Creative Fibres Hand Dyed Mohair in "Pukeko"

The name of the colour comes from a New Zealand bird which has plumage in the colour of the yarn.  Oh, and it’s a lovely 100g hank of bulky-weight mohair… I’ve been thinking about what to make with it, but I think I’ve settled on a shawl of some kind.

This is how much I already had spun:

and this is the remaining fibre, before I started spinning today:

Onwards!

I’m going to see if I can get a bit more done tonight before I go to bed.  I’m still on a little bit of a sci-fi high from the new Doctor Who episode / special tonight, “The Waters of Mars”.  Can’t wait til the next one at Christmas!  But I need to wind down a bit more, so a bit of podcast listening and spinning should do the trick.  Hopefully, I’ll get these singles bobbins finished and then plied within the next couple of days.  I might use the remainder of my birthday money to get a niddy noddy, too.  That’ll make winding the finished yarn back off the bobbin much easier.

Isn’t it preeeeeeeeeetty?  I know you can’t see it terribly well in that picture because it’s only some of the stocking stitch portion.  But trust me, it’s lovely – the colour of ripe blackberries.  The pattern calls for 300m of yarn, the skein was 365m.  I used the suggested needle size because I liked the drape of the fabric that gave me, although it put my gauge a little bit off.  That’s not important in a scarf, triangular or not, right?  Well, I knitted all of the stocking stitch section, and thought I still had plenty of yarn.  The I started on the lace charts: chart A, then B, then as I started A again I began to get a bit worried.  I kept going though.  Right up until I ran out of yarn with essentially 8 rows to go.  Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!

Has my dodgy gauge has eaten more yarn, or something?  I’m not sure that makes sense – I haven’t knitted more stitches, after all.  I’ve got more stitches to the inch than I should have: that means that to get suggested gauge, I’d have to go up a needle size or two, thus making larger stitches, and therefore less per inch.  My stitches are smaller, so they should be using less yarn, right?  The resulting scarf must be a bit smaller than intended, that’s all.

As I see it, I have a couple of choices: rip out the whole thing (noooo!) and start again with different needles or yarn, or knit the remaining few rows in something else.  But what?  I only have this one skein of lovely Nimu ‘Striding Edge’ BFL, and I love the way it’s feeling so much that I do want to use if for this project.  Bah.  My first instinct is to edge it in a black yarn, since it’s such a dark colour to start with.  But the only black yarn I have in what to my naked eye looks like a comparable thickness (I mentioned that it’s a very squishy sockweight, and it’s relatively loose-spun) is acrylic DK.  No.  I also have some similarly squishy sock yarn by the Yarn Yard – their merino ‘Hug’ yarn, in a couple of colours that might do:

Mysterion

Damson

Damson knit up

I don’t know which, if either, would be better though.  So I’m posting a poll.   Help meeeeeee!

Note: There is a poll embedded within this post, please visit the site to participate in this post's poll.

You know what’s really annoying, though?  This is the fourth time I’ve run out of yarn on a project recently.  I must be doing something wrong.

I am, by the way, very much a beginning spinner, so my results aren’t fabulous, but the whole two skeins I’ve produced so far are nice enough, and definitely usable.  Which is the point, right?  The fibre I’m spinning now is really really lovely, so I hope I don’t make any horrible messes with it.  It’s 100% merino from Limegreenjelly in “Take Me Out”, and it’s really beautiful – see:

Charcoal, hot pink, deep jade green, and flashes of purple.  Yum!

This is the fibre I’ve started with:

It’s Blue Faced Leicester, and it feels absolutely lovely to spin with.  I shall post progress photos when I have them.  And do what I said I would yesterday and give some updates on what I’ve been up to in general!

In other Etsy news, my friend Rae has opened her Etsy shop, Angel Rae Arts. She’s selling some very cool (and cute) fridge magnets. I love the buried treasure one (which is from a photo taken when she was visiting me a few years ago!), and also the caffeinated cat one (painted) which really reminds me of the Xandermog. *g* The original one’s been sold already, but she’s done some more that aren’t identical, but very similar. Yay!

Day 45 – 23rd Feb 08

The King’s Head pub, where the Battle Knit & Natter group meet up every other Saturday.

Day 46 – 24th Feb 08

Horses, don’tcha know? This horsebox ‘lives’ just down the road from me. There’s a … sort of large shed set back from the road. I don’t think any horses live there, though.

One Mother’s Day Mitt, in progress. You can’t see the cable on the back terribly well in the picture, but it shows up much better in person. I was knitting these from sock weight yarn, because Mum has ouchy tendons in her wrists, and the fingerless gloves I made her for Christmas have been helping that, especially if she wears them overnight… only they’re made from aran weight angora, so she needed some lighter weight ones for the spring.

Day 47 – 25th Feb 08

This is one of those sci-fi classics that I had bizarrely never read. I’ve known the name of it for ages, and the vague synopsis, and I’d always meant to read it, but I never did until I happened across it on the inventory of someone I was getting another book from on BookMooch. So I grabbed it as well, and have now read it. And loved it. And must get the rest of the series Right Now!

Day 48 – 26th Feb 08

The spire of one of the churches that’s down the road from me. In fact, it’s one that I can see from my flat window. So here it is from right below it, on a lovely sunny (but crisp!) day.

Day 49 – 27th Feb 08

Urk… there is leakings from my ceiling again. This is a really irritating recurring problem: irritating for me and for my neighbours upstairs, because they can either (a) never use their shower, or (b) re-seal round the bath every few weeks. It wasn’t done properly in the first place, and it’s going to be a major job to sort out, apparently. Gah.

Worst thing is, the leaks either come through the fire alarm system, or down this wall and over the lightswitch. Couldn’t be somewhere that there’s no electrics, could it? Nooooo.

Day 50 – 28th Feb 08

This is Xander’s new favourite hidey-hole: under the coffee table that’s by the sofa. Trouble is, he only ever goes half under it…

See what I mean? Daft mog :-)

Day 51 – 29th Feb 08

And this is when I was in the middle of winding up possible yarns for the Sock Knitter’s Pentathlon which was starting on 1st March. Posh Yarn Emily in Ripen is the green one on the left (that’s the one I used in the end) and on the chairs / ball winder is The Yarn Yard Bonny in Shelter.

However, I have rebelled a little ;-) The pattern recommends using solid or semi-solid colours, and I… have not. I was going to: I said in my last post that I was intending to use a solid red. But the lace pattern is a leafy sort of thing, and I just didn’t want to make it in red. It would probably look lovely in the Yarn Yard September Club yarn:

…. but much as I think that yarn is beautiful, if I make yet another pair of green socks right now I might lose the will to live. ;-) So that one was out.

Then I thought, well, it’s a really pretty pattern. (In fact, if ever a pattern said “knit me in pastel pink!” to me, it’s this pattern, but that’s never going to happen. Sorry pink, but I’ll never wear you. Ever.) It’s lace, but I’m not sure that a multi yarn would obscure the pattern completely. And the Yarn Yard Feb 08 ‘Art Deco’ club yarn is really really pretty: light blue, chocolate powder brown, cream, pale yellow, a hint of soft green. Really springlike. And I could use the minty blue-green contrast skein for the cuff, toes, and maybe the heels. So, that’s what I’ve cast on with. And I was right, this yarn is really pretty. However, so far I’m not entirely sure if it’s knitting up as a pretty lacy sock, or a small woolly pizza. Below is a photo of the cuff and first lace repeat. Any thoughts, anybody:

Anyway, here are the project stats as they stand at the moment:
Pattern: Berlin Muster by Kristin Benecken [Ravlink]
Yarn: The Yarn Yard Bonny (previously Sock) in Art Deco (Feburary 08 Sock Club yarn)
Needles: 2.5mm DPNs
Ravelry Project Page: Pentathlon Pair #2

If I do decide to change the yarn, I’ll definitely stay with Yarn Yard Bonny as it’s just perfect for the project, and I think I’d either go for the solid bright blue from the November club yarn or persuade myself that three pairs of green socks in five months would be fine, and use the above August one. I’m hoping that the Art Deco will work out alright, though. Not least because I’ve set myself the goal of coming in within the first 100 this time…

• – Finish unpicking the cast off of the second Jacobean sock and re-do it with a tubular bind-off (first sock already successfully done, yay);
  — Done! And oh, I love them. They’re scrummy and squishy and now fit perfectly. LOVE!
• – Finish one repeat of the WFS edging;
  — I now have several repeats done, which is sort of good. But not ideal, since I passed my deadline for finishing the thing. D’oh! I’m still plugging away and enjoying it, though.
• – Do the finishing for the two pairs of baby bootees (which honestly isn’t going to take long! I’ve just been procrastinating), which means: seam up the flat knit pair, make knitted buttons for both and attach them, make the button loops, sew in any ends;
  — DONE. Why do I make such drama in my own mind over things that really aren’t that terrible (such as sewing up one tiny bootee)? Dear self: stop it!! I’ll make another post soon with some pictures.
• – Stop mentally flailing over which yarn I should use for the next Pentathlon project because really, I can’t choose properly until I see what the pattern is (although I’m sure I will be posting a short list of my possible choices here like I did last time);
  — I’ve pretty much managed this. In fact, I’m not even going to post a short list. I think I’m going to use some YY sock in bright red “Shelter”, since the guidelines say that a solid or semi-solid is best, and light – medium and/or bright colours are suggested. Plus, I already have that one wound into a yarn cake ;-) I’ll make my final decision when the pattern comes online late tonight.

And my prize? Wheeee, I’ve cast on for the lovely Bracket Fungus socks. My version are the Bracket Fungoths, because I’m using YY Hot Pink Goth yarn as the multi colour and I never can resist a good (bad) pun. As I promised myself, I’ve only done the cuff so far because the WFS has to take priority for now, but here’s how it’s looking so far:

Yay!