January Recap

Textiles a Manos batts
Originally uploaded by Project Pictures

This year, I made resolutions. That's not something I normally do, or rather I don't normally consign resolutions to be made only on the first of the year. I like to make them all year around, whenever they need to be made. But I made fiber resolutions this year, and I've managed to keep them for a whole 31 days so far!

First up, we have some lovely "aubergine" batts. These were gifted to me by my wonderful husband. I spun them up into a lace-weight (possibly fingering) 2-ply yarn that yielded about 450 yards. I'd like to use these with a slightly-off-white handspun in a weaving project, but don't have that fiber yet (and can't buy it, since I'm still on my "Stash Staycation" until the first day of Spring). This also dovetails nicely into Janel Laidman's Stashdown (which reinforces my 4-oz-per-month goal). And my resolution with the Spin your Stash group on Ravelry. I feel like I have a whole motivational horde behind me!

Second, I have knit four (actually closer to six) ounces of handspun yarn. This is the Blue Whale (Ravelry link) shawl designed by Jared Flood. The pattern came with the fiber and is a part the AVFKW "Pro-Verbial Club", so there will be several more of these projects throughout the year. In fact, I got a bit of a jump start on February's spinning with the next shipment, and boy is it pretty. But that's for another post. The yarn for this shawl was a lot of fun to spin and I'm really happy with how it worked out in the pattern. It's gratifying to see a plan work out almost entirely as intended.

I also wove a scarf (although this project tread the thin line of the intent of my resolution, since I did buy new yarn specifically for the scarf because I was afraid to "waste" any of my current stash. Then again, the lessons learned were valuable and I will now be comfortable using stash-yarn for further weaving projects). Weaving is extra and not "required" by my project-resolutions. But I'm probably going to, anyway. I have hopes of making some place-mats in February. I've already done the math, and I think that's the hardest part.

And last, but not least, I knit "four ounces" of millspun yarn (also a Christmas gift, but this time from my daughter). Socks typically use four ounces, even though this particular yarn comes in 50-gram skeins and thus is slightly short of the full four-ounce mark. And since the socks are for my daughter, the project did not use the entire two skeins of yarn--but it's close enough. The remainder of that yarn will get used as scrap, probably in a scrappy woven scarf. Or it will get knit into a tiny cosy of some sort for small electronics. As it is, it's not enough for another full-sized project and I'm just going to count it as used up!

The Mitten - The Cast of Critters

The Mitten - The Cast of Critters
Originally uploaded by Project Pictures

I've been avoiding this post.

It's rather a silly thing. First, I avoided making the post because I didn't want to "give it away". This ensemble was created as a Christmas gift for my niece and nephew (and really for their Mommy and Daddy and Grandma and Grandpa as well, since I knew they would all share).

Second, I avoided making this post because... I knew it was going to be so darned long. Blogging each little animal, when I understood so little of exactly what I had done, intimidated me. (But as I have decided this post will not explain how to make each individual creature, I have gotten past that fear.)

But, as Sandi Wiseheart actually mentioned me on her blog (SQUEEEEE!!!!) I figured I'd better get off my butt and get this one done!

Forgive me repeating myself just a little bit. I set out this Christmas to make Kitten Mittens for my niece and nephew. The nursery rhyme is near-and-dear to me, because it was hand-embroidered on my crib quilt (which later became my twin-bed-quilt when a 1-foot border was added on all sides). I loved my quilt and its whimsically embroidered kittens, each searching for their mittens through blades of grass. When the idea came to me to knit mittens for the kids I decided that just two wouldn't do--instead I would knit three that didn't match. Kitten mittens, as it were.

I wanted to send the story, too, and started hunting up books that would work. There are quite a few versions out there, but none with which I fell in love. But while hunting, the woman helping me said, "Oh, but you must read The Mitten!. I'd never run into Jan Brett's books before, but I instantly fell in love. And the more I read it, the more I became convinced that I needed to make this story.

I started with the mitten itself. I dug through my stash to find some appropriate handspun--in this case a sample of Cheviot I had received in trade. I had just about the right yardage and a good weight of yarn. I improvised a mitten using an article called "Progressive Gloves" (Interweave Knits, Winter 2003) and a related article about thumb gussets, which I have used many times to create gloves and mittens in the past. It was easy to knit up, and if it came up a bit short in the fingers it hardly mattered, since it was only going to be stuffed with the next step in my plan... the critters!

In this story, a little boy pleads for a pair of white mittens to be knit by his Grandma. She eventually agrees, even though she thinks he'll loose them in the snow. When he goes out to play, predictably he immediately looses one mitten. While he continues to play, a whole host of animals crawl one-by-one into the mitten to get warm.

I worked from two patterns I found on Ravelry, one for "Owlets" and the other a "Baby Polar Bear", but the rest of the animals I improvised. I had particular fun with the rabbit (crocheted from 100% handspun angora yarn) and the mole (made from handspun CVM) but the rest were completely adorable as well. Each had its own quirks and I became noticeably more adept at creating what I wanted as I went along.

I've been asked several times to write these up as patterns, and I'm seriously considering it. The major hurdle is that I hardly know how to read crochet patterns, much less write them. Still, should the time present itself sometime this year, I may try to tackle the task.

And I'll be sure to post them here!

Ella Rae Scarf

Ella Rae Scarf
Originally uploaded by Project Pictures

Even though I am on a "Stash Staycation" with a promise of not adding to my stash until the first day of Spring, I have been presented with a small difficulty in that I really could use some yarn with which to practice weaving--yarn that is not too expensive and I don't mind "messing up" a bit. Most of what remains in my stash is high-end sock yarn, and sweater quantities of heavier weight yarn that are already earmarked to be... sweaters, of course.

This meant that when a 50% off any one regular priced item at the local Ben Franklin (which happens to have an unusually nice yarn section) came to my inbox, my resolved crumbled a little. I went hunting.

What I found was a lovely skein of Ella Rae Merino Lace. It's not a true laceweight yarn. I would probably mark it as Light Fingering weight, but it is a bit lighter than I'd want to use for socks as well. It is superwash, beautifully dyed and delightfully squishy. I fell in love at at half price it seemed perfect for another loom project.

I dithered about it for a little bit. I had a hard time wrapping my head around how to do all the math. It's pretty straight forward when you say, "I want to make a project X wide and Y long." It's a little harder when you say, "I have 460 yards of yarn, how can I best divide that in length and width to have a good sized scarf, and still have enough left over to weave it after warping?!"

I finally hammered through the numbers on my spreadsheet and thought I had them down pretty well. They made sense. Double checked and nudged about, they still made sense, and so I decided to go with it.

I warped for a scarf that would be around 8" wide (a little less for shrinkage) and hopefully about 2 yards long when finished. That meant I actually put on 2.5 yards for the warp, the extra 18" accounting for "take up", "shrinkage" and "loom waste". I must not have measured that quite right, because instead of that using up just a little over half my ball of yarn, I was down to just over 1/3 of a ball left after warping. That wasn't enough to weave the whole length. Ouch.

But since this was partly an exercise to see what happens with bad math, and how far you can get with what's left, I wove anyway.

After getting the warp set up, I started to weave my header with waste yarn and ran into another curiosity.. too many ends in one slot. Somehow I had accidentally put an extra set about 1.5 inches in from the edge. I had two options. Cut them out, or shift everything over. I opted to untie the warp ends and move everything over one space so everything was properly spaced and then tied back on again. Of course, that's five yards I didn't have for the weft, but oh, well. One mistake found.

As I began to weave, I was careful not to beat quite so hard this time, leaving open spaces between each pick, but not too much. I snugged the selvedges in carefully, but not tight enough to actually draw in the cloth (next time, they need to be just a smidge tighter. I'm told a small amount of draw-in is okay to get clean edges). I also did a small detail of Leno Lace three inches into the beginning of the scarf. It looks wonderful! In particular it is 2x2 leno on a closed shed.

I was feeling pretty smart as I got down towards the other end of the scarf. Despite my miscalculation on length and width, I had figured out one other helpful detail. When winding my stick-shuttle, I had wound 50 wraps on one side, and then turned the shuttle around and wound 50 wraps on the other side. Switch back and forth, and when you get down to the last 50, you know you're coming to the end of your yarn. More than that, I was easily able to calculate a good approximate of the yardage left. Add that to the known width of my weft, and I could give a good guess how many picks I could weave with my remaining yarn. I knew I'd need 36 picks to be the final three inches of cloth, so when I got close to that I did my Leno detail for the tail end, and then wove to the last tiny bit of yarn. I left just enough to hemstitch the end of the scarf. Perfect.

Perfect, except for the extra two feet of warp.

So stash-diving I went and I came up with a scrap of handspun I did last year for a Spindler's Challenge that really matched the warp well! I figured this was the space where I could try and see what beating harder, and pulling the selvedges in really tightly would do to the cloth.

I advanced the warp enough to have a nice fringe on the tail end of the scarf and then wove with my handspun until it ran out. I ended up with a pretty little sample I might turn into a wall-hanging.

The scarf seemed too loose to be a nice project. I washed it, anyway, and was still somewhat disappointed as it started to dry. But after it dried, I took it downstairs and tried to steam-block the leno so it would match the width of the scarf, and suddenly, after ironing the whole thing I found the cloth had pulled together into something cohesive, lovely, and gorgeously soft!

I'm already loving wearing this scarf around town. It's light and should last well into the Spring, but still pretty warm. I was almost sad to leave it behind today to try out wearing yet another new finished item. I'm definitely looking forward to more sock-yarn-scarves in the future.

Raw Wool Sampler - Complete set

Raw Wool Sampler
Originally uploaded by Project Pictures

Here's the true wrap-up of this little adventure.

From the top:
Merino 3-ply worsted
Merino 3-ply woolen
Polwarth 3-ply worsted
Polwarth 3-ply woolen
Cormo 2-ply worsted
Cormo 3-ply woolen
Corriedale 3-ply worsted
CVM singles worsted

It took me an entire year to get through all five two-ounce samples. I probably could have wrapped it up sooner, but I was distracted by all the many things I had to work on through the year. In fact, a few samples are missing from this picture because they have already been incorporated into other projects.

I think I really learned a lot working with this wool. I learned a lot of different tactile properties of each breed. I learned how to maintain lock structure and effectively wash without felting the raw wool. I learned how to comb the locks, and card the waste for spinning into usable yarn.

And above all, I learned that while I enjoy trying this stuff out to learn it, it's not my true calling. I love all this yarn. But I'll be perfectly happy to leave the processing to the mills from now on, no matter how tempting the smell of fresh wool and lanolin may be. Or at least, I'll leave it to the mills, right after I finish with the pound of fleece I couldn't resist this year!

Wraping up - Merino Sample

Raw Wool Sample - Merino
Originally uploaded by Project Pictures

As we get down to the end, I start to feel like I'm repeating myself and so I write less and less..

Merino is lovely. It is soft, full of incredible amounts of lanolin, and packed with elastic crimp. After being carefully washed, it combed easily and spun as if it were leaping into yarn from my fingers without any real guidance. And in both the woolen and worsted yarns, it created an extremely similar yarn to the Polwarth.

This Merino is a slightly richer brown than my Polwarth sample. But unless you look closely, it is easy to mistake one for the other.

Despite all the other wonderful qualities of the various samples, I think Merino is my favorite. I might choose a different wool to bring out different qualities in the yarn I want, but for pure pleasure I will reach for Merino every time.

Wrapping up - Polwarth sample

Raw Wool Sample - Polwarth
Originally uploaded by Project Pictures

My fourth sample from the Spinning Loft Sampler was a lovely brown Polwarth.

Polwarth is a popular fiber right now. Yet another fine-wool with a lot of Merino in it's background, this breed has 75% Merino/25% Lincoln (a long-wool breed) and is considered a dual-purpose meat and fiber breed.

I love this brown! I had no idea how much I would enjoy wool that wasn't white, but the three colored offerings from this batch were a joy to spin. Once again, this sample was combed/spun worsted and the waste carded/spun woolen. I went for somewhat similar sized yarns, so that the woolen and worsted differences are a bit more obvious and not obscured by the differences in yarn construction.

This Polwarth was not as lanolin-heavy as the Cormo or the Merino, but still had a significant amount to be cleaned out. It also doesn't have quite as pronounced crimp. But it combed easily with my borrowed mini-combs, and spun up wonderfully into squishy three-ply yarns. The woolen yarn is much more lofty and squishable than the worsted yarn, but both have a delightful hand.

Wrapping up - Cormo sample

Raw Wool Sampler - Cormo
Originally uploaded by Project Pictures

Last Christmas I received a wonderful gift of a "Fine Wool Sampler" from The Spinning Loft. It came packed with two-ounce samples of raw wool from five breeds of sheep (CVM, Corridale, Cormo, Merino and Polwarth).

Here's the third sample: Cormo wool. I had put off finishing up spinning the samples because of the amount of work in processing them. But this time I decided to follow up on an offer from the owner of Dyelots to borrow her mini-combs (thank you, Janis!!).

While working with my hair-picks sufficed to get the job done, working with real combs was much more enjoyable and quite a bit faster. Still, I found I must have lightly felted the locks in washing, because they were quite a bit of work to comb!

The waste went in a box and I carded it up into rolags.

The fine lace-weight skein is the combed wool, spun worsted. The fluffy skein is the carded waste, spun woolen. Both skeins have a delightful "sproing!", and can easily be stretched several inches with a gentle tug. The elasticity is amazing.

Cormo is a beautiful wool. I can see how it would be difficult to process properly in a mill, but it is certainly worth it to find a good source.

Rainbow Striped Cardigan

Rainbow Striped Cardigan
Originally uploaded by Project Pictures

I'm thinking I'll let this particular project speak for itself.

But in short, it's a cardigan. It's a pattern I have knit before and really liked. And I had a friend that needed a baby sweater. With yarn I had on hand that fit the pattern, and a fun idea, I set to work.

And it came out beautifully.



A couple of quick thoughts just in case I need reminding later:

• Slipped selvedges make a very nice edge, but may not be strictly necessary or advantageous if you're going to seam it anyway. Use a stockinette or garter edge for more points of attachment.
• Stripes are awesome. Stripes have a ton of ends. Use stripes sparingly, or get a self-striping yarn.
• Leaving longer ends than normal at the edges of the stripes was a very good idea and made finishing the project a lot easier.

What Was Made

First weaving - mini scarf
Originally uploaded by Project Pictures

So. The loom. It calls me (but sadly I am busy with many things, and can only answer one call at a time).

I was thrilled to pull this almost-scarf off the loom as a first project. For warping willy-nilly and pulling design ideas out of the air, it looks pretty slick. It's just long enough to go around the back of my neck and fold over my chest, so I may actually use it as a scarf for a while. I do so hate a cold breeze down my neck.

I originally warped until I said to myself (albeit in harsher terms) "Oh, dear, I'm running out of yarn!" So then I wove until I really did run out of yarn and this is what was made. I will admit that even "willy-nilly" there was some thought put into it. I wanted the white stripe so I could see what I was doing with the dark brown yarn. I thought I didn't have a lot of the white, so I figured the off-center stripe would be nice (and it is!). It is deliberately placed. There are 20 ends of brown, 20 ends of white, and then 60 ends of brown (actually I just recounted and found I have 64 ends--doh!). In some schools of design "three makes a pattern". So I thought that making one side three times wider than the other would have a sense of proper weight. I did the same thing with the horizontal striping. There are three times as many picks of brown as there are of white. Right or wrong, I think it works and I'll do it again sometime.

My edges visibly improved with practice. I think they could use even more improvement--but that's me. And of course we're always harder on ourselves than other people are when looking at our work! Our weaving LYS-owner assured me I'm doing great. I believe her.

Beginning Selvedge

Ending Selvedge

But even after using up the last of both my white and brown yarn, there was still more warp! Rather than waste that effort, I dug into the stash and pulled out the final nugget of some LionBrand Wool-Ease I'd used in my first big knitting project (a baby sack we never used for the baby because it was too scratch.. and plain. And BOY was that a lot of stockinette to knit!).

At that point I "advanced the warp", which is to say I cranked the whole thing forward so there was a big gap. Then I set about trying a number of different techniques using the pink Wool-Ease. I started using a "pick up stick", which is a way to lift parts of the warp beyond what the loom does normally, so you can make more patterns. Then I tried the weaver's version of lace, "leno". I can't seem to stop myself from thinking of Jay every time I read or write that. Oh, well. I also did some "Brooks Bouquets" which I really liked.

Warp Floats

Leno Lace

After everything was done, I got out scissors and CUT THE WARP. Yes, I cut a lot of yarn. And I didn't even cry about it. And I dug out of my brain some old macrame skills (thanks, Mom!!) from when I was a Girl Scout. It made for a very finished-looking fringe.

It's a good first project. I've been thinking and planning and doing some math for project #2 in my head. I think I have it figured out. But I have a little something else in the works, first.

Resolutions

This time of year, many of us make promises to ourselves. Eat less. Exercise more. Loose those holiday pounds. Run farther. Keep the house clean. Catch up on the backlog on your desk. And so on.

This year, I'm going to loose pounds... from my stash.

I have already entered a "Stash Staycation" pact with a friend. Neither of us will purchase any more fiber until Spring (that is, March 21st) with the one exception of WIPs where you run out. It would be just plain cruel to make a girl wait until Spring to finish that sweater she wanted to wear this year...

But that's just part of the deal.

I don't just have yarn stash. I have millspun yarn and handspun yarn. And on top of that, I have unspun fiber. I have laceweight and fingering and DK and Worsted and Bulky. I have bags of sample bits of handspun and leftovers from old projects. There's nothing wrong with having an inspirational stash, but I'd like to reduce my backlog of projects and the amount of yarn I'm just saving because it's pretty in the skein. So, here's the plan.

• For every time I get more fiber/yarn (gift or purchase), I must spin that weight in fiber. This means either immediately spinning the new item, or getting something out of my stash.
• For every project I spin, I must knit an equivalent weight handspun.
• For every project I knit out of handspun, I must knit the same out of millspun.
• For every project I knit out of millspun, I must spin a project.

I think it's a pretty good plan, if I can stick to it. What's your plan for the new year?

2010 in Review

I really enjoyed posting this last year. So here are this year's projects!

I wasn't gonna ... but ...

Schacht 20" Flip Rigid Heddle Loom
Originally uploaded by Project Pictures

Right.

I wasn't going to get into weaving. Really. I wasn't!

I didn't think it was right for me. It's a touch expensive, getting the starting equipment (although, really, haven't I spent about that much on knitting needles, crochet hooks, bags, cases, measuring devices, needles, etc...). But then I got this really nice gift certificate for Christmas, AND the store where I needed to spend said Certificate was having an ultra-rare 10% off everything (including looms!!) sale, AND I already got a bunch of lovely fiber and yarn for Christmas, so...

I have a loom!

I have a 20" Schacht Flip Loom that folds and slides right under my bed. It came today in the mail and I most maturely restrained myself from squeeling with glee, ripping open the box and playing with it all afternoon. Instead I let out a tiny happy yelp and put the box aside for a couple of hours to get other things done. Then, with restraint, I had my daughter come and assist me in unwrapping and assembling the few parts that needed to be put together.

This evening, after dinner when everyone was happy, I gave it a go at warping. It was easy! Of course, a lot of things are easy when you throw math to the wind and just give it a try. I figured I didn't care what I got out of my first project and I'd just warp it willy-nilly (but following the instructions) and see what happened.

Here it is!

I used yarn I had no intention of ever knitting. I bought the white yarn for.. Um. I don't know what I bought the white yarn for. The brown yarn was for the "Hilton of Cadbol" pillow, and would have been horrible for it. But I held onto it long enough I couldn't really return the ball and it has been sitting in my shelf every since, lonely and sad.

Now the two are taking shape as a.. um. A table runner. Or a placemat. Or maybe a bag. Really, it's probably a rag or trash. But it's learning!

Some of the things I've learned already:

• Warping is not as hard as it sounded
• A "pick" (one pass through the warp) is not like a row of knitting. If you miss a strand, you just back up. If you don't like the way the selvedge is, you just back and pull it through again. If you don't like the way you beat it into the cloth, you do it again. This takes no time at all and far less effort than it takes to tink a row of knitting.
• Within 30 rows, my selvedges were visibly more even, and so was my beating. In fact, there is obvious improvement in the 30min I played at weaving.
• There is nothing to fear about getting complicated. See the white stripe in the warp? It wasn't hard. Seriously. How long do you think I've been doing this? I'll give you three guesses. The first two don't count.
• I can't wait to cut this off the loom (OMG, CUTTING YARN, AIEEE) and start a new project
• Unlike a handspinner and knitter, I must overcome my fear of cutting yarn. I'm gonna have to cut yarn. A lot.

So all in all, this is pretty cool. I'll keep you updated when I start something new. Of course, since this is an at-home activity, and I still have lots of knitting to do, I can't say I'll be doing a ton. But I'm sure Weaving is about to sneak its way firmly into my blog.

Under my Christmas Tree

Christmas 2010
Originally uploaded by Project Pictures

This year I found sock yarn.. from my daughter.. for me.. to knit my daughter's new socks. (She requested socks before Christmas, and then went shopping with Daddy and picked out the pink yarn herself. Can't you tell? Only it was worsted weight Lamb's Pride wool/mohair blend. This yarn is the exact same shade. Only it will actually make socks. So will the Merino-cashmere-nylon yarn. But those will be mine.)

I also found a gift certificate to Paradise Fibers from my mother-in-law (which has now been turned into a super secret surprise I may unveil at a later date when I get over the glee).

And fiber from my husband in the form of four ounces of deliciously sparkly batts and six ounces of yummy merino-silk-yak blend. (He's a keeper.)

Merry Christmas to all and a Happy New Year. May it be filled with fabulous fibery goodness!

Bags

Christmas Gift Bags
Originally uploaded by Project Pictures

This year, I gave bags for Christmas.

In all honesty, each of those bags is also filled with a hand-made gift for four of my lovely family members. But you don't really expect me to tell you what is in them before the 25th, right?

Right.

I've been wanting to do gift bags for a while. This year I hit JoAnne's and found 50% off Christmas-theme fabric. Perfect! And then I went pattern hunting on the 'net. How hard can bags be, right?

Right.

But I found patterns! A lot of them. And I finally settled on this lined drawstring bag. The series of blog posts has several options, and in the end I modified even the plan laid out by "happythings" (but thank you "happythings" for giving me a great starting point!). If you read it and understand what she's doing, then my modifications will make sense. If not, then you'll just have to trust me that what I changed made it much easier to make a bunch of bags!

First off, my sewing skills are iffy. My seams are usually serpentine and let's not even get into me cutting a straight line in the first place. In addition, I hate hand-sewing up the hole where you turn a bag or pillow or whatever to be right-side-out again (I can never get it to look like the machine-sewed seam and that irks me to no end). So I didn't. I sewed the whole thing as per the directions leaving only the spot where the drawstring would go through and then pulled it through that hole. VIOLA! And after making a couple, I didn't see why I needed to make the liner out of two squares--because that's just one more place I can cut things unevenly. So I left the liner as a slightly-shorter-than-the-outside-material rectangle and sure enough, that works just fine!

Hopefully these bags will be unpacked tomorrow, and the contents appreciated on Saturday. And hopefully some gifts can be given in them again, next year.

Kitten Mittens

Kitten Mittens
Originally uploaded by Project Pictures

Three little kittens,
                   they lost their mittens,
    And they began to cry,

Oh, mother dear, we sadly fear
    That we have lost our mittens.

What! Lost your mittens,
                   you naughty kittens!

    Then you shall have no pie.
    Mee-ow, mee-ow, mee-ow, mee-ow.
    You shall have no pie.

                               Wikipedia

I had a wonderful time this year preparing handmade gifts for family. These cute little things were knit with my nephew and niece in mind (four and two, respectively). Three mismatched mittens means that you never have to worry about finding an exact pair. And if one goes missing (as it likely will). Then.. Oh, well!

I had fun with them. Each was cast on using DPNs, but then I moved all the knitting over to a long circular needle and worked on all three at the same time. It's a bit fiddly keeping all the yarn balls straight, but after a while it becomes obvious how to flip your work back and forth so that after each row, everything is back in line again. The benefit is that you're always working the same row and it's easier to keep track of where you are in the pattern. And, when you're done, you're really done!

They are knit from the pattern I created for my daughter, working from Interweave Knits' article "Progressive Gloves" (no longer available online). I'm really glad I was able to download it and the related article on gussets for gloves and mittens back when a large number of these types of articles were available from Interweave's site. I had just begun to knit and went on a downloading rampage on all of their technique-based articles. It's a real shame they finally had to come down off the internet, because many of those articles were extremely useful. I love having them now, and know that if I had started just a year later I would have missed out on a huge amount of really useful information! Now I just feel lucky to have a nice library of PDF files carefully backed up so I won't ever loose them!

WiseSweater KAL - Back

WiseSweater KAL - Back
Originally uploaded by Project Pictures

Here's the first part of my sweater!

We're waiting for the "widget" that generates our pattern to be updated with the next portion. Since Sandi Wiseheart is having it programmed from scratch, it takes a bit of time. That's just fine. I have plenty of other Christmas knitting to work on and I'm sure that would find itself on the back burner if I had the temptation of more of this sweater to finish!

I really love the yarn, but I'm concerned I'll run short. I don't really want to cut the sleeves shorter than they have to be, but so far that is the obvious "fix" to not having enough yarn. Buying more may be problematic, since I bought the last ball from WEBS a couple of weeks ago. Hopefully they'll get the color back in if I need more. Hopefully the dyelots will be close enough it won't drive me crazy.

But most hopefully, I'll have just enough yarn to finish everything exactly the way I want.

AVFKW - Pro-Verbial club

AVFKW - Pro-Verbial club
Originally uploaded by Project Pictures

This is the first bobbin of "A Whale's Migratory Tale", the first offering from the Pro-Verbial Club from A Verb for Keeping Warm. Four total shipments will be offered (the choice was given to receive yarn or unspun, and of course, I like to spin my own) of a shawl pattern and a particular fiber base dyed by Kristine.

This fiber is Blue Face Leicester and tussah silk dyed with Indigo. The original yarn for the club was a two-ply with 400 yards. The shawl is a lovely, textural piece designed by Stephen West called Blue Whale (Ravelry link). For the sort of knit/purl textures Stephen was focusing on, I really like a three-ply yarn (Okay, I always prefer a three-ply yarn. It's a weakness of mine). The beauty of spinning it myself is that I can have a three-ply yarn if I want it!

I really wanted to stay consistent throughout this project, so I spun some undyed BFL/Silk from Textiles a Mano first. That came out much too thick, so I adjusted my single and then taped a bit of it to a notecard so that I could refer back to it throughout my time spinning. This worked great! The bobbin shown above was the first of three, but they all came out very, very similar.

As I worked, some of the first feedback came in on the shawl. At least one knitter ran short of yarn, and I know that handspun usually achieves less yardage than millspun yarn (especially since I'm working a three-ply instead of two). So in order to increase my yardage I decided to add in some of that oatmeal-colored BFL/silk blend. I purposefully divided the indigo-dyed fiber unevenly so that it would run out at different points, and as it ran out I simply switched over to spinning the other, undyed fiber.

Because of this, there is a lovely transition in the yarn where each ply of blue runs out and turns into oatmeal-brown BFL. There are hints of brown in the indigo-dyed fiber that tie it all together. And the transition also reminds me of the unique white patterning displayed on the underside of Humpback whale tails.

I'm chomping at the bit to get knitting on this one, but I really must finish up the last few Christmas projects, first.

Sample, Sample, Sample

BFL/Silk - undyed
Originally uploaded by Project Pictures

Sampling is the Swatching of the spinning world. In order to spin yarn for a particular purpose, you need to figure out how to make the fiber conform to your needs. Thus, you sample. You spin some small amount of the fiber (hoping, of course, that you have plenty more to actually spin for your project) and see if what you create has the properties you want for the intended end-use.

This fiber, unfortunately, does not conform to my needs. I need light-fingering weight yarn. I spun sport, maybe DK. It's really pretty though and I'll enjoy using it eventually. The fiber is a BFL/silk blend that I picked up at Textiles a Mano. I spun it as a test for working with an indigo-dyed BFL/silk blend I have from a Fiber/Shawl club I'm in this year (The Pro-Verbial Club, from A Verb for Keeping Warm). We only have four ounces of a limited colorway to produce about 400 yards of yarn, and this sample isn't going to cut it.

Guess I'll just try again!

Hless is More

AbbyBatts - Hless
Originally uploaded by Project Pictures

500 yards more! For a three-ply yarn, that's a lot of spinning, but every moment was worth it. To prolong the enjoyment, the singles were spun on my Bosworth Cherry Midi spindle, but once that was complete I plied the entirety on my wheel. The spindle gives me a lot more fine control and good speed for creating the singles, but the wheel shines in the plying process.

This yarn was made from three AbbyBatts (a delectable treat I allow myself only on very rare occasion due to the high-but-totally-worth-it price of each batt). The final skein is just about four ounces and at that weight the yardage is excellent. It is firmly in the "fingering weight" class of yarn.

I suppose I could knit socks from this yarn, but that would be crazy! I'd like to design a specialty cowl and use beads I've picked up specifically to match this yarn. I have a general idea in my head but will have to start sketching out particulars sometime soon. Designing always makes the process go slower. I'm even tempted to knit the idea first in some commercially-spun yarn so as not to court disaster with my "precious" one-of-a-kind skein.

So there will be more installments of this particular saga, eventually.

vSOAR - Fine Fibers

vSOAR - Angora spinning
Originally uploaded by Project Pictures

SOAR is the Spin-Off Autumn Retreat, held every year in (duh) Autumn. The location varies each year, shifting across the United States from West, to Central, to Eastern locations each year. This year, SOAR was in Wisconsin. Not only is that a bit too far to travel, I'm just not in a point in my life where I can pick up for a week and flit off to enjoy an idyllic week on my own, far from family and other responsibilities.

Luckily for me, I don't have to go. The Friends of AbbysYarns group on Ravelry decided to hold a "Virtual SOAR" where each of us would design our own three-day workshop, and continue on with other activities.

I decided to spin fine fibers. I had originally intended to spin my special sampler of cashmere, yak and guanaco fiber. But since I chickened out once again, I broke into a package of pure angora fiber.

I started with a supported spindle. I expected things to go well, but ran into several difficulties. Despite the fact that I have spun quite a bit of cotton on this supported spindle, I couldn't get the angora to behave. It didn't want to even out as the cotton would. I also started to have a horrific allergic reaction just a couple of grams into spinning. So I did a little bit more on the wheel and threw in the towel.

The next day, after recovering from my allergies, I decided to try and get as much done as I could outside. I carded my remaining angora fiber into rolags with my hand-cards out on the back porch. And when that proved to be too cold, I moved into the garage. I ended up with angora all over me, but no allergic reaction. So far, so good. Rather than push it, I left the spinning for the next day.

Finally I got to work on the wheel for a bit. Again I spun out in the garage. But this time I bundled up in a raincoat and threw an old jacket over my lap as well, so I wouldn't end up covered completely in fiber. It spun much more easily from the rolag, and by the end I felt really competent again.

I think in the future I would combine the angora with some wool fiber. This would stretch the angora, and still halo. But it would have more body and memory. Still, the skeins I spun are deliciously soft. I'm going to knit at least one small rabbit out of this yarn. I think it's a perfect project!