bowerbird knits

brights

2011-11-13T12:18:00.001-05:00

I couldn't resist knitting some toys for Milo. My favorite is Celestine Sox, by Norah Gaughan, knit out of Knitpicks Chroma. It is a deceptively simple knit, and great for babies. I put a cage and bell cat toy in the middle, for some jingle.

before:

and after:

I also knit Elijah, by Ysolda Teague. I confess that I omitted his eyes because I just couldn't figure out how to embroider them properly on a stuffed piece. Let's just make believe I decided to leave them out to allow for more scope of the imagination when Milo plats with him!

Not a toy, but also adorable, is Pepita by Martina Behm, knit out of Wollmeise 100% merino in the Sonne colorway.

I love this jumper, and wish I could make more for him in larger sizes. But that won't happen, given that this took close to 600 yards of fingering weight yarn. I did two modifications to the pattern. I left out the feet and extended the ribbing, in part because I didn't have enough yarn, and in part because it extends the wearability of the garment as he grows taller. I highly recommend this knit for babies. Consider this instead of a blanket, if you want to make a unique gift.

Unrelated to baby knitting, I recently received a review copy of Clara Parkes' book The Knitter's Book Of Socks. Even though I did receive it for free from the publisher, it was a book I knew I would have bought for myself, and I'd like to think that my positive review is not colored by this.

Like her other "Knitter's Book Of..." books, this is a complete gem. It's such a pleasure to have a hefty hardcover, jacketed book in my hands. I regret that I can't do a full run-down of the contents, as I've read it in stolen moments between tending to the baby, and am now trapped under a sleeping baby, out of reach of the book. I did find it as comprehensive and information packed as her other books. My only complaint is that, from experience, I disagree with her claim that socks should have negative ease in length. (I agree about width.) In fact, because negative ease in width pulls the fabric shorter, I have to knit my socks longer than my foot, not shorter, to achieve a proper fit when worn. Otherwise they're just too short. I'm truly curious what other people think of this. How long do you knit your socks in relation to your feet, and does it work?

I think the patterns in this book are even better than in her other two books. There is a range of styles and techniques, and almost every pattern was immediately aesthetically appealing to me. In fact, I am tempted to try to knit my way through the book. It's something I've been wanting to do with a book for a while, and this is probable the one I'll choose. And I plan to try to be as faithful to the patterns as possible, because I want to go outside of my comfort zone, learn new things, and give a second or third try to techniques that I might have tried and dismissed earlier. My knitting time is severely limited, so what might have once been a manageable yearlong project will take much longer, and will not even start immediately. And I want to knit through some stash before buying yarn for this. But does anyone want to join me? Think of it as the loosest knitalong possible. Heck, even choose a different book for your knit-through! I just like the idea of this type of challenge.

look, ma, one hand!

2011-10-20T10:22:00.003-04:00

Thank you for all the lovely comments about my lovely boy. He is sleeping in my arms right now, so I thought I'd go through my Flickr photos to find some things to put into a catch-up blog post. One handed typing, so please excuse any brevity in my writing. (Or perhaps that will come as a relief?)

I spun some golden deliciousness. 60/30/10 merino/bamboo/nylon, from Hello Yarn. I used to think that I didn't like bamboo blends, but when prepped well (as is all of Adrian's fiber), it turns out that I love it.

Little mittens that he never wore. Whoops. Too small now. (And he's become a hand sucker, anyway.)

Milk Infant Top

BSJ from blanket leftovers:

Preview of what I'll share next post:

I apologize for not giving full project details for everything in this post, but it's a bit overwhelming to try to do one handed. More information is available on my Ravelry projects page.

Overdue

2011-10-08T09:38:00.002-04:00

He was only 6 days overdue. This blog post is... well, do we really need to count the days? (Weeks? MONTHS?) Here's a tiny bit of catch-up:

Miles Sebastian (you can call him Milo) was born on July 22, 2011. That makes him 11 weeks old. It's fun to look at the older photos of him here, and see how tiny and mushy he was. Now he's a whopping 12 pounds (started out just under 8), full of personality, smiles, and coos.

Knitting and spinning are going very slowly around here, though I have a few projects that are just about done, and am making good progress on some longies. I even have plan to cast on for something for me -- imagine!

I will continue to blog. I have gotten good at typing with one hand, but posts will probably not be frequent. I'm still here. +1

Work In Progress

2011-04-03T09:23:00.002-04:00

But let's start off with the big finished one! It's a log cabin style blanket, based on the Mason Dixon pattern Joseph's Blankie Of Many Colors. I spun the yarn last summer, from two Spunky Eclectic samplers, resulting in about 2 oz. each of 20 different colors. I used 17 of the 20 colors in this blanket, and didn't run out of any of them. I swatched with one of the more "average" skeins, drew a diagram of the entire blanket, and extrapolated from the swatch how much of each color I'd need for the blanket. Thank you, math, for saving the day! Also, thank you luck. When you're dealing with handspun, the math can only take you so far. I'm very pleased that things worked out. I have leftovers of everything, and have already completed a smaller project with about half of them, leaving enough aside for any future darning needs.

Wileycomma has asked about a photo of the back. I'll see if I can get one of those next weekend.

For this blanket I used the more traditional technique of binding off every color, and then picking up stitches for the next color when it was time to knit on that side of the blanket again. It creates a little ditch between the colors, which I actually like quite a lot. But I think it would be interesting to knit a blanket without binding off, but instead by just knitting an extra row (half ridge), and leaving those stitches on a holder until it's time to knit them again. I'd like to see the contrast in the overall look and drape of the blanket. But it will be a while before I get to knitting a second one of these.

I would have finished that blanket sooner, but like most crafters, I got a little distracted from the big project. It was hard not to be. Some of the pieces are done:

(a preview -- more details in upcoming blog posts)

The Work In Progress, namesake of this blog post? He won't be here until July (knock on wood) to receive all his woolly gifts. He's waiting as patiently as he can.

Lots of baby knits to come. :-D

... taps the microphone

2011-03-06T15:44:00.002-05:00

Hello? Anyone there? Sorry for all the sneezing, but I'm clearing the dust off this thing, and it's really thick by now.

Apologies, schmapologies. I am here, I am blogging, and here is some stuff I knit. (Embarrassingly long ago.)

It's a sweater from complete scratch! You've seen the blog posts about my cormo fleece, and the scouring, dying, combing, and spinning. (And if you haven't, just look back through a few posts. The advantage of infrequent posting is that what you want to find can't be too far away!) It's the B-Side Cardigan, designed by Laura Chau. I don't think I really changed anything. It's a great sweater, and was very nice to knit in my handspun.

That's not the only handspun sweater I knit. And hey, it's the Laura Chau post, because this sweater was also designed by her! It's the lovely Carter Cardigan, out of oatmeal merino. I didn't scour or process it myself, but it is from a beautifully processed fleece, spun from pin drafted roving.

Thinking about it, I don't think I changed much about this one, either. I probably should have made the sleeves a little shorter, because they ended up a little long even with the cuffs folded up. But I don't mind, because it's very comfortable and cozy.

What else has happened since August? Oh yeah, we had Halloween! Alex and I were Yip Yip Monsters. It was a joint craft project, though most of the kudos should go to Alex. He had the creative inspiration and did most of the sewing.

Another crafting highlight were my Squirrel Sampler Mittens, designed by Adrian Bizilia. I used Harrisville Shetland for the outer, and Knit Picks Shadow (tonals) for the surprise purple lining. I love the combo.

There's a lot more, but I'll save that for another post. And I'll try to write that one before the snow melts, okay?

Spinning Along

2010-08-21T14:33:00.002-04:00

I don't often do spin and knitalongs. I usually like to do what I want, when I want, and at my own pace. But this summer things worked out such that my plans coincided nicely with spinalong plans, or were just fuzzy enough that I could fit what I wanted to do into the scope of organized group efforts. It feels really nice to occasionally break away from being a completely independent crafter, and to participate in a group challenge.

My big, huge, I-Can't-Believe-I-Spun-The-Whole-Thing challenge was for the Tour De Fleece, earlier this summer. My personal goal was to spin up half the fiber I bought for a blanket project. I got 20% of it done before the challenge started, and ended up finishing the remaining 80% during the Tour. Whoa! I still can't quite fathom how I managed that. The time limit and group sharing was definitely a motivator to push myself and keep on going.

It started out as two Spunky Eclectic Almost Solid samplers, in the wool blend.

I had 2 oz. each of 20 different colors. I spun and plied each color into its own little 2-ply skein of yarn.

To make things more streamlined, I worked in groups of four colors. I spun four colors onto one bobbin, and the same four colors, in the same order, onto a second bobbin. That allowed me to spin and ply without having to change bobbins after every ounce.

I found the wool blend very easy to spin, and it yielded a lofty yarn, even when spun worsted from combed top. It was a little neppy, but nothing too bad, and I was able to pick out the occasional nep as I went. Overall, I think it's a very nice fiber for the price, and was a good choice for this project.

The final stats on the yarn:

20 ~2 oz. 2-ply skeins

total length: 2920 yards
total weight: 1132 grams (40 oz, or 2.5 pounds)
yards per pound: 1155

average skein length: 146 yd.
average skein weight: 56.6 g. (2 oz.)

12-13 wraps per inch, for the most part

It's going to be a beautiful log cabin blanket. I haven't cast on, yet, but I'm really looking forward to it.

My other spin-along projects are for the Four Ounce Challenge being put on by Adrian (Hello Yarn), David (Southern Cross Fibre), and Amy (Spunky Eclectic). The challenge is to spin, and then knit, crochet, or weave a project from 4 oz. of their yarn. Bonus points if you create an original design and publish the pattern. My own personal theme for this challenge is rolags and woolen spinning.

That's Hello Yarn's 5 Plum Pie colorway. I've spun up the colors separately, into very lofty two ply yarns.

I had hoped to use it for colorwork, but being woolen (and me being out of practice spinning woolen!), the yarns are too uneven for that to work well. So I will go with something simpler. I am still really happy with my original design idea, and just ordered some Malabrigo worsted for it. The Malabrigo hat won't be eligible for the spinalong contest, but that's okay. Anything that inspires a new design is fine by me!

My other project for this contest has also had its troubles.

The fun part was turning this:

into this:

(just a sampling of the rolags)

Unfortunately, in my haste to start spinning, I didn't properly sample, and am ending up with a yarn that is much thinner than I intended. I wanted to go for fingering weight singles for a lace shawl or scarf. I'm ending up with a much thinner yarn, and I don't think I'll have time to knit that up by the contest deadline. I'm considering chain plying it to maintain the colors. Chain plying is not idea for woolen spun yarns because they tend to be less even than worsted spun yarns. While a traditional three (or other) ply will help even out uneven singles, chain plying only serves to enhance the unevenness. But I may try it anyway, and see what I get. If nothing else, it's a learning experience.

Making rolags from combed top is very easy and a lot of fun. When you work from a multicolored top, you get beautifully heathered rolags that turn into a beautifully heathered yarn. I am quite tempted to buy a sweater's worth of multicolor top from one of my favorite dyers, and spin it up using this technique. I think that it does dull some of the contrasts and transitions, which could be nice for a multicolor sweater. Another project for the long, long wishlist.

cool wool for a hot summer

2010-07-18T14:45:00.002-04:00

Thanks for the wedding cheer, commenters! I did knit while on my honeymoon. The project was a plain ribbed pair of handspun socks, which I more than halfway finished before we got back. Now they're 100% done.

I wish I could have captured the colors better. Sometimes it's hard to really get good photos of reds and pinks, and it becomes especially difficult if there are a lot of other colors there to confuse the camera.

I spun the yarn from Southern Cross Fiber polwarth, in the Blaze colorway. I think I might have talked about this yarn in a previous post, though I apologize if I haven't. I decided to spin this using a variation on the fractal method. Fractal spinning, as I understand it, is usually a two ply technique. The basic idea is to split your fiber the long way, and spin one bobbin straight from one half of the fiber, and then to split the other half into thinner sections for the second bobbin. When you ply it, you kind of get stripes within stripes. It's a bit like controlled chaos, and is very pretty.

I prefer a 3 ply for my handspun sock yarns, so I had to alter the fractal technique. First of all, I just broke the length of wool top into thirds, instead of splitting it the long way. It's really difficult to evenly split wool top the long way, and it wasn't important enough to me to try. One third of the top was spun straight from an unsplit third. The other two thirds of the singles were split; One bobbin was from a section of top split the long way into approximate halves, and the last bit was split from a section split the long way into approximate thirds. I had planned to split the fiber for the last bobbin into quarters, but sometimes you just have to do what the wool dictates, and it definitely wanted to be thirds.

I really love this technique, and will likely use something like it again for my multicolor three ply yarns. It's kind of the best of both worlds, with larger blocks of color that contain a huge amount of variety and interest. And it works especially well with well crafted colorways, such as what David dyes. Plus, polwarth is great for socks, being fairly soft and very springy. I always get great yardage from it. In case you're wondering, David doesn't pay me to plug his shop. I just love his stuff. If you can catch an update, his colorways + the polwarth base = spinning heaven.

This next pair of socks requires a lot less explanation. They're from the Little Child's Sock pattern, by Nancy Bush, found in her book Knitting Vintage Socks. For those of you who don't know the book, many of the patterns sound like they're for kids, but are actually sized for adults. That's because the vintage patterns she adapted were knit with thinner yarn and needles than we usually use for socks nowadays. So yes, these socks are for me, even though it's been about 2.5 decades since I've been a little child.

I think I knit them pretty much according to pattern, though it's possible that I ignored the toe and/or heel instructions, to do my own thing. I often do that for socks, since I know what works best for my feet.

The yarn is Lorna's Laces, and the colorway is either Firefly or Dragonfly. I can't remember which is the proper name. It was a lovely gift from Chawne, who has taught me to properly appreciate yellow socks.

I hope to soon have more knitting to share with you. Knitting that isn't socks! I admit that I knit a lot of socks because they're easy. I've got them figured out, and can cast on with confidence, knowing that what I make will fit me and look good. Sweaters take a lot more worrying and figuring. And, obviously, a lot more time to knit. But I happen to have two handspun sweaters that are just about done. I mean, really really close. One needs to have its sleeve hems tacked down, a button attached, and a good bath. The other needs a bindoff on the collar, a few ends woven in, buttons attached, and a good bath and slight blocking of the sleeves. This is stuff I could do in a few hours worth of work, but you'll probably understand when I say that the weather hasn't exactly inspired me to finish wool sweaters. Though I should confess that I also have a big swatch drying, in preparation for my next handspun sweater. Yeah...

That's about 1200 yards of handspun worsted weight yarn. It was my first time spinning from a pin drafted fleece. In this case, it was a merino fleece. There's a very good chance that I will knit Laura Chau's Carter Cardigan with the yarn, though I will have to measure my swatches to be sure that the gauge will work. One of the sweaters that I almost have completed is also one of Laura's patterns. She designs really nice, classic and flattering sweaters, and her patterns are well written. So I really hope the gauge works out, because I look forward to working from her patterns again!

Since I've already fawned over a few fiber people whose work I love, I might as well add one more, to end the post. It's no surprise that I love Adrian of Hello Yarn's dyeing. It's hard to catch her shop updates, so I especially prize her fiber, and it took me a long time to figure out how I wanted to spin up this stuff:

This handspun is from Shetland top, in her Figgish colorway. I have about 8 oz. of a heavy worsted, and I have no idea what I'll do with it. Which is fine, because it makes me happy just to look at it as-is.

I have purposely not talked about my biggest current project, which is spinning 40 oz. of top in 20 different colors for the Tour De Fleece. I think I'll wait until that's done, so I have something left to post about next time. I will say that it's going well, and that there is a growing pile of beautiful DK weight skeins sitting in my office.

Mawwiage

2010-07-03T15:42:00.002-04:00

I got married! I wore this:

Clothilde, by Kristen Hanley Cardozo, knit in hand dyed (by me) Fiesta Yarns Baby Boom, originally a light gray.

It was beautiful and perfect. (The wedding, not just the shawl!)

Before all of that, I knit another shawl:

Prairie Rose Lace Shawl by Evelyn A. Clark, knit out of handspun merino/tencel yarn.

My current big project is a whole bunch of spinning:

I'm spinning 20 2 oz. skeins of 2 ply, from 2 almost solid wool blend samplers from Spunky Eclectic. I've been wanting to knit a colorful log cabin blanket for a while, and this seemed like a good way to do it. I'll spin up all the yarn, and then decide which colors I want to use, and where. You know me. You can be sure that there will be math and graph paper involved. It will be fun!

I have other exciting things going on, too, but I'll wait until they're in a better shape for photos before I share. For example, I have one awesome handspun sweater that is about 2" of collar, a good blocking, and 7 or 8 buttons away from being done. I could finish it this afternoon, but it's 80 degrees out, and my spinning wheel is calling to me.

Vym

2010-04-04T16:59:00.002-04:00

I am excited and proud to announce that I have a pattern in the Spring/Summer 2010 issue of the Twist Collective! It is a sock pattern named Vym, and can be found here (on the Twist website), and here (on Ravelry.)

These are top-down stranded colorwork socks, with a slip stitch heel flap and (somewhat unusual) gusset.

The colorwork pattern is my own. It was inspired by the Komi style of patterning that Charlene Schurch uses to great effect in her mittens book. I love this type of patterning so much that when I first got her book I made up a bunch of charts roughly in the same style, just for fun. The colorwork you see on the Vym socks is a slight twist on one of those earlier charts. (The original chart looked like it had hearts in it, which was a bit twee for what I was going for. So I tweaked a few stitches to give them more of an abstract look.)

As with my Francie socks, I decided to do the gusset shaping at the bottom of the foot. I did this for two reasons. I thought the socks would look way too busy if I had the stripes on the sole and gusset decreased away on the side of the sock, right next to the main colorwork pattern. I also think it looks plain old pretty to have the stripes merge at the bottom of the sock. These socks don't have arch shaping like the Francie socks do, again to keep them from looking too busy and frantic.

I had a great experience working with the editors at the Twist Collective. They are smart, kind, have a great eye, and are hard working. I hope to work with them again in the future, the next time I have a pattern idea that I think is good enough for the magazine. (In fact, I happen to have a swatch sitting right next to my computer, just waiting to be written up into a pattern proposal.)

Getting the socks from idea to publication was a long process. The socks started out very similar to what you see here, but with very different colors:

I originally swatched in ShiBui sock yarn, which is a very similar yarn base to the yarn I ended up using (Unwind Yarns and Gems Merlot Twist Sock.) Both yarns are 2 ply merino fingering weight yarns in very subtle semisolids. I admit that I still really adore the purple and green that I originally swatched in. I ended up with different yarn and different colors for a few reasons. I know that my color combo is difficult to photograph well. It also didn't fit with the mood of the sock section they had planned. And of course, Unwind Yarn and Gems is an advertiser in this issue of Twist. I still might do some colorwork with my original ShiBui colors, but all in all this was a great opportunity to work with two new-to-me sock yarns. A win all-around!

Another difference between the swatch socks and the final sample socks is the gusset. I was all proud of myself for thinking that I would do more frequent gusset decreases, to make up for the more "square" gauge of this type of colorwork. I think I tried a 2/3 ratio (two decrease rounds per every three rounds), which of course ended up being too severe of a slope. Whoops! That's what swatching's for, right? The math part of my brain still says that the 2/3 ratio should work better than the 1/2 ratio, but the 1/2 ratio really does work, even with funky colorwork row gauges.

The other day I realized how long it's been since I've published a new pattern. I couldn't be happier that this new pattern is published in this issue of the Twist Collective. It's really a spectacular issue. I'm not usually someone who loves spring and summer issues of knitting magazines, because I'm a wool girl at heart. But there is a lot in there to love, and I couldn't be happier to be a very tiny fish in a large and sparkling ocean.

(Ooh, and I almost forgot! What does Vym mean, you ask? When all other creative inspiration fails, it's Wikipedia to the rescue. I had no idea what to name these things, so looked up Komi in Wikipedia. There was a list of rivers that flow through the Komi region of Russia, and I thought Vym sounded best. Short, sweet, and it would make an awesome Scrabble word if it were allowed...)

chirp chirp chirp

2010-03-30T06:54:00.003-04:00

I think it's funny that it took me so long to post after my previous post, about follow-through. And I admit that I'm finally getting around to it today because I anticipate having a much more exciting thing to write about this coming weekend, and want to share some other things with you before that happens.

First off, the final total for the Doctors Without Borders donation, thanks to a whole lot of pattern sales, a few reports of finished items (at $1 per), and $10 for a finished socks challenge, is $1098. YAY! I made the final donation at the beginning of this month, and feel thoroughly embarrassed by the follow-up letters and emails I receive from Doctors Without Borders, because it's not my money I donated. I was just facilitating donations from you generous people. Thank you, thank you, thank you!

Before I get on with the knitting photos (I'm a blog reader too, and I know what you're really here for), I thought I'd do a short share the love interlude. A very long time ago I think I wrote about some podcasts I enjoy. I still enjoy podcasts, and thought I'd share some newer ones, in case any of you are looking for things to listen to. In no particular order (okay, the order in which I found them in my iTunes list):

* Alyrenee's Copious Spare Time - Alyrenee is a costume designer who is always full of really interesting things to say on a variety of topics. Some of the topics are things that otherwise don't interest me at all, but her expertise and enthusiasm are enough to get me interested in what she has to say. Her episode about visiting the Harry Potter costumes exhibit is fascinating. I listened twice. Maybe three times.

* Math 4 Knitters, Journal Gazette - Okay, this is kind of an old one. Lara's Math 4 Knitters podcast was one of what I consider the first generation of podcasts that began a few years ago. But she took a little break, and is podcasting again, somewhat in partnership with her employer, the Journal Gazette. Her podcast is knitting nerdy stuff, paired with interesting interviews of local (to her) craftspeople. I particularly enjoy the nerdy stuff. I've always liked math, and really appreciate the way her mind works, and her willingness to experiment with knitting math and construction.

* The Savvy Girls Podcast - Deborah and Melanie are the best thing since sliced bread. The best thing since sliced banana bread with chocolate chips. With a side of gerbil chow. My new favorite.

As for the knitting, I have a pair of Embossed Leaves socks:

I used Caper sock yarn, which is an 80/10/10 merino/cashmere/nylon blend by String Theory. I wasn't sure if that 10% cashmere would make a difference, but it really does. Even better, the color is brilliant and beautiful, and the yarn was reasonably priced for this blend. There are other similar sock yarns that are more expensive and/or ridiculously hard to get your hands on, so I consider this quite a find.

Lacy Baktus:

This is knit from my handspun superwash BFL, bought as dyed top from Hello Yarn. I adore the colors with a passion. (Speaking of hard to get stuff, Adrian's fiber is in the extremely short list of hard-to-get stuff that I'm willing to put in an effort to get. Her colors are that good.) In fact, it's the dye job alone that makes me love this scarf, because I am not a fan at all of superwash BFL. I tried it out of curiosity, and found it difficult to spin (super duper slippery, and gets wiry too quickly), and not that pleasant of a texture when spun up. I had originally planned for the yarn to become socks, but it has no elasticity. This seemed like the perfect pattern to take advantage of its drapey nature and to show off the colors.

So I adore the scarf, even if the superwash BFL makes it a little scratchy and plasticky feeling. I was unsure about how easy it would be to wear this scarf shape, but I really like it. For outside warmth wear I put the wide part at the front of my neck, then wrap the arms around the back of my neck, back to the front, and loosely tie them in front. It's not great for super cold weather, because I don't always get full coverage at the back of my neck. But under a jacket on a mild winter day, it's great. I tend to wear it with the wide part in back and the arms over my shoulders/front indoors, making it quite a versatile scarf. I will definitely be making more of these.

Hayrick Socks:

Yet another Anne Hanson pattern! It's a very satisfying knit, being one of those sock patterns that is easy to execute, but with enough interest to keep you going through the entire pair. The cabled look is actually all increases (yarnovers) and decreases, which I really like. The yarn is a Cascade Heritage base, dyed by a friend of mine. I wish I could buy colorways like this all the time! It's really perfect for the sock pattern, and those of you who follow Anne's blog will recognize that this is the type of colorway that she uses to great effect in so many of her sock and sweater patterns. Even though I can't get something quite this beautiful from Cascade, I will keep this yarn in the short list of sock yarns I want to use again. It's quite soft, and at least so far seems to wear really well. Better than some more expensive yarns I've used. Two thumbs up from me!

That's all for today. But I'll be back very soon with something more exciting. Oh heck, I hate trying to keep secrets like this. The huge hint is that I have a pattern of some sort coming out in a super duper awesome online knitting magazine that is due to come out with its Spring/Summer issue this Friday. If you find me on Ravelry (as bowerbird) you may be able to find another photo-less clue or two about the nature of the pattern.

follow through

2010-02-07T16:23:00.002-05:00

Thank you so much to everyone who bought one of my patterns in the past few weeks. Yesterday I sent $751, directly from those pattern sales, to Doctors Without Borders. I am continuing to donate through the month of February, as are many of the designers on Ravelry who started donating money from their January pattern sales. See my previous post for more details on how you can find these patterns.

And to follow up on stuff from a couple of posts ago, I have been doing a lot of knitting from handspun. I finished a couple of plain ribbed socks from handspun from two of my favorite fiber dyers. First up are the merino/silk socks, from fiber dyed by All Spun Up:

These are from fiber dyed by Hello Yarn. While I did a regular 3 ply for the above socks, these socks below were chain plied, with a regular 3 ply used for the heels, for added strength. They're superfine merino, and so soft.

I also finally finished the Cluaranach stole, designed by Anne Hanson. Anne is one of my favorite designers. Her lace is always interesting, and her other garments are always full of texture, and interesting to knit as well as to wear. She's really tops in my book, and lately I find myself knitting more and more of her designs. When I have some nice yarn without a pattern to go with it, her designs are among the first I look through for ideas. (I embarrass myself by gushing, but I really mean it.)

This is also a handspun yarn, from Red Stone Yarns batts. It's woolen spun, which means that it's a bit fuzzy and lofty, which is perfect for this stole. Unfortunately, that gave me problems when I was finishing the project. The stole is knit in two identical parts, and is supposed to be grafted seamlessly in the center. My yarn was too fuzzy to make that work well (it's really hard to graft with fuzzy, delicate yarn), so I ended up doing a three needle bindoff. It's not the perfect solution, but doesn't look bad at all. It's the kind of thing that a knitter would notice, but that looks so neat that nobody else would think twice about it, so I'm satisfied with the fix. And in the future, I'll remember to use a smoother and sturdier yarn in patterns that will require large scale grafting!

And, of course, how could I resist the call of the cormo?

This is the Celtic Icon pattern, from Inspired Cable Knits. It's a sportweight cardigan, and just right for this handspun fleece-to-sweater project. The photo above is from the back of the sweater, and I've actually finished the back, the center panel of the hood, and half of the right front of the sweater since I took that photo. And now that I'm approaching the midway point of that big knitting project, I have been taking a little side trip with some pretty yarn and yet another Anne Hanson pattern. (A pair of socks, this time.)

I have some handspun that is ready to share, but I'll save it for next time, along with another handspun scarf that just needs to be washed and blocked before it's ready for its photos.

Based on comments and emails, many of the people who read my blog are spinners, or are people who hope to start spinning one day. There are a lot of things to learn about spinning, and one reason I enjoy it is that it's such a rich craft, full of opportunity to learn and improve. But one of the best pieces of advice I can give to a spinner or aspiring spinner is to knit with your handspun. (See, that follow through post title does mean something!) Knitting with your handspun is a really good way to become a better spinner, because you can't improve unless you know how you want to improve. Knitting with the stuff will tell you so much more about it than just looking at it and measuring it in various ways. Plus, it's lots of fun, and extremely gratifying.

If you're looking for inspiration, or just for a good way to pass the time, I will share my two favorite searches on Ravelry: handspun sweater projects and handspun sock projects. All good, all the time.

tugging at my heartstrings

2010-01-16T17:19:00.004-05:00

A year or two ago I got back in touch with an old childhood friend. A few weeks ago I learned that she was in the hospital, because her immune system decided to munch on her heart, and she needed a new one. (There is a more technical term for the auto immune disease that munched on her heart. I don't remember what it is, except that it's rare and very scary.)

After obsessively following her online updates and wringing my hands with worry, I realized that I could direct that nervous energy to something productive. Silly, yes, but also productive. If she needed a new heart, why not just make one? So obvious.

Thank you, Kristin Ledgett, for this beautiful and simple pattern. I made mine larger than life using an aran weight yarn (Harrisville Highland) and size 4 needles. And I stuffed it with leftovers from combing my blue cormo, figuring that that could just be blood that needs to be oxygenated, right?

Joclyn received her new heart yesterday. Not the wool one (though that should also have landed in Brooklyn by now), but the real beating kind. And is doing great. She is a superstar. (As is the person who signed their donor card, and made her continued life possible. Please, if you can, make sure that you are signed up to be an organ donor.)

And for a study of contrasts, I wanted to help spread the word that a lot of knitting designers are pledging to donate a portion of their pattern sales for the next little while to charities that can help out in Haiti. The full list can be found here, on Ravelry.

From today through the end of February of this year, I am donating all of my pattern sales (minus the paypal fees) to Doctors Without Borders. I'll probably donate in a couple of batches, and will post the totals on the pattern descriptions in Ravelry when all is said and done. Specifically, those patterns of mine are the Francie socks, the 1989 hat, and the Smoke Signals hat.

In addition, because I like to see people actually use my patterns, I will donate $1 for every person who sends me a private message on Ravelry to let me know they've completed knitting one of the patterns, between today and the end of February.

There are tons of other designers who are donating part or all of their pattern sales to charities over the next few weeks, so please check them out. If there's a pattern you've been thinking of buying, now is a great time to do it.

Hug your loved ones. Life is precious.

This is not a resolution!

2010-01-01T12:24:00.005-05:00

... though it does seem like a good way to start the new year. Happy New Blog Post! I thought I'd do a quick roundup of some of the things I've done over the past few months. I know that the blogs I read haven't been as active, on the whole, as they used to be. For everyone celebrating the newly minted year with a long, lazy weekend, the least I can do is try to provide 3.5 minutes of passive fibery entertainment. Here's some pretty:

This is a 3 ply fingering weight, spun from 80/20 merino/silk, dyed by All Spun Up. It's my first of her fibers, and was one of my favorite sock yarn spinning experiences. This particular blend makes a soft yarn that still has a lot of elasticity, with an added bit of sheen. The darker colors with the occasional brightness and shine was mesmerizing to spin, and has been spectacular to knit up. The sock are actually all but done. Maybe they'll be in the next post. In any case, I highly recommend this blend for spinning.

These are two slightly different skeins of handspun, made from superfine merino, dyed by the brilliant Adrian at Hello Yarn. This yarn is chain plied, to preserve the color runs. I meant it for socks, and was going to make knee socks, but one skein is thicker. So now I'm just knitting regular socks, and sending one skein to a friend. (Long over-due, alas.) The fineness of the super-fine was slightly noticeable in the fiber, more noticeable in the yarn, and is extremely noticeable in the knitted fabric. Because chain plied yarn isn't ideal for socks, I pulled out some chunks of the fiber, and spun and plied it into a regular 3 ply yarn, for something a little more resistant to wear and tear. The first of these socks is halfway done, and the pair would probably be done by now if I didn't have another time-sensitive project on the needles. It's a joy to knit with this stuff.

These socks are from Anne Hanson's Brickers sock pattern, knit out of Dream In Color Smooshy. It's a simple but gorgeous stitch pattern, and elastic enough to be ideal for socks. I love what Anne does with textures, and want to knit just about everything she's designed.

This is a 3 ply handspun out of superwash Bluefaced Leicester fiber, dyed again by Adrian at Hello Yarn. This was my first experience with superwash BFL, and it was weird. It's extremely slippery to spin, but also starts to feel wiry when it gets a lot of twist in it. So I felt like it took a while to get the right balance on my spinning wheel, so that it wasn't yanked out of my hands, but so that it also didn't feel icky as I spun it. I eventually reached that balance, and found that when I plied the wiry feeling singles, they softened right up. I do think I'd use superwash BFL again, now that I know what to expect from it. But most of all, I adore this yarn. Thank you for dyeing so beautifully, Adrian! I'm really itching to start these socks.

I spun this singles laceweight yarn from BFL top, and ended up with this scarf (Rivolo, designed by Anne Hanson):

This was the first time I've been happy with my own handspun singles yarn. I think that part of that is experience, but part of it may also be the longer staple length of BFL, which means less twist is necessary to keep the yarn together than with a short stapled fiber, like merino. I'm pretty proud that I did this, given my previous bad experiences with handspun singles.

That Rivolo was my second lace scarf from a singles yarn of the year. Right before that, I knit this Road Not Taken scarf, from Lisa Lloyd's book A Fine Fleece. I used Zauberball yarn. I really wanted to use the yarn for socks, but wasn't convinced that a singles yarn would be ideal for that. I'm happy with the project I chose for it, and adore the colors. It goes well with my Manon sweater, since there's an orange in there that perfectly matches it.

Believe it or not, there's more than that. But I kind of lost track of what I had blogged about, and what I hadn't. So here's to a fresh start to the year, with less blogging debt. I'm not all caught up, but caught up enough to move on, and not worry about it anymore. I've spent the last month or so spinning up my blue cormo fleece, and working on a pattern for publication in the spring. The fleece is done, and the pattern should be within the next week. This is going to be a great year, wool-wise, and otherwise.

burritos

2009-12-04T17:04:00.004-05:00

I've been working on a lot of things between when I finished Manon (what I posted about last time) and now, but am going to skip ahead a bit and talk about my next fleece-to-sweater project.

I honestly don't remember if I blogged about it at all, but this summer I bought a beautiful cormo fleece. I believe that cormo sheep are a cross between corriedale and merino, and they tend to have very fine, crimpy fleeces with good lock structure, and nice staple length for such fine fleeces. I knew that processing this fleece would be a lot like the experience of processing the corriedale fleece that turned into the Manon sweater, and was able to put to use a lot of what I learned last year.

Kade's fleece (Kade is the name of the sheep), with Alex for size comparison. ~~In fact, this is only half the fleece. The other half lives with Molly~~ Ooh, I lied! I think this is the whole fleece, before I divided it. Whoops!.

A couple of locks, close up.

As with the corriedale, I carefully separated the locks of Kade's fleece, and washed it in mesh laundry bags, using tulle to separate out the layers. Very hot water, blue Dawn dishwashing soap, 2 washes, 2 rinses.

My big mistake was that I didn't think ahead to the dyeing. I knew I wanted to dye this fleece on my own, before spinning it. The earlier in the process you dye the wool, the more uniform your finished project will be. I didn't think about it more than that, until the time came to take my beautiful bag full of clean, white locks, and figure out how to make them blue. I almost didn't dye them. They were so precious as-is.

What would have been really smart of me would have been to dye them right after I washed them. Before taking them out of the mesh bags, before letting them dry, just plunking them in a dyepot. It would have been so much easier that way! Someone on Ravelry suggested this to me, but it was too late. Next time, people. NEXT TIME!

But my lack of foresight wasn't a complete loss. I did figure out a new way to keep my locks neat and organized for the dyeing, which I might use for both the scouring and dyeing, next time I have a raw fleece. I actually borrowed the idea from another person (whose identity I don't remember), who I remember posting about using rolls of tulle to secure her locks when she washes them. I ended up with this:

I bought lots and lots more tulle (it's cheap, and always seems to be on sale), and cut it into manageable lengths. It comes folded, and I took advantage of that by laying out the locks on one side, and just folding the other half over it, where it naturally creased. Then I rolled it up, and used sewing thread to baste it shut. This held surprisingly well, though a few locks did escape during the dyeing process. I think that next time I'll just be careful to not lay them down so close to the edge of the tulle. Or, really, not bother to care. There was no significant lock leakage, and I was able to save everything, anyway.

To dye them, I mixed up a dye solution, and figured out how much of it I should add to each dye pot so as to use all of it, somewhat uniformly. (Don't ask me for dyeing advice. I cobbled together bits of knowledge here and there, but mostly winged it and crossed my fingers. I totally dye by the seat of my pants.)

I ended up with a whole bunch of squishy blue cormo burritos.

Both after scouring and dyeing, I find that it's hard to get enough water out of the fiber when it's still all wrapped up. It's a lot easier to handle if I let it sit for a day or so before taking it out of its wrapper, to finish drying.

I wasn't all that concerned that the fiber be evenly dyed. I wanted to try to get an even amount of dye and fiber in each pot, so I didn't let things get too wonky. But I didn't obsess over whether each bit of fiber was fully soaked, or with moving things around in the pots. I just let them be, because I knew that combing the fiber would even things out a lot. And I also don't want my yarn to be too uniform. I want it mostly uniform, so I'm free to knit something with a lot of texture, if I so choose. But a little variation can look very pretty.

I thought I finished combing all the wool I'd need this morning, but I may have miscalculated a bit. In any case, I've started spinning, and will go back and comb a bit more to add to some bobbins that aren't as full as I'd like. Later. That was a lot of combing.

That's just some of it.

I don't have any major knitting projects on the needles right now, as I'm waiting for yarn for a super exciting project that I won't be able to blog about for many months. (I will let your imaginations wander about that one!) So while I'm waiting for that yarn to arrive, to be followed by some marathon knitting, I am spinning a lot. This cormo is incredibly soft, and I will most certainly be buying more cormo fleeces in the future. I would like to make it an annual tradition.

For a last treat, here's a photo of some more dyeing. These are locks that I didn't carefully separate out, and separate between layers of tulle. It was the lower quality (but still really nice!) and dirtier stuff from around the edge of the fleece. I just threw it in a bag, and hoped for the best. I will probably hand or drum card it, for a soft, lofty yarn.

The best thing I've ever made?

2009-11-07T13:37:00.002-05:00

(At least so far.)

Here's a reminder of how I started:

Greasy corriedale locks, scoured to a creamy white. Creamy white locks hand combed into fluffballs of top. Top spun into 7 bobbins of singles, then plied into several skeins of a 3 ply aran weight yarn. Aran weight yarn sent to Amy for dyeing.

Here's where it got me:

Manon, designed by Norah Gaughan, knit from a sheep. Whee!

I knit the 38" size at a slightly tighter gauge, for a 34" - 35" sweater, and of course lengthened the sleeves. Here are some more views:

All that work, and I'm not sure that there's much more to say. It was fun and interesting to knit, and is a pleasure to wear. I'd do it again in a heartbeat. In fact, I am kind of doing it again. This time it's a cormo fleece, dyed by me in lock formation, to become some other sweater. Perhaps in several months it will become my new best thing I've ever made.

people make me happy

2009-09-27T09:13:00.004-04:00

I have so much to share on the blog, and this post will be dedicated to other people making me very happy. It's a bit of a loosey-goosey theme, but it's a theme nonetheless.

I have to start off with what might be my favorite finished knitting project from this past summer. A long time ago I sent a skein of handspun to Sasha. I spun the yarn from a pile of rainbow colored merino top, and it was spectacular and bright, but not quite what I had imagined in my head. I wasn't sure that I could do it justice, but knew that it would be perfect for Sasha, who is a bright, rainbow-y person. Here are some photos of the magic she worked, posted with her permission:

You can see more photos and information on Sasha's project page for the scarf, or on her blog, linked above.

Another person who made me happy this summer is David, from Red Maple Sportswear, who emailed me to ask permission to display my Francie sock as a sample at his booth at Rhinebeck. I was touched that he thought to ask permission (of course it's okay!), and agreed that I'd let people know about his Rhinebeck booth in exchange. I've never used his products, and won't be at Rhinebeck, myself, but he sounds like a great guy, and I wish I could visit the booth. So if you're going to be there, stop by his booth and say hi, if you think of it. (Please note that I'm not posting this as a paid advertisement, or anything. Simply a fun exchange between a couple of fibery people.)

To complete the theme of other people making me happy, I have my Party Like It's 1999 socks:

I start knitting these socks in June, at the airport on my way to my 10 year college reunion. It was a last minute decision to attend, thanks to the encouragement and help of my friends, and I had an amazing time. Some people think of their high school years as the best time of their youth (or maybe that's only in cheesy movies?), but for me it was college. It was a wonderful weekend with old friends, old places, old smells, and lots of laughs and hugs. I'm so glad I went, and these socks (knit out of Socks That Rock lightweight, in the Never On Sunday colorway) will always remind me of that weekend.

Thank you, Dr. Zizmor!

2009-07-26T07:15:00.003-04:00

I have had so many wonderful things filling my life lately that it's hard to pick and choose what to write about. They all try to get through the doorway at once, and get stuck. I suppose there are worse things that can happen than a paralyzing overabundance of choices.

One of those things was a 2 week trip out West. We went to Wyoming and Montana, visiting Grand Teton National Park, Yellowstone National Park, and Glacier National Park. It was an amazing trip full of staggering beauty, and I will post a link to the full set of photos once they're all up and organized on Flickr. Here's a teaser:

Too bad I'm writing this post before I've uploaded the SHEEP photos! Well, that will get you to read my next post, eh?

Another thing that's been taking up a lot of my time is the cello. A few months ago I decided to start playing the cello again, which for me was basically starting from square 1. It's an incredible challenge, and very rewarding, and I plan a more thorough blog post about it at some point. (One of those things jamming the doorway, I tell ya!)

There are times when I feel that I'm in over my head with good stuff, and there are times when I question why I try to do all of these things when I could probably be satisfied with fewer projects. Usually I suppress this question to the dark recesses of my mind when it pops up, treating it like an annoyance. Kind of like those people who tell you you can just buy a package of tube socks for $5 at Wal-Mart. There is a reason why I do all these things (and goodness knows there are people who do a lot more than I do!), but sometimes it's not so easy to articulate.

The other day I got some insight into how to frame an answer. Stick with me, here, because the path my mind takes isn't always straightforward. I saw a sign for some business that seemingly randomly brought back memories of Dr. Zizmor. Any of you who have spent time watching commercials or riding the subway in NYC in the past 20 years or so probably know who this guy is. For those of you who don't, you can click on that link (and watch that classic commercial!) if you want. In short, he's a NYC dermatologist who had (has?) cheesy but catchy TV ads, and print ads that are frequently found in subway cars. I grew up in Brooklyn and took the subway to/from school every day in high school. I'm sure I've seen his subway ads thousands of times.

Here's where the ride though my mind gets a little twisty-turny. When I saw that sign that reminded me of Dr. Zizmor, I thought that I should google him, to see if there is any NYC nostalgia online about those old dermatology subway ads. Then I thought about how when I was growing up, there was no such thing as google. The internet was in its infancy (at least for the general public), and I didn't have access to it at all before college. Back when I was in high school one of the other things you would occasionally see among the ads in the subway was something called Poetry In Motion. These were short poems interspersed among the ads, and I loved them. My absolute favorite Poetry In Motion poem was Blackberry Eating. (In fact, it's still one of my favorite poems.) I remember that one day I decided that I just needed to have that poem for myself, and searching for it ride after ride after ride, until I finally saw it and was able to scribble it down.

And here's the thing. In 1994, waiting and hoping was my only option. It took work to find information. Nowadays, I'm sure that a simple google search would get me that information in seconds. (In fact, it's among the first page of hits if you just google "blackberry poem" without the quotation marks.) While I greatly appreciate how accessible information is thanks to the internet, I do have a lot of nostalgia for the days in which it wasn't so easy to find what you were looking for. I think that having to work for it, and having to exercise patience as well as vigilance, made the information all that much sweeter when you finally got your hands on it. There is something special about a Galway Kinnell poem hurriedly scribbled in my own writing notebook, next to my own poetry, that is more satisfying and pleasureful to read than typed words on a screen found in mere seconds through a Google search.

And here we are, getting very close to my point. (I know, can you imagine! Yes, there is a point.) While I celebrate the openness of information that comes with internet access on a daily basis, and recognize its grand benefits for education and quality of life, I think that it has affected many or most of us. I have a theory. (No, not bunnies.) My theory is that the reason we see this "trend" (I hate that word, but there it is) in hand crafts is that we crave a type of information that can't just be googled. I feel that with the internet, if you want to know about something you can know about something. Information flows so freely that it doesn't always feel as special as it once did. There is no challenge. And I think that pushes many of us to find a challenge; To find chase a kind of information or knowledge that can't just be googled. Why am I playing the cello? Why is there a raw fleece on my porch? Why do I have 2 dozen (at least) pairs of hand knit socks? Because these things are concrete. These things don't exist unless I put in time and effort. These things come from and provide experiences that I can't get just from staring at a computer screen.

I know this isn't true for everybody, but I suspect it's at least somewhat true for the people who choose to read about me on a computer screen. Our lives have become virtual in so many ways, and connecting with people and information as become so effortless, that we need more concrete things in our lives. So the next time someone asks me why I bother, I think my answer will be "because it's real."

And yes, I think this is also why Alex and I choose to spend our vacation time climbing mountains and seeing the country for ourselves. Photos in National Geographic are great, but feeling the ground under our feet is better.

Oh yeah. You came here to see stuff I made? I know my last post was about socks, but I'm going to share more. I have been knitting a lot of socks recently, in part because they are a good side project while I'm designing other things and working on bigger but slower projects. There will be bigger and different things eventually, I promise.

Kai Mei socks, designed by Cookie A, in sock yarn from Julie Spins. Bonus cormo fleece in the background!

Papaver Sok, designed by Anne Hanson, in Araucania Ranco Solid sock yarn.

Retro Rib socks, designed by Evelyn Clark, in handspun BFL.

The yarn I spun for these retro ribs was dyed by David of Southern Cross Fibre. The colorway is called vigilance, and I decided to split it up before spinning it for these fraternal socks.

With cello music in the background! I am happy to say that I'm well beyond those pages, and it's nice to see visual confirmation of my progress.

That's enough for now, I think. Off to do some swatching and vacation photo uploading!

Ketchup!

2009-06-10T18:12:00.002-04:00

Aren't they just beauteous! It's the Fancy Silk Sock pattern from Nancy Bush's Knitting Vintage Socks, knit in Araucania Ranco Solid. It's a perfect match of yarn and pattern. The yarn did give me some trouble when I was winding it, as did the other color that I also bought. I know it wasn't me, so either it was a weird batch, or they just do something really weird when winding their hanks which makes it hard to not get in a knotted mess when you ball it up. But I'm glad I persevered, because the yarn was worth it in the end. So let this be a warning -- the yarn is worth trying, but don't try to wind it when your patience or time is short.

And speaking of yarn that has its issues, how about a yarn with genuine issues, not just superficial winding issues? These socks were knit out of some of my earliest handspun. I have learned a lot since spinning that yarn, and one of the things I've learned is that sometimes there really can be too much of a good thing. The "good thing" in this case was twist. The yarn was spun and plied so tightly that it was very difficult to work with. It was simultaneously too ropey and too springy, coiling back on itself every chance it had. I was concerned that the socks would be garbage, but they actually turned out pretty nicely. At the very least, they should last longer than the cockroaches. (Wait, cockroaches will survive a nuclear Armageddon, but now we're all doing to die from Swine Flue or food shortages caused by global warming, right? Do cockroaches survive those things? Hmm.)

For all my complaining about my handspun, I like the socks, and I sent them to my mom. The yarn, by the way, is superwash merino. Indestructible, solid superwash merino, perhaps as dense as the center of a planetary body.

The antithesis of the superwash that is trying to pose as the black hole at the center of the Milky Way is polwarth. Polwarth is a soft and incredibly springy wool, mostly found (if I am correct) in Australia and New Zealand. David, over at Southern Cross Fibre, sells a lot of Polwarth, all dyed in the most perfect Australia-themed colorways. I think this colorway is called Uluru.

It ended up as a sportweight yarn, even though I was aiming for fingering. It's one of those fibers that poofs up to something larger, no matter how thin you think you're spinning it. I'm not complaining, because the resulting yarn is incredibly soft and lofty, and the yardage I got from this skein, which was spun worsted style (short forward draw) was akin to what I'd get spinning woolen longdraw. Here are the socks I made from it, for Alex:

While I play blogger-catchup, I realize that I may not write about all the details I'd usually include. Stuff like wraps per inch, and exact yardage and weight for handspun, might get left out. But I have been pretty good about logging all that information in Ravelry, so if you're ever curious about the exact details of a yarn or knitting project, please check over there. My handspun can be found here and my knitting projects can be found here. I in no means plan to have Ravelry replace the blog, but I just want to let the geeks who want to know all the details have access to them, in case I leave things out on the blog. (Which I know I've done in this post.)

I have so much to post about. I made a list, with enough content for 5 meaty posts, including this one. Next up (I think): a couple of handspun scarves, spinning for lace, and a hat pattern preview.

A Corrie-Tale

2009-04-17T07:09:00.002-04:00

My silence has been mighty, and for that I apologize. I have no excuse, other than the "perfect" blog post that I've been writing in my head for 2 months, but which hasn't seen a pen or paper or keyboard. So I will temporarily give up that ghost, and focus on other non-ghostly white fluffy things.

What I most want to share with you is my biggest spinning project to date, that I haven't posted about since it was in its beginning stages. The spinning is long done, and it deserves a blog post of its own.

Several months ago, I bought a few pounds of a wonderful corriedale fleece. I scoured it, combed it, and spun it up into a sweater's worth of yarn. I know I posted some photos of the early parts of this project, and here is a short photo essay of some other parts of the process, starting with beautiful clean locks, and ending with a mighty pile of handspun yarn.

The last of the locks, ready for combing. This was a somewhat nostalgic photo for me, as it took so long to comb all of the wool. I enjoyed the process, and was a little sad to see the end of it.

A photo of my combing workspace, looking neater than it usually does. You can see my combs (Alvin Ramer Super Mini Combs) clamped to the table on the left, a small basket of combed top on the right, and a lineup of full bobbins of singles in the back.

These are locks, being prepared for combing. This is about how much I would put on my combs at once. I used the yellow camping towel (very absorbent) because I sprayed the locks with water (and a bit of wool wash with tea tree oil), to help prevent static electricity while combing.

Locks lashed onto the comb, ready for combing.

Locks after 3 passes of combing, ready to be pulled off the combs into top.

Using a diz to pull top off the comb.

The leftovers -- short bits that weren't long enough to come off the comb as part of the top. I erred on the side of leaving more behind, for a higher quality yarn with fewer nepps and short fibers.

Hand combed top is a lot airier and more delicate than commercially prepped top. It's a pleasure to spin.

It may be impossible to have too many photos of this stuff!

I kept my bobbins organized in chronological order, so I could mix them up in an organized fashion when I plied the yarn.

The (almost) final product. Six big skeins of 3 ply corriedale, worsted to aran weight. I am sending it off this weekend to be dyed, because I don't trust myself to dye this much yarn all in the same shade. (I just don't have a dye pot big enough!) What color will it be? Hmm, perhaps I'll keep that a surprise. But I have a little sample skein, and it's going to be awesome. More on that when it's done!

I am in love with the process of going from raw fleece to beautiful fluffy handspun in a quantity large enough for a sweater. So in love with that process, in fact, that I feel pretty dedicated to doing it a lot more in the future. I have already acquired two more fleeces -- a romney lamb's fleece in variegated colors, that I've almost finished scouring, and a CVM fleece in a brownish grey that will be up next for scouring. I'm hoping to acquire more raw wool at New Hampshire Sheep and Wool next month, and/or by ordering online from trusted farms. I don't plan to give up completely on commercially prepped stuff dyed in gorgeous colors by talented fiber artists, but I do plan to cut back. This Spring's fleece acquisitions are meant to sustain me for much of the next year, primarily for sweater knitting, but perhaps also for smaller projects. I've always admired gardeners who have the patience to plan for months and years ahead. I don't know if I'll ever be a great gardener, but harvesting these Spring fleeces feels much the same.

More soon, my friends. I promise.

If you're cold, put on a hat!

2009-02-14T17:26:00.003-05:00

(Not to contradict Brenda's wise tag line. I've just been a bit hat crazy lately.)

I have a lot of catch-up to do. I'm ashamed of how long ago I finished some of the hats in this post, but let's just say that I've been doing a thorough test-drive of some of them before blogging. You know, just in case...

I'll start out with the hats knit from yarn I bought, and then go on to hats knit from yarn I spun, along with information about the handspun. Thank the Fiber Goddess for Ravelry, which has become my supplemental fiber brain. At least I'm a bit better about putting information in there than I am about blogging in a timely matter, so that something is recorded somewhere when it's time to blog!

This is the Peek-a-Boo Cloche by Mona Schmidt, from the book Lace Style. The original pattern calls for a sportweight yarn (one of the Louet yarns, maybe?), but when I decided to knit this the colors of leftover Knitpicks Palette sitting in the drawer (from the Fair Isle with Vertical Stripes, from oh so long ago) were calling to me. Palette is a fingering weight, and not a very robust fingering weight at that, but I decided to give it a try. The lining of the hat is knit first, from the top down, so I figured that I'd know fairly quickly whether the yarn would work, and if I'd have to alter the pattern for a vastly different gauge. My head is on the small side, so I had a good feeling about the project, and it turned out that it worked just fine, without any size alterations. The hat is just the right size for my small head, but I wouldn't want the hat to be any smaller. (So copy me at your own risk!)

This is Habitat, by Jared Flood. (I always want to say that it was designed by Franklin Habit. Yes, I know all knitting men are not the same person.) I wish I had a better photo of it, but the light was just not cooperating that day, and I haven't had a chance to get a better shot. Which is a shame, because Alex wears it a lot. It was a birthday gift 2 months ago, and I'm delighted with how often he wears it, and how much he seems to like it.

The yarn is Harrisville Highland, leftover from Alex's Cobblestone sweater, which he also wears often enough to make me very happy. Maybe it's lucky yarn, or maybe I'm getting better at knitting things to match his size and taste. (I wear the Rhapsody in Brown sweater more often than he does. It's a bit tight on him, and I can't seem to get a more severe blocking to take. It's a little big on me, but in that just perfect way that makes it incredibly cozy.)

And now onto the handspun. This first hat was quite the bargain. I bought the fiber at New Hampshire Sheep & Wool last May, and only paid $8 for the 4 oz. I believe it's Ashland Bay top, but I didn't realize it at the time. It's not a bad thing, though I feel a bit silly in retrospect, buying such widely available commercially prepped top at a local fiber event. It's 100% merino, and I carded it into rolags before spinning. I found that the fiber was a bit flat at first, and a couple of people suggested that I steam it, to put some life back into it, and re-awaken its merino crimp. That did help, and I was delighted with the soft, fluffy, and lofty yarn that resulted.

As you can see, and as I think I mentioned in a previous post with yarn spun in a similar way (commercial top carded into rolags), you don't get a perfectly even yarn when you spin longdraw. Especially when it's from rolags, where the fibers are all jumbled together in a chaotic swirl. But I'm learning that knitted fabric can be very forgiving, and that most of the unevenness in yarns like this disappear when you knit them up. It's kind of magical, and only encourages me to spin longdraw more often. I hope seeing hats made from uneven woolen spun yarn gives some of you confidence to try it out, too.

The yarn is a 3 ply DK weight, 13 WPI, 105 grams, and 342 yards.

The hat is Shedir, by Jenna Wilson, from the Fall 2004 edition of Knitty. I wasn't sure at first that the yarn would work with this pattern, because such delicate crosses would seem to require the most perfect and even of yarns, to avoid getting lost in the texture of the yarn. But it turns out that slightly uneven handspun works well, too. The cables probably would have popped more if I used a worsted spun yarn, which would be smoother. But I like the subtle and soft look that the woolen yarn gives to the hat. This is my favorite hat, and I honestly can hardly believe that I made it from scratch.

These last two hats are also knit from handspun rolags. These rolags are from washed corriedale locks that I bought from Julie (jsandell on Ravelry) a while ago. Having worked with other corriedale since then, and having discussed the nature of these particular locks with her, I think I've come to the conclusion that this is not typical corriedale. In some ways it behaved more like a longwool would, in that it wasn't as crimpy, and had a very smooth feel to it. In retrospect, it was not the ideal fiber for rolags, since I've found that I prefer rolags and longdraw spinning with very crimpy fibers. But I made it work, and enjoyed the experience.

That is about 550 yards of a 3 ply, 9 WPI yarn. It was all spun longdraw from the rolags, and wasn't quite as even as it looked. I don't think it was as even as the merino I spun up for the hat. Next, I dyed it:

This was my first (and only, so far) experience dyeing anything, and I was happy with the results. It turned out darker than what I was going for, but I think the yarn was just perfect this way, so it was a happy accident.

I knit two hats with the yarn. The first hat was too big for the intended recipient, and the hat would just not shrink, no matter what I did to it. A very strange corriedale, indeed, as I'd expect most corriedale to full easily if given the opportunity. I think it was the relative lack of crimp in the yarn.

This too-large hat is from Jared Flood's Turn A Square pattern. It's a beautiful hat (if I may toot my own horn), and I'm sure I'll be able to find someplace to donate it. Heck, I know it won't felt in the wash, so I bet that even charities that don't usually take wool (because of felting fears) could make good use of it!

I decided that my second try at a hat for Jan would not only be on smaller needles with slightly fewer stitches, but would also incorporate more of a ribbing-based pattern, for optimal fit flexibility. I decided on the spindle stitch pattern from Charlene Schurch's book More Sensational Knitted Socks.

The hat fits her perfectly.

I do have one other hat that I've knit in the past few months, but I'm not blogging about that yet. That hat was also knit from fiber that I prepped (on combs) and spun myself, and uses a beautiful Barbara Walker stitch pattern. I did a ton of work designing a way to decrease the top of the hat in an unusual and interesting way that flows out of the intricate stitch pattern, and am probably going to submit the pattern to the Twist collective, for consideration for their Fall issue. Writing up that proposal is on my to-do list for this long weekend. I really wish I could share the photos with you, because I am immensely proud of the hat. This one was also for a co-worker (a Secret Santa gift), and luckily fit her perfectly on the first try. More on that another time, I suppose.

My spinning wheel has been incredibly busy so far this year. I have finished spinning the yarn for a sweater. That's how busy. More on that soon, I hope.

Oh, and in case anyone was wondering, Sophie was born the day after my last post, and is indeed an extraordinary little person. She has beautiful red hair and at least one dimple, and is so incredibly charming in photos that I fear I may be bowled completely over when I get to meet her in person. To my delight, the sweaters are a bit big on her, which means she gets to grow into them and wear them that much longer.

Baby Baby Baby!

2009-01-15T18:20:00.000-05:00

Well, only one baby. A very good friend of mine, as I type this, is in a hospital in NYC, bouncing on a yoga ball, and trying to convince her daughter to join us here on the outside. C'mon kiddo! You can do it!

Of course, I have knit.

Stephanie Pearl-McPhee's Baby Yours sweater, in Socks That Rock mediumweight.

I've settled on the yellow buttons.

Elizabeth Zimmermann's February Baby Sweater, also in Socks That Rock mediumweight.

This button's twin will live on a project for me. (More about that in a future post.)

Really, there's not much more to say about the sweaters. Straightforward and beautiful, and I really do need to get them in the mail.

Watch out, world. All babies are special, but this one will be extraordinary. I promise.

Snow Day

2009-01-07T16:35:00.005-05:00

It's my birthday, and the wintry mix outside meant that I got home from work early. What a treat! (I do enjoy work, but I also welcome surprise birthday early closings.)

As I wrote a few days ago, I have a long backlog of projects to share with you guys. But since this is a special day for me all around, I'm going to temporarily skip over the stuff that's done and write a bit about my two long-term ongoing projects, both of which I find quite pleasing and exciting.

I am delighted to be working on a sweater again, after a very long break from sweater knitting. Too long of a break, really. A few months ago I bought Lisa Lloyd's book A Fine Fleece, and promptly fell in love with just about every project in the book. It's a fantastically beautiful book, and everyone reading this should buy a copy. Immediately. (And if times are tight and you can't afford to splurge on a book, go look for it at your local library.) The idea behind the book is to provide knitters who spin with patterns for their own handspun. Each of the projects in the book (most of which are sweaters) are knit in both a commercially available yarn and a handspun yarn. The projects are tasteful and wearable, and full of just the right amount of texture. I have chosen, as my first project from the book, the Staghorn aran. I'm knitting it out of Cascade 220 Heathers, in the Sapphire color. Here's an old photo of the back, about halfway done:

I just finished the back, and have started on the front. Arans take a long time to knit, with all of those cables, but I'm not yet bored or tired of knitting on this sweater. And best of all, it should be done in time for there to still be cold weather here in New Hampshire. Here's an artsy detail shot:

Really, this book deserves a more thorough review, because it is that good. But I don't have the book in front of me, and I admit that I haven't read through all of the text yet, because I still haven't finished completely drinking in all of the patterns and the pattern photos. But it is rare for me to find a pattern book where I am so gaga over so many of the patterns. I can be very picky. And, well, I pick this book. It's probably my favorite pattern book, and that's saying a lot.

I did feel a little bad that my first sweater from the book was in millspun yarn. Not that there's anything necessarily wrong with millspun yarn, but it seemed a shame to have this book full of information about how to best use my handspun for a beautiful sweater, and to be taking the easy way out. But then Amy started the January '09 quarterly spin along in the Spinner Central group on Ravelry, and I knew my sweater's time had come. The goal of the spin along is to spin yarn for a cabled sweater during the first 3 months of 2009. I had all that beautiful corriedale that I washed, and decided to jump right in.

I'm not being as thorough about my yarn planning as many of the other participants of the spin along. I haven't chosen a sweater pattern, and don't plan to until my yarn is done. I am letting the fiber be what it wants to be, and will figure out what the yarn is best suited to later. I did know that I'd want to spin a 3 ply yarn, which is ideal for showing off texture, and I did a small sampling before starting to spin in earnest, just to make sure I liked the yarn I was making.

I'm working with combed top, which I have made myself. Actually, I've probably only combed about 1/3 of the fiber, so I'll have to take some spinning breaks to get the rest done. Here is a photo of just a bit of my combed top:

Isn't it heavenly! Spinning with hand combed top is much different than spinning with commercially prepped top. It is lighter and fluffier, and much easier for me to draft. I often pre-draft commercially prepped top, at least a little bit, because I find it unpleasant to work with very densely packed fiber. It would never even occur me to pre-draft my hand combed top. It is perfect as-is. I honestly wish I could send every spinner in the world a little muffin of combed top, so they could experience it first-hand.

I finished my first bobbin a few days ago. Here it is, in all its glory:

I'm not sure how many bobbins I'll have in the end. I estimated 9, but it's hard to tell, because I honestly don't know how much fiber I have. I think I bought 3.5 pounds, but that was before it was scoured. It loses weight in scouring, and then there is a lot of combing waste. It might turn out to be a bit less than 9, but at the moment I really don't care. Mostly, I'm enjoying the spinning. I was concerned that I would get bored spinning this much white fiber, and while there's still plenty of time to get bored with the project, I'm cautiously optimistic. Most of my spinning projects are only 4 oz, total. Yet this first bobbin felt like a beginning, not an end. I'm about 2/3 of the way through my second bobbin, and I'm still very excited about the project. No boredom, yet!

In case you're interested in some technical info., I'm spinning my singles to match up to the 28 wraps per inch line on my spinner's control card. I don't find my spinner's control card to to be that accurate (I usually get a different wpi than it says I should for a given thickness of yarn), but that doesn't matter much. All I need to know is that my singles should match that particular line, so I can periodically check to make sure my singles are fairly consistent. I have three kinds of bobbins: the regular Schacht bobbins, WooLee Winder bobbins, and high speed Schacht bobbins. I plan to only spin on my regular Schacht bobbins, and re-wind all of my bobbins onto other bobbins for storage. I'll probably ply on my WooLee Winder bobbins.

I don't know if I'll be keeping the yarn white, or if I'll dye it. The idea of a white sweater makes me a little nervous (I'm not good at keeping clothing stain-free), but I'm not sure if I could dye a sweater's worth of yarn evenly, and I don't like the idea of having to alternate skeins every few rows of a knitting project. I probably should have dyed the fiber before I combed it, but it's too late for that. And I'm very reluctant to dye my combed top, because I suspect that it would lose a lot of its airiness if I did.

That's my exciting new stuff. I hope you all are also delving into exciting new things at the beginning of this new year. Or at the very least, enjoying the not so new things you may be working on.

You are in for a treat.

2009-01-01T12:39:00.003-05:00

You are in for a treat, because I haven't blogged for 5 weeks, but I have continued to make things. Yesterday I flipped through my Flickr photos, and made a list of all the things I have yet to blog about. There is so much to share! Some of it still needs to be photographed, which is very hard for me to do in the winter, because I need to count on having a clear day with good sunlight on a weekend day. But I'm getting there, and am going to kick off what I hope will be a collection of somewhat more frequent catch-up posts with some plain old spinning. Yarn I've made, not attached to a specific project, not necessarily with an interesting background story or tales of techniques learned. Just some good old fashioned handspun.

Glowing and Squishy

The last of my small Hello Yarn fiber stash, this beautiful skein is Wensleydale Singles, in the Illuminated colorway. About 9 wpi, 116 g., and 202 yd., I'm thinking it will be great in a simple roll brim stockinette hat. It's very loosely spun, though I achieved that effect by running it back through the spinning wheel in the opposite direction, to take out some of the twist I put in when I first spun it. Worked like a charm! I haven't really thought much about this yarn since I spun it, but writing this up, I'm tempted to cast on for that hat today... perhaps even without swatching. Wild and crazy, I know.

This is the Yarn That Never Ends
(It just went on and on, my friends.)

This is green merino, dyed by Crazy Monkey. I bought 8 oz. of it on a whim, and started spinning it on a whim. For some reason, finishing this spinning project felt like pulling teeth. There was absolutely nothing wrong with the fiber. It was all me. But it's done, and while it's not nearly my favorite yarn, ever, I think it will make great knee highs some day.

I admit, at one point I got so bored spinning it that I decided to spin some of it long draw, from the fold. Which is only a problem because that's not how most of it is spun, so obviously I had given up on any hope of getting a very uniform yarn. But at least it was a fun learning opportunity, bundled up in an inexplicably boring project. It is 17.5 wpi untensioned, 22.5 wpi tensioned, and feels like a heavy fingering weight. The skeins are not equal in size, but total up to 195 grams and 812 yards. More than enough for knee highs!

Yellow Is The Cure

I was feeling in a bit of a spinning slump, and the cure was to pull this Spunky Eclectic BFL top out of one of my fiber drawers. It had been a very long time since I spun with BFL, and I honestly don't know what I was waiting for. I still love the fiber, and the moment I started spinning it, I was already dreaming up the sweater I would knit out of handspun BFL, one day.

The yarn is a 3 ply light worsted weight, 12 wpi, 111 g., 178 yards. I was thinking of knitting a Koolhaas hat with it, though I'm not sure if the colors are too variegated for that. I might just start it, and then continue in plain ribbing (instead of the twisted stitch pattern) if it seems like that would be best.

For the record, the handspun BFL sweater I am dreaming of is in the Spunky Eclectic redwood colorway, and mostly stockinette. Perhaps turned hems, maybe using EZ's Seamless Hybrid pattern as a starting point? BFL tends to be fairly dense when spun up (at least the way I like to spin it) so something plain, without a lot of texture, seems to be the way to go. (Though I suspect there is also a natural colored, hand combed BFL sweater in my future. Grey or brown, with some cables here and there. Must keep my eye out for BFL fleeces this Spring...)

My Eyes Were Bigger Than My Stomach

I bought 4 oz. of beautiful hand dyed purple silk top from Julie Spins. It came in 2 ounce bundles, but I wanted more than that. The idea was to spin each bundle separately, and then ply them together for a 2 ply laceweight yarn.

I learned that spinning silk takes a lot of concentration. Julie's silk is gorgeous, but silk likes to fly away and bunch up and do all sorts of other things that wool doesn't tend to do. But the other good thing about silk is that a little goes a long way. I decided to stop after just short of 2 oz. I will ply this on itself, and I'm sure I'll have enough for something wonderful. The other 2+ ounces will sit around for a while, until I figure out what to do with it. At the moment, I'm thinking that it could be fun to blend with something. I bet a silk/wool blended batt would be easier to spin than straight silk. I don't have a drum carder, but I have been saving up pattern sale money for a while now, and perhaps I'll eventually use it (once I have enough, which could take a while) to buy a Strauch Petite. Or maybe I'll use it for heating fuel later this winter. We shall see!

Happy new year to everybody. It's nice to be back, and I just know that 2009 has to be better than 2008. (My year starts out with my birthday, then inauguration day, so things are looking up already!)

Five Things That Make Me Happy

2008-11-25T14:31:00.004-05:00

1. The pooling thread on Ravelry. This thread is full of really interesting and often quite beautiful photos of pooling and flashing in knitted and crocheted projects. Not only is it an informational thread, where you can get a better idea of how certain yarns may act in certain kinds of projects, but it's just plain good eye candy. You'll be amazed at some of the stuff yarn does, seemingly all on its own. Now that I think about it, some of it is even kind of creepy...

2. The Yarnspinner's Tales podcast. This is an incredibly informative podcast, though it should come with a warning label, because I'm convinced that it was the straw that broke the camel's back in terms of me learning how to process fiber. The first couple of episodes don't have the greatest sound quality, but it improves, and you should listen to all of them, anyway. If you have even the slightest interest in spinning and/or fiber processing, you should subscribe to this podcast immediately, and make sure to download and listen to all the back episodes.

3. Rolags and iMovie. I've learned how to make truly soft, squishy yarn. Fuzzy wuzzy cuddly yarn. And I also learned how to document it. Or rather, I documented it in the roughest of manners, using the built in camera on my MacBook, and doing the barest minimal in terms of editing. I made the rolags out of commercially prepped merino top, that was hand dyed by Freckleface Fibers. These videos show you how I did it:

(It's not really that loud when I card it. The mic picked up mostly the high pitched noises, which makes it sound like I'm mashing the teeth of the cards together. They lightly touch, but I'm not scraping or digging them into each other.)

And here's how I spun it:

And here is the lovely yarn:

366 yards
87 grams (after sampling, and not splitting it evenly)
13.5 wpi (DK weight)

This yarn is not as even as what I'd get with worsted / short forward draw. That's the nature of longdraw woolen spinning, and I'm at peace with that. Mostly. Actually, I didn't realize how comfortable I was with my technique and what I was producing until I made this video, because it forced me to stop scrutinizing every tiny detail of the yarn, and notice that I was mostly doing a great job, and mostly doing what I've see in other longdraw videos on YouTube. It was a great confidence booster, and I suggest video for everyone. It's really interesting to see your process from an outside angle.

I plan to do this a lot more in the future. Of course, it's a bit dangerous, because it's so quick. Doing short forward draw worsted style spinning, it's not too hard to keep up with knitting the stuff I'm spinning. Woolen spinning is so fast that I could never knit it as fast as I spin it. I admit, I've already been thinking about buying a pound of hand dyed merino top for a sweater. The yardage you get with woolen spinning is so great that that's all I'd need for something fairly plain, and maybe even for something with more texture. I LOVE this!

4. My stash. I love my stash because it's limited in size, yet has so much potential. There's some blue Cascade 220 for an aran, a couple of skeins of Noro for an awesome mitten design idea, a couple of skeins of mostly solid sock yarn, because that is somewhat of a staple yarn for me, and a whole bunch of handspun that is special because I made it. This is not a collection of stuff, but a collection of future endeavors and untapped creativity. It is a collection of potential energy, waiting to prance across my needles. The best kind of collection!

5. You guys. Thank you so much for the comments on my last post. I was a bit scared to post what I did, and almost immediatley had second thoughts about it after I did post it. I don't crave or even particularly want attention. At least not for negative things that none of us have any control over. The spirit and tone of your comments was absolutely perfect. Thank you all for not being too sappy, and for saying a lot of really intelligent things that made me smile, nod my head in agreement, and think a lot. This blog wouldn't be the same without the people who read it, and I'm not really a spiritual person, but I do feel that the energy of the readers makes a difference in a blog. At least for the person who is writing it. You guys have a great energy, great hearts, and great minds. I am a lucky blogger.

Don't worry, only the Monkey Socks are contagious

2008-11-01T16:48:00.005-04:00

Thanks for the responses to my last post. I know that fiber prep is not of interest to everyone, but I'm glad to see that some people found it interesting, and perhaps even a little useful. I do plan to write some about carding and combing at some point, but that post probably won't be as in-depth, since they're very physical tasks that are probably better served by in person or video demonstrations. But I will at least talk a little about what I have learned, and will make a list of youtube videos that I found useful in my own learning process.

Today is back to basics. You know -- knit, purl, and all that jazz.

I have hopped on board the primate love train, and produced my very own pair of Monkey socks. How 2006 of me. ;-)

I used my own handspun for these socks -- a 2 ply heavy fingering weight merino, from top dyed by Freckleface Fibers. I think I mentioned when I posted about the finished yarn that I really adored spinning this fiber. It was a particularly bouncy merino, and made a nice bouncy yarn that was well suited to the Monkey pattern.

I didn't deviate too much from the pattern, but as you can see, opted for 2x2 ribbing at the cuff, and a slip stitch patterned heel, instead of stockinette. Other than that, they're pretty much pure Monkey. Thanks, Cookie, for writing such a cute little pattern! I can see now why it's so popular.

I have to admit that I had doubts about these socks the entire time I was knitting them. I actually started the pattern once before, with a yarn that was way too busy for them. I worried that this yarn was also too busy, but in the end I think the results are quite nice, even if it might take a knitter to truly appreciate these somewhat frantic looking socks. (Really, who wears socks like this other than knitters or the people knitters love?)

My recent focus has been on hats. Most of you don't know this, but I spent the summer undergoing chemo for Hodgkin's Lymphoma. (Don't worry -- I'm going to be fine, the worst of the treatment is over, and in a couple of weeks I'll be done with radiation, too!) The hair loss wasn't immediate, and wasn't complete, but by about a week ago I estimate that 80 - 90% of my hair was gone, so it time to just shave the rest off and have a fresh start. (Really, the zombie look is not flattering for anyone. Except maybe zombies.) This means that I've been doing a lot of hat knitting. And really, what's better for hats on a bald head than Malabrigo?

My first Malabrigo project was Norah Gaughan's Sunflower Tam, from the book Knitting Nature. I want to knit just about everything from that book, and this seemed like a good place to start.

This pattern is a lot of fun to knit. It's very cleverly designed, integrating decreases into the patterning at the top absolutely seamlessly. It's also very easy to knit, and I made it in just a few days, when I was home sick. Really, few things lift the spirits as well as buttery soft merino. I hadn't used Malabrigo in 4 years, since I knit a sweater out if it. (My second sweater, ever!) While it's not suitable for a sweater (softly spun merino singles pill very easily), it's now my very favorite hat yarn. And I think that, as long as I don't go around rubbing my head on things, the yarn should resist pilling when perched atop my head.

My other Malabrigo hat is Ysolda Teague's Gretel. It's funny that I chose to knit 2 berets when I've never worn a beret before, and am not convinced that I look particularly good in one. But there are so many beautiful and interesting beret patterns out there that I couldn't resist.

This is also a cleverly designed hat, where the patterning integrates the decreases so that the top has a fluid and natural look to it. I wore it out today, and I could tell that it caught the eye of many people. Thank you, Ysolda, for such a beautiful pattern!

If you are knitting chemo caps for someone you know, I think that both of these patterns are wonderful. And if you know you'll be knitting for someone who will not throw the hats in the washing machine, Malabrigo really is the softest thing I could imagine putting on my sensitive, naked scalp. I think that berets/tams work particularly well for chemo caps because they give the head some interest in terms of shape. Seeing your bald, round dome can be a bit startling at first, and you really realize how much of a difference hair makes in the dynamics of your head. More closely fitting hats are still great, and I have one in the works, but something that isn't shaped like your bald head feels great to wear when you are bald.

Another thing to keep in mind when making chemo caps is that hot flashes can be a side effect of chemo. Another advantage of more loosely fitting hats, like berets, is that they are insulating without being suffocating. I think they are a lot more comfortable to wear than traditional hats for someone whose temperature is fluctuating a lot. Though I am happily beyond that stage, and so pleased that I don't spend my day tearing things off my head, then scrambling to put them back on.

So that's my chemo cap wisdom for the day! I was reluctant to talk about the whole cancer thing here. Part of it was that, when I was going through chemo and not feeling well, chemo was really the last thing I wanted to talk about, ever. Now that the whole thing is almost over (radiation is like a walk in the park), it seems a little weird to bring it up. But with all this hat knitting, I suppose the topic was unavoidable.

Another reason I decided to finally talk about it is that, as a woman suffering from a kind of cancer that is not breast cancer, the past few months have been particularly frustrating. Not that I don't think breast cancer is terrible (all cancer is!), and not that I don't think support for people with breast cancer, either monetarily or personally, is not important. But when you are feeling sick, weak, and scared, and the source of those feelings is some other type of cancer, it can feel particularly isolating to be inundated with requests for breast cancer support and pink ribbons around every corner. Supporting breast cancer research is absolutely awesome, but if you're a person who has the desire and the money to make donations, consider veering at least some of your money to more general causes, such as the American Cancer Society. Or, heck, Amnesty International is also a great cause, because there is a lot of suffering in this world that is caused by things other than cancer! Obviously, my illness has made me a lot more sensitive about this issue than most people are. But even though I know it's illogical, when you're feeling terrible and all you see are pink ribbons, it's hard not to feel even worse because you have the uncool kind of cancer, and it's hard not to feel that society cares less about you than it does other cancer patients because the tumor is in your neck, and not your breasts. So, as my favorite presidential candidate would say, spread the wealth? ;-)

Dr. Scourer or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Lanolin

2008-10-24T06:06:00.006-04:00

(In which she goes on at great length about what she has learned washing wool.)

Part One: Babydoll Southdown

I started to write about my very first scouring experience, with some Babydoll Southdown I bought on Etsy. As I wrote, I realized that I forgot a lot of the details that might make my experience useful to others. So instead of going through what I did step by step (because I just can't), I'll just tell you what I learned from that experience.

1. Sheep are dirty. Really dirty. I remember that I did an initial soak in cooler water than I used for the scouring. (How cool? Beats me! How long? uh...) I've read in various places that an initial soak can get rid of a lot of the junk that's on a fleece, before you start focusing on getting the lanolin off later on. I'm not sure exactly what all was in that fleece to start off with, but I can tell you that it's a beautiful rusty orange color. And stinky.

2. Wool compacts a lot when soaked. Also, if you want to keep any semblance of order among the locks, you need to really stuff the bag full. I had the wool in a mesh laundry bag, and learned right away that putting some wool in a bag, and then putting that bag in a large container of water means that you just end up with a soggy jumble of stuff at the bottom of the bag. More on successful use of mesh bags later...

3. I don't like VM (vegetable matter). I spent a long time picking out the worst of it, but there was still a lot left. Picking it out seemed like a thankless task, and I fear that I may be one of those people who will seek out covered fleeces in the future.

In the end, I wasn't very satisfied with my experience scouring the Babydoll Southdown wool. In part probably because it was so full of VM, but also because it was hard to tell how clean I was getting it, because of the dark color. Of course, the only logical thing to do was to buy a "nicer" (this is all subjective of course) fleece. I was thinking of waiting until New Hampshire Sheep & Wool next spring, but as luck has it, Julie (the lovely jsandell on Ravelry) had some fleece she was thinking of selling, and I knew I could trust her to sell me quality stuff. (I had already bought some scoured Corriedale locks from her, in addition to some beautiful processed and hand dyed spinning fiber.) So I ordered 3.5 pounds of white corriedale that she said was particularly nice, confident that it would nice enough to be worthy my time scouring and then processing.

Part Two: 3.5 pounds of Corriedale

3.5 pounds sounds like a lot, but I wanted enough for a sweater, should I choose to use the fiber for such a large project. I knew it would be on the greasy side, which means that it would lose a lot of weight in washing. I was also pretty sure that I wanted to comb the fiber, which would mean a lot of waste. (More on that in a future post.) And after losing all that weight to washing and combing, I'd still want enough to be able to sample and play with, before starting to spin in earnest. And then I'd want enough to swatch with, once it was all spun up. See how quickly 3.5 pounds transforms from a huge amount of fiber to what I'm merely hoping would be enough for a sweater? Oh, and also calculated into those 3.5 pounds is fiber lost to human error, of which I wanted to anticipate a lot, since I was new to scouring fleeces and had never touched a pair of wool combs before. I am most certainly human, and have spent almost 32 years perfecting my ability to make errors of all varieties!

I chose the Corriedale because I knew it would be good for combing, I knew it would be at least a moderately soft fiber and suitable for a sweater, and because it was white. Just as I wouldn't wish fun fur on a new knitter because it makes it so hard to see your stitches, I thought a white fleece with good lock structure would be ideal for a new scourer. It would let me see my mistakes and successes a lot more clearly than a darker colored fleece.

My first scouring experiment was the Yarn Harlot's stovetop method. I actually had the "bright" idea to do it in the oven, for some reasons which now escape me, and other reasons which now make me feel stupid. (Do you know how inefficient an oven is at heating large containers of liquid? The answer is "very." This is why we have stoves, people!) I bought an undyed pillowcase, a huge bottle of blue Dawn dishwashing liquid, rubber gloves, a meat thermometer, and a big disposable roasting pan. I followed her method pretty closely (once I figured out that in the oven was not going to work well), and while I was fairly happy with the results, I wasn't all that fond of the process. It took a very long time, and I felt that the pillowcase prevented the water and detergent from penetrating the wool as well as I'd like. Similarly, I felt that it made it difficult to "rinse" the wool. I also didn't like the clumsiness of trying to drain a very hot pan of very hot water, while keeping the wool from falling into the sink.

At the time, I was also concerned that the tips of some of the locks, which were dirtier than the rest of the locks, were not coming clean. I later learned that this method actually did a pretty good job of cleaning the dirtier tips, but at the time I didn't have anything to compare it to, and had been unrealistically expecting absolute perfection.

I decided that my next try would be in the sink. I bought some smaller mesh laundry bags at Joann Fabrics -- small enough that I could fill them enough to keep the locks from all wanting to sink to the bottom of the bag, and small enough that they would fit well in the kitchen sink. As it turns out, I can perfectly fit two of them side by side in my kitchen sink, which works out very nicely.

I discovered that my hot water heater is not as adjustable as I'd like. I wanted water a lot hotter than 120 F (the hottest I can get our tap water) to scour the wool, so I decided to boil water in a huge pot on the stove, to add to the hottest tap water I could get. This yielded water about 150 F, which I was happy with. I've read anywhere from 110 - 180 as ideal for scouring wool, and have yet to find a real consensus on the matter. 150 seemed like a good compromise, and was fairly easily achievable for me. (Note: If you have small children or particularly forgetful or clumsy adults in your household, be cautious about turning up your hot water heater, lest anyone be scolded. Obviously, our hot water heater has anticipated this in not allowing me to turn it up to scolding temperature! I am most certainly a forgetful, clumsy adult, and am beaming proud that I've made it through this experience with no serious burns.)

My initial sink method went as follows: First, I separated locks of wool, and placed them with the tips all facing in the same direction in the small mesh bags. I had a few layers of locks, with nothing separating the layers. I would start filling the sink with the hottest tap water possible as my pot was close to boiling, add in the boiling water, and continue adding in tap water until it seemed like enough. (It's amazing how long it takes to boil a huge pot of water, and to fill a kitchen sink to just the halfway mark.) I then squirted enough Dawn in the water to make it turn a reasonable blue color, and gently stirred with a wooden spoon that was designated as fiber only. (I don't want to serve food with the same spoon that touches dirty wool water.) I then placed the bags in the sink, horizontally, so as not to disturb my carefully arranged locks. I gently pushed them down with the spoon, until they sank a bit under the water. I let them sit for 15-20 minutes, then carefully lifted them out, let them drip a good deal of water, and put them in the roasting pan (remember that thing?) while I drained the sink and waited until I had boiling water to repeat the process. (I filled the pot and put it on the stove as soon as I put the wool in the water, but it takes so long to boil that the wool got a good rest between each step.) I repeated this soapy soaking 2 more times. I found that on subsequent soakings, the wool packets were very reluctant to sink into the water. My first attempt to solve this problem was to put a couple of wire cooling racks (the kind you use for cookies) on the wool packets, put the roasting pan on top of that, and partially fill it with water, to weigh everything down. That was clumsy and difficult.

After the 3 washes, I did 3 soapless rinses, using the hottest water from the tap. Then I gently squeezed each wool packet, removed the contents, and left the wool on a mesh sweater rack to dry.

What did I learn from my first attempt at the kitchen sink method? I found that the tips didn't come as clean as in the stovetop method, and that cleaner wool floats more readily than dirtier wool. I also learned that one must exercise patience when it comes to wet wool, because separating those layers of locks was a lot easier once it had dried a bit. Before it dried, it just seemed like a matted mess, even though I am now confident that I didn't felt a thing. This reminds me of an episode of Cast On, in which Brenda talks about the urge to toss a lace shawl that she has just washed in preparation for blocking, because it looks like such a hopeless messy pile of stuff. Raw wool is a lot like that. When you pull it out of the water, you can't quite believe what you just did to it, and just have to have faith that, really, it's okay. Think of what your hair looks like when wet. It really does get better.

I found advice somewhere online that picking apart dirty tips before washing can help them get clean, because they'll be more open, allowing the water and detergent to penetrate better. For my next batch, I did this. It was a very labor intensive process -- it took me an hour and a half to prepare just one of the two small mesh bags for scouring. However, the tips did come cleaner, using an otherwise identical process. But I wasn't convinced that it was absolutely worth the time investment, so I tried hand carding one of the "dirtier" locks (none of them were really that dirty) from the previous batch, and found that the resulting rolag was white and fluffy and beautiful. I wouldn't have known that it had a dirty tip, possibly because combing it helped eliminate some of the dirt particles that were stuck in it. Another new thing I did with this batch was to place pieces of tulle between the layers of locks, to keep them more separated. I stole the idea from Sock Pr0n, and it worked beautifully. I also added some wool wash to the last rinse, to add a light scent (of tea tree oil) to the locks, and to hopefully add in some oils, so they wouldn't be too dry from all the scouring.

I had hoped to try washing the rest of what I had left (which felt like a lot) in one or two batches, in a larger mesh bag in the bathtub. But I was unable to get my tap water temperature as hot as I'd like, and did not feel comfortable carrying a huge pot of boiling water from the kitchen to the bathroom. (I already feel that I'm partaking in a dangerous activity by carrying it a couple of feet from the stove to the kitchen sink!) And then I couldn't find my bigger mesh bag. So I decided to try the sink again, but with a twist. After my hour and a half tip picking prep with the previous batch, I read other advice suggesting that a good long soaking can also help open and soften dirty tips, making any subsequent washing more efficient and effective. So I carefully stuffed my 2 smaller mesh bags (again using layers of tulle to separate the layers of locks), and let them soak for a few hours in warm water. As with my initial soak of the Babydoll Southdown, I ended up with rusty orange water. I still don't understand how I could get such bright water from such light colored locks, but it's pretty cool. Here's a photo:

The rest of the process was the same as the other sink washes, except that I decided to do only 2 washes and rinses. The only reason I had been doing three before was to try to get those tips clean, and since I knew that even slightly dirty tips would yield very nice processed wool, I decided to stop obsessing. I also flipped the bags over halfway through each 20 minute session, to overcome any problems caused by its tendency to float. The soaking method worked very nicely, and I think the tips even came a bit cleaner than with the very time consuming picking method. I also started rolling and gently squeezing the bags between each wash, to get as much dirty water out as possible. This will probably be my method from here on out.

To recap, here are the supplies and procedure for the method that works for me. This method may not be best for everyone or for every fleece, but I'm pretty happy with it as a way to scour small to medium sized batches of greasy wool, while maintaining lock structure for combing:

* 1 large kitchen sink
* 1 pair of rubber gloves
* 1 large roasting pan, or other container to hold the bags of fleece while the sink is draining or being refilled
* 1 large wooden spoon, or other stirring implement
* One or two small mesh bags of the sort they sell for washing delicates in a washing machine. I picked mine up at Joann Fabrics.
* One huge pot for boiling water (if you can't turn up your hot water heater, or don't want to because you have small children in the house)
* A yard or so of tulle. I totally overbought, but it's dirt cheap. I had a few choices, and went for the variety with larger holes, and chose white, so there would be no risk of dye bleeding onto my wool.
* scissors to cut the tulle
* A meat or candy thermometer, to check on the temperature of your water. This can be very handy, when you feel that your huge pot of water is about to boil, but aren't sure. I have more than once checked with the thermometer, found that it was already at 206 F (boiling is 212), and decided to just stop waiting and dump it in the sink. Close enough! I watched pot may never boil, but with a thermometer I don't really need it to.
* A large container of blue Dawn dishwashing liquid. (There are other detergents that will work, but this is a popular one, and is easy for me to find at the grocery store.)
* Some no-rinse wool wash, to add to your final rinse.
* A space to lay out the wool to dry.
* A kitchen timer, so you don't forget your wool. (You don't want to leave it in for too long, because the lanolin will redeposit itself onto the wool if the water cools down too much!)

Stuff your bags with wool. If you plan to comb the wool, try to keep it neatly arranged, with layers of tulle between layers of wool. Fill the sink at least halfway, and let the wool soak for at least a couple of hours. (Overnight works well.) Drain the sink, put the wool somewhere (roasting pan, for example) to wait, and fill your sink with very hot water. (I aim for 140-150 F, using boiling water to supplement the tap.) Add in some Dawn, stir, then put in your wool. Set your timer for 10 minutes. After 10 minutes, flip the wool, then let it sit for 10 more minutes. Drain the water, gently squeeze the wool packets, set them aside, and repeat. (If your wool is fairly clean and non greasy, you may not need to repeat. If it's particularly dirt and greasy, you may want to do this three times instead of two.) Next, fill the sink at least halfway with hot water from the tap. It doesn't need to be as hot as the wash water. Let it soak for a good long while, flipping it partway through. Drain, gently squeeze wool packets, and repeat, with slightly cooler water, and a little bit of wool wash. Drain, squeeze your wool, and lay it out in a quiet, sunny (if possible) spot to dry, removing it from the bags and separating the layers, so it will dry more quickly. Unless you're in the desert, count on letting it sit at least a few days. (I find that I only have time to do this once a week or so, so I'll just let it sit for a week or more on the enclosed back porch, until I do the next batch.)

Here are some photos of the magic of scouring:

I hope my bumblings as a new wool scourer are helpful to some of you! Thank you so much to the people who answered questions, exchanged ideas, and generally listened to my ramblings as I was finding my way through this process. (In particular, Stephanie Pearl-McPhee, who generously answered an email in the midst of traveling, and the folks in the Fiber Prep group on Ravelry, which is an amazing resource for anyone thinking of doing any sort of fiber prep.)

I am planning a future post about hand carding and combing fiber. I also have some finished objects to blog about, once I have my photos all together. Again, let me know if you have any fiber prep (or other) questions. I'm really enjoying it, and want to do all I can to convince more of you to try it out.

simple gifts

2008-10-05T09:35:00.002-04:00

I've been knitting a lot lately, and it feels so nice to have some finished objects to share. I'll keep it to the two that are gifts, and going out in the mail today.

First, there are the legwarmers for a wonderful kid who just turned four, and who needs something stripey and soft and funky to add to her wardrobe. Her mom often lets her choose her own outfits, and her style leans toward eclectic and layered, so I have confidence that these legwarmers will fit right in.

These things are super simple -- cast on, work 2x2 ribbing for a bit, and then bind off. They yarn is my own handspun, from a BMFA Sheep 2 Shoe kit in the lapis colorway. It's a worsted weight yarn, and a superwash merino, so it should be soft on her legs, and easily washable. I spun and plied it fairly tightly, so I think the legwarmers should wear well. And I think I managed to cast on the right number of stitches so that they won't slouch too much now, but enough that they will grow as she does. I can actually stretch these over my legs, though of course they're pretty short on me.

I'm hoping there will be some modeled shot to link to soon, when super four year old receives her somewhat late birthday gift.

My other finished project is actually a commissioned project, as a gift for a friend of my mom.

This is the Shetland Triangle, designed by Evelyn Clark, from Wrap Style. I've been eyeing this pattern for a long time, and finally bought the book during the last Interweave Press hurt book sale. It's the only pattern in the book I knew I wanted to make, and the book was discounted to less than the price I'd pay for a copy of just one pattern, so I figured it was definitely a good time to buy!

I used Reynolds Whiskey for this pattern. It seemed like a good match for the pattern, not only because I happened to have some, but because like the pattern it's a yarn I've been wanting to work with for a while. It's a fluffy and light sportweight yarn that comes in deeply heathered colors. I really liked working with it, and am probably going to use what I have leftover for a big EZ Pi Shawl, at some point.

What I really love about the Shetland Triangle is the background. For me, this lace pattern isn't about the holes, but about what the increases and decreases do to the flow of the stockinette background. I think I captured that pretty well in the above photo. I just adore how the stitches gently curve in and out. I think I'm eventually going to have to make one of these for me. If you want a couple more photos, you can find them here and here. The second photo shows the entirety of the shawl -- not a great photo (it's hard to artfully capture such a large thing in one shot), but I'd feel bad about not having a shot that isn't a closeup.

That's about it for now. But I have been doing a lot of fleece washing, and have a lot to talk about at some point. I've learned a ton, and can't wait to share my learning process with you guys. I've also been doing some spinning, including some new to me fibers. I have a gorgeous skein of loosely spun thick Wensleydale singles, and just started on some bombyx silk top this morning. yum. Great things to come!

Gelukwensen!

2008-09-07T10:19:00.003-04:00

Congratulations to wiscjennyann, who won the contest!

I am so glad that I decided to do a random drawing from the get-go, because it would have been awfully hard to choose my favorite contest entry from the bunch. You guys are a creative, ambitious group of people, and it was inspiring to read through your contest entries. Our lovely contest winner actually decided to write an entire blog post about her creative ambitions for the next year, and you all should read it. She writes very eloquently about why learning Dutch will be a creative process for her -- something which I really admire, because I've always found learning languages to be incredibly difficult. (And, uh, I hope the title of this post actually means "congratulations", and not something dirty or mean or weird. I'm trusting Yahoo Babelfish on this one...)

I have been working on two knitting projects as of late. Both of them are gifts. The first one is a Shetland Triangle (by Evelyn Clark), which is a birthday gift for a friend of my mom's. I'm knitting it on larger needles, in Reynolds Whiskey (a sportweight yarn), and it's going to be a beautiful and cozy fall and winter shawl.

I don't have photos of the actual knitting for my other project, but I do have photos of the handspun yarn:

The yarn is about a worsted weight, from a Blue Moon Fiber Arts Sheep 2 Shoe Kit. It's superwash merino, and chain (Navajo) plied. I don't have exact yardage or wpi counts, because I was in a hurry to cast on, and didn't bother. But I'm very happy with the yarn, and only used half of the kit, which means I have more of this lovely fiber to work with! (For the record, this kit was over weight. I'm guessing that my first kit being under weight was a fluke. And again, the fiber is really lovely, comes relatively uncompacted compared to other merino top I've bought, and in my experience so far is very color fast. I really love these kits.)

I'm about halfway done knitting a pair of legwarmers for an almost 4 year old little girl. She's the kind of little kid who I think would happily make such a fashion statement, and I can't wait to see photos of her in them. The legwarmers are very simple -- 2x2 ribbed tubes. They should be small enough to stay on her right now, but will definitely grow as she does. I tried the first one on, and while it's obviously short for my leg, it stretches to fit my calf. Talk about flexible sizing! I'm sure there will be modeled photos when she gets them, and I'll make sure to link to them for you. But more on this project when it's done.

I suppose that's all for now. I'm not sure if it will be in the next blog post or not, but I have been delving into fiber processing, and hope to write a blog post (or ten) about that. It will all be from a beginner's perspective, because I only got my hand carders this summer, and have yet to even receive my combs. But let me know if you have any questions, and I'll either try to answer them, or find links to answers. There are tons of great resources out there on the internet, and between blogs and youtube videos, I feel that I've received a pretty good beginner's education in how to use all of these funny looking tools.

time to knit...

handpainted

2008-08-28T17:48:00.003-04:00

I was meaning to post earlier, but then we kinda sorta bought a house, and things got exciting. But now that we're moved in*, it seems like a good time to revisit the blog.

(* By "moved in", I mean the same thing some knitters do when they talk about a "FO" that hasn't been blocked, and still has ends hanging out. Boxes? What boxes?)

We spent a lot of time painting. Alex more-so than me. And we still have a bit left to do, in addition to some finishing I want to do on a built-in storage unit in my office closet. Things aren't all settled and in their place yet, and I don't have any photos of things as they are now, but I do have a couple of photos of my office, from when I just started to move into it. My office with beautiful, beautiful handpainted walls. (It's really too bad you can't use the crock pot method on walls...)

Okay, that second one was just a silly shot. But I love that oil lamp, and it goes so well with the walls. I find the blue very calming, and I'm quite pleased with the colors I chose. You can't tell all that much from the photos, but there are actually 2 different shades of blue on the walls. If you want to copy me (and I highly recommend it, because these are very, very good blues), I used Sherwin Williams paint in the colors "Honolulu Blue" and "True Blue".

I'm going to do a photo dump of other stuff I've been saving up, because it's just been waiting too long, and I need to get around to blogging about it!

First up is my first real longdraw project. I bought 4 oz. of rambouillet roving at the NH Sheep and Wool festival in May. When I say roving, I mean it. A lot of people (sometimes me, I admit) call commercially combed top "roving", but roving technically refers to a carded fiber. This stuff was roving, which made it ideal for that longdraw, woolen spinning.

This skein is 84 grams, 346 yards, and 16.5 wpi untensioned (20.5 wpi tensioned). It's a 3 ply, and I consider it about a sportweight. Notice the yardage! Now, I lost a lot of the singles because of some uneven spinning, and probably uneven splitting of the top. I had a lot of singles left on two of the bobbins, after the first one ran out. If this skein weighed 4 oz., it would have had about 450 yards, which sounds solidly like a fingering weight yarn. But thus is the magic of longdraw woolen spinning -- you tend to get more yardage for your buck, probably because the fibers aren't as densely packed in there, giving you a lighter, airier yarn, really stretching the yardage you can get from a given amount of fiber. I'd heard of this phenomenon, but I didn't quite believe it until I made it happen with my own two hands.

I have tried longdraw and other woolen techniques before, but I never had much success until working with this fiber. I think part of it is the fiber -- rambouillet is very crimpy, and seems well suited to "spinning without training wheels", which is what longdraw feels like. The prep was also important. While I've tried longdraw with drum carded merino batts, it didn't work really well, probably because merino is so fine that carding it doesn't really get it in the same jumbled up state as carding a fiber like rambuoillet. But this is only speculation. There might have also been a learning curve on my part.

My other somewhat recent finished spinning project is perhaps my favorite of my handspuns. (Though it's so hard to choose.) Practice really does help, because this yarn is chain plied (Navajo plied), and I feel that it was my best effort at that technique, to date.

The yarn is South African Fine wool, and was dyed by Adrian at Hello Yarn. It's 94 grams, 300 yards, and 20 wpi, for a fingering weight. Aren't those colors just amazing! I love Adrian's dyeing, and feel like it makes my yarns that much better. You all should try her stuff, though please don't jump in front of me in line when she opens her fiber club back up. ;-) (Really, her stuff is the only stuff I'll haunt to try to snatch up, as it sells out within minutes. Nothing else is worth it to me like her fiber is. And I promise she's not paying me to say this. It's just that pretty and unique.)

There's not much more to say about that yarn, partially because it's been so long since I've spun it, and partially because the colors temporarily shut off all parts of my brain not dedicated to "oooh.... pretty...." when I look at it. It will be socks. Possibly plain stockinette socks, so the colors can just do their thing, completely uninterrupted.

That will be it for now. There is still time to enter the contest (see previous post). I will take entries until at least the end of September 1, but if you feel like entering late, feel free. I'll probably just accept any entries that come before I get around to doing the drawing for the winner. I have some stuff (of the non-pleasant sort) going on for a lot of next week, so look for the entry announcing the winner (and probably some more knitting/spinning bloggy stuff) the weekend after this coming weekend. Maybe earlier, if next week goes better than planned.

And thank you to all of the people who have already entered. You guys have some awesome plans, and it's been a blast reading what you have to say.

Q&A, plying, new spinning, and CONTEST

2008-08-04T18:33:00.005-04:00

This is a very long blog post, starting with some Q&A, including a large section on how I ply. If this stuff isn't interesting to you, scroll down for a spinning FO, as well as details for entering a contest for a skein of handspun.

I tend to star incoming emails that contain questions, and I apologize for the times I haven't gotten to them in a timely matter. Or, *gulp*, at all. Blogger doesn't allow me to reply directly to commenters, so things tend to get lost in the shuffle. But here's an attempt to answer some recent questions. I hope the information is still useful to those of you who asked, and not boring for those of you who didn't:

Auntiemichael asked about what WPI charts I find to be most realistic. The short answer is that I like the chart that came with my Nancy's Knit Knacks WPI tool. I don't find it to be perfect, but it's convenient, and pretty close to my idea of what a certain wpi means. Of course, everyone is different, and I think the best way to go about things is to spin a whole lot, do very accurate wpi measurements for everything, and then knit a lot of your handspun.

Segwyne flattered me by asking if I'd ever consider selling my handspun. I could go on and on about my very torn thoughts on this. The short answer is that I don't have any plans to sell my handspun on a regular basis, 1. because I spin too slowly, and 2. because I find the going range of rates for handspun to be dreadfully low, and wouldn't sell my hard work for that little money unless I really, really needed the money.

The long answer is that I would consider selling my handspun if I got faster at it, and if I felt there were an audience of potential buyers who would actually pay a much higher rate for it. I have very, very vaguely toyed with the idea of opening an Etsy shop, as my drawer of handspun has started to fill, and I realize that some of the perfectly good and pretty yarns I've spun might not be things I would adore knitting with. If I did this (a huge if), it would probably be sporadic -- I'd continue spinning for my own pleasure, and just sell things that turn out nicely, but not quite my style. For the moment, I'm very content giving beautiful but not-me yarn away to friends. And I have more friends who need some handspun before I'll really start to think about asking anyone to give me money for it.

Mel wants to know if my Francie sock pattern is toe up or cuff down. Sorry to say (for Mel's sake) that it's cuff down. My socks were to fit my 8.75" foot, and I used less than 3 oz. of the 4 oz. skein of smooshy, or somewhere in the ballpark of 340 yards. So if you're worried about running out of yarn, I recommend a yarn like smooshy, that has generous yardage!

Molly asked if I could give more information about how I ply. I don't currently have a good setup for taking photos or videos of my spinning or plying in action. What I have found to be very successful is careful use of my tensioned lazy Kate. Enough tension that the singles don't come off of it too quickly and get tangled, but not so much tension that I'm fighting with it. I want things to flow smoothly and steadily. This means adjusting the tension as you go, as you will need less tension as the bobbins empty.

Tension in the yarn coming off of the Kate gives me control. It makes the singles behave, as there is little to no slack to get into twisty, tangled trouble. For a 2 or 3 ply yarn, my strategy is to ply a section at a time, letting the twist build up until I like it, and then feeding that section smoothly onto the bobbin. This means strong intake, though not so strong that you are in a tug 'o war match with your wheel! So I tie the ends of the singles on to the loop of my leader, and let the twist build up in the leader, pinching it off, and then running my fingers smoothly up the singles. I have the singles threaded through separate fingers of my left hand, so they don't get in each others' way. The entire process, for me, is unrushed and controlled, and feels kind of like a worsted longdraw technique - my left hand, holding the singles, is back, and my right hand is pinching off, and allowing the twist to slowly go up the singles. I've found it's important to feed the newly plied sections at a moderate or slow speed onto the bobbin, or else things can get messy. Basically, just let the pull of the bobbin pull the newly plied yarn on, keeping a little tension on it so it doesn't fly out of control. This helps keep your bobbin neat, and helps the yarn wind on tightly, so you can fit more of it on the bobbin. Make sure to periodically check out the yarn on your bobbin, to make sure you like the amount of ply twist in it. Yarn can lose some ply twist as it goes onto the bobbin, so you may find that you want to slightly overply it, to compensate.

The technique I currently use for Navajo plying (or chain plying) is somewhat different. I do Navajo plying in two steps. My goal in the first step is simply to get the chains made, with minimal twist, and to get them neatly onto the bobbin. I use my largest whorl with fairly high takeup, so the twist introduced during phase one is minimal. This lets me concentrate on making good, neat chains, instead of fretting about both the chaining and the ply twist at the same time. Unlike a traditional 3 (or 2) ply, I keep my singles on my right, and control them with my right hand, leaving my left hand to control the twist. I do this because I find it easier to make the chains with my right hand. I treadle very slowly, not being afraid to stop treadling when I need to. (This is where having a responsive wheel that you are familiar with helps a lot. Practice stopping and starting on a dime, if you're not comfortable with it already.) My left hand is always controlling the twist, as you would do when spinning worsted singles. I make the chains as large as I comfortably can, without them getting messy, which means my chains aren't super long, but that the final yarn is nicer looking than if I tried to get the chains super big. The key is not letting two of the three "plies" (even though it's really a chained, twisted single, not a plied yarn) to twist around each other, without the third. You want all three "plies" to twist around each other together, not leaving the third one to have to twist around 2 already twisted plies, if that makes sense. I think this is the biggest problem area in Navajo plying, and is why I make my chains shorter than I used to, and why I keep tight control over the twist with my left hand.

When you have chained your singles yarn, and have it successfully wound onto the bobbin, you get to add your ply twist for real. Switch out bobbins, and simply feed the chained yarn through the wheel again, on a smaller whorl (faster ratio), controlling the twist as I described above for a 2 or 3 ply yarn. The chains are already made, and if things are properly tensioned, they should stay nice and neat. This is the boring, easy part. It's obviously more work to ply twice, but unless you're really, really good at this stuff, I think it's the only way to get a really neat chain plied yarn. Because chain plied yarn isn't as forgiving as a traditional 2 or 3 ply yarn, in that the ply twist can't really re-distribute itself beyond the chain it's in, I think it's really important to concentrate on making the plying as perfect as you can from the get-go. There just isn't as much wiggle room with this stuff. Of course, not everyone has the same standards for how they like they're plying to look, and I'm not trying to imply that everyone needs to strive for perfection. I'm just giving you my take on the matter.

I hope that was somewhat helpful, even without visuals. At some point this summer or fall I may try to get visuals to go along with all of that. I've tried to do stuff like this before, and it's really hard to get good photos or videos of your own knitting. But it could be a fun challenge! I also hope that it's not too repetitive -- I know that I've done my Navajo plying spiel at least a couple of times in a couple of different Ravelry groups, but I don't remember if I've done it on the blog. If you've seen it before, I trust that you skipped over it with ease.

And now on to the dessert. First, some more yarn I made:

This is a bamboo/merino blend named Spring Mix, from Muzzlepuffs, on Etsy.
400 yards, 111 grams 18wpi untensioned / 24 wpi tensioned

The mix wasn't all smooth going for me, though I got used to it eventually. It was a pretty good spinning experience, but I'll be more likely to go with merino/tencel in the future, when I want a shiny, silky merino blend. I'm not sure what this yarn will be, but I'm thinking a cowl/smoke ring of some sort. It's very soft yarn, and I think it will be nice to knit with.

And now on to the C. O. N. T. E. S. T.

As I mentioned above, I sometimes find myself with handspun that is perfectly lovely, but just not me. I have one such skein at the moment, don't have a friend I think it perfectly suits, and so might as well use it for a contest! (Not that my friends can't enter the contest -- I just don't think this particular yarn is destined for any particular person, and I prefer my yarn gifts to have a better fit with friends, if that's what I'm using them for.) First of all, the yarn, which you've seen before:

This is a chain plied fingering weight yarn, spun from superwash merino I bought from Crazymonkey, on Etsy. It is 110 grams, 382 yards, and 18 wpi (maybe a bit more). This yarn isn't perfect -- I was definitely still working on my chain plying technique at the beginning of the skein. But still, it's pretty darn nice. Just don't expect a perfect millspun yarn. It is handmade, after all. Here's another view of the yarn.

If you want the yarn, here's what you have to do: Tell me what you are planning (or at least hoping) to do to challenge yourself creatively in the next year. You don't have to have had anything in mind before now, as long as you come up with something that you honestly want to do, and think you honestly will at least try to do within the next year. And when I say creatively, I mean creatively. Stashbusting, and trying to knit a very large, complicated sweater straight from a pattern in a 2 week period is quite the knitting challenge, but I don't know that I consider that a creative challenge. When I say creative, I don't mean quantity, but I do mean quality. Tell me about something you want to design, or are designing. (Be cryptic, if necessary, if you plan on submitting it for publication!) Tell me about the perfect sweater pattern you are planning to completely rework, and why, and how. Tell me about the techniques you want to learn and experiment with. Tell me how you're going to explore, and expand your horizons, and challenge yourself to think and do differently than you have thunk and done before.

This doesn't need to be limited to the fiber arts, or to crafting. I love creativity and innovation, wherever it can be found. Scientists, tell me about the awesome new theory you want to test out, regardless of whether you think I'd understand it. Writers, tell me about the story you're submitting to a literary magazine. Musicians, tell me about your latest composition, or your foray into playing a genre of music completely outside your comfort zone.

Even better, blog about it, and tell me you did. (You do not have to link back to me -- I'm not looking for publicity. Of course, you are free to link to me if you wish. Just no bonus points for it.) I think that being public about your creative aspirations can only make them grow, and can help inspire others.

To enter, leave me a comment on this post. To keep things simple, I will only be counting comments left on this post as entries in the contest. (This does include comments that are links to *specific* blog posts of your own, where you have answered the challenge.) When you comment, please make sure there is a link back to your blog, so I know how to find you if you're the winner. If you don't have a blog, please leave a name that is sufficiently unique, so there is no confusion if you are the winner. I reserve the right to give "extra" entries to people whose answers I really, really like. But everyone who enters, following the above guidelines, will get at least one entry in the contest.

I am moving this month, so am going to keep the contest open until the end of the month. That way I'll be unpacked before I need to find the yarn and send it out. I'll choose winners on September 1, and will do it late enough in the day so that midnight, September 1 has had a chance to make a complete circuit of the globe. (In other words, enter by August 31 your time, and you're in.)

Walking On The Sun

2008-07-27T14:54:00.003-04:00

superwash merino, dyed by Spunky Eclectic
104 grams 262 yards
17 wpi (untensioned), 23 wpi (tensioned)
plus a little bit of leftovers that I chain plied, not pictured

It's currently zipping along to California, to live with my friend Jen, who not only makes things with yarn, but who also makes music. (No, really, makes music. As in, dreams up wonderful things, then writes down notes that tell other people what to sing or play. Okay, it may be a bit more difficult and involved than I make it sound, but you get the picture. How cool is that!)

I have a few other things to show you guys, but I'm going to save them, and spread them out a bit. I've gone through a very long period of infrequent but very full blog posts, and am going to try out slightly (SLIGHTLY) more frequent but less full posts. Let's see how I like it!

I also feel like being a bit chatty today, so I'll try that out, too. Summer has really been wearing on me, for a variety of reasons, and I already have autumn on my mind. Aside from the normal stressful things about summer (namely that it's almost always too hot), some good stressful stuff (house buying!) and bad stressful stuff (health stuff) have me thinking a lot about life a few months from now, when the air will be crisp and cool, and the stressful stuff will be mostly behind me, leaving me to relax a bit more.

I have grand plans for the autumn and winter, few of which I'm sure will happen, because I always dream up more than I could do in the time-frame in which I want to do it. (It doesn't help that that time frame is often RIGHTNOW.) I have all of this great handspun that I am longing to see fulfill its destiny and turn into something other than stash drawer filler. (Really, all good yarns deserve to be more than stash drawer filler, don't they? One reason I don't stash a lot is because I find it mildly distressing to see all that great potential just sitting there, mostly hidden, not doing or being anything.) I have yarn for a sweater, and I long to knit a sweater. (RIGHTNOWRIGHTNOW of course!)

I'm also expanding my spinning horizons, and am working on my first longdraw project right now. And I have 8 oz. of washed corriedale, and a pair of hand carders on their way to me, in anticipation of taking my adventures in fiber one step closer to the sheep. Of course, the next step after that is buying a whole fleece, hand carding it, spinning it, and knitting up a sweater from it. And of course, that's probably a sweater I'd want to design.

And then there are the design ideas. I'm not actively working on anything right now (see above, re stress!), but have a few vague ideas I hope to get to eventually, and one thing that I just pitched to Amy Singer in an email, because I think it may be a good Knitty pattern. (Or set of patterns. But I shall say no more, in case she's interested!)

Basically, I want to be doing Big Things right now, but don't have the time or energy. But writing about them makes them all seem a bit more real, so thanks for indulging me. I also hope it gets you guys thinking about the Big Things you want to do, whether you plan to do them right away, this autumn, or even later. You don't have to spill the beans right now, but get thinking, because there may be a contest coming up for some handspun, and you just may have to divulge your deepest, darkest fiber fantasies and goals to me to enter. Just maybe. Stay tuned...

Did I do that?

2008-07-06T09:09:00.003-04:00

In today's episode of Bowerbird Blogs, Rebekkah is full of herself. Her head is the size of a moderately large watermelon (seedless), and she is simultaneously incredulous that she actually made those things, and extraordinarily proud of her accomplishments. (But in all silly seriousness, sometimes I think the gnomes invade my house at night and use their gnomy magics to turn everything I make into something a thousand times better.)

First up is my very first pair of handspun socks:

I couldn't be more pleased with them. I blogged about the yarn before, and if you click on the photo, you will find links to the original photos in Flickr, with details about the yarn. In short, it's a 3 ply merino fingering weight, dyed by The Arts At Eagles Find, which is a shop on Etsy. I attempted to get the colors to match up in the plies, for perfect striping, and while that didn't happen, I adore the results.

The pattern is a non-pattern. 64 stitches, 2x2 ribbing, plain old slip stitch heelflap and gusset shaping, with a flat toe. It's my standard, basic sock pattern, and I think it was perfect for the yarn. The yarn is incredibly bouncy, and these socks hug my feet like no other socks I've knit before. They completely justify my habit of falling back on comfort spinning from time to time, which for me is spinning yarn exactly like the yarn I spun for these socks. (Not that comfort spinning is bad, but I like to use my crafts as an opportunity to learn and grow, in addition to relaxation and plain old enjoyment. But the comfort zone, and doing what I already know how to do with ease, can feel so good sometimes.)

Out of curiosity, is there any need or desire out there for a free writeup of my basic sock pattern? I know that there are tons of basic sock patterns out there, many mostly the same, but all of them probably slightly different. I don't know that my writeup of this sock "pattern" would add much to the mix, but I really like what I do, and if there is a desire for it, I could easily write up something for free download. Let me know in the comments if you're interested, and I'll add it to my to-do list. (And if there is no interest, just count this as part of the theme of this post: me being a bit too full of myself!)

Next in this tour of my inflated ego are the socks I knit for my mom:

They're not handspun, but they are my own pattern. I had hopes of giving handspun socks to my mom, but the yarn I originally had designated turned out to be too thick, so I went with millspun yarn instead. It's Socks That Rock lightweight, though I forget the name of the colorway. It works as a great substitute for the Smooshy, which is what the Francie pattern was originally designed with. My mom says they fit like a glove (or a sock!), so I'm quite pleased.

Another thing I'm proud of are my first successful laceweight singles:

This is 50/50 merino/tencel blend in the 1994 colorway, from Muzzlepuffs on Etsy. I learned that the trick (for me) when it comes to laceweight singles is to use a larger (slower) whorl than I'd use for similarly sized singles that I'd ply. Plying undoes some of the twist in the singles, so for a yarn that isn't going to be plied, you want something with less twist in it, to keep it under control. I have a potential disaster of a yarn that I may still be able to fix, and which I hope to eventually blog about. That yarn is overspun, but was a good learning experience in making this yarn.

I absolutely adored spinning this blend. I often find that I can't spin for a long period of time, because I'm prone to getting "yarn burn" in my fingertips. It just hurts to have the fiber running through my fingers for an extended period of time. I take frequent breaks, even with super soft merinos, but I could spin for a really long time with this blend. It just slipped through my fingers like magic. This yarn is going to be a small shawl for a friend, and I adored spinning this blend so much that I immediately went out and bought 8 oz. of another similar blend in pinks and reds, so I can spin for a full sized shawl for myself.

The yarn above is 108 grams, 816 yards, and about 32 wpi. I find it really difficult and tedious to do wpi counts for yarn this thin. And really, for yarns like this I don't think it's important. I mostly know that it's really thin, and that I'll determine needle size by swatching until I like the density I'm getting in stockinette. I've already started the shawl, but will post more about that in the future.

As an aside, I think the colorway name the dyer gave to the roving (1994) is absolutely perfect. I don't remember the exact wording of her reasoning, but I think she chose the name because the colors reminded her of the year 1994. I totally get it. They also remind me of 1994, and I'm not completely sure why. I don't know that I wore those colors all that much when I was 17, but it just fits. Are the dyer and I both on the same weird brain wave, or does that yarn remind anyone else of 1994? I'm really curious.

So that's the update on the stuff I've made recently that I'm overly proud of. I have a couple of handspun projects on the needles, but I'll wait until I have some updated photos of those to post about them here. But I have one more thing to be incredibly proud of. I have some awesome friends. Look at what Syne sent me:

That's her own hand-dyed handspun, one ply silk and one ply baby camel down. I'm not sure how much there is, but one of these days I'm going to re-skein it using a niddy noddy, so I can get a good count. I could only do a halfway decent job in capturing the richness and beauty of the colors in that photo. It's truly spectacular yarn. Syne has quite the talent for color, and I almost feel that I don't even need to knit up the yarn, because just staring at it as-is makes me incredibly happy.

tension

2008-06-15T06:19:00.003-04:00

I write to you today from what I'm calling my temperate rainforest. A jungle right outside the windows of my newly put-together "office" space. If I ignore the asphalt out the windows to my left (one of which doesn't have a shade, yet), I look out onto a yard blanketed in green. There is the soothing sound of rain, and a flowering tree right outside my window, drooping from the combined weight of blossoms and water. I've had my little office space set up for a week now, and I can't get enough of it. I just thought you needed to know that.

On my new, beautiful desk, to my left, sit three skeins of yarn. I still find the idea of a millspun, storebought stash kind of boring, but opening up my handspun drawer is a remedy for the dreariest of moods. I made that! I think I always need to keep a skein or three of handspun on the desk, too.

The first skein is a colorful merino, made from fiber bought from Crazy Monkey Creations.

It's 110 grams, 382 yards, and an 18 wpi fingering weight yarn. Because of the bright, contrasting colors, I decided to Navajo ply the yarn. It was my first large-scale Navajo plying project on the wheel (I'd done a bunch of test runs with leftover singles, previously), and I learned a lot. I knew, going in, that my basic strategy was going to be one of divide and conquer. I was going to divide the plying process into three distinct steps: 1. make a chain or two, as long as I could reach, 2. get that chain onto the bobbin (and repeat steps 1 and 2, until...), 3. re-ply the bobbin, adding twist.

The logic of this divide and conquer technique is that Navajo plying can be complicated, and because of the way the chaining can prevent twist from truly spreading evenly across the length of a yarn, it's best to concentrate on twist separatly from plying. I decided, about halfway through the plying that dividing up the act of chaining and the act of treadling wasn't working for me. I was trying to chain too big, which meant I lost control over my work, and allowed twist to enter unevenly into the yarn. I think one of the big dangers with Navajo plying is having twist enter two of the three plies before the third ply is there, to get twisted up with the other two. This leads to a lumpy mess. (Or at least, a yarn that isn't as nice as it could be.) By trying to make really long chains, losing some of the tension on them, and then treadling them onto the bobbin, I was having this twist problem. I solved it by making smaller, more manageable chains with my right hand only, controlling the twist as well as I could with my left hand, and treadling as steadily as possible to keep tension on the strands, and keep them pulling onto the bobbin.

The key with my technique is to use the largest whorl you have, and set your wheel for strong uptake onto the bobbin. I want to call the first step "chain and wind", because any twist that enters the yarn is incidental. The point of that first step is to get your chains made, and to get the yarn safely onto the bobbin. The point of the second step is to add the twist. This way, you can concentrate more fully on each step, and hopefully get a neater result. I'm fairly pleased with the results for this yarn, but it could be improved. I learned that smaller, neater, and more controlled chains might be a better thing than large, messy, uncontrolled chains. I still made the chains as big as I could, but changed my definition of "could" from "as far as my arms can stretch" to "what I can keep under control".

I hope that explanation made sense. The technique works really well for me, now that I've worked out the kinks, and I think that some of the people out there who openly complain about the difficulty of Navajo plying well (with good reason!) might benefit from trying this divide and conquer technique.

My next Navajo plied yarn went much more smoothly.

This yarn was spun from Falklands roving, in the Zinnia colorway, from Fat Cat Knits. A photo of the pre-drafted roving can be found here, and two more photos of the finished yarn here and here.

This yarn was somewhat of a surprise. I knew from the outset that I wanted to Navajo ply, to maintain the gorgeous colors. I didn't split the roving at all before I spun it, to keep the runs of color as long and true as possible. In my head, I thought I'd go for a worsted weight yarn, and so I started spinning my singles for a worsted weight yarn -- a 2-ply worsted weight yarn. Whoops! In the end, my Navajo plied yarn is 121 grams 102 yards, and 9.5 wip untensioned (12.5 wpi tensioned), for a bulky weight yarn. I will explain that untensioned/tensioned thing when I discuss my next yarn, so keep on reading! It's not the yarn I expected to make, but it is downright gorgeous, and I'm very proud of it. It will make a smashing hat.

The third yarn I have for you today was actually spun before the Zinnia Falklands. It was a complete splurge purchase, from a dyer whose work I've been admiring for a while. I needed some easy as pie comfort knitting, and it's pink and purple wool, so I called it girly comfort yarn. While that does bring up connotations of women in flowing white dresses discussing how fresh they feel, I'm sticking with the name.

The fiber is merino, from Freckle Face Fibers. First of all, this was my favorite non-superwash merino, ever. It reminded me a lot of the superwash merino that came in my BMFA Sheep 2 Shoe kit. It was incredibly boucy, soft, and springy. She must get her merino from the happiest sheep in the world!

Because the wool was so bouncy, it surprised me a bit. I originally split the roving into three equal sized lumps, to make a fingering weight 3 ply. But when I did ply-back tests, I found that I had been unintentionally spinning it thicker than I wanted. As soon as it had a chance to fluff and breathe, during ply-back, it sproined out into something thicker than I expected. It was pretty clear that I was spinning singles appropriate for a 2-ply fingering weight, not a 3-ply, so I re-split the roving and went with that. In the end, I had 110 grams, and 372 yards, at 16 wpi (untensioned), and 22 wpi (tensioned).

So this whole tensioned/untensioned thing, huh? For those of you new to this stuff, wpi stands for "wraps per inch". It's basically a count of how many widths of your yarn will fit into an inch, or any other unit you choose to use. I try to do my wpi measurements untensioned, and lay the strands right next to each other, not making any effort to squeeze them in at all, but trying to get them right up next to each other, as closely as they naturally go. Another way to do a wpi count is under some tension. Looking at things like the wpi counts for yarns in the backs of issues of Interweave Knits, or even "suggested" wpi counts for different "weight" yarns on different wpi measurement tools, on Ravelry (whose counts I think are way out there!), and other places, it's obvious that different people are going to get different wpi counts for the same yarn. I think it's like gauge -- there may be an average gauge for yarn X with needles Y, but you've got to find out what your gauge is with yarn X and needles Y for the numbers to be of any use to you. Everyone will do their wraps a bit differently, and just like with gauge, there is always the temptation to "cheat" the numbers a bit, so you get what you think you "should" get, as opposed to seeing what the reality is.

It was the "girly comfort" yarn above that got me really wondering about tensioned vs. untensioned wpi. The yarn, untensioned, has fewer wpi than I'd expect for it. The wpi tell me that it's a sport weight, when I definitely think it will knit up as a fingering weight. Just looking at it on my desk (and I apologize that I don't have a photo with a coin or other small object for comparison, for you guys), I can buy that some people might call it a light sport weight. But I know it's a fingering weight at heart. Part of that has to do with its loft and bounce. The fiber I used was very lofty and bouncy, and the way I spun and plied it left it with a lot of loft and bounce. It's very stretchy, and you can see the diameter of the yarn get smaller if you take a length of it and stretch it taught. This is a good thing for a yarn! You knit it with some tension, and then watch it relax and bloom into place for a nice, firm, elastic fabric. Perfect for socks. But it leads me to believe that there is information to be gained from a tensioned wpi count, because it is under that tension when you knit it.

My tensioned wpi count for the girly comfort yarn is 22, which for me makes it a light fingering weight. How do I reconcile 16 and 22? I don't know, but I can tell you that I had some Socks That Rock lightweight sitting nearby as I did the wpi for this yarn, and according to the way I measure wpi, the STR was 16 wpi untensioned, and 22 wpi tensioned. (That thud you hear is the sound of my jaw hitting the floor!) This tells me that my yarn is very, very similar to STR lightweight, even though it is a 2 ply, and STR is a 3 ply. At the very least, they should be suitable for similar sized needles (though the ply number may affect that), and they are very similar in how stretchy and bouncy they are.

So while I haven't come to peace yet with exactly what untensioned vs. tensioned wpi means for determining a yarn's "weight", it does seem to be a good way to help compare it to commercial yarns. Presumably, the difference between tensioned and untensioned wpi says something about the yarn's stretch and bounce -- the bigger the difference, the sproingier the yarn. And I have a gut feeling that it's safer to call a 16/22 (untensioned/tensioned) wpi yarn a fingering weight yarn than it is to call a 16/18 wpi a fingering weight. I have a feeling the latter would definitely feel like a sport weight yarn. I wish I had the control over my spinning to make one, so I cound test it out, but I'm not there yet. (I suppose using a less crimpy fiber, with less ply, twist would be a start?)

I'm really into this untensioned/tensioned wpi thing (though I'm sick of typing it!), and plan to test this on my old yarns, as I knit them up. I think the second measurement adds a lot of info to the first, and may help explain why two yarns that appear to be the same thickness and yards per pound may act so differently. At a gut level, this is something I already realized. But it's taking numbers to get me to a higher level of understanding, as a spinner who really wants to know and understand what she's making! If you want, join in on the experiment, and start doing both untensioned and tensioned wpi measurements on your yarns, and even more importantly, start reporting them! While what you measure as 20 wpi may be a 18 wpi for me or a 22 wpi for someone else, I think what's important here is the relative measure between tensioned and untensioned. I'm officially starting a movement, so please join me!

(And for the sake of truthfulness, since I started composing this post a trip to Home Depot has been made, and the shade has been repaired and hung. If you still remember what that refers to, after reading through this entire post!)

let's just ignore that whole May, 2008, thing

2008-06-07T19:40:00.002-04:00

Take a lesson from me. The problem with naming your blog too specifically is that, when you expand your horizons, you're left with an immense feeling of guilt. Bowerbird Knits?! While I have actually knit in the past month (or more) since I last blogged, looking at the state of my knitting basket, as well as the state of my last several blog posts, it's obvious that nowadays Bowerbird mostly Spins. (And really, who doesn't like a dizzy birdie?) Between not-quite-existential angst about the divide between my blog name and my bloggable activities, as well as some major non-bloggable life events, I was left wringing my hands instead of using them to punch out new blog posts. But no sappy apologies! That's life, and sometimes life (and angst about really stupid things, like whether I have too much spinning content on a "knitting" blog) gets in the way. The next 6 months or so are going to be pretty unpredictable and crazy. It may mean that I blog (and knit and spin) more than usual, or it may mean that I do those things less frequently. But of all the things to stress out about in life, this really shouldn't be one of them, so I'll just shut up on that topic for now.

I've finished 5 yarns since the last time I blogged, and have a 6th yarn that is setting as I type this. (That one will wait for a future blog post. It may turn out to be a disaster, so this could be fun!) I'm going to go out of chronological order, in an attempt to organize what I'm going to say about my growth as a spinner, and things I've learned/discovered over the past several weeks.

The first two yarns are pretty straightforward creatures. They're both from rovings dyed by Hello Yarn, and are both approximately worsted weight 2 ply yarns.

Turkey Attack!

The base fiber is Shetland, and the resulting yarn is 106 grams, 200 yards, and 13 wpi, for a dk/light worsted weight yarn. More photos here and here.

This yarn was a good lesson in drafting evenly for thicker yarns. I think it's difficult to draft evenly for even, thick yarns, because I think you have to rely more on visual cues than you do with thinner yarns. Well, at least I do. The finer a yarn, the more completely I'm going to be able to feel the entirety of its circumference with just my fingertips. I think those fine yarns are easier to micromanage, while the thicker ones require a more complete sensory evaluation to keep on track. Maybe it would help if I had bigger fingers!

Honeybear

This was a new base fiber for me -- a 70/30 merino/mohair blend. It was a really difficult spinning experience for me, partially because of how sticky mohair is, but also because I was going through some drive band growing pains for at least the first half of the spinning. I may shy away from this blend for a little while, though the resulting yarn is absolutely glorious! The yarn is 114 grams, 204 yards, and 12 wpi, for a worsted weight yarn. It is exactly what I wanted to make, and will become a simple ribbed hat for my brother's 25 birthday. Despite my difficulties with the fiber, I think that my singles, and resulting 2-ply, are slightly better in evenness than the Turkey Attack. I really started to get the feel of the thicker singles into my fingers with this project. More photos can be found here, here, and here.

Hmm, ya know what? I think that's enough for one blog post. I have a lot to say about the other 3 yarns I've made, and don't want things to get obscenely long, so I'll post again in a few days, or maybe a week. Consider this the eye candy half of the spinning update, with some edumacation (as well as eye candy) to come. And if I'm really quick, I may have some socks ready for the next blog post. But maybe not...

Pink

2008-04-28T07:05:00.003-04:00

When I was a child I had a pink canopy bed. As you can imagine, I outgrew that fashion statement. While I was certainly not a tomboy, I don't think I was ever a really girly girl, so it surprises me a bit that I had that frilly, pink furniture. Imagine how surprised I am that now, solidly ensconced in my 30's, I've rediscovered my inner pink. But this time it's not because of Barbie or My Little Pony, or cultural expectations of what a girl should be or like. I think I just like pink.

That huge hank is a Blue Moon Fiber Arts Sheep 2 Shoe kit, in the Pink Granite colorway. (I live in the Granite State. This wasn't a Pink statement, I swear!) 6.9 oz., 508 yards, 3 ply, 16 wpi, sportweight. I spun it the way I've become most comfortable spinning, which is short draw worsted, with high twist.

This was a big project for me, and I'm quite satisfied with the results. The kit recommends that you split the roving into three equal strips, so the colors will line up when you ply the singles. I know from experience that this is an almost impossible task for me, but I took inspiration from something else mentioned in the instructions. They said to break off smaller sections to spin with, presumably to make the spinning more manageable. What I decided to do was to break off sections before splitting the roving. The dye on the roving went white, pink, black, pink, and then back to white, and I tore off roving in the middle of the white sections, yielding just under an ounce each time. Then I split those smaller sections into thirds, and spun each third on a separate bobbin. This meant a lot of bobbin changes, but I felt it also gave me a better chance of evenly splitting the roving amongst the bobbins, since I could make up for uneven splitting in one round on subsequent rounds. If I were really smart, I would have kept track of the number of grams of roving each bobbin got per round, so I could truly even them out, instead of just estimating.

In the end, of course my bobbins ended up getting off kilter from each other. It's really hard to keep things even. But because there is more pink than black or white, there are sections even late in the plying where I had solid or quasi-solid strips of pink, which is nice. And I didn't end up with that much leftover after the shortest bobbin was exhausted -- 12 grams of leftovers in total, which I Navajo plied. (My next spinning project will be Navajo plied, so I'm taking every opportunity possible to practice that technique.)

I should also mention that I fit all 6.9 ounces onto one bobbin. Schacht Matchless bobbins are supposed to hold about 4 ounces, so I'm pretty astounded. The bobbin was bulging, but not so much that it interfered with the plying. I had been planning to ply about half, wind it onto the niddy noddy, and then ply the second half separately. But when the bobbin was nearing "full", I noticed how low the singles were, and decided to see how far I could push it. Impressively far is the answer!

The fiber was pleasant to work with, and came less compacted than any other fiber I've used, to date. I probably could have gotten away without predrafting at all, if I'd wanted. The black bits felt a bit dry, but overall this was my favorite merino spinning experience. My only complaint about the kit is that it was about an ounce short. An ounce may not sound like a lot, but those of you who spin know how much fiber an ounce really is. Now, I think that 7.5 of fiber, instead of the 8.5 that were supposed to be in the kit, is still a decent deal at the price they sell the kits for. (Even then, it's still comparable in price to what a lot of independent dyers charge.) I just wish they were more accurate in their weights, and wish I had that last ounce, in case I run out of yarn while knitting the knee high socks I have in mind for this yarn. But I'd still buy a kit from them again. It was a great spinning experience, and the dye job was just lovely.

I like my Pink Granite yarn better than the Pink Granite colorway of Socks That Rock. The subtlety you get from spinning the pre-dyed fiber if fabulous. A full range of pinks and purples, with delicate pinks where the pink meets the white, and with deep vampiric purples where the pink meets the black. I almost wish I Navajo plied all of it, just to keep those colors more pure. Here's another bobbin photo:

You can also see the beginnings of a Francie sock in there. That's in STR lightweight, in the Rose Quartz colorway. I've loved that colorway for a long time, and am happy to finally have an excuse to use it. (The socks are for my mom, who requested them after seeing them on the blog.) More pink, and pinks that match the pinks in my handspun, to boot!

I've blogged a lot about spinning lately. And socks. Sock and spinning, spinning and socks. It feels like that's all I've worked on for a long time. The Autumn Color Cardigan is on hiatus (with all those colors, it can be a logistical nightmare to work on), and I've been feeling the need to work on something bigger than socks. Thanks to a leftover yarn swap with someone on Ravelry, I got to try some Reynolds Whiskey, and was happy to find that it will work with the sweater pattern I've had my eyes on. More on that after I cast on, but here's a peek at the yarn:

Who can resist a yarn bellybutton? You know you want to stick your finger in! Notice the color? I had a couple of gift certificates for my LYS, and decided to pick up the yarn for the sweater this weekend. I was trying to choose between two colors, and when I asked K. for her opinion, she pointed out that the color above matched what I was wearing. The lovely ladies of Stash and Burn are so right. I chose the color I was wearing for a reason, so it must be fate. I had to buy that one. (I really loved the other color, too, but it was probably too dark for the patterning on the upcoming sweater.) I just hope I don't outgrow this pink phase too soon...

But it's not been all pink. I let loose and did some wild and craze experimenting with blue:

Doesn't look like my usual spinning, does it? The experimenting wasn't really the blue. It was the style of spinning. I gave some long draw woolen techniques a try, and while I have a very long way to go before I'll be comfortable using any of these techniques for a project, I learned a lot and started to get a feel for it. It was quite frustrating at times, and I do think I could benefit a whole lot from some hands-on instruction. But I also have a lot more of the blue/green batts to play with, so maybe I'll be able to improve enough on my own to feel confident in my longdraw abilities by the time I finish this blue bobbin. If anything, it was a humbling experience. So much of what I've been spinning has been the same thing over and over again. I've gotten pretty good at it, but that doesn't make me a good spinner. That just makes me good at one very specialized kind of spinning. I want to be a good spinner, overall, and these blue batts will get me closer to that goal.

The Browns Of Spring

2008-04-22T17:27:00.000-04:00

It's quite a shame that we seem to have skipped over mud season in New Hampshire this year, because it would have been the perfect name for my most recent completed yarn.

If I were really clever, I would have thought of that name for it before I sent it to its recipient, so I could have made a fancy Mud Season label for it.

What do pastels have to do with Spring, really? Spring is all about mud and dirt, with little hints of green and vibrant color poking through. This is the perfect Spring yarn. You just didn't know it until now!

I spun the yarn from merino roving I bought from Fibrespace Supplies. She has several collections of merino rovings in color groups. I've already spun up the rainbow roving, and have a collection of rose colored roving that I have fun plans for. This was spun from the forest colors, plied with a chocolate brown. There are 2 skeins, weighing about 180 grams in total, at just under 500 yards, for a 15.5(ish) wpi 2 ply sportweight yarn.

The best thing about spinning yarn for other people? They get to decide what to do with it. No pressure, eh?

I have managed to get a bit of knitting done in addition to all of the spinning. However, I haven't figured out, yet, how to rationalize black and blue as springtime colors. So there goes that theme:

Those are pretty plain socks, but I expect you to be all impressed at how big they are. I got an unexpectedly large amount of sock out of one skein of lightweight Socks That Rock, so if the pleasure of knitting socks to warm a friend's husband's feet wasn't enough, I now know how much sock I get get from STR. Good information to have! If you're curious, these socks are 64 sts around in 2x2 ribbing, 8 stitches/inch, 11 rows/inch, 6" leg (before heel flap, so 8" total height), 11" foot (an excess of foot, if you ask me -- what do they do with all that flesh?), and about 5 grams of yarn leftover when all was said and done. (And that was with a skein that was at least a few grams short from the beginning.)

I think that photo captures the colors fairly accurately. I was impressed with the colorway, as I've heard that some people had problems with black dye coming off on hands or in soak water with the Raven series. My hands were clean, and my soak water was clear. I'd certainly consider knitting with some of this stuff again.

The mega-socks haven't been my only Blue Moon Fiber Arts project as of late. I'm almost done with a Sheep 2 Shoe kit in the Pink Granite colorway. I have about 15-20 grams (out of 8.5 oz!) left to spin before plying, so I'll have a lot of information on that soon.

What I'll say about it now is how strange it is that I chose this colorway, as I just finished knitting up a Raven colorway, and have started knitting socks in the Rose Quartz colorway. The Pink Granite roving has the black of the Ravens, as well as pinks that are exactly the same as the pinks in the Rose Quartz, making it quite strange to alternate between the knitting as the spinning, since the spinning is nowhere near ready to knit, yet I continuously feel as if I'm already knitting with it! I adore the pinks in the roving and in the Pink Quartz yarn (which I've been looking for an excuse to try for a long time), but one thing I'm learning during this spinning project is that I'll be reluctant to buy a Sheep 2 Shoe kit in a Raven colorway. For some reason, I just don't like spinning the black parts of the roving nearly as much as the rest of it. It feels harder to spin evenly (maybe because of the darkness), and feels dry. But more on that in a week or so (I hope), when I have some finished yarn to show you. I'm so excited to ply, and see what I get!

I've felt kind of uninspired regarding written expression lately, so apologies if this post seems dry or awkwardly worded. I just needed to push through and get something out, lest you (and I) think I fell in a deep, dark mud pit. So look at the pretty pictures and ignore the rest if necessary, okay?

contagious

2008-03-28T17:42:00.003-04:00

Alex and I went to the desert for vacation last week, and returned sick. Really, really sick in one case. (I blame the airplane coughers, though breathing in who knows what in a dusty windstorm our first night camping couldn't have helped, either!) You certainly don't need to (or want to, I'm sure!) know the details, but needless to say, not much crafty stuff has been accomplished in the past couple of weeks.

Luckily, I have some handspun that I haven't blogged about, yet, so I can cheat my way into "new" content for a blog post. The first was an attempt at a 3 ply fingering weight yarn. It was very successful in some ways, but not at being a fingering weight:

The roving was Spunky Eclectic superwash merino in the Hyacinth colorway. The yarn is 100 grams, 227 yards, and 17 wpi (sportweight). And it's obviously pretty dense, because in numbers it has almost the same grist as Cascade 220, which is a light worsted weight!

This was my first time working with superwash merino. It was a bit more fussy than non-superwash merino, and I found that it felt a bit squeaky at first. But once I got used to its flyaway nature, and figured out how to avoid the squeakiness (no advice to share, it just happened), I learned to really like this fiber. The resulting yarn is very smooth and soft, and nice and springy. I plan to work with it again soon.

My next project was also merino, and came with a lesson. That lesson is that, while I like to believe that I have a good eye for detail, I'm certainly not infallible. For a couple of months (ever since I've had my wheel, and I can't believe it hasn't been longer than that!) I filled my bobbins by moving the yarn from hook to hook up and down the right side of the flyer. There are hooks on the left side of the flyer, and I'd heard they were there to balance the flyer. Then I did some Google searches on some spinning related topic or another, and found someone mention how she loves how full she can get her Schacht bobbins because of the offset hooks on either side of the flyer. Wait... they're OFFSET? I swear, I'd even checked for that when I first got the wheel. I knew that they weren't offset. Except... they are. And when you alternate sides, you fill your bobbin a lot more evenly and efficiently. Take a look:

Isn't that amazing! There is no more fiber on the left bobbin than on the right. But I bet I could fit a whole lot more on the right bobbin than on the left bobbin, if I wanted. I thought I was an absolute dimwit for not realizing this earlier, and said so in the Schacht group on Ravelry. oops! I inadvertantly implied that a whole bunch of other folks were also dimwits, because there were a lot of people who hadn't realized that the hooks were offset. At least I wasn't alone!

Now, there are two ways to use the offset hooks, as far as I can tell. What you see in the above photo is a result of me using both sets of hooks on each trip up and down the flyer, if that makes sense. So I'd hook the yarn over the first hook on the right, then the first on the left, then the second on the right, then the second on the left, etc. The other way to do it is to just go up one side and down the other, filling in the gaps on the yarn's return trip down the length of the flyer. This second method is easier, in my opinion (you're less likely to lose track of where to move the yarn next). However, I think the first method looks prettier, and makes it easier to pack the bobbin as evenly and tightly as possible.

Here's the resulting yarn:

I got the merino roving (Macaw colorway) from The Arts At Eagle's Find. The yarn is a 3 ply, 120 grams, 427 yards, and 18 wpi (fingering). It's incredibly springy -- even springier than than Socks that Rock. (Beginner's luck!) I had divided the roving into 3 even strips, to try to get a yarn without a lot of marling. The first two bobbins were almost spot on, but the third one got off. It's a pretty neat effect, even if that's not exactly what I was going for. I started socks with this yarn while on vacation.

Apparently I had more to say than I initially thought! See you guys again when fiber trumps illness...

Salto

2008-03-12T05:32:00.003-04:00

My first Knitty pattern! You can find them here, and if you're interested you can queue them here on Ravelry.

This is the pattern that I submitted to IK in December of '06, which they lost, which I then submitted to Knitty for the Winter issue, which didn't make it there because the email was eaten by gremlins. So, uh, if you knit these socks, be warned that you should do so with caution. A tornado might hit your house, or the earth may be swallowed by a black hole. Did I mention that I fell down the stairs right before I took a bunch of photos of the socks for Knitty? Though I wasn't hurt (aside from soreness and a bruise), so maybe that's when the socks' luck changed. It could be safe to knit them, after all. But I'm not guaranteeing a thing. Knit at your own risk. And wear a helmet.

I used Harrisville New England Knitters' Shetland yarn for these socks. Harrisville Designs is relatively local to me, and the color selections are stunning. Their New England Shetland yarn is similar to Jamieson and Smith yarn (for those of you colorwork fans), and spun in a old mill in New Hampshire. Now, I admit that this yarn may not be the ideal sock yarn for everybody. It is not merino soft, and it is not a tightly spun and plied sock yarn, like many of the sock yarns out there. I chose it because I couldn't resist the colors, because I really wanted to design with something local to me, and because I absolutely adore the way this yarn shows off cables. The cables have nice definition, but they are also soft, and not too popping. Perfect for socks, in my opinion.

If you are looking for softer and/or more durable socks, you may want to go with a more traditional sock yarn. Really, any fingering weight that you like should do. I knit these at 9 stitches per inch, and they can easily be up-sized by knitting them at 8 - 8.5 stitches per inch, and/or by using a larger needle for the leg of the sock.

One of my favorite things about these socks is that there is a subtle degree of calf shaping built in. They start off rather generous in size to begin with, at 72 stitches around. As the shaping on the leg of the sock increases in frequency, it also slightly decreases the circumference. This means that the circumference decreases ever so slightly as you get lower on the leg, down to the ankle, which is how many legs are shaped. I have to admit that this wasn't my original intention when I thought of this type of shaping. I just wanted to play with the cable placement. But it turned out to be a very nice, and flattering, side effect.

One of the things I'm proud of in this design is that it's all my own. Not that a simple braided cable (what runs along the leg of the sock) is innovative or unique, but I didn't consult a stitch dictionary for any part of this sock. I really love the cable I designed for the foot of the sock. It's inspired me to play more with cable design, because I found it really easy to do. I don't know if cable design is easier than lace design, or if it just comes more easily to me than lace. I designed it just by doing it. I knew I wanted the braided cables to entangle and become one on the foot of the sock, so I kept on swatching until I got the transition just right. I designed the foot cable as I knit it, keeping careful notes as I went along. It was a very organic process, which I think comes through in the look of the cable.

Those of you who have looked at my 1989 hat pattern and/or my Francie sock pattern will notice a trend that extends to the Salto socks. Actually, it started with the Salto socks. It's just a shame that it took me so long to get them published! The design trend is how I use increases and decreases to move stitches around in fun ways, not just increases and decreases for the sake of increasing and decreasing. And all 3 patterns use the increases I love -- lifted increases. I don't know if this design trend will continue, but I do like that I stumbled my way into a theme, at least for a little while.

It took me a long time to think of a name for these socks. I finally settled on Salto (somersault), because I'm a huge gymnastics fan, and these socks do a bit of textural gymnastics. The cables flip from the side to the front, then tumble in a new fashion down the instep. A bit of fibery acrobatics.

Please let me know if you have any questions about the pattern, or any trouble following it. I'm super excited to have a pattern in Knitty, and am even more excited that it's such a great issue. I have beautiful company there this Spring!

Francie

2008-02-29T06:33:00.004-05:00

Some people called it the Tree of Heaven. No matter where its seed fell, it made a tree which struggled to reach the sky.
-- Betty Smith, A Tree Grows In Brooklyn

These socks are named for Francie Nolan, the main character in my favorite book, A Tree Grows In Brooklyn. Like the book, and like Francie, the socks are full of unexpected beauty and character. There are stories hidden in their folds, interesting shapes to be found in their bark, and new ideas to be found in their branches.

These socks were designed with an adventurous knitter in mind. While the leg of the socks is easier to execute than it might appear at first glance, the foot of the socks involves shaping that is probably new to most sock knitters. This shaping results in interesting curves in new places, a foot-hugging contour that surpasses the comfortable clinging power of most traditional ribbed socks, and a new way to shape a toe. The socks may take a bit more concentration than you’re used to, particularly once you get to the foot, but once you find the rhythm of these socks everything should fall into place.

(photo used with the permission of Natalie)

These socks were knit with Dream In Color Smooshy, at 8 stitches per inch, on U.S. size 1 (2.25 mm) DPNs. You can use any sock yarn you like, preferably in a solid or nearly-solid color. This sock is very stretchy, and will fit a wide range of foot sizes. You can easily customize the fit of the leg and foot by changing needle sizes, to make the circumference a bit wider or a bit narrower. Because the entire sock is based on 2x2 ribbing, the sizing range is generously large. There are instructions in the pattern for customizing the length of the leg and foot of the sock.

Because these socks are a bit different than your average socks, those of you who have knit socks before will have an easier time with this pattern. There is no one skill in these socks that is difficult, but they may take more concentration than your average sock pattern until you get into their unique rhythm. Those of you who can read your knitting (see the difference between knit and purl stitches) will have an easier time with this pattern, although I try to give as much instruction as is reasonably possible. I found them really fun to knit, because I was doing things I'd never quite done before, and it was exciting to see how it would all turn out in the end! There is a lot of new stuff in these socks, and if you like new stuff in your knitting, I think you'll really enjoy knitting this pattern.

The Francie pattern is available for sale right now, as a PDF download. I am using Ravelry's new pattern delivery system, which means that pattern delivery is automatic -- no more waiting for me to email you anything! You do not need to be a member of Ravelry to use the system, although if you are, you have the option to add the PDF directly to the library in your notebook, which is very convenient. The cost of this pattern is $6.50, and you can click the button below to purchase it:

Here is a direct link to the Ravelry page for the pattern.
(Please keep in mind that if you use an e-check, the pattern will not be delivered until the check clears. I believe this can take up to 10 days. I do keep an eye on my Paypal account on a daily basis, to make sure that everyone who has paid by e-check gets their patterns as soon as possible after the check clears, because I know that it is difficult to wait!)

Let me know if you have any problems with payment or with receiving your copy of the pattern. And of course, please contact me if you have any difficulties with the pattern. It has been test knitted by the wonderful and talented Natalie, and proof-read and tweaked until my eyes bled, so I hope it is free of errors. If I (or anyone else) find major errors, I will update the PDF and send new copies to those who have already purchased it. I am quite proud of this pattern, and want to make sure that it brings as much joy to others as it has to me.

Oh, and the contest winner! I was a bit embarrassed when the very first person to guess figured out the origin of the pattern name. I thought it must have been much too easy, but was relieved when most of the rest of the contest participants didn't have a clue. Congrats to Dove for being the first person to not only enter the contest, but to enter with the correct answer. Boy are you fast! Please send me an email at the email address in the sidebar, and I will send you a copy of the pattern. Thank you to everyone else who entered. Your guesses really entertained me.

Oh, and here's the legal mumbo jumbo from the end of the pattern. There has been a lot of discussion on Ravelry lately about this sort of stuff, and I have come to the conclusion that it is best to put this information here, as well as in the PDF. The short story is that use the pattern however you want for personal use. The long story is:

This pattern was created and written by Rebekkah Kerner. It is intended for personal use, meaning that you may make as many pairs of socks from this pattern as you like for yourself, or to give away as gifts. This pattern is not to be distributed, for free or for money, in any format, without the permission of Rebekkah Kerner. Items created from this pattern are not to be sold or used for commercial gain without the permission of Rebekkah Kerner. If you are interested in working out an agreement to distribute this pattern or to sell socks made from this pattern, please contact Rebekkah using the contact information on the title page of the pattern.

glowing ginger (and a little contest!)

2008-02-25T06:33:00.003-05:00

Falklands wool, hand dyed by Hello Yarn, in the Ginger colorway. This yarn is 92 grams, 255 yards, and 14 wpi. The colors are more beautiful than I can capture with a camera. If I had a choice, everything I knit would contain at least one of the shades in this yarn. The dye job is amazing. Here's another view:

I spun the yarn using the fractal method, which I guess was discussed in a recent issue of a spinning magazine, which I do not own. But I heard enough people discussing it on Ravelry that I got the basic idea. You split your roving in half lengthwise (or fail to split it evenly in half, as I did), and spin one bobbin straight from half of the roving. For the other bobbin, you split the second half of your roving into thinner strips, so the color repeats end up being shorter once it is spun up. When you ply the singles together, you are combining one very long repeat of the colors in the roving with a series of shorter repeats of the same sequence, resulting in a somewhat subdued entropy of color combinations. I'm not sure that I'll really feel the full effect of the technique until the yarn is knit up, but what I think it means for me now is that there are places where the colors of the plies contrast, and places where they match, and that I find that very pretty.

You can see a couple of close-up photos here and here. I think it's hard to see in my photos, but in the yarn I can see exactly where Adrian got the name Ginger for the colorway. Especially since I cooked with ginger root this weekend. (mmm... samosas!) There are parts of the yarn that are a glowing light coppery/golden brown color, almost exactly the same shade as the outside of ginger root. I think those were my favorite parts.

This was my first time working with Falklands wool, and I really enjoyed it. It was a bit tough to draft, after having just worked with merino, but extremely easy to spin. It has a solid softness to it. It reminds me a bit of Cascade Eco Wool. I'm not sure I'd say that the final yarn feels like Eco Wool, but just that both Eco Wool and my Falklands roving have that same sort of softness that doesn't feel delicate or too fine, but which has a kind of backbone to it, if that makes sense.

Thanks to my uneven splitting of the roving, I have 25 grams leftover. (Yes, I realize that I should have used the thicker piece for the first ply, just stripping off a thin section to use for the second ply, evening out the weights. I was not thinking at all...) I've balled that up, and will keep it for plying up in case I need a bit extra yarn for whatever project I choose. I'm thinking a hat of some sort, because this yarn deserves to get shown off, and a head is a good place to show things off!

As for the contest... the sock pattern is almost done! What was holding me back was lack of a name. I couldn't do the final formatting until I had a title page (because I'm stubborn), and I couldn't have a title page until I had a name (because I'm stubborn). I finally thought of the perfect name for the socks. Here's a little reminder of what the socks look like:

Their name is Francie. This is one of those things that may be completely obvious, or so obscure that nobody will get it. I honestly don't know which.

I have decided to set Friday, February 29 as the publishing date for this pattern. Leap day for a sock pattern = perfection! (Plus, setting a solid goal for myself, in public, will get me to finish that formatting.) The first person to guess why these socks are named Francie will receive a free copy of the pattern. (Or a free copy of one of my hat patterns, if you aren't into socks.) Please don't use Google to try to find the answer -- you either know it somewhere in the deep recesses of your mind, or you don't. You can guess by leaving a comment or emailing me at the address in the sidebar.

If nobody guesses before the pattern is published, I suppose I'll choose my favorite wrong answer. Or maybe choose a random number. I have no idea. I'm betting someone will get it, though!

Good luck, and see you on Friday.

If nothing else, it will look cute on your head.

2008-02-19T19:04:00.006-05:00

The first issue of WeaveZine is out!

A few months ago, Syne told me about starting up this new fiber arts magazine. Not being a weaver, I felt bad that there wasn't any way for me to contribute. Then we realized that I could contribute by helping combine knitting and weaving. We devised the basic project idea, and then I immediately got the cold sweats when I realized that I have very little lace design experience, and struggled a bit with the ins and outs of the one and only lace edging I'd done before.

Needless to say, I was as nervous as I was excited, at first. I mean, Syne is a superstar. I'm fairly certain that all of the Chuck Norris facts apply to her as well, with the bonus that she knows a lot more about weaving and knitting than Chuck ever could aspire to. So I looked through a bunch of edging patterns, to get my bearings. I didn't want to copy or emulate anything, but just get a better feel for my options in terms of construction and attachment to a piece of fabric.

I ended up going with plain and simple, with a design that looked nice with (I think) the woven fabric Syne whipped up. (And if you've never handled handwoven fabric, you don't know what you're missing. It definitely has magic in it, just like handspun yarn does.) Here's the result of our combined efforts:

The pattern for the weaving and the knitting can be found here. We used a 20/2 silk yarn, but if you don't have access to that, just think laceweight. If you aren't lucky enough to have access to hand woven fabric, you can still attach the edging from something store-bought.

If delicate white lacy Antimacassars don't interest you, how about some incredibly bright handspun?

85 grams, 443 yards, 22 wpi
2 ply, singles spun at a 15.5:1 ratio

Believe it or not, that's a bit underplied. I've learned that I naturally treadle a bit fast, so I probably added a bit more twist to the singles than would have been ideal. I'd hoped to be able to overply a bit, because I've heard that's good for sock yarn, but I wonder if slightly overspun and underplied (but still tightly plied) works well, too.

This yarn is not exactly what I planned to make with the roving. I had 7 somewhat equal amounts of merino roving in rainbow colors, totalling 100 grams. I wanted each single to have 3 rainbow repeats in it, with the second single slightly staggered (by ripping off a bit of red roving from the beginning and saving it for the very end), so my 2 ply yarn would have 3 rainbow repeats in it, with a bit of barberpoling at the color transitions. Have you noticed that that's no even close to what I got? What I did spin is the result of my second bobbin being slightly thicker than my first bobbin, completely throwing everything off. And I like it. It's a bit more frantic than I would have chosen, but was a great learning experience, and will make some truly funky socks. The yarn also ended up a bit thinner than I hoped, but I'm keeping my fingers crossed that I'll be able to get a decent sock fabric on size 0 needles. If only I spun that first bobbin slightly thicker! It would have solved both my problems!

And of course I have a bunch of that first bobbin remaining. I'm not sure what to do with it, so maybe I'll wind it off into a ball until I decide. I just ordered a Spinner's Control Card, which I hope will help me stay more on track in the future.

The pattern writing is almost done (just need to do a few dozen more read throughs...), and I have another gorgeous spinning project on the wheel. More to come soon!

spun gold

2008-02-14T17:17:00.000-05:00

The first batch of handspun made with my wheel:

Blue Faced Leicester (dyed by Spunky Eclectic)
spun worsted style, double drive, 15.5:1 ratio, on a Schacht Matchless
about 15 wraps per inch (sportweight)
3 ply, 96 grams, 332 yards

Take a look at it all twisted up into a skein:

There's also a second, much smaller skein. This was my first time making a 3 ply yarn, my first time using a lazy kate, and most importantly, my first time plying on a wheel. My inexperience caused it to be an unnecessarily messy process, which meant that the yarn didn't wind as tightly as it should have onto the bobbin. This, of course, meant that the bobbin was "full" before it should have been. But I improved when I plied the second, tiny skein of what was left over, which is what's important.

For the spinners who may be interested, the plying technique I found worked for me (at least for now) was to hold each singles separate as it came from the kate, going between adjacent fingers, controlling the twist with my right hand. I'd let twist build up in a length (maybe 8" or so at a time), then let that feed onto the bobbin. I ran into problems when I fed it on too quickly, without enough takeup tension, causing the yarn to jump off the hooks, change hooks, and/or just wind on without enough tension, causing my fluffy (and ugly) bobbin syndrome. I improved upon the technique later by increasing the uptake and feeding onto the bobbin a bit more slowly. I also ended up running the whole skein through the wheel again, because the first half of it was slightly under-plied.

My first skein was an amazing learning experience. I was definitely playing it by ear a lot. I have tons to learn about my wheel, and I plan to pick up a copy of Alden Amos' book this weekend, to help out. I know that he's very opinionated, and that he points and laughs at me for being a simpleton and using double treadles. (For the record, I'm very pleased with my decision to wait for a double treadle wheel. Using two feet helps me keep an even rhythm -- especially when I'm going slowly.) I also know (because I browsed through the book yesterday) that the book is full of an amazing amount of knowledge, all of which I want to cram into my head as soon as possible.

I've already begun on my next spinning project. I don't have pretty bobbin photos yet, but I can give you a taste:

I bought a collection of 7 rainbow colors of merino top (totalling 100 grams) from Fibrespace. It's split up into 6 baggies so I can spin a 2 ply yarn with 3 rainbow repeats along the length. The first baggie is almost done, despite an embarrassing incident involving a retail establishment and the discovery of about a gram of indigo merino stuck to my long skirt. (I salvaged most of it. And don't think too many people saw me in that state...)

On a completely different note, I thought that some of you might be interested that pattern sales through Ravelry are almost completely in place. The advantages of buying my patterns through Ravelry, as opposed to just clicking on the Paypal links here, are that you get an automatic delivery of the PDF (you don't have to wait for me to email it), and that a portion of the pattern sales go to support Ravelry. (Right now I think it's 5% of sales for people selling under $100 a month, and a set fee schedule for sellers who sell more than that.) I don't know that the system is 100% glitch free yet, but it did seem to work nicely for a couple of test buys yesterday.

Right now I think you have to be a Ravelry member (aren't you all!) to use the system, but I'm pretty sure that the service will be available for non-members soon, too. I'll update the links on the blog pattern pages soon, but for now, if you're interested, here are the Ravelry pattern pages for the 1989 hat and Smoke Signals. I hope this doesn't sound like a sales pitch. I'm sure that most or all of you who are interested in those patterns have bought them already. But I'm very pleased that I have a new (and improved!) way to sell the patterns to any future customers.

All of this is very exciting for me, and I'm sure for other designers on Ravelry, too. It's wonderful to have an auto-delivery service provided by an organization I trust and support. Perhaps more exciting for you guys is that I have a new sock pattern very close to ready for sale. The test knitter has finished the first sock (and the second one is identical), and I just have to tweak the pattern a bit and slap it all together. The optimist in me says that it will be ready by the end of the weekend, but I don't want to promise anything. Curious about what it will be? You've seen one photo. Take a look at more here. (I still haven't decided on a name for them.)

Oh yeah. I've been knitting, too. A few rows, anyway. But nothing much to say about that, so I'll show you some more gold. Here are the singles that turned into my yarn:

I hope your days are filled with as much sunshine as that yarn brings me.

blooming

2008-02-08T12:24:00.000-05:00

Orchid Lace Mitts (the short version), designed by Anne Hanson (Ravelry link). I knit them using my handspun BFL.

It's a fun and well written pattern, and I have to say that it was really a pleasure to just sit down and follow a pattern word for word, and not even have the urge to think about changing a thing.

I was pleasantly surprised by the striping in the yarn. I made no effort while spinning or plying it to get the colors to do anything in particular. I think this is kind of like the new knitter who doesn't knit a gauge swatch, but ends up with a perfectly fitting sweater anyway. It won't necessarily happen again, but I'll take what I can get!

I made the mitts for the friend who sent me the roving, when I was a wee baby spinner. It's been hard not to blog about them, and even harder to not tell her about them, but she just got the package, so I'm finally in the clear.

And speaking of receiving special packages, look at what I made this morning:

The only word for it is glee. Even though I'm mostly going by trial and error right now (I have a lifetime to learn the technical ins and outs of the machine), wheel spinning feels incredibly natural, and is just about all I've wanted to do since I sat down in front of it for the first time last night.

lost in the redwoods

2008-01-31T19:29:00.000-05:00

There once was a girl from New Hampshire
Who was blog-free until the picture
Was perfect and taken
'Cause she was done makin'
900 yards of yarny pleasure!

(Yes, I know that was painfully bad. But after almost a month, I figured I owed you guys poetry. My sincerest apologies that that was all I could muster on short notice. Here, look at more of the pretty!)

I finally, finally finished. It's my marathon spinning project, and the plying and setting weren't over until this week. 925 yards of Spunky Eclectic BFL in the Redwood colorway. That's 91 grams of 30 wraps per inch Navajo plied laceweight yarn. It started out as 4 oz. Where did the rest go, you ask? Well, a gram or two is reserved for sampling for my next BFL project, and the rest was lost in a tragic accident that involved trying to fix what wasn't broken, a bendy drinking straw, and an embarrassing tempter tantrum. It is now worm food, and we shall speak of it no more, because it looks like I have enough for Seraphim.

(By the way, I'm assuming that anybody who reads this blog is on Ravelry by now, since the entire yarny world is, and I can't imagine that anybody would have heard of my blog and not Ravelry. So I'm linking there. The waiting list is down to about a week, so if you're not there, sign up now!)

Here's another closeup.

The yarn looks a lot more perfect in photos than it really is. Most of the imperfections happened during plying. I mostly attribute that to my grand klutziness, and am ever so grateful that there isn't any footage of me plying anything. There are plenty of knots, from where things got tangled because the twist in the singles was largely dormant, and the plying twist was fresh, and things got a little wild and crazy. But I guess it's not too terrible, since I didn't make a great effort to hide imperfections in the photos, yet they don't dominate. Spit splicing will be my friend once I start knitting.

The yarn was spun on my 13 g. Bosworth featherweight drop spindle, and plied on my 1 oz. Ashford drop spindle. (I can't be the only one constantly amused by how fluidly knitters and spinners, or at least those of us who are American, switch between metric and imperial measures. I never was much good at foreign languages, no matter how much I tried, so I feel proud that I can be at least partially bi-unit-lingual. Multi-measual? Let's just say, I use both sides of the ruler. Who ever knew math could be so sexy...)

I really enjoyed spinning this yarn, but there was a fair amount of frustration, too. I'm frustrated that it's split up into 6 skeins, because of the limitations on what I can comfortably fit onto a spindle when spinning this thinly. I'm frustrated that I have only 2 arms, and only slightly ashamed to say that there were moments when lips, teeth, and feet were used to try to keep things under control. Particularly while plying. Arms, wrists, and shoulders, too. And maybe some tongue. For these reasons, and plenty more, I decided to take the plunge and buy myself a wheel. It was sort of a self-birthday gift, though it hasn't arrived yet. (Word is that it arrives at the shop tomorrow, so I'm keeping my fingers crossed that it finally gets to me next week!) I'm so thrilled that I'll soon have a tool that will let me really expand my horizons, and I want to thank everyone who has bought a hat pattern from me, because there's no way I would have been able to afford it without emptying my Paypal account to cover part of the cost. I have a whole slew of spinning projects I'm really excited about, playing a lot with combining color in interesting ways, and I can't wait to dive in and share them with you.

On a completely different note, I've had enough 1x1 twisted rib for a lifetime. The slowest socks I've ever knit, but once I got into the rhythm I had a blast knitting them. They were certainly worth the effort:

They are of course Cookie A's lovely design Pomatomus, knit in Dream in Color Smooshy sock yarn, in a colorway that has November in the name. This is my second pair of Smooshy socks, and I just adore the yarn. The colors, stitch definition, and elasticity are just about perfection. My biggest complaint is that, when wet, this is some of the smelliest yarn I've yet encountered. Not really a complaint as much as an amusing observation. But seriously, hold your nose. I don't ever want to visit that Smooshy sheep farm in the rain!

Coming up in February: fewer embarrassing limericks, the return of an old and loved project, a super duper mega exciting sock pattern, something lacy, and lots of spinning. I'm off to watch the debates and do some colorwork. mmm...

Partly work and partly play

2008-01-08T06:28:00.000-05:00

Yesterday was Saint Distaff's Day, as well as my birthday. Growing up, it was difficult to find really interesting historical events or birthdays that fell on my own birthday. My brother shares a birthday with JFK and Bob Hope. Me? Well, I suppose Millard Fillmore isn't all that shabby, but he's no JFK. I eventually learned that I also shared a birthday with Zora Neale Hurston, which completely redeemed a childhood without a cool birthday partner. It's still my favorite birthday coincidence, but now I can also be smug about the fact that I share my birthday with a Spinning Holiday! Spinning holiday may be a bit of an exaggeration, but I'm ignoring that part, and just calling it fate.

Want to belatedly help celebrate my birthday? Spin some fiber, and pick up a copy of Their Eyes Were Watching God.

My major fiber related goal for the year is to knit as much with handspun as possible. I got a jump start on that by casting on for my very first knitted handspun project a couple of days before the new year.

That's the beginning of my second Orchid Lace Mitt, designed by Anne Hanson. The yarn is a light fingering weight 2 ply BFL, spun and plied on my 1 oz. Ashford drop spindle. The pair is almost done, with just the edging left to go on the second mitt, and two little thumbs. I'm going to have a bunch of yarn leftover, and am not sure what I'll do with it. Maybe I'll just stare at it...

I've also been working on making more yarn, so I have more handspun for that knitting from handspun goal.

Yes, that's the same Spunky Eclectic BFL I've been spinning and blogging about for weeks (months?) already. But I'm on the last spindleful! That photo is actually from 2 spindles ago. I've found that I can comfortably get about 18 grams on a spindle before I feel the need to wind it off. About 16 grams to go, and then it's time for a big plying party.

Alex has been doing his part, too. After seeing me sitting on the floor, cursing at my broken swift one time too many, he went to Sears and figured out how to fix it for me. The clamp was broken, and I thought I'd prefer a floor swift, anyway, so he built a base for me:

That's a 10 pound weight, a huge socket, some epoxy, carpet backing, and a huge rubber band that came with our new snowshoes. (So glad we saved them! You never know when a huge rubber band will come in handy.) Most of it is self explanatory, but the rubber band was an after-thought addition, when I tried to use the swift and we discovered that the action of lifting the wood block to open the swift took it up and out of the socket. The rubber band keeps it in place, so I can handle the yarn with one hand, the swift with a second hand, and don't have to use my feet to keep things where they should be. Very clever man I live with, eh?

One of my other fun birthday gifts this year is the NH primary. I live in a town that is small enough to have a town square and lots of exciting grassroots politics, but big enough that the major presidential candidates want to visit us. I also happen to have office windows that face right out onto the town square. The primary is today, and yesterday downtown was abuzz with campaign signs, some chanting, lots of carn horns in support of various candidates, and even one candidate in the flesh, as well as the very exciting spouse of another candidate. Yesterday I got to press my face against office windows and observe the excitement, and today I get to vote. How exciting is that! Not at all fiber related, but I need to share my excitement, and make sure that all of my New Hampshire-ite blog readers are voting today. You are, right?

1989 on my mind

2007-12-28T06:54:00.001-05:00

December has been a frenzy of pattern writing, knitting, ripping, some minor cursing, more knitting, more ripping, designing, and enough spinning to adhere little bits of pink fluff to every surface in the house. (Including my pants.) It's unfortunate that there couldn't be more blogging on that list, but I was determined to finish one specific thing before I blogged again, and I am at last done. I present my newest hat pattern, simply named "1989".

This hat pattern was written for an adult's head, but can easily be sized down (or up, for a large adult's head) by altering needle size and yarn weight. Recommendations for how to alter the size by changing yarn weight, gauge, and needle size are given in the pattern, to allow you to knit any size from preemie to very large adult. The version you see here was knit in worsted weight yarn on size 7 needles, in a mystery yarn given to me by a friend. It uses about 50 grams of yarn, though you might want a 100 gram skein to be on the safe side. If you are unsure of what yarns may work with the hat, I give a few recommendations in the pattern, and would be happy to give more recommendations if necessary. I also knit a version in charcoal grey Harrisville Highland:

Click here to see any of the photos in those mosaics close up.

This hat is designed so that an adventurous beginner can knit it, but so it will hold the attention of a more experienced knitter. It is knit in the round, and involves a variety of types of increases and decreases to create the patterning. I give detailed instructions for all of the shaping in the pattern.

The main patterning is charted out, with a full chart key, as well as the above-mentioned explanations of all of the increases and decreases. The crown shaping of the hat is written out, round by round.

This hat was a really fun, quick knit for me. I'm not a fast knitter, but each hat took about one weekend day. I almost ran to the LYS to get a skein of Noro, because I am eager to see how beautiful it will look in a striping or variegated yarn. Hopefully a few of you will choose to use such a yarn, so I can see how it looks!

The cost of the pattern is $5.50. Click the button below to purchase it. You will automatically be emailed a download link for the PDF:

If you'd prefer, you can also buy it directly from its Ravelry page.

Please let me know if you have any questions, any problems with the pattern, or just want to know more about the hat! There is an explanation for the hat name in the pattern. But if enough of you seem curious about it, I'll write up the explanation in a future blog post, too.

Saturday Shortie

2007-12-01T08:43:00.000-05:00

It's not even done, yet, but I'm so proud that I can't wait to share.

Welcome to my love affair with Dream In Color Smooshy. I'm using the Nightwatch colorway on 2.25 mm needles. The design is all my own, previewed in the previous post.

I almost feel like this is cheating, because the sock is turning out to be so much more interesting than what I had sketched out. It's as if it has a mind of its own, patted me on my little head, and took over the design process. When I say this is a self-designed sock, please take that as literally as possible. I'm nowhere near as clever as this sock is.

The best part? It gets even more interesting (in a completely different way) after the heel turn.

There's a dry dusting of snow on the ground (a preview of what's to come tomorrow?), I haven't spun in a week, I have a beautiful sock to finish, 3 patterns to write up, 2 patterns to design and then knit up, and only 48 hours until the work week starts again. If bad things come in threes, I think good things must come in dozens.

not being Eeyore

2007-11-27T06:19:00.000-05:00

The dark cloud of late-autumnal knitting angst tried to settle over my small New England town last week. First came the reminder of why I just don't do the cables without a cable needle thing. (I don't care how sticky the yarn is, or how careful I am. Every time it turns into a whack-a-mole game, with those damn little stitches dropping their heads out of sight. Not funny anymore.) Then came the top-down hat, re-worked for a lighter weight yarn so inexpertly that I ended up with a 27" circumference. I decided that what I needed to help get me out of the rut was a tried and true pattern that has been knit to completion over 500 times, according to Ravelry. If 500 people can knit the Swallowtail Shawl, then so can I, angst be damned.

It's not done yet, but I'm done with the budding lace part, and have decided to let it rest, pre-nupping. It was even so kind as to arrange itself into a familiar shape when I tossed it on the couch, sparing me the pain of having to try to figure out how to photograph an unblocked lump of proto-lace.

Well beyond the dark cloud of knitterly dread, I felt it was safe to start playing with a new sock design idea.

That's a teaser photo of my design process for this sock. Well, you don't get a photo of the jumbled thoughts in my head, but you can see how they translated into an initial charted out sketch kind of thing, with a peek at a chart underneath. I've already swatched to work out most of the kinks, using yarn leftover from the Anniversary socks. These are going to be really fun socks, and I've just cast on for them in a new-to-me brand of yarn that looks and feels very promising.

I also found the energy to fix the plying on some of the slightly underplied BFL, and to set it. Oh, springful bounty!

One of the skeins turned out better than the others, in terms of plying and color distribution. I have about 140 yards of the "good" skein, and the beginning of a plan for it. It's about 16 wraps per inch, making it a nice fingering weight. I think the other skein is nicer than I want to believe, and at the very least I should be able to pick and choose the best parts of it to up my yardage.

And of course I worked more on the Redwood BFL singles.

It's a gratuitous photo, since there's not much new to see. But it's so pretty! My new spinning method is to ball up my pre-drafted top, set the ball in the top of my scale, and then let the pre-drafted wool drape over my arm as I spin. I used to wrap it around my wrist, but sweat became problematic. This way I can just pick it up and spin for a couple of minutes here and there, which feels like quite a luxury.

There's a sort of hangover feeling I get when I've started too many projects in too short a time. Even though 2 of them got ripped out, it just feels wrong. My usual remedy would be to show an outstanding level of dedication to the projects that did survive, but alas, there are too many new things to start! I have 3 other projects I want to cast on for by the end of the year, two of which have deadlines, one of which is a design project that could be a potentially big challenge for me. (Only one is holiday knitting. I'm not that crazy.) Look for more deer in the headlights posts this winter. Oh ~~deer~~ dear.

Saluting NaNoWriMo in length, if not in content

2007-11-12T13:18:00.000-05:00

I used to find spinning content on blogs boring. It all looked the same to me, I didn't care about it, and I skipped reading blog posts about making yarn in favor of reading blog posts about making things from yarn. And so I must apologize to those of you who read (or used to read) this blog, and are similarly frustrated and bored when I talk about making yarn. While I still love knitting, right now it's spinning that completely captivates me.

I learned how to Navajo ply (or chain ply) last weekend. It was a lot easier than I thought it would be, using a sort of "park and ply" technique. My method was to let the spindle hang, doing whatever it pleased, while I chained up about an arm span's length. I pinched off the top loop with my left hand (so twist wouldn't later enter it), grabbed my chains about halfway down with the same hand, and then used my right hand to roll-start the spin. I let the twist build up in that bottom half of the chained singles, then released the top half (still pinching off that top loop), to let the twist enter the rest of the length. When it was enough twist I'd stop the spindle, wind the plied yarn on, and start again with that loop I pinched off at the top. I don't think the process was much slower than what I could reasonably do on a drop spindle without "parking", because twist builds up so quickly that I'd have to stop my spindle to wind the yarn on quite often, anyway. I can't wait until I have a wheel and can ply more smoothly and continuously, though. I found Navajo plying to be a quite soothing process once I got the hang of it. There were frustrating moments, like when I'd start the spin at such a great speed and angle that the spindle would fly across the room, leaving a mess of tangles in its wake.

The photo above is of two of the four colors of the Shetland sampler, after being plied and set. My camera batteries and natural light both ran out before I could properly photograph the other two colors. These two colors and the light brown are all about a fingering weight, though I admit that I haven't done a WPI count, yet. The grey, which I spun first, seems to be more of a sport weight.

I was concerned about the yarn after I plied it and before I set it because it seemed stringy. There was hardly any bounce to it. But after a good simmer on the stove, the yarn really came to life. It's quite elastic now, and I'm very proud of it. It feels like when I first became confident in my stranded colorwork abilities -- when that lightbulb came on, and I realized that I had the tools to knit all the Starmore sweaters my heart could desire. After all that concern about having spent dozens upon dozens of hours spinning a stringy, lifeless yarn, the joy of seeing what bounce and spring the setting process gave it has left me with a feeling of confidence and fibrous power. I can SPIN! I can make things I want to knit with!

Unfortunately, I don't think I have enough to knit the colorwork hat that I'd planned, so I may send the yarn itself to the friend for whom I was hoping to knit the hat, so she has a chance to crochet with some woolly handspun. I do think I'll keep the thicker grey for myself, to incorporate in what I'm already calling the "Scrapple" bag. Alex and I have been using my Coronet hat as a Scrabble bag, and that just won't do. Little bits of handspun, though, have great potential to remedy this situation.

I also Navajo plied some of the Spunky Eclectic BFL last weekend:

That's about .75 oz, which means I have about 3.25 oz to go. I've ordered a lighter drop spindle, so hopefully I'll be able to comfortably spin more than .75 oz at a time, soon. It's taking a bit longer than I anticipated to get that spindle, so I've had to put the BFL project on hold. It's a bit frustrating because I hardly want to do anything right now more than I want to spin. But of all life's potential hardships, I can hardly complain about this. I think the yarn in the above pic is about a laceweight, though I haven't set it yet, so don't know if it will plump up. Right now the plan is to spin and ply all of it to match this first bit, and then use it for a shawl.

There's been other spinning activity going on in my house, but I'll save that for another post. Instead, here are some socks, for all of you who couldn't care less about the spinning.

This is the Arch-Shaped Sock by Jen Showalter. I used Mama E's C*eye*ber Fiber sock yarn in the colorway Purgatory Orphan, which may not exist anymore. (It was one of the colorways she made when trying to perfect the colorways for Brenda Dayne's Brother Amos socks. I love the name!) I adore the way the socks fit, and am so happy I knit this pattern. I did find that there were some vagaries and mistakes in the pattern itself, but nothing really major if you've knit socks before and have the confidence to rework some minor elements. I do plan to use this shaping in the future, perhaps for a design idea I have, and do plan to alter it so it works a bit more elegantly with the gusset decreases. But I'd definitely recommend that anyone with decent arches knit a pair of these for themself. They really do hug your feet.

You can probably tell that I altered the pattern a bit, to continue the ribbing down the front of the foot. I've been doing a lot of ribbing lately, including a hat design that is based on the same idea I want to use for the sock design I mentioned above. Here is a sneak peek at one of the hats:

More on that later, when the pattern is written. (Don't worry, I'm self publishing this one, so there won't be any of that annoying months- or year-long teasing about something you can't see!)

I really should have posted some time last week, eh? If you're still reading, I have a book review for you. It's a book you've surely seen reviewed in many other places, but I am so delighted with the book that I feel like I need to add in my "me too." The book is The Knitter's Book of Yarn by Clara Parkes. I should say that I received this book free, from the publisher, as a review copy. I don't feel that that alters my opinion of the book at all, but as a former social science researcher feel a moral obligation to disclose the fact that this book was essentially a gift from the people trying to sell it.

This book is what has been missing from the fiber arts shelves of the bookstore. There are hundreds (or at least dozens) of beautiful, informative, inspiring books on the market about techniques and patterns, but this is the first book I've seen that focuses on yarn, itself. I feel that I know a lot about yarn, as a compulsive researcher (I have been known to check Consumer Reports before buying a simple toaster), and as someone who has been knitting for years and intensely immersing herself in spinning for the past few months. It turns out that I did know a lot, and still learned a lot more from this book. The writing is clear and engaging, the format is easy to follow, and the patterns are clever and interesting. Organizing the patterns by yarn ply is something I've never seen before, and really opened my eyes to mistakes I've made and details I've overlooked in the past about my own yarn choices for projects.

If I could change anything about the book, I'd split it into two volumes. I think that the chapters on fiber type and making yarn, plus an introduction to the characteristics of ply type, could be a book on its own. As much information as this book contains, I want more! I wish all 250 pages were devoted to that exposition, with a companion volume for the patterns, with expanded photographs.

But if my biggest complaint is "I want MORE!," I suppose things aren't all that bad. I'm fairly picky about what books I'll actually buy, and this is a book I know I would have eventually paid money for if I hadn't been lucky enough to receive a copy for free. If you're interested in expanding your knowledge about yarns, and interested in becoming better at matching yarns to patterns (or patterns to yarns), flip through this book, buy it, or at least request that your local library acquire a copy. It's an excellent resource that will not be redundant with anything already on your bookshelf.

Creepy, Crawly, and STICKY

2007-11-03T08:14:00.000-04:00

(First off, I must say that I've had the Can Can song stuck in my head since before my last post. And then yesterday, while I was browsing in a bookstore, a jazzy version of the Can Can song came in over the Muzak speakers. Or perhaps I'm just going insane, poisoned by having my recommended yearly allowance of Can Can concentrated into one week. Condensed Can Can! augh! Though it's starting to morph into the Facts of Life theme song, which, while equally horrific, is at least variety...)

The new issue of The Anticraft has arrived, and among its creepy, crawly, and sticky offerings are my lace scarf. Go to The Anticraft to see the pattern, as well as all the other goodies in this issue. But I'll post some photos here, too:

This scarf started out as a brainstorm between me and Zabet. Keep in mind that this is only half of a complete package. There were some technical difficulties with the second half of this project, so the concept won't be truly complete for a little while.

Zabet gets credit for the artistic rendering of "Some Pig". She drew it out, and I translated her stylizing of the letters into lace. Erssie asked about the design of the lace in the scarf. I did not use stitch dictionaries for any of it, though it's simple enough that I'm sure the patterning does exist in stitch dictionaries out there. In fact, I was looking through a book (perhaps Victorian Lace Today?) in the bookstore after I finished the scarf, and I saw a shawl that used what looked like the same stitch pattern as the webby ends of the scarf. Then I looked through another book (Folk Shawls, I believe), and learned that I "unvented" the method I used to start the pointy ends of the scarf. The repeating bug pattern in the middle took a while to get just right, involving a lot of graph paper and swatching. It's amazing how easy it is to inadvertently knit a leaf with lace. No wonder there are so many leaf lace patterns out there! It took a while before I got my bugs to be bugs, and not delicate little leaves. (Spiders don't eat leaves, dammit!)

Do make sure to look at the other projects in this issue of The Anticraft. I think this may be my favorite issue, yet. Some of my other favorite projects from this issue are the Pumpkin Pasties (would look delicious if we hadn't just made FOUR pumpkin pies in the last 2 weeks), Black Widow (what I want to bring to the Pumpkin Festival next year), and Spider's Parlor (I want a pet).

So there's one secret project revealed! Please let me know if you have any questions about or problems with the pattern. None of the lacework in it is difficult at all. If you can knit, purl, yarnover, k2tog, and ssk (or left leaning decrease of your choice), you can knit this scarf.

I'm still waiting to hear back from knitty about my other secret project. It should be soon, either way, since I believe the Winter issue is due out in early December. Keep your toes crossed!

Everything in Cans Cans!

2007-10-30T05:41:00.001-04:00

First of all, thanks for all of the wonderful comments on Cobblestone and the Shetland singles. (Also for that novel-length spam comment, which was so impressive that I've kept the notification email.)

Melissa asked what I'd do to tighten up the yoke. If I'd decided I'd wanted to do that, I suppose I might have tried going down a needle size and/or decreasing a bit more. I'd probably also work a few more garter ridges. I suspect it would be a trial and error process, perhaps with almost as much error as trial.

Bex was curious about the weight of my spindle, and how I'm spinning such fine singles on a spindle that looks so heavy. The spindle may look heavier in the photos than it really is. It's an Ashford spindle that weighs 1 oz, which (in my limited spinning knowledge), is about on the cusp of how heavy I'd want something to be for spinning singles that fine. Truthfully, I have been thinking about getting a lighter spindle. Each of the colors of Shetland were between about 20 grams and 1 oz (about 28 grams), and with each one I noticed that I got very frustrated at the end, with lots of spindle dropping. I thought it might be fatigue or boredom, but thinking about it, I suspect that it was just the spindle getting too heavy to reasonably spin singles that thin.

Of course, the real technological solution I aspire to one day owning is a spinning wheel. Even if I got a lighter spindle, I suspect that I still wouldn't feel comfortable spinning more than an ounce or so of singles this thin at a time. That's a frustratingly small amount, and while I enjoy the process, it can get discouraging to find that I've spent an entire weekend afternoon spinning, only to make it through a fraction of an ounce. So, ya know, if you know of 74 people who want to buy hat patterns, send them my way! That should cover what I haven't already saved for the wheel I want. Or, stepping back into reality, if anyone has recommendations for good light (.5 - .75 oz.) spindles, do share! I don't really want to pay for fancy finishes or materials. As pretty as fancy spindles are, I mostly want to acquire a well made, well balanced tool that will make those last 5 - 10 grams of each ounce more pleasant to spin.

Back to spinning soon. First, Happy Anniversary!

These are the Anniversary Socks, designed by Nancy Bush, found in the book Favorite Socks. I knit them with Lisa Souza Merino Sock in the color Sage. They were a delight to knit, and are a treat to wear. I did have some issues with the pattern, though. First of all, I truly don't understand why there is not a chart included in the book. The way the lace is written out is difficult to follow, and I was able to hand draw a chart in mere minutes with a pencil and graph paper. If you knit these, do yourself a favor and do the same. My other beef was with the heel turning instructions, which I'm fairly sure are wrong. When I followed them exactly, I ended up with something that was off center. I actually ended up ripping back the whole heel flap, because the eye of partridge flap was too horizontally compact. I re-knit with the more usual heel flap slip stitch pattern, did the turn without the book's instructions, and was much happier with the results.

I now have the Happy Anniversary Song stuck in my head, and thanks to Google, know that it originates with The Flintstone. (Or perhaps they just popularized it?) I've had it in my head since yesterday, and at first was convinced that it had to be something I got from The Simpsons. Sorry, Fred and Wilma. Forgive me?

Of course, that cheesy song strung along a bunch of other cheesy songs, all of which are bouncing around off the inside of my skull like pinballs. The worst offender? The Shoprite Can Can song. (Though it's too bad that version of the commercial doesn't have the dancing cans. Now that's classic.) All of the worst music of my childhood is fighting for squatter rights in my brain! Help! (Who knew socks were so powerful.)

Back to fiber, here is some new spinning:

This is BFL from Spunky Eclectic in the colorway Redwood. I'm a bit concerned that it's pinker in sections than I'd like, because the intended recipient does not like pink. (It's hard to tell from the photos because I was headed into a darker section.) I do think the singles are spinning up a bit darker than the top, so perhaps the plied yarn will be darker than the singles. Either way, it's absolutely gorgeous, and if it doesn't work for my friend, I will be delighted to use it for something for myself.

That's it for now. I think the new issue of The Anticraft is coming out soon, so the big secret project reveal may be just around the corner. Whee!

Cobblestoned

2007-10-23T06:04:00.000-04:00

Cobblestone Pullover, designed by Jared Flood, from the Fall '05 Interweave Knits.

I used Harrisville Highland yarn, in the color charcoal, on size 6 and 7 (US) needles. It only took 5.75 skeins, including my swatch! The only major thing I changed was the sleeves. I knit the 2nd size (43.5"), which I think has you cast on for sleeves that are over 11" in circumference at the cuffs. I purposely knit them tighter than that, but even at 10", Alex and I both agreed that they were ridiculously loose. I cast on again, with 10 fewer stitches, for a circumference just over 8", knowing that I could block it a bit wider if necessary. I increased a bit more often than I otherwise would have for the rest of the sleeve, and all turned out well.

My biggest concern with this sweater was the garter stitch. Garter stitch likes to stretch vertically, and I didn't want the sweater to stretch out of shape -- especially since the garter is at the top, with the weight of the rest of the sweater pulling on it. As I was working the yoke, I tried to measure it while holding the sweater up, so it would be slightly stretched. It was tricky, but I think I made the right choice. Still, if I was going to change one thing about the sweater, I probably would have tightened up the yoke a bit more. Alex declares the sweater perfect, though, so I will leave it alone and be happy.

Some more photos:

All those outdoor poses, and one of my favorites is a silly one I snapped while he was taking his shoes off, after the fact.

short row detail

I'm again in love with this yarn. I put the sweater on to transport it to the basement for its first pre-blocking wash, and didn't want to take it off. It's got that perfect fuzzy, woolly feel to it, and is so warm and substantial. I'm pretty sure I'm going to use it for the next sweater I make for myself.

After the sweater was done, I spent a lot of time spinning. First I finished up the cream colored Shetland singles:

448 yards!

I couldn't choose which photo to use, so here's another:

Here are all four shades together:

I've since finished spinning the dark brown singles, too, and am waiting for some red BFL to arrive. So far the plan is a colorwork hat. I think that I'll use the 3 darker colors of the Shetland as the background, with the foreground design in cream. Then I'll line the hat with nice, soft BFL. This, of course, assumes that I will be able to successfully ply these singles and that they'll be about the right weight, and even enough for stranded colorwork that doesn't look like it was knit with my toes or earlobes. And if it all turns out nicely enough, I even know who's getting the hat. (I even chose red for the BFL especially for her.)

I do need to be careful with my spinning. I realized that I tend to lean towards the right when I spin, which was causing soreness in my back and right leg. The solution is to practice standing with my weight evenly distributed, feet shoulder width apart, and all those other things they taught you in middle school gym class that you thought you'd never use. Well, except I'm not doing squat-thrusts while spinning, no matter how humorous that sounds. I also won't have my last name written across my shirt, and will be in no danger of forgetting my locker combination.

lazy

2007-10-14T14:24:00.000-04:00

I'm in that post-project slump, which ironically (and annoyingly) usually seems to come before the project is technically done. I "finished" Cobblestone (just need to block it), and with it came the false feeling of accomplishment that I've tied up all loose ends in my life. Clean slate! (Shh... don't burst my bubble.) Here's a photo of Cobblestone before it was done, but when it was close. Alex was doing a funny dance. Everything will look better when blocked, though I suspect the funny dance cannot be improved upon:

See how lazy I am? Couldn't be bothered to crop or tweak. Pure, unadulterated funny dance. With sweater.

I was reassured to find that the sweater was too big on me. It's the small things in life, isn't it? It should be obvious that if it fits Alex, it will be too large on me. But like a child at the zoo, who won't believe it's really a tiger until she she sticks her fingers through the bars to see what the big kitty does, I have to try things on. And be so lazy that I get my hair, the camera cord, and all possible yarn ends in the photo, and don't care:

I am amused that that photo gives the impression that I'm a tall redhead. Who ever thought such an unflattering angle of one's body could yield such unintentionally flattering (in the imaginary way) results?

Well, that's enough content for a lazy blog post. At least enough knitting content. I'll be back with the whole shebang after it's blocked. To answer Rachel's question from the last post, yes, I was listening to The Good Housekeeping Marriage Book. (And how unlazy of me to dig the link up again!) I didn't listen to every second of it, as it did start to get old towards the end. But I highly recommend at least chapter 3 (Ought I To Marry?) if you feel like listening to only one chapter. It's a brilliant combination of jaw-droppingly horrific ideas, combined with a discussion of genetics and inheritance that frankly surprised me with its level of sophistication, given the source and era.

lessons

2007-09-30T14:14:00.000-04:00

This is my lesson:

I... enjoy knitting large amounts of stockinette and garter stitch.

Or perhaps the lesson really lies in the dozens of hours I've spent spinning, as I'm convinced that that was what taught me true appreciation for simple, calming, repetitive tasks.

I've started knitting Cobblestone (Fall '07 IK, designed by Jared Flood) for Alex. I showed him a couple of options to start out with, with Elizabeth Zimmermann's Saddle Shoulder Aran Cardigan as choice number 1 from my perspective. He chose Cobblestone, he chose charcoal grey, and I started knitting. I'm much farther than that photo shows -- two 100 g. skeins (of Harrisville Highland) in, with over a foot of the body done. I knew that love would make knitting a "boring" sweater tolerable and even enjoyable, but it turns out that love is just the icing on the cake.

Have I discovered the yoga of knitting? Is it time to write a book? Or I could stop being all faux-new-agey about it, and just enjoy.

Besides embracing my inner stockinette, I've been finishing the project I've been working on for The Anticraft. I pains me so much to not be able to share anything about it yet. Well, except for this teaser photo, which is so much of a teaser that it may not even be worth it. But here goes, anyway:

This is such a fun project that I may need to write out the blog post about it now, even if I have to wait weeks to post it. Just to get it out of my system. Of course, I'd be better off writing up the pattern (and taking photos), so I don't find Zabet on my doorstep with a baseball bat in a couple of weeks, to teach me a lesson about tardiness.

(Okay, for real, what I have planned for this afternoon is laundry, spinning, and The Good Housekeeping Marriage Book. Shhhhh! I promise I'll get to that pattern writing tomorrow...)

conquering techniques; the perfect green; party in the corner

2007-09-21T17:37:00.000-04:00

I figured it out!

I wasn't happy with the 2-circ technique of knitting in the round because I found that I'd get insanely tight stitches at the end of a needle. That pesky problem was caused by the yarn getting pulled too tightly around the cord of that circular as I started to knit on the next needle. It completely ruined the technique for me, and I was avoiding it until last week.

I ended up buying 2 3.25 mm circular needles last Saturday because I'm stupid. Or a klutz. Or perhaps both. This past Spring I spent part of my lunch hour going to a local fabric store that stocks some knitting supplies to pick up DPNs for the Autumn Color Cardigan sleeves. I knew they carried Inox needles, and I thought that the tips on them may be similar enough to the tips on the circ. I used for the sweater body that I wouldn't have gauge issues. (The tips on my Clover DPNs were way too blunt.) I brought the circ I'd used for the body to compare before I purchased. On my walk home from the store, with my new DPNs in hand, I lost the circ. It must have just dropped from my hands on my walk back to work, never to be seen again. The time is drawing near for me to attach the sleeves to the body and knit the yoke, and I needed to replace my needles.

So I sat with the sleeve in my lap, and 2 new circs next to me, and decided to try the 2 circ technique again. I don't mind DPNs, but it's rather annoying to have to shift stitches around every so often because of the imbalance caused by the increases on needles 1 and 4. It was a good move, because I figured out a solution to my problem:

Instead of pulling the needle I just finished so that the stitches sit on the cord, I found that I was able to just scootch the stitches down a bit, so the last stitches on the needle still sit on the actual needle. When I knit the first stitches on the next needle, the last stitches on that previous needle get tightened up around the needle instead of the cord. Perfection! It only works if you scoot those stitches down, so you have some flexibility in manipulating that old needle, so it's closer to parallel with the new needle. Otherwise you'd trade too-tight stitches with some serious laddering. I'm so excited that I found a way for this technique to work for me that I want to use it more often. I do like the rhythm of DPNs, but there are situations where 2 circs are better, I think. Stranded colorwork is one, and socks with large pattern repeats (especially lace and cables) is another.

I'm about 40 rows from the end of the second sleeve. (That's probably in the ballpark of 10 hours of knitting.) I was so ready to finish this sweater before casting on for any major new projects. The sleeve is getting a bit tedious, but I'm so close to the really interesting yoke shaping (set in sleeves in the round!), and wanted to get there as soon as possible. New techniques are to exciting! Unfortunately, I found myself really tensing up in the shoulders and neck as I was knitting a few days ago, and decided that shooting pains were a sign that I should put the sweater down. I didn't feel tense while knitting it, so I'm not sure what was going on. My current theory is that the frequent spit splicing (every 2-3 rounds) is the culprit, because I really dig in with the friction to make sure my yarn doesn't break at the joins as I'm working with it. Ah, well. This sweater wants to take forever to knit, and it will get its wish. A few hours a week, and it should be done before the winter's over, at any rate.

To soothe my painful shoulders I cast on for something relatively easy and relaxing.

Nancy Bush's Anniversary Socks from Favorite Socks. I'm using one of the Skeins of Lisa Souza Merino Sock I bought and didn't use for my sock design. I am completely enchanted with this color (Sage), and tried to get as accurate a photo as I could. It was quite hard, because the camera wanted to capture it as grey. As you can see by my glowing pink fingers in that photo, some major adjusting had to take place to get the yarn to look right. It's still not quite perfect, as it's a touch lighter and maybe a tiny bit less blue in real life. If any of you know which color of Cascade 220 comes closest to this yarn, please let me know! I'm searching for a green very much like this (maybe a tiny bit lighter) for one of two sweaters I want to knit for myself this winter, and my LYS doesn't carry very many shades for me to check out in person.

This yarn is an absolute pleasure to work with. I swatched for my sock design with the pink, and felt that the yarn was too loose and floppy. The sage green feels a bit sturdier, though I'm not sure if it's a real difference or all in my head. Just look at how gorgeous this fabric is:

The color is completely washed out, but I still love the photo. And these socks are a great relaxation project. They're fairly simple, but interesting (and beautiful!) enough to keep me going. I was planning to just knit to the letter of the pattern, but I ended up making an alteration from the get-go. The first round of the pattern is purled, and I didn't like how my cast on edge looked with that. I cast on again (German Twisted), purled back, then joined in the round. That left me with the purl side of the cast on on the public side of the sock, which I think works a lot better. I actually taught myself how to do the long tail cast on purlwise (the way you probably learned is knitwise), so I could do a neater cast on for ribbing. (Part of my striving for absolute perfection in the sock pattern I submitted to Knitty.) I wanted to use German Twisted for this sock, for the extra bit of elasticity, but haven't yet figured out how to reverse it so it goes purlwise. I'm sure I can, but with all those extra twists, I was too lazy to work it out. Maybe I will before I cast on for the second sock.

Before I end this post I want to respond to a couple of comments from previous posts. Jamie asked for a clarification on my Scroll Lace Socks pattern. She wanted to know if there were "plain" rows every other row that I didn't chart out. The answer is no -- the chart is as written. There are yarnovers and decreases on every row. Compare those socks to Brenda Dayne's Brother Amos socks to see the difference that makes. The stitch pattern she used does have "plain" rows every other row, and while the patterned rows are not identical to the patterned rows in the Scroll Lace socks, they are similar. You get a much different effect with the plain rows than you do without them.

Pamela and I exchanged a few emails about the Montse Stanley book. She is totally right in pointing out that Ms. Stanley is quite opinionated. Another reason the book may be more suited to someone who isn't first learning, and who already has more opinions of their own, I suppose. While Pamela stands in the corner being all ashamed about being a slow English knitter, I'll stand in the other corner because Ms. Stanley doesn't approve of how seldom I use tubular cast ons and bind offs. We should be ashamed of ourselves! (But secretly, I've got brownies in the oven, fresh apple cider in the fridge, and am planning a party for knitters who don't knit exactly like Monse Stanley. It will be a blast! Join us! In addition to the above two offenses, you can also gain entry if you have knit yarnover buttonholes. I can hear the children screaming in horror already...)

No Banana!

2007-09-13T06:13:00.000-04:00

The annoying, secret, new pattern knitting is almost over. I swear! The AntiCraft project is even more thrilling than I anticipated it would be, the sock design has been submitted to Knitty, and I'm about to rip out the only recent knitting you've seen a photo of. (The Monkeys were too busy. Bad Monkeys. No banana!)

I'll be back to the Autumn Color Cardigan soon, just in time for the real arrival of the season. We've had several days of rain that broke our recent heat wave. The rain stopped yesterday, and autumn arrived. The air was crisp and cool, plans for apple picking were made, and I took a walk around Robin Hood Pond. The trees are still mostly green, but every so often it's possible to find a beautiful red leaf that's ahead of schedule.

That's Shetland on the spindle, from the sampler pack Brenda sent this summer. And how happy am I that I had a friend to treat me with great wool as I was learning to spin! I recently discovered that the 8 oz. of Romney roving I bought at NHSW feels just icky to spin. I'm not experienced enough to know if I it's because I don't like carded wool, or if there is a problem with the preparation or quality of this roving. Whatever it is, if I hadn't had a pile of nice wool from an experienced spinner to start out with, I fear that I may have given up on spinning!

The wool in the photo above is more brown than it looks. The silvery bits were really picked up in the photograph, but in real life it's quite close to the color of my own hair, which is not yet silver. I've already finished spinning the singles for the grey wool from the sample pack.

There are 2 more colors of Shetland left after these (cream and very dark brown), and then I'll work on plying the singles and coming up with a pattern for them. I think it's got to be colorwork, and that a hat would be nice. I may be tempted to buy a small amount of a soft fiber to spin up yarn for a lining. Shetland isn't the softest stuff, and I figure that my first handspun Shetland will be a real wildcard when it comes to next-to-the-skin wearability. Plus, trying out a small bit of merino (or merino/silk!) on my drop spindle will surely be a character building experience. Maybe I'll try to find the brightest colored roving or top possible, for some fun secret contrast.

To get those grey Shetland singles on the niddy noddy, I had to skein up the yarn that was already on the niddle noddy. I knew I liked it before, but after it was skeined up I just fell in love.

That's half of the Blue Faced Leicester, not yet set, but looking absolutely perfect in my eyes. It's been so long since I spun and plied it that I don't remember the weight and yardage. After I set it I'll get all the measurements again. I plied this batch using the hand plying method I found on Knitty. After trying a center pull ball (complete disaster) and Andean plying (numb digits and messiness), I think this is the plying method for me. I have a feeling that it works best with "old" singles, which is what the BFL was, having sat around for weeks. The Shetland will be old, with relatively little energy in the singles, by the time I ply it. I hope it works as well for that yarn as it did for my darling BFL.

I've been struggling with what to do about the book reviews I mentioned previously. I decided that I really didn't have strong opinions about either of the books I had originally been planning to review, and I feel that a review without strong opinions isn't much of a review at all. One of them may still merit a review, but for now I'll write a little about a book that I do feel strongly about.

I recently found a very cheap copy of Montse Stanley's Knitter's Handbook, a book I'd heard about but had never actually seen in a store before. This book is about as complete a technical guide as I can imagine. I prefer illustrations to photographs, and this book is full of amazingly detailed and clear drawings. Most of the photographs in the book are of finished garments, many of them historical or "vintage", that illustrate specific techniques. Check out the stockings on page 53 -- doesn't it make your jaw just drop!

What's amazing about this book is the variety of options it gives you for so many of the techniques. I'd have bought it just for the chapter on casting on and binding off, which contains techniques I'd never even heard of. Reading through the book made me want to take out a fresh skein of yarn and try out every technique described, including the ones I already knew how to do. The book will make me a better knitter and a better designer, and is cheap enough that I think every knitter should own a copy. The only potential problem with the book is that it uses non-US terminology, which may be confusing for knitters in the US who are first learning and have only see US terminology elsewhere. But even that isn't a huge hurdle, and shouldn't be a hurdle at all for anyone who's information savvy enough to be reading blog posts about knitting.

My other review is a product review, and not quite as glowing. I finally got the chart keeper from Knitpicks, after using the ratty old sheet of metal that I bought a couple of years ago at a yarn store. You know those metal chart holders -- the ones that are just a smidge too small for a standard 8.5 x 11" sheet of paper, leaving you with frayed edges? I foolishly didn't look at the product description for the chart keeper, and admit that my disappointment at its size is my fault. I just assumed that each half of it would be large enough to hold a standard piece of paper, making it a chart tool that would improve upon the one I already owned. Unfortunately, it's half that size. It does open up to a size that would fit an 8.5 x 11" sheet of paper, but that's not very useful because the middle, where it needs to fold, is obviously not backed by metal. (Plus, I'd rather not have to fold my charts.) I've found a few uses for it, but am truly astounded that they decided to make this item so small. Yes, it's more portable. But it's not going to work with most of the charts I'd want to use it for. I suppose it's not worth the expense of sending it back, but I really hope they come out with a larger version. Portability is meaningless if the item you're carrying around doesn't provide the functionality you need it for.

So as not to end the post on a downer (really, the thing is great, if you only ever use teeny charts!), here's a sneak peek at the sweater I'll likely be knitting after I finish my cardigan. It's what Alex requested, and the fall weather is putting me in a back to basics mood. It may also mean another trip to Harrisville to choose just the right color, which is always a good thing.

teased

2007-08-25T08:29:00.000-04:00

I was all prepared to on at great length about our beautiful autumnal weather, my sudden urge to knit everything in my Ravelry queue right now(67 projects and counting, the horror), and how all three of my current projects match the new season so beautifully. Too bad we're going to teeter on the edge of setting a record high temperature today (in the mid-90's Fahrenheit), with enough humidity that I'm sure I'll feel like I'm drowning in my own living room. Thanks, friggin August, for taking the fall breeze out of my sails and replacing it with tropical gusts.

But at least I can show you what I was working on, and what I'll try to continue working on in our one (cramped and poorly lit, alas) air conditioned room. First of all, I finished The Socks. I can't show you them yet, but here's a teaser of what the Harrisville looks like in stockinette, from the sole of the foot.

I haven't blocked them yet, so the fabric is still looking a bit rustic. This yarn benefits dramatically from even the laziest of blockings. (In other words, wash and let dry flat.) Isn't the heathered lilac just lovely?

And of course, these socks have earned me my first Cast On Knitting Scout badge:

Normally, of course, such a gesture would be in jest in this situation. But you've read the story (or are welcome to, if you haven't but are curious about what this whole paragraph is about), so it should be clear that the gesture is meant quite literally. As an update, my swatch was finally returned to me last week, without explanation or apology, accompanied by a quite generic and uninspiring rejection letter (fake digitized signature and all). Horrid timing, as I'd just spend a lot of time and energy reinventing the wheel to finish the sock design without that "lost" swatch. I'm glad to have the letter in hand, so I can feel perfectly free to do with the design idea as I like. But I feel even more like a number than before. Well, at least the lesson that this impersonal (and in my case, disrespectful) Knitting Industry is not for me has been well learned. Happy to buy the magazine issues that interest me, and leave it to more hardy (and famous) souls to deal with them on a one-on-one basis. (Bitter much? Yeah, but I have faith that the Knitty rejection will be downright pleasant compared to this fiasco.)

So now that I've filled the room with bitter spite, how about some other knitting? I discovered that a small gnome or elf of some sort had been tinkering in my knitting basket, and managed to cast on for the second sleeve of the Autumn Color Cardigan while I was busy with other things. I swear, I have no memory of casting on for it weeks ago, but apparently did so, and knit the cuff and first 10 rounds of the first chart. Or it was a gnome. Imagine that! I worked a little bit more on it this past week:

I also cast on a new pair of socks. Brenda was kind enough to have Erin send me one of skeins of yarn dyed in an attempt to perfect the colorways for the Brother Amos socks. It turned out quite autumnal (see, there's that cool breeze, trying to push its way through the humidity again), and very much to my liking. It's busier than I'd ordinarily choose for a yarn, but I'm making it work for me in that nearly ubiquitous simian sock pattern:

The yarn is from C*EYE*BER Fiber, and the unique colorway is called "Purgatory Orphan", which tickles me to no end. Monkeys In Purgatory. My kind of socks. Especially in these gorgeous colors. If you want a closer look at the eye of partridge heelflap (a new favorite technique), there's this photo.

The third project I kinda, sorta have started is another secret, for now. I can tell you that it's lace, it's self designed (no stitch dictionaries), and is part of a collaboration with Zabet for a project that will hopefully appear in the fall issue of The Anticraft. It was the product of a very fun brainstorming session, and should be rather weird and slightly gross, while also being highly functional and sensible. My yarn just arrived (earlier than I expected), so it may be my weekend project to finalize the design and cast on. Look for it in a couple of months!

I was going to do a couple of book reviews in this post, but I think that would be too much content for one day, so I'll put them off a bit. I also have an unexpected "disappointed in product" review, but I've already whined more than my fair share in this post, and couldn't possibly subject you to more of that right now. Instead, I'll end with many thanks to the people who congratulated me on my county fair ribbons. I assure you, the sweater and mittens are blushing profusely, and quite appreciative of their adoring fans.

I'm so blue.

2007-08-07T18:20:00.000-04:00

Look at those shiny blue ribbons! I hope you don't mind if I indulge in this moment of head-swelling pride. My Komi Mittens and Vertical Stripes Pullover won "first premium" in their respective categories at the Cheshire Fair. The sweater was even a last minute decision on my part; I figured I'd throw it in, just for the heck of it. Good decision, I guess. I did have very high hopes for the mittens. They're perhaps the most technically sound project I've ever knit, in addition to being visually striking. I admit that I would have been disappointed if they didn't win. But I think the sweater does have its flaws, and I was pleasantly surprised to see it come out on top.

I don't knit to win shiny ribbons, but it is a confidence booster. I have the best sweater and mittens in the entire county. Imagine that! I've not been sitting on my laurels, though. I've spent the week since my last post in serious swatch mode, working on the Not-Interweave-Socks (uh, I think they need a better nickname), as well as a side project.

My little side project got started because I discovered that the yarn I had bought for my main sock design project just wasn't right. There isn't anything at all wrong with the yarn, but the knitted fabric didn't have the sturdiness or stitch definition I really want for this project. (For the record, that yarn I'm no longer using is Lisa Souza's 100% merino sock yarn. It's incredibly soft, the semi-solids are beautiful, the yardage is fantastic, and I enjoyed knitting with it. It will be used with love in another project, but not in this one.) I asked a few friends for their recommendations for sock yarn that would work with my project, and am saving up their recommendations for when I publish the pattern. I ended up going with what my original (lost) swatch was knit in -- Harrisville New England Shetland. The gauge and fabric is right, the stitch definition is enough to make my knees weak, and the heathered colors are frankly more gorgeous than 99% of the hand dyed yarn I see people mooning over all over the internet. I live only 12 miles from Harrisville, so was able to go to the store in person on Saturday to choose the perfect color.

I didn't have to think about it. That color jumped right off the shelf. Lilac -- a perfect match with my pattern. The actual knitting is coming along slowly. I was about halfway through the leg when I realized that there were a couple of small changes I wanted to make. I was very good natured about starting over. This design is my baby, and it's worth every second it takes to get it just right. I'm proud of it already, and want to be as proud of it as possible when it's eventually published. Details count, and details there will be. In fact, I'm still working out a few details, which means more swatching tonight, before I continue with the leg. I need to prepare for things that come later down the leg.

During the several days between when I realized the Lisa Souza yarn wasn't destined for this pattern and when I could make it to Harrisville to buy my yarn, I played around with a variation on the short row heel. It was pretty freeform, without notes or a lot of research, but it was a good start. Eventually I'll have to sit down and more systematically figure out how to make things look and act exactly as I like. I think it might be a good project for when I'm working on the Autumn Color Cardigan again, and need a little colorwork break.

I also spent some of that time doing some last minute swatching for Brenda's upcoming Brother Amos sock pattern. It's a fabulous pattern, full of thoughtful, interesting details, as well as a bit of humor. I hope you all give a little to her tip jar when the pattern is out, so you can get your own copy. It will be more than worth it.

I won't be able to post much about my sock design, because I still think I'm going to submit it to Knitty. While I'm working on that, I hope to bring you a book review or two. A publisher was kind enough to offer me two review copies of new knitting books, and I think I have enough that's interesting to say about at least one of them to make a decent blog post. While I'm not providing you with photos of knitting (I know, secret knitting on blogs is annoying, even if you're the one doing it), I can entertain you with other photos. I've finished uploading and organizing the photos from our California trip. The entire collection can be found here, organized by day so it's not so overwhelming.

(See, don't you want to go look at all of them, now?)

Scroll Lace Sock Pattern

2007-07-31T12:47:00.000-04:00

You'll have to scroll down for the Scroll Lace Sock pattern (including those modeled photos some of you have been waiting for). Funny how that worked out. First are some notes on fairs and... unfairs?

This weekend marked the second annual "Drop precious, blood-and-sweat-soaked (figuratively) hand-knitted items off at county fair, cross fingers, and hope that none of them get trampled by goats or covered in award winning jam" Day. I'll find out this coming weekend not only if they survived the goats and jams and other mysterious, sticky county fair dangers, but also if they won me any ribbons. And of course there is the potential monetary windfall. Last year's winnings were enough to buy me one whole issue if Interweave Knits! Oh boy! (I poke fun at the minuscule amount of prize money given out, but in reality, I think they should give no money at all. I have a gut feeling that the prize money may be one of the barriers to getting them to revamp and massively expand the shamefully small number of categories for needlework. I don't need the money; I only need fame and glory and goat-free mittens!)

I submitted, as planned, my Komi Mittens, and decided at the very last minute to submit the Vertical Stripes Fair Isle, since I long ago gave up on the insanity of trying to finish the Autumn Color Cardigan in time for the fair.

Speaking of the Autumn Color Cardigan... no, don't get too excited. I'm not working on it again just quite yet. I have two designing projects to get out of the way first. (And wasn't that a lovely way for me to put it. "Get out of the way." I really do like both projects quite a lot, but both have been simmering for way too long, and it's time to eat the soup, already.) The second of the projects is an expanded version of my Komi bag, which will be appearing in the Stitch and Bitch calendar, whenever that comes out. (I thought it was June, but that's come and gone.) It will have more complete instructions, as well as 3 or 4 additional colorwork options. I just need to swatch up those other colorwork option samples and flesh out the pattern instructions.

The first project I'll be working on, which I just cast on for the other day, is a fabulous pair of socks. The good is they were rejected by IK. No, really! It's good because they considered them for a while, which to me is almost as good as being published there. It means they liked my pattern idea. The bad is that I've been trying to get my swatch back from them since May, it sounds like maybe they lost it, and are no longer even answering my emails. I think I'll be sticking to self-publishing and maybe submitting to Knitty from now on, because I do not appreciate being treated like that. (The first thing I did before submitting it was make sure they return swatches, which they do. I've been counting on that to help in the design/redesign process. I put a ton of work into it, and having to make the sock without it has been more difficult than it needed to be, even with my photographs and notes. And also, my time and energy is worth more than lost property without a reply or apology.)

And now that the venting portion of this entry is over (with apologies to the friends who have heard this venting before), how about a sock pattern that isn't tainted by anger and frustration? It's not as fancy or new as the one I have on the needles, but it's pretty and elegant, and I know a few of you have been waiting for it. I apologize that I don't have it in PDF format (I don't have a place online to store such things). If you have trouble printing it, or copying and pasting it into a Word document for easier printing, email me (bowerbirdknits AT gmail DOT com), and I'll try to get a Word document to you as soon as I can.

(Additional photos of the socks can be found in previous posts, or by clicking here.)

Scroll Lace Socks
materials
100 grams of a thin fingering weight yarn, set of five 1.75mm (US size 00) doublepointed needles, yarn needle for grafting and finishing

gauge (in stockinette in the round)
11 stitches per inch (44 stitches per 4 inches / 10 centimeters)

Note On Sizing, Fit, and Gauge (read this!): I have relatively small feet and relatively skinny ankles. The stitch pattern I used in this sock does not have a lot of give to it. These socks fit me perfectly, but I do have to tug to get them on. Many (heck, most) of you have knit Jaywalkers -- it's the same kind of deal. My recommendation is that if you have ever had trouble with any socks ever being difficult (or impossible) to get over your heel, go up one needle size for the leg of this sock. If you have started them and are unsure about whether you'll be able to get them on, put them on scrap yarn and try them on now. If you have large, or maybe even medium sized ankles and feet, consider dropping to 9 or 10 stitches per inch for the entire sock. I think these are great socks, but they can only be great if you can wear them. Knit with these sizing and gauge issues in mind, please!

chart

(Click here for a downloadable version of the chart.)

casting on and hem
Loosely cast on 80 stitches (20 per needle). I prefer the Twisted German Cast On, but your preferred stretchy sock cast on will do.

Work 8 rounds of plain stockinette (knit every stitch)

Next round create the picot edge by work [yo, k2tog] around

Work 8 rounds of plain stockinette

On the next round knit the cast on edge together with your live stitches. I do this by taking a loop from the cast on edge, placing it on the left needle, and knitting it with the next live stitch on the needle as if I were doing a k2tog. Simply proceed around the cast on edge, picking up a loop from the next cast on stitch each time.

Work 2 rounds of plain stockinette

Note: If you are knitting the leg on larger needles, but are worried about droop, consider enclosing a band of elastic inside the picot hem. I've never actually tried this, but I bet it would help with droopiness.

leg
Work the chart (18 row repeat) 5 times, or to length desired. Each row of the chart will be repeated 8 times around the circumference of the sock leg.

heel flap
After completing the desired number of leg repeats, turn the sock, slip 1, and purl 39. There will now be 40 pattern stitches being held on 2 needles, and 40 heel flap stitches on one needle.

Turn, [slip 1, knit 1] across the heel flap

Repeat the above two rows (1. slip 1, purl 39; 2. [slip 1, knit 1] across) 22 more times, for a total of 23 repeats of the heel pattern (46 rows total)

heel turn
Slip 1, purl 22, p2tog, purl 1, turn
slip 1, knit 7, ssk, k1, turn

Continue in pattern, always decreasing (p2tog or ssk) across the gap and working one plain stitch (purl or knit) after the decrease, so that you incorporate 2 more stitches into the heel cup with each short row worked. You will end on a knit row, and should have 24 stitches on the needle.

gusset
Continuing in a clockwise manner, pick up 25 stitches along one side of the gusset -- one stitch per every 2 rows of the heel flap, plus 2 extras before the instep, to avoid holes. This will be needle 1

Work across the instep in the chart pattern, starting on row 1. There will be 4 repeats of the chart pattern across every row of instep. These needles will be needles 2 and 3.

Pick up 25 stitches for the other side of the gusset. This will be needle 4.

Knit across the heel flap, and arrange the stitches so that half (12) are on needle 4 and half are on needle 1.

On the next round, knit across needle 1, twisting the gusset stitches as you knit them (this is done by knitting through the back loop, if you knit the traditional way), continue the instep pattern on needles 2 and 3 with row 2 of the chart, knit across needle 4, twisting the second half of the gusset stitches as you knit them.

(On all following rounds, the gusset and heel/sole stitches on needles 1 and 4 will all be knit plain, and all of the instep stitches on needles 2 and 3 will be knit according to the chart, as you have been doing.)

On the next round, start the gusset decreases. Knit to 3 stitches from the end of needle 1, k2tog, k1, work the instep stitches across needles 2 and 3, k1, ssk, and knit to the end of the needle 4.

Work the next round "plain" - stockinette with no decreases for the gusset stitches (needles 1 and 4), and the next round of the chart as written for the instep stitches (needles 2 and 3).

Alternate decrease and "plain" rounds until there are 20 stitches on needle 4 and 20 stitches on needle 1, for a total of 80 stitches around all 4 needles.

foot
Continue work in pattern until the sock is about 2" shorter than your foot. For me that was 5 pattern repeats. My feet are slightly smaller than average, so you may need more repeats than that. Try to end on a full or half repeat -- on row 9 or 18 of the chart pattern.

toe
Knit one round (including the instep stitches) in stockinette.

Work one decrease round: Knit to the last three stitches on needle 1, k2tog, knit 1; start needle 2 with knit 1, ssk, knit to the end of needle 2; knit to the last three stitches on needle 3, k2tog, knit 1, start needle 4 with knit 1, ssk, knit to the end of needle 4 (round completed)

Work one plain stockinette round (all knit)

Alternate decrease and plain stockinette rounds 6 times more (7 times total), until there are 13 stitches left on each needle.

Work the decrease round 7 times more, with no intervening plain stockinette rounds, until there are 6 stitches left on each needle.

Knit the stitches from needle 1 onto needle 4. Slip the stitches from needle 3 onto needle 2.

Cut the working yarn, and graft the toe closed with kitchener stitch.

finishing
Weave in ends and block as desired.

The original line by line instructions for this stitch pattern can be found in Barbara Walker's 2nd Treasury. Please let me know if you catch any errors or typos in the pattern. Happy Knitting!

Next time: Tales from sock designing? Teaser photos? More handspun? Colorwork bag swatches? I honestly don't know. Any requests?

temporary ramblings of a knitter returned

2007-07-24T06:45:00.000-04:00

I'm back, saw more bears than I knit inches of sock (I'll leave you guessing on the details of that one), only got lost in the woods once (at dusk), and am working on two massive projects -- editing/uploading photos, and reading Harry Potter.

If anyone is interested, the trip photos are being uploaded to my Flickr account, and will eventually all be found at this link. Right now there are only a few days up, with minimal descriptions, but I hope to have them all up by the end of the weekend. I'll delete this post when I have actual fiber content to share, but will re-post the link.

So, anything exciting happen in the fiber world while I was gone? The birth of Alice Starmore and Franklin Habit's love child? (See, I can post things like this because I will be deleting this placeholder post. Oh the freedom!) Fill me in, folks! I still have hundreds of bloglines posts to go through, and I have to admit, the process has been going something like this:

"Hmm, no photos. No time to read text. Next!"
"Damn, all photos! That's going to take forever to load while I'm trying to download 200 podcasts and upload photos to flickr. Next!"

So if you finished knitting something absolutely amazing, or wrote a blog post that will have me peeing my pants with laughter, shamelessly link to it in the comments. I know I'll miss stuff. You guys posted way too much while I was gone. The nerve.

Back to knitting next week. Hopefully with the (free) scroll lace sock pattern.

no beer or butter

2007-07-01T12:43:00.000-04:00

One week from now I will be strolling the streets of San Francisco. A week and a day from now I will be out on the trail, beginning my first of 13 days worth of hikes. At an average of 8.6 miles and 1,543 ft. of elevation gain per day (assuming we stick to our itinerary), combined with camping every night, I don't plan on getting much knitting done. I also don't plan on seeing a computer, much less having internet access during those 2 or so weeks. There will obviously be no blogging, but I also want to make it clear that if you want to buy the Smoke Signals Hat pattern, buy it by Thursday afternoon of this week, or wait until after July 22 or 23 for delivery. Let me repeat that in bold, so my butt is covered, and I don't have people pay for a pattern they won't get for 2 weeks:

If you are thinking of buying the Smoke Signals hat pattern in the near future, please send your paypal payment by noon (Eastern Time) on Thursday, July 5. If you wait longer than that, I cannot promise delivery until the evening of Monday, July 23, as I will be surrounded by trees and mountains and bears, but no computers.

So no knitting for over 2 weeks? Okay, I will be bringing some. I probably won't bring it on the plane, because I'll want to bring something on metal DPNs, and I don't want to play the guessing game about whether the will or won't be allowed through security. I have plenty of things to keep me occupied on the flight out, and plan to sleep on the overnight flight back, so I am in prime condition to devour Harry Potter upon my return. (Said pointy DPNs will be impaled into the flesh of those who would dare utter one sentence from the book before I am able to pick up my copy on the 22nd and finish reading it, at my own preferred leisurely pace, the following week. I refuse to waste the book on 6 hours of ravenous, rushed reading. You have been warned.)

Excuse the digression. It took all my strength to squelch a squeal when I saw the countdown sign at the bookstore yesterday, when I went to pick up my beautiful new trip journal. I have been eyeing the notebook selection at my bookstore for months, plotting out the perfect new journal to splurge on for the trip. I plan to use it partially for regular journaling of the events of our trip, partially for other writing projects I've been working on or thinking about recently, and partially for sketching and working out some knitting design ideas that are floating around in my head.

Isn't it beautiful? The cover art is by thirteenth century artist Ma Lin, and perfect for a trip that will involve many mountains. The book lies flat, has a pocket in the back to hold a few reference pages I'll want to print out for various writing projects (the submissions guidelines for the current series of Cast-On being key), has lightly lined pages that will make writing easy without distracting from my attempts at design sketches, and has the most charming binding. I worked in book preservation at the library when I was in college, and have wanted to learn how to bind books ever since. The simple beauty of this notebook's binding strengthens that urge.

In addition to writing, I have some exciting reading materials. I just finished listening to Jane Eyre from Librivox in preparation for reading The Eyre Affair. (I admit that I've started it prematurely, and may finish it before the trip. But I just had to take a peek inside, and by page 4 there was absolutely no turning back.) Great Expectations is in preparation for the next book in Fforde's series, and Cold Comfort Farm is there because Brenda has convinced me that my world is not complete without it. And of course I opted for the version with the cartoons on the cover. It was only $1 more than the printing with the characterless cover, and I find it reassuring to be reminded that "There'll be no butter in hell!" I'll take that to mean that, like in the polka song about the beer, I should better eat my fill while I'm still here! (Wait, I suppose that means I think I'm going to hell. No beer in heaven, no butter in hell. Hmm. What a decision. I wonder where they serve fresh strawberries and chocolate truffles...)

I have faith that my writing and reading will keep me well occupied during the trip, when I just won't feel comfortable knitting. While the essay on the latest Cast On did give me second thoughts about my knitting plans (or lack thereof), I'm still not convinced that living out of a tent mixes well with Schaefer Anne and 1.75 mm needles. And I'm really looking forward to the chance to concentrate on the craft of writing for a couple of weeks, without distraction from other hobbies. Alex thinks this is a hiking trip, but perhaps it's part hiking trip, part writing retreat.

Some of my other trip preparation includes working on some spinning I want to finish before we leave. I'm more than halfway through the second half of the BFL, and want to get all of those singles spun up before we leave so there isn't a drastic difference between how long the first and second half of the singles have to set before I ply them. Here are some photos of the first 25 grams, which I moved onto the niddy noddy so I could begin the second 25 grams. This came out to 265 yards, which I'm quite pleased with. Definitely lace weight, and after it and the rest are plied, should be enough for a lace scarf.

(click on it if you want to get to a bigger version)

To a large extent, this yarn has been spun while listening to Jane Eyre. I think that is going to have to influence the eventual scarf design and name, though it will be a while before that gets set into motion.

Oh, and while I'm at it, here is the first Scroll Lace Sock. It's in black and white because my feet are a bit beat-up looking now, and the fancy photo settings allowed me to salvage an otherwise nice photo while sparing you too much detail of my feet:

On a completely different note, I know that a lot (probably the majority) of the people who read this blog are themselves bloggers. A friend of mine is starting to gather data for her dissertation, and is looking for personal bloggers to fill out a survey. I offered to help spread the word. Bloggers, stand up and be counted! Take the “Public and Private in the Blogosphere” Survey!

Well, I guess that's it for now. I anticipate that this will be my last blog post until after the trip. Since I don't plan to knit (or at least not a lot) on the trip, and plan to be immersed in Harry Potter-ville after we return, I don't know if I'll be posting anything here until late July or early August. I do feel bad about that, so here is a list hinting at things to come over the next few months (or, for those of you on Ravelry, look up bowerbird and take a look at my overwhelmingly long queue, which contains pattern ideas as well as more traditional projects):

* A pdf of my Komi bag pattern, with several stitch design options.
* The sock pattern I alluded to this past winter. I plan to knit the socks and write up the pattern in August, then decide whether to submit to Knitty or self-publish.
* A variant on that sock design. Or 2. Or 3.
* Finishing the Autumn Color Cardigan
* (And at this point I am already so overwhelmed that I have to refer to my Ravelry queue to straighten out my thoughts...) Some sort of sweater for Alex, if we can settle on a pattern that he wants to wear and I want to knit. Keeping my fingers crossed about EZ's saddle shoulder aran cardigan, or some variant thereof.
* a colorwork hat design
* a colorwork mitten design, with an idea for the cuffs that is either quite clever or profoundly stupid. Time will tell.
* after this, things are quite hazy. Desperately want to see me knit something in particular from the queue? Let your voice be heard! I can't promise that it will influence me at all, but feedback is always good.