FO: Skirtie and Longies

First up is a Juliette Skirtie. The non solid is some of my handspun so I'm quite partial to this one. :) It's a tiny newborn one. I love that the handspun comes across as a tweedy color.

Stats: Juliette Skirtie
Newborn
Solid Red: Random wool (either Paton's Merino or Cascade 220)
Body: Handspun
Needles: 5 and 7
Garter trim on a pleated skirt; no cuffs on the undersoaker; 2x2 ribbing for waist with icord drawstring

Next up is some longies. I wasn't sure about this yarn at first. Reminds me of when Yelloow-Green and Spring Green from the box of Crayola melt together on the sidewalk. It was pooling in the body (as you can see) and I was confident the shaping would break that up. Not really. In the end I think it works. Reminds me of grass now. :)

Stats: Picky Pants

Size: Small

Shaping: Backside Increases and Short Rows

Needles:8

Yarn: Manos (unsure of color/number)

Seed stitch cuff; 2x2 waist; icord drawstring

7 inch inseam

I'm quite pleased with both of these. They aren't for keeping but instead will go up for sale here soon. I was hoping to have enough yarn left to make a matching hat for the longies but it's not looking like I won't.

It's nice to be knitting again. My fingers have sat idle for too long.

When stealth knitting has a deadline

This will be a rather detail-less post but I wanted to get something up. I know it's been quiet around here and for good reason. I bought a ton of fiber recently (more on that in an upcoming post) and once here I went to town. In five days I took 1 lb of fiber and spun it and knit it. I'll have more details tomorrow after the intended gets it but for now here are a couple pics to tide you over.
The fiber is a merino top (colorway: Forest) from Alpaca Direct. I was very happy with it. Spins well and the colors are nicely saturated. More to come!

Musings on unexpected results

The finished yarn from yesterday's post was not intended to go beyond a test spin. The wheel has been neglected as of late and has been in pieces for months. I have been itching to get it up and going for some time now and I finally got over my laziness and did it. Note to self: Do not take it apart EVER again. Not worth it. It wasn't difficult to assemble by any means but all my settings are/were off. After a day of tweaking I got busy and prepped some fiber.

This was a process. See the green there? Unknown, randomly dyed wool. See the issues with it? It was thick with lanolin. Not a problem since I can wash it out. I waited until after it was spun knowing the manhandling it was about to receive would help with that. Due to the amount of lanolin in it this was a sticky clump. It pulled apart easily but it was clingy to itself. Imagine pulling apart a peanut butter sandwich. Connected to itself but not. It also had second cuts in it. Not a problem seeing as most of my non-commerical fiber does and I'm used to it but this has been processed once before. In a very basic way but it has been done. As a result this has turned the end pieces of the cut (I'm assuming based on how they spun) into balls worthy of a sweater shaver. Add in my quirky blue and it was a fun night (no sarcasm). The blue is some of my free cycle fleece, dyed with Ashford one pot dyes last year. As you can see mine is loaded with kinky and curly pieces (some of which include 2nd cuts). Also, vegetable matter. Luckily this was not a repeat of the fleece-that-shall-not-be-mentioned and it was easily removed.

How did I make my bats? I grabbed a chunk of the green and a chunk of the blue (which needed some picking and fluffing to make it through my drum carder) and sent them on through. Once my large drum was filled I removed the bat and worked it another couple times. If a piece was noticeably not working in (i.e. a second) I'd simply pull it off/out and toss it. By the time I was done I only had a small handful of fluff not worth writing home about. Spinning the blended bat was interesting. The wool is not from the same sheep. Two different textures makes that very clear. Despite being covered in lanolin the green was very dry and had no silkiness to it. The resulting yarn is hearty and tweedy. The single made from the blended bat turned out a nice mellow blue. In fact it made me think of ocean water in the fall time. That blueish grey color you can get on an overcast day. Cheesy and poetic but there you have it. Once plied however the blue single swallowed any blue in the blended one and it was now a mild green color. Sage-y if you will. Tweedy and rustic it makes me think of places like New York. Places, I'd like to add, I've never been but that's the feel it gives. Because I didn't bother to work out the second cut fluff from the green the yarn has slabs in it. As I was spinning I wasn't sure I would like that but in the end they behaved nicely and add to the rustic quality.

Is this yarn something to take home and rub all over yourself? No. Not at all. Is this a yarn that could be worn and used and abused as an item of usefulness? Absolutely. I think, just from the experience of having knit it already, it also has the potential to submit and be broken into an item of comfort. Will its scratchiness (notice I said scratchy and not itchy....there is a difference) or utilitarian aspect go away completely? Probably not. It will however mold itself into something that makes you think of home eventually. It's a heavy load for a yarn to carry but it screams that to me as I ponder it. Who knew yarn would scream at ya'? I feel the need to share that this is a scratchy yarn. It isn't like the itchy most folks think of when they think of wool. I've had that kind before. This is a dry and brisk scratchy*. I rather like it actually.

Yes, the yarn is scratchy. No, the cowl is not. No worries. I've managed to work with the yarn and there will be no scratchiness going to town on your neck. :) It's all about working with what you have and what I have rocks.

From sheep to spun: A yarn FO

**More details to follow. Some of these pictures blow in terms of quality. Night time spinning/eagerness is not conducive to step by step picture taking.**

Today is brought to you by the letter A

A is for Alien. In our case a one-eyed, brain eating alien.

A hat can't eat brains? Surely you jest. I have proof.

See? Gobble, gobble.

Stats:

Size 8 needles (mod)

"Heavy Rug Yarn" in grass green. I'm not quite sure what heavy rug yarn is other than atrocious to knit with and an unslightly color. It is a blend of rayon and cotton but feels like cheap toilet paper. Nice and rough. Perfect for a hat huh? :) I've had this sitting in a box for years now and am happy to finally use it. Sadly, I still have some left. The eye is unknown white acrylic and red heart black (duplicate stitched on). I did stuff it for added oomph.

Pattern is the Brain Slug Hat found here! (Sorry, Ravelry link)

Size: largest

Mods:

I did a few. First I used size 8 needle to reflect the difference in yarn weight. The yarn was definitely "heavy" and the thought of knitting it on anything smaller made my hands hurt. Knitting it on 8's made my hands hurt. Luckily it goes pretty fast. Next thing I changed was the brim. I didn't want anything rolled up since I live where it gets freaking cold and since this was intended for Halloween I wanted it snug against her head. I opted for 2x2 ribbing for 1 inch. I changed the length of the hat as well. The size I did called for 6 inches BEFORE decreasing. I did 4 inches (shorter than the smallest size) but would have been happier with 4.5 (still shorter) but that is purely a neurotic thing on my end. This came down enough to cover most of her ears. I also added a chin strap to help keep it on. I picked up 6 stitches (lined up under ribbing) and continued the ribbing until it was long enough to cross over to the other side (I don't have it measured yet...it has been relegated to the dress up box). For a fastener I did a bobble and a braided looop. Super simple. Easy to get on and off but keeps busy hands from prying it off. The last modification was duplicate stitching the eye on. I wanted to do the felt (I thought the texture would rock) but didn't have any black and wasn't about to go buy one large piece only to cut out one tiny piece.

In the end I loved the hat. I thought I'd hate it initially but it won me over. How could it not? Doesn't help the baby wearing it totally rocked it.

It's been knit: Bathroom cotton plus more

Today's post is brought to you by the room: bathroom. No worries. We're all about the clean factor here.

First up is an FO. Shower mitt. Done on 8's in some basic cotton. It was meant to be part of a gift exchange but I had forgotten it at the time (this has been done for months) so I kindly took over it. It needs some tweaking. As it is once it gets wet it grows way too much to be of much use. I like it though. Makes my tub look inviting. I do have a pattern somewhere but I'd have to track it down.

See? Looks super inviting huh? :) That is a natural chocolatey brown (and black occasionally) alpaca fleece. I've been feeling the urge to spin lately (is my wheel put together? of course not). My sister and I have been talking fibery pursuits these last couple days so I decided to pull this bad boy out. He is large. Like stuffed in a 55 gallon black garbage bag you use for outside stuff large. In an attempt to find out just how large I managed to stick it on my itty bitty little home scale but it was difficult to see the number and I'm not sure it was correct anyway. During processing alpaca can lose anywhere from 1/4 to 1/2 of it's total weight. That's on an already skirted fleece. Is this one skirted? Absolutely not. It's one gross, matted, clumpy fleece currently. The amount of vegetable matter is insane. At one point I was afraid to open the layers up and have a mouse or something come flying out. Do you know what it's like to be afraid of a fleece? It isn't pretty. I have 2 small sweater bags full of fiber in my washer. I'm currently on rinse 3. I'm hoping it doesn't take much more. The fleece in the tub has soaked overnight so with any luck a good amount of junk will have dissolved enough to shorten my overall cleaning time. There is a place in Salt Lake City that will process this for me but it has to be cleaned first. They are very honest and have no problem tossing a fleece if it's just too horrible. They say on there that a free one often costs you more, whether that's in time or money. This one was free and it will take a lot of time. If I send it to them (Spinderella) though they will process it into roving for me. I'm tempted. Very tempted. I know I could do it myself but processing a fleece is a time intensive thing I'm not sure I want to do it. Skirting it (removing tags and VM and the like) seems like such an overwhelming task at times. I'm thinking of cleaning it up the best I can and sending in pictures to see if they'll even accept it. If they will I'll totally send the beast in. Stay tuned for more pictures of the process.

It's been knit: Kitchen cotton

Stats:

Past FO

Sugar and Cream cotton yarn in red and orange

My own pattern

Size 8's (if I remember right)

I love these. As you can see from the faded color they are very much in use. I'll be making up more here in the next little bit.

FO: Gifted skirtie

This was for the family the last Apple Blossom went to.

Stats:

Pattern: Juliette skirtie

Size: Newborn

Yarn: Lambs Pride in yellow and pink

There is/was a headband that went with it but no pictures. :) I love how it turned out and it still fits her at 3-4 months old.

She's alive! (Also FO)

I know. There are no excuses for my lack of blog energy. So let's skip that and get back into blogging. :) I need to play catch up still. So as a quick note to myself: washrags (2), shower mit, Christmas stockings (they rock if I do say so myself), pink socks, skirtie and headband, baby hat, baby shower gifts (maybe). Also note to self: alter sock pattern and get it back to being for sale. On to the FO (not listed above): another Apple Blossom Cardigan.
Pics are older and not that great but you get the point. :) Same as the other one but with purple for the body (acrylic again). I love how it turned out...hurt my hands though. And because I know the rules ;) here is a modeled shot (yes I have permission on the photo....baby is much older now).