Shades of things to come

I've been doing a bunch of dyeing of late, getting up to speed for a shop update in September after school starts, and I found one of the new colorways irresistable.


There was a chill in the air this morning that means autumn might be just around the corner (although given the weather over the past few months, it will be 35 degrees by the end of the next week). Sadly, here in the UK we don't get the same brilliant colors that cover the trees in New England, but this fiber is a pretty close match!

I couldn't help myself - BFL is totally one of my favorite fibers!

Most of the 4 oz became a three-ply, but the leftover singles from two bobbins went together pretty well too.

This was the first non-natural colored spinning I've done in quite a while, and I whizzed through it. The singles were all spun up in one evening (fractal spin: I split the length of top into three equal lengths, then spun one from the entire width, one split in half and one split into quarters). The plying was done the next day (gotta love summer holidays!). I've got about 100 yds of bulky 3-ply that I think is going to become a cowl of some sort. Gotta go crawl through the stitch dictionaries...

Here comes the sun

It has been an absolutely spectacular week here in southeast England, which has lifted the spirits of all concerned. Except for on the way home from school, when the girls moan about it being "Toooooo hoooooot Mummy!" The poor things, you'd think they'd never lived in Hell Houston.

Anyway, the improved weather has inspired me to do two things. One: to finish the knitting part of my Gemini tee...

Still needed: weaving in of many ends (damn stinkin' hemp yarn with lots of knots!) and a good wet blocking. Maybe tonight.

I've also gone on a total run and done a bunch of dyeing.

That's four out of six colorways drying in the glorious sunshine. The other two will be joining them in the next few hours, and I'm hoping to get an update posted on Sunday afternoon. As long as the weather and the photography gods smile on me!

I hope everyone has a glorious, sunshine filled weekend!

A week in sweaters, part III

Subtitle: The Unfinished.

One of my goals for the past week while Himself has been away was to finish the body of the River Run Pullover. I'm happy to say that I reached that fantastic point last night:

There it is, complete with front and back neck steeks. I started the three needle bind off at the shoulders, but it was 10:30, my silly movie was done, and I needed to go to bed early. I'll finish the bind offs tonight, then put it away while we go back to H-town. The plan is to do the neck ribbing next (just in case so when I have to spin and dye more, it will be in the sleeves), then get going on the sleeves. I'm hoping for a 23 December finish for this (so it has time to be blocked and dried).

I also had a bit of startitis this week and did this:

Started a Tappan Zee for Devil out of the handspun I did earlier this summer. The yarn is quite a bit lighter then that called for in the pattern, but I managed to pull together a nifty little spread sheet that converted the numbers in the original pattern to actual measurements using my new gauge - turns out that instead of re-jiggering the whole thing with new numbers, I can knit the second size and have it fit her perfectly.

I am beyond obsessed with how this is turning out. I can't manage to get a good picture of the really bright greens in this yarn - it's electric! - but I am enjoying the knitting immensely.

So, we're off for half-term tomorrow. I am busily planning my travel knitting list which includes this sweater, some long neglected mittens I should have finished and published last winter, and a new design idea involving orange worsted weight yarn and short-row shaped scarves. Hmmm...

A week in sweaters, part II

I am so grateful that my kids are still small enough that I can work up a sweater for them in about a week. From the front,

and the back.

Pattern: my own, using the same stitch pattern as in this sweater, but with YOs instead of M1s
Yarn: random worsted weight yarn bought many years ago in Florence, originally grey but we dyed it with fuschia and ended up with purple.
Needles: US 6/4.0 mm
Start/finish: 29 September - 7 October 2011 (that's when it was wearable, not knitting finished)

The story: so I've got this men's sweater pattern that's being test knitted, and one of the testers noted that it would be easy to make it girly by substituting yarn overs for the make ones in the stitch pattern (that syntax would only make sense to other knitters, wouldn't it?). I was intrigued by the idea, but not enthralled to work up another adult sized garment trying it out. Boo had laid claim to this yarn for a sweater for her, so I whipped this up relatively quickly.

The sweater is knit in one piece to the underarm, then split for fronts and back. Sleeves were knit separately and sewn in, the neckband was picked up and knit, and then the button bands. I've had these buttons for ages and they were just the perfect match.

And Boo was a most agreeable little model, although I can't quite manage to get behind the purple lace sweater over pink with white polka dots. So be it.

Rainbow Icelandic singles

From the gradient fiber I posted earlier this week, I ended up with this:

163 yds of singles (out of ~3.5 oz). I spun these at a low ratio (7.5:1) so that I didn't end up with wire instead of yarn. I hadn't spun Icelandic before, and it wasn't the smoothest experience. I think this top had both fiber types (tog and thel, which is the outer and under coats respectively), so the staple length wasn't consistent. I kept getting points where the shorter undercoat made clumps and slubs in the singles. It was a bit of a frustrating experience, but the finished yarn is pretty nice anyway.

I couldn't resist, so today, after I took the finished skeins pictures, I balled it up,

these colors are pretty true to life

and cast on for EZ's Pi shawl.

I'm working the increase rows as invisible increases and doing yo, k2tog whenever the color shifts in the yarn. It's not going to be very big, but maybe the girls can use it for a stuffed animal or something.