Possessed to Knit

The Intentional Spinner

I have completed my Blue Streak skein.  It is about 110 yards and 11-14 wpi and weighs 1.9 oz.  I had never spun with flash (the glittery bits) before as I tend to be a no frills spinner and knitter, for that matter.  The flash does add a nice little something extra to my yarn.  Nikol will be sending me an additional batt of Blue Streak with my February Cuckoo Batt shipment this week.

I have been enjoying Judith MacKenzie McCuin's latest book, The Intentional Spinner.  I have taken several of her classes and still found helpful information in her book.  She includes 4 projects: a knitted shawl, a pair of marled yarn socks, a knitted kese (washcloth), and a woven scarf.  She goes into great detail on the spinning of the yarns for each of these projects.  She also discusses boucle and novelty yarns and just about every type of fiber that can be spun into yarn.  I have her Teach Yourself Visually Handspinning book which is more general in its approach, as it is part of the Teach Yourself Visually series.  I think The Intentional Spinner is the spinning book she has always wanted to write and that it would be a welcome addition to any spinners bookshelf. 

Aguona Laptop Bag Progress

I have reached the half-way point on the knitting part of the Aguona laptop bag for my extremely patient friend, Lawrence.  I love how it is turning out and I have been studying the steek and zipper installation instructions.  After steeking Justin's raglan cardigan, I understand why they recommend a hand-sewn steek.  It was a challenge to feed the sweater under the foot of the machine and the fabric did get distorted quite a bit.  This Fair Isle fabric is much stronger and I think it would withstand the sewing machine stitching better, so I will give the machine stitching a try.  Lucy Neatby and Elizabeth Zimmerman say to use small stitches with reduced tension, which I did on Justin's sweater.

The Oscars are on tonight and I still have the Independent Spirit Awards that I taped to watch.  I will be knitting my Felici sock as I need to pay close attention when I work on Lawrence's Aguona laptop bag.  I hope I get to see Anne Hathaway win the Best Actress award for Rachel Getting Married. 

Blue Streak Plying

I've spun up my Cuckoo Batt Blue Streak fiber onto two 1.5 oz Kundert spindles.  I'm plying them with my Hydrangea All-Day lollipop spindle (a gift from my sister, Teresa) and my Flagship Lizzie Kate.  I like how the yarn is turning out at about 12 wpi.  I have ordered an additional batt as I quickly realized I would not have enough yarn to make a hat.  Nikol was also kind enough to let me upgrade the rest of my Cuckoo Club Batts so I will now receive two batts.  This club had sold out long ago and I am grateful she was able to accommodate my request for more fiber.  I look forward to seeing what Nikol has created for February. 

Justin's Top-Down Raglan Sweater Completed

I have finished Justin's top-down raglan cardigan, complete with basketball buttons.  This is the last of my Knit Picks Swish Superwash in the Red Pepper colorway.  They discontinued this color and fortunately, I had just enough to complete Justin's sweater.  I made a size 8 for him, instead of a size 6, as I had originally planned.  I thought with knitting it in the round that I would have a tighter gauge and it would turn out smaller, and it did.  My gauge was 5 sts to the inch on my size 8 Denise needles instead of around 4.5 sts to the inch that I got on Joshua's sweater that I knitted back and forth.  I look forward to returning to Lawrence's Aguona laptop bag tonight and feel better now that I have some more steeking experience under my belt. 

Yarn & Chocolate

Valentine's Day doesn't get much better than this, new sock yarn, markers, and chocolates in an edible box from Schakolad Chocolate Factory in Crystal City.  The Girl from Ipanema sock yarn is the first installment of the Wullenstudio Sock Club.  Sheila included 4 beautiful moonstone and silver stitch markers and a pretty pattern with this delightful sock yarn.  I joined this seasonal sock club when I learned that Patrick was designing one of the patterns, and I am glad I did.  This brightly colored yarn reminds me that spring is just around the corner, the perfect touch to my Valentine's Day.

Practice Steek

This raglan cardigan is for my nephew, Justin.  I knitted on for his brother, Joshua last month.  I took the opportunity to improve the pattern and to practice my steeking before I cut the laptop bag I am knitting for Lawrence.  I haven't steeked a sweater for a long time and when I did, it was not with slippery superwash yarn. 

I essentially knitted this topdown raglan in the round with a six stitch steek which is outlined by the basting I added once I had bound off the sweater.  I sewed 2 rows of stitches one stitch inside the basting with my sewing machine on each side of the steek.  I have the steek partially cut here.  I then sewed a piece of seam binding to each edge and trimmed the loose stitches back a bit.  I plan to sew the seam binding invisibly to the inside edge of the sweater after knitting up the bands.  I have to knit the neck first and I am trying to figure out where to start picking up the stitches near the steek.  I am also concerned about the bulk of the steek edge as this is worsted weight yarn (Knit Picks Swish worsted in the Red Pepper colorway).  Hopefully, the seam binding will help me secure this unruly edge.

Darn Pretty Needles & Felici Yarn

Here is my new travel sock.  It is Knit Picks Felici yarn in the Alexandrite colorway on my new 2.00 mm Darn Pretty Bubblegum Stripe dpns made by Tom Diak of Grafton Fibers.  We met Tom and his wife, Linda, a few years ago when we went to Vermont for a vacation.  Tom is an excellent woodworker and Linda is an exquisite dyer.  These dpns are 5" long and velvety smooth, not like any of my other dpns.  I want to knit these Twisted Stitch Gauntlets.  They require two different size dpns and 5" dpns will be better for knitting the fingers.  I purchased his set of seven sizes from 2.00 mm through 3.75 mm in 0.25 mm increments (except for 3.00 mm).  I am now prepared for the all socks, mittens, and gloves I have in my queue.

Peppermint Twist Socks Completed

I've completed my Peppermint Twist Tofutsie socks.  These socks are bit more summery than wintery.  I wasn't inspired to complete them until I received Lorna's Laces Shepherd sock yarn in Tickle Me Pink from Patrick with the handwoven scarf I won from his Race for the Cure raffle.   I used a 2.75 mm Knit Picks 32" needle with a 2.25 mm needle for the sole and heel.  They came out a bit different as I thought I had used the 2.25 mm for the sole of the first sock, but it appears I just used it for the toe and heel.  My left foot is larger than my right foot, so these socks will still work.  I enjoyed knitting the cable patterns in this design and I like the festive colors in this yarn.  The weekend is looking to be a bit warmer and I will likely try them out then. 

Blue Streak Art Club Batt

I received my first Art Club batt yesterday.  I read about Nikol and her fanciful batt club in Spin Off magazine.  I have lots of spindles and thought joining her Cuckoo for Cuckoobatts club would give me 4 oz of unique roving to spin each month.  For January, we have Blue Streak which is mohair, shetland, corriedale, sparkle, and angelina carded together to create this lovely batt.  I have several Kundert spindles with large 3.5" inch whorls to spin some medium singles.  I am not a fan of joining balls of yarn together as I knit.  My first thought was to spin this on my Gem with its Woolee winder, wind it into a center pull ball and then make one continuous 2-ply yarn.  Then I remembered how I wanted to get back to spindle spinning and started looking at which spindles would work best.  I like a wider whorl for thicker yarn, but some of my slightly smaller whorl spindles, like my Hatchtown spindle, might work.  If I feel really ambitious, I could even ply with my All-Day lollipop spindle.  I am planning on a knitted toque (brimless hat) from 45 Fanciful Hats by Anna Zilboorg for this yarn, for the time being. 

Lilac Cable Socks Completed

Here are the lilac cable socks for my sister, Teresa.  I used Cascade Heritage sock yarn and my 2.25 mm Signature Needle Arts 5" dpns (with size 2.00 mm Addi Turbo 40" circular needles for the heels and toes).  I ended up knitting the second sock more tightly as the ladder between the needles started to bother me.  That didn't happen as much during the first sock.  This superwash wool/nylon (75%/25%) sock yarn is very nice to work with and I have a skein in fuscia for to knit in this Snow Lake pattern by Figheadh Yarnworks.  I have about half a skein of lilac left, so I should be able to knit a pair of Selbuvotter gloves for her with the leftover yarns for next winter.