Get a load of these spindles!!!

Talk about a cross between a spinning wheel and a spindle. The Mother Marion Spindle/Wheel is supported so you don’t have to worry about dropping the spindle if you stop the spinning. Here’s a demo video from YouTube:

 

Also, this looks great, too. Spindolyns. Also a type of supported spindle. Smaller and more compact (by far) than the Mother Marion above.

Here’s the video:

A friend Raveler mentioned these on the forums today. I want both! Heheh. But I suppose I will pick just one to start and maybe get more things later…

Spindling Resources

Here’s a nice selection of links for spinning resources from an article in someone else’s blog:

Spindling Resources

(That’s the title of the article… seems to me it should be “spinning resources”, but whatever… lol)

It happened… I started spinning

I must say I am exposed to a vile group of spinners on Wednesday nights, who wield an unholy power over me that bends me to their will. Hahah. Or something like that.

Well, just a few months ago (4? or so?) I thought I’d never spin, and yet here I am spinning wool roving into yarn:

I received my shipment of roving and my spindle on Saturday, Sept. 20th. And so on Sat, Sun and today (Mon) I’ve sat down and spun for upwards of 30 minutes. The picture above was taken on Saturday after my first hour or so of spinning.

I’m beginning to become more comfortable with the process. I bought this Corriedale pencil roving from Cown Mountain Farms. It is their  Novalis colorway. The roving I received is not as light as that shown on the Crown Mountain website. There are no “almost yellows” in it. Still, I am enjoying this colorway very much. It’s almost hypnotizing working with it. It is casting a spell over me. I’m in love with it.

My yarn is rather thick. Probably Aran weight or so. It is not smooth nor even/consistent. There are thicker and thinner parts. I’m not sure if I will ply this. The first two nights I had considerable trouble with the roving breaking, but tonight I spun for about 40 minutes or so, and didn’t break the roving at all. I think I’m getting a bit more courage to play with the roving and stretch it out, spread it out, and thin it a bit before I spin it.

Well, I will keep on keeping on with this. I’m lucky to have support of friends on Wednesday nights who have experience with this, or are traveling on a similar journey.

Dyeing yarns?

OK, so I’m definitely not interested in spinning yarn. I’d rather just buy it and be able to get started with the knitting. But sometimes the idea of being able to choose the color or patterns of color seems a bit appealing. So here are some resources I’ve found for dyeing… I might actually want to try this some time?

First of all, KnitPicks.com is offering something new called Sock Blanks which are stockinette knit undyed swatches that you then dye yourself and knit socks (or whatever?) from those. KnitPicks also offers dyes, videos and other resources on how to dye. From the KnitPicks podcast the recommendation for the book Color Sense by Susan Levin was offered. The podcast indicates that she offers lots of suggestions on choosing color combinations and such, plus a color wheel in the back and many examples.

Here are some websites I found that offer picture-tutorials on dyeing yarn:

Hand Painted (aka space dyed) Cotton Yarn

How to Hand Paint Roving & Yarn…

Dyed in the wool (from Knitty.com)

Kitchener Stitch Instructions

Here are some websites with instructions for Kitchener stitch.

Knitting at Knoon – Kitchener Stitch - has a video, too…

TECHknitting - An easier way to Kitchener Stitch (also called “grafting seams” or “weaving seams”)

Swift (and ball winder?)

So far I’ve been winding all my yarn by hand with a toilet paper tube (or thumb/fingers) as I mentioned in this post from a while back. But I’ve got a sweater I’m knitting for hubby from Cascade 220 that comes in hanks must be wound into balls. 8 of them. So far I’ve done 2. And I’m thinking about knitting a lace shawl and will need to wind lace yarn… not sure I want to do it all by hand.

But Swifts seem to run about 60-80 dollars. Yeesh. I can find a ball winder for 25-40, but the swifts!

Well, here is a cheapo home-made swift that looks to cost around $13 and is easy to assemble. I’m going to have to try this one:

Tilta Swift

This swift seems very similar in type to the Beka Yarn Swift.

Another purchased alternative to the umbrella style swift is the Mama Bear Swift.

Here’s an interesting blog article and review on the different types of swifts:

http://deepthoughtworkshop.blogspot.com/2007/02/stitches-and-market-take-aways.html

Great Dish Scrubby Tutorial

Here’s a really nice dish scrubby tutorial. Easy knitted garter stitch. It uses tulle to get the “scrubbiness.” The tulle is probably a bit of a pain to work with, but this definitely looks like something I’d like to try.

Knitted Dish Scrubbie Pattern Tutorial

Combination Knitting

So I knew there were two different styles of knitting. English style, which most Americans use. Or is shown in most American “how to knit” books, traditionally. And Continental style, which is commonly used in many places in Europe, such as Germany. When I lived in Germany, I taught myself the Continental style, I believed. It uses much less hand movements. More efficient. Quicker, as far as I can see.

Now it comes out that I was knitting the Darrell Waltrip dishcloth a while back, and some of my stitches were facing one direction on the needle, while others were facing the other direction, and the purl-back rows were kind of annoying because all of my stitches didn’t face the same way. I had half a mind to write to the author of the dishcloth pattern and say, “Hey, something’s up here. This pattern is annoying!” But I didn’t, and I found a different way to slip the stitches on the slip rows so that the stitches all faced the same way on the purl rows, and then it was OK.

Well, after reading a bit more about different knitting styles on sites like Ravelry.com and KnittingHelp.com, I came to realize I’m actually a combination knitter. Not sure if I always knit this way, or if this is what I just decided to do when I took it up again this past January. Some people even call it the “lazy purl”.

Here are some resource links on the topic of Combination Knitting:

http://www.anniemodesitt.com/

http://www.grumperina.com/table.htm

Ravelry.com has a group for Combination Knitters. That is another resource…

Weaving in Ends

Related to the topic of Joining Yarns is the idea of weaving in ends. Here are a couple of articles I was referred to recently on this topic. Very nice.

WEAVING IN ENDS

Untitled (on the topic of working multi-colored mittens, avoiding holes near the fingers, and finishing off the yarn ends). 

Both of the articles above are from the blog KNITTING IN COLOR which seems to have fabulous pictures and tips from what I’ve briefly looked at so far.

Online Photo Editor

Here’s another photo editing service I heard about, but haven’t used personally.

picnik

It was suggested by someone at Ravelry.com. Supposedly easy to use for those who aren’t so technically inclined. I believe it is a completely online tool used through your web browser so there is no software to download or install. It’s also free (for the basic version) and no registration required. I started to click through to try it out but it’s telling me I need to update Adobe Flash Player to version 9 and I don’t feel like it at the moment, so I guess I’ll have to try it out later.