Fiber Friday: Homage to Adrian

It's getting to be that time of year...

Yup, time to take stock of the available knitted holiday gifts, and set out a plan for the fall. My attention lately has been mostly taken up by knitting for me me me, but with the end of September rapidly approaching, I spent some time making a list of what needs to be done.

Here's the general list:
4 pairs of mittens
2 pairs fingerless mitts
2 pairs felted clogs
At least two hats, one in this and one in something yet to be determined.

I've also had stranded knitting on my mind in a major way. I'm not so good with the color choices however, so today I'm casting on for a project that will be Hello Yarn from start to finish (except for the spinning/knitting parts, so really the colors and the pattern are Adrian's genius).

Fiber: Hello Yarn fiber club BFL in the "Norway" colorway, 4 oz split in half lengthwise and spun on to seperate bobbins, then chain plied to create skeins with (hopefully) matching stripes, plus some gorgeous grey-brown BFL from Halcyon Yarns for the contrast.

Like all of Adrian's fibers, this was lovely to spin. The colors in the original top didn't really grab me,

but boy did it turn out nicely in the finished yarn.

I have no idea as to wpi or yardages. I spun up 4 oz of the Norway, and maybe 2.5 oz of the brown BFL to start with. I have another 4 oz of Norway in reserve, if needed.

Pattern: Snail Mittens by Adrian Bizilia (aka helloyarn).
Recipient: TBD. Anyone want to chime in as to why they should get this FO? I'm open to bribes...

FO: Sunset Aestlight

Pattern: Aestlight, by Gudrun Johnston, size large
Yarn: Corriedale handspun, dyed by Adrian, colorway Thrive, spun by me, ~500 yds/121 gr of fingering weight.
Needles: US 4/3.5 mm
Start/finish: August 20-September 1 (knitting)/September 15 (blocking)
Comments: This shawl was a joy to knit. I've blogged about the yarn already, so I won't go into details of the spinning, but the knitting was lovely. The only real modification I think I did was to use a smaller size needle, in the hopes of being able to knit the larger size and not run out of yarn. Finished, blocked dimensions are 21 inches deep and 51 inches wide.

It starts off with a big garter stitch triangle, with yarn over increases at the start of every row. These loops are then picked up to knit a garter/lace/garter border around the long sides of the triangle, and then it finishes with a lovely pointed edging that is knit sidewise and attached to the live stitches as you go along.

The pattern was very well written and presented, and Gudrun also has a group on Ravelry, with a KAL thread and lots of helpful tips. I had some issues with the last of the border sections, mostly because I was being an idiot, so there are no issues that I could find with the pattern. In fact, if you're new to lace knitting, this would be a great pattern to start with. Since it's largely based in garter stitch, there is almost no purling at all. And the lace patterns used are fairly straightforward once you get through a couple of repeats.

When I got to the edging, I had an OCD moment and started weight remaining yarn. I made it through 2/3 of one long side before I finished the first ball, so I started with the greeny-bluey-yellowy stuff for the section around the point, and then switched back to the yarn I had set aside partway up. In the end, I had plenty of yarn.

These are going to end up in the Sock Yarn Blanket

The transitions are somewhat abrupt on both sides, but so what. My OCD moment has passed and I'm happy with it.

As always the transition from blob,

through blocking,

to finished object is so, so satisfying. I got some blocking wires while we were in Maine, and this was their maiden voyage. They worked pretty well, although I chose to thread them through the shawl before soaking it, and then had a devil of a time trying to squash the thing together enough so that it would fit into the sink and actually get wet. Never mind, it all worked out well in the end.

It's definitely my favorite part about knitting lace. Devil showed continued interest in photography, and insisted on taking some of the FO photos. Girlfriend definitely needs her own camera.

Holy fuck I'm getting grey...

The colors of this shawl make me think of Arizona sunsets, and are sure to be a huge hit on those cold, grey London winter days that I know are just around the corner. I can't wait.

FF: Thrive

One of the wonderful things about Ravelry is the ability to see what other people do with the same materials you have, and draw inspiration from that. The Hello Yarn Fiber Club - Finished Yarns thread made me realize that this fiber (which I somehow neglected to ever photograph - woops!) needed to be a two ply. And soon!

I started spinning the week before we left for France, and managed to fill up one bobbin and get through half of the second before we had to leave. Finished up the last of it the two days after we got back and immediately plied.

Despite what it looks like in that picture, the bobbins did not end up matching all that well when I was done. Plying took a couple of nights, and it was done.

I split the 4 oz in half and spun/plied at 12:1, double drafting from the fold. No attempt was made to match up the colors but they ended up melding really nicely.

For whatever reason I was bound and determined to get the entire 4+ oz on to one bobbin. And I had dramatic evidence of the difference between woolen and worsted spinning styles.

Worsted:

Woolen:

That's approximately the same amount of fiber (~4 oz), one spun worsted and navajo plied, one spun semi-woolen and 2-plied. I'm amazed my wheel didn't give me the finger and go on strike.

Final stats: 4.3 ox/121 gr, 500 yds, 14-18 wpi. Somewhat overplied (or underspun - I had trouble with singles drifting apart) in spots but not too bad. Finished with a hot/cold fulling wash.

And almost enough for a large Aestlight. The problem with that however will be addressed next week (otherwise known as bribing myself to finish some UFOs before I cast on anything new!).

FF: Inspiration

The May-June project for the Ply by Night Ravelry group was to spin something from stash and knit either the Lace Ribbon scarf or the Rivulet scarf. What with moving and parenting and all, I wasn't feeling terribly inspired to do either of these projects.

However, a couple weeks ago I remembered a phenomenal project from the first round of Ply by Night, where the spinner separated out the component colors from the top, spun them in order and created an ombre yarn that went from yellow to orange to purple. It was stunning. And I thought that I might try something similar with a recent Fiber Club shipement.

"Air", Hello Yarn Fiber Club April 2009, 50/50 superfine merino and tencel

I split the fiber into four main colors: dark purple/wine, grey, green, and a bunch of sections that went from dark blue to teal. I started with the purple sections, split each one in half and spun each half on to separate bobbins. I switched from bobbin to bobbin with each color to try and keep the singles the same thickness/twist.

I've been catching up on episodes of Yarnspinners Tales and was entertained to find that one of the recent ones was about spinning bamboo and tencel. I experienced many of the things they talked about - tencel wants to be spun fine, and it tends to clump on itself, requiring that you stop, untwist and declump before going on. It also needs quite a bit of twist, but I think that since I've been spinning merino in one form or another for the last two months, that didn't stand out as much for me as it might have otherwise.

The yarn ended up absolutely gorgeous - soft, shiny, drapey. The colors worked out really well - purple to dark blue to turquoise to teal to grey to green. I spun the singles at 15:1 and plied at 12:1. 4.1 oz/117 gr, 28-18 wpi (mostly 20-22 wpi). Finished with a cool soak, thwack against the side of the house and spinning overhead in the back garden before hanging to dry.

I ended up with 406 yds, so plenty for Rivulet. The pattern calls for sport weight, so I'll go down a couple of needle sizes and see how it looks. I'm planning to start at the purple end and see how far I get through the color progression before I get tired of the pattern.

Fiber Friday: Peat

Just before we packed up in April, I got this lovely pile of superwash merino in the mail:

Superwash merino, "Peat" colorway, Hello Yarn Fiber Club March 2009 offering

This made me regret not getting the double dose option, because I really really wanted to do socks with this for Ironman. And I wanted to do cabled socks of some kind. Which means a 3-ply yarn. Could I get enough out of 4 oz for socks?

This is about 200 yds, but it's also ~12 wpi, so sportweight rather then fingering. I'm hoping I can make it, at least with some shorter socks. I may sub in some other yarn for the heels and toes as well to maximize the handspun and keep something with nylon in it on the soles for wear.

I split the whole length of top into three equal sections (by length, not weight) and spun one single from the unstripped width, one single from a length split in half, and the final single from quarter sections of the last length of top. I like this type of fractal spinning to get subtle stripes, as in the Toxic kneehighs. I have absolutely no hope that they will match in the striping, but so be it.

Final yarn stats: 200 yds, 4.0 oz/113 gr, 3 ply. Singles spun and plied at 12:1, with short forward draw, smoothing the single as the twist entered (worsted). Finished with a sock soak in warm water, then drained, spun around my head on the back porch, and thwacked against the wall of the house. My neighbors think I'm very odd.

So now I need to find a nice manly cable sock pattern, that I can adapt for sportweight yarn. Any suggestions?