How The West Was Spun

Spinning Friday: Kung Fu! and Kandinsky Batts

I managed to get in some spinning this week.  I started on the second bobbin of the Kung Fu! batt singles and did get that second third of the singles done.  I've got the fiber prepped for the final third to be spun as singles, and I'll continue to chip away at that.

However, I developed spinner's ADD when the newest club offering from the Oceanwind Knits Fibre Club arrived over the weekend.  The inspiration for this month is the artistic work of Wassily Kandinsky.  Lori sent 3.5 ounces of beautifully prepared, hand-carded batts which have merino, corriedale and silk in them.  Yummy!

As lovely as these were, I had to get them on a wheel!  I decided I wanted to try to keep large bands of color in the yarn, as the inspiration for the batts themselves were large blocks of colors, and I'm hoping to achieve a sort of Noro long-color-run effect when I'm done.

To do that, I prepped the first batt by gently unrolling it.  I then split it length-wise into 5 strips, which gave me a mostly solid block of the russet red and the yellow-green, and then 3 strips where the colors blended.  I lightly re-rolled each of these strips and placed them back into the original protective bag in the order they came off the batt so I could keep the color progression the same. 

Here's the first batt all spun up into singles.

My plan is to do the exact same preparation treatment for batt #2 so that the colors will line up fairly well (hopefully?  maybe?  I guess we'll know when I get there), and I plan to start on the second bobbin this week.

All for now....... 
 

WIP Wednesday: November 18, 2009

Project #1:  Flutter Scarf

I forgot I was going to have some in-hospital knit time this week, so I took this along for my Remicade therapy on Monday and got quite a bit accomplished.

I finished up the pretty ruffled edge on the first half, picked up the temporary cast-on stitches and started the second half.  I've knit up 25 of the 55 pattern repeats for the second half.

Goal:  Knit another 20 repeats of the main pattern.

Project #2:  Loppem Cardigan

And then there was one.  Here's the last of my NaSweKniMoDo09 projects:  Norah Gaughan's Loppem. I am knitting this up in heavyweight KP Gloss in the "blackberry" colorway.  I have gotten the first cable repeat finished.

Goal:  Knit another repeat of the cable pattern, which will be about halfway up the body to the armsceyes.

All for now.....
 
 

A Nice Surprise

I have been avidly tracking Bhen's mileage totals through the AERC (American Endurance Riders Conference) website.  I had hoped to get him to his 500 non-limited-distance mile plateau this season, which ends at the end of November, but we didn't quite get there.  I know we've got many more seasons together, or at least I hope we do, so not a big rush; we should be able to easily get there next year, and maybe even get him closer to his 1000-mile limited distance plateau (he's at about 725 limited distance miles).

Yesterday in the mail, I got an envelope from AERC and I was puzzled, as I knew we hadn't gotten Bhen to the next award distance yet.  Oops - I totally forgot they award riders mileage awards too.

Totally goofy, I know, for only 250 miles of limited distance rides, but I was tickled to get my first rider achievement award.  This will go into my scrapbook with Bhen's achievements, and is a nice way to remember the 2009 season and lots of fun new rides in the Southwest region.

All for now......
 

FO: Refined Raglan Pullover

Number eleven is fini!

Project Specs:

Pattern:  Refined Raglan Pullover by Mercedes Tarasovich-Clark, from Interweave Knits, Winter 2006.  Super simple and straight-forward with some nice details. 
Yarn:  Hand-dyed merino/bamboo worsted-weight.  Lori of Oceanwind Knits traded me the dye tasks on this one for some undyed yarn.  Unnamed colorway, but very similar to her Mocha color; I think this has more gray in it. 
Needles:  Size 6 and 8 US circs.
Modifications:  None - my gauge was off a little bit, so I followed the 34" instructions to get about a 35-1/2" finished size, which I wanted.  There was some wonkiness with the math for the raglan decreases at the shoulders, but I just fudged those a bit and it worked out just fine.
Notes:  Lots and lots of stockinette.  Even the little cabled/lace insets at the raglan shaping aren't very hard.  If you get the panels set up correctly, the pattern just consists of offset decreases and 1 y/o every other row.   I have a LOT of this yarn left.   I really can't fathom it, but I think this sweater took around 800 yards?  Or less?  And I didn't even shorten the torso like I usually do. 

 
Eleven down - one to go.  All for now.....

Spinning Friday: Funky Carolina Kung Fu!

Not much in the way of spinning, but I did get the first bobbin of singles done of the superwash merino and BFL sock batts from Funky Carolina, in the "Kung Fu!" colorway.

I have found that these singles will spin up very nice and smoothly, with a good, solid worsted feel to them, if I prep the batts just a little bit before starting to spin.  My goal for next week is to work on bobbin #2, and maybe even get that one finished, although it's a Remicade week for me next week, which always results in a lost day.

During my stay-cation, I also took stock of the spinning fibers stash, and there are a lot of really nice things I want to spin that have been marinating (some of them for quite a while).  I think one of my goals for the next 12 months (you know.... once the sweater extravaganza is through), is to tackle more handspun production and try to make a dent in what I've got.  

All for now.......