Wordless Wednesday

Ribbit!

I remember reading through Stitch n' Bitch way back in college when I first got a copy.  Somewhere in there Debbie Stoller explained the origin of term 'frogging' for ripping back.  My mind must be going because I can't remember if she said its because somehow the noise of ripping back a project resembles the noise frogs make or that 'rip it' and 'ribbit' sound similar.  It must be the latter.  I've heard plenty of frogs and they do not sound at all like the sad little noise of ripping out knitting.  Frogs are actually quite loud, especially when its summer and you're trying to sleep in a house that's next to a marsh.

Regardless of the origin of the term, I am currently faced with having to do some frogging myself.  Below is my Somewhat Cowl, which has been keeping me company while I listen to bar review lectures.

While I working on it, I started to think it was coming out a touch too big, and that perhaps my gauge had changed when I switched to knitting in the round.  Turns out I was right.  I decided to wash the incomplete body to check on everything and my gauge is looser on the lower half of the sweater.  I tired on the sweater and, as I expected, in the back there's a loose flab of fabric.  Sometimes, its hard being right.  

Of course, this issue was possibly made worse by my inability to count.  I added a couple stitches because I thought I needed to have the right number for the ribbing.  Turns out I was wrong about that the number.  I fudged the ribbing a bit since I was feeling lazy.

Now I could ignore the extra fold of fabric.  Its not so bad as to be unwearable. Actually most people probably wouldn't even notice it.  But I still have a few more weeks of bar lectures and if you're going to knit a sweater you might as well do it right.  So my poor little somewhat cowl shall be partially frogged.  

But at least I have pretty socks that are going well to knit on the beach this weekend.

Spindling away

I've been continuing on my journey into spinning and I've managed to finish two yarn within the past few weeks.

First up is the fawn coopworth wool I bought at the Connecticut Sheep and Wool Festival, which became this pretty little yarn.

Between these two skeins I have about 95 yards.  The weight overall is probably worested, but it gets kind of bulky in some spots and dk-ish in others.  It's pretty and rustic and I'm quite pleased.  It's also the first yarn I made with my Kundert Spindle.  Having a better spindle made a huge difference for me, and is at least part of the reason why this yarn came out nicer than the black Shetland.

My current plan is to knit this up as a hat, probably Buttonhead from Knitty.  I have some faux leather buttons that I think will work well with the rustic nature of my yarn, and of course look really cute.

I also made my first foray into colorful rovings with another Sheep and Wool Festival purchase,

I like the barber pole look of many hand spun yarns, and wanted to achieve a similar look with this yarn.  I though this would look nice since the roving had such bright cheerful colors.  To do this I split the roving in half lengthwise and started spinning each half from opposite ends, with my Kundert again.  While the same color did meet at certain point I did get my barber pole at others.

From this yarn it also became apparent to me that setting the twist really can make a huge difference.  I got Maggie Casey's book Start Spinning for my birthday and followed her directions for setting the twist with this yarn.  I don't have a before picture, but I think the yarn looks so much nicer now.  Here's a closer view:

Overall, I'm happy and I really like it.  My spinning is more even in the these yarn and I was able to spin thinner.  I ended up with about 85 yards of yarn that is probably DK to Worested in thickness, but have no idea what I'll use it for.

Eight!

As I mentioned not too long ago, I recently had a sudden uncontrollable need for blue and pink stripe socks. I'm happy to say that this need has now been satisfied.

I learned two new things, and this is particularly pleasing because its been awhile since I've learned any new techniques.  That doesn't mean that I know everything, just that I've been too lazy to take on a project that requires me to learn something new.  But with these socks I learn how to do helical stripes and a short row heel.  Neither of these are really all that hard and I can see my self using them again in the future.  The stripes are a great way to stash bust the little bits of extra sock yarn I have lying around.  The short row is just a nice alternative to a flap heel.  I'm not sure which one I prefer, we'll see how well the short row heel wears.  But it is very nice looking and actually was not nearly as finky as I thought it would be.

Overall, I love them.  They're simple and cute, and make a great addition to my collection.

Something I've learned about Spinning so far...

Expert spinner I am not, but I am now on my fourth yarn and am learning more and more, mostly by trial and error and experimenting, and though I'd share my thoughts...

1. Sometimes its easier to work with a little portions.  I've found when I try to work to big a piece things get a bit more complicated.  The fiber gets caught on yarn I'm spinning or something else like that.
2. Some pre spinning prep can make life easier.  Trying to draft from a large clump of fiber can is hard, its getting easier for me, but I find that splitting up roving or doing some predrafting makes it easier for me to get the yarn I want.  At this point I'm really just trying to be consistent.
3.  Having the spindle spin at the same time you're drafting is a pretty exhilarting feeling.
4. Relaxing is key.  So this one night, this one really special night, I *might* have had some wine before I picked up my spindle.  I stopped worrying about whether my fiber would get tangled or if my spindle would drop and all the sudden I was drafting at the same time my spindle was spinning. AND IT WAS AMAZING! Seriously, it made me really happy.  Of course I ended with some funky parts that were over or under spun, but I stopped worrying about it and went with it and that made a huge difference.  Since then I've been able to practice more and gotten a lot better.  I even got myself a new spindle as a little birthday/graduation present to myself

This a Spindlewood redheart square mini.  It weighs in at only .7 oz and I was kind of amazed by how tiny it is.  I already spun up the little bit of test fiber it came with it, and it is fast.  Its so different spinning with something that is half the weight of my Kundert and I had hard time keeping up with it.  In the background you can see my other little present for me, Corriedale Cross fiber in Playful from Fiber Story.  I love the colorway and am excited to try a new kind of wool to see how I like it.

FO: Law School & the Energy Hat

Saturday marked my last law school exam ever.  It was evidence, a pretty basic law school class that I put off taking until the very end.  With law school over, I have a couple weeks where I plan to take it easy before I start my bar review course.  

I also just realized that I never posted about my finished energy law project.  This is the finished hat:

The pink is not my handspun, but my professor requested that it be made for a six year girl when I talked to him about my project and I felt the pink and the flowers made it more six year girl appropriate.  Hopefully it fits, the fabric turned out very thick, with little stretch to it.

In the end I calculated that this hat took me about 17 hours to spin and knit.  According to my math this means I burned about 1700 calories or the equivalent of 3/50 of a gallon of oil while making the hat.  This means that I used significantly less energy than a conventional piece of clothing takes.  But, in full disclosure, this does not include transportation costs or energy used in processing the wool.  Since I wasn't involved in these processes its difficult for me to say how much energy was expended it these processes.  The trip from Vermont to me would have taken about 13 to 14 gallons on the average USPS truck but since I couldn't find an average carrying weight I wasn't sure how to divide this up between my 4 ounces of wool and everything else on the truck.  As for processing I really just have no idea how much energy or time that takes, but it looks like I'm going to learn more about this process soon.

More on my impending wool processing education another time, for now I'll just enjoy not having homework to do.

Weekend Update

I have been consumed by finals recently.  But here you can see the little pile of projects that lives on my couch slowly making progress.  You can see my second stripe sock.  Turns out short row heels aren't all that bad after all.  I used the tutorial that Cosmicpluto has her on site, which you look at here.

I've also been doing a fair amount of spinning with my new Kundert Spindle.  I feel like my spinning has vastly improved since I got my spindle. I can now draft while my spindle is spinning! Sometimes, at least.  I'm almost done making singles with the 4 oz of fawn coopworths I got from Purple Fleece.  My plan is ply it, and hopefully end up with a worested-ish weight yarn.  From there I don't know what I'll do with it, but I'm really loving this spinning thing and have been looking around a lot at spindles, wheels, and (of course) more wool.