Handspun patterns

The 4! Oz! Challenge! ends tomorrow, and I'm happy to say that I finished my patterns and got them submitted before the last day (a miracle in and of itself, seeing as how I am the Queen Procrastination). Here they are*:

Lisbon Cloche**, superwash merino in "Thunderstorm" from Spunky Eclectic

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Shelburne Falls Beret, Targhee in "Garland" from Hello Yarn

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This was a really interesting process for me. Usually I spin without much of an end product in mind (although the TdF did change that a bit). For these, I had four days in between trips in August to spin up the yarn, and I knew two things: 1) I was going to chain ply both colorways to keep the colors intact, and 2) I was going to knit hats, but I didn't want them to be really obviously stripey.

For the SE merino, I ended up spinning a really fast, thick single. When it was plied up, the yarn ranged from 6-10 wpi and was super squooshy. I used a slipped stitch pattern (same as in an eye of partridge heel flap) to break up the striping, but since the colors didn't contrast very much, that was sufficient.

For the Targhee, which I spun second, I was a bit rushed - the final yarn was a wee bit overplied. But...there wasn't a lot I could do about that while on vacation, so I soldiered on. Since the colors in that skein were much more contrasting, I needed to take "extreme" measures to try and break up the striping. The stitch pattern I chose has two rounds of slipping the same stitch, which is then crossed over two stitches on the third round. I'm really pleased with how it came out.

The patterns include details about spinning the yarn and a whackload of specs (i.e. singles wpi/tpi, plied wpi/tpi, twist angle, etc). Both hats are knit from the top down, starting with i-cord in waste yarn, and can easily be adjusted in size as you go (patterns are written for only one size). Enjoy***!

* Please excuse the goofy pictures, but it's really hard to take pictures of your own head without looking like an idiot.
** Named for the towns in which the respective dyers (Amy of Spunky Eclectic and Adrian of Hello Yarn) are located.
*** If you knit up one of these in a commercial yarn, please let me know how it works out and I'll add that to the Ravelry pattern pages. Thanks!

Reporting from the front lines

In the interests of reminding myself that progress is being made, here's the updated status of the Autumn List:

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 one is in the mental design stage, but I have the yarn to knit them both - I just need to get cracking. Hat done, mitts done (for the umpteenth time), mittens still on mental drawing board.

2. Knit the girls each a sweater out of the fiber they dyed. Done, and done!

3. Knit Himself a sweater for Christmas. Swatching, swatching, swatching.

4. Knit a birthday gift for Nana. Done, and even in the mail, to be blogged post-touchdown in ME.

5. Dye and spin the fiber for Nana's Christmas present (requested after she saw mine over the holiday), then knit it. 23/9 - fiber now dyed, rinsed and drying.

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). I've played with dyeing the alpaca, and I think I've settled on a color (#3).

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. Still at the bottom of the priority list.

Things are moving along, slowly but surely. And my kids are getting really good at a) entertaining themselves and b) learning Disney movies by heart.

Classes, classes

I realized, while trolling through my brain for something to blog about that is not "picture of knitting that is indistinguishable from previous picture of knitting" that I hadn't ever posted details about the classes I took at the iKnit Weekender.

Class the First: Fair Isle knitting, taught by Biggan Ryd-Dups. This was a good overview of fair isle techniques, which I was already familiar with, but was worth it for the fact that I finally figured out how to hold two yarns in my left hand.

Let me back up: I learned to knit English style (throwing, yarn in right hand), but about four years ago, I decided I needed to learn how to knit Continental (yarn in left hand, faster then throwing). To do this, I knit an entire short sleeved sweater Continental style. In cotton. Needless to say, tension issues doomed the garment to un-wearability from the beginning, but I did learn to hold the yarn in my left hand (I ended up as a combination knitter, not a Continental, but that's neither here nor there). When I started my Olympics project, I was intrigued by the idea of two yarns in one hand, particularly on the rows with three colors, but I couldn't quite get the hang of it. Frustration ensued.

You know how sometimes you try to figure something out and you bang your head against a wall trying to get it and nothing works? And then you see someone doing it and the lightbulb goes on? Yeah, that was me with the one handed Fair Isle. All I needed to do was watch Biggan do it for two minutes and I was set. Or sorted, as they say on this side of the pond. So now I'm looking forward to my next Fair Isle project so I can try it out.

Class the Second: From Square to Eternity, with Pat Ashford and Steve Plummer. I signed up for this one with absolutely no idea what it was going to be about. The course description was suitably vague, but said something about designing, so I figured what the heck?

Turns out that Pat and Steve are math teachers who have used knitting to teach math to students all over the UK. They gave a slide show of their creations, and we did a bit of knitting of different geometrical shapes that were then all combined together at the end. It was really interesting, and they things they've created are gorgeous! Some of the ones they talked about are here, and they've got a bunch of toys that I'm dying to make for some geeky kids.

Class the Third: Estonian Lace Knitting with The Dutch Knitters. I don't know where to begin with this class, it was that good. We started with some history of Estonian lace knitting and traditional shawl construction. Carla and Hilly brought a pile of shawls to show off different construction styles and shapes. I learned that traditional Estonian shawls are always rectangular, and the borders are always knit in two pieces and then attached to the center panel. We knit tiny little sampler shawls with gorgeously thin Wensleydale yarn. I learned that "nupp" is pronounced so that it rhymes with "soup". I left with big plans to get myself a whack-load of 1600 ypp lace yarn and spend the next year working on my own Estonian shawl. I was foiled by the lack of yarn with that particular grist at the Marketplace, but it's still simmering in the back of my mind. Of course, that project will also involve investment in the appropriate reference materials.

All in all, I really enjoyed my first knitting event. It was way less crowded then I had expected, but people seemed to think that a lot of people went to Knit Nation instead of waiting for the Weekender, so it wasn't so crowded. I'm planning to hit Knit Nation next summer, but that doesn't mean there won't be a return visit to the Weekender too!

Why kids' sweaters rock

You can more or less finish them in three days:

Devil's mermaid sweater, yarn spun from top that she dyed herself. Top down raglan with yarnover increases. I found a scallop-y sort of lace pattern for the hem, and repeated it on the sleeves.

Thankfully she decided she wanted short sleeves, because I didn't have a lot of yardage (~320 yds). I still need to decide what to do about buttons/button bands - it might come down to applied i-cord with a few gaps for the buttons to fit through. We'll see - it's now soaking so I can block it out and figure out how many buttons I'll need. But one more thing can be checked off the list - hooray!

FF: Speedy, speedy spinning

I have discovered instant gratification in spinning form: this,

to this.

Artisan Threads pencil roving, purchased 10-11th September, spun 10-14th September, on Golding Spindle (green) and Lendrum (white).

Finished yarn: 110 yds/2.3 oz green, 152 yds/2.4 oz white, both about 14 wpi.

It is amazing how much faster spinning goes when you don't have to draft. I started the green roving last Friday night, and liked it so much that I went back to the booth the next day and got some of the undyed. I spun the green stuff on my Golding spindle, and it was so easy! Start spindle, let twist into roving, wind on, repeat. The green roving had a bit of lanolin left, so it was a bit greasy on the hands. Some of that came out when I washed it, but there's still a bit left.

The white I decided to try on the wheel, and it was even faster then on the spindle (not surprisingly!). I "spun" the whole 2.4 oz of singles and plied the big skein in one evening. So much fun! Of course, as I was spinning I was desperately trying to come up with a project for these little bits and bobs. I think maybe the Northman Mittens, with a bit of the cashmere "waste" spun up for the lining yarn. A good chance to practice my new Fair Isle technique and get a christmas present out of the way.