NOT Awesome yarn

So I'm happily knitting away on the AWESOME socks when my yarn breaks.

Weird. So I tie it together and keep knitting.

Wham!

Another break! grrrrrrrr.

THREE breaks within TWO inches of knitting. That is not awesome.

Awesome Socks - the beginning

Awesome Socks - the beginning
Originally uploaded by amynowacoski

I've had this idea in my head for these really AWESOME socks. So I decided that nothing is stopping me from doing them except me! So I found some yarn (thanks to my mother's GIGANTIC stash) and cast on! Here is the beginnings of my Awesome Socks! This is the sole of the foot. And why stripes? Cause stripes are AWESOME!

I did it all by my self!

I feel like a big girl because I got to cook dinner all by myself tonight. See, here's the issue, while at my folks house, I have Poppy in the kitchen which is A) awesome because he enjoys cooking and B) let's face it, food always tastes better when some one else makes it. However I do miss being in my own kitchen cooking my own meals sometime. I found a recipe for "Chicken Under a Brick" in some America's Test Kitchen cook book and have been wanting to give it a spin for quite some time.

The idea is you butterfly the chicken, sear it on the stove top under weights (classically, a brick is the perfered weight of choice, but c'mon now, who has bricks haning out in the kitchen, so I went with a pot filled with water and the bottom covered with foil because I'm lazy and would rather waste resources than wash a pot. So there.) to get a crisp skin and then finish it in the oven. It's supposed to cut down the cooking time on a roasted chicken to under an hour. It took me longer than the recipe said, but hey who's counting.

America's Test Kitchen recipies can be a bit fussy. They do a lot of partial cooking so that things don't get over cooked. Usually it does work and the dish comes out delicious. In Chicken Under a Brick, once you get the butterflied chicken browned, you take it out and dump in some potatoes to the pan and rest the chicken back on top of the potatoes with a drizzle of some oil, garlic, lemon juice and thyme. The whole things then goes in the oven. Then once the chicken is done, you let it rest on the cutting board...

... while the potatoes finish cooking and get golden brown and delicious in the oven.

Well, I'm sad to report that golden brown and delicious potatoes did not happen, even with doubled cooking time and a jacked up oven. They were edible, and not bad tasting by any means but not golden brown and delicious.

All in all it was a pretty good meal and I made it all by myself!

And yes, I enjoy eating on divider dishes so that my food groups don't touch. Yes, I am a 12-year-old apparently.

And yes, that is a ruby red dot of Sriracha sauce.

Sriracha goes with everything. Didn't you know that?

Creatively Frustrated

I have 4 projects going on right now and I feel creatively stuck. It's not that I'm unhappy with the projects and I'm not bored but I don't feel inspired.

Fearful Symmetry

Damn you TsockTsarina! What a delightful and frustrating sock. I love the pattern but it is a touch more intense than I really feel like knitting right now. I was so frustrated trying to get the toe right, and now that I'm done, perhaps I'm spent.

The Clap

Yeah, I know, I'm a sheep and am doing The Clapotis. I adore it. I adore the Wollemeise that I'm working in. But I'm three-quarters done with it and I'm no longer thrilled by the drop stitches. 

Fishes Mittens

Cute! Adorable! But I'm sort of over the excitement of the pattern. Not to mention that I just screwed up an entire pattern repeat and I'm debating if I want to rip it all out or not. Boo.

Mamajama's Pound of Fiber

I have like three feet of the Ashland Bay roving left to spin into single before I can ply. I am so over this fiber right now. A pound is an incredible amount of fiber to spin. 

I need to get my hands messy. I need to finger paint. I need to do something wacky. I need to do something inspiring. I love my projects but they're tedious right now and not fulfilling me. Knock down the walls blocking in (or out depending on your prespective) my creative mojo.

The day that changed everything

March 5, 2009. The Mamajama and Poppy surprised me with a trip to PA to buy... drum roll... a spinning wheel! And my life has not been the same. When the Ladybug came out of the box and I put my feets on her treadles, I knew I was in love. I'll take pictures of "Scarlett" in the next few days so you can see her in all her glory
Spinning is soothing, rhythmic and fascinating. You take this random bit of fluff and you tame it into YARN. You make freaking YARN. That is beyond awesome. I've gone a little nutso, enabled with much joy by the Mamajama. Seriously, there was a package of fiber arriving every day for a while. Things have calmed down a bit, but I'm still spinning like a madwoman.

Check this out: My first EVER handspun on my spinning wheel! Its a bit of mohair I had left over from some spindle spinning. Fluffly and beautiful!

This is a bit of Ashland Bay wool I got with my wheel. It reminds me of Easter. A "generous" 6 ounces that I spun up in HOURS!

And some more Ashland Bay stuff I got a Rhinebeck. The fluffier bit was wheel spun, the bottom skein was spindle spun. Both very enjoyable, but very different!

Sockdown February - Candy Cane Bellatrix

I chose Bellatrix Sock for the February Sockdown for Sock Knitter's Anonymous. The pattern was a quick knit and kind of fun with the drop stitches but I'm not super pleased with the end result. I was spot on with my guage, EXACTLY 8 stitches to the inch measured flat and in the round. The drop stitches makes them a bit loose. Its OK, I can live with it but they're not my favorite. I however love the yarn! Candy Cane from Holiday Yarns! LOVE IT!

Reunited and it feels so good.

The ransom was paid. The fiber was retrieved and reunited with its fiber family. The Office of Fiber Land Secuirty is standing down. All is well.

Cookie Madness - Sour Cream Pastries

Sour Cream Pastries are MY cookies. I'm very surprised that I even share a single one. I am very generous apparently. They are prefection in a cookie, light flakey dough, sweetness, coconut... anything with coconut is good in my book. This year, conroversy erupted when Little Sister decided to pervert the goodness by using raspberry jam. Why meddle with perfection? She's crazy. So we had to make two batches so that the originial goodness would not get corrupted with her new-fangled ideas.

Please note that the overnight rest for the dough is critical. The dough must be COLD. This is the one cookie that can only be made in winter. I tried making them in summer, in Japan, during the rainy season. I will not even describe the mess for fear of tainting your ideals of cookie perfection.

These are the best cookies ever.

Sour Cream Pastries

1 c. butter
2 c. sifted flour
1 beaten egg yolk
½ c. sour cream
½ c. apricot preserve
½ c. flaked coconut
½ c. finely chopped nuts
granulated sugar

With pastry blender, cut butter into flour until mixture resembles fine crumbs. Combine egg yolks and sour cream, blend into flour mixture. Chill overnight. Divide dough into 4 parts, keeping each refrigerated until ready to use. Roll each part into 10 inch circle on lightly floured surface. Spread with 2 tablespoons apricot preserves, sprinkle on 2 tablespoons coconut, 1 tablespoons nuts. Cut each circle into 12 wedges. Starting from wide end, roll each wedge into a cresent. Sprinkle with sugar. Bake on a ungreased cookie sheet at 350 degrees for 20 minutes or lightly brown. Cool on rack. Makes 4 dozen.

Christmas Cookie Madness - Nowacoski style

The ubiquitous Christmas Cookie - The stuff of legends. I think every family has a story or a tradition of baking up bite-sized morsels at holiday time. Our family is no different. I don't think I can remember a Christmas without buckets of cookies. Some of these treats are only trotted out for the holidays, some are year round favorites, some are experiment and empirical tests (oh the failures are plenty!) This year, the Cookie Madness began on Thursday of last week.

You see, the youngest daughter of the clan got an idea into her head. Yes, that is as dangerous a proposition as you would suppose. She has been obsess with cooking blogs of "The Ultimate Chocolate Chip Cookie". I'm sure she'll post the link to the original article. "Let me esplain. No. There is too much. Let me sum up." A crucial component of these goddesses-cum-cookies are the fact that you are to let the dough "mature" by several days of resting in the icebox. So in order to have a true blind-empirical-taste-test, I flipped to the good old Nestle Toll House Chocolate Chip recipie and whipped up a bunch for a 48 hour rest in the fridge. More on this experiment later.

Then on Friday, the Mamajama declaired that we simply had to have Oatmeal Carmelitas. I have vague memories of this bar cookie. When Cookie Madness would roll around I would say "Mom let's make those carmel things" and somehow they never actually got made. So its been like 20 years since these cookies have graced our holiday preparations. But since that is where Cookie Madness began this year, that's the first recipe I'll post.

I give you....

Oatmeal Carmelitas

Crust

2 cups all purpose flour

2 cups quick-cooking rolled oats

1 1/2 cups firmly packed brown sugar

1 teaspoon baking soad

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 1/4 cups butter, softened

Filling

1 (12.5 oz.) jar (1 cup) caramel ice cream topping

3 tablespoons all purpose flour

1 (6 oz) pkg. (1 cup) semi-sweet chocolate chips

1/2 cup chopped nuts

Heat oven to 350F. Grease 13x9-inch pan. In large bowl, blend all crust ingredients at low speed until crumbly. Press half of crumb mixture, about 3 cups, in bottom of greased pan. Reserve remaining crumb mixture for topping. Bake at 350F for 10 minutes. Meanwhile, in small bowl combine caramel topping and 3 tablespoons flour; set aside. Sprinkle warm crust with chocolate chips and nuts. Drizzle evenly with the caramel mixture; sprinkle with reserved crumb mixture.

Return to oven and bake an additional 18 to 22 minutes or until golden brown. Cool Completely. Refrigerate 1 to 2 hours or until filling is set. Cut into bars.

WIPs Wrestling Complete!

I have received my first medal in the 2008 Ravelympics!! I completed the Rainy Day socks for WIPs Wrestling. And I'm making great progress on my sweater for the Sweater Sprint.

Cardinal Sin of Coffee.

I must confess, and I know that this will break my sister’s heart, but I am guilty of the cardinal sin of coffee – I pour my cup before the whole pot has finished brewing. GASP! I know there is a special level in hell for people like me. I shall wallow in burnt dregs crunch with grounds for all eternity. And I know it only takes like 6 minutes for the pot to finish however a) its not really great coffee to begin with and 2) OK OK I’m selfish!!!!!!

Fiber Mania

This is my week of Fiber Mania! I met Bev (AKA emmasdaughter) at the College Street Café in Clinton on Monday. I think we might make Mondays a regular meeting! Then I met Vanessa (AKA DivaMissV) at Panera’s on Tuesday. I hope to make this semi regular too! Yes yes, I know! Three days of knitting (because we can’t leave out the Rome Wednesday’s group!) might be a bit much (especially when MissV and I forget all about the time and leave poor hubby sitting in the parking lot for HOURS! Sorry MrV!!). But I think I’m going to need the inspiration. I’ve got a lot going on:

The Sock Madness:
The Mother has roped me in to some sock insanity. We’re in the “Pair-a-Month” challenge on Ravelry. I joined a few months late, and the Mother has convinced me I need to catch up. I have 5 and a half pairs done. So in the next 5 months I have to do 6 more pairs. August will be tough to double up on this challenge (see madness below), and Sept and Nov are reserved for the Pentathlon. But if all goes well, this should be no big deal (so sayeth the madwoman).

Ravelympic Madness:
The Ravelympics – sign up, choose an event, cast on during the opening ceremony, cast off by the closing ceremony. Mom has convinced me I can knit a sweater in 17 days. You know, its insane and an almost impossible task, but I’m going to go for it!

Secret Surprise Project:
This one isn’t going into Ravelry, and I have to get some yarn for it. But it shouldn’t take too long.

Claire’s Jawbreaker:
I’ve finished the back but the front is giving me some trouble. I just have to concentrate for a bit. I hope to have this done for her way before Rheinbeck (crosses fingers)

The Super Secret Super Exciting Project:
This one is going to throw a wrench in all my plans! I’m so excited about it that I’m obsessively tracking my LoopyEwe delivery (see above). I just can’t wait for the yarn to arrive so I can get busy!

The Shawl(s):
I got it in my head that I wanted to spin and knit a shawl for myself in 2008. Then I thought I’d spin and knit 2 shawls for 2 of my girlfriends. Well, that might have been a bit ambitious. I’m not even all the way thru the first 4oz of fiber. Its just been too hot an humid to spin! The stuff just felts in my fingertips! So I’m not sure I’ll get THREE done, but I do want at least 1.

Whew, that’s a lot of stuff!

Castonitis

I have a serious case of “cast-on-itis”. I ferret out all these cool little projects that I simply must cast on right this very second or I will die, my heart pounds, my fingers tremble, I swoon. Then I take a few breaths, chant and the terror passes. Let me explain what I have going on (“no there is too much, let me sum up” bonus points if you, Dear Reader, can NameThatQuote!)

OTN (On the Needles)

The Punk Shrug: Status – Hibernating.
This was started for baby sister and is on hold until I find her measurements so I can see if it will actually fit. I’m hovering in this looooong section of stockentte and well frankly it gets a tad boring after awhile.

Jawbreaker Cardigan: Status – Unknown.
I am filled with deep dark premonitions that this project will soon find its way to the Frog Pond. I adore the pattern. I adore the yarn I bought for it… however…. After skimming “More Big Girl Knits” in the bookstore a while back – I am coming to the conclusion that Chunky Knits + Chunky Girl = Not So Good. I absolutely refeuse to knit a garment saying to myself “well, I’ll lost 40lbs and look perfect in it!”. I’m going to hold off on final judgment after serious conversation with the Mamajama… and after buying and devouring “More Big Girl Knits”.

Midnight Surf Scarf: Status – WOW.
I can’t stop knitting on this. It is so very awesome. The pattern is sooo much fun to work with and of course I love my Inferno Monster Yarn. I actually have to start holding back and savoring the experience!

Recent FO (Finished Objects)

Branching Out AKA Spring Mix Leaves Scarf
I’ve actually made some great progress in the finishing category, because you see, it is finished completely. AND I BLOCKED IT! Yes, I actually blocked it. That is a big deal to me. Usually I burn out of big projects by the time it comes to the finishing details like sewing on buttons (see “I’m a little teapot Cosy”) and sewing in ends. I have a horrible terrible confession to make. I don’t sew in the ending yarn in the toes of my socks. I know. I’m a terrible knitter. I should shun myself from knitting society and live a solitary life of penance…. But I digress… So this is why I’m so proud of the Branching out scarf… I SPUN it from roving. I PLIED the singles into a 3-ply yarn. I KNIT it into a lovely LACE pattern. And I sewed all the ends in AND BLOCKED it. Proud. Proud indeed.

Stretchy Sport Socks
I am not a fan of these socks…. Fade to black with telltale flashback music. The Mamajama and I were on a yarn-crawl thru the smaller yarn shops of The Isle of Long. There are times, I have to admit, that I get this pang of guilt in my gut when I just browse in smaller local shops. I know very well how hard it is for LYS to stay afloat so when I pop in, I feel obligated to buy something… so anyway… in this LYS the were some balls of this candy colored cotton stuff with elastic. And the shop gal assured me you could get two socks out of the tiny ball. I think it was under $10 so I could satisfy my guilt and have a pair of socks to boot! I figured the color would grow on me. Well, I might have been a touch “glass-half-full” on this one as the color didn’t grow, actually it kind of shrank and shrivled… now add that to some serious pattern frustration, makes for not a happy project experience. I did manage to finish them up during WWKIP Day. So they are done. Done! They will probably never see the light of day, but they are done.

What I WANT on the needles

Oh, I’m in such dilemmas. The Mamajama has roped me into not one, but two, count ‘em TWO sock knitting KALs – The Sock Knitter’s Pentathlon and The Pair-a-Month Challenge. SKP2008 I’ve talked about before (to sum up- a speed knitting challenge of 5 socks over the course of the year, quickest overall knitter wins). A sock is released every two months. The Pair-a-Month challenge is well, pretty self explanatory and if you need me to explain, let’s talk. Now, the Mamajama and I have agreed that we can double count the SKP socks for the Challenge. Now here’s my dilemmas… THERE ARE TOO MANY COOL SOCKS TO CAST ON! The Summer Knitty just came out and the nanosecond I saw Ziggy, I was balling up my skein of Noro. I cast on and knit a good portion of the annterloc sock in the Brooklyn Handspun Sprinz but HATE how it’s coming out. It’s far far too poofy (Yes, that is a technical term). So, to the frog pond it went and I found the Rainy Day Pattern to cast on that should match up nice with the yarn weight. Picot edge, people! It has a Picot edge!!! And then there is the Bellatrix sock. MUST MAKE HARRY POTTER SOCKS! And I LOVED the, but I just have to find a suitable yarn. But I know myself, if I cast on all these projects right now, I will run out of steam before the pair a month challenge is up. And there is NO way I’m losing to the Mamajama. Not happening. Nope. Never! So I’m booked up on socks for-like-EVA. July will be the SKP Sock3. August will be Ziggy. September will be SKP Sock4. October could be The Romantic Lace. November is SKP Sock5. And December is Belletrix. January is Anntreloc????? How crazy is that?

A slow few days

Things have been quiet on the crafty front. Well, that’s not exactly true.

Remember my Inferno Monster plans.

Well, I got Phase 1 and Phase 3 done. I like phase 1 a lot. Not so happy with Phase 3. It didn’t turn out the way I expected. I wanted solid colors with a hint of accent color. It’s certainly a lesson learned! I can’t wait to see how it knits up.

Phase 2 of the Inferno Monster is by far the easiest. It’s just solid sections of color with blended sections in between. My problem is to figure out how big each section will be. Since I’m Navajo plying, the color sections will shrink to a third of the length of the single. I’m thinking I might do fairly small sections, break it up the way I did for Phase 2 so that I’ll get short color changes and less of a stripy effect. I hope. So far, little has turned out the way I wanted it to. It’s supercool, nonetheless, albeit not how I predicted (Oh how I love words that are actually more than one word mushed together ie., none-the-less) I think am going to have to try and get good pictures of how to Navajo Ply. It’s a very cool technique and I’m sure if I don’t do it for an extended period of time, I’ll forget. Handy thing about blogs, they are like your own personal reference guide!

I’m off to visit the Mamajama for the weekend! I’m bringing the Inferno Monster but I probably won’t work on it. Spinning is kind of a solitary obsessive process for me. I have to figure out something to do with the Spring Mix. I’m just not happy with the scarf. It will probably meet the frog pond for the second time. I’ll show mommy and then decide.

You spin me right round Inferno Monster!

Between Defensive Driving and a Bachelorette party, I got in a ridiculous amount of spinning.

Before I talk about Inferno Monster, I need to dish about the driving course and the party.

$50 an hour.
My eyes teared up and my stomach dropped when I bought my first 6 months of car insurance. I was so excited to learn it was JUST $500 but I didn’t fully understand, that was for a 6 months policy. I had a swift learning curve. It does seem a tad goofy that at 35, this is the first time I’ve bought car insurance, but until 2 years ago, I lived in great cities with great public transportation rendering a car, not only not smart, but completely foolish. I’ve never been a big car person, never really felt that apparently All-America desire to drive whopping gas guzzling vehicles. Then I moved here, the Ex bought me a car (which will shortly be nicknamed POC short for “piece-o-crap”) and I had to buy insurance. Once I figured out how it all works, the buying of the insurance wasn’t a problem. Watching $500+ leave my account was painful however, especially when you consider that in a blink of 6 months, I’ll have to pay that all over again. And basically the only way to lower your insurance is to take a defensive driving class. Now I have heard people lament about the horrors of sitting in a room for 6 hours listening to some guy wax pathetic on the rules of the road, but honestly, 6 hours of my life is totally worth expending in the strenuous activity of sitting in a chair knowing that I’ll get to keep about 100 smackers in my wallet. Nice ROI there don’t ya think?

Bachelorette Parties
I’ve never been to one before. This was an event for a co-worker. I wouldn’t consider us “friends” but we are certainly “friendly” and I was glad to go. There is an odd tradition in these parts that Bachelor/Stag/Bachelorette parties are paid events, meaning that you, as the guest, buy a ticket and pay for the privilege of drinking with the future Bride or Groom and stand witness as their ‘singleton’ days fade into the sunset. This is how most couples raise money for the wedding I’m told. How odd is that? So in essence, it’s like paying to go to the wedding. Very strange. I had a good time regardless and rediscovered my love for Stoli. No, there were wild tales to tell for the nights proceedings, although I did find myself in the peculiar position of molding penises from purple playdo with my co-workers (silly games are apparently required at such events). That was fairly uncomfortable (more for them, less for me).

Back to the spinning!

I’ve mentioned my 3-part-plan to spin Inferno. I started off like gang busters and got the first part done. I divided up the roving into three separate colors and spun each color separately. It was much harder than I anticipated to separate the fiber. And no, I am not quite that anal enough to sit there with tweezers and pull out each fiber individually. I wound up with bunches of little wisps of roving that had two colors in it. So I decided to spin these bits at the beginning and the ending of each of the solid color batch. This fiber was a tad more difficult to work with than other stuff I’ve been using. It’s VERY soft, VERY poofy, VERY silky, and will start to felt just from the pressure of my fingers and the moisture off my palms. This is not a “gnash-teeth-rend-garments” type of problem, but does lead to slubs and mild irritation (that’s mental irritation, not physical). I’ve adjusted the way I hold the fiber a bit to help with this problem. The end yarn doesn’t suffer that much because of it. OH, also, this stuff breaks like mad. I’ll be spinning happily, la la la, twirl draft twirl draft twirl CLUNK - the single will breaks and the spindle will crash to the ground. Clunk. I think I’m going to need a new spindle soon, as this one has bellyflopped quite a bit. This stuff is so poofy that I’ve had to add a lot of twist to it of it just breaks for the weight of the spindle. But I did get to ply it all.
And I’m happy to report that the yarn is delightfully soft and fuzzy. I’ll have to let Claire give it the nuzzle test. But it seems quite nice. I can’t wait to knit with it, but wait I must! I need to find a pattern that I can show off the three different patterned yarns. Well, I HOPE I’ll have three different patterned yarns.

I’m not too sure how this will all work out yet.

Frogged!

Alas, we are gathered here today to wish farewell to a sock. I’m deeply saddened to inform you that the Spring Mix Handspun Rainy Day Sock has retired to the Frog Pond.

I became increasing un-fond of the color changes on the sock. I love the sock pattern, and I love the yarn. But they were just not working together. I’m totally digging lacey stuff right now after successfully completing the Berlin Sock. I’m going to stick this pattern back into my queue and do it another (rainy) day. Here’s the other problem that contributed to the frogging… It didn’t use enough yarn. I have a yarn meter (thanks to the mamajama!) and all the stuff I spun up for the Spring mix totaled about 355 yards. The sock require close to 400 I think. I had finished the sock and didn’t even get a third of the way thru the ball. I hate having leftover yarn! Yes yes, I know, too much is better than not enough. But what the heck was I going to do with 100 yards of handspun. This is HANDSPUN! Meaning I spun it BY HAND! That’s too precious to just sit in a ball somewhere so I can look back and fondly remember spinning.

So to the frog pond it goes!

I balled it back up and divided it (hopefully mostly evenly) into two sections using that handy-dandy meter again. And I found the Sisters pattern for a lacey scarf. The pattern is a little strange in that you knit the scarf in two pieces and then graft them together (oh how I despise the Kitchner’s Stitch! I will get over it however). So I’m knitting the two parts at the same time. Much confusion is already ensuing. But I figure if I knit the two halves at the same time, I can just stop if I run out of yarn. This will give me better yardage usage and hopefully I’ll get more out of the yarn.

More on this later!

Monster mania

I have thought more about spinning up the Inferno Monster. Goodness, if I knew there would be this much turmoil and angst in fiber I might never have gotten started spinning (I lie of course, I can always use a good addiction). After doing the Spring Mix roving in a very willy nilly style, I need to think a little more about the finish product not just the finished yarn. The sock I’m knitting up with the Spring Mix yarn is a bit stripy, there’s a chunk of blue right in the middle of the foot. Now, granted this is because the color change started in the heel and was just in full force when I picked up the gusset stitches and started knitting in the round again. But there it is – a blue band plunked right in the middle of the foot. Plop. The color progress in the heel itself is quite lovely however. And yes, you would be correct that I am now going to torture myself and think If I should rip it all out and start again 50 yards or so into the ball so that the blue starts higher. The yarn is very “heathery”. There’s no single section of solid blue as there is at least one single of the light green mixed in the ply. This is not a bad thing. The other stripes are assorted shades of green with a bit of sky blue mixed in.

So I guess I do need to learn about color theory after all.

So Inferno. Ah yes, you keep staring at me from the safety of your plastic baggie. Just you wait till I get my fingers in you my pretty! My original plan was to spin it in such a way that the three ply sections would be just two colors, for example one ply of pink and two plies of the orange. Which looking at the Spring Mix fabric would result in a heathery fabric. Again, nothing wrong with that. But I don’t think it will knit up as I originally envisioned it.

Since Inferno came in three clumps of roving (You know, I really need to start learning some spinning terms because I just feel silly saying “clumps” and “bunches”). I’m thinking now that I should spin those three bunches up in three different methods like a twisty science experiment (Muah ha ha haaaaaa! I would love to be an evil scientist. But then I’d have to get a cat. Evil people don’t have pugs. Its part of the super secret blood oath you sign when a pug is born into your household. I could say more, but then I’d have to have you licked to death by a pack of lonely pugs. It’s not pretty, trust me. Don’t make me go there!) Then, once I have the three different yarns I’ll knit up tiny test swatch and do a final project that will show me exactly how the finished yarns work. I don’t think I’ll have enough yarn to do a shawl, but a scarf would certainly do.

Inferno 1

With the first bunch (I might start tonight! Down girl! You have WeKnit tonight!!!) I’m going to spin the singles in individual colors and then ply the three singles together. I have an idea what the yarn will look like, But I’m not sure what the finished fabric would be.

Inferno 2

With the second bunch, I’m going to do long sections of the three different colors and then Navajo ply them into a single yarn. This will give me a striping effect. Yes yes, I know that I’ve apparently come out anti-stripy. I’m going to play around with the lengths of the roving to see how the striping will work. I’m also going to do some research on how to get colors to fade from one to the other with out the heathering or striping effect.

Inferno 3

The third bunch of roving will go along with my original Inferno Monster plan, of three singles plied together and each single will be made of two colors so that the end yarn will be bands of color but no single solid colors.

Now, if I could only win the lottery so that I can play all day!!!

Spring Mix done!

I finished the Spring Mix Roving. I didn't really have a plan when I spun it. I just ripped it into thin pencils and did three bobbins worth to ply. The color is a bit more muted than I had hoped for. The blue sections are not as wide as I had hoped but its passable. I'm pretty impressed with the evenness of the yarn. Its not bad. I started knitting it in the Rainy day sock pattern. It starts off with an picot edge. I really like it, but its a bit thicker then I realized it would have been. I'm in a ravely group to knit a pair of socks a month. I've finshed a pair for May so I might have to finish them in June, just so it counts! But i need something to take to my Knitting group tomorrow!

Pentathlon Problem

Everyone I’ve talked to so far has only done 6 pattern repeats for the SKP2008 Sock 2. Now, either I have massively huge feet or I’ve done something terrible wrong. I just finished the 7th repeat and I still need about an inch of fabric before I can start the toe. OK, an inch might be too much. But I can’t start the toe now or I will have no toe wiggle room! So I’m not sure what to do. I think the best course is to throw in a lifeline and knit half the pattern and then see what it looks like. Oh the decisions!

A Monster Plan (or "Teaching Yourself to Spin the Hard Way")

So, as I said before I could not resist the Inferno roving from Copper Pot Woolies. My pictures really don’t do it justice. (I need to work on better picture taking but that is another post) And I’ve been drooling over it and wondering just how the heck I’m going to spin it up. (And if you decided to chime in folks, I’m working of a drop spindle here, none of that fancy wheel nonsense!). So far I have managed to leave the Inferno Monster safely in its plastic baggie but I can’t promise I won’t take it out and pet it in the future.

Spinning newbie

Inferno would be the 4th bunch of roving I have ever attempted to spin. Some would think I’m nuts and that I should practice practice practice first and not waste my first attempts on something so beautiful. Well, that certainly is a valid opinion (and certainly easier on the wallet!). But my thought is, I want to enjoy all that practice right? So why NOT work on something beautiful and lush to the fingertips? Inferno was $15. Sure, I could get cheaper stuff (the Apricot was only about $7 or $8) but it was kind of hard to work with being stiff and scratchy, and regardless of the fact that I over spun the heck out of it, it’s not soft enough to wear. So I’ll practice on the good stuff thank you very much!

Learn by doing
I’m working on the Spring Mix roving right now but that doesn’t really require any thought on color management. THAT is my practice batch. I’m working hard on getting the thickness fairly even. But I’m finding that I have difficulty spinning thick stuff. For some reason, thinner singles are much easier for me to work. It came in one loooooooooooog length. I split that in three so I could spin three singles to ply from. For the first rope I spun, I just split it in half and spun from a think chunky mass. Then, like a smart person, I did some research on pre-drafting. Yes, I should have done that first, I am a fool, but we’re going with the “learn by doing” axiom. I will eventually buy a book or take a class one day. For the second length, I have it divided into thin pencils that I pre-drafted out. I’m interested to see if there are noticeable differences in the length of the color changes. I’ve split this section probably into 8 bunches or so I’m noticing the blue sections on the second rope to be much shorter. But there could have just been more blue on that section of the roving. Spring Mix is helping me get some of the basics down, before I have to worry about color. On to Inferno!!!

Begin at the end
I’ve been thinking a bit what I want the final Inferno yarn to look like. I loved the Mother of Pearl but it’s a little on the stripy side for me. I’m hoping that I varied the length of the color changes enough in Spring Mix to make it not so stripy, but we’ll see what happens! I like yarns that are more variegated not striped. Then I was thinking about separating the three colors, spinning each separately into singles and then plying all three together. While cool, I think it would be a little too uniform. In my minds eye I see the orange popping out of the finished item and the purple oozing into nooks and crannies… But I don’t want any one section of completely solid color either.

So my plan is to separate out the three colors into single strips. I’m going to combine those three strips into three singles in the following color combinations: Orange & Pink, Orange & Purple, Pink & Purple. So from these three singles I should have a final yarn that then has sections of two color combinations. I think. Now this all works “on paper” but I’m not to sure it is going to work in real life yet!

That’s part of the fun!

I’m excited about this but I do have other things I have to get thru before diving in. My Sock 2 for SKP2008 needs to get done, as well as the Spring Mix roving and I do have the skull shrug not to mention oodles of other project. I will win the lottery so I can be creative all day long!