FO: Striped baby cardigan

Tada! It turns out that I still knit, too!
Pattern: b14-27 Jacket from Drops

Yarn: Anny Blatt Baby Blatt

Needle: US2 addi circs

Mods: I added a color to the pattern so the stripes were alternating blue and purple. Since this caused ther eto be lots of floats across the edges I did a single crocheted edge.

This really is a clever pattern. I love the way that short rows are used to create the narrowing stripes, which also then creates the cardigan shaping.

I am no not super pleased with how my crocheted edge turned out. It could be (and is fairly likely!) that I'm a crappy crocheter, but it looks messy and is way less elastic than I'd like it to be.

But I'll deal.

I've had enough of garter stitch to last me a good three years or so, so don't expect this to be a repeat pattern! It took much longer than I anticipated and while the clever stripes were novel at first, by the end I was ready to stab my eyes out.

Out the door it goes! Let's see, that takes me down to (mumblemumble) WIPs. And my fingers are itching to cast on with my Silk Forest yarn so the number just might grow. Whatever happened to project monogamy?

Silken Forest

And she's done!

I was aiming for a deep, deep, deep green with the subtle movement between a black green and a slightly warmer than forest green.





I'm delirious over these colors.


So there she is. 410 yards of light fingering silk cashmere blend in a color I'd like to swim in for the rest of my life.
Pattern suggestions?

Silk step two

Plying this silk was so satisfying, and while it was hard to see all my mistakes as I learned to deal with this new fiber (especially in the first batch of singles) overall I'm pleased with the yarn. All 410 yards of it. It's between 15 and 19 wraps per inch and So! Freaking! Soft!!

Today: step three. Dyeing.

Silk spinning

You know the drill. Summer, distractions, etc. I'll just sheepishly (HA!) say sorry and pretend there wasn't an enormous lapse in blogging, mmkay?

So, to distract you from my distraction, here's a fibershot!

Shiny.

Last night I finished spinning singles from a cashmere and tussah silk blend I picked up at Rhinebeck last year. This stuff is pure luxury, and I felt entirely NOT up to the task of spinning it how it deserves to be spun. But I was determined to learn to spin non-wool fibers, and there's no way to learn to spin these luxurious fibers without, well, a learning curve. So. Off I went.

Silly as it sounds, at first I found it terrifying. I mean, it isn't like the silk was suddenly going to turn into a spider web with a giant Vilde-eating spider attached. But that's what I was feeling: terror. My good, old wool had become so comfortable to spin that I completely forgotten the feeling of being out of control of my fiber. And I swear this silk just wanted to jump out of my hands and dissolve into a million pieces. (all of which, by the way, would go right up my nose and start a sneezing fit.)

One challenge of this particular blend is the mix of staple lengths. The silk has a staple of around 7 inches, longer than any wool I've spun. The cashmere? Less than an inch. Finding a drafting technique that suited both of these fibers was my biggest challenge, and eventually I ended up with a super light gripped short forward draw.

Another challenge is the fluff/shine balance. Should I be smoothing down the cashmerey fluff as much as possible to let the shine of the silk come through? Or keep a light touch to give a halo to the yarn? I don't know! I ended up feeling lucky just to have relatively even singles on the bobbin, even if the fluff/shine balance is extremely UNeven.

By the end I felt confident in how I handled the fiber, but I'll withhold any declaration of success until after plying. There's time to screw this up yet!

The natural color of this blend is luuuuucious. Sort of a steely gray with caramel undertones. I love it, but I'll love the yarn even more after dyeing it and I'm curious to see what my colors look like on this new-to-me fiber. So tonight I ply, and maybe tomorrow I'll dye.

This all started as an experimental kick, but now that I'm ten hours into this spinning project I'd be lying if I didn't say I really really really want pretty yarn when I'm done with it. But I'll try my best to remember I'm a beginner, and keep this in mind as I poke my nose back into the "non-wool" box of fiber in my stash to see what new challenges await me.

Breathess post from the road

I'm traveling but just popped my head into the fall Twist Collective and nearly fainted. There are so! many! beautiful! sweater! patterns!!!

Swoon.

Best of all there are some great colorwork sweaters, and guess what I've been craving?

FO: Easy baby cardigan

Pattern: Easy Baby Cardigan by Diane Soucy

Yarn: My handspun/handdyed in Daydreams of Spring, 100% merino

This was a quick little knit and such a great pattern. The construction is delightfully almost seamless (just the top of the hood) and so easy you hardly have to pay attention.

And that simplicity suits the handspun yarn, allowing all the nubbly variagation to shine through.

Man, I love knitting with handspun.

The toggles come from The Hickory Tree shop on Etsy. Check them out if you are looking for wooden buttons that look straight out of nature.

A return to Dyeing

I've taken most of the summer away from dyeing, partially because it's been hot and working over a hot dyepot does not sound appealing, and partially because I've had a lot of other fun stuff going on.

But this week I dipped a toe back into the world of color. A friend of mine had gotten two large cones of undyed sock yarn and asked if I would dye it for her. She wanted blue and green (hurray!) and here's what I came up with:

I was aiming for a yarn that would be largely blue with small patches of bright green and larger swaths of a kind of aqua. I think she liked it and I certainly enjoyed the process! It made me think about the differences between dyeing yarn and dyeing fiber and it turns out that there are many - both in the design process and the execution.

Tomorrow I hope to have a FO to show. Finally something finished from the castonathon!