The observant among you may have noticed a brand new knitting project at the bottom of my last post. “What’s that?” you may have wondered, “A new project? Does that mean she’s finished some of that giant, nagging heap of WIPs?” No. No, it does not, smarty trousers. What it means is that I have this compulsion to use every trip over half an hour long as an excuse to start something new. Continue reading
spinning
Shaking things loose
My, but it’s been a strange and tense few months. The worst is over, though, so we buggered off to New Orleans to celebrate, shake the dust off, and see if we could rediscover our mojo. Strangely, I took very few photos (or rather, I took many photos of very few things) — I was so busy just looking at everything (and tasting, and listening, and and and…). (Also, I’m always afraid that I’ll be the sort of visitor who sees a place only through a camera lens.) Here are a few of my favourite photos, though.
There were hidden places:
Colour play 2: The Great Shetland Experiment
Being stage 2 of ongoing experiments in becoming the boss of colour in spinning.
The Cormo spinning progresses apace, but as I mentioned last time, it’s going to take a while, and I have the attention span of a hummingbird on speed. Enter some English Shetland wool from Into the Whirled: one multicoloured braid
Hand me that sheep, Igor
If you spin, you’ve seen them: those braids of fibre, hand painted in glorious blobs of colour, with names like Night Carnival, Autumn Leaves, Mille Fiori. Those braids scare the pants off of me. Now, I love colour. I’m a knitter; I design in colourwork; of course I love colour. But for some reason, faced with those riotous braids, I’m stymied. What the hell would I do with them? What if, despite the dyer’s careful application of their art, I spin them up into something ugly? Something that offends the eye and sends children screaming to their mothers? Those colourful braids hold so much potential, and others have made gasp-worthy yarn from them, yet somehow I’m convinced that in my hands, that potential would go horribly wrong.
Necessity is a mother
Remember the cardboard lazy kate? This one here:
Well, despite the fine craftsmanship and minutes of work that went into it, this kate has not held up well. Continue reading
No pressure
Oh, dear. It’s been a while again, hasn’t it? It has been an…interesting month over here at Casa de Cusser, and to be honest, I haven’t felt like I had much to say (or at least, not much that was suitable for this blog. Or children. Or those with sensitive ears. Despite the nickname, I try not to swear on this blog, and there was a lot of swearing going on.) However, it looks like the worst is over (touch every piece of wood in the house), and things don’t seem so bad, and I do have something to write about: the healing properties of stash-diving in times of trouble.
The start of an(other) obsession
Lately, I’ve been thinking a lot about sock yarn. More precisely, I’ve been thinking about spinning sock yarn: how best to spin it, what fibres to use, how to put it all together into The Perfect Sock Yarn. Continue reading
Just a little car knitting
Coming off the high of last week’s get-it-done-athon, I decided to treat myself. I mean, look how productive I’d been, right? Surely I could do something small. For variety. As a palate-cleanser, if you will, and a reward. “Oh, I know!” thought I, “There’s that 2 oz of delicious cria alpaca waiting to be spun! It’s tiny. It won’t take long. I’ve got two bobbins free…ish. A couple of evenings, tops, and then I’ll get back to finishing ALL the things.”
Yeah.
I was right, up to a point: the alpaca — rose gray cria roving (the first real shearing from a baby alpaca) from North Star Alpacas — did spin up quickly. I’d never spun alpaca before (apart from a sample at spinning lessons) and was a bit nervous that I’d screw it up, but the carded prep was smooth like butter, and made for some of the most effortless spinning I’ve ever done. Even worsted spun, the singles were nicely fuzzy, and the softness…oh, the softness. Plus, Maple had put a lavender sachet in the bag, so I’d get these delightful wafts of lavender as I spun it up. Even Chicken-Leg Al the Wonder Cat was powerless against it: he took about 3 seconds to go from, “Hmmm, what’s this new fluffy thing?” to full-on drooling alpaca faceplant. About halfway into the first ounce, I went back to the site and bought another 4 oz. You can see where this is going.
Around the same time, I realized that we had a 6 hour road trip coming up — 3 hours each way — and none of the projects on the needles would make for good car knitting. They all require charts and/or concentration, which is a recipe for nausea and much ripping out of mistakes. Why not cast on something with my newly made yarn? Something simple; something that didn’t require charts; something I could knit without looking at it too much; something to show off the handspun-ness of the yarn. So I did some swatching and came up with a stitch pattern I liked.
I got about 250 yds/229 m of 2-ply from a generous 2 oz/57g of roving, so I’d end up in the ballpark of 750 yds/687m, which might be enough for a shawl, if I made it narrower than my usual giant wrap. If not, I could always spin some more. Perhaps I should order another 2 oz to be safe. A shawl, yes. That will take rather more than 6 hours and require the spinning of another 4-6 oz of roving.
You know, a little car knitting.
Getting things done
Oh, the things I shall do when I do all the things. All these things that I dream, I shall do.
But probably not today.
That’s kind of been my mantra for the last couple of weeks. So many ideas; so many projects I’d like to do; only two hands and a mere twenty-four hours in a day, not all of which can be devoted to projects.
About two weeks ago, I reached a point. Whether or not you’re a knitter, you know the point I’m talking about: when the thought of adding one more thing to the pile of things to be done makes your face go all squinchy like an overwhelmed toddler’s and you start to wonder whether standing in the middle of the room and stamping your feet would make it go away. “That’s it,” I decided. “I shall finish ALL the things! Or, at least, I shall finish some of the things before I start more things, lest the part of my brain that keeps track of projects starts emitting smoke and making those alarming ‘gzzt gzzt’ sounds.” So I put my head down and I worked on things. I did not finish them all, but Serious Progress Was Made. Here are the things I’ve been working on:
Note: this is not two weeks’ work. Most of these things were started over the summer, but in the last two weeks I have worked on them solidly, so that now those that are not finished are at least well on the way there. The almost-there things are:
An oversized baby blanket version of Anne Hanson’s Hourglass Throw, in Plymouth Baby Bunny. I started this in July for my cousin’s new baby, choosing red because we didn’t know its sex and because I like bright colours for babies (the better to hide the puke stains, my dear), and making it oversized because one thing we did know was that the baby would be tall. Or long. I guess they’re not tall until they can stand up. With two former basketball players for parents, this was not exactly a shock. So I’ve added an extra pattern repeat on the side, which should balance out the extra repeat or two I’ll add to the length. This will also act as insurance in case I don’t finish the blanket until the baby is too big for it. But of course, that’s not going to happen, because it’s on the list of Things To Be Finished.
Next:
A shawl for me: Semele by the very talented Åsa Tricosa, knit in some soft, rich Squoosh Silky Sock. I have a Thing coming up this Friday about which I’m a bit nervous, so I wanted something stunning to wear: something that I had made and was proud of and could wrap around me to remind myself that when I put my mind to it, I f$#king rock. Also something that could cover the tattoo on my chest, if need be. I didn’t have time to design something (and sometimes you just want to follow someone else’s pattern, you know?) and I think this design is ingenious. It’s just past the half way point, and stands a fair to middling chance of being done on time.
Third:
That baby camel down I posted about a while back. I’ve done the first singles (yes, it’s plural, even though there’s only one. No, I don’t know why. Eventually it will stop looking weird to me.), so just need to do the same again and ply it. I could fill the bobbin, but decided that this was enough to get started with, so I can play around with the finished yarn and see how well it works and what it wants to be.
Now for the finished things.
One:
The stripey sweater! It’s late for nephew’s birthday and probably a bit big, but I don’t think he’ll mind. I’m so pleased with how this turned out, though I must remember that even in little sizes, sock yarn sweaters will take longer than you think. Also, no matter what the pattern says, I always, always, always need to go down a needle size for the edging. Why I forget this, I do not know. Next time.
Two:
The second skein of Gotland wool. This one came in at 576yds/527m to 5.35 oz/151g. Hopefully it works with the other skein and between them I have enough for the giant winter wrap I have in mind, because I think I’m done spinning this stuff for a while.
Three:
Mittens! I finished this sample a couple of weeks ago, and now the last test knitter’s feedback is in. Today we’ll get the photos done and I’ll give the whole thing a final polish and send it off to Kate the Wonder Editor, so I can release the pattern soon. Ahhhhhh. It feels good to get that (almost) done.
Also finished are the charts and swatch for a design that’s been niggling at me since the spring. Yes. No photos yet, though.
It’s been a busy couple of weeks.
E. Elliott Knits 