FO Frenzy

Felted items
Originally uploaded by Project Pictures

I've had a couple of WIPs sitting around for a while, and of course a nice sized stash marinating with yarns that have been around for over a year now (which is a darned long time for my project-oriented mindset) and I finally figured out what to do with them and got to it!


First, I sat down and finished off my Gift Box. I've had this lovely handspun sitting around for some time, but there just wasn't much of it. It's very pretty and squishy, but not really one that I want to save around for displaying as a skein. So I took my Mardi Gras Rose yarn, and some black 3-ply that I had already spun, and started a box.

My intention was to create what would essentially be wool wrapping paper. I wish I could remember who or where it was, but on something that I read (a blog or board), Furoshiki was mentioned. It's a method for using a large square of cloth, folded different ways, as a universal bag and it's being revived as part of the Green movement in Japan. I thought that a box that I knit (or even several boxes), might be a really fun way to use up some of my odds-and-ends of handspun yarn from Spindlers' Challenges each month.

I cast on and knit a square in black using seed-stitch to give it a little more structure. Then I picked up around the edges and knit upwards, switching to the Mardi Gras yarn at an inch or so in, and switching back to black when I ran out of the Mardi Gras skein. Near the top I purled one round, and then knit a length that would fold shut at the top like wrapping paper would. I created "creases" in the cloth by strategic placement of yarn-overs so it would naturally fold along those lines. Then I stretched it over a plastic toy and tossed the whole thing in the washer to full.

It went pretty well, but apparently the blades of the washer tore holes on the hard edges of the toy. So I ended up stitching them shut with nylon thread and re-washing the whole thing without the toy inside. Luckily it didn't shrink enough that I couldn't get it back over the plastic box in the end and let it dry there.

I also finished off my daughter's socks. I was using these as a test-knit for an idea for my own socks. I can't decide what I think of them. The spiral band is just darling. It is also (as many people predicted and complained on Ravelry) extremely tight and hard to get over her heel. Once on the socks look adorable! Getting them there, however, is quite a pain. I think I may possibly frog them to the ankle and knit the twist straight up one side of the leg. Or I may just do that for the next pair.

Last, I pulled out a couple of skeins I bought on sale with no real plan other than "make hats" and found patterns for them! The light brown skein had always been scheduled to be a "Clem" hat from "Hip Knit Hats" by Cathy Carron. I had even purchased a matching skein of mohair to strand with it (as the pattern requires). Am I allowed to say "darn, this is cute!!" if I made it myself? Well, I will, anyway. This is the second time I've knit Clem. The first time I used two strands of the same yarn and no mohair. The hat shrunk more than I expected in the felting (fulling) and it has never fit quite right. I didn't bother to do the embroidery for it, because it was too short. This time I was careful to knit the hat longer, but I ran out of yarn in the end. The mohair ran out first (that's what I get for not paying attention to yardage requirements) about an inch before I used up the last of the Manos del Uruguay. That's fine, because you can hardly tell in the final product, and the lack of mohair is pretty nice to show off the embroidered edge. I'm also not a great hand at embroidery, but I did a passable job this time!

Last, I dug through my 101 Designer One Skein Wonders book and found a pattern for the "Two Hour Bag". This looked like a great match for my darker skein of Manos del Uruguay, and boy, was it ever! It surprised even me. I put the two together with little thought, mainly wanting to use up the yarn. But as I knit, the colors of the Manos came into play and all of a sudden it didn't look thrown together, it looked quite purposeful and lovely. It just looked even better the more that I knit. And after a round in the washer, the colors tightened up together and it is simply stunning. The bag wants one of Janice's raku buttons (from Dyelots) so bad it isn't even funny. I'm going to have to sneak out of the house tomorrow and go purchase one so I can get it completely done.

As a final comment, I want to mention that I may have said "felting" in a couple of places. Technically, when working with a knit project with heat and agitation, the process is called "fulling" and the object is "fulled". An object is felted when you do the same thing, but start with un-worked fiber. In the end what you have is felt cloth (fulled cloth?) and personally I like the sound of "felted" better. I don't know why, but I do. So any slip-up is mine, and I do know the difference. Sometimes, I just don't care.

You can see more pictures of everything on my Flickr Photostream or check out the projects under "TinkerTots" on Ravelry.

Irony

I spend a lot of time thinking about Alanis Morisette's song, "Ironic". Probably a lot more time than it deserves. But it all stems out of a big debate I had with a friend as to whether or not any of the song actually is ironic. He held to the opinion (apparently related to him by a rather strident professor) that there isn't a single example of true irony in the song and that really only things like O. Henry's "Gift of the Magi" express real irony.

I hold to the opinion that irony isn't quite so very narrow. Happily, the dictionary and Wikipedia both agree with me (neener neener!).

But when I was the random-winner of the Spindler's Challenge for February, I was placed in the position of choosing the next theme. It's rather a fun little "prize" for participating and being the "winner" in a completely arbitrary contest. My yarn was also displayed on the main page for the group for the month so people got to see my pretty (and you can, too, because it's right here).

The group moderator has a general request that the themes NOT be seasonally inspired. I had a small problem with this as I stared out my kitchen window at the perpetually-gray skies and falling rain that marks our winter months. "Heavy Cloud, No Rain" (by Sting) ran through my head, and then of course Alanis' song in competition. Sting's song is easily the more ironic of the two, and seasonally appropriate, but I didn't know that I wanted to bring everyone down with "rainy" yarn. And really, isn't that seasonal? I didn't want to get into April Showers or May Flowers or all that. Bleh.

So, "irony" became stuck in my head. What is an ironic yarn? Something that isn't what it says it is? Something that looks soft, but feels rough (or vice versa)? Amusingly enough when I discussed it with other spinning friends, they questioned if it ought to have metal in it or be grey or red, which confused me greatly until they explained they were thinking it was "iron-y". Maybe it should be ribbon yarn.. flat and "ironed" out.

After much personal debate my imagination settled on that story, the only example my friend could ever manage to explain what irony "ought" to be, "The Gift of the Magi". Della's hair is perfect here, dark long locks shorn off and sold for a watch-chain. One of my LYS's had washed Romney locks, ready to be spun along with a thread of gold that could represent the watch-chain.

I was thinking I'd spin the locks thick and fluffy and have them spiral around the gold cord, but nothing worked out quite that way. I didn't comb out nearly as much fiber from the locks I purchased as I thought (there were quite a few short-cuts and just tangled masses). It didn't want to spin fluffy and thick, it wanted to be thin and worsted... probably because I've been spinning three-ply sock yarn for almost two months straight now. My gold-lame cord was almost more trouble than it was worth. I found 2-ply cord which I decided to un-ply to double the length available. That alone took more time than everything else I did to make the finished yarn: processing the Romney locks, spinning and plying everything back together again, and washing, whacking and drying. I will never, ever again un-ply synthetic cord like that.

But in the end I still have really lovely yarn. I think in the spirit of the story, I will knit this yarn into a small pouch and felt it for a coin-purse... to save up my pennies for gifts.

OMG! A sheep went 'splody on my porch!

Jacobs Fleece
Originally uploaded by Project Pictures

Okay, not exactly, but it sure does look like it.

Spring is here and not only do we have thousands of adorable lambs running around in all the big grass fields, but apparently it is also time to shear off the fluffy coats of all the older sheep so they don't slow broil over the course of the summer.

What's amusing about this is that I've gotten several offers of "free fleece". I'm told this is a dangerous thing. You really don't know what you're getting into. The sheep may not be a breed that's meant to be shorn for its fleece (it may be intended for other sorts of consumption... leg of lamb, anyone?). It's likely to be very dirty, and there are hundreds of other things that could be "wrong" with it, or so I've been informed my more experienced fiber artists.

If I were a discerning spinner, no doubt I would want to go to a show and go through the various fleeces and pick the very best one, buy it, and toodle home to fleecy goodness of my own design. However, since I am not a) experienced or b) discerning at this point, the major point of "free" is awfully hard to pass over. I figure if it's truly an awful fleece then we're planning on a new vegetable garden this year and I hear it's fantastic mulch.

This particular 'splody fleece on my porch is "Jacob" fleece. It's a fascinating breed of sheep. I got two of them (fleeces, not sheep) from a woman at my gym. She's noticed my knitting and spinning before (because I am not shy about sharing my projects about the locker room and in fact a couple of people "follow" what I'm working on. It's quite gratifying). So I'm very happy to have received this kind gift. However, one of those small "unfortunate" things did happen in that the sheep were sheared in their stall and the fleece dropped right in the straw. Oh, yay. She did offer to have them shorn on top of a tarp next year. But this time I spent the afternoon pulling the two fleeces apart to separate the two colors of wool, and doing my best to pick all the straw out of them. The upside of this activity is I got a really good up-close look at the fiber.

I was able to pull out the shorter cut parts and anything that still had too much dirt (or other matter) in it as well as the places that had felted on their own from the elements. What's left is really beautiful, and I have a 5-gallon bucket packed with prime mulch material.

I also was gifted a huge fleece that looks buttery yellow on first examination. I wiggled a little lock out of this monster bag (displayed here with some affection by my darling Yarn Angel) and submerged it in the hottest water my tap produces and a little Dawn detergent.

I wasn't particularly surprised (but I was extremely pleased) to see every last bit of that yellow mist away into the water leaving behind a pearly white lock. This stuff is gorgeous!

I'm going to take my fleece(s) up to Canby to a mill and see what they can do with it for me. I think there's plenty in the big bag to make at least one sweater, if not two. And the Jacob fleeces are going to be wonderful to play with!

Stash Update

Today, there was sun. It was amazing. It was beautiful and... my children were sleeping. So instead of fleeing the house and running across the neighborhood lawns with much abandon, I drug out my Macro Studio and the half of my stash I have been pretending doesn't exist, and I took pictures. I added yarns to my Ravelry stash page, and made sure all my fiber for spinning was included as well. I moved items from the stash page to "all used up" status, and double-checked one last time. I planned what yarns for what patterns and in the end felt much better about 3/4 of my stash. The remainder refuses to be labeled for its exact use and thus remains an annoyance to me. I desire everything to be in a nice bin with a plan, rather than waiting about undefined. The plan may change, but there at least should BE a PLAN.

It's rather daunting to see what you've socked away around the house, and at the same time rather gratifying to see how much you actually have knit through as well.

It was also rather nice to take a final look at a few skeins and realize that I'm really not going to use them for anything at this point. I put them in my Destash page for reasonable prices (I hope) and if interest happens, great. If I come up with a Plan for them before then, great. But right now they're redefined in my head as "not in stash". I've had good luck destashing so far, so here's hoping I get a message or two showing interest!

Oh, no!

February Lady Sweater - stalled
Originally uploaded by Project Pictures

Some days, things just don't work out. Despite much reading, estimating and calculating, taking into account other people's gauge and sizing.. I thought I had plenty of yarn. I should have had plenty of yarn. Almost everyone I looked into used 2.5 skeins or less to finish this sweater.

Not me! I started into the second sleeve and looked into my knitting bag and blanched at the floppy rings of yarn remaining. I pulled all that yarn out and re-wound it into smaller balls and weighed it. I knit a few rows and weighed again. I calculated in my head, and weighed it again. I knit a few more rows and... yes.. weighed it again.

I was so close. So very, very close. And yet, I knew it. I was short. Short! I was going to run out of this lovely yarn, dangit and now i had to decide... tear out some of the sleeve, or tear out some of the body... or beg online for more yarn.

I could, of course, buy another skein. I have alternated skeins through the entire project so one more new one wouldn't be the end of the world. Unfortunately, it would be another $22.50 for a very small amount of yarn to finish this dang project. Not really where I wanted to go.

I pulled out the sweater again and argued with my little remaining balls of yarn. Can you make it to the end? The yarn didn't think so. I weighed it all again, gnashed my teeth and said... sure you can! It replied, "Did you remember you have to do the garter-stitch cuff, too?" I cursed (quietly, internally, for it doesn't do for little ears to pick up on such things) and put on my best face so that certain small parties wouldn't decide that why mommy was upset was extremely interesting and start asking pointed questions. There's nothing quite like being peeved and having a four-year-old grill you as to why you're not happy.

Then I hit Ravelry. I found five people that have used this yarn in projects already (I love that feature!). I figured out that three of them have actually been active in the last couple of months. And I sent out desperate pleas for help... and I was promptly answered by all three! I love the internet community and people willing to send you their little leftovers to help you finish a project! I love that one of these three is willing to send me an entire project that never got gifted to a friend, so I might frog it and use the yarn. It's amazing and it makes me feel all warm and fuzzy.

I need to go find some little warm-fuzzy things to send back as "thank you" for such wonderful generosity! I'm thinking.. chocolate.

February Lady Sweater

February Lady Sweater
Originally uploaded by Project Pictures

Works in progress are so much fun. I found I have all sorts of great pictures, but have been too much of a slacker to blog them. So, here they are, a bit late and after the fact, but happily put together so you, kind reader, can see what I've been frantically knitting over the past couple of weeks!

My friend Andrea lit a fire under me (figuratively and I'm sure unintentionally) by making more progress than I did on her gorgeous FLS over the course of last week. I decided I was going to catch up, although probably not surpass her. I was hoping we'd both be able to wear our sweaters next Monday and get a paired picture. Wouldn't that be fun? So I set to knitting with a vengeance, and bumped up my goal of one lace repeat per day, to two repeats.

One of the things I found really interesting was the variations in color between skeins. I assumed that BMFA did they're dying in larger lots, but what most of us in this KAL have found out (because we were kind enough to share the information around) is that BMFA generally dyes two skeins at a time. That means with a three-skein project, you're sure to get one that was dyed a bit differently. In some projects, this has been painfully obvious. I opted to start striping back and forth between two skeins once I got to the lace portion of my FLS. It's a bit more work (okay, it's a LOT more work) but in the end the outcome is worth it. Pooling is much reduced and so is the obvious "argyle" pattern you can get from shaded yarns.

Because this is a cardigan knit in one piece, I didn't want to switch my skeins at the edge of my work. This would make for some obvious "floating" bits of yarn every time I switched skeins, right on the front edge of the sweater. Instead, I opted to switch at the edge of the garter-stitch border, right where it transitioned into lace. I started by twisting the two skeins together, but this didn't provide a strong enough link between the two skeins. Instead, I ended up knitting the first stitch after the switch with both strands held together. Because it was a transition from garter to lace, you can't even see the slightly thicker part where every-other-row there is one stitch held doubled. It made the join even and almost un-detectable. In fact, I dare anyone to find it without a magnifying glass.

I also did this again on the sleeves at the beginning of each round. There's a little jog there anyway, so it hides the irregularity of the stitch-weight. I'm really happy with how the sweater is turning out! It has beautiful colors that will look lovely with my wardrobe, and I have high hopes to finish in time to wear it for Easter.

Sparkle Yarn!

2009 April Spindler's Challenge "Celebrate"
Originally uploaded by Project Pictures

April's Challenge them was "Celebrate". Once again I went out of the box to pick what I thought was the ultimate celebration song, Prince's "1999". Because, let's face it, New Year's 1999 has got to have been one of the biggest parties in a long time (and we must admire Prince's genius for engineering the resurgence of his career for a brief time with this song).

For this challenge I got to bring out my brand new (at the time) ITS Crafts spindle from Europe. It's dang gorgeous. It is exactly the same weight as my cherry Bosworth spindle (23g), but it feels so much more delicate. The whorl is topped with amboyna burl, and ringed with reclaimed brass shavings in epoxy. The shaft is walnut and is gently tapered for its entire length. I'm afraid to drop it. But it spins smoothly and long (as a rim-weighted spindle should do). The roving is unknown random top from my grab-bag in purple, pink, black and grey. Not shown here is the magenta angelina I picked up because for this challenge, I have a special request.

My daughter wants a hat. Specifically she wants a purple hat. With sparkles. For the first half of this yarn, I took 6-8" lengths of roving and carefully plucked and pulled it out flat. I then laid the angelina out over the top and rolled the whole thing up like a sparkly jelly-roll. I spun the first batch from the fold, wanting a lofty, soft yarn that would barber-poll. Only the purple got the sparkles. The black went in plain. I did what I think of as "long draw", although I'm not entirely certain that's accurate. Rather than pulling the fiber in with my fingers and following the twist up into my drafting zone, I hold my single further down and let the twist grab the fiber out of my hank as it wants to. I'm still not letting more twist up into the fiber until it looks like I'm not grabbing any more. Then I open my fingers to let what twist has built up jump into the higher single and drafting zone and then pinch it off again to pull out more.

This method resulted in a more blended single. The colors across the roving mingle more. The purple/pink side came out more uniform, and the black/grey became heathered. My daughter took one look at the resulting two-ply yarn and pronounced it "not sparkly enough!". So I began again.

This time I opted to spin worsted. I'm better at it and it goes faster. I took my purple roving and broke it again into 6-8" lengths and spread each one out into big, flat squares. To these I added a LOT of angelina and rolled them up like the first. Instead of spinning from the fold, I spun from the end. I was better able to control the spread of the angelina this way, since if I got a little thin at one point I could just grab a few more strands into my drafting zone, or a few less when it got a little thick. The black section had more white in it than grey and I was able to separate them so they would stripe rather than blend. When plying, it was fascinating to see the black and white line up versus the purple and pink, making one color or other pop out.

This yarn met my daughter's approval.

The hat was knit from the top-down, increasing every other row in six places. After finishing the crown, I knit a few rows and then switched to 2x2 ribbing. I bound off the edge with some of the pink-only strand (extra that I plied back on itself). And the very last bits of yarn I wound into a pom-pom for the top. The hat is big! It easily fits me. The woolen-spun yarn is at the bottom so it is especially warm around your ears. But the beauty of 2x2 rib is that it collapses on itself and this hat still fits my daughter. And... she loves it! The crown is quite sparkly and so is the pom-pom. By using the purple ply (with the angelina in it) doubled back on itself for the bind-off, there is a little extra sparkle around her face, and she doesn't seem disappointed at all (if she even notices) that the "less sparkly" skein was used as well.

I love it when a plan comes together!

Eva's Hat

Eva's Hat
Originally uploaded by Project Pictures

Here's a quick little project I've been using to fill my time. I've found that knitting a large object (or in other words, a sweater) on circular needles causes my hands and arms to ache after a few rows. Rather than push into the area of repetitive-stress injury, I've opted to knit those few rows and then move on to something smaller that doesn't seem to bother me as much. I've had this cute little hat on my "to do" list for a long time, thinking I'd use it to finish off the Baby Cashmerino I had from the Striped Cardigan. I thought the two might compliment each other nicely.

I opted for the 18" size, thinking the 15" would be too small. While that might be true, I believe that the 18" is going to be a bit too big for the intended recipient (my niece, who is not-quite-one-year-old). Modeled here by my 4-year old daughter, it's quite cute (but still a little bit big). On me, it's just a tad tight. Part of that was learning more about Fair Isle. I thought I had kept the floats in the back loose enough to not be a problem. The knitting looked just fine when laying flat. But once you pull on the band a little, the tight spots become quite clear. I spent quite a bit of time redistributing tension across the band as best I could, but I still can tell where it puckers a bit. It's not fatal by any means, but I'm really glad I got some beginner's practice before embarking on a larger project.

Knitting with Handspun

Handspun iPod Cosy
Originally uploaded by Project Pictures

It's not every day you get to knit with handspun. So far it has been even more rare for me to knit with my very own spun yarn. I have a test-square knit out of the very first yarn I ever spun, using hand-carded rolags of unknown wool and spun on a heavy Ashford student spindle in the grease. It's not lovely, but it is my first and I really like having it. I have a couple little balls left over of this yarn and I have no idea what to do with them. I think they'll just float around in my stash indefinitely, as examples of where I started.

I also have a hat I knit out of a merino/bamboo blend purchased at Dyelots. I love this hat. The yarn is absolutely beautiful. It is an ultra-bulky single with very low twist. The colors and bamboo blend from one to the next in a soft heathery rainbow. To spin this, I basically just split the roving until I had the thickness that I wanted and then added twist. I didn't really even draft it very much, and what I did was pre-drafting what I had already split out of each length of roving. This is a very valid way of getting yarn! But it was very much a beginner's effort.

But unlike these first projects, my "Lady Violet" sock yarn from Drunkard's Dyelot roving is the first time I sat down and said, "I want to spin THIS way" and then did it. In between making the super-bulky and this first skein of 3-ply sock yarn, I worked my way through nearly eight ounces of plain brown wool, practicing drafting worsted and then woolen (not that I knew the difference at the time), and working towards thinner and thinner singles. I did it all on a 23 gram Bosworth spindle (instead of the big Ashford) starting with park-and-draft and graduating to suspended spinning. I spun bulky two-ply, DK-chain-ply, and fingering two-ply. I test-spun a small amount of my Drunkard's Dyelot roving and was able to get a fingering weight 3-ply (chain) and decided I was ready.

And boy was I! I spun that roving into 400 yards of 3-ply fingering weight yarn. Since then I have often pulled out the skein and squished it, petted it, sniffed it, and pondered--what do I make out of this lovely yarn? It's overspun and tightly plied to the point of being slightly "crunchy" to the touch, and not even a gentle bath in hair conditioner fixed that. It is also Romney and Corriedale, so it's never going to be Merino soft (nor would you want it to be). It should be great socks, although part of me winces at the thought of cutting my skein in half!

I had a golf-ball sized nugget of extra yarn. After winding my plies, I had two bobbins with singles remaining. I doubled one on itself and used that with the third to make this last bit of three-ply yarn. Still thinking about what to do with the big skein, I set about making myself a mini project. I'm so glad I did! The yarn knits up very nicely, but it's great to see the difference that handspun makes.

It's not perfect. I have some fuzzier spots. In places it's just a bit thinner or just a bit thicker. It doesn't make absolutely precise lines and rows like a mill-spun yarn can do. I love the effect, but it does mean I need to look at sock patterns that can stand up to these variations and not look sloppy. I don't think I want to go with an elaborate twisted-stitch pattern that you might see in a sock by Yarnissima or Cookie A. I want something that shows off the yarn more than the pattern.

I still don't know what that will be, but I hope I can think of something lovely and perfect. And if I don't, I'm still going to end up with an awesome pair of socks.

When you can't leave well enough alone...

Leyburn Socks
Originally uploaded by Project Pictures

The Blue Moon Fiber Arts group on Ravelry (called "Socks that Rawk", after BMFA's "Socks That Rock" yarn) has started organizing a quarterly Knit-A-Long. The idea is to take one of Ravelry's less-well-known patterns (so, no Monkeys, no Jaywalkers, nothing with 1000+ projects already done). In fact, we're trying to pick patterns that have less than 100 completed projects and give them a big old KAL boost.

Leyburns were on the high end of this (I think they already had around 400-450 projects) but that's still pretty low and they won the popular vote. Now Leyburns have 624 projects, and over 200 people signed up.

It's an interesting pattern and I've done one other sock by this designer before (both Leyburn socks and Anastasia socks can be found at pepperknit.com). I like that they are toe-up patterns, but don't like the provisional-cast-on toe (Judy Becker's "Magic Cast On" from Knitty is just as easy and much faster in my opinion). The stretched-float pattern is also fascinating and does a lot to break up the pooling that can happen with a hand-painted yarn. The Yarn Harlot did a stunning pair that was a lot of fun to read about. But I just couldn't leave the pattern alone. I tried to knit it as-written, but the toe was only the first thing to go.

After getting up to my heel, I tried working a short-row heel, but didn't like it. I tried reinforcing the short-row heel. No-go. I tried to figure out how to turn the heel with a flap and just couldn't get there in the same space as a short-row heel.. so I frogged both socks back half-way and started a gusset using Cat Bordhi's "Riverbed" architecture. This keeps all the increases down on the bottom of the foot and gives you plenty of space to keep your stitch pattern going. It also hugs your arches really nicely. But because I had knit so far on both socks already, and because my pattern had something going on every-other-row, I didn't want to deal with increases every third row as is called for by Cat. So I did them every-other row. It makes for a funny bump when the sock is laying flat, but on my foot they fit wonderfully! It also gave me plenty of stitches for a very nice reinforced heel.

After that, I looked at what everyone had already done, counted my stitches and figured I either needed to add three, or loose two stitches to make counts work out, and the pattern is purported to not have a whole lot of give in it. Because I really like socks that cling to my leg, I decided at the very least I wanted a little bit of ribbing right at the heel to keep it pulled in tight. After that, I decided to just keep the ribbing going the whole way. This gives you an interesting little problem.

The float is created when you knit one stitch, and then slip five with the yarn in front. This happens every four rows. So on the instep, you knit six rows, but on the sole you knit eight. Since things are knit in the round, this difference is evened out a bit more than it might be otherwise, but there is still obviously more fabric on the bottom of my foot than the top (this seems to make it fit even BETTER). Now that I opted to not continue the pattern all the way around the leg, suddenly the back of my leg was longer than the front! But, the ribbing is also much "stretchier" than the stretched-float pattern across the front. This distributes more of the strain to the back and effectively shortens that stretch of knitting.

These socks look bizarre when laid out flat on the floor. But once on my foot they look lovely! To finish them off I opted for a picot edge created by knitting a stretch of stockinette with one row of yo-k2tog in the middle. Fold this in half and graft and you have a lovely, sturdy picot edge that grows invisibly from the rest of the sock.

March Spindler's Challenge - Burgundy Rose

March's challenge for the Spindlers' group on Ravelry had a theme of "Romance". Once again I found myself drawn to roses for the theme. Whether or not women actually love to get roses and flowers as a gift, the perception is that they are romantic. It doesn't hurt that in my Big Bag of Random Bits of Roving, I had the perfect colors again.

A search on Flickr yielded a picture that nailed exactly what I wanted for colors, and a little careful prodding wrapped my roving into a flower all its own.

I spent a lot of time debating how to spin this roving. I have been wanting color-repeats to match up. The very best way to do that is to chain ply (also known as Navajo plying). Some debate that this method is not as strong as a "true" three-ply yarn. Either way, I don't really enjoy chain plying. But it does mean you can keep your colors all together, rather than having them "barber-pole" and blend. I chain-plied a small amount of the roving and realized in addition to all this, the color repeats come out much shorter when chain-plying as well, since you condense the yarn by two-thirds. In the end, I opted for three-ply yarn to see how well I could keep each color section together that way. My logic was that if I really wanted the colors to stay together without blending at all, I ought to be dying the finished product and not the roving. Handspun yarn ought to blend. Or at least, that's how I feel about it right now!

I split the roving into thirds, and then each third in half again for spinning. This let me get a full two repeats of the colors in each third.

Burgundy Rose
Originally uploaded by Project Pictures

When I wound the three plies together, I only had one that came out enough longer that I had to break out about five yards to bring the colors back into alignment again.

My yarn is 100 yards of fingering weight with three plies. My singles are not so heavy on twist as some earlier efforts, and I purposefully over-plied by just a little bit. This is supposed to make the yarn slightly more springy. It certainly is very squishy and soft! The colors even stayed together pretty well.

Mini Arches

Mini Arches
Originally uploaded by Project Pictures

I started these little socks quite a while back, using the pattern for "Arch-Shaped Socks" by Jen Showalter. I wanted to do a test pair that wouldn't take very long, so I decreased the number of stitches cast on to something that would fit my son and then redesigned the rest on the fly. It worked pretty well on the first sock.

When I came back a little later, I tried to remember all the different things I had done on the first. I had some notes, but they were a bit sketchy. Still, it's not like it was very difficult and so I jumped right in again, re-improvising in places. In the end, the two socks are extremely similar. But when I began knitting them, I didn't bother splitting the 2x2 rib when going from one DPN to the next. I just k2 and then p2 all the way around. When I got to the heel I then shifted all the needles one stitch over, so that the ribbing would be centered down the top of the foot. Only.. I didn't shift it the same way both times.

This is fine. They're socks for a child and that child (whoever it may be) is hardly going to care that a knit ridge goes down the top of one foot, and a purl trough goes down the top of the other. If they even notice. I notice, but mostly because it makes for a much nicer join at the heel, and a cleaner gusset one when I put the purls down the center. So that's good to know when I knit these for myself.

I love a non-painful learning experience.

Finally, for me!

Celtic Cardigan
Originally uploaded by Project Pictures

The title sounds like I never knit for myself. That patently is not true! In fact 80-90% of what I knit is for my own personal use. But when I took the leap from hats and socks to sweaters, my first two were earmarked as gifts for little people (my niece, and nephew). This had the advantage of letting me learn about sweater knitting, without committing to the price tag associated with enough yarn for an adult-sized sweater. I love both of these sweaters, but they left me feeling confident enough to jump into yarn I had earmarked for myself--10 skeins of Classic Elite's Inca Alpaca Print in a variegated blue colorway. This amount of yarn totaled 1090 yards, and I had originally planned on making a pullover sweater with it. Then I learned more about alpaca.

I originally purchased alpaca without knowing much about it. I knew it felt silky-soft in the store and I loved the heathery appearance. It made a beautiful shrug. What I didn't understand is some of the various properties of alpaca. Normally it has very little crimp to the fiber, which means unlike most sheeps' wool, it doesn't have a lot of memory of its shape, and the cloth knit with it likes to drape. Over time it likes to stretch out under its own weight. It is also hollow at its core and incredibly warm. The first two properties can be offset somewhat by blending it with wool (I stranded my project with a laceweight merino). The hollow core means a pullover would be great--if I lived in Alaska. In the Pacific Northwest, not so awesome. I elected for the cardigan instead and embarked on a long process of modifying and innovating. But I've mentioned all that before!

All of the individual elements worked out in the end, and I'm really happy with the product, even if it didn't come out exactly as I had planned. As you can see here the back looks awesome! I'm extremely please with how this motif worked out. I was able to create a diamond around it where the knitting switches from stockinette to reverse stockinette. This is necessary to show off the cabling, and has the added bonus of looking really nice.

The design wasn't perfect. I ended up with two yards of yarn to spare at the end. After basting the sides with waste-yarn, they arms were way too tight. I raveled my swatch and used it to create gussets at the armpit. You can hardly see them on the finished product, but they give the sweater just enough ease to be really comfortable. I couldn't help but snap off a picture of that amusing process. Just ignore the drips on the mirror. Finishing my sweater was much more important!

I am also inordinately proud of a little-noticed detail, the graft at the back of the neck. I was able to graft the cables together seamlessly with the help of a wonderful tip I got off of Ravelry. To quote that user: When done the main knitting (don’t break your yarn) - knit about four or five extra rows with a light colour dishcloth cotton. Knit or purl the stitches as they present themselves. Cast off. Bring the two sides together with your kitchen cotton folded in like a seam. When grafting you can follow the light coloured dishcloth cotton in and out of your stitches. When you are done you just undo the bind off and rip back the kitchen cotton. You end up with perfect grafting in knit/purl and you don’t have to think about which direction you are going in and out of stitches. Don’t have to worry about stitches falling off your needles or juggling all the needles. It makes it as easy as straight seaming.

There are parts of this sweater that make me think, "I could have done this a little differently." But when I look at the whole, it is a lovely, fashionable sweater. It is dreamily warm and looks fabulous with blue-jeans or dressier pants. I am extremely proud wearing it and love showing it off. And I appreciate every last bit of advice and help I received in creating it. I couldn't have done it without all my friends.

Mardi Gras Rose

Mardi Gras Rose
Originally uploaded by Project Pictures

I love when inspiration strikes just the right note, and you can actually follow through on an idea.

I've been stumped for two weeks on this month's Spindler's group challenge. The theme is "Mardi Gras", and quite honestly, I've never been to one. I'm not really thrilled with the traditional combination of purple, green and gold, either. I couldn't manage to piece them together from my meagre stash of fiber, nor did I feel like making any sort of novelty yarn with lame, sparkle or beads.

So I went to Google and searched their image database, giving it "Mardi Gras" to go on. Of course the majority of images that came back were pictures in green, purple and gold, along with beads, feathers, masks, and masqueraders. But amongst all that, one popped out to the front, grabbing my attention. I clicked through to the page and read up on the Mardi Gras Rose.

Now, this I could work with!

I happily went stash diving. I have a nice variety of tiny bits of random rovings that I picked up on a lark. It was called a "Cupcake Bag" on Etsy, and is someone else's leftovers from other projects. I'm not entirely sure HOW you end up with leftovers, but I'm perfectly happy to practice on them! I culled out what would work for me, and arranged them artfully to reflect my inspiration.

Then I developed my plan for spinning.

I decided I wanted a soft, fluffy yarn from this batch, and I wanted to preserve a specific color sequence, but I didn’t want to chain ply it. I split out each color that I wanted in the roving, and came up a little short in weight, so added a little blue to the beginning to bring me up to one full ounce of roving. I then split each section into thirds (I love my gram scale) and spun them up in sequence.

In the end I had a color sequence that went: blue/green for the dark stem and foliage, bright pink, orange pink, yellow, orange pink, and bright pink. I knew I wouldn’t spin each section exactly the same, but I wanted some blending between each color so I was pleased with the prospect of the singles not matching exactly. I also decided that because I already felt very confident with a worsted draw from the end of the roving, that instead I would practice a woolen draw from the fold of each section, trying to spin the singles evenly.

Here's the final result. It is approximately 45 yards in 30 grams, woolen spun, 3 ply. It is also deliciously squishy and soft!

Handsome Devil

Grey Gansey
Originally uploaded by Project Pictures

My daughter originally modeled this sweater for me, making sure that it was going to fit the intended recipient. He's a year younger than she is, but that just made it all the more certain that he woulud be able to use the sweater this year, and hopefully next year as well.

The pattern is inspired by a DROPS design, but I ended up tossing out the pattern (as I often do). Instead, I took a size 4T sweatshirt and kept it in my knitting bag. Every ten rows or so, I compared the two, altered my knitting plan where necessary, and continued on. It yielded a very comfortable and lovely grey sweater with drop sleeves and double-moss-stitch patterning. Quite classy. So is the young man wearing it!

February Lady Sweater Swatch

FLS Swatch
Originally uploaded by Project Pictures

In between large amounts of spinning, I sat down and attempted to swatch for my February Lady Sweater.

Technically I am running a KAL that started on February 1st. I had intended to knit the entire sweater in the month of February. That is, before my marathon knitting to finish the Celtic Cardigan left my fingers exhausted, hands rubbery and arms sore. Ah, well. Even the best plans don't always work out.

Part way through the swatch I started to feel a bit rubbery again, but I pushed through to the end so that I could wash it and at least have my gauge. Half the swatch is knit on the suggested size-8 needles, and the other half is on size-9s. The 9s hit gauge spot-on, both before and after washing, so provided I don't start knitting even tighter as my hands heal up, that's what I'll be using.

The yarn is Blue Moon Fiber Arts' Socks that Rock, Heavyweight. It's billed as sock yarn, but listed on their site as worsted, rather than fingering. In garter stitch it knits up as a super-smooshy fabric with lots of bounce. I adore this colorway and think it is going to be an absolutely fantastic February Lady Sweater.

Little Yarn Angel

Little Yarn Angel
Originally uploaded by Project Pictures

I had to wait for the morning light to capture the full glory of my finished skein. My daughter insisted on sharing the moment, showing off my yarn to the overcast sky to get a true-light shot, or at least as true as we can get it in a Pacific Northwest Winter. I wanted to get a few more pictures posted of the finishing process, now that I have them.

For instance there is the wonderful fact that with a PVC niddy noddy, you don't even need to take off your skein to wash it! With as much twist as I have in this skein, it was good to get a long, warm bath to set everything in place. After that I enjoyed beating it on the ground to shake things up. I must thank the fact that I have a sweater-rack in my dryer to satisfy my need to have the skein done and dry RIGHT NOW!!

And what would we do without one shot of the final product?!

Idiocy Strikes

My first attempt at making a PVC niddy noddy (with 18" center) created a skein that was too long for my swift. At its fullest extension, the swift holds 70", just short of two yards. When winding out to the very ends of the arms of my niddy noddy, I was getting a significantly longer skein than a mere two yards. In my mind, 1.5 yards ought to be just the right size, and great for recalculating yardage later (since 1.5 * wraps is easy).

Because I was winding along the ends of my niddy noddy, rather than right next to the cross-piece, I was making a long diagonal length from end to end. Feeling smart, I got out my pen and paper and applied a little basic trigonometry to the problem and arrived at what I thought was a proper length for the center bar. Intuitively, it seemed awfully short. However, I'm rarely one to trust a gut feeling over a properly calculated answer so I sat hard on that little part of my brain saying, "Hey, there.. not right! Not right!". Hack-saw in hand, I obtained a properly short piece of PVC. When done, I measured the skein and that half-squished part of my brain piped up again. "Hey! That's too short for a 1.5 yard skein! Too short! You did the math wrong!"

So I futzed with the niddy noddy, holding it in odd contortions and trying to wrap yarn around it while wishing for a third hand, and estimated without math. This added 2 inches to the center bar and produced a longer skein that matched what I thought it should be.

The problem is that my BASIC MATH SKILLS failed me here. Oh, no. Not the Trig. THAT, I did right. For some reason, when I checked the skein length the first try my traitor brain said, "54 inches? No WAY that 54 inches is 1.5 yards..." Um, Brain? Heh-LLO! 54 inches is exactly 1.5 yards! When I extended the center-bar, I ended up with a 66" skein. I don't know why my abused, sleep-deprived brain settled on this as the CORRECT amount for a yard-and-one-half. But there it is. A 66" skein.

Not all is lost! I still have the shorter center-bar so I can make a 1.5 yard skein. In addition, the skein I wound off last night is not the 345 yards I believed I had, but rather a full 400 yards (I checked, twice)! The yarn is a little rough to touch even after washing, conditioning and thwacking thoroughly. And while it's not dreamy in your hands like merino, the color is so amazingly beautiful that I'm not sure I can relegate it to my feet in the form of socks. I'm debating a triangular scarf/shawl of some sort I could tuck on the outside of my black wool pea-coat for decoration. It would be gorgeous!

One heavy spindle!

100 grams of 3-ply fingering yarn
Originally uploaded by Project Pictures

Let me tell you, I'm very seriously considering finding some other project for this yarn.. because it seems a right shame to have gone through the trouble to ply the whole 100 grams, only to cut it in half for socks!!

This thing got heavy. The cop got seriously huge. I had to tinker with all sorts of different ways to wind it on to keep it stable. I ended up alternating between winding it cross-ways for one layer, and winding straight around to even it out. The yarn is beautiful so far and very even as far as I can tell. I can't wait to get it wound into a skein.

Some days I am really thankful that I'm not afraid of tools. I don't mind pulling out a power drill or hacksaw and going to town. I put together a PVC niddy-noddy just for winding this yarn. To make one, you start with about 4 feet of PVC pipe (I used 1" diameter pipe), and two T-connectors. Cut four 6-inch pieces, and one longer one for the center. The length of your center piece depends on how long you want the skein to be. You also need to account for the width of your T-connectors in the length of your center bar (and technically you also need to account for the width of the pipe as well, but let's not get too crazy with the math). In this case, 18" from top to bottom yielded a 2-yard skein, which is too long for my swift. I went back and with some estimation and basic trigonometry came up with new numbers and cut a second one to 12.5" ... but this came out to 60" for the skein. So much for estimation. Five feet is a perfectly reasonable skein, but also a pain in the rear for calculating final yardage (wraps * 5 / 3). So I increased that to 14" and viola! it was a perfect 1.5 yard skein.

I think I'll put on some TV (can we say DVR of "Heroes" and "Battlestar Gallactica"? Yay!) and wind myself a skein tonight. This baby wants to be washed!

Pretty in Purple

Pretty in Purple
Originally uploaded by Project Pictures

And now, for a monster spinning update.

I've been wrestling with a mild repetitive-stress injury (self-diagnosed) that left me with aching arms and difficulty gripping my knitting needles. There was this sense that as I knit, I was making things worse, but it didn't actually hurt. At least, not yet. So being body-aware, I decided to leave things off for a while and try something else that wouldn't aggravate my arms, or at least not bother them in the same way.

A day later my arms really started to ache along the tendons, so I counted it a good deal, and on the advice of a friendly P.T. began to douse myself to the elbow in ice-water and a warm bath on a 3-minutes-cold / 3-minutes-hot cycle for up to 15 minutes at a time. It's amazing what properly applied cold and heat can do!

In order to distract myself from my waiting knitting projects, I pulled out my lovely purple fiber that I got as a Christmas gift, and my new Bosworth 22-gram Midi spindle, and got to working. This fiber is a Corriedale / Romney / Alpaca blend, and before you ask "Why that blend" let me remind you ... it was a GIFT. It's also fabulously dyed ranging from powder blue and lavender to deep royal blue and rich purple.

My first thought for it was a lace-weight shawl, but after petting it for a while, and consulting more experienced spinners, we all arrived upon the conclusion that this stuff is a bit too hardy for a lace wrap. Corriedale and Romney are both long-wool breeds (more or less), and long wools are better suited for hard-wearing outer garments. Sock yarn, my spinning friend suggested. Spin the heck out of the plies and then three-ply them with lots of twist. So that's what I attempted to do!

Here, we can see one third of the roving. It's actually slightly more. The bag was labeled 4.4 ounces, so I spun up what I thought would measure 1/3 of that, but ended up being 40 grams. Close enough. I went on to spin the remaining 2/3 in 37-gram sections. The first cop and second, I wound off onto toilet paper rolls with my ball-winder. The third I left on the spindle. This was because I knew my spinning started a fair amount thinner and thickened as I got more fiber on the spindle. By working from the 'tail' end of one cop, and the 'front' end of the other two, I was able to even out the thickness a bit over the entire length.

Here we can see my "bobbins" on a makeshift kate (a "lazy kate" is intended to hold multiple bobbins of yarn to allow you to spin the singles on them them back together as plies). I wound these three bobbins together onto a ball to use for plying. This is a great suggestion made by Abby Franquemont of Abby's Yarns, a very knowledgeable hand-spinner. The benefit of this technique is that it leaves you with an extremely portable storage "container" for your yarn, rather than having to tote around your kate wherever you are going.

At this point in time I have plied about 80 grams (of 120g total). My spindle is starting to get VERY heavy and the excitement of having a soon-finished yarn is wearing off under the realization of how much further I still have to go.

I'm still pretty excited about it all. I should finish with over 300 yards of fingering-weight yarn in lovely colors, ready for whenever I finish enough projects that I can actually get around to knitting it up!

It lives!!!!

In a fit of insanity inspiration, I figured out how to calculate (or rather how to NOT calculate) my sleeve cap. Inspiration struck as I shrugged into an old shirt and noticed that (once again) the oil spots had not washed out of the front, and the hem was unraveling (hahahaha--some of you will get that) and in general it wasn't in very good shape. What better to sacrifice to the sweater gods?

I hopped downstairs and pulled on the body of the sweater-so-far and grabbed a Sharpie out of the pen-jar. Wonderful things, Sharpies. At this point my daughter started to pipe in with the obvious questions, "What are you doing with the scissors, Mommy? Why do you have the pen? Why are you drawing on your shirt?!!" (At which point I took a moment to explain that you should never, EVER, ever do this to your own shirts, and it is only for Mommies to do and .. hmm.. this probably should have waited until nap-time, but too late now! -- If I ever find a size 4T shirt sacrificed to the "sweater gods" I'll only have myself to blame.) I traced what I could of the armhole of the sweater right onto the shirt.

Replacing said beat-up-old-drawn-on-shirt with something slightly less beat up (hey, I was having one of those days where only the oldest, softest and most beat up comfy shirts would do) I flopped the poor thing down on the floor and applied the scissors to the shirt (remember, sweetie, you never EVER ever cut up your own clothes and shouldn't touch the scissors without Mommy around..). I snipped up the inner seam and laid the whole thing out flat. There! I had my correct arm-cap shaping. I then measured the thing, and figured out how to knit it. Viola!

It even worked. I finished knitting it this morning and carefully seamed it onto the body from the top of the shoulder down to the armpit. I didn't bother with the long seam under the arm, because this was purely a "I really hope this worked!" moment. It may not be the most amazing design ever, but it did work! I'm not sure if I don't want to take it off and clean up the lines a little bit. I know for certain, now, that I will be popping open the side seam and either adding a cable-strip all the way down to the hip, or at least a gusset under the arm because it is way too small around the arm.

But at least I know it worked! We're on to the second arm to see how much yarn will be left at the end, and if I need to risk picking up one extra skein at the LYS to finish things off.

Derailed on the Learning Curve

I like to understand how things work. I also learn better by doing than by reading (although I enjoy both!). These two little things combine so that (sometimes) when I get to the middle of a project, I have to stop. I frown. I prod. I get out a pen and calculator and scratch my head. I head to the internet, and the library and get my hands on everything I can to figure out how to fix the itty bitty problem that stalled me and somewhere along in this process I have to start to watch my mouth so that little ears don't pick up some new words, because I've come to realized that having half the information can get you into some really "interesting" situations.

Take my Celtic Cardigan. This sweater started out as one thing (the Cardigan for Arwen) got chucked out, kept the cable, pulled Carolyn from Knitty.com for its body and took off running, realized that the fancy cable for the back just wasn't going to work, so found Continuous Cables for its special motif, started the second lap, borrowed a little more from Continuous Cables for the cuffs and then got to the arm cap.... and stopped dead.

Now mind you, I've only done two sweaters before this, and a shrug. The shrug had NO shaping.. it was a big cross that you seamed up on two edges and bam.. it was a shrug instead of ... a funky big cross of lace you couldn't really use for anything. I did a cardigan for my niece which was striped and had slightly inset sleeves, and a pullover for my nephew (oh, dear.. I'm the Knitting Auntie) with drop shoulders. For some reason, then, Carolyn seemed like a good idea to me, with raglan shaping. Don't ask me why, because all of a sudden I realize I had no idea what "raglan" really was.

I don't have raglan shaping now, that's for sure. I have REALLY DEEP inset sleeves. But there are 7 stitches there at the shoulder that seam up. So.. since the sleeves don't go all the way to the neckline, it really isn't a raglan (or so I've found out). This makes an interesting problem when you start considering that the sleeve cap I have is written for a raglan pattern. It's also written with errors, for which I must bless TPTB, because without those errors I would have blithely knit the sleeve cap as-written and then been knocking my brains out trying to figure out how to fit it into an armhole that is much too small!

Except now I'm going to have to sit down with a ruler, paper, pen, my math brain and a very long article on Knitty.com of how to calculate a sleeve cap, and figure out how to design a cap to fit an armhole I've already knit...

Guess I took that curve a little too fast.

When do you give up?

Or do you?

I have finished the left and right front panels on my Celtic Cardigan. I have also knit the entire back, joined the side seams, managed to graft the knot-work at the back of the neck and joined the shoulders and collar in place.

The knot in the center of the back looks amazing! It worked fabulously and I'm thrilled I finally found Continuous Cables and bought it. However, I can't seem to photograph this yarn to save my life. It is so dark I just can't figure out how to get enough light on it to show the detail without washing out everything. Either the pictures are so dark everything is lost in shadow, or they're so bright you can't see for all the light bouncing off every single stitch in the project.

I love knitting at my gym. They have a nice lobby with huge picture windows and a couple of chairs right where all that wonderful light spills right down onto your work. Even on an overcast day there is some of the best lighting available. It gives me enough time to wind down from my run and for my daughter to finish up at her preschool. It's perfect. As I was working the last of the knot-work up the front and extending it so it would go around the back of the neck, one of the women with which I frequently chat came up to look at the project in progress. She looked over and admired my work and then very kindly clucked her tongue, shook her head and informed me, "I think it will be too small." We debated this for a bit, mostly because I've been a bit concerned the whole time while working it. I chose the Medium over the Large size with some trepidation. It's right on the edge for me, but I have lost a lot of weight and am still loosing more.

Her comments spurred my efforts to seam everything I had done together and try it on. I finished this afternoon and tugged it over my shoulders. I fear she was right, but it's so hard to say. I haven't washed or blocked it at all yet. It could stretch out a little. Maybe. My yarn is alpaca, but I did strand it with lace-weight merino to give it a little extra "memory". There is a lot of give in the knit cloth I could exploit, but it doesn't hang with any positive ease right now.

I'm down to three-and-one-half balls (out of ten) of the alpaca yarn, which is just over 300 yards and I fear I will run out before I finish both sleeves. I fear the whole thing is too small, even after some judicious blocking. I just don't know if I should back out of this project now, or see it to its very end, be it bitter or sweet.

I think I'll persevere, but boy, am I ever nervous!

The post in which I show marked improvement!

Spinning improvement
Originally uploaded by Project Pictures

Practice, and you ought to get better, right? It's so nice when that works out! Here is my second go at my brown roving. See the strand? It's that thread-like line across the dime. Now that is some thin spinning!

The first skein dried and fluffed up into a gorgeous yarn that is, in fact bulky. The upside of it being bulky is that it is two-ply yarn. So at least I spun half as thick as I ever had before. This next step is even more exciting.

Now I have to decide how to ply it!

In the meantime, I have completed another six pattern repeats on the left front of my cardigan, so progress is happening there, too. Unfortunately I have been ill, the children have been ill, and DH has been ill as well. So, there is not as much progress as I'd like, and pretty much everything around the house has come to a grinding halt. It's a little worrisome because I'm participating in sweater KAL starting in February. Wish me luck getting done in time, 'cause I'm going to need it.

Sidelined by Spinning

Bosworth Midi 23g
Originally uploaded by Project Pictures

Once upon a time I promised myself I wouldn't take up spinning. I had just finished a very nice class on drop-spindling at my favorite LYS. We covered every step in hand-spinning yarn, starting with the fibre. Our teacher had several unprocessed fleeces and discussed the merits of each. We picked, carded (into rolags) and spun on heavy Ashford drop-spindles. We plied our singles and washed the resulting yarn free of lanolin and dirt. We also got a chance to sit down with roving at a wheel and give that a whirl.

It was fascinating and I really felt it expanded my understanding of yarn, and wool but the process was just too intensive to be practical in my lifestyle. Picking and carding wool wasn't my favorite activity (okay, I flat-out didn't like it much other than the lovely lanolin smell and soft hands afterwards) and I couldn't see how to fit it in around a rambunctious toddler.

It was two years later that it occurred to me that since you could wheel-spin roving, you could drop spindle roving, too! That idea stuck with me and I finally gave in to the urge with some gorgeous wool/bamboo blend roving.

My Christmas gift from my mother this year is a spindle. Actually it's two spindles (one for spinning fine, one for medium/plying). I also received a lovely gift of roving from a good friend. Since I want to see this roving become something between lace and fingering weight, it became very necessary that I get more practice. But my spindle is amazing and a lovely and functional tool that I just like to pull out and rub a little!

I bought myself a Bosworth (also known as a "Bossie") spindle. It's cherry wood and I love the way the grain lights up when it catches the light at just the right angle. It spins like lightning! At only 23 grams, it's pretty light, but still just what I wanted. So far I'm only "park-and-draft" spinning, which means you get a lot of spin in your single and then stick the spindle between your knees to work on drafting out the fiber to put spin into it. I managed a little bit of suspended spindling, too. I can tell that will work easier as I get faster at drafting. Right now I take too much time to move between getting up spin and drafting the fiber to get very far.

This week's project is 8oz of beautiful latte-colored merino roving (actually it's only 50 grams of that 8oz, plenty left!). It still has just a wee bit of lanolin in it (because I can smell it, and LOVE it). It is undyed and probably won't see dye from my hand. It's working wonderfully for practice. I have successfully spun up 75 yards of 2-ply yarn. It's drying now so I'm not certain of the WPI, but it is much loftier than I expected. I think it's somewhere between DK and worsted.

I'll have to find a project for it as-is, or spin more, because it's just lovely. I'm really excited about it! But I need to get back to my Celtic Cardigan so I can be ready for a KAL in February.