Mikknit

Yes, I’ve actually knit something with my handspun yarn! Don’t all fall over from the shock, okay? I had this skein of sparkly red yarn sitting in the closet for about a year, and due to the motivation provided by a knitting stash game (we get points for the amount of yarn knit up over the course of the game, and there are prizes!) I pulled it out and knit it up. Plus there’s the whole Minnesota winter thing - I really did need a scarf.

I thought Argosy would be a neat pattern to try out, and it was - very fun. I knit the scarf up over the course of 2 days or so, so it was a great quick knit. I think I might’ve liked the scarf wider than it turned out, but since I wasn’t sure exactly how much yarn I had I just knit the pattern as written. I ended up running out of yarn about 3 rows from the end, so that last little square is a little less than square, but hey - I used up the entire skein and didn’t even have to trim the ends after they were woven in! Now *that* is efficiency.

Wool, mohair, and sparkly stuff, knit up on a US 5 needle

The picture that convinced me of the immediate need for a haircut - it’s much better now!

Thanks to the lovely (ha!) weather we’re having, I’ve gotten lots of use out of the scarf. It is nice and warm, certainly, but the mohair is scratchier than I’d prefer. I did put some conditioner in the rinse water when I washed it, but that didn’t completely take care of it. Any suggestions?

Oh, and only 5 more edging repeats on the blanket! I hope to have an FO report tomorrow, but of course the kids’ behavior will determine whether I get it done today.

Sorry for the drop off the face of the earth there - somehow things just kinda went “plooey” around here. I’ve been knitting and actually finishing a bunch of stuff, but the gray skies are thwarting my plans to photograph stuff. I really need to build or buy a light box, I think.

I did get some pictures of things before the sun disappeared, I’ve actually been sitting on them for a few weeks (bad blogger). Might as well share them, since they’re pretty:

Preemie/Newborn Picky Pants in Malabrigo, Apricot colorway

I got two skeins of this stuff in a swap last spring and put it in the stash not knowing what to do with it. Well, my aunt suggested I knit up a soaker for my cousin’s baby (who is doing pretty well, she’s gained over 1# now!). It’ll be a long time before she’s big enough to wear these, but they’re so soft and cute I think they’ll be used, even if they don’t use cloth diapers.

I also have been doing some spinning:

Lantern Festival roving from Hello Yarn fiber club

This is lovely corriedale wool (I think) and the colors of the roving were so bright and beautiful that I spun up the whole batch over the space of a few nights - somewhat unusual for me. The plying took a bit longer, since that’s not really my favorite part of spinning. I tried a 2-ply at first, but I just didn’t care for this with that barber-pole look. The bigger skein is Navajo-plied, and while there is some color blending/barber-poling, the colors are a lot more separate this way. I haven’t knit it up yet, I’m not sure if I’m going to keep this or make it a gift, but I like to take it out and pet it from time to time. I love it muchly.

And now we move into photos from after the sun went into hiding:

Handspun mitteny goodness! Pattern is from The Knitter’s Handy Book of Patterns

I bought this wool at the 2006 Yarnover and spun it up pretty soon afterwards. These mittens were cast on and the first one mostly completed on our drive out to Nebraska in July 2006. The first mitten languished with a partial thumb for well over a year, until sometime last week when I realized that mittens were in short supply here and would be needed sooner rather than later. I pulled back the top of the first one and made it a touch longer, then finished it off and cast on the second mitten. I think that one only took 2-3 days! I’m thinking I may go back and shorten the thumbs a touch, but they’re perfectly good right now.

And then I cast on more mittens:

Cascade 220 left over from this hat, pattern from Knitter’s Handy Book

I made an i-cord string to connect them since a 2.5 year old boy can’t really be trusted to keep track of both mittens. Heck, a 30 year old woman can’t be trusted to keep track of both mittens, I’m afraid! Arlo’s excited about the mittens and I’m sure will be happy to put them on when it’s cold enough for them. Now I’ve got to knit some for Grace so she doesn’t feel left out, though she’s got some very nice fleece mittens from Land’s End that she loves. And she’s been the recipient of more sweaters this year, so maybe it’s even. I don’t know.

I’ve also been working on the Leaf Lace Shawl from Fiber Trends and the February Baby Sweater from Knitting Almanac. I don’t have good serviceable pictures of either right now, but they’re both lovely. I’m knitting the sleeves in the round on the baby sweater, which I think will work out well - I don’t like seaming all that much, and the idea of seaming a lace pattern just doesn’t seem right. It’s working out well so far, though the first few rows were a bit awkward. I’m just going to have to figure out who this sweater is for - I know several pregnant women right now and I’m getting girl vibes from all of them! I suppose I could knit more, but I think this may be a one-time thing - as much as I love thin yarn on tiny needles, this isn’t doing it for me. We’ll see, though. It *is* awfully cute.

I’ll try not to be such a stranger in the future, hopefully the sun comes back out and this funk clears away.

I got an email from the processor saying that my two missing fleeces had been found. Hooray! The other two arrived the other day and they are gorgeous - if the other two are as gorgeous as the ones I already have in hand, I’m going to be very happy.

I just need to finish up what’s on the wheel before I can start this, though. Wish I could pull the wheel out during the day, but Arlo is still not to be trusted around the wheel.

I finished up a pair of socks yesterday and wound up a new ball of yarn. I thought it was so pretty I took a picture:

Wool/nylon blend from Scout’s Swag in the Green Bay colorway

I’m giving the Monkey pattern a go with this. So far, so good. I’m only through one pattern repeat, though, so we’ll see if it keeps looking good as I go along.

I think we’re heading off to pick strawberries later, so I should round these two up and pack up a snack bag so they don’t eat all the strawberries before they get into the bucket. Should be fun!

There are no words for how angry I am right now. Remember those fleeces I sent off for processing in March? I got an email from the processor today saying that she’d lost two of them. LOST. Nice. She thinks they may have been sent off to another customer and is hoping whoever received them will notify her and send them back. Um, how about calling around and trying to track them down?

One point in her corner - she’s sending me the two remaining ones free of charge and if the others are located they will be returned free of charge as well.

So who can recommend a fiber processor who won’t lose my fleeces?

Deb asked very nicely, and who am I to say no?

I only have pictures of spinning stuff today, as the pictures I took of all the knits look terrible and will have to wait until the sun comes out again. I hope that’ll be soon…

Lots of pictures behind the jump, be warned!

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I know I’ve been knitting lately but I feel like I’m knitting into a black hole or else someone’s coming along and undoing my knitting when I turn my back. *Sigh*

I finished Arlo’s Wonderful Wallaby and there’s a picture waiting on the camera, which of course is out in the car. He likes it but it’s quite a bit too big for him, while the next smaller size is too small. *Sigh* I think he needs a cardigan. I’ll have to check the yardage of the yarn I finished the other day and see if it’d be enough. I think it was about 8oz, that *should* be enough, right?

I’ve started on Grace’s new Wallaby, using Ella Rae Classic Print in color 204 (pink, yellow, green). It’s my first time using this yarn and I’m finding it quite nice. The sweater is going very slowly, though, attributable to the fact that this is the second sweater in a row knit from the same pattern. *Yawn* I’d love to finish it by next week, since she’s going to spend a few days with my sister and I think it’d be nice for her to have this to wear then. Plus if I finish it I can justify buying some stuff at Herrschners and Black Purl while I’m over in Wisconsin.

I finished a sock, the Trekking 16 one I mentioned a while ago. I started the second one but ran into a knot that pulled out the center of the ball. I need to re-wind it but the ballwinder’s MIA. Sheesh.

It’s really been all about the spinning lately, though. I spun and plied 8oz of handpainted top from Creative Fibers. I need to go over one of the skeins and tighten up the plying, but I’ll have to wait until they’re dry - I didn’t notice how underplied it was until just now when I went downstairs to put in some laundry and to look at my skeins. One of them (the second one, oddly) is nicely plied but the first one is really loose and sloppy. Guess that’s what I get for lounging on the couch to ply while watching a movie instead of actually paying attention to my work. Ah well.

There’s also the fiber stuff - I got the last of the three Shetland fleeces washed, as well as a 1# bag of CVM that I bought at Shepherd’s Harvest in 2003 or 2004. That stuff is greasier than anything I’ve worked with before, especially after the Shetland which hardly has any lanolin at all. It’s so pretty and soft, though! The cats think so too - just about every time one of them goes down to the basement, I find chunks of the CVM fleece scattered around the basement. Stinkers. I found a plastic grocery bag full of clipped angora and two 1# balls of mohair top while I was cleaning up some of the mess down there last week, too. I haven’t a clue as to how long they’ve been there, or where the angora came from. I recall buying the mohair on ebay at some point, and that’s probably where the angora came from too, but when? No idea. I’ve got a plan to blend some of the angora with merino and silk - I have a pound of merino roving yet, and I got an ounce of tussah silk the other day to experiment with. I think I’m going to card up 2oz of the merino with an ounce each of the angora and silk. I’m trying to decide if I want to dye the wool and silk first - that’d definitely make it easier to tell if I’m making a homogeneous blend, but I’m not sure about color(s). Green is definitely up there, and the merino and silk will take the dye in a different way, plus the undyed angora will lighten up the color. There’s also the possibility of using different colors on the merino and silk, but that kind of scares me. But if I’m going to be a big chicken, I can use smaller amounts and if it looks like crap, oh well.

I need to go now before my kids kill each other or I am forced to throw them in the closet. We are going to IKEA with my friend Beth, who’s well past her due date and hoping to walk that baby out. I went over 42 weeks with Arlo, so I know how much fun she’s having. I don’t miss that (much).

I’m really excited right now. I begged a gigantic cardboard box off the ladies at Borealis today so I could ship my big fleece off to be processed. I realized that it was quite a bit too big for that one fleece, so I pulled down a Space Bag in which I’d packed some Shetland fleeces for storage (in 2002, as a matter of fact). I knew there were two fleeces in there that I’d bought from my friend Mary Ann of Bono Creek Shetlands, a brown one and a black one. What I didn’t remember was that there was also a black and white Shetland fleece that I’d bought from an eBay seller. That was a pleasant surprise, for sure!

Why I packed all of these away without washing them, I can’t say. But I threw the brown one in for a nice bath and realized that what looked like a fairly clean, if full of VM, fleece was actually quite dirty. It’s amazing how much dirt can hide in a brown fleece. You can all feel free point and laugh at me now I’m not going to be surprised if the black fleece yields filthy water as well now, at least.

I got a big package in the mail from The Woolery today - a padded tote bag for my spinning wheel! Despite its handy folding action, it’s still pretty unwieldy and I’ve banged my shins countless times while carrying it around. I’ve also put at least one good ding in one of the treadles, somehow, and I want to protect against giving it any more of those. I haven’t had a chance to put the wheel in the bag yet, but it looks like it’s going to be a good fit. I’m happy to have a safe place for it that’s not in our little entryway, blocking traffic. I’ve got to keep it safe from little fingers and kitty paws.

There’s been some other interesting stuff going on around here but I’ve got to run off and play with my fleeces some more right now. If there’s any sanity in the house tomorrow I’ll be back with some pictures and a little yarn pr0n. Stay tuned!

Okay, I’m not *really* still snowed in but there’s still enough of the stuff on the ground to make me want to stay indoors for a while longer. Therefore, I’ve been busy with yarny pursuits.

I finished Chris’s Trekking socks last Wednesday:

Modeled picture taken after he couldn’t wait any longer to wear them

I think I could’ve used a few more stitches around on them but possibly would’ve run out of yarn had I done that. Damn men and their big feet!

I started a new pair of socks immediately after I finished those, as I was at the coffee shop with a friend and had childcare for another hour. They’re Trekking XXL in color 16, rainbow colors. I couldn’t find a color card with this colorway on it anywhere on the internets, who knows how old it is. I of course don’t have a picture for you today, but I’ll hopefully have the first one done soon and show you that. I’m using the garter rib pattern (such as it is) from Sensational Knitted Socks, which is easy but somewhat dull. A little more interesting than your standard 2×2 rib, at least.

I’ve also been spinning a bit. I finished spinnning the Cotton Candy roving and plied it. I ended up Navajo plying it, partly because I decided that’d look best, but also because I *really* enjoy Navajo plying. It’s somewhere around a worsted weight yarn, 230 yards to roughly 4oz. I dyed up another 8oz of roving in the same colors when I had childcare on Friday (I love that the kids’ grandmas enjoy spending time with them!) and once I get the current spinning project finished I’ll start on that. Eventually this will be a sweater for Grace, even though she asked for “pants made from knitting” - I hardly think this yarn would be suitable for pants for a 4 year old (an immobile baby, yes. An active big kid? No f-ing way). Probably for *next* fall, though. Gotta give myself time to spin it and time to think about styles & patterns. I took a couple of pictures of the yarn to share, though:

All nice and twisted up in its skein

All loose and pretty

I love how stretchy and squishy this yarn is! I’m itching to wind it into a ball and start swatching, but I have to finish Arlo’s sweater first. I cast on for the first sleeve of that today, finally.

This post brought to you by the almost-2yo boy child who has taken a miraculous, almost three-hour-long nap today. I just hear a peep from upstairs, so off I go. Good timing, kiddo!

We got a huge amount of snow Saturday, at least 10″ but probably a bit more. I spent a good while shoveling yesterday - our wonderful neighbor ran his snowblower down the whole sidewalk so at least I didn’t have to do that part, but I did the steps & shoveled out Chris’s car - the snowplow really packs the snow down tightly! But it was a good workout and I’m feeling it today. The kids had fun getting towed around on the sled and I think we may go find a nice sledding hill today. Our front yard has a hill but it’s way too steep for sledding (and mowing, for that matter).

I did a little spinning last night after everyone else was asleep. I’m most of the way though the 4oz of Cotton Candy merino I dyed and am thinking about dyeing up another 4oz to match - I’d love to knit Grace a sweater out of this, I think she’d love the colors. I just have to decide if I want to Navajo ply it or just do a straight 2-ply. After seeing Cara’s yarn today, I’m thinking that the 2-ply would be nice. I do love to Navajo ply, though, so it’d be fun to do. Hard to decide!

Does anyone want to offer a suggestion based on my picture?

I’ve started the heel flap on the second of Chris’s Trekking socks but this sock has been much slower going than the first. Something about having two other active projects at the same time, I think!

Slooooow going but getting there!

Arlo’s Wonderful Wallaby is up to the armpits. I need to wind another skein of yarn and track down my size 5 and 7 DPNs so I can start the sleeves. Maybe I can do that today if the kids can go 20 minutes without trying to kill each other.

I like the seed stitch on the waistband and pocket. Hopefully doing it on the hood doesn’t kill me with boredom…

Thank you all for your happy birthday wishes for Grace! She enjoyed hearing that so-and-so said “Happy Birthday” to her and has asked if any other computer friends sent her more messages. Funny kid!

I use LiveJournal for my personal blog and today, when I actually want to post something, LJ is down. Nice.

In other news, Kerry recommended a fiber processor to me the other day. I still haven’t gotten the fleece I bought in May done - I washed it and carded one batt, then stopped. It had a lot of grease left in it after washing, it turns out, making it difficult to run through the drum carder. I re-washed a batch of it last night after emailing with someone at Morning Sun Fiber Barn - she told me that Corriedale (it’s a Corriedale x Lincoln fleece) has a lot of grease and she’d prefer that I wash it again to remove the excess. I washed one batch of the wool last night after the kids went to bed, hopefully I’ll get the opportunity to wash the other two bags this week. I suppose I’m going to need some more sweater racks for that, though… (sound of displeasure at the idea of going to Walmart or Target for those today). I wonder if it’ll be easier to card after re-washing and if I might want to put the drum carder to work instead of sending it out. I’m sure I could rope Grace into helping with that - last time I carded a fleece she had fun laying the locks on the intake tray while I turned the crank (only after her fingers were out of the way, of course!)

I made some good progress on the second Gentlemans Sock yesterday. I’m only a couple pattern repeats from the heel now and should make it to the heel today if the kids cooperate.