WIP Wednesday: Happy Sock Day :)

Happy Wednesday folks! For me it's "sock day" because the only things I have to post about are socks.

My only WIP that I am continuously working on is my Un-Vanilla Socks, which actually need a name change now.

This was the yarn:

My full intentions were to make these plain old vanilla toe up socks, just because the color is so wild and I wanted something super basic. Well.... as I worked the toe I realized that the color is much more subtle when you knit with it so I decided to pick out a pattern from my copy of Socks from the Toe Up (Which is a fantastic book!). This decision did not come easily but I finally decided on Lacy Rib Socks because the pattern was subtle and simple enough to work with this yarn. It's slower going than Vanilla, but they are coming along nicely!

It's so funny, because I can get bored with knitting, bored to the point where I just stop for awhile, but then I pick up or start a pair of socks and I'm happy again! There is just something about socks that remind me how much I love knitting.

In related sock news, I have some new yarn to share with you all. One of them is yet another skein of sock yarn! This time blame my aunt, who brought it back for me from Germany (I am taking a solumn vow to not buy anymore yarn all summer, but gifts are fine :P ).

Superba Poems, colorway greens

My aunt knows me well (or is a good guesser) because I don't have a single skein of any blue-type sock yarns in my stash! This is so squishy too! Yay more socks!

Torquoise Wolle Rodel Soft Merino

She also knows I look good in blues, which led to these 5 skeins of Merino! YAY! I seriously plan to knit a sweater this fall with these, perfect for a bounce back from the epic lace top failure.

So, how is the week going? I hope it's going well! Mine is fast and short, as I am going home to hold a garage sale Friday and Saturday for Relay! Have a good one guys.

And as usual, check out Tami's Amis for more WIP Wednesdays. 

~Lisa

P.S.-- Guess who's going to see The Amazing Spider-man for the 3rd time tomorrow? Forget about a yarn budget, I think I need a Spide-rman budget!

WIP Wednesday #3; Bit by Bit

Happy Wednesday! I have been eagerly awaiting this day because I want to show off all the amazing projects I have going right now. I have not one, not two, but THREE WIP knitting projects, plus a slowly progressing spindle project. Each one is coming along at it's own pace, bit by bit and row by row.

First on my list for you is the Amari Shawl, which is for a KAL I am doing with Evelyn and a bunch of others. I told myself way back in January I wouldn't buy any new yarn this year, but sadly that plan has come to a halt. I wanted to do this shawl so bad, but I didn't have enough of any worsted yarn in my stash. In the end I caved and purchased Plymouth Yarn Jeannee, in several shades of blue to make the shawl striped. I am still not sure how much I like this project yet, probably because of the yarn, which is half cotton, half acrylic (I did get it in the 'baby' section of the LYS), which doesn't give much drape. I wanted something suitable for summer though, so I think it will be ok. If you get the chance, hop over to the Ravelry KAL and see what everyone is up too, they are all amazing.  For me, this project is going slow, even though it's a fast knit, because it is my knit night only project. It's simply the kind of thing I can take there and not worry about getting distracted during.

I finally casted on  my lacy summer top last weekend, and then ripped it out 3 rows later because it was twisted. Seriously, 260 stitches with yarn that thin is really hard to get right the first time. And man, this thing knits slow. I feel like I've knitted forever, and I'm not even past the first inch of edging! I know in the end I will love it, but right now it's just a pain, and I think it's hurting my eyes to work on too because of how small the yarn is. Lace weight yarn, after this project, is no longer my friend. 

My final WIP for the week is my Pink Spiral Scarf (or is it a shawl?) which has been on the needles for awhile but barely been worked on. For the most part, it has been my between projects project, but I've decided to try and make it my before bed project, since it requires less concentration and eye strain to work on and I can listen to my audio book during it. 

Speaking of audio books, I decided to try one for the first time last week. I was at the library and they had a book I have been needing to read anyway, Crossed by Ally Condie,which is the sequel to the popular book Matchd, and decided to give it a try. It's definitely a different experience that's for sure. It's taking some getting used to the voices and also having to remember what 'chapter' I left off on. But overall, it's an ok experience. I prefer actual books more, but this is ok too.

So now I want to share you something I am REALLY proud of! I have been working on spinning up some lovely Merino/ Tussah Silk blend yarn and I originally was going to divide it into threes and triple ply it, but the first 1/3 came out kinda thick, like everything else I have always spun, and I decided I wanted something different. So for the second 1/3 I took a shot at making it much thinner, and found success! I am so excited! I have never spun anything this spin, or consistent, on my spindle before. It's going much slower, but the progress is so refreshing that it's worth it. Thanks again Ivy for the amazing gift!

 I am 2 days away from finishing up my figure class. I can't wait to share my drawings with you guys, I know you will all love as much as I do (I can't believe I'm even saying that about the figure!). For now, I am leaving you with a picture of Muffin, who thought my spindle was a toy last weekend. Have a good one everyone!

~Lisa

If you want to participate in WIP Wedneday or see more, visit Tami's Amis :)

3KCBWDAY6 - Finding Balance AKA My Current Projects

I'm in a bit of a hurry and since it's the last day, I don't have time to find a list of blogs to share, sorry guys :(

So today is the last day of Knit and Crochet Blog Week, and I really did enjoy reading and posting all week. It was a bit overwhelming but I managed to do it successfully. Congrats to all of those who did the same.

Today we were supposed to talk about balance, as in how we balance our crafts.  I don't crochet, and I really don't plan on ever doing so, but I do both spin and knit and I somehow manage to balance my time between them both.  I don't do each one each day, it's more about what I'm in the mood for. Some days I just want to spin all afternoon, others I just want to knit.

On the knitting front, I am currently finishing up the 2nd of 6 repeats on the cuff of my Springy Orange Socks. I am really excited for these socks. I am doing them 2aat and yet I'm not having any troubles with tangles or the pattern. Overall, I am really proud of these so far and cannot wait to bind them off and wear them!

I feel like lately I haven't been as interested in knitting as I have spinning, so I haven't been balancing the two very much. However I am finding pretty good balance within my spinning, for the Merino/silk blend I am spinning right now is making a beautiful balanced single. I plan to make this a 3-ply when it's done!

What really made me happy was my camel down. I finished it a few weeks ago, just never posted it. I did decide to leave it as a single and after soaking and stretching I managed to make it a very lovely single ply yarn. It will be perfect for some small lacey project later on.

Going back to today's subject of balance, I really think I am doing a good job. Balancing a job, school work (a lot of art studio time!) and somehow finding time to knit, spin or both is a bit of a challenge, but I always seem to pull it out in the end.

I hope you all enjoyed my blog this week. Don't expect another post for a little while, I'm a bit burned out after this.

~Lisa

Turing Scraps into Gold

 Let me start by mentioning that I finally finished my Effortless Cardigan. I will post pictures and more details after it is blocked, whenever that is.

Anyways, as you may know, I am trying to only use stash yarn all year and not buy any new yarn at all. (although that may get broken very soon because Berroco just made some new amazing colors of Vintage and I freaked out for at least 5 minutes when I found out). So in my attempts to reduce my stash, I have been working on a few projects with my scrap/lower amount yarns.

The first one was a a headband I knitted up with some handspun.  This is the handspun that I made last semester for my spindle drawings , and I didn't have very much of each color so I couldn't do too much with it. I didn't even have enough to finish the headband, as you can see. There are 3 different yarns in there, a blue/black/green 3 ply, a blue/black 2 ply, and then a green 2 ply.  It's really fun to wear because of it's changes in color and bulkyness, but I wish it would lay flat. I guess I need to find an iron and try steam blocking it.

(This photo does no justice, but I can't get a picture of me wearing it...)

Next up is a pair of socks I started last night. I have a ton of random scraps of Vintage, and after finishing my cardigan I wanted to just get them out of my stash. So I am making random stripe worsted socks from the toe up.  I sat down for 3 hours yesterday and am already at the heel cup. I was going to do them 2 at a time, but my yarn got tangled really fast so I changed my mind. Worsted socks knit up so fast though so they'll still be done in no time. I am really excited for these because I am going to make them super long, basically until I use up all my Vintage!

       

Finally, as many of my fellow knitters can attest to, Red Heart, or any cheap acrylic, is AWFUL to knit with! So then why I am finding myself making tons of little white balls with my extra Red Heart? Well that's a secret for now, but lets just say it has to do with my art!

I have so much on my plate with school right now, I can't even keep it straight. I am really surprised that I have found time to knit (and post about it on here!) but I have noticed that when I spend time knitting it makes me want to do school work more later.  Taking a few hours on a Saturday to knit is a great stress relief and prepares me for Sunday when the homework load hits.

I hope everyone is having a good weekend and is ready for the week to start! I have a very busy one ahead, so I'll be lucky if I get through it unscathed.  Take care!

~Lisa

The Question of Quality

I've always been a pretty forgiving knitter, accepting that not everything comes out perfect and that mistakes make a piece more unique and "yours". However, lately I've discovered that not all mistakes our the knitter's fault. Sometimes it's the yarn.

Have you ever seen a yarn in a shop and fallen in love? Usually for me it's a yarn's colorway that draws me in. Contrary to popular belief, color is not everything. Take for example my current WIP, Pink Spiral Scarf. The yarn is Regia Hand Dye effect, something I purchased over a year ago at the yarn shop in Salina because I loved the color and thought it would make beautiful socks. I pulled the skein out a few weeks ago and looked up reviews on Ravelry. As it turns out, not a lot of people like this yarn. And I am definitely one of them. It's not very soft, really slick, and has this weird white thread that comes unwound from the ball as I go. If I had even tryed to make socks with it, they'd turn out awful. So I settled on a fairly easy, yet pretty shawl/scarf pattern. I like the pattern, but the yarn is not doing it justice. I'll probably finish it just to finish it and clear it out of my stash, but it's safe to say I will never buy this yarn again. I heard Regia makes some other great sock yarns, anyone have any experience with them?

This isn't the first time I've been worried about quality. I purchased some Mission Falls Merino a long time ago to make worsted socks for my mom. I had read on Ravelry that Mission Falls was a great worsted yarn and very luscious to work with so I figured I'd give it a try. After getting done with one whole sock I stopped. That sock is still in a bag in my drawer with the extra yarn for it's mate. I just couldn't get into the yarn; it lefts fuzzies everywhere and I heard that it doesn't wash up very well. Yet another yarn I will likely not purchase again. It's too bad too, because the socks are kinda pretty.

My final issue comes with the "Big Box Stores". I've noticed lately that stores such as Hobby Lobby have been selling yarns that contain less acrylic than they used to. Oddly enough, many LYS's are starting to carry many more acrylic blends and aren't as snobby as they once were towards acrylic yarns. This doesn't mean I will be buying any yarn from Big Box Stores any of them anytime soon. Just because the label says "wool" on it doesn't make it good quality wool. I saw some really pretty gradated Lion Brand that is mostly wool, but it was much scratchier than any wool I've ever seen at my LYS. Still, most yarns I have come to love contain at least 1/3 acrylic. My old standby has always been Berroco Vintage, which is 50% acrylic. I've made many accessories with Caron Simply Soft, my standby (yet trying to get away from) big box acrylic yarn. The biggest issue I have with Hobby Lobby and it's mates is the fact that many of their yarns lately have been clones of their companions at the LYS. I feel like this takes away from the whole LYS experience, something I'm not even going to go into right now.

(My effortless cardigan WIP, which is made from Vintage, 50% acrylic, 40% wool, 10% nylon)

This leads to my question. How does quality play into your yarn selections? Do you ever think about it when you are picking out a new yarn? What about acrylic, is there a place for it among the natural and "better" quality fibers?

Sometime I just wish I could look up the Ravelry comments right there in my LYS before I purchased a new yarn.

~Lisa

A Warm Wool Winter

Winter vacation is always a great time for getting some serious knitting done, and this year was no exception. I still have a week left of break, and it will be spent finishing a painting, working at the pre-school and hopefully some more knitting time!

Winter vacation was barely winter this year. The weather has been in the 40's and 50's the whole time and we have only had one fluke snow storm here in Kansas. The combination of the warm weather and the excessive fiber art that was going on in my house leads me to call this a very Warm Wool Winter.

The first thing I decided to conquer with my newly found free time was this amazing pair of socks.

Knitted using magic loop, one at a time, and Zitron Trekking 6ply (one of my new favorite sock yarns, yet very hard to find). The pattern is Soft Waves from the book Toe-up Two at a Time Socks, which I used to teach my self the toe up technique, something I had never tried before. I think it was a complete success!

While I was knitting on the socks, I was also finishing up my purple wool that I started way back this summer. I managed to finish this by the end of week one, and got it plyed and set on Christmas Day.

As a knitter, I couldn't just let the yarn sit in a plastic bag in my drawer. So I decided that there was actually enough to make something with and found the perfect pattern: Diagonal ribbed cowl. Knit on size 8 fixed circs, I had this thing done in less than 3 days.

Finishing this led me to need a new project to work on and so I decided to spin up the amazing 100% alpaca roving I purchased back in October. It was so soft, but really hard to draft because of this. The end result is something I am really proud of and one of the better yarns I ever spun.

The original roving was black, tan and white striped, so I didn't want to lose that pretty design in the final product and therefor I didn't pull apart pieces the way I usually do, and in turn I didn't produce as much yarn. I did produce enough to finish a hat though! The had is very soft and I absolutely love it! It's a little big, which means I should have cast on a few less stitches, but when you have thick and thin yarn (like all my handspun tends to be) it's hard to figure out the gauge, let alone knit a gauge swatch. That's one of my goals, to one day be able to figure out the gauge and 'weight' of the yarn that I have spun.

In between the cowl and the hat I was able to work on my Effortless Cardigan and it is slowly coming together. It still has quite a bit to go though.

With one week left, I plan to work on my ever growing collection of Relay for Life Dishcloths; hopefully I'll get 2 or 3 more done, so I can have a decent amount to sell this spring at farmer's market.

I hope all my readers are enjoying any time off and are keeping to any New Years resolutions. Until next time,

~Lisa

Two Birds With One Spindle

So with dead week and finals vastly approaching, I would like to take a moment to share something with everyone that I recently began doing, and have fallen in love with.

An assignment in my drawing class about a month ago (wow, it's been that long?) was to do some primarily abstract and non-objective drawings with a pre-determined strategy. Examples given in class included drawing with your other hand, drawing under a table, drawing with reaction to something around you, or creating a 'machine'. These were all great ideas, and this was one abstract assignment I actually couldn't wait to start.

However, I could not for the life of me think of anything for the longest time, and then I Googled "Drawing Machines" and clicked images. Upon looking through a few, I found one that looked a lot like a spinning wheel (but I knew it wasn't) and it all made since.

This assignment was done mostly for a visiting artist, Marius Lehene, to come in and critique. Let me tell you, when he looked at mine and said he absolutely loved it and the way it looked like traces left behind by something, it almost blew my mind. Really? Even my teacher liked them (and she's very critical) and when she saw how I was doing them, she was amazed at the process.

So I know you are all probably wondering what process and drawings I am talking about, well ladies and gentlemen, I present to you:

Drawing with a Spindle.

For this project, I attached various types of charcoal to the bottom of my drop spindle and put a piece of paper down on the floor. As the yarn spun, the image was created.

(Single stick of compressed charcoal on the end)

The moment I conceived this idea, I knew it would be tricky. In fact, I almost didn't do it. There were so many cons to this idea. The spindle will get too heavy. The charcoal won't touch the paper right. The yarn that I spin won't be worth anything, it'll be too over/underspun. It will take the fun and relaxation out of spinning. My teacher will think I'm crazy. But after thinking some more and coming up with literally nothing better than "pencil on a string", I decided to give it a try. Man am I glad I did.

(How it's done!)

The results have been spectacular. Not only have I produced these beautiful drawings, I have also made some of the best yarn I have yet to make. It's spun almost perfectly. Maybe having that extra weight on the bottom helped to make it so? Or it taught me how to balance my spindle better? Or the fact that it wasn't fine quality fiber to begin with made me able to not worry about the results? Either way, both the yarn and the drawings are pure works of art.

(Created with a single 6B charcoal pencil on the end)

The assignment has since come and gone, and I am sad that I (for now) cannot pursue these drawings any further for a grade. However, I still do it most of the time. Whenever I pick up my spindle I also pick up a charcoal pencil and pad of paper. Upon spinning the leader, the pencil gets attached and a beautiful work of art gets created.

(Created with 2 pencils, one on one side of the end, one on the other, to create more dots)

Maybe I'm crazy, maybe I'm obsessed, or maybe I just like that I can do something I love AND get art/homework done at the same time. No matter what it is, you've got to admit, it sure would be cool to see a gallery show with the yarn hanging next to the drawings it made.

(Most of the yarn I spun for the drawings above, note that I did not create any drawings when plying; I'm not that adventurous yet)

~Lisa

PS: I have way more drawings than what is pictured here, but they are either with my teacher, at studio, or I was too lazy to take pictures tonight. Expect more pictures when I can. Did I also mention I hand dyed all the roving used with Wilton's food dyes?

Yet another distraction from my school work

Well what can I say, between summer school, work, preparing to move, and knitting, I've been pretty busy. So why take up a new hobby? I don't know. But I went to Wicked Stitch this last weekend and purchased my first real drop spindle and now it's all I can think about. The picture below is the 'before'. It's purple and black roving I purchased back in April when I first learned on my CD and dowel rod.

And here is my spindle, my baby, my new found obsession. I'm so excited about this because I am achieving such thin strands (What I want) and it looks SO pretty!

And here's a close up of my work in progress. Once I spin a lot more I'll spin 2 strands together to make real yarn.


And here's my first batch on my new spindle, that I wound off the spindle to make more room. This is a little bit thicker than the above, but it was also my first.

I really don't know why I keep giving myself more to do, I mean school starts in four ish weeks and then I'll be crazy busy, without getting my knitting/spinning obsession involved. Put them in the mix, and it means no life for me! At least I'll be with my friends in our apartment so I'll see them.

I think that's all for now! Time to do some homework and then tackle some more spinning.

~Lisa