Un-plying

I just spent a couple of hours taking plying twist out of the last fiber I finished. It was just too tightly plied for my taste. I wanted a fluffy, lofty yarn and it was exactly the opposite. I spun it woolen to get that lofty, fluffy, springy yarn. So I wanted to fix it and get what I wanted. Interestingly, after I took out some of the plying twist, it took up more space on the bobbin!

 This is the picture of the yarn after the first plying, when it was too tight.

Now look at it after taking out some of the plying twist. It barely fit on the bobbin and is much more spongy.

 I finished my Tour de Fleece project also. The skein is finished and done.

I am not a big fan of this yarn but it actually looks better in the skein than it did on the bobbin or the spindle.

I also took a few pictures of the Girl Friday sweater after it was completed. And I started a new knitting project.

 I think the sweater is lovely, even though I say it myself. It really was hard on my hands though, more than anything else I've knitted lately.

 

 I am knitting a second Dancing Cranes stole for a gift. Same yarn as before, different color. It is an easy knit and looks great. The new one is purple, although it looks blue in this photo.

It has been a busy week as far as knitting and spinning are concerned. I have not done much the last couple of days as I had to have a vertically fractured tooth extracted. It was completely unplanned. I thought I was going to have a root canal and came back sans tooth. I am doing quite well now although the past 48 hours have been a bit painful.

Catchup on my own fibery doings

I know I've been chatty lately but I've had a lot to share! Think about that when I'm silent for a week or two. It all averages out in the end, doesn't it?

What I have not done is shared progress on the knitting and spinning front with my projects.

Spinning-wise, I finished spinning and plying the first set of singles from the Spring Fling bump. There is still a little on the second bobbin, which I have not finished because...

... I have two small bits left to spin. I had a bit more than half a pound of roving and I think the bobbins on the Tina don't hold more than 4 oz each. I will be spinning these onto two free bobbins and then finishing up the plying.

 On the knitting front, I finally finished the Girl Friday sweater. You only get a flat picture today because I washed it last night and it is still drying. I will take a picture on a person and post it later. It looks skinny and long because the lace pattern pulls in.

That's all, f-f-folks!

Update on my doings

I've been telling you about the class and I didn't give you any idea of what I have been up to. I have been knitting and spinning but less of both, mainly to take a break from all the intensive spinning I did during class.

First, the knitting: I have been slowly working on the Girl Friday sweater. I am making it in Cascade Venezia in a gorgeous red color. It is for a class I am teaching but I am actually running behind the class at this point. I have to catch up by the next class. The reason it is going slowly is that it hurts my hands to knit it. I have no idea why. Spinning seems to be easier on my hands right now.

Here are the fronts and back, joined at the shoulders.

 Now I am knitting the first sleeve. I am ready to start the sleeve cap so it will be done today, I hope.

 On to spinning: Not too much on the spindle. I spun the batt that I made out of the Lincoln-Corriedale fleece from class. After that I have been plying. I plied the singles from the fleece to make a second skein. Then I took the singles that we did in the colorwork part of the class (which I will cover in a future post) and plied them to create a colored skein.

I am not sure I will make anything from this colored skein as it is a bit too colorful. But who knows? Someday it might be perfect for something. Right now, it is a good record of what I tried in class. I will break that down in the near future.

I am now spinning a roving from Hidden Valley Fibers. I am amazed at how easy it is to spin. It literally spins itself. I am spinning it long draw since that is a new skill that I have. But there is no struggle here. It spins evenly and easily and it shows how excellent fiber prep makes spinning a joy!

 It is called Spring Fling and is a blend of 85% Coopworth and 15% silk.

 There it is, on the bobbin - all the pretty colors showing up!


Back to work so I have more to show you next week!

Steeking a Bohus

I finally picked up and worked on the Rose Lace Collar Bohus and it will probably be finished today. I first finished the second sleeve (I had about 10 rounds remaining!) and hemmed both sleeves. Here is an unblocked view. I did a little colorwork on the sleeve cuff.
Then I hemmed the bottom edge.Now I had to cut the center front open. I started doing a crochet steek, but I didn't like it. It was bulky and I was struggling to manage the tiny hook (1.65 mm) and see the rows and sts where I had to pick up the loops. So I abandoned it in favor of a backstitched steek. I did 2 rows of back stitching on the sts that would have been united by the crochet.

If you number my steek sts as 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10 from left to right when facing the front, I wanted to cut the steek between sts 5 and 6. The crochet steek would have gone through the right leg of st 4 and the left leg of st 5 on the left of the steek, and the right leg of st 6 and the left leg of st 7 on the right of the steek. I backstitched down the right leg of st 4 and up the left leg of st 5 and repeated down the right leg of st 6 and the left leg of st 7. I hope this makes sense. If it doesn't, I can add a diagram.

Here is the stitched and cut steek on the right front of the garment.

It is easier to see on the reverse side as I used a matching color sewing thread. It would have been faster to machine st it but I would have to take out the machine, thread a bobbin, etc. So I decided to sew by hand. As the daylight hours waned, I had to rely on my daylight lamp + magnifier (something similar to this) to see the sts.Here is the reverse where you can see the two rows of pink stitching between my fingers. The steek edge curls to the inside just like with any other steek, that is why I had to hold it open. I picked up sts and knit a picot hem down the front edge and made it long enough to cover the cut edge. I prefer to bind off my sts and then do the hem, rather than securing live sts as one requires fewer sts to hold the hem down and it is less visible from the right side. It also makes a nice edge on the inside. Lastly, here is the view from the right side. You can see the finished edge on the left front and the raw, cut edge on the right front. No unraveling here. The Bohus yarn is very sticky and the stitching does a good job of securing it so it doesn't go anywhere. I suspect that it would have been stable even if I hadn't stabilized the edge. That is an experiment for a future Bohus.

Today I hope to finish the other front and block the jacket. I tried it on yesterday (yes, with cut and unfinished edges) and it looks exactly as I had envisioned it. I don't plan on putting buttons on. It will just be an open cardigan that I can add a pin to, if I wish to hold the fronts together.

The Gansey Saga Part II

I am making a lot of progress on the gansey. I love gansey patterns because they flow so well. I don't have to look at a chart or a pattern, I can see what I need to do based on what happened in the rounds below. If I make a mistake, it is a simple matter to drop down a round or two and fix it. For example, I didn't center one of the central diamonds in one of the repeats and discovered the error about 4-5 rounds later. I just moved the entire diamond 1 st to the left by dropping down sts and reworking the seed st. I can see how these sweaters were knitted on the go by the fishermen's wives and other women involved in the fishing industry.

I will post Camp photos in dribs and drabs so that I can make the experience last as long as I can.

Vanessa asked to see the spider but I thought I'd start with a moth. Here is a lace moth. Cute, isn't it? Better than any other kind of moth.
And here is the eight-legged Shetland spider. I don't think I'll ever make one of these but it is nice to know how to in case I want to be biologically correct.

Casting on - Knitsarina style

I always seem to cast on 3 times for anything. Mostly it is because I
am a Goldilocks when it comes to the tail of a long tail cast on. It
must not be too long or too short. It must be just right.

However I rarely cast on twice making the mistake I made today. I
misread the calculations I made and cast on twice the desired number
of sts! Something didn't seem quite right but I did not figure it out
till after I had cast on 416 sts TWICE!

True to my usual experience the cast on tail was perfect the 3rd time,
when I only needed to cast on 208 sts. Whew! Glad I figured it out
before I knit too far on the larger number of sts.

Hooray for Anita!

She located 'Betty Martin'. I have been measuring the width of the
swatch and it is too wide for the bottom of the sweater so I am going
to eliminate one of the garter st 'wave' panels. I think this will
look nice and symmetrical - 2 diamonds on the sides and one in the
middle. Between the 3 panels of diamonds, there will be 2 cables on
each side flanking a panel of garter st waves. I will add the extra
width as I get up to the chest as stockinette so it is smooth under
the arms.

Gauge for gansey swatch

I measured the gauge last night. It is 13" for 61 sts over the
patterns and 3.25" for 26 rows. That is a tad under 5 spi.

I am sending this from my Blackberry.

Gansey Saga Part 1

Thank you for all the compliments on the mittens in Knitted Gifts. Ann, yes, the model is wearing the mittens front to back in the photo. That is why I deliberately labeled each side in the blog post.

Today I'll start taking you through the process I am using to create my son's gansey. I started by looking through a number of gansey books, and completed ganseys on the web for inspiration. My library contains the books in this photo, as well as some of Alice Starmore's books that contain ganseys. But I didn't look through the Starmore books because I was familiar with them and they weren't the type of design I was interested in. Looking through all these books was a lot of fun.

I decided to recreate a historical gansey for this sweater. One that caught my eye was Matt Cammish's gansey from the Gladys Thompson book. It has a lovely elegant design that is also interesting to knit.

But one of the patterns in the gansey is called 'Betty Martin' and it isn't charted. It is not even written out by itself. Instead it is part of the overall pattern and I would have to chart the whole thing. Here's the pattern as described in the book. You can see 'Betty Martin'. It is on either side of the cable but the photo isn't clear enough for me to re-engineer it. That was still definitely a possibility.

Next, I found this lovely gansey in Knitting From the Netherlands. The fisherman on the left is wearing it and you can see a diagram of it on the right side of the book. I liked this a lot and it was charted. That decided it and I went ahead.

I charted the design to my satisfaction - with a couple of minor modifications and started swatching. I set off the cables with purl sts on either side and changed the center diamond to seed st (it was originally reverse stockinette). I also worked out the ribbing to make it flow into the design. The swatch is done and is washed and dried.

I was playing on Picasa and decided to make a collage of the two sides of the swatch to give you a closer look. This is half the front/back with the center on the left. The triangle is actually half a diamond. I adjusted the chart so the point of the seed st diamon nestles into the mid-point of the two diamonds on the right. This gives me a clean repeat of all the patterns at 26 rows. The seed st diamonds will have a few plain stockinette sts dividing them.

Next up is measuring the swatch and coming up with a pattern. I will add either more of the garter st waves or stockinette if I need more width. The yarn is Jo Sharp Silkroad Aran in the color Parchment. It is a dream to knit with and the swatch feels lovely. I am knitting it a bit tighter than called for to make the sweater last longer and to add more definition to the st patterns.

I am going to try an experiment next weekend from Retreat 2.75. I am going to try blogging from my Blackberry so that I can give you a day-by-day recap. Wish me luck. The gansey saga will continue after that.

A FO announcement!

The tank is done! I decided not to put the sleeves in because I was tired of it and wanted it to be done. It fits well even though I'm not partial to tanks. But under a jacket or sweater, it will be fine. I thought the neck would be too low but it is OK.

You can see an end in the back. I left them a little long on the inside because I was afraid they'd pop through to the front. They are all secured with duplicate stitching so I'm not worried about them coming undone but I wanted to be able to pull them back through to the back if they popped out.

Here is a close-up of the neckline. You can see how fuzzy the yarn is. It isn't exactly pilling but it is fuzzy and bits of it fly off. That is one reason I'm not terribly thrilled with it.

This is the back. It has nice lines and the yarn really shows off the modular design.

I started my next project today but it is going to be ripped out and restarted so I'll post about it next week.

Progress but no pics

I am slowly making progress on the back of the modular top but it looks exactly like the front so pics are uninteresting. I didn't finish it as I had intended last week but I hope to have the body done by next week.

Thank you for all the compliments on the Lorna's Laces sweater.

So far no suggestions for sweater storage. Keep your thinking caps on.

Happy, happy, joy, joy!

We had a really cold day last Monday, frost warning at night and all. Yes, in May! So I took the opportunity to wear and test out my new sweater. I think I'm in love. It was well worth the ripping and re-doing. The final result is a lightweight, warm and extremely wearable layer that will be very versatile. It also fits quite well despite the lack of waist shaping.

I used up almost all the yarn. I have the swatch and a few bits left. So I think I succeeded in my goal - to use up all the yarn and create a nice looking and fitting sweater.

I haven't been knitting much all week. But I started last night to finish up the modular sweater. It is very boring knitting. The reverse stockinette in the sweater above was boring but required no thinking at all. The modular sweater does require some focus but not enough to occupy the mind. The only good thing about it is that it moves along at a fast pace. I hope to have the body done by next weekend.

Thank you for the compliments on the sweater. I am very happy with it and yes, I got the vertical lines I wanted (sorta) and it was worth the 3 attempts. It is going to be a go-to sweater in the coming winter.

I have a question for all of you: how do you store your sweaters? I started off with boxes but I've overflowed them and now they are all squashed (folded and squashed) into the shelves. I think I need another system. So your solutions are really needed to help me get some ideas. Thanks!

It's done, it's done, it's done!

Yes, I said that 3 times because it took 3 tries to get it done. But the Lorna's Laces Hand-to-Hand sweater is finally done. And I like it. I haven't worn it yet because it is still damp but it is looking good. The fabric is lovely and the colors are lovely!

See for yourself!

Here is a detail look at the body. There seems to be a slight delineation of where I started the last skein but since it goes all the way around the sweater, I don't mind. It is also not as visible in real life.

I can move on to other knitting now, I hope!

Slow progress

I know it doesn't look like much but I have been knitting away and am making slow progress. The only way I can gauge it is by how much yarn I've used up. All the ripped out yarn is knitted up and I'm about half way through the last skein that I hadn't used up until this point. I suppose the body is lengthening but it is really hard to see. I don't want to measure it yet because I'll feel discouraged. When it is about 12", I start measuring. But I really think this is going to be the right answer. The fabric feels nice and the colors are looking good.

Now I have a tip for those of you who would like to try Portuguese knitting but don't have a pin. The pin looks like this. You pin it to your shirt and use the hook to hold the yarn. It is quite convenient and I used it on the plane. It went through the metal detector without any problems.

But someone on Ravelry mentioned that she used a badge holder with a clip from a dog leash on it to hold the yarn. This avoid holes in one's shirts, although the pin doesn't make any more of a hole than a brooch. I thought I'd see if I could make one of these and try it. I have a lot of badge holders laying around from all the conferences I have attended. So I brought one home and attached a carabiner that I had from some other function. I think it was meant to hold keys that you could clip to your backpack. You can't see the badge holder too well as it is transparent but you can see the clip. In this case, the yarn goes permanently into the carabiner and you clip and un-clip the badge holder as you begin and end knitting.

I have pretty much given up on all other kinds of purling now. The Portuguese purl is quick and I can do it without looking. I tried the Norwegian purl but it is much looser and requires more movements. So I am sticking to this for the rest of this sweater. I think that I would use the combination purl for seed st and rib as it mixes better with the continental knit. I'd like to master the Norwegian purl but have to find the right knit gauge to go with it.

Three seems to be the charm

I like how this sweater is turning out this time. This is the sweater with 1 skein of yarn left to go + some odds and ends. I think it will be fine.

I am alternating a few rounds of Portugese purling with a few rounds of Eastern purling. I find the Portugese purling to be much easier on my hands but I like the mixing up of the two movements. I occasionally throw in a round or two of my regular flicking. I think it is changing the way the colors stack up because there are minute differences in the amount of yarn per round.

I am on a roll with the sweater and will try to finish it before I move back to the modular sweater. It will be nice to get this off the WIP list.

I hope next week will be close to the end for this.

Begin Revision three

This is revision three of the body of this sweater. The yarn is starting to look a bit worn so it will have to be the final revision. The knitting looks weird because the yarn is kinked from ripping. It will fix itself with blocking.

I like the look of the fabric. The yarn colors are spread out without much pooling. I am alternating two different methods of knitting - the Portugese purl that I linked to last time and the lazy purl with the yarn held in the left hand. I find the Portugese purl much easier and used that most of the time using the other to relieve my muscles from the unaccustomed movement. As my hands got used to the Portugese purl, I used it more and more. I tried to use my usual flicking method but the gauge is a bit looser on that so I stopped. I think learning new ways of knitting are good for avoiding repetitive stress injuries and also for making minute gauge changes which can affect pooling and striping effects in handpainted yarns.

It is slow going as I'm doing this on size 6 needles. But I think I'll be happy with the result so I am persevering.

Rip, rip, rip yet again

I am going to rip out the body of the Lorna's Laces sweater that is so intractable. I did the calculations and I think I can get the body done with the yarn I have in plain reverse stockinette. I will practice my Portuguese purling technique in the process as it is so easy to purl using this technique.

I finished the front of the modular sweater and started the back. Unfortunately the garter st is really boring but it does go fast once I get started. I didn't do much knitting on any of this during the week because I had to finish up a project for Interweave. That got sent out yesterday and so I am free to knit my own stuff again.

Short and sweet this week.

Modular focus

Happy Easter to all who celebrate!

I also want to acknowledge an anniversary of sorts. I've been baking bread for just over a year now. My first loaf was recorded on this blog on March 22, 2008. Now I am making all my own bread - I don't buy any bread for myself at home. I am quite proud of the progress I've made in a year.

Spring is here. The forsythia is blooming and there are buds on the crabapple outside my window. I am feeling more energized and am looking forward to the longer days and warmer weather.

I have been knitting and now I need to make progress on this tank. I have made some, the front is almost done. Here is a detail of the beaded yarn that will be part of the yoke. You can see the little beads here and there. They are threaded onto a thread that is twisted with the yarn. One has to be careful to catch both when knitting.
This is the front. There are a few more rows of the yoke and then I split for the shoulders and knit each separately. I am not happy with the big hole in the middle. Fortunately, there is extra yarn there that I will use to close it up. It is caused by the fact that you are knitting each side separately which stretches the sts in the middle. When I do the back, I am going to try and knit both sides together and see if it prevents the hole. Also, something to be careful on with garter st. Make sure all your ends are on the same side. See that big bit of yarn? That is an end and it is on the front because there is another end neatly woven in on the other side. So this one will have to be taken to the other side and woven in. Sigh! What do you think about my new backdrop for photographs? I bought some stretch velvet to use as a backdrop so the knitting is clearly visible. I like it on this because the silver was blending with the grey of my carpet and not standing out at all.

Here's to more knitting related posts!

A Public Service Announcement

We'll get to the public service announcement (PSA) in a bit. I wanted to show you my latest knitting first so that you will leave with the PSA fresh in your minds.

This is a modular tank top/short sleeved sweater knit in Artyarns Regal Silk. It feels very nice to knit but it is already fuzzing so I am not sure how durable it will be. Silk in general is a very durable fiber so I am hoping that it will wear reasonably well. The pattern is also from Artyarns. It is Number P90. So far it is easy knitting. This is about 1/3 of the front.

I am going to make the V at the neck in the beaded silk to add some glitter. Here is the beaded silk. You can see the beads in the yarn. It is the same yarn with beads in it.

And now for the PSA. I usually straighten my circular needle cables by wrapping them around my Corningware tea kettle. I can't find a photo of the one I have which is clear glass. However, I usually heat water, turn off the flame and then warm the cable. In this case, I forgot to turn off the flame so when I let go of one end to pull the needle away from the pot, the cable slid into the flame and this is the result! Ouch! No more Inox size 8 needle. Cables are plastic and I guess heat melts plastic. I had to re-learn that the hard way, didn't I?

Oh well! Fortunately I have more than 1 size 8 needle and I was able to more carefully straighten the other cable and am happily knitting on it.

Madrona report and knitting

I'm sorry I didn't post last week. To make up for it, I am posting a very, very long update this week.

First of all, we went to the glass museum in Tacoma. To access it from the hotel where the fiber arts retreat is held, you walk across a bridge of glass. One side of the bridge is lined with a gallery of Chihuly glass objects called the Venetian Wall . Here are some of the items showing how they are arranged. The light coming through the back is daylight. This section is open to the air though the objects are inside cases.

These photos are taken with my cell phone camera so they aren't the best. I forgot to take my real camera to Madrona.

Another section of the gallery.
A third section. The objects are amazing.
These glass block towers are at the end of the bridge, showing a promise of things to come. Another section of the bridge is covered. The ceiling is filled with Chihuly glasswork that makes it look like a coral reef.
More ceiling.

We spent 3 hours at the museum in the Hot Shop watching Lino Tagliapietra making gorgeous glass objects. His specialty is balloon like glass objects with lots of color and long trailing ends. You can see a bad photo of two objects on the table below. Again, I blame my cell phone camera. You can see better photos at the link above and here. At Madrona, I took a stash busting scarf weaving class. The yarn I brought with me was too fragile for the warp so I borrowed yarn from the teacher, Syne Mitchell. Syne is the author of the Weavecast and is an amazing teacher. We used a rigid heddle loom and completed this scarf in a day. I am very pleased with mine. It looks very Indian to me. I braided the fringe.I bought these persimmon dyed skeins. Chris Conrad uses a Japanese method called Kakishibui to dye these. The lavendar grey comes from iron and the golden color is the natural color from the dye. These are skeins of tencel. They will become a shawl but I don't know what kind yet.

I also took a class from Janine aka Feralknitter. As I was knitting the swatches in class, I realized that I had almost no yellow in my small collection of Shetland at home. So I invested in 5 skeins of yellow Shetland.

I also used a coupon to get a discount on these skeins of Mini-Mochi sock yarn. I love the colors.

Lastly, I finally finished the Lorna's Laces sweater after much ripping. I had to re-do the hem twice. The first time I went down a needle size without thinking and the resulting hem was too small to go over my head. A few minutes of thought made me realize that for a lace pattern that stretches, with a garter hem, I needed to go UP a needle size, not down. Since my size 8 KP Harmony needles had the same problem as my size 7 ones, I decided to use the size 9 and make a split hem. So 2 bodies and 3 hems later, it is done.
Here is a close-up of the body pattern. I used the coin lace pattern without any bordering twisted stitches for the body. You drop the stitch in between the coin lace to create the lacy effect. I get the vertical lines I wanted and the color of the garment below breaks up the striping.

I also pulled out my copy of Spinning the Old Way and started reading it. I am determined to practice my spinning. I thought I would do it every Thursday but last week I had to go grocery shopping and was too tired to spin after. But my resolution is to spin at least once a week.

That is all for now. I am starting a modular sweater for a knit-along but I'll save that for later.