Plying Is Magic

I think the only thing more magical than spinning fiber is plying the singles together. I love it. You take a couple of skinny, wiry, overtwisted strands of fiber and spin them together and POOF!

100% Coopworth wool

Those singles transform into a fluffy, bouncy, lively, nicely twisted cop of yarn. I can't wait to see how this turns out once it's set.

In knitting news, I fell head over heels for this wanna-be-a-shawl-cowl: Zuzu's Petals by Carina Spencer. Here's my progress so far:

BMFA Marine Silk Worsted, colorway Irishgirlie Green

You basically start knitting a tiny shawl and then you join it in the round so it becomes a cowl that appears to be a lacy shawl casually worn around the neck. I think it's a clever idea that I'm not-so-secretly jealous that I didn't come up with first, given my love of shawls. I've tried a few times to find the right pattern for this ball of Marine Silk Worsted from Blue Moon Fiber Arts. I had purchased it on a whim and started a few scarves but the silk is so drapey nothing was working quite right. I think this pattern will work, though. I'm knitting the small size intended for sport weight yarn even though mine is worsted so that I get a nice thick fabric that it holds its shape despite the silk.

What's your favorite kind of knitting or spinning magic?

Thoroughly Enabled

When my mom asks what I would like for my birthday, I should really know better than to send her a few fiber-selling etsy shop links and say "Anything from one of those would be great", expecting maybe one or two braids or roving to hold me over for a little bit.

Snuggling with my new fiber acquisitions!

I've been buried in a mountain of fiber! Pretty pretty pretty fiber! My mom went hog-wild in the Woolgatherings etsy shop. These should hold me over for quite a long time!

12 oz. of 85% Polwarth wool and 15% silk

8 oz. of 100% Polwarth wool

And the one I'm probably most excited about, a sampler pack containing 1 oz. of wool from 16 different sheep breeds!

Yippee!

I've been reading through the fascinating and fabulous Fleece and Fiber Sourcebook and I can't wait to try out all of these different kinds of wool. Particularly the Cormo, oh my goodness Cormo feels amazing. So thanks for thoroughly enabling my new hobby, Mom!

Finally, to prove that I will someday turn all that loveliness into usable yarn, here's a little sample of a batt from Inglenook Fibers plyed with Merino/Silk top from Schafenfreude fibers:

Double yippee!!

This came out looking very much like I'd hoped it would. It's not quite as soft as I would like it to be, so when I spin up the whole batch I will try to put less twist into the singles and make them less dense, but I would like to try to keep them fairly thick like this, so we'll see how all that works out. Exciting!

Aaaand Done.

My Making Mischief socks are finished!

STR MW, colorway Puck's Mischief

Thankfully, I remembered the correct number of stitches to decrease to on the foot and now they both fit the same.

Pattern: South Fork Socks

The South Fork Socks pattern was excellent and wonderful and a lot of fun to work, even when I had to re-knit half the foot of the second sock again. I rarely say this, but I would definitely knit this pattern again. Just not this year, haha. Too many other sock patterns in line first.

On my fiber-filled Friday night I also spun up some of the Merino/Silk fiber and plied a little sample of the pink-and-silk yarn I want to make:

My first plying!

I think it looks awesome. Fiasco was like "Hmmm, there are thick and thin spots" (ever the critic) but it is really much much better than the yarn I produced before. It has been thoroughly soaked, thwacked, and is hanging to dry. I'm curious to see how it turns out after it's been set. It doesn't feel all that soft to me, which I think might be a consequence of too much twist and dense drafting. I'll have to see if I can remedy that somehow. Any suggestions?

Oh, and speaking of the yarn I produced before, here's a teensy bit of it knit up into an edge of a potholder:

Still kinky...

The yarn still has a lot of kinks and is rough-to-the-touch where there is a lot of twist built up, but it's still neat to knit with yarn that I made myself. I'm pretty excited that it stays together and looks like yarn! Now I have to figure out how to make it look like yarn that I want, not just yarn.

Fibery Goodness

Whenever I think the words "fibery goodness" I still imagine them in reference to some sort of breakfast cereal. However, that's not the kind of fibery goodness I am referring to, this is:

Yum, yum, yum.

On the left and in the middle are fiber from Schafenfreude Fibers and they are absolutely scrumptious. The blue on on the left is a braid of 100% Polwarth wool, which I haven't tried yet. In the middle is an 80/20 Merino wool and Tussah silk top, which is basically heaven in my hands. Seriously. It's amazing. I think I'm in love with silk. Even the Fiasco touched it and went "ooOoOoOOOoOoOOoooh" so you know it's good. On the right is a full batt of the sample from Inglenook Fibers that came with my learn-to-spin kit that I already started playing with. My plan is to spin up the Imperial Orchid batt into a single and the Merino/Silk into a single and then ply them together. It is going to be amazing!!! Simmer down, Alicia, simmer down.

While I was waiting for that fiber to arrive, I got to work on the 100% Coopworth wool from Hidden Valley Farm &Woolen Mill that came with my learn-to-spin kit:

Much less thick-and-thin, yay!

My singles are much more consistent than they had been before, which is encouraging. I'm still just parking and drafting, not spinning freely, but the Coopworth is drafting much more smoothly and is all around more pleasant to use than the Knitpicks stuff I started with. I'm going to split this batch in half and practice plying with it before I attempt it on the pretty pink-and-silk skein I want to make. Yay spinning!

In knitting news, my Making Mischief socks (aptly named, right?) are taking a break because they were naughty, and I've been making some progress on my mawata mittnes. The goal is to finish those things before winter is over! Yes, it's come down to that. As for sock goals, I think I'll be using February as a catch-up-on-SIPs month entirely, no new socks for me at the moment.

February Sock Goals:

• finish Making Mischief socks (85% done)
• finish Cotty socks (30% done)
• finish not-so-secret-and-not-for-Valentine's-day-because-I-ran-out-of-time socks (10% done)
• finish a very very old SIP, my Froot Loops socks (65% done)

I'd say that's probably enough for now...

Socks Can Be Real Jerks

Yup. Sometimes you're knitting merrily along thinking to yourself "Woohoo! I'm going to finish this sock by midnight, it's going so well! I'll actually make my January goal!" and all the while the sock is snickering to itself, waiting for the crushing weight of reality to set in.

This sock had me fooled. I thought it was all going to work out great. Alas.

LIES, ALL LIES!!!

What you see above looks like a finished pair of socks, but it is most definitely NOT a finished pair of socks. For Sock #2 (on the left), I decreased down to 56 stitches after the gusset, like I always do for STR MW socks, right? WRONG. Since this pattern involved so many slipped stitches and cables, its fabric was extra snug, so I had only decreased down to 60 stitches for Sock #1 (on right) but because I had done that so long ago, I forgot/didn't check my notes/embarked on a futile course of self-destruction. When I tried them on, I was able to wrestle Sock #2 onto my foot, but it was unpleasant, and if you look really closely the pattern does look more stretched on Sock #2 (a.k.a. The Lying Jerk). While part of me wants to just suck it up and deal with it, the rest of me knows that Sock #1 fit much more comfortably and I can't live with socks of different sizes. So, let the frogging commence! At least it's only half a foot I have to reknit... I just hate reknitting. But I also love great-fitting socks. So there you go.

REVENGE!

But I still think that sock was a jerk.