7 years in the making...

Or is that 8...

In the (what I prefer to call) persistence category, I present my handspun, designed, hand knitted shawl. 

I don't remember exactly when I started it but it couldn't have been less than 7-8 years ago. In my defense, it's handspun to a true lace weight (probably at least 800 yards). Part was spindle spun but the majority if it was spun on a wheel. (Don't ask me which one because that would be embarrassing - I don't remember but probably Kromski Minstrel). The fiber is Bluefaced Leicester from Frabjous Fibers. 

Then I started knitting. If I remember right, this was a project that started out as something but didn't want to be that thing so I ripped it out and made it into this. It's one of those projects that I made good progress on until I got sidetracked so it got put away then discovered. A little more was worked, rinse and repeat. 

It's actually supposed to have a lace edging on each end but I finally ran short if yarn and decided just to fish rather than cut bait. 

I have to say I do (still) like it. Even after all these years. 

Better late

About 4-5 years ago I spun a lace weight yarn out of some blue faced Leicester wool dyed by Frabjous Fibers, my favorite all time dye house. The colorway was called English Garden and it was easy to see why. 

I started a project with it but it was another one of those situations where the yarn had an opinion and the project never went anywhere. 

About a year ago I ripped out and started a new project. Even though it's taken me all this time, I should get credit for perseverance, if not for speed, because I've finally finished. 

I was running really short on yardage

(That's how much I had left in the end) but I knew I needed at least a small border on each end. I just happened to have some books covering my coffee table (and spilling off onto the floor but that's another story), one of which was this one:

Which contains a whole section on edgings. In it I found this sweet little edging:

It's super easy and super fast and super cute. 

Now I just need to block it-just an easy block and I'm all set for fall. 

What I love about being a spinner

I got a package today.  I really needed this package today.  I'm so glad the postal worker stuffed this package into my mail slot today instead of giving me one of those little green slips that would have meant standing in line tomorrow morning on my way to work to pick up the package and then not be able to play with it because I was at work.  I like our postal worker.  She's really good about things like that.

Want to know what was in my package?  This was in my package:


And this was in my package:

If you thought that looks just like the fiber I spun for my Margaret Stove shawl, good eye.  It is.  Just in case I don't have enough to finish the shawl (you can never quite tell with lace weight yarn).

But my story is about this:

Frabjous Fibers Moulin Rouge-colored Blue-faced Leicester.  Can you see the shy little pink peeking out of the bottom and the flirty orange and the strong red holding it all together?  I think I'm going to like this fiber.  I've got here in front of me and this is what I love about being a spinner.

This fiber can be 4 ounces of whatever I want it to be.  It could be 4 ounces of fingering weight yarn - enough for a fab pair of socks.  Can you just imagine what wild things you could do with this sock yarn?  My feet get excited just thinking about it.

Or it could be 4 ounces of lace weight yarn for a really sassy stole or shawl.  (By the way, if you're writing the word "sassy" in a public place, be sure all the letters stay together.  It's not sassy for nothing.)

Or it could be 4 ounces of a focus yarn that could be used to spice up another yarn.  The spice of life, like.

The point here is, this fiber is like the world having it's oyster (and eating it, too).  Anything is possible.  I think I'm going to have to live with it a few days and listen closely to what it wants to be.  I have a feeling that if I don't pay attention to it, it could kick my sassy.  And nobody wants that.

How We Roll

I was packing to go see my Mom. Usually I sort of throw things in a bag the couple of weeks before a trip as I think about what I need to take. This time, however, I found myself a couple of days before the trip with nothing packed. So one evening I packed. I packed my Hitchhiker (so easy to take and maybe I’ll want to spin). I packed drop spindles – 2 sizes – because I might come across some fiber that will need to be spun and I might want to use a spindle. I packed my new tapestry loom and some yarn because I might want to work on that. Actually I’m pretty sure I’ll want to work on that. I packed my bobbin lace pillow. Well, I packed 3 of them – my cookie pillow that I’m working on a doily with, the travel pillow that I’ve just gotten started with and another one because I might want to start on my yardage club lace (or something else). I packed my lace knitting that I’m doing with handspun. And, of course, I packed my knitting bag and other peripherals. Oh, yeah, I packed my tatting stuff because I’ve got a project I’m working on and I’ve got a class coming up right after I get back so I wanted to work on some stuff there. And a few books for each of the above. Might want to catch up on my reading.

I surveyed the scene.

There were also 4 boxes of books I was bringing for my Mom.

Projects. Check. Books. Check. Clothes. Ummmmmm…. Oops. Looks like I forgot something. No luggage.

I finally got everything ready and packed the night before. Good choice since it was rainy and messy the morning I left (the morning of the day the tornado hit St Louis which I missed because I left at 6am). And I was ready to go.

On the way, I was able to finish the scarf that I was knitting out of handspun merino laceweight yarn. Just need to work in the ends.

And the other item there is the start of a Shetland-style shawl with some laceweight Blue-faced Leicester that I spun. I need to do another post about this shawl because it’s being an interesting journey. This is just a crappy hotel room picture. More on that later. (No, I didn’t knit while I drove – that would be crazy talk – but I had time at the hotel the first night.)

For those who were laughing about me covering all my bases, I did, indeed, find some fiber that had to be spun and was started on a drop spindle:

This is Frabjous Fiber merino, silk and cashmere that is the most amazing fiber I’ve found in a long time. It’s actually white, purple, blue, green – I’ll get a better picture. You know I love Frabjous Fiber but I normally get the BFL. And the lady who owns the shop told me she’d just gotten in this shipment only days before. Good thing she was prepared for me!

On the way, I stopped at a wonderful antique shop in Purcell, OK, and found these:

Knitted lace edging which must have been knit on about a 0 or 00 needle, I think using the Brucilla thread shown here. The other is a strip of handmade torchon lace. Beautiful, no?!

One, Two, Three

I was going to share some projects with you yesterday, until the electricity went out for 2 hours. Of course, that may have just been a good excuse!  I'm good at that, excuses.

So, here we go.

First of all, like many other knitters, I almost always have a pair of socks in tow.  When we went to Santa Fe, I pulled out a bright, cheery sock yarn - a self-striping ball of sunshine to work on during the trip.  The first sock went very quickly, indeed, as I wandered through the Georgia O'Keefe Museum and knitting.  The second sock came more slowly but I've finally got them finished.  (edited for yarn brand) It's Red Heart Heart and Sole  sock yarn.  It's one of those that's imbued with aloe.  I can't tell a difference but I'm sure it's there.  It didn't necessasrily feel all that soft when I was knitting it but now that it's been washed it, really softened up and makes a very comfortable sock indeed.  See if this doesn't look Santa Fe to you.

While on our trip, we had a side trip up north.  We were headed through Espanola with Gladys, the Navigation lady telling us, 300 feet, turn right (I heard a lot of recalculating, recalculating while I was driving).  We were quietly driving through town when I looked to my right and saw a door marked with "Espanola Valley Fiber Arts Center."  I think I surprised my mother when I yelled out, "Fiber!" and whipped into a parking lot next door.  She took it in her stride, though, knowing me as she does.  What a wonderful place!   Along with a beautiful Navajo spindle and a drop spindle, I found some Frabjous Fiber blue-faced leicester in the most intense greens and blues.  If you've followed this blog at all, you'll know how much I love this fiber and how much I love the colorways of this company.  Truly Frabjous.

Blue-faced leicester is one of those yarns that is soft, long-stapled, has a sheen and takes dyes amazingly.  It really almost spins itself and, I think it's the very best yarn to learn to spin finer yarns with.  It's definitely the first thing I would recommend using. This 4 ounces of scrumptiousness was spun "s" singles and "z" plied with 2 plies and it came out to probably fingering weight.  I split the roving into 2 sections, spinning one of each of two bobbins so that it could be easily plied.  The colors were so intense that I had just couldn't get enough of spinning it.  However, as often happens, the color characteristics were somewhat lost in the plying.  Instead of these nice strong colors, I felt it was muddied a little bit.  Now, if previous experience has taught me anything, it's taught me that when it's knitted up, all of those colors are likely to come to the fore again.

The final project to show you for you now is a tatted baby bonnet from a 1925 Needleworks magazine:

I can't tell you what a kick I'm getting out of this.  The pattern has been very easy to follow - so far, so good.  In fact, I keep thinking that I'm going to be breezing along, thinking there's nothing to this tatting lark, when the universe is going to knock me down a peg.  Careful does it.

While I'm thoroughly enjoying this, it also makes me really miss my Grannie.  She thought tatting was so pretty but never learned to do it.  She would be thrilled with this.  So, here's to Gran...

Handknitting Handspun

When you start to spin your own yarns, you generally don't do it to get yarn to make something.  The evolution of  motivation generally goes like this:

1)  Just proud that the string you're producing stays together - usually producing a wacky thick and thin yarn
2)  What stays together begins to feel something like yarn
3)  The yarn you're producing is in pretty colors
4)  The pretty color yarn is now a little more even
5)  The more even yarn is now becoming a little finer
6)  The yarn is made from yummy fibers that you can't stop petting
7)  The yarn is made from yummy fibers that you can't stop petting and is so pretty you can't stop cooing to it

As you can see, each step is sort of an end in itself with it's own gratifications.  And there's not much reference to knitting or weaving something.  The yarn is an end unto itself.  Having that end become an item of clothing, comes  much, much later and somehow, rarely produces the joy of the having the yarn itself.

Funny how that works.

That being said, I've decided I need to (and sort of want to) start knitting with it.  Of course, it's like a mother thinking no one's ever good enough for her son.  The search for a pattern that will show off this handspun can be agonizing and there may be a few missteps along the way.  But sometimes you see a pattern and you sigh and think, Yes, this is the one.

That's what happened with the Wisteria Shawl from the All New Homespun Handknits and the blue-faced leicester that I bought purposesly to spin to make a shawl.  Here's how it came out:

I'll get some action shots at some point but this shows the lovely (easy) pattern and how the hand dyed roving (FrabjousFibers) lays out in a lovely, soft variegation.  I wish you could feel the softness and lightness of it.  Those are really it's glory.

And I did that!