I finished yet another hat! This is a gray alpaca version of the first tam I made. It’s knit from KnitPicks Andean Treasure. Baby alpaca, sport weight, great stuff!

Technically this is the second time I’ve finished it, as I had to knit the ribbing twice. The yarn just wasn’t elastic in 2 x 2 ribbing form! That, and it draped so much it would have fit Barney the Dinosaur. Enlarging the rest of the pattern has definite drawbacks. I solved the problem (with help from the knitting sister!) by raveling back — which was painful, but not too scary — and then going to size 1 needles, as well as decreasing a little more. It worked very well, and I had hoped to deliver it to the recipient at church today, but she wasn’t there.

And, lest you think the lack of recent posts means I haven’t been doing anything fiber-related, let me inform you that I have enough material for two posts now. Part B will go up tomorrow.

The spinning front had been deceptively quiet for the last week or so, and I was getting to feel like it was just lurking around the corner waiting for me to come by so it could jump out and trip me into paying it attention. In fact, I knew something was up with the fiber fairies, because my closet threw a pack of dpns at me and hit my knee with a dye pot when I wasn’t looking. (Well, I was looking, but for something else.) However, I placed a megaload of audiobooks on hold at the local library and now they are in, and spinning no longer feels neglected.

Thanks to The Book of Three audio, I wound off an entire finished bobbin of indigo merino, and now I’m halfway into a new one. I also wound off the silk laceweight I had on my cream-colored wheel. That was to free it up for a really neat special-order yarn inspired by ravens’ wings. Here’s a little taste of what the fibers look like.

And I’ve gotten started on the cowl neck sweater. Several times now, in fact. The first surprise came when I learned that, just because the pattern calls for worsted weight, you should still look at the numbers for the gauge swatch before ordering. Come to find out it would take a pretty beefy worsted weight to make three and a quarter stitches an inch on size ten needles. I ordered worsted from KnitPicks, which tends to run a little thin anyway, so I am now getting five stitches an inch on size eights. Care to do the math, anyone? Thankfully my knitting sister came to the rescue and knocked the first bits of the pattern into shape.

Then I got my usual miscalculations on how long the yarn needed to be for the cast on, and then I got it twisted, but fixed, and then I started putting in too many increases. So, two tries down the tubes. Then my sister taught me the cable cast on, which is my new friend. I don’t have to guess how much yarn to use and it’s just like crochet! Turns out I had been casting on the wrong amount of stitches anyway, so it was all for the best.

I’ve learned two new knitting things now. The cable cast on, and KFB. I had to ask about the KFB. And I was greeted with “Of course you know how to do the KFB. Everyone knows how to do the KFB. It’s knit front and back.” Well, excuse me! Although everyone does now, because I have been enlightened. And once I figured out to keep the working yarn well away from the needle while going for the back knit, it worked pretty well.

I shall leave you with a photo of my official gauge swatch. I knit it carefully, bound it off, and washed it, thus bowing to the rigorous standards of the higher order of knitters. However, I kept my own flavor in there and knit a three and a half inch swatch instead of four, just because I didn’t know any better.

Picture of the finished Blue Baroness Beret tomorrow, as well as sundry other fun things.

Well, for starters, I suddenly discovered that I’m not up to creating a garment of this importance without a pattern. And I found this out after crocheting a good-sized section of it. I did, oh, maybe four rounds of double-crochet stitches on the “hem” of the sweater and thenstopped to try it on. It was about four inches too big around. I’d have been swimming in it, if I didn’t run out of yarn before the end.

I scrambled about some and found a crochet book that looked promising. The library had it, I put it on hold, it came in soon, and we’re doing great. (The book, by the way, was Everyday Crochet.) I looked through it and picked a pattern that looked similar to what I was willing to settle for. (So you see, the sweater has already slid from perfect to okay.) I practiced a new chaining method and got to work. Only to find out that I had the wrong gauge. Do I see a pattern of not checking things here?

Then I discovered another, similar pattern that used the number four thickness of yarn, which I thought was worsted weight. Alright, but explain how using a thicker yarn will obtain a similar gauge . . . I was about ready to give it another try when I realized that my lovely yarn was leaving teal streaks on my hand.

Great.

So, now I have to take all the six, nicely-wound balls of yarn and unwind them, turn them into skeins, soak them in water until they’re rinsed, let them dry, and repeat.

After I find a potential pattern.

Again, great.

Anyone have a crochet pattern for a nice, long-sleeved pullover with a decent neckline? One with worsted weight yarn?

Hand-dyed Lotus

I rather like the pink color. It’s just Fire Red really diluted. Simple, but effective! It makes me think of pink and yellow waterlillies on a pond. Unfortunately, for all its good looks, I put in too much vinegar and it smells pretty strong. I’m going to have to dunk it in hot water a couple times more.

And here is the other skein of yarn. It’s whichever weight the other isn’t. I was going for red and blue, and then ran out of pre-mixed dyes. After being fair-to-moderately annoyed I realized that red, white, and blue was a well known color combination. (Sometimes one can get so caught up in the problem of the moment that they forget the obvious.) So here is my patriotic yarn.

Americana

Carnival Yarn

Now, to get technical. This is a four-ply, worsted weight, cabled yarn. You can really see the way the “cable plying” makes it turn out if you look in the upper right quarter of the close up picture. See how instead of barber-pole striping it looks woven? That’s the cable effect.

I have yet to set the twist and measure yardage, but I think it’s somewhere in the neighborhood of three hundred yards.

The Two Skeins

Blank Yarn Knit Picks

That’s two skeins of merino worsted weight, a skein of merino lace weight, a skein of superwash merino DK weight, and a skein of superwash merino worsted weight. Fun fun fun! I’m eager to try out some new color combinations.

Pink and Blue Merino

Then I wanted to do the wool in brown, tan, cream, and turquoise.

Brown and Turquoise Wool

I also managed to dye the tips of two fingers a nice pastel shade of turquoise. What can I say? The jar of dye solution decided to hide some dye up under the lid. Woe betide any passer-by who trys to open it when it wants to be left alone! Maybe I should ask its permission next time. Although, if anyone happens to be walking through the kitchen then, they might decide that the dye fumes are getting to me and then I wouldn’t be able to dye anymore . . . sorry, dye bottle, you’ll have to live with it.

There was some extra dye left in the water that I used to dye the wool, so I dug up a skein of hand-spun wool scraps (my first attempt at the long-draw method) and popped it into the pot. Without soaking it first. Wow, I’m being really wild and adventurous tonight! It looks like it’ll come out sort of the same color as my finger tips. A robin’s egg blue. Pretty in yarn, not so nice on fingers. (I hope it wears off soon.)

Robin's Egg Yarn

I’m hoping to go to a spinning guild tomorrow. They’re having a talk on natural dyeing techniques. The natural dyeing process looks a bit expensive, but I’d like to learn more about it. This will be my first time at the guild and I’m eager to see what it’s like!