Preparation

This little boy, who once sat under a coffee table reading Dr Seuss upside down...

...is heading off to school tomorrow. He can't wait! (Mainly he can't wait to run around madly with his best kinder friend, Aiden, again!) For now it is 4 days a week, missing Wednesdays, until the preps get a bit more used to things.

And this independent little girl

is finally headed off to kinder for 3 days a week. By herself. She thinks that going by herself is the best thing ever!

So Zac is going to spend a bit of time on his own this year. But since his birthday last week (where he got some toys that his older siblings will not leave alone!!!!!) I think he'll cope just fine. Hehe.

As for me, I'm going to get back into some exercise. I'm going to walk around the lake, sometimes with Zachary and sometimes without, while the older ones are away. The weather is so nice, perfect for outdoor exercise, and when it gets cold again, I'll be prepared.

My fingers will be warm. They're nice merino (String Theory DK in "Delft") and so comfortable. The pattern ("17th St" by MediaPeruana (Kristen) in the blog list on the right) is simple and stylish, which she is good at. I'll be able to sit in a coffee shop and knit as soon as I've finished my 6km walk, and I won't need a hot chocolate to warm my fingers on first. (Might need one for other reasons. hehehe)

And that's the only thing I've finished this week. I've been working on Jasmine's rainbow top, and stitching icord onto the Brain of Insanity... more on that if I survive.

Summer sweaters

Happy Birthday, Zachary! Can't believe you're already three. Also, can't believe it's only been three years. And sorry about the Summer birthday jumper, which you can't wear for ages...

Not for long, anyway :)

The warm weather hasn't stopped me knitting a pair of socks, either

I made these ones using hand-dyed sock yarn. (I have some more white sock yarn waiting for me at the post office, at the moment, so it's like my birthday, too!) The self-striping thing worked out well, although I had to knit a straight tube to keep the stripe thickness even, and then pick up stitches for a heel afterwards (and chop out the grey parts to keep the heels and cuffs all-green). The afterthought heel is almost exactly the same shape as a toe, but it fits great.

I also finished a wooly hat, which is a pattern made up as I went. I knit most of the body of it (from the top down) watching "Les Miserables" at the theatre (which I saw twice and may see again, I liked it so much) and the contrast bit I did at home. (Can only knit very simple stuff without watching my hands.)

The edge was curling up, so I picked up stitches on the inside and knit a 1x1 rib facing, so it's nice and thick, non-curly, and a little tighter. Which is good, because this hat is for a 13yo, and it's going to be very slouchy! :)

Mostly, I have been doing some spinning.

I finished my Romney/alpaca for my NEWT. This is 50% alpaca from a fleece that my brother and sister-in-law gave me. I offered a knitted thing, and Kylie requested socks. After research, I discovered that 100% alpaca is not ideal for socks, because when it's stretched it doesn't bounce back, but mixing it with 50% wool does the trick. So I mixed the brown alpaca with a variety of colors from last year's Romney fleece (red, orange, white and blue) on my carder, and spun it up so that it will stripe in a subtle and random way.

130g = 313m of 3ply yarn, 20 WPI thick (fingering weight)

It's fun with batts this month. The next experiment was a little spin mixing some Jacob wool with sparkley angelina. The original was "humbug" top, which (I think) means they take all the natural colors and layer them into fibre ready-to-spin.

But carding it mixes it, of course, so the variation was pretty subtle. The sparkley bits are hard to photograph, too

50g = 54m of 3-ply

Nice and thick, this one.


Then, after chatting with some "Slytherin" friends in our little spinning thread, I decided to try "spinning woolen"

Normally -- always -- I spin "worsted". That means I stretch out the fibres between my two hands, preventing the twist from getting into the fibre until I'm ready, and then sliding my fingers back to carefully let twist in. It makes for dense yarn with very little air trapped in the yarn.

Spinning woolen means that I let twist go right up to the fibre as I stretch it. It's hard to explain, but it sure goes against the grain letting twist go up like that... yet it works. If you let a little twist in to the fibre you're stretching, it goes straight to the thinnest parts (so they won't stretch more), leaving you free to keep stretching out the thicker parts. Anyway, my yarn did end up being thick-and-thin.

Also, to spin "woolen", you have to prepare your fibre into rolags. I'm used to spinning fibre that is already brushed so that all the fibres line up. With rolags, you roll up a flattened square, and then pull fibre from the end of the roll, so the yarn you make is basically a long, thin tangle of fibres. That's what makes it airy, light and soft.

Only did 30m of 3ply, it was 40g, so it's quite thick, but spinning thin woolen yarn will take a bit of practice. As it was, I broke my single about 5 times! Noob. :)

Well, I'm off to play trains with that 3-year-old! Toot!

113 in 2013

I'm participating in the 112 in 2012 group again, although it's now been renamed. The goal is to finish 113 projects in the year. 

So far I've finished off three things. Here's Penty the Pentapus, a quick (but not so easy as I first thought) present for my 1yo niece. Bethi doesn't turn one for a few days yet, but she took possession the minute he was finished :)

Zachary's third birthday jumper, which is Owlet. I used every bit of my 3 skeins of Madelinetosh Vintage for this, except for a teeny ball that weighed less than 10g. He's happy!

(and a bit cute. Can't believe he's nearly three...)

And I sewed on all 38 button eyes the evening before I found googley-eye buttons... sigh... so I had to replace the eyes of the 5 owls on front.  Hehe.

I whipped up a scarf on the loom, using some hand-dyed merino/silk and some white BWM cotton. It's soft, and pretty big. Stats: 240g, 82 ends,  37cm wide and 276cm long (not including the fringe).

Three down, 110 to go. I have a few WIPs on the sticks, though I'm not sure I'll get my 9-10 projects done this month! Doesn't matter too much, hey, as long as I have fun.

NEWT progress

Lyla's part is finished

The leaf ties are fun :) and the yarn ended up being 20WPI

I entertained the girl one hot day (it was 40C) by helping her dye up the yarn for her jumper.

I divided it into 9 skeins (about 65-70g each) and presoaked them in water and vinegar. Jasmine stood up on the chair, and I gave her the dye box, a teaspoon and a pyrex jug with a little water. She picked a color and scooped out some powder with the handle of the spoon, and put it into the jug and mixed it up. Then I gave her a dye pot full of water and she tipped in her dye. She took a skein from the bowl of wet wool (holding it by the red ties) and lowered it in. I put it on the stovetop until the dye was exhausted, then rinsed it in the sink, squeezed it out a bit and laid it on the towel. She rolled it up and stepped on it to dry, then carried them out to the washing line for me to hang.

I knitted up this tiny swatch yesterday to see if I was happy with the color order. I think I might do random stripe thickness, throwing a pair of dice, but not until March. She wanted me to start on her jumper before the yarn was even dry, so I might not make her wait until her birthday in July ;)

She had a lot of fun, anyway. Totally addicted. After dyeing the nine skeins, and then telling me how sweaty she was, she wanted to get on with doing some more. hehe.

I may have started spinning her yarn...

It's one third "sparkle". One Third. I can't photograph it right, but it glitters like a Cullen at an Aussie Christmas Barbecue ;)

Have also started the jumper for Zac...

Two sleeves to the armpits and the start of the body of Owlet. Love this color (Madelinetosh Vintage in Bark). Hope I don't run out :)

The only thing I'm *supposed* to be working on, I keep avoiding, because it has about 100 kilometers of grey icord. My friend, Telly, asked for a brain hat, because she thinks they're funny and perfect for a nursing student; both things are very true, but I cannot get enthusiastic about knitting it.

I should go do a few inches of icord now. Hmmmm..... Might do some housework instead. :)

The Magizoo

In the mad silly world that is the Harry Potter Knitting/Crochet House cup, my NEWT number 2 is underway. This time I'm doing a mix of "Care of Magical Creatures" (hatching creatures from eggs) and Muggle Studies (sweaters). I put in my plan here and started on the first part.

Basically, I'm going to spin a yarn and knit a little top each month. It sounds pretty reasonable to me, actually, and I should be able to find time for other projects, I hope... or maybe I'm a bit overambitious...? Anyway, each month is dedicated to a kid, so here we are in December: Lyla.

I've proposed (to make sure it's enough work to be NEWT-worthy) fingering or sport weight n-ply. In other words, the completed three-ply yarn should be able to wrap around one inch of ruler 16-20 times (AKA 16-20 WPI). The yarn is merino with a streak of bamboo through it (30%) and it's a Kathy's Fibres job called Fantasia, which I got in Bendigo last July.

Unchained. The navajo ply should keep these color changes as they are.

The bamboo doesn't take the dye, but it does make the stuff extra soft, and it spins up kind of marled.  Pretty.

The yarn is secretly for me, not my niece, but in my NEWT this is the "egg" I'm knitting for her, because she likes the Bowtruckles, and for her Bowtruckle-y top I'm making her a Bloom. I made one for her "big" cousin, Elizabeth, in green here  and this one will be the same, only in the light brown color of Madelinetosh sport called Teddy Bear.

I can't seem to photograph the color without turning it grey :) but it's cute, anyway. I think I made the waist part a bit long (between the underarm and the skirt should be ten rows, but someone misread the instructions and did 20) and I've done three rows of lace diamonds now. I love this little dress. They fit for a long time, have sweet little cap sleeves, and look girly without being too frilly.

The plan is to give her that for Christmas, and then get an early start on Zac's January...

The end of that NEWT... phew!

NEWT socks the sixth are called Lace Cuff Anklets  and in spite of being anklets, they used more yardage than any of the other socks. That's the colorwork for you. The bottom is a simple check, so nice and thick, and the top is an argly-ish pattern from an Alice Starmore book of charts I have. Was in a colorwork mood :) but it sure slowed me down.

Having said that, I sure didn't think I'd be able to make 6 pairs of socks in 4 months with a bit of spare time left over. Hehehe. Can you see the teeny flecks of color here? That kept me amused...

The socks are actually normal sock length, as I found when I put them on the sock blocker. I put them on inside out (so as to stretch the colorwork "floats" across the back a little more). How do you like that MacGuyver-ing there? I couldn't work out how to block the colorwork and the lace at the same time, but threading some yarn through the picots and stringing it up between two chairs, with some tension, worked pretty well :)

The white is not really white. Here's a picture I took today of the original unwashed fleece, the washed and spun (undyed) yarn (except for the flecks) and a piece of plain white paper.

And now for a summary of my first NEWT :) because I'm a bit pleased with myself for this ridiculous amount of effort to make something that would cost me $10 at the supermarket... hehehe.

Raw fleece, washed and dyed, carded

ValJean: mixed in some tencel, spun it and knitted Hermione's Everyday Socks

Marius: mixed in some mohair, spun it and knitted Boot Socks

Cosette: mixed in mohair and tencel, spun it and knitted Lace Cuff Anklets

Used old handspun yarn to make Helix, Scylla and Two Yarn Resoleable Socks

 Now, I must get back to class :) since I haven't done even one this month, and cook dinner, and plan my next NEWT starting December 1!!

Pen Cozy Flowers

 One of the Quidditch games last month was called Endurance Training. The goal was to make at least 5 things that are the same. I decided to combine the game with a desk-themed swap, and make my swapee (Joseybug) a bunch of felted pen cosies.

I was snap-happy this day, so here is a pattern in pics :)

Needles: two 4.5mm circs
Yarns: Jo Sharp Silkroad DK Tweed in Beanshoot, Cleckheaton Perfect Day 8ply in Natural.

Cast on 7 and knit an icord for about 25 rows. (Icord = knit 7 and push stitches to the other end of the needle. Without turning, pull the working yarn across the back and knit again. Repeat.)

Flip over and examine the loose strands across the back of the icord. Get a crochet hook and put it down under the first strand (at the cast-on end)

Twist, so the needle is pointing up to the top (where there are live stitches still on the needle)

Hook the second strand and pull it through the first. You now have the second strand alone on your hook. Hook the third strand, pull it through, hook the 4th strand, etc. right to the top.

When you run out of strands to pick up, put that loop on your needle as an 8th stitch.

Arrange the 8 stitches on two circulars. Change to white. I just knotted the two ends together and tucked them inside.

Knit into the front and back of each stitch except one, making your 8 stitches into 15. Put three on one needle and the rest aside on the second.

Working with just the three stitches, knit a petal. Start with the 3 stitches near you so the right side is underneath the petal. Row 1: kf&b, kf&b, k1 (5). Row 3: kf&b, k2, kf&b, k1 (7). Row 5: kf&b, k4, kf&b, k1 (9). Row 7: k1, ssk, k3, k2tog, k1 (7). Row 9: Cast off. Every even row is purl, though it helps to learn to do it without turning your work; saves time and isn't hard. Then run the cast off tail down to the center of the flower (down the side of the petal as pictured), leaving a reasonably long end, about 10cm.

Join the yarn again for each petal, leaving 10cm at the start and end of the petal, meeting in the center.

When you've done 5 petals, secure and knot the strands.

Then, using a darning needle, pull the ends down around the knot, down the inside of the stem, and cut them short. I brought the white yarn ends out the side of the stem about 2cm down, and then cut them all short. Felting secures it all :)

I put them all through the wash, but the petals kept curling. In the end I felted them by hand a bit, and laid them like this to dry.

I wet the center with a drop of water, and put the tiniest drop of yellow dye and vinegar onto it. I microwaved them for a short time, and let it dry. The cast on end, I just trimmed short. (Good old felting.)

For Joseybug, I ended up making these ten, which look kind of cute in a penholder or two. Voila. Desk decoration. hehehe.