220 yards of squishy 2-ply worsted weight yarn, from 4 oz. of Southern Cross Fibres polwarth in the Boogie Wonderland colorway. I’m low on natural light this morning, so the colors in these photos are a little bit off. The actual color of this skein is somewhere in between the olive and forest green in these pictures. This has more squoosh than any skein I’ve spun, and I can’t wait to knit with it.
Time to pour a cup of coffee and prepare for the day.
In order to face the week, I needed blackberry pancakes. (Mondays can be tough!) I ate them for breakfast and lunch, and they helped, like they always do. Moving on…
I knit this over the weekend for my friend H. (of wedding shawl fame) because tomorrow is her birthday! I just couldn’t wait any longer, so I gifted this yesterday, which means there is absolutely no danger of spoiling the surprise. I used more of my Hello Yarn Five Plum Pie handspun, and I still have about ten yards leftover — truly, a never-ending skein.
Calorimetry was one of the first patterns I attempted to knit — and while I finished it rather quickly, my skein of filatura di crosa 127 print (or whatever the pattern calls for, because I had not yet learned to substitute) won the day, and I finally understood why gauge matters. My first calorimetry was enormous! This time around, I read up on the pattern and followed some common modifications:
I cast on 88 stitches using size 6 needles, and worked only as many (decreasing stitch count) short rows as seemed like half of the width I was hoping for, and then completed the same number of (increasing stitch count) short rows to get to the other side, being careful not to run out of yarn.
Yay! I tried this on to take some pictures, and now that my hair is longer, I really like this. I may need to make one for myself.
I did manage to ply the polwarth. Here’s what it looks like before washing/thwacking:
This may be the softest, squishiest yarn I have ever spun. It is hanging to dry in the kitchen, and I can’t help but pet it each time I walk by.
In keeping with “hat-tober,” I cast on for yet another handspun hat — Cosy’s Super Hero Helmet Hat. I won the pattern on her blog a few weeks ago, and I am knitting it out of some of my earlier wheelspun: AVFKW Woolly Wonders corriedale in The Candle’s Nimble Flame. I’m using size 10.5 needles, and I love the squoosh of the garter stitch.
Apparently Boh also had a very busy day. (While I read, wrote, cleaned, knit, plied, grocery-shopped, cooked, etc., Boh moved bones back and forth from his box, growled at the electrician through the window, took notes on squirrel movement, and perhaps dreamed of rabbits, chipmunks, and deer.)
This hat just flew off the needles, and I love it. These big hats intended for boys also seem to work with my incredibly big hair, which means I may need to cast on for another. This grey/green version out of AVFKW falklands in The Silent Undergrowth colorway has more drape — again, maybe because it is a 2-ply, but also because the yarn seemed a bit thinner as I was working with it. (I used the same needles: US 6 for the ribbing, 7 for the st portion and decreases. WPI tool, are you hiding under piles of fiber?) Also, for those counting ounces, I started with 3 oz. of fiber, and I have .45 oz. of yarn remaining.
Here it is, with the brim unfolded. Perfect for big hair, no? (The colors are too wonderfully gift-able for me to keep this, particular when compared to the bright. cheery pile of handspun taking up space on the bookshelf. I can still try it on a bunch before the holidays, right?)
Alright. Onward to a few photos of the fun parts of Saturday:
Snoring dog, hot cocoa made with milk on the stove, the New Yorker…
Snail hat, handspun cowl, thanksgiving day mitts: necessary for a nice walk along the reservoir.
Boh continues to stretch and snore. I imagine he’ll be doing lots more of this later today, as his greyhound friend (and his people) will be here (with breakfast!) in about twenty minutes. Boh has no idea.
I started a second handspun seaman’s cap yesterday afternoon, and I’m very close to beginning the decreases. I’m using AVFKW falklands in The Silent Undergrowth.
The greens are very subtle, and I’m not sure if you can tell from this picture, but there is a soft green stripe right at the base of the turned up ribbed band. I’m learning quite a bit about the connections between my spinning choices and how the yarn knits up. This hat looks a bit more rustic than the first seaman’s cap, in part because my spinning isn’t totally even, but mostly (I think) because this is a 2-ply, and my first seaman’s cap was a 3-ply. I need to start making some choices about my holiday spinning and knitting, so this comparison is giving me a lot to think about.
Also, check this out. I really think Boh misses our guest. For much of the morning, Boh stretched out on the floor and pouted exactly where our houseguest had been sleeping. It is so hard to be a dog.
I realize there is a serious debate raging out there in the universe about whether this is acceptable, but I do it all the time. I usually wear my Chacos with commercial wool hiking socks, but yesterday I decided to try it with hand-knit socks. It was a cool, grey but not rainy day, and it was so nice to be able to look down and admire my pretty socks!
I finished my shawl yesterday! I ended up using some leftover purple Araucania Nature Wool from my fad classic to lengthen it by a few rows and create a crisper edge.
The shawl isn’t huge, but it can wrap around my shoulders, though I think I’ll probably wear it more like a scarf. In order to get a bit more width, I soaked the shawl and pinned it out to block.
It should be dry this afternoon. I’ll say it again: these blocking squares are awesome.
Here is my very happy skein of AVFKW targhee in the hibiscus colorway. I spun up 3 oz., which yielded 240 yards of 2-ply in a dk weight. Targhee may be my favorite fiber to spin — I cannot get over how soft and squooshy this skein feels!
On the list for today? A mixture of school (reading), life (a few groceries), and play (a long walk with Boh). Happy Friday, folks!
Last night I stayed up late to finish plying my never-ending bobbins of targhee together. I wound it onto the niddy noddy, counted the strands, took a few pictures, and then placed it in a hot water bath with some soak wash. About 30 seconds later, I realized I was incredibly tired, and went about getting ready for bed: I straightened up the kitchen, took Boh out, put on my pajamas, etc. And then I went to brush my teeth, only to look down and realize that there was yarn in the sink. (I may have used a colorful word or two.) I stayed awake for another ten or fifteen minutes in order to give the yarn the bath it deserved, and then rolled it in a towel, snapped/thwacked a few times, and finally hung it to dry.
Here it is, pre-bath, nestled on one of my favorite (store bought) sweaters. This stuff is soooo soft, and it is almost dry. (I keep petting it whenever I am in the kitchen.)
Here’s what was leftover on one of the bobbins. This is one of my most consistent spins to date, so this massive imbalance on the bobbins indicates to me that it might be time to acquire a kitchen scale so that I can split my fiber more evenly, particularly as I start thinking about bigger spinning projects.
Lastly, this came in the mail yesterday: 2 bumps of superwash merino from FLUFF fibers in the Beach Day and Jungle Flowers colorways. Yay!
It was hard to get up this morning, and I’m nowhere near full alertness. I’m mostly through my first cup of coffee (and will need a second). Boh has already given up, and is currently mid-snore.
I started plying the AVFKW targhee in hibiscus yesterday, and I’m hoping to finish this today so that I can get ready to do some sampling for my first sweater-spinning project!
I snapped this picture while waiting for my french press to finish working its magic — seems I stopped knitting mid-row last night because I just had to get into bed. The colors are way off in this picture, as the shawl is resting on the arm of the couch underneath a very bright lamp, but I liked how it looked as I stumbled kitchenward to put water on for coffee this morning.
Things were a bit rushed yesterday, so I didn’t take any pictures of my farm share, but since I’ve been documenting my weekly haul here, I picked 4 quarts of raspberries and a quart of blackberries in the fields, and then picked up lettuce, a few pounds of heirloom yellow and purple carrots, cauliflower, hot peppers, red peppers, italian eggplant, bok choi, basil, and the last red tomato of the season.
Off to pour cup #2…
Yesterday, thanks to a fairly productive Saturday, Boh and I were able to take a nice long walk down to a local preserve that also happens to house a big reservoir for New Home’s drinking water. As we walked and the wind rustled the leaves on the trees, I realized that it truly smelled like fall. We spent the rest of the day snoozing (Boh) and alternating between spinning, knitting, reading, and writing (me).
I started spinning this targhee — 3 oz. from AVFKW in the Hibiscus colorway.
I’m planning a 2-ply, and I’m hoping for enough yardage to do a densely knit pair of fingerless mitts (I think). Note the pooch asleep in the background.
It is so hard to be a dog.
Here’s the first skein of that norwegian top from Paradise Fibers: 156 yards of 2-ply, worsted weight, from 4 oz. of fiber. I love the sheen of the yarn and the depth of this grey.
This is not the softest skein on the planet, but it strikes me as workhorse yarn that would be great for hats and mittens. I’m interested to see what this will feel like knitted up.
How did it become Monday again? I may indulge in a little bit of knitting before I head to campus to face the universe…
Yesterday, two dogs lounged and played in my house while I read and spun. Boh’s friend Coltrane came over after they met up at the dog park so that Coltrane wouldn’t be lonely, as his owner had to attend a day-long event.
While they snored, I spun the second bobbin of norwegian top singles, and then plied them together.
Here’s what it looked like right before I set the twist.
We took a couple of short walks through my neighborhood yesterday, and I learned that it is tough to walk two dogs who don’t normally walk together at the same time! T., one of Coltrane’s owners, came over for dinner, and the dogs continued to lounge. After beet and carrot latkes and more homemade chocolate pudding, we dumped out a jar or two of buttons onto the kitchen table. T. needed buttons for some baby bibs, and I needed to pick out buttons for my handspun baby belle.
These buttons are a pinkish red, and I love how they stand out against the pastel shades of the handspun. What do you use to sew your buttons on? I’ve only ever used thinner yarn and a darning needle (seems I always pick buttons with pretty fat holes), but T. reminded me that when you buy a sweater, the buttons are sewn on with thread! (Which makes sense. It also means I need to acquire more than a travel button repair kit from a random hotel stay if I intend to keep sewing small buttons onto my knitting.)
This guy is such a good sport. We’re going to ease into Sunday with a little bit of knitting and a morning walk. Then, back to work!
106 yards of 2-ply, light worsted, from 2 oz. of pinky-purple falklands fiber from AVFKW in the hollyhock colorway.
Despite what you’ve seen here lately (Mara, this baby sweater, lots of pink spinning), pink is not my favorite color in real life, but I am always really happy with the pinks in my fibery projects. I hated pink as a child, and as soon as I headed off to college, my parents painted my bedroom what I like to call “pepto bismol” pink. (That pink is still not okay.)
I’m loving how this is knitting up, but I’m getting to that place where I’m concerned I may run out of yarn. With this in mind, I stopped the sleeves at 4 inches, so these will be 3/4 length, rather than full length. I even caught myself knitting faster last night…fingers crossed!
barefoot rooster 