crossing the line

It went almost to the wire, but I finished my 2 ravelympics goals :)


dk-ish 2-ply handspun, corriedale
dyed by Black Bunny Fibers in Obama fundraiser colorway, "Audacity"
approx 380 yd

It was nice to take a break mid-hat knitting and spin; the goal also lit a fire under me since this yarn and this one are a prize package in the Knitters for Obama fundraising drawing (item #43) which ends August 28! It was neat seeing how the same colorway and same fiber, spun at different weights, looks side by side:



I gave a little more thought than usual about the sport singles that I usually do when spinning; I split the entire roving length in half like usual, then for the first bobbin I tore one half into 4 strips. For the second bobbin, I tore the other half of the roving into eight lengths... so the first bobbin had longer color stretches than the second.



I like the result a lot; there are still stripes but breaking the colors up by length stripes will be an interesting knit. I hope the winner of the yarns thinks so too :)

I am also pleased as punch meeting my ten hat goal...


ten hats for the 'hats for homeless vets' Knitters for Obama Project
(just couldn't muster ten self timered shaky headshots :))

I used Swish Bulky for all but the cabled hats on the ends. Tika was rad enough to horse trade me some wool ease chunky for some Enchanted Knoll batts I had in the stash... totally has me thinking I could whip up that sexily named #28 (chunky cable) sweater from the fall vogue knitting in no time too, didn't know how fast WEC would knit up!

All in all, a good goal and a good time. Every time I'd update my hat total to the charity knitting thread on the Knitters for Obama forum on Ravelry I'd get a little cheer or love (1) and I'm all about the positive reinforcement :) My tiny contribution of ten hats PALES to the more than EIGHT HUNDRED items knit for homeless vets by members since the start of the project, which doesn't include the preemie hats and bibs knitting project the group took on in the primaries.

It actually was a tough goal for me to meet! Spindle spinning and the Monterey wool auction (and resulting fleeces I just *had* to start washing and prepping) were all out to get me, but I persevered. Mainly it was luck though, since this arrived the Saturday before the flame went out...


Pin drafted cormo, 3#
"Carla" from Cormo Sheep and Wool Farm, processed by Morro Fleece Works
originally 4.5#, 35% loss in washing/prep (same % I've been pulling at home)

I bought this fleece at Retzlaff and it was one of the last colored fleeces Shari at Morro processed before starting on her whites cycle. Six bags, eight ounces each of this...



and this...



I'm sort of... I don't know. The color and the coil prep is beautiful! but very close colorwise to the corriedale I've been combing from whitefish bay farm. It's silly (maybe), but I've wanted to have only one of each color on hand or in the pipeline fleece-wise... I've got a lot (a LOT!) of fleece on hand already, but this is my first overlap.

Gorgeous though.



We'll see. I think it may hang out for a while as I decide what I want to do with it; I wouldn't feel so skittish about it if space weren't such an issue and that I have decided on a project for the corriedale (that I keep combing and spinning)...



If you've followed my twitter you may have guessed already :)

Til then! Next time, I want to share how I (insanely) washed and prepped the gigantor merino fleece from Lambtown before the Ravelympics even began...


eta! for those of you who dig the threadless sheep shirts, they've reprinted the green grass/counting sheep "Insomnia" shirt this week and have started their $12 sale! just when i swore off all new tshirts :)

ravleympics update (and stall)

How's your Ravelympics knitting going? Originally, my goal was to knit ten hats for the Homeless Veteran Charity knitting project (hosted by Knitters for Obama) and spin a 4 oz skein of dk-weight to be donated for a prize for the KFO drawing. I think I underestimated how many hats I can knit...


four hats, three days

...a good thing! :) Except that I have been just a tad distracted the past few days-- one bad (he's fine), and one really, really good.


Kundert pinwheel spindle, zebrawood and wenge 1.4oz
exclusive design to The Bellwether

When Amelia posted her Kundert shop update to ravelry I browsed, totally not expecting to buy anything since I really haven't been able to catch a good rhythm in spindle spinning-- but this pinwheel kundert just caught me and wouldn't let go. I actually really like the relatively giant whorl (3.5"), it doesn't feel too dainty so I'm not scared of it.

With the help of Amelia's Spindling: The Basics book I was able to make some passable yarn...



...although I don't know what to do with it now :) I just slid it off of the spindle, I'm not quite sure how to wind it on there properly to begin with... lots to learn. I used some of the latest Black Bunny Fibers fiber club shipment to get me started:


BBF Corriedale, "starburst"

The colors are just so happy and the fiber seemed a good match for me in learning this whole new way of spinning. I have to admit I have since put it away and started spinning the baby alpaca/merino from the last-last BBF shipment on the Kundert-- while I was spindling I kept thinking that I'd have to really love a fiber, really want to spend lots of time with it in my hands and fingers if I were to complete a project with it.

That's not coming out right. It's not that I have to really want to finish a fiber or project to spin it on a spindle, but that I think I'll be choosing fibers that I want to get in as much quality time as I can when spinning them on a spindle. I'm amazed at how much more attention I pay to the process and fiber with the spindle-- but of course that may just be because I'm new at it :)

Til then and good luck :)

timetables

Ready for Ravelympics?


Swish Bulky

:)

I think I do well under thumb of timetables... knowing I probably wouldn't be able to do much else than hats or prize pack spinning for 16 days starting Friday, I managed to comb a bunch of corriedale, finish washing and sorting the chocodile merino fleece (post in itself) and bang out a pair of rpm's in handspun...


handspun rpm with minus one mod
(subtract one st from original CO # and knit rnd 1 continuously til length desired)

I felt a little odd, knitting my own pattern but eh :) I have wanted to try the minus one spiral idea for a long time-- a poster on Knitter's Review posted about it shortly after rpm first appeared (and KR's search function is failing me so I can't properly attribute it), and the idea has been !!! in the back of my mind since. I'm sure I'll get over the !!! in 16 days, working ten spiraling hats in that time, but we'll see :)

I couldn't help but get all excited over getting a good closeup of the yarn...



It's hard, the black + holographic glitz + purple/magenta sari silk. As fun knitting as spinning-- EnchantedKnoll's "blackbird" series batts (black superwash merino + color in glitz and silk) sing to the liberace slice of my soul. (I just noticed Josette is offering free shipping on +$75 orders now... she already has great prices!)

I also started my grandmother's now-yearly holiday afghan gift...


"All About Aran" afghan by Janet Szabo

This free pattern on the knittygritty site was perfect for the 20 balls of Elann Superwash Merino Seconds in Espresso I recently picked up for a steal. (Anyone in blogland want to destash/trade for a bag or more of this, plmk! A bigger afghan would be great.)

I'm getting a somewhat early head start this year... knitting in strips instead of squares to cut down on seaming, and only using the cabled square (5) patterns instead of the "filler" stitches. Three squares out of 20 isn't bad, but not great-- wanted to finish a few more before Ravelympics.

Also wanted to finish spinning some 3-ply sock yarn from my last dye for zero.etsy.com... fail:


Superwash merino, "loupe"

Mainly this was a problem of me trying on my brand new extra crazy super high speed whorl on the Matchless (yay! I have all the whorls now! boo! I pretty much only use one of them!) and not being able to get it off for three days. Did get it off with some radioshack ptfe help, eventually :)

I'm sure there's more, but I'm going to sneak in some corriedale worsted spinning before the olympics kickoff, so moo til then!

pre ravelympics stretch

When the first talk about the summer Olympics started around the knitting watercooler, I immediately decided I would participate in the Knitting Olympics, for Team Knitters for Obama. (Didn't finish my last KO project on time, though it was finished...) This time, I'd make a sweater for me out of yarn I'd handspun myself.

Fast forward a month or so and the Yarn Harlot's post about not hosting the "official" Knitting Olympics had me thinking maybe not (particularly the taking part in an Olympics hosted by China). Then Tikabelle's post about forgoing the knitting along to the Olympics was the nail in the coffin for my original plan... even today I wake to the rss newsfeed and read this. So I decided not to knit along to the Olympics this year.

Admittedly though, I was a little bummed-- I really wanted to participate on the Knitters for Obama team, and even though I don't usually do knitalongs well, watching Tour de Fleece posts all over blogland had me really chomping at the idea of a fixed time to complete a difficult fiber related goal. So, as a sort of compromise, I've decided to "compete"-- I'll be participating in the Ravelympics with the Knitters for Obama charity knitting drive during the timespan, knitting washable wool hats for homeless veterans.


verb rolling hat, 64-1 CO (same formula as before)

Knitters for Obama has a continuing goal of donating a hundred washable handknit (and crocheted, and quilted, etc.) items to homeless shelters servicing veterans across the US *per state*. 5000 (!!) items will be needed for them to reach their goal-- they've almost reached 500 (!!!) handknit FOs.

So, I've stocked up on some bulky machine washable (and dryable!) wool...


swish bulky by knitpicks

...should be enough for at least ten (?) hats. Ten hats in 16 days is definitely do-able (famous last words!), so I'll also be spinning the dk-weight yarn I need for the Knitters for Obama prize drawing...



I have pledged the two handspun yarns (super bulky and dk-ish weight) as a prize in the drawing-- since that's being held on August 29, another good fire under my pants to complete this :)

So, come August 8 this'll turn into a hat blog, feel free to knit along (or tune back in after the 24th ;))