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 :)

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 ;))

verb batt roll hats

Not only was I glad to see the line at A Verb for Keeping Warm at Lambtown for what it means to its proprietress, but also because it have me time to think about what to do with that gorgeous, odd "silk batt roll" I was going to buy.


Batt roll by A Verb for Keeping Warm, 50/50 wool (merino?)-natural silk, 2 oz

They're pretty much like nothing I've seen before :) Outside the packaging...



I almost want to say they're like silk hankies, but like 10 trillion times better :)



They're thin, but not as thin as hankies. They also don't make me feel as tomboyish-- they don't catch on every rough patch on my fingers and nails when working with them. Since there is only half the silk, you don't get that resistance in breaking them apart-- I always feel the tearing in my hands when pulling apart hankies and it's totally a personal, textural thing but it creeps me out :) Also on a personal note, I'm just not as into 100% silk since I don't know what I'd do with the finished yarn since I've shied away from knitting lace.

Waiting in line I decided I would tear the batt rolls into strips and knit from them directly, without spinning. I'm guessing you could easily open them up and draft them out like a silk hankie too-- the size would be a bit unwieldy but I don't see why not... but instead I started from one corner and tore them in pieces, resulting in a long spiral strip.



You can get a good idea of what these are like in the pictures-- lots and lots of silk noil that's going to make a super textured finished object. I kept wondering what this would look like felted up, probably pretty neat.



I found it easiest to not pinch the strip I was tearing but to hold it with the side of my thumb. I could grasp more of it that way... it still has a tendency to tear apart super easy and I was really trying to end up with 3 whole, unbroken strips. It worked, even though it took so long I needed a flash to show the giant pile (complete w/ coke can for scale yall ;))



During the strip making, I just tore them off into widths large enough to not fall apart. Then when knitting, I drafted them down to a knittable size and went to town.


US 15 needles

Knitting them wasn't bad at all-- tearing the batt into strips and knitting this hat took a day. I started with a backward loop caston since I didn't want to really tug on the fiber (not super stable caston, worked fine in this app)... cast on 32 sts, joined and k4, p4 around to last 8 sts, k4, p3, slip last st onto LH needle and p2tog. You end up with 31 sts and then can [k4, p4] around-- the multiple of 8 -1 means the pattern shifts left, same idea as rpm but way cooler since you don't have to watch for the new round to shift over, it does it on its own. (Eyes free knitting!)

I chose 31 sts since it was the number of sts that would pretty much stretch uncomfortably around my 24" needle (didn't have a 16"), so it is larger than a hat should be (the problem with ALL the hats I knit!)




verb batt roll hat

I used all of the fiber up-- and where I wanted to knit in one long strip? I didn't... sometimes the strips broke when drafting down, and sometimes I wanted to switch up the colors since one batt was darker. I just joined and knit those ends in together when knitting...


inside out/wrong side with ends knit in together
i like this pic, you can see the streaks of silk

...the hat is so fat and bumpy even knitting 2 strands together to secure the ends can't really be seen from the RS.

All in all it was really a fun, fast odd project. The hat is super bulky and very warm, but isn't heavy feeling-- the texture is weirdly like a chenille! I can't explain why, but it has that resistant feel when squishing it.

It is too large (wide) for a hat, sits rather than fits-- next time I'd go for fewer CO sts. I really didn't want to frog it (I don't know how this would hold up to frogging, probably not well)... Actually a good thing since I know one batt roll ($15) should be enough for any sized head-- mine is 2x" so if this oversized version fits me now a hat with fewer sts CO it'll probably work across 99% of the population.

Kristine's sold out of these batt rolls now, but I know she'll have more soon. Next time I'll buy one and spin it and see what comes of it-- the texture and lightness of the fiber would make for a super light scarf or cowl.

I decided to try and make a hat that fits with the same shifting idea and to see if the backward loop CO was okay in a traditional yarn (yup). A week ago I took some black superwash merino (or, sw merino/seacell... long story) and some plucked tort angora from PunkJordane.etsy.com (gorgeous stuff!)...



...blended it together on my drumcarder. I went for a 75/25 blend, but was more successful in later batts in getting more angora in when I started with angora that I passed once over my handcards-- it helped the fiber not clump as much on the drum and meant I was getting much more on. The resultant yarns were not the same color...



...one lighter, one darker. No matter. I fulled the yarn to bring out the angora halo (so nice) and just switched balls every 4 rows (US 10.5 needles, CO 40 - 1 st, knit same shifting pattern as above).



And it FITS! Like a HAT!

Cause for celebration. :)

Til then, miss you.