Hi folks, I hope you all have broadband access because today's post is chock full o pictures *smile* I'll start by saying I had a ball in San Diego this weekend. The weather was beautiful and it was nice having some alone time with my BF. We also stopped by to visit with my little brother who is a freshman at SDSU. Here is a picture of the view from him dorm window.
And here is the view from his dorm door, LOL! As you can see he didn't really want his picture taken, if he ever finds out I posted this online I'm sure he will consider my murder justifiable homicide *smile*
Here's me and the BF on Sunday morning. Hung over and looking worse for the wear. I tell ya, I'm getting old... and fat by the looks of this picture. I think it's only fair that I post this horrible picture of myself since I posted that picture of my brother. Maybe this shared shame will keep him from hurting me too bad, LOL!
I also found some really cool sweaters to unravel and re-knit at my local salvation army. I bought this sweater for $1.50. It's a blend of wool, cotton and silk.
Here is is all unwound and ready to be washed. It ended up being about 1000 yards.
And here is is clean and wound up into balls on its way to becoming a "Grace" cardigan for my daughter from the Rowan Junior pattern book. I'm having some strangeness going on with this however. I knit a gauge swatch and I got gauge on my size US 4 needles. (21 sts. = 4 in.) Ok, good. But once I started knitting this I noticed that the other part of my gauge does not match. It should be 29 rows = 4 in. I'm getting 29 row = ~ 5.5 in. I don't really know what to do about this. Please, someone help me!
And the pictures just keep coming. Here is some merino roving I dyed looooong time ago and never got around to spinning. This first picture is of one of the rovings spread out and ready to be pre-drafted.
Here are the pre-drafted rovings all balled up and ready to go...
And here is the first skein from this batch. It's about 220 yards and I probably have enough fiber left for another skein of this same size, if not a little bit more. Isn't it gorgeous?!
Here's a close-up of the skein. I'm thinking of calling this one Rose Garden or something like that. I don't really have a plan for this one yet. When I first dyed the roving I was going to use it to knit something for my daughter but I don't really think I will have enough to make a sweater or anything like that. It's about a worsted to heavy worsted weight. If anyone has suggestions I would love to hear them.
Ok, I will leave you today with this picture of my totally out of control stash. I have to admit that most of this is handspun by me or come from unraveled sweaters bought at the salvation army, so at least it does not represent the mountain of cash that it seems to, but it is still waaaaay too much yarn. And the sad part is I have two yarn orders and 2 fiber orders on their way to me as we speak. It really is like crack. I wonder if there are support groups for people like me. "Hello, my name is Stacey and I'm a fiberholic...
7 comments:
WARNING: LONG COMMENT: First off, I'd like to say, 'Hi, my name is Christie, and I'm a fiber-holic'. I don't know why people don't like picture heavy posts, I like seeing pictures of people's stuff and their triumphs in knitting. 1. You and BF are sooo cute! 2. The sweater you ripped apart is super cool. I never find stuff like that at my Goodwill. Self-striping yarn is all good! 3. 'Rose Garden' is so lovely! Nice job! 4. Wow...your yarn stash! I feel overwhelmed by my stash sometimes...I wish I had more tho...how does yarn become such an addiction?!?!?! I don't know if this will work for your yarn, but I love this little pattern http://www.theknittinggarden.com/gallery/aug-free-4.htm
I'm giving myself a time out now, for over use of the exclaimation mark. c-ya!
That roving and yarn is gorgeous. I wouldn't worry too much about the difference in the row gauge. As long as you knit to the measurements, I don't see why it would be a problem (well, depending on the way the sleeves are set in I guess). It will just take you longer to get to the finished measurements with your gauge.
Lauren
some_girl_named_lauren AT yahoo DOT com
Thanks for all the compliments on the yarn. What's funny about it is that this was one of the first rovings I attempted dyeing and when I took it out of the pot I thought it was ugly. I set it aside and thought oh well, lesson learned. Now I think it's some of the best I have ever dyed myself. Live and learn.
For Lauren: Thanks, but that's just what I'm worried about. The sleeve right now is about 4 inches too long before the cap shaping. I'm figuring I can just frog back to the right lenght but then I don't know if I should follow the directions for the cap shaping on the body and sleeves and hope it doesn't look wonky or if I should try to figure out some way to adjust the pattern. Ugh! This sucks, LOL! I have a really cool yarn
and what I thought was the perfect pattern but now it doesn't seem to work!
For Christie: Thank you sooooo much for that pattern. It's perfect! I might just put that darn cardigan on hold for a while and start working on that tee. It would be perfect for this yarn! *smile*
The roving is beatiful. I really like the idea of unraveling a sweater and reknitting one. What a great idea. About your brother, if he is an avid spinner and knitter he'll find out about the picture. if not the only way he'll know is if you tell him. Shhhhh! I really can't get over the unraveling it's such a great idea!!!
Hope you had a swell time in my town! And it's always good to see someone else's stash, because no matter how big or small it is, you can find something about to make you feel less conpulsive about your own stash. For me it was, well I don't spin, so I don't have to stash roving! In fact, I can go buy more yarn to compensate for my lack of spinning.....
Hilari
Make Me
Your stash is nothing. Feel no guilt. I can't fit mine into one camera frame. I've got about five times that. MY stash is embarrassing. Yours is nothing. Go buy more! ;)
As for the GORGEOUS "Rose Garden" - what about getting something that's a solid color - any one of the pinks or greens in your handspun - and knit a sweater/cardigan from that, but put rose garden in at the cuffs, collar and hem, and a stripe or two in the middle if there's enough...
That roving is absolutely gorgeous! I fear getting to the point of dying my own - I know at that point I'll start buying entire fleeces and then my stash really will take over the entire basement instead of only half...
As for the row gauge being off, you could always do the math for the cap shaping - figure out what their measurements would be for their row gauge, then figure out your own row gauge and just adjust the placement of the shaping rows so the measurements come out the same. I almost always have to do that since my row gauge almost never matches. Alas.
hollyo (at) beavercraft (dot) org
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