Stitch Markers and Progress Keepers

When knitting it is often important to mark stitches and rows.  There are many stitch markers available to purchase. I wanted to make some of my own.  I have been cleaning out and giving away many types of "stuff" over which I should have control.  Recently I gave away most of the jewelry-making tools and supplies that were in the workroom.  Just now I found a little packet of charms that could be made into stitch markers and progress keepers.

This is what I made:

As usual the picture is wonky but I still do not know how to change the orientation...

They consist of the Christmas charm, a large split ring (14 mm), and a lobster clasp (18mm).  It is hoped that these are not too heavy to work with current and future knitting projects.  Since at this time I mostly use worsted weight (number 4) yarn, I think they will be okay.

 

More Spinning Today

 Just a quick note on today's Tour de Fleece progress:  Since I had finished the last bag of roving, I went to the walk-in closet in our bedroom and pulled out a bag of Thetford Roving and took it downstairs where the wheel is currently located.

When I had done a little cleaning of a downstairs closet, the kitchen, and the dining room table, I rewarded myself with a while at the spinning wheel. (And you will notice I said, "A LITTLE cleaning...!). For the first time I thought I would measure out and weigh the roving before spinning so I could get an idea on how it would go.

Today's spin was 107 grams of the roving.  I did get it all spun.

This is the resulting spin:

This bobbin was almost half filled before I started spinning today.  I finished it.  There is probably a hundred grams of today's fiber on the bobbin in addition to probably that much more.  I will have to weigh an empty bobbin so I will know for sure how much singles I spun.

This bobbin was partially filled before I finished up the 107 grams--probably about 7 grams added to this bobbin.  There was just a small amount of roving still in the fiber basket so I decided to keep spinning even though I had really had just about enough spinning, and everything else,  for today.

One new thing today--instead of removing my shoe and spinning stocking footed, I decided to see if I could spin with my clodhoppers still on my feet.  I could!  I was so pleased.  It is all due to the kind instruction of one of the Columbia Spinners at the Tour de Fleece group meeting last Saturday.  I also learned how to chain ply last week.  I need to get another bobbin together so I can practice the chain plying before I forget.

This Saturday the spinners will be at the Revolutionary War Park spinning but also instructing on how to spin cotton and flax.  You can be sure I will be there to learn that.  There are many many cotton fields within a few miles of our home.  Every fall when the cotton harvest happens I drive along the roads by the fields and see many cotton fluff balls lying beside the road.  Two years ago I stopped and picked some of it up.  It was pretty grimy and since I did not know anything about preparing to spin cotton, I just left it alone.  If I learn to spin cotton, I will have to take the bull by the horns and ask some farmer if I can glean his fields after the harvest.  It is a nice thought anyway!

More Fiber Work: Icelandic Sweater

After nearly fifty-one  years of asking Dear One if I could knit him something nice, he asked for an Icelandic sweater.  We had watched a movie called Pullover Island.  There were many beautiful sweaters shown.  People seem to knit everywhere in Iceland, both men and women.

Dear One found a sweater he liked then even found the designer so I could inquire about purchasing the pattern.  The lady responded within the hour--time differences helping!  She said the design was 1. a traditional Icelandic pattern, 2. it was written in Icelandic, and 3.  she did not have authority to sell it. Well, that was that I suppose but I decided I was smart enough to do it anyway.  

The pattern Dear One showed me was a black pullover with a dark gray zigzag yoke followed but a white up to the neck.  I ordered some Lettlopi yarn in those three colors from The Woolly Thistle in West Lebanon, NH.  I made a hat as a gauge swatch and to figure out the design.  Next I ordered some Alafosslopi from The Woolly Thistle in the same colors to make another gauge swatch hat.  All the while I was looking for Icelandic sweater patterns with the zigzags.  I did not find them so I knew I would have to use the designs I made.

Eventually I saw a book called The Lopapeysa Sweater: A Journey North in Search of Iceland's Iconic Knitwear.  The book was very interesting to read.  There was a pattern in there for The Everywhere Sweater which was a cardigan.  Dear One wanted a pullover.  After a fair amount of thought and planning, I used the directions for that sweater, using the Alafosslopi from The Woolly Thistle, removed the two purl stitches the Icelanders use for steeking (YES!! Two stitches, not five, not seven, not nine...all of which I have seen for the steeking stitches.), and added in my own zigzag design.  The front has the stitches sixteen stitches wide by sixteen stitches tall and the back (between the sleeve stitches) are fourteen stitches by fourteen stitches.  Needed the change to make the design work.

Well, finally, maybe a month after I cast on, the sweater was finished.  Dear One tried it on and deemed it satisfactory but said he was not going to wear it.  After all, daily temperatures are in the upper 90's currently!  So, I put it away in a clear plastic box and stored it in his closet with the leftover yarn.  When I get a few more "on the needles already" projects finished, I will see if there is enough leftover yarn to make a vest for me.  Unsure.

You will notice there is a little "bleed through" in the white.  I saw a video on a way to avoid that, but it came two days after I finished.  I will NOT be ripping back and re-knitting!

Here is a full view of the completed sweater.  It makes me happy to have figured this out.  I will not likely become a pattern designer...not by a long shot, even though this worked this time.

Tour de France and Tour de Fleece 2024

 Tour de France was started in 1903 to help sell newspapers. (Look it up on Google for more information.) Tour de Fleece was started in 2006.  You can look that up, too!  I heard about Tour de Fleece a year or two ago but did not participate until this year.

The Tour de Fleece is a handspinning event that coincides with the Tour de France bicycling race.  Some people join teams.  Other people race as individuals.  Every day that Tour de France runs, hand spinners spin on their spinning wheels or spindles.  

My own Tour de Fleece history began about three months ago when I learned that the Copious Fibers yarn store had a Sit and Spin on Thursday mornings.  I resolved to go to see if I could learn to be a better spinner..  And I did go on one Thursday.  The nicest ladies were in the store, including one spinner who helped me with my spinning. 

Myself, I am really a novice.  My actual spinning history began  in about 2005 when I was shopping locally at Wings' Market and a lady at the dairy case saw my sweater and said it looked like a 'No Sweat Sweatshirt'.  I had made the sweater and it did look like that pattern which was by Medrith Glover. (I just tried to locate that pattern to share, but failed.)  Anyway, Elsie, the nice lady, told me she had a knitting group in her home every Thursday afternoon from 3;00-5:00 PM and I was welcome.  I started attending later that week and was there most weeks until Elsie died in 2013...  It was so wonderful to knit together and learn new things...such as the Norwegian Purl!  I also learned to spin because Elsie gave me her Ashford Traveler single treadle spinning wheel.  I started spinning as soon as I acquired some beautiful combed top fiber from Hello Yarn.  It turned out I was not a natural-born spinner and I gave it up when life had me going for a while.

Now I am spinning again and participating in the Tour de Fleece 2024.  Here is the yarn I produced in the first week of the TdF:

This yarn is a bulky weight yarn (though I have not actually measured the wraps per inch yet) and was spun with a strand of what I call the Thetford Roving and a strand of fiber I found at Hobby Lobby and which I struggled with a ton until I saw a YouTube on how to "spin from the fold" which is good for slippery yarns.  If you zoom in you will see it is not glorious yarn, but I am very happy with it.  Since I am in a pinch time-wise, that is it for today.  More on TdF another day.  Happy Day to you all.