It's a boy!

My newest nephew was born on Friday, and by chance my cousin gave birth to another baby boy on the same day, at the same hospital. Only two hours apart!

The new little guys and their moms are doing very well, and of course have lit a fire under me to get my latest JoJo finished asap.

Never one to focus on a single project for very long, I've also been dabbling in spinning a little.


This is a small (60g) batch of merino I bought at Lettuce Knit a couple of years ago. It's my first time spinning pure merino, and it's going pretty well. I find myself always wanting to spin very fine lately, although I generally prefer to knit finer gauges, so that's probably not a bad thing. It just takes a lot longer!

I don't know a lot about the technical side of spinning, and I only have the one spindle, but still dreaming about owning a wheel one day.

Spinning again

Inspired by all of the "Tour de Fleece" spinning I've been seeing lately, this weekend I picked up my spindle for the first time in over a year.
This is a Fleece Artist Silk Wool sliver that I received as a birthday gift last year. This photo shows the halfway mark. I've since wound this half f the singles off (I don't like it when my spindle gets too heavy) with plans for a two-ply. My arm is tired!
Nick and I did a backpacking trip last weekend on part of the East Coast Trail. The scenery was wonderful (this little island just off the coast was home to small flock of sheep left to graze for the summer). We saw loons and otters, and lots of whales - what a great trip.

Just back from Calgary a couple of days ago, I think that I am now done with the business trips for a while. I'm looking forward to spending some quality time at home for a change!

I'm a bit too old for this...

But apparently the Easter bunny showed up last night. I think Nick really wanted an excuse to eat chocolate.

I made some big progress at school last week, which involved late nights on campus. I decided that I deserved a bit of a break, so I took the whole three-day weekend off, other than a bit of end-of-term marking that just couldn't wait. It's done wonders for my state of mind. Aside from spring cleaning the apartment from top to bottom (I swear the dust bunnies were starting to plot against us!), I've been delving into all kinds of new things.

First off, on Friday night, I went to my first knit night at a coffee shop just down the street. Who knew that they've been meeting there all this time?! I got to meet several people who's blogs I read regularly, including Leanne and Sarah. (Leanne has a great photo of the event up on her blog). It was nice to meet some friendly local knitters, and I'm sure I'll be back soon. There are two organized get-togethers a month, I think.

I was so relaxed that by Saturday morning, I was itching to start another lace project. I had a couple of balls of SRK Collection Ovation, a pastel blend of mohair and silk. After a bit of time skimming Victorian Lace Today, I was drawn to this pattern, the "scarf with French trellis border from Weldon's 1890 and brabmble leaf center":


Except I wanted something a little simple. I decided to just start at the leaf panel, and leave off the two borders. Here we are after four chart repeats:


I'm liking it so far. It's just the right amount of intricacy for my level of skill and concentraton at this point. It's got patterning on every row, but the garter stitch borders are simple. Speaking of which, the outside garter stitch borders are actually a lot wider (8 sts) than the ones shown in the published photo shown above (I'm guessing 3 sts), aren't they? Funny, Grumperina was just pointing out a similar inconsistancy in the pattern that she's knitting from the same book. I sense a trend. Unfortunately, I don't think I'm going to have enough yarn to get very far with this. I've set it aside for a bit while I hunt for a couple more balls online. This colour, of course, has been discontinued.

Today, I got back to spinning a bit. I plied up some wool singles that had been sitting on my spindle for a while. It turned out rather disastrously. Nothing to do with a mess like that than use it for dye experiments. So I got out the Wilton cake colours and had a little fun. I might even be able to salvage a toque's worth of yarn out of the whole mess. I'll post photos of that soon - right now it's drying in my bathtub.

But more interestingly, I broke out the silk that I recently purchased on eBay. I had been wanting to try silk hankies, since I've heard they're an easy way for beginners to get into silk.


There's four different coloured hankies in there, and a bag of white silk top, which I might play around with blending if I ever manage to get some carders. After a bit of frustration at first with picking apart the layers, and having the incredibly fine fibres stick to everything including my hands, I finally managed to produce some yarn. It's the finest I've managed to spin yet (and probably as fine as I can manage without a lighter spindle). The silk it so strong that it resists breaking off even when it's really thin. Now, any ideas on what to do witha tiny ~7 g of fingering weight silk?! I guess I'm going to have to buy these hankies in multiples if I ever want to knit anything with them!


I also ran my French market bag through the washer and the dryer yesterday, but it's still not felted enough, so I'm off to throw it in for another go. Back to the office, and the real world, tomorrow. It's been a fun little vacation of dabbling, but I'll probably go back to knitting stockinette on my vest now!

Churning out sweaters

Thank you for the kind comments about Nick's sweater, and for the birthday wishes! Yes, I have the happy coincidence of being born on the first day of spring, although it seems like it is hardly ever accompanied by spring-like weather (it's minus 15 in Ottawa today).

I have been treated to some knitterly gifts. Here are the contents of a package Nick gave me this morning:


The yarn is Hand Maiden Great Big Sea Silk (a blend of Silk, merino, and sea cell) and the fibre is two different slivers of silk/wool blend by Fleece Artist. I just love the bright colours.


I've never spun silk before, so it should be interesting to work with. The book will be a big help on my quest to clear out the stash some more, and it will be great for ideas on what to do with small amounts of my handspun. I don't think I'll be spinning a sweater's worth of yarn on a drop spindle any time soon! My family sent other wonderful things, including gift cards for Michaels and Chapters, which will also go to crafty purposes. I feel so spoiled!

I'm actually on track to finish three different sweaters this week. Imagine! Me, who hasn't finished a sweater in almost a year! The Sitcom Chic cardigan got pulled out of storage a couple of days ago, and lo and behold, I only had the yoke and the bands to knit. I had thought there was much more to go. I finished it up, weaved in the ends, and because the front bands are prone to rolling, decided to give it a good wet blocking and show it who's boss. I tossed it into the sink, and .... gasp! Horror! Could it really be true?


Apparently I have been kicked in the rear by the dye-lot monster (he's the gauge monster's first cousin, don'tcha know?). The yarn is a, um, "budget" worsted cotton/acrylic blend bought at WalMart in Calgary last summer. It's called TLC Cotton Plus. I can't imagine that I didn't check the dye lots when I bought it, as I'm usually pretty picky about that. I didn't keep all the ball bands to check though. Apparently the first ball must have been a bit off - the sweater is knit seamless from the bottom up.

The funny thing is that it is almost dry now, and you really can't see the difference. It only shows when wet. Now I'm torn. I have more than a full ball left, so I could rip out the bottom, re-knit it and graft it on. But could I do that and make the join look seamless? It might be better to just leave it alone. I don't imagine I will ever be wearing the cardigan soaking wet, but I guess the two shades could fade differently over time. I think I'm going to let it finish drying completely, and then take it outside and see if the difference shows in full daylight.

The third sweater at the finish line is the red cardigan. Just a little blocking and seaming to go. My knitting basket is starting to look a little empty.... I'm still deciding what to start next. It's kind of exciting actually. So many possibilities!

Distractions

I've made some good progress on DH's sweater, but unfortunately not enough to have it finished for his birthday, which was Thursday. I'm up to the armhole decreases on the front now, but still have the sleeves to go. I worked from home on Thursday so that I could make dinner and bake a birthday cake, and we had a little low-key celebration when he got home from work at 10:00 PM. Working a 12-hour shift on your birthday is just no fun!

In a bit of a break from the miles of cables, I showed you the Argosy that I started (and finished) last weekend. Here it is after a good blocking.

Argosy, size 4.5 mm bamboo needles, in handspun BFL from Fleece Artist. 5-square central pattern has 16 repeats.

I decided to knit until I ran out of yarn and leave it short. It will probably get a lot of wear with my leather jacket when the weather warms up in the spring. I like the way the colour striping turned out in the handspun , and it is very soft, even if it smells a little sheepy.

I can't seem to keep from starting new projects lately. I've been trying to use up my stash, and it seems that everytime I think up a new idea for something to make out of stash, I have to jump right in and start it. Can you tell from my sidebar what the latest distraction is? I'll show you some pictures tomorrow.

Now where did this come from?!

Perhaps the brown sweater was starting to get to me a little, perhaps it was because I left it out in a visible spot and passed by it many times a day, but I couldn't resist the colours of the handspun any longer. Fleece artist really knows what they're doing with dyes! Anyway, last night I ignored the cries of my many long-abandoned WIPs, balled up the skeins, and cast on yet another project.

Meet Argosy. I cast on last night during the news, and after a couple of hours this morning, suddenly I have a scarf. I had no idea this would be so quick.

The colours are a little more subdued than they look in the photo, but they blend really nicely. These are my favourite colours. I kind of ignored gauge altogether - hey, it's a scarf!. I swatched a little bit and decided to use 4.5 mm needles. (The pattern uses two different yarns and gauges, but the larger option is only knit on 4 mm.) It's a fun pattern to work up, and I think it will really improve with blocking. It's a little narrow, but this is supposed to be a warmer-weather, decorative scarf. I think I might like to adapt it to a wider version sometime, maybe in finer gauge silk. My dilemma right now is that I've almost run out of yarn. I'm trying to decide whether to finish it off as a perfectly respectable little tuck-in scarf, or to go looking for a third sliver of the fibre to spin more and make it longer. I think I like the idea of knitting it longer, but I'm probably more likely to wear it more as a short scarf with my spring jacket. Decisions, decisions.

The birthday sweater has not been forgotten, although my chances of getting it finished for February 8 are not looking good! This is the completed back and the start of the front. After the short scarf break, I'll be getting right back to it.


Unfortunately my teaching responsibilities have been cutting into my weekend knitting lately, as I get dumped with a large pile of grading every Friday. But, you know, it still beats cleaning the apartment! I hope everyone is enjoying some knitty relaxation this weekend.

There will be no knitting in this post

Well, I've been back from Toronto for days now, but somehow taking a weekend off from schoolwork and TA duties has left me playing catch-up this week. Ah, but it was worth it. What a wonderful weekend of relaxing with friends and being a lazy bum. It was just what I needed. Glenna has posted some photos from our adventures. Silly me forgot my camera at home (WHAT was I thinking?!)

I have knitting to show, but I haven't managed to photograph it yet. I finished the back of hubby's cabled sweater on the train ride home, and have knit about three inches of the front. I need to do a little tweaking of the pattern to make the arms fit the armholes, but I'll cross that bridge when I come to it.

The highlights of the weekend for me were getting to know some new yarns, petting lots of fiber at Romni, and making some decisions about stash - spoken like a true knit geek! Actually, the highlight was probably bloating ourselves on dim sum in Chinatown, but who's keeping track?

So, I don't have too many fun photos of weekend frolicking, but I do have a little of the haul to show. Actually, this is the whole haul. I was a very good girl and actually stuck to my plan. And besides, I couldn't find Lantern Moon dpn's in the size I want!

My very first skeins of Lorna's Laces. The colourway is called "Bucks Bar". Lettuce Knit had a whole bunch of Lorna's, so it was so hard to just pick one! I may not get around to knitting this for a while, but in the meantime, I can take them out and pet them every now and again. This was my essential, can't-get-it-in-Ottawa purchase.

At Romni Wools, I discovered that they have a whole basement room full of fiber, so I got to poke and squeeze bags of wool, camel down, raw silk, and all kinds of other delights. A lot of it was way out of my price range, but I found it really great to be able to see what the different kinds of wool are like so that if I mail order in future, I'll have some idea of what I'm getting, and I'll know what to avoid. Who'd have known that Icelandic sheep have coats that feel like plastic easter grass? How do they not make themselves itch?! I bought myself a pound of roving. The brown on the left is fine Shetland, and the white is Corriedale. (I really wanted to try out Corriedale because it seems soft and really easy to fine on eBay. It I like knitting and spinning it, and it takes dye well, there may just be a lot more of it in my future.) Romni was great because they have absolutely everything. I got to see and feel all of those yarns that I read about, but have never met in person. Ah, the Rowan, the Debbie Bliss, the incredibly soft alpaca/silk blends. I felt like a kid in a candy shop. And I didn't buy a single skein - I bought unspun wool instead ;) But honestly, it was a bit overwhelming. I wouldn't be able to just go there and browse for a project. I'd have to have a very good idea of what I wanted going in, or you'd lose me for a week.

We made a return trip to Lettuce Knit where I picked up this little bundle of handpainted merino roving. I keep hearing that merino is the softest but hardest to spin, so I figured that a little 60 gram bundle should be enough to satisfy my curiosity for now. It's sort of something to aspire to.

In keeping with the spinning theme, this is what I've accomplished over the last couple of weeks in my spare minutes at home. Remember the blue faced leicester slivers I got for Christmas? The beautiful, handpainted ones from Fleece Artist? Here's one of them spun into singles...

... and here's the finished product. 100 grams (about 125 m) of 2-ply, approzimately DK weight. The colour is pretty true on the photo below. I'm so happy with how this turned out. I think I'm finally getting the hang of spinning a consistant thicknesss. And it's just so soft. I think this is destined to become a short little Argosy. I think the subtle colour changes will work well with that pattern.

And the big decisions of the weekend? My single skein of Misti Alpaca is going to become a Swallowtail shawl, and also, Glenna's recent scarf has inspired me to use up some more of my worsted wool stash in a stripey lengthways garter-stitch scarf. Simple but warm. And now my must-knit list is growing at a disturbing rate!

Back to knitting content next time, I promise!

Spindrift swirl and tempest tossed

That's a line from the Ode to Newfoundland (provincial anthem) by the way. I was thinking about spinning this morning, and looking out at the blowing snow (yea! Finally, some snow!), and it just popped into my head.

So, yes I have been spinning. I was given this Schacht Hi-Lo drop spindle for Christmas, and I have been slowly figuring out what to do with it.

It came with a pile of combed wool (top, I'm guessing - still learning all the fibre lingo). The problem is that I have no idea what kind of wool they are, so when it comes time to buy more fibre, I don't know what I've already spun. And boy does it make a difference! The first lot that I started with was white, fairly soft wool. It was hard to get the hang of drafting, so mostly I pre-drafted all of it, and came out with a fairly lumpy bumpy first spindle full. I managed to wrestle it into a two ply skein:

It's pretty thick and thin, and a little ropey looking, but I love it all the same. It was certainly a learning experience. It's about 3 oz, somewhere between bulky and super bulky. It may have a future as a hat. We'll see.

The second pile of fibre looked much like the first, just a darker colour, maybe a little less soft.

But when I started to spin it, it was so much easier to work with. The fibres (staple?) are longer and smoother, and I could draft them easily into long, thin singles. Beautiful. Why didn't I start with this?! Last night I finished off the fist half of the pile of wool, and then taught myself to Andean ply while watching tv. And like magic, I had yarn that actually looks like real yarn:

It's 60 m, about 1.75 oz., and I'm getting around 11 wraps per inch.

So far, I'm enjoying spinning, even though it is cutting into valuable knitting time! Up next, I have the reamining half of the darker wool still to spin. And I also have these:

100 grams of hand dyed Blue Faced Leicester from Fleece Artist.

I have thoughts of buying silk hankies to try out, and am still confused about all the different types of sheep out there, and which are the best for fairly easy spinning. From Ottawa, I will basically have to mail order or buy fibre on eBay, because there are no shops in the city that sell much fibre (these Fleece Artist Slivers being the exception). I would really appreciate any tips, or referrals to retailers, websites or books that may be of help to a very beginner spinner. Has anyone got an opinion about the new book Spin to Knit? I have read most of the back issues of Spindlicity for starters.