Antsypants

I've been feeling a tad out-of-sorts lately so haven't been blogging much. Part of it is just the end of summer, when I always feel all this pressure to Make It Last and to Do All The Things before fall hits. I love fall and everything that comes with it, but I still experience that end-of-season antsyness. I think it's particularly bad this year because there are a lot of big changes coming up this fall. The biggest change is that I will be unemployed. I have 9 work days left at my current job and it's quite unusual for me not to have a plan for the next step. Thank goodness the Fiasco will be starting his teaching job... Lots of things coming up, lots of things to do, lots of things to look forward to, I just have to be patient. I'm bad at patient, but I'm trying.

Anyway, onwards and upwards! I did a bunch of winding this week and I'm still in love with my new nostepinne:

My, what lovely balls! ;)

It's much more soothing and calming to use than a hand-crank ball winder. It does take longer, but I really like it. See that undyed ball of 100% worsted weight alpaca yarn on the bottom left? That became this:

First attempt.

That is a preliminary swatch for a new hat design I am working on. I met the owner of Burgis Brook Alpacas, an alpaca farm in Connecticut, at a local fair and she generously gave me a skein of her lovely yarn and requested that I design a pattern to be sold as part of a kit with her yarns... at Rhinebeck. Say what?! I am so excited. We are still working out the details but if all goes well my little patterns will reach a whole bunch of people at one one of the biggest wool festivals of the season. Woohoo!

Oh, BALLS!

It's raining today in Connecticut, which makes me sad because it was supposed to be Hiking Day. I've been so busy the last few weekends that I was really looking forward to getting out and hiking, to revisiting the peacefulness of the woods, the smell of sunshine through leaves, the sweet burn in my legs as I work them the way they're supposed to be worked... but no. Torrential downpour instead. Sigh. It's ok, though, because it gives me the chance to gush about all the wonderfulness that showed up in my mailbox yesterday! First, a big ol' bag of yarn from Uruguay:

* squee *

These were sent to me from the uncontestedly-amazing Malabrigo Yarn! I love these skeins very, very much. They are all destined to become designs. The four skeins on the left are Twist in the colorways Indiecita and Natural. If you remember from a previous post, Twist is my absolute favorite Malabrigo yarn. These will be used for my Malabrigo Quickie design. The next skein is a brand new yarn, Rastita in Solis. It is a slightly-felted sport-weight single-ply Merino yarn, a little cousin to the super-bulky skein to its right, Rasta in Arco Iris.

See the family resemblance?

I've used and loved Rasta before, so I think I'm going to adore Rastita. Another new thing I adore is my nostepinne:

No, it's not a magic wand. Sadly.

Have you ever used one before? It's for this:

I practiced using it with my already-wound-by-hand handspun.

My cheap plastic ball winder from Knit Picks broke (again) and I just got fed up with it. I could either spend $20 on another piece of plastic that will never degrade after I eventually have to throw it out, or spend less than that on a beautiful, handcrafted wooden tool. I chose handcrafted, even though it will still take a while to wind my yarn. Until I can afford to spend big money on a solid wooden ball winder, this nostepinne will have to do. I purchased it from David Linquist's Etsy shop, Craftiness, and I couldn't be happier.

Pretty wood!

It's made from birdseye maple and it is really gorgeous. I bought the 'slim' version since it was a little cheaper and I do have small hands. It seems to be a perfect fit.

It is silky smooth to the touch and I love using it. It's quite a simple tool, but it makes the job of winding yarn balls much more pleasant.

Ta-da!

Plus, it makes a more neatly-wound center-pull ball than what I used to wind without it. If you're in need of a nostepinne, I highly recommend the Craftiness Etsy shop. Do you have a favorite Etsy shop or a great handmade item that you adore?

Work-In-Progress Wednesday #7

... a day late, but I have two new WIPs I still wanted to share. However, first you need to check out this bit of awesomeness:

My Fiasco likes zombies and I'm (obviously) a fan of knitting and when my future-father-in-law saw this magnet, he thought of us and bought it for me on a whim. How perfectly sweet is that, right? I am marrying into such a great family! :) Now, onto the knitting.

Naughty Lace (named so because that's how I hear the name of the yarn in my head):

Cephalopod Yarns Nautilace, colorway Trigger Fish

I finally finally finally started that cowl I had you guys help me decide on making. I was delayed because I couldn't figure out how to actually purchase the pattern (which is Thundercloud Cowl by Snowden Becker) because the link wasn't working. Then I had to go buy some beads. Then I had to wait to print the pattern out because our printer was busted. Then I had to pre-string 360 of those beads (yup). Then I just procrastinated because I hate provisional cast-ons.

BUT! Then I had this brainwave: I don't have to really do a provisional cast on!! The TechKnitter blog has a great post on how to do this kind of cast on, but the idea is basically that you knit with waste yarn for a few rows and then start knitting the pattern with your project yarn. When you're done, you snip the waste yarn just before the "real" knitting begins and unravel that row stitch by stitch, catching each live stitch on your needle as you go. Then you can join those stitches to the other end relatively seamlessly. It's so simple and much less intimidating for me than fiddling with crochet hooks or a two-needle twisty weird cast on. Sometimes you just want to cast on and go and deal with issues later. :)

Summer Holiday Socks:

The Verdant Gryphon Eidos, colorway Parzival

I started a pair of my Ribby Holiday Socks as my celebrate-the-end-of-summer, easy-pick-me-up, knit-while-I-read-boring-papers project. I love them so far. The colorway involves every single color I love. This is my first time knitting with Eidos and I like it very much, although I did go down a needle size from my much loved and slightly thicker STR yarn. The fabric is working out nicely.

That's all I have for you this week. I worked on My Own Fiasco socks a bit, as well, but I don't have a new photo for you. I'm just about at the heel on those so they are moving along well, too. Now to catch up on all the WIP Wednesday fun that I missed...

In the Wee Hours

Here's what I did with my night:

Front

Back

I made some business cards (woohoo!) in preparation for the crazy amount of fiber-related awesomeness coming up this fall. Time just flies by in a blink, doesn't it? There is an open house event at The Verdant Gryphon studio September 29-30 in Maryland, Stitches East October 11-14 nearby (thankfully) in Connecticut, the New York state sheep and wool festival at Rhinebeck October 20-21st, and the Fiber Festival of New England November 3-4 at the Big E in Massachusetts.

Fall is definitely a good time to be a knitter in New England. Or a bad time, depending on the damage your wallet incurs. Either way, I'll be prepared for spontaneous networking, should the opportunity arise! Are there any festivals going on in your area that you are looking forward to? Do you have a favorite fiber event?

SS: Grey Gotland

Apparently when I don't superduperlove working with a fiber, I spin it with abandon and it flies off the spindle quite quickly!

This Icelandic wool was actually quite easy to spin. It drafted very well so there was not much spindle dropping with this one. However the fibers were very long and fly-away, which you can see in the photo above, and I didn't love handling them.

The finished yarn did soften up more than I expected in the wash. This is one I'd be especially curious to see knitted up, I can't quite picture what the fabric will look like. Perhaps I will start swatching all of  my Spinner's Study breeds soon. Onto the next!

Photo from gotlandsheep.com.

According to the Fleece & Fiber Sourcebook, Gotland is another breed that is part of the Northern European Short-Tailed Family (the third that I've spun so far, the other two being Finnsheep and the Icelandic). It is a Swedish breed that is also developed in Britain, New Zealand, and North America, with different strains having different characteristics.

The F&FSB describes this wool as "unusual, resembling a fine mohair or an English luster longwool" with which I agree. The top I have has a very dense quality to it and when I start fluffing it up it feels softer and very silky. I think my favorite thing about it is the natural grey color, which is just lovely.

I'm still getting the hang of spinning it, drafting is a bit difficult due to the top's denseness and the fiber's silkiness, but it seems to be spinning up much like the Finnsheep and Icelandic breeds: on the less-fluffy-side with some ends sticking out. The staple length is usually between 3-7 inches and the fiber diameters vary, with fleeces from New Zealand averaging 27-34 microns and those in Britain being coarser, around 35 microns. Gotland spans the medium-coarse range but it has this really great luster that I am excited to see in the finished yarn.

Image from Stansborough shop.

Super fun fact: Gotland wool was used to make the elven cloaks and other costumes in The Lord of the Rings movies! If you've got about $730 lying around, you can even buy one of your own. The Stansborough farm in New Zealand has a pretty neat story, I encourage you to go read it. They've developed their own flock of "Stansborough Greys" from the Gotland sheep and now sell the wool and weave fabrics used for costuming in many movies. Who knew Hollywood was so authentic and eco-friendly, right? I hope whomever has those cloaks now makes good use out of them. They must be absolutely lovely.

I don't think I've mentioned it here yet, but I've begun spinning some new fiber on my other spindle as well:

This is Polwarth wool from Woolgatherings in a great purple color. I have two braids of it and am planning to chain-ply it when I'm finished. This will probably be on the spindle for a while but should result in some very soft 3-ply DK/worsted-weight-ish yarn. Anything special occupying your spindle or wheel lately?