cosmicpluto knits!

in progress

Knitting:

Just needs the other sleeve sewn in. And the ends. And buttons. And a good blocking.

Spinning:

About 700 yards of fingering weight merino/silk. Off the wheel, technically! But it’s the first completed yarn I’ve made in months.

Gardening:

A mini bed in front of my back deck. I’m not doing the allotment garden this year (too big, too much work by myself, not sure if I’ll be around all summer) but I am trying to get my crops in among my parents’ plants! This area was pretty sad, a few raspberry offshoots (scraggly ones) and not much else. So I dug up the plants (very tough) and planted about four feet of shelling peas in double rows and four feet of “mammoth melting” snow peas against the deck. Then in front of them I planted green onions, coriander (cilantro) and chives. I need some kind of border stones or something…

Tomatoes, of course – I’m rather behind this year but I think I’m ok. Varieties: Purple Calabash, Eva Purple Ball, White Queen (they’re white!), Tigerella, Matt’s Wild Cherry.

Reading:

Buffy Season 8, Volume 1. Oh yeah.

a wee dent

At Rhinebeck 2006, I picked up a Blue Moon Sheep 2 Shoe kit from the Fold’s booth – after the STR line had mostly dissipated! Why, of course it’s taken me this long to get to it. I’m trying to get more spinning time in, and not acquire any more fibre for awhile…at least until I’ve pared down what I have!

I followed their instructions and split the top lengthwise into thirds, except for the fact that hey, wool doesn’t necessarily do what you want! So when I spun up the three singles, the colours really didn’t align at all.

I did up some as the three-ply from three bobbins, but I wasn’t really into how the colours were falling.

This smallish skein is 49 g and 215 yards – perfect fingering weight.

So I decided to cut that smaller skein short and do a chain ply (navajo ply) of the rest of it. Technically, I still have quite a bit of singles yet. I’ll get to it sometime.

So I got this big skein of 130 g and…at least 500 yards? I haven’t counted. But I do think this will stripe up really nicely when knit. It’s got some marled sections, of course, but mostly solid areas.

I’m pretty happy with it – took long enough to spin up! I think I’m going to do some thicker stuff next.

working on the stash

The spinning stash, that is – I just washed up some finished handspun.

This is some Romney that I picked up *last* year at Rhinebeck. I bought three 8 oz. bags, and I’ve spun up about a pound. The roving was fantastic to work with – drafted like a dream, full of air. It was a bit hairy, as Romney is, but nothing crazy.

I bought two bags of one shade and one of a darker shade, so I decided to spin it up into a three-ply, where two of the plies would be the lighter shade and one ply the darker. Woolen prep, woolen spun (long-draw, fast). It spun up really, really quickly and washed up nice and soft.

I think it worked out quite nicely – I think the yarn will knit up into a very cohesive fabric with a tweedy, marled look to the colour. I’ve done about 445 g, measuring in at about 900 yards. Just enough for the project I have in mind (a gift). I still have quite a bit of the roving left over so I’ll probably spin it up the same…but for now, more colourful spinning is calling my name!

yarn break!

We interrupt your regularly scheduled wip/rip for this important update…don’t worry, I’ve got lots more on that front! I even took some more photos today to share with y’all. But I thought it was time for a wee break.

Rhinebeck is in two weeks, and I’ve been madly trying to spin up some of the stuff I bought last year before I go buy more stuff! I’m actually doing pretty well, and a few different yarns have come off the bobbin recently…

This firey red/orange pink one is 100% bombyx silk, not quite as searing as it appears in the photo (although it is certainly vivd). Checks in at 178 yards of worsted/chunky – it’s pretty uneven.

More bombyx silk – pink/purple/gold, 160 yards of worsted/chunky. I was feeling a little impatient when I spun these skeins, hence the thickness and inconsistency! I was originally going to ply the two colours together, but at the last moment decided to just ply them on themselves – a good idea in terms of the colours, but difficult in execution. I had to wind off the two bobbins (one each of the two colours) into balls, then split the balls by weight since plying from both ends of a centre pull ball is a Very Bad Idea. As it was, it was pretty tricky to ply. But they both turned out okay.

Now, this one I’m particularly proud of (the photo too). It’s four ounces of merino/silk, I think it was 50/50, clocking in at 660 yards of a fine fingering weight or heavy laceweight. Enough to do a shawl! And it’s pretty consistent as well. Did I mention soft?

All these fibres were purchased from the Carolina Homespun booth at Rhinebeck last year – I dropped a lot of money at that booth! There’s another two ounces of tussah silk that I’ve been working on from them, spun much finer. I’ve been spinning up some batts and trying to sit down at the wheel for at least a few minutes each day (in all my abundant leisure time!). I’m definitely seeing the difference from more practice these days!

more greenery

Mmmmmm. Greeeeeen. Something about it’s really very calming and just summery, you know? This one’s a lush, bright (but not too bright) green from Dream in Color – I’ve been working on a quickie knit shrug as a shop sample. Here’s the zoom out…

(new camera = lots of glamour shots)

I actually finished the main body of the shrug tonight at knit night, so it just needs a bit of sewing up and ribbing along the edge (by someone else, since I’m going on vacay so soon! really need to start packing).

Speaking of glamour shots…here’s some of the latest handspun.

Beauuuutiful polwarth/alpaca/angora, I think it was from Spirit Trail, purchase at Rhinebeck. I spun it up quite thin, although there are more than a few little lumpy bits that weren’t totally blended in – I find them charming.

Came out to about 488 yards in 2 oz, definitely enough for something lacey and light. Maybe a swallowtail shawl? Haven’t tried that one yet.

Trying to dole out the blog fodder over a couple days! More soon, including a new project or two…I seem to be having some startitis issues!

elbow grease

Currently washing fleece (finally…it’s been sitting in my basement, which I know is bad) and it’s actually quite satisfying. Perhaps because the first thing I did was to comb up a wee sliver from the bit I’d washed quite awhile ago, and it actually came out quite nice – great colour, fluffy, fairly soft (which I think will be helped by some eucalan for the final yarn).

I’ve now equipped myself with some BIG mesh bags (one fills the whole sink), a new plastic bowl and plastic basket. It’s taking a lot more than the 2-3 washes that the internets are telling me, but that’s okay. I just keep going until it’s clean. And that first soak…it’s pretty gross. I’ve done one big wash bag and am currently doing another (and I think it’ll be more efficient this time, for some reason). I miiiight do a third tonight. I’ve taken quite a chunk out of the fleece – I’d estimate after tonight’s three bags, maybe two more max.

Once it’s nice or at least tolerable outside, I’ll do all the combing outside – many bits falling out, it’s pretty gross. I know combing produces more waste but it’s so nice and fluffy! I’ll try carding some too, just to see. I’m okay at carding for colour blending, but I haven’t really done much else with it. Any tips? Words of wisdom? This is my first fleece!

Did I mention I’m trying to finish off a paper at the same time? I’m very close to done with it, just trying to see if I can fit in one more bit of argument. It’s not due till Wednesday, either, so I’m a bit ahead!