TdF - Day Two

I continued to spin up that mystery wool today, and finished up the singles!



There's one more bobbin that I finished up after this photo was taken - I wanted to make sure I had some semi-decent light. Tomorrow will be a day of plying and freeing up all those bobbins in order to move on to the next big project - I'm thinking of breaking things up and working on my 5-ply from the Southern Cross Fiber "Fire" colorway series of batts.

That bobbin on the right is 1/3 of a Superwash Corriedale/Nylon blend in the "Soul Windows" colorway from Spunky Eclectic. I'm aiming for some 3-ply sock yarn.

Meanwhile, in France:
Today's race was beautiful to watch! While most all of the race today was held on pavement, early races were primarily on cobblestones or unpaved stretches. The competitors rode on bicycles with wooden rims! The weight of the rims alone must have impeded their progress significantly.

Juneary Knit & Spin

Just as the Juneary weather seems to be coming to an end, I've managed to complete a couple of handknits. The first lovely is something I've wanted to knit for quite some time now, but just now got around to (with a little bit of help from the Webs sale) - the "Shocking!" skirt by Veronik Avery:



This is a very fast, very easy knit. There was some confusion in the tuck row as to which color yarn to use, along with ending up having to do 2 WS rows in a row. This was all worked out by the time I got to the same point the second time around - the pattern is knit in 6 continuous panels - and I was able to breeze through the remainder. The final grafting row, however, was a bit of a nightmare. In completing the Kitchener stitch as written, you would end up with an extra row of Color A. I opted to remove the waste yarn from the provisional cast-on and grafted to my first wrap-row. This proved to be less than ideal; it took a bit to figure out the count using the wraps, and I had to fudge things a little bit to fit things together properly (I was also too lazy to go back and resolve all of what I had already done).

This skirt was knit in Cascade 220 on US 7s. I expect it will get a lot of wear during the cooler months, I'm just hoping that it doesn't pill.

In other feats of completion, here are some socks:



I started these a while ago, and actually completed the first sock - of course, it was the second one that I got hung up on. The solid yarn is Reynolds Soft Sea Wool, and the awesome brown/grey/white is my own handspun 3-ply, from the delicious "Peat" colorway of HelloYarn fiber club. These socks are so freakin' squishy.

There has also been spinning:



200 yards of Romney in the "Pansy" colorway, from the Spunky Eclectic May 2009 Club.



~520 yards of Super Sproingtastic Merino in the "Spring Loaded" colorway (and boy howdy is it spring loaded) from HelloYarn.

I also picked up a Floor Loom! I'm waiting for some parts, so no pictures right now, but soon soon soon. It's the LeClerc Compact model, with a 24" weaving width. It's an X-frame, 4-harness/6-treadle folding loom that I can't wait to get to.

Cowling

I'm participating in a Cowl Swap with the lovely nuttnbunny - we are subscribed to many of the same fiber clubs, and we continue to spin and then knit very similar things. We're Cowl Soul Sistahs! We had decided a while back to work out a cowl swap with our "Buckland" fiber from HelloYarn. I knit up this little guy! It's easy, stretchy, squishy bamboo stitch with some 1 x 1 rib on the top and bottom. I had some excess and whipped up a few little flowers with the more solid sections of the yarn, and threw on some crazy buttons. To make the cowl a bit more, um, versatile? I also put buttons on the BACKS of the flowers, so they're removable. This will be heading out in today's mail!



In my continuing quest to catch up with the fiber, I spun up my March Club from Spunky Eclectic immediately upon receiving it. This is some Dark BFL in the "Myrtle" colorway and it is wonderful. The colors are so subtle and simple and lovely.

Spring has been teasing us - not quite here, but thinking about it. I've been feeling the same way about my knitting mojo these days. I don't feel super-enthused about any of the projects that I currently have on the needles, I'm not feeling any particular urge to work on any other patterns, I'm just....well, making yarn. For now. And practicing my crochet! I've joined the pot-holder and hot pad swap, and I need to get to it!

Keeping Up With Club Fibers

I've been trying to keep up with fiber club shipments as best I can. I try and keep the fiber "stash" portion of things to any excess fiber purchases throughout the year (Rhinebeck, various shop updates, gifts, etc.) and play with that stuff in between shipments. Of course, this is all a rough guideline - sometimes things fall behind, sometimes I'm just not into a club colorway or fiber, sometimes I have bigger plans. For the most part, though, I try to keep up, and I think that's what counts.



This is "New Day" - the February fiber offering from Spunky Eclectic. This is 4 ounces of Corriedale, spun 2-ply, and I ended up with about 240 yards after a hot/cold soak and a good thwacking. I didn't do much prep to the fiber - I split it lengthwise and spun each half, then plied them together. It was a fast spin. I'm a little bit afraid that it may be a bit "Burger King"-esque, but that may just be from seeing it in process, when the colors were truly separated out.



This is the February offering from Southern Cross Fibers - 100% Polwarth in the "Boys of Summer" colorway. The polwarth is divine - it's a wee bit "sticky" and has a ton of spring to it. I also split this lengthwise, and then again, spinning up 2 lengths each to a bobbin. This is also a 2-ply, though much finer - my yield is 435 yards. I'm thinking it may get woven up into a scarf.

Thankfully club shipments do not ALL arrive on the same day - a little bit of a break and a chance to delve into the "stash" section of fiber. Or catch up on past club shipments. Or knit up some of the handspun, perhaps. We'll see what happens!