KnitMe

Going Backwards, and other stories

Summer seems to have finally relaxed its grip on the mid-Atlantic, and coincidentally (or maybe not) the spinning wheel is purring again instead of creaking and grinding. I did a little cautious grinding of the footman with a drill bit to make the axle hole round again, and applied a layer of lithium grease at Liz's suggestion. It seems happy. For now.

So, the last 4 ounces of my Wild Things merino looked like this on Saturday afternoon.

This is progress. On the other hand, the back of Venus, which had been knit on for 2 months, looked like this on Saturday afternoon.

This is not progress.

Turns out that I'd picked the oddball hank of handspun Cormo to start off with - it was thicker than all the others. So I swatched, established a gauge I liked, then just above the armholes started knitting with another ball, and this happened.

Even knitting with two different balls I couldn't make it look right.

I still love the yarn but I don't think I'm going to be able to start over for awhile. I hauled out some stash yarn and am thinking of casting on for this for Emily, in pink with grey cats. She asked me to make her something new, which she doesn't usually do, and this seemed like the opportunity.

Yesterday I started spinning the wonderful magic bluefaced leicester that arrived in the mail from Lisa on Friday. In case there is anyone still uncertain that this woman is color genius, I'll remind you of my little adventure with spindling Wensleydale. I was so delighted with the color that I wanted MORE, but in a fiber I'd love better. So I mailed the hank off to Lisa and asked if she could do 'something like this' in her bluefaced leicester. First, a picture came by email:

Then, another picture came by email, which you can see on her blog from earlier last week. It photographed light. I probably sounded insufficiently thrilled when I replied, unfortunately, because I was taking it on faith - after all, this is LISA we're talking about. THEN, finally, a package came on Friday.

Isn't it beautiful??? It photographs lighter than it is in person. Here is a picture of it being spun, which I tinkered with to try to give you a truer color.

Most fiber really shows its stuff in the sun, in bright natural light. Well, this one gets really dramatic in the dark. Yes, really. Last night I was sitting at the other end of the room under my Ott light knitting, and I looked up at the length of green fiber draped above the spinning wheel, and it was glowing in the half-light. Amazing.

If I can actually spin the weight I want, this green is going to be this. We'll see. I'm sobered by the situation with my Cormo. Consistency may not be within my abilities!

The first sleeve of Arches is finished, but I forgot to take a picture yesterday. It has a lovely shaped cuff. The second one is past the dreaded short row shaping and is just a big tube now for awhile. I'm ready to wear this sweater. Why doesn't stuff get done faster???

FB Finally FO

After a couple of weeks of unproductive thrashing, finally something is finished.

This is the Flower Basket shawl by Evelyn Clark, from the fall 2004 issue of Interweave Knits, which is also available as a pattern from Fiber Trends.

I had one skein of Colinette Marinette and I used it up right down to the last 10 yards or so. The shawl blocked out to 66 inches across the top and about 34 inches tall at the point, while pinned out. Since this isn't merino, it should stay pretty close to this size. The color is hard to see in a photograph - it's a base of brown and navy blue, with shots of burgundy, turquoise, and silver grey. Nowhere near as monotone as the photo suggests.

Now I can say I understand why this pattern has been so popular. It looks nice and it's EASY. You can knock out a shawl in a fairly short period of time, using whatever yarn you have around, and it still looks good. Part way through this one, I decided it would be a retirement present for a favorite college professor who's retiring next year. So it's folded up and put in the cedar chest. I'll probably wear it once to give it some good vibes.

Vital statistics: Started 7/29, cast off 9/13, size 7 needles, a little over 400 yards of Colinette Marinette.

I will definitely make more of these, maybe my next one will be the Wild Things merino I've been spinning that you saw here a couple of weeks ago.

Pop Quiz

What is the property of Shetland yarn that makes it possible to knit fair isle sweaters entirely in the round all the way to the neck?

And might that very property of Shetland wool make it easy to spin?

However, might that property of Shetland wool make it a very BAD candidate for plying from a center pull ball?

If your guess was 'stickiness', you are thinking more clearly than I was on Saturday when I had my plying agony with my handcombed Shetland.

But after a lot of yelling and cussing I got a hank of yarn.

It's not the nicest yarn I've ever spun, and it's astonishingly little yardage for its weight of 3.5 ounces (unless I lost count while winding it off, which is entirely possible given my state of mind...). Maybe I can get 4 of these. Because I'm not separating out fine from coarse in the fleece before combing it (just getting out the VM was effort enough), it's definitely outerwear-grade yarn - there is a jacket pattern in the latest Knitty that would be perfect if I can eke out enough yardage from this and some other Shetland I'm spindling.

No other news from our way. It was definitely a bad spinning karma weekend, nothing I tried worked well, so I stayed away from my beautiful Wild Things merino until the air clears!

Overspun

I spun and spun this weekend, I seemed unable to stop.

After all the white I've spun in the past year I was desperate for color, so I grabbed the 2 ounces of Wensleydale I bought in May at MS&W with my Hatchtown spindle.

I've never spun Wensleydale before, it's different. At least this particular sample didn't want to draft AND didn't want to hang together as a single without a lot of twist. I did a lot of growling and snarling but the little half-ounce hank came out gorgeous.

I wasn't quite sure why I just had to buy this particular shade, not generally being a green lover (I'm particular about my greens), but it definitely spoke to me and it was small so I went for it. I'm glad I did because it turns out to be the most beautiful emerald green.

I think it's about 35 yards, half an ounce. I won't end up with much yardage but maybe it could be part of a hat.

I FINALLY, after THREE tries, got my first sleeve going on Arches.

The first time I did it, I misinterpreted the directions for the placement of the short rows for the cap shaping. The second time I did it, I didn't concentrate enough. The decreases under the arm are shaped with S2KP2, which is just counterintuitive if you are accustomed to SK2P, so I occasionally slipped 2 but then K2 and P1, and other absentminded things like that, and so ended up with the wrong number of stitches after 4 rounds of decreases. I finally got it right. Here is the gusset under the arm.

My advice on this is to work the decrease rounds as if you were doing lace: allow no one in the room and just say to yourself at each decrease: "S2 - K - P2".

There are also 2 small errors in the front neck shaping, which I will eventually put in the Pink Tea errata page. Rows 5 and 7 of the front neck shaping end K3 and K2 but it should be the other way around. This will be quite obvious to you after working the horseshoe lace so many times, but it's clearly a mistake.

My big spinning time was spent on the 8 ounces of Wild Things merino that Lisa brought me at MS&W. Once I started spinning this beautiful stuff, I couldn't stop.

It drafts perfectly and is so soft. I spun for hours, after 2 days I'd filled up a bobbin.

It's difficult to photograph, the colors are dark and intense. It's about 3.7 ounces and at least 350 yards, maybe more. I foresee another hank of this next weekend. I might have to buy another 4 ounces so I'll end up with enough for a shawl.

If you missed it, be sure to scroll down and see Melanie's gorgeous Perendale fleece....

Perendale Fleece: A Love Story

In July I fell hard for a Perendale Fleece. It happened at the Treenway Silks table at the Salt Spring Island Fibre Festival. They had several fleeces, but this one called to me, 3.7 kilos, roughly 8 pounds of lustrous locks ranging in colour from silver grey through pewter and charcoal.

How could you not love this?

One thing lead to another; a little soap, a little hot water, a pair of combs and some quality time . . .

The yarn is a little hairy, like Shetland, but has more sheen and is a bit softer. It's a smidge heavier than 2-ply jumper weight. Using two strands, I have gauge for Eris and for Fern.

The affair continues.