Dana: On (and off) my needles+ (October 2017)

Omgoodness it has been awhile, and I can't claim to know why. I can give a bunch of excuses, some of which are 'good' and some of which point to me being lazy...

I thought I'd share a quick on (and off) my needles post with a few additional updates of what is going on here in Ithaca.

On my needles:

Contour Lines by Laura Aylor in Malabrigo Rios ,Cumparsita colorway
This yarn was gifted to me by my good friend Anna, from Buffalo. While her and her husband were in Maine this past summer she was kind enough to think of me when passing a yarn shop!!! I, of course, thought what better way to say thank you than to knit a little gift for her from what she had given me!

I've made a few changes to the pattern, since I am a big fan (now) of button bands. So instead of using the long-tail cast-on I did a provisional cast on so that I can easily add a knitted on band later. I also decreased the stitch count since I don't have the required 300yds, and my gauge was a bit bigger than the given.

Vivid Mitts by Jungmi Ryu, in my homespun 'Spring Highway' colorway

I'm taking a little break from knitting socks (my walking knitting) to knit these mitts using my hand-dyed, carded, spun yarn. I'm really curious to see how these knit up. I noticed when doing the gauge swatch that the yarn, when knit up, has a slight blue hue to it (which I love)! This is due to the blue I carded into the grey, I was afraid it had disappeared but it is nice to see that it is there and plays such a role! Here's hoping it continues through-out the project.

I made a change to the pattern by using a tubular cast on opposed to the long tail cast on. I'm not sure if I like it, but I'll go a bit further before I decide...

Stole: Print-o-the-wave by Eunny Jang, in Juniper Moon Findley color #28 (silver)
The saga of this stole continues... I finally got around to picking up the stitches around the edge and was so excited to see the stole reach completion and then.... I ran out of yarn!!!! ugh. I really want to see this stole finished, not because I'm tired of it but because it is going to be so beautiful and I think it might become part of a Christmas gift. The only catch is finding a good match of the Juniper Moon Findley #28...

Off my needles:

Another pair of socks using Adirondack Yarn Company sock yarn

As you know, or not, I knit while walking and my walking knitting is usually socks (though currently it is a pair of mitts). I love that I do this because about once a month I have a new pair of socks which I end up wearing every day for the week after their finished! These were fun ones since I used a cheating method to do simple cables. It took a minute to get use to but made cabling so much more enjoyable! I've also learnt, in my many socks now that my standard is: toe-up, short row toe, heel flap and gusset, and interlock bind-off! (Note: to take this picture I had to take them off for a few minutes...)

Talmadge Cloche by Romi Hill, in Madeline Toshsock

I love this cloche!!!! I had hoped to have a picture of it on, maybe I'll add one later. It is a fantastic knit with a great finished product! I highly recommend this pattern to everyone!!!

In other news:

This past month I have been hard at work for LocalFiber, a organization I have founded in hopes to find solutions to the fragmented sheep-to-shawl infrastructure specifically in the NE with small flock farms. In doing this I have been meeting and working with a number of local farmers in and around Ithaca! In fact a few weeks ago I had the opportunity to help Karen Stern from Windsong Farm on Shearing Day.

Karen raises Wensleydale and Cotswald sheep, as well as beef and poultry on her 175 acre farm in Burdett, NY. Needless to say it is a picturesque place, but a lot of work. The farm is Karen's full time job, having left her previous career as a small animal veterinarian to attend to the farm full time. I had heard she was going to be shearing that weekend and asked if she could use a hand...

 

I got there at 1:30pm and left at 7pm. All in all ~50 ewes and rams were sheared. Also on hand was Jackie Harp, a professional wool grader/classer/sorter (these are her photos) and the shearer was Aaron Lux from Aaron's Sheep Shearing out of Western Massachusetts. He travels all over the NE shearing. He is amazing! No second cuts and beautiful care in his work!

Together with the Cornell Cooperative Extension of Tompkins County, and a number of farmer collaborators, I recently submitted a SARE grant proposal to research and address solutions to the fragmented  fiber processing infrastructure her in the Finger Lakes... Fingers are crossed (but we don't find out until March 2018). It is amazing the things I've learnt about the difficulties of raising small flock breed specific sheep (and other fiber producing animals). The people that bring us these beautiful yarns and fiber really do go through quite a bit to get them to us! I hope we can find some solutions and make the process a bit more sustainable along the way.

With that LocalFiber has been given the opportunity to host a pop-up shop at SewGreen Ithaca for the month of December! So exciting (and a lot of work). We have 6 farms committed at the moment. They include: Windsong, Laughing Goat Fiber Farm,  Ironwood Hill Farm, Trinity Farm, Shepherd's Creek Alpaca & West Creek Family Farm. I'll give updates as time goes on. If you are interested in find out more send an email to localfiber.ny@gmail.com and ask to get on our listserve!

Dana: On (and Off) my needles August 2017

While I feel like it's been a slow go of things, with all the summer activities and travels, in writing this I am surprised by how much I've actually done!

Finished Projects:

Spring Highway Yarn (and intended project):
I'm really excited about my handspun/hand-dyed 'spring-highway' colorway. I got the fiber a few months back from SewGreen Ithaca, a local fiber and sewing reuse shop, labelled 'wool roving'. It will be one of the next 'on-the-needles' projects as Vivid Mitts by Jungmi Ryu. I hoping to get them going and finished before this winter sets in...

Squares for Blanket/Quilt:
Not too long ago Betsy and I came up with blanket KAL. The idea was, by next fall/winter, we would have made a woolen blanket from our many scraps of yarn from our many projects. I originally thought I would knit my squares as swatches of different patterns, killing two birds with one stone: working on the KAL and learning new stitch patterns as well. BUT with all of my other knitting projects working and waiting I started to think maybe I wanted to do something 'easier & quicker' then knitting swatches... Enter my long forgotten pin loom, which I purchased 3 years ago then quickly forgot about. It is PERFECT for this project, a quick little weave with the end of a skein and voila a 4" square to add to my blanket.

Rainbow Socks (Version 0.3):

In my 'On (and Off) my Needles June 2017' post I had shared the version 0.1 of this sock. The completed sock is version 0.3. I had, for a long time dreamed of getting my hands on Zauberball sock yarn, and when I saw it for sale on Webs (I think it was Webs) I jumped at the opportunity! The plan was to do a simple vanilla sock with short row toe and afterthought short row heel (I read that afterthought heels are perfect for self-striping yarn to keep the rows nice and neat). Version 0.1 I was disappointed in the toe, too loose compared to the tube. Version 0.2 I got bored with straight stockinette. Version 0.3 I am happy with the results! I added a simple eyelet pattern, tightened up the short-row toe, and changed from a short row heel to a standard afterthought heel and followed Elizabeth Zimmerman's recommendation of taking 2/3rds of the stitches to make a heel rather than 1/2.

Works in Progress:

Stole: Print-o-the-wave by, Eunny Jang:

No picture becuase it is all bunched up on 24" circular needles in preparartion for the knitted on edge. This project I start and stop at, so it is not moving so quickly. All the other things keep taking precedence. I will finish it though, as it is a beautiful pattern and I can't wait to see it completed (or apparently I can). :)

Targhee from SheepSpot Breedschool:
A few months ago I signed up for Sheepspot's Breed School, and so far I am really happy I did (although I would say it is a bit expensive for the quantity, the specificity of the intention is worth it). Every other month I receive ~4oz of breed specific wool along with a bit about the breed and ideas/encouragement in how to spin it. With an emphasis on sampling and recognizing this wools traits. Last month I received ~4oz of Targhee. A beautiful cloudy soft squishy (aka crimpy) breed. Having opted for the un-dyed plan I am also able to flex my color muscles. Touching this wool made me think of cotton candy pastel. The intention is to spin a thicker yarn with a light twist and knit it into a simple squishy cowl...




Axil:
Back in June Karen, Betsy, Nilay, Ela,  and myself visited Crooked Creek Farm in Brooktondale, NY. Amy and her husband raise Cormo/Rambouillet/Finn sheep. Not only did we spend a great evening visiting we came home with some beautiful fleece! I purchased  a total of 8 lbs of fleece: 5 lbs of Axil (grey-ish), 2 lbs of Charlie (dark chocolate brown), and 1lb general fine white. I am still working on cleaning and processing Axil, and love how he is spinning up! After some sample spins I decided to spin him into a 2ply woolen short draw with ~40-degree twist. So far so good! (Added side note, I really love spinning on my dealgan!!!)

Dream Items:

Just something I've been salivating over...

Kick Spindle by True Creations

Karen: On (and Off) the needles, August 2017

Taking after Dana in this, I wanted to share what I've been working on, and what's been finished!

Off the Needles: Simple Hand-dyed Socks

I started these so long ago, like, before I both started and finished a sweater and a move halfway across the country, long ago. The yarn was KnitPicks superwash, dyed at a dying party with Betsy and Dana (and Nilay and Ella).

I am in love with how the yarn turned out in these, so I decided to stick with a simple stockinette stitch for the body, with a seed stitch stripe accent across the front and back of the socks. Used the heel flap method, should try short rows as per Betsy's suggestion sometime in the near future.

On the Needles: Sweater Sampler

The sweater sampler from The Sweater Workshop by Jacqueline Fee has been on my needles for a little while, since before the move a month ago. I am a huge fan of this book and project, as it teaches so many techniques and options for use in the making of a sweater. From looking at how different ribbings look, to increasing and decreasing in pairs, to colorworking and stripes, this ugly fish-shaped project going to be a reference for sweater options for years to come. I highly recommend the book and the sweater sampler project.

This is super close to the end of it, and I'm eager to start a sweater for my husband at some point in the near future!

On the Needles: Alpaca Infinity Scarf

It's no secret that I love super soft yarn, particularly alpaca. I found this 100% baby alpaca yarn on sale at a local yarn and crafts shop called Fancy Tiger Crafts, and I couldn't do without it. I'm making a thick, textured (a simple knit-slip or slip-knit alternating with knit rows) infinity scarf a la Jessica Jones style. This stuff (I think it's Blue Sky alpaca) is gloriously soft, sport weight, and I'm excited for the resulting winter and fall fluffiness!

On the Needles: Sunset Socks

In between my heel series elements, I've been experimenting with sock blanks! I dyed this one in a orange-purple-grey gradient, and am now making up some socks. The sock blank is endlessly entertaining to knit from, and I love how the gradient turned out (even though it's not really what I imagined!). I'll have to do a sock blank gradient tutorial some time!

Now, for the question everyone's thinking: What heels will they have??? You'll have to wait and see!

Off the needles: Socks from Dana's Handspun

Hello from Tennessee! These socks have been done for a while, but since our wireless router is in a box on a truck somewhere between Ithaca and Oak Ridge, I haven't posted about them yet.

Details:
Yarn: Dana's handspun, from Malabrigo Nube, colorway "Diana"
Pattern: Texture pattern from Hermione's Everyday Socks, plugged into my standard sock recipe (toe-up, short-row toe, short-row heel, 1x1 twisted rib cuff until I run out of yarn)
Needles: US No.1 DPNs, two sets of four needles each

Firsts for this project include German short rows and doing my socks two-at-a-time on two sets of DPNs (rather than a single long circular, Magic Loop style).

German short rows are my new favorite way to do short rows --  they are very quick and simple and look very clean when finished. I'll have to do a more detailed comparison in my sock heel study, coming soon!

DPN-style two-at-a-time was a big success as well. I learned Magic Loop two-at-a-time from Dana earlier this year, and I liked it a lot -- finally, I could actually make sock #2 the same as sock #1 -- but I was getting increasingly frustrated navigating the last few stitches before the fold on each sock, which seemed to get impossibly tight no matter what I did. So I decided to go back to DPNs, but keep the two-at-a-time format. Now I just switch back and forth from one sock to the other after a few rows or a pattern repeat.

The only problem I discovered is with the cast-on. I usually use Judy's Magic Cast-on and cast on the full number of foot stitches (58 here) over two needles, then immediately make a short-row toe over half the stitches before joining in the round for the foot. This works great when you can scoot those extra stitches-in-waiting onto the cable of a circular needle, but when they're stuck on an extremely rigid DPN right next to where you're working the toe, it's nearly impossible to maneuver. I ended up casting on over a DPN and a circular so I could slide those stitches onto the cable, but it would be nice to find a way to do the cast-on that doesn't require a matching circular needle. More experimentation is needed!

Also, these socks were done just in time for my sister-in-law to wear to Knoxville's Pride parade -- she needed some rainbows!

On (and Off) my Needles, June 2017

I've been posting a lot about my fiber adventures lately, and I realize it looks like I spend a lot of time adventuring and little time making. I'd like to rectify that by beginning a monthly post about what is on (and recently off) my needles (or drop spindle!).

Off My Needles, Alex the Mouse:

I've been doing my best to follow along with A Year of Techniques, presented by Mason-Dixon Knitting and A-C Knitwear. Every month a new knitting technique is introduced with a new project. May's technique was the pin-hole cast on with the Alex the Mouse by Ella Austin. I didn't get started until mid-May, and I completed my Alex in the first week of June. (There were a few times I had to frog due to color-work tension, and I lost count of the number of rows in the legs, so they were a little uneven and I frogged there too*), but I am so happy with how Alex turned out. June's Project is the Talmadge Cloche by Romi Hill, the technique is knitted edging (instead of casting off the 'traditional' way you do a decorative edge). It is late June and I have only now gotten all the goods together for the cloche, but I don't mind. I first want to get a few things off my needles before I start another project.

(*See below for a neat way to keep track of rows) 

I knit Alex in Coop Knits Socks Yeah ( I loved this sock yarn, great stitch definition and so soft, I would definitely purchase it again. It has a nice heather-y look to it).

The yarn I have for the Talmadge Cloche is a Madeline Tosh Sock in the Well Water colorway from my stash, it has been waiting for a good use and I know this is a perfect match! (Now I just got to find me some pretty buttons)...

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Works in Progress # 1, Always a sock:

I've mentioned before I knit while walking to campus (okay I knit while walking most anywhere), but in order to do so I have to have a 'brainless' knit to work on, enter stockinette stitch socks!!!! In other words I'm one of the many who commonly have socks on the needles. 

I have been wanting to knit socks with Zauberball Sock, by Skacel, since the first time I came across it! A month or so back I found it on sale  and jumped at the chance to purchase a skein. I purchased the 1564 colorway. For these socks I am doing a short row toe and after thought heel. I recently learned that after thought heels are great for keeping the stripy pattern consistent in self-striping yarn (with a heel flap and gusset self striping yarn may end up with a zig-zag around the heel and ankle). Between that and having never done and after thought heel before I thought 'why not'? 

My thoughts on short row toes (and maybe on the after thought heel when I get there, since i believe it is short row as well). This has been a lesson on how knitting in the round may result in a different gauge than flat knitting. This is mainly attributed to tension differences between knitting and purling. This is absolutely true for me, as evidenced by my loose toe bed and immediate (very noticeable) gauge change from the toe to the foot. I don't mind so much in this case being that they are socks, but I would like very much to figure out how to get a nicer/cleaner transition in the future.

One last comment on these socks, but applicable to any project where keeping track of rows is important. Freya, from one of my favourite video podcasts, Freya Spins, at one point mentioned a way she keeps track of rows with scrap yarn and a tapestry needle. I thought I'd try it and I love it! I've been counting every 5 rows and simply stitch the scrap yarn between knit stitches to mark my progress.

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Works in Progress # 2, Stole Print-o-the-wave by Eunny Jang:



So, this project has been 'on my needles' for quite some time now (It languished in the corner while Alex was being worked on, and ignored while I knitted a pair of socks from hand-dyed). Mostly I can blame this on my being a one project person up until recently, by recently I mean a week or two. I am so happy I have found my way to having multiple projects going at once, in large part because this beautiful print-o-the-wave stole by Eunny Jang, is finally being worked on again!!!

I can comfortable say I am about 65% of the way. I had a few challenges to overcome in the beginning that were fixed using a life-line and stitch markers. (I don't know if I'd ever attempt lace with out these techniques now). The body is made of two mirrored panels with a provisional cast on in between. The pattern is a pretty simple 12 row repeat, and 16 stitch repeat BUT it  definitely requires attention. So I turn on the telly or some you tube and knit away. After the body is complete there is a knitted edging to be done before finishing. 

I knit this stole using Juniper Moon Farm lace Yarn in the Findley colorway.

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On the Spindle, Home dyed colorway - 'Spring Highway':

I like to say 'Spring Highway" like Jack, from Will & Grace, does 'jazz hands'. I was returning home from a weekend visit with my parents, and it was a perfect NE spring day. That young green, and that spring yellow filling in whatever spaces it could find. The sky was that perfect sky blue with cotton ball white clouds. For some reason I thought to myself "I must create a colorway from this!!!!" So I did.

I am so proud of this colorway, not because it is beautiful (it's not), but because I imagined it, and I created it, and it really has turned out how I envisioned it (though the yarn bloomed more in the setting than I had expected). The initial intention was to make a pair of socks from this (I have grey reinforcing thread), and maybe I still will. For now I have one more skein to spin and then... we'll see!

Wool Washing (a.k.a. removing the poop)

The Crooked Creek Farm adventure was a couple of weeks ago, at which I got just over 2 pounds of gorgeous, grey, white, and black wool. My fiance is not too fond of the smell of sheep poo (I'll admit it's not my favorite either), so I had to get through the washing "quickly" (if within about 2 weeks counts as quickly, hah).

Dana and I did a test run just a couple of days after the adventure, to get started and figure out the kinks together. Overall, it went really well, and I'm excited to work with the result! We forgot to take pictures then, so I figured I'd show what I've been up to now.

The first step from raw wool to clean, gorgeous garment is to pick any gunk out of the wool (poop, second cuttings, leafy vegetal matter, etc.). Sitting in a tub listening to podcasts, or on Dana's front porch with beer and friends, and it can go by quickly! Also, much of the vegetal matter is removed in the carding and washing process, and the poop dissolves in the wash, so I wasn't too picky about picking out the gunk, just got the largest bits.

Next is the washing. For this, Walmart buckets and dollar store laundry bags are super helpful. I started filling the buckets with the hottest water my bath could run, and adding in a few generous squirts of dish soap for the first couple of washes. The water is added to the bucket each time before the wool is introduced, since agitating the wool increases the risk of felting it. Each rinse was left sitting for 20 minutes, and the rinses weren't done until the rinse water ran clear.

The laundry bags were removed from the rinse water, squeezed to remove water, rolled up in a towel to further dry, and lastly the wool was laid out to dry in a sunny window. Once dry, it's ready for carding, spinning, and knitting!