Ravellenic Games 2012 thus far, part 1

I really need to do a post for the things I knit but didn't do a blog post but hinted at for the longest time. I'll do that next! I'm in a weird groggy state and throwing coffee at it to make it go away.

We finished up Tour de Fleece 2012 and I won a Random Number Generator pick of some fiber in Team Ashford:

Isn't it pretty?! The colorway is called Tanzanite and I'm showing great restraint in not jumping in and spinning it right away. ;-)

Instead, I have been knitting! I picked some projects that I want to show off in and Arts and Science showing Labor Day weekend - at September Crown, the Unbelted Artisans Geekout. I thought I would take a variety of things, knitting, spinning and hopefully some needlework type stuff. Depending upon space in the car, and heat, also a wheel.

Here's what I have knitted thus far:

Gunnister purse knit with Jamieson's Shetland and on US 00 needles

I put it next to the first one that I made using sport weight yarn and US 3 needles. I had hoped to get it to size, but my gauge was still a bit off. I think it still works as a nice small belt bag. I even followed the fussy cast on that gives nice little loops to thread the drawstrings through. Cool! This was entered in the Bag and the Colorwork groups:

I had also looked at my project page and things that have been sitting for a year, or more, and what to do with them. I decided some would hit the frog pond and then went for it:

These are in the official competition. A shawl I wasn't happy with the end and thought about frogging half of it and re-doing, but really didn't want to do that, so just frogged the whole thing. A shop sample that I had started during the winter Olympics, hurt my shoulder and lost Nessa and was struggling with, so frogged. Just need to get the yarn back to the shop with a HUGE apology. A blanket I started for a nephew who is now a couple years older and not as enthusiastic about Spiderman as he was when younger. 

These were going to be fairy wings. I needed to do some crochet and that ended up stalling me out. I tried frogging, but mohair and frogging is often difficult. I ended up just throwing it away because I wanted it GONE!

Foliage hat that came out HUGE! Okay, checking gauge might have been useful at some point. ;-)  I frogged it. I had thought it might work for a man's hat, but Brandon nixed that idea.

Think this is getting long, so splitting and adding the rest to the next post. You'll catch that tomorrow. ;-)

Gunnister Purse and a Onesy and some spinning

I used Chris Laning's pattern for the Gunnister Purse replica to make my own. I didn't have US 00 needles, so I went with using some nice Sport weight yarn in my stash and knitting them on US 3s. So instead of a 3-1/2 x 5 inch bag, ended up with a 6-1/2 x 7-1/4 inch bag. There's no eyelet row, you just shove your drawstring in and go. I really like what the pom poms add to the look. It looked okay, but I think they just complete the project. Overall, happy with this little bag, such that I think one or two more will be made.

Without drawstring and pom poms

The red I dyed from the yellow I used in my other SCA bag. The white is what the original yarn looked like before any dyeing.

Trying to collect some sweaters for Leeloo for the upcoming camping season. Also need them to take her for walks while its cold out. They also count in my sweater count for the year. ;-) This was a pretty simple design, that should have been done quicker, but there was something about it that just slowed me down. The One Piece Dog Sweater. Along the way I needed to make adjustments to the pattern, lengthening here, shortening there, but forgot to add in button holes (not part of the design either, they planned for velcro and a side tab):

I have some spinning finally done! A couple of small ones that I had spun on Miss Molly, but plied on the Lendrum. Just a couple of samples that were part of a set of threes from the World Wide Spin in Public event.

71.5 yards 2ply lace weight (not including the smidge of white seen)

69.33 yards 2ply lace weight

Both are from Opulent Fibers and nice to spin.  

I started spinning the Abstract Fibers Blackberry colorway yak-merino-silk roving in December, but holiday knitting impacted a few knit days so I didn't finish spinning it until this month and finally able to ply it. I really wanted to try to keep the lovely color blocks so chain plied the four ounces. I'll have to find a project for the 446.3 yards to really show it off. Not a shawlette though. Any suggestions?

Cindy had given me a bunch of samples that she'd gotten from different events that she knew she wasn't going to spin. I've given some to other people to try out and a few I kept to try out. One of them was a bit of merino still in the grease. Since this is something that I've never tried, spinning in the grease, gave it a whirl. It wasn't overly greasy, so that made it easier. to spin. 11 grams and 54.2 yards:

For some reason it came out blurry. It softened up after washing.

Currently, I'm spinning 3 ounces of pygora I had gotten from Foggybottom Pygoras back in 2009 at Oregon Flock and Fiber Festival. Its very soft, but I bought it before I really knew much about it and didn't notice that it was full of vegetable matter and had tons of guard hair and I paid $10 an ounce for it! So to spin a bit of it, I have to spend twenty minutes picking out all the grass bits and even worse, the clean dead bodies of fleas, before I can spin it. My shirt gets all hairy from the guard hairs falling out, or I pull out. Hopefully it will come out as soft as it is now.