Finished sock pair #14
and began #15.
My goal this year was to knit 15 pairs of socks in 2015 and I do believe I will reach that goal. I’ve also picked out my first sweater to knit this fall. I need to swatch and do a gazillion measurements but I may get started on that project this week!
It is Officially Socktober and the weather is letting me know that it’s about time to finish these socks started so long ago!
Only a couple of days worth of knitting is left on both socks. Hopefully I can get them finished this weekend. And then start another pair….
I absolutely love teaching but wish I had someone to grade for me. I have a lab assistant but technically he’s not supposed to grade student work. Bummer…. I’m sitting here grading and between interruptions and my own dilly-dallying, I’ve got only 8 of the 40 programs graded. In an hour’s time…. Sigh… It’s going to be a long treacherous night ahead.
And look what is finished and needs to be plyed!
Maybe that can be my motivation. Get back to work!
I do have a life outside of spinning, but I don’t always post about it! 😊
So on to the spinning projects!
The purple is chain plyed. It is only half the yardage of the white/gray. I like it. It has a lot of color variation due to the way the dye absorbed and due to the fact that the base locks had a lot of variety in shades of gray also.
I am spinning some bright blue next. It too is dyed CVM so they three can be used in the same project.
I went to my first (and likely only) high school golf meet yesterday. My daughter is a freshman. She has forbidden my attendance so far (LOL – I make her nervous she says!) but tolerated me yesterday. I was quiet as a mouse and followed all the rules of attending golf matches. I enjoyed it but if I’m going to spend 2-3 hours on a golf course in the future, it will be with clubs in my hands. 😊
A couple of notes: They must carry their clubs. No carts of any kind can be used. She is on the varsity team because they only have 5 girls out for golf this year. Four are juniors and then there is G, who is a freshman. They travel FAR to meets 2-3 times a week and have only had one home meet. She is keeping up well with her academics but I can see how tough it is to do that. With all homework needing the Internet, she can’t do any of it on the bus. I think 4 of the 5 girls are honor students and all are extremely nice. It’s been a good transition for her and I’m glad she joined.
I’m so excited that I have a skein of fingering weight in this CVM! I don’t know what I’ll do with it, but I’m sure I’ll find a project.
I finished the last batch of CVM fiber. It turned out true fingering weight, even after washed. That’s good (because I want to be able to spin fingering not weight) and bad (because the last skein was sport weight. Now I have a skein of each!). No pictures of that yet because it is drying. It came out to be 2.8 ounces and 205 yards. Pictures to follow.
I dyed some more of the washed CVM locks and some that didn’t maintain their lock structure. This time I used Blue Raspberry Kool-Aid. It’s very bright!
I thought, “Good. Purple and blue look good together. What if I carded the purple I did the day before with this blue and then spun it up all blended?” So I tried it.
Because I chain-plyed it, some is mixed and some is solid of one color or the other. And although it looks okay, it’s not my thing. I really like solids or yarn that reads mostly solid. I have two ounces of each color dyed so I’m going to spin and ply those up separately. Maybe I’ll use the white/gray with stripes of blue and purple in so thing together. The purple carded up nicely so far and I’ve begun spinning the singles at 40-45wpi.
It’s been a nice holiday weekend with plenty of variety. DJ was home. He had a couple of friends over for games last night and they invited Gianna and I to play too. Anytime you can have a group of 16-year-olds sitting around playing board games and eating pizza instead of out making trouble, that’s a good thing!
So far this holiday weekend, I have been washing the CVM fleece. I only wash/scour 3ouncws at a time because this fleece is exceptionally gross.
Some of these locks have been washed twice and the poop stains are still on some of the tips. Super gross. I’ve been cutting those off after they dry.
If I can’t keep the lock structure, I’ve been putting those pieces in a bag, so this morning I dyed those pieces with Kool-Aid.
One package of Tyranasaurus Rex flavor per ounce. There’s nice color saturation there and good variety. I won’t spin that until I’ve got more. I might blend it while carding it with some CVM that I’ll color blue or grape purple (which is different than this color believe it or not).
Cleaning the house and laundry are on the schedule today. That’s not fun at all!
I’ve been trying to produce 3-ply fingering weight yarn since I began spinning. I thought I finally had it. Nope. It turned out to be sport weight.
I’m only kinda bummed instead of outright bummed, because I looked up patterns for sport weight yarn and there are a bazillion out there. Even in the first few pages, I found plenty to put in my queue for later.
That skein is only about 110 yards and 2.5 ounces. I’ll try to spin up another skein that size (or slightly larger) and knit a pair of gloves and hat out of it. Then back to the drawing board to see if I can get those singles even skinnier!
I finished the scarf I was working on. I didn’t take a selfie or a picture of anyone wearing it yet, but it looks good worn.
The end that you see at the top does not have a picot edge. Why? I played yarn chicken and lost. 🙂 But that end is tucked under when worn, so it’s okay.
And I started a new poncho/wrap/circular scarf thing. The pattern is called Adama. I’ve made a similar pattern from this designer but this scarf is using worsted weight instead of fingering weight so it will go quickly. And….. Ta da! I’m using my hand spun alpaca to knit it in.
Here is the beginning. Eventually I join in a circle and it becomes a tube that you slip over your head. It’s a clever construction. I like the feel of alpaca when you are knitting with it. It’s smooth and silky.
Off to work I go!
Gina Quilts and Knits 