Much closer

See this?

That's two bobbins full of 2-ply Sunset. The bobbins in the basket held 2 ounces each of the singles. The left one is empty (what you see is red leader cord), and the right one is so close to empty they're almost a perfect match! I did divide the batts evenly by weight, and this tells me that my spinning was relatively consistent between the two halves.

For you Babe spinners, I discovered that I could ply faster by putting the drive band on the "hub cap" instead of the usual place. It stayed in place pretty well, but I had to leave the brake unfastened to keep it from slipping under tension. Has anyone carved a drive band groove into the axel? I've got this dremel-type tool....

Next I'll skein, count, and wash them. Then I'll do some math. Keep your fingerings crossed for socks!

Oh, did you see yet that sign-ups for Mystery Stole 4 are open?

DH: It's a Knitting Free Zone

It's time for a quick update! I got my copy of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Friday night about 12:30 and started reading at 1:07 AM. I didn't read straight through, though, napping for about 4 hours and pausing for necessary reasons and a phone call. 5:30 PM Saturday was when I was done. Being first in my little "crowd" to finish, I couldn't talk to anyone about it! So today I've been browsing in the Harry Potter Lexicon forums. It's satisfying to discover other people with similar observations, reactions, and questions, and it's interesting to find new ones to think about.

The only detail I'm going to reveal is that there is no knitting in the last Harry Potter book. While sweaters and socks are mentioned (just once each, I think), the book is a KFZ. Edit: Socks (though not the knitting of) are mentioned more than once; I've noted six or seven references so far as I've begun re-reading DH. BTW, socks are not critical to the story and easy to miss, though I love the way such ordinary objects crop up throughout the series.

My house, on the other hand, has knitting. I've started clue 4 of Mystery Stole 3. This section, twice as long as previous ones, is very repetitive, and it's going to be hard to find my place when Jumper (as he definitely will) knocks my chart off the piano bench. I think I'll have to use sticky notes or markers or something. Maybe I'll check off the bead rows. That will work; they're frequent enough but not too frequent. End example of Michal thinking "out loud."

I did knit on my sock while standing in line Thursday to get a wristband (which we were not required to wear!) for Friday night's Harry Potter book sale. The knitting muggles nearby were amazed at my ability to knit without looking and to change colors so seamlessly! So we talked about self-striping yarn and knitting for charity between HP topics, of course!

Settled

I'd mentioned getting summoned for jury duty; it started and ended today. Late last night the parties settled, so the 120 or so potential jurors (including me) who showed up this morning get a 2-year exemption from serving! It almost took longer to get through security than to find out the trial was off! Look what "needles" got through security:


That's 62 stitches of mystery yarn (that I wouldn't grieve over if it got confiscated) in an off-the cuff YO, K2tog lace pattern possibly to become a net bag. Now that jury duty is done, I'll move it to regular needles. The pencils are 6.6 mm in diameter, so a 10.5 US will be fine. I painted 4 coats of clear nail polish on the tips.

This is what I'd wished I could take to the courthouse:


My 8th pair of socks being knit on glorified toothpicks! Last week I was inspired by the combination of high temperatures...


... (76 inside and 107 in the shade outside my front door) and doing errands to make a woolly sock for my water bottle. I like the wide-mouth bottles because I can put normal ice cubes in them. I grabbed an orphan ball of fingering yarn and knitted away until it was the right size. Like a sock but without a heel:


Then I knit I-cord (on my Magicord Machine!) until I ran out of yarn and grafted the ends together. Fortunately, it was long enough to make a sling-able strap. Here are the parts. I'm not sewing them together since I'm using it around the house as well as out and about. I put a bit of ribbing in for snug fit. It was really technical: at the start of each of the 4 needles, I P2, K2, P2, K to the end of the needle. The "toe" increases were done similarly: KFB the first stitch, K to end of needle.


My Mystery Stole 3 is stuck half way through clue 2. That bit of blue yarn is to remind me to add a missing bead.

In other fiberly news, I made a dozen covered hangers for an upcoming birthday. I used puffy Homespun-style yarn and crocheted with a big hook. They just need the ends woven in. They're popular with their recipient because clothes don't slide off the hangers. And of course the sun
has gone down while I'm blogging, so you get a flash picture!


And don't give me any grief for crochet and acrylic! Every technique and every fiber has its proper niche.

Ta ta for now!

It's Been Hot

Hot for Portland, anyway. I've been knitting on my Mystery Stole 3 and finished clue #1. Here it is quickly pinned out:


You can see my three pearl cotton lifelines, but the beads barely show. That might have something to do with them being clear! I got my lace knitting workstation settled to my satisfaction on the piano bench (made by my grandmother's uncle around 1898, no less) situated in front of the couch.


I was going to make a cone spinner like this one, but couldn't find a paper towel holder at the thrift store. They did have a lazy susan that, turned upside down, works well and required no remodeling. Someday I might paint the underside, but for now it's OK.

Just in the nick of time, I finished my June Sock a Month socks, my 7th pair. They started out as Horcrux socks, but the yarn was too busy for a pattern. They're Koolaid dyed KnitPicks Bare fingering knit on US 1 DPNs.


I need to start my July socks soon, or I'll be in the same last-minute rush I was in on June 29! They'll be plain with fun yarn again to provide easy knitting in contrast to the stole.

In related sock news, my first pair of socks felted a little in the washer (now I handwash ALL my handknit socks), and it makes a great insulating sock for my water bottle. The heel looks a little odd, but if it keeps the water cool longer, I'm not bothered. Cool water water is simply wonderful in the summer! VBG

Yesterday I went over to Ruthie's Weaving Studio. She's been posting ads about spinning classes on craigslist. She's got a big space (complete with stars hanging from the ceiling courtesy of the square dance club that used to be there) for her and members' looms, plus equipment for getting warps and other weaverly things ready for weaving (I don't know the lingo, obviously). The first Saturday of the month she offers spinning classes. She had some good suggestions for me regarding some overspun yarn that I want to tweak into usable form.

Now off for some errands (including a nearby yard sale with "knitting things"). Later, 'gators.

MS3 Swatch #6 aka Too Much Time on My Hands

Is that a pun?

I knit another MS3 swatch last night, this time on size 4 US vintage plastic Boye needles with scooped tips. Although technically not a pair as one is blue and the other white, they were nice: light, smooth, and sticky enough they didn't fall out every other stitch. Here's the swatch complete with imperfections caused by PBS viewing:


The lower section is knit with two strands and the upper with one. Both are pretty fluid. I was worried about breaking the single strand as I knit, but that didn't happen. Damn. I suspect I'm going to have to knit the stole on one strand of the gray mystery wool. I never would have thunk it. I can blame Jan, a knitter/weaver/seamstress I met yesterday who was knitting a shawl of what looked a lot like my gray mystery wool (only a very pretty autumn-colored variegated yarn/thread). Shoot. If she can do that, so can I. LOL What do YOU think?

The sunlight streaming through my kitchen window as I immortalized the new swatch was hitting my window sill garden. Look, African violet bloom!


And my 2007 primrose, currently on its 4th and 5th (see the bud in the center?) round of blooms.

Every spring I splurge 79 cents on a primrose for my kitchen window. Some years they even survive to bloom again 12 months later. Such a deal!

Simultaneous Knitting and Scrolling

Late last night I was playing with a friend's camera and took this picture of my frogged Horcrux sock sitting in a heap of recent fibery goodness.


I got it past the heel twice but didn't like it (not the pattern's fault!), so ribit ribit. At least now it will be started during the Summer of Socks. The other night I swatched for Mystery Stole 3 on size 5 US needles in both the green and the blue. I'm teetering between size 4 and 5 and the green yarn. We'll see what happens with clue 1 comes out Friday.

This camera is 12 or so years newer than mine and actually took pictures of the Black Hole Under My Desk without the flash. A Very Good Thing because the dust bunnies don't show up! Here's its frequent resident, Mr. Kitty, looking sweet and keeping my toes company on a big pillow.


Over to the right is this:


A serial trackball with BIG buttons that I got at Goodwill for $1.99 recently. The ball is on the shelf since I discovered that it's hard to control it with sock-covered toes. HOWEVER, it is extremely useful for scrolling down while reading blogs! I park the cursor over the down-arrow in the scroll bar, pick up my knitting, and read and scroll away! My system seems not to mind at all having two pointing devices operating at the same time. Definitely a simple, thrifty, reuse idea that increases knitting time. The only downside is now there's another cable snaking around. Just wait till I give up my socks and get practiced surfing with my toes!

Mystery Stole Swatch Results

Yes! There's a hole in the gray swatch! And if you look closely, there's a missing YO in the green one. Now that's over with, let's celebrate 3 swatches done yesterday. LOL

The details in order of knitting:

Gray Swatch: mystery wool on cone (10.5 ounces), 28 WPI, two strands held together on size 2 US, blocked to approximately 5.5 inches wide, 4 inches tall. If I choose this, I'll go with three strands plied together somehow (not having a wheel...) because unplied, I'm going to be sticking my needles between strands a lot. Finished width approx 18 inches. The math: 5.5 inches/35 times 99 stitches times 120%. Melanie has revealed the stole is 99 stitches wide.

Green Swatch: mystery wool on cone (21 ounces), 24 WPI, one strand on size 4 US (bottom) and size 3 US needles, blocked to approximately 6 inches wide. I like the size 4 results better. I'm leaning toward using this yarn. Approx 20 inches wide finished.

Blue Swatch: Shetland wool on cone (12 ounces), 18 WPI, one strand on size 4 US, blocked to approximately 6.25 inches wide. I like this color best, but overdying either of the other two is an option. Approx 21 inches wide finished.

Any opinions? Is my math OK? Please comment!

BTW, I unvented a WPI tool from my wood scraps box: a piece of tinker toy. Perfect! Love that Reuse part of the three Rs. LOL This is such a simple concept. One could make one from a piece of doweling very easily if there are no kids around from whom you can beg a stick.

As to the wrapping, I let the yarn decide where to fall by angling it slightly toward the already wrapped strand as I twisted the tool, pulling the yarn just enough to snug up to the tool without being overly tight. Is that the right way to do it??