Pam’s Knitting and Spinning, with a dash of Timmy

Chris carved this cyclops Jack o’ Lantern this evening. Now we just have to go buy candy for all the trick-or-treaters!

Photos in this post are by my dad. Here’s Edith, Tim, me, and Chris. As you can see, I’m carrying my Tilted Duster instead of wearing it because it’s too hot! I should have brought my Luna Moth Shawl instead. I also didn’t manage to find the Ravelry gathering. I’m not sure if there was one on Sunday, but I did run into Necia wearing a Ravery pin.

Here’s Tim trying to avoid being photographed.

He does love carousels though!

And the little playhouse tunnel.

These were things that allowed me to do my shopping, though I didn’t get to do as much as I would have liked, because Tim got tired and started to melt down, and we had to leave early. Better that I spend less money anyway!

Overall, it was worth it.

I was going to say “Rhinebeck haul,” but I didn’t really buy that much! Thank goodness for my cranky 3-year-old. First up is this gorgeous little walnut featherweight spindle I bought directly from the Bosworths. It weighs 0.46 oz and has a perfectly balanced spin.

Next is some really lovely and soft merino/angora (80/20) from Delly’s Delights Farm, an 8oz batt.

Lastly, some llama down from Lars of West Mountain Farm. He rubbed it on Edith’s (our au pair) cheek and said it’s a great way to meet girls, then called himself a dirty old man. What a character!

The photo cannot capture how soft this stuff is!

The 2-ply yarn I spun up from Spunky Eclectic BFL in Mahogany came out around 15 wpi, and I swatched it on size 5 needles which came out a bit too loose, then I switched to size 4’s which gave me 5 2/3 stitches to the inch with a nice, soft fabric. I can’t say what I’m going to do with it though, since it may be a gift. Sorry!

Instead, here’s the SakinaNeedles roving all finished and skeined up. It’s a lot tighter and not as soft as my first wheelspun, which I guess would be better for things like socks. I’m going to finish the rest of the roving with the same amount of twist.

Since my first wheel spun yarn turned out to be rather underspun, I’m putting a lot of extra twist in this next one, to the point of getting some corkscrews on the bobbin.

It’s SakinaNeedles BFL in Briar Rose. Pretty, no? I wanted to see how it plies up, so I wound just this much into a center-pull ball again, to see what happens with the plying.

As you can see on the right side, some of it is still underspun! I didn’t put in corkscrews at the beginning. On the other hand, there were a couple of spots where the corkscrews got into the plied yarn, which I didn’t want. But overall I think it’s nicer than the first one I did. I do wonder if using a ballwinder for plying takes out some of the twist.

It’s washed and hanging now, we’ll see how it turns out after the finishing.

Here’s a comparison of what I produced on my wheel and spindle. Obviously, the wheel was a lot faster! It took me an afternoon and an evening to produce the large skein on the wheel, while it took me several evenings to produce the tiny skein on the spindle! I may try to use them together in the same project even though the spindle spun is a bit finer than the wheel.

After becoming addicted to spinning on a spindle, I decided to get a wheel. Kristina
was selling her Lendrum DT on Ravelry, and although I’d never spun on any kind of wheel, I had read such good things about the Lendrum wheels that I couldn’t pass hers up. So here it is!!

Handsome, no? Here’s a side view.

As you can see, I got busy right away. It was really easy to set up with instructions right out of the box. I started off doing the “park and draft” on the wheel but as I got more comfortable, it went much faster! I finished up the Spunky Eclectic BFL roving in Mahogany that I was spinning on my spindle, to get a comparison of the feel of the same fiber on the wheel. It was more thick and thin, overspun and underspun than I had achieved on the spindle, but for a first try on the wheel I think it’s pretty decent!

Since I had only one bobbin-full, I used the center-pull ball method of plying. It’s nice to have a ball winder!

Here it is, plied up on the bobbin. As I was spinning the singles, I thought I was waaay overspinning, but as I plied it up, many sections were underspun to the point of singles breaking. So next time I’ll try to add even more twist!

I need to work on filling the bobbin more evenly. Maybe a Woolee Winder some day! Kristina was nice enough to send along a niddy noddy with the wheel.

And here it is skeined up! I’m so happy!!

From A Gathering of Lace, Knitpicks Alpaca Cloud in Iris on Knitpicks Harmony 3.25mm needles.

This is a daunting project, but it is so gorgeous I must do it! It’s actually the border that grabbed me, so hopefully I’ll get there some day. I plan to do fewer repeats for a smaller shawl.

• Pattern: Tilted Duster, Interweave Knits Fall 2007
• Yarn: Berroco Peruvia, Moonstone colorway, 6 skeins
• Needles: Denise circulars, size 8

I admired this sweater when I first saw it but figured I probably wouldn’t make it, since I HATE seaming and have never knit anything requiring much of it (thank you EZ). Plus everyone else is doing it already! But then I visited a LYS where they had a sample, encouraged me to try it on, and I fell in LOVE! The fit was perfect and flattering, the yarn sooo soft, and I had to have it. Unfortunately that store didn’t have Peruvia, and I didn’t find any great substitutions. So I ordered yarn from Webs in the Moonstone colorway.

I finished it in time to wear to Rhinebeck, and I got a nice comment on it as soon as we got out of the car, but the day was way too hot to wear it! I ended up taking it off and carrying it around. I also shopped for buttons but didn’t find anything ideal. I was excited to get a comment on Ravelry from the designer, Norah Gaughan, saying she liked the chopstick. 🙂

Final blocking before wearing. Mainly to correct the major stockinette curling of the sides. It worked beautifully!

This was the first project I’ve done which really required seaming. I just used the Peruvia to seam, and despite the fact that it’s a soft single ply, I didn’t have any problems with the yarn breaking or shedding.  The side seams (above) were mattress stitch, and the armhole seams (below) were a combination of vertical to horizontal weaving and mattress stitch. I am really proud of them!

Here’s another view of my mattress stitch below. Edith (our au pair) commented that the garment looked cute as a vest and said I should just stop there! But my butt gets cold, so I continued on..

Blocking front and back pieces prior to seaming. I used my handy-dandy blocking wires and some interlocking foam rubber tiles as my board.

Here are the sleeves, knit both at once on a long circular. Much better than having to seam them! I made them an inch longer than recommended in the pattern.

Gauge swatch for the Tilted Duster. Interestingly, I had to go down two needle sizes to an 8 to get gauge. Usually, I’m a tight knitter and have to go up!