So, while I was away

OK, I admit it, I haven't actually been any where. But I have been spending the majority of my waking hours working on a large pile of paper designed to convince the Feds to throw some cash my way so I can be gainfully employed for the next few years. A process not conducive to extensive blogging. But I have been doing some knitting and spinning that I can share with you.

On the knitting front is the Basalt Tank, Version 2.0 - now with waist shaping.

The waist shaping tip came from Kelly, and has made a world of difference. Version 1.0 was 4 inches too big in the chest (swatches lies, I swear) and looked like a potato sack. Now I'm actually thinking this might look pretty good.

I'm maybe a third into the last full hexagon on the back. After that there's one half hexagon and a veritable mile of garter stitch edging to do. But I'm still hoping that this one will sneak in under the wire for the Earth installment of Project Spectrum.

Next up: Flukes for Porpoise:

There is a lovely group on Ravelry called The Thrifty Sock Knitters Club, for folks who like the idea of a sock club, but aren't willing to fork over the big bucks to join one. The moderators pick several free patterns each month, and everyone chooses their own yarn. This month (June) will be the first one I've actually participated in, but they've introduced me to a bunch of cool patterns that are now queued up for knitting sometime in 2030. This is the first top down sock I've done in a long time, and I'm having some paranoia issues about yarn shortages...

Finally - spinning! The best thing so far for me about Ravelry has been the opportunity to meet some other local knitters. I now have a group I meet on Wednesday at lunchtime down at work, and a group I meet with on Thursday evenings. A while ago, someone got in touch with me through Rav and asked if I would help her learn how to use a drop spindle. Last Thursday we met up at the evening meeting and had a lovely time messing about with fiber, getting odd looks from the Whole Foods shoppers passing by.

My hand spindle has been sorely neglected since I got a wheel, but it was so fun to go back to it. I was so inspired that I came home and stayed up for another hour and half to get more done. The first half of the fiber is now wound off onto a "storage bobbin"* and I'm ready to go on the second half. No idea what weight it will end up or how many yards I'll have, but I would love to have enough to do Anne's new little nothing, Brambler.

So, even though I may be MIA in the blog world, the fiber stuff does continue. I've only got until next Monday to finish screwing around with this grant though, so I'll be back more regularly after that.

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!

Odds and ends

Yesterday was a red-letter day as far as my kids are concerned:

1) Devil headed happily off to daycare yesterday morning wearing...panties. The whole potty-training thing has been ongoing for a while now, but we've shifted in to high gear since she needs to be fully trained before she moves up to her next class (in May). She did great.

2) Boo, after deciding at 8:15 pm "Hell no Mama, I'm not going to sleep" (normal bedtime ~7:30) stayed up for another hour, entertaining her parents with her new party trick: walking. She would shakily stand up, totter across the rug for eight or ten steps, sit down with a Whump!, giggle and get back up again. But she still wasn't interested in going to sleep...

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The Fire element of Project Spectrum is over, and I didn't complete either of the pairs of socks I started. Not because I wasn't working on them, but because I started one pair before the other was finished. So they continue along, one sock of each pair done, and one sock of each pair at the heel/gusset. I'm curious as to how long it takes me to knit a pair, so I'm keeping track on one pair (Firestarter), and just muddling along on the Spiral boot socks when I get a moment. Here's some shots of both, just to keep you somewhat entertained:

Four days/6.5 hrs worth of sock knitting

Handspun knee-high goodness

I've got big plans for the Earth segment of PS: resurrecting the Basalt tank and redoing it with waist shaping in time for summer, and finishing off the Verdant laceweight I've been working on. I finished the singles last night, and hope to ply over the weekend once they've had a chance to rest for a bit, so that should be done soon. If I can, I'd also like to knit it up into a lace leafy shawl type of thing - it's been a while since I did any lace.

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March progress report:

Finished:
Rainbow sock leftovers for Devil

And that's it. Harumph.

In progress:
Summertime tunic
Firestarters
Spiral boot socks
Verdant laceweight

Snoozing:
Duck blanket - I can truthfully say that I hate intarsia. We're going to try to get Devil's big girl bed put together this weekend, so hopefully I can finish this off soon, but I'm not optimistic.

Hopefully I'll have some FO posts in the next week or so - it's been a long dry spell around here!

The fiber keeps pouring in

According to the Yarn Harlot, Tuesdays are for spinning. Around here, Tuesdays are for fiber stash enhancement (or at least this Tuesday was).

From Little Barn:

Natural colored CVM (California Variegated Mutant), 8 oz. I've seen pictures of this wool around the Internets for a while and was really interested in trying some. It's a medium wool (at least to my fingers) and has neat variations in the coloring.

Something called LBL 46 on their website - 54-58s wool top, in gorgeous colors, also 8 oz. I think this will spin up into some nice tweedy stuff, maybe for another Zeebee. Or maybe some sock yarn.

And the crowning glory: 65% alpaca, 20% merino, 15% silk in a color described as "Turquoise Green". Actually, it's really just green. But so incredibly soft!!! I got 8 oz of this too (maybe they only sell 8 oz lots?), and I have no idea what it will become. Alpaca is pretty inelastic, so maybe some laceweight/fingering weight for a scarf or shawl? Alternatively I could just bury my face in it for the forseeable future.

It may be time to call a moratorium on new fiber purchases. I've got way more then I'm able to spin up at the moment, and with the Fiber Club carrying on, its not like I'm going to run out anytime soon.

I'm still plugging away on the Verdant laceweight. I've finished one bobbin (about 2 oz) and have started the second. But jeez does it take a long time. I'm hoping to get it finished sometime in the next few weeks and ply it up so it can sit for a little while before I cast on.