Finished Frankie

I FINALLY...FINALLY finished the NEVER ENDING SWEATER. (03/31/12) I am SOOO relieved to have finally finished this poor sweater with its trials & tribulations. I had to rip back the finished collar and reknit it to make it taller (as I wasn't too happy with the length -- and frankly, since I had already gone through the trouble of doing so much with it...what's a little bit more?!?

Here the buttons I found at the LA Garment District. They are quasi-Egyptian, and work well with the cardigan. I alternated the round & square buttons, because I thought it looked rather cute. They are resin buttons.

I had DH snap a photo of me in it, because...I was just so elated to finally fricking finish it!

Frank, the Never Ending Sweater

I have a sweater THAT WILL NEVER END.

As anyone who reads this blog (or follows the podcast will know, I've been working on the sweater, Everybody Knows, using my lovely handspun, Frank since October 2011.

I've been having issues with this whole project -- not issues with Frank the Fleece or the actual pattern itself. BOTH are wonderful. But I have had logistical issues that have been either my fault or circumstances beyond my control

1) Not enough yarn because I decided to change the pattern I wanted to knit. I had enough for the old pattern, but not Everybody Knows. I spun enough for the body of the sweater & the collar, but didn't have enough for the sleeves.

2) 11/8/11 - 1/15/12: I spun more for the sleeves, and began knitting the sleeves.

3) 2/28/12 I "lost" one skein of Frank and was 6 inches away from finishing both sleeves. I thought I had to spin more

4) DH FOUND the lost skein, YAY

5) I discovered the armscye of the sweater is too big (that's the sweater armhole). Consequently, I have TOO much fabric around the armpit when I attach the sleeve and it bunches when I put on the sweater. I had to figure out a way to resize the armscye.

6) 3/11/12: The sleeves were too big. I derped and increased too much. I had to rip back 6 inches on both sleeves and reknit with the correct amount of increases

7) When trying to fix the armscye, I had an issue with a cat and clawss. Sufficed to say, it was ugly, and even my LYS sweater guru said..You need to rip back and reknit.

8) I rip off the collar. I undo the shoulder joins. I RIP back the right front panel to the armscye. I reknit. I rejoined the shoulders.

8) I figured out an ingenious way to fix the armscye of the other arm by making a reverse "gore". Essentially, I knit a small piece of fabric that I then grafted on that made the armscye smaller. Because it's garter stitch, you can't realy see the extra fabric.

9) I reknit the collar, then ripped it back 2x over because I didn't write directions on how to do a mandarin collar like I did the last time.

10) I attached the sleeves 4x over, because I HATE attaching sleeves and it's never a pretty thing.

And now, I'm FINALLY in the home stretch. I've attached the grosgrain ribbon to the button band, and I HAVE BUTTONS for it.

It's not going to be the prettiest sweater I've ever knitted, but it's nice and warm, and very servicable.

Just When You Think You're Done....

Sometimes, things conspire against me. Or at least that's what I tell myself to cover up my poor planning skills.

Take my Frank Sweater for instance. First, there was the never ending question of whether or not I would have enough yardage to finish the sleeves.

Then, it turns out that I had JUST enough to finish both sleeves (and yes, I did finish both sleeves) and with some yardage left over.

But now, I have another problem -- the armscye of the sweater is too big (that's the sweater armhole). Consequently, I have TOO much fabric around the armpit when I attach the sleeve and it bunches when I put on the sweater.

Luckily, I only put one sleeve on and tried it on before doing the other sleeve.

Now, I have to figure out a way to reduce the size of the armhole by at least two (2) inches. I have an idea but I'm not sure if it'll work, but even this problem might be too much for my current skillset.

I might need to go to my LYS and solicit the help of the knitting gurus. However, I don't have the time to go down there until next weekend.....which means Frank will remain undone for another week.

Maybe I should keep him as a vest? *sigh*

Saved!

Sometime yesterday, DH found my errant ball of Frank! It had falled behind & underneath a storage bench that we have in our office. It was in a plastic bag containing:

• a ball of Frank
• a half full weaving bobbin of singles
•  my test skein when I was initially trying to determine how to spin/ply Frank

(The photo doesn't do the size of the ball justice.)

DH was quite proud of himself. He had heard me bemoaning my fate with Frank (a seemingly never ending saga of spinning, knitting....finding out you're short yardage, then spinning, knitting....finding out your short yardage....) He left it on my desk to find when I got home.

I awarded his good deed with much lavish affection. Then I proceeded to finished the last 3" of one sleeve last night. I still have plenty left for the 3" of the second sleeve., which I will finish today.

Yup. Definitely Short on Frankie

I'm definitely short with Frankie. I was hoping beyond hope, but knowing deep down that I was going to be short.

* I have 3-4 yards (if that) yarn left.
* I have 3 inches left on both sleeves (6 inches total).

I tore apart my Stash area looking for that "missing" ball of Frank. I couldn't find it. At one point, I was pretty damn sure I had it. Then I was just "sure". Because, I WROTE down EXACTLY how much I had on my blog & my Ravelry page.

Now I don't know if I dreamt the whole thing, then dreamt walked/typed onto Ravelry AND my blog about this extra skein that I had. Either that or the gremlins took it...or somehow in the night, Frank the sleeveless sweater got up, took the ball and hid it (which would be difficult without sleeves).

So, I'm pretty sure I had to have dreamt the extra skein.

But, watch...after I spin up another 3 ounces of Frank, wash, and thwack the yarn, the missing ball will turn up. *sigh*

Short on Frankie.

Don't you hate it when you THINK you have one more skein of yarn left...in fact, had totally blogged about it too. But then, for the love of all things alive, you CANNOT FIND THAT SKEIN.

Meet the ever growing sleeve, and the diminishing ball of yarn.

As of this photo, I have 6" left on BOTH SLEEVES. I’ve been knitting 2 sleeves at a time using 2 cakes of yarn. And that above is for one sleeve. I might be able to use the other end of the 2nd cake and knit both, but I’m pretty damn sure it won’t be enough.

I might need to spin more. GAH

Spinning my Wheels

This past weekend was a spinning weekend. There was much needed cleaning to do, but DH insisted I not help (something about being on crutches was not helpful). So he marched me to my desk area.....where got to some serious spinning on the wheel. I had discovered (to my delight) that I could operate with one foot with only a minor bit of fiddling (as I have double treadles). So, I listened to podcasts and spun for a good chunk of the weekend.

I spun 3 ounces of Frank, then needed a little something different for a while. Digging around the Stash, I found a batt I had gotten a while ago. The colorway was "Cedar Waxwing", which I discovered is a type of bird (didn't know) that is black & gold color.

While spinning, the batt reminded me of everything from black opals to black hills gold.



3.25 oz batt. 60% merino/ 30% bamboo/10% firestar
Single: 4.5 TPI
Finished: 2ply / 166 yards / ~ 3.15 oz
18 WPI (sport / DK weight)

Just so that I wasn't completely unfaithful to Frank, I decided that I needed to spin a test swatch for Frank. So, I spun up a 3ply and a 4ply. My simply plyback tests had told me that a 3ply would work for the sweater I wanted to knit, but I wanted to make sure and there's no better way than to knit a swatch.

After plying, the samples got washed, thwacked, and dried (in the nice day sun), and afterwards were knitted into swatches.


3ply
(Before washing: sport/DK weight)
(After washing: Aran/light worsted)
Knitted Sample: 4.5 stitches/inch (18st/4 inches) on US6


4ply
(Before washing: light worseted)
(After washing: heavy worseted)
Knitted sample: 4 stitches/inch (16 stitches/4inches) on US 7/6

Both samples were very nice, although I much preferred the 3ply as the fabric because it matches the gauge for the sweater I want to knit and it has a much drapier hand. Whereas the 4ply was a bit thicker than I wanted, and could probably be made into a much thicker sweater or hat.

Frankie Baby

Currently, I'm still spinning away on Frank. Per Jasmin's spinning lessons & suggestions, I'm only spinning an ounce of fiber and transferring them to quills before spinning another ounce.

This technique works well for me, as I can easily get through an ounce in one long sitting, or 2 spinning sessions if I only have a short amount of time. However, the downside to only spinning 1 ounce at a time is seeing the HUGE PILE that is left of Frank. I am not a production spinner by any means. (Currently, I only have 12 quills (12 ounces) of Frank spun up as singles. My half of Frank is 3.25 pounds.

Tangent Math Time!
16 ounces / lb = 52 ounces = 52 quills.
I still have 40 quills left to finish before I can really start plying. (OOFDA!)

The sheer number of what I have left to finish is daunting, to say the least, but currently, I'm looking at it one quill/ounce at a time. EVENTUALLY, I'll get through Frank. And then it's a matter of plying, THEN knitting. I hope to finish my Frankie Sweater by the end of the year. Ooof.

I know that if I just plow through Frank that I could be done within a shorter amount of time, but it's a matter of having that much dedicated time. Sometimes I fear that Frank feels neglected, although I know he is a very patient ram and doesn't mind at all. He just sits there and taunts me silently with his lovely chocolately brown goodness....whispering, "spin me....."

And he is ever-so-lovely to spin.

Frank, A hiccup in our Relationship

Frank and I had a small hiccup in our relationship this past weekend. I was spinning him on Nona, at a ratio of 11:1. After spinning 1 ounce, I decided that I would put together a plyback test for 2ply, 3ply, and 4ply and then put them into my spinner study book.

This I dutifully did, and stapled them to a 4x6 card and labeled them. Then I decided to double check the weight of the yarn, using the double-over method.

It works thusly: You take your yarn, double it over, and then slide it through the hole of your knitting needle measuring guide, and that gives you a GUESTIMMATE on the actual weight of the yarn without needing a WPI tool. (Now, a WPI tool is more accurate, but you need a lot of plied yarn to test)

So, I slipped in the double strand of yarn, which gave me an approximate needle size to use. Then correlated that information to my handy-dandy chart of WPI that lists the weights and the approximate needle sizes to use different weights.

(TANGENT:I learned this nifty trick via Spin Control: Techniques for Spinning the Yarns You Wantby Amy King.)

I discovered the following about my handspun:
2plies - heavy fingering
3plies - Sport
4plies - DK weight

Of course, this totally made sense, because I had just finished plying up a 4ply cable which ended up being a sport weight yarn, and nearly everything I've 3plied on 11:1 is primarily a sport weight yarn.

HOWEVER, what I wanted was to spin Frank for an Aran weight @ 3plies so this was problematic. I didn't want to do a 5ply. However, as it was late in the evening, I decided that I would leave it, and tackle the problem in the morning.

They say that a problem can be best dealt with by sleeping on it, and letting the idea come to you. And, boy did it ever come to me. Somewhere in the land between sleep and awake, I realized that if I just changed the wheel ratio, I will be okay. After all, Judith Mackenzie teaches that if you make adjustments to the wheel (like your ratio, tension, drive band), you will be able to adjust the fiber diameter without changing anything you're doing. And who am I to argue with Judith?!

Of course, this idea wouldn't leave me alone, and it woke me up completely. (Luckily, I had a good 8 hour sleep at this point). So, first thing, I went over to my wheel, changed the ratio out to 7.25:1, and spun up about 1/2 ounce.

I did another plyback test:
2-plies - sport / DK weight
3-plies - aran
4-plies - heavy worseted

And stapled those onto a 4x6 card.

Then I compared the 3-ply with Cascade worseted weight yarn that I used to knit my Ribby Cardi. AND they were nearly identical in diameter and appearance. My handspun was just a smidge thinner, but not by much. I can work with it.

Now, Frank and I are back on track, and I'm still very much in love with him.

I'll still need do a full swatch when I have more handspun on the bobbins to do a true 3ply and a knitted swatch, but this change in ratio puts me on better track for how I want to spin Frank.

Frank: How I love thee

I recently started spinning up Frank, the fleece. it took me a while to get him, because I had to finish a project that was on my wheel (only having one singular wheel).

The old roject was using 8oz Ashland bay merino I had bought at Village Spinning & Weaving last year (around Thanksgiving)

After spinning 4oz singles, I spun up a two ply, then everything kinda languished on the wheel while I was busy with other things. I thought I might want it for a Citron shawl. But I wasn't overly happy with the 2ply, but wasn't happy with the 3ply sample either. So I decided that I should finish 2ply'ing the rest of the 4oz, AND then cable ply the other 4 oz, which turned into a sport weight 4-cable ply yarn @366 yards

I still want a purple citron shawl, BUT I think I will use this for something else, like a pair of cabled hand warmers and use some of my art yarn as an accent piece.

Now, Frank? Frank's absolutely lovely. I wouldn't say that he's butter, but he's delightful to spin, drafts very well (thank you Morro Fleeceworks), and is an absolute STUNNING rich dark chocolately brown.

He looks like a chocolate cake here, but he turns into a deeper darker brown when spun up. I love the color, and am seriously debating whether or not to dye him into another color....which almost seems a shame to waste that beautiful naturally colored dark chocolate wool.

Happiness Thy Name is Frank

Back in June, I went to the Retzlaff Winery Spinning Event, and bought Frank, a gorgeous chocolatey brown 10.5 lb merino/corriedale that I then dropped off to Morro Fleeceworks (who was at the event).

Today, Frank came in the mail. All 6.5 pounds of him.

It was like the Christmas holidays. I squee'd.

Isn't he gorgeous?!

Lisa is going to stop by on Sunday to pick up her half of Frank. I so can't wait to spin him, but I have to wait until I finish up two already-on-the-bobbins project, because, well, I don't have any empty bobbins or quills.

Spinning at the Winery

This past Saturday was a spinning event at a local winery, the Retzlaff Vineyards‎, which was an extremely fun day, and which I learned a few things, including the basics of looking at a given fleece (thank you Jasmin!)

There were plenty of vendors there, selling an assortment of fibers, spinning supplies, and finished yarns. I picked up a absolutely gorgeous chocolatey brown 10.5 lb merino/corriedale fleece (from a ram named Frank) that I am splitting with another person (which we promptly dropped off at Morro Fleeceworks across the way for processing -- because I just don't feel the need to do all that work myself.)

I also picked up some very yummy fiber from Morro Fleeceworks in gorgeous colors that I'm die'ing to start spinning immediately.

And, while there, there was a little bit of wine (just a glass of port) and I managed to spin up 1oz of the Targhee that I had brought with me (which I'll review later as part of my Spinner's Study.