Pat's Knitting and Quilting
December 29, 2009 I don't usually do Christmas knitting, but my daughter asked me to knit a pair of Bella's Mittens in grey yarn for her, so she got her knitting wish!
Beautiful Fat Cat Mixed Blessings Club forDecember - Falkland Wool - such wonderful earthy colors.
I divided each roving into thirds (lengthwise) and then divided the thirds into fourths with the plan to make two 3 ply skeins - one of each color. Here are the singles...
I don't have a lot to compare it to yet, but this Falkland wool was WONDERFUL to spin - it drafted so easily and and just seemed to fall into the perfect twist/ply without my trying to hard to make anything specific happen. This was my 1st try at regular 3 ply and I found it not to be anymore difficult than 2 ply. The yarn is lovely - round, soft, and squishy.
I ended up with 256 yards of green and 266 yards of orange - each skein is 2.4 ounces. I haven't checked WPI, but it looks like a heavy fingering/light sport weight yarn. The colors are very fall like, so I may wait to knit it up...or I may start knitting today. I'm thinking of colorwork mittens - maybe...
click these if you want to see real close ups - the color is off on the orange one.
Starting in January...MITTENS! Have you joined the NaKniMitMo 2010 KAL?
December 21, 2009 I started with this beautiful braid of targhee wool, and had a grand 2 ply color idea for socks, that did not go as planned - not even close!
If left as 2 ply I would have had 1 striped sock and one barberpole sock. So I got out my spinning books and decided to experiment. The result was a 4 strand cable ply yarn which I made by tightening up the 2 ply twist and plying the 2 yarns together for 260 yards of a nicely balanced, soft, stretchy, squishy worsted weight yarn.
Pattern: Aran Watch Cap
I took the pictures myself - It wasn't easy to even get the hat IN the picture - most photos looked like this. My one and only needlepoint project completed in 1986
HAVE A HAPPY SOLSTICE AND A MERRY CHRISTMAS PS - my "comment" company was sold and the new one doesn't have a place for email, so unless I already know your email I can't respond - Frustrating!
December 12, 2009
I could never have guessed that the socks from this fiber would turn out like this...
They are soft, bright, beautiful and fit like a dream - The barber pole yarn turns into a tweedy trekkingesque sock look. At this point I feel like I could just knit handspun socks for the rest of my life and be happy - actually, that might not be true...I'm already thinking of sweaters, hats and mittens :-) Since this is pure merino fiber, I added some nylon reinforcement yarn (that I forgot to use on Dave's socks) to the bottom of the heel, which is the only place my socks have ever worn out.
I still have 2.5 ounces of this fun yarn left! Maybe colorwork?
December 7, 2009 We love artichokes - when I go to the store and ask the boys what I should get, they actually say "please get artichokes"...these are teenage boys!
So you can imagine how much fun it was to make these socks :-)
Pattern: Blessed Thistle by Lisa Grossman Tsarina or Tsocks
My daughter Kate's 25th birthday was this week - I let her pick out anything she wants from "the knitting bin". This is what she chose (along with a preblogging Morehouse merino scarf) - she's got good taste!
I'm spinning beautiful muted colors of Targhee wool...I think it will become another pair of 2 ply socks and then I'll venture into 3 ply/Navajo ply and some thicker yarns. My current handspun socks in progress are wild and fun - They should be done by next week!
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