What a Life!

Did we have pie for Easter? Did I make hot cross buns after my husband mentioned they sounded really good? Did I think hard enough to purchase the ingredients for a salad and mix it up to take with us?

No. No. No.

I was busy spinning yarn.

My second finished yarn. Plied Saturday afternoon when I had oh so many other things I should have been doing.

Spun from this…

Cotswald Sliver “Eye of the Peacock” dyed by Spunky Eclectic, January 2013 fiber club.

…using this: Bosworth Midi Spindle.

I was going to have felted singles, but that didn’t work out too well. The singles were rather thin and tightly spun. I did make an attempt, but after the yarn dried, I could still untwist and draft the plies. Thus I went to plan B and Navajo-plied all of it. Final thickness ranges from dk to heavy worsted.

A whole entire skein of colorful goodness. Lofty, woolen-spun yarn.

For now I plan to stash it and admire it every time I pull out some yarn. Eventually it will probably end up as something felted, given the varying thickness. At some point I will swatch with it and see what I think.

But for now I am just going to enjoy admiring it.

You might even say I’m proud as a peacock.

My first “real” yarn. As in, an entire ball of fibre spun consistently from beginning to end, plied and finished.

Here’s the story.

Fiber from Knit Picks. 100% Wool of the Andes Roving, color Bare.

Singles…as they appear after being slid off the spindle shaft. Worsted spun.

Shown with a coin for size perspective. Pretty fine, I’d say.

Two plies wound together ready to add twist.

Twist added…ready for it’s bath.

Finito.

I have no idea what I’m going to do with this yarn, nor do I have any idea what the yardage is. I would say it is fingering weight so probably 350-400 yards. But that is just a guess.

One of the skeins is slightly underplied. As in, it did a half twist when I took it out of the water and hung it to see what it would do. But a half twist is totally in the ballpark. [For the record, if it's perfectly balanced, it won't twist at all when hung as a skein.]

I say, pretty good for a newbie. Seriously…I bought my first spindle in December. Give me a little slack, will ya?

It’s here!

It came in the mail yesterday…and I am already into the second section.

The yarn is fabulous. Very springy and not splitty at all. Pure joy to knit.

You’re thinking, “Um, Color Affection? Why are you posting black and white photos?”

Those are color photos, baby. Yes, the yarn is three perfect shades of grey.

…and yes, it is spring, and these are by no means spring colors. But think of it this way: Old snow is dirty, and it gets dirtier as it melts. Think melting snow and you have a perfect spring knit.

But in case you still crave color, I leave you with daffodils, blue sky and the vivid greens of spring.

Cotswald Sliver unfinished singles…woolen spun on a Bosworth Midi spindle by me

The thing about knitting Hitchhiker with sock yarn on sock needles [aka tiny stitches on tiny needles] is that other seemingly difficult projects become easy peasy in comparison.

Take Pomme de Pin (Ravelry link).

A week ago, it looked like this:

Knit in one piece from the bottom up [yes, that means fronts and back together which translates to very long rows] with sport weight yarn [finer than the worsted weight yarn I normally use for sweaters meaning more stitches per inch] and an allover lace pattern [that centered double decrease alone takes longer than the working the other 7 sts in each pattern repeat combined], it was a slog. Add to that the fact that I’d made a mistake and had to rip back about eight rows to correct it, slog was an understatement. I started it in January, and it was going nowhere fast.

But after Hitchhiker, I’m telling you, sport yarn looks really heavy to me. And 195 sts per row? The sts are so big the yarn is literally flying off the ball. This project has become a breeze.

See? Almost up to the armholes.

Supero* indeed.

One possible hitch: After a looking for the perfect yarn to knit Color Affection (Ravelry link) for over a year – needed to be three colors that played well together in three different intensities which would show contrast when viewed in black and white – I have found [and ordered] the perfect yarn: Quince & Co. Finch in Iceland, Kumlien’s Gull, and Kittywake. On my monitor, it looks like three shades of a blue-based heather, but even if it turns out to be pure grey, I’m happy. I have been drooling over these colors since they debuted, and I am elated to have come up with the perfect project for them. The yarn has been shipped, and I’m telling you, when it arrives, I am casting on.

*Supero – Latin, with many meanings: to be above, have the upper hand, surpass, conquer, overcome

I’ve added a new hobby: spinning.

No, I don’t have a spinning wheel. I have no room for such a thing plus I have Joey the Engineer who would be constantly messing with it. No, thanks.

I do enjoy using spindles, though. Today I have my largest cop (ball of yarn wound on a spindle) yet. This was a pain in the arse to keep going so I probably won’t be doing it again. For what it’s worth, though, here it is.

Eye of the Peacock: Cotswold Sheepswool Sliver from Jan 2013 Spunky Eclectic Club on a Bosworth Midi Spindle

All of it spun today after finishing school with Ben. Spinning after school seems to be a good thing. After a morning of sitting on the couch (and knitting, of course), I am ready to be on my feet and move around a little. The light is great then, too.

This is woolen spun so the weight of the single is all over the place. I’m pretty consistent with worsted spun, but with that there is more direct control. The weight of woolen spun yarn seems to vary with the amount of twist in the single, and with a spindle, it’s harder to find that groove.

This morning I threw consistency to the wind and spun up a whole strand of sliver (half of a half of a 4 oz braid) which is how I ended up with my biggest cop ever. Consistency will come with practice. Practice, practice…

I’ve had this yarn in my stash for what seems like forever. Malabrigo Yarn Sock, color Rayon Vert. I purchased it at Personal Threads at the end of 2010 in our annual trip there for the year-end sale. I liked it so much, I bought three skeins of it, thinking I would make a shawl or stole that took up to 1200 yards.

It was not to be.

The first project was Aria Delicato by Anne Hanson of Knitspot. Very pretty. Took only about 240 yards. Lots of yarn leftover.

The next project was Pemberly Socks by Theresa Belville of Little Turtle Knits. Toe up socks in a great stitch pattern. Loved every minute of knitting these.

My mistake? I used up the rest of the first skein and then started in on the second. Even though the dye lots were the same, the yarn is kettle-dyed and the amount of dye in each pot varies, so there was a clear line where the first skein ended and the second began.

That disaster along with a couple holes due to moth damage spelled disaster for that project.

My next project with this yarn was Shaelyn by Leila Raabe [Ravelry link]. This time I was smart – I worked two rows from each ball of yarn so no dye lot issues would arise. The plan was to keep going until I ran out of yarn.

Then the moth damage issue resurfaced. I began having to splice yarn every couple of rows. After a couple of inches like that, I frogged the entire thing and swore I would get rid of the yarn.

But I didn’t. I kept it. Somehow I just couldn’t let go of it.

Yet it was still there, haunting me in my stash. I started Evelyn’s Flower Basket shawl with it, but didn’t get far enough to hardly call it a project. I was tired of the yarn. I even gave Aria Delecato to a new yarn store – Yarn Charm – to use as a store sample. I was so tired of looking at that yarn.

Then last weekend something got into me, and I picked it up again. I wanted that yarn out of my stash once and for all. Enter: Hitchhiker.

It begins with only 2 sts, but a net of 4 sts are added after every tooth, making it a great project to work until you run out of yarn. Worked on 2.5 mm needles (US 2) – the same size needles one would use for a sock project – the project would be tedious if it were not for miles and miles of garter stitch. Worked to Ravel’s Bolero, it’s a great knit.

What’s even better? The project is finished, and the yarn is no longer in my stash. It’s gone, baby! And I have a new scarf to wear. Perfect for spring weather. Love it!