I’m knitting! After the hat and finishing the last spinning project… did I ever post about the hat?

::runs off to check blog posts::

…um… right… so I made another hat! Uh, I guess I’ll post about that later when I find the photos… wait I never blogged the yarn either… or the holidays… ::grumbles:: I’m doing badly with this blogging thing.

Right, anyway, NOW I’m back to knitting the sweater I’ve been designing… ::pauses:: I did tell you about that, right? Um… yeah, designing a sweater. Because clearly the most intelligent thing to do ever is to design the first sweater you ever knit.

Fumbled my way through the first sleeve. Changed a few things with the increases to make them more even and knitted the second sleeve… and screwed up my math. Disastrously. Balloon arm. So pulled it out. That was right before Rhinebeck.

Just got around to re-casting on for the second sleeve. I figured that with an almost hour commute each way, I’m going to have a lot of sitting time. So it’s either spindle spin in 2.5 foot increments between my knees, or maybe finally get some knitting done. So I cast on.

Done with the ribbing, will be starting the pattern in another… row I think.

Under the knitting, that’s my black book, my grimoire if you will. In that book lie my secrets. Dye recipes, knitting notes, some random science (mammalian estrous signalling pathways!), a few sketches, fiber mill notes, maps from worlds I’ve created… an eclectic collection of all manner of oddity from my brain. Heck, there’s even a few runs of learning to write the Arabic alphabet (which I’m terrible at). It’s no Necronomicon, but it might still drive a sane man crazy to try to understand it.

More later, apparently including the details of all the projects I haven’t been telling you about. Whee?

Gobo, being a lap dog. Usually this is Mokey’s trick (she’s convinced she’s still 6 inches long) but every once in a while he needs his turn too. Yes, I have spoiled dogs. Sorry the light is bad, flashless in the near dark is hard. That’s me under him.

That’s all for now!
~The Gnome

WilyG asks: What do you mean by 2×2 Chain-ply?

A: What I mean is actually “cable” ply. For some reason I keep calling it chain plying, which is the same as Navajo plying (plying via a giant crochet chain). Cable-ply is when you take a plied yarn and ply it to another plied yarn. A 2×2 cable-plied yarn would be two two-ply yarns plied together. So, a 4 ply yarn, made of 2 2-plies.

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Ted: What is “hosiery twist?”

A: Hosiery twist is a tight plying. In most technical terms, it’s 15.35 tpi (twists per inch)

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Feel free to ask any more questions you’ve got!

EDIT: Fixed the bit about cable/chain plying.

That’s all for now!

~The Gnome

Knitting again!

A friend of mine is in Afghanistan, being a Corpsman and keeping people duct taped together. But it’s been cold there in the winter!

So, I set out to make a hat. But unlike my other hats, this one needed to be as durable as possible. Ideally it would hold up to regular hot washing and drying in the military dryers…

So I knitted myself up a swatch of a couple of the superwash yarns I have marinating in my stash and ran them through the washer on hot and then the dryer on hot with jeans and towels. I eliminated a few of them just during the knitting for falling apart while knitting.

I wasn’t terribly impressed. I tried three yarns, and they all felted some, and all of them got very fuzzy very quickly. You can see one example where the curling and fuzzing is pretty evident. The felting is less obvious in this one.

So, someone pointed out I have, you know, yarn. Oh, yeah, right! I’m a dyer! And that’d mean I could do it in whatever colors I want! Why didn’t I think of that?! I knit up a swatch of that in double-knit and sent it through the washer/dryer a bunch of times. It survived MUCH better, being a sock yarn designed for hard wearing!

So, I skeined up some double-strand skeins, and dyed up some yarn! The Phouka is a sock weight yarn, so I figured a double knit would work. Look everyone, it’s a hat! Ok, so it’s a Schroedinger’s Hat, a collection of yarn the quantum waveform of which might collapse into the “hat” superposition (Ok, all you normal people can look back now, nerd joke over).

So I started to knit! This is a lighter hat. If I wanted a slightly heavier hat, I could have trebled the yarn, but I didn’t want it to be too heavy. Lookin’ good, quantum wave function is collapsing…

Woot, it appears to be collapsing to “hat” and not to “yarn barf madness!”

Yay, it’s a hat! Yes, it’s a simple hat. I tend to make those because the people I mostly make them for like simple hats. This is a 3×2 rib hat. I do need to learn to make them six to six-and-a-half inches before making the crown… though the recipient has… much less hair than I do.

So that’s my latest knitting. I’ve also had some other projects in the works. More about those later.

And, because everything is cuter with a puppy… Mokey hat!

That’s all for now!

~The Gnome

Ack, I thought I had already posted this. Durr. Apparently not.

So, I make stuff!

A few weeks ago, now, Mom had to have her gallbladder out. Not a huge deal, but long and sore. As an early Xmas gift to make her happy, and to make her feel better about the house for for turkey day while G’ma is visiting, I made her this.

A pair of slip covers in duck cloth, for the couch. One of the upper cushions and one for the lower cushions. She’s wanted one for *years* but they’re expensive. So I made one (and another one ready to make for her b-day). Super simple, 4.5yds of fabric.

I also recently finished a hat. Knit. Super simple. From my own handspun yarn. Merino. In an almost black maroon merino with blue flecks.

I need to make more things with my own yarn. I like it. It’s fun.

In other news… Happy Thanksgiving to my U.S. readers. Happy Thursday to my non-U.S. readers! We got up early and got things going. And now, the cranberry sauce (fresh, not jellied) is made, the green jello (with pineapple and cream cheese) is set, the turkey’s in the oven, the gravy’s stewing, and the stuffing’s in! Just rolls/biscuits, and mashed potatoes left (and slicing up homemade pickles, putting out olives, etc).

~The Gnome

So, as you may know, there has been a big competition across the pond where men in funny outfits kill themselves on two wheeled contraptions. It’s called the Tour de France.

Anyway, while those crazy people are doing their thing over there, we fiber people do our own crazy thing over here, the “Tour de Fleece.” It tends to be pretty free-form though some people get together for specific challenges and such. Last year my own TdF was more organized.

This year my main goals were to spin every day, even if only a tiny bit, and make progress on some standing projects.

In those generalized goals, I succeeded. One of my specific goals I didn’t make, I wanted to finish spinning the handprepped romney/mohair batts into sock yarn, a project that’s been kind of hanging over me for a long time. Oh well. I did get a lot done.

For one thing, right at the beginning of it I flew down to North Carolina for a family thing. I managed to keep up my spinning at least a yard or two every day, and got a lot of spinning done in the airports. On the plane I started a basic beanie hat with my own handspun.

The hat

And the handspun. Abby Franquemont batts. These are going to be weft for a woven twill weave scarf I’m working on.

Both spun up on my lovely Spindlewood top whorl.

Once I got back, I finished sleying the reed on the loom for the scarf project. I’ll post more photos of the weaving project progress start to finish once I get a few more steps along.

I also spun some cobweb weight from cormo handprepped by the Tsocktsarina.

Spinning it on my newest spindle, a zebrawood spindle called a Tiger by… Cascade bought from Spunky Eclectic as my one purchase at MA Sheep and Wool. Love it. Spins great, especially things like silk for superfine stuff.

Then, right near the end of the Tour, the first of my new roving came back from the mill. Very exciting. Domestic Perendale and Polwarth. Since I’m going to be putting some of the Perendale up in my next shop update, I thought I should spin some myself since it’s a new fiber to me. So I grabbed my Bosworth Midi spun some up longdraw and plied it, washed it, fulled it, and dried it. 3-ply on the left, 2-ply on the right.

3-ply close up

2-ply close up

It’s an interesting fiber. Spun this way it’s a fairly prickly fiber but makes a much softer yarn than you expect. So I went all the way and knit it up, washed it and blocked it. Well, as much as you can block a 1.5″ squarish.

And a closeup. You can see it’s got more luster than your average downs wool. It comes from the Romney in the bloodline. It’s VERY springy and lofty with a big halo. It’s not super soft, about what non-specified “wool” sweaters usually are. So good for anything a mid-level romney would be good for, sweaters, hats, mittens, heavy-duty socks, outerwear, etc.

And that’s about it for my TdF. Other than keeping Gnomespun running, and expanding things slightly and examining a few new possible paths.

TdF 2010

And now, back to the dye pots. Perendale and Polwarth roving. A couple new things coming up!

Until the next time!

~The Gnome