Learning to spin

Well, this post is loooong over due and karma is paying me back.  I've got that old Blood Sweat and Tears song, Spinning Wheel, stuck in my head.  And now you can have it too.

You're welcome.

But music from the '60's is not what this post is about.  It's about unexpected kindness and generosity.

A while back, I mentioned that I wanted to learn to spin my own yarn.  

And a few days later, a package from Araignee's Tangled Web showed up on my door step.  Not only did the box contain a large amount of a variety of fibers, there was also a drop spindle, a couple of Araignee's special soaps and a copy of Respect the Spindle.  Apparently I'd had perfect timing when I said I wanted to learn to spin because Araignee was in the middle of a de-stash.

Thank you, thank you, thank you Araignee!

I'm embarrassed to admit that the box of fiber has been sitting here on my desk for almost two months untouched.  In my defense, I've been frantically trying to get a few projects finished and off the needles before 'the season' started and I had to return to work. Sadly, I did not get everything finished that I'd hoped to.  But give me a month or two and I will be learning to spin.  Or more likely, making a giant mess while I attempt to learn to spin.  I'll be sure to share my spinning adventures with you because I'm sure they will be comically horrendous.

As for Araignee's soaps, I'm sort of hanging my head in shame for not using them yet.  Sort of, but not really.  I may not be using them in the traditional sense, but I am most definitely enjoying them.  They smell so good I can't bear to add water to them.  At the moment, the Mediterranean Fig bar sits on my desk and freshens up the area every afternoon when the sun comes through the window and hits the bar and the Lavender Vanilla bar rests beside my bed and sends me into sweet dream land each night.  One day....  One day I'll get tired of picking them up to dust and I'll take them into the bathroom.  But until then, goodness!  They smell so good!

Meanwhile, sing it with me...

"What goes up must come down
Spinning wheel got to go 'round..."

Friday Fiber - Hawthorne

Today's Friday Fiber post is all about Knit Pick's Hawthorne.  A few months ago, on a whim, I ordered the boxed set in the Jewel color-way.  My intention was to knit lacy scarves or shawls with each color but when I received the boxed set, I knew that wasn't going to happen.  The colors were just so perfect all mixed together.  At first I thought it would be fun to knit a pi-shawl with stripes, or rounds, of color.  But who am I kidding?  I still have quite a ways to go on my simple Pi Day pi shawl.  There is absolutely no need to start another one of those monsters before the first is complete.  Then I thought about knitting a mitered square blanket using all the colors.  I thought, and still think, that would be stunning.  But again, who am I kidding?  As much as I love the color combinations of Hawthorne, I'd get bored and quit long before I ever put a dent in that much yarn.  After all, the boxed set contains 3,213 yards of yarn.  3,213 yards of yarn would knit into a LOT of mitered squares.

I've been thinking about knitting another Eclipse scarf/shawlette.  I really, really like the first one I knit.  But then I saw Artesian on Knitting Sarah's blog.  I love the openness of Artesian but wanted the shape of Eclipse.  So I decided to combine the two and create my own pattern.

I'm using the Hawthorne Rose City,

Hawthorne Rose City

and Hawthorne Goose Hollow.

Hawthorne Goose Hollow

And it's turning out to look like this:

#todayonmyneedles

Okay, it doesn't look like much yet.  But you can see how well the colors work together.  And I guess you can see how one end of the scarf will be much wider than the other end.

The pattern is simple short rows of yarnovers & knit two togethers.

*yo,k2tog*

So far, I'm loving it.

And I'm loving the yarn.  Hawthorne is a fingering weight Superwash Fine Highland Wool with just a bit of Polyamide mixed in to give it stretch & help it retain it's shape.  In other words, it's perfect for sock knitting, although I'd never be able to actually knit socks with it simply because I knit too loosely.  But I'm loving the way this scarf is knitting up.  The yarn is not splitty (splity??  it doesn't split) at all which means I can easily knit while reading Outlander.  And the color combination!  I am over the top in love with the color combination.  I'm so in love with the fluctuations in color that I think perhaps I could have knit another Pi shawl or a mitered square blanket big enough to fit a king sized bed without ever getting bored.  At least I wouldn't have gotten bored with the color.  Maybe the project, but not the color.  And since it's a Superwash wool.... I could toss the finished blanket into the washing machine.  Hmmm.... I just may have to order more and knit that mitered square blanket.

Anyway.... if you haven't tried Hawthorne yet, do!  And I highly suggest purchasing the boxed set.  It's a fantastic deal.

Fiber Friday - Kaffe Fassett's Regia Ombre Stripe

Thank goodness for Fiber Friday.  It's given me an excuse to put the pi shawl away for a day or two while I break out some new yarn.

Kaffe Fassett has designed a line of sock yarn for Regia.  As soon as I heard about it, I immediately ordered a few skeins.  I've knit 100's, well, maybe not 100's but certainly a double digits' worth of socks from Regia and I could gush on for days about how inspiring I find Kaffe Fassett.  Put the two together & you have magic.

I fell head over heels in love with this color-way, which is a little surprising.  Dull grays & lilacs aren't my normal choice but in typical Fassett style of mixing colors, the combination is perfect.  And beautiful.  And oddly calming.

I'd bought the yarn with the intention of knitting socks but you know what they say about good intentions.  The socks are turning into a scarf.  While I was coughing up a lung (this bug my entire family now has makes us feel like we are all 8 pack a day smokers) yesterday and thinking about, but not exactly stressing over,  my lack of recent Fiber Friday posts, an idea suddenly came to me for a scarf design.  The Regia Ombre Stripe yarn was within reach and onto the needles it went.

Meet Viper.  Okay, Viper doesn't look like much yet but give me a few days.  I think you'll like it.  And I really hope I like it.

Why Viper, you ask?  I was watching Top Gun when the scarf idea came to me.  And yes, I know - Top Gun.  It was a 'I'm sick & I feel miserable' guilty pleasure.  Besides, I love Tom Skerritt.

Most females watch Top Gun for Tom Cruise, but me, I watch for the other Tom.  And the other Tom's call sign was Viper.  So, the scarf will be Viper.  At least in my knitting notes.

But back to the yarn...  It's a little stringy but I think it will soften up once it's blocked.  I seem to recall that being the case with most Regia yarns.   It's also a superwash yarn which is nice for those times when the spouse surprises me by doing a load of laundry.  The self striping factor means you never get bored.  The stripes of color are fairly short though and I don't think the striped sock picture on the label is very accurate for this particular yarn.  Hmm, maybe I'll have to order more so I can test that theory.  Because I really do love the color-way.

Friday Fiber - Tanis Fiber Arts Pink Label

It's Fiber Friday & today, I'm discovering Tanis Fiber Arts Pink Label lace weight yarn.

Tanis Fiber Arts color codes their yarn by weight category.  DK weight is yellow, fingering is blue and lace is pink.  They have lots of other color categories as well.  I'm not mentioning them here because I'm trying very, very hard to ignore those other choices.  I've already exceeded my yarn budget for the month and I'm admittedly a little scared to look at the other options.  I glimpsed the word 'cashmere' and well,  I just know that somehow, cashmere would manage to talk its way onto my credit card.

Anyway.... The other day, when I realized Pi Day was coming up, I pulled out my Pink Label in the Midnight color-way and cast on a pi shawl.

Midnight has been in my stash for several years but I have no idea why.  It's gorgeous!  Why on earth did I stuff it in a drawer for so long?  I remember buying it with the intention of knitting a pi shawl.  And I remember starting to grab it for a new, different project several times, then changing my mind & knitting with some other fiber else instead.  I have no idea why.  Maybe because I didn't want to 'waste' it.  Crazy, I know, but I tend to get a little protective of my stash sometimes.  It's sort of like my stint with scrapbooking.  I spent thousands of dollars on scrapbooking materials & never used any of it because I was too afraid I'd 'mess up' a piece of paper or change my mind about what I wanted after the fact.  It got so bad I had to change my hobby from 'scrapbooker' to 'scrapbook supply buyer.'

But I'm digressing.

Midnight.  It's gorgeous!  I love the subtle color changes.  From looking at the skein, I'd have thought it would knit into long stripes but it doesn't.  At least not at the beginning of a pi shawl. It's just little blips of color variation.  Blips of color variation that don't pool.  In other words, the color-way is Heaven.  It's also going to make one big arse pi shawl.  I have two skeins and each one is 1,000 yards.  That's a lot of pi.

Fiber Friday - Patons Kroy Socks

My original plan was that Fiber Fridays would be about new-to-me fiber, but I stumbled onto a sale and new-to-me colorways.

Patons Kroy Socks, think I like it? Hope you answered, "yes."  As far as squishiness and fabric firmness, it knits up like On-Line which I also love, but the Patons Kroy can be found in local big box craft stores which means I can impulse shop and don't have to wait for the mailman.  It's also inexpensive, washes and wears well.

In the picture, the color ways are, from left to right, Eclipse Stripes, Meadow Stripes, Rusty Stripes and Clover.  I'd never seen Eclipse or Meadow Stripes in stores before.  Meadow Stripes will make fun, spring colored socks while Rusty Stripes will make great fall socks.  I've used Clover in five or six previous projects, including socks, so I have no idea what I'll do with this newest purchase but I love the color way so, in my cart it went.  But as much as I love Clover, I think Eclipse may be my favorite.  It's dark and stormy and fits my mood perfectly.

Why is my mood dark & stormy?

It snowed again.  You'd think, as a lover of all things warm & wooly, I'd love snow, but nope.  I'm just too old for this nonsense.   I really don't know why I'm so bothered by this recent snow.  I don't have anywhere I have to be so it's not like I need to fight the snow plows and crazy drivers.  The kids are old enough to dress themselves so I don't have to spend hours upon hours layering them up to send them outdoors only to spend hours & hours unlayering them 30 minutes later when they come in wet and cold.  We have plenty of food & wine, although we are low on salty snacks & chocolate.  That could be a problem.  I think really, I'm just mad because it snowed during the night and I didn't get to watch it fall.  I do love to knit by the fire while watching snow fall.

In other news, my daughter may have a problem.

A gambling problem.  Sarah was so excited to turn 18 and be able to legally buy scratch-off lottery tickets.  She bought her first ticket and won $1.  Me, being the dork mom that I am, took a picture of her collecting her winnings.  The cashier thought I was totally nuts.

Fiber Friday - Cascade Quatro

Can you guess what I'm knitting now?

Cascade Quatro

The yarn is Cascade Quatro and it's been in my stash pile for several years.  I remember buying it for a specific project, but I don't remember what the project was and obviously, I never knit it.  But, I needed turquoise for a special project and there it was, waiting patiently in my stash.  Yay for big, patient stash piles!

Since the yarn has been hanging around my house for quite a while, I wasn't sure if it was still on the market, but a quick Google search found it stocked at Webs and it's even on sale, almost half priced!  I should probably go order some more.  Wouldn't want the stash pile to get too low.

I'm enjoying knitting with the Quatro.  It's a nice firm but squishy worsted weight with good stitch definition.  This particular project doesn't have a lot of stitch patterning going on in it, but I think the yarn would make beautiful cables.  I'm pretty sure I'll have enough left over from this project to knit a hat so you can probably guess what the next project will be.  I'm also loving the turquoise color.  It's warm tropical water color and that is The perfect color to be knitting with at the moment. Did I mention it's 4 degrees outside?  Four.  This yarn's color is about the only thing saving my sanity.

Fiber Friday - Woven Gems

I am in love!

Woven Gems Prime Alpaca Peruvian Tweed

I have a new favorite yarn.  Woven Gems Alpaca Peruvian Tweed.  I would marry this yarn if it was legal in the state of Virginia.

I picked this yarn up at the Montpelier Fiber Festival this past fall.  It was a spur of the moment, once-I-touched-it-I-had-to-have-it purchase.  It is THE softest, most petable yarn I've ever knit with.  I'm in love!

The single skein contains 600 yards so it should make a decent sized infinity scarf.

#todayonmyneedles

I've only just begun but I know I'm going enjoy the project.  Part of me wants to lock myself in a closet with no distractions and just knit, knit, knit and part of me wants to limit myself to one row per day to make the yarn last.  Have I mentioned how much I love petting this yarn?

Another thing about this yarn that makes me happy is its tweedy affect.  I rarely like tweed yarns.  Actually, that's not true.  I love tweed yarn, just not the fiber tweed yarn creates.  I'm drawn to the colors in tweed yarns, but am very rarely pleased with the messy mush of colored fabric they create.  But this, I love.

My only problem is, I sort of want to add beads.  From the moment the yarn was put into my shopping bag, I've been thinking beaded scarf.  I even have the perfect silver beads in the bead drawer.  But when I swatched, I decided the tweed was too busy for beads, plus, the beads would make hard little bumps in the softness of the yarn.  So I made the decision not to bead.  But now....  I keep thinking about those silver beads.  Should I rip it out & start over using beads?  Or should I just keep knitting?  Ugh!  I hate decisions.  

Fiber Friday - Spark Story

Have you noticed that I've been in a yarn rut for a while?  As in the last five or ten years?  I find a yarn that I like and I knit with it over and over and over again.  I find comfort in knowing what to expect from a yarn.  Part of me likes being in the rut.  It's pretty comfy down in there.  Except that it can be boring and when the rut gets too deep, it's difficult to see the surrounding scenery.

So, in an effort to force myself out of the rut, my plan is to introduce a new (to me, at least) yarn each Friday.  Or at least, most Fridays.  Thus, Fiber Friday.

Today, for the first ever Fiber Friday, I'm looking at a yarn from Spark Story.

A week or two ago, I stumbled across a picture of a gorgeous brown bark colored yarn from Spark Story and instantly fell in love.  I immediately went to the shop to place an order.  The only problem was, once I saw all the choices, I couldn't decide.  I wanted every single yarn offered.  There were a zillion different  browns to choose from.  One looked like sand.  There was a beachy looking yarn.  There were greens, blues, yellows, purples and did I mention all the browns?  I literally couldn't decide.  So, I picked Stained Glass.  It was sort of a clown barf mixture of all the colors.

The yarn arrived super quick and isn't the least bit clown barfy.  Instead of having a mixture of color on creamy white yarn (which is what normally gives clown barf it's barfy appearance,) it's actually a heathered gray.  The gray tones down all the other colors and mutes them so there's no clown barf in sight.  And I love it!

The yarn feels great in my hands and while it looks like a very thin fingering weight, it's somewhat squishy and knits up thicker than it looks.

#todayonmyneedles 01/29/15

And the frequent color changes will make knitting a plain stockinette sock much more enjoyable.  Have I mentioned how much I love this yarn?  Thank goodness Spark Story has so many lovely colors to choose from.  I have the feeling I'm going to be buying more.  Did I mention they have yarn that's a bark color?  And one that's a sandy tan?  And a beachy ocean water blue?  And several yellows, and purples, and greens and blues, and even more browns?  Oh, I'm in trouble!