Oh my, 1,152 is a lot of stitches.

There are 1,152 stitches after the seventh increase round of a pi shawl, 1152, which is a lot. The previous section has 576 stitches. Five hundred and seventy six stitches is slow going, I managed between four and six rounds in an evenings knitting. Somehow the reality that double that stitch count would mean halving the number of rounds I could knit in a sitting didn't hit home until I knit a round. The concept that more stitches equals more time was reinforced on the second round, and I suspect will be every round after that.

Given the number of rounds I can knit in a evening progress will seem to slow, but will in fact proceed at the same rate of stitching. There are at least two more weeks of evening knitting in this shawl ... At two rounds per day, 16 pattern rounds then a cast off ... And I know I won't knit on this every day. I also know how exciting it will be when done and blocked.
As a distraction from the ever increasing pi shawl, I've been spinning.

I took apart a dyed plait of combed top by Maude and Me, and divided the fibre up into three colours. Then I made Rolags from each colour, and played with how to spin them. This is the plan I came up with, one rolag of each colour, followed by two rolags of each colour, followed by three rolags of each colour ....and so on.

I divided my roalgs into two sets and spun two singles, the whole time wondering if I was working to a clever plan or just making a mess ....
If the plan works when I knit a center out baby blanket the repeats of each colour will be increasingly longer to match the increasing stitch count as the blanket increases in size ....I think.

Here are the unblocked plied yarn, right next to a tiny skein of woolen spun Gotland lamb. I did a little bit of tweaking as i plied, breaking and removing a sinlge if the colours didn't match up too closely, and adding the removed section back into the next section of that colour. I may have finally found a way to spin Gotland that doesn't result in string! Right now the yarn is soaking ... And plumping up nicely.

And today there is sun, and Yoyo is completely relaxed ...this is the way the world should be. One relaxed warm soft loose limbed cat.
Take care ... And let me know if you want to knit a round to two ... I'm open to volunteer knitters,
Na Stella

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Inspired ...

This week I have been inspired by another knitter, something that happens all the time, when I see the knitters around me do clever beautiful things,when I see clever beautiful things on Ravelry and on blogs. This time it was a local knitter who has inspired me to finish and complete. As well I've been playing with my new hand carders, and making rolags, and I have that new project to introduce.

This is the project that inspired me, Kiwimoth from Ravelry gifted the youngest cub her Sanquhar mitts. Knitted in lace weight yarn, stranded, and on 1.25mm needles. The gauge is 13 stitches in 2cm, so 65 stitches in 10 cm or 4 inches, 17 stitches per inch - give or take. I am in awe, awe that Kiwimoth knit one, then two of these, awe that she gave them away! Her gift did inspire me to finish knitting mine, which has a gauge of 43 stitches in 10 cm or 4 inches, or 10 stitches to the inch. 

Here is the difference those seven extra stitches per inch make, on top Kiwimoths child sized mitt, underneath my more adult sized mitt.  One of the reasons I was dragging the chain on finishing mine was indecision. I didn't know if I wanted to make them gloves as the pattern was, I've never had a pair of gloves I felt comfortable in. I already had several pairs of mittens, and and to turn these into mittens seemed odd. When I saw how good Kiwimoths mitts looked, which she had finished with a teeny tiny picot edge ... I was inspired to do the same to mine.

I tried the picot edge, and it didn't really work.The top edge stretched, so I frogged and worked the picot again this time decreasing the facing stitches by a factor of 10%. I grafted the live stitches down .. but still the edge flared and the picot didn't sit on the edge. So I was in awe a third time that Kiwimoth had worked a picot edge at that gauge and had done so successfully. I frogged the top cuff back and worked a round of plain chocolate, then three rounds of single rib, then I worked two rounds of rib-slip to set up for a tubular cast off. I loved the final result, not as pretty as Kiwimoths, but neat and tidy.

I also spent some time playing with my hand carders, making little rolags. I turned a 100g  braid of soft silver grey Perendale from Vintage Purls into light sleek roalgs, and then spun a few.  I've played with long draw before, but not really felt in control of the process. After watching the two dvd's I bought I was convinced that like everything, success was reliant on good preparation. I have (Drafting the long and the short of it & How to card wool, as well as several books with instructions on carding it hand carders.   The thing about preparation seems true, because the silver grey rolags are a dream to spin.


I also visted you tube, and the most useful video I found was one by Hervorandweyland. Most videos and books told me the carding teeth should not touch, that they should skim over each other and not even mesh. I understood that to mean the teeth should just skim past each other, and I couldn't see how the fibre would be carded. This video shows the difference between a light hand with carding, where the teeth just brush past each other and meshing the teeth deep into each other (around the 2min mark), Seeing that made it clear to me that the teeth could touch, just not deeply.

I had so much fun spinning the first few rolads of pale grey that I dug around in the my stash to find something else to hand card into rolags. This is deep green, purple, wine merino, dyed by me 160g. At the base of the bag the fibre is more  black and green, at the top more wine and teal. I have no idea how I will ply it yet, but I plan to spin long draw.

And this little project, a hat, knit in the Knit one below style developed by  Elise Duvekot. The knitters study group project this month was Knit one below, which I have done not once but  twice before. I wanted to knit socks, but two things worried me, having enough yarn, I had 50 of the grey green and 100g of the variegated mauve, and fit. Elise recommends yarn with lycra or elastic fibres as being great for Knit one below socks, and I didn't have any yarn with lycra and didn't want to knit baggy socks. So I switched to knitting a hat, using the garter strip as the 'cast-on' edge. I love the way the stripes transition from the garter to the body of the hat. In an effort to stop the hat colours being to regular I'm switching the variegated and plain columns at the pale section of the colour way repeat.

I'm hoping that when little cub comes back from her grandads she will let me post her current project. She is knitting Elijah, and it is such a clever little project. The increases and decreases are all planned very carefully so the knitter knows exactly where and how to pick up stitches for the body, the legs, the arms, the ears and the trunk curls up a little because it has extra decreases to shape it upwards.

Take care
Knit lots, or spin, try long draw ... even
na Stella

New yarn - two kinds

Another quick post, Bear had an early work meeting and then a long day so my today was eaten up by transporting cubs to school, working, then being the after school parent. Being the  after school parent mostly means transporting cubs from after school music to swimming, then home... but also involes making sure things happen on time, no one is late and that the right equipment is packed, is clean, tidy and carried there(not left in the hall),  then taken away home again. Tiring stuff this parenting, but worth it when one sees ones cub easily making music in a group or with a nice freestyle stroke in the pool.

Anyway - the blog is about the knitting, and today it is about the  stuff that allows knitting, yarn. I have been knitting - but mostly spinning. I borrowed another bobbin for the Aura wheel and plied both the single yarns that were waiting. That done there should be a wheel review over Easter,  the plying was the last part of the preparation towards a review. I have been knitting, mostly on the  Deciduous shawl, but as it is just repeat after repeat the photos really don't show any recognizable progress, I will leave a display of that until another time.

Worsted (left) and Woolen (right) spun 3 ply yarns - both merino

Here are the two plied yarns, both chain plied, and I think I may have finally mastered plying. Before this my yarns tended to be under-plied, and so a little string like in appearance. By under-plied I mean that there was not enough twist in the yarns to make them look plump and squishy like this, my skeins always hung straight which is one measure of a balanced yarn, but they didn't look plump and squishy.  Because they hung straight I considered them plied enough and didn't quite know what to do to make them more yarn like and less string like. This time it all came together and my yarn is fat and plump.  The yarn on the left is a graduated superwash merino, changing from deep red, through orange, to yellow and then blue, but mostly it is blue. The initial fibre was bought at KAN last year. Superwash is slippery stuff to spin, so the singles seemed to need a bit of twist and I was worried that the yarn would be even more string like than usual so this is a pleasant surprise. The yarn on the right is merino dyed by Maude and Me, and gifted by Sourkraut, it is merino and was dyed the most amazing range of colours. I turned the fibre into Faux rolags and spun it woolen style.

Worsted (left) and Woolen (right) hand spun, 3 ply, merino

Close up the Worsted yarn(left) is smoother and has less of a halo, the Woolen(right) is much fuzzier and seems to have more squish. Technically the worsted should have more air - and be warmer but les durable, feeling them that seems right. Both are destined for baby blankets, the one on the right for a baby due in August, the one of the left destined to sit with an already finished pink one until a suitable baby is announced. Over all I recognize my Woolen spinning needs more practice ... but I like the technique and the effect of this woolen spinning and I'm keen to try more.

Thursday tomorrow, then  a long weekend, followed by school holidays - feels like there might be some knitting time amidst all of that somewhere.

take care
na Stella

Public holiday

This post is quick, it is Otago Anniversary Day, Bear wants to head off to Central Otago for a little shopping. Some fruit, it is the fruit bowl of this area, some nosing around second hand shops and the like looking for pens and and interesting magazines. I said I'd blog quickly.

 Last night I was distracted by fibre, I sorted some that Sauerkraut had gifted me into a colour progression and made mini faux rolags using choptsticks. Was a lot of fun - I've threaded them in order on a length of yarn - the idea came from Spin off. 

 The Cardigan project is nearly done, but sadly I knit the first sleeve whilst the little cub was in bed sleeping so I prematurely cast off the first sleeve a tad short. No worries I'm knitting the second one, making sure it is longer than the first and then I'll frog the first. Just on a week of knitting - so a fast and fun project. The Hedgehog is fake, it is a shoe cleaner.

I finished spinning the blue with the loaned Aura wheel, and started to ply using my Majacraft Gem II, but discovered the aura bobbins hold so much more yarn than the standard Majacraft. So I've abandoned the plying and will seek to borrow another bobbin so I can ply the entire lot with the Aura. Review coming soon.

Take care
We should be having a lovely lunch in an Art Deco hotel if we time it right, Ranfurly is a small place but has a strong Art Deco theme to its architecture, and has an Art Deco weekend every year. This isn't it but we can still enjoy the luxury and grandeur of the style. Hope your day has a highlight as well.
Stella

Stella