Saturday, February 11, 2012
Knitting in a Zipper
Wednesday, July 30, 2008
A little Bit of Eye Candy
In the meantime, I have not been idle. I had a gift certificate to my LYS and I picked up this scrumptious yarn with it....
Jo Sharp Alpaca Silk Georgette, a fingering/4 ply weight blend of Alpaca, Merino and Silk. I am designing a cardigan for my husband and if it turns out I will submit it so unfortunately I can't show you any pictures of the work in progress...
Eye candy...couldn't resist this gorgeous fleece from the shop at my spinning group. I really enjoyed working with the other fleece and I can't wait to start on this one. I've recently acquired some Majacraft Mini Combs, so I think I'll prepare it with the combs for worsted spinning.
And lastly, more eye candy. We recently celebrated our 1st wedding anniversary. A very dear family friend is a gifted quilter and sent us this beautiful work of art made of batik fabrics. Thank you Jackie, it's keeping us warm and cosy during our subtropical "cold snap" (night time lows of 3-5 C, days of 20 C).
More photos and FOs once we get the other computer back from the repair shop.
Friday, June 20, 2008
Survey Says...
So, I'd like to request some help from you fine folks. I've been scouring Ravelry for pattern ideas and I've found a few that might work. The links are listed below, I'd love to hear which one you'd vote for. Please leave a comment and tell me which one you'd pick/why you think it would be the best choice. I'll be publishing results in an upcoming post. Feel free to pass the link along to anybody else you feel might be interested.
2. http://shop.interweave.com/Notre-Dame-de-Grace-Pullover-P348C40.aspx
3. http://www.knitty.com/ISSUEspring04/PATTboogie.html
4. http://shop.interweave.com/store/Streakers-Shrug-P272C48.aspx?AFID=12
Sunday, June 15, 2008
Tragic Spinning Accident...
I'm going to go cry for a little while, then scour Ravelry for patterns in the gauge it's knitting up to (bulky- 14 sts/20 rows to 10 cms on 6 mm needles). I guess all is not lost, I now have 720m of beautiful bulky yarn. If anyone has ideas for a pattern let me know....
Sunday, June 8, 2008
Spinning for a Sweater
I am newly in love with spinning (again). So soothing and mesmerizing to watch the fibre slip through your fingers. I love the fleece I'm working with. The natural colours range from silver to caramel to darker brown/grey. Isn't it lovely? Just a flick at either end and the staples are ready to spin. I love having a basket next to my chair, just waiting until I have a few moments to spin.
I am spinning this whole fleece to make the Sunrise Circle Jacket by Kate Gilbert. It's going to be a 2 ply. The sample which I plied and washed was a little too thin, so I'm aiming a for a bit more thickness in my singles which means I should be able to get gauge and a nice firm-ish jacket fabric without too much messing around. Optimistic, aren't I?
Here are my first 2 bobbins, numbered so I can remember to ply the first with the last. I get a ridiculous amount of satisfaction just looking at them. Another gratuitous close up of the singles.
Now, my only problem is I did not account for wastage when embarking on this project. I started with a 1.2 kg fleece. As someone who has never spun greasy fleece before, or spun for this large a project, I blithely thought that would be enough. Hmmmm, maybe not. Some of the weight is in the grease (duh!) which will be washed out and then you lose some fibre during preparation, short bits, matted locks, and swatching. I'm getting in the neighbourhood of 200 g spun fibre on each bobbin and originally thought I'd end up with 6 bobbins but as of today that estimate has come down to 5 bobbins. I'm starting to get a little feeling of panic. The yarn indicated in the pattern is put up in 50g balls, they have about 100 metres in each. The size I'll make calls for 10 balls. So, I need to end up with about 1000 metres of finished yarn, say 1200 to be safe. As the yarn in the pattern only comes out to 500g maybe I'll be okay, but it's very softly spun, and I think my yarn is going to be heavier per metre. Oh well, I guess I'll find out eventually. Stay tuned!
Friday, May 16, 2008
Having a bit of a whinge
Also impacting on the blog has been the fact that I spent most of April designing and knitting a large shawl, which I am going to submit for publication (hopefully), so it’s not bloggable. I am very pleased with how it’s turned out and it’s torture not being able to brag about it, but anyway…
Now that I’m done with that, projects have just sort of sprouted up like mushrooms after the rain. I am normally a monogamous knitter, I get anxious if I have more than one project on the needles, so I tend to knit one thing until it’s done, then move on to something else. Imagine my surprise then, when I looked yesterday and found that I had not one, not two but 4 projects on the needles! 4?! Here is the photo inventory:
The Neverending Socks
As I have mentioned before, I loathed working with this yarn. That’s why these just seem to have taken FOREVER, but they are finally done! Ok, so I guess they don't quite count as a WIP, but I'm still recovering from them.
Handspun Cropped Short Sleeve Jacket
Based on the Anthropologie-Inspired Capelet by Julia Allen. Adding a bit of length in the body. I’m loving knitting with my first Navajo plied handspun.
Brown Jacket
I’ve been meaning to make the Sunrise Circle Jacket by Kate Gilbert for ages. I’ve just started spinning from my 1.2 kg of brown/grey corridale fleece to swatch for gauge and needle size. I was hoping to spin a 2 ply but I might end up Navajo plying given the success I had with my lovely multi-coloured merino. Here is some 2 ply I spun and washed to swatch, but it has turned out about 2 stitches too much for the required gauge, so it's back to the drawingboard.
Cabled Socks
These are back out of hibernation, about 1/3 of the leg done on the second sock. Managed to sneak them on to the airplane during the trip to Sydney as they are on 2 short circular bamboo needles and nobody seemed to pay any attention to them.
Additional Project, Patons "Shadow Tweed Lace Jacket". Pattern booklet was a birthday gift from husband, and he picked this jacket as the one he'd like me to knit from it.
Mental Note to Self: must start making and stockpiling gifts soon for Christmas trip.
Closet Confession: I’ve been a bad girl…couldn’t resist sale on sock yarn…and some Rowan Summer Tweed…and a knitting bag…and some needles…all 50% off, what’s a girl to do? Photos up as soon as I get a chance…
Saturday, March 29, 2008
Name change
Any thoughts, suggestions or other comments on the name?
By the way, if you've done me the honour of linking to this blog on yours, I think the link will have to be updated, don't think it adjusts automatically. Sorry :(
Just a bit of spinning eye candy...
my treasure chest, a basket full of predrafted roving
a gratuitous close up of the spun singles. Can't wait try navajo plying to keep the colours intact