Yarn with a twist

I’m getting a late start because I just found out about it, but I’m going to participate in the Tour de Fleece in spirit because I love the ideal of setting a challenge for myself. My Rose came with a pound (!!) of free Coopworth wool and while it’s not the prettiest or the softest stuff in the world, it’s great for practicing. Since the best thing a new spinner can do is practice, the challenge I’m setting myself is to spin it all by the end of the Tour de Fleece. Dude, a pound is a huge amount of fiber, especially for a new spinner still figuring it all out. I’ve gotten started, but I need to get cracking!

Oh yeah, and I’ve been doing that other thing too. What is it called? Knitting.

I’m working on the Butterfly Mobius from The Knitter’s Book of Yarn. The mobius is a fun shape to knit because it’s a literal twist on the usual knitted tube. You intentionally twist the cast on before you join which leads to this cool shape that’s great for a draped wrap about your shoulders.

I confess though that I haven’t been working much on my other in progress projects. I have an excuse though: I got engaged last Saturday! Whoohoo!

The bloom is not off the Rose

Check out my early birthday present! My parents went halfsies with me on this beautiful Majacraft Rose. (See the pretty rose carving on the front?) I love this wheel! It’s whisper quiet, treadles smooth as butter, and it’s so easy to adjust tensioning. I put it together all by myself too! Want to see what’s on the bobbin?

It’s some Ashland Bay merino in the color blend Rose Quartz that I got at HIll Country Weavers. The bobbins on this wheel are huge! I can’t imagine spinning enough to fill one. The wheel came with four though, in addition to two different flyers and a lazy kate. I really like that the flyer has a moveable guide instead of hooks, although I keep forgetting to move it as I spin. Truth be told I’m still struggling just to spin a consistent yarn, but I think I’m improving! Practice makes perfect, right?

Stonehenge

I’ve been in bed with an upper respiratory infection and a fever for the last several days, so I haven’t been getting much of anything done. I do, however, have the pictures from our trip to Paris and London now so I thought I’d share a few from when we were at Stonehenge.

The 2nd picture is myself and Austin and the 3rd is us with my parents. It was a really amazing experience. Normally when you visit Stonehenge during the day you have to stay on the path, off the grass, and far away from the actual stones. (And they have plenty of guards around to make sure you do so!) We got special tickets though to come at sunset after it’s closed and we’re allowed to actually go up and touch the stones. We had it all to ourselves too! I will never forget it.

Wheels are turning

The spinning class was great! It was so fun to get to try out the spindles, wheels, color blending with carders, and eventually making a continuous yarn that wasn’t too shabby.

You can see the unspun fiber behind my thumb and then it becoming yarn between my fingers and the wheel. The wheels at HCW are available to come and practice on, so I’m hoping to find time to do that because I’d love to continue spinning but I don’t want to jump into buying a wheel just yet. They’re pretty expensive you know!

Another thing that made Sunday a good day was Jacey and I going over to Big Top across the street from HCW. It’s a great old fashioned candy store and ice cream shop where you can find even the most obscure candy. I had a strawberry shake there and it was amazing! I highly recommend it to anyone in Austin. Also, the day before we had lunch at Texas French Bread, just a couple doors down, and it was delicious too.

Return

So I’m back! Austin and I went to Paris and London with my parents for a week. The trip was great and I’m hoping to post some of the pictures as soon as I get them. This was my third time to visit both cities, but for the first time I got to go to Stonehenge! It was the highlight of the trip for me. I can’t wait to see the pictures and share them.

Before I left I started working on Shifting Sands scarf, which is now finished, but I still need to block it so no pictures just yet. Also, the Frock Camisole is so close to being finished it’s ridiculous. I just need to knit the straps and I’m done. I don’t really have any excuse for it not being finished yet actually.

On the new project front, I’ve swatched for Rosa.

It’s a very simple top that’s actually made up of just two rectangles. The yarn is Rowan Wool Cotton and I’m quite fond of it so far. It’s so soft and I love how the swatch handled being machine washed.

This weekend Jacey is coming up (yay!) and we’re going to a two day spinning class at Hill Country Weavers. I’m super excited and if all goes well I’ll have some handspun to show off after it’s over!

Shoes for socks

When I found out that Journey’s is carrying clear Converse, I was interested. But when I saw pictures of other knitters wearing the shoes with their handknit socks, I was obsessed. As far as comfort, they feel the same as any other chucks but with a slightly stiffer tongue. I’m pretty psyched because in addition to my growing collection of knit socks, I have lots of other fun socks with cats, reptiles, pandas and other prints. Yay for crazy socks!

A quick note: I’m going to be out of town next week so expect updates to resume the following week.

Kool-Aid Man says “Oh yeah!”

Pattern: Charade (I really just applied the stitch pattern to my own custom sock.)

Yarn: Kool-Aid dyed Knitpicks Bare fingering weight

I love these socks! I really couldn’t be any more thrilled with how they turned out. I’m particularly impressed with how my Kool-Aid yarn knit up. (Even though the yarn was washed after dyeing, the socks still smell like grape!) There is no color pooling and in fact it seems to be pretty consistent throughout. I normally do a a plain 2×2 rib at the top of my socks, but I’ve found it doesn’t hug the leg as snugly as I’d like. So this time, I did a 1×1 twisted rib on the recommendation of some Ravelers and it’s perfect. I love how it looks and it’s snug but elastic. It was a little hard to get used to going through the back loop on the knit stitches, but I found a rhythm soon enough.

The only problem with finishing a project is that I instantly get the itch to cast on for several things at once even though I still have other unfinished things that need my attention. Must fight the urge!

Edited to add:

I thought I would finally show you how Austin’s socks came out. (Those are actually my feet, but through some oh-so-clever trickery I made it look like they fit me.) My favorite thing about these socks is that I made the stripes on each sock match.  It’s kind of a pain to do because you have to figure out where the repeat starts and match it up on 2 balls of yarn that start in different places on the repeat, but I know how particular Austin is and that he would prefer it that way.

I swear the next pair of socks I make will not use that herringbone rib stitch pattern!

Bed, bath, and ballwinding

I’ve had a serious yarn storage problem for awhile now. Yarn in shopping bags, yarn shoved into every nook and cranny on my desk, yarn hidden all over the house. I have two plastic drawer things, but they don’t even kind of cut it. So in an attempt to get the yarn situation under control I decided to make use of an empty bookshelf in the spare bedroom that I’ve been begging Austin to get rid of because I didn’t think we needed it. It’s a shame that my storage solution had to involve me eating my words.

Top row: sock yarn (17 pairs worth, yikes!)

Next row: yarn meant for specific projects

Next row: yarn that I haven’t picked a pattern for yet and odds and ends from finished projects

Bottom row: Hobby Lobby acrylics (It’s no coincidence that this yarn is on the only shelf Spooky can reach. This stuff is inexpensive and easily replaced.)

Unless I’ve forgotten something, this is pretty much all my yarn. I was surprised to see how much I have, out of sight out of mind and all that. I know by a lot of knitters’ standards this is a meager stash, but I don’t want it to get bigger! It already makes me antsy that there’s so much in “limbo,” which is what I’ve dubbed the second from the bottom row. I try to only buy with a pattern in mind, but sometimes I change my mind about the pattern and sometimes I’m just a sucker for an impulse buy.

In the bottom right is my new swift! Dean (Austin’s brother) got me one for my birthday at the same time that he was buying Jacey one. Very awesome and the timing couldn’t be better:

If I had to wind that 600 yard hank of linen without it I would be grumpy, probably while sitting in a tangled mess of yarn. Okay, so you may have noticed that I’m winding yarn in the bathroom. I have a reason! It’s the only place in the house with the right thickness edge and the space for the swift. The ballwinder and the swift both set up quick and easy though, so it’s not a hassle or anything, just a little strange!

Wrapped up

So I finished my great grandmother’s shawl a couple of weeks ago. This is what it looked like after being blocked. I’m very happy with the finished product and so is my grandmother! I got a chance to talk to her on the phone and she was such a sweetheart about it. She went on and on about how she loved the color and it was just perfect and a great birthday gift. I love that the shape makes it stay draped around the shoulders comfortably without having to fuss with it and tug at it all the time. Also, it dips very low in the back, which is great for warmth. The Seraphina Shawl pattern is terribly written, riddled with errors, but the design itself is great!

She lives and dyes

So…it’s been awhile. It’s not that I haven’t been knitting. Truth be told I don’t have much of an excuse beyond enjoying the brief respite between the spring semester and summer classes. So let’s move on to the content!

I got to hang out with Jacey in Houston this weekend and we dyed yarn! It was pretty fun and quite an adventure since we had never done it before. For our first time out, we dyed with Kool-Aid.

First, we dyed self-striping sock yarn. There was definitely trial and error involved and the colors didn’t really come out quite like I thought they would.

Next, we handpainted sock yarn. We didn’t really follow any instructions so much as we winged it. I dabbed all the colors all over the hank and then poured diluted purple and blue all over.

These are the results of the handpainting! I think they came out very neat. Mine is more muted and Jacey’s is super vibrant, but I really like them both.

I couldn’t resist starting a sock from mine right away. It took me forever to choose a pattern, but ultimately I decided that the herringbone rib I used on Austin’s socks would show off the yarn best. I love all the little flecks of color amongst the purple. I call it a success! Next I’d really like to try out the Jacquard acid dyes that came with the dyeing kit I bought from Hello Yarn.