Away and back again

Once again, it's far too long since my last blog post, but I have resolved now to do much better in the future. Resolved I tell you! The posts might get shorter, but they also just might get more interesting. As it is, I let things go for so long, and there is so much to write about and show photos of that I tend to rush thru without saying the things I want to say.

Things are moving right along with the knitting, although the spinning has been going along much more slowly, and the fibre preparation, despite the new drum carder, have almost ground to a halt. Not enough has been done to warrent photos. I've produced another few batts of the undyed grey corridale. Just more of the same, so it barely warrents a mention. I still haven't figured out what colour I'm going to go with. I'm actually considering leaving the majority of it grey, which would be a nice manly colour for Chris a vest or some such project, but then, given the interesting colours the grey wool produces, that just seems such a waste. I'm still deliberating.

I have managed to finish spinning up the fibre I got from "Kathy's Creations", which was a gorgeous colourway. I still need to ply it, and finish it of course, but the hard part is done. I spun it rather thin, but that doesn't really explain the time it took. I only worked on it a bit at a time, when my fingers were itching to spin, but just in short bursts and sometimes days apart. The knitting I've been doing has been the most time consuming thing going on. I could have had it finished much sooner had I not been in such a knitting frenzy lately.




Still, it's looking good so far. I plan to ply it up over the next few days, so it should be finished for the next blog post (the one I'm going to do SOON, remember?).

I finished the knitting part of the Bustaroony Cardi! Now for the dreaded stitching up. I haven't even started on that yet, even though I finished the final sleeve almost a week ago. With the weather getting cooler, it will provide some welcome warmth when I get it done. Added incentive...but man, I hate stitching up.

Having finished the Bustaroony, I had only the Salloon girl stockings left on the needles. With a bit of a holiday coming up, I had to get some other WIP's going. The first thing I did was drag the "Peace in the Hood" jacket out of hibernation. It had been in hibernation so long, I'd forgotten why I put it there. I think maybe because I needed to concentrate on my Christmas knitting, but I don't remember for sure. Unfortunately, I didn't write myself a note on Rav or even a date of when I put it in hibernation, so I'm only guessing here.

Anyway, I had made alot of progress on it. I had done the back, both fronts and both sleeves. I was at the point where I needed to start picking up stitches for the hoodie when we left for our short holiday over to Point Turton on the Yorke Peninsula here in South Australia. I got some knitting done on the hoodie there, and it looked like this on the day we left to come home:



After all the lace I've been doing lately (the shawl and the socks) and the intricate and constant textured/cabled work on the Bustaroony cardi, I found the knitting on the hoodie to be extremely dull, but it did make for excellent TV knitting, when I wanted to pay more attention to the show than to the knitting, so I mainly worked on it in the evenings when we were in the cabin watching the tele.

The Saloongirl stockings have probably gotten the bulk of my attention. I finished sock one, which is looking just great, and have moved right along on sock 2. I actually started sock two before finishing sock one, so that I wouldn't have to be starting it while on the road, and because sock one, when nearing completion, required me to transfer it off of the DPN's every few repeats to try them on, which was time consuming but necessary. However, it's not so convenient to be transferring needles and trying on socks on a road trip,so I wanted the second sock for times when I couldn't be doing the fiddly stuff.

But I did manage to get the first sock done except for the casting off part at the cabin, and was happy to have the second sock at the stage where I could take off and just start knitting. Here's another picture of the progress on the stockings right before we left for our trip home.





After getting home, I managed to get the casting off done on the first stocking:





(Please pardon the bad photos, but we haven't had much sun lately, requiring more indoor shots that just don't seem to have good lighting. Damn "save the planet" light bulbs don't help much with that.)

Which brings us to the "cigar" gloves, which I started right before the trip, and did manage to get quite a bit of work done on them. They are pretty easy, really, but require alot of 'waste yarn' to hold the stitches to be use later.

Here's the progress I made on the first glove during the trip:


Notice that I had put the pinky and thumb on waste yarn. But after I go home, I got the bright idea of using my Harmony needle cords to use as waste yarn instead, which worked out much better on the three middle fingers, and certainly sped up the process.






That first night after arriving home, I managed to finish the first glove, except for weaving in ends, but I haven't gotten a picture, and wil show that to you in the next post.

And of course, no post would be complete without a few holiday piccies.

Here's the lovely lighthouse at Corney Point, Yorke Peninsula, South Australia:


And a neat bit of rocky coast down the coastline south of Corney Point. The waves crash up onto the rocks, and a miniature waterfall is created when the tide is going out off of one of the rock shelves:



A picture of me standing over a beach near the cabin we stayed in in Point Turton:



And me standing near the rocky outcrop where the mini-waterfall is created (mentioned above). It's a beautiful and very secluded area.



A hazy sunrise from the varanda of the cabin we stayed in:



The rocks seen from the veranda of the cabin where we stayed. (Just sitting on the veranda and knitting was so enjoyable!!)



And of course, me knitting at a parking spot overlooking the beautiful western coastline of the boot at the foot of the Yorke Peninsula:



Hopefully, in the next blog entry, I will be able to at least show some progress made on finishing the Bustaroony, even if it is a bit optomistic to think I might actually have it done (remember, I'm dedicated to getting another post out SOON), more pictures of me using the new drum carder, and even some of the fibre I card in it actually spun up. I'd also love to have the spun merino from Kathy's Creations plyed. And I have tons of sewing to do for winter roundup, and would love to have the second "Saloongirl stocking" finished and ready to go, and in a perfect world, the "cigar" gloves as well.

Till next time :)

Cardi, Carder, Combs and Clutter

I just looked back at the date of my last post. Almost a month has passed, and really, I'm almost ashamed I haven't gotten more accomplished in the past month. I has been busy, but there's been nothing "completed" to speak of. Just a whole lot of random "this and that", which I suppose pretty much sums up my existence.

I will start with the knitting, since that will be the easiest subject to cover. I have almost completed the first sleeve of the Bustaroony cardi. Now I started this project in early January. Shameful really. Even though I knew it would take me a long time to complete it, given it's a rather intricate and even a bit difficult pattern, I really didn't count on it taking this long. At times, it was the only project I was working on, and aside from a couple of times, I really haven't "put it aside" all that much (compared, of course, to how long I've put some aside). Add to that, I really really enjoy knitting on it. My only excuse is that I have been quite busy with "other things" besides knitting, and haven't had time off work, a vacation, or other really superb knitting conditions. Anyway, I really wanted to finish the sleeve before making this blog entry, but time is running out, so you will get it as it is right now. However, I only like about 10 decrease rows and about 4 rows of shaping finishing this sleeve. I plan on having that out of the way tonight, and sleeve number two on the needles before I go to work tonight. So here's the sleeve:



And the back and both front pieces lying in "position", to give some idea of the finished look of the cardi:




I mentioned in the last post I was trying to decide what socks to start. Well, I decided on "Betties Lace Stockings" from the Spring09 issue of Interweave knits. They are perfect for western action. I had some Patonyle already in my stash, 3 balls of black, 3 of white. Now from pervious experience, those of you who remember know how I detest knitting black socks. Still, black would be sexy, and match just about anything. But my spinning/knitting friend offered another suggestions. Just knit them in white and then soak them in tea to "dye" them to an "old paper" sort of tannish colour. I loved the idea, off I went knitting them up in white. I started them on March 24th, and even though I only am about halfway through one sock now, they are a quick knit. It's just that I've been working so hard on the cardi I've neglected them. But they have a deadline, and need to be done by the Winter roundup in mid-May, so sooner or later, I'm going to have to dedicate some quality time to them.



Now, to purchases this past month. I really haven't bought much in the fibre department, but I did get lucky and show up on Ravelry in Ixchelbunny's group right as she was doing an update! All her nicer stuff seems to sell out almost the moment it is posted on her blog, so I never seem to get her goods as I'm always a day late and I'm lucky to find anything left, much less something I like. This time was different though, and I'm now the proud owner of this lovely package of goodies. The black and white is the Jacob Humbug, and the green/gold medley is from her Masham sheep, and is called "Tawny Frogmouth". (Who can resist something called "tawny frogmouth"???)



If you've never checked out Ixchel's yarns and rovings, I would highly suggest visiting her blog regularly and buying a sample. If you don't see something you like there, or it's all sold out, email her and tell her what interests you. Not only is it beautiful, but her "bunny" fibre is so soft it will make you cry (for joy, of course). I first experienced her products in Bendigo at the Sheep and wool show last year, where I bought two skeins of cashmere/angora mix yarn that was so exquisite. It's still in my "most prized" stash, but one day I'll find a pattern (or a recipient) to do it justice. If I can bear to part with it that is.

The hugely major purchase this month was my brand new drum carder. Now, for those of you who spin and, more to the point, prepare fibre for spinning, well, you know about how much these things cost. They are by no means a small purchase, but I won't go into details of the price here for fear of shocking my mom, and making her adore my hubby more than she already does for "putting up with me". But, I swear the thing could pay for itself. I'm not saying it WILL pay for itself, because that would require me to quit buying other people's prepared fibre, and that's not something I'm prepared to do right now. I'm only saying that it COULD, if times got tough and I really really needed it to. Besides, anyone who shops on ebay for such things also knows that it's resell value is fantastic. So, I always figured if I don't like it, or don't use it enough, reselling it will be a breeze. So far though, no danger of that.

I bought an Inwood Smith drum carder from Bella's shop in Adelaide (The Walking Wheel Studios). She didn't have one in stock, so she had to order it, and it took some time to get there, but it finally arrived and I went to take possession of my new toy. Now, not having much experience with carders, I didn't really have a huge brand preference, so I decided to buy Australian, as the money is coming out of the economic stimulus check (once I get it, that is), so buying local seemed the patriotic thing to do. So I bought an Australian product from a South Australian shop.

Isn't she lovely:



I had to try it out right away, so I used some of the brown fleece that I've had for ages. It actually came in a basket with the spinning wheel when I bought it, and gave it a go. Here's a picture with the fibre on the drum:



And a picture of the fibre coming off the drum, all lined up and spinnable:



Now those photos shorten the process quite a bit. What you actually do is take your raw fleece, stick it in one end, turn the crank until it picks it up with the small drum and deposits it on the bigger drum. You add fleece, trying to space it more or less evenly around the drum, until the drum is full, then you pull it off. You come up with a pretty nice looking bit of carded fibre after the first run. You tear that into strips and feed it through again. Than, for good measure, it goes thru a third time. Generally three runs is enough, depending on the type of fleece and what you want. It's also fantastic for blending colours too, although I haven't quite got that far yet. But that's in the cards (pun intended) for the next week or so.

The thing about carders is they demand to be fed, so one must keep clean fleece on stock. I had a "nearly" clean Corridale fleece, which I had washed twice already but still needed an extra go as it was still pretty sticky with lanolin. So I washed it one more time, and it came out of this bath more or less perfect. (Although I did run us completely out of hot water and had to take a cold shower before work that night). It seems I've been washing fleece forever.

Recently, on a trip to the Salvo's here in town, I saw this neat sweater drying rack for 50 cents, so I picked it up on a whim. It has became very useful over the past couple of weeks for drying my fleece.



How handy is that?? Particularly with the cooler weather we've been having the past couple of weeks. Not exactly the greatest weather for drying fleece outside, although if it is nice enough, the little screen also fits just perfectly on the top of my clothes rack that I can take outside.

I also took some tips from Bella and others and made myself a homemade rack to wash and dry "locks" for combing. I bought some "Gutter guard" and some clips, and made this contraption, which fits into the bathtub and allows the locks to go through the whole process without getting them out of shape or messy.



I think, for next time though, I'm going to cut it down into small squares, so I can use the utility room sink, and also because the long contraption is a bit hard to handle.

That brings me to my combs. After washing my fleece using the "Gutter Guard", I then set about really giving combing a go. Combs are finicky instruments, and take a bit of practice, but I reckon I did okay for a beginner.

First I took my nice clean locks from the "gutter guard":



Then I loaded a comb:



Then I swiped gently at the bottom of the fibres with the other comb, transferring the fleece over:



(BTW...there's the clutter mentioned in the title)

This process loads the comb, giving it a nice beard:



After repeating this process a few times, switching the fleece back and forth on the combs a few times, you pull the fleece thru a "diz". (My diz is of the homemade persuasion):



And this is my finished roving:



You make the rovings into little "birdsnest" and your all ready to spin:



I have also managed to card up a bunch of this fleece, and have several batts now ready to be dyed. I'd like to make on "biggish" project out of these rovings, but I haven't decided what yet. I was thinking of a vest for Chris (who has been patient with me and my hobbies, after all), and I was hoping to get a good manly colour for him.

So I had to do a bit of test dyeing, using mostly just the basic colours and some 50/50 mixes of them. Since the wool is grey, the colours you get are interesting. They are more forceful than the pastels I tend to get on white roving, but because the grey does change the colour, I wasn't sure of what I would get. So, an experiment was necessary to give me some idea.

Here are my samples straight after dyeing:



And hanging to dry:



The finished products were interesting, and the colours certainly were brighter and less pastelly, but I'm not sure if any of them qualify as "manly".

The first batch is blue, blue/green in the middle, and green on the other side.



The second batch look better in person than in the picture, but still, the dye didn't seem to mix as well. One is orange/green, the other orange/blue (I was trying for a brownish):



The last set has red at the top, orange in the center, and orange/red at the bottom. I really like all of these:



Now all that's left is to make a decision, or do more experiments. Not sure which yet.

As some of you know, I've been losing quite a bit of weight lately. I don't mention it much here, as weight loss isn't really what this blog is about. But for those of you wondering (you know who you are), I will post some "before and after" photos when I get the cardigan done. I began making the Bustaroony cardigan as sort of an incentive. At the time I began it, it would have been about 4 sizes too small, but now, depending of course on the finished product, I should fit into it. When I get to that point, I will "unviel" the weightloss on the blog. But, I will say that I've cracked into the 60's this week, which was a big goal for me. Now onwards to the elusive 55K.

Well, that's enough for this post. Heaven knows, I do need to do entries more often, and save myself from these long long posts. Well, maybe next time. Or not :)

What to do? What to do?

Gosh, it seems I have so MUCH I want to do these days, and time is always my enemy. I feel like I flit from task to task and never seem to get anything actually finished, but I know my day will come, and eventually, I'll be able to click "completed" in the box and move on to another project.

First for the good news, about Kaitlyn's jumper, finished a few weeks ago. Some lovely Raveler nominated the jumper in the "handspun/handdyed" competition on OTF, and the jumper actually won! I was very proud of that, as my life has not been one big winning streak, lol. Plus, I get a lovely gift from Woolywombat as my prize. I can't wait to see what she has in store for me!

The other good news about the jumper is that my son, Kaitlyn's father, made a picture of Kaitlyn in the kalidoscope jumper, at my request, because I wanted to share my beautiful granddaughter with you all:



I have been spending alot of my knitting time working on the Kauni shawl. I'm a bit behind the others on the Ravelry KAL, but I don't really mind. I was finding it a bit frustrating trying to do lace on the rather dull tipped Denise needles, and so finally ordered me a pair of Addi Lace needles, which are very nice and have sped up the process. But I did put the project down over the last weekend, partly because I wanted to wait for the other needles, and partly because I just wanted a bit of a change knitting wise. Anyway, I picked it back up day before yesterday. I'm at the end of chart 2, and moving on to chart 3 sometime today (I hope). So far, the results look like this:



While waiting on the lace needles for the shawl, I managed to get some more done on the Bustaroony cardi. The back is now finished, and I finished the bottom tree section of the left front and have knit on the pocket, but that's about as far as I've gotten. Still, it's looking great, and I have the feeling it's going to be just perfect when finished. I'm really enjoying the patterns these days. I'm getting used to them I guess, and am now finding them rather enjoyable.




I've also decided to make another cardi just like it for my girl, who is a small size. She picked out the colours off of the Cleckheaton website, and I ordered them a while back. The shipment came in at my LYS this week, so I went to pick it up.




20 balls of Cleckheaton in a darker brown with tan flecks. Very pretty, but I'm sure the pattern stitches won't show up as well on the dark fabric as they do on the tan yarn I've gotten for my project. Still, it's the colour she thinks will suit her best, and I aim to please.

On the spinning side of things, I had a wonderful day yesterday when a mate I met on Ravelry came over. She brought her guilds drum carder, and I actually got to use one, following her instructions. We chatted, and she expressed an interest in sock knitting, so I showed her a few websites and tidbits on magic loop and two socks on one needle and some other "tricks of the trade". We showed each other our interesting yarns, rovings, gadgets and such. Then we sat in the living room for a while and chatted and spun.

I had started spinning the merino I got from Jane at Moseley Park ages ago a few days before. It's the roving that I dyed back in the spring to try and match the colours on my apple tree when it was just blossoming. I'm spinning the green shaded roving right now, and that's what I worked on as we talked.

I'm not quite finished with the bobbin of green, but here it is on the bobbin, still in progress:




My plans for the immediate future is to finish the shawl first and foremost, and then work more on the "Bustaroony cardi", and my poor neglected "croc socks". I'm not starting any more major projects until I get those finished, or at least, close to the finishing stages. Both have been WIP's for far too long. I would also like to pull the "Peace in the Hood" jumper out of hibernation soon, and there could be a small project somewhere in the mix. We'll just have to see how things go. That's the thing about knitting and spinning. I never know where my fancy will lead me next.