A Cricket in a Frosted Forest

Two different handspun FOs this week. First up is Cricket, from the very first installment of the HYFC. I had spun up most of the original 4 oz when I received it, to make my grandmother's Branching Out, but I had a bit left over. This

became this,

which, after washing became this:

Fiber: BFL, colorway "Cricket", Hello Yarn Fiber Club May 2007 offering
Spun on a bottom whorl spindle.
13 wpi, 72 yds in 1.4 oz/40 g (about DK weight)
I spun the singles fairly tightly and overplied (that would be picture #2). The twistyness was tamed pretty well by a hot-cold shock wash, and hanging to dry unweighted. Not much yardage there, but could work for something small for the kids.

Just off the wheel and finally dried is Frosted Forest:

Fiber: 50/50 wool/soy silk top, colorway "Frosted Forest", HYFC December installment
Spun at 9:1, ST Lendrum, not plied.
16 wpi, 128 yds in 4.2 oz/119 grams. I was aiming for DK weight but ended up closer to fingering weight.
I wanted to preserve the intensity of the colors, so I decided to spin this as a singles yarn (my first). I pulled off chunks and spun from the fold, semi-long draw, but smoothing down the single as I went. To finish, I again did a hot-cold shock wash to felt the singles a bit and keep them together. The felting part definitely worked! - I tried to rewind it on my niddy noddy after washing to get everything aligned again, and it took me three evenings to get it untangled and back in a skein! There are sections that are a bit overtwisted, but on the whole it's fairly balanced, and I love the shininess of the soy silk. I'm not sure I'd want to spin 100% soy silk (holy slippery Batman!), but 50% was ok. And the colors are gorgeous. Now I have to find a pattern for 120 yds of fingering weight.

Verdant is on the wheel now, in the "laceweight" incarnation, and I suspect it will be keeping me busy for quite a while. And the secret project is done, I'm happy with it, and now am in the throes of pattern writing so I can submit it and see what other folks think.

Fiber Friday: I am the rate-limiting step

How is it possible that I haven't posted since last weekend? Sheesh...

In the last round of Adrian's fiber club, she offered a double option for the fiber. Wicked, wicked woman! So of course, I opted for the double option. And now the fiber is pilling up.

When we came back from Christmas break, this was waiting for me:

Frosted Forest, 50/50 soy silk/wool top. I have 4 oz of this stuff. I'm spinning a sport/DK weight single from this stuff, from the fold. We'll see how that works out.

Then a couple of weeks ago, this arrived at the door:

Verdant, 8 oz of 70% merino/30% fine mohair top. I'm kind of stunned. What do I do with this? It's absolutely beautiful, but I have no idea how to spin it. Laceweight? I could do a two ply laceweight and knit up a nice leafy shawl (Ravelry links). Or DK weight to mix with some leftover Silky Wool from the Peapod? Do I have enough to do some of both? I've never spun any laceweight (at least, not on purpose), and the prospect is somewhat daunting. But I haven't knit any lace in a while, and it's getting to be the time of year when light frothy things are much more appealing then, well, anything wool.

I'm at a loss. Anyone have any suggestions?

FO: Ivy

Sorry for the crappy photo - my photographer is on an expedition with the kidlets

(boy do I need to clean the bathroom mirror!)

Pattern: Ivy by Glenna C.
Yarn: Elsbeth Lavold Silky Wool, color 23, just over 7 skeins
Needles: US size 3
Started/finished: Jan 2007/Feb 2008
Comments/mods: First off, I love this sweater. And I am beyond thrilled to finally have it finished. I started this when I was still pregnant with Boo, and it was going to be my celebratory no-longer-pregnant sweater for this winter. Hopefully, there will still be a few chilly mornings so I can justify wearing it a few times before it gets put away for the summer.

I knit this according to the pattern, but in retrospect there are some changes I would have made. I'm not a big seaming fan, and I think I would have knit this in the round. The only complication is the hole for the waist ties. It would be easy enough to knit in a hole as you were going and continue in the round. The other thing I would have done, and which I highly recommend for anyone contemplating this sweater, is to write out the waist and neck shaping for the fronts line by line. There's a lot of shaping going on, and every time I put this down, I spent a lot of time trying to count the number of neckline decreases I'd done to try and remember where I was in the pattern. I'd also take some time to figure out how to knit the neckband and attach it to the neckline without seaming, just to get rid of that one extra step.

I love this yarn - it's nice to work with, with a fairly soft hand (particularly when knitted up), but has a little bit of crunch from the silk that makes the twisted stitches stand out nicely. I wet blocked the pieces before seaming, and the fabric evened out nicely.

I'm glad it's done, if only to get one project off the plate. Now, given that it's a balmy 70 degrees out, it's time for some summer sweaters.

The problem with unblog-able knitting projects

is that you have nothing much to write about if that's all you're working on. Well, that and a never-ending intarsia baby blanket. The StR is nice to work with, and it's knitting up quite nicely, but my internal vision of what these socks will look like has changed pretty dramatically over the course of the last week. I think, having muddled my way through the heel flap/shaping and up into the ankle, that I've settled on the final version. I just need to peruse Barbara Walker and see if there's a neat edging that will work well. Oh, and knit the other sock of course. And write up the pattern. And do more math then I'm really comfortable with to get sizes to fit people with normal sized feet. I never quite trust that my math is correct, and I've got an 8 stitch pattern repeat to contend with, so the pattern writing may take longer then the actual knitting of the socks. Stay tuned.

Duck is coming along, slowly - it's the perfect project for watching silly movies on DVD. This weekend's installment was "Good Luck Chuck", which I enjoyed more then I thought I would. Very silly, but some unforgettable (and extraordinarily un-PC) lines, particularly from Chuck's plastic surgeon friend whos name I can't remember. Last weekend we watched "40 Days and 40 Nights" in which Josh Hartnett gives up sex for Lent. Timely, and also entertaining. I'm sensing a theme here though - maybe it's time to stop letting Ironman go to the video store by himself.

Tonight I plan to sit down with Ivy, finish off the damn seaming and get on with the neckband. I will be flipping back and forth between election returns and Season 2 of Buffy. There will be beer.

Irons in the fire

I'm home today with a (not so) sick Boo and decided to take advantage of the lovely weather to get some photos of the current works in progress. There are many.

A new blanket for Devil, to replace the one lost a few weeks ago. I'm through the first border and staring down the barrel of 120+ rows of mindless blue and white intarsia. I'm already pretty certain that I hate intarsia. This is not going to be pretty.

Ivy, 90% seamed, ties done (note: I did not knit the required 52" because then they would be dragging on the ground), neckband left to be knit. The pattern calls for the neckband to be knit separately and then sewn in, but I'd rather knit it to the sweater as I go. Need to think about that a bit more.

The rest of Cricket, my first installment of the Hello Yarn Fiber Club almost a year ago (May 2007). I'm halfway through the hunk I had left over.

Socks for Devil from the Rainbow sock leftovers (there were lots of leftovers, 30+ grams). I started these while waiting for my Blue Moon package, but they are now on hold for a while. There are also the StR socks, of which I've managed to knit and rip most of the foot. Hmmm...hopefully I'll have something finished soon!