More Spinning

I’ve also been trying to spin regularly and finished up my first pound of Heinz 57 top from The Woolery, and cracked open the second pound bag of Heinz 57 that I had bought.  These two skeins were spun on a faster whorl (16:1 as opposed to 10:1), which was a bit exciting at times.  They are all tied up and ready for a dye bath.  I purchased a dyeing kit from Wool Tincture, which claims that if you can brew a cup of tea you can dye yarn.  I definitely have mastered tea brewing, so we shall see how that goes.

The kit comes with a dyeing jar (no sacrificing any of your kitchen ware) and you can get pre-measured dye kits in complementary colors, all you have to do is add the hot water and let the magic happen.  No fancy variegated stuff - just solid colors - but that is fine with me.  I just don’t feel like working with white wool.

I also spun up one of the dyed rovings that I bought ages ago when I first thought I would want to go down the spinning rabbit hole.  This was a roving from Zen Yarn Garden, who have recently closed their shop (they retired), although their dyer has opened up one of her own, so you can still get their beautiful colors.  I have a lot of their yarn in my stash.  This roving had been sitting around in its plastic wrap for years in my studio, never finding a home, so I just grabbed it, opened up the package, undid the braid and let it breathe for a few days before I started spinning.  The fiber is superwash merino, and it was dreamy to spin, so silky and soft.  I went back to the slower whorl (10:1) for this one, just because I felt like I had more control.  My spinning is still not consistent, but the yarn came out beautiful and soft.  It will likely become a scarf.

For plying both of these sets of singles I broke out the jumbo flyer that I had bought for my Kromski spinning wheel.  Getting it switched over was a bit of a challenge, and getting it set up to actually ply was also a bit of challenge and I ended up snapping my string drive band.  Fortunately I had a spare poly drive band so I replaced the band and got it all working.  It definitely took more effort to treadle (I have a single treadle), especially as the bobbin filled (inertia is real).  Spinning with my regular flyer is really easy and almost effortless, so I wasn’t super happy with the experience of plying on the jumbo.  I’m seriously thinking about getting a second wheel just for plying and am looking at the Ashford Kiwi 3, which comes with larger capacity bobbins, and is compact, and folds up.

 

Holly Sweater - Finished!

And it is done!  I finished up the second sleeve this past Sunday and blocked it on Monday.  So, my first all-over colorwork, top-down, yoked sweater is done.  I learned lots and enjoyed the knitting.   I have two more Advent calendar kits from Onling to knit up - one from 2023 and one from 2024 - but right now I am back to working on my Wallflower Blanket.  I need to finish it up so I can get started on Tesselation Nation.

Pattern:  Holly Sweater by Ruth Sorensen

Yarn:  Shetland Wool

Needles:  US 4 (3.5 mm) and US 5 (3.75 mm)

Holly Sweater - One Sleeve Done!

After finishing my needlepoint excursion I went back to working on my Holly Sweater and quickly finished up the sleeve.  When I started the sleeve I worked the decreases as the pattern calls for, but when I tried it on I decided that the decreases (every five rows!) were making the sleeve too tight, so I ripped back to the row before the first decrease and worked the sleeve without decreases.  That made for much easier knitting as I didn’t have to make sure to adjust the pattern every time I decreased to line up the motifs correctly.  When I got to the cuff I worked a decrease round to get me to the correct number of stitches, from 96 stitches down to 64, which meant I worked k1, k2tog all the way around.  I also only worked 22 motifs instead of 23, as the pattern size (XS) called for, and worked 12 rows of ribbing before binding off.  The sleeve length is perfect and I like the way it gathers in at the cuff.  I think it fits with the easy of the body.

Pattern:  Holly Sweater by Ruth Sorensen

Yarn:  Shetland Wool

Needles:  US 4 (3.5 mm) and US 5 (3.75 mm)

A Little Needlepoint Excursion

I took a little break from knitting last week (I had overdone it and was noticing some soreness in places that aren’t usually sore) and spent the week doing a little needlework project.  This was a kit for a notions bag. I found it when I was setting up my spinning corner.  The zipper actually goes all the way around so you can unzip it to work the needlepoint and then zip it back up to use it.  I also added a cotton lining just to finish it off.  My first forays in to the crafting universe were actually embroidery and needlepoint back when I was in my early teenage years.  I don’t think I have any of the embroidery that I did, although I think I still might have my embroidery hoop somewhere, but maybe not, it has been a very long time since I’ve seen it.  I do have three needlepoint pillows that I have made, including my very first one, which was a bargello kit.  I also have several cross-stitch and needlepoint kits that I have purchased over the years, and a latch-hook “tiger skin” rug that I have never finished - all I have left is the assembly.  One of these days, now that I’m retired…

Holly Sweater - Body Done!

I finished up the body last night, and started on a sleeve.  Spit splicing the yarn is working great    I also did a long-tail cast-on for the stitches under the arm when I set up the body stitches.  The first body row begins with casting on 8 stitches, so I did a long-tail cast-on and dropped the end when I got to the body stitches.  When I got to the other underarm stitches I tied a piece of the same color yarn to the working strand and did the long-tail cast-on again.  I like the nice edge this gives, as well as easy stitch pick-up, and it also seems to reduce those pesky holes you tend to get.  Plus, if you do have any holes you have tails at each side of the underarm seam to sew them closed.  This will be my go-to technique going forward.

The pattern calls for 6 cm of ribbing at the hem, but I only did 4, 6 just seemed excessive, and the sweater is plenty long enough on me.

Pattern:  Holly Sweater by Ruth Sorensen

Yarn:  Shetland Wool

Needles;  US 4 (3.5 mm) and US 5 (3.75 mm)

Holly Sweater - Yoke Done!

Since I have retired I have actually become monogamous with my projects, so I have been knitting away at my colorwork sweater.  This morning I finished up the yoke and am now ready to place sleeve stitches on stitch holders and start working on the body.  Before I get too far in to that endeavor I am going to skein up all my little balls of yarn, spit splicing them together so I don’t end up with a bunch of mini skeins, then wet them to get the kinks out and cake them up again.  I’m pretty happy with how this is turning out, and my gauge looks to be pretty spot on.  No, I did not do a gauge swatch, my earlier attempt served as my gauge swatch, and I have since checked the gauge on the yoke and seem to be on target.

Pattern:  Holly Sweater by Ruth Sorensen

Yarn:  Shetland Wool

Needles:  US 4 (3.5 mm) and US 5 (3.75 mm)

Holly Sweater - Take Three!

Having finished my Peacock Shawl (a project that I had started back on November 6, 2016!) I looked at my other WIPs to see what I wanted to tackle finishing next.  When I had set it aside back in March of 2023 it was almost finished.  I had actually worked one of the sleeves, although I didn’t take a picture.  But here is a picture of the body finished.

Although it fit me, it did not have the recommended ease, and after letting my mind ruminate on it in the background and trying it on again, I decided that it really did need more ease and that my gauge was just too tight.  I had already gone up one needle size, but I decided I needed to go up more.  I was using a 2.5 mm and 3.0 mm needle, and my gauge was 32 stitches and 38 rounds in 4 inches, vice the called for gauge of 27 stitches and 30 rounds in 4 inches, so I decided to go up to a 3.5 mm (US 4) and a 3.75 mm (US 5) and try again.  To organize the yarn I got 8 bags, and put a slip of paper with the chart symbol for the color in each one.  Then I spent an evening frogging my work and winding lots of little balls of yarn and sorting them all in to the appropriate bags while watching the Chiefs beat the Texans.  My Lumos light helped me make sure I got the correct colors in their respective bags.

I had already cast on a fresh start and the larger needles, and going up the needle size seems to have done the trick with regards to gauge.  I was worried about the looser gauge looking sloppy with the color work, but so far it seems to be okay.

Pattern:  Holly Sweater by Ruth Sorensen

Yarn:  Shetland Wool

Needles:  US 4 (3.5 mm) and US 5 (3.75 mm)