Recycling

The yarn I'm using for the Endpaper Mitts is reclaimed from two sweaters I picked up for cheap at Goodwill. I've now found another source for recycled yarn: previously knit sweaters.

This is my Mountain Mohair sweater - Moriah's Wildflower Cardigan. It's a beautiful sweater, and I wear it whenever it's cold enough (which is not as often as I would like). The yarn is beautiful soft and slightly fuzzy, and it's held up pretty well over the last 5 years or so. But on my way home yesterday, I looked down and noticed this:

Since the yarn is basically a softly spun single, not a plied yarn, it's not terribly strong. I must have caught the edging on something and it broke the yarn. Now, in and of itself, this is not enough of a reason to frog the sweater. But I've been thinking about knitting something else from this for a while. First of all, there's no shaping to the sweater. It's straight up and down and basically just hangs there when I'm wearing it. And it doesn't do a lot for my body honestly - I'm not exactly svelte, and I think that it would look better on me with a bit more shaping.

I also am not a fan of the seed stitch bands - they are a bit loose and floppy, and don't feel substantial enough. I've decided to frog the sweater and use the yarn for something else. Initially, I was thinking about a top down V neck with set in slightly belled sleeves. But after last night's Mr. Redjeans fiasco (finished ribbing, bound off, tried on and realized that A) clearly the designer did not have my figure in mind when she had us switch to size 7 needles for the ribbing*, but I really don't need to display that much of my tummy, B) it was going to be too short in any event, and C) clearly in my mind I am still in my pre-pregnancy, half-Ironman body, not my post-two kids-still-lactating body - I'm going to have to go up a size), I'm thinking that I may soon be working on Mr. Bluejeans, while Mr. Redjeans gets to wear a set of concrete galoshes.

* this is nicer then saying she was smoking crack because really, the ribbing was going to pull in anyway with the cables. Why have it pull in more with smaller needles?

Toxic!

I came home early this afternoon with a wicked bad cold, and was thrilled to find the November installment of the Hello Yarn Fiber Club on my doorstep. Meet Toxic:

8 oz of superwash Corriedale top. Can you say socks? I love the colors, and have great plans in mind for the 3-ply yarn I want to end up with. I signed up for the doubles option, so instead of getting 4 oz, I got 8 oz. I figure that should be enough for some serious socks. I can't wait to get started on it, but it will have to wait until I finish the Wild Raspberry Targhee that is currently on the bobbin.

There has also been some serious work on The List. I finished one entire Endpaper Mitt (sans thumb ribbing) and discovered that, while it fits me perfectly, it is a wee bit large for its intended recipient.

My gauge was only off by 0.5 stitches per inch, but over 56 stitches, it works out to 7.5 inches around instead of 7. My Fair Isle gauge is definitely looser then my non-stranded gauge.

I loved the pattern, and it went incredibly quickly. I went down a needle size on both the ribbing and mitt (from 0 and 2 down to 00 and 1), and the new version (not pictured) seems to be the right size. Hopefully those will be done by next week, but we'll see.

Progress is also being made on Mr. Redjeans, but the pictures wouldn't be terribly interesting, so I'll save it until the body ribbing is done.

A Massachusetts Yankee in King George's Court

When we moved to Texas almost 5 years ago, I came with an ample truckload of assumptions about what living in Texas was going to be like. For the most part, the stereotypical ideas about everyone wearing cowboy boots, dinner-plate sized belt buckles and diamond oil derrick stick pins have been largely debunked. (Although everyone does say "Y'all". Which is not necessarily purely Texan, but that's how I thought of it). Sure, there are more Texas flags flying then American ones, and each triathlon starts off with a full fledged prayer, but by and large, my fears have not been born out.

But every so often I see something that completely explodes any assumptions I still held about Texas to bits. Like this morning, driving into work. I found myself staring at the bumper of a very large, red, pick'em up truck (an F150 maybe? I don't pay attention to silly things like make of truck). This bumper was more or less at my eye level. And I noticed the bumpersticker affixed to said bumper, which read:

"Vote Wisely: Hitler came to power in a free election"

A somewhat telling sentiment in this day and age of GWB's reign, no?

Mr. Redjeans

In my fevered rebound period after creating the Blue and Purple Monkey costumes, I cast on for two items for myself. One was the Bandwagon, which is now done. The other was Mr. Greenjeans, which I've been working on off and on for the last few weeks. I have rationalized this departure from The List at such a critical time by protesting that we're going to New England for Christmas, and since we've now been in Texas for five years (swoon), I am in sore need of a new sweater.

Sure.

But I'm greatly enjoying this project - mindless enough to be good for downtime, interesting enough not to be boring. The yarn I'm using is Durango from Colorado Yarns. It's mostly acrylic, but is really soft and knits up into an incredibly cuddly squishy fabric which I'm loving. The red tweed helps give it some interest.It's pretty simple - easy TV knitting - except for the cabled section at the bottom of the body and sleeves. I'm about halfway through the cable and rib section of the body, and I'm hoping I don't run out of yarn for the sleeves! I got ten balls of this from Webs at the end of last year (before TGYD07 started of course), so if I run out, I'm kind of out of luck on dyelot and all. Maybe the sleeves will end up being a bit shorter. Or narrower. Or something.

Anyhow, with this on the needles I'm having a hard time attending to the task at hand. Hopefully I'll finish soon so I can get back to The List.

FF: Baked Alaska

Fiber: Hello Yarn Fiber Club October 2007 fiber, Romney wool in Baked Alaska colorway

Spun on ST Lendrum at 10:1, plied at 7:1, 12-13 wpi

200+ yds, 5 oz

This was my first attempt at both spinning from the fold and spinning long draw. I didn't mean to try two new things at once - spinning from the fold was the goal, but once I started I was having so much fun letting the fibers flow off of my finger that I tried just pulling back with that hand and, lo and behold, I was spinning long draw (or sort of long draw. Maybe more like medium draw). And boy, is that a lot faster then inchworm drafting.

I split the top lengthwise in to two equal sections (by weight). One half I tore into 4-5 inch chunks, stuck them in a ziplock bag, and pulled them out randomly to spin the single. It took me about 1.5 hours to spin the first 2.5 oz (hardly any time at all, for me). The second half I also spun from the fold, but tore off pieces as I went down the length of the top, maintaining the color sequence as dyed.

I've become a big fan of rough finishing my handspun, aka soaking it in really hot water with a bit of agitation, so that any changes that are going to happen, happen before the yarn gets knit up into something. I also tend to overply, so this kind of finishing helps even out the yarn and get it closer to balanced once it's dried and ready to go.

Some very over-plied yarn before its bath

The spinning for this was fast and furious. It was all done (spun and plied at least) in three days, assisted immeasurably by the fact that I was home with sick kids for at least two of those days. It is pretty fuzzy around the edges, due to my attempts to spin "woolen". Now that it's done it's very pretty - I love the combination of the colors - but I'm not such a fan of the Romney wool. It just feels coarse to me. Maybe I'm spoiled from the merino I've been working with recently, but this feels too scratchy for me.

I'm thinking this one will go in to the stash to marinate for a bit. Maybe it will be a wee Christmas present for one of the few friends/relatives I have that knit. And now I may have to call a moratorium on spinning for a while until I get my list down to something more managable.