Balancing Act

Until this past week, I hadn't touched my spinning in ages - at least since early January. Mostly, I'm just knitting. A lot. But last weekend my hands finally said enough, no more knitting straight for hours at a time. So I'm back to alternating - knit for a bit, spin for a while, knit for a while, comb/card fleece for a bit, etc.

ON MY NEEDLES:
The first of the Fleeglized Panda socks is done and the second sock started.


The Charlotte Bronte Shawl has seen some more progress, finally. I finished the first lace border with the beads. The second lace border is about three quarters done. I'm knitting it separately (so I don't have to lug the whole shawl around) and will sew it on the shawl. I chose not to put beads on the second lace border.

I'm up to the heel gusset on the second of Bob's socks. The toe shaping's a bit tricky, but otherwise they're coming along nicely.

The OD (Olive Drab) socks are also progressing nicely, as is the tan regulation cap. Both are for the a socks For Soldiers group.

And if that's not enough WIPs to work on, I cast on stranded colorwork socks and a sweater.


ON MY SPINDLES/WHEEL:

There are a number of open spinning projects on my Spindles and Wheel, but the three main projects are:

(1) During the Fall and into early December I worked on the Rambouillet/Montedale cross pre-washed fleece I purchased several years ago.  I hand combed the fleece then wheel spun it in a smoothed, attenuated long draw. This will be a 4ply cabled yarn (spun z, 2ply s, cabled z).

The spinning is finished. And I am more than halfway through plying the 2ply yarn.  In fact in early December I took the first bobbin of 2ply yarn and plied it back on itself for my first skein of cabled yarn. 

Unfortunately, I was distracted and in a hurry and made a total hash of it. To say it is overplied is a major understatement.  I gave it a nice hot bath and thwacked the ever-loving shit out of it but it's still a mess.  See:



This is a really nice yarn, very soft, so there's no way I'm chucking it.  I will have to untangle it (I messed up the skein ties too) and run it through again to take out some of the excess twist. I haven't done this before, so I think I will use my Navajo Spindle instead of my wheel - better control.

(2) I recently started spindle spinning (longdraw) some Oxford/Border Leicester crossbreed fleece that I prepped in November.  This fleece was hand combed then run through my drum carder. It turned into rather nice batts and spins easily.

(3) Also started spinning the second Annunaki at Tieman colorway bump I bought last year from Crown Mountain Farms in their going out of business sales. It is four ounces of BFL top which I am spindle spinning (worsted) and will chain ply.  

Fleece prep-wise, I'm sampling (combing, carding 2&3plying) a multicolored Perendale fleece, some black & white Jacob fleece, and some llama fleece.


Brought To Me By: Crafting accomplished with the following audio/video accompaniment:
  Audiobooks: Outlander by Diana Gabaldon;                      
  DVDs etc:   Rizzoli & Isles; Murder She Wrote; Veronica Mars;              
  Pod/VideoCasts:  The Knit Girllls; Round the Twist;  The Knitmore Girls; Two Tangled Skeins;                        
 

In the Midst of Spinning, Knit Happens

 
 
  Off My Needles/Hooks:
 
  Summer Mystery shawl closeup (unblocked) 
 
 

The 2013 Summer Mystery Shawl KAL by Wendy Johnson is done. I really liked this pattern and will make at least one more, probably two.  I did the large size, using 957 yds of Zen Yarn Garden Serenity Sock II (Merino, Cashmere & Nylon 80/10/10 blend). That's two skeins plus 20% of the third skein.  I tried it on hot off the needles and it was wide & long enough unblocked, so should be nice and cozy when blocked. Unblocked dimensions are 74 inches wide and 35 inches deep at center.

   This is a quick picture right off the needles (forgive the dangling ends & messy bed)
 

On My Needles/Hooks:  
 
 

With all this lace knitting, I needed a pair of vanilla socks to freshen my palate, so I went stash diving and came up with a skein of Lisa Souza Sock! In the Newtown color way, which looks like this (pic from her website):

Newtown was one of the first sock yarns I bought when I started making socks, oh so many years ago. I'm about three inches down the first sock leg. I'm a little tired of afterthought heels so the Newtown socks shall have Sweet Tomato Heels.

 

I also cast on the Cauchy socks by Cookie A using the Garnet colorway of Lisa Souza Sock! Another long ago sock yarn purchase. For this one I'm about five inches down the first sock leg.

Also on my needles/hooks are some odds and ends for the Hogwarts at Ravelry games: preemie hats, hexipuffs and coasters.

 
  
 
Brought To Me By: Crafting accomplished with the following audio/video accompaniment:    
  Audiobooks:. Succubus Dreams by Richelle Mead                
  DVDs etc:  NCIS; Bones; Angel; Charmed;                        
  Pod/VideoCasts:  The Knit Girllls; Round the Twist; The Knitmore Girls; Knitting Pipeline; The Anatomy of Knitting; Cast On; Two Tangled Skeins;                          
 

FOs: Off My Needles/Wheel

 
 
Off My Needles/Hooks:

I finished my first Hitchhiker Shawl (design by Martina Behm) on Christmas evening.  It wasn't a gift so that's ok.  This is a really easy pattern to memorize making it great travel or Craft Night Group knitting.  And it works well with handspun yarn.
  
I ran out of my handspun at 34 points, so it's more of a Shawlette (or odd-shaped scarf) than a true Shawl.  I'll probably use it as a scarf.   I'd like to try this pattern again with sufficient handspun yardage to make 42 points.


 
  
    
 
Off My Spindles/Wheel:
 
 
  This lovely skein is approximately 690 yds of fingering weight worsted spun and Navajo/chain ply yarn.  It was spun on both spindles and my wheel from my first Loop Bullseye batt in the Seafoam gradient colorway.
 

 
 

Brought To Me By: Crafting accomplished with the following audio/video accompaniment:  
  Audiobooks:    Parker Pyne Investigates by Agatha Christie;  Soulless by Gail Carriger;    
  DVDs etc:   Castle S4; Moonlight;    
  Pod/VideoCasts:   Round The Twist; Cast On;      

 

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  
 

The Margarethe Blues

Alas, my Knitting Mojo has gone the way of the dodo, and that's one of the reasons I've got the Margarethe Blues. The other is the Margarethe Lace Shawl. Or more specifically, the feather and fan based pattern in the shawl's border.

I have always had a problem with this pattern and this time is no exception. It's a simple enough pattern, but for the life of me I cannot keep the stitch count right. I've checked for errata and found none. It's just me. Can anyone say frustrated!

So the shawl is in timeout, at least until Sunday when I can sit down with it and figure out where I went wrong, how many rows I need to tink back, and PUT IN A LIFELINE! Also, I'd rather be spinning. And I know myself well enough to know that if I force myself to work on the shawl while my mindset is elsewhere, I'll only mess it up so bad I'll have to frog instead of tink.

In the meantime, I'm getting a lot of plying done, and that pleases me greatly,

Hopelessly Overcommitted as Usual

On My Spindles:

Hopelessly Overcommitted was one of the teams in last year's Tour de Fleece, one that I wasn't on. This year's TdF planning has started and I have not only picked my project (spinning cotton) but my teams (Spindlers, Hopelessly Overcommitted) and my tools (spindles, cotton carders). I'm good to go. Cotton will be a nice change of pace from all the wool I'll be spinning. Speaking of which....

The Knitmore Girls are starting a Spin-along/Knit-along or SPAKAL in which we will spin a sweater's worth of yarn and then knit the sweater. I've joined the Ravelry thread for this and will be spinning and knitting along with everyone. I'm actually hoping to spin for two sweaters: last year's BFL natural multi, and a lovely fleece I'm currently processing that I've dubbed "Tex".

Last year I spun 36 ounces of the BFL natural multi into a little over a thousand yards of 2x2 cabled yarn (wpi 11+|-), not enough for a sweater to fit me. So I bought another pound of fiber last month which I will spin up for the SPAKAL. I also got a multi cross fleece last year that is washing and combing up nicely. It's a cross of 1/4 Texel and 3/4 Border Leicester, Coopworth, Corriedale and Finn, with three to four inch locks with nice crimp. See...



Soft and squishy. I like this fleece enough to contact the shepherd to try for this sheep's this year's fleece.

"Cape Cod" is spinning along nicely. I just plied my first two skeins and am very happy with the way they've turned out. They're drying now so pics or measurements yet but they look like the wpi will be around 20 and the total yardage around 400. That will be the best I've done from a chain plied four ounce braid.

On The Needles:

The Charlotte Bronte Shawl is on hiatus while I'm working on the Margarethe Lace Shawl which I cast on last week in Knit Picks Gloss DK. I'm making it as a thank you to a friend; her color choice is black :-( not the easiest color to work with. The pattern is not complicated but I'm having trouble anyway - my stitch count keeps going awry. Sooo, I'm frogging back to the garter stitch border and putting in a lifeline and lots of stitch markers. If I have to take baby steps to get this done right I will, and toddle along. Most of my other knitting is on hold while I work on this. I'm not ordinarily a monogamous knitter but I want to get this done by mid-April.