Sometimes you just have to chain ply

I'm a big proponent of not having hard and fast rules when it comes to spinning, particularly when talking about color. There's no spinning police that decree how you must spin your variegated top or your naturally colored batt - part of the joy and the fun of spinning colored fiber is seeing how those colors blend and play together in the finished yarn. Sometimes you might have a particular goal in mind, other times not. That's just part of the adventure.

When I sat down to spin up some Quantum Dots samples for this month's Phat Fiber box, I did what I usually do - a 2 ply and a 3-ply. Given that this is a gradient colorway, chain plying seemed like the way to go for the 3-ply, but I was interested in seeing how the 2-ply would come out. My expectation was that it would still be pretty good, if not as clearly colored as the chain ply. Boy was I wrong...

Quantum Dots 2-ply (ugh) and chain ply (hooray!)

So...let's start with the successful part of the experiment: the chain plied sample is, not unexpectedly, a good way to spin this wildly variegated gradient fiber. The rainbow spectrum shines through with the long color repeats being maintained from single to plied yarn. Another option for obtaining this effect would be to split the top lengthwise down the middle and to spin two singles to ply together, matching the colors as you go. You might get a bit of overlap or mixing of the colors at the transition points, but the general color progression would be maintained pretty effectively.

Ick

Now for the unsuccessful part of the sampling process: hello 2-ply mud! I took one length of the repeat and split it in half across the midpoint, so I ended up with one piece of top running from red to yellow-green, and the other running from green to dark blue. I spun the singles from the same ends, ie red to yellow and green to blue, and then plied them the same direction. The result is a fantastic example of what happens when you mix colors that are opposite to each other on the color wheel - you get muddy, boring, bleh yarn.

If I'd done this experiment with a more tonal gradient, the 2-ply probably would have worked much better. But given the highly contrasting hues and values in this top, a straight 2-ply without manipulating the colors appropriately is not the way to go.

So the take-home message? it's a good idea to think about how your colors are going to blend together in your final yarn if you're trying to do a 2-ply. Another important note: the more plies you have in your final yarn, the more blending you'll see of the colors. So if you're looking to get a uniform yarn (no matter what kind of top you start with), do more plies. If you want to kepe the colors more separate and distinct, fewer plies is the way to go.

Happy spinning!

Rachel

Knitting Olympics

ETA: Thanks to the wonders of Twitter, I have discovered the fabulousness of a number of designers who are donating some of their pattern sales to various organizations supporting the human rights of LGBT people around the world. Bristol Ivy has a post that says everything I wanted to say below, only better. And she's got a list of the designers, so go check out their designs, get some new patterns for the Games and support

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The Ravellenic Games begin today, and I am feeling remarkably blah about the whole thing. If you haven't heard of this event, it is a crafting challenge that coincides with the Olympics (both Winter and Summer). Crafters set themselves a goal project that can be started once the Opening Ceremonies begin, but has to be completed by the end of the Closing Ceremonies.

The first year that I participated in (what was then known as) The Knitting Olympics, I set out to knit my first lace shawl. It was incredibly exciting and fun, and a great challenge to take the headlong plunge in to lace that I'd been so leery of. I got maybe halfway through it over the course of the games, so no medal for me.

In 2010, I tried again (this time with vast quantities of Fair Isle), but again - no medal. And this year?

This year I have a lot of thoughts about the Olympics, but none of them are particularly happy. I am not happy about where they are being held for a number of reasons. I'm shocked by the fact that not only are these going to be the most expensive Olympic Games in history, but some of the venues aren't even finished. And I'm sad because the last Olympics were so wonderful (as they were held in London) that I guess I'm feeling a bit of a hangover from lack of Olympic spirit. Most importantly I am bitterly, bitterly disturbed and disappointed that a number of the athletes attending these games would be targeted and tormented and persecuted and potentially killed if they were honest about their lives and their identities. And while I think President Obama naming openly gay athletes to the delegation representing him at the Olympics is a nice gesture, it falls way below the level of protest that needs to happen.

So...I'm not doing a Ravellenic Games project. I have some absolutely fantastic "Mind the Gap" sportweight yarn from Trailing Clouds that might become a hat or some fingerless mitts (in the rainbow spirit of things).



I have a sweater's lot of handspun Portuguese Merino/Targhee that I have plans for but haven't done anything about. I have an Unravel sweater to finish. There are also upcoming design commissions that I have to do, so it's not like there's NOT going to be any knitting around, it just won't be Olympic knitting.

All this has left me with a bit of a bad taste in my mouth, and absolutely zero excitement about watching the Olympics. No matter how amazing the event, and how much I love skiing and biathlon and a host of other winter sports, the fact that there is so much just plain wrong with the Sochi games is pretty much sabotaging my enthusiasm. It's really, really too bad.

SAL/KAL Colour combinations

So...I've been having a lot of fun (perhaps too much fun) thinking about fibery color combinations for the Two Color Shawl SAL/KAL. And a ton of time playing with photo collages. Below are some possiblities for shawl combinations, just in case, you know, you're having trouble...(or need some enabling assistance!)

Some super bright combos:

From left to right (and top to bottom): Parakeet and Yellow Fluorescent Protein, Coomassie Blue and Blue Jay, Exponential Monet and Roses, Salamander and Ethidium Bromide, Pollinator and Oregon Green.

A bit subdued...

Clotted Cream and Hawa Mahal, London Fog and Snow Shadows, Berry Compote and Haematoma, Clotted Cream and Botticelli's Girl.

With a neutral:

Golden Mean and Clotted Cream, The Far Pavillions and London Fog, Golgi and Spice Market, Clotted Cream and Pollinator, Golgi and Flamingo.

You could always combine two semi-solid colors for a really striking shawl. I'm thinking fondly of the combo between the acid chartreuse of YFP and the subtlty of Clotted Cream.  Or Coomassie Blue and Xylene Cyanole for a gorgeous symphony of blues.

Or maybe go seasonal with Holly Walk and Candy Cane together? Or either with Congo Red or Oregon Green? Maybe Turkey Day with Congo Red or Ethidium Bromide? The possibilities are endles.

You can place orders for you custom dyed fibers now, so be sure you're ready to start spinning on 1 March!

FO: Green The Whole Year Round, aka how not to panic

I blocked my latest FO on Saturday morning on Boo's bed while she and her sister played their ongoing, never-ending and incomprehensibly elaborate game of pretend. As I was pinning it out and adjusting the points, and smugly commenting to myself that it was absolutely lovely, I saw it.

You know what I'm talking about. It.

The dropped stitch:


I think all of you who have ever knit lace know the feeling that hit me at that moment - suddenly and completely incapacitating panic:

OOOOOOOHSHIIIIIIIIIITTTTT!!!!!!!!!!

Thankfully I had enough functioning neurons left to take the first and most important step in a lace (or any kind of) emergency:

Step 1: take your own pulse*

Step 2 really only applies to lace emergencies: stop the drop


In this case, with a handy dandy split ring stitch marker. Stick it through the dropped stitch and bammo - no more dropping.

I took a few moments (ok hours) to regroup and let the shawl finish drying. Then the next step was to fix the boo boo.

Step 3: find an appropriately sized crochet hook and fix the dropped stitch.



Step 4: find darned darning needle somewhere in the morass of chaos you call a desk/office/studio/room full o' wooly goodness, take a bit of leftover yarn, and secure that little barstard tight up against the i-cord bind off.



If done carefully, the result of Steps 1-4 is a invisibly repaired lace piece without having to resort to Valium and/or liters of red wine.


wrong side


right side

I was helped in this instance by a few factors - yarn that wasn't too slippery (100% silk would have been....trickier) and a lace pattern that called for moderate blocking rather then full on Nuclear Warfare blocking. The stitch had only dropped down about 3 rows when I caught it, and there weren't any complicating lace stitches below it to screw things up. That being said, the same sort of fix can be done with more complicated and elaborate lace patterns. The key is deep breathing and going slowly.

Without further ado, my latest FO:




please excuse the bad pretentious iDevice selfies, but I can't find my camera anywhere

Pattern: Green the Whole Year Round by Anna Yamamoto
Yarn: Fyberspates Scrumptious 4-ply (55% merino/45% silk), 399 yds/100 g, in Cherry. My shawl weighed in at 102 g, and I still have a little bit left over, so the skein might have been a bit heavy.
Needles: US 9/5.5 mm for the cast on, US 6/4.0 mm for the rest of the shawl
Start/finish: 17 January 2014 - 1 February 2014. Knitting done by 29 January, but, you know, blocking...

Comments/modifications: I made one major modification, which was to cut out one pattern repeat to make the shawl slightly smaller. I was worried I was going to run out of yarn (it calls for a full skein of sock yarn, so 440+ yds) and my yarn was slightly heavier, so I figured it would still end up big enough. The final dimensions of my shawl are 16 in deep at the middle and just over 50 in long, so about the same size as the original pattern.

Now for the comments portion of the evening: since doing more tech editing I find myself incapable of reading patterns without a running (usually waaaaaay more snarky then necessary) internal monologue. I try to keep this to a minimum, particularly with a lovely pattern like this which is provided for free. But sometimes I can't help it. I had two major problems with this pattern:

1) the designer includes charts AND written directions for every single line of the lace pattern, WHICH IS FANTASTIC! However, the symbols used in the charts were not ones with which I was familiar. The biggest brain cramp for me was that the symbol that I usually associate with a knit stitch (a blank square) was, in this pattern, the symbol for a purl stitch. Cue headache...

2) Problem 1 was exacerbated by the fact hat I didn't find the key to the charts until I was doing the short row section of the shawl (in other words, was done with the lace section). This is because the key was on the very last page of the pattern, and not with the charts. To solve my confusion, I ended up having to go back and forth between the written directions and the chart to decipher the symbols.

So really, these two problems were mostly on my head, for not hunting harder for the chart key, but I also think that they could have been avoided by putting the key with the charts. /end grumpy porpoise

The pattern is otherwise very well written and put together, and the final shawl is gorgeous. As soon as I get my act together it will get packaged up to off to it's recipient.

And now that it's finished, I can get back to my Unravel sweater...how's everybody else doing with theirs?

* When I was teaching newbie Ski Patrollers in college, this was A Real Thing. Just the act of stopping to take your own vital signs is enough to stop the freeze up that can happen in critical situations. 

The Unravel Sweater

So there's this lovely yarny weekend coming up - Unravel in Farnham Maltings. Last year was my first visit, and this year I'm going back to help Allison with the SweetGeorgia booth. I'm really looking forward to going back to the festival, and since I just happen to have some SweetGeorgia Merino Silk Fine yarn, I've decided to jump in and knit myself an Unravel sweater.

Here it is, in all it's purpley glory: 4 skeins in "Mist". It is so my color.

You may recall a few weeks ago I posted a lovely collage of potential sweaters to knit with this yarn, and you'll be pleased to know I picked...none of them. Instead, I ended up choosing a pattern that I think will perfectly showcase the variegations in this yarn without obscuring any of the design. This is what I'm knitting - Georgia by Jane Richmond.

Photo (c) Jane Richmond

This sweater is perfect for the yarn - mostly stockinette, with some fab little details, like a purl ridge with a few gathers just above the bust.

I'm loving how it's coming out. I'm not sure how well the yarn will wear (and I suspect I will be wearing this all the time), but I think it's going to be great. A good basic. And hopefully it will be a) done by the third weekend in February and b) I won't run out of yarn. Here's hoping!

I'm really glad I didn't wait until the Opening Ceremonies to cast this on - maybe I'll be done by then and can start something else...