Friday, January 30, 2009

"E" is for

Estonian Lace. Oh my. Have you seen this new book? I might have to get this, as I am wild about the lily-of-the-valley lace pattern. This book has that pattern knit in every possible permutation. (I guess it's called 'nupps') It takes my breath away. I looked, but our library doesn't have it. That's okay, my LYS has it, and I looked through it Friday at knit night. Whew.


Estonian knitting sure seems to be an amazing wealth of perfected techniques! Their well-documented culture of knitting has given so much to us. I am experiencing the knit-in braid on the Bird in Hand mittens, and it's kinda neat to see how that's formed. Though I'd like it better in a looser gauge I'm sure. Just sayin'....

I'd love to investigate the other Estonian knit techniques.

E is for "energized singles." Don't you love that phrase? I want to open a martini bar with that name!!!

I got up this AM(Jan 25) at 1:15 when DH came to bed, and since I'd already slept 5 hours, I started spinning. Go figure. This was the night to do it, after a 4-6 month hiatus!

I picked up again spinning this lovely Merino 4 oz top,

and finished it up.


Then I plied it.

My lumpy crazy yarn will be a collector's item someday, I'm sure, as it is AWFUL! So irregular--I better get practicing. Once every 6 months is no way to better your technique :)

Anyway, it was fun, and I am looking forward to knitting this stuff up someday, into something warm and soft.

Maybe a hat. How far will 4 oz go in this DK-to-bulky thick/thin yarn...? My guess on the yardage after spinning--about 80 yards.

This is not something I've done before, so I'm not sure if that's accurate. But I just measured: one trip around my niddy-noddy, when wrapped correctly, yields 2 yards.

My finished yarn totalled 55 trips around the niddy-noddy, which at 2 yards each, ought to give me some 110 yds total. But the yarn was really stretched out on the niddy-noddy; once off that tool, it sprang back quite a bit. So I'm guessing my yarn to be 1-1/2 yards each trip around instead...~80 yds.

Hopefully enough for one hat :)


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3 comments:

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Anonymous said...

Pretty plied yarn! Energized singles sounds like a great name for a bar.

Buy the book! buy the book! You can't go wrong w/Nancy Bush.

dogquilter said...

ooooh pretty spinning!! love the color and the thick and thin yarn ;)