Possessed to Knit

Stepping Stone Socks Completed

Here are the Stepping Stone socks I knitted for my nephew, Joshua, who turns 7 years old on Sunday.  The yarn is Knit Picks Stroll Sport in the Hollyberry colorway, leftover from his mother's Twinflower and the same yarn (but different dye lot) from his Spiderman mittens and hat.  I thought I was using my 2.75 mm Darn Pretty dpns, but it turns out that they were size 2.50 mm dpns.   For the heels and toes, I used 2.25 mm dpns.  I always find myself inspired to knit Joshua something for his winter birthday as he really appreciates my knitting, even at his young age. 

Twinflower Completed

Here is my completed Twinflower for my sister, Teresa, as a slighlty late birthday present.  I selected Knit Picks Stroll Sport in the Holly Berry colorway because Teresa prefers machine washable yarns.  I used my size 5 (3.75 mm) Addi Lace fixed needles for the body and my size 4 (3.50 mm) Addi Lace fixed needles for the hem and the cabled neckband.  The set-in sleeves were a bit of a challenge, and Amy Herzog has a helpful blog about setting in sleeves here.  I also made a sample of a sewn hem and a knitted together hem, and the sewn hem looked much nicer.  I found some heel reinforcing yarn in a similar color at Fibre Space for sewing the hems down.   I will mail it tomorrow and I certainly look forward to hearing how it fits.

New Year's Day

I did a good bit of spindle spinning in 2011.  The silk singles are on the top and the cashmere singles are on the bottom.  I wound the cashmere into a center pull ball and plied one strand of silk with two strands of cashmere using my Gem.  Now I need to find just the right project for this precious yarn.

In 2011, I knitted 13 pairs of socks and I have three single socks awaiting a second sock at the moment.  I completed 3 scarves, one shawl, 2 pairs of mittens, 5 hats (one handspun) and one handspun French Press cozy.  I also have front, back, and sleeves knitted and blocked for a Twinflower pullover for my sister, Teresa.  My nephews have recently discovered Harry Potter and each would like a Harry Potter scarf to wear for the rest of the winter so I will start on their scarves next. 

I hope to knit with more of my handspun yarn in 2012 and to experiment with my inspiring 250 Japanese Knitting Patterns book.  Happy New Year!

 

Fibery Birthday Presents

I received this wonderful box of birthday gifts (for my birthday tomorrow) from my Ravelry sister, Laura.  I have been frustrated with my yak spindle project, it is not the fun spinning I thought it would be and I was thinking of what would be fun to spin and then I received these delightful rovings and DVD box set today.

Starting with the top left, we have a batt of cormo & possum carded together.  There is also another batt, I could not fit everything in the photo.  Laura had a fellow Raveler with a drum carder combine these lovely fibers into two batts for me.  Next, the purple batt is a merino/possum blend, incredibly soft and carded into a thin strip that is ready to spin, with no predrafting.  On the bottom right, we have New Zealand Halfbred combed top at 27 microns, similar to merino, but with a 4" staple length, it will yield a more durable lace yarn.  There is actually half a pound of the combed top, not all of it is in the photo.  Qiviut, the down fiber from Musk Ox, is the amazingly soft ball of roving in the lower left corner.   I will spin this into a 2-ply lace yarn and knit a Ptarmigan cowl.  "The No.1 Ladies Detective Agency" DVDs will be perfect to watch while I spin my beautiful rovings.  Laura wanted to send me fibers I had never spun before and she certainly has.

Thank you to Laura for all of my fabulous birthday gifts!

Yak Spindling

I recently started spindle spinning a 4 ounce bag of yak roving as I wanted a small project to pick up when I had a few minutes to spin.  The staple length is about an inch and it is not the highest quality yak.  There appears to be some kemp and a few guard hairs, but it still feels soft over all. 

I selected my 0.5 ounce spindles (center and right) to spin such short stapled fibers.  I want to spin a yarn strong enough to stay together yet not overspun into a wire.  I ended up getting a lot of back spin with these light spindles, so I tried my 0.9 ounce spindle (left).  Now I get no back spin, though I am not sure how much fiber I will get on the spindle before the yarn starts breaking. 

I plan to spindle ply this yarn so I can keep a close eye on the feel of the resulting 2-ply yarn and maintain its softness.  This yak has no bounce to it and would make a nice cowl or scarf.

December Baby Yarn

Here is my Dragonfly Fibers merino/silk yarn, a lovely ebony and maple spindle from Spindlewood Co, and a beautiful spindle bag handmade by Laura M. 

I spindle spun (and wheel plied) the entire 4 ounces of merino/silk roving using all of my one ounce spindles.  I spun the singles very fine and rotated through my spindles as I made the 4-ply yarn.  This gave me a lot of practice with joining yarns as I learned from The Gentle Art of Plying DVD by Judith MacKenzie.  The yarn is about 350 yards and 18 to 22 wpi. 

I love Spindlewood's square spindle design plus Steve and Connie always provide excellent customer service with their wonderful spindles.  Laura's delightful spindle bag helped to make my spindling more portable.  It took a while for me to spin such fine singles.

This yarn would make an interesting pair of gloves and a nice matching cowl or a great pair of socks.  I will be knitting with it one of these days once I complete my holiday knitting.

 

Raha Scarf Completed

Here is my completed Raha scarf.  It was difficult to photograph the entire scarf, and the colors are more vivid in person.  The pattern is from Nancy Bush's Knitted Lace of Estonia.  I used my size 9 (5.5 mm) Addi Lace needles and one skein of Fiesta Boomerang yarn in the Sapphire colorway.

This scarf is certainly a unique combination of a European design and a hand-dyed yarn.  Fiesta Boomerang is very soft wool and it is machine washable.  I wanted to make a lacy scarf pattern to increase the length as a scarf entirely in garter stitch would be very pretty, but a bit shorter.  Although the edges are in garter stitch, there was still a bit of curling which settled down after blocking.

This scarf is a gift and should be comfortable and warm for this winter season.

Joshua's Cauchy Socks

Here are the Cauchy socks I knitted for my nephew, Joshua.  I had about 2 ounces of this Fortissima cotton/nylon sock yarn leftover from his Red Rover socks.  After knitting these socks, I had less than a foot of yarn leftover.  I am so glad I had enough yarn to complete these Cauchy socks for him.  I used my 2.25 mm Chiao Goo 40" circular needles and my 2.00 mm Addi Bamboo dpns for the eye of partridge heels and the toes.  They are a little big for him, but he will certainly grow into them.

The pattern wallet on the left was designed and created by Laura M.  I photographed the back of it to show the clever pockets for needles and scissors and the handy zippered section to hold stitch markers and Chibi needles.  The other side holds and entire 8.5" x  11" page very nicely.  I have the Cauchy chart there.  She also attached an elastic band to hold it all together.  Thank you to Laura for this truly wonderful gift! 

Thayer Scarf Completed

Here is the Thayer scarf I knitted for Brooklyn Tweed designer, Leila Raabe, in the new Loft yarn.  It was so nice to have the opportunity to knit with this lovely yarn.  It comes in 32 colors and is perfect for lace or colorwork projects.  The Loft Collection features a variety of patterns designed with this delightful yarn.

I used size 5 (3.75 mm) Addi Lace needles and Loft in the Stormcloud colorway for this project.  The pattern calls for size 6 needles and I usually have to go up a needle size, however, the yarn was very springy.  I did not knit so tightly and achieved the desired gauge with size 5 needles.  The intricate lace patterning is created in every row of this design.  Jared Flood blocked it and the photos on the Brooklyn Tweed sight turned out beautifully.

Congratulations to Jared, Leila, and Michele on yet another successful yarn line.   

Derica Kane Cardigan Completed

Here is my completed Derica Kane Cardigan.  The yarn is Miss Babs Yowza worsted weight yarn in the Sugar colorway.  I used size 8 (5.00 mm) Addi Lace clicks for the body and size 6 (4.00 mm) for the ribbing.  I started with two 8 oz skeins of yarn and switched skeins every two rows to help blend the hand-dyed colors more evenly throughout the body and the sleeves. 

I made several adjustments to the design.  I lengthened the sleeves by about 2 inches and the body by almost an inch.  I brought the neckline in closer to the neck and added an inch to the raglan yoke and two more buttons.  I followed Lucy Neatby's Finesse Your Knitting advice and removed the stair step decreases from the neckline.  Miss Babs Yowza yarn is wonderful to knit with and is a very soft superwash merino yarn.