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2009 Knitting, Socks, Spinning

April and May wrap-up

By Sheetar 4 June 2009 7 February 2012

Hah, I knew at one point during the year, I’d miss a month or get lazy or even give up completely on the resolutions. So far, though, doing okay, and still chugging along.

Going back in time to January again for the knitting resolutions..

2. Knit two sweaters this year
Started one. It’s tough knitting a sweater in the summer. I had a big rush of excitement when I started, gushing over the gorgeous color, dyed by Becky of dkKnits and then set it aside about 30% of the way down the body to do socks and lace and other fun summer type projects.

3. Knit one pair of socks per month
Got both of those!


April – Blue Angee Socks	May – Twisted Devon Socks
Pattern: Angee	Pattern: Devon
Designer: Cookie A.	Designer: Cookie A.
Needles: US 1 ½ / 2.5 mm	Needles: US 1 ½ / 2.5 mm
Yarn: Malabrigo Yarn Sock, colorway, “Impressionist Sky”	Yarn: Twisted Fiber Art Kabam! in colorway, “Terrain”
-Ravelry Project Link-	-Ravelry Project Link-
These were finished just in time to go to Stitch n’ Pitch with the Phillies. Sadly, we were soundly beaten by the Nationals, but the socks told me that they didn’t mind. The pattern is from Cookie A’s new book, Sock Innovation, and I’m absolutely in love with all of the patterns. This one was pretty simple, but with a great effect. And the yarn! There’s a reason why we call it MMMmmmmmmalabrigo. Squishy, Yum.	Another entry from Cookie A’s Book. Both the yarn and the pattern came together to produce an absolute delight to knit and wear, even if one sock somehow tricked me into knitting an extra repeat on the leg. I’d go back and rip the longer top down to match the shorter one, but there’s a cuff-to-leg transition set of stitches that I wouldn’t be able to do if I knitted back up the cuff. So, we’re going to call them unique and leave them as they are, unmatched and beautiful.

4. Spin four ounces of roving per month.
My poor wheel has been feeling woefully neglected. I did get my 4oz for May though.

Corriedale from Maisy Day Handspun in colorway, “Water Lily.” I never really liked corriedale, until now. I got my hands on the raw roving in the past and did a little nose wrinkle – scratchy. It’s not merino. But, after it’s spun up and plied? Not so bad. I probably still wouldn’t make a scarf out of it, but it’s pretty and squishy and I rather enjoyed spinning it. It clocks in at 285 yards and is about sport weight.

And that’s the wrap-up for the last two months of acheiving resolutions. There has been more knitting, of course, that I haven’t detailed here, but with the garden growing, the lawn needing mowed, and a whole host of fun outdoors stuff to do in the lovely weather we’ve been having, knitting has mostly taken a back seat to a lot of seasonal things to do.

Sewing, Spinning

Today’s scores

By Sheetar 1 April 2009 1 April 2009

Today was a *busy* day. I had to go into Philadelphia to drop off the husband’s entry for a homebrew competition so I figured I would take the train and walk around the city for the afternoon. After dropping off the homebrew, I went down to Spool. They have a bunch of super cute fabrics, but they’re pricier than I’m used to spending for a yard. So, I headed out to Fabric Row and found myself at the Pennsylvania Fabric Outlet. For less than $20, I picked up 6 buttons for a baby sweater, 12 zippers, and a little over 4 yards of fabric. The fabrics are reproductions of prints from the 1800s. TOO COOL.

There is also handspun. This is spun from superwash merino roving from dkknits and was my March fiber club delivery. It clocks in as a sport weight, 384 yards, and is destined to become legwarmers. The colorway is called, “Big Black Horse and a Cherry Tree,” after the song, and I think Becky 100% did it justice. It’s soft and squishy and super lofty and I’m just in love.

Scarves, Spinning

Sunshine Surf Scarf

By Sheetar 13 March 2009 13 March 2009

This is another one of those great spun-to-finished projects that I love doing.

Roving

The yarn is fingering weight and a three ply. I just divided the roving into three parts that weighed about the same. This is my first three ply since I got the SpinOlution lazy kate and put her to the test. It worked out great and the resulting yarn was so squishy and soft.

The Scarf! It’s longer than I am tall (5’4″) and is soft and puffy and squishy. Orange probably isn’t my favorite of all the colors, but I LOVE how this knitted up and how incredibly soft it is. I decided not to block the scarf since I loved the bubbly and rippled texture that the dropped yarn overs give the fabric. It’s been worn a bunch of times and has gathered a number of compliments.

Pattern: Morning Surf Scarf
Designer: Jackie Erickson-Schweitzer
Needles: US 5 (3.75 mm)
Yarn: Handpun from Crown Mountain Farms superwash merino roving, colorway “Sunshine of your Love”
–Ravelry Project Link–

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)

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!

Spinning

Lacing the Flyer

By Sheetar 29 December 2008 22 January 2022

Someone on Ravelry mentioned that there weren’t too many results when doing a google search for “Lacing the Flyer” and I decided that it was time to start this spinning/knitting/photo/life blog with a post, FINALLY. The site is sort of bare for the meantime, design wise, but I’m working on that, honest.

So, Lacing the Flyer. This is a great technique to make the take-up of yarn less aggressive when spinning a fine yarn or when spinning at the core of a fresh, empty bobbin. In effect, you lace or pull the spun wool (or leader if you’re just starting a new project) around the pegs just as if you were lacing up a shoe with only one side of a shoelace. There are so many ways to do this, so I’m just going to show you the way that I do it and what works for me. I’m not an expert, but I like to think that with spinning and knitting, what works for you personally is what works best and it’s fun to share techniques and see how other people do things. The wheel pictured here is a Spinolution Mach 1.
This wheel has pegs at the front that work out perfectly for lacing up the flyer at one point. I took the wool off the bobbin and down along the outside of the row of pegs and then around the front of the right peg and the back of the left peg, coming around to the ‘orifice’ in front. The orifice on this wheel is a big hook instead of a more traditional tube or hole type orifice.

Here I’ve added another set of zig-zag lacing in the middle of the flyer. This varies wheel to wheel, so you may not have those two front pegs to zig-zag across. For this to work – you need to have space between your laced wool and the wool on the bobbin. Typically, for me, by the time I reach the point where the bobbin wool is touching the laced wool, I don’t need to lace that back part at all anymore. You can zig-zag as many times as necessary in order to reduce the take-up to a manageable level.

Naturally, this is no substitute for changing the tension (this one uses a tension knob), but when you’ve run out of tension to let up, this is a great way to ease the take up.