Half Done

I've been working away on my projects and I feel like I'm just not getting anywhere. 

I've got one finished purse sock.

One finished marl sock.

And a bobbin full of singles.

I was looking over these projects and thinking about all the work I've put in and it occurred to me. They're all half done. The reason it feels like I haven't made any progress is because I'm only  halfway through 3 different projects. 

All the work I've put in has been split, meaning nothing has that fun feeling of a finished object yet. I've cast on the second Marled sock.

Cast on the second purse sock.

And I'll be starting the plying on my singles soon. So I'm definitely making good progress but since I've been dividing my focus, it feels like I'm not getting anywhere. You know the expression "Well begun is half done"? That's what seems to be going on here. 

So, I guess I just need to keep going until I finish something and it will break that feeling of lack-of-progress. 

I should probably not mention the other project I cast on. That won't help with the half done feeling.

Freyja Start

Tuesdays are for spinning and thankfully the Tour de Fleece reminded me how much I love spinning and made me decide to make a point of taking the time to actually spin more often!

I was a little disappointed with how much I got done this year but with no set goals and then a back injury, that's to be expected. 

Once I had finished with the few things I had set aside, hoping I would get them spun, I was pretty wide open though. I didn't have anything specific planned. Well, a little stash diving always solves that problem so that's what I did. And I came up with something heartbreakingly beautiful.

This is Freyja from Cloudlover on (brace yourself for this) 60% Superwash Merino/20% Cashmere/20% Silk. It is amazing! It feels so soft and fluffy but with amazing shine. I've really been wanting to try spinning this fiber so I was extremely happy to find this in her booth at Shepherd's Harvest this year. 

It had been a special custom blend she ordered and I don't know that she regularly carries it anymore. 

But I loved it so much that I went scouring people's stashes on Ravelry and scored a braid of the same fiber in one of my all-time favorite colorways of hers as well. (Poison Arrow if you're wondering. You can check my stash page if you'd like to see it.) 

Since I'm not really sure what I would like to do with the finished yarn and this is more of a spinning experiment than anything else, I decided to go for a chain-plied yarn so I didn't split the braid the long way at all. I simply pulled off a piece of the roving and drafted it into a fine, soft little strand. 

It looks like this when its ready to spin. Then I just started spinning it up.

I love how fine it is, although I'm not too sure I like how the white is blending right now (leading me to consider splitting the roving lengthwise now in the hopes of changing that a bit).

I'm guessing this is going to be a pretty long-term project but one I'm really enjoying. 

So for today you just get to see the start but what a start. Right? 

Ashburton Beauty

As I've talked about before I had been working on spinning some Merino wool from Gritty Knits called Ashburton. I absolutely loved the colors which remind me of a rich, bold sunset so I handled the fiber in a way to keep those colors as they are, separate and beautiful. 

I spilt it the long way into smaller pieces then individually drafted each of them. I then spun them fine end to end. 

The roving split into pieces. 

On the bobbin.

This bobbin picture is when it was finished. It took a lot of spinning hours to spin it this way. I knew I wanted to chain ply it so I just kept going, spinning fine. 

I let it rest overnight and plied the next day. It's a good thing I was camping and had lots of spinning time because it took about 7 hours to ply!!

That is plied yarn going onto the bobbin! Doesn't it look great?! I love it.

The finished skein is a little overpriced, which is normal for me and I prefer that to under plied so I'm good with it.

I absolutely love the look of it though and the ply-twist did relax a bit in washing.

Here's a look at how fine it really is. 

These skeined pictures are from before washing, I wanted to show pictures of it washed as well but it was washed on Sunday morning and still isn't totally dry! The hazards of the spring rainy season, I guess. It's been so dark anyway that I don't know that I could get it to photograph well anyway. 

It really didn't change much in washing except the ply-twist softening a bit as I said and I'm very happy with the skein which is about 650 yards!! 

I can't wait to knit something amazing with it!

Knit Camp Recap

I'm sorry for the long silence blog-friends. I sort of flamed out on re-entry.

I was camping. Well, it was more like glam-ping. A knitting friend and I headed out to our third round of what we call Knit Camp. We rented a cabin at a Minnesota State Park. It's pretty comfortable actually with electricity and heat. You just have to walk to the bathroom. Which is a vault toilet. (Think mini biff in a solid little shed building.)

Here's a look at the outside of the cabin. We were in Maple at Lake Bemidji State Park. Even though it's a drive to get there we like the quiet atmosphere and being surrounded by the trees. So peaceful. 

Can you see George Fredrick IX there? 

He had a grand old time hanging out with the spider who lived on the porch, Milicent. 

William preferred to hang out with the drum carder though.

That's my friend's lovely Romney going onto the carder. Isn't it gorgeous? It has a lovely sort of shiny quality in real life. Since it was just the two of us this time we had plenty of space in the cabin so we both brought our spinning wheels and got so much done! It's lovely having no interruptions. 

I finally finished the singles of my Ashburton and even plied it but I will save those pictures for spinning Tuesday as it is still waiting for a soak and twack. 

We ate excellent food, relaxed and had a grand old time. We even slept really well thanks to the memory foam mattress pads we ordered and brought (the provided beds are a little hard for our taste).

We even had our Camp Knit-Til-U-Drop sign in our window. I'm not sure what the neighboring cabin thought!
Of course all too soon it was time to pack up and leave.

The cabin always looks sort of sad when it's cleaned up and we are leaving.
Despite all the relaxation and the great sleep, it was somehow still hard to come back to real life and get back into my usual routine. I was exhausted Monday, Tuesday was struggling with some anxiety which wore me out all over again and I'm finally starting to feel like myself again. 

I definitely recommend camping with knitting friend though. It was a blast as usual. 

Ashburton on the Wheel

I feel like the entire month of February got away from me. I was so sleep-deprived and exhausted that I just couldn't form coherent sentences for writing blog posts. With the return of some more spring-like weather and sleep I am feeling a little better though and I'm ready to dive back into blogging! 

So, today it's all about spinning. It is Tuesday after all.

After a couple of disappointing spins I decided to go for something beautiful that would make me happy. I chose this.

It's Gritty Knits Merino in Ashburton. I absolutely love all the colors so I wanted to keep them somewhat separated, although this would make an absolutely beautiful barber pole yarn as well. 

As such I split the braid in several pieces the long way and wound them into balls. Here are a few of them. 

Then, when I'm getting ready to spin one of them, I draft it out until it's super fine and thin like this.

See how much smaller the strand is? I'm spinning it fine and plan to chain-ply so I can keep the colors as they are.

I'm not even halfway done with the spinning but it's beautiful so far and I should get a nice chain-plied fingering weight yarn. We got a different couch last summer and I'm finding it harder to get comfortable to spin so I haven't been spinning as much as I used to but I really miss it so I want to make it more of a priority from now on. I would like to finish the spinning on this at least, if not the plying, by the end of the month. 

Sometimes I Really Do Knit

Oh, that's right. This is meant to be a knitting blog. Although I do like to include some of my other interests too, the main thing I usually focus on is my knitting and spinning. 

It's the Tour de Fleece and I haven't been spinning as much as I would like but it have been trying to sneak in a little spinning every day. I did manage to spin this loveliness. 

This is a skein of English Shetland in Picses from Zarzuela's fibers. Sadly she doesn't dye anymore. This is from when I was in her club a few years ago. I spun it nice and easy straight from the braid just allowing it to be whatever it wanted then chain-plied it. It came out to be a nice bulky weight and softened nicely in the wash.

I love the variety of blues and I was thinking of knitting a nice hat with this. Maybe with some hand-processed local gray Shetland. I haven't quite decided yet.

I also managed to finish these.

Aren't they amazingly bright? They're so happy! I bought this yarn from our yarn shop hop the day of the Zombie Knitpocalypse market. Wait, did I ever share my stash acquisitions from that? 

There they are. So many yummy things. I was dying to cast on the neon yarn so I knit these super simple short socks and I just adore them. I should be able to get another pair out of that skein so my plan is to knit it up then I can feel justified ordering another skein of neon yarn. It's a really fun summer knit and there was a skein of the Regia neons that did catch my eye. 

June Wrapup

June was a busy month, full of lots of family activities. There was some crafting but not nearly as much as it could have been. I managed to turn in one class for Harry Potter Knit and Crochet House Cup with a handspun blanket square. This is the Mitered Crosses blanket pattern and while I don't love all the ends you have to weave in, I do love the pattern.

I really love how this one turned out with the purple at the edges. This makes the sixth total square and as always when I finish a square, it makes me want to get on the knitting and finish this, I think it will be really beautiful.

You can't really see them all here but you can check out my Ravelry project page if you want more pictures.

I also finished a lovely skein of handspun.

I really love how it turned out. A nice, squishy sport weight. I turned this in for Detention which is a project you start before the month begins. 

Hopefully these will bring some more crafting into focus for me. I'm also participating in a challenge called One Book July for my planner which will simplify my setup and hopefully allow more time for knitting and spinning during the Tour de Fleece. I'm still finalizing my goals for the tour. Next post I'll talk about the wheel spa day, which is cleaning and tuning up I do before a big spin, usually right before the Tour de Fleece, and my goals, as well as go into more information about my setup for One Book July.