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...

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.

Limbo Gloves

Project notes:

Yarn: Schoeller+Stahl Limbo Superwash, sport weight, 2 skeins, 275 yards total
Needle size: us #3
Pattern: from a class I took at Weaving Works where the instructions are basic and gauge is everything.
Beads: from stash

It was a very fun project and a great use of the Limbo yarn, which had perked in my stash since the mid 90's. And why not put the beaded picot cuff on gloves as well as socks?

I did some wrist shaping:
decreasing two stitches per round 4 times,
3 knit rounds between decreases.

All that's left is the weaving in of ends.

Ok, ends all woven in. Tried on and photos taken.
Shared with friends who also tried them on.
Multiple friends.
Multiple try-on times.

What’s wrong with this picture?

A dropped stitch on the right glove just below the index finger.
ack.

I am NOT frogging to catch up that stitch. I will stop the run with a little strand of yarn and weave in the two ends. feh. Almost perfect gloves. But it’s all good. In 50 years or so no one will remember, right?

Swallowtail Shawl with Kauni

*Some of our new posts will be projects finished over the past year.
We'll play catch-up while we put up the new stuff as well.

Peggy's project notes:

Aug 31/08 - I love the Swallowtail using variegated or space-dyed yarn, so I thought I’d try Kauni yarn. This Kauni is mostly bluey tourquoisey teal – very subtle color changes. I washed, dried and rearranged the colors with all the lightest together, medium together and dark teal together.

Sept 18/08 - Knitting done, ends sewn in, blocking in progress.

Sept 19/08 - blocking all done.
The size with extra repeats of the two ‘nupps’ charts is
29” deep by 57” wide.

Koigu Gloves

Working on the ring fingers.

Trying on to check fit.

Not so many ends to weave in...

Preblocking.

Just in time for the rest of Winter:

Knitter: Rebecca

Yarn and Needles: Koigu Sock yarn (KPPPM), 2 sks, #2.0 mm Inox 24" circulars, 2 of 'em.
Pattern: Finding a pattern was problematic. Have you ever noticed how chunky knit gloves look in the pattern photos? I wanted 'refined' gloves, densely knit at a fine gauge and that meant (to me) sock yarn and size 'tiny' needles. There were no patterns with this criteria in our shared library of knitting books, although I came closest with one from VK's little book on mittens and gloves. I just had to revise it from double-points to 2 circulars and I also included the beaded picot cuff, using 32 #8 seed beads per glove. The pattern had a goofy kitchenered end to each finger/thumb which, after working, looked (as I said) goofy, so I changed it to the less obtrusive "break yarn and with a chibi, run yarn through remaining stitches and pull tight; weave in ends." That worked nicely.
Project Notes: Began knitting December 16th, 2007 and finished January 27th, 2008. The Koigu was stash yarn and I used less than two balls, so if you have two balls (which we all know are not enough for socks with a long leg or foot) you can actually knit a pair of gloves with a fairly long arm. On the next pair I will go up one needle size for the fingers/thumb as they are just a tad too tight. The rest is perfect. My first gloves. I like them!

Blue Vest

Swatching with stash yarn.
The holes are yo/k2tog's which indicate
the needle size I used. I started on a US 5
and decided on the US 7.

10 stitch steek and decreasing for front V-neck.

10 stitch armhole steek and decreases.

The steeks after cutting,
picking up for the button band
and armhole trim and blocking.
Preblocking

Blocking

Buttons
FO

Knitter: Rebecca
Yarn and needles:The yarn is GGH Via Mala from my stash. This was a 4-ply chunky weight yarn calling for size US 10.5 needle. I separated it into 2-ply, which was simple to do as the singles weren't twisted (plied) ~ they were just 4 strands laying next to each other (see photo #3 for a peek at the ball) ~ but it was tedious and so handy to have knitting friends willing to help. I'm not fond of knitting with needles bigger than US 8 and I ended up with about 2,900 yards of yarn I can happily knit on a US 7. For this vest I used a #4.5 Addi Lace 32" circular for a gauge of 5 stitches to the inch. This revised vest pattern only took about 820 yards so I have plenty left for more projects. I can also separate the yarn again, into singles, and have some lovely lace weight for shawls.
Pattern: The Artisan Vest from Green Mountain Spinnery, tweaked. I changed the pattern to be knit in the round with steeks and it worked out well. I also changed the button band and the armhole trim from crocheted to seed stitch, so that they matched the border. I added back-neck shaping and short-row shoulder shaping for the three-needle bind-off.
Project notes: Began knitting on January 11th, 2008 and finished on January 27th. The steeks are knit in seed stitch, which lays so flat that I didn't have to deal with the fabric curling after it was sewn on the machine and then cut. I didn't even need to tack it down. Even though the pattern is a cardigan style and I did put button holes in the band, I ended up sewing the button band closed and so wear it as a pull-over. Next time I'll remember to save myself some time and leave out the button holes. The buttons have little thistles on them and came from my button box where they have languished for years. It's nice to finally use them. The difference in the blues is totally my camera, with and without flash, cloudy days vs bright sunshine, etc. The photo closest to actual yarn color is the close-up of the buttons.

Dancing Leaves Lace Shawl

Blocking tools: lump of damp shawl,
towels on rug, pins and blocking wires.

Blocked out to about 25"
from collar to cuff.

Close-up with beads

FO

Knitter: Peggy
Yarn and needles: 900 yards of a Rambouillet/Angora blend from pal Evanne; size 5.5 mm circular needle.
Pattern: Evelyn Clark's Dancing Leaves Lace Shawl, available on her website.
Project Notes: Knitting began January 6th, 2008 and finished January 27th. Choosing a pattern fabulous enough to go with this incredible yarn was challenging and then choosing beads to go with the yarn was intense. I ended up with #6 seed beads in 24k gold plate, 366 of them, from Fusion Beads in Seattle. The finished product: so warm, so cozy! The Friday Knitters passed it around at show-n-tell, trying it on as it circled the envious and now everyone wants to knit one. It fit every body type and looked great. Evanne modeled for the FO photos.

Mt. Tango Targhee

8 oz of Top from MT. Colors

Spun 2-ply

Grafting the 2 ends in the middle
Blocking
Another FO!

Spinner/Knitter: Rebecca

Fiber: Mt. Colors Targhee in the Mountain Tango colorway. Fiber purchased from Woodland Wool Works in June 2006 and spun during 4 days in November, 2006. I came out with about 600 yards of maybe DK weight ~ I forgot to check wpi.
Knitting: Began on December 5th, 2007 and finished December 13th, 2007. The pattern is my own. I took the Lilly of the Valley from Barbara Walker and began two pieces on the same 32" 5mm needle, thus ensuring the two ends have the scallop that I love. I used the bobble only through the first three repeats and then left it out as it uses a lot of yarn and who really likes being slowed down by bobbles anyway? When I was almost out of yarn, I kitchenered my two halves together and waa-la! Wrap!

Wild West Shawl

Blocking

Closeup of bison and hoofprint

Draped nicely on Evanne

Knitter: Peggy
Fiber and Needle: Paternayan Crewel Wool on size US #6 needle.
Pattern: Wild West Lace Shawl by Evelyn Clark, available on her website.
Project Notes: Using SRY* is always smugly satisfying. I had a big cone of the Paternayan which I used to bulk up some Jamiesons Sport Weight Tweed for my Braids Cardigan. I used three #8 seed beads at each point of the cast-off edge. Knitting began sometime in December, it took about three weeks and I finished before the end of 2007. The original version is larger, but this size makes the perfect scarf. I loved this pattern. Each section had a different graph which made it fun and kept my interest. I would definitely recommend the Wild West Lace Shawl pattern to beginning & intermediate lace knitters who like a challenge. Next time I knit it (and it will be soon), I'll use a warm, soft 'hairy' handspun yarn -- maybe some fine wool fiber with alpaca or yak or angora blended in. I have all of those just waiting for my spinning wheel to free itself from the current spinning project.

Note-to-self: Next project with Paternayan Crewel, use a larger needle. Maybe a #8.

*Stash Reduction Yarn

Artful Ewe Green Shetland

Roving and Singles
3 hanks of 2-ply

Spinner: Rebecca
Fiber: 100% Shetland, hand-dyed by and purchased from Heidi Parra of The Artful Ewe in Port Gamble, Washington. Heidi also has a blog, which has wonderful photos of her shop.
Results: Spinning began November 6th, 2007 and ended on November 18th, 2007 with 1600 yards of 18-20 wpi 2-ply. I'm stumped for a project to knit with it because that's a lot of yarn. It is probably the best spinning I've done and I owe it to the fiber, which was wonderful to spin. If you have the chance to get hand-dyed Shetland from Heidi, go for it. You won't be sorry. Hey! She's going to be vending at Madrona again this year! You could get some there, or you could stop in at her shop on the weekends, which is when she's open. Or you could just call her and find out what colors she has right now.

Targhee Drenched in Red

Targhee fiber ~ some good combed top.
One pound, white This 'domestic' targhee is called
"Mountain Top" and came from here
and is also available locally (Seattle)
at Village Yarn and Tea.

Then dye it.

In the light-to-medium parts the dye diluted
and the really dark bits are deeply saturated color.
I used Jacquard Dye in 4 different reds:
Crimson, Burgundy, Scarlet and Fire Red.

Dabbing the dry dye onto dry fiber with a damp chopstick and then submerging in water and a little vinager and heating, the process is more time consuming than difficult, although it's nice to have a guide the first time through. My guide this trip was Sandi, who is famous around Seattle for her hand dyed/hand spun merino. Sadly, Sandi has no website. Happily, we like it this way because if she did, none of us would get any ~ she wouldn't be able keep up with the demand. Bonus: she's happy to share her knowledge!

Spin
4 spools of singles
Ply
2-ply ~ it looks way pink!
4 Hanks
of
"Stabbed in the Heart Red"

Dyer/Spinner: Rebecca
Project Notes:
We left Seattle on June 21st, 2007 for the annual Black Sheep Gathering in Eugene, Oregon, which began the next day. I acquired this fiber on June 23rd, 2007, dyed it in November at the Friday Knitters Dye Day, began spinning on November 22nd, 2007 and finished plying on January 1, 2008. Interested to see how far a pound would go, I'm very happy with the pre-washed yardage of 1550 in 4 hanks. It's about 13-15 wpi, 2-ply. It fluffed up with washing, is very sproingy and no doubt has less length now that it's dry ~ I'll have to measure again before a knitting project is chosen.