Fiona's Fibre Fiesta

Why not to use lilac for a spindle:

2009-02-15T07:14:00.000-08:00

I was about ready to wind the yarn off the spindle when it happened anyway - this just means that I'll have to use a new stick for the next bunch.

Done with the white spinning fibre

2009-02-11T16:05:00.000-08:00

It turns out that the white spinning fibre I was struggling with sheds just as much when it's spun and being knitted as it did when I was trying to spin it.

However, I managed to make a very pretty cowl.

It was originally meant to be a scarf, but half the yarn got used up too quickly. So I started from the other end, making a buttonhole, and knitted until I used the other half of the yarn, then grafted them together.

spinning

2009-02-07T17:21:00.001-08:00

This weeknd, I did some spinning for the "February Challenge" in the "Spindlers" group on Ravelry.

The theme was "Mardi Gras"

My inspiration was this:

And I decided I’d be using up various things I had lying around.

Here are all my singles:

(It turns out I didn’t have very much of the blue yarn around, so I was limited by that. I ended up dyeing the red (with red food colouring) so it would be brighter, and the yellow is really the beige with lots of yellow food colouring added in.

I did a cabled yarn, with three-ply cables - one for the pancakes and one for the toppings.

And here is my 3 meter end-product.

I ended up turning it into a bracelet.

Handwarmers

2009-02-03T19:33:00.000-08:00

I've been on a roll for the past few days - or else maybe I've just been working on very small projects.

The most recent small project is a pair of handwarmers for the "Obscuriousity" knit-along on Ravelry.

Notice the difference in length?

I didn't actually write down the number of rows on the cuff the first time, so when it came time to do the second, I looked at the row-counter I found in my pocket, which turned out not to have the right number of rows marked. (I think it was for that project, but who knows?)

I'm trying to decide whether the difference is enough to matter, and whether I can reasonably pick up stitches along the bottom and knit the other way.

They're made from Rowan Tapestry, which turns out to be very itchy. I'm trying to get used to them.

Book review: Fair Isle Sweaters Simplified

2009-01-27T17:38:00.000-08:00

For the past couple days, I've been reading Fair Isle Sweaters Simplified, by Ann and Eugene Bourgeois.

I probably won't make any of the sweaters in the book without heavy modification (they're all excessively baggy and the colourways are a bit aggressive), but the book still contained a lot of useful information about knitting fair-isle sweaters in general. The second section of the book contains thorough information on knitting cardigans and pullovers, both steeked,

I also enjoyed the beginning of the book, which is about the beginnings of the Bourgeois' farm, before they had any farming experience.

I found my camera

2009-01-26T16:53:00.000-08:00

It was in the first place I looked - on the dresser in my bedroom. I just couldn't see it until I cleared some other things away.

So, here's the promised post-blocking picture of my shawl:

And here's a closer look:

My lace shawl, part 2

2009-01-23T15:38:00.000-08:00

I finished my lace shawl today, or, at least, I finished the knitting.

I had the bright idea of using my new kitchen scale to weigh my yarn after each of the last couple rows, which meant that I realized I needed to skip one of the rows in the scalloped edging, or else I'd run out of yarn.

I now have 0.2 grams left of the yarn. (A row takes about 1.5 g.)

I also now have a disgusting mess of unblocked yarn. Unfortunately, being a responsible adult who knows where my stuff is, I've misplaced my camera. So, photos are on hold for now.

Let's hope blocking works its magic.

I think I'm in love

2009-01-18T07:16:00.000-08:00

...with a fiber prep, that is.

I'd really been struggling with the white mystery fibre I posted about earlier this week. It's gorgeous and soft, and I've been able to spin it sufficiently thinly, but it also sheds like mad and requires a lot of pre-drafting, at least at my skill level. And it's fuzzy enough, when spun, that when the single kinks up, it tends to get tangled.

After I had the frustration with the shawl yesterday, I decided to break my personal 'one single at a time' rule, and started in on the fibre I'm going to ply with the white fibre.

This fibre - also a Knit Knackers 'mystery fibre' - caught my eye because of the gorgeous variegated colours. I decided to spin the white stuff first, since, from looking at it in the bag, it just looked like any old white fibre, and the lovely dyed roving would be harder to replace should I mess it up.

Well, it turns out that the variegated stuff almost spins itself. It's already very thin, so it only requires a little bit of drafting and no pre-drafting, and it stays together really nicely - no shedding at all, and very little fuzz.

Where has this fibre been all my spinning life? (Don't answer that... it was in the second of the three batches of fibre I bought. It's been in my stash, the whole time I've been fighting the white.)

(And, sorry about all the spinning content. I know I billed this as a knitting blog. The only knitting news for now is that I took the shawl to the Friday knit night and people were sympathetic as I frogged.)

My lace shawl

2009-01-15T18:16:00.000-08:00

Today, as I've done every day since I got my cast off last Friday, I sat down to knit a row on my lace shawl:

I carefully wrote down the instructions for the next row in my notebook, and started knitting.

I ended up a few stitches short at the end. I'm starting the edging, so I'd removed all the stitch markers as they would have needed to be moved at the end.

Then I looked at the chart, and realized that I had been knitting the wrong row. Not even the whole wrong row - I copied down the right stitches for the edges, just not the repeating bit in the middle.

This comes not one week after I started at the top of the chart instead of at the bottom of the chart and had to rip back to my last lifeline.

I've shoved it in the project bag for now. I'll tink the last row when I'm feeling up to it, probably on Saturday.

More spinning

2009-01-13T15:54:00.000-08:00

I did some more spinning - I started spinning some "mystery fibre" from Knit Knackers.

I also took a photo of the toque I knit from my first ever hand-spun. It's very simple construction (garter stitch instead of ribbing for the brim, with panels of stockinette separated by purl columns) because I was knitting right-handed because of my broken arm.

Spinning - successful

2009-01-10T11:29:00.000-08:00

I started with this:

And with a brown roving which I did not photograph until after it was a single:

And I ended up with this:

I've learned a new skill - I've spun some usable yarn. Horray!