2015: Don't blink or you might miss it...

Back again.  Perhaps this will become a habit?

Last post we spent some time catching up, but didn't really get a chance to chat too much about what's on deck for 2015.  I've blown through the Gregorian calendar new year, Chinese new year, and now we're halfway through March, so... no time like the present.

As you know, last year was about Stash Appreciation, i.e., using what I have, and solving problems with creativity over credit cards.  This year will be about Construction, i.e., building on what I have.  So what do I mean by that?  Well, it's about using stash in a broader sense.  For instance, there is my "educational stash."  I have built up quite the collection of fiber arts resources, such as general how-to knitting, spinning, crocheting and weaving books and DVDs, stitch pattern dictionaries, region specific traditions (such as Shetland and Estonian lace traditions), color work for knitting and color blending for spinning, and so on.  Like my yarn and fiber, a lot of these resources were purchased in anticipation of that ever elusive "one day" when I would learn all of the tips and techniques that lurk therein.

Then there is my "tools and materials" stash, such as the buttons, buttons, buttons I purchased last year, but haven't used much because I haven't mastered making buttonholes; the fabric that intends to be lining in the various knitted fashions that whirl unrealized in my brain, but hasn't been used yet because I haven't really learned how to work my sewing machine; the spindles and carders and combs and hackle for processing fleece and fiber, which I've used (of course), but could get so much more out of; the "Sample-It" loom--stained, but unassembled--meant for trying out and learning weaving patterns beyond simple plain weave.  I could go on, but I'm sure you see where I'm going.

And as always, there's the yarn and fiber stash:  the fleece that I bought to process so that I could  understand working with fiber at a fundamental level; the pre-processed fiber that is waiting to be dyed and/or spun in myriad ways; the yarn that is waiting to be used in patterns yet to be discovered and techniques I have yet to try--old familiar friends that have been with us through the past year and will be with us for years to come.  (Have I mentioned that I have A LOT of yarn and fiber?  Yes, still.) 

Wise folks in my cold sheeping support group have mentioned more than once that one of the illusions we create for ourselves by buying stash is that we are also buying the TIME to do the things we imagine doing with our purchases.  The reality is, you can't buy time, you must MAKE it.  I say again, no time like the present.

Projects

This year will be a little different from last year as far as goals and events.  I will still be doing the occasional Ravelry activity (go Team Chesire Cat!) and you can see if you look to the right that I do have year-long goals in progress, i.e., knitting 100 skeins and spinning 15 miles.  But rather than being driven by imposed themes, I believe I will be best served by focusing on a few specific projects that will require some of the skills I want to work on.  You know me well enough to know these projects won't be the only things I work on, but hopefully they will be the constants.

Here they are, in the order of my interest:

Cormo/cashmere/silk cardigan

I once mentioned that we would talk about Cormo.  In a nutshell, the Cormo sheep breed resulted from crossing Corriedale sheep with Merino sheep.  Cormo wool is usually next-to-skin soft and has a lot of crimp, which makes it quite springy.  It is a lot of fun to play with.  Here is a picture of the Cormo fleece I have, which was the last fiber purchase I made before I started cold sheeping:*

This is pre-washed fleece (you can do that sometimes), which is stored in an old pillow case. 

For years now, I have been fantasizing about a Cormo, cashmere, and silk fiber blend.  I have yet to find the blend available for purchase.  You can occasionally find Cormo with silk or Cormo with cashmere, but not all three together.  I have mentioned time and again that I want it to a few vendors I know, but so far no one has come through for me.  Well, I have Cormo, I have cashmere, I have silk, and I refuse to be thwarted, so I will have my blend.**

Here are the cashmere and silk, so you will have truly seen this project from the beginning:

The skills/experience I expect from this project include blending different types of fiber in a sweater quantity; dyeing and color blending; utilizing a new stitch pattern, practicing set-in sleeves, improving buttonhole construction and other finishing techniques.

Merino cardigan

I have two fleeces from Merino sheep that I've had in my stash for a few years.  The first is a "white" fleece:

You can see why I put "white" in parentheses.  This fleece has not been washed yet, but when it is clean it really is white.  As I mentioned, I've had this fleece awhile, and I have washed handfuls now and again to play with, but I still have a good amount left.

The second fleece is a natural light brown color:

It also needs washing.  The brown fleece is a lovely color, but not particularly flattering for my skin tone, so my plan is to blend the two fleeces to create an oatmeal colored yarn that I think will work quite nicely for me.  This will give me the opportunity to work on cleaning and processing fleece, blending, another new-to-me stitch pattern, more set-in sleeve, buttonhole, and finishing practice (because you can never get enough of that).


The Coat

The last project is actually the continuation of an on-going project that I've mentioned before.  Remember that Shetland yarn I was spinning last year?  Well, I think it's time to start knitting the coat.  Here is a picture of the pile of Shetland yarn, waiting to be wound into balls:

The big skill I'll be getting from this one, besides the standard sleeve and finishing techniques, is learning how to add a lining.  So I will have to stop dragging my feet and actually make friends with my sewing machine, which could open up whole new worlds.  Stay tuned.

Remnants

I can't believe I forgot to tell you last post that I finished that Sleeping Beauty wrap I was working on for that Folklore and Fairytales challenge:

I attended Stitches West a few weeks ago.  Yes, I behaved myself and didn't buy anything.  The set-in sleeve class was inspiring, which is why I have so much set-in sleeve practice lined up for the coming year :).

That's all for now.  Be back with you soon! 
  

















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*Not to be confused with my last yarn purchase, which was the Courchevel from MinkYarn.com.

**I originally hoped to buy the blend because 1) blending fiber by hand is a lot of work and 2) I thought I might want to use each of the fibers separately for other things (which obviously hasn't happened yet). 

Anyone Still Here?

Greetings, gentle readers.  Well, that was a long pause.  We have some catching up to do.  Let's see how much we can get done today.

First and foremost, I've managed to "stay on the sheep," so to speak.  In fact, in January I reached an important milestone:

[As always, thanks to K.K. Batts for allowing me to share her lovely badges.]

I'm happy to report that I did NOT celebrate by running out and buying a bunch of yarn or fiber.  In fact, I still haven't bought any, given that I still have enough to keep me busy for over a decade.  But I did recently make the mistake of visiting the websites of all the yarn shops I used to buy from.  Let's just say that while I don't quite have the "shakes," I probably shouldn't do that again any time soon.  I haven't officially committed to another year of no yarn shopping, mostly because I don't know what will happen when I get to Stitches West next weekend or what I'll get into at the Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival in May, but I'm still making an effort to avoid as much impulse shopping and general grazing as I can.  We'll see how it goes.

A break from blogging has not translated into a break from general fiber artistry, so allow me to share what I've accomplished since I last typed at you.

Tops

Remember all of the tops I was working on last year?  Yeah, I haven't finished any of those.  But I have made some others.  To explain why that isn't actually as silly as that sounds, I should mention that I switched construction techniques.  Previously, I was constructing my tops in flat pieces and sewing them together.  Recently I've been constructing them in the round.  For non-knitters, I've been knitting the tops from the bottom up as a tube until I get to where the armholes should start, and then I put half the stitches on one set of needles, and the other half on another set of needles, and work the front and back separately to create the holes for my arms.  Finally, I sew it together at the top, leaving room for my head.  It's a really convenient way to construct because you are working on the public side of the garment for most of it.  For example, if the top is primarily knit, I don't have to purl the back side until I reach the part where I split for the armholes.  I just keep knitting round and round :).  So now you are wondering why everyone doesn't always make tops this way.  Well, there are legitimate reasons for working in pieces.  One reason is that seams add structure to a garment, so depending on how you want the top to fit the body, it may better suit your needs to construct in pieces.  Sometimes the pattern is so complicated that it is easier to work in pieces.  For the most part, though, working in the round is working for me :).

Anyway, here are some of the tops I've made:

The top above was made from holding together a strand of laceweight alpaca/silk yarn with a strand of laceweight linen/silk yarn.  At the time I made it, it was my favorite thing I've ever made.  I've been visualizing making that neckline for a very long time and it was very exciting when my vision worked.  It was also my favorite thing to wear, until I began to realize that I am allergic to alpaca.  That was a heartbreaking revelation. (I have quite a lot of alpaca in my stash.  Eventually such stash will need to find a (or several) good home (or homes--I really have a lot), but I'm still in denial that I'm allergic to it so I'm having trouble letting go.)  I confess that I've worn the top a few times and just taken an allergy pill to lessen the symptoms, but sooner rather than later I will need to make another similar top and let this one go.  Sigh.

This next top is a special case, and yes, at the time I finished it, it was my favorite thing I have ever made.*  Remember last post when I mentioned getting my "knitting mojo" back?  This is the top that did it.  The yarn is the most luxurious blend of cashmere/silk that I have ever encountered (so of course the yarn has been discontinued).  Seriously, if you could transform whipped cream into yarn form, this would be the yarn.  Knitting it was amazing.  Wearing it is beyond words, although unfortunately it sheds like the dickens, so I don't get to wear it much.  But I hug it every chance I get.

I loved, loved, loved making this peach top.  It is literally a tube that I sewed some decorative straps to and was ready to go.  The yarn is a cotton/seacell blend (seacell is made from kelp) and it is super comfortable.  It is another discontinued yarn unfortunately.**  If I had more of it, I would make a nightgown out of it.

The top above is my new favorite top.  In fact, I'm wearing it right now as I'm writing this blog entry.  The yarn is a blend of cotton, bamboo, linen, and nylon.  This yarn is not as soft and comfortable as the other yarns I've used for tops (so of course I have lots and lots of it, lol) but I really like the drape of it and from a construction perspective, it's one of my most successful tops.

Other projects

I also recently finished another Swirl, my fourth.  This one was comissioned by a friend, and this is how it looked before I mailed it off to her:

It is made from 100% mink from my old pal MinkYarn.com.  It's super soft and I'm sure it will be very cozy to wear.  I didn't get to try it on because it's not my size, but I'm definitely tempted to start another mink sweater for me after making it :).  The mink is always so pleasant to knit with because it feels nice on your hands.

Speaking of sweaters for me, I do have another cardigan in progress.  I'm going to call it the "semi-precious" cardigan, because I used some of the precious yak/merino/silk that I had plied with a yak/merino blend so as to stretch my remaining stash of both.  Here it is so far:

I plan to add sleeves, but I am waiting until after Stitches West next weekend, because I have signed up for a class on set-in sleeves and thought I should wait until after the class when I hopefully will be better at it.  I've done set-in sleeves on my other garments, but there is room for improvement.

You are probably wondering about the Precious Hoodie.  I haven't made further progress on that, but I do plan to finish it one day.  It still needs the hood, and I'm still debating whether or not it will need sleeves.  One issue is that the yarn I'm using to make it is thick, and the garment is turning out to be rather heavy (in weight, not just thickness).  I think it will still be pleasant to wear, but I was inspired to start the Semi-Precious Cardi because that yarn is closer to a laceweight and that garment is turning out to be lightweight, but still warm because yak is such a warm/soft fiber. 

As usual, there is still more catching up to do, but we'll have to wait for another post.  I don't plan to make you wait so long this time (although we know how plans go), but today is day one of the Mad Dash 2015 (Team Cheshire Cat this year!) and though I've already done some spinning this morning, I should get back to work.  Wish me luck next weekend at Stitches.  Hopefully I'll be able to report that I behaved myself :).


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*I'm sure you've picked up on the pattern--pretty much the last thing I've made at any given time is my favorite thing I've ever made.  Which makes making things a very pleasant experience.  Obviously :).

**As I think I've mentioned before, I've bought a lot of my yarn on closeout at great discounts, so by the time I get around to knitting with it and realize how much I love it, it's long gone.

The Wheel in the Sky Keeps On Turning

So April came and went.  April was a difficult month for me creatively, because I was plagued by the feeling that I was doing a lot and accomplishing nothing.  Then May came and went.  May was a little different story.  I'd say that I was suffering from laziness, except that laziness implies a passivity, as though you would get up and do your thing, really, truly, if only you could get past the overwhelming inertia.  I think a better description is that I was "aggressively demotivated."  To give you an example (though really it would probably be more fun to just leave you to your imaginations, lol), I would pick up any one of the projects I mentioned last post, work on it for a few moments, look at it, think "meh" and then go play a video game.  Yes, a video game.  Now, I'm not saying that there is anything wrong with video games.  I just usually don't choose them over my fiber stuff.  So I obviously needed a little "break."  I put "break" in quotes because the fiber stuff never stops, even if I'm not being terribly disciplined about it.  But now it's time to blog again so I can sort out what I've actually accomplished over the last couple of months.  Let's start with the cold sheeping report...

Cold Sheeping

The nice thing about cold sheeping is that all I need to do to make progress in this area is wake up each morning and not buy yarn or fiber, so every day is a success (until it's not).  I've passed another couple of milestones, so I am pleased to present the 90-day badge:

And the 120-day badge:

(Thanks as always to K.K. Batts for designing the badges and allowing me to share them here.)

I came very close to slipping off the sheep a couple of months ago.  I'd been experimenting with my weaving and made a scarf using some silk/mohair yarn in the warp and weft and some ladder ribbon yarn in the warp from my stash.  Beginning weavers are often discouraged from using mohair blends as warp threads because mohair sticks to itself, making it really difficult to separate the strands enough that you can weave other threads over and under them.  By alternating with the smooth ribbon yarn, I was able to keep enough space between the mohair strands to avoid the stickiness problem.  And I liked the results so much that I really wanted to get more of the ladder ribbon yarn in other colors so I could make many, many more of these scarves.  The kicker is that the ladder ribbon yarn was discontinued ages ago (it had already been discontinued back when I added what I currently have to my stash) and it is now on sale at a ridiculously low closeout price (though the particular shop requires a minimum $50 purchase, so bargain? Hmmm).  I don't expect the price to go up.  However, because the yarn is on closeout, there is the very real chance that it will disappear forever.   Under these circumstances, who would blame me if I gave myself permission just this once to purchase this yarn that I would probably use right away...?   But can I really keep patting myself on the back for cold sheeping if I stop the second it gets hard?  Thinking it through, I'm beginning to realize that there is probably a large portion of my stash that is made up of discontinued yarns (I've been a complete sucker for those sales!) and if I keep using my stash, I'm going to keep encountering yarns that I bought and I hadn't previously tried out, but when I've tried them I will think they are so wonderful and knowing that they are wonderful I WILL HAVE TO HAVE MORE...yadda yadda yadda.....   So this is what I did:  I closed my eyes and I pictured the ladder ribbon yarn, in the color that was tempting me most, in my hot little hands.  I pictured warping my loom with it.  I pictured weaving it and the silk mohair into a lovely scarf, pulling the scarf off the loom, touching it, modeling it, and otherwise playing with it.   Then I opened my eyes and asked myself if having that particular scarf would add enough to my life to make it worth starting over from day one with cold sheeping.  The answer was no.  And my cold sheeping streak continues.  Maybe when the year is up I'll still be able to find the ladder ribbon yarn, maybe not.  I'll be okay either way, and I look forward to falling head over heels in love with, and then flitting away from, many other yarns as my journey continues.  Just call me The Yarn Hussy.*

Weaving

Since the cold sheeping report sort of morphed into a weaving report, here is a picture of the scarf I was talking about:

I also made a scarf with a different brand of ladder ribbon yarn (which is also discontinued).  It's fine, but I don't like it as much as the first because this ladder ribbon yarn is not quite as small and delicate as the other.  I feel it overwhelms the silk mohair a little:

Next time (because there will always be a next time) I will use less of it and pair it with a more substantial contrast yarn.

I haven't done any weaving since the two scarves above (which were made in April) because of that demotivated thing, but I need to get the loom out sooner rather than later if I have any hope of finishing the Sleeping Beauty project before the end of the quarter.  I know that once I get the loom out and going I'll be happy to be weaving.  I think the problem is that every time I look at my big loom, I think of my small "travel" loom, which I still haven't put together, and then I feel guilty and don't want to think about weaving.  Yes, obviously I need to just CUT IT OUT and get back to weaving.  (Or "obviously" I need to hurry up and put together my smaller loom...) 


Q2 Challenge Report

Since I mentioned the Sleeping Beauty project, let's talk about those pesky Q2 challenges.

What I have or kinda have done:

Sleeping Beauty

• I spun a bunch of the Muga silk, and should hopefully have enough for the shawl:

Also in the picture is the matching ribbon yarn that I will use with the Muga in the shawl.

• I read While Beauty Slept.  I liked it.  The style was more historical fiction and I lean toward fantasy in my book choices, so I missed the magical elements a little bit, but the main character (a servant/friend of Beauty's family) was very likeable and it was a good story.  There was one major thing though that stuck out for me--I mentioned it to my folklore group and I'll share it with you as well:  I always think of Sleeping Beauty as a story with a spinning wheel in it.  I even named my wheel "Aurora" after the princess in the Disney movie.  But I had forgotten that Sleeping Beauty is actually a story about destroying spinning wheels, and this book brought that point home very well.  Let's just say I found it very upsetting.

Woolery/Louet Spring Training 

Well, I definitely have been spinning, even if I haven't been as organized about it as I was originally planning.  And I have even loosely followed the suggested monthly guidelines some (though mostly not). In April, the suggested goal was to try spinning wool from different breeds of sheep.  I started out with "bobbin clearing" which basically means getting the partially completed spinning projects finished and out of the way for the upcoming project.  Here's a picture of the yarn I ended up with:

From left to right: 1) a blue Merino that I dyed, plied with a commercially dyed merino; 2) camel silk (a blend from a different manufacturer than the camel silk yarn in the March 1st post.  Funny story, the March 1st yarn is not actually spun from the fiber pictured in the February 8th post.  The yarn pictured above is actually made from that fiber.  You see, I knew I had two blends of the camel silk, a one-pound bag and a 4 oz. braid, and I wanted to spin the 4 oz. braid for the Ravellenics, but I couldn't find it to photograph at the time I was writing the post.  So I photographed the one-pound blend and figured I would spin that. But I did find the 4 oz. braid after all, so that's what I spun up for the Flying Camel Spin (and as you remember, it turned out looking a lot like the Muga silk)  I decided not to go into a whole big explanation at the time, but now that I've actually spun some of the fiber from the one-pound bag, I feel like I should explain why they look different.  Does that all make sense?  Good, thanks for playing.)  3) a 70%-30% blend of black alpaca and silk; 4) black alpaca plied with a 70%-30% blend of silver alpaca and silk.

After the bobbin clearing, I did spin a new-to-me breed called "Polwarth."  Polwarth is the result of breeding Merino and Lincoln sheep together.  So it has some fineness from Merino and longer staple length (i.e., length of the individual "hairs") from Lincoln.  It was just lovely to spin and makes a wonderful yarn, almost fine enough for close around the neck (maybe not for the very sensitive though) but definitely soft enough that it would make a non-itchy sweater or a very cozy shawl.  Here is a picture of the Polwarth yarn (on the left) next to some ultra-fine Merino (which is exceptionally soft, like cashmere quality):

Of course, I actually spun the Polwarth in May, not April, and did the Merino this month, so that's what I mean by "loosely" following the guidelines.  In May, the suggested challenge was to try a different technique and I did actually do that with the yarn below (which I finished on May 31st):

Obviously technique implies technical, so I will try to explain what I did as painlessly as I can.  At the most basic level, yarn is made by adding twist to fiber to hold it together, hence "spinning."  I discussed plying last time, but did not talk about balance.  So, you add twist to fiber to make your singles yarn and then you want to ply it.  If you twist it in the same direction to ply it, you would end up with a twisty mess that wouldn't be so hot to knit with.  Therefore, when you ply you twist the singles together in the opposite direction, which relaxes the twist in the singles and ideally creates a balanced yarn.  In commercially spun yarn, the singles are usually twisted clockwise (called an "Z" twist) and then plied counterclockwise ("S" twist).  And generally handspinners follow suit when they first learn to spin.  My understanding is that commercial yarn development is geared toward the weaving industry and this particular twist arrangement is optimal for weaving.   However, depending on your knitting style, an S-twist ply can unravel on you (I think it's an issue if you knit holding the yarn in your right hand (i.e., "American," "English," or "throwing") rather than holding it in your left ("Continental," "German," or "picking")).  I knit by holding my yarn in my left hand, so I don't generally have a problem with the yarn untwisting, but since I've seen twist so often discussed in spinning resources and forums I was curious to try switching it up.  So the above yarn was made by spinning the singles counterclockwise and then plying them clockwise.  It was an interesting experience as I had to pay attention because I was going against four years of muscle memory in my fingers.  Visually, I can tell there is something subtly different about the finished yarn, almost as though the light hits it differently.  I tried knitting with a little sample of it and, because I knit with the yarn in my left hand, I found that this yarn does untwist when I knit it.  It was an interesting experiment in knitting physics, but obviously I won't be making any more yarn that comes apart while I knit it.  At least not intentionally.

The suggested goal for this month is spinning non-wool fibers.  In addition to the non-wool bobbin clearing that I did back in April, I actually have done some non-wool spinning this month.  Last weekend I went to a spinners' gathering and didn't feel like lugging my wheel, so I brought a drop spindle instead and decided to spin some buffalo down that I have lying around.  And here it is so far:

While I'm at it, I should show you a better picture of the spindle, which is new and has a lovely design:

It is a Golding Ring Spindle and it spins like a dream.  I also bought another Golding spindle at the same time, and if you know me, you know why I couldn't resist:

The inset is a medal from the very early 1900's, I think around 1905 give or take and was one of several made by a French sculptor, Louis Octave Mattei.  I remember reading that it was originally made as a participation medal for a musical competition, but I can't find the reference right now.  But, because we are talking about spinning, here's a better picture of the fiber that is currently on this spindle:

The fiber is wool from a Corriedale sheep, which is another breed I don't usually spin, and I spun that little sample there to try out the spindle when I got it in April, so I did sorta kinda do some of the April challenge in April.  See, I'm doing much better than I've given myself credit for.  (By the way, for those who need to know, Corriedale wool is definitely more on the itchy side and not good for next to skin items for most people.  Some people have a higher tolerance, but the rest of us will be happier sticking to Merino or Cormo wool.  (I'll talk about Cormo next post as this one is getting a bit long.))

Spin Colorful Challenge

As you see above, I spun the Muga as planned, as well as other colorful yarns, so this one goes in the "I'm winning" column.

Things that didn't really happen

Birthstone/flower KAL

I was planning to do the April challenge as you recall and I made several false starts, but I just wasn't feeling any of the diamond patterns I attempted and pretty much gave up on that.  But I really like the "sweet pea" yarn so I decided to use it for a large cowl.  It's not quite long enough to be called an infinity scarf, but will be long enough to twist a couple of times around my neck, which I like.  And here it is, in progress:

I did not even attempt to plan anything for this challenge for May or June.  I guess we'll see how next quarter goes.

Yarnathon Team Mascot Challenge

Uh, no.  Just no.  Didn't like it, couldn't even pretend to fake it.  No.


That background stuff

So, I was going to do some WIP finishing and some weaving stuff and some colorwork...it is in this area that the demotivation really shows up.  I did work on the cranberry colored top a bit.  I finished the back and started on the front:

I should have been able to finish it up long ago, but I don't really like it right now.  It is a thick, wool-blend top and while I'm sure I'll love it in November, in June...meh.  Same with the Precious Hoodie--it is really warm and weighs a ton...meh.  The other two tanks are cooler, lighter fabrics, but they are not really at a stage where they can just be picked up without a little effort (i.e., I don't remember how to do the stitch pattern for one off the top of my head and have to look it up again, and for the other I need to cast on the front before I start knitting it.)

I've already confessed to my weaving hiatus and I haven't really done anything adventurous with colorwork, such as practicing mosaic or double knitting or picking up a fair isle project.  I did finish an infinity scarf that has some striping in it, so that almost counts:

I call it "Infinite Luxury" because it contains cashmere, qiviut, silk, and yak.  In case you are wondering, qiviut** may be the more prestigious fiber, but for pure softness, cashmere wins it for me.    

Year-Long Challenges

I won't let the (hopefully fading) demotivation prevent me from keeping the promise I made that I would elaborate on the year-long challenges listed up in the right hand corner, so here is a brief overview:

2014 Mile-a-Month

For this challenge, the idea is to process a mile (or a kilometer if that's what floats your boat) per month of material in your craft(s).  So knitters knit a mile of yarn, spinners make a mile of yarn, etc.  My specific goal is, by the end of the year, to average at least mile a month (in case I have a bad month, I can balance it out with a good month) in all my fiber crafts combined.  I've been averaging more than a mile per month so far this year (yay, spinning!), so it's looking good.

50 Skeins in 2014

This is a spinning challenge.  The overarching idea is to create 50 skeins of yarn during the year, but the actual goal is up to the individual--some are just doing a skein a month, one person's goal is to spin fifty pounds of fiber this year, and so on.***  When I joined up in late January, I was on track for approx. 1 skein per week, so I am doing the traditional 50 skeins as my goal.  At 21 skeins so far, I've fallen a little behind at this point, but I expect to get caught up next month during Tour de Fleece (which I'll plan to talk about a little bit next post).

Sweater Spin 2014

This challenge combines spinning and knitting.  The goal is to spin enough yarn to knit a sweater and actually knit up that sweater before the end of the year.  I'll be using the ultra-fine merino and am about 1/3 done with the spinning part.

14 Sweaters in 2014

This one is pretty straight forward--the goal is to finish 14 sweaters this year.  The good news is that the sweaters do not need to have been started this year, so the WIP sweaters I finished during Q1 all count.  Additionally, they do not all have to be traditional sweaters--pretty much any clothing for the torso that has armholes (but not necessarily sleeves) counts.  So I'll be able to count my tank tops as well.


To be continued...

Well, I've caught you up a bunch on how I spent...let's call it "my extended spring break."  There's much more (Cormo, the wonderful fiber arts festival I went to in May, and what I've been doing to get my groove back), but we'll save it for next post along with details about the upcoming Tour de Fleece and the report on my trip to Oregon next weekend for my second Black Sheep Gathering.  So, if all goes well, I'll meet you back here in a couple of weeks.




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*"Yarn Harlot" is taken:  http://www.yarnharlot.ca/.  In fact, she's quite famous among knitters (you may recall that I referred to her in my very first post).

**At least once in your life you will be tempted to spell qiviut as "quiviut."  Resist the urge and file this word away for the next time you play scrabble.

***Commercial skeins/balls of natural fiber yarn are usually around 2 ounces, to give you an idea of just how crazy that is.

Further Up and Further In

After a challenging and somewhat hectic first quarter of fiber crafting, I fully planned to come here and tell you that Q2 was going to be much more mellow.  I was maybe going to do one or two group challenges, but was otherwise planning to work independently on WIPs and other skill building projects.  Sounds great, doesn't it?  And then folks started announcing the Q2 challenges and well, so much for that plan.  The good part is that the inherent nature of the Q2 challenges are laid back, so it shouldn't get too crazy.*  All of the challenges I'm currently working on (or will be working on) started on April 1st, so I will tell you about them all now.

Spinning Challenges

While spinning is a year long activity, there is often a greater emphasis on spinning when the weather starts to warm up and folks are less inclined to knit (well, some folks--the rest of us pull out our cotton, linen, and bamboo yarns and keep on knitting away).  So you will see a lot of spinning out of me this quarter and into the summer.  I have two current challenges that are specifically for spinning:

Spin Your Stash Q2: Spin Colorful

From the group that brought us the "Spin A LOT" challenge comes the "Spin Colorful" challenge.  And it is basically as simple as that--we pick some colorful fiber and spin it and share our pretty pictures.  And natural colors count also, so if I wanted to spin some grey or brown fiber, I could do that and still be participating.  As quantity is not an issue, I plan on spinning various things as the mood strikes me, but I will primarily focus on the golden Muga silk we talked about back in January.  See, I told you it would get some attention this year.

Woolery/Louet Spring Training

I believe this is a brand new event.  It is being hosted by one of my favorite stores, The Woolery, which is where I purchased my looms and the Muga silk among (many) other things, and Louet North America, distributor of many wonderful yarns and fibers (including the Shetland and, I think, the Muga silk).  The idea is to practice spinning in anticipation of the big annual events that occur in the summer and fall, specifically the Tour de Fleece in July and Spinzilla in October.  We'll talk about those later in the year when they come up, but for now just know that they are BIG EVENTS for the online spinning community--to the point where, as you can see, people begin training for them months in advance. 

Anyway, the quarter-long training is broken up into suggested monthly challenges.  And they truly are suggested--we are invited to make up our own challenges if the suggested ones do not inspire us.  The suggested challenge in April for intermediate/advanced spinners (if I may be allowed to label myself as such) is to practice spinning different breeds of sheeps' wool and compare them.  Since I like the suggestion, that's what I plan to do.  The breeds I have picked out to spin (all from stash, of course) are Wensleydale, Polwarth, Bluefaced Leicester, Lincoln, and the Shetland (as an excuse to keep the momentum going with it--I will have my coat!).  I'll provide details about each of the breeds in later posts as I spin them up.

Open Challenges

The next couple of challenges are based on inspiration from a theme and are not craft specific.  In fact, they are not really even challenges--they are really just fun "craft alongs."

Folklore and Fairytales Spring Read/Craft Along: Sleeping Beauty

There is a wonderful group on Ravelry called "Folklore and Fairytales."  It is sort of a combination of book club and fiber arts group.  I first found them a few years back when they decided to start a Tour de Fleece team, which they called "Team Tale Spinners."  I originally joined purely for the name, but as luck would have it, they turned out to be a lovely group of people and I have continued to spin with them every year.  I also joined the main Folklore and Fairytales group, but have mostly just been a lurker and have never participated in their quarterly craft alongs.  That changed this quarter when I saw that Sleeping Beauty was one of the themes they were voting on (it just barely beat out "Rabbits," which for many would have meant re-reading Watership Down, I imagine).  Sleeping Beauty has always been one of my favorite stories and was my favorite of the earlier Disney princess movies.  And, of course, the most popular version has a spinning wheel in it, so what is not to love?

As you can tell from the name of the challenge, there is a reading element as well as a crafting element.  We don't all read the same book.  Instead we choose our own reading material and share our thoughts about it.  For the read along portion of the challenge, I am focusing on three books:  While Beauty Slept by Elizabeth Blackwell, which is one of those novelized retellings that are so popular; the Sleeping Beauty section of Sleeping Beauties: Sleeping Beauty and Snow White Tales From Around the World, edited by Heidi Anne Heiner; and the Sleeping Beauty chapter in The Uses of Enchantment by Bruno Bettelheim.

For the crafting portion, I was actively looking for an excuse to work the Muga silk I'm already going to be spinning into this challenge as well and was excited to find in the Sleeping Beauties book that there is a sleeping princess tale from India called "The Petrified Mansion."**  Of particular interest, the prince finds the princess lying on a bed of gold and SPOILER ALERT wakes her by touching a gold stick to her forehead.  Since Muga silk is a gold-colored fiber from India, mission accomplished!  So for my project I will be spinning the Muga silk and will weave it into a golden shawl.

Birthstone/Birth Flower KAL

Once upon a time (i.e., February of this year), in the wilderness of the Cold Sheep and Friends group, a voice called out, "Hey, do you think it would be cool to do monthly KALs using that month's birthstone or birth flowers as inspiration?"  And the people cried, "Yeah, sure, why not?"  And thus was born the Birthstone/Birth Flower KAL.  (Even though we call it a KAL, it is really just another any fiber-craft along.) I skipped February and March in favor of other challenges, but I'm hoping to start participating regularly because it really is a fun idea. For April, our inspirations are diamonds, daisies, and sweet peas.  I will use some of my handspun, pictured below.  (The fiber was dyed by Twisted Sunshine Design.)  The colors remind me of the various colors of sweet pea flowers.

I will use the yarn to make a scarf with a lacy diamond pattern.

Miscellaneous (a/k/a "The challenge that I am not particularly enthusiastic about but feel I must do anyway")

Yarnathon Q2 Team Mascot Challenge

The second quarter challenge for the Eat Sleep Knit Yarnathon is to make your team mascot.  I am part of Team Octopurls, so we each are supposed to make an octopus.  We can't do something octopus inspired--the project has to either be in the shape of or include an image of an octopus.  And it must be made of yarn purchased from Eat Sleep Knit.  As I previously mentioned, usually you earn points in the Yarnathon by buying yarn.  Since I am cold sheeping, I am a bit of a liability to my team and am trying to make up for that by faithfully participating in the challenges.  Here's my issue.  Sure, it's a cute idea to have us all knit an octopus (or a monkey, or a robot, or a dinosaur, depending on the team).  However, ESK sells higher end, mostly handpainted yarn.  I have plenty of ESK yarn in my stash, but I promise you that I did not purchase any of it with the intent to make an octopus out of it.  So I am a tiny bit miffed, but still want to support my team.  I haven't totally figured out what I'm going to do, but I'm leaning toward an octopus finger puppet or pencil topper, because that is about how much yarn I'm willing to sacrifice for this silly endeavor.  We'll see though.  Maybe I'll end up deciding that I need a handpainted octopus stuffed toy or an octopus lap blanket (not likely). 

In the background

In addition to the challenges, I have various things I'd like to accomplish over the next few months:

• Finish the Precious Hoodie
• Finish my three sleeveless top WIPs from my February 2nd post
• Build my weaving skills 
• Practice colorwork techniques (such as double knitting, mosaic knitting, and other techniques I'll discuss when/if I get around to practicing them)

I also realized that I have never discussed the year-long challenges I have listed in that column on the right, but we'll talk about those next post.

Special Feature: A Study of Plying and Color

I'm currently working on a spinning project that I thought I would share with you all in a little more detail than usual.  I am spinning some multicolored blue fiber that I hand dyed myself, as pictured below.***

When you spin yarn, you spin one strand at a time.  This strand is called a single.  It can be thin or thick or both thick and thin--whatever you choose to get the yarn you want.  Sometimes your single is your finished yarn (which is then referred to as a "singles" yarn.  I do not know the etymology that is behind "single" being made plural, but that is what it is called).  There are many reasons for choosing to make a singles yarn:  It often feels softer than a plied yarn; it is rounder than a two-ply yarn and results in nice plump stitchwork and cables made from singles "pop" very nicely; it is half the work of a two-ply yarn.  And so on.  For this particular variegated fiber I am using, the advantage of a singles yarn is that it has really nice long runs of the individual colors of the fiber, as you can see from the picture below:

The disadvantage of a singles yarn is that it is structurally weak and easy to break.  It is also more prone to pilling and otherwise becoming quickly worn.  So a singles yarn might work well for a scarf or a shawl that will have light use, but you might not want to make a sweater or gloves or anything else that may experience a lot of wear or friction.  (For example, I made the moebius scarf  with a singles yarn.)

With respect to weaving, a singles yarn can be used for the weft, which is the yarn that runs horizontally across the woven item, but it is challenging to use it for the vertical threads, or the warp.  While on the loom, the warp fibers are constantly under very high tension and are also subject to abrasion, particularly with a rigid heddle loom.****  So there is a great potential that a singles yarn would break or shred (and then break) if used as a warp.

So this is where plying comes in.  Obviously, a two-ply yarn will be stronger than a singles yarn (and a three-ply will be even stronger, and so on).  However, when working with a variegated fiber, if you just ply two singles together you will most likely sacrifice the long runs of color and instead end up with a barber pole effect as shown below:

There is nothing inherently wrong with this barber pole yarn and it will most assuredly weave (or knit or crochet) up into a very pretty fabric.  However, if you want the runs of solid color, this just won't do.  The good news is that there is a technique that allows you to ply a single against itself in a way that somewhat preserves the runs of color.  The technique is called "chain plying"***** and essentially you are making loops with the single as you spin and the strands of the loops twist together to form a three-ply yarn.  Instead of trying to visualize that in your head, you may want to watch this short video by the Wool Wench.  Below is a picture of yarn made from my blue fiber using the chain plying technique.  You can see that there are distinct runs of color and no barber poling:

That's my little discussion of color and plying.  I am looking forward to getting all of the blue fiber spun up.  As you may have guessed, I am planning to weave with it, so I will let you know when that happens.

Precious Hoodie

Here is the progress on the Precious Hoodie:

It is just pinned together for photographing (and I also tried it on--it's fitting just fine so far), so I still need to sew the front and back together, and make the hood and sleeves. 


Weaving report

I have been wanting to practice making patterns in my weaving, so I made myself a cotton hand towel:

I like how it came out so much that I may make a couple more and call it a set.  Of course, now the dilemma is that I bought a bunch of cotton yarn with the intent of knitting a bunch of tank tops for summer out of it, and now I want to use it all for my weaving instead.  Oh well, I'll figure it out as I go.

I almost forgot--my final yardage for the Mad Dash was 5,395 yards (3.06 miles) because I got a good start on my towel before I ran out of time.  Not bad for six weeks of work.

Well, that's all for now.  Hopefully this made up for last week's "too short" post!




_______________________________

*I would question my self-control, but I know about the many, many challenges going on that I'm not participating in.  For example, I skipped Malabrigo Madness, which is a mass cast-on challenge held every March (Malabrigo is a brand of yarn (of which I have a whole bunch in case you wondered--the moebius was made from Malabrigo yarn)).  The goal is to cast on (i.e., start) as many projects as you can during the month--not to complete projects, just start them.  So you end up with a bunch of WIPs at the end of the challenge.  Yikes.  And I don't participate in the HP Knitting/Crochet House Cup, which is an ongoing challenge in homage to the Harry Potter books where you are sorted into a "house" and you earn points for your house by taking up to 6 "classes" every month with themed homework assignments.  You can also do advanced quarter long projects to earn "OWLs" or semester long projects to earn "NEWTs."  Et cetera.  You get the idea--I have actually been showing a great deal of restraint!

**It is available online if you would like to read it for yourselves:  http://www.surlalunefairytales.com/sleepingbeauty/stories/petrifiedmansion.html 

***I used a fun technique: you take a very long length of white wool and powdered dyes of various colors and you coil a section of the wool into a dry stock pot (that you never plan to cook food in again) and lightly sprinkle the darkest of the dye colors you have chosen over it.  Then you add another coil of wool and the next darkest dye, and so on until you reach the top of the pot.  Then you gently pour water that has been mixed with a weak acid (i.e., vinegar or citric acid) over the contents of the pot, cover it, and slowly heat the pot over low heat to set the dye.  You end up with wonderfully variegated fiber. 

****I am not going to go into the mechanics of a rigid heddle loom (at least not at this time), but if you'd like to read about it, here is a link:  http://www.wisegeek.com/what-is-a-rigid-heddle-loom.htm

*****Also referred to sometimes as "Navajo plying."

And that's a wrap on Q1

We've (nearly) made it through the first quarter of 2014!  Woohoo!  In the time since I last typed at you, gentle readers, I'm pleased to report that I earned my 60 day cold sheeping badge:

(Thanks to K.K. Batts for designing the badge and allowing me to post it here.)

The first quarter challenges are ending, so time for the (mostly) final report.  Happily, I finished the moebius scarf I was working on for the Yarnathon "new-to-me" challenge.  Of the remaining projects, that was the most important because it was part of a team challenge.  By finishing, I've earned a 1000 yard credit for Team Octopurls.

The fun of a moebius is that it can be worn in different ways, so here are a few examples:

As I suspected, I did not finish the Precious Hoodie, but I made good progress:

While it would have been nice to get it finished during the challenge, I am not that concerned about getting it done.  I needed the push to use the yarn and get it started, but I love working on it and can't wait to wear it. "So it will not end up being one of my lingering WIPs," she bravely declared, publicly.

As for the Mad Dash, though I have--at the time of this writing--a little over twenty-four hours until the Dash is officially over (and I will do as much more as I am able in that time), as of now I have processed, by knitting, spinning, and weaving, 5,064 yards.  That's approximately 2.88 miles and over a mile more than my goal.  In addition to having a couple of good spinning days, I've learned that weaving really eats up yarn.

Speaking of weaving, though I was very good for a while about prioritizing my knitting challenges, eventually I could no longer bear it and had to go back to my weaving.  So I finished my weaving project:

Last but not least, I sort of fizzled out on the Shetland project.  It is not my favorite stuff to spin, so I'm not surprised I didn't get as far as I wanted.  But I made a dent.  Between what I did during the quarter and what I had previously spun, I'm right at 2.5 lbs finished, which is halfway.  I will continue to chip away at it throughout the next several months.  My hope is that I will have the yarn finished by the end of summer so that I can spend fall working on the coat and perhaps wear it next winter.

That's all for now--this one is a little short because it is almost midnight on Sunday and I need to work tomorrow.  Next post, I'll let you know what the second quarter of 2014 looks like.  So let's meet back here then.

We sleep, but the loom of life never stops...*

Spring is in the air, daylight savings is brutal, and time marches inexorably on.  Anyhoo...

Iknitarod

My guess last post was right on the money.  Sure enough, the Red Lantern slid into Nome on the evening of March 15th.**  I'm pleased to report that I finished up the Mink Cardigan with--no joke--around only forty minutes to spare.  I did not purchase the live Iditarod feed so I was not watching the race, but I was watching the message boards in the Iknitarod group on Ravelry and as I was finishing up seaming, people were posting, "The last mushers have left the final check point..."  "They're just ten miles outside of Nome now...." so I was weaving in the many, many stray ends as fast as my poor little fingers would allow.  Whew.  It's done, I love it, but several times during the knitting of it I found myself thinking, "Good grief, this hobby is EXHAUSTING."  (I really, really wanted to go off and play with my loom instead--I have no idea how I suddenly became so disciplined!)  So, without further ado, here are the photos:

Ravelry page.  Thankfully, I was able to talk it out of the hood, but it won on the pockets.  I tried to take photos of the pockets in the finished garment, but they came out looking a little bit too much as though Georgia O'Keefe became a photographer and had decided to stop being subtle.  But here are the pockets before they were sewn in--I basically made them as tiny hats:

A new path weaves back around...

As you know, I am in the process of making the transition from obsessed knitter to obsessed weaver.  So, of course, I have been joining weaving groups on Ravelry and Facebook to feed the urges.

As a side note, it appears that I am on trend--there seems to be a larger movement from knitting to weaving happening right now.  It may just be that I am looking for it, but we have handfuls of new folks joining the Rigid Heddle Weaving Group on Facebook every day.  And I see post after post from folks on Ravelry saying that they just learned to weave and just got/just ordered a loom and how they have fallen in love with weaving.  (The people who have been weaving for decades must be very amused, but are hopefully enjoying the growing focus on the craft.)

Anyway, I joined a weaving group on Ravelry and one of the moderators sent me an invite to another Ravelry weaving group, which I joined as well.  She and I began emailing back and forth and it turned out that she is also a spinner and lives one town over from me.  She ended up inviting me to join a local spinning group that I had no idea existed and I got to meet the group in person last weekend.  We spent a beautiful day at a member's lovely log cabin home, spinning for hours out in the sunshine (it got up to 80 degrees Fahrenheit that day), enjoying great company and a wonderful view.  I even got a gift---one of the members, because she knew I was coming, made me my very own group pendant***:

An added bonus was the chance to see not just one, but two charkhas in action.  I had heard of them, but had never seen one in person.  A charkha is a tool used to spin cotton.  It's difficult to describe, so here is a video.  Charkhas are associated with Gandhi and the Indian independence movement.****

Ack.  Has anyone else noticed that I have started the last few paragraphs in a row with the letter "A"?  There must be some kind of rule about that.*****

Speaking of weaving, I have managed to sneak some in.  I finished the scarf I was working on:

Ravelry page.  I also started another weaving project, but I have mostly resisted working on it in favor of finishing up my knitting challenges.  Here is a picture of it in progress:

And the rest...

I have mentioned that I am working on the "new to me" project for the Yarnathon and the Precious Hoodie, but I have not previously taken any progress photos of them, so here they are:

New-to-me moebius scarf

Precious Hoodie

My plan is to finish up the moebius scarf and then get as much as I can done on the Precious Hoodie.  I don't expect to finish the Hoodie or the big Shetland spinning project by their deadlines, but we'll see where I end up.  With respect to the Mad Dash, I am currently at 2,079 yards, not counting some in progress spinning and the in progress weaving that cannot yet be measured.  If I can manage a couple of good spinning days, I think I will make my goal of 3,000 by the end of the month.

That's all for now.  Until we meet again, may the patterns of your days be woven brightly!



__________________________
*The full quote is: "We sleep, but the loom of life never stops, and the pattern which was weaving when the sun went down is weaving when it comes up in the morning."  Henry Ward Beecher

**The Red Lantern is the musher that comes in last in the Iditarod (the finish line is in Nome, AK).

***The "pendant" is actually a diz, which is a tool used in fiber preparation to make combed top for spinning as explained on this webpage.  You can also use a diz to create roving from a carded fiber preparation as described here.

****http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spinning_wheel#Charkha

*****Fans of the ABC Family show, "Pretty Little Liars," should not read anything into this.