Knitting again!

A friend of mine is in Afghanistan, being a Corpsman and keeping people duct taped together. But it’s been cold there in the winter!

So, I set out to make a hat. But unlike my other hats, this one needed to be as durable as possible. Ideally it would hold up to regular hot washing and drying in the military dryers…

So I knitted myself up a swatch of a couple of the superwash yarns I have marinating in my stash and ran them through the washer on hot and then the dryer on hot with jeans and towels. I eliminated a few of them just during the knitting for falling apart while knitting.

I wasn’t terribly impressed. I tried three yarns, and they all felted some, and all of them got very fuzzy very quickly. You can see one example where the curling and fuzzing is pretty evident. The felting is less obvious in this one.

So, someone pointed out I have, you know, yarn. Oh, yeah, right! I’m a dyer! And that’d mean I could do it in whatever colors I want! Why didn’t I think of that?! I knit up a swatch of that in double-knit and sent it through the washer/dryer a bunch of times. It survived MUCH better, being a sock yarn designed for hard wearing!

So, I skeined up some double-strand skeins, and dyed up some yarn! The Phouka is a sock weight yarn, so I figured a double knit would work. Look everyone, it’s a hat! Ok, so it’s a Schroedinger’s Hat, a collection of yarn the quantum waveform of which might collapse into the “hat” superposition (Ok, all you normal people can look back now, nerd joke over).

So I started to knit! This is a lighter hat. If I wanted a slightly heavier hat, I could have trebled the yarn, but I didn’t want it to be too heavy. Lookin’ good, quantum wave function is collapsing…

Woot, it appears to be collapsing to “hat” and not to “yarn barf madness!”

Yay, it’s a hat! Yes, it’s a simple hat. I tend to make those because the people I mostly make them for like simple hats. This is a 3×2 rib hat. I do need to learn to make them six to six-and-a-half inches before making the crown… though the recipient has… much less hair than I do.

So that’s my latest knitting. I’ve also had some other projects in the works. More about those later.

And, because everything is cuter with a puppy… Mokey hat!

That’s all for now!

~The Gnome

Finally, a shop update!

Shop is, as ever, here!

Today we have

Fibers: Gotland, Masham/Massam, Wensleydale, Finn, Shetland, Romney, BFL, Dorset, and Rambouillet.

Colorways: Gold Ore, Deep Sea, Sparrow’s Wing, Redwood, Rusted Roses, Froggy Went A Courtin’, Leaf Pile, Blowing Smoke, Heather and Gorse, Fruit Salad, Fingerpaints, Munstead, Rose Garden, In the Mine, Poinsettia, Waterfall, Through A Rain Drenched Window.

Sorry this has taken so long. We have new family members here, Mokey and Gobo.

More about them later, but suffice it for now to say they take a lot of time and attention.

That’s all for now, more soon!

~The Gnome

As always, The Shop

Welcome to 2011! Hopefully it will be better than 2010. 2010 was… a bit rough, if something of a banner year for Gnomespun.

So! Fiber! Zomg! After my new years vacation, I finally got the shop open again, and now, I have FIBER to put in it! Woot! You might notice that I’ve figured out how to do pound lots of wensleydale, a new feature. I’m working on doing the same for other “puffier” fibers. The other fibers, however, do now mostly come in 8oz (2 braid) dye lots, so it’s possible to get more than one braid! Yay.

This update we have… the LAST of my exmoor mule. I don’t know when I’ll be getting more, since my life is still WAY up in the air.

Also! I’ve regained access to my supplier of super wensleydale, so we have really nice, soft, wensleydale. If it’s not spun too tight, many people will be able to wear this next to skin as scarves/shawls easily.

Beautiful and soft heathered shetland and BFL! I do love dyeing heathers (probably why the preponderance of semi-solids in this batch).

And, my old meaty sock-favorite standby, dorset!

Colorways: Pumpkin Guts, Paprika, Ice Fields, Asters, Deep Sea, Flint Corn (in two fibers), Tidepool, Sable, Redwood, Close to Midnight, Moose, Mouse, Shadows of the Green, and Teal Deer.

In upcoming updates, more of these, plus gotland and masham!

Updates on weaving, new years, life, etc. forthcoming.

That’s all for now!

~The Gnome

Random bits of stuff…

Q&A:
First, answers to Gwynivar’s question, “…curious – why did you cut the first scarf off, rather than just roll forward and begin to weave …”

Short flip answer, I didn’t. Longer more accurate answer… I wove the first scarf, put spacers in, wove the second scarf (that’s why you can see them attached together on the floor… oh… I missed that photo, well it’s there now. Durrr). Then I cut them both off the loom.

I finally gave in and cut them off rather than continuing with the third scarf because I’d never done any of this before. The only weaving I’ve ever done before was the spindle bags, which are cotton and never wet finished.

The next scarf uses two Abbybatts. That’s a lot of cost if it doesn’t work right. So I wanted to make sure my calculations with takeup and such were accurate and that I could finish them without the singles turning the fabric too wonky, etc.

I’m glad I did. I like the fabric of the singles scarf, but it’s not flat. The twist of the doubleshot singles makes the fabric just a tiny bit active. I’m happy to have discovered this because the abbybatt scarf I’d like to be more like the millspun scarf in texture (and I was originally going to use singles for it).

And, I figured I should learn how to do it at some point, and why not now? So I did. So… that’s the answer to your question.

Dyeing:
I’m dyeing without electricity today! By choice, mind you, though I wish I could be using the supergiant pot. It’s very cold, so I figured I might as well warm the house while I dye.

I’ve got Rambo and Dorset in the pot right now. I was going to try out the supergiant pot we have in the basement, but apparently I brilliantly stored half of my stuff in front of it. So that will take some time to get out. Of course to get these hot requires fire… to make fire we need wood that fits in the stove box…

So yesterday I made some wood in preparation for this. The stove’s very efficient at making radiant heat and heating up the pots, so it only took me a little wood, which is nice ’cause I can do it again later or tomorrow when it gets cold.

Other Stuff:
One of the reasons the latest update was short on fire was that I sold more of the planned update than I expected. I set up a table at my semi-local spinning guild meeting. Very nice to sell it all, but now I have to dye more for the shop! (I know, woe is me, pity me!)

This is the table after I got a chance to photograph, well after the first rush.

And… I think that’s all for now.

~The Gnome

Ok first, the SALE! Part. There’s a holiday sale in the Gnomespun shop. Yarns and the new scarves are discounted! Also, any order will receive a free upgrade to priority shipping in order to get it to you before the holiday.

The Gnomespun Shop

Ok. Yarn and fiber…

In Phouka: Swampland, Sun and Sand
Falkland: Rosy Finch, The Princess’ Petticoats, Forest Shadows
Exmoor Mule: Dark Spanish Shawl, Scarlet O’Hara, Waterfall, Moose

And a new addition to the Gnomespun family, light silk and silk/wool scarves. These are discounted right now because they are new, and because I thought they’d make extra nice gift-exchange or stocking stuffer gifts. They are, however, hard to get good photos. If they’re popular I may need to get myself something to hang them on.

These come in two sizes and two varieties.

Small: 8″x54″ these are small ascot style scarves, very nice. They come in both 100% silk and the 63%/37% Silk/Wool blend.

Large: 11″60″ these are just a little longer and wider. They can be worn either as light shawls or as scarves. Long enough to double over and still have a bit left hanging down. These only come in the Silk/Wool blend right now.

Colorways: Thistle, Sunflowers, Dark Nebula, War for the Oaks, Oil Slick, Among the Roses, Islands in the Rain, Heart of the Fire, The Rising Flame, Smoke and Fire, Blood in the Water, Pollen, Earth and Sky, Windowpanes, Sea and Sunset.

That’s all for now. More blog posts coming soon, and hopefully another shop update before xmas (we’ll see, stuff keeps being… stufflike).

~The Gnome