Ravings from a Danish City at Night

Biscotti's Socks are done!

I learned something new knittingwise on those: how to graft, use the Kitchener stitch. That had been something I'd always had a lot of trouble with. Until I found this demonstration on knitty.com which made it so clear and easy-looking, that I could actually do it.

Here is the finished result: my new hand-spun, hand-knit socks:

Yes, they are different in both small, subtle ways and in one rather big one.

I'd gotten the original fibre as a gift from Emma and spun it into two skeins of yarn, as described in my last post. The two skeins turned out quite similar to each other, as you can see in the stripe sequence in the sock cuffs. However I'd not managed to spin it finely enough to have enough yarn to knit the socks in full with it. So I finished them with some Arwetta sock wool in a dark brown.

I got a new project on the wheel right now. I'm spinning some Black Welsh Mountain roving to knit Henry.

Progress

What am I up to these days?

Well, I'm knitting:

Xavier, almost done, except for several rows of cross-stitch embroidery in the purl lines. I've worn it to work already. My pupils remarked I looked like an English public school student in it...

Also on the needles: Viktor, not quite done with the first sleeve yet

The next pictures show the patterns on front- and backside of sleeve and front in more detail.

There will be a few ends to sew in, but not frustratingly many. I think the pattern will show more clearly once the pieces have been properly dressed and teamed. Tapestry is interesting to work with.  It has  sofar pulled apart twice into unusable wisps and I constantly need to watch out that I'm not splitting it. On the other hand it is smooth, lustrous and wonderfully soft. I'll report on the finished sweater once it's done.

I'm spinning:

My tax return money in wood: a Schacht Matchless Double Treadle. It gets some use. Currently on it some Superwash Merino/Tencel roving Emma sent me.
Here it is in roving form:

Here it is on the bobbin:

Here it is in the yarn:

The colourway is called 'Anshan's Biscotti'. To me it looks like many different tones of mocha and latte. I navajo-plied it to reserve the colour sequence in the roving. Also this gives the yarn a bit more strength, for soon you might see it as a sock.

I've been adding my stuff to Ravelry. You can find me as 'ThomasHolm', a totally unimaginative screen name, but at least I won't forget that.

I've been weaving.
I made myself a 'employed one year' gift, an Ashford 4shaft Table Loom. Of course (guy-thing) the largest size.

(Kindly ignore the dusty lampshade and the disorder surrounding it).
It turned out to be a bit bigger than I thought... It takes up half my craft table, so I'll probably invest in the stand soon. On it you can see a simple warp for a test-piece, made according to the book you can see half-hidden on the right: Learning to Weave by Deborah Chandler.

Here's a close-up showing my attempts at a simple 2-2 twill, beaten balanced and beaten hard (top).
My conclusions sofar: Weaving takes ages longer than knitting to set up, but once you got the warp done, you get fabric far faster than in knitting. Aso, it eats stash and an astounding rate.

I've been dieting. I'm on the Danish Dabetes Society's plans now and I must say I like it. 3 meals and 3 snacks a day. Lots of variety. They accept human weaknesses, like the occasional bite of chocolate or piece of sugar n my tea. They just advise moderation and point to my health. It works for me. All the other diets forbade that and thus made it far more interesting. They are far more realistic. No idea how much weight I've lost, but there have been consequences already.

I was out shopping. With a big bag of groceries, mostly vegetables and organic cereals/flours, I walk towards the exit. At which point my trusers decide they are too big for my waist and begin to slide south... A quick 'wide stance' and a fast pull-up later I hurried out the supermarket.

Enough for now. I'll post soon again, then about more wonderful presents I got and about the Greenland trip.

Update:

As promised the yarn as sock:

Of course it has that spinner's dilemma: Will There Be Enough? I hope so. If not, I'll either pick some solid-colour commercial sock yarn to finish it with or frog it back to the cuff and do only the heel in a commercial yarn.

Update 2:

Of course there wasn't enough yarn in that skein for one sock. The second skein is spun, plied and getting its swim right now. Tomorrow when it is dry, I'll ball it up and cast on for the second sock. Let's see how far I get on that one. On Monday then I'll go to my LYS to get some matching sock yarn to finish the socks.