First Time

I washed some fleece this weekend. 

It all started at knit night, when Isa brought it some Shetland fleece she'd got for free. Another spinner in the group and myself each took a bit home. I've never washed fleece before, so I figured that this was a risk free opportunity.

Man, that thing was gamey! I'm told that the sheep's owner just dumped the fleece in a garbage bag and had just pulled out a hunk. I have no idea what part of the sheep it came from, or if it had even been skirted. It had dirt in it and hay and other bits that I didn't want to inspect too closely, so I just washed the whole dang thing as it was.

I did 3 super hot washes with detergent and two hot rinses. It was fascinating to watch the lanolin just ooze off the wool in the first hot wash. It's the brown goo on the left side of the picture.

I left the wool in the mesh bag to dry, hanging off a fence post. The day was warm, with a slight breeze and it didn't take long for the little bit of fiber to dry out. As I picked over it, I could still see dung, and hay, and brown round things that I suspect are either insect eggs, or seeds. There was also still clumps of grease in it. I don't think it was my fault. I used super hot water, supplementing the tap water with a kettleful of boiling water from the stove. I also used a ton of detergent.

I found a bit that was as clean as possible, combed it and spun it. It wasn't too bad.

I might want to try this again. But if I do, I'll want to start off with a fleece that I know more about.

Failing Gracefully

A graceful fail is what you want your software to do. For example, instead of giving me the blue screen of death, when an application on my iPad fails, it just closes and the device remains in a working condition. I've been failing recently, and I'm trying to muster the grace to do it right.

I knit a Daybreak, but amended the pattern to use someone else's handspun. It sat around waiting for a cast off for a while because I ran out of yarn. Of course. Because it's handspun and not even my own. What did I expect.

Still, I like the finished project and it hugs the shoulders very nicely. It's just not in my colors so I'll hang on to it until it tells me who it belongs too.

This week, I also finished a pair of stranded color work socks. The pattern, Bird Foot by Robyn Gallimore, is a lot of fun to work, and not so terribly difficult, but... I managed to fail.

I finished the first sock, but it was a bit small. I worked the second sock to the same number of pattern repeats as the first, then added extra rows of plain grey before starting the toe shaping. I tried them on when done and discovered that they were the same size as the first pair. My mind boggled and at this point, I had no grace. I chucked them across the room. 

The next night, I tried them both on and sure enough, the were both just a wee bit too small for about the same amount. I still can't quite figure how I did that, but then I noticed a big goof on the top of the foot. See it?

At that point, I decided it was time for some grace. I meekly darned in the ends and called them done. Now I won't look at them until next winter, because my god! the weather suddenly flipped into spring. We've been enjoying weather like we usually don't see until May. I've cast aside my Kauni wool sweater project along with my winter boots and cast on a silky, summery stole that I knit on the patio today wearing my flip flops. 

Gorgeous! And the name of the pattern is Echo Beach. How appropriate!

On the Mend

This has been the most stubborn, dastardly cold I've had in quite some time. Each time I thought I was feeling better, I would do a bit of stuff, like clean up a winter's accumulation of dog leavings before they thaw, and whomp! I'd be reduced to an exhausted puddle again. Today I feel like I've finally turned the corner. As well I might considering that I took to my bed for the entire weekend (figuratively, I was actually on the couch).

My constant companion through this awful time has been Spectra. It required little mental effort, yet provided entertainment and fun. I hope it will warm the neck of my youngest son, the Renaissance man I call him. He has expressed interest, and even declared it cool. So maybe some good will come of my being sick.

Sick, Boom, Bleh

Not the best week for yours truly. I got sick, yes, with the sore throat and the tender noggin and the sniffly slimey yech.

And my 3mm Addi Turbo lace needle broke. This needle was in my bright Kauni cardigan, which was all the way up to the neck shaping when I was so rudely interrupted by the failure of my tools. Not that I'm blaming the Addi. I put a lot of stress on that cable, pushing around far too many stitches on a too short cord.

Well, that's fine. What with the sick and all, I wasn't in the right frame of mind to work on neck shaping and short row shoulders in the round. What I was in the mood for was some Stephen West. Pretty colors and yarn, shown off with some simple magic in the knitting. I've almost finished a Daybreak, but I don't have enough yarn for the cast off, and now must rip. And I had ten wedges of a Spectra, but this morning I decided that the gauge was too loose and that I didn't like the proportions of the neutral to the colors. So that got ripped this morning. Oh bleh.


That's why there's no pictures today my pets. Go visit Ravelry and Stephen West. He'll keep you entertained for a good long while.

Something to Strive For

Its a long weekend in Ontario. Family day is a new holiday for us, so we don't have any traditions for it at our house. This year we decided to dedicate the long weekend to serious relaxation, which for this family means we are mostly together in our solitary pursuits: video games, TV, reading, spinning and knitting. We did dedicate an hour this morning to cleaning the house. SOME people complained (those under twenty), but the rest of us (those of us with real jobs) thought that one hour was nothing out of a whole weekend.

A new pair of socks has come to live with us, making Jim's feet pretty happy:

Rascally things. More pictures and details on Ravelry.

One of the reasons I like spinning is because I want to use yarn that no one else has. Yarn that other people may covet, but can never get. I remember at the K-W Knitter's Fair one year, admiring a woman's shawl and asking her what the yarn was. The shawl was deep green at the edge and gradually faded to pure white at the top. She replied that it was her handspun and when she saw my disappointed face, she laughed and told me that I would just have to learn how. At the time, it seemed an unattainable goal.

Well, it finally happened for me. At Friday night knitting someone was watching me work on these socks and she said in just that tone "Where did you get that yarn?" I was very naughty because I replied smugly "It's my hand spun."

And, I have finally gotten comfortable doing long draw! I had such a mental block on this technique, but now I can do it with one hand. Sweet. I'm just plying my floofy, chunky yarn and I feel ready to try something finer next time. There's some (if you call 19oz some) Shetland in the stash calling to me...

In other news, my mother-in-law is still trucking on her sweater. She's decided to tackle the shaping herself. Hooray! I may have whined a bit about work being stressful and wanting to knit my own projects. But I honestly believe it will be good for her to puzzle it out and I totally believe she is capable of it. She has knit many a sweater in her day. Besides, I'll be there once a week to hold her hand. And don't we all need something to strive for?

Coolio

Contrary to popular opinion of black being THE best color for a cool hat for boys, my son picked this iridescent yarn by Caper sock yarn called Didgeridoo. I worked the Windschief pattern using two strands  held together which gave me a smooshy fabric with out any of the pooling typical to a sock yarn. Instead, it bended together into this:

And the result? The boy loves the hat! He wore it to school and when I asked him how his hat was he said "Fine." Which is high praise from a 15 and a half year old boy. He even modeled it for me for pictures

Cute eh? Except his brother and best friend both told him he looked like a hipster. Alex didn't seem to mind that much. Also, notice the sweater vest? He got that for Christmas and hasn't stopped wearing it since.  I see a possible opening to put a knit vest on this kid....

In other news, I spun some beautiful yarn. A merino silk blend, this was the yarn I was planning to make up into a cool hat, but Alex choose the other yarn. I'm not disappointed, because I get to keep this for myself.

It's a three ply with lots of loft and softness. I was aiming for a worsted weight and I think I may have hit the mark, though I'd have to swatch to know for sure.

And, I also picked up some light reading at Cotton-by-Post:

I pre-ordered the book, so I only paid 35 bucks which I think is a steal. It has the heft of a university tome, but the writing is not nearly so heavy. June writes in a clear and light manner. I was sifting through it and found myself sucked in, learning this and that. Perfect reading material for a snow February Sunday.

Reporting on the backlog

Hello bloggies! It's been too long. Work has been keeping me at the computer and so in my down time, I stay away from it. But this weekend was me-time. I've been to a knit group, a spin group and just now finished updating my Ravelry projects. Whew! Was I ever behind.

Some things will never be documented I'm afraid. A couple pairs of socks and two scarves have been released into the wild and are not likely to be photographed. But I've rounded up some of the more interesting knits for you to see.

Luke requested another pair of fingerless gloves to replace his worn out pair. He wears these constantly as you can see from the rumpled fingers and pilling on the hands:

We both love the colored cuff, a design from More Sensational Socks, and the bright yarn is Cascade Heritage. But next time, I'll find a really durable yarn for the hands. This cheap black sock yarn shouldn't have pilled up so soon.

I'm also on the hunt for a hat for Alex. He never wears the hand knits but this winter he has permitted me the honour of knitting him a "cool" hat. My first attempt was Kittiwake, also in cheap sock yarn:

Yes, that's Jim doing the modeling. Apparently it wasn't cool enough. Windschief will be my next attempt and I'm currently spinning a silk/wool blend for it. I may be investing too much effort in this project. Can you imagine if he rejects a handspun, handknit hat? Or worse yet, LOOSES it?! Still, I'll carry on. This is the first time in a long time the boy has let me show my love with handknits.

Most recently off the wheel was this 3-ply sock yarn:

I love it lots. Oh, it has it's faults, but I'm really curious to see how the colors knit up. But I hid it away from myself for a while so I could get my Christmas sweater finished off.

Yep, I'm that happy with it and I wear it all the time. It's just a comfy pullover in lovely colors. What more do you want?

Apparently what I want is a challenge. Small gauge, more color, and the niggling doubt in the back of my head that I'm really knitting a clown suit.

My Mind is Blown

Do you know who is teaching in London Ontario this weekend? My local yarn store, Cotton-By-Post, is hosting the Yarn Harlot for the whole weekend.

Friday she gave a speech and did a book signing. The speech was on how knitting alters the brain and not only was it funny (in true YH style) it was educational. Several things I knew instinctively, Stephanie backed up with scientific research, giving me more ammo to use against muggles who may try to deride our noble craft.

Here she is preaching the gospel of the knit.

Saturday was a six hour class on Knitting for Speed and Efficiency. I'm already a pretty fast knitter, but I figured Stephanie is such an interesting person, who has rubbed shoulders with many other interesting people, that I was sure to learn a thing or two. Ah, hell ya!  I learned:

• lever knitting
• norwegian purl
• a super fast and neat kind of ssk that Stephanie invented (well possibly, most likely)
• a toolbox of techniques to make my knitting more efficient
• sources for some really good needles
• and that I'm a fast knitter for my area, but slow in terms of the world.

I started the class with a knitting speed of 33.3 sts per minute. I finished with a speed of 38.6. But that's a snail's pace compared to the world's fastest knitter who goes along at a clip of 118 sts per min. Stephanie says that a product knitter's average speed is 100 sts per min.

And I'd like to get my speed up, mostly for socks. I have more loved ones whose feet I'd like to cover in wooly goodness than I have time or patience to knit for. A sock knitting machine is one idea, but too pricey. Learning to knit faster sounds like the answer.

Well, actually, the answer is a whole new way of knitting. Lever knitting, which is killing my brain to learn. None the less, I do hereby solemnly swear to pursue my homework, which is to make a K1 P1 scarf using the new technique for some amount of time every day, for 21 days. I have Noro Silk Garden, 15 inch needles, and I will prevail!

Irish folklore holds that if a master knitter puts needles into the hands of a newborn, the child will have a talent for knitting. Do you think the skill can be passed on in utero?


Tomorrow's class is called Liking Lace. A whole 'nother day to blow my mind.

Doing Double Time on Sleeve Island

My Silk Garden pullover has grown into a lovely rectangle of both front and back:

I'm now on the sleeves. I've already had to knit the first one twice, what fun. The pattern is an old Paton's design featuring the snug ribbing at the bottom and cuffs, once so popular. To tweak this design feature, I just cast on the correct number of stitches to start for the body. For the cuffs, I wanted a bit of pull in. My first attempt was too snug through the forearm, so I ripped and re-knit. It hurt, but I'm much happier with the result and I think it was worth the effort. I want to love and wear this sweater for a long time to come.

And speaking of loving for a long time to come....

My mother-in-law, who is 87, feels herself to be fading. Moving to a new apartment from her beloved house has taken a lot out of her and she's been feeling blue. Knitting teddy bears has helped. So have her family who are all rallying around her. Her grandson Evan calls from out west on Monday nights. Granddaughter Stephanie brings great-granddaughter Samantha to visit on Thursday nights. Jim and I come over on Saturday nights for a visit.

On these visits we share news, she shows us her momentos, the latest teddy bear and she makes these little requests of us. A special purchase to make, or a thing to look up. Well, a couple of weeks ago came a big request: "Laurie, would you knit me a sweater?"

Oh! this was not the easy yes I wished it could be. For one, she wants acrylic. For another, I've already got a queue of knitting lined up that it would hurt to give up.

I asked if she could wait till next year and she replied that she didn't know if she'd be around next year.

Now gentle reader, please remember that I love my mother-in-law very much, but I couldn't help but laugh at this one! All that work to knit her a sweater and she won't be around to wear it!

So, upon the wise advice of Paula, I offered to knit a sweater together with her. If she could work the plain knitting sections, no shaping, I'd work all the shaping and finishing parts. She tried to wiggle out of it. "Oh, my eye sight isn't so good." "But I knit so slow." But I persisted and last night brought her the yarn.

She was very pleased. She liked the feel of it, she liked the color. We measured up a favourite sweater, she picked a design (v-neck cardigan with a zip) and I wrote out some simple instructions. Just gauge and how many stitches to cast on for the back. And wouldn't you know it, just like any knitter with an exciting new project before her, she cast on that night. Yes!

Here's my hope for this sweater:

• that it gives her something interesting to take her mind off her troubles
• that she enjoys a feeling of pride in making a garment for herself
• that she feels a sense of connection and being loved because we are working it together
• that she'll be around to wear it for a long time to come

But you know, after I finish the sleeves of my pullover I've got to work the sleeves of her sweater. In acrylic. Yeah, that's why I say I'll be doing double time on sleeve island.

Just one more celebration...

Yesterday was Roc Day, the last of the Christmas season festivities, so my spinning buddy Alica and I headed out to the Little Red Mitten to celebrate with the other spinsters.

Here's a mother-daughter team in the foreground with a brand-spankin new spinner in the background:

And the drop-spindlers:

Joan was there, owner of the Little Red Mitten, with our local master spinner in training, Janice. Janice is in the fourth year of the Master Spinners program. Joan on the left in the picture below, and Janice, spindling, on the right.

And here's Alica and I. We're both wearing bracelets of our spinning samples as we were taught to do by Wendy of Gemini Fibers. How do you like our twin Lendrums? We can tell them apart because mine has the beauty mark (that's what I call it, Jim calls it a smear).

 

Joan has a beautiful store, chock full of beautiful and tempting yarns. I managed to only walk a way with some Tuffy sock yarn, which I consider a bread and milk sort of staple in my stash, and some local fiber. But that's a story for another day...

Take a break

Okay, so it's not knitting, but we're all grown ups here. We can apprecate good fiber art when we see it:

Crochetdermy.

Pattern Quest

Guess what I got for Christmas? Yarn!!

Okay, true confession time. I've always wanted a Silk Garden sweater, so I told Jim that was what I wanted for Christmas this year. I've been going to knit and chat on Friday nights at Cotton By Post (first time I've ever felt like I truly had a LYS) and Suzanne carries Noro, so that's where I bought it from. She even wrapped up my purchase so I could open it Christmas morning. (Thanks Suzanne for the extra love.)

Once I had a quiet moment on Christmas day, I swatched it up using a 4.5mm needle and also with a 4mm needle. I washed it, left it to dry and later measured the gauge to be 4.5 stitches to the inch on 4.5mm needles and 5 stitches to the inch on 4mm needles. I liked the firmer gauge on the smaller needle. Silk Garden has oodles of drape, and the looser gauge feels floppy to me. My stitches also seemed neater on the smaller needle.

I chose color 84 - reds, which is understandably very popular. 

I had planned to make the Banstead Pullover, but it calls for 4 stitches to the inch, so that pattern was right out for this yarn. I really love the Knitting Plus book, so I pored over it, hoping to match my yarn to a pattern. I considered the Passayunk Pullover, it looked like the gauge would match, but then these words in the pattern description brought me up short:

"The Yoke is fairly shallow... If you know this shallow yoke will not work for you because you are tall or have broad shoulders..."

Oh me! I am tall, I do have broad shoulders. Then I remembered that Lisa Shroyer covers this topic at the beginning of her book:

"...I found that drop-shoulder sweaters fit some women - those with broad, high shoulders - beautifully. The sweaters weren't oversized or disproportionate. In fact, they fit these women much better than the set-in sweaters (my assumed best-fit style for all plus-sized women). Women, and especially tall women, with broad shoulders and a large frame benefit greatly from the wider shoulder and wider cross-back of the drop-shoulder construction."

For me, this is a lightening bolt of truth. The sweater I wear the most is a drop-shoulder design, but I use it for walking the dog because it always seemed wrong. Yes, the sweater was comfortable and fit well, but everything we read these days talks about "fit to flatter", with words like "body skimming" and all sorts of shaping techniques like darts and short rows. Making an old eighties-style boxy design seems so out-dated.

I've worked the yoke sweaters. One creeps up my neck and chokes me, the other is the opposite extreme with a neck far to wide to be warm and an awkward fit. I know raglans are absolutely no good, I look like a ball player.

But now I understand, I have a large boned, tall frame and I'm not the only one. So I'm going to embrace my shape and knit what works for me. This yarn is beautiful and I deserve to have it knit into a sweater that I will want to wear all the time.

I'm using Paton's Back to Basics pattern book for Canadiana, which fit my preferred gauge. I'm leaning towards doing a v-neck, but I haven't ruled out a round neck either. I'm also working this flat because Lisa suggested it for another singles yarn in her book, in order to counteract the tendency of a single to bias. She's smart, that Lisa Shroyer, isn't she?

Oh! And you know what that cutie-patootie husband of mine did? He utterly spoilt me, that's what. Look at this lovely new project bag he gave me for Christmas, also from Cotton-By-Post, art by Laurel Burch:

It was a very good Christmas.

Merry Christmas - the chaos and the aftermath

Christmas Eve we hosted Jim's family for the annual clan gathering. Our house was warmed with 24 souls. A fraction of our group:

What a pleasure it was to see them all, to catch up and offer them a wonderful Christmas dinner. And also, what a pleasure when they all went home and we could enjoy the peace of our small family.

I hope all my friends near and far are also enjoying friends, family and some quiet Christmas moments.

A Christmas Sacrifice

If you were asked to make a gawd-awful ugly Christmas sweater for a teenager, what would you do?

London knitter Lisa decided to go all out. Her cousin asked for a sweater to help him win a contest at his school. Here's what she came up with:

As you can tell, she's not done yet, but already we have intarsia, embroidered snowflakes, snowman buttons on the tree and a fuzzy beard on Santa.  Here's the back:

Yep, that's Santa's butt coming out the back. I think the kid's a shoo-in for the contest.

Demon Santa and his Stoner Monkey Pal

Found these two criminals hanging out in the hall at the Vintage Green. I don't think my mother-in-law knows that they let such riff-raff in the building. Then again, they let us in there.

We couldn't resist this pair. But if you get too close...

Jim didn't know that Demon Santa was a zombie...

Road Trip

This past Saturday a local spinning pal and I went on a road trip to Mount Albert to take the intermediate spinning class at Gemini Fibers with Wendy Walen . If you are ever up that way and get a chance to stop in to the store, it's well worth it. The place is jammed to the rafters and I've never seen so many knitting books in one place. 

It was a three-hour trip, both ways, and so I just didn't have the time for the blog. You understand. However, here are my notes for your edification and enjoyment.

• Slow down. Your singles will be more even. Take time to enjoy the process.
• For a ply-back test, let the single wind all the way onto the bobbin (move your hand pinching the single up to the orifice), then pull out the single and do the ply back. This is because you want even twist in the whole single and twist is still being added to the yarn as it winds on to the bobbin.
• Make a sample bracelet. Using freshly spun singles that are of the type of yarn you want to make, do a ply back and tie the resulting yarn around your wrist. When you do a ply-back for sampling, you can compare your bracelet to the sample, by touch as well as sight.
• Commercial rovings are compacted by shipping, and storage, so it's worth while to do some pre-drafting to get air back into the fibers.
• Always test your staple length before you start. It will tell you how far apart to hold your hands, and a lot about the qualities of the fiber (crimp, fiber directions, how "grabby" is it?)
• Crimpy wool needs more twist. This I didn't see demonstrated, so I'll have to do a bit of a test for myself with some sampling.
• To join smoothly, consider the length of the fiber and the type of spinning you are doing. For the Blue Faced Leicester that we were spinning, Wendy recommended you feather out both ends finely, overlap them and then begin to spin. The join happens as the twist enters the fiber.
• Sample lots, sample often. Sampling is not waste. Sample different grist, sample different ratios, sample in the skein and knitted up. While you are learning, buy extra fiber for each project so you can work up many samples to see what works best for the fiber you have.
• You can always go back to the single or the plied-yarn and add or remove twist. (Can't believe I forgot this one.)
• Worsted yarns need lest ply twist, more single twist. Woolen yarns have more ply twist to compensate for their low single twist.
• To fine tune my chain ply:
• I need to make smaller loops. I didn't have control over the very large loops I was making.
• No tension necessary on the lazy kate. Keep tension in the singles between my two hands.
• Must have good integrity in the singles for a successful chain ply.

How to make a spinner crazy

Here's how I spin yarn:

1. Spin the singles. Critically evaluate every inch for consistency, but fail to take a sample to check against. Tell yourself you're doing it by instinct.
2. Pause in single spinning because you're sure it's going badly.
3. Ply the singles. Briefly admire the resulting yarn.
4. Ply the second half of the singles. Get bummed out because the second half looks different than the first half.
5. Pause in plying because your sure it's not going to be any good.
6. Grumpily finish the plying.
7. Compare the two skeins. Marvel how remarkably similar they are.
8. Put the wheel away before you drive your self crazy.

This project started as 19oz of Shetland roving, color blueberry.

I divided it up into 6 portions of approximately 85 grams each, which worked with my plan to spin all the singles first as I own 6 bobbins. That was a long haul.

I intended to spin a DK weight, but I think the result is more of a heavy fingering. I may need to find a new pattern to work this yarn up. Still, it is moderately pretty...

And even better, the two skeins are remarkably consistent, considering my earlier trepidation. I think the lighter weight may be a bonus, becuase I'm sure to have a good yardage out of the fiber I started with.

However, don't expect me to start a project out of this real soon. I think I need a break from blueberry for a while. Still, anyone know of a good pattern for a plus size vest or shrug in fingering weight?

Afternoon mystery, solved?

In the waiting room at the doctor's office this afternoon, I was knitting a sock which was noticed by my cohabitants. A woman older than me was there with her mother, who commented that her mother knit all the family's socks. This was after the war she said, and everyone in the community knit socks. In fact, the neighbours used to bring their socks to her mother for her to turn the heel. She turned the heels for everyone in the area.

I was puzzled by this. Why not just teach the other knitters how to turn a heel? It's tricky the first time, but after that, it's almost the best part of working a sock.  Aha! That must be it. I'll bet she was keeping the best part of the knitting for her self.

Weekend Away with Eadon

Jim and I went away this weekend to celebrate our mutual November birthdays. It was sunny and peaceful up until we got home to find that the boys hadn't done their chores.

The weather was just perfect for hand knits. Jim wore his Kiloran and I wore Eadon.

Christmas was creeping up on us all weekend. Even Jim and I were broadcasting the holiday vibe with him in a bright red sweater and me in my green. Plus, I got some Christmas shopping done for those undeserving offspring of ours. 

I loved wearing my new sweater this weekend. Eadon is cozy like a bathrobe, but once I found the perfect pin for it, I can wear it closed at the top and wear it like a jacket. This pin I found at Close Knit in Stratford:

It kinda mimics the cables which is a nice touch, and it cost about as much as the zipper I was thinking about adding to this sweater, except I can wear it on other things too. Can't do that with a zipper.

I did make some modifications to this pattern. For starters, I shortened the length by one pattern repeat. Being wide of girth, I felt the sweater would be too heavy at full length. When it came time to do the collar, the pattern has you bind off and sew the ends together. I chose to graft it instead, which worked just fine:

And I don't have an annoying seam on my neck. The shoulders came together beautifully too, and support the weight of the sweater comfortably:

I expect to be wearing this sweater proudly for a long time to come.

Happy Halloween!

Tonight the sheep specters will descent upon the hills of heathered hanks to give fine fibers to all the knitters who believe in gauge swatches and blocking before sewing up.

I've got my sweater all ready. Have you?