I've Been Spinning Again!

Crafting like mad!  It's the season for it.

Right now I have some suri on the wheel, blended with bamboo and a little bit of red firestar.  It basically looks like I've torn the hair right off of a goddess's head and am now tenderly and completely obsessively drafting it out onto the bobbing in tiny, lace weight plies.

Guys I know I say this all the time but it's fibersex.

I've recently finished a true three-ply (not chain plied!  First time ever!) of fall-colored BFL that was a blast, and a single (second time ever, eee!) of merino based heaven-batt with awesome stuff in it that I can't remember right now.  Both are waiting on me to set them, and I plan on thwacking the single a bit because I am horrified any single I make is going to drift apart mid-knit.

That 3 ply I made, by the way?  Used my new lazy kate.  Husbandcreature crafted me a three-bobbin lazy kate to attach to the base of my wheel to replace the kromski 2 ply one.  It's charmingly simple, and extraordinarily effective (even if the bars do point the wrong way).  I adore it!

He also made me a new orifice hook for Christmas, well, the handle to it.  He'll put the wire in it soon and I'll get to take it for a...spin.  Get it?

Ha...haha...

I love handcrafted shit.

Hmm, what else?  Crocheting!  And knitting!  I have picked up my husband's abandoned gift scarf for me made much too wide and out of red heart, because someone had to and it was just staring at me.  I've also finished a scarf for a cousin (who loved it!), made a poi (but not its mate), two fingerless gloves, half a bag for the baby toys, a pouch for my DND dice (don't judge), half a doily for my mum, a set of mittens and a matching hat with ear flaps and pompoms for baby Jack, uh...I can't remember what else.

CROCHET ALL THE THINGS.

And there's no slowing down now!  It's still cold outside!  KEEP TREADLING AND HOOKING.

Pictures to come, probably, maybe.

Later y'all!

Tiny bebbeh socks.

I've been knitting them.

Yeah, that's right, I have now knit FOUR complete items.  I can also comfortably say that I enjoy knitting with handspun luxury blends a whole lot more than I like knitting with commercial wool blends from The Hobster Lobster.  Which is what I'm calling Hobby Lobby now.

This yarn is way cooler.

I just finished making two baby socks (no they don't match).  The first was a hilarious underestimate of the size of my baby's foot, and was made on a trip to Iowa.  We're talking, ribbing didn't make it past the toes, here.  Just kinda...wiggled...hanging off his big toe...  Total fail.

The second was AWESOME and I'd post a picture if my a) phone was on, b) I felt like making a Ravelry entry at the moment, c) both a and b are true.

I'm super passionate today, y'all.

ANYhoo, the second sock actually fits (for now) and is made of merino, bamboo, and silk.  It was one of my many phat fiber samples that has been laying around, this one from The Droll Eclectic.  It's super soft.  I spun it into a fingering weight two ply and LOVED knitting it.  Even when I started over five or six times.  I even had a little left, which is exciting, considering how terrifying working a sock ankle-down is when you have like 30 yards of handspun and no clue how far that will go.

MADE IT.

So yes, socks made.  I need to make more, though.  Which is good, because me with no ongoing projects and only ends to sew in is basically disastrous.


NEVER SEW IN ENDS.

Just...here, if we have to justify it, just say everyone who deserves knit projects from you has probably pissed you off at some point that you just forgot about so give them a finished knit with loose ends and just let them THINK about what they've done wrong.  They'll humbly apologize (or not mention that you gave them an unfinished project) and everybody wins.  You win because you didn't have to sew in ends.  They win because they learned something about themselves.

Possibly that they, too, loathe sewing in ends.



Hey, why don't I make matching socks?  I have a reason for this.  It extends beyond Punky Brewster.  It also extends even beyond the fact that I can't remember the last time I wore matching socks.

See...babies lose socks.  They lose ALL the socks.

If they never matched to begin with I won't notice the loss of my dear handspun hand knit socks.

Plus I never have to knit a sock's mate.

HAHA!

I win.


It's also because I have like fifty 30-yard skeins of handspun from Phat Fiber samples and nothing to do with them, and I think puff blankets are weird and much too long of a project for someone as attention deficit as moi.

Okay, bye.

-Wednesday



Oh, P.S. - adorable sock pattern is here.

Thick and Thin

Hey, so did you know that spinning thick and thin yarn (intentionally) is really not hard at all?

I didn't.  Until yesterday.

IT IS TOTALLY AWESOME.

A while back I spun a tight core of black and white BFL.  Then...I let it sit on my wheel.  For a while.  Because I just didn't feel like I could get started on the thick and thin half that I wanted to spiral ply around it.  Learn a new technique?  Nyeehhhh...

Laaaaterrrrrrr.

WELL LATER IS NOW, BITCHES.

I tore off an arm-length strip of roving and split it into eight.  First I attempted (sloppily) to separate the black and white halves, and ended up with four (mostly) black strips and four (mostly) white ones.  I'm alternating.  Joining is kind of weird because of the different distribution of twist, but I'm getting the hang of it.

I only have two on the wheel right now, because spinning with a young infant is like...it's like... I don't even know.  The second you sit down and wrap some wool around your arm, that diaper is going to be THE wettest, poopiest thing of all time, he's going to be STARVING, sad, tired, gassy, his onesie is going to be covered with something mysterious... the sky will grow dark, rain and hail will start pelting the windows, someone will break into your car, the dogs will have to pee, the light bulb will go out, and for good measure, the baby will pee AGAIN and this time it is so going to hit you.

Kids are exciting.

So is thick and thin yarn.

Once I get more going I'll post a link to the handspun on Rav.  :)


-Wednesday