Category: Blog

Look what I found this week!

Cute, eh?

It’s an old wheel. Seller was told it is Welsh.
Single treadle. Double drive. Only one bobbin.

Here it is next to my Kromski Minstrel:

And from the side:

It’s about 6 inches shorter, and quite a bit lighter than the Minstrel.
And the back side is pretty much flat,, so I can lay it down on the backseat of the car.
I plan on using it as my traveling wheel.

The flyer setup is pretty much identical to the Minstrel. It’s got the screw-on whorl that sits behind the bobbin and the flyer shaft rests in a block that is adjusted with a screw on the back vertical wheel support post.

The Minstrel’s whorls don’t quite fit (dang),, but it looks like if we created a front flyer bearing that sat a bit further forward, I could actually use the Minstrel’s flyer with this wheel! Then I’d have the benefit of more ratios.

Many thanks to The Man for helping me rig a scotch tension (because I prefer that to double drive),

fixing up the bobbin with a liner so it doesn’t wobble and chatter, and tightening up a couple connections that were a little loose.

Now she needs a name.

Suggestions?

It’s Boo Kitty!

Here are a couple of clips of the girl in action:

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rSUvhseEG1g]

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JK5harOsUXQ]

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DfWqJBeOCOw]

Sock before size-check:

Sock after size-check:

Dag.

But if it’s not right, what are you gonna do?

First time out I cast on 80 stitches, assuming that the gauge was gong to be about the same as the last pair of socks for The Man.

(Well, you know what they say about assuming…)

So, I’m re-knitting.

Thankfully, it’s really neat yarn, and I’m easily amused, so the color changes are enough to keep me entertained as I k3 p1 my way down the leg.

In other news, the peruvian wool scarf/shawl finally got it’s loopy fringe and went off to it’s new home.

And I’m still spinning Inky Dot (fleece from Black Sheep Gathering) for The Man’s sweater. So far, I’ve got 6 skeins and almost 2 full bobbins towards another batch of 3.
It is such pretty yarn- I’m dying to get started with the knitting!

Once upon a time, there was a scarf.

It was a soft gray, handspun Shetland scarf with a cable panel that repeated over its length, and it was a lovely accessory (“Tilly”, from A Fine Fleece).

But somehow when I finished it, the scarf didn’t seem to be done. It struck me as a big shawl collar with no sweater attached. So I set about building the sweater onto it. The cabled shawl collar needed a  generous, swingy sweater that would enfold its wearer in wool.

I picked up stitches along its edge and knit raglan shaping that curved the scarf around into a shawl collar. I started with a silvery blue Cotswold-Ramboullet X wool as an accent, and then turned to a dark and silvery LincolnX for the bulk of the project.

The LincolnX ran out about the time that I finished the fronts and the back down to the shoulderblades.

It was at this point that I made the tragic miscalculation. I chose a yarn that was too heavy, and knit on. I was so anxious to finish and wear the garment that I knit on blindly and with great enthusiasm, disregarding my gut feeling that the garment was architecturally unsound.

I actually finished all of the (considerable amount of) knitting before I realized the magnitude of the mistake. It was too heavy on the bottom. No amount of fudging after the fact was gonna fix that. It hung like a wet towel.

I put it away for a while. I could not quite face the sweater for some months.

But I am not one to leave projects unfinished, so finally I summoned the strength to do the necessary ripping out.

Then I set about spinning a new batch of Border Leicester (2 ply this time). And I took another run at it.

Now, at long last, I am very pleased to introduce the Experimental Sweater. (please disregard the background clutter)

Many thanks to the gray Shetland scarf who made this adventure possible.