Oddments of Progress

The four ounces of Rise of the Phoenix colorway BFL top from Crown Mountain Farm that I started while on vacation is done. There's about 400 yds of chain plied yarn (1,200 yds of singles) with a wpi range of 15-18. It was spindle spun and plied. This yarn is a different weight than the pattern calls for, but I will be casting on for a Rivendell cowl with this yarn shortly.



Stash Dash 2013, sponsored by The Knit Girllls, ended in early August, and for the first time I surpassed the goal. This year's goal was to knit, crochet or spin 4k of yarn, that's 4,375 yds. I finished with a total of 4,641 yds worked. Yay Me!

I've been piecing together the Hexipuff Baby Blanket as I've been finishing the hexipuffs. It's really beginning to look like a blanket. See:



2013 Stash Reduction Goals update: the prognosis isn't good for the 40lb stashdown at all. Then again I knew when I set that goal that it was pretty unlikely I'd actually meet it. I think it was more an incentive thing than anything else. P.S. Incentive-wise, it ain't working. It also doesn't help that i keep buying more yarn! On the other hand, there's better progress in meeting my Yardage Goals of 17,000 yds spinning; 13,000 yds knitting. I'm at over 11,000 for spinning and over 5,000 for knitting/crocheting. KnitMeter is my friend.

I signed up for Spinzilla in October on the Knit Girllls team. It's basically a race to see how much you can spin in a week. I've been prepping fiber in preparation for an intensive spinning marathon, and will hopefully have a full fleece ready to spin plus I have lots of commercially prepared fiber too.

2013 FOs: January Part 1

  
 
 
  Off My Needles/Hooks:

The Blue Yoke Sweater is done! I'm quite surprised that I used only about five and a half balls of Filature Lanarota Chaco or about a little over 1100 yards.  

 

I was only halfway through the yoke when I'd stopped working on this in 2006, and seriously, I have no idea what my problem was with finishing it. The yoke decreases were following the modified EPS percentages and worked like a charm. And I got the collar right this time by adding an inch worth of short rows to the back collar ribbing. Oh, and I also changed to a size US5 (3.75mm) needle for the last round and for the bindoff round of the collar. Made it much neater looking. I think the next time I make a yoke sweater I will decrease an extra eight stitches (rather than the four I did here) after the final yoke decrease round. But other than that I'm quite pleased how this turned out.

BBS or Big Black Socks  were made for the Socks for Soldiers group, and I'm ashamed to say started almost three years ago.  These are "Team Knit" socks, with the legs knit on a CSM (Circular Sock Machine) then forwarded to me to add the feet.  That's right.  All I had to do was add the feet and it took me this long to do it.  I get fifty lashes with a wet skein for that. Feet were knit using US0 (2.0mm) and US1 (2.25mm) needles.    

 
  
  

 Mom's Mitts were started on Jan 13th using some unlabeled blue-toned mystery yarn and size US5 (3.75mm) needles. Mom went into the hospital on the 19th for pneumonia, and I finished them on Jan 21st while sitting at her bedside. It is just a vanilla afterthought thumb mitt with ribbing at the cuff and seed stitch at the fingers. They are about 10.5 inches long.  

 

 
 
   
  The 40lb Stashdown Goal (in grams):  18,144;  Grams Used: 829;  Left to Go: 17,315  

Old and New

  
 
On My Needles/Hooks:

The Blue Yoke Sweater has been languishing on my needles for eight years, maybe more.  If I remember correctly, I started it when Mom was in rehab for compression fractures of the spine as something for me to work on while I sat with her.  I got as far as about two inches into the yoke and then stopped, reason unknown.  

  
  
 

I'd kept some very spare notes on a little slip of paper which were just enough for me to continue without having to do any major recounting or head scratching.  I am truly surprised that little bit of paper survived.  If it hadn't, I might've been tempted to frog it instead of finishing it, but finish it I shall.  I'm currently up to the collar ribbing, so almost done.  

  
 

I found a ball of unlabeled yarn with very nice colors and decided to use it for Mom's mitts.  I think it's dk or light worsted weight acrylic or an acrylic blend, and not the softest (although it is squishy), but it's the colors that caught my eye.  See:

    
  

I cast on the other day using measurements from memory: an eight inch wrist and nine inch circumference hand, but stopped at the wrist.  It just didn't jive with what my head sees for her hand now.  So I remeasured Tuesday night and, wow, good thing I did.  Wrist is now six inches, hand eight and a half.   Frogged and immediately recast on with new numbers.   It's a plain, simple, afterthought thumb mitt and is working up quickly. 

    
On My Spindles/Wheel:

The Knit Girllls "Expand Your Horizons" January fiber is Southdown, and I just happen to have a wee bit of Babydoll Southdown in stash.  In fact I have all of this year's EYH fiber in stash, so yay!

Babydoll Southdown was something I tried a few years ago for the Wool Breeds Challenge and wasn't too thrilled with. I believe I found it surprisingly difficult to spin, but I can't find my notes (if I even made any) so don't remember what the specific problem was.  It might've been that this fiber begs for longdraw and I wasn't that experienced with it yet, or it might've been something else.

Either way, I finally got around to trying it again on Tuesday.  The part of the roving that was still intact in the 'skein' was fairly easy to spin (longdraw of course).  The pieces I'd pulled off to try previously were much fussier and difficult.  But I persevered and have this bobbin of singles (40gr) to ply, when I decide how many plies I want.  

      
  
 

Tuesday was the first day I'd spun in what seems like ages, and it felt really good.  So after spinning the Babydoll I immediately switched out the bobbins and started on the Fiber Optic merino/silk fiber for the The Knit Girllls other SAL.  It's lovely colors and spinning quite smoothly. I'm spinning smoothed semi-worsted from end to end and will chain ply to maintain the color gradient.

      

      

There are some other small items I have going on various spindles for Spinning Itty Bitty Bits project, but they're so small I'm saving details and pictures for the January FO post.

Brought To Me By: Crafting accomplished with the following audio/video accompaniment:    
  Audiobooks:            
  DVDs etc:   Castle S4; The Backup Plan; The Incredible Journey of Mary Bryant;          
  Pod/VideoCasts: The Knitmore Girls; Round The Twist; The Knit Girllls; Knitting Pipeline;            
 

Triksaidekaphobic - Not!

I am not triskaidekaphobic. Never have been.  In fact I usually consider any Friday the 13th will be a great (or at least good) day for me.  And it usually is.  Thirteen is a lucky number:  a baker's dozen anything is wonderful.  So when it dawned on me this was 2013 my brain when off on a tangent. 13 in 13!

13 in 13.  Let's see, I can do 13 pairs of socks, 13 pairs of mittens, 13 hats, 13 shawls, 13 preemie hats, 13 hexipuffs a week, spin 13 pounds of fiber, process 13 pounds of fleece, do 13 projects for Bundles of Joy and 13 for Socks for Soldiers, make 13 sweaters, finish 13 UFOs......enough already! Getting carried away here!

Realistically, while I probably need to do all of that to reach my #40lbStashdown goal, it ain't gonna happen.  My hands alone couldn't handle that much knitting and/or crocheting.  So let's whittle this down a little more sensibly. Maybe

Thirteen pairs of socks was the first one I thought of so that's in (WIPs count).  And I've been chomping at the bit to do some stranded colorwork mittens, so 13 pairs of mittens is also in.  Hats are small so they're in, as are the hexipuffs (at least 13/month) and preemie hats.  The 13 shawls and 13 sweaters are out. I'd like to say I'll try for 4 sweaters and maybe 2 shawls, but I'd also rather not set limits for them at all, so I won't.   Also out are the 13 projects each for both Bundles of Joy and Socks for Soldiers, and the 13 UFOs - they're all redundant if I'm doing all the rest.  

What? no spinning goals you ask?  To which I reply: yes, I have spinning goals for this year, it's just a little tricky working it into the 40lb stashdown goals.  Why?  Because of the whole spinning the fiber just moves it from one stash pile (fleece/fiber) to the other (yarn) thing.  Now processing fleece (scouring, combing, carding) will reduce (sometimes up to 50%)  the original start weight of the fleece, and I am counting that in the 40lb stash down.  But I won't actually reduce my spinning stash unless I use it.  

To that end, my spinning goals this year are (1) to use my handspun yarn in any 13 projects this year, and (2) spin 17,000 yds of singles. I know, that is lowballing it considering how much I spun in 2012, but there's a reason.  Last year I was aiming to knit and/or spin 10 miles (17,600 yds) worth, and I spun over 25,000 yds but only knit under 4,000 yds.  This year I've upped the total yardage goal to 30,000 yds, but split it out at 13,000 (see '13') yards of knit/crochet and 17,000 yds spun.  The spinning is easy; the knitting, not so much. And that's the challenge.