Woolybuns

Having A Great Time... Don't You Wish You Were Here?

Isn't this little cutie adorable?  She's about 6 months old, one of 14 alpacas at the open farm I visited with my mom today in Maine.  I kept thinking how gorgeous her fleece would be blended with some fawn angora.  And then there was this beautiful girl, with a celtic name I cannot even begin to figure out how to spell.  I did of course succomb to 3 skeins of black alpaca sport weight, a total of 900 yards.  Yum!  I had to indulge myself because this handsome little fella, also 6 months old, turns out to be for sale at the OMG price of $300.  Yes, people.  $300.  His breeder thinks he could be show quality but she's letting him go for fiber price because she has limited space and 4 more alpacas on the way.  I'm guessing babies to be born but was too distracted wondering if CC would be willing to share her stall by the cuteness to ask.   There is also a white 6 month old alpaca for sale for $300 but he wasn't willing to pose and didn't want to be caught, either, so I didn't get his picture.  He apparently has a fabulous fiber coat but not enough density for show or herd sire status.

Open Farm days are fun!  If you are in Connecticut or close enough and want to attend someone else's Alpaca Open Farm next weekend, I happen to know of one.  Rocky Ridge Farm in Stonington,

Connecticut will be showing off these cuties and more.  There will be refreshments, alpaca products, and assorted fiber demos going on from 9 am to 5 pm on Sunday, December 7.  I will be there with a couple bunnies, one for shearing demo.  For more information and directions, contact Barbara. 
 

WIP Me Wednesday 11-26-08

BFY4P Sweater is in progress. The pattern as written is a top down raglan, but I'm more comfortable knitting from bottom to top, especially after the discussion about top down raglan fit.  Jackie Fee explains in her book how perfectly reasonable and easy it is to try on a bottom to top sweater in progress to fit as you go.  So  my pattern is the image of what I want the sweater to be and Jackie's book.   After the swatching proved futile, I did the wild ass guess method of pulling out yarn to a length shorter than the first attempt, then long tail cast on until I ran out of yarn to cast on with, ending on stitch # 135.  I knit in seed stitch for 2 inches, then stockinette for another inch.  Since I am going for color progression in this sweater, I need to portion out the yarn to have enough for sleeves in the same progression.  Wild ass guess seems to be working for me on this sweater so I arbitrarily decided I would knit for 3 inches per color starting with the darkest skein, one inch of blending dark to slightly lighter, then 3 inches of the lighter skein and so forth.  Another guideline for me was no more than 2 of the 4 ounces per skein would go into the body of the sweater, leaving an ounce per skein for each sleeve.  As it turns out, the inches guideline leaves me about 3 ounces per skein, so there will be plenty of yarn for the cowl as well.   Convenient, that, since I'm going for a cowl neck sweater.   At this point, I have 4 inches knit, so I'm into the second colorway.  The varigation in the skeins is more subtle, producing an almost solid look, without enough of skein one in skein two to get a slow change like I had hoped.  I ripped back to just skein one and tried again, this time using a stranded knit approach, arbitrarily changing colors a few stitches here, one stitch there, maybe 5, back to two.  It's closer to what I want so I'm sticking with it.  Last thing I did last night was the all important test of fit.  I put a buncha stitches on a second circ and slipped the thing on to where I want it to sit, about bottom of hip.  Yeah, baby!  Fit hit the spot.   Next step: figure out short row shaping.  Goal for the week: knit the rest of the body. 

The fuzzy rib sweater is exactly the same as when I last spoke of it: undyed skeins.  Goal: dye the skeins. 

A task for you: describe your worst knitting mistake in the comments of last post - not this post but last post - to enter the Baaaa-rbie Sheep contest.  I'm enjoying the stories!

Dumb Knitting Mistakes ... Or Who Wants To Win A Sheep?

Like most of you, I've confessed in my blog to knitting goofs.  Sometimes it's the yarn's fault and then the solution of course is put the damn thing in time out.  That's where my Friend's Folly Sweater is.  I fished that project out the other day to swipe the needles check on it, and everything's the same as when I pushed it away.  No sweet little fairies or nymphs made magic with it, so as solutions go, time out isn't all that effective.  But my latest knitting mistake - yes, latest, cause I'm so good at making them - really has me shaking my head at just how dumb I can be when I make a mistake.  I knew something was a bit wonky in the seed stitch I'm working on.  I'd caught and fixed a few spots where I knitted the knits and purled the purls instead of t'other way round.  One benefit to mistake making is learning the tricks of fixing them by dropping selected stitches and recrafting them with a crochet hook rather than having to rip all the way back.  I've gotten fairly decent at that.  You know, because practice makes perfect.  But apparently only in the fixing, not in the knitting itself.  So when I first realized there was another spot that needed correction, I sighed and kept going because I knew it would be ok when I had access to my crochet hook.  This morning, it was time to fix.  I dropped 2 stitches down about 10 rounds, crocheted up the first one, then the second... wait a minute.  What's this loop thing sticking sideways?  And why doesn't it attach to the stitch beside it?  I fiddled.  The stitch refused.  I tinkered.  The bstitch laughed at me.  I cussed at it.  And it just said Nope.  Ain't cooperating.  Sigh.  If you can't figure out what happened, there's generally only one solution: rip out ten rounds.  And when I got to the offending stitch, what happened finally became apparent.  I reversed direction of my knitting.  Yep, just turned it inside out and knit back the way I came.  And, yes, managed to hide that from myself by knitting another knit so the pattern would work. 

Deserves a contest, don'tcha think?   You know, a la misery loves company.  C'mon now.  Fess up in the comments.  What's your dumbest knitting mistake?   You have until Sunday night at 11 pm to comment.   I'll put all names of commenters in a hat and draw a name.  Winner gets a Barbie - or as Lucia named her - a Baaaa-rbie - Sheep.

And the answer to where did I get the sheep?  Well, I bought a bunch to have for sale in my booth at NHSW.  Email me if you'd like to buy one before then.

City sheep just seem to find out early

How to me-elt hearts with just a smile
Some rich green grass
And she won't have to worry
She'll dress up all in feathers and go in style

This little sheep gets my giggle going.  I first met her - well, one just like her - at a guild meeting.  Now, y'all know I'm a bunny girl.  But this is a sheep I couldn't pass up.   She's full of surprises.  What happens when you shear her?   

This Barbie sheep is not one to pass up a party, but no lampshades for her.  She also has a Santa outfit, a hula outfit, rain gear, and snowflakes.  So all dressed up to go in style - the question is: where will she go?  Seems someone else got my giggle going this morning, too, with her very clever comment about my swatching.  So, Lucia. Honey.  Send me your address and I'll send you your very own Barbie sheep.

 

Foofy Friday

The babies are now 4 weeks old, smack in the middle the height of cuteness for bunnies (2 to 6 weeks - they are just about irresistible during those times).   Right now, they are little eating machines.  There are still 3 of them but one wasn't feeling very photographic this morning.    One baby is moving to Virginia when she's old enough.  One is staying here.  That leaves one baby doe available (see, I can do math).  Contact me for more information and possible delivery.

Last February's babies are now 9 month's old.  The two I kept, Poof Bear over there on the left, and Winnie the Poof on the right, are almost ready for shearing again.

So is this fella, Steely Dan, a 1/2 French 1/2 Satin angora buck, color chocolate steel.  His coat shines with a bit of the sheen the Satin angoras are known for.  He also kind of glows with some rufous tint.  His sire's color is copper, so breeding him to the red Satin doe I brought home from Rhinebeck will get me red angoras with satinized coats, and eliminate the steel gene.  I happen to like steel as a color pattern but many breeders don't, so knowing how to get rid of it is helpful (breed for red/fawn). 

I'm hoping the plunge into winter temps will moderate next week so I can clip these coats more comfortably.  If not, I will be making little bunny jackets.

Suspicious Minds

We're caught in a trap
I cant walk out
Because I love you too much baby

Why can't you see
What you're doing to me
When you I don't believe a word I you say?

I swatched the Four Play (is it just me, or does that sound... well, never mind).  My first choice of needles, size 7 knitpicks circs, worked, meaning it produced a nice fabric I'm happy with.  My math, as pathetic as I am with that stuff, worked (# of stitches x # of inches isn't higher math so I'm good with that, but stuff like this turns my brain all sproingy).  I happily cast on and knit 4 rounds of seed stitch.  Fortunately for me, others have walked this path before me.  That would be the Path of Suspicion.  That path that makes you knit and knit and knit, confidant that because you got gauge spot on in your swatch, your sweater will fit.  But deep inside, some little voice of reason wriggles and jiggles and sniggles inside as if you swallowed that fly so you swallow a spider  keep knitting and then a bird knitting and if you're not careful you get all the way up to that horse and you're dead of course so you have to become a frog and rippit. 

Well. 

Thanks to all of you who have blogged about that suspicious path, I tried on the 4 rounds of seed stitch and coughed up that fly at the first tickle.  And then I looked up the definition of swatch and it turns out swatch is a highly individual concept and for me it means wild assed guess destined to be wrong.  There are of course legends of swatchness, but any of you who have known me for even two seconds will correctly deduce I am not and never will be one of them.  I blame it on my eyes.  They age faster than I do and I can't see stitches all that well.  I'm guessing the 5 stitches I counted and then reduced to 4.5 because it was sorta between really was 4.  So clearly swatching can work and I just have to be a bit more careful next time I get caught in a trap swatch.

WIP Me Wednesday Nov. 19

I have actual progress to report on my rib cormo angora sweater.  I washed 8 skeins  and swatched.  My swatch includes 2 rib possibilities.  I'm getting 4 stitches per inch.  I also located my guide for this project, my Jackie Fee book, and took it to my local coffee shop for some good uninterrupted together time with the gauge page.  Jackie's gauge page is based on Elizabeth Zimmerman's percentage system, and is easy to understand and follow.  If I'm not Jackie's biggest fan, I'm certainly one of them.    I now have the skeletal framework all worked out for my sweater, and know my needle size (10s so it should be a quick knit - well... since I'm such a slow knitter, let's say it's more of a not interminably long knit).  What I didn't get done is the dyeing.  I haven't settled yet on how many skeins I need to dye.  I could just not worry about amount and just dye the entire lot (12 skeins).  But red is not as big a sell as many other colors and the remaining skeins will be for sale.  I'm also not certain I have a pot big enough to dye all 12 skeins at once.  On the other hand, coming up short would be a major PITA.  So I dithered over how much to dye and just didn't do it yet.  That frustrated me because I really feel the need to be knitting a sweater.   And then I remembered my big purchase at Rhinebeck 2007: Brooks Farm Yarn Four Play.

Sweater Project number 2: Color progression in the yummy BFY4P.  This is another project where the pattern needs to let the yarn sing.  And in a wonderful bit of happystance, as I pondered pattern while strolling through blogs, I came to Lollyland.  There she was, looking gorgeous (as always) in her NaKniSweMo sweater, which is just the perfect pattern for my color progression project.  I am not foolish enough to think I can follow her lead and knit this in 11 days.  But I will be swatching and casting on today.  I'll have to play with stitch count because the pattern calls for size 10 circs while BFY4P and I will need probably size 7.  But Jackie Fee's got my back, so I should be ok.   We'll see next Wednesday. 

Favorites

Christine asked which is my favorite wheel and I told her I have two favorites.  But I think that's not accurate.  I have the two that I will spin on most - Rose and Sexy Saxony.   But as I gathered up my herd of wheels to make room for my offspring, their father, and the leaf pick up party, I realized I love my wheels like I love my children.  Completely.  Independent of each other.  The kids - my babies even though they are all young adults - are distinctly individuals.  So are my wheels.  The kids share 3 characteristics: good hearts, kind souls, and great wit.   And the wheels each offer good design, craftsmanship, and function.  I enjoy them all.  The Canadian Production Wheel is still here, though sold.  I put her upstairs with great reluctance.  I have been privileged to spin on her and will miss her.   Sexy Saxony stays put in my living room, as does Rose.  My sweet little antique Lady's Parlor Wheel is currently also in my living room, but I may put her up for sale.  I don't spin on her as I fear I could break her.  She's old.  And that is part of her great charm.  She survived more than a century intact and functional.  I also worry the dogs could break her.  I don't want that to happen.   The satisfaction I get from her is when I dust, running my hands over her carefully carved nooks and crannies, pondering her history.  What hands made her?  What people am I connected to through this wheel?   I don't need yarn from her to appreciate her charms.

And now - whew!  All this talk of wheels - well.   I need to spin!

Friends For Life

Me n Rosie.  I've spun nearly 2 ounces of corrie blue on Rosie so far.  Contented sighs flow.  The color of course is not accurate.  It's more a periwinkle kinda purple blue.  I'm aiming for a soft squooshy yarn, a bit thicker than I've been spinning.  And I'm enjoying this spin so much I may not sell anymore of this roving.  Casual hoodie comes to mind and I think I have enough left to do that.  

I found a new friend, too.  Turns out I'm hosting a leaf pick up party today for my children, orchestrated by their father (he's the one who fixed Rosie, though accurate diagnosis was someone else's cleverness).  Beer and tacos promised, so I decided to pick up a bottle of chardonnay for him.  While I was at the liquor store, I was lured into a tasting.  Liquid chocolate, the man called it.    I quickly located a bottle for me, then headed straight to the grocery store for stuff to go with it.  One of my sisters was stopping by last night, perfect for a dessert experiment.  Bottom layer: pound cake.  Smother it with fresh raspberries, drizzle the chocolate booze over that, add some whipped cream, and top with a raspberry.  Yes indeedy - it's as good as it sounds.  There might be some showing up at a future fiber gathering(s).

Woot!

My Rosie is back in working order!  And this skein is what I plied on her today.  The singles I spun as a test with each attempt to fix her.  It's a badly spun skein but beautiful to me.  Rosie and I will be getting reacquainted tonight.