Monday, January 28, 2013

My Second Sock Yarn

 It looks a lot like my first sock yarn. This one is from Blue Face Leicester top.  I spun 7 oz into a 3-ply yarn. I've set the twist and it's drying now.  I can't wait to start another pair of socks!

Sunday, January 13, 2013

Shield Lace Hat

 A while back I tried to spin 100% alpaca and didn't enjoy it at all.  The lack of crimp made it seem slippery in my hands and I couldn't get a consistent yarn so I gave up. Recently I was heading out to my once-a-month spinning group at the Ballard Library and I needed something to spin so I grabbed a bag of brown alpaca from my stash.  I'm not sure where I acquired this roving. This time around I really liked spinning it and I chose to make a lace weight 2-ply yarn.

I ended up with a nice fat skein and then set about to find a pattern to knit.  I came across Shield Lace Hat by Kristin Lamm.  Perfect!   After watching a few youtube videos, I used the tubular cast-on method.  It's brilliant! I love how the edge looks with this kind of cast-on.

You can't really see the shield lace pattern in this hat, but I like it none the less.


Friday, January 11, 2013

Shades of White



Lichen blanched in the windowsill.



Cookies powdered with sugar.



Wool scoured.


Continuing with my love of natural colored fiber,
I am spinning white.

Tuesday, January 1, 2013

Happy New Year!


Lately I've been on a natural colored fiber kick.  I have also been interested in trying to blend natural fibers together. I ended up with little "samples" that I knitted all together to make a beanie   The brim is made with wool and rabbit, the brown is wool plied with alpaca, and the dark gray is a variety of wool.  I tried to give the hat away, but so far no takers.  It's pretty warm, so maybe I'll wear it.