KnitMe

Nofo

Yo, I'm talking to you, yeah you're the one
I knit and I knit and you never get done
I think you're shackin' with Penelope when I'm not around
She ravels you out before she puts you down
Knawmean, nofo?

Ahem. NO FO.

This weekend I felt like spindling, so I took all the little test cops off my spindles and plyed them, or else threw them out if they were just not worth the time. Here is a clear demonstration of the difference between crimpy fibers and not-so-crimpy fibers. Both of these hanks were wound on the same niddynoddy. Look how much the bigger one has shortened.

The bigger one is (I think) cormo and rambouillet, and the smaller one is an unusual shetland sample that I got from a shepherd. They both had sat on the spindles for a long time so the twist was pretty inactive - they seemed terribly overplyed till I got them into hot water and they sort of balanced out.

I pulled out a bunch of bluefaced leicester roving to start spinning on the big wheel but it was just too darn hot to sit in that room. A spindle is movable. I got out some camel and silk top that Melane brought me as a MS&W hostess gift last year. It's a bit challenging, especially when it comes time to do joins, but it's spinning up pretty nicely.

I'm not sure how big a cop I can put on a little Golding Tsunami. We'll see how far I can push it. Then I'll have to figure out the best way to ply it without getting into a mess. Maybe I'll have to go with the old knitting-needle-lazy-kate approach. I think I have about 8 ounces of this stuff. Emily petted it and immediately wanted me to make something for her out of it. Yeah, right. We'll see.

More Yarn

I'm sure I'm not the only person to find it slightly panic-inducing that my spinning habit just puts more stuff into my stash...

This is 3 ounces of three-ply yarn from the rambouillet fleece that I dyed 4 colors and then blended with combs. I believe it's about 300 yards. Other than being a tad overplyed (VERY easy to do when you're navajo plying), it's a reasonably nice yarn. Incredibly elastic and cushy although not as smooth to the hand as it might be. And not so overplyed that the hank was unbalanced - it twisted almost one full twist when it came off the niddynoddy, and that easily washed out.

It has a slightly tweedy look because I left in some of the neps as I spun - they were almost all in the contrast colors and I hated to be pulling out any of the contrast colors. I think I will want to knit this on size 5 or 6 needles. Depending on how much I get from the rest of the bag, I think it would make a nice jacket or else a simple gansey-style pullover. My hope is that I will get 4 hanks this size, which would be enough for something useable.

Other than plying this on Saturday, I actually didn't spin this weekend. I combed a little to get out ahead of the next hank of this yarn, but I couldn't come to a decision about what I wanted to put on the big wheel. So I'll do a little fiber stash browsing over the next few days and make a choice.

Knitting fared better. I'm starting the heel on my second Eleanora sock, so I hope to have that done in a week or two. I finished the back of Tilia:

This is knitting up fairly quickly, and I just can't wait to wear it, it has such a nice feel to it. Because I'm using yarn that knits up at a slightly smaller gauge than the pattern calls for, I'm knitting the second size in width but following the length measurements for the smallest size. And I shortened the length of the body about an inch and a half - on me I want this style to be closer to top hip, and 24 inches in body length just seemed a little too long. We'll see how I feel about that when it's all done.

Yarn and Stuff

While Sam was busy getting acquainted with her brand new wheel last weekend, I was plying.

The two bobbins of singles looked pretty even:

but somehow they weren't:

so I had to grit my teeth and find a way to ply up what was left. I decided to wind a center pull ball on my trusty medicine bottle and do the best I could.

In the end, it worked out ok - I got about 40 yards of yarn out of that little ball, with only this left over when it disintegrated into a useless tangle:

It didn't even come up to a gram on my postal scale. So, not bad.

I ended up with a 1.9 ounce hank, and at least 420 yards. (According to my niddynoddy it is 420 meters, but I usually find that with springback in elastic yarns I end up closer to a yardage count than meters.)

I love this color - I don't know exactly what to call it but I love the blend of mauve and blue.

I'm really delighted with this yarn and it was not as difficult to spin as I expected. I am going to wait for the fall issue of Interweave Knits because there is another Evelyn Clark shawl in there that looks to be following in the footsteps of Flower Basket and will be perfect for this yarn.

I haven't started anything new on the big wheel yet. This is partly because it was so hot here this weekend that I couldn't sit for long in the room with the wheel, and partly because I'm not sure what to spin next, and partly because I'm concentrating on finishing up a hank of my combed dyed rambouillet. I should have a hank of that done next weekend.

During the week, before the temperature went crazy, I hurried to finish up my Highland Triangle. Shedding mohair on oneself when it's 100 degrees is not a pleasant prospect.

It is HUGE - well over 6 feet across the top and about 40 inches deep. I didn't block it with wires and pins because I didn't want it to get any bigger - I just laid it out and let its own weight hold it in place.

Hm, I guess that is not a very good Cheryl Oberle imitation...

I liked this pattern a lot - it's a little tedious because the patterns are simple, but the effect is very nice and it goes together quickly. I started it on June 8th, frogged and restarted on June 12, and finished on July 12th. I have about 1 1/2 ounces of yarn left, I'll have to figure out what to do with it.

I'm plugging away on my Eleanora sock #2, but it looks just like sock #1 did...

As the temperature climbed I decided it was time for my annual cotton project.

It's Tilia from the last Elsebeth Lavold book. The yarn is Knitpicks Shine sport weight and what a nice yarn this is. Smooth and silky, doesn't split all over the place, great stitch definition - a big improvement over plain cotton. I am going to love wearing this come fall. I'm also using my new Knitpicks double pointed needles and they are perfect for this pattern with its K3tog motif - very sharp points and smooth, well engineered cables and joins.

I started this project just in time, it's going to be 100 degrees for several days here. We were fortunate to spend two hours yesterday in a pool. Until our next pool day, I'll knit cotton.

Surprise, Surprise!

The Spouse and I recently celebrated the Big 25, and I got the surprise of my life. He brought this up from the garage the day before the actual Big Day:

Could it possibly be? I pulled the nifty little pegs at the sides:

and VOILA!

Wahooo! It's my coveted and lusted after Journey Wheel. I feel so very fortunate to have gotten her. Angela had mentioned that she'd seen her for sale at Woodland Woolworks. The Spouse took note and managed to snag the beauty. He told me that when the shop called back about his inquiry, they told him the wheel had already been sold. What he didn't tell me was that it had been sold to him the day before. Apparently, the woman at Woodland Woolworks didn't realize she was calling back the buyer. I had to smile at the effort he went to in order to keep the surprise. It was an incredibly thoughtful gift.

The wheel was made in January of 06, as Mr. Bosworth's signature attests. I'm sorry that she didn't suit her original owner, but am thrilled to pieces to have her. I really appreciate the open orifice ("Look, Ma! No hook required!"):

and the on-board lazy kate:

Some of her other charming features are the "gate" (where the orifice is mounted) that swings open for easy bobbin change out, and the fact that she came with a Scotch tension kit already installed. Huzzah! It's an interesting mechanism, in that you actually have to adjust both the Scotch and the double drive tensioners in this system, but once it's set up, there's no fiddling. Very, very cool.

Here are the first two skeins that came off of her:

The top skein is from an Aurelia Top Knot that I broke into chunks and spun from the fold, and the bottom is a standard two ply from some Corriedale cross fiber dyed by Winderwood.

I can't express how really clever and compact this wheel is. For scale purposes, here is a photo next to my Ghana knitting basket:
She will fit easily in the overhead compartment of an airplane, meaning that I can finally travel with my wheel. She's reasonably lightweight and easy to carry, not to mention clean-lined, elegant and beautiful in her cherry wood case. I am in deep smit with this wheel.

Who says that this is the silver anniversary? Me? I think it's most definitely wood.

In Circles

Friday evening, I accomplished this

because we had this

Our first meeting of the Baltimore spinners! yay! It was held in the back room at the Cloverhill Yarn Shop in Catonsville and was organized by Amie. By the time I took the photos, a couple of folks had left, but in the first photo you see Sarah, our hostess Chris, and Eunny. Oh, and Emily's bunny... In the second picture you see Molly, Amie, Erin, and Rebecca.

Now, to me Eunny is a celebrity, because Stephanie has rhapsodized about her work in the past and when Stephanie writes about you, that makes you famous. So it was cool to find out she's a neighbor. Go see her free pattern for a Print of the Wave stole.

We had a great time and plan to meet once a month. Hooray! If you're in the area and want to join us, visit our Yahoo group and send a message to the list owner.

I finally finished one of the Eleanora socks.

I grafted the toe last night approximately 10 minutes before I ceased being able to stay awake, but I was determined to have a picture of it today. It's a really nice sock. I hope I can make myself cast on for the second one tonight, because if I think too much about how long it took to knit the first one I might not get off the ground...

I also did about half of the border of Highland Triangle. The stitches of this shawl are quite simple, but I think it will be very cuddly when it's finished. The center is field of flowers and the border, if I'm not mistaken, is razorshell.

I started spinning the other angora batt, which is a real slow go because the fibers are so short. Maybe that will be done next week.

Keep cool, and raise a glass tomorrow to your electric company. If they're like our electric company, they are in danger of drowning in rivers of our money, poor things...