I’m knitting: plain vanilla socks
NOTES: Apologies in advance for unnecessary updates flooding your Inbox. I’m changing the theme and will need to update old posts!
carded gifted knitted
Because of the colder weather, our Spinntreffen’s mid-meeting last month was either a carding or spinning session (your choice), and I eagerly jumped at the chance to try my hand with a drumcarder. I used WoolShepherdess’ Louet Junior to blend two different colored fibers.
The Junior had the coarse cloth, so there were a few neps in my blended fiber. I didn’t mind it because I like the texture that a few neps can provide. During the meeting, I watched and helped both Twistetsister and Tinka80 pick their washed fleeces. It also gave me the opportunity to ask them questions about their carder and their carding techniques.
A week later, Rock bought me an Ashford carder (with fine cloth) for my birthday … something I’ve wanted since spinning my first batt. Now I can blend my own fibers and card my own batts. The cute little sheep soap is from Tinka80. Don’t worry, he’s not going into the carder, but everyone here thinks he’s too adorable to use!
Now for some other goodies …
Icelandic wool top in natural colors and raw NZ Corriedale X (just a portion shown) from woolbunny. The wool top is just lovely and it’s screaming to be spun into lace for a shawl. And the raw wool? You gotta click here for a closer look. Did you see that? The cleanest raw wool I’ve ever seen — surely from a coated sheep — and so wonderfully wooly smelling!
And of course, some new reads.
The Fleece & Fiber Sourcebook and Spinning Around: Spinning, Dyeing & Knitting Elizabeth Zimmerman’s Classics (scroll down) by Jeannine Bakriges. I’ve been patiently waiting for Spinning Around when I began my spinning adventure and found Miss Jeannine’s blog, Spinning Spider Jenny. Her blog had the best information out there, especially for spindle spinning, and she has since deactivated the blog. Unfortunately, some hacker reactivated it and is using it to post limo information. Seems Blogger is doing nothing very little to remedy the situation and you can’t help but feel sorry for her. Come on, Blogger, unass this guy already.
Finally, something knitted …
more like, still knitting — 9 down, 16 to go. All from leftover sock yarn. I know this type of sock yarn isn’t for everyone, but to me it’s perfect. It combines my love for sock knitting and crazy color combos … and it won’t make my house look like I’ve lifted all of the Christmas deco from some department store ;)
ravelrytreffen in frechen, 2011
Why, yes, I was there!!! With my two knitty/spinny/Ravelry friends (Twistetsister and Tinka80). After a brief shopping trip at Frechener Wolloase, I ran into stebo79 and Sonja0802 who just arrived. I used to knit with them in Kaiserslautern before I moved to Geilenkirchen and it was so nice to see them again. It was quite a day … knitting, buying, petting all of the fibery goodness, and watching the wonderful knit projects in progress. And no, I didn’t go home empty-handed … click the pic to view the Flickr set :)
fiberfull
I did some spinning …
Fiber: Purples, merino from Hannysoxs
Weight: 100 g
Length: 254 yds
Specs: DK, 2-ply, spun on Moritz
Again, this fiber seemed felted, so I had to pre-draft it a lot. Normally, I would’ve tossed it aside and saved it for something other than spinning, but I already started pre-drafting it — at least it gave me something to do while watching a movie. Despite the work involved before actually spinning it, I was pleased with the finished result.
My first handspun yarn with a bit of texture and it won’t be my last. At first I was a bit annoyed with all the neps, but I learned to just “let go” and have fun with it. I wasn’t thorough with the note taking on this, so I’ll have to update this post later.
I did some knitting …
As posted in my sticky, I started knitting Hiker’s Waistcoat with Cascade Ecological (I purchased this years ago with a knitter/spinner intending to knit the Hemlock Ring Blanket … obviously I didn’t), but I wasn’t feeling the love with this pattern, so I frogged it and waded through Ravelry for inspiration. Then I remembered I knit Rosamund’s Cardigan and cast on for it again (yeah, I know). I’m down at the bottom border now (this is a top-down knit), so I think I’ll have a new sweater this weekend :)
And I did some dyeing …
Our monthly Spinntreffen added a monthly mid-meeting for dyeing (weather permitting) or for some other fiber-related activity. Lately it’s been dyeing. This time I used McCormick’s Neon food dye which I mixed prior to our meeting. Right now I’m torn between purchasing Greener Shades (heavy metal-free dye) and a regular acid dye. Decisions, decisions.
Apologies in advance if you’re receiving any unnecessary updates in your e-mail boxes. I’m trying to determine which of my posts will be filed under a category or simply tagged. Meanwhile … enjoy your weekend!
