Tag Archives: Spinning

Random Things

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Spinning

Not a lot going on here lately. What I have been doing is spinning and I’m trying to get in at least an hour or two a day. I’m still spinning on my rose gray Shetland and I’ve finished about a bobbin and a half, maybe six ounces. I have three pounds of this wool so I’m going to be spinning for a while. I’m spinning the singles super thin and then I plan on three plying it and hopefully I’ll have enough yarn for a sweater. Hopefully.

Knives

Last week I ran up to my school and ordered my uniforms and got my knives and baking kit. These knives are so much bigger in person than they look here. The blade on the big chef’s knife (second to the right) is 12”. They’re huge. I can’t wait to start class next week, I just hope my uniforms get here on time. Kitty In The Sun

And, just because, here’s Peanut. It was really warm and sunny yesterday and she slept by the back door in the sun all day. She looked so cozy.

Knit and Spin

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That’s what I’ve been doing. So here it is.

Buttercup in progress

Buttercup marches on. I’ve actually knit a little more since this picture was taken and I’m very close to being done with the body of the sweater, about two inches to go.  This has been a nice little knit. The pattern has been easy to follow and it’s very well written and organized. I like that it comes in a wide range of sizes and it’s easy to adjust to fit how you want it to. Most of the knitting is fairly mindless stockinette in the round and has been great while I’m reading or watching TV. The top was fiddly with increases happening at different rates in each section but it went pretty fast. The KnitPicks Cotlin is a great yarn. It starts out kind of rough but as you knit (and especially after it’s washed) it becomes soft and smooth and it feels nice and cool in your hands. I can’t wait to wear it this summer.

Crazy Handspun

And this is the spinning. I blended some different wools, llama, mohair, soy silk, nylon and some cellophane ice cycle stuff on my hackle and spun two yarns, one super thick and thin with cocoons of bright orange sparkle fiber and one that varies from a light fingering to worsted weight. Then I plied those singles with a black rayon chenille yarn. The yarn is fun and bright and poofy. Some sections of it are thin, about heavy worsted weight, and some are about the thickness of my thumb. I ended up with about 78yds of yarn total and I have no idea what to do with it, except just look at it. It’s pretty. I think I need to spin more often I really miss it.

Happy St.Patrick’s Day! 

Loppem

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Handspun Sweater

I don’t remember if I ever posted a picture of my Loppem once I finished it but I know I didn’t get a picture of it post blocking until today.  This is the first sweater I’ve ever made entirely out of my handspun yarn and I really like it. The yarn is a gray and brown natural colored Shetland wool and it is light and soft slightly fuzzy(those little bumps are just bumps, not pills, you can’t see it in the picture). And the sweater pattern itself is so nice and simple and pretty.

I used around a pound of wool that I hand carded into rolags and spun (supported long draw) into a two ply light worsted weight yarn. I was so afraid that I would run out of yarn but I think I have about 100 yds or so left, so that worked out great. I also worried about the stitch definition on the front cable but they look great, even with the uneven and slightly fuzzy yarn.

I love this sweater and I can’t wait to throw it on over a long sleeved shirt for a little extra warmth this Spring.

Making Progress

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Spinning

I feel like I haven’t done any spinning in ages, it’s been since September, I think. This is some super fine Blue Faced Leicester in it’s natural white with little bits of vm still in it. I love this fiber. I bought it in Marshfield last year and waited and waited to start spinning and I’m so glad I did. I want something easy to spin right now since I’m a little out of practice and this is perfect. The fiber is drafting very fine and smooth and I’m getting a fairly consistent, extremely fine single. I know this going to fluff up when I wash it so I’m spinning finer than normal and I’m hoping to get a large amount of lace weight, enough for a big square shawl. I have right at 8oz of fiber and I’ve spun about two so far and the bobbin isn’t even half way full. I think this will make a nice yarn.

Mobius in Progress

On the knitting front, I was finally able to get a shot of my Hoarfrost Mobius. This is so open and the yarn is so thin that getting a picture to come out in focus has been nearly impossible. I’m knitting with Lion Brand Wool Stainless Steel (it’s the same as the Habu but half the price) in wine, you can’t tell it here but the color is a very dark burgundy, it’s pretty, and size 5US/3.75mm needles. I’ve knit about a quarter of it so far and the progress is very slow. I can only knit for a few rows at a time before my hands and shoulder start to hurt and I think the yarn is doing it. This yarn is really pretty but it’s also stiff and it has no stretch at all, it’s pretty hard on my hands to knit with. The fabric is beautiful, so light and airy and it is soft but has a bit of stifness, it hold it’s shape and you can bend and flex it. I really like way the fabric moves and looks but I don’t think I’ll use this yarn again for knitting, it’s just too tough to knit with, but I would love to try to weave with it.

Last night I started another Betiko but I couldn’t get a picture of it, my camera batteries died. I’m using some yarn that I had leftover from Revontuli and I’ve finished the neck edge, I did a simple five stitch garter stitch border and I’ll decide on what to do with the lower border when I get there.

Spinning and Knitting

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Handspun Shetland

I’m all done with my KnitPicks project and so this week I’ve been spinning on the Shetland I started either earlier this month or sometime in August. I finished the singles on Wednesday and I’ve been trying to do an hour or so of plying a day and so far I have three bobbin full. This is the first two that I wound off, the third hasn’t been done yet, I haven’t had a chance to do it. The yarn is two ply, it varies from worsted to fingering weight but I haven’t washed it yet so it could puff up a little. These first two skeins have about 150yds each and I have five or six bobbins left to ply so I should end up with a decent amount of yarn by the time I’m done.

I also washed up my gray Shetland fleece and after three days of drying I can tell you that it is beautiful. This was a very dirty fleece, my first two rinses the water came out almost black it was so dirty. The color lightened up a lot and it is very soft and I can’t wait to start spinning it. I wish I had a drum carder because I’m not looking forward to hand carding two pounds of fleece (not to mention the six other pounds of various other stuff that needs carded).

Pi Shawl

I’ve been spending a little time on the mini Pi shawl and I decided I was done knitting eyelets so I’m doing a few repeats of gull lace and then I’ll start the edging. I think I’ll do either five or six repeats of the lace, the shawl is just about as big as I want it to be. That’s really all I have to say about that.

My mom went on vacation last week and brought me some hand woven goodies and I’ll show them off next week. She gave me a couple bags and I already have pictures of them on my Flickr but there’s a couple pillows I forgot about and I want to post them at the same time.

Have a great weekend!