Oops, it's a badger!

This morning I saw this video and got really inspired. Making a layered batt and pulling it through a diz to get a striped rowing. Well, I could not wait to start my trial. I picked some 50 g of superwash merino, 15 g of silk noil (white - the inspiration hit so hard there was no time to go dyeing), 5 g of long staple egyptian cotton, and 19 g black diamond bamboo. The idea with blacks and whites was to get a lot of contrast in the test.

Note: I apologise for the big amount of photos (15) in a single post, but since I am trying something new I wanted to document every step, in case this post has inspirational or educational value to someone. If you are busy or not interested, just skip and check the last pic for the end results.

First I layered some merino to make a lining.

Next, I added half of the silk noil. It needs to be spread really thin to get a nice batt.

It makes a nice effect... like snow?

Then the bamboo. It's has a long staple so it easily gets wound around the feeder drum.

That's not a problem, it clears when the fiber gets packed to the main drum.

The cotton. This is my preferred method for adding cotton. This way I can get very thin and even layers, not clumps. Also, it is a good idea to keep the amount of cotton small.

Looks like this so far:

Finally, all the rest of the merino going in...

The finished batt looks like this:

And nothing sticking to my feeder drum!

Then I took my needle measure tool and used it as a diz to pull the roving out. Well, I used it because I read somewhere in the Fiber Prep group that it works - well, I nearly broke it... At first I tried to make my rowing too wide. What happened I got the circumference of the drum and ended up where I started and made a corner by taking some fiber with the doffer tool. I used a much smaller hole and started slowly, to avoid a "corner" where I started. It works!

I could not get all of it as I pulled, but very little was left on the drum:

The biggest roving I got was 420 cm and 33 g. It made me think of a cute little badger. :o)

And here are all 88 grams of cuteness! A flower of spring. I wonder what spinning it will be like... pain or gain?

Recycling yarn - the silk sweater

I have been recycling yarn for some time already - I think I have unravered about 7 sweaters. After getting my little guy I found many of my sweaters too short - maybe I changed, or the fashion? It demands a lot of character to give a loveliest ever silk sweater to UFF (local charity), especially if there are memories associated with it...

I bought this 100 % silk sweater when I was staying away from home in Austin, TX, in 2006. I could not fit in it anymore. I had already taken it apart when I realized to get the camera.

First I measured it: 22 sts per 10 cm, so I think it's a DK weight. Then, I took apart the chain stitched seams. I got 850 m and 300 g of ribbon yarn, with 13 knots. The sweater was knit with a spandex filament which I separated when frogging this (worth the job!).

Three leaf mitts

Here's a little project I made for christmas present. The pattern is Three leaf mitts by Brenda K. B. Anderson, but I needed to add some stitshes to make them fit adults.

I ended up using 3,5 mm needles added four stitches to the ribbing section to make a pair that fits adult. Added about 2 sts to thumbs and continued edging a bit longer to get better coverage for fingers. The yarn was Novita 7 veljestä dyed with Kool-Aid juice powder.

A work in progress in next photo. These turner out pretty, and the recipient loved them. The pattern was easy to follow and turned out very nice. (The linky to tavelry page) I gave the pattern 5 stars!

Insane sock project

Look what I started for the "other construction" -challenge in the Sock Knitters Anonymous group on Ravelry (here's a linky):

It is the Hexagon Socks pattern by Kirsten Hall.

It is from this book - and featured in the cover:

There will be 27 hexagond per sock and it takes almost an hour to knit one. I'll probably never finish it...

 

 I'm using 2,25 KnitPro Carbonz dpns and Regia 4-fädig sock yarn.

 

I have overdyed the yarn green and I think it looks great in this project. In its previous life, it looked like this (the blue white in right bottom corner):

The book worm knits!

I am knitting a super cool cardigan using the pattern Lydia by Ashley Fay. And it's plain stockinette - but brainless on purpose! I'm working while I knit! Woohoo, here's a way to motivate working long hours on a Saturday. Reading articles from the lap top works well, but the knitting needs to be really plain for this type of reading. Lydia is a raglan pattern worked top-down and a kind-of ribbed shawl collar is added by picking up stitches.

I'm using Lana Grossa Meilenweit 100g Uni/Solid in three colours: tweedy green 07004, tweedy lilac 07002, and black/grey gradient 2503. The yarn is not great - the colours are but the yarn has little surprises here and there. Not much, but the quality is not as good as Regia 4-fädig - colours are much nicer though! I have to admit I played a long time with the merino option of this yarn and other alternatives at the shop, but I could not resist these colours. (Confession: I have it in blue, navy, and pink as well...) Nevertheless, I love this project. I already have plans to do it in some of my handspun yarns.

Here's a linky to my Ravelry project.

Some thoughts about blogging
Well, after many hours of hard work I returned back to blog design issues. I think I am putting things together... I realized I can add a bit of borders to make the photos look like they match the theme. Starting to like what I see. I downloaded a free software Perfect Effects Free, and I can say I like it. The company has a commercial version with more features. The options in the freeware are rather limited but there are some nice effects and I think it is straight forward to use for someone who's never used Photo Shop.

I also realised that blogging in two languages is rather laborious, so I decided to write in english - you'll probably find some issues with grammar and weird word choices but hey, I'm confident enough. Feel free to comment in finnish if you like.