Monday, August 12, 2013

Yarns I have made.

First, the Tour De Fleece yarns:




 From Right to Left, because, yes, that's how it works:
468 yd purple superwash 2 ply merino blend
148 yd Green/pink weird fail coils
256 yd blue/grey single llama
332 yd Red single mystery wool
292 yd brown/grey Navajo plied mystery wool
112 & 114 yd hanks of pastel Navajo plied mohair (Darn, I guess I could have 2-plied those, after all.)
1722 yds total


And fun art yarn spinning from a class I took on Saturday!

From left to right (what, you wanted consistency?): 
Blue silk "caterpillar" yarn, 
purple/dusk/yellow cable/crepe yarn, 
ostrich feather inclusion yarn, 
wrap and roll (so fun! And finally a use for my drop spindle!), 
pigtail yarn with beads and
 triple pass/loopy boucle yarn.





 

Sunday, June 30, 2013

Touring

Today was the first day of the Tour de Fleece. I got one bobbin filled with a thick/thin yarn that I'm planning on trying to make some beehive yarn with, and I'm working on a purple bamboo/nylon/superwash merino fiber I picked up in Estes. I split it in half, and surprisingly (for me), I'm going to be trying to get a 2 ply out of it. I almost never do 2 ply yarn, as the lack of matching yardage tends to drive me insane. However, I wanted to spin a little thicker today, so navajo plying it would make for quite a thick, short yarn. So, I go outside of my comfort zone.

Also, I started washing the CVM/Romney fleece I picked up. This is going to be the first full fleece I've processed. Starting weight: 2.5 lbs.

I'll try to get some photos...maybe tomorrow, maybe not. For tomorrow is ren faire. Ooh...maybe I can bring a drop spindle along and spin in garb. It isn't like my friends aren't already aware that I'm weird. :)

(Delayed post due to internet weirdness last night.)

Thursday, May 23, 2013

I'm spacing out my posts to seem more productive

See, I finished this sweater quite a while ago. I'm thinking...April, sometime. However, it was for someone who wanted to be surprised, so I refrained from sending photos. She has received it, so, picture time!
Shiny buttons!~

I have no idea why it decided to be sideways. It wasn't when I uploaded it. Sigh.
Yes, it is a very short sweater that is very broad. As a matter of fact, it is this sweater. Very different than I'm used to knitting, and it went pretty quickly. I'm really pleased with the buttons.

Current projects that are getting actively poked at are still the Knit, Swirl sweater, the peacock feathers shawl and two different traveling socks. There are, of course, many others, but they aren't getting much attention, so are sitting in knitter time-out for the moment.

Friday, May 17, 2013

Wow, I really thought I'd bragg...er...blogged about this already.

To quote from my FB: 1958 yards, give or take a few. Polworth silk blend plied against thread. (For reference, the giant green yarn is worsted weight.) 4/24/2013
I'm so pleased with this yarn. I've never spun so fine. Thank you, Colleen, for getting me started on this path 5 years ago. :)
Look at the twist in that hank! (Or lack thereof.)

Also, giant tall socks for my mom. GIANT BLACK SOCKS. *twitch* Yes, quilting ruler is included so you see how ridiculous those things are. I had a few (shorter) ladies ask why I was making thigh highs. No no. 6' tall mother.

Thursday, May 9, 2013

Yarn makes for fickle loyalties.

Yesterday I went on an adventure to Mitchell, NE to visit the Brown Sheep Co. production facility with the lovely ladies from Your Daily Fiber.

They sell yarn by the pound at a flat rate at the factory store.

Oh. My. Gods. SO MUCH YARN AND FLUFF CAME HOME WITH ME.

Fluff! The brown will be my first goal in the Tour de Fleece.
 
 1 lb cones of sock yarn! (Colours slightly blown out.)

 Lace Weight!

More sock yarn!
 
 Sport weight yarn!

 ZOMG, more sock yarn!

And some worsted weight yarn that really really does not look like this in real life. In person it is a variety of deep shades of berry. And here is where I become fickle; I have cast on a sweater from Knit, Swirl (Thanks, Darcy!) in this berry-coloured yarn, and that is competing with the shawl for attention. (And no, the orange/yellow hank will not be involved in the sweater.) The advantage of the sweater is that it is mostly blind knitting at this point, so I can read and knit at the same time, whereas the shawl is, well. Lace. And, as always, I've got socks on the go that travel with me in my purse. YAAAAAAAAAAARN!

Tuesday, May 7, 2013

Starting off...

Just putting this here as a note that I cast on this shawl in this yarn last night. This is my "I keep buying yarn for it and being discontent with the results" shawl, so I'm excited to finally fall in love with a yarn enough to start this little undertaking. So, yeah. Day 1 was 5/6.

Saturday, April 6, 2013

One more photo

So, I posted on FB, but forgot to cross post and spam you over here. Here's what the shawl looks like when worn by a giant person:

Pay no attention to the lack of lawn or snow shovel. Didn't the shawl turn out lovely? :)

Wednesday, March 20, 2013

Blocking





It is blocking now, finally. Many thanks to Your Daily Fiber for letting me use one of their rooms to block in (no pets!) and lending me the awesome blocking wires. I love those guys. :)

Friday, March 8, 2013

52 days


Well, it isn't blocked yet, but the knitting is done! I'll be blocking it when I get to my LYS, who have kindly offered me use of their blocking board. DONE! YAY!

Sunday, March 3, 2013

So what's your point?

38/56 points completed so far. Maybe I should actually work on this outside of Sunday knit group, and it might get done a little faster.

Thursday, February 21, 2013

Snip

Total cutting time: 6 hours. This includes realizing I had messed something up and changing one of the colours I was going to use. Don't cut without food in your system, people. One's reading comprehension takes a nosedive if you are running on fumes. :p

Tuesday, February 19, 2013

Since I am certainly not beading...

And since I'm burnt out on beads, I've started working on a quilt that a friend of mine asked for. I've had numerous folks ask how long it takes to make a quilt and I tend to look at them blankly, as I've never really kept track.

Well, I'm going to track this one, just for shits and giggles.

Basic stats: Queen size (oy), 8 colours, relatively basic pattern, insomuch as it doesn't have any fiddly cuts.

The timing thus far:
Background: 2hrs 40 min
Print 1: 30 min
Print 2: 40 min
Total: 3hrs 50min, and I still have 5 more colours to cut. I have a bad feeling about this tracking thing. (Update: I did the border colour and that took 10 min, so I'm up to 4 hours just cutting half of the fabric.)

I was really hoping to get this bad boy cut out entirely today, but I also have to go get my fat ass on the recumbent bike, and then I TA from 6-10. So, we'll see what I get done post bike/shower, if anything. If nothing else, I'll have to clear off the kitchen island (which is a perfect cutting surface!) before I wander off to observe newbie massage therapists take their first class. More names to learn!

Sunday, February 17, 2013

Meh.

Not bothering with a photo today, as I didn't work on the blasted thing at all this week, aside from at knit group. It looks just like it did, but with 9 more points.

At 27 of 56 points. Sigh.

Sunday, February 10, 2013

3 days short of a month






So, remember how I mentioned that "looking down" was a thing? Yeah, that was a bad thing. I totally buggered up my neck and upper back with the first 8 points, and have barely been able to knit at all this week. Thus, I'm at 18 of 56 points. This week, with my general lack of Things To Do (tm) should allow me to make further progress.

Lesson learned: Beading must be done at a table, or I screw up my neck. I'm disappointed with this week's progress. Meh.

Sunday, February 3, 2013

3 weeks

So, beads were a thing starting two days ago.
They take a lot more time, concentration and general "looking down".
But they sure are pretty, aren't they? They better be, because each point has 50 of them. There are over 350 beads done, out of about 3000. This is going to be a long week.

Knit a few more inches of my mom's endless sock, and haven't worked on the giant ninja sweater at all. (Sorry, Dave.) The only other really active projects are the weather scarves:

January! The high was 62F (See the red bit on the "high" scarf?) and the low was -7 (that really dark blue chunk; it was -6/-7 for 3 days in a row). I'm really enjoying these concept scarves. Such a neat idea!

Today, I head into my LYS for an anti-Super Bowl party and deal with lots of little beads for many many hours. Should be fun, for odd definitions of "fun". :)

Sunday, January 27, 2013

2 weeks in...






I'm on row 30 of chart 3. It looks a little pinched in due to the lifeline between chart 2 and 3. This is on both a 47" and 32" needle to try and show off the progress, and it still isn't big enough. Oy, vey, this thing is going to be a monster once its blocked. I'm still debating the whole "do I really want to put 3000 beads on the edging of this or not" thing. It seems weird to wait until the very edge to add in sparklies, and I can't help but wonder if it'll weigh down the edges or not. Enh. I still have a bit of time before that. :p

Strangely enough, not a ton of progress on other projects. :> I've turned the heel (toe up) on my mother's knee high sock, so that'll be basically blind knitting from here on out, thankfully.

Sunday, January 20, 2013

New beginnings

2013 has started with getting started on one official knit-along and one "Ooh, what a neat idea! I should totally modify it!" year-long project. Oh, and one ninja giant sweater that the recipient has asked there be no photos of so it'll be a surprise. I'm just going to drop some numbers on you: 6'6" tall. 58" around. (Cue quiet sobbing.) The sleeves are done, but just the bottom ribbing of the torso (about 3") took 7 hours. Now I know why I don't usually track how long projects take me. (Also, the second knee-high sock for my mother. Scads of slightly variegated black 2x2 ribbing...>_< )

The KAL is the Evenstar shawl, as the manager/daughter of the owners of the yarn and fibre shop I spend oodles of time at has been roped into knitting one for a friend's wedding in July, and she decided she was not facing this on her own.

Cast on 1/13/2013. One week in and I'm on row 30 of the second chart. I plan on posting my progress on this on a weekly basis. And no, I have no real idea what I'll do with it once I'm done, but sometimes, spec knitting is fun, too. I had originally swatched this in red, but it was almost a cobweb weight, and I decided not to do that to myself on this shawl. Stash diving came up with this wonderful Lacey Lamb in off-white. Super soft and sqwooshy, and a pleasure to work with.






The other neat project is the "My year in temperatures" scarf that my sister-in-law told me about and is doing. But, because I can't leave well enough alone (and I live somewhere where there are some pretty interesting temp changes over the course of the day), I decided to knit two scarves; one for the highs and one for the lows. I also don't like the look of garter stitch, so opted for a 1x1 rib. Oh, and since I'm using fingering weight instead of worsted, I'm doing a back and forth for each day, so it'll hopefully get to a decent length. I love how different the days look when compared to each other!

 
High vs Low