Tagged: wool
Min Ulla Scarf
We had our first snow yesterday which can only mean one thing: winter is coming! I’m so excited that we have such beautiful sweater weather now- I’m snuggled up in my Inishturk sweater as we speak. Along with the delicious food, cozy fires, and holidays spent with family comes the time to wear all of the wonderful woolen things you’ve knit throughout the year! My latest project falls into this category. I’m making a wool scarf. Its been ages since I’ve knit a scarf because I get bored of it pretty quickly with the endless repeated stitching patterns. This next scarf is something entirely different for me. Its my first big venture into Fair Isle knitting. I love the different design patterns- there’s never a dull moment.
Im using Ella Rae wool in a dark purply-brown color and Cascade 220 in cream. They are both really soft and knit up very well. I’m about one quarter of the way done with the scarf right now and I’m not even close to being bored! I’m definitely loving Fair Isle!
Inishturk sweater: another piece done
Well, vacation definitely has its benefits- I’m done with the front of my sweater! All I have to do now is knit up a sleeve and stitch it together. I’m really excited to be done, and I’ve already started researching yarn for my next sweater. Too bad it hasn’t started cooling off yet. I’m really ready for sweater weather!
Here it is:
Adventures in Spinning
Hey everyone! Sorry I haven’t posted for so long. I’ve pretty much only been working on the sweater and I still have 3 inches left before I do something new on the back so I haven’t had anything exciting to post about. However, since I needed a break from that, I decided to try my hand at spinning. I bought a top whorl drop spindle and 8oz of New Zealand sheep roving from The Joyful Sheep on etsy. After a few YouTube videos, I decided to go for it.
The Roving
Of course, when I first started, I had troubles keeping the yarn an even diameter but I’ve gotten quite a bit better at that now (I’ve spun about 6oz so far). I’ve mostly been doing single ply yarn since I tried to double ply and the yarn ended up super thick and took up a ton of wool.
Yarn drying under tension
Like I said, I’ve spun, soaked, dried, and wound about 6oz so far- it’s nice because I can do other things at the same time which is harder with the complicated pattern for my sweater. My yarn isn’t the softest though and I think it’s a bit over twisted but practice makes perfect, right? I want to get some colored roving next to make things a little more interesting.
I’m using the yarn I’ve made in these fair isle mittens on the lionbrand website. I’m using up some dark blue wool ease thick and quick yarn that I have left over from the beard hat for the pattern.
Have you guys ever tried spinning? Do you have any hints that might help me out? Also, where do you buy your material for spinning- especially roving that’s been dyed/ do you dye your own?
Happy knitting!
DNA scarf
Hey everyone! Sorry that its been so long since I posted! I had an exam last Friday and two more exams tomorrow so things have been a bit crazy and I haven’t had much time to knit. I just wanted to give you an update on what I’m working on. I started the DNA scarf pattern again- this time with Knit Pick’s Wool of the Andes Sport Weight yarn in oyster heather. It’s holding the pattern much better. In the picture, it looks a little pink but its actually a nice neutral tan. I’ve never knit with a yarn that’s so thin so I’m surprised at how long it takes to make any progress. I’m on row 27 and the scarf is only about 3 inches long. Each DNA twist repeat is 40 rows. Needless to say, this is going to be a long project. A new thing that has saved me is the discovery of row counters! Since I keep having to stop in the middle of a repeat, this keeps me from making as many mistakes. Although, as you can probably see, I’ve still had a few rough spots. I just can’t bring myself to rip out so many rows so I’ll keep going and hope that nobody notices….
I promise I’ll post more in the future but for now, I’ve got to go study!
My first sweater! Part 1
So, since I’ve been knitting for a couple of months, I thought, “Hey, I can knit. Why don’t I try a real project! Everyone knits sweaters so it can’t be that difficult, right?”
That was on Thanksgiving. It’s been a couple of months and I’ve been through a few additional projects but I just have to keep coming back to this sweater. I’ve finished the back and one sleeve and I’m working on the front. I found the pattern at Lion Brand yarn’s website. They have a ton of free knitting and crocheting patterns so I’d highly recommend it to anyone.
The pattern is called an Alpine zip-neck pullover. You can find the full pattern here
The materials needed are:
Size 5 needles
Size 8 needles
Blunt needles
A 10″ athletic zipper
5 balls of wool-ease yarn in Oxford grey (the darker color)
3 balls of yarn in Grey Heather
Note: with multiple balls of yarn, make sure that each color group comes from the same dye
lot. Otherwise, your sweater will have random sections of slightly different colorations
I’ll talk about the sleeve today.
Here’s the pattern:
SLEEVES
Make 2.
Sleeve border:
With size 5 needles and A, CO 48 (50, 52, 54) sts. Work border same as back, end with a WS row, end off A. Change to size 8 needles and join B. K 1 row, inc 1 st at end of row-49 (51, 53, 55) sts. Cont in St st, inc 1 st each side every 4th row 16 (17, 18, 19) times-81 (85, 89, 93) sts.
Work even until sleeve measures 19½ (20, 20½, 21)” [49.5 (51, 52, 53.5) cm], ending with a k row.
Work sleeve pat as follows:
Row 1: With B, p across row.
Row 2: Join A, k1, *yarn back (yb), sl 1, yarn front (yf), sl 1, yb, sl 1, k1, rep from * across row. Row 3: With A, p1, *yb, sl 3, wrap yarn around needle, p1, rep from * across row.
Row 4: With B, k across row, dropping extra wraps to make long loose strands in front of work.
Row 5: With B, p across row.
Row 6: With A, k1, *yb, sl 1, insert needle from the front under the loose strand and k the loose strand and the next st as one, yb, sl 1, k1, rep from * across row.
Row 7: With A, k1, *yf, sl 1, p1, yf, sl 1, k1, rep from * across row.
Row 8: With B, k across row.
Row 9: With B, p across row.
Row 10: With A, k1, *yf, sl 1, yb, k1, rep from * across row.
Rows 11-20: Rep Rows 1-10, reversing colors.
Row 21: With B, p across row.
BO in k.
The pattern isn’t very difficult as long as you go slowly and make sure you understand what it’s saying.
Honestly, I’m excited to have a complete sweater done soon but I’ll warn you that knitting a sweater can be incredibly boring.
Well, this is the end of part 1 of the ongoing sweater saga.
Happy Knitting!!
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A Knit's Tale 