Attention Deficit

Well, a week into lazy summer break (okay, two, but the first was senior week and doesn’t count), I’m having a fairly bad case of knitter’s attention deficit. I have lots of works in progress. Perhaps too many, and at times I feel guilty that I’m abandoning things, but I’m trying to keep in the mindset that I can knit what I want, when I want. This more or less works, unless I’m on a deadline.

For example, just this week I finished up another pair of Fingerless Mitts for a friend’s mum’s birthday. I knit them on US size 5s, in Frog Tree Alpaca (sport), and they are very cute. I’m hoping her mum is pleased.

I haven’t finished my Mad Sapphire Weave socks, because I had to sacrifice the needles to using them for my two-socks-on-two-circs class at Lovelyarns. So they are tucked away at the moment in a bag on my bookshelf, waiting for their turn again. They are medium priority at the moment.

Instead, I am working on these simple stockinette socks (is there an echo in here?), in birthday-gift-yarn: Regia 4-ply sock yarn in a crazy Kaffe Fasset colorway. I wouldn’t normally pick it for myself, but they’re growing on me.

Also getting some attention is the new arrival: the Elinor tunic.

I love how this is made. It’s a top down, sleeveless tunic. You knit the back, and then pick up the provisional cast-on and knit the front, and then you join under the armholes. I’m into the decrease section, which seems a bit early, but I’m trusting it so far. I’m excited about getting to wear this one.

But I may put it down for these other, more pressing, not-for-me projects.

I owe my dad a scarf. I promised to knit him a new scarf for Christmas, but never started it. As a graduation present, my aunt and uncle brought me 100% Baby Alpaca yarn from Australia, which is the perfect amount/color/shade/fiber for a scarf for my dad! Hooray!

I love that blue. Yum. I think it’s going to become the Palindrome scarf, which is a reversible cabled scarf. Very cool.

Also, I need to knit my sister (who is currently painting the Tuscan landscape in Italy, thankyouverymuch) a hat. When I asked her what yarn she wanted, and offered her some handspun, etc, she chose some merino/silk roving that I hadn’t spun yet. I got the roving from Aija at sockpr0n as an add-on gift when I won the drawing for her alpaca rovingfiber, and it is really something. It’s beautiful and shiny and drafts wonderfully. And it’s fluffy.

See the shine! I love it. Pretty.

And finally, the new boy, henceforth referred to as The Playwright, requested a hat as well. I shall knit him one in the orange O-Wool which I am using for the Elinor tunic as an accent color. I think it’s CC3, and is only used a very little amount. So I think I’ll knit the hat and hope for the best in terms of leftovers. =D

Soon we will be leaving on our big cross country trip. I have been charged with blogging the whole thing, so I guess I’ll make a new blog for that at some point. I want to take the three projects above with me to work on so I can finish them before I’m off to college. Yikes. I might start dad’s scarf today, or The Playwright’s hat. I can’t start my sister’s hat until I’m done spinning. Here’s hoping I have enough spun. If not, I’ll use the handspun for the ribbing, or the body, and I’ll supplement something (maybe the same Baby Alpaca) for the rest. I love planning knitting.

Sorry for the spam earlier! Love.

SPINNING WHEEL

(among other things)

Do you know, gentle readers, what this is? This is my spinning wheel. This is my spinning wheel that I built. This is my spinning wheel that I built with my own hands. I MADE A WHEEL. Okay, okay, I had help, and I used power tools, but… it’s my baby! And it’s not from a kit! We didn’t have a kit, or plans, or anything. Just lumber and something to copy.

Man, it’s so beautiful. I think it needs a name. I think it’s a boy, and I think it needs a name. Help me out here. It also needs a single pilot hole drilled in one of the treadle supports because the leather strap (a.k.a. my dad’s old belt) needs to be connected and isn’t yet (and I don’t want to split the wood (again)).

I’ve spent months on this baby, and it’s so wonderful. It’s smooth and it’s pretty and it’s cherry and it’s mine. In every sense of the word. It’s a “copy” of an Ashford Traditional, but it’s my creation.

I’m showing it off at school tomorrow, and I’m excited to use it for the first time. I want to spin on it (but I can’t, see above not attached treadle).

Ooh, man. I love it.

My favorite part is the maidens that don’t match. On the right you can see the maiden I bought at Sheep and Wool. On the left is the maiden fashioned as a substitute until I get another one that matches the one on the right. I think it’s so funny that one is beautiful and round and turned and one is SQUARE. It rocks. The flyer and bobbin I did not build. I did build the mother-of-all and the base, though, so they match the cherry wood.

Squee!

In related news, I have swatched for the Project Sweater. I think the 7s gave me the nicest fabric, so I think I might just cast on the final stage tonight!!!!

The yarn I dyed is ready…

(mostly…)

And I can spin and dye more as I need it. Oh boy!

Also today, I pulled this little bastard…

off of the roof of our house. Picture me hanging out my sister’s bedroom window for half an hour trying to lasso a kitten out of the gutter with my sweatshirt and the handle of a bag. I have bruises all kinds of places. Freak. I love him. He’s fine, by the way.

Help me name my wheel!

Senior project: week one

I ought to be giving you a more complete run-down of what my project actually entails (and why I get to be at home for the next five weeks), but since it’s raining now and I kept forgetting last week to take pictures of the drum carder, I’ll do a bit of a slipshod job now and a more complete one later.

So what do I think I’m doing, not going to school? I’m working on my Senior Project, that’s what! At the end of Senior year, our school hands us seniors six weeks and says “Get out and do something useful.” Some kids go work in offices, with the mayor, or in a lab doing research, or with an animal hospital, or something. There are lots of things we’re doing this year. Me, I’m turning a sheep fleece into a sweater, all by hand.

In February, I got a fleece. I started washing it in my washing machine in early March. I took the fleece out to the back porch and picked all the crap and grass and stuff out of it (mostly).

I separated it into sections and dumped it in the washing machine, which was full of hot water. I let it sit for half an hour or so, and came back and spun the water out. Then I refilled the machine tub and did it again. I washed each section about three times, some more, and then let it dry.

Then I put all the washed fleece into a large tub and left it on my porch for a while.

Later, I started carding. I borrowed two sets of hand cards (and a spinning wheel) from a friend’s mother. I started to card my fleece by hand, which takes a long time. I had a few blocks off school, so I stayed home some mornings to card and watch my kitties run around in the back yard.

Then I borrowed a drum carder! I was going to get a drum carder from the Weaver’s Guild of Greater Baltimore, but they were taking so freaking long to get that worked out that I went ahead and found someone else who had one. It needed a little bit of repair (primarily the drive band thing), but I fixed it and started carding as soon as I had all day to work.

So that brings me to last week. Last Tuesday I started to card on the drum carder. I spent the days carding from about 9 to around 11:30 when I’d get bored. Then I’d have lunch, and check my email, and then go for a walk (keeping me a little bit mobile in my highly sedentary project). Then I’d come home and spin for a couple of hours and watch a movie (or a couple of episodes of 21 Jump Street).

It’s working out really well. This week will involve more spinning than carding (because I’m almost finished carding and I have a pile of fiber to spin. Both of the bags in the picture below are full, and there’s even a pile of fiber on top of the blue one. Gah.

Plus, wonder of wonders, I only have one bobbin. If anyone has or knows where I could get some Louet bobbins, that’d be awesome, because I’m going to have to skein up every bobbin-full if I expect to ply any of it. Rawr. I just navajo plied this first bobbin, and it’s soaking in a tupperware in my bathtub now (water leak protection).

On Friday, I played with dyes some and tried to dye a gradient.

It didn’t totally work, but I think the inner yarn there is lighter than the outer. It’s not what I was hoping for, but it was lots of fun to play, and I’m pleased with the yarn anyway.

I’ve also been working on some knitting projects too (although how soon I will be sick of knitting is not assured). I started a pair of plain stockinette socks to keep me busy. The Drunken Bees I like a lot, but I need to carry the chart around, and I’m not interested in heavy chart knitting right now. So I’m knitting these toe-up socks on size 1s out of Scout’s Socktoberfest colorway in the merino sock. It’s knitting up nicely, and fairly fast.

The other thing that’s seen the most action is Icarus:

It’s getting bigger: stretched now it reaches the length of my arm (center top to where the needle is). I’m going to finish the first section and then see if I want to add some more repeats of the branches, or start on the feathers (section one ends in the middle of the chart, so if I want I can just knit the rest of the chart and begin again). I love the color changes.

Caribbean Blue

If I could go to the Caribbean again, I would in a heartbeat. It’s already getting hot there during the day, with the sun shining down, and the warm blue water, and the sweet, pretty flowers…

We went to St. Thomas in the US Virgin Islands a few years ago (four? five?) and spent the week at this hotel/resort with a pool and its own beach. We spent tons of time snorkling off this beach, chasing the cuttlefish around, exploring big rocks, watching the bright fish dart about, trying to follow a sea turtle. The sand on the beach was white and hot, and the water was so clear and calm.

This is a blend of BFL and superwash merino, dyed by Lisa Souza that I bought at Stitches East last fall. The colorway is “South Pacific,” but looking at it just makes me think about the Caribbean islands. Sure, it looks like Hawaii, too, but I loved the Caribbean. I think it’s the blues.

Specs:
Fiber: Superwash Merino + Blue Faced Leicester
Weight: Bulky, with some worsted spots
Yardage: 280 yards (w00t!)
Spun/Plyed: on a Louet S51.
Started: March 15th
Finished: March 21st

I think it’s going to be a hat.

It’s official.

I need a spinning wheel.

I won a blog contest two weeks ago via random number generator over at sockpr0n, and I got the package from the lovely Aija today. It’s awesome! What I won was 2oz of alpaca… rovingfluff, and what she sent was my alpaca rovingfluff, along with three small sample batts of yummy fiber, PLUS two beautiful stitch markers, PLUS a handful of coupons for indie entrepreneurs online. *squee!*

This is Magnolia’s fleecerovingfluff from North Star Alpacas. It’s soft and pure white and smells like something really good, like flowers or something. Maybe magnolias, but I don’t have enough flower knowledge to say that. It’s delicious.

This one is a batt from enchantedknoll.etsy.com, and it’s fun and sparkly and a step outside the box for me. I’m excited about it.

This is a (slightly less shiny than in the picture) merino silk blend, and it’s a very lovely blue and pink and gray, which I love. It feels a bit like the first fiber I spun, so I suspect that was it (I never knew what that was… Omly?)

This one’s a superwash merino that Aija dyed. It’s squishy, and I’m spinning some superwash merino now on my spindle, so I’m getting some practice.

Aija also sent me two stitch markers from her etsy store, and they’re lovely. The round white are rose quartz, and the smaller white/green are freshwater pearls. Pretty!

Aija, thank you SO SO much! This is beautiful fibery goodness, and I am so amused and thrilled. I love them. I can’t wait to play.

(A side note, I’m knitting these:

for Franny’s birthday on Friday.)

I love starting things!

I have developed (for me) an astonishingly bad case of startitis. At this moment, regardless of hibernation or not, I have eight projects on the needles. Eight.

This is astounding.

I have finished knitting the Pomatomus socks (they don’t match, by about a quarter of a repeat). I now need to finish overdying them (not going well) so I can finally give them to my sister and maybe have them look decent.

I have also finished knitting (a long time ago) that felted notions bag that keeps hanging around. But I haven’t felted it. I didn’t feel like wasting the water. I don’t know.

But actually on my needles now are as follows:

0. Log cabin blanket. This one doesn’t count.

1. Qiviut wrist cuffs. I put these down because the yarn is very thin, and I’m knitting them on US 1s, and I just got tired. I’m nearly past the wrist ribbing part, and need to start increasing for the thumb gusset. I’m nearly to the interesting part! I should pick them up again before it gets real cold.

2. Mystery Stole 3. I’m through chart D, just started chart E. I like it, but I’ve been busy (sort of) in the last couple days, and lace knitting needs attention. I haven’t had much of an attention span lately.

3. Blue herring socks. Blah. I don’t know. I like the pattern, but I’m not sure I picked the right yarn. I’m working with the blue merino I got in Spain, as well as the brown camel, and the brown alpaca I also got in Spain. I wanted the alpaca to be in the foot part, so I know the camel in with the blue on the leg. The problem is the huge gauge difference between the camel and the alpaca. I had to change the heel to a flap heel to be able to decrease appropriately for the much larger and fluffier (but still sock weight) alpaca. It’s a bit of an engineering feat, knitting herringbone backwards. Anyway, they might pull together.

4. Coupling socks. I like the yarn, but I’m not sure if it’s right for the pattern. It stripes in single row stripes, and the pattern is lacy and textured. They don’t quite mix well, but if I put the sock on it stretches out okay to show the lace. I’m almost done the first sock, so I might as well finish the pair.

5. Monkey socks. I cast these on the other day for some reward knitting. I’ve hoarded the yarn for a few months (Dream in Color, yum) and wanted to make Monkey socks. They are beautiful. No reservations here.

6. Stockinette boyfriend socks. They’re supposed to be a surprise. If he reads the blog they won’t be. Well, he knows I’m knitting them, just not when. I’m trying to knit both at once, just because, but I’m still unsure about the pattern. It’s self striping yarn, so it has to be simple, but it’s cotton, so it has no stretch. And I kind of don’t want to do ribbing the whole way, but I might have to.

7. Baby hat. I cast this on because I was listening to a podcast (Damknit) in which Erin talked about knitting baby hats. I had some cotton/elastic in the stash, so I threw it on some size 5s and started knitting. So far so good. I wanted some instant gratification. Also, I might be able to give it to my aunt, who is due in November.

8. Yesterday evening, I cast on a scarf in Cascade 220, like I needed another project. I’ve started thinking about my Holiday Craft Show knitting, which I need to do so I can have stuff to sell. I will have some on display, not for sale, but I should have things for peoples to buy. Yes.

I’ve also been spinning.

My mom and my sister have ADD. It runs in the family.

Later I teach a sock class! With luck, it’ll be outside, because it’s beautiful today.

More Sheep and Wool!

Well, there I was at Sheep and Wool. It was great! So exciting! So many sheep! So much wool! Also alpacas and llamas and all kinds of lovely things. First I will offer up…

sheep pictures!

Sheep show.

This was a cute sheep. =D

Aww!

Look, llamas!

They’re not looking at me, so I won’t look at them.

These are alpacas. They were all shorn!

Here I am knitting on the $1.50 sleeves. I ran out of yarn today in class. >.< Crap. Now I have to get more or figure out if my sleeves are wrong. Rawr.

I was at the Show Pavillion at 1 PM. Where were you, knitblogger? I saw Coleen later and she said she and Erin were there, but I didn’t see them. We must’ve missed each other. Coleen was wearing her very stylish Arwen sweater, which I admit I recognized before I recognized her. O_o

Oh look, I brought my mum along.

…And I met this sheep.

And now for loot goodies:

Dream in Color, Gaia Sock. This is intended Thuja socks for J’s father. Their family is taking me to Spain this summer (squee!) and in return they wanted socks.

Also Dream in Color, their “Smooshy” sock yarn in Dusky Aurora. =D I had to have it. This one’s for Monkey socks for J’s sister. Did I mention I’ve given up hope on finding another skein of that perfect Schaefer Anne, and will therefore be abandoning and frogging my 1.5 Monkey socks? Well, I will. But I love the pattern, and this yarn is beautiful, and I’ve already started knitting it (when I ran out of sweater yarn). Yay!

This one’s Oasis Yarns Seduction in Olive. It’s silk. Yum! I haven’t yet picked a project for this one (I’m thinking maybe Vinnland from the (new!) AntiCraft mag, or something simple like the Jaywalkers to show off the color. It’s lovely. It’s an olive green mixed with a darker green, and it’s very pretty.

Then I got this “Mystery Bump” of fiber. My mum bought it for me. ^_^ I’m going to practice spinning some more with the fiber I got from my LimenViolet Yarn Pr0n swap pal (thanks again Emily!) and then I’ll take this on. Excited!

And finally, I found these 4 beautiful Pewter buttons for my $1.50. They’re pretty, and they’re big enough. I love them already. =D

Also I love my camera’s macro setting.

And that was the day! Then I went home, did some work, puttered around, watched “A Man For All Seasons” about Thomas More, and went to bed. It was a good day.

Stealth Photographing

Not really, I guess… during the show I didn’t have time to find our camera and take pictures of the $1.50, so I used M as she took pictures of the cast and held up my knitting a lot. She liked pictures of me knitting. O_o

=D

There’s me, my sister, and another girl in the cast. Oh, and the sweater, approximately 15″ along.

Teehee. Fun show. Fun sweater.

Remind me to show off my spinning, too, which has improved. Pre-drafting helps a lot. Yay!