Knitting and Spinning

I've mentioned on more than one occasion that I struggle with finding the right pattern for my handspun. There is an exception however. Its Loop batts. No sooner does one come off the wheel than I have cast on a new pattern using it. Case in point - see this gorgeous handpsun?



Its Loop batts Raindrop colourway one plain and one sparkle plied together. It is gorgeous. And of course I cast on right away and knit Glacier Sweep by....wait for it.....Stephen West! Its a bummer that I don't have enough to finish all 5 sections, but I think I will buy some commercial yarn in a worsted/aran weight yarn in black to finish it off. I'm very happy with it, but want it done - like now. Why is that?



I just finished spinning this very pretty two ply and I love it. But I bet it'll be forever before I end up knitting with it. Its Fractal Roving from etsy seller Hilltop Fibers - and she's Canadian!




I'll leave you with a cute kiddie photo seeing as its Easter weekend. Happy Egg hunting to you all!

Honey Cowl

I have a finished object to show off this week. Its in handspun and I'm in love with it. Its from a Loop batt called Kaleidoscope Eyes. I just check out my Etsy purchase history and I realized that I've only been spinning Loop batts since November 2011! I guess I have an anniversary coming up. Haha. It seems that its been in my life for a lot longer than that.

This picture is taken from her etsy store. If you haven't spun one of her batts before, I strongly recommend giving them a try. Her shop sells out quickly after an update so make sure that you sign up to be notified of any updates

Here is Amy wearing the finished cowl. I'm very happy with it and so is she. I predict this will get lots of wear during the winter season.

In other knitting news, I've been busy working on a mystery knit along. This one is sponsored by Lee Merideth. I've written about her before and how much I like her patterns. This one is no different. It is so unique and such an interesting knit. I know its a shawl, but thats about it. I'm not sure which direction it will go in.

One more interesting thing that I wanted to bring up. Have you ever seen a pattern in the wild - not necessarily hand knit - with an interesting stitch pattern and want to duplicate it? Well, its happened to me on a few occasions. This stitch pattern was on a shrug worn by one of my coworkers, and I couldn't stop looking at it. I had to take a pic to see if I could figure it out later. I'm not sure if I can do it, but I really want to try. It is such a pretty stitch, isn't it?

Successful Tour!

Today marks the end of the Tour de Fleece. I finished a 2 ply fractal spin today. I'm very happy with it. Its called Bifrost - a polwarth wool by etsy seller Kelpie Fibers. I love how happy this yarn is. I'm not sure what I'll make out of it, but I'm leaning towards mittens.

And here is a group photo of all the yarns spun during the tour. I'm very happy with the lot of them. I didn't spin as much as I would have liked but things like work kept getting in the way. But work I must, if I want to buy fiber to spin that is.

I didn't really set any concrete goals for myself - other than play with the art yarns a bit. I did manage to spin 3 different art yarns. The first one is the beehives that I already blogged about. I also did a whole Loop! bullseye bump as a super coil.

My bobbin wasn't large enough to hold the whole skein so I thread plied the leftovers. I like that one too!

Overall, I'm happy with my yarns. Look for them in upcoming posts as all of them are screaming to be knit or woven right away!

Tour de Fleece!

This is the fourth year that I'll be participating in the Tour de Fleece. This annual event has really helped to improve my spinning by leaps and bounds. Its gotten so that I associate summer with spinning now. I just love it!


I started team Newfoundland and Labrador, and I am the captain! Go me! Lol. I'm happy that spinning is really picking up in this province. We have about a dozen or so participants on our team. I'm also spinning for team Loop (my new favorite etsy store!). One of my goals is to spin through some of my Loop stash. I have 5 of her bumps in my stash and they are all bigger than 5 oz. I also want to try a few art yarn techniques.


I tried spinning some coils/beehives. They actually turned out pretty good as I was spinning them, but when they were pulled through the orifice and onto the bobbin, they sort of came apart. I followed the technique as outlined in the book Spin Art.


So I think my problem is that my orifice is too small. Schact sells a bulky flyer for the sidekick wheel with a larger orifice for the purpose of spinning bulkier art yarns. This is something I may have to invest in.


Here is a close up of some of the neater coils. This was so much fun to spin and its definitely something I'll be trying again. I think next time I will try plying it with a handspun single instead of a commercial yarn. I'm not sure that I like the contrasting colours.

Prior to the tour I finished up spinning half of my cupcake fibers sock kit. Here is the resulting skein. My first official three ply! I say first official because I have spun chain plied yarns which is technically a three ply yarn but not really considered a true three ply yarn since all three plies of the chain ply come from the one single ply. Understand? I'm not sure I do, and I'm a spinner. Lol.

I cannot get through a Tour without being inspired by the many spindle spinners over on Ravelry. I'm always amazed at what people can accomplish on such a simple tour. I had to break out my spindles and give it a whirl. Literally. Lol. Here is a photo of Spencer...looking unbelievably worried. He is such a little neurotic guy. I'd love to know what he is thinking sometime.

And the final photo is of my Loop batt that I've spun so far. I'm not sure what I'll do with this one, but right now I'm leaning towards chain plying it to preserve the colours. This one is called 'Kaleidoscope Eyes' and is a repeatable colourway. This means that lots of other people have this exact same colour. The good thing about this is, that its very easy to get inspired by project photos of this stuff knit up on Ravelry. Diane of Knitabulls podcast fame is currently knitting a gorgeous shawlette called Ruby Slippers in this colourway. I'm tempted to do the exact same thing! But who knows when and where inspiration will strike. I do know this.....all of my Loop batts that I've spun up are currently knit up. I think that says something about this fiber. It doesn't languish in the stash at all. It demands to be seen!

My first Commission?

Yeah right!! Lol. Amy approached me some time ago about an idea that she (and her classmates) had. This is Amy's last term at Bishop's! And she wanted to get her voice coach Gail, something special. Several of her classmates felt the same way and the idea was born that they would commission me to make a shawl. I had been texting Amy quite a bit about this shawl. Issues like shape, colour, fiber content, yarn weight all came up. She was planning on getting her friends to answer most of these concerns and get back to me, but they never did! So I took it upon myself to just go for it and hope they would like it. I decided that handspun would make it more special and I decided that the colour purple was in order since that is the official colour of Bishop's university. Its knit from that first loop batt that I spun up in the colour Plum Pudding.

Then I had to pick a pattern. The latest knitty had just come out and there was the perfect semicircular shawl. Afternoon Tea. I loved knitting this shawl so much. But it turns out I was short on yardage. I ended up having to dye some yarn to match - I was a little concerned for a bit that it was brown not purple, but overall, I'm very happy.

Here it is pre blocking. This photo was taken at night and I almost had myself convinced that the edging was brown. I was in near panic thinking that I would somehow have to figure out how to dye the edging over or that I would have to rip back and knit the edging again.

Here it is blocking. The edging is actually closer to a maroon colour. My knitting room is in an obvious state of confusion. That shoe was put there so I could give Amy some sense of size. Lol. She is happy with the shawl and she is certain that Gail will like it.

But in all honesty, I don't think I'll be able to charge a bunch of college kids for knitting this.

I can't stop spinning

Not that I want to or anything, but it is seriously interfering with the knitting time. The only thing thats gotten finished around here is a bulky hat. The pattern is Icing Swirl by Ysolda. And it knit up in a jiffy. I knit it out of 100% bulky alpaca. I'm not sure of the brand, but it is very drapey and warm and I really like it.

Can I just say how much I am enjoying my new sidekick? Its all I want to do! Spin, spin and spin some more. I'm finding it much more easy to adjust the settings on the wheel and come up with a different weight of yarn. This time I was going for a heavier weighted single and it totally worked. I'm loving this yarn so much that its all I can do to wait to cast on for that Bandana Cowl. The singles are fairly consistant and they aren't overly spun - which is such a huge deal for me. No way could I have gotten results like that on my Louet. Which means my spinning should only get better, right? This is just the second skein from my new Sidekick. Don't you just love the sparkles? Again, its a Loop batt. I should just bite the bullet and subscribe to her club, but I'm trying to reign in the spending. And I have my own drum carder. I should be able to make batts like this myself. Well, in theory I should, but somehow my batts turn out all lumpy, bumpy and stuff. Oh well, I guess I should practice it more. If I get seriously into doing my own carded batts then that means less knitting time too. Arrrgh...so many great fibery things to be doing, and so little time.

And I really need to finish a shawl that I started for Mehrnaz for Christmas. As of tomorrow Christmas is officially over. But Mehrnaz won't mind. As long as its red, she'll be okay whenever she gets it.