So since I decided to hold off on my spinning, I've been spinning like a mad woman. This weekend is a case in point. I completed 4 skeins of mystery colour fingerling 2 ply from Funky Carolina scrappies, 1 skein (small one) of funky Carolina silk/merino fingerling, the last 2 skeins of the navy/black worsted, sport weight. Oh yeah, must not forget the skein of Pigeon Roof Studio's Vanity Fair fingerling. All of it is washed and hanging to dry in the spare bedroom ensuite now.
I have already finished another skein of scrappies, and have one spun up as singles, and waiting to be plyed. I think I have enough scrappies for 3 more skeins, and enough silk/merino scrappies for another 3 small skeins of yarn.
I'm getting better at predrafting, and am finding the handdyed varigated stuff much more interesting to spin than the single colour stuff (read between the lines why it took me so long to finish those last 2 skeins of navy/black sport/worsted weight stuff).
I also went through my handspun stash and think the next batch of donations will include a lot of my earlier works. Stuff that I either don't like, or don't like the fiber, or just find ugly, and know I will never use. I know, handspun is precious, but I have so much now that I think I can part with the stuff I KNOW I will never use.
I think I will also donate a bunch of my early hand dyed rovings, corrX fiber that I got with my spinning wheel. Now that I've moved on to merino and silk, I just don't enjoy spinning the coarser fibers. I wonder if someday I will like them again. I don't even think I like BFL as much as merino, yes it is slightly easier to spin, but to my fingers it is nowhere near as soft!
So plan is, after I finish the 3 skeins of scrappies I have left, I'm going to start spinning up the 3 batts of Crown Mountain Fibers that I picked up at Madrona. I prepreped it last night (couldn't sleep), and it's soft and squishy. I'm still not sure I will like how the colours come out, but when I was at Madrona, their colours were kind of limited. But I do like the softness and the quantity that you can get of each colourway.
Once that is done, I may try the Chameleon Dyeworks optim fiber I have preprosed a couple of weeks ago and is sitting on my bedroom nightstand. It's gorgeous, but I'm a tad scared cause it feel a lot like silk in thinness and stickyness, and I'm not very good at spinning silk yet. Maybe I should do that ball of apricot handdyed silk that I picked up at Madrona before I try to tackle the optim. I would feel less bad if I screwed up the silk than the optim. The silk was an afterthought out of one of the seconds bins.
Monday, March 10, 2008
Friday, March 7, 2008
Mohair behaving badly
Yesterday I picked up 16 oz of some pretty gorgeous mohair roving at the yarn donation shop (I figure I was donating to charity with the purchase!), and decided to try spinning up a little of it in the evening.
Predrafting it was a breeze, it predrafts like a dream, separating into soft fluffy cloudlike fibers, lustrous, and shiny. It proceded then to coat EVERYTHING with a fine layer of sticky fibers. My black pants looked like they had been coated with a layer of multicolour fuzz, I'm hoping the washing machine will fix that, but I have my doubts.
The spinning itself was tough, it drafts well, almost too well, the fibers weren't sticky enough for the high speed whorl, the roving kept separating out, and then I had to keep attaching more bits over and over again. I think part of my problem was the high speed whorl that I didn't bother to remove before I tried to spin the mohair. It was spinning too fast, and causing the end single ply to be way way overspun, and because of that I wasn't really able to get the single ply to draw in fast enough, yet slow enough to get even twist that wasn't way over twisted.
In the end, I think I managed about an ounce in about 30 mins, 2 ply, and very pretty looking, shiny, yet hard as a rock, very rope like. Reading up on how to spin mohair, it suggests to spin from the fold, and perhaps at a very low speed with barely enough twist to hold it together, otherwise you get tough rope like yarn (much like what I was able to produce)
It is a very interesting fiber to try, and I'm looking forwards to my next attempt, however I think it may be a bit in the future while I figure out what exactly I should be doing to get it to work better :) Plus, I have all this other well behaving fiber to play with. :)
Predrafting it was a breeze, it predrafts like a dream, separating into soft fluffy cloudlike fibers, lustrous, and shiny. It proceded then to coat EVERYTHING with a fine layer of sticky fibers. My black pants looked like they had been coated with a layer of multicolour fuzz, I'm hoping the washing machine will fix that, but I have my doubts.
The spinning itself was tough, it drafts well, almost too well, the fibers weren't sticky enough for the high speed whorl, the roving kept separating out, and then I had to keep attaching more bits over and over again. I think part of my problem was the high speed whorl that I didn't bother to remove before I tried to spin the mohair. It was spinning too fast, and causing the end single ply to be way way overspun, and because of that I wasn't really able to get the single ply to draw in fast enough, yet slow enough to get even twist that wasn't way over twisted.
In the end, I think I managed about an ounce in about 30 mins, 2 ply, and very pretty looking, shiny, yet hard as a rock, very rope like. Reading up on how to spin mohair, it suggests to spin from the fold, and perhaps at a very low speed with barely enough twist to hold it together, otherwise you get tough rope like yarn (much like what I was able to produce)
It is a very interesting fiber to try, and I'm looking forwards to my next attempt, however I think it may be a bit in the future while I figure out what exactly I should be doing to get it to work better :) Plus, I have all this other well behaving fiber to play with. :)
Thursday, March 6, 2008
It's endless!
Going through a couple more boxes in my closet and I discovered yet another stash of acrylic yarns. I really no idea why I had so much hidden away, it must be the pack rat genes that somehow made it into my lineage.
Run out to the yarn donation place, and am now 2 garbage bags lighter wrt yarn :) Decided to preemptively strike at my Mission Possible 2008 targets, and donated one of the cable sweater WIP as well. Had half the back done, in a really squishy soft acrylic, but I very much doubt I will ever finish it :) So it's better off with another home.
Kind of shocking too, saw some of the yarns that I donated at the store on sale, and the prices they are asking for things is much higher than I would have thought they would ask. I'm surprised that they sell yarns at that price. Some stuff that I personally think should be way more is pretty inexpensive, but stuff that I don't think is that expensive sells for a lot. Who knows how they price things.
I also found out that they sell handspun, I may start donating some of my hand spun stuff, as I doubt I will knit up most of the early attempts, and some of the colours that looked gorgeous in fiber form, really don't appeal to me in yarn form. I think that would be nice, since they probably don't get a lot of handspun yarns there very often :)
I did pick up 16 oz of handdyed mohair. Never spun up mohair before, but it is very shiny, and very hairy, not sure if I will like it, but I'll give it a whorl, and see how it goes. It feels really rough to me, but hey, I might LOVE how it spins up. And worst case, I'll just donate the finished results if I don't like it.
One of the few things I do think I need to pick up soonish, is a nice vase to hold my knitting needles. The cloth case I had, doesn't fit all of them anymore, and it's tough to get needles out of it now that it's over full. I am using a vase right now, but it's pumpkin shaped and not quite tall enough, I'm worried that the longer needles will tip it over (not that they are that heavy, but still), and that Pico will get into her little head to "rearrange" the needles. I'll have to find a good spot to put the vase once I have it :)
I'm getting closer to my target of having things cleaner around the house. Mom was right, you have to get rid of stuff to reduce clutter, who would have thought :)
Run out to the yarn donation place, and am now 2 garbage bags lighter wrt yarn :) Decided to preemptively strike at my Mission Possible 2008 targets, and donated one of the cable sweater WIP as well. Had half the back done, in a really squishy soft acrylic, but I very much doubt I will ever finish it :) So it's better off with another home.
Kind of shocking too, saw some of the yarns that I donated at the store on sale, and the prices they are asking for things is much higher than I would have thought they would ask. I'm surprised that they sell yarns at that price. Some stuff that I personally think should be way more is pretty inexpensive, but stuff that I don't think is that expensive sells for a lot. Who knows how they price things.
I also found out that they sell handspun, I may start donating some of my hand spun stuff, as I doubt I will knit up most of the early attempts, and some of the colours that looked gorgeous in fiber form, really don't appeal to me in yarn form. I think that would be nice, since they probably don't get a lot of handspun yarns there very often :)
I did pick up 16 oz of handdyed mohair. Never spun up mohair before, but it is very shiny, and very hairy, not sure if I will like it, but I'll give it a whorl, and see how it goes. It feels really rough to me, but hey, I might LOVE how it spins up. And worst case, I'll just donate the finished results if I don't like it.
One of the few things I do think I need to pick up soonish, is a nice vase to hold my knitting needles. The cloth case I had, doesn't fit all of them anymore, and it's tough to get needles out of it now that it's over full. I am using a vase right now, but it's pumpkin shaped and not quite tall enough, I'm worried that the longer needles will tip it over (not that they are that heavy, but still), and that Pico will get into her little head to "rearrange" the needles. I'll have to find a good spot to put the vase once I have it :)
I'm getting closer to my target of having things cleaner around the house. Mom was right, you have to get rid of stuff to reduce clutter, who would have thought :)
Wednesday, March 5, 2008
Inventory...
After rearranging and organzing and rearranging my stash of yarn and fiber, I have come to the conclusion that I have pretty much everything I want/need for pretty much any project I want to do. It's pretty weird of a feeling to walk into a yarn shop and not have any particular yarn appeal to me, not to mention walking out of a yarn shop without purchasing anything. Very very odd feeling.
I did a quick tally of my fiber stash this morning and have decided that I should donate some of the stuff that I *know* I will never spin up. What was I thinking getting 2 pounds of white nylon pencil roving? Then again, since I have it all organized now, maybe someday I will spin up some novelty yarns? Yeah right, it will never happen. Spinning white fiber doesn't really appeal to me (execpt for that 5 pound bag of merino silk pencil roving I had specially made for me). I should spin more of that up, I should have enough for several cable cardigans, and it's so soft and squish and soft and squishy... umm did I say soft and squishy? Spun up it should take significantly less space. So I keep telling myself.
Actually, after doing the inventory and organization of my stash, I'm pretty satisfed with my stash. I have all the types of yarn that I want to knit with, and enough of each kind to have a good selection to choose from when the inspiration hits.
I just have to restrain myself from picking up sale yarns now :) Something about a good sale just gets me every time. It's not that I need the yarn, it's that it's on sale!. I am so happy I completely forgot about the fire sale at Hilltop this past weekend. That would have been bad :)
I did a quick tally of my fiber stash this morning and have decided that I should donate some of the stuff that I *know* I will never spin up. What was I thinking getting 2 pounds of white nylon pencil roving? Then again, since I have it all organized now, maybe someday I will spin up some novelty yarns? Yeah right, it will never happen. Spinning white fiber doesn't really appeal to me (execpt for that 5 pound bag of merino silk pencil roving I had specially made for me). I should spin more of that up, I should have enough for several cable cardigans, and it's so soft and squish and soft and squishy... umm did I say soft and squishy? Spun up it should take significantly less space. So I keep telling myself.
Actually, after doing the inventory and organization of my stash, I'm pretty satisfed with my stash. I have all the types of yarn that I want to knit with, and enough of each kind to have a good selection to choose from when the inspiration hits.
I just have to restrain myself from picking up sale yarns now :) Something about a good sale just gets me every time. It's not that I need the yarn, it's that it's on sale!. I am so happy I completely forgot about the fire sale at Hilltop this past weekend. That would have been bad :)
Tuesday, March 4, 2008
Short and Sweet
You know I was planning on putting away the spinning wheel and doing more knitting, then got caught up in spinning and put the knitting on hold. I think the knitting bug has bitten me again. Cast off on a pair of socks (yeah I know I have at least 3 pairs in various states of completion), and on a pair of gloves. None of the WIP socks appeals to me right now, I think I just need a plain stocking stitch sock to work on, mindless knitting seems to appeal right now.
My brain doesn't seem to be working all that well today.
My brain doesn't seem to be working all that well today.
Monday, March 3, 2008
Spinning, spinning and more spinning :)
So yeah, I promised I would be cleaning house this weekend (and I did do some cleaning house) but I ended up spinning way way more than I thought I would be. And loving every minute of it.
Decided sometime on Friday night that I was going to spin up some of the scrappies that I purchased from Funky Carolina. I don't know what I was thinking but I picked up 10 bags of scrappies from her (and she sent me an additional one cause she shipped the stuff to me late). Don't get me wrong, I love the bags, but I wonder if me picking up her entire group of scrappies caused her to send it out to me late. There is some different fibers in there, but there were a lot of colourways that were the same. I would think that some of the colourways would have almost 4 ounces total weight if you put them all together. Makes me also wonder if they are really scrappies or if they are just another way for people to try out her colourways.
She did have some fibers in there that I wasn't too fond of, but I have no idea what they were. They spun up beautifully, but they don't feel anywhere near as soft as the merino top that I have been spinning recently feels like.
In any case, I decided to practice pre drafting and spinning fingerling weight yarn from the scrappies. Random colours, 2 ply yarn. I think I've figured out how to predraft now, before I wasn't spending nearly enough time predrafting. I also figured out that I don't like splitting into thin strips, I prefer to predraft the entire roving. Thin strips seem to break more easily for me, so the entire roving works well. It was going really well, and was lots of fun seeing what colours I would pick out at random of my big bin of scrappies (and it's a big bin!). I finished 3 four ounce skeins of fingerling/sport weight yarn this weekend. That's a ton of spinning!
Very interesting way that the yarn colours worked out. It's a good thing that Funky Carolina's colours are all pretty complimentary, otherwise I would have gotten some really ugly combos. Some of the colours I would never have thought of putting together at all! Some are gorgeous. The last skein that I did, I specifically picked out some spring colours, light greens, light purples, pinks, yellows, and more greens. The yarn turned out gorgeous, and since it was the last one that I had worked on, it came out really nice and even. Very tight ply, very smooth. I think most of the scrappies that went into that skien were merino, they were so soft, and pretty.
I have also figured out long draw seems to give me the most control over merino yarn. Before I was getting a lot of nubs, and thick spots when I was drafting in to spin, but with the long draw method, I can really watch how much of it is getting in there. I also installed my high speed whorl onto the wheel. It makes so much of a difference, I wish I had done it earlier. I almost feel that I'm ready to graduate to a better wheel soon. But I've only had this one for not even a year yet. I am starting to feel the limitations of it, that is isn't as smooth as it could be, that it doesn't have enough bells and whistles to enhance my spinning experience. I think I'm going to hold out for a while longer and practice more. Perhaps finish off the rest of the scrappies (by my calculation that is at least another 8 skiens of yarn in that bin), and then some of the other fiber I have hanging around the house.
This throws my thought of putting the spinning wheel up and knitting totally out the window. I am really enjoying spinning, and fiber takes up so much room. Best I turn it into yarn :) Yeah, that's the ticket.
On the knitting front, I started doing a pair of gloves for myself. I think I may frog them and start over. I did a cable cast on, but now I think I should do a provisional cast on, and then knit up from the wrist and down from the wrist so that I can do an invisible cast off. The cable cast on is not stretchy enough in my opinion, and I don't really like the long tail cast on. I wonder if I can figure out how to do the provisional cast on so that I can knit both gloves at the same time.
Socks are currently on hold. Hats are also on hold. Possibly one more scarf, and a bunch of gloves, and maybe more spinning :)
Need more time to spin and knit, but I think I may have overdone it a tad this weekend, my fingers/wrists were a little stiff/sore on Sat/Sun and Mon mornings. That has got to be a sign that I did too much!
Must remember that even if I enjoy it a lot, I need to do it in moderation!
Onwards!
ps... I found my camera battery charger so I may be able to start posting pictures again!
Decided sometime on Friday night that I was going to spin up some of the scrappies that I purchased from Funky Carolina. I don't know what I was thinking but I picked up 10 bags of scrappies from her (and she sent me an additional one cause she shipped the stuff to me late). Don't get me wrong, I love the bags, but I wonder if me picking up her entire group of scrappies caused her to send it out to me late. There is some different fibers in there, but there were a lot of colourways that were the same. I would think that some of the colourways would have almost 4 ounces total weight if you put them all together. Makes me also wonder if they are really scrappies or if they are just another way for people to try out her colourways.
She did have some fibers in there that I wasn't too fond of, but I have no idea what they were. They spun up beautifully, but they don't feel anywhere near as soft as the merino top that I have been spinning recently feels like.
In any case, I decided to practice pre drafting and spinning fingerling weight yarn from the scrappies. Random colours, 2 ply yarn. I think I've figured out how to predraft now, before I wasn't spending nearly enough time predrafting. I also figured out that I don't like splitting into thin strips, I prefer to predraft the entire roving. Thin strips seem to break more easily for me, so the entire roving works well. It was going really well, and was lots of fun seeing what colours I would pick out at random of my big bin of scrappies (and it's a big bin!). I finished 3 four ounce skeins of fingerling/sport weight yarn this weekend. That's a ton of spinning!
Very interesting way that the yarn colours worked out. It's a good thing that Funky Carolina's colours are all pretty complimentary, otherwise I would have gotten some really ugly combos. Some of the colours I would never have thought of putting together at all! Some are gorgeous. The last skein that I did, I specifically picked out some spring colours, light greens, light purples, pinks, yellows, and more greens. The yarn turned out gorgeous, and since it was the last one that I had worked on, it came out really nice and even. Very tight ply, very smooth. I think most of the scrappies that went into that skien were merino, they were so soft, and pretty.
I have also figured out long draw seems to give me the most control over merino yarn. Before I was getting a lot of nubs, and thick spots when I was drafting in to spin, but with the long draw method, I can really watch how much of it is getting in there. I also installed my high speed whorl onto the wheel. It makes so much of a difference, I wish I had done it earlier. I almost feel that I'm ready to graduate to a better wheel soon. But I've only had this one for not even a year yet. I am starting to feel the limitations of it, that is isn't as smooth as it could be, that it doesn't have enough bells and whistles to enhance my spinning experience. I think I'm going to hold out for a while longer and practice more. Perhaps finish off the rest of the scrappies (by my calculation that is at least another 8 skiens of yarn in that bin), and then some of the other fiber I have hanging around the house.
This throws my thought of putting the spinning wheel up and knitting totally out the window. I am really enjoying spinning, and fiber takes up so much room. Best I turn it into yarn :) Yeah, that's the ticket.
On the knitting front, I started doing a pair of gloves for myself. I think I may frog them and start over. I did a cable cast on, but now I think I should do a provisional cast on, and then knit up from the wrist and down from the wrist so that I can do an invisible cast off. The cable cast on is not stretchy enough in my opinion, and I don't really like the long tail cast on. I wonder if I can figure out how to do the provisional cast on so that I can knit both gloves at the same time.
Socks are currently on hold. Hats are also on hold. Possibly one more scarf, and a bunch of gloves, and maybe more spinning :)
Need more time to spin and knit, but I think I may have overdone it a tad this weekend, my fingers/wrists were a little stiff/sore on Sat/Sun and Mon mornings. That has got to be a sign that I did too much!
Must remember that even if I enjoy it a lot, I need to do it in moderation!
Onwards!
ps... I found my camera battery charger so I may be able to start posting pictures again!
Friday, February 29, 2008
Second wind...
Spinning once again :) Filled a bobbin with the navy/black superwash merino and it only took me an hour. An hour to ply and one more skien done. It goes pretty fast once you get started, but it's the whole getting started that sometimes takes a while.
Spinning was very soothing, very calming and very enjoyable, so much so I ended up predrafting 2 more batches for me to spin up soonish. Perhaps my spinning wheel will not be put up as soon as I had hoped. I predrafted 4 ounces of optim fiber from Chameleon Colorworks in the Midnight colorway. it feels almost like tencel or silk in how it predrafts. A lot of work, and I think I may need to predraft it some more, but it's so soft and shiny. I'm really looking forward to spinning it up.
I also predrafted 4 more ounces of Pigeon Roof Studios superwash merino in the Vanity Fair colourway. I think I did one 4 ounce batch in that colour way before, but I under plyed it and would like to try again. It's not my favourite colour so if I mess up, I won't feel as bad as if I messed up something I really wanted to do well.
I spent some time looking at other people's handspun and I think I'm getting closer to producing stuff that I would like to be able to use to knit things with. I am still having some issues with underplying (loose areas in the yarn), and with consistant thickness. I believe that is an issue with my drafting. I need to predraft better. Or maybe find a better way for me to predraft. I'm told that preparing the fiber well beforehand is more than half the battle, if you do it well, spinning the fiber up is easy.
I've tried predrafting by spliting the fiber into very long very thin strips of fiber and spinning each of those, and frankly I don't really enjoy doing that. I wonder if I can adapt the technique I saw at madrona by some unknown lady, she had one hand on her roving (full size) and the other just sort of pinched the bits that she was spinning, and she spun directly from the roving, no predrafting/drafting that i could see. It looked pretty even, and she wasn't even watching what she was doing. Perhaps it's practice, I don't know how much time she spend doing it, but she looked pretty bored.
In any case I have a ton of fiber to practice on, both in pencil roving format (just to practice spinning and plying, and in roving format where I can practice predrafting and getting even consistant singles.
So many things to think about and investigate, makes me wish I had started doing this earlier. As if I had time. :)
Spinning was very soothing, very calming and very enjoyable, so much so I ended up predrafting 2 more batches for me to spin up soonish. Perhaps my spinning wheel will not be put up as soon as I had hoped. I predrafted 4 ounces of optim fiber from Chameleon Colorworks in the Midnight colorway. it feels almost like tencel or silk in how it predrafts. A lot of work, and I think I may need to predraft it some more, but it's so soft and shiny. I'm really looking forward to spinning it up.
I also predrafted 4 more ounces of Pigeon Roof Studios superwash merino in the Vanity Fair colourway. I think I did one 4 ounce batch in that colour way before, but I under plyed it and would like to try again. It's not my favourite colour so if I mess up, I won't feel as bad as if I messed up something I really wanted to do well.
I spent some time looking at other people's handspun and I think I'm getting closer to producing stuff that I would like to be able to use to knit things with. I am still having some issues with underplying (loose areas in the yarn), and with consistant thickness. I believe that is an issue with my drafting. I need to predraft better. Or maybe find a better way for me to predraft. I'm told that preparing the fiber well beforehand is more than half the battle, if you do it well, spinning the fiber up is easy.
I've tried predrafting by spliting the fiber into very long very thin strips of fiber and spinning each of those, and frankly I don't really enjoy doing that. I wonder if I can adapt the technique I saw at madrona by some unknown lady, she had one hand on her roving (full size) and the other just sort of pinched the bits that she was spinning, and she spun directly from the roving, no predrafting/drafting that i could see. It looked pretty even, and she wasn't even watching what she was doing. Perhaps it's practice, I don't know how much time she spend doing it, but she looked pretty bored.
In any case I have a ton of fiber to practice on, both in pencil roving format (just to practice spinning and plying, and in roving format where I can practice predrafting and getting even consistant singles.
So many things to think about and investigate, makes me wish I had started doing this earlier. As if I had time. :)
Thursday, February 28, 2008
Procrastinating...
Sigh, what is it about spring that makes me want to just do very little inside the house? I have all this stuff I *should* be working on, but frankly it's tough to get myself motivated to move these days, so much other stuff happening in my life.
I do need to get stuff squared away ASAP, as I'm running out of time before my houseguest arrives... And I want my place to be immaculate while they are here. So much stuff to do, so little time!
On the WIP side :) I finished weaving in the ends on the grey hat, and started a purple/green scarf, that I think I may frog cause the colours look much nicer in the skein than in the pattern I choose. Plus, this scarf was not even on my todo list, so I shouldn't even be considering working on it. I'll frog the scarf, and do the spinning this weekend. Then 2 things are off my list, and I'll be able to put the spinning wheel away and make the living room more tidy.
One thing I *may* add to my todo list, is a pair of socks or something out of Alpaca Sox Heathered Grey. Of all the balls of yarn I left on a chair last night (yeah I know that is a very bad idea with a cat in the house), that was the only one that she touched, and she brought it up and put it beside my bed. Maybe she is trying to tell me something.
I do need to get stuff squared away ASAP, as I'm running out of time before my houseguest arrives... And I want my place to be immaculate while they are here. So much stuff to do, so little time!
On the WIP side :) I finished weaving in the ends on the grey hat, and started a purple/green scarf, that I think I may frog cause the colours look much nicer in the skein than in the pattern I choose. Plus, this scarf was not even on my todo list, so I shouldn't even be considering working on it. I'll frog the scarf, and do the spinning this weekend. Then 2 things are off my list, and I'll be able to put the spinning wheel away and make the living room more tidy.
One thing I *may* add to my todo list, is a pair of socks or something out of Alpaca Sox Heathered Grey. Of all the balls of yarn I left on a chair last night (yeah I know that is a very bad idea with a cat in the house), that was the only one that she touched, and she brought it up and put it beside my bed. Maybe she is trying to tell me something.
Wednesday, February 27, 2008
Spring Cleaning!
Cleaned out a bit of my stash (only 3 garbage bags full), dropped them off at A New Yarn, a shop that accepts yarn donations :)
Feeling good. So good that I promptly dropped a bunch of cash (all for a good cause right), on 2 books, a bit of yarn on sale (to finish the yarn I need for that sweater I have been trying to start) and some gorgeous Alice Starmore yarn that was on their discount table.
I can see already that I can NOT go to that shop that often, way too much stuff that is interesting to me. There was this single ply icelandic yarn that was calling to me! But I was good, resisted it.
Feeling good. So good that I promptly dropped a bunch of cash (all for a good cause right), on 2 books, a bit of yarn on sale (to finish the yarn I need for that sweater I have been trying to start) and some gorgeous Alice Starmore yarn that was on their discount table.
I can see already that I can NOT go to that shop that often, way too much stuff that is interesting to me. There was this single ply icelandic yarn that was calling to me! But I was good, resisted it.
Deep knitting thoughts
What if...
What if I could manage to keep my place clean without any effort, I could knit more!
What if I could find me a sugar daddy, I could spin more!
What if I could get me a housekeeper to cook and manage my house, I could design more sweaters!
Back to reality :)
This weekend is going to be spring cleaning and donations to charity I believe. I don't expect to get much spinning or knitting done, but we will see.
Have several things I'd like to finish up, see yesterday's post. Finished the grey hat, just need to weave in the ends and it's done. Not sure I want to block it, but if I don't it's going to have a pointy top, which doesn't look as nice as it could, so I probably will have to block it.
I found 2 pairs of half finished socks (yeah, I have WIP scattered everywhere right now) So perhaps I should finish those, both are toe up and done past the heel, just need to do the cuff, and they are done. Each pair shouldnt take me more than a couple of hours.
Should work on that blue basketweave scarf, or it will NEVER be done... Shoot me now if I ever decide to do a basket weave scarf using very thin fingerling sock yarn again... 2 inches on this thing take roughly 3 hours... Even slower than socks! I don't know what I was thinking when I started it, other than oooo soft, ooo pretty, ooo nice pattern. Hopefully I know better now :)
I also need to clean off my dining room table. It is going to be my drafting table for my sweater pattern. My knitting supplies have just exploded all over it. Very little yarn or fiber on the table, just lots of needles (big closing store sale at Pacific Fabrics in Issaqua), various stationary supplies (big rolls of tracing paper, since I can't find large size grid paper anywhere!), magazines and books to do with knitting, and somehow some of my quilting supplies have managed to find their way to the dining room table.
Pico is also helping in her own unique way. She's slowly bringing my yarn (one ball at a time) down from my work/storage room upstairs, to place it gently under the dining room table. I think she may be telling me something, perhaps that I have too much yarn, and that I should put it away so she can't reach it? I'm almost scared to go see what kind of havoc she has wrecked upstairs, cause I really did think I left all my yarn out of reach of a little cat. However she is devious and crafty when it comes to getting into small places that she *wants* to get into.
What if I could manage to keep my place clean without any effort, I could knit more!
What if I could find me a sugar daddy, I could spin more!
What if I could get me a housekeeper to cook and manage my house, I could design more sweaters!
Back to reality :)
This weekend is going to be spring cleaning and donations to charity I believe. I don't expect to get much spinning or knitting done, but we will see.
Have several things I'd like to finish up, see yesterday's post. Finished the grey hat, just need to weave in the ends and it's done. Not sure I want to block it, but if I don't it's going to have a pointy top, which doesn't look as nice as it could, so I probably will have to block it.
I found 2 pairs of half finished socks (yeah, I have WIP scattered everywhere right now) So perhaps I should finish those, both are toe up and done past the heel, just need to do the cuff, and they are done. Each pair shouldnt take me more than a couple of hours.
Should work on that blue basketweave scarf, or it will NEVER be done... Shoot me now if I ever decide to do a basket weave scarf using very thin fingerling sock yarn again... 2 inches on this thing take roughly 3 hours... Even slower than socks! I don't know what I was thinking when I started it, other than oooo soft, ooo pretty, ooo nice pattern. Hopefully I know better now :)
I also need to clean off my dining room table. It is going to be my drafting table for my sweater pattern. My knitting supplies have just exploded all over it. Very little yarn or fiber on the table, just lots of needles (big closing store sale at Pacific Fabrics in Issaqua), various stationary supplies (big rolls of tracing paper, since I can't find large size grid paper anywhere!), magazines and books to do with knitting, and somehow some of my quilting supplies have managed to find their way to the dining room table.
Pico is also helping in her own unique way. She's slowly bringing my yarn (one ball at a time) down from my work/storage room upstairs, to place it gently under the dining room table. I think she may be telling me something, perhaps that I have too much yarn, and that I should put it away so she can't reach it? I'm almost scared to go see what kind of havoc she has wrecked upstairs, cause I really did think I left all my yarn out of reach of a little cat. However she is devious and crafty when it comes to getting into small places that she *wants* to get into.
Tuesday, February 26, 2008
Time is finite...
So annoying, I have an infinite number of things I want to create/make/knit/spin, and a limited amount of time in which to do them. Not to mention RL other things are starting to rear their heads and demand attention. I would love to block out several hours a night just to be creative, but it's getting harder and harder to do that these days.
In the short term, I'd like to get the following things done and off the plate:
1. Finish design of blue/blue/white stripy sweater
2. Finish spin of second pound of navy/black fiber
3. Finish grey hat
4. Start and finish second Midnight Sun Tam
5. Start and finish second ipod nano case - space invaders theme
6. Start and finish first iphone case - space invaders theme
7. Start and finish second iphone case - pirate theme
8. Start knitting blue/blue/white stripy sweater
I think 2, 3 will be easy to knock off this week, but the rest are going to take a bit more time for me to finish. 5, 6, 7, shouldn't take me more than 3 hours each, so maybe by the end of March. OMG time flies too fast... Need to find a way to make time slow down a bit more.
In the short term, I'd like to get the following things done and off the plate:
1. Finish design of blue/blue/white stripy sweater
2. Finish spin of second pound of navy/black fiber
3. Finish grey hat
4. Start and finish second Midnight Sun Tam
5. Start and finish second ipod nano case - space invaders theme
6. Start and finish first iphone case - space invaders theme
7. Start and finish second iphone case - pirate theme
8. Start knitting blue/blue/white stripy sweater
I think 2, 3 will be easy to knock off this week, but the rest are going to take a bit more time for me to finish. 5, 6, 7, shouldn't take me more than 3 hours each, so maybe by the end of March. OMG time flies too fast... Need to find a way to make time slow down a bit more.
Monday, February 25, 2008
One more weekend bites the dust...
Bunch of knitting on the needles this weekend, finished yet another hat, have another one more than 70% done. Moving along nicely, not bored with them yet. Might even start another midnight sun Tam. It went fast and was a fun knit. Love the fabric that the first one turned out, but it looks like a tam, I want one that looks like a ski hat! Won't be using larger needles on the body, that should fix the problem. Odd how even a quarter of a mm can make that much of a difference when knitting.
Reorged my fiber/yarn on Sat. OMG, I have a lot of fiber/yarn. Almost fully occupies a very large closet. I really do need to knit faster! But, I have a serious thought of a sweater, need to rework my numbers a bit, but I think it will work. Perhaps a project for next weekend? Then another sweater for the next project. Need to start working on my mission possible 2008 goals. Otherwise I'm going to be giving away a lot of yarn! and possibly frogging a lot of projects.
Spinning is going wonderfully, I'm starting to get some really nice even yarns out of it all, I do need to work on my plying, I believe I may be underplying sometimes. It shows up only after I wash the skeins and hang them to dry, that I notice the loose spots in the yarn. The one that I "overtwisted" came out gorgeous, so maybe I need to *overtwiste* to get good consistant tightly spun yarn. On target for my goals, finished the Agent Orange (one skien gorgeous, one skien kind of blah, maybe I should reply it again). One skein of the navy/black done, 3 to go, then I'm done my spinning for a while. Till the spinning bug hits me. Perhaps I should put my spinning wheel away so that I concentrate on knitting. Yeah, that's what I'm going to do once the blue/black is done.
Wish there were more hours in the day...
Reorged my fiber/yarn on Sat. OMG, I have a lot of fiber/yarn. Almost fully occupies a very large closet. I really do need to knit faster! But, I have a serious thought of a sweater, need to rework my numbers a bit, but I think it will work. Perhaps a project for next weekend? Then another sweater for the next project. Need to start working on my mission possible 2008 goals. Otherwise I'm going to be giving away a lot of yarn! and possibly frogging a lot of projects.
Spinning is going wonderfully, I'm starting to get some really nice even yarns out of it all, I do need to work on my plying, I believe I may be underplying sometimes. It shows up only after I wash the skeins and hang them to dry, that I notice the loose spots in the yarn. The one that I "overtwisted" came out gorgeous, so maybe I need to *overtwiste* to get good consistant tightly spun yarn. On target for my goals, finished the Agent Orange (one skien gorgeous, one skien kind of blah, maybe I should reply it again). One skein of the navy/black done, 3 to go, then I'm done my spinning for a while. Till the spinning bug hits me. Perhaps I should put my spinning wheel away so that I concentrate on knitting. Yeah, that's what I'm going to do once the blue/black is done.
Wish there were more hours in the day...
Friday, February 22, 2008
Hats, Hats, Hats and more hats...
Socks, scarves and mittens are so yesterday, I've moved on to hats.
I'm working on Hat #7 now, wonderful red Jacque Cousteau hat that is a breeze to knit up (well I haven't hit the decreases yet, but the instructions don't look all that daunting). I've also figured out why my hats were all consistantly big... I completely forgot about Negative ease...
So lets say someone has a 22 inch head, I was knitting a 22 inch hat, not a 21 inch hat that would "stretch" to fit that 22 inch head. No wonder everything was large (Not to mention sometimes my swatches don't represent the true guage of my knitting, and many thanks to Jean Wong for pointing out to me that I was knitting on needles consistantly too large for the yarn I was working with. Those 2 bits of information have helpped me immensely.)
So now, I need to remember to knit with negative ease for hats. You want hats to be snug. All I need to figure out now is how snug they need to be :) 1 inch negative ease? 2 inches negative ease? 1.5? I think perhaps it all depends on the pattern at hand.
So... since I now have so much more insight into it, I have 4 more hats to "redo", perhaps I can find people with larger heads so that I can "gift" my prototypes to.
I'm working on Hat #7 now, wonderful red Jacque Cousteau hat that is a breeze to knit up (well I haven't hit the decreases yet, but the instructions don't look all that daunting). I've also figured out why my hats were all consistantly big... I completely forgot about Negative ease...
So lets say someone has a 22 inch head, I was knitting a 22 inch hat, not a 21 inch hat that would "stretch" to fit that 22 inch head. No wonder everything was large (Not to mention sometimes my swatches don't represent the true guage of my knitting, and many thanks to Jean Wong for pointing out to me that I was knitting on needles consistantly too large for the yarn I was working with. Those 2 bits of information have helpped me immensely.)
So now, I need to remember to knit with negative ease for hats. You want hats to be snug. All I need to figure out now is how snug they need to be :) 1 inch negative ease? 2 inches negative ease? 1.5? I think perhaps it all depends on the pattern at hand.
So... since I now have so much more insight into it, I have 4 more hats to "redo", perhaps I can find people with larger heads so that I can "gift" my prototypes to.
Wednesday, February 20, 2008
Reprioritizing...
So after having a gander at my stash of fiber and yarns, I've decided that I need to reprioritize what i'm working on these days. Once I've finished the second skien of Pigeon Roof Studio's Agent Orange Superwash Merino, and plied both, and the second pound of Navy/Black superwash merino pencil rovings, I'm going to focus my attention on knitting. I really do need to work my way through several projects, since spinning produces yarn, and I have a surplus of yarn, it only makes sense for me to knit rather than spin :) Well I also have a surplus of fiber, but I won't go there yet.
I've been inspired to knit a couple of sweaters, I swatched for one last night, and spent a good part of today looking for grid paper that is metric... AND IT IS NO LONGER PRODUCED! So I may have to resort to creating my own (pain in the arse and probably quite expensive), or making do with imperial measurements (annoying but possible). I also figure that after I have designed a couple and knit a couple of sweaters, I will have a much better idea of what kinds of yarns I love to knit with, and therefore have a plan on what to spin up some of this absolutely gorgeous fiber I have in my stash. I should have enough of the stuff for several sweaters, and rather than blindly spinning, whatever comes naturally when I spin the fiber, having a plan and a target would probably be best.
So looks like this week will be finishing spinning, and locating some grid paper, and next week I'll be off to the races designing and knitting stuff! Wish me luck!
I've been inspired to knit a couple of sweaters, I swatched for one last night, and spent a good part of today looking for grid paper that is metric... AND IT IS NO LONGER PRODUCED! So I may have to resort to creating my own (pain in the arse and probably quite expensive), or making do with imperial measurements (annoying but possible). I also figure that after I have designed a couple and knit a couple of sweaters, I will have a much better idea of what kinds of yarns I love to knit with, and therefore have a plan on what to spin up some of this absolutely gorgeous fiber I have in my stash. I should have enough of the stuff for several sweaters, and rather than blindly spinning, whatever comes naturally when I spin the fiber, having a plan and a target would probably be best.
So looks like this week will be finishing spinning, and locating some grid paper, and next week I'll be off to the races designing and knitting stuff! Wish me luck!
Monday, February 18, 2008
Weekend Knitting Madness!
Wow, what a wonderful way to spend the weekend. I took 4 days of knitting and knitting related classes at Madrona, and had a blast. I'm so very happy I decided to go and do the classes. I took all of Jean Wong's knitting classes. My brain is full of thoughts, ideas, things to try, things to do, wishlists of things I want to work on. It's tough to revert back to real life stuff, and limit the crafty/creative side of me to just evenings and weekends again.
Knitting Patterns
2 day course, all about creating a fitted sweater from your measurements. This class was amazing, the whole math (wonky math but still math) behind how to create a pattern, draw it up, figure out how to get the armholes to match the arms, and how to create different kinds of neck holes. Very very cool class, makes me want to go back to my parent's place and find all my drafting supplies and bring them back so I can design some more sweaters. I do think I will use much of what I learned. Learning the Japanese knitting notational shorthand was just a huge bonus!
Finishing
1 full day, Wow, 11 swatches later, this course was so cool. Learning how to do invisible bind off for 1x1, 2x2 ribbing was way cool. The Japanese short rows for shoulder shaping was awesome. I don't think I will ever look at short rows the same way. So many fancy, efficient, precise ways to finish sweaters. No more stiff seams for me!
Button holes
1/2 day, this was a very interesting class. I never really gave button holes much thought, but now I know how to do at least 5 different kinds of button holes, and how to make button bands look good on sweaters. Very very useful class, I hope she runs a Button Holes 2 class next year. I would definitely take it if she ran it.
So now the dilemna is if I should sign up for her 13 month course. It looks amazing, truely amazing, I had no idea she ran it down here in Seattle as well as up in Vancouver. The sheer amount of work is daunting, but I very very much enjoyed wrapping my brain around designing sweaters and thinking about how to make the sweaters fit just perfectly. Well I have a couple of months before the open house, when i would need to decide.
New Fibers
I broke the bank... well almost :) I now have about 6 pounds of various types of fiber to spin, amazing, colourful, beautiful, soft, fluffy and just darn right gorgeous fibers stashed away in various places around the house. Maybe these next couple of months I will spend spinning it up so that I can use it if I take that course I want to take... Perhaps that is way too ambitious, maybe using commercial yarns would be easier/less stressful in the long run. I certainly have enough other yarn to do that.
FO
And to top it off, I was suffering knitting withdrawls while I was in the knitting course, watching all the people around me knit all kinds of things, so I started a hat on Thurs. Absolutely love it, so much that I stayed up late to finish it last night, spent 40 mins weaving in ends this morning, still have an hour or so to go finishing it, then blocking, and it's done! First hat that I have ever had that took *9* balls of yarn... Ah well, I will have yarn for future projects :)
That's it for now!
Knitting Patterns
2 day course, all about creating a fitted sweater from your measurements. This class was amazing, the whole math (wonky math but still math) behind how to create a pattern, draw it up, figure out how to get the armholes to match the arms, and how to create different kinds of neck holes. Very very cool class, makes me want to go back to my parent's place and find all my drafting supplies and bring them back so I can design some more sweaters. I do think I will use much of what I learned. Learning the Japanese knitting notational shorthand was just a huge bonus!
Finishing
1 full day, Wow, 11 swatches later, this course was so cool. Learning how to do invisible bind off for 1x1, 2x2 ribbing was way cool. The Japanese short rows for shoulder shaping was awesome. I don't think I will ever look at short rows the same way. So many fancy, efficient, precise ways to finish sweaters. No more stiff seams for me!
Button holes
1/2 day, this was a very interesting class. I never really gave button holes much thought, but now I know how to do at least 5 different kinds of button holes, and how to make button bands look good on sweaters. Very very useful class, I hope she runs a Button Holes 2 class next year. I would definitely take it if she ran it.
So now the dilemna is if I should sign up for her 13 month course. It looks amazing, truely amazing, I had no idea she ran it down here in Seattle as well as up in Vancouver. The sheer amount of work is daunting, but I very very much enjoyed wrapping my brain around designing sweaters and thinking about how to make the sweaters fit just perfectly. Well I have a couple of months before the open house, when i would need to decide.
New Fibers
I broke the bank... well almost :) I now have about 6 pounds of various types of fiber to spin, amazing, colourful, beautiful, soft, fluffy and just darn right gorgeous fibers stashed away in various places around the house. Maybe these next couple of months I will spend spinning it up so that I can use it if I take that course I want to take... Perhaps that is way too ambitious, maybe using commercial yarns would be easier/less stressful in the long run. I certainly have enough other yarn to do that.
FO
And to top it off, I was suffering knitting withdrawls while I was in the knitting course, watching all the people around me knit all kinds of things, so I started a hat on Thurs. Absolutely love it, so much that I stayed up late to finish it last night, spent 40 mins weaving in ends this morning, still have an hour or so to go finishing it, then blocking, and it's done! First hat that I have ever had that took *9* balls of yarn... Ah well, I will have yarn for future projects :)
That's it for now!
Wednesday, February 13, 2008
Swatching, and swatching, and swatching and more swatching...
So I've managed to sign up for all of Jean Wong's classes at Madrona this year, and am really looking forward to learning new and interesting techniques. However, it's getting down to panic time for me, as I've never been very good at getting swatches done, something about knitting little squares just doesn't do it for me. And for these courses I have to knit millions of these little squares, and I have to follow very detailed instructions for doing it.
I've finished the swatches for the first 2 days of classes (Deep breath of relief), however I have not blocked it (and I don't think I will), and I produced 2 swatches when I only was required to produce one :) I think it will really depend on what she is going to tell us, which one I will use. One is this gorgeous dark purple/blue/black irridecent silk/wool japanese yarn that I picked up in HK last year. I believe it is DK weight. The other is some of my 2 pounds of handspun olive merino that is aran weight.
The Sat class swatches are bogging me down, I have 5 more to knit (I think, please only be 5 more), and have completed 9 of the rest of them. I just need to buckle down and do it. Maybe tonight... I will sit there with my instructions, yarn holders, size 5 needles and just put the nose to the grindstone and finish them off. It REALLY shouldn't take me that long, but for some reason I just don't want to do them, looking at the instructions always seems to get me moving doing other stuff, like taking out trash, and washing bathrooms, and cleaning litter boxes.
Then the Sun class swatches are staring me in the eye, and taunting me that I haven't done them yet either. I did get my ass in gear and dye the yarn into 6 (not the suggested 5) colours and will be swatching them up as soon as I finish the swatches for the Sat class.
I SHOULD be able to get it all done. If I can finish a sock in a night, how come I can't do 8 swatches? Must be some weird mental block... Swatches seem to take much much longer than actual real knitting.
I've finished the swatches for the first 2 days of classes (Deep breath of relief), however I have not blocked it (and I don't think I will), and I produced 2 swatches when I only was required to produce one :) I think it will really depend on what she is going to tell us, which one I will use. One is this gorgeous dark purple/blue/black irridecent silk/wool japanese yarn that I picked up in HK last year. I believe it is DK weight. The other is some of my 2 pounds of handspun olive merino that is aran weight.
The Sat class swatches are bogging me down, I have 5 more to knit (I think, please only be 5 more), and have completed 9 of the rest of them. I just need to buckle down and do it. Maybe tonight... I will sit there with my instructions, yarn holders, size 5 needles and just put the nose to the grindstone and finish them off. It REALLY shouldn't take me that long, but for some reason I just don't want to do them, looking at the instructions always seems to get me moving doing other stuff, like taking out trash, and washing bathrooms, and cleaning litter boxes.
Then the Sun class swatches are staring me in the eye, and taunting me that I haven't done them yet either. I did get my ass in gear and dye the yarn into 6 (not the suggested 5) colours and will be swatching them up as soon as I finish the swatches for the Sat class.
I SHOULD be able to get it all done. If I can finish a sock in a night, how come I can't do 8 swatches? Must be some weird mental block... Swatches seem to take much much longer than actual real knitting.
Tuesday, February 12, 2008
How much yarn is enough yarn?
So I have this pattern, a very cute pattern that asks for 219 yards of yarn, well 94gm of yarn that is 234yard/100 grams. Which if you do the math (very very loose math that it is), would take 219 yards of yarn, of that specific weight.
I have 2 balls of gorgeous, absolutely gorgeous navy blue wool/silk yarn that weighs in at 171 yards/25gm... If I were to double it up, I should be able to match guage (I think I may be dreaming HUGE fantasies here, but let me dream on for a bit), and then I might (if I knit fast enough) be able to complete the pattern right? It SHOULD be enough yarn... I think... Maybe... *sigh*
I would absolutely hate getting to the end of the yarn and have less than an inch to go at the top of the thing!, that would absolutely suck... so maybe I need to pick another yarn out of my stash to work with...
So this other yarn, that I have been wanting to cast on with (100% baby alpaca, how yummy is that), is 50gm/unknown yardage. it looks pretty thin. I do have 2 balls of it, so if I double it up, it *looks* like I would have enough yarn, but I donno... Would it be thick enough? Perhaps I need to go do some WPI measurements with these yarns, maybe that would help me decide (I think not).
Or if I were really proactive I could do a swatch (not that the pattern has anything other than 22s/4", which doesn't help me much cause I STILL DON'T KNOW how much yarn it will take me to knit the thing.
Perhaps I should just cast on and hope it will all work out. If I believe hard enough, it will come true, Right? Or perhaps I should just wait a bit and see if I have something else in my stash that would be more appropriate for the project... but this wool/silk is boootiful, and the baby alpaca is sooo soft and squishy.
Hrm... Decisions... Decisions...
I have 2 balls of gorgeous, absolutely gorgeous navy blue wool/silk yarn that weighs in at 171 yards/25gm... If I were to double it up, I should be able to match guage (I think I may be dreaming HUGE fantasies here, but let me dream on for a bit), and then I might (if I knit fast enough) be able to complete the pattern right? It SHOULD be enough yarn... I think... Maybe... *sigh*
I would absolutely hate getting to the end of the yarn and have less than an inch to go at the top of the thing!, that would absolutely suck... so maybe I need to pick another yarn out of my stash to work with...
So this other yarn, that I have been wanting to cast on with (100% baby alpaca, how yummy is that), is 50gm/unknown yardage. it looks pretty thin. I do have 2 balls of it, so if I double it up, it *looks* like I would have enough yarn, but I donno... Would it be thick enough? Perhaps I need to go do some WPI measurements with these yarns, maybe that would help me decide (I think not).
Or if I were really proactive I could do a swatch (not that the pattern has anything other than 22s/4", which doesn't help me much cause I STILL DON'T KNOW how much yarn it will take me to knit the thing.
Perhaps I should just cast on and hope it will all work out. If I believe hard enough, it will come true, Right? Or perhaps I should just wait a bit and see if I have something else in my stash that would be more appropriate for the project... but this wool/silk is boootiful, and the baby alpaca is sooo soft and squishy.
Hrm... Decisions... Decisions...
Tuesday, February 5, 2008
Downsizing and upsizing!
Since I have so many projects on the go, I decided to reorganize my home slightly (well slightly more than slightly) to better accomodate my hobby/vice/addition.
My master bedroom was HUGE, it had space and good light, and huge windows, and lots and lots of closet space. My spare bedroom is much smaller, but has a walk in closet (a huge plus in my view, even if it isn't as big as the closet in the Master bedroom).
What occured several weekends ago (and the decluttering is still ongoing), is the swap of the Master bedroom and the spare bedroom. My spare bedroom is now my master bedroom (it's okay, both rooms have ensuites :) :) ). And my former master bedroom has now become my craft/work/hobby room.
I actually like this set up a lot. Moves a lot of my crafting stuff upstairs and out of my living room, and gives me a huge closet and many bookshelves to store books/patterns/yarn/fiber. I do need to acquire several more items before I can fully utilize this room as it should be used. 1. A reasonable sized TV, for the mindless background noise I like when I'm working on something, 2. A comfy chair/armchair/loveseat/somethingorother that I can sit and work from. 3. A cheap work table that won't mind getting a bit of dye splashed on it from time to time.
Once I have those bits, my work room is almost set, it's going to be amazing, having such a large space to work in, I even have a bathroom with full bath to hang my freshly dyed yarns and rovings from!
My master bedroom was HUGE, it had space and good light, and huge windows, and lots and lots of closet space. My spare bedroom is much smaller, but has a walk in closet (a huge plus in my view, even if it isn't as big as the closet in the Master bedroom).
What occured several weekends ago (and the decluttering is still ongoing), is the swap of the Master bedroom and the spare bedroom. My spare bedroom is now my master bedroom (it's okay, both rooms have ensuites :) :) ). And my former master bedroom has now become my craft/work/hobby room.
I actually like this set up a lot. Moves a lot of my crafting stuff upstairs and out of my living room, and gives me a huge closet and many bookshelves to store books/patterns/yarn/fiber. I do need to acquire several more items before I can fully utilize this room as it should be used. 1. A reasonable sized TV, for the mindless background noise I like when I'm working on something, 2. A comfy chair/armchair/loveseat/somethingorother that I can sit and work from. 3. A cheap work table that won't mind getting a bit of dye splashed on it from time to time.
Once I have those bits, my work room is almost set, it's going to be amazing, having such a large space to work in, I even have a bathroom with full bath to hang my freshly dyed yarns and rovings from!
Thursday, January 31, 2008
Joining my very first KAL
Not really a KAL but sort of the same. Mission Possible 2008.
12 things I need to finish or use from my stash this year.
1. Celery yarn 2 pounds (handspun)- Sweater
2. Olive yarn 2 pounds (handspun)- Avast?
3. 3 skeins peridot Fleece artist BFL - Clapotis?
4. Afghan with Cascade 220 - blues and blacks - possibly crocheted block pattern
5. Basket weave scarf from trekking hand painted
6. Navy roving -> yarn -> something fuzzy and warm
7. Navy tencel NZ yarn cable sweater - only have half of both sleeves left to go
8. So Soft blue cable sweater - about 50% done
9. Mint green Berger du Nord Charmant - find something to do with this yarn...
10. 4 balls of various colour handspun - perhaps mitts?
11. Cashmere yarn for fairisle sweater - finalize pattern and start!
12. Colinette sweater - just put the nose to the grind stond and work on it.
I'm sure there are a lot more projects I SHOULD work on, but these are the top ones for this year. If I finish those, perhaps I can "think" about acquiring stash, best not think of this now with Madrona coming up in 2 weeks...
12 things I need to finish or use from my stash this year.
1. Celery yarn 2 pounds (handspun)- Sweater
2. Olive yarn 2 pounds (handspun)- Avast?
3. 3 skeins peridot Fleece artist BFL - Clapotis?
4. Afghan with Cascade 220 - blues and blacks - possibly crocheted block pattern
5. Basket weave scarf from trekking hand painted
6. Navy roving -> yarn -> something fuzzy and warm
7. Navy tencel NZ yarn cable sweater - only have half of both sleeves left to go
8. So Soft blue cable sweater - about 50% done
9. Mint green Berger du Nord Charmant - find something to do with this yarn...
10. 4 balls of various colour handspun - perhaps mitts?
11. Cashmere yarn for fairisle sweater - finalize pattern and start!
12. Colinette sweater - just put the nose to the grind stond and work on it.
I'm sure there are a lot more projects I SHOULD work on, but these are the top ones for this year. If I finish those, perhaps I can "think" about acquiring stash, best not think of this now with Madrona coming up in 2 weeks...
Wednesday, January 30, 2008
Becoming more capitalist..
I was browsing www.etsy.com and was wondering if the yarn I have been spinning up would be worth anything to sell. Since I'm making way more than I could possibly use myself :) at least in a single lifetime.
Working out the cost analysis seems good, especially since spinning up a single 2 ply skein (plying included) takes under 3 hours. Equipment, time spent, cost of time spent is not considered, just because there is no way I could sell yarn for that much! :)
Raw Materials:
2 pounds of merino wool - on sale - 10 dollars a pound
Finished goods:
9 skeins - 3.5 oz - heavy worsted weight/aran weight wool, 2 ply ~each skein approx 2 hours to spin, 1 hour to ply
or
9 skeins - 3.5 oz - worsted weight, 2 ply ~each skein approx 2.5 hours to spin, 1 hours to ply
From what I can gather, each skein sells on etsy for between 15 to 24 dollars, equivalent materials, equivalent amounts. So from basic math, if I sell 1 skein, I can recoop the cost of my materials.
I'm not really into the 3 ply, though I have done it several times now, perhaps it's a practice thing? I'm not sure yet, I think I will try it a couple more times and see if I like it. 2 ply is much more my thing I think. I may try for DK weight for a pound of fiber next, or maybe light worsted, I think most of the nicer sweater patterns call for that weight. Is a pound of fiber enough for 1 sweater?
Would it be more "saleable" if I had multiple skeins of the same colourways up? Do people by handspun in bulk? Or do they just look for handspun in smaller quantities due to the cost of the handspun?
I should list some of the stuff that I am less likely to use myself. :) Hehe, maybe I can recoop some of what I have spent on this hobby of mine. Then again, the whole packaging it up and shipping it out is annoying, maybe I can outsource it to my Dad. He might get a kick out of it.
Working out the cost analysis seems good, especially since spinning up a single 2 ply skein (plying included) takes under 3 hours. Equipment, time spent, cost of time spent is not considered, just because there is no way I could sell yarn for that much! :)
Raw Materials:
2 pounds of merino wool - on sale - 10 dollars a pound
Finished goods:
9 skeins - 3.5 oz - heavy worsted weight/aran weight wool, 2 ply ~each skein approx 2 hours to spin, 1 hour to ply
or
9 skeins - 3.5 oz - worsted weight, 2 ply ~each skein approx 2.5 hours to spin, 1 hours to ply
From what I can gather, each skein sells on etsy for between 15 to 24 dollars, equivalent materials, equivalent amounts. So from basic math, if I sell 1 skein, I can recoop the cost of my materials.
I'm not really into the 3 ply, though I have done it several times now, perhaps it's a practice thing? I'm not sure yet, I think I will try it a couple more times and see if I like it. 2 ply is much more my thing I think. I may try for DK weight for a pound of fiber next, or maybe light worsted, I think most of the nicer sweater patterns call for that weight. Is a pound of fiber enough for 1 sweater?
Would it be more "saleable" if I had multiple skeins of the same colourways up? Do people by handspun in bulk? Or do they just look for handspun in smaller quantities due to the cost of the handspun?
I should list some of the stuff that I am less likely to use myself. :) Hehe, maybe I can recoop some of what I have spent on this hobby of mine. Then again, the whole packaging it up and shipping it out is annoying, maybe I can outsource it to my Dad. He might get a kick out of it.
Tuesday, January 29, 2008
Long time no blog...
Such a long time since I felt the need to type away at the world and babble on about fiber, yarn, knitting and the like.
So many new WIP, FO, WIC to consider, not sure where to start.
I'm currently on a spinning/scarf knitting kick with a couple of mitts and hats thrown in for good measure.
FO List: Someday I may get my ass in gear enough to take pictures of these and post, but until then, here is the general listing of what was finished since the last post.
1. Black and Blue skull hat
2. Red and white (now pink) #9 mitts from Sebuvotter
3. 5 different scarves
4. 32 ounces of "celery" roving spun up to aran/bulky weight 2 ply yarn (awaiting the final decision on which sweater to make out of it)
4. 32 ouces of "dark olive" roving spun up to worsted/aran weight 2 ply yarn (awaiting yet another decision)
5. Misc 4 and 8 ounces of yarn spun up to sport (3 ply), worsted (2 ply), sport (2 ply). (Waiting for the inspiration to hit, and some of it is coming in the form of the Elizibeth Zimmerman books I have recently purchased)
6. Sheep to sock Pink Granite Blue Moon Fiber Arts kit - finished the spinning/plying. No idea if I want to do socks out of it, but it looks nice as a 3 ply (navaho style) with long colour repeats.
7. 4 ounces of Pigeon Roof Studio - Vanity Fair colourway - lace weight 3 ply - not sure I like how it turned out. May need to re-ply it as it seems I underplyed it in places.
WIP List: Things I am working on, and working on, and working on...
1. Colinette Jitterbug fairisle sweater - still working on the endless ribbing all 7 inches of it)
2. My so called scarf (2 skiens was just not long enough, working on skien #3 instead of making a matching hat or mitts)
3. Clapotis in Fleece Artist BFL worsted weight (3 Skeins), in serious frogging danger, cause I was "bright" enough to decide I didn't need to put in markers and I would "recognize" when to knit to the back of the stitch and when to do regular knits.
4. Leftover wandering cable socks - using up the second half of my smooshy November Muse sock yarn, almost to the heel turning point. This yarn has AMAZING yardage, and knits up really really fast.
5. 32 ounces of navy/black roving to spin - 5 ounces done worsted to light worsted 2 ply. Itching to finish this.
6. Trekking handpainted - 2 balls navy and cyan - basketweave scarf - 6 inches in, and it's going to be a long time before I finish this one :) It looks gorgeous, just takes so long knitting on such small needles (3mm).
7. All the homework swatches for the 4 Jean Wong - Knitting the Japanese way Courses - I'm taking in Feb. Seems like it's taking forever, even though each swatch doesn't take that long, just sooooo many of them to do. I'm running out of stitch holders, may need to go buy more.
WIC: Things that I would dearly like to start, but know better than to start with so many WIP still going on.
1. Celery sweater - fleece style cardi with zipper :) To cable or not to Cable that is the question.
2. Dark olive sweater - Avast anyone?
3. Manos Silk and Merino olive and olive/garden colours scarf - if I could only settle on a pattern for this yarn, it's truely gorgeous! Started and frogged at least 5 times now.
4. Second attempt at pirate hat - black and white, must remember I knit loose and big. :)
5. Several other hats in various colours and styles - must remember to get everyone's hat sizes and favorite motifs
6. Work on spinning up more of the Pigeon Roof Studios stash, because it's growing way out of control.
I think that's about it, I'm sure I've forgotten stuff, but hey, that's for the next post!
So many new WIP, FO, WIC to consider, not sure where to start.
I'm currently on a spinning/scarf knitting kick with a couple of mitts and hats thrown in for good measure.
FO List: Someday I may get my ass in gear enough to take pictures of these and post, but until then, here is the general listing of what was finished since the last post.
1. Black and Blue skull hat
2. Red and white (now pink) #9 mitts from Sebuvotter
3. 5 different scarves
4. 32 ounces of "celery" roving spun up to aran/bulky weight 2 ply yarn (awaiting the final decision on which sweater to make out of it)
4. 32 ouces of "dark olive" roving spun up to worsted/aran weight 2 ply yarn (awaiting yet another decision)
5. Misc 4 and 8 ounces of yarn spun up to sport (3 ply), worsted (2 ply), sport (2 ply). (Waiting for the inspiration to hit, and some of it is coming in the form of the Elizibeth Zimmerman books I have recently purchased)
6. Sheep to sock Pink Granite Blue Moon Fiber Arts kit - finished the spinning/plying. No idea if I want to do socks out of it, but it looks nice as a 3 ply (navaho style) with long colour repeats.
7. 4 ounces of Pigeon Roof Studio - Vanity Fair colourway - lace weight 3 ply - not sure I like how it turned out. May need to re-ply it as it seems I underplyed it in places.
WIP List: Things I am working on, and working on, and working on...
1. Colinette Jitterbug fairisle sweater - still working on the endless ribbing all 7 inches of it)
2. My so called scarf (2 skiens was just not long enough, working on skien #3 instead of making a matching hat or mitts)
3. Clapotis in Fleece Artist BFL worsted weight (3 Skeins), in serious frogging danger, cause I was "bright" enough to decide I didn't need to put in markers and I would "recognize" when to knit to the back of the stitch and when to do regular knits.
4. Leftover wandering cable socks - using up the second half of my smooshy November Muse sock yarn, almost to the heel turning point. This yarn has AMAZING yardage, and knits up really really fast.
5. 32 ounces of navy/black roving to spin - 5 ounces done worsted to light worsted 2 ply. Itching to finish this.
6. Trekking handpainted - 2 balls navy and cyan - basketweave scarf - 6 inches in, and it's going to be a long time before I finish this one :) It looks gorgeous, just takes so long knitting on such small needles (3mm).
7. All the homework swatches for the 4 Jean Wong - Knitting the Japanese way Courses - I'm taking in Feb. Seems like it's taking forever, even though each swatch doesn't take that long, just sooooo many of them to do. I'm running out of stitch holders, may need to go buy more.
WIC: Things that I would dearly like to start, but know better than to start with so many WIP still going on.
1. Celery sweater - fleece style cardi with zipper :) To cable or not to Cable that is the question.
2. Dark olive sweater - Avast anyone?
3. Manos Silk and Merino olive and olive/garden colours scarf - if I could only settle on a pattern for this yarn, it's truely gorgeous! Started and frogged at least 5 times now.
4. Second attempt at pirate hat - black and white, must remember I knit loose and big. :)
5. Several other hats in various colours and styles - must remember to get everyone's hat sizes and favorite motifs
6. Work on spinning up more of the Pigeon Roof Studios stash, because it's growing way out of control.
I think that's about it, I'm sure I've forgotten stuff, but hey, that's for the next post!
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