13 posts tagged “pink”

Scarves and socks

Dec 28, 2008
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The first two pictures are more woven scarves. The first is woven from the green-pink-brown handspun from a couple of posts down, and I sort of regret using the green stripes in the warp, because I think the colours would show up better without. I will give this to someone at some point, because the colours aren't very me, but I haven't decided who yet.

The second is a last-minute Christmas gift for R, which I partly wove in front of him on Christmas Eve, figuring (correctly, it turns out) that he pays no attention to what I'm making unless I talk to him about it. There are stripes in the weft - plain dark grey Jaeger merino and black tweed YSL - but they're much less obvious in the flesh than in the photo.

Next up (pictures three and four) is the finally-finished Clessidra. I don't think I'll use the riverbed sockitecture again, because I don't like how it fits me, but I love the socks and am going to wear them to a crafting date tomorrow :-)

Picture five is R's blue socks with a reknitted heel after he wore a massive hole in one of them. I think I've still got some of the blue, but I'm not sure where, and he didn't mind them being mended in black.

The last pic is my new sock project, double knit socks which I'm knitting wrong side out, so I don't have to move the yarn backwards and forwards (near side is English-style purl, far side is continental-style knit, so one strand in each hand, which is fun). The downside of knitting them this way around is that I can't read my knitting on the wrong side, so whether I'm increasing or not on any given row is a bit random but because I'm knitting them at the same time they'll match anyway so it doesn't matter, and I'm planning a short-row heel so there's no other increases or decreases to keep track of. I wanted to use different yarn to make it easier to keep track of which stitch belongs to which sock, so these will end up non-matching stripes - once I've finished the toe I'll break the yarn and swap them over, and keep swapping them at random intervals throughout (must remember to break yarn to do this, so I don't end up knitting the two together).

Spinning

Dec 5, 2008
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Green-pink-brown singles awaiting plying

This (1) is the second lot of MoBair fibre from the Knitting and Stitching Show. This time instead of carding it, like I did the purple, I went through it decompressing and predrafting before spinning (2) - carding was rather a waste with the purple even though I like the resultant colour, but this would just card to muddy beige. Uncarded, it spun up into pretty shades of brown and green and pink (3 and 4), and as two-ply it does indeed average out to beige (5), but it's lovely, and I almost wish it was a 'me' colour so I could make it into something I'd like to keep.

Weaving

Nov 24, 2008
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My first ever weaving project, in progress (made from Knitwitches sock yarn):

Beginning weaving; shuttle

And my second, completed, made from handspun alpaca:

Finished scarf

The second is my MiL's Christmas present, and I'm working on a step-by-step description of how I made it, which will accompany the gift, and which I'll post here when it's finished.

Alpaca various

Nov 11, 2008
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Gothmerino-alpaca batts

This is the next batch of black alpaca carded with purple merino. More than half of the fibre is carded now, and it's going much quicker with the drum carder than it did with hand carders :-) I've actually spun one batch of this, but I don't think I've taken any photos. It's about 5m/g, and will either stay as singles or end as two-ply, depending on what I decide to do with it. It's probably going to be another woven wrap, but at the moment everything looks like a weaving project to me, since the loom is spread across the library floor in pieces having been varnished at the weekend. I'm resisting the urge to assemble it for as long as possible, because I can't start using it for another week and a bit, so barriers are good ;-)

The grey-pink alpaca for my MiL's Christmas present is finally all spun and plied. The first picture is a closeup of two balls of singles ready for plying, and it's really just another excuse to show off the macro capabilities of my new camera! The second picture is of the finished yarn, about 500m of two-ply. I spent some time the other day swatching from my sample of this yarn, and I didn't come up with anything I liked, so this is starting to look like a weaving project as well. Of course, weaving it also means the finished item (a scarf) will be larger, since weaving uses less yarn than knitting, so this is solidifying into a plan.

Experiments in blending, or: after-the-fact justification

Oct 13, 2008
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I bought a drum carder. I also bought several little bags of pretty fibre in amounts too small to be anything on their own. An appropriate justification for both of these facts is carding different fibres together to design the composition of the yarn as well as its colour and shape.

Left to right: carded and uncarded fibres next to each other; four different uncarded fibres; carded batts; spinning in progress.

This is going to be sock yarn. It's 65% wool (40% shetland and 25% merino), with 25% mohair and 10% silk for strength and shine. Both wools are grey - the shetland is natural light grey, and the merino a darker grey (dyed), so the basic colour of the yarn is grey, but the mohair is hand painted purple-mauve, which is not obvious in the blended fibre, but which brightens the colour, and the silk is bright fuchsia, which is visible in the fibre in occasional streaks. I've carded about 80g of this fibre, which should be enough for socks for me, and I have about the same amount again, so I can repeat the trick if I like it.

Knitting and Stitching Show haul

Oct 12, 2008
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At the last minute, I decided to go to the Knitting and Stitching Show with J, and to save myself from an unbridled orgy of stash enhancement, I set some rules. Fibre was my prime target, but only interesting hand-dyed fibre. It is of course possible to buy hand-dyed fibre on the internet, but it's hard to choose - so much depends on things which aren't obvious from a computer screen, so I much prefer to buy it in person. The only yarn I was allowing myself to buy was sock yarn, and even then it had to be either reduced or unavailable online.

So I succeeded on both counts! I've got lovely new hand-dyed fibre, including silk tops and mohair which I haven't spun before, and some nice shades of wool including some superwash BFL. I haven't completely decided what I'm doing with any of this yet, although I have some ideas, mostly around weaving or sock yarn - I'm planning to use the carder to do some fibre mixes (silk, mohair and wool) for socks. Talking of sock yarn, I bought five skeins: two in burgundy Malabrigo for the long-promised scarf (Henry) for large-male-friend-R (colour had to be confirmed in person), one Cherry Tree Hill greeny-grey solid for Boyfriend Socks for R (reduced by 10%), and two for me: a lilac semi-solid by Ripples that I've never seen online, and a Cherry Tree Hill Sockittome lottery colour that is a one-off. The lilac will be socks, something lacy probably, and the Sockittome will probably be not-socks; gloves or scarf or something - possibly even woven if it's a scarf.

I wanted a book each on weaving and spinning - the former a basic guide to rigid heddle weaving, and the latter a comprehensive encyclopaedia type. And I succeeded here as well. An initial glance at the weaving book gives me encouraging information about the quantities of yarn I'll need to weave the wraps I'm planning - less yarn for woven fabric than knitted, which makes sense considering the relative flat-and-dense-ness of the different fabrics.

Final acquisitions were 3.25mm Addi turbos for knitting Henry, and an Onya bag to replace my current spare bag which is wearing out. A good day!

Coriolis and other animals

May 21, 2008
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Finished red spiralling coriolis 3

Yesterday I finished the Coriolis socks, and I love them. They match rather than mirror, because I forgot to read the 'second sock' bits of the instructions, but I don't care.

I used a modified version of Cat Bordhi's modified icord bind off, continuing the stitches from the spiral 'seam' into the icord. It's a bit wasted because the tops curl out, but it seemed the right edging to use - I tried single rib, but it didn't really go with the rest of the sock, and I didn't want a too-fancy edging. I'm wearing them now, and they're very comfy. The spiral does slightly restrict stretch in putting them on, but not too much, and they're fine once on.

In other knitting news, I finished the red mini-cardi and frogged it - the back flared out, and I just didn't like it. I don't know yet what the yarn will be reborn as.

I've also frogged the BMP riverbed socks. There were too many mistakes, and it had been neglected for too long. Their successor is already in swatch, though, so the general plan is still active.

Finally, I've started spinning up some BFL, but I'm planning to write that whole project up in one go, so no more details yet.

Oh, and I've got two knitting/spinning dates coming up in the next few days, so there will probably be more to write about soon.

Coriolis

May 2, 2008
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Coriolis partway through increases

Still thoroughly in love with the Coriolis socks, and I'm now a good way through the increases, so it's starting to spiral :-)

The yarn is variegated, but in the straight section at least, it's spiralling a bit itself, which ties in nicely with the theme.

(I worked out why I was struggling to pronounce the name - it's because my mouth was trying to say 'Coriolanus', and getting confused partway through. Working this out means I am now able to say 'Coriolis'.)

Red and/or socks

Apr 28, 2008
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(Grr. Wrote long post, lost it. CBA to rewrite, so abbreviated version follows...)

Picture 1: mini cardigan in handspun red-and-pink two ply. Much nicer as two-ply than either of the plies as singles, although I bought more fibre because I'll probably need to spin some more to finish.

Picture 2: Ralph's tantalising socks, FO. Gorgeous pattern, interesting construction, yarn much better knitted up than I thought it would be. He likes them, too.

Pictures 3 and 4: the utterly fabulous whirlpool toe (pulled flat in picture 3). This is for the spiralling Coriolis from New Pathways, and the yarn is the red and pink sock yarn that Frax and I bought at the Knitting and Stitching Show to share, and which we finally split this weekend. It's lovely yarn to knit with, much softer and less scratchy than the blue and purple (now mostly a clapotis) which I bought at the same no-name stall. Like the Opal in the tantalising socks, this is true variegated, with short stretches of colour that don't stripe or pool, and I like it much more than most hand-painted yarn. I've been planning to use this for Coriolis ever since I first read the book, and I'm now neglecting the mini-cardi (which I've been knitting for less than a week) because I'm so eager to get to the increases :-)