Spinning FO: Blooming Bougainvilla

Posted on June 26, 2014 by Rayna

Remember this?

Last week I decided that the spindle spin I had started during Tour de Fleece two years ago was never going to get finished unless my Lendrum got involved.

I am pleased to report it’s all done! And it turned out remarkably well, all things considered, although it’s not as even as my most recent spinning.

The Woolee Winder I purchased is a miracle worker. I easily got the single onto a single bobbin.

The Finished Single

Then on Monday evening, I “Shireen-plyed” my yarn. This is a name I have given to a faux-Andean plying method that Shireen came up with last week. 4 oz of single is a bit hard to Andean ply without cutting off circulation to your fingers, so Shireen wound it into a centre-pull ball, and then plied the two ends of the ball together. A small downfall to this method: towards the very end, the ball collapses and gets a bit tangly. The up side? You never have mismatched single from having two bobbins that don’t quite match. In this case, I did it to ply older, thicker, spindle spun yarn with newer wheel spun yarn in an attempt at consistency.

Certainly not perfect, but I am actually pleased with the result, regardless of the thick and thin quality.

Next up…the second half of my Friends in Fiber BFL/Silk fractal spin! Have to clear my bobbins for next week’s Tour de Fleece!

Some Saturday morning spinning inspiration!

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Where I’d Rather Be Today…

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Where I'd Rather Be Today...

FO: Hermione’s Everyday Socks

Posted on June 17, 2014 by Rayna

I think everybody has a “go-to” sock pattern…one they can knit with their eyes closed, or at least without ever having to pick up the pattern. (If you read Knitting to Stay Sane, for example, you know that Glenna C.’s is Jaywalkers!) Hermione’s is mine. The texture keeps it from being as boring as plain sockinette (although as anyone who knows me can attest, I have no objections to knitting plain stockinette in the round!) while being simple enough to be my “knit in coffee shops and in front of the TV” knitting.

I almost feel funny blogging about them, as they are my fifth pair of socks (in 18 months) made with this pattern, but it is the first time I have ever used Fleece Artist Trail Socks. I picked up a skein of November Sky from a Ravelry destash. To this day, I am not sure why – completely not my colour set but I thought it might be nice to break out of my rut.

Now, when I really began knitting less than four years ago, I was one of those that could not understand why anyone would pay so much money for sock yarn. And worse, I liked the stuff with the cashmere…even though it was another $5-$8 a skein. But “oh noes!! Expensive yarn and all that time…to put on your feet?? Are you insane?” Turns out, I was! I blame my friend Liz, and my great teacher, Kate Atherley for making me a sock knitter.

After spending some time actually knitting socks, though, I realized that yes, while the socks with cashmere were yummier and more squooshy, the 80/20 (or 75/25) blends of merino nylon do wear an awful lot better. So I set out to find some good, sturdy-yet-comfy sock yarns. I have tried several but my two favourites so far have been indigodragonfly’s Merino Nylon Sock, and Tanis Fiber Arts’ Blue Label. These two bases are completely different from one another and I like them both for totally separate reasons. Trail Socks feels very much like Blue Label, both while knitting and after the fact. In fact, so similar are they, in the tactile sense, that I’d think they were the same base. However, the yardage stated on the label of each skein suggests otherwise.

In any case, it was quite pleasant to knit with and the resultant fabric is nice and comfy. And I am really in love with the colours. I am looking forward to having these when the leaves start turning.

Pattern: Hermione’s Everyday Socks by Eric Lueder

Yarn: Fleece Artist Trail Socks in November Sky

Who Was It Made For? Me

Were There Changes Made To The Pattern? I don’t even remember what the pattern looks like anymore!

Did I Learn Anything New? No

Anything Else? Not that I recall.

Would I Make Another?: I am sure I’ll have another pair finished by Christmas.

(Photos courtesy of Shireen, over at the Blue Brick!)

FO: Vintage Lace Socks

Posted on June 16, 2014 by Rayna

Earlier this year, my friend Carla launched Georgian Bay Fibre Company, a hand-dyed yarn company that dyes exclusively BFL and BFL blends, and takes its inspiration from the beautiful scenery of Georgian Bay.

Her sister, Christina, also a long time friend, was designing some patterns for her (my favourite kind: socks!) and asked if I’d be so kind as to test knit for her. The first one I tested was a knit and purl design called Squadron Socks; it was a lovely pattern but that pair never got completed as I made a very poor choice in yarn and it really didn’t suit. I plan to knit them again in a semi solid, when I get a chance.

Her second design was a much bigger success for me, and (because?) this time I chose to knit it in Carla’s Kilcoursie Fingering yarn. The colourway I chose was her 2014 Colour of the Year, called Wakefield Lilac, and I could not have been happier with how they turned out.

Vintage Lace Socks have a lovely delicate lace panel down the outside of the foot, front and back, and the result is beautifully feminine. It was a nice relaxing knit, once I was able to memorize the lace pattern. (I don’t immediately see past the single YOs and SSKs to see what the pattern is doing and until then, I rely heavily on the chart!) I did have a heck of a time with the YOs….at least a couple of times a repeat I found myself having to pick up a missed YO…a hazard when one knits lace in front of the TV, I guess 🙂 And the colour is totally reminiscent of the lilacs that grew every spring in my grandmother’s yard.

I always like knitting socks in the summer because it means that come autumn, I have new socks to wear when the weather turns cool 🙂 I am really excited to have these ready to go for September.

Pattern: Vintage Lace Socks by Christina Bossart

Yarn: Georgian Bay Fibre Company’s Kilcoursie Fingering (BFL/nylon blend) in Wakefield Lilac

Who Was It Made For? Test knit/Me

Were There Changes Made To The Pattern? I did make the toe a little wider (the pattern says to stop when there are 8 stitches on each needle, but the top of my foot is somewhat square so I stopped at 10)

Did I Learn Anything New? No

Anything Else? Not that I recall.

Would I Make Another?: Yes

(Photos courtesy of Shireen, over at the Blue Brick!)

Caught the spinning bug

Posted on June 13, 2014 by Rayna

Two years ago, when I started spindle spinning, I signed on for Tour de Fleece, a Ravelry event that takes place during Tour de France where we spin the same days that the riders do. I got through a 50g merino sliver in the first three days, and started on a 115g braid of Mixed BFL from Two If By Hand in an interesting pink and gold colourway called “Blooming Bougainvilla”.

I got 9 or 10 days into TdF and fell off the wheel, so to speak, with about a third of the braid on my spindle.

My Houndesign spindle…as pretty as the fibre!

And so it has sat in my crafting cupboard for the past two years. With my renewed interest in my wheel, I decided I’d probably never finish this on a spindle. But why couldn’t I finish the braid, but on my wheel? Since there’s only a third on the spindle, if I spun the other two thirds on the wheel, the amounts would be uneven and make for weird and awkward plying. So what’s a girl to do?

I’ll tell you…she spends an entire episode (and then some) of Scandal winding the spun yarn off her spindle onto her wheel, then attaching some new fibre to it and continuing the effort.

And off we go, albeit a little blurry!

The yarn is significantly thicker than my current spinning so it will be a task to keep it that way. And if I choose to chain ply, that resultant yarn is going to be quite thick.

Here’s the most interesting part…looks like I spin in the opposite direction on my wheel than I do on a spindle. With the spindle, I push off the inside of my left leg, this causing the spindle to go counter-clockwise, resulting in an “S” twist. With the wheel, I default to pushing the wheel clock-wise, resulting in a “Z” twist. So for the next few days, I have to remember to spin my wheel as though I were plying, instead of my usual way.

But at least a two year old spinning project will get finished.

What old projects have you resurrected because you got tired of knowing they were just sitting there?

Chain Plying for Newbies

Posted on June 12, 2014 by Rayna

Last night I bit the bullet, so to speak, and decided to try my hand at chain plying. I had a single that I had spun from this superwash merino and I was intent on trying to preserve the colours.

Needlework’s Pleasure Handpainted Extra Soft Merino Wool Roving

The single sat for a few weeks while I balked at the idea of trying a new technique, and a few nice spinners on Twitter recommended this video to help me along.

Last night I pulled out some bits of singles that my friend, Val gave me and made an interesting discovery. Chain plying is not for the faint of ~~heart~~ yarn. A few of her singles were good and sturdy and plied beautifully, but several others were softer and finer snapped at every single attempt to ply them. As luck would have it, my single was either sturdier, thicker or both because while it snapped twice in two very very thin spots, overall, it plied well.

I also noticed something else that, as a newbie, is likely not unusual but for experienced spinners is not an issue. As I plied off the bobbin with the finished single, my yarn got increasingly less “nice”. It got thicker, and slubbier and had more underspun spots, the closer I got to the start of my spinning. Since this was the first thing I had spun in over a year, this is not really surprising. In fact, it’s sort of motivating as I could see, in the span of an hour of plying, just how far I had come in the week or so that it took me to spin that single.

Since I could not sleep this morning, in the quiet of my 6 AM apartment, this:

The single

became this:

The finished skein!

Overall, I am pretty happy with it.

Certainly I am happy with my progress towards spinning that looks like real yarn 😀

WWKIP

Posted on June 9, 2014 by Rayna

On Saturday morning, my friend Liz and I set off on a short road trip…destination: Shall We Knit? in Waterloo for their annual World Wide Knit In Public day. They had hosted quite the gathering last year, and we thought it would be a fun way to spend a day and see some fibre-friends.

Outdoor tents abounded, including one with Super-Kate Atherley at the wheel offering up advice for the knitter-in-need:

Kate and Beth Graham

Kim and Ron of indigodragonfly were on hand for a dyeing demo – proceeds going to the Canadian Breast Cancer Support Fund.

Ready to go!

Cardinal Ruby – one of the four colourways to be auctioned off for charity!

The only picture I got of Marit’s Gobstopper hand-dyed gradient yarn is one of the skein(s) I purchased myself. The colour is so much more awesome than this picture shows. I can’t decide if these will be socks, or long fingerless mitts.

And I may have fallen down on some yummy merino tencel fibre from Waterloo Wools.

Mmm…Spice Trail

I even won a door prize! Thanks so much to the lovely ladies of Shall We Knit? for hosting such a lovely day!

L-R: Lynne, Karen and Cari

On Buying Patterns

Posted on June 6, 2014 by Rayna

So, Shireen and I were chatting the other day about number of patterns sold vs. number of Ravelry projects, and she commented that you could easily have far fewer projects on Rav than you have actual pattern sales.

“After all”, she said, “How many of the patterns that you have purchased have you actually knit?”

A fine question. So in a bit of a lull I seem to be having today, I took a count. I counted all patterns that I had purchased that had actually cost me something. It included collections, but not books, and it didn’t include gifts from friends or from the designer herself. Nor did it include paid patterns that were free due to a promotion or code or similar.

In my few years on Rav, I have personally purchased 84 patterns…and knit/started 13 of them. Two of those were frogged before completion.

So that’s an average of about 1 pattern knit for every 7 I have purchased. In some cases, I didn’t get to it right away, and my taste changed before I cast it on. I bought a hat pattern for Chase who later decided he didn’t love it after all. In some cases, I bought it and when I checked the construction or in the case of a sock, the size of the cast on, it just didn’t suit. And in some cases, the pattern just sits in my queue…waiting.

One in seven. I choose to see it as “supporting designers”.

But I still should get to knitting some of them.

Just Look What Came In The Mail!

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Just Look What Came In The Mail!

Not just pretty yarn…but a colourway called Rosseau Pumpkin for my first “real” sock design, courtesy of Georgian Bay Fibre Company! Excuse me…I might just be a little excited!