Child labor and Atomic Lace

the first skein posing seductively in the sun.

Just a few quick pictures - I couldn't wait to share my Atomic Merino Superwash Lace. I haven't done the WPI yet, but it's quite fine enough to make a nice lace item. The Atomic merino is from Cider Moon, and is the first almost complete project on my new wheel. Almost complete, because I still have an estimated 200 yards left on the bobbins that I haven't plied yet. This is nearly 600 yards of 2 ply. I like it.

I was forced to employ child labor as I got tired of winding it on my own. She was most helpful.

This is the yarn posing with dime for perspective.


Finally, this is a little blending experiment I started on this morning, including plain purplish wool, teal ingeo, and a little sparkle fiber in random amounts. Looking forward to seeing how it spins up - I think I used a little too much bling.

Baby Stuff

Roger's boss and his wife just got a new baby girl (they already had her brother - they are very special people who have adopted these babies!), and this is something I made to keep her in cottony comfort.

Pattern: Made the sweater a time ago just to try this yarn(months ago) and I don't recall, but the booties are from this Leisure Arts booklet, Precious Layettes to Knit. I think the sweater might be from here too, I've made lots of them from this book.
Yarn: Bernat cotton tots in Jelly Belly
Needles: US 3
Fun? lots

I feel like been in a little bit of a knitting of slump, and making these booties Tuesday afternoon during "Night at the Museum" made me feel a lot better. I love having something I can just whip up. The yarn is super soft, and machine wash and dry. I made the cords for the neck and ankles out of crochet chain, and think the effect is very cute.


Here is a quick shot of the first handspun sock, edited for your protection:

I'm working on the other. And because I didn't have the yarn ready, I am also just past the gusset on a Hedera sock. Nice pattern, from knitty.com and Cookie A.

I also cast on for a sweater Tuesday night to help me get out of the slump, the same one that my friend Delana just started.


I will be making a post some day soon for Jacki of Cider Moon about the other toy I got from the Fiber Event, a Louet Junior drum carder. I just haven't had a lot of time for this, and I haven't even had much time for spinning, and I'm still working on the atomic lace weight. I'm finding that I'm probably going to have trouble with spinning monogamy just as I have many projects on the needles at once. Big surprise, right?

The New Wheel

I'm mostly caught up posting what I've been doing with this third post this week. I still don't have a picture of the finished first Sunny Day sock, and I don't think I really have a great picture of the wheel, but here she is:



I'm not the wheel naming kind I guess, but if I were to name the wheel it would probably be to call it "Jane" after my dear mom who has been encouraging wheel-buying behavior. Everyone should have a mom like her! Anyway, I picked it up at The Fiber Event last weekend in Greencastle, IN. The weather was crap, but it didn't stop me from thoroughly enjoying myself. As soon as I got the wheel up to my hotel room last Saturday night, I started sampling some of the many wools that I purchased that day and was able to easily whip up some lace, fingering, and novelty thick-and-thin stuff. Roger looked at me like I was crazy, but he still could appreciate the beauty of the wheel.

This is a Jensen Ashley with a 30" wheel, purchased with probably not nearly enough deliberation from the delightful Carl and Shelby Jaeger. The minute I sat down to spin, I was amazed at the ease of use. It comes with 3 sizes of whorls so I can get about any ratio I need, and is double drive with optional scotch tension, which after I figured out the double drive realized I'll probably never need? It's made of cherry wood and stained walnut, and perfectly compliments the antique wool winder I purchased a short while ago. I honestly could not be more pleased.

I finished spinning the 2nd ounce of single for the Sunny Day socks, and plied it with the 1 ounce single I produced on the Ashford I've been using. My plying is much tighter, and I'm going to have to get used to not having to work so hard to get a thin yarn. I love the way it turned out.

Right now I'm working on lace weight singles out of Cider Moon's Atomic colored superwash merino, and it's like heaven. I really think this is only wheel I'll need to do anything I want.


Thank you to the visitors who have come over from Cider Moon to see the Pistachotis. I have really only been spinning since the fall, in earnest since January, and it seems like it's something I'm meant to be doing and I'm really enjoying it. And really, Gail and Jacki make it easy to have great results with their truly inspired colorways.

gratuitous picture of the dog with the wheel. :o)

Pistachotis, Complete

colors above are pretty accurate. Below it is draped on a chair for scale.

Pattern: Clapotis by Kate Gilbert, available free on knitty.com
Yarn: my own spun from Cider Moon's "pistachio" colorway of Australian wool, 8 ounces.
Needles: Addi Turbo...maybe US 6 or 7. I need to start taking better notes!!
Modifications: made it a little longer than stated in the pattern. It blocked out to a really nice size.

This is a very clever design, and provided an excellent showcase for my handspun. I love the way the stripes came out, and it was a nice mindless knit. Would I do it again? Yup. Do I love the Cider Moon hand paints? Yes I do. I got a lot of compliments on this colorway in particular, and I actually bought it because I Gail had spun up a gorgeous skein of it that she had at the trunk show at the Merc. I don't think it can be spun badly (I was worried I might!), because the colors are just so great together.

Blue Sweater

detail of the buttons and cables. The color is truer in the picture below.

I've been busy and haven't had time to post, but I have lots to update and I'm going to break it into 3 installments, the first of which is to reveal the finished blue cabled sweater! Posts to follow will include the finished Pistachotis, one sunny day sock, and my new spinning wheel!

Pattern: "Aran Family" women's cardigan from Knitting the New Classics by Kristin Nicholas
Yarn: NatureSpun worsted 100% wool, "Bit of Blue" color
Needles: Addi Turbo US 5 (or 6?) and KnitPicks circular US 4
Buttons: LaMode Vintage #1728, Circa 1900-1919 that I found at Joanns.
Modifications: I made it a little bit longer, and it blocked out even longer than I expected but I like where it hits me, mid-hip. I wore it this weekend to the Fiber Event in Greencastle, IN and got a few compliments and a few "you MADE it?!"s and it kept me very warm. I did get a lot of remarks on my most attractive buttons.

This is probably the 4th or 5th sweater I've made from this book (including the sweater the man is wearing on the cover). I've been pleased with the way the patterns are written, and they really are basic, classic designs for the most part.

This sweater was easy enough to knit, but I got bored with it in several places and put it down for long periods - I think it was November, maybe even October when I started the back. I knit the sleeves at the same time after I finished the back, and then knit the fronts likewise. I actually finished knitting the sweater parts in March, but the finishing took hours and hours, from having to seam it together, knit the button bands and sew those on, and pick up stitches to knit the neck band on and I couldn't tolerate just getting it done at once. Still, I would say it was worth it, and I'm sure I'll get a lot of wear out of this.

Draped over the wool winder for scale, sorry I don't have a picture of me wearing it.
The back is also fully cabled. As always you can click a picture for a big view.

Sunny Day Indeed

at least until the storms come through later this afternoon.

Sampling

I spent a little bit of time spinning samples this weekend.

These are a few yards of 2-ply each of the raw alpaca (the beige yarn) that Kay gave me to try with her wheel, and of the ingeo from Mud River Angoras that I finally feel confident enough to spin, but am still not good enough to. I might try blending it with merino next, I think that will help.

These are samples that I've Navajo plied (a nifty way to 3-ply a single, link to video instructions), of the mystery wool from Vicki, the Sunny Day Australian wool from Cider Moon, and an unknown green colorway of superwash that Gail included as a sample with my order. The superwash was really easy to ply this way, but I didn't do as well with the regular wool so when I spun the first 2 ounces of the Sunny Square Pants Day for a sock, I just did a 2 ply, which turned out really cool too.

click any of these pictures for a Big Image.

Here are pictures of the mystery wool being processed by Vicki. You can see that she got many bags of this, and it's all fresh off the sheep and needs cleaning. I spent Tuesday picking through some from the bag she gave me, but she's got a whole system going and has cleaned a lot, I just did enough to card and spin a little sample. The cute dog in the sweater is included just for fun, she's Vicki's dog Jazzy wearing her fancy new sweater.