1/4 lb. Cowl

The 4!Ounce!Challenge! on Ravelry was such a great motivator to come up with a way to use 4oz. of fibre, since it's such a common amount to buy. Here is the finished version of my pattern - it's available free on the sidebar.

I made two versions - one in dk-weight with button holes and this one in worsted weight which has button loops. This Hello Yarn Falklands top in "Grouch" colorway which the fabulous Lisa generously sent to me was such a wonderful thing to spin and knit with. You fiber club people are (as I always suspected) extremely lucky!

Winter is coming. You need a warm neck or you'll get sick. Happy knitting!

prototype

So that merino I spun needed to be something and the 4!Ounce!Challenge! is on and Lisa, bless her heart, has sent me some absolutely fabulous Hello Yarn falklands fiber to enter the contest with so I've been thinking about what one can knit with 4oz of fiber and all I can think of when I think towards winter is how cold my neck gets and how much I hate a cold and drafty neck. A cowl is a humble and ordinary sort of project, perhaps. But there it is. A prototype in the stuff I dyed while I finish spinning the real thing, which is this:

Isn't it gorgeous? I know. I love spinning this. Thank you, Lisa. You totally rock.

hmmmmm...

So that merino top I dyed

spun up into 256 yds. of 3 ply worsted-to-dk weight

I know I said I was shooting for fingering. Didn't happen. Mostly due to the nubbiness of the top, which is somewhat evident in the photos, which made it much less smooth to spin and control while doing so. I was picking off nubs every few feet. This was due to my forceful dye job on the roving several years ago when I was new at it and beat the daylights out of the wool, turning it into a near-felted dense mass which no amount of drafting could smooth out completely. I don't have carders. I need carders. No matter. It's spun. Not the greatest yarn in the world but I'm thinking it would make a lovely cowl or something where the individual stitches are not so important as the overall texture.

Anyone have a favourite neckwarmer/cowl/any other pattern that would work? I know that's what Ravelry searches are for, but I like getting recommendations. Next you can help me find something to wear to my niece's wedding cause that's killing me (just kidding :).

Have a great weekend!

moving right along...

Although it may appear as though progress is slow on this, it's because I'm also doing other things that I just can't talk about yet. (come to think of it, I'm always working on too many things at once to show appreciable progress on any given thing over a week, so nothing different.)

I'm almost done plying the first 8oz. I think I'll have about 350 yds. , which means I may need around 30 oz to do the whole sweater which sounds rather heavy to me, but there you go. I had it in my head a worsted wt. sweater for myself would weigh 24 oz for some reason. No good reason I can think of at the moment, but anyway. I guess the extra wool is due to it being 3 ply? And I'm probably a wee bit tight on my singles, though my plying is looser. Always my problem. I have a fear of skinny singles breaking apart otherwise.

I am still a bit on the fence about the peach bits in the colour, although it is growing on me. What I do love is the wonderful sproinginess of the finished yarn. It will be super fun to knit up.

To those of you who celebrate it, Happy Hanukkah! Have a great weekend.

fractions and divisions

Just wanted to show you how subtle the fuscia/black roving turned out (whew!) when it was spun - it's the one on the centre bobbin. Now I'm doing the last third which looks more like the first one and then it's plying time.

The other photo shows the weird thing which occurred this week in the backyard. The sun swung around low in the southern sky throughout the day, but the garage was between it and the backyard at that angle, so it warmed up the north 1/3 of the yard and melted every speck of snow there, (gradually, in a moving line from north to south). It stopped melting around mid afternoon when it either lost heat or the proper angle. Not sure which. Or both.

We've also experienced it raining in our frontyard but not in our back.

We obviously live on some sort of cosmic division line.

strawberries and kiwi

I have been spinning like a fiend since being reunited with my beloved wheel. Here's one example. It's the 4oz. of superwash Corriedale I dyed a few months ago. I have been struggling with the whole learning curve of spinning in general and in making a sock yarn that pleases me, in particular. I have generally been too tight. Receiving and subsequently studying the handspun sockyarn from Crown Mountain Farms recently helped some (I just finished socks! More later).

Maybe it's cause I'm on vacation but I managed to loosen up and spin a better, if not perfect, yarn. It's just a 2-ply (like CMF's) but it's consistent and I got 387 yards. My only complaint is I can't get quite the "sproinginess" I would like, although it's not bad. Actually, I was reading up last night and realized for a worsted I should have more twist in the singles and less in the plying, so I may have been a wee bit too relaxed on the singles. I have to find the sweet spot.

BFF

I don't remember how it started, but I've been preoccupied lately with natural coloured wool in general and Shetland wool in particular. The stuff above represents two separate projects, both in Shetland. The first (middle 3 photos) is wool I'm spinning, obviously, and I have 2 lbs which I'm hoping will get me a DK weight 2-ply manly and plain sort of pullover. This, perhaps (sorry - there's only a Ravelry link). This wool is probably the loveliest stuff I have spun thus far.

The bottom is the first of two, obviously, mittens I am enjoying the making of IMMENSELY. The pattern is here. I'm using Jamieson's Shetland Spindrift yarn, which I have craved for some time and it's absolutely wonderful. In my future pursuit of all things fair isle it will figure prominently.

so much sock, so little yarn

I'm close to finishing a sweater, but in the meantime here is some sock yarn I finished spinning yesterday. It's the orange and blue wool I dyed here. I am trying to achieve the perfect sock. I'm starting with superwash corriedale wool. Superwash for the obvious assurance that even when the socks inevitably go through the wash it's probably OK, as well as the added durability the superwash process gives the wool. Corriedale rather than, say, merino, for the comparative durabilility of the breed. Anyway, then I did a fairly tight twist on each of my singles and then spun it into a 3-ply. All sounds like I'm on my way to achieving a nice durable sock.

However, I only dyed and spun up 4 oz. in this colour, thinking that since 99.9% of indy dyers on Etsy sell their roving in 4oz. batches it's likely enough for a pair of socks for the average adult. Now I'm mad at myself for not doing 8oz, especially since I dyed it myself and could have dyed any amount. I have 226 yards. It's even fewer in metres (206);). Argh.

I don't feel comfortable having less than 400 yards for a pair of socks for myself and these are supposed to be for my husband. I even checked my wraps-per-inch thing to see if maybe I have more of a sport weight yarn and then might need a bit less, but no. I'm solidly in the fingering category.

So now I need half a sock's worth of something solid in a commercial yarn to round out this thing. It's difficult to get a good honest, durable sock yarn that's not trying to be anything fancier. I think I'll do toe-up and use the store yarn for the toe, heel and whatever top of cuff I need. Oh well. I know more now. That's what counts, right?

more coloured sheep fur

Last year, when I bought what is probably my single most favourite possession, my Lendrum DT spinning wheel...which is made by hand by the extremely talented Gord Lendrum who also happens to be Canadian....from the wonderful Francine who introduced me to spinning and owns Rovings....she threw in a 13oz. bag of Polwarth roving to get me started. It's roughly equally divided into 3 colours: light blue/white, blue and purple. So I decided I would spin my first 3-ply and by separating them out by colour and then putting them together again perhaps achieve a somewhat consistent look to the finished whatever-it-will-be. I figure I'll wait until I know the gauge and meterage before picking a project. I'm hoping for a child-sized sweater.

process oriented

What project this will eventually be: Hourglass (Ravelry) by Joelle Hoverson

Fibre: Ashland Bay merino top in Horizon

Spinning: 2-ply worsted weight on Lendrum DT wheel

Inspired by Yarn Harlot, I thought I'd show the work in progress for my first handspun sweater. It's slow going, but mostly because I keep getting distracted by spinning sock yarn. For socks I like to have several colours, but for sweaters mostly solid. So a handspun solid coloured sweater is not so visually impressive as it might otherwise be. I'm trying for a bit of thick/thin nubbiness just for some interest. But the style is one I think I'll get much wear from - a simple bell-sleeved pullover.

things I've dyed, then spun, then not finished

I'm scattered. My knitting/dyeing/spinning life is somewhat reflective of my work life: a zillion projects that I flit between like a butterfly, never landing quite long enough to reach a satisfying conclusion (FO), at least not until several months have passed, or someone's waiting for it, or there's a deadline. I used to have more project monogamy at work. I'd be working on one thing for months, nay, YEARS at a time. My time log sheets were hilarious. Now I project manage my own stuff as well as what a bunch of other people do.

Project monogamy at home should be a snap, but I just can't do it. Sometimes I'm cool with that, though. I have stuff simmering in a lot of different pots and I can pick up something for a bit (light scarf), then go to something else (heavy cabled sweater), for contrast. I am trying to have an assortment of things going on at once in distinct categories: dyeing stuff, spinning stuff, sweaters, socks, scarves/shawls, other accessories.

I guess it's just how I work. I'll chill now.

spinning for socks

I've been spinning for about 6 months on my wheel (6 months before that on a drop spindle) but this process is still pure magic to me. To go from a fluffy fibre to something strong and lovely to knit with. I gave a spinning demo to a big group of kids the other day and I could tell they thought it was magic, too. They've had a knitting club for a few weeks now and they're really INTO IT. Thirty or so 6-12 year olds sitting around concentrating hard on making their scarves is one of the coolest sights I've seen.