Sometimes you just have to stop.

 I really don't like hand carding.  Forgetting this fact, I started a little blending project. Using several kinds of natural colored alpaca I hand carded about 40 little tuffs to spin from.  After carding about 3 I remembered: I really don't like hand carding.  Ah, but my drum carded definitely will not work with alpaca. So I carried on...

After making one skein of two ply yarn, I terminated the project. Spinning, for me,  is suppose to be enjoyable. Now I'm going to get out the drum carder and some WOOL and have some fun.

Norwegian White

 Have you ever heard of the breed Norwegian White?  I hadn't until I saw some top at Weaving Works: Norwegian White Top for $1.70/oz.   I bought about 8 oz and begun to spin it up into a lace weight yarn. It's so soft!  The breed Norwegian White was not in any of  my reference books so I googled it.  There's not much information out there. It became an official breed in 2001.

 I'm loving the Norwegian White and getting ready for my next dyeing project by spinning up some white skeins. I wonder how it will take dye? Stay tuned, we'll find out.

knitting

I'm still here... knitting.

A Green Spring

 Seattle got to experience a few days of glorious weather. The sun inspires me to dye because I know it will help me dry in a fraction of the time it would take indoors.  This time I decided to try a dye brand that's new to me even though it's been around since 1879.  I bought Cushing's Olive Green, Green, and Bright Green.  I started with the Bright Green and dyed 8 oz  Norwegian White roving. I had never heard of Norwegian White before but a google search got me up to speed on this type of wool.  After spending just an half hour on the stove, I left the roving in the dye pot over night. In the morning the water was clear.  I drained it off and rinsed the roving and laid it outside to dry.  It was almost 70 degrees out and by evening the roving was dry.

Now the rain it back and I can sit inside and spin up my spring time yarn.

Second Sock Yarn and Emergency Knitting Project

My second attempt of a sock yarn turned out much like my first.  However, I chose a different pattern with an all around better fit.  I used a pattern from the book Knitting on the Road by Nancy Bush.  I have spun up my 3rd sock yarn and it's drying as I write this.  I'm excited to make my next pair.

Meanwhile, I finally finished a knitting project that I started last summer.  It's a pattern from the Wild Fibers Magazine Fall 2007 called Bonnie by Lisa Lloyd.  I do believe that I'm the only person in the universe to knit this patter---it's not on Ravelry! My Ravelry account is broken and I haven't been able to upload anything for months.  Once I figure out how to fix it I'll get this sweater up and I suppose I'll be the first to do that.  It's a pretty boring pattern so I can see why no one else has knitted it. It took a long time because it lived in my car as an emergency knitting project.  I didn't have any emergency knitting situations so finally I just brought it out and finished it.

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!

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.