carbonized bamboo!

from zebisisdesigns.etsy.com

hegal popsicle

I took my newest spindle and roving camping and spun half of it. I'm going for a 2-ply fractal. The colors of the spindle and roving are fantastic together, and they looked lovely in the sunshine.





The spindle is a Grafton Fibers swan -- 2" whorl, weighs .8 oz.



The roving is SW merino from http://juliespins.etsy.com in the Intense Popsicles colorway.

wooden spindles - hatchtown

http://www.hatchtown.com/highws.html#JERR

Ravelympics

I had a lot of fun and will definitely participate in the next Ravelympics. I learned that…

• Next time, I’m still going to try to make 2 pair of socks, but they will NOT both be fingering weight on size 1 needles. One will be DK, to give my hands a break. And next time, I will at least cast the 2nd pair on before the end!
  
  
• Next time, I’m sticking with stockinette or a favorite sock pattern, because I actually WATCH the Olympics! An unfamiliar lace pattern was not the best choice!
  
  
• Next time, if I try to spin two batts for the Handspun Heptathalon, they need to be different fibers so I don’t get bored and abandon the second batt halfway through.
  
  
• Trying to make myself work on something that isn’t making me happy doesn’t work. It’s better to screw the deadline, take a day or two off, and play with something that makes me happy.
  
  
• It is possible for me to frame things as “Next time I’ll do this” rather than “I am so stupid”. Takes some work, though. :)

I finished spinning Olympic Roses.


I finished Olympersimmon socks, although I will NEVER use the Orchid lace pattern again as LONG AS I LIVE.


Got halfway through the Olympic Butterflies batt, and didn't even cast on the Olypomotamus socks. (See above list of lessons learned.) But I had fun!

sock blockers

http://www.purrfectlycatchydesigns.com/sockblockers.htm
Gorgeous wooden sock blockers with animal cutouts. (Hedgehog! Cat! Raven!)

jitterbug

Resolved: that I shall always have skeins of Jitterbug in my stash.

It is so restful to knit with size 2 dpns, and socks are done so quickly in compairson to size 1 projects. So of course, bouth socks for Ravelympics are size 1. Hmm. I've still got time to swatch -- I wonder if the Persimmon yarn might like size 2 smsll. Ooh, and I should swatch the Pomatomus pattern to be sure size 1s won't drive me fucking spare.

Ravelympics!

I am so excited about Ravelry's Ravelympics. I was planning an Olympic knit-along anyway (which is half the reason I skipped Tour de Fleece), and it's fun to be part of a group. I'm fairly sure I've overcommited, but if people can knit an entire damn sweater during the Olympics, I should be able to manage 2 pairs of socks and 2 rovings! Right?

---

Team Ankh-Morpork

This is my main team. I couldn't figure out what team to join until I realized that I spent the weekend rereading some of my favorite Discworld witch novels. I've signed up for 3 events:

• Sock Put -- Olympomatomus socks. Pomatomus socks in a screaming vivid fushcia/yellow superwash merino from The Accidental Knitter.
  
  
• Handspun Heptathlon -- Olympic Roses baby alpaca/bamboo. I've only got around 2.5 oz to spin, and I'm going to aim for a balanced 2-ply laceweight as practice for my other handspun event.
  
  
• Handspun Heptathlon -- Olympic Butterflies Merino/Bamboo. This is 4 oz of multicolored gorgeousness and I'm going for a 2-ply laceweight or light fingering.

---

Team OkieKnitters

I had to join the home team for this sock -- the yarn colors make me think of home.

• Sock Put -- Olympersimmon socks. This is going to be interesting -- it uses the beautiful Orchid pattern overlaid on Cat Bordhi's Riverbed sockitecture. Riverbed puts all arch increases beneath the sole, so the Orchid pattern will float along the top of the foot. And I'll be using Bordhi’s toe-up master reinforced heel, which is rapidly becoming my favorite. The yarn is Persimmon SW merino from pigeonroofstudios. It's a beautiful golden yellow purple orange brown white blend that makes me think of autumn in Oklahoma.

autumn's joy finished!

I'm really pleased with this. It was my grand experiment with 3-ply fractal spinning, and it's a beautiful blend of structure and randomly placed color. 1 ply is a short color repeat and 2 plies are long repeats. I didn't try to match up the long repeats -- I like a little randomness in my structure. :)

Roving


Singles wound for plying


Plying




Plied




Finished

buttercup & zaria

buttercup - yarn, I made it!

I finally finished the Buttercup SW merino/tencel from Spincerely. 3-ply, 148 yards, 18 wpi. It’s like liquid sunshine. It fluffed up considerably more than the Zaria, possibly because I fell asleep while soaking it... for 5 hours. :)

Roving


Singles


Singles wound on the plying bobbin


Plied!


Finished!

new lazy kate setup -- it's wonderful!

I first started out with Spinsanity's lazy kate. It might work well for someone who spins thick, but I spin laceweight singles, and there's not enough drag to prevent massive tangles and snarls.


However, I found that it works beautifully for winding singles onto a bobbin. I inserted screws into the PVC bobbin caps, rigged a shoebox to poke my spindle through, and use my electric drill to wind on.


That left the problem of needing a good system for transferring the singles from their 3 bobbins into a ball or 1 large bobbin for plying. So this past weekend, I added a second lazy kate to my collection -- a box from Target that was laying around and some old knitting needles.


It works perfectly! I put the large bobbin on Spinsanity's lazy kate and used the drill to wind on the 3 singles, then I put the large bobbin in the new lazy kate and plied from that. It was flawless! No snarls, no tangles, even tension on all the singles... I'm thrilled!

ref: niddy noddys

Ashford mini = 2 ft skein

Ashford std = 5 ft skein

progress! I have some!

I had some extra time today after a vet appointment that I had originally allocated for housework. I decided spinning would make me much happier.

I decided to see how the Buttercup liked the custom ornate spindle from Spinsanity. It loves it! I got another big chunk spun, and I'm down to less than a fifth of the original roving.

I also made progress on Autumn's Joy -- one more strip and the second bobbin will be spun. I definitely split the roving too many times and the long color repeats will be shorter than I'd like, but this yarn has some serious potential.

lavender to eggplant

I started a new project this week. (Of course I did. Sigh.)

It started with a very dark purple BFL batt (Sun Dried) that I had expected to have more tonal variation. I was trying to think of what I could ply with it to lighten it up.




Then I got this gorgeous superwash merino batt (Delilah).


I spun a test single on the same spindle as the test from the first batt. I noticed that the deep purple looked a lot less murky next to the Delilah, and that it shaded the Delilah towards purple rather than raspberry. So I plied them together and liked the result.



I'm planning a 3 ply sock yarn: 2 plies of Sun Dried and 1 of Delilah. It should be gorgeous.

mini mystery skein

I spun a wee tiny 11 yard (35 feet) skein last night. The roving was a mystery fiber sample that came with my roving from woolytreasures.


After the agonizing week I've had, playing with something pretty was just what I needed. I spun it all, and realized that while it would look great as a 3-ply, it might work well as a Navajo ply. That way, I wouldn't have to measure out the length, divide it into 3, blah blah blah. So I gave it a shot.


It's my second attempt at Navajo plying, and it's not bad!

concealed wraps -- who the hell cares?

I'm turning a heel from Cat Bordhi's Big Book o'Insanity, and I had a revelation. I don't give a damn about concealing the wraps. It's an annoying, fiddly, time-consuming chore and I'm not doing it anymore.

Looking for Truffles finished!

BFL/Bamboo from butterflygirldesigns.etsy.com.
83 yards of 3 ply DK weight at 11 wpi.

Roving


Single


Singles wound together for plying


Plied




Finished

Autumn's Joy SW merino

This is my first fractal spinning project. On Friday I read all the fractal spinning posts I could find on Ravelry and ordered the back issue of Spin Off magazine. That night I decided I didn't want to wait for the magazine, and figured out how I wanted to split the batt. I decided on a 3-ply, 2 plies with long repeats and 1 ply with short. I started spinning the short repeats that evening, and am now 1 hour away from finishing that single. Doesn't it look lovely on the spindle?







SW merino purchased from exclusivelylindalee.etsy.com

Spindle purchased from gmtlvsred.etsy.com