Esther Chicken

Is that cute or what! Knit from Rowan's free pattern - Esther, Ernie and Enid, Easter Chickens and handspun (mainly Southern Cross Fiber) left overs from socks.
"What do you think of my tail?"

"I am watching you!"


Here is my finished Spunky Eclectic Leno Weaving Club project too

Progress!

Last post I started with a group picture of all the yarns I would be using in my Fiddlehead mittens. I have finished one shell (still need to knit the liner mitten, yarns for liner in the picture) and I am so pleased with it! The second is started - next winter I am going to have such warm hands!
I have projects started on my 3 small looms too. The sample I had on the Hocket loom in the last post is now a wrap in progress, my Tulip Wrap, on my Harp:

On my Cricket I have the last weaving club I received from Spunky Eclectic. I have done leno before but with wool. This is linen and it looked spectacular in progess. It is now finished, wore it to spinning guild yesterday! The finished project looks great.  There will be more of these woven I am sure!

On my new Inkle loom I have a starter project. I am not sure if I will really like weaving on this loom. I think I need to check some you tube videos and see if something needs adjusting but the band itself is working out just fine.

Spinning has slowed down with all these other project going but I need to get back to my combo/extreme plying project to finish up before the April 30th deadline.
Enjoy the beautiful spring! MDS&W is coming up soon.

Spring and new beginnings

Isn't that a lovely group of yarns! All spun by me out of Southern Cross Fibre roving and batts except for the Silk Cloud by Shibui  purchased at Gosh Yarn It! That is the bright green fuzzy one in the top left corner. I will be using that, held with Southern Cross Fiber "Boogie Wonderland" 2 ply, for the liner mitten. The larger semi sold bright green three ply in the center (all the rest of the fibers are Southern Cross Fibre) "Banksia" will be the background for the fiddlesticks which will be knitted out of the remaining 5 3 ply balls. I am really excited to see this project completed! I am swatching now  - hope third swatch is a go!

I actually finished warping up for this project on my Harp but I love this picture of my sampling process on my Hockett Loom. It does 8 epi which was too wide a set for my plans, so I used the white weft (which I didn't like with the lovely Ty-Dy Cotton by Knit one Crochet Too I bought at Gosh Yarn It!) to pull the warp in to check out 10 epi with a thinner, darker color weft, Xie Bamboo also purchased at GYI! Bingo! The Xie for the weft is just a perfect color that holds the warp but shows allows the warp colors to shine through.   Love it. I am naming the project Tulip Wrap because the  colors in the Ty-Dy remind me of the tulips pictured on a postcard I got for my sister when I was visiting Tuileries Gardens in Paris. That was a wonderful trip!

Finally my newest too - an Inkle loom. I have been wanting one and the right size & price appeared in one of the used tool groups on ravelry. Can't wait to get started with it!

Back to spinning

The last 2 posts have focused on weaving but there has been spinning going on too. Above is a good picture of "Banksia" Southern Cross Fiber 60% BFL/40% Tencelfrom July 2012 Batt Club. It was a wonderful spin. Ended up with 202 yarnds of 3 ply and 202 yarns of 2 ply. The 3 ply will be the background for my Fiddlehead mittens. Knitting post soon to come!

I have been trying to spin out of my comfort zone and have 2 "big and lofty" yarns as a result. Spunky Eclectic Cotswald  "Eye of the Peacock"; 2 ply, 69 yards, 4-6 wpi Jan 2013 Club in the top left, top right is my first spin from the fleece I bought from Karen at Endless Mt. Fiber Festival in 2012. I had it processed into roving. It is lovely to spin. Bottom right is "Summer's End" Spunky Eclectic, Superwash Merino, 119 yards that I spun as part of the Extreme Plying spin along in Southern Cross Fiber on ravelry. It is what we are calling M Ply. First I spun the fiber into 2 singles - plyed them for a 2 ply then N plied. The result is a cable yarn (6 plys) and has a nice texture. Makes it hard to see how uneven the singles in the 2 play are!
Finally, my next spin. I am doing Combo SAL 2013 ravelry Spunky Club with fibers from 3 dyers on 3 different fibers - on top SE Merino/Bamboo Rayon “Dinosaur”, bottom left Southern Cross Fibre Polwarth “Kakadu”, Bottom right Hello Yarn BFL “Scorch”. My plan is to do extreme spinning with these as well - I will N ply the three singles, that will be a 9 ply!


Here are all those fibers mixed together in a better picture - actually half of the Kakadu is not there, I stripped the roving into 2 pieces and have one partially spun already! I am off to MD to visit with family this weekend - knitting will happen too!

Log Cabin Weaving

I have always loved this pattern and planning for a class gives me permission to do samples. I wanted to show the effect of different wt yarn with the same set and the look of the log cabin pattern in squares, rectangles and different color combinations.  My first was 2 small guest towels. I have Euroflax 8/2 lace weight purchased at Gosh Yarn It sale on spec. In my first trial I have it waped using a 12 dent reed on my Cricket, a little over 9 inches wide and 48 inches long. The towel on the left has the weft yarn held double, the towel on the right has the same yarn held single in the weft.

I wove another 2 towels using Euroflax, the only change was to warp double (still used the 12 dent reed). As with my first set, one has the weft woven double - the second single.No picture of those yet. I want to try a doubled Euroflax warp with a 10 dent reed too. In addition to the different feel, the Log Pattern design is more prominent when both the warp and the weft is held double.

On my Harp, I warped with worsted wt. cotton using the 8 dent reed.

The class went well, I am excited to see the results!
Here is my finished pillow out of handspun - interesting how different the sides look!

Weaving in 2013

Weaving has been taking up more of my time. I have started teaching some rigid heddle classes at Gosh Yarn It. I really enjoy using rigid heddle looms and often have both my 10 inch Cricket and my 16 inch Harp going at the same time. So, to do some catch up. The hounds tooth pattern was used for the first Weaving Class.

I did mine in worsted wt, the black is commercial the variegated is handspun using an 8 dent heddle and very light beat. It washed up to be very soft and drapy.

I had some bulky handspun again from Spunky Eclectic, "Eating Maine" Swaledale.  I wove some fabric with 3 ply Indian Warp I had purchased from the Mannings for a little seat cushion. Something soft between me and metal folding chairs!

Off the loom and washed:

The cushion is all made but no photo yet!
Finally got a picture of my spa cloth experiment  - five spa cloths each a little different:

Oh, here is the first scarf project with the yarn that came with my Cricket!:

More weaving to come!

January round up

My SnoBuddies - loved knitting them over the Christmas/New Years break. These are the three I kept. They really appealed to the doll lover in me. I had to control my urge to knit a wardrobe of hats and scarves  for them!
So, a new year and another chance to do better - not that I don't frequently try but I there are 2 times a year that I feel a stronger urge to be the person I would like to be - January and September. I have started the year moving forward with my goal of not adding to the stash. Not by not buying more yarn or fiber but by using the yarn and fiber as it comes in the door instead of letting it marinate.
First up - knit with some beautiful Silk Cloud, pictured above,  by Shibui purchased from my LYS Gosh Yarn It that went right on the needles for a Horai wrap. I knit that pattern as a scarf for my sister (pictured below) and for my largest SnoBuddy. I loved the pattern and wanted one for me. This yarn is so soft and so alive I couldn't resist.

My December Club fiber from Spunky Eclectic got spun up during a Rock Day or Stl Distaff's Day celebration and is on the needles becoming Mukluks, a great pattern to show off handspun, handpainted yarn.

Weaving next post!
2013 is going to be a great year!