A deadline

It's that time of year when crafty spinning/knitting mothers the world over start to think about presents for their children's teachers. Actually, most have probably already taken care of this issue - it's just us procrastinating ones that are suddenly realizing that time is running out.

So my kids have 6 teachers between them - Devil has a main teacher (Mrs. A), a teaching assistant (Miss. B) and a reading teacher (Miss. M). Boo has two main teachers (Miss A and Miss B)(hunh...conservation of initals?) and then Miss I, who she spends the afternoons with and who also sometimes babysits for us. I'm looking for quick knits that won't bore me silly but that I can finish in the next 3.5 weeks. Add to this the fact that Mrs. A is preggers with her first wee one, so I need to do a baby present too.

Baby first: I considered a number of different sweater options before I realized that 1) I don't know what type of sprog she's popping out, and 2) I don't know what kind of colors she likes. So I'm taking the easy road out - it's Dragon time. I got some cotton/acrylic blend at the store yesterday and cast on last night.

My row gauge is seriously off, so I'm having to just figure out how many inches are needed between drecitons and work that number of rows. It took me all of "New Moon" to get this far three times. Good thing it's a horrible movie and I didn't really want to pay any attention.

So...for the teachers. I'm thinking Branching Out or something similar, particularly with some handspun. One of Boo's teachers actual knits, so I'm thinking she'd appreciate some handspun in her gift. I'm also drawn to Annis, from the new Knitty, which I might cast on in this, and see whom it seems to suit best. But I think the girls and I might be having a big dye party this week end to get some appropriate yarn for these babies.

So...the last day of school is July 7. That gives me just under four weeks. Ready, set, go!

The search for the perfect buttons

So I've been wearing my new Tappan Zee around without buttons, but I was very interested in seeing how it looked actually done up the way it was supposed to be. This is a new sweater silhouette for me, and I wanted to confirm that, yes it is quite flattering, before I run out and knit 42 more top-down-yoke-sweaters-that-fasten-just-at-the-top.

After a long day at work (and an Ironman Friday at home, so he could be on Child Duty), I headed over to my semi-local sewing store and spent a while perusing the button collection. After several rounds through the displays (maybe, no, no, no, omg hell no, maybe, no, no, no), I stumbled across these babies.

Dark blue/navy with iridescent green and purple stripes. Just perfect.

And the done-up verdict?

(please excuse the bad T shirt color and the streaky mirror)

Yeah, baby, yeah. Top-down yoke is good. Which one should I do next?

FO: The yarn that was supposed to be Tempest is now something else!

Pattern: Tappan Zee by Amy King
Yarn: Yarn School Corriedale Cross, ~675 yds.
Needles: US 5/3.75 mm bamboo circulars
Start/finish: 26 March - 26 April 2010
Gauge: 20 sts/32 rows in 4 inches
Comments/modifications: What a lovely and quick (despite my time line) knit! A top down circular yoke is not a sweater style I've knit before, but it was really fun. The lace pattern in the yoke keeps it from getting too monotonous, and the yarn colors helped with the monotany on the body. I made one major modification: instead of binding off the sleeve stitches when I got to them, I put them on holders. My thinking was that I wanted to put sleeves on when I was done with the body, and make them as long as the yarn held out. Once I was done with the body, I decided to keep the cap sleeves for the moment, so I bound off in knit from the wrong side. That way, in the fall when it starts getting cooler, I can pick out that bound off edge and knit the sleeves down.

I love the diamond detail at the bottom,

which matches the diamonds in the yoke.

Now for the yarn. I blogged about the spinning last spring/summer, but discovered when I started swatching, that the yarn need a bit of TLC. As you can see,

I was a wee bit tense when I did the plying. Perhaps I was a bit overplied myself, what with the move and all, but there is some serious skew in that stockinette. Add to that the fact that the yarn was not so pleasant to knit with (read: wiry, stiff and scratchy) and I decided that I needed to do something to take out some of the plying twist.

I took the three skeins I'd planned to use for the sweater (based on relatively similar grists) and ran them back through the wheel to take out some of the plying twist. I basically put the brake band on tightly, and re-plied the yarn with the wheel spinning in the same direction as when I spun the singles. I more or less let the yarn run onto the bobbin with only a little bit of tension, but if I came across a section that was really over-plied I held on a bit longer. Reskeined, rewashed, redried, and reswatched.

Much softer, much less noticeable bias, much more pleasant to work with. I've gotten a wee bit obsessed with grist recently, so I noted what these skeins came in at: 253 yds at 1094 ypp, 285 yds at 1140 ypp and 225 yds at 973 ypp. I started with the heaviest grist on the top, since the skein I have left for the arms is also around 975 ypp, and I wanted the lighter fluffier stuff in the body.

So all in all a great success. I desperately need to find the right buttons for it, but that may have to wait for a bit, since we've now entered The Month of Nonstop Houseguests. We currently have four parents and four girl children, aged five and under, in our house. As soon as the extra parents and children leave, we get an old friend from Tucson and his SO for a few days, and then a couple weeks later, Nana arrives. So forgive me if the blogging is a bit hit or miss for the next few weeks. Maybe I'll be able to get back here regularly when we finally have a functioning government!

Growing

There are definitely lots of things growing around here at the moment. Camellias,

Magnolias,

Tulips,

Laptop bags,

Cherry blossoms,

Pitcher plants,

Handspun sweaters,

and children.

Given the last, I'm embarking on another craft for a few days - sewing new summer dresses for the girls.

You'll be glad to know, however, that there are some things that are shrinking around here, i.e. my massive ball of purple top.

I'm now down to only 4.5 ounces to go. And since I'm imposing a moratorium on knitting for the next few days (my wrist is acting up again), I'm hoping against hope that it will get finished this week. Then I'll take a week or so before embarking on Neverending Plying.

Easter holiday

The girls have been on spring holiday since the end of March, and it has seriously cut in to my blogging time and/or blogging energy. In the past two weeks we've been to a farm, a castle, the swimming pool several times, a zoo and multiple playgrounds. Despite that, I've managed to get some spinning and knitting done.

Well, not done, but at least moving forward. Last night I watched Brokeback Mountain and wound off 8 full bobbins of singles in the Neverending Spinning Project of Doom (NSPoD).

I can't believe I even entertained the idea that I could spin up all these singles in the month of January. At the rate I'm going, I may be done (with the singles) by the end of May. And then there's two rounds of plying to be done. Heck, when it's time to start knitting wool sweaters again, I'll have all the yarn done!

Winding them off on to toilet paper cones does show off the gradiations of the dye job though. It looks pretty cool from the bottom.

I have been doing some knitting as well. The most recent issue of Knitty has a cool pattern by Amy King using handspun. I pulled out the yarn I spun during the move last year that I'd been holding on to for another Knitty pattern, and decided this one would work better.

After some swatching (holy biasing stockinette Batman!) and a trip back through the wheel to take out some plying twist and make the yarn less wire-like, and I've been working my way through the yoke.

I'm now about an inch into the body, and facing endless stockinette. The pattern calls for about 650 yds of yarn, and I've got about 1000 yds of this, so I'm thinking I might put sleeves on. Instead of binding off the cap sleeves, I put the stitches on waste yarn, so when I'm done with the body I can see how much yarn I have left and do some sleeve if I can.

So...a new wool sweater in progress and it was short-sleeve weather today. My timing, as ever, is impeccable!