hellfire and butter
A little alarm inside of me has been going off recently, telling me that it's time to blog. This has been particularly annoying, as I don't feel I have a lot I'm prepared to blog about. But I suppose it's time to give in, instead of thwacking that virtual snooze button too many times.
I finished the first scroll lace sock. I've been test knitting some Hellfire and Brimstone for Brenda, which I'm ashamed to say, has been kicking my butt. (I got complacent. I forgot what it was like for knitting to do that to me. It's good to occasionally be reminded that one isn't as smart as they'd like to think.) Don't worry -- the pattern is quite clever, and will be very user friendly. I just have issues with short rows that must date back to some repressed trauma or dark incident from a past life. I pushed through it, though, and came out better on the other side. What is your knitting Achilles Heel? (My Achilles Heel is, in part, heels. Whether that's humorous or a sign that I am part Greek God, I have yet to figure out.)
Oh, you wanted photos. Sorry, none of the socks. But I have been spinning. This weekend I plied up what I think will be 80 yards of a sportish weight 2-ply, which I'm quite pleased with. I still need to set it, to see if it's actually balanced, but I have a good feeling about it. The big question, however, is, what do I do with 80 yards of sportweight? This is the problem with drop spindles and Andean plying. Low yardage.
I plied up that Romney so I could start on what was really calling to me this weekend -- the pastel Blue Faced Leicester that Brenda sent. Spinning that is a completely different experience. It's so soft and smooth, and seems to draft itself. I thought that I was going to go for another "thicker" (sportweight post-plying) yarn, but this stuff wants to spin thin, so thin it will be. Here's what I had yesterday afternoon:
After this weekend, I never want to spin anything but BFL. Brenda claims that I'll eventually get bored of it, and I hear that there may be even more wonderful fibers out there. For the moment, fiber doesn't get better than this. Blog post done. Time to spin.
I finished the first scroll lace sock. I've been test knitting some Hellfire and Brimstone for Brenda, which I'm ashamed to say, has been kicking my butt. (I got complacent. I forgot what it was like for knitting to do that to me. It's good to occasionally be reminded that one isn't as smart as they'd like to think.) Don't worry -- the pattern is quite clever, and will be very user friendly. I just have issues with short rows that must date back to some repressed trauma or dark incident from a past life. I pushed through it, though, and came out better on the other side. What is your knitting Achilles Heel? (My Achilles Heel is, in part, heels. Whether that's humorous or a sign that I am part Greek God, I have yet to figure out.)
Oh, you wanted photos. Sorry, none of the socks. But I have been spinning. This weekend I plied up what I think will be 80 yards of a sportish weight 2-ply, which I'm quite pleased with. I still need to set it, to see if it's actually balanced, but I have a good feeling about it. The big question, however, is, what do I do with 80 yards of sportweight? This is the problem with drop spindles and Andean plying. Low yardage.
I plied up that Romney so I could start on what was really calling to me this weekend -- the pastel Blue Faced Leicester that Brenda sent. Spinning that is a completely different experience. It's so soft and smooth, and seems to draft itself. I thought that I was going to go for another "thicker" (sportweight post-plying) yarn, but this stuff wants to spin thin, so thin it will be. Here's what I had yesterday afternoon:
After this weekend, I never want to spin anything but BFL. Brenda claims that I'll eventually get bored of it, and I hear that there may be even more wonderful fibers out there. For the moment, fiber doesn't get better than this. Blog post done. Time to spin.
Labels: spinning
posted by Rebekkah at 6:36 AM
5 Comments:
Oh, the BFL looks lovely! I'm about to start learning on a drop spindle, and I've got some BFL that I'm saving for as soon as I get passably good. :)
I vote 'part Greek god'. ;-)
Hi, Rebekah!
Hopping over from Wendy's in response to your question. I had a very wordy post earlier in the comments that kind of talked about your question, but not exactly. I bet that you tighten your stitches with an extra little tug, especially after making the transition between DPNs etc. Well, you have to with DPs, & magic loop, to avoid ladders! Many tighter knitters do this with every stitch, even without knowing it. The key with 2 circs is that you don't need to tighten the stitch at all; just knit the next couple stitches, and it will snug up just perfectly. This is true of all knitting, actually, other than DPs as above. If you still had problems after thinking about the above and analyzing your technique, you could leave the old stitches on the first circ tip while you knit the next few stitches, then pull the circ through. But I bet if you can stop yourself from tightening, it will be all good.
Also jumping over from your comment on Wendy's site.
I have that same problem and it has made trying two circulars very frustrating. I'm glad I hopped over and read cathy-cate's comment on your site!
Hopefully this will help out. Looking forward to hearing if it does for you or not!
Beautiful website, by the way!
Thanks to both of you for coming over to comment on the 2 circs technique. It's something I plan to blog about after my trip. Add it onto the ever growing list, from the next post.
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