KNITSTER

Well, my fiber interests took a bigger role in my weekend that it has in more recently passed weekends. It started out with me travelling down to Mt. Holly to Woolbearers to pick up the Howard Brush student carders that I ordered, and the additional skeins of Cascade 220 that I needed for the sweater that I’ve started for JC. The pattern is the Cambridge Jacket by Ann Budd in the Summer 2006 IK magazine. The pattern is for the orange-rust yarn, but I chose a heathery blue-green yarn instead that JC says he approved of (fussy guy that he is). I have worn the cabled tank on Friday, and it fit perfectly. I did notice a flaw that I have to fix somehow, but I had to safety pin it for the time being until I got around to fixing it. I will definitely have to do that before I wash it! My friend Beth actually noticed the tank and asked if I made it, and she liked it and was impressed.

But back to JC’s sweater jacket. I have frogged that thing and started over at LEAST 3, if not 4 times, but I finally am on track with it. The ribbing pattern isn’t difficult so far for the back piece, but I’m just not used to the rhythm of it being k2 p3 on one side, then p2 k3 on the other. I’m used to k2 p2 and vice versa, or seed stitching, so this is throwing me off. Not difficult, just scrambling my brain, or as Drew would say, it’s messing up my world.

The carders are cool. I know they are really meant more for raw wool, but I was using them to card some raw cotton that I have for spinning. Of course, as I’m doing this, JC thinks I’m nuts a) for spending $44.10 (before tax) for the carders, and then doing all this carding. He felt that I’d get tired of doing it and tired of this little spin-off (no pun intended) craft from the knitting. He felt it was just easier for me to buy more wool and was actually in favor of that instead (yes, even with the massive stash I have already!). Oh well. I liked using the carders, and it did make a difference in the raw cotton that I was carding out, even if it was a tiny bit at a time. I took a little sample and spun it on my wonky spindle, and it seemed to turn out nicely. I just have to figure out how to make it into nice roving. The little bits of roving that I made were super soft, so I liked that.

I got my first birthday card (the big day is August 14th), and I was happy to see that it was from my local LYS, and it was a 20% off coupon for the store for whatever I bought for a single day until 9/5. Sweet! I’m hoping that my favorite Debbie Bliss cashmerino stuff is on sale, or I’ll find some use for that. I’m not wasting a good coupon like that!!! Nice bday present from a vendor!

Posted on August 6th, 2006 by Dani
Filed under: Projects, Shopping, Spinning, Works in Progress