Some Finished Things

I am winding up 4 weeks of recovering from a bike tumble in which I sprained some ribs.  All else is good. No hitting of the noggin, no scrapes, and the bike is fine as well. But as I went west when the bike went north, I twisted more than my old-ish body forgave. I have been back on the bike (that felt great), and back doing yoga (albeit slowly). All's well that ends well.

I was able to finish up a few things though, while not vacuuming. I have used some single skeins of handspun to knit up some small triangle scarves, and one big toasty shawl.

The Age of Brass and Steam (Orange Flower Yarn)

In the beginning, a novice spinner is often taken in by the lure of the colors of these lovely braid of dyed fiber sold by retailers or indie dyers. They mostly weigh around 4-5 oz. and often can cost between $22.50-$35.00. One usually thinks to afford one, but not two...or one is buying a souvenir while traveling, and only one will do...

Consider 4 oz of yarn.  Unless it is lace wgt or fingering, generally speaking, one has less than 200 yards. What does one make with 200 yards?

198 Yards of Heaven (Verity Knits)

These little triangle scarves, or "shawlettes", fit the bill. at least for the merino and silk (ABS) and the merino/shetland (198 yds). The one below is used up 4 skeins.  Those were of smaller yardage, and I actually broke some rules, using a skein of superwash, 2 of an alpaca/silk/merino blend, and one of a merino and silk. I am sure the knitting police will come arrest me anytime.

Boneyard (Stephen West)

It really is wonderful, though.  I used it when I demonstrated spinning at the Estes Park Scottish Highlands festival this past weekend.  It was perfect to have on my shoulders when there was a breeze, and to shrug off when the sun warmed us up.

Devil's Backbone (Nicole Tavares)

I liked the name of this (We have a defining geographical formation with the same moniker). It was suitable to use some yarn that I wanted to get out of the stash. And it worked. I even added some extra repeats to use up more yarn. Unfortunately the yarn seems to be never-ending. I have knitted a poncho/cowl thingie.

Judging Judges

Having the opportunity to listen to judges comments and/or actually watch the judging at the wool market and the county fairs this year gave some insights.  Which is always good, I suppose when one puts goods out there for comparison.  Too bad I couldn't have picked up on some of this at a younger age.

Judging Judges have their own personalities and preferences and no matter what, are subjective. Even in the perfectly objective part of the judging, I saw preferences! For instance, skein tying...I followed a print out from Interweave Press, put out by SpinOff, written by a local judge, to the letter.
And one judge made negative comments about the way it was tied.

Whatcha' gonna' do?

There are some chancy bits and pieces to these contests. For instance, how many entries in the different classes will depend on the level of competition. Typically, blends of protein fibers (like wool and silk and stuff, without glitz and sparkle and stuff) have more entries. Also medium spun sheep's wool have several entries.  Classes like spindle spun yarns, or finely spun wool, or exotics like llama or dog/cat, not so much competition.

In addition, the organizers seriously want entries. So when I show up with six or seven different items, a little abashed by the number, it makes no difference to the superintendents (the people in charge of receiving entries, organizing the display, helping the judge, and getting the entries back to the right people). One local fair had one entry last year. One. Entries are their life's blood.

The Judging Judges are not known in advance by the entrants, but they tend to be local. And also there are a relatively small circle to choose from.  I, myself, who have only been entering handspun for maybe five years, am beginning to know some of them! One also begins to recognize the other entrants, more or less.  I recognize fellow guild members, at least.

Circling back to what I heard in the judging...
I am very glad I went, because with the exception of one fair, the written comments were very minimal compared to what the judges said, and that is unfortunate. At that fair, the superintendent wrote on a 3x5 card everything the judge said, and stapled it to the judging sheet.  Excellent.
Some of my skeins consistently rated highly, but perhaps because the competition was slim. Or maybe it was because the fiber was awesome!

Llama

I had a judge comment at one fair that a particular skein "seem heavy", that it could be spun finer.  She had a bit of a leaning toward finer yarns, I think, because that yarn won the big ribbons at another fair, and a prize at a second.

Yak/Merino/Silk

There was another skein that could not get any love any where! Until with the last judge, who had obvious tendencies toward crazy, colorful, artzy yarn.

Merino/Silk

This particular judge picked up my chunky alpaca (which previously had been judged to be
heavy, and could have been spun finer, guess who by...) and said "sometimes you just know when you see something that it's going to be first!"

3-ply alpaca

So. What I learned is this

• Know what I am spinning, and think about the intent, if not at the start of the project (because REALLY WHO DOES THAT!!!), then when I am writing it down for the judge.  That makes a big giant difference in judging.
• Write down all the info I want about breed, staple length, and way I spun the yarn and why. Might make a difference in judging or not, but it will explain why I did what I did. I will have thought through what I did, at least.
• Spin the best I can spin, and spin what I want to spin, Judging Judges be damned. They aren't going to be the ones knitting with my yarn.

I may or may not enter next year. A two sided coin, as it were. While I want to support the local fairs, I don't want to be the one that everyone sees and thinks..."omigawd...she wins everything!" Then again, I wasn't.  My friend, Gina, was that person! Haha!

Playing Yarn Chicken

The first sheep's fleece I bought at the wool market was a huge 5+ lbs of corriedale/CVM.  I question whether it was a covered fleece, but it wasn't the worst I have seen since.

I cleaned it, and carded it. I knitted a big infinity scarf, hat and mittens from it. I knitted a cabled vest from it...

and determined to finish it up with a simple oversized sweater. I still had plenty of yarn.

DSis came for a visit which was finished with us taking a roadtrip to visit our elderly aunt.  This was the perfect travel knitting - nothing but stockinette in the round except for some waist shaping. I figured to get through the body on the trip with the yarn I had, and maybe a sleeve. I would finish the other sleeve and the neckline when I got home with the last of the yarn.  On the flight home, I reached the length of the body, which is tunic long, with most of the rest of that ball and one more left.  Ribbing, and two sleeves, and the neck ribbing left.

Well. Guess what? No more yarn. Well.  No more of THAT yarn.

No sweat really.  I put the body on a stitch holder. I picked up the first sleeve, which is now finished.

I think I will get the 2nd mostly done with the yarn left.  I will unravel from the bottom to finish sleeve #2 and the inch of ribbing around the neck.

So it won't be a booty covering sweater to wear with leggings.  Maybe I am too old for that anyway. And there won't be anymore of this yarn in the stash!

One More Time

Happy New Year, and time for new starts and re-starts and start overs...
And here I am in all my starting over glory.  So where do I start?  I believe I will just begin again where I am at.

I have a new header up there.  I received a new wide-angle lens for Christmas and am learning all the ins and outs of fun landscape photography.  I swear I can capture all the mountains from New Mexico to Wyoming!  The Guy and I will have to travel to all the places we have already been to so I can take new and better and wider photos.

I made yarn today.  Well, not just today.  I actually finished it up today, setting the twist, and took photos, too, which really has to be some sort of record.  While I was piddling around the house, taking down Christmas decor (yes, I am on top of all sorts of things here) I noticed the sun shining on the drying hanks of yarn, and saw the opportunity for some photo art.

Behold.

Blue Yarn (top from Tracy Bunkers, merino/bamboo/nylon, 422 yds, 22 wpi)

and Pink Yarn (top from Lampspun, merino/bamboo/glitz, 237 yds, 12 wpi)

The blue I am very proud of.  4 oz of top spun fine enough for socks, I do believe.  Sweet.

In other news, I knit like a crazy woman for Christmas, finishing up felting the last bag on Christmas morning.  So it was a little damp...but I will save that for another post.

I wouldn't want to over do it.

Knittin My Own, Part Deux

I had this.

Blue-faced Leicester combed top.

I made this.

2-ply, DK wgt, 525 yards

I changed this way.

Hand-painted with acid dye, shades of Crimson

I took advice, and I knitted with it. It turned out like this.

Sunkist Cardi, with a couple mods, but nothing earth shaking.

It fits, and she says she likes it. So that is pretty sweet stuff for me.  Also, it's soft.

But she said she will wear it later, if I didn't mind very much...like when it isn't 95 degrees outside.

I understand.

My own handspun, handdyed, handknit cardigan. I think I can hang out with the cool kids now.