Monday, December 14, 2009

Round and round

Life continues to drive me round and round, seasonal stuff, work stuff, you know, life.  Gets so you just feel like you’re running around in circles and nothing is really accomplished.

Except for a bit of knitting in the round:

It’s the Fat Cat Knits yarn from the previous post that I spun into a gradient yarn to shift from pale through orange into blue, knit into a möbius scarf/cowl thingamajig.  No pattern, just used Cat Bordhi’s möbius cast-on and carried on knitting.  And then I ripped it apart and doubled the number of stitches, and carried on knitting.  Swatch?  Who needs a swatch when you can just rip out a coupla thousand stitches and start all over again?  Easy to knit, but I found scootching all those stitches around the circular needle and through the three-dimensional warp to be a bit of a pain.  I guess I’m too used to DPNs.

When I got close to the end, I started to realize that I had to, you know, end, somehow, so it wouldn’t roll.  I did some seed stitch.  Moss stitch?  Whatever.  Took it off the needles, and it rolled.  Blocked it, and it rolled.  Steamed the heck out of it, and it stopped rolling.  For a day or two.  And then it rolled.  And I’m going to leave it that way. :-)

I’m quite happy with it, though.  It’s the perfect size.  Wrap it around the neck three times, and it fills in that spot between the collar of your coat and your neck wonderfully. But I won’t make another one.  Unless I forget what a pain this one was.  But it might be nice to have a big, fluffy one.  Hmm.

Fluffy, sparkly Happy Hooves batts from Enchanted Knoll, Good Fortune colourway.  Yumm.  Spun up the singles a couple of months ago.

These batts are about 6 oz, so a little more fibre than usual.  I wound them into a plying ball and then, because I wanted to keep it all in one length, it sat, and sat, and sat, while I waited for my bulky/plying flyer to arrived.  Which it finally did, so I plied.

498 yards, 15 wpi, of squishy green goodness.  I was originally thinking sock yarn, but it might be a bit soft.  Maybe something else, maybe socks. 

I’m not sure I’m totally happy with the plying flyer.  The big bobbins do hold a lot of yarn, but it also makes it harder to treadle with the tension set for a strong wind on.  I’ll continue to play with, but so far, I’m kinda meh about it.

19 people had something to say:

knottygnome said...

love the green handspun! i've been thinking about getting a plying setup for my wheel, but i've heard some of the same issues that you are having, so i'm still undecided.

Jean said...

Yarn just continues to amaze me, I love the variety and the colors you use are so appealing. The roving is even more beautiful, I love the softness and wondering what it will spin up like (I especially like posts that show the before and after).

Pat said...

I want to see a picture with it wrapped 3 times around your neck!

The new green/blue yarn is beautiful of course. I used my plying head this last time and it was much slower to ply and heavier to treadle - in the future I will only use it if I need a giant skein that won't fit on regular bobbins.

Sarah said...

Oooh, that handspun is delicious! It definitely begs to be knit into something really pretty -- lace, perhaps?

I agree with you about plying heads. I do love that I can get like 600-800 yards of sock yarn one mine, but it's a pain to treadle, so I rarely use it. At least it makes for a good workout when I do.

Mag said...

I love the texture and color gradation you got on your Mobius.
And as always, I'm a big fan of your spin.

Monika said...

I both like your Moebius scarf, and your new yarn.

Stephen said...

The mobius looks wonderful!
You're far braver and more patient than I am, using circulars would've driven me over the edge and beyond.
The Good Fortune colourway is gorgeous.

LaurieM said...

Lovely stuff. Green mobius next? Perhaps entirely in seed stitch which would be appropriate for the color.

Too bad life gets in the way of crafting...

fleegle said...

Your spinning has improved immesurably since you first got your wheel--really beautiful yarn.

You have more patience than I do--rip out thousands of stitches. Nope. Next time try an interlocked möbius and get a matching earwarmer :)

lexa said...

Love that green handspun!

Bea said...

I've never understood that möbius-thing. Why do people want that. Why not just in the round. Is it better to wear than a normal scarf?

Yarndude said...

Wow, I absolutely love both the moebius and the new handspun. Beautiful!

Tina Martinez said...

I want to have little fiber babies with that yarn. *fans herself* Seriously, that's some gorgeous sock yarn!

turtlegirl76 said...

Ooh loving the moebius! It's really pretty. As always, your handspun is gorgeous.

Zonda said...

Wow, great job on the moebius, yikes on all those stitches though. Lovely handspun, I'm sadly lacking green in the stash..

Alwen said...

I love the play of the colors in your moebius. One of these days I'll try one of those.

Anonymous said...

I love the mobius scarf! And the new handspun looks great :)

martha said...

both photos are of beautiful products.

Opal said...

love the eye candy!