Christmas already?

Whew, it has been a looooong time since I posted!  Not that I haven't been working on stuff, but the kilt hose are slow going - seems that they still look the same after I've put in hours and hours on them.  But that is the nature of fine gauge knitting.
I did get some cool slippers done though - these are great! Felted on the bottom (soles) and ribbed on the top.  Did them in two different kinds of yarn - found the pattern in a book and they turned out better than I ever expected.

Kind of neat, the cuffs and tops are knitted in a superwash sock yarn called Wildfoot and the soles are knit in a worsted weight regular wool yarn.  Throw them in the wash with a couple pairs of jeans to felt them and ta-daaaa! Slippers to be happy in - warm and sturdy.  My typical objection to felted footwear is that it gets so loose and floppy, and these shouldn't have that problem since the tops are rib knit.

Here's another shot that shows the tops - and my Border Collie's butt - she just can't stay away from me when I get down on the floor.  Kind of weird to be taking pictures of my own feet, but I wanted to show these slippers off, and they don't look like much without a foot inside them to give them shape.

I'll be making more of these, they go pretty quickly and the felting is fun too.  Other stuff on the needles is moving along too.  Working on the sweater - still on the sleeves, but nearly done.  Then it is off to the knitting shop to pick out some fabulous buttons before I start the bands.  I've learned to get the buttons first, because it never fails that the best buttons are NEVER the size that the pattern calls for!

Oooooooh, messy, messy, messy!

Decided that I'd had enough of the ribbing on the kilt hose so I took the plunge, got out all the bobbins I posess and started winding them with 5 yards each and started the intarsia.  I had no idea that it would take all thirty (Oh my gosh - THIRTY!) bobbins to get started on these socks!  As I'm not really crazy about weaving in ends, I use Kaffe Fassett's method and bind them in as I go.  Messy looking while it is happening, but no ends to weave in for later.  I call that a win!
I decided to take some pictures - even though it looks pretty messy at this stage...

Those little triangles will be diamond shaped as the knitting progresses.  This shot shows both the front and back.  Here's one of just the front...

And here's one of just the back side of the knitting.  You can see the woven in ends... not the prettiest finish, but I think it is one of the most flexible, since it is done as the knitting progresses.  Oh, and did I mention, no ends to weave in later?  That's my favorite part!

Once again, I'm very glad that I'm doing both socks at once.  This is really slow going, but they will be lovely when complete... I'm thinking ten years or so (not really, it just seems that way right now).

Next up, pictures of the finished yarn I've been working on!

Where are they now? Part two...

Mom in her socks

After writing the bit about Mom's socks, I thought I'd check on them.  I found that she still has them and was willing to model them for me:

They were made of some self-striping yarn, I don't remember what brand, but I do remember really liking the yarn and the pattern it made.  Bright bands of color, these socks just scream out "FUN!" to me.

Busy with the tam and washing up a new fleece.  It isn't turning out the way I thought it would - but I can fix that - I'll dye some of it and see what happens.  More on that later on.

I've finished up all the pieces of the sweater, just need to block them, assemble them and pick up the stitches for the front band and the collar.  Probably take it to the LYS and hunt for some gorgeous buttons before I start on the button bands.

I'll keep you posted...

Swatching for the Tam...

Swatch for tam before felting

Ahh, the joys of felting... I think I'm one of those oddballs that actually enjoy the swatching process.  I've done up the swatch in Firecracker Heather Wool of the Andes Worsted from Knit Picks (find it at: http://www.knitpicks.com/ ).

Before felting this swatch measures 6" wide by 6 1/2" high across the full swatch.  Just the stockinette portion measures 4 3/4" wide by 5 1/2" high and is 19 stitches by 28 rows.

The tam is an historically correct version from Piecework magazine (love that historical knitting!) and will be paired with a set of kilt hose done in intarsia.  I dyed the yarn for the yellow in the Wallace tartan since it wasn't available in both of the yarn types I was using and I wanted the pieces to match as much as possible.  The kilt hose will be done in a lightweight two ply yarn called Palette (also from Knit Picks).  Here are the shots of the yarn with the magazine photo so you'll have some idea of what I'm talking about.


Yarns and photo of kilt hose

Here are the kilt hose, very interesting pattern.  These are knitted flat and seamed, that will certainly make the intarsia easier, but I'm thinking that I'd be supremely irritated by a seam on the foot of my sock, so I'm going to modify the pattern to do the foot in the round so that there will be no seam to irritate the foot.  The tartan is Wallace, red, black and bright yellow although the photo doesn't show it well.  The yellow yarn is hand dyed by me in Brilliant Yellow acid dye from Dharma Trading Co.  It is a great way to get the colors I want for this project.  Fun to do too!

Then there is the photo of the tam along with the yarn, tartan and photo from Piecework - interestingly enough these both came from the same issue of the magazine, how cool is that?

Yarns and photo for tam

So, next thing is to go and felt the swatch and to re-measure and adjust the pattern for size.  Then I can start on the actual tam, I haven't done felting like this in years and I really enjoyed it in the past.  Did a pair of slippers as a gift for my brother years ago - styled like chukka boots, the two eyelet ankle high style.  Remember those?  The felted "fabric" turned out so thick and soft - the knitted stitches became nearly indistinguishable.  I have also located a neat felted pattern for slippers for myself.  It uses both a superwash and a feltable wool... more on that later since it is quite a way down the knitting queue.



On to the drum carder...

Here's the Dorset cross, time to card it and spin some more of it!  This is one of the nicest uncovered fleeces I've worked with.  Not much veg and so bouncy... I've decided that I really like down wools!  I know that this is a crossbred sheep, so the wool may not behave exactly like purebred down sheep fleece.  The Down sheep that I'm aware of are Suffolk, Hampshire and Dorset. Typical fleeces are dirty, short stapled and low in weight, (usually two or three pounds at best) since these sheep are raised primarily for their meat, not their wool. Down sheep fleeces are supposed to resist felting, which is wonderful for things like socks, which get washed a lot. 

When I raised Suffolks and Corriedales on my own farm I had a customer who bought all the fleeces from one very odd Suffolk ewe that I had.  Her name was Babe, (from the blue ox, not the pig) because she was HUGE.  She also didn't read the same sheep behavior books that I did, since she kicked like a doggone mule when I sheared her!  She was also a lousy mother - had triplets once and lost all three!  But - and this was the only thing that kept her in the flock - she sheared a five inch staple, ten pound fleece!  I still remember packing those fleeces to ship to California - since they don't felt, I could stuff them tight into a box and send them.  The customer was delighted at the way the fleece would leap out of the box - almost like Babe when she was released after shearing.

Enough reminiscing for now, here is a shot of the drum carded batt of the Dorset.  Lovely stuff - I think the shades of gray are my favorite of the dark wools.  I did ten batts, and hoping that will be enough to finish up the Stashdown project for February.  I still have quite a bit of this washed fleece left, and I still have about half of the quantity I bought unwashed. Another project I have planned for this fleece is a mohair blend - beautiful silvery gray locks of the mohair will give this wool a shine that should be fun to work with.  I checked the box the fleece arrived in - there is a name on it, evidently this sheep is named Dolly.  Funny that I get so much more pleasure from the fleece when I know the sheep has a name and not just a number.  Maybe because I named all my sheep too... I miss them so much sometimes.  Ah well, this gives me the chance to have some vicarious enjoyment of sheep farming.  Better yet, now I have the time to spin the wonderful wool!  So much fleece... so little time!

Swatched... I like it!

Here's the swatch... and the vital statistics:

*100% Wool, 3 ply yarn
*Singles spun clockwise, plied counter-clockwise
*One ply is Louet Northern Lights, Wild Berry Jam colorway, combed wool top
*Two plies are Dorset crossbred carded batts, natural gray color
*Gauge 6.5 stitches and 9 rows per inch on size 2 (3.0 mm) needles.

This is sturdy yarn! At this gauge it would be suitable for socks. I'd go up at least two needle sizes for any other kind of knitting.  Interesting how the one combed ply interacts with the carded plies.  The color is fantastic, the variegation shows up well and the natural variations in the gray complement it well.  The swatch was wet blocked and pressed with a relatively hot iron to steam it into a square shape.  Before doing that it curled up tight.... stockinette does that.

Overall, I really like this yarn.  Looking forward to spinning this up for my February goal.