This is the fourth of the Liberty Wool hats. I knit it entirely in a 2-2 rib and used Berroco Pure Merino Heather in 8613, Winter Chocolate. I know yesterday I complained about yarn that was too splitty. Well, if you have ever knit with the Berocco Pure Merino or any of its affiliates, you know the yarn is nothing but 8 lace weight strands vaguely twisted together. These are strands that love each other and cling to one another, though the yarn can be a little splitty. But it yields the absolute best knitted product. It is soft as chamois, strong, and takes color beautifully. Granted some of the Berroco superwash colors are not colors found in nature, but even I am willing to forgive them that just to get the stitch definition and comfort. One word of caution. If you try to bury your ends when changing to the next ball of yarn, do not even bother to knit 5 stitches with the two held together. Just drop the old one, knit on with the new, and come back later with a Chibi and do your best. I recommend dividing the excess yarn in half and using the Chibi in two different directions, through the yarn strands of stitches rather than under whole stitches.
Showing posts with label yarns. Show all posts
Showing posts with label yarns. Show all posts
10.22.10
This is the fourth of the Liberty Wool hats. I knit it entirely in a 2-2 rib and used Berroco Pure Merino Heather in 8613, Winter Chocolate. I know yesterday I complained about yarn that was too splitty. Well, if you have ever knit with the Berocco Pure Merino or any of its affiliates, you know the yarn is nothing but 8 lace weight strands vaguely twisted together. These are strands that love each other and cling to one another, though the yarn can be a little splitty. But it yields the absolute best knitted product. It is soft as chamois, strong, and takes color beautifully. Granted some of the Berroco superwash colors are not colors found in nature, but even I am willing to forgive them that just to get the stitch definition and comfort. One word of caution. If you try to bury your ends when changing to the next ball of yarn, do not even bother to knit 5 stitches with the two held together. Just drop the old one, knit on with the new, and come back later with a Chibi and do your best. I recommend dividing the excess yarn in half and using the Chibi in two different directions, through the yarn strands of stitches rather than under whole stitches.
6.25.09
I refuse to call that color school bus yellow anymore. From now on I will call it MANGO. So much more delicious, do you agree? This was sacrifice fiber. That is, I wanted to spin the pink from Alchemy Fibre Arts (see the June 22 post) but I knew I had to get back into spinning on some fiber that I could sacrifice. I selected the Abbigale pencil roving (see June 23 post) and tried out some of the scrids and made a fine mess and accomplished nothing. Well, nothing useful unless I start needle felting...
Then I found left over fiber from a spinning class and sacrificed it and any other loose fiber I could find. It is the MANGO above with coral, green, wine, and brown. I like what came out.
There is not much of it and it ends with a clot of 2 types of brown. I Navajo plied it and tried to remember how to spin worsted weight for doubles knowing I was going to triple it. It falls somewhere between DK and Chunky. HMHC asked me what I was going to do with it and I really do not know. It would make charming stripes on brown boot socks or winter house socks so maybe I'll set it aside for that.
Maybe part of a WILD TEA COSY?
Then I found left over fiber from a spinning class and sacrificed it and any other loose fiber I could find. It is the MANGO above with coral, green, wine, and brown. I like what came out.
There is not much of it and it ends with a clot of 2 types of brown. I Navajo plied it and tried to remember how to spin worsted weight for doubles knowing I was going to triple it. It falls somewhere between DK and Chunky. HMHC asked me what I was going to do with it and I really do not know. It would make charming stripes on brown boot socks or winter house socks so maybe I'll set it aside for that.
Maybe part of a WILD TEA COSY?
June 6
Sorry this post is late. An accident on my street left our house without internet. Hope no one was hurt.
About the Fiesta Baby Boom. How I LOVE the color way,
Unfortunately, the entire time I was knitting them, I suspected the fabric was too loose for socks. Yes, I kept knitting them. Surely the material would suddenly shrink and thicken up. No, it never happened. Yes, I hate the way they are. I will reknit them. This summer I plan to try them on again, then free the yarn.
I may re-cast this summer or just relax the yarn to re-cast next fall. They really are beautiful until I put them on. Then the fabric is just too loosey-goosey. Luckily, I LIKE knitting, right, Helen?
June 5
Seems like the right day to show the whole New Year’s List of socks to finish. Originally, the plan was to finish the socks before knitting ANYthing else. Did not happen, but I am still committed to the list. I still intend to finish. I have only put one additional pair of socks on needles. Of that, I am proud.
Here they are in order of earliest time on needles:
Still looking at the New Year's List (June 3)
Still knitting away on the Seacoast Yarns' Taffy New Year's List socks. After Taffy, I will have only one pair left from the list. I hope I can remember the stitch pattern. They sure are pretty ones. I chose Koigu KPPPM in navy and a varigated that looked like a good foil.
Then I found a honey comb slip-stitch pattern and started knitting away. Koigu is wonderful, if expensive yarn. The twist is tight, the yarn feels corrugated but the fabric it makes is lovely. I have a heel to turn and then knitting from heels to toes. This was my fifth (?) pair of socks, but I let all knitting languish for a few years. Can't remember why. When I took up knitting again, I learned toe up, then using two circs, then using one circ.I like to patronize local yarn stores as much as possible. Usually the prices are about what you can find on the internet give or take a little for shipping. Also, you get to see the colors, handle the yarn and get a feel for what it will do as opposed to just seeing it on a website and hoping your monitor and the vendor's camera are fairly well adjusted.
Sometimes that just isn't possible. I linked Koigu to the actual Koigu site, but they don't sell retail. They have a store locator, though. My FRIENDLY local yarn store doesn't carry it. The other, of course, does. Of my two summer yarn stores, (both friendly) one does and I was only in the other for 20 minutes on my way out of the state! I will definitely have to check later on this month.
********Does anyone know how to fix the auto date posting at the start of each entry? They keep lagging behind me! I am in the eastern US and I think the date is set for Hawaii or something. I like to post between 5 and 7 a.m. and HERE it is definitely June 3. ********
OOOPS! Looks like it's fixed or I posted later than usual.
New Year's List Socks (although today is June 2)
Yep. Still knitting socks from my New Year’s list. This is Taffy color way from Seacoast Yarns that I bought from Jackie’s Fine Yarns. I think she is not actively in business right now. She had some health issues and I wish her well. She surely did have some fine yarns.I have the heel turned on one and the other is ready to go. Changed my mind a couple of times along the way.
These have a pointier toe than I would like but I didn’t rip them back farther than the increases. Now they have just a plain foot, some rows of plain knitting to the ankle, K2, P1 for a 5 or 6 rows, then an increase on every second K to end up with a K2, P2 rib. This will keep me busy at stoplights for awhile.
(not really, it is Monday, June 1, 2009) More Dragonfly
Luscious, isn’t it? It is Dragonfly Fiber’s sock yarn in the Rocky Top color way. It makes me think of the warm, fragrant rich coffee I drink when I’m in the mountains. I watch the sunrise each morning; so at peace.
I just watched the movie Mrs. Brown. It was filled with hill scenery of
Anyway, this lovely yarn has the blue promise of daybreak peaking through. My photography will never show it to its best advantage, so you will just have to come visit me and see the real mountainside. Maybe I’ll have these Rocky Top Socks on the needles by then. Maybe they will be finished!
Dragonfly Designs Yarn
Look what I bought from LOOPY EWE . Another unborn pair of socks. This is Dragonfly Fibers' Robin's Egg. The Loopy Ewe link above goes right to the page with this colorway so you can have some socks like mine, too. Here is a quote from Loopy's site about Kate from Maryland's sock yarn:
Hand-dyed in small batches by Kate in MD. You'll love how the colors mix from one to another in each skein. Great for socks, shawls, mitts, gloves, cowls and scarves.
100% Superwash Merino Approx. 390 yds, 4 oz. 8 st/in on US 1 (2.25 mm)
If I did the linking correctly, the photos will take you to Kate's Etsy site where you can find more than just sock yarn. Maybe tomorrow I'll show you Rocky Top...
My Cedar Chest
When I was growing up, I used to look at the pictures of cedar chests in the Lane advertisements. I remember for awhile, they used to have an ad that must have shown 12 or more styles. I would mentally decorate my room around each different chest. After that, I would rank them in order of which I would select as my first choice. Then Lane came out with the enticement of a matching mini chest to go with the full-sized one. It was just about the right size to go on a dresser. Oh, how I wanted THAT!
My great-aunt had a chest at the foot of her bed. She kept linens that were hand-made, and photo albums where the pages were black, the writing was white, and the photos were put in with little corner pockets. I don't remember what else she kept in her chest. My grandmother (her sister) had one, too. I think she painted hers yellow and had a forest green cushion on it. Inside were all kinds of outdoor summer toys like badminton rackets and birdies.
Here is a picture of my cedar chest. My father made if for my mother and they gave it to me last summer. It is under the bedroom window in this picture but we moved to to be on the wall opposite the bed. It is lovely, isn't it? It has a lot of hand-dyed and hand-spun yarn in it that it held while it was in my mother's studio.
My great-aunt had a chest at the foot of her bed. She kept linens that were hand-made, and photo albums where the pages were black, the writing was white, and the photos were put in with little corner pockets. I don't remember what else she kept in her chest. My grandmother (her sister) had one, too. I think she painted hers yellow and had a forest green cushion on it. Inside were all kinds of outdoor summer toys like badminton rackets and birdies.
Here is a picture of my cedar chest. My father made if for my mother and they gave it to me last summer. It is under the bedroom window in this picture but we moved to to be on the wall opposite the bed. It is lovely, isn't it? It has a lot of hand-dyed and hand-spun yarn in it that it held while it was in my mother's studio.
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