Diving deep...

...into the yarn stash for a couple of small skeins of hand-spun yarn.

At one point it seemed like a good idea for a knitter/crocheter to learn how to spin.  Lessons were taken, a wheel was bought, and I fell in with a rogue gang of local spinners.  Camaraderie was enjoyed, and bits of fluff were turned into usable yarn.  I never became entirely proficient though, probably due to a lack of practice, practice, practice. Years pass, wheel gathers dust, and small skeins of hand-spun languish.  Until -- 

A hat appears!  A rather rustic hat, but a useful garment nonetheless.

The brown yarn is from a breed known as Manx Loughtan.  It's a British rare breed known for their interesting horns (among other things I'm sure).  Behold --

The lighter beige yarn is from the California Red breed.  No, the yarn isn't red -- it's the faces of the sheep themselves that are -- see?

Well, perhaps more russet than red, but then no one consulted me. 

So, at long last, something useful -- and who knows? -- maybe the spinning bug will bite again!

Eco Crafting

In an effort to cut back on waste produced in this household, there have been some projects made to replace throw-away or short term use items.  Here are a few --

Cloth napkins -- super easy to make, and pleasant to use.  I like to use quality cotton quilting fabric -- sometimes bought specially, but often leftovers from other projects.  Who says your napkins all have to match?  For meals I like a napkin around 18" square (finished size) -- 10" squares would give you a good size for cocktail napkins to hand out with drinks and nibbles.

In the kitchen I have gone through too many plastic covered sponge scrubbies to count. I'm currently trying out some homemade scrubbies made with Red Heart Scrubby Sparkle yarn. It's polyester, so not ideal, but seems to stay fresher than my former scrubby and so far is holding up well. For knitters, there's a nice pattern on  Ravelry  If crochet is your thing -- Midwesternmoms.com has you covered.

How about replacing plastic wrap with some waxed wraps?  There are many instructional sites online -- I went with a link I found on www.apartmenttherapy.com

And finally, a hanging hand towel for cutting back on paper towel use, or wiping hands on the nearest dishtowel.  No link or pattern for this one, as it's just a prototype I made up myself one evening. Will need some tweaks before it shows up as a mini tutorial.  This one is made from some scrap heavy weight cotton, and I finally got around to trying out Kam snaps  -- very easy to use, we'll see how they hold up.

“Once more unto the breach...”

There’s something worthwhile about keeping a record of creative pursuits, no matter whether anyone else sets eyes on this journal — and so I begin again.

"The time had come, so Marvin went."

Farewell, it's been fun.  Until we meet again...

Socks, part deux

Still playing with the knitting machine, and finishing up a WIP.


The second sock went much easier than the first, and now I have a pair.  You'll notice that I didn't bother with trying to make the stripe colors line up exactly the same.  I wasn't sure that I would have enough yarn to do that, and I really don't mind that they are fraternal rather than identical.



To reinforce lessons learned, I immediately cast on another pair.  This pair is also knit from a Regia yarn, but a different fiber blend -- Regia Silk.  It's a 55% wool/25% polyamid/20% silk combination.  I've used it before in its 6-ply incarnation (now sadly discontinued) for long-wearing hand knit socks for the mister, but this is the first time using the lighter weight 4 ply.  And what was today's lesson?  Despite being the same 4 ply weight as the previous socks -- this blend needs to be knit at a slightly tighter tension -- probably due to the inelasticity of the silk.  Still, they are OK fit-wise, and will happily join their friends in the sock drawer.

I have even started a third pair, but I think these won't be so quickly finished.  I think I will do a bunch of socks -- just the machine knitting, not the seaming or hand knit ribbing -- and throw them in a bag for finishing up later.  They are an easy "front of the TV/travelling/etc. project once the machine work is done and it would be good to have some quick to finish projects on hand.  At any rate, that's the plan!

Little bits

Still working through various techniques and patterns with the knitting machines -- this time -- socks.  Well, let's be honest -- sock -- singular.  The pattern is by Ruth Rogers, Single-Bed Machine Knit Socks.  For the non-machine knitters out there -- single bed means no automatic ribbing, or in the round knitting capabilities.  In other words, the sock is knit flat, then seamed.

The seam technique I used is a new one (to me) -- the Bickford seam.  This is a totally flat seam, so I hope it will feel OK when worn.  I don't think it is totally invisible though -- or perhaps I need more practice?  At any rate, it will do for everyday wear for me, although I think that any future gift socks will still be hand knit.  And here is Sock, part 1:

   I'll definitely be making the second one, but it may have to wait just a bit for a spring project.  I did the top ribbing by hand, for a seamless finish, and used an extra stretchy bind off.

 

Another quick little project was a double layered hat from the book "Mid-Gauge Basics + Much More" by Charlene Shafer.  I think it turned out nice, and took little more than an hour (including seaming it up), which was good, considering the Mister needed a quick replacement for a hand knit cap.

 

 

Sometimes speed is a Good Thing! 

And continuing on...

More machine knit sweater goodness, this time an exploration of patterning using the punch card capability of the Silver Reed SK-280.

I used two cones of fingering weight (2/9) Shetland wool from Gardiner of Selkirk, Ltd.  This was a closeout from Webs, many moons ago.  I don't remember the price now, but it was a great bargain.  However, it sat in the stash -- mostly because it wasn't pleasant to hand knit, and it that point I didn't have a machine that would handle that weight of yarn.  Fast forward -- now I do!

The body of the sweater is plain stockinette, the ribbings are hand knit, and the sleeves are knit in a fair isle checkerboard design.  It was my intention to shape all pieces, except the neckline, with full fashioned increases.  However when I started my first sleeve, I saw that the floats from the fair isle pattern, plus the increases gave the edges of the sleeve a somewhat ragged look.  This may be inherent in the type of pattern I was doing, or due to inexperience on my part, but it was not satisfactory.  So, I did a few calculations, and knit up two separate pieces of patterned yardage for the sleeves.  Here you can see the yardage with a pattern drawn on freezer paper and lightly ironed onto the fabric: 

 

This method does waste a bit of fabric, but as you can see, not too much --

 

 

 



After cutting the side edges of the sleeves (top and bottom of sleeve were left on waste yarn), I ran it through the serger to finish off the edges -- scary, but it seems to have worked just fine.

 

 

And here it is all nicely finished --

 



The patterning on the sleeve portion worked out at a different gauge from the plain body portion -- I believe that is typical for fair isle.  A little more math let me work out separate patterns for the sleeves, and I made it easy on myself by selecting simple drop shouldered shaping. 

 

 

All in all, a simple project that turned out to the wearer's satisfaction.  And that is always a good result!