The political messages are over and we can get back to the real business of the day......knitting and spinning! It is good to know if the economy totally tanks and if I can no longer afford to leave the house, or heat the house I can make my own warmth from my wool stash and once I run out of yarn, I can spin up from my stash and make some more. That is a warm thought for this chilly day.......
I finished my last skein of homespun from my Louet Northern Lights. It is washed skeined and now I have 4 skeins which I estimate to be at least 600 yards. I plan to begin a
clapotis by Ruth Gilbert once I have some room in my current project bag. This was such a nice yarn to spin and I would definitely recommend it to beginner spindlers. Very little drafting necessary and the random color spotches blend very nicely when plying.
I began the lace scarf from Misti alpaca, and it has been a bit frustrating to get going. There are only 51 stitches in the scarf as designed and 3 border stitches at the beginning and the end. The problem is that there is one extra stitch in addition to the 11 stitch repeat of the pattern and this extra stitch is gonna kill me. What this means is that I cannot use stitch markers to keep my place in the row because everything moves this one extra stitch every other row. I have started and frogged at least 6 times so far until I "got" it. So now I count at the end of each row to make sure I have 51 stitches and I count each 11 stitch repeat with out markers! Ughhh... this is gonna take a long time and I may use a "life-line" for the first time in case I get off in my count and have to rip back. The yarn is so fine that each time I frogged it, I tossed the yarn previously knitted because it got too fuzzy. I am trying to be very diligent to count as I go along. I forgot to mention that I started this on addis, but then ran out and got some bamboo straight needles which aren't nearly as slippery. I may end up ordering knitpicks harmony tips in this size because using a lifeline with those is much easier because of the little tightening hole.
This second photo is after steam blocking what I had so far and the pattern is starting to show up.
A nice surprise came in the mail today: my blog prize of 2 oz of fiber from
Spinknitandlife and it is so soft and pretty. I look forward to spinning this and maybe doing a two color hat with some natural colored BFL fiber I have in my stash. Thanks, Phyllis!! I love it!
6 comments:
GORGEOUS handspun! I love it... I'll have to look into getting some to spin up.
I can't wait to see the Clapotis when you get started on it. I plan on doing one soon.
I have to get my license renewed soon and will be registering to vote then. Thanks for your comment (I know politics can get rough and the teeth can show, so it's nice to be able to agree to disagree and keep civil!).
How long do you think your stash could keep you busy if everything went down the tubes? You make a good point; perhaps I should think about buying some more wool. You know, desperate times call for desperate measures!
Your handspun turned out beautifully!
I love your handspun, it is gorgeous! I'm learning to spin from youtube, but my yarn is all lumpy and low-yardage. But it's fun and I like it!
Your yarn is beautiful. I the color is great. I hope you have a great weekend. Nice blog.
Gorgeous handspun.
And I am jealous you won the batts from Phyllis! Oh well. Good for you if it wasn't me!
Your lace is so beautiful and I wish I could do it. When I've done it there weren't enough life lines to stop me from having to frog over and over again.
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