The Knitting Developer

A knitting, development, and general geekery blog.

The Knitting Developer - A knitting, development, and general geekery blog.

Category Archives: Spinning

Craft Night: My Goals

My goals when I started knitting were humble. Well, as humble as a knee length red dress knit in 2×2 ribbing can be. I wanted to learn how to knit, and just be able to use some of my leisure time as productive time. The dress that originally inspired me to knit was very quickly forgotten as I actually got into knitting.

As I advanced in abilities, my goals became loftier. I wanted to learn everything that knitting had to offer. I did intricate lace, and cables. Learned how to make sweaters, mittens, socks and hats. I even looked into doing the Masters program with The Knitting Guild Association.

Soon, it wasn’t good enough to just be good at knitting. I wanted to learn how to crochet and spin. I chased after those dreams with the same fervor as knitting. I bought hand spindles, crochet hook sets, piles of books and eventually a spinning wheel.

The only parts of yarn crafting I haven’t tried in some capacity are dying and shearing. Honestly, the only reason I never picked up dying yarn is because I don’t think I have enough open space in the apartment to dye without poisoning myself.

I still have a long way to mastery, but currently my main focus is not in my yarn crafting. The energy I used to put into knitting is now spent on my career and development as a software developer. With that said, I still have plenty of goals I’d like to accomplish as a crafter and I’m going to put them here for now:

Short Term (1-6 months)

  • Make a Plan to Finish or Frog all current
  • Get Ravelry Up to Date
  • Knit a weeks worth of socks for myself (working on 2 out of seven)

Medium Term (6-12 months)

  • Spin and Knit a shawl
  • Knit a fair isle hat
  • Knit Andy a sweater
  • Finish Webs Knit-a-long

Long Term (1 year or greater)

  • Become a certified Knitting Master
  • Spin and knit a sweater
  • Buy wool from a wool auction
  • Work through the Principles of Knitting Book

Craft Night (Day After) Tuesday – Spinning Myself Dizzy

Hello Folks! As you can tell from the unscheduled hiatus, school is in full swing here at Chez KnittingDev. From now until December, expect the posts to be a bit shorter and a little more photo heavy than the currently are. I expect the crafting section to be light in regards to my actual progress on work, but that doesn’t mean I won’t be staring longingly at all the amazing new patterns and yarn coming out this fall. Now on to our regularly scheduled content:

Back in May, I picked up a spinning wheel. I had been drop spindling on and off for about a year, but found the speed of a drop spindle to be a little slow for my taste. When I went to Maryland Sheep and Wool with my mother, I was not prepared for the temptation that awaited me. I ended up with a spinning wheel and enough fiber to (hopefully) last me the year.

Getting my spinning wheel from Maryland to Houston was a nerve-wracking process. It didn’t fit in any overhead compartment, I had thrown out the box it came in (bad me!), and all I had was a soft case I bought and a secondary soft case that my mother made for me while I was there (my mother’s soft case also doubles as a dust cover/cat deterrent while the wheel is not in use). The spinning wheel (luckily) lived the trip with only a few bumps and bruises that I was capable of fixing.

Since then spinning has become my “I have 5 seconds and don’t want to waste time setting up” craft. Within seconds of sitting down at my wheel, I can turn soft fluffy fiber into something that almost resembles yarn. I have a long way to go, but I’m enjoying the process of learning.