As we get ready for the coming Christmas and New Year holidays, I’m taking stock of my craft work this year and am glad to report that I finished a cool 23 projects. Out of the 23, three of them were from before I had Eva!!!!!! The oldest was my Ivy cardigan which I casted on in 2007 and will not care to mention again (not very happy with it – hmpr).

I discovered the joys of knitting two socks on two separate DPNs, thanks to Lois, who decided that this would be best to combact my SSS – Second Sock Syndrome. It was also the same project in which I knitted with my plied handspun and discovered that uneven spinning makes for uneven finished yarn which will affect the outcome of the sock. These were gifted to my mum as I decided that the measurements and stitch count that I have always been using was not exactly suitable for me. I reckon in 2012, one of my knitting goals would be to knit myself a sock that will fit me decently!

Anyway, as we get ready for the end of the year, I find myself looking at one WIP that is nearly finished – Eva’s cardigan – and one that I would probably finish next year – my entrelac stole. I am beginning to see why some people are monogamous when it comes to knitting projects and after having read other people’s account of the dreaded startitis (the habit of starting but not finishing projects), I’ve decided to have a maximum of four WIPs in queue at any one point in time. This would include other crafts like weaving, spinning and crochet work. That way I reckon I can organize my time better, especially seeing how needy Noah can be.

So yes, all in all, a good crafty year! Now back to my hunt for some funky address plates – I wonder how addressplaques.net for address plaques works out.

SKEIN I
Ply | Three
Yardage | 236.22 m
WPI | NA (Fingering)

SKEIN II
Ply | Three
Yardage | 167.64 m
WPI | NA (Fingering – slightly thicker than Skein I)

Fibre | Superwash merino in Two Tone Down Under from JulieSpins
Tool | Serenity Wheel on [5:1 ratio]

My entry for the Tour de Fleece – I had plans to spin another two braids but considering that I had to pack for the move, finish up my knitting…maybe three braids was overdoing things. Still, I’m glad to have finished working on this fiber – a day AFTER the end of the TdF. The colours were a joy to spin up, transitioning from golden to deep yellow and royal to deep and very dark blue as well as a mix of both (a resulting emerald to deep green). But what I love about it was the feel of the resulting handspun; very springy and soft.

Am currently knitting up a pair of toe-up socks using this yarn and I’m loving the feel of it! With any luck, I should have pics of the sock in progress; it’s currently on DPNs – I know, Second Sock Syndrome but I have a plan for it which is to cast on the second pair on another set of DPNs! Kekekeke.

So yes…w00t to handspun yarn goodness! In the meantime, it’s back to packing up Eva’s cloth diapers and finishing up my assignment on adult diapers (and no, you’d be surprised at how many people use them and why – absolutely nothing to be ashamed of!).

These are new stash additions – from JulieSpins and Hedgehog Fibres – to make up for the ones I plan to use up for Tour de Fleece, an annual spinning event that mimics the Tour de France. It’ll be my first time being part of the Tour and I’ve joined two teams – one for JulieSpins and another just for Rookies. Both teams don’t really have any rules save to use JulieSpins’ fibers for the Tour (which makes sense). So at the end of the day, it’s up to us to set our own goals and strive to achieve them. Some people take the opportunity to work on their spinning and spin up sweater quantities. Others opt for spinning challenging fibers or fibers that they have never worked with.

I haven’t really thought about what I’d like to do except spin these braids up into the following weights:

• JulieSpins Roving: 60% SW Merino, 30% Bamboo, 10% Nylon (Blue-Eyed Susan in 3 ply fingering)
• JulieSpins Roving: 85% Humbug BFL, 15% Silk (Whole Grains in 2 ply laceweight)
• JulieSpins Roving: Wensleydale (Raisin in either 2 ply or single ply laceweight)

If I have extra time, I might add another braid or two to the list – I seriously need to destash and make room for more yummy goodies. No, selling them is not an option! In the meantime, let me continue on a roll with my knitting and start working on possible first birthday invitations – if we ever get around to having a party. Heh.

This month’s unclub featured merino-cashmere-nylon bleed rovings and a humbug-silk. I wanted to bulk up my stash with some rovings meant for lace so I’ve been stashing up on silk-blends, and Julie’s colours have been very vibrant and rich. My pretties arrived on Monday but because my postbox can’t take anything thicker than the usual bank bills and such, I got a delivery notice instead, which meant that I’d have to wait till the weekend to get them.

The wait was definitely more excruciating than trying to figure out how to install a home theatre system but definitely worth it. As you can see, they are very pretty and I can’t wait to get started on them…once I finish my Ivy sweater, of course!!!

And from other dyers…

If I have been busy, it isn’t because we’re busy dusting our Christmas decorations but that I have been dusting off the spinning wheel. Just less than a few days of talking about going back to spinning, I have plied up my previous WIP and started on a new one almost immediately!

What you see there in the picture is some very yummy superwash merino that is soft, buttery and smooth. It is one of my own handdyed fibers – part of the batch I dyed up before I moved to Singapore. I don’t have anything special planned for this and am planning to just stick to the 3-ply fare but I must say that I’m looking forward to the finished product.

So yes, back to spinning it is!

But about two days ago, I decided – on a whim – to dust off the wheel and get back to spinning. I dug out something I bought a year (or maybe even two) ago, hooked it up to the wheel and before I knew it, I was already done. The singles are now being plied using the Navajo technique and if I can get to finishing the entire bobbin tonight, I might just have some spiffy pictures tomorrow!

In the meantime, let me tantalise you with the shot of the fiber before it saw some action on the wheel.

Things were going well as I was winding them onto the Niddy Noddy but after the first 50 meters or so, the singles started to fall apart and no amount of splicing was helping. I could pop it back in for a spin but I don’t know if that would help as it could very well be the entire bobbin of yarn that is affected.

The singles are way underspun – much more than I had anticipated. I was hoping that the tension I spun them in would be enough but it appears not. At first I thought it was a ratio problem since the new sliding flyer has an additional ratio built in but after checking, it turned out to be the same as the original flyer.

*sigh*

I’ve shelved the bobbin and Niddy Noddy aside to take some time out and ruminate on my next course of action. That and the fact that I need to get busy working on reviews for cheap auto insurance quotes. In the meantime, I’ve started on a new spinning WIP but my heart somehow isn’t in it. My mind is still lingering on that bobbin full of awfully underspun singles. Gah. If I can’t salvage this, it would be a darn waste of some really awesomely soft merino-alpaca-silk fiber.

Grrrr!

After what seemed like ages, I finally got my hands on the new sliding hook flyer for my spinning wheel. I bought it from Mandie over at Ewe Give Me The Knits (she’s a certified Ashford dealer) in Australia since there aren’t any dealers here in Singapore.

I was very excited to get it – Nil can tell you just how excited I was – and immediately broke it out of its box and “installed” it onto my wheel. Before you could say “sales jobs“, I was spinning up some very yummy fiber from JulieSpins (courtesy of a destash by one of the Ravelry gals). The pic above doesn’t do the resulting yarn much justice!

This will probably end up as a single ply laceweight yarn – I’m really hoping to go back to knitting and designing some shawls so it’ll serve as my shawl yarn stock. But hey, I can only dream as when it comes to my knitting, things aren’t quite so certain. *sobs*

Ply | Three
Yardage | 219.5 m
WPI | NA
Fibre | Superwash BFL
Tool | Serenity Wheel [5.5:1 ratio]

I bought this fiber on a whim together with a braid of a yummy dark wine berry roving and proceeded to spin this up immediately after working on that awful two-ply. Needless to say, I’m glad to go back to some three ply handspun. While I love the outcome and how the colours turned out, trouble is that my spinning has become rather inconsistent because of the lack of practice. Some parts are beautiful spun and plied up whereas some are, well, need more work – they aren’t bad, they just aren’t perfect.

I definitely need to spend more time in front of the wheel. *sigh* Do I sense a burn-out of hobbies of some sort coming up or is it just the flu bug talking?