Pacman Rug

Here is the beginning of the newest project. That whole no new projects until my brother-in-laws afghan gets done worked out real well didn't it...

Here's the deal, I'm working the Ten Stitch Twist with a whole bunch of handspun longwools that I had in my stash, along with spinning a bunch of my friends wool for it.  So my basement is really cold and has tile floors, so it needs a nice squishy wool rug for the floor. I have a fairly large stash of course(ish) longwools, some already spun, some still as fiber, but I figured this would be a good project for them.

The plan is to work up a reasonable amount and then throw it down and use it while I spin more yarn. The fact that it only has 10 working stitches was a big draw. I was thinking about crocheting a rug, but I'm not very good, and I didn't feel like learning a whole new craft for one project, though I'm sure it'll happen some day.

I'm not sure if this rug will ever get "finished." The room it's planned for is, I think, about 12 feet wide, so I certainly have plenty of room to work with. I do want it to be a rather large rug, but mostly it's just a home for all my courser handspun yarn. We'll see how it goes.

Merry Christmas...so many things done!

Merry Christmas to everyone out there! I know it has been a while since my last post, but wow so many things have been going on. Between the many jobs, child, husband, house, and life, there has even been a bit of crafting going on. Here is at least an update of what went out today.

 Here's a bit of the play by play in the Everything is Ducky Convertible Mitts. I knit them in a natural merino yarn, and then dyed them to look like ducks. I just had to add in some button eyes and it all went swimmingly!

Here's Alcazar all finished. It's been a process, but it's done now. The new owner is a lovely girl who really seemed to appreciate the effort that went into it. It's good to have that one off my to-do list!

Here's a nice hat that I threw together in literally 2 days. The Everything is Ducky Mitts and Alcazar were for the oldest and youngest daughter of some family friends, so of course the middle daughter had to get something as well. Here mom said she was into the slouchy hats, so I grabbed a bunch of yarns I had around, including that Triple Berry Jam Thick 'n Thin hand-spun from the 2014 Tour de Fleece and knocked it out.



Now I am in that great in between place, where I'm not sick of knitting, I have plenty of WIP's to work on, and the next "deadline" I have is the end of July for next year's fair and then my brother-in-law's wedding in September.

I ordered yarn for an afghan for the wedding, but it's on back order, so I still have a while to get some other things done before that starts. Any suggestions on what I should work on next, a scarf for the DH, the Red Riding Hood cape for the tiny one, a hat for myself? Let me know if you have any thoughts.

Alcazar

Oh I will miss you! This is such a beautiful sweater, but I felt it was a bit too trendy for me at this point in my life, so it's going to Tiny's 16 year-old summer babysitter.

I'm not sure how it is really going to turn out; I'm not sure this girl knows how/where to take measurements. She gave me hers, and they were very similar to mine... she's a size 2 and I'm an 8. But I am knitting according to the measurements she gave me. Worst Case Scenario: I have to keep this one and try a smaller size for her, oh darn.

The body is actually quite easy. It's top-down with saddle shoulders, and then knit-in-the-round. Appropriate decreases and increases, but pretty basic.

Then you get to the flounce. It's not HARD, but 8 row cable repeat on top of a 12 row, short row dart repeat with the short row darts between the 6th and 7th row that is being joined to the bind-off of the sweater body. Not something you can knit in your sleep.

I was reading the pattern with my knitting group last night, and while I got many supportive groans and eye rolls, one even suggested that I stop knitting the pattern...

Well it took a few minutes, some math, and a bit of paper, but I think I got it figured out. But still, not for knitting in your sleep.

Anyway, according to revelry, I think I've been working on this about 6 weeks, and I'm certainly making progress, but I keep finding little bits of time, and instead of knitting on this, I cast-on new projects, because that is really what I need right now.

We'll see how much longer it takes to finish this, since I start teaching science and math after school programs this week, so time is going to get even tighter... and I only have this and two other projects to get done by Christmas, though one is already started. But yeah, certainly don't have way too much on my plate these days.

Oh, also, I have plans to clean my Prelude, because.... it's 1! Yay, it's been about a year since I got my wheel, and oh my, the amount of yarn that has been made, but between yarn coming from animals, oil, and just life, it is time to give it a wipe down.

The DH helped me get some wood cleaner specifically for woods treated with tung oil, so we'll see how all that goes. In the meantime, thanks to the good folks at Paradise Fibers, my stash will be ever increasing, and I will try to do a better job of posting about the great new fibers I'm getting!

Fiber Club Win

So now I remember why I didn't really knit while I was working full time. I'm still knitting and spinning, but between working 4 jobs that I get paid for, plus homeschooling Tiny, keeping up the house, and being the new librarian at church, finding time to post has been difficult.

But, I got a new shipment from the PF Fiber Club a week or so ago, and I was in love. I was also sent some natural mohair and shetland, but this dyed merino was so amazing I had to get more.

It's by Becoming Art, who is apparently a local to PF indie dyer who has become their in house dyer. Yay for all of us, these colors are awesome!

This colorway is called Time, Time and is reported to be one in a line of Alice in Wonderland inspired colors (is it just me or are Alice and her friends popping up all over lately?).

This is the first time I've actually bought anything that was featured in the Fiber Club, though I certainly have plans to do so in the future. This color was just too amazing to get stuck with just 4 ounces, I needed more because I knew I was going to want something big out of it.

The plans for now are to fractal it in a sock/fingering weight and tackle another shawl from Malabrigo Book 4. It's going to be a while before all of that gets done, but now I have what I need to do it!

Hodge Podge Spinning

I have a couple of things on my wheel right now, and by that, I mean I have three bobbins, each with a different kind of fiber on them.

Bobbin 1
     100% alpaca that I dyed myself... and kind of felted. Yeah, it's not so fun to spin, though not terrible if I fluff it out before I start for the day. Hopefully will end up in the Celestarium shawl one day. Need to be a bit darker first.

Bobbin 2
   Alpaca/Merino blend, all natural and hard to see the differences. It's a roughly 66/33 split, but I'm blending them myself, by holding strips of each together. We'll see how it goes, hopefully pretty well, though it is kind of a pain to try to keep both kinds of fiber in all parts of the yarn.

Bobbin 3
    Milk protein top and silk cloud. I had small amounts of each of these and found that they were both difficult to spin on their own, so of course the solution is to spin them together.

There's really nothing to see at this point, but I'm venturing into blending on my own. I'm sure there are better ways to blend top, but this is how I'm doing it for now.

Adventures with a Ball Winder

I need one soooo badly!

A friend of mine let me borrow his ball wonder the other week. Wow, it was so great! I caked all my handspun and a few commercial yarns as well. It was so quick and easy, though it was a bit loud.

I guess the next step is to try the method I saw on Pinterest where you wrap it with a stand mixer. I keep putting it off for some reason. Apparently it's very quick, but I can't seem to feel that it wouldn't really help the noise factor.

 

This one isn't mine, it's from geocachingknitter.blogspot.com, but you get the idea of how it is supposed to work. But it looks like that will wait for another day...

Braid Dying

Today we're going to go back in time a bit and go over how I dyed that yellow alpaca that did so well at the fair.

I figured it was only 3.5 ounces, so if there was ever a good time to experiment with alpaca this was it. I was going for a variegated yellow-orange fiber. I knew I wanted the whole thing to be on a base of yellow, so I just threw the braid into my crock pot and then added the dye.

It probably would have helped quite a bit if I had soaked it first, but it came out basically orange on the surface.
I washed it, let it dry- while still in the braid. After it was dried I pulled out the braid and decided that there was more white than I wanted. So I braided it again, which left different sections exposed, as you can see below.

It went back into the crock pot, washed, dried, and spun into this!

 

It didn't end up quite as variegated as I had hoped originally, but there is still some white and a bit of orange in there too. It probably won't become a standard method for dying, but it was fun to try.

100th post and news from the Fair!

So apparently this is my 100th post; I guess I feel slightly less horrible about not posting more this month because I have some pretty big news in the scheme of my knitting/spinning life to share.

 

First, I got a new card reader so my camera and new(ish) computer can talk, so hopefully no more blurry pictures. Sorry about all of those. I may have to take some make up shots of my various yarns, but we'll save that for another day.

 

This last week was the local fair! I entered 5 items, two knit and 3 skeins, into the novice category. I know, I know, I'm really not a novice knitter, but I think I really do still qualify as a novice spinner, and this fair lets you enter as a novice your first year almost regardless of experience (granted if I ever find a fair that has similar rules, I won't be taking advantage of the real newbie's). And it worked out this year; I was the only novice, so I wasn't taking ribbons away from someone who is really new. Anyway, here's how it all went down.

 

Gotland- 2 ply- from Tour de Fleece
First place in novice 100% wool 2 ply
I was very happy about this, as this was my first skein to hang straight directly off the niddy noddy. The judge also made some nice comments about the consistency of the ply, so yay!

Dyed BFL- 2 ply- Spun in January or February
Second in novice 100% wool 2 ply
Since these first two skeins were spun so far apart, it's nice to see that the latter really was better. This skein, along with three others is marked for a shawl from the Malabrigo Book 4. That also means I get to enter the shawl next year in a special category called "Second Time Around." I hope it'll work out, I might have some issues with the gauge...

That lovely alpaca sweater from my handspun alpaca!
First place in novice large wearable items
This is where I got to show that I really was a novice, to the fair at least. Apparently when you spin the yarn and then enter the project, the judges like to know that you spun the yarn and didn't buy it. I probably could have gotten bonus points if I had said this was my first "real sweater", but I didn't (I guess that's not fair, I did knit a little sweater for Tiny when she was like 3, but for some reason I never count that as a sweater...).

Tapiz Mitts- Malabrigo Silky Merino- 4 color Fair Isle
First Place novice small wearable item
Started the first one right after the alpaca sweater in like February, and finished the second one less than a month ago, but they made it. The judges liked my color choices, and there weren't many other color work items, so that will have to be something to keep in mind for future fairs.

Last but not least, 100% alpaca- 2 ply- from TDF

First place novice exotic fibers

 

I wasn't even going to enter this because I dyed it with food coloring (which I will tell you about at some point), but a friend told me to put it in because not too many do exotic fibers and it should do well. It made it into the special awards case. It didn't get a special award, but it was in the case with all of them. Pretty good considering it's only the second time I've spun alpaca other than what I did for that sweater.

 

So I can now say that I am an award winning spinner and knitter. I don't have to tell people what the awards were, but I do have awards. I already have thoughts going 'round for next year's fair to help keep the ribbons coming!

Finishng up TdF2014!

So I wasn't quite as productive as I wanted to be, even though I did reach my ounce goal, but the traveling threw me off my game. Anyway here is what I got done!

Four ounces long wool in Thick'nThin

Four ounces merino/silk singles

Four ounces 2-ply gotland

Four ounces 2-ply chunky targhee

 

Three and a half ounces 2-ply fingering alpaca and four ounces long draw 2-ply merino

 

All told, that makes 23.5 ounces in a 20 day event. Not bad, and I certainly went through a lot of my fiber stash (though I did get a new shipment from Paradise Fibers at the very beginning of the Tour).

 

I guess it's time to check the graphs...

I have plenty of fiber left, but I did make it through quite a bit of my stash. It's sure a good thing that I have all those bags of fleeces in my garage. I'll have to start those up again next week.

 

I'm very excited to see what I get this month in my PF fiber club, hopefully it'll be something new and exciting! I'm sure it will be, they always put together a great  shipment. Which reminds me that I still need to post about last month's shipment, maybe over the weekend.

 

 I've also been working hard getting ready for my first fair, well as a knitter/spinner. I've taken my horse to fairs several times, but that was about 20 years ago. It's all a bit different this time around without my mom to take care of all the logistics. Anyway, that means the Tapia mitts are done! I'll have to get some pictures of those up sometime soon too!

Catching Up

 

So here is what I have been working on. The purple is Ashland Bay 100% Merino in a color called Rose Quartz; it's a nice purple, but it's not rose quartz. The yellow is a cream Baby Alpaca that I dyed yellow. Both are about 4 ounces and two-ply.

 

I was traveling from the 11th-19th. I did a bit of drop swindling, but as I was getting a blister from wrapping the single onto the spindle, I didn't get much done.

 

There are only a few days left of the TDF, but time is getting tight for finishing projects for the Fair also. The TDF is done on Sunday, and items must be postmarked for the Fair on Monday... cutting it close.

 

Once I found out how close the Fair is, I decided to switch from spinning and keep working on the Tapia mitts. Only 17 rows and the thumb left. Hopefully I can get that done today.

 

I am also plying my Thick'nThin wool yarn with some cotton thread, but I'm not sure how I feel about it. I want to just stop, but I kind of feel that I should get it on the niddy noddy first.... so many decisions. Well right now the priority is finishing the mitts, and mowing the lawn, blah.

 

 

 

Day 5, Long Draw

So I got some new fiber from the Fiber Club, and it had more of that lovely vertically dyed wool. Also, my yellow alpaca was not dry, so I figured I would try something new.

Ashland Bay Merino Top "Rose Quartz"

 For whatever reason, I figured I should try some long draw. It's coming slowly, but it is coming together and the long draw is doing much better things for the dying, though we'll see how it looks once it's plied- though I could always chain ply it and preserve the more solid color sections. I'm getting a lot of pigtails on the bobbin, but I'm not overly worried about that as I can work them out in the plying- though maybe not as easily if I chain it... this will require more thought...

I started on the merino last night after the euphoria of the chunky Targhee, and it's not going badly, or even terribly slowly, but we are leaving town on Friday morning and I have been busy with prepping for that. Hopefully I can finish the first two ounces of the Merino tonight.

I'm also working on dying some other alpaca too. I'll let you know how that comes out another day. Right now it's time to keep packing...

Day 4 Chunky Yarn

I used up my Targhee, and I am so thrilled! I think we need some comparisons for this one, probably not, I just want to.

Before

After

I went with a thicker yarn this time. I had a much better time stripping off very small sections rather than drafting, I think in the end I was working with 32nds of the yarn if not a few 64ths.  There's just one problem, clearly this is hat yarn, but I don't like hats... I don't know what I'm going to do with it...

The Targhee was very fluffy and a bit sticky, but it was great and I would love to spin more of it!

Anyway, it's been a while, well not really, but I felt like I needed to update the Progress chart.

 

So I guess tomorrow is the day to start on the alpaca. I've been working on dying it, but the yellow should be good to go for tomorrow.

Day 3 10:30 finish

Last night was a late one, but I did finish my 4 ounces of Gotland, which I am quite proud of since I only had 2 ounces spun in singles at 8:00. So I finished my other 2 ounces of singles and plied it last night too! Yay me!

Here's the finished skein. I love it so much! I can't wait to wash it and see how it finishes. I went a bit slower on the second set of singles to see if I could get fewer coils and then really worked on keeping coils out during the plying and in the end it just hung stick straight when I took it off the niddy noddy! Another first, yay TDF!

I'm not sure what I'm going to do with it. There isn't a ton of yardage, but I am so happy with it that it might end up being one of those yarns that gets hung on the wall.

The Gotland was fun, but interesting. It was very sleek and smooth in the singles, but then when plying the other direction, things got a bit rougher, again we'll have to see how it washes.

Overall, I am thrilled with this yarn. It's definitely going to the fair!

Now to start in on attempts at thicker yarn with that great Targhee...

Day 2, 2 Skeins

Here's what I have to show at the end of Day 2...

The picture is a bit bigger than usual to ensure that the color shows. This was very vibrant fiber, but it contained strips of color running the length of the fiber, and it was VERY difficult to keep any of the colors separated, in addition to the white silk running through. I think I did better on the bottom skein.

I had planned on chain plying this, but I think I am going to stash it for a while and combine it with some other darker merino/silk blends I have for a very soft, if a bit scrappy, shawl at some point in the future.

This is what I was planning on combining it with. I got it at that fiber festival last year. It is spun, but apparently I don't have any finished photos of the yarn.

 

Here are the three fibers together. Looking at them together, I might change my mind. The festival fiber has great long jewel tone color sections, and today's is much more mottled. I was going to use the black and white and a buffer. It would certainly be scrappy... but I don't really know what else I would do with these yarns otherwise. It gives me 12 ounces with them all, and I have it in I would say roughly lace weight singles, but I haven't figured the WPI's.

 

Looking at it more, the festival fiber does bring out a lot of the colors in the new yarn...

I guess I have time to think about it as I certainly don't have time for a new knitting project between the TDF, the mitts that I am still trying to finish before the fair, and the Moscow Coat that I am making some progress on. Tiny has also requested a sweater for the fall, and I have been dying some merino for a pair of convertible mittens for a friend for Christmas. Yeah, I guess I have some time.

 

Day 1, Skein 1

Yay! Very happy to have finished 4 ounces in one day, granted doing a single helps.

It's the Wild Berry from Louet. I got it from the Paradise Fiber Fiber Club in April I think. I did this in Thick 'n Thin, it was interesting, but it did take a bit longer having to stop my wheel and "bite" more fibers for the thick sections. It's probably something I would get more used to as I did it more.

Yay; happy me! I am going to have to update the charts, but as I still have several hours left in the day, I think I hold off until later. 

Pre-Tour Nerdiness

So I guess I really am a massive nerd here. Though not enough to get all the formatting figured out...grrr. Anyway. The Tour de Fleece starts tomorrow and I wanted to make sure that I have some fiber stats so that I know how much I get done. This chart does not include my fleeces that may or may not get washed and spun during the Tour. 

Please indulge my nerdiness as I make a few more charts and graphs...

 

Below is the big one. I hope to update it daily, slowly replacing the blue with the red. I will be getting another shipment from the Fiber Club soon, so then charts will have to be adjusted, but I think I can handle that. 

I think tomorrow will begin with the Triple Berry Jam Wool I have. I'm going to try to do a Thick/Thin single, so that should be interesting. Yay!

Tour De Fleece Day -1

Swift!

Happy Independence Day for all those in America!

Yay, my swift is here! It actually came last Wednesday, but the whole basement thing kinda kept me off the computer.

Here it is all put together with it's own bag. I don't plan to carry the swift around much, but it's always nice to have another project bag.

It's a very nice swift. It moves well, Tiny can use it without any problem. I may let her skein up a few acrylic balls just for the fun of it. Of course it also works very well to make balls from skeins. Maybe one of these days I'll get a ball wonder too....

One of the things I really like is that the end pegs are adjustable. I may even mark a 2 yard skein or something and skip the Niddy Noddy on some of my spinning projects. It's just a thought, we'll see how that turns out.

That's about it for now. The plan for now is to get everything set for the TDF to start on the 5th! Part of the Tour on Revelry is to post daily updates online about progress. Not sure if I want to do daily posts here too, or just end up with some longer posts for a few weeks, I guess we'll see what kind of time Tiny leaves me with.

Reorganized

I've been a bit busy this week. My husband went out of town for work, so of course the rational thing to do while I have the 5 year old to myself for 4 days would be to rearrange the basement... right, who needs logic?

So, as I am not rational, I did decide to rearrange the basement, and I consolidated all my crafting stuff. I realize this is more applicable to the quilting/sewing world, but I moved my stash and wheel down here so it counts too.

I still have some final cleaning to do... and painting, but that is another story, but here is the general layout of the crafting space.

The whole project started because I wanted to condense the space our homeschooling was taking place in, so that is on one side of the basement, and my crafts and Tiny's toys are on the other. Of course the maps still need to be moved, but that's for another day as well.

It is a bit tight, but as my lovely wheel only weighs 9 labs, it is very easy to move to some of the more open space when I want to spin, which I did a bit of down here last night.

Just as a funny aside, you see those three storage totes under the table... that's my fiber/yarn stash, well about 95% of it. My husband thinks I have too much. Of course I do still have four bags of fleeces...

The Swift is on Its Way

Well, I finally did it. At about 9:30 this morning, I ordered a swift from Paradise Fibers. Still waiting on the ball wonder, but according to some Pinterest post, I can use my stand mixer and a toilet paper tube.



Not a whole lot else going on these days. Despite the gap in mitts, I've still got "second mitt syndrome." Maybe I should start a graph for that project too.



Anyway, until Thursday, here is a video about my new swift.

Fleece Time Again

I have these great friends who have a small family farm with small breeding herds of beef cattle and meat sheep. The thing about sheep is that even if you aren't going to do anything with the wool, try still need to be sheered. Lucky me!

 

These are the same friends I got the Bella wool from last year, but this year, I got 7 fleeces, so... sorry, I don't know the names for each fleece. But above we have a great close up of the locks on one of the fleeces. I think this one was the ram.

 

I'm not going to try to wash them all myself this year, maybe in the future, but not now. A spinning friend is going to pitch in on mill fees in exchange for some of the processed wool. Because I seriously don't need 7 fleeces, but maybe it'll be a head start for inventory for my Easy store.

 

I have decided to skirt them myself.  It has been raining lately, so I've only been able to get one done, but in the process I was able to try some of the wool. I grabbed a bit of left over fluff, washed it, and spun it from locks- just kind of fluffing it as I went- I think they call it hand carding, and got some interesting, and certainly thicker yarn out of it. I'll have to try some more of that and see if I can get some decent results.

 

Before skirting

 

 

Tapiz Mitts

 

Well here's the first one. I actually finished it quite a while ago, but since I am now picking up the second one, now seems like as good a time as any to put up some pics.

 

I changed the pattern, as you can see. There was a goof on the needle sizes. It was designed for size 2 needles, but the day I started I grabbed size 1's and just stuck with them. They fit pretty well around, but they weren't going to end up long enough, so that led to some thinking. I could add in rows, and finish the pattern as mittens and possibly wear them for three months a year, or I could finish them as mitts and wear them whenever my hands get cold. You can see the results.

 

The first mitt was made with dons, the second one is being knit on my 60" circular needles. As I'm now working on the teal and white section, I'm noticing that the color work is much easier when I only have to work the two sides and not four, however, I'm noticing that my floats are rather tight... hope that doesn't bite me in the end.

 

The plan for the moment is to enter them into one (or more) of the local fairs in the area. The color work certainly looks nice, but there will be plenty of technique issues to be critiqued.

 

Overall, I really like them, and they are very soft, warm, and pretty. Certainly something I will enjoy wearing. Any ribbons, commendations, or words of praise will just be extra. 

My Poor Wheel is Neglected No Longer!

My BFL is finished!  There's quite a bit of thick and thin, but overall it's pretty good. Certainly not my best, but it's spun, plied, and washed. It's a nice fractal yarn, we'll see how it knits up.

So now I get to wait until after the fair to start knitting it. So that will take a while. But it's nice to have the yarn done.

Then I spun up the white, pink, and purple merino. I was in a spinning groove and just decided to keep going.

Here is my daughter's first wool yarn... no wait, I made her some orange Longwood yarn last winter and made those mittens. Oh well. This is a merino/silk blend with SPARKLES!!!! Very exciting when you're 5. It looks really nice and mixed in the skein, but it'll make an interesting scarf for her. It'll be white on one side and pink/purple on the other. The little one wants a Hello Kitty scarf out of it. Not entirely sure how that is going to work, unless the colors are enough for her. We'll see.

I guess I need to put my wheel off to the side for a while now and save my fiber for the TDF!

The Fiber Club Strikes Again!

 

I got my new shipment from the fiber club and wow, this stuff looks great! In addition to 12 ounces of fiber, they even sent me this great little Lantern Moon project bag!

Here's the first fiber. Mountain Colors 100% Targhee wool in the Sweet Current color way (sorry the photos are a bit dark today...). It's a beautiful combo of blues and purples. A friend of mine has used it before and he loves it. I can't wait to try it. I might have to start it even before the TDF!

Another great Ashland Bay Merino/Tussah blend. This one is 80/20 with dyed silk. It is so soft, just like all their blends, and I'm sure it will be beautiful when spun!

Last, but not least, is some amazing new Gotland wool, again by Ashland Bay. Here's what they have to say about it, "Ashland Bay Grey Gotland top is a lustrously beautiful silver grey color top. Traditionally a dual purpose sheep, this fiber was established by the Vikings by crossing Karakul, Ramnov, and native Swedish sheep. These three blends created the Gotland sheep with a surprisingly long staple length of 6.5 inches." 

 

 

So there we go, that is the run down for the month. Recap, a new project bag in a GREAT color, two new wool breeds to try, a GORGEOUS new color way, and more Merino/Tussah- seriously who has enough of that in their stash? I am so excited to see what can be done with these fibers. I'm even thinking about a bit of novelty spinning...