The second picture is the scrap scarf I mentioned below. It's been ongoing for ages, and probably will be for ages more, but it's shaping up nicely, and it means I only have to throw away leftover pieces that are too short to have two knots tied in them, which is good because I hate throwing away tiny bits of pretty (in the same vein, I'm keeping all my tiny wispy bits of spinning leftovers in a bowl next to my desk, with the thought of trying to spin them all together when I'm proficient enough to try it).
I have also knit a row or so of the goth space invaders (black and purple bmp), but I'm just not enjoying it. I need to persevere so I get the hang of the stranding, which will make it more fun, but at the moment it's just annoying and fiddly, and I'm channeling all of my perseverance and determination into trying to finish off my various academic assignments by the end of the semester, so the socks will have to wait.
This is the end result of the purple spinning from my last post - the big skein is about 90m of two-ply, and the smaller is about 26m of singles. The plied yarn alternates solid lilac, solid purple, and a candy-cane effect of both. The thickness of the singles and the twist in the ply varies quite a lot, but I still love it. I think it's probably going to be a hat, because it's about the right quantity, and because I need a hat that's a bit more sensible than my current silly pointy hat.
The singles are what was left after I'd filled the spindle with plied yarn - it would take no more, and since I'd plied enough to make a hat, I thought I'd leave the remaining singles. I might use them to trim something, or they might go into the ongoing scrap scarf (which I've actually knit some of this week, after being inspired to take it up again by someone on the LJ brit_knits community).
For my birthday I received two drop spindles and some more fibre to add to the stuff I bought at Ally Pally, and over the last few days I've started to teach myself to spin.
Attempt number 1 (Jo's spindle - the one on the left)
I pulled a random width of fibre from one of the undyed black tops, and spun it into a very variable, quite slubby yarn, which I've now knitted part of to prove I could. The yarn and the swatch are on the right in the picture.
Attempt number 2 (Jo's spindle)
With a better idea now about drafting fibre, I separated one of the lilac tops into even-ish pieces and spun the whole lot, producing about 60m (50g) of only moderately variable singles - no more variable than, say, Manos. This might be a hat; I'd originally thought about plying it, but it's just about a useable quantity as singles, and wouldn't be if it was plied. This is the lilac ball in the picture.
Attempt number 3 (MiL's spindle - the one on the right)
I spun two short and thin sections of the undyed black, and then plied them to create the tiniest skein ever - about 5m. No plans to do anything with such a small quantity, but I'm pleased with how the plying turned out. This is the tiny skein on the left.
Attempt number 5 (MiL's spindle)
(This is out of order because this is finished, and therefore in the above photo - it's the one in the middle at the bottom.) I spun one short and thin section of the black to test out Navajo
plying (which is just like making a crochet chain with really big
loops, and then spinning it). The effect is lovely, and it's easier to
handle than two separate plies in some ways, but when the instructions
say it works better with singles that have relaxed into their twist a
bit they're not lying! In quite a few places my single has twisted
itself out of the ply and wrapped around itself a bit before returning
to the ply.
Attempt number 4 (MiL's spindle) (in progress)
I'm spinning thin, fairly even, fairly slub-free purple merino, alternating uneven lengths of two different shades. The first lot is currently on my lovely new swift, and I'm hoping it's relaxing into its twist; I'll start on the second lot tomorrow.
I was planning to do the same with two other shades of purple and ply the two together for a variegated purple overall effect, but now I'm thinking about Navajo plying or about plying it with grey instead in order to spread the purple - my favourite - out a bit. I suppose what I'll do is wait and see how many metres I get out of the current colour combination and then decide based on that - Navajo plying is three-ply, so will eat a lot of singles.
I've been without the internet for a week and a half, and in that time I've had a birthday :-) So: new toys and new projects! (Photos of all to follow.)
I knit a hat in grey and purple single-round-stripes with single colour slip stitch spiralling cables. I didn't plan the decreases very well, though, and the top is sort of puckered and bunchy so I might frog it, although I like the effect.
Partner-R gave me a swift and a ball-winder for my birthday, and - due to his absence in Belgium - I spent my birthday afternoon winding all my skeins into balls and watching Buffy. I hate winding balls by hand, and it's such a joy with the right equipment. And the swift is beautiful.
I was eager to start knitting each and every one of the new balls, but began by casting on for BMP with purple knitwitches as the main colour and black as the contrast. I haven't yet finished the ribbing, but that's because the way I've been spending time allows for mindless knitting but not fiddly chart-following stranded knitting, so I cast on for my second clapotis, in the blue and purple variegated sock yarn from Ally Pally. I've just dropped my second stitch, and it looks rather lovely.
My other crafty presents were two spindles (from J and the MIL) and some fibre, so today I've done my first spinning! My first attempt produced very slubby and uneven grey yarn, which is currently hanging in the bathroom to set the twist. The second attempt is much better - I've got a better idea of how thick to draft the fibre, so my lilac yarn is nothing like as uneven. It's still on the spindle because I like it enough that I'm planning to spin the whole of that top into the same yarn; I have another the same, and really quite a few more different ones, and I don't want to fall into the trap of only spinning a tiny amount of each thing and then being unable to use the yarn.
I've finished the first elegant ribbed stocking (photos later), and am very happy with it. I've even cast on and done the first six rows of the second, but my eye is wandering. I knit one needle of Pomatomus, but it needed too much attention, and that's not the kind of knitting I do in work crises (not feeling well this evening, hence knitting instead of working). Couldn't even bring myself to finish the round.
I knit the first elegant rib in a week, so I really shouldn't be bored yet, but I've been flipping through Favorite Socks, and my Ravelry queue, thinking about what other sock yarn I've got stashed, and wandering about what to make with it. Red smooshy is probably going to be the embossed leaves socks; purple Cherry Tree Hill for clessidra. The purple Knitwitches is variegated, so probably wants to be something plain, and is suggesting it might want to be the main colour for Ilga's socks, but they're Fair Isle and require other colours for the pattern. I've got ordinary black which would work for the dark colour, but the only other unassigned yarns I've got are Opal handpaint, which is too fussy, or ordinary dark green, which wouldn't go. One of the assigned yarns - the red smooshy or the purple CTH - would go better, but I'd have to knit their assigned socks first in case there's not enough yarn. And the purple colour would go better, but the red texture would be better, because the CTH has a really different texture from the others (tighter spun and less fluffy). I've got some purple CTH and some Lorna's Laces valentine left over from other things, but probably not enough :-(
If I don't want to knit the other elegant rib just now, what I should do is knit friend-R's other jaywalker, or even some of my stalled red cardigan. The cardigan's too boring, but if I can force myself to get through the next few inches, I'm at sleeve-splitting-off time, which is itself interesting, and which leaves me with shorter - therefore less boring - rows. But it's big and heavy and requires five balls of yarn at once, and just thinking about it makes me tired. And anyway, I really want to be knitting socks.
Jaywalker is probably the right level of interesting - something to do, but easy to remember and not at all taxing - but I'm all out of enthusiasm for the pattern.
I keep looking at the existing pairs of socks that I've made, and marvelling that I ever managed to finish both, let alone that in all cases I knit the second straight after the first (although I did have a shortish hiatus in knitting the triskell cable socks). What was it that kept me going? When did I lose it? And how do I get it back again?
Ahem. Seem to have turned into Carrie from Sex and the City for a moment there.
Wandering around Socktopus (note to self: I do not need more sock yarn), I have made a discovery for which I don't really have words. The facts will have to speak for themselves. Bison sock yarn. Forty pounds a skein. A 50g skein, that is. And it only comes in brown.
I mean, I know I talk about the luxury being part of the appeal of hand-knitted socks, but seriously. Seriously.
(PS. Have turned heel of elegant ribs and am working on gusset decreases. Hooray!)
I'm well into the leg of the first elegant ribbed stocking, and it's lots of fun (plus going really quickly because it's knit on quite large needles - 4.5mm, 4mm and 3.75mm). I'm halfway through the fourth cable turn section, and am expecting to hit the 10" required for my next needle change at the end of the pattern repeat, which will make it neat and easy to replicate on the second.
I bought fancy sillk hand-dyed ribbon for these, since the pictures in the book include a ribbon tie around the top, but I think it will look silly - these are going to be thick, chunky socks (not at all well named, although the stitch pattern is quite elegant, I suppose), and a ribbon would strike a bum note. But all is not lost! I've just been looking at the pictures of Clessidra (which may be my next sock project), and that - more delicate pattern, finer gauge, etc - would be a much better home for the pretty ribbon.
I'm loving the Cascade 220, by the way, and am trying to resist the urge to plan something else to knit with it, requiring the purchase of more. It seems a crazily thick yarn for socks, but it's the same weight as the yarn mentioned in the book, and I've already said I'm probably not planning to wear these socks out and about - strictly lazing-around-the-house socks - so it's no big deal. And I meant it when I said it was going really quickly :-) I'm cabling sans cable needle, which is helping, too, although I doubt I'd be brave enough to do it for cables wider than two stitches.
One final picture, the last photo of the Ally Pally haul: the very bright red and pink sock yarn of which Frax and I have joint custody. Well, she's the resident parent, but I'm hoping for visiting rights! Thanks to Frax for the photo.
There are so many pairs of socks in my immediate knitting future it's quite scary, but now the weather is being seriously cold, I've taken the unusual step of wearing socks indoors! And they're mostly my currently-meagre supply of handknitted socks, because they're so much warmer than bought socks, because it means I get to wear them without worrying about wearing them out too quickly, and because it's the only time I wear socks without boots, so I get to admire the pretty (I'm wearing Baudelaires as I type). So I'm looking forward to expanding my hand-knitted sock wardrobe and having many pairs of beautiful red and purple socks to choose from.
In not-news unrelated to socks, I've got photos of the nearly-completed Urban Rustic gloves that I keep meaning to (a) write about, and (b) weave in the damned ends, but I can never quite summon the energy to do either. I hate weaving in ends, and I'm worried that these will sit in my WIPs pile forever, although they're actually really nice gloves, and I'm pleased with my mods: the double-sided dual-yarn effect, and the added multi-directional cuffs. The pics are in my Vox library and on Flickr, anyway.
I finished the body and one sleeve on cherie amour, tried it on and hated it :-( I've frogged the sleeve, more for the ritual of the thing than because I need to immediately reclaim the yarn (I haven't yet bothered frogging the body, and in any case I haven't decided what else to do with it), and am now halfway through winding my first skein of Cascade 220 into a ball for the elegant ribbed stockings. In the process of doing this, I've asked partner-R to buy me a swift and/or a ball winder for my birthday. I hate balling skeins.
The cascade feels lovely, though, and I'm hopeful of it producing nice stockings, although they might just be for wearing around the house - I'm not sure the yarn is spun tightly enough to survive ordinary wear. And they're just too pretty to be hidden under trousers or long skirts, but at the same time too pretty-pretty to be displayed in public. But since I've spent today lounging around the house wearing a shortish skirt with stripy knee socks (not hand knitted), I think I'm likely to get some use out of them :-)
Yesterday I went to the Knitting and Stitching Show at Alexandra Palace with Frax and assorted others, and had a fabulous time :-)
Frax had set herself a yarn-buying budget; I had done no such thing, although I had made a list of the projects on my queue that I wanted to buy yarn for, with yarn requirements. I didn't buy everything on the list (it wasn't that kind of list - my cashflow couldn't have taken the strain), but all but three of the things I bought were on the list (and therefore bought with a specific project in mind), and two (or possibly all) of those are sock yarn, so any old sock project will suffice.
So, the haul (all wool, it occurs to me now):
(Top picture) Three skeins of Cascade 220 from Get Knitted in purple (this will become a theme). These are for the Elegant Ribbed Stockings from Favorite Socks. It's a bit on the heavy side, being more of a light aran than a DK or sport, but the yardage seemed pretty close, and the socks are knit on peculiarly large needles. We shall see... I can always repurpose this as a scarf or something if it doesn't work. I also got 3m of beautiful hand-dyed silk ribbon to thread through the eyelets if the yarn becomes socks. The ribbon is purple, too.
(Second and third pictures) One large (350g?) skein of variegated purples and blues. This is a no-name (from a no-name company as well - just one guy who has no shop and no website and just does shows). I'm not even completely certain of the weight - it's not labelled, and I might have misremembered, because I did look at a lot of yarn yesterday. I started off thinking it was about DK, but I've measured and it's 20wpi, which seems like sock to me. This might be a clapotis - it's the one yarn (as alluded to above) which isn't destined for a specific project, but it's gorgeous, and was very cheap indeed.
(Fourth picture) Two skeins of Cherry Tree Hill supersock from the Woolly Workshop, in purple (the same yarn as my Baudelaires). This is for Clessidra, which I've wanted to knit ever since I first saw the pattern. And it was 20% off :-)
Half a skein of some very bright red and pink variegated sock yarn, another no-name from the same stall as the purples and blues (which had lots of gorgeous stuff for very little money, including some amazingly soft silk and mohair in a shade of purple which was too pinky for my taste, so I resisted the urge to buy it despite not having a project in mind for it), which Frax and I bought to split. It certainly make two, and possibly even three pairs of socks each, and was also very cheap. (This is one of the yarns I have no plan for, but I plan to knit socks in general, so it's not a problem.) No photo of this one, because it's at Frax's house.
(Fifth picture) Five skeins of unnamed space dyed wool that is very much like Manos del Uruguay in - you guessed it - purple (from lovely people - the first stall we looked at, and both mine and Frax's favourite - Knit 4 Fun). Variegated this time - different purples and some flashes of fuchsia. It's very similar colours to my silly stocking hat. This is for Cherie Amour, which I've also loved since first sight. And I've swatched it now, to perfect gauge on both needles, so I might just cast on. Too many projects OTN? How is that even possible!
(Sixth picture) One skein of not-purple: Dream in Color Smooshy from Socktopus in nearly-solid burgundy. This is for the Embossed Leaves from Favorite Socks. And it's gorgeously soft.
(Bottom picture) Finally, the other not-yet-assigned yarn, one skein of Knitwitches sock yarn in, yes, purple variegated.
I'm really happy with my purchases. Only two of them (the Cascade and the Cherry Tree Hill) are things I could just as easily have got online, and the Cascade was worth it to choose a colour in person, and the Cherry Tree Hill was worth it because it was discounted. Some of the others are available online, but I hadn't properly heard of them to have gone looking, and some I just wouldn't have been able to get anywhere else. They're all absolutely beautiful, gorgeous colours, lovely feel, and I'm eager to knit with each and every one of them!
I'm knitting again :-) My wrist isn't completely recovered, but it's basically OK unless I use it a lot, or bear weight on it at certain angles. So I've actually worked on (counts) four different projects in the last week. Four! I should get round to taking some photos to prove this, but words will have to suffice in the mean time.
I've finished knitting the Urban Rustic gloves, with added cuffs to make them longer. The sticking point now is weaving in the approximately fifty million ends and closing up the holes. I've done about half of one glove, but can't quite bring myself to finish. I'm well aware that this is ridiculous.
I've finished the first Jaywalker, at last. I even took it over to female-friend-R's house to show her and get her to try it on before I made the second, but then I forgot about it and didn't show her. I'm taking a break before I make the next anyway, because I got very bored of knitting them.
I've picked up the red cardigan again, but it's hard going - it's top-down all-in-one raglan, and I'm approaching the point where I can split off the sleeves, so it's very long rows of boring boring stocking stitch, and it's on the Denise needles, which aren't really quite slippery enough for the yarn, so there's an awful lot of moving stitches around.
In an effort to make me knit the red cardigan, I've cast on something else. It does make sense, honestly. If my other project is complicated, I'll have to have the cardigan as TV knitting because it's simple and doesn't need looking at. The theory is that if I'm doing it while I'm thinking about something else, I might not notice the very, very long time it takes to knit a single row. So for this to work, the other project has to need me to look at it and think about it. And since the cardigan is large, the second project should probably be small: it's Pomatomus, knit with the tweedy blue Trekking I bought in Cornwall. I spent a while looking through sock patterns to find one that I thought would work with either the Trekking or the Opal handpaint, and this was the combination that grabbed me. God only knows what I'm going to do with the Opal. It might have been a poor purchasing decision - maybe I'll see if I can trade it with someone.
But in the most exciting knitting news, I'm going to the Knitting and Stitching Show this weekend with Frax and assorted other knitters, and I'm really looking forward to it. I need to spend some time with my Ravelry queue in preparation for the trip, so I know how much of different weights I 'need' for different things I'm considering - it would be a terrible calamity to find the perfect yarn for a project but not be able to remember how much it requires.
So, things I'm actively planning to make, that I need to look up before the show:
- Elegant ribbed stockings from Favorite Socks (plain or semi-solid sport weight)
- Embossed leaves socks, ditto (semi-solid or muted variegated sock yarn)
- Henry from Knitty (burgundy sock yarn, for large-male-friend-R)
- Entrelac shawl (something variegated)
I have needle wants, too. I want some 2.25mm circs to fill the gap in my sock tools; I need to check what size needles I've used for the random lace jumper and get some pointy lace needles for it to increase the chance of me ever going back to it (just too fiddly with blunt Denises), and I'd like some Addis to replace the Denises in the red cardigan too. Hell, who am I kidding? I'd like Addis in all sizes and all lengths, please. But no straight needles, even if they are the most beautiful thing ever, because I hate knitting with them. They can be made of beautifully carved amethyst and I won't buy them. Well, maybe if they really were amethyst I'd buy them as an ornament ;-)
Finally, I'd like some undyed yarn, probably just sock weight, because
I've had so much fun dyeing that I want to do more. But mostly I want
to spend the day with my friends talking about knitting and drooling
over all the shiny :-)
