Sheetar

2009 Knitting

February wrap-up

By Sheetar 4 March 2009 4 March 2009

Still working on the knitting resolutions!
1. Clear the WIP queue from last year by the end of the month.
February is gone and I haven’t really made any headway there. I managed to start way too many new projects at once and not make any real progress on any of the big ones. I did knit three hats though this month, so that counts for something! This means that I’m officially dedicating March to clearing the WIP queue completely. Once that’s done, I’m going to start a sweater.

3. Knit one pair of socks per month
So close on this one! But, I think I’m still on track for 12 pairs for the year, so this shouldn’t be a big deal that I’m 4 days over budget. February is short anyway, right? Just finished up the socks tonight, so I’ll have photos of them hopefully tomorrow.

4. Spin four ounces of roving per month.
Boy did I ever make this one! There were the four ounces of superwash BFL for Thorpe and then a whopping eight ounces of superwash Merino from Crown Mountain Farms for my Sunshine Surf Scarf. I’ll post something more on that project later.

5. Dye more yarn and roving.
Got this one already too, though I hope to do this again throughout the year. I attended a class at a local art center with the wonderful Pam Pawl who took us through the process she uses for dyeing. It really made a lot of sense and I loved her method and great organization of the process. I got to dye two skeins of yarn that the class provided (not great quality and really scratchy, but they’ll be wonderful for a felted project!). With the leftover dye, I was able to dye some merino roving I had brought along. Photographic evidence:

Hats

Naughty Deer

By Sheetar 25 February 2009 16 January 2022

A friend of mine wanted a knit hat. Jokingly, I suggested using this specific chart to make him a hilarious hat and then offered a few other options for hats that were more tame. He decided on the original joke idea and I went ahead and knit it for him. Here’s the finished result!

Pattern: Basic hat, no real pattern, used Fornicating Deer Chart
Designer: Anne Rutten
Needles: US #7 (4.5mm)
Yarn: Knit Picks Swish Worsted, Jade and Gold
–Ravelry Project Link–

This was super easy to knit and it was a ton of fun to watch the chart shape up and turn into a pair of naughty deer. I did modify the chart to make the deer on the bottom antler-less. Cast on 96 sts for three repeats. The recipient loves it and said that he got a bunch of compliments on it while he was out over the weekend. I find it completely hilarious and have already gotten a request to make another one for another friend!

EDIT 02March2009:
Recipient of the hat made a video about the joy his hat has brought him.. I nearly fell off my chair laughing.
Myspace Video

EDIT 19April2009:
I had gotten a bunch of hits from a UK knitting forum.. linking back to the post for posterity 🙂 *waves to visitors from the Knitting Forum*

EDIT 02November2009:
This post was linked again and I noticed a HUGE jump in visitors to the site today from an Icelandic website. While I don’t speak or read Icelandic, Hello there to you all!

Daily

Shiny and New

By Sheetar 18 February 2009 18 February 2009

I finally got around to upgrading my phone and decided to go with the G1 (aka the ‘google phone’ from T-Mobile) since I really love having access to email and everything from my phone. The last phone was a T-Mobile Dash (long story there) that I was really not a fan of since it’s Windows Mobile and let me tell you now that Internet Explorer on the mobile version crashes about as often as the non-mobile version used to.

So, the other day I was browsing through the applications in the marketplace that one can download and install on the G1 and happened to come across ShopSavvy. Now the average person would think that this is a neat app – you go into a store for something, pick it up, and let ShopSavvy scan it quickly before deciding to buy it there or somewhere else that’s cheaper. ShopSavvy, using the camera, scans the barcode on the item and delivers you the lowest prices on the web and locally based on your GPS location.

Me? I nearly tripped over my own feet racing towards the yarn stash. Most of the yarn I’ve got is from indie dyers and there’s no barcode, but I managed to find a few!

Spinning

SpinOlution Lazy Kate

By Sheetar 13 February 2009 13 February 2009

I felt the need to post a little overview of how awesome the SpinOlution lazy kate is now that I’ve gotten a chance to give it a test run. I have the Mach 1 spinning wheel and LOVE the look of it as well as how effortless it is to treadle and spin. While the wheel is relatively new to the spinning world, it’s a fast favorite for those of us that have one. I bought mine with two bobbins and finally got around to ordering four more along with the lazy kate from Jessica at Midnight Designs. Jessica was AWESOME through the whole ordering process and was so quick to get back to me – I couldn’t have asked for a smoother transaction. So, if you’re looking for a wheel, fiber, yarn, accessories, check out her store!

Anyway, back to the object of the post – the Lazy Kate from SpinOlution. There are four spots for bobbins and it can either lay flat on the floor or stand up to display what you’ve spun.

To remove a bobbin, push the pegs through to the outside of the kate ‘wall’ and follow the groove in the wood to pull the bobbin up and out.

Those pegs help tension the bobbins and keep them from spinning when they’re not being actively pulled for plying. There is a rod that holds the bobbin with a washer at each end and a plastic spacer to fit into the bobbin end that has the ‘key’ space for fitting in the wheel.

It works like a charm and I couldn’t be happier. Now I just have to finish this spinning project and post that up.. next week, I swear!

Hats, Spinning

Thorped

By Sheetar 10 February 2009 18 February 2009

There’s this great thread on Ravelry that shows a project from roving to spun yarn and the finished object. It’s without question my favorite thread on Ravelry and is really inspiring for a spinner to see what people spin with what fiber and what patterns they’ve adapted to their handspun. REALLY creative people there.

Sometimes, you get a batch of fiber and you just know what it’s going to be – like Michelangelo said about his sculpture, “I saw the angel in the marble, and I carved until I set him free.” This may sound a bit strange (if it does, then Michelangelo was strange and that’s a club I don’t mind being a part of), but you knitters know what I’m talking about.. The times when the yarn speaks to you and tells you precisely what it wants to be. It’s just like that with roving and spinning fibers. The finished article is in there somewhere, waiting to be let out. Sometimes it just wants to be yarn. Sometimes it wants to be a finished object and you just KNOW it the second you lay eyes on the colorway and the texture of the fiber.

So, here’s my most recent Spun-to-Finished entry and the first one for the blog.

Fiber:

Superwash Blue Faced Leicester (BFL) from dkKnits – January installment of the fiber club.
Colorway: Burnt Blueberry Baa’Hill (baa’hill.. baaagggellll.. get it? :-P)

Yarn:

8wpi, Heavy Worsted, 167 yards, navajo plied, spun on my Spinolution Mach 1 wheel.

Finished Object:

Pattern: Thorpe
Needles: US #8 (5mm)
Trimmed with a bit of leftover Cascade 220 Superwash. I have NO idea of how to crochet, so I used a helpful video on YouTube.

In other news, a family friend sold her sheep farm and moved recently, bringing with her A LOT of fleece. I graciously offered to take some off her hands and came home with just about five pounds of raw wool from Border Leicester mix sheep. There was about 1.5 lbs of black fleece and about 3.5 lbs was white. I decided to mix them together to save on processing and shipped it off to Zeilinger’s for cleaning and to be drawn into roving. I hadn’t heard anything back in a few weeks, but sure enough, today, a box showed up on the doorstep containing my roving. Dog for scale, but there’s a ton of it. I believe this roving is begging to be a sweater. It hasn’t decided on a color yet though, but I’m sure it will let me know once it’s ready. (The dogs are North American Standard Mutts by the way, weighing in at about 50 lbs each)

Daily

Bound by Nothing

By Sheetar 8 February 2009 8 February 2009

I went out last night to see a friend and his band, Bound by Nothing, play at The Trocadero in Philadelphia, PA. I hadn’t been out to a rock concert in a LONG time. Back in high school, a group of local kids had bands and would play at an American Legion hall at least once a month. I remember going and LOVING having my hearing destroyed every time. Not sure what it was about it.. but I know it kept a lot of us from getting into trouble and allowed the kids in the bands a fun creative outlet and a little bit of local fame. These bands were all heavy metal or goth or something along those lines – back in high school I had dyed my hair green and wore an old green army jacket and black combat boots with ripped jeans, so they all really fit in with what I was into at the time.

So, last night. Ahhh I need to go out and do that more often! Tickets were $15 and totally reasonable.. some of the bands were great, some not so great, but honestly, it didn’t matter.. it was just about being there. Oh, and going to support my friend and his band. They rocked the house and had everyone cheering at the end of their set – it was the first time I had seen them and I was pretty blown away. It was also great to see a bunch of friends that I don’t get to see very often and kick back at the bar upstairs with them. One quick photo from the night..

Daily

I love winter

By Sheetar 4 February 2009 4 February 2009

It’s just SO pretty that even though I just spent an hour shovelling, I’m still in love. The weather people said we got just about 8 inches for this snowfall which is pretty unusual for our area outside of Philadelphia. I spent last night spinning since I just haven’t been in the mood to really knit, and hopefully the UPS man will bring me extra bobbins and a lazy kate so that I can get some serious work done. Looks like today I’m going to be sitting at home and spinning away too – not complaining 🙂

Oh and on Superbowl Sunday, AtomicKnits and I went out to Woolbearers in NJ to meet Carol Sulcoski and check out the store too. It’s an AWESOME store with a really huge selection of sock yarn and other yarns. The day before, the town had this Fire and Ice festival with ice sculptures being made – the store had one of a lamb outside. Too cute. Carol is really great and it was fun to meet her, get the book signed, and see the socks in her book, Knitting Socks with Handpainted Yarn, all laid out.

And now, a few photos of the snow, because it’s pretty..

Okay and one of my boy – the best model a photographer could ever want 😉

2009 Knitting, Finished Objects, Resolutions, Socks, Spinning

Project updates

By Sheetar 1 February 2009 1 February 2009

January end-of-month update:
The knitting resolutions haven’t all been met (already, I know!).
1. Clear the WIP queue from last year by the end of the month.
Didn’t happen! I did clear out a bunch of things, but there are still two open WIPs from last year. Not bad though..

3. Knit one pair of socks per month
Got that one! One pair of socks per month is definitely manageable and I still have time to knit other things.
Pattern: Little Child’s Sock
Designer: Nancy Bush
Needles: US 1.5 (2.5 mm)
Yarn: Knit Picks Imagination in colorway â€œWicked Witchâ€
–Ravelry Project Link–

Nancy Bush can write a pattern like nobody’s business. It was so well written out, line by line, you just can’t but help be in awe of the time that must’ve been spent writing it out. The book, Knitting Vintage Socks, is becoming a fast favorite. The yarn is super soft and fun to knit with although the variegation obscures the pattern mostly. And see all that color pooling? I know it’s something knitters strive to fight against, but I just love it. It almost looks like tye dye on the stockinette part of the leg.

4. Spin four ounces of roving per month.
Didn’t quite make this one either. I got about an ounce of this superwash merion from Crown Mountain Farms (colorway “Sunshine of your Love”) done for the spin and knit along at Ply by Night on Ravelry. I’ve really gotta spend more time with the wheel in the evenings and maybe alternate nights between knitting and spinning. Plus, there’s a fun project coming up for next month with roving from dkKnits that I’m pretty antsy to get started on!