Author Archives: zardra

A Niddy-Noddy Problem

Posted on by
Reply

I was hit by the oddest fever in the middle of the week.  No other symptoms, just a fever and all its fun side-effects like aches, chills, joint pain, and sore neck.  Thankfully, it only lasted a few days, and by Saturday morning I was feeling much better but still not up for much.  So, I got out the spinning wheel and sat down to plying.

Plying up 4 ounces of wool into a approximately fingering weight yarn (I’ll know more details once it has finished drying from its bath) went a lot quicker than I expected.  I am so used to spinning 2-ply, laceweight yarns that take forever to see a finished product.

On Sunday, I wanted to see about getting the yarn into a bath to see how it looked finished.  Go to pull out my niddy-noddy only to remember that the pup chewed it up a couple weeks ago.  *sigh*  I also remember that my LYS is on vacation, so no quick dash to the store to save me.  This is when I recall that I have a back-up niddy-noddy.  It’s a handmade piece that I bought from The Rug & Yarn Hut years ago.  I also have a spindle made by the same guy.  It took me a little while I find where I stashed it and to get it back together into one piece (it splits in the middle for storage and it held together by a wooden pin, which has a very tight fit).  I gleefully proceed to winding the yarn off the bobbin into a 2-yard skein for washing.  I tie up the ends and go to pull the skein off, when it dawns on me why this is my back-up niddy-noddy.  I can’t get the yarn off, at least not easily.

Now don’t get me wrong, it is a beautiful piece of wood and craftsmanship.  A dark hard wood with a lighter wood inlay.  The maker thoughtfully put a slot in one of the arms to hold the end of the yarn as you beginning to wind it.  But, and it’s a bit of a but, he left all 4 arms of the niddy-noddy swooped up in a pretty little design.  A pretty little design that does not allow the yarn to slide off the niddy-noddy.  My now gone Ashford niddy-noddy had all 4 arms smoothed in a downward fashion making slipping the skein off a breeze.  I have seen more ornate niddy-noddies such as mine with the decorative ends, but they usually have one arm left smoothed down for yarn removal.

This beautiful niddy-noddy took me a good 15 minutes to get the yarn off as I slowly slipped small sections off at a time, hoping that doing so wouldn’t hurt my newly-minted yarn.  So, unless someone can recommend a way to make this tool work more easily for me, I am now on the hunt for a usable niddy-noddy or skein-winder that doesn’t cost too much.

Meanwhile, the yarn came off the niddy-noddy looking extremely excited.  It’s gotten a nice soak and several thwacks.  I can’t wait to see how it looks once it’s dry.

August Whirlwind

Posted on by
1

Am I going crazy?  I feel like I’m trying to do too many things at once.  I have a baby blanket to finish.  I’m working on a pair of socks I’ve designed as well as working out another design that’s come to mind.  I’m thinking of participating in the Spunky Eclectic/Hello Yarn/Southern Cross Fibres 4 Ounce Challenge! (spin 4 oz. of one of their fibers and design something using the yarn in 2 months).  And I may be about to join a KAL knitting the Annis shawl from Knitty with some of my handspun (this one is crazy cause you have to cast on 360 stitches).

I keep wanting to work on all sorts of different things, and yet, I’m not knitting very much.  In the evening, I sit on the couch catching up on the TiVo, and I think to myself that I should knit or spin.  Do I do either?  No.  I continue to sit there just watching TV.  Then, of course, when there are things I have to do (e.g., work), I just want to go home and knit.  It sort of feels like my internal clock is off, like jet lag.  As if I’m hungry and sleepy at all the wrong times, but for knitting and spinning and work.

I guess I’ll just try to buckle down and see if I can get something done, anything.

Tour de Flop

Posted on by
Reply

The Tour de Fleece began July 3, and I happily sat down in front of my spinning wheel with the hopes of seeing it through to the end.  This was my first time doing the Tour de Fleece, and I signed up with Abby Franquemont’s Team Suck Less because I wanted to focus on improving my technique as well as Amy King’s Team Monkey Farts because I planned on working my way through some of my Spunky Eclectic Club backlog.  I spun on Saturday.  I spun on Sunday.  I spun on the Monday Holiday.  On Tuesday I had the beginnings of a bad headache, which revealed itself on Wednesday to be something wrong with my back, right between my shoulder blades.  I felt like someone was ramming something into my spine.  My shoulder hurt.  My head hurt.  Spinning was not going to happen.  Thankfully, my chiropractor got me in for her last available appointment Wednesday afternoon, but I was instructed to ice and take it easy for a few days.  That’s all it takes to fall off the wagon.  For the rest of the tour I found excuses not to spin.

On the upside, I did manage to fill 3 bobbins with singles on their way to becoming what I hope will be a sportish 3-ply.  I tried to spin so that the yarn would have a bit more loft, thus make the final yarn more fluffy.  I have such a bad habit of making smooth dense yarns that are all thinner than I want.  So, this yarn is an experiment.  I have no idea if I did the right things to get the yarn I’m hoping for, but I’m willing to accept that.  (I still have another 4 oz. of this fiber/color combination, so I still have a chance to make a gorgeous, usable yarn.)  I had discovered when I took Janel Laidman’s spinning class at Stitches West 2010, that if I draft faster, I get yarn that’s fluffier.  Now, granted, I was doing that on a spindle.  But, I gave it some thought and tried to apply what I did with the spindle to my wheel.  Like I said, I have no idea if I did it right; for all I know I did the complete opposite.

I wanted to ply faster.  But, plying faster means nothing if the yarn is sitting around waiting to move onto the bobbin.  I also figured that a fluffier yarn needs less twist to hold it together (this may be one of the places I’ve gone completely wrong and find myself with singles that just fall apart as I try to ply them).  I was basing this on thinner yarn needs more twist, thicker yarn needs less twist.  So, I turned up the uptake on my wheel and plied like the wind.

Who knows, maybe the bobbins of singles sitting around while I do nothing with them for 3 weeks will work in my favor allowing the twist to settle in a bit.  Or I might just be on my way to ending up with a huge mess.

That was loads of fun… not

Posted on by
Reply

I apologize right up front to anyone who visited my bog in the last month and found it redirecting them to some stupid, fake “anti-virus” site.  My blog was somehow hijacked, and a script was inserted in every. single. frikken. post.  Thankfully, my server host provided me with a SQL statement to run against my database to clean out the script.  And I wasn’t affected by any of the other hijacking symptoms that were possible.  I’ve backed up and upgraded, so hopefully, this won’t happen again.  I have plans for backing up more often and keeping on top of making sure I upgrade in a timely manner.

In other circles, I completely failed at Tour de Fleece.  I spun for the first three days, then I hurt my back and didn’t get my wheel out for the rest of the tour.  On the upside, I did manage to get the singles for a 3-ply yarn spun, just need to find the time to ply it up and see if my experiment to try getting a specific type of yarn worked.

I’ve been knitting, working on a baby blanket for my niece, who should be joining us in October.  I’m also working on designing a pair of socks.  This isn’t the first time I’ve created my own pattern, but it is the first time I’ve done something more than just stockinette or ribbing.  I’ve actually put some thought into it.  It’s been fun enough that I’m already thinking of a second pattern for the first installment of the Mean Girls Yarn Club, Part Deux that I just received.

Ripping

Posted on by
Reply

I finally just pulled out the purple sweater and ripped the sucker out.  Now you see it…

Now you don’t…

One piece of advice.  No matter how nice a sewn cast-off looks, I don’t recommend it if you ever plan on ripping it out.  That took for…… ever…..  But, once I got the cast-offs out I made quick work of the sweater with my ball winder.  Only occasionally hit a few snags due to the alpaca in the yarn.  The stockinette parts were much easier to rip out than the seed stitch borders.  There were a few places were the yarn caught and broke, so I do have a couple smaller balls.  What was really nice is once I got the yarn reskeined and into the bath, it came out beautifully.  You would never know that it had been previously knitted.

Now, I just need to knit up a swatch to determine needles and size to be knit.  New sweater here I come!

A Good Goggie

Posted on by
1

My mom called this morning to let me know that Comet had taken a turn for the worse over the weekend and that they put her to sleep this morning.  Comet was a good, old dog, and we got to love her for 16 years.  🙁

Never-ending spinning

Posted on by
1

Thanks to a few threads on Ravelry aimed at either spinning down stash or spinning for a lace project, I’ve been motivated to pull my poor neglected wheel out of my fiber room and do some spinning. I’ve even managed to finish(-ish) a couple of projects that have been languishing. On Monday night, I finally finished spinning the singles from those green merino/silk batts that were my first drum carding experiment.  They went sadly unfinished during the Ravelympics, but there is an end in sight now.  Here’s proof:

All that’s left is to ply it.  I think I’m going to try making a plying ball to see if that works better than plying from a center-pull ball.  The only thing I’m slightly worried about is that I know there are some spots where the singles are more than a bit thin.  I’m already anticipating them breaking as I try to create a plying ball.

Contemplation

Posted on by
2

I have been contemplating ripping out my 2006 Olympic sweater.  I had knit Knitting Pure & Simple’s Neckdown V-Neck Shaped Cardigan in Rowan Felted Tweed.  Amazing enough I managed to finish it in the 16 days of the Olympics, thus winning myself a gold medal (unlike this last time when failed miserably).  Here’s a terrible cell phone picture of it the first time I wore it.

It was a nice enough sweater, but it had some problems.  The sleeves, although I had measured them diligently and multiple times, came out short.  The confusing part there is they are the length of other sleeves I have worn (I had measured a sweater I liked), and yet when I wear it the sleeves are too short.  The sweater length could be a little longer, too.  There is way too much fabric in the underarms, and yet, somehow, not quite enough for the bust.  I’ve also never been happy with the bottom portion of the sleeves — I didn’t switch from the circular needle to DPNs at the right time and there’s a section of knitting that is wonky with stretched out stitches.  But, most importantly, I just don’t wear it anymore because of all of these problems.

I still have 4 unused balls of the Felted Tweed that I didn’t use when knitting this sweater.  Not enough for a sweater on their own.  But, if I were to rip out this poor, sad, old sweater to add to the unused balls, I do believe I would have enough yarn to knit myself a Tempest.  This would be good, because I need a nice, simply cardigan that fits to wear for work.  (I have my Ribby Cardi and my Mr. Greenjeans, but they both need repairs and are showing some age; plus both are raglans, which I am beginning to believe are not a good fit for me.)

I have been inspired by Deb’s recent reknit.  I want to give this good yarn a happier future (and myself a wearable sweater).  It might even give me something to blog about.  🙂

Move along

Posted on by
Reply

No progress to see here; please move along.  I have been so tired from slinging boxes at work the last few days that I’m unable to bring myself to even knit in the evening.  So, my Ishbel and my spinning both sit where they were at the beginning of the week.  The Ishbel may actually get finished since I just have the lace section left to do.

Tomorrow is for Stitches West.  I’ve signed up for Janel Laidman’s Getting the Most from a Painted Roving.  It goes all day on Friday, so hopefully, by the end of the day I should have some idea of what to do with the handpainted fibers I have slowly piling up in my fiber room.

I plan on just having lunch at the bar/restaurant in the hotel so that I don’t have to drive anywhere.  Then, into the market.  I’m not planning on returning for the rest of the weekend, so all shopping needs to be done during my lunch break and after class ends.  This year’s shopping theme is going to be tools/books.  I was in my fiber room cleaning it up so my BIL could stay the night and realized I truly do have quite a lot of fiber and yarn and no time to do anything with it.  (And I just got into The Loopy Ewe’s sock club for this year and am considering signing up for another year of infliction sock yarn from the Mean Girls Yarn Club.)  So, something will have to be truly amazing for me to think about getting it if it isn’t a tool or a book.

I also have the mission to buy a couple of skeins of sock yarn and a sock book for my MIL’s birthday, which is in a couple of months.  She’s getting back into knitting and the pair of socks I knit for her has inspired her to have more handknit socks of her own.  I think I’m going to get her a skein from Abstract Fibers and perhaps one from either Pigeonroof or Lisa Souza; I like the idea of getting her something rather local.  The book I’m thinking of getting her is Nancy Bush’s Knitting Vintage Socks.  I think she’ll like the historical connection as well as the simple, but pretty patterns in the book.

I’m not entirely sure where my Ravelry name pin has gotten too; I’ll have to see if I can find it.  I do plan on wearing my Brandywine shawl tomorrow so that I can show it off to Romi in person.  See you there!

Ravelympics

Posted on by
1

How are your Ravelympics projects going?

I can tell you that they are probably going far better than mine.  I have yet to pull out the fiber I decided upon for my spinning project (the superwash Corriedale that was to become socks).  Instead, I have been spinning some green batts that were the first to ever come off my drum carder.

I had received some very, very dark green with touches of red and yellow fiber from Deep Color in a swap several years ago (see the yarn to the right).  It was one of those cases where I highly doubt my swap partner had read my questionnaire because I had listed green as a color I don’t like.  (It wasn’t even until everyone was supposed to be finding out who their secret swap partners had been that I realized that my partner had fallen off the planet.  Oh well.)  So, I had this nice merino that just happened to be dyed a rather unfortunately color.  I tried spinning some of it, but hated the color so much that it languished on a bobbin for almost a year and a half.  I ended up using it as my first attempt to Navajo ply because I didn’t care if I completely screwed it up.

I had spun less  than half of it, so I still had over 2 oz. of this fiber laying around.  Then, I finally decided to get brave and try to use my drum carder.  I bought an ounce of bright yellow silk from Spunky Eclectic; it was a color called Walking on the Sun.  I blended the 2 together and got a much lighter grass green.  The silk also add a great feel.

I have been wanting to practice spinning from the fold and these batts seemed like good practice fodder.  Next thing you know, that’s what’s on my wheel.  The problem?  I started spinning it back in September, so I definitely don’t believe it’s eligible for the Ravelympics.  My wheel got put away after I had spun only 1 of the 4 batts I had made because the new puppy showed too much interest in wanting to chew on the treadles, which I just couldn’t let happen to my beautiful Catherine.  When I got the wheel out to begin working on the superwash Corriedale, I saw the silky green bobbin and couldn’t help myself.  The Corriedale was forgotten.

At least my knitting is going okay… I think.