bad luck and a good deed

Recently my car died and I was stranded on the side of the road, with my husband, my two year old and 5 canaries, at about ten to three in the afternoon 20km away from the school my elder children were attending.
Luckily it wasn't a hot day or things may have turned out differently for those canaries!
But despite the car sizzling and spewing molten liquid everywhere my biggest concern was to stop the kids getting on the school bus. Thank god for mobile phones!
I live in a semi rural area, a long way from family so I have to rely on the goodwill of friends. I found a friend willing to collect my children and mind them until I could come to get them. Along the way, between frantic phone calls another friend called to say that she was coming to get me, and the midget and the canaries (we left the husband on the side of the road...)
She totally didn't have to. It was a long way out of her way. Not to mention that she was on the way to her weekly swimming class. But like the good and selfless friend she is she literally dropped everything to help me out.
Sooooo. I wanted to do something special to say "thanks for saving us!"
My friend is a knitter and spinner and all round amazing creative person. She is also the wife of a farmer which means her me-time is pretty limited as she spends a lot of her day doing farm duties. She has been talking of late about wanting to find some time to spin. She is always envious of the "beautiful rovings" I buy since she is more used to raw fleece straight from the sheep.

The solution was quite simple really. I ordered some yummy hand dyed BFL/ Silk roving from Spun Out. Similar to the fluff I spun recently.

The Thylacine Oatmeal BFL and Silk 

And since I was paying postage, why not order something for me...

Sqoosh Fibrearts 100% superwash merino in colourway 'raisin'

Now my friend has an excuse to do some spinning. In fact we are planning a grown-ups only spin/knit day in the upcoming school holidays (for all you non-fibre-freaks that is like HEAVEN!!) So yay for that. I'm planning to attempt to spin and ply my wool into a fingering weight yarn to knit either socks or a shawlette, so we'll see.

I can't tell you how nice it feels to do something nice for someone. Especially something that was so unexpected. So go, do something nice. Do it now.

Go on...

:-)

everyone loves a good yarn

From this:

To this:

 In two days... :-)

My little helper <3 Love her guts!!

Plying the yarn

Battling with my ancient Niddy Noddy. This one was obviously designed by a man! (or a non-spinner!)

 I have approx 130 metres of roughly DK- light worsted weight yarn. I was hoping for a bit more but for my first skein of yarn I'm pretty pleased.

Spinning up a storm

I first learned to spin around 10 years ago whilst I was studying textile art at Uni. My first experience was on an electric mini spinner and then I moved on to a traditional style single treadle wheel, you know, the fairy tale looking ones a la Sleeping Beauty.
Over the years I have dabbled occasionally; My grandparents sent me over an antique wheel around the same time that I was learning but despite all my best efforts at the time I couldn't make the damn thing work! I now know that I needed to tension the wheel, but back then I had no idea about the workings of a spinning wheel. As far as I was concerned you put your foot on the peddle and you treddle...
Towards the end of 2011 I was presented with an Ashford Traditional spinning wheel in excellent condition for a steal of only $50! You bet your ass I bought it! Much to the disdain of my husband who has been trying to convince me for years to get rid of the other one.
So over the last few months I have dabbled a little again, but recently for our wedding anniversary, said husband bought me a beautiful spalted beech drop spindle and some luscious BFL/ Silk roving.

I wasn't sure about the colours of this wool when I first saw it online, but when it arrived I was totally smitten.
The colours are divine; ranging from silver to fawn to chocolate to deep plum and mauve. Beautiful!

So my new spindle has inspired me to get my spin on again. And I wanted to get some good practice in before I attempted to spin the new roving. I've only ever spun Merino before which I've since learned is crap for a beginner due to its short staple length and tendency to snap when overspun. So I dug out some Corriedale I had in my stash for felting. It had been pre-washed and carded by me last year so it was good to go. I was AMAZED at how easy it was to spin!! Seriously, these fibres seem to go forever and you can spin it so fine!
I have a ball of Merino/ Silk I spun about a year ago. It's pretty dodgy to say the least. But lately I've been intrigued by Navajo plying, I mean, as far as I can tell it's kinda like taking a shortcut in plying and I'm all for shortcuts. It's in my lazy nature. So thanks to the wonders of YouTube I watched a few video tutorials and decided to have a crack at it. Obviously my first attempts are ordinary at best, but this is so freaking awesome! Ingenious!

Front, Merino. Rear, Corriedale. Both Navajo plied

So I went ahead and plied the Merino/ Silk, just for funsies. I ended up with approx 30 yards of super bulky weight yarn. I was initially planning to knit some fingerless mitts with this yarn, then last night I thought a neck warmer. I knit it up on 10mm needles and there isn't enough :-( So I'll have to ponder on another purpose for this.

After a little maintenance on the wheel (the Conrod joint snapped. Who even know it was called a Conrod joint?! By the way, an old leather belt cut into a 2 inch strip did the job just fine!) I decided I was ready to take on the BFL/ Silk.

Did I mention the colours are AMAZING!

The silk glides like butter through my fingers. The BFL is a little more hard work, but those fibres spin so beautifully. I don't know that I'd ever go back to spinning Merino again! Not for a while anyhow...

adventures in sweet tomato heels - part 2

The finished Sweet Tomato Heel:

As you can see, it is beautifully smooth and neat. And what's more, this heel was Eeee-Zeee to knit. What genius! Her method of picking up the "Mother" stitch to close the gap is brilliant! If you are a sock knitter I highly recommend giving this one a go.
That said, I think I've decided to frog this sock :-(

(give me a moment while I grieve...)

Anyway. Despite the sheer loveliness of the STH I found that it just didn't fit right across the top of my ankle. The heel portion is great! It cups my heel ever so fondly and sits beautifully. But the top bit is. just. a. little. too. tight.
Add that to the fact that my gauge is just too large and a few other minor boo-boos and I think it's better to bite the bullet and just start again from scratch, a teensy bit wiser for the experience.

I did alot of pondering over this heel technique whilst I was knitting and I had a bit of an epiphany. One of those "what if I did this instead of that..." moments.
I'm in the process of putting those ideas into action so not too much detail just yet. But I think I may be onto a winner! So if you've been searching for the perfect heel with a combination of simplicity, aesthetic, and ease then stay tuned... :-)

before you ask me to knit for you...

The usual reaction people have upon finding out that I like to knit is to laugh. At me. Cos let's face it, only nanna's and weird people knit, right? This reaction is closely followed by: 'Oh hey, will you knit me a ..."

Let me break a few things down for you.

I love to knit. It's like a meditation for me. I find it incredibly relaxing and I even get jittery on the days I don't get to knit (classic addiction!) But I'm by no means a fast knitter. I plod along at my own steady pace, which is fine because knitting was never intended to be a speed sport. People sometimes balk when they discover that my socks took a month to knit, or that sweater took 6 weeks. That's not 6 weeks of solid knitting mind you, but still.

Recently a co-worker admired my cropped cardigan saying he would like me to knit one for his sister. How much would I charge? I told him that the cost would depend greatly on choice of materials plus the time it took to knit the garment. He told me casually to let him know if it would be cost effective or if he could buy one cheaper at Target. I immediately told him to go to target. Let me tell you why.

The sweater I was wearing that day used 3 skeins of Pigeonroof Studios Cassiopeia in the colourway 'Juniper'. The yarn cost me $65AUD on sale. I bought 4 beautiful coconut shell buttons which cost a total of $12. Then I took a grand total of 42 days to knit the sweater. Now I didn't knit every day on the sweater so let's assume I knit for 21 days at an hour a day, so the finished product took an estimated 21 hours to knit. Now let's assume I want to be paid a tiny wage of $10 per hour for my time. That takes the finished cost of that sweater to a grand total of: $287AUD. Yep, that's right, math doesn't lie. 

It's a pretty cute cardi though and sure, you could buy one a shitload cheaper in a store, but it would never be quite as awesome or infused with as much love (and sweat and tears) as a hand knit.

adventures in crafting sweet tomato heels, part 1

I'm on a bit of a sock knitting binge at the moment. The thing I love about hand knit socks, aside from feeling ridiculously amazing on your feet, is how quick and portable they are to knit.
I recently purchased my very first skein of Noro Silk Garden Sock. After seeing this project on ravelry I decided I needed to have me some stripey Noro socks too!
I split my skein in half and am knitting from the two separate balls, alternating every 4 rows. Watching the colour change is enormously addictive and I powered my way from toe to heel turn in the first day.
So I went ahead and knit a short row heel. I wanted the aesthetic of a square shaped block of colour at the heel and also the short row heel is extremely fast and simple to knit. Gotta love that! Try on the sock once said heel is done and...what the? It looks like crap, it's waaay too snug and the end of the heel sits so low that I'm hardly going to get the nice little square that I was aiming for.
I figure there are a few factors creating issues here. Firstly: I'm knitting at a larger gauge than usually recommended for socks. Why? Because I'm an idiot. Truthfully, All my smaller needles were in use and after swatching I thought the resulting fabric on 2.75mm wasn't too bad. Stretch that fabric around your foot though and we have another story. So, my heel issues could be the result of too few stitches to begin with.
I start toying with some ideas: mini gusset, work the short rows over more than 50% of the stitches etc. I turn to my fellow ravellers for some advice and of course someone suggests Cat Bordhi's A-MAZ-ZING new 'Sweet Tomato Heel" or STH for the cool kids.
I start looking at some pics of the STH and think 'Perfect!'. It has the exact look I'm going for, It wont interfere with my stripes at all and it's just plain awesome! But none of the patterns have been published individually.
Of course, Cat has kindly provided a video tutorial on exactly how to go about crafting this exquisite heel. So I watch, and I'm sold!
So off I go to fiddle with this innovative idea and see what becomes of Noro Stripe sock number one. Will the heel fit? Will it be perfect aesthetically? Will the gauge drive me up the wall causing me to frog this entire sock and start again? Stay tuned folks.

Yarn Diet?

My husband says I have a problem.
This all started when he came home from work to find, oh I don't know, around 14 new skeins of yarn on the chair.
I have a good excuse, I say. They were on sale, super cheap.
No, he says. This is getting ridiculous. When wool this stop? (boom boom)

It's time for a yarntivention...

Teeny tiny little needles...

When I first decided to start knitting in earnest, about 4 years ago, I went shopping at my local big chain craft store and picked out a set of big, fat, chunky, purple 10mm needles and a basket-full of fat-assed wool.
I went home and cast on some stitches and knitted this:

Without a pattern I might add! Go me.

I was inspired by a good friend of mine who was knitting some gorgeous chunky little jumpers and shrugs.
The thing that inspired me was her philosophy of allowing the yarn to guide her and develop garments purely from instinct.

When I become passionate about something, I'm like a thirsty sponge, itching to absorb as much information as I possibly can on that subject.
I did it with cooking in my 20's. I knew more about the craft of cooking than most of the chefs I worked with at the time.
I went berserk with quilting a few years back and mastered most techniques to do with hand-quilting and even exhibited some of my art quilts.
Now my obsession is knitting and I crave knowledge.
I spend more time swatching and experimenting and getting frustrated trying to chart out my own lace patterns, than I actually spend knitting items of use.
Things have changed a bit for me over those last few years.
I remember knitting my first pair of socks. Baby size in 8ply. Pretty quick knit! And I so thoroughly enjoyed the process that I knew I would return to sock knitting. But at the time I tried to cast on these (which were just a teeeeny little beyond my capabilities) And as I wrangled the tiny little 3mm needles, I vowed I would NEVER EVER work with needles smaller than 4mm again. I mean, why would I? It would take FOREVER to actually get anywhere. So any socks I planned to knit were destined to be big fat wooly bedsocks, right?

Somehow, my memory isn't quite clear on this one, but somehow I promised my six year old a pair of socks. So, off to the shop and I bought some 3mm dpns. Pretty coloured wooden ones. But they were too grabby for this yarn, and the gauge was a little loose, so to the shop again. This time I came home with some damn expensive addi bamboo dpns (One of which I snapped on the first sock!!)
What size you ask? Well 2.5 freaking millimeters! I mean, I could use these as chicken skewers!

But I knitted those damn socks. And then another pair, and another, and another...

and now? More socks. on teeny tiny 2mm needles.
I would never have thunk it.
not ever.

Great Balls of Yarn!

a beautiful skein of Poseidon Sock from Pigeonroof Studios.
70% suerwash merino and 30% seacell.
To be made into these