Monthly Archives: June 2022

Stripes On A Plane

Posted on by
3

I recently had the opportunity travel for a work conference. I decided to take my Celebrate The Night socks with me as my travel knitting. I had kind of a long way around to get from Kansas to Texas so I was flying for 10 hours. I managed A LOT of stripes.

By the time I touched down in Texas, I had a finished cuff on sock number one. Felt really good! I purposely used my nine inch wooden circular needles and left my DPNs in my checked bag to avoid security questions. I decided the afterthought heel was best left for my return home.

Stay tuned for my conference update and a last minute yarn shop trip. Happy Knitting!!

Trusting The Pattern

Posted on by
2

My Catbells is growing. I managed to get both fronts added to the back section. I am not sure how I feel about how this is looking. I need to trust the pattern but I feel dubious about how this will turn into a sweater.

I am now working in the body section, but back and forth. So I get one “lace” row and one rest row of plain knit. Its close to 200 stitches in the row so it takes me a minute to get back and forth.

I’m now in the slog of 27 inches of body….I think I will be here for a minute, lol.

Happy Knitting!!

Let’s Get Saucy

Posted on by
Reply

The summer garden season is upon us and I needed to clean out my freezer from last year’s tomatoes. I had four bags that were a mix of roma and summer slicers. I got the skins off and thawed out into pots. By 10 am, I had one pot of bubbling tomato water.

By the end of the day, I had half a pot of luscious tomato sauce. I used my immersion blender to smooth out the sauce. I didn’t screen out the seed so there are still some spots. But I mixed in some garlic, onion, salt and pepper to season my red sauce.

The family enjoyed half of this made into tomato soup for grilled cheese sandwiches and the second half is slated for spaghetti sauce. I CAN’T wait!

Happy Summer!!

It’s CASHMERE!

Posted on by
1

My spinning of that farm/rustic lamb roving didn’t last. I just couldn’t find the drive to work with it. And some merino/silk/cashmere from Hipstrings may have show up in my mailbox this week, so the lamb got pulled off my wheel and this heavenly cloud is on!

I have never spun anything this soft or delicious. It’s a joy to work with. I only have four ounces to work with so I will fill a single bobbin. I hope then to be able to wind those single into a center pull ball to ply with.

Happy Spinning!!

Another Set Of Stripes

Posted on by
Reply

My latest vanilla socks have made a surprisingly lot of progress. I was keeping my Celebrate The Night socks for travel knitting but I can’t stop working on them!

I just completed the second progression of the stripes. Turns out my assumption was correct and these are muted rainbow with black to break up the colors. I like it, its rainbow but doesn’t slap you in the face like my Stark Effect socks.

I think I am going to complete a third progression of the colors with four increases worked in evenly. Then I’ll add the cuff in contrast color. Happy Knitting!!

Plying On A Hitchhiker

Posted on by
1

My targhee singles are sufficiently rested and ready to ply. I decided to be crafty since my Kiwi wheel currently has lamb singles on it and pull out my Hitchhiker wheel. This was my first wheel but I never got the hang of the single treadle. But I’m a little more seasoned now and decided to give it a whirl!

Turns out, a lot easier to use once my brain and body understand the mechanics of spinning! I was able to successfully ply. I did put on the jumbo flyer and jumbo bobbin in order to get all four ounces in one shot.

I ended up with a lovely barber pole yarn. I will let the yarn sit overnight and then give a wash and a thwack. I’m interested to see what kind of twist I created with this wheel since I am less familiar with it. This should be a fun skein!

Happy Spinning!!

Spinning Lamb For The First Time

Posted on by
4

I have A TON of some lamb, alpaca and silk farm raised fiber in my stash. This was donated fiber that came with my hitchhiker wheel. It is not a very soft fiber to work. It is spinning very thinly but I feel like there are maybe some guard like hairs worked into this blend? This my first time spinning this fiber so it’s all an adventure for me.

This is the project I chose after my targhee singles were done but I am not sure how I feel about it. The singles have quite the halo as I work it up. And its not super joyfull to spin. I have to pull quite hard to draft the fiber thinly.

I am going to keep working on this to see if it gets better/easier. But this may be a no go for me. Life it too busy to work on project that aren’t fun. Happy Spinning!!

Targhee Singles

Posted on by
2

My prediction for these targhee singles was CORRECT, I couldn’t put them down. I have two finished bobbins with 2 ounces of singles each.

This was a delight to spin and was easy to control as I was making singles. I will 1000% spin this fiber again. Now I just need to be patient and let these singles rest before plying. That and decide what to spin next!

Happy Spinning!!

Catbells Reignited

Posted on by
1

I have a confession, its been a year since I have touched my Catbells cardigan. I just wasn’t feeling it but I have had the itch to have more sweaters for winter and my cold office.

Thanks to a little women’s college softball on TV, I have the first section of the upper back done. It took me a minute to get into the groove of the lace but I got there. DEFINITELY have some mistakes in there. But you know what? Dark navy yarn hides a lot of sins, lol.

Now I need to break out my Ott light and pick up stitches for the right front. My eyes aren’t what they used to be!

Happy Friday and Happy Knitting!

Let’s Spin Some Targhee

Posted on by
2

My spinning mojo continues unabated! After finishing a bunch of smaller 4 ounce bats, I decided to try spinning from a braid again. I pulled some Targhee top from Fiber Love Diary from my stash to spin. I even took my wheel outside to take advantage of the cooler spring temperatures.

I undid the braid and split in half by length so I could spin on to two bobbins again for plying. This fiber is soft to the hand but not slippery. I don’t think this spinning will take very long I can feel the sirens call of this project.

Happy Spinning!!