Spinning – Sheetar.com

Antarktis

By Sheetar 25 April 2014 20 August 2023

Another spun-to-finished project! I recently realizes just how much handspun I have sitting around, and how much I need to start using it instead of keeping it set aside as precious yarn that shall not be touched. The resulting shawl came out really lovely, light and airy, and I’m super happy with the results. I’ll admit to not really being a shawl person, but with the right pattern, I’ve slowly grown to like wearing them with the point in front, and sometimes add extra increases to make sure the long side is long enough to go all the way around. There’s nothing worse than a shawl that won’t wrap around the whole way without feeling like I’m being strangled. Details below!

First up, the fiber. This is Twisted Fiber Art’s Cloudy in colorway “Terrain” which is 60% Merino and 40% Bamboo. It looks like the name of the fiber was changed to Glam, and the fiber contents tweaked a little.

Next, the yarn. Spun to something between fingering and lace weight, I came out with 547 yards, chain plied.

The shawl! Pattern is Antarktis by Janina Kallio. Total knitting time was just over two weeks, so it went pretty quickly and was easy enough to bring with me to knit night. I used up pretty much the whole skein, following the pattern instructions until I got to the border section, except switching the wrong-side rows to purl so that it was garter instead of stockinette with a 3 stitch garter border. Just not a fan of garter stitch! I kept repeating the border section until I was just about out of yarn and then bound off using Jenny’s Surprisingly Stretchy Bind Off. Blocked aggressively with wires and the resulting shawl came out beautifully. Ravelry Project Link in case you’re interested.

On a non-knitting realted note, I’m really trying to blog more, especially with One Local Summer starting again. It always seems like I go from May to November only posting about food, and I want to try to blog more to break all that up a bit! I have a whole bunch of projects I haven’t blogged about lined up, and there will be PLENTY going on in the vegetable garden, so hopefully those will break up the summer monotony. We’re also going on some trips this summer, and I hope to be able to blog from the road. Anything you’d like to hear about specifically? Let me know in the comments!

Spinning

Tour de Fleece 2013

By Sheetar 26 July 2013 20 August 2023

(The photo that was here was lost to a flickr deletion – I thought I had backed up everything, but this file was missed)

Tour de Fleece is over for another year. What is Tour de Fleece? Well, it’s held during the Tour de France, that big bicycling race, except replace bikes with spinning wheels and fiber, and you have a nerdy, wool filled 21 days (plus two days rest) of spinning your feet off. I posted my progress shots on Instagram, but I figured I’d post the final shot of my finished work here. My final tally is 3081 yards of finished yarn, but times three for the three plies, and I have 9,243 yards spun in total. Not too shabby! I could’ve probably spun more, but I was pretty busy and seemed to have stressed the heck out of my hands like I never have before. My favorite is the Chasing Rainbows top mostly for the way it spun so easily and evenly. REALLY love the colors on the Taylored Fibers yarn. So, now that I have all this handspun, I need to actually start using it for projects!

All have been chain plied, links to go my Ravelry stash page.

Top row, L to R:
1. Chasing Rainbows Merino/Bombyx top – 332 yards, 2 oz
2. Taylored Fibers 80/20 Merino/Silk – 542 yards, 4 oz
3. Dunn Spunn Alpaca/Wool/Bamboo – 628 yards, 9.3 oz

Bottom row, L to R:
1. Twisted Fiber Art Cloudy 60/40 Merino/Bamboo – 547 yards, 4 oz
2. Mountain Colors 100% Targhee – 506 yards, 4 oz
3. Wild Hare Fiber Studio Superwash Wool – 526 yards, 4oz

knitting, Socks, Spinning

Go With the Flow Socks

By Sheetar 16 April 2011 16 April 2011

Finally, another spun-to-finished project. I’ve been accumulating quite the stash of handspun, and I figured it was time to put some to use. The yarn is dyed by Meg at Twisted Fiber Art, and she’s really quite the magician with dye. The colorway is called, “Intrigue,” and was part of a club Meg ran for 3 months. I spun the superwash merino roving into a thin single and then chain or navajo plied the yarn so that the colors would stay together as they were dyed. I ended up with about 425 yards of fingering weight yarn that was then turned into a really squishy pair of Go With the Flow socks. The pattern knitted up quickly, and I only made a few modifications – worked a plain slip-stitch heel and didn’t turn the work inside out after the heel flap was done. I love the way they came out and refuse to take them off now that the photos are taken. Yeah, it’s almost not-sock season, but that won’t stop me from stocking up for the winter!

2009 Knitting, Socks, Spinning

2009 Knitting Resolutions – Wrap up

By Sheetar 9 January 2010 9 January 2010

2009 is over and gone, and I’m going to check through my list and see how I’ve done.

1. Clear the WIP queue from last year by the end of the month.
There’s still one outstanding WIP from 2008 in my queue, but otherwise, I did pretty well on the clean-up! We’ll consider this one not complete, but close, right?

2. Knit two sweaters this year.
I got one! I blogged about that one here, and got a good start on the second one, but haven’t yet finished it. Hopefully soon.

3. Knit one pair of socks per month.
Oh boy did I EVER do this one. And I think I deserve a HUGE GOLD STAR. Because I’m awesome.

I knitted a few socks this year. Here are my official 12 per the year, but the total count is 19 pairs *finished* this year (some were started in 2008). The links below are to flickr and the original post on my blog.

1. January flickr – blog	2. February flickr– blog	3. March flickr– blog
4. April flickr– blog	5. May flickr– blog	6. June flickr– blog
7. July flickr– blog	8. August flickr– blog	9. September flickr– blog
10. October flickr– blog	11. November flickr– blog	12. December flickr– blog

4. Spin four ounces of roving per month.
I might not have gotten them all in on the right month, but here we have it! Some of those are 8 ounces, so I don’t have 12 photos, but there are more than enough ounces to count at least four for every month of the year. Yes, I realize October is missing, but there are two entries for March, so the math works out in the end, yes? Yes.

1. Jan/Feb blog	2. Jan/Feb blog	3. March Flickr
4. June/July blog	5. June/July blog	6. August blog
7. September blog	8. May blog	9. March blog
10. November blog	11. December blog

5. Dye more yarn and roving.
Oh yeah. Did that. Hosted a dye-day at my house with the local Stitch n’ Bitch and it was super fun.

6. Knit at least one pair of stranded socks.
Nope. Not even a little. I really over-extended myself this past year.

7. Finish holiday gift knitting throughout the year instead of all at once in December!
I guess I got this one? Sorta cheated since I only did one item for one person. It’s so hard knitting gifts when there are five sisters-in-law to knit for. I’ve opened up next year for requests, so we’ll see what happens.

8. Participate in another test knit.
Yep. A few of them. I think three total?

9. Work on an original pattern.
*buzzer* Not even a little bit. It was a nice idea though?

The tally comes to five out of nine. I think the list for 2010 is going to be more conservative. More on that later, while I think up some goals to set.

2009 Knitting, Socks, Spinning

December Knitting Wrap-up

By Sheetar 6 January 2010 7 February 2012

December (and all of 2009) is gone and it’s time to update on the knitting resolutions.

3. Knit one pair of socks per month

Hanging Vines of Envy
Pattern: Hanging Vines
Designer: Kelly Porpiglia
Needles: US 1 (2.25mm)
Yarn: Sheepy Time Yarns Sheepy Feet in, “Green Eyed Monster,” from the Sheepy Time Knits December 2009 Club
–Ravelry Project Link–
There was just no excuse for this one to be anything than what it is. It’s the December colorway since I’m a speshul snowflake, and thus, these socks had to be knitted. They’d been in my queue for a while and when this yarn popped out of the mailbox, I KNEW, just knew what the yarn was destined to be. Not a super-easy knit, challenging enough that I wasn’t bored, but I definitely needed the chart the whole way through. The results are very much worth it and I’m totally jazzed about how they came out.

4. Spin four ounces of roving per month.
I made up for last month and covered this month too.

This is 8 ounces of Handspun alpaca. The roving comes from Black Diamond Alpacas, a local gal who sends the fiber from her animals to be processed together. The names of the alpacas used in this blend were even on the label which is just too cute. Unfortunately, the fiber was REALLY dirty and I think it’s probably from an oil or grease used during the process that draws out the roving to keep the fuzz from flying. It washed out (after four rinses), and I’m rather happy with the results. I ended up with about a worsted weight, approximately 350 yards. This wasn’t so much a spin for a specific project, but I’m thinking a pair of thrummed mittens may be in order.

And that’s all I’ve got. I have to get a few posts together this month for a resolutions wrap up as well as a 2010 resolutions (*gasp* 2010?! DID I JUST SAY THAT?!).

2009 Knitting, Socks, Spinning, Sweaters

September Knitting Wrap-up

By Sheetar 1 October 2009 7 February 2012

YES! September is already over – can you even believe it? The weather got cool so quickly, I feel like fall just came around and slapped me in the face with a wet trout. Or assaulted me with acorns. No wait, that was the squirrels. Anyway, on to the knitting!

Just going back, again, to the Knitting Resolutions.

3. Knit one pair of socks per month

Twisted Flower Socks
Pattern: Twisted Flower Sock
Designer: Cookie A.
Needles: US 1.5 (2.5mm)
Yarn: Madelinetosh Tosh Sock
–Ravelry Project Link–

Still going strong on the one pair per month goal. These were rather challenging in that there were a lot of twisted stitches, cables, and I had to pay attention on every row, but the result is a gorgeous pair of socks that I’m proud to have conquered. These came together in a trip to Loop in Philadelphia, on a whim, and just ended up being the pair-of-the-month. Dear friend Abbie graciously modelled them for me.

4. Spin four ounces of roving per month.

I got this one too! That is some lovely alpaca from dkKnits in the colorway, “Wheat Fields” and I’m just dying over how soft it is. This is the first time I’ve spun alpaca and it was like butter through the fingers – a very enjoyable spin! We came out to 400 yards from the 4oz of fiber which makes it fingering weight. Not sure what this will become just yet, but I’m sure it’ll let me know someday.

2. Knit two sweaters this year.

Wicked Sweater
Pattern: Wicked!
Designer: Sarah & Rachel
Needles: US 6 (4mm)
Yarn: dkKnits extrafine superwash merino squish
–Ravelry Project Link–

IT’S DONE! One sweater down and one to go. This blocked out perfectly and the color is just spectacular – it looks much more incredible in person. The yarn is soft and squishy and really easy to work with, not to mention, again, the incredible custom dye job that Becky put together for me. I’ll probably be wearing this to Rhinebeck, so if you see me, come say hello!

To wrap this all up, Socktoberfest begins today and I’m all prepared to cast on for a mystery sock. There are four total socks that I’ll be doing this socktoberfest, so wish me luck!

2009 Knitting, Finished Objects, Socks, Spinning

August Knitting Wrap-up

By Sheetar 2 September 2009 7 February 2012

I’m actually on time! Back again to the Knitting Resolutions..

3. Knit one pair of socks per month

>Handspun Wanida
Pattern: Wanida
Designer: Cookie A.
Needles: US 1 (2.25mm)
Yarn: My own Handspun
–Ravelry Project Link–

I’m fiercely proud of these. The handspun is a superwash BFL by Twisted Fiber Art that I spun as part of Tour de Fleece. It knitted up and wears absolutely beautifully. Even though there’s a jog in the color change for the heel, I still like how they came out and worked with the pattern. Knitted up quick and those colors are just spectacular!

4. Spin four ounces of roving per month.
We gots your spunroving right here. This is 632 yards of fingering weight yarn that was started during Tour de Fleece and finished up in August. When I realized I had 632 yards, I figured it was way more than 4 ounces to begin with, so I’m saying it’ll count for August. It’s navajo plied and is a merino roving that was found at Maryland Sheep & Wool festival this year. We had a dye day not too long ago and I dyed this at the event. Love the way it came out and now I have to find something that will use the whole batch of yarn.

Still making progress on that sweater, but as the year is already half-over, I’m not sure if I’ll actually complete all my resolutions and goals. Well, there’s always next year, right?

2009 Knitting, Socks, Spinning

June and July Knitting Wrap-up

By Sheetar 13 August 2009 7 February 2012

I guess this is becoming a bi-monthly thing instead of a monthly update. We’ll re-visit the Knitting Resolutions.

3. Knit one pair of socks per month
Did it again. Seven pairs so far (well Eight if you count the ones I’ve already finished for August), and I can’t wait to get to December and post all twelve of them in one big post.


Rare Monkey Gems	Jupiter Lava Socks
Pattern: Monkey	Pattern: Hey Jupiter
Designer: Cookie A.	Designer: Liz Abinante
Needles: US 1 1/2 (2.5mm)	Needles: US 1 (2.25mm)
Yarn: Blue Moon Fiber Arts Socks That Rock Lightweight – Rare Gems	Yarn: dkKnits Technicolor Smoosh Toes
-Ravelry Project Link-	-Ravelry Project Link-
These knitted up in FOUR DAYS. Four days. I had the pattern memorized after one repeat and it was so simple yet beautiful, I’m positive these won’t be my last monkey socks. The rare gems came from Rhinebeck last year and I just LOVE how the colors pooled up.	This was the sock of the month from Yarn4Socks. After a false start (too tight to fit over my heel), I added four stitches in and they worked out perfectly. I did an extra repeat on the leg since there was plenty of yarn. The color is FANTASTIC and the pattern was super fun to knit.

4. Spin four ounces of roving per month.
Well I got eight ounces in one month? Does that count? I decided to go ahead and put away the knitting for a month and spin along with Tour de Fleece, a yearly spinning event that takes place during the Tour de France. Well I spun my little feet off and ended up with two finished skeins and one half-spun chunk of roving.

	This merino/tussah roving was from dkKnits and is spun up to laceweight, 789 yards. I think maybe this is why I only completed two skeins during Tour de Fleece! It spun up delightfully soft and squishy and I just love how the colors came out.
	This is a roving from Twisted Fiber Art and is the Brilliant Roving (superwash BFL) in the colorway, Blaze. It spun up to fingering weight and came out to 420 yards. I’ve already knitted up a pair of socks with this and they are AWESOME if I do say so myself. An absolute delight to spin and knit, definitely a roving I’ll be working with again.

And I think that’s about it. I haven’t really made any more progress on the other goals, and should probably get started on that considering the year is well over half done. 🙂