cosmicpluto knits!

fibre-filled weekend

This weekend I spent knitting, spinning, and dyeing (with a bit of school reading for good measure). When I wasn’t actively doing one of them, I was thinking about it! So results -

In spinning, I did up some 2-ply merino in a pretty damn bright orange:

Wound off, with a skein of a purpley-greeny merino in the middle. The big skein of orange is 280 yards, the small one 140 yards, and the purple one is 150 yards. I *think* I’m going to open up an etsy shop for my handspuns soon (that is, if I can stand to part with them) so most of my spinning in the next while will be for that, I think.

I also carded for the first time, some silk noil that I got at lettuce knit. It’s got all kinds of funky crap in it. I tried blending it with some blue merino.

It was…interesting. I made some funky-looking rolags to try spinning.

In knitting, I finished the front of Nordic Memories! Everything’s in for a soak now. Then comes the sewing up and the neckband…I’m hoping to get this one done soon, soon.

Now I’m sort of in knitting limbo – what do I knit next? I think I’ll start another shawl, and some kind of fairly plain pullover, maybe a raglan with cables on the sleeves. Or maybe this is my chance to try out the EZ seamless saddle shoulder! I also need to figure out what the hell to do for the Knitting Olympics!

And finally in dyeing, with no photos – I’ve been dyeing up some more silk hankies for lettuce knit, and having a lot of fun. Going much quicker this time around, I think.

24-hour FO

Thursday night, sometime in the wee hours:

The start of a simple stockinette-and-garter stitch shawl, inspired by Adrian’s. I think after I took this photo I ripped this piece and started over with a bigger needle…

Friday night, 11 pm, after knitting at work (until I ran out of the skein I’d brought) and while chatting on the phone – all done!

Another demonstration of the magic of blocking!

Glamour shot.

simple shawl
Pattern: my own, simple shawl shape with garter and stockinette bands – if y’all really want a pattern, I can write it up
Yarn: my own handspun merino/tussah silk, a bit less than 8 oz
Needles: denise US11
Start/Finish: January 6, 2006

Ah. Nice fast, simple project. This was one of my first yarns spun on my wheel, back when I got it (June). It’s a lovely burgundy merino/silk blend from Louet, and although I overspun it, the yarn is soft and shiny.

In something slightly different – check out this yarn Jill and I did up last Monday at my place – it’s for her, and I think my most successful dyeing yet!

LOVE IT. I’ll have to try and recreate it for myself!

i get lots done when i’m s’posed to be studying

I uh, adjusted my thinking on the steeking of the fiery bolero. as you may recall, the sleeves turned out too long, so I was going to do some surgery involving crochet steeks. Which would’ve been a really elegant solution, I think.

Meh.

A big ol’ hem. And no ribbing necessary, so I didn’t sew it up as much as I would’ve steeked off. Yes, it’s a bit bulky, yes it’s well, really not all that great. But I don’t have the mental energy right now spend working on it! I’ve only done the one hem, I’ll do the other one and the body ribbing after I’m done exams.

In other news…Saturday night I decided to make my grandma a tam (I also decided to just buy my grandpa some scotch and be done with it). I cast on with some Mission Falls from the stash, knit the band and a bit more that night, then spent pretty much all yesterday knitting the rest. I used Ann Budd’s book, and I remembered that Aven had some trouble with the same pattern. She resolved it by decreasing every row rather than every other, so I decided to let her experience be my guide.

As you can see, it’s a bit wonky – I know it’s supposed to be flat, and it’s really not. But I think it’s a perfectly fine hat nevertheless. My grandma’s more of just pull-it-on rather than the whole jauntily-tilted thing anyway.

Three gifts are already out the house (the wine and cozy, gauntlets, and robot #2, which I finished seaming directly before it had to be wrapped and therefore I didn’t get a photo) and I think I’m quite on track! Just the bolero, a bit of seaming on Pasha, and the bottoms of the felted clogs left to do.

So I worked on the Urban Aran.

It’s super long and skinny, but I’m gonna need some of that length to convert to width when I block!

One last thing – I managed to dye some hankies in a colourway I love so much I just had to show it (and it’s even more vibrant in real life):

Definitely reproducing this in wool and doing up some thick and thin. Or maybe sock yarn. Who knows!

some colour and some black

I dyed up the last pound of corriedale roving that I’d bought from eBay a while back (seller winderwood farm) and it was finally dry tonight.

I dyed in the crockpot, with Cushings dyes, in two 8 oz. batches. The roving’s in a couple balls because I accidentally pulled too hard in a few places while fluffing it up! I really like how the red/grey/purple one came out; it was totally not what I was expecting.

I started a new sweater that’ll go fast, I hope – I’m cold! I don’t know if you noticed, but those last couple sweaters I knit were cotton, and I’m definitely feeling a chill. The sweater’s a top-down pulli in black wool. Not terribly exciting, and you probably won’t see it again for awhile, since it’s pretty boring blog fodder.

I’m also going to start some scarves, since they’re the ultimate cold weather accessory – one in the black casmere I showed the other day, one in some yummy blue sky alpacas worsted. Yum.

the knitting

Didja see johanna’s comment to my last post?

“I don’t know Laura, your last minute attempt to throw in some knitting doesn’t convince me. You’ve gone to the other side. You are a spinner.”

Hey man, it ain’t all spinning up in here. Evidence:

Bamboo Chickami
Pattern: Chickami by Chicknits
Yarn: Southwest Trading Company Bamboo, “Chocolate”, less than 2 skeins!
Needles: Denise US 5 and 6
Started: June 27, 2005
Finished: July 18, 2005

Notes:
I only had 2 skeins, so I made a size smaller than I’d usually do (34″ instead of 36″). It turned out well, if pretty darn fitted. I even had yarn left over…

…but not enough for me to have done the larger size. Oh, and I did the wide strap version. Bra strap issues, but I don’t care all that much. The yarn is weird; feels really soft on the ball but more scratchy knit up. I think wash and wear will help, and it’s really starting to grow on me, actually.

Oh, and I even started another project.

I’m calling it “Sapphire”. A tank of my own design out of Pingouin Sillages, which I assume is discontinued. It’s 50% cotton, 45% viscose, and 5% silk. Yummy colour. In an unprecedented move, I have since bought and switched to an Addi Turbo needle for this project – the bamboo was dragging. Why don’t I like Addis? Well, I find the tips too dull, they’re too slippery (so I don’t have control, and I knit looser as well), and I don’t like the noise. Oh, and they’re expensive. But, we’ll see. Maybe this will convert me or something. (Don’t worry Denise, I’ll always love you.)

And I finally bought buttons for Spencer.

See? Not a spinning thing in the bunch. But how about some dyeing?

“nectarine”, a nice soft wool blend.

Crazy bright merino that I bought (I didn’t dye it) from my trusty eBay seller.

Tomorrow: Stash addition.

spinnin

Just spinning here today, folks.

I spun up the first two lots of my hand-dyed corriedale.

The colours aren’t quite true – both of the dyed skeins are more brown in real life. How *do* people get colour-accurate pictures? I suppose a better camera would help; alas, I’d rather spend the money on fibre. The rust yarn is about 150 yards, worsted-ish weight, and the green one is a little thinner and about 196 yards (both are 4 oz and 2-ply). I’m quite happy with the colours after being spun up, actually.

And check out these cool tags; my cousin gave me them at Christmas. Seems like a waste to just use them for myself, so I’m going to pick up some plainer tags just to label the yardage and such.

I also spun up that sherbet-coloured merino, but I couldn’t get a good picture tonight – I’ll put one up tomorrow. In the meanwhile, I’ve dyed some more of the merino. This stuff is seriously soft; I think I need to buy some more (plus it’s a good deal)!

This one is primary colours with a bit of the in-between colours (just a touch of green and purple). I love that it actually turned out bright!

This one is more red in real life; it’s dark pinks, reds, and purples. I quite like it, even if it does look kind of like a bruise.

That’s it for now! Next question is, of course – what do I do with all this handspun?

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