no flaps today

Knitting has been finished on the Berry Bramble hat for a few days. I added one earflap, but reconsidered after trying it on. For whatever reason, it just looked silly on my head. Every time I try to make an earflap hat I decided not to put on the flaps!

I did enjoy working with the handspun yarn, though. I could definitely feel a difference in the evenness, this skein having been spun worsted-style. I was surprised to see the way the colors settled. The top, and second half of the skein, is much more blue than the bottom.

The next adventure is to add embroidery and embellishments. I’ve been stitching, unstitching, stitching, unstitching. I just don’t like ANYTHING I put on there! The yarn is too chunky and looks silly. Or the design is plain ugly. It’s still up in the air at this point.

knitting a little

Understandably, this new job is creating a bit of a muddle in my life.  It’s taking me a little while to get a handle on my time.  I come home around 1:30 and I stand there staring at the wall.  “What should I do now?”  I’m not taking photos, blogging, or knitting/spinning.  Once things settle down though, I plan to return full-force!  Plus I just got a new/hand-me-down computer, so I have to get used to that: set my preferences, reinstall programs, find my files, etc.  Nothing too dramatic, just a little bit of a mess.

Speaking of absent programs, I don’t have my photo editing software on hand, so I’m sharing this photo as is from the camera.  As I keep saying over and over, I want to knit with handspun more frequently.  I see so many beautiful objects from other spinners and I want to do that too!!

This is the Berry Bramble hat from Knit One, Embellish Too. I’m working with some handspun BFL.  It’s one of my “let’s practice worsted spinning!” skeins and I love it.  I’d wager it’s heavy-worsted weight, about 100+ yards. It reminded me how much I love BFL!  Almost every pattern written by Cosy that I’ve made has been too big for me, so we’ll see what happens with this one.

christmas knitting still!

Surprisingly I’m getting my Christmas knitting done. I have two more projects that are about half finished; one is a pair of fingerless mitts for Rich’s dad and the other is the scarf I started months ago for my mom. That is the one I’m thinking of wrapping incomplete. Cheryl says it’s okay! Otherwise I’m making good progress.

I dyed some more fiber, using up the last of my BFL. Must reorder again. Perhaps in the future I ought to buy a larger quantity. These two balls are 6 ounces each. I wanted to follow Cosy’s lead and try spinning 4 ounces and then plying 2 of different colorways. They both contain a bit of the same blue. It’s so hard for me to ply a yarn with another yarn rather than plying it back on itself. I like to keep things pure. But besides the option of interesting color combos, I’ve decided I’m getting tired of winding all that yarn into a center-pull ball!

color blast!

Things have been running a little low in the handdyed top department over at the shop. Before going to the wool festival, I ordered a few pounds of BFL from Hello Yarn and it came before I left! Of course I didn’t have time to get into it, but I did this week.

From the top going left to right, Cherry Chocolate Zest; Driving to Rhinebeck; Red Sky at Night, Sailor’s Delight; South Sea Island Magic; Aquatic Flora; Club House. 4 ounces each.

On the bottom are more BFL/BL locks, 3 ounces each. Broccoli Floret; Thunderhead. I was hoping these wouldn’t become so monochromatic, but alas, they did. They could be blended with another fiber for more variation if that’s what you are interested in.

I spent at least two hours that morning (whichever morning it was) sorting through the locks. When washed, I just tossed them into a bucket and they became all messy and tangled, not to mention they had lots of tiny burrs in them. I pulled them out and separated the locks. Slow going job.

as productive as I get

When some people have a pile of yarn or dyed fibers to show off just so we know how busy they’ve been, it is huge. It may cover a couch, dining table, etc. For me, not so much. I’m a slow worker. I get bored easily. I need variation. So, this is as productive as I get…

Here contains assorted yarn, some top, and a bundle of dyed locks in Corriedale, Falklands, or BFL. These will be added to my Etsy shop as I get to it. The main hang-up was just getting the photos taken. My camera battery died and I wasn’t entirely sure where the charger had wandered off to. Also, I have to get the light at the right time of day, which seems to be around 10 am. I got everything reskeined, weighed, measured, and tagged yesterday. It’s fun to have a relatively large batch to look at and make yourself feel good.

I ended up at the Four Seasons Flea Market Sunday afternoon. It has proven itself to be quite the little hot spot for things I’m looking for. I found this hand-held mirror for $1.00 (wanted one for my craft sale table); the buttons were $.25 for the loose and $.50 for the cards.

Also found this cute little bowl for $4.00. He wanted $5, but after a lot of thinking, he gave up. He just asked that I didn’t go on Antique’s Roadshow and say, “Look what my mom and I found at the flea market!”. It was pretty funny. It’s number 441, so now I’m just missing 442 and I’ll have the complete set of Verde Cinderella Bowls! Additionally, I found two Pyrex lids that I needed for $1.00.

weekend update

So, yes, I did some dyeing this weekend. My intent was to spin some or all of it, but since I currently have no BFL listed in the shop, I decided to list them instead because I thought they were quite nice looking and someone else might enjoy them too. I also dyed several skeins of sock yarn, but they never look very good so I didn’t photo them. 

Speaking of socks, my BFF socks are coming along really well. I’m into the foot, and since my foot is short, that won’t take too long. The next pair will be for my mum. I’m not sure what pattern I will do next. I really do like the Twisted Tweed I mentioned before. Also, I fiddled around with the Magic Loop in the middle of my current sock, which was on 2-circs. I think with a slightly longer needle, it will be more successful, but it’s not hard at all! 

“Water Iris” 4 ounces Falklands

“Market Day” 4 ounces Bluefaced Leicester

recent work

Dyed on Saturday. I’m definately in a color rut. Sure, they’re pretty. But the individual colors tend to mix and mash into more or less one color that is slightly varigated. I end up with “yellow skein”, “pink skein”, “blue skein”. I’m so afraid of making something ugly that I won’t take chances. In the photo below, the top two are the remains of the South African Fine. On the bottom is Falklands. I just ordered another pound of Falklands, one of BFL and one of something else. Corriedale maybe? I’ve already forgotten.

Here are three very different yarns. On the top is the SAF. I love these photos. This was a photogenic skein for sure. The colors are really fresh too. In the middle is an incredibly fluffy skein of BFL. Instead of spinning it really tight and even, I spun it sloppily with low twist. It’s actually a nice fuzzy yarn. But NOT pleased with having its picture taken. As great as the other one was, this one was not cooperating. Sometimes I just get yarn that does not want to be photographed. On the bottom is a singles yarn spun from locks I bought at the fiber show last May. It was a blue-faced leicester/border leicester X. I dyed them green; otherwise they are a very lovely brown and tan.

dyed again

Sunday afternoon I took the opportunity to try out the Falklands wool. I separated the entire pound into 3 ounce lengths and dyed three of them, all done on the stove top (what is that, kettle dyeing?). Can you tell that I keep my warm colors separate from my cool colors? The Tomato Bisque was my attempt to use some of the red dye I have in large quantities because I don’t like red. If you recall, I already dyed some BFL and called it Strawberry Surprise. I wanted to see if I could replicate the colors. The first time they blended a little more, but I’d be curious to see if they end result yarns were more similar.

A Seagull’s View

Tomato Bisque

Strawberry Surprise

As I mentioned a few weeks ago, I purchased a crock pot at the thrift store. The plug didn’t work, but it just so happens my mum has the same brand and hers worked. So, having a remaining 4 1/8 ounces of BFL that I had forgotten about, I tossed it in the pot with some Cherry and Grape Kool-aid. It wasn’t entirely successful, as the pot boiled over and would not cool down. Apparently “crock pots” have warm/low/high settings rather than actual temperatures. This one has real temps on it, but it also runs hot. I’m tempted to try it again anyway.

Berry Mash

yarnville

New yarns here! I got into more of the SAF, which I don’t think I like very much. It almost seems too smooth, but at the same time drafting was a huge pain. It’s a possibility that the fiber felted slightly in the dyeing, although I’ve never experienced that before. I probably have 4-6 ounces left, so we’ll see what happens the next time.

The two BFL yarns were remnants of my pound. I didn’t put a lot of thought into dyeing them nor their names. I don’t really like the bottom one. It turned muddy, but the brown in it looks like the brown in Naiad, so I could probably knit them together.

Cosy has decided I need to start selling my stuff. I can’t tell you how much yarn I have in my house. I’m really beginning to think slapping it up on Etsy might be the thing to do.

English Garden. South African Fine, 92 yards, 3 0z, heavy-worsted weight

An Unimaginative Red. Blue-faced Leicester, 50 yards, 2 oz, bulky weight

Orange + Green. Blue-faced leicester, 63 yards, 2 oz, worsted weight.

I had to wait until AFTER Valentine’s Day before posting this. I’ve loved this heart pattern (from Mochimochi Land) for a long time, but didn’t really have any reason to make it. It’s yellow because I didn’t have any red/pink yarn, plus it’s for a guy and what does he care?

A Heart for my Valentine.

there is yarn also

This semester is going to be long. I can tell already and it’s only week 3 (of 15). Needless to say, I don’t have oodles of time to craft. But I did get some spinning done on Sunday. I wanted to try out the South African Fine and started with this one:

Grey Undertones

I decided to split it, since in the past that has proven to be a good way to achieve a more even single. My intentions for it and the long color changes is to navajo-ply. It is not a technique I do often, so most of my examples are somewhat sloppy, but I’m very curious to see this one with each color kept intact. As for my experience spinning the wool… perhaps it felted slightly in the pot, I don’t know, but it was difficult to draft at times. It is very soft though.

Citronella

Strawberry Surprise

Above are two skeins of BFL.  Citronella totals 60 yards at 2 ounces; Strawberry Surprise is also 60 yards and 2 1/8 ounces.  For some reason 60 yards is IT for me.  I can’t seem to get beyond that, even though I’m dyeing larger batches.  What is going on there??  Anyway, I find it interesting how different the two skeins appear, as the top one has been washed and the bottom one has not.  You can see how much fluffier and loftier the washed skein is, while the unwashed has not settled in quite yet.  Both of these were dyed when I was pondering my new winter coat, however I’m not sure that either will become hat or mittens.  It’s going to be summer before I finish them!