Plying the Cookie Monster Yarn

This yarn has been all about the Om Nom since the beginning. My sister saw the singles I wound, and she was the one who said they looked like little Om Noms. (See them sans Om Noms here.)


Even an alligator got in on the Om Noms.


Thanksgiving Day I plied the Cookie Monster Yarn. It looks like it's going ok here, but plying was not easy. Just like when I wound the singles, I ran into a lot of tangles and breaks.

(Sorry about the sideways movie.)


Here is one of the tangles. (Yes, that's the UT vs A&M game in the background. Everyone else is watching while I ply in the kitchen.)

There's another picture of a tangle here.


Here is the yarn all plied and on the bobbin. It doesn't look like much, but I think it went pretty far for just one ounce.


Overall, there weren't too many inconsistencies.


Here is the almost finished yarn, although. It's about 104 yards of Merino/Tencel. I haven't measured the Wraps Per Inch yet, but I'm guessing it's lace weight, maybe light fingering. And it still reminds me of Cookie Monster. (Maybe Cookie Monster with braids?)

All I need to do now is set it.

I'm the OmNomNom Nom of the day!

I'm the OmNomNomNom of the day! Check it out.

Mooching at The Knitting Nest

Last weekend when I went home to mooch off Mom and use her wheel, I also made a trip to The Knitting Nest to mooch off Stacy and use her yarn meter. As you can see, they're celebrating their victory.


The shop had several new yarns, including Queensland Collection Tahiti, Elizabeth Austen Andes and Rozetti Baby Soft. However, the Baby Alpaca Chunky Paints was my favorite new yarn. It's soft, pretty and makes for a quick knit.


Of course, I had plenty to do with my own yarn. Here's my Coopworth Single. I now know I have about 251.66 yards (or 755 feet.)


Remember my two-ply merino? I have 202.33 yards of it (or 607 feet.)


Then it was time to measure the Cookie Monster Single I had a lot of problems with it breaking. I may have spun it a little too fine.


I had 208.66 yards (or 626 feet) total.


The hardest part was spinning from the ball so I could have to singles to ply together. Each single is about 104.66 yards (or 314 feet.) Not bad for one ounce of fiber.


Did I mention that I got to spin on Stacy's wheel? It's an Ashford. I'm not sure if it's a Traditional or an Elizabeth.


Somehow, the wheel has both Scotch tension and a double drive band. I'm not sure exactly how that works. I think you can decide which one to use.

I'm starting to think I'm an Ashford person.

You can see all my pictures from my last trip to The Knitting Nest, including more spinning wheel photos, here.

Labor Day Party at The Knitting Nest

It's time to party!

Last Saturday there was a Labor Day Ravelry Party at The Knitting Nest. I'm just now getting around to posting.


The first thing I did when I got there was wind some yarn. They have a new ball winder, and it feels good. Nice and smooth.


After I wound some yarn, I wound some more yarn. Stacy has a yarn meter set up, and I wanted to see how much yardage was left of my handspun after knitting my hat.


There are 141 feet, or 47 yards, of handspun left.

The Knitting Nest had more yarn and fiber from Stephanie and some Queensland Collection Rustic Tweed. But this is what I was the most excited about.


Malabrigo Chunky! I love this yarn.


I had to spread out all the colors to help me decide. If I remember correctly, the colors are (left to right) Brillante, Emerald Blue, Verdes, Little Lovely, Violetas and Bobby Blue. I ended up getting two skeins of Brillante and two skeins of Verdes.

You can see all my pictures from the party on Flickr.

FO: Soy Wool Spiral

I can't wait until it's cold enough to wear this hat!


Tonight I finished my Soy Wool Spiral hat. I was so excited that I didn't bother to change out of my pajamas to take the pictures.


This is my first time doing a three needle bind off. I used a tutorial from KnittingHelp.com. (Ironically, I have more experience with the Kitchener Stitch, which is more difficult.) Here is a look at the seam from the inside.


Here is the seam from the outside. The pattern calls for a three needle bind-off, but you could probably use the Kitchener Stitch to make it less noticeable. I might consider that in the future, but the seam adds some character.



Once again, this is one of the Spiraling Stripes Hats by Lee Meredith, aka "Leethal." It's a good pattern with several variations. I did the counter clockwise spiral with a straight brim. This hat is knit from side to side, so I used US Size 5 aluminum straights like these, and a US Size 7 needle for the three needle bind off.

The yarn is my own handspun from the Tour de Fleece. It's a soy/wool blend. I'm guessing that it's worsted-ish, and I spun about 120 yards. I still have about half the hank left. The pattern doesn't take much yarn. I was pleasantly surprised by how even the yarn was when I knit it up.


I was worried it would be too small, but it seems to fit. I'm trying to remember if I added another short row "wedge" or not. As you can see from this picture, it can easily be worn as a beret.


Poncho Pig likes the beret look.

Time to actually use some handspun

Remember this yarn from the Tour de Fleece? It's going to be one of these Spiraling Stripes Hats if the gauge works out.

I did a little math, and estimate there are 120 yards in this skein. And some very imprecise measurements with some measuring tape lead me to believe I'm getting about 10 wraps per inch, somewhere between DK and worsted.

I'm off to roll this into a ball and swatch.

Yarn Crawl Blues

I found out today that the Meetup Yarn Crawl has been postponed.

*sigh*

Some people were unable to make it this Saturday, which would make the cost for everyone go up for everyone. So the adult in me realizes that if we wait, it will cost less and more people would be able to come. (Keep an eye out if you want to join us in September.) That would mean more fun and more money to spend on roving on yarn.

But the little kid in me wants to go nnnooooowwwww!!!!

Seriously, I've been looking forward to this for a while. So I was kind of bummed out. And that leaves me low on roving.

I looked around and couldn't find that little bit of handpainted tussah silk roving I have. But I did find this.


This milk fiber roving that I got at Old Oaks Ranch when we went on the San Antonio Yarn Crawl. I only got a little bit, just enough to try it out.


It is pretty difficult to spin, although I'm getting the hand of it. There's no "grip." If I don't pre-draft enough, the yarn is really hard to draft when I spin. If I pre-draft too much, it falls apart. But the lack of grip is what makes it so silky smooth and wonderful.


You may have noticed that there is only one yarn on the Niddy Noddy. That's because I took off the yarn barf from my first spinning attempts. I've come a long way.


Compare that to my Merino single, all set and ready to go.

BTW - Go check out yesterday's post. I got permission to add some more pictures.

Upgrade

Do you remember when I considered this Feza Kid Mohair for the Stash and Burn One Skein Contest? Well, I found a use for it. I traded it off.

Tonight there was a Ravelry party at The Knitting Nest, which included a one skein swap. This is what I ended up with:



I think I've mentioned Ana and her Stitch Markers before. She also spins. Her sister was at the event and snagged a skein of Ana's handspun. She normally doesn't sell it, but she often gives it away.

The tag says "Wool Blend," but doesn't say what it's blended with. It also says "Navajo Plied" and I'm not sure what that means. It's 16 wraps per inch, 2 ounces and 215 yarns.

I call it an upgrade. We did the swap "Dirty Santa" style, and I stole it from someone. I was glad I got to keep it.

The good news is that Stacy, the store owner, got my Kid Mohair, and was happy with it. It's good to know it found a good home.