csusch's Xanga

Making some progress on Mystic Light Shawl

Sun, 20 Apr 2008 19:09:02 GMT

Now that I've redone this shawl a few time, I'm finally making some progress with the Alchemy Bamboo.

I'm in the middle of clue# 2 (now 2 weeks behind!). I'm far happier with the look of this yarn than the other.
There was a point that I had to tink back because of a coat falling on it and loosing a few rows without a lifeline.
All better now.

I'm also finishing up spinning some Tussah silk to ply with the Qiviut.

Progress on the Rebecca's Qiviut:

I decided to stop stressing about the Mystic Light Shawl KAL

Sat, 29 Mar 2008 13:38:17 GMT

It only took two weeks to come to this, but I've finally decided to stop getting all worked up about the yarn for the Mystic Light Shawl KAL.

Here's what happened:

I searched the internet far and wide to find a yarn that was the color of flame since the hint that Knitandknag gave was that the theme was fire. Ooh how exciting! However, not knowing the construction of the shawl, I didn't know whether a handpainted yarn would work or not.

So, finally, I picked out this beautiful, brilliant merino/tencel fingering weight from Ellen's 1/2 Pint in the Blazing Sunshine Colorway and swatched it up a couple of weeks ago. This yarn is super soft and shiny, so I was psyched about using it for a shawl.

Now, I knew it was a little stripey, but until I knew how the shawl was constructed or how wide it would be, I wasn't sure whether it would be a problem to see the lace. So when the first clue came out this past Thursday, I started knitting it and got to this point:

From the first clue, I could tell it was a triangle knit from the neck down. That's when I knew it wasn't going to work. It was stripey and pooling.

So, I began my search all over again!

I looked at getting 3 shades of red MainLine yarn from Halcyon so that it would be more solid and I could graduate the colors. Then I thought that wouldn't work becuase I wouldn't know when to change colors since each clue comes out once a week. I then considered blending yellow and red fiber (using my new drum carder) in varying degrees of color to go from yellow, orange, deep orange to red and spin that up. I even considered spinning up this SpunkyEclectic silk in Sangria colorway which I had already started and to use that for the shawl.

Then common sense got the better of me and I realized that there was no way that I was going to have time to spin up a yarn (would have to be a 3 ply) for this shawl. (it took a week to come to my senses about this!)

That's when I decided to just knit it in a red yarn which I had lying around in my stash. That was fine, I started swatching until (SPOILER ALERT) I received my Year of Lace project pattern and yarn yesterday in the mail. Well it just happens to be RED! (no pix included so that anyone else on that KAL hasn't received theirs yet) Whatever would I do with two red shawls?

So that's it! I am now going to knit with some Alchemy Bamboo which I've had in my stash since 2006 Stitches East.

It's more like a burnt orange with very gradual color changes. It will be lovely in the fall, which is probably about when I'll finish it at the rate I'm going!!!

Going to Hamburg, Germany

Wed, 26 Mar 2008 08:55:28 GMT

If anyone is interested, I'll be in Hamburg, Germany April 7-9. Contact me at CAT AT letsknit2gether.com if you want to meetup!

Making some progress

Sat, 15 Mar 2008 13:23:10 GMT

After several weeks now of knitting everyday. I think I'm finally making some progress on my Boundary Waters Shawl.
Even though the website says that this is a new pattern, it is a reprint of a pattern I bought at least five years ago.

So, I started the shawl by spinning this from for some CJKopec blended roving:

I got the knitting started with beads on dpns

Now, I'm about a 1/3 of the way on circular round needles (time to move to a longer circular?)

I'm also contemplating knitting EZ's Baby Surprise Jacket. I really want to choose something either self striping or variegated and definitely machine washable worsted weight, but I don't want to use RedHeart. Any suggestions?

A Visit with Wild Fibers

Mon, 10 Mar 2008 11:22:44 GMT

Last week, my spinning meetup went on a field trip in Brooklyn to The YarnTree shop and got to meet with Linda Cortright, publisher and editor of Wild Fibers Magazine. Linda spoke with us of "the stories behind the stories". The incredible photographs and her riveting storytelling was amazing to see. She spoke of her trips to Kazikstan, India and the Himalayas.

Eric and I spent most of the weekend shooting new episodes since the Rhinebeck Epic is beginning to wear us down a bit.

It all started with a request on Ravelry

Sat, 16 Feb 2008 21:29:52 GMT

Before the holidays last year, I was reading the SpinCity Ravelry group and there was a post from Kathe requesting if anyone would be interested in spinning some Qiviut.
I thought how interesting that would be, why wouldn't anyone want to spin Qiviut?

So I decided to go for it and volunteer to spin it.

It turns out that although Kathe was a knitter, she didn't spin and her colleague Rebecca who had picked up the Qiviut from the bushes while on a trip to Greenland didn't knit!
So this was going to end up being the work of three people. Rebecca the fiber collector, CAT the spinner and Kathe the Knitter.
There was no telling what could be knitted from this until I did the spinning, but Rebecca was willing to settle for even a headband or something small.

First thing was that I asked Rebecca if she could remove the guard hairs (thicker course hairs) from the Qiviut fluff.
This is a picture of the lump of fiber before Rebecca removed the guard hairs.

After that, Rebecca and I met in Columbus Circle and she gave me a bag full of the dehaired fluff which I washed and dried as pictured here:

I took the cleaned fiber (as seen on right below) and using my hand cards (cotton cards to be exact) and carded the fiber into rolags (as seen in the middle below)

I started spinning on my laceweight Golding (this stuff really wants to spin fine!)

I got to a spindle full and rolled it onto my makeshift bobbin (aka TP roll)

I haven't decided yet whether to just make a 3 ply of Qiviut alone or add a strand of silk to add some strength and stretch the yardage a bit.
Any ideas from you all would be welcome!

Carding?

Sat, 16 Feb 2008 20:21:12 GMT

After waiting for almost 6 weeks, my Louett Drum carder finally arrived from Paradise Fibers. Actually, it was drop shipped from Louett in New Jersey.

I love this new toy! I have all these great ideas now on what kinds of fibers I want to blend together.

There are a couple of reasons to card. (either with a drum carder or hand cards)
Color:

If you are looking to blend colors to create a new color
to create a colorway with each color still retaining its original color but striped.

New Fiber Properties:

have the final fiber take on the properties of both (i.e. blend wool with nylon to add stregnth)
Create an all together different texture than the original fibers.

Using a drum carder is much easier and faster than using hand cards and it also gives you many more options for blending since you have more control.

This was my first attempt at carding on my new Louett:

I took some Lama which I got at the 2006 Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival (Portia!) and blended it with Louett Chestnut Silk/Merino and some gold Angelina

What is pictured here was not the same ratio carded. I used 3 parts Lama to 1 part Wool/Silk and only a pinch of the gold Angelina.

I carded each fiber separately first, then recarded them together to create this batt

My goal was to enhance the Lama's ability to hold it's shape by adding wool/silk and then to give it a little sparkle with the Angelina.

This is how it is spinning on my Golding:

I really love the resulting color. Of course now I need to card all the fiber up the same way so that my project will all be consistant, but this was just my first experiment.

Catching up with completed projects

Sat, 16 Feb 2008 19:41:11 GMT

After about a month of knitting, I've managed to complete a few projects.
First, I finally finished the Fana Mittens.

In these pictures you can see the cashmere on the inside before I smoothed them all out. These are great when it's really cold out.
Pattern is from Folk Mittens and I used Patons Classic Wool on size 5 needles.

Next up was a telted hat for Paula, here I am modeling it:

I found this pattern online and I made it with 2 skeins of Cascade 220 held together on size 11 needles.

Then just a few days ago, I finally finished my Selbuvotter!

These still need to be blocked but I was so excited to finally complete them.
I made them with Knitpicks Palette on size 0 needles from the book Selbuvotter by Terri Shea.

Fana anyone?

Sun, 06 Jan 2008 15:46:26 GMT

So after frogging the Fana Tuft Mittens from the book Folk Mittens (Thanks Mom & Dad for the Christmas gift!) because they were too big, I managed to get the body of the first mitten done and the cuff of the second in only a few hours. I altered the pattern to be more like the traditional Mitten pattern in the beginning of the book to size for Children's size large. This adjusted the cast on to 40 stitches and reduced the thumb gore to only increase 14 stitches over 14 rows. I also altered the decreases at the top to do the 3 point instead of 4 point decreases.

Where you see the white "lice" are the stitches where the cashmere roving is attached to the mitten. I think I may not have attached even amounts because the mitten is kind of bulging is some spots, but I'm playing it by ear. The black yarn is holding the thumb stitches in preparation for picking up. I'm going to finish the body of the second mitten before doing thumbs.

I also lined up the projects which I will be active on for a while, once I finish the Fana Tuft Mittens and the Selbuvotter:

Boundary Waters Shawl (Commute)
Gedifra Lordana Boucle Jacket (Home)
Angel Lace Shawl (Spinning & Knitting) (Home)

Later today we'll be have a Skype video session with Eric's family upstate. I hope this works because my neices grow up so fast, we're missing a lot and the video is a way to keep up with how they're all doing.

BTW, if there are any other knitter/Skype folks out there, I'm letsknit2gether.

Making some progress in 2008

Wed, 02 Jan 2008 16:20:35 GMT

Happy New Year!

I started knitting these during Thanksgiving week, but then I put them aside to get work done on holiday gifts. These are from the book Selbuvotter by Terri Shea. I've done the cuff from Annemore #7, the hand from NHM #7 and I'll do the thumb from NHM #9. I'm knitting these using Knitpicks Palette. I recently purchased some Norwegion yarn that I think I'll use for the next pair since the Palette splits too much with these size 0 needles.

It's been a while since I'd done any stranded knitting so I didn't really do well with these until 1/2 way up the first mitten. I think I missed the first 2 M1 at the start of each side until later into the thumb gusset. We'll see how they come out.

The weather is supposed to get down into the teens tonight, only wish that I'd finished the mittens before tonght so that I could wear them!

I also started the FanaTuft mittens from Folk Mittens. I'm using Pattons Classic wool in soft blue and white with Cashmere for the Tufts. Tufts are the way you attach wool fiber or yarn as a way of adding a lining to the mitten. I had to frog them and start over because they were coming out way too big. I'll post a picture when I make more progress.

I've also been spinning more of the camel/silk, seen here in this photo on top

I'm swatching now to knit Evelyn Clarks Angel Lace Shawl. This is spinning up to be a very fine laceweight. I'm using my .90 oz Golding Psunami spindle.