Spinning

I've got a new hobby. It fits nicely with my knitting hobby :) Yup. Spinning.

I ordered a spindle back in September, to see if I can get the hang of spinning on that before I try it on the wheel. I feel like it's more "art" than "science" which is fine with me.


I first started with a small amount of fibre that I had left over from the thrummed booties I made. I went a little nuts and over spun it in places. It's REALLY thick and thin, and the thin spots are really twisted. But it's yarn and it looks pretty :) I think it might be merino because it's super soft and has a short fibre length.


The lovely person who gave me the wheel was thoughtful enough to send a long a whole bunch of super soft black fibre (which I'm guessing is also merino?). I predrafted it and I'm spinning a yarn that is somewhere between a dk and worsted... I think... :)

I'm going to leave at as singles for now... one thing at a time. I'll leave plying for another day! I want to get better at drafting evenly (that's how much yarn you pull out to be spun) so that my plied yarn looks even.


There are so many things that go into spinning. How long the fibre is, how much you draft, how much spin you put in... I think I'm getting the hang of it. As long as I focus on the art, I can just relax and got at my own pace. It's really quite meditative. I certainly enjoy having a little spinning time at the end of a long day of schoolwork.

On another note, I've been doing lots of bus knitting and am getting lots of small projects done!

Man socks for my hubby:


(see the texture?)

and alpaca mittens ready for felting.


I'm loving my alpaca hat so much, I'm going to be sad to give these mittens away. The person getting these mittens is going to have warm hands this winter!!!

Let it snow... let it snow...

Well it appears winter has decided to overtake fall this year. (We had a very warm summer september and now it's snowing.)


Luckily, a box of alpaca yarn from Willowind Alpacas (bless their woolly hearts!) arrived earlier this week. I'm knitting them some hats and I decided to try out my mitten recipe with alpaca instead of wool.


I've heard mixed reviews about alpaca's ability to felt, so I swatched:

It felts beautifully. So soft and dense!
(the yarn is close to sport weight so I'm doubling it. Aren't the natural colours lovely?)


And then I cast on!

I love knitting mittens, and the weather really makes me want to. (Did I mention the snow?!) And these mitts are going to be WARM baby! I tested out my alpaca hat in the blustery weather and it is toasty! (It even does a better job at cutting the wind than some of the other hats I've knit from wool!)

While I'm talking about mittens, last year I knit some mittens for the Mitten Tree at my church (for inner city kids). This year I'm asking around to see if other knitters want to knit some mittens for kids too. I even have a pattern that I put together so if you are in the winnipeg area and would like to knit some mittens, post in the comments or email me: alleyDOTdanielsenATgmailDOTcom and I'll send you the pdf.

Now I think I need a cuppa tea...

Spinning the stress away...

Despite the fact that I'm in school, I'm still really excited about my fibre hobby. When I mentionned to my dad that I'd like to learn how to spin, he said he might be able to hook me up with a wheel. Well he did. :) A friend of his didn't want her wheel anymore and is GIVING it to me! (Thanks Carol!!!) She was even kind enough to to include some black wool :)

I'm can't wait to dive deep into the fibre world. :)

I'm also ordering a spindle from woolly designs (the "comets" one pictured here) to gain a feel for the fibre before I learn how to use the wheel, which seems a little more complicated.

I think it will really help me de-stress from my school work which is fairly heavy this term...

Kool-aid

So back in July (ok I'm still catching up!) my woolly bullies did a kool-aid dyeing workshop. It was fan-friggin-tastic. We each got some undyed sock yarn (Valley yarns Franklin in a large cone from WEBS) I got two socks worth and dyed one there and one later that week.

Most of the gals did the self-striping thing:


which basically involves making a really really long skein, giving it a bath in vinegar and then dipping different sections into jars with high concentrations of koolaid (April also used wiltons cake icing colouring- bottom photo) and waitin for the dye to be soaked up into the yarn.

I decided to be different and not do stripes on my first skein:


So I put the yarn into my crock pot, with some water (note: too much water=white spots) and poured the kool aid (3 packets grape, 2 packets strawberry lemonade+1 grape and 2 packets ice blue+1 grape) onto different sections of the yarn. I turned out looking... um... interesting in the ball.



I haven't knit it up yet. In retrospect I should have re-dyed some spots... we'll see how it looks knitted up.

Then a few days later I tried the striped method, not measuring or anything (yup. that's how I roll.) I used: ice blue, ice blue + grape and ice blue + lemon lime.



I was pretty happy with the result. But not nearly as happy as when I started to knit it up. I found this sock pattern: Circle Socks.


The stripes work so perfectly with the pattern, I can't even believe it. Seriously. Remember, I didn't measure the yarn or plan the stripes at all! I love it when this happens... :)

PS We visited two more alpaca farms (Circle O and Burton Alpacas)! OMG i love baby alpacas...

Where did summer go??

Wow. I guess the blog took a back seat this summer. I work outdoors doing biological field work (studying lizards) and I spend most of the summer living at a provincial park where there was only dial up. I did lots of knitting though! I even finished my boxleaf wrap. (will post photos. I promise!)

I wore it to Grandma and Grandpa's 60th wedding anniversary. It was a lovely family gathering and the shawl was lovely too. Silk... drapey.... long enough to wrap around a couple times.

This summer my knitting has taken on a new depth. My hubby is now working on a dairy farm and this has inspired us. We would like our long term goals (think 5-10 year plan) to include moving out of the city and having a small acreage with some animals. Alpacas are definitely on my list. The thought of spinning yarn from animals raised excites me so much! We visited the Willow Wind Alpaca farm and got a tour.

They gave me a "sample" of their yarn and I knit this:


I fell in love with those critters immediately. The thing is they're easy to look after! A perfect way to start out for a city girl turned country girl.

On thing though... if I'm going to have all that fibre... I should really learn how to spin...

Maybe a drop spindle from Tracy at WoollyDesigns? Stay tuned...

P.S. I'm going back to school this fall... so if my posting is more sporadic than usual, that's why...

The answer is NO

I've learned a little something about myself as a knitter. I'm not a monogamous knitter. I can't handle working on one project only. There is a very good reason for this. I like to complicated things (like lace, cables etc) but sometimes I crave a plain sock.

You know those days when you are just not with it? And the thought of doing something complex makes your brain hurt? On those days it's not a good idea to knit lace, you end up making mistakes and it goes slowly. Then there is car knitting. I discovered yesterday that knitting lace in the backseat of a stuffy car when you are a bit tired is NOT a good idea. I'm so glad my friend Esther had a dish cloth that I could knit on instead! Next time I'll bring a sock!

(as an aside we went to the narcisse snake dens :) as the snakes come out of hibernation, they form what's called mating balls. Looks kind of like tangled yarn doesn't it?)



So this is why I'm not going to finish my shawl in time... Maybe I'll have it done in time for my grandparents' 60th wedding anniversary in August...

Lace Marathon

So I came up with this brilliant idea to knit the Boxleaf Wrap from knitspot to wear to my friend's wedding. I don't have any "dressy" knits and my wardrobe of dressy clothes is looking a little shabby.

That sounds like a plan, you say. When is wedding? July? August? That would give me plenty of time!

Nope.

May 23, 2009.

I've never given myself a knitting deadline before... I feel a little like the Yarn Harlot at Christmas. But I usually do my Christmas knitting well in advance.

Here's the break down:

Whole Shawl= 20 pattern repeats
One repeat= 20 rows (every other row is a purl), 75 stitches across
Estimated time to knit one 20 row repeat=2hrs
Repeats completed= 3
Start date= April 30.
Deadline= May 22 to allow blocking time.
So...


Basically I need to knit for 2 hrs per day to complete one repeat per day, every day and I would finish by the 19th. Yeah.... I'd better go knit some more...

Think I can do it?

Coriolis effect...

So when I got New Pathways in Sock Knitting last winter, I skipped the little sky beginner sock and dove straight into the little coriolis. I loved it. It's such a unique way to make a sock. Then I read all about the fit issues people had with the "big" coriolis and waited a bit to try it, out of fear. I don't usually get scared off by a challenge in knitting (example: my first cable project was a celtic braid).

I experimented with the other sock architectures and found my groove (read: figured out that I was measuring my midfoot as half an inch bigger than it really was, therefore making all my socks half an inch too big around...miserable). I just bought some Mirasol Chirapa and it told me it wanted to be a coriolis, with a nice wide band. I finished the first sock in less than a week. I'm addicted, I love love love this pattern and it's fitting like, well, a sock :) super cozy!


In fact I'm thinking of ripping another sock (it's a little small) and making it into a coriolis too! :) maybe with yarn over increases to make "bubbles"?

I don't know why I waited so long...

Knitting Prayer

My grandma gave me this a while ago. I thought it was cute :)

The Knitter's Prayer

I pray when risen from the dead,
I may in glory land.
Perhaps a crown upon my head,
But four needles in my hand.
I never learned to sing or play,
So let no harp be mine.
From childhood to my dying day,
Plain knitting's been my line.
And so accustomed to the end,
In plying useful stitches,
I'll be content if given to knit
the little angels' britches.

I wonder what kind of yarn they would have for the angels' britches? Probably malabrigo...

Finally spring!!!

I'm sitting on my balcony, soaking in the sun. It's finally spring.

Admittedly, spring in manitoba isn't the prettiest thing you ever saw. Kind of dusty and brown and drab. But the blue sky and the warm sun really make me believe that summer is just around the corner. And I just saw a couple of butterflies flitting on the balcony just below mine! Hooray!

Spring also means time for spring knitting! Woo!

I've got a pair of "Spring Forward" socks on the go.


And I just bought some 100% silk yarn from the newly reinvented Ram Wool Yarn Co-op (much appreciation goes to my former co-workers who sent me off with a gift cert! I currently have no other yarn money...). It's going to be a lacey "Delphine" top from French Girl Knits (also in IK Spring 2009).

I've never worked with pure silk before. This will be fun!

Maybe the pool will even be open soon... that might be wishful thinking though...

Zipper conquered!

Back in February, I posted a photo of the yummy yarn I got from Sheeples Fine Fibres. Well I really couldn't hold back and I started knitting it up right away. It was going to be Estes Vest from Interweave Knits Magazine but I soon realized that the pattern called for way more yarn than was needed. I wasn't about to let my lovely handspun go to waste so I decided to add sleeves. (I used top-down seamless set-in sleeves, which rock btw!) I finished knitting the cardigan in the middle of March which is might fast for a sweater!!

Then I stalled... Why you ask? Well I thought that a zipper would look better than the buttons the pattern suggested... But zippers are my nemesis. I sewed a skirt once and it took me 3 or 4 tries (read: sew up, rip entire seam and repeat) to sew in the 4" zipper with my sewing machine. And it still wasn't perfect. The memory still haunts me.

Also I have a bad habit of making something really great and then ruining it with the finishing. I've been trying very hard to overcome my lack of perfectionism in my knitting... with occasional success... but it takes a lot of effort.

This sweater has turned out so well though. I was petrified of ruining it's perfection by messing up the zipper. So I stewed for a couple of weeks. Finally, this week I figured enough is enough! I found a really good tutorial for hand sewing in zippers (did I mention I'm really bad at hand sewing?) and...


After three painstaking days...


Allison: 1 Zipper: 0


I'm on a roll! Maybe I should go fix the buttons that are falling off my Central Park Hoodie...

Dear Mother Nature,

I would like to say that I feel winter has gone on too long. I realize that winter weather is good weather for knitting. It's very kind of you to make more snow and cold so that the people I knit mittens for will be able to wear them before summer arrives.

Yes I also realize you gave us some nice weather last November but, really, that was 5 months ago. I know that March is your favorite time of year and you probably get a little chuckle from making it nice and warm and melty outside and then blasting us with -30 windchill and snow the next day. Ha ha. Hilarious. Guess what? It's April now. Just take the snow away, ok?

I'm hoping that perhaps this is an April Fool's joke (if it is, it's not very funny!) and that I'll wake up tomorrow morning and spring will be here.

Sincerely,
Allison

PS. My cats would also appreciate going out on the balcony without getting their feet cold and wet! K, thanks!

Good bye winter! (I hope!)

Well I'm keeping my fingers crossed that winter is on it's way out. This post will be a tribute to on of my favorite winter knitting projects.

Mittens!

I've made three pairs of mittens since January! All for my co-works Ken and Ken. The first Ken requested two pairs of mitts right after Christmas and presented me with two balls of Patons Classic Merino ($4/ball at Micheal's he said!!). I finished those in February, and he and his sweetheart quite enjoyed them.



A few days after receiving the finished mitts, he provided me with a big bag of homemade cookies! It seems there are perks to knitting for other people!

Then the other Ken, who has been admiring my knitting in the coffee room for over a year now, decide that he must have a pair of mitts too. He asked if I knew of any icelandic yarn, and I thought of Lopi immediately. I had to send him to the yarn store to get the yarn though. He took a detour with some of the other guys from work, on the way back to the office from a meeting or something. You've got to understand that these are "hunters" and "fisherman" and they think knitting is girly. So they've been ribbing Ken non-stop about having to buy yarn at a yarn shop. I think it's just fine, especially since I'm getting deer steaks and sausages out of the deal!!! :)

I'm almost done those mitts... he requested a "dummy" string be added as well... lol.

So I'm hoping with these last mittens being completed I'll be able to say good bye winter!

In case you want to get started on some mittens for next year, here's my tweaked felted mitten pattern!

Allison’s Felted Mitten Recipe

Yarn: Approximately 200yards 100% wool worsted weigh yarn such as Cascade 220 or Patons Classic Merino or Knit Picks Wool of the Andes.

Needles:
Set of 4 or 5 dpns, size 5mm (US 8), it may be easier to use a 16in circular needle for the larger size.3.5mm (US 4) dpns

Other notions:

5mm crochet hook

2 markers

cotton waste yarn

stitch holder

Gauge: approx 4 stitches per inch but finished size is determined by felting

Sizes: Woman (Man)

Note: Cuffs are picked up and knit after felting is completed.

Using larger needles, CO 44(52) st using knitted cast on.
Knit 10 rounds.

Begin thumb gusset:

Right mitten:

Knit 3, place marker (pm), m1, K3, m1, pm, knit to end of round. Knit one round. Knit 3, slip marker, m1, k5, m1, slip marker, knit to end of round. Knit one round. Continue in this fashion, increasing just after first marking and just before second marker until there are 11(13) stitches between the markers. On the next plain knit round, place these stitches on a stitch holder or waste yarn, and cast three stitches onto needle in right hand using the backwards loop method. Knit to end of round.

Left mitten:

Knit until 6 before end of round, marker (pm), m1, K3, m1, pm, K3. Knit one round.Knit to marker, slip marker, m1, k5, m1, slip marker, K3. Knit one round. Continue in this fashion, increasing just after first marking and just before second marker until there are 11(13) stitches between the markers. On the next plain knit round, place these stitches on a stitch holder or waste yarn, and cast three stitches onto needle in right hand using the backwards loop method. Knit to end of round.

Begin mitten body (right and left mittens):
*Knit 7 rounds. On 8th round, knit 20 (24) st. Wrap next stitch and turn so wrong side is facing. Sl 1, purl 18 (22) st. Wrap next st and turn so right side is facing. Knit to end of round, knitting the wraps with wrapped stitches as you come across them.
Repeat from * twice more, for a total of 24 rounds.

Decrease for top:K1, k2tog, K16, ssk, K1, pm. Repeat once. *Knit 1 round.K1 K2tog, knit to 3 before marker, ssk, k1, repeat to second marker. Repeat from * until 24 (28) stitches remain, then work decreases every round until 8 stitches remain. Thread yarn through remaining stitches and weave in ends.

Thumb:
Transfer stitches from stitch holder onto two dpns. Then pick up 5 (7) stitches on a third dpn. 16 (20) sts total. Knit 15 (18) rounds. K2tog 8(10) times. Thread yarn through remaining stitches and weave in ends.

Fulling:Using a crochet hook, and cotton yarn, crochet 44 (52) stitches around cuff of mitten. This will keep holes open so that the cuff stitches can be picked up after fulling.Put mittens in a zippered pillow case and run though 1 or more hot wash/cold rinse cycles, with a low amount of water, a small amount of laundry soap and a pair of old jeans. Check fulling process frequently in order to obtain the correct size. Felting is complete when stitch definition is no longer visible. Let the mitten run through spin cycle to remove excess water. Shape mittens as necessary and allow to dry completely.

Cuffs:
Remove cotton waste yarn. With smaller needles, pick up and knit 44(52) stitches with same yarn as mitten.Begin k2p2 ribbing and continue until cuffs are desired length. Bind off using EZ’s sewn bind off or other stretchy bind off.

Manitoba made

My Sheeples bulky handspun, Manitoba grown yarn has arrived.

Yum!

Hat Update!

Well folks, I have to say I like knitting hats. They're quick and satisfying. :)
I finished both hats this month and the verdict on warmth is two thumbs up! Yes I've succeeded in making a hat that beats the cold of Winterpeg.

First up:

Chris' hat

Featuring Lopi wool and polar fleece lining (instructions for lining a hat on this excellent blog). He tells me it's very warm and the best hat he's ever owned. I think I've finally knit something my hubby actually likes! He even got a compliment from one of his co-workers :)

Next:

My hat

Featuring Homestead by Plymouth Yarn, which is organic wool, yum! And for the fair isle bit I used Cascade 220 and sheeples yarn held together. The best part of this hat is the lining. It is a merino boucle. Amazing. I'm not much of a fan of boucle yarn generally but this yarn feels like a wooly lamb when it's knitted up.

I did some reading up on warm hats (ie I asked the Ravelers) and it seems the best way to keep warm in windy cold weather is to have a tightly knit outerlayer and a warm underlayer. Many people said I should use alpaca or quiviut or cashmere because they are superwarm, light fibers. The reason they are so warm is that they trap air in the fiber (caribou fur is warm for the same reason). When I saw and touched the boucle yarn I thought it would be perfect because it traps a lot of air, even though merino's not the warmest of the warm fibers. I was right.

We had some -30 something windchill weather this week and I tested my hat. Toasty warm. Awesome!

Next up... mittens... (but not for me... more later!)

A little off topic...

...but still connected!

I recently saw this really awesome video clip about North American materialism. It's called the Story of Stuff. It's quite eye-opening and you should all watch it! (It's not even preachy, just straight up facts.)

How is this linked to knitting? It's part of my world view. I'd rather make something from scratch than go to Evil-Mart and buy a cheapo sweater that will wear out quickly and was probably made in a sweat shop in the philipines. I also get a lot more joy from buying yarn that was grown and produced by a local farm/mill, or at least fairly traded, than when I buy imported stuff. (I love Sheeples and Wolseley Wardrobe!!)

The above video just affirms to me why doing those things is good! I'd love to hear what you think!

A new year of knitting

Yes I know I haven't really been blogging lately but several people have told me they check once in a while. It's not that I haven't thought of it but I just haven't been inspired and I don't want to bore you with mundane posts just for the sake of posting.

2008 has been an explosive year for my knitting hobby. I've really settled into the hobby. I met up with other knitters. I got on ravelry, about a year ago now, which has opened up a whole world of possibilities for projects, yarn and techniques.

I've also knit a whole bunch of gifts.

Thrummed booties (will possibly post how-to at some point) and soaker for Heather's baby, Meredith




A hat for Anna's baby, Eliza



Booties for Nathan and Carly's baby, John


Socks for my dad


A little bear named Bubby for my niece, Autumn Grace

and little mittens for charity

I feel like my knitting is at a place where I feel comfortable knitting for other people. I feel like my skill is good enough :)
I've had 3 sweater requests from three men in my life: my brother, my husband and my father-in-law. I'll keep you posted on progress but for now I have another short term goal.

I want to make a hat that will keep my ears warm in the bitter cold of Winnipeg winter. It's a lofty goal to be sure. Any of you who have experienced -35C with a northern windchill of -45C will know that a plain, single layered, ribbed hat does nothing to cut the cold. So I'm on a mission.

There are several things to keep in mind when knitting a hat.
- design
- material
- fabric thickness/windproofing

I posed the question of how to make a warm winter hat on Ravelry and got a huge response. Here is a summary of the advice people gave:

1. Use a warm fibre. Apparently quiviut (musk ox fibre) is the warmest there is, and following in second is cashmere. I'm not made of money so I'm going to rely on good old wool. Alpaca may be another choice. Those fibres are warm because they trap little pockets of warm air. Boucle or brushed yarn might do the trick.

2. Earflaps are the way to go. Yup stylish and warm. I agree and I'm going with the flaps.

3. Small gauge is better. There are fewer spaces for the wind to get through. This is especially good for an outer layer. Felting is even better.

4. Use layers. There are numerous ways to achieve this. Double knitting makes 2 layers at the same time. I might try this, we'll see. The other suggestion was lining with polar fleece. Fair isle or stranding patterns also create more layers.

So all these ideas have been swirling around and I think I've got the yarn I need for the two hats I want to make. I'm going to use a fair isle pattern, the norwegian star (classic!).

Hubby's hat will be Lopi bulky wool, knit on 3.75mm needles with a polar fleece lining. I'm casting on today!

You'll have to keep checking back to see what my hat will be!