FOs: Thank you brain

FO#1: a large research grant, which is out of my hands and off to the lovely administrative folks at my institution to submit to the Grand Poobah of Federal Biomedical Research Funding (otherwise known as the National Institutes of Health). I am looking forward to reclaiming my very worn out brain cells and returning to the land of the semi-coherent sometime in the next week or so.

FO#2: the North Roe shawl in my own handspun...

Pattern: North Roe shawl by Odile Buatois-Brand
Yarn: 70% merino/30% mohair, colorway Verdant, from Hello Yarn, 5 oz/approx 650 yds
Needles: US 8/5.0 mm
Size: preblock, 60 x 26 inches; post-block, 70 x 36 inches.
Mods/comments: Loved the pattern, loved the handspun, even though I ran out and had to spin more. I even love how the striping came out, and I'm not big on striped shawls. Since I was light on yardage even before running out, I worked fewer repeats of Charts 1 and 2 (4 repeats and 3 respectively), and made it 8 of 12 rows into the edging before I decided that binding off was the better part of valor. Since running out again and having to spin more "laceweight" at 10:00 pm Sunday night would have dissolved me into a puddle of tears on the living room floor. This is my third lace shawl, and as with all the others, I am enamoured of the process of taking unblocked blob:

and turning it into this:

Chart 1

Chart 1 morphing into Chart 2

Chart 2 morphing into edging

Bliss.

FO#3: will have to wait for another day - I can't put all the goodies in one post now, can I?

Red (and Brown) Velvet

Ironman was away for the first half of this week at a conference, and my therapy was spinning. Intensive, hours-long spinning sessions. Until very late at night. Watching really, really bad TV. Inspired by Sarah, I dug into March/April's installment of the Hello Yarn Fiber Club: Red Velvet.

Handdyed Shetland wool, 8 oz. My previous experience with Shetland was not terribly successful, but I'm now convinced that was operator error (aka Overspinning). This stuff is absolutely incredible. I stripped each 4 oz bundle in half and then in half again, and wound two roving balls with two strips of each half (in the same order). I didn't bother to predraft, since Sarah's rave reviews seemed to indicate it wasn't necessary. And away I went.

I've been doing a lot of fine singles recently, so I wanted to try and do a softer twist, thicker single. I recently got "Spinning for Softness and Speed" and, while not quite ready to take the entire plunge, I used some of the ideas from that book while spinning these.

I spun all the singles from the end, using some sort of bastardization of long draw, and ended up with four bobbins of smooshy, squishy, plush singles. They also went really really fast - 2 hrs/4 oz (fast for me). Two nights worth of work and the singles were done.

I plied the first two bobbins on Wednesday night, sitting out on the back porch, smelling the jasmine and enjoying the gorgeous weather. Plus I figured out how to ply with just one hand! A key point for the plying/imbibing/relaxing trinity. Plying the first skein took just an hour, and it is gorgeous and squishy and glorious. The other two bobbins are on tap for tonight.

Final specs: 100% shetland wool top from Hello Yarn
Spun at 9:1, from the end, semi-worsted, semi-longdraw. Plied at 7:1 (Look Ma, one hand!) with appropriate beverage.
215 yds/4 oz, no idea of wpi, soft fuzzy yarn. I'm amazed at how closely the colors lined up - there's some baberpole, but not much. I'm envisioning a Tomten for Devil out of this stuff, in combo with some Lush perhaps?

Fiber Friday: Spiral boot socks

I realize that having a Fiber Friday post that includes a finished item is something of an oxymoron, but these are the second thing I've made for me with my own handspun, and I am excessively enamored of them.

Pattern: Spiral Boot Socks by Veronik Avery, IK Summer 2007
Yarn: Toxic superwash corriedale, 3 ply, approximately fingering weight, dyed by Hello Yarn (more details on the spinning are here), 515 yds.
Needles: multiple sizes -- US 1/2.25 mm and US 2/2.75 mm dpns from Brittany, US 1.5/2.5 mm dpns from Knit Picks
Started/finished (this is why I love Ravelry!): 3/12 on my way to Portland/4/14/08.
Comments and modifications: Where to start? I spun this yarn hoping to end up with some subtle striping, and it worked out better then I ever imagined once the yarn was knitted up. I knew from the beginning I'd need to do a bunch of modifications since 1) I wanted to knit the socks toe-up so I could use all of the yarn and 2) the pattern schematics indicated a top leg opening of only 11 inches. Since I spent the better part of three days this winter trying to find a pair of knee high boots that would close around my "shapely" calves (18 inches!), 11 inches was not going to cut it.

My gauge with this yarn on US 1/2.25 mm needles was about 7 sts/9 rows per inch so I did my standard toe increases up to the number of stitches called for in the pattern and tried it on. Everything looked good, so I forged ahead. I simply worked the charts as they are printed in the pattern for the length of the foot. When I had about 6.5 inches of foot done, I started increasing one stitch on each side of the heel stitches every other row for the gusset. Once those were done (14 increases total) I turned the heel as in the pattern directions and then worked the heel flap in sl1/k1 rib just as I did for the Firestarter socks.

Once the heel was done, I started working the leg patttern with US 1/2.25 mm needles. I did 15 repeats before increasing one stitch before the YO. 15 more repeats and then increased one stitch after the YO. Note: this is not what was called for in the pattern, but I didn't read closely enough to catch the mistake until I was almost at the top of the leg. So I didn't bother fixing it. This increase in stitch number as you go up the leg creates subtle calf shaping that works pretty well.

I did 15 repeats of the final stitch pattern and then switched to US 2/2.75 needles for 12 more repeats. At that point, I figured I was going to use up most of the yarn, and started on the cuff. In order to tighten up the top of the sock and help keep them up, I switched to US 1.5/2.5 mm needles for the cuff pattern. Again, I didn't flip the chart at all, just worked it as written, did the final few rows of lace and used a standard bind off (k2, pass 1st stitch over second, k1, pass 1st stitch over second, repeat ad nauseum). This is not a particularly stretchy bind off, but it fits well, and hopefully will force the socks stay up.

Now the next question is: will it ever be cold enough in Houston to wear them? Because knee high wool socks and shorts are not a fashion statement I'm particularly willing to make!

FF*: Verdant laceweight

My first installment for Project Spectrum 3 - Earth. Finally, at long last, I'm done spinning the Verdant laceweight. This was my first attempt to spin laceweight, and it was more or less successful I think. But it took a damn long time!

I started with this gorgeous fiber from Hello Yarn:

70% merino, 30% mohair, Colorway "Verdant". I got 8 oz of this fiber in my double order from the Fiber Club, but only used 4 oz for this experiment.

I split the top in half lengthwise and then in half again. Each half (2 quarters) was predrafted in sequence, and rolled into a ball. My goal was to spin two singles with more or less the same color sections so the two ply yarn would be sort of self-striping instead of marled.

Spun each half on a separate bobbin at 15:1. I used a sample card with a sample of commercial two ply laceweight (Knit Picks Shadow) showing both the two ply and the single. I actually spun up a sample of the fiber before starting the whole batch, so the sample card also had a Verdant single, the unwashed two ply and the washed two ply sample.

I started off spinning this knowing only a few things about spinning laceweight: 1) thinner singles need more twist, hence the higher ratios so your knees don't burn out of their sockets, and 2) another way to help get enough twist was to keep the take up really really low. My initial takeup was so light that I felt like I was pushing the single into the orifice and it was going nowhere. So I increased the take up a little bit and it seemed to work ok. I had to keep adjusting it as the bobbin filled however, and that took a bit of attention. I spun from the fold, using a supported long draw, which I'm liking more and more as I get better at it.

I plied at 12:1, and the colors matched up pretty well. There were only about 5 points at which I had to wind off one single onto a holder to get to the next color in the progression. Those held singles got spliced back in at the end. It was tough going on the last few bits though - that was one full bobbin!

I finished the yarn by soaking the skein in warm water and hanging to dry. I didn't give it too much abuse, since I'm planning to knit lace with it. I also didn't want the mohair to bloom too much - fuzzy lace isn't my thing.

Final specs: 3.9 oz, 18-22 wpi, 520 yds.

My original thought was to let the yarn sit for a bit until I cast on with it, but I couldn't resist. I wound it up and cast on for this the day after it was dry. It's flying off the needles, and once again, I am almost overwhelmed at how much fun it is to knit with my own handspun.

* I know it's Saturday, but I was ready to write this post yesterday when my mouse went bonkers and refused to cooperate. So it's a day late. So sue me...

Signs of spring

Texas redbud

What we call the Grape Bubblegum tree - please let me know if you recognize it

Azaleas

And summer sweaters resting in the Mexican Heather

The Summertime Tunic halves are joined and the body is started. Unfortunately what you see above is 2 balls of the 5 available. Hmmmm...might be an awfully short sweater, and God knows my midriff doesn't need that much baring. The good news is that I'm knitting the 37.5 size, and it looks to me like it might be quite big. First chance I get to take it off the needles (probably after ball #3), I'll try it on. I might be able to go down to the next smallest size successfully, since I don't want a whole lot of ease.

Unfortunately, this weekend has been a knitting-free zone - my right hand/wrist have been sore for a few days. I've got a bone deposit on the back of my hand that normally doesn't bother me at all, but if I'm doing a lot of hand motions that involve flexing my wrist, the tendons on the back of my hand get annoyed. I guess there's been too much rabid Firestarter knitting in the last week or so (in addition to getting back out on my tri bike which also puts my wrists in a slightly uncomfortable position). In an attempt to let the tendons chill out a bit and recover, I replaced knitting with spinning over the weekend, and now I've got this sitting on the bobbin.

Last month's (January's actually) HY Fiber Club, Verdant, 50/50 merino/mohair, in my first attempt to spin laceweight. It's a pain in the ass. The fiber is beautiful, and the actual spinning is going fine, but it's the winding on to the bobbin that ain't working so well. I'm currently adjusting the tension between the long-draw and wind-on portions of the program, and it seems to be working ok, but it's not terribly efficient. Plus it takes a really long time to spin 4 oz! No instant gratification here...I just hope I like the end product.

I'm off Wednesday to Portland, OR for a conference, so this may be the only post for the week. However, I have grand plans for finishing off multiple socks while I'm gone, so next week should bring many FOs (famous last words, right?)