Creek Update, and... gasp.... some knitting!

To put this shot into perspective, when Turtle Creek is at its usual level, we can't see any water from the house.
I took this shot from our back deck this morning.

 The ice dam seems to have broken up and moved on, but the water level is still rising. By the way, I posted a short video of the ice moving in the swift current on Facebook yesterday. If you're in my friends, check it out (if you're not in my friends, shoot me a friend request. The file is too large to post here).

 And another shot- same creek, same vantage, slightly different angle. Contrast this with the current blog header- nary a drop of water visible during the summer, and not just because the hay is tall.

It has cooled down considerably, so the snowmelt has also slowed, which is A Good Thing. Not so good is the rain predicted for tonight, and the snow predicted for tomorrow. I have a feeling that this will be another interesting week in a very interesting year.

 But when I'm not creek gazing, I doing some actual knitting, and not with leftover yarn. The Spring '11 Spin-Off issue featured a very cool, ruffly scarf project and pattern, that looked perfect for some lightweight handspun that I had on hand. The Helix Scarf pattern is free, and available on the website (as well as in the magazine.). The scarf pattern is simple- all garter stitch and short rows.

The yarn was spun from the Ianto roving, that I bought and from Yummy Yarns in '08. It's Finn (very soft Finn, I might add). I'm using size 6 needles, and while the scarf is not knitting up quickly, it is knitting up beautifully. Part of the slowdown is that I am using this project to practice and perfect my purling back backwards technique.

When you knit back backwards, you achieve stockinette stitch without turning your straight needles. When you knit one direction and purl back backwards, you get garter stitch without the trouble of turning things around constantly (which would be a pain in this project since every row has 2 short row segments that form the ruffles).

I'm getting faster with the purling back backwards, and my tension is evening out (that takes practice, and I am getting a LOT of practice in with this scarf). I think I'll add it to the longer version of my Little Tips and Knitting Tricks Class. There isn't time enough to try this in the usual version of the class (which fills up a 2-hour slot nicely), but I'm teaching it in a 3 hour block at the Michigan Fiber Festival in August, and it'll make a good addition to the roster. And by then, I should have the technique down pat.

3 Hats (so far), 1 Pattern

I don't know why I rarely knit hats- there are no heels or thumbs in them, and you only have to knit one. It seems like they'd be my ideal sort of project, but when I consider options for yarn and patterns, I rarely remember that hats even exist.

I certainly wasn't considering them as I thumbed through the Summer 2010 Spin-Off. I was looking for the instructions for making boucle yarn (which I found, and did). But during the perusal, I spotted instructions for an easy lace hat, knit with heavier weight, handspun yarns.

It seems that spinners were challenged to spin yarn specifically for this pattern and then send the finished hats to Interweave for possible inclusion in the magazine (which featured 10 versions). I missed that deadline by a long ways, but the beauty of the pattern stuck with me. It looked easy, it only used 100 sts, and the body of the hat was worked on size 8 needles (with size 5 for the ribbing). I worked up a chart for the 8 row-10 st lace repeat (the magazine only included written instructions) and cast on.

The first hat was knit with the ugly green/pink/yellow merino yarn. The roving was flat-out ugly, the yarn was just okay, but the finished hat is really rather pretty. Go figure.

The 2nd hat is from the goldenrod dyed wool (from Color by Nature's Studio).

It really shows the stitch definition well, and I love the crown treatment.

The 3rd hat was knit from some mystery fiber with thrums and bits and pieces of thread and other colorful additions (I think it came from my friend Dana). I love how this one came out too (though I gave up on the twisted ribbing- it's fiddly and I think it looks sloppy with handspun yarn). I've never been good at knitting lace in a car, or memorizing multi-row lace repeats, but this one is just about as easy as can be.

The flecks and bits are subtle, but there.

I'm not aiming for 10 hats from this pattern, but I surely would have takers for that many if I decided to knit them (not to mention that I am currently flush with worsted weight handspun). And I haven't gotten tired of the pattern yet, which bodes well for more.

On the other hand, I have 3 workshops to teach, starting Friday, and I have a ton of prep work to do for them, so I probably will resist the urge to cast on the next hat. At least for a day or so.

Spinning right round

I'm still in spinning mode, and lately I've been reminded of a few things that I already knew but forgot.

#1. No matter how pretty this kind of roving looks before spinning

It always looks like this afterwards- muddy. Now, it's a pretty mud, but it's still mud.

#2. Ebay bargains, in this case 17,000 yds (I'm not kidding) of very fine brushed mohair yarn for $9, may sit in the Wool Room for years, but eventually I'll think of something to do with it, like

using it to ply with muddy yarn. On the right, we have 1 ply of the mud roving and 1 ply of brushed mohair (it'll make a lovely halo after it's knit up), 2.6 ozs and 133 yds. On the left, we have a boucle experiment- 1.3 ozs, 94 yds, 1 ply brushed mohair, 1 ply sewing thread, 1 ply metallic glitter strand.

#3. Old Spin-Off magazines are wonderful. I was thumbing through back issues for a pattern that I vaguely remembered, when I came across the instructions for making boucle yarn. Since the Monster Mohair Cone was already out, I gave it a shot. I think this turned out beautifully, and I plan to try again with handspun.

#4. Ugly roving sometimes makes pretty yarn. The yarn on the left was a Merino blend that I'm hoping I got in a trade, because if I actually bought this green/yellow/pink stuff, I need my eyes examined. It was totally ugly in the bag, but I have to say that the 4.5ozs and 183 yds spun up rather prettily. The yarn on the right was gorgeous in the bag, and it turned out just as pretty spun up. It's naturally dyed with Goldenrod and I think it came from Connie at Colors by Nature's Studio- it's soft and sproingy, and will probably be used with the formerly ugly green/yellow/pink.

#5. It takes a long time and a lot of concerted effort to use up every bit of 1lb of handspun yarn in small projects. I knit another waffle hat with the Decadent Fibers Jelly Roll yarn, this one smaller than the first. I still have a small ball left, which I will use with the novelty yarn to the right, to knit one more hat. With that, the yarn should be gone. I hope.

#6. I'm still not tired of spinning. Go figure.

#7. The stash in the Wool Room doesn't look any smaller yet. sigh.