A SAL, a KAL, & a Cowl

Three-fer! Ever wanted to feel like an Elizabethan queen (or king)? Then boy, do I have a pattern for you: the Court Jester Cowl! My friend Tracy Hudson, aka Himalaya, knit up a kickin' cowl, & when she posted it in the Novelty & Art Yarn Spinners group on Ravelry, my cohorts and I jumped on it. You're lookin' at me in mine - Buffoon in my projects - there in the photo-op at Black Sheep Gathering.

Soon as I saw Tracy in hers, I PMed her & demanded that she write up the pattern. Turns out, I wasn't the only one pestering her to do so. Studioloo Cindy also inquired, albeit more gently than I, about a pattern. Tracy was gracious enough to accommodate us, and it bloomed into a 3-way spin-along/knit-along in the N&AYS, COLORBOMBers, & Insubordiknit groups on Ravelry.

Designed to show off art yarn ("art for your neck" as Tracy dubbed it), it's a corrugated rib cowl with two contrasting art yarns, knit in the round. I had this skein of thick-and-thin COLORBOMB Singular TnT handspun in my stash, spun last year, & decided it would be a nice backdrop for some supercoils. I dug out some acid green Romney roving my friend Janet gave me & set to spinning up some LoopyDoopy Minis for the project.

This would have been a REALLY fast knit-up if I hadn't had to stop repeatedly to spin more supercoils. In fact, I ran out of the acid green fiber and had to spin the yellow Romney, and eventually spun up some chartreuse Romney. But they look great together, & unless I mention it they're just a "design element". ;)

I did a few pattern mods on mine: cast on fewer stitches to make it tighter in the neck like a turtleneck, added extra ribs, did my ribs as purls to pop the texture to the front, substituted seed stitch for stockinette at the hem, & made mine longer. Mine didn't ruffle around the bottom edge like the pattern because of the extra increases & length. I called mine 'Buffoon' because, according to Wikipedia, it "is a term for someone who provides amusement through inappropriate appearance and/or behavior.” Me to a T!

I was planning to line it with fabric (the Romney in the supercoils makes it a little scratchy), but I realized that would make it difficult to maintain the stretchiness, which it needs to be nice & snug around the neck. Besides, when it is cold enough to wear this TOASTY garment, I'll probably have a turtleneck on underneath it to keep it off my neck anyway.

Received the very BEST comment on it from Jim/Fosterson: "It's like a Gallifreyian High Council Collar on acid!" Gotta love a man that makes Dr. Who references!

Speaking of Jim, check out his version of the cowl. One of my COLORBOMB customers, apuffyj, made one using a skein of my Enwraptured handspun yarn - beautiful in blue! And the incomparable Miki/Knitzphat made a gorgeous chocolate brown/green version.

So, the pertinents: I used ~75 yards of a bulky singles for the main color, 'Psych', and ~40 yards of 'Acidic' supercoils for the contrast color. Knit on US13 needles. SUPER easy-peasy pattern, too. If you've been looking for a simple but effective way to show your handspun art yarn (or someone else's) off to best effect, this is a great lil' project.

Tags: knitting, art yarn, COLORBOMB Creations, handspun, cowl

Monday

A gift of spring, from me to you - I'm guessing this might be particularly welcome if you reside in a still-icy clime (I'm talking to you, Sharkbite Su!). This tulip is a volunteer, or, maybe planted by gnomes in the night? (More likely I planted it & forgot, lol). Whatev, Cole & I were tickled when it popped its sunny head up last month. Me likee tulips!

In knitting news, I'm getting close to finishing Color is a Lifestyle¹ sock #2, BUT... Yep, I made a boo-boo! I decided to add 4 extra stitches at the ankle, just after the heel gusset, but I didn't think through just how to do that, & all of them ended up on the same side - doh! Weirdly, it doesn't seem to affect the fit of the sock, so I decided to call it a wabi sabi socky design element instead of an error to avoid frogging back 3.5 inches or so. Why not, it's my friggin' sock! I started the calf increases last night, so am hoping to finish them before the end of the month rolls around on Wednesday.

This photo is proof that I'm continuing in my newly-renewed spinning jag. I can't even remember when the last time I listed a skein of LoopyDoopy™ yarn (my line of supercoils), but I put one in the shop today! Want to see more pictures? I know you do!

1. COLORBOMB 'Flashback to 1974' handspun art yarn, 2. COLORBOMB 'Flashback to 1974' handspun art yarn, 3. COLORBOMB 'Flashback to 1974' handspun art yarn, 4. COLORBOMB 'Flashback to 1974' handspun art yarn

Want it in YOUR stash? It's yours if you go here & lay down the cash! Better act fast, this one is likely to go quick. ;)

Before I go, I wanted to share this closeup of the fabric I bought on Etsy: stoner deer! It's part of Jay McCarroll's Woodland Series, & Saremy of Chicken Boots is going to make me a knitting needle case with it! And with that, I guess that's it. For today. Happy Monday!

¹Check it out! This link is my first test of the new Ravelry pony feature that allows non-Ravelry members to view Ravelry project pages that allow public viewing/sharing. So although I can't imagine there's a yarn-obsessed person out there who isn't a member of Ravelry yet, there might just be a VWorld reader who isn't & who wants to see my projects. From now on, all my Ravelry project links should be viewable by all! So, go forth & heart my projects at will, Ravelers & non-Ravelers alike! /shameless self-promotion

Tags: yarn, supercoils, COLORBOMB

Day 3 Challenge Handspun

Too late & too tired to give much of a post about it, but I did spin today; finished the cotton supercoils started yesterday. Yield: 22 yards. Dang, but coils take for freakin' EVER!! There's about 100 yards or more of singles in there, at least. Le sigh.

I'm poopered. Night all, see you tomorrow for Yarn #4!!

Tags: yarn, handspun, artyarn, COLORBOMB

Thursday Mashup

I'm all over the place today, like a schizophrenic with ADD, and I thought I'd share the experience. A little something from yesterday, a smattering of Tuesday crap, maybe a peek into the future even. Oh, and some knitting!


Shop Update: 3 new handspun art yarns up on Etsy today! Two new WoolyBear yarns: 'Dirt Nap' and 'Have a Heart'. The former is 42 yards of chocolate-brown Jacob wool, and the latter is the Cormo/merino blend spun up in yesterday's video. They're really gonzo on texture, and I think they'll make someone (or someones) very happy. The 3rd is a frequently-requested skein of SUPERCOILS! Yep, a new LoopyDoopy - this one is one of the 'Minis', smaller gauge (as in about 5-7WPI; no sock yarn here!). It's called 'Forget Me Not', and it's pastel merino - robin's egg blue, lavender, pale pink, dove gray... Gotta give a shout out to velvetpurrs for providing a great colorway name, and to J.Hayworth, hatdiva2, Lar'Zaina, deanno, and thnomad for their great suggestions! Sometimes the well of creativity just comes up dry, so it's good to know that you all have my back.

Lookee! Lookee what I got in the mail a few days ago! A bunch of bitchin' vintage embroidery transfers! My Flickr friend Xao_T saw my blog post about returning to embroidery after 20+ years, and remembered she had some old patterns lying around, and offered to send them to me; what a sweetie!

There are some really off-the-wall images in this collection, as well as some very traditional 50s cutesy icons (my fave!). There's another baggie filled with more animal images (a goat!) not even pictured here. Not sure which is gonna show up in my workbasket first, although I'm leaning toward a kitty playing with yarn, chinese lanterns, or this weird ghost figure in the Leisure Arts book. Whatever gets picked, it'll be a doozy! Thanks, Xao!


Here's a couple of pics of the hub & I riding into town yesterday to pay a visit the recycling center & local thrift stores, which we were combing to find me a vintage Rolodex rotary card file. Saw a really cute one from fellow Team EcoEtsy member EcoMonster on Etsy yesterday, complete with cards & dividers crafted from recycled papers, but at 75 clams, I figure I'll bite the DIY bullet and make my own. Found one, but it was all plastick-y (bleh), and $5, so I'm holding out for a better-slash-cheaper one. Got the Hub on the lookout for one at the pawn shop. (He's off in search of tracing paper for my embroidery pleasure, as we speak. Such a good Hub!)

Lastly (finally!) here's a pic of my current knitting project on the needles: my Stoner Jaywalker socks. I finished sock #1 well before Christmas, but set them aside to concentrate on gift knitting. I picked 'em back up on New Year's day, happy to be wallowing in some selfish knitting again. This is my first exposure to the virus known as "second sock syndrome" - can't wait to get these off the needles and move the fuck ON!

Tags: yarn, yarn pr0n, COLORBOMB Creations, Etsy, handspun, knitting

What's on My Bobbin Wednesday

It's Wednesday, right? Wanna see what I've been spinning? Sure you do! The one one the left remains an unnamed colorway of LoopyDoopy supercoils, in 100% merino - mmm, nom nom nom! Pastel squooshiness in robin's egg blue, petal, lavender, and dove gray. Love! Be sure to leave your suggestion in the comments to vote on what I should name this color.

The one on the right, 'Have a Heart', is a decadent mix of cormo & merino wool locks + silk threads + sparkle; from batt to bobbin! So soft you might just want to rub it all over yourself. And just the right amount of bling! Valentine's Day crafting, anyone?

These will be added to my Etsy shop soon; got to soak and dry first, so hold your horses, but soon.

In more Etsy/COLORBOMB news, and coming under the heading 'great minds think alike', my orange BOMBits fiber kits were featured in not one but TWO new Etsy Treasuries yesterday! Thanks to Catskill Mountain Fibers and her Joy of Spinning Treasury, and MidnightCoiler and the Upthings for Somethings Treasury of upcycled/recycled offerings for including me! BOMBits are also currently available in red, yellow, pink, blue, green, black, white, bone, silver, & gold - and they're great for all kinds of crafty DIY projects: felting, embellishment, fiber art, collage, and of course, spinning art yarn! Plenty of materials to make at least 3 or 4 skeins of art yarn. Each contains 3-4 ounces of scavenged, upcyled materials, enough goodies to fill a repurposed & recyclable tennis ball tube, including: 1 ounce wool or mohair fiber, 5 yards each of 3 different millspun yarns, plus an assortment of ribbons, lace, fabrics, sequins, buttons, beads, faux flowers, feathers, sparkle, vintage trim, and other embellishments in coordinating colors.


BOMBits are a COLORBOMB Greenish™ product too, using 100% recycled/upcycled/repurposed materials. Fibers are either mill ends that would be otherwise discarded, or ethically raised & harvested by small farmers. Embellishments are reclaimed yarn & fabric scraps, as well as thrifted & donated trims.

Tags: handspun, yarn, COLOROMB Creations, Etsy

Ahhh...

'Nother beautiful day in paradise, as they say. Spectacular spring weather, if a bit blustery. Did some topless spinning on the back deck, ahhhh. Took a beer break and put my feet up - check out my new shoes! Gotta love shoes with polka dots on 'em. And they're eco-groovy!

Finished up a 3rd and started a 4th skein of LoopyDoopyMinis in the 'Route 66' colorway (on bobbin, left). Mailed off my check to Otto Strauch, so I'm one step closer to having my 2nd drum carder. :) Hit Purl 'n Hurl and knit with my peeps. All in all, really fun.

Here's a yarn pr0n pic for ya, of the $1 yarn I bought yesterday at the Dollar Tree. Not gonna bother adding it to my Ravelry stash, as it will get used for plying into my handspun. I'm tempted to go back and get more, as a matter of fact. It's hard to tell by the photo, but they're sparkly!

Tags: shoes, yarn, handspun, COLORBOMB Creations, spinning, yarn pr0n

Ruminations on Spinning Coils

Coils, supercoils, worms, wrap-and-roll - whatever you call 'em, I love 'em! And they seem to be all *over* the place these days. They're even featured in an article and on the front cover of Spin-Off this month. But I've got to take exception with the article's author, who characterized them as the "new spinning technique" of Sarah Anderson. The only thing new about Sarah's wrap-and-roll technique is her suggestion of putting the core thread on a spindle for plying, which she says reduces twist, making them softer and more balanced*. Other than that, they are the same singles plied in coils around a thread core that Lexi Boeger, Symeon North, The Bellweather, Tricotin, and others have offered tutorials on for many years. (Those links will take you to instructions for making your *own* coil yarns.) Shame on you, Interweave Press, for not making sure your authors are giving props to those what deserve 'em.



I've been spinning a lot of my own supercoils, my LoopyDoopy yarns, in preparation for vending at Black Sheep Gathering in June, and today I pulled another skein off the bobbin. I've always wondered what the ratio of singles to plied supercoils is, so when I finished a bobbins worth of singles, I skeined and measured them before plying. I'd read in Symeon's Knittyspin piece that you need to spin about 7-10 times more singles than you want for your finished coils; she says it takes between 75 and 100 yards of singles for 10 yards of coils. But I found that the singles I measured was only 5x longer than the finished yarn; I spun 150 yards of singles, and plied them into approx. 30 yards of LoopyDoopy Minis coils. That was good news for me, 'cuz I'm getting more yardage out of my singles than I thought. Here's some shots of 'Route 66' that I've been working on (the colors reminded me of my time traveling in the Southwest, when I was living at Grand Canyon National Park, hence 'Route 66'.)

*(Personally, I suspect that the real reason that her technique reduces twist is because she spun Z and plied S, rather than the reverse, which is more common; most commercial threads and yarns are spun S, so Z plying will undo the twist, in my experience, causing the problems that both of these techniques alleviate. I get soft and balanced coil yarns without either of these strategies).

Tags: Black Sheep, bobbin pr0n, COLORBOMB Creations, handspun, spinning, yarn pr0n, LoopyDoopy, supercoils, handspinning, yarn, artyarn