Quick Update

Just to let you all know I haven't disappeared or anything like that.  I'm still busily working on the 2014 Knitting Challenge (and updating the Challenge page periodically), so keep going if you're joining me!

My Challenge summary so far: 19 knit/crochet projects completed, 1 in progress

• 4 sweaters for me
• 4 sweaters for Jack, plus 2 hats and 1 backpack
• 2 baby sweaters for gifts
• 6 shawls, plus 1 scarf
• And some spinning for Tour de Fleece, too!

Total yardage is something over 10,000 yards so far (I haven't updated all of the projects with the exact totals yet, so this is approximate).  I also don't have decent pictures of everything yet... but here's a quick collage so you get the idea:

Now I've got to get back to my current project, Hitofude for Camp Loopy Project 3.  Happy knitting, everyone!

Summer Wrap-Up

Yeah, I've been meaning to post a "Tour de Fleece Wrap-Up" for about a month now, and it's been long enough that I decided it's now really about what I've done with the rest of my summer.

I did finally finish the Seawool I originally started spinning for Tour de Fleece 2012:

I ended up with 1300 yards of a laceweight-ish singles... No wonder it took what seemed like forever to spin! I originally started spinning this in 2012 with the goal of getting around 400-500 yards of a fingering weight singles for a shawlette, but given the lighter weight and much greater yardage I ended up with, I elected to reallocate this yarn to a more appropriate pattern: the Citron Grand. I should have enough yardage to do 9 sections, so hopefully it will be big enough to be a comfy size.

I worked on my handspun Citron Grand at the Dodgers Stitch-n-Pitch game:

And guess who was sitting right in front of us? Barry Klein from Trendsetter Yarns (and of course I'm too shy to say hello, or to take a picture!).

I'm now into the 5th section of the shawl, but as of a week or so ago here's how it was shaping up:

I'm a bit surprised at how the yarn is striping in the shawl, because I didn't feel like there were really long blocks of color in the roving. I really like it so far, though, and I'm enjoying the color clarity and stitch definition of the singles. The rows are now getting long enough that I've got a good bit of autopilot knitting in between increase rows, so hopefully I can sneak in some more rows here and there and have a finished project before I know it.

We also took a family trip to the Renegade Craft Fair, which was fun (and, thankfully, overcast, so it wasn't completely roasting). I got some handmade soap, some hand dyed roving, and some delicious food truck gelato. Jack even almost let us get a good picture:

My little boy is growing up so fast you wouldn't believe it. He's too active to want to look at the camera long enough to take a decent picture these days, so I end up with a lot of blurry photos, or pictures of the back of his head. I still think he's the cutest thing ever, though.

Enjoy the last few weeks of summer, and happy knitting!

 

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Tour de Fleece Update

I'm making some progress on my spinning for Tour de Fleece:

I've just got a bit of this fiber left:

I'm very much hoping that I can finish this spinning project before Sunday so I can play with my new alpaca fiber, but we'll see.

My goal for this year was just to spin at least a little each day, and I've already ruined that by getting sick and hurting my wrists, causing me to take a few extra days off. I'm trying to do a better job of taking breaks to stretch so I don't hurt my wrists more. Lesson learned, I think!

In other news, my son has learned to lounge on the couch:

Adorable, right?

 

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Progress (at a price)

The boys in front of Griffith Observatory, where we hiked last weekend.

I've made good progress in the first week of Tour de Fleece:

It's surprising what can happen when you actually make time for something! It hasn't been without a cost, though... The time I've spent spinning has mostly come out of sleeping time, so I've now come down with some kind of cold in the middle of summer :(. And going from no spinning for an entire year to spinning for, on average, an hour a day for 8 days in a row has done a number in my wrists, and I had to take my rest day one day early. But I spun some today to make up for it, and I'm now almost done with the first half of my roving:

The roving is Sea Wool from Creatively Dyed, and it's been in my stash probably since the summer of 2008 when I first started spinning, so I'm honestly not even sure if you can get this stuff anymore. It's a wool and SeaCell blend (which is mostly tencel, if I remember correctly) and it's pretty much like spinning any kind of wool/tencel or wool/silk blend, with some nicely blended parts and a few places where you get a glob of the silky fiber that doesn't draft well with the rest of the fiber. The colors in the roving are gorgeous, but with the amount of light-colored fiber it's all ending up a little more muted in the yarn.

Anyway, I'm spinning an approximately-fingering-weight singles, S-spun (because of the two times I've knit with my handspun singles, the Z-spun singles fell apart and the S-spun singles knit up nicely), with a worsted draw at roughly a 4:1 ratio on my Spinolution Hopper. I originally started this spinning last year for Tour de Fleece with the idea of knitting up a shawlette I saw in a knitting magazine last summer... But we'll see if that's what this yarn wants to be or not when it's finally finished.

I can't wait to finish this spinning project (which, at my current rate, might actually finish up in another week), because here's what I have waiting to be spun next:

More about this fiber later. Happy spinning this week!

 

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Tour de Fleece 2013

Okay, I realize it's been so long since I posted here that I've forgotten when you last heard from me (and I'm scared to look it up). Here's the little munchkin that's been keeping me so busy:

He's one now, and walking, which is fun but at times tiring.

Anyway, I also have not done any spinning at all since last year's Tour de Fleece, so I am determined to change that. My goal is to spin at least some every day, with hopes of maybe finishing the spinning project I started for the last Tour. I made some progress last night, and here's my bobbin of last year's spinning plus last night:

And here's the remaining roving to be spun:

I will locate the label and let you know what this is before I finish it, I promise! We've started watching Downton Abbey on Hulu while I'm spinning, and after the first episode I'm kind of hooked. Hopefully this keeps me motivated to actually spin every day, so I can watch another episode.

And I'm realizing that I need to stop worrying about having the perfect pictures for long, detailed blog posts, and I need to start just posting something so you don't think I've disappeared!

With that said, happy spinning (or knitting)!

 

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Word of the Day: Focus

So… week 3 of my Tour de Fleece spinning?  Epic fail (or epic failure, if you want to be a bit more grammatically correct)!  I got absolutely NO spinning done, cause I just wasn't feeling it.  Oh, well, there's always next year, right?

On the plus side, I did do some knitting.  I finished knitting my Kiama, and just need to sew in the ends and block it (pictures to be posted soon!).

Since I finished knitting one major project, I got to start on another top I've been dying to make: the Radian Yoke top from Knitscene.  I'm making this in a yarn I dyed myself awhile back, and so far the pattern is fun and not too difficult:

 Radian Yoke in progress.

I've been trying really hard this year to focus a little bit more on my sweaters, so I can actually finish something to wear once in awhile.  It's kind of working :).  And I'm still allowed to knit socks, too, cause sweaters are too big to carry in my purse.

Also, I had to take a little time away from my major project knitting to make up another Quant (I made one a year or two ago but gave it away for Christmas).  Some of my knitting coworkers want to learn entrelac, and as the resident knitting expert I get to teach it!  I made this one in a gorgeous red semisolid in Manos Maxima. 

 Quant in Manos Maxima.

I love the way the colors turned out, but the semisolid colorway definitely isn't as impressive in entrelac as something with a longer repeat would be.  Now I kind of want to spin something to knit more entrelac in a more appropriate colorway… but I would also like to wear my Radian Yoke before the weather gets too cold, so I will attempt to focus.

Tour de Fleece Week 2 Update

Now we're two weeks into Tour de Fleece 2011, and I've made a bit more progress on my spinning (though still not as much as I had hoped, thanks to the current state of my kitchen).  This week I spun up some superwash merino from Susan's Kitchen in the Water Depths colorway.

 Unspun fiber (very pretty!).

I think I bought this fiber at WeFF in 2009, but I didn't write it down so I don't remember for sure (note to self: write things like this down in the future!).  The blues were so pretty I couldn’t resist.  The colors marled in a really lovely way in the singles:

 Singles on the bobbin.

 A better view of marling in the singles.

I tried not predrafting or splitting this fiber at all, and instead I attempted to spin "across the web", if that's the right term.  This was a bit challenging for me, and I probably should have gone down a ratio or two to compensate for my slower drafting.  When I plied the yarn, it ended up nicely squishy and springy, even though I think I overspun it a bit.

 Plied yarn on the bobbin.

 Plied yarn in the skein.

The yarn ended up a heavy worsted weight-ish, and is closer in WPI to what I consider to be my default yarn.  I'm not quite sure what I want to make with it yet, but it does look like good hat yarn.

The Yarny Details

Wheel:	Spinolution Hopper
Spinning Ratio:	6.25
Singles WPI:	22-24
Draw:	Short, mostly worsted
Plying Ratio:	4.25
Finished plies:	2
Plied WPI:	6-8
Weight:	~4 oz.
Approx. Yardage:	118

I also started spinning some SW merino/Seacell/Banana fiber mix.

 Unspun fiber (love how the Seacell and banana didn't take the dye).

This fiber is taking a bit longer cause I'm spinning the singles pretty fine (for me), but I predrafted the fiber (without splitting it at all) so it's spinning really nicely.

 Beginning of a bobbin of singles.

And in other news, I have been getting some knitting done this past week.  I'm working on Kiama, a pattern I fell in love with because it looks incredibly flattering on everyone, and I always need more layering pieces for wearing to work because the air conditioning is always a bit chilly in my office.

 My Kiama in progress.

I'm using some yarn that's been in my stash for quite awhile.  It's Twist, a cotton/acrylic/rayon/nylon blend from Knit Picks, though I believe the yarn has been discontinued.  I've been working on this sweater for about 3 weeks now, and I'm making really great progress.  Hopefully I can finish this up soon so I can wear it this summer!

Until next week, happy knitting (and spinning) :)!

Tour de Fleece Week 1 Update

We're one week into Tour de Fleece 2011, and I have made some moderate progress on my goals:

• To spin every day
• And to use up some of my fiber stash

I swear, though, I have a good excuse:

Before photo (that's vinyl pretending to be wood!).

After photo (before putting baseboards & appliances back).

We tiled our laundry room and kitchen floor (by ourselves) over the July 4th weekend, and we've been finishing it up over the past week.  Hopefully I'll finally have a stove back later today!

But even though kitchen remodeling has been severely cutting into my spinning time, I've managed to finish up some Targhee top that I started spinning a month or so ago:

Singles on the bobbin.

Plied yarn on the bobbin.

Plied skein, before finishing.

The top is from Mountain Colors in the "Northern Lights" colorway, which I bought from The Loopy Ewe way back in July 2008, when I first started spinning.  I wasn't very good at drafting back then, so I used to split up my rovings into relatively thin strips and predraft them to death.  I apparently had intended to start spinning this Targhee awhile back, cause it was already split into strips.  Without the splitting I could have made the colors more distinct, but I actually love the way the colors barberpoled in the final yarn.

I really can't believe I let this fiber sit around for so long before I started spinning it, cause it turns out that Targhee is really yummy--it's really soft, crimpy, and has a long enough staple that it's easy to spin.  Bluefaced Leicester has, since I first started spinning, been my absolute favorite, but I think Targhee is now a close second (but not as readily available as BFL).

The finished yarn is squishy and soft and will make some kind of great winter accessory.  I'm getting better at spinning somewhat finer yarns (vs. my default yarn, which is usually a heavy worsted-ish), so the finished yarn is approximately sport weight. I'm thinking of making the Honey Cowl, with some possible adjustments to make sure I get close enough to gauge (given that the pattern calls for DK weight).  I'll have to wait until the yarn is actually dry to swatch and see if it looks as good as I hope!

The Yarny Details

Wheel:	Spinolution Hopper
Spinning Ratio:	6.5
Singles WPI:	~28
Draw:	Short, semi-worsted
Plying Ratio:	4.25
Finished plies:	2
Plied WPI:	~12 (sport weight)
Weight:	~4 oz.
Approx. Yardage:	408 yds.