FF: A blend

About a year ago, one Thursday evening, I ventured out of my home-bound knitting realm and joined a group of people I didn't know in public to knit. It was the first of many, many Thursday nights spent out of my house ingesting wool fumes with other like-minded fiberholics, and is the greatest thing since sliced bread. I am typically prone to inertia (not to mention being somewhat introverted), and leaving my house after dark doesn't happen often unless IM and I are headed out on a hot date. But all that changed last spring, and now I chomp at the bit every Thursday until I can get out the door.

In the last month or so I've been exerting my powers to convert some of these lovely folks over to the spinning side of things. I've been thinking about handspun giftees for everyone for a while, but felt it my duty to see if I could entice anyone else over to the dark side. There was one spinner already, and I managed to get another convert, but some others have been vehemently against any spinning-type things at all. Hopefully they'll come around soon...

This week I've been working on the last of my handspun giftees for The Ladies (most of whom are grouped over there under a ridiculous jumble of letters). In almost two years of spinning, I've done lots of pure fibers - Romney, merino, BFL, Corriedale - but not so many blends, and certainly never one with three different fibers in it.

Fiber: alpaca/merino/silk (65%/20%/15%) from Little Barn.
Spun/plied: 9.25:1 (I finally checked the actual ratios on my wheel).

I found this vendor by searching for CVM roving (California Variegated Mutant), and ended up leaving their site with 24 oz of fiber; the CVM, a tweedy wool blend, and this gorgeous green stuff. It was described on the website as a turquoise color, but it is really really green. Kelly green, leprachaun green, bright green. Not exactly a green that I do a lot of, but still gorgeous stuff.

I spun up the singles really quickly - I managed 2 oz in one night even! - and then plied together with a fair amount of twist. This is intended for someone who likes more of the blue colors, and since I'm in such a frenzy to use up some of my dyes, I tried overdying this with some blue to get more of a teal color.

It's lovely soft stuff, and I hope there's enough here for a lacy scarf or something like that. I'll update with final specs once it's dry.

And just to whet your appetites ladies, here's a mosaic (with original fiber and final yarn): any predictions on who's getting what?

That screeching sound you hear is the brakes

Being put on the Aleita Shell.

I had been cranking along in good style on this piece. Did both fronts, noticing and fixing my annoying edge mistake on the left front before it became visible, successfully negotiating neckline and armhole shaping without too much recounting and/or swearing. So I moved on to the back, feeling quite swell about how things were going.

I had noticed when I started the ribbing for the bodice that my stitch counts did not match the ones in the pattern. I don't know if I cast on a some extra stitches or if there's a mistake in the pattern, but in any event, I had an extra stitch on each front and two extra on the back.

This was not a big deal when working the fronts in pattern; I just kept that extra stitch as a purl on the right front and mirrored it on the left. But for the back, my mind apparently went on vacation stopped working had a serious brain fart, because I started the ribbing as directed in the pattern. It took me longer then I care to admit to realize that this meant that the ribbing on the back was shifted to one side by a stitch.

Being categorically averse to tinking unless there is no other option, I elected to soldier on, figuring that a one stitch shift wasn't going to be noticeable.

Can you see the storm clouds gathering? Yup, me too. Might be hail up there as well - best take cover.

This was the case until I got through the armhole decreases on the back. And I realized that on one side of the back, it looked like this: (I = knit stitch, O = purl stitch, offending stitches are blue):

IOOOOIOIOI

And on the other side it looked like this:

IOIOOOIOOOOI

It may be hard to visualize from those representations, but on one edge it looked like k1 p1 ribbing next to a large purl block, and on the other it was k1, p1, k1, p3, k1, purl block. Not a big difference, but for some reason, every time I did another right side row, it bothered me more and more.

Now the smart person would have stopped there (a couple inches into the armholes) and, either ripped back to the start of the bodice (HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! Oh hell no!), or dropped back the offending, miscentered k1 columns on the right side, replacing them with a purl column and shifting over the knit column to the right location. Guess what I did.

That's 12 inches of back ribbing. 12. One.Whole.Foot.

This is going to take a long time. 13 sets of columns to be fixed. I'm on number 5.

My armholes are 7 inches. I am not smart.

Green stuffs

After a disastrous attempt to start the Aleita Shell (Rav link) last week at Knit Night (I cast on the entire thing, counted, had the right number of stitches, knit several rows and discovered I'd twisted the row before joining. Mobius Vest is not my thing. Ripped out. And by then, what with the talking and gabbing and screeching and such, it was time to go home), I made it past the first few rows. In fact, thanks to five hours on the confocal microscope yesterday, I've made it all the way up to the bodice and am working my way through p4, k1 ribbing galore.

This one is a fun knit. I like the yarn (Silky Wool), the pattern is fairly straightforward, but interesting enough to keep me from getting bored. And my new toy is making finishing one skein and having to start another a lot of fun.

However, this evening I am casting on something new (slut!). No project monogamy here, no sirree. This is the only yarn I picked up in London on our house hunting trip:

Indie Dyer Mini (fingering weight 100% superwash merino), in the colorway Dad's Den. Purchased at I Knit London, right by Waterloo Station. Given that my commute will involve changing from the train to the Tube at Waterloo, I suspect I may be stopping by on a weekly basis. This could get ugly...

The North

If it's March, it must be time for another round of Project Spectrum.

Lolly has come up with a great theme this time - the four Cardinal Directions, each of which has an associated color, season and element, as well as different materials. For the next two months, Project Spectrum Participants will be focusing on the color green, the season winter, the element earth and incorporating stones, gems and rocks in whatever way appeals to them.

I usually use Project Spectrum to focus on colors, particularly colors that I might not typically use. I went through my stash looking for green-ish yarns, and came up a number of possibilities.

I've got some sage green sock yarn that could be used up,

Some heathery green Wool of the Andes destined for a sweater,

And a bunch of dark green Silky Wool left over from the bag that I cracked open for the Peapod. I've got designs on a vest with this stuff.

But the most pressing project at the moment are the TdF socks. I've lined up test knitters for two of the four pairs, so I'm feeling pretty optimistic about getting them done in the time frame I'd like. This week is dedicated to swatching, and the yarn currently getting a workout is the green Fixation, for the Sprinter's Jersey socks

I'm also going to be working on the King of the Mountains socks, to tie in with the rock/stone theme for this section - I've finished the swatching for that one, but I need to write up the base pattern for the socks and start plugging in the lace charts and (gulp!) doing the math. My favorite part! I'm going to be doing the knitting on this pair, so I can hold off for a bit while I get the other two patterns to the test knitters. But I want to get started!

Hmmm. I thought I wasn't going to have much to do for this round. Looks like I'm going to be very busy!