KnitMe

New to who?

LilyBlue says, "Good morning. I have only been in the world for 17 weeks, so everything is new to me. I know that the rest of you are not so lucky..."

Here are the Panda socks, finally complete.

I really like this yarn and the way the socks come out. It is as splitty as you could imagine, so fixing a dropped or splitted stitch is a royal pain, but it makes a lovely fabric. It's also vulnerable to gauge variations. When I finished the second sock, having carefully counted the exact same number of repeats on the leg as I did on the first sock, it was more than half an inch shorter. I picked out the sewn bindoff and added 4 more rows to make it come out looking more like the first one. The foot is a little smaller, too, but not so much that they can't be worn.

I tried to take a picture of the completed back of 'Ylva' along with the half of the front that I have completed, but it was too blurry, so you are spared.

This is the afghan, after almost one complete pattern repeat. I am feeling better about my yarn usage, and I may even do an extra repeat of the pattern if I have enough yarn, to get closer to the length I'd have gotten with the recommended yarn. I am going to count how many balls I used for the border plus one pattern repeat, and save off that many for the other end, then see how much yarn I have to dedicate to the rest of the middle. It's not a very forgiving pattern, having 76 rows in the pattern repeat.

I'm still spinning the rainbow merino and hope to ply next weekend. I couldn't quite fit the entire 4 ounces on one bobbin so I have one bobbin plus a bit on the other.

I also decided I was sick of my black plastic cell phone cover, and made myself a little felted cell phone cozy.

It took about half an hour to knit (worsted weight yarn) and 15 minutes to felt by hand in the sink with hot and cold water. I found the 'pattern' in blog comments someplace when I searched for 'felted cell phone cozy', and changed it by adding a one-row buttonhole near the top. If I were to do it again I'd make it longer and narrower, but it fills the bill.

I hope to have something next week that will be new to you as well as to LilyBlue. Meantime, lie around in the shade as much as you can.

New Spinning Wheel

I've been tagged for a meme and I haven't forgotten, but it will have to wait for another post, because there is big news at my house: a new spinning wheel and its first FO!

I'm still pinching myself to make sure that I'm not dreaming. Last month Sivia Harding decided to sell her Journey Wheel, and she allowed me to buy it. It's a single treadle, double drive wheel. Whisper light, responsive as a sports car, and thanks to the double drive, oh so very smooth. I do love a driven bobbin!

I sat down to spin right away, and within a few days it announced 'I'm Cherry Berry." So Cherry it is, and Cherry she will stay. I wanted to make something special for the JW's first project.

I chose Lilibet.

Lilibet is a finewool/kid/silk blend from The Silkworker. I did the math and spun it carefully according to Anne Field's formulas, doing the singles and plying based on the crimp of the wool (14 cpi would you believe) and the loft of the fiber. Lilibet rewarded me with a fingering yarn that is bouncy and full of life, and glows as if lit from within.

What did Lilibet turn into?
Here's a clue:

It's the graceful tip of Sivia's Diamond Fantasy Scarf. Here is the DFS blocking.

I made Lilibet into the DFS as a tip of the hat to Sivia's great design, and as a big thank-you for entrusting me with her JW.

Thank you, Sivia!!!

A snail's pace

Well, nothing seems to be growing very fast, and what's more, all my photos are blurry.

I am doing the armhole shaping on Ylva, with the lovely little cable detail running up it. This has the added advantage of snugging the armhole edge a little bit in the vertical dimension, so I won't have to worry about it sagging there.

The color of this yarn is hard to describe, it's sort of part brick and part red rose.

The afghan is still growing, I'm almost halfway through the first of three pattern repeats.

I'm enjoying this knitting, Kathy Zimmerman's cables are always fascinating.

I started spinning the rainbow-dyed superwash merino for Emily's scarf. I'm trying for the longest possible color runs, so I'm not splitting the roving lengthwise - I'm just tearing off a section, whacking it on the wheel to soften it up, and then trying very hard to spin one color at a time. It's working out pretty well, this stuff is easy to spin.

Being short on good fiber material, I have no choice but to fall back on beautiful cats.

Meme again?

I don't know if it's entirely kosher for someone to tag a person that posts on the same blog as they do, MELANIE I'M TALKING TO YOU... heehee I doubt I can think of 7 random things that are actually interesting, but I'll try.

First to get the more interesting stuff out of the way. Here's an in-use shot of the Cable Down raglan sweater - I was trying to give a good idea of how the sleeves are shaped and blocked out,

I lengthened the sleeves a little, because I was thinking, why would I want a sweater this weight that had 3/4 sleeves? I'm glad I did as they turned out a perfect length - long enough, but not hanging down to my knuckles. The yarn is very soft and smooth and I'm pleased with how this turned out.

The afghan is, of course, slow going, but it is pleasant knitting, poofy and plush.

I'm beginning to think I'm burning yarn too fast, so I'm going to start scrounging the swap lists for more.

I made some progress on Ylva, too, and got past the motif on the back.

I shortened the length of it just a tad because I didn't want it to be an unflattering length for me, so I did the motif about 2 inches sooner than the pattern called for. I love the Agatha shell I made a couple of years ago, but it ended up sort of the least fortunate length on me, so I'm going to try to head that problem off at the pass this time.

I am liking the Hempathy yarn well enough, it's dry and stiff like cotton but it has a sort of crunchy-granola hand to it that makes me think it will soften with washing. I have to decipher the markings on the label, as there are no verbal washing instructions, and I'm not fluent in international washing symbols.

I also have half a second Panda sock done so it's just the round and round from here.

Now, the triumph and tragedy of spinning. I finished my silk/merino and got ready to ply it with the cashmere. It was clear from the beginning that I was going to have more yardage of the cashmere.

So, I persevered. Of course. What else is there to do?

The tragedy:

6 grams of lovely fine-spun cashmere singles that turned instantly into a tangled mess when I tried to ply them up. What a waste. It was yards and yards, it took me 15 minutes to make the andean ply bracelet.

But what was left was pretty good.

Fifty grams and about 300 yards. I think it will knit as laceweight. Handspun yarn just doesn't have the yardage for its grist that millspun yarn has, does it? I have never been able to make it do so. Less air in it I guess.

It's soft and shiny, if a little underplyed I think.

I love it white like this, but it would probably be cool dyed also, the two plys would take the color differently. I have never been a scarf person but lately I seem to be wanting lots of soft lacy scarves. Hm.

My next project is yarn for a scarf for Emily.

This is superwash merino top from Winderwood Farm, one of my favorite eBay sellers. Sam inspired me a couple of weeks ago with the rainbow yarn she made from some similar fiber from the same vendor, and Emily had mentioned this winter that she would like another scarf. I intend to try to spin this fine enough to 3 ply it for the color runs.

Now how about seven random boring things about me?

1) Prudence is not my real name.

2) I live in Baltimore. The Washington DC area is the farthest south I have ever lived, I am a Yankee through and through. The farthest west I've ever lived was Michigan if going to school counts, and Northern Virginia if going to school doesn't count.

3) My daughter is graduating from kindergarten today.

4) I have four cats. There is no prayer that anything in our house is totally free of cat hair.

5) I rarely buy anything new. Clothes, shoes, books, records, electronics equipment. I am very cheap. I consider it a major enhancing factor in our lifestyle. Even spinning wheels - one is used and one is new, AND another used one is going to come to our house later this summer, stay tuned for major wheel yummies....

6) I hate to cook and I hate math. My daughter loves to cook and loves math. Hmph.

7) When I was in junior high I was a MAJOR fan of 'Dark Shadows' and was crushed when it went off the air in 1971. I joined Netflix specifically so I could rent my way through the entire show on DVD, one disk at a time.

I think everyone I know who blogs has done this or been tagged to do it, so I can't help pass on the infection... Sorry I'm not as interesting as some people I've seen do this meme! Maybe Sam will come along behind me and say something inspired... Sam?? Sam??