Archives for November 2004

That’s what I was thinking as I left the office today:

“I get to ply my singles!”

Walking to the train station:

“I get to ply my singles!”

On the train coming home:

“I get to ply my singles!”

Driving home from the train station:

“I get to ply my singles!”

Guess what I did as soon as I got home?

If you said “Well duh, you plied your singles” you would be correct.

Here’s a 2 ounce skein of my Black Welsh Mountain/Border Leicester mix:

While I (ahem) plied my singles, Lucy did this:

She really loves that mouse I knitted for her from my handspun. It’s starting to get quite ratty looking (sorry about the pun) so I think I need to knit her another one.

Thanks to Lelah for pointing me in the direction of the Woodland Woolworks spinning catalog for information on how to attach a drive band. I have this catalog at home, so looked through it and found the technique she described. The pdf with this technique is available here.

And Lene suggested that I Google “spinner’s knot” for a square knot with a twist that makes no bump, however I got no direct hits — a lot of information on anchors and sailing, though! If anyone can enlighten me, please do.

In answer to Caroline’s question, I’m spinning double drive. My wheel does have set-up for Scotch tension, but I’ve not tried it.

Scarfy Goodness

Cuz my AbFab afghan is too big to take as commuter knitting, I started a scarf, in Karabella Puffy, on size 13 needles:

It’s much prettier in person.

Did I wear Ingrid to work today? Why yes, I did!

Just for grins, here are some gratuitous shots of Ingrid.

And a full shot:

If the weather is cool enough (and according to the forecasters it will be) I think I’ll wear her to work tomorrow.

I counted up the number of skeins it took to knit Ingrid — 7 in the solid color, and 6 in the variegated.

Today was my first day back at work after being off for a week. Yikes. I repeat, yikes. I knew that today was going to be a busy day so I was ready for it, but that doesn’t make it any easier, really. But I got done what I needed to get done. And returned home thankfully to Katarina.

I’m currently spinning some Black Welsh Mountain/Border Leicester mix (I did wax lyrical about Black Welsh Mountain already, right?). It is wonderful to spin. If I’ve got anything worth photographing, I shall photograph it tomorrow.

This is destined to become part of my striped handspun shawl. I’m using the same shawl pattern as for my Spirit Trail yarn shawl, and will use all natural colored wool and alpaca, and knit it in stripes. It’ll either be beautiful or gawdawful. Time will tell.

I didn’t mention that I snapped my drive band, did I? Friday night. A week of spinning and the drive band snapped. Hmmmmmmm. It was a hemp one, which seemed somewhat fragile to me at any rate. Necessity being the mother of invention, I fashioned a new one from some heavy white string I had. I tied a very careful square knot, but I can still feel a slight bump as the knot goes over the whorl. But I’m getting used to it.

However, I did order a stretch poly drive band for Katarina.

And I’m still plugging away on the AbFab afghan. It doesn’t look much different from yesterday’s photo, but here’s another pic, just for grins. This time, the afghan is draped artistically (play along with me, please) across the couch.

I am keeping the yarns for the afghan in my big knitting bag. See?

Obviously I’m not the only Colinette fan around here!

I just updated the Knitting Basket Project total — huge thank yous to everyone who has donated!

Yes, a good time really was had by all! Lucy looks relaxed, doesn’t she?

I did some knitting and spinning. But first, something I finished last Tuesday night:

Yes, I finally finished Ingrid. To refresh your memory, she’s my own design, knitted from Koigu KPPPM in colors P315 and 2331 on size 2.0 and 2.5 mm needles. The pattern will be available at some point in the future.

I started knitting poor Ingrid back in June, but kept casting her aside to work on other projects. Now that I’ve completed her, I love her. She fits beautifully and the Koigu feels so wonderful to wear!

On Wednesday I started an AbFab afghan, this in the “Nightfall” colorway, which will look lovely in my livingroom:

I’m a bit more than halfway done with it. I didn’t spend huge amounts of time knitting, because I was busily spinning away. The results of the Thanksgiving weekend:

The green is from some Border Leicester locks that L-B bought — she combed some and sent it to me last week. The brown and the white are one ounce samples from my Spirit Trail British Breeds Sampler. And the grey/turquoise is a wool/alpaca blend.

All in all, a productive weekend!

KnitBloggers Knitting Basket Project

Check out the total donated so far in the sidebar! We’re almost halfway to our goal! Wow!

Back to Work

Back to work tomorrow for me. That week off went by awfully quickly . . .

Have a great week, everyone!

Happy Thanksgiving from all of us here at WendyKnits to all of you who celebrate it!

And look at the total so far for donations to the Knitting Basket Project — we’re off to a great start!

I’m taking the next few days off from blogging (but will continue to update the Knitting Basket totals) — see you Sunday evening!

Here is my 4 ounces of Black Welsh Mountain/alpaca blend, all spun up and plied, accompanied by some other natural colored wools.

This stuff is a dream to spin!!

Spirit-Trail Shawl

On Monday night I finished my shawl, knitted from all Spirit-Trail yarns, and here it is:

All while knitting it I debated whether or not to put a fringe on. I ended up with no fringe, due in part to the fact that I had used up all the yarns. So I finished it off with a garter stitch edging:

The last 2 inches or so at the bottom are knitted from the silk I spun from the silk caps, held together with a strand of mohair.

In answer to Alice’s question, I’m not sure how many yards I got out of the silk caps, but I spun it to approximately dk weight and it was just enough for 2 inches at the bottom of the shawl.

The shawl is knitted from merino wool, a wool/silk boucle, mohair, silk chenille, and silk.

Knit Happens Happenings

I spent the day at Knit Happens yesterday, and hung out with the usual suspects. And there was a special guest star: Stinkerbell of Fidgety Knitting. Great fun was had by all!

At one point I whipped out a drop spindle and some wool for an impromptu demonstration of spinning. So in answer to another question — yes, I can see me using my drop spindles from time to time. I think they are very useful for portable spinning!

Knitting Basket Update

Thanks so much for your great response so far! The total amount donated so far is shown in my sidebar. I will update it at least once a day. What a great response in our first day!

Lucy

She woke up.

Well, sort of.