I finished knitting Wisp yesterday and now I’m blocking it with my fancy new blocking wires which were an awesome b-day gift from my dad.
Earlier today I plied up my two bobbins on my spinning wheel and here it all is soaking in the water. And can I just say that I will never ply on a spindle again! As I had hoped, plying on a wheel is so much easier. I still have plenty of love for the spindles – just not for plying on them.
In case you think I’ve neglected my spindles for the fancy new wheel… This is all of the Funky Green merino/tencel fiber – spindle spun and ready to be knit. I still love the spindles too! I ended up only getting 368 yards so not enough for any of the lace scarves in Victorian Lace Today. But that’s OK. I’ve got plenty to make the Branching Out scarf from Knitty. First I need to finish Wisp which is almost done.
It’s starting to look more and more like yarn! I’ve finally got to the point where I’ve got a decent rhythm going and am not stopping and starting. I figured out that a large part of my initial problems were due to not having my drive band and scotch tension set properly. I was having trouble treadling and the yarn was being pulled in much too quickly. Now I’ve got it working so that I can focus more on my drafting. It’s still uneven and I still need a lot of practice but I feel like I made a big leap now that the settings are better suited to my needs/skills.
Feeling a bit more confident, I moved onto another fiber – this is a merino/tussah blend from Chameleon Colorworks (of course! – it’s good to have a friend in the fiber biz!)
I’ve got 4oz. of this so I split it into two batches of 2oz. and will hopefully use this for my first plying effort. Stay tuned 🙂
I’ve got a good start on my second Monkey sock but look at that horrible pooling of the variegated yarn! I was really happy with the way the yarn worked in the first sock but the second one is coming out completely different and I’m really not happy with it at all. I’m tempted to rip it and start over but I don’t really know how to make sure it doesn’t just pool again. I’m not sure if it’s pooling because I started in a different section of the dye sequence or if I’m knitting at a slightly different guage or something else. Very frustrating! And I just love the first sock. What to do. What to do…
OK, so this is the first stuff I’ve spun on my new wheel that even remotely resembles yarn. It’s still pretty uneven, over-twisted, under-twisted and all those fun things that beginning spinners do. And I’m still having a lot of trouble getting a good rhythm going but it’s a great improvement over what I was spinning at first.
Well, I finally got a spinning wheel! This was an incredibly wondeful b-day gift from my mom and I just love it. It’s a Lendrum folding wheel, single treadle. I still can’t spin anything on it even remotely resembling yarn but I’m stubborn and plan to be spinning many skeins of beautiful yarn – eventually…
I finished my first Monkey sock and I just love this pattern. It’s pretty easy but has enough going on to make it an interesting knit. And I love this yarn as well – Acero from Brooks Farms. I have to say I’m becoming a big fan of Brooks Farms yarns. I’ll definitely be searching them out at Rhinebeck.
Now my Monkey needs a friend so I better cast on for the second!
I definitely needed to rip my diamond lace scarf – one, because I made a bunch of mistakes and was having a hard time tinking the Rowan Kidsilk Haze and two, I was just bored with this pattern. It was not rockin’ my world and I learned what I needed to learn.
Plus, I found another pattern I liked so much more (the dangers of Ravelry!) that only required a mere skein of Rowan Kidsilk Haze (although I have a tad less than a skein but enough I think). I’ve started Wisp by Cheryl Niamath of the Fetching Mitts fame.
Because I only have a little less than a skein, I’ve made mine a bit smaller, casting on only 38 stitches instead of 46 and using size 6 needles instead of 7. So far, this is a great summer/brain-dead knit – lightweight and super easy to knit.
I’ve knit some more on my Misty Garden scarf and was having serious reservations as to whether or not I liked it. I was pretty close to ripping it but thought I should give it another test blocking to see what I thought and now I’m actually pretty happy with it.
The first time I test blocked it, I kept the top straight when in reality it will be scalloped like the bottom so I think that made a big difference. Now I can really see the stitch pattern emerging and I just love, love, love this yarn!
From this (Blue-Faced Leicester from Chameleon Colorworks):
To this:
To this:
This is my attempt once again to spin a thicker yarn. It’s about a worsted weight and I’ve got 54 yards so far with about 1.5 ounces left to spin. Hopefully I’ll get enough to make a funky hat.
It’s ironic but I’m much better at spinning thinner yarns than thicker ones. I seem to have much more trouble with consistency when I spin a thicker yarn. Not that it is always a bad thing. I still think the yarn came out nice and I frankly like that my yarn looks “handspun”. But there are a few places where the twist really started to come out when I was plying so I still have much to learn.
And plying – fuhget about it. I still have so much trouble plying – always getting my yarn tangled and a big mess. I threw away several tangled masses this weekend…
If I actually needed any more motivation to plunk down the $$$ for a wheel, the plying issue is certainly motivation enough.