Stitching States And Socks

It was another busy week with school and other commitments, but I still have found a little time in the evenings to work on my crafty pursuits. My Hylestad socks are finally done, for one.

Hylestad socks in Plucky Knitter Primo Fingering's En Garde and Baah! La Jolla's La Perla

Truth be told, I had finished them a week or two ago, but only finally sat down and wove in the ends. We've been watching Man In The High Castle and it is too interesting to weave ends to.

I've also be knitting away at my Rose By Any Other Name socks. I was hoping to have them done in time to wear for Valentine's Day, but in the last week the temperature has gone up significantly and now it is too hot to wear hand knit socks. I'll try to get them done anyways, just in case it decided to cool down.

Vanilla Socks in Canon Hand Dye's Rose By Any Other Name

Then there are the socks I cast on while we were in Hawaii. Or rather, I cast them on while we were in the airport to leave Hawaii. Still counts as Hawaii socks, right?

Groovy socks in White Birch Fiber Art's Wile Thai Ryder

There was also a night this last week where I was overcome with the need to work on my USA quilt. First I was just going to stitch a bit of Oregon. Then I was just going to stitch the California coast. But before I knew it, it was past midnight and I had finished all of Oregon, California, Nevada, Arizona, and New Mexico. I got to move the hoop and now I only have the gulf states and a bit of the east coast left.

The quilt is still far from being done, but at least a major potion will be complete.

Has anyone else found solace in their projects this week? Are there any projects that you've felt compelled to work on?

Enchanted Yarn And The Mysteries Of Twist Angle Revealed

It is done! The long awaited Greenwood Fiberworks sock roving in the Enchanted color way has been finished. I am pleased, but the yarn isn't as springy as I was hoping for sock yarn. I did some investigating on what it takes to spin better sock yarn and learned a thing or two.

I'm not sure why I believed this, but whenever I read about the angle of twist on yarn, I just assumed you held the yarn at a certain angle to the wheel when spinning it. (i.e., you spin the yarn off to one side) After reading an article on Spinning Great Sock Yarn and the additional article on Twist Angle by HJS Studio, it finally clicked: the angle of twist is literally what angle the twist appears to be in the yarn, not the angle you hold it to your spinning apparatus. Color me enlightened. The article also mentioned something about how more fiber can get used up with a higher angle of twist (more twist = more fiber used) This explained the great mystery to me on why my yardage kept ending so low compared to other people's sock yarn. The next time I spin, I will pay much more attention to the amount and resulting angle of twist I put into a yarn. I'm excited!

Parade Of Knits

Holy Moley guys. I have so many FO (finished objects) to show you it's crazy. I have no idea why I've managed to get this productive. But it doesn't even feel like work. Either that, or I've quickly forgotten how much work it all was.
Let's get started. I finished my Aestlight in a week. It's pretty. I'm having a hard time wanting to give it away like I'm suppose to. (I'll be good this time and gift it like I intended to.) I think I will be knitting myself one at some point. I did choose to do a picot border rather than the knit on border. I think it works well with this design. It was also the first time I'd done a picot border.

I also finished my Skyp socks. I had been knitting them during my lunch breaks at work. The plan was to save it for knitting at work, but with just half a foot left, I couldn't stop myself. Plus, it has been cold and I need socks.

I found myself without knitting, so I broke out the "To Knit" list and busted out a pair of Rathtrevor mitts from Jane Richmond's ISLAND book for my friend Alina. (I also had a hard time giving these away... but they were gifted today.) They are made of Stansborough Mythral. I love this yarn. It is made by the same people who wove the cloaks and other things for the Lord of the Rings and Hobbit movies. You can find some on their site. Be warned that it might feel rough to knitters who are use to knitting with Merino. The yarn is made from the Stansborough Grey sheep. But it is gorgeous. Gorgeous! Once the book is done I may have to celebrate with a sweater's worth of this yarn.

I've worked away so much stash that I am now digging into deep stash. I started a scarf using a skein I bought in New Zealand back in 2010. There is a technique were you fiddle a bunch with vareigated yarn in order to figure out how to line up the colors. I am giving it a try with this scarf. It took me 2 hours to get something that might work. We will see. The yarn is Margaret Stove Artisan NZ Merino Lace in the Ocean colorway. I'm using size 4 needles and will be knitting a feather and fan pattern from Barbara Walker's first treasury of patterns. The border will be a little weird because after the pattern repeats, I have 5 stitches left over. So one side will have 3 border stitches and the other side will have 2. Normally I would care, but it was such a pain to get this far that I no longer do.

So what am I up to now? Well, I spent all day working on the first draft of the companion piece to Celestarium. This shawl will be of the southern constellations. My chief complaint with doing Celestarium was that there is no standardization in constellations. It is my chief complaint with the upcoming shawl as well. I did my best to composite all the different interpretations of the constellations. 

And I'm still waiting on the yarn for the last book pattern. I'm mildly concerned, but I won't bug anyone until after Christmas. Plus, it gives me an excuse to knit whatever I want because, "I'm waiting for the yarn."