Knitwhim Episode 13 : The World May Be Ending

Hello everyone!  Pardon the delay, (and my bad hair! That's why I'm wearing a hat! )
I've had a weird week of ice, snow, and earthquakes!

Fortunately not being able to go to work means lots of knitting and spinning!

FOs

Endpaper Mitts by Eunny Jang
Beth's Little Start Afghan by Beth Parsons




WIPs

Ictis by Boo Knits

Cotton Spinning

Enabling

NerdWars/Kathleen's Spin

People

Spindle Candy
Pack It On Challenge
Hipstrings
Team Sasquatch
Ravellenic Winter Games 

Sabrina's Sample

Hello Blog,


Today I have a bit of a spinning FO.  1.8 ounces spun up into approximately 190 yards of 'fingering weight' yarn.  19 WPI.

Not sure what the fiber was, all I know is that it came from Maryland Sheep and Wool from what seems like 100 years ago. It's probably Merino though. Staple length is relatively short compared to what I'm used to spinning. 

Spun this as a single all on one bobbin and then chain plied it to get a three ply. Seems like light fingering/heavy lace weight to me. Ish. It blows my mind how imprecise those definitions can really be.

Spun this up for my sister. Not sure what she will do with it, but  I hope she likes it :) 

As always, check out more FOs at Tami's. 

FO: Shaelyn

Hello everyone! How are you? I'm good. Today was actually kind of warm. Warm enough that my hands/face didn't feel like they were going to freeze off during my walk from the parking lot to my classroom, but still cold enough to need my coat. Can't wait till summer!

My FO today is a lace shawl knit in fingering weight yarn - Malabrigo sock to be exact. I'm really going to need some warmer weather before I can wear it :)

The pattern is Shaelyn by Leila Raabe, and I LOVE it! It's pretty much got all of my favorite design elements for lace :

- Triangle Shaped 

- Lacy Bits

- Garter Stitch Bits

- Easy to Memorize/ not very many pattern rows

- FAST TO KNIT

Start to finish, this took me two weeks to knit. That's fantastically fast for me :)  

I already have plans to knit a second one!

Thanks for stopping by, and don't forget to check out Tami's for more FOs! 

FO Cover Song

Here is my second go at the Chelsea Market Hat.  This one was done up in US6 and US9 needles using Malabrigo RIOS. SO YUMMY.





I did run in to one tiny little problem. I was so excited to cast on that I didn't block my swatch, so when I finished the hat and it was a lovely fitting beanie, I suddenly became afraid of blocking it. What if it grew too big during blocking?

I did some time lord swatching, blocked it, seemed OK. Just to be safe, I wove some crochet thread around the brim and cinched it as tight as possible during blocking.

The hat turned out perfect! I think the crochet thread was the key to success in this project, I'm very happy with how it turned out, but I'm pretty sure the brim would have stretched too much without the reinforcement!



As always, check out Tami's for more FOs.

Spinning FO

Hey blog!

I recently finished spinning 4 oz of 100% organic Polwarth from Gale's Art. It was amazing fiber and I can't wait to get some more!

Here are some pictures :)

400 yards 18 WPI.

As always check out Tami's for more FOs! 

Spinning FO

Hey blog!

Today's post is a Spinning FO. I participated in two different SALS with this 4 oz braid of BFL. I'm really enjoying the SALs because they encourage me to try new things and I get exposed to new things that I might not have heard of otherwise! I've learned a LOT from doing the New-to-you Spin along with The Yarnraising podcast, and I also entered this in Fat Squirrels squirreled away SAL ^^;; Squee!

So this was a birthday present last year. I really thought I was going to buy myself a wheel for christmas last year but it just didn't pan out, bit of a bummer, but I got my wheel this August so this story has a happy ending :) I've been saving this braid until I felt like I had practiced a bit on the wheel, and so I was confident that I wouldn't  "ruin" it.

What I did was split the braid in half and spin each half on a seperate bobbin in order to do a two ply. The idea with this was to maintain the color changes without chain plying. On that end it was only a partial success, I did maintain some of the color change BUT I also got some barber polling. This is a combo of not splitting the braid evenly (maybe) and also because I didn't spin both singles consistantly. One was noticably thiner than the other. Oh well.

I am very pleased with the yarn over all though. At 26-30 WPI its the closest to lace weight I've ever spun. I also paid a lot of attention to the plying this time because I prefer yarns with a tighter twist in the ply and I feel like my previous yarns perhaps didn't have as much plying twist in them as I probably wanted. 

Ended up with 700 yards in the main skien. I had extra on one bobbin and got maybe 40 yards of chain ply from that :)

Thanks for reading, make sure to check out the other cool FOs at Tami's!

FO Los Loirios

Hello blog!

As you may remember, I recently joined my first Mystery KAL, the Los Lirios Pattern by al-abrigo. It ran through the month of September and the pattern was free for people participating in the KAL. Unfortunately it's not available for free anymore, but it is an extremely well made pattern and it turned out very nice, so you should definitely consider buying it :)

the pattern calls for between 550-700 yards of lace weight yarn. I did the small size and used Juniper Moon Farm Findley a 50/50 silk/wool blend laceweight that comes with nearly 800 yards, so I had more than enough left over!
Knit on size 6 needles, and I love the way it drapes. I probably could have gone down a needle size or too, but I think it's very nice the way it came out :)

You shouldn't be surprised to hear, this is going to be part of my flex schedule entry for Nerd Wars Round 1.

FO to the MANX

Hello! How are you today?  I'm doing pretty good. Preparing for Shop Hop and the start of Nerd Wars, so My WIPs have been rather light this week. I did, however, finish some spinning!

This is 8oz of Manx Loaghtan from GnomeSpunYarn. I split it up and spun it on to three bobbins in order to do a traditonal 3-ply.   Result is a very springy smooshy worsted weight yarn (10 WPI). It's exactly what I wanted to spin so I'm pretty stoked. In retrospect, the plying twist does seem pretty loose. I like it (its fine, not falling apart or anything, plenty of store bought yarns are plied this loose ), but I wonder what effect it will have on the wearbility. I'm pretty sure more twist = more durability. 

I got a bit over 400 yards so I'm hoping to do a simple garter stitch hat + mittens with this ^^;; 

Despite careful planning, weighing, and use of math, I still ended up with a bit of extra on one bobbin. I'll chain ply it just for some back-up yardage. 

This yarn was my first entry in Malia's New to You SAL. I hope to do at least one more, it runs until the end of October. 

Check out Tami's for more FOs! 

FO Friday 13th

  

Hey guys, how are you? Hope you are enjoying this lovely Friday the 13 ^^;;

My FO for you is the Chelsea Market Hat 

Knit with size 6 and 9 US needles, using 1 skein of Vanna’s choice solid.

I think I’m going to be doing an acrylic yarn review post soonish. I’ve knit with this yarn in the past without any problem and thought it was decent, but this color/skein has a very visible fluff on it that makes me worry it will pill very quickly :/ Even worse it was knit for another person (They chose the yarn). I hope they aren’t disappointed with the quality.

The Hat Pattern, however, is lovely. I will most definitely be making this pattern again (with a nice wool next time. )

Cheers! Don’t forget to visit Tami’s for more FOs J  

Snails’ Pace

Hello blog, how are you?

I’m good. It’s still pretty warm outside, but the humidity is dropping fast. I’ve had to whip out my chap stick and nasal spray, and soon I can tell I’ll be doing my daily body lotion routine. I know, ridiculous, right? It’s not even really Autumn yet but I’m already starting to dry out.  My computer can feel it too, it was emitting an alarming burning smell this morning so I turned it off and left it for a few hours, now the smell is gone but everything is loading sooooo slowly, I know it’s my computer and not my internet connection. Grr! 

Anyway, kind of appropriate because today’s post is a crochet FO! 

Martin the Snail 

By FreshStitches,

Random sport/dk  acrylic  with a G hook.

I knit it for Stacy’s Tiny-a-long, which lasts until September 18^th. So if you are reading this now you can still make something to enter if you hurry! I’m still a  newbie crocheter and this project took me 4 days to do… But it’s not like I was working on it for long periods at a time, you know? I’m sure if you just sat down and did this you could pump it out in a day. Plus most people seem to be using sock yarn or even thread for theirs, so if you did that I’d bet it would go even faster!

I think it’s kinda cute, don’t you?

Crooked Cathedral

Hello Blog!

Today is about a very special project that I finished in July! It's the Crooked Cathedral Shawl  that I knit during my honeymoon.

The yarn is also special because it was a wedding present from Jeanne :)  Also, it perfectly matched the color of my wedding shoes, but I think that might have been a lucky coincidence ^^;;  Usually if I can't get photos of me wearing something I just post a picture of it, but I thought something this special should have at least simi-nice photos, so I waited until I could get my husband to take them :)

Started : June 24th

Finished : July 3rd

Yarn : Araucania Huasco

Needles : US2

Check out other FOs at Tami's!

Death by Kool-Aid

Hello Blog!


Today is going to be pretty photo heavy, ok? ^_^

Took my hand-spun



And this set up  (these are just the swatches, I used glass mixing bowls to dye the actual yarn )



To end up with this!



It's my first pound of fiber spun on the wheel. I got several skeins in different weights. Three (the blues and greens ) are worsted/bulky, the other two (red/purple) are fingering-ish

My friend Amanda also came over and did hers. She used  This tutorial to do three long color stripes.



Pretty, right?




Some notes : I got two packets of each color, and it wasn't really enough. We used everything up and there were definitely some parts of the yarn that ended up lighter than the rest due to lack of dye. Everything was dyed with the Kool-Aid except the green color, which was Hawaiian punch, works the same way!
 Also, this stuff will seriously dye your hands :)

SLEEK FO

w00t!

I am on a roll. Hopefully by now the Scheduled post thing is working smoothly. Can you tell I sat down and wrote all of this weeks posts on one day?  How else am I supposed to find the time?

I have TWO FOS that the blog has yet to see. One still hasn't been photographed yet, so fingers crossed you'll see it next week, the other is the infamous sleekit mitts, and if you watch my vlog you've already seen them.

These are the Sleekit Mitts  by Star Rabinowitz.  It's a free pattern, and let me just say that free patterns on ravelry are not all created equal. However, this one is superb! The thumb gusset alone is lovely and the whole design is simple yet elegant. If you are on the look out for a sweet mitt pattern that is free, look no further!

CO : March 12
BO : August 5
Needles : US 0
Yarn : 1/2 skien dream in color smooshy.



And yes, I am completely obsessed with dream in color yarns :)

Check out Tami's for more FOs!

BOMBED

Hey guys. This is a test of the scheduled blogging feature. If this has been posted on Tuseday August 27th the test was successful.

We managed to yarn bomb my mail box!!!!

It's super cute and I love it!!!!! 

FO : New Skills Aquired

Hello everyone,  Today I have two FO's on the theme of learning new things. The first one is Octopode Pandemonium.  I knit this pattern in order to practice crocheting in the round without dropping or adding a stitch. It was a huge success!!

Yarn was left over STR medium weight sock yarn in the Dragon Dance color way. BTW, have I mentioned I used to think that I hated crochet because I associated it with really cheap, splity, acrylic? It's taken me this long to realize that crochet can be just as nice as knitting if you use just as nice yarn ^^;;  Who knew?
Anyway, loved the pattern so much that I've already cast on another one. Perfect work project because it fits in my pocket and is hard to mess up!

Next up is my Two-at-a-time practice sock. I knit this with random left over  yarn, and they knitted up at pretty different gauges. The pink is red heart  and the yellow is Vanna's choice.  I learned a lot and completed it on my first try, without merging the two socks, so I'm considering this a success. However, I have some notes.

When they tell you that Magic Loop works best with a larger cable needle, that does NOT mean to try it on a 60" needle. Lesson learned.



I'm fuzzy on sock anatomy and had trouble placing the toe decreases as the instructions just said "On the instep" I originally had a stitch marker at the correct place, but removed it thinking that I knew what I was doing. I didn't. Doesn't really matter because nobody is going to wear these socks, but I'm sure the decreases were uneven.

The pattern I used gives nice clear instructions on how to use a cable needle to get these :

In a position for doing the decreases :

I ignored that and just did whatever. Don't have the patience for cable needles. The socks survived.

And thats it. It was easy once I got started, I got really bored towards the end and stopped waaaay before the pattern said to for the toe. (I think I still had like, 14 stitches or something, the pattern has you decrease to 8). I look forward to making real socks this way.

 

Somehow I managed to consistently twist the stitches on the outer edge sock (the one that you do the purl stitches for ). I'm not sure why that happened, but I'm sure it will seem obvious with time.

That's all. Thanks for reading!

FO : Bramble

Hello everyone, what a lovely morning! The sun is shining through my window, I got to sleep in for two whole hours, and I have finished my Bramble Shawl!
I knit this on US 2 size needles with Madeline Tosh Lace, in the Turquoise color way. From a purely fiber perspective, this has got to be my favorite lace-yarn so far. It's light and airy while still maintaining a feeling of substance and warmth. And soft, don't even get me started on how soft!

Let me tell you, this thing  was a trip!  I love the garter section at the beginning, but it certainly took a long time to finish. Even after I stopped working on my other projects to focus on Bramble exclusively, progress still crawled.

I'm finishing this a month late for the Gratitude KAL. But honestly, I don't know what I was thinking when I joined in. Clearly getting married half-way through was more time-consuming and distracting than I thought it would be!

Check out Tami's for more FO's, and check out my project on Ravelry for more photos ;)

FO : Wurm

Hello everyone,

Today I have an extra special FO to show you all. It started with a Christmas present from my sister

5.2 oz of BFL that got spun up on my drop spindle.  This braid contained most of my favorite colors. Purples, blues, grays... It was gorgeous. I knew from the beginning that I wanted to N-ply it, because that's the only way I know how to easily preserve the color transition with plying, and I didn't want it to be all barber-pole like. Those yarns are pretty to look at but I'm never sure what to knit with them. Besides I thought it would mute out the colors and make them all look muddy. 

I wanted to spin fingering weight - and parts of the finished yarn ARE fingering weight - but over all it's a solid worsted yarn. WPI varies between 8-12, and it ended up surprisingly even all things considered. Not that there weren't patches of too-thick or too-thin spots. But over all, I'm very proud of how the whole project turned out. 

Normally for spinners, I guess this would be the "end" of the "finished" spinning project. But of course I'm still mostly a knitter, so I couldn't wait to make something with the yarn. I cast on the Wurm hat with US6 needles, and did almost 5 repeats of the rib pattern before being forced to decrease and bind off - used all put a small bit of the yarn. Love the pattern, love the hat. Love everything. 

My favorite part of the pattern is that the brim is doubled. You knit 21 rows, with a purl row in the middle, fold it up, and knit around picking up and knitting together 1 live stitch with 1 stitch from the CO edge. Brilliant, and supper warm, without having to knit the whole thing doubled or with bulky weight ^__^

 

Don't stop here, you know you want to see more FOs