Bobbin Clearing

Well, we are getting down to the wire with Tour de Fleece a mere 4 days away. Yay! Time to get those bobbins cleared!

Remember the Romney rolags I hand carded from the Natchwoolie club? Here's the yarn.

Pretty pictures, but what you don't see is all the 'faults'. I'll fess up right now. I can be a real miserly type and just hate 'wasting' fiber. Ha. Joke's on me, because in the end, the little junky short cuts and bits should have been discarded with ruthless abandon before getting near my hand cards. Instead, they ended up in the rolags and I now have neppy, lumpy yarn.

Plus I'm still getting the hang of the long draw. And to top it all off, I over plied, something I did on both yarns presented here. Note to self - ease up on the plying, yo!

The result is very rustic, and a bit scratchy. In fairness, the fiber was sort of scratchy to begin with. Sensitive types will not enjoy this yarn. It will take some thinking to figure out what to do with it, but I am glad I spun it for no other reason than it serves as an object lesson for me. The biggest lesson: be absolutely ruthless about what goes onto the hand cards. Garbage in, garbage out. And slow down the treadling on the ply, girl!

Technical details: 218 yds., Aran weight, woolen spun (mostly), 2 ply from 4 oz. of natural dyed Romney locks and hand carded into rolags.

The second yarn off the bobbins is this tweedy mix. Maybe you remember me trying to seduce all you spinners out there to head over to Knot My Day Job on esty back in January.

I loved spinning this batt and learned alot while making this yarn. It was fun tearing off sections and just spinning in a carefree long draw. This is the one where long draw finally clicked.

So here's what went into the making of the batt: hand dyed Merino, Alpaca, Silk (Bombyx), wool neps, faux cashmere and Angelina for the sparkle! The batt was so sexy I had a mad crush the minute I spotted it. Still do! I call this yarn Tweed and Sparkle. It reminds me of a country girl who thinks she needs to punk it out a bit upon arrival in the big city. Sparkle and shine!

It's over plied like the first yarn but not as much. Considering the span of 4 months between start and finish, I am pleased with the semi-consistency. Again, a woolen spun which takes practice!

Technical details: Approximately 240 yds, mostly Aran weight, from 5 oz of fiber, spun woolen, 2 ply from a carded batt. Lovely stuff. And best of all, I have another batt to practice on, after the Tour!

Stay tuned, one more yarn before the big event!

Mid June Progress

Thank you everyone, for your concern and suggestions on how to heal my hands! They are doing better. In an attempt to do things other than knitting, I went horse back riding a few weeks ago. Fun, but really hard on the wrists! Ooops.


Those of you who are riders will surely see many things wrong in my form, but considering I haven't been riding in over 20 years, I was amazed I could stay on the horse, post a trot and keep him moving. Tonka is half draft horse and I really like how solid he feels and how nicely he moves! If my hands can stand it, it might be killer fun to work with this guy, doing a bit of basic Dressage training, something we could learn together.

In the meantime, I bought a brace for my right hand and wearing that for a few days really helped. The pain and numbness is mostly in the thumb. I'm trying to knit without putting too much pressure on the right thumb, which is sometimes rather comical and all the time awkward feeling. Mostly I knit in much smaller bursts.

So that sweater I'm making? It's moving along very slowly (13 inches of the body and nearly one full sleeve completed). All my other knitting projects are just not happening right now. There is some crochet, a small project that takes little time and doesn't put too much strain on my hands.

These coasters are going to be a set of six, intended as a house gift for my boss later this summer.

I am spinning. Thankfully I am able to do that in slightly bigger bursts, and if I use a long draw, then things move along quite nicely. I'm trying to fill up and then clear off all my bobbins before the big July event, Le Tour de Fleece.

This bobbin set contains the Hello Yarn Targhee in the Parritch colorway As you can see it will be 3 ply when I put the jumbo flyer on the wheel. I loved spinning this fiber, though because I was doing a worsted draw, it caused me some pain, thus it took a little longer to reach this stage. I wanted to really control the gauge on these singles in order to achieve a nice, well rounded yarn. So far, so good.

This bobbin contains half of the Knot My Day Job red batt that I started back in January. I got distracted, took the bobbin off the wheel and then forgot about it. Now I want to finish it! Of course, I don't have a sample nor any notes so when I put it back on the wheel I had no recollection on how to set my whorl and brake band. Oh well, I decided to go with what I wanted now, so 2/3 of this bobbin are heavier singles than the first 1/3. I'm doing a supported long draw and moving rather quickly, as it doesn't strain my right wrist as much. The second bobbin is well underway; it won't be long before we see how this yarn turns out.

But before I put the jumbo flyer on and start plying, I want to fill up one more set of bobbins. These wonderful rolags are from 4 oz. of Romney locks dyed using wonderful natural dyes in pinks and magentas. The fiber comes from one of my newer clubs, and one I haven't discussed on this blog to date. This is the April offering from Natchwoolie Steady Dye It club. Six months of dyed fibers and rovings using all natural dyes.

Most of the club shipments have been Merino, either top or roving. This one was locks and it was intriguing to me. It necessitated buying hand carders to process. In about a month's time I carded up the locks into a lovely pile of rolags. I found carding to be a pleasant chore, unlike combing which for some reason I do not relish in the same way.

All of this needs to be finished before July 3, the start of the Tour de Fleece. I have my fibers selected and I have an idea on how I will spin most of them. Maybe I can find some time later this week to show you what I want to do.

In the meantime, I want to get outside and enjoy the 7th Avenue Street Fair. Happy Father's Day to all the Dads out there.

Numb

Back in April I grew weary of all the gift knitting and needed something for me. The PhotoMan was out of town, and I devoted the down time to knitting this as quickly as I could. I wanted to get some wearing time before the weather turned too warm.

But knitting with this yarn (Classic Elite Soft Linen) made my hands feel strange. After about 30 minutes I felt like I needed hand cream and the texture would skeeve me out a bit.

Still, I like the way this scarf turned out - the pattern is Butternut Scarf by Anne Hanson. I used up all 3 skeins in the making, so yay for more stash burning.

I actually think this project may have caused some nerve damage, because it's been hard to knit ever since. I have a strange numbness in my palms and fingers, things are tingly and heavy. It became apparent that the culmination of constant knitting for four solid years has affected my hands.

And so, I've forced myself to simply stop. I haven't knit in nearly two weeks. And I am barely spinning right now - just a bit on the spindle and a few minutes a day on the wheel. For me, a huge break in the routine. It's a bit maddening, and although it makes me feel a bit lost, it is forcing me to find new ways to fill my time.

The good news is it appears to be helping, because the numbness is easing up a bit. A forced moratorium isn't a bad thing. It may mean less frequent visits to this blog, too. And less time on the computer in general.

I'm going to take the summer to reflect on all of it.

Sprout

No drama, no issues. Just a nice, pleasant spin project with pleasing results. Sprout, from Southern Cross Fibres, the September 2009 club offering. This is a nice mix of fibers - 80% Polwarth (which the spinning world is currently bonkers over) and 20% Tussah Silk.

I didn't think I'd be able to control this fiber because of the silk, but it worked fine. I took my time, used a worsted draw, and ended up with 342 yards of Fingering weight yarn.

I see something incorporating a Feather and Fan motif for this one, what do you think?

Foggy

A work in progress - Fog Sweater, using Cascade Eco Wool. The yarn was purchased for this project over a year ago. As many of you knitters know, these skeins are huge, - 8 oz of yarn per skein so four of them nearly fill a storage bin and weigh 2 lbs! Converting the stored yarn into a garment will take a big bite out of storage space!

This pattern is knit in the round which is great in that the front and back will be done up to the arm pits but as the knitting grows, so it grows in weight. The weight, combined with 1x1 rib strains my wrists and I need to take frequent breaks. I imagine by the time we get to the shoulders this thing will slow down considerably simply because of the physical effort required.

You can see it started as a much larger garment but I quickly realized it was way way way too big. This happened about two weeks ago on a Sunday evening, halfway through an episode of "Treme", on HBO. It went like this: "Honey, I think this sweater may be a bit big on you. Do you mind trying it on if I take this off the needles and put it on a lifeline?" "Do I have to? It's going to be hot! " "It's four inches of knitting. How hot can that be?"

Thirty minutes later we had the verdict and I went to bed. Defeated and relieved. An entire weekend of knitting wasted, but relieved the newer version would take less time because there will be fewer stitches to knit!

I used a cable cast on, which when putting 240 stitches onto a needle makes sense to me, rather than trying to estimate the length required for a long tail cast on. And it works well for ribbing, this is a 4x2 ribbed edge.

Now I want to talk about something that's really bugging me about my knitting. These ridges? Do you see them? I noticed them when I knit the little baby bolero, and chalked it up to the yarn, which is a very fine merino cable ply yarn that looks like a single but is actually lots of teeny tiny 2 ply yarns twisted into a single ply. The next time it showed up was when I knit one of the pairs of fingerless mitts, and again, I thought it was the yarn, because that yarn has a similar put up. But it's coming up again, in this sweater.

And this project uses a woolen spun two ply, Cascade Eco Wool. My experience with this yarn goes back to last summer when I knit the ill-fated Garter Ridge Blanket. I hated the way the project looked and abandoned it after knitting all the sections. I don't know about you, but I find Garter Stitch to be very unforgiving, showing all manner of tension flaws. And this yarn is also unforgiving in terms of tension irregularities. Which made the combination of the two just awful!

Which leads me to realize that it's me. I am doing something in the knitting to cause these problems! I think I am tugging the stitches when moving from knit to purl. Anyway it's bugging the shit out of me! Each time I look at this project it's all I see.

These kinds of technical flaws are a sure fire way to kill my enthusiasm for a project and I have to work hard to overcome my nagging doubts. Should I rip it down and start the body section over again? Should I learn to knit English style? Would that improve the appearance? Is this issue simply an unintended consequence of knitting 1x1 rib with a woolen spun yarn?

Yes, I swatched. This problem wasn't evident in the swatch. I have an idea: maybe I should stop here, go knit up a sleeve and block it to see if the washing will ease out the issues. And use the sleeve as a guide for how this honkin' huge man sized body will work up once it's been blocked.

Well, then, thank you! I think I've come up with a trial solution, now that I've thought it through a bit, so thanks for listening.

Gretel

My Mom's birthday is just around the corner so I worked up a hat that's been in my queue for some time. The pattern, Gretel, is full of twisty cable turns, whew!

I made the medium slouch version (there are three setups for this pattern), because I didn't think I'd have enough yarn to make the slouchiest size, which has 10 more rows of twists and turns. I'm quite pleased with the outcome and Mom seems to like it, too.

World Record Crochet

Hi Knitters and Crocheters!

Want to see your name printed in the Guinness Book of World Records? Can you crochet? Perfect! Come on out to Citi Field on Saturday, June 5 and bring your crochet hook! Many of you know that's the day for the annual Stitch N Pitch in our area. What you might not know is it's also a chance to set a World Record for most crocheters in one place, sponsored by Guinness (yes, the Beer Company and keeper of the Guinness Book...) before the first pitch.

Now that I have some crochet experience, I signed up to be part of the event. (true confession - I'm actually angling for a free beer!) Anyway, I followed some link to RSVP yesterday and tonight I received this email:


Dear Lisa,

We're sending you this email because we have only received 130 RSVP's for the Guinness promotion. We need 250 minimum to set a new Guinness World Record. We need more people to RSVP! We are asking that you reach out to anyone you know who loves to crochet and help us make history on Saturday, June 5th at 2:15PM at Citi Field.

The easiest way to purchase tickets is online:

www.mets.com/StitchNPitch
SIGN IN ID - STITCH
PASSWORD - METS

If you would prefer to purchase through a store: http://stitchnpitch.com/snpBuyTickets.asp?team=Mets

Also - here are the details about the Guinness event: http://stitchnpitch.com/pdf/StitchNPitchGuinnessInfo.pdf

JUST IN - Deborah Norville is actually coming to help us kick off the Guinness portion and will be "reporting" in the stands. Also, the NY Times is going to run something in the paper on June 4th - this is what they told me and yes, tickets are on sale up until the day of the event!

We are super excited that over 500 people have purchased tickets to the Mets Stitch N' Pitch; surely most people have "forgotten" to RSVP and will still be participating.

If we had one person more for every person who has already RSVP'd we would easily make the minimum!

Please get more people to participate in Guinness "Most People Crocheting Simultaneously" and remember - you get free yarn, a crochet hook and Mets Project Tote Bag (first 500 people)! Please make sure to RSVP!!

If you have any questions please let us know!

Thanks,

Stitch N' Pitch Team

So, there you have it! Come on out to the ball game. Bring your crochet - which is actually pretty easy to do while socializing...and make some history! The RSVP is the key - and you can use the links above.
See you there!

Tour de Fleece

This year I'll be joining three teams to participate in the Tour de Fleece (!!).

I'm spinning for Team Crankypants and Team Monkey Farts.

Shut up! You'd be cranky too if you had monkey farts!

And of course, my home team - Team Spin City.

July is going to be very busy.

In the meantime, I've started my training. After that last flame out, I see I'll need to improve my maneuvering on the tight turns and increase my endurance to make it through the event!

Knitting with Handspun

It was a really long journey for this yarn, but it's finally been put to some good use. Remember when I made it? I do. My lumpy bumpy yarn, which everyone told me I'd never be able to replicate. How true how true!

Over the months I tried a few stitch patterns. Back around Christmas I considered a project based on garter stitch. It didn't thrill me. I even thought of knitting up a baby hat but realized this is my first yarn! It stays with me!


So when I finished the Wurmy Angelfish hat and I was all giddy with the awesomeness that is knitting with handspun, I pulled this yarn out of the handspun stash again and this time did a serious scan of the queued up cowl patterns to find a match. Quickie Cowl (I know!) was the perfect fit. Why hadn't I noticed before?

With a bit of a modification to narrow the width and thus make it long enough to join with buttons, I was able to use up all but 5" of the yarn. Yessssss! I finished it up late one Saturday night a couple of weeks ago and the next morning I surfed till I found the perfect match - handmade ceramic buttons in a pretty light purple, perfect for highlighting the subtle lavender in the yarn. Be sure to check out Julie's selections, she has some really pretty colors in a variety of sizes - http://www.etsy.com/shop/pushingmybuttons.

Somehow I knew when I made the yarn it would eventually be used for something to put around my neck. The yarn is so soft - Cormo is wonderful for soft squooshiness - and the fit is perfect. This is going to be a very cozy neck warmer indeed. But it will have to wait till the seasons turn again, and in the meantime I'll use my newest photo prop, found sitting on the sidewalk just up the block from my house on Friday evening. Discussions in the works on a name, Prudence seems highly likely.

Win Some...Lose Some

A hot mess wrought from my hands, this is most likely never going to see a set of needles.

What I envisioned and what I created somehow did not meet in the middle!

The vision: Lightly fulled laceweight singles suitable for a shawl, preferably Citron.

The creation: Heavily fulled unevenly spun singles that 1.broke in at least 5 spots when re-skeining, 2.kinked up so bad during the aggressive fulling they now appear as permanent bumps with heavy yarn abrasion, 3. fuzzy, frizzy yarn, 4. showing a very wide variance in diameter from frog's hair to light worsted.

Oh well, it does serve as a learning experience and the first lesson was to place an order on Amazon for Alden Amos' Big Book of Handspinning. Served with a heaping huge slice of Humble Pie!

Wurmy Angelfish

Some yarns tell you what they want to be with such clarity there is no moment of indecision, no second guessing the choices; it is a direct path from start to finish, as if pre-ordained. This fiber knew it wanted to be Navajo Ply and the yarn knew it wanted to be a hat.

Thank God I listened!

This is Wurmy Angelfish. So named for the pattern and the colorway. Incredibly soft and squoooshy, thanks to the amazing prep by David of Southern Cross Fibres. Navajo ply turns out to be less scary than I thought once I slowed down. Really slowed down.

But that was the only part of this project that was slow. Because the yarn jumped onto the needles on a Sunday evening and flew off around 1AM. The four hours in between were smokin'. Fingers on fire, no anxiety, no hesitation, no ripping, just knit knit knit with such intensity I wasn't aware of anything going on around me. Zen. Or mad driven. You choose.

A bit of slouch in a hat is a good thing. Teetering on the edge of 'crazy old lady in a loud hat', but...not. quite. there.

It was meant to be. Every detail. Like ending in a little blue 'anus' surrounded by a hot magenta halo which was completely unplanned. And that makes me giggle.

I'm kinda glad the weather turned chilly, cause it gives me an excuse to wear this and now I don't wanna take it off! Knitting with handspun is the bomb diggity!!

I Wasn't Kidding...

I told you there were more fingerless mitts...Ha! Here's a pair just finished up and barely dry...

These mitts are really all about the yarn. Which I bought at my first Rhinebeck in 2007. It was near the end of the day and I was wandering through one of the sheep barns when I saw three little skeins sitting all forlorn by themselves. The husband was tending the area and he didn't know much but I also don't recall asking any questions. It was priced right and seemed lovely, but didn't give it much thought beyond that.

The yarn went to live in my stash till now. I pulled it out to try this pattern (Natalya by Jody Pirrello) and that's when I started to observe what I was really working with. Oooh. A very simple straightforward two ply, but quite special in it's honest presentation. Probably hand spun. Maybe by the farmer's wife? And the color? Very rich, Garnet Red. I'm not completely sure, but it seems the base wool was dark - perhaps a gray or moorit? So was it dyed after it was spun? Was the wool carded with multiple colors? There are glints of gold, green and blue in here. And a shadow of gray or brown. Really lovely stuff.

After these soaked and blocked, the yarn bloomed beautifully. And now the mitts are soft yet sturdy enough for everyday. Best of all, they don't look likely to pill (my nemesis). The cabled pattern makes a nice warm mitt. These are winners in my book.

I started the project fully intending to gift them (as seems to be the normal course of things lately - all gifts, all the time). But after working with the yarn a bit and tweaking the pattern a bit I could not bear to let them go. These are staying with me, and I'll have to make another pair to give as a gift. Oh well.