Tuesday 17 December 2013

Time to Rest

After a hectic term, it is now the Christmas holidays! I have time to knit and spin and blog and rest! Hooray! I apologise for my absence but things have been crazy!

I have been knitting and spinning but will only show a few things today and save the rest for over the holidays. The main thing I have been working on is the Gravitate shawl. It's coming along well and I'm now on the penultimate section. I really like how the double yarn overs look dropped and can't wait to see what this shawl looks like blocked. The pattern is so clear and exceptionally easy to follow. 


The other thing that I have been trying to finish is some spinning. My Inglenook Fibers Parrot Tulip has been hibernating for some time. I really enjoyed this batt at first but after a while I found it really difficult to spin as it's not a smooth batt. The last part took me months to spin but I'm pleased to say it's finished and I love the end product.
The colours are wonderful and they work beautifully together. This is also some of the more consistent spinning I've done and I'm surprised at how evenly it plied up, considering I navajo plied it. It's 435 yards, which I'm thrilled with. I can't decide what it will become but I'm tempted to knit a shawl from it. What do you think it should be?

Shortly after calculating the yardage for this, I realised that I must have calculated the yardage for my Nunoco Iridescent Puddle yarn incorrectly. I went back and double checked the calculation and it turned out that I hadn't doubled it to compensate for only measuring half the length of the skein. So that's actually 472 yards - my best spinning yet. 

Recently I bought my first craftsy.com class - Spinning Dyed Fibers by Felicia Lo. I've been hankering after it for quite some time and the price was too good to pass up. I watched all of it in one weekend and it was so immensely interesting that I was disappointed when it finished. There is definitely a lot of information in there that I will use again in the future. Which craftsy.com classes do you like? 

Fractal spinning is something I've wanted to try for a while as I love the way the yarn looks, however I'm not so sure I like the knitted items. A while back I received a Phat Fiber box with lots of delicious samples in it. One of these is perfect for fractal spinning. I will finish spinning and knit up a sample to show you soon. The picture shows the second half of the fiber divided into 3. 

That's all for now - I will be back soon though.
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2 comments:

  1. I love your beautiful handspun. I love the look of handspun stuff. Yours is nice and tactile with gorgeous colors.

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    1. Thank you. Yes handspun does look fabulous. I can't wait to knit with this and see the different textures. Do you spin?

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