Wednesday, September 01, 2004

How Pink is a White Buffalo?

Guess what came in late Monday afternoon?

This stuff is awesome!  There are 6 strands to it and you give them a bit of a twist when you start.  The twist will continue as you knit from the cake.  I immediately tried it out on my biggest needles (11s) but found that it really wanted something even larger than that - 13s or 15s maybe?  I really didn’t want to go haring off after bigger needles so I decided to pull the yarn into 2 3-strand components and wind that into balls.





This worked beautifully!  Now a size 10 needle worked just perfectly.  Because the yarn is a bit rough (definitely outerwear stuff), and a bit fragile, I didn’t want it rolling around on the floor while I was trying to work.  I found that putting a ball into a deep soup bowl (Corelle, if you’re curious) worked perfectly - keeps the yarn contained but doesn’t create any friction so the ball rolls and the yarn comes off easily.

This was next:

I know it’s hard to believe, but I did actually swatch this stuff.  Don’t spread it around though, will you?  I have a reputation to maintain (snicker).  On the size 10s, I got 3 stitches and 4 rows to the inch.  This gave me the information I needed to move on to the next step which was doing the math for the poncho - or possible poncho.  Once I had that figured out, I moved into the next phase.





Basically the poncho will consist of two rectangles, joined at the tops - with enough room to go over the head.  The rectangles will have all-around seed stitch borders and within that, an all around border (about 1") of the deep pink Waterspun (double strand).  I had to find out how to wind the yarn “butterflies” as I don’t have bobbins, and that was easy - thank goodness.  Knitter’s Review is your friend :)

And off I went.  This circular is just going to be long enough but I do have to remember to cap the ends when I’m not working on the poncho.  The yarn isn’t really stiff, but it does have considerable body so between that and the 115 stitches, things get a little crowded.  It’s really not bad though.

I do have come concerns about having enough yarn, but I guess I’ll cross that bridge when I get there.  No reason to get het up about it just yet…

The White Buffalo yarn is nice stuff - a bit fragile as unspun wool is bound to be, but not to delicate to work with by any means.  I had no problems with it yesterday afternoon - either knitting, unraveling or winding.  I should think frogging would have to handled carefully.  The wool also has (to me) a wonderful smell - lanolin, predominantly (I recognize the scent because Myria was using a lanolin ointment one winter).  I kept stopping at various stages and burying my nose in the wool just to inhale that wonderful, sheepy aroma.

Oddly enough, neither cat was very interested.  They both approached at various times to see what was going on because this was new stuff - but neither one of them showed any interest in the strong scent.  Shrug - probably better all the way around if the cats aren’t interested in my yarn :)

And I finished the second Harry Potter scarf last night.  Now I just have to wash them and tidy the fringes and they can go off to their new homes to keep two little boys warm :)

And I’ve probably wasted enough of your Wednesday :)

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1. YAY! YAY! The scarves are finished! YAY! (Zach is very excited!)

   Posted by  on  09/01  at  11:44 AM
   Location :



2. well, this is just going to prove that i must spend wednesday mornings with my mind in the gutter, but i cannot help wondering how many new hits your site will receive after the interesting pic of ‘buffalo balls’- excuse me, i must clean up my act and get a real life going here-

   the poncho will be pretty- those pinks are so nice together and the design idea of rectangles within rectangles is clever- i do so want to leap on the poncho bandwagon that i may make one for a very little girl in my life- she’s only 3 and surely i could keep my concentration through rather small rectangles- although probably for someone that young, i should consider the other style of poncho with a more constructed and higher neckline so it wouldn’t tend to slip and slide around on her shoulders-

   our cats ignore yarn frequently until a project is close to completion when they will suddenly develp a mad passion for the thing- then they will stalk the object of their desire constantly- perhaps your city kitties have an aversion to sheep-

   stay happy-

   Posted by  on  09/01  at  11:47 AM
   Location : texas



3. Donna - We’ll get them in the mail in time for the cold weather, I promise!

   Posted by Robbyn  on  09/01  at  01:01 PM
   Location : In the kitchen with Dinah...



4. Barb - ROFL!  I must admit I wondered in passing about offending somebody but decided I was being silly :)

   A little poncho for your dear 3-year-old sounds like a great project and you’re right - it needn’t take much time - or yarn for that matter :)

   The cats may not be interested in sheep, but when I had some alpaca, they were very interested.  Maybe just because it was different..

   Posted by Robbyn  on  09/01  at  01:05 PM
   Location : In the kitchen with Dinah...



5. For some reason none of the pics in this entry are showing up (although I can see all the others just fine...hmmm), but I’m sure the Buffalo balls are memorable. Hehehehe

   Glad the yarn is working out for you so well! Can’t wait to see the pics of the poncho. (I’m sure it’s my computer acting up again.)

   Posted by Bron  on  09/02  at  08:37 AM
   Location :



6. Bron - It’s not your computer at all, it’s my server.  The blog was MIA all last night adnwhen it cam back, the pictures for yesterday’s post were blasted.  I’ve gotten them restored now.

   The yarn is great and I love it - especially the warm, sheepy scent.  And even my stodgy old dad (somewhat to my surprise) enjoyed the “Buffalo balls” heheh....

   Posted by Robbyn  on  09/02  at  09:18 AM
   Location : In the kitchen with Dinah...

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