DesigKnit

1) Combed wool. Not a lot, but we finally had a nice weather weekend, and I got an hour or so done on the fleece I’m processing. I’m about two ounces in, and there is so far to go…

2) Cleaned the house. Finally. It’s still cluttered, and there are things out of place all around me, but it isn’t dirty. It’s been making me crazy, so it felt good to check that off.

3) Did laundry…I have clothes to wear again!

4) Finished winding the warp (measuring out all the pieces of yarn) for my next project on the small loom. 300 is a lot of pieces of yarn. Fortunately, you only have to wrap them onto the warping board and then tie them into bundles.

5) Cleaned out the garden. Removed all the tomato, eggplant, and pepper plants that were not happy with the fall weather, replaced them with mustard and spinach greens that should thrive until the first hard frost. Fingers crossed that it holds off a few more weeks.

6) Held a dye workshop in the basement. I think I’m up to five converted dyers now, which isn’t too bad. I have another two lined up, too. I wish I’d had the presence of mind to take pictures, because there were some gorgeous colors.

7) Made samples for all of my new dyes, so that I can fill in the gaps in my color cards. There were even more gorgeous colors there. I haven’t prepared their little cards yet, so they are still wrapped in plastic waiting for my attention.

8) Managed to lend a spindle and some fiber to my downstairs neighbor who has been making little interested noises about spinning for a while. Two minutes of lesson, half an hour of practice, and she’s off and running. Some people just have natural talent.

9) Worked on the sweater. Two sleeve caps have been picked up from the body, one arm has made it down to the elbow. Managing the color gradients in this yarn is a little trickier, and is calling for strategic skein usage. I think it’s working so far.

10) Began spinning the fleece I bought at the Sheep and Wool festival. We’re about 3/4 of a bobbin in.

11) Washed some sweaters so that Branden will have something to wear when he comes to visit next weekend. He’s used to 90 degree weather in Georgia, and we’re down in the 40’s overnight. I think he will be needing some wool.

And now, if you’ll excuse me, I’m off to collapse on the couch and stare off into space for a while before the week starts up again. Hope you all had lovely and fiber-filled weekends, too!

Here it is, Wednesday night, and it’s dark outside. No light for photos of the new sock, in yarn that most definitely enjoys being a sock and will be very warm. (If I had thought of it, I could have had a photo at the expense of a few minutes’ delay in dinner, but I was hungry and didn’t think of it.)

It’s funny…I am absolutely certain that the sweater will be too small (despite multiple tryings-on), and I am just as sure that this sock will be too big, despite having checked it against others that fit. Maybe I need to get checked for some kind of knitting dysmorphia?

About a week ago, I ran out of bus knitting, and started a new project. I’ve had some beautiful Malabrigo sock hanging around, just waiting for an opening in the lineup. As soon as it came, I cast on.

I knit the toe, and decided that it really, really needed a smaller needle after all. I switched to a size 0, and cast on again. All along, the yarn has been objecting quietly. It’s behaving beautifully. It’s knitting up into a nice, firm fabric. The colors are incredible. But it has bigger dreams.

It wants to be a scarf. A woven scarf, in particular (it was quite specific about the woven part). It wants to go with this bamboo:

And honestly, there’s not much I can say at this point. I have started winding the warp.

In other news, the sweater is coming along nicely. Its alarming growth spurt has slowed, simply because I wasn’t home much this week, and when I was home I was winding warps for yesterday’s workshop. (More on that when I can take pictures of the finished warps, which are waiting to be rinsed later this afternoon.) Even so, I’ve almost made it to the hem.

I have an inch or so more ribbing, and then it’s on to the sleeves. I swear, it actually fits even though it looks tiny. I keep trying it on to check the size and can in fact put it on and be comfortable. Apparently, I am used to wearing sweaters with about 10 inches of ease, and so anything that actually fits looks small. Who knew?

Monday: first knitting guild meeting of the new year

Tuesday: work semi-emergency requiring evening hours

Wednesday: winding blank warps for a dye workshop on Saturday (only 150 more 6-yard pieces to make, of the original 600…I might actually make it)

And this was supposed to be a quiet, relaxing week. Ah, well. Half way over, right?

I have always assumed that supported spindles are roughly equivalent to drop spindles. Two tools with a slightly different geometry that get the job done. I was more intuitively comfortable with drop spindles (I have no idea why), so I started there, and there I have stayed.

But today, this popped up in my feed reader, and I think I may need to reconsider. My shoulder has prevented me from drop spindling in any quantity for many, many months now. Spinning supported looks like it might be the answer.

And even if it’s not, it sure looks fun.

Fall may have fallen fast, but I think I fell harder.



I went to the Jefferson Sheep and Wool Festival yesterday with a friend (I’m not sure if she uses her real name online), and I came home with enough Shetland fleece for two sweaters, one for me and one for Branden. There’s a rule that I can only have one unprocessed fleece waiting for my attention at a time, so this is all roving ready to go. The brown and white mixed fleeces are from McGyver, the dark brown is from Magnolia, and the grey is from Harriet. I don’t know why it amuses me so much to get personal info about my sheep suppliers, but it does. There’s something fun about going up to buy a fleece and having the shepherd assure you that “she has beautiful wool, and she’s such a sweet girl, too.”

I was much more restrained in my other purchases. I got a pair of fine hand combs for finishing the fleece that I’m processing by hand. I got a bunch of dyes to replace the ones that are running low, and a few new ones to experiment with. I bought an 8 oz. skein of absolutely lovely superfine alpaca at 2400 yds that has weaving written all over it.

I was surprised to see Briar Rose Fibers at the show; I didn’t know that they would be here. I got to meet Chris, finally, after all I’ve heard about her from Jocelyn and Anne. Her fiber is even lovlier in person than it is online. I have been looking at her yarns for quite some time now, waiting for the perfect project, wondering when it would be time to try them. I decided that yesterday was the time, even if I don’t have a specific project yet, or even an opening in the lineup. I could have gladly taken home about 3/4 of the skeins in her booth, but after some deliberation settled on this one.

The poor lighting doesn’t do it justice, but I wanted to just take the pictures so that I could post today instead of waiting a week. It’s a lovely brown and teal yarn, with just a little bit of coffee icecream in there to keep things from being too dark. It’s beautiful, and I can’t wait to knit with it.

Despite having fallen down in several places, there were many more in which I was strong. I passed on some gorgeous alpaca/tencel/cashmere that looked like metal and felt like heaven. I also managed to resist buying out this whole booth of merino/alpaca:

Do you see those colors? I could have taken one of each, or twenty. I can’t believe I forgot to take a picture that included the name of the fiber artist (I think I was avoiding taking pictures of her customers, and so missed that section of the booth). She’s not online yet, but I’m on her mailing list to announce it when her fibers are available. I wasn’t ready to choose without a specific project in mind, and so I’ll wait for another day to buy her yarn. Someday, though, I will have the absolutely perfect project for it.

In a surprising show of willpower (for me, at least), I also resisted the acquisition of another hobby. There was a lot of rug hooking around the show, and it was beautiful.

I loved the detail, and the careful mixing of colored strips of fabric to get such beautifully shaded results. And it would be a great way to use all those tiny bits of fabric that I can’t bring myself to throw away when I’m sewing. Someday, perhaps. Someday.

The leaves are still clinging to the trees, but fall has arrived. I swear I heard a quiet “whump” when it hit. One week temperatures were in the 80’s and super humid, the next it was in the 40’s overnight and barely making 60 during the day. This, to me, is perfectly glorious.

It also means that I get to absolutely had to pull out my sweaters again. I wore both of the handspun sweaters last weekend, and can pronounce them both perfect, and wonderfully warm. I am tempted to commence living in them 24-7, but somehow I think the muggles wouldn’t understand.

Branden also got to try on his sweater, but I’m afraid the bachelor 15 (a close relative of the dreaded freshman 15) rendered it a bit snugger than expected, and so we’re holding off on modeling shots for now. It was worn, it was liked, and I’ve decided I’m ok with stripes. (I might even like them, but don’t tell anyone.)

The new sweater is flying off the needles at a shocking pace, considering how little I feel I’ve knit on it. I suppose that’s the advantage of endless knitting; once you’ve finished, pieces that progress at a normal pace seem to move about 10 times faster. It’s now a good six inches past the point where I took this photo on Tuesday:

It did need a little surgery due to some excessively abrupt color changes (didn’t pair the right skeins together to even things out, apparently).

I’ve reknit the back panel, and just need to graft the neck side pieces back on, and then you’ll never be able to tell. Do you think this grafting thing is becoming an unhealthy obsession?

I also had some unexpected finishing in the bus knitting department. I’m not sure I’ve even blogged about this scarf yet; it’s been condemned to live its life in my work bag, and hasn’t really seen the light of day outside of my daily commute. I use the term “finished” loosely here; I cast off on Tuesday, and haven’t been home since to weave in the ends or block it. I love it now, but I think it’s going to be even better when it’s had a bath to open up those holes in the lace.

It’s made from the handspun Finn that I bought at the Door County Shepherd’s Market in June. It’s somewhat fitting that I’ve just finished it now, as the Wisconsin Sheep and Wool Festival is tomorrow, and I’m playing hooky from work to go pet some fiber with a friend. I have already begun the chant that says I cannot buy more fleece until I have processed what I have. Somehow I’m not sure it’s a strong enough incantation, but I’m afraid it’s all I have.

Happens all the time. I am knitting diligently away on some endless project, resigned to be knitting forever. I’m long past the point where I’m anticipating the end, and have become thoroughly absorbed in the process.

And then, suddenly, with no warning whatsoever, it is done. Finished. Complete.

I look up in surprise, my hands still making little knitting motions in the empty air.

And I wonder where all those stitches came from.

It’s magic, I tell you.

There are only so many ways to pose an empty sweater, so tonight you get the folded-neatly look (believe me, it’s about the only thing in the house that is folded neatly at the moment…). I’ve heard a rumor that a certain model may be stopping by this weekend, so maybe we’ll get some real shots, if I ask nicely.

As my hands groped and clutched the air in search of yarn, they fell upon the latest handspun. Withdrawal is a painful thing, so I cast on blindly for a new sweater, and now I have this:

It looks decidedly odd to me at the moment, but I am also pretty sure it’s exactly what I want it to be. I’ve decided to knit this one top down in anticipation of the need for optimal yarn fume consumption toward the end. It has a wide neckline with set in sleeves, and other than that, I’m not sure where we’re going to end up. Wherever we land, it will be with some of the softest, squooshiest, love-it-must-pet-it-est yarns I’ve spun yet.

Somehow I have a feeling that this one is also going to end sooner than I expect.