Saturday, October 20, 2007

Candy Corn Geurnsey

I've been working on my Candy Corn Guernsey. I'm about 1/2 way done.
Candy Corn Guernsey
In this picture it looks like a skirt, but I tried it on and I think it will make a nice tunic style sweater. The bottom part is a K2 with 10 stitches of moss stitch in between. This yarn shows of the moss stitching very well.
I've just finished the garter stitch band and I am going to start on the Indian Corn stitch for the top portion. This stitch was explained in the Holiday issue of Vogue Knitting. I thought it gave the knit fabric a really interesting texture. It inspired me to add it to the top and sleeve portion of this sweater.

by the way, the yarn is an ebay purchase of some Mull Spun Wool from a Connecticut Farm. The yarn has a nice heathery look.

Spinning:
Still have not purchased a wheel. I'm more "not yet" than "gotta have it!"

100_4135

I finished another 80 yard or so of the Fern Color roving. I am planning on using this for a hat for myself. I think I will likely start that as soon as I get to the sleeves of my sweater. I'm anxious to see how my yarn will knit up. I am hopefully that it is fairly balanced. But maybe for a hat that will not matter too much. We'll see.

Happy knitting!!

Thursday, October 11, 2007

Come Find Me in Ravelry

For everyone who wants to meet up in Ravelry, my name is Judeh22. I thought of coming up with something clever or using my yarn formulator name, but Judeh22 is so much easier to remember and type!!

Come meet up with me! But bear with me I am still learning how to get around and what/where everything is in the site. I haven't had a chance this week to spend more time there. Darn work!!

Monday, October 08, 2007

The RAVELRY invite finally came!!

First I have to say:

I GOT MY RAVELRY INVITE!!!!
I have only set up my profile; I can tell I will be spending some time in there.

Also, I wanted to thank everyone for the comments and encouragement. It really means alot to me that you all are checking into my blog.

Please, if you stop by, just leave a hello in my comments.

Happy Knitting and Spinning and pray for that cold front to come through Cincinnati before we all melt!

Friday, October 05, 2007

Spinning-First Hand Experience is Invaluable

I wanted to post an update of my spinning progress. I have to say the spinning was great. I do enjoy it, but I had a near disaster trying to remove the single from the spindle.
I had a pretty full spindle of the Fern Colored BFL, and so I thought it was time to wind it up into a ball. I was originally thinking I would spin another spindle full and ply the 2 singles together. I do not have a nostepinne but I had seen a Youtube Video on how you can wind a ball straight off the spindle with a ball winder. I had done this with my first attempt, and it went pretty well. The Fern BFL was another story!!!
I started to wind the ball and about 20 yards into it I got the yarn all snagged up. I had a loose end at the bottom of the cop and it had tangled with the yarn attached to the winder. UGH!!!!! I am a very patient person. I thought, I can work this out.... just go slow, and work the tangle out.
Well, after about 15 minutes, it was clear that I was not going to work this snag out. At this point, I had a complete Brain Fart. I thought if I slide the cop off the spindle, I can start winding from inside the ball. In my defense of this completely stupid idea, I was thinking of what I had read in the book "High Whorl", where Priscilla recommended that you could ply directly off a nostepinne (using the yarn from inside the ball and from the outside of the ball). First of all, I found out the Spindle shaft is not a nostepinne and second the you cannot slide the cop off my Spindle.

My attempt to slide my cop off the shaft caused the most God Awful mess of twisted yarn I have ever seen. The outer part of the cop slide off the shaft and the tightly wound center of the cop stayed at the top of the shaft by the whorl. Not to mention that as the yarn slide off, some of it got hooked onto the the groove that my shaft has at the end of the shaft (I have a Schacht Hi low spindle) I was certain that I was going to have to cut this off the spindle and start over. I should have taken a picture, but I was having a nervous break down at the time, and the thought that this will somehow work out just did not enter my brain at that time.

To the rescue: My daughter arrived home from Soccer practice at this time and thankfully jumped in to help me. Having 2 hands to keep the single from plying back on itself as I tried to work out the snarls was incredibly helpful!! It took a while but we were able to save the yarn!! I got it wound onto the ball winder and left it there for about 2 days because, I have to say, I was terrified to move it. Last night I overcame my fear of the ball of Fern Colored BFL single and tried to ply it. Let's just say that went a whole lot better!
First Skeins 3

First Skeins 2

Oh, what we learn from first hand experience that just cannot be taught in a book!