February Round-up

I have very little to report for this month. In fact, checking back on my post for my January Round-up, the situation has hardly changed at all!

• FOs = 0
• WIPs = 2

GlenvArgh! is languishing while I focus on pattern-writing and knitting my design.
While I don’t have an FO to show for it, pattern-writing has been a fascinating & thoroughly rewarding process. Having read a few timely tweets from other designers, I was prompted to work out the Maths first. I did this as far as I could visualise but then *had* to pick up the needles to test it out. It was just as well I did because I had made some classic, newbie mistakes.

It took at least 3 attempts at the sleeve & shoulder shaping before I got it “right”. I also suffered two needle fatalities: one Denise cable and on of my Knit-pro cables.

• Frogged = 1… several times!

Meanwhile, I did get a pair of socks into circulation, by darning a hole on one toe. These are my favourite socks, ever! They’re Embossed Leaves from Favorite Socks by InterWeave Press.

There was stash enhancement but it was of the controlled, long-awaited variety; and therefore completely acceptable. It was the first instalment of Janel Laidman’s “Illuminations” sock-club: two skeins of Staccato Sock by ShibuiKnits.

I also didn’t complete my February skein for the SkAM-SpAL. I was reviving a spindle of Louet Northern Top that I had started last Summer. Though I enjoyed the spindling – and became quite good at it after practicing so frequently – it really is much slower.

• Yarn in = 175(103-Green)+175(105-Blue) = 350m
• Yarn out = still indeterminate, but probably more than yarn in!… //for once!//

Meet ups = one, #twillting aka the Quilting workshop given by @MaryLD at the beginning of February.

I had to bow-out of the February Spin-in because I was enjoying a weekend away in Inchydoney Hotel and Spa. It was a treat for my fortieth birthday.

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Spinning FO: Eyjafjallajokull

I did it!!! I have made YAAARRRNNNN!!!

Fire and Ice: Eyjafjallajokull

It was a bit of a struggle at times and really enjoyable at times. The plying was much easier than I expected. I read  – properly, this time – the instructions that Maggie Casey gives in her book “Start Spinning” and it was waaay easier than spinning.

I did have “fun” when one bobbin finished several meters before the other. In the future, I’m going to have Navajo plying for dealing with this situation. In the meantime, I consulted the Oracle that is Twitter and thanks to @Deimne, @Dianeknits and @BionicLaura for their advice and @cathyqtpi and @WrapNTurn for their encouragement.

I did I bit of a quasi-scientific endeavour with weighing scales to try to find the centre-point of  the remaining single. Of course, this really only works with commercial yarn that has a consistent “density” throughout.

I missed the centre point by a few meters so one bobbin ran out again. This time, I took a trip down the hall to find the centre point.

I didn’t quite get it then either so when I was left with a meter or so of one single I tried a few chains of Navajo.

So after soaking and snapping and hanging to dry, I did some measuring. (I immediately realised I would have been better off doing the measuring before I had fastened ties around the skein. *sigh!* I live and learn!)

I’ve got 3oo meters of yarn (give or take) and it’s turning out as (on average) 11 or 13 WPI. Kinda, sorta, DK weight (with sections of super-bulky!)

I’m now dreaming of all the possible things I could make with it…