From Batt to Bobbin

I was just finishing up this spin project last night when I remembered I had not taken a pic of the batt itself so here it is :-





From Batt to Bobbin to Yarn. The batt is from Crosspatch Creations that I found on ebay many moons ago. Have a look at more Crosspatch Creations batts at The Bellweather and drool over the lucious colours.

Crosspatch Creation batts are a mixture of many fibers ,wool as well as some silk noil and it produce a nubby type yarn with lots of interesting textures.


I used a flash in this pic to show the reflection of little silky bits.

I split each batt lengthwise into four and just pre drafted a little before spinning. The result is a two plied aran weight yarn - I haven't measure the wpi yet.

I'm thinking making this into a nice bag maybe the RYC Belt bag with some co-ordinating yarn.


And now for a quick look at the dye-pot.





More updates on that later.

Knit from your Stash 2007

I've not been kniting much in the last week - Christmas has snuck up on me again and the nights and weekends have been mostly taken by Christms shopping and placating an excited almost-4 year old who wants to buy the whole toy shop.

The next few nights will be taken up by Carolling. It was one of our informal agreements before DH and I got married that we would continue both our families' tradition of carolling so we joined our neighbourhood carollers for 3 nights of door to door singing the Chistmas blues away.

This little challenge on Wendy's blog caught my eye and it's really something I'd like to try. Those of you who have been to my house would know about my enormous stash.I have been quite good in last 3 months limiting the stash buying to one lot a month but I feel that I really need to use up what I have as well as finish up on some of the UFOs.

Here are the rules ( with a couple of comments from be in bold):-





Knit From Your Stash 2007: Guidelines for L-B and Wendy

1. The Knit-From-Your-Stash-a-Thon will start January 1, 2007 and run through September 30, 2007 -- a period of nine months.

2. We will not buy any yarn during that period, with the following exceptions:

2.a. Sock yarn does not count. What? You think we are made of stone? I do have enough sock yarn to last me a while so no worries there.

2.b. If someone asks for a specific knitted gift that we really and truly do not have the yarn for, we may buy yarn to knit that gift. I truly have no yarn for many many things that could be gifts for someone else :)

2.c. If we are knitting something and run out of yarn, we may purchase enough to complete the project. Hooray!!

2.d. We each get one "Get Out of Jail Free" card -- we are each allowed to fall off the wagon one time. My personal pledge is that I will only use this Get out of Jail card in May.

3. We are allowed to receive gifts of yarn. hint hint hint!!! Say does this mean we can swap for yarn too??

4. Spinning fiber of any sort is exempt. Thank God!! cos I am in a spinning mood lately. And spinning means - more yarn!


The downside is that - now I have the urge to buy lots and lots of yarn before 1st January. Ling will be coming down in January and has offered to bring back more Rowan if I want it! How can I resist??

Back in the spin

I was inspired by Eunny Jang's post on blocking her handspun shawl. See the yarn was spun out from merino tencel roving and it just so happened I had about 2 oz in my spinning stash of merino tencel roving I got about a year ago.

So I decided to spin it up to the thinnest I could and this is what I got




The colourway is called Beach and it's from Kendig Cottage. It spins like a dream, it's soft and shiny but not as tough to draft as silk. I know that there are many hand painted rovings on offer on the 'net but I seem to like all of Vicki's colourways and her service has always been top notch.




This is roughly fingering weight and it's not very even BUT I think it's the best I've spun so far.

Now I need another 4 oz to get a decent yardage of a shoulder scarf.

Must-have yarn in your stash

When I first started knitting years ago, as a student, I didn't have much disposable income - so I would only buy enough yarn for one project at a time. In fact I sometimes had to use a layby - where I buy about 4 balls to start off and got the LYS to keep the rest of the pack for me to get later.

Whne I started knitting again about 2 and half years ago, I fell victim to the joys of unlimited credit ( well to a point, even I have a limit to how much I can spend on yarn) and started to buy everything on sale in sight.

Lucky for me, stash is almost always recyclable and as the years go by, one gets a knack for what type of yarns one really likes and learn to be a bit more selective when buying yarn. That is not to say I am not tempted by a bargain or two every once in a while.

I've noticed lately I have some definite must-have in my stast. What's a must-have yarn? A must-have yarn is normally:

1. ... a yarn that is soo precious you must keep in your stash at all times.
2. ... you probably almost never use it and if you do, you have to buy a second lot to replace what you used as soon as you can.
3. ... you probably have about 2 bags of 10 for each colour that you buy or you will forever regret it becuase 1 bag of 10 may not be enough for the one project that would be perfect for the yarn.
4... you probably have it on one of your favourite searches on ebay.
5. If, God forbid, it is ever discontinued - you have the overwhelming urge to screw themortgage and start buying up as many bags you can.


My list of Must-have yarn includes:-

1. Rowan Calmer
2. Rowan All Seasons Cotton
3. Cascade 220
4. Jaggerspun Zephyr
5. Socks that Rock
6. Koigu


What's your must have yarn??

BTW I am selling some of my not-so must-have yarn to make room for the other.
Check my destash blog for details

And just so it won't be a pic- less blog - here's my latest spinning



Grape cormo 2-ply
roughly DK weight and slightly underplied



Yes I am spinning a little. That's a story I'll leave for another post.

Snapshots

I always hate modeling my knits - I never catch the hubby in time to take a pic in the morning rush for work and I am always not in the best attire during weekends. (read braless and messy hair).

And when I do find someone in the office to take a pic, this in itself is a nervewrecking experience cos there's always someone or other coming round to investigate the flash of the camera. There there are family, friends and collegues not really clear on the concept of "focus on the knit" and take a full mug shot as well as the messy desk in the background, or never bother to get you sit or stand properly to show off the knit.

Anyways I tried my best and here we go :-



The one in the mirror at home.


The one in the office with the misaligned neckline.


I am due for a destashing soon - some Rowan ASC as well as some DK yarns - I have to take the pics and should be able to upload tomorrow.

Bianca's minor surgery

I had thought the dropped stitches on Bianca meant major surgery and so I put it off until I had a bit more time to myself. It turned out to be not as bad as I thought.

I got myself a small tripod today and decided to test it out on some super close ups.





It's not a very good picture but if you kind of squint you can see the two dropped stitches hanging out.

Luckily it's close to the neckline and also on the last lace repeat - so I didn't have to undo any more stitches to reknit the section. I only used a crochet hook to hook up the stitches for a few rows.

Since I had already crocheted the scallop edging I coundn't hook the stitches all the way to the top. So I cheated...





I pulled the stitch to the wrong side and secured it with a few double crochets in to the purl ridges.

Do you think the operation is succesful?





For Sally's benefit, here's a picture of the neckline




And a better pic of the whole project.




As for my modeling Bianca - I have to wait for DH to come back from his outstation trip this weekend as I have to confess I haven't worked out the timer on the camera yet.