Happy New Year 2012

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2011 was a banner year for fiber prep, learning and acquiring tools. I made yarn and made some mittens from the yarn as well as a start of a sweater and hope to weave a scarf from some more yarn I spun. (see previous post)
For Christmas, I got some Corriedale raw fleece to process and use on my new drum carder. I ordered some angora to spin in also, but I want to be sure I have the right stuff to blend. I now have several different fibers that need scouring and I hate scouring it in the sink, plus I really need to get some stuff to dry it on. This fiber habit is getting costly. My SIL got a tabletop spin dryer which works well for water extraction so I may need one of those as well as one of those sweater racks to dry it on. I need to clean out a closet just to store all this stuff.
I spun up the rest of my Leicester and plied it on my new bulky flyer. That is awesome. Plus I got some yarn from Norway to make DH a pair of socks. I started these using a vanilla sock pattern, developed on my Sock Wizard V.2 software. I updated my knitting software and added a few new programs for mittens and hats. It is so simple if you want to knit something basic.
I made DIL married to oldest son some mittens for Christmas: I used Classic Elite Lush and I added in a strand of Kidsilk Haze in the body of the mitten for extra fluff/warmth. They came out nice but I can’t believe I forgot to take a picture. Plus I was going to give Bethany the extra leftovers so she could make a ski band and they left without them.
I warped my loom finally, although too late for daughter to try it out. I practically finished a scarf in a couple of hours. Now, I remember that you must pay attention to the tension when warping. The colors came out quite nice and now I am anxious to try my homespun as the weft on the next scarf.
I got out the scarf knitted with Sanguine Gryphon yarn and worked on that as well. I feel like I want to start finishing some old WPIs instead of starting new ones. I just wish I had a decent place to wash fleece because I have a bunch to wash.

Mittens et al

Mitten from Ann Budd's Schematic in Holiday Knits 2007

California Red Roving

Did a little review of the stash and discovered I have very little DK weight yarn besides Heilo. I was planning to warp my rigid heddle and use the Three Rivers handspun for the weft. Doesn’t seem like weaving is a stash buster if you have to get more/different yarn to do a project. (ETA: I did find some more appropriate yarn to use.)

I also ordered some more dry cleaner’s bags for storage; I plan to put project quantities of yarn in them to get some order on the shelves. Right now everything is in baskets and things fall at the drop of a hat. Also Fiber Dog snatches stuff from the lower shelves.

I finished the mittens in a week and despite trying them on, found them a little small. The shaping decreases make the shape faster than needed so I guess on my next pair, I will knit longer before finishing. A super pattern from Ann Budd but I didn’t like the little holes from the M1 increases for the thumb gusset; I think I would like to use a different method.
I started a hat for DH from the same handspun as the mittens but I need to spin/ply some more before doing more. I also used my bulky flyer to ply some more Leicester (actually all the Leicester) and that needs to be finished off. I need to spin more of that also. I don’t think I have enough for two sleeves. I should weigh it and see.
I hate my scale: I bought on ebay and I don’t like the way it locks the weight for at least 10 seconds before going to zero. Sounds little but is an eternity if you are weighing a lot of stuff. I also think it is not tht accurate.