And the games begin!

We are now officially (about) 2 days into the event (and by two days I mean this is the second time I'm contemplating going to bed since starting this project) and I am officially 3 stripes done with my sweater.

I can't wait to get past the raglan increases...

The 2012 Ravellenic Games

So, after a bit of hubbub all over the internet for a while there, Ravelry's Olympics-timed event is now rechristened and about to start.  Honestly, if it wasn't for the crazy I wouldn't even care about the event.  As it is, USOC and their ill-worded letter have made me actually want to participate this year.  Not sure if that counts as a fail on their part...lol

Anyway, my head first leap into the crazy is a sweater.  Ok ok, don't send the mental health police 'round this way just yet.  Are you really crazy if you are aware you are crazy?  Besides, I've been wanting to knit another sweater for a while.

Totally crap-tastic photo of the stripes I'm doing!  That's brick red, a color called "melon" which is an orangey-pink, and yellow.  It'll be a top down raglan.

The event starts July 27 at 4pm EST.  That's not even two days from now.  Oh crap.

An Undertaking of Historic Proportions

Ok, not so much.  But I wanted to fit the word "historic" in there.

I've mentioned Nerd Wars before, right?  One of the challenges this month is to craft something related to the history of our craft.  At first, I wasn't so sure about this.  Sometimes a challenge will grab me immediately, sometimes I never come up with something, and usually it's somewhere in the middle.  I was originally thinking this one fell into that second category.

But then I remembered something.  Something absolutely perfect.  Years ago I went looking through google books for free knitting/crochet books, focused mostly on the really really old stuff because, well, it was more likely to be free.  Also it was really cool seeing the way people described these crafts way back when.

I never really tackled any of the patterns seriously.  Even though I was a pretty decent knitter back then, most things would require quite a bit interpreting and guessing about appropriate yarn and needles, and I just didn't have the patience.  But now...now I have a reason!

This time around I went looking for something that A) Wouldn't take tons and tons of interpreting, B) Something I had a purpose for, and C) Something that looked fun to make.

The answer?  A pattern for "Driving Mitts", which is just an old fashioned way of saying Fingerless Mitts.  What's old is new again, right?  And perfect because I've so been thinking about them a lot lately.

For those curious, the book is Knitting, crochet, and netting by Eléonore Riego de la Branchardière (totally copy pasted that name, lol).  The pattern is simply called "Driving Mitts" and is on page 31.  This book was published in 1846 in London.  So cool.

So, to knitting.  The pattern itself seems pretty straightforward.  The yarn and needles I of course had to guess at.  The pattern called for "4 Pins No. 15, 4-thread Fleecy", and while I know that back then the bigger the needle size the smaller the needle, that's all I know.  I haven't the slightest idea what "4-thread fleecy" is, perhaps a brand?  But the stitch count and small needle says "sock yarn or similar" to me.  The pattern calls for 56 stitches to be cast on, which is right within range of sock yarn weight patterns I've been looking at recently.  Apparently no one thought gauge was an important addition to patterns back then.

I happen to own one set of sock size needles - maybe two but if I have a second set I have no idea where it's at.  This pair is, apparently, US size 1 - which is 2.25 mm.  Looking at how "size 1" is just as arbitrary as "No. 15", I have a sudden desire to start using mm sizes exclusively.

Someone in the NW challenge thread posted a link to a conversion chart of old needle sizes for those who might be tackling old patterns, and said chart says a 15 is a lot smaller than what I've got.  But I've just got the one set.  And as I've been looking at newer fingerless glove patterns off and on for days, this size plus fingering/sock weight yarn seems right on track to make something that will fit me.

Digging through my meager thin yarn stash, I finally settled on some Knit Picks Chroma that's a wonderful orange colorway.  Since I'm guessing with yarn and needles anyway, I figured I'd just knit the cuff and see if it fits.

I actually finished the cuff this morning, but got impatient before then and tried the cuff on at about 10 rows in.  It fits, so yay, good sign!  I'm just now starting the actually patterning part, so we'll see how that goes.

You can follow my progress here at my public Ravelry project page, though I'll try to remember to post updates here about it because this is just so cool.

First Real Yarn

So.  Spinning.  I suddenly love it again.  Fished out and finished a spinning project dating well back into last year.  Remember this old post?  I finally finished that yarn.

Yarn is chain plied - my first attempt at it.  This is the first yarn I've made that actually looks like yarn.  This is huge.  It's awesome!  It varies a lot in thickness still, but hey it's only the third finished yarn I've made.  It makes me want to spin more.

And some in progress pictures:

Yarn Dyeing - The "I'm really lazy so lets just dump it in a jar" method

I love dyeing. Though it might be amusing to share my lazy bum method of dyeing, which also has the advantage of keeping the smell of warm koolaid to a minimum. :P



This is my awesome Dyeing Jar. It's just a plastic, clamp top jar I got at Walmart a while back for sun dyeing. I love it though because I don't have to worry about it spilling.



Here's my roving all soaking in the sink. I'm a lazy lazy dyer, so I tend to just leave it until most of the water escapes the sink or I get bored of waiting, whichever comes first.




After I was tired of soaking, I got the dye ready. I took one of our larger bowls and filled it with water. 3 minutes in the microwave put it just short of boiling. Dumped that into the jar (carefully!) and mixed in some green koolaid. Lemon lime or something like that...




Then I crammed the roving into the jar as well. I probably could have gotten all of it under, but I wanted more than one color so I didn't. Then I clamped the lid down and set it aside. I left it until I got bored and the water was clear by that point. It doesn't take that long because I had the water so hot. Probably not the best move if you're going for super even color, but where's the fun in that?





Here's the roving out of the dye. Half green, whee!





Did the same with red - Black cherry koolaid this time. Yes, it's looking rather christmassy by this point, but I'd randomly selected the colors. :P



There was still bits of white, and while I'm ok with white I needed something to make it less christmassy. I had an already opened packet of orange in my dye box, so I sprinkled it over the white spots. Then to be sure it was wet enough I splashed some of the water from the red job over it.



Then it got wrapped up like a sausage and stuck in a bowl to catch anything that might leak out. 2 minutes got it quite hot, so stashed it away in the basement to cool out of the way. (At this point I made lunch - grilled cheese, yum!) I actually forgot about it over night.




Here's it dumped out in our white bathroom sink - the best in my opinion for being sure that the rinse is clear.





And here's it squeezed out and then layed out to dry. It'll be dry in a few days and then I can start spinning it. :D

Straw Weaving

Yup, read about this a while back and had to give it a shot. It's so simple it's kind of addicting. Lots of fun!

Here's a few tutorials: [1] [2]

My favorite results come from having a double length of yarn through each straw. It gives a tighter fabric, probably due to more friction.



Another fun thing I've tried is working "circularly". *pokes picture above this* You need an odd number of straws, and since I've only got 4 right now I did this one with 3. Basically, you wrap across once, but instead of going back, you put the last straw next to the first and continue wrapping around. The odd number of straws ensures that you don't need to think too much about the wrapping pattern. Done with only three straws, it's a bit like the i-cord of the straw weaving world.


One thing to note, unless you keep things really loose (which makes for a rather sloppy product in my opinion) you won't really be able to see the strands that go through the straws. I don't know much about official weaving terms, but I believe you'd call these the "warp" yarn. You can see them poking out of each end in the pictures above, though you can thread them back inside, and sometimes when you fold your new fabric in half you can see them between the wraps.

Spinning!

Eek! I'm making yarn.

A couple of days ago (mid week maybe) I was looking around on KnitPicks and noticed their roving. It didn't seem horribly expensive (as far as my thoroughly inexperienced guess was) and I'd always wanted to try spinning. You know, with something that wasn't K'nex and Poly-Fill. So I ordered some...and a real drop spindle! And it came rather quickly, compared with my other online orders.

I'm absolutely thrilled! Sure, the center of that ball is mostly barely twisted thick stuff, but I've gotten to the point that it's starting to look like I know what I'm doing.

I can't wait to try plying this stuff - probably back onto itself. I haven't decided if I want to ply the super thick stuff as well. Part of me also wants to just set the twist on the single to maximize my yardage... decisions decisions...

Either way I can't wait to make something from this, even if it will have to be small.

Sun Dyeing

Since it is now almost 7am, I can no longer say "tonight" and must instead say "last night". Anyways, last night after dinner I did some basic hand painting on a skein of yarn. 150 yards of some Lion Brand Fisherman's Wool. Nothing special really, but here's a picture of it draining. It's currently drying.





Of course, I'm 99.9% positive that this method works. Been there, done that. Still a load of fun to play with colors, but otherwise no adventure.

Enter dyeing yarn using the power of the sun. Unlike the previous skein, which is heated in the microwave, this method leaves the containers of yarn out in bright sunlight to cook.

Earlier in the afternoon, I picked up a large jar from the store. Plastic I think, but the important thing was that it was clear and could be closed well enough I didn't have to worry about spills. So earlier in the wee hours this morning (no, I haven't slept yet) I put the last of my white wool (which has provided me with enough yarn for three 150 yd skeins) into the bottom of the jar. I then poured my leftover dye over it. Wasn't enough yarn to actually use up all the dye, but a good amount of it.

I also had a partial skein of wool/bamboo/nylon sock yarn from my fingerless gloves. I mixed up a packet of orange koolaid into a zipper bag, then chucked the sock yarn in. The sock yarn was a white/green/dark purple-blue colorway, so no clue what orange will do. Hopefully something drastic. It wasn't my favorite colorway.

Anyways, I then took the jar and the bag out into our backyard. I left it near the end of the yard where it ought to get plenty of sunlight once the sun is fully up. This was somewhere between 5 and 6, with enough light to see by but otherwise the sun isn't actually up yet.

I just checked it a little bit ago. It looks like the orange dye has already exhausted into the sock yarn. From what I've heard, superwash wool sucks up dye quickly. However, I'm going to leave it out there with the jar so it can get some heat. Yeah, the water I used was warm. But where's the fun with taking it in now?

No pictures unfortunately. My camera chose now to start acting up and claim low battery. Which means that they're just not fully charged anymore. I'll probably go see if any of my wii remotes needs a fresh battery change.

Off to bed I go. Now let's just hope that it doesn't rain!