Sunday, August 05, 2007

"Hit The Town"

You all saw a glimpse of this roving on the previous post. Here it is once again , "Hit the Town" hand painted by Fat Cat Knits, which I pickup up at Pick Up Sticks. Aren't these colors vibrant?














I divided the roving in half and spun these two bobbins. They turned out differently. It's really surprising, the whole adventure of spinning.


It took me several days to spin this up. I thought I'd spin a little thicker than usual, but instead wound up with the same thickness as usual - thinnish.








Winding the spun yarn onto the Niddy Noddy is my least favorite thing about spinning. I did it early in the morning, while the rest of the family was still sleeping, because I had to count to get the yardage
I'm not good in winding the yarn into a skein, especially when it's a big skein like this one.
Here's a close up. The above picture shows the colors best, it's very muted after plying. Where the sun hits the skein it shows the colors better, but when you see the skein up close and personal it's rather dull. This would make nice socks with a Trekking like affect, but since it's 100% merino wool and 2-plied at that, I will not use it for socks. Would be a waste of time and material. It would not withstand the friction between heel and shoe very well, and even with all my sock darners I would not be happy to have holes every five minutes.













So what should I do with this yarn???It's 100% merino as I mentioned, 533yds, and a fall color. It's fingering weight.




Polish Merino sheep.

I had some singles left over from the Merino, as well as from the brown BFL, so I made a little mini skein, which I will use for mini socks. That should be fun!





Here's the natural brown Blue Face Leicster, it turned out to be 390 yds. This concludes the spinning for this project. See the picture below, there are all three colorways, which are 1398.5 yds in all. I'm going to knit a shawl with this yarn. Need some quiet time for that. I can see me knitting this in the coming fall or winter months.

Blue Face Leicster sheep.


With all the spinning and plying, there has been little knitting going on here. I managed to knit this mini sock for my daughter. She choose the sock yarn, I would have never chosen that for her. Boy, I would have been far off! She tried on the Kathrine Hepburn cardigan, and it fits her well, only the shoulders are a little too wide. We will take pictures during the week.








We've never used our front porch before. Today I really wanted to go outside, but it's just too hot for me in the back yard. I can't stand the heat. So I made a cozy little place for the doggies and tried out the old rocking chair, which Hannah brought home from Montreal a few years ago. I felt quite old sitting there, rocking and knitting a sock! I laughed to myself, like a lunatic (hair wild form the wind), nice picture eh? The dogs enjoyed it though. They don't get to be out front very often. Their noses were up in the air, sucking in all the BBQ smells from the neighbourhood.

Oh yeah, there's the sock for Sockamania Club KAL for August. We got the pattern a couple of days ago. It's an easy knit/purl stitch pattern, but that's fine with me, because I'm impatiently awaiting a new sock book, and then I'll go to town with sock knitting, you'll see! ;o)


Since I took the above picture I finished the first sock and started the second one. I have to tell you something about the yarn, but that will have to wait until the pair is done.

18 comments:

Angelika said...

I love the socks and the pattern is just as nice. Just pushed it over one stitch every row, right?

Anonymous said...

You are always so busy and getting so much accomplished. Beautiful work as always.

hakucho said...

"Hit the town" came out great. I love those tones...perfect for fall. Not much time for knitting ?...you certainly made up for it quickly ;) Love your newest socks!

happy spinning and knitting :)

La Cabeza Grande said...

Your handspun is to die for! Plus, I really love the twist and colour progression on your socks.

--Deb said...

That yarn looks just gorgeous--great colors.

And, a porch? I'm jealous. I'd love a porch....

Anonymous said...

ohhh your sock looks great, that must be trekking. I'm hoping to cast on for mine tomorrow.
I love how your handspun turned out, very fallish!

Anonymous said...

That looks like a perfect knitting spot! The chair looks comfy and there's great company on your dogs. :)

Anonymous said...

I think Sam & Biko LOVED the porch! It sounds perfect.

So what are you going to knit with that yarn? Is there enough for a cable cardigan?

fleegle said...

that is one gorgeous sock!

Did you notice that the Blue-Faced Leicesters have white faces? Why?

Anonymous said...

You could make a vest, maybe? I can't wait to see your BFL shawl!

Susanne said...

Liebe Monika,
habe Dir auf Deine Frage zu meiner kurzen Weste eine E-Mail aus dem Büro geschickt und hoffe, Du hast sie bekommen. Ich darf vom Büro aus nicht posten und auch keine Kommentare in Blogs hinterlassen.
Nun ja, ist ja auch richtig so.
Am Wochenende hatte ich keinen Zugang zum Internet und jetzt kommt also meine Antwort: Ich habe für die Weste 350 gr Ravenna gebraucht, also 490m. Davon sind genau 2 m übrig geblieben. Ein Tip: Wenn Du die Weste mit 3 Knöpfen ausstatten willst, musst Du bei Deiner Tochter nochmal Maß nehmen, ob sie die Weste dann weiter unten noch geschlossen werden kann. Sie ist vom Schnitt her nämlich etwas tailliert, wie Du sicher schon bemerkt hast. Vielleicht lässt Du dann einfach die Zunahmen bis zum Armausschnitt weg und fängst gleich mit der größeren Maschenanzahl in Brustweite an. Dann brauchst Du allerdings auch etwas mehr Garn.
Deine Garnkreationen lassen mein Strickerherz immer wieder höher schlagen. Wirklich wunderschöne Farben und für mich als Nichtspinner überraschend, welche Garne dabei herauskommen. Toll - wie alles bei Dir.
Liebe Grüße und bis bald
Susanne

The Kelly Green Rogue said...

I love the colors! I'm ready for Fall so I think it's perfect :)

Anonymous said...

Your new handspun has perfect autumn colors...will be lovely fall knitting whatever you make!
and the new sock looks like Trekking xxl - I like it!
Looking forward to your all natural BFL shawl....

Heike said...

Liebe Monika,
ich versteh zwar nix vom spinnen, aber Deine Garne sehen ganz toll aus und ich würde sicher schwach, wenn es die im Laden gäbe! Dein Eintrag ist sehr schön - besonders das dicke Schäfchen gefällt mir!

Viele Grüsse von Heike

T-Mom said...

Monika, your spinning gets more and more beautiful. And I'm looking forward to hearing about the sock--I really like the yarn and the stitch pattern.

eyeleen said...

Gosh I just love your handspun, so beautiful.

The dogs look like they're enjoying themselves on the porch.

Strickfimmel said...

Ich staune immer wieder, was für schöne Garne zu zauberst! Total klasse. Das Foto von den Doggies ist echt niedlich. Beide stauen so aus, als ob sie kein Wässerchen trüben könnten. Boah, Deine Socken sind ja schon fast fertig. Ich habe gerade mal von einer Socke das Bündchen fertig. Welches Garn hast Du für Deine Socken verwendet? Es gefällt mir nämlich sehr gut.

Violiknit said...

Seriously beautiful colors on that handspun of yours! I love those sheep pictures; I had no idea they can look so different...