Monthly Archives: July 2009

Singles

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Singles

My singles that I started during the Tour de Fleece are all done and wound off the bobbins into some messy looking yarn cakes, waiting for me to ply.  The cakes look awful here, there’s thick and thin spots, slubs and nubs.  This roving was not easy to spin.  It was my hand carded mix of Romney, Merino, Angora and Cashmere, the Cashmere didn’t card very good and tended to stay in clumps and that is where the slubs and bumps came from.  Some of the Romney wouldn’t draft easily so there are some uneven spots, but if you look at the yarn in person, it looks a lot better than in the pictures.  I only have two bobbins so my plan was to fill them both with singles and use my ball winder to wind off the singles for storage and then ply from the center pull balls.  I numbered each cake of singles as I wound them so I can ply my first and sixth cake, the second and fifth, and so on which will help me get a more even yarn since my later spun singles are thinner than the first singles.  I had planned on starting to ply today but haven’t been sleeping good (again) and I’m just too tired to do anything that requires more than half-assed concentration.

I meant, again, to take a picture of my blanket progress but I’m a little peeved with it today, I ran out of yarn.  I’m making the Knitted Garter Stitch Blanket by Elizabeth Zimmermann, from The Opinionated Knitter, and I’m using some Lion Brand Homespun from an old sweater I frogged.  I’m almost done with the whole blanket, I’m maybe one skein of yarn short, so I’m planning a run to the craft store this weekend to try to find a matching skein.  I hate this yarn but it does make a nice cozy blanket and it’s cheap.

I’m already planning my next project.  I’ve frogged the Peace Fleece vest that I started a few months ago (it looks good, but the fit is crap) and I’m thinking about the Shawl Collar Vest from Handknitting with Meg Swansen.  The vest really isn’t my style but I think my mom will like it and I think I would enjoy knitting it.  The vest is knit in the round and the front and arm holes are steeked, which I’ve never done before and really want to try, plus it looks like a fast project that will be easy to work on while I wait for KnitPicks to send me my next pattern.

That’s it for me for the week.  I have a dentist appointment Monday, I have an awful toothache and I don’t know what all is going to need done so I may not be able to blog much next week.  I hate going to the dentist more than anything and I’m really dreading this.

Some FOs

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I have a bunch of FOs that I’ve been meaning to post, so I thought I’d just do them all right now and get them out of the way.  Here goes.

Guinevere

  • Pattern:  Guinevere from Wrap Style
  • Yarn:  KnitPicks Shimmer in Galaxy
  • Needles:  US 6 / 4.0 mm, US 9 / 5.5 mm, US 10 / 6.0 mm
  • I knit this as a sample for the latest KnitPicks catalog.  The pattern was very easy to follow and the yarn is just beautiful.  It’s an alpaca/silk blend that is super soft and shiny.  I made this back in March.

Handwoven Bag

  • Pattern:  Can’t remember the exact name of the pattern but it’s from Weaving Made Easy
  • Yarn:  Sugar and Cream 2 balls each of ecru and dark brown
  • Woven at 7.5dpi then cut up and sewn by hand.
  • I love how this bag came out but it really needs lined, I’ll get around to it eventually.

Cold Mountain

  • Pattern:  Cold Mountian by Kieran Foley from the Summer ‘09 Knitty.
  • Yarn:  Lorna’s Laces Helen’s Lace, less than 1 skein
  • Needles:  US3/3.25mm
  • Finished size:  about 25”x76”, I blocked mine out a little longer.
  • I love this yarn, it’s soft, shiny, and blocks beautifully.  The stitch definition in the lace is so crisp.  The pattern itself is great, it’s all charted out so it’s easy to follow and easy to memorize and I love the way one section flows into the next.  There’s more pictures on my Ravelry page.

Beret

  • Pattern:  Spring Beret by Natalie Larson
  • Yarn:  Simply Cotton Worsted in Malted Milk from KnitPicks, a few yards less than one skein
  • Needles:  US 8/5mm
  • This is a cute hat, it looks better on but I couldn’t get a decent picture of it on my head.  The pattern works up quick and I memorized it after the first round so I barely had to use the actual pattern.  This yarn is much softer than most of the cottons that I’ve used and it has a nice drape and didn’t hurt my hands as I knit.  I would love a little cardigan made out of this to wear in the summer, it comes in sport weight, too.

That’s it.  I have an almost finished blanket on the needles but I forgot to photograph it so more on that later and I finished spinning my singles today but I’ll save that for tomorrow.

Tour de Fleece Wrap Up

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Tour de Fleece Yarn

The Tour de Fleece is over for another year and although I did manage to spin almost every day (I think I missed one day), I didn’t make my goal.  I was really hoping to have all my sweater yarn finished by Saturday but I still have about two more bobbins worth of fiber left to spin (and I’ve already spun almost a full bobbin more than what’s in the picture).  I don’t really care that I didn’t finish, I got some nice yarn before I started the sweater yarn and I’m happy with the spinning I did.

Here’s what I have, the bottom row is all sweater yarn, the wool/angora/cashmere blend that I also washed and carded.  The top row, from left to right, is:  a skein of three ply sport or light worsted weight superwash.  A skein of nice shiny bamboo.  Two skeins of two ply worsted Rambouillet/Llama, a 50/50 blend.  The last little skein is some hackle waste that I found in a box, it’s got some wool, superwash wool, llama, alpaca, mohair, nylon, soy silk, and some iridescent shiny stuff that I carded together and spun very into a loose thick and thin, around worsted weight.

This week I plan on finishing up my singles and I have a back log of finished projects that I haven’t even blogged about.  Cold Mountain is done but needs blocked.  I knit a hat.  I still haven’t photographed my woven bag.  I’ve knit almost an entire blanket that I haven’t even mentioned.  I will write more about this stuff this week.  Now I’m off to knit on that blanket.

Finally Spinning

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Roving

Yesterday I watched some Harry Potter (Goblet of Fire and Order of the Phoenix) and dizzed all my big batts of the wool/angora/cashmere into balls of roving.  The roving is no where near perfect, there are big clumps and nepps and little felted bits but it is buttery soft.

Today's Spinning

And today I finally got to spin.  I only did one bobbin full, I would have liked to spin more but I had other things to do (I just imagine how much spinning I could get done if I didn’t have dishes or cleaning) so I had to quit.  The singles are coming out fine, a little bumpy and uneven and there is still some VM stuck in there but as a whole I’m pretty happy.  I’m shooting for a worsted weight two ply so I took some Peace Fleece worsted, which is a worsted weight two ply, and split the plys apart and I’m using that as a guide for how to spin my singles.  I’m doing just okay, I keep wanting to spin thinner so I just have to watch what I’m doing and keep correcting myself. 

Last week I spaced out an completely forgot about my blogiversary.  Friday the 17th marked my seventh year blogging and I know everyone says it, but I really can’t believe it’s been so long.  When I started there were less than a hundred knitting blogs and I had never heard of knitting socks.  I could do the whole Knitting Bloggers Webring in less than a day, in fact, I read every blog on the ring once a week.  It’s just amazing how much the online knitting and spinning world has grown and I’m so happy to be a tiny part of it.

I hate being uninsured.  I really, really hate it.  I need to go to the dentist again, it seems that I have a couple cavities.  I’ve put it off as long as I can but my mouth is really starting to hurt so I can’t put it off any more.  Luckily I have some money saved up and I can borrow any extra that I need from my parents.  I hate to get political, but I’m a prime example of why we need better health care access in the US.  I have chronic kidney problems, that I was born with, and go untreated because I don’t  have a few thousand dollars to shell out every few months to see a specialist and have the tests and check ups that I need or take the medication I’m supposed to have.  The only way I’ll be able to get any treatment is if something seriously goes wrong and I have to go to the ER, there’s been a few times when I thought that time had come but I waited it out.  A couple years ago I got an ear infection that was so bad the left side of my head swelled up and I could not hear out of my left ear for three days but I was broke so I didn’t go to the doctor.  I was seriously afraid I would lose my hearing forever.  I work now but I don’t make a lot of money, even with a mandate to buy insurance it would probably be cheaper for me to pay a penalty, if I could even get coverage since I have a pre-existing condition.  I hate hearing all this talk about Obama giving us socialized medicine, because his plan is nothing close.  I want socialized medicine, or at least something like what Canada or England or even China has.  I want to be able to go to the doctor when I’m sick and not worry about being able to afford it.  I don’t want to have to choose between getting my teeth fixed and going on a short vacation and dental care isn’t even being discussed when it should be.  This is an issue that is so frustrating. 

Finally Done

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Prepping Some Fiber to Spin

Not twenty minutes ago, I finally finished carding the fiber that I’ll be spinning for the rest of the Tour de Fleece.  This has taken about a week, working an hour or two a day, blending small amounts on fiber on my hand cards, then re-carding the carded fibers to blend them some more.  I used this Knitty article as a jumping off point, I followed the directions for blending colors the only difference is that all my fibers are white.  I have four or five big batts of fiber and tomorrow I’ll diz them all out into roving and then I can start spinning. 

The spinning is what I’m most excited (and a little nervous) about.  I’m going for a two ply worsted weight yarn, something that will look good with garter stitch and lace and will make a pretty February Lady Sweater.  I haven’t decided yet if I’ll dye the yarn (and I will wait until after I’ve finished spinning, if I do decide to dye) or leave it white but right now I’m leaning towards leaving it white. 

Here’s what’s in the picture above, on the top row, left to right:  a little bit of Romney fleece, a little ball of Merino, a carded batt.  On the bottom row, left to right:  a bag of Cashmere and a bag of Angora.  My hand cards are pretty big and that batt is squished up a little, I have four more of them that are about the same size.  It seems like a lot fiber but I’m still worried it won’t be enough, all I can do is spin it and hope it all works out.

I have dishes to do and coffee to brew, so I’m off.  It’s storming here and I’m on my laptop on the couch with no internet or cable and the lights keep flashing.  I’ll upload this as soon as I have internet access again, seems like it goes out every time it rains any more.