I Spin The Body Electric

Color Choices Not Made

I want to knit a sock out of handspun. I want to be able to control the colors in the stripes. To measure the stripe, I had to knit a sample and measure the length of yarn in each stripe. I checked the stash, found two balls of sock yarn that were 50g each and neither had a matching ball for the second sock, perfect yarn to waste on this.

I started knitting. Here's the yarn:

Definitely not a pair of colors one would normally have chosen as partners, right?

Here's the sock:

This is the most funky sock I've made. completely unexpected and fun and fabulous. I was going to knit a 3" sample but now I can't put it down.

If I try to duplicate this with another color combination, it will never look this good.

Now I'm questioning all my past, present and future color choices. I don't like to use the word stodgy in reference to my wardrobe, but, um, yeah.

 

Wild Thing

My boyfriend (now husband) suggested I get some sheep. Sheep? What? He had a 1 acre pasture that he didn't want to mow and had run out of neighborhood animals to eat it down. He'd had horses, a calf, a very mean llama, destructive goats (or is that an oxymoron?) and now the pasture was empty of herbivores. I consulted with a friend who raised Shetlands, who highly recommended them as a breed, and by the way, she had some lambs she wanted to sell. I brought home two, Tenino and Kiona, wethered males. Two years later, we acquired two more, Star and Emmett.

None of them was particularly friendly as they hadn't been handled much (or at all) as lambs, but Emmett was the wild one. Nervous, flighty, feisty, always at the back of the pack. When it rained, all the others took shelter in the barn but Emmett stood in the doorway, or just outside. Either he was pushed out by the dominant male or he was reluctant to stay in an enclosed space, I never figured out which. Even when we erected a cover just outside the door, we'd still see him standing out in the rain. He was pushed around and bullied, and always the last to reach the feeder in the morning, but he persevered. I liked his spirit. He was small, and his fleece was small as well, usually less than 2 pounds after skirting. But it was oh so fine and soft, a permanent lamb fleece. I kept it separate from the other fleeces and aspired to make fine soft shawls out of it. 

I will be attending a conference this summer where I will put an item on display in one of the exhibits. After mulling over possibilities,  I decided to finally make my Shetland shawl. I combed Emmett's fleece, spun it fine, knit swatches to test the yarn and the patterns, and finally made my choices. I spun enough for half the shawl and started knitting. I'd hoped it was enough for the whole shawl, but no, I needed more. I finished up the second ball yet it too was not enough. I spun a third ball and added an extra wallop of fiber to the combs to make sure I could get it done. The body of the shawl was finished on Saturday night. I still need to add an edging, but the finished part was enough to showcase in a photograph that I could send to the exhibit chair. I cast off the last edge and put the shawl in some soapy water to soak then went to bed.

In the morning, I rinsed the shawl, rolled it up in a towel to blot it, then laid it out to dry. The first part of the shawl from the first skein is creamy white, but the second section has light brown stripes, and the third is mostly white, with one brown streak. Emmett's fleece is a light brown, but the color is not evenly distributed. The front half is creamy white and his butt end light brown. Obviously I'd pulled out locks from different parts of the fleece and they weren't blended evenly. My first reaction was that I could fold that part under in the photograph, and I still had time to re-spin and re-knit the second half before the exhibit. Disappointment was high. All that time, all that energy and I'd screwed it up. I laid the shawl out on the bed, threaded the blocking wires, and pinned it taut.

When I went out to the pasture that morning to feed the sheep, Emmett didn't get up. He was 14, the longest lived sheep in the flock, and he suffered from arthritis, but otherwise was in good health, eating well, keeping up with the other sheep. Until Sunday. I thought about the shawl and the maudlin and romantic idea that the project kept him tethered, and when it was done, so was he. But that was fanciful on my part because there was nothing tethered about him. I have other Shetland sheep and they all have their own personalities, but none as wild as Emmett. He was more like the original Shetlands from the islands: wild, untamed, unyielding, and with a stubborn streak that never goes away.

I've decided now that the brown streaks in the shawl remind me too much of the sheep for me to take them out, or hide them. This is Emmett's shawl and if he wants those brown streaks in there, he can have them. 

Snail Fail

I saw the Escargot hat pattern on Knitty. I had to knit it. Dug in stash, found handspun yarn, cast on, knit frantically. It's done:

Looks OK? Hmmm, try this one:

Can you see the excessive flaring at the bottom? No? Ok, one more:

This is supposed to be a hat, not an upside down boat. The hat with flair, or should we say flare, looks like it's about to launch itself. I won't rip it out, oh no. I will do what I do to every failed hat -- throw it in the washing machine water and let it sink or swim and hope that that will cure its wild tendencies. Tame it, shrink it, mold it into some semblance of hathood.

Stay tuned.

Hitching a Ride

Hitchhiker shawl is done. Goal was to knit until my fingers dropped off, or rather, until I ran out of yarn and what you see on the right is what's left. Of course, I knit across the row, didn't have enough for the cast off, ripped out the row, cast off, ran out of yarn, ripped out that row and the one before, then cast off again. I used a stretchy cast off so it used more yarn than expected. The old 3x the width of the item for the yarn needed to knit a row? Doesn't work with a stretchy cast off. 

Yarn: Mountain Colors Bearfoot

Pattern: Hitchhiker Shawl

Needles: Size 5, I think.

Likes/dislikes: I like this a lot. Easy knit, once I added a stitch marker to keep track of the increases and the rows it knit quickly. See link above for details on what I did with the marker.

My current obsession is Estonian Lace with handspun Shetland yarn. Yarn is spun and plied (small amount of what it looks like plied is on the right side of the bobbin). This is Emmett, my oldest sheep (coming up on 14 years). He's got arthritis but still gets around and still has a superfine fleece. Every fall I wonder if he will make it through the winter, but he is still ok.

And the knitting, blob stage.This will be an Estonian shawl, my original pattern and design. I modified an existing Estonian pattern from the Haapsalu Shawl book because I wanted Nupps where Nupps were not to be found.

I just received the new Haapsalu Scarves book (triangles and squares) and it is stunning. If I weren't already knitting a shawl, I'd be starting one immediately. I might, however, have already been searching stash for potential non-handspun candidates for the next one.

Here's my needle story. Can you say Obsession? This was mine. 

Estonians traditionally knit on wood needles. These days they use Bamboo. I had no Bamboo needles in the right size so I bought some. I looked at the Clover but their size 6 is a 4.25 metric which is larger than other brands. I then tried the very pricy Addi Natura, and liked them a lot. I bought a few. Or more than a few. I found some good deals on Ebay and Ravelry. I knit several swatches (about 8, actually) and these needles worked well.

I cast on for the shawl and things did not go so well, as the fine yarn was catching on the metal join. The samples, it turns out, were not long enough to even reach the join. This all occurred, of course, at night, late at night, when Knitters Who Are Obsessed are usually knitting on their latest obsession. So I began a needle quest, on-line of course. I was looking for 10" straight wooden needles in size 6, but just to be sure, I had to order sizes 5 and 7 as well. Cover all bases and all that.

Edited to add: what I really want are the H&S or Susanne's ebony size 6 in a 10 inch single point. Got some to sell? Let me know.

Found Addi Natura straight needles, but they needed to be shipped from Germany as nobody stocks them in the US. I ordered 3 pairs. Found Brittany straight needles, really good price - $7.00 per pair. Really? Wood needles are that cheap? I guess I'm used to the prices on exotic ebony and rosewood needles. I ordered 3 pairs. These shipped right away, which meant I got them about 4 days later. Nice needles, good feel, really smooth, but big fat lumpy tips. I wanted pointy. Wasn't willing to sharpen them in case I totally messed them up.

In the intervening 4 days, I remembered that I'd bought some really long birch DP needles in sets of 5 many years back. Never used them. I dug them out (I'd put them in the Sell Box). They had nice pointy tips, but I had sizes 4 and 6 and I was knitting on size 5. I hadn't gotten very far on the knitting, barely past the garter stitch border, so I decided to start over. Rip, rip, and I only lost the cast on section to excessive fuzziness. With handspun yarn, every inch counts.

Started knitting with the size 6 14" needles. I put point protectors on the butt ends to avoid losing stitches off the back end. These added about 3 lbs weight to each needle, or so it felt, so after about 4" of knitting, when I realized I was only using about 8" of needle, I took them off. My speed increased incrementally since I didn't have to heave those deadweights up and down with every stitch.

In the meantime, the Brittany arrived, and I decided not to switch needles mid-stream.

Then I found out a local shop is closing. Big discounts this month. I headed over there and bought out her supply of wooden needles, sizes 5-7. Some were very pointy, but again, I decided not to switch. I will save all of these for further swatch adventures and some sharpening experiments. About 2 weeks later, the Addi Natura straights arrived. I like these a lot. May have to order more in other sizes later. Again decided not to swap needles.

Shawl is now about 3/8 done (5 repeats out of 12), not including the edging. I have a deadline of March 18 to have a good photograph of it, but I can fudge the photo if it's not quite done. I will add edging to the existing part, block it, photograph it, then finish it. Final shawl needs to be done by July 1.

Remember that old house I was complaining about? We signed the papers last Wednesday and it's SOLD. After the first offer fell through, there was a flurry of activity with 4 offers arriving on the same day. It sold for more than the asking price. We are very happy.

Oh, and the slouch hat? It was too large, not for her head, but for her purse. She wanted one she could tuck in her pocket, so I knit another smaller one, which she is very happy with.

Here Today, Gone Tomorrow

The house sold in 2 days. But then it didn't. The prospective buyers backed out after the house inspection. Their inspector didn't think the AC was working (it was) and there were no major problems with the inspection, but my agent thinks they got cold feet about buying an older house (97 yrs old, built in 1915). It is back on the market so we will hope for a more knowledgeable buyer who understands older houses and that they aren't Perfect, but instead have Charm.

Knitting progresses now that house is done. I finished what has been my travel project (2 long trips, one by car, one by plane), the Different Lines shawl:

Two shades of Mountain Colors Bearfoot. The similarity in the colorways (the dark blue color has spots of brown in it) means the lines don't show up well, but I liked the colors together. The knitting is a little sloppy, but I am shutting down my compulsive nature and am trying not to notice that (galloping horse, and all that). I knit this using Continental (left hand holding yarn) and my tension is not as tight as when I knit English (right hand holding yarn).

I have begun the Hitchhiker shawl, am about 2/3 done, also out of MC Bearfoot. I think the yarn is too slippery for socks (it's intended usage), so am happy I've found that it works well for shawls.

I have colors picked out for Stripe Study. All of a sudden garter stitch rocks my boat.If I start knitting with Denim yarn I will have to join the Mason Dixon Fan Club. 

And to close out my Christmas knitting, here's the finished Felted Pink Bag and matching mitts I made from the leftover yarn. I didn't have a ruler, so I included the chococlate bar for scale. The bag shrank about 2" in length and width. 

Also, I've been swatching Estonian samples. Here's the only one I've photographed:

Nuppless on the left, nupped on the right. This is the Water Lily pattern, usually knit without nupps, but I needed something more dramatic, so added some test nupps. This yarn is fine merino from Estonia (probably not produced there, but that's wehre I got it), and spinning has commenced on some Shetland fiber for a full shawl.

I've almost finished a black slouch hat for my aunt (requested at Christmas time), but it doesn't photograph well and I'm too lazy to go dowstairs and try. I think it's too big, but I will have to get it off the needles before I can determine fit. Which I will have if it doesn't as my aunt's head is much smaller than mine and if I have to re-knit it, she will miss out on hat wearing season.