Of yarn and... other things.

I made a rather significant purchase recently. I'll give you a hint -- it was integral in turning this:



...into this:



Here are a few more hints:





Meet my new wheel! (Woohoo!)



It's a double treadle Original Lendrum Spinning Wheel, and I think it's lovely (and it spins nice, too!).

I have been doing a lot of research lately and wanted a versatile, reliable wheel that didn't cost a huge amount. I had narrowed it down to this wheel or the Ashford Traditional, but decided on the Lendrum.

Here's my first attempt with it (Bug and Moana helped me out quite a bit with the fiber prep):

















You can see that I had some issues maintaining an even thickness in my singles - I need to work on my drafting : )





My Husband's Hat

I've been meaning to blog about this for a while.



My husband used his Berroco Jasper in the lovely "Copper Silk" colorway to make himself a really cool hat! He prefers to purl, not knit, (so the hat was done in all-purl stockinette) and he likes to wrap the yarn clockwise which produces a biasing rib-like effect in combination with the singles yarn. I've dubbed his hat "Purl-Crazy."

I really love this yarn (even though I didn't get to use it!), especially in this particular colorway. I may have to make something out of it eventually myself (although I'd need to get more, since he used most of the two skeins we had) : )





Love the reverse stockinette inside, too...

Of course, Bug isn't content to let me photograph knitwear in peace, so he had to get in on the action:






Thrummed Mittens

I started some Thrummed Mittens from the Winter 2006 issue of Interweave Knits.



The yarn (which I won) is pretty wild (it totally reminds of rooster feathers!), so I think it's a good match for mittens : ) And, to maximize the craziness, I am using cotton candy pink thrums:






I've finished the first mitten, except for the thumb.


Doh, Tagged Again!

I've been tagged by Susan and Tammy. Here are the rules (notice I'm not a stickler for 3 or 4):

1. Link to your tagger and post these rules on your blog.
2. Share 7 facts about yourself on your blog, some random, some weird.
3. Tag 7 people at the end of your post by leaving their names as well as links to their blogs.
4. Let them know they are tagged by leaving a comment on their blog.

So here are 7 (more) things about me:

1. I love cheese! (although I admit I had some trouble with the Morbier I tried once)

2. I've had a piece of graphite from the tip of a pencil embedded in the palm of my right hand since elementary school.

3. I really enjoy the music of MIA, Northern State, and Primus, to name a few. My musical tastes are pretty eclectic, though I tend to be turned off by "ballads" / slow cheesy love songs that take themselves too seriously.

4. I tend to say goofy things around people I'm not very familiar with (shyness...gah!).

5. My favorite genre of books is science fiction / fantasy (well.... it's at least tied with "knitting books").

6. I have trouble finding comfortable shoes, so I mainly wear one pair over and over and over... it's very attractive : )

7. I like yarn. (Hey, I'm running out of ideas - this is hard!)


If you would like to participate, consider yourself tagged!

Minimalist Cardigan wrap-up (and more!)

Minimalist Cardigan
Valley Yarns Colrain, color "Chestnut" (109 yards per ball), ~7.2 balls
US 4 Knitpicks Options circular needles (32")

First off, I want to apologize that these photos are a little dark and unspectacular. I'm having trouble finding good light in the house this time of year. Now to the real stuff: I have been battling my (more or less completed) Minimalist Cardigan for over a month now, and I'm happy to announce that we have come to an agreement of sorts.

You may have noticed that I haven't really mentioned it much. Unlike some bloggers (whom I admire greatly!), I don't feel like posting about a project when it's giving me real trouble. I prefer to stew privately, I guess. I realize that it would be much more interesting, not to mention more useful, for me to let you know what's going on. I could then solicit ideas from you guys about how to go about fixing things, and you might learn something in the vein of "what not to do" when you're knitting a sweater (or this sweater, at least). Ahem. That would be grand. Anyway....


Modifications, etc.

I knit the smallest size. My initial swatching showed that I was almost getting gauge with US 4 needles (the pattern recommends US 7). Instead of trying again on US 3's, I decreased the number of stitches I cast on for each piece to make up the difference. However, I neglected to alter the number of stitches involved in armhole and shoulder shaping, resulting in deeper armholes and narrower sleeve caps than desirable. Luckily both are still workable -- they're just not proportioned as nicely as they could have been. I used short-rows for shoulder shaping and did a 3 needle bind-off for each.

I also chose to add additional length (a half inch) to the fronts and backs (it has been my experience that sweaters are often too short on me if I don't add a couple of inches, at least). This turned out to be a bad idea.

After blocking it was too long/too big looking in general:

I hadn't taken into consideration the drapiness of the fabric or the fact that this cardigan is meant to be worn open over a shirt (and is not fitted at all). It hit in the middle of my butt, and looked like a limp red tent on me. Ooof.

Maddeningly, it looked OK (actually rather nice) with the fronts cinched together like this:

(although the back pooched out strangely around my waist in order to accommodate my buttocks)

I looked for a clasp, but was not happy with the clunky looking overly-fancy ones available, so I sewed on hooks and eyes to keep the fronts closed instead. Unfortunately, this focused too much tension on the hooks/eyes so that the fabric around them pulled rather disturbingly (no photo, sorry).

I took these off and made i-cord frogs, which I sewed to the fronts like this:


While they look nice just sitting there, frankly, they destroyed the minimalist nature of the Minimalist Cardigan (not to mention I attached them a little high, which made me look extremely flat chested and weirdly proportioned, and they looked kind of crooked). Soooooo..... off they came.

I decided that I needed to go ahead and crop the cardigan, or I was never going to get any wear out of it. I picked out the seams toward the bottom of the sweater and lopped several inches off the back and both fronts. Then I put the live stitches onto a needle and worked downward - adding about a half inch of the k2,p1 ribbing before binding off (I know this doesn't match the length of ribbing on the sleeves, but I was afraid of adding back too much length after my surgical escapade). When finished, I reblocked the bottom edge only.

Now, I may be completely batty, but I'm much happier with the way the sweater looks on me! Yay!

I may still add some kind of relatively invisible closure (I was thinking of putting a button or two on the inside of one front edge and a loop or loops on the inside of the other), so that I have the option of wearing my Minimalist Cardigan with the fronts cinched in.

Oh, yes. One last note: the ribbing at the cuffs wasn't tight enough to stay put if I shoved the sleeves toward my elbows a bit (which I am prone to do, and I think this looks better, anyway), so I wove some elastic thread inside each cuff -- much better!

Oops! Not quite done.... I just love the look and feel of this yarn -- it's buttery soft, and the tencel gives it such a nice sheen and drape. Highly recommended!


Sheepy Roving!
A friend of mine brought me some wonderful natural roving that her mother harvested (and prepared) from sheep she has raised over the years. I definitely have to learn to spin now!

Just look at this stuff!



Bug approves : )


Schaefer Yarn Model Knitting

So, ignoring what time of year this is (um, holiday gift knitting, anyone?), I offered to knit up a model for Schaefer Yarn.

I'm working on the Judith Chevron Shawl in their new, yummy alpaca yarn, Judith, alternating balls every two rows to reduce pooling issues.. The colorway is "Betty Friedan" -- a melange of plums and blue-toned purples.






I'm about halfway done.


Holiday Knitting Update

Ok, so I'm guessing that none of my family members will scroll down this far (at least not the ones these gifts are for), so I thought I'd let you see a little bit of my holiday gift knitting.




Morehouse Merino Farm Alligator Scarf
Morehouse Merino Sport, color "CreekCroc", ~1.4 skeins
US 3 Knitpicks Options circular needles (24")

This is for one of my nephews, but Moana wants to keep it. I think it came out nicely! Rawr!

I got stitch gauge, but the pattern didn't list a row gauge, and mine was evidently not what it should have been, so I added extra repeats a number of places. I bought this as a kit at Rhinebeck, but I'm not sure exactly what weight of yarn they included. It seems heavier than sport, has three plies (their sport weight yarns seem to have only 2), and the skeins were much bigger (94 grams each) than those they advertise on their website. Who knows...

I think it's pretty cool how the alligator gets his bumpily back (it involves increasing and binding off strategically). Here's the underside of him:


Next, there's the Morehouse Merino Rat Race Scarf for one of my nieces. You may notice that I altered the pattern a wee bit:



Morehouse Merino Farm Rat Race Scarf Pink Weasel Scarf
ONline Linie 130 Champ, color 25 (77 yards per ball), ~2.4 balls
US 7 dpns

I substituted a heavier weight (and different color) of yarn, and I added length to the "rat's" midsections to transform them into pink weasels. Additionally I changed the tail and used hematite beads for the eyes.

I hope you are all having a wonderful November! Thanks for reading : )