knit & lit

[knitandlit]

Tiny Things

Two tiny sweaters with yarn from Eat. Sleep. Knit. The pattern can be found as Entrechat on Ravelry.

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Free Craftsy Content!

I’m a huge fan of the classes that Craftsy offers. They’ve helped me learn how to crochet and to become a better spinner. Make sure you are signed up for a free account, because on Monday (9/4/2017) all of their classes will be available to stream FOR FREE. Learn something new!

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Currently spinning: Fiber from Hello Yarn

Current audiobook: The Girl on the Train

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I added these two Bosworth spindles to the collection today.

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Currently spinning: I finished plying these Into the Whirled singles in the “Eureka” colorway. 

Currently reading: I’m listening to the last book in The Southern Reach Trilogy by Jeff VanderMeer.

Heads-up: Craftsy currently has tons of their online classes marked under $20. I found “Drafting From Worsted to Woolen” by Jacey Boggs Faulkner to be so helpful when I was first learning how to spin.

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Currently spinning: I finished spinning up some singles. Battlings from Hobbledehoy are so fun to spin. 

Currently reading: I’m listening to The Southern Reach Trilogy by Jeff VanderMeer.

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I knit these coasters out of Noro Kureyon and then felted them. You knit up a giant tube, and then use a rotary cutter to shape the coasters after felting.

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After I spun up these singles out of Hey Lady Hey BFL, I wasn’t sure if I wanted to ply them anymore. I decided to give fulled/felted singles a go.

To full singles, you basically have to rough them up a bit and switch from super hot water with a squirt of soap to icy water. It was a little bit scary to throw my yarn in a pot of boiled water, and I wasn’t feeling too positive when the singles got super curly and crazy. Luckily after drying and separating the strands that had felted together, it turned out pretty great. I got 756 yards of lace weight!

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I’m so glad that I was able to find some of the Arne & Carlos sock yarn from Regia. Seeing it knit up is kind of magical.

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I knit these tiny hearts out of some recent handspun yarn. It’s BFL fiber from Squoosh Fiberarts, and the pattern is Gnome is where the ♥ is by Susan Claudino.

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I usually like to post pretty photos here, but spinning and knitting failures do happen. I ruined this beautiful braid of Moonrover fiber in the Nebula colorway by plying it to death. 

This was my first attempt at chain plying, and it was way over spun. I also had issues with my singles breaking (since I didn’t realize that I should let them chill on the bobbin for a day or two), so the yarn is a mess. Still, I tried to make it work and even fought with it to knit most of a sock. You can see the stitches in the heel being totally tilted from the extra twist, and the yarn felt like rope.

It was stressing me out to think about trying to salvage it, and knitting it was no fun at all. I threw the sock in the garbage today and I cut up the rest of the yarn to leave around for birds to use in their nests. I’m bummed that I wasted such lovely fiber, but I feel better knowing that I don’t have to keep knitting with it.

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I’m really happy with how this yarn spun up. It’s Into the Whirled “Second Spring” on Cheviot.

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I got a spinning wheel for Christmas, and it has been the perfect distraction from my school work this semester. This is the first skein that didn't look totally lumpy and uneven. It's Into the Whirled in the "Captain Tightpants" colorway.

Before the wheel came, I watched the Craftsy class, "Drafting From Worsted to Woolen" by Jacey Boggs Faulkner, and it definitely helped make spinning less confusing. 

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Finished Objects: I've been making these tiny birds as quick little gifts. Each bird takes around an hour. All the birds were knit on size 4 needles except the tiny blue one, which was knit on size 0 needles.

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Stash Enhancement: I was so lucky to win this spindle from Aaron Makes Stuff. I'm using it to spin some of the odds and ends I got from Into the Whirled at Rhinebeck. 

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Stash Enhancement: I saw this fiber from Loop at Rhinebeck when I bought my spindle, but I was too terrified to try it at that point. Well, a week later I bought it anyway. It's called "Three Ring Circus" but it looks like outer space to me.