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 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. 

Roseraie Shawl and Russian Knitting

I wasn't able to get the big guy to sit on it, if fact he still hasn't since it was finished, but here is what has been keeping me distracted, in a good way, from the Slithering scarf all May.

It's called Roseraie and it was a text knit from a Revelry group. Well, testing is done and the pattern can be purchased here.

This was a great pattern, I think it turned out really well. For the most part it was easy enough to knit at my knitting group where there are some who do more talking than knitting. I also worked on it at home with A, who is now five and very chatty. Everything went fine until I got to the edging. It wasn't exactly difficult, but you can't play dolls and knit this edge, though it is fine to knit while watching TV.

My shawl turned out to be a great size for me. I used size 8 needles and my handspun Jacob and Icelandic yarn from when I first got my wheel. The Jacob was still a bit rough, but I was advised to put some hair conditioner into the water when I washed it, and it did yep to soften it up quite a bit!

I didn't count the gauge since no one will be able to use the yarn again, but the yarn was generally somewhere between DK and worsted. When I blocked it, it spread across most of my queen sized bed. Again, it will make a great shawl for me, and I'm usually a size 8.

Another fun thing about this shawl was that I did the bottom two grey sections with the Russian knitting and purling techniques. I had read about this method a bit on Crafts, and then found these videos on YouTube.

Working this way was interesting, and worked great for the bigger section where it is mostly stockinette. The purling was a bit faster, as advertised, but you have to be aware that using the Russian method will change how your stitches lie on the needles. You have to use the Russian method on a whole project not just on the pure rows, or you'll end up twisting all of your stitches. I think it may have also changed the directions of my decreases, but that will need further trials and inspection with a lighter colored yarn.

It was a great method that I would like to use again for projects with a lot of straight stockinette, like for the Moscow Coat that I will get back to someday, but for projects like this, especially where there are a lot of specific decreases, I think it best to stick to English or Continental, that's how most patterns are written.

Overall, it was a great project. I was happy to use my handspun, work a new pattern that gave me a nice sized shawl and worked fairly quickly, and try a new technique.