One step forward, two steps back

Fresh off the high of finishing my Whisper Cardigan last week (pictures and post to follow as soon as I get some photos taken), I decided to tackle another UFO lurking next to my couch. This time: my  handspun Stasis Pullover, aka my P3 Today's (not)Sweater.

When last discussed on the blog, I had just come to terms with the fact that my swatch lied to me I didn't swatch properly, and had ripped out the four inches of sweater that I had to start over again with my new gauge and numbers from a smaller size. I managed to get most of the way through the waist decreases on the new version, which then sat in a crumpled pile for about 6 months. Last night I picked it up again, determined to get some good progress made. Then I realised (after referencing my spreadsheet that I was supposed to follow for both stitch AND row counts) that I had completely f-d up the waist decreases. Given my much-larger-then-called for row gauge, I was supposed to decrease every 8 rows. I had managed to ignore that directive entirely and go with the every 18 row decrease spacing called for in the pattern. Fabulous.

So I pulled the body off the needles to rip back to 8 rows about the first set of decreases so I could get them sorted out. And as it was lying in my lap, I had a sudden, terrifying thought: "You know, this looks kind of big..."

So I pulled out my trusty tape measure and checked. Several times. And discovered, in fact, not only was it "kind of big", my spreadsheet-calculated with-my-gauge measurement of 42 inches was actually...(wait for it)...46 inches. W.T.everloving.F!!!????!!!

Now here's the kicker - my gauge is still 6 sts/inch, but the sweater is coming out 4 inches too big. Either I cast on some bastardized number of stitches, or gremlins are coming and stretching my sweater out when I sleep. After much wringing of hands, gnashing of teeth and tearing of hair, I ripped out again, cast on the number of stitches for the size 37, and got most of the way through the ribbing.

This morning, on the train, I realized that I cast on the number of the stitches for the body (240) not the number of stitches required for the ribbing (228).

I am beginning to think that this sweater is cursed. Truly, truly cursed. And I'm not sure it will be finished by October and the next installation of P3/Today's sweater.

But it will make a good story...;-)

Fiber Friday: Welsh Clouds

A few months back, I picked up some of Katie's handcarded, dizzed gradient roving at Unravel, and I'd been looking for the perfect project for it ever since.

When Brenda's new shawl pattern popped up in the most recent issue of Knitty, I was pretty sure I'd found that project. So I sat down and treated myself to spinning up this fabulous fiber.

Fiber: Hilltop Cloud Gradient Roving in "Peacock", 30% Shetland/50% merino/20% Tussah silk (she's got more available - go now!).
Spun/plied: 15:1 on ST Lendrum
Stats: 233 yds/100 gr, or approximately 1065 ypp. Also known as DK-to-light-worsted weight.

This fiber was an absolute dream to spin. The Shetland and the silk more then make up for the merino (not the most interesting fiber to spin IMHO). There were four braids with the same color progression, so I spun the singles with two braids held together, occasionally concentrating on one or the other to get the colors finished at the same time. I then plied the two singles together and ended up with only a few yards difference at the end. Result!

Not the most even, consistent spin I've ever done, but boy was it enjoyable. The final yarn is soft, bouncy and elastic, with just a bit of shine. I think it's going to make an incredibly drapey fabric, which is perfect.

But (and you knew there was a but coming, didn't you? My plans never work out that well...), the shawl pattern in question calls for 600 yds of fingering weight yarn, not 200 yds of DK weight, so this lovely skein will have to become something else. What exactly remains to be seen, although Amy had been tweeting lots of pictures of some crocheted shawl gorgeousness that might work for this skein.

I'm still determined to do Now in a Minute in handspun...I think maybe I will have to bust up my 5 bags of Hello Yarn Winter Storage Finn and end up with a pink and green version...how very Preppy Handbook of me!

Unexpected inspiration

Over the last few weeks, spring has really exploded on the scene here in southeast England. As this is our first spring in our new residence, we've been having a fabulous time discovering new flowers in the garden, new trees to pass by, and (most importantly to Boo) a new place to spy wildlife. Our town green has a duck pond, and every morning for the last week we've been stopping on the way to school to gauge the population growth. There are some fancy orange and brown geese with four goslings, an albino Mrs. Mallard with 15 ducklings, numerous Canadian geese incubating progeny, and even a pair of swans on a nest. It's all very exciting.

With the plethora of feathered beasties around, wouldn't you know that my muse would settle on what might be

the oddest of them all

for my latest sweater inspiration. And I've spent the last week and a half scouring the local (and not-so-local) yarn shops for the right color yarn. After many fruitless trips about town, I began searching online, and have discovered a new use for mini-skeins:

They're just the right size for swatching. These three beauties are from

fivemoons

, whose lovely booth I visited at Wonderwool Wales. I think the Robin's Egg and the Nelly are going to be just perfect for what I have in mind, and the Forgetmenot base is just glorious (50% superwash Falkland merino, 50% silk). And she does DK weight too, which would be my preference, as a fingering weight sweater is too much of a commitment even for me....so now it's on to designing a stitch pattern and some sketching and a load of swatching. Fun, fun, fun!

Overcoming neglect

I am, in the best of times, a more-then-indifferent gardener*. I may start off with good intentions (let's plant some tomato seedlings and maybe some strawberries in containers!), but within a few weeks, my horticultural aspirations get forgotten/ignored/shoved aside in favor of other things. And to be perfectly honest, the same thing happens with my knitting projects more often that I care to admit...

Last week I was seized by some deranged enthusiasm for weeding, and I spent a couple of days yanking out piles and piles of one particular plant that was covering all the beautiful bluebells that have come up in the back garden. As I collapsed on the couch one evening after the girls went to bed, nursing my sore back and blistered palms, I was inspired to dig up another neglected item: my Whisper cardigan, knit in Malabrigo Lace in Paris Night.


Now, I'm not sure that this colorway has much to do with Paris at nighttime, but it's a lovely navy blue with some subtle variegation. I had stalled out on the body, but my spurt of good intentions meant that I managed to get it to the called-for length before a vicious yarn barf episode resulted in broken laceweight.

That made it a good time to start working on the sleeves (you probably don't recall, but I have modified the ever-living Bejeesus out of this pattern). As of today, I'm more then halfway through sleeve 1, and have every intention of finishing sleeve 2 by the end of the week. And if things go according to plan**, I should be able to finish the body in the next week. Which should be perfect timing, as we are heading off to the Norfolk coast for half-term, and we all know that going to the beach for a holiday means I'll need a sweater.

* And in the worst of times, positively Darwinian (i.e. oh, it's supposed to frost tonight? Oh well, we'll see what's still alive come morning...)
** Hahahahahahahahahahahahahah! I'll just sit here and wait for the lightening strike to come.

Fiber Friday: Seasick, three ways

In my excitement to channel Top Chef, I have managed to come up with what my possibly be the most unappealing blog post title ever. I promise it won't be as bad as it sounds, as the Seasick in question is of the fiber variety, not the bodily. Behold:

This is Seasick Corriedale, from Hello Yarn, and it was the February 2010 offering. That was back in the days when I was getting a double dose of club fiber, so I had two bags to play with. I spun up the first bag during the Tour de Fleece last year.

My recent spate of sampling and trying out different ways to spin up colorways for the shop inspired me to split the second bag into two batches. The first half I spun as a standard 2-ply.


I like the barberpole, although I'm not sure how it will play out in the knitting (or crocheting). I ended up with approximately 67 yds of floofy aran/bulky weight yarn.

The other half of the bag ran smack into my sudden and burning need to try core spinning. It was not an entirely successful experiment, to say the least!

I had some mohair core yarn that I got at Ally Pally in 2010 (this experiment has been a long time coming obviously), and I used the miniSpinner to add some extra twist to the core before I started core spinning. I tore the fiber into approximately thumb wide strips and set off.

After a few yards and some fiddling with the miniSpinner, I had two observations: 1) this was going to work better if I predrafted the fiber a bit to really loosen it up, and 2) I would probably do better using the Lendrum, where it was easy to stop and start the wheel, or slow down/speed up without needing my hands. The predrafting part was easy to do, but since I'd started on the miniSpinner, I decided to keep going and use the Lendrum next time.

You can see that I ended up with a number of spots that are waaaaay over spun - I think using the Lendrum will help with that because I can slow down my treadling when I need to - and the thickness is all over the map. Final yardage: 35 yds of more-or-less bulky, fairly non-elastic yarn.

Here are the three versions of Seasick all together:

They are all in the heavy aran-bulky weight range, so I guess I could get really creative and use them all together in something...any ideas?