Category Archives: Knitting

Using handspun…

Project 365 6/13/12 handspun

I’m a new spinner.  As such, the idea of using my hand spun for actual knitting or weaving is a bit daunting.  I want things to look good and not scream “homemade”.  Lumpy, bumpy hand spun… uummmmm.  However, like any stash, spun yarn seems to reproduce itself in the closet and needs using up to maintain any organizational order.

I started with Romi’s Taygete Shawl back on 5/15/12

5/15/12 Project 365 Taygete #3

My hand spun is a wee bit under spun… as in not enough twist in the ply.  This means my Taygete shawl could end up being a little fragile in the long run.  But, it means that I also know more what under spun yarn looks like… just by knitting with it with it.  And, if it starts falling apart I know that my washing machine felts things VERY well.  It can then become fabric that I cut and turn into something else entirely.

Project 365 6/13/12 Taygete #3

The hand spun has some subtle striping both in the body and in the lace.  It draws you in to find all of the delicate color combinations.  What amazed me a bit was realizing that your eye tricks you into smoothing out the yarn visually.  If you were to knit with this yarn, you would see and feel that there is quite a bit of variation from one inch to the next… but you don’t see it when you look at the shawl as a whole.  It’s kind of like pointillism in that regard.  Very cool.

In the beginning I was nervous using the home spun.  There were a lot of hours put into just the spinning and I had no clue if the yardage was sufficient.  But, how beautiful is it stuck in a box somewhere?  And really, why not play with your fiber?  I was very surprised and pleased with the results.  The yarn worked structurally and visually.

If you spin, what did you make with your some of your first hand spun?  Was there anything about the process that surprised you?

An enjoyable interlude with marled yarn…

Miss E playing secretly with my phone camera. Chuckle…

I had an hour block of time today.  For the last two weeks, time has been a bit of a rarity, so I was tickled to bits.

I planned to finish off some fiber I had spun in Judith’s MacKenzie’s amazing colored sock yarn class at CNCH 2012.  I started with 2 small single plies of multicolored fiber that Judith taught us how to prepare in several different ways.

Using a combination of the Andean plying technique + my spinning wheel, I twisted each ply onto itself to create 2 short double ply yarns.  (The hot pink was an outlier on the end of one bobbin, so I snipped it off.  I’m citing artistic license on that one.)

I then took these two double ply yarns and twisted them together yet again to create a 4 ply yarn.

The idea is that you can use some pretty wild colors.  But, blended so thoroughly like this, you can end up with a yarn that’s tame enough for a man’s sock.  (I still think hubby is thanking me for ripping out the hot pink.)

What surprised me is that with all this plying and spinning, I halfway expected a yarn that was pretty stiff.  Not so (assuming I’ve done it correctly).  I’ve found it to be a nice cushy yarn that I would be thrilled to have gracing my delicate size 11′s.  What a lovely way to spend a blustery afternoon.  Happy sigh.

Emergency knitting for puppy…

My new to me little darling Cricket spent most of the day yesterday at the vet’s office.  It would seem that her, ah, new to the doggy scene owner mistakenly gave her unrestricted access to a rawhide chew.  The result was a gluey rawhide mass in her tummy and a $500+ vet bill.

To deal with my anxiety (and guilt) while waiting for the vet’s call I opted for a “drop everything emergency knit”.  My poor little darling needed a sweater and I hadn’t knit one yet.  This was the time!  I selected a straightforward little number by Brian Herzog for speed and efficiency.

She practically jumped into the sweater, so it’s terribly funny to me that she’s looking so underwhelmed in these photos.  Maybe it’s because her bit of knitted love is not in purple.  Guess that means I’ll have to knit another!

One approach to deciding on a knit project…

5/15/12 Project 365 Strawberries

Somewhere in my very first pound of spinning fiber I spun a lovely little 4 oz. of lime green, sock weight yarn.  It was my first 3 ply yarn and I spun it with a “z” twist to see if I would notice a difference while knitting continental style.  But… it was lime green and only 4 oz. of fiber.  I knew I would either have to knit something small or pair the yarn up with something else.  Lime green meant it lingered.

5/15/12 Project 365 2ply lace wt yarn

Just in the last week, I finished up this lovely turquoise yarn.  It is in an “s” twist and spun as a two ply.  I was thinking as a two ply, it would make a nice lace yarn.  The color is beautiful and the photos do not do it justice.  I was pondering the Haruni shawl, but I was concerned I would not quite have enough yardage.  I decided to risk it and went in search of the pattern in my stash as well as some yarn that could pair up with it if the worst happened.

5/15/12 Project 365 2ply lace yarn closeup

While I was looking for the Haruni pattern in my binder, I ran across another pattern I had already knit up twice already.  What can I say, it’s a great pattern.  It was Romi’s Taygete shawl.  I knit it once in purples as a gift.  I followed that with one made of lovely tans + pale, sky blue.  The second was done up in a couple of sock yarns that had too much bounce to them.  I practically stood on the iron trying to flatten the thing out, to no avail.  (It is in a pile to be “frogged”.  Ribbit, ribbit, rip it).

Then I noticed the colors on the Taygete pattern picture were nearly the same as the two yarns I had sitting right next to it.  Huh!!  I very rarely choose the same colors as what is written in a pattern, but this seemed a little too odd.  It was like my subconscious taking the driver seat.  The decision was made… or it found me… I’m not entirely sure which.

5/15/12 Project 365 Daisy photo

My handspuns are not bouncy sock yarns, just worsted spun merino, so hopefully my curling issue will be a thing of the past.  I’m not sure how the “z” twist, “s” twist and ply variations will play out, but given the structure of the shawl (mostly garter), I think it will be balanced enough not to misbehave.  I may have to use a slightly larger needle for the lace section to compensate for the lighter weight yarn by itself in a larger area, but it should work.  And, I will get to showcase my handspun turquoise yarn in the lace.  Whoohoo!

5/15/12 Project 365 Taygete #3

The project begins.

Why knit?

5/7/2012 Project 365 Flower Pen Bouquet

Ask anyone who knits what got them started with knitting and you will find a story.

You’ll hear things like:

It looked easy and fun.

I wanted to make a scarf.

My grandmother/aunt/mother taught me as a kid and I wanted to try it again.

More often than not, they had to see the knitting being done to spark their interest.  Why they stayed with it (or not) is just as varied and personal as the knitters and usually has a lot to do with their own journey and personal payoffs to knitting.

My own knitting story began when I was a teenage exchange student living in Germany.  I sat in a classroom and watched other teen girls and boys knit their own sweaters!  I knew about knitting, but had never seen it done.  The idea of making your own sweater… with lace patterns… well, that just floored me.  The spark was there.

Fellow classmates started letting me mangle their works in progress.  My host mother took me to a yarn store for needles and yarn.  She even let me buy a fingering weight (thin) dark blue (hard to see) Angora (fuzzy and even harder to see) yarn against her recommendations because she recognized the mule headedness of a brand new teen knitter.  My mom was going to have the most beautiful scarf.  It was to be my masterpiece.

My fellow classmates returned to my side to help with casting on… repeatedly.  My host mother was there for me when I dropped stitches and perversely also increased stitches.  Even Mozart’s music came to the rescue by grounding me during the knitting (and keeping me from throwing the needles across the room).  My support was in place.

The scarf was exquisitely soft, boring and hourglass shaped a couple of times over.  My mom, being the ever so kind person she is, dutifully admired it, wore it once or twice and kept it forever.

After Germany, my knitting quickly faltered after 2 or 3 failed projects and the lack of foresight to just step into a knitting store to find support and camaraderie.  No one I knew knit, or if they did, knew nothing about Continental style knitting.

I didn’t knit again for another 20 years.

5/7/2012 Project 365 Outdoor Bouquet

Two things happened that got me back into knitting.  My son was diagnosed with Autism, so I had tons of extra time sitting in waiting rooms doing nothing but re-reading the same trashy magazines.  We also moved into a town that had a knitting store right on a main street.  I saw it several times a week and it tempted me again and again until I finally had the courage to go in and sign up for a knitting class.

Even though my son has very thankfully outgrown nearly all of his therapies, I still knit.  I knit now because:

It’s fun.

There’s a fast learning curve.

It soothes me.

I love touching the fibers.

The colors are fun and sometimes surprising.

I like being productive and making things.

As to my mom’s scarf… Well, a few years ago I had my mom shop my stash for some sparkly novelty yarn, ripped out the old scarf and re-knit it with both yarns.  It was exciting, soft and even.  The flight attendants on several flights eyed it covetously as I journeyed home to see my mom.  Sometimes it’s good to be a knitter.

5/7/12 Project 365 My grownup knitter scarf in progress

(A sneak peek at a future scarf in progress… with lace.)

Ready for plying…

I’ve been trying to spin fiber every day for the past week or so.  I’m taking two spinning classes in a couple of weeks at the CNCH Conference in Oakland, CA that involve nicer fibers (cashmere, baby!) and want to be in good form.  So I’m practicing (and getting things off the spinning wheel and bobbins) in preparation for these classes.

For my non-spinning friends, you can see I’ve spun up a single strand (ply) on each of the two bobbins.  The bobbins are sitting on my lazy kate ready to be twisted (re-spun) together into a two-ply yarn.  Whohoo!  I’m hoping there is enough yarn created for a small lace scarf or shawlette.

5/3/12 Project 365 Ready to ply

Back and forth…

I’ve been joyfully going back and forth between two projects this weekend.

Sleeve shaping on my Quercus sweater…

4/22/12 Project 365 Quercus sleeve shaping

Per the pattern, I did some short row shaping where the shoulder area is (much like the heel of a sock).  Very intelligent construction idea!  I really do enjoy smart knitting.

And some spinning when I want to visit hubbie in the back office area…

4/22/12 Project 365 spinning

This is Blue Faced Leicester top in Teal by Lisa from Poppy Flower Fibers (rebranded to Wabi Sabi Yarns).  It’s worsted spun and hopes to be a 2 ply lace wt or light fingering when it grows up.

Hope you and yours had a lovely weekend, too!

Miscalculated risk = epic fail…

Remember that lovely alpaca blanket that was HUGE?  I figured I would sleep on whether to try to felt it up a bit…  Well, I decided to go ahead with the light felting to help improve the structural integrity.  (It really did need it.  I have fellow fiber witnesses even.)

Sadly, I didn’t give hubbie a heads up.  You see, it’s become his blankie in the sense that he’s always the first to grab it for tv time in the eves… much like I always run and leap into the bed so he has to turn the light out at night.

So here is what I was thinking:

The blanket was ever so huge… twin bed size.  It couldn’t get that small, surely.

I had a front loading machine that is not supposed to felt things nearly as well as a top loader.

There are small pipes going into the house, so getting warm or hot water is tricky.  If I put it on hot, I would be lucky to get really warm.

I put it in by itself, so nothing to rub against it and agitate it unduly.

So far so good, right?  Did I even think of going slower… run it through gentle?  run it on warm?  No.  I was even so certain in my mental calculations that I failed to at least check on it mid-felt.  I just popped it in there and went about my merry way weeding the front yard.  When it came time to pull it out for the next load I was shocked (aka said a few bad words).

I will admit, it is even more beautiful now.  Sadly, it is also this odd size… too small for a true blanket, too heavy for a lap blanket, and too big for a tote or a rug.  I’m just not sure what to do.  Momo the cat greeted it like a long-lost friend after its harrowing trip through the wash.  Maybe I have to face the music and deem it a project I made for the cats.

Hubbie, of course, is heart-broken.  I just destroyed his favorite blankie.  Me, I’m still numb and in shock.

Knit Night (fashion creativity on the computer)

Today I saw a tweet inviting folks to enter a contest and play with this collage/fashion site to create lovely backdrops for drool worthy knitting bags by Jordana Paige.  So I took that little left turn in life I’m so fond of and played around on my computer a bit with Polyvore.  (That is how I lost a couple of hours of my day today.  It was total fun, so there.)  The theme is traveling with your knitting.  I would like to think this is what I would dress up in to go to knit night if I were in another town… maybe followed by a meetup with hubbie afterwards…  fireplace… cocktails… maybe some more knitting… wink wink…

If you like it, help a girl out and “like” this outfit and bag on Jordana’s Pinterest page as well.  I’m hoping she’ll be posting it on her board tomorrow.

Knit Night

An accounting of projects…

3/11/12 Project 365 spinning 2 ply

I was reading online where someone suggested that 5 was the optimal number of projects to have.  (I’d share a link, but I was lost online and can’t find the link anymore.  Story of my life.)  The premise was more than five projects slowed down your progress to the point of frustration and less than five left you without something to do at critical times.  She suggested having different types of projects for different situations… fancy lace for alone thinking, small projects like socks and hats for travel, idiot knitting for social times or tv, etc.

I had been feeling lately that I was doing a lot, but wasn’t finishing much of anything; discontent was creeping in.  I wondered what my actual number was.  Was that driving my irksome feelings?  I also wondered how having multiple crafts might change your number, and not necessarily for the better.  Then there are those crafts you want to do next that weigh on your mind.  I think they count too, since they don’t just fade away.  They keep cropping up in your head over and over.  Should I be thinning my projects?  Do I fit the 5 project mold?  What will I see if I account for what is currently in the works and on my mind?  I took these questions and upended my various project niches in search of whatever I might find.

In the works:

Hand sewing kanzashi flowers for the painting.  I’m dragging my feet on this, but I recognize the need for them on the painting.

Quercus Sweater (worsted/fairly easy)

Spectrum scarf (fingering/fairly easy/fairly small)

Kernel scarf (lace weight/dead silence required)

Spinning 2 ply fingering wt yarn (tv watching easy)

Sewing a zippered bag (some concentration)

Sewing a skirt for me.

Knit kimono sweater (easy, but needs ripping and adjusting)

Re-knitting blown out sock toes.  (easy, just need to do) I’d just patch them, but the true problem is the socks just aren’t long enough.  Try as I might, my hoofers are just not that delicate and small.

On the brain:

Spin some fiber for a friend.

Hand sew kanzashi flowers from plastic bags for giggles and grins.

Take hubbie’s ad laden conference bags and put fancy fabric on them to dress them up and hide the ads.

Recreate the baby sweater for the pattern/sweater found in FIL’s attic.  Maybe from homespun…

Rip out wrap I don’t and won’t use… put yarn into something else.  A blanket?

Embroider a felted black project bag I have.

Weaving with plastic bags.  Coasters?  Table runner?

Weaving a wrap.

Sewing a skirt for my daughter.

Sew and cut fabric class on Craftsy.com.

Weaving straps on the inkle loom for my Mighty Wolf loom.

Another Tunisian crochet blanket (of course).

Another post card abstract drawing with markers.

There are probably a couple of projects on the brain I’ve forgotten in the moment, but overall, this list was not nearly as heinous as I expected.  While I obviously don’t fit the 5 project mold, I don’t really think I could trim down the list… as the brain loop would still kick in.  I would be willing to lay money on the fact that most of my crafty friends have a list closer in size to mine than just “5″.  The list is reasonable, and I’ve already acknowledged to myself what the next steps are for everything listed.  While I wouldn’t change anything, I do find it a little comforting just accounting for what is “so” for me in this moment.

As to the discontent that’s been creeping in… maybe I just need a new project.  (Hehehehe!)