Reinbeck 2012

This year was my first trip to Reinbeck for the New York Sheep and Wool Festival.   Last Saturday was a beautiful day for it, sunny, warm but not too warm, with a nice refreshing breeze. All the yarn, fiber and fleece you could ask for, plus podcasting celebrities, a good selection of food, and animals from the expected (sheep, llamas, etc) to the unexpected (kangaroo).     
   
First up, what I bought. From the top down:  a bump of multicolor Jacob roving, Bosworth featherweight spindle (my first Bosworth), two Loop bullseye bumps (merino/nylon/angelina & oh so soft) and a Jessalu project bag in Tardis fabric.  Not much, but I stayed within budget for once and that counts.  
   
   
   


Next up, a few animal pics.   
   
 
   
    
   
    
   
 
 
 
 
 
I had a great but exhausting time.  (I slept for eighteen hours when I got home.). Next time I go I'll go with a plan for what I want to buy so I can pace myself and do other than shopping stuff.  

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;
 

We Have Knitting & Spinning

On My Needles:
"Woolgathering Socks" were started as stripey plain vanilla afterthought heel socks in Three Ewes Twisted in Fiber yarn.  The first sock was finished (except for the heel) last month, and the second started.  Along the way on the second sock, I read about Cat Bordhi's Sweet Tomato heel and couldn't wait to try it.  So I did.  Me likey!   This is my first Sweet Tomato Heel:  
   
   
 
Of course, this means my socks will be mismatched with two different heels, but who cares -  they're heels
  Modifications to original pattern:  heel worked on 60% instead of 2/3rds(66%) of stitches; center heel sts 12 on 1st repeat, 10 on 2nd, & 16 on 3rd (no idea why I did that, but it worked).  
   
   
  On My Spindles:   
   
  I've been working on the Columbia fleece I started processing/spinning last year. This was slightly less than a pound of pre-washed fleece from two sheep that I acquired separately, so there's a difference in the fiber's texture & color. As of this morning when I finished spinning, I have thirteen bobbins of singles to ply tomorrow. That should be enough for two more skeins of 3ply.
 
   
   
   
   Also started spinning the Manx Loughton I've been eyeing for six months. Its really wonderful fiber prep and lovely to spin. This will be a 2ply, and I'm spindle spinning semi-worsted.  
 
   
  Brought To Me By:  
  Audiobooks:    
  DVDs etc: True Blood S3.1-4; Buffy TVS S7.11-end; Moonlight S1.1-16;   (guess I'm on a vamp role)
  Pod/VideoCasts: The Knit Girllls; The Knitmore Girls; The Pagan Knitter; Round The Twist;      
 

Off My Spindles Part VI

Off My Spindles:  
  At Last!  Tex, the Texel crossbreed fleece is finished.  I plied the last three skeins on Monday morning, making the total number of skeins, 26.    
   
   
   
  There are over a half dozen rolags left to be spun (I originally didn't spin them because I didn't get all the lanolin out) and some singles, but they, as well as the leftover combing waste, are being held in reserve in case I run out of yarn for the sweater.  And frankly, I've been working on this for six months, and I'm kinda sick of it. It's on to the finishing baths for this stuff, and then I can start swatching.  
   
  Also finished two out of three four-ounce bumps of the Gotland fiber in shades of wine and pink.  I'm spinning this semi-woolen (mostly point of twist, from the fold) and chain/Navajo plying. It's a little twisty because I haven't set the twist on it yet, but this is the first skein:  
   
   
   
  Brought To Me By:  
  Audiobooks:    
  DVDs etc: True Blood S4.1-2; Buffy TVS S7.8-10; H5O S2.1-9;   
  Pod/VideoCasts: The Knit Girllls; Cast On; SpinDoctor;      
 

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;

Finished Object: Ohio Star Pillowcover

Ohio Star Pillowcover
Ravelry Project Page

This UFO (UnFinished Object) dates back to around 2006 when I picked up a couple of quilting magazines with an abundance of block schematics. Now, I'm not a quilter, although I do love looking at them, especially the more classic designs.  I can appreciate all the work that goes in them.  Maybe someday I'll try it, but for now I'm more interested in translating the quilt block designs into knitting designs.  And these two magazines had a number of block designs that readily translated.  My original intention was to make a sampler afghan from different block patterns, but opted to start smaller with a pillow cover.

I picked the Ohio Star pattern because it consisted of squares and triangles I could easily duplicate in knitted fabric.  The only problem I encountered was in seaming the blocks together.  For some reason I made the join a randomly striped two-and-a-half inch saddle shoulder seam.  I say it was a problem because I seamed a little more than two sides and then stopped.



After six years I can only guess that either I was bored (understandable) or unhappy with what I was doing.  Or both.  Probably both.

I'm certainly unhappy with how the striping looks.  I think it detracts from the overall block pattern and is distracting.




So as I previously posted, I ripped it all out and went with a simple single color (green) applied I-cord seam.  This seam went smoothly and quickly and I'm very pleased with the results. For a closure I went with a simple I-cord lacing for which i put in I-cord 'buttonholes' approximately every two inches. The Pillowcover measures approximately eighteen inches square. The yarn is Lana Gatto California DK 100% cotton.









 Now to find the pillow I made it for...



Brought To Me By:
Audiobooks:
DVDs etc: Downton Abbey S2; Doctor Who S6; Vampire Diaries S1;
Pod/VideoCasts: Round The Twist; the Knit Girllls; Electric Sheep; Knitmore Girls;

Spinning FOs

I finished spinning the second four ounce bump of the yak/merino blend over the Labor Day weekend. "New Moon" was spun semi-woolen (longdraw from the fold or the end) into approximately 230 yards of 2ply.

50/50 yak/merino blend, New Moon colorway from Abstract Fibers:



I was lazy and didn't pull the first bump's skeins to check what weight/diameter my singles should be. I just spun what I thought I remembered it should be. Not one of my most brilliant ideas. Second bump skein came in at a third less yardage (about 230 yds) than the first bump's skein (360 yds). Lesson learned: my memory sucks.


Another spinning project that changing parameters brought mixed results in is Rasputin. This was an eight ounce bump I divided into eight approximately one ounce braids. All were spun worsted from commercial top and chain/Navajo plied. Here I got variations in yardage by spinning singles on different spindles or switching between spindles and wheel. Weight varies between lace to heavy fingering weight. Total 3ply yardage is 921 yds (2,763 yds of Singles).

Wensleydale, 8 oz., Rasputin colorway from Crown Mountain Farms: