RS): knit.
-Rows 2,4,6,8,10,12,14,16, and 18 (WS): k2, p22, k2.
-Row 20 (WS): k2, MP* in next 11 stitches, p11, k2.
-Rows 21,23,25,27,29,31,33,35,37, and 39 (RS): knit.
-Rows 22,24,26,28,30,32,34,36, and 38 (WS): k2, p22, k2.
-Row 40 (WS): k2, p11, MP* in next 11 stitches, k2.
-Repeat Pucker Stitch Pattern until desired length is achieved, ending with either Row 19 or Row 39 for symmetry.
-Knit 2 rows.
-BO all stitches. Weave in ends.

MP* = With yarn in front, insert right needle from top into the loop (purl bump) of the stitch 9 rows (9 purl bumps) below the next stitch on the left hand needle. Slip this loop onto the left hand needle and purl it together with the next stitch in the current row. (Note: For variety, I picked up stitches from only 6 rows down every third pucker row.)

"wrong" side

Bug enjoyed lounging under the scarf during our photo shoot. He found it to be quite soft and warm...

...and he appreciated the fact that the yarn coordinated so well with his eyes :)

Bug, Moana, and I wish you a happy, healthy New Year filled with knitting (and spinning) and other good things!

Three new yarns, see how they're spun...

2008-12-08T23:00:00.000-05:00

I do have some knitting projects going, but they're either blocking (to be photographed soon) or they belong in the category of secret holiday knitting, so... here's a spinning update! I've got three new yarns for you:

Handspun Yarn I: Graphite

Fiber: SWTC Black Diamonds Carbonized Bamboo Roving
Stats: 440 yards (59 g), ~25 wpi (lace weight)
Ply: single ply

This stuff was slippery and a bit fly-away (picture little cotton candy tufts trying to escape every which way if I pre-drafted much), but lots of fun to spin.

It's so shiny!

While I decided to leave it as a single, I think it would make an excellent (and more robust) 2 ply as well.

Moana stood still long enough for me to snap this photo of her modeling the yarn:

Handspun Yarn II: Lame Duck Mallard

Fiber: Spunky Eclectic Superwash Bluefaced Leicester Roving, October 2008 Spunky Club colorway "Lame Duck Mallard"
Stats: 375 yards (115 g), ~17 wpi (light fingering weight)
Ply: 3 ply

I think Boogie was right on with her interpretation of the Mallard duck's colors:

Moana wanted me to leave this yummy fiber unspun for lounging, snuffling, and kneading purposes:

However, I prevailed and managed to steal the fiber back from her (although I had to keep an eye out for her while spinning, because she really loves this stuff). Here are the three bobbins of singles:

...And the 3 ply:

As usual, this yarn has been fully Bug tested and approved.

Here's an example of why there are fewer pictures of Moana on the blog. I got just these two photos before she jumped up and started dancing around, then fled the scene (she had been napping peacefully moments earlier):

Handspun Yarn III: Shallow Water

Fiber: All Spun Up Bluefaced Leicester Roving
Stats: 442 yards (120 g), ~16 wpi (light fingering weight)
Ply: 2 ply

This color palette reminds me of the look of shallow water over pale sand near the edge of a lake or the ocean - a lovely turquoise tinged with greens and golds.

For some reason, Bug seems to wash the color variation out somewhat with his dark-chocolatey self. He doesn't mind - it still makes a pretty decent pillow.

Have a great week :)

Ribbons of squooshy amethyst-colored lace...

2008-11-28T20:02:00.011-05:00

Lace Ribbon Scarf by Veronik Avery
My handspun yarn (made from Foxhill Farm fiber), 100% Cormo Wool (413 yards / 104 g per skein), 1 skein
US 3 (3.25 mm) Knitpicks circular needles

Happy day after Thanksgiving :)

I pretty much followed the pattern for this scarf with a minor exception. I cast on and worked 19 repeats of the 24 row chart, but only had yarn enough to knit a single final row (the pattern specifies two) before binding off. These knit rows serve to stabilize the edge a bit, and it seems that the pattern should have called for two knit rows after the initial cast on as well (both for parallelism and added stability). I'm not sure why they're only called for at the end.

Other than this, I thought the pattern was lovely and worked fairly well with my handspun yarn, which had a tendency to stripe-up rather randomly. I think the pattern is simple enough that it doesn't get terribly lost in the busy-ness of the yarn, although it would also be gorgeous in a more subtly varying color palette.

I used this yarn that I spun back in April:

...from this fiber:

The Cormo produced a super squishy yarn, so the scarf (as you might imagine) feels wonderfully soft!

Here it is blocking, so you can see the whole thing at once - it's about 10 inches wide and 63 inches long:

Even though I stuck pins all over my blocking scarf, Moana still managed to traipse all over it :)

Here are some close-ups:

"right" side
"wrong" side

...and now for some cat modeling:

Have a great weekend!

Presto ProtoPretty Chango! (wink, wink)

2008-11-12T21:05:00.000-05:00

...green yarn becomes...

ProtoPretty DNA sweater shell or tank by Chris O'Brien
Jo Sharp Soho Summer DK Cotton 100% Cotton (109 yards / 50 g per ball), ~5 balls of the color "Rockpool"
US 4 (3.5 mm) 16" and 24" bamboo circular needles

Yes, it's true - my ProtoPretty DNA tank has magically appeared. It only took me 3 months :)*

*Please note that it shouldn't have. I just had too many things on my plate.

This is a great design that combines three beautiful patterns: diamond background lace (1), modified torchon insertion (2), and DNA cable (3). I pretty much followed the instructions for the smallest size, and it worked out well.

1
2
3

I enjoyed the Jo Sharp Soho Summer DK yarn, but I had to be a little careful to keep from splitting the myriads of thread-like plys.

The only problem I had (or thought I had) - aside from occasionally messing up the lace patterns - was that my stitch count didn't always match the pattern when I got to certain landmarks (e.g. after binding off for the armholes). I was 4 stitches off. Luckily I realized why pretty quickly: the width of the modified torchon insertion chart is 19 stitches for the first three rows and 17 stitches for the final three rows. Due to gauge differences, etc., I was simply ending up in a different part of the chart than the designer did, and since the modified torchon insertion chart is worked twice for each row of the pattern, this put my stitch count off by 4 stitches. Mystery solved.

The pattern doesn't specify how many stitches to pick up for the armholes or neck, which is fine by me. Sometimes it can be nerve wracking trying to match the # of stitches suggested in a pattern. I tried to pick up stitches in ratios that made sense with the composition of the corresponding edge. Also, I made sure the number of stitches I picked up in each armhole was the same.

I think it worked out nicely :)

The DNA cable also looks quite interesting on the "wrong" side (click for closer view):

Malabrigo Scarf

I should also mention that I finished the Malabrigo Scarf I started in late August (don't worry, this one only took me a month!).

Malabrigo Scarf by me
Malabrigo Merino Worsted 100% Merino Wool (216 yards / 100 g per skein), 1 skein (exactly) of the color "Charrua"
US 5 (3.75 mm) bamboo circular needles

Key:

S = stockinette (knit on right side, purl on wrong side)
R = reverse stockinette (purl on right side, knit on wrong side)

Pattern:

CO 26 sts.

Work in garter stitch for about 3/4 of an inch, then work
bands of stockinette and reverse stockinette stitch as follows:

8 rows each of S,R,S,R,S,R,S,R,S (= 9 bands)
10 rows each of R,S,R,S,R,S,R,S (= 8 bands)
12 rows each of R,S,R,S (= 4 bands)
12 rows of R (= 1 band - this forms the center of the scarf)
12 rows each of S,R,S,R (= 4 bands)
10 rows each of S,R,S,R,S,R,S,R (= 8 bands)
8 rows each of S,R,S,R,S,R,S,R,S (= 9 bands)

Work in garter stitch for about 3/4 of an inch, then bind off.

Of course, I love the yarn (so soft, and such lovely colors):

Squooshy!

Moana agrees :)

What was that?

2008-10-28T23:56:00.002-04:00

Pssst.

Hey, do you hear something?
...something like the click, click-clacking of tiny claws

...or the snick, snick of miniature masticating mandibles?

Shhh! There it is again.

Boo!

Meet Lola... the lavender lobster!

"Lola" or Knit Lobster by Molly Lincoln
SWTC Karaoke 50% Soy Silk, 50% Wool (109 yards / 50 g per ball), ~0.5 balls of the color "Bloom"
US 2 (3.0 mm) Knitpicks Harmony dpns
US D (3.5 mm) crochet hook (for chained antennae)

I had been wanting to try this pattern for a while, and I'm glad I did - it's pretty entertaining to make the pieces and put them together! I worked the pattern essentially as written, except I changed the last part of the claw pieces. Here are my changes:

Where the pattern says “Now work an icord for 6 rows using the 3 live sts remaining. Row 7: k2tog, k1. Row 8: k2tog” I did the following instead:
-Pick up 1 st on each side of remaining 3 live sts = 5 sts.
-Work a 5 stitch icord for 3 rows.
-Next row: still working as icord, K2tog, k1, K2tog = 3 sts.
-Next row: still working as icord, k2tog, k1 = 2 sts.
-Next row: still working as icord, k2tog = 1 sts.

Although no numerical gauge is given for this pattern, I think my gauge was a little too tight and my row gauge was a bit wacky because my lobster seems shorter and plumper than the original. This also may have had something to do with the fact that I, in retrospect, overstuffed Lola. I had some difficulty pulling the legs through the body - a slightly looser gauge would have made that easier - and my overstuffed arms/claws were somewhat resistant to the process of being formed into multiple segments.

Despite these issues, I love Lola anyway :)

I think she looks a bit like this "white" lobster.

As usual, I enjoyed working with the subtly color-changing Karaoke, which I've used several times before. It was challenging to execute some of the m1's (make 1 stitch) on the small needles with this worsted weight yarn, and the single-ply broke on me (I pulled too hard) the first time I tried to tie a length of yarn around one of the arms to try to get the segmented look.

Here's the rest of what happened when Lola introduced herself to Bug:

As you can see, they're getting along smashingly :)

Happy (almost) Halloween!

Spin-fest (feast?) and blog awards!

2008-10-16T23:48:00.004-04:00

First, the spin-fest. What follows is a summary of my last few months of spinning (I know, I know - you were hoping the above pictures were the summary, but... no such luck). Interestingly, all of these handspun yarns remind me of photos I've taken, so I decided to name them after the photos - pretty goofy, I know, but fun (for me, anyway) :)

Handspun Yarn I: December Sunset

Fiber: The Sheep Shed @ Mountain View Farm, Merino/Tencel (50/50) Roving
Stats: 187 yards (64 g), 15 wpi (fingering / light fingering weight)
Ply: "Navajo" plied

The namesake photo:

Handspun Yarn II: Milk Chocolate Lizard

Fiber: The Painted Sheep, Merino/Tencel (50/50) Roving
Stats: 503 yards (119 g), 20 wpi (light fingering / lace weight)
Ply: 2 ply

The namesake photo:

Mmmm... milk chocolatey! (Don't worry, I know I'm describing you in food terms, but I'm not going to eat you, Mr. Lizard.)

I had plans for this fiber even before I started spinning! I will be making Ruth's Tokyo top using my Milk Chocolate Lizard yarn in conjunction with Knitpicks Gloss Sock Yarn in the color cocoa (seen here with the fiber, pre-spinning):

Handspun Yarn III: Amber Ant (a.k.a. Sunflower)

Fiber: JulieSpins, Merino/Silk (80/20) Roving
Stats: 625 yards (113 g), 19 wpi (light fingering / lace weight)
Ply: 3 ply

The namesake photo:

I didn't do a great job of dividing the singles evenly between the 3 bobbins, so instead of trying to redistribute the singles after I ran out of the first bobbin, I switched to a 2 ply (55 yards, 6 g). I ran out of the 2nd bobbin with just a bit to go and finished up by Navajo plying the remainder (less than 1 g). Here they are together:

Bug appreciates Amber Ant's pillowy properties

Handspun Yarn IV: Owl Clover

Fiber: Ancient Threads Farm, Merino Superwash Roving (naturally dyed with cochineal, osage orange, tumeric, and lac)
Stats: 578 yards (126 g), 14 wpi (fingering weight)
Ply: single ply

The namesake photo:

My young nephew found it to be quite passably squooshy:

Handspun Yarn V: Columbia Fuzz

Fiber: Weaving Works, Local Columbia Wool Roving
Stats: 615 yards (128 g), 15 wpi (light fingering weight)
Ply: 2 ply

The namesake photo (yeah, this is a real stretch, I know):

Baa aaa aaa aa a... ...meow?

The guest cat paw you may have noticed caressing (well, perhaps "gripping" is a more accurate description - I had to disentangle the claws several times) the singles above belongs to my mom and dad's cat, Cali. She was kind enough to sit for a photo shoot with my oh-so-exciting white yarn (which I spun while visiting them):

Well, now... was that really called for?
Apparently Cali's not one to hide how she feels about a situation. Hmph.

Arte Y Pico & I Love Your Blog awards!

Bryony of Library Girl knits! (who has a fantastic blog herself) has nominated me for an award - thanks, Bryony! Here are the rules* of Arte Y Pico:

1) You pick 5 blogs that you consider deserve this award, creativity, design, interesting material, and also contributes to the blogger community, no matter of language.*

2) Each award has to have the name of the author and also a link to his or her blog to be visited by everyone.*

3) Each award-winning, has to show the award and put the name and link to the blog that has given her or him the award itself.*

4) Award-winning and the one who has given the prize have to show the link of “Arte y pico” blog , so everyone will know the origin of this award.*

5) To show these rules.*

* = I'm amending this to add "if you want to," because I don't wish to impose mandates on anyone :)

Now, I read a ton of blogs (well, ahem... I usually do, though I have been rather bad about it these past few months, unfortunately for me), and I find stunning examples of creativity all over the place - you guys are a bunch of super-interesting, inspiring, and artistic people - so it's really difficult to choose a few blogs to mention, but here goes:

Through the Loops: Gorgeous photography (and fun photoshoots with Kirsten's spirited and entertaining kids), beautiful knits (and spinning!), great patterns...

Anna's Flying Needles: Anna has really lovely taste in knits and her execution is fabulous :)

Green Apples - A Knitting Blog: Beautiful knits (and crochet!) - very artsy :)

missalicefaye: Holey, moley! (pun totally intended...) Alice does exquisite lace work and is my hero when it comes to drop spindle spinning :)

Yes, I'm A Yarn Snob: Great knits! She's currently on a bit of a cable kick :)

More recently, Washington Kestrel (check out her knitting and sewing projects - and zoo photos!) nominated me for another award (heh, maybe I should try to blog more often, so I can feel more deserving of these awards). Thanks!

Here are the rules*:

1. Please put the award on your blog.*
2. Add a link to the person who awarded you.*
3. You must nominate at least 4 fellow bloggers for this award.*
4. Add links to the recipients.*
5. Leave a comment so the recipients know they have received an award.*
* = Again, I'm amending this to add "if you want to," :)

Hee, hee! So here are 5 more blogs that I love :)

A Little Loopy: Three crafty women share this wonderful blog :)

CATKNITS: Wendy knits, spins, and cares for four unbearably cute kitties!

Knittymuggins: A funny, very friendly knitter who's always doing exciting things :)

Sunflowerfairy Knits: The exploits of a knitting, spinning mom who I have the pleasure of knowing.

The A.D.D. Knitter: The queen of knitted accessories (with a healthy lust for sock yarn)!

Yay! Have a great weekend (and for those of you going to Rhinebeck - have a fantastic time)!

Hello, from the west coast :)

2008-09-16T14:11:00.007-04:00

We've made it to the west coast, but we're visiting with family, so it will still be a little over a week until we reach our final destination.

Unfortunately, I don't do so well knitting as a passenger in a car (or moving truck) - I'm one of those people who likes to stay alert to the happenings on the road, and I'm not so good at knitting without looking (in fact I'm pretty bad at it) - so I got very little knitting done on the trip. That also may have had something to do with a broken needle... but I digress.

Something I finished before our cross-country move is this scarf:

Noro Striped Scarf by Jared Flood
Noro Silk Garden Lite 45% Silk, 45% Mohair, 10% Lambswool (136 yards / 50 g per skein), 1 ball each of colors 2010 and 2015
US 5 (3.75 mm) bamboo circular needles

I knit this pretty much as suggested, aside from the following: I substituted a lighter weight yarn (the original pattern calls for Noro Silk Garden, not Silk Garden Lite), CO 33 stitches instead of 39, and used only one ball each of two colors.

My scarf came out a nice size (66 inches long x 4 inches wide). I found it endlessly entertaining to see which colors ended up paired with one another along the length of the fabric (though I admit to sometimes egging the yarn on in my head when it seemed like a particular color was hanging around for too long).

Some intriguing color combinations resulted. For example, the Kermit and Miss Piggy section:

The very spooky Count Dracula section:

The flaming gray squirrel section:

... and the Monet "Impression - Sunrise" section:

All in all, a very enjoyable knit.

Bag by Beth

Before I left the east coast, I received a fun gift from The Real Baby Beth. She made 5 bags (in the Bag-n-tote Backstroke event) for the Ravelympics and decided she didn't know what to do with all of them, so I was one of the lucky folks she gave one to.

It's made of organic cotton and recycled soda bottle yarn (Little Barn Cotton & Ecospun) - very cool!

Thanks, Beth!

Swatching and waiting...

A while ago now (a few months ago?) I did some swatching for several summer tops. Well, summer is essentially over now, but at least I started one of them :)

It's the Proto-Pretty DNA Tank by weasel knits that I've been eyeing for a long time. I think it's a clever design, and I'm having fun with it, though that doesn't stop me from having made a number of bone-headed mistakes that have resulted in much ripping back. I am farther along than this photo shows:

...but not by much.

I've also been working on a simple scarf of Malabrigo Worsted in the deliciously earthy color Charrua - a rich, chocolaty brown shot through with streaks of sky blue:

I'm alternating bands of stockinette stitch and reverse stockinette stitch of increasing width. Bug thinks it's quite tasty looking:

Next time... spinning update!

Laminaria

2008-08-23T21:31:00.002-04:00

Laminaria by Elizabeth Freeman
Malabrigo Lace Baby Merino Wool (470 yards / 50 g per skein), 1.67 skeins of the color "Vaa"
US 3 (3.25 mm) Knitpicks circular needles

WARNING: This post doesn't contain very many words. My husband and I are packing for an impending move across the country, so I'm a little pressed for time, but thought I should try not to get too far behind in blogging my knitting projects.

In quick summary, this is a beautiful pattern and luscious yarn, and I'm quite happy with the results :)

However, I went a little overboard with my decision to aim for a fairly dense fabric. I chose a US 3 needle, based on my tendency to knit rather loosely, and didn't swatch. Before blocking, the shawl looked tiny, and the lace looked way too dense, but luckily, it grew to a nice shoulder shawl size - I'll try to get photos of it on at some point, so you can see - with a firm blocking.

With the somewhat variegated yarn, I do wish the lace was a little more open in general, though I love the density of the border:

Close-ups of the other stitch patterns:

...And here's some Bug cuteness for you (with the shawl pre-blocking, as you may notice):

Also, I was very fortunate to win Angie's recent blog contest prize: 2 skeins of beautiful alpaca/merino sock yarn from the Natural Dye Studio. Isn't it lovely?

Bye for now!

Handspun FO!

2008-08-06T17:30:00.024-04:00

Feather and Fan Comfort Shawl by Sarah Bradberry
My handspun yarn made from roving dyed by Kristin of All Spun Up
Merino Wool (733 yards / 122 g per skein), 0.98 skeins
US 4 (3.5 mm) bamboo circular needles
US 4 (3.5 mm) Knitpicks Options Harmony circular needles (when it got too big for my 24" bamboo circs)
US G (4.0 mm) aluminum crochet hook for stabilizing upper edge

It's been a while since I last posted, and while I've done hardly any blog-reading in that time period (grrr...must remedy that!!!), I have been knitting off and on. I'm still working on Laminaria - which looks like it's turning out to be a miniature shawl (though containing lots and lots of lovely little stitches) - a headscarf, perhaps? No, I didn't swatch for it... why do you ask? ...

However, four weeks ago I flew to the west coast for my brother's wedding and decided to start a simpler pattern on non-threatening looking bamboo circular needles to work on during my flights (and during my multiple layovers). I wanted to knit with some of my rather busy looking, multi-colored handspun yarn, so I picked a nice, straightforward feather-and-fan-based pattern.

I love how it turned out!

Here's a visual recap of the shawl, from roving to finished product:

After I bound off and tried it on, I was hoping the shawl would grow a bit during blocking, and I'm glad to report that it did. It's also much drapier.

before
after

As usual, the cats had their fun with the shawl.
While it was still a work in progress, Moana analyzed it to determine its Toepad Squoosh Rating (TSR - she gives it a 9.5 out of 10):

...and tried it on:

...as did Bug. He found it to be quite suitable for napping under when people are shining lights in your eyes and trying to photograph their knitting:

Note: You may notice in these photos that Bug has shaved "wrists" - he has been having some health problems and had IV's for a few days. He's doing quite well now, though :)

Bug carried out additional testing after the shawl had undergone the blocking process (he thought it needed a bit more cat hair integrated into the surface to make it just right).

Here you can see him examining the crochet edging for imperfections:

Clearly, the cats take their jobs as quality control specialists very seriously :)

I do love the way the colors progress in the pattern. It's a great choice for any hand-dyed yarn, and looks wonderful worked in stripes of several solid colors, too (as shown on the pattern page).

More photos for your viewing pleasure:

I also finished the swatches (I was able to make 7 of them with the yarn and beads supplied) for Schaefer Yarn Company. Each one is the width of the scarf and 3 chart repeats long.

Heather Undulating Waves Scarf by Laura Nelkin
Schaefer Heather, 55% Merino Wool, 30% Silk, 15% Nylon (400 yards / 113 g per skein), 0.91 skeins "Indira Ghandi" colorway
US 4 (3.5 mm) Knitpicks Options Harmony circular needles
1386 size 6 beads

This is a great pattern (which looks fantastic without the beads, too, in case you were wondering) and lovely yarn to work with.

I'm constantly learning new things while knitting, and this project was no exception - I discovered that I have been making yarnovers on the purl side incorrectly (doh!). Previously, I'd simply been bringing the yarn to the opposite side between the needles for both knit and purl sides. I always thought the resulting purl side YO's looked a little funny... heh. This pattern requires you to do your purl side YO's correctly (bringing the yarn to the back of the work over your right-hand needle, then returning it to the front under the right-needle before purling the next stitch), otherwise you get a tangled-looking mess with beads scattered around willy nilly instead of the neatly beaded ladder rungs you want.

"right" side
"wrong" side

In payment for the swatches, I got Schaefer Susan in the Subtly Solid Botanicals colorway "Sedum" to make something I've had in my queue since the first month or so I started knitting - the Phildar Zip Cardigan (the link is to a beautiful one made by Girl Who Knits). Here's the yarn:

Pretty, pretty!

The skeins go marching one by one, hurrah, hurrah...

2008-07-02T15:51:00.007-04:00

I've been spinning off-and-on, and I've got four new skeins to show you, so here goes....

Skein I: Natural and Plant-Dyed Coopworth

This is natural light brown Coopworth from Botanical Shades (no website) and 3 colors of plant-dyed Coopworth batts from Woollies of Shirkshire Farm (no website). The dark blue was dyed with indigo (over brown wool), the gray blue was dyed with both black walnut and indigo, and the orange was dyed with cosmos. I bought all four of these at the Massachusetts Sheep and Woolcraft Fair.

Here they are with Bug, for scale:

My husband picked the colors (which I love, too), and commissioned the yarn to be made for a hat, etc. for himself : )

At his direction, I spun striped singles, with one bobbin generally having longer color-runs than the other:

Then I plied the bobbins together to make a barber-pole striped 2-ply of approximately 287 yards (175 g) of DK weight (11 wpi) yarn. I think I could have plied it a little more tightly, but it came out pretty groovy, no?

I've got a bunch of the various fibers left over, so I'm sure I will be doing some fun stuff with them in future, too.

Skein II: Natural Coopworth

At the Connecticut Sheep, Wool, and Fiber Festival, I bought 4 ounces of natural dark brown Coopworth roving from Purple Fleece.

I started spinning it at the festival (we took our wheels) but only finished it up recently. I forgot to take a picture of the singles, but here it is in its final state: about 258 yards of sport to heavy fingering weight (13 wpi) 2-ply yarn.

It's nice and squishy, and I like the little flecks of lighter colored wool that are scattered throughout - it's almost a bit tweedy.

Skein III: Hand-dyed Blue Faced Leicester

On June 7th, the program for the Nutmeg Spinner's Guild meeting was "One Top Five Ways" with Margaret Heathman. We used 4 oz. of gorgeous blue-faced leicester dyed by Kris of The Painted Sheep. Here's the roving I chose:

We pulled the roving in half and then stripped one half into 8 lengthwise pieces. We only made it through 4 of the 5 ways (I think the fifth method may have been a tweedy looking 3-ply, but I'm not sure...) during the guild meeting:

Method 1: One piece was spun into singles, wound into a center-pull ball, and plied from the inside and outside of the ball to make a 2-ply with a subtle barber-pole, blended effect. I purposefully made pretty fat singles, as I was (needlessly) worried I would run out of time if I spun too finely, so you may notice that this yarn is quite a bit heavier weight than the others. I should also mention that plying freshly spun singles from a center pull ball is a somewhat frustrating experience - I'm sure this would go more smoothly if the singles were left to rest for a while on the bobbin first : )

Method 2: Each of the next two pieces was spun into singles on its own bobbin, then these were plied together onto a third bobbin. We had been instructed to choose two pieces of roving that were as similar to one another as possible and to spin them exactly alike (!), so that theoretically, when plied, the colors in the two plies would line up perfectly along the entire length of the yarn ; ) Margaret assured us that she only knew one person in the world (not herself) who could actually spin evenly enough to pull this off convincingly. I'm sure if I was trying to do this with a greater quantity of roving, the colors would get pretty out of sync eventually (which would be fine with me), but it did do a fairly good job at keeping the colors separated (even with my somewhat uneven singles) for this small amount.

Method 3: I spun up another piece of the roving and Navajo plied it, which does a nice job of keeping the colors separated. You can modify the size of your crochet-chain loops on the fly while plying to minimize color overlap at the color changes if you want to, but I don't mind a bit of mixing.

Here are the results of the first three methods (1, 2, 3, from left to right - click for bigger):

Method 4: I spun up the remaining roving using the 4th method - making low-twist singles. Since there's no plying involved, your color changes are preserved in all their original glory. I started this at the guild meeting and finished it later at home.

I ended up with about 400 yards (90 g) of light fingering weight (16 wpi) singles. I think I could have added a little more twist for increased stability, but I'm happy with the light, airy yarn that resulted.

Bug likes it, too (he thinks it makes an excellent pillow):

Skein IV: Hand-dyed Merino

Another dyer whose work I love is Kristen of All Spun Up.

front
back

Violet blues and browns - yummy! (...and there was a bonus - Kristin had this listed as 4 ounces, but, according to my scale, it was actually 4.3!)

This is the first dyed roving I've spun that had significant white areas in it. I ended up with 733 yards (4.3 ounces/122 g) of heavy lace weight (18 wpi) 2-ply. I really like how it turned out : )

Here are some close-ups for your viewing pleasure:

I really need to start knitting-up some of these yarns I'm spinning!

Knitting Update:

Speaking of knitting, I'm currently working on two projects. First, I'm making a series of swatches of their Undulating Waves Scarf for Schaefer Yarn Company using Heather in the India-invoking colorway "Indira Ghandi."

Here's one of the (unblocked) swatches:

My understanding is that these will be used as store samples. Each one is the width of the actual scarf and 3 chart repeats in length (they suggest 19 repeats for a full scarf).

The other project I'm working on is Laminaria. I'm using Malabrigo Lace (so soft!) in the color "Vaa" to give it a proper seaweedy look.

I took these photos a while ago, so I'm considerably further along now.

I hope you all are having a great summer!

Bug sure looks beet...

2008-06-20T20:44:00.016-04:00

Beet by Norah Gaughan (Berroco, #274 comfort dk booklet)
Berroco Comfort DK, 50% Super Fine Nylon, 50% Super Fine Acrylic (178 yards / 50 g per ball)
0.22 balls of color 2760 "Beet Root"
0.16 balls of color 2730 "Teaberry"
0.48 balls of color 2761 "Lovage"
0.34 balls of color 2762 "Spruce"
US 3 (3.25 mm) bamboo dpns
US 5 (3.75 mm) Knitpicks Options circular needles

I recently knit Norah Gaughan's wonderful beet pattern. I'd been wanting to knit it since she previewed it on her blog back in December, but a really cute photoshoot (complete with a slew of fresh vegies) rchrispy staged for her tasty looking beet pushed me over the edge.

I used the recommended yarns:

...and made only one real change to the pattern. After knitting, I threaded pipecleaners into the i-cord stems of the leaves, extending them up behind the central vein of each leaf. I then basically acted like I was starting the stem instructions again, picking up 64 stitches around the edges of the stem on the back of the leaf with the circular needle, knitting 32 stitches, and then doing the bind off as specified. This effectively concealed the pipe cleaners, which I poked several inches into the stuffing in the root part before attaching the leaves.

Unfortunately, the pipecleaners don't actually support the weight of the leaves very well, and they make the leaf vein parts of the stems look a little more bulky than might be desired, so I'm not sure if I would recommend this modification to others. If you do decide to use pipecleaners in this (or another) project, I would recommend first bending the ends back on themselves (as I did), forming a little loop, so you don't end up with sharp wires protruding from your knitting.

All in all, I think the beet came out pretty cute, and I'm almost certain that I will be making it some company in the future... maybe some carrots, a leek or green onions, and (if I can figure out how to do it) some cauliflower would be nice : )

I'll have to keep an eye on the beet, though. It seems to have a soporific effect on Bug - you might say it induces a cat-atonic state, as evidenced in the following series of photos:

To be sure, it does not appear to have this effect on all cats. Lyla (the sweetie I'm currently cat-sitting for) clearly is not amused with the beet:

...nor is she knocked out by it. Meanwhile, Moana simply wonders how it tastes....

Hmmm.... It must contain a Bug-specific sedative.

My Unseasonably Warm Serpentine Sweater

2008-06-09T20:20:00.036-04:00

It was 85° inside our apartment today, so of course I thought it was a perfect opportunity to take pictures of myself wearing my new sweater. Don't worry - I didn't sweat on it too horribly : )

Serpentine Sweater (A shorter version of the Serpentine Coat by Norah Gaughan from the book Knitting Nature)
Reynolds Odyssey, Merino wool (104 yards / 50 g per ball)
6.72 balls of "Brown Mix"
2 balls of "Granite Mix" (not quite enough, as it turned out*)
1.42 balls of "Sea Mix"
US 4 (3.5 mm) circular needles for yoke, body, and upper sleeves
US 3 (3.25 mm) bamboo dpns for lower sleeves
US 2.5 (3.0 mm) dpns and circular needles for sleeve cuffs, collar, and button and buttonhole bands
US 8 (5.0 mm) circular needles for lower body bind-off

As I mentioned previously, I decided to convert the pattern for knitting from the top down, imagining that I could make the sweater fit me better if I could try it on as I knit (a good idea in principle... unfortunately, as you will see, my execution was, shall we say, lacking).

First, I should mention that I really enjoyed the Odyssey yarn, which consists of 4 plies, each of which changes color independently. I'm so glad I was able to find it on sale last year! I love the colors :)

After working the yoke, I realized (or rather, finally admitted) that my floats were way too loose (ahem, gauge problem alert), so I spent some time trying to tighten up the worst offenders. I laboriously shuffled the excess yarn to the edges, where I later cut it and wove the ends into the button and buttonhole band seams. There's still some extra looseness in places (and some bumpiness), but it's much more tolerable. I definitely need to work on figuring out the right amount of tension for stranded knitting....

I knit the sleeves to fit me excellently (ripping out the forearm a few times on the first one to get it just right). Nothing ever goes as planned, however, as after blocking the yoke grew significantly (duh... all those loose stitches) leading the turtleneck-style collar to migrate down over my collarbones and the armpits to hang about 3 inches below where I was expecting them to be (I have some pretty impressive flying squirrel "wings" when I spread my arms). This situation, of course, caused the sleeves too be a corresponding 3 inches too long (and wider than expected - moving the part of the sleeve that was meant to fit around the meaty part of my forearm down to my wrist area, etc.) and shifted my waist and hip shaping (as well as the bottom edge of the sweater) downward.

Clearly, my brilliant plan for perfecting the fit backfired a bit...

The upshot of all this is that what I meant to be a closely-fitted cardigan is now a relaxed, rather roomy one with cuffed sleeves. Luckily, I like it anyway :)

My buttonholes ended up smaller than expected (I think they were the only things that did), so I chose 0.5 inch buttons that I thought went well with the color scheme. After the fact, I realize that more frequent button placement would have been a good idea to prevent gaping (I placed three rather close together on the collar/upper yoke, but spaced the rest about 4.5 inches apart, as the pattern suggested).

I'm too lazy to reknit the buttonhole band (*which had the added problem of me having run out of the "Granite Mix" and having to switch to "Brown Mix" too soon), so instead I decided to try a technique I've been meaning to use on several other sweaters: lining the button and buttonhole bands with grosgrain ribbon for added stability.

I think this went pretty well. I used the overcast stitch as described in TECHknitting with all-purpose sewing thread to attach the ribbon (the cut ends of which I folded toward the center (to make a point) then under twice). For the buttonhole band, I stitched the ribbon to the edge of the band first, cut a hole in the ribbon behind each buttonhole, and used the buttonhole stitch to stabilize these holes before overcast stitching the rest of the grosgrain ribbon down.

I didn't line the collar (I did initially, but it seemed to make the collar flop open (exposing a little more of the ribbon than I liked) when not buttoned).

All in all, this sweater didn't work out (at all) as intended, but I like it!

I think the inside is pretty, too:

Too bad I can't really wear it until the temperature drops considerably.... ah, well... it looks nice folded up :)

Knitting, Spinning, Meme-ing

2008-05-19T19:22:00.004-04:00

Heh, heh... even if I'm not up-to-date in my blog reading, I'm making an effort to be up-to-date in my blog posting : )

Knitting Update

I'm still working along on my sweater-length, top-down version of the Serpentine Coat from Knitting Nature. I've finished the yoke and one sleeve (the bottom half of which I re-knit several times to get the right fit).

There's one hitch: I've read over and over again that when doing stranded knitting you need to be sure to keep the floats loose. I think I took that way too seriously (doh!) - hence, my floats are too loose (making the stitches around them wonkily loose, too), and I think I'm going to have to try to redistribute the extra yarn in some fashion - probably by shifting the slack row by row to the edges, cutting the yarn, and weaving the ends in. I honestly think this will be much faster than starting over (I'm not a speedy two-color knitter, and it took me a while to ~~finish~~ knit the yoke, which I guess is arguably not finished yet...)

Dublin Lake Redux

So, what did I do with the other half of the lovely "Dublin Lake" Bluefaced Leicester roving I got from The Painted Sheep?

I split the remaining roving lengthwise into halves, then split one half into 8 lengthwise pieces and the other into only 4 (this is something I've seen suggested by Kristin of All Spun Up - another wonderful fiber artist - on the Ravelry boards). This resulted in longer color-runs on one bobbin, which you can see here:

Here's a close-up of the singles (I just love the colors):

I plied the singles from the two bobbins together, aiming for a bit of extra plying twist. Since my bobbins weren't very equal, I ended up having to transfer about half of the remaining singles to the empty bobbin, spit-splicing the ends to my two plies before finishing plying. As you can see, I still ended up with a little bit of singles left over:

...and here it is after finishing:

...and closer (click to see better):

The yarn seems nicely balanced. (I washed it in hot water and whacked it on the tub a few times before hanging it to dry unweighted.) I ended up with approximately 345 yards (2.15 oz.) of 22 wpi yarn - which is more or less a lace weight (I think I spun my singles finer on average than I did for the Navajo plied yarn... oops!). Here's my 2-ply hanging out with the Navajo plied yarn for comparison:

I like them both!

A Quirky Meme

Brandy of The Purl Parables tagged me (a while ago!) for a quirky meme. The rules are as follows:

* Link to the person who tagged you
* Mention the rules in your blog
* Tell about six unspectacular quirks of your's
* Tag six following bloggers by linking them
* Leave a comment on each of the tagged blogger’s blogs letting them know they’ve been tagged

1. I will look at my (non-digital) watch to see what time it is, only to promptly forget what it said. This is generally only an issue when someone else, having just seen me check my watch, asks me what time it is : )

2. I prefer very dry, chewy raisins to plump, juicy ones (so I'm not a big fan of raisins in baked goods).

3. I like yarn a little too much... yes, some people would consider that a quirk - why do you ask?

4. I often look down to check that I'm in gear ("Drive") while driving in an automatic transmission vehicle.

5. I like to have a salt shaker handy when I'm eating dinner in case I need a little extra flavor.

6. I would rather not have a cat pacing back and forth between me and my keyboard while I type, wooshing it's tail in my face and snuffling my fingers with each pass. (Pretty quirky, I know!)

If you would like to participate, consider yourself tagged. Have a great week!

Contest Winner! (and Spinning Update)

2008-05-12T16:06:00.016-04:00

*Teaser for spinning update below!

And the winner is...

Congratulations are in order for laughingmuse, the randomly drawn winner of my Blogiversary Contest : ) Green yarn will be heading your way as soon as I receive your mailing address...

Thanks, everyone, for entering!

One Last Bit of MDSW

Now that I've gifted it, I can tell you about one last purchase I made at Maryland Sheep and Wool: a beautiful turned wood crochet hook made by Bill Hardy...

... modeled here by Larry, the little green alien guy that Heidi gave me on our ride home from the Maryland Sheep and Wool festival (Thanks, Heidi!):

This (the crochet hook - don't worry, I kept Larry!) went to the very deserving (and crafty!) friend who cared for my kitties while I was at Maryland Sheep and Wool (my husband was also out of town at the time). It was accompanied by a gorgeous skein of Brooks Farm Solo that I bought at Rhinebeck last year.

It was difficult to part with, as I completely adore the yarn, but I had no specific intentions for it, and I wanted to give her something lovely to use the crochet hook with. She seemed to like it : )

Spinning Update

Yes, I really am trying to make a dent in my recently expanded spinning fiber stash : )

A few weeks ago, I finished spinning up the squishy, soft Cormo I got from Foxhill Farm (no website). Here's a summary of it's transformation:

I ended up with about 413 yards (3.67 ounces, although it was supposed to be 4, and I had only a few yards of singles left over) of 16 wpi (light fingering weight) 2-ply yarn. I think it's lovely!

I also plied up the Icelandic wool (that I previously showed you as singles) into about 328 yards (~7 ounces) of 13 wpi (sport/fingering weight) 2-ply yarn. I had about an ounce of extra singles (some of which were created by my friends when they tried out my spinning wheel) that I plied together for about 23 yards of thick and thin yarn (not shown here).

Here they are together:

...and for your enjoyment, here is Bug modeling the cormo yarn:

Additionally, I've spun singles of most of the 4 oz. of "Dublin Lake" Bluefaced Leicester I got from Kris of The Painted Sheep at the Nutmeg Spinners Guild Meeting in April.

I Navajo plied (for the first time!) 2 oz. of the singles, resulting in about 133 yards of 15 wpi (fingering weight) yarn:

To Navajo ply you basically make a giant crochet chain with your fingers and add twist to it. Here's a video that helped me figure out how to do it. It was kind of difficult to understand (and to execute) at first, but I think I've got the hang of it now.

As you can see, Navajo Plying largely preserves the different colored sections in the final yarn. I think I did an OK job, although my yarn initially had too much twist (which I didn't fully admit until after finishing it), so I ran it through my wheel again to take a little of the extra twist out. Now it hangs much straighter after finishing (the second time!), although the joins between each looped section are a little more obvious now.

I think it's pretty : )

I plan to make a 2 ply yarn out of the remaining 2 oz. of singles for an interesting (I hope) contrast. I think it would be fun to use both yarns in one project together (if you have any ideas, let me know)!

Octopus Pattern Coming Eventually...

I've had a number of requests for a pattern for my blue-ringed octopus, and I wanted to let you know that do I plan on putting one together sometime. I made him up as I went along and didn't take great notes, so it will probably take me making a new one to figure out what I did. In other words, it may be a while - but thanks so much for your encouragement to do it : )

Have a great week!

Maryland Sheep and Wool!

2008-05-06T21:42:00.011-04:00

If you haven't already, be sure to enter my Blogiversary Contest by Friday...

I had a great first trip to the Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival (even though I had, and still have, a bit of a cold)!

I rode down to Maryland on Friday with sunflowerfairyknits and missalicefaye (Hi, guys!). We spent some time spinning Friday evening (we brought our wheels!) and had a leisurely dinner before retiring. They were wonderful roommates and fellow festival-goers (and were good sports about my sheep photographing habit).

The hotel was pretty darn full. There were a number of groups there attending the festival, but the presence of an overly-tanned, very fit man in scandalously short, rather revealing running shorts (you know, the kind with the side "vents") at the check-in desk should have alerted us that there was a marathon going on in Frederick (we figured this out later).

After a continental breakfast at the hotel, we arrived at the fairgrounds around 9 am (opening time) on Saturday, and the parking area was already starting to fill up:

There was a lot of fair food (naturally), and swarms of people were everywhere:

My lunch on the first day consisted of a "pit lamb" sandwich, coleslaw, and potato salad with limeade to drink:

We wandered around, trying to visit every barn and outdoor vendor booth. There were all sorts of things to see in addition to yarn and fiber (don't worry, I'll get to that eventually).

Sheep were being trimmed in preparation for show and being sheared in demonstrations:

Nice hooves...

Sheep were being shown:

There was a fleece sale:

There were alpacas:

...and llamas:

...and goats:

...and loads and loads of sheep:

There was plenty of human-sheep interaction going on:

This guy cracked me up, lounging in the pen with his critters:

This little lamb was very interested in the ewe next door:

All in all, an embarrassment of wooly riches!

Speaking of which, here are some close-ups for your textural enjoyment (click for bigger):

NOTE: Don't worry - I didn't make Heidi and Alice follow me around while I photographed sheep : )

So, I bet you're wondering what I bought. Mostly I went for a bunch of lovely spinning fiber:

1 2 3 4
5 6 7
8

1. Bamboo top (4 oz., "Caribbean") from Opalessence
2. Merino roving (4 oz., "Cassis") from Opalessence
3. Organic Long Staple Uplands Cotton combed top (8 oz., "Pima Cotton") from the Little Barn
4. Organic Cotton combed top (8 oz., "Mocha") from the Little Barn
5. Tussah Silk roving (8 oz., "Natural") from the Little Barn
6. Merino batt (3.5 oz.) - I don't remember the vendor (and, darn it, the receipt doesn't say)
7. Merino roving (4 oz., "Sunset Gold") from Gale's Art
8. Corriedale roving (7.1 oz., dyed with cochineal & iron) from Handspun by Stefania

I did buy some yarn -- one skein of Canopy (200 yards, 50 g, "Purple Passion," alpaca/merino/bamboo blend) from The Fibre Company (no I don't have a plan for it, but it's lovely yarn, and it was 50% off!) and three skeins of coral Solo Silk (400 yards, 4 oz. each, "SW," silk/wool blend) from Brooks Farm for a Printed Silk Cardigan:

Describing my Solo Silk purchase, I told Heidi and Alice that I "fell down" in the Brooks Farm booth. Heidi immediately expressed concern and wanted to know if I was alright - I guess my euphemism (I hadn't intended to buy any yarn) was a little ambiguous : )

Alice totally egged me on when I expressed interest in getting a Bosworth drop spindle. I came home with a beautiful Midi (1.02 oz., Canarywood) from Journey Wheel, shown here with some of the "Cassis" merino roving (#2, above) spun up on it:

Pretty good stuff!

Oh yes... I never showed you what I got at the Connecticut Sheep and Wool Festival. Here you go (click on photos for bigger pictures and info.):

Clearly I have enough fiber to keep me spinning for some time... now I just need to get to work on it : )

Another Smorgasbord... (including contest!)

2008-05-01T23:38:00.004-04:00

Andrea Dogwood Blossom Wrap

Andrea Dogwood Blossom Wrap (Schaefer Yarn Company)
Schaefer Yarn Company Andrea, 100% Cultivated Silk (1093 yards / 99 g per skein), "Dian Fossey," 0.74 skeins
US 2 (2.75 mm) Knitpicks circular needles
US 7 (4.5 mm) Knitpicks Options circular needles

This week I finished the Dogwood Blossom Wrap for Schaefer and mailed it off to them (hopefully in time for a show they have this weekend). I really enjoyed working on it, and I'm so jealous that I don't get to keep it - so perhaps I'll make another some day : ) The yarn was gorgeous and not at all splitty, even with my uber-pointy Knitpicks needles.

Here are a few more photos of the prettiness:

Of course, Bug had to get in on the action:

I think it looks really cool backlit:

(Belated) Blogiversary contest!

April 15th was my one year blogiversary, so I'm having a little contest (woo hoo!) Leave me a comment before midnight on Friday, May 9th, and I'll randomly pick one of you to win... this fabulous trio of yarns in lovely springy greens:

-1 ball of Rowan Handknit Cotton "Celery" (93 yards)
-1 ball of South West Trading Company Bamboo "Sahara" (250 yards)
-1 skein of Lanas Puras Melosa fingering weight "Camouflage" (440 yards)

Dr G's Memory Vest

I keep meaning to mention a wonderful opportunity to get a great pattern while donating to a worthy cause. Kirsten of Through the Loops! designed Dr. G's Memory Vest for her father (Dr. G), who succumbed to Alzheimer's disease recently. In return for her lovely cabled vest pattern, Kirsten's asking for a donation (of any size) to the Fisher Center for Alzheimer's Research. Please see her blog for details.

"The Yarn Grove" blog contest prize!

I was lucky enough to win a Chico Bag from The Yarn Grove in their blog contest. It's extremely useful and compacts down to a tiny volume when not in use:

Bug for scale (he's a 15 pound cat) - it holds a lot!

A few good memes

First, Phoebe of Anphoe's Spaces tagged me for a meme. Here is what you do: Use the 1st letter of your middle name to answer each of the following questions. They have to be real places, names,things…nothing made up! Try to use different answers if the person you took this from had the same 1st initial.
You CAN’T use your name for the boy/girl name question.

1. Middle name letter: M
2. Famous artist/band/musician: Metallica
3. 4-letter word: Mush
4. U.S state: Mississippi
5. Boy name: Mickey
6. Girl name: Milicent
7. Animal: Meerkat
8. Something in the kitchen: Moana (meowing for food)
9. Reason for being late? Major delay
10. Body Part? Mucosa
11. Drink? Milk
12. Something you shout: Mom! Joey's pulling my hair!
13. Something you eat? Mayonnaise
14. A movie you've seen? Mean Girls

Second, Michaela of Dollarknits tagged me to do a “six-word memoir.”
Here's mine: “Learning new things makes me happy.”

If you would like to answer one or both of these memes, consider yourself tagged!

.
.
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I'm WAY behind on my blog reading, but I know you guys are up to all sorts of great things. Hopefully, I'll be able to catch up soon -- although it will be a little while longer, since I'm going to the Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival this weekend... Woo-hoo!

Thanks so much for reading, and have a great weekend (I know I will)!

Octopus meets "The Traveling Sock" (and some sheepishness, too)

2008-04-29T00:54:00.016-04:00

Boy, did I have a busy weekend! What did I do? Well, here's a little clue:

Yes, octopus and I spent a lovely Sunday in Northampton, MA, and we just happened (...ahem) to stumble across the wonderfully funny (and flat out wonderful) Yarn Harlot and a veritable kaleidoscope of knitters.

Unfortunately the magnets in octopus's feet weren't attracted to Stephanie's aluminum (I assume) needles (I did a poor job explaining that they were mainly for cat entanglement purposes, not for gripping knitting needles) -- so if you look closely you will see that he's impaled for photographic purposes. He didn't mind a bit, as he was completely entranced with the rippling reds of the traveling sock. (He also doesn't mind that Stephanie took his picture, too, and he's currently one of the knitters showcased in her Webs recap post. In fact, he thinks he looks quite handsome.)

Here's a refresher of what octopus can do to an unsuspecting feline:

I had a great time listening to Stephanie speak, meeting other knitters, and admiring all the sock yarn that Webs had on sale in honor of the event. I picked up a copy of her new book -- and a nifty Ravelry sticker featuring "Bob" and a pin from Jess herself:

Bob is such a cutie : )

On top of that, I spent Saturday at the Connecticut Sheep and Wool Festival with a bunch of new friends (including sunflowerfairyknits, missalicefaye, knittingeweonthego, and blogless Anne -- all of whom I drove up with). Thanks for letting me come along, guys!

In keeping with my tradition of putting way too many photos in my posts, here are some photos from Saturday.

Spiky-haired alpacas:

Sheep dog trials:

Run!

Woolly sheep backs (I just love the texture!):

UConn sheep in a pen... waiting to be em-baldened (note that they're camera-shy even with all their "clothes" on):

I'm sure you're wondering how the sheep go from this:

to this:

Well, here you go:

The aftermath.

Here is the sequence as a video slideshow (no music), if you're interested.

Quite intriguing, yes? I have to tell you that I have no photos of a whole segment of the shearing process due to the fact that the expert sheep shearer was wielding the giant electric clippers blithely around the facial area (specifically over and around the eyes) while the sheep nervously kicked and struggled. I feared for her eyeballs and had to look away repeatedly (geez, am I a wimp, or what), hence the lack of photographs.

I did make some lovely fiber acquisitions, but I'll detail those in a later post.

Happy (belated) Earth Day, and I hope you're all having a good last week in April : )

Clearing the backlog...

2008-04-08T16:57:00.038-04:00

Eeesh! I keep intending to write various and sundry things up in a blog post (or two)... so get ready for a major mish-mash : )

1. Pay It Forward

Last month (I'm a little behind here) I sent out little gifts to the first 3 knitters who expressed interest when I posted about Pay It Forward way back when. In addition to some snickerdoodle cookies, I sent Leslie (and her kitty Perry!) two felted catnip mice:

...and Jenn and Sarah each a snowflake washcloth:

I think they all enjoyed their gifts : ) Here are the details:

Felted Catnip Mice Kitty Knits: Projects for Cats and their People by Donna Druchunas (very generously given to me by Laiane)
Berroco Jasper, color "Copper Silk," 100% Fine Merino Wool (98 yards / 50 g per skein), 0.22 skeins (for gray/brown mouse)
Morehouse Merino Gator Yarn, color "Chartreuse," 100% Merino Wool (220 yards / 57 g per skein), 0.19 skeins (for green mouse)
US 10 (6.0 mm) double pointed needles

Originally, I knit up a gold mouse and a green mouse. Here they are pre-felting. Aren't they cute together?

Moana wonders who steamrolled the mice.

Bug cannot believe he's modeling mice destined for some other cat. Humph....

Upon hand-felting them in the sink, I discovered that I hadn't... ahem... read the label of the yarn I used for the gold mouse very thoroughly. Evidently I am extremely stubborn, because it took me a good 20 minutes to accept that the floppy yellow critter I was alternately beating senseless in a bath of soapy hot water and shocking under cold running water was indeed made with (gasp!) superwash yarn. Doh. I'm a genius - what can I say?

Henceforth, this little guy continues to look pretty much like this (except a little "rattier" due to all the agitation):

Because the mice are a quick knit (and I wanted Perry to have a pair to play with!) I decided to use the leftovers from my husband's hat to make another. Here it is pre-felting

Both the mice felted wonderfully. Because I think they're so cute, here are a few more photos:

And now for the washcloths:

unblocked
blocking
blocked
backlit
both together!

Snowflake by Norah Gaughan
Pakucho Organic Cotton, color "cream," 100% organic cotton (88 yards / 37 g per skein), 0.75 skeins (for "Cream" colored cloth)
Bernat Organic Cotton, color "Hemp," 100% organic cotton (84 yards / 50 g per ball), 0.6 balls (for "Hemp" colored cloth)
US 6 (4.0 mm) Knitpicks Options circular needles (for "Cream" colored cloth)
US 5 (3.75 mm) Knitpicks Options circular needles and dpns (for "Hemp" colored cloth)

I knit the first one ("Cream" colored version) back and forth as directed, but for the second one ("Hemp" colored version) I went down a needle size (to achieve a denser fabric) and converted the pattern for knitting in the round to avoid having a seam. I thought both yarns were nice, but I especially enjoyed working with the Pakucho.

2. The Knitter Project

Months ago I signed up to participate in the Knitter Project, Elizabeth's ambitious senior project. Here's a short description of it:

"The Knitter Project is a collaborative effort by nearly fifty knitters from all over the world. Each knitter has been asked to knit tags into their work, and write a short journal entry on each tag. The finished pieces will be a rich self-portrait of who knitters really are."

Here is my contribution:

Marsan Watchcap by Staceyjoy Elkin
My own handspun yarn, color "Denim," made from Ashland Bay Merino (~100 yards / 90 g per skein), ~1 skein + some unplied singles held double
Berroco Jasper, color "Copper Silk," 100% Fine Merino Wool (98 yards / 50 g per skein), small amount for stripe
US 6 (4.0 mm) Denise Interchangeable circular needles and double pointed needles

I made the smaller size. My cooky thick and thin yarn made a very dense hat. It should be nice and warm... though I haven't gotten to try it out yet because it was mailed off to Elizabeth in Philadelphia : ) While knitting, I started to get concerned that I wouldn't have enough yarn, so I added a stripe of Berroco Jasper (the last of the leftovers from my husband's hat). It turns out my fears were justified, as I ran out of yarn with a few rounds to go in the crown - however, I had a bit of unplied singles of my handspun left over, so I held that double and was able to eek out the rest of the hat : )

the fiber
the yarn
isn't perspective fun?

As you can probably tell, I had to work to keep Bug from biting the tags.

3. A Little Gift For My Spinning Mentor : )

I thought the very generous woman who helped me get started with spinning deserved a little gift. Originally, I intended to spin some fun yarn and then knit something out of it for her. It wasn't happening... so I decided to make her something with millspun yarn from my stash that looked like handspun yarn I would like to make.

On Ravelry I had noticed a (free!) pattern for simple yet beautiful fingerless mitts in a broken rib stitch - so that is what I made.

Bainbridge Mitts by Amy Goodstine
SWTC Karaoke, color 285 "Intensity," 100% Fine Merino Wool (109 yards / 50 g per ball), 0.75 balls
US 3 (3.25 mm) double pointed needles

I made these pretty much as directed, however my gauge was way off initially, and I made one huge mitt before I fully comprehended this (luckily it fits someone I know, so I'll be making it a mate soon). I love the yarn... and you can bet I'll be trying to spin up something like it soon.

Speaking of which... this sounds like a good segue into:

4. Spinning Update

I spun up the 8 ounces of gray Icelandic wool that came with my spinning wheel.

Although I plied the singles last night, I haven't gotten a photo of my 2-ply yarn yet.

I went to the bimonthly meeting of the Nutmeg Spinners Guild on Saturday. I took my wheel with me and got a bit of spinning done. They had an interesting program and a number of great local/regional vendors (as well as a hoard of wonderful spinners - it was so nice to meet you guys). I bought spinning fiber from two of them.

Some soft and springy hand-dyed Cormo from Foxhill Farm (Lee, MA - no website):

The individual fibers are so fine and crimpy it's hard to actually see them. (I'm having great fun trying out various types of wool - it's amazing how different they are!) I've already started spinning some of this up:

Bug looks on...

I also bought these lovelies from The Painted Sheep:

The white and the blue/green/amber/burgundy mix are both Bluefaced Leicester while the fiber in shades of green is a lovely mix of alpaca, merino, and silk. I look forward to spinning them all!

5. Knitting Update

The Andrea Dogwood Blossom Wrap for Schaefer is coming along. Here it is about 20% done:

I made nearly all of the first Endpaper Mitt, but decided it was turning out huge (except for my cast on edge, which was too tight).

I didn't have a set of 5 dpns of the right size, so I ended up ordering this set from KnitPicks. Even though I've got to rip it out, the mitt gave me some good practice with two-handed stranded colorwork (which is slightly easier for me now). I'll get back to this project soon.

The Endpaper Mitts were meant to be a warm up for more colorwork, so while I was waiting for the dpns to arrive, I went ahead and started Norah Gaughan's Serpentine Coat from Knitting Nature. Here's a photo from the book

I am making a shorter "sweater-length" version using the same yarns called for in the pattern. I decided to convert the pattern for top-down knitting in order to make the body fit well (I'll be able to try it on as I go), so I started with the ribbed collar and have progressed into the yoke:

I wasn't daring enough to knit this in the round with steeks (I also thought it would be hard to try on, which defeats the purpose of knitting top-down), so I'm learning how to do two-handed stranded colorwork on the "wrong" side, too.

...........Ok, that's (more than) enough for now. I have a few more things on my mind, but they'll have to wait until my next post (which will hopefully be sooner than this one was)

Have a great week!