I’ve finally gotten around to taking a photo of my finished Absinthe socks.

I knit them in the smaller size (56 stitches), but did add some stitches along the way.  On the foot, I only moved 2 stitches total from N2 to N1, giving me 30 on N1 and 26 on N2.  When I was in the foot chart, I increased one stitch in each of the two center cables on row 5.  To me, it created a smoother increase in the foot.  I knit the rest of the foot with 32 (N1) and 26 (N2) stitches.  I reduced two stitches in the sole before starting the heel so that I returned to 56 total.  As I progressed up the leg, I increased every once and a while (based upon fit), and the cuff was worked on 60 stitches.

Most of the errors were updated at Knitty last time I checked, so knitting them should be a little easier now.

I decided to post about how I spun my fiber for the local spin-along that I mentioned in an earlier post.

First, I decided to divide each of the colors in half by weight so that I had two piles with equal color amounts.  In each pile was 0.5 ounces of the blue and screaming green, and 1 ounce of the tropics color.

I took one of the piles and decided to divided it further, and set the other aside. I visually divided the screaming green and blue into four equal sections.  I created eight equal sections of tropics.  Then, I combined the colors into four bundles, each consisting of 2 tropics, 1 screaming green, and 1 blue.

I then took the strips and twisted them into small balls of roving. I may just have to post a few photos of them because they were so fun to photograph.

I then repeated the steps with the second half of the roving, and ended up with eight bundles.

My plan for spinning was to use a short-forward draw.  I’ve developed my own natural backwards draw, and I still struggle with the short-forward draw (which seems to be the way that most people are taught to spin), so I wanted to challenge myself to spin all of it using that technique and see how it goes.  I wanted to spin four of the eight bundles onto each of two different bobbins and then ply them together.

For the actual spinning I held a bit of all colors of the roving in my hand at the same time and spun them.  Sometimes I drafted the colors separately, and sometimes I drafted them blended.  In the end, I was trying to create some gradual color changes in the final yarn.  This is what it looked like on the two bobbins.  At this point in the spinning, it felt stiff and wiry.

Once I plied it, it softened up a bit.  It wasn’t as wiry as it was as a single.  When plying, I made an effort to use a lower amount of twist in the ply then I usually do.  I definitely have less twist, but I think I like my high-twist plying that I usually make.  I love how the bobbin got a stout barrel shape with all of the yarn plied on it.

I found it interesting while plying that a lot of my screaming green areas seemed to meet up and be plyed together.  I’m not sure how this happened, because it happend much less frequently with the blue.

After soaking the yarn, it became even softer than it had been after plying.  There are even some fluffy parts.  In the end, it’s 140 yards of 10 WPI yarn.

I’m suprised by how much the green and blue are still prevalent in the final yarn, I was really thinking that they would have blended together more effectively.

You can see some areas of the yarn where there was some barberpole effect with the green and blue.

This yarn has so much halo and fuzziness. It almost made it hard to photograph.

I’ve learned a few things while spinning this.  This is the first time that I’ve actually spun roving; almost everything else I’ve spun has been commercial combed top.  It’s definitely different, and drafting seemed harder for me.  I had to slow down my wheel to the lowest ratio to try and spin.  My worsted, short-forward draw is not reliable at all.  I got a lumpy, somewhat inconsistent yarn.  I’ll definitely need to practice more in the future.

I’m anxious to see how this yarn knits up.

Jim’s been helping out on a local farm by pruning fruit trees and other things he wants to learn how to do.  The farm that he’s at also has sheep, and for a while I’ve wanted to see the sheep.  On Thursday, I got out of work a few minutes early.  Jim was still at the farm, so I finally went over to meet the sheep.  They’re Shropshire sheep, which the farm raises primarily for the meat.  But, she does have some people that request the fleeces.  We may go over and help on shearing day.

Perhaps it’s just my suburban upbringing, but I find visiting the sheep so much fun.  I used my cell phone to grab a few photos of the lambs.  Most of them were born in January, so they’re already getting big.