Posts from the ‘Handspun Handknit’ category

Maisy Day Handspun Zeebee Hat

on May 25, 2007

Pattern: Zeebee hat
Yarn: chunky weight hand-dyed and handspun by Sarah of Maisy Day Handspun
Colorway: Adrian is a Fancy Pants!
Size: 20″ for my 22.5″ noggin (perfect amount of ease in this chunky yarn)
Needle: Can you believe I’ve already forgotten?

This pattern is super interesting to me, both in construction method and adaptability. Choose your gauge (within reason- you are instructed to use worsted or bulky weight yarn) and size, plug your numbers in, and away you go with a custom pattern. So cool.

I’ve got to say, I had a little trouble understanding the pattern. In the instructions, part 7, there’s mention of wrapping, but you’re not actually instructed to do it on that row. I did and things look fine. Then in part 13, you get “you may need to add one extra row because you must…” ??? I think this refers to a row you might have to add if you are given an odd number of rows to knit, but the vagueness made me nervous! I laid out my knitting at the 1/8 and 1/4 marks and measured to be sure I was on track before continuing, just to be sure. Again, things worked out fine and it was nice to be reassured that the hat would be the proper size. Any problems with the pattern could totally be on my end, but I figured I’d mention what I did and that it worked out, in case you make the hat and have doubts about what to do, as well.

Siri asked in the comments to the last post about what made the Finn wool used for this yarn so special. Oh, let me count the ways. Mainly, it’s the luster. It’s not common to get wool with the great combination of luster and length plus fineness that this particular shearing had. You usually get luster and length in longer-wooled breeds with coarser fiber, and fineness in shorter-wooled breeds. Having them all in one wool was glorious! This wool sucked up the dye and showed colors so well with it’s soft sheen, the slipperiness of the fiber made for a very easy spin, and it was soft enough to wear against any skin. See why we pine for it? The next year’s shearing was like coarse hair in comparison. It was sad day, indeed.

Sorry there’s no photo of the hat on. I’m running around like a lunatic, trying to square everything up for my trip to MA Sheep and Wool this weekend, and I’m not fit for public consumption. I will be tomorrow, though, I promise! Carolyn and I should be there both days, visiting Amy’s booth a whole lot and shopping our heads off. Look for us! I got new lime and orange glasses. You can’t miss’ em!

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Garter Stitch Extravaganza and Shop News

on May 24, 2007

The garter stitch bug has officially bitten.

First, there was a hat. Now there’s half an EZ-style moebius scarf. I can’t waste an inch of this yarn.


colorway: Adrian is a Fancy Pants!
chunky weight
129 yards (there’s another skein of 107 yards)
hand-dyed and handspun by Sarah of Maisy Day Handspun

She just made it for me for no reason. :) There’s a sad, sad story behind this wool. I used to be able to get this Finn top that was just fantastic. Sarah and I were fools for it. The sheep only made that fabulous wool for one year, and then they went back to being more Finn-like (coarse). We are still sad. I bet there are some customers who remember it fondly, as well.

Once I get some alone time, that hat will be seamed. I don’t think I’ve ever seamed garter before. I’m gonna have to look that up. I’ll post about the hat pattern, which I think is awesome, but totally confusing. Hopefully my thrashing about can save you some trouble.

Shop Stuff:

I’ve changed the way I do the dye kits. Now you can either purchase one with primary colors and black, or one with colors of your choice. Un-dyed yarn and fiber can be purchased separately to be used with the kits. There have been some new additions, like Louet Gems yarns and superfine 18 micron Merino wool top. The softness, it will kill you.

Vacation:

People, I’m taking a vacation. I haven’t been on one in 6 years. Both Mr. HelloYarn and I run our own businesses, so it’s not easy to get away. We’re taking advantage of a skilled house/dog/business-sitter and going to Ireland early next month. This sitter won’t be running Hello Yarn, though, so the shop will be open, but orders placed between the 4th and 13th won’t ship until I’m back. Cool? The next shop update will be after I’m back. Sorry!

Has anyone been to the Sheep and Wool Centre in Galway? Was it good? It’s a bit of a hike, so I don’t want to haul my carcass up there if it’s a snoozefest.

Now that that’s all out of the way, the most important thing of all must be dealt with. What will I knit on that long plane ride??

27 Comments

Finished Object- Handspun Baby Surprise Jacket

on April 29, 2007



The Facts:
Pattern: Baby Surprise Jacket from The Opinionated Knitter by Elizabeth Zimmermann
Yarn: My own worsted weight (12 wpi) handspun Merino wool, about 5.5 oz., 350 yards
Gauge: 5 sts. per inch
Size: 17.5″ around, 17.5″ cuff to cuff, so, taking into consideration the thickness of the fabric, to fit about a 6 month old baby according to standard sizing
Needles: size 5 Addi Turbo, 40″ long
Buttons: cuties made from coconut (many thanks to the woman at Windsor Button who helped me yesterday)
Started: April 19, 2007
Finished: April 28, 2007, including most of the spinning (The dark brown was a leftover.)

See all BSJ posts for more info.
See my Flickr set for far too many photos of this, including yarn and fiber.

The Yarn:
I spun up three different colorways of Merino wool for this jacket, approx. 140 yards of green, 80 of blue, and 100 of the brown, and used all but a few yards of each. They’re all 2 ply worsted spun from commercial top that I hand-dyed.

The Knitting:
I did what I was told. No mods, except the increases. I used my preferred method of picking up the strand between stitches and knitting into the back. I liked the way the decreases looked from the wrong side, so when I sewed the jacket up, I did so with the wrong side (well, there is no wrong side, but the side I didn’t increase and decrease on) facing out.


From this view, you can see the cast on edge across the bottom.


Here it is flipped over, with the cast off edge at the bottom.


Starting to inch things into position.


Folded and ready to seam.

I was taken by surprise by how thick the fabric is. It’s also super cushy, as the yarn is already bouncy and lush and adding garter stitch to that makes it feel beyond wonderful.

I seamed this with backstitch from the inside, after a couple of failed attempts to crochet and knit it together. I just didn’t like the results from those methods. The result from the back stitch is clean and makes a nice strong seam. (The seam can be seen in my Flickr set.)

When I picked up along those 10 lengthening ridges, from the right side I picked up the front half of the edge stitch, twisting it as I knit it. When I picked up from the wrong side on the next row, I picked up the back strand of the edge stitch and twisted it. The resulting stitches look the same in the right side of the work.

I didn’t do any edgings. With this particular yarn, which has a rustic, organic feel, I thought plain was best. I love the i-cord edgings I see on some. Next time.

Have I missed anything? Ask away if you have a question. I’ve been getting lots of emails about this, so instead of answering privately, I’ll just add to this post.

Thank you for all your kind words about this project!

51 Comments