Rainbow Icelandic singles

From the gradient fiber I posted earlier this week, I ended up with this:

163 yds of singles (out of ~3.5 oz). I spun these at a low ratio (7.5:1) so that I didn't end up with wire instead of yarn. I hadn't spun Icelandic before, and it wasn't the smoothest experience. I think this top had both fiber types (tog and thel, which is the outer and under coats respectively), so the staple length wasn't consistent. I kept getting points where the shorter undercoat made clumps and slubs in the singles. It was a bit of a frustrating experience, but the finished yarn is pretty nice anyway.

I couldn't resist, so today, after I took the finished skeins pictures, I balled it up,

these colors are pretty true to life

and cast on for EZ's Pi shawl.

I'm working the increase rows as invisible increases and doing yo, k2tog whenever the color shifts in the yarn. It's not going to be very big, but maybe the girls can use it for a stuffed animal or something.

Oooo...pretty colors!

I've been messing around with the dyes recently, and having a grand time trying to figure it all out. I've been doing mostly semi-solid or tonal colorways, like these two.

Both of these are a combo of two different colors, added in various proportions. The purple dye in one broke a bit, adding some more variation to the batch. Both of these are on Targhee.

I've also tried out a gradient rainbow colorway, which was really fun to do.

This is on Icelandic fiber, which has since been spun up as a fingering weight singles yarn. I think it's going to become an EZ Pi shawl.

I'm going to redo the purple and see if I can't get it a bit less variegated. Thankfully I've got lots of undyed fiber lying around to play with!

Imaginary post

Warning: picture-overloaded post ahead

I was absolutely convinced that I'd started a post about my finished Sour Fig yarn, but Blogger says no. I'll just have to blame my aging Mommy brain for that little mental hiccup. So this post will be a finished yarn and a finished object all in one!

First up: the yarn. As previously described, I took my spindle on our trip back to the US, and after a horrible injury and fabulous repair, I whizzed through 4 oz of Sour Fig Shetland from Adrian.

That's it in the lower right corner - sadly I have no photo of the original fiber, but there's a bunch here.

It took me about four days to spin up the six singles and do the 2-plies. This included spinning in the car, and spinning at every available second during the day. I was determined to ply in one go, so I ended up with a very full spindle, to say the least.

When it was all wound off and soaked and thwacked and dried, I had 56 yds of super bulky yarn with a very interesting texture.

The next problem was to figure out something to make out of it - 56 yds is not very much, but I thought I could maybe get a cowl or a hat out of it. I went for the one willow cowl by Jennifer Casa, and 3 hours later I had a finished object.

The pattern is a simple 1x1 twisted rib cowl, where you knit through the back loop but purl normally. I kept going until I ran out of yarn, which meant I had to tink back several rows so I could cast off successfully. But there it is - instant gratification knitwear, and it's thick enough to ward off some serious winter weather.

Which means it will probably go in to the gift box. Because no matter what my office mates say, London winters are so not bad. But there's one Christmas item done!

Who's sweater exactly?

Finally, at long last, I have finished (the knitting on) my Dad's birthday sweater. However, not only is this not the original birthday sweater, it's also not going to go to Dad.

After my shocking realization that knitting a sweater for my father includes working four feet of sleeves, not including sleeve caps, and the fact that it was a bit closer fitting then I had envisioned, I had to repurpose the whole thing. 'Cause with 1.5 sleeves and an entire body done, there's no way I was going to either trash the thing or rip it back and redo it.

So now it's going to my brother, who only has 21 inches of arm to cover. And who has promised me a photoshoot once he gets it. The plan is to hit publish and go sew in the sleeves. Blocking will commence at 21:00 hours, plus or minus a bit, and it should get into the mail by the end of the week. Hooray for a September sweater!

Spinning new wools

Right, it's Friday, which must mean it's time for some fiber, right? We've successfully arrived back in the UK, and have had a lovely week getting over jet lag and getting back to the Real Life (TM) schedule. I now have not one, but two English schoolgirls, who are pretty thrilled to be back in academia.

 

I've spun two yarns in the 6 days we've been back (hooray for the wheel!), both of which are destined to be turned in to socks for the school girls. I ordered a bunch of different wools that I've never spun before we left, and have been happily working my way through dyeing and spinning them. First up is for Devil - some Lincoln Longwool dyed in blues.

This was dyed to give a specific stripe pattern, so I split it in half and spun each half separately, then chain plied. Since Lincoln is a longwool, and I tend to overspin, I spun and plied at much lower ratios then I usually do, hoping to avoid ending up with wire (spun at 6:1, plied at 7.5:1). The fiber was fairly slippery, surprisingly so, and it took a bit for me to figure out the right amount of twist to keep the single together without overspinning. I ended up with 114 yds of bulky chain ply, which I'll knit up into some quick, cosy socks for her. It's not terribly tightly plied, but I'm hoping a small needle size and the durability of the fiber itself means they won't wear out by Christmas.

The second yarn is for Boo Boo, dyed by herself:

Cheviot fiber, spun/plied at 12:1, 2-ply.

I spun this one as a quick wheel fix right after we got home. I think I did the entire 100 gr in a day and a half. I've never spun Cheviot before, but I now consider myself a huge fan. It's not a soft as some fibers, but it has such a great toothy feel while spinning - it would be great for sturdy mittens or outerwear sweaters. Plied up, it's a lot softer then I was expecting from feeling it in top form. I'm not terribly sensitive to wool prickle, but I'm not sure I could wear a Cheviot sweater without a layer underneath, but that may just be this batch. I plied fairly tightly for durability, and I think these socks will be a huge hit.

There they are, all balled up and ready to go. Time to bust out the bigger needles and get started!