Girl on the Rocks

One baby sock complete April 25, 2005

Filed under: Finished Projects, Karrie's Current Projects, Socks, Spinning and Dyeing, sweater — karrie @ 12:03 pm

I finished one of the baby socks featured in this month’s Interweave
Knits. It is made out of Cherry Tree Hill supersock yarn. I think the cables are pretty noticeable, and it is pretty cute, but it will certainly look better with a baby foot in it. This was my first short row toe, and i think what they called a ‘decorative zig-zag’ seam was actually a 3 needle bind off (which would be my first). During the making of this innocent looking sock, i broke two #1 DPN’s. I have a few spares since i lost one a little while ago and had to buy another set. But, I have decided to try making socks on two circular needles. this pretty much guarantees that the second sock will be a different size, but hey,
it won’t be the first
time….

You might notice that the sock is sitting atop some delicious looking brown yarn. I made it! I think it is my best spinning yet. The roving was merino wool - mohair blend and the color was
called Kona. I got it at Carolina Homespun when i got my wheel. I have a selection of pretty rovings (I think 4 oz each) and i just don’t know what to make out of that much yarn. I spin too thick for socks, and i don’t want to make a hat…. maybe i
will put them all together in a scarf.

And finally, the top-down raglan is progressing nicely. I have already start to think seriously about something cool to do for the ribbing.

recent knitting and spinning April 21, 2005

Filed under: Karrie's Current Projects, Spinning and Dyeing — karrie @ 10:19 am

I have been working on my knitting projects, and spinning some yarn.

Saturday, Gen and Cheryl
came over to do a little spinning. Ingrid was hanging out for a while and sneakily took some action photos of me and Gen spinning away on our matching Lendrums.

We took a break and headed over to solano to check outstash, the new yarn store (where we ran into b!). I visited once already, but was pretty depressed about how i could never afford anything there. The girls really started investigating the yarn selection, and I saw some stuff i liked, so I can maybe imagine buying some thing there. I also saw an Anny Blatt angora scarf kit. Damn. That was some soft, warm stuff. I can’t consciously spend $40 on a scarf that I only kinda liked… I was just totally in love with the fiber.
Some internet research leads me to believe that the ball of angora/wool blend weighs something like 2 ounces and is ~100 yards (or meters - i forget). Can i spin that thinly? Let’s find out!! I think I might order 3 oz of angora, and the
fast flyer for my spinning wheel and see what happens.

This sudden spinning confidence comes from the fact that i just finished 4 ounces of Yak fluff (from Deep Color Studio). Sarah bought it, and contracted the spinning to me. it was fun. She just started knitting a hat for her friend that travels to Antarctica frequently. Should be a warm hat! Here is a close-up of the finished product:

in other spinning news, I spun up some of speckles (also known as the dirtiest fleece ever). It is so dirty.
Since I haven’t carded it with hand cards, just flicked the locks open, the dirty wool is spinning up into dirty yarn. it makes me sad to look at it. While spinning, I actually had the idea that i might just use the rest of the wool to stuff a pillow or something. like I was once told by a make-up counter girl after she did my make up “It looks good from far
away!”

Finally, I got my Summer issue of Interweave Knits last night. I am not really in to
spaghetti-strap tanktops or shrugs, so I was feeling a little disappointed. then i got to the end of the magazine and found the collection of baby patterns. generally I don’t like babies, but I really like knitting for babies, and some
really cute babies that I like put in a request for more handknit socks. So I immediately started on a pair called “hugs and kisses” that has a little x-o-x-o cable down the front of it. I am using the cherry tree hill supersock that I used for the last pair of baby socks. The variegation doesn’t look so great with the cabling, but hey, it’s what I had.

You can kinda see an ‘O’ and half of an ‘X’. The best part about these patterns is that 2 of the 5 are available for free
from interweave (pdf download link). So get knitting!