Knitting :: Cowl For A Friend

Last November I spun and knit this cowl in a matter of days. The fact that it was on drop spindle is what amazes me for bulky weights on a spindle are not my forte. I should say Single bulky weight. But it turned out very nicely and I do believe my friend was quite pleased with her cowl. It was a birthday present and since I spun and knit it quickly I did not keep proper notes and write down the pattern like I should have.*Ehem. Cough.

One of these days I will spin up more bulky yarn and write out the pattern for all of you. I'll keep you posted if/when that happens.

Sale in the Shop this weekend!

Starting right this very minute, I am running a store-wide 10% off "Black Friday through Cyber Monday" sale! I have no idea how this idea will float, or if I'll ever do it again, but I figured it was worth the shot. So if you have a hankering to stock up on roving, spindles, or yarn, now is the time and place to do it! Be it gift giving, gift making, or just splurging on yourself, feel free to come on over and browse to your heart's content!
Visit my shop for more information and details.

I am just popping in to say a quick hello. This last week and a half has been very crazy and VERY busy. Last week I was gone on our annual Christmas project week with my sister-in-law. But at the end of the week we had a Christmas craft fair to attend, so hence we didn't quite get all our Christmas projects done as we were preparing for the craft fair. I wasn't nearly as prepared for our annual week as I should have been. So I still have a lot to do before Christmas  Thankfully there is still a month and a half left in which to finish up my projects, maybe even start and finish some! Hmm. We'll see.

This past Sunday through tomorrow I am staying with some friends and helping out for a few days. They have a deer processing business and things get very busy during opening week. So I am helping with the children, making meals, keeping up with the dishes, etc.

Speaking of food, I'd better run. The menu for tonight is Mexican Chicken Chowder and cornbread and it smells amazing. The perfect meal for a wet, chilly evening such as this! 

Have a blessed evening!

P.S. The photo is from last weekend; Saturday night to be precise. I was on my way home from my sister-in-law and brother's home and had to slow down a few times to snap some photos as the sun set.

Photos from Mid-February

Around mid-February while out feeding the alpacas I snapped some photos in the fading sunlight. The scenery. The barn door. And of the boys of course. They are such fun to photograph.

I'm coming along beautifully on my Tibetan Stole. Lately I've been galavanting around so much that i have not had as much time to fit in knitting or spinning. But this is how far my stole was a month ago. Since then it has grown by a chart repeat or so. 

Two and a half days a week I'm helping a dear friend who is recovering from a bout with cancer. She has several little ones, including a 4 month old baby, and needs a little extra help around the house right now.

Its been a joy and a blessing to spend time with them and be able to help her out at this time.

Cheerio for now!

Just A Bit Of Birthday Sewing

This past week my sister and I puled out the scraps and did a little bit of birthday sewing for a friend. At first we were contemplate a small quilted table scarf but then we hit upon the idea of these coasters. Everyone needs and uses coasters, right? Of course! It was the perfect idea. We brainstormed colours, then patterns. We decided upon Courthouse Steps, Log Cabin, Vertical Stripes, and  Crazy Quilt block.
Once colours and patterns were decided we set to work cutting, tracing, and sewing.
The coasters went fast, and were fun little projects to make up.

Court House Steps Coaster

Now I RARELY machine quilt anything, (in fact I believe in all my years sewing I have only ever machine quilted one thing and that was my quilted knitting bag) but we decided to quilt the coaster as they will be seeing a lot of use and also tossed in the washer quite a bit. Machine quilting will give them more durability and they should hold together for years to come. 

Log Cabin Coaster

Crazy Coaster

The Crazy Coaster was my personal favourite. I just love how the colours, shapes and quilting came together for such an interesting textured look.

Diagonal Stripes Coaster

We made them approximately 4 1/2 inches square. Not too big, but just perfect for holding a large mug of cocoa! 

In Which We Speak Of Fiber, And More Fiber

 I thought I would share some pictures of my recent fiber festival aquisitions with you today. I went with a friend and between the two of us we purchased 7 and a quarter pounds of fiber! However a good deal of it was not processed, and raw fiber tends to be available at much better prices then already processed and dyed fibers.

 This will be a bit of show and tell so bear with me please, I'm pretty excited! So first up is washed Romney locks. I picked up a pound of Romney, 8 ounces of a light grey Romney, and 8 ounces of dark grey locks. There is a LOT of colour variation within the Romney fleeces that I looked at. It was really quite exciting and quite the process to narrow down which of the fleece we wanted! 

 I started carding my Romney yesterday. I made up about 14 rolags and then started spinning. It changes so drastically from locks to spindle because all the colour variations in the fiber are blended together in the carding process and then blended even more so when it is spun. Overall the colour would probably be described as a gray-ish cream color, with little strands of black running through it. 

 Romney has a beautiful crimp to the locks. Once I started carding and spinning this fiber up I was wishing I had purchased more. The sheperdess did a fine job of skirting and washing these locks, I was very pleased with the fiber. It is SO beautiful, soft and springy with a sturdy hand to it. I'm considering making a beaded stole with it, and keeping that idea in mind I am spinning it a fingering weight right now.

 Our Siamese/Angora cat, Sasha, insisted on getting in my photo shoot. 

 Here is the darker Romney roving I picked up for my Mother.

 Look at all the colour variation just within the rolags she has carded up so far! Beautiful.

 I splurged a bit on 4 ounces of Blue Faced Leicester/Silk roving. Mainly I was trying to shop with making Christmas presents in mind. This first skein will, Lord willing, become a Christmas gift. Though I can not say who it is for, or what it will be, here on my blog!

 This was the first time I have ever spun a singles yarn on my drop spindle. I am using my handspun in a pattern that calls for Manos Del Uraguay handspun, and I decided to pattern my yarn after the Manos. The single ended up quite lovely I think. As it was my first non-plied yarn I over-spun it slightly, but I'll know better for the other 2 ounces. If I spin them up the same way, that is! I have enough yardage in my first skein, 138.25yds, for the Christmas gift I have planned.

 This is a sampler pack of various mixed wools, Merino, Corriedale, etc. I don't have any definite plans for this, just a few ideas. I'm sure you'll hear more about this roving in the future. :)

 60%Llama/40%Polworth roving. So scrumptiously soft! I purchased an angora/polworth blend from this same farm last fall and was very pleased with it. This will make something warm and cozy for wearing this winter.

 I also picked up a 1.5# of Merino/Corriedale/Dorset raw wool. It is not skirted, and unwashed. Quite pungent indeed! But I'll be washing it up sometime within the next couple of weeks. I'm waiting until I get together with my friend, as she bought a pound of the same fiber (in a different colour) and has never washed raw fiber before. We are going to wash our fiber up together and lay it out on a sheet in the sun to dry. A few ounces of this will be carded together with angora fiber.

 I picked up a couple things for my sister, one of which was all these little wool/llama/alpaca/silk balls of roving. I also got Romney roving for her. I learned some interesting facts on Romneys. Apparently Romneys are originally from over in europe, and were much smaller in size. With inter-breeding Romneys have become much bigger, but at the price of the fleeces becoming less soft then the fleece that comes from the original Romneys. The locks I purchased are from a medium sized Romney. Whilst the roving I picked up for my sister is from a small UK Romney and is amazingly soft. 

The total haul of the day between my friend and I. We made a lot of identical purchases as you can see!

Well that is it for now. I hope you enjoyed the show of fibers! Next time I'll try to update you on projects, and such. Take care my friends and I'll be back with you soon, Lord willing!

Holiday Baking

Yesterday a friend and I decorated all these sugar cookies. We had fun mixing colors and planning it all out. We had a mix of chocolate and plain sugar cookies, colored and chocolate frosting. There were some interesting cookie combinations going on!

I'm not sure how many cookies we decorated, but it was a lot! We enjoyed ourselves though. It's a nice time to chat and just enjoying being together as friends.

How about you? Have you been baking any special treats for the holidays? If so, I'd love to hear about it!

Setting Off On Holiday!

Hello Everyone! I hope you are having the loveliest of days! I am sneaking in one more quick post before heading of on holiday, as our friends in some parts of Europe say. I find "holiday" a FAR more interesting word than "vacation". Actually I might get a chance to blog while on holiday, but we"ll see. My holiday involves a long road trip, spending time with friends, meeting new people, and who knows what else! I am looking forward to it.

I started this yarn at the beginning of summer, but it has been languishing in a corner 'cause I wasn't looking forward to plying so many yards. But I split it up into skeins and that made it so much easier. The bigger skein is about 230yards and the smaller skein is 105yards. Both are a heavy worsted weight.

I still have some of this yarn to ply, just a tiny amount. And then some plied yarn on my Navajo to wind off. I was going to do it all on my navajo spindle, but I wanted to get it done before my trip so I switched to my big plying spindle.

And this is pretty exciting.....mohair I spun! This is from the batt that I carded and then dyed in the beginning of July. I tried to spin it up very fine, but I don't have a lace-weight spindle so it is a little tricky. It's only 95yds of fingering weight.


But look at that lovely halo! To be frank, I really didn't enjoy spinning this up as much as I have other fiber. But I think it was because I was trying to spin so very thin on a heavy spindle. It wasn't the fault of the fiber itself.
I did have fun brushing it though, to bring out the halo. I was rather fierce in my brushing, but I think it turned out quite well.
I have been doing some reading on commercially spun mohair. Rarely will you buy mohair yarn that is pure mohair. Due to the properties of mohair it often is plied with nylon thread, silk or merino wool. It is often quite difficult for hand spinners to produce mohair that looks like the commercial spun stuff (not that that is necessarily a bad thing). Mainly because of the rate at which they spin it, and the type of machinery involved for brushing etc. If you want an interesting read on different types of yarn and why they behave the way they do, check out The Knitter's Book of Yarn.
I have learned many interesting things about fiber and yarn from both The Knitter's Book of Yarn, and also the Knitter's Book of Wool.
I think it would be of immense help to any hand spinner to read these in-depth. Even though they are not written for handspinners, per se, they are wonderful tools to use.


But on to more knitting.... My birthday shawl is finished!!!! I am so glad to have it done, but also a little sad because I really enjoyed working on it. I had some trouble with the last three rows. I made a mistake somewhere and had to tear them out. So I ended up putting stitch markers between every pattern repeat. It made everything much easier and kept me on track. The crochet bind off is a little tedious but well worth the effort in the end.

I haven't blocked it yet, but I didn't want to wait until after Holiday to show this to you. Buddy insisted on getting in the photo shoot. He tried to sit on the shawl, and sprawled here and there in a charming manner, but in attitudes that entirely rumpled my knitting. I finally agreed to let him lay just his head on my shawl. I think he was pleased. And who could resist that sweet face?

I think one of my favorite things about this shawl (besides the fact that it is green) is the feminine ruffle on the edge. It is so lovely!

Well, that is one large lace project behind me. But I already have two more in the planning stages. One will be using some of my handspun, and the other will be with more birthday yarn from 2 years ago.

I'm debating whether or not I should take any lace knitting with me. Because every now and then holidays have tedious moments that are perfect for complicated lace charts.

I am taking my tunic, I need to get back to work on it and finish the front. Other than that and a spinning project I don't know for sure what is going with me. Some mindless knitting for the scenery stretches on the road.

I'll tell you all about it when I get back, or possibly while I am gone! For now though I must run, supper is on the the table and I have a lot to get accomplished yet tonight.

Have a lovely week!