What I'm working on right now...

...are the Celtic stole, which I keep having the same problem with, and spinning roving into yarn. Some nights the spinning goes well, other nights, it's bigger than I'd like, but I have come up with sort of a system to make almost uniform in size.



With the stole, I get to the part where I start knitting the first knot, and when I get to the other side of the knot, I start having trouble...winding up with too many or not enough stitches. Now, when I get to the odd rows, I am going to mark off the second side before I knit it to make sure I have enough stitches. I don't have much choice if I want it to look fairly decent.

I frogged back to row 40 and I am getting ready to do a few hours of straight knitting on it this evening after I get some chores done.



I wish I was finished with it by now. I know things take me longer than most people, but I'm getting kind of sick of looking at it. If I could get past the first knot, I probably wouldn't be so tired of working on it. I think I just figured it would be simpler than it is.



I love this picture so I thought I'd load it up again. This was how it looked before I started breaking it up and spinning it.

This is what I have spun so far.



Of course, it's not true to the actual color. It doesn't really look gorgeous since it's not all finished, but I intend to finish it before the year is up.



On the roving, I have decided to separate it in strips according to color, spin all the green ends together and all the cranberry ends together as one long strip (which I've only done once, this past week, after several practice attempts. This gave me a plan for the rest.)

There are two color repeats in this bigger strip I have left, plus one more section of apple green. (If this looks like some kind of bloody, neon mess I apologize. Pictures of roving that look like afterbirth turn me off, even if they're a true representation of cranberry or red, so I hope I haven't done that on this blog.)

Anyway, I split the section of roving that I broke off down the middle. Then I split those halves in half, and those halves in half again, making twelfths. (I think I may do one more split after that; I'm losing count. lol) They winded up being fairly skinny. It seems like they're making a heck of a lot of yarn, too. It got to where I'd spun for about an hour and had hand cramps from holding the yarn firmly for the draft.



I do feel much better about spinning it up than I did after the first couple of attempts. It looks much better as I wind it up. I have given up on making it all laceweight, but there's a bunch of black roving on etsy that I've got my eye on to ply with it. The only problem is my reluctance to spin that roving before plying it. It looks so shiny and pretty. I feel like it would really set off the colors of the roving, better than plying two strands of the Yarn Love hand spun together.

I don't know if I should get some black roving and spin it, or if I will just take the easy way out and ply it up with some prepurchased yarn. The more I think about it, the more I like that prepurchased idea.

I need to go look up something about how to connect two sections of hand spun into one. I don't see how plying would work without my doing that.

Dedicating my Stash, Part 3

The variegated yarns in this picture will be used to make throws. They were given to me by a friend who wanted them put to good use. The yarns on the right are being used to make a ribbons and bows bathroom set for my mom. I've got a ways to go on that one.

I don't think I will need all the off-white yarn, so it will probably be used to make stripes for one of the variegated yarn throws.




This closeup of the variegated yarns is kind of true to the color of both scarves that were made from them. For the darker navy blue/burgundy one, I intend to make sort of a "rainbow stripe" throw based on the colors used in it, ranging from light to dark, with rows of the variegated in between. That will be after I get a bunch of knitting and the bathroom crochet project done.

For the other more floral-type color, I intend to use a sort of patchwork blocks style to make a throw from it, a la Mason-Dixon Knitting. They have a gorgeous throw in there that's almost log cabin quilt style. This isn't my favorite color, but I could live with it. Maybe I'll embroider some flowers on the throw when I make it, and do some z-style embroidery along the edges to resemble a quilt that much more.

These yarns (from left to right, back row) are being used for the following: zig zag purse or confectionary tank; baby georgia knitted dress; the blue mixed cotton yarn is probably going to be a dish rag or neck wrap; the little burgundy thing is a mother earth shawl that I am still considering frogging and dropping out of my queue. I just don't have the enthusiasm for it that I had when it was still a mystery.

In the front are two white yarns that are crochet threads. One is a skinny one used for doilies, and the bigger one on the left is more like rope, that I plan to make a round wheat-like doily out of eventually. I need to go dig up my pattern book for it.

Powder Jacket crochet edge tutorial

Edge pattern rows:
Row 1: 1 sc, miss 2sts with 3 chn, 2 dc, 3 ch and 2 dc into foll st., miss 2sts, 3 chn rep from the beginning.
Row 2: hdc into sc, 2 ch, between the dc of previous ro 5 times: 1 dc and 1 picot, then 1 dc, 2 ch.


1. I chained 20 to represent your knitting.

2. work one sc over the first chain, then chain 3.

Photo 1: making first single crochet in first stitch.























3. skip the next two chain stitches. In the next chain (#4 of the 20), you are going to work 2 double crochets, then chain 3, then 2 more double crochets. This would make it a shell stitch.





Photo 2: Skipping the next two chain stitches and working the shell stitch in chain #4.




















4. Chain 3 and skip 2 more chains. Do another single crochet in chain #7 (This is the repeat from the beginning part.)

5. Chain 3 and skip 2 more chains. Do another shell stitch (2 dc, chain 3, 2 dc) in chain #10.

Repeat steps 4 and 5 to end of row. You will most likely end the row with a single crochet, since Row 2 starts with a half double crochet in the first single crochet from row 1.



Photo 3: end of row 1














Row 2:

1. Half double crochet in sc stitch.

2. Chain 3.

3. Double crochet, picot and double crochet in chain 3 stitch of row 1 shell.

4. Chain 3 again.

5. Put hdc stitch in next sc stitch.

6. Repeat steps 3 to 5 until the end.





Photo 4 of first part of row 2: making the hdc in the sc stitch from row 1.



















Photo 5: Making first dc of dc-picot-dc of row 2, step 3.
























Photo 6: Making the picot on row 2, step 3.




















Photo 7 of row 2, step 5:






















Photo 8: Swatch done













There's one thing I would change about these instructions. On row 1 when it says chain 3 between sc stitches and the shell stitches, I would chain 2 instead, unless you knitted the sweater fairly loosely. It has a tendency to clump up in places.

Dedicating my stash, part 2

Mama Llama laceweight

This, along with some Misti Alpaca black lace, if I can work it in, is going to be the Forest Path Stole, if I can find the yarn I want to accent it with. I may have to skip the accent altogether. I don't want to, but it's going to be very tricky to find a good match. I did write the company for their recommendations.






gray NTS laceweight
This gray laceweight from No Two Snowflakes is slowly becoming the Upstairs Shawl.


















suri silk

I don't have an idea in mind for this Oceanwinds Suri Silk alpaca, but I love it! It's so soft and smooshy, even though I have been trying to wrestle it into a ball. It got really tangled when I tried to unwind it by hand.

Unlike most yarns I've had to untangle, this one is still just as soft and pretty and shiny as when I started. I got halfway, then stashed the rest into a bag until my patience level got back up. This picture doesn't do it justice at all. It has a sort of a gleam to it.





NTS complimentary colors

This is the last of the NTS laceweight in my stash right now. I don't have any concrete plans right now, but am seriously thinking of dividing each of the two hanks into thirds and blending them for a color-blended tank top. It would start at the bottom with two strands of the burgundy, the middle would have a strand of burgundy and a strand of yellow, and the top would be two strands of yellow. It will be so cute. I think I'm going to do a swatch for comparison purposes.

sock yarns

This is a picture of the sock yarns in my stash, minus the 1 skein of Shibui Knits yarn mentioned in an earlier post. I don't have major plans for any of this stash right now, but I do want to make one or two pairs of toe-up socks.

The yarn on the left at the top is the Yarntini Gimlet sock yarn, which has been used up already. (I sent the remainder off to a Ravelry member in the Stash n Burn fan group.) Underneath that is some more Yarntini in the chocolate cream colorway. It's gorgeous, and reminds me of corkboard. I may make the waffle socks with it.

Right next to those is a stack with Shibui Knits Orchid variegated yarn (top), Scouts Swag yarn in orchid variegated, and OnLine Supersocke 100 yarn in Sierra. It's a mix of colors wrapped with a strand of black yarn. I love the color, but have no idea what it's going to become.

The stack next to that one is Whimzy Pinzy's Tippy Toes' Yarn line in Figgy Plum Pudding. I'm not so crazy about it, because the yarn bled a little and it seems to be a cotton yarn instead of the merino I prefer. It also had some uncolored spots on the contrast yarn for the toe where the yarn had been tied off for the dyeing process.

The last stack of yarn is by Cherry Tree Hill, which I got to make some socks for a sock contest.

There are two more parts to my stash. One is afghan-type, heavier weight yarn, and the rest is what I consider miscellaneous yarn. I will discuss those two in a later post.

Photo of the socks

I love this pattern. The socks have a sort of feathered look down the side. You really can't see it until the socks are on.