FO Friday: Abalone Cowl

One of my favorite groups on Ravelry, the Karma Yarn Swap group, is having a fun KAL this month encouraging people to knit with their handspun yarn. I worked up this cowl in one day from the pattern Askance Cowl by Shelby Dyas. The yarn was a perfect match for the pattern: a mix of 80% merino and 20% tussah silk that I two-plied to a DK weight. Here are my before and after pictures:

Before...

 

...and after!

Saturday Spinning

A week or so ago, I finished spinning and plying the yarn from the fiber I bought at the PA Farm Show back in January. I am tickled pink about the results; it came out soft and fluffy and beautiful! I think it's about a DK weight but I haven't put it on the WPI tool yet to check. The larger skein has 426 yards and the smaller "seconds" skein has 93 yards. I'm calling the colorway "Dr. Seuss" because it reminds me of the colors of Thing 1 and Thing 2.

The colors aren't quite this dark in real life; they're rather tricky to photograph.

Saturday Spinning

I seem to have finally recovered my spinning mojo over the last few days. I put my treadles to the metal today, and finished spinning the singles of some beautiful merino that I got at the PA Farm Show back in January. I'm hoping to ply them up next week after they get a chance to rest.

Handspun and Sheep Kisses

This past weekend was just packed full of fibery goodness! On Saturday, I met up with my college roommate at the 96th Annual Pennsylvania Farm Show in Harrisburg, PA. I haven't been there since we went in 2005 (when we were still in college!), and I haven't seen her in a year and a half, so it was so much fun to reconnect. Plus, there were all kinds of fiber animals there to pet and take pictures of and even kiss!

Photo by Allison E Frank Photography

I bought some fabulous fiber there from local vendors, including some 100% angora from Twin Ponds Fiber Farm, some hand-dyed merino roving from the Bauer Family Farm, and 4oz of Alpaca/Corriedale roving in "Chocolate Covered Strawberries."

When I got home, I finally finished spinning the fiber that has been on my wheel for MONTHS. It is BFL from Miss Babs that I got at Stitches East back in October 2010. It spun up really nice, but I spun it incredibly fine, so it took a long time to get through the singles. I ended up with 400 yards of 3-ply fingering weight, and I am very proud of it. It is so consistent and even that I think it could totally pass for millspun (not that millspun is better than handspun, of course!).

MOM Monday

Things are finally starting to return to normal after the chaos of our move and starting our new jobs. The Labor Day holiday gave me a chance to really clean and organize our new home, and unpack a LOT of boxes. I even managed to finish the September installment for my mom's club, only a week behind schedule.

This project was very special because I not only knitted the project, but I also spun the yarn. I used 100% alpaca roving from my friend Deb's animals. The yarn is about a sport weight (13 wpi) and I held it double on size 4 needles to make the finished product nice and sturdy.


          From roving....                              To spinning...                                 To yarn!

Without further ado, meet Zeke!

Zeke is made from Rebecca Danger's pattern called Zeke the Aloof Alpaca. I have made several of her other patterns before, including a set of Bunny Nuggets and Cecil the Computer Monster. Zeke has a big personality and is already making himself right at home amongst my mom's other critters!

Tour de Fleece Tuesday!

I'm getting back in the swing of things today after a wonderful (and very busy) holiday weekend. TMG and I drove to Pennsylvania to visit with my family for a few days and had a great time. Highlights included mini golf, numerous games of Solitaire Frenzy and The Game of Things, a cookout in the woods, and lots of good food! Believe it or not, I did not do any knitting the whole time we were there! I did, however, deliver Cecil, who was a HUGE hit. Here's a picture of him in his new happy home:

While we were away enjoying all of the fun and festivities, July 1st marked the beginning of the annual Tour de Fleece spinning event. For those of you who are unfamiliar with it, the Tour de Fleece runs each year concurrently with the Tour de France bike race. Wheel and spindle spinners alike participate in this event for fun and prizes, and post photos of their daily progress. Many spinners participate in different "teams" to enhance the fun! I must admit that I am far behind the peloton this year, as I have not yet made it to the starting line, but being able to go at one's own pace and set one's own goals is part of the fun. Here is what I will be working on first:

The photos just don't do justice to this beautiful Miss Babs BFL! I am going to spin it as a 3-ply and, as visible in the second photo, I already have one bobbin finished. I don't remember offhand what the colorway is, but I purchased it at Stitches East last year. I hope to finish spinning and plying this sometime this week, and then start on something else!