Knit – Page 21 – Fiber Musings

Circle of Life

On 10 Jun, 2011

Part way through Chart 2

I casted on for the Circle of Life Shawl last night. I forgot how frustrating it is to work with 8 stitches on 4 double pointed needles. I think it took me longer to get the 4 needles to lay down in the correct order in a manner that I can knit the first row than it did for me to knit the next 10 rows.

Pattern: Circle of Life Shawl by Eugen Beugler, published by Fiber Trends
Needles: 2.25mm
Yarn: Hand spun Polwarth/Silk. Details on the yarn can be found here, here, and here.

Posing with the yarn cake

I started this for my vacation knitting. I wanted it off of the dpns and onto circular needles before I get on the plane. But I have to say, this is really addictive. I just want to keep working on it, instead of finishing my featherweight cardigan, which I want to take on my trip with me — as a finished garment. Better put this down and walk away while I still can.

The Polwarth/silk lace yarn is lovely to work with. I can’t believe how soft it is. And the silk really shines through. I can’t wait to see how the color progression works out in the knitted fabric. And how it compares with my imagination.

By the way, while looking up knitting needles on the Turkish Airlines website, I came across this short history of Anatolian socks and mittens. Not much content, but nice eye candy!

Batts in the Belfry

By Ann

On 8 Mar, 2011

In FO, Knit, Spin

It only took 4 months, but I finally added a panel and re-seamed the hat Team Batts in the Belfry made for the Batts to Hats competition. (I needed the spinning bobbins that the rest of the yarn was on.) I first wrote about it here, and the full article at Interweave’s site.

We will be donating it to the auction at the next SOAR. Proceeds from auction go to the scholarship fund.

A Tale of Two Socks

By Ann

On 1 Feb, 2011

In FO, Knit

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.

Random thoughts of a fiber enthusiast - mostly fiber related, sometimes coherent

Category: Knit Page 21 of 88

Circle of Life

Batts in the Belfry

A Tale of Two Socks