BatZo

They/Them Non-Binary nerd from Wales | Likes: Cats, DnD, Reading, and Knitting Sometimes does space instrumentation science

[batzooh]

Tickets acquired!

[makerandbean]

in my ongoing efforts to a) make a bunch of four-ply, and b) not waste any singles length, i am coming up with increasingly unhinged ways of Still getting four strands after one or more of my bobbins runs out.

after much experimentation, i’ve come up with the following process:

four singles: easy. four lengths of singles, one for each ply. three on a lazy kate, one on my wheel’s integrated bobbin holder, done.

three singles: still pretty easy. turn one of your remaining bobbins into a plying bracelet. this gives you two ends from one length of single. that, plus the lengths from the other two bobbins, makes four plies.

two singles: now we’re cooking. where we go from here depends on whether your plying bracelet ran out, or one of the other bobbins ran out:

a) two bobbins: chain ply one single, while simultaneously plying with the other. the chain ply gives you three plies, and the additional single makes it up to four. a fun discovery i’ve made with this is that it doesn’t actually make a difference which single you pull through the loop in the process of chain plying - you can essentially alternate which of the singles you chain, as long as you’re only ever pulling one single through the loop at a time and letting the other single ply normally. (you can also do (b) below with two bobbins, but this is way is much less of a hassle.)

b) one bobbin and one plying bracelet: turn your remaining bobbin into a second plying bracelet, on the other wrist to the current plying bracelet. now you have two ends of singles from each wrist, for four plies total. this is exactly as much of a nightmare to control as it sounds, especially if your singles have a lot of twist in them. good luck!! you’re going to need it :) also, probably turn your wheel’s tension up a bit. that helps.

one single: advanced technique for the truly deranged only. turn your single into a plying bracelet, and then do as (a) above - one end of the plying bracelet chain plied, with the other end allowed to ply normally, for a total of four plies from a single length of single. definitely turn your wheel’s tension up. laugh directly into the face of the uncaring void as reality bends to your will. also, time how long it takes for everything to become hopelessly tangled. if it’s more than a minute, you have Won Spinning. congrats!!

[riotboi]

Horrendous thought, posting my actual physical form (cringe! You're embodied? In the year of our lord 2026?) But I just finished my first ever sweater and second ever knitting project! The ends need to be woven in and it needs to be blocked, but overall I'm really happy with it! Step by Step Sweater pattern by Florence.

[batzooh]

Behold! A finished object:

It's the Quickbeam cardigan by Marina Skua, made with my own handspun yarn (fibre from Skein in the Stitch) held together with knitting for olive mohair

It took me a month and a half ish (I was a little bit obsessed with how it was working up) the guage is quite small for the size yarn I needed up with and I'm happy to move on to something on bigger needles (my tennis elbow is thankful that I'm done).

I don't think I'm ever going to take this off, it's so soft and so cozy, I love it already

[gradientdescent-does-it-all]

She’s REALLY into the sheep smell

[hippieghost]

This is a tea checkpoint.

Is your tea getting cold?

Did you turn on your kettle and forget about it and now the water is cold again?

Is the tea bag still in?

Did you intend to start the tea making process and forget?

Congratulations! You remember now.

[tangleddreaming]

My first handspun sweater

I'm still in the beginning of my spinning journey so I wanted to try a bunch of different fibers. I didn't want to buy a large quantity of one fiber I haven't tried and I already have a bunch of mittens and beanies etc so I didn't want to do a bunch of one skein projects. So I planned to use all of the different fibers I bought for a sweater.

I already had some solid coloured blue Corriedale and the other fibers I bought were merino, merino-silk, merino-bamboo, merino-sparkly, merino-bamboo-viscose. The tweed and the black fibre from the picture I left out of this project.

I wanted to get a striped effect where the colours would fade nicely to the next colour but that didn't happen especially on the sleeves. I divided the fibres into smaller sections and spun two identical bobbins where the colours appear in the same order.

Then I plyed those two strands of merino blend with the corriedale

Finished skein

Finished sweater

The fit isn't perfect because I was very lazy when I casted on and didn't do any shoulder shaping. But still MY FIRST HANDSPUN SWEATER!!!

[batzooh]

Incredible!! Love the stripes 😍

[cabinet-of-crafts]

Some 3ply Merino/Silk I spun last year

[batzooh]

You can be so productive when you have a week off work! 🤣

Behold: a finished spin, ready to be cast on

Skein and the stitch's enchanted yarn society colourways from October "that's hot!" and "May all your bacon burn" plyed together. 400g total at just over 1600m of 2 ply fingering weight. This is destined to become a Quickbeam cardigan (by Marina Skua) held with kfo mohair in the rust colourway

[wyrmscraft]

Stash!!!!!

I found these in my stash (looking for something else ofc) and immediately wanted to do a Luminous Nine Patch.

Now, now listen.

I know I seem to be making a few of these.

But they turn out gorgeous! How could I not make them?? They’re so easy and fun to do.

[wyrmscraft]

She is on fire!

Look at this thing! I love her! She’s gorgeous!

She’s bold and dramatic and demands attention!

I think this one is one of the best Luminous Nine Patch quilts I’ve done.

I’ll use orange thread to quilt it and put black cuddle on the back, along with black binding. I think that’ll finish her off nicely 💖💖

[wyrmscraft]

I was correct. The black cuddle and binding are just fab with this.

I did actually find a more golden yellow thread called Dessert Sunset that I used instead of orange to quilt with, and I love it.

Man. It looks so good in the sunlight.

[batzooh]

It is surprisingly difficult to take aesthetic photos of your own finished handknit socks when you are in fact wearing them....

However I have finished them and so I must show someone:

A slightly altered Hybernal Sock, in Jan 2023's yarn worx market town mystery yarn.

I had a goal this year to make 12 pairs of socks over 12 months and as it is currently Feb 14 and this is the first pair finished (and I cast them on only on the 2nd of Feb) I am kinda behind. But I'm feeling motivated and enthusiastic about socks right now, so I've cast on the next pair straight away and jumped right into a tense game of yarn chicken 🤣

Pretty sure I've won tho with 12g remaining from a 20g mini! Success (even if I did cut out a few rows of the colourwork chart)!

[dailyclassicart]

Miho Ichise - "The Last Sunbathing of the Day" (2021)

[createmesanity]

I knit another sweater.

One of my tiktok mutuals said, “It looks like stained glass windows in a dark church.”

Pattern: Affric by Rebecca Clow

Started: January 15, 2026

Finished: February 1. 2026

Size: 5

Yarn: Drops Alaska (Black, Cinnamon, Dark Ivy, and Light Olive)

[heyhellogreat]

hello my babes sweater is finally done 🥹

I drafted my own pattern and would definitely make some changes to it for future use, but overall pretty happy with the result!!

I call it 100% wool boxy cropped dropped shoulder bishop sleeve cream bloodsweatandtears sweater

[youcanthandelthetruth]

My yarn came out gorgeous btw

[trashboat]

i go absolutely ape shit buck wild when people ask me if i want to run errands with them like Let’s Fucking Go. and my mind absolutely maxes out of dopamine when they ask if i wanna stop for coffee. and if someone took me to the park id go bonkers in funcking yonkers

[trashboat]

i got so high last night that i started ghostwriting for a golden retriever apparently

[batzooh]

I have made some questionable crafting decisions in my time but this may be the pièce de résistance of them all:

The Lachrymae Sweater.... All Over Lace.....

Maybe one day I'll finish this and it will be an incredible feat of crafting, until then I will persevere and cry softly whenever I drop a stitch

[batzooh]

Some hours later:

I am having fun (shockingly). Current dropped (and recovered) stitch count is at 1, and number of painstakingly tinked rows is also at 1. The lace motive is pretty easy to remember, still have to remind myself at the beginning of each row but I think I'll get there soon, and I can already detect if I've gone wrong mid way through a row and get back on track without counting from the beginning of the row. All in lovely pattern so far.

The yarn is divine! I think I'd enjoy using it instead of a mohair (held with something else), its smooth to work with but develops a lovely subtle halo as you handle it, but it isn't itchy like mohair or alpaca can sometimes be and so far doesn't shed in the same way such fuzzy yarns do. (West Yorkshire spinners exquisite lace in the colour truffle)

[batzooh]

It grows!

I am kinda obsessed with this pattern (if you can't guess). I've joined in the round for the body and done a bunch of the pattern repeats, but I've been itching to put the collar on it so it has a bit more shape and feels more like a jumper: I love it even more honestly!

The collar is a little ruffled at the moment but I'm gonna trust the process and hope it all stretches out with blocking and lies nicely when it's finished.

I think from here I'm gonna do the sleeves and get everything else done before I go back to the body. It does mean working from the outside of my yarn cake while the centre pull is attached to the body but I don't really want to cut the yarn any more than I have to cause the ends are a pain to weave in lol

I'm still doing well as far as having to tink back rows. I've made a few errors but it's mostly dropped yarn overs and I've just added stitches where they are missing to make it as unnoticeable as possible. I have for the first time ever in a knitting project added strategic lifelines: currently they have not been necessary but only time will tell 🤣

[batzooh]

Behold: Sleeves!

[batzooh]

It is done (Well it's currently blocking at the mo, but like cast off and the ends have been woven in)

I am so hype to wear this it feels so light and airy it's gonna be perfect for spring and summer.

The pattern was very clear and worked up crazy fast, I suppose even though it's lace weight it's still on 5mm needles and a very stretchy fabric. I did add lifelines but thankfully did not need to make use of them. There are a few mistakes but I don't care and probably won't be able to find them again once I'm wearing it. Overall incredible project; lovely yarn, well written pattern, and fantastic finished object!

[batzooh]

So the first block did not prove fruitful in the number of inches gained, especially on the sleeves and upper arms...

This time I'm not asking 🤣

We shall see how it goes this time

[batzooh]

I am terrible at posing and taking selfies but behold: it's done! (Please excuse the terribly crumpled shirt I would of course iron it if I were leaving the house 🤣 )

The sleeves are still a bit short I think I could have blocked them longer but my blocking mat is only so long, if I were to make it again I would add a bunch more repeats to the arm before I started decreasing. Otherwise I love it and shall be looking for excuses to wear it everywhere!