Its Tour de Fleece Time!

Its that time of year again. July is the perfect time to spin. With so many others spinning for the tour de fleece, the ravelry boards are a constant source of inspiration. For example, the other day, I saw someone had a spindle that had as its whorl, the Wheel of Fortune!! I pm'd this person to tell her how cute I thought it was and she immediately put me onto the esty seller. So, I have a new spindle on the way!!!! Not a wheel of fortune, but one with candy butterflies, set in resin. I cannot wait to see it...and spin it too, I guess...lol.

These two pictures show my favorite skein to date. Its BFL/silk from an esty seller from Torbay, Newfoundland. The colourway is Jelly Bean Row. How cute is that? I'm very happy with how the colours lined up and I only had to do a couple of resectioning in places to make it work. I'm so tempted to immediately cast on for a pair of mittens using this yarn. Thats a good sign that I'm getting over my inability to knit with handspun, right?

This yarn is my first time spinning polwarth! Its from etsy seller Kelpiefibers and I spin this completely on my new Kundart spindle - which is a dream to spin on, by the way. I don't know why, but ever since the spinning retreat, I've been obsessed with spindle spinning - and we didn't even do a whole lot of spindle spinning there.

And finally a picture of what summer is all about! Homemade popsicles with fruit! I made these for 'the boys' but so far, I've eaten them all myself. Can you blame me?

The Time of My Life

I'm just back from a weekend of spinning and dyeing at Full Tilt Creative Center in McIvers, Newfoundland! I always promised myself that if I ever got the opportunity to attend such a workshop, then I would take advantage of it. I'm so glad that I did. I was very vilifying to see other spinners (especially the instructor, Robyn Love) and realize that I'm doing things right! Most - well, all of my spinning knowledge has been gleaned from books and youtube videos. I have always felt somewhat isolated as a spinner. I learned a lot of things from this workshop, including a better way to wash fleece. My Big Project will definitely improve with the knowledge gained from this weekend.

This is Blanchard House. This is where I stayed the entire weekend. It has a beautiful view of the 'Bay of Islands". There is a small island with a tern colony just off the beach. The terns didn't stop screeching all night long. Surprisingly this was quite soothing.

Here Robyn demonstrates how to properly scour fleece. I hadn't been adding enough soap to my washings. I'm hoping this will help with my very greasy Saskatchewan fleece.

This is Jen sorting through some fiber that came from our indigo dye pot. Aren't the colours amazing?

Martina (my roommate) looks at all the dyed fleece drying in the sun. Again, the colours are spectacular!

These are my two yarns from this weekend. I used all the colours from the natural dye pots to make both of these yarns. I carded up the fibers (both on hand cards and the drum carder) for a little blending and I threw in bits of novelty yarns to attempt art yarn. I was going for a thick and thin single, which I think I succeeded.

This young lady was one of Colette's workers. (Colette is the owner of Full Tilt) She was interested in spindle spinning, so I gave her one of the spindles that Kev and I made. She is spinning with some fibre that took a quick dip in the indigo dye bath. I love that light blue!

A sewing post - and a craft by Kev!

I swear,  Kev made something!!  But first, I wanted to show off the little bingo caddy that I made.  It actually turned out to be not so little.  I've sewn this project before, and I found it ran a little small, especially on the base.  This time I wanted it a little larger, so I just kind of made it up as I went along, using the pattern more as a recipe.  The pattern can be found here by the way.   I used some more of the fabric that I got from the 99 cent dress from Old Navy.  I love it, and I still have enough for another bingo caddy, maybe two, if I don't make it so friggin huge. Its hard to tell from the photos, but trust me...huge.  And here is a close up of the cute little needle felted beads that I put on the ends of the ties. 


This past week, I had to give a little talk about spinning to my Trefoil Guild members.  I brought my wheel in to show the ladies, and I also brought along my spindle.  I showed off  my handspun yarns and all my fibers.  And.....I had Kev make them each a spindle for them to take home and try themselves.  Here he is holding them all.  I am so proud of his work.  Each spindle is well balanced, and seems to spin great.  The girls seemed to enjoy the talk and demonstrations.  I'm not sure that I convinced any of them to take spinning up as a hobby, but I really tried. 

Olympic Update

I watched the opening ceremonies last evening. They were gorgeous and moving. My step daughter Aimee was telling me that 'a rumour' was circulating on the internet that Arnold Swartzenager would be the final torch bearer and lighting the cauldron. I knew this was wrong and I insisted there was no way a non Canadian would be bringing in the torch. In my mind, it would have to be a great Canadian - a great Canadia athlete - like Wayne Gretzky, I told her. I was beyond excited and more than a little smug to be right.

As soon as the ceremonies began, I began the knitting olympics. I cast on for my vest. A provisional cast on. Note that I didn't swatch (gasp). I decided to cast on for the largest size and immediately regreted it. It was humungous. I ripped it out and recast on 2 sizes down. I may regret this too, but hey, it'll fit someone right? Besides, I've started a Christmas box. More about that later.

My vest is argyl, knit in peices from the bottom up, with intarsia blocks of colour. What a tangled mess I had after the first hour or so. I immediately went out this morning and bought some little plastic bobbins to wind the yarn onto rather than having whole skeins tangled up. Here is how it looks so far.



So, onto the Christmas gift box idea. I've decided that throughout 2010, I will knit various small projects that appeal to me as a knitter. They will be random projects for no one in particular. Then come next Christmas, I will decide if any of these projects will be appropriate for anyone on my gift list. This probably isnt' the most efficient way of gift knitting, but I like the idea of knitting what I like. So far, I have 3 different things in the Christmas gift box. Here they are, in no particular order.

Hmmm, interesting. Until now, I didn't realize they were all for the neck. This larger shawl thingy was something that has been languishing for over a year now, I think. Its from Knitpicks Suri dream, and was an absolute nightmare to knit. Its a brushed alpaca and it was so hard keeping the stitch count straight on such a hairy yarn.
Here is a rusched cowl. I really enjoyed knitting this, and it just flew off of the needles. The yarn is Merisoft by Punta Yarns. The pattern is a freebie called Tamarind Cowl.

And finally here is a little neck kerchief made with my handspun. The pattern is from Joelle Hoverson's book Knitted Gifts. I own many knitting books. Some would say an alarming number really. I have knit 5 projects from this book! I love this book, alot. Its been in my aresnal for some time now, and I keep going back to it.

And speaking of too many knitting books, Greg gave me an Amazon gift certificate for Christmas. I bought 1 knitting book All New Homespun Knits and spinning book called Respect the Spindle. I really want to be a better spindle spinner. I think with the help of this book, I'll get the hang of it. Here is what I've done so far.
I want to share with you a little prize that I won from entering a blog contest. This little cutie was knitted by this lady. She has an etsy store too. Definitly worth checking out. Her patterns are cute.