Fiber Friday: Toxic overload

Meet Toxic, the November offering from the Hello Yarn Fiber Club. Since I opted for the double option this round, I had 8 oz of superwash goodness to play with. Given that this is superwash merino, what else could I do but make some sock yarn? I split my two lengths of top into approximately equal weights (2.6, 2.7 and 3 oz respectively) and predraft each group.

I ended up with two balls of predrafted top that would have long stretches of each individual color (2/3 strip of each 4 oz top) and one that would have a shorter repeat (1/3 from each 4 oz top). My "plan" was to end up with two singles that had more or less the same color sequence, and one single that would be different for most of the skein. Maybe they'd overlap occasionally to give a solid yarn, but not very often.

Here are two bobbins spun up. I started each bobbin with a stretch of bright orange, and only realized when I started plying that the common color starting point was on the inside of the full bobbin. So they all got rewound...

In order to try and keep my singles consistent, I made myself a cheat sheet using some commercial sock yarns. The sample on the top is some Regia I think, and its a 4-ply. The bottom is a 3-ply from Knit Picks. Strangely enough, the Knit Picks single is thinner then the Regia single, but that yarn also had a core thread that it was wrapped around, which may account for the discrepancy.

I'm plying this sucker now - my first true 3-ply - and I'm trying to be a bit technical about it (i.e. putting the same amount of twist in to each length of yarn). It's coming out alright (the colors occasionally match up as I envisioned), but perhaps a bit underplied. If it's an issue when I'm done with a first pass, I'll run it back through to add some more twist. Hopefully I'll be able to finish up this weekend.

And then I'll have to decide on a sock pattern. Any suggestions?

Christmas loot

I'm home enjoying some alone time on the holiday, and I was unpacking some boxes that got sent back from New England after Christmas - there's a bunch of stuff that I haven't shared yet.

Although I put a bunch of yarny stuff on a list for Santa, somehow he never got it (hmmm...next time I'll make sure I send that list to Santa myself, rather then relying on Ironman to do it). The only yarn present I got was some lovely brown handspun alpaca from Hampden Hills Alpacas.

There's 148 yds of sportweight, and 414 yds worsted weight, all in a gorgeous rosy greyish brown color. I have no idea what it's going to become yet - maybe a nice cozy hat and scarf combo. Or some mitts - it's a cold wet day today and I could use a pair.

I also had the opportunity to visit Halcyon Yarns in Bath, ME right after New Year's. What an amazing place! I walked in and thought I'd died and gone to yarny heaven. It's a big fiber warehouse, brightly lit and cozy warm. I was accompanied by my mom and my brother, who were very accomodating of my enthusiasm as I wandered aimless, mouth agape in awe. There were aisles and aisles of yarn, for both knitting and weaving, wheels, piles of fiber, patterns, everything you could possibly ask for (as long as you weren't looking for lots of sock yarn). I was especially stuck by the number of local products they stocked - lots of yarns I'd never heard of that were made in Maine, locally made swifts and other such things. They had a separate room full of needles and notions. I managed to restrain myself and only got the following:

a bag of handdyed wool of unknown variety - about a 5 in staple and quite crimpy, maybe Romney?

4 oz of superwash merino and 4 oz of merino-tencel, to play around with dyeing once Boo is weaned,

and one small cone of Jaggerspun Zephyr Wool-Silk laceweight in the most gorgeous color ever, for a small lacy scarf somewhere down the road.

It really was a fabulous place. As I was heading to the register, I came across the display of Noro Kureyon sock yarn. I practically fell over from color overload, and grabbed a skein to take home with me. But it's not exactly soft in the skein, so I asked the lady at the register (who might have been Halcyon herself, but I don't know) if she'd used it yet, and whether or not it softened up much after washing. She allowed as how she hadn't made socks with it yet, but another customer had used it. The socks had softened up some with washing, but she was not particularly enthusiastic about it. I've read elsewhere that it does soften up considerably after washing and (gasp!) drying, but she more or less said she wouldn't use it for socks. And it was another $20 I wasn't sure I wanted to spend just then. So I didn't get any. How many yarn store owners/employees would be that honest about their products? Now I'm pretty sure I'll get some, based on what I've read about others experiences, and I'll be getting it from Halcyon.

One last bit of news to update:

Ivy is now done (except for two 52 inch ribbed ties - crap!) and is soaking before being blocked. I love the smell of Eucalan! And I'm looking forward to a new sweater as soon as I knit up 87" of ties.

ETA: Here are some pictures from Halcyon Yarn at Deb's blog - sounds like she had the same reaction I did!

Was it good for you too?

Done. Finis. With two hours to spare. I've impressed myself this time.

Pattern: EZ's baby surplice sweater from Vogue Spring/Summer 2007 (Rav link)
Yarn: Brown Sheep Cotton Top (discontinued), 50/50 wool/cotton, (less then) two skeins, approximately 300 yds
Needles: US7
Comments/mods: the yarn I used is an aran or heavy worsted weight instead of the ~DK weight called for by the pattern. I rationalized my way around this issue by knitting the smaller of the two sizes in the pattern, and guessing that the intended recipient will still fit into in next winter (since he/she certainly won't be big enough for it this winter) (I hope). Finished chest measurement when laid flat is about 22 in, but it can be adjusted as needed by wrapping more or less.

Instead of buttons I put 3 stitch I-cords on the front corners of the jacket. Easier to do, plus I didn't have any suitable buttons floating around at work. I hope I made them long enough that they'll be usable as the babe gets bigger.

I used a lifted bar increase on the arms, and I like the subtle line it makes in the garter stitch. It is pretty unobtrusive in fact, and I like how it matches with the slight break seen along the front edging.

The yarn was slightly tough to work with, particularly under a time crunch - I'm not such a big fan of cotton, and this blend was particularly stiff feeling for only being 50% cotton. This is the same yarn I used for the now snoozing Basalt Tank, and I don't remember it being this tough to work with. Of course, I didn't knit for three days straight without stopping on the Basalt Tank either, so that might have something to do with it. I'm very pleased this is done, and I hope the mom-to-be likes it!

Just in case you've forgotten, I'm also working on my Rainbow Socks. Let me rephrase, on someone's Rainbow socks, because there is no way in hell these suckers are going to fit me. But I'm having fun with all the short rows!

note: finished sock still doesn't have the toe grafted because I finished it on the bus, and had to start the other one immediately (to avoid dreaded SSS). And even though I've done a fair bit of grafting in my time, I'm not crazy enough to do it without reviewing the directions at least once. So sock #2 is getting worked on 4 dpns instead of 5, until I get around to Kitchnering the damn thing.

Deadlines

Tomorrow is D-day, the day of my friend's baby shower. And I forgot about it completely until Monday afternoon, when, in a sudden crystalline moment of realization, I said "Oh shit!" I racked my brains for a quick baby knit, while trying to maintain some semblance of productivity. It wasn't until I was staring at the bottom of the pool later that evening that I had a revelation: An EZ baby surplice (Rav link)! In stash yarn! I could feel the beams of light streaming down from the heavens even though it was a) dark and b) completely overcast even if the sun had been up.

So Monday night I cast on. The yarn I'm using (discontinued Cotton Top that arrived on my doorstep in a bag of dirt) is bigger then what is called for in the pattern, but I think that will work out well. I'm knitting the smaller size, and I think it will end up about 6 month size when I'm done. Given that my friend is on the small size, and the massive expandability of this particular pattern, I'm hoping that it will still work for her little one next winter.

Of course, having said that, I now realize that I've never met her husband. He's probably a 6'5" Oklahoma linebacker, and she's going to give birth to an 11 lb baby. It doesn't seem likely, but you never know.

Time to get back to knitting work.

2008: New year, new challenges

I don't have much luck with "resolutions" per se, but I like to make a list of goals each January. I may not ever look at that list again, but at least they're written down and codified somewhere. So here are some of my goals, fibery and otherwise:


Fibery:
- knit one gift item a month. While it's somewhat entertaining/envigorating to spend the last few weeks before Christmas in a permenant adrenaline rush, it doesn't leave much room for anything else. If I can make one thing a month (knit or spin), I should be all set by the time the holidays roll around again, without the stress (or at least, with less stress).

- do some more designing, of something! Doesn't have to be a sweater, but I've got all sorts of ideas that I'd like to make into reality.

- spin and knit a sweater for Ironman. While we don't currently live in a climate that allows for regular wearing of wool sweaters, there is a very significant possibility that we will be by the end of the year. However, given my normal speed on doing any of these things, said sweater will probably be finished by the time we're preparing to move back to Houston.

- spin and knit a surprise. Has to be machine washable, so the superwash and I will be getting up close and personal.

Otherwise:
- independently, both Ironman and I decided that we need to de-clutter in a major way. While we don't have a huge overflow of random stuff, we do have lots of things (books, clothes, etc) that we don't use anymore, that would be much better off in someone else's house being used. We've already started the pruning process, but the trick will be keeping the clutter under control.

- be more proactive about cooking. Our usual MO is to arrive home around 6:00 pm, with starving kids/parents, get the kids fed, get them bathed and more or less settled in bed, and then feeding ourselves. Along the way there's usually some snacking, which means that the motivation/energy for cooking a "real" dinner is pretty low. So far the last week or so, I've actually managed to know ahead of time what I was going to cook for dinner that night, and it's worked out really well.

- I always feel like I need an athletic goal of some sort. Last year's goal was just to get back to racing again after Boo was born, but this year I'm not entirely sure of what the goal will be. I'd like to do some more racing this year then last year, and there are a bunch of races locally throughout the season so that shouldn't be too difficulty to arrange. But there's nothing in particular grabbing at me. I always want to improve my running (which is very, very slow and usually painful), but I also need to be consistent with swimming and riding as well. And figuring out how to fit all that in is a serious challenge.

Of course, that's a lot of things to try and accomplish, with too few hours in the day. We'll see how things progress as the year goes along. But it's good to have a starting point.