Category: FO Page 18 of 48

A Tale of Two Socks

On 1 Feb, 2011

Can you tell what the difference is between the 2 pairs of socks above? Hint. It’s not the fact that one pair is handspun and the other is commercial sock yarn. The difference is 4 YEARS vs. 4 DAYS. Yes. The pair on the right took me over 4 years to finish. The one of the left was started on Friday night and was finished last night.

Let’s back up. The pair on the right is knit from Trekking XXL. I love this yarn. This is the 3rd pair or so I’ve knitted with Trekking. But this pair was always in my travel kit, along with 20-thousand other projects. And based on the picture in this post, it would appear that I’ve frogged it at least once, since they are anklets no more. I don’t know why or when I made this change, but it no longer looks like it used to.

But it’s more than just the fact that it was in my travel kit that it languished. I lost interest in it. The yarn looks like handspun. The yarn is 4 ply with each of the plies slowly changing in color at different cycles, hence a handspun from handpaint look. But the similarities end there. Whereas my handspun sock yarns are super squishy, bouncy and soft, this yarn feels like steel wool in comparison.

I used to love Trekking, but now I’m spoiled by my own handspun sock yarn. Like the one on the left. These were knit from some handpainted merino top I purchased from Bee Mice Elf (colorway Veranda). It was a leftover from Deb Menz‘ workshop. For some reason, I really really wanted some sock yarn with pure colors, so I chain plied these. The yarn is super bouncy and a joy to knit with.

I also have to admit that I was a captive audience to this pair of socks, since I was in a shuttle bus for most of the weekend. (Wine tasting weekend with my SCUBA diving group.) After finishing this pair, I pulled out the Trekking socks and finished that last couple of inches this afternoon.

Trekking Socks (right)

2.0 mm needles
72 sts around
2×2 rib top and cuff
Elapsed time to completion – 4 years

Veranda Socks (left)

2.25 mm needles
56 sts around
2×2 rib cuff
Elapsed time to completion – 4 days

I still have enough yardage in the handspun to make a pair of anklets *. Let’s hope that it won’t take 4 years to finish the anklets.

* One of the joys of having small feet…I can squeeze 1 pair of socks + 1 pair of anklets out of 3.6 oz of fiber.

Silk and Quills

By Ann

On 21 Jan, 2011

In FO, Spin

Foreground: 2-ply tussah silk. Background: 1 ply tussah silk, 1 ply baby camel down.

Done. I plied the leftover silk singles from the baby camel project on the miniSpinner. There is approximately 460 yards of lace weight 2-ply silk. I will put this aside with all the other handspun silk yarn. Eventually, I will use them to weave some silk ribbons.

Just for fun, here are the silk singles on paper quills, waiting to be plied. They are resting on a Jenny Plyer. I haven’t quite got the hang of plying from the Jenny Plyer when the singles are threaded through the pigtails without making a huge tangled mess, so I bypassed them completely.

I’ve been turning my office waste paper into paper quills. Why? Because I wanted to use my Swedish-Styled boat shuttle a month ago and found that I didn’t have any quills. I made some larger ones to test out my method and found that they were perfect for winding my stash of singles. Each quill holds one spindle full of singles perfectly!

Quill Specs:

For general spindle spinning/plying use, I cut a 8.5″ x 11″ paper in half width-wise into 2 8.5″ x 5.5″ sheets. For my Swedish Styled boat shuttle, I cut them into 3.5″ widths. Check your shuttle size, if you plan to use it for weaving.

I rolled it around a 1/4″ dowel and glued the edge. I’ve since shifted to a 3/8″ dowel since the shuttle rod is 1/8″ diameter. (The dowels for all of my assorted kates are 3/8″.) When you are talking fine yarns, 1/8″ diameter difference can turn into quite a bit of yarn. And since I changed to a smaller dowel, I also changed the paper blank size to 3.5″ x 5.5″. Why? I found that you lose some of the extra diameter gained to the additional layers of the paper as it is wrapped around the dowel. (Yes, I do have AR tendencies.) I can now get 4 quills out of each sheet of paper.

Helix Scarf

By Ann

On 20 Jan, 2011

In FO, Knit, Spin

Helix Scarf

The Helix Scarf is finally done. I took this along with me to Hawaii dive trip as my mindless knitting. Who knew that I’d be too exhausted on the trip to knit? So this became my on-the-go and mindless television knitting. Even so, it took me 2 months to finish this scarf.

I finally got into the rhythm last week and was able to zip along to finish this scarf. In this green, it actually looks a bit like sea kelp, doesn’t it? I think a bronze colored one to wear with it will make a nice kelp bed effect. Of course, I’ll look like I’ve been strangled by the sea kelp.

I knitted the scarf as a much denser fabric than the scarves on Interweave’s website. I wanted it to be drapey, not limp. The silk content gives it the crispness it needed and the yarn has quite a bit of bounce. I’m very happy with this scarf. And, yes, I would like to make another one.

Cabbage Rose

Here it is, all rolled up. Doesn’t it look like a cabbage rose? In fact, I’m thinking about dyeing some yarn (or fiber) that slowly gradates in a single hue to white. When rolled up, it really will look like a cabbage rose that slowly fades to white. Wouldn’t that be pretty? Yes. I am easily amused.

Details:

Handspun from Abby’s Batt Club October 2007: First Frost (33% extra fine merino/33% baby alpaca/33% silk/1% firestar)
According to the McMorran Balance, I used about 325 yards.
Finished length along the spine, relaxed: 34″
2.25 mm needles.

I still have a little over half of the skein of yarn left (about 350 yards). I’ll be digging around for another little scarflet/shawlette pattern.