Craft Enabled, Domestically Disabled

"Liveblogging" knitting with homespun, day 1

Just for fun, thought I'd share my thoughts on going through this process.

I decided to do this scarf, mainly because of the HUGE AMOUNT OF SIZE VARIANCE I have going on with this yarn, that seemed to be the best way to accomodate it.

• Cast on: with the wee bit of silk that we got handed in class. If your cast on is one and then some kf&B, it's a good thing to start with the smallest amount you have. That works well for a nice shiny point.
• Various white wool skeins: really varied here, as this was some of my first-ish stuff. Looks bizarre. Mostly very chunky at this point and I'm glad I'm using size 13's, I can barely fit in the kf&b's. Barely.
• Having started a skein where it was less bulky, it looks very weird compared to the thick stuff. It nips in the scarf at that point like a corset or something. Hm, I didn't notice it's a slightly different color next to the wool I was using before. I'm attempting color gradation and going from white to "white" to alpaca natural to the gray/white mixes to the colors.
• Whee, I'm hitting the way-overtwisted tiny stuff!
• 10 inches in, I finally notice this is supposed to be garter, not stockinette. Oh well. Given the weirdness of the yarn, it doesn't really roll in like usual anyway.
• Definitely prefer working with overtwisted yarn (give it a pull before you knit it, really) vs. the way too non-twisted yarn.
• 18 inches in and I'm about to start on my longest (and last) wool skein. Am starting to wonder if I should just make two ugly scarves, since I am not a fan of rilly rilly rilly long scarves (I'm short, okay?).
• Okay, now the stockinette's rolling. But I don't really care too much. I'll never wear it, it'll hang around my house looking funky anyway, what does it matter?
• In other news, found out the spinning instructor wants to have workshops in the spring. Hmmmm.
• I remember being proud of my "more consistent" spinning on this wool. Hah, um, not SO much..
• 30 inches in and I want to pull the whole thing apart and start over again. Why? I don't know..
• Okay, ripped it out and started all over.
• Took out the way-too-thin, slightly not-so-white strand that was mixed in around the point the first time.
• Wow, this is the bulgiest thing ever.
• 7 inches in, it does look better in garter. Such as it is.
• I feel like I'm making this scarf again.
• The thinner the yarn gets, the weirder and weirder this looks.
• I was going to go outside today. Bwahahahahahah, no. This is NOT something I want to be seen working on in public and having to explain it to yarn noobs.
• It's interesting to compare the way-too-tightly-wound with the barely-wound-at-all sections.
• Realized I dropped a stitch way far down the line. Uh, creative fudging time...
• At 4:30, I decided it was about time to GO THE FUCK OUTSIDE FOR AWHILE. Did that. Moved on to the alpaca. Realized that I was so proud of "doing better than usual" on the last skeins of wool and really didn't. Overtwist feels like knitting with rope.
• Overtwist feels like knitting with rope AND it's starting to hurt my thumb a bit. What the heck?
• I don't think I am finishing this thing in a day after all the way I thought I would.

Summer of Speed Yarning is done!

I have finished my sixth and final project!

Pictures to come soonish. But I did it!

To dress or not to dress?

I'm supposed to do about 12 inches on the bottom half of the Universal Tunic, then do the border, so it comes out to about 13 1/2 inches long and is tunic-ish. I've got about 7+ inches done as of this morning. Since I don't have massive amounts of stuff going on between now and the 31st, I should be able to finish the top as designed by the deadline.

The question is: do I want to try making it longer, dress length, perhaps? Add on another 8-9 inches or so and it could be. Assuming I have that much yarn left, of course, but I'm on ball #2 of 3 bought for it and it might be doable. I just don't know if I could be done on time.

Hmmmm.

And my spinning is done

Wouldn't you know it that yesterday, both (a) a spindle, and (b) one of the cords on the spinning wheel, broke on me? Can't wait until I'm done to do that, oh no.

Anyway, I now have what appears to be a fairly large stash of semi-multi-shaded "yarns." What to do? Possible ideas:

• Scarf pattern, of course. Or another one. Or another one. 
• Long-sleeved shrug
• Short-sleeved shrug or another one
• Vest.
• Or freeform...anything.

What to do with all that homespun

I am almost entirely done with spinning my paid-for stash, which means that in another day or so, I'm done with spinning entirely.

(Well, one assumes. You can't use the wheel while a class is running if you're not in the class, wheels cost tons of money, I didn't get the drop spindle too well.. anyway, even though I'm improving, it doesn't seem likely that I'll continue with this.)

I moved on to my alpaca stash today- it's spun but not plied yet- and it was oddly EASIER than the regular ol' wool. I'm not sure why. Possibly because I'm practiced more. It's shorter fibers so you'd think it was trickier, but they stuck together better in the spinning 90% of the time.

With the finish of spinning, this leads to the inevitable question of "What do I DO with this stuff, besides have it float around my house like a dust bunny?"

I wish I could come up with something like this to do with my stuff, but I don't think I have THAT much "yarn." I'll probably make some sort of uber-crappy partial scarf just to tie it all together in the end.

Zaftig with the guts in.

This looks fine on the mannequin, not so much on me...it was weirdly pushup once I sewed in the bra cups and I don't know why. I may take them out, I don't know.

More yarn made

The solution to the skirt problem

Ended up making the skirt into a bag for the CC display case. Vast improvement.

Stoopid of me:

Summer of Speed Yarning report: I have 5 out of 6 major (I'm not counting a week's worth of bra) projects done...but I don't think I'm finishing #6 by the end of August. Even though most of this time seems kinda free to do it, I wouldn't count on it. I need to do something like 12 more inches of 200+ stitches in the round. Oy.

Award won.