Fiber Friday: The first Porpoise-dyed from Yarn School

It is still Friday, right? I'm really falling behind here - this yarn has been spun up and done for almost two months, but I'm only getting around to blogging about it now. Pathetic!

Superwash merino, handdyed by yours truly, with Jacquard acid dyes in black, brown, brilliant blue and pumpkin orange I believe.
Spun/plied at 10:1 on ST Lendrum
Stats: ~185 yds, 14 wpi, 4 oz. This is some seriously dense yarn. I was planning on giving this to someone for a Christmas present, but I'm not sure how big her feet are - this is not going to be enough for a pair of socks. Sigh. Which means the other 4 oz I was going to save for myself will have to be spun up for her as well. Too bad...I guess I can always dye more.

I was really surprised by how this yarn turned out. Given the large white stretches in the top, I was expecting it to be a lot lighter.

It's a lot more uniform in color then I thought it would be. The 2-ply barberpole, in this instance, had similar enough tonal values that the whole skein ended up somewhere in the middle of the range instead of going from one extreme to the other.

This is only the second superwash fiber I've worked with - the first was superwash Corriedale, and I'm a lot happier with this one. I think I overspun the singles for the Corrie - the finished yarn felt somewhat wirey - but this merino basically spun itself. Literally. I sat in front of the wheel and just let the fiber run out into the single with hardly any effort. The 4 oz took two nights to spin (+/- 3 hrs), which is fast for me. Plying was another evening. So if I have to give up the other four ounces, at least I know it won't take forever to get through*!

* As soon as my new tension knob arrives - there was a small Lendrum-child collision this morning apparently (I think I was in the shower) that did not end up well for the Lendrum. Very sad, but given the amount of Christmas knitting left to be done, probably just as well.

Thursday mishmash

It's grey and "cold" and I'm up to my ears in secret knitting projects, so I don't have much of interest to show you. I am in love with this pattern and am considering making them for every single person I know. I have finished the sock in my last post, and am hoping that I can cast on for the second one on the bus tonight without screwing up too badly. I am two bobbins (of three) in to the November Fiber Club offering (picture here) which is lovely, but which I seem to be chronically underspinning - I think I may have to graduate to the fast flyer for "everyday" spinning (yikes!). I have two presents left on The List 2008, plus finishing off Boo's Tomten, which still has only half an arm (and no hood). One of the last two presents has been chosen (Rav link here) and I think the other will be a bias knit Eye of Partridge stitch scarf with garter edging that I've had percolating in my brain for a while now, using the yarn I spun at Yarn School. Assuming I have enough of it that is...methinks I might have to add some plying twist to that second skein.

What else is going on...Devil is still not convinced about the necessity for clothes in December. To be fair, she wears clothes, it's coats and pants that she's not so excited about. Occasionally I can convince her that the dress-over-pants look is a good one, and hopefully on those days, her classmates' parents don't wonder about my parenting skills (Why is that girl never dressed appropriately?). Boo has embraced the joys of verbal communication: (in the car on the way to daycare) "Mama. Mama! MAMA!!!!!" "What is it Boo?" (A beatific look through the roof of the car) "Eh-plane!" She has also finally stopped using "Daddy" to refer both to Ironman and her sister. However, she only occasionally makes any really distinction between "No" and "Nyah" (which means affirmative). Grandparents, consider yourselves warned.

Thankfully, tonight is Knit Night, so tomorrow I should have something reasonable and/or entertaining to discuss. Like Tartanic. Failing that, if I get my act in gear, I have a candidate for Fiber Friday that I really should blog about. It's been spun for a month now!

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Ah! I almost forgot. Progress for November:

Knitting:
Devil's Tomten
Christmas Present #5

Other:
Dyeing 2 lbs of wool for a coat for me. With the girls. Fun times. And a purple driveway.

Autumnal socks

It seems to have settled into "Fall" weather for good down here in Space City. But there's something missing that I can't quite put my finger on...

Oh yeah...that whole fall leaves thing. Thankfully I've got this to make up for not being in New England.

This is the last in this year's series of Man Socks for my family for Christmas. Three of the four men in my family have feet more-or-less the same size, and conveniently enough, that size is more-or-less the same size as my feet. Makes sock knitting very easy.

These are a version of the Spiraling Coriolis, worked with a larger band containing a little cable action. Trekking XXL continues to be a favorite sock yarn, in spite of the fact that it splits like a MoFo. This colorway (#76 I think?) (checks Rav...yes, #76) is just gorgeous. I'm wishing I had some more for myself.

More then that, I'm wishing they were done already! Not that I'm not enjoying them, but there are a bunch more things on the list to take care of.

Speaking of which, let's recap:

TX: Ironman, Devil and Boo
The Massholes: Nana, Grandpa, Uncle J and Auntie Walrus
The DC contingent: Bro and Auntie J
Those VT hippies: Mermaid and Koala

Grandpa is the unfortunate male whose feet do not resemble mine in size, therefore he will have to make do with last year's Christmas socks. What he is actually receiving remains to be determined. Koala's present was finished last night and is currently drying on my towel bar. Boo's Tomten has half of one arm, so that's coming along nicely. The last two ladies are up in the air (and will remain so since I know they come to visit on occasion). I'll just throw out teasers for them from time to time.

Look at that: December 1st and only 3.5 presents left to knit? Who am I forgetting?

Happy Turkey Day

In honor of my forefathers, I'm going to share with you some of the things that I am grateful for this year, all courtesy of You Tube.

For Nana:

For Uncle N:

For Ironman's side of the family:

and, last but not least, for Grandpa - one of his favorite songs as he's never seen it.

Un-embeddable, but still really good.

Have a great Thanksgiving!

Manon issues

So waaaaay back in September, Devil and I dyed some Eye-talian wool that had been marinating in the stash (and hopefully spreading around some wonderful Firenze cooties to the rest of the gang) for a couple of years. And then I blithely cast on for a sweater by one of my favorite designers.

I'm afraid my brain seems to have been permenantly damaged by motherhood, because I have now knit the peplum for this sweater approximately 42 bazillion times. The first part (center triangle) went just fine.

Then came the sides of the peplum. Having made a previous NG sweater, I didn't have any problems with the construction. I happily picked up stitches and went on my merry way. One side finished, I went to cast on for the second side and realized something.

Click for notes

While the center triangle has three garter stitch ridges at the base, the peplum sides only had two ridges. I went back to the pattern repeatedly, checked the errata, checked Ravelry threads, hemmed and hawed, but could not convince myself that I was misreading the pattern.

In the grand scheme of things, this is not a big deal, right? But somehow I fixated on this as a huge problem. So I figured I would cast on for the other side and work three ridges, just to compare.

Before I knew it, I'd knitted the entire other side of the peplum, without pausing to check and see if I liked three ridges better. I think I subconsciously decided that I was going to rip out the first side, and I didn't want to give myself a chance to change my mind, since why knit two sides when you can knit three? Or four? Or x+infinity?

In any event, I now have completed the peplum. The trauma of repeated reknitting notwithstanding, I have gone on to work the fronts and back all together. I made it up to the armholes before my brains melted and poured out my ears, and that's where things stand now.

I've been enjoying my new stitch markers though - from a swap for a skein of Essential on Ravelry. I definitely got the better end of that deal! And I'm loving the way the variegation on the dye job is playing out. So far, so good, but now I've got to get back to the Christmas presents. The list hasn't gotten any shorter.