# Checking in



## Forerunner (Mar 23, 2007)

Things are getting out of hand down here at the Spoon River Bottom Knitting Mills.....and I felt I should share before I get to work this a.m. (IT SNOWWWED :bouncy: )

I'm on my third gift sweater for this last week, the second of which I just about finished in one day. I lacked ten inches on one arm.......

You all remember this one........









......well, it begged a matching scarf, so.......









The package looks something like this.......









So, I got in the mood for scarves, and decided to dress them up a little, like this......









......and, as usual, the trend goes pandemic.









Today I am fitting a sixteen year old niece who may never reach 5 feet....and she's petite, to boot. It will be kind of like knitting a big glove, methinks, with a small t-neck hole where the fingers would normally go and two opposing thumbs. :shrug:
Doing it up in a light gray Lopi wool and some blue English mohair with some bluish French Angora to fill in the spaces between the spaces. 

More pics to come......


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## weever (Oct 1, 2006)

LOVE the new sleeve scarves.


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## Pearl B (Sep 27, 2008)

You do some fantastic work. I just look and dream of the day I can do something even close to that!

What size needles do you use?


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## Chaty (Apr 4, 2008)

Very Very nice job...Yep the weather here is soon to change where I wont be getting out much either and this is exactly what I will be doing too...out to feed the critters and back in to the fire...Love the scarves too...VERY NICE!!!


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## Forerunner (Mar 23, 2007)

Pearl, you'd be amazed how easy knitting up and dressing up a chunky tube scarf can be.......
Most of my work revolves around #19s, but I have done a few projects on #17s.
7 strands, say, three wool and 4 worsted-to-bulky mohair, cast on with 15s and knit on 17s, makes an awesome pair of mittens, btw....

I do like my tube scarves; they are easier to knit up super warm and knitting in the round goes quick, AND knits up much loftier than flat, back and forth knitting, in my experience.

Wind, you'd be surprised, the time that can be devoted to passions, when there are three strong young men running around begging to cut wood, haul in manure and keep the animals happy. :thumb:


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## Tommyice (Dec 5, 2010)

Is that a seed stitch is the blue pic? Seed stitch and a ribbed neck make for a warm scarf that won't easily come off.

Three strong young men to do all that work leaving you time to knit, you sure do have a charmed life.


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## Falls-Acre (May 13, 2009)

Beautiful! I keep thinking I might sit down and try to make one of your sweaters FR, then I look over my stash of wool yarns and recall that I don't have enough of any single skein of them to even make an attempt! If I did, mine would look like the knitting needles had exploded because 99% of what I have are variegated single skeins of worsted wool! LOL

If I may ask, where do you usually go looking for wool? Or is that handspun as well as handknit?


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## Forerunner (Mar 23, 2007)

Tommyice...... that most certainly is seed stitch. That really jumps up on #19s, don't it...... :thumb:

Falls, without Ebay, my knitting would be a lot more self-sacrificing. 

I find high quality natural fibers for pennies on the retail dollar.
I also splurge a little on occasion for colors and textures that just won't do to pass up.....

Jill and Matthew have been cranking Cyndi's drum carder over the last few days, and we're working--slowly-- toward hand spun wools. 
(I do got sheep now, too, you know.  )










When we go handspun, we'll be going natural colors. We be enjoying the blues, purples, yellows and reds while we got 'em.......


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## Marchwind (May 10, 2002)

Very nice FR, I love the jewel colors.

What is Jill doing to that poor drumcarder and handcard? Those poor teeth will never been the same


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## Callieslamb (Feb 27, 2007)

I have never seen a sleeve scarf before! I think they are great. I really need to get DH to work....


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## JDog1222 (Aug 19, 2010)

Everyone, remind me to brush my hair before I go to FR's house!:run:

AND........................
Here's what the stuff coming off the drum carder looks like! :dance:
























AFTER it has been processed through the wheel that is. :nana:


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## JDog1222 (Aug 19, 2010)

MW, I was just doing EXACTLY what FR instructed me to DO!!!!!!!! My face may look like I'm a LITTLE concerned, but I TRUST he knows what he's doing, I REALLY DO! :shrug: :help:


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## Forerunner (Mar 23, 2007)

Marchwind said:


> Very nice FR, I love the jewel colors.
> 
> What is Jill doing to that poor drumcarder and handcard? Those poor teeth will never been the same


Burnishing brush....... burnishing, honest.

Burnish, burnish, burnish. 

CHOP/CHOP!!!







I learned the seed stitch and tube "sleeve" scarf tricks from the Germans.

Can you say Dicker fluffiger riesen Rollkragenpullover?
How about Grob-Strick-Schal Stola Ãberwurf Tuch Schurwolle neu anthrazit Wunschfarbe ?


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## gone-a-milkin (Mar 4, 2007)

How I even missed this checking in, I couldnt guess.

Spoon River Bottom Knitting Mills? :hrm: 

Tube scarves! Super cozy looking. 


Hey Forerunner,

Do your kids get ahold of your knitting and put it on every which way? 
I can imagine the straightjacket/legwarmer/hat ensemble my boys would come up with, if handed a tube scarf. LOL

Jill! So now you are just sneaking your spinning efforts into his posts? 
That yarn looks pretty respectable. 
What kind of fleece are you working on there?


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## Forerunner (Mar 23, 2007)

It's one of the fleeces Ernie gave to Cyndi and meself, (there were several) that came from one of the Lincolns or the Rambouillet that Ernie also gave me, that just happen to be within 200 feet of me right now, growing wolle like it was fashionable or somethin'. 

Jill says (now I really don't believe this) that we have enough in this one fleece (big garbage bag full....one of the two that I suint bathed and picked late last summer) to keep us carding and her spinning for the rest of her life.

Oh, fiddle.

Hop To, Jillian! Chop/chop!!

My boys don't get creative with the knitting..... but Lily is beginning to show signs of being a natural dresser-upper....... and stoic Caleb could NOT pass up turning a few rolags of wool onto the carder. He's all about things mechanical, and if they just plain SPIN, to boot, haha.....sucker.........

(p.s......I was impressed with the soft and well-spun little skein that Jill brought back from the roving I sent home with her to field test! )


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## MullersLaneFarm (Jul 23, 2004)

Marchwind said:


> What is Jill doing to that poor drumcarder and handcard? Those poor teeth will never been the same


That is a burnishing brush and Jill is using it correctly. The teeth are bent in the opposite direction of a hand carder. It smooths the fiber and allows more to be loaded on the drum carder.


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## Mrs. Homesteader (May 10, 2002)

Love watching the "witty banter" that goes on when FR is around.  Love those scarves!!!!


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## Marchwind (May 10, 2002)

Interesting, I've never seen such a thing. Mine has a brush attachment, but that is a soft brush. I learn so much new stuff from you guys.


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