Month: June 2009

- saffronknits 2 Comments

Gearing up for Le Tour de Fleece 2009

I had originally signed up for the Tour de Fleece on Ravelry but it quickly became overwhelming and I considered pulling out of it and maybe just doing it on my own or not at all. I knew there was more than one Tour de Fleece so I did one more search and found the one I one I was originally looking for, which has no connection to the group on Ravelry and the one I had seen on the Yarn Harlot’s blog in 2008. It is run by Katherine, who was perfectly lovely when I emailed her for more information.

(Click the below link to find out what Le Tour de Fleece is all about.)


http://www.tourdefleece.com/

I am excited to be participating in this! I’m still on teams on Ravelry (rookie & stash busters) but this is much more low key than Ravelry and I feel that will work better for me. It’ll be fun tracking people’s progress via the Tour de Fleece blog.

I have decided to set small goals for this challenge while having one overall goal. I seriously want to spin down my stash. I know some people feel that there is no such thing as ‘too much fiber stash’, but I have more than I am comfortable with.

  1. I want to spin two purchases from my favorite shop – Spincerely. I keep buying fiber from her but I have yet to spin any of it. One I have started and it has been sitting on one of my spindles for quite a while, and like my knitting, it starts to drive my crazy to have something sitting unfinished like that so I am going to transfer it to my wheel and finish it. It is Merino/Tencel in the colorway “Goldflame Honeysuckle” in a lovely pink & yellow. My original goal for this yarn was that I would have enough yarn to knit the Morning Surf scarf. I’ve never tried to spin for a specific project so we’ll see how that goes. The 2nd Spincerely fiber selection is to be determined as I have lots to choose from.

  2. Spindle spin ‘Happy Accident’ – Figure out how much I already have on the spindle, start spinning for the 2nd ply and make a two ply yarn on the spindle. Then spin the rest on the wheel. It might be interesting to see the difference between the spindle spun and wheel spun yarn from the same fiber.

  3. Practice chain-plying on the wheel. I love the look of chain-plied yarn. To my surprise, I figured it out rather quickly on the spindle but on the wheel there’s a lot more to factor into the process and currently is kicking my rear end. But to make it easier, I’m going to spin small amounts at a time so I can get a better sense of what works, what doesn’t and to maybe have a better sense of achievement than trying to do a whole 4 ounces at once. Haven’t chosen the fiber for this goal yet either.

    Ok… as I am typing this … maybe these goals aren’t that small … But I won’t really know that until I start spinning and seeing how much I can get done.

    I just took a moment to see what the Stephanie Pearl-McPhee’s (the Yarn Harlot) goal was last year. I didn’t think much about it when I was reading her blog last year but now? Her goal (and accomplishment) of spinning THREE pounds and 5 ounces of fiber is amazing to me. My head explodes even at the thought of considering such a goal. But this makes me want to expand and be more specific with my overall goal to spin down my stash, one that will encompass my other goals and go a little beyond them.

  4. Overall goal: To spin ONE pound, 4 ounces of fiber (this includes the works in progress).

I will say it is proof that you are addicted to fiber when you create a plan to reduce your stash but a part of you is thinking .. “This is something special! I need to buy fiber for this special event!” :roll: I’m not gonna buy any … but I’m just sayin’. :D

Stay tuned for photos of the fiber I’ve chosen above. I’ve never spun with a goal in mind and I’m still new to wheel spinning. This should be interesting and fun!! :)

- saffronknits 1 Comment

lot’s o’ knitting goin’ on

I finally finished this hat. It was sitting on the needles for way too long and last month, I finally sat down and finished it in one sitting.

Pattern: Gretel by Ysolda
Size: Regular (I did the slouchy last time)
Yarn: Kraemer Yarns Summit Hill in colorway Aquamarine, not a whole skein
Needles: US 7
Started: December 15 2008
Completed: May 17 2009

I love this pattern. Well worth knitting again. This will make a nice gift for a dear friend. It’s nice to have a Christmas gift done so early. :)

…aaand… this past weekend, I was knitting like a fiend and finished the heels on my Monkey-ish socks so I just need to do the legs and the cuffs. I don’t have a lot of knitting time during the week ’cause I usually only have enough mental power for spinning at the end of the day so this part might take a while, but I love knitting these socks – a combo of my creativity with that of the Cookie A. Lots ‘o fun, in my opinion. :) (The yarn is Dream in Color: Some Summer Sky … perfect for this time of year, wouldn’t you say? :D )

This is the Sherman short row heel, great for someone who doesn’t like to deal with wrapping stitches.

I decided not the carry the pattern all the way around the leg. I really like how it looks.

and I got a new knitting book!

and I know what I’m going to knit next … Oh… the anticipation. ;)

- saffronknits 4 Comments

monkey-ish

It’s been over a year since I’ve knit socks. And I blame chrissythegreat from The Manic Purl Podcast for the nudge to start these. She’s been working on and talking about 2 or 3 pairs of Monkey socks that she’s knit and I was reminded of a previous attempt to work on a pair of toe-up monkeys (my own version). Those only ended up in frustration so I ripped them out. In mid May, I pulled out the chart and some Dream In Color Smooshy ‘Some Summer Sky’ and tried again.

Things are going much better this time.