Cotton Knits

I've been working on some red cable knits, but I was getting some sort of startitis, so I dug out an OLD OLD unfinished object (UFO in knitting lingo):

Pattern:: Cable & Lattice Poncho by Alison G. Will from Vogue Knitting on the Go: Ponchos
Size:one
Yarn:Nashua Handknits Creative Focus Cotton DK in #245
Yardage:~650 yds knitted
Needle:JP6 straight
Date started:circa June 2007
Mods:Wouldn't wear it. This was my "on the bus" knits while I was in grad school. Knitting complex cables and lattices with tired brain and a cable needle at 8 in the morning just didn't cut it. When I found out that there were errata in the pattern, my motivation melted away. No wonder my knitting looked wonky!

As of today it's going to be this:

Pattern:: Lotus Blossom Tank by Sharon Shoji
Size:Small (33.25" bust)
Yarn:Nashua Handknits Creative Focus Cotton DK in #245
Yardage:~130 yds today
Needle:US6 & 5 Circ
Date started:May 14, 2010
Mods:I was inspired by modifications by Licketyknits. I think I'm going to follow her advice on making this into an empire waist top instead of a hanging tank top. I also plan on adding short row to shape the bust better.

Meanwhile the postman delivered this:

Boye Knit Mates Interchangeable Knitting system Needlepoints doesn't handle any mail orders. They only take orders online. That was swell, because I placed the order on Wednesday (5/12) and my package arrived today (5/14). I think this was the fastest delivery ever. Now I can return to this hat which is another cotton project. Hope to not run out of cotton for the summer!

Amazing.

My colleague Linda was kind enough to share a nifty youtube video about how a mundane 'waste' has great potential to solving one of the problems we face today as earthlings. I am very impressed.

I save my hair and give it to the birds for making nests. Same can be done with scraps of yarn. I can see how the sheep industry can be a great asset; just think of all the second cuts, belly hair, and the skirted fleece!

Please pass it on!

Little red cables

I've been looking forward to Cookie A's Sock Knitters Anonymous Mystery sock since it was announced in fall of 2009. After freeing up my favorite sock knitting needles, I cast on for the first clue:

Pattern:: MAY 2010 SKA Mystery Sock by Cookie A
Size:Large (9" circ)
Yarn:Lang Jawoll Superwash in color #932
Yardage:Hopefully less than 412 yds
Needle:US1 DPN
Mods: The pattern called for 450+ yards, so hopefully I'll shorten the leg and use smaller needles to compensate for the yardage. Otherwise I'll just have different color toes. I'll keep up with the yardage used for each clue.

Clue 1: used 4g.

Clue 2: 1st repeat used 5g (above photo).

What lovely pattern!

My cable needle is actually bigger than my #1 needle, so out of necessity I've been working without a cable needle. It's not so bad so far since most cables require only 1 st on the cable needle.

I started on my other red cabled knitting: glove #2 of Meisi that I started last fall out of my handspun red yarn.

I have enough tiny cable projects, eh? :)

Tabi socks

Long time ago, we dyed some sock yarn with tobacco. On Friday, I cast these off:

Pattern:: Shur'tugal by Alice Yu
Size:Large (72 sts) Mens 10 1/2
Yarn:Valley Yarn Franklin dyed in tobacco (find out how it was dyed here)
Yardage:360yds
Needle:US1 DPN
Mods:Modified the toes so it's tabi style. Tabi is written "foot bag" in Japanese. This I find amusing. Big toe is 28 sts around with 2 sts cast on using backwards loop. The other half is done much like a regular wedge toe. I decreased only on one side (2 sts) every other row until 20 sts remained on both sides, then decreased every row until 8 stitches total remain. Kitchner off. If I were to do this again, I'd make the toe a little bit more roomier. I gave it 0 ease, which probably wasn't the best idea.

***

Tabi has split toes so you can wear geta (sandal style shoes). Here's another take at taking advantage of the split toes:

Maryland Sheep & Wool 2010 Part III: Goodies

I had so much fun at the festival this year! I think as I learn more about knitting and spinning and so forth, I have more questions to ask about different sheep wool, hand, etc etc.

This year I bought a wonderful collection of different sheep breed wool in their natural beauty. Take a look:

Dark Icelandic roving 2 oz

Three shades of Jacob Roving 2 oz each, 6 oz total

Shetland roving 4 oz

Polwarth roving 4 oz

Falkland roving 4 oz

Coopworth roving 4 oz

BFL roving 4 oz

(I had so much trouble finding natural colored BFL!)

And a lovely circle of natural colored roving.

One of my goals this year was to find myself a nice multi-colored fleece. I was hoping to get some colored shetland wool, but couldn't find any. Fortunately I chatted with a really lovely lady and decided to get 1/2 fleece (2.75 pounds) of her Border Leicester wool. Take a peek.

It's a lovely multi-colored wool with rich lustrous locks. She said since it rained 4 days straight right before shearing, there were some tough tips, but they should wash out. I hope so. mmm stinky. It lives outside on the balcony right now.

I also got a flicker from Carolina Homespun.

A Louet high-speed bobbin.

When I showed the man my bobbin, he let out a sigh and said, "wow, that's an old Louet!" I heard that three more times and ultimately decided that the new bobbins should fit on the "old Louet" (approx 50-60 years old). It works wonders on the wheel, and looking forward to spinning faster and finer.

Oh yes I almost forgot:


I got 6 skeins from Old Mill Yarn. This is Davidson Domy Heather, a wonderfully affordable shetland wool yarn. I want to dye some of it and make a nice fair-isle cardigan/sweater out of it. Funny, this is the only yarn I got!

Let's get to some spinning!

Last minute, as always

Sheep and Wool season again! Yaaay!

This year I invited my grad school classmate Ammon and his family to the festival. When I learned that they could come, I decided to knit their baby #3 a pair of booties.

I've been eyeing Duck Socks in the new Knitty, and decided to give that a go. The instructions said it takes one skein of Shibui Sock (~200 yds), so I religiously followed it and dyed up about 250 yards of Valley Franklin:

Recipe for 250 yards: 60 drops yellow; 2 drops red; 1 drop green.

splash of vinegar (1/4 cup or so)

Dipped kettle-style in turkey pan.

Cooked in oven @ 250F for 2 hours.

So cute!

Ta dah!

Pattern:: Duck by Jeny Staiman
Size:one for 3 mo.-6mo.
Yarn:Valley yarn Franklin
Yardage:90yds
Needle:US1.5 DPN
Mods:none really. I used DPNs because I don't have circulars that small. My turkish cast-on was little wobbly, but it will do. Next time, I'm going to study the youtube video that accompanied it in ravelry. I think there's enough yarn to make another pair.


Juliana (mom), Ammon (dad), and Ryley (big sis) were pretty pumped. Jensen (big bro) was indifferent. I think Evelyn (baby in photo) was upset that her feet got really hot all of the sudden.

It was so nice seeing them! We need to hang out more often!

Maryland Sheep & Wool 2010 Part II: Sunday

Sunday I went alone. It was really nice to have company on Saturday, and it's also very nice to go alone so I don't feel like I'm boring my buddies to tears with hours of staring at wool.

I returned to the skein and garment competition, and took photos of great projects for inspiration.

Gorgeous aran sweater

Stunning Fair-Isle Cap

There's my shawl on the left. It looks so small!

The shawl is the only entry that didn't win a ribbon. Boo! Must knit better next time!

Best of show shawl. Sigh. Beautiful.

Best skein spun on a spindle

Handspun so incredibly fine

Stunning colors!

Very nice socks!

Then I strolled to the sheep to shawl competition. How fun. Now that I know a little bit about weaving, I know why they can put designs on their shawl even though they are spinning white fleece.

So this is how it works (in my limited weaving knowledge): One can choose to have the warp (the vertical) thread be dominant and the weft(horizontal) thread hide beneath the warp. It's called "warp-faced fabric" . That's how they can make the shawls work. That was a big mystery to me when I saw it for the first time.

I also succeeded in getting full attention of the alpacas. I love how they make little mumbling sounds! Cute! I like their padded feet too.

I always wonder what it's like to be surrounded by food.

Sunday was the blade-shearing competition. The ultimate winner (on the left) shore two sheep before the other two were still working on the first one. Pretty impressive.

Let me go!

Noooo don't shear my belly!

OK I'll let you shear my belly.

I find this strangely unsettling.

This sheep wouldn't stop bleating.

Hi little curious ewe! How are you buddy?

This one really wanted my attention.

but not this one.

That's not your food. Stop eating your friend's food.

More musicians. It was very nice and hot and sunny!

I find these puppets both fascinating and intriguing.

When I returned to the shearing competition, it was still going on, and there were lots of naked sheep.

This one is next in line.

Nice 'fro and bell bottoms.

Again another day full of fun things to do! I definitely bought more on Sunday, and will post my new addition in another post.