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.

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.

My First Sock Yarn

 Using natural colored Shetland top I spun my first sock yarn.  I plied three strands together with plenty of twist.  I've been reading about spinning sock yarn for years but hadn't tackled it until now.

The pattern, called Canal Du Midi, came from Nancy Bush's book: Knitting on the Road.  I used size 0 needles.







Now I understand the sock knitting craze---it's so fun!

What I Love

For the coming new year I've decided to change my blog header and give some new attention to Fleece Love and Happiness.  I have been drifting away from blogging even though I still spend all of my free time working with wool. I was, however, lazy about logging on and writing about my craft.  At the same time I became unenchanted by facebook---all of that editing of one's life to make it  seem so cute, funny, witty, thoughtful, bla bla bla.  I was feeling like my blog existed in that way--- "look how awesome my yarn is, look at what I dyed, bla bla bla..."   So I stepped back from the internet for a moment and took stock of what all of this means to me.  I read other people's blogs and really enjoy hearing about what they are up to.  I like to see their photos and their finished projects.  I like to take photos of my projects and write a little bit about them.  All of this is fine as long as it doesn't feel like a chore.  Fiber crafts never seem like a chore to me and blogging shouldn't either.  I'm still fired-up by spinning, dyeing, knitting, and all things wool! I want my blog to continue to be a place where I log my experiences with the crafts that I adore. I plan to keep snapping a few shots and writing a few words about what I love.



It's been a busy holiday season at work and I've only had a few hours here and there to knit.  Usually when I'm having a coffee I can pull out my knitting and work a few rounds.  I took a few photos of what I love: coffee and knitting!                              
    I still like iced lattes in the winter.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      

Death of a Knitting Project

A little horror story for Halloween:

It started with a skein of black sock yarn and a lace pattern from Knitting on the Road.  I had two vacations planned back to back---lucky me.  I envisioned knitting one sock in California and the other sock in New York.  It would be a pair to remember my travels.  Now all I have left of this dream is the photo above that I took on the California coast.

The nightmare occurred when I had to get off a plane during a lay over while they refueled and loaded new passenger.  While I was getting a coffee in the terminal I realized that I left my knitting in the pouch of the chair in front of my seat. I reasoned that it shouldn't be a problem because I was going to sit in the same seat when I boarded again.  When I got back on the plane the cabin was clean---workers had thrown away all of the trash from the previous flight.  My knitting was gone.  It had been mistaken for trash.  It was in a plastic bag. I guess some unknowing person could have just grabbed it and tossed it into to garbage.  I asked the flight attendant for help but there was nothing she could do.  It was too late.  My knitting project was gone forever.

Blending From the Stash

 A little blending experiment: tan merino top, grey rabbit, dark brown alpaca. Results: blended into an ugly muddy color but the rabbit made it SOFT.  I didn't like it enough to make more than this little skein.

 Deep in the bottom of my wool storage, I found this matted mohair that I've been carrying around for years. I do believe that it has lived in three houses. Someone washed this in a washing machine and ruined it. I adopted it thinking that I'd salvage it. Today I took the time to pick though it.  I started with 1 1/2 lbs  and ended with about 5oz.  This is seriously SOFT too.

 Speaking of wool storage, it is a miracle that I haven't had any problem with moths all these years.  Today I decided to inspect everything closely and organize my storage.

 I found so much that I had forgotten about.  There's enough wool here to last me a long long time.  No evidence of infestation was found.  I organized dyed wool, roving, silk, etc in gallon-size zip lock bags. After going through it I found lots of fibers that I'd like to try to blend.  I started a few blending experiments...more about that later.

A Summer Fling

I finished up some of the projects I was knitting with store bought yarn.  This brown tunic is a Norah Gaughan design. The pattern is for a sweater, but I liked the shape and thought it would make a good tunic.  It's a very interesting idea: it's made of only knit stitches--no purling.  You go back and forth on the bottom, sleeves, and collar and the rest is made on a circular. The pattern is call Truro. I used a cotton/linen yarn.

The other project I finished was thd knitty design called Gemini by Jane Richmond.  I doubt if I'll ever wear it.  I'm not sure who I should give it to. It's too boxy for me.  And I was running out of yarn so I scrimped on the sleeves.  I think this was my first ever knitted project made of cotton.  So that was my little break from hand-spun yarn and wool.  I'll call it a summer fling.  I'm going back to my true love...wool.