Ply Please

Ok here's another ongoing post on my plying experiments. I got more pics with a little better detail although they are a little dark.

First up - Plying from two bobbins without regard to colourways



I decided to go random on this one and there were some stunning duotone results.


Navajo Ply - The Cool Cabled Composition



This keeps the colourway intact but oh what a bitch to do. It already takes enough of my attention to keep the wheel going without having to make chains as well. The number of times I got my hand stuck in a ever enclosing loop of yarn, resulting in panicked attempts to ensure blood circulation is not cut off - Countless!



But look at how the yarn is all snugly plied against each other. Sweet!

Lastly the Shimmering Madness



My favourite - I got to get more metallic thread.



I repeat, I have to get more metallic thread :)

So I have about 250 yds of roughly worsted weight yarn and I've already ordered a contrasting colour - grape- from Vicky at Kendig Cottage. I think I might attempt a shrug when I finish spinning the grape up.

What's on the bobbin now.




This luscious merino silk in Concord colourway, it's mostly black but the flash brings out the blue purple tone in it. I'm spinning it fine - almost fingering weight. This is like the roving that never ends. I haven't even used half and look how much I have on the bobbin.

How will I ply this? Not sure. Maybe I need to get more metallic thread :)!!

Circular Beginnings

I've always wanted to start The Kerry Blue Shawl from Martha Waterman's Traditional Knitted Lace Shawls. But I've put it off because of that dratted circular cast on.

Thanks to my new Gathering of Lace book I followed the instructions for one of the cast-on methods where you do knits and yo into a loop. ( don't have my book handy but I'll post more details next time)

Still I had to modify further because my silly dpns kept falling out. So I decided to knit back and forth for about 4 rows before joining the stitches on circulars and knitting using the Magic Loop method.



Kerry Blue Shawl 4.0mm needles using Sirdar Snuggly 3 ply


After a few rows you pull the loop and it closes nicely with no funny hole in the middle of the work. There is little gap between the first 4 rows but nothing a bit of seaming won't fix.

I'm getting right into the groove of this square shawl. Take a look at Polly's finished shawl. I always seem to need to see another finished project before I find the motivation to start my own.

This little shawl is going to one of my very best friend's new poppet, Caitlin, in Hong Kong. Caitlin's mummy and I went to university together and she's one those friends that I have no trouble picking up the threads with each time we meet, which is not very often. She's also one of the few friends I knitted for in varsity and she's always talked nostalgically about her favourite knitted sweater (now long departed) with that yarn I got on sale from the local department store.

It will take too long to knit something for Caitlin's mum, so Caitlin gets a nice blankie instead.


NB I know I promised more pics of the Iris Garden yarn but it was a hectic weekend with my in-laws visiting. Will try to get more pics in sunlight tomorrow.

Plied

I promised a pic of the Iris Garden plied.
Well I have one but the pic is not as nice as I thought it would be. I'll be taking more this weekend in natural light.



From the top
Plied with one band of metallic thread.
Navajo plied ( 3 ply)
2 ply from both ends of the bobbin.

My favourite is the metallic ply - its shimmery airiness gives a little novelty to my roughly spun single ply. I'm getting better at going thinner now and that's why my second favourite is the 2 ply .
I plied for each end of the bobbin meaning I did not keep the colour ways intact so I got a real nice barbershop duo-tone effect on some parts of the yarn. Plus since I'm spinning thinner , so it's not as bulky as the Navajo plied. I need more practice before I think I can produce Navajo plied yarn to my satisfaction .

So there we are - now what to knit with the yarn.

*I hab a gold*

I'm not in a good mood. My son gave me this terrible cold. Well, he had a slight fever for two days, I get stuck with the full works of stuffy nose, cough and sore throat.

And on top of that I'm pissed with this Opal sock



Yeah. It looks so sweet right? Such cute colours, nicely shaped and all that. Well, looks are deceiving.




See? Can you see the problem? It doesn't fit! I started the heel too soon and now it's an inch too short. And because of that the ribbing has ridden down and starts in the thickest part of my ankle, the one place that really shouldn't have any type of ribbing near it. It's fat enough.

And all because *I hab a gold* and was grumpy and impatient, I wanted to do the short row heels and finish this sock already.

Anyway this came in today




I think I won't be in to work tomorrow. *I hab a gold*. I deserve to stay home and drool.

Iris Garden

It was our version of Independance Day yesterday, we call it " Merdeka Day". when we Malaysian celebrated the day we declared our Independance from British Rule.

Which means parades, and the obligatory morning shower ( I don't know why but it happens almost every year), lots of lolling around and watching TV.

I spent the whole day spinning up my Iris Garden Corriedale Roving from Kendig Cottage.
I 've spun up most of the yarn but in order to free up my bobbins , I had to start plying immediately ( OK this just means I have to get some extra bobbins). So I decided to try 3 ways of plying.

First up, for those of you who would like to find out the best way to spin up multicoloured roving check out The Keyboard Biologist's post on how she handled multi coloured roving she dyed herself - gorgeous colour!!

Another great article is in Sara Bradberry's Southern Cross Knitting article - Spinning Handpainted Roving

First method of plying I tried was to ply with a metallic thread as a binder - which resulted in this pretty skein of yarn


86 yds of Iris Garden yarn waiting for its bath in the kitchen sink
<>
Take a closer look at the pretty shimmery metallic binding fluffy pastel yarn


Second method of plying I tried was Andean Plying - which created a 3 ply cable of ropy type yarn which is probably sturdier but did not capture the ethereal beauty of this colourway. I tried to get a pic but my camera batteries died on me. so stay tuned for updated pics soon.

I intend to try another method of plying - ie - plying a bobbin back on itself after winding on to a center pull ball. The result may be either a muddied up yarn of all colours, or a lovely heathering of these pastels.

That's the fun about spinning - we'll just have to see what happens.

Lotus Blooms

I couldn't get someone to model it for me but I did get someone to take a photo of me modeling the Lotus Blossom Shawl.






The colours are much nicer once it's blocked. And it's sooooo light. I just realised that Fleece Artist Country Silk - the recommended yarn- is actually a sport weight not lace weight, which would account for the size and weight difference. My shawl is 72" across but only 36" in length. No matter, it suits us vertically-challenged asians well enough.

This is now going to be wrapped and ribboned for my Mum as her birthday gift this weekend. Just as well I finished it ahead of time. I have to give credit to the start of the English Premier League season. Sitting through match after match with my husband gives me plenty of time to knit.

What next?

I started the Silk corset and got the arm holes done. I tried to put my arm through and it embarrassingly got stuck halfway up my upper arm. So that's in the frogpond for the moment.

I've been toying with an idea of a A- Line top down lacy cardigan and with some encouragement from Lyn,I'm going to try it out this weekend.

Lotus Blossoming

Blossoming but not yet blooming - the Lotus Blossom shawl lies blocked on a hideous old quilt. Forgive the jarring green stripes - must remember to use my nice cream duvet for blocking and photography purposes.




It does look much better blocked so that sections of contrasting colours don't clash and jar side by side.







More pictures will be posted once I get it off the pins and cajol someone to model it.

Sneek Peek

I just got to show this quick peek at the completed but very crumpled Lotus Blossom Shawl.


Lotus Blossom Shawl from Fiddlesticks .
Cherry Tree Hill Merino Laceweight - Colourway: Dusk
Approx 600- 700 yds



I am not too pleased with the colourway - that sudden splash of electric purple does distract from this very lovely design. But this is one pattern I'm pretty sure I will do again.

What shall be my next lace project? I'm still deciding between giving Inky Dinky another try or Madli's shawl, from Interweave Summer 2004.

For some reason, my husband wants to take me out to dinner tonight. But I can't wait to get this little number blocked out. Tough Call huh!

Stash and Spinning

I've been going nuts with the sock stash lately - have a look at the two Opals I just ordered from Astrid's Dutch Obsession - The purply one is a prototype and the other one is an Opal Rodeo 1153. Astrid has great prices and wonderful service so take a look if you're interested in getting some Opals.


Forgive the me-trying-to-be-artisitic photo


And finally some spinning stash! Nice hand dyed corridale and romney blend from Kendig Cottage.



500 gms each of springy roving


Celia's been asking about my spinning. Well I finally managed to ply the Jacobs and the cream Corridale last week, gave it a nice warm bath and hung it to dry in the bathroom -



I'm glad to say that there was hardly any twist so it's fairly balanced.

Take a closer look at the good bits

and then the bad bits where the yarn is terribly overtwisted


Now comes the perennial new spinner's question - what shall I do with this yarn? I want to commemorate its creation in a special way. Perhaps a wall hanging?

*BTW Lyn told me that there's something wrong with my comment section. And here I thought I must have offended everybody cos I wasn't getting any comments. You can still comment by sending me an email. I'll put it up on the blog.

Hazy Hawaii Happy Dance

I wanted to wait for a good day of natural sunlight to take the photo of my completed Lorna's Laces Hawaii Socks but sadly, we're a little hazy in the Klang Valley at the moment.




In fact it's gotten so bad, some parts of my state is under a state of emergency, with closures of schools and public places.

Here's a pic of the socks anyway.





It turned out too big for me but fits my sister perfectly so guess who gets to to cuddle up to these on those cold (but non-hazy) winter nights in NZ.





Strangely enough, there was no sign of the dreaded Second Sock syndrome. I found my second sock went faster rather than slower, possibly because I no longer have to refer to the pattern all the time. yeh I know they don't match but hey I am not that fussed. Next up, toe up socks with Opal.

On the Lotus Blossom Shawl, I have it on good authority that when you have finished half the number of rows, you're only a quarter of the way through in terms of yarn.

So with some handy tips from the Summer of Lace group, I managed do up a shawl spreadsheet and figured out that at Row 121 of 166, I am only 50% complete. So no problems with yarn there.

I am targetting 1st September for the completion of either the Lotus Blossom or the Plaza, after which I just have to start the Silk corset pullover from Anne Modesitt.

City of Angels

Before I leave you with a few brief scenes of Bangkok/ Krung Thep/City of Angels - I got to show you what I am currently working on

Lotus Blossom Shawl



I am getting a little worried. I'm almost to the lotus blossom part and it really doen't look anywhere as big as it should. I am using Cherry Tree Hill Laceweight Merino in Dusk colourway. Beautiful yarn and it seems never ending. I got about 1000 yards which I would into 4 balls and I haven't finished 1 ball yet. Is it time for me to panic yet??


Hawaii Sock Part Two




I am just about ready to divide up for the heel. This is the sucky part cos I have to figure out the needle 1 ,2 & 3 position although I am knitting with a circular. My problem is that I always slip the last stitch of the needle on to the next one to reduce those terrible ladders by the side. So I am never at the same position at any one time. Sigh! toe-up and short row heels for the next sock, I promise.

And now I leave you with scenes of that exotic city.

Back from Bangkok

I got back from my extended weekend in Bangkok with my mum and sister on Monday when I was plunged in this crazy whirl of work. Some corporate visitors on very short notice, resulting spending two sleepless nights completing a presentation.


Bangkok has only two knitting related sites worth visiting that I know of, which I had detailed in my previous post.


The only thing I managed to score was this Knitting book

which I have wanted ever since it has been mentioned in the Laceknitters Yahoo Group.


It's not easy to figure out. The charts are for sections of a circle but after a certain row- the chart expands to the entire row for some reason I can't fathom. Anyone out there who has this book ? Maybe you can help me decipher it.


I haven't been spinning but I did the sleeves of the Plaza, late Wednesday night, just hours before we got on the taxi to the airport for our early Thursday morning flight. I brought my Lotus Blossom shawl to Bangkok and so far have managed to reach Row 97.


All this running around has made me a little short for cash so I am destashing again. Check my destash site for some Japanese Mohair and vintage Phildar mohair yarn for sale.

One Sock Down

Finally finished one LL Hawaii Dublin Bay Sock.

Tried it on Dh and the conversation goes :

DH: " Hey there's holes!"

Me: "It's just lace, dear"

DH: "And it's such a girly green!" *looks into my knitting bag and takes out my hoarded ball of LL Motherlode* "Can I have one in this purply yarn instead?" *pause* "With no holes? And lots of ribbing?"

Me: "Grrrrr!"








Showed it to my sis and the conversation goes
Sis: "Hey cool!"
Me: "Do you want it? I'm working on the other pair"
Sis: "err... umm.. why don't you keep it for when you come and visit me in NZ?"
Me: *thinking haven't been to NZ in 10 years and not likely to visit in the next 10 years* "Grrrr!"

But seriously I am glad that this pair is ending up with me - I've grown to like it. I'm not too happy with the toe, and the way the striping doesn't go all the way around but otherwise I've sweated too much over it not to love it.





The next pair of socks I want to make is Marnie's toe up socks - as soon as she posts the pattern.

--------------------------------------
I had a great time at Jackie's seaming party last Saturday. I can't remember the last time I had Sticky date pudding but I know I must have it again soon. Absolutely yummy. What have I been missing all these years?


You know after that seaming party, I went home and dreamt squares. I have to take my hat off to Jackie's discipline and endurance to be able to produce so many squares and to stick by a project for almost that long. Way to go Jackie!

--------------------------------------

So on to my monday round up one day late
*Updates are in bold red*

Lacy Tunic from Rebecca 28
Jaeger Trinity Violet :- one back done


Green Lacy top from Japanese Magazine
Marks and Kattens Bianca :- one back done - to be frogged


Bracken Tweed Cardigan for my sis - one sleeve done


Fiddlesticks Lacy Lattice Stole
Filatura Di Crosa Kid Mohair - 30% done


Pseudo Gansey from Japanese Magazine
Filatura di Crosa Zara :- one front and one sleeve done


Pink Grapes from Japanese Magazine
Yarnart Summer Cotton :- Two sleeves done


Plaza from Rowan Classic Cafe
Cleakheaton Country 8 ply - one back done
*Almost up to the shoulder shaping on the humungous two sleeves at once. I hope to finish the sleeves by Friday*



Fiddlestick Lotus Blossom Shawl
Cherry Tree Hill Merino Laceweight Dusk- less than 12%
* Up to Row 83 - that's 166 stitches*


Crochet Flower Vest
Online Linea Sandy - 35%
*Finished off two balls - only 2.5 balls to go*



From the comments -

Jessica - there is no way to get any roving here in Malaysia - the only source is to get it online from AUS, NZ or US
MJ - My sis lugged 6.5 kg of this spinning wheel back from NZ for me.
Celia - I'll try to post the embarassing close-ups of my bad bobbins of yarn tomorrow.

Joy out of the box

Finally the Ashford Joy was unveiled and assembled last night.



Joy out of the box


Following the instructions were easy and even a klutz like me could screw the right thing at the right places - or so I thought. And learn some cool new spinning jargon as well. Such as "Flier"



"Fli-er" - the thing that goes round and winds the yarn on to the bobbin.


And here is my baby all assembled and ready to go.


The lump in the background is my husband reading "Harry Potter 6", who , after blinking several times, did not lift a finger to help. Which is understandable, it's "Harry Potter" after all.


Well it took me at least an hour to figure out why the yarn wasn't winding on to the bobbin. It was screwed in the wrong way :).

Then I was practicing pre drafting fibers and feeding it in strips the way one did with the hand spindle but that didn't work at all for me. I keep getting huge overtwisted yarn and I just knew I wasn't getting into the right rhythm.

Using the spindle it was easy to stop and start to smooth over the kinks down the draft but a moving spinning wheel was going much faster than I would have liked it to.


Bobbin full of Bad yarn.


I decided to change track and spin from the fold. And then light bulb came on and I was into the groove. Pinch! Pull! Feed ! I got the rhythm! Except the instructions said the drafting hand should come up to the pinching hand wherelse my pinching hand is coming down to the end of the draft and then back up towards the Orifice (that's the hole you feed the fiber through to the Flier).

Yarn is still overtwisted at places cos I haven't go the knack of stopping the wheel from back spinning.





But all in all 2oz of fiber spun last night and I think I am going to run through my last 4 oz of sampler fiber I got from Inspirations Yarn in the next couple of days. I haven't placed a fiber order yet and that will take another 3 weeks to arrive at least.

What am I going to do in the meantime?

I wish (Part Two)

I got a little of what I wished for last Friday


From the left to right, LL Sheperd Sport in Somerset, Georgetown and Glenwood

The Lorna's Laces Shepherd Sport that Vanessa and I ordered from Little Knit's sale last month. Lorna's Laces are still on special so do rush over to get them now.

For some reason I have this terrible urge to dump everything I have on my needles now and just knit lacy lacy shawls. Probably because I've joined two yahoo groups on lace - Lace knitting and Summer of Lace. The enabling on those two groups are close to mega proportions.

But my sister came along and kept me on the straight and narrow by reminding me (several times) how cold it was in New Zealand now, how she wants a cardigan to go with her purple pants, how she lugged 8.5 kgs worth of spinning wheel through customs for me... etc etc.

I gave her my Noro Butterfly to assuage her temporarily but she wants to play with my wheel as well. It's not set up yet. I've been so busy driving the said sister around. Photos will be posted as soon as I get the chance.

* Well Don't hold your breath cos my copy of Harry Potter just arrived. There are some things (not many, but there are)that take a precedence over knitting related activities.*

I wish

I'm not going to say I beat the bad sock karma yet but I've finally turned the heel and am chugging along nicely around and around the foot.



However the bad karma maybe moving around to other areas of my life cos my home pc just gave up the ghost yesterday. Let's just say it's a combination of a thunderstorm and a window that should not have been opened being left open. And let's just say that I have house guests that opens windows in rooms they have no business opening windows in.

For those whose penny didn't drop - I am supposed to have 30 stitches on the heel (ie half the cast on stitches) not 24.

Met up with Lyn and Vanessa yesterday to have a coffee and a vent and as usual running up the lists of knits we would love to do next.
Some of the knitters are doing Orangina - which I am not convinced will be flattering to me but it was nice looking over their projects.

There just so many knits I want to do that I'm just sprouting them out of my ears. Does any else get these small panic attacks just thinking about the amount of yarn one has and the amount of knits one wants to do? Not to mention the other mountain of yarn one is lusting over and wants to buy but has yet to buy?

Sock from Hell

I missed my Monday round up cos I had an incredible busy weekend and two days at work plus I have been so pissed off my knitting.

This is the sock from hell




I didn't even have an inkling on Friday that I'll be knitting this. In fact I had settled in to finish off the two sleeves for Plaza. I'm happily knitting on Plaza on Friday night and finished the first two balls. Happily trotted along to my stash boxes to get another two balls when I remembered! This lot of stash was in my mum's house ( the other hiding place from DH ). Uh ok - let's just work on something else. Like I have a ton of projects on the needles right.

Ok so I take out the Dublin Bay opal socks I was experimenting with when DH said "Oh I didn't know you could knit socks!" which is an underhanded way to sya that he wanted a pair. He didn't like to Opal colorway I was working on so back to the stash box I went.

He liked the Lorna's Laces Hawaii Shepherd Socks. So I happily casted on 72 sittiches as per the pattern and was chugging along nicely. The stripes were perfectly in place and straight. See how it's winding its way up at the moment? I'll let you know how it got that way in a minute.

Anyway, it was now Saturday and I was going to my mum's until Monday so I carried on knitting on the Hell Hawaii sock. 6 inches were done and I placed it against my DH's foot when we both realised this is one humungous sock. checked my needles and horrors! it was 2.75 mm not 2.25mm as specified by the pattern.

By this time, we were due to go for dinner at DH's cousin's and I really did not want to bring any knitting there. I'm still not brave enough to bring knitting to family functions especially when there was a whole bunch of cousins - in law whose names I don't quite remember.

Anyway back from dinner at about 10 pm and on to rip rip rip! I was so tempted to start the sock again on another yarn (Lorna's Laces Motherlode) when I remembered I wanted to use that yarn for something else (meaning some thing lacey for me!) And at this point I am so determined to beat this Knitting Murphy's law karma if it kills me. So I casted on 60 instead.

By the end of Sunday evening I had got most of the cuff and leg done and was moving on the heel flap. That in itself was an exercise in fractional mathematics most of which I kind of gave back to my teacher at the end of secondary school. Plus it didn't really help when the pattern was describing needle 1 and 2 and I'm using circs.

Still I divided for the heel and then did about half of the heel flap before calling it a night. The next day I was going off to my mum's for dinner and to pick up more balls of yarn for Plaza. I told myself I would concetrate on the sock on Monday before carrying on with Plaza on Tuesday. I'm never going to meet Friday's deadline but if I can show my sister one back and two sleeves at least she won't think I am slacking off on her. After all she did send me the yarn about a year ago.

So on Monday night after coming back from my mum's, I carried on with the heel flap and stopped to look ahead and do some calculations on the short rowing.

I am suppose to knit 20 stitches before I SSK and turn based based on having 36 stitches on the heel needle (which is half of the 72 stitches casted on for the whole round). So since I casted on 60, I should pick up 20 / 36 x 24 stitches which is the amount of stitches I had on the heel needle.

It was several minutes before the penny dropped. I guess all you experienced sockknitters can spot the mistake.

Needless to say I've ripped the heel.

And that is why this is the Sock from Hell. Thank God I won't be working on it tonight.

Oh by the way - I think I'll skip the Monday round up for today.

Just wanted to also say I had a lot of fun last Thursday meeting up with Pauline and May. Check out May's and Lyn's blogs for the details.

MO' FOTO

In the interest of learning to take better pictures I give you two examples of the One Skein Wonder taken in the same light (by the french windows) - one with flash and one without. Which do you think looks better?
With flash

Without Flash



and here are more granny squares

From Usha


And these ones are going out to a couple of ladies in a mini granny square exchange at the Malaysian Stitchers' yahoo group.



I am also wondering if I dare to make this lovely top



*News Flash*--- As I am writing this, I am just getting the news about the explosions in the London Underground. Just today at lunch, I was reminiscing about my trip to London this time last year and how I wish I was there now. My great sympathies to all who have been affected by this. All of a sudden I don't really feel like writing any more. Till next time.

Cool pix

I've been late in updating the weekly round up cos I've been playing with my brand new camera.


Lyn and I met up on Thursday to have lunch and then to do some winding. But first I walked into a photo shop and looked at what cameras they had on offer. DH and I had always wanted to get our own camera instead of relying on my office's very old Nikon and my sister in law's very new Canon Ixus 7.0. We wanted to get something in between.


So with the expert advice of the sales man and some help from Lyn, I settled on a Nikon Cool Pix 4600.

I've been playing around with it all weekend and all I can say is I have the shaky hands syndrome. I haven't been able to catch a decent photo of my son but I did get a pic of what I've been doing in the last week.





Yep! refreshed a little of my crochet skills and even got Lyn to try out her crochet skill on a simple square. In fact I am inspired to slowly but surely crochet a blanket or throw a'la Jackie . Of course, she knitted all her squares, but I really like the idea of a hodge podge blanket of colourful squares.

So for the Monday round up - well nothing has changed from last week's list except - add some granny squares and *ahem* a crochet top and a decision to frog the Green lacy top for a crocheted project someday.

More on the crochet top tomorrow.

So the weekly round up is as follows:-
Lacy Tunic from Rebecca 28
Jaeger Trinity Violet :- one back done

Green Lacy top from Japanese Magazine
Marks and Kattens Bianca :- one back done - to be frogged

Bracken Tweed Cardigan for my sis - one sleeve done

Fiddlesticks Lacy Lattice Stole
Filatura Di Crosa Kid Mohair - 30% done

Pseudo Gansey from Japanese Magazine
Filatura di Crosa Zara :- one front and one sleeve done

Pink Grapes from Japanese Magazine
Yarnart Summer Cotton :- Two sleeves done

Plaza from Rowan Classic Cafe
Cleakheaton Country 8 ply - one back done

Fiddlestick Lotus Blossom Shawl
Cherry Tree Hill Merino Laceweight Dusk- less than 10%

Crochet Flower Vest
Online Linea Sandy - 20%