Cabled toque

This knit up incredibly fast–just a few days. I used Jaeger Shetland yarn in grey tweed (recycled from a handknit sweater I bought, much too large for me ever to wear) and adapted this pattern. The original called for bulky yarn on US 10.5 needles, but I added an extra pattern repeat and used US 7’s instead to make up for the lighter gauge of yarn. Since it took less than a full skein of yarn, I think it’d be a good project to use up the single orphan skeins of yarn in my stash. You know, the ones you buy because they’re on sale and there may be only one but you’ll find something to make with it, right? Yeah, I have a lot of those.

handspun alpaca

A while back a member of my old guild had some alpaca fibre she was giving away. She said it was only good for felting and most of it was coarse leg hair, but one bag had some extremely soft chocolate brown fibre. Naturally, I snatched it up and squirrelled it away for future use. I think the reason she labelled it “only good for felting” was the staple length–only 1-2″. One of alpaca’s selling points seems to be its potential to have a much longer staple length than wool: I often see sellers of alpaca fleece claiming (much like the ads in the back of certain shady alternative newspapers) lengths of 8, 9, even 10 inches. The sheer length of the fibre, combined with its incredible softness, makes up for the fact that it can never match wool’s crimp and elasticity. As a result, spinners go nuts over the stuff.

So I had a bag of reject-but-not-really alpaca fibre, what to do with it? Well, I blended some of it with wool to make some thrummed mittens I’ll write about later. But I also spun it by the handful, point-of-twist style, on my wonky rented Ashford Traditional wheel. The result was a couple of skeins of a very soft, very warm yarn probably well suited for a ribbed hat or scarf (ribbing would help counteract alpaca’s tendency to lose its shape). It’s also pretty consistent in thickness despite being fuzzy and haloed. Like the yarn in my last post, I plan to sell it, possibly knitted up into hat form first.

fyi, those are size 3 (US) needles to show the thickness of the yarn.

handspun yarn

Finally, some of my handspun yarn:

This is Blue Faced Leicester wool, spun to a heavy worsted/chunky gauge and dyed with grape kool-aid (I’m planning to sell it, and only the barest scrap of decency is keeping me from naming it ‘Jonestown’). I actually have two skeins of it, the smaller shown here; right now I’m not sure whether to sell it as is or knit it up into a hat or mittens first. I’m getting away from working with dyed fibre as much as possible, but this yarn is incredibly soft and I do like the variation in colour. Some detail:

Thank you Nadia!

Believe what you may have already heard: Ravelry is, in fact, the best thing ever to happen to knitting online. There’s something very satisfying (and not just because of my OCD tendencies) about being able to log and catalogue all of my projects and yarn, and the galleries of finished objects are an invaluable resource when trying to decide whether I really want to make something (i.e., I want to know if the top that looks good on the model who hasn’t eaten in five weeks would look good on a real person, such as me. And for the record, I would never make the linked top–it looks like the designer ran out of yarn and had to make do with i-cords).

Also, I’m pretty fond of the little Secret Pal-type exchanges. And that’s the reason for this post, to thank the lovely Nadia/leeoda for this fantastic pile of stuff:

Which came in this fantastic box (takes me right back to the lab):

All in all, I got some wonderful yarns: two skeins of Noro Kureyon in blues (my favourite colour) , one skein of a nice Louet gems yarn (probably will become a cabled hat), and a really soft yarn from Uruguay via Romni Wools in Toronto. I also got a bunch of vintage sweater patterns and a copy of Stitch & Bitch Nation, both to help me learn more about designing sweaters. And last but not least, some delicious chocolate. I love the fair trade stuff with Earl Grey nibs. So, thank you again, and I’ll be a good swap participant and get my downstream pal’s stuff in the mail on Tuesday.

Future plans

So, it’s been a while since I’ve written here. The bout of food poisoning I mentioned in my last entry turned into gastroenteritis, complete with a trip to the ER to get rehydrated, and I’d say that interrupted the blogging roll I was on.

However, I’m back with a mind to get my blog layout finished (starting with a proper header graphic) and update more often. My eventual goal is to start selling some of my handspun/handknit items, preferably with an emphasis on using locally produced, naturally coloured (i.e., undyed) raw materials. I’m a big proponent of the “buy local” mindset and I like buying unprepared fibre to work with, so I can have control over every step of its processing: not only can I create an object with exactly the characteristics I want (such as leaving some of the lanolin in for greater water resistance), but I can avoid the use of a lot of the caustic chemicals used in traditional fibre processing.

Up to this point I’ve always donated or given away my knitwear, and I still plan to do that (even though some people may be getting sick of receiving knitted presents from me!). Selling my work is a new thing for me, though, so I’ve got some research ahead of me. I’m not sure whether I’ll go the online store route, or try to get my stuff stocked in a brick-and-mortar shop. I’m hoping to find some other artists and see what their suggestions are.

another SP present

Thanks to my SP for the 4 oz. of beautiful merino silk roving from Mountain Shadow Ranch! I’ll post a picture later (right now I’m house/pet-sitting, with a little foo-foo dog in my lap) but the colorway is called “Sea Mist” and that describes it perfectly. So lovely, and I can’t wait to spin it. It was especially nice to get it after suffering from a bad bout of food poisoning yesterday and today (ugh). :/ But, I’m nearly recovered and I have new roving!

Farewell

This Saturday I will be returning the old, rickety Ashford Traditional wheel I’ve been renting from my guild for the past several months. Even though it’s not a fancy model by any stretch (I always keep a screwdriver and a few rubber bands on hand when I’m using it, as it’s prone to start dissembling itself), I’m going to miss it. Back to the drop spindle. Sigh.

Thank you SP!

I received a lovely package from my SP the other day (please ignore the socks and stuff everywhere… I was folding laundry when the package arrived):

Inside were candy of all kinds (including single-origin chocolates… mmm), the most wonderful cherry tea cookies, a scented candle, a pretty ceramic dish with a flower design, and two skeins of Debbie Bliss alpaca silk yarn in a gorgeous blue color. I don’t know what I’ll make with the yarn yet, but for the time being I’m going to keep rubbing my face on it Thanks again for such a nice present!

May flowers

Happy spring, everyone!

Also, I received a wonderful gift from my SP upon returning from Boston–pics forthcoming (when Photoshop stops being wonky).

I am such a deliquent blogger. However, I have a good excuse, which is that I was away in Boston (sans Internet) for a while. I had a great time–saw James and a few friends, met with my pre-vet advisors at Wellesley, ate lots and lots of good food, etc. I also visited three yarn stores and was for the most part unimpressed with what I saw there. I don’t know if it’s just a Boston thing, but I saw furry/novelty yarn EVERYWHERE. One of the shops had nice hand-dyed sock yarn (something I need to buy for my SP spoilee…), but I was really surprised to see the profusion of sparkly eyelash yarn. Also I realized I get way more excited these days about spinning shops rather than their knit-only cousins. Not that I didn’t eye some of that sock yarn rather covetously…

As mentioned in a previous entry, I took a class from Kaye Collins last November. Well, she stopped by Shuttles, Spindles, and Skeins in Boulder for a one-day workshop a couple of weeks ago and I had to sign up. The workshop was on spinning dog hair, which not many people do though you can make some surprisingly nice yarns out of it. Also, properly washed dog hair does not smell like dog Kaye gave us quite a lot to play with and I’ve been spinning up several mini-skeins from various breeds; my goal is to use them as an entry in my guild’s “President’s Challenge” contest at the annual guild luncheon next month. The President Challenge invites all guild members to “try something new”, and prizes will be awarded based on our results. I’m planning to make a poster with my mini-skeins and info on the dog breeds they come from and WIN A PRIZE. Well, I hope so, anyway!