The bonfire and the hamster wheel

Last night I packed up my wheel in the lovely bag my Mom made, got on the Tube, and trekked over to Tricolette for an evening of spinning. When I proposed this excursion to my other half, I said "Guess where I might go with my wheel next week?" His response was "A bonfire?" Ha, ha, bloody ha mate. Just for that, I won't make you any more socks...

The trip on the Tube was actually fine, although I kept waiting for someone to ask me what was in the bag. It helped a great deal that I was going in to town when most people were coming out and the trains were largely empty. I made it there without too many problems, after a trek from the Tube station, and had a lovely evening. A lovely bunch of people, a gorgeous shop (!), and best of all, this is what I was spinning.

I was able to start on the Falklands for my mom because this past weekend, I finished up this:

Six skeins, ~2100 yds, of 2-ply fingering weight Falklands for the River Run pullover (aka March's sweater). I had an interesting experience with this stuff - the first four skeins I spun over the period of about 2 weeks, and they were in the neighborhood of 1600-1800 ypp. The last two, I did in the last week, and when I finished the first one of the two, it came in at 2100 ypp (435 yds/3.4 oz).

Gulp. Whaaaaa? whimpers

So I plied up the next skein and, instead of soaking it in cold water, soaked it in hot water, with a tiny bit of mussing around. It came out at 1847 ypp. Hmmmmmm, said the curious porpoise, perhaps I can utilize the Falklands-puffball effect to fix that darned first skein. Skein skinny got unwound, thrown in some hot water, and jiggled around a bit. After drying:

400 yds/3.4 oz, 1820 ypp. Done.

I checked the schematics for the pattern, and I fully expect to have to spin up some more yarn somewhere along the line, as the intended recepient of the finished item is both skinny and long*. So I will need to do some veeery scientific dyeing to minimize any dye lot issues with future skeins. But I think it's time to get started with the dye jars. Black, white, three shades of grey, three shades of blue and teal.

Now I need to see if I have enough dye...

* Must remember to find out how long the sleeves have to be...

FO: Ironman's Christmas Aran

Pattern: Heirloom Aran Pullover by Sue Mink
Yarn: Garnstudio DROPS Karisma Classic, colorway 16, 120 yds/50 gr, 14 skeins.
Needles: US 4/3.5 mm and US 6/4.0 mm circulars.
Gauge: 20 stitches/28 rows in stockinette
Start/finish: 20 October 2010 - 24 January 2011
Comments/modifications: this pdf is quite a minimalist pattern (all of 2 pages) with no charts, which (as a dedicated chart-ist) I found irritating. However, it is a pretty straightforward pattern. The other thing is that I used DK weight instead of worsted weight yarn, so I ended up using US 4/6 needles instead of US 7/9 - I still got gauge, so that was fine.

I started with the sleeves for a couple of reasons. 1) I hate knitting sleeves because they take forever, and 2) I wanted a chance to learn some of the cable patterns before launching into the front and back, particularly as I was changing the big middle cable panel. I think this is the first time I've knit both sleeves at the same time and, while it meant that all the increases and decreases matched up fine, it also took me a month. A solid month of knitting, to get two sleeves. Bah!

I swapped the odd, very in-and-out middle cable panel from the pattern with a much more uniform one from the Harmony Guides (the Lattice Cable, page 162 in cables & arnas if you're curious). Back and fronts went fairly smoothly. The yarn was really nice to work with - a bit stiff in the ball, but lovely and soft once knit up. And extremely economically priced, as these things go.

I blocked all the pieces before seaming and doing the neckband, but then had to reblock as the finished sweater was a bit too close fitting for Himself, and the sleeves were a bit short. Blocking took care of that but I may have to go back and redo the hip band - like a doofus I didn't check my notes on how much ribbing I did on the sleeves, and the waist ribbing is probably an inch too short. It was deemed acceptable by my husband, who has been waiting for this sweater for two Christmases now. But I can't guarantee that I won't be redoing the ribbing and trying to graft knit 1, purl 1 rib at some point in the future. I just couldn't face the prospect right now...Another thing that I would do over: I'd add some short rows at the back to get it to hang a little better. There's just not quite enough fabric coming up to the neck there.

So, Sweater #1 of 2011 is done. Thankfully sweater #2 is up to armholes on both body and sleeves, and might even be done before leaving for our ski trip in a week and a half. Which is good - Devil needs a new sweater!

FO: Smaug and Boo

I finished my first installment of my Self-Imposed Sock Club (SISC) on Monday, wove in the ends and blocked them. Ta da!

Pattern: Smaug by MoragOgg
Yarn: Brown Sheep Wildfoote Luxury Sock, colorway "Vinca Minor", approximately 1.25 skeins
Needles: US 1.5/2.5 mm, magic loop
Start/finish: 1/1-24/1/11.
Comments/mods: This was a nice pattern - enough to keep me moving on it (aka not bored silly), but an easy stitch pattern to memorize. I made one modification on the toe - I continued the purl ridge down the sides of the toe, just because I liked the continuity.

I knit these just as written (60 stitch sock) and, as a result, they are waaaaay too small to fit me. I wanted a modelled shot, but Boo's arms were as close as I could get.

At least you can see the stitch pattern a bit better...these will go to some deserving soul with more petite feet.

In an unbelievable, once-in-a-lifetime convergence, I actually finished two pairs of socks this month.

These are for Boo, toe up, no pattern to speak of, short-row heel, an inch of 2x2 ribbing, find right spot in ball, repeat for matching stripes. I started these on our three-day trip to Copenhagen just after Christmas, and finished them a couple of weeks ago? I think? Anyway...Month 1, two pairs. It can only go downhill from here!

Tower Bridge Mitts

Finally, I've gotten the next pattern in the Southwark Collection finished and available.

These mitts are the perfect project for that special skein of luxury yarn you've been saving for a rainy day. Knit up with under 175 yds of fingering or sport weight yarn, these mitts are the thing to slip on for a cold March day, or to add an extra layer of warmth in February when the boiler is acting up.

The size is adjusted by changing the needle size and/or yarn weight. The teal mitts shown above were knit with 1 skein of Blue Sky Alpacas Alpaca & Silk (size medium), and the variegated pair below were knit with 1 skein of Indie Dyer 100% Superwash Fingering Merino (size large).

Many thanks to Knitapotamus, knucna, lindseylou, Mistydawn, oddbird26, phoenixblue and vshawn7, my intrepid test knitters from the Ravelry Free Pattern Testers group.You can see some of their projects on the TB Mitts project page here (Ravelry link).

I'm hoping to have the last pattern in the collection out to testers by the end of January, which would get it out probably around the end of February. Stay tuned.

River Run spinning

As of today (thanks to a one-day work week due to a wicked cold) (and the Australian Open!), I've spun up 1341 yds of 2-ply fingering weight Falklands wool yarn for the Big Colorwork Project. The size I'm knitting calls for:

380 yds black
380 yds medium gray
190 yds white
190 yds light brown
190 yds dark brown
190 yds light gray
190 yds dark gray
190 yds light tan
190 yds medium brown

For a grand total of 2090 yds. Holy crap! I'm more then halfway there! And it's still JANUARY! cue happy dance

I was totally right* about the Falklands-puffball mushroom effect too. Look at this:

On the left is the freshly plied, unwashed yarn - it is slightly slick, with a nice smooth feel to the yarn. On the right is the washed, thwacked, dried poofy yarn - unbelievably squishable!

The first two totally dry skeins came in at 1484 and 1527 ypp so...still a bit under where they "should" be, but close enough for government work (at least in my experience of government work).

* This happens rarely enough in my fiber adventures that it makes me feel very smug. Which, of course, guarantees that the dyeing is going to be an Utter. Nightmare.