Singles!

My post-Winter Holidays spinning frenzy continues, this time with some Parakeet Corriedale.

This 2 oz took me about an hour to spin on the miniSpinner. I've been letting it rest since then so that it's not too energized when I take it off the bobbin and finish it, but I'm not sure how much longer I can wait! I'm hoping to have enough yardage to do a retake on my top-down hat that I made over New Year's, and then I'll be able to get the pattern out to some test knitters and get it released.

Get a miniSpinner, if only for the plying

This week I learned the true value of the Hansen miniSpinner: super amazingly fast plying.

Sometime in November I started spinning 24 oz of fiber (first blogged 23 November) - 16 oz of Portuguese Merino in the "Silt" colorway,


and 8 oz of Parritch Targhee.


Last Friday, I finished the third and final bobbin (the Targhee), making it just about 2 months for spinning the whole 24 oz. Yesterday, I finished plying the last of the combo, making it less then a week for plying 24 oz of fiber (!):

Here it is in all its glory:

And in extensive, close up detail...




Clearly the miniSpinner is da bomb (and speedy!) for plying. Truly!

These big squooshy skeins are still a bit damp, and the small final leftovers/swatching skein still needs a bath. I'll update with yardage/wpi/grist statistics when I've figure it all out. Have a good weekend!

Spin, spin, spin like a tornado...

Since returning from our travels abroad, my knitting has fallen by the wayside. This week has been all about the spinning - I think I've spent at least an hour spinning every single day since we got back. Bliss! Here's what I've accomplished:

No, not all of that was done this week. The bobbin on the right was done a while ago, but I finished filling up the bobbin on the left (8 oz of Portuguese Merino in "Silt" from Hello Yarn) and spun up the last bag of Minerals Shetland (also from Hello Yarn) for my massive shawl/blanket KAL. I've very pleased, because now I've finished all the Silt and can start on the squoosh-tastic Targhee in "Parritch" that is A) also from Hello Yarn (I'm sensing a theme here...) and B) the third ply in my 3-ply sweater lot combo spin. Last night I prepped the fiber,

and started the last bobbin.

I can not wait to have this yarn finished and ready to cast on. Given the nature of both merino and Targhee, I suspect this 3-ply is going to come in on the bulkier side of worsted weight, so I'm going to use a big-ish needle to get some good drape. I predict this is going to be the Coziest. Sweater. Ever.

Right, that's it: there is spinning waiting for me. Along with a new goodie that nobody got me for Christmas so I got it for myself...hooray!

Post-release bliss

I've spent the last week or so working on other people's projects. Which is to say, working on patterns that I didn't write/am not currently writing/am not planning on writing up and publishing. It's been very enjoyable!

I've been doing some spinning...

I ran out of yarn with one row and ten stitches left in the third chart of Jane's Ubiquitous Shawl, so over the weekend I spun up 8 more ounces, and last night I plied it all (in less then 2 hours - love the miniSpinner for plying!). It's now having a bit of a soak, and it should be dry by tomorrow, so I can motor on with that project.

I've been working on Ruth's Mystery KAL, a pair of gloves in Botany Lace.

I'm almost done with last week's clue on glove #2, which is good because the last clue was released this morning. I think these are going to end up as a Christmas present.

And I've been cranking along on Boo's Christmas sweater.

Despite all evidence to the contrary, she is not colorblind. She simply wants to look like a green and purple bumblebee. We had a mini-P3 reunion lunch last week, and the general consensus was "Did you talk to her about the color wheel at all??!!!"* and "You should probably do some kind of slip stitch when you change colors..."

The end result is a slip stitch color change row of which I am becoming increasingly enamoured. If I hadn't put a mental moratorium on designing projects** until after the new year, I would be starting a steeked fingering weight cardigan using this switch over. But in some more appealing colors, to be fair...maybe I can just do a bit of swatching?

* The girl is not yet six, but she has pretty definite ideas of what she wants. Color wheel, shmolor wheel. Green and purple it is.
** Note: this does not mean I'm not going to buy yarn for it. Knitpicks doesn't deliver to the UK, but they do deliver to my parents' house! Hello Christmas present to myself.

FF: Sweater lot

I've been working on a big spinning project off and on for the last couple of weeks. It's my second Hello Yarn Fiber Club combo spin - Silt Portugeuse Merino and Parritch Targhee.


I split the first 8 oz of Silt into 18 pieces (each 4 oz into 3 chunks, then each chunk lengthwise into 3 bits), and finished spinning it up on Wednesday.

I've become more scornful of merino in recent months, but this stuff has a nice wooly feel and grippiness (is that a word? You know what I mean...) that feels very un-merino-like. I suspect it's not going to wear terribly well, since the staple length is still pretty short, but I'm trying to spin the singles with enough twist that the pill factor isn't too horrible. I'll ply on the looser side to keep it from getting too dense. At least that's the plan - we'll see how it actually works out!

The second 8 oz is ready to go. Then on to the Targhee!