I started on the Evelyn Clark Heartland Lace Shawl created for Wild Fibers Magazine. I was able to get a free copy of the pattern, but I think the pattern is now being sold as a kit. This is being knit out of 2.1 oz of Tussah Silk that I handspun on my Babe spinning wheel. I am knitting this on US 4 Lace Addis, which is the first time using this needle, and I like the pointy-ness of it; especially great for SK2P, and maybe even the dreaded nupps of Swallowtail.

4 ounces of lace weight yarn. Doesn't look like much does it? I plied the Polworth and I imagine I have enough for a smallish project. Should I try to figure out how much I actually have or just throw myself into a project and pray? And what to make? I plan to decide this weekend when I swatch. Size US 3 or higher I think. It will fluf when washed. What happened to the merino/tencel you ask? I tried to spin it thin and I hated spinning with it. There have only been a hand full of things I loath to spin. I disliked spinning un-cut baby camel (yarn felt waxy), really don't like mohair or bunny rabbit (had to take allergy medication) and now I can add tencel to the list. Though it looks a little like silk, it doesn't act like silk and felt listless, almost brittle in my hands. I will try to spin the merino/tencel thicker for knitting other things but if I still hate it, I will see how my sister likes it since she uses spindles to spin more than the wheel. I'll be back once I figure out what to knit with this stuff :-)

So I have these 4 ounces of Polworth that I bought on sale from Deep Color when it was closing it's store front. I don't know about you all, but 4 ounces of anything is kinda of little for someone like me. The color is YUMMY but still... I mean...4 ounces. I'm spinning it on my Schacht single treadle and if it looks like I just can't figure out what to make with such limited yardage I might just spin the merino tencel (another Deep Color purchase) you see below and ply it with the Polworth. This is the first time I've tried spinning Polworth and it's kind of "spongy" to my hands. Oh well. The start of a project. What will I make? Lace of course but not sure just yet what it will be :-) I'll have to get back to you.

Okay...tell me honestly...is this clashing?! It's trippin me out man!

This is some of my handspun, hand-dyed, Targee yarn for the latest in the Mystery Shawl KAL. I hope, as the shawl gets bigger, that the colors will tend to puddle together instead of stripe. EEP! It's oober soft and warm!

I finally finished my third handspun shawl, but second completed. It is a lovely pattern.

I am currently planning another shawl with my laceweight handspun. More details on Swallowtail on the blog.

While I am still knitting on the Swallowtail shawl, I am also spinning up some silk from The Silkworker. The silk top is called Chocolatier. I am spinning it fine and will double ply for a laceweight.

This top spins up so soft and is super silky. I've never spun a silk so soft and lovely. I will be starting Bobbin #2 this weekend. I have a couple of patterns in mind to knit up with this yarn, but it will all depend on how much yardage I will get from the 2 ounces. As always, more info on the blog.

The alpaca, wool, mohair, and silk is now spun and 2-plied. I ended up with 10 ounces at 1210 yards. More than enough for the Wing of the Moth Shawl. The colors got pretty much muddied up, but there are some patches that have some better color. Just have to knit it up and see how it turns out. It is very soft and a bit fuzzy.

I finally "finished" spinning that big bowl of fiber - skeined it off to check the yardage, and I have 608 yards - I need 900-1000 yards for the Wing o the Moth, which is what this fiber has been clamoring to be turned into. I am planning on knitting it with singles - It should be interesting seeing how the color variation plays out - this batch of singles was handblended without tools, the next batch of singles (which, I hope will get me to where I need to be yardage-wise!) will be spun from one of my blended batts off my carder...When I first measured the yardage, I thought of knitting the first set of motifs of the shawl with a complementary colored handdyed commercial yarn, but figured that would just look odd. So I'll be spending more time spinning - I'm planning on using this more variegated hand blended yarn on the outer portion of the shawl....

I carded up a bunch of dyed Shetland and added glitz to it. I am spinning this up to knit another shawl for my Mum. It took me a week to fill the bobbin up with singles on my Louet S51 DT! Look at the ball of singles I have now!

Shameless self plug: I am participating in Blogathon 2007 and my chosen charity to blog for is the Raptor Education Group, INC (REGI) .
To see details about how blogathon works or to sponsor my blog in my efforts, click the "Support this Blog" button. Blogathon starts July 28th so hurry and sponsor me today!

Or baggie for anything else for that matter, but this is intended for one of my favorite tarot decks, The Shape Shifter Deck.
The yarn I used for it was a wool and cotton blend that I blended myself on the Pat Green in the background of the photo. If you have ever seen Paton's Mosaic yarn, this is very similar. The cotton creates very soft nubs all over the yarn. I spun it a little thick so it came out bulky at 9 WPI. So the bag was a quick project. I also added a leaf lace motif in the middle so I could see into the bag without digging whatever cards were in it out. I have to do this with my cloth bags because you can't see through them, and sometimes you can't recognize what deck is in the bag from peeking in from the top. The closure cord is some of the yarn plied back onto itself to make cording (you over-spin to plies together, fold the length of yarn in half, then spin back the opposite way to get it to curl around itself).
This bag was super simple at 24 stitches (12 on each side).

The brown yarn is of luxurious softness, a wool and yak down blend (also blended on the drum carder). The yak is dark brown while the wool was a lighter chestnut brown. When blended together the tone deepened and the softness increased. Very nice fine Shetland wool and yak yarn.

I am doing a lot of blending, spinning, and sampling of the resulting blend to get a better idea of what one can blend successfully on the drum carder. This "research" (AKA- FUN!!!) will be apart of Part 3 of my video tutorial on youtube.com.

Until next time!

I've been carding away on my new spinning toy, the drum carder. I created this batt for a video tutorial on How to Use a Drum Carder and here is ther resulting yarn and test knitting of it into a mitered square. The other two colors are also some of my own spun yarns. Click the photos for larger versions.




Until next time...

Black and silver/brown alpaca
Tussah silk and grey Coopworth


Brown Cotswold and red Kid-Mohair

i have 3 lbs of Coopworth that i got as a birthday present in march. i finally got more bobbins to use to spin it up, but i started & it's way too "wild" to be laceweight, which is how i was spinning. luckily i didn't have to get very fal at all to see this. i was wondering if anyone has suggestions for spinning it and has spun/is spinning it. i've seen that it is best for outerwear & rugs, but i don't want to use 3 lbs of roving just to make something i'm gonna step & walk all over.