Category: spinning

  • what have I gotten myself into??

    I’ll get to the title stuff in a minute. First up, some finished yarns – these are the last of some corriedale that I dyed up a while back, and finished spinning a little while ago.

    I loooove this red/purple/brown combo. It actually came out quite soft, so I’m sort of contemplating some socks out of it.

    Yellow/blue/green. Also very cool.

    Here’s both, plus a skein from a couple months ago. I think I want to do something with all of them – but what?? Suggestions welcome!

    And here’s a shot of bpt. See the front cables? They sure don’t match the directions of the ones in the photo. I don’t know what gives, but something is wrong with the order of the cable crosses. Oh well, it’s fine.

    Mmmmmkay. So. It’s 2/3 of the way through November and I’m just NOW getting requests for knitted Christmas gifts. I’d planned a few already, but now my family’s asking for stuff! Stuff that I need to buy yarn for! Stuff such as a garment! Stuff in cotton, because they won’t wear wool!

    The List:
    mom: a black cotton shrug (the fiery bolero from the summer Interweave in either Elann Connemara or TLC Cotton Plus
    dad: dunno
    sister #1: Gryffindor scarf – will be inaccurate, which is fine with her. I was thinking TLC Cotton Plus in red and gold. HP-ers, what do you think?
    sister #2: socks (already in progress, and that was already planned) and a black earflap hat
    auntie E: felted wool clogs
    auntie J: dunno yet, must be cotton
    girl cousin #1: Pasha!
    girl cousin #2: cabled armwarmers in leftover Cotton Fleece
    boy cousins 1 and 2: some kind of toy from Jess Hutchison’s booklet – I’m thinking robots, from stash yarn

    ETA: I dug around in the stash and came up with a ball of that red TLC stuff, and yeah, it’s too bright red. I did find a suitable one though, in Butterfly cotton, so all I need is some gold and I’m gold!

    How many of these are done? NONE.

    I need me some 1-877-SOS-KNIT.

  • three bags full (and more!)

    What’s in this box? Hint: it ain’t a computer. The box is slightly beat up after a long and convoluted journey through several states and then up here.

    It was a whopping 27 (actually I think it was a bit more than that!) pounds of SOLID MERINO ROVING. Holy multiple sheep, batman. 7″ dpns for scale.

    I got so excited that I started winding off balls of it and forgot to watch my show (Weeds). D’oh. But…the WOOL!

    Each of those balls is a pound! You can’t really see in the last picture there, but there are three bags – the top two are both 5 pounds each, then bottom one 2 pounds (for splitting with people). After winding off 16 pounds, what’s left is for my friend Denny and I:

    About 8 pounds each! Whew!

    The wool is very nice, it’s super soft, silky and quite fine. I can’t wait to get dyeing, or even just spinning it up white – I think that’s what I’m going to do for a sweater’s worth of yarn, and then either dye the yarn or maybe just leave it natural.

  • the yarn-buying disease

    Thursday I went to the Creative Sewing and Needlework Festival. It was really, really quiet when I went, but I heard that today (Friday) was way more packed. I’m sure the weekend will be too.

    There were a pretty decent number of yarny-type places, but really not all that much of interest to me. If I was more in a sewing or beading frame of mind, maybe. Thinking back, I really should’ve bought some silk brocade to make a fancy holiday skirt, but I think I’d be too afraid of screweing it up!

    I did end up buying a couple things – a skein of Cherry Tree Hill sock yarn (it’s really green, I’m sure you’ll see it in better colour another day) and an extra skein of Silky Tweed from Redbirdknits. And a Celtic Collection by you-know-who (am I even allowed to put this picture on here? Yikes) from the Needle Arts Book Shop.

    And then today at work I bought a skein of Handmaiden cashmere and a sweater stone. The cashmere is for a simple scarf for me, yum.

    Oh, and a few days ago I finished setting the twist in the Lorna’s Laces Wool Top that I bought at KW – I did it all as singles, and it’s faboo. Now, what to do with it?

    How I wish I was at Rhinebeck with you lucky people!!