Knitting Fiendishly

Stockinette stitching forever...

2012-01-19T19:50:00.000Z

I've cast on a lovely lilac shawl to wear to Weaving Friend's wedding next month. Don't panic, it's a plain stockinette top-down triangle with a simple lace edging. It's really pretty, although I have made another discovery about my knitting personality. The corollary to "don't knit insanely complicated beaded things to a deadline" is "don't knit insanely boring plain things to a deadline". 106 rows of stockinette stitch, and every other row gets 4 stitches longer? Oy.

Still, I'm about halfway done with the stockinette and then just need to do the lace. Perhaps if I crack on I'll be doing lace by Monday!

A change is as good as a rest

2012-01-16T21:09:00.002Z

I'm a librarian. Part of my job involves manual handling, and lots of it. This can be anything from hauling mailbags full of parcels of books to shelving to repairing the till. Today it involved moving dozens of very heavy boxes of pamphlets around a storage room, and ended with me wrenching the thumb on my left hand. It's not sprained or broken, just sore enough that I can't comfortably knit or spin or play video games or read. (I hold the book or Kindle in my left hand and manipulate it with my thumb.)

Fortunately, crochet doesn't require any effort on the part of that thumb. And I have been meaning to use up some more of my scraps by making squares...

Socks!

2012-01-10T21:28:00.003Z

Hurrah for finishing socks! Lacy Grey is done, my very first FO of 2012. I shall be wearing them to work.

Pattern: Anniversary Socks by Nancy Bush
Yarn: Jaeger Matchmaker Merino 4-ply (discontinued)
Needles: 2.5mm bamboo DPNs
Mods: Shortened the cuffs, but made no other changes

I started these back in October because I'm trying to work on using up my oldest stash yarn. This was my very oldest sock yarn, as it happens. I'm delighted to have used it up.

Rip!

2012-01-09T08:51:00.002Z

Catkin is no more. I also ended up ripping out the Bordello Cowl. I'd started it ages ago, long enough that I'd lost my place in the pattern. It'll be less effort overall to just restart it!

I've only got three pattern repeats and the toe left of the second Lacy Grey sock. I could've finished it this weekend, but I got a new video game for Christmas and was rather engrossed in 16th-century Istanbul. I'll see whether I can get it done today, but if not it'll certainly be done tomorrow.

A Plan.

2012-01-06T08:59:00.000Z

11 WIPs, according to my calculations. Far too many! Conveniently this weekend is free, so I shall be spending it pruning that number down.

First goal, frog the Catkin shawl. Mother and I have agreed on a replacement shawl to use the purple yarn, and I'll find another pattern for the silver. Yarn to make a better Catkin will be acquired at some point in the future.

Second goal, finish the Lacy Grey socks. The cuff of the second sock is nearly done, so it's not outside the realm of possibility that I'll be able to finish the whole sock this weekend.

Third goal, work on Noro scarf. This is going to be my at-home project as soon as the socks are done. Mostly because I want to put the loom away to make space for sewing, and I'm afraid that if I put it away with the scarf still on it'll never get finished.

The blue Monkey socks are currently living in my handbag. I'll keep them there until they're finished, then move the scrap sock yarn to my handbag so I can crochet more squares. Once all the current round of scraps are used up, I'll move the green shawl into my handbag so that some progress gets made there.

Of course, there's a slight hitch in all of this planning. I want to knit myself a shawl to wear to Weaving Friend's wedding, which is next month!

State of the WIPs, January edition

2012-01-04T11:25:00.002Z

I've been doing photo updates for my Ravelry account, and it would seem that my WIP count has gotten a wee bit out of control! Here's a rundown, keeping in mind that there are also spinning, embroidery and sewing projects lurking about the place. Here are the yarny things, in order of age.

Sock yarn granny blanket:

Progress being made here. This is a very long-term project, of course. The balls of yarn in the photo are the scraps waiting to be crocheted into squares.

Vintage Tsocks:

Slow but sure. I've just about memorized the pattern for the leaves, so they are quite quick when I'm working on them. I'm not particularly looking forward to the toe-up sock, though, so I'm not in any great rush.

Insane Mitts:

Haven't touched them since Knit Nation. I'll pick them up again once I've gotten the total count down a bit.

Leaf on the Wind Shawl:

Again, haven't touched this in ages. It's an enormous garter stitch square to begin with, so it's pretty mindless. If I can find a sturdy project bag I may make this my handbag project once the current socks are done.

Noro Scarf:

Generic woven scarf. The yarn is outrageously sticky, so I only work on it until it annoys me too much. I may spend this weekend ploughing through to see how much I can get done.

Silk Scarf:

Love it, just haven't had the mental energy to work on it of late. It's pretty complicated, with patterning on both sides. I want to get it right!

Lacy Grey Socks:

Nearly done! I love them to pieces.

Mum's Catkin Shawl:

I'm not sure about this. I don't think the yarn is right for the pattern, plus I'm not enjoying the pattern all that much. We'll see how it looks in a month or so.

Handspun Cowl:

When this grows up it'll be another Bordello Cowl, this time for me. This is only a weekend's worth of knitting, so I hope to get it done soon.

Suitable Socks:

Remember my need for black sock yarn? Well, I ran out of knitting while visiting family and ended up in an unfamiliar yarn store. The lovely lady who runs it had just finished unpacking a shipment of sock yarn, including some in black. It was destiny. These are eventually going to have big cables and lace running down them. Very snazzy.

Christmas Monkeys:

Last but not least, the Monkey socks I cast on for my vacation project. I always like to have a travel project that doesn't require a pattern or much thought, so these were perfect. Plus it's my second-oldest sock yarn.

Old Year, New Year

2012-01-03T08:23:00.000Z

Farewell 2011, and Happy 2012! Time for a quick year-in-review and planning post!

Finished projects:

6 pairs of socks
5 shawls
2 pairs of wrist warmers
3 cowl/hat things
2 scarves
4 skeins of spinning fiber
3 oddities
1 Master's degree

Only 25 fiber arts FOs, but that last one took up a lot of my time! I'm still waiting on my diploma, but I've had my official pass letter and gotten my dissertation back. Managed a distinction on the dissertation, too!

For the coming year I've got some general goals, but nothing really precise. I'd like to knit up more of my stash. I need more handknit socks, since I'm starting to wear through a few of my everyday pairs. (By everyday I mean socks that can go in the washing machine.) I definitely need to get to work on my spinning fiber, since it's a little out of control! Ditto my fabric stash - now that the MA is done with, I'm hoping to get back to the SCA, and for that I'll need more garb.

I was lucky enough to receive a membership to this year's Tsock Club for Christmas. Those of you who have good memories may recall that although I also had a membership in 2010, I've yet to knit a tsingle Tsock. My most specific goal, therefore, is to knit up some of my first round of Tsocks and some of this year's.

Watch this space for forthcoming posts on the state of the WIPs and a crazy plan inspired by memory lane!

The girliest project in the world.

2011-11-21T19:15:00.000Z

You may have noticed by this point that I am not exactly the overly feminine type. I wear skirts and dresses, certainly, but they tend to be black and rather goth. I don't own any make-up, and though I'm nuts about perfume it's always incensey or musky rather than floral. I've been spending my lunch hours recently working on something that's so not me that my coworkers have been asking who they were for:

My coworkers are very astute. These are in fact a Christmas present for my brother's girlfriend, who is more-or-less my antithesis in every way imaginable. He came over to visit and remarked that the Bit of Pink Fluff shawl that I knitted over the summer had her name written all over it, if I was ever inclined to knit something for her. Well, it ended up being just too fluffy and pink for me, and I had some of the Kidsilk Spray leftover as well as some matching pink Rowan Pure Wool 4-ply. I figured, why not make a pair of mitts, add them to the shawl and call it a good Christmas present? She's utterly knitworthy, and I think she'll love these.

Ironically, after making them I'm rather in love with the thick fluffy fabric. I may make a pair for myself - in a more sensible colour!

A weaver's wedding shawl

2011-11-20T16:12:00.005Z

Today, at long last and after many hours of knitting, I cast off the last stitch of the wedding shawl I've been making for my beloved Weaving Friend.

(Fresh off the needles, before blocking.)

After a false start on the wrong sized needles in February, I cast on for this shawl on March 4th, 2011. The pattern, selected by Weaving Friend, is the Aeolian Shawl, designed by Elizabeth Freeman and published in Knitty. The yarn is Posh Yarn's Miranda Cobweb, my favourite of all their yarns. It's a blend of alpaca, cashmere and silk, and is beautifully soft, with a stunning sheen from the silk. Beads are cream-coloured seed beads. I've had yarn and beads in my stash since early 2008, waiting for the right project to come along.

It's been slow going for the most part. I'm less surprised about this than I was, though - it ended up using 1745 beads! Almost every row was beaded, some as densely as every other stitch.

I made a few minor modifications along the way. Replacing the nupps with beads was the most major, but I also used a different left-leaning decrease throughout and didn't twist the centre stitch.

I ended up only using 495 yards of yarn. I'd expected to use rather a lot more, since the yarn's in 1200-yard skeins, but it's plenty big as it is!

(Blocking.)

I used 145 pins during the blocking process, and pinning it out took about 2 hours. Of course, after spending almost 8 hours on the bind off, it didn't seem that bad. Definitely need more t-pins though. I ran out halfway through pinning out the edging and had to use my quilting pins.

The best part? I was chatting to my mother as I finished the bind-off, and she remarked that if it was a wedding shawl, it should go through a wedding ring. And it does.

Sock PSA

2011-11-17T10:57:00.002Z

If your intention is to replace your entire sock drawer with only handknits, it is a very sensible idea indeed to make sure you've knit at least a couple of pairs that match your suit BEFORE you throw out your old socks. Otherwise, you may find yourself layering thin cotton socks in a deep purple over knee-high hose to go with your black suit. Fortunately the sweater I'm wearing is the exact shade of deep purple, so it looks intentional. Also fortunate that I'm wearing long trousers and shoes that cover all but the tiniest amount of my ankle.

Anyone know where I can buy some machine-washable solid black sock yarn?

Mucky sheep

2011-11-03T08:03:00.000Z

Washing of the Jacobs fleeces has commenced. It's, um, pretty gross actually. Very grubby sheep! I'm washing in slow batches and carding as I go so that I don't end up with an enormous backlog.

I live in a 3rd floor walk-up in the centre of London, so fleece washing can be a bit of a production. I don't have the space to wash an entire fleece all at once, let alone three, so I work in small batches every so often. Once I've done the sorting and skirting outside in the communal garden (freaking out my neighbours at the same time), it all goes into bin bags until I'm ready to deal with it. 6 bin bags, each with half a fleece in, in the case of this project.

I wash fleece in my bathroom, so I only wash as much as I can soak in the bathtub. I'm very lucky that our hot water gets REALLY hot, so I don't need to do much heating or water hauling. I run the tub with pure hot water from the tap and a few generous squirts of Fairy Liquid to start things off. I don't run more than about 4 inches of water in - this stage is about loosening caked-on dirt and melting off the lanolin.

Once the stuff in the tub has had a good soak, I pull out a basin-full at a time and scour it. Slightly cooler water this time - I wash by hand, and thanks to a rubber-and-latex allergy I can't wear gloves when I'm scouring. More Fairy Liquid into the basin, and this time pretty much everything coming off is lanolin. If the water in the basin is clear enough that I can see the plug at the bottom, I call it good and rinse out the Fairy Liquid. Otherwise it gets a second wash.

After the fleece has been washed and rinsed out, it dries on my tapestry frame, which I've stretched cotton string across to make a flat rack.

As an aside, this tapestry frame? Best thing ever. My husband won it for me in an auction a few years back. I've never used it for tapestry weaving, since I really don't need another hobby, but I use it for fleece drying and embroidery, and when I'm doing neither of those things it stands upright behind my couch and does duty as a shawl rack. Couldn't do without it.

Found it!

2011-11-02T09:51:00.003Z

Look, look, I found my mojo! Turns out it was hiding in my Ravelry queue.

Pattern - Calorimetry
Yarn - Colinette Prism, 56 yards
Mods - Cast on 96 stitches instead of 104, knit fewer repeats to make it smaller.
Finished size - ever-so-slightly too big, but it'll be good once my hair grows back out.

Only took about 6 hours of knitting time, total. I'm delighted with it. The perfect antidote to long-term project doldrums. You can't really see them, but I ended up making knot buttons with leftover yarn. Would you believe it, I did not have a single red button in my button box!

I've also finished a Christmas present for my beloved enabling grandmother, but that'll be revealed after she opens it on the day. :)

Missing...

2011-10-23T20:54:00.003+01:00

... my knitting mojo. Has anyone seen it? I've looked under the bed, behind the couch, in my stash, all the usual places it might be hiding, but no luck. I just had a whole week off work for knitting, and hardly knit anything.

I'd planned to finish Weaving Friend's wedding shawl. Knit 4 rows. Planned to finish Grammy's Christmas present. Knit 1 repeat. Planned to make chutney. Ok, I did make chutney. A lot of chutney. About 7 litres, in fact. And I washed some fleece, did a wee bit of spinning on the froghair and carded some of the Jacobs fleece. So the week wasn't a total waste.

See, I spent most of it sick. Not badly sick, just enough of a headcold that I couldn't breathe whenever I laid down and so didn't really get much sleep. I'm better now. Today I cast on for a Calorimetry with some very well-aged stash yarn in the hopes that a quick FO will respark my interest. I've knit about half of it this afternoon. I'm feeling cautiously optimistic. Mojo had better resurface soon, because Weaving Friend's coming to visit at the end of November and I'm handing the shawl over then, come hell or high water.

Apologies

2011-10-21T11:34:00.002+01:00

I have today been informed that at some point Blogger ate my settings and was only allowing people with Blogger/Google accounts to comment. Sorry about that. I've fixed it now and you should all be able to comment now.

Thank you, Alison, for letting me know!

SPARKLES!

2011-10-15T18:25:00.000+01:00

I finished spinning up my sparkle roving, at long last, and I am absolutely thrilled with it.

The roving was Fyberspates Sparkle roving, long since discontinued. They don't even seem to sell roving anymore. It's a blend of some sort of wool, silk and silver filament. There may be nylon in there as well, but I won't swear to it. From the smell of it when it was wet I'm pretty sure that the wool was BFL.

I bought this roving last summer at Knit Nation. It's been maturing in my stash ever since. The arrival of the fleeces is inspiring me to spin up some of the older stash, so watch this space for future developments!

Once I'd opened the bag of roving, I realized that it was actually four or five different colourways that had been bagged together. Not a problem, since the colours worked together well enough that I hadn't realized they weren't supposed to go together until I examined them in detail. I arranged the bits of roving so that the colours were mostly evenly distributed and then spun them up into a worsted singles. Worsted-spun, that is, not worsted-weight.

I'd pondered keeping it as a singles, but Weaving Friend convinced me that something plied would be more useful. So, having established that all 80g would fit onto a single bobbin, I set off plying. I'd forgotten that plied yarn takes up more space than singles - it was a bit of a job getting it all onto the bobbin!

I am completely besotted with this yarn. The little voice in my head of my inner child says "OMGOMGIT'SPURPLEANDGREENANDPINKANDITSPARKLES!!!!!!" My sensible adult self is rather pleased at discovering the capacity of her bobbins and is looking forward to seeing how the finished yarn stripes.

Vitals: 80g, 395 yards of n-plied fingering-weight yarn. With sparkles.

In memoriam

2011-10-13T08:03:00.002+01:00

Once upon a time there was a lady who was a knitter, and that knitter had a cat, and that cat's name was Darcy. Darcy was really a kitten, but he was already a prince among cats. He was a Maine Coon Cat, and his ear-tufts stood up straight as a pine tree. His feet were great white snowshoes, and his ruff was the envy of mighty lions.

His coat was grey and white, and his toes and sandpaper tongue were pink. But it is not enough to say that, as it would be insufficient to say that the sunrise is red. Darcy's coat was the grey of the soft ash left from burning incense and the white of clouds and fog. His tongue and toes were the soft pink of rose petals, freshly picked and awaiting the perfume press.

The knitter loved Darcy, and Darcy loved the knitter. And, generous soul that she was, the knitter shared Darcy with other knitters. And those knitters loved Darcy too - and who would not? Was he not a prince among cats?

Day after day, the knitters would flock, eagerly demanding new pictures of Darcy. And the lady would provide them, and all were happy.

Darcy had scrapes, as all kittens do, but cats are blessed with nine lives, and Darcy was no exception. He would find himself hurting, but the kind knitter loved him very much and would always take him to the clever vet. The clever vet, who also loved Darcy, took very good care of him, and Darcy always came home feeling better, if a little sorry for himself.

One day, however, Darcy got sick. This was a bad kind of sick, the kind of sick that clever vets cannot fix however clever they are. Sometimes cats get better, and sometimes they don't, but no-one can say which will.

The knitter was sad, and she told the other knitters about Darcy and his sickness. The other knitters loved Darcy, and so they did what they could. The ones who prayed, prayed. The ones who were superstitious crossed their fingers and held their thumbs and sent mojo. The ones who did neither sent best wishes and love to the knitter and Darcy. Some of the knitters who lived nearby went to help. Others, who lived far away, sent what they could to help the clever vet and the knitter, because clever vets have to be paid, even when they are generous and help sick cats for less than they might.

One of the many knitters who loved Darcy was a dyer with magical powers. One day, she took her dyes and worked a magic spell to turn plain old wool into something amazing - wool that looked like Darcy. She saw the results of her magic and thought, "I wonder if the other knitters would like to buy this wool? If they did, I could send money to the clever scientist who is working on a cure for this bad sickness, and then even if it won't help Darcy, maybe it will help other cats."

So the dyer showed the wool to the knitters, and they loved the wool. Those who knit bought yarn, and those who spin bought roving. And the dyer sent all of her profits to help the clever scientist with her research.

Alas, there are some things that no amount of love can cure, and Darcy died. The knitters wept, but nothing could bring back this prince of cats. The knitters held close their cats, and dogs, and rabbits, and all manner of creatures, for knitters love animals without question, and though they were sad that Darcy was gone, they had hope that other cats would be spared his fate.

And so I sit before my spinning wheel, looking into a basket full of spinning fiber. There is a roving that is the grey of incense ash, the white of clouds, the pink of rose petals and toes and sandpaper tongues. When I reach into the bag, it is like stroking the softest of kittens.

I cannot yet bring myself to spin this roving. Someday I will, and I will make it into a beautiful thing, in memory of another cat, much missed. For now it is enough to look upon it. It was dyed to honour a prince of cats. His name was Darcy, and he was loved.

Fiber pr0n

2011-10-12T12:16:00.000+01:00

A sample of my current spinning:

Cochineal-dyed silk thread

Corrie/Merino

BFL/silk

SW Merino/nylon

SPARKLEE singles

SPARKLEE after plying

On sheep

2011-09-28T21:15:00.000+01:00

Once again my flat smells of sheep, for I have once again acquired vast quantities of raw fleece! This time it's three entire fleeces.

You see, one of the side effects of reenacting is that people tend to offer reenactors stuff that might be useful. Sometimes it's a box of buttons, or some fabric, or some scraps of leather. Other times, it's a gigantic bag full of Jacobs fleece. In this case, a distant relation of one of our members has a flock of Jacobs sheep and gave her this bag of sheepy goodness. At present I'm the only handspinner in our branch, so I get the fleeces. We are, however, plotting and scheming with a major long-term project, since I obviously need more of those in my life.

This friend, Cooking Friend, is a rather splendid embroideress. And Weaving Friend, of course, is quite brilliant at weaving. And I am a spinner. So, we are going to take this lovely fleece and between us turn it into a set of three hoods. I shall wash, prep and spin the fleece. Weaving Friend will weave it into cloth. Cooking Friend will sew and embroider the hoods. And when all of this is done, we shall enter our work into an Arts and Sciences competition. A&S requires documentation, so I shall be photoblogging the whole process with an eye to eventual process write-ups.

Today was nice and sunny, so I hauled the whole lot out into the garden for skirting and sorting. I wasn't initially sure how much fleece there was, or whether it had been skirted and/or washed. The bag itself weighed about 6kg. Contents included one solid chocolate fleece which I'm pretty sure is actually a cross, since Jacobs sheep are chocolate-and-white. This fleece was very coarse and may not be worth the trouble of spinning. There were also two entire Jacobs fleeces, both well-shorn but poorly rolled so the body shape was not intact. Distribution of chocolate fleece and white fleece was about 50/50 on both fleeces, and both colours had consistent crimp, staple length, and texture. It would seem that all three fleeces had already been skirted, since I found almost no dags. One of the Jacobs had dye markings in a small area. Probably washable, but I decided to chuck it rather than fight with it. It wasn't very much of the fleece. A fair amount of plant matter in all three, though it's chiefly straw and not brambly stuff.

I've separated out the white and chocolate sections of the Jacobs. Since I couldn't see the outline of the fleece I made no attempt at sorting it beyond that. Very little freckling, which is fabulous. At this point, I'm going to wash a couple of handfuls of both colours from both fleeces and spin up a sample. There's more grease than I was expecting, so we'll see how well they wash up. I'll also need to liaise with both of the ladies to see what the eventual plans are. I'll definitely keep some of the white separate for turning into dyed embroidery thread, but I'm not sure whether we want black-and-white hoods or something blended.

Weaving-wise, it'll be a 2-ply for certain. I'll need to get Weaving Friend to tell me the desired weight and the amounts needed. I'll probably spin it up into something semi-worsted. The staple's long enough for combing, but the finished fabric will be nicer if it's a bit fluffier.

Full-Cupboard Sunday

2011-09-18T17:41:00.003+01:00

I don't remember where I first read the expression "full-cupboard feeling", but I've loved it ever since. It's the sensation of knowing that your kitchen and pantry are stocked and in order. Today I am having a day of feeling like that!

I spent yesterday yarning while the spouse was out at an event. The loom is warped, at last. I ripped out some things that I wasn't enjoying working on. I did a bit of cross-stitch, a bit of spinning, a little bit of this, a little bit of that.

Today, my projects in order, I decided to hit the kitchen. We did a big grocery shopping trip and then I settled in to cooking. Although I love cooking, I do very little. The nature of spouse's work means that he is often home, so he does most of our cooking. I am in charge of batch cooking, to make sure that we always have things in the freezer for packed lunches and quick suppers.

Today I have prepped 1.5kg of carrots (half shredded for my lunches and half chopped for stir-fry), baked three-and-a-half dozen banana muffins for breakfasts, and I'm making a big batch of rice to freeze. I'll line the rice compartment of my bento box with cling-film, pack the rice in, then freeze the resulting parcels. They can then be popped in and microwaved from frozen at work, along with whatever else I decide to put in my box.

Tomorrow or Tuesday I shall be dealing with 2.1kg of beef mince. I'm planning to make portion-sized meatloaves, Swedish meatballs and cabbage rolls, again all to be frozen.

Tonight, however, I shall be updating my clippings cookbook, spinning, and watching yesterday's Doctor Who.

Socks for the Spouse!

2011-09-18T09:47:00.002+01:00

On Friday I finished up another project - some heavy winter socks for my husband. With all of the SCA events we go to, we both need bedsocks to wear when we're camping. It gets cold in the UK if you're camping! These are made of some lovely DK-weight wool that Mum gave me for Christmas, knit into the Thuja pattern on 4mm needles.

State of the WIPs, September edition

2011-09-16T08:07:00.000+01:00

Shockingly enough, I am currently at only four active WIPs. These are:

Weaving Friend's wedding shawl, which is currently half-done and waiting for me to start the edging chart;
A new pair of camping socks for the Spouse, using some of the yarn my mother gave me for Christmas;
The crocheted neverending granny square bedspread;
A laceweight shawl made from the green mohair which was the first lace yarn I ever bought.

I also have three projects hibernating - a cardigan, the mitts from the Rovaniemi class, and my Vintage socks. All things which are fiddly and therefore unsuited to portable knitting. Of course, now that I have my brain back I am anticipating making much more progress on these!

There are, of course, spinning WIPs now that I have enough bobbins to allow such a thing. I'm working on:

The huge bump of corrie/merino Vet Friend gave me last year, which will be a worsted-weight 3-ply;
BFL/silk from Juno Fibre that I bought at Knit Nation last year (n-plied sock yarn);
Superwash merino/nylon from Easyknits that I bought mumblemumble years ago (3-ply sock yarn);
Experimental Shetland cabled yarn;
Crazypants spindled silk thread (2-ply).

The last is my current spindle WIP. I bought 25g of mawata at TORM last year, thinking I would knit it up into mittens. Then I decided I'd rather spin with it. I'm currently getting something ridiculous like 40 wraps per inch and have spun less than a gram of it. I work on it periodically, doing maybe 6 yards in a sitting. Sometimes I'll work at it for longer. I'm not really in any rush, it's just a nice mindless thing to work on. Eventually I'm going to make it a 2-ply and give it to Mum for embroidery.

Knit Nation, part the third - socializing!

2011-09-15T21:18:00.001+01:00

I only took one class this year, since last year I was so tired from all the learning that the social part was a wash. Not this year! The marketplace opened for the preview on Friday night, and from Friday til close on Sunday I was chatting away and shopping.

The preview was an absolute zoo. I didn't even bother with the camera, as I was busy minioning for Vet Friend while she braved the scrum for Wollmeise. She is a braver woman than I, I'll tell you that much. I only went in to buy my Juno fiber, which was thankfully well away from the crazy and not too crowded. After I got fiber, I headed outside with Weaving Friend to sit and chat with people while the shoppers filtered out. There was a brief librarian-ish moment - a classmate wanted to buy some yarn that lacked a proper label, so I borrowed an iPhone to open Ravelry and look it up for her. Reference librarian to the rescue! She ended up scored two sweaters' worth of yarn for £12.50!

On Saturday I had a good lie-in before heading in to meet the ladies for lunch. Lunch this year was made possible by my mother, who gave me an awesome bento box for Christmas last year. It kept me well fed, and sparked many conversations with other attendees who had never seen a bento box before. We had to retreat inside for lunch, though, as Saturday and Sunday were absolutely filthy with rain. And cold. Vet friend sent a message that she needed an additional bag for a non-knitting friend, so I spent the afternoon minioning again. I also had a chance to meet Ysolda Teague, designer of the Ishbel shawl, and to try on some of the sample garments she made for her books. The Vivian cardigan is amazing. It's incredibly flattering, and I've purchased a copy of the pattern so I can make one of my own now that I've finished the dissertation.

The evening was a charity bingo session. No prizes for anyone in our impromptu group, but it was hysterically funny. The MC was the 15-year-old son of one of the event organizers, and he was amazing! He had a fabulously dry sense of humour and a knack for banter. It was really lovely watching people win prizes, too. Everyone was really happy for the winners, even the ones who got multiple prizes.

I spent Sunday in the cafe with endless cups of tea and cake, gossiping with assorted new friends from the bingo. It was amusing watching people come upstairs from the marketplace. I saw so much yarn being purchased! Weaving Friend and Vet Friend had an all-day spindling class, so I just curled up with my knitting and relaxed while they were doing their thing.

All in all, it was a fabulous weekend. I got to catch up with old friends and meet new, learned lots, shopped lots, and had a jolly good time. Sadly there is no Knit Nation next year thanks to the Olympics, but I can wait until 2013. Maybe I'll even have used some of my purchases by then...

Done, done, and done.

2011-09-15T21:11:00.000+01:00

In order of finishing, of course:

My dissertation is done! This also means, of course, that my MA is done. Now for the dubious pleasure of waiting a few months for the examiners' meeting so I can get my final mark. The finished dissertation was 86 pages long, and I am rather pleased with it. Hopefully the examiners will be, too.

Next up, some Innocent Smoothie Hats. I started these last year, thinking I'd have them done by the October 1 deadline. Yeah, not so much. Classes and coursework got in the way. But they are done now. I've posted them off already, and am doubly pleased because they also got about 60g of scraps out of my stash.

Finally, a full-size hat for me. I like to have a new woolly hat in the autumn, it makes me feel all snug. Given the horrible weather we've been having of late it's just in time! This used up two balls of Debbie Bliss tweedy aranweight that's been lurking in my stash forever. It's a bit scratchy, but nice and warm. I used the Karlchen pattern again, since I'm a fan of top-down hats.

More Monkeys

2011-08-23T10:18:00.003+01:00

In the tweaking, expanding and editing phase now. I proofread best on hardcopy, so printed out what I've got done and sat with a pen and my socks. Got to the end of the draft and realized I'd only got the toe left of sock two, so I took a wee break and finished off my socks!

Monkeys, ten pattern repeats and Regia sock yarn on 2.5mm needles. Did a slipstitch heel instead of the stockinette suggested by the pattern. They're in good time, too - it looks like our crappy summer is now over and turning into an even crappier autumn. At least I have lovely red socks!

We interrupt this craziness to bring you a FO!

2011-08-15T08:27:00.000+01:00

As I suspected, yarning has rather fallen by the wayside during dissertation-writing. I've been doing the odd round of a Monkey sock here and there (and am nearly to the heel of the second sock), but mostly it's all writing all the time. Yesterday evening I had a wee incident with a chapter that was not fun. Rather than continue to get worked up, I decided to do some crafting for mental health.

My first skeins of handspun have been lurking in the stash waiting for me to find something to do with them. I tried out a hat, but I'm never going to wear a thick-and-thin neon pink beanie. I have some taste. So I frogged it.

Last night I didn't want pattern or thinking, so I got out a 6.5mm crochet hook and went to town. Chained a couple of stitches and started making a big flat circle with the vague intention of turning it into a basket. Well, once I realized how much fabric I was getting for my yarn, I decided to keep going and make a small rug.

It's about 14 inches in diameter, and used up every scrap of my oldest handspun. And mum wants it for her bedroom in her new house. Yarn out, mum happy. Everyone's a winner!

Knit Nation, part the second - class!

2011-07-21T15:36:00.000+01:00

On Friday I had a full-day class with Lene Alve, Finnish knitter extraordinaire. It was a 6-hour class, and at the end of it I was so full of new information my brain stopped functioning. Seriously. I asked Himself to get me my phone from the "couch", where couch is spelled a-i-r-m-a-t-t-r-e-s-s. I could not make sentences.

Ok, so first there were samples. Lots and lots of samples, both mittens and non-mittens. Lene very kindly allowed me to take some photos of her samples, as well as letting all of us try them on! Then we had a wee chat about yarn (sticky wool is good) and gauge (the tighter the better). After the chat, she had us cast on for a sample. The sample was painful - I have never tried to knit heavy worsted on 2.5mm needles. For comparison, that's the needle size I normally use for Monkey socks, and they are considered tight. I ended up borrowing some 3mm needles from my charming seatmate so that I could finish the sample without cramps in my fingers.

I should have sucked it up and stuck with the smaller needles. The gauge on this is way too loose, which is why the colourwork is so sloppy. Still, it'll do perfectly as a coffee cozy - my wrists are so small that it'd never do as wrist warmers.

In the afternoon Lene judged us all reasonably competent at the technique and set us off on the wristlets while she talked about modifications to the technique and applications. Here's the beginning of my wristlets - this is fingering-weight yarn on 1.5mm needles. No, that's not a typo. Fortunately I had needles small enough in my collection!

So, a little bit about the technique. It's a bizarre and freakish amalgam of stranded colourwork and intarsia. There are 11 bobbins of colour on this mitt, one for each column of colour in the pattern. They are mounted on the long straight needle in such a way that they are centre-pull butterflies. Mounting them means that it's impossible to tangle them if you are knitting the mitts correctly. A tangle is actually really useful for spotting problems. The technique is based on decreasing and increasing simultaneously in the same stitch. It's marvellously simple once you've seen it a couple of times, but I can't really explain it without knitting in my hands. The oddest part is retraining oneself not to weave in the floats as you go along, because the technique does it for you. If you try, you'll get a tangle.

For once my unique method of manipulating my working yarn came in handy. Part of what you do involves dropping the working yarn every single time you change colours. The knitters who are used to stranding with both hands had a hard time with this, but I already drop the yarn when changing colours.

I'm looking forward to finishing my mitts (hopefully in time for Christmas) and seeing what else I can do with these patterns. I'm envisioning some fabulous sock shaping, for a start. It'll be great!

You know you knit too much when...

2011-07-20T20:17:00.000+01:00

... a friend emails you the day before a knitting event because she needs yarn for a class and doesn't have time to get some and could you help her out? And you just so happen to have the perfect skein in your stash, even though you never knit with white.

... your mother offers to buy you some cute summer dresses and you choose the ones that match yarn in your stash. It's wedding season after all, and we can't have all that cleavage on display in a church!

Pattern - 198 Yards of Heaven
Yarn - Rowan Kidsilk Spray, discontinued
Needles - 4.5mm circulars
Modifications - none.

The original pattern calls for worsted or aran-weight yarn, but given how much halo the kidsilk has I decided to chance it. It worked really well. The shawl only weighs 16 grams! It's shockingly warm, as well, which is good given how cool the summer's been.

Only problem now is figuring out to do with the 80 yards of yarn left over.

Knit Nation part the first - shopping!

2011-07-20T12:22:00.000+01:00

Let's just be sensible and get the fiber porn out of the way first, shall we? The marketplace was fabulous this year. I could've gone with a budget of £10,000 and spent it all! My budget was of course not nearly so expansive, though I did do a wee bit of shopping.

First up, non-fiber. I bought a gorgeous shawl pin, made of stainless steel, from a charming chap whose business name I've forgotten. (Weaving Friend, it was the place to the left of the Loop stall - who were they?) It's lightweight and tiny, perfect for all manner of different shawls. I got the very last one! Isn't it pretty?

Next, the one and only skein of yarn purchased this year. I have a lot of yarn, I didn't really need anything else! This is Juno Fibre Arts Buffy Sock in the colourway Parched. Yarn is 100% superwash BFL and deliciously bouncy. There was a surprising amount of non-merino sock yarn available this year. It seems that the knitters have spoken!

The rest of what I acquired this year was all fiber. Yummy, squishy, pettable fiber. First port of call was Juno Fibre Arts, from whom I bought a braid of BFL/silk last year. This year I went knowing that I wanted ALL THE FIBER, so bought several things. This is 105g of angora/tussah silk, a 50/50 blend, in the colourway Emerald Light. It sheds like crazy, but is the softest thing I have ever felt. Had she had more of this in colourways that weren't shades of baby pink I'd have bought the lot.

Next up is a 100g braid of oatmeal BFL, colourway Rockpool. I love oatmeal BFL as a base, it does fabulous things to the dyes.

Last braid from Juno is BFL/sparkle, colourway Plum Sparkle. I don't normally (read - ever) go in for sparkles in my fiber, but this was so pretty I couldn't resist.

Another planned purchase was a second kilo of raw Gottland from Well Manor Farm. This will be combed and added to the kilo from last year and eventually turned into SCA garb.

This beauty is Old Maiden Aunt merino/bamboo, colourway Nothing Like The Sun. Also 100g. Also yummy. Also the only orange spinning fiber for sale in the entire marketplace!

Last purchase of the weekend was this braid from Sparkleduck - BFL/nylon, no colourway name. But lovely nonetheless.

But wait, there's more! As per last year C, hereafter Vet Friend, came down from Glasgow for knitting fun. I brought chocolate for her partner, she brought me gorgeous silk. Just over 50g of mulberry silk, which I will be hoarding and petting before I decide what I'm doing with it.

FO - Darklight Shawl

2011-07-05T08:32:00.001+01:00

I finished up the last five repeats of the edging on Sunday and blocked it on the same day - despite the amount of time sucked up by jam-making!

Pattern - Aestlight Shawl
Yarn - Kauni Effektgarn, purchased in 2008
Needles - 4.5mm

I'm really, really pleased with how this turned out. For a start, it's significantly bigger than expected. That's a double bed it's sprawled across. It also softened up quite a bit after a thorough bath with some hair conditioner. I'm still not going to be able to wear it tight around my neck, but as an outer layer it'll be just fine. The skein was 130g, of which I used 100g. Just about 440 yards, which is more than the pattern calls for, even though I was using the recommended needle size. I must knit more loosely than the designer!

And now for something completely different!

2011-07-04T08:30:00.001+01:00

This weekend my husband and I have been doing some jointly creative things. Namely, making plum jam!

Experimental wild plum jam, to be precise. We live in Central London, but there is a surprising amount of food growing in the area if you're looking. On Friday he went out and found about six kilos of wild plums, both red and golden, within a 10-minute walk of our flat. And on Saturday he brought home about a kilo of blackberries! The blackberries are in the freezer, waiting until the rest of the crop ripens. Once we've got another couple of kilos, we'll be making blackberry wine. For now, though, we have plum jam. It's slow to set - hubs mis-measured the pectin, so there isn't quite enough. But it is setting, and it tastes amazing. We're also going to make a batch of chutney, but we ran out of canning jars. Here's something fairly close to the recipe, which I cobbled together from half-a-dozen places.

Plum Pudding Jam

3 kilos of wild plums, washed and picked over
1 cup of apple juice
3 kilos of sugar
2 heaping tablespoons of cinnamon
Half a tablespoon of cloves
Half a tablespoon of allspice
Quarter teaspoon of ground black pepper
Enough pectin for the volume of fruit
Knob of butter to stop foaming.

Pit all the plums. Add apple juice and spices to chopped plums and bring to a boil, stirring so that it doesn't stick. Add the sugar one bag at a time, bringing it back up to a hard boil in between bags. Once the sugar is all in and dissolved, add the butter and the pectin. Boil hard and stir constantly. At this point, we used a slotted spoon to skim out the plum skins, since we were far too lazy to peel them. Having the skins come out also made it a lot easier to get rid of the skum. Once it tests to set, ladle the hot jam into hot sterilized jars, leaving a quarter-inch of headspace. Put lids on. Wipe off any drips and set aside to cool and seal.

We ended up with a dozen jam jars full, plus a small cup that wouldn't fit in. We just popped that one straight into the fridge and have been eating it on toast. It's more of a preserve than proper jam, due to the pectin fail, but it's really tasty. We used a mixture of just ripe and fully ripe plums, and it's got a gorgeous puckery tang over the sugar. The spices are quite strong. It really does taste like plum pudding smells, hence the name!

Tour de Fleece 2011!

2011-07-02T22:11:00.002+01:00

Yes, in amongst all the writing and research and lace-shawl-knitting I am undertaking the Tour again this year. My goals are simple. I have four spinning WIPs, three on the wheel and one on the spindle. I would like all four of them to be farther along at the end of the Tour than they are now. Ideally, I'd like all four projects to be totally spun, plied and finished, but given how much else is going on right now it's unlikely.

I'm also aiming to spend at least 15 minutes every day of the Tour spinning. Today I have managed... 15 minutes. Some of my day was spent cleaning, as Saturdays are for cleaning. Some was spent grocery shopping. Quite a large chunk was spent picking over and prepping 4 kilos of wild plums for jam-making. Mostly, though? I've been knitting this blasted edging. The end is in sight, and I will block it tomorrow or die in the attempt.

Inching along.

2011-07-01T19:54:00.001+01:00

A couple of weeks ago I finally got around to casting on with some Kauni yarn I bought a very long time ago. It was originally purchased to experiment with, because I thought I might like to use it for a sweater. I'm glad I only bought the one ball, because it's Icelandic wool - just like the slippers that brought me out in hives! So far it's just feeling a wee bit itchy. I'm hopeful that I'll be able to wear it, since unlike felted slippers I don't make a habit of rubbing shawls into my skin as hard as possible.

I thought I was nearly done a few days ago. This shawl uses a funky Shetland construction with a knitted-on border, and I finished everything but that on Tuesday. A couple of evenings should have seen me finishing, or so I thought. Turns out that knitted-on borders are really slow. I'm averaging about three-and-a-half repeats an hour, fewer if I'm also watching tv. There are 31 repeats to finish the shawl. Yeah. Talk about underestimating remaining work! Once the border's done I've just got a quick bind-off across the top to finish it. I'm hoping that it'll be blocking on Monday morning, if not sooner.

Mitts for mum

2011-06-24T19:36:00.000+01:00

On Friday last (yes, a week ago, I am a slacker) I finished up a pair of mitts for my mother, who had come to visit. Those who have been reading for a while may recall the yarn, which has also been made into a pair of Monkey socks for my mother.

Mum's nuts about all things Halloween, so this yarn was perfect. It is DK Knits Technicolor Dream Toes that I purchased from Etsy a zillion years ago. Pattern is Fetching from Knitty, also from a zillion years ago. This is my fourth pair of mitts from the pattern. It's quick and easy and fairly straightforward to adjust, plus gets bonus points for mirrored cables.

Mum made out like a bandit this trip - I sent her home with mitts, a cowl and a pair of socks. There was going to be a shawl, but I haven't finished it yet. Plus, the more I knit it the more I like it, so I may just keep it. I can always use more shawls!

I think that maybe I now feel like a real grown-up.

2011-06-12T17:57:00.002+01:00

For the record, I'm 27 and have been gainfully employed since leaving college five years ago. And I'm married and live in a home that I pay for, and am nearly finished with a postgraduate degree. I'm definitely an adult. There are still days, though, that I feel a bit like a fraud - I still feel a bit naughty when I occasionally leave my shoes on indoors or eat popcorn for supper instead of cooking.

Just now, though, I feel like a Grown-Up who has Good Neighbours. Earlier today we had a knock on the door and opened it to discover our downstairs neighbour and his 2.5-year-old daughter. It transpired that the child wished to bake, but there was no flour in the flat. And given the weather, her very sensible parents decided they didn't want to traipse outside in the wet to go to the shops. Baby A informed them (and the rest of the building, actually) that this was a Major Tragedy and should be rectified Right Now, Thanks Awfully. So upstairs they toddled to borrow some flour. We've always got flour, since the spouse and I are both rather keen on baking, so we handed them a 500g sack and away they went, happy as Larry. Just now they brought us back the remains of the flour and a plate of freshly baked cupcakes. We've thanked them profusely and sent them home with a bottle of spouse's homebrewed elderflower champagne.

I'd always imagined having a sense of community and friendship with my neighbours. Looks like I've got it.

Mostly I love London.

2011-06-12T16:53:00.003+01:00

Not so much today. This is the view from my living room window at the moment.

Gorgeous, no? It's been, well, pissing it down. All week. My umbrella is getting a great deal of use right now. Fortunately there was a break of a couple of hours yesterday, and well-timed it was. Yesterday was Baby L's third birthday! I can't believe how fast this child is growing up. I swear I'm going to be a wreck when I have spawn of my own, because I spent way too much time yesterday snuffling over party dresses and sharing and all manner of cuteness. Awwww.

Of course, yesterday was also Knit In Public Day. After a visiting granny offered to babysit, I kidnapped Baby L's mother and took her to a well-deserved lunch. We ate amazing dim sum, knit on socks (both working on red Monkeys, amusingly) and then headed across the street to Loop, the LYS of joy and wonderment. They were having a sale in honour of KIP Day, and I needed supplies for the class I'm taking at Knit Nation next month. I was very good and only bought the four balls of yarn I needed. I also bought this:

Brooklyn Tweed's book! I was outrageously excited by it, since I didn't think there was anywhere in the UK carrying it. I love all but one of the projects (the earmuffs are kinda weird), and am itching to cast on for a new shawl now. I'm not going to, of course, because I really don't need any more distractions right now. But it's a good carrot to get me through until September.

For now, though, it's a Sunday of pajamas, folk music and endless cups of tea. At least the rain means I don't have to feel guilty about chilling out for a few hours.

Some yarny goodness

2011-06-07T19:01:00.001+01:00

I have finally finished my first batch of handspun for 2011! I'm starting to think that my goals of having twelve spinning projects done by the end of the year is a wee bit ambitious, given all the other things that are going on. Still, I am delighted that this WIP is finally a FO. I've only been working on it since last summer - nearly a year!

This is hand-dyed alpaca, dyed as roving with Kool-Ade. I don't remember what colour I used, although I'd hazard a guess it was something orange. Just a hunch.

I've chained-plied it, and it's ended up a fingering-weight, approximately 260 yards. Soaked it for half an hour in warm water, then whacked it on the bathtub to set the twist. I'm quite pleased with it, structurally - it's nicely balanced, and it's not particularly over or under spun or plied.

As yarn, though, I don't like it. I have concluded that I really do not enjoy spinning alpaca. The odd guard hairs get everywhere and it's too scratchy for my Posh-spoiled skin. Plus the lack of lanolin in the fiber makes the spinning process less enjoyable for me. And alpaca has an undeniable odor of wet dog when wet!

Luckily for me Weaving Friend likes alpaca. So she'll be getting yarn and a shawl next month when she comes to visit me!

All papers, all the time.

2011-05-28T22:09:00.003+01:00

I should warn anyone reading that I'm currently in the last 3 months of my MA, which means wrapping up the last of the coursework and writing my thesis. I have a topic I love (at least I love it now, I may hate it by September 1), and it's one that is based on my work so should be doable in the time I have available.

What this means for the blog is that I'm in a weird place, fiber-wise. I'm still knitting and spinning. What I'm not doing is finishing much or knitting things which are more interesting than my zillionth pair of Monkey socks. What knitting concentration I have at the moment is devoted to Weaving Friend's wedding shawl, since that has a deadline. Unfortunately, it's not blog fodder since she doesn't want any photos of it until after it's done.

I suspect there's going to be rather a lot of philosophical navel-gazing and not so many photos over the next three months. Sorry about that. The good news is that I've booked a week and a half off work starting from the day I submit, and I'm planning to see whether I can knit an entire cardigan in a month.

Flicking locks

2011-05-18T12:30:00.006+01:00

I've now finished washing all my Gottland, which means that I'm now in the "prepping for spinning" phase of turning it into yarn. I'm planning to turn the lot into combed top and could at this point just lash the lot onto the combs and have at. However, I've been doing a lot of reading, and am firmly in the "flick, then comb" school of thought.

See, the tips of this fleece are pretty well stuck together. And however thorough my skirting job was, there will still be second cuts and bits of plant stuck in the locks. It's all going to have to come out before or during the combing process, because I don't want to be spinning all that rubbish. So, out comes my trusty Ashford flicker and my fleece apron*. It seems to produce much better top than just combing, and as the Tsarina said, "good fleece deserves the extra attention, and mediocre fleece needs it." Plus I enjoy flicking. It's soothing.
(Flicked lock above, unflicked washed lock below.)

Current plan is to flick the lot, then comb it all. The Tour de Fleece is in July, and I'm aiming to spin all of the Gottland up into a lightweight 2-ply for weaving. Gottland is a breed that was around back during the periods of history covered by the SCA, so if I like spinning it as much as I think I am, I plan to acquire a whole fleece next year and make a full Viking gown. For now, I just want to get a nice wrap out of it. Isn't the colour gorgeous?

*This is just a regular beige cotton lap-apron that I've turned into a spinning apron, since I don't like being covered in bits of fluff. Also protects my clothes and legs from the flicker and combs.

The problem with laceweight.

2011-05-17T19:46:00.000+01:00

I have a lot of laceweight* yarn. More than a quarter of the stash entries on my Ravelry page are laceweight, and while that doesn't seem like much, perhaps, that laceweight is more than half of my total yardage. Probably closer to 2/3. I thoroughly enjoy knitting with it, and given how economical it is per yard, I shouldn't really have a problem. Only trouble is, I knit very little of it. In fact, looking back at my completed projects, I've only finished 3 projects of laceweight yarn. (Well, plus five thread snowflakes, but they don't really count.) I've finished lots of lace, but it's all with sock yarn or heavier.

The reason? Laceweight isn't portable**. At least not for me. I do almost all of my knitting while I'm out and about, so projects that I can't take with me just don't get much time. Socks are great, especially ones that I can knit while standing up (read: no chart or one I've memorized). Shawls are good, as long as they are still small enough that I can complete a row in the amount of free time available. I can't stop in the middle of a row - my stitches fall off when I jam the knitting into my bag, and I'm allergic to the rubber used to make the stoppers. (And yes, L, I could just use corks like I told you to, but all the corks in my flat belong to Spouse, Brewer of Booze.)

It's the bag-jamming that's the real issue here. DPN projects go into the WIP tube, then into a zip-top bag. Then the bag gets jammed into my handbag, to do battle with my wallet, my umbrella, an iPod, my keys... Actually, here's a photo of the typical contents of my bag:

If socks get snagged on my keys or caught on the umbrella, it's not the end of the world. They're going to get worn and worn out, a little snag doesn't make them any less wearable. With laceweight, though, a snag would more likely be a snap, ruining hours of work. A velcro snag would be a catastrophe!

I could in theory get proper project bags for my laceweight projects. I say in theory because most project bags close with a zipper, and the few that don't fail to totally enclose the project. I'm thinking something with magnets and an envelope flap, similar to the pocketbooks one sees in posh department stores. But then, I can't imagine a department store selling pocketbooks big enough for a lace shawl, can you?

*I'm lumping cobweb and gossamer in here too, since they all share the same flaw.

**Big projects aren't portable either, which is why I've still never knit a sweater***.
***Actually I did knit a sweater, but it predated my discovery of gauge and was knit from rust-coloured acrylic from the 70s that I swiped from my grandmother. I wore it once and threw it in the trash. To the best of my knowledge, there are no photos proving that it ever exists, and that bodes well for the future of my knitterly credibility.

Mmmm, snuggly scarf

2011-05-17T09:16:00.000+01:00

So, a FO that never got blogged as a WIP, even though I started it in March! Oops! :D

Some details:

Pattern - the Hourglass Scarf from Knitting New Scarves

Yarn - 2 skeins of Posh Emily in the colourway Marrakesh, held doubled
Needles - 8mm straights for the ribbing, 5mm DPNs for the gathered sections
Mods - quite a few, detailed below

I bought this book a while ago. At least two years, maybe (probably) more, and I've never gotten around to knitting anything from it. Trouble is, all of the designs are innovative and brain-stretching, and I've not really had the mental energy for them! They are gorgeous, and the instructions are very clear.

This scarf was a gentle introduction to some of the more mind-bending projects. It's essentially a chunky ribbed scarf, with some gathers thrown in at either end. It's supposed to have several sets of gathers at each end, creating the hourglass shape that gives the scarf its name. I decided to only have one at each end, though - they were fiddly, and I'm in the middle of MA finals and thesis-writing. Fiddly is not a good quality in a knit right now. The gathered sections were also supposed to have snippits of a contrast colour worked in, but I didn't have any scraps of Emily to use. I also knit the gathers a few rows shorter than called for, again because the fiddly was irritating me. I knit the body of the scarf until I'd used about half of my yarn, then stuck a stitch marker in and knit until the two halves were the same length.

Probably should have used a different bind-off, as this one flares, but it doesn't really bother me. At least, not enough to unpick it and redo it! I now have a lovely, soft, squishable new scarf that is just perfect for the May we are having. I sometimes ponder emigrating, but if I did I wouldn't get nearly as much wear out of my handknits.

New spindle

2011-05-09T22:36:00.000+01:00

As you may have noticed from all the fiber I've been prepping, my spinning mojo seems to have returned with the sun. I've been itching to get my hands on the wheel, and my fiber lust has been so strong recently that I finally broke down and bought a new spindle. This is spindle number 3 for me, and this one is a keeper! Number 1 was just too big and too heavy. It hurt to spin for any prolonged period of time, and it wasn't able to produce the kind of yarn I wanted to make. Number 2 was a good weight and size, but a bottom-whorl - and a notched one at that! It was just not pushing my buttons. It's ok, though. Number 1 now belongs to Weaving Friend, and Number 2 is going to go live with Mum.

Number 3, ah - Number 3 is just right.

Top whirl, 19g, short, thick shaft perfect for finger-flicking, perfectly balanced. I am a little bit in love with Number 3. It's beautifully handmade from cherry wood, both shaft and whorl. I bought it from Wildcraft, along with two new lumps of fiber. The first is 100g of Devon and Cornwall Longwool.

The second is actually not a lump, it is 30g of mawata. I'm still pondering whether to spin this or knit it up into mittens as per the Harlot. I'm not sure I would ever wear unspun silk, as I think the squeaking would bother me. Still, it's not like I'm in a great rush to get this on the wheel - I've already got three wheel WIPs on the go!

The observant will have noticed that there is fiber on Number 3, and that it is neither silk nor Devon Longwool. It is, in fact, half of the 34g of Shetland top that the spindle came with as postal padding. Well played, Wildcraft. This could be the beginning of a beautiful friendship!

Did you know?

2011-05-07T11:27:00.001+01:00

If one is darning socks and lacks a darning egg, the plastic insides from a Kinder Surprise Egg work quite well. One might almost say surprisingly well! :D

Holy Anniversary, Batman!

2011-05-06T16:34:00.003+01:00

I'll confess I don't remember the exact date, but I've just been reminded that I've been knitting for ten years. Good grief! It certainly doesn't feel like that long. I can't imagine not being a Knitter nowadays, to be honest. How would I watch television? How would I not go nuts queueing? What would I wear on my feet?

My Ravelry page tells me quite categorically that I am a socks-and-scarves knitter who dabbles in lace shawls occasionally. I'm content with that. I wear everything I knit! (Well, obviously I don't wear afghans, but I do use them.) I'm also getting to the point where my handknit socks have outbred my bought socks - I've thrown out pairs of bought socks and not had to replace them, so I think the current batch may be the end of the line.

And here's a blast from the past:

My very first knitting project! A garter stitch scarf, of course, knit from some sort of tweedy acrylic/wool blend from the market knit on needles several sizes too small. Density ranges from practically lace to bulletproof, with width changes to match. There are dropped stitches, accidental yarnovers, bizarre decreases - basically every newbie mistake imaginable. But you know what? I love it. Ugly Scarf paved the way for a lifelong love affair, if you'll forgive the cliche. I'd never have dreamed that this monstrosity would turn into cobweb wedding shawls and a class on Rovaniemi mittens. And a spinning wheel. And a living room that smells of sheep.

Comb, comb, comb the wool!

2011-05-01T10:15:00.003+01:00

Yesterday was glorious and sunny, so I decided it was perfect for all things fibery. I got Roy out and did some spinning, then decided that I should take advantage of the heat and wash some fiber. I bought a kilo of Gottland locks last year at iKnit Day and haven't ever gotten around to doing anything with it.

So, yesterday I pulled it out and started prepping. The skirting job was not wonderful, and there were some second cuts throughout that I had to remove. Also, it being gottland, some of the fiber was just too matted to salvage. I estimate that I lost around 150g-200g of unwashed fiber. I also got rid of the fiber from the dark stripe across the back of the sheep, as the staple was quite a bit shorter than the rest.
Once I'd cleaned out the junk, I sorted it. I was thinking about doing some sort of funky gradient spinning with it, but I think a tweed effect would be much prettier. The locks range in colour from a silvery white to a dark, steely grey. The shine is just incredible, and the locks are gorgeous and long.

I thought the fiber was pretty clean when I started. It was from a coated sheep, so there's almost no plant material in it. Then I started scouring. Oh my. This was a mucky little sheep! I had to wash and rinse 6 times before the water ran clean, and I'm sure that combing will get out a lot more dirt. I've washed about 2/3 of the fiber, but my rack is full.

While the gottland was soaking I fished out the bag of Wensleydale locks I washed and flicked a few months back. I'd planned to spin them straight from the lock, but decided that I really needed to experiment with the combs before starting on the gottland. I have mini combs, which I use without a stand. I wanted to be able to use them at SCA events, so figured that using them freehand would be more portable. They're not actually that sharp, although I did get a tetanus booster before I started combing!

Of the 100g unwashed fiber I started with, I've ended up with 34g of combed top. Most of the waste was from combing, although I expect to have less waste as I get better at combing. Some of it was from the flicking, but I suspect that rather a lot was from the dirt and grease that came out in scouring. Sheep are filthy creatures!

Socks!

2011-04-25T19:15:00.003+01:00

Ok everyone, are you sitting down? I have a small piece of knitterly news. I have finished a new pair of socks - and they ARE NOT MONKEYS! Of course, they don't fit me, but that's ok. Mum always needs new handknit socks, right Mum?

Pattern is Spring Forward, yarn is Colinette Jitterbug that I've had forever. And peeking out from the cuffs are the sock blockers that Weaving Friend gave me for Christmas. Aren't they pretty?

Speaking of presents, it was my birthday last month, and various friends and family spoiled me rotten on the fiber front. Like my pretties?

The stack of books at the back is a complete set of the Barbara Walker Stitch Treasuries, which have already got my creative juices flowing. The little package on top of them is a bag of dyed tussah silk, the lump in front is mohair. The little green envelope in the middle is a spare set of the needles I use for knitting ... Monkey socks.

Shocker.

2011-03-21T21:54:00.000Z

I knit another pair of Monkey socks. I know, you're about ready to faint, right? I would never in a million years have been suspected of knitting these socks obsessively!

Jury is currently out on whether the yarn is suitable for socks. I love the colours and the way it's knitted up. I'm not really noticing the coarseness on my feet, nor the slubs from the unevenly spun singles. However, it is a singles, and in places it is really more of a laceweight than a true sock yarn. I'm concerned that those places will wear through, both because the yarn is too thin and because the knitting is looser. Time will tell. Also, the yarn doesn't have as much memory as regular sock yarn, so after a day's wear the ankles are rather stretched out from being pulled over my heels.

I wonder why it is that no-one questions those who knit plain stockinette socks over and over, but people get weird about me knitting this same pattern multiple times. It's a great pattern, it's interesting and quick to knit and I love how it fits. Plus I've memorized it, so it's not like it takes any more mental effort than plain socks.

On an unrelated note, I am still pondering the knit/embroidery dilemma. AnaMarie comments that I don't have to separate the fiber arts, and suggests embroidering onto a piece of knit fabric. I'm not sure that knit fabric would be a stable enough base for embroidery, but I'm definitely getting interested in the idea of mixing my crafts. There are any number of embroidery stitches that could be made to look like knitting, and if I'm feeling really crazy I could always do bands of cutwork to look like knitted lace. It could be fabulous, or it could be a disaster. Either way, I think it'll be a fun experiment.
Oooh, I bet I could applique an edging onto it!

A thought.

2011-03-15T19:09:00.000Z

Would it be weird to work a quotation about knitting as an embroidery sampler? I kinda feel like quotes about knitting should be knitted, but short of designing a text-based hockey sweater, I just don't see how I can make that work. Plus there's the problem that I'd never wear a hockey sweater, but I'd hang embroidery on my wall any day.

Another FO! Now with bonus WIP photos!

2011-02-27T16:35:00.002Z

I finally finished the woven scarf I started back at the beginning of October. Wowsa. There is no earthly reason this should have take so long. Delighted that it's done!

It's just the right length, and incredibly soft and drapey. The Posh Laura is wonderful if a little difficult to weave with. I still have half a skein so may end up making a pair of mitts to go with. I love the way the variegated yarn ended up doing this tartanesque thing:

Other stuff that's going on includes:
A new pair of Monkey socks, this time made from Noro Kureyon Sock. I swore I'd never make socks from this yarn, but I need socks and didn't like how it was knitting up into mittens. It's looking fab as socks, so fingers crossed it wears well underfoot.

A pair of hot-pink slippers, destined for fulling and my feet. Boring, and the DPNs I'm using are a little bit too short for all of the gusset stitches, so I'm leaving them for the moment. I hope to finish them in March.

The first leaf of my Vintage socks. The Tsarina wasn't kidding when she said this was her most fiddly pattern ever. But I think they'll be gorgeous when they're done, some time next year, perhaps.

I'm doing a fair bit of spinning at the moment, too. I'm just over halfway through a batch of melon-coloured alpaca that's destined for Weaving Friend once it's done. I'm also working on some gorgeous red cormo/merino that was a gift from a lovely Raveller. I'm aiming for a DK or worsted 3-ply to turn into a scarf for myself. And I'm also doing the first bobbin of singles for some sock yarn, made of a fabulous merino/nylon top that drafts like a dream. Still haven't finished any spinning projects this year, but as long as I have 12 done by the end it's all good.

Swatching and winding

2011-02-21T22:09:00.000Z

I was going to drop everything this weekend and cast on for Weaving Friend's shawl. In fact, I did drop everything and cast on for it. Didn't like the look, though - a 3.5mm needle is far too big for this yarn. It was much too open. So, I've ripped out the few rows I'd done, put the beads back in their container and rewound the yarn. I'll go with a 3mm needle the next time I try, but for now I'm back to working on my WIPs.

Most progress is currently being made on the pink scarf, surprisingly. I managed to empty my shuttle over the weekend, so I've refilled that and will be getting on with (hopfeully!) finishing the whole thing as soon as I finish writing my current essay.

New project soon

2011-02-14T22:27:00.001Z

Scrap all the plans from my last post, I'll be getting my current cobweb shawl done ASAP and casting on for something new - Weaving Friend is getting married! The big day is not for another year, but cobwebby lace and beads take time, and her wedding shawl should be perfect. And Posh, of course. The yarn is Miranda Cobweb, in the colourway "Champagne" with cream-coloured beads, and the pattern is Aeolian, as per the lady's request. I'm debating needle size, although I think I'll end up using a 3.5mm needle. It's going to be fun! I've wanted to make this pattern forever (even tried it once, although I ended up frogging it), and it's hugely satisfying making things for people who will love them.

London weather

2011-02-10T18:09:00.000Z

I feel like I'm getting whiplash from the quick-change weather we've been having here. Yesterday it was sunny and so warm I spent my lunch hour in a light jacket in the park, admiring the crocuses and knitting. Today it's pouring rain and the temperatures have plummeted.

I've cast on for a couple of new projects. One is a pair of felted slippers for me at long last - hopefully my kool-aid-dyed yarn won't bring me up in hives as the Icelandic stuff did! They are hot pink and fabulous, and the perfect antidote to the weather. I finished all my handbag-suitable projects, which is why I've cast on for these now. They go quickly, so I may even get them done this month.

I've also cast on at long last for the first leaf on my Vintage Tsocks. I've only had the kit for two years... :D The leaves are fiddly, but I suspect that they will get faster as I go along. I also suspect that if I don't knit all the leaves first and get them blocked, I'll knit both socks and never get around to making the leaves. Once all the leaves are made and I've done the fiddly inset leaf on the toe, these can move over into my handbag!

I've finally started to make some progress on the pink woven scarf, too. It's amazing what two evenings of tv-watching and weaving can produce. My selvedges on this scarf are not as good as some of the other scarves I've done, but this yarn is a wool/cashmere blend and behaves rather differently. I'm getting used to it, and at least it's remaining the same width, more or less.

Quick and painless

2011-02-07T21:58:00.000Z

Remember that red art yarn I spun up a while back? Well, thanks to a knitalong on one of my Ravelry fora, I was inspired to knit with it. I found a perfectly reasonable pattern for a cowl, and over the weekend managed to produce this:

I'm hugely pleased with it. It's a good size, the yarn knitted up nicely, the stitch pattern works with the tweedy look of the plying. And the best part? It only took half of my handspun, so I can make another one for me after Mum absconds with this one. :D

Socks!

2011-02-04T19:24:00.000Z

One bright and cheery new pair of socks, fresh off the needles and onto my feet!

They're a little loud for my taste (says she who loves orange and lime), but they fit nicely and are warm. Plus, I've now used up the oldest sock yarn in my stash! There are some scraps left, but they have already been added to the biscuit tin of scrappy goodness for making into squares.

I'm planning to spend time this weekend making some progress on my cobweb shawl, but I really want to get on with the woven scarf. I can only work on that at home, since I'm not hardcore enough to carry a loom around. Especially not after the great back pain fiasco of 2010!

So much for the resolution to blog

2011-01-31T22:14:00.003Z

After getting back to London, I had a couple of papers to hand in for my MA. Shortly thereafter, my charming spouse decided to share his bronchitis, so I've been rather ill for the last few days. Nothing perilous, nothing needing antibiotics (unlike him!), but I've not really been up to much needlework. Still, I did manage to finish up the first project of the year.

Presenting my Travelling Blues Shawl:

Pattern is Travelling Woman, needles were 4.5mm, and those of you who have a good memory will recognize the yarn as some of my handspun! And a detail shot:

I love it. It's warm and snuggly and the colours make me happy. And I've nearly finished my first pair of socks for the year...

Old Year, New Year!

2011-01-17T22:15:00.001Z

So, I am now back from a two-week vacation that included almost no computer time, and I am ready to get cracking on a new year of knitting and blogging! Quick wrap of 2010 in some numbers:

Projects completed - 29, which included

5 scarves,
5 pairs of socks,
6 shawls,
1 pair of garters,
1 pillow,
1 pair of mitts,
1 afghan,
5 snowflakes,
1 Thing,
3 lots of handspun.

My lowest count since the beginning of the blog, but then I have been working on my Master's degree throughout 2010. I'm not too worried! I'd intended to spend the year only making things for me, and I ended up with 4 things for other people. One was accidental - a pair of felted slippers that make me come up in hives that I've given to my spouse. One was for a wedding, and once-in-a-lifetime events were exempted from the ban. Mum's shawl* was my oldest WIP, so I wanted to keep working on that. The scarf I ended up giving to my spouse was a weaving experiment that suited him better than me, so there wasn't much point in claiming it.

I learned how to weave this year, and I took classes in spinning and knitting for the first time. I learned how to starch thread crochet and was again astonished at the magic of blocking. I finished up many of my oldest projects, and discovered that I don't like having fewer than two projects on the go at once! I neglected my wheel, but did a whole lot of fiber prep. I knit up more than I acquired, which to my mind compensated for the rather large volume of spinning fiber that's now living on my wardrobe.

As of this moment, I have five WIPs. They are:

Yule Shawl (Posh cobweb-weight, and my oldest WIP),
Posh Pink Scarf (weaving project),
Travelling Blues Shawl (from my handspun),
Peeps Massacre Monkeys (yes, another pair for me!),
Sock Scraps Bedspread.

I'm happy with this number. The socks are living in my handbag, and I managed to finish the first while on vacation. The two shawls are good for working on when I'm in need of some stimulation, and the scarf and granny squares are perfect for tv-watching and talking to people. I'm not feeling the need to cast on for anything new, either!

My goals for the year are pretty basic. I'm aiming to finish 3 project per month - one spinning, one knitting, and one "other". I'm also planning to knit sweaters this year, which is going to mean getting over my swatching laziness! I want sweaters that fit me, darn it. I do have one long-term goal of crazy-making (besides a sock-yarn bedspread), which is to knit 6 cobweb-weight lace shawls for myself. I have all the yarn I need - all Posh of course! - and I've picked my patterns. One is the Yule Shawl that I'm currently working on. I'll do a big post about them a bit later on, but for now - summary done, goals posted, let's move on into 2011!

*Why yes, I do have a photo of the shawl. Here it is!

So apparently I have a blog!

2010-12-17T22:14:00.000Z

And once upon a time I used to write things on it! My project to clear the decks of WIPs is going swimmingly and is a large part of why I haven't been blogging - I've been using the time to knit instead. Between the knitting and a wee bit of frogging, I am down to only 2 WIPs!

Most recently finished - a granny ripple afghan, sized for cuddling on a two-seater couch. Just in time, because it's been snowing all day and the Mr. and I have a long break from next Friday until the New Year! I'm quite pleased with it. It's exactly the right size, and it completely used up a ton of yarn.

Also recently finished - a sooper sekrit lace shawl for my mother, who picked the yarn and pattern, but has only seen the project at the "crumpled blob of spaghetti" phase of knitting. Hence no photos right now, since I'm going to visit her in a couple of weeks and will do the big reveal then.

My two remaining projects are my Posh Pink Scarf, which gained another 6 inches this morning, and my Cobweb Mandala Shawl, which I will be concentrating on once the scarf is done and out of the way. It's possible that I may not finish the shawl by the end of December, although my time off makes me hopeful, so I'm going to focus on finishing the project I know is doable first.

Scratch that idea.

2010-11-18T19:15:00.000Z

The dress is off. I have somehow managed to sprain my back badly enough to warrant the good stuff from the doctor, and there is no way I am going to be able to crawl around on the floor pinning and measuring. Oh well. I'll have a new dress someday, and it's far more important that I let my back recover.

In other news, I have decided to frog my laceweight cardigan. I'd rather use the yarn for something else, and nothing in my wardrobe goes with that particular shade of green anyway. That leaves me at 5 WIPs remaining!

And now for something completely different:

2010-11-11T22:36:00.000Z

... a sewing project! Next month I am attending a ball, SCA-style. I only have one set of court garb, and it needs a complete refit before I can wear it, which means that I am also garb-making this month. I shall be starting by cutting up my wedding dress!

Well, not completely. See, there's this book called The Tudor Tailor, containing many patterns for making (shockingly) clothing from the Tudor period. One of the gowns is a late Henrician-period French gown, with a fancy petticoat and lots of trim. I've admired it many times, but haven't attempted it because boning and lacing and complicated fittings are not doable on oneself. I realized, however, that the shape of the dress was very familiar, and I eventually twigged that it was the same shape as my wedding dress*. My dress has funky swoopy ren-faire sleeves instead of proper fitted ones, but apart from that, I think they might even be from the same template.

So, I'm going to take the sleeves off my dress, cut out proper ones, reattach the sleeves and sew on a load of trim. I'm also going to acquire some fancy brocade to do a stomacher and petticoat. And I need to make a hat, which will require pearls and more thread. I can totally do this by the first weekend of December. Sure I can. Maybe.

I'd better get sewing.

*I have two wedding dresses from two ceremonies, since we've got family in multiple countries and had a wedding in each. This dress is deep blue velvet and was bought with the intention of eventually using it for reenactment purposes.

State of the WIPs, Bonfire Night edition

2010-11-05T21:06:00.000Z

So, now that I'm caught up posting about my finished projects, let's talk about the ones I'm still working on! I'm feeling pretty good about everything right now.

Blue Posh lace shawl - priority 1. This is now my oldest WIP. I've finished the first chart, and since this is a bottom-up number that's about 25% of the knitting done. It's getting a lot quicker too, since every successive row is shorter.
Ripple blanket - priority 2. I've packed all the yarn for this one and moved it to my office for daytime working. It'll get done much faster if I work on it every day, plus I can't overdo the crochet if it's not in my flat.
Red Posh cobweb shawl - waiting. This will be my next at-home project once the blue shawl is finished. It's probably got the most remaining work on it, but I love it so much that it's ok.
Laceweight cardie - hibernating. I'll get this out once the above 3 are finished.
Noro mittens - pretty low on my to-do list, since I have a pair of perfectly good Posh mittens already. Still, they are easy enough, so once the blanket is done they'll get moved into my handbag for lunch hour knitting.
Pink woven scarf - I'm working on this when I'm too brain-dead to pick up anything else. It's ideal for tv watching!

I can't believe I'm down to only 6 yarn-based WIPs. That's the lowest total I've had in years! I have some other projects either on the go or in the planning phase, so more to follow...

FOs

2010-11-05T18:34:00.000Z

26/10 - A productive Saturday gave me the chance to finish off the pillow. I'm delighted with it! It's made of zillions of scraps, but I managed to sort them into a pair of colour-themed sides - orange:

and blue-green:

Some earlier works are the garters I'm donated to the Yule gift exchange:

and the dark woven scarf I made of two coordinating skeins of sock yarn:

Feeling pretty pleased with my progress right now!

05/11 update - Didn't get around to finishing the above post, and since then I've finished two more projects. :D

Coppery scarf:

Carnevale shawl, so named because the yarn reminds me of the festival:

Nearly there!

2010-10-22T22:37:00.000+01:00

I've been working hard on the crocheted pillow recently, since it's my oldest WIP, and my work has paid off! I've finished making and assembling all 162 little squares, and now all that remains is to crochet front and back together and put in the pillow form. Definitely tomorrow, if not tonight.

I also made the decision to frog my Artichoke socks. They were designed to have little bracts dangling off the cuffs, and after knitting the first one and thinking about it for several months I decided they were just too impractical. So, off to the frog pond they went. I'll tackle them again in the new year, but for now I'm happy with another set of empty needles.

So, once the pillow's done that should leave me with 7 WIPs. Of course, it doesn't, because in a fit of madness I warped up the loom the other day for another wide scarf. This one is from 2 skeins of Posh Laura, a merino/cashmere blend in a delicious pink-and-plum colourway that the spouse bought me. I haven't started the actual weaving yet, although I've loaded the shuttle. I'll need to finish three projects per month to finish everything by the end of the year, so I figure the pink scarf can be my Christmas vacation project.

The little triangle shawl that's been in my handbag is going well. I'm on the 6th repeat of 10. Once that's done there's a garter stitch border that can be done until the yarn's all gone. I've also been making good progress on the triangular laceweight shawl. It's beaded, so each right-side row takes an age, but I'm really enjoying it. Plus the rows are getting shorter as I go along. :)

I've even been working on the afghan! I'm about a third of the way through the current stripe, so might even get that ball of yarn done this month.

Apparently people still read this...

2010-10-02T18:27:00.000+01:00

... even though I've fallen off the end of the world and neglected to update in, well, forever. So, a quick summary. First up, my laptop died. I'm getting a new one, but I'm taking my time shopping around to find one that does everything I want it to*, so until I get the new machine photos will be limited.

I've discovered that when I'm knitting only for myself, I knit less quickly. Seems that the thought of gift-giving spurs me on, although I do find it stressful. I should try to figure out a balance between gifts and things for me - my completion numbers are looking low this year! Despite that, I have been casting on fewer projects and subsequently frogging them. At present I have 9 WIPs.

I finished a second woven scarf back at the end of August. Motored through almost 200g of sock yarn in a fortnight, which was rather satisfying. It's been adopted by the spouse, although most of our neutral-coloured scarf collection is used by both of us. I also just finished a pair of garters. They were originally intended for me, but we are going to an event in December that has a gift exchange, so I'll pack them away for Yule and call it quits. At least I won't have to go shopping!

I'm hoping to get all of the current WIPs finished or frogged by the end of the year. I've said that before, I know, but I'm pretty enthused about all of them. They are, in no particular order:

A garter stitch scarf, made of a coppery fingering-weight lurex yarn for wearing to nightclubs;
A pillow made of crocheted sock yarn granny squares;
A mostly-stockinette shoulder shawl in Posh Yarn to wear with my fall jacket;
A Pi shawl, barely started and also of Posh Yarn;
A triangular lace shawl, bottom-up, again in Posh Yarn**;
A pair of stranded mittens of Noro Kureyon Sock in delicious shades of purple and orange;
A pair of Tsocks;
A crocheted ripple afghan in navy and white;
A laceweight cardigan of the first laceweight I ever bought.

The shoulder shawl is living in my handbag, now that the garters are finished, and I'm working on the afghan and triangle shawl at home. Everything else has been duly queued and will be brought out once the current three are done.

I have some lovely red fiber on the wheel at the moment, but I'm not in an especially spinnery mood at present. Too much else going on in my life.

*Hello, Diablo III!

**Sensing a theme here?

Some FOs, at last!

2010-08-26T19:05:00.000+01:00

I haven't been slacking in the stash knitting, despite my recent acquisitions. In fact, I've even finished a few things! First, a batch of crocheted snowflakes. After a period of unsuccessful searching in the UK, my lovely grandmother mailed me a box of laundry starch so I could finally block these.

There are patterns for 12 different snowflakes in the book I'm using (also courtesy of my grandmother), and I'm planning to make one of each to go on our Christmas tree this year. I'm really pleased with how they turned out, especially since I've not done much thread crochet before.

I've also finished yet another pair of Monkey socks. My sock drawer is getting pretty full - perhaps it's time I tossed some bought socks?

Knit Nation, days 2 and 3

2010-08-22T09:55:00.004+01:00

The second day of Knit Nation was my free day for meeting people and shopping. I met up with the Posh knitters, easily identified by the pink Posh mailing bag someone had cleverly brought along! We had a lovely chat over tea and cake, then two of us went over to the raffle drawing. Every time one spent money in the marketplace, the vendor gave a raffle ticket. I hadn't really started shopping yet, so didn't have any tickets. One of the Posh knitters gave me her one ticket, since she didn't feel like standing in the crowded hall listening to the draw - and I won with it! A gorgeous Zauberball, which is a fingering-weight singles yarn with very long colour sequences. I'm told I squeaked in an entertaining fashion when they called my name. :D

I headed into the marketplace after that for more shopping. I bought... more Wollmeise. Shocking, I know. This time it was two matching skeins for which I have a plan. Ages and ages ago I managed to acquire a single skein of black Wollmeise in one of the website updates. Also ages ago Knitty published a pattern for a stripey cardigan in sock yarn. After consulting with several people who've knit Tempest with Wollmeise, I concluded that three of the 150g skeins should be enough to make a cardie for me. It's going to be fun!

Day three was the best, by far. And given how amazing the first two were, well, that's saying a lot! On day three I had a full day's class with Judith MacKenzie. Wow. Incredible. First, I've never seen another person spin before. I had a 5-minute lesson when I got my wheel, but other than that it's been entirely books and figuring things out. It was a shock to suddenly be confronted with a room full of spinners! I found it reassuring that I wasn't the slowest or clumsiest in the room - heck, I even found myself helping people out a couple of times. I guess I'm a real spinner.

Anyway, the class. It was a 6-hour class on how to spin yarn for socks. We started off talking about all sorts of technical stuff that I'll do another post about later. We then got a sheaf of dyed merino tops and spun singles. Judith had us all pick 5 colours of the tops so we could practice changing the supply fiber while spinning - she's got a real fetish for the perfect worsted join! We spent the morning spinning up singles on three bobbins, since she wanted us to try making a 3-ply yarn in the afternoon. She also gave out some gorgeous silk tops to be added to the singles in any way we wanted. I decided to have my third bobbin of just silk, since I didn't really like the sensation of spinning silk and wool together. Then we broke for lunch.

I spent lunch with C, a Ravelry friend who came down all the way from Scotland for the event. It was great to finally meet her! We had a mini gift exchange - I'd brought goodies from L'Artisan du Chocolat for her chocoholic partner, and she brought me this enormous ball of corriedale/merino fiber! Isn't it gorgeous?

After lunch and a good gossip, we hit the marketplace. And yes, I shopped more. Only a little, though. I bought this beautiful braid of top, because the colours were just too perfect to pass up. Mostly I played the role of the minion and carried bags while C shopped, since she hadn't yet been to the marketplace. It was fun. :D

In the afternoon we talked about plying. A lot. I learned more about plying than I thought possible! This was where having a teacher made the most difference for me. I was managing just fine on my own, but seeing how someone with so much experience holds her hands, moves her body, tunes the wheel... It was a revelation. My yarn came out just fine, and it's the finest yarn I've yet managed. The larger skeinlet is the 3-ply, and the smaller is a 2-ply I made with the leftovers from the two fuller bobbins:

Just for the hell of it, I also absconded with this little bit of boucle that Judith spun as a demonstration of why we don't do a particular thing with our hands when plying. It was pretty cool.

We then spent the rest of the afternoon trying out different fibers, including cashmere, cashmere blends and several other kinds of wool. At the very end of the class, Judith handed everyone huge zip-top bags and told us to take fiber home. She'd brought it all over and didn't want to have to lug leftovers home to the US! So, here's all the fiber I came home from class with:

And here's everything that I acquired over the whole weekend:

Knit Nation was amazing. If they do it again (and I surely hope they will), I'll spend the whole time taking spinning classes.

Knit Nation, Day One

2010-08-02T09:11:00.003+01:00

On Thursday morning I got up alarmingly early (for me, that is!) and schlepped across London to get to Imperial College. At 8am I registered for my classes at Knit Nation! The first day was an all-day session with Nancy Bush learning about Estonian lateral braids and wrapped nupps. It was amazing. We learned a braided cast-on that took about two hours to learn, five different lateral braids and practiced working wrapped nupps over the course of 6 hours. I'm quite pleased I managed to finish the sample, since the needles I brought weren't working with my yarn and I had to borrow some. I wore my sage-green shawl, which Nancy seemed tickled about - it was one of her designs! She's a fabulous teacher, and I hope she comes back to London some day.

I had also indulged in a trip to the marketplace preview, where there was an entire stall of the fabled Wollmeise yarn! I've never seen so many amazing colours in one place. Foolishly, I left my camera behind for the weekend, but here are pictures of my two skeins of yum.

I also hit the Fyberspates stall for some spinning fiber and came away with this bag of roving. One of the fibers they produce is a blend of wools, silk and sterling silver filament called "Sparkle". They had 100g bags of ends of rovings in a mix of colours, perfect for sampling and making a special little something.

And now for something completely different.

2010-07-26T09:01:00.003+01:00

I have this friend. Weaving Friend. She's a fiber-arts nut too, but has tended more towards weaving (obviously) and costuming while I've been more into knitting and spinning.

Weaving Friend came to visit me yesterday. She has been wanting to learn to spin, so I found my spindle and some pencil roving and she spun. Took to it like a duck to water - by the time she had to go catch her train home, she'd already filled the cop with a very consistent singles! I dug out some dyed roving for her so she wouldn't run out. :)

Of course, spinning lessons weren't all we did yesterday. After all, trading skills is practically the basis of the reenactor economy. We also did this:

Can't guess? How about now?

No?

She taught me how to weave! I have made a Thing for practice and getting the hang of the Knitter's Loom, and after Weaving Friend deemed me ready to go we cut the Thing off the loom and I warped it up for a tabby-weave scarf made of sock yarn. Those of you with good memories may remember the yarn as my very first foray into Kool-Aid dyeing. It was never going to knit up well, but I love how it's working on the loom.
(Here's my Thing.)

I've already figured out a bunch of stuff, if/when I finally succumb to the weaving bug. First, the Knitter's Loom is not for me. It only has heddles as small as 12.5 dents per inch, and I want to be able to weave laceweight. It's also not quite versatile enough because one can only use two heddles on it at a time. I like texture patterns more than colour patterns, so something with more heddles would be better. Still, I'm seeing a great deal of stash-busting coming up in the immediate future - this is a great use of variegated sock yarn!

Still not a spinning update

2010-07-22T22:22:00.002+01:00

I am spinning, honestly. It's just that all of my yarn is so appealing right now!

This month I've crocheted three snowflakes of twelve. My lovely grandmother gave me a booklet of snowflake and angel patterns for thread crochet, ages ago, so I decided it was time to make some. (The fact that I finally found my missing crochet thread may have influenced the decision also...) I have no pictures for you because it is apparently impossible to buy laundry starch in the UK. One can find spray starch everywhere. However, powdered or liquid starch, suitable for soaking and starching lace? Nowhere to be found. Woolworth's used to stock it, but they went out of business. Boots and some supermarkets used to stock it, but according to the shop manager I spoke to the other day there just isn't enough demand for real starch. I could buy it from Amazon, but the minimum purchase is 750g! Somehow I doubt I'll use that much for twelve snowflakes and a handful of doilies.

Sometimes I despair that people of my generation have lost their ability to care for their posessions. Ironing, starching, mending... I have friends who visit and bring buttons and shirts to be rejoined because no-one ever taught them to wield a needle and thread.

Maudlin musings aside, I am quite pleased with my knitting this month. I've knit most of a sock, (Monkeys again, of course) and expect to have the first finished and the second well started by the end of the month. I've made progress on my various WIPs. I've also cast on for a new triangle shawl, this time using some sockweight silk I bought years ago. It's quite lovely. Of course, close examination of the shawl pattern I've chosen reveals an alarming similarity to the shawl I just knit for G. Ah well. At least I know what I'm doing, right?

Other news, other news. I have a garter stitch scarf on the go again. This one is slower than previous projects. I frogged the feather-and-fan number I was knitting with my shiny Rowan Lurex Shimmer because it was making me nuts. The garter stitch scarf is to use up the pre-cut fringe and remaining yarn. The impetus for this is thanks to a Ravelry feature I discovered recently - it's possible to sort one's stash according to the date one added it. The Lurex Shimmer is one of my oldest yarns, bought back in 2004. I think it's been hibernating quite long enough!

Not a spinning update.

2010-07-18T19:13:00.003+01:00

I'm making stuff for myself this year, but I decided back during the planning phase that once-in-a-lifetime events got a dispensation. Well, after seven or so years together, one of my good knitting friends is now engaged to her lovely chap. The wedding is in September and I have knit her a shawl. But wait, I hear you say, surely if she's a knitter she could knit her own shawl? Well, she could, were it not for two things. First, she's submitting her Master's degree thesis just days before the wedding. Second, she's having a bouquet of knitted flowers that she's busily knitting herself, assisted by our knitting group!

So I knit a shawl. :D

Pattern is Leaf Lace from Evelyn Clark's Knitting Lace Triangles. I knit 14 repeats of the lace and added beads to the points at G's request. I'm quite happy with the results. So is G, thankfully!

Taking Fifi Touring

2010-07-01T20:16:00.003+01:00

The Tour de France starts on Saturday, which means that the Tour de Fleece starts too! The point of it is to challenge oneself to spin as much as possible during the race, ideally doing something special on the day of the highest climb and taking rest days when the real Tour does. This year I've decided to participate (since I was busy WIPs-Wrestling last year!), and I'm setting myself a real challenge.

I'm going to spin Fifi.

Possibly* not the whole fleece, but as much as I possibly can. The skirted, unwashed fleece weighed 2.35kg. I have finished washing the whole fleece and divided it up into gallon-sized zip-top bags to keep bugs out. It takes up 20 bags, and each bag is crammed to capacity. Once carded, each bag trebles in volume.

Carding and other preparation is allowed before the start of the Tour, so I've been carding frantically for the last couple of days.** I've currently carded 2 bags, or 10% of the total fleece. My plan is to continue carding until the Tour starts. Then I'll spin my rolags until I run out, then I'll card more. I'll continue the card/spin cycle until I run out of bobbins, at which point I'll take a break to ply and wash what I've finished. I'll just keep repeating this cycle until I've done all of the fleece or until the Tour finishes. Wish me luck!

*Yeah, ok, probably, but I did take 4 days off next week so that I have more spinning time.

**Did I mention that I'd planned to spin something else entirely and only decided to do this the day before yesterday? I could have been carding for weeks!

Blue, da-ba-dee, da-ba-dai

2010-06-29T08:42:00.004+01:00

I've had that song running through my head since I started spinning this stuff back in late January!

A fellow Posh Knitter was destashing, and I'd never tried Falkland fiber before. It drafts beautifully. And Spindlefrog's dye work is amazing, though a little internet searching tells me she's no longer selling fiber. A shame - I really enjoyed this!

Some stats:

100 grams
327 yards
n-plied

This is the finest 3-ply I've done yet. It actually beats a couple of commercial sock yarns (coughcoughJitterbugcoughcough) in the yards per 100g category, making this my first true sock yarn. I'm not going to use it for socks, of course - there's no nylon in it, and I don't think it's sufficiently tightly plied to withstand so much wear. But I'm getting there!

I think I'll probably knit a shawl with this. I know, don't all faint in shock. Me? Knitting a shawl? Surely not!

So long, June...

2010-06-27T11:53:00.004+01:00

An interesting month. It started off really well, as I cut out a new gown, knit frantically on a new shawl and did a ton of spinning. Then I had an emergency root canal. I lost about a week in a codeine-clouded haze, in the worst pain I've ever been in. I couldn't even knit. Things picked up again after the dentist went to work, and I'm now mostly better.

So, things that happened textile-wise this month. I missed World-Wide Knit In Public Day because I was in the emergency room dealing with the tooth. Made up for it be getting to the grand opening of Loop's new shop a week later, though! The shop is amazing. It fills 4 floors. Two are full of yarn, one is the stock room, and the fourth is the future classroom. S and I got there early enough that we were among the first 100 people through the door, which meant that we received goodie bags!

A canvas shopper, some patterns, a discount card, some 2.5mm DPNs, point protectors and YARN!

And there was cake and Pimms going around too. The chocolate-walnut brownies were amazing. I didn't buy anything because there were so many people that it took over an hour to get to the till. I figure I'll go back at some point soon and pick up a few lovely things. It's really nice that a small business is doing so well right now that they need a bigger shop. Long may their success continue!

I also had a moment of knitting insanity. This is my new shawl. I started it last Sunday. I cast off on Friday and blocked it yesterday. A 6-day shawl. A new personal best!

The pattern is Ishbel, the yarn is the Noro Silk Garden Sock I bought with my birthday money. I knit it on 5mm needles. I only knit the first 4 rows of chart D and then went straight to chart E because I didn't have enough yarn for four more rows. I'm delighted with how it turned out.

I've done a load of spinning too, but that will have to wait until it's had a bath and dried before I blog about it.

Tackling the fluff

2010-05-20T19:11:00.005+01:00

My fiber stash is growing, inevitably. A friend emailed me a few days ago to say that she'd an entire fleece for me! So, on with some spinning to make room for what's coming in.

I'm in the middle of a batch of very fine blue laceweight, but I decided to take a break for a few days and quickly spin up some chunky art yarn. Chunky being relative, of course, as this stuff is somewhere in between a DK and an aran! I started out last autumn with an art batt blended by Rockpool Candy. It's a blend of fibers and has inclusions.

It was only 50g, so I planned to acquire something complementary to ply it with. Opportunity knocked when someone on one of my swap forums offered a custom 50g batt in the colours of one's choice, so I went with black and crimson to tone down the crazy a bit.

(The lady who did the batt sells her stuff under the name Jellypod - it was beautifully blended and a real pleasure to spin.)

Ended up with 160 yards of 2-ply. I shall probably save it for a gift at some point - goodness knows I've enough kooky friends to find someone who will love it!

And as a little bonus, a pair of mitts I knit up from some yarn I dyed last year. Perfect for the chilly London weather. :)

Finally finished!

2010-05-15T19:08:00.005+01:00

The extra yarn arrived yesterday, so I spliced the new onto the old and started knitting! I finished this morning, then hauled the mister out of bed so I could strip the bedding off for blocking. (Don't feel too badly for him - it was almost 11am!) A burst of afternoon sunshine on the bed dried it fairly quickly, so I was able to get a photo in before it got dark.

Pattern is Ene's Scarf by Nancy Bush, published in the Interweave book Scarf Style. Love this book, although I did get it just for this pattern. The yarn is Posh, of course, in the discontinued Laura 4-ply. Mostly in the colourway Drift, but the triangle at the very back of my neck is in Blizzard. It's noticeably different at some angles, but it's the same base colours so it doesn't jar too much.

I love the size, too! The pattern was originally written for laceweight, to make a scarf, but I'm much happier with this size and weight. It swooshes nicely too, courtesy of the cashmere in the yarn. I may have spent ten minutes or so twirling around my bedroom admiring myself in the mirror. :D

A FO!

2010-05-13T12:45:00.003+01:00

Not my shawl, I'm still waiting for yarn. I finished a new garter stitch scarf, this time from aranweight Posh Yarn. Just one skein of Elinor Aran in 'Three Foxes' let me knit up this loveliness:

Isn't it pretty? And given the grotty weather we've been having, I suspect I'll get plenty of wear before the summer.

Well, crap.

2010-05-09T19:28:00.003+01:00

I ran out. 26 stinking rows before the end of the shawl. See?

And for an idea of how close I actually got:

Fortunately, a couple of Ravellers answered my desperate plea on the Posh forum. I've got two skeins of similar colourways being sent to me tomorrow, so (postal service permitting) I should be able to finish this week.

Thank goodness for Ravelry.

2010-05-07T19:21:00.001+01:00

My current shawl project is Ene's Scarf, a Nancy Bush pattern originally written for laceweight yarn and tiny needles. I decided to knit it up in a fingering weight for added warmth. First point for Ravelry - lots of other people have made a similar decision, so I could easily browse through other project and estimate the amount of yarn I needed. All good, I had a lovely pair of Posh skeins equalling that amount. Lovely grey-green-slate cashmere, mmmmmm.

I started knitting. The first chart was eating yarn, since the pattern is a bottom-up triangle. I was worried about running out, but no worries - there's a support group on Ravelry for this very shawl, and one clever lady had worked out the row-by-row completion percentages for the whole thing. Chart One is a full quarter of the knitting, so I stopped worrying. Then the worrying started again, because I got halfway through my yarn but not halfway through the knitting.

Running out of yarn would be a real problem with this shawl. Unlike top-down triangles, the triangle shape doesn't exist until the whole thing is finished. Running out would leave me with a weird wedge-shaped gap at the back of my neck. And because I'm using Posh yarn, which is all one-off batches in limited numbers, there was no way I was ever going to be able to get more.

Or so I thought. Third point for Ravelry - I was able to search through other people's stashes of this yarn by the colourway name and locate two other ladies with skeins from the same batch! I contacted one, who had used hers up, to see whether she'd any scraps left over that I could have. She did, and I've now got an extra 2 grams of yarn on my knitting table. (Thanks, C!) I'm waiting to hear from the other, who had a whole skein, to see whether she'd be willing to trade me.

In the meantime I'm knitting away, crossing my fingers that the extra two grams will be enough to get me to the end. I should know by the end of the weekend - I'm at 80% knitted!

Farewell, April

2010-05-01T13:56:00.005+01:00

That was without a doubt the least productive month I've ever had, needlework-wise. I didn't finish a single project! I did finish two major pieces of coursework. We also spring-cleaned the flat. Still, I'm disappointed not to have finished anything.

Not to worry though, 'cause May is already off to a much better start! These Franken-Mei socks were supposed to have been done yesterday, but I ended up having to run errands over lunch. These were the oldest WIPs in my pile, so I'm really glad they're finally done. And they fit well, which is even better.

Pattern - Kai-Mei from Cookie A's fabulous book 'Sock Innovation'

Yarn - DkKnits Technicolor Dream Toes in 'Frankentwined'
Needles - 2.25mm DPNs

Mods - none

As an experiment, I tried knitting both socks at the same time on two sets of DPNs. I wanted to see whether making progress on both would help encourage me to knit faster. FAIL! It was incredibly disheartening to watch them go so slowly. Of course, the fact that cuffs contain a combined total of 13 inches of ribbing really didn't help much. Yawn. The lace pattern on the foot was intriguing, as was the shaping. I might use the construction again with a more intuitive pattern.

One funky result from finishing these - I've now reached critical handknit sock mass. If (when!) I knit another pair, I'm going to have to start ditching purchased socks to make room for them in my sock drawer. :D

Plans for May:

- finish at least one of my shawls-in-progress so that I can cast on for the new Goddess Knits Mystery Shawl guilt-free

- finish the current scarf
- finish the blue laceweight I've been spinning for two months!

Not really getting anywhere

2010-04-16T17:53:00.002+01:00

I'm working on lots of things right now, but they are all in the dull in-between parts, so not really blogworthy. But taken as a group perhaps they will be more interesting? Some highlights:

I've abandoned my spindle and am planning on getting rid of it. It's fun, I love spindling, but my damaged elbow can't manage the weight of the spindle in addition to the fine motor control needed to draft. It's a shame, but I'm not risking further damage to my dominant arm.
I've finished the gussets of my Franken-Mei socks and might actually get them done this month.
I've cast on for yet another garter stitch scarf, this time using my perfect red yarn. I needed an antidote to complicated yarn projects and coursework.
I really love carding.
I cast on for a laceweight sweater, 'cause I'm crazy like that. After knitting three rounds, I've abandoned it until I finish some older WIPs.
Apparently if one works with raw fleece one is supposed to get a tetanus shot. My mother tells me I'm overdue for a booster, so Fifi-processing is postponed until I can make an appointment with my doctor.
I'm about a quarter of the way finished with a batch of blue Falkland singles. I think I'm going to 2-ply them, but I might n-ply to preserve the long stretches of colour. Or I might just leave it all as a singles. It'll be laceweight whichever way I finish it!
I've started a new piece of embroidery. It's one I've had materials stashed for for about three years and never gotten around to starting. Gorgeous folksy flowers on a grey/green linen. There's a complementary piece to go with which I also have, but I probably won't get that one started for a couple of years. Let's be realistic here. :D

Long weekend

2010-03-24T21:33:00.005Z

Despite having to work on Saturday, I still ended up having a long weekend thanks to Monday off and a half-day of classes on Tuesday. Although much of that time was taken up with a total time-suck of a wordgame, I spent a great deal of time knitting.

Ergo, new shawl:

It's made from the handspun I finished recently. I have about a yard of the stuff leftover, thanks to the joys of the modular pattern. It's the first heavy shawl I've made for myself, and came in handy today. It's getting warmer in London, but still jacket weather. It's also heavy shawl weather!

A few thoughts:

Ruffles look great but are a total pain to knit and cast off. It took me four hours to finish the cast-off.
Garter stitch doesn't need blocking if the yarn is squidgy enough.
Garter stitch really doesn't need blocking if the ruffle contains half the total yarn. I predict that two weeks of wear will stretch it to double the current size, which is already bigger than any of my other shawls.
Worsted weight shawls don't work as scarf alternatives unless I want to look like a linebacker under my jacket.
There's a lot of room for variegation in a semi-solid fiber/yarn.
Knitting with handspun is much more exciting than knitting with commercial yarn.
I need to spin more.

Handiwork at its finest

2010-03-19T19:04:00.000Z

For whatever reason, I was struck yesterday with the urge to fetch out my handcards and start carding Fifi into rolags. It's fun! I did a fairly careful job of picking when I was washing, but the carding process is getting a ton of plant matter and bits out. My plan is to spin up a small sample of chunky yarn to try out woollen spinning, then knit it up into a pair of mitts. Once I've gotten my hands accustomed to not-worsted, I'll do the lot up as an aran-weight and knit a blanket.

Ambitious, me? Maybe a little - but I am trying to make things for myself!

Mmmm, green

2010-03-17T22:14:00.000Z

My shawl is at the "lap full of squishy goodness" stage. I'm halfway done. Normally I'd be climbing walls to be done already, but I'm actually taking my time stretching this out as long as possible because I'm enjoying the process so much. I don't remember the last time I was this excited about a piece of knitting. Kinda sad, really - but I'm making up for it now!

Landmarks

2010-03-11T22:16:00.001Z

It seems to be the season for landmark points in life right now. Today I renewed my Young Person's Railcard for the last time, because tomorrow is my birthday and I'll no longer qualify. I don't mind getting older, but I'm definitely going to miss the cheap train fares! Baby L isn't a baby anymore. I went to visit yesterday, and while S and I were having a lovely evening of knitting and gossip, Baby L has figured out whole sentences and can have conversations. Strange how she's gone from being a noisy little lump to being a small person with opinions and a wicked sense of humour in such a short time.

And of course there are spinnerly landmarks. There's the obvious one - spinning yarn that you can knit with for the first time. That one was pretty exciting. But not nearly as exciting as the one I just got to - spinning yarn you'd actually WANT to knit with! Over the course of a couple of months, I turned this:

into this:

which I'm now turning into one of these.

It's real yarn. Finally. It squidges and is soft. It's evenly plied. It's sproingy. I love it. I love it so much that all of my other projects have been dropped like hotcakes so that I can devote myself to knitting it. I cast on two days ago and am a quarter of the way through my yarn. And since I took the day off for my birthday, I could conceivably finish it this weekend!

The Perennial Pepper

2010-03-08T09:23:00.002Z

I thought these guys were supposed to be annuals, but no!

Two baby chilis, happily growing away on our frigid living room windowsill.

Wait for it...

2010-03-07T21:41:00.003Z

...I knit another pair of Monkey socks. I know, shocking, isn't it? My sixth completed pair, and all but one mineminemine!

Colinette Jitterbug in the colourway 'Popsicle', although it reminds me of birds of paradise. I love the bright reds and oranges, and the green is perfectly loud and garish for such a grey and dismal time of year. I went with three repeats on the cuff, although I could easily have managed one more, if not two with the leftovers. Ah well, I can always make more sock yarn squares.

I also ripped out two projects this weekend. The bronze scarf and orange shrug are no more. I'm now down to four WIPs - the Franken-Mei socks, the sage green shawl, the blue Malabrigo Shetland Triangle and the sock yarn pillow. I'm feeling a pressing need to cast on for something new. Possibly a stripey hat, or maybe some mittens?

Busy signal

2010-03-02T15:46:00.000Z

I can't come to the blog right now. I've figured out how to use my spindle at long last. I expect to resurface when I run out of undesignated fiber to spin, or for my birthday, whichever happens first.

Ta-ta for now!

Ravelympics Wrap-Up

2010-03-01T09:00:00.001Z

In among all the other things I spent February doing, I participated in the Ravelympics. This year I decided to be somewhat more realistic than I have in previous years, and actually take my regular life into account when planning! I decided to make a pair of Fuzzy Feet slippers, originally published in Knitty.

Basically, you knit an enormous sock (worsted plus jumbo needles) and then full it to fit. The knitting went quite quickly when I was actually doing it - total time to knit was in the region of 6 hours, give or take. That gave me these:

Then came the fun part. I don't have a toploader, and even if I did, I don't have a zippered pillowcase to keep felting lint from destroying the drains on the washing machine. So, manual labour. I started the fulling process by back-and-forth plunging in icy and scalding waterbaths. This got me to the "omg-so-hairy" phase, but I needed more friction to make the fulling happen. So, into the bath with some Fairy liquid to crush grapes, or in this case squish slippers. An hour later,

I'm happy with my results, since this is my first fulling project. But it's a sort of good news/bad news situation. The bad - the lint resulting from the fulling process triggered an allergic reaction, so I'm never going to be able to wear these. The good - my spouse and I have the same size feet, so he now has a lovely pair of slippers!

Oops.

2010-02-27T15:10:00.001Z

Dear Blog,

I am very sorry I have been neglecting you. Let me assure you, it's not you, it's me. I shall endeavour to do better, and for now, let me try to sum up the craziness of my life over the last month.

First, I've been spending a ton of time on my postgraduate studies. They are going well; I've handed in another paper, made good progress on my group project, and am really enjoying the module on Systems Analysis and Design. Clearly, a life of being an information geek is the right choice for me.

Second, I've been up to my eyeballs with the SCA. Specifically, I've been co-cratting a major event. Three days, 150 attendees, and so busy I did not touch yarn for the best part of a week. There, there, blog, it's ok, I'm better now.

There has been fiber in my life over the past four weeks, fear not. First of all, some lovely parcels! I received the final installment of the 2009 Tsock Club - The Abbey. It has gargoyles and flying buttresses. Isn't the yarn pretty?

What's that? Not yarn, you say? Why, blog, how observant of you! The Club's creators decided to try out something new with this shipment. Anyone who wanted to could swap their yarn out for superwash spinning fiber so that one might Tspin one's Tsocks. And for a small extra charge, the ~~junkies~~ yarn nuts out there could have both yarn and fiber. You can probably guess which option I went for.

Included in this shipment was a bar of handmade herbal soap, which smells divine, and a bag of herbal moth repellant. And since Jennifer is a sweetheart about such things, neither soap nor moth repellant contains lavender, to which I am allergic.

There's more yarn in my life, too. Dee and Tony did the impossible - they dyed the perfect red yarn. I may have broken the yarn diet, but my only regret is not buying more of the yarn while it was available. I also scored a skein of gorgeous lavender-and-pink cobweb-weight, 'cause I really needed more of that in my stash.

What's that? Where's the knitting? Oh, there's been knitting too, and spinning, but if I tell you about everything at once I'll have nothing to tempt you back with!

Hugs and kisses,

Your Knitting Fiend

State of the WIPs, January 2010 edition

2010-01-27T22:33:00.002Z

So, now that I've gotten a major piece of coursework and an SCA event out of the way for the month, I can actually sit down and think about knitting again!

The mad rush at Christmas to finish gifts left me with a pleasingly low number of outstanding unfinished projects to think about this year. And only one of them was a gift that never got finished! Fortunately, the recipient is happy to wait until 2011 for me to finish it.

So, oldest first. A lace scarf, made in the sadly discontinued Rowan Lurex Shimmer. This might actually be the first yarn I ever bought. I started in way back in July last year, but put it down after cutting millions of pieces of fringe and working the first few rows. I pulled it out of hibernation last night. It's simple enough, just a feather-and-fan pattern, so I'm planning to work one repeat per day until it's finished.

Next up is the orange shrug I started with the lovely cotton 4-ply my best friend gave me. This one is in a time-out at the moment. It's mindless and goes quickly, but I'm not sure I'll actually ever wear it. Going to leave it while I ponder its future.

My Franken-Mei socks are going well. I decided to work both at once to avoid Second Sock Syndrome, and it seems to be working. I've finished the first cuff and am nearly done with the cuff of the second! 65 rounds of 3x3 ribbing, ugh. It'll be comfortable when finished, but right now I'm going a bit mad with it. Still, nearly to the heel flaps, and then I can start the interesting lacy stuff on the foot.

My green/grey Ene's Scarf is also fine. I'm not working on it much at the moment because the rows are long and require chart consultation, and I've just not had the mental energy to deal with them recently. I'm partway through the first repeat of chart three.

Sock yarn granny squares - I've a second uncovered pillowform for the couch. Since I've already done one in big granny squares, it makes sense to use up my sock yarn scraps for a matching one. This is my bedside table project for when I'm waiting for the Spouse to come to bed.

One lace shawl hibernating until next year, because it's not for me!

And finally, a new project. This is my first cast-on of 2010 - another Shetland Triangle Shawl. This time I'm using Malabrigo Lace, and it is incredibly soft. I started it because I was having a bad day and wanted to play with a kitten. Since we live on the 3rd floor and can't have pets, the blue laceweight is the next best thing.

New yarn, but still Cold Sheeping*...

2010-01-17T20:46:00.004Z

This year I'm attempting to knit up stash without buying new yarn. The current goal is to make it to Knit Nation without purchasing any yarn at all. I realized today that it's been three and a half months since my last purchase - go me! However, I have acquired a wee bit of yarn recently.

First up, a Christmas present from my lovely friend S, she of the crocheted wedding dress. She found me three hanks of gorgeous lavender Louet Gems, which I'm planning to turn into a lace scarf. Isn't it pretty?

On the same day, I received a parcel in the post. It was Tsock 5 from the Flock Sock Tsock Club! This one is based on the fairy tale The Ice Queen. It has beads on, which will be an interesting adventure. I've never put beads on socks before.

The Ice Queen wasn't the only thing in the parcel, however. One of the funky things about this particular club is that sometimes random members of the club get a visit from the Yarn Fairy. This comes in the form of a one-off skein of yarn or braid of spinning fiber. I got a visit! The Yarn Fairy brought me a stunning skein of sock yarn in the exact colour of lilac blossoms. It's going to be fun finding a pattern to suit the colour. I'm thinking something with fiddly lace and cables, since the semi-solid yarn will show them off nicely.

*Cold Sheep is like Cold Turkey, but for yarn instead of booze. You just stop shopping.

Finished projects, at last!

2010-01-11T08:44:00.004Z

We were snowed in this weekend (not seriously, but enough that we didn't want to go out), so we did a ton of housework. And I knitted my fingers off! On Friday evening I fastened off my Tea-Sippin' Pansy Scarf:

Pattern is the Boteh Scarf from Interweave Crochet.
Yarn is Sheepy Time Yarns' All Your Base, colourway Pansy Ass.
Size F hook.
Mods - gauge was way off. The pattern calls for 16 curlies with sock yarn and an F hook; I made 23 curlies and could probably have squeezed one more out of my yarn. Reading reviews, it seems that a lot of people have issues with the recommended gauges in this magazine. Fortunately I just bought the pattern as a one-off.

On Saturday evening, after a long day of cooking and file-purging, I finished the first socks of the year:

Pattern is a modified version of Thuja from Knitty.
Yarn is Lion Wool-Ease.
Mods - fewer stitches, longer cuff, shorter foot, totally different heel and toe. They fit perfectly, and will hopefully keep my feet warm at Coronet Tourney next month.

I spent Sunday spinning on my seaglass fiber. I've finished the first bobbin and started the second. I had planned to finish the singles this month, but at the rate I seem to be going I might ply it this month too! I managed to wash a couple more bags of fleece yesterday evening in between episodes of Bones, so my flat smells like a wet sheep.

Franken-Mei Socks in my handbag, spinning at home until I finish, then I'll bring a shawl out of hibernation. I like finishing old WIPs!

2009 round-up and 2010 plans

2010-01-04T22:13:00.002Z

I decided to have a real holiday over Christmas with very little time spent on the computer, so this post is a few days late. Still, better late than never!

The scores:

38 finished projects, 9 less than 2008, broken down into
9 skeins of handspun yarn
5 pairs of socks
5 shawls
5 scarves
2 hats
1 pillow
2 hotpads
2 toys
2 crocheted blankets
3 pairs of mitts
1 wedding dress
1 pair of garters

2009 was the year in which I learned to spin. I made a wedding dress, something I'm probably never going to outdo. I didn't finish a single piece of embroidery or garb, but I made more gifts this year than I have in the entire time I've been knitting. This was also the year I learned to knit and crochet without looking at my hands, which led to much better conversation and tv-watching.

2010 is going to be all about me. I plan to finally get around to knitting all the lovely things I've been stashing for myself (okay, maybe not all of them...) and finally having enough handknit socks. I'm planning to do a lot more spinning, predominantly looking at the technical side of things. I'd like to be able to produce a wider range of yarns on my wheel, from cobweb to chunky. I'm also hoping to knit up a good chunk of my stash and buy as little as possible.

2010 is also going to be the year in which I take my first formal knitting and spinning classes. My mother and grandmother have generously bought me spaces at classes at Knit Nation in the summer, so I'll be learning about Baltic fancy stitches with Nancy Bush, funky cast-ons with JC Briar, and spinning yarn for socks with Judith Mackenzie McCuin. I've also indulged in a ticket to the evening preview shopping, since the Wollmeise is going to be in attendence. I'm hoping to get some yarn for a sweater!

Last of the gifts

2009-12-31T09:48:00.003Z

Here's a quick rundown of the last of my holiday gifts! In no particular order:

Mum's Tropical Fishbel

Pattern is the Ishbel Shawl by Isolde Teague. Yarn is Colinette Jitterbug in Jewel.

The blanket of squares

Millions of granny squares, finally finished!

Mitts for my friend J

Pattern is Knucks from Knitty, yarn is a 4-ply alpaca.

A washable shawl for my grandmother

Pattern is Shetland Triangle (surprise!) and the yarn is an aran-weight wool/acrylic blend.

Finally, mum's Christmas socks

Pattern is Broadripple from Knitty, yarn is the delectable Mirasol Hacho. Used two balls exactly.

Hurrah! Another gift gifted!

2009-12-09T11:19:00.004Z

Which means more photos!

I've done all of my mailing for the year, so I can now show off the two things that have arrived thus far and been opened. My lovely knitty friend H, who moved to Bristol earlier this year, is a bit of a Studio Ghibli nut. And so ages ago (about two years!) I promised her that I would crochet a Totoro, since she doesn't really crochet. I finally finished it and sent it off, and I swear, you could hear the squee from London!

Yarn was some random DK-weight arylic that the spouse found when I sent him to buy "a ball of Totoro-coloured yarn", plus some white scraps I had left over from Christmas stockings two years ago. The eyes are little black beads. He's incredibly cute, so much so that spouse is now petitioning for one of his own.

H also got a couple of skeins of handspun yarn in her favourite colour. As a knitter and handspinner, I feel it is my duty to pass on a love of handspun to all my knitting friends, so how could I refrain from sending H her first ever handspun yarn?

First gift gifted!

2009-11-30T08:17:00.001Z

Yesterday my best friend came over to help us get the flat ready for the holidays, since it was the first Sunday of Advent. And since I'd finished and wrapped them, she decided to open her Christmas socks - which means I can blog about them!

Pattern - Anniversary Socks by Nancy Bush
Yarn - Posh Yarn Laura, colourway Spruce
Mods - fewer repeats of the lace on the cuff and a shorter rib, otherwise as per the pattern

These were a fun project to make. Lucy picked the pattern and a colour, then I chose the yarn and knit the socks. The lace is easy to memorize and quite pretty, and it was good to get lots of practice in cabling without a cable needle. And the round toe was interesting! I'm going to have to put one on a pair of socks for me and see how I like the feel of it.

I also finished another gift yesterday. Only two more gifts to go!

Teeny tiny stitches...

2009-11-24T22:04:00.002Z

I'm hemming tablecloths for the reenactment society. Good, because hemming goes really quickly compared to knitting. Bad, because it's miles and miles of itty-bitty little stitches, white on white. Yes, I could make bigger stitches, but these are for high table for an event in the spring and I want them to look perfect!

A wee bit more shopping

2009-11-12T10:02:00.001Z

Just realised I'd never posted my haul from the Knitting and Stiching Show! Or in fact blogged about it at all - oops!

I was unexpectedly able to attend this year, which meant that my shopping budget was rather limited. I think I did a good job of being restrained. Only three needlework things and the obligatory chocolate for my spouse. (It's his reward for cooing over yarn and FOs and not complaining about the shopping!)

Two kits were the main focus this year. First, a knitting kit that I've been lusting over ever since I laid eyes on it a few years ago - Sanquhar gloves. I've chosen mulberry as my colour and a pale grey for the neutral contrast. If you can't see from the photo, these are stranded laceweight gloves knitted on 1.5mm needles. I may be mad, but they will be gorgeous once they are made up!

Second, a beautiful kit to make a goldwork holiday ornament. I've wanted to learn goldwork for a long time, but the materials cost has always put me off - especially since I might end up not liking the technique. A small kit for something pretty is perfect. The designer does a range of goldwork kits, but this ornament series are designed as teaching tools. Thus, they've got small areas of most of the usual techniques used with precious metals. And the kits come in silver, too!

The weekend wasn't all shopping, though. A very dear Ravelry friend, SD, had come over from Iceland to visit the show and she came over to have dinner with us. It was lovely to get to meet her in person after years of online correspondence, and we had a fab evening of spinning and gossiping and delicious food. SD was after a spinning lesson, so I gathered my paltry skills and taught what I knew. It seems to have taken, as she's been spinning up a storm since returning home!

Generous soul that she is, SD also brought me some beautiful gifts. Bags of Icelandic fleece and yarn (hello, felted slipper-socks!), some mystery roving in stunning shades of sea glass green, and a treasure of a gift. This is handdyed spinning fiber done by another Posh Knitter, who has his own online fiber shop. SD gave me her double batch of one of his club offerings because it's my favourite colours. Needless to say, I was a bit blown away!

My eyes are square, I cannot see...

2009-11-06T20:12:00.001Z

No, wait, it's just that I've been looking at squares too long. :)

The blanket is finally done. Done, done, done, up on Ravelry and packed safely away to wait for Christmas. My box of holiday gifts is getting quite full! I also finished the knitting of another project this morning, but it needs blocking to be truly done. And then it can go into the box of holding too...

In among the gifts, I have actually been knitting something for me. It's a very special something - a hat made out of my very first skein of handspun yarn.

It's particularly entertaining for me, because in it I see evidence of my spinnerly progress. The mauve stripe is my first skein. It's a 2-ply. The watermelon stripes on either side are later spinning, my first 3-ply to be precise. My singles were enough thinner at that point that the 2-ply and the 3-ply are exactly the same gauge. It's heavy, it's going to be warm, and it looks reasonable enough that one of my knitting buddies thought it was a commercial thick-and-thin yesterday. Why yes, I was pleased about that, why do you ask?!

Things fiber arts have taught me about haircare

2009-10-25T22:02:00.003Z

Hair and wool are both protein fibers. Many remarkable similarities there!

-Moisture plus heat plus agitation equals fulling. Remarkable how similar that list of no-nos is to blowdrying hair, isn't it?

-Blocking (ie soaking and pinning into place, then allowing to dry) gives wool a specific shape until the next time it gets wet. My beautiful plait-induced waves will do the same, I just need to remember not to visit the waterpark.

-When wet-blocking a wool garment, many patterns recommend soaking it for at least half an hour before washing so that the fiber is fully saturated and gets properly clean. 5 minutes is really not long enough to have saturated hair when taking a shower.

-If one strips all the oil and lanolin out of a fleece while washing, it's a good idea to oil one's hands before carding so the fiber doesn't get all static-y and jumbled. Must remember to condition my hair regularly.

-Longwool breeds tend to have extremely oily cut ends and dry, brittle exposed tips. Spinning longwools is much easier if they have been trimmed first. Hey, just like styling waist-length hair!

-Wool always takes longer to dry than I think it's going to, but it drys faster if it's spread out flat rather than clumped together. I really shouldn't be surprised when the plait of wet hair I went to bed with is still wet in the morning.

And sew it goes...

2009-10-16T09:48:00.003+01:00

There are two main schools of thought* when it comes to weaving in ends. The first says not to weave until the project is totally finished in case you have to pick something out. The second says weave as you go, just in case you look at the finish project and discover a sudden need for strong drink as you are confronted with a mess of loose ends all over your nice project.

I have no criticism to make of either school, but I have to wonder if those ends at the end people have ever made a granny square afghan of 225 squares and seen the hundreds of ends such a project generates. Just sayin'. ;)

I sew two strips together, sew in all the ends on that section. Add another strip, sew in more ends. And so on, and sew forth. Someday I'll finish, but I'm feeling pretty mellow about it. And I can actually see real progress, which is a good thing!

*There's actually a third school of thought that looks at the ends, says "Screw this!" and throws the whole thing in a dark closet, but I like to think I have more fortitude than that...

Huzzah - progress!

2009-10-04T22:24:00.002+01:00

This has been a fabulous weekend! Despite working yesterday, I've managed to get tons of things done. The flat is clean and getting ready for cooler weather, everything's tidy, and I've been doing a bit of finishing! Another gift is totally done, and the one batch of Christmas handspun I had planned is soaking in the basin ready to drip-dry overnight. I'm at a bit of a loss to know what to work on next! Sewing more blanket squares, I suppose. Off to go assemble my project bag for the week. :D