Baby blankets, as far as the eye can see

Since my secret baby blanket has now touched down in Houston, I can share the vast number of pictures I took before I entrusted it to the vagaries of the mail service.


Pattern: Granny Stripes, by Lucy of Attic24
Yarn: Patons UK 100% Cotton DK, 230 yds/100 gr skein, less then one skein each of white, red, brown, turquoise, green and yellow.
Hook: US G/4.0 mm
Start/finish: 25 January - 7 February 2013
Comments/Modifications: This is my first crochet project bigger then a potholder, so I spent a fair bit of time trolling the web for reasonably straightforward baby blanket patterns. Lucy's blog is chock full of clear tutorials, beautiful photography and so much enthusiasm that I'm a bit surprised I haven't burned my knitting needles in effigy. (OK, maybe not that last bit, but it's a great blog.) Since her tutorial was much more a recipe then a straight pattern, I had to do a bit of swatching and planning of the color sequence.

I ended up working six repeats of the following color sequence - white, yellow, red, green, brown and blue - and then added one more white stripe to make a bit more symmetrical. I also wanted to some kind of border, so I picked up stitches all the way around the edge and worked a border with a stripe of each color in half-double crochet (or double crochet if we want to stay true to the UK terminology). The final blanket was approximately 26 inches wide by 36 inches long.

At each corner I chained stitches to bridge the gap, increasing one stitch at each corner on each subsequent row. I probably could have done more chain stitches, or done increases in the stitches from the previous round - this treatment resulted in corners that don't lie perfectly flat. In fact, the whole border ripples laong the edges, proof positive that my crochet gauge is probably not that consistent yet.

I loved doing this blanket. It was quick, relatively straightforward for this beginning crocheter, and I'm really pleased with the results. As is the impending new mom, which is the most important thing!

I sent it off to Houston along with a Peapod Cardigan I knitted a while back but hadn't found an ideal model for yet.

And the best news? Now that I've finished my second crocheted baby blanket, I'm well into my third.

That was my beginning on Friday night, and now I've got 15 16 stripes done. Total. Crochet. Addiction.

Six. Wait, what?

Dear Boo,

Well sweetie, on thursday, you turned six years old.

It's been a big year for you, hasn't it? You're at school all on your own with out your big sister around as a buffer, and until recently that's been just fine by you. But you spent most of the month of February at home either sick or on half-term, and going back has been a bit of a struggle. Mostly I think because you are still a bit overwhelmed by vast numbers of people focusing on you (hmmm...I wonder who you get that from?) and wanting to talk to you and find out what's happening and on and on and on. It's all a bit much for a girl who is still perfectly happy to do her own thing and play on her own without a lot of input from anyone else. Day by day you are getting better with the transition, and I'm glad to see it.

You are still on track for your future brilliant career as a vet, although it's up in the air whether you're going to go into the small animal or livestock versions of veterinary medicine. Or maybe a zoo, who knows?



Your sister continues to be your best friend ever, except when she's not. Sadly, those moments are becoming more and more frequent as you two figure out how to resolve your differences, but generally speaking she is your inseparable companion. I think you've missed her at school this year, but its also been a good opportunity for you to be out on your own in the world.

You are evidencing some pretty phenomenal focus these days my dear. Sometimes, it's the most frustrating thing in the world as you seem to honestly not hear me when I ask you to put your shoes on forty two times in the morning. That same focus has also resulted in this,

and this, which makes your fiber-obsessed mother over the moon with joy (have to find a good hiding place for my stash).

I can't wait to see what the next year brings kiddo!

Much love,
Mumma

Last minute crafting

Right, this is going to be a quick drive by posting to show you that the wee walrus for my wee nephew is proceeding well.

I've finished all the brown pieces, and now need to dig out some white sport weight for the tusks. I might just use the white I used for the potholders/baby blanket now that I think about it...next step after the tusks is to sew the whole thing together. It should be done by the beginning of next week. Hooray!

However, the tusks will not be done tonight. Because tonight is all about digging out my sewing machine and the cutest dog fabric ever, and making Boo a birthday pillowcase.

Oy. As if Halloween weren't bad enough, now I've moved on to last minute birthday gift crafting? Someone shoot me now.

Unravelled

After (more-or-less) three weeks of being home with one or more of my children (first with sick child, then sick child plus irritated child on half-term holiday, then sick-but-now-well child on half-term holiday), I was feeling just a little bit familied-out. As in, my fondest dream was to crawl under the covers on the bed and never come out again.

Instead, on Sunday morning, I got up early-ish and went off to the lovely village of Farnham for Unravel (Alli made me do it...I think she just wanted a ride down there...).

We arrived in Farnham just before ten and wandered over to Farnham Maltings, a fabulous group of repurposed tannery-turned-brewery-turned-community-space that contains the event. We knew we were in the right place when the yarn bombing began to appear...






I have to admit that once we got inside I had total camnesia and neglected to take pictures of any of the stalls. Mostly because I was too busy making grabby hands at more or less everything. You know how it is...

In our whirlwind tour, we stopped at John Arbon, Fyberspates, Pom Pom Quarterly, rock+purl, Hilltop Cloud, Bigwigs Angoras, Skein Queen, The Natural Dye Studio, Blacker Yarns, The Threshing Barn, Aragon Yarns and vast numbers of other fabulous stands that were just spectacular. Thankfully, I did not come home with goodies from all of these people, but a number of them are going to be at Wonderwool, so I'll have another chance to get in trouble.

I told Alli in the car on the way down that I had a specific shopping list in mind.

1. A new bottle of Soak woolwash, since mine is almost gone.
2. A skein of water-inspired laceweight for an ongoing shawl design.
3. 1800 yds of natural colored bulky wool for a coat design.
4. Some superwash something or other for a ripple blanket for the Wee Nephew.

Exhibit 1:

Look at that, the first two items on my list taken care of at one stall. Result! To be fair, that colorway is more sand-inspired then water-inspired, but I did actually mean something rock colored vs. water colored. I blame low blood caffeine...

Exhibit 2:

Appears absolutely nowhere on my shopping list, but I went by Katie's stand and spent about twenty minutes trying to pick something out. That is 100 gr of gradient-dyed, handcarded, dizzed roving that is 30% Shetland, 50% merino and 20% Tussah silk. You can understand why I had a hard time walking away. I'm even willing to overlook the merino content, just because of the colors. Too beautiful.

Exhibit 3:

Also not on the list, you will note, but bunny fluff!!!!! SO FLOOFY AND SOFT!!!! The fact that I don't like wearing angora yarn is of no importance here because its SO GORGEOUS!!!!! The pictures of adorable and beautiful rabbits didn't hurt either. 

Smoke...sigh...it is such a fabulous shade of grey. I have no idea what I'm going to do with this beyond spinning the most fabulous hat/mitten lining yarn ever. 

So...I'm still on the hunt for the yarn, but am coming to the conclusion that I might be better off spinning the bulky yarn, and I'll break down on the superwash sometime soon, I have no doubt.

In conclusion, I highly recommend Unravel for a day trip or so. There's a lot to see packed into not very much space. I heard from most folks that it was unbelievably busy on Saturday and I can imagine that it might be a bit hard to move about with too many people, but it was fab. And if you're willing to get out of the venue for a bit, there is a really good French cafe on the high street. I can't remember the name, but they had good food and fabulous almond croissants. Yum!

Spinning singles for knitting

I've been experimenting with singles recently, and wanted to share some of my findings with you.

A few years ago, I was at a spinning workshop and the instructor was demonstrating how to spin a singles yarn. I asked a somewhat silly question: "How much twist do you add?" The (in retrospect) obvious answer was: "As much as you need to hold the single together." Seems pretty simple, doesn't it?

But this answer gets to the first, and in my mind, most important issue in successfully spinning singles: fibre choice. You want to start with a fibre that will stick to itself, so no silk or alpaca or plant fibres need apply. You also want a fiber that has at least a medium staple length, just for ease of spinning. If you're new to spinning singles, you'll probably be happier if you leave the merino aside for this round.

I started with some Corriedale in the Parakeet colourway.

Parakeet Corriedale prepped and spun up

I stripped the top into pieces that were approximately 0.5 in/1 cm wide and spun them using a short-forward draw. I find that the key to getting the right amount of twist lies in slowing down and using a lower ratio then I usually use. I had to make sure to treadle relatively slowly while I drafted, trying to insert enough twist to keep the single integrity without getting sections that were overtwisted.

This is the skein fresh off the niddy noddy - definitely not balanced! You can see that it's not the most even yarn ever - there are narrower sections with more twist, and puffier sections with less. This just shows how spinning a singles yarn is a really good way to see how twist gathers in areas with fewer fibers and jumps over thicker sections. If you are even a little bit interested in trying out art yarns, this is good practice!

Now, the next important step for ending up with a usable singles yarn for knitting is in the finishing process. I like to use a fulling finish to my singles yarns, allowing them to felt ever so slightly to help hold the single together. 

This process requires two containers of water - one hot and one cold, both with wool wash if you like (both containers in the picture have wool wash, even though only one is sudsy). Put the skein into the cold water and let it get wet.

Once the skein is wet through, transfer it to the hot wash and gently agitate the yarn. Now, I know that usually, as handspinners, we are doing everything we can NOT to agitate the yarn, but this is one time that you want to move the yarn around.

Give it a few stirs (with hands or an implement, however you like - my Speshul Snowflake hands don't like the hot water direct from my tap, so I use an old wooden spoon), and then pick it up out of the hot water and let as much hot water drain off into the bath as you can. Give it a squeeze if you like, then drop it down into the cold bath and gently agitate again.

You'll want to repeat this process from cold to hot to cold to hot to cold several times. As the fibres begin to full, you find the strands of the skein beginning to stick to each other a bit.

When you reach a point where the strands are clinging together but still easily pulled apart, it's time to stop. Put the skein into the cold bath and let it sit for a few minutes without agitation. Then take it out, squeeze or spin out the excess water, and let it hang unweighted to dry.

I ended up with about 100 yds of floofy singles from 2 oz of fiber (800 ypp) - about aran or worsted weight. I was hoping to have enough to knit up another topdown hat, but it might have to be for the kids instead of me.

I hope this has been helpful and/or interesting. Please post in the comments with any questions or experiences you've had with spinning singles.

Happy spinning!

Rachel