Persistent Knitter

Fiber: Merino/Bamboo 60/40
Source: Dragonfibers.com (bought at a local LYS)
Colorway: Masquerade
Drafting technique: Worsted
Plying Technique: 2 ply, a bit over plied to make a nice round yarn
Yardage: Approx 500 yds
Weight: approx 7.8 ounces

My goal with this fiber was to practice spinning thicker yarn. I do pretty well at the thin yarns; but I wanted to try something other than my current ‘default’. I drafted worsted style to keep the shine from the bamboo in the yarn and it really worked. The yarn has a wonderful glint to it as the light catches on it. It’s not completely uniform; but I’m really happy with how well this came out. The colorway isn’t one of my usual; but I couldn’t resist the variations in the purples, from light lavendar to a light blue. I was worried that the colors would be too barber-poled, but they work really well together and I think it will be interesting to see how it knits up. What will I knit it as? No idea.

You might be wondering if I knit anymore. The answer is yes! I’m working on a new sock design; I just ordered yarn to knit up a stranded colorwork cardigan for my daughter. I’m still working on the blue cabled cardigan for me that has only been dubbed the not-CPH sweater so far.  I also cast on the Morning Glory wrap from knitspot this morning with my red/black handspun.  I wanted to design something myself; but I don’t have the patience right now for something that large.   The Morning Glory wrap has the type of look I was thinking of; but I don’t have to work anything out. My yarn is lighter than the pattern calls for - so once I’m in a few inches I’ll see if I think it’s wide enough.  A friend accused me of neglecting some wonderful kits I ordered earlier this year; and she’s right! I’m waiting until it gets cooler to work on those.

I’m traveling next week and the big question is what is coming with me knitting and spinning wise.  My drop spindle definitely. A few bobbins for the matchless; yes - because the destination I’ll be visiting happens to have a wheel there.  My knitting- maybe all of these projects; who knows. I’ll be there a full week and a day; with lots of waiting around time to fill.

Well; I upgraded the blog to the new version. So far all seems as it should. I need to re-enable a few of the plugins I had (I don’t remember what they did for the most part; but I put ‘em there for a reason). Feel free to let me know if you see something out of whack to nancy AT persistentknitter DOT com.

Update: (So far it seems like Categories are whacked. ugh. we’ll see what we can do with that)

Further update: It seems I had to manually reenter my Categories into the database.  Looks like we’re better now.

Thanks to everyone for their wonderful words on my red/black seawool. I’m trying to knit up a swatch with it; but haven’t settled on anything yet. My current project is now this:

This is a bobbin mostly full of singles of bamboo/merino. Spun worsted; I’ll do a two ply that will come out thicker than my normal yarn.

I’ve been working on this sea wool forever it seems. I started it on my Schacht Matchless, which is now my home wheel. So I couldn’t work on it at my spin-ins; and only when I was at home and wasn’t doing a zillion other things. I had finished the first two bobbins fairly quickly; but the third took a bit of time.

before:

after:

I finally plowed through it a week or so ago and did the plying last weekend. I did a 3 ply; when my original idea with this was a 2 ply lace weight. I decided I would like the three ply better. Plied up, it’s fingering weight, and fairly bouncy. I’m pretty pleased with how the colors distributed themselves. I tried to capture the variety in this picture by laying all three skeins out next to each other.

Lime and Violet have a blog that lists cool stuff called The Daily Chum.   (They also do a really cool podcast). My Catoptrical sock design made the list. WOOHOO!! I’m doing the happy dance :)

See the post here.

ca·top·tri·cal: “formation of images by mirrors”

The latest sock pattern I have designed. You can purchase it at The Knit Foundry pattern page and you can see it at Ravelry here. Huge thanks to my test knitters: Marta and Marie

After a class with Amelia from the Bellwether, I am much more confident in my spindle spinning. I took my spindle along with me to the fireworks on the 4th of July to pass the time while waiting for it to get dark.

I couldn’t wait to ply it, so I plied it on my Lendrum yesterday at my group’s spin-in. A quick wash in the sink and this is 40 yards of camel/silk. Here is a an up close shot with a dime to show you size (it’s lace weight) :

I haven’t blogged in forever; too busy; too tired; too whatever. This is what I’ve been knitting. It’s the back of my not-CPH sweater. I started with the idea of doing the Central Park Hoodie. Then a friend sent me a link to a “viking cable” version which I loved.

I liked that; but when I got down to casting on, and based on the yarn I wanted to use (which was thinner) and my size (wider), I decided my cables should be bigger than the ones she had to match the scale of the sweater. So then I spent 3 days going through books to find cables. Finally I created a chart with my cables in it, and designed my own sweater. So it’s not the CPH and not the viking CPH, but something like it with cables.

** picture taken while on a road trip to Black Sheep Gathering. see more pictures here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/persistentknitter/sets/72157605803772503/

Remember this?

I own a lendrum again! I sold that one in the picture because I just wasn’t using it at all. My spinning group didn’t meet very often and when they did; I liked to have my Schacht with me. Plus it was the wheel I loaned to other people.

So this weekend - One of the women in my spinning group had decided she liked her Little Gem better than her Lendrum and I got a great deal on her barely used 2 year old Lendrum.  So then I was looking for a buyer for my Ashford Joy (Single Treadle) and another woman in my spinning group who owns a Matchless was looking for a more portable wheel. I hooked her up with Joy; she hooked me up with some cash, and now I only have two wheels again. Basically the two you see in the picture.

Pretty funny!

I’ll still be on the lookout for an Ashford Joy Double Treadle used, cuz that’s a really sweet little travel wheel and one I’d take with me if I had to fly somewhere.

Congrats to Monica B! Her name was drawn out of the virtual hat to win the Peter Teal book. Monica - I’ve emailed you to get your snail mail address so you can get your prize.

Now I’m back to knitting and spinning my holiday weekend away….