Category: Blog

Despite my recent obsession with spinning posts on the blog, I don’t get as much time with my wheel as you think, which is due in part to the fact that my almost-two-year-old niece Violet has a tendency to want to touch my wheel while I’m spinning. Little fingers and spinning wheels do not mix. So Wednesdays have become my new day to devote to spinning since little Vi goes away for the day.

(The fiber pre-spun)

My latest finished yarn is the Alpaca/Silk blend I’ve mentioned before, which I call “Haiku.” This was my first attempt at lace weight, and now I am in love. Lace is one of my favorite things to knit, so it’s only natural that it’s become one of my favorite yarn weights to spin.

Haiku

4 ounces
80% Alpaca, 20% Silk
2 ply, 32 WPI
648 yards

I already have plans to make this into a Miralda triangle shawl (Ravelry link). And it didn’t take very long for me to start my next lace spinning project (maybe two days). So now it’s time for me to go get on the wheel so I can turn this lovely stuff into lovely yarn.

I finally got a chance to use my own handspun in a project for the first time. It definitely taught me a lot about what I need to do to improve my spinning techniques, mainly, focus on not underplying, which was the case for the Oatmeal yarn. Luckily my more recently spun yarns have been better, so now I need to knit with them to see how I’m doing.

Over Christmas I was lucky enough to get a signed copy of Whimsical Little Knits 2 from Ysolda Teague. I had been drooling over the patterns in this book, so when she offered signed copies for sale on her website over the holidays, I snatched one up. I plan to eventually make every pattern in this wee book, but here’s my first finished project:

Damson by Ysolda Teague

US size 7 needles
Lion Brand Fisherman’s Wool in Natural,
half a skein for garter stitch portion
Oatmeal Handspun yarn, 332 yards
Modifications include: going up a needle size,
adding an extra edging repeat

Because of my color choices, this shawl came out to have a very vintage look to it. To show it off to it’s best potential, I just kept it simple and closed it with an Owl pin in the front when I wore it this past Sunday to church. Wearing pinned shawls over solid color shirts, jeans and little flat shoes has become my new favorite attire. The other night my parents asked me how many shawls I was going to make and my reply was, “until I have one in every color to go with every outfit.”

Since I’ve just started spinning in the last few months, I thought it would be fun to devote this year to producing more of my own handspun. My fiber stash has already outgrown its designated bin, so I need to be more diligent with doing the actual spinning.
My most recently finished yarn was back in October. I had 4 ounces of Merino in a light green/vareigated and 4 ounces in a solid dark green. I spun each color separate, then plied them together to make a 2 ply yarn.
I ended up with some of the light green leftover, so I got to try Navajo plying for the first time. The great thing about Navajo plying (aka chain plying) is that you can ply with only a single strand, and it turns it into a 3 ply yarn.

Green Gables

I call the yarn “Green Gables,” because I had just recently watched the Anne of Green Gables/Avonlea series, and this yarn reminded me of the lush green scenery throughout the movies. It’s hard to find colors like these in the desert.
Now I’m working on spinning up an 80% Alpaca/20% Silk blend that is absolutely heavenly to spin! It’s so easy to work with, and so far I’m happy with the results. This yarn will be a laceweight, so even though I’ve only got 4 ounces to spin up, it’s been taking forever. Luckily my technique is improving with each yarn, so I’m looking forward to seeing the finished results.

Two weeks ago I decided at the last minute that I wanted to make all my girls gifts for Christmas. I already had a bunch of scarves and hats from year’s past to give to a few friends, but I didn’t have enough to give to all. So I wrote out my list of names and began whipping out more scarves and hats. In the end I had 19 gifts to hand out on Sunday at church, 4 projects which were completed in the previous 36 hours. Boy were my hands tired from all that knitting.
So this week, I have no gift-knitting left to do, but I am working my fingers off trying to finish a Christmas sweater. I had started this project at the beginning of December to hopefully finish in time for a Christmas party on Sunday, but when my last minute gift-making took up all my time, I decided to put it away to finish for Christmas Day instead. Unfortunately, I worked more hours this week than I was anticipating, so now it’s a race to see if I’ll finish it in time. I have a sleeve and a half left to make, then all the finishing and blocking, and only 24 hours to do it in. Hopefully it will be a Christmas miracle.

Joyful knitting, peaceful spinning, happy crocheting, and Merry Christmas!

Just in time for the premiere of Deathly Hallows, I finished this “charming” sweater in Ravenclaw colors. The blue was souvenir yarn from Iowa when my parents visited there a few years ago. I knew that it would become a pullover, but just never found the right pattern. And then the book “Charmed Knits” came out with a replica of one of Ron’s handmade “jumpers” (jumper=the British English word for “sweater”) from the fourth movie that I knew would be a perfect pattern for this yarn.

Ravenclaw Ragg
Pattern: Ron’s Ragg Raglan from “Charmed Knits”
US Size 8 needles
Yarn: Bernat Denim Style in Navy (4 skeins) and Grey (2 skeins)
4 Metal buttons from Joann’s

Unfortunately, when I went to start this sweater a few weeks ago, I realized that I didn’t have quite enough yarn. So I came up with the brilliant idea to use a different colors for the sleeves, and viola, problem solved, right? Wrong. I failed to realize after I was halfway done with the sweater that I was working it in one piece in the round, and that using a different color for the sleeves would require intarsia. Intarsia?!?! To put it mildly, I dislike intarsia, so I didn’t relish the fact that in order to finish the sweater the way I wanted to would require this technique.
Luckily, it only lasted a few days and the tangled mess turned out to be a sweater I love. I modified it to only have an opening on one side, and the metal buttons add a touch of extra charm. And yes, it’s as comfy as it looks. When I wore it, I wanted to curl up in a corner and read a book; a true Ravenclaw sweater. Instead, I watched the midnight showing of Deathly Hallows, which is a good second choice.

Can you guess what I’m working on right now? Yup, another sweater.

Over the summer, I managed to finish a sweater that I had started at the end of last spring. This was my first attempt at converting a sweater made flat to a sweater made in the round. And like every time I make a sweater, I was afraid that this one wouldn’t fit. But thanks to a wonderful thing called wool, a little bath revealed a perfect fit.

Penny Cardi
Vogue Knitting Fall 2008 (ravelry link)
Patons Classic Merino Wool “Paprika”
US Size 5 needles
Buttons handmade by Kathy Canuel

In past years, I have been prone to stay away from anything that wasn’t primary or pastel; but lately, I’ve been drawn to natural fibers and tones, and my new favorite is this burnt orange color, or as Paton calls it, “Paprika.” It’s orange without being road-cone orange.
Another modification I made to this sweater was to add the coin-cables down each sleeve and a panel on the back. If I was going to go to through all the work of making a “cabled” sweater, I didn’t want to just stop with the two panels on the front. In my opinion, adding the extra cables makes this sweater that much better.

And thanks to a cold front, I’ll probably be wearing this sweater this next week, possibly for Thanksgiving. Happy Turkey Day!

It’s finally Fall, and finally Fall weather here in Arizona. Unfortunately, we don’t really experience the changing and falling of the leaves, so I found myself imitating that phenomenon in places where there are actual trees in my knitting.

Pattern: Lilac Leaf Shawl from the book “Knitted Lace of Estonia”
Yarn: 550 yards of Conjoined Creations Pastimes, 100% soysilk
Needles: US size 5

This shawl was my first experience with soysilk yarn, which was gifted to me by a fellow knitter, and I have to say that it’s not my favorite. It’s very shiny, which is great for lace, but also very slippery. The slippery factor was okay as far as the knitting, but when I wore it, I felt like I couldn’t keep it in place or keep the shape the way I wanted it to be. It’s beautiful though, so I guess that’s all that matters.
I loved this pattern, but I did omit the nupps, because I hate the little blighters. They seem a little pointless to me because I have another lace shawl that had nupps on it, and now the little things are flattened after a few wears. Kinda ruins the point of having something 3-dimensional if they just flattened out. I also ran out of yarn towards the end, so had to skimp on the ending border, but it’s barely noticeable to anyone other than me, and not a big deal since a lot of lace patterns don’t always have matching borders for rectangular shawls. All in all, I’d say my first rectangular lace shawl was a success.

I’m proud to show off my second skein of handspun. This yarn actually better resembles yarn than the first one I made. The dark plum color was my first wheel-spun single and the lavender was my first completed spindle-spun single. Because the plum was spun at a larger gauge than the lavender, it created a “peek-a-boo” effect when I plied the two together, hence the name for this yarn “PeekaBoo Purple.”
This yarn came out to be about 60 yards, which just might be enough for me to make an Urchin. I’ve always wanted to make this beret using a very unique yarn, but never found one that was unique enough. I guess I had to make my own in order to find just the right one.

PS> I bought my first spinning wheel! It should be here in about a week, so I’ll post pictures as soon as it gets here.

Yes, you read that post title right, I have finally entered the world of handspun yarn. I’ve been wanting to get into handspinning for a long time now, after seeing so many knitters create beautiful, one-of-a-kind yarns, but didn’t have the money to buy a spinning wheel. Then a few weeks ago, I found out that you can spin your own yarn without a spinning wheel, using a small device called a “spindle.” It’s basically a hand-held wooden dowel with a round piece and a hook attached, weighing anywhere from half an ounce to 3 ounces. The lighter the spindle, the thinner the yarn you can create.
I was able to acquire two spindles (one top whorl, one bottom whorl), some fiber and a getting started book from someone on Ravelry a few weeks ago and started trying to figure it out. Of course, I was making it a lot harder than it actually is in the beginning, and after a forage for YouTube videos and countless hours of scouring the web, I started to figure out how to use the thing. Or so I thought.

My first yarn turned out okay. I had the basic mechanics down, but I still needed to learn the finer techniques. My first yarn came out to be a very uneven, slubby, glorious 11 yards, which barely made a cowl when supplemented with another yarn. But I’m still very proud of it.
Then I went to visit my friend who got me kick-started into spinning who was able to borrow a wheel for us to practice on. Thank goodness for her because I was much more lost than I thought. After showing me better techniques on how to prepare the fiber for spinning, called drafting, I have become much better on the spindle, as you can see in the picture below:
And, and, I was able to try out the wheel. One word: LOVE! I’m in love with the wheel, which I had no doubt would happen, so I’m saving up every dime I can in order to buy one. I have my eye on a nice, portable, folding one that will be more practical for someone with tight living quarters (if you can call a spinning wheel practical, that is, but I digress).
So now, not only will I have a yarn stash, but I will have a fiber stash as well.