Over the Elbow

Here is a Fingerless Glove fresh off the sock machine.

You can see I have two places to finish off by hand - the partial thumb and the open end of the hand/finger section.

The pale pink yarn is the scrap yarn I finished on the machine with, and it will hold my stitches in place until I get the darning needle out.

On the partial thumb you can see my end is on the top corner of the thumb strip. So I'll darn my way across the top edge - going two stitches forward/one stitch back to give me my beading edge, and then I'll carry on with a blanket stitch joining the two side together. Finally, I'll weave the end in.

On the hand I finish with a beading stitch. (I made that name up - I'm sure there's a 'real' name for it but I don't know about these things!)

And this is a close up of the finished edges. And you can get a good look at the gusset in this pic as well.

And this is the finished Over the Elbow Fingerless Glove, modelled by DW.

The yarn is Lorna's Laces Shepherd Sport, colour Rainbow. It is more or less equivalent to a 6 ply yarn.

And here is another sample using the same pattern, and this time with Opal 6 ply colour #1710 (which is a colourway match to the popular 4 ply colour #5001).

A finished pair - well, almost finished - they aren't washed and blocked yet.

The Lorna's pair took about a ball and a half of Shepherd Sport (one ball = ~70g) and the Opal pair took about 4/5 of a 150 g ball. So - 120ish grams for a pair.

My tension varies a little in the knitting of these beasties. I begin at 5/4 turns looser than my standard 4 ply sock yarn setting and I do the short pico hem top and 70 rows at that setting.

Then, approximately where the wrist should be, I tighten the tension 2/4 turns, knit 30 rows, and then tighten the tension 1/4 more turn and knit another 30 rows. That takes me to just where the hand will begin.

I loosen the tension 2/4 turns and knit 30 rows, the gusset and the thumb, and the first ten rows of the fingers, and then tighten the tension 2/4 for the final 25 rows - the finger section.

This mucking about with tension gives a little bit of shaping, if not visually, at least by feel.

Keeper of the Gate

You haven't seen Jesse for a while.... here he is enjoying the dog days of summer, guarding 'the gate'.

Gusset and Thumb

Here's how I make a thumb with a gusset on the sock machine, 54 needle cylinder. In this example I'm making a fingerless glove with a partial thumb using Lorna's Laces Shepherd SPORT, colour Rainbow.

Before the first picture, I've knit my cuff of choice - in this case a 25 row mock rib hem with a pico edge - and then I've changed to stockinette stitch (all needles in)and knit 30 rows for the lower hand.

Stopping with my yarn carrier at 6 o'clock, I raise out of work the needles I will NOT knit the gusset with. I start by raising the 4th needle beyond the left side red hash mark, and I raise all the needles clockwise around until I hit the right side yellow mark.

This leaves 22 needles in work, and 32 needles OUT of work.

Now, I simply knit back and forth on the 22 needles.

Watchpoint:

The stitch by my arrow did NOT knit - you can see the two loops on the needle, meaning there are two stitches. This is a common boo boo on the first stitch in each pass. It is easily corrected by flipping the bottom loop over the top one with your pic tool.

If some of these boo boo stitches slip by you, its not the end of the world or of the glove. The stitch won't run on you, but it will make hanging the gusset stitches a little more frustrating. (See later.)

Here, I've knit 24 rows on the 22 needles (so, back and forth 12 times).

Heel weights are a bit tricky here - I use two sets and I move them up every 6 rows to keep the tension even on this wide band.

The 24 rows is arbitrary to my own pattern - it will give me enough for a gusset and half a thumb.

You can see I've cut my yarn and left myself a very generous tail.

Now I knit 10 or so rows of scrap yarn (to hold the last row on the knitted strip from unravelling), cut the scrap yarn leaving a tail, and then I give one crank around one turn machine which runs the stitches off the machine.

Forming the Gusset

I take the stitches from the SIDES of the strip I just finished and I hang them on the empty needles. I am taking the side of the loop of each stitch - not the bar/purl of the stitch.

I start the left side at 9 o'clock and work towards 6 o'clock.

Since I had 22 needles knitting, I'm going to hang stitches from the left side on 11 (half) of them.

But I knit 24 rows and I've only got 11 needles to hang on!

So I hang only the first 11 stitches from that side. The remainder of the stitches will form the sides of the thumb.

(That little watch point I mentioned above - if you've got some doubled stitches its a little more difficult to find the edge of the loop and/or you may be short a stitch or two. No biggie - just try to make sure both sides come out evenly. Do that by skipping a stitch or doubling up a stitch to cheat it out.)

And here I've repeated the same process with the right side - starting at 3 o'clock and working my way to 6 o'clock. If I've got an extra stitch I'll hang it with the final stitch from the other side.

(It doesn't matter if you do the right side first and the left side second - it's arbitrary.)

And you can see the left over stitches have now formed up to make a partial thumb.

When the rest of the glove is finished and off the machine I will use the long tail I left when I cut the yarn for two things: to finish an edge on the top of the thumb before I take off the scrap yarn, and then to blanket stitch the open side of the thumb together.

I finish the top edge of the thumb as I would the open end of an arm warmer - darn the tail through the last stitch that knit and work my way around going two stitches forward, one stitch back.

To complete knitting - I start back with the sock yarn at 9 o'clock and EVER SO CAREFULLY knit slowly to about 6 o'clock, then put down all the needles and (STILL EVER SO CAREFULLY) knit around the machine. For my own pattern I do about 35 rows, leave a long tail, knit some scrap rows and run the glove off the machine. I finish the open end as with the thumb.

The only difference between this and MITTS - knit a few more rows on the thumb so it is long enough to suit, and knit a toe after the 35 rows post thumb. Kitchener both.

L'il Rascals

L'il Rascals Biff and Maggie are enjoying a nice graze in the shade.

With 27 degrees and high humidity, its a good plan.

Only problem?

The flock is three fields (and three sets of electric fence) away!

The L'il Rascals must have followed me home last night. I turn the fence off while I do my chores and turn it back on when I'm done. They must have done their sneakin' betwixt and between!

Thankfully Wile E didn't see them last night.

They are safe back in their paddock now. (Safe is always a relative term...)

More unsocks....

I knit some more fingerless gloves. Today I used Lorna's Laces Shepherd SPORT, which is comparable to a 6 ply. The colour in this sample is Jeans.

The pattern is a good fit for my man hands. The lengths of cuff hand and thumb are also pretty good on DW's girly hands, although the fit is a little looser than I'd like. (Mind you, I haven't washed and blocked the sample yet.)

I just started to type out my pattern for today's blog and I realize it won't make much sense without some pictures. Either that or it will take a few thousand extra words to explain something that isn't all that difficult!

So I'll save that for another day!

In the dye pot....

This is my 60% wool 30% bamboo 10% nylon fingering weight sock yarn, ~ 400 y/100+g

Today's colour: Evergreen. Randomly variegated: mostly mid tones with a few light values which give the colour (IMVHO)added depth.

An Exciting Day

Today has been quite an exciting day. But you'll have to stay tuned to this blog to find out why.....

Trekking and Unsocks

I knit this pair of XL socks on the Verdun 47; 72 needle cylinder. Tension was set 1/4 turn looser than my normal sock yarn setting to give a little extra room for the XL feet.

The yarn is Trekking XXL, colour # 78. The little bit on the left is what I had left over - less than 2 g from the 100 g ball.

I like most of the Trekking colours, but this is one I particularly like.

These socks are so big... (how big are they???)... that I couldn't get the entire sock length within the focal range on my camera!

(Note that I didn't blame the camera.)

This is a proto type fingerless glove; first edition ;o)

I knit this on the Legare 400, 54 needle cylinder, using my own 100% lambs wool, sport weight. (Even though this is a sport weight yarn, and I have to loosen my tension one full turn from my 4 ply setting, it knits up at 7 - 8 stitches and 10 - 11 rows per inch.) The colours are left over from my Lolli Socks.

I need to borrow some girly hands to try this on. On my big square man hands its a little small. It 'fits' but thing ends right where my fingers meet my palm.

I want to try some variations in length, and in finishing the ends.

And in the dye pot

This is my own 60% wool 30% bamboo 10% nylon sock yarn; ~ 400 y:100+g.

It is dyed a variegated Charcoal Grey in medium tones, with Prochem Washfast Acid Dye.

And here is the same skein of sock yarn, set in between two skeins of my pure wool worsted weight yarn. All are dyed Charcoal Grey. The top skein was at full dose, and the bottom skein at 'just a smidge'.

Thankfully I got a new yarn swift from LYS. I got her last one. It's the same as the one of mine that died on the week-end.

It's not nice to be without a yarn swift, even if only for a few days.

Squawk Ack Lolli Yikes

Squawk!

Every year the swallows build one or two nests near the back door. They make quite a mess, but they eat a zillion bugs so I consider them a valuable part of the farm eco-system.

(I confess I'm not at all sure if all the poop attracts more bugs than they eat or not!)

There are 5 babies in the nest, and as is the case every year, three adults who all take equal turns with the duties. I don't know if this is a monogamous couple and bachelor uncle who return each year, or if swallows just work in threes.

Ack!

My cheapo (relative term) yarn swift bit the dust on the weekend. It doesn't owe me anything, having wound or unwound thousands of skeins, and no doubt it wasn't intended for quasi-commercial use.

The little rivets on the umbrella framework have all popped over the past few years and been replaced with pieces of twist tie from garbage bags. But this time the whole kit and caboodle blew apart.

Lolli!

If you've been with me for a year, you'll recognise this theme. These are Lolli Socks, knit with my own 2 ply sport weight 100% lambs wool. These were a hit at the shows last year so I'm on another binge.

Because the yarn is not blended, I reinforce the heels and toes with Wooly Nylon (serger thread).

Yikes!
The next big craft show is less than two weeks away and another show two weeks after that.

Socks have been flying off the machine but I don't have a lot of pictures since I'm in Production Mode.

(Production is another word for panic!)

Most of the shows I attend are 3 - 10,000 people. Anticipated attendance at the next show (first time for us) is 250 000.

Squawk, Ack, Lolli, Yikes!

Looking in All the Right Places

Biff and Maggie are in this crowd somewhere. It can be difficult to spot one or two amongst hundreds.

I don't see them.

Maybe I'll try the water trough. Like their human counterparts, some are apt to spend a lot of time hanging by the water cooler.

Nope. I don't see them there either.

Oh, there they are:

There's Biff on the left and Maggie on the right, grazing some tender re-growth where I weed-whacked along the electric fence two weeks ago.

I tried to check on them without them seeing me, but got busted. They poked around at me for a few minutes, looking for a bottle and getting only a bit of gooching on the chins, and after a bit they were content to carry on grazing.

Weaning: Successful.

(You may notice that Maggie has a full tail. Biff doesn't. Generally speaking I dock tails within 24 hours of birth. Full tails can be a nightmare for a sheep if they get a poopy bum and it all gums up - fly strike waiting to happen. But if a lamb is weak at birth, or stressed out, or abandon, or I don't find them til they are older than one day, then I don't dock them. It's a judgement call.)

And on the sock machine....

I found three 100 g balls of Opal 5001 I forgot I had secreted away.

This is possibly one of the most popular Opal colourways, and one of the very few that were re-released.

This pair is Size Medium, knit on the Legare 400, 54 needle cylinder.

And this is one of two pairs, also Size Medium, but with beads. I applied the beads during knitting. They are 6 mm wood pony beads in green, purple, orange, blue, yellow, and red.

After knitting the three pairs from 2 of the 100 g balls I still have 40 grams left - enough for a pair of arm warmers, or kids socks.

And from the third ball:

This pair is Size XL and is knit on the Verdun 47, 72 cylinder. For XL I loosen my tension 1/4 turn compared to my 'normal' tension for a Size Large sock on the 72 needle cylinder.

My XL has my standard 40 row hem top, 95 rows in the leg, and 90 rows in the foot. (So, 15 rows more in the foot than my Large.)

These would fit a Man's 11.5 to 13 wide, or up to a 14 regular.

Note in the picture that I have 5 grams leftover from 100 g. I'm pleased with this - with some yarns its a hard slog to squeak an XL pair and I don't usually attempt it unless I have another ball or remnant at the ready.

And from the Dye Pot

This is my Mulberry Bamboo from the other day. My 60% wool, 30% bamboo, 10% nylon, dyed variegated-monotone with Prochem's washfast acid dye, colour Mulberry. 400y:110g

More Bamboo

Yet another hard to photograph colourway!

This is actually a blend of soft Olive Greens and Deep Sea Blues. I think I'll call it Mediterranean.

The fingering weight yarn is my own 60% wool, 30% bamboo and 10% nylon; ~400 yds/110 g.

And here is another batch cooling in the dye pot: this is Mulberry. The red is a little bluer in person.

And while the Mulberry is setting, another batch gets skeined up off the cone for the next exercise.

Gee, the colours came out ok in this last shot ;o)

And of course, spending the afternoon at the dyepot means

The morning's toes go un-kitchenered!

Biff and Maggie go Cold Turkey

Today, Biff and Maggie are weaned.

No photos as I am staying away from their paddock for the day - my presence without a bottle would torment even more than my absence! Tomorrow I'll see if I can spy on them without them seeing me, to make sure they are ok.

The pre-weaning tests for bottle lamb weaning have all been passed:
1. Are they at least 30 days old?
2. Have I seen them drink water with my own eyes?
3. Have I seen them eat/graze with my own eyes?
4. Are they pooping 'normally' (not scouring).

Washfast Acid Dyes

I use, almost exclusively, Washfast Acid Dyes for my yarn dye work, whether by hand or in the pot.

I chose them because of their performance reputation as far as light-fastness and wash-fastness go.

There are dyes that are reputed to give a more level (even) result, and there are all-in-one type dyes (RIT, One Shot) where the mordant and levelling agents are included in the mix, so you have only one thing to measure.

But for me the light and wash fastness were more important. And I like the fact that I have to add the mordant and levelling agent because this gives me two variables to fiddle with, to change the result of the dye. Especially doing variegated yarns.

I use citric acid (lemon) as my mordant, and salt as my levelling agent. And the washfast acid dyes are non toxic. So I don't have any nasty leftovers to dispose of.

I shied away from natural dyes because those that I read of required really scary mordants that gave you a toxic grey water to deal with at the end of the process.

(I've read, including on Freshisle Fibers blog, a few favourable opinions that there environmentally friendly ways to natural dye - it's on my list to research more.)

By the number of little bottles in my picture, you can tell that I don't mix my dyes from primary colours from scratch. Although you may also recall from my Museum Chair project, that I have begun to dabble a little.

There is one thing I use RIT dye for - skin tone. I've not been able to come close to the result I get with RIT (a recipe using Tan and Rose).

Art in the Garden

On the weekend I attended an art sale held at Keppel Croft Farm and Gardens, which is near Wiarton, Ontario, on the Bruce Peninsula (separating Lake Huron from Georgian Bay.) My sister was an artist vendor and I went to check it out.

What an beautiful setting. The gardens are an amazing combination of plants, rocks, sculptures, ponds, and art work. And one day each July they invite approximately 30 local artists to set up their works, with the artists peppered here and there throughout the grounds.

Most astounding - the bulk of the work was done by one couple.

Meanwhile, back at the home farm...

With the abundance of rain and warm weather, and the resulting jungle of grass... the lambs are growing like weeds. Check out this set of twins (not yet 100 days old) with their mother.

Poor mama has almost as many pounds of lamb on her udder as she has pounds of mama on her ownself!

Polygamy

I'm beginning to understand polygamy.

I don't know much about its history. But I'm pretty sure the first guy had a sock machine.

Certainly one solution to all these piles of un-kitchenered socks.

This week, I've been knitting sockettes.

Even though I swear, repeatedly, that I will reform my behaviour of knitting stacks of socks before tackling the toes, I keep reverting to old habits.

And basically knit til I drop ;o)

But until polygamy is legalized in Canada, or until I move to Bountiful, British Columbia where they don't care if its legal...I eventually have to sit in a chair wearing magnifying glasses, and close the suckers.

This is a pair of sized Medium +. Normally I knit this size on the 72 cylinder, but in this case I knit them, intended as a Medium (regular) on the 54 needle cylinder.

The yarn is my own 1 ply soft spun (little twist)that is 70 % wool and 30% nylon. I dyed it a low value of variegated black. The yarn is actually a single ply version of the plies that are combined into my 2 ply sport yarn.

I thought as a single it would be comparable to 4 ply. It 'seems' a wee tad thicker than 4 ply, but it knits a little looser - so, voila, a Medium +.

If you are familiar with Briggs and Little Toughy, this is along the same line of character, though I have it spun at a different mill.

You'll recognise these old friends of mine: Lorna's Laces Shepherd Sock colours Jeans, Flamingo, and Winona.

And here's a few Trekking XXL colours I haven't knit in a while: colours, from the left, 109, 159, and 166.

These little guys actually take longer to knit than a 'regular' pair of socks, although clearly they use less yarn.

I can easily get one pair out of Lorna's; and easily two pair out of Trekking 100 g.

The Pattern:

On the 54 cylinder, set in a 2:1 mock rib. Tension as for 4 ply sock yarn.

Knit 10 rows.

Set up for pico (hang first stitch in each pair of needles onto the second needle).

Knit one round to make the pico.

Knit 10 rows.

Hang the hem (first row knit, onto last row knit)

Knit two rows.

Replace the missing needles, and pick the bar of a stitch onto each newly replaced needle from its neighbour. (This is the part that takes a little longer than regular sock pattern I use.)

Knit 13 rows.

Turn heel.

Knit 60 rows. (For size Medium; 50 rows for size Small.)

Turn toe.

Throw in a pile to kitchener the toe at some much later date....

Magic Wand

This is Tall Fescue. In North America this is a very common grass used in lawns. Some varieties contain endophytes which can be problematic with livestock, so when used as a pasture grass it is best to select an endophyte-free variety.

I have a large pasture seeded in same, along with some trefoil and other legumes. And it is into one third of this pasture that the flock moved on Monday.

By Tuesday morning they had cleaned out the legumes and were left with the fescue, which is currently about 4 - 5 feet tall and very leafy.

This is a Pasture Metre.

The little cylinder on top of the handle of this 'walking stick' is a mini computer, and the length of the shaft is a sensor.

By walking across a paddock with this stick, I can get a reading of how much 'dry matter' (actual feed value not including water content) per acre is in the sward. The computer tells me with a series of beeps based on an average it caluclates when I press a button to tell it I'm ready for a reading.

Since I know how much a sheep needs to eat during a day, and I know how many sheep I have, I can then calculate how many more days of grazing should be left in the sward.

All very high tech sheep farming.

Then I attended a seminar by famed (in sheep circles) western Canadian rancher Peter Schroedter, and he offered a much simpler method:

"When the sheep bawl, move them in three days. "

The method works in every situation but Fescue. For some reason the sheep hate it. They will eat it when nothing else remains but they are NOT PLEASED.

So this morning when I took Maggie and Biff their bottles, the entire flock came roaring over to the gate and stood there bawling at me. (Stood there in 4 feet of grass bawling that there is nothing to eat!)

So, in Fescue, the Magic Walking Stick is the final judge. (Or semi-function eyes and some years of experience.)

Its Too Bad the magic stick doesn't do other things,

like close the toes on the socks I knit yesterday.

Farming-Trumps-Knitting Monday

Here are my bottle babies, Maggie on the left, and Biff.

They've been on pasture with the main flock for two weeks now and are gradually becoming sheep. They are grazing, thankfully, and have figured out that the water trough will provide some refreshment between visits from 'mom' (me) and their daily bottle.

They will be weaned when the bag of milk replacer runs out, probably late this week or early next.

Yesterday was a big day for the flock, including Maggie and Biff, as they drifted to a new paddock. (Can you spot Norman, my dark brown guard llama in the tall grass?)

You can see that I have mowed three rounds around the paddock so the lambs and gather to meet their mothers. But with this move I also had to use the weed-eater and trim the thick growth from along the electric fence.

The growth was so thick it was draining the charge value from the fence. At full value it will kick out 10 000 volts at 15 joules. It takes, on average, about 3500 volts to keep a sheep in, and about 5000 volts to keep a coyote out.

(The electric fencer delivers a pulsating current, so if you touch it you get a nano-second shock. Not like sticking your finger in a light socket and being 'held' by the ongoing current.)

When the flock moves to a new paddock, their first order of business is to re-connect mothers and offspring after the move, and to locate the water trough and mineral tubs.

Each paddock has its own water location, and I don't vary it. The older girls know exactly where to look, and they teach the younger ones.

The Red Currants came on about a week ago. The bush is now absolutely THICK with berries. I can't image what we will do with so many. And I can't imagine picking so many. (Actually, I can't imagine picking any - DW does that!)

Jesse is guarding the currant bush. Lest the #$#$#&**(*@# robins decimate the crop the way they do with our cherries!

It was a long sweltering day, working in field yesterday, so I had a bit of a giggle at this Global Warming pic I saw online....