December WIPs/SWIPs

  
  There's no mad holiday knitting rush for me this year. Only person I'm knitting for is Mom (socks and mitts), but, sadly, as she won't really remember if she gets them on or after Christmas, I don't have to kill my hands rushing to finish them. The socks will be done by Christmas; I doubt if the mitts will even be started by Christmas.
  
  
  I would like to finish as many knitting and spinning WIPs as I can by the end of the year, especially these projects:
  
On My Needles
  
  Hitchhiker Shawl - I started this a week or so ago and am about halfway through and liking muchly (both pattern and yarn). I'm using my brown and white Shetland handspun from last month called DA3, and size 5 (3.75mm) needles. As of this (Thursday) evening, I'd reached 24 points. I think I have enough yarn to reach or come close to the 42 points called for in the pattern.
  
Apologies for the picture quality. This is from last weekend when I was out and about. 
 
  
   Mom's Socks - the socks I messed up last week are progressing nicely. The first sock is done and I'm motoring up the foot of the second sock. I'm using size 1 (2.25mm) dpns on Berroco Sox yarn.
  
I need to put the afterthought heel on the first "Woolgathering" sock (the second sock is finished), but it seems it's fallen into a black hole or is hiding somewhere.
  
  
  On My Spindles
  
Spinning Seafoam - The Loop Bullseye batt in the Seafoam colorway is going slowly. After what seems like forever spinning I'm just really hitting the first color change. So I'm hoping changing from spindles to the e-spinner will speed things up a little. I love the Bullseye batts, the prep is wonderful, as is the blending. I just wish it wasn't Merino. Note to self: stop buying Merino fiber! You know you don't like spinning it!
  
There are a number of other WIPs/SWIPs I'd like to finish by yearend, but I'll be happy if what I've listed above is all I get done.
  
  Off My Spindles:

Spinning Itty Bitty Bits - this is a catchall project/name I'm using for the little fiber samples I've been spindle spinning. Some are from Phat Fiber boxes and some are leftover samples from the Wool Breeds Challenge. (This is an ongoing project that won't be finished for a few years at least and doesn't count in the year-end completions.) Here are a few little skeins:
  
  
 
  
  
  Brought To Me By: Crafting accomplished with the following audio/video accompaniment:    
  Audiobooks:  These Old Shades by Georgette Heyer; Blood Lance by Jeri Westerson;            
  DVDs etc:   Castle S4;    
  Pod/VideoCasts:   The Knit Girllls; Round The Twist; Knitting Pipeline, The Knitmore Girls, Subway Knits  
 

Fall Spinning FOs Part I

Off My Spindles/Wheel:
  Remember the 8oz of Bluefaced Leicester fiber I really really wanted to spin but was supposed to finish two UFOs first before starting?  Well, the oooo pretty lure of the fiber was stronger than my good intentions.  Here it is all finished:  approximately 522 yds of fingering wt worsted spun, Navajo plied yarn in the Annunaki at Tiamat colorway from Crown Mountain Farms. I just love the colors in this!  
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
  Next up is this approx 360 yds of Shetland 3ply fingering yarn in dark brown and white, spun smoothed point of twist from the fold.  My idea for this was to make a kind of gradient yarn by starting with three strands of the white, then swapping out one strand at a time until I had three strands of the brown, then reversing.  I also experimented a little with changing plying twist to accentuate one color over the other.  It didn't come out exactly as I envisioned, but I am pleased with it.  I'm thinking of maybe using for a Hitchhiker shawl.  This fiber is also from Crown Mountain Farms
 
   
   
   
   
  Brought To Me By: Crafting accomplished with the following audio/video accompaniment:    
  Audiobooks:  Succubus on Top by Richelle Mead; A Modern Witch by Debora Geary; Blood Oath by Christopher Farnsworth;          
  DVDs etc:   True Blood S4; The Dresden Files;    
  Pod/VideoCasts:   The Knit Girllls; Round The Twist;
 

WIPs and SWIPs

 
 
On My Needles: I keep poking through my knitting WIPs basket, but my only reaction is  Eh!   Not good.  I should be swatching for my SPAKAL sweaters (yes, plural), but its just not happening.  Also Not Good.  So the only knitting I've been working on lately are my striped socks in the Woolgathering colorway.  I'm about four inches down the foot on the second sock. I need to finish it, put the afterthought heel in the first one, and then they'll be finished.  At least something will be finished.
 
 
 
  On My Spindles:  
 
  Once again I'm working on multiple projects at the same time, or perhaps it's more accurate to say serially rather than at the same time.  
 
  There's the Manx Loughton.  This is the first spindle worth:
 
 
 

Then there's the Shetland in black and white I'm spinning for my Dumbledore's Army project on Hogwarts at Ravelry group (sshhhh it's a secret).  My singles are spun, I just need to ply




 I finished spinning the Columbia and moved on to the Columbia/Merino cross or CxM.  The staple length for most of this is less than 2 inches so I'm not combing first, just hand picking and hand carding.  I'm almost finished carding and already spun 10 bobbins worth.  Pic shows rolags left to spin, fleece left to card and spun singles.

 

Of  course, there's also the East Friesian cross that I haven't touched in over a month.  I'm not even sure where I left off on that.  Think I needed to wash more fleece and just wasn't in the mood. 
 And the "Promise" fiber that's buried in the bottom of the SWIPs basket.  Haven't touched that since August or thereabouts.

And then there's this:



This  bit of loveliness is what I really want to spin right now.  It's 8 ounces of BFL from Crown Mountain Farms, dyed in the Annunaki on Tiamat colorway.  I keep picking it up and petting it.   But No. There's this voice that keeps telling me to Step Away From The Fiber. You can't spin it until you finish two SWIPs. Three would be better but two is good.   Damn annoying voice! insert fingers in ears La la la la, I can't hear you!



Brought To Me By:  
  Audiobooks:  These Old Shades & Devil's Cub by Georgette Heyer;    
  DVDs etc:   True Blood S3; Cadfael;
  Pod/VideoCasts:   The Knit Girllls; Round The Twist;
 

On My Spindles

On My Spindles:

I finally finished washing Tex, the never-ending Texel crossbreed fleece - all of it. And I've been combing and carding enough every few days to fill a two-gallon bag with rolags to spin. So far this week that's two bags which spun up to seven variable sized bobbins of singles. I'm guestimating that I will end up with enough singles for at least two maybe three more skeins of yarn. I also need to start "finishing" the 22 skeins I've already spun, i.e. giving them a soak to set the twist and see how much they'll poof up. With any luck I'll be finished spinning this fleece this weekend. Yay!

As part of my WIP Busting efforts, I've pulled out the rest of the white fleeces I started spinning last year and before. That's a Shetland, a Merino cross, and a Columbia. They're the washed stuff, and range in weight from half a pound to about two pounds. There's also the other half of Mo, and the original never-ending fleeces: the two Clun Forest. They need scouring.

After all that white, I needed a little color so this past weekend I started spinning the twelve ounces of Gotland I got last Spring from Two Sisters Stringworks.

I'm spinning this mostly from the fold, semi-woollen, and planning to chain/Navajo ply. It will probably be a thicker yarn than I'd originally envisioned, but since I have twelve ounces I'm pretty sure I can get enough for a good sized shawl.



Brought To Me By:
Audiobooks:
DVDs etc: Doctor Who (season 6); Downton Abbey (S2);
Pod/VideoCasts:  Knitting Pipeline; The Knit Girllls; Round The Twist; Yarnspinners Tales;

Ravellenics update

The Ravellenic Games began on Friday. First up for me is the Handspun Heptathalon for Team Hopelessly Overcommitted. I'm about halfway through spinning the Shetland bump in the Forecast colorway. See:




It's pretty. I was going to make a standard 2ply, but after I started spinning I decided to chain/Navajo ply it. I'm spinning it semi-worsted and it's going smoothly. I've spun Shetland before from pre-washed fleece I've hand processed, and while they both spin easily, this commercially processed fiber feels much different. Not bad different, just different. Now I realize there are textural differences between fleece and even within a single fleece, but the difference here is enough to make me wonder whether this really is 100% Shetland. This feels more like a Polwarth to me.

Regardless, I expect I'll be finished spinning by tomorrow night, and finished plying by Thursday night. That's the plan at least.

Tomorrow I will start knitting my projects for Team Diagon Alley Marauders.

On/Off My Spindles

On/Off My Spindles:

While I was spinning for the Tour de Fleece, I also continued spinning on projects already in progress.  In some cases that may've been a mistake.

For instance, I spun and plied braid #4 of the Wensleydale in the Rasputin colorway (spun worsted/chain ply).  I did it in one day.  A Mistake.  I rushed, and this little skein came in at half the yardage of the first three.  It's a sport to DK weight yarn instead of fingering.  Grrr  I could smack myself sometimes!


On the bright side, I finished spinning (woolen) and plying (3ply) all of the first half of the Finn/Dorset/Targhee fleece called "Mo".  For this I managed to keep the yarn weight consistent.  I ended up with nine skeins totalling 625 yards of 3ply DK/light worsted weight yarn.  Now I just have to tackle washing the other half of the fleece...



I also plied up the first little skein of the "Promise" soy silk/wool blend yarn.  It's a tiny little thing because I, frankly, got tired of it.  I'm not exactly happy with the feel of the fiber as I'm spinning. Not enough wool content I guess.  Love the colors though so I will finish it.  Eventually.




I'm really looking forward to starting on this tomorrow:



It's Shetland in the "Forecast" colorway from Spunky Eclectic and is my only scheduled Ravellenic's spinning.



Brought To Me By:
Audiobooks:
DVDs etc: Monarchy S1; Harry Potter & THBP; 
Pod/VideoCasts:  Knitmore Girls; The Nerdist; The Knit Girllls; 

Wool Breeds Challenge - Shetland & Friesian

Shetland

Shetland sheep are a Primitive/Northern European short-tail breed probably brought to the Shetland Islands by the Vikings. They come in many natural colors, more than any other breed of sheep, and are the basis of the Shetland wool industry.

As a Primitive breed, Shetlands shed their wool annually, but are often sheared to suit our schedules. Shetlands may or may not be dual-coated. Their wool is soft and fine with a micron count of 12 to 20 for the undercoat, 30 to 40 for the outercoat (big difference), and an average staple length of 2 to 4.5 inches ("Knitter's Book of Wool"). My other reference book ("In Sheep's Clothing") gives slightly different stats: one micron count of 23 to 30, and a staple length up to 5 inches.

My sample came from light gray pre-washed fleece with an average staple length of three inches, give or take. I tried carding it but there was too much vm so I wound up combing it. This was several months ago, before I learned the virtues of flicking before hand carding.

I spun longdraw from badly carded rolags and better hand combed top for a 2ply yarn. As this was several months ago when I was learning longdraw, my singles were a bit uneven. Uneven or not, it made a nice light, soft yarn, and turned me into a Shetland lover.

The skein on the left is the Shetland. On the right is Friesian:

Friesian

Friesian sheep are a dual purpose (milk and wool) breed. They are one of the Northern European breeds originating in the Friesland-Netherlands/Germany region. Friesian sheep generally have a staple length of 4 to 6 inches, and a micron count of 29-33. [They are not listed in either of my reference books; breed info is from sheepusa.org/East_Friesian.]

My sample is from pre-washed fleece with a staple length of 3 to 4/4.5 inches. No luster. Some portions are a little crisp, but most seem to fall in the softer end of the micron count range. I hand combed the wool for my sample and spun worsted for a 2ply yarn.

This was easy to work with, both the spinning and the prep, and I would spin it again. In fact, I'm using the remainder of this (I started with eight ounces) as the base for a 3ply sock yarn. For the sock yarn, I am flicking the locks before combing and blending with flicked Border Leicester. I'm adding the Border Leicester to give the yarn some shine and also, hopefully, to add some strength to the yarn in lieu of nylon. Don't know if it will work, but it's an interesting experiment.