Spin A Yarn for Ewe

The mail has been good to me this week. My less then efficient mailman has managed to deliver not one but two Spunky Eclectic rovings this week. I am a lucky girl.

This first one was a gift from Gina. She picked this one up in person at SPA in Maine, she also has a new podcast up. I love this roving. I might have to wait to spin it so I can admire it just like it is for a while. It is merino/silk.

The shine is so great. This picture gives you an idea of how it looks but it is so much nicer in person.

She also sent me a really great book on natural dyeing and some cotton roving. My experience with cotton has never been great but I am willing to give it a try again. Maybe the wheel will help. I also have always wanted to try natural dyes but have been afraid of them for some reason. Maybe this will give me the backbone to try.

I also got my February Club shipment. Now these are more my colors.

This one is a nice merino and the colors are very subtle even in person. It should make for a pretty yarn.

I also spun up my crazy homemade batts last night. I was going for bulky so 4oz goes quickly. I will ply it tonight and see how it turns out.

It has a bunch of thick spot and chunky blobs so it will be quite different for me since most of my yarn is smooth 2 plies. I guess it is fun to branch out a little every once in a while.

I plied the December Beaches yarn from Gina via Sereknity. This shop is another source of major temptation but you can all blame Gina for it this time. It was lovely roving to spin and I love the colors.

The merino/tencel blend makes for a very easy spinning fiber that I can spin very thin and even. The shine is the extra bonus.

CeCe and I have come to an understanding and we are moving along although slowly. Each row currently has well over 250 stitches so it is taking longer but with each decrease we are getting there. I even managed to get about 6 rows done last night before abandoning it for the Beaches yarn.

The hat design had to be ripped back a few rows but I think the changes I made will work. I am going to put it all together knit a few rows and then have him try it on. I am doing it magic loop just so we can do this. I really don't want to knit the whole thing and then have him say, "well, if only it was...."

I did get CeCe all on one needle just not on Friday night. I managed that on Sunday morning instead. There really is no need for a photo since currently it looks like a huge pile of off white lace. It is not a knit I can do while watching TV anymore since we now have decreases on every RS row for some spots and every 4th row for others plus I have to keep the lace straight. It makes my brain hurt to even type this but hopefully it will get rolling and I am decreasing so it could be worse.

I decided to start on the roving Gina sent as my TV project. Remember December Beaches.

It now looks like this.

In fact there are 2 bobbins that look like that so the plying will start tonight. Hopefully the sun will be out tomorrow so I can get a photo that shows how much shine the tencel adds.

I also have started on the ear flap hat. Currently I have 2 ear flaps done and I am working on how to make the back longer then the front. I think I have it worked out but you know how that goes.

I finished the Spunky fiber last night so I now have 216 yards of yarn. I am surprised at the finished look of the yarn. I forgot there was so much brown hidden away in there and that put a muted spin on everything. I like it now much better.

I still think this is destined for my mom though.

I also worked on that darn second sleeve of CeCe and I am almost done. I am on row 70 something and there should be 112 so I am heading towards the finish line. I can not wait to get it all together and do the top. I want to get it all on the needles before the weekend so I can work on it in the car. I think fiddling with all the parts might drive me crazy in the car until it is together. See we have plans this weekend that involve driving and lots of prime knitting time so this is mandatory that I get this together, at least it is too me it is. I guess that means some serious knitting this afternoon and tonight. No more messing around.

Monday holidays always screw me up. I can never remember the day of the week and I find myself constantly looking at my calendar. Don't ask me why, they just do. So this week has been a little off for me.

Since I have no finished sleeve or yarn to show I thought I could distract you with some new fiber. First up is this one.

Okay, I know that it is just white fiber but wait until you hear the fiber content. Merino, Angora, Baby Alpaca, Cashmere and Silk. Oh yeah, luxury all the way. I am thinking of spinning this really fine and plying it with a silk thread or maybe the silk with a pearl colored bead I have. I haven't decided yet but I can not wait to spin it.

I also got this one. Arabella.

Yeah, back to the crazy colors. This one has glitz in it too. Just a little, but I know it will come through in person. Both of these came from Peculiar Ambition again. They used my pictures from the 2 batts I spun of theirs before and offered a little discount that I just had to take advantage of. I mean who can pass up discounted fiber.

Thanks for the heads up (haha) on the hat pattern. Of course that is about the only IK issue I don't own since I started knitting 4 years ago. Go figure. But it looks like I should be able to get a back issue. I also found a few freebies that might work with minor adjustments so I might try those first.

I am also proud to announce that I finished my 100 miles on Tuesday. I was so close on Monday but since I wasn't sure how far I had to go I missed it by 3/10th of a mile. I am just going to keep going and see how far I can get by the deadline as well as for the year. It seems to be a motivator for me.

I worked on the Spunky fiber last night and finished the first bobbin. The fiber is nice but the colors are so not me. I hope that when the yarn is done more of the blue will come through. Here is what the fiber looked like again in case you missed it.

Now here is the single.

For me the orangey color takes over too much but we will see when it is plied cause that could change everything. I still think this fiber of the month club is great as the fiber is really nice and I knew that not every month would be my favorite color-wise but it is still fun to do. My mom loved the fiber and the colors are much more "her" so maybe I will make something out of it for her.

I also have a request for a hat "like the one I saw in the fishing store''. It is basically a beany style hat but it comes down lower in the back and has modified ear flaps. This is the drawing.

Do you think that a basic ear flap design hat would work but with a few modifications? They always seem to have ties on the ends of the flaps and he does not want any so would they still stay down? Any ear flap hat experts or wearers out there want to comment on this.

and turquoise bead yarn. I got quite a lot done this holiday weekend and even managed to get out and do some touristy San Diego stuff too. Saturday we went to the Wild Animal Park. This place is so fun and the fact that it is only 15 minutes from my house makes it even better. We also are zoo members so that makes it free every time we go. We saw loads of babies like, rhinos, elephants, and teenage lions. The lions have to be the best since you are now just 50' max from them and they have mom, dad and the kids all together.

I did manage to finish one sleeve and get about 25% done on the second. So hope fully by next weekend we will have a body and sleeve joining.

Fingers crossed.

I also did some spinning. I did another skein of the Mermaid bead yarn and then I did this one.

I just call it turquoise beaded. The beads are slightly bigger on this skein then the last and show up more as the color is not a right on match like the last one.

I might switch to this size bead all the time. I really need someone with a Tilli Tomas skein to tell me what size beads she uses in the standard beaded skeins, like Rock Star, she does as I love how her yarn looks knitted up. Anyone want to measure a bead for me?

I also got started on the January Spunky Club fiber since my goal was to have every months selection spun up before the next one came. I think I am probably cutting this close this time.

That was about all I could say when I opened my Spin to Knit swap package for February. My swap pal, Gina, totally spoiled me. It took me running after the mailman to get it but it was worth it. See, we have parcel boxes and he put the wrong key in my box so I ended up with a bunch of mail for some other guy down the street. We hopped in the car, ran him down, made him come back to the box and get me my package. So once I opened it this is what I saw.

It was all so nicely done I wasn't sure what I rip open first. I started with the greatest Spinning Scrapbook that Gina put together to show me the process she took to get my yarn done. It is so cool. I took a couple photos of the inside.

And this one.

Now on to all the other goodies.

She sent the yarn, project cards to record information on that also had a very cute pin, beaded stitch markers and a beaded orifice hook. The yarn is a beautiful 3 ply of merino and tencel so it has a wonderful shine to it. Plus it is ubersoft.



Gina also sent fiber. She said this was left over from the yarn she spun.

And then another roving called December Beaches.

Oh yeah, there were sour candy lips too but those didn't make it back to the photo shoot. I had to hide them so they didn't get all gobbled up before I got some. Plus a copy of a magazine she had gotten 2 of.
All in all I was totally spoiled and I loved it all. Thank you so much Gina!

So even though I had plenty of beads strung up to ply I decided to work on CeCe. The weather has been so nice lately, sorry for everyone stuck in piles of snow, so I want to get her done. Or at least get the sleeves attached to the body since that seems so bizarre to me I can't wait to see it. So I took a shot of the sleeve in action.

I am guessing that will be where it hits when it is done or maybe a little shorter. It is currently halfway done with the first sleeve thanks to Gina's help with the increases. I just could not get my brain around it at first so she helped explain it differently. Thank goodness or I would still be stuck at row 4.

I am really itching to get started on the, renamed by me, Lacy Cami. I found the yarn on sale at Web's for 40% off so I went with the called for yarn, Alchemy Bamboo, just in a different color.

If it had not been on sale I would probably still be looking for a sub since it is normally crazy expensive in my mind. I have worked with some other bamboo for a swatch and it is great to work with in my opinion with tons of great drape and shine plus it is supposed to be cool to wear which will come in handy in the summer here.

when you dye a small amount of roving.

The roving in the front. That you like but know it is not enough to really do anything with. Plus you have some batts you already carded that really are not doing it for you.

You run them both through the drum carder separately and then decide that maybe they would work together.

So I now have the carded together batts that total about 4oz that are full of texture and mohair locks and I plan to make a fun yarn. Something I have not done in a while. I mean most of my yarns are fun to me but this one will be more artsy then smooth and perfect. It makes me let go and go with the fiber rather then trying to make the fiber do what I want. I may even add in some more locks as I spin but we will see. For now I am thinking thick and thin single.