Knitting Olympics and Ravelympics Gold (in handspun)

Out of 4oz of Crown Mt. Shetland Roving:

Peggy spun 200 yds of 2 ply for the 2010 Ravelympics.

She then knit up the Peter Seamans Scarf
from Myrna Stahman's Shawls & Scarves book
using handspun 5% chinchilla, and 95% wool.
The ‘chinchilla’ fiber is from Kate Painter
at Oregon Flock & Fiber Festival 2009

I used almost all of the 1080 yards of handspun Jacob/Angora for my second February Lady Sweater:

This year we're committed to knitting only with handspun so we're busy figuring out what to work on next. Swatching is a huge part of the process, more than usual although we always swatch a lot. We both finished our Olympic projects early and spent the rest of the time going through stash and swatching, pulling out patterns and comparing swatch results to potential projects. I do believe some designing will be involved...

Peggy's February Lady Sweater

It’s countdown to 2010 Winter Olympics Opening Ceremonies!

We're ready to knit and dreaming of 2010 Gold.

Just to show you what can be accomplished
we give you Peggy's 2008 Ravelympics Project
and the twists and turns of a very tough knitting venue.

Here's her story:

Aug 8/08 6:00 am PDT - cast on for the Ravelympics, even though I didn’t actually sign up to be a competitor until August 18th (sorry, my bad.) The February Lady Sweater was only one of two patterns that I could find which would use ALL of this particular handspun-twice dyed yarn without going over AND one of two patterns that I wanted to knit.

Aug 11/08 6:00 pm PDT - injury! OH NO. Infected index finger may slow knitting. Doctor visited for antibiotics. Note to self: wear gloves when gardening, especially if I have a cut on my finger which may pick up a puss-causing vile infectious bug.

Aug 15/08 7:15 am PDT - detected MISTAKE in lace pattern 4 inches back. Frogged back and reknit incorrect row. Lost 2 whole days re-knitting to where I was before frogging. SAD and DISAPPOINTED that GOLD may now be out of reach. sob.

Aug 18/08 6:55 pm PDT - Regrouped and picked up for the sleeves, using two 29” circulars to knit both at the same time. Wrapping my brain around right back and left front on one needle, and the right front and left back on the other and then knitting in the round – it will be a challenge on the commuter bus!


Aug 20/08 7:51 am PDT - posted the photo on Ravelry showing the finished body length, and 5 pattern repeats into the sleeves. How will this ever be finished by Sunday when I still have to go to work every day???

Aug 23/08 4:37 pm PDT - Knitting done, ends sewn in and into the tub of water for soaking before blocking! Yea!! Posted a pre-blocking photo at 5:25p.

Aug 24/08 11:15 am PDT - Buttons on. Finished photo posted to the Ravelympics page for the Sweater Sprint. (Many thanks to Ellen for helping with that.)

The Gold Medal was awarded by

The Head of The International Ravelympic Committee:

Adonis Dionysius Bobicus Maximus

"I was just so darned proud to compete for my craft."

...Peggy

***************

Corriedale Roving into Yarn

I looked for a label or a receipt on this roving but didn't find any, even though I've had it less than a year ~ how hard is it to keep a receipt with the fiber??? Probably bought it for the color as every time I looked at it I thought about recreating it at one of our next dye days, so I put away a bit of the fiber. I'm guessing that it's Corriedale.

Project Notes: August 28th, 2009, begin spinning woolen, trying for a fatter single than my usual. I divided the fiber down the middle and then in half again, spinning two quarters onto each spool and then plying them together. Finished on September 5th, 365 yards in 4.8oz.

One thing I'm learning (which may be obvious to others) is that my finished yarns are lighter than the dyed rovings appear. I've been a little slow in figuring this out. The other thing is how my eye fools me into thinking that one color is dominant ~ in this case the fuchsia. This is not pink. I also thought I would have more light bits.

If all goes well, this will be posted at 9:09am on 090909. hee.

Angora Silk Mohair

8oz of Evanne's Angora Silk Mohair blend
(available in many colors)

Singles on the spool

2 ply hanks

Close-up pre-washing

Spinner: Rebecca
Tool: My Betty Roberts double drive Russian Olive Wheel
Project Notes: This fiber was a gift from Evanne on St. Distaff Day 2008, spinning commenced on Feb. 2nd, spinner got distracted by shiny things and spinning was finally completed on June 15th, 2008.
Results: 7.10 oz, 597 yards, 12 wpi, 2-ply. Happy! Thanks Evanne!

Two Leaf Lace Shawls

Today we have some vintage knitting, 'cause sometimes we just run out of current knitting to show you. We'll be doing Vintage occasionally because the original concept for our blog was to have a place to archive our knitting and spinning. Common sense demands that we pull out old projects, take photos and post details so that we can go back through the archives someday and claim to remember knitting that.

By Peggy, in her handspun Corriedale from Grafton Fibers

By Rebecca, in her handspun merino from Ashland Bay

Pattern: Leaf Lace Shawl by Evelyn A. Clark from Fiber Trends.
We knit these back in 'o6 with some of our first handspun. I can clearly see some serious over-twist and over-plying in my purple yarn while Peggy's is superior in every way ~ she's a natural talent at spinning.