How The West Was Spun

Hyde Park Stole

I have a new finished knit piece I can finally show you!

This is the Hyde Park stole, and it's available in the summer issue of Spin-Off magazine.  This was my January deadline project that I was working feverishly on just after the holidays. (Photos courtesy of Interweave Press).

I spun up a 2-ply fingering-weight yarn (it wound up being a pretty close match for most sock yarns that weigh in at about 435 yards/100 oz) from a 60/40 blend of mixed BFL and silk.  I spun this basically worsted style for the singles and then slightly underplied to help keep the drape nice and soft when it was knit up.  

The stole is a long rectangle, knit from one end to the other (no grafting!).  It has diamond-shaped borders at each end, and that same motif flanks an easy central mesh lace border.  I used approximately 1100 yards for my sample knit.   Despite the fact that I knit and spun this on a deadline, it was actually a very comforting, easy-going knit.  Nothing super difficult about it and the lace patterns are not hard to learn and remember. 

And can I also mention it made the cover?  :)

All for now....

FO: Norie Hat

I've had this finished up for a while, but I needed some photos to post.  This is my handspun Norie hat from the 2IBH SAL/KAL for this late fall. 

The original roving was in the "Cries of Witchcraft" colorway on Finn.  I spun this up into a 2-ply yarn, slightly heavier than the DK for the pattern, but I think it worked out fine - it's nice and warm!

The only modification to the pattern I used was to work only 3 of the 4 cat's paw lace sections, but I think it's plenty slouchy even without that final repeat.  It goes great with the purple fleece and blue fleece jackets I own, plus the dark chocolate dressier coat I wear when I'm not doing outdoor chore kind of things. 

All for now....

Spinning Friday - FatCatKnits - Falkland

I signed up for Ginny's Greek Mythology fiber club to finish out the year.  The first package, which was actually the September club fibers, was the pretty combination of Gaia and Uranus, on Falkland wool. 

All of Ginny's fiber clubs at FatCatKnits are done with two colorways, each with 2.5 oz of that month's base.  (She also gives you a choice of 2 bases for each month, and the clubs run for 4 months.  You can also opt in for double helpings - or more.)

I have spun up the 2.5 oz of Gaia - that's the pretty yellow and green colorway on the left in the picture.  I got a nice 2-ply fingering weight of 196 yards for the skein. 

I have just started spinning singles for the Uranus colorway, but the plan is to match the grist and then I'm thinking of maybe a 2-color small shawl of some sort, if I've got enough yardage to do that.

All for now.....

WIP Wednesday: November 7, 2012

Kind of a busy week around here, so I haven't had much fun and interesting to blog about, but here's what I'm working on currently:

Multinomah:  Thanks to some doctor appointments and some time this weekend, I'm making great progress on this.  I've got 3 more 4-row repeats to work on the feather and fan border and it'll be done as far as the pattern goes. I may have enough yardage to squeak one more repeat out, but I'll have to weigh my working yarn when I get there and see.  If not, that'll be okay, but if I've got the yarn, I'll just use it up.

North Shore sweater:  Not a single stitch.  I will have quite a bit of knitting time this weekend tho, so I will probably at least try to get another couple of inches worked on the body. 

Project submissions:  I'm almost done the current want-to-do list.  I have one more project to submit, but I'm waiting on a skein of yarn to work on the swatch.  It's not due until December, so I've got time on that. 

I also started working on the socks I'm designing for the Heroines accessory club for next year, and the yarn for my design for the shawl club should be here this week, and I'd like to at least get the sample skeins dyed for that. 

All for now.....

Spinning Friday - 2IBH - Finn - Cries of Witchcraft

A brand-new skein of yummy handspun to share with y'all today. 

This is Finn (one of my favorite bases) from 2IBH.  The colorway is "Cries of Witchcraft".  I decided to dig in stash and find something to use for their Oct-Dec SAL/KAL, and I love these moody purple-blues. 

I spun this up after splitting the roving lengthwise into 6 mostly even strips. I then spun those and then plied the singles up into a 2-ply yarn.  I wound up with 210 yards/4 oz for the final finished skein.

The plan is to eventually knit this up into a Norie hat as the knit part of the KAL.  That'll hopefully go on the needles sometime later this month.

All for now..... 

Spinning Friday: FatCatKnits Mixed BFL

A little finished-yarn eye candy for this first Friday in October.

This was the mixed BFL fiber from the November 2011 FatCatKnits Mixed Blessings Club.  The original fiber came in two 2.5-oz braids, one of which was natural mixed BFL and the other was a long color-run handpainted rainbox colorway on mixed BFL.

I spun these up using a semi-worsted method, to keep them nice and smooth.  While I spun the natural colored wool just as-is, I split the colored roving into 4 almost-equal pieces, and then spun each of those onto 2 bobbins.  I then plied those together.  I didn't have the 3rd and 4th quarters quite exactly divided, so I wound up breaking off some of the singles as I plied from one bobbin to be sure the colors stayed matched up and the stripes in the yarn would be long and pretty clear.

(The natural colored skein has poofed up a bit - I had washed it already, but not the colored one.)

I wound up with two skeins: The natural wool is 2.5 oz and 240 yards of fingering weight.  The striped version is a little bit lighter, somewhere between 2.3 and 2.4 oz because of the singles I jettisoned and is 210 yards of fingering weight. 

I haven't decided on a pattern use for these skeins yet.  I may wind up working up something on my own, although there are a lot of great colorwork mittens out there calling my name right now too - so stay posted.

All for now......

Handspun Sample - Poll

Y'all might remember from eons ago... February I think it was?, I mentioned I was spinning up some of a large lot of charcoal gray CVM roving I had processed.

I had spun up a whopping 2 oz of singles before life intervened and this got put to the side and then the bobbin got moved, and you know how that goes.  I "found" it this last week while I was doing some putting away of things and realized I had a bobbin of singles languishing.  I originally was planning to spin this up for a worsted-weight sweater as a 3-ply.  But I decided I would just go ahead and get these singles plied so I could see what I had as a small sample, and just do a 2-ply yarn.

Here's what I wound up with: 166 yards of 2 ply on 2 oz.  This winds up being about 1328 yards/pound, putting it at something like a DK weight.  It's bouncy and lofty, since I spun the singles with a supported backward draw/woolen style.

Now... given how incredibly long it took me to even get these 166 yards spun up, here's the question for you, gentle reader:  Shall I forge ahead?  Shall I slowly spin up 2 ounce increments of this, hoping that I'll be somewhat close to this initial grist?  (Knowing myself fully well, with somewhat limited spinning time, and a very bad case of magpie-ness which doesn't want to sit and spin dark gray wool.) 

The other option, of course, is to just use this little skein for a small project and re-home/re-purpose the other 2 to 3 pounds of roving I've got.

So let me hear your opinion!  Vote now and we'll see what y'all think.  All for now.....

 

Spinning Thursday: 2IBH - Finn - Over the Top

You are speechless, right?  Actual spinning content right here on this blog.  Stupefying (for me as well).

Another well-marinated club fiber from the 2IBH circus-themed club.  This was a 4-oz braid of Finn wool, in the "Over the Top" colorway.  The original roving looked like:

I spun this exactly as it came off the braid - I didn't do a thing to it except but fluffed the fibers a bit while I spun, and preserved all those long awesome colors in there.  I spun this fairly thin, as I had decided I wanted to do a chained ply to keep the colors intact.

I wound up with a 337-yard/4 oz skein of chained ply, with a snappy twist, that I want to use for a pair of wild striped socks.  Because of the semi-gradient color application, these won't be perfectly matched, but I'm okay with that.  I love the colors, and I think they will be awesomely fun no matter what!

 

With that off the wheel, I dug back into stash (I'm working on previous club fibers right now) for the November 2011 FatCatKnits Mixed Blessings fiber club offering.  This is 5 ounces of mixed BFL, with 2.5 oz of the natural, undyed fiber, and then 2.5 oz of a bright, rainbow dyed colorway.  Ginny had created the pairing specifically for a colorwork project and that's what I'm going to use this for.  I'm spinning each separately, and shooting for a 2-ply fingering weight yarn.

I haven't picked a project yet, although I'm leaning towards a pair of colorwork mittens of some sort.  Kirsten at Through the Loops has a great deal on a colorwork project bundle right now, some of which I've already got in my library, but I'll decide once I see the final yardage for the two skeins.

All for now........

WIP Wednesday: August 8, 2012

SPINNING PROJECTS:

Believe it or not, I finished plying the singles that have been languishing for a couple of weeks now!  Look for a spiffy Spinning Friday post on those on... uh... Friday. 

I currently (gasp!) don't have anything on the wheels right now.  Still working on an insane amount of dyeing for the Texas store, and in the bits and pieces of free time that I do have right now, I've gotten bitten by the sewing bug, and I have a few things to show you there, but I think my spinning is going to take a break for a bit.  The insane August heat isn't helping my spinning mojo either, to be honest!

DESIGNING/KNITTING PROJECTS:

I finished up my Whosian Scarf!  That's off the needles, all the ends woven in and it's ready for photos.  The battery issue my little camera had apparently isn't really the battery but rather the camera itself, so until I get a replacement for that (hopefully next week), I don't have a much in the way of pictures to share.

I finished the first half of the body of the final fall collection sweater.  I went ahead and blocked it, to double-check my numbers and those look in good shape, so I've cast on for the other half as of last night.  My plan for this week is to get the waist ribbing done and get at least the first full chart repeat completed, which should put me at about 5" or so up the body.  I haven't knit a men's-sized sweater in so long, I forgot how much knitting is involved in that!

Otherwise, I have some swatches I'm working on, but I've been flipping thru my idea notebooks and trying to decide what will be next on the needles.  I'm thinking maybe of a small shawl for the fall, something fairly simple, but with some lace, so I'm also planning to spend some time with my stitch dictionaries this weekend while D is on travel and see what sparks my imagination for that!

All for now.....

New Pattern Release: Orbspinner Scarf

I've got a new pattern to share with y'all today. This is currently being hosted as a KAL with the Ennea group, but it's a nice, quick and easy scarf pattern that can be knit with just one skein of fingering weight commercial yarn as well.

This is the Orbspinner Scarf. The original was knit with the soft and sparkly handspun I spun up this spring in the gray alpaca/carbonized bamboo/sparkle blend. 

The scarf features a leafy Estonian-patterend border with self-scalloping edges, and then a diamond pattern for the center panel of the body.  It's knit by casting on at one end, knitting the first border, then knitting the entire center panel, and then casting on for the second border, and finally grafting the border onto the body (which means you get to graft in stockinette and not have to worry about working Kitchener in the lace pattern!).

It's a nice generous size, so you can wear it as a typical scarf, but you can also wear it as a little mini-stole around your shoulders as well.

The lace is not particularly difficult.  It'd be a nice way to have a beginning lace knitter ease into reading slightly more complex charts, and it would make a fairly quick project for an experienced lace knitter.  (And it'd make a great holiday gift in case you want to start filling up the gift-giving bin early this year!).

I also need to mention a HUGE thank-you/shout-out to Manise for knitting up the sample for me.  She did an awesome job with it and got it finished up while I was slogging thru a few other deadline knits so this could be released on time!!

All for now....