mittens mittens everywhere

Long time, I know :) It's the strangest thing-- ever since my son started school I can't manage anything timewise like before, even with a huge block of time in my day. I have no idea what's happening and have no doubt that it'll sort itself soon, but yeah... hang in with me :)

I don't think I'd even knit if I didn't have a goal-- this past month I've been working on projects for Verb's "Smitten Mitten" contest. Kristine put out the call for submissions of mittens and armwarmers knit in Verb fibers and yarn, both in personal and published patterns, and I managed 3 out of 4 :)

My first was more accident than anything. I absolutely fell in love with zigzagstitch's End of May hat and knit it in Verb's sadly discontinued Yakkity Yak (50/50 yak/merino). I had a lot of yarn left over from the 2 skeins, and thought about reverse mirroring the MC/CC for a duplicate hat-- but then Mandy released an End of May mitten pattern with that prominent, striking flower and I was obsessed :)


End of May mittens and hat
Verb for Keeping Warm Yakkity Yak, "indigo blue sky" and "cafe au lait"
Hat: US 4, Mittens: US 3
Started and finished: October 2009

Can I tell you I'm also obsessed with matchy-matchy now?! I want to knit a bunch of matching mitten and hats-- I always thought it was scarves and hats to match, but mittens are f*ing brilliant. I've already picked up some Ultra Alpaca for another set :)

I *really* love this set though. The pattern reminds me of something vintage, and the color pairing of the blue and tan-gold do as well. (go bears!) I can't take credit for the colors working together though-- I went into Article Pract and these skeins were just sitting there next to each other like they belonged together :) I think AP is the only place you can get the Yakkity Yak now-- they had some and even in these colors last time I was there.

I did make the shorter hat version; this one fits me perfectly like I want a warm hat to (over the ears and forehead). Also fits over big curls :)



SUCH a hammy pie. I like the gold detail at the cast on edge-- I did use some waste yarn to make a forehead-length lining, but removed it since the yak really is soft enough to wear (and I hate extra finishing :)) I just used some extra gold to do a crochet chain around the picked-out waste yarn edge to secure it. I didn't know I needed the shorter version til I was halfway done (swatch? for a hat?! ;)) so I just shifted the chart and its top decreases over halfway for the same result. Easy really.

No mods with the mittens, except I used a 2-color caston for that same gold detail at the cuff, purled one row in MC, then started the pattern.

Speaking of mods, my next Verb mitt project was Gasteropoda by Kristi Geraci...


Gasteropoda by Kristi Geraci
Verb for Keeping Warm Creating Superwash Sock, "Wonder Boy"
variety of needles
Started and finished: November 2009

I fell in love the minute I saw this on Kristi's blog. Look closely-- it's a 2" spiral that winds its way around the hand and arm! I am a SUCKER for innovation, and this! is! OSSUM! Knitting these I kept thinking that I want a spiral knit sweater now :) I'm not a cool enough knitter to figure that one out, but seriously I'd make one.

I lengthened mine (Kristi's version is a more traditional armwarmer length), and chose a shorter dye repeat with "Wonder Boy" (original knit in Wisdom Yarns Poems sock, a long striping yarn like Noro). I chose to lengthen them because lately I've been wearing my handknit kneehighs under my jeans in the mornings I drop my son off to school-- quite warm and almost like secret garters under denim in highschool. I think these will serve under a jacket with a light shirt quite nicely with our cold mornings and warm afternoons.

I retained the original caston #s for my size and only used a change in needle size to add width and extra spirals for length-- a US 3 for the above and upper forearm, a US 2 for the middle arm and US 1.5 for wrist and hand. I think if you wanted, you could also decrease stitches while spiraling if you wanted to use the same needles throughout-- the nice thing about sock yarn though is that it is forgiving knit on a range of (small) needles when you're not worrying about abrasion and feet and shoes.

I want to knit another pair of Gasteropoda from a long-repeat handspun... I can't help but think how AWESOME they'll be spun/knit from a DyakCraft (formerly Grafton) batt. And what a great choice for small leftover bits of sock yarn?! But I do like these a lot... it's like a maybe-poisonous snake squeezing me.

Aside from the spiraling construction (which is effortless-- no finishing), what really got me was the gusseted afterthought thumb. I'm not familiar enough with mitten construction to know if this is new or not, but it's really cool. I want to figure out how to use it for traditional afterthought mittens now!



Yay for a nice shot of the colorway and sheen of the yarn too :)

For my last mitt project, I knew I wanted to use handspun-- specifically the baby llama from the Verb Ultra fiber club shipped in August.



There were three distinct colors so I sketched up a stranded design using 3 colors (2 colors per row), tetris stylings.



The baby llama on its own didn't have enough body to stand up to mitts, so I swapped in some Lana Cash (dark grey) for one of the colors. I'm glad I did-- when I saw this colorway it immediately reminded me of Bohus knitting for some reason, and I spun the llama drafting against twist for LOTS of halo. Paired with the matte commercial yarn, the halo pops off like it does in Bohus collars against the body yarn...



I love these... they may actually get the most wear for being practical. (Tho I'm sitting here wearing the Gasteropoda to type this ;)) They are super warm but very, very light-- the pair weighs one ounce (30 grams). The afterthought thumb I kept very short so I could grip things easily-- I can drive without taking them off, unlike the fullon lovely End of May mittens. I also loved using three colors-- I usually only use two, and while I'm not aching to start some true 20 color fairisle, three was nice :)

Phew. If you thought that was a lot of mitten action, be sure to pop over to Verb for Keeping Warm's Ravelry group to see all of the entries and vote-- the threads are all stickied to the top til next week.

And as if that wasn't enough self-promotion... brand new stitch markers in my etsy shop! Hubei turquoise, carnelian, peridot, lapis, coral, garnet in nugget shapes... I guess I have been busy ;)

Etsy: Your place to buy & sell all things handmade zero.etsy.com

Still adrift tho. Til next time :)

spinning mohair from attenuated locks

I recently swapped with Adrianne for 3 oz of unwashed, very fine first clip kid mohair fleece on the Spin or Dye swap board on Ravelry. I really am not interested in buying a whole mohair fleece, but it was too pretty to pass up and just enough to do a good sample with.


photo © 2009 Adrianne L. Shtop -- washed kid mohair fleece
wakingthebones.com

I decided I wanted it to be VERY halo-y, and also not retain any of the curlylocks look once spun... so spun it from the lock. Instead of spinning over the fold, I attenuated the entire lock prior to spinning.

I started with an intact lock-- I scoured this partial fleece myself and maintained lock formation by washing in tuille.



Starting at the middle of the lock, I gently opened it up by teasing it open and separating the individual fibers apart but just enough, not to make the lock fall apart.



Aside from the other reasons for spinning the mohair this way, the other plus to attenuating the whole lock prior to spinning was that I was able to detect and shake out the small amounts of dandruff hidden in the fibers. It's a small amount, and not a dealbreaker for mohair, but still not something I wanted in the final yarn.


(look closely around the shorn end)

After loosening the entire lock up, I went back and separated the fibers even more. Starting from one end...



...and working to the other.



The small lock creates quite a long length of fiber. I made several of these long attenuated lengths, lined them up and started spinning.



My idea in spinning the kid mohair was to have as many ends (tip, shorn) sticking out from the single as possible. Initially I was going to do this by spinning from the fold, so that the middlemost section of the individual fibers would be the ones caught up in the twist and allowing the opposite ends to stick out... but I tend to grasp folded locks a bit tightly when spinning and wanted them to be as lofty and not-smoothed-down as possible (plus there was the scurf thing... ew ;))

So I took the lengths of attenuated locks, as if they were a commercially prepared long length of top/roving I was spinning from the tip of and feeding directly into the orifice-- but it was the middlemost part of the locks getting the bulk of twist and not the aligned ones of a top. This way both tip and butt end of the locks were free to be free... and I was able to loosen up quite a bit in my grip compared to my spinning from the fold (letting those ends halo even more).



You can get a sense of the amount of halo the single produced this way... I placed a white card on the mother of all to show you.


(still can spot a bit of scurf that shook out in plying)

As much as I wanted a halo-y yarn, I didn't want a 100% mohair one. So I dug out this precious bit of tussah silk, handpainted by String Theory Fiber Art, and spun two bobbins' worth of silk singles to ply the mohair with.


"kalapana," 2 oz tussah silk by stringtheoryfiberart.etsy.com

I spun the silk at a high twist (17.5:1) and the mohair at a lower one (9:1) to allow for more halo and a look that the silk was "holding" the mohair together, and plied with an even lower ratio (6:1) so I can knit something with drape and on big needles and not worry about it being too round for lace.

The halo is definitely there...



...and so is the yardage.


750yds, 105 grams 3 ply silk/kid mohair

Very, very soft and warm, and makes me appreciate mohair all the more. Probably not a whole fleece's worth... but maybe I'll change that tune when I knit this up into something simple for me. So many intentions...

crossing the tour

Approx 9 oz and ~1600 yards of 3-ply
can you believe how big they look compared to the matchless bobbin? like 3x+ as big...

Just off of the bobbins this afternoon with the twist not set, but yay! I finished my Tour de Fleece spinning :) You may recall initially I wanted to comb, spin and KNIT Yvonne in the 22 days... but I am pretty pleased to have apparently spun enough for the pattern (and to spec!) in the timeframe instead.

I do feel I've gained something over the past three weeks, even if it wasn't a yellow jersey or a finished shawl. Sampling for the grist and even the possibilities of the different plies in knit samples was a bit of a chore (and waiting for them to dry was !!!), but all said and done, as I spun my singles to a consistent 32wpi unstretched...


(don't you just love the barberpoling in the single?)
edit: my spinner's control card can be sourced from mielke's fiber arts, and Girl on the Rocks has acyrlic and bamboo versions as well

...I felt free knowing I was spinning something that would (knock wood) definitely work when I was done. It's a strange feeling for me, picking a pattern first and ALSO the commercial yarn to copy/spin to. Prior to TdF I was spinning and knitting the 50th anniversary WoolGathering cardi/sweater (WG 79) from my black RamboxCorrie fleece, and my previous comb-spin-knit-comb-spin-knit is without a doubt going out the window after this experience. (A too-late discovery, one of my RxC skeins was much lighter/thinner than the others and I've basically "lost" being able to use it in that sweater... but more on that project later.)

Having so many singles to ply at once (over the past 3 days with a break for the fleece judging in Monterey with FranticFiberFun) was also really good for me-- I managed to do a decent job managing my 3 singles *without* the plying guide/diz from GVPencheff I had made especially for the job...


(5.5, 6, and 6.5mm holes-- special order in red oak)

...I love the diz! But am happy I can probably move it from my spinning basket and into my spinning/fiber tool case permanently now.

Backing up! Since I combed everything at once (oy, I have a LOT of combed sliver left!) I was able to really focus both on the technique and the finished fibers in a way I don't think I have before. I probably will not continue planking the fibers as I always had before; I didn't for this project because of the time constraint and didn't really see a noticable difference in not doing so. I will plank for some things-- I have a fleece with cotted tips that leave lots of little neps and planking helps me move them about and to catch more of those in the tines, but for regular lovely fleeces? Prolly not.

I also had the new combs (Valkyrie minis, did you hear the maker is going to restart produx on them this year?!) to compare to the larger English set... to be honest I don't really have a conclusion as to favorites. Both produce beautiful fiber and have a place in my heart/toolchest. The minis left marginally more neps in the sliver but also less waste weight, the English produce a heavier sliver but need to be clamped to a table and stood in front of to work.

What was interesting was both still worked as combs should work, that is both allow the comber to draw off the longest fibers first and leave the shorter parts behind. I'm a bit compulsive when it comes to measuring staples and getting the same lengths lashed on the comb to begin with (I had jokingly toyed with the idea of tattooing a ruler on my hand but my twitter friends thought it may be a bit... intimidating outside the fiber world ;)) and this fleece was no different. You may remember how my half grey, half white stapled Romeldale lamb pulled off into a striping sliver? The half grey, half brown Corriedale lamb here did something similar.



I've laid the first end of the sliver (bottom) against the last end of sliver pulled off of the combs (top)-- it may be hard to see, but the first end is not only darker, but has more crimp than the lighter colored last bit. I could tell when spinning just by feel that the end of the sliver was approaching-- the last length (it was not very much for each sliver) was discernably softer, more downy soft feeling than the rest. I washed the fleece in lock formation and sorted for length, so I don't think this is an issue of sorting prior to combing but that each set of combs did its job in sorting the longest fibers out even though they were grown in and amongst the naturally locking staples. I also don't think it's a coincidence both were lamb fleeces that changed dramatically in color and perhaps type over the course of a year. Dunno, but it makes me love lambs even more :)

I'm not a purist in combing, I don't mind mixing staple lengths among the sliver and don't strive for a true worsted (that would require all fiber in the sliver to be the same length). I sort it to try and reduce waste-- which is why I didn't just remove the last few inches of sliver on each bit. I also like the idea of random shots of concentrated lighter grey the last few soft inches showing up in the 3-ply yarn... I spun one bobbin from only slivers from the English combs, one bobbin from slivers from the handheld Vikings, and one by alternating slivers... we'll see once I start knitting how those work up, if they stagger like I think they will.

So yay for TdF, and tell my yarn to hurry up and start drying! I can't wait to get knitting it up :)

day six and finally spinning

day 6 of tour de fleece 2009
finally spinning

Finally! :)

It is slow going for me so far... My short term goal is to fill three bobbins relatively full and ply them into however many skeins I need to to clear the singles, then start spinning again. I could spin all of singles at once and just do one straight shot at plying, but I'm reallyREALLY looking forward to plying as a rest in spinning. So, it'll be lots of brownish grey singles on bobbins for me over the weekend and beyond.

As far as my bobbin progress shot goes... spinning wheel cupholders are rad, but I think my spinning wheel tripod is pretty up there too :)


Joby Gorillapod-SLR
(there's also a newer gorillapod-SLR version with a bubble level)

It's a tripod with prehensile legs (doesn't that word just do it for you?!) that can wrap onto slim objects and hold my Panasonic Lumix (and any other camera with a tripod hole) in odd ways as well as traditional tabletop tripod ones. The clearance is also good enough on the Schacht for the flyer to turn and spin while the camera is attached... so of COURSE I had to take a video while spinning some (more) singles.



Don't you love the whoooosh? You don't normally hear that (or the taptaptapping of the camera strap against the footman's chamber door :)) It'll be fun to take another video of a heavier weight or multicolor single being spun so you can see it actually filling up on the bobbin... can't think about that til TdF is over though! :)

Happy weekend!

halfway

Everything's halfway done 'round here (glass half full?)


warp: Tactile Fiber Arts superwash merino/tencel, "orchid"
weft: Hand Jive Knits' Nature's Palette, "odd duck 5"

This wrap has been done longer than it took to weave... I want to do something different (read: not overhand knots) to finish the edges but can't decide, so it's just been sitting around waiting to be fulled for almost a week. Really pretty though-- I think once done the tencel blend from Tactile will shine-shine and the Nature's Palette will puff up even more.



I've been almostthere with the "Sunny Side Up" merino/silk from A Verb for Keeping Warm for what seems like ages-- usually I don't want such a fun color to be over, but I was hoping to have something finished to wear to Keep the Fleece/Sheep to Scarf this weekend. Admittedly all my fault (again), I got sidetracked playing Jenga with fleece.



Very little makes me as happy fiberwise as arranging locks for washing when the fleece is as greasy and willing as this one. From Whitefish Bay Farm, "Velveeta."



Buying a fleece from Whitefish Bay Farm is a crazy ordering experience-- they publish their list of available fleeces (no photos) and a time they will start taking orders, and its off to the races. I was hitting redial on the phone for an hour and half trying to order (just!) one, and didn't get my first, second, or even third choice. Crazy thing is, I am always super pleased with what I do end up with. Maybe cos both times, the lamb fleeces from WFB were some sort of magic and shifted color midstaple.



Halfway indeed :)

Miss you, only thing more than half.

drowning in silk

I applied for a SOAR scholarship based on the writings I've done on this blog, and Friday received a kindly rejection letter from Spin Off. Admittedly I was bummed, but by the afternoon it was time to get over and into something else. My heart's always reminding me of my ability to compartmentalize-- my foolproof method is to throw myself into something new, or at least really interesting. I grabbed my Matchless and 2 ounces of indigo dyed tussah silk from A Verb for Keeping Warm and went to town.



I'm not a really big fan of 100% silk yarns, to me they mean lace or summer. I didn't want to card the silk into a wool like last time, so instead I laid out the length of silk (dyed in large color sections) and pulled off lengths in color order for spinning over the fold. I haven't spun over the fold since first teaching myself to spin, and I do like the control it gave me in handling the silk.



I mention I used the Schacht Matchless (aside from Michael, the only one who's spent time with the Joy in a long time is my son) because I have wanted to try Irish/bobbin led on it-- another one of those new, distracting things. I've spun in hybrid double drive since its arrival, and used to spin in scotch tension on the Ashford, but had never tried bobbin led before. It was an easy setup and actually a lot better than I thought it would be-- I really like a strong takeup and I certainly got it this way :)

Originally I was going to spin another handpainted single of Verb's merino/silk for plying with the tussah, but went off the rez with a white merino/cashmere top instead. I think the white really shows off the long stretches of color Kristine dyed that I tried to keep intact.



Another reason I chose the white was because it is superwash-- my baby sister just had her baby and I wanted to weave her a large nursing wrap/coverup that could be easily washed when my nephew invariably does a baby blowup near or on it. I changed my mind though (like usual)... the yarn is just way too soft for weaving; not that it wouldn't hold up to it but that the crazy softness just wouldn't translate to a woven fabric like a knitted one would.



I kept trying to take pictures so I could choose the one that looked the softest :) I don't know if it worked but eh, I could look at the shine of the silk all day.



I ended up with about 400 yards of a light worsted weight and already started on a little something :) Any guesses? Leave me a comment on what you would make and I'll randomly draw a name once I finish the project and post pictures (a week? two?) The winner will receive the aVfKW merino/silk I didn't spin for this project...



3 ounces in the exclusive Ultra fiber club colorway, "Roman Numeral." Don't spin? Never a better time or better fiber to learn with ;) Or, tear it into strips and knit with the roving, use it as mitten thrums, make a CoCoKnits fleeced earflap hat, felt something beautiful, replace the pet rock on your desk... it's up to you :)

Miss you!

carding on handcards and grafton fiber batts

[if you are a member of the Verb for Keeping Warm and/or the Grafton Fibers fiber club/s and don't want to see a February shipment spoiler, please skip this post!]

Yall who are obsessed with fiber prep like I am probably had the same reaction to the Yarn Harlot's post on loading fleece/fiber sideways onto a drumcarder-- namely, "dude, I need to try that!" Since I had sold my drumcarder I opted to try the method on my almost longlost pair of handcards instead... tools I don't usually use or reach for or admittedly even think about.

I started with the light brown cormo from Cormo Sheep and Wool Farm ("Henna")...



...trying to load the staples on the handcards in a sideways motion. Really though, I tried for a few passes and just gave up-- it is just not intuitive enough for me to drag a staple sideways across a handcard like it is to drag it longways. That's not the really interesting part-- instead of giving up the ghost and setting the carders aside, I continued handcarding a small mountain of flat cormo batts...



...that I rolled up and pulled into short roving lengths.



All said and done I had about 3.5 ounces of pulled rovings from rolags, which looked like a huge mountain even next to my relatively huge spindle I intended on spinning them on.


(the forrester dervish has an 11-12" shaft)

I had hoped to load more than the weight of the spindle onto it and managed just that (50+gm on a 45 gm spindle)...



I keep wanting to add more but get more nervous about dropping it as time wears on so I've stopped for now.

Yet again it's not the spindle spinning that's the more interesting thing to me (I'm on a bit of a spindle buying and spinning tear lately)-- but that I *really* enjoyed carding with the handcards! I had a few neps in the rovings, from a heavy hand before I found my rhythm, but all in all they stood up very well-- especially in comparison to how brutally I nepped another cormo fleece on my drumcarder. I think I enjoyed carding more on handcards than my drumcarder :)

As one good one always deserves another, I took this...


4 oz of naturally colored polwarth from aVfKW

...and this...


3 oz of tussah silk from February aVfKW Ultra club shipment

...carded them together on handcards for this...



...(closer)...



...and have used the handcarded polwarth/silk to spin a bulky single on the wheel and a very fine single on a spindle...


(terrible horrible no good very bad rainy weather lighting)
eta: much better lighting today :)

...that'll be eventually plied together into a bumpy textured but soft bulky yarn. I still have another bobbin at least to fill, but it'll take no time at all.

I really, REALLY enjoyed blending the fibers on my handcards-- using commercially prepared fibers (as opposed to raw fleece) seemed to help me in not nepping them, and it was just effortless! I love combing, don't get me wrong-- but I can't put my feet up and watch episodes of Firefly on hulu (new to me!) while wielding them like I did with the 'cards. Blending on combs isn't really a great proposition anyways (fibers generally need to be the same length on the combs or will pull off sooner/later than the others you're trying to blend with, making homogenity difficult)-- but I can't wait to try this again with more luxury fibers and utilitarian wools.

Speaking of utilitarian and carding-- my son and I went to the Oakland Museum of California a few weekends ago (second Sundays free admission!) and found this super great reproduction display in their "Art and History of Early California" collection...



Handcards made from thistle heads, and a big old (supported?) spindle.

I think its so cool, coming so far but still being very close to the techniques of a hundred years ago.

On the other, far end of the cool carding spectrum, I was gifted a membership to the Grafton Fibers "Colorways" club from my secret santa this year (!!!) and have been hoarding the stunningly beautiful color batts and petting them when I need a shot of color and love in my life.


January


February

I have no idea what I'll be making with these... part of me wants to spin each batt to the same weight and end up with 12 skeins to knit into an afghan, an amazingly colorful block afghan. The other part just wants to hoard them; I can't believe how soft and perfect the batts are and it makes me happy that colors like this exist in the world.

I read that Linda is still accepting memberships into the yearly club (she has a monthly one you can sign up for as well, both include a pattern and spinning tips with the fiber)-- the yearly enrollment includes bonuses like Grafton spindles and Darn Pretty Needles (my new favorite dpns!)



Made in the USA by hand, they are sharp and solid-- these are the 2.25mm (US 1) size and I am not afraid in the slightest for snapping or bending them. See?



Surviving being my walkaround knitting, stuffed in the bottom of a bag while I wait in line at the post office and chase after my little one, jumping in rainpuddles :)

Til then and thanks again Santa :)