This is Corriedale dyed at the WWPHS guild retreat last year.
Spun to lace weight 1200 yds. I love the yarn. It is in the process of becoming a Wing of the Moth Shawl.
The wheel is a Louet S45 tiny, light weight and efficient a big ugly but I love it!
More details in my blog Yorksett Arts & Crafts.
Fast Forward a few hours, here are the pictures of the shawl. Just love the little bumps. Too bad they will be blocked out.....or do they have to?
Just in time for Halloween, I have finished my Spiderweb shawl!
The complete details can be found on my blog
Hi All,
It's been awhile since I've last posted on this blog. Way back when, I was torn between spinning some natural colored punta roving I had in my stash or spinning a blend from Paradise Fibers. I ended up spinning both, but only have a picture of the Punta to show for my efforts. Sadly I've yet to knit with 
either/or. Although I've been knitting more and more with my handspun, I still wanted a project that I can detail on this blog. Well, ask, and you shall receive. I found my project via the Mystic Waters KAL on yahoo. Mystic Waters is a mystery shawl knitalong. Clues are given out weekly. From there I took it a step further, and decided to spin to knit. Here are some pictures detailing my work thus far
8 oz Merino Top from Little Barn. I spun up a small portion, just to get started knitting in time for the first clue, which was released last WED 
I yielded around 293 y (2 ply) 
My plied yarn measures 16wpi in "most" places. Ha. And, finally the knitting. Here's clue 1 all done, patiently waiting for Clue 2 
I'm having a blast so far. I think I have enough yarn to get me through 1 more clue, and to the spinning wheel I shall return. The pattern required about 1320y of yarn.
Thanks for letting me share!
Necia
I have admired the works on this blog for months and am pleased to join up. I have been inspired by the work presented here and I purchased this blend of wool and mohair on-line just to be able to join in with your KAL!
When I joined this group, I went thru my stash to see what I already had spun up. I came up with one skein, single ply between a lace and fingering weight. It was from BFL that I dyed and out of 4 oz, there are approx. 706 yards. I have been looking at this skein and also looking at patterns to see what I wanted to do with it. Then I read Stephanie's post mentioning the MysticWatersKAL and it was an "AHA" moment. I just loved the name of the shawl and the color of the skein seemed to fit. However, I need around 1200 meters. So...once again I dug in my boxes...( you have to realize, I made a recent move to a new state so a lot of my stash is still buried in boxes). I not only found beads which will match but another ball of roving that I dyed at the same time. Serendipity!!
This is my skein already wound and the roving I have yet to spin. If I spin to the same thickness as before, I should have a wee bit more than needed. Keep your fingers crossed! I am really looking forward to knitting this shawl! I'll keep updates here and on my blog. I am fortunate to have found this group. You all provide great inspiration! Thanks!
Happy spinning and knitting,
Lee aka BAAbins
When I bought some beautiful Optim from the ever helpful Mandie at Ewe Give Me the Knits (don't you love that name), she assured me it was soft - boy was she right.
I planned to dye it a specific way, with a deep dark teal going through to a light sea green, and it took the Ashford dye really well. Plopped long long long strands of the roving in the dye pot in Dark Teal and with the section on the top that didn't settle in I poured over some Teal/Yellow.
Spun carefully to keep the colour graduation, I did countless happy dances in the loungeroom and forced my Wool Widowed Husband to 'feel how soft this is'.
After much swatching and knitting - I wasn't too happy with the result as I had another 'vision' of what I wanted.
The end result, after a skein was used on my Ashford Knitters Loom, can be seen on my flickr page - but here is a teaser.
The set of flickr photos can be found here if you want to see all the photos.
The first half of the Honeybee Stole is finished. I couldn't resist blocking it so I could really see what it looks like.
I'm very pleased with it. This is a symmetrical stole worked from the centre outward so, with the first half successfully completed, I anticipate no problems with the second half. Now I need to get busy and finish spinning that second package of Black Rainbow Glitter from Aurelia.
Here's a little close-up of a modification I am doing. I'm adding beads to the side and end edges. They are the "oil slick" colour, I think referred to as "dark aurora borealis", and they match the glitter in the handspun perfectly.
Also, instead of the "bind off loosely in knit" I'm using a great bind-off I learned when doing the Swallowtail Shawl. It makes for a very stretchy yet tidy edge.
K2, *transfer the 2 stitches on the right needle back to the left needle and then K2tog through the back loop. K1 and repeat from* around.
I’ve got a small FO to share, details on the knitting HERE.
This easy scarf was knit with Ashland Bay Merino/Tencel 70/30, spun to a 2-ply sport/DK weight, 16wpi, about 400yds and 3.5oz, on a Louet Victoria.
I used the smallest whorl on the regular flyer at 12:1, and low to medium tension to spin the singles with a fairly high twist. It's a standard 2-ply, with a bit lower twist than the singles for a soft drapey yarn.
I'm well into the bee and honeycomb section of the Honeybee Stole now.
I'm hoping I'll have the time to completely finish this half of the stole before I have to put it down again. I'm allowing myself a few days working on it and then it's back to projects with looming deadlines again.
While this moth did bring a smidge of aggravation (eep - running out of yarn!), it was well worth all the effort at the end. Here's a little collage of the various stages of this project. Details and big photos and musings can all be found on the finished objects blog.
I'm now contemplating spinning some yarn for the Mystic Waters lace shawl knit along though I'm not sure if I'm up for it - I have a very limited amount of merino-silk that I think would be lovely, but I'm not sure if I can spin fine enough to guarantee enough yardage. Unlike the yarn I created for the Wing of the Moth, the fiber in question isn't one of my own blends...
Course, I'm also contemplating spinning for the HoneyBee Stole.... :) choices choices!
I know I've been pretty quiet for a while, with school and all. But look, I finished the center!! And started the edging!!!
So far, I love knitting this shawl. I love the color variations throughout the shawl, which was one of the things that really worried me early on, that I might get so far and realize that I hate the colors.
I took it to Knitting Guild with me last week and a few of the members said they can't wait to see it finished. So now, I'm really motivated to get it done before our November meeting on the 7th. Probably not going to happen, but I'm going to be optimistic to try. I have a whole section of edging done, so only 653 more rows to go!
I got bored with my pink merino so instead I've been spinning something else. Now that it's out of the way I can go back to the pink. In any case here is a pic. It's a wool silk blend that's very shiny, fluffy, and soft. It started out as mostly orange with some hot pink, yellow, and lime green. I got some cool barber pole effects where the colors are pure, and then some awesome in between colors of peach, lighter greens, and orangy pink.
I'm actually really happy with it. But now that I'm plying it's giving me some issues. I guess my first single was underspun, and the first part of my second single. So just the tension of me pulling it off the bobbin is causing it to come apart. This is about half of it I think, maybe more but I'm afraid to even touch the other stuff, even to wind into center pull balls. That's what I might do though and use my spindle to ply the rest. From now on though I'll be sure to add a lot more twist...
I keep telling hubby I need a new wheel...with a lace flyer. If I keep blaming the current wheel, do you think I'll get a new one??? ;)
Oh yeah and it's about 385 yard so far, not counting what I have left to ply. Seems like a ton...I only had 2.3 ounces of roving!
This is a 3 ply Sport-DK weight with 2 singles of handspun bison and 1 ply commercial silk (advised by ThreeSheets)Thanks so much to Teresa & Kirsten for hosting this lovely spin/kal and allowing me to join in the fun. This is my first post, I've been watching you all for a good part of the summer, while off & on spinning for a shawl, and am finally jumping in.
I am working with two handpainted fibers - 4oz. of Merino/Tencel from Bonkers! in colorway Deep Ocean; and 4 oz. of Tussah Silk from The Flock Bronsanas in colorway Allison. The Allison Fiber is darker in general and is vibrant jewel toned blue and green green in it; the Bonkers leans more to the lighter side. I plan to ply them together for a heavy laceweight/light fingering weight yarn. This is a fairly long term project for me - I am a slow spinner, and have a lot of knitting going on as well, so my time is pretty divided. I started the spinning on this in July - Watching you all is great motivation/inspiration though!
I really love Anne's Morning Glory Shawl, and since I think the yarn may be a bit heavier, this might work out well. I also have had a long standing fascination with the Frost Flowers stitch pattern as used in the Frost Flowers and Leaves pattern from A Gathering of Lace. I would want a rectangular shawl though, I think, so I may have to play a bit. And ultimately, what I do with it depends on the yardage that I end up with. I'm a very new spinner, so we will see!
The spinning on this has taken a bit of a backseat to some knitting I've had going on (though I am working on my first handspun/handknit project right now - socks, come on over & see if you like!), But I plan to finish up spinning the silk by the end of the week, and then the Merino Silk by the end of the month.
Here's and old, rather off-colored photo of the spinning sample - a bit underplied, I'm afraid.
Anyway, Hi! And thanks for letting me play along!!
-mel
The second chart is done. I'm through the "swarm" section of the first half of the Honeybee Stole.
Here's a closer look at that (unblocked) section.
Well, I'm not happy. I had planned on making a basic bolero jacket, and misjudged the amount of yarn I had. I could have sworn I had 148 yards on both skeins, but looks like I have forgotten how to add. I have run out of yarn, and it is big enough to fold in half and make a large bag, I think I will felt it. This pic shows it folded over... Live and learn I guess. It is only my 3rd hand spun (on a spindle) yarn, I am hoping to get better soon!!!
Niki
http://homesteadinyarning.blogspot.com/
So I'm knitting along, keeping a close eye on my yarn, and I find myself 3 rows into the corona edging on the wing of the moth....and I'm going to run out. There is no way I'm going to make it without having to spin more yarn....
*sigh* I swore I had enough yardage...but apparently not. I guess I need to haul out the fiber and do a bit more hand blending. Thank goodness it's my own blend and I have more fiber on hand!
For more info check out my 
