Spindle Spun

This is the latest spin (in progress) from the fiber exchange. The fiber is a blend of Cheviot and Jacob wool which I hand dyed in an ombre gradation. My plan is to ply the two singles from light to dark. I started this on the spindle one stormy day when it was too wet to take Mirabelle (my wheel) to the spinning group. I considered transferring it to a bobbin when I got back home, but I thought it would be nice to have at least on skein of spindle spun/plied yarn in this project. It's been slow going in the spinning world, I've had a number of gift projects to finish which has interrupted my spinning progress. I don't feel too bad though, since I enjoy knitting as much as I do spinning!

Have a wonderful weekend! Blessings Friends!
Melissa

Fresh Spinning!

Ahh, fresh spinning! Here are my first four skeins from the fiber exchange project.

• The green on the far left is the Chevoit/Jacob blend that I dyed, I spun it using thick and thin spun single with a first time (for me) technique of Crescents. To ply, I used a single which was spun fine with the same fiber and a strand of metallic thread.
  
• The multi-colored blue-green-chartreuse was spun as a thick and thin single then plied with a finely spun single to give the yarn that yummy, wiggly look.
  
• Next is the Mohair/black lamb blend, I spun both singles as a lace weight, but I added some purple iris sparkle, which goes nicely with the beautiful silver mohair.
  
• The last skein is mystery blend fiber, called the beast, I spun it using the super coil technique.
  

I'm really enjoying myself, it's great working with all the different fibers, and figuring out how best to spin them.

I hope you have a wonderful weekend! Blessings Friends!
Melissa

Fiber Exchange Beginnings

Check out all this yummy fiber. The guild I belong to had a fiber exchange, there was a predetermined number of participants and we each brought enough of our fiber to share two ounces each with the other participants. The idea being that we would meet back and share our creations. It will be so cool to see what the other spinners have created! The roving with the green, turquoise and chartreuse was hand dyed by a young fella who looked about 10 (but I could be way off), his mom dyed the beautiful purple, they're good color pickers! My eye is full! It's so great to see parents passing on hand working skills/love to their young people.

We received such a nice variety of fiber too including, Mohair/black lamb, Blue Face Leicester, Finn/Merino, Alpaca, Romney and Chevoit/Jacob. Originally I was thinking I'd blend them and create some of my art rovings, but after considering all the different breeds represented, I decided to spin them separately, maintaining the original qualities of each fiber type. With the leftover singles, however, I will ply the different fiber types together. I'm really excited to have a garment with all these different fiber incorporated!



When I had all the fiber out on the table, I decided to pull some of the whites for dyeing I wanted to add some more blues and blue-greens to the mix and of course a bit more of lovely chartreuse.



I was really pleased with the way the colors came out and I think they will blend nicely with the other dyed and naturally colored rovings from the exchange. I've already been spinning away, and I did sneak in a little sparkle, with plans for more, it's good to have a little sparkle right?

Have a wonderful weekend! Blessings Friends!

The Finish Line (or very near)

Whew, there were times when I felt like I'd never get this spun. I checked my notes and I started this project back in April, but actually it goes back even a bit farther, before I could begin the dyeing I had to sort, scour and hand pick (clean out any remaining vegetation/open the fibers for carding)all the fiber. I loved mixing all the dyes for this batch of fiber, yum! And watching the pink fiber goodness dry like delicious fluffy jewels, was exciting. It took some time, between life and other projects to card together all the different fibers components. Then for a while I had three nice fat bobbins of art singles waiting for me to get my caboose in gear and spin up three more bobbins of simple, skinny singles so I could ply them.



I now have a combined 969 yards of 14 wpi Lt Fingering yarn, the skeins weigh a combined total of 14 7/8 ounces. More than enough for the beautiful pattern I have in mind to knit, more on that later. I have only one more loose end to tie up with this spin, I also dyed some Indonesian silk cocoons if you remember back to the fiber I started out with, and I'm trying to decide how to incorporate them into the project. This will have to bubble away on the back burner for a bit longer, I've started working on the fiber from a fiber exchange now. A bunch of us from the guild (Spinners Flock) that I belong to, brought enough fiber so that we could trade 2 ounces each with the other participants, with the idea that we will meet back and share how we all used the fiber. We ended up with such a nice assortment of fiber, I'd better save the details for next time!

Have a great weekend! Blessings Friends!
Melissa

Multnomah Update

Just thought I'd update the Multnomah shawl, I finished knitting the shawl awhile back and posted pictures, but it just didn't feel like it was finished. It languished, folded nicely over the back of my office chair, waiting for me to figure out what to do next, I hadn't even woven in the ends, thinking I might need to unknit something. I knew I wanted to add a few rows along the top edge, but should I get fancy, add width? In the end I kept the width the same and kept it fairly simple, some garter rows book ending two or three yarn over rows, finished with a knitted picot bind off. The yarn is all my hand spun and where you see color, my hand dyed. The pictures don't really capture all the yummy hand spun goodness, you'll just have to take my word for it! I have to give credit to my wonderful fiber friends, who are my good friends first and fiber aficionados as well! This fiber is a blend of super soft alpaca from Lonesome Oak Alpaca (Kim,Kevin and the boys)and angora from Critterville Woolery (Jan).



So now she is all done! Since we've been having a bit of cool sunny weather here in our part of Michigan, I've had a couple opportunities to wear it already!

I hope you have a delightful holiday weekend!
Blessings Friends!
Melissa