Update on the Spinning

Plying the Purples

About 2-1/2 Babe Fiber Garden bobbins later and I'm plying the wool.  This plying bobbin is not quite through the first filled-to-the-brim hand-spun bobbin.  I still have a good bit left of the first alpaca ball.  When I'm done plying, I'll skein the yarn and wash it.  Once it's dry, I'll niddynoddy measure and report.

It's fingering/lace weight now, but it could move up to baby/sport once set.

Spinning Last Weekend's Goodies...

I'm very happy with the Rambouillet combed top that I bought at the WS&WF at the Green Pastures booth.   It's 4 oz. of wool in the colorway 'Purple Haze' (periwinkle & eggplant variegated). 

It looks like I'll get two bobbins plus a bit, of lace weight singles from that hank. When I've finished the rest of the rolags, I'll be plying it with a commercial periwinkle lace weight from Alpaca Warehouse.  I bought a several 50 gram skeins from AW during a sale but haven't been able to find a project for it until now.  The yarn is a blend of wool, acrylic and alpaca in a periwinkle color that is so close to the lighter color of the roving it's spooky. 

I carded the roving into rolags because, as often happens with acid dyes, the over-dyed eggplant color became a little spongy and uncooperative when it came to spinning.  I wanted a woolen yarn and tried spinning form the fold, but it wasn't cooperating.  Instead, I'm working long-draw on the lighter yarn and devolving to inch-worm when I get to spongy bits.  

The finished yarn should make a nice scarf with big dramatic blocks of periwinkle separated by smaller marled yarn stripes of eggplant/periwinkle.

Perless Scarf

I knit 'continental' style, which means that perling can be painful.  Pain can teach you to hate things very quickly.  Finding E. Zimmerman's patterns for sweaters and other items that are either worked in the round or don't require perling brought me back to knitting.

But there are times when knitting a scarf in garter stitch can get awfully boring.  Even garter stitch can curl or stretch without a border of some sort, and the seed or moss stitch borders that I considered would still cause enough pain to force me to put the work down after a few rows, and forget to pick it up again.

This weekend I remembered the Idiot Washcloth.  It's a simple pattern to teach children how to knit, increase, and decrease while also making a useful thing.  It's called an Idiot Washcloth because it's extremely difficult to screw it up (though I always do, at least once).  It's a yarn-over increase at the beginning of the row then knit to the end and turn.  You continue that until the piece is as large as you want then you k2Tog, YO, K2Tog decrease at the beginning of the row and knit to the end until you're down to 4 stitches and can cast off.

This makes lovely squares to swab the dishes.  Altering it to make a large rectangle (scarf shape) is just a matter of working an increase on one side and a decrease on the other until the scarf is the length you want and then decreasing both sides.

I've marked the decrease side with a plastic safety pink to make it even more foolproof.  The yarn I'm using is the "Sea" colorway of Deborah Norville Collection Serenity Garden Yarn, a 2/fine yarn made of Dralon Microfiber, and not 'itchy' at all.  So yes, it's a great way to make a scarf with variegated yarn that has a tendency to pool and splot when knit stockinette.  I have 2-3/4 skeins of this colorway and think it may only need 2 skeins.  I'm not doing a Dr. Who here... just watching it while I knit.

Pattern for the I-Scarf is:


1.  Cast on 4 stitches
2.  Slip one, Knit 3 and turn
3.  Slip one, knit 1, yarn over, knit to end
       
Repeat Row 3, the increase row, until the scarf is as wide as you like (6" to 14" is good).

Place a marker on one side near the edge as shown above, to indicate a decrease stitch is needed.

4.  Slip one, knit 2 together, yarn over, knit 2 together, knit to end.

Repeat rows 3 and 4 until the scarf is as long as you wish.  Remove marker and work row 4 until there are 4 stitches left.  Cast off and weave in ends.

Tatting Follow Up

Here's a closer view of the edge tatting.  The double stitch is just a couple of half-hitches that are mirror image.



The picots are formed by leaving a length of thread between double stitches.  Then when the chain is cinched up and knotted you have a frilly arch of thread.



And here's a fuzzy view of the bead tests I did, where the bead covers the bit of thread that would be the picot.

In addition to frilliness, picots create loops for attaching a second level of tatting to the piece.    

A plain, bleached linen handkerchief with a few levels of black tatting was a required accessory at most Victorian funerals.  To me a cloth hanky is a much nicer, and more comforting thing to slip into a mourning friend's hand than a box of paper tissues.

If you'd like to see some lovely, well crafted versions, Google will provide images -- mourning handkerchief .

A gentleman's handkerchief should have a plain black piece of cloth, a plain ribbon attached to the outside edge of a white piece of cloth, or a conservative crochet stitch, like crab stitch, worked on the outside edges.

Tatted Hanky Edges

I bought a handful of chopsticks, wrapped in 'napkins' with little elastic napkin rings holding them together at a dollar store a year ago.  They were cheap and I was in a hurry so I really didn't look at them I just grabbed and paid.   Once I got them home, I was afraid to use them because the paint on them was chipping and I really didn't want any of it to drop into my food.

The cloth napkin the chopsticks were wrapped in on the other hand, had possibilities.  Too thin and too small for a napkin, but just the right size and weight for hankies.  They're turning out to be a great way to practice simple edgings.

I strung the 10/0 beads Sz. 20 tatting thread using a GUM Eez-Thru Floss Threader (dental floss), then moved the beads down to the 'ball' side.  When I got to a place where I'd normally put a picot, I slid a bead up tight to the needle and made a Double Stitch to hold the bead in place.


Each of the little arches is made up of Double stitches  (ds) and Picots (p).

Simple pattern:

3ds, P ds,  P ds,  P,  3ds.  Tie a knot and using tatting needle, pierce the hem and tie another knot.  Repeat.

I also used 10/0 seed beads in place of the full loop picots on some of the arches.  The beads made a much neater and sparklier chain.

The 10/0s will be better on earrings and such.  Well see how they stand up to a laundromat washing machine.

Practice Makes Passable

I found the pattern for these little 3-D snowflakes on the Lace-lovin' Librarian's blog and have spent the last couple of tatting months spitting and cussing and throwing little knotted disappointments into the trash.  I finally seem to have figured it out, though they aren't of the quality or craftsmanship of many tatters on the web.

I did learn something important though.  Whenever I approach a pattern, even when a pattern is well written with instructive images, I need to make a demo piece with a large tatting needle (or a locker hook) and yarn.  And I need to do that first.   I wasted two months creating tiny delicate little knots from hell while trying to find the best way to approach the second layer of rings.  Right now, I don't have the dexterity to make something on size 20 thread with a size 7 needle.

A size 5 needle?  Well that's a snowflake of a different color.

From the Seed

After watching a couple of YouTube videos I bought an ounce of Pima S7 cotton from Vreseis LTD in California.  It arrived in the mail today. Decided to see if I could spin from the seed and yes I can. In the picture --

lower left: cotton fiber stretched lightly out, away from the seed.
upper left: more cotton w/bugs (it's organic cotton) waiting to be teased.
upper right: three cotton seeds on a piece of white paper.
center: a small Destiny turkish spindle made by Scott Snyder. The weights on the outside of the 4 arms make a very fast spin.

As soon as I finish what's left of a merino/silk mix on the Babe spinning wheel, I'll try spinning cotton from the seed there as well.  The turkish spindle will be great for travel, but I think I'd rather try punis with it and spin from seed on the wheel.