Swatchless

I wasn’t really sure what I’d end up making when I picked up this ball of handspun.  I was pretty sure that I’d be making something that didn’t come in pairs, since I had no way of knowing how the stripes or colours would distribute themselves across the ball.  So…socks and mittens were out of the question.

I knew that there’d be stripes of some kind–with handspun from painted roving, you can’t really escape it!  I decided to try knitting Laila (ravelink), a baby sweater that I created for friend’s of mine when their little Laila was born.  It is a top-down, placket neck, raglan sleeve, seamless sweater, knit in the round.  I love it because it requires very little finishing, and shows off stripes really well.

I also wouldn’t have to worry about the front and back being two very different colours (some of this yarn is very orange, and some is very green).

Being swatchless has its advantages–I knit, and make things, and usually they turn out the right size for someone….the problems arise when I try to make baby clothes.   I don’t have access to many babies, so I’m at a loss as to their proportions.  To this end, I brought the sweater to my mom–a fairly conventional knitter who works to gauge, from patterns that have sizes on them.  She measured what I had against some of her 6 month sized sweaters.  This one seems about right for a 6 month old.  The neck opening is very stretchy, and so is the body.  I left the sleeves wide until the cuff, decreasing only 4 stitches over the entire arm.

I had wanted to do garter stitch at the sleeves and around the body just like I did at the neck.  Garter stitch is so much more brainless to knit than ribbing…but I found that the bottom edge of the sweater started to flip up when it was edged in garter stitch.  I ripped back, did a few rows of K2, P2, ribbing, and it seems to lay flat now.  I’m not sure if the flipping up is due to the garter stitch, or the twist in my spinning–it was not a balanced skein, but with me, it rarely is!

All that remains for this sweater is to pick out the most adorable little buttons.  I’m thinking that I might go for wooden buttons, or black buttons, or maybe three different coloured buttons….there are so many options….I’ll bring it along to the fabric store and see what speaks to me.

And now….I’ll have to wait for a knitter to have a baby sometime in the spring or summer….I don’t think a non-knitter would fully appreciate all the work that has gone into this creation!

Thanks to slimchicken (etsy) for dyeing the roving.  It’s lovely!

When I was a kid, I was really into the Little House on the Prairie series, and was pretty sure I wanted to grow up and be a pioneer. Laugh if you wish, but for the past two years, I’ve been living in Sudan, working as a humanitarian aid worker. Although I’m now living in the capital city of Khartoum, where I have a fairly constant supply of electricity, water usually comes out of my tap, and pizza joints can be found on every block, my first year was spent in a place called Renk, where there was no electricity, water was delivered to our compound by a donkey pulling a big water barrel, and I spent every Saturday morning washing my ankle length skirts by hand. Evenings were spent with my knitting, frequently by candlelight when the generator fuel ran out. The pioneer life? Not as glamourous as I was expecting. The knitting? It kept me sane!

During a brief trip home to Kingston last summer I stopped into the local knitting store to stock up on a new project…I was looking for something that would take me a significant amount of time to finish and that would fill the long hours of the Southern Sudan evening.  I consider myself an intermediate knitter…I’ve done cables and  have made countless sweaters with fairly complicated patterns, but I’ve never attempted a multicoloured project. So I decided I was up for the challenge, and found a pattern that called for a multitude of different colours, and didn’t have a single repeating pattern in the entire sweater. As I stood in the store, slowly falling in love with the sweater, but slightly hesitating at the potential complexity of it, the store woman suggested that I choose something simpler, “for beginners”. That was all I needed. My pride kicked in. I filled up my basket with 12 different colours of yarn, 4 kinds of needles, and the incredibly daunting pattern, and headed home to pack it all in my suitcase to head back to Sudan.

Almost a year later, I have the body, and a sleeve and a half finished. I messed up one of the patterns in the body, but haven’t fixed it as I don’t have the patience to take out stitches. Besides,  I figure it just adds character to the thing (or perhaps reveals a bit of mine). Parts of it have become faded from mistakenly leaving it in the window for long periods of time, it’s full of sand (Sudan is a desert), and I may have the odd mosquito or two imbedded into the stitches. My mother has told me repeatedly that she thinks I may have done it all wrong…a worry that becomes greater and greater as I approach the final stitches, and am faced with the challenge of cutting the front open to add a zipper (another thing I’ve never done before)…but I suppose on my next trip home I can always slink back into the wool store, pride between my legs, and ask the woman for help. Or, I can move back to Renk, where I’ll have lots of extra time to painstakingly unravel the whole thing and start over.

PS: My name is Melanie and I’m a friend of Rachel’s from Camp Hyanto….which seems like many many years ago!

Wow! Seriously 1 year and 4 months to finish a basic knit sweater. I should get some sort of procrastination medal.

In all fairness the sweater has been complete for many months, except only recently did I take the time to learn how to sew seams properly with mattress stitch.

Very happy with the outcome…ready for this fall.

 Hello! My name is Candra, and I’m really excited and honoured to be a guest here for Rachel! Rachel and my friend Nicole have taught me pretty much everything they could about knitting over the last four years. I’m one of those knitter’s who has multiple projects casted on at once, and each project teaches me something new. Well here’s my longest running project that has taught me a lot.

Last year I started a project for my friend’s birthday. She had requested a pair of socks, and not just any socks, a pair of…. Twilight socks. (I think most people are aware of the existence of the Twilight Saga if they like it or not and I do have to admit I have read the whole series) I was lucky enough that ravelry has such a pattern:  Twilight Cover Socks by ChickenBetty.

The socks are written to be  toe-up socks, knit in Intarsia when the book cover picture comes in. When I started the pattern I had no idea what “ intarsia” meant, and wanting to get these socks done fast I thought I could make do with coming up with my own way of knitting them, so I bought the yarn and started. The problems began immediately.

At first I wanted to surprise my friend by not letting her see the socks. That ended badly after I turned the first heel and saw they were too small. So I frogged it to right before the heel and made it longer. I tested them on my friend this time, but they were too big in both width and length. I frogged them and started again, deciding to measure my friend’s foot with the sock; however,the worst problems began when I started the colour working.

I decided I would cut each colour of yarn off every time I finished with it in the round, then cast it back on when it was needed again. My more experianced knitting friends warned me about the consequences of doing this, but I did it anyway. If I had listened I would have saved myself a lot of trouble. There were too many little ends after about twenty rounds and they had started to unravel and get tangled. Frustrated I frogged the whole thing again.

By then my friend’s birthday had long past. I was ready to give up, and I questioned whether these socks really wanted to be made or not. But I was determine, so I casted on once more taking notes as I went, and instead of  my more creative method of the colourworking I switched to trusty old Fair Isle knitting. Three colours all at once.

So what came of all this? Well I did indeed learn “intarisa” knitting; I learned how to be patient; and I learned that sometimes determination can turn something unfortunate into something worth being proud of in the end. 

Right now my only problem is they are making up much slower than I want them too due to the Fair Isle. Despite this they are now much neater and on top of that are extra warm for the cold Alberta winters my friend will be enduring! I have five days and counting to finish them! Wish me luck!

If you want a good tutorial on intarsia knitting go to http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gK07PBQMTE8

I love sock yarn, yes I do. I love sock yarn, how about you?

Mel here, blogging for Rachel. Like Shawna, Rachel and I go way back. All the way to 1995 at Hyanto, in fact. Which is both scary and really neat. I love the fact that we’ve kept in touch all these years. And while I am not nearly as good at knitting as she is, Rachel and her knitting are very much a part of why I learned to knit 5 years ago.

I started off, as most new knitters do, knitting with worsted weight yarns. Wool, and cotton. Thick and nubbly and solid and variegated. I knit my first ever pair of socks out of worsted weight wool. Then I thought I’d be brave and knit myself socks out of sock yarn. This led me to a discovery. One that feels a little secret and silly, but is true none the less. I hate knitting socks. Hate it. But I love sock yarn!

This here is my sock yarn stash. Not super impressive in quantity, I know. But I make up for it in quality! Some is from dyers that work in very limited quantities. I love it. It’s fine and silky and oh so soft.

What, you may be asking yourself, does one do with sock yarn if you hate knitting socks? My favourite thing to knit with sock yarn is shawls. Here in Canada, it’s almost always cool in the evenings (current heat in the GTA notwithstanding), and shawls are lovely things to have on hand. If they’re small, they fold up inside your purse, ready for evening to fall.

I am currently working on a Multnomah shawl, knit in Three Irish Girls “Sheepnuts” colourway. “Sheepnuts” was a limited edition dye that they did for the 2010 Olympics, and features natural yarn with tones of gold, silver, and bronze. This is what it’s looking like so far:

If you’re like me and have a love for sock yarn and a secret (or not so secret) loathing of knitting socks, be sure to check out the Ravelry group Sock Yarn Lovers Who Don’t Make Socks. These ladies and gents are always discussing great projects, many which only use one skein of lovely yarn. Be out! Be proud! Knit a shawl! Or armwarmers, or a hat, or mittens…

Hello from sunny B.C! I’m Shawna guesting in for the travelling Rachel. I met Rachel WAAAY back in 1996 when she was my counsellor at my first year at Hyanto….I have such fond memories returning year after year and everytime waterfront Rachel was there. She was pretty much awesome…still is! She even once saved my sister from heat stroke over ICQ. She’s a whole lot of the reason I went into lifeguarding and why I wanted to work the waterfront at Hyanto some day..which I did eventually! But time as passed and taken me far from Ontario…luckily the internet keeps us all together!

I’m not actually currently knitting….I’m arm deep in crocheting for my wedding! I’m getting married in October and a few weeks ago decided that crocheting the flowers for the wedding was a fantastic idea! And so far it’s going very well. I’ve been focused on the boutineers and corsages and it’s going really well. After a few false starts with the wrong yarns I’ve settled on my types and gauges and now am moving through them.

Wedding Flowers!

I need to make about 30 and it takes maybe 30-40 minutes to make one. Which is much harder than it seems because the weather here is so amazing and the last thing I want to do is sit inside…. However these need to get done!

I’m considering crocheting an entire bouquet….but I’m really putting that off until I’m done all the individual flowers…I’m not sure why…

I got the original idea from this site. So we’ll see if I continue on to make the whole bouquet.

I’m working on at least 3 other projects at the same time! So I may post again!

Thanks for reading!

You can follow me and my life (and Ravelry, Twitter…etc.) through my blog.

The Sheep Dog Trials at Grass Creek Park were awesome!  10 years in Kingston, and 1st time visiting the spectacular event.  I too, was defeated in the struggle to buy or not to buy…I bought…4x 100gr bags of Alpaca roving from Silver Cloud Alpaca’s.  Although, not at all surprised by my purchase.  I planned ahead and accepted the fate of my cash as I was putting it in my wallet.

I’ve loaded up my existing stash with a few more bags of roving and am about to start working my way through.  I’ve already broken my golden rule of “start and finish a project” before buying more roving.

This is what’s on my wheel right now (Superwash merino/bamboo blend).  The wonderful features of blending bamboo with wool is it’s softness which can be compared to cashmere.  It’s also breathable and feels great against the skin.  The thermal regulating fibres expand when warm to allow your skin to breathe and contract when cold to keep the heat in.  I plan on using this fibre for bulky socks for the winter to lounge in.

I have spun a little of this before I switched bobbins to work on an Aplaca baby hat and mitts.

If you’d like to see the toque and mitts, check out www.southfrontenacfibres.blogspot.com

image source: greaterbostonphotography.com

Since I’m not sure of internet availability while I’m camping, I’ve asked a few friends to help out with keeping the blog alive in my absence.  I’m thankful to my very crafty and creative friends who have stepped up, and maybe a little out of their comfort zones, to show their current projects, or talk about their creative process or anything else that strikes their fancy.

Stay tuned to see what they are all up to!

For those interested in reading some stories from the road, you can check out my road trip blog here.

I am back from camp, and it was very memorable!  The first 24 hours were actually unforgettable, and we spent the rest of our time recovering from them.

Being strong paddlers, my brother and I were asked to go out with the canoeing day trip on Wednesday.  There were 5 canoes, 7 girls, 4 camp staff and us.  The plan was to paddle across the lake, down the channel to a bigger lake, and stop for lunch on a rocky point about a 45 minute paddle away.  Everything went according to plan; we paddled along, spotting herons and cows and lily pads, avoiding the stinky weedy areas.

swimming in PFDs at our lunch site

We got to our lunch site, beached the canoes and after a quick expedition to explore the immediate area, went for a swim in our PFDs before having our sandwiches.  Eating a picnic away from camp was very exciting for the girls.  We had another swim after lunch and then as we were getting ready to leave, we heard a distant rumble of thunder.  Clouds were piling up on the horizon looking anvil shaped and ominous.

ominous clouds

The girls had been wanting to build a fort, so we played “fort”, building a shelter out of canoes that could be used if the storm came our way.  We waited about half an hour, and the storm appeared to be breaking up.  There had been no more thunder, so we took down our fort and set off to paddle back to the camp.

our fort

Of course, the swimming, and paddling and fort excitement had left the girls reluctant to paddle, so the staff were working double time to paddle ourselves back to camp.  We didn’t want to be late for afternoon activities.

Halfway back, we heard a nearby clap of thunder, so we hauled the 5 canoes up on a sloped rock at the edge of a cow field.  There was no rain, so we sat on the rock and played some “I spy”, and watched the cows and horses across the channel.  With lighter sky in the distance, we felt that the storm would be short lived.  The rain came, but the thunder was gone, so we sheltered under a nearby cedar shrub until the thunder came back.  We had distant but continuous thunder and lightning, and we were sitting on our PFDs on the rock, looking at the approaching clear sky and yelling the “one Mississippi” counts between lightning and thunder.

We knew we were in trouble when the cows across the channel took off running at high speed.  The clear distant sky was suddenly gone, and the wind picked up.  My brother and another staff member went off running to the distant farm house to see if we could shelter there, because this storm was more severe than anyone had guessed.  As they ran, the wind started whipping hail at us almost horizontally, and the sky was illuminated with much closer lightning.  With our belongings all gathered, and the canoes hauled up even farther, we huddled with the now cold and very scared little girls until given the go-ahead to head for the farmer’s barn.

Much of the run to the barn is jumbled in my mind.  I remember feeling lightning shocks and tingles up to my shoulder.  Other staff remember the smell of smoldering hay, and the girls dropped their belongings and ran with us, staying as low as possible, to the barn.  We sheltered there for about 45 minutes, waiting out the worst of the storm.  The farmer was very kind and brought out the bunny rabbit that lives in the barn, and his barn kittens which soothed the scared children.  He let us know that we had been very lucky–there was a bull that ran with the cows in his field, but thankfully he didn’t make an appearance.  We used the barn phone once the storm had passed, and got all the kids back to the camp by car so they could get warm and dry and eat dinner.

water in the canoe

The storm was gone as fast as it arrived.  My brother and I returned to the scene of the chaos, dumped the water from the canoes, piled our belongings, paddles, PFDs and remnants of lunch back into the boats, lashed them together and set off for camp under clear skies.  It is exhausting to paddle with children who are tired.  It is even more exhausting to paddle 5 boats tied together.

safe on solid ground!

That was by far the most dangerous situation I’ve ever been in.  It could have been our last.

Sad to say, my camera and watch did not survive the trip, but both are very replaceable.

Looking for a way to use up some odds and ends of handspun?  Why not weave a scarf!!

My handspun was dyed in rather vivid colours using food colouring and other commercial dyes.  There was not enough of it to make into mittens or a hat, but the perfect amount for the weft of a scarf.  I chose a black warp (Cascade 100% wool), which toned down the other colours quite a bit.

shuttle

I chose to do a plain tabby (over and under) weave to show off the colours of the weft.  I love watching how the colours blend into each other, and how there is no real pattern, but since it was all from the same dye lot it all blends anyway.  My loom is a Leclerc 4 shaft table loom.  I got it second hand a few years ago, and have made a few scarves and placemats.

To start weaving, I’d recommend contacting your local weaver’s and spinners guild and asking about their class schedule.  If you are interested in simple weaving you can consider a rigid heddle loom or knitters loom.  This allows you to lift and lower selected threads to create the weave structure.  There is only one heddle/shaft that you manually raise/lower.

rigid heddle loom

table loom

For more complex patterns, a 4 shaft table loom offers more variety in patterns.  Depending on how the loom is threaded, more complex patterns are available.  The heddles/shafts are raised and lowered by pushing the levers on the right side of the frame.  These looms often cost more money, but if you check craig’s list, kijiji or e-bay you can get a good deal on a used loom.