Persistent Knitter

I have this purple roving (top?) that I bought - beautiful colors. Already prepared, just sit down and spin away. Here’s the history of the stuff:

From top to bottom: The roving. First skein (super fat). Second Skein (much thinner) that I just plyed today. This is very loosely plied (a 3 count when treadling), Third skein that I also plyed today (a 5 count when treadling). On the left is my “sample” I want to match, and on the right is the singles that were left over from all the plying I did.

I bought this stuff thinking I’d love to make myself a pair of beautiful handspun gloves. Well, my first attempt was so over bulky that I’d have looked like a purple Michelin man had I actually tried to knit it up into gloves. It’s pretty thick even for just mittens. I did make a hat out of it though. (see all hat pictures).

I had two of my bobbins being used up by this purple stuff, and with Sheep to Shawl coming, I really wanted all four bobbins that I own free for whatever I felt like doing at the time. So I decided to ply together what I’ve spun so far. The second bobbin I did wasn’t so great, it was really overspun and the plying with it kind of sucked. I haven’t set the twist in it yet, but it’s pretty loosely plied. I don’t know that it’s anything I can fix now that it’s already plied, but I’ll figure out someway to use it.

The second plying I did I decided to put a bit more twist in the plying process. I’m much happier with how this came out. Even if I can’t use that first skein, it was a good learning experience. I also realized that it’s very hard to ply from one ball of yarn, using both ends. I ended up rewinding half my singles yarn into another ball so I could ply without all that extra twisting and tangling. Thus that pile of singles on the right.

The more I spin, the more I realize I don’t know about it. It’s still fun, and that’s the point.

* bonus points to anyone who can figure out the reference in this post’s title. It’s pretty obscure, but maybe not if you have kids.

As if two half fleeces and 1/5th of another fleece isn’t enough, I bought this at the yarn store we stopped at after the sheep farm visit:

Silk roving! I first picked up the blue. Then wondered "What on earth am I going to do with this?". Then I picked up the silvery/purple, thinking they might be really pretty plyed together.

I think I’ll be drop spindling this stuff. More control (in theory). :)

The Sheep to Shawl contest is coming. I’ve been doing some spinning lately to get prepared.

See?

This is Alice. She is sooooooooooo soft. I love handling the fleece. I’m definately not doing her justice with my spinning (see that floppy area on the right of the bobbin where I forgot to move where the yarn is wound around?).  I know I buy yarn without always knowing exactly what it’s for, but I usually know what type of thing it’d be for. Usually my knitting yarn categories are one of these: Sock yarn,  sweater yarn, scarf, gloves or mittens.  I still feel pretty ignorant about the type of sheep/fleece and then what it would spin up into and what I could use it for.

That didn’t stop me from aquiring three new fleeces this last weekend in our sheep farm visit! I didn’t buy whole fleeces though - I split them with some other fiber addicts I know.

First, how could you not love this kid, with this hairdo?

Kinda reminds me of an oompa loompa from Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory :)

So about that blanket I’m trying to knit.  *SIGH*. I’m just not happy with what I’ve been coming up with.  My latest attempt with a different lacy pattern:

It’s a really pretty pattern, but I’m just not happy with it as a baby blanket.  I suppose you could say I’m being a touch of a perfectionist at this point, and I’d agree - but I’m just not happy with it!  This one is using BW’s Frost Flowers pattern.  Much more difficult than the first one I tried, and while it appears that it won’t have any hills and valleys, I’m just not satisfied.

Then I cast on to make a more "traditional" blanket, but this time using Lily Chin’s Reversibly Cabled Afghan pattern by Fiber Trends. (see here http://www.fibertrends.com/viewer/V2_lily.html)

It’s a neat concept, and is totally reversible so the cool factor is there.  The pattern calls for Worsted weight yarn, and the stuff I’m using here is fingering weight. That’s not a huge deal, and I modified the organization of the pattern repeats to insert some stitches in the middle.  I’ve done about an inch of it (no pic, sorry), and I’m just not happy with it. *insert whining voice here*. I’ve stuffed it back in the bag with the first two blanket attempts and might have the guts to look at it again tomorrow.

My friend Tim, who is learning how to knit, said he didn’t feel he understood my simple pattern enough to knit it.  As a favor to him (and conveniently some great blog fodder) I told him I’d go through the pattern step by step and explain it in detail, with a beginning knitter in mind.

Here’s the original pattern:

3 balls Debbie Bliss Cashmerino Aran  (For a slightly shorter scarf, use only 2 balls)
5.0mm needles

Cast on 24 stitches
Prep Row: *yo, sl1, k1* Repeat across
Row 2: *yo, sl1, k2tog (slip stitch and yo of prev row)* repeat across
Repeat Row 2 until desired length
Final Row: *(p1, k2tog)* repeat across
Bind off.

The first section tells you what materials you’ll need (and better patterns would actually label this section!):
3 balls Debbie Bliss Cashmerino Aran  (For a slightly shorter scarf, use only 2 balls)
5.0mm needles

In this case, you’ll need 2-3 balls of Debbie Bliss yarn; and a set of needles that measure 5.0mm in size.  You can use straight needles, or a circular needle since neither is specified. The scarf is knit back and forth not in the round.  There is no gauge given, because it’s not a fitted clothing article like a sweater.  If you knit this pattern up, you’ll have to judge if you like the fabric created by that needle size or not.  For the record, when I did my first attempt at this scarf, I started with a 5.5mm needle and decided that was too loose of a fabric.  I also had cast on more stitches than the final pattern specified, but didn’t like how wide that made the scarf.

Moving on to the next line:
Cast on 24 stitches

Pretty self explanatory - cast on 24 stitches.  What isn’t specified is the cast-on method you should use.  You can pretty much use any cast on method you’d like.  I usually use the long tail cast on, because it’s fairly stretchy, but not overly so and I can do it without looking anything up.

Prep Row: *yo, sl1, k1* Repeat across

Now we start knitting.  The very first row of this pattern is different from the rest. You have to setup your knitting so the Brioche stitch will be formed correctly.  Because this is a short pattern and I’m using fairly standard terminology, I didn’t include definitions.  Written out in ‘long-hand’: Begin with a Yarn Over, Slip one stitch as if to purl, knit one stitch.  Repeat these stitches starting with the Yarn over until you reach the end of the row.   The * symbols tell you where the repeat begins and ends.

Row 2: *yo, sl1, k2tog (slip stitch and yo of prev row)* repeat across

The second row is similar to the first row. Read out: Yarn Over, Slip 1 stitch as if to purl, then knit the next two stitches together.  The parens clarify which two stitches you’ll be knitting together, it’s the slipped stitch and yarn over of the previous row.  Then you repeat those three stitches across the row.

Repeat Row 2 until desired length

You continue repeating Row 2, until your scarf is as long as you want it to be. For me, that was just after I had switched to the third ball of yarn.  This is a matter of personal preference though, you can make your scarf longer or shorter. One thing I loved about this pattern is that it was easily memorized and could be worked on anywhere.

Final Row: *(p1, k2tog)* repeat across

When you decide your scarf is long enough, you have to knit this final row to complete the Brioche stitch pattern.  Basically it puts you back to the 24 stitches you cast on with. Purl one stitch, then knit the next two stitches together, and repeat these across the row.

Bind off.

The very final step in any knitting project is to secure your stitches so it doesn’t unravel when you take the needle out. You usually do this by a standard bind off: knit one stitch, * knit one stitch, then pass the first one over the second on the Right hand needle.   Repeat from * across.  You’ll end up with one final stitch at the end, which you pull your yarn through and now your stitches are secured.   There is more than one way to bind off stitches though, and I chose to do my scarf in a slightly more decorative manner.

Here is my cast on:

And the cast off:

They look really different, and some people might mind that.  I don’t because I thought this was a great place to try out a different style of cast on. I really like how this one looks and plan on using it again in the future.

Now Tim, I fully expect to see you working on your Brioche scarf soon!

Having finished NOTHING for the such a long while, I decided to go ahead and finish the project that was the closest to completion.  Here’s my beautiful daughter, modeling the scarf for me:

The brioche pattern is so stretchy and squishy, it really makes a great warm scarf pattern (Tons of thanks to Ingrid for introducing me to this stitch pattern).  Here’s the basic pattern for those interested:

3 balls Debbie Bliss Cashmerino Aran  (For a slightly shorter scarf, use only 2 balls)
5.0mm needles

Cast on 24 stitches
Prep Row: *yo, sl1, k1* Repeat across
Row 2: *yo, sl1, k2tog (slip stitch and yo of prev row)* repeat across
Repeat Row 2 until desired length
Final Row: *(p1, k2tog)* repeat across
Bind off.
(Brioche stitch pattern from Barbara Walker Treasury)