Category Archive for ‘hand spun’ at adam knits!

Archive for the 'hand spun' Category

The Ambitions of Youth 23 Jul 08

Monsoon season is in full swing here in New Mexico, and there’s nothing like street watching on a rainy afternoon.

Dallas loves to look outside while it’s raining, except when there’s lightning. It just takes one flash for him to be on my bed, quivering behind some pillows. My new bed isn’t tall enough for him to hide under, although it took him a few head bonks to figure that out. Emma prefers a more subtle method of avoiding lightning strikes. Her philosophy is, “if I can’t see it, then it doesn’t exist”. She simply curls up in her bean bag with her back to the window and gives Dallas strange looks when he runs out the room.

Who needs TV when you have afternoon dog antics to watch?

In the free time arena, it seems that home projects are the new knitting. I have a few new projects to show off, and many more in the works. One I’m especially proud of is my new pot rack.

I’m now convinced that the pot rack is one of the best inventions in recent history (you know, assuming they weren’t invented in medieval times or anything). Not only does it look slick, it’s also extremely functional. My kitchen isn’t gargantuan, so I’ll take all the cabinet space I can get.

And a special thanks goes out to my Dad, who really did all the work to hang the rack. It turned out to be a bit more work than planned, as ceiling is actually mounted on 12″ spaced furring strips, unbeknownst to us. A number of drill holes later, we were finally able to locate the furring strips. Thank goodness for spackle and paint ;)

Another one of my recent decorating endeavors involved setting up a shrine to the dogs in the hallway. Because nothing impresses the ladies more than a guy who has pictures of his dogs everywhere. Right? (I really hope so, otherwise I might be on the road to becoming the male equivalent of a crazy cat lady.)

In addition to a multi-paned frame with lots of dog pictures, I also hung up one of my oldest knitting projects. I bet most of you have never seen this, since it was completed early on in my knitting career. In fact, it was my 3rd knitting project ever.

I was quite ambitious when I began knitting, and I came across a fun pattern book in a craft store, featuring this kitschy blanket with intarsia dog motifs. I thought it would be quite fun to make (little did I know how tedious intarsia can be at times), so I broke the bank for a bunch of Mission Falls 1824 Wool and cast on.

It took me a bit of time, especially to figure out how to do the colorwork, but I soldiered on and completed the blanket. I even lined the back with fleece to give it that extra special touch. Being that it was a small blanket, I knew it would probably end up as wall art, and it has finally lived up to that destiny. I do think it looks pretty handsome hanging up in the hallway, and it’s a great step in my quest to have wool everywhere possible in my house.

because everyone needs a hand-knit intarsia wall hanging

Another way I’m working towards domesticity through sheep is by knitting a runner for my new dresser. It’s deliciously textured, especially since I’m using hand-dyed and hand-spun yarn. There’s really no better knitting experience than using yarn that you dyed and spun yourself. Especially when the result is this lovely.

Plus, the good news is that since it’s 249 stitches wide, I have a little longer to spend with this nubbly beauty. In fact, I think I might go knit a row now.

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Adam

in dallas, emma, garter stitch, hand spun, home improvement 101, home ownership, knitting and schnauzers

Equal Opportunity Fiber Lover 03 May 08

20 Comments

Once again it’s time for your sporadically scheduled blog update! Since we’re going on 3 weeks, this update won’t really have very much in the way of excitement. Its true purpose is to halt the incessant “OMG, why haven’t you updated your blog?” e-mails from my family. I suppose they can’t just get enough of my special blend of dry and sardonic humor. However, I’m fairly certain that all my other readers click over in hopes of getting a glimpse at my excruciatingly rugged and chiseled countenance. (Oh, I have to write that one down!)

Good looks aside, this is a knitting/spinning/dyeing blog (gotta love that demographic creep), so I suppose I should show you some of the fibery things I’ve been working on.

Last weekend was my final spinning class, but luckily, I have a wheel for a bit longer. This week I drew the Kromski Minstrel, and I am definitely smitten. It spins like a dream, and I love its old fashioned looks. I’ll sample a few more, but I’m pretty sure this is the wheel I’ll buy eventually.

My drafting skills are steadily improving, and at this point I’m able to spin a single that is fairly consistent. So far I’ve spun BFL, Corriedale, Shetland, Merino and Rambouillet. I haven’t branched out from wooly fiber yet, but I have a lovely bump of Alpaca that I’m anxious to spin up.

Right now I’m working on a 2 ply of white Rambouillet and gray Shetland (shown on the bobbin above), that will be part of a hand-knit project for the new house. Both of the rovings I’m using for this project were grown here in NM, and are minimally processed, meaning the fiber still has a decent amount of lanolin and vegetable matter. It’s really interesting to spin up roving that has been totally processed, and then switch to roving that’s a bit more raw. One thing that was cool about my spinning class was that we learned the basics of skirting and washing a fleece, which means someday I hope to make a sweater from a raw fleece. Talk about the ultimate in make your own clothing!

In addition to the NM rovings I’ve been working on, I spun up a bump of Superwash Merino roving that I dyed a while back, in my Caramel Stout colorway. It’s about 100 yards of worsted weight yarn, which I think will look smashing as a second hand-spun Zeebee to add to my collection. Don’t you just want to reach out and smoosh it?

One accessory that I’ve discovered is essential to spinning is a cozy pair of hand-knit socks. I don’t like treadling with my shoes on, and there’s been a bit of a chill lately, so I’ve been getting good use out of my sock drawer. I finished up this cozy pair just a few weeks ago.

pattern: boyfriend socks (although I refer to them as my “cables and brimstone” socks)
yarn: araucania ranco in brick (75/25 wool/nylon)
needles/gauge: 8 spi on US #1.5 needles
construction: knitted toe up, magic cast on, short row heel, regular bind off

Thanks to everyone for the warm wishes on the house! I’m super excited, and can’t wait to move in. The one thing I could without however, is packing. I’ve been putting it off for as long as possible, but I couldn’t delay any longer today. My closing date is rapidly approaching, and I certainly don’t want to be packing everything at the last minute. I packed up the garage today, no thanks to help from Emma. The minute I mentioned the word “packing”, she high tailed it to her favorite spot on the couch and pretended to sleep. What a diva.

After a hard day of dusty labor (the garage was like dust bunny headquarters), I decided to reward myself with an evening off. There’s nothing better than spending the evening with your Fiddlehead Mittens and a nice glass of beer. I’m just about done with knitting the outer mittens, and after a nice bath, they’ll be ready for their linings. For once it looks like I might actually finish a Project Spectrum knit during the featured months!

Oh, and lest I forget, there is one last thing. To lessen the amount of stuff I have to move, I’m having a 10% off Moving Sale over at Yarn Nerd! The store is stocked with a number of great base yarns (try the 1200 MHz Merino, it’s super nice stuff), and I’m expecting a shipment of 900 MHz Bambylon and 950 MHz Merino (a new sock yarn!) this week. Also, stay tuned for details on a sock kit featuring a special colorway and a new pattern from Anne herself!

Well, look at that. This post actually had some decent content after all. Maybe next time I’ll give you all a peek at my hot new summer buzzcut. Rawr!

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Adam

in emma, finished objects, hand spun, home, knitting, project spectrum, shop, socks, works in progress and yarn nerd

Envy is One of the 7 Deadly Sins 19 Oct 07

15 Comments

I’m trying to remind myself of that, as it seems everyone in knitting blog world is headed off to Rhinebeck for a grand weekend involving meetups, new sweaters, and fiber acquisition. I’m not jealous, really! (Ok, maybe just a tad…but I’ll get over it eventually.)

For those who aren’t going to Rhinebeck, I find it helps to gather up all your lovely yarn, and pet it a little bit, while imagining you’re in a wonderful place filled with sheep and funnel cakes. It’s certainly not a substitute for a large fiber festival, but it helps, and it’s definitely gentler on the bank account. ;)

And while I was petting my yarn, I realized I have a lot of lovely hand-spun skeins laying around that I have yet to show you, so why not? It’s some tasty Eye Candy Friday, and it might just distract you from the fact that this post is all shiny and no substance.

First up we have a lovely skein of BFL, spun up by yours truly! Remember this roving? Well after I got a lovely new maple drop spindle, I was anxious to finish it up. The roving was a 4oz braid of BFL from Flawful Fibers, in the Safari colorway. I really loved spinning the BFL, it’s very soft and strong, while being easy to spin. I’m definitely getting better too, these singles are a lot less slubby and I got a lot more yardage this time (around 75 yards). I have no idea if I’ll just keep it as a pet, or knit anything with it, but either way, I’m delighted with it.

Our next contestant is a lovely skein of handspun that Georgia sent me for winning a contest on her blog. It’s a very luscious prize, and makes for a nice addition to my hand-spun trophy case. I can’t recall the fiber content at the moment, but when it’s this lovely, who cares? I’m thinking I’m going to use this to make a Red Light Special with just the handspun for the colored parts and some chocolate colored Alpaca I picked up at the Taos Wool Festival. I think it will be my most luxurious winter hat ever.

Lastly, I just received this from Alyson yesterday, and I’ve quite a crush on it. Alyson liked my kettle dyed Pumpkin yarn, so we negotiated a small trade. She spun up this superwash merino into sock yarn for me, and I sent her a skein of Punkin Head yarn. I’m very spoiled, to have such awesome people that trade handspun yarn with me! So thanks Alyson, I love it! I think this will become some plain old toe up stockinette socks, since I don’t want anything to spoil the loveliness of the yarn.

The final installment of eye candy that I have today, are a few new colorways that I’ve cooked up. I’m working hard on my next order for The Loopy Ewe, which should be shipped off in a week or so. These skeins are dyed up in my newest sock yarn, which I’ve dubbed 850 MHz Merino. It’s a really nice 3 ply merino, that knits up really evenly and is super soft. The twist is a little bit less than my 900 MHz Merino, but it’s not at all splitty, and has less bias, so it looks really nice when knit up into stockinette. I think you’ll really like it a lot, and I’m hoping it’s going to help reduce some of the supply issues that I’ve been having with the 900 MHz Merino. I’m not discontinuing the 900 MHz, I just think I’m going to put it on the back burner for a little while. I hope you like the new yarn as much as I do!

Here’s a quick summary of the State of Yarn Nerd to bring you up to speed:

850 MHz Merino will be available through The Loopy Ewe, so go stalk Sheri to get your sock yarn fix ;)
While the sock yarn will be available through Sheri, the Yarn Nerd store is still the place to go for sport and other weights.
1500 MHz Merino will be replaced with another sport weight merino in the next few months. Sorry for the lack of sport weight, but I’m working hard to get something comparable to what I was using that isn’t constantly on back order.
1700 MHz BFL will be available in early November, and will be an option for Create Your Skein. This is a really nice DK weight yarn, and if you were wanting something in a heavier weight for thick socks or hats, I think you’ll want to give this a try.
2400 MHz Merino will also be replaced with a new worsted merino in a few months, so if you were wanting some worsted, just be patient a bit longer.
Roving will eventually be available on a less hodge podge basis, but it might be a while before that occurs.

I hope that helps answer a lot of questions for those of you who have e-mailed me wondering about sport weight, and where you can get your hands on some Yarn Nerd goodness. If you’ve e-mailed me and I haven’t responded, drop me another line, as things have been a bit hectic these days. It’s quite a challenge to manage school, work and the yarn stuff, but I enjoy every minute of it, so thanks so much for all your support!

That’s all I have, so have a great weekend everyone, and if you’re at Rhinebeck, I’ll try not to envy you too much ;) Sending me yarn might help me get over my envy, hint, hint. ;)

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Adam

in biking, dyeing, hand spun, knitting, swag, the stash and yarn nerd

Not Sitting on the Dock of the Bay 18 Sep 07

25 Comments

I don’t know if I’ve ever been happier for Monday to roll around than yesterday. Because this Monday brought with it the promise of a better week, one where I could ride my bike and sit on my butt without wincing. You never know what’cha got until it’s gone right? Well, let’s just say, you never know how much you appreciate having the ability to sit down until it becomes very painful. I don’t really want to go into details (because they are slightly more intimate than I prefer to reveal on this blog), but let’s just say I ended up having a minor procedure last week involving my tailbone and a scalpel. Ouch.

My solace came in the form of doctor mandated hot baths, which can be very nice when paired with a scotch on the rocks. Thankfully, this week is already a lot better, and I’m almost back to normal. I can ride my bike again, and sit down at work without needing an IV of Ibuprofen (not really, but it would have been nice…).

And another reason to appreciate Monday? Why getting your “therapy for a crappy week” purchases of course! First up is this sweet shirt that I scored at Threadless. They printed this one a while ago, and it just got reprinted, so I jumped on it.

I think it’s also a sign of good things to come with my next grand transportation experiment, as I am now car-less for the week, and maybe next week too. It’s another long story, but someone hit me quite a few months back, and I’m finally just getting my car fixed now. It’s just body damage, but that means it’s gonna take a long time in the shop. Giving me the perfect opportunity to see how truly car-free I can be. My goal is to only bum rides off friends and family if absolutely necessary, otherwise I’ll take the bus and ride my bike everywhere else. I don’t think it should be too difficult, as I’m already riding my bike lots of places already, but I’m interested to see how it goes when the car safety net is no longer there. I’ll keep you updated.

My other “poor me, I can’t sit down” purchase is this lovely hand-spun yarn:

I came across this link to Crumbs & Co. in one of Megan’s posts, and when I clicked over, I saw it. The very same skein of yarn I had seen on Flickr and drooled over was sitting right there, pleading with me to buy it. So I did. And now I have this lovely skein of yarn in my possession. It’s Merino spun up in DK weight and it’s absolutely exquisite. Go check out Crumbs for yourself, she has some awesome stuff!

And to top off my wonderfully good happy week, I took this awesome picture yesterday. Things are definitely looking up. Thank goodness for the ability to sit. And scotch.

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Adam

in a nerd's life, biking, hand spun, nerdy, the stash and why me?

Oooohhh, Shiny! 01 Sep 07

28 Comments

Hey everyone, thanks for all your great comments on my yarn being at The Loopy Ewe! I’m finishing up the dyeing and reskeining this weekend, so it should be off to Sheri and up at the store soon. Keep an eye out! Also, I’ll be placing an order for some 1500 MHz Sport Merino as soon as I ship off the wholesale order, so keep an eye out for that yarn at www.yarnnerd.com.

In other news, I got a new toy!

That’s right, I finally had enough money saved up to go pay off my bike and get it out of layaway. I picked it up last night, and my Dad helped me put on some clipless pedals and showed me a few things, and off I went! I was a bit worried about using the clipless pedals, but commuting these last few months has made me a lot more confident on the bike, and my fears turned out to be unfounded. The pedals are super easy to use and it’s definitely a lot more efficient than straight push pedals. My Dad was kind enough to take a picture of me riding (wow, I look like a 5 year old boy in that picture) around the neighborhood.

It feels really great to have a bike that actually fits me, and I’m really looking forward to next week’s commute now. I’m interested to see how much time I can shave off, since this bike is super fast. Oh, and it’s super light too, so it should be a bit easier to load it onto the bus to school (and hopefully it will get me less grouchy bus driver stares, since the mountain bike was a bit hard to load onto that rack).

All in all, it’s only been a few months since I started bike commuting, but it’s already drastically changed the way I look at transportation. I absolutely love my commute now, and I’m always looking for opportunities to ride instead of driving. Plus, I’m so happy to have finally found a form of exercise that I really enjoy. In the past I never found something I really loved, so it was always hard to stick to a routine. I just wish I had given cycling a serious try sooner!

I also have another pair of socks under my belt to show off. (Two pairs in consecutive posts! What is this blog coming to?)

Remember these?

“Jolly Good Chap” Socks

Pattern: Gentleman’s Sock with Lozenge Pattern from Knitting Vintage Socks, by Nancy Bush.
Yarn: Hand-Spun by Anne, received in a swap.
Needles / Gauge: 7.5 spi on US #1’s. Knitted with Magic Loop.
Construction: I stuck to the pattern on this one, except I used a slip stitch heel instead of a stockinette one. I also modified the lozenge pattern to be over 60 stitches, since my gauge was less than the book’s.
Completion Time: 4 months (May - August)

I really love these socks. This was the first time (at the time of cast-on) that I had used hand-spun, and it was a very different and wonderful experience. The wool that Anne used is a bit more coarse than I was used to, but it makes a really sturdy and warm fabric. Anne’s spinning job was superb, and I know that these socks will be around for many years to come. They’re a bit slouchy around the leg, because the pattern gauge is a bit bigger than stockinette gauge, but the ribbed cuff holds them up, and I think that slouchy socks are wonderful. They’ll be perfect for cold winter evenings, to keep my feet warm while I drink coffee and knit. And the pattern gives them a very sophisticated look; so much so, that I fancy myself a Brit while wearing them. ;)

So thanks Anne, the yarn is wonderful, and the socks are even better!

Lastly, I want to leave you with a bit of a somber warning. If you are ever knitting a sweater, be sure to count the number of stitches in your gauge swatch instead of assuming. Or, if you always knit your swatches over 32 stitches, don’t make a 36 stitch swatch, and then measure your gauge thinking your swatch is 32 stitches. Cause that means all your impeccable math and perfect sizing doesn’t mean anything…, and it leads to this inevitable outcome:

Oh, and listen to that nagging voice in your head that says, “hey, maybe before you get too much farther, you should take it off the needles and try it on!” Cause it will be right. At least I was only 1 inch past the hem, so no harm no foul this time. I forge ahead, because I am determined to have a cosy sweater to go with my Englishman socks this winter.

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Adam