New To Me Spinning Wheel

I present to you a HitchHiker single treadle spinning wheel by The Merlin Tree. I was gifted this wheel by mother after she procured it in a trade with her quilt shop coworker. I have been doing my best to research this wheel as it’s a little different than most. It’s a direct drive wheel which means the flyer is turned directly by the wheel as you treadle. Honestly, its kind of an obscure wheel and it doesn’t have a lot resources either from the manufacturer or on YouTube. It has been a little frustrating but I shall persevere.

I have been practicing just treadling on the empty wheel because it is going to take some learned muscle movement to keep the wheel going in the same direction as I start and stop. That is just the ups and down of a direct drive wheel. Just putting your foot on the treadle can move the wheel in a direction you didn’t intend. The brake band also needs some TLC to be snugged up which I am hoping my woodworking father can assist with. I think I may also have to try to fall upon the mercy of the local spinners group for assistance/lessons. Time will tell…

With the wheel I also inherited the spinner fiber stash. In the bin in addition to a knitty knoddy and spare wheel parts was a TON of fiber. I dig through and found llama blends, alpaca blends, romney wool, merino blends and several unidentified fibers. This spinner clearly had good taste.

This all came from a rural farm, so right now it’s living my sub zero garage just in case it has anything other than fiber in there. I’m hoping to zap this with some heat somehow before bringing into the house with my other stash.

I’m interested to if I can become a spinner?

Cast On: Penguin Socks

My next set of socks are on the needles! I pulled a sock set from GingerSnap out of Canada. This yarn is called Penguin Plunge Deluxe so I’m calling these my Penguin Socks.

As is almost always the case, I am working toe up with 68 stitches on size US 1 needles. I did choose to just do a wee little pop of yellow on the toe. No idea why other than I felt the whimsy to do so.

I wanted to work this pair in tandem like my self striping socks, but alas I did not wind my yarn in a tandem friendly way. I need to stew on if I want to mess around with pulling off 50% of this yarn and making two balls or not. Or just chug along one sock at a time….

Happy Knitting!!

Shetland Spinning

I have had this ball of Shetland fiber from my Summer Spin In prize just sitting on my desk. I decided that since my wheel was empty I would throw this on here.

This fiber is very nicely prepped into skinny roving like bands. I am finding it spinning very fine and with very little vegetable matter. Just spinning on a whim and all this fiber will go straight onto one bobbin. I may wind it off into two bobbins and 2-ply or I may chain ply into a 3-ply. That is a future Rachelle problem!

For now I am just relaxing and letting the fiber do the things it wants to do. I don’t fully feel the spinning mojo back but it is nice to do something different than knit or crochet.

Happy Spinning!!

Neon Yellow

My Prism Socks have progressed to the Y in the ROYGBIV sequence. Doing them in tandem is definitely working when I am working self striping yarn.

This is String Theory Colorworks Inertia base so it is nice and round and full. I can fully see all nice neat V stitches. These have been living in my work back pack for work and car knitting. So they grow slowly but growing nonetheless.

I do think these wooden needles are on their last legs but they should have a few pairs left in them! Happy Knitting!!

Scrappy Blanket Update

Time for a scrappy granny stripe blanket update. Especially after I got all those warm minis to add to the project!

The blanket is impressively big now. I can still travel with it, but just barely. The riot of color is starting to look cohesive and almost on purpose. I do try to be mindful in my selections as I change colors.

For this latest round, I let PB pick and of course she picked teal. She came with me to the marketplace and helped choose some of the colors. She wore my conference badge and talked to the sales ladies, she was loving every minute of it. So another memory woven into this project!

Happy Crochet!

KITH Yarn Haul

In between Knitting In The Heartland events, I did some time in the market. After an initial lap around the vendors I decided to focus on mini skeins for my scrappy granny stripe blanket.

I have all my scraps organized and I noticed some gaps in the color wheel. So I tried to pour through booths and find colors to help fill out those missing areas. Mostly I need the warm colors of red, yellow and orange and some more jewel tones.

I think I did well! I also nabbed a tshirt going out on clearance, a knitting book for my friend and a couple of worsted skeins to replenish my hat stash. I am pretty proud of myself and saving most of my yarn funds for SSK this summer!

Happy Yarn!

Knitting In The Heartland 2024

Ya’ll….I made it! Back to Knitting in The Heartland after the heartbreaking cancelation in April of 2020. A lot of things went wrong leading up to the event, but we got there!

And the highlight? Getting to listen and learn from The Yarn Harlot herself, Stephanie Pearl McPhee. Her keynote was delightful and all about how knitting influenced knitters during the pandemic.

The hotel was so nice and I got two nights away from the family surrounded by yarn. I even took Stephanie’s Knit Smart class! It was a recharging weekend that was badly needed. And of course I hit the market so I will share that separately. 🙂

Happy Knitting!!

FO Friday: Sport Ankle Socks

I stalled out on the last 30 minutes of knitting on these for like…..a long tie. But my Sport Ankle Socks are done!

I started these as 60 stitch socks but ultimately worked up to 64 stiches. Which I was happy with for circumference and negative ease. However, I missed the mark on foot length and its a bit long. I am leaving it alone for now and give them a couple wears to see if they need sock surgery.

I only ended up using 66 grams of yarn or 290 yards for these shorties. I am consciously trying to knit shorties to add to my collections for winter ankle boots. This is KnitCircus opulence in a OOAK color from mystery box. It has cashmere content so they feel great on the feet….time will tell about pilling.

Now I need to get these needles with new yarn and my next socks on them! Happy Knitting!!

Cast On: Prism Socks

Spring germs are REAL in this house and it’s knocked us all down for a minute. I had meant to get my next self striping socks on the needles after finishing my leftover advent socks, but that stalled.

I took my project to where I knew I would be a captive audience….literally. The hubs and I had tickets to see Brett Goldstein (of Ted Lasso fame) do standup. So I brought my yarn and needles and got to knitting during the pre-show and the ride home. Brett was amazingly funny, btw!

This yarn is the Inertia base from String Theory Colorworks and in the Prism color. So it will be a very vibrant rainbow with mini stripes of charcoal in-between. I am constructing my standard 68 stitch toe up tube with afterthought heel on US 1s. And I plan to work them in tandem so as to avoid second sock syndrome.

I wish I could find my metal US1s but the wooden ones will do for now. I can always switch later. I think these will be my backpack project or car console project since they fit nicely into a zipper pouch.

Progress With A Paw

I must admit that this project has gotten a little lost in the hubbub that is my life. I started this Sparkly Handspun Hat to match mitts I previously made. The hat has grown by maybe 10 or 15 rows but is languishing at the bottom of my WIP bag. It won’t take long to finish so I am going to try to get this in the rotation more.

And Duke couldn’t miss being part of this update. I kept pushing him out of frame or putting him in sit but it never lasted. He is 1 now and firmly in the annoying teenage phase where he is stronger than me. He is a good sweet boy….just wonderfully bonded to me, lol.

Happy Knitting!!

This Could Mean Trouble

My new job means a new commute. The silver lining? The new area I work in has a LYS! And on a break this week I fell down in the store and my card bought new yarn.

Am I going to Knitting in the Heartland conference in less than two weeks? Yes. But I was feeling good this day and the yarn fumes got me. I picked up three skeins of Malabrigo Rios in Matisse Blue, Cian, and Purpuras. Then one skein of Malabrigo Arroyo in Sea Slug. All of these skeins are destined to be hats. My brain cells are taken up by the new job some easy hat knitting feels good.

Next up was two skeins of 316 Dye Studio in their House DK and graffiti colorway. I have some of this in my stash for a sweater and my post COVID body needs more yardage. They are different dye lots so I will have to shade/alternate. But I’m okay with that. Lastly are two bunches of fiber from Malabrigo Nube in Solis and Indiecita colorways. I think I will spin each as singles and ply together. They coordinate nicely.

Someone asked me what I was making and I said ‘Happiness’ because you should never ask a knitter about their stash!