Finished!

I just finished my project for Knitty. It turned out great! I am happy with it. Now is the hard part... crunching all the numbers and grading up all the sizes. I like math, but sometimes grading hurts my brain.

I ordered a spinning wheel yesterday and a lot of handpainted roving to go with it. It's a Kromski Sonata, completely foldable and easy to carry to my class. I can't wait to start spinning at home!

It's in the works!

I have another leftover yarn pattern in the works. I am planning on submitting it to Knitty for the summer issue, but if it doesn't make the cut I will post it here for everyone's enjoyment.

I'm in Love.....

With spinning!! It took a few minutes to get the hang of the spinning wheel, but after I figured out how to get my feet to do one thing and my hands to do another it was pretty smooth sailing. Very relaxing to watch that big lump of wool spin into a very soft yarn. I have about half a bobbin of yarn, so maybe tonight I can fill it up and learn how to ply. I have already started looking for a spinning wheel of my own. I am thinking about an Ashford Traveller.

Leftovers For Dinner - Pattern

Ready to de-stash? Its leftovers for dinner! Well, leftovers for this sweater. Use your leftover or random balls of yarn to make a colorful cardigan. I had a steadily growing mountain of yarn and needed to de-stash ASAP! My solution was to create a pattern that only uses one ball of each color; that way I could use up the leftovers from previous projects and the yarn that I just had to buy but didn’t know what to do with afterwards. The pattern is a big circle with sleeves, and is knit to fit your measurements. It is a very versatile cardigan that can be worn several ways. If you wear it with the wider section at the bottom, it is a swingy cardigan. If you wear it with the wider section at the top, it is a shrug with a big shawl collar.

SIZE
This pattern is knit to fit your desired chest measurement. I used my bust measurement plus 2” of ease. (shown with 36” chest circumference)

MATERIALS
9/10 balls of worsted to bulky weight yarn. Each ball was at least 200 yds, and I used about half of each ball to make the sample cardigan. This amount of yarn should accommodate up to 46” chest circumference; larger sizes should add another ball of yarn. Most of the yarns I used were missing their labels, but here is a description of each yarn:

Ivory worsted weight acrylic
Yellow worsted weight wool
Peach worsted weight fuzzy acrylic
Coral worsted weight fuzzy acrylic
Pink worsted weight fuzzy acrylic
Red bulky weight thick and thin acrylic
Magenta worsted weight acrylic
Lt Brown bulky weight acrylic
Dk Brown worsted weight acrylic


1 set US #10/6mm double-point needles
1 16-inch US #10/6mm circular needle
1 40-inch US #10/6mm circular needle

2 stitch holders
2 stitch markers (to mark the beginning of a round)
tapestry needle to weave in all ends


GAUGE
Gauge is not vital for this pattern, as it is knit to fit your desired measurement.

PATTERN NOTES
The color is switched every two rows. When switching colors, knit the first st in the round with both the old color and the new color to avoid any gaps.

Work both sleeves at the same time on two circular needles, so if you run out of one color of yarn the sleeves will still be even.

The body is a circle that is divided into 8 sections. Each section is made up of the k sts and the kfb. The sleeves will be inserted into section 2 and section 7.

PATTERN
Body
CO 8 sts. Divide as follows on dpns: 2 sts in first ndl, 4 sts on second ndl, 2 sts on third ndl. Join for working in the round.
Round 1: kfb in each st (16 sts)
Round 2 and all even rounds: k
Round 3: [k1, kfb] 8 times (24 sts)
Round 5: [k2, kfb] 8 times (32 sts)
Round 7: [k3, kfb] 8 times (40 sts)
Round 9: [k4, kfb] 8 times (48 sts)
Continue in this manner of increasing the number of k sts before the kfb, until the width of the circle is one-half of the desired chest measurement. Switch to circular needle when necessary. End with an even numbered row.
Next round: See schematic of circle divided into 8 sections. Work across the first section (k sts and kfb). Place section 2 on a st holder. Cast on the same number of sts that are on the stitch holder, using waste yarn that will be unraveled later for the sleeve. Cut the waste yarn and switch back to the project yarn. Work until the end of section 6. Place section 7 on a st holder. Cast on the same number of sts that are on the stitch holder, using waste yarn that will be unraveled later for the sleeve. Cut the waste yarn and switch back to the project yarn. Work until the end of the round.
Continue in pattern until the width of the circle is the desired chest measurement. If you wish, work the last 4 rounds in a bulky weight yarn. BO all sts loosely.

Sleeves
Carefully remove waste yarn from one cast on and place on circular needle. Remove sts from stitch holder and also place on circular needle. Repeat for other sleeve on the other circular needle.
K evenly in rounds, working both sleeves at the same time, until the sleeve length is 13” (or desired length). If you wish, work last 4 rounds in bulky weight yarn. BO all sts loosely.

FINISHING
Weave in all the loose ends. Steam lightly.

spinning night

On Wednesday nights I take a break from knitting and go to a weaving class. We have a few class spinning wheels, and my teacher said she would show me how to spin. Tomorrow I am going to start spinning, and I am SO excited. I have some dark brown wool roving to learn on, and then some red/orange/yellow wool roving for when I get good. Now what to make with handspun yarn?....

Three Cheers for Variegated Yarn!

I love variegated yarn. I remember getting a ball of pink, purple and aqua Red Heart Super Saver when I was a kid, and it was love at first sight. My mom crocheted a blanket for my favorite bear out of this yarn, and from then on I just wanted more rainbow yarn.

Last night I started to knit Knitty's Ice Queen with a sock yarn in shades of red, purple and brown. It occured to me that I get most excited about working on projects with multicolored yarn, and I usually finish them much faster that projects with plain yarn. Why is this? Well I think I just love seeing the changes in color. I am an impatient knitter, and I think watching the colors change and seeing how they look next to each other pushes me to knit more and more. I know I shouldn't stay up late knitting, but I keep pleading with myself, just one more round! I want to see how the purple looks next to the orange! I want to see the red change to brown!

I knit Iris Schreier's Sheer One-Piece Shawl as a Christmas present with a variegated pink yarn, and I just loved watching the shades of pink form the modular squares. I am lucky to have enough leftover yarn to make myself one of these shawls. In fact, I am excited to knit more of the projects in Modular Knits, because multicolored yarn really shows of the angles of modular knitting.

So, three cheers for variegated yarn!

Den-m-Nit version 2.0

I am stubborn. When something doesn't work out right, I usually go whole hog and try to MAKE it work to the point of making myself crazy. I am determined to make something out of that Den-M-Nit yarn I have. Last night I pulled it out of the grocery bag hidden in my yarn room and tried a new approach. Bigger needles and a simple sort of lace pattern. I knit up a swatch and sometime this weekend I'll throw it into the washing machine to figure out the shrinkage. No screaming or throwing the yarn across the room was involved, so things are looking up!