Ravel It, Twist It, Ply It--All to Knit It

So once there was this sweater that I picked up from Goodwill. It was orange and I liked to wear it. Especially in the fall.

But then I was tired of it, and there was a spot on the cuff I couldn't wash out. And in a fit of decisiveness, I took it downstairs, sat on my couch and ripped the sweater apart. In a very organized way, of course.

I got 230 grams of very lightweight 40% merino/30% viscose/20% angora/10% cashmere. When I entered the yarn in my Ravelry stash, I discovered I had unraveled the same sweater in pink! (You can see a picture in this post.)

I got a hankering to knit socks out of this yarn so I decided to ply it. In order to ply it, I decided to twist it. You twist in one direction and then ply in the other. Then the yarn wants to stay put. You could just ply it and block it, but I didn't want to in this case.

Here is one sleeve twisted on the spindle next to the yarn from the other sleeve:

I had a funny moment getting started. I twisted the yarn the "regular" way (clockwise or Z-twist), letting the spindle spin and spin. Then I stopped to inspect the yarn and it was utterly not twisted--in fact, I thought it was less than before I started. So I examined the wool straight from the sweater a little more closely and realized it already had some twist in it (very unusual for yarn from a commercial sweater), and it was going the other way! So I twisted it in the other direction and things went fine from there. (There's no advantage to one direction or the other; it's just a convention to twist the one way and ply the other.)

Once the yarn was all twisted, I was eager to ply it. Not only was it the final step, it also would go a lot easier and quicker than the first step! But I had to do some other stuff, get ready for a trip, etc., and my spindle sat on my table for a couple days.

But finally I had a few minutes. I put the spindle in my "super fancy" lazy Kate (yup, that's what they're called):

Constrained by the holes in the side of the box, the spindle
can spin freely, making it easy to unwind.

and wound up a cake of yarn:

Once I had a cake of yarn, I put it in my project bag to take on the trip.

I tried out a double strand, triple strand and quadruple strand and decided that the triple strand gave the thickness I wanted. That meant chain plying (aka Navaho plying). It's basically a long crochet chain done with your fingers while you ply.

When my fingers got sore from knitting socks during the drive, I pulled out the ball of yarn and my spindle, and got to plying.

It was easy work as the yarn practically plies itself since it was twisted already.

With just a little more time once I got to my destination, I had the whole ball done.

The yarn has nothing to do with my trip to the Netherlands, but I feel like they will make nice souvenir socks of the trip anyway. I did purchase a sock yarn while there that I optimistically called orange, but it's really yellow. It was the best I could do at the time, but I have admitted to myself that it's not orange.

I am happy with this result and can't wait to cast on a new pair of socks. My first plan was to knit one sock with the plied yarn and the other with the yarn from the other sleeve unplied, just to experiment, but I've since decided to use the plied stuff for the toe, foot and heel of the pair and use the unplied for the leg. The wear parts will be stronger and I won't have to ply everything. We'll see how it goes...

Too Much Fun Can Really Take it out of You!

So I had a great trip with my mom to the Netherlands. We were there for two weeks. We stayed with a lot of her cousins, who all showed us a very good time. And we vacationed on our own for a few days on the island of Texel (pr. Tessel). All very lovely. Here we are enjoying a sunset over the North Sea:

It took me a while to accept that I was really home again and to get back into regular life. (What? You mean I have to prepare my own food?) I don't think I knit for a week. Of course, I was working on a Shutterfly album already so that was part of it.

While traveling, I did work on the socks that I took with me. Some scoffed that I thought one pair of socks would hold me for two weeks. But they did. I had turned the heel by the time we landed, but had quite a ways to go on the leg and cuff still. But by now I am tantalizingly close to the bind off. I would have shown them to you, but I didn't want to take a picture, load it onto my computer, etc.

I'm a little ambivalent about pictures right now because I lost one of my cameras at the end of the trip. The "little" one with fewer pictures on it. But still. I shouldn't take it out on my other camera and picture taking in general, but I find that I'm still not really ready to get excited about picture taking. I'm sure it will pass. (Can I recommend you take a picture of your email address or phone number and leave it on your card? At least it will give a well-intentioned person a way to contact you.)

Meanwhile I will show you a few pictures I do have of my yarn tourism in the Netherlands. The day after we landed, I found my first yarn shop: Esde in Dokkum.

That's my mom and her cousin, in case you're
trying to figure out which one is me!

 They had a nice selection and I picked out a ball of sock yarn I liked:

You can see I paid 8.50 Euros for it, which I thought was alright since it will do a pair of socks. (Honestly I think of $20 as "regular" price for yarn for a pair of socks. Anything less than that is a bonus.) My mom's cousin who was with us thought it was a little "duur" (expensive), but I got it anyway. We went to another shop in town the next day and the same yarn was 8.55, so I figure I did alright. :)

I didn't hit another yarn shop until we were in Amsterdam at the end of the following week. I had researched shops on Ravelry before we left and knew there was one pretty close to our hotel. So we ventured out, walked a bunch of residential streets seeing some "everyday" Amsterdam and found it pretty easily. Wolboetiek Sylvia--a small crowded shop where I found a nice set of skeins for socks and a luxurious looking blend in gold.

The blend is Rayon (70%), Mohair (20%), and Polyamid (10%), so a little different than my usual choice of wool. I think it will make a very pretty something for around the neck or shoulders. Who knows what, right now though.

The next day we were at another cousin's in Haarlem and I knew there was a wool shop right around the corner from her house. She didn't know it, but when I gave her the address, we went right there. It was simply called "Wol!"

The shop had a lot of Rowan brand which I can get a home any time,but I found two balls to take with me.

The top one I couldn't resist because it said it was hand painted just for this shop (even though the store owner said it wasn't. I guess I just believe what I read.) Well, and it's pretty. The bottom ball was the closest I could come to straight-up orange. With the Netherlands doing so well in the FIFA World Cup (right up until today actually) and taking first (women) and second (men) in the Field Hockey World Cup, there was orange everywhere. I wanted to take a little home with me. This ball is a little more yellow than orange (although more orange than the picture), so I may touch it up with some orange dye before I knit it up into some House of Orange socks. Maybe I'll knit them during the next Olympics knitting games.

The final yarn stop was on our last day of vacation when we were in Delft. I hadn't researched any shops in Delft since I didn't know we would be going there, but the shop was recommended by my second cousin. She did more sewing than knitting, but she knew her local craft stores. This one was Knotten Wol.

Another little shop chocked full. Having quite enough sock wool to hold me for a while, I went with something super bulky:

I've got a project I've been collecting up different yarns for and I thought these colours would blend in well enough.

And that's the extent of my crafty holiday. I have to say, I think it was a pretty good haul! :)

Winding down the day on a roof-top terrace.

A Good Day

A couple weeks ago I read somewhere that a knit designer I admire (I admire her designs, anyway; I don't really know her) was going to be appearing at a yarn shop nearby close enough. She would be hanging out to sign books, discuss her designs and show off the actual prototypes and samples from the books.

I realized (with some glee) that this was all happening on a day I had scheduled off to use up some of my accumulated comp time. I had no other plans, so I decided to go. Why not?

The day dawned with some snow, but it was supposed to taper off throughout the day, so off I went to Country Needleworks. I drove the hour and a half to get there, and got to meet Ann Weaver, designer extraordinaire, and she kindly signed my new book.

I had to admit that I hadn't actually knit any of her designs, but I had started to notice that I could pick out her patterns when I saw new stuff I liked. She is the designer of the Oranje sweater that I went on and on about here. (Still plan to make it, by the way. Maybe this year--I need a pullover to enter in the fair!)

Another one I have my eye on is this large circle shawl:

I am fascinated by circle shawls and don't know why I haven't made one yet. This one's in the book I bought, so maybe this will be the first.

While I was at the store, I took a look around. They not only have quite a large yarn selection, they also have supplies for beading, embroidery, scrap booking, etc. I, however, stuck mostly with yarn and picked up a few new skeins...

They stock Mini Mochi, and I grabbed this colourway, "Blueberry Pancakes":

My Circle socks that I made from Mini Mochi are the best feeling socks I have, and so of course I want some more.

I finally broke down and decided I may need to knit Troy a pair of socks. This Ultra Alpaca

was a suitable colour, suitably soft, and hopefully suitably hard-wearing since it contains a lot of nylon content. And also, suitably priced since I had to buy two skeins to make sure I could make them big enough and long enough.

And the best find of the day was these buttons:

They are quite large (about 2") and very lovely, and I bought all they had. Thank you, people who gave me cash for Christmas! (Splurge time!) No, I don't know what they will be used for, but I love them very much.

Then I sat down for a while and knit, listening to the conversation of the group. What was I working on?

I started an easy take-along project--a new bias triangle shawl like this one I had to give away. I found a very similar colourway in a wool-silk blend and knew right away that I would use it to make a shawl for myself. I made pretty good progress while I was there. Like the first one I made, I am holding the yarn double, working from both ends of the same ball. I have a little more yardage than I used in the first one, so it should end up about the same size. (This is a pattern you can work until you run out of yarn.)

Then while I was sitting there, I noticed that they had some old cross stitch samples for sale in a back corner. Not only on sale, but on clearance.

I really liked this subtly Christmas-themed sampler on red linen. For $15, I thought it was a steal.

Here's a detail of a darling little bunny:

and the deer and snowflakes that run across the bottom:

It was fun sitting in a shop in the Grand Rapids area. For one thing being blond is normal instead of the exception. They were talking about seeing Cokie Roberts at the January series at Calvin College (my alma mater). And in the clearance bins of cross stitched samplers, I found one with the words of Lord's Day One of the Heidelberg Catechism. Only in Grand Rapids. (Well, I'm sure people in Pella say, "Only in Pella.") It's fun sometimes to be among "your people."

And then the fun did not end. I met up with a friend who moved out of the area a few years ago, and we had a great time talking over an early dinner and then seeing a movie. And since you can never have enough of this hunka-hunka-burning-awesome, I will even include a picture:

Yup, we saw Skyfall and thoroughly enjoyed it.

Things on my Mind

Here's how the Snowflake sweater is looking tonight:

I got through the colourwork on the first sleeve,

(it was a bit of a slog, but perseverance came through for the win)

and have gotten a good start on the second sleeve:

When I tried it on to test the fit (and take pictures), the sleeves felt more snug than the body of the sweater. I know that the sleeves are tighter now than they will be after blocking because of the colourwork, so I trust it will all work out. I mean when has a gauge swatch ever lied? (ha ha--nervous laughter)

The other project I've been working on has hit a crisis of indecision. Or maybe I should say crisis of changed-my-mind.

I've been working on this blue and green scarf and really love the colors and the look of the brioche stitch. BUT I've come to the realization that the person I'm making it for doesn't wear long scarves.

My original idea was to add some subtle shaping so that the scarf would also work as a hat in a pinch. I figured it would make it an easy accessory to grab and use for whatever the weather threw at you.

But I went a little crazy, maybe, and the first half of the scarf hangs practically to my knees. I wanted enough length to make sure there was enough to wrap around your neck, but I'm realizing it's just too long.

So now I don't know what to do. I love the yarn; it's perfect. But what to make for someone who really doesn't use hats, mitts, or scarves? Do I press on just because it's pretty? Pretty, but useless--is that really what I want to give as a gift? (Well, that sums up a lot of things sold as "gifts," if you ask me, but I still don't like it.)

On the bright side, I've gotten pretty good at a two-colour brioche stitch. (That's not really making me feel much better though. I wouldn't mind taking out this scarf if I had a good idea of what to do instead. As it is, I'm just frustrated. Sounds like it's time for a time out for this scarf.)

The other thing I've been doing the last few days is working on my raveled sweater stash. It's part of a recently renewed process of decluttering around here. Instead of just putting it in a closet and doing stuff that maybe I "should" be doing (like knitting a sweater which needs to get done), it "had" to be dealt with. So I tore apart sweaters, raveled the yarn, balled it up and labeled it. There were also three sweaters I decided I would never do anything with or didn't need (like the third red cotton one) and so I donated them back.

(In the following pictures, the real colour is usually closer to the one the right, if you're curious.)

307 grams of wool/angora/nylon blend:

I wore this last winter and it was ok, but I was done with it and the neckline never was very comfortable.

219 grams of cotton:

I wore this for the summer since "tangerine tango" was picked as the colour for 2012. It didn't quite fit right, so I didn't mind raveling it. It's a lovely colour and probably still will be in 2013 (or whenever I use it). ;)

517 grams of off-white cotton:

Is there dying in my future? Who knows...but if there is, I'll be ready with this on hand!

425 grams of red cotton:

(Check out the details on those sleeves!)

441 grams of bright pink cotton:


314 grams of a silk/rayon mix:

What a hideous style this sweater was. The yarn, however, is a really nice warm wheat colour; not too yellow and lovely. And silk...I'm a sucker for silk.

350 grams of a wool/acrylic blend:

Normally I wouldn't do acrylic, but this blend is washable and a lovely soft pink. It'll be good for a baby or child item.

285 grams of silk:

It's hard to photograph the colour, but it's a really nice teal.

So it's all rolled into cakes, wrapped up and stored away. And no more piles of sweaters in my living room!

I really don't know what I'm going to do with all that cotton--I don't use it that much besides the dish clothes that I make while walking (which hasn't been happening all that often). But it's all I've been finding to ravel and the colours are very seductive.

With this project off my mind, perhaps I'll get to some of the other stuff that needs to be done!

Travelogue with Fireworks

I had a bit of a whirlwind trip home for Canada Day this past weekend. It was a fun time with most of the  family there. Sunday was spent on the beach and was capped off with a great fireworks display.

I left on Friday and crossed the border at Sarnia. I had read about a yarn shop there, so I did some research and found three that I could visit within a close area. The first was Heaven is Handmade on Christina Street. I really liked the selection, especially since they carried brands I don't see much in my LYS.

I took home a couple skeins of aran-weight washable wool for a project I'll talk about later:

I started swatching on the trip because I couldn't wait to try it out.

I also took home a skein of sock yarn dyed by a local woman. I'm developing a habit of picking up a skein of sock yarn when travelling!

The colours were gorgeous and I chose this green because I thought it would be a nice darker colourer to wear with jeans (without getting too dark to work with or to see a pattern). When you open it up:

you can see that the colours are fairly spotty or random so I don't expect it to stripe too much when knit. We'll see. It's merino with 20% cashmere and feels very soft and squishy.

The second shop was Feather Your Nest on Front Street. It was a nice shop split about 50/50 with home decorator items, with the yarn in the back. (And chocolate. I shouldn't forget that they sell Godiva chocolate there too.) I had first heard about it because they hosted Stephanie Pearl-McPhee recently and I considered going. They stocked a lot of yarn that I can get at my LYS (Lorna's, madelinetosh, Handmaiden). It's all great stuff, but not what I'm looking for on vacation.

I did find it interesting to recognize their shop samples. They had a Honey Cowl out of madelinetosh. Oh wow, I made one of those for a shop sample. And they also had a Color Affection Shawl, which I haven't made but recognized right away because I've thought long and hard about making it. It soared in popularity after Stephanie mentioned it on her blog.

The address for the third shop turned out to be an empty store front. :( No hattrick for me.

The following day, we went out to the "Blue Box," which is a second hand place. (A "blue box" being the municipal container that you use to put out your recyclables.) My sister found some yarn leftovers to use for her constant making of hats. I found some old plastic needles:

I enjoy them so much, and these will be nice additions to the ones I have from my grandmother's supply. I really liked finding the dpns; I didn't have any of them. I love the bright colours, and even if they were the cheapest of the cheap needles at the time, a few decades have bestowed on them value and worth.

Later on Saturday I attended a baby shower for my niece, and now I can reveal the little package I showed a few weeks ago. This:

contained all this:

Two receiving blankets ("spit" cloths) and two bibs. I couldn't believe it when I found this pink elephant fabric. (I always have my eyes out for elephant fabric but there's not a lot of nice options out there.) I actually resisted it the first time I saw it because I didn't think I had a use for it. Well, then I invented a use and went out and got some. The coordinating fabrics are part of what sold me on it. Pink argyle elephants! Come on, how could I resist that?

Here is a detail of each bib:

And Brooke opening her gift:

Here is another handmade gift:

One of my sisters likes to make play blankets from two pieces of flannel with satin trim. Very simple, but very cute. She's happy because the trim company has finally come out with some updated colours.

Later in the day, I went to visit a friend who built a new house over the last year. She and her family were out of town for the weekend, so I actually just visited the house! But they said I was welcome and I decided it was worth it because I didn't know when I would be home next and really wanted to see the new house. I had prepared a gift to leave as a house warming, but forgot it at my mom's. Complete bummer. I'll show you anyway:

It's the latest set of "walking dishcloths" that I finished right before leaving for the trip. I truly hope that it's the thought that counts, because it isn't worth mailing them! (Sorry, Y!)

Sunday was spent on the beach and in between food runs, trips to the shoreline and visits to the art tents, I knit on my latest socks:

I decided on the Harris Tweed pattern by Ali Green. I think the pattern is perfect with this yarn combination. I finished the first sock before I left, and took the second one to work on. I made some good time on it on Sunday.

Monday I got zero knitting done because I had to drive the whole way home. Next time I won't forget to pack the hubby so he can drive!!