KnitMe

Eight pretty skeins...

...all in a row. O.k., so it's really nine skeins, but when I thought of the title for this entry, I hadn't yet finished the silk This might explain why I haven't been getting much knitting done!

Today's entries are, from the left: chestnut brown Romney lamb fleece from The Pines Farm, hand dyed Blue Faced Leicester roving from Winderwood Farm, hand combed grey CVM fleece that I got at a St. Distaff's Day spin-in, cinnamon Corriedale top from Aurelia, hand dyed merino/silk top in watery blues, hand dyed "Soft Wool" (primarily Targhee) in spring green, Lisa Souza's "Bird of Paradise" merino top, and in the front (left), bombyx silk sent to me by Kerry, and (right), merino/tencel from Ellen's Half Pint Farm that I picked up in Maryland this year. Whew!

I have about 8 oz of the chestnut that is probably destined for hats/mittens, unless I can find more of the stuff. The finished yarn is somewhere between a chunky and bulky weight. I'm not sure of its exact yardage, but I'm guessing it's not tremendous. This was my first really successful woolen spun, long draw yarn, and I'm now sunk deep into the long draw vortex. What a hoot! I have only one hank of the BFL (about 180 yards), so it's probably also destined for hat-itude, or perhaps mittens.

The grey CVM is only part of a fleece - an extremely filthy fleece - that I'm having to hand comb due to a break in the fiber. I've currently got about 500 yards of the stuff. I love what happens to greys when they're overdyed, so once I get it all spun up, I'll decide on a final color. Because of the break, I'm getting an unfortunate amount of waste, and I'm just hoping to get enough for a project at this point.

The cinnamon Corrie is the base color of the Stockholm Sweater. I already have 8oz of a coordinating brindled roving spun, and have nearly completed the 24 oz of cinnamon. This is being worsted spun at sport weight. The blue silk/merino (also a wosrted spun sport weight), came in at just under 400 yards.

The pale green is two pounds of my favorite "Soft Wool" that is destined to become Brenda Zuk's "Shoal Waters", to be complemented by lovely glass buttons from the fabulous Sheila E! Two pounds was probably overkill, but as this sweater is knit with the yarn doubled throughout, I wanted to be safe. The Bird of Paradise on the end has yet to tell me what it wants to be, but I've got 1.5 pounds of sport weight. Inspiration will strike soon, I hope, because this is one of my favorite colorways of Lisa's. The woman *is* color magic.

My biggest thrill, though, had to be the silk in the bottom of the photo. Here's a close up:

I'm jazzed about this because it's the first time I've ever been able to spin bombyx silk. It has a squeak and crunch to it that makes it a tough spin for me, but I decided that it might be like little kids eating broccoli, i.e., I just needed more exposure! It was a tremendous opportunity for some fun. I learned a lot about spinning silk, I think. At least, I learned a lot about how I should spin silk. I had a much easier time when I pre-drafted enough to get the fibers nice and fluffed up. I know that there's some controversy between the PreDrafterians and the NonPreDrafterians, but when it comes to silk, I know in which camp I reside! Thanks again, Kerry. I ended up with about 730 yards.

My second biggest thrill is the merino tencel, because I was largely able to achieve a "hand painted" look without Navajo plying a single, or hand painting the finished yarn. I split the roving (just a 2oz taster) as cleanly in half lengthwise as I could, and then really tried for consistency in the grist so that I'd get roughly the same yardage on each bobbin. When I plied it together, I was pleased to see the colors mostly lining up, with only small spaces of overlap. I got about 530 yards out of my two ounces, making it a reasonably respectable lace weight. Here's a close up:

Now, it's off to finish up the newest Romney batt. I made it in under the wire, Caroline - it's still Monday!

1100%

That is approximately the amount by which our subliminal advertising campaign increased our blog comment traffic. There must be something to it after all...

St Enda is finished.

It really turned out to be a cozy, well-fitting sweater.

It didn't come out perfectly according to plan (of course), and I think the main reason for that is that I did not go so far as to wash and block a swatch before I made my measurements. If I were to undertake such a major redesign of a sweater's shaping again, I would make a big swatch and wash it before measuring my gauge. But it's not too bad.

The shoulders are a little too wide. Although it lies ok thanks to a good block, the shoulders still drop a tad. You can see that my shoulder ends approximately at the single column of knit stitches, but that the shoulder seam is a but further out than that. But the big benefit is in the absence of all that baggy bunching under the arms and over the upper arm that happens so often with a plain saddle. I'd say this was a success.

Here's the business area of things.

You can see where I did a little steek for the neckband, and where the shoulder decrease line lay. See that vertical line of knits? That's where the shoulder decrease line should have lain. Oh well, only 9 stitches off.

I also made a neckband facing instead of just casting off the neckband, because it makes a much nicer neckline. I did K1P1 ribbing on the inside and tacked down the live stitches. I turned it just a tad too far under, but I didn't want ribbing to peek out at the top of the patterned neckband, so I erred on the side of caution.

I neglected to take a picture of how I finished the tops of the saddles, so here is where you get to practice having "the vision thing." Here is a detail of the main cable motif, which runs up the saddles.

I closed off the center of the motif at the top of the saddle but still had about 10 rows to go before I had used up all the body stitches. So instead of opening up a new center motif that would just be stopped in midstream, I took those two outside bits and crossed them over the top of the closed motif. It actually finished things off nicely. Maybe I'll remember to take a picture of that next week.

I used 12 or 13 balls of Berroco Bluefaced Leicester (discontinued, unfortunately - this is one great yarn), size 6 and 7 needles (one down from what Al*ce S called for in Aran Knitting), and it took from March 17th to May 17th. That is pretty fast for me to knit a complete adult sized sweater. I think I was just compelled by the shaping changes and wanted to push ahead to see how it worked out. I would definitely do this again.

I've put my Flower Basket back at the front of my knitting queue, now, so it's progressing again, and I'm nearly done with Emily's neon rainbow socks. I've discovered that I need to go against conventional wisdom on sock toe shaping to make a truly good fit for her funny little squared-off toes, so I do the every-other-row decreases but don't then do any every-row decreases. It looks very strange until I put it on her foot and then it looks - well, like it was made for her. Imagine that.

"Hungry? Eat Popcorn."

OK, back to normal here at the Tea. The Beautiful People have all gone home and it's time to talk fiber again.

A little piece of market research is being conducted this morning. Prudence is attempting to determine whether in fact she blogs for an audience of 2. An explanation of the research method will be provided at the completion of your viewing session.

Last week I referred to presents we received from our visitors. Here are some of them. I seem to have misplaced my photo of the adorable crocheted cotton soap mitt and doily that Elizabeth brought me, but Sam brought me some lovely fiber in shades of blue, and 2 ounces of tussah silk in a shade called 'Lilacs' (my favorite flower).

Jen from Connecticut who doesn't have a blog made these lovely stitch markers and an incredibly clever row counter.

She made Emily a bracelet too, which is in the process of being lengthened a tad so it will fit her when she finally decides she wants to wear jewelry.

Joanne brought me a little bag of chocolate brown Shetland fiber, which I plan to comb and spindle. No photo, sorry...

Remember these?

Well, besides being the world's worst carder, I was not loving spinning this particular targhee
for some reason (perhaps connected to my carding abilities). Since Sam loves targhee, they are packed to send to her. I decided to use the nearly-completed bobbin of singles as a navajo ply exercise.

It's a nice yarn but I'm still sending away the carded targhee. What I learned? That navajo plying is a great way to make a controlled yarn out of an incredibly springy fiber. I'm now combing some rambouillet that I dyed in the fleece, and I think I will try to spin fine and 3 ply.

St Enda is nearly done - I will be in finishing hell this week, tacking down the neckband facing and sewing up the side and sleeve seams. There will be FO pictures next week. Meantime here is a picture of the shoulder shaping, perhaps you can see how the sleeve fed into the body.

There is a noticeable bump where the saddle turns the shoulder corner, and I found myself unable to decide how to take Janine's advice and do an extra body decrease there. I should have. But I'm not going back. I think a good block will smooth everything out. Funny how one becomes optimistic at the strangest times... I just read the section in Stephanie's new book where you take a little quiz to determine what type of knitter you are. I came out two parts 'Sensei' and two parts 'Organic.' I was not in the least surprised to find out that I was no parts 'Scientist' - a Scientist would have negotiated that shoulder to perfection...

This market research study was conducted for us by a Mr. J. Vicary who seemed quite sincere.

Welcome Ewe

My favorite fiber event is over for another year. I think I'm recovered. My house is recovered. Emmy is mostly recovered from the letdown of having so much company depart. I am NOT recovered from having written half of this post and then hit the wrong key and refreshed the screen before saving.

Saturday morning after sitting in awful traffic for half an hour to get into the grounds (I'll be looking for an alternate route next year) we made it to the meetup spot just in time. Many folks dived straight into the t-shirt line to get the accessories they wanted. The first people we met up with were Laura, Georgiana (Tina's mom) and Tina, and Elizabeth and her husband.

We hung around awhile while people came and went. It was great to see Louise again, looking healthy and cheerful. Then we began wandering the circuit. The weather as you can see was perfect - not too hot, with a nice breeze that started up at just the right time in the middle of the afternoon.

I didn't take any pictures of the beautiful things for sale, although it seemed to me to be a little less congested than it was last year and I probably could have. Other people have cute sheep pictures, too - Emily decided they were too loud (imagine that - sheep too loud) because she heard them complaining while they got their show-ring trims, so she didn't want to go into the sheep barns and by 4:00 I was too tired to care. We dragged ourselves home, and in the twinkling of an eye the house filled up with people. I swear there was someone spindling in every corner. At one point I wandered around with the camera and took a few shots but I'm sure I missed some people. I think we have discovered the official limit on the number of people who can be in my house at one time.

Robyn, Liz, and Mary, with Laura in the foreground.

Sam, Elizabeth, Georgiana, Tina, and Mel, with Joanne in the foreground.

Tina, Jen, Melanie, Elka, Vicki, and Jen, with Kerry in the foreground.

Seeking peace on the porch - Pam, Roberta, and Judy (Joanne's mom).

Laura finished an object while we were sitting there - here is her unblocked faroese-shaped feather and fan shawl.

Sorry for the bad pictures, I was just too tired and will do better next year.

I didn't buy too much stuff - a little more than I intended, but serious quality.

Sock yarn from Tess. I went there with this at the top of my list, as the Conwy socks I made last year turned out so well.

The most interesting carded batts of angora, silk, and wool, one ounce each. I don't remember the name of the seller of these but she was in the main building tucked next to one of the side exit doors. I have never spun angora and if I'd read the sign before I laid hands on this stuff I might have walked by, but oh boy once I picked one up I could not put it down. This will need a good amount of twist so it will have to wait its turn on the big wheel but if I can spin it fine I can get a little scarf out of each batt.

A very lightweight Bosworth midi spindle - this one is oak, and weighs about .9 ounces. I picked it up and tried it out with some fiber they had lying around, and I was instantly in love. I tried a mini last year and it didn't really click for me, but then I found out that they had midis that were under an ounce if you picked the lighter woods - and wow. You can probably find more fabulous looking spindles around, but nothing spins like one of these midis.

1000 yards of Brooks Farm 'Harmony' wool/silk/mohair, for a shawl. This is the purchase that sort of broke the bank, but with tuition bills starting this July, am I likely to buy it next year? No! This color was impossible to photograph, but it is lavender and grey-green like the lavender bushes outside my front door. I can't find it on their website, either. You'll just have to take my word for it.

Two hanks of Mountain Colors Bearfoot sock yarn. I loved knitting with it so much in December, I have to do it again. The first color I picked up was called 'Crazy Woman' so I knew it was meant to be.

I did actually get a lot of knitting done during the weekend, and Emmy and I got some nice little gifties too, but I didn't have the energy to take a second round of photographs. I'll save something for next week. Thanks for visiting us, everyone, hope to see you again next year!