Knurre, snurre, knurre! Schnurre, Rädchen, Schnurre!

Growl, purr, growl! Purr, little wheel, purr!

This is a line from Haydn's "The Seasons" ("Die Jahreszeiten"), which I sang in 1998. The girl sings about spinning something fine that will be woven into a light shawl that she can wear to the fair. "A girl's bosom must be pure outside and in, but covered by the shawl. She must also be hard-working, pious, and demure to attract a strong suitor," she sings.

Maybe my problem is that I don't have a lacy shawl. But now I've got Lance.

Isn't he just beautiful? (Click for more of Lance!) Pure black, at least 50% Wensleydale, with shiny, curly locks. Only 3/4 lb (his first shearing). It's so soft! You can see that the locks are fairly tight (and still are when after it's washed), so it's going to take some care to prepare it (which I don't know how to do yet). When I bought him, I knew I wanted to make a shawl, and I hadn't thought of this music in years.

But Lance won't be my first. Babe II will have that honor. (Click for more of Babe II!) Her locks are a lot more open, so she should be easier to spin. I have the whole fleece -- about 4 1/4 lb before washing. Now I just need to learn to card it, and I'll be on my way. I think I'm going to make a sweater, maybe spinning fine and cable plying. (I say that like I know what it means, but I don't really. Singles plied, then two of those plied back again. It should have good stitch definition, or so I've heard.) My current plan is to spin the colors as they come from the fleece, not separating them, getting something tweedy or marled in the end. I think this would dye beatuifully, but it seems like kind of a shame to cover up those lovely shades of grey. They yellowy bits are pure white when they're washed. Just stunning.

So yes, Debbie, I'm loving it! Completely sucked in. :) I'll bring my wheel to the Boulder Creek Festival and hang out with the Sheep-to-Shawl team on Saturday, spinning more of the roving I'm working on in the pictures in the last entry. Unless someone has time to show me how to card or flick or comb...

Since I promised skein info, my first skein was lumpy and uneven and about 7 wraps per inch. Skein number two is about 270 yards at 16 wpi. I have enough on bobbins to make another similar skein. Don't know what I'm going to make with it yet, but it's soft and springy.

Too bad it's not rent-to-own...

Spinning away on my rented Lendrum. It's owned by the Handweaver's Guild of Boulder, and I'm renting it for just $5/month. Can't beat that! I'll probably buy my own this summer when I take a spinning class. I've been really happy with it -- smooth spinning, nice tension, easy to transport. The Guild's wheel has a bag/backpack for it, which is extremely handy. Take off the flyer and bobbin (one pouch for that), flip up the treadles, insert, and you're on your way.

I'm spinning some roving that my mom had prepared a while ago. I haven't decided what I'm going to do with this yet. I forgot to check the wpi I got in my first two skeins, so you'll have to wait for it. (This is just so that I can keep my friends for a few more days...)

I'm mostly biding my time until I learn how to prepare the fleeces I bought. (Bought before I had a wheel. Bought before I knew how to spin. They sucked me in! It's not my fault!) More on fleeces tomorrow or so. Have a lovely weekend!

New Sweaters!

Thanks for thinking I don't look a dork in my hats. I think you're just saying that to be nice, but I'll take it. :) My search for a hat continues.

New Things!

I made mine in Blue Sky Cotton (super soft and yummy!) that I got from Cirles in Boston. It's a soft and comfy sweater. Since it's cotton, though, it doesn't have the same "cling" that the original mohair/merino would, but I can wear it in the summer. This one might have to see a touch of the dryer, but I think it will be fine. It's knit side-to-side, with the side and center panels in stockinette and the long panels in garter stitch. My mom might make one and add another stockinette triangle to make a higher back.

Speaking of my mom, she knits beautiful fair isles, doesn't she? (click for big)

On the right -- Marina. A beautiful Starmore just finished last week. Although it knit to the right width, it doesn't fit her very well, so I got it. I owe her. Big. You don't know how big. I think step 1 is to give her the St. Brigid she knit for me years ago, and then I can make one for one of us later. I'm not sure that will be sufficient compensation. Maybe another baked raspberry custard tart would fill out the debt...

On the left -- a Dale pattern, I believe. Soft wool, pretty fasteners, also didn't fit her quite right. So again, I owe her. I have wool to make her a pretty, barely-white, Dale jacket that she really likes, so that should be a fall project, as soon as it starts to get cold. This might require an additional tart.

Tomorrow: Me, a Lendrum, some wool, and first-two-skeins wpi.

I look like a dork in all hats

First off, comments are up and working now. In order to protect from spam, I'll have to approve your comment the first time. After that, I think they should just show up. Sorry to have to do this in a somewhat annoying way, but it should help protect from ads for enhancing drugs and Five Card Stud (does that require the enhancing drugs?). I'm sure you get plenty of that in your email!

Dorky Hats

I used to have a pretty good hat that my mom made for me. Noro Silk Garden in a color that I think doesn't exist anymore. Best of all -- a braided tassel that reportedly took longer than knitting the hat. It's not too dorky, but it's kinda dorky.

Unfortunately, I lost my hat this winter, never to be seen again. Now that I knit, I had to make my own hat. I had picked up a cute pattern a while ago for a hat with straight sides and a flat, hexagonal top, so tried that in a little Cherry Tree Hill Super Glitz. It's dorky.

So I should probably make a new hat. I love the colors and patterns in Anna Zilboorg's "Fine and Fanciful Hats to Knit", but most of them are kind of silly and I bet they'd look that way, too. (But the colors!) I might try a toque to see how it comes out. If it's bad, I guess I could give it away. Maybe to a kid who can wear silly hats.

In Estes Park last week I saw some machine-knit hats that have a tall brim and then the top of the hat is a little bit taller and is flat and square on top. I don't know how to describe it, but it was a little less dorky, so I might try that. I bought some fabulous, handpainted yarn and need to find a solid to do a fair isle of some sort. Hopefully it will work out ok...

How do you find a hat that will look good? I think it's hopeless, but I'll keep trying...

Sweaters for the New Baby

The baby shower for my soon-to-be first nephew was a few weeks ago. (Due date in June, and he'll be named after my dad, which I think is incredibly sweet.)

My mom and I knit, of course. This will be the first boy in our family in this generation. He already has a big sister and four female cousins, so everything has to be very boyish. (Click for big!)

From me: This cable sweater is from Interweave Knits, Spring 2004 (the one with the pink Marilyn on the cover). Yarn is Cool Wool 2000, a superwash merino that I loved working with and was great for doing cables. I made the 12 mo size (hoping that I would get something close to 18 mo from gauge, but it didn't relax as much as the swatch did) and used just 4 balls. My mom ordered the yarn, and I'm making another sweater in the same yarn, different color. I'm told it also makes great socks.

From my mom: This darling fair isle is from an old Dale book; I'll try to get the stats on that one. It was knit in Lang Bebe (just like the purple sweater with the cow buttons), which is superwash, too, and very soft.

(Yes, the white stuff is snow. In April. It didn't snow too much and it didn't stick very much -- typcial of spring snow. We did get two storms in April with appreciable snow, but it never lasts long and it makes things as green as they can get in Colorado.)

And of course, you can't forget the buttons! Bears and fish, 'cause they were just so perfect.

I think that's it for today. Gotta string out the fodder that I've got. (That and I don't have my camera, so some of those promised photos don't exist yet!) Commenting should be fixed soon; I need a little expert help on that.

A new blog home

School's over, and I've returned to the land of knitting and blogging! Hopefully you've found me here and hadn't given up on me completely. It's been a busy year at school (I worked hard, got straight A's this semester) and a complicated spring with a relationship starting and ending again, but now it's summer! Just work, hopefully hiking, and now I can knit to my little heart's content.

I don't have the computer with the pictures today and I'm running away to the mountains 'til Saturday (no network!), but I promise I'll put them up over the weekend. I should be able to show you

• my dorky hat
  
• some boring socks, knit during classes, seminars, and meetings
  
• a darling baby sweater that I gave to my brother and sister in law (baby boy, to be named after my dad, due in June)
  
• the darling sweater my mom made for the same baby
  
• my W, an end-of-term, I'm-tired-of-studying project
  
• my first two skeins of handspun
  
• and maybe my first two fleeces
  

Upcoming entries will include a number of other projects in progress, and how spinning caused my mother to hate me and made me lose all my friends. ;)

I'm glad to be back, and thank you for finding me again after my long absence!