Ravenclaw :)

I've spent six terms (two calendar years) playing the HP game as a Slytherin, but this term I'm leaving the Dungeon and heading up to The Tower. Ravenclaws, it seems, are also a crafty, ambitious lot, and (as in the books) are a clever bunch, too. So I thought my Potions OWL should be nerdy, at the very least.

See this tshirt made out of sock-weight yarn?

It's Kate Davies Tortoise and Hare Sweater. It's cute and all, but I'm going to replace the colorwork with some of my own. It will have secret messages in codes, little Daleks, quotes from nerd culture, and whatever fun things I can think of. A "swatch" is required for an OWL proposal, so last month I made myself a hat-swatch

It fits me because I blocked it very hard and kind of wrecked my DNA strand, but it was good practice, and gave me some ideas about what I like and what I'll do differently with the tshirt. I like that Vikkel braid (the one that looks like a column of sideways knitting right above the ribbing). Fun :)

My proposal is already approved, and I've done about 20 rounds of ribbing so far. I'm doing 1x1 ribbing in dark green, and my cast-on was 270st. I'm using sport-weight yarn and 3.5mm needles, hoping to put in some positive ease. Liking it so far.

I've also started my Giant Mashup. I'm doing the mix I called "Charlie" (gave the paired up fibres Radio Alphabet names), which is BFL/silk/angelina that I carded together, and a tan-colored merino/seacell mix from EGMTK that I call Sand. The BFL is a natural greyish color, and the tussah silk and silver angelina give it a shiny silver look. Only fluffy. hehe.

I did a trial run in April to see whether I liked 2ply or 6ply better. I divided some Kathy's Fibres merino in halves (Octavia and Rosy Red)

I spun the 2ply first, 50g of Octavia and the 50g of the Rosy Red right on top of it. Then I wound it into a ball, and pulled one strand from the outside and one from the center, and plied them both. It worked pretty well, but it didn't take very long, and I find I don't like spinning "thickly" any more. Anyway, the 2ply came to about 16WPI, which is about DK weight, I think. I like it

but spinning thinner is easier, and I'll get more points. And I have time (I think)

This one is the 6ply.

Sorry about the different lighting. Same deal here, colored yarn first and then red, only I spun it thinly. The plan was to pull yarn from the outside and center again, but at the same time to "navajo ply", which is basically a long crochet chain with big loops.




Singles are twisty, though. They want to twist back on themselves, and you have to have enough limbs to keep some tension on it as you ply, or you end up with little twist worms getting plied in and sticking out of your yarn everywhere. In the end, after cutting out tangles and failed bits, I decided to do one step at a time, and loosely 2plied the whole thing, which balanced the twist somewhat (as you ply in the opposite direction to how you spin). Then I put the whole 2ply through again, navajo plying.


It does mash the colors more, I think. I like the barberpole effect of the 2ply, but I like the interesting look of the 6ply better, and spinning it (in spite of the plying issues) was more fun. And it was about 600y of singles instead of 300. More points. hehe.


Two other things to report. This cowl

which is Bertrand Louis, is a squishy sort of cowl done in "half brioche" and Malabrigo Rios. I've been wearing it lots since I made it. It's cowl weather.

Also, Byron came home with a note about his first School Excursion which contained the phrase: "bring hats or gloves according to the weather" and he took this to mean "your mum needs to make you gloves with fingers in school uniform colors." I tried to gently talk him out of fingers; no deal. LOL. So here are his Rios gloves in Paris Night with a stripe (according to his directions) of Ravelry Red.

He wore them all day at the Wildlife Park and didn't lose them. So I was happy. All those fiddly fingers were worth my time   :-)