Wednesday, February 21, 2007

Check this out...

Dear Cynthia and other friends,

My hands were so dry that continuing to knit with the Heilo yarn on Sapporo was starting to be a bit irritating, plus after a marathon of working on it when my six year old was sick, I was in need of a jump start. That's just what I got with this:But first, some loose ends. Cindy - The yarn for Murphy was from Briar Rose Fibers. I can't remember exactly which one it is, though I do know that it is worsted weight, 100% wool (I don't think it is merino), and came in an 850 yard hank. I purchased it at the Wisconsin Sheep and Wool Festival in Jefferson last fall, because I loved the colors, and it had good yardage. Of course, to make myself a complete sweater, I need over 900 yards, so alone it wouldn't have been sufficient, but, I thought that with the Murphy pattern, and by using Cascade 220 for the color blocks, it might work out. Thanks for your comment regarding the color! Briar Rose Fibers had some beautiful things, and much more yardage than I'm accustomed to seeing in a single hank of hand-painted. You're right about the zipper, too! It's the one I used for my tutorial, now weeks ago, and it's taken me this long to sew the rest of the thing together... Did I mention that I really dislike the "finishing" part of knitting? Elizabeth - You're always so positive! Thank you! Lynn - the pattern is "Murphy", from Knitters Magazine #80. Thank you for sharing your experiences of taking a break from knitting. Sometimes I think I'm getting to that point, too, and it's good to know that it is completely "normal".

To give myself a jump start, I decided I needed to work a small project with some really soft yarn to give my hands a chance to heal from their severe dryness. Enter, Classic Elite Angora Wool. I'm working on a mobius. It's crazy! It took me two tries to cast on (and I learned from the experience that it needs to be a little bit loose), but once I got past that part, it's just been amazing watching how the thing works. In this picture, notice there is one circular needle, which wraps around the work twice. (You see the needle tips on the right side of the photo; you see just a cable on the left side. It is a pretty long needle - 47 inches.) I just keep knitting away (note -- absolutely no purl stitches) with just a couple of yarn overs and K2togs thrown in, and I end up with a piece which is, for the most part, half stockinette and half reverse stockinette. In the middle, where those two parts meet, is actually where the thing was cast on. For every complete "round" I knit, the thing grows lengthwise by two rows. Here is what it looks like from the side opposite where my needle tips are:Anyway, I've been wanting to try this technique, and the yarn is so soft, and it's just so fun to try...

One other note today: I contacted Skacel regarding my addi TURBO which is having a problem with one of the joins, and they told me to send my needle to a PO Box which they provided. This is good, because it's quite possible the store in which I purchased them is now out of business...never mind that I'd never be able to locate a receipt...

Well, time to put some lunch on the table!

Warm regards,
Laura (YarnThrower)

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

I’m in the process of doing some massive ring maintenance for the FiberArts Bloggers ring and I am contacting you because there’s a problem with your code. The code you have up is actually alright, except that the ring’s original home page on the urbanspinner site is long gone. The new home page is:
http://unioncenterknits.typepad.com/fiber_arts_bloggers/
You’re welcome to either switch out just that one part of the code, or ask me for the basic default ring code instead.
Please feel free to contact me with any related questions/concerns. Once you have your code fixed up, if you want to send me a note I’d appreciate it, so I can check it out. Thanks!
Joni