As you know, I critter sit on Thursdays. That means I watch my friends two little girls. We call them critters. Well, since I spend the day at their house, I don't have access to all my fibery pursuits. I usually don't bring my wheel but I do bring some knitting and some spindle-spinning. Last week, I got bored with spindle-spinning what I had been working on so I pulled it off and started wheel-spinning it. (That happens a lot. I'm just so excited for it to be yarn that I can't wait!) That meant that I had whipped the fiber off the spindle so fast it was sitting there empty. I knew that wouldn't work so I dug around a bit yesterday morning and came up with something, tossed it in my knitting bag and headed out the door.
After the preschool run I had a bit of time before lunch so I pulled out the fiber and the spindle. I opened up the braid and started drafting it a bit to get ready to spin it. That's when I noticed that this braid I had thought was just a dark piney green actually had some blue on it.
See it? Right there on the bottom left? Blueish. I drafted some out and started spinning and that's when a little niggling thought popped into my head.
I have some blue and green at home.
I have some blue and green at home.
Wait a second! I have some fiber at home that's blue and green. Fiber I haven't spun yet.
A couple of summers ago we had a spinning party at my house for Tour de Fleece. It was a fun and fiber-filled day. I ended up buying some fiber out of a stash and some fiber from my friend's etsy shop (actually the one with the critters). I had thought and thought about them and decided that I liked them both enough and they matched enough that I could spin them and ply them together to get a lovely yarn to be knit into something. I was thinking a two-ply laceweight. 8 ounces of laceweight would add up to a lovely something.
I wasn't sure what it would be when it was finished but it didn't much matter since I hadn't spun it anyway. It was marinating.
Then, this idea hit me. The one with this other braid and I started smiling my Grinch-iest smile. I would spin all 3 braids, ply them together and knit something. But what?
Well, here's one of the two marinating braids. It's Merino from Gritty Knits from before I was in the club.
Here's the kicker though. Here's the other braid.
Merino and silk! 80/20. Lovely and shiny and all the same colors.
The newest braid is also from Gritty knits, it's the December 2011 Merino-of-the-month braid and it's just lovely too. Darker though and more like a pine green in most places. I think it will give a lot of depth to the yarn.
It was decided. I would spin all three of them and ply them together. Then it struck me what I would knit.
It didn't take me long to land on the Wispy Cardi by Hanna Fettig. It's got an interesting construction and would be a very cute 3/4 length sleeve cardi which is perfect for me. But, would I be able to get enough?
I looked up the yardage requirements. The original pattern calls for 3 skeins (for my size) of Malabrigo lace. Each skein is 470 yards. I have three 4-ounce braids of fiber, I frequently get sock-weight yarn that's 3-ply that's about 470 yards so I think I can pull it off. A lovely Grinchy green (and blue) sweater.
Doesn't it sound like a fabulous adventure? I'm very excited. (Of course now that I've told you about it, I will probably crash and burn on this project but I'm gonna have high hopes anyway.)
The only problem? Now what will I spin on the spindle. That merino has already been whipped off the spindle. It's empty again.
2 comments:
yippee! I can't wait to see the progress you make on this idea -- it's grinchely marvelous!!
Karenr
I'm a big fan of spinning washed, flicked locks from a fleece with my spindle. Preferably cormo :)
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