Knit – Page 67 – Fiber Musings

Swatching

On 6 Jun, 2004

I’ve had a hair up my butt about this yarn that I spun up last fall. I spun up some handpainted primary colors as a fingering weight single. It’s absolutely beautiful. I love the bright crayon colors. And it came out exactly as I imagined — Kureyon like yarn in fingering weight, and much softer too.

But there are a few problems with this yarn. It’s a softly spun single, so there’s not a lot of structure. I originally knitted it up as a Klein Bottle Hat. But then, it behaved as if it was in dire need of a Viagra prescription. The yarn was too soft. But it made up into a pair of beautiful fingerless mitts in nice Googly colors. Perfect for the office when the A/C is cranked up too high.

But what to do with the rest of the yarn? I purchased 1 pound of the rovings, and have only spun up 8 ounces of it. This has been the bane of my existence. I keep looking at it and wondering what I can do with it.

I have a confession. I love colors. I love handpainted yarn. But I’m really a chicken when it comes to using them in anything other than socks. I’ve read “Twisted Sisters Sock Workbook” multiple times. But, the examples were all for small projects. How do you use the stuff in a large project without those awful stripes across the body?

So I’ve been swatching over the course of the last several months. I think I finally came upon a way of using this yarn.

First, let’s go review the swatches:

garter st mitered square (US #3?)
st st mitered square (US #1)
st st mitered square (US #3)
st st sampler, top to bottom:
- US #1: great for socks
- US #2: nice, but …
- US #5: too sleazy
- US #4: eh …
- US #3: my favorite fabric of the bunch
linen st: top 1/6 – single yarn; remainder – worked yarn from both ends of the ball, alternated every 2 rows
woven on my Hazel Rose Loom, using 2 strands
2 ply st st
garter st squares with US #4
mostly st st mitered squares

Which is your favorite?

Believe it or not, I have come to a decision on how to use this yarn. Tune in tomorrow for the decision.

Weekend Visit

By Ann

On 2 Jun, 2004

In FO, Knit

Sorry, but this entry is chock full of pictures. But I assure you, they are well worth the bandwidth.

Grace, Mark and Iris came up for a visit this weekend. Iris modeled some of her new clothes.

This is Cutie Patootie sized up for a toddler, using CottonEase on 4.5mm needles. Grace used the untwisted combined method while working the sweater back and forth. Here’s my favorite quote from Grace during our email exchange while she was making the sweater. The subject header of this email was “Iris the Tyrant,” if I recall correctly.

If I put it down, Iris would hand it to me and order me to finish it. “I want you to finish cutie patootie.”

Despite the face, Iris actually loves getting her picture taken. What a ham she is!

And here, she is modeling the poncho that I made for her last week. The poncho is a little “gaflugety,” as Martin would say, because she’s been dancing around the room. Here‘s what the poncho looks like when it’s behaving itself on a hanger. It is using Michelle Wyman’s Block Party Poncho using 5 colors of Plymouth Encore (instead of 4 colors, as designed) on 4.5mm needles.

I’ll close with a picture of the sweater that I’m making for myself using the wool/silk yarn that I spun up last month. It looks much more like a Monet painting of his gardens in real life than it appears in this picture. Although the knitted fabric resembles more like a pointillistic painting than Monet’s dabs. But, hey, it’s in the same artistic period. What is it going to be? I don’t know yet. I’m making it up as I go. All I know at this point is that it is a bottom up sweater knitted in the round to the arms. I’ll decide as I go along.

sweater on the needles with monet wool/silk

Bright Anklets

By Ann

On 22 Apr, 2004

In FO, Knit

Are these bright or what? I like the way the light and dark bands formed. The yarn reminds me a lot of Koigu’s Kersti Merino Crepe that I used for these socks a year ago. It was a dream to work up. Those had become one of my favorite pairs of socks. Unfortunately, the Koigu did produce a lot of fuzz inside the socks. We’ll see how well these wear. And these are superwash to boot!

Just in case anyone is interested, here are some more pictures of the little felted purse that I’m dubbing The Iris Bag. Why? Because the colors remind me of the irises that we had along the driveway in our Seattle house. Dark purple to the point of being black.

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

Category: Knit Page 67 of 88

Swatching

Weekend Visit

Bright Anklets