Spindlitis

Just can’t seem to stop knitting. I’ve done three Better Than Basic Pullovers in Avalanche. I may do a cardigan with the last of it. I have a (surprise) birthday present for Lon on the needles. I’m working on the new Thinking Cap by Churchmouse. And I have a couple more projects that I’ll start as soon as I finish something.

Take a look at the video of spinning with a distaff here: http://windwraith.blogspot.se/2015/12/ode-to-distaff_5.html

It’s impressive. I dug out my Lisa Chan Rose spindle today, but doubt that I’ll get any spinning in. Will take another look and see if I can give it a try.

I just love Classic Elite’s Avalanche. There are some drawbacks to it. I suspect that it won’t hold up over time. The nylon makes it easy to snag. The advantages though make it worth it. It’s warm, lightweight and soft. Since it’s a chainette yarn, it’s stretchy. I’ve had some snags work back into the sweater, just by stretching the area a bit. There’s no drape, so this feels more like fabric. And I like the colors. They have a watercolor effect to them. And since this is discontinued, prices are good.

I’m on my third Better Than Basic Pullover, all made from Avalanche. They seem perfect for this climate. I’m not a fan of drop shouldered sweaters, so it’s not the most flattering thing I can wear. I just keep one by the door and put it on to take the dogs outside. It’s a comfortable choice for road trips too. If I didn’t have to pay property taxes, I’d probably be tempted to do a fourth.

I am close to finishing the Twice Reversible Ribbed Poncho. I did this in Rowan Hemp Tweed. I think it looks okay and I like the color. I wish I were more enthusiastic about the yarn. It does soften up but it’s not that pleasant to knit with. I find it interesting that people will call a wool yarn scratchy, yet they don’t seem to call hemp or linen scratchy. I have some Classic Elite Telluride, which is linen/alpaca. It seems much softer than this wool/hemp blend. In general, I prefer Classic Elite yarns to Rowan. I haven’t used either brand all that much. The Hemp Tweed was on sale at a great price and I’ve enjoyed trying something different. It’s just nice to get back to Avalanche again.

I have a couple of projects coming up for Lon. He wants a scarf out of buffalo fiber. I’ve ordered that. I already don’t care for the yarn. I ordered buffalo fiber to spin and just hated working with it. The yarn is half buffalo, half tussah silk. I think it took about six hours to ball up the skein, due to it tangling. I’ll have to use it double, which makes this an expensive scarf. He has a birthday coming up in June, so this is his present. And I’m going to make him a second watch cap, out of alpaca. He sometimes misplaces the black one I made, so I’d like for him to have a backup. I have two projects lined up for me. I think I’ll order a bit more of the Telluride and make a Go-To Cardigan. I was going to make the Easy Folded Poncho, but it’s too lightweight. I have the mohair for another Modern Wrapper. Just need to buy the second yarn for that. I have been good about buying for specific projects and I have been working them up as I go. I’ve also been getting rid of my old stash, as I seem to get a reaction from it. Need to finish going through it and let most of it go.

Here’s the sweater trio. The colors, left to right are Mountain, Sea, and Sky:

I’ve finished both sleeves on Lon’s sweater. I have sewn in one and seamed that side. Still need to sew in the other sleeve, then on to the collar. I really do need to finish this. He could wear it now. I still may need to tweak the sleeves a bit with a gusset. The sleeves are a bit tighter than I’d like.

Got a new book today. It’s In The Footsteps of Sheep. I’ve wanted this since I first learned about it. I’m about halfway through it. I like the journey and the patterns. I do think they shortchanged us spinners by not covering the details of the yarn and her tools. I gave it a good review on Amazon, but said I was disappointed that the socks weren’t knit in handspun.

And reading about spinning has me plying up a bit of yarn that has been just sitting around.

And this knucklehead hopes that you had lots of whipping cream for Thanksgiving! He does not like cranberries, so you can eat those yourself!

Still working on Lon’s sweater and making good progress. I’m up to the armhole on the first front. It’s an enjoyable knit. But, of course, I wanted to start another project.

I like Churchmouse patterns. I’ve yet to find an error in them. They are a bit old school (sweaters sewn instead of worked in the round). They look modern without looking odd. I’ve had the Fir Cone Lace Shawl pattern for awhile. I bought some silver grey Cascade 220 Fingering for another project. And somehow, it wants to be a shawl.

I picked up Elizabeth Lovick’s book on Shetland Lace:

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1250039088/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o02_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

The book arrived today and it looks great. I have some alpaca lace yarn that needs a project. It might be my winter project. This is such a strange summer. We’ve been having 70+ degree days and it feels like September.

I haven’t been spinning much. I’m on a knitting kick right now.  I’ve done two Modern Wrappers and will likely do more. They are very simple to knit and comfortable to wear. They use a fingering weight yarn and a fine mohair, which makes a lightweight fabric. It’s especially nice if it’s a mohair/silk strand. I don’t have pictures of me wearing one yet, but will post what I do have.

My other project is a sweater for Lon. It’s coming along nicely. This is a wool blend and actually nice stuff. I wanted a sweater he could knock around in.

Here’s another picture of this project:

The yarn is Sidar Harrap Tweed and is primarily synthetic. I will make Lon a nice wool sweater, but wanted the first one to be easy care. I like this yarn. I’ve been trying to buy extra, so I can make the Kerry Blue shawl out of the leftovers.

And this guy has now been with us for a year:

He’s frustrating and crazy. He barks too much. Loretta hates him and the cats don’t like him. But we are very happy that he lives with us.

I took a break over the holidays and did a little sewing. I badly needed some skirts. I love my Walking Skirts, but I like a narrower silhouette in the winter. And that led me back to Christine Jonson patterns. I have a lot of her patterns. One of my favorite skirts was the Slit Skirt. I made that in stretch velvet and wore it to death.  So I ordered some stretchy medium weight stuff from Fabric.com.

I made three skirts. Two turned out perfect. One is a ribbed cotton lycra in black. The other is in ITY. First time I’ve worked with ITY and I like it. It’s very comfortable. I thought at first it looked a bit shiny, but it’s okay. The third skirt turned out to be much too lightweight and extremely stretchy. I have to redo the waistband and am considering turning it into a slip. I’ll revisit that, once the waistband is redone. I like the fabric a lot, but just not as heavy as I’d liked.

I bought some waffle knit, like thermal knit, in a dark navy. It doesn’t look blue at all. I made the Straight Skirt as a slip. I’ve found that a slip makes a big difference in keeping you warm. This hits at the knees and works fine with the long skirt. I ordered more of the fabric as it was about gone. Should get here tomorrow. I’d planned to make another slip and a shell to go under my tops. I may rethink that and turn it into a shirt. I really wanted to buy tops, but made myself only get stuff for skirts.

I’ll try and post pictures, if I can get Lon to take some. But this turned out well. I used the Singer 401a and it did a nice job on the knits. I could have even done a double needle hem, but went with a zigzag. I’ve run into problems using a double needle and just am not comfortable enough with this machine to mess with it. But that leads me to my challenge to myself for this new year. I’m going to make up at least one garment from each of these patterns this year. And if I do that, I think I’ll get rid of most of my unused patterns. Mostly, I like the way I can easily alter Christine’s patterns. And I have always liked her philosophy of having a “uniform” that fits and you enjoy wearing. I will try a few more of the stretch fabrics I’m unfamiliar with, like Ponte de Roma, and will stay away from the ones that I had problems with, like Slinky. I wish I could get some of that wonderful cotton/lycra she used to sell, but it seems to be off the market. Time for a new look and comfortable clothes.

Let me just put in some project pictures.

The green gansey sweater has been nice. We had a cold spell and I had to break out my old handspun cold weather sweater. We are back to rain. And I have got to get back into a sewing groove. I need new skirts badly.

Thought it might be nice to post my sewing experiments from this weekend. I am doing the Gibson Girl Blouse by Folkwear. And I will be using some lightweight linen. I am also going with the pin tucks and lace insertion for the front yoke, but am not going to mess with the lace on the blouse. So this is my attempt at using the tucker and inserting lace.

With the tucker attachment, I could set the tuck on the sheet showing the spacing and make the next tuck in th right place. I like tucks, and wasn’t sure if I’d want pin tucks here. They have grown on me. I did not iron this as I worked, so they meander a bit.  I tried doing the lace insert two ways. The outside ones were stitched to fabric that was cut and had a narrow hem sewn first. The middle one was sewn, then fabric cut on the back. I didn’t want to use that technique, as it calls for using a narrow zigzag to bind the edges. I am trying to do this on my treadles. I could hand stitch those raw edges but will likely zigzag them. You can see what they look like from the back in the image below.

I am having some fun with this project. I’ve never sewn anything like this. I may not get as many things sewn in time for the wedding as I’d like, but the skirt just needs to be hemmed and the blouse done.