WIP!

So pictures will be up tonight, but I've been making good progress on my Tofutsies socks. They are pooling oddly, and despite a palindromic sequence to the yarn and using it from the center and outside of a center pull ball, the two socks are pooling very differently. That's alright, tho. They look adorable and feel like buttah when I try them on. I have just put in the afterthought heel, but at this point I've only used about half of the cake of yarn! yay!. I may even end them as anklets and make a second pair in the same color.



I've also made good progress on my felted vest. The sleeve stitches have been picked up and purled, and I'm in the process of a 3-needle bind off to finish the edges up. I have about 1/3 of a cake left over in blue, and I'm contemplating making pockets and felting them separately, then attaching to the sides, about where the seam would be if it were a sewn pattern. Hee hee, essentially they'd be knit on mittens! Input on that idea?



Hm, I just noticed that because I have beige carpets and the contrasting color is also beige, that you can't really see the edge on that sleeve. Oh well, click on the image to see it bigger, then the detail shows up.

Big Feet

So, you know what they say about a guy with big feet, right?























They wear big socks!

These are huge! I designed these socks specifically for Eric, who happens to wear 13 wide. In addition to having rather large feet, he has a tendancy to wear socks out, so I made them out of wool that will full slightly. I also made them on very small needles (for the yarn's bulky size) and crocheted the heel and toe, where they will receive the most wear. He really likes them and will be receiving them once he has carded the wool for me. By the way, that is my relatively small size 7 1/2 women's foot in comparison.

I have to say I love the barter system. I would never SELL a pair of handknit socks. Too much work goes into them. But I do like the idea of exchange of crafty labor. Eric and Ana have a drum carder, and Eric cards wool. The socks took me 15 hours to do, so he is carding wool for me for 15 hours. According to his wife, Ana, that should be about 15 batts, which is awesome. I will show off my fiber pr0n once I get it!

Craftiness!

So while Jeff has had his friend Aaron up for the week, I have had the chance to get a bit of crafting done. First was the socks for our friend Eric, which he requested in exchange for carded wool that his wife will be washing for me. Very silly post on them later.

I did more spinning, with that Brown Sheep stuff, and actually made something akin to sock yarn! It's actually sport weight, at 14-15 WPI, so I'm going to abuse it and make it into socks for Jeff. He saw me spinning up the blue and I asked what he would think looked good plied, and he mentioned that blue/silver is one of his all-time favorite combinations of color. So these are for him!



I have done some practicing with my hackle, and produced some lovely purple roving! Pics soon. I did some experimenting blending with the wool combs that Dad and I made and discovered that I get a whole lot more waste that way. I'll keep practicing with my hackle.

The felted vest had a couple of weird spots, like the shoulders being kinda flared, so I stuck it in a sink and did some hand felting until it looked right. And it is! I will begin completion work on it on Saturday, perhaps at the Farmer's Market.

Hackle

So the hackle I made isn't working as well as hoped. It's probably just me needing to practice, so I'll keep at it. The ladies on the knittyboard wanted to see what it looked like, so here it is!



My Dad and I also made a set of wool combs (in anticipation of the wool my friend Ana will be washing for me, at least whatever her husband doesn't card in exchange for the socks I made him.) Of course, AFTER I got all of the stuff together and put together the plastic hackles, did I realize I could probably just use the wool combs for the same effect. Oh well. I guess the hackles are bigger, and if I keep practicing at it I should be able to make long sections of blended roving.

Here are the wool combs. Awesome, are they not? My Dad is so cool.

Project Help

My Mother gave me this sweater:



She never wears it, the style is definitely 80's, and even fixed up so that the sleeves aren't gathered and it fit her, she's not interested in wearing it again. Initially she was thinking of frogging and reusing the yarn (100% Shetland, BTW. Very soft and nice) But with all of the Fair Isle in it, I don't think that would work very well, and she'd end up with a bunch of very small hanks that not much can be done with. She then thought, why not felt it into a small purse. Then I gave her her birthday gift, which included some hand-dyed yarn. Which she is making into a small purse.

So I am stuck as to what to do with this. She would like for me to make something for her with it as a gift, probably for this Christmas if I come up with something clever enough. Ideas? Suggestions? Thanks.

Goals

So, Jeff and I are back from our vacation, and I realized just how long it's been since I posted! I promise some posts tonight, especially one requesting help with a project, but I also am taking this opportunity to put down in type some craft goals for myself.

1. Spin my own sock yarn. With the superwash/nylon blend I got from Brown Sheep, probably dyed and blended on the awesome wool comb my Dad and I made together (Thanks dad!)

2. Make SOMETHING for myself out of my handspun from 2 posts ago. Still haven't decided what that'll be, but probably something to wear at the office during the summer (it gets cold here!)

3. Get rid of all UFOs. I feel like I always have so many irons in the fire, sometimes things don't get finished. I have always had this problem. (Mom, remember the Garfield pillow?) I guess I just like and am fairly good at so many different craft things that I get distracted. As Mom's Needlers group pointed out, I can be like Mary Frickin'Poppins!

4. Design and write up that sock pattern. That's what the Tofutsies were purchased for. As for publishing it, I think I'll see if it sells at the Farmer's Market, or maybe even submit it to Knitty or Magknits.

So I guess now is the time for deadlines. The Spinning goal, well, that may take a while. I'm pretty good, but I don't want bulky novelty socks. I want to spin sockweight. For that, I'll say spinning time is whenever Jeff is playing a video game. I actually have already been doing that, and that'll be pictures that hopefully will go up tonight.

I think I have it narrowed down, what I want to do with my handspun, It's this pattern. Simple, will show off the colors, and be a fairly quick project and a shawl that will stay on my shoulders if I wear it at work. I'll say that I'll cast that on when I'm done with my vest.

The Felted Vest is so close to completion that I think I can tell myself I have to have it finished by August. That way there's no chance of missing out on being able to use it this fall. Same thing for Jeff's hat. I really don't want to make him wait a whole year longer before I finish it. I think the reason why I'm procrastinating on it is because I've come to detest acrylic. I've turned in to such a yarn snob. Maybe I should make the yarn for his hat, but again, it's so close I'd hate to waste the effort put into it so far.

Designing the pattern is a little trickier, but again, I'd like to wear those tofutsies soon! Again, once the vest is out of my knitting basket, I'll put that and the handspun shawl in, then work on it as time permits.

Okay, goals set, I'm off to craft!

Mmmmm, Chitin

So I decided I'm going to design a sock pattern, and I wanted to use a fun and easily commercially available yarn so that people would be able to follow it. Also, my MIL decided to spoil me with some spending money, and requested it specifically be spent on something fun for myself, so here it is!



Two skeins of Tofutsies and a brand new 40" Addi Natura, purchased from the LYS in GA near my parents. This isn't all of it, but it's a substantial portion of it. Like half.

I've been busy!

So in the down time at both my parents' and my husband's parents' houses, I've been spinning. It's relaxing, and apparently incredibly interesting first to my FIL, as how the machine works, and to my Mother for how cool the process is in and of itself. I was hoping that she would catch the spinning bug, but not yet. I think she's busy enough in her very full retired life.

Anyway, remember this?


It has turned into this.
Worsted+ weight, a total of 11.7 ounces and 355 yards! Go me! Now it's on to the Brown Sheep Stash!

Felted!

So the vest has been felted, and it fits pretty well. I'm thinking I'll do a little hand-felting around the shoulders, or maybe throw it in for a little longer, just to tighten it up a bit. It felted very fast. I was felting it in 5 minute intervals, and it was nearly to its finished dimensions after only 15 minutes, and was done after another 3!

All that is left to do on it is replace the yellow cotton with the beige wool, and iron it to smooth the felt down a bit. I'm very happy with this vest, and I think it will serve me well. If I decide to make another one, though, I will be using a Knitting Machine. They're not too expensive, and you can often get them for 40% off at AC Moore or Joanne's.