Sunday, February 26, 2006

Gold Medal!

Well, it's not quite what I had in mind, but I persevered anyway.



The shoulders are funky, and I had to finish it off with commercial yarn because 1. I overestimated my fiber and 2. The medium green (here is invbetween the dark and light, for about 2 rows) was @#*! to spin, with fibers not longer than an inch and lots of noils, so I said $&^! it and stopped spinning the medium green.

So my capelet is done. And I learned about color in spinning. What did I learn? As far as I have transferred into rational thought,

1. It's not Noro.
2. My color changes weren't as gradual as I thought.
3. Adding in little chunks of other colors turns into stripes.
4. To get blended colors, it doesn't work to just spin other colors in. (I'm assuming the corrolary to this is that you blend before you spin, but as I haven't done this, I can't be sure)
5. I like this yarn better in skeins.
6. My shoulders aren't as wide as I envisioned, and apparently not as wide as I measured either.
7. Wait, that's knitting learning, not spinning.

All in all, I had fun. The spinning went way quicker than I thought, and I liked the straight stitch groove. I even tried a new cast off, the picot edge (with a few regular bind-offs in between the picots), and used a crochet hook to bind off. Now I need a set of crochet hooks, because it makes binding off SO MUCH EASIER. Not that it was hard, but it's just what crochet hooks were designed to do.

And I finished with minutes to spare.

I'm actually awarding myself a bronze medal. It's not my personal best effort, but I stretched myself and pushed through a project that otherwise would have cluttered the yarn stash for an extended period of time.

Happy Olympics, and enjoy the closing ceremonies.

Tuesday, February 21, 2006

Surrealist Bandwagon

Everyone else is doing it...

Ten Top Trivia Tips about Flying Poodle!

  1. Flying Poodle can usually be found in nests built in the webs of large spiders!
  2. Flying Poodle is the world's smallest mammal.
  3. Forty percent of the world's almonds and twenty percent of the world's peanuts are used in the manufacture of Flying Poodle!
  4. Flying Poodle can sleep for three and a half years.
  5. Astronauts get taller when they are in Flying Poodle.
  6. Red Flying Poodle at night, shepherd's delight. Red Flying Poodle at morning, shepherd's warning!
  7. The risk of being struck by Flying Poodle is one occurence every 9,300 years.
  8. Flying Poodleomancy is the art of telling the future with Flying Poodle!
  9. Four-fifths of the surface of Flying Poodle is covered in water!
  10. If the annual Australian Flying Poodle crop was laid end to end, it would stretch around the world seven times.
I am interested in - do tell me about
Just had to share.

And in knitting related news, we have a description of the book holder that I use to increase my knitting time:

It's simple, it's cheap, and it works. Can be found here. I do have books that are too thick for it, but what am I doing reading those anyways?

Yesterday I took one of the thick books with me to lunch. I set the book down on the table while I grabbed some silverware. A woman walked over and was peering at the book. When I came back she said, "Sorry, I thought it was a phone book." No, just a review for the pharmacy board exam.

This weekend I came close to fulfilling one of my goals: To knit in a bar. Yes, I know, it wouldn't take too much effort to really fulfill this. But I knit in a pub, with one other knitter and all of us drinking beer. Pretty close. Ok, I had hard cider. Still.

Monday, February 20, 2006

Olympic Update

Here is the third and last skein of the spinning:



And progress shots of the capelet, with all of the remaining yarn. Gonna be a short capelet.



And a close up of my, um, innovative pattern design:



This will be sewn up at the end. It's what happens when you cast on mid-row in a circular knit. Because of the color sequence of the yarn, I didn't want to do two pieces. Because of the paucity of the yarn, I wanted to knit it top down. In the absence of knowing better methods, and in trying to convert a bottom-up pattern, I punted. Here ya go. Just a quick seam at the end, and it'll do.

Increases only get you to a 45 degree angle or so if you only have one line of increases. If you do two lines, then you get raglan shaping. I wanted a shoulder shaped angle closer to 90 degrees, so that's where the casting on mid-row came from.

My goal with this project was to experiment with color in spinning more. More than once, that is. Which is the sum total of my previous attempts. I'm a little surprised at the effect of the color.

I'm not sure how many days are left in the Olympics. I'd better go so I can knit.

Sunday, February 19, 2006

Leftover hat

Can you believe this cute thing started as a way to use up leftovers?



We've got some Noro (I forget which kind, I could find out, but that could take MINUTES!) striped with a double strand of some handspun mohair/wool/nylon blend (single ply). I love this hat pattern! I've made a few, and I'm working on another one from yarn bits.

And in other news, if I can spin this shit, I can spin anything (don't call my bluff on this please). Not the blue above, but this yellow:



I don't think any of the fibers were much longer than an inch, with lots of noils besides. I had some mustardy yellow long locks that I put in occasionally to hold it together, but mostly this yarn is still together through sheer force of will.

It's wool I got at the local fiber shop, and was perhaps more suited to felting. The green in the last segment of my Olympic spin/knit was like this too, and I just gave up. Even with using some other wool for a core, it was frustrating.

Speaking of Olympic Women's 500 meter spin, I just went for the capelet. The idea just wouldn't go away. I started at the top since I don't have a lot of yarn.

Progress and knitting details to come.

Thursday, February 16, 2006

Olympic Update

I'm fabulously thrilled with the colors of this yarn. It's just as I imagined my Knitting Olympics yarn would be. Kind of like Noro, but homemade.




But. This is two of three skeins that I will get from all of the roving. Not enough for a capelet. Not even a capelettini. Maybe a scanty scarf. So, Lady E knitters, here I come. (Lady Eleanor being a popular entrelac pattern right now). It'll be an Eleanorette. Now I have to teach myself entrelac.

A rookie mistake, I'm sure. But I honestly thought that this:

would yield more yardage. And it might have, if I'd spun it finer. The fiber length and preparation favored a thick yarn. Short fibers, boy! I'm getting spoiled spinning on long staple merino that has been combed into submission. This unspoiled me.

And Wendy, just in case you're reading, don't start spinning. I actually had a moment last night when I doubted my identity as a knitter who spins. (I thought for a moment that I was a spinner who knits. I'm spinning through roving faster than I'm knitting through yarn. And sometimes I'd rather spin than knit. For a lot of evenings in a row.)

Wednesday, February 15, 2006

Gratuitous Poodle pic

It's the pic that's gratuitous, not the poodle.

A record of SIX knitters at knitting night tonight!

My olympic spinning is going fast, but I'm not going to have nearly enough yarn for a capelet. For me. Maybe a two year old. Not sure what to do yet.

Thursday, February 09, 2006

Plying my wares

I've got three full skeins of this beautiful stuff! And a little baby skein. Someday Hans will get a hat of it.



I can't believe the Knitting Olympics start tomorrow! I finally decided on a project:
A capelet. From Scarf Style. I can't find a pic right now, so here's a capelet to get the gist.



Ok, here's a completed version of what I'm going to knit:


Did I forget to mention that I'm going to spin the yarn first? My "personal challenge" bit involves the combining of colors into one yarn.

After looking at this again, I like the Brioche Rib capelet better. I'm going to have to hunt down a new book now.

New plan: Spin yarn. See how much I have. Pick one of the two patterns. Knit.

I'm warning you, the colors will be bright. This will be a Country Fair sort of a garment. I've been very practical in my knitting lately, and apparently the latent impractical urges are getting to be too much to contain.

Tuesday, February 07, 2006

Silk and Cashmere

When I started spinning, a woman that I didn't know very well gave me a most generous gift. She gave me some silk and cashmere roving, some angora, and a drop spindle made with a porcupine quill.

The silk and cashmere is certainly challenging to spin. I was spinning some this summer, and it kept sticking to my sweaty fingers. I found some rose-scented talcum powder (yum!) to keep this from happening.

I spun some on the drop spindle, and some on the wheel. This is from the wheel:


It's pretty thick, when you consider what this fiber is capable of. I am not done with the roving, but I wanted the bobbin back. I also want to knit this as singles, and the vision that I have is of lacy wristlets.

It had a lot of overspinning twist in it, so I steamed it over a tea kettle on the niddy-noddy. The steam did a bang-up job, and the yarn actually feels a bit stiff.

I also want to try spinning the next bit much finer, and plying it. I also have an ounce of quiviut that is waiting to be played with.

Tomorrow is knitting night! I need to decide what project to bring now that I'm done with my sweater. I need to take pics of a kiddo hat that I made to use up some odds and ends. I need to do a lot of things! I'll spare you the rest of the list.

Tonight is more plying! Pics of that soon.

Monday, February 06, 2006

Essential Stripe Finished! (edited to include words)

From Knit and Tonic's Essential Stripe pattern
Here it is!



I have no idea why my V-neck turned out to be so much shallower than Wendy's.



I love the "seam" that the top-down raglan shaping produces.





A close-up of the color changes. I probably could have finessed them a little more, but it's under the arm, so who cares.

I'm thinking of making a mini-sweater of my leftovers, to fit my friend's 2 year old. Since kids have relatively big heads, and this neck line turned out small, I could probably get away with casting on as for this sweater, then pinching off the sleeves after a short bit. I just can't envision this yarn for anything but a sweater.