Month: December 2004

by

Happy Holidays

Wishing everyone joy and peace for the new year.
Carol's stocking

I just finished this new stocking for my mother-in-law who loves visiting lighthouses.

The designs come from two sources, www.sweaterscapes.com and “And a Time to Knit Stockings” by Katherine Pence.

Here’s the back.

The intarsia part was done in the round using a new method described by Priscilla Gibson-Roberts  in the new version of Knitting in the Old Way and in the winter 2003 issue of Interweave Knits.  I highly recommend this method over others.

by

Whew!

Irish Moss Front

Here’s the completed front piece of the Irish Moss sweater.  Progress is slow but I guess that’s to be expected when knitting an Alice Starmore design.

My knitting tension has turned out to be spot on despite my initial swatching problems.

I think I’ll wait a few days before starting the back piece. I really need to finish up a holiday project that I started last year but didn’t finish.

by

Finished samples

Here are my finished samples from the spinning class that I recently took at The Weaving Works.
We were given small bags of various  wool samples to prepare by combing, hand carding, drum carding or flicking. The first two samples are from commercially prepared tops while the rest are from fleeces that the teacher had acquired and cleaned.

Handspun_samples

Listed from left to right (click photo for larger view):

  • Merino Top (commercial),
    Much softer and has more spring than the merino that I’ve been spinning for the Spin-Off sweater.
  • Falkland Top (commercial) –
    Not quite as soft as the merino but pretty darn close.  Easier to spin than the merino.
  • Rambouillet – hand carded
    Very soft but difficult to spin. Rolags had lots of little nubs that made it difficult to spin a consistent yarn.
  • Navajo – hand carded
    Lovely fiber.  As soft as the Rambouillet but produces less nubby rolags. Several students loved this one and were sad to find out that there was no more left to buy.
  • Columbia Suffix Romney Lamb – combed
    Used animal combs that I purchased at a fiber show.  Produced lofty and relatively soft yarn.  Although it’s difficult to tell in the photo, the color is a beautiful light gray.
  • Columbia Suffix Romney –  drum carded
    From the same animal as the sample above,  but cut when it was an adult. Lofty yarn but not quite as soft as when it was a lamb.  Still quite dirty despite being washed, which made it difficult to put through the drum carder.
  • Polypay – hand carded
    Much like the  white Columbia Suffix Romney but easier to work with.
  • Romney Columbia – hand carded
    Similar to the Polypay and white Columbia Suffix Romney.
  • Lincoln Polypay – combed
    Simply beautiful color and luster. A bit softer than pure Lincoln.
  • Lincoln – combed
    Very greasy and hard to handle. Beautiful luster but very hairy and not soft at all.  The curly locks are very deceiving.

I took advantage of the class discount and purchased a pair of double row Louet mini combs, but I swear, I won’t be purchasing a fleece anytime soon.  I need to finish what I already have on hand.

by

Knitting surgery

It happened again. I found another mistake.  Oh, this is getting so tedious.

At least this time I was able to fix it by only ripping out a small part that was one column of 5 stitches wide and  16 rows deep.  Using a spare circular needle  I reworked all the stitches.

Irish_mossfix1_2 Irish_mossfix3

Hopefully (knock on wood), I’ll finally finish the front piece this week.

This week I’ve been spending more time spinning than knitting.  I’m working on finishing up the samples from spinning class which ended this week.  I’ll post some photos when the skeins dry.