The Leaves They Are A-Changing . . .

Autumn is here. Mums are the current flower of the day. 

These beautiful flowers were a gift from Barb and Mark! Thank you!

Plants are in from the cold, and candles are lit most days now.

We anticipate a higher cost of heating fuel, so wearing knitted things at all times will help. I like to keep candles where I can see them, because lit candles always make me feel warmer.

Add a cup of coffee and some knitting and I am quite happy.

This pattern is Yankee Knitter #37, Top Down Roll Raglan for Kids, and I am knitting it with Lion Brand Feels Like Butta, an acrylic Aran weight yarn that feels like chenille but is a lot easier to knit with and is machine washable and dryable, which I am sure his mother will like. I’m knitting a size 2 for my great grand nephew who will turn 1 in January. I’m not sure that is what to call him; he is my niece’s grandson. Sheesh. Now I feel really old.

As usual, I am not knitting it in the order that the pattern says. I knit down to the underarm and put the sleeves on waste yarn, but then rather than knitting the rest of the body, I instead knit on the collar, which is supposed to be the last thing knit.

Then I knit one sleeve and am currently knitting the other sleeve. Why? Because I have learned from past experiences knitting top down sweaters that it is way easier to knit the collar and sleeves without having the bulk of the body in the way every time you have to turn your work. After the sleeves are knit I can breeze down the body and then BAM! Sweater’s done, make the baby warm. 

I am still knitting my green socks.

I had the heel flap almost entirely knit last night but I discovered to my chagrin that I had somehow made it a stitch too wide, so I had to pull it all out and start my heel flap over again. Now it’s about half an inch long. But, two more evenings and it’ll be done. 

In spinning news … after finishing spinning allllll that black wool, I started spinning much more colorful wool:

That’s about 4 ounces of some wool I dyed before I had a stroke, and I’m finally getting around to spinning it.


It’s lovely. And surprisingly, it’s kind of in the autumnal spirit. I’ll try to spin it in a two ply fingering weight and maybe I’ll get some socks out of it. Yay! 

Two Bags Full

Baa, baa, black sheep,

Have you any wool?

Yes sir, yes sir, 

Three bags full.

One day in around 2008 Tracy and I bought a fleece, I believe from Joe Miller, at Fiber Frolic. We had the almost four pounds of fleece washed and made into roving at a mill. Tracy decided she wouldn’t spin it after all, and she gave me the opportunity to buy her portion, and that is how I ended up with almost four pounds of beautiful black Romney roving that I would spin “someday”, in two big bags filled with very squishy, very black, very wonderful wool.

Then I had my stroke a couple years later. And I figured I would never spin the beautiful black fiber.

One of the reasons I struggled to spin again was because of this fiber. I finally got good enough at spinning again that I dug out this batch of black Romney to begin spinning it. There were definite stages that I had to go through in order to be able to spin the yarn that I wanted to spin from this beautiful fleece. You have to understand that this was a very special, very exquisite fleece. You don’t very often find a pure black Romney fleece like this. 

First, I had to be able to spin at all. I struggled. Remember my mouthfuls of purple fiber? That was before I had the use of my right hand much at all, and I had to use my mouth to pre-draft the fiber. Second, I had to spin well enough to spin very fine and even. That took about a year or two. Lastly, I had to spin whatever yarn thickness that I wanted, and make it relatively even. That’s where I am now.

This is my first two skeins of yarn from the roving. It’s an Aran to chunky weight yarn, which is  a tad thicker than I really wanted it to be,  but I have just under four pounds of fiber, so I’ll have the luxury of choosing the best skeins out of the whole bit. I’m spinning a two ply yarn out of it, and I have an old Candide pattern that I want to make. 

I’m trying to spin about an hour a day, and I think it will take most of the winter to spin, and that’s ok. I really love spinning this fleece, and I think it will be really lovely to knit with. I’m planning to knit up a big swatch with it soon, so I’ll let you know!

Hot & Cold

July has been a funny month. First, it’s really cold and rainy - on July 5, we actually turned the heat on! Then, it’s hot and humid, making it really hard to knit much. 

I finished my version of the Fireworks pullover, but I did NOT try it on. It’s upstairs ready to block now. My version has less fireworks and more plain stockinette because it was too hot to think:

I started spinning 44g of hand dyed fiber that I found. I think it’s dyed by Linda Dyak years ago. I’m not sure where the rest went, but I found 44g of it.

It’s so pretty. Not sure what I will do with it, but something will occur to me I am sure.

Speaking of spinning, I used some of the red that I dyed and spun to make a hat:

It’s quite fulfilling to knit something with my handspun. I love making every single stitch!

Right now I am knitting a pair of mittens that I knit once before. I made them in blue before, but this time I am knitting them in Harrisville’s New England Shetland in the color Grass. The pattern I’m using is Green Autumn by Jared Flood. I remember that I loved knitting them before, around 2008 I think it was, and so far they continue to make me happy. 

But, I am only on the cuff. It may get worse as I go on! Or get even better! We’ll see.

Have a good day happily knitting and spinning, and stay cool or warm as required. 



 

So Excited!

I am so excited for the Fireworks knit along! I’m going to use Universal Yarn’s Deluxe Worsted (100% superwash wool) because it was on sale at WEBS, so I picked out a deep green color since I don’t have a dark green sweater:

I knit a swatch that was 20 sts by 28 rows (inside the moss stitch border) and measured it:

I got gauge on the first try! I took a chance that I was knitting tightly, so I went up a size needle from a size US6/4.0mm to a size US7/4.5mm. I am ready to cast on for July 1!

In other news, I finished my Double Scoop Shawl and I like it a lot:

Instead of doing the bobble cast off as it was written (I tried it, but my bobbles looked like crap),  I opted for a crochet bind off and added beads: 

Unfortunately it is too hot to wear!

 I finished plying my blue yarn that I spun, and set the twist:

This blue yarn is gorgeous! I have a pattern picked out for it, but I’ll tell you later. 



I got a beautiful bouquet of flowers from my gardener, Mr. Yarndemon:

Summer flowers always strike me with their beauty:

So pretty!

To quote Bill and Ted, be excellent to each other! And happy knitting!

A Little Progress, and Fireworks!

Today is a lovely day. There are flowers on my table:

The sun is out, and I am on my porch writing a blog post.

The baby sweater came out cute: 

My Double Scoop Shawl is going well:

It’s so pretty and so easy to knit. I think the back is as pretty as the front:

My spinning is about 2/3 plied. I have another bout of plying to do and then it’s done:

But the big news is the annual 4-day knit-along that starts on July 1! So exciting! The sweater this year is called Fireworks, in celebration of getting through this COVID mess and getting vaccinated and being able to be with actual people actually, and it’s all just pretty exciting.

The sweater is a circular yoke-necked pullover in worsted or DK yarn, designed by Marie Greene. She suggested using a tweed yarn, because the little flecks would be like the paper bits that fireworks leave behind, but you can of course use non-tweed yarn if you want to (I am using non-tweed yarn anyway). There is a description of the event here including pictures of the sweater!

I and my Knit Camper friends are pretty excited for July 1 to start. Many have swatched for gauge already. My yarn isn’t here yet, so I’ll have to wait, but that is just as well because it will give me time to wrap up my shawl knitting and my spinning, and then I can dedicate my time to Fireworks. 

Get out and enjoy the sunshine! Happy knitting!

The Living Is Easy

It’s summertime! There are flowers everywhere, outside and in my house:

I love flowers.

Notice the wee socks in the last picture?

These are some itty bitty baby socks for a baby boy. I intended to make one pair, but before I knew it, there were four pairs! The socks will go with this little knitted sweater:

It’s an adorable little crew necked, short sleeved sweater that I am knitting out of Lion Brand 24/7, a 100% cotton yarn. It will be a cute sweater for summer! The pattern is Popsicle Pullover by Marie Greene. The pattern was free in Knit Camp, but it costs $10 to buy. It would be a good project to use to get rid of worsted and DK scraps if you have some lying around. The pattern has a long sleeved version as well as short sleeve, and it fits kids from newborn up to 10 years old.

I finally finished the Compton Aran Pullover! Here it is in all its glory:

It was very rewarding to finish and it will be a lovely warm sweater for Mr. Yarndemon this winter.

Another thing I have been knitting is the Double Scoop Shawl by Marie Greene. (It was the free pattern this month in Knit Camp. Join by June 21st, 2021, and save 40% on either the monthly membership $24.95 or the annual membership $249 with the code FRIEND40.)

 I was able to destash a bit using a skein of mauve Sockaholic Serene in Imperial Barley and a skein of Expression Fiber Arts Resilient Sock hand dyed in a color I forget the name of, but it is pretty, and it uses a lot of orange and blue with lots of other colors:

Here’s what it looked like when I started:

One person in Knit Camp called the pattern stitch meditative, which pretty much sums it up. It really is relaxing to knit.

 I have been spinning. I spun the rest of the blue fiber, and I loved it, but when I started plying it, I simply adored it! It is spinning up to a fingering weight, and there is so much color in this yarn. The color has a lot of depth. 


I know what I want to make out of this. I’ll surprise you!

We are farming potatoes:

Farming makes Pogo soooooo tired:

I hope you can get out and enjoy the sunshine! 

Spring Has Totally Sprung

These lilacs are on the table as I write this, and I occasionally lean in for a rejuvenating whiff. I also have tulips, and they are beautiful.

 I abandoned the Dan Brown book. I may go back to it later, but really, I probably won’t. Instead, I started The Hobbit again, on audiobook, which is my bedtime listening. Usually it makes me go to sleep readily, but last night it didn’t. Oh well. 

Yesterday I borrowed a Kindle book to actually read, The Golden Thread: How Fabric Changed History by Kassia St. Clair.

It has been on my want-to-read list for a while, and I got it for free yesterday. Out of the blue, Amazon sent me a credit for this particular book; I don’t know why, but I’ll take it! I haven’t started reading it yet, but it sounds good.

 

My Aran sweater is progressing. I have the back done, and the front is 85% done, so in about one or probably two days, the front will be complete.

Then there are just two sleeves and the neck and sewing it up to do, and it will be finished. I’ll try to get it done by June 1.

Spinning has been really slowwwww, but I have only a little ball of fluff left to spin, and I have found as I get to the end of something that has been fun to spin, it’s hard to finish it. So, I have spun, but only a little.

My primrose throw which I have been crocheting has also been going slow. I got the top row of half-primroses done and four whole primroses in the next row:

It’s really pretty, but I think I need to finish the Aran sweater before I crochet much on it. Also I think I need to take it out to the table so I can make myself do at least one primrose a day, in the morning. That would be good.

 I found a little scrap lace weight yarn to knit on my scarf! Yay! 

I knit that bit of red-pink-orange-yellow, and now it is back in hibernation.

This spring we did a major overhaul of Stuff that was cluttering our house, put things back on shelves, and in the process re-discovered items that I had thought lost. One of them was this:

Such cute little sheep! But wait, what is lurking behind them?

It’s a wolf in sheep’s clothing, licking his chops! Yikes!

By the way, this little sculpture is also a box:

And inside, you will find the ultimate source of why the wolf was licking his chops:

... lamb chops. 

Beware of a wolf in sheep’s clothing! Keep smiling, keep knitting, crocheting, spinning or reading, and look up some good lamb chop recipes for supper.

What's Up Doc?

I love Bugs Bunny. Just sayin'.

Anyway. This is what is going on in Beth World.

I've been reading actual, paper, not-on-a-screen books! I know, seems pretty unusual, but that is what I have been doing. The most recent one I finished was a gift from Hillary. It's called The Kingdom of Back, by Marie Lu. 

Fantasy lovers and music lovers will enjoy this book. Leopold Mozart and his wife Anna had two children; everyone knows about Wolfgang Amadeus but few know about his sister, Marie Anna, known as Nannerl. This is her story. It is also a story of identity, of mystery, of adventure in a beautiful but dark land named by the children as the Kingdom of Back, ruled by an enigmatic being known as Hyacinth. This was a great book and I highly recommend it!

I started reading Digital Fortress by Dan Brown. The only thing I want to say about it right now (I'm only on chapter 20) is that Dan Brown writes really really short chapters -- about 3 pages long. The main characters are trying to get back a code that can not be broken, which is a threat to national security. Also there is a Spanish professor who will be in danger and the female main character will apparently save him. Dan Brown's books are like a bag of potato chips; an easy read, a good beach read, one that will be enjoyed but easily forgotten. Yet, I am reading it.

In other news, I have been spinning:

That's the Big Ball of Blue that is almost three quarters of the way done. It is a true fingering to a lace weight and I'll have about 1000+ yards of it when I am done. I'm thinking it will be a good sized shawl. It's an outstandingly gorgeous color!

I ave also done a bit of knitting on the blue Aran sweater for Mr. Yarndemon:

I am around four inches from being done the back. It has been a slow job, but it's mostly Pogo's fault. I knit on it in the evenings, but Pogo usually sleeps on my lap in the evenings, thus the slow progress.

All. Your. Fault. Just kidding, I love you, Pogo.

I like knitting this aran quite a bit though. The yarn is not as heavy, though it is an aran weight, but since it doesn't have much or any lanolin in it, it is far less heavy. Also the cable patterns are largely memorizable and easy to remember, so when I get a chance to knit on it, it hums right along.

Lastly, I have been crocheting again, and it is all Arne and Carlos' fault. I found their Primrose (Gunnhild) Throw when I was looking for a granny-square-but-different sort of thing to crochet with all of this:

That is all my DK-ish weight yarn scraps. I loved the picture of the Primrose Throw on their website, and I loved how simple it is to do -- only three rounds per piece, so only three colors, and it is coming out so pretty! Don't look too close though, I made a few errors a couple times but I fudged it and kept on going.

I made full sized primroses to see how wide I needed it to be, and now I am doing half-primroses to make a flat edge for the top. It is really fun to choose colors for a primrose, see how it comes out, and watch the blanket grow. I usually make about three or four primroses a day, so it will take a while to finish the blanket. I don't even know if it will be done this year. But, I am quite enjoying it and love how it looks! 

As soon as I bought the pattern and started the first row, Arne and Carlos came out with another beautiful blanket pattern, using squares that are bigger and easily joined. That one is called Audun Blanket with Small Floral Squares. I have already bought it, and if I have enough worsted weight yarn, I'll probably start that one as well.

These flowers were a suprise from Mr. Yarndemon! They are so pretty! Have a great day reading, spinning, knitting, crocheting or getting out in the garden!

 

 

 

Be Happy!

Hello happy people! After my last post, I grit my teeth and kept on knitting. We got some new chairs for the living room, which meant that I could knit Fiadh in my lap with my legs stretched out, and that made it much easier to knit. I finished the first sleeve:

This is what the back looks like:

I'm liking it a lot more. I have one more sleeve, the button bands and collar, and a pocket lining to knit and then I'm done! Just in time for warm weather! 

Speaking of weather, what a wild ride the weather the last week or so has been. Temperatures almost at 60°F, then dropping down to 19F°, then back up again. At least it will be warm again in a week or so.

I'm about 54 rows (and they are long rows) from the end of my Northwest Shawl, which means it will be another week or two before I am totally done, but having Fiadh and Northwest Shawl getting done at sort of the same time fills me with glee. Also, I'll finish the cowl I started with a bit more vim and vigor and it will go fast, I am sure. I really like it, and I'm sure that having two endless projects going on at the same time too was discouraging. 

I've been enjoying Arne and Carlos' Knit for a Bit YouTube videos. It's almost like having a real knitting circle. Arne and Carlos are having a KAL for knit Easter eggs that sounds really fun! You can use up scrap yarn that you have too, so it's a good way to go through your stash. The knitalong starts March 17. The pattern is $4.00 and you can find it here: Easter Eggs by Arne & Carlos.

I've been having a blast spinning. I finished my fine skein of the copper-dyed light green yarn:

It really is green, not blue. Sorry.

I absolutely love it. It is so soft and light and has a nice fuzzy halo! It reminds me of a kitten ... a little, soft, light green kitten.

After I did the light green skein, I spun about 45g of purple merino with stellina in it.

I love how it looks when it is done, but having spun a little bit of it, I know that I will never spin anything with stellina in it again.

The stellina got everywhere; all over me, up my nose, on the floor. It just wanted to make my whole world sparkle. Luckily, it was remarkably easy to clean up, but I didn't really enjoy it. I did love my little skein of yarn though!

 

Before setting the twist

When it was all dry and skeined

I spun this fairly thick in a two ply, so it's worsted to Aran weight, and I got about 40 yards. I love it. 

Happy knitting and spinning, my joyous friends! Happy St. Patrick's Day and Happy St. Gertrude's day tomorrow! I'll be enjoying knitting my Easter eggs starting soon!

Edited to add: Pogo says Happy Gertrude's  Day too. Any day that celebrates cats, especially eating mice, is fine in her book.

Squishy Yarn

My squishy, luscious, brick-colored yarn is done, and I am very happy with it:

I got 13.02 ounces of yarn. I have no idea what it was for weight of fiber to start with. I really am sort of amazed at how even it is, and I can't wait to knit it! I thought I would have less yarn than I have, so I will have to look again at my pattern choices before I decide what to make. 

I jumped right into my bag of roving to see what to spin next. I chose a small amount of this:

That is 45g of some kind of fiber that is not merino (might be Romney?), and I think it was dyed in the dye left from my copper dying, as it was not exhausted ... but it was nearly exhausted, as this is only lightly dyed. It is a very light green, almost white. I don't think my iPhone takes very good color pictures, as everything looks quite washed out. I do try to correct the colors, but I suck at it.

I will spin this very fine if I can, to make 2-ply sock yarn, but as I will only have 40g or so of the resulting yarn, I'll have to spin something else to put it with. Or maybe I'll make kid's fingerless gloves. We'll see.

It's kind of nice to spin 2-ply anything, after spinning a 3-ply yarn. But I do love how squishy and even the 3-ply yarn is!

My knitting has suffered this week because I hate all of it. I'm on the first sleeve of Fiadh which is always trying to escape my lap because it is huge and heavy, my cowl of my own design that I started is easy but boring, and Northwest Passage shawl is far, far too endless -- after I finished the 13 repeats of the chart I was knitting, I discovered to my dismay another chart of 24 rows to do five times or so, and then there is yet another chart to do after that one. It's already too long and it's going on and on and on. It doesn't look anything like the photo, which makes me wonder where I went wrong? So I am harrumphing big time and am contemplating not knitting anything for a week or so because I hate it all. 

Happy spinning though! Even though I probably won't knit with it!

 

Sucked In

I got sucked in to YouTube videos this week, all kinds of them. History videos, cooking videos, knitting and purling videos, cat videos, you name it. But I did get some knitting and spinning progress done.

Fiadh is still going slowly, but at least I am working it in smaller pieces now. I split it into three pieces for the back and two fronts, knit the back, and I am almost done the left front.

It is an armful of sweater to knit and I'm glad it is February, but it is beautiful and I'm enjoying it now.

The lace weight scarf thing I was knitting in the evening ran out of yarn scraps, so I am waiting to make more yarn scraps. It is hibernating. Meanwhile, I picked up the Northwest Passage shawl that had been hibernating, and I have been working on that in the evenings. I am just finishing the thirteenth repeat of the pattern making up the bulk of the shawl, and then after I knit 87 more rows to finish it off I'll be done. Woohoo!

As it is knit out of a sport weight, it is nice and cozy. The cones of Ragg yarn I am using got some hard wear on the bottom, so as I near the end there are a lot of breaks in the yarn, and there are a lot of ends to weave in. I don't feel very good about giving it away as a gift or a prayer shawl, because the chances of one of the ends letting go and making a little hole would be not so comforting. I'll just keep it for myself unless somebody claims it knowing that it might get a hole. 

My spinning is coming right along. 

Tomorrow I'll ply these three bobbins into my fifth little skein of squishy, bulky weight wool. There are two more skeins to make, and then I'll be done! I'm getting a teensy bit bored with spinning this color, although when another skein is done I always feel happy because my yarn looks so darned awesome. I'll be done with red/brown merino in under two weeks though, so I'll get out another bunch of fiber from my stash and start spinning that. 

I started a new project yesterday using this fabulous yarn:

It has baby camel in it! I love baby camels!

It is the softest, most luxurious yarn you can imagine. It's also very well-behaved for a baby: it never tangles, never splits, and all the stitches lie perfectly waiting to be knit. I love it.

My yarn ball winder, however, is very very very naughty. It broke when I was winding this, and I fixed it, managing to get all but a little of it done, which I had to wind by hand. You know you're in trouble when you start hearing a loud sound like grinding gears come out off your ball winder. Sigh. I ordered another one. 

So that is what I have been doing. Breaking my equipment, making slow progress, enjoying my spinning. Stay away from YouTube videos everyone! Happy knitting and spinning!

 

Love

Happy Valentine's Day! 

I love the red yarn I am spinning. I have two skeins done and I think there will be seven skeins total when I am finished. My skeins are about 50g in weight. 

I spin each bobbin about 1/3 of the way full (see picture), and I do three bobbins, and then I ply them together.

That way the bobbins all make one full bobbin of three-ply yarn, and I wind it off, soak it in hot water, and hang it to dry. That way I get a little thrill about every week when I make a new skein of gorgeous, soft, squishy, chunky yarn to gaze at and admire. I love it!

I only spin for about an hour or less every morning, which is why I get so little done. But each little skein is lovely, it's a good way to start my day, and that is why I love my little skeins. Happy spinning! Fiber is good for you!

Progress?

Today is one of the first days that feels like winter this year. Snow is falling and the temperature here in Rockport is a chilly 18°. I just wanted to share my progress on Fiadh, and my spinning, and tell you about using up leftover bits of laceweight yarn.

I decided to let Compton hibernate, as Fiadh is a beast in every way. It's big and heavy and I usually only  get about 4 rows a day knit because of all the cables (and it's big... and heavy.) It's size and heaviness isn't really the sweater's fault though; it is huge because of the size of me, and because of the way it is knit: all in one piece, seamlessly.

So although it's a beast right now, I will be glad not to have to sew all those seams to finish it. Actually, I don't mind sewing seams and finishing a sweater, but I think it's kind of cool to see how Marie Greene does it all without sewing any seams.

I was dismayed when this happened, but it is a sign of heavy sweater + little cables on a circular needle:

Luckily I have a *few* extra needles. Ahem.

The bit of green there is where the pocket goes. Very exciting!  Also, I am knitting Fiadh using no cable needles. Knitting cables without a cable needles is both faster (when it works) 80% of the time,  and slower (when you try a cable 2805335 times, swearing, and give up and use a cable needle) 20% of the time. 

I took a week off spinning but today I picked it up again. I just finished a second bobbin and got ready for the third bobbin. Then I'll have to dig out the rest of the fiber and separate it into thirds and finish filling the bobbins.

I'm eagerly awaiting what the three ply will look like; I am anticipating  it to be bulky (or at least Aran weight) and very squishy. I want to make mittens and hats out of it.

Finally, I am using evening TV knitting time knitting a scarf/wrap/stole thing using up my laceweight scraps. I took a size 4/3.50mm circular needle and cast on about 200-ish stitches (204 actually) and started knitting in the round. Then I added another color and started to knit helically to avoid having a jog at the beginning of the round. 

I started out with tan merino/silk which I had quite a bit of, and pink wool. Then I switched to aqua blue just last night when I ran out of pink. This is how far I've gotten in about a month, about 18 or 20 inches -- laceweight takes a bit of time to get anywhere. After the blue runs out, I'll have to go excavating to find my bag of laceweight bits to see what colors will be next. I figure I'll knit until I get to around six feet (or put it into hibernation til I get more bits of laceweight yarn). If I have enough bits, I'm guessing it'll take me until spring. Or, in Tom Baker's Dr. Who style, I could knit all year and have a 17 foot scarf. Wild!

 

My Little Copper Skein

I can't spin straw into gold ... but it turns out, I can spin copper pennies into yarn!

I had a jar of old pennies, so I put them in a big glass jar and filled it with ammonia. I didn't really check the pennies I had, but enough of them were from before 1981 to make this work. Since 1981 the copper in pennies change to be just a plating, I guess.

It is important to do this outside, because you can pass out from ammonia fumes! I soaked about 50g of white merino top in water, and then put it into the penny/ammonia bath and let it soak for about a week, maybe more. You can see why it is good to do this in the summer!

The dye bath was a bright, pretty blue. I thought, this will be such beautiful blue yarn!

Nope.

The merino top had changed to a lovely, soft green .... the color of money! I loved it. So I let it dry and stashed it away to spin sometime. Years later, I had a stroke. Even more years later, I found this lovely green merino roving and spun it up.

Despite its age, the merino, which was all predrafted, was very easy to spin.

 

I spun it all in 5 days since it was only 50g and was easy to spin, and soon I had a wonderful, balanced skein of yarn. This photo was taken just before I put it in the bath to set the twist.

This photo was taken in natural light and is closest to the real color of the yarn.

This is my little skein of copper yarn:

I'm happy.

Spinning & Arans

I started spinning on January 2nd. I've finished up some red and black wool that has been a monkey on my back for the last year:

Not sure what it will become. It is not particularly soft yarn, so it will probably be something for me. Maybe socks, you can never have too many socks.

The big skein on the left was spun last year or so. The two skeins on the right that are better spun were spun over the last two weeks. The last little skein above Pogo's tail was Navajo plied (making a 3-ply) out of what remained after I finished the two-ply skeins. I'm getting better at Navajo plying..

So then I started spinning about 50g of merino top that I dyed years before my stroke (2007? Dunno.) using a pile of copper pennies. That was really fun! Who knew that copper pennies made the color of paper currency! Anyway, the wool came out a soft green color. I have about half of it spun.

 

On the knitting front, I am knitting two Aran sweaters at the same time, weirdly. The first one is Compton by Pat Menchini, which I am knitting out of some blue wool that Rachel had. I had promised myself that I would start it in January; who knows when I'll finish it.

The second Aran is the January KAL by Marie Greene; it is called Fiadh. I got the pattern free because I'm in Knit Camp, and I had enough Bartlettyarn in my stash, so I figured what the heck -- it's a good way to use up nine skeins of my stash! It's a seamless sweater, knit from the bottom up, with pockets (though I will only knit one pocket, because the right hand pocket is pretty much useless for me). I have been picking away on it. Because it is all one piece, I had to cast on a lot of stitches and I almost gave up right there! But I didn't.

This is what they look like so far:

Compton

Fiadh

I really don't wear off white sweaters, but this is an Aran sweater and my yarn was this color, and I can dye it afterward if I don't like it. But ... I'm really quite lazy, so I'll probably just wear it the color that it is. At least it will go with everything!

Also, I am learning to knit my cables without a cable needle, and the cables go much faster that way. I'm sure there are tons of videos out there, but the way I am learning it is through videos that Marie Greene made for Knit Camp. I am learning a lot!

 

 

Another Spinning Milestone

Another beautiful day!

I love sunny days. It promises to be 72° on Friday, but I'll believe it when I see it.

My big spinning milestone is that I was able to successfully Navajo ply the 49 g (1.6 oz,) of yarn that was left over when I plied my Maine Coast yarn. I knew there would be leftovers, and the best thing to do with spinning leftovers is simply to Navajo ply them. But, I wondered if I could do it ...

... and indeed, I could! It will take a lot of practice to get it right and be comfortable with it, but it is a start. I am very happy.

In other news, I'm working on the last color of my Scrap Yarn Pi shawl before making a knitted on edge:

It's prettier than the picture. When it is finished and ~sort of~ blocked (meaning, washed and hung over the stair rail upstairs to dry), it will be pretty and wearable and cozy, and best of all, I got rid of a big ol' wad of scrap yarn to boot!

My red cardigan is gorgeous, and I have one more pattern repeat to knit on the body before doing the ribbing and binding off. That will make it about two-thirds done. There will still be two sleeves, two button bands, and a neckline to knit, and finding buttons and sewing them on. But still, two-thirds done feels pretty good! I'll get a picture when it's all done.

The more scrap yarn I use up, the more I realize that I have way too much yarn. I've cleaned it out, down to having just three bins and a big chest full, but it feels impossible to use it all up. I could make a spreadsheet of all the things I could knit out of the yarn I have, but it would scare me. And you know what? I still want to buy more!!!!

 

Beautiful

It's a beautiful spring day on the coast of Maine!

Photo by jdgrigsby from FreeImages

I finished my blue-green Linus shawl a while ago.

I also went to my WIP bin and took out an Absolutely Fabulous Throw kit by Colinette  that someone had started, given up on it, gave it to me, and I never worked on it ... but thought I would, someday. Well, someday came. The kit originally sold for around $180, contained your choice of four throw patterns, and had enough of eight beautiful Colinette colors in a variety of yarns to make the throw. The yarns are still available, but sadly the pattern is not.

See? It really is Absolutely Fabulous. Pogo settled down on it as I was putting on the fringe. She gave it her seal of approval.

 

I finished spinning my Maine Coast yarn.

Three skeins (total of 385 grams) of 2-ply fingering weight yarn. It's gonna be great!

What is on my needles now?

An Elizabeth Zimmerman Pi Shawl using fingering weight scrap yarn (I got tired of making endless Linus shawls) ...

... and a red cardigan for me. It's sweater #4 for those who are counting.

Keep knitting and spinning! Remember, you are beautiful!

 

 

Still Quarantining

Hi there! I'm fine, how are you? Healthy, I hope!

While others have been busily sewing masks

Image by Christo Anestev from Pixabay

and doing other heroic things, I have been spinning and knitting and just staying home. In other words, my usual life.

On the spinning front, I finished the turquoise fiber and am halfway through spinning a braid of yarn that I hand dyed pre-stroke:

Here are a bobbin of each side by side:

I am going to ply them together and make a fingering weight yarn that will look like a summer day on the coast of Maine. I can almost feel the wind in my face and hear the water slooshing by! I'll knit the Crest O' the Wave stole by Wendy Johnson:

On the knitting front, I have knit three pairs of socks:

These socks were started pre-stroke, so over ten years ago.

The red fluffy ones on top are a mohair blend that I lost the band from, and I ran out of yarn to finish them, so I completed the foot on the second sock with bright red worsted weight wool. I neglected to photograph them when they were finished.

The pink socks are a worsted weight from a yarn called Wick (now discontinued) from Knit One, Crochet Too, a 53% soy, 47% polypropylene yarn that wicks moisture away from you.

These socks are fingering weight from Heavenly Yarns in Belfast. (They have lots of yarn, buttons, and needles! Free shipping on orders $30 and over! You should go!) The yarn is Sox by Berroco and is so pretty!

What is on my needles?

I have a sweater, a hat, and a shawl/scarf/thing going.

The sweater is Kinsale by Alice Starmore (in Fishermen's Sweaters):

I am using two 1-lb. cones of Jagger Ragg in blue that was gifted to me by Nancy Howard in 2015 or 2016.

The hat is Raineach by Juliet Bernard that was in The Knitter magazine, issue 148.

I am knitting Raineach out of scraps: gray yarn from my KittyCat Socks, and a ball of pre-stroke handspun that I don't even remember spinning at all, or what I originally knit from it. Perhaps I was drunk.

Anyway, it is really pretty. Here are the sweater and hat together:

So pretty.

Finally, I have another Linus shawl/scarf/thing on my needles for my evening TV knitting, using scraps of blue and green:

Here it is so far:

I have a ways to go!

Happy knitting and spinning, stay healthy both mentally and physically, and learn something today that you didn't know yesterday. I think I will learn how to make peanut butter chocolate chip cookies.

Yum.

 

 

So Happy

I woke up to one of the warmest days in the year, and it made me smile. I love spring.

You may remember this yarn that I spun. It made me happy too! I knit a shawlette with it: the Cider Press Shawl by Marie Greene. It's in her book Knit Shawls and Wraps in 1 Week: 30 Quick Patterns to Keep You Cozy in Style.

I love it.

Every stitch looked different, every color plied with every color, and every weight of yarn from lace weight through chunky slid through my fingers. Yet, the magic of knitting pulled it all together to produce this wonderful shawl.

 

I was giggling with happiness and fascinated at what was being created in my hands.

Stay warm and happy!

Mystery Socks and Beautiful Yarn

I had a great week! I completed the Mystery XII Socks by Knitters Brewing Company, Let It  Snow! socks:

Pattern: Let It Snow! socks by Wendy Gaal

Yarn: Knitters Brewing Company Sockaholic II fingering weight, 75% Superwash Merino & 25% Nylon, 460 yards per 100g: color ESB (Extra Special Blue)

It was a really fun-to-knit pattern! I might make it again. It had mosaic knitting (which I usually hate) and lace (which I love). This time, I loved the mosaic knitting. I guess I trusted Wendy Gaal, whose patterns are always well-written.

 

One goal I had for 2020 was to spin more, which I have totally been doing, and I finished up eight ounces of lovely superwash merino from On The Round that I got about two or three years ago. I started spinning it right when I got it, but then I quit for some reason -- inertia takes the blame -- and now FINALLY it is all spun up. And I love it so much!

It's a shame that I never took a picture of the roving before it became yarn. It was all pretty colors, but when I spun it, the reds and oranges became the predominant color (and I love red and orange) and the yarn became a lovely dark red with other colors all mixed in.

(There is a bit of the roving I spun showing at the top of the above picture)

Now it is all ready to knit. Pogo was being really loving this morning and tried to help me so much to get the right picture. I better knit a shawl that she can curl up in!

January Spinning

On my Make Nine list of goals, I had "Spin at least an hour per week". In January  I had a goal to spin 4.5 hours; I was able to spin 14.07 hours. Wowza!

I made a nifty little spreadsheet to put my spinning time in. It adds up all the minutes for me, so it's easy.

Spinning is my meditation. I spin mostly in the morning to get my head and my body to align and get used to the day. Although, my days are pretty stress free and I only have half a brain left, so there is that.

Spinning uses a lot of physics. I'm not talking about speed of the wheel or ratios, no, I'm talking about inertia. See, when I sit down to spin, I plan on spinning about 20 minutes ... but I find that I actually spin about 40 minutes on average. Once I start, it is hard to stop! Inertia takes over! But on the other side, once I stop, it is very hard to start. Previously, I stopped spinning, and it took me about two years to overcome the inertia. When I take one day off, that day tries to inveigle itself into three days or a week. After I took several days off for a knitting weekend recently, it was hard to make myself spin again, but I'm glad I did! It is hard to overcome inertia.

That fiber is from On the Round that I got three or four years ago when they had some one-of-a-kind merino on sale. It may be superwash, not sure. I got eight ounces. I've already spun the bits on the side; only the big bit on the top to be spun, and then it will be plied and washed and then the knitting will begin! I can't believe this has been waiting to be spun for two years. That is just criminal.

At first my yarn was about DK weight (the part I spun two years ago) but now I spin a two-ply heavy fingering weight naturally. I think most people do, but I haven't fact checked it. If I want a thicker yarn, I'll just ply more than two plies together, for hats and mittens and the like.

I'm a weird spinner, because as soon as my spinning is done, I knit something out of it. I never have yarn spun up that I haven't knit. But, as far as I can tell, that is unusual. Most spinners never seem to use their yarn, or do so rarely. This I also haven't fact checked, it's just a  feeling I have. Do let me know if I am right or not. I'd love to see what you have made from your handspun yarn!

So Much Fun!

I have had so much fun the last couple of weeks! 

First, the things I have knitted: not much, actually. I have my stealth knitting project almost completed. In fact, it will be finished this week probably, and I can go to Freeport at the end of the week with a clear conscience. I have, in addition, sewn up my Sylvi coat/sweater, woven in most of the ends, and am now working on the hood:

It is kind of hard to knit because of the weight of the sweater and only having one and a quarter hands, but it is going slowly onward. I hope to finish it next week, after SPA in Freeport. At least Hillary will be able to wear it for a couple weeks before Spring!

Second is the goodies that I have bought.

I pre-ordered MAINEknits by Beatrice Perron Dahlen a few weeks ago, and promptly forgot it, and then there it was! I wanted to get it when I realized that all of the patterns in it were in my favorites in Ravelry, which was a sign that the book needs to be on my shelf.  I was pleased to find that the book has really gorgeous pictures of Maine, a foreword by Pam Allen, and well-written essays by Sarah Kilch Gaffney, Julie Letowski, Samantha Lindgren and Beck Robbins in addition to beautiful, highly-wearable and desirable-to-knit patterns by fourteen excellent designers, including Beatrice Perron Dahlgren. 

The book is divided into three sections: Sea, Farm, and Wild, which is how I think of Maine too. I'm from Aroostook county, Maine, the wilderness was all around me in Portage where I lived, my father was a farmer, and now I live by the sea! There are five or six patterns in each section, totaling seventeen patterns in the book. Most of them are sweaters and accessories for women, but a few are unisex too, and one is photographed on a man and a child; that sweater can be made in children's sizes too. There is also a cowl in child and adult sizes as well. 

I also got some little colored stitch markers from Cocoknits.com. They are so pretty, I want to string them on a chain and wear them as a necklace! 

I succumbed to pattern lust and bought the yarn to make these socks:

They are 173-45 Sleepy Sheep from Drops.

They are so springy and pretty! I don't really need 450g of yarn to knit socks. I'll have yarn leftover, so maybe I will design something with Mary Jane Mucklestone's books that I have been looking over.

The best thing though is the fluff that I got from On the Round! It is soooooooo gorgeous! It makes me want to spin and spin and spin! 

This fluff is hand dyed Corriedale top in a OOAK (One Of A Kind)  color. That means it is unique!  Rachel Jones does an incredible job of dyeing. Her colors are imaginative, playful, and creative while being harmonious too. It takes real talent to do that. I will wait as long as possible to start spinning this, but I think the beauteousness of the fluff will overwhelm me. It is sitting right beside my computer and I keep looking at it and sighing happily. I need to get a couple things done, but soon ... soon!

The third and final fun thing is ahead: SPA!!! Lynne and I are going to Freeport for the weekend (February 24,25, & 26) and we will have so much fun. We are staying at the Hampton Inn. SPA is a weekend of fibery goodness that is at three hotels in Freeport, but it really kind of takes over the town. It is like a convention of 1000 (maybe more) knitters and crocheters and spinners and weavers and felters and other fibery folk who show up for the weekend. Some people go for three or four days. Lynne and I will pretty much stay in the Hampton Inn; the vendor area doesn't really interest me much (see above) but there are many vendors and people who want their wares. Also Mother of Purl is in the area and there are a few things that they offer too this weekend, including an On the Round trunk show -- Rachel will be there in person to amaze and delight you! 

I haven't the heart to tell Pogo that the sweater isn't for her.

My Spinning

All the orange fluff is done! (It's actually corriedale.)

This was fantastic to spin. I would have gotten done sooner, but NaNoWriMo got in the way a bit. 

I  started plying it up last night.

I am so very pleased with this yarn. It's just wonderful. I'm going to make socks with it, because who doesn't need some hunting socks for safety? hehe. It's actually a pleasing shade of orange, not the blinding sort of orange that makes yelp in surprise. It is going to be fun to knit!

 

My Spinning

I felt bad about not spinning last week, so I vowed to spin at least one day this week, and that's what I did. I spun one day.

To prove it, I took pictures. 

Here is some predrafted roving:

Here is what I spun in an hour:

Looks about the same, no? Sigh. 

Here is the itty bitty amount of fiber that I have left to spin:

I'd say NaNoWriMo is the reason, but it's not, really. That only takes me a couple hours to do. I think I'm just a slow spinner (I can hear Sharon in the background saying, "Ha!").

I will try to spin the rest of the orange before the end of 2013. Really, I will.

My Spinning

Here it is:

Notice how it looks exactly the same as it did last week? Yeah. I didn't spin at all this week. 

Damn you, NaNoWriMo.

My Spinning

Still spinning the orange:

Here's what I have left:

Still loving it! I should be ready to ply it Thursday or Friday. This is going to come out pretty truly a sock weight. I haven't put any nylon or silk in it, but I think I'll knit a pair of socks with it ... they may wear out, but gee, I'll just have to spin some more yarn and knit them again!

Spinning

Half the orange is done!

Now I have to do the other 4 ounces, and ply them together :)

I hope that Hurricane Sandy is not giving you a lot of damage! Stay safe!

My Spinning

When I was at Sharon's, I wanted her to critique my spinning and help me in any way she could. She thought spinning from the fold would be good for me, but I just couldn't get the hang of it, so I was going to keep spinning my lumpy, bumpy yarn.

It was when she had me try some combed Corriedale top that everything clicked. What a difference! It was like the difference between mashed potatoes and luscious chocolate pudding with whipped cream topping (not that there's anything wrong with mashed potatoes, but honestly, which would you rather eat??). I am in spinning heaven now. 

Of course we started out with orange, because who doesn't need more orange yarn?

I could feel the difference as soon as I started.

I'm a happy spinner now!

My yarn is about the same as it was before I had my stroke, and it makes me happy:

I got four more colors of Corriedale combed top, 8 ounces each:

Some Blue Faced Leicester (8 ounces):

And last but not least, I got some of Sharon's beautiful alpaca, from when she had her farm. This is from an alpaca named Rudolph Valentino, known for his bedroom eyes; I spun a little Rudy once before, and feel lucky to be able to have the chance to spin more of his caramel-colored  fleece:

There's nothing quite like spinning fiber from an animal you have petted!

My Spinning

I've been getting ahead on my spinning. I got the second bobbin filled:

Then I plied and I plied and I plied, and made this yarn:

It's pretty fine yarn, but still lumpy bumpy, which may be the roving and it may be me. The roving is pretty hard to draft evenly, because it's so sticky and because I don't think it was combed; there's little noils of wool in it, and I have to be more patient and draft it more evenly and spin more slowly. It is not merino or alpaca, it is regular old wool.

This yarn is better than the purple yarn, which anded up worsted to light worsted in weight. This yarn is a fingering to DK in weight, but I haven't set the twist yet, and it swells or puffs up some when  I do that, so it'll probably be a heavy fingering to light worsted weight when it is done.

I still have a ball of roving left to spin. I like the yarn quite a bit, though I have no idea what I'll do with it when I'm done. What would you do with it?

Lynne and I are going up to Nova Scotia today, where I'll see Sharon and Richard, my good friends who used to own alpacas before they moved to Canada. Sharon is still into spinning big time, and I'm sure I will find something to spin while I'm there! I'm taking my spinning wheel just in case :)

Slow Spinning

I spun yesterday, so I only spun two out of seven days this week. Still, that's better than zero out of seven. I'm about two-thirds done my second bobbin:

The good news is, I've found the card that says where Tracy bought the roving! It's from Jehovah Jireh Farm, in Paw-Paw, Michigan. (I always wanted to make a connection with Paw-Paw, because I love the name.) The farm is owned by Amy and Greg Francisco. This black and dark brown (it's probably supposed to be black) roving is pretty, but I like a few other colors they have, too. This color would be fun to spin in the winter:

It's called "Smile". Great name!