Cotton Candy Corriedale

Sweet Summer Shawl

I finished this shawl yesterday, and I’m super excited because it’s the first time I’ve knit with my handspun!

Official Stats

Date Started: July 2, 2015
Date Finished: July 8, 2015
Pattern: Sweet Summer Shawl by Michelle Krause (Ravelry, website)
Yarn: 383 yards of my handspun Cotton Candy Corriedale, purchased from SassyBee Fibers at The Fiber Event 2014
Needles: US 6 / 4.0 mm
Finished Dimensions: 52″ x 13″ at longest point
Made for: Me! I’m not giving away my first handspun project 🙂
Ravelry Project Page

About This Project

I loved knitting this project. I’m happy to finally knit with my handspun. This yarn is a massive improvement over my prior handspun, but it still has some anomalies. The Sweet Summer Shawl pattern is forgiving of yarn anomalies, since it is mostly garter stitch. The shawl is knit from end to end not top down or bottom up. I was looking for a pattern knit in this manner to maximize the yarn I had. I managed to use all but 6.9 grams of the yarn.

The pattern suggests knitting 10 repeats of the increase section then 10 repeats of the decrease section. I started weighing my yarn after the 8th repeat and every repeat after that. I ended up with 11 repeats. I knew I didn’t have enough yarn to knit a 12th increase repeat plus a 12th decrease repeat. Now that I finished the pattern, I wish I’d knit one repeat without either increasing or decreasing. I had enough yarn to do so, and I think I would have been happier with an odd number of points. Since there’s not a central point in the pattern, it ends up slightly asymmetrical and I would have preferred symmetry. In the grand scheme of things, this is a minor quibble. It’s a fun, easy pattern to knit and I KNIT WITH MY HANDSPUN!!!

May 2015 in Review

Since I haven’t posted in a couple of weeks, I thought I’d write a quick post re: finished projects and activities.

Finished Projects

Slytherin Houndstooth Scarf

Draft: Houndstooth
Loom: 15″ Cricket Table Top Loom
Reed: 10 dent
Warp Stats
- Yarn: 150 yards (including loom waste) of Knit Picks Capretta in Platinum and 150 yards (including loom waste) of Cascade Heritage Silk in Pine
- Loom waste: 31 yards
- Total Warp Ends: 110
- Ends Per Inch (EPI): 10
- Warp Length: 100″
Weft Stats
- Yarn: 153.6 yards Knit Picks Capretta in Platinum and 142.8 yards Cascade Heritage Silk in Pine
- Picks Per Inch (PPI): 10 – 12
- Width in the Reed: 11″
Ravelry Project Page

I didn’t write a post about finishing this scarf, though it’s appeared in several WIP Wednesday posts (January 22, February 4, March 25). I had to finish it so that I could weave the Dr. Who scarf on my rigid heddle loom! Since this is the fourth Houndstooth Scarf I finished (see the posts on Gryffindor, Hufflepuff, and Ravenclaw Houndstooth scarves), I felt like I didn’t necessarily learn anything new on this project. I did apply the lessons learned on the prior Houndstooth scarves, so the Slytherin is the most consistent of the four.

Wheel: Kromski Fantasia
Spinning Twist: S (clockwise)
Plying Twist: Z (counter-clockwise)
Ratio: 8:1
Singles Yardage: 978 yards
Fiber: Sassy Bee Corriedale in Cotton Candy
Finished skein:
- Ply Structure: 420 yards 2-ply; 46 yards n-ply
- Weight: 4 oz
Ravelry Stash page

This is another project that I’ve been working on for a while and which has appeared in a couple of WIP Wednesday posts (February 4, February 18). As of February 18, I’d finished plying and had wound most of the yarn onto a niddy noddy. It then sat around, still on the niddy noddy, awaiting washing.

Dr. Who Scarf

I did write a blog post about this one!

Felted Cat Bed

Pattern: garter stitch
Yarn: 440 yards Patons SWS in Geranium
Needles: US 13 / 9.0 mm
Pre-felting dimensions: 23″ wide by 40″ long
Post-felting dimensions: 11.5″ wide by 19″ long
Made for: Pepper
Ravelry Project Page

I whipped out a new cat bed to line the bookshelf where Pepper likes to sleep. Although she wasn’t very co-operative re: posing for the picture, she loves the bed. It’s now her favorite sleeping spot.

Semi-finished Projects

These projects are “semi-finished” because I’m making multiple dishcloths from the same patterns, as part of my ongoing Dishcloth Advent Calendar (details in my 2015 Plans post) project. I’ve finished at least one individual item, but am still working on making more. I need to make 18 dishcloths in each pattern, and will write blog posts with all the project details when I finish all 18.

Heart Illusion Dishcloths

I finished 9 of these in May.

Bias Knit, Crochet Cotton Dishcloth

I only finished one of these. Even with two strands held together, it took about 3 hours to knit one of these, and I didn’t even make it as big as the pattern suggests. It’ll take me a while to make all 18 of these, but I do like them.

Activities

I participated in three demos with the Weavers of Orlando. I’ve written blog posts about two of those: St. Johns River Festival of the Arts and Arts at Audubon Elementary. The third demo was just this past Friday, and I’m working on writing a post about it!

I also traveled to New England to attend my cousin’s college graduation. While there, I visited 12 yarn shops, including WEBS! I bought yarn in all the shops, and will be writing multiple blog posts about the experience. I needed to take pix of all the new stash for the posts and to update my Rav stash. I’ve been working on it and I’m just about finished. I will be posting about these shops throughout the month of June; I plan to get all the posts up no later than June 25 since several of the shops I visited are part of the 2015 I-91 Shop Hop which starts that day.

WIP Wednesday: February 18, 2014

I started this week working on some UFOs, but later in the week cast on a couple of new projects!

MAPLE LEAF the Ninth!

Yes, really! It’s been sitting around since December, and I finally picked it up again. I was sick over the weekend and spent two days sitting on the couch watching tv, so I got quite a bit done. I’ve finished the first of the five corners, and should be totally done with knitting this shawl before next Wednesday. I’m not sure if I’ll get it blocked or not. My new-to-me floor loom is currently sitting in the dining room, in front of the table I use for blocking. I’m not sure if I have enough leaves in the table to block a MAPLE LEAF shawl or not. If I don’t, blocking will have to wait until I can move the floor loom into my home office.

Sassy Bee Cotton Candy Corriedale

I finished plying this fiber while at spinning group the first Saturday in February. I have it wound onto the niddy noddy. I just need to tie it and wash it to set the twist, and it will be done.

Narwhal

This is the first new project of the week. This is part of a narwhal-along in Ravenclaw Tower. I cast on last Saturday, and expected to finish it that day. Instead, I went to buy a floor loom. I still have to sew on the flippers. I’m also going to find something different for eyes because I think the beads I used are too small.

Scarf

On Monday evening, our cat Pepper did not look well. She was straining to use the litter box, but nothing was coming out. She would get out of the litter box, rest for a while, then try again. She also tried squatting in inappropriate places, like the cat’s toy basket. I realized I was probably going to have to bring her to the emergency vet, and that I didn’t have any knitting that was mindless enough to work on during a midnight wait at the vet. I quickly cast on this scarf, knit one pattern repeat, and bundled Pepper off for an enema at the vet. I got about 4″ knit while I waited. I knit a little more while waiting for dinner to finish yesterday.

Crochet 365

I finished the star-rating index three weeks ago, but haven’t looked at this project since. This week, I started looking at the 90 one-star patterns, contemplating the order in which I want to crochet them. I made three separate lists: one of patterns that use a solid color, one of patterns that use multiple colors, and one of patterns that the author’s note identifies as a “good beginner square.” Along the way, I made notes on the patterns, identifying stitches used or techniques, and contemplating the end uses of these 365 squares. Some of the squares will definitely be dishcloths. Some of the squares might be afghans or scarves. I need to have some ideas so that I can pick out appropriate yarns. My head was spinning a bit after looking at all the information, but it was a good start at determining the best approach, given my modest crochet skills. I hope to make the final project list this week.

WIP Wednesday: February 4, 2015

As expected, I haven’t had a whole lot of crafting time over the last two weeks due to office rearrangement. I finished rearranging the furniture and I set up the new computer. I’m now sorting through all my files, throwing away as much as I can. This is step 3 of household organization using the method Marie Kondo describes in her book The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up. I read that book last September and have slowly been working my way through it. I had three file cabinets in my office. One was already empty of files, but being used for storage. The second was half storage and half files. The third is all files. I’d like to get two of them out of my office entirely, in order to make room for yarn and fiber storage. My yarn is currently in my bedroom. Some fiber is in the bedroom and some is in my office. I’d like all my fiber craft tools and materials to be in my office. I expect to have the office totally finished by the end of February! In addition to working on my office, I have been crafting three projects.