Sockpal Socks and Mystery Shawl 3

Progress at last! I finished the first clue of mystery shawl along 3. I'm very happy with the results. The yarn I am using is Shadow by Knitpicks.com in Lost Lake, a very lovely dark green with hints of blue, yellow and a bit of brown. I love the color, and I also like how soft the yarn is and how easy it knits up. I'm using much larger needles on this shawl than on MSA2. I'm much happier with the end product so far. Take a look at a corner of the shawl.

And what about MSA2? Well it got blocked this weekend and is currently drying on the floor. It blocked out much better than I feared. No snap or funny sounds when I stretched it. I think adding a different bind off edge may have helped the blocking process. It's much larger than I had hoped for too. It's currently being blocked at about 62 inches wide and 26 inches deep. I know it will lose some of this sizing when it is removed from the pins and relaxes, but not much. Not too bad considering I am only 5 feet 4 inches tall, so wingspan wide this is close. It's awfully thin though and would make a nice summer shawl more than winter shawl. Oh well. It's still lovely.

I also decided which sock pattern to use for my sockpal socks. I swatched the lace pattern in Pretty Petals by Jeanie Townsend and decided the yarn was just too busy for this lovely pattern. So, I gave in and started Broadripple, found at Knitty.com. I wasn't exactly thrilled with the way the pattern looked on the model socks. That is . . . until I saw the yarn in the pattern. It really looks cool in this pattern, especially when on the foot. Take a look at a picture of the beginning of the cuff and the yarn skein wound into a ball. Great colors in this yarn. The image shows a bit more green than actually present in the yarn.

It's looking good! What do I think of Socks that Rock sock yarn by Blue Moon Fiber Arts? Well, it's not as soft as I thought it would be considering it is a merino yarn. This could be due to the superwash treatment, the dyeing, the washing of the yarn with harsh chemicals (don't know if this is true or not), or even the fact that the yarn is tightly plied. Whatever it is, the yarn has more of a cotton blend feel to my hands, but then I have sensitive hands. I love the colors in this yarn though and think it will wear well. I'm glad I purchased a skein for myself and can't wait to start those socks.

I also finished my mother's socks and will have a picture up as soon as I give them a good bath and let them dry.

That's it for me. Happy fibering all!

Soumak Obsession

I think the title pretty much says how I spent the weekend, obsessed with Soumak weaving. I have pictures, but the work is not complete yet. Friday night and most of Saturday were spent working on this project. Remember, this was a fiber challenge. I have no more fiber to work with once I use up all of once color. That was pretty interesting and I ended up having to juggle some colors around, but I am well pleased with how it is turning out so far. I am done with the CA sunset and almost done with the NC sunset. It's looking good. Even my hubby is impressed. Here's the pictures.

The left picture shows the first warp I did, the one that fell apart. The second image shows the complete piece as it is right now. Next week, I will have closeups of the finished sides. I'm very please with how it is turning out, but there is no more dyed fiber, so I have to do some fill-in with black yarn. See the top horizontal yarns going across the piece, those are used to separate the warp threads and to mark my 2 inch lines. This is where each piece will end. So, I have about 1.5 inches left on the CA side and about 1 inch on the NC side. Not sure how that happened, but there you have it. I should have added some more black on the bottom of the CA side, but it will work out.

Sockapaloooza progress -- none. I have an image though of the yarn. The left skein is the sockpal yarn, "Fire on the Mountain." The right skein will become a pair of socks for me, "Lapis."

I'm still pretty confused about which sock pattern I want to use with the sockpal yarn. I'm now thinking about Jeanie Townsend's Socks Knit Along "Pretty Petals". I'll swatch to see how this yarn looks in this pattern, but it is reminescent of the dragon scales (wyvern pattern) with a bit more lace to them on the top, but the pattern doesn't go all the way down. Not sure why. Sigh, I want the pattern to travel all the way down to the toes almost, not just on the top. Especially as I think this yarn would look great that way. I'll see how the swatches look and make my decision then.

MysteryShawlAlong3 -- no progress on this at all. I was busy with the Soumak weaving. I was also worried the warp would fall apart on me, so I was rushing to finish that project. There are some typos in the charts for MSA3, but they have been fixed, so I may start that tonight, depending on how I feel about the soumak weaving.

I did not join the Knitting Olympics because life is packed right now, but I did work on the weaving while watching the Olympics.

That's it from me. Happy fibering!

Sockapaloooza Confusia

Okay, my sock yarn came. Yeah. I'll have pics soon. But, the confusion. Do I knit the yarn using the Broadripple pattern from Knitty.com or the Wyvern pattern by Marnie MacLean? Decisions, decisions, decisions. I'm not a big fan of the Broadripple pattern, but I know it will look good in the yarn. The Wyvern pattern appeals to me. Opinions?

Dyeing, Embellishing, and Relaxing

Okay, before I get going on other fiber related content -- no I did not block the mystery shawl 2 yet. I thought I would wait until I can be home most of the day to make sure the cats don't decide to lay on it. So, next weekend, probably.

Last Sunday I dyed up my fiber challenge fiber. I had 2 oz of black (and I mean jet black) Wensleydale roving and 2 oz of grey Jacob fiber. In the picture below you can see some of the black yarn I spun up from the black roving and the grey the Jacob roving was before I dyed some of it (top left roving).

I think I mentioned this before, but I decided to try Soumak weaving and have entitled my piece "Sunsets: from California to North Carolina." I was born and raised in southern California and lived there until I ws 22. I left for NC and graduate school. I love to watch the sun setting over the Pacific Ocean and over the mountains of NC. Hence, the title of my piece. In the image above, the top right circle of dyed fiber will be used in the California sunset and the bottom right circle of fiber is for my North Carolina sunset. The yellow (top circle) will not be used as a single color, but blended in with the other colors to give them highlights. Gray does not dye up a nice yellow color, let me tell you. That was a "Duh" moment. I have those every once in a while. Okay, maybe more than once in a while. But, the other colors are about where I want them. Except the blue is too dark. Sigh, but I can blend gray into those yarns.

When will I start this project? Not sure. But I am thinking I want to start soon. I washed the warping yarn -- the black in the bottom right corner. Believe it or not, it didn't bleed at all. I couldn't believe how well it washed up. Some of the black yarn is beaded, and my plan is for an evening bag with some beaded yarn in the strap or handle. Maybe even some beaded yarn in the suns (bought beads for this recently). :-)

Last weekend my husband and I were sick, so not much got done in the way of fiber. This weekend, I did a bit of embellishing on a purchased pillow sham. I wanted to try my new sewing machine and the fancy stitches, plus we found a hole in the couch pillow's sham. So, below are pictures of the sham and close ups of the stitches. I love this machine. I can't wait to try out other features.

I also went to the sewing machine store, Sew Unique Sewing Center. Dangerous place. I was trouble shooting how to make a freestanding embroidery piece. I offered to embroider up a sheep like my mom made me for Robin. Her plan is to sew it on her purse, so I figured a freestanding one would be better than one attached to fabric. I highly recommend this shop if you are thinking of purchasing a Pfaff or Viking sewing machine. The owner and employees have been really helpful. They answer all my questions over the phone as well as help me troubleshoot ides I have in store. They also didn't try to sell me up when I was looking at sewing machines. I value low-pressure in the retail world. When I purchased my sewing machine, I sold myself up. Of course, I did have some parental help. I dislike people trying to tell me what I want or trying to get me to spend more than I have planned or budgeted. Oh and I definitely dislike sexism when shopping. I don't know how many times the sales people have looked to my husband when we are buying something together for me!

Okay, enough ranting about the retail world. My husband and I went out tonight to a movie and ate dinner out (I had a margarita), so we're in a relaxed mood. As Robin knows, I get very relaxed and giggly when I drink. Maybe I'll go finish a pair of socks. Think that is a good idea? Maybe not, but I'll go look at them and try to figure out where I left off anyways!

Happy fibering!

Snap!

That's the sound my finished MSA2 shawl made when I wrapped it around my shoulders and tugged gently to find out how long the ends were jjust after finishing the shawl. Ack!

Where did that snap come from? The top of the central triangle has a bound-off edge. I bound off as loose as I could using a double knit edging and larger needles. Sigh, but obviously that wasn't loose enough!

What did I do to fix this problem? I quickly grabbed my knitting needle and picked up the stitches I could find, then I started to unravel the top bound-off edge, picking up stitches as I went along. This took me quite a while, with much glaring and mumbling about cobweb lace weight yarn and bound-off edges. The breakage occurred in the center of the shawl, so one side of the shawl was much easier to unravel than the other. After picking up all the stitches I planned to pick up, I used one of my favorite crochet hooks, my G (F is my other favorite), and started a crochet bound off edging that was loose. And I MEAN LOOSE!

So, will I have a problem when I block the shawl? Not sure, but I will find out this weekend and the results will be posted . . . no matter what.

Visit with Robin

Well, last weekend was a very busy weekend. I spent a night down with Robin to check out her new house, shown below (garage is cut off, Robin's pic).


While visiting, she and I talked about fiber and traded tips and tricks on projects, as usual. One thing she showed me is how to create a very cheap and inexpensive diz, made out of cardboard! When I got home, I didn't have cardboard, so I made mine out of a foam sheet I happened to have (great to poke earrings through when traveling too). My only concern is the hole may stretch. We'll see if this happens when I get a chance to try it.

I took photos of Robin using her diz. The photo on the left is the diz with a merino batt from Miss Babs behind the diz. Miss Babs doesn't have much on her website still, but she has lovely batts -- superwash merino too! This one has some burgundy in it, lighter reds, and I think some yellow too. It's lovely. There's enough to make a pair of socks. The pic on the right is Robin using the diz (directions below). See, she does too exist!


Directions to use the cardboard diz:
Equipment needed: cardboard or foam sheet, scissors, batt, crochet hook or orifice hook, flat surface such as a TV tray or book.
Note: This is probably easier done sitting on the couch with a TV tray or at a table, but we were in Robin's fiber room.

1) Create your diz -- Cut a hole in a piece of cardboard or foam sheet with scissors, about 1/4" wide. The wider the hole, the thicker the roving you will create. You can cut a hole much smaller too and get finer roving. Robin likes the larger hole because then her roving doesn't fall apart. If you use cardboard, push the raw edges to the side away from your batt -- this way it doesn't catch on your batt.

2) Prepare your batt -- Folding your batt for drafting can be done a number of ways. The first is if your batt is narrow in width, then you can fold the batt in half lengthwise and it's ready for drafting. If your batt is very wide, then you can split the batt in half lengthwise, then fold each half lengthwise. You can also opt to fold your batt in thirds, but this is a bit more difficult to draft out. However, one advantage is that if your batt has several different colors in it across the width, you get a nice mix of ALL the colors if you fold it into thirds rather than splitting first, then folding. Robin folded this batt into thirds; however, she decided later it would have been easier to deal with if she split the batt in half first. This is going to be my plan of attack for my batts.

3) Predraft the end of your batt -- Now that your batt is folded, predraft a little bit of the end of the batt. This will help you pull the fiber through the diz and help set up the roving width.

4) Pull predraft end through diz -- Use your spinning wheel's orifice hook or a crochet hook to pull the predrafted end through the diz.

5) Drafting 1 -- Hold the batt fiber down with one hand (see Robin's position in the picture above) and gently pull on the fiber through the orifice hook. Don't pull too hard or the fiber will separate too much. Pull enough that you have a nice section of fiber between the diz and the rest of the batt that looks a little wider than the width you want for your roving.

6) Drafting 2 -- Hold the batt fiber down and push your diz onto the section of fiber between the diz and the batt. Push the diz onto this fiber until it stops. Repeat step 5 until the end of your batt.

7) Ending the roving -- Robin likes her ends to be a bit wider than her roving, but feel free to tug the lat seciton of your batt to just wider than the width of your roving. Pull it through the diz and you are done with your batt.

Tips -- don't try pulling the fiber back through the diz. Been there, done that, and it wasn't a pleasant experience! Robin let me try this technique with her batt, and I learned this one.

What else did we do while I was there. Well, she was reinspired to start working on her blanket that she is making in the round with some yarn she spun -- silk and wool. Lovely yarn. Unfortunately I forgot to take a pic of it. But I will when it is finished.

Also, I turned the corner on my mystery shawl along 2 finally! I now only have about a third left of one side to finish knitting, and it will be done Yeah! Just in time for mystery shawl along 3. I have to swatch for this one, but Robin has already started her swatch for this shawl.

We both joined the third sockapaloooza, hosted by Alison of The Blue Blog. We ordered our yarn, Socks that Rock, from Blue Moon Fiber Arts. Robin ordered "Alina" for her sockpal, and I ordered "Fire on the Mountain" for my sockpal. I'm knitting the Broadripple sock pattern from Knitty.com. I love the fiber Blue Moon has at The Fold, so I think I will enjoy knitting with this sock yarn. I also bought a skein ("Lapis") for myself, by accident, but hey I'll take it anyways. My plan is to knit River Rapids from Sockbug.

Okay, what else did we do while there? Well, she showed me her lovely alpaca/wool/angora batts she is making, yummy brown/cream goodness. Lovely touchable fiber. Sigh, I tried snagging one, but she kept catching me! They are 50% alpaca I think. I can't recall the other proportions, but ver little angora in them. The angora is from her bunnies. And speaking of bunnies, her littlest one was injured today and we're hoping she will bounce back (no pun intended) in the next week. Here's a pic of Licorice and a closeup showing her gorgeous fiber (Robin took these late last year).


Okay, one last picture from Robin's images. This is Grace, one of Robin's cats. Can you tell she likes the new house?


Happy Fibering!

Editorial Addition -- Robin's bunny Licorice broke her back when she got excited. There was no chance of her recovering, so Robin and her husband decided it was best to put her to sleep. Needless to say, Robin is heartbroken about her bunny. This was the baby of the three and the most affectionate.