Holidays & a FREE COWL PATTERN!

What a busy Christmas... I didn't even go anywhere! lol

I had knitted gifts that had to go places though, and not enough time it seemed to knit them leasurely. I'm quite happy to say, I finished them ALL! AND they arrived at their destinations in the nick of time :D

The funnest present I made has to be the monster pants. The giftee is only 14 months old, so the pants are more for the entertainment of his parents but they were fun to make and turned out way too cute! Check out the eyebrows lol. Incidentally, the face is on the back of the pants...

The next best on my Christmas gift list was the 'Radial Heat Cowl' I designed for my daughter in law Trish. It is sooo soft and stretchy, it's made with Stitch Nation Merino wool & alpaca, and I added a strand of Sirdar Blur Mohair for a little warm fuzz.

This pattern is FREE (click the link) folks... and it includes directions for kitchener grafting in 2x2 rib as an added bonus.

More Lacy Leaves - Wahoo!

I've been working on a new scarf pattern, which is all ready for testing now as soon as I get this prototype knitted up. I started it yesterday and I'm finished half of it already so it's knitting up quick. I spent most of yesterday writing up the pattern actually!





It's called 'Chele Leaf Lace scarf' and I named it after my good friend Michele. She really liked the leaf edging on the Lush Lace Stole and requested a scarf using that edging... so here you go Michele!

We all go through hard times in our varied lives, so this scarf is knitted in two pieces starting from either end, with brambles. There are 7 rows of brambles, and into and out of these brambles, life and growth still miraculously occurs. Large leaves overlap and grow up out from the brambles, while smaller leaves grow down into the brambles.

It's too bad my picture-taking can't show you how pretty this scarf really is... I want a hat and arm-warmers to match. They're only designed in my head so far - give me a few days though :)

Leaf & Acorn Intoxication?

I've been playing with the leaf & acorn pattern again and came up with a toque!
Funny, I don't seem to get bored with this pattern, maybe because the lace pattern seems to 'move' and it isn't the same 4 or 5 row repeat that's memorized the first go round, then by the 10th your almost asleep (at least I am).

This is just a prototype and the only existing pattern consists of a bunch of scribblings and taped-together charts lol. I want to add some tweeks like a fold-up brim, but I'm pretty happy with the short-row shaping.

It's knit sideways too (a first for me) then grafted to join, although it could be just seamed if grafting isn't for you. I used smaller needles for this for a denser pattern, 4.5mm/7us as opposed to the 6mm/10us I used for the stole.

Speaking of the stole!....

The "Lush" lace stole pattern is now fully tested and available for sale on Ravelry now - yay! I was both thrilled and amazed when the "All Weights Lace" group announced they've chosen "Lush" for a knit-a-long to begin Sept 1!

My testers were the best and their finished stole pictures are up too. It's so fun to see the different yarns and colours they chose and they're all gorgeous!

They're in the process of linking their projects to the pattern page now. Here's a link to the pattern page http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/lush-lace-stole-with-leaves--acorns and on the right hand side you'll see the box titled "About this pattern"... in there it will say x number of projects. Click on that to see their pictures.

Another Lace Shawl Design

I started this design in April and finished it completely - pattern and all on June 24. It's being test knitted now on Ravelry - yay! It's called "Lush" for the big green leaves, acorns and smaller leaves making up the border.

Here's a close up of the stitch pattern - my favorite is the viny branch that winds it's way up the pattern.


I used acrylic to make it, since I was designing and experimenting with different methods of decreasing and increasing and tweeking the shape. I had to undo/redo lots and don't like to put that much stress on nicer yarn.

So I used Red Heart soft touch which is a light worsted - I'd call it DK and it has a great sheen to it which really shows off the pattern. After washing it was so soft and drapey! I'm surprised how well the Red Heart did. And it's so light too!

It's 5'8" long and 21" wide unstretched. In a natural fiber, stretched a little it could be huge!
hmmm what should I work on next? I'm considering a cardigan in this stitch pattern... we'll see.

Spinning from Roving

I decided to put my teasing and carding of raw fleece aside for the moment and try spinning from a prepared dyed roving and what a difference!

Pictured below from left to right:

Pencil, 3ply, 2ply, loftier 2ply, drafted roving

So for a newby like me to get finer consistant yarns, consistant finely drafted roving is almost vital. So there you go newbies like me... you CAN do it.

When the roving is drafted out this fine, it practically spins itself - no kidding! I don't even know what weights these would be. The loftier 2ply is about a baby weight and is spun at about 7 twists per inch. This means I treadle twice for each 2 1/2 inch section on my wheel that works at 6 1/2 twists per wheel revolution. I hope that makes sense. The higher twist 2ply is obviously finer than the baby weight

Sorry I used black to illustrate this, but it's what I had. :D

Doin' the happy dance..... de de de deeee

OOPS another foible

Lesson for today: don't store washed fleece in plastic bags.

I've been spending far more time carding these days than I have actually spinning which may or may not be normal when preparing your own fleece. But imagine my surprise when my longest locks which I kept in a big plastic bag just seemed to disintigrate in my hands as I teased them apart! How heartbreaking is that?!

A few of them that still had a bit of lanonin in them were ok and I got to discover how fun the long draw is! I LOVE IT! It seemed so easy! It was a little more difficult with 'drier' fleece though. I wonder why that is?

I spun what I had carded (didn't take too long) then decided to work on my next shawl design. I was swatching away quite happily experimenting with different decreases for my "oak leaf & acorn" stitch pattern. Well the acorn turned out great - but there was just something wrong with the oak leaf. Somehow, experimenting with the decreases I guess, I couldn't believe my eyes... it looked like... ... a penis! (can I say that on here?) How could that be!?

and sitting next to the acorn clinched it. Well I never laughed so hard in my life! I can't make a shawl with those on it... I wanted to represent a mighty tree, not a manly one! My DH is still shaking his head. Oh well, back to the drawing board! (I'll spare you the picture) :)

Skeins of Yarn!

I know it's not perfect, but I'm completely charmed by the magic of spinning yarn on my wheel.

I got a lot of valuable tips from other spinners and have learned a lot. Mostly that trying to spin fleece that's full of slubs is not the best to learn with! I had to pick them out as I went along and yes, quite a few got by me and got plied in with the finished yarn.

I found out that they can be combed out before spinning, and I'm going to try carding some then combing it. I'm almost through the batch of fleece I carded and drafted out ahead of time.

Plying the yarn took courage on my own here, but again I got tips from experienced spinners (yay!) and I credit them with the yarn I ended up with as a newby spinner. The single yarn is spun with a Z-twist, which means spinning the wheel clockwise. This yarn will have extra energy in this twist and will try to ply back on itself if you release tension on it.

Because of this, if you tried to knit with this unplied yarn as is, your knitting project would be skewed. This excess twist can be used to your advantage in plying.

To ply, two ends of your single yarns are attached to the leader and this time, turn the wheel counter-clockwise. This will ply the yarn, and depending on how many times you treadle it will release this excess Z-twist and 'balance' the yarn. Voila!

Here are the first skeins from my spinning wheel

They aren't perfect skeins but I'm absolutely thrilled! I was aiming for a sport weight and that's mostly what I have. You can see some thicker parts and slubs that got past me but I look at it this way... I'll probably never be able to make yarn this way again - right? It should make some funky hats and things and I do plan to dye these too. I just have to find out how. For now, I'm happily practicing away, totally hooked now making a few more singles for plying just like these ones.