Month: January 2010

Finished Project

I’m going to start putting my finished spinning projects on the blog, mostly so I have a record of them. Here’s that golden yellow Cormo I’ve been working on over the past few weeks, all spun up, washed, and dried.

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That’s just a little more orangey than in real life, but it’s more of a harvest gold. It’s difficult to get that color to photograph well with incandescent light and a flash, and it’s January in Washington, so a good outside sunny shot is out of the question. I need to build me a light box. Here are the details:

Finished Spinning Project:

Fiber: Cormo roving, purchased from Apple Rose Fibers on Etsy. This was 8 ounces of roving, nicely prepared. There was a bit of vegetal matter in it, mostly bits of hay or straw, easily picked out.

Wheel Or Spindle? Spun on my Schacht Matchless, using the Scotch tension set-up. I used the fast speed whorl on the larger groove, I think that would be a 13:1 ratio.

Style of Spinning: Style? Who, me, style? I spun this using a worsted style of spinning, mostly a short forward draw. Mostly. I’m still new enough at this that I occasionally get a little off track. It’s a two ply.

Yardage/Yarn Weight: This ended up being somewhere between a heavy fingering weight and a light sport weight.. I got about 850 yards from this.

What I Plan To Make With This: I think this would be a great shawl. It’s very soft and squishy, and would also be good sweater material, if I had several times as much of it.  Though it’s a little soft for a sweater, it might pill like crazy. I have in mind this shawl. Rav link here, for you Ravelers.

What I learned: Well, how to answer that one. I’m so new at spinning that everything is a new experience. This was my first Cormo. I have another whole bag of this in a pretty bright aqua color, too. Every fiber has been a new experience to me. This drafts differently than the merino stuff I’ve mostly been working with. It’s not difficult, just different. It’s sproingier to draft, and either the fiber was well-prepared, or I’m getting better at drafting. I didn’t have to do much fiddling with it or pre-drafting at all. I just pulled it out of the bag and started spinning. The worsted style yarn I ended up with is lovely, but I’d like to try this fiber again using a long draw technique.

I also learned not to judge the yarn until it’s all done. This looked like a twisty overplied mess before I finished it, and I was almost tempted to run it back through the wheel to unply it a bit. I soaked it, snapped the hanks a bit, hung them to dry, and it all looks beautiful.

In case you’re roaming around my blog looking for something specific, I’ve started categorizing the new posts. There’s a drop-down box over in the right menu bar that will get you there. I’ve done this with all the posts since I moved the blog, and I’m slowly working through the older posts, moving photos and cleaning up links. “Finished Spinning Projects” is the newest category!

Rescued Off The Back Burner

This WIP update is brought to you by the True Blood Faery sweater. This one has been on the back burner since before Christmas, and I was starting to have a few doubts about it. I’ve gotten the bottom cable done, and am about 4 inches or so into the body of the lower part of the sweater. The whole thing is knit in one piece up to the armholes, then split at that point. So now it’s this big unwieldy mess, and I’m in a morass of stockinette until I hit the lovely cables of the bodice part.

This Faery almost bit the dust this week. I’m sure it was that huge expanse of stocking stitch that got to me, but I started squinting sideways at it sitting over there innocently in its bag, having second thoughts about it. It looks so…huge. The other thing that’s been bugging me is the sleeves. The designer did the initial pattern in smaller sizes, then due to popular demand, sized it up to include 3 larger sizes. That version still isn’t complete, since she hasn’t added the instructions for upsizing the sleeves. I’m pretty sure I can figure that out by using one of the smaller pattern sizes and adding stockinette stitches to make up the difference, but still. It annoys me. So I’ve been putting off getting back at it. Two days ago, on my way home from work, I just figured, OK, I’ll get it out tonight, make a decision. Rip or not, but just do it.

I got home, dragged it out, and got out a coat that fits me that’s roughly the same length and shape, and compared.

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It’s a little hard to tell from the photo, but I think it will be perfect.

Back to stocking stitch. I’ll think about those sleeves later.

Spinning With Friends

I had a wonderful time last weekend, though I’m just getting around to posting about it. Dorothy (Missouri Star) and her husband Bill came to visit us over the weekend. They live just a few hours from here, though we rarely get to see one another, for one reason or another. Now that she’s retired, and I have a more sane work schedule, I hope that situation changes!

Dorothy and I both used to say that we would never take up spinning. Ha! I fell hard last summer, and it was only a few months later that she was asking questions about spindles and wheels. When she joined the Beginning Spinners group on Ravelry, I knew that it was all over. She bought a spindle, then got a wheel last month. She brought her wheel with her, a nice Ashford Traveller, and some pretty hostess gift Romney fiber from a neighbor’s sheep, named Rainbow! We did a little spinning, a lot of chatting, eating, and generally having fun. John & Bill hit it off, and managed to find things to do that didn’t involve spinning or talking about spinning. They brought their Corgi, Maggie, along with them, and after a bit of jousting amongst the dogs to figure out who the biggest alpha bitch was, everybody got along just fine.

Dorothy is a natural as a spinner. Go look at what she’s been spinning on her blog (but come back!). After just a few weeks, she’s spinning nearly laceweight, very evenly.

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I managed to finish spinning a whole pile of Cormo (that insulation yellow stuff from several posts back, though it hasn’t been washed up yet, so it’s not ready for a photo op). I did start a new spinning project while Dorothy was here.

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The fiber is from Chasing Rainbows Dyeworks, in the color Forest. I bought 2 ounces of this color in a merino-bombyx silk blend, and another 2 ounces in the same color in merino-tencel. I have the silk blend all spun, and I’m about half way through the tencel, then plan to ply them together. We’ll see how that works out. I did do a little couple yard sample, and I think I’ll like it. Here’s where I bought the fiber. The colors really are that rich.

Last but not least, here’s one of my spinning helpers. Lewey tends to sit right under my feet while I’m spinning, and Will is just pretty sure this is where he belongs.

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And this is probably why he’s so friendly lately. When the weather’s better, he’s outside a lot, but he’s not a big fan of rain.

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Come to think of it, I’m getting a bit tired of that rain myself!

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If you haven’t done so already, go here and read Stephanie’s post about Haiti. She’s said it much better than I can. If Doctors Without Borders isn’t your favorite charity, pick another one, but dig deep and give. If we can all afford to have computers and yarn and fiber toys, we can certainly sacrifice a bit of cash to those affected by this horrifying disaster.

Another WIP

This is just a quick post from my office desk in the few minutes I have left before the afternoon patients start to arrive. I have another new WIP to show you that I’ve been working on awhile, but neglected to post.

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Want a little closer look?

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Mittens! How exciting! The most exciting thing about them is that it’s my own yarn, that I spun myself! Yee-hah! The photos don’t really do justice to the sparkly goodness that this fiber is. Click the photos to get a little better look. The fiber is a merino/silk blend with some Firestar added to the batts for sparkle. It comes from Anna at Corgi Hill Farms, and it’s just delicious. This is one of my earlier spinning efforts, so it’s a bit uneven, but it turned out to be roughly all the same gauge, so it works for me. The pattern is a combination of one of Ann Budd’s mitten patterns from her book The Knitter’s Handy Book of Patterns, and my own jerry-rigging. I used her numbers to get the thing started, then just adjusted on the fly.  I’ll post general directions as to my modifications when I get the things done.

I’ll post more later, but I just had to get this up here. I pulled them out to knit a bit after lunch and thought, why, I’ll show the blog world what I’m up to!

Happy New Year!

A day late, but better late than never. At least I have an excuse. Over the weekend, that would be last weekend, I developed something I’m calling Ebola virus. I got both flu vaccines earlier in the fall/winter, but the symptoms are quite flu-like, and I’ve now had it for 7 days. I took two days off work last week, then fortunately have the 3 day New Year’s weekend off, so hopefully I’ll mostly be recovered by Monday when I have to go back to work. I actually went in to the office on Wednesday, but the nurses quarantined me, then sent me home as soon as they could get the patients rescheduled. So, Happy Fracking New Year! I’m having so much fun so far! I have a relentless cough, a squeaking voice, and today I got to add Imodium to the lineup of pills I’m taking for this! What fun!

We did sort of celebrate the New Year, though I was out cold long before midnight. If there were any fireworks on the lake this year, I missed them. We had clam chowder and champagne for NYE dinner, then blackeyed peas yesterday for supper for good luck. Today I’m thinking tea and toast, since my tummy is a little iffy.

Now, on to New Year’s knitting resolutions. They’re pretty much the same as last year. I want to knit more of everything, knit more of my stash, learn to be a better spinner (a new resolution this year!). First up is to go through all the WIPs and UFOs and clean house. It will be finish or frog around here.

Here’s the first UFO/WIP. It’s now officially a WIP again. This is the Froot Loops Morning Glory stole, which according to the blog and Ravelry, I started in May of last year. Who knows why it got sent to the UFO pile, since the pattern is a lot of fun, and the yarn is delightful. Here’s the non-Rav link for those of you still in the dark ages. The yarn is Brooks Farm Harmony, which has been discontinued. It’s a mohair, wool, and silk blend that is very lustrous and just a little bit on the fuzzy side.

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The stole is knit in two pieces, then grafted down the center. I’ve finished the edging and the mesh border on the first piece, and am in the first repeat of the main part of the stole.

I’m off to find more cough syrup. Stay tuned next time for the next WIP/UFO!