Magic Loop Tutorials

Hey everyone!

I’ve recently added some magic loop tutorials to my ‘techniques’ page. There are lots of pictures and hopefully clear instructions.

It covers the basics of magic loop and working socks two at a time.

Magic Loop Tutorial

Two at a time socks Tutorial

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To test the instructions I’ve got the following projects on the needles:

1) Basic socks

2) Two at a time socks

3) Bunny Nugget
-finished in one evening!

He has a giant pom pom for a tail (the smallest pom pom maker I had in the house) and pipecleaners in his ears.

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Visited by a bunny again this week, he is so much darker now. Summer is definitely on the way.

Super Late

May already! How did that happen. Lots to catch up on.

WIPS

Surplice Lace Top
Knit Picks CotLin DK – Sprout
US 6 (4.0mm)

I got gauge first time! and the swatch survived washing/drying. (yay)

I have the first sleeve finished.

Two at a time bed socks
Knit Picks Felici Sport – Macaroon
US 2 (2.75mm)

These are fun, but as all 2@a time projects they are slow.

Cabled Socks
Wool2Dye4 Shelia’s Sparkle – handyed
US 1 (2.50mm)

Substituting the cable from this pattern on Ravelry into my general sock recipie.  I’m currently half way through the heel on the first sock.  I had thought the sock would pool, but it is refusing to do anything but make a pretty mottled fabric.

Terribly Simple
Handspun Fingering Weight Yarn from Woolgatherings BFL fiber
US 6 (4.0mm)

Soothing garter stitch, with only one row to memorize.

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FO’s

Striped Socks
String Theory Colorworks – Large Hadron Collider

Colour Affection
Sanguine Gryphon Bugga – Tulip Tree Beauty, Common Emerald Moth, Bess Beetle


So happy to be finished this.  It is huge, and wonderful.

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New Stash

Impulse of Delight – Blueface Bliss

Twilight

Alpenglow

Cherry Cordial

She is closing her store to focus on her studies and had a sale.   Looking forward to working with this yarn.

Omgoodness!!!!

Look at this! I finished knitting it!

Yay!

Took me almost exactly Six Months

I was finally able to find a way to keep track of the pattern, albeit while I was knitting the border, but a good idea is a good idea no matter how late in the process it comes. The solution was a double ring stitch marker, allowing me to see “every other right side row”.

Here’s one in action

and both of them off the needles:

Awesome Sister was kind enough to add the extra ring to them. Thanks!

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I’m also about to finish my stripey work socks, but I don’t have a picture for you. They are boring until they are finished anyway.

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My handspun from last week got its bath. It is gorgeous! Shiny and squishy! I love how tactile spinning has made yarn for me.

I’ve nicknamed the colour “Vineyard” and I can see an autumn cowl, even if my Mom has dropped a few hints about how nice it is.

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Spring has NOT sprung this year, it is teasing and lurking at the edges of winter. That is to say: it is VERY GRAY here. I hate this time of year, no sun, no leaves on the trees, just clouds and wind.

So in attempt to find joy again, I have every intention of casting on SUPER COLOURFUL projects this weekend. Everyone of them in a colourful bag.

Ah spring.

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The jackrabbit that occasionally visits us has come back lately. He’s still quite white, but his head is mostly brown so spring must be on the horizon.

Also, crappy photo is crappy. I’m going back to my camera for ‘outdoor’ shots.
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Katie thinks my handspun is underwhelming… but the sheer amount of colour is making me happy.

“Get it off, Get it off, Get it off!”

The difference a bath makes

(for spun yarn that is)

My yarn from last week bloomed and puffed after its bath!

Here is the mosaic showing the process from start to finish.

I would say I’m never sharing the pre-bath photos again, but I know I’m always too excited to wait.

My current spinning project is nearly finished. This time I forgot to take photos of the beginning fiber but did catch the split bump

It’s a 75/25 BFL/Tussah Silk and it is so smooth and shiny! I’m loving the silk in this.

Here is the first bobbin chain plyed up, I have to wait till tomorrow (2nd bobbin finished this morning) to ply the rest.

So shiny!

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It’s a good thing I’m spinning so much, some more fiber came into the house!

Juliespins: SW BFL

Edgewood Garden “Koi Pond”:

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On the knitting front I’m still struggling with my colour affection (when will it end!) and I made a quick doll sweater, but I don’t really have pictures of either.

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Katie is waiting for Spring, but it keeps teasing us with snow.

So we are watching AwesomeSister play Assassin’s Creed: Revelations

Change of plans

I had every intention of just knitting on my colour affection to GET.IT.DONE. but I allowed myself the luxury of spinning as a distraction. Which means I did a lot of spinning.

This woolgathering bump of BFL was my ‘distraction’:

I tried a different splitting technique which worked very well.

I quickly had one bobbin of the thinnest most consistent singles I’ve ever made.

The next 2oz worked up just as quickly.

Plying seemed to take FOREVER but I have a gorgeous 2ply yarn, somewhere between a heavy lace/light fingering:

Katie didn’t help much in the plying:

I still have quite a lot on one of the bobbins, so I’ll ply that up later this week.

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More fiber arrived from Into the Whirled on Monday, some of the softest polwarth I have ever felt.

Vampires in Venice and Snow Angels, with an Ood

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I have managed to knit up to where I was on the colour affection before I realized I had made a huge mistake, it is looking much better this time around. I still just WANT.IT.DONE.

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I also have been working on the after game events in Pokemon White 2, which has been fun.

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I had a small dyeing session last weekend, two skeins with gold sparkle:

4oz of mixed bfl:

Not my favorite results, but it was fun.

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Katie woke up today and looked so tired and grumpy I had to take a picture.

but here is a better photo of her when she isn’t so tired:

100% more Distraction

Lots of things have caught my crafty attention over the last few weeks.

It has helped that spring has brought two major snowstorms back to back. The view out my window looks like:

(lots of snow, it was clear out there before this new blast of winter)

Works in Progress

Persephone’s Socks
Another Crafty Girl “Twinkle Sock” in Bulbasaur

I’m having a hard time getting back into knitting a patterned sock, so I chose a sock with an interesting rib and some fun arch shaping. It helps that I’ve done this pattern before. I’m pathetically slow when knitting rib though, so these will take awhile.

Large Hadron Collider Socks
String Theory Colorworks “Inertia” in Large Hadron Collider

Half way! I kitchenered the toe a few nights ago. Looking forward to this fun pair joining my sock drawer.

Colour Affection
Sanguine Gryphon “Bugga” in Tulip Tree Beauty, Common Emerald Moth and Bess Beetle

Sucked it up and frogged back the 3rd stripe section. Let’s see if I can figure out what I was doing wrong. (I couldn’t when I looked at it) Playing with the Bugga was super nice though, so I want to work on the project.

I managed to get 2 repeats of the 3rd section back. This pattern and I are not clicking… I have to say I hate working on it. But I know that I’m going to like the end result. Oh the “joys” of being a product knitter.

Hibernating

Irish Coffee Sweater
yeah….

Dragon
just not into this…

Finished Objects

Harvest Dew Socks
Blue Moon Fiber Arts “STR Lightweight” in Fire on the Mountain
Yay! Happy socks are done and they are AWESOME!

Camden Cap
Malabrigo “Rios” in Pearl Ten
This project came in under 10 days. Love the end result and the pattern was clear and easy.

Eevee Pixel Art
Random scraps
Got inspired. Eevee is my favorite pokemon and I might follow this up with his over evolutions, or not… we’ll see.

A little bit of intarsia was fun.

Spinning

JulieSpins Falkland

Intentionally spun thick (though it turned out thick/thin) and 2 plied. I love how squishy it is! I think I like 2 ply yarn when the plies are more consistent though, so that will be a challenge next time.

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Katie has been busy

snow watching:

hanging out:

and wondering what the noise coming from AwesomeSisters room is:

Surprise Dyeing Adventure

…with help!

(sidenote: i was waiting to blog until I had finished something, and now that it is done I have TOO MUCH to blog about, so another post will be coming this week)

I decided to finally give in and discover whether I can dye fiber or not. Usually it comes out alright, but I don’t like the way the colour looks nor do I like the finished product.

Katie decided I needed constant supervision…

The setup was checked:

The trash bag was sniffed:

She did sit and wait, imitating a shoe, while we mixed up the stinky chemicals though:

Making sure I cover the whole area with saran wrap:

And placing the fiber:

She got a bit bored when I started painting:

(Truth be told I got bored of it too… fiber doesn’t take dye the same way and handpainting a whole 8oz braid isn’t fun…but I persevered even though I wasn’t liking the result)

Seriously this is taking forever mommy!:

When I was done I really disliked it. It was nowhere on my TO BE SPUN list… So I ripped it into 4 (unequal) pieces and proceeded to try and fix what had been broken.

Knowing what grey does to colours from previous experiments I dumped a tonne of grey into the pot and some fiber with it:

It came out a sodden mess, but was it a usable mess or had I destroyed my fiber? It was too hot to tell:

Katie, of course, continued to check in:

When all the fiber had been overdyed it looked like this:

I was pleased when I rinsed that the fiber bloomed to its full width and seemed to be fine, the true test would be after it was dry:

All that supervision had worn Katie out:

The next day…

Look how pluffy and gorgeous that wet mess became!

You can even see some of the original crimp! (If that isn’t the fibers crimp allow me to keep my delusions)

All braided up (you can see how uneven my ripping was):

When asked what she thought, Katie replied “no comment”: