Cowls

A few weeks ago I picked up a skein of Noro Nadeshiko at Wolseley Wools. I was going to make another "Identical But Not the Same" cowl, until I realized it wasn't bulky enough. Time for yet another new cowl pattern. I was on a roll this winter it seems. I'm normally not a cowl-person, or at least I don't think of myself as one, but upon some Rav-project reflection (of my own projects) I see I've knit a few over the years. I just happen to only own one of them. Yes, the cowl may be one of the knitter's most reliable, quick gift ideas. A little fancy yarn and a few minutes (couple hours) is all you need. It certainly helped me out this winter with gift giving.

I call this the "Really Want You In My World" cowl. It's a simple and quick knit in a "step by step" stitch pattern.
Get it?
Well, the gift recipient will.

I love how the stitch pattern creates another soft, squishable cowl.  Not as squishy as the SquishaCowl, but the Noro makes up for that.

Earlier in the winter I whipped up a trio of IdentiCowls with stash yarn.  They are "identical but not the same" using the same basic stitch pattern in different yarn weights (and some other small differences in the pattern to account for those differences).

Super Bulky and Aran/Heavy worsted are my favourites as they're the quickest to knit up.

I confess this light worsted/DK was frogged because I hated the yarn - the colour and feel of it.  I only persevered for the sake of testing the pattern in a lighter weight.

I am currently working on a few more IdentiCowls in Lion Brand Wool Ease Thick and Quick sized down for youths.

The first cowl design of the winter was actually my SquishaCowl design.  The mock-up was a child-sized cowl with a horrid seam, but the 'real' version appears seamless. (Only appears so, yes there is seaming.)  I was using up stash leftovers for it, but I think the two yarns go well and the gift recipient loves it.  It turned out she had just bought herself a new, red coat and this is the perfect winter accessory for it.  Funnily enough, she had bought a turtle necklace for me, which just happens to match the green-blue yarn - so I had to photograph them together before I packaged up her gift.

That turtle is bigger than it looks. I call it my Turtle Bling.  It's so big and shiny that I actually like the crazy thing. The matching earrings are much smaller and less "bling-y".

Mini Shawl in Silk

I hummed and hawed over what to do with the silk I'd just spun. Letting it sit around in my stash is never an option for my handspun. (I already have the Peruvian Blues and the Black Alpaca waiting to become mittens, and it's weighing on me.) There's not enough to make a shawl... Unless it's mini.

The result is a Mini Shawl necklace. It is warm and cozy on my neck (like a shawl should be).  More importantly, it allows me to show off my handspun silk.  Now I'm working on a bracelet with a snowdrop lace insert.  There's plenty of yarn for such small projects.

I tested the design idea first on some fingering weight yarn (silk above is a fine lace) and larger needle.  It makes a lovely shawl for a Groovy Girl.  I've been informed that I need to make a couple more shawls that are slightly larger for her knit dolls.

Doll photos taken by 4 year old.

Silk

It took some time, but I finished the ounce of silk, plied 3 strands together into 176m (193yds) of lovely lace yarn and now need a project. There's another 58m of silk thread single that I plan to embroider with.

Lace Yarn

3 ply and single ply

3 ply

Single/thread

I've moved on to a silk and camel blend. Another gift of Sericin Silk roving from KW Knitter's Fair. The colourway is "a dance with fuschia".  This is another fine yarn I will 3-ply.  I decided to play with my support spindle for this project and I am loving it.  It's much easier working with the camel/silk than it was when I first tried this spindle with alpaca.

Impromptu Spin

What do you do when your silk spinning project falls from a book case into the potty that you have just lifted your baby from after her big morning wake-up pee? (Don't you just love babies with a dry diaper in the morning? I digress.)

All dry now. This will be mini-ball no. 4 to ply.

After you rinse the spindle and yarn and fibre and set it aside to dry, you start a new project, right?

That's what I did a couple days ago and I think it's my quickest spinning project yet.

My friend gifted me two lovely batts [Rav link] from Sericin Silkworks. 46g of merino, alpaca, silk and yak down.  I decided to play with my homemade top-whorl suspended spindle again.  Finished the first batt of singles in a day. Finished the next batt the following day and started plying.  With baby-chasing and other activities I needed a third to finish plying the 120m of fingering weight yarn.

Tasty new yarn for breakfast.  Sportin' the just-out-of-bed-with-twins look. Chic.

Skeined the yarn around two Bumbos this morning (day 4). Soaked in Euclan. Now it's drying.

Back to the dry silk - the never-ending ounce of thread...

Spindles

This is my modest spindle collection (not including my simple stick).
On the left are five turkish spindles.  The top is the knit picks version - my first.  The pretty ones are all from Thomas Creations / Threads Thru Time.
The tiny 0.6oz is an orange dymondwood.
The medium 1.3 oz spindle below has a shaft of Argentine Osage Orange and a whorl of Quina (sounds fancy-schmancy).
The large 1.3oz spindle beside it has a walnut shaft and Ambrosia Maple whorl.
The large cobalt blue dymondwood is 1.9oz. (I used to have a matching medium spindle in this wood and it bothers me tremendously that it was lost/stolen.)
On the top right is a homemade top-whorl spindle.
Below it is my supported spindle by Thomas C. Forrester. The woods are Umbuya and maple. It weighs 0.83 oz.
That strange device in the middle is a rakestraw spinner made in Ontario. (Cambridge I believe.)

As you can see, I need to start more spinning projects. I don't know why I have empty spindles.  I am currently working my way through that ounce of silk... it just keeps going.

There is another finished ball missing here.

Silk from SDSpin on etsy

LYS sale

I had a few xmas dollars to spend.
Wolseley Wools was having a great annual sale.
Wish I had more to spend (and a source of income).
This will keep me happy for a while. Days at least :P

 Sweet Georgia BFL in pomegranate. nom. 8oz to spin

Noro Nadeshiko (with angora, wool and silk) was 50% off.

This was the best colour capture photo, but was part of another picture focused behind the yarn.

Now that I have a new camera, I'll snap those spindle photos and such.  The camera is a point and shoot, so they won't be terribly fancy pics.  With twin infants, we don't have space/arms to carry a larger camera right now.

Yule Knits

With three kiddos to knit for each Yule now, I'm going to have to start earlier if I ever plan to make something larger than a wee stuffy.
This year the girls each received a Flower Power Elephant in Koigu (orphans) I picked up before moving.

Correction, Little Lucy's elephant on top in the last photo was knit with hand-dyed Berroco Ultra Alpaca fine created for a baby blanket in 2011.  Abi's is the blue-pink elephant and she picked out the yarn last spring.  Claire's has the not-matching pink ears and feet because I used the leftovers from her alien/monster stuffy and only had enough for the body.

The pattern is simple and adorable, although I made the legs a few stitches wider for better support. I suspect if I'd used a heavier yarn (knit tightly) I wouldn't have needed to adjust the legs.

For Robin, I saved myself the trouble of knitting socks by buying a hand-knit pair at a craft sale. As I told my mom who asked if they were a good price, "I could buy the yarn for that price..."  Actually, I probably couldn't buy the yarn I would have bought - hand-dyed from Etsy or some such - for that price (less than $20).  They're a nice warm wool (blend?) and will keep him cozy while ice skating with the girls and curling.

Christmas knits will be another post as soon as I have my new camera.  It's nothing fancy, but an upgrade from our old digital P&S.