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...

Spinning BFL

Ashland Bay Natural Colors Blue Face Leicester

(or Blue Faced, if you prefer. I've seen it both ways.)

Fun stuff. I tried my larger whorl and put my drive band on the big wheel to see if I could spin bigger yarn, by bigger I mean not lace or fingering weight, which is normal for me. I acquired one pound, purchased from Heidi at The Artful Ewe in Port Gamble. Love her shop ~ if you get a chance, stop by. She has a weaving annex now, and gives classes.

Three hanks, 647 yards.

Prewashing, it's not so sproiny.After washing: sproiny!
The swatch is worked on 8's, 7's and 6's.

The 8's gave me a nice fabric and there is probably enough yardage for a vest. Or maybe a shawl/wrap. I briefly considered buying another pound but I have plenty of other fibers to spin right now and so I'll just move on. By the way, when I washed the three hanks to set the spin, the water was filthy brown. Not oil, dirt. I have heard that Ashland Bay fibers are processed in China and this may be true, I don't know. I do know that I haven't yet run into fiber quite this dirty. I have also heard that Blue Face (or Faced) Leicester are called that because they look sad, not because their color is blue. I know they aren't blue, but can that 'sad' bit be true? Surely not...

Friday Knitters

Being laid off has one benefit:

I got to knit with my Peeps on Friday morning.

This is a strange photo. Everything is blurred but the Peeps and I don't know how that happened but I rather like it. Here's my second try, and they still seem happy to see me!

After 19 months of full-time work at the University of Washington, the State of Washington budget cuts got me and I'm laid off, along with about 350 others on the Seattle campus. This is a miserable economy to job hunt in, as the last 5 months have proven, which is how long I've been actively looking for another job. I was told in May that October 1st was my last day as the 'Scheduling Assistant for the Dean' at the College of Education ~ that seemed like a good chunk of time to: 1) take classes in interviewing, CHECK, 2) tune up my resume, CHECK, 3) net-work with people about my situation, CHECK, 4) apply for jobs, CHECK, and 5) find employment....no check for that one. I am working in a temporary hourly situation on the Bothell campus until the woman I'm filling in for gets off jury duty. She has Fridays off, hence enabling me to join the Friday Knitters this morning. This was the highpoint of my last two weeks!

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.

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.

Pink Socks

Pink socks with beads and a picot cuff ~ how much cuter does it get? Wear these with girly-girl shoes, or different girly-girl shoes, a glittery bracelett and maybe a poodle skirt..

Project notes:

Yarn: Zitron Trekking Sport XXL
Needles: Knitpicks 48" circulars, size 2.25
051009 Started my new socks with sale sock yarn. Love sale sock yarn! It's the usual pattern: 72 stitches, picot cuff w/ #8 seed beads, clear pink ones this time. So cute! This is a new method for me, working both socks at once on one 48" circular from Knit Picks ~ it's my new favorite way to knit socks and my new favorite sock needles!

The heel flap is worked in Eye of the Partridge, which is a first for me but I thought the delicate girlie-girl pink needed a little dressing up from my regular 'sturdy' heel ~ it's not a wear-spot for me anyway. Knitting Eye of the Partridge in pattern does take paying attention to though. I always extend the *slip one, knit one* from the heel to under the heel because that IS my wear-spot.

080409 Finished during the Bluebird Reunion at La Push, WA. We will do an entry on that weekend shortly. These socks are so darn cute!

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.