Tag Archives: Spinning

Knit, Spin, Dye, Weave

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In Progress

I’ve had a fairly busy week so I’m going to limit this post to the crafty stuff.

I finished knitting my Lilac Leaf Shawl and now I’m just waiting until I can remember to block it, I keep forgetting about it. The shawl came up short, it’s only about 48 inches long and I don’t know how long it will block out to be, but it’s fine. I guess I’ll block it next week.

Once the shawl was done I needed something else to knit on so I started a Rib Warmer in my handspun yarn, I think I actually posted this last week. Anyway, I finished one half and started the second and now I’m afraid I won’t have enough yarn to finish. This seems to be a theme with my knitting lately. Today I weighed the first half and then weighed the part that I’ve knit and the yarn I have leftover (there’s another huge skein that I didn’t take a picture of) and they’re close, hopefully I’ll be ok.

And I keep finding other things I want to make, a few sweaters and shawls that I want to cast on right now but I’m making myself wait a while, I have another KnitPicks project on the way and it’s a lot of knitting and only about two weeks to knit it, so I’ll have to knit like crazy when I get the yarn. Then I’m going to treat myself and buy some yarn for some things I’ve had in mind.

Handspun singles

I’ve been spinning this week, too. I’ve tried to spend around an hour a day at the wheel and I’m now up to six bobbins of singles and I have about eight ounces of wool left to spin then I get to ply. This yarn is so soft and fluffy and I can’t wait until I can knit something with it.

Dyed Yarn

On either Monday or Tuesday, don’t remember which, I did some dyeing. The little ball of yarn on the right was dyed a few months ago and I was trying to match that with the skein on the left. I used the same yarn (it’s Lion Brand Fisherman’s Wool) and the same dye stock (it had been sitting in a jar in a cool, dark cabinet) but the yarn came out pretty different. The stuff I dyed this week has more red and less of the orangey-yellow than the first yarn. They’re close enough for me, though, I’m not picky.

Weaving

Looks pretty decent, right? I warped the loom with the older yarn and put a small border of the new yarn on each side (this was to make it wider, since the scarf was very narrow, I ran out of yarn fast). I’m using the newer yarn as weft (the strands going back and forth) and I think they look pretty good together, the difference in the color is much less pronounced when woven. I plan on weaving when I need a break from my KnitPicks project over the next few weeks, so I should have something to blog about while I’m working.

That was my week. Hope you all have a great weekend!

Back to Normal

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Yarn

My KnitPicks projects are done and sent back and now I’m back to my normal spinning and knitting. I had a bag of this beautiful, fluffy Shetland that is a mix of white, gray and a light brown all carded together and rolled into giant balls of wool, I thought there was a pound, but I weighed them yesterday and there is two pounds. Don’t you love it when that happens? I started spinning up the wool and finished two bobbins, it’s about fingering weight and I spun it  where the singles have a lot of air and they are thick and thin with little slubs. I’ll spin it all and then start plying, I think I’ll do a two ply and then I’ll lightly full it to make it a little stronger when I’m done. Hopefully I’ll have enough for a little sweater, even if it’s short sleeved. So far I’ve spun about 8oz and that means I just have 24oz left.

In Progress

In the evenings I’ve been knitting. At the top there is my Proverbial Cap, which is by Meg Swanson and is in the Fall ‘10 Interweave Knits. I’m using Wool of the Andes and I’m about to start the decreases but I’m afraid I won’t have enough yarn to finish. I know I have some more of this yarn but I can’t find it. If I need to I’ll order some more since I plan on ordering some lace yarn soon anyway. It will all work out.

The shawl is the Lilac Leaf Shawl from Knitted Lace of Estonia and the yarn is my handspun. This shawl is made the same way Madli’s Shawl was, you knit one edge, then the center, then the other edge separately and then you graft the edge onto the center. Like I did with Madli, I knit both edges first and then I’ll knit the center either until it’s as long as I want or I run out of yarn. This yarn isn’t looking like it’s going to last too long so I’m not sure how bit it’s going to be. This is my sixth shawl of the year and my third from this book. I think it’s safe to say I got my money’s worth with Knitted Lace of Estonia, especially since there’s a few more shawls I plan on making from it.

I might do some weaving next week if I can decide on something to make. I think I’d like to weave some yardage for a messenger bag but I just haven’t decided on that yet.

Have a great weekend!

Madli’s Shawl

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Madli's Shawl

It took almost three months but I am finally finished with Madli’s Shawl. The shawl is beautiful, the yarn is gorgeous and the pattern is easy to follow and once I memorized the repeat, I was able to knit it at the computer or while I watched TV without making too many mistakes. I did about seventy billion nupps and while they were a pain the butt to knit, they look great and add a touch of texture to all the lace. I love Zephyr. Love, love, love. I would knit all of my shawls with wool and silk if I could afford it. My one complaint about the yarn is that it bled terribly when I washed it yesterday. I let it soak for about two hours, changing out the water every ten or fifteen minutes and even tried adding a bit of vinegar, but it just kept bleeding. I know it’s to be expected with a color this deep and rich but I think this was the worst I’ve ever seen. The color is really lovely, though, and the picture at the top is pretty accurate, more so than the one below.

Madli's Shawl

The edging is my favorite part of the shawl. This is the fifth shawl I’ve knit so far this year and the goal is ten. I’m going to have to work a little faster if I want to make it by the end of the year.

Details:

  • Pattern: Madli’s Shawl from Knitted Lace of Estonia by Nancy Bush
  • Yarn: Jaggerspun Zephyr, not sure of the exact yardage, probably around 1,000yds
  • Needles: US4/3.5mm KnitPicks Options
  • Modifications: none
  • You can see more on my Ravelry page, and that’s a public link.

Now I’ve got a bad case of startitis and I have no idea what to do. I just keep starting new things and I’m not really thrilled with any of it. I started a Tricorner scarf (from Knitting New Scarves) with the KnitPicks Merino style left over from my Wave and Dimple Kimono. It just isn’t holding my attention, though. A few months ago I bought the punchneedle moon pattern from PlanetJune and so I’ve started it but I can’t work on it while I do something else, it takes two hands and all my attention, or at night since the lighting in my house sucks. And then last night when I couldn’t sleep I started another embroidery project that I’ll talk more about later. I also wound the yarn for my next shawl, I think I’ll knit the Lilac Leaf Shawl that’s also from Knitted Lace of Estonia and I’ll be using some purple handspun, it’s on the top in this picture. Plus I have another KnitPicks project on the way and it’s time for the Tour de Fleece again.

Whew! I think I’ll be pretty busy next month, plus I want to start washing some of my fleeces (it feels so weird to type that, fleeces). I have six pounds of Shetland and three or four pounds of llama that needs washed. I have so much wool that I opened my closet yesterday and a stack of bags of wool fell on my head. It’s overwhelming. I need a drum carder, I just can’t imagine hand carding all of this, it’s like ten pounds of stuff to card. Do you know how much wool that is? It’s so much wool that I can’t even fit my clothes into my closet anymore. Not that I’m complaining, I love having it, I love spinning it and I even like to wash it. I’m very lucky that I’m able to do this and able to buy that much wool (it was pretty cheap, too). It’s just really overwhelming. I think I’ll go take a shower now and not think about it.

Spinning Knitting and Dogs

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Mohair/Bamboo Boucle

This isn’t the best picture but I think you can tell this is yarn. Last week I decided I wanted to try to spin a loopy boucle yarn. Boucle yarns have three parts, first is the core, I used some carbonized bamboo that I spun with a  low S twist and I spun it slightly thick, about 25-30 wpi. The second part is the mohair which I spun very thin, between 40 and 60 wpi, with a high Z twist. Then I plyed these two yarns in the S direction, holding the bamboo yarn straight from the orifice and the mohair at about a 90 degree angle. I let the mohair coil and loop loosely around the bamboo and occasionally pulled up a little loop to make a circle around the bamboo, it’s hard to describe and there’s a great article about it in the new Spin-Off, and it took a long time. Lastly I plyed the yarn again counterclockwise (Z direction) with some thick black sewing thread, the thread I used doesn’t have a label on it but it’s thicker than regular thread, I think it’s used for hand quilting or seaming clothing. Anyway, after all this I have about 90yds of loopy boucle yarn and it looks so much better in person than it does here.

Lace Saddle

I’ve been  moving right along on the Lace Saddle Tee. The front knit up much faster than the back did and I immediately started the saddle and sleeves. I took this picture yesterday and I’ve finished the first sleeve already. The directions have you pick up stitches from the front right shoulder, cast on at the neck edge for the saddle, and then pick up stitches on the back shoulder then you knit the saddle, attaching it as you go. Once the saddle is knit you pick up stitches on the arm holes and knit the sleeve cap using short rows. I think this is the first time I’ve done a sleeve like this and I really like it. It looks nice plus it’s just interesting to do, I had to pay attention every step of the way and that kept me from getting bored. Now I just need to do the second sleeve and I’ll be ready to knit the neck and then I’ll be done. I just hope I like it when it’s done, I think I figured out that the real problem I had with Josephine was the color, it doesn’t look too great on me. I don’t care, if I like the way it fits, I’ll wear it.

No picture, but I did finish knitting Madli today and I went right ahead and grafted the second edging on so it just needs blocked. I liked knitting it and I love how it looks but I must admit that I’m glad to be done. It was just too repetitive to keep my attention for more than a few minutes at a time and it just felt like the knitting was dragging on forever. I’ll try to block it early next week, if it isn’t raining.

Sally

I haven’t posted a Sally picture in a while, so here she is. We had to tighten up her collar just a touch the other day, she’s really lost some weight. She has a lot more energy, too. And I feel kinda silly writing that while she’s buried under the pillows sleeping on my bed.

Have a great weekend!

Knitting and Spinning

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CotLin

I’m so tired this week, ugh, I blame the heat. I’ve been trying to find something nice and cool to knit, something that doesn’t require massive amounts of wool in my lap.  A couple years ago I knit the Josephine top, from the Summer ‘07 Interweave Knits, and I never really liked it.  I like the top just not on me.  It was too long, a little too snug around the belly, and I hated the lack of sleeves.  So I got bored Monday and frogged it. There’s just no reason to have a perfectly good pile of yarn sitting around as something I’ll never wear.  What I’d really like to have is a plain old cotton and linen t-shirt that I can throw on with jeans or shorts or a skirt and not have it bother me the whole time I’m wearing it (like Josephine would).  After digging through Ravelry for hours I decided on the Lace Saddle Tee from the Summer 2010 IK.

I’m making a few little modifications to mine. I want this to be just like a regular shirt, fitted but not tight, so I’m making mine with right at zero ease in the chest and I’m leaving out the waist shaping. The neckline and sleeves will be like the pattern, no changes there.

Carbonized Bamboo

Today I was looking for something fun to do so I decided to play with making a boucle yarn, after reading about it in the new Spin-Off, I had to try it. All I got spun this afternoon was the core yarn, this is one ounce of carbonized bamboo spun with a low twist and it’s about lace weight. Tomorrow, if I have time, I’ll spin the yarn that will be looped around this, I’m going to be using some steel gray mohair. We’ll see how it works.