Friday, September 25, 2009

Sky and Sea

I set out to create a yarn which captures the spirit and colors of the Caribbean, I thought I'd share a couple pages from my spinning journal, which shows the process from the beginning as I decided how this fiber would be spun and plied.


Sky
I did a test ply of this roving, to see how I liked it all by itself, and a tiny knitted swatch too. For this roving I used the colors turquoise, sky blue and lilac.


Sea
I also did a test ply of this roving by itself and a knitted swatch.



Sorry it looks a little dim here that's just the way it up-loaded , but this is a test ply of one single each of Sky and Sea.


Sky and Sea

What I ended up really liking was this spun blend of the two rovings. I divided the roving into equal portions of each color, for the first single I started with roving A (sky), B(sea),A,B. Then for the second single I reversed the order, B,A,B,A. I really love the richness of the two colors spun together this way as opposed to spun singly and plied together. I had dyed a total of 5 ounces of alpaca, 2.5 each, Sky and Sea and I decided to dye another batch of each, for a total of 10 ounces of fiber. Then I also dyed one ounce of angora in the same colors. I have a project in mind for this, I'll keep you posted!

Have a great week! Blessings Friends!
Melissa

Friday, September 18, 2009

School Of Tropical Little Fishies



I finally finished my Little Fishies scarf. Though I have to say, other then the narrow neck band, in true free form fashion, this bears little resemblance to the original pattern! I had already knitted the pattern nearly through to the end and decided that I wanted to do it over, only a little narrower and more mindful of the yarns I was using around my upper body area. Then as I was knitting the narrower version, I began to see these fishy shapes appearing as I added thicker or thinner yarn, so I decided to accentuate that idea! What I ended up with is this audacious, whimsical scarf of tropical fish!



My love of bobbles and bullion's shows through, I was inspired by Renata Kirkpatrick's Tassels On A Rope #3 for the tail on this one.



This one's (RH) a princess fish. Can you see the royal princess cap?



This is another form of the fish noodle, shorter, without the bobble on the end...but don't feel too bad about the lack of bobble that some of the fish noodles have, I added silver beads to each noodle for this little guy!




Another princess fish.



I loved adding the embellishments, this one has something I started calling a fish noodle!

Add Image
This guy's one of my favorites! I used silver wire beads on a chain to bubble out of his big fishy mouth.



Pink bullion's done with some of my hand spun.



More fish noodles! The yarn used here for the noodles, back fins and tail is Debbie Bliss Pure Silk, I love how this yarn knitted and plan on adding more colors to my yarn stash.



And here's the final fish. I had so much fun working on this project, deciding how to embellish each fish, finding just the right bead or button to bring the fish to life. It really gave me a chance to play!

Have a great week! Blessings Friends!
Melissa

Friday, September 11, 2009

Working on Blue Cloud Magic



I've been doing a little spinning this week, this one is definitely a work in progress. Originally when I bought this roving, a blend of fine wool and mohair, I planned on spinning it fine and knitting it into a shawl. Even in the dim light of the little back room where I purchased this, I could see there were dried bits of vegetation (vm) but I wasn't overly concerned, I've noticed that most of this usually falls out in the yarn making process. However, this was when I was planning a skinny yarn...lately I have been thinking of a chunky weight yarn to make a throw. So I did a test spin to see how much of the vm would come out during the spinning, plying, washing/setting the twist process. A good deal of it did come out, trust me! As I sat there in my pj's spinning, I looked like I just came in from a few hours of yard work! And even after all the processing, because I spun a chunky yarn, there is still obvious evidence of vm through out the yarn. Well that just wont do!



This is Blue Cloud Magic plied to itself. It's not quite as soft as I wanted for the throw.



My other idea was to see how I liked it plied with white angora. That wasn't what I was looking for either. Maybe knitted next to each other, but not plied together.



Here's the rest of the angora, I plied it and set the yarn, then knitted it up into a swatch to make sure I was getting enough twist in my singles to keep the angora from shedding all over, but I also wanted a soft yarn, not over spun. I'm really happy with how it came out, no shedding. Originally I had started spinning this on my drop spindle, but I transferred it to a bobbin so I could finish it on my wheel and I am happily nearly finished with one bobbin.

As for Blue Cloud Magic, I can see that this fiber, due to the extensive vm, needs to be spun fine, as I had originally intended. I have already taken the roving outside and picked out as much of the big stuff as I can. That combined with the processing should get rid of the rest. I'm sure I will feel more content with any yarn I make out of this, once it's really clean. It sure is a pretty color.


Have a great week! Blessings Friends!
Melissa

Friday, September 4, 2009

Knitter's Potluck



I was excitedly working away on my Little Fishies Panel Scarf, and I was nearly done I might add, when I decided I needed to make some changes. So I gently un-knit (I know there are other words for this..I just prefer to say un-knit.) the entire thing and I ended up with this beautiful bowl of yarn waiting to be re-knit into my project. I thought, how cool would it be to go to a potluck where the dish to pass everyone brought was a lovely bowl of bundled lengths of ribbon, silks, bamboo, mohair, alpaca and hand dyed wool. Can you imagine a table full of these bowls, and you could go around and choose a certain amount, then everyone could happily sit down and work on a project! You might need to trade as you went along and saw how things were going. To me, this sounds like knitter's paradise! I just thought I'd pass this idea along to my knitting friends...in case you want to give it a try,the Knitter's Potluck.



I received my wonderful swap envelope from Shelley V. this week! Look at all the fun goodies she sent along! I absolutely loved everything all my favorite colors, just perfect! Thanks Shelley for a great envelope!!!



I plied the rest of the yarn which I'm calling Cozy Pink Dreams, I did a test ply earlier having learned my lesson from the first skein of this blend (plied to itself..it looked like worm guts, teehee) One single is a blend of natural romney/kid mohair/tussah silk, the other single is merino/alpaca. I was able to get a total of 429 yards (60yds sm skein, 369yds lg skein) The ypi is 15. I haven't any plans for the yarn yet, it's going into the yarn stash for now until the right project comes along.

Have a great week, Blessings Friends!
Melissa

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I'm a crafter, knitter, tinkerer, who always seems to have a project or two on the launch pad. I love to share what I'm working on and I love to see what other folks are working on too, so please comment and let me know where I can see your latest creation!