Violetly WIP-ing

Dear Blog,

It is fall. I know this not because the air has turned crisp and sweet-smelling, or because of the changing colors of leaves, but because of the even more deeply and intuitively derived senses that are common to all knitters. What's on our needles? Hats, scarfs, and mittens. What is the fiber of choice? Wool, or to those not inclined, at least something decently warm and cushy.

Something not universal to knitters, but no less a dead give away to the return of Autumn for me is the color of my knitting. For fall it's undeniable that purple is my preferred color. Purple is definitely to be found in my current WIPs.

First a hat, my second go at a beloved pattern : Laural

Second, some glorious spinning

Spinning progress;

The bad : Validating the drop-spindles' name by ubiquitous dropping, continued irregularity of spinning, difficulty in attaching new bits of fiber

The good : Spinning is slowly but surely becoming more consistent. The thick-and-thin sections are mostly clumped around the places where I have to join new bits of fiber. In my head I've worked out a perfect solution to avoid this problem that involves judicious pre-drafting. Perfect in theory but as-yet to be tried successfully under lab conditions.

FO: Rivulet

Hello blog,

Admittedly, both knitting and blogging have been a *little* slow lately, but I did recently finish my rivulet scarf!

Rivulet is a very pretty, yet simple lace pattern. I wont do specifics here on my blog, since I knit it with my own handspun (love that feeling!) Once again, it's a scarf not really long enough for wrapping around the neck. I did have some yarn left over, but I decided I liked it at this shorter length.

I really like the combined texture and feel of the yarn - it's got a bit of silky feel to it because of it's tinsel content, but there's also a rough 'homemade' feel to it as well because of my level of spinning ability. I really enjoy the juxtaposition of the luxury feel of the fiber and the variation of the spinning, and the wide diamond pattern really balances the whole thing out visually.

Another thing I liked about this fiber; the clear difference after blocking. Before blocking the lace felt bouncy - like there was a bit of extra tension going on in the whole piece, but after a good half-hour soak and a two-day block, it feels smooth and flow-ish ^__^

Cheers!

BTW, thanks to my sister for taking such good FO pictures for me, you really do deserve a raise ;)

Don't drop the spinning

A few days ago I started spinning again. It's a funny story how this happened. I went to the Maryland Sheep and Wool, and this year I went with (most) of my family; Mom, Dad, two of my brothers, and two sisters. After sitting in traffic for 2 hours and eating a yummy but not very filling lamb burger, and a hot dog, I started looking at the vendors. Now it was crowded and moving around was hard, so in the end I didn't even get to look at half of the booths, (but that's not the point). Cordell, who has a technically slanted mind, took one look at a display of spinning wheels and decided he wanted one. I tried to console him by telling him he could learn to spin on a drop spindle but he said that they were 'dumb' and he wanted a wheel. (Secretly I kinda agree, there's something really romantic about a spinning wheel that the drop spindle just can't beat). Anyway, I was frantically trying to decided what my souvenir should be this year (cause I only ever buy one thing ) And honestly, I wasn't seeing anything that really called out to me. Most of the yarn you can buy other places, and my stash is already big enough, I don't need a bunch of single balls of unique yarns. Finally, I found a stall selling beginners spindles. There was a stall that was selling CD spindles like mine for 15 bucks, plus a bit of fiber, but I think my CD spindle is too heavy and unbalanced and wanted to trade up, I ended up getting an $8 dollar Ashford spindle, and some 'scrap fiber" For Cordell and Melodie. And sure enough, even though Cordell had said that drop spindles were lame, he immediately took possession of the spindle. I gave them both lessons on how to use it and it became clear almost immediately that the small scraps of fiber I had bought for 75 cents wasn't going to be nearly enough. (You know, I thought they'd think it was cool and then get bored of it that same day, and I take the spindle home with me). Instead, I ended up giving them a large chunk of the fiber I'd bought at A Tangled Skien the last time I got the urge to spin. I figured I wasn't spinning it, so they might as well, right?

I did save myself a small bit because all of that teaching had given me the taste for it and as they say, the rest is history.

I'm sill having trouble with this fiber, it's hard for me to draft, I'm pretty much pre-drafting it to the size I want before I spin, but I'm still having problems; first my singles were underspun, and then I started spinning too thin and having it break. I spun until my CD spindle refused to spin anymore, and then I plied it using a technique which I believe is called 'navajo plying'. If anyone out there is still wondering how hard it is to navajo ply on a drop spindle, let me tell you; It's easy. When I first read about it/Watched you tube videos of it, I thought it looked way too hard to do on a spindle, but it's not. It's actually easier than spinning a consistent width which I still can't do ^^;;

Anyway, I don't think I'll have enough yarn to knit anything with, but I'm def back in the spinning game. For the first time in a long time, spinning 'real' yarn seems doable to me.

Le slouch

Hello, Blogverse. Theo here.






This is a project I finished awhile ago and have been meaning to take pictures of.  (I apologize in advance for the poor quality. Taking pictures of your own head is an art form I have yet to perfect )
The pattern is Le Slouch; an amazing pattern that I adore. I did some modifications; seed stitch brim, and stockinette for the rest. The most important part though, is the yarn.  Hand spun by yours truely merino/tencel.  





Now, I tried my very very best to take in account for the gauge of the yarn and change up the numbers for the pattern accordingly, however, seeing as my hand spun was uneven and not a uniform weight... all of my best efforts were wasted and the brim is just a tad too wide. I'll need to use hair clips or bobby pins to keep it on. But still, I love it. 




'Cheers
Theo