Newly Plyed

Four ounces of 2 ply laceweight spun on a spindle and plyed on a wheel. Roving hand dyed by Fleece Artist.

Spindling Project

While I'm primarily a wheel spinner, I always have a project in progress on my one good spindle. It's almost always 50/50 merino/silk which I like to spin at a laceweight.

This is hand dyed fibre from "Fleece Artist". The spindle is bloodwood and ebony from "Spindlewood Co". Although I had just gone through a darker bronze bit which you see on the spindle, the braid is mostly the golden to rosy colour.

Lace Bolero

I'm dashing out the door to Fibrefest International but, just like last year, wanted to quickly post my latest finished project. This lace bolero is even knit with the same batch of handspun, 2 ply, DK weight superwash merino that I made last year's pullover with.

Sirdar #8710 Bolero

Huckleberry Chuckle

I couldn't resist giving this scarf an offbeat name. "Huckleberry Chuckle" it is, named for the berry stained grin of the picker with the least amount of berries remaining in her gathering basket.

Knit from handspun, laceweight, 2 ply merino/silk (from hand painted roving by "Fleece Artist"). It's three multiples of "Porcupine Stitch" from Barbara G. Walker's "A Second Treasury of Knitting Patterns", using 3.75 mm needles.

The final scarf is 6" x 67".

Plying Purple

Yesterday I spent the afternoon freeing up my bobbins. With only 6 bobbins I have to be careful that I don't get carried away with multiple spinning projects going on at once or I'll find I don't have an empty bobbin to ply to.

This is one of two spinning projects I've been working on lately. It's a 2 ply, 23 WPI, laceweight, from merino/silk roving hand dyed by Fleece Artist and purchased from Shades of Narnia at the Ryder Lake Spin-In last fall.

I had two braids which were similar in colour, but not exactly the same so I spun each 50 gram braid to a seperate bobbin and then plyed them together to get this nice blending of the colours.

I have one huge 100g skein (love those big Majacraft bobbins!) with a length of about 379 metres. That's 414 yds and 3.5 ounces for those who would like the conversion. No specific plans for it yet. Perhaps a lace scarf for the guild's scarf themed art show?

Half Way

The first half of the Honeybee Stole is finished. I couldn't resist blocking it so I could really see what it looks like.



I'm very pleased with it. This is a symmetrical stole worked from the centre outward so, with the first half successfully completed, I anticipate no problems with the second half. Now I need to get busy and finish spinning that second package of Black Rainbow Glitter from Aurelia.

Here's a little close-up of a modification I am doing. I'm adding beads to the side and end edges. They are the "oil slick" colour, I think referred to as "dark aurora borealis", and they match the glitter in the handspun perfectly.

Also, instead of the "bind off loosely in knit" I'm using a great bind-off I learned when doing the Swallowtail Shawl. It makes for a very stretchy yet tidy edge.

K2, *transfer the 2 stitches on the right needle back to the left needle and then K2tog through the back loop. K1 and repeat from* around.

Bee and Honeycomb

I'm well into the bee and honeycomb section of the Honeybee Stole now.



I'm hoping I'll have the time to completely finish this half of the stole before I have to put it down again. I'm allowing myself a few days working on it and then it's back to projects with looming deadlines again.

Through the Swarm

The second chart is done. I'm through the "swarm" section of the first half of the Honeybee Stole.

Here's a closer look at that (unblocked) section.

100 rows

The first 100 rows are done.



100 more to go --- in this section --- of this half of the Honeybee Stole.

First 28

With the MS3 ripped I've started reusing the handspun "Black Rainbow Glitter" on the Honeybee Stole. Once, twice, third time is the charm. I'm up to row 28 now.



The red at the top (from this perspective) is just my provisional cast on. The green blips at the bottom are snippets of plastic straw I use for stitch markers. I'm adding beads to the edges of the stole, but they aren't visible in this photo.

Thanks Kaylen, for the use of your flannel "burp cloth". It makes a great lap cloth so that I can see the black stitches a little better. It works great when I'm spinning black too.

MS3 Bites the Dust

Remember the Mystery Stole 3 I was knitting?



When the final "clues" came out I decided I didn't like the direction it was taking, (a wing) and I wanted to use my handspun laceweight somewhere else. It's a pretty enough design and many knitters love it, but I decided it just wasn't for me.

I ripped it out. I tucked it into a plastic container to better contain it during the frogging, and also to catch as many of the beads as possible (many of them still took the opportunity to escape).



I wound it onto my niddy noddy to re skein in preparation for a wash to relax out the post-knitting kinks.



While the old stuff hangs drying I am busy spinning up the newer batch.



With the added yardage I hope to make the Honey Bee Stole.

~

This n That Skein

I finally used up a mixture of small amounts of 3 different roving colourways given out at a "spinning for colour" seminar. Plyed with a black, commericially spun, weaver's wool to extend the yardage and help blend the colourways together.

392 yards of 22 WPI laceweight.

Count that as one more bobbin cleared in preparation for Saturday's Ryder Lake Spin-In.

4.5 Hours Plying

I sat down at the wheel the other day knowing I had a lot of plying ahead of me. By "a lot" I was thinking in the neighbourhood of 2 hours or so, after all, experience has shown me that plying laceweight takes a long, long time.



handspun, 2ply laceweight, 28 WPI, 50/50 camel/silk
205 grams/7.2 ounces - 1215 yards/1093 metres

I was shocked that it actually took closer to 4.5 hours and I still have some leftover on one of the bobbins. I'll get the WPI calculation for you when I ply the remaining bit.

Edited to add: I plyed the remaining 142 yards/128 metres this evening, and THIS time I remembered to measure the wraps per inch before I skeined it on a niddy noddy. At 28 WPI it is the finest 2 ply I have ever spun.

This is earmarked for a lace shawl, quite likely the Bee Fields Shawl.
.

Clue 4 Complete

I have 60% of the shawl done ---



--- and a quick calculation tells me I have approximately 38.5% of my yarn left.



Normally when I'm afraid I'll run out of yarn I knit quickly and non-stop in hopes that I'll finish the project before I run out of yarn. I know, it makes no sense, but I'm not the only knitter that admits to this. Unfortunately the clues for the Mystery Stole 3 are being doled out piecemeal, one week at a time. I have no choice but to stop and wait for the next set of directions which won't be out until August 3rd.

On a good note, I can probably spin more if I have to. It's from commercially made top from Aurelia and the colourway is still available. On the other hand, I'd rather not as it comes in rather large bags and buying another will double my cost to make this stole.



Monica was admiring my blocking wires earlier, so I thought I'd mention them here. Not wanting to send away for expensive blocking wires I took the advice of a knitter on a Yahoo-groups forum I belonged to and bought myself a handful of 3/16" x 36" tig welding rods. You just need to check the ends and use sandpaper or a grinder to smooth out anything that might snag. Blocking wires work really well for blocking items with straight edges or even for blocking shawls that have pointed edging (in that case you run the wire through each point). It reduces the number of pins you need and makes for perfectly straight lines.

My thoughtful husband made the holder for me out of PVC pipe and threaded end caps. He even painted them for me so that the ugly black lettering is no longer visible.

The other innovation visible here is the "blocking board" made of interlocking foam play mats. I have a case of 4 and would like another set so that I can block my largest shawls, but set up in a straight line these will work fine for blocking the finished stole.

MS3 Clue 2 Complete

I may have got a late start on the knitalong, but I managed to catch up. Clue 2 is finished and now I have to wait until Friday for the next clue.



I don't normally block shawls while they are still in progress, but with the long wait until the next clue is released I thought I might as well see what I have so far.



This close-up photo shows the rainbow angelina in the handspun a little better than some of the previous ones. The beads are adding their extra sparkle too.

MS3 Clue One Complete

Clue One of the Mystery Stole Knit-a-Long was released last week, and the second clue was released yesterday, Friday the 7th. I only joined late Thursday night when I started to see pictures of the completed "clue one" around blogland. Yesterday I managed to knit up all of the first "clue", which consisted of the first two charts, a total of 100, ever increasing rows. Curious as to how well my handspun was working with this pattern I did a rudimentary blocking overnight.



I'm pleased with the results. The needle size I have chosen seems appropriate. The resulting lace is neither too dense to drape nor too airy for the design to show.



I'm happy with my bead selection too. I've tried to show a close up of some of the "oil slick" beads and capture a bit of the beautiful rainbow angelina in the spun wool. Both the black yarn and the beads are really hard to capture in a photograph though. In "real life" they show up more. In the sunshine the shawl sparkles breathtakingly!

Me and 6,444 Others

On Yarn Harlot's blog the question was asked, "Signups close Friday at midnight. How are you going to feel when everyone is having fun without you?".

That was it, the one thing that could push me over the edge. The thought that others might be having fun without me! I jumped on the bandwagon (me and 6,444 others --- so far). If you run really fast you might be able to catch it, the knit-a-long is accepting new registrants until midnight. Hurry! I'll put out my hand to give you a boost when I see you scrambling to get on board.

I've a ways to go before I catch up completely myself. There are two charts in "clue 1" and I've got the first of them finished.



But the first week has passed and many are on to "clue #2" now.

I'm knitting mine out of the "Black Rainbow" 2ply laceweight handspun. Remember? The stuff I said I wanted to make a triangular shawl out of?

Winning Scarf

Last September I knit three scarves out of my own handspun llama laceweight. The first was "Branching Out", done exactly as the pattern was originally written.



The second and third ones I knit using my own modification to the pattern. I then overdyed one with black, which resulted in a rich chocolate brown colour. That one became a Christmas gift for my mother-in-law.



The other I dyed with scarlet and it became a pretty brick red colour. I gave it away last night at a scarf exchange at the year end dinner for the Chilliwack Spinners and Weavers Guild. After the exchange the scarves were put on display and we had a chance to vote for our favorite in two categories: Knit or Crocheted, and Woven. Mine gathered the most votes in the knit or crocheted category and ---



--- I won this pretty begonia!

Alternate Skein Winder

I've joined a 'spin-to-knit-along' for handspun shawls. I posted over there about my trouble with the broken niddy noddy and Tyler suggested using my umbrella swift. At first I resisted the idea thinking how awkward it would be. Then I read somewhere else in the blog-o-sphere (can't remember exactly where) that it works well if the swift is mounted sideways, on the table leg, instead of in its usual position on a table top.



Well, look at that! It does work. I tied a non-stretchy string into a circle of exactly 2 yards and then opened the swift until it fit the string. I then tied a colourful piece of yarn to one section of the swift as a marker. Rotating the swift around and around by hand (easily done by hanging onto one of the 'spokes') I counted each pass the marker string made.



I have at least 760 yards of 22 WPI, 2 ply laceweight in one continuous strand. (The handspun wasn't as tight on the swift as the measuring string was so I figure each 'lap' was slightly more than the 2 yards I counted.) I have a wee bit more that I Andean plyed from what was leftover on one of the bobbins after plying. I'll likely use that bit for my gauge swatch/es.



The beads are leftover from another project. There won't be enough to do the shawl, but they match so well that I'll take them with me when I'm hunting down some more. I think I know where I got them.

Plyed and Busted

I don't think I've ever had one of these large, Majacraft bobbins so full! I plyed and plyed and in the end I got nearly 250g of 2 ply laceweight (22 WPI) on there. I'd love to tell you how many yards that made but ----



--- when I had counted off well over 300 wraps (on a 2 yard niddy noddy) the piece of junk broke under the strain. I knew it was cracked, and I've ordered a new one, but I was hoping the loosely jointed, weak, poorly designed, piece of good for nuthin' kindling would hold together long enough to finish this job. As it was I had to yelp for help before hundreds of yards of handspun became hopelessly tangled.



I quickly finished winding the skein while my husband held it on his outstretched arms. *whew*



It's had it's bath and is hanging (perfectly balanced, *woo hoo*!) to dry. Hopefully I'll be able to borrow a yardage counter to get an accurate length before choosing a shawl design.