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.

Restarting blogging... Serpentine socks.

My blogs have been hibernating as I've been busy elsewhere, but I am trying to get back on track as I kind of miss having a blog. I finished two projects yesterday - one is still being blocked but here are the Serpentine Socks from Wendy Johnson's book Socks From The Toe Up.

ETA: I have just revised the blog design - still under renovation... ;o)

Blogini on ollut talviunilla muiden kiireiden takia, mutta yritän päästä taas uuteen alkuun koska kaipaan blogia. Sain eilen kaksi projektia valmiiksi, näistä ensimmäinen vielä blokattavana, ja toinen tässä. Serpentine -sukat Wendy Johnsonin Socks From The Toe Up-kirjasta.

They took 77 grams of Novita Nalle yarn that I had overdyed a bit. I'm trying to exhaust my stash from this yarn and move on to nicer yarns. I have some Regia 6-ply waiting in my stash, for instance.

Näihin kului 77 g Novitan Nallea jota olin värjännyt päälle. Yritän päästä Nalleista eroon saadakseni jotain muuta kivempaa tilalle. Varastossani on mm. Regia 6-ply -lankaa odottamassa.

Specs

• Cast on Feb 3, 2013 for SKA  (in Ravelry) challenge (theme: Wendy Johnson as designer of the month)
• Needles 2.75 mm.
• Foot has 13 s per needle.
• Cast on 10+10 using Judy’s Magic cast on technique.
• Started increases for the gusset on the first row of fourth repeat of the pattern (much earlier than the pattern suggests), and they fit well.
• Finished March 2, 2013. For the cuff I increased 2 sts when beginning a pattern repeat, twice. The cuff has three repeats of the pattern.

Speksit

• Aloitus 3.2.2013, osallistuin SKA-ryhmän  (Ravelryssa) haasteeseen (teema: Wendy Johnson suunnittelijana)
• Puikot 2.75 mm. 
• Jalkaterässä13 s per puikko.
• Aloitus Judy’s Magic cast on tekniikalla, 10+10 s.
• Aloitin lisäykset kiilaa varten neljännen mallikerran ensimmäisellä kerroksella (aiemmin kuin ohjeessa neuvotaan) ja sukat istuvat hyvin.
• Valmiit 2,3.2013. Varteen lisäsin kahdesti kaksi silmukkaa mallikerran alkaessa (varressa on kolme mallikertaa).

Link to my project in Ravelry: Serpentines

Ruby cardigan - finished!

I finally finished this cardigan that took forever to knit (because of a dozen other projects, active time to knit this was not that much). The pattern is Ruby (here's a Ravelry pattern link) by Kim Hargreaves. I love the styles of her designs and have queued several of them.

Due to it took me a year to finish, and I lost 10% of my weight due to a low-carb diet, the cardi is quite big (I knit size M without mods, except the collar uses twisted ribbing instead of plain, and the belt is modified). I like it and I might knit another in a smaller size. I would be over the moon with this sweater unless I hadn't lost the weight, but I can't blame the pattern for that. And the joy I get from loosing the weight totally outweights the slight disappointment with size.

Nevertheless, the pattern flatters a curvy shape, hiding those hills and showing the valleys... ;o) That's also one reason why I like Kim's patterns - they typically look flattering on a curvy body. But certainly would look good on anyone. I am women's eurosize 38-40, and around 10 in US sizes, and I think size S would have been better for me.

The yarn I used is Novita Luxus Cloud, which contains wool and bamboo - I'll return to edit for yardage later. It is slightly thicker than the suggested yarn. I love the feel of this yarn! Too sad it is discontinued, as Novita seems to be targetting the supermarket segment more narrowly.

Seabreeze

Tour de Fleece inspired me to card batts for a cardigan. I had dyed tops to have something nice when I want to mix batts. The tops were piled on my table, waiting to get listed in my Ravelry stash. They looked really nice together, inviting and cute, and I could not separate them from eachother. So I mixed them together.

I got eight batts, altogether 500 gramms, and I named them "Seabreeze". I combined alpaca in natural gray alpaca and light turquoise, two different superwash merino tops, and mulberry silk.

It looks lovely as a single - I've got about one third spun so far.

Eglantine socks & squishy birthday cake

Welcome to my brand new spinning-knitting-crocheting-sewing-etc-blog!
Currently I'm knitting the Eglantine socks (Ravelry link) pattern by Nicole Masson. I made my own heel, and have not followed the pattern after I learned the panel, but it is very pretty. This pattern is available for free.

I have modified the pattern slightly at the ending point. Rather than stopping where the pattern repeat ends I just continued in the style of the pattern to make a diamond shape finish for the panel. This is somewhat easy to do. The yarn is Araucania Ranco. It started a pooling twist in the cuff and I continued with alternating rows using both ends of the ball.

Sock knitting inspired me to card batts to spin sock yarns. I just love carding squishy batts that I like to mix several times to make them appear semi-solid in colour. I carded this batt as a gift for a friend who organized a spinning event to celebrate her birthday. Her favorite color is orange.

The batt weights 92 gramms and has 87 % superwash merino and 13 % nylon - to make a nice sock yarn. I dyed both tops before carding the batt. Of course, I did not take pics about the hand painted top.