Which-Crafts?

I am finally going to be able to start spinning the fiber for my sweater this weekend, and I am SO SO SO excited. As a reward the universe found me my sweater pattern! I am sure that I’ll have to do some adjusting to match my yarn, my sleeve plan and size (it is aaaaalmost big enough in the largest size of the pattern.)

On the page it is so very close to what I want to knit, it even has cables just the way I wanted them! All I have to do is figure out a graceful way of removing the sleeves and still having a nice shoulder. I also found a KAL where I hope I can get some help.

This is giving me extra UMPH to get going on all that spinning that needs to be done first. OTOH doing the numbers, I might not have enough fiber, I have 2 lbs. The generic listed yarn requirements for sweaters knit in worsted weight is about 2000 yds for a 52″ bust, and about 1050 for vests. Looking at the pattern materials and averaging for sizing up I would be guessing around 3.75lb (2562 yds) of yarn. YIKES!

Yes that is my corny way of announcing the first “craft day” of the year.

Here are the details:

Saturday February 24, 2007 - 1 pm
Alyse & Evan’s House (email me if you need directions or more info)
Feel free to bring any hand-craft project that doesn’t need a whole room to do. Most seating is “couch-like”, but if you need a table, just let me know ahead of time and we’ll set one up.

Also you are welcome to bring a small “potluck” item for everyone to snack on. I will of course be providing “something” and drinks.

For those who still remain at dinner time, we generally order in later in the evening.

Stuck 1/2way between the New Year and Spring Cleaning, I have a secondary theme for this Craft Day–Its Clean your Slate Day. Feel free to bring projects that you aren’t going to do, or have been stuck on your needles forever, rip them out, ball them up and take the pressure off.

PLEASE RSVP

Future Craft Days:
Craft day will be every other month, generally on the 4th Saturday. You can find the public calendar of events here: http://www.alyse.org/component/option,com_wrapper/Itemid,48/ .

If you want to get these announcements in your email you can go to Http://alyse.org/mailinglist to sign up.

(contents of this post are somewhat old, but still valid commentary)

I sometimes think that the reason gauge swatches are so hard for me to work myself up into doing, is knowing that I am going to have to wash it and wait for it to dry before I move forward on the project.

Spinning is worse, in this case, I dyed the fiber, I prepped it, I spun it (4ply cable no less) and now I have washed it, it has to dry and I have yet to knit a test swatch before I know if I can even go forward, or if I need to spin a new sample and wash/dry/testknit it before I have the finished product that I need.

tick
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On the plus side, I now think I don’t have to card the 2lbs of fiber that I dyed before I spin it. I will admit carding with handcards is not my favorite thing, even if I like spinning from the rolags. I am considering considering a drum carder, but that is a huge investment I don’t think I need to make quite yet, and frankly would come after a new camera. For the fiber I think that if I split the roving into sufficiently small strips then it will loosen up enough to spin with. This should be less time consuming and easier on my hands.

Working on remodeling . . . it might look a bit different around here for a few days or so. My ring links will be down for a while but as soon as I pick a theme they’ll be back up.