An autumn plan

I mentioned in my last post that I had a crazy list of projects for the next few months. In the spirit of making myself accountable to someone (or something in this case), I'm going to list out my goals for the next little while in the hopes that having it written down will mean that at least some of it actually gets done. Heh. Maybe...

1. Finish, test edit, photograph and publish three winter accessory patterns. One pattern in 90% done (except for reknitting of one of the pair with a different size needle - oops!). The other two are in the mental design stage, but I have the yarn to knit them both - I just need to get cracking.

2. Knit the girls each a sweater out of the fiber they dyed.

3. Knit Himself a sweater for Christmas.

4. Knit a birthday gift for Nana.

5. Dye and spin the fiber for Nana's Christmas present (requested after she saw mine over the holiday), then knit it.

6. Spin yarn for sweater for next March.

7. Maybe knit Pas de Valse for me out of some gorgeous alpaca (same as the yarn I used for the Veil of Isis, only fawn colored), or start on the Vine Yoke Cardigan (since I spent all that damn time spinning the yarn for it).

8. Knit myself an alpaca balaclava/head wrap/scarf thingie for cycling this winter. I'm going to be doing quite a bit of riding over the next ten months, to get ready for my insane venture next summer, and I seem to recall that it gets pretty fucking cold out there in December, not to mention January.

If I had to prioritize, I'd say #1 first, then #4, then starting #5, then starting #3, then #6. #7 is going to happen this fall if I have any spare time - like if I quit working entirely, and #8 can fit in around the others. Maybe that will be my train knitting. Sigh...goodbye socks, goodbye shawls, hello garments and gifties.

Summertime, and the blogging is absent

Sorry about my unplanned hiatus. I've spent the last two weeks in the US with family, and the last two days trying to shake the jetlag before I get on yet another plane (this time for work). But I do have lots of finished objets to share with you.

First off: I did manage to spin up my yarn in those few days at home between trips. I ended up with 96 yds of bulky/superbulky superwash merino,

and about 175 yds of somewhat overplied Targhee.

About 91 yards of the merino became this,

and 170 yards of the Targhee became this,

which still needs the ribbing redone on smaller needles so it doesn't fall off quite so easily. The patterns are written and off to my wonderful test knitters, and I hope to have them available for release soon. Along with some better pictures!

I also managed to finish 99.9% of the mind-numbing stockinette on the Aran Necklace camisole. And then I ran out of yarn. Thankfully I was in the hidden section of the hem, and I had some DK weight random cotton lying around.

Last night's bout of jet lag-induced insomnia meant that this baby has it's hem sewn down and is blocked and drying on the guest bed as we speak. Hooray! Of course, autumn has arrived here in the UK (unlike in New England where it was ludicrously hot) (ok, it wasn't Texas hot, but it was hotter then England!), and it's not likely that it will be warm enough to wear on it's own, but that's ok. Especially since the armholes dip down below bra line on the side. Hmmm...

Finally, I finished my first pair of socks in a couple of months. I kind of lost my sock mojo at the start of the summer holidays in July, but 7 hour plane rides do allow for some concentrated sock time. I can only show part of these, since they're a design that I'm submitting, but they were great fun to knit. I liked the yarn alot too - Cherry Tree Hill Supersock merino. I think the colorway was "Blueberry Hill", which I liked. US 1.5/2.5 mm needles, 8.5 stitches per inch.

I wrote this up and sent it off to Sock Madness for next year, so the picture is deliberately obscured. Just in case you thought I was doing some drunken knitware photography.

So, two weeks vacation and no blogging means three completed original designs, and one summer tank I can't wear until next June. But there's a lot going on this fall - the iKnit Weekender is in a couple of weeks, and yesterday on my bike ride I hatched out a great and completely insane plan to knit sweaters for six people in my family (including me to be fair), four handspun, one cabled, one colorwork, by next March. Methinks that any Christmas knitting to be gifted has already been knit this year...

My Challenge challenge

I'm participating in the 4! Ounce! Challenge! on Ravelry. This is a spin/design/create-along, in which spinners make a yarn, design a project, and then release the pattern on Ravelry. The motivation behind this event was every spinner's common problem: I saw some really pretty handdyed top, and bought 4 ounces, and spun this yarn - now what do I do with it? The idea is to end up with a bunch of patterns that are suitable for four ounces of handspun.

The Challenge occurs over the months of August and September, and prizes will be awarded to a few of the lucky folks who design and release patterns. My personal Challenge within the Challenge is this: spinning up 8 ounces in August while being on vacation away from my wheel for three out of four weeks. This translate to: spin, ply and finish 8 ounces of fiber in five days. Packing wet yarn at the final moment on Friday is not allowed.

I've started with some superwash merino top from Spunky Eclectic, colorway "Thunderstorm". This one is getting spun long draw from the top, slightly thicker singles then my usual, and will be chain plied.

So far (one viewing of Aladdin) I've gotten through a bit more then half of the braid. I'm hoping to finish up the singles tonight, and then I'll let them rest for a day while I spin the other bump. If nothing else, I think the Tour de Fleece made me a faster spinner. Thankfully!

Greetings from Austria!

Some thoughts on my first trip to Bavaria:

Good beer. Very good beer.
Even better ice cream.
Sadly, even a twenty-something pro triathelete kicking ass is not enough to redeem German men and their obsession with Speedos.
Driving from Straubing to Salzburg = one turned and completed sock heel.

Dyelot paranoia

I've recently come to the conclusion that I like the yarn I make myself much better then I like the yarn I buy. And I like being able to come up with my own colorways a lot. This is all well and good when I'm dyeing yarn for socks. Or a hat. Or mittens. Or anything small and one skein-able. But sweater lots? Sweater lots are another story entirely.

I have dyelot paranoia. So when I decided that this holiday's dye project would be the ~1700 yds of fingering weight wool/tencel from Green Mountain Spinnery, I had a bit of a dilemma. How to get all the skeins the same dyelot?

The last time I did this, I had the benefit of a very hot Houston summer to help out with the dye setting. Not being sure whether or not a London summer would have the same effect, I set out to do what I get paid to do: experiment.

First the soaking:

I soaked the seven skeins in plain water (aka no citric acid). Because I didn't want the dye to strike too fast and give a mottled/variegated look, I decided to soak the yarn alone and add the CA with the dye.

We (I) mixed up the dye stock, and waited anxiously for it to cool off a bit before adding it to the bin.

It all got mixed up, along with 1 tsp citric acid, and left alone. After four days, the dyebath was still pretty dark, so I added another tsp of acid.

On day 7, I got sick of waiting and hauled the yarn out.

There was a bit of purple left in the bin, but I liked the yarn color, so I took it out.

Then there was the heat setting of the dye. Everything went in to a garbage bag and into the microwave. Three minutes on high, three minutes rest, three times seemed to do the trick. Several rinses, a spin in the washing machine and voila!

1700 yards of periwinkle colored yarn, destined for Sprossling. Someday...