I’m in the middle of a knitting emergency (among other things), but I finally remembered to take a photo of stuff! :)

A few months ago I requested a few custom dyed braids of superwash BFL in a gothy red colourway.

The idea was to spin it up into a 3ply yarn to make a baby cardigan for my husband’s work collegue as per my husband’s request.

The yarn was spun on my Kromski Symphony on 10:1 with a total of 450 metres. I love the look of 3ply, but sometimes I dislike it’s yarn eating capability. The fact that I spun it worsted and kept some back for some 2ply didn’t help.

I had originally intended to make a Cardigan for Merry (Rav link) with an option of a stand up collar instead of a hood, but soon into the knitting I realized that it wasn’t going to happen. There just wasn’t enough yarn.

I decided to go back to an old favourite, Daisy (Rav link) which is a basic raglan cardigan with a hood. Kinda like Cardigan for Merry but without the fancy turned hem and yarn eating cable. And I’m making progress.

In fact, I’m up to the armholes on the body and a sleeve and probably at the least photogenic part of the entire process. As for the pattern, I’ve modified the sleeves to be knit in the round and joined to the body at the underarm and the whole raglan area is being knit as one piece. Basically it cuts out having to seam the sleeve and up the raglan decreases and leaves me with only a couple of stitches to graft under each arm. In other words, barely any finishing, and that’s my kind of garment. :)

I’m hoping to get this done very soon as I was given some incorrect information as to the baby’s due date. I was under the impression that this baby was due in mid-July, however the baby is actually due in 3 weeks and I really would like to get it to her before she leaves on maternity leave.

Now to cast on the second sleeve.

As usual, there is a bit of emergency knitting happening Casa del SheepSpace, and as usual, it’s not for me. Let me introduce you to exhibit A:

A broken clog. My husband’s broken clog, in fact. The poor things did quite well for not being properly felted. Unfortunately, I couldn’t have felted them down anymore and still have them fit his feet, so slightly felted they remained. Until now. Now they are slightly broken, and since I prefer not having bits of clog strewn around the flat, and since I prefer a husband who isn’t looking sadly at the sole of his clog, let me introduce you to exhibit B:

New Lanark Aran wool. Love this stuff. I’ve made two jumpers out of New Lanark’s Donegal Silk blend which are loved so I thought I’d revisit their yarns for a felting project. The top ball is the Heathers in colourway Bramble and the bottom is their Naturals in Natural Black. I love the black. It’s sheepy. It even smells sheepy.

They are now on the needles and progress photos will follow as soon as I’ve got more than just black yarn on the needles. With any luck finished clog photos will appear, too. It would certainly make my husband happy to have clog with less ventilation. :)

… and on my feet. In fact, I’ve been wearing them for the last couple of hours and they feel quite lovely. Hopefully going down the needles size is going to do the trick.

Pattern: Basic 64 stitch top down sock with heel flap and gusset
Yarn: Tofutsies
Needles: 2.25mm

I wear a size 9UK and still have 54 gams leftover. I can make a second pair… once I see how these wear. :)

I have three days and one sock to go in order to finish my sock for the Sock-a-month KAL. I’ve finished a pair of sock every month since at least January of 2008 when I first joined the SAM KAL and would hate to miss out now.

My socks for this month are simple and they started with the best of intentions. I diligently cast on at the first of the month and was at the heel flap on the same day. Then they sat. And sat. And sat for over three weeks. I finally picked them up again knowing full well I needed them done by Thursday. I kitchenered the toe on the first sock yesterday and am now well into the ribbing of the second sock, and since they are summer socks with a short leg, it won’t be long before I hit the heel flap.

Pattern: Basic 64 stitch top down sock with heel flap and gusset
Yarn: Tofutsies by SWTC
Needles: 2.25mm

However, beyond the sock itself, I want to talk about the yarn today. Tofutsies by South West Trading Company is a well known and fairly popular yarn. It’s also a yarn that you either love or hate as many people find the it is very splitty. I haven’t had problems with splitting, although I rarely do so that is probably something to do with the way I knit. It is a slightly thinner sock yarn, or what I would call a light fingering. When I knit my first pair of Tofutsies socks using the Pomatomus (Ravel it) I looked at other Ravelers projects to see what needle size they used, and more often then not I found that 2.5mm was a popular size. As a tight knitter, I decided to follow the trend and back in September of 2008 I made my pomatomus.

Love the pattern. Hate these socks, although I didn’t realize it when they came off the needles. It’s not entirely the fault of the yarn, but rather the yarn and pattern combined. For now, lets deal with the yarn as I have a issues with the socks, which is evident in the photos if you look carefully. See the large holes in the lace?

See how stretched out the ribbing on the heel is?

These are the first signs I had used the wrong sized needle. After about six wearings I’m about ready to bin the socks. They are loose and by the end of the day I may as well wear bags on my feet. The yarn is also not wearing well. After a half dozen wearings you can see how the yarn is disintegrating.

I’ve never had a pair of sock wear like that. The socks have no bounce and the bottom has no stitch definition left. They’ve also stretched out. However, the yarn is so light and cool I am determined to make a nice pair of summer socks, but this time using smaller needles. The difference between 2.5mm and 2.25mm needles is minimal in terms of numbers, but in terms of making socks it makes all the difference. Every sock I’ve knit on 2.5mm needles has turned out disasterous in the end (usually bagging after wear and the yarn not wearing well), so I’m giving the Tofutsies another try, this time on the smaller needles. I’ll post an updated review after a bit of wearing.

As for the Pomatomus pattern, I do plan to knit that again, too. Next time I’ll use wool yarn and I’ll go back to my trusty 2.25mm needles. I really think that the lace pattern of the sock needs the tighter gauge to keep it’s shape and body… after all, it’s lace.

I’ve finished the eight repeats of the blossom chart as stated in the pattern, but I still have 62g (out of 100g) of my yarn left. Even though the edging of this shawl takes a surprising amount of yarn, I think I have enough to do a few more repeats. I’ve decided that I’ll knit the blossom pattern until I hit 50g or until it will reach from fingertip to fingertip, that way I’ll have a really lovely large shawl. Maybe another 3 repeats?

I’ve put a lifeline in just in case I’m wrong. ;)

My allergies have flared up and thus there is no lace knitting today…

… so we are knitting little people clothing! :)

I’ve currently working on a little spring cardi as D is in desperate need of one for daily playground excursions. I bought some Patons Washed Haze DK at Kemps in Sunderland for 49p a ball with the intention of making a little lace number for the little girl. After a failed attempt at another cardigan (mostly due to pattern errors and me not following my instincts) I cast on for the Eyelet Yoke Cardigan via Lion Brand.

It’s a nice little cardigan and very straight forward, which is probably for the best since I’m changing up a bunch of things including the gauge (I’m using a DK rather than an Aran) and knitting it seamlessly (since I usually don’t do seams I don’t need to). I’m about the attach the second sleeve into the body to work the yoke, so it is going quite quickly, too.

I’ve reworked all the number both for the stitches and the rows for a 25” finished chest, which is in between the 1 and 2 year old size. I want something loose enough to be comfortable but not oversized. With any luck she’ll be able to wear it next year, albeit with three-quarter sleeves.

I was a bit uncertain about the yarn, but for 49p a ball, I was willing to give it a chance. I’ve been pleasantly surprised. I had to go down a needle size to 3.75mm to get a nice fabric. Funnily enough it got me gauge as well, something that floors me as I’m a tight knitter and usually have to go up a needle size. However, the swatch grew slightly and came out exactly to the gauge on the ball band, and it has a nice hand and drape. It knits an awful lot like Rowan All Seasons Cotton, something that shouldn’t surprise me as the content and construction are almost identical, although I’m quite certain I already hear the Rowan fans sharpening their pitchforks for saying so. Conveniently it also comes in Aran weight and thus might be a good substitute for Lion Brand Cotton Ease which is hard to come by in the UK. It’s a shame I didn’t get the Aran since it would have meant a lot less pattern modifications.

So it goes.

I finished these a few weeks ago and I’m so chuffed with them I thought I’d share.

It all started back in November when I contacted Karen from Wildcraft, a wonderful UK dyer of fibre, and asked her to dye up some sock batts for me. I got some lovely superwash BFL/nylon batts in the Calendulas colourway.

Soon after the batts arrived I started spinning the singles:

And within the week I had finished spinning:

Being the middle of November, we had some lovely colour falling off the trees, so I thought a glamour shot was in order:

It took a while to cast on, mostly because I was trying to get other priorities out of the way, but I finally cast on the socks in February. I chose the Journeyman Socks pattern from the Summer 2008 issue of Spin-Off magazine.

And a pair of socks is born:

The details:
Fibre: superwash BFL/Nylon sock batts in Calendulas colourway by Wildcraft
Yarn: 3ply worsted spun 19WPI
Pattern: Journeyman socks by Kristi Schueler via Spin-off Summer 2008 (Ravel it)
Needles: 2.0 mm
Mods: I reworked the number of stitches for the heel as I wanted the cuff to be the same size, but I wanted a narrower foot, and with this particular sock construction those calculations need to be done before starting the heel flap. I also knit through the back loop of all the knit-like stitches in the cable pattern.
Project page on Ravelry

I really like the sock architecture of this pair of socks and it’s something that I’d be happy to do again, although I must admit that standard heelflaps are easier to just wing a narrower foot. However, with just a small amount of math I have an interesting sock that fits nicely. I also really like the look of the cable pattern. Simple, elegant and effective. It was both interesting and enjoyable to knit whilst being easily memorized for knitting with company.

I’ve worn them a couple of times now, and they are so lovely and comfortable. The BFL is just so soft and I think I’m now sold on handspun socks. :)

I’ve spent a good chunk of today reorganizing my stash, mostly because my husband won’t be home until tomorrow. I’m not trying to hide anything… he reads this blog, he has his own Ravelry account and he knows where the stash is kept, so there’s no point. However, it means I have until tomorrow night to put everything back in place. :)

Part of this whole airing of the stash to get everything into Ravelry that hasn’t already been input, make sure those details are correct and to get everything nice and neat so that it won’t fall on my head everytime I open my side of the wardrobe.

I decided to pull it out and take a photo (or at least a photo of what a 1.5 year old hasn’t already run off with):

Stash is one of those things. I’d feel lost without it, but I don’t want it to overwhelm me either. It’s all about a bit of balance, really, and I’ve been trying to knit from stash as much as possible. The odd thing will happen where there’ll be a sale and the perfect yarn is asking to be taken home or the odd project that need to be done that can’t be taken from stash. I’m trying to do a little more of the latter rather than the former. For instance, I just bought some wool from New Lanark for a pair of clogs for Joey which fell into that category. These types of projects are inevitable. What I’m trying to do is make sure those yarns don’t become stash and get knit up as quickly as possible.

For those of you on Ravelry and are interesting in shopping the stash before the LYS, then you might want to check out the Stash Knit Down group. I’m currently participating in the Knit up 100 balls in 2009 challenge and Cold Sheep. I’m not doing brilliantly on the whole Cold Sheep yarn diet thing, but I think I’m doing better than I normally would as I’ve only bought yarn thrice this year and so far all but the yarn that came into the house yesterday has either been cast on or completed. I’m also knitting the existing stash down. It’s a nice balance of new, exciting yarns and lovingly stashed yarns. :)

There’s been a lot of knitting and spinning going on at Casa del Sheepspace, and I thought it was about time I started writing about it again.

One of the main projects on the needles at the moment is Laminaria which I’ve dubbed the Green Goddess shawl. It is a free pattern that is available through Knitty in their Spring 2008 issue.

Ravelry Project Page

I’m really enjoying the pattern thus far. Although it’s not a pattern I’d recommend for anyone who can’t read their (lace) knitting, it is a pattern that I’ve found easy and intuitive as long as you check your knitting once in a while and don’t make any mistakes. There is usually a lot of tinking involved if you do make mistakes as the stitch pattern doesn’t seem to be one of those where you can easily drop down a few rows to fix your mistakes.

The yarn I’m using is Fyberspates Fairy Lace, a single ply merino/nylon blend handdyed in Wales which I bought at Woolfest 2008. I’m really enjoying working. It’s surprisingly strong for a single and the colour is gorgeous, although I do find that it doesn’t take very well to tinking.

A pair of baby socks for my wee one to match her mum’s (that I haven’t yet blogged about… I’ll put it on the list)

The pattern is by Gilraen and is adapted from Cookie A’s Monkey pattern — basically a revised stitch count for smaller feet. Aren’t they adorable? I’ve sized them slightly bigger than the wee one’s feet as I want them wearable this winter and as a result there is no modelled photo. They measure about 4 inches (unstretched) on the foot.

Pattern: MicroMonkey by Gilread (adaptation) ( Ravel it! )
Yarn: Violetgreen Stroud Supersock in Rainforest
Needles: 2.25mm