Woolgathering

My copy of The Celtic Collection just arrived; extremely quick service - and I am very happy with my purchase.

Time to make coffee, and turn a few pages.

I am so enormously grateful to my enablers. To G, for getting me going and for being so patient with my slowness, and especially to my wonderful husband, for buying the Ashford for me, and to my benefactor for the gift of the tops.

Just look what I did today! (and don’t forget that I did some pink merino roving as well). I do believe that is more spinning in one day than I have done in total since I began. And do you know what? I haven’t had to re-thread once today. Not once!

At long last, I have moved from “can’t concentrate on this for a moment longer” to “just one more go,” and I have spun all afternoon. That bobbin looks almost full.

Most of it is even stuff, too. There are still lumps and bumps, but this spinning from the fold with the Cheviot is really working for me - and it has become almost easy.

I still have some issues - predominant of which is the tendency to pedal too hard. I have become used to the need to keep the momentum up on Hebbie, whereas Connie is happy to just to whirr into life at the least provocation. I have to concentrate very hard on slowing my foot down.

I’m getting there. And I feel great about it. I was beginning to think that I would never grow to enjoy this craft, and I really did want to. So imagine how happy I am this evening.

Thank you, to all concerned. You know who you are.

Kisses. XXX

Back from spinning.

After a late-night out, catching storm petrels, and a morning spent: reinstalling my Dragon; then driving to spinning; doing my spinning; being among the ladies and the chatter; and driving home again… well, my poor head is in a tizz.  I think I’m going to spend my afternoon spinning quietly in the conservatory.

This morning I did a show and tell on my ivy socks and my Clapotis, and then concentrated on spinning the pink Merino that I had already pre-drafted. I then took that bobbin off temporarily, fitted a new one, and got out the white Cheviot. G showed me how to spin off the fold, and helped me towards an understanding of how the Scotch tension works. Then I worked hard at spinning up the white tops and managed to spin about a third of the bobbin.

It would be tempting fate to claim that spinning the Cheviot is a doddle, so I’ll simply say (very quietly) - it goes a lot faster than anything I’ve tried to date.  I now plan to see how it goes without my support systems in place.  But first, I think I’ll take a couple of paracetamol.

Oh, cake today was actually apple strudel, hot from the oven.  Scrummy.

Too busy to knit.

Too busy to spin.

Too busy to read. 

Still training my Dragon, and all I seem to have done all day is to attempt to catch up with e-mail - the dictation of which is giving me a headache and taking forever.

The good news is that the arm is easing up on me a little and I should soon be ready to pick up the Clapotis again.  While catching up with e-mail today I have been corresponding with Kerrie at HipKnits, who was able to reassure me that I have a rogue skein.  This is indeed good news, and the search for an Aran pattern will continue, while I dream of wandering along a windswept beach, warm and cosy and très elegante in my hand knit sweater. I would really like this to be a St Brigid, so if you have a spare copy of Alice Starmore about the house that you’d like to give me then I would be highly delighted to give it a home!

Kerrie tells me that she can help me out with an additional small quantity of the Knox if I need it to complete the project - so I don’t need to worry about whether I will run out or not*.  Even better, we have agreed a course regarding the extra quantity of silk. Clapotis MKII should be along soon after the first Clapotis.

It’s Spinning day tomorrow.  I plan to try the Cheviot out. Now I must go and pack my things in readiness and also oil my wheel. I’m going to drive again tomorrow. For once, I find that I don’t feel so very bad about that.

Next week we are on holiday once more. I shall be making at least one trip to Kirkwall, in the company of A.N.Other. There is a plan afoot. A lesser, and more domestic, plan is also in the air. Sadly, it may keep me from my yarn/fibre/paper/inks. What can it be? Ah, that remains to be seen. I’ll tell you what, though - it’s not arty, and it’s not crafty but it is traditional for holiday periods in this household.

Rest assured, my socks will be coming along on the ferry with me, wherever I happen to go next week.

*But I still think I will rip it, so I can knit alternately from the two skeins.

Addendum: my Dragon appears to have an even more idiosyncratic approach to punctuation than I do myself…

What a splendid idea! I am writing to Father Christmas tonight, well in advance. Maybe he’ll have time to listen…

The Yarn Yard Fibre Club is here!

After much thought and number crunching and phone calls and emails to suppliers, I have designed an enticing package of fibre possibilities for you.

A new Club
The Yarn Yard - Tuesday, 24 July 2007

© The Yarn Yard

Oh, this is nice/pretty/covetable

Knitty: Emerald Seas

I’m catching up with mail (slowly) - my Dragon is being a bit recalcitrant and causing the odd reboot to be required. But I’m getting there. There’s no knitting or spinning getting done, though.

The Clapotis - should I rip it?

I don’t even know why I am asking the question because, if I feel the need to ask it then my instincts are certainly telling me that I should…

If I do rip it… then I can knit from both skeins at once, alternating every two rows or so. I don’t know what effect this would have on the overall pooling until I try it, but it would solve the problem of having a very white half and a not very white half. Really, this is something I should have thought of at first but I’ve never knitted with hand painted before and it hadn’t occurred to me… stupid. It would also force me into dealing with the knots properly - and I could knit the thing one or two repeats narrower, and have enough yarn to finish the project with.

If I don’t rip it, I can er… finish the thing quickly.

The second option is the more attractive at this point in time, but, you know… the old gut instinct won’t leave me alone.

Can anybody tell me how successful ripping the silk out would be? Will it wash up and de-kink in a suitably useful fashion, or is it best left well alone and forging ahead?

The new socks are under way. It’s a nice pattern - the twisted rib is very attractive and I like the way that it is retained in the leg and foot. It’s an easy enough 4-row lace pattern to knit, but a real pig to tink when it goes wrong - this yarn tends to split very easily, so I think this is a project for knitting in quite (and light) moments, and not in front of the lappie in bed (go on, ask me how I know this). I think that these will not be ready for next week, as planned.

There has been little happening here. Between a fit of apathy, and resting my sore arm, I have been doing nothing much at all.

What I  have done is:

1. Grafted the toe on sock #3
2. Purchased Fishermen’s Sweaters on eBay today
3. Cast on sock #4a

The asymmetrical toe would have been an improvement, had I not done something very stupid indeed. It still needs perfecting for my silly feet, though. I’ll keep working on it, from pair to pair as I go along.

Stupid? Oh, yes - very stupid. I finished the sock, tried it on, remarked that I needed more length for my big toe - and planned to knit three more rows before trying it on again. I sat down today, almost completed the first of the extra rows, then realised I had no yarn attached to my ball. I’d cut it off, as though I had completed it!

I unpicked the row and grafted the toe. Why? I knew it was too short! It will be in holes in no time at all.

I’m leaving the right foot for now, and progressing to Cookie A’s Hedera sock pattern. I’m using up some of the pale blue Cashsoft for these, and hoping to have them done within the week (ho, ho, ho)

No progress on the Clapotis. It’s not helping my arm any, so the small lightweight sock knitting is therapy for the time being. No spinning done, either. Just cleaning, tidying, laundry, cooking and 2 inches of Hedera.

This Clapotis is proving to be something of a roller coaster ride. First there was the yarn breakages and then the whole “Eek - I hate the colour pooling!” bit. Then there followed the “ooh, I love to knit with this” part. The heft and the drape of it is gorgeous and I have spent more than a few hours imagining knitting an aran jumper with this silk. Plus several more, seeking a pattern

Then, along came the knots. The first one I accommodated by leaving a loop hanging at the edge of my work. The knot was going to fall right in the centre of a ladder, so leaving it or splicing it were not options.

However, moving the yarn along in this manner, caused a wonderful and mystical effect to happen with the colour pooling - and I fell in love with it, as I saw myself knitting an Orcadian Sunset.

But then, down to earth with a bump, as several more knots followed. If this were wool, I’d undo the knots and splice the ends. But it is silk and splicing would not be secure. Knots are actually better, I think, in this case, but not when they arrive with such frequency and such ill-timing.

And then another break - right at the end of a row. Closely followed by a fourth break - the yarn just slips apart, as though the fibre entirely lacked twist at these points. This second pair of breaks happened very close to the end of my first skein, and the first pair happened very close to the beginning.

I was already short of yarn.

At this mid-point yarn-wise, I am twelve rows short of the mid-point of the Clapotis pattern. I make that 24 rows short all told, if I don’t risk not leaving some breathing room for the end (was that very ungrammatical? Well, I know what I mean anyway.) Having weighed both halves of the yarn, I had 202 grammes in the first skein, including all the waste bits, and 208 grammes in the second. I’m trying to work out if I can fit 12 more rows in, to leave just 12 short. It will be very tight indeed. And I’d hate to find myself with, say, 6 rows to go and nothing to knit them with! On balance, I think it safest to go for the 24 row shortfall in the middle section but I am going to hate myself if I do end up with a chunk over!

But the worst news of all is that the second skein looks quite unlike the first, with a far higher proportion of white in it. I shall have to see how it knits up, but I confess that at this stage I think that the much-wanted Vibrant will be going back to base, and the silk sweater will now be out the window.

I was in the bedroom when my beloved brought me the morning post. He handed me a package, soft and squishy. Then he went off to make bacon sandwiches. When he came back, he found me sitting on the bed, clutching the package to my chest and with tears in my eyes. He asked me what was wrong, but I couldn’t speak.

Ask those who know me - it takes a lot to make me speechless.

Like this lot:

A package from an anonymous donor, via The Alpaca Spinner. In it: Cheviot, Blue Faced Leicester, and some Alpaca roving.

Thank you. Thank you, very much indeed!

I am going to be paying forward for a long time to come - I have been extraordinarily blessed recently to receive several very fine and extremely generous gifts from remarkably thoughtful people.

I am still recovering my powers of speech so, “In Other News Today” consists mainly of:

1. I am having terrible trouble with my Dragon and have to get a new one
2. I desperately want to knit a St Brigid aran sweater. Desperately!
3. I am definitely coming up short on the yarn for the Clapotis. I haven’t knit any more (v sore arm) but I have done the sums - and they don’t add up.
4. I am very behind on email (about a week) please bear with me while I  get my Dragon installed and trained (again)

What I do not understand is; I have checked some Clapotis projects on Ravelry and several persons have done a Clapotis in Hipknits Aran Silk - and only used 3 skeins. So how come I am short, with 4???

Swatch? No. Of course not… you don’t take me for a sensible/experienced/professional knitter, do you? Anyway, I don’t believe tension is so off as to make so large a difference*. At the moment I look like being 36 rows short of a full Clapotis. THIRTY SIX! At eight quid a skein, it’s just going to have to be a short scarf.

*Maybe Treacle eats silk yarn as well as sheep fleece?