585

I stopped entering blog contests a while ago because I figured I’d done my fair share of winning when I first started blogging and it would only be fair to let other people have a chance, but for some reason, when Joan had a contest to guess the yardage in a skein of yarn she’d spun, the number 585 jumped right into my head.  I checked her comments and no one else had guessed that yet, which quite surprised me, because, you know, it was SO COMPLETELY OBVIOUS.   Before I had a chance to control myself, I’d entered.  Well, turns out I was wrong.  The correct answer was 576.  But, as luck would have it, I was less wrong than anyone else, so I WON!  Wanna see what she sent me?  Of course you do.

 

Mmmm, nummies!!  Cookies, Buffalo bars (Did you know Buffalos only have 330 calories per serving?  I didn’t.), sponge candy and some wonderful smelling soap so I can wash my sticky fingers after I munch. 

There might have also been some fibre.

Hmmmm, softies!! On the right is some beautifully heathered merino in the Cranberry colourway from Firefly Farm, and on the left?   It’s from Spirit Trail Fiberworks, Moon Shadows colourway, merino, silk and angora!!  Dudes!!

Thank you, Joan -- you do know how to spoil a guy!!  The moral for everyone else?  585 is a lucky number.  Remember that, mkay?

So, what have I been up to?  Well, knitting.  Still no socks – sock mojo continues to be a a no-go – but I did knit up some of my handspun into a shawl/scarf thingy.

The pattern is the uber-simple Boneyard Shawl by Stephen West, which I still managed to screw up, but whatever.  I figured a triangle shape would suit the light-to-dark shading in the stripes. 

The main feature of the pattern is lines of garter stitch every 12 rows.  I did them every 10, because it was easier and I felt like it.  I’m quite happy with the project, from start to finish, but turns out that I prefer the back side.  Sort of makes the garter ridges moot, but I think the colour changes are smoother.  Design element, down the tubes.  That’s just the way it goes sometimes.

  The wheel has been kept busy too.

This is some super fluffy and soft superwash BFL in the Trust Me colourway from CJ Kopek.  It’s part of a spin-a-long on Ravelry where we were given photos of the inspiration behind the colourway but not a picture of the actual fibre, which I think is kind of a fun idea.  The colours aren’t really me, so I wasn’t really worried about making a yarn for a specific purpose and instead gave myself permission to play.

Techy stuff:  Divided the fibre into four lengths.  Predrafted two of them together to mix and meld the colours, then did the same with the other two.  Held both lengths together as I drafted at the wheel.  This gave me a very mixed up and marled single.  I chained the single, chained the chain and then added plying twist.

End result, 75 yards, 9-ply double chained, 8 wpi.  I like it!  I think it will make a great Wonky.  I guess I should get started on that so I can actually use it this year, eh?

End note:  Anyone else using Windows Live Writer to write blog posts? Wow, so much easer.  My only complaint is that it won’t accept my defaults and I have to format each photo.  Even that’s just two clicks,though, and it’s much easier than all the dragging and dropping I had to do before.  So, does easier equal more frequent posts?  That remains to be seen.

Distractions

You may correctly surmise by the lack of a “finished my September Sock-a-Month socks!” post that I did not, in fact, finish my September Sock-a-Month socks.

Instead, I dug out some Tinsel Toes in the Prince of the Wood Elves colourway from the Unique Sheep.

  

I got this yarn as part of their Lord of the Rings sock club, but since I’m not really sold on tencel blends for socks, it sat until its time came to be something else.  That time had arrived.

 

It was perfect for a Milkweed shawl.  The pattern is well written, and a quick and easy knit. The colours in the yarn are subtle enough that, when knit in garter stitch, they don’t obscure the pattern at all but just add a bit of depth.  The tencel gives it a nice silvery sheen.

 

 

Sometimes, when you can’t be there in person to give someone a comforting hug, a knit has to take your place.   This was quickly wrapped up and sent off to be where I could not.

I then returned to my socks, but found they weren’t absorbing enough and left me too much time to think and worry, so back to the spinning wheel I went.

 

 

This gorgeous rusty brown Corriedale was a gift from Briley.  He dyed it and sent to me, thinking it would make some nice sock yarn.  It turned out beautifully.

 

It came out at 319 yards, 15 wpi, 3 ply.  Thanks, Brian – it was a pleasure to spin, and I love the subtle colours.  I’m looking forward to knitting it up to see how the Corriedale fares compared to the merino and BFL sock yarns I’ve made.

 

So yes, I can put some music on and spin away, letting my thoughts be absorbed into the colours flowing through my fingers.  It feels strange that I now get that feeling from spinning instead of knitting, but there it is, and there’s no sense fighting it.  I couldn’t really leave the bobbins empty, could I? 

 

Out came some 50/70 oatmeal BFL/silk in some beautifully  calm, cool colours.  It’s from The Thylacine, a colourway named Sandspit River.  Silk still seems to give me trouble, but I patiently worked my way through it.

 

At 12 wpi, it’s a bit thicker than was I hoping, even though it’s only a 2-ply, but 220 yards should give me enough to do something with.  I don’t what, but something. 

And just as I was hanging it to dry after setting the twist, I got the phone call I was waiting for.  Things still aren’t good, but they’re better.  I can downgrade my worrying to a state of watchful concern.  I suppose that’s about the best one can ask for in the circumstances.  In the meanwhile, I’m thankful I have distractions.

 

Chain Gang

I've been keeping the new spinning wheel busy.

This is 8 oz of merino/silk/bamboo, the August/September Spin-a-long from All Spun Up.

And so is this.

And this.


I decided to try chain plying, also sometimes called Navaho plying. It's a method that helps keep the colours separate rather than the barberpole effect you get with a regular two or three ply. I love the result. I ended up with 404 yards, 10-12 wpi. The came out soft and shiny. I found it a bit hard to draft because of the silk and bamboo, but it was totally worth the extra effort.


This is BFL in a colourway called Eclipse, the third installment of the Fat Cat Knits Mixed Blessings club.


I decided to chain ply this one too.


I divided the brown/purple/green plait into short, thick sections, so that it would give longer runs of solid colour. The other one was divided into long, thin sections, for shorter runs with more mixing of the colour.

The overall effect is mostly brown/burgundy, with little blips of other colours coming through in between. It came out at 164 yards for 5 oz., 9 wpi.

I kinda like this chain plying stuff, and it's nice to be able to do something other than the regular barberpole.


In the knitting front, I'd like to thank everyone who offered advice on the sock in progress in the last post. Opinions were fairly divided between keeping it plain and letting the yarn do its stripey thing as opposed to mixing it up with the cable pattern. In the end, I decided to try to get the best of both worlds. Four cables, two up each side, with a plain section in between.

I like it! And bonus, it's faster to knit. Or, it would be if I could get off the wheel and back onto the needles.

Falling into Fall

I'm starting to feel a bit more comfortable with the spinning wheel. Or at least I don't think it's running away on me most of the time, which is a start.

This is 4.3 oz of merino from Freckle Face Fibers in the Aquazone colourway, an unusual combination of aqua, forest green, mint and purple. I asked it what it wanted to be, and it responded that a three-ply sock weight might be a good idea.

I think it was right. It ended up at 503 yards, 15 wpi. Still a bit under-plied, but I think it will knit up okay. When I'm spindling, I always over-ply, because I like it like that, so I'll have to try to remember to give an extra treadle or two when plying on the wheel.

I think it will make some good socks, though. Whenever I get around to knitting it, that is.

Knitting is progressing too, although slowly. I've started on my September socks. One of the problems with taking all your UFOs and throwing them into a personal sock club is that they were probably UFOs for a reason, and that reason was likely a problem of some sort or other, and when their turn comes up, you have to solve that problem.

In this case, I think it was just that the yarn was knitting up into the usual spiraling stripe that you often get with handpaints, and I wanted to mix it up a bit. I decided to try it with a slip stitch cable.

But now I can't decide if it looks delightfully muddled, or just muddy. The other side looks like the spiraling stripe is coming back despite my attempts to thwart it. Sigh.

Any opinions?

SAM 8 - August

You know how sometimes you get a yarn and it just takes your breath away because it's so beautiful? This was one of those.


It's from Painted Yarns, in the Fall Birches colourway. It was extra special because it will never be available again -- the artist who painted it has passed away. I really did just want to put it in a bowl on the coffee table and look at it and love it forever.

That's what I should have done.


These socks have been on and off the needles for probably two years, trying out many different patterns. Nothing really brought out the true beauty of the colours. In the end, just to get them done, I resorted to my standard, old 6x2 rib.


I kind of feel like I cheated on them and didn't really give them their due, and that bothers me, but it was time to call enough and just get them finished. August socks, you're done.



In spinning news, I finished up the second installment of the Fat Cat Knits Mixed Blessings. This was a colourway called Hombre, and I loved the colours in both of the segments.


Inspired by what some of the other people had done with this, I decided to try to make a yarn that progresses from light to dark. I divided it up and put it into three piles, the first with just the lighter colour, the second with both and the third with just the darker.

I pre-drafted different lengths together through a diz in order to really blend the colours and give them a more tweedy look.


This was my first time spinning Falkland, and I loved it. Softer than BFL, with more grab than merino, it came out wonderfully fluffy. Spindle spun, wheel plied, it ended up at 296 yards, 8-9 wpi.



I'm quite pleased with the finished yarn. I think it wants to be a scarf ... or something.

Sacrificial Sheep

Actually, no real sheep were sacrificed, but I did a good number of some of their wool. I dug through the stash to find something to use while playing with the new wheel. Sorry for all the pictures, but I did want to document the learning curve.

First up was some plain wool of some sort or other that was just sitting in a bag, origin lost in ancient history.

Scary, eh? Just getting used to treadling and drafting at the same time, trying out all the different whorls, etc. I think the part that got the hardest workout was the orifice hook. :-) And no, I did not bother to try to ply it.

So, time to get serious and try to make, you know, yarn or something. I dug even deeper and found something that I wouldn't mind wasting. I'm not even sure why I bought this in the first place, but it was there, so I figured I'd use it. I apologize in advance for any retinal damage this causes.

Yes, the colours really are as bad as they appear. But it served the purpose. That's four ounces of merino, in baby blue and searing orange. The bobbin on the left was first and, as you can see, I could barely fit two ounces on it. After a quick query on the Schacht list on Ravelry, and I received some wonderful advice about how to fit more on a bobbin. A few adjustments, it was winding on much tighter. It was worth trying to ply.

I couldn't figure out why my singles kept breaking, but it turns out there's a learning curve to using a lazy kate too. Don't put the tension too high or SNAP! After much cursing, I got some some crappy two ply and an attempt at chain plying. Thank you very much, virulent orange wool -- you've served your purpose and I'm glad you're out of the stash and never to be seen again.

Attempt number 3 turned out much better. Again, something that I wouldn't mind if it didn't turn out well.


The bobbins wound much better with the proper tension. However, if I had paid attention before I ripped the wool apart for a three-ply, I would have noticed that even though it is '70s wallpaper colours, the top was nicely dyed in a wonderful striping pattern and would have been perfect for a chain ply. I didn't see that until it was too late, so I stayed with the three-ply.

All four ounces plied, with room on the bobbin to spare. It's BFL in the Connor colourway from Squoosh. I didn't take a pic of the top because I didn't really think it would turn out, but the listing is here for those who like to compare the raw wool with the finished product.

It ended up at 242 yards, 11 wpi, so not too bad for a beginner yarn. It would have been better chained to keep the colours separate rather than mixed in the ply, but c'est la vie.

I still need to work on the plying part, as some of it is a bit loose. If I were going to use it for socks, I'd try running it through the wheel again, but since I don't, I won't.


Now I just have to work on getting it thin enough for sock yarn.

But I really should be knitting on my August socks instead of playing around. Time for another dose of self-discipline, methinks.

August update

Whew, August is just speeding by. And then it slowed right down when summer finally arrived, with a boatload of heat and humidity. Or was that just me that slowed down? It's been a strange year.

I did manage to finish spinning a yarn I started back in July during the Tour de Fleece.


Yummy Australian Merino in the Thorny Devil colourway from Southern Cross Fibre. It probably won't surprise anyone that I again went for a three-ply sock yarn.

It ended up at 410 yards, 14 wpi, and should make some lovely, soft and warm socks.


And speaking of socks, I can't believe I still haven't finished my August socks for Sock-a-Month. I kind of got stalled and distracted. I finally decided to get rid of that old stationary bicycle that's been sitting in the corner for the last seven years. I only used it about four times in all that time, and I was getting tired of dusting it. But then I was left with an empty corner and, as they say, nature abhors a vacuum, so I had to fill it.

Yup, a spinning wheel! With curious cat shown, for scale. :-) I've played with it a bit, and as expected, my first bump was sort of disastrous, but we're slowly getting to know each other.

And because these things seem to be important to Ladybug people, here's the bug: