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I finished spinning this a bit ago, but KnitCroBlo week delayed my posting it. Look: pretty handspun!
Fiber: 4oz. Crown Mountain Farms superwash merino in “In the Skies” purchased from a Ravelry destash
Weight: Sport to worsted-ish
Ply: 3 ply/navajo plied
Yardage: 174 yards
Spindle: A maple one I bought off Etsy. Half was plied on my Schacht Hi-Low
Soo…. I’m completely in love with this yarn. It’s soft and squishy and wonderful. I didn’t get as much yardage as I had hoped, but that’s alright. I’ll have enough for the project I’m intending to do with it (eventually), which is to knit it into the yoke (and hem) of a round yoked pullover. I’m thinking it’ll be super cute. Plus the colors: I love the colors.
I have four more ounces of this fiber, which I’m highly thrilled about. If you’re a spinner and you’ve never used CMF, ohmigod, GET SOME. It’s so soft and light and smooth. It drafts like butter and the colors are amazing. I got mine in a Ravelry destash, and I’m always trawling the ISO/Destash board on Ravelry for more (I’d order from CMF directly, but the shipping is really high–like $10 to ship 8oz).
Yes. Love this stuff.
Soo, remember how I was resisting the urge to Navajo ply everything?
Well….
CMF SW Merino, clearly not being cable plied as intended.
So remember when I posted the Shetland from Spunky Eclectic I’d spun and I told you how much I liked navajo plying. Well… I like it a lot. So much so that I’ve since navajo plied all the extra singles I have from other plying projects and the singles I spun when I was learning and never plied because I had yet to figure out how long it took to spin anything on a spindle and I wanted to stretch the yardage because I only had so much fiber.
Anyway, I plied what I had lying around (don’t worry; I haven’t been spinning long, so it isn’t much):
Originally a messy lace/fingering weight single, now a messy light sport to bulky (mostly around dk/worsted) weight chain ply. Roughly 68 yards. Domestic wool top that I dyed with kool aid back in the summer (In the Clay Pits).
Originally Kool Blue, also Kool Aid dyed. 20 squishy yards of rough rough bulky wool. It was one of my first spinning attempts, so the single is all rough and gross, resulting in a yarn that is rough and gross. Probably I won’t knit anything with it but instead look at the pretty pretty skein.
Left over singles from A Splash of Citrus, navajo plied into 9 yards of rough, squishy goodness. Also an early spinning attempt, so quite rough. But squishy. Something else I will probably only ever look at. But it is kinda pretty. Yellow and springy.
So now I’m resisting the urge to navajo ply everything I spin. The spinning I’m currently working on, some CMF superwash merino, is going to be cable plied into what will hopefully be around worsted weight so I can use it in a sweater yoke. Although once I finish that, I might look into navajo plying some corriedale I have… Hmm….
So I finally finished the shetland I was spinning. It took a while, but it came out totally awesome and I love it to pieces. Here’s what the fiber looked like:
(Side note: Someone pm’d me on Ravelry to tell me she thought this looked like a pile of ferrets at first glance)
And here’s what it looks like now:
Fiber: Spunky Eclectic Shetland top in Winnipeg
Weight: Fingering/sport (it’s a bit uneven)
Ply: 3 ply/Navajo plied
Yardage: Total of 460
Spindle: Schacht Hi-Lo, also ordered from Spunky Eclectic
With a coin for scale:
Okay, so I love this yarn to pieces. It’s the thinnest and most even thing I’ve ever spun, it’s reasonably soft, and I got an awesome yardage out of it (this is mostly because of the thin bits, but still). I love it. I’m planning to make socks with it, but regular size ones, not just the ankle socks I’ve been making. I’ll probably do a stockinette foot and ribbed leg, but I haven’t decided yet (but I’ll definitely be working them toe up). One of the skeins has a lot more pink than the others, and I expect that’ll show up in the socks too, but I don’t really have a problem with mismatching socks, so it’s alright.
I have a few projects on the needles currently (a shawl, that damned Featherweight, and some swap stuff), so it might be a bit before I actually start on the socks, but that’s what this yarn will eventually become. And they will be awesome.
I’ve decided, by the way, the Navajo plying is awesome. It’s fast, simple, and results in a lovely round yarn. I had heard that it was a little tricky, but I think because I crochet I picked it up rather quickly. There’s a yard or two of messy plying in the beginning of my sample skein (the tiny one in the first picture), but seeing as I’ll start my socks there, it’s alright since it’ll mostly be taken up in the figure 8 cast on anyway. Now I want to chain ply all of my yarn for socks, but the stash I have currently of fiber is mostly merino, which I wouldn’t want to use for socks. Clearly this means I need to buy more Romney/Jacob/Shetland/other fibers suitable for socks. I think my bank account just groaned in pain.
So I finished a spinning thing! Remember the superwash merino Joe got me for my birthday?
Well, I finished spinning it. And it is great.
Fiber: Fiber Optic Superwash Merino, in colorway Superstition. 4 oz.
WPI: 28? / Lace weight
Yardage: About 700. I measured the first half, which was 374, but didn’t bother with the second, so I’m estimating about 700.
I had originally intended to make Swallowtail with this yarn, though I think the color repeats would too distracting. I still want a triangle shawl though, and I think I can get a pretty large one with my yardage. The trick will be to find one that’s interesting to knit (no no stockinette/garter with eyelets) that also plays nice with the yarn. It’s rather uneven in spots and occasionally goes up to a heavy fingering weight. I’ve got a couple other contenders, but I’ll look at some patterns and let you know what I come up with. : )
So if you read the subject, you’ll know what I’ve been up to lately in the craft world. Mostly, I’ve been working on my Girl Friday sweater, which now has half a sleeve:
I also started spinning the superwash merino I got from my boyfriend for my birthday:
(Yes, it’s hella pretty)
My goal for this is about 400 yards of a fingering weight single. I’d like to make a shawl, probably something Ishbel-like (with a stockinette section and a lace edging). I might even just buy the Ishbel pattern and knit that.
So that’s what I’m working on currently. I also just finished a pair of fingerless mitts, but I’m going to wait on showing those to you because I want to at least mail them first. But they’re really pretty. : ) Knit Picks Palette in Fog and Heart and Sole in Spring Stripes (I was seriously worried I wasn’t going to have enough contrast color, but I did).
So I finished spinning the green BFL I got from lapoli in a recent OWS.
(Sorry for the crappy webcam shots… the camera pics DID NOT come out well at all.)
It was lots of fun to spin, though plying seemed to take forever, I only had a very tiny amount of singles left too. Going from hank to ball kind of sucked cause it was sticky and a little fuzzy, but the resulting yarn is great, though I’m not entirely sure what to knit with it yet. I thought cowl, but that wouldn’t use it all, and I kind of what something largish to show off the pretty colors. And the fact that my spinning has gotten much more even.
(Yes, I’m very silly.)
It’s a 2-ply sport weight (though in some spots it goes down to fingering or up to dk). I managed to get about 430 yards, so it’s enough for a substantial project. I’m beginning to think maybe lace tam or smallish shawl. If I use large needles, I can stretch the yardage even more.
I love how this yarn came out. : ) I can’t wait to start knitting it.
In non-crafty news, I am back at school, and I’m totally thrilled about it. Classes start today and while I’ve gotten a specific “NO KNITTING” from one of them (it was written ON THE SYLLABUS), but it’s fine in the other four classes I have(one I went to today and three with professors I had last semester who didn’t mind). So knitting will be happening. Currently, I’m working on some stuff for a friend. Her cousin is having a baby shower next weekend, and she asked me to knit some things for it. So I am. I am more than halfway done (I finished a hat and one sock and have another sock and a bib to knit still), so that should be happening soon. And then there’s that sweater, which needs sleeves, a good stern blocking and a button band/collar. Yay!
It’s been a stash-building couple of weeks. Last week, there was the green roving from the Ongoing Wish Swap (which I’m already halfway through spinning). Then, for my birthday, it was a fiber-pallooza! First, there was this wonderful handdyed green fingering weight:
(Unplanned Peacock Studios, Superwash Merino Fingering, Frog colorway, 100g)
It was a lovely birthday present from my good friends Jon and Sarah. (Thanks, you two!)
Then there was this GORGEOUS merino superwash roving from Fiber Optic on Etsy, from my fantastic, amazing boyfriend:
And THEN there was a new spindle! Whoo! Also from my fantastic boyfriend. : )
(Faux Jade whorl, .9 oz, from KnotMyDayJob on Etsy; yes I had to test it out.)
And then there were the Ravelry destashes. Let me give you a word of advice: Do NOT browse the destash board at two a.m. when you can’t sleep. It is BAD for your bank account. Exhibit A:
Crown Mountain Fiber Farm, In the Skies colorway, 8 oz.
Exibit B:
Regia Silk sock yarn.
Exibit C:
Five skeins of Knit Picks Palette.
So… yes. Stash-hance.
Thing number one: A chapstick cozy:
Pattern: Chapstick/Lip Balm Holder
Yarn: Lily Sugar N’ Cream, colorway was like, strawberry or somesuch.
Hook: F/3.75 mm
Mods: Probably? Added a loop to attach to my keychain.
It’s functional, and that’s great. Whee, always having chapstick! I’m totally addicted.
Thing number two: A spinning FO!
Fiber: Random wool I got with a spindle on Etsy. An ounce.
Weight: About sport, I think. 2 ply.
Yardage: About 88 yards to my rudimentary measurements.
Colorway: Raspberry
Probably this will become some sort of lacy cowl because I love lacy cowls. Probably with buttons so it doesn’t have to be wide enough to get over my head. The yarn actually came out quite soft, probably due to its SOAK bath. I bought the Ravelry edition from the minimart, and I LOVE the scent. Really, it’s great.
Thing number three: A WIP shawl:
I’m using some yarn I got in a swap (the Rainbow Swap if you recall). It’s a combo yarn with strands of cotton and silk. Here, look:
The true green is the silk, I think, and the white and the teal/blue are cotton.
The shawl is looking to be quite large, which I’m cool with. I want to do some lacy edging on the edge, but I haven’t found anything I like, so I might just have a boring triangle scarf. The yarn is the prettiest part anyway.
Coming soon: Probably the FO post for the shawl cause we all know I knit like the wind (Bulls-eye). Maybe those dino mittens. Maybe I’ll knit another hat. Who the hell knows. At this point, I’m thinking about my shawl and final projects. Classes are winding down for the semester, so I’ll be studying (sort of) for finals. Fun times. Don’t worry though: Crafting will happen. Plus there’s swap things. So stay tuned. : )
So I’m still truckin’ on the Watermelon cardigan. It looks like this now:
Why yes, I do knit like a fiend. I tried it on, and thought it’s a bit smaller than I would have liked, it’s super comfy and fantastic. I hope to have it done this weekend (but who knows if that will happen).
I’ve also off and on been working on a spinning project:
That would be an ounce of random wool I got with the spindle I’m spinning it on. It’s probably going to stay a single, and I’ll make some sort of cowl or something with it. Only sort of related: light-fingering weight yarn spins up SO SLOWLY on a spindle. I want a wheel. Unfortunately, I have nowhere to put it, so for right now, I’m delegated to spindling.
Speaking of spindles: I want a lighter one for spinning lace-weight. Any suggestions? I want a fairly inexpensive one because A, I’m cheap as hell and B, I’m a poor college student that just spent $60 on yarn from WEBS.
Stitch, Brinn, Stitch! 