Swatchless

What a day for Canada yesterday!  I watched while we won our first gold medal on home soil, and as I watched I knit, and knit and knit.  This morning I woke up and knit some more, enjoying the relaxing Family Day holiday.

I’m pleased with the results of this wool.  I think it is much happier as a mitten than it was as a sock.  I think I’d have to card it a lot more, and then spin it thinner and make 2-ply yarn for socks, or use this thicker weight and knit a nice slipper pattern.

close up of braid

I used my knitting journal and charted out this pattern in it as I went along.  It is great to have a paper trail now….so I can hopefully make a second one that matches.  I’m going to reverse the cables and the braid design on mitten #2.

Speaking of mitten #2….If I’m going to knit one, I better get to carding and spinning more white.  Thank goodness I dyed enough green to be used in both mittens, I don’t know that I could repeat that colourway.

My recipe for this lovely colour of green:

To dye 1 full bobbin of 3 ply handspun, I put it in a bowl full of water, added about 4 “glugs” of white vinegar, 1 full squeeze bottle of liquid green food colouring, and the left overs from another mostly empty bottle.  To that I added 3 packets of lime koolaid, and one packet of orange koolaid that I didn’t mix in thoroughly (this leads to uneven colouring which I think worked nicely).  I microwaved it for about 10 minutes total, and let it sit until the water in the bowl was clear.

I’ll write up this pattern and share it with everyone when I’m done.  I’m looking for a good name though…

What would you name this mitten pattern?

My grand plans of making a sock with my handspun fell through today.  I got part way into the foot (toe-up), and realized that it was going to be ridiculously thick and bulky so I ripped it out.

I have since cast on for a mitten.  “Thick” and “bulky” are words that seem to go with mittens, particularly in Canada!

I’m making it up as I go along.  So far I’ve incorporated interlocking cables in the white cuff, a chain design before the thumb division, and a colourwork braid in the middle of the hand.

I think these will be great for St. Patrick’s Day!

Meet little Laila, daughter of friends of mine.  At 2.5 weeks old she’s sporting her very own pair of Olympic Mittens, and the matching ensemble I knit over the last few weeks.  She’s such a cute girl, making all sorts of faces and noises as she gets used to the big bright world.

I hope everyone in Ontario has a Happy Family Day weekend!!  I know I’ll enjoy an extra day to relax, and catch up on my sleep (and knitting).

My wheel is fixed–thanks to my dad, some long thin pieces of rubber, and locktite adhesive.  This afternoon I carded and spun up two bobbins full, and navajo plied them.

I chose to make the yarn 3 ply since my fleece isn’t so uniform.  There are lots of short fibers, and it’s still a bit greasy (not soiled though).  Even though I carded it twice, and removed many small pieces, it still is riddled with “fluffy bits” when I spin it.  Luckily when it is 3 ply, the fluffy pieces blend together with the thin bits to make a “rustic” yarn that seems to be worsted or aran weight.

This wasn’t really my plan, but that’s what the fiber does.  These socks will be very thick, good for wearing in rainboots I think.  Maybe thick socks will be finished quickly.  If there is time, perhaps I’ll make mittens too.

dying yarn with food colouring and vinegar in the microwave

To add some interest, I dyed one bobbin full of yarn a nice shade of green.  I needed to use a lot of food colouring, and then I added green kool-aid, and some orange too, to dull the intensity a bit.

hanging up to dry

The colour in that picture is not very accurate.  When it is dry, and in natural light, it will look better.

Now I’m off to bed to dream up a pattern!

It’s amazing what a few emails can do.  I’m so impressed at the speed of response to my drive band issues!

image source:rose-kim.com

Quick Spinning Wheel Lesson:  The pedal is pushed with the right foot which causes the large wheel to turn in either the clockwise or counterclockwise direction.  The drive band is the connection between the spinning of the large wheel and the spinning of the flyer (around the bobbin).  The speed of the flyer can be adjusted by putting the drive band over the larger, middle, or lower setting on the flyer (see right side of bottom photo).  The flyer apparatus can be raised or lowered to take up the slack in the drive band which will stretch over time.

image source: lotsofyarn's flickr photos

The drive band is flexible rubber that needs to fit in the grooves on the wheel and flyer.  It needs to be strong under tension, and have enough grip to stick to the big wheel, and to the flyer.

The fiber enters the orifice (far right of the above photo) and comes out through the hole in the metal piece (easily visible above), goes under the metal hoop, and through the sliding loop on the arm of the flyer (top of above photo).  The bobbin (middle of the photo) has the fiber attached to it, and it is kept relatively stationary while the flyer spins around it, laying down spun fiber with each pass.

My possible solutions:

I have located a local spinning supplier who has Ashford drive bands, which may work.  These are over 6 feet long, and need to be cut and melted to fit together.

Also the local weavers and spinners guild have replied saying that there’s also an option of using similar tubing from a hardware store and heating up the ends to fasten it together.  It looks like I may get to use a blow-torch this weekend!

I measured my broken band, and it appears that I need 5′ 6″ of tubing.

Hopefully I’ll be back in spinning action by nightfall.

I got home tonight in time to see the opening ceremonies of the Olympics, and start my carding and spinning for my knitting olympic project–handspun, hand-dyed, handknit socks.

I carded wool while watching the First Nations people dancing, and spun wool while the fiddlers did their thing.  I had almost one full bobbin of singles spun up!

Then my spinning wheel’s drive band snapped.

No drive band=no spinning wheel action

My options are:

1. give up (not really an option, what would the Olympics be without a bit of a challenge)
2. change events (it’s a bit late for that though, the games have already begun!)
3. find a new drive band (I’ve emailed the local weavers and spinners, and a local spinning supplier, let’s hope they come through)
4. find an alternative for a drive band….any ideas?
5. get out my drop spindle–so TEDIOUS, but maybe it is the best option I have.
6. card lots of wool now, and dye it and figure the rest of my plan out tomorrow.

Gonna go with option 6 for now…followed soon after by a good night’s sleep.

How are your Olympic projects starting out?

I’d like to thank all the fantastic, generous knitters out there who have purchased the pattern for 2010 mittens.

As of today, $800 has been raised for the Penguins Can Fly Swim Team at my local YMCA.  It is a swim team for disabled youth, and their siblings that encourages active participation, hard work, and personal growth.

There’s still time to cast on and knit yourself a pair during the Olympics!

100% of the purchase price ($5.00 CAD) is donated to the Penguins

As for my own Olympic knitting projects, this is the before picture…..

A bag of washed fleece (from Serbian sheep of unknown breed), and my trusted spinning wheel.

Statement of Goals

At 7:00PM on Feb.12th I will begin to card this fleece while watching the Opening Ceremonies for the Olympics!

I’ll experiment with microwave kool-aid and food colouring as dyes on the weekend, and start spinning when the fleece is dry.

My goal is to knit a pair of socks from my handspun before the torch is extinguished.

I’m competing in several categories for the Ravelympics (team Canada of course), and also in the Knitting Olympics  hosted by our very famous Canadian Knitter, Stephanie Pearl-McPhee the Yarn Harlot.

I know that a pair of socks is not a “Epic” project, but because I’m starting from scratch, and that I am working full time and volunteering so much (helping kids build robots), I think it will be a challenge to complete this project in the 17 days allowed.

This whole process is bringing back memories of  the 2008 summer ravelympics when I started from fleece, and made a hat and mittens.  Back then I wasn’t working though, so I was fully devoted to my event.

You can bet that I’ll be blogging my progress this time round so check back frequently for updates!

What Knitting Olympic event are you participating in?  I’m eager to follow your blogs, leave info in the comments.

Today I put on my favourite socks, and there was a hole in the heel and in the toe.

when they were new

These are my favourite socks because I knit them from wool that I dyed and spun myself.  These are my favourite socks because they don’t match, but they do go together.  These are my favourite socks because of the memories that are knit into them (I remember one particular orange stripe that was knit while listening to Stephen Lewis speak).

Some people would throw away a sock that has a hole in it.  I can’t bear to part with these ones, so I’ll darn them instead.

Here’s how to darn a hole in a knitted garment:

Step 1:  Thread a darning needle (long blunt needle with big eye) with matching yarn.

Step 2:  Insert a darning egg, or a lightbulb (old incandescent kind) into the sock/garment to keep the area taut.

Step 3:  Sew loosely around the hole, make sure that all live stitches are caught so the hole wont get bigger.

Step 4:  Sew across the hole area in one direction, sewing through each stitch on the edge.  Leave threads crossing the hole, loose enough to keep the fabric from puckering.

Step 5:  Sew across the hole area in the other direction, going over and under the threads left from step 4.  Catch the stitches at each end.

the end result will be a woven area instead of the hole.

NOTE:  It is considerably easier to darn socks BEFORE they get a hole.  Examine your socks as you wash them, or wear them.  If you see areas that are getting see-through it is time for a “pre-emptive darning mission” to prevent any holes from developing.

$3.00 CAD

Just in time for Valentines day, show your sweetie you care, by knitting them a pair of red and white striped mittens.  This pattern can be customized to fit any hand size.

Hold hands with your special someone, and keep your hands toasty warm at the same time.  This two person mitten is more than meets the eye.  Knit with a technique called illusion knitting, at first glance it is a simple striped pattern, but when viewed from a different angle, a heart appears.

Skills: cast on, knit in the round, purl, increase, decrease, chart reading.

Yarn: sport weight, red and white

Needles: 4.0mm

Download the .pdf pattern for the set of three mittens, including full colour charts for $3.00 CAD

‘Tis the season for babies it seems.  My cousin and his wife just welcomed baby Charlotte, a little early, but all are doing well.  I dove into the stash and found some sweet baby yarn, from back in the day when baby yarn was thinner than sock yarn!

I knit this hat during the super bowl.  The pattern is based on helloyarn’s top down bonnet, but I had to add more stitches and improvise a bit to deal with the super thin yarn.  I based the sizing on the bonnet I knit for Laila earlier this week.  There’s enough yarn left for a matching pair of booties, but I’m still searching for the perfect pattern.