Getting there

This is looking rather more like it although I'm concerned that it may be a little underspun. I still haven't really worked out how to work the brake but I've found a very useful site here and I'm hoping that Katie and Megan will have some tips for me tomorrow. I kind of feel that they have an advantage as I'm pretty sure that their (new) wheels will have come with a user guide.

On the knitting front I have one and a half completed sleeves for my Minimalist cardigan.



I always seem to slow to a crawl when it comes to knitting the sleeves for any garment but I hope I'll be able to finish the second sleeve by tomorrow and to start making up the cardigan.

Thomasina does what now?

Oh, knitting. That thing with the two sticks and the string. I think it's coming back to me now.

It feels like ages since I picked up the needles for a proper session but I'm back in full swing now. I'm having a holiday from the spinning this weekend. Mainly because I can only fit about 50 grams on my drop spindle before it starts to get too heavy which means I'd need to ply, which means toting the lazy cheapskate up to Bolton on the train and it doesn't really fold up small.

I finished the second front of the Minimalist cardigan on the train on the way up here and made a start on the first sleeve. I'd have thought that I had a chance at finishing it this weekend, only in my rush out of the door this morning I omitted to pick up enough wool. I should have enough for this sleeve though.



Happily I brought yarn for a second project so there's no chance of running out of knitting. My sister requested another cashsoft raglan cardigan for the baby so I'm knitting this up on the fly. I had initially planned on stripes but I miss knitting lace (it's all moss and stockinette over on the Minimalist front) so I think a very simple little flower pattern in one colour will be just the thing.



I had a very pleasant journey up north. Quite apart from having a Brother Cadfael* BBC radio adaptation to listen to, I was sat next to a knitter up until Birmingham and we had a very nice chat about knitting and spinning and home births (she's an independent midwife) until she had to change trains for York. I just love how knitting means that I had a great conversation with someone I never would have spoken to if we didn't both have needles in our hands.

* I loves Cadfael. He's basically the reason I chose to study medieval history at university.

If at first ...

I think this one's a keeper!



It's amazing what a difference has been made by the change in stitch pattern. I estimate that the back knit in double moss stitch took nearly a third less yarn than the same piece knit in the single moss stitch which rules out any worries about running out of yarn on this piece.

I had planned to be slightly further along on this piece by this time but I got rather distracted by handspinning over the weekend. On Saturday I went to the second drop spindling session at iknit where I spun up the rest of the mohair that I bought at the Oxfordshire Craft Fair last year and learnt a neat trick for plying two ends of the same single together without a bobbin in sight. The secret is to wind off the single loosely* around your hand keeping a hold of the starting end. When you've finished winding you just attach both ends to the leader and start plying, rather like knitting from both ends of a centre pull ball. There are more coherent instructions in the Winter '05 issue of Knitty.

Armed with this knowledge I headed home and got busy plying.





It looks just like real yarn!

Encouraged by this success I set about spinning up and plying any other fibre I had in the house.



This is merino top that I picked up at the Handweaver's Studio last August. I'm getting in lots of practice on the remainder of this as I've just placed an order with Wingham Woolwork (after a tip from Megan) for 400g of Blue Faced Leicester Humbug Tops. This looks like lovely stuff and I'm hoping to spin up enough for a hat and/or some mittens.

* to avoid cutting off circulation to the fingers and so that you can slip the yarn onto your wrist. Plying one-handed is not easy!

Minimalist cardigan - take #2

Same yarn, same needles, same pattern, only this time around I'm actually following it correctly.*



I'm striping two balls together to prevent the yarn from pooling and it's mostly working. I've just skipped about 6 inches in one of the balls to get them offset again after they merged into a solid patch but it's generally looking good.

* actually I did somehow manage start on the wrong row but it's still double moss stitch so I'm not losing sleep.