Tour de Fleece

Ravelry strikes again with its wonderful wonderfulness, including a group called “Tour de Fleece,” a bunch of spinners wanting to focus on accomplishing a lot of spinning during the Tour de France.  If you think about it, it’s not too big a stretch.  After all, I have to pedal constantly to keep my wheels turning…it’s really the same thing.  I need a yellow shirt, don’t you think?

It’s a good opportunity to get through some fiber that’s been accumulating since I learned how to spin:

Some of it is to be spun to sell, and some of it is to be spun for me!  I decided to alternate.  The first skein of finished yarn is now dry and ready to go on the Etsy site later today:

It’s spun from Twisted Fiber Arts’ Festive roving, colorway Anges.  I’m calling it Grape Salad.  It’s 315+ yards of 2 ply yarn (4 oz.), ranging from fingering to worsted weight, 2-plied, in wool and silk.  Katie thinks it is really cool.  She even helped wind the yarn onto the niddy noddy.

The next project on the wheel is 8 oz. of incredibly soft merino wool in a rich cranberry color.

It is very difficult to photograph accurately, because the very few light fibers want to catch all the photographic glory and make the wool look shinier and lighter in color than it actually is.  You can see some of it in the second stash picture up above to get a slightly better idea of the true color, but the closeup shows the very nice color variations in the wool.

Here’s where we are at the moment:

I’m planning on 2-plying this to maximize yardage, in hopes of having enough to make a shawl.  I’m guessing I’ve got it so it will be fingering weight when it’s done, but I can never be sure until the thwacking and the drying are done.

In other news, Hat Attack 2 signups start next week. 

Electric Blue

I got this yarn (Artful Yarn’s Shakespeare) in the mail yesterday from a yarn swap and thought it’d be perfect for Stephanie Pearl-McPhee’s Unoriginal Hat.  I like how it turned out.  i think this is the 5th or 6th time I’ve made this hat and I’m still loving it.  Chunky cables are happy.

I also wanted to let you all know that I updated my Etsy store with the Creed pattern (although it’s cheaper if you buy it through the “Patterns for Sale” page here on the blog) and 4 skeins of handspun yarn.  You know, just in case. Here’s a preview:

This morning I’m using the remaining yarn from the electric blue hat to knit a scarf for my oldest child’s Tigger.  I still can’t believe I’m knitting for stuffed animal friends, but that’s what having children will do to your brain.

Pattern Ready: Creed

This hat was made and design written in honor of our friends the Andersons and their new baby boy, Creed.  I knit it with a cotton DK weight yarn for a newborn-toddler, but it would translate well to bigger sizes with different gauge yarn. Creed’s had to be blue, but I’d love it in girly colors, too.

The pattern is now listed on my “Patterns for Sale” page.  Yippee!

I can’t pronounce it, but it’s done…

This is the Clapotis pattern (free!) knit in the Netherfield colorway of Twisted Fiber Arts’ Shiny.  Perfect yarn for a slinky scarf!  I think the name is French, but that doesn’t help me much.  I didn’t get much past “Je m’appel Kiersten” in French.

It’s a clever pattern, knit on the diagonal, with intentional dropped stitches.  The first few really freaked me out, but then it became sort of addicting.

I modified the pattern by doing less than half of the repeats to get the scarf-like width I wanted.  The original pattern makes a much wider shawl, and I’m tempted…sorely tempted.

This scarf is another testimonial to the magic of blocking…it was a rolled-upon-itself mess of silky yarn yesterday afternoon.  With the help of a little H2O and the back of my couch, it now shows off its lovliness…over 6 feet of lovliness.

Killing Time

I’m going to try an experiment.

I’m keeping one sock project in my purse at all times.  I am going to work on them only during “waiting” times.  I wonder how long it will take me to get them done?

This is my progress after yesterday, worked while waiting for the free summer movie theater to open, waiting before and during piano lessons, and while waiting for the kids to finish their free bowling game.

I’m expecting more progress this weekend as Sean and all the children are in a wedding.  I’m the Ellie-wrangler, so I’ll be at rehearsal, but with no other official duties. 

Posey

I thought I’d share some pictures of this very interesting sock in progress.  The pattern is called Posey, it’s free, and can be found here.  The sock is made by knitting little mitered squares in rows for the leg and the top of the foot.

When all the squares are done for one sock, it looks something like this.  I had to modify one section to fit my short feet.  Doesn’t look very socklike, does it?  But with a simple seam…

…you can now see the shape of sockiness.  I’m working on the heel flap now.  This is a great “new things” pattern, because not only am I diving into the addictive world of mitered squares, but I’ll be learning a new way to do the sole of a foot with an existing top, and I’ll also learn how to do a picot hem for the top of the leg.  Good times.

The yarn is Twisted Fiber Arts Kabam! in the Talon colorway.

Knitting in Public

There’s an interesting thread on Ravelry all about crazy things non-knitters (muggles) say about knitters who are doing their thing in a public place.  Some of them are hilarious, including the “ya know, you can get 6 pairs of socks for $7 at Walmart” and “you’re going to hurt someone with those sharp pointy sticks!” and my personal favorite, “would you please stop doing that…you’re bothering my child.”

I haven’t really had many comments.  I’ve had some interesting looks, but not really any comments until about a month ago.  We were camped out in a primo spot for an outdoor concert, and I was knitting 2 socks on one circular needle. There was a group of people nearby, including an older couple…I would guess in their late 60s, early 70s.  The gentleman stared at me for at least half an hour before finally asking “what are you doing?”  I told him I was knitting socks.  “Hunh,” was his reply. His wife, however, jumped in and gave me an interesting glimpse into her knitting life. She didn’t care much for knitting, and told me she had to be really inspired by the beauty of the pattern to be willing to knit.  I tried to keep up the conversation (chatting with strangers is not my forte) and mentioned that I enjoyed the process and the productivity…I like knitting most anything.  This made my conversation partner think less of me.  I got a positive scowl as I was informed there was no point in knitting potholders or dishcloths or anything else that wasn’t breathtakingly beautiful (defined by her as having lots of cables).

I hope my socks recover quickly without much emotional scarring.  They clearly did not fall under the category of “breathtakingly beautiful.”

Why no update?

1. I’ve been doing some sample knitting for a friend on some lovely yarn that has not yet been released, so I couldn’t take pictures.

2.  I’ve been doing some pattern-writing that is not yet ready for public consumption…I hope it will be soon!

3. I’m still on the first of those Fair isle mittens. They’re like the darkest of chocolate…verrrry satisfying, but you don’t want too much at once.

4. I’m close to done on another project that is really nifty and I want to save pictures until the end.

and finally,

5. The natives are taking over my knitting:

I came downstairs one morning to this.  Seriously.

Side Effect of Migraine Medication:

A ridiculous sense of ambition in regards to knitting projects.

I started this:

I’m glad I did…this is a beautiful pattern called Baltic Mittens from the book Folk Mittens.  I haven’t touched Fair Isle since the skirt/sweater set, so it is nice to be back in the game.  I’m using size 0 dpns and the yarn is Palette from Knit Picks.

And just because it’s cool to see the “wrong” side sometimes:

Nice side effect of Fair Isle knitting for mittens is that you get double the thickness!

Forest

190+ yards (rounded down)
worsted/DK weight
3 ply
50% Extrafine Merino
50% Tencel (lovely shine, strength & drape!)
4 ounces

This is a biggie for me…my first handspun Etsy listing!

It is so soft that if it doesn’t sell I may sleep with it.