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

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

Sock Summit 2009, part 2

The mementos:

Our plan for shopping at Sock Summit 2009 was to look for vendors who weren't from around here. This was as easy as finding yarn at a yarn store. We figured we probably wouldn't see them again, being the great world travelers we are ~ neither of us likes to fly (although we will if it's an emergency) and we tend to spend our fiber dollars on fiber, not on getting to the fiber and back, unless we're talking driving to Black Sheep Gathering and Oregon Flock and Fiber and Madrona Fiber Arts and the Knitters Retreat, all within six hours by car. While we shopped the 'Outlanders' (hee hee, Michale, hee) we had to stop by our favorite local yarn shops ~ Toots LeBlanc, Acorn Street, Crown Mountain, Good to be Girl, etc just to say hi and get hugs. We didn't buy locally until we bought sock yarn from Michelle and Carl of Toots when they came to Seattle shortly after SS '09 to be the program at Seattle Knitters Guild, because we didn't get enough at Sock Summit, I guess... Here it is, a three-ply Jacob/Alpaca/Mohair blend, perfection for socks!

And here are the shopping results of our trip to
Sock Summit 2009:

Above is the yarn Peggy and I bought from
Enchanted Knoll Farm in Maine.

She has 3, me 1. Mine is purple.

These two are from Tess' Designer Yarns,
mine on top and Peggy's below.

From there we traveled wildly divergent paths:

Mt Colors Barefoot in Marigold ~ and yes, I know

I can get this locally but I've been looking for a year
and my lys's just don't stock this color,
even though I've asked several of them to bring it in.
I know they can't stock every color in every yarn,
so I took my shot when I had it.

Three Irish Girls McClellen Sock, no color name.
They won 3 of the catagories in the Ravelry Dye contest
for Sock Summit so I had to see their stuff in person
and then I had to buy just one.

Rose Garden from Heritage Hand Dyed.
It was the color, of course.
I think I'm going through a pink phase again.

Peggy was drawn to this deep raisin, aubergine, wine color
from Sanguine Griffin. It's a loosely spun lace weight,
just right for a shawl, she thinks.

From Australia came Ms. Gusset and
all her wonderful Merino Optim Top,
not sock yarn yet but it will be once spun.

One more memento of the three day jaunt to
Sock Summit 2009.
The pin, people, the pin!

Sock Summit 2009, part 1

We had a great time at Sock Summit 2009.
We ran into so many friends that we are hard pressed
to think of who wasn't there...oh yeah, Ryan.

Here's the Market, which is why we went:

Peggy at Enchanted Knoll Farm. They came to
Portland Or from Portland Maine. cool.

Peggy, Linda K and I sat together while over
900 of us knit at the same time on two straight needles
and set the Guinness World Record for the number
of knitters knitting at the same time. cool.

Speaking of knitting at the same time,
here's a crazy man knitting 7 pairs of socks on one circular needle
which is over 100" long. This is at the Skacel booth.

We met Ellen, of Twinset.
She went to the Ravelry Meetup but we headed home.
Yes, we bought yarn. That's an entry all it's own.

Tour de Fleece, 2009 the end

Peggy won!

July 26, 2009 7:16 a.m. - Completed my Tour de Fleece challenge this morning! 3 bobbins-full, 16 ounces. Whew - Yellow Jersey earned just before the official ending of the race at 8:29 a.m. Pacific Time!

The next part of this project is to spin another 16 ounces, this time using plain CVM, and then ply them together.

July 4, 2009 Started the 2009 Tour de Fleece challenge of 16 oz of CVM Angora. By Day 15 I had completed 2/3s of the challenge.

1 lb. of CVM Angora top from Yellow Creek Cottage in Ohio. This one has about 20% Angora in with the CVM, and is a natural grey. It’s more light tan than grey, but that’s OK. It will be fun to spin, and then ply with the CVM.

***

Rebecca did not finish. It became abundantly clear on day 15 that, with only half the project completed and less than half the race remaining, I wasn't going to be able to finish my project. It's all good though. At this point I am more than half way through the 9.4 oz, and it will be done fairly soon. I got to spin every day, I used stash fiber and I like the resulting yarn. Yea for Peggy and all the others who earned the yellow shirt! Congrats everyone!

2009 Tour de Fleece, Day 15 update

Peggy, two full spools

Peggy, starting the third spool

Rebecca, one spool of 2-ply, about 470 yards
Rebecca, beginning the third spool

Sock Yarn We Dyed

Yarn:
KnitPicks Bare 50% Superwash Merino, 25% Superfine Alpaca, 25% Nylon
438 yards, 100 gms Fingering Weight

Rebecca's project:
Jacquard Acid Dyes: #626 Navy Blue and #638 Silver Gray
Daubed on dry yarn with a damp chop stick in some places and increased water level to cover, heated to simmering. Took out when it looked done.

Peggy's project:

Prochem's WashFast Acid Dyes
#304 Cranberry, #306 Turkey Red, #508 Mahogany,
#411 Periwinkle, #119 Sun Yellow
Soaked yarn in water with a little vinegar, spread out as a single layer of yarn, daubed on dry powder w/ damp chopstick at 2" intervals, 6 sections w/ each of the 5 colors, wrapped in saranwrap and set the color with hot water bath for about an hour. (This would also work in a microwave.) Unwrapped and put in hot water with a lot of vinegar so the colors wouldn't migrate.

2009 Tour de Fleece - Day 7 update

Peggy
CVM Angora blend
Day 1

Day 2

Day 7

Rebecca
Yak Merino blend

Day 1

Day 2

Day 7

2009 Tour de Fleece - Day 1

Rebecca will spin 9.4oz of 50/50 yak-merino blend from Sarah Anderson of Great Balls of Fiber and hopes to spin it the same as the 4oz 2008 Tour de Fleece batch. This should make enough for a very large circular or square shawl.

Peggy has decided on one pound of CVM/Angora from Yellow Creek Cottage in Ohio. Ultimately this will be plied with one pound of 100% CVM from the same source.

That's the plan. We shall see.