New Knitting Project: Line Break

I have to admit: when I was still studying for my exams, I spent quite some time on Ravelry, having to procrastinate every so often ;-) I used to look for new patterns (especially asymmetric ones), but also browse my favourites and imagine how glorious it would be to have some time for spinning art yarn for myself and starting a larger project.

I decided on the Line Break shawl which calls for about 800 m of fingering yarn. I wanted a simple art yarn - no ribbons or charms, but tiny beads and sequins for a glittery yet elegant effect - and I wanted to spin in from a black fibre blend. I recently got my hands on some (commercially dyed) black Bluefaced Leicester fibre which I blended with glossy black alpaca, luxurious merino/silk blend and black merino wool. I spun in black sewing thread strung with black and silver mini sequins and tiny silver seed beads. I love the yarn, and spinning the first skein was a lot of fun, but I tend to find spinning lots of the same yarn quite tedious... I managed about 1000m nonetheless and now I can knit a really large version of the shawl, yay!

I named the yarn and the shawl "Delirious Diva", still being under the influence of the "Sing-Along Songs for the Damned and Delirious" album by The Diablo Swing Orchestra :-D

I started a few days ago, while being entertained by my husband playing The Walking Dead on the PS3. It's quite disgusting, but fun to watch while knitting (also enthralling), and I'm looking forward to more :-)

I always find it hard to take photos of black fibre and yarn - these could be better, but I hope you enjoy this post anyway :-)

Tentacular Knitting Project(s)

I found an intriguing pattern called Tentaculum. I was in posession of a wonderful skein of art yarn at the time which I really wanted to knit up myself, and the two kind of happened to coincide. Here's the result :-)

I originally intended to make and keep this for myself, but then I decided to give it to my mum for her birthday. It felt right and she likes it :-)

I made another one I didn't really intend to keep, but now I am wondering... I wanted to knit another one because I had so much fun with the pattern, and I decided to spin a white snowflake art yarn since I've always wanted to knit one of those myself. The thing is - I don't like wearing white. I don't think it looks good on me, and I usually prefer black with a splash of either red, green oder dark teal. All I wanted was the bliss of knitting a wonderful mixed-fibre art yarn with snowflake sequins into a fun garment which I could then trade or give as a gift. Then I put it around my neck and was amazed how white actually can look quite good on me - unfamiliar, but not at all bad. So now I am not sure whether I'll keep it or not. I haven't even gotten around to weaving in the ends and blocking the thing, which is why I can only show you a picture from the very beginning:

I am so in love with these snowflake sequins! I always have been, from the first time I saw them :-) I even wondered whether they might look good in a black or teal yarn *g* Maybe I'll try that some day.

All Good Things Must End...

...or so goes the proverb. It is certainly true for my studies, as I have now (finally!) completed my degree :-)

I am proud and relieved - and still exhausted, but that's fine as I can take a break now. I look forward to spinning and reviving the shop, but before that I will spend some time doing absolutely nothing useful, preferably in the garden :-) I have a new book and a new music album I am looking forward to: "First Among Sequels" by Jasper Fforde (the fifth book in a series I've enjoyed over the past two years) and "Sing-Along Songs for the Damned and Delirious" by Diablo Swing Orchestra. Both are fantastic!

More Dyeing: Papageno Sock Yarn

After dyeing my first sock yarn, I had a conversation with my dear friend FibrePiratess about yarn dyeing. I was talking about how easy it is to mix colours like blue and green that go well together, as it won't matter if the colours bleed into each other, and how I wouldn't (at the moment) dare to mix complementary colours together as I was afraid of ending up with a disgusting and undefined mud colour. At this point I felt the immense urge to try a sock yarn of green and orange, and it took only a few days until I gave in.

I did kind of cheat, however. I added yellow as a barrier between the green and the orange, as I knew it would go well with both and prevent the dreaded mud colour ;-) Yet there was still the matter of preventing the orange parts from mingling with the green parts before the colours were set. I thought of this before I started, but modified the measures while I went along. But let me start from the beginning.

When dyeing with easter egg colours, I usually just mix each colour in a normal drinking glass. I put in the little tablets (or paper strips, as there are several different kinds of easter egg colours), add a bit of vinegar and hot water and stir, sometimes breaking the tablets with a spoon when I am impatient. I let the yarn soak in water mixed with vinegar and squeeze it before I apply the dyes.

In this case, I did the orange part first. I wrapped some plastic wrap around it to protect it from the green parts and added the yellow colour. This was how I had planned it. I was afraid it wouldn't be enough, though, and did the first thing that came to mind: I stuffed the orange part of the yarn into an empty drinking glass, then transferred the whole skein and the glass onto a baking tray, fanned out the yarn a little, and poured the green colour on the yet undyed parts. I tried to let it bleed into the yellow parts as I wanted to prevent bits from staying undyed, but I didn't manage perfectly. I then transferred the skein into a bowl (the baking tray wouldn't fit in the microwave, of course), putting the glass with the orange part on top (and adding a little water to it so the yarn wouldn't get too dry).

I heat-set the dyes for 3 x 5 minutes, always letting the yarn rest after 5 minutes (and for 5 minutes) before turning the microwave back on.

Unfortunately, I wasn't able to take better pictures. The orange part was quite shy, you only see the yellow and the intersection between orange and yellow here. The real orange is a lot brighter. I love it :-) I thought of parrots at first, until, suddenly, a character from my favourite opera (The Magic Flute) popped into my mind and I thought this was so Papageno!

Learning Something New - Sock Knitting!

I've been spinning and knitting for well over six years now, yet somehow I never dared to try socks. I love handknit socks, but they seemed kind of intimidating as a knitting project. Also, I don't really want to spin sock yarn for several reasons: it has to be extremely thin, it has to be quite even, it has to be plied... It seems to be a matter of diligence more than of creativity, and I am not the most patient person, I like my creative outbursts ;-) Spinning and plying the usual sock yarn of 420m/100g would take ages. First, I'd have to spin nearly a thousand metres of yarn, then I'd have to ply all this yarn, and then it would probably not last for long, as socks are for walking in...

You could argue that I don't necessarily have to spin my own sock yarn. I am proud, though, I have never bought yarn other than cotton yarn for dish cloths - more about that another time, maybe - in all my spinning time, but always used my own handspun for my knitting projects. However, as with the cotton yarn, I finally decided to break the tradition after all. If I know I won't spin it but I do want to do the project, why not? After looking at sock yarn online I decided to compromise: I'd at least dye it myself. This way, I can still be creative, and I don't have to use yarn I am not fully satisfied with. I didn't like many of the commercial yarns, and when I thought about buying hand dyed sock yarn I though "hey, wait - why should I when I can have fun with it myself?". Sooo - I went to Ebay and bought 1 kg of undyed sock yarn ;-)

Due to lack of time (yes, still in my graduation process, studying like mad) I decided to do a quick dyeing session with easter egg colours. They can be used with normal cooking dishes and heat-set in the microwave, so no need for any preparations or special pots. I am quite in love with teals and blue-greens at the moment, so this is what I went for.

Unfortunately, my camera had some issues with getting the colours right - the yarn is a lot more beautiful in person! It's lighter than I wanted it to be (lots of light, somewhat greenish blue), but I got used to it and now like it very much :-)

I had picked a pattern before I bought and dyed the yarn: Falling Tears (which is also available on Lucygerbils blog). In fact, the pattern (wich I found while browsing on Ravelry during a pause between studying sessions) was the trigger for the whole thing. I am picky, I admit it. I have found few sock patterns I really liked (before this one, that is), and seeing that such a project takes a while I didn't want to get stuck with just any pattern. Only drawback: the pattern is not really suitable for beginners as the things which actually make a sock a sock are not explained. So I ended up buying a sock knitting book (it's in German - Sockenworkshop to go) and starting the project anyway. I am sure I could have found everything I needed on the internet, but sometimes I like having a book instead of printed sheets that will get lost at some point or another.

The photo is a little behind the actual status, I just started the heel a few days ago. Then I fell ill (bad dental infection or whatever is the correct term) and was in too much pain to do anything than watching trashy TV shows. I am better now, as the antibiotic is finally working, but I decided on some studying today instead of trying to work out the mysteries of sock knitting. I am looking forward to continuing the sock, but I still feel a bit intimidated ;-)

Don't Blink

I might have mentioned before that I am a huge fan of Doctor Who. One of my favourite episodes is "Blink" and I've been wanting to spin a weeping angels yarn for a while now. Some time between my exams I went looking for some angel wing charms on ebay and found really beautiful ones - enough for two yarns. So here they are, both inspired by the same episode and the same creatures.

The Weeping Angels

Wonderfully soft merino wool of natural grey is combined with white organza ribbons, frosted white glass beads with a silver core, and silver angel wings. I plied the yarn with silver thread, giving it a wavy texture. 124 m, 116 g.

The Angels Have the Phone Box

"They have taken the blue box haven’t they? The angels have the phone box." One of my favourite quotes, and not only mine, as one of the characters in the episode refers to this with the following: ""The angels have the phonebox," that's my favourite, I've got that on a T-shirt." (There are indeed T-Shirts you can buy, with this quote - I've been thinking about that ;-)).

The yarn has the same add-ins as the one above (I call them the angel ingredients now), but the texture is different, and I used merino wool and linen fibre in different shades of blue, as well as white bamboo flakes. 131 m, 107 g.

If you don't know Doctor Who and I got you interested, "Blink" is one of the episodes you can actually watch without having to know any of the characters or background story - though I'd say, start from the first episode of the new series which was relaunched in 2005 and watch all of it - it's one of the best shows at the moment in my opinion :-)

Guess the Fairytale - and Win Fabulous Prizes!

Once upon a time, there was a soap sorceress who asked a spinner for a trade: she would make nine soaps inspired by fairy tales and wanted the spinner to provide nine small skeins of well-endowed art yarn matching the tales. For this, the spinner would get into bathing heaven, aka receive a parcel of handmade bath bombs.

As a trade like this has to be shown and celebrated, the two crafters decided to show everything to the audience - you :-) And as the soap sorceress has a big heart, she decided to give away generous prizes in a guessing and lottery game, and I decided to give away an art yarn. For details, see below - it's a little complicated but worth it, just have a look at the prizes!

This is how it works:
Below you see the nine yarns, each of them inspired by a fairy tale, and each of them tagged with a number. Over at Goodgirl's blog, you will see the nine soaps, each of them tagged with a letter.

Guess which soap belongs to which yarn and leave your guess in a comment at Goodgirl's blog (for example: 2A, 6B... both of which are totally random).  
You can also try to guess the fairy tales, we would love that very much! Also, there will be a bonus prize for this ;-) (for details, see below) 

Goodgirl will do a random drawing in two weeks. The winners will get the prizes, no costs attached - we even pay for international shipping. If you'd like a better chance for your name to be drawn, link to our giveaway posts on your own blog for others to see and leave the link to your post in a second comment on Goodgirl's blog.

Oh, and don't be shy, her blog is in German, but she assures me comments in English will be more than welcome :-) (and don't be alarmed if your comment doesn't show - to make it equally difficult for everyone the comments will be hidden until the drawing)

If you have any more questions about this (I always find these giveaways hard to describe), don't hesitate to ask, you can just leave a comment here on this blog and I'll help.

And now for the yarns - try to guess which number belongs to which letter over at Goodgirl's blog!

(click to enlarge)

The Prizes

1st prize (random drawing):  
The complete set of fairy tale soaps, i.e. all of these 9 pampering and  frangrant soaps!

2nd prize (random drawing):  
A compilation of 5 of the fairy soaps and you can choose which you want to try.  

Bonus prize for the participant who guesses most of the correct combinations and fairy tales: 
The complete set of fairy tale soaps, so all your soapy needs will be satisfied for weeks ;)
PLUS the handspun art yarn you see beside this text.