The Knitting Pirate

After a long internal debate, conversations with friends, and bewailing to Pirate-Husband my inability to spend money on myself, I’ve finally ordered the Sonata. I am very excited, especially about the idea of taking a wheel to Pennsic with me!

Meanwhile, the potential three-ply sock yarn is almost complete. I’ve got three bobbins that are almost full and almost evenly-weighted, and I am distributing the last bit of fiber across them after running each through the wheel again to add extra twist. When I looked at what I’d spun, there was no way it was going to be firm enough for a sock yarn. Fortunately it’s easy enough to add twist, and as it’s taken me months to spin this stuff, the addition will get the singles all active and springy again.

If it turns out that I fall out of love with the Traditional, I am sure that I will be able to sell it. It’s a great starter wheel. And if it turns out that I love each wheel equally in different ways, I can keep them both!

Yesterday evening, I finished off the second bobbin of this Ashland Bay merino. It’s not overflowing-full, but it has more on it than the first bobbin. I made the mistake of not splitting the fiber into three equal parts before I started. Fortunately there is extra, and after I have the third bobbin full I’ll weigh them all and add to wherever it’s needed. This isn’t the first yarn I’ve spun, but it’s the first that’s pretty close to the image I had in my head of what it should look like. It will probably be the first handspun yarn that I knit up, which is exciting in its own right!

I’m already starting to think about which fiber to spin next! I am leaning towards this BFL from FreckleFaceFibers that Pirate-Husband bought for me simply because I thought it was beautiful. This time I’ll be smart about it and split the fiber evenly before I begin. Maybe I’ll try the fractal spinning technique on it. The idea is to split the fiber lengthwise, and spin half of it as it is, to get long lengths of color on the first bobbin. The second half of the fiber is further split and spun to the second bobbin, so that the final two-ply skein has parts where the colors match up and parts where they don’t. It sounds like a fun and interesting experiment!

For the Stripey Striped Socks, I’d planned to use Wendy’s Fingering Weight, Toe-Up Socks with Gusset Heel. As I got closer to the heel, I didn’t like the idea of stripes going around the gusset. They don’t always look right where the increases are made. And I’d been almost entirely happy with the fit of the Quick Toe-Up Socks. I wanted to tweak the pattern a bit to see if I could make them fit perfectly. I decided to do another short-row heel, this time over 60% of the stitches rather than 50%. The heel isn’t striped, but I think it will look nifty as a gradient in contrast with the rest of the sock’s stripiness. I only wish I’d done the toe that way, too! At two rounds past the heel it’s too soon to try on for fit, but I expect that the leg will go quickly enough.

Today is Spinning Tuesday! I plan to finish the second bobbin of my potential sock yarn. I say “potential” because even though I started spinning with the idea of making sock yarn, I think it may end up being too heavy for socks. If it does, it will be a great drop-stitch scarf and I’ll try again for sockweight with the next fiber.

Finally, finally, after two years, I have completed my ninth pair of socks, the Pomatomus. I love them, now that they’re done. They fit well and are comfortable. So far, they are the most complex project I have ever finished. The pattern was well-written and not at all difficult to follow. I would recommend it to anyone wanting to knit some fancier socks. Some people have mentioned being hesitant to try this pattern because it looks so hard. It’s really not!

So why did it take two years to finish the socks if the pattern isn’t hard? Simple: I hate the yarn. I wish I liked it – the colors are gorgeous and ripple together like sunlight on water, just perfect for a sock that looks like fish scales. Pirate-Husband says that they are a “triumph of stick-to-it-iveness!” I’d wanted to make matching armwarmers; It’s unfortunate that knitting with cotton blends makes my hands ache. I have 100g of it plus some change from the socks, and it’s up for sale or trade. If I get no takers, maybe in a year or so I’ll try those armwarmers.

One of my goals at Sheep and Wool was to purchase fibers that I’d never tried before. Here’s the haul. Not pictured: the Finn/Mohair I posted about on Sunday, and the pound of raw Romney that Janis has taken with her. I have spun Romney before, but it was dyed/processed stuff, so this counts as a new experience too.

Falkland Top from Bullen’s Wullens.

80/20 Merino/Silk from Bullen’s Wullens in the same colorway. I plan to spin this separately from the Falkland and then ply them together.

80/20 Merino/Silk from Cloverleaf Farm. I could not resist these colors!

“Starry Night” is 50/50 Wool/Mohair with some Angelina for sparkle, from Tintagel Farm.

Corriedale Solids from Stony Mountain Fibers, and a variety of glitz. With the nylon roving that I ordered from Sheep Shed Studio, I plan to card this into batts for spinning sock yarn.

Not a bad haul, and not over my budget, either! I am really looking forward to experimenting with all this stuff. It should be enough to keep me busy until next year’s Sheep & Wool festival!

On Saturday, Janis and I went to the Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival, and had a wonderful time! For the most part, I kept to my shopping list. I didn’t buy anything that wasn’t on the list, and I didn’t buy some things that were on the list, like semi-solid sock yarns. I didn’t buy any yarn at all, actually!

I picked up both a spinner’s control card and a WPI (wraps per inch) tool, which is basically just a bit of wood with a one inch notch cut in it. These should help me get to a point where I’m more consistent in my spinning.

Then I bought a variety of fibers to spin – a four ounce braid of Merino/silk in a foresty green and brown, four ounces each of Merino/silk and Falklands dyed in the same bluesy colorway that I plan to spin separately and ply together, eight ounces of “Starry Night”, 50-50 wool and mohair with a bit of gold glitz, and an eight ounce bag of Finn/mohair locks in a variety of colors that somehow all go together well.

Janis and I are splitting two pounds of raw Romney, but she’s taking the whole of it home with her to clean. I think that’s awesome of her!

I snagged about fourteen ounces of Corriedale in a bunch of solid colors for making blends on the drum carder, but I couldn’t find any nylon roving at the show. When I got home, I ordered a pound of it from Sheep Shed Studio. I got a few small baggies of glitz in different colors to blend in, surprising myself, as I never thought I’d like the stuff. It’s a lot less scratchy than I thought it would be.

What’s surprising is that I decided that I like the walnut finish on the Kromski Sonata better than the new mahogany finish. I had been so excited for the Sonata to be released in mahogany, as I’d seen both finishes on websites here and there and didn’t really care for the walnut much. Now that I’ve seen them in person, I’m definitely leaning towards the walnut!

On Sunday, I sorted out the colors in the Finn/mohair blend and carded two batts. The fiber seems to be less clean than I thought it would be; I’m definitely noticing lanolin on my hands, and wondering if I should re-wash it before I card any more. The first batt seems to be more mohair, and the second more Finn. I teased the locks apart with my fingers and fed the batt through three times. For the second batt, I used the teasing tool that came with the carder to open up the locks more, and only had to do two passes to get a reasonably smooth batt.

When I was tired of carding, I went upstairs and spun for about 45 minutes before bed. I’m working on some Ashland Bay merino top that might be thin enough for a three-ply sock yarn, and coming to the end of the second bobbin. I’ll have to weigh the singles, since I was stupid and didn’t split the top before I began.

More pictures when I have a sunny day, so I can get good shots with accurate color!