How The West Was Spun

WIP Wednesday - July 11, 2012

SPINNING PROJECTS:

Next up on the wheel is another 2IBH club colorway.  This one is on Falkland wool, and the colorway is "Hyacinth Girl".

I'll be working on the singles this week while I watch the Tour.

Designing/Knitting Projects:

I'm making headway on the fall collection samples.  I finished up the Covered Bridge cowl.  That's stored in my sample box.  I also got sock #1 off the needles, so this week sock #2 will get cast on.  I'd like to get the ribbing down and most of the leg, if I can.  (My test knitter is down to the toes on both of hers!). 

I also cast on and started the unisex pullover sweater.  I've got some basic numbers crunched on that pattern, and I'm happy with how it's knitting up.  That'll be my back-up project to work on for a bit of variety and when I need a break from tiny needles.

All for now...

Spinning: 2IBH - BFL - Regeneration

I've been spinning along this week, and since I've got another finished skein, I thought I'd share that today and not wait for Friday.

The roving was a 2IBH Fiber Club fiber on BFL.  The colorway was "Regeneration".  (This was from their Aquarium series, and the inspiration was the Great Barrier Reef, so lots of pretty blues and greens.)

I spun this up as a 2-ply yarn, and wound up with 306 yards/4 oz (vaguely DK/light worsted-ish).  I was thinking of using this for a pair of long mitts, but haven't decided for sure yet.  I love the colors tho!

All for now....

Spinning Friday: 2IBH SW Merino - Month of May

I have an actual finished skein to show y'all today!  This is the first finished skein for the Tour de Fleece 2012.

The original roving was a SW merino from 2IBH.  The colorway is "Month of May".  This was a gradient colorway, meaning it had long bands of very distinct colors moving from one end to the other, and I knew I wanted to spin this up for socks and maintain the color stripes in it.

With that in mind, I split the 4 oz braid of roving in half lengthwise and checked that I had equal 2-oz halves using my postal scale.  I then split each of those 2 oz into 7 (completely arbitrarily) long, skinny strips.

From here, I spun the skinny roving strips into very fine singles.  Once that was done, I chain-plied the singles to maintain the colors in separate sections.  My plan is to knit this up into simple, basic socks.  My final yardage for the 4 oz was 432 yards, so it'll easily translate to any basic sock pattern.

Next on the wheel is a braid of BFL - more on that next week!

All for now....

WIP Wednesday: July 4, 2012

Spinning Projects:

I've actually been doing fairly well with TdF spinning.  The first braid I decided to tackle was the 2IBH SW merino "Month of May" gradient colorway.

I decided to spin this one up for socks.  I split the 4-oz braid in half, length-wise into two 2-oz strips.  I then split each of those 2 oz into seven thinner long strips, so I can keep the long color runs (but not have them be LOOONNNGG).  My plan is to chain-ply each batch to maintain the stripes.

I have the first 2 oz of singles spun up, and I'm in the home stretch on the second 2 oz.  My plan is to finish those singles up before Friday, and maybe even start plying.  We'll see how far I get.  I am trying to get at least an hour of spin-time in each day.

Knitting/Designing Projects:

The Red Barn hat and mittens set are done (except for needing a good bath and blocking). 

I am at about the 60% mark on the Covered Bridge cowl.  Charts and instructions went off this week to the test knitter for that one.  I'm hoping to get this sample completely finished this week.

And I have 4 more patterned rounds to knit and then I'm ready to start toe decreases on sock #1 for the fall collection as well. I'd like to get that one done and off the needles as well, so I can get sock #2 on the needles.

Finally, I think this is the week I start knitting on the final project - the second sweater in the collection, so I'll hopefully get the beginning of that cast on!

All for now....

Spinning Friday: Polwarth Colorwork kit

I pushed along a little this week, so I could clear off the wheel before the Tour de Fleece started on the 30th.

I finished spinning up all the singles of the turquoise blue Polwarth (and you might remember already had the chestnut brown finished up earlier this week).  I was able to get everything plied, and wound up with this:

The Details:
Hand-dyed Polwarth roving, a 2-ply yarn, fingering-weight.  The turquoise blue is 4 oz, with 440 yards.  The chestnut brown is 2 oz, with 208 yards.  This colorway pack will be available as a kit (and an included pattern) later on this fall via the Ennea magazine.  (I'll be sure to post a heads' up when the kits are available, if you have a hankering to spin and knit something with this.)

And now... on to the Tour!  All for now......

WIP Wednesday: June 27, 2012

SPINNING PROJECTS

I finished spinning all the Polwarth singles for the colorwork kit.  The brown is plied and I'm working on the blue.  Hoping to have that done in time for a Spinning Friday post! 

That should take me close enough to TdF kick-off, which is Saturday.  (D and I are planning on taking our bikes up and camping at the Caldera and riding on Sat/Sun, but he's WAYYY more hard-core than I am, so I am thinking I might also take my wheel, so he can go off and ride in the blistering sun in the afternoon and I'll hang at the campsite and spin.)

DESIGNING/KNITTING PROJECTS

I finished knitting the hat for the fall collection, and cast on the mittens.  Those'll be my go-to project for the week.  They are Aran/worsted weight and easy, so I think will knit up pretty quickly. 

I'm still working on the socks for the fall collection.  I got the heel turned on sock #1 and I'm headed on down the foot.  If time permits, I'm planning on getting sock #1 finished this week as well.  If I can do that, I think I'll be in pretty good shape to use the month of July to knit the second sweater for the collection (most of it anyway).

All for now.....

A Brief Tour

It's getting to be that time of year - June 30th is the kickoff for the 2012 Tour de Fleece!

Who out there is planning on participating?

I know realistically I don't have a huge unlimited amount of spinning time right now, but I did think it might be nice to at least attempt to set some spinning goals for myself for this year's Tour. I decided it'd be a brilliant plan to maybe get myself caught up on the Two If By Hand fiber club braids I've had marinating in stash for while. 

Do I think I'll get all of these spun up?  No. But it'll be fun to see what I can actually get spun, and since there's a pretty wide variety of color and fiber bases, this allows me to have quite a bit to pick from without feeling overwhelmed.  You'll notice almost half of these are gradient colorways (the 2IBH gals have a gradient club), and I'll probably spin at least one of these as a singles, and then chain-ply the rest of the gradients.  I think 2 plys for the non-gradient colorways.

Here's what I've got in my TdF 2012 queue:

BFL - Colorway: Mixtape

BFL - Regeneration

Falkland - Hyacinth Girl


Finn - Over the Top

Mixed BFL - Twilight

Organic Merino - Heather Violet

SW Merino - Month of May



BFL/Silk - Tripping Daisy

All for now....

WIP Wednesday: June 20, 2012

SPINNING PROJECTS:

Having finished up the huge skein from the combo spin, I decided to work on a colorway kit.  I've got 2 oz of brown and 4 oz of turquoise blue on Polwarth roving to spin up.  I'm aiming for a fingering weight 2-ply from these.  I've started the singles and I'm ready to ply the brown skein up, and then I'll have 2 oz more of the blue to finish the singles on before those are ready to ply.  I'm hoping for some spinning time this upcoming weekend to accomplish at least the first 2 oz of plying.

KNITTING/DESIGNING PROJECTS:

Woot!  Lots of knitting time this weekend while I recovered from my IV therapy on Friday, and I finished the sample knit for the Sekret Knitting Project.  That's done, it's blocked.  I need to put some final touches on the pattern and then it can all go off to the editor.  That feels awfully good to have finished.

So since that is off the needles, I've turned my focus back to the fall collection pieces I'm working on. I have the hat about 2/3rds knit and the pattern for that plus the mittens and the yarn is off at one of my stalwart testers right now.  I'd like to try to finish up my version of the hat this week.

I also cast on for the smaller size of the socks in the collection and I've got the leg finished on sock #1.  That pattern is also written, and that plus yarn are headed to the tester for that project.  That'll be my other focus for the week, to see if I can get thru the heel and headed down the foot.

I have two projects left to tackle for the collection, and possibly one other (so maybe 3, but we'll see what my time looks like in another month).  I've got the charting done for both of those, but I'm dragging my feet a little as starting an alpaca/merino blend men's-sized sweater in our current heat wave doesn't seem very fun.  But if I can take care of a couple of the smaller designs, that'll be next, so I'm sure I get it finished for the photo shoot. 

All for now.....

Spinning Friday: Combo Spin

I finally finished up the plying for my monster skein that was a combo spin.  I used one braid of Funky Carolina BFL in the "Burly" colorway, and one braid of 2IBH BFL in the "Happy Bride" colorway.  The original braids looked like (that's Happy Bride on your left, Burly on the right):

I picked these braids to combine, since they do share a number of clear, medium-hue colors, but also... well... I have a lot of BFL, so this was a nice way to spin up 8 oz for the price of one.

I wound up with a fingering-weight, 2-ply yarn which weighed out at 7.89 oz and is 778 yards.

It's really not what I expected and to be honest, when I started plying I thought all I was doing was making mud.  But once I got it off the bobbin and onto the skeiner, I really fell in love with the colors.  No, it's not subtle (aka, my usual gloomy gray penchant), but I do like the way the colors blended together.

I've not got a specific pattern picked out for it, but there's enough in the skein I could make a little short-sleeved top or a vest-type garment for transitional seasons wear, which is probably what I'll do with it when I finally cast on.

All for now.....

Magazine Give-Away: Spin-Off Summer 2012

It's Friday!  How about a little giveaway?

I've got an extra copy of the Summer 2012 Spin-Off magazine:

This is the issue that contains the pattern for my Blenheim Roses Mitts and Cowl I blogged about on Monday, but it's also got a bunch of other knitting patterns, and a ton of great information on spindle spindling.

All you have to do to win this copy is leave me a comment for this post telling me what your favorite 2-color combination is.  It can be anything: Neutrals, brights, muted jewel tones - anything.

I'll use a random number generator to select the winner on Monday morning and announce the winner in a blog post that afternoon.

All for now!