Finished Stuff Links!

Handspun
ValJean - 568y of n-ply fingering weight
Cosette - 560y of n-ply fingering weight
Marius - 436y of n-ply sport/dk weight

Socks
Helix in 10nant - 333 yards
Scylla in Callington - 385 yards
Resoleable socks in Cloud (and Strelitzia) - 244 yards
Hermione’s Everyday socks in ValJean - 341y
Boot Socks in Marius - 293y
Lace Cuff anklets in Cosette - 400y

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Linky to some handspun socks info
Proposal!

Potions/Arithmancy. A study in Hand-spun socks

Potions, Option 2:

NEWT requirements: Clean and card 700+g of raw-off-the-sheep fiber, dye it if desired, and then spin 180+g.

My plan: Clean and card my 1.4kg fleece (Romney) and make three lots of experimental sock yarn mixes using
120g of fleece and 30g of kid mohair (3x50g batts)
120g of fleece and 30g of tencel (3x50g batts)
120g of fleece and 15g each of kid mohair and tencel (3x50g batts)

Spin each of these into a 3ply sock yarn (as thinly as able), aiming for 250-300y per skein (2250-2700y total singles.)

Arithmancy Option 2

NEWT requirements: Create multiples (at least 10) of the same object.

My plan: take the following handspun yarns

1. “Marius” -Romney/mohair. #1 NEWT spin (209g, 436y)
2. “ValJean” -Romney/tencel. #2 NEWT spin (168g, 568y)
3. “Cosette” -Romney/mohair/tencel. #3 NEWT spin (183g, 560y)
4. “Cloud” -BFL/Mohair/Angora/Merino spun in May (130g, 150y) (with extra handspun from the stash as needed)
5. “Callington” -BFL/Mohair I spun in July (200g, 480y)
6. “10nant” -merino/nylon I spun in July (167g, 370y)

and knit them into 6 pairs of socks that will fit my 25cm foot. Yardage: 250-300y each = 1500-1800y

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25% = Fleece washed and carded and mixed.
5% = A spun skein of sock yarn (three of these)
10% = A pair of knitted socks (six of these)

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August 1. Proposed my first NEWT! Bagged up my greasy fleece into 14 100g-bags. Washed 5 of them in the bath, two in mesh ‘delicates’ bags, 2 in a wire basket duo and one in a plastic colander. I think I’ll use all mesh bags next time. Put the five through a soak (unicorn scour), then a rinse, and then a soak again. Left them to drain overnight.

August 2. Pot dyeing today with my Ashford dye set.
Lot 1. Scarlet. Dyed in a small pot (too small) starting cold.
Lot 2. Purple. Dyed in a big pot, starting cold.
Lot 3. Rust. Same as lot 2 except with the help of a 4yo.
All now towel-squeezed and drying on racks in the bath.

August 3. It’s sunny! Mostly-dry Lots 1&2 are on the shelf, Lot 3 is hanging on the clothesline, and I have been dyeing with Jaz again.
Lot 4. Yellow
Lot 5. Blue
Did some more washing (3 lots), in the pot/sink.
Lot 6. Emerald. Pale because I forgot vinegar until I was tipping it out and thinking, “there’s a lot of color left in the water…”
Lot 7. Dark Green. Mix of Green and Black. Ended up fairly grey.
Lot 8. Brown. My favorite so far! Just the color of chocolate.

August 4. Out of vinegar :( Washed six lots in the sink. Got some vinegar later, and dyed
Lot 9. Light blue
Toe of sock 1

August 5. More dyeing :)
Lot 10. Black
Lot 11. Darker red : red with a bit of brown and black.
Foot of sock 1 on night shift :)

August 6. Started carding lot 1. Got half done when the phone rang… forgot about night shift! Oops! No more NEWT tonight.

Aug 7. Have been knitting Helix socks with 10nant on night shift. First one is almost up to the heel turn.

August 8. Have carded two lots today, bringing the total to 4. Have been keeping the scraps from cleaning the carder, too.

August 9. Was going to have a Ravellenic Day, but ended up carding the blue as well ;)

Aug 11. Carded the light blue and the purple. Paid attention to the clock for the latter, and it took 1.5 hours. (So about 21 hours for the 14 batts).

Aug 14. Carded lots 8 and 11 (brown and red-brown).

Aug 15. Carded lots 7 and 10, and most of the ‘fawn’ ones :)

Aug 16. I’ve carded a whole fleece! Here are the stats:
Lot / grams/ color
1 77g Scarlet
2 72g Purple
3 69g Rust
4 70g Yellow
5 72g Blue
6 66g Emerald
7 66g Green/gray
8 67g Brown
9 74g Light blue
10 67g Red/brown
11 74g Black
12-14 208g Fawn (natural)

total - 982g

Then spent the evening combining 5 colors with mohair. I took about half of each of lots 1, 2, 5, 9 and 10, and mixed them one by one with mohair. Found it best to spread a thin square of wool, cover it with a thin layer of mohair, roll up, and then stretch lengthways before putting it through the carder. Then I took the batt off and put it through one more time. Ended up with 210g of romney/mohair 80/20.

Aug 17. Oh, how I hate trying to card tencel into stuff! It’s stupid rotten stuff that’s just… soft and shimmery, dammit. I had to put the mix through the carder three or four times each. And quite a bit of the tencel came off on the small roller, but it’s roughly 80/20. Sigh. So I made a brown batt, a green batt, a grey-green batt and one that was a mix of yellow and fawn with a teeny touch of leftover brown and green. 174g. Also, I added the slightest pinch of angelina in each, silver in the greens and gold in the yellow and brown. That made me happy. Sparkle. Woot!

Aug 18. Carded two batts of plain with some tencel and mohair and specks of all the scraps from cleaning the carder, little color smudges :) for fun. But my hand is aching from all that cranking. Time for a rest.
later: I did card one more batt: a black one, with a bit of color specks.

Aug 19. Right hand nerves are still prickling. lol. Want to do the other black one later tonight, though. Then Stage One will be complete!
Later: Done. The “black and white” with color smudges weighs 188g.

Naming Ceremony (ba ba baah)

• Marius: 210g of romney/mohair in red/purple/blue
• ValJean: 174g of romney/tencel in green/gold/brown
• Cosette:188g of romney/tencel/mohair in natural and charcoal

Can you tell which book I’m reading? lol.

August 20. Spinning some extra 10nant so I can make socks instead of anklets. Silly yardage. Added 47g/90y.

Aug 22. Spinning! Spun the fawn Cosette for 2.5 hours. 39g. At this rate my Cosette will take 12 hours.

Aug 23. Cosette: 57g spun, 131g to go.

Aug 24. Cosette: All the “fawn” spun. Total of 304.3m/332.8y (navajo-ply) or 912.9m/998.4y of singles :D -About 20-22 WPI. Thinner than I meant to spin it! Still not the yardage of a normal fingering weight yarn, though. I must spin densely…

Aug 27. Cosette: 48g of the Charcoal spun into singles, 37g left. Have been working on socks, too.

Aug 30. Finished the charcoal of Cosette. 83g = 227.4y/207.9m of 3ply and 682.2y/623.7m of singles. (If it was 100g the singles would have been 821y, so it’s a little thicker than the fawn, about 18-20WPI). Total Cosette: 560y of 3ply, 183g.

August 31. Started ValJean. Have divided it into 10 repeats of the color sequences, 5 repeats per sock. Have spun 3 repeats today, so about 50g. Phew.

Sept 3. Finished half of the ValJean, about 70% of one pair of socks and about 40% of another.

Sept 7. Finished the ValJean singles. Will ply tomorrow.

Sept 8. ValJean is finished :)
Total ValJean: 568y of 3 ply, 168g

Sept 10. Finished the Helix socks with 10nant. Handed in 50%!

Sept 14. Onto the cuff of one Scylla, and started the Marius. Not spinning this one so thinly because the mohair is a bit lumpy :) and I don’t want to buy or use 1.5mm needles for socks! Am doing this one with a block of each color, so the toe should be blue, then light blue, purple, red and red-brown.

Sept 15. Finished the first half of the Marius. Ended up getting 196.4y/179.5m of n-ply out of 109g. Wow… relax a little bit because you have more than 200g, and your yardage plummets! It’s a nice tight twist, though, and the thickness will be warm :)

Sept 19. Started sock 4/12. Started last half of Marius.

Sept 22. Finished and plied up Marius. Second skein was thinner than the first (lol) but the two together are 436y of 3-ply, 209g.

Sept 29. Sick of Scylla, so I’ve picked up the Cloud and some Strelitzia (handspun in green, yellow and red) to do Resoleable Socks. Interesting construction, and quick and thick, but my hands are sore from knitting thick yarn at a tight gauge.

October 10. Finished Scylla in the Callington

October 15. Done most of Resoleables, but decided to do some HEDS for a change of scenery :)

October 18. Finished the Resoleable socks. Now all the socks from the prespun yarn are done… as is my 75% goal! Woot!

Oct 23. Finished one of the Hermione socks and am half way up the feet of the Boot Socks doing TAAT.

Oct 26. Time for a countdown! 5 socks and 35 days to go!

Nov 1. Finished Hermione’s last night.

Nov 2. 4 socks to finish, 29 days to go. Boot socks are both up to the ankle :)

Nov 10. Stalled for a week to play Quidditch (300-ish points are worth it!) and now have 21 days for 2 socks and 2 legs. Should be able to finish the Boot Socks in 2 days. Still don’t know what pattern to use the Cosette for…

Nov 11. Knit all last evening and did about 8 rounds. Bored! So I cast on new socks today. Cosette is going to be lace cuff anklets with a fairisle foot.

Nov 14. Boot socks in Marius are done. 16 days left for the Lace cuff anklets. The fairisle is slow, but worthwhile :)

Nov 26. Lace cuff anklets are done at last! Timed this NEWT well, I think. The cuff turnover makes the leg about as long as a normal sock, anyway, and with the colorwork it ended up being 400y.

On to NEWT number Two!!! :)