Plying And Picking

All three bobbins of my Finn fiber are complete and I moved on to the plying stage!

Even with the fiber having been carded and the singles gone through the wheel once, I am still getting a lot of veg matter out of the fiber. My pants and black shirt were a little messy after my spinning session.

I did end up with a nice plump bobbin of a finished 3-ply. I will let this rest on the bobbin for a day or two and then I will give it a wash and whack to finish the process. I am predicting a nice heavy worsted to bulky finished yarn.

Happy Spinning!!

2021 Advent: Day 5

My fingers are aching a little bit, but day five is complete from my 2021 Chromatic Yarns advent calendar. This color was called Merfolk and I think its a fitting name for this lovely blue.

I’m getting the pattern memorized into my brain. I still have to refer to the patterns for the heel turns but other than that I can cruise right along. I pulled some ribbon from my stash to determine if it was the right medium to hang my items. I think some experimentation is order as I’m not sure I found the right thing.

Now, on to day six! Happy Knitting!!

Time to Weave Ends

All my blanket mojo means there are dozens and dozens of ends to weave in. Thus far I have been doing them few by few. But I let the blanket get away from me.

I took three HOURS and three episodes of Leverage: Redemption to weave and trim a whole a whole mess of ends. I was pretty proud of the ball I built.

Now with all the admin taken care of, I can get back to the knitting! Happy Knitting!!

Memory Mojo Unlocked

My blanket mojo has fired up after the holiday haze has lifted. I have added NINE squares since last I showed this off last time.

I finished off an entire row and started a brand new one. This newest row is leftovers from my tiny sweaters and tiny socks from the 2021 Chromatic Yarns advent calendar. I still have a tiny nub of yarn leftover after I complete all three things. So those are going into my scrap stash.

I have 24 minis and 17 squares across, so when I hit the end of the row I will have to decide to go to another row or add an additional column. What do you think??

2021 Advents: Day 4

A lazy day still neglecting to take down all of the Christmas decorations has brought to you a new tiny sweater and two new tiny socks.

This was day four of the 2021 Chromatic Yarns advent calendar. It was a beautiful golden rod color. This D&D inspired color was called Yochlol. I have not a stinking clue what that means as I don’t follow that genre but I can appreciate beauty in all forms.

On to day five! Happy Knitting!!!

Boxing Day Bonus

I treated myself to a little yarn surprise as I really can’t 100% count on my family to sustain my yarn habit. This year my kids picked out beige towels and a bath mat. Perfectly lovely but not exactly crafy.

I snagged a skein of Chromatic yarns in Sturdy Sock called True Sight. Also a cute little puppy hand beaded stitch marker. Hannah also throws in a bag of bird and blend tea. This one was a fruit and custard herbal tea.

Zero clue what I will do with this yarn and so it will go into my Chromatic Yarns every growing stash. I feel like making another variegated shawl in this year. I have lots of blues and greens along this color scheme that would blend well. Maybe after I lose my mitred square blanket mojo?

Happy Knitting!!

Two Fine Bobbins

The spinning has been slow and warm by the fire. I finished the second two ounces of Finn fiber. The bobbins look very similar and I hope this means the yardage is similar.

This fiber is really lovely to spin with. As long as it plies out nicely, I think I will be procuring more Finn from 14 Hands Ranch. Admittedly, I still have the third ball of two ounces to spin. Spinning has been my calm in the year end storm.

2022 Christmas Eve Cast On

I knew that I would finish up my 2022 Cozy Knitter advent socks on Christmas Eve so I planned another cast on for my Christmas Eve project. This was a skein of Must Stash Yarn that I scored on a destash.

It’s called Bumbles Bounce and its one of her must match skeins. So that means it actually two perfectly aligned half skeins starting at the same point. They also matched my Christmas jammies very well.

As they are aligned correctly, I think I will work them very similar to my advent socks. I will work equal numbers of stripes on each sock so they progress in tandem. That way I have finished socks at the same time. It really was satisfying!

Did you cast on anything for Christmas or Christmas Eve?

Fiber Under The Tree

There was a little fiber under the tree for me this year. I told my dad that I would spin anything from Three Waters Farm and he selected these lovely mixes.

Both bags are 4 ounces of Bluefaced Leicester top in the Winter Beats and Storm Cloud Over Flowers. I think the colors actually go nicely together. I may pull out the roving lay it out side by side and compare the colors. I may be able to rip up the fiber and plan some color sequencing.

For disclaimer, I’m not a trained spinner. I have basic mechanics to spin singles and ply yarn thanks to lessons from over a year ago. Everything else I do is pure experimentation based on years of watching and listening to podcasts and just making stuff up. A podcast once told me “If you are having fun, you are doing it right”. And that’s kind of my crafty mantra.

But I still have Finn on my wheel and a tub of fiber in the basement. This might take a minute to get on my wheel. Happy Spinning!!

FO Friday: 2022 Advent Socks

My 2022 Advent Socks are in the books!

Pattern: My own toe up vanilla sock recipe with 68 stitches

Yarn: Cozy Knitter Bliss Sock in the 2022 Advent color

Needles: US 1s

Mods: none

The toes and heels are made from Leading Man Fiber Arts Showstopper gradient in the ‘Baby It’s Cold Outside’. I decided not to use it for the cuff as I wouldn’t have had enough for both socks.

For the main self-striping, I only used one repeat of the 24 stripe sequence. So I have enough to make a whole other pair of socks! I think all combined these socks have 267 yards of yarn. They are just taller than ankle socks.

The one stripe per day was very addicting. I think I only had two or three days in the month where I was unable to make time to knit them. And in what felt like no time flat, I had a whole pair of socks fall off the needles! Ten out of ten, I will do this kind of advent again!

Happy Knitting and Happy New Year!!