I started thinking about TdF earlier this year and trying to figure out what I would like to spin. I had lots of lovely things in the stash but nothing was calling out to me. I was in the mood to knit a sweater. A handspun sweater would be absolutely lovely but nothing I had was enough to spin for a sweater so I set out on a mission. I had purchased some lovely Frabjous Fibers BFL earlier (like a year earlier, at least) and I loved my Chocolate Cherry colorway but it was 8 ounces and what can you do with 8 ounces? I decided, since I had seen it at Shepherd's Harvest last year, to go on a mission to find another 8 ounce braid of it this year, then I would spin it and ply the two together to avoid any issues with dyelots not being the same.
I scored big time when I found a second braid almost immediately.
Here they are before I started pulling them apart and spinning them. You can't tell very well from this picture but there are some subtle differences in the two braids. I spun up a lot of singles.
Here are just two of the bobbins. As you can see, they're pretty full and I had 4 bobbins this full when I was finished.
I plied and plied and plied and ended up with:
This much yarn. The three big skeins are pretty nice and the smaller skein on top is a little thinner. It was spun first and then left over after the second bobbins were emptied so I wound it into a ball and plied it on itself. The total is: about 1300 yards. I was going for a fingering weight but I came out with more like a sport weight. I love the yarn and I cannot wait to find something amazing to do with it.
In addition to spinning all this lovely stuff, I've been knitting some handspun. Remember this skein?
It's my Cloudlover BFL/Silk. I cast on some plain socks while we were in the play so I would have something simple to work on during rehearsals when I was waiting. I was past the heel turn on the first sock and working down the foot when the play finished so I whipped up the ending to the first and whipped the second up as well.
There's nothing quite like a lovely pair of handspun socks is there? Well, not to me anyway.
They're unique and interesting and very lovely.
People seemed very intrigued by my picture of myself all muddy last week. There is a story behind it. My brother got a new 4-wheeler and so, while I was down at my mom's we found some time to get together. He showed me lots of different trails he likes to ride on while I rode my parents' smaller 4-wheeler. we found some mud and decided to "cool off" and have some fun. Eventually my BIL came over with his 4-wheeler too and we had a ton of fun getting thoroughly messy. The cleaning up was not nearly as fun. Here are some action shots of my brother and BIL getting thoroughly dirty.
I don't get to do things like this very often so I really enjoy it when I do have the time.
Stay tuned to find out if I can finish this:
and it's mate before Camp Loopy III starts.
No comments:
Post a Comment