Progress! Well, A Start

There you have it, kids! I cast-on for the HelloYarn/Spunky Eclectic handspun sweater explosion. And then.....I couldn't stop knitting. This stuff is so soft! I'm knitting this up on US3s. I used a provisional cast on so that I could easily knit those live stitches up with row 6 or so of the body, in order to get a nice tidy hem edge - hem edge done with Jamiesons. I switched to the handspun, which I am working in 1 x 1 rows - it's blending beautifully!

When I swatched for this I worked it in 2 x 2 rows of alternating colors, but it seemed a little bit too stripey for my liking - I would rather have VERY DISTINCT stripes than the semi-stripes these 2 together were giving me. It's a rather loose gauge, but it has a wonderful hand to it. I started some shaping decreases, which will go for a bit. I'm still trying to figure out what to do with the top - crewneck, V-neck, etc. But I have plenty of time before I get there.

Meanwhile, I'll be teaching this week - Non-Adhesive Bookbinding. Anyone need a handbound blank book? I'll have about 8 teaching models by the end of the week. This teaching, of course, is cutting into my knitting time - I don't want to put this sweater down!

Baby, It's Cold Outside

Continuing on my path to ignore holiday crafting for others until the last possible minute, I have been foolishly working on.....foot garments. It HAS been cold, and this seems a reasonable way to handle the freeziness of it all. I'm on Sock #2 (of 2, just in case y'all were wondering) in the Helloyarn "Dusk" colorway. The yarn is a joy to work with - super squooshy, such vibrant colors, interesting pooling, not splitty at all.



I should be a good little crafter lady and get into the holiday hub-bub, but it hasn't really happened yet.

Miss Alayne was kind enough to send me some remnants of alpaca that she happened to have in her stash, in just the colorway I was seeking in order to complete the Anthropologie Hayride Capelet. After binding off, I had about....2 yards of yarn left - most certainly not enough for an I-Cord and pompoms! So making some cord is on the agenda, and then quick-like-a-bunny writing up the rest of this pattern (I'm halfway there!) for Miss Max to test-knit it (and then have one of her very own). I've got to tell ya, though....I am LOATHE to make any sort of significant length of I-Cord, donchaknow. In fact, I am loathe even to have others do it. Nonetheless, I think I've found a decent solution:



This is my super-cheap modified Lucet. I saw these at Rhinebeck (much MUCH nicer, though!), and they work in a similar way as spool-knitting. You wrap the yarn around a prong and flip the bottom loop over the top loop. Pull yarn to tighten, and rotate lucet in order to loop the other prong.....continue in this manner forEVER. You end up with a really nice boxy rope. I figured a lucet is nothing but 2 fixed prongs that you can easily slide some yarn over. I considered rigging up some chopsticks, but the plastic fork seemed All Class for this endeavor.

I'm taking suggestions for fast, cheap, outta-control holiday gifts I can make - any ideas?

On and Off the Needles

Well! Pictures, as promised. The above is a close-up of one of my TWO completed Socks That Rock, and I have to say that these socks do indeed RAWK. They are pretty rad. I'm not quite sure of why this color (Loch Ness) was one of the very few available when I managed to get to the booth dispensing such yarn (and got a free pattern book!), but I think it is just divine.

Also off the needles, after many many years, this blue mercerized cotton lace-ish scarf. I realized that it's scarf-like nature did not NEED me to complete the half ball of yarn remaining; I was never going to get to that. However, 5 rows of garter stitch and an easy bind-off seemed much more reasonable. Now to move it to the blocking pile......
But really what I want to tell you about is some reverse-engineering. Which I love.
I picked up some lovely alpaca while at Rhinebeck, and I think that I had this project in mind for it. I somehow fell in love with this (the drape, the swing, the warm!) and quickly realized that:
1. It's way too expensive for what it is,
2. I'd probably never wear it,
3. Looks easy enough!
and so began the task of reverse-engineering. Made infinitely easier by the most amazing ZOOM feature on that site! You can count the stitches!

Here then is a bit of process: I poked around to see what Barbara Walker had resembling the pattern and quickly found the rather simple "Horseshoe Pattern" - a 10 +1 repeat. Based on the pattern (and the stitch orientation) I could tell that the garment was knit from the bottom up. It was really just a matter of figuring out what the frequency of decreases was between the patterns. Some math, a bunch of random notes, zoom zoom zooming a lot, and a rather large cast-on later (382 stitches) gave me this:
.....and here's the Horseshoe pattern repeat:This yarn is really lovely to work with, and I think my numbers are (thus far) correct. Why am I doing this, if I know that I most likely will not wear it? Process knitter. Through and through. Fer reals.

Meanwhile, this has been beckoning from the "feed me" bin:Quilt pictures soon! Moth - in action! - soon! Handspun soon!

A Rather Large Wheel On Which to Spin Fiber, and 2 Cats In Costumery

Here's the glamour shot that yesterday's bobbin is a part of - this is a Country Craftsman wheel that I snagged from craigslist. The wheel itself was crafted in Littleton, Massachusetts - it is a reproduction of a wheel from the 1700s. This particular wheel was only ever used for display purposes, and is in WONDERFUL shape! All I needed was a piece of string!

This wheel differs a fair amount from my other one (Ashford Traditional, for those not paying attention). First of, this is double-drive - see how the string goes around the big wheel twice?The large wheel controls both the whorl and the bobbin (on my Scotch tension wheel, the drive-band controls the flyer). The flyer here is tucked into little hard leather "hooks". Also, this has the giant crazy flax distaff - that big thing sticking up in the front. The overall size - well, the top of the big wheel reaches my waist, and the footprint is much larger as well. The whole thing is held together with little wooden pegs. I've only got one bobbin - I'm either going to see about having a few constructed or find some online. While construction has stopped on new wheels, the bobbin and whorl assemblies are still available.

That blue stuff on the wheel? That's some mystery fleece from Amy - I just grabbed a little something to take for a test drive. I can tell that it will take a little bit of getting used to how this puppy wants to spin, along with the double drive business. I've become very in tune with the tensions and nuances and speeds that I can take my Ashford , and what results I can comfortably achieve - with this new wheel, there will definitely be a bit of trial and error as I get used to how it works. Don't worry - I'll keep you updated.

Oh, and here we are Halloween! Mingo The Cat will be rockin' it "Three Amigos"-style:
I don't know what The Mayor kitty will be wearing - her glamourous cape from last year?



Which brings me to this question about Halloween:
Last year, The Mayor was on the front porch helping to give candy to strangers. She was wearing this cape. A gaggle of young girls came a hopping up the stairs, and after oohing and aahing over how cute she was, one of them asked "What's she supposed to be?"

It's a CAT wearing a CAPE - is that not enough?!?!?!?!??!?!?!?!??

Tomorrow! A sock report - I've opted to rip back a bit of sock #1 (of the SocksThatRock experiment) and then throw on some ribbing. I am currently in 2x2 ribbing boredom, so I will try my darnedest to git some progress on that. So close, but so far. THEN! Well, I haven't really thought about what come after that........

Progress?

Very little to report. Or it could be thought of as "more of the same".....

The other sock? Yeah, I haven't cast-on for that yet. Oh, but I will! Maybe this weekend. I promise.

I've been working a fair amount on the Icarus Shawl, though you wouldn't know to look at it. This shawl is triangular, and knit from the top center down, with 4 increases every other row. So it groooooows. But at a very very slow pace. The portion of the shawl that I am currently working on is dead boring as well - it has just enough going on that you have to pay a wee bit of attention, but it is not exciting at all. I want to get to the fun stuff! I want to get to the crazy lacey bits! But no - I think I have about 8 more rows to go of this first chart, which doesn't seem too bad, but when each row takes seemingly forever, it could be next month before I get there. I present this photo, which looks very similar to an earlier photo posted, but I swear I have been working on this:I have also hit the point in where I am starting to panic about if I will have enough yarn. This is Misti Alpaca (it is LOVELY to work with) and I think I have *just* what the pattern calls for (okay, just checked - I actually have one yard LESS than what the pattern calls for - 875 yds - but I think I may run out for REAL, not just by one yard) and I have read reports of people having run out. I'm not super concerned at this point - I know where I got this, it's pretty cheap, etc. etc. I just want. to. get. to. the. good. stuff. Dammit!

When not busy slogging through the dreadful boredom that is chart 1 of this shawl (almost as boring as socks!) I've been spinning spinning spinning like a mad woman! I'm working my way through the mystery wool from Amy, and working towards a thinner yarn. I *feel* like I am beginning to understand this spinning business a bit more - like I am on the road to owning it, but that road is very very long. Since this bag of fiber is kind of a mystery, I'm learning a bit about different fibers and how they want to behave for me. What I've really come to believe is the secret of spinning is this: tension. I feel if you can just get the tension of these 8 different things to all work together perfectly, things are golden. You just need the planets to align! And I would like to believe that I am working towards that. I've made a mini-skein of something resembling Jamieson's Shetland Spindrift, which, if you have not worked with this yarn it is wonderful, and then I tried out some Navajo Plying which is pretty interesting, and I am pleased with the results of that as well. I can see what I would like to improve on in both of these, and now I just have to figure out exactly how to do that. Max has suggested that I spin at HER place, as she likes the smooth whir whir whir of the wheel. There will be pictures soon - it's tough to get clear pics that will give you some sense of the weight and texture of the wool.

This has all left me even more excited about Rhinebeck this year; I'll try not to come back with any animals.

La Chou!

I finished the front of Mon Petit Chou, with minimal issue. I also cast on for the back, and linked up with the Invisible Cast On row. Meanwhile, Max has knit right up to Row 20-something! Let's take a look, shall we?


I'm finding the pattern to be....well, it makes sense, yes, but I am finding it could be simplified in how it is written. Take, for example, this very simple instruction:

Front
With straight needles, CO ...

Easy, no? But I find it....vague - in terms of matching gauge, in terms of knitting with what you have or prefer (I prefer circs, and almost always knit with them - better for commuting). My pea-brain would more easily translate this if written as needle size. It's simple enough to figure out, but I had managed to lose that first page, leading to much running about, etc.

I prefer lace patterns that are charted, so my issues with the pattern may simply stem from this pattern having been written out. The "voice" of this pattern is off for me; it is almost telling me TOO MUCH in many places, while leaving other things much...less detailed. For instance, I like having a stitch count every once in awhile, especially when dealing with patternwork and YOs and whatnot; it acts (to me) as a fact-check. Also, the pattern repeats as presented didn't seem to flow for me - I would have preferred if I was presented with "*blah blah *6 times" rather than "*blah blah, repeat from * 5 times". Again, just my personal opinion here - the actual knitting is coming out wonderfully, and it really truly is a cute garment:

I'm quite happy with the (so far) finished result! I think that the pattern manages to incorporate the (minimal) shaping quite nicely. I'm going to go with some pink ribbon for the ties. Though I doubt that there will be a model post here..............

Stretchy Cast-Offs

I came across this post exhaustively detailing all possible stretchy cast-off methods today, and it seems really useful - lookit her neat bind-off swatch!