Dyet Yarns: Adventures in Fiber » lace

Dover Castle Fever

Nuri — Fri, 25 Feb 2011 18:52:32 +0000

Over the Holiday season, I made quite a few gifts. This was a stash-busting project for me, and i tried to pair up remnant yarn balls that worked well together. Some of those gifts were lace shawls. After the Shawl Wars I was part of earlier in 2010, I became enamored of the Dover Castle shawl pattern (Ravelry link). It’s a relatively simple knit for me, and the pattern sticks in my brain so I don’t have to look at the chart during every repeat. I also like the way it works out with various different color arrangements. I’ve knit this shawl in fingering yarns and worsted yarns, and both worked marvelously.

This was my first one, which you’ve seen before if you have been reading for awhile:

It’s knit with my own Dyet Yarns Shortcake, a solid superwash merino that reminds me a lot of the Wollmeise bases.

The next one was a Christmas gift. The main body is knit from Aslan Trends Invernal, and the edging is knit in some leftover fingering-weight recycled yarn from a shawl I knit for myself in a cashmere/wool blend.

I liked the fuzziness and weight of the Invernal so much I decided to make my own. I had more leftover Invernal from the bunny hat I made for a friend, so I took my brown and light pink remnants and combined them to make my Layer Cake Dover Castle. As I was knitting it up it looked delicious and made me hungry for cake.

I’m enjoying knitting lace shawls, but I am rapidly approaching maximum shawl capacity in my knits drawer/box/chair (they tend to spread). Gifts seem to be a good way to go, or maybe I will start swapping my finished shawls for more supplies. I use my shawls in many ways: shawls, scarves, hoods, face coverings… they are so versatile! The lace ones work perfectly for covering my face in the winter because they let enough air in and out to breathe easily while maintaining enough of a layer of warm air underneath to keep my face from freezing. I highly recommend them to anyone living in an area that gets cold and windy in the winter!

Dyet Yarns blog posts by Adrian "Nuri" Steinhauer are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.

Oh Hai Blog!

Nuri — Tue, 22 Feb 2011 20:14:29 +0000

It has come to my attention that I have been neglecting you. I’m sorry. You fell by the wayside during my frenzy of learning about spinning, cranking through my stash, and dyeing new yarn and fiber. I really do care about you. But check out all the cool things I was doing when I wasn’t hanging out with you! I mean, at least you know I didn’t leave you for some floozy video game, right?

Most recently, I finished that ridiculous pair of socks I was making! They are soft and warm, and I love them even though they are ugly.

I also completed my first project in which I spun the yarn at a specific weight intended for a certain yardage to knit a specified pattern. My handspun Citron turned out great! The fiber came from Silver Sun Alpacas. It’s gorgeous and sparkly in person, but difficult to capture in a photograph.

The last project I’ll tell you about today (after all, we have many days ahead of us) is a follow-up from Rhinebeck. The lovely BFL/Silk I purchased from Gale’s Art spun up into the perfect gradiated lace weight skein; 900 yards of 2-ply! This is going to make a lovely shawl.

Dyet Yarns blog posts by Adrian "Nuri" Steinhauer are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.

Slowly Making Progress

Nuri — Thu, 19 Aug 2010 21:26:32 +0000

Well, I’m back from the vacation of pain (it was a good vacation at the beach, but my body hates me) and working on regaining my shoulder strength. I can spin very, very gently for a very short period of time or knit a few rows on something. I can type a little bit with both hands instead of using only my right hand. Yay for progress!

School is starting up soon. There are lots of things coming up on the horizon! In September I will be starting a shawl with which to assassinate my Shawl Wars target (a little game in a Rav group). It’s a small shawl, made with one skein of sock yarn, so it shouldn’t be too taxing. It’ll certainly be easier on my hands than tiny sock needles! Plus, lace is cool and I have yet to knit a shawl. Check out the lovely skein I dyed up for it:

I’m so very excited to start knitting with this yarn! I have only one other skein dyed in this color, and that skein is the Sockolate Mousse base. I think I might put it up for sale once my target has been killed…but not before. The colorway name kinda gives away who my target is, and that’s sooper sekrit!

Dyet Yarns blog posts by Adrian "Nuri" Steinhauer are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.

Knitting With One Hand Is Hard.

Nuri — Sun, 25 Jul 2010 23:11:54 +0000

Knitting with one hand is hard. Over the course of the Tour de Fleece, a spinning personal challenge that runs parallel to the Tour de France, I seem to have injured my left rotator cuff with overzealous spindling. This whole cycle of obsession and injury is alarmingly common in my life, and it really needs to be worked on. Right, self?

I made it through the heels of two On Hold socks (I knit socks 2-at-a-time so they both are the same) before succumbing to the orders to immobilize the arm and let the injury heel. Wendy Johnson is one of my absolute favorite designers; I just love the way her lace looks. I was feeling an urgent need to turn the heels of those socks and get the complicated part out of the way. Now it’s all easy knitting and I can wait to finish it until my shoulder heals.

I was also a little bit bad. I recently acquired a skein of Cherry Tree Hill Sockittome in Champlain Sunset, which is a rockin’ crazy colorway! These are convention socks for sure. Or “Oh frack it’s COLD” socks.

I will be getting pictures of all three of my in-progress socks once I can figure out how to do good photos with one arm. I’m sure I’ll think of something. In the meantime, I am going crazy not being able to knit or spin or anything! Argh!

Dyet Yarns blog posts by Adrian "Nuri" Steinhauer are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.

Rivulets Sock, part 1

Nuri — Wed, 10 Jun 2009 18:07:16 +0000

One sock down, one to go. I made significant modifications to the pattern, considering the gauge difference between yarn and pattern and the way my foot is shaped. I have pretty small feet, but my ankle and heel are fairly large. I took notes on the pattern changes, so I guess we’ll see if I can produce a second sock that looks even remotely similar.

Check out how pretty the yarn looks in this pattern!

This sock is very thick and comfy; I can’t wait to finish the second one so I can wear them around the house!

That reminds me; new yarns available in the store! I’ve put up a few skeins of the yarn I used for my purple striped socks, and there is also a single skein of a colorway similar to the one I am using for the Rivulets socks. There are also a few lace weight yarns. Go check them out!

Dyet Yarns blog posts by Adrian "Nuri" Steinhauer are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.

The Lace of My Dreams

Nuri — Tue, 26 May 2009 13:54:32 +0000

Last night I had a dream. This dream involved many things, but the part I remember the most vividly is picking up a half-finished lace wrap that I was working on and showing it to my mother. Somehow the lace looked perfectly blocked already, despite the project being unfinished. She ooh’d and aah’d over it as I showed her the pattern repeats and the little subtleties. I had a huge feeling of accomplishment! The weirdest part?

I have never seen this lace pattern in my life, nor am I working on anything even remotely similar. I have no idea what it was!

Perhaps my right-brain is trying to tell me something. Perhaps my next project will involve figuring out the pattern for that lace design and writing it up. I was thinking about the new pink and teal lace weight yarn I have before I went to sleep. Of course, first I need to finish my Interlude Wrap! I’ve been letting it sit in my Zuma in favor of other projects that require less attention. Maybe it will get some attention next week after Con Carolinas this weekend. For now, I’m busy making shirts!

Dyet Yarns blog posts by Adrian "Nuri" Steinhauer are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.

Project Progress

Nuri — Wed, 22 Apr 2009 20:11:07 +0000

Two projects I haven’t mentioned in awhile:

My lace virgin project is coming along nicely! I’m about 80% done with it, and am on the last ball of yarn. I’m finally good enough at it that I’ve stopped forgetting YOs and don’t need the lifelines as much. I’ve got the hang of the pattern and the chart, so it’s nice and relaxing now. Got to watch out for that knitting hypnosis though. I can end up working on it for hours without realizing how much time has passed.

I don’t know if this yarn will block or not, but it will be pretty either way.

Next we have another raglan sweater project I started a few months ago with a mystery yarn. I think it’s microfiber of some sort…whatever it is, you can see that I still have a huge cone of it left (in the basket). I’m not really sure what I’m doing with this one…it’s kind of a free-form playing around project. Ribbing on short sleeves? I dunno what I was thinking when I started that. I guess I’ll see how it turns out! The body fits pretty nicely; the ribbing on the front starts just below my bustline and gathers the sweater a bit around the waist. Red’s not really my color, but this is a rusty kind of red and the yarn was free, so I’m not complaining.

Whatever the yarn is made of (pretty sure it’s synthetic), it’s very soft and nice. It actually might be some kind of rayon…dunno. Don’t really need to know, as long as it’s machine washable, I guess. Free is good.

Dyet Yarns blog posts by Adrian "Nuri" Steinhauer are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.

New Spring Colors!

Nuri — Wed, 08 Apr 2009 17:10:44 +0000

It’s spring and everything is blooming outside. It’s the perfect time to make some bright spring colors! I’m not a huge fan of pastels, so my colors are pretty bright. I’ve got some gorgeous purple that I’ll be adding soon, too.

On the left we have Nuclear Bunny, a colorway of bright greens on a mix of Angora, Lambswool, and Nylon. Angora resists the straightening process wholeheartedly, so it’s still a little wavy. On the right is a Silk and Cashmere blend that is incredibly soft and strong. It’s a laceweight semisolid with some speckles of burgundy, and I’m sure it would make an absolutely gorgeous FO!

The wrist is doing better, although I am being very conscious not to stress it too much. Unfortunately my back flared up last weekend and is only just now getting back to normal. It was terribly frustrating having to sit still and not being able to knit! I cheated a little and did some mindless crochet work…I don’t even like the kerchief I made, and it was really cheap acrylic yarn, so I might just get rid of the FO. It did help me avoid going (more) crazy, so I don’t mind too much.

I was able to do a little more work on my Interlude Lace Wrap, since I’m using size 9 needles. I’m about 80% done with that project!It will be the first thing I block with my new KnitPicks blocking mats, so I’ll post about how it goes.

My next dyeing project is a sweater’s worth of white wool/cashmere blend. I’m excited to get started with it!

Dyet Yarns blog posts by Adrian "Nuri" Steinhauer are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.

Everything in Moderation

Nuri — Thu, 02 Apr 2009 15:55:51 +0000

Well, it’s happened again. I have been overenthusiastic about my sock-knitting, and I have inured a tendon in my hand. Seeing as I went through almost this same injury about a month ago, I really should have learned better by now. The fact that my hands were feeling puffy and swollen in the mornings after long nights of knitting should have been my first clue to cut back.

This is most frustrating, as it means I shouldn’t knit for at least a week, probably two, and I know that I will want to! I really should keep in mind that more than an hour or two of knitting a day is not good for my hands. Good thing con season is coming up and I can occupy myself with making jewelry and shirts. But still…I’ll be gazing longinly at my almost-done sock and my 75% done lace wrap.

Dyet Yarns blog posts by Adrian "Nuri" Steinhauer are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.

Making Shorter Straight Needles

Nuri — Fri, 20 Mar 2009 15:54:50 +0000

I dislike knitting with needles that are longer than the project I’m working on is wide. The ends stick out and bump into things. It’s especially bad if I’m sitting in a chair with arms…every stitch takes extra effort.

Most of my straight needles are quite long. This, of course, is great when knitting something wide. However, things like scarves, lace wraps, and other 50-or-less-stitches-per-row projects really don’t require all that extra length.

I learned to knit at an SCA Event called University. There was a class on beginner knitting. For a small fee, the instructor graciously provided a ball of cotton yarn, two needles, and a wonderfully thorough handout detailing the basics (with pictures!). The genius part? The needles were two DPNs, each with a rubber band wrapped around one end. I didn’t appreciate how awesome this was at the time, but with a little more experience I know that it was both cheaper for her to supply (2 sets of DPNs would service 5 beginners!) and easier for us newbies to manipulate. This is almost exactly the same kit (with acrylic instead of cotton) that I recently gave to a friend when teaching her to knit, and I firmly believe that having shorter needles makes learning to knit quite a bit easier.

I was having this problem with my lace wrap. I checked my needle drawer, and lo and behold, I had a set of size 8 bamboo DPNs! With a few rubber bands to keep the stitches from slipping off the end, I had made myself a set of short needles that were exactly the right width for my lace project. A third rubber band serves to keep the needles together and keep stitches from slipping off while in transit.

I should have done this a week ago! This project is much more enjoyable now.

Dyet Yarns blog posts by Adrian "Nuri" Steinhauer are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.