Wow. April? April was really my last post?
As we sit here in the final days of 2010, I can’t help but look back over the last year. For me, fate put me on a roller-coaster in late March, and didn’t really let me off the ride until this fall. There was no activity here on the blog, because there was almost no knitting or spinning in my life.
Even after the roller-coaster ended, it took a while for me to get back into any crafting at all. I haven’t started any knitting projects, but I did spin for a while on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. The yarn is currently hanging on the line to dry, so pictures of it will be coming soon.
In the meantime, here is my purple and gray handspun that I found some time to spin earlier in the year. This was spun from slightly more than 4 ounces of 70% Superwash Merino and 30% Alpaca Top from Wolf Creek Wools (purchased at Black Sheep Gathering 2009). I ended up with a single skein of 2-ply yarn that measures 215 yards. This turned out so soft and squishy. It is definitely on the list of favorite yarns that I have spun.
My goal is to not be absent so much from the blog, Ravelry, or anywhere else from now on. I hope to be in contact with many of you soon.
I’ll be honest, there isn’t much progress to post for March so I’m not going to go through the list of goals. I’ve been absent from the blog because I spent more of the month away from home than I did at home. I had planned to be away for a few days for a vacation, which was a nice break. A few days later a family emergency occurred and kept me away for much longer than I’d planned.
That being said, there was no spinning in March and I didn’t finish a single knitted item. Essentially, the entire month of March after the Ravelympics was dedicated to the baby blanket I’ve been designing. The good news is that I should finish it this weekend and be able to move on to some other knitting.
This is my February wrap-up of my progress on my ten for 10 goals.
- Knit a large square/rectangle shawl (like one from from Heirloom Knitting or Knitted Lace of Estonia)
- Knit a sweater for me
No progress on either of these items.
- Knit a pair of colorwork socks
I’ve been knitting and posting about my self-designed colorwork socks that I started for the Ravelympics. So far, I’ve managed to knit one sock, and I’ve got one to go.
- Clean and prep the baby alpaca (cria) fleece I purchased
- Spin the above mentioned fleece
No progress on either of these items in February.
- Spin at least an hour per week to improve my overall spinning technique and consistency
As was the case last month, I wasn’t able to dedicate an hour a week to my spinning. I blame trying to knit for the Ravelympics for the lack of time. I did, however, spend 6 to 8 hours spinning four ounces of fiber from Wolf Creek Wools.
- Reduce the overall stash.
I didn’t actually finish any knitting projects in February, so the amount of yarn that left my stash is zero. On top of that, I added a bunch of Knitpicks Swish DK in order to work on a project. Granted, I cast on with the yarn right away, but I did overestimate the amount I needed by about 4 balls (7 oz/200 grams). This will result in adding to the stash, not reducing.
- Design and release at least 2 patterns
I’m definitely on track for this one. I will be releasing the colorwork socks (they need a good name). I’m also working on a baby blanket pattern (which also needs a good name). There’s already interest in this one by an outside party. No details until I’m sure of what the outcome will be.
- Post more regularly to this blog
I only managed three posts in February, not the frequency I was hoping for. I know March will be better. This is already the third post, and it’s only the 10th of the month.
- Attend my local knitting or spinning groups more often (which shouldn’t be hard – I hardly went at all in 2009)
I made it to knitting twice in February. I’m ok with that.
Overall, I feel that I made fairly good progress in January and have some fairly high hopes for what I can accomplish in February.
Since Kelly asked, I’ll wrap up my Ravelypics project. I did not win a Ravelympics gold. I didn’t even manage to finish one of the socks that I was designing and knitting.
I’ve had several setbacks along the way. I thought that I had the design mostly complete before the event started, but the truth is that I only had the main pattern and heel charted. I hadn’t planned the sizing for the calf; I hadn’t swatched the ribbing. I spent the first weekend just finalizing these details.
Once that was worked out, I was able to just knit down the leg with some minor tweaking to the calf sizing. There were a few setbacks, like the time I realize I had jumped ahead about 20 rows in the chart and didn’t notice until I had knit a significant portion. All that work was ripped out and re-knit.
Then, I got stuck at the heel. I spent an entire week knitting, ripping, and re-knitting the heel, and it just didn’t look right to me. The key finally came to me while I was drying my hair one morning – a smaller needle. Since the heel is primarily one color worked back and forth instead of two colors in the round, it made sense. Once I had that revelation, the heel worked for me as I had originally intended and I was able to work my way down the foot.
The failure to advance plan hit me again when I got to the toe. I thought I’d be able to work through it as I went, and that did not work. I need to sit down, plan the toe and knit it. That is my plan for today.
I haven’t given myself a deadline on finishing the pattern. I thought it would be fun to enter them into the Socks Revived Contest (Ravelry group). In order to do that, the pattern has to be available by April 19th. While that is a month away, there’s quite a bit more work to do. I need to finish charting the other sizes. I’d like to have the pattern test knit. I’d really like to finish the second sock. There’s a lot of work to finish this, and this pattern isn’t my priority right now. I’ve got a project with a deadline this month. We’ll have to see what I can do in such a short time.
You may want to check out the links to the Socks Revived contest even if you’re only a sock knitter. It holds the promise of a bunch of new sock patterns.
Last March, I posted the fiber I got from Briar Rose Fibers for the Ply by Night Ravelry spin-along. It was a mix of interesting colors, and I really had no idea how it would look spun into yarn. The colors were misted throughout the top, not done in sections like most fiber I had worked with. I decided to jump right in and see what would happen. For me, the spin-along was all about the learning process, and I wasn’t concerned with what my finished yarn might look like.
By May, I had spun the four ounces into a single. After spinning, I was measured the length of the single and discovered that I had approximately 300 yards. I was worried that I wouldn’t have a good use for 150 yards of a bulky yarn. I was also concerned that plying it would muddy the subtle color changes in the yarn, and I really wanted to preserve them. So, I decided to leave it as a single, and try to find a pattern that would suit it.
Since I really liked the yarn I had spun, I wanted a project that would show the beauty of the yarn and not cause too much wear on the delicate single. I settled on the idea of a small shawl. That time last year predates the explosion of small shawl patterns that are now all over Ravelry, so it was a bit of work to find one that I thought would work. I settled on the Little Arrowhead Shawl. It had a simple pattern with basic edging, and could easily be adapted to the amount of yarn that I had.
This shawl sat unblocked in my closet until recently. I blocked it and my Citron shawl at the same time. This shawl was the first item I ever knit out of my handspun. It is the project that really convinced me that continuing with spinning would allow me to create yarns that I would like to knit with. Up until then, I enjoyed spinning, but wasn’t really sure where it fit into my overall crafting agenda.
I’m really pleased with the way the shawl highlights the color changes in the yarn. I do think the two were a good match. I wish that I had used a slightly larger needle to make it a bit more open and also a little larger, but it’s a nice, warm, small shawl.
The pattern is available free online as one of the staff projects from the Interweave Knits, Summer 2006 issue. It’s also in the Interweave Knits, Accessories 2009 issue.
Pattern: Little Arrowhead Shawl
Designer: Pam Allen
Source: Interweave Knits
Yarn: handspun
Fiber: Briar Rose Fibers Blue Faced Leicester
Yardage: 310 yards
Needles: US7 (4.5mm)
Finished size: 22 inches tall x 48 inches wide
Started: May 3, 2009
Completed: May 10, 2009
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