Monday, December 1, 2008
Spinning from the Lock, again
Washed and dyed fleece.
Teased. I simply pulled it apart by hand. Here is the teased wool on my windowsill. You can see how it looks like a puffy cloud, pretty translucent.
And here it is all spun up. It has a slightly fuzzy surface, since the fibers were spun from the lock, and not combed or carded. I sometimes like this more "rustic" looking yarn.
If you're a spinner, I hope you'll try this technique. It's fun, easy and gives you another option to add to your repertoire.
Wednesday, October 29, 2008
SALE!
Monday, October 20, 2008
Spinning from the Lock
I love love love sheep fleece and locks. They feel so sheepy to me, know what I mean? (as opposed to commercial yarn)
This was an experiment in spinning from the uncarded lock. This was dyed BFL border leicester X. I simply pulled the locks apart by hand a little - kind of like predrafting. I separated the locks out by color group too, since I prefer to see the distinct colors, rather than have it blended throughout. Then I spun up the puffy clouds.
The resulting yarn is more textured than what you would get from roving or a carded batt. In one or two places, there is even a tiny curl visible, escaping from the surface of the spun yarn.
Here are some pictures of a sweater I completed a while ago. Maybe a year? I spun the yarn from the lock as well, in this case, Cormo wool locks. It's very lumpity-bumpity, handmade looking, in a good way. The cormo wool is soft, next-to-skin soft, with nice bounce and crimp. Love!
Wednesday, October 8, 2008
Old and New Knitting
The Swallowtail Shawl by Evelyn Clark from Interweave Knits.
I used Noro Kochoran, so it is a huge shawl. I ran out of Kochoran at the end, so I just made a border in Lamb's Pride Worsted. I think the colors work well together.
And today, I received some beautiful handspun yarn from Joanna at http://www.jojocheng.etsy.com/. She is a lovely person and she spins beautiful yarn. I love the colors of her yarns, and she loves to support other Etsy-ians.
This is destined to be crocheted into an Anne scarf by MK Carroll (on etsy or ravelry). I have made 1 of these in cotton, and have several more in my project queue. One for each of my roommates.
This stunning pattern is actually pretty simple. I keep dreaming of these Anne scarves in every yarn I lay my eyes upon. Hmmmm...
Friday, September 26, 2008
Cutest Mustachioed Man Ever
It turned out to be such a fun and heartwarming experience for me! The buyer was a fellow Etsyian and she was purchasing this for her son. He had been asking for a fake mustache recently (what a kooky kid! aww!) so this was perfect.
I offered to gift wrap this and mail the package to his name, because I remember being a kid and getting super excited about receiving mail. I guess a stroke of inspiration hit me, and I wrapped the package in gold paper and made a constuction paper mustache on the front, with his name on it. Also, I wrote "Top Secret" and "Special Delivery" on the outside of the envelope. I wanted to make it feel super special and top secret and super spy-ish. I got all excited putting it together!
It was so nice to hear back that the gift was well received. His mom said his face lighted up and was running around the whole house with the package after he opened it. She was gracious enough to send me some fun pictures of the little guy. CUTE!
This was such a great experience for me, I just wanted to share.
Sunday, September 21, 2008
Cross pollination
Monday, September 8, 2008
My Batt Children
As a batt artist, I feel like the batts are my children, well, my creations anyhow. I am happy to see them populating the world, as productive citizens of the fiber comunity. Sniff.
Here's what Sarah Sutherland made:
and Sarah's write up of her process:
http://parallaxknitting.com/2008/09/pixie-batts-and-sprightly-yarn/
I will post more pictures of yarns made from my batts soon. If you are impatient, (like I am) you can go to the top of my etsy page and find links to other yarns (my grandchildren).