EEEEK! Steek!!

Last May I started a blanket called Rams and Yowes by Kate Davies. I have thoroughly enjoy knitting the little rows of ewes and rams in the beautiful natural tones of shetland wool. This lovely lap blanket was my first major fair isle project and I am totally hooked!

In true fair isle style, the square blanket is knit as a tube and then steeked. Steeking is basically cutting your knitting, strategically. You can imagine it is a little nerve wracking. After putting months of work into a piece of knitting, I didn't want to screw up!

I followed Kate Davies' tutorial and it made the process much easier!

After tucking in a million ends (2 hours!!)...

 and reinforcing the steek....

 I started to cut!!

 Voila! A square blanket!

Shetland wool is perfect for steeking because it grabs onto itself and doesn't unravel easily. It's a little scratchier than merino but it has a great character! (as do the sheep :)

Now to pick up the 700+ stitches for the border.....

Spinning like a crazy woman!

During the winter of 2009, I learned to spin yarn on a spindle. I've posted a number of times on the topic and I was adamant  that I would not buy a wheel. I spun on spindles and that was that. I liked to be different and buck the spinning wheel trend.

Well I still like my spindles, but I came to a realization.

I am a knitter first. Spinner second. Don't get me wrong, I love spinning. But I love knitting with handspun yarn even more than I love spinning it and I just wasn't productive enough on a spindle to be able to knit with my handspun on a regular basis. 

So I broke down and in February I bought this:

A lovely Lendrum, Canadian made, used from a spinner in B.C. I've had it for about a month and I've spun about 700g of fibre on it already! 

I spun some 200g merino/silk that I got from Oregon in 2010.

And then I spun 300g of Alpaca to make a chunky 3 ply.

One of my favorite things about this wheel is that I comes with a plying head and HUGE bobbin.

This makes for some seriously large quantities. I think I'm going to make a chunky shawl from this stuff. (I have another 300g to go...)

 

This huge bobbin is also great for chunky singles and art yarn. I spun this batt from my friend Susan (soft and fluffy as a cloud!). The photo really doesn't do it justice. It was so fun to spin. I might turn this into a moebius scarf.

 

The next thing on my wheel is some corriedale pencil roving from Crown Mountain Farms. I started spinning this a few years ago on my spindle and I've been wanting to spin enough for a pair of socks. I'm just plying the second batch of 50g (50g more to spin, just to be safe with the yardage). I can't wait to knit socks from handspun!!!

One of the big reasons I wanted to get a wheel right now is that I may be getting some fleeces from the Blue Hills Fibre Festival (which incidentally I'm helping to organize) in June. A wheel will allow me to get through some serious quantities of wool! Maybe enough to knit a handspun sweater someday...

Today I read an article in KnittySpin that summarized my feelings precisely. I'm hoping that by getting a wheel, I will be able to go even deeper into my love of knitting through greater control over and creativity in the yarn I use in my projects!