In over my head

So...it's only the third day of the new year, and I'm thinking I might be in a bit of a pickle. To say the least.

I've got the first socks underway - two thirds of the way down the leg of sock #1. The plan is one repeat (12 rows) or the equivalent (i.e. heel flap/turn) every night. That should get me done by the end of the month, easy, not including knitting on my commute. Sweater #1 (Himself's Christmas present) has sleeves and a back. Front is started, and again - one repeat a night (also 12 rows. Synergy I haz it) should get it done in a couple of weeks. It's a bit of a cheat since it was 75% done before 2011, but it's got cabling on every right side row and 130 stitches. It totally counts.

So everything is going swimmingly until I take stock of the first Really. Huge. Project. That would be number 6 on the Eleven in Twenty Eleven list: the River Run pullover. This is a gorgeous men's sweater - stranded colorwork in nine different natural shades of Shetland wool. Un-freaking-believable. The largest size requires approximately 3400 yds of heavy fingering weight yarn. The grist is 1727 ypp, meaning I'd need 1.97 lbs of yarn. I've been wanting to make this for a long time, but I don't have 2 lbs of Shetland wool in nine shades lying around. What I do have is 2 lbs of white Falkland wool sitting in my lair, and a metric fuckton of dye. So here's my evening schedule for the rest of this month:

1. Knit one repeat/equivalent on socks
2. Knit one repeat on sweater
3. Spin white Falkland until my fingers fall off the bone or I end up face down in a pile of roving, drooling and snoring softly.

At the end of the month, I'll start plying my little brains out, and hope for the best with the dye pots. The original is done in black, white, three shades of grey and four shades of brown. Black, white and grey are all good - I might shift the browns to blues just for mine/the recipient's aesthetic pleasure.

The real pisser of it all is that I've got a deadline for this project: it needs to be done by early March. Seeing as it took me six months to spin my last specific sweater project, I'm not feeling too optimistic. On the other hand, there will only be one plying stage (2-ply vs. 4-ply cabled yarn). I will spin woolen, with a high ratio, in order to bang out as much yardage as possible.  The last time I spun Falkland, I did a pound in approximately 6 days (plying and all). It was a bit thicker, more DK weight then sport/fingering, and I certainly wasn't doing anything else, so I think I could get the yarn spun by the end of January. Right?

Right?

*crickets*

Hmmmm...I'd better get sampling then.

Eleven projects for 2011

Insane porpoise is insane. Ehem.

1. Eleven pairs of socks - a la Yarn Harlot, I've pulled out and bagged 11 socks-worth of yarn (making a significant dent in my sock yarn stash, glory be!), and chosen patterns to go with them. I'm only budgeting 11 because a) one pattern is a pair of knee highs and b) ten days of the month of June I'm expecting to be knitting-free.
2. Eleven sweaters, including (not in any particular order)

• 3. Pas de Valse
• 4. Handspun Vine Yoke Cardigan
• 5. Rollneck sweater for Devil
• 6. The River Run Pullover (Rav link), for which I will also spin the yarn*.

7. Spin more during the 2011 Tour de Fleece then I did in 2010 (39.4 oz)
8. Get my first full fleece (figuring out what to do with it is 2012's project)
9. Design a shawl
10. Submit a design to Knitty
11. Design a spinning/knitting project for Ennea Collective

OK. Now that it's all down on (virtual) paper, I'll be peering out the window every time the doorbell rings to see if the nice men in white coats have come to take me away. What a completely ludicrous list. However, if you don't aim high, you don't make as spectacular a puddle when you crash land.

What about the rest of you? What are your fibery goals for 2011? Let me know in the comments, and I'll send some lucky random person a goody from my stash (handspun anyone?). Post your comments by midnight CST on January 8th, and I'll draw numbers. Happy New Year everyone!

* I need a little lie down and a stiff drink just contemplating this project. It needs to be done in March. Approximately 2000 yds of yarn in 9 different colors. Fuck me sideways with a chain saw. That is all.

Another wool-full year

For the last day of 2010, a round up of the last quarter:

One sweater for me, and one for a gift, one hat (and pattern), three cowls (one handspun), two pairs of mittens, one pair of socks (the first in four months!) and two scarves. Spinning-wise, there was some fiber club singles, merino/silk for one of the sweaters, and the lining yarn for one of the pairs of mittens. There was also a fiber club offering that hasn't yet been blogged (upcoming), and this: the final spinning of 2010:

Corriepaca from Amy at Spunky Eclectic in the Mahogany colorway, bought after my dye day at her shop in August, along with a new drop spindle, which I used for the singles.

I am possibly the world's slowest spindler, mostly because I forget how easy it is to pick up during a few free minutes and add on a few yards. The singles took me four months (off and on), the plying took one evening (last night).

The top was a beautiful combination of dark maroonish-pink, brown, black, grey and white. Singles were plied at 12:1 on my wheel, and the final yarn was soaked overnight in warm water and Soak. Spun out in the washer, thwacked and hung to dry. I'll update with final wpi/yardage measurements when it finishes drying, which hopefully will be soon.

Per usual, Amy's fiber is lovely to spin and beautifully dyed. I've got a pile more waiting, and I'm contemplating what to throw on the wheel (or spindle) next! I'm also trying to come up with a list of fibery goals for 2011 - there's a thread in the LSG group about 11 projects for 2011, which I like the idea of, but per usual, all the things I'm coming up with are Big Projects. We'll see if I can get it down to something reasonable. I also really like the Yarn Harlot's self-imposed sock club - picking out 12 sock yarns and 12 patterns, and pulling one off the shelf each month. My record with the Knit Love Sock Club didn't work out so well this year, so I've got a pile of sock yarns sitting around to be used up. As well as a bunch of new patterns to work up. So that's another possibility. I'll see if I can't get things worked up for a New Year's day post.

I know that 2010 was a tough one for many people, so I'll end 2010 by wishing all of you a happy, healthy, joy-full 2011!

Good mail

Yesterday was one of the first real wintery days we've had - rainy, chilly, grey and windy. Let's hear it for London winters! But I arrived home with two whiny children in tow to find a very large package waiting for me. Inside the package was a metric buttload of pretty fiber.

First there was a pound of this:

HYFC Timber Romney, September 2010. I was so taken with the photos of this fiber online that I ordered four more bags before mine even arrived. I have visions of handspun garter stitch sweater in my head.

Then there was October's fiber club:

HYFC Burrows Rambouillet, October 2010 offering. This fiber is so gorgeous, and it reminds me of the sea on a stormy fall day. Greys, pale green, pale blue, dark grey, brown. It is stunning. I still haven't spun up my first Rambouillet, which was also a fiber club installment. I have no idea what I'm going to do with this but it is incredibly soft and cushy, even in top form.

Then there was the big deal - my Shelburne Falls Hat was randomly selected for a prize in the 4! Oz! Challenge spin/knit-along this fall, and my prize came in this big bag.

One bump each from Adrian, Amy and David. Let's take a closer look...

First up is Corriedale in the colorway Twenty Ten from Spunky Eclectic.

Lots of oranges and pink, with some darker blue and brown thrown in. Totally not colors I would have picked out for myself, but totally amazing.

Next is Happy Dance Shetland from Hello Yarn.

Happy Dance indeed! I love shetland, and I can't wait to spin up these gorgeous colors. Dev might even go for this yarn - she can not get enough pink. Still (as an aside, I know she's my daughter because I distinctly remember her arrival, and I'm pretty sure they didn't switch her at the hospital, but where did this pink thing come from? Or is it just a little girl thing? Will it pass eventually? Please?).

Last, but certainly not least is the Southern Cross Fibre offering: Cairns Polwarth.

I'm not sure where to begin except to say that David could not have picked a colorway I would adore more if he'd known me from birth (the colors are much better in the first picture of all three). And Polwarth! Excuse me while I go have a little lie down until the blood returns to my brain.

I want to thank all of the people involved in the whole Challenge - the dyers for doing what they do so well, and the moderators Stacie and Maryse for organizing the whole thing. It was such a fun experience to spin with a design in mind and actually see it through to the finished project. I can't wait for next year!

FF/S/S: Merino-silk for Nana

I've managed to circumvent my sore ankle (for which I finally broke down and went to the physio - now I've got ankle homework to do and physical therapy twice a week...) and finish off the 8 oz of merino-silk that I dyed for Nana's Christmas present*.

80%/20% merino-tussah silk from Paradise Fibers, dyed using Jacquard Acid dyes (purple, violet, brilliant blue and burnt orange)
Spun/plied at 9.25:1, singles spun long draw from the fold.
Three skeins, at 397 yds/3.9 oz (1616 ypp), 297 yds/3.1 oz (1536 ypp) and 98 yds/1.0 oz (1568 ypp). I didn't measure wpi before finishing, but after soaking in hot water and rinsing in cold, the wpi ranged from 27-18 (in the third, overplied skein) to 20-10 (in the first two squishy skeins). I'll be using the two squishy skeins for Nana's present.

I was a bit concerned about the intensity of the colors in the dyed top (somehow I managed to forget a photo of the dyed top, but here's some of the singles).

The request was for a more apricot-type of orange, so this was definitely too intense. However, there was a bit of undyed top throughout, which managed to tone down the orange a bit.

Plying helped too, pairing some of the orange with blue/purple. I'm hoping that it gets a bit more muted in the finished object too, but we'll see. Note to my mother: you are allowed to complain about how bright the orange is as long as you still wear it!

* A present requested specifically, so I'm not giving anything** away by posting about it here.
** Final FO shots may have to wait until after the holidays however...