May 17th, 2008 at 7:46 am
New spinning! This is Finn wool roving and was lovely to spin up. It’s very soft and springy. I bought this fiber a long time ago and have unfortunately lost the seller information. All I remember is it came from eBay. There were 4.2 oz of roving and this made 126 yards of 11 WPI, 2 ply yarn.
May 14th, 2008 at 6:49 am
My Sonata has been busy and I have a finished spinning project to show off. This fiber was lovely to spin, a blend of 70/30 Merino/Mohair. Sooo soft and drafted like a dream. It was dyed by Bob at
Winderwood Farms on eBay. I’ve bought lots of fiber and also my wheel from Bob and he’s fantastic.
click for bigger pics
This is the fiber prior to spinning.
I actually have 4 more ounces that have not been spun yet.
The first skein of Artista is 2 ply, 214 yards, 18 WPI.
This skein is 88 yards, 13 WPI, 2 ply.
I love to spin!!!
May 11th, 2008 at 8:11 am
Afghans for Afghans is having a Newborn campaign. The hospital has asked for newborn hats and socks. These tiny things are almost instant gratification and so much fun to knit. I’ve made a few sets and will be mailing them off in the morning (the due date is May 19th). Yarn used: Patons Classic Merino, Knitpicks Wool of the Andes and some handspun too. Mostly I used up a lot of scraps on this project.
The sock pattern is my Simply Sweet Socks (see right sidebar for free pattern links) and the hat is the
Infant Earflap Hat pattern by Ari.
click for bigger pics
This is a new scarf from the “Last Minute Knitted Gifts” book, the airy scarf. My second using this pattern. It’s so fast and easy, only uses 1/2 skein of Rowan Kidsilk Haze. The one is acutally made from Kidsilk Night instead.
&nbps;
May 7th, 2008 at 8:19 am
This year I’ll be going up to Estes Park, CO for the annual Wool Market which is held June 14-15. DH is also coming along as he says it’s the perfect opportunity to dust off the fly fishing equipment and commune with the trout! He will be knee deep in the Big Thompson River while I am knee deep in sheep. Sounds like an even trade to me.
When the kids were little we went to Estes Park all the time. The Rocky Mountain National Park is gorgeous and my kids were definitely little mountain goats who loved to hike. We had many wonderful family vacations there.
I haven’t been to the Wool Market before, so I’m definitely looking forward to it. If any of you are going, please let me know and maybe we can get together and meet in the real world! I think it would be so much fun to see the people behind the blogs. 
May 3rd, 2008 at 8:56 am
Just a little spinning finished up. The fiber is from Spunky Eclectic. This is a wool blend which is very nice and economical. I like to buy this and spin it for my charity projects. This colorway is called Neopolitan - for obvious reasons. I divided up 4 oz of the fiber and spun it two different ways, just as an experiment.
The first skein is a 2 ply, just spun and plyed at random. 116 yards, 12 WPI.
For the second skein I spun the singles at 24 WPI and Navajo plyed. 68 yards, 10 WPI. When I was plying I noticed the color runs were pretty short and that made the Navajo plying more difficult. I had split the roving lengthwise fairly thin. It would have been better to keep it thicker and had the color runs come out longer. Oh well, live and learn.
Here are two little skeins from my new-found spindle love. When I first started spinning I had spindles but could never get the hang of it. I bought my wheel and never looked back. Recently I spied my lonely spindles gathering dust and decided to try using them again. Just a little fiber I had laying around - the light color is a corriedale and the dark is Jacob. Spun on my Bosworth and Emily spindles, both plyed on a larger Bosworth.
These are in-progress shots of my never-ending giant granny square afghans. The top one is made with my handspun scraps. I plan to just keep knitting on it until it gets really big! The bottom picture is the same thing in regular yarn scraps, mostly wools.
Here are two sample squares for the afghans I’m crocheting for two of my granddaughters. One will be with the black background and the other with the white background. The girls are sisters and I thought it might be fun to have the blankets the same, but different.
April 30th, 2008 at 9:21 am
Not a whole lot going on at the moment. I seem to be having a short attention span related to all fiber arts. I spin a bit, I weave a bit, and I knit a bit - but don’t stay with any one thing long. I guess that’s fine. So the knitting is just quickie charity knits right now. I’m on a roll with newborn hats and socks as seen in the previous post. I’ve got the patterns re-adjusted so that I can knit a hat and sock set out of 110 yards of yarn (just the amount in a skein of KnitPicks Wool of the Andes, of which I have a multitude of single skeins). They are fun and quick.
Here is a picture of my April CIC socks. Just my normal plain jane sock pattern in different types of wool yarns.
click for bigger pic
This is the roving I’m currently spinning. It’s a wool blend from
Spunky Eclectic. The colorway is called Neopolitan. Love the colors. I’m spinning singles at about 24 WPI and plan to Navajo ply to preserve the colors.
I do have an Airy Scarf on the needles and it’s almost finished, will post some pictures when it is completed. And I’m still working on the woven towels. My warp is long enough for four towels and I’ve just completed the second. They are looking pretty good and my edges are starting to be more consistent and straight. I’m just nervous about taking them off the loom and sewing the ends down. That means I’ll have to dig out the dreaded sewing machine! Oh well, when I actually have it out there are some needle rolls I want to sew, just been putting that off as I really loathe sewing! But with more than one project to sew I can probably get myself to do it.
